Noctes Atticae

An inquiry whether harena, caelum and triticum are found in the plural; also whether quadrigae, inimicitiae, and some other words, occur in the singular.

WHEN I was a young man at Rome, before I went to Athens, I often paid a visit to Cornelius Fronto, when I had leisure from my masters and my lectures, and enjoyed his refined conversations, which abounded besides in excellent information. Whenever I saw him and heard him speak, I almost never failed to come away improved and better informed. An example is the following little talk of his, held one day on a trivial subject, it is true, but yet not without importance for the study of the Latin language. For when an intimate friend of his, a learned man and an eminent poet of the day, said that he had been cured of dropsy by the use of hot sand (calentes harenae), thereupon Fronto in jesting fashion said: "You are indeed freed of your complaint, but not of the complaint of improper language. For Gaius Caesar, the famous life-dictator and father-in-law of Gnaeus Pompeius, from whom the family and the name of the Caesars are derived, a man of wonderful talent, surpassing all others of his time in the purity of his diction, in the work On Analogy, which he dedicated to Marcus Cicero, wrote [*](ii. p. 126, Dinter.) that harenae is an improper term, since harena ought never to be

used in the plural, [*](Harenae is used by Virgil, Horace, and Ovid (e.g. Hor. Odes, i. 28. 1; iii. 4. 31; Virg. Aen. i. 107); also by Seneca the philosopher Tacitus, Suetonius (Aug. lxxx.) and other post-Augustan prose-writers and poets.) any more than caelum (heaven) and triticum (wheat). But on the other hand he thinks that quadrigae, even though it be a single chariot, that is, one team of four horses yoked together, ought always to be used in the plural number, like arma (arms), moenia (walls), comitia (election) and inimicitiae (hostility)—unless, my finest of poets, you have anything to say in reply, to excuse yourself and show that you have not made an error."

With regard to caelum,

said the poet,

and triticum I do not deny that they ought always to be used in the singular, nor with regard to arma, moenia and comitia, that their use ought to be confined to the plural; but we will inquire rather about inimicitiae and quadigae. And perhaps in the case of quadrigae I shall yield to the authority of the early writers: but what reason is there why Caesar should think that inimicitia was not used by the ancients, as were inscientia (ignorance) and impotentia (impotence) and iniuria (injury), and ought not to be used by us, when Plautus, that glory of the Latin tongue, even used delicia in the singular number instead of deliciae? For he says: [*](Poen. 365.)

1. O my delight, my darling (delicia).

Furthermore Quintus Ennius, in that most famous book of his, said: [*](Achilles, 12, p. 120, Vahlen2.)

1. Such is my habit; plain upon my brow
2. Friendship I bear and enmity (inmicitiam) to see.

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But pray, who else has written or said that harenae is not good Latin? And therefore I beg of you, if Gaius Caesar's book is accessible, that you have it brought, in order that you may judge with how much confidence he makes this statement.

At the time, the first book On Analogy being brought, I committed to memory these few words from it; for, first asserting that neither caelum, triticum, nor harena admitted a plural meaning, Caesar said:

Do you not think that it happens from the nature of these things that we say ' one land' and 'several lands,' 'city' and 'cities,' 'command' and 'commands,' and that we cannot convert quadrigae into the form of a singular noun or harena into a plural?

When these words had been read, Fronto said to the poet:

Does it not seem to you that Gaius Caesar has decided against you as to the status of this word with sufficient clearness and force?

Thereupon the poet, greatly impressed by the authority of the book, said:

If it were lawful to appeal from Caesar, I would now appeal from this book of his. But since he has neglected to give the reason for his opinion, I now ask you to tell on what ground you think it an error to say quadriga and harenae.

Then Fronto replied as follows:

Quadrigae is always confined to the plural number, even though there be only one horse, since four horses yoked together are called quadrigae, from quadriugae, and certainly a term which designates many horses ought not to be included under the oneness expressed by the singular number. The same reasoning must be applied to harena, but in a different form; for since harena, though used in the singular number,

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nevertheless indicates the multiplicity and abundance of the minute parts of which it consists, harenae seems to be an ignorant and improper usage, as if the word needed a plural form,. when its collective nature makes it natural for it to be used in the singular. But,

