Noctes Atticae

A saying of Musonius, the Greek philosopher, which is of practical value and worth hearing and bearing in mind; and a remark of equal value made by Marcus Cato many years before to the knights at Numantia.

WHEN I was still young and a schoolboy, I heard that this Greek sentiment which I have subjoined was uttered by the philosopher Musonius, and since it is a true and brilliant saying, expressed briefly and roundly, I very willingly committed it to memory: [*](p. 273, Peerlkamp.) "If you accomplish anything noble with toil, the toil passes, but the noble deed endures. If you do anything shameful with pleasure, the pleasure passes, but the shame endures."

Later, I read that same sentiment in the speech of Marcus Cato which he delivered At Numantia to the Knights. Although it is expressed somewhat loosely and diffusely compared with the Greek which I have given, yet, since it is prior in time and more ancient, it ought to seem worthy of greater respect. The words in the speech are as follows: [*](p. 38, 11, Jordan.)

Bear in mind, that if through toil you accomplish a good deed, that toil will quickly pass from you, the good deed will not leave you so long as you live; but if through pleasure you do anything dishonourable, the pleasure will quickly pass away, that dishonourable act will remain with you for ever.

The nature of the rule of the logicians in disputation and declamation, and the defect of that rule.

THEY say that it is a rule of the dialectic art, that if there is inquiry and discussion of any subject, and you are called upon to answer a question which is asked, you should answer the question by a simple

yes

no.

I ask you to tell me whether you have given up committing adultery or not,

yes

no,

Do you, or do you not, have what you have not lost? I demand the answer 'yes' or no,'

I have whatever I had, if I have not lost it.

By what means Erasistratus, the physician, said that one could do for a time without eating, if food chanced to be lacking, and endure hunger; and his own words on that subject.

I OFTEN spent whole days in Rome with Favorinus. His delightful conversation held my mind enthralled, and I attended him wherever he went, as if actually taken prisoner by his eloquence; to such a degree did he constantly delight me with his most agreeable discourse. Once when he had gone to visit a sick man, and I had entered with him, having conversed for some time in Greek about the man's illness with the physicians who chanced to be there at the time, he said:

This ought not to seem surprising either, that although previously he was always

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eager for food, now after an enforced fast of three days all his former appetite is lost. For what Erasistratus has written is pretty nearly true,

that the empty and open fibres of the intestines, the hollowness of the belly within and the empty and yawning cavity of the stomach, cause hunger; but when these are either filled with food or are contracted and brought together by continued fasting, then, since the place into which the food is received is either filled or made smaller, the impulse to take food, or to crave it, is destroyed.

These things and many others of the kind Favorinus said most entertainingly on that occasion; but later, when I chanced to be reading the first book of Erasistratus' Distinctions, I found in that book the very passage which 1 had heard Favorinus quote. [*](p. 193, Fuchs.) The words of Erasistratus on the subject are as follows:

I reasoned therefore that the ability to fast for a long time is caused by strong compression of the belly; for with those who voluntarily fast for a long time, at first hunger ensues, but later it passes away.

And the Scythians also are accustomed, when on any occasion it is necessary to fast, to bind up the belly with broad belts, in the belief that the hunger thus troubles them less; and one may almost say too that when the stomach is full, men feel no hunger for the reason that there is no vacuity in it, and likewise when it is greatly compressed there is no vacuity.

In the same book Erasistratus declares that a kind of irresistibly violent hunger, which the Greeks call bou/limos, or

ox-hunger,

It is unknown and requires investigation, both in reference to the case in question and in that of others who suffer from 'ox-hunger,' why this symptom appears rather on cold days than in warm weather.

In what fashion and in what language the war-herald of the Roman people was accustomed to declare war upon those against whom the people had voted that war should be made; also in what words the oath relating to the prohibition and punishment of theft by the soldiers was couched; and how the soldiers that were enrolled were to appear at an appointed time and place, with some exceptional cases in which they might properly be freed from that oath.

