Noctes Atticae

An account, taken from the works of Tubero, of a serpent of unprecedented length.

TUBERO in his Histories has recorded [*](Fr. 8, Peter2.) that in the first Punic war the consul Atilius Regulus, when encamped at the Bagradas river in Africa, [*](In 256 B.C.) fought a stubborn and fierce battle with a single serpent of extraordinary size, which had its lair in that region; that in a mighty struggle with the entire army the reptile was attacked for a long time with hurling engines and catapults; and that when it was finally killed, its skin, a hundred and twenty feet long, was sent to Rome.

A new account, written by the above-mentioned Tubero, of the capture of Regulus by the Carthaginians; and also what Tuditanus wrote about that same Regulus.

I RECENTLY read in the works of Tuditanus the well-known story about Atilius Regulus: [*](Fr. 5, Peter2.) That

Tubero in his Histories says [*](Fr. 9, Peter.) that this Regulus returned to Carthage and was put to death by the Carthaginians with tortures of a novel kind:

They confined him,

in a dark and deep dungeon, and a long time afterwards suddenly brought him out, when the sun was shining most brightly, and exposed him to its direct rays, holding him and forcing him to fix his gaze upon the sky. They even drew his eyelids apart upward and downward and sewed them fast, so that he could not close his eyes.

An error of the jurist Alfenus in the interpretation of early words.

THE jurist Alfenus, a pupil of Servius Sulpicius and a man greatly interested in matters antiquarian,

In a treaty which was made between the Roman people and the Carthaginians the provision is found, that the Carthaginians should pay each year to the Roman people a certain weight of argenti puri puti, and the meaning of puri puti was asked. I replied,

that putus meant very pure,' just as we say novicius for novus (new) and propicius for proprius (proper), when we wish to augment and amplify the meaning of novus and proprius.

Upon reading this, I was surprised that Alfenus should think that the relation of purus and putus was the same as that of novicius and novus; for if the word were puricius, then it would indeed appear to be formed like novicius. It was also surprising that he thought that novicius was used to imply amplification, since in fact novicius does not mean

more new,

to prune,

But the expression purum putum occurs, not only in the treaty with Carthage, but also in many other early writings, including the tragedy of Quintus Ennius entitled Alexander, [*](62, Ribbeck3.) and the satire of Marcus Varro called Di\s Pai=des oi( Ge/rontes, [*](Fr. 91, Bücheler.) or Old Men are Children for a Second Time.

That Julius Hyginus was hasty and foolish in his criticism of Virgil for calling the wings of Daedalus praepetes; also a note on the meaning of aves praepetes and of those birds which Nigidius called inferae.

1. FROM Minos' realms in flight brave Daedalus
2. On pinion swift (praepetibus), 'tis said, did dare the sky.

In these lines of Virgil [*](Aen. vi. 14 f.) Julius Hyginus [*](Fr. 6, Fun.) criticizes the use of pennis praepetibus as an improper and ignorant expression.

For,

those birds are called praepetes by the augurs which either fly onward auspiciously or alight in suitable places.

But of a truth it was Hyginus who was altogether foolish in supposing that the meaning of praepetes was known to him, but unknown to Virgil and to

1. While Victory swift (praepes) the victor's palm bestows.

Furthermore, why does he not find fault also with Quintus Ennius, who in his Annals uses praepes, not of the wings of Daedalus, but of something very different, in the line: [*](488, Vahlen2. Cf. Gell. ix. 4. 1.)

1. Brundisium girt with fair, propitious (praepete) port?

1. In fair, propitious (praepetibus) places they alight.

But birds that are the opposite of praepetes are called inferae, or

low,

The right is opposed to the left, praepes to infera.

In my youth in Rome, when I was still in attendance on the grammarians, I gave special attention to Sulpicius Apollinaris. Once when there was a discussion about augural law and mention had been made of praepetes aves, I heard him say to Erucius Clarus, the city prefect, that in his opinion praepetes was equivalent to Homer's tanupte/ruges, or

wide-winged,

1. You bid me trust the flight of wide-winged birds,
2. But I regard them not, nor think of them.

On Acca Larentia and Gaia Taracia; and on the origin of the priesthood of the Arval Brethren.

THE names of Acca Larentia and Gaia Taracia, or Fufetia as she is sometimes called, are frequent in the early annals. To the former of these after her death, but to Taracia while she still lived, the Roman people paid distinguished honours. And that Taracia, at any rate, was a Vestal virgin is proved by the Horatian law which was laid before the people with regard to her. By this law very many honours are bestowed upon her and among them the right of giving testimony is granted her, and that privilege is given to no other woman in the State. The word testabilis is used in the Horatian law itself, and its opposite occurs in the Twelve Tables: [*](viii. 22; the date of this privilegium (see x. 20. 4) is uncertain.)

Let him be

v2.p.113

infamous and intestabilis, or 'forbidden to testify.'

But Acca Larentia was a public prostitute and by that trade had earned a great deal of money. In her will she made king Romulus heir to her property, according to Antias' History; [*](Fr. 1, Peter2.) according to some others, the Roman people. Because of that favour public sacrifice was offered to her by the priest of Quirinus and a day was consecrated to her memory in the Calendar. But Masurius Sabinus, in the first book of his Memorialia, following certain historians, asserts that Acca Larentia was Romulus' nurse. His words are: [*](Fr. 14, Huschke; 1, Bremer (ii, p. 368).)

This woman, who had twelve sons, lost one of them by death. In his place Romulus gave himself to Acca as a son, and called himself and her other sons ' Arval Brethren.' Since that time there has always been a college of Arval Brethren, twelve in number, and the insignia of the priesthood are a garland of wheat ears and white fillets.

Some noteworthy anecdotes of King Alexander and of Publius Scipio.

APION, a Greek, called Pleistoneices, [*](Of many quarrels, a word coined in imitation of the epithet applied to famous athletes: pleistoni/khs, of many victories.) possessed a fluent and lively style. Writing in praise of king

He forbade the wife of his vanquished foe, a woman of surpassing loveliness, to be brought into his presence, in order that he might not touch her even with his eyes.

But those who have an abundance of talent, leisure and eloquence may use this material for a pair of little declamations on Alexander and Scipio; I shall be satisfied with relating this, which is a matter of historical record: Whether it be false or true is uncertain, but at any rate the story goes that your Scipio in his youth did not have an unblemished reputation, and that it was all but generally believed that it was at him that the following verses were aimed by the poet Gnaeus Naevius: [*](ii. 108, Ribbeck3.)

1. E'en he who oft-times mighty deeds hath done,
2. Whose glory and exploits still live, to whom
3. The nations bow, his father once led home,
4. Clad in a single garment, from his love.

I think it was by these verses that Valerius Antias was led to hold an opinion opposed to that of all