Noctes Atticae

It is asked and discussed whether it it is more correct to say habeo curam vestri, or vestrum.

I ASKED Sulpicius Apollinaris, when I was studying with him at Rome in my youth, on what principle people said habeo curam vestri, or

I have care for you,

I pity you,

You ask something of me about which I too have long been in a state of uncertainty. For it seems to me that one ought to say, not vestri, but vestrum, just as the Greeks say e)pimelou=mai u(mw=n and kh/domai u(mw=n, where u(mw=n is translated by vestrum more fittingly than by vestri, having vos for the naming case, or the 'direct' case, as you called it. Yet in not a few places,

But if it is possible that even now you think of me (nostri), and believe me worthy to be your fellow citizen rather than your enemy, and to fight for you rather than against you, this will surely be due to my services and those of my forefathers.

1. Of such a nature are we almost all,
2. That with ourselves (nostri) we discontented are.

1. At last some god or other pitied us (nostri).

1. Detained for many days, he us (nostri) forgot.

There is no doubt,

that in all these phrases: 'we are discontented,' he forgot us,' 'he pitied us' (nostri), the same case is used as in 'I repent' (mei paenitet), 'he pitied me' (mei miseritus est), ' he forgot me' (mei oblitus est). But mei is the case of questioning, [*](See note on xiii. 26. 1.) which the grammarians call 'genitive,' and comes from ego; and the plural of ego is nos. Tui also is formed from tu, and the plural of this is vos. For Plautus has thus declined those pronouns in the Pseudolus, in the following lines: [*](vv. 3 ff.)

1. O Sir, could I be told without your words
2. What wretchedness so grievous troubles you,
3. I would have spared the trouble of two men:
4. My own (mei), of asking you, and yours (tis = tui), of answering.

For Plautus here uses mei, not from meus, but from ego. Therefore if you should choose to say patrem mei instead of patrem meum, as the Greeks say to\n pate/ra mou, it would be unusual, but surely correct, and on the same principle that Plautus used labori mei, 'the trouble of me,' for labori meo, ' my trouble.' The same rule applies also in the plural number, where Gracchus said [*](O.R.F p. 248, Meyer2.) misereri vestrum and Marcus

v3.p.441

Cicero [*](Pro Planc. § 16.) contentio vestrum, and contention nostrum, [*](Div. in Caec. § 37.) and on the same principle Quadrigarius in the nineteenth book of his Annals wrote these words: [*](Frag 83, Peter2.) 'Gaius Marius, when pray will you pity us (nostrum) and the State?' Why then should Terence use paenitet nostri, not nostrum, and Afranius nostri miseritus est, not nostrum? Indeed,

no reason for this occurs to me except the authority of a certain ancient usage, which was not too anxious or scrupulous in the use of language. For just as vestrorum is often used for vestrum, as in this line from the of Plautus, [*](v. 280.)

1. The greatest part of you (vestrorum) know that is true

(where vestrorum is for vestrum), in the same way vestri also is sometimes used for vestrum. But undoubtedly one who desires to speak very correctly will prefer vestrum to vestri. And therefore,

those have acted most arbitrarily who in many copies of Sallust have corrupted a thoroughly sound reading. For although he wrote in the Catiline: [*](xxxiii. 2.) 'Often your forefathers (maiores vestrum), pitying the Roman commons,' they erased vestrum and wrote vestrz over it. And from this [*](Indoles is perhaps the nature of the error, i.e., the disposition to make an error of that kind.) that error has grown and found its way into more manuscripts.

How the opinions of the Greeks differ as to the number of Niobe's children.

A STRANGE and indeed almost absurd variation is to be noted in the Greek poets as to the number of Niobe's children. For Homer says [*](Iliad xxiv. 602.) that she had six sons and six daughters; Euripides, [*](Frag. 455, N2.) seven of each; Sappho, [*](Frag. 143, Bergk.) nine; Bacchylides [*](Frag. 46, Blass2.) and Pindar, [*](Frag. 65, Bergk.) ten; while certain other writers have said that there were only three sons and three daughters.

Of things which seem to have sumptwsi/a, or

coincidence,

THE poet Annianus owned an estate in the Faliscan territory, where he used to celebrate the vintage season with mirth and jollity. On one occasion he invited me, along with some other friends. As we were dining there one day, a large quantity of oysters were sent from Rome. When they were set before us and proved to be indeed numerous, but neither rich nor very plump, Annianus said:

Of course the moon is waning just now; therefore the oyster also, like some other things, is thin and juiceless.

1. The moon makes oysters fat, sea-urchins full,
2. And bulk and substance to the mussels adds? [*](Cf. Hor. Serm. ii. 4. 30, lubrica nascentes implent conchylia lunae; Cic. de Div. ii. 33.)

Furthermore, those same things which grow as the moon waxes grow less as it wanes. The eyes of cats also become larger or smaller according to the same changes of the moon. This too," said he,

is much more greatly to be wondered at, which I read in the fourth book of Plutarch's Commentary on Hesiod: [*](Frag. 90, Bern.) ' The onion grows and buds as the moon wanes, but, on the contrary, dries up while the moon waxes. The Egyptian priests say that this is the reason why the people of Pelusium do not eat the onion, because it is the only one of all vegetables which has an interchange of increase and decrease contrary to the waxing and waning of the moon.'