CINCIUS writes in his third book On Military Science [*](Frag. 12, Huschke; 2, Bermer.) that the war-herald of the Roman people, when he declared war on the enemy and hurled a spear into their territory, used the following words:

Whereas the Hermundulan people and the men of the Hermundulam people have made war against the Roman people and have transgressed against them, and whereas the Roman people has ordered war with the Hermundulan people and the men of the Hermundulans, therefore I and the Roman people declare and make war with the Hermundulan people and with the men of the Hermundulans.

Also in the fifth book of the same Cincius On

Moreover, when soldiers had been enrolled, a day was appointed on which they should appear and should answer to the consul's summons; then an oath was taken, binding them to appear, with the addition of the following exceptions: 'Unless there be any of the following excuses: a funeral in his family or purification from a dead body [*](feriae denicales (from de and nex) are thus described by Paul. Fest. p. 61, Linds.: colebantur cum hominis mortui causa familia purgatur. Graeci enim ne/kun mortuum dicunt.) (provided these were not appointed for that day in order that he might not appear on that day), a dangerous disease, [*](See xx. 1. 27. It refers especially to epilepsy, also called morbus comitialis, or election disease, because if anyone present was attacked by it, elections, or other public business, might be postponed; cf. Suetonius, Jul. xlv. 1.) or an omen which could not be passed by without expiatory rites, or an anniversary sacrifice which could not

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be properly celebrated unless he himself were present on that day, violence or the attack of enemies, a stated and appointed day with a foreigners; [*](Stranger or foreigner was the original meaning of hostis.) if anyone shall have any of these excuses, then on the day following that on which he is excused for these reasons he shall come and render service to the one who held the levy in that district, village or town.'

Also in the same book are these words: [*](Frag. 14, Huschke; 3, Bremer.)

'When a soldier was absent on the appointed day and had not been excused, he was branded as a deserter.

Also in the sixth book we find this: [*](Id. 15 and 4.)

The columns of cavalry were called the wings of the army, because they were placed around the legions on the right and on the left, as wings are on tile bodies of birds. In a legion there are sixty centuries, thirty maniples, and ten cohorts.

The meaning of vestibulum and the various derivations proposed for the word.

THERE are numerous words which we use commonly, without however clearly knowing what their proper and exact meaning is; but following an uncertain and vulgar tradition without investigating the matter, we seem to say what we mean rather than say it; an example is vestibulum or

vestibule,

The particle ve, like some others, is now intensive and now the reverse; for of vetis and vehenens, the former is made by intensifying the idea of age, with elision, [*](Properly syncope; from ve + actas! On vehemens see note on v. 12. 10 (i, p. 414).) and the latter from the power and force of the mind. But vescus, which is formed from the particle ve and esca, assumes the force of both opposite meanings. For Lucretius [*](i. 326; see v. 12. 10 and note.) uses vescum salem, or ' devouring salt,' in one sense, indicating a strong propensity to eat, Lucilius [*](v. 602, Marx.) in the other sense, of fastidiousness in eating. [*](Munro, on Lucr. i. 326, takes vescus in the sense of slowly eating away which would correspond with Lucilius' use of the word.) Those then in early times who made spacious houses left a vacant place before the entrance, midway between the door of the house and the street. There those who had come to pay their respects to the master of

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the house took their places before they were admitted, standing neither in the street nor within the house. Therefore from that standing in a large space, and as it were from a kind of 'standing place,' the name vestibule was given to the great places left, as I have said, before the doors of houses, in which those who had come to call stood, before they were admitted to the house. [*](This derivation is correct, but re- is used in the sense of apart.) But we shall have to bear in mind that this word was not always used literally by the early writers, but in various figurative senses, which however are so formed as not to differ widely from that proper meaning which we have mentioned, as for example in the sixth book of Vergil: [*](Aen. vi. 273.)