said he,

I have said this, not in order to give my authority and signature to this opinion and rule, but that I might not leave the view of that learned man, Caesar, unsupported. For while caelum, or 'sky,' is always used in the singular, but mare, or 'sea,' and terra, or 'land,' not always, and pulvis, or 'dust,' ventus, or 'wind,' and fumus, or 'smoke,' not always, why did the early writers sometimes use indutiae, or 'truce,' and caerimoniae, or 'ceremony,' in the singular, but never feriae, or 'holiday,' nundinae, or 'market day,' inferiae, or 'offering to the dead,' and exsequiae, or ' obsequies'? Why may mel, or 'honey,' and vinum, or 'wine,' and other words of that kind, be used in the plural, but not lacte (milk)? [*](The classical form is, of course, lac. Lacte and lact occur in early Latin, and the use of lacte here is an archaism, which was not understood by some of the scribes; see crit. note 2.) All these questions, I say, cannot be investigated, unravelled, and thrashed out by men of affairs in so busy a city; indeed, I see that you have been delayed even by these matters of which I have spoken, being intent, I suppose, on some business. So go now and inquire, when you chance to have leisure, whether any orator or poet, provided he be of that earlier band—that is to say, any classical or authoritative writer, not one of the common herd—has used quadriga or harenae.

Now Fronto asked us to look up these words, I think, not because he thought that they were to be found in any books of the early writers, but to rouse in us an interest in reading for the purpose of hunting down rare words. The one, then, which seemed the rarest, quadriga, I found used in the singular number in that book of Marcus Varro's Satires which is entitled Ecdemeticus. But I sought with less interest for an example of the plural harenae, because, except Gaius Caesar, no one among learned men has used that form, so far as I can recall. [*](The plural is used by Ovid, Virgil, and Horace; and by later poets and prose-writers; e.g. Suetonius, Aug. lxxx. (i., p. 246, L.C.L.).)

The very neat reply of Antonius Julianus to certain Greeks at a banquet.

A YOUNG man of equestrian rank from the land of Asia, gifted by nature, well off in manners and fortune, with a taste and talent for music, was celebrating the anniversary of the day on which he began life by giving a dinner to his friends and teachers in a little country place near the city. There had come with us then to that dinner the rhetorician Antonius Julianus, a public teacher of young men, who spoke in the Spanish manner, [*](Cf. facundia rabida iurgiosaque, § 7.) but was very eloquent, besides being well acquainted with our early literature. When there was an end of eating and drinking, and the time came for conversation, Julianus asked that the singers and lyre-players be produced, the most skilful of both sexes, whom he knew that the young man had at hand. And when the boys and girls were brought in, they sang in a most charming way several odes of Anacreon and Sappho, as well as some erotic elegies of more recent poets that were sweet and graceful. But we were especially pleased with some delightful verses of Anacreon, written in his old age, [*](Poetae Lyrici Graeci, iii., p. 298, Bergk4.) which I noted down, in order that sometimes the toil and worry of this task of mine might find relief in the sweetness of poetical compositions:

1. Shaping the silver, Hephaestus,
2. Make me no panoply, pray;
3. What do I care for war's combats?
4. Make me a drinking cup rather,
5. Deep as you ever can make it;
6. Carve on it no stars and no wains;
7. What care I, pray, for the Pleiads,
8. What for the star of Bootes?
9. Make vines, and clusters upon them,
10. Treading them Love and Bathyllus,
11. Made of pure gold, with Lyaeus.

Then several Greeks who were present at that dinner, men of refinement and not without considerable acquaintance also with our literature, began to attack and assail Julianus the rhetorician as altogether barbarous and rustic, since he was sprung from the land of Spain, was a mere ranter of violent and noisy speech, and taught exercises in a tongue which had no charm and no sweetness of Venus and the Muse; and they asked him more than once what he thought of Anacreon and the other poets of that kind, and whether any of our bards had written such smooth-flowing and delightful poems;

except,

said they,

perhaps a few of Catullus and also possibly a few of Calvus; for the compositions of Laevius were involved, those of Hortensius without elegance, of Cinna harsh, of Memmius rude, and in short those of all the poets without polish or melody.

Then Julianus, filled with anger and indignation, spoke as follows in behalf of his mother tongue, as if for his altars and his fires:

I must indeed grant you

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that in such licentiousness and baseness you would outdo Alcinus [*](Probably (see crit. note) another form of Alcinous, King of the Phaeacians. He is not represented by Homer as licentious and base, but that opinion arose at a later time. Cf. Horace, Epist. i. 2. 28 ff.) and that as you outstrip us in the pleasures of adornment and of food, so you do also in the wantonness of your ditties. But lest you should condemn us, that is, the Latin race, as lacking in Aphrodite's charm, just as if we were barbarous and ignorant, allow me, I pray, to cover my head with my cloak (as they say Socrates did when making somewhat indelicate remarks), and hear and learn that our forefathers also were lovers and devoted to Venus before those poets whom you have named.

Then lying upon his back with veiled head, he chanted in exceedingly sweet tones some verses of Valerius Aedituus, an early poet, and also of Porcius Licinus and Quintus Catulus; and I think that nothing can be found neater, more graceful, more polished and more terse than those verses, either in Greek or in Latin:

The verses of Aedituus are as follows: [*](Frag. 1, Bährens.)