1. Before the vestibule, e'en in Hell's very jaws,
2. Avenging Cares and Grief have made their beds.

For he does not call the front part of the infernal dwelling the 'vestibule,' although one might be misled into thinking it so called, but he designates two places outside the doors of Orcus, the ' vestibule' and the fauces, of which 'vestibule' is applied to the part as it were before the house itself and before the private rooms of Orcus, while fauces designates the narrow passage through which the vestibule was approached.

What the victims are which are called bidentes, and why they were so called; and the opinions of Publius Nigidius and Julius Hyginus on that subject.

ON my return from Greece I put in at Brundisium. There a dabbler in the Latin language, who had been called from Rome by the people of Brundisium, was offering himself generally to be tested. I also went to him for the sake of amusement, for my mind was weary and languid [*](The result of seasickness; cf. Plaut. Rud. 510, animo male fit. Contine, quaeso, caput.) from the tossing of the sea. He was reading in a barbarous and ignorant manner from the seventh book of Vergil, in which this verse occurs: [*](vii. 93.)

1. An hundred woolly sheep (bidentes) he duly slew,

Will you tell us, master, why bidentes are so called?

Bidentes,

means sheep, and he called them 'woolly,' to show more clearly that they are sheep.

We will see later whether only sheep are called bidentes, as you say, and whether Pomponius, the writer of Atellanae, [*](An early farce, of Oscan origin, named from the town of Atella. The Atellanae were first given literary form by L. Pomponius of Bononia (Bologna) and Novius, in the time of Sulla.) was in error in his Transalpine Gauls, when he wrote this: [*](v. 51, Ribbeck3.)

1. O Mars, if ever I return, I vow
2. To sacrifice to thee with two-toothed (bidenti) boar.

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But now I asked you whether you know the reason for this name.

Sheep are called bidentes, because they have only two teeth.

Where on earth, pray,

have you seen a sheep that by nature had only two teeth? For that is a portent and ought to be met with expiatory offerings.

Ask rather such questions as ought to be put to a grammarian; for one inquires of shepherds about the teeth of sheep.

Now Publius Nigidius, in the book which he wrote On Sacrificial Meats, says [*](Frag. 81, Swoboda.) that not sheep alone are called bidentes, but all victims that are two years old; yet he has not explained clearly why they are called bidentes. But I find written in some Notes on the Pontifical Law [*](iii, p. 566, Bremer.) what I had myself thought, that they were first called bidennes, that is biennes with the insertion of the letter d; then by long use in speech the word became changed and from bidennes was formed bidentes, because the latter seemed easier and less harsh to pronounce.

However, Julius Hyginus, who seems not to have been ignorant of pontifical law, in the fourth book of his work On Virgil, wrote [*](Fr. 3, Fun.) that those victims were called bidentes which were of such an age that they had two prominent teeth. I quote his own words:

The victim called bidens should have eight teeth, but of these two should be more prominent than the rest, to make it plain that they have passed from

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infancy to a less tender age.

That Laberius formed many words freely and boldly, and that he even uses numerous words whose Latinity is often questioned.

LABERIUS, in the mimes which he wrote, coined words with the greatest possible freedom. For he said [*](v. 150, Ribbeck3.) mendicimonium for

beggary,

adultery,

dishonoured,

deluge

he stole,

1. Orcus, in truth, will bear you on his shoulders (catomum) [*](catomum = kat' w)=mon, Thes. Ling. Lat. s.v.) nude.

washing out

wash,

1. Into the fulling business I am hurled (coicior), [*](There is nothing unusual in the word fullonica; hence the unusual word must be conicior (in this connection).)

1. O heater ( ), what's your haste? Would'st aught outstrip?

1. My jaws I've tamed (malaxavi),

1. This is that dolt (gurdus) who, when two months ago
2. From Africa I came, did meet me here,
3. As I did say.

1. A breast-band (capitium) you put on, the tunic's flap (pittacium).

Further, in his Anna Peranna he uses [*](v. 3, Ribbeck3.) gubernius for pilot, and plans [*](Greek pla/nos.) for sycophant, and nanus for dwarf; but Marcus Cicero also wrote planus for sycophant in the speech which he delivered In Defence of Cluentius. [*](§ 72.) Moreover Laberius in the farce entitled The Saturnalia [*](v. 80, Ribbeck3.) calls a sausage bolulus and says homo levanna instead of levis or

slight.

haggler.

1. Two wives? More trouble this, the haggler (cocio) says;
2. Six aediles he had seen. [*](Referring to the addition by Caesar of two aediles cereales to the two plebei and two curules; see note on x. 6. 3.)

However, in the farce which he called Alexandrea, he used [*](Id. v. 1.) the same Greek word which is in common use, but correctly and in good Latin form; for he put emplastrum in the neuter, not in the feminine gender, as those half-educated innovators of ours do. I quote the words of that farce:

1. What is an oath? A plaster (emplastrum) for a debt.

The meaning of what the logicians call

an axiom,

WHEN I wished to be introduced to the science of logic and instructed in it, it was necessary to take up and learn what the dialecticians call ei)sagwgai/ or

introductory exercises.

propositions,

preliminary statements,

I therefore of necessity returned to my Greek books. From these I obtained this definition of an axiom: lekto\n au)totele\s a)po/fanton o(/son a)f' au(tw=|. [*](An absolute and self-evident proposition.) This I forbore to turn into Latin, since it would have been necessary to use new and as yet uncoined words, such as, from their strangeness, the ear could hardly endure. But Marcus Varro in the twenty-fourth book of his Latin Language, dedicated to Cicero, thus defines the word very briefly: [*](Fr. 29, G. and S.)

A proloquium is a statement in which nothing is lacking.

But his definition will be clearer if I give an example. An axiom, then, or a preliminary proposition, if you prefer, is of this kind:

Hannibal was a Carthaginian

Scipio destroyed Numantia

Milo was found guilty of murder

pleasure is neither a good nor an evil

axiom,

proposition,

pronouncement,

only until I can find a better one.

But what the Greeks call sunhmme/non a)ci/wma, or

a hypothetical syllogism,

If Plato is walking, Plato is moving

if it is day, the sun is above the earth.

a compound proposition,

Publius Scipio, son of Paulus, was twice consul and celebrated a triumph, and held the censorship, and was the colleague of Lucius Mummius in his censorship.

and he worsted Hannibal in Africa,

There is also another form, which the Greeks call diezeugme/non a)ci/wma, or

a disjunctive proposition,

Pleasure is either good or evil, or it is neither good nor evil.

Either you run or you walk or you stand.

not to walk

not to stand

not to run

contraries

But for the present it will be enough to have given this little taste of logic, and I need only add by way of advice, that the study and knowledge of this science in its rudiments does indeed, as a rule, seem forbidding and contemptible, as well as disagreeable and useless. But when you have made some progress, then finally its advantages will become clear to you, and a kind of insatiable desire for acquiring it will arise; so much so, that if you do not set bounds to it, there will be great danger lest, as many others have done, you should reach a second childhood amid those mazes and meanders of logic, as if among the rocks of the Sirens.

The meaning of the expression susque deque, which occurs frequently in the books of early writers.

SUSQUE dequefero, susque deque sum, or susque deque habeo [*](Susque deque, both up and down, is an expression denoting indifference. It occurs without a verb in Cic. ad Att. xiv. 6. 1, de Octavio susque deque. See Paul. Fest. p. 271 Linds., susque deque significat plus minusve.) —for all these forms occur, meaning

it's all

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one to me

1. Now you are dull, now 'tis all one to you (susque deque fers);
2. Your wife sits by you on the marriage bed, [*](The marriage bed in the early Roman house stood in the atrium, opposite the door, whence it was called lectus adversus; in later times a symbolic bed stood in the sane place.)
3. A penny slave unseemly language dares.

But if all these things did not have similar beginnings and sequels, it would be all one (susque deque esset).