1. When, Pamphila, I try to tell my love,
2. What shall I ask of you? Words fail my lips,
3. A sudden sweat o'erflows my ardent [*](Subidus occurs only here, and its meaning is not certain It seems to be connected with the verb subo, burn with love, but some regard it as the opposite of insubidus, foolish, stupid, in which case it might be translated conscious The alliteration and assonance in this epigram are noteworthy.) breast;
4. Thus fond and silent, I refrain and die.
5. And he also added other verses of the same poet,
6. no less sweet than the former ones: [*](Frag. 2, Bährens.)

1. O Phileros, why a torch, that we need not?
2. Just as we are we'll go, our hearts aflame.
3. That flame no wild wind's blast can ever quench,
4. Or rain that falls torrential from the skies;
5. Venus herself alone can quell her fire,
6. No other force there is that has such power.

He also recited the following verses of Porcius Licinus: [*](Frag. 5, Bährens.)

1. O shepherds of the lambs, the ewes' young brood,
2. Seek ye for fire? Come hither; man is fire.
3. Touch I the wood with finger-tip, it burns;
4. Your flock's a flame, all I behold is fire.

The verses of Quintus Catulus were these: [*](Frag. 1, Bährens.)

1. My soul has left me; it has fled, methinks,
2. To Theotimus; he its refuge is.
3. But what if I should beg that he refuse
4. The truant to admit, but cast it out?
5. I'll go to him; but what if I be caught?
6. What shall I do? Queen Venus, lend me aid.

That the words praeter propter, which are in common use, were found also in Ennius.

I REMEMBER that I once went with Julius Celsinus the Numidian to visit Cornelius Fronto, who was then seriously ill with the gout. When we arrived and were admitted, we found him lying on a Greek

couch, and sitting around him a large number of men famous for learning, birth or fortune. By his side stood several builders, who had been summoned to construct some new baths and were exhibiting different plans for baths, drawn on little pieces of parchment. When he had selected one plan and specimen of their work, he inquired what the expense would be of completing that entire project. And when the architect had said that it would probably require about three hundred thousand sesterces, one of Fronto's friends said,

And another fifty thousand, more or less (praeterpropter).

Then Fronto, interrupting the conversation which he had begun to hold about the expense of the baths, and looking at the friend who had said that another fifty thousand would be needed praeterpropter, asked him what that word meant. And the friend replied:

'That word is not my own, for you may hear many men using it; but what the word means you must ask from a grammarian, not from me

; and at the same time he pointed out a grammarian of no little fame as a teacher at Rome, who was sitting there with them. Then the grammarian, surprised by the uncertainty about a familiar and much used word, said:

We inquire about something which does not at all deserve the honour of investigation, for this is some utterly plebeian expression or other, better known in the talk of mechanics than in that of cultivated men.

But Fronto, raising his voice and with a more earnest expression, said:

Sir, does this word seem to you so degraded and utterly faulty, when Marcus

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Cato [*](Frag. inc. 53, Jordan.) and Marcus Varro, [*](p. 340 Bipont.) and the early writers in general, have used it as necessary and as good Latin?

And thereupon Julius Celsinus reminded him that also in the tragedy of Ennius entitled Iphigeina the very word about which we were inquiring was found, and that it was more frequently corrupted by the grammarians than explained. Consequently, he at once asked that the Iphigenia of Quintus Ennius be brought and in a chorus of that tragedy we read these lines: [*](183, Ribbeck3.)

1. That man in truth who knows not leisure's use
2. More trouble has than one by tasks pursued;
3. For he who has a task must be performed,
4. Devotes himself to that with heart and soul;
5. The idle mind knows not what 'tis it wants.
6. With us it is the same; for not at home
7. Are we nor in the field; from place to place
8. We haste; and once arrived, we would be gone.
9. Aimless we drift, we live but more or less
10. (praeterpropter). [*](That is, we exist rather than really live. Cf. Sophocles, fr. Iphig. ti/ktei ga\r ou)de\n e)sqlo\n ei)kai/a sxolh/, aimless idleness produces nothing that is good. (Bergk, De Frag. Soph. p. 15.))

When this had been read there, then Fronto said to the grammarian, who was already wavering:

Have you heard, most worthy master, that your Ennius used praeterpropter, and that too in an expression of opinion resembling the austerest diatribes of the philosophers? We beg you then to tell us, since we are now investigating a word used by Ennius, what the hidden meaning is in this line:

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1. Aimless we drift, we live but more or less.

And the grammarian, in a profuse sweat and blushing deeply, since many of the company were laughing long and loud at this, got up, saying as he left:

I will tell you at a later time, when we are alone, Fronto, in order that ignorant folk may not hear and learn.

And so we all rose, leaving the consideration of the word at that point.