1. All this was sport, to us it was all one (susque deque fierunt),
2. All one it was, I say, all sport and play;
3. That was hard toil, when we gained Setia's bourne:
4. Goat-traversed heights, Aetnas, rough Athoses.

The meaning of proletarii and capite censi; also of adsiduus in the Twelve Tables, and the origin of the word.

ONE day there was a cessation of business in the Forum at Rome, and as the holiday was being joyfully celebrated, it chanced that one of the books of the Annals of Ennius was read in an assembly of very many persons. In this book the following lines occurred: [*](Ann. 183 ff.)

1. With shield and savage sword is Proletarius armed
2. At public cost; they guard our walls, our mart and town.

We therefore ask you to consider that not one of the books of Quintus Ennius' Annals, but the Twelve

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Tables are being read, and interpret the meaning of 'proletariate citizen' in that law.

It is true,

that if I had learned the law of the Fauns and Aborigines, I ought to explain and interpret this. But since proletarii, adsidui, sanates, vades, subvades, 'twenty-five asses,' 'retaliation,' and trials for theft 'by plate and girdle' [*](XII Tab. i. 4, 5, 10; viii. 2, 4, 15. For proletarii see note, p. 167. The adsidui were permanent settlers, or taxpayers, belonging to one of the five upper Servian classes. The sanates seem to have been clients or dependents of the wealthy Roman citizens. Vades were sureties, who gave bail; subvades, sub-sureties, who gave security for the bail. On viginti quinque asses, the penalty for an assault, see xx. 1. 12; for taliones, xx. 1. 14; and for cum lance et licio, note on xi. 18. 9.) have disappeared, and since all the ancient lore of the Twelve Tables, except for legal questions before the court of the centumviri, was put to sleep by the Aebutian law, [*](The date is unknown,) I ought only to exhibit interest in, and knowledge of, the law and statutes and legal terms which we now actually use.

Just then, by some chance, we caught sight of Julius Paulus passing by, the most learned poet within my recollection. We greeted him, and when he was asked to enlighten us as to the meaning and derivation of that word, he said: "Those of the Roman commons who were humblest and of smallest means, and who reported no more than fifteen hundred asses at the census, were called proletarii, but those who were rated as having no property at all, or next to none, were termed capite censi, or 'counted by head.' And the lowest rating of the capite censi was three hundred and seventy-five asses. But since property and money were regarded as a hostage and pledge of loyalty to the State, and since there was in them a kind of guarantee and assurance of patriotism, neither the proletarii nor the capite censi were enrolled as soldiers except in some time of extraordinary disorder, because they had

Now the words of Sallust in the Iugurthine War about Gaius Marius and the capite censi are these: [*](Jug. lxxxvi. 2.)

He himself in the meantime enrolled soldiers, not according to the classes, or in the manner of our forefathers, but allowing anyone to volunteer, for the most part the lowest class (capite censos). Some say that he did this through lack of good men,

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others because of a desire to curry favour, since that class had given him honour and rank, and as a matter of fact, to one who aspires to power the poorest man is the most helpful.

A story taken from the books of Herodotus about the destruction of the Psylli, who dwelt in the African Syrtes.

THE race of the Marsians in Italy is said to have sprung from the son of Circe. 'Therefore it was given to the Marsic men, provided their families were not stained through the admixture of foreign alliances, by an inborn hereditary power to be the subduers of poisonous serpents and to perform wonderful cures by incantations and the juices of plants.

We see certain persons called Psylli endowed with this same power. And when I had sought in ancient records for information about their name and race, I found at last in the fourth book of Herodotus [*](iv. 173.) this story about them: that the Psylli had once been neighbours in the land of Africa of the Nasamones, and that the South Wind at a certain season in their territories blew very long and hard; that because of that gale all the water in the regions which they inhabited dried up; that the Psylli, deprived of their water supply, were grievously incensed at the South Wind because of that injury and voted to take up arms and march against the South Wind as against an enemy, and demand restitution according to the laws of war. And when they had thus set out, the South Wind