&
*^^.
a
Ex Libris
C. K. OGDEN
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER OF THE
ROMAN PEOPLE
Language and Character
of the Roman People
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF
OSCAR WEISE
WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES AND REFERENCES FOR ENGLISH READERS
BY
H. A. STRONG, MA., LL.D.
PROFESSOR OF LATIN, LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY
AND
A. Y. CAMPBELL, B.A.
ASSISTANT LECTURER IN CLASSICS, LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO. LIMITED
Dryden House, Gerrard Street, W.
1909
CHISWICK I'RESS: CHARLES VVHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
PA
FROM THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO
THE FIRST EDITION
THE knowledge of any language must neces-
sarily remain superficial, unless the student of
the language in question has a clear conception of
the various forms which make up its construction.
The ordinary grammars give us little light on this
point. School text-books regard such information
as beside the mark, and, unfortunately, scientific
works are content with a few scanty precepts. It is,
however, to be regretted that our methods of teach-
ing language should alone lag in the wake of other
studies, and refuse to follow the spirit of the nine-
teenth century, probing and noting every fact and
tracing them in their historical development. It
passes comprehension why teachers cannot dispense
with the routine methods of exercising their pupils'
memory at the expense of their intelligence. They
might surely choose some way of stimulating the
thought and reflection of their pupils. This small
treatise may serve, it is hoped, as a stepping-stone
to this end.
iciseco
FROM THE PREFACE TO THE SECOND
EDITION
THE Second Edition of this work might, strictly
speaking, be called the third. For the French
work, based upon my own, by Ferdinand Antoine,
Professor of Classic Philology in the University of
Toulouse (1896), contains a large number of im-
provements and additions, which, at his request, I
placed at his service. The new edition differs in
many respects from Antoine's translation. A fifth
chapter has been added on the Latinity of Cicero
and Caesar respectively, so that, after passing in
review the style of Poetry and that of the popular
dialect, I might do justice to Classic Prose as well:
an Index has been added, and a collection has been
appended of researches and treatises which have
appeared during the last few years in German lit-
erature.
VI
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
THE Third Edition differs from the second by
the addition of a chapter on the Civilization
and Vocabulary of the Romans: it contains also a
large number of additions and amplifications most
of which are to be found in the notes. I am indebted
to M. Graziatos, Director of the Gymnasium at
Argostoli in Cephallenia, for some suggestions: his
translation into modern Greek appears contempor-
aneously with this edition.
ElSENBERG, S.A., 1905.
vn
PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATORS
IT is hoped that this translation of the suggestive
work of Professor Weise may prove useful to
Classical Students in Britain and America. We
have endeavoured to render it so by adding refer-
ences to English works on the subjects dealt with
in the text and notes, and by a few additions and
suggestions, particularly with regard to the ety-
mology of certain words, for which we are mainly
indebted to the full and scholarly work of Professor
Walde of Innsbruck. The notes at the end will
be found to contain many valuable references to the
literature published in Germany in recent treatises
dealing with the subject matter of the text. To the
Bibliography at the end of the Appendix should be
added the valuable work of Mr. Duff, " A Literary
History of Rome," Fisher Unwin, 1909.
H. A. Strong.
A. Y. Campbell.
VIU
CONTENTS
I. The Latin Language and the Roman
Character (§§ 1-33) ....
The Roman character interpreted by the follow-
ing traits in the Latin language:
(i) Word-formation; wealth of vocabulary; usage
of particular words (§§ 3-8).
(2) Metaphors (§§ 9-1 1); original signification
of words (§§ 12-18); proverbial expres-
sions (§ 19); "winged words" (§ 20);
puns (§ 21).
(3) Periods and style (§§ 22-29).
(4) Inflection (§§ 30 sqq.) and system of sounds
(§ 32); summary (§ 33).
n. Style and Development of Culture
(§§ 34-59)
( 1 ) The oldest Roman literature ( Appius Claudius,
Cato) before and after its contact with Hel-
lenic influence (Plautus, Terence, Ennius,
Pacuvius, Accius, M. Antonius, L. Licinius,
Crassus, etc. (§§ 41-46).
(2) Prose and Poetry at the end of the Republic
and at the commencement of the imperial
regime (§§ 47-53)-
(3) Period of the degeneration of style: Renais-
sance and Rococo (§§ 54-59).
ix
PAGE
X CONTENTS
PAGE
III, The Language of the Poets (§§ 60-88) 105
(i) The Law of Beauty in Poetry (§§ 60-66).
(2) The claims of Perspicuity (§§ 67-76).
(3) The Language of Poetry and its truth to
Nature (§§77 sqq.).
(4) The license allowed to Poetry as contrasted
with that allowed to Prose (§§ 79-88).
IV. The Language OF THE People (§§89-1 11) 144
(i) Tendency to spare trouble (§§ 89-98).
(2) Tendency to clearness of meaning (§§ 99-
107).
(3) Tendency to reflect thought and character
in language (§§ 1 08-1 11).
V. The Classical Language of Caesar and
Cicero (§§ 1 1 2- 1 30) . . . .181
(i) Care in selection of words (§§ 11 2- 118).
(2) Principles of these writers in the adoption of
inflexional forms (§§ 1 19-120).
(3) Syntactical peculiarities (§§ 1 21-124).
(4) Stylistic peculiarities (§§ 125-130).
Appendix 211
Roman culture as mirrored in the Latin Voca-
bulary.
Notes 225
Index ....... 255
LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE
I
THE mental activities of any given individual
fall roughly into two categories — those of cog-
nition and those of emotion.
The proportions in which these psychical elements
are mingled are responsible for the great differences
in the mental endowment of mankind: in some in-
dividuals we see the feelings developed at the
expense of the intellect, while in others the intellect
preponderates at the expense of the feelings. In
some cases the understanding and the will, in other
cases the emotions and the heart assert their pre-
dominance. And as it is with the individual, so it is
with nations as a whole. Few, indeed, are the indi-
viduals, and few the nations that nature has evenly
favoured with all mental endowments. Among the
nations of antiquity, however, the Greeks stand
pre-eminent in respect of this general endowment,
while in the Romans, reason and will power were
unmistakably developed at the expense of the other
mental faculties. " The taste of the Romans," says
Herder, "was for History, or for solemn legal oratory,
in a word for Action.'' Thus Sallust says (Cat. 8, 5) :
B
2 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
"Optimus quisque facere quam dicere malebat," and
Livy puts these words into the mouth of Mucius
Scaevola: " Et facere et pati fortia Romanum est."
The most striking traits in the character of the
Romans were their stately and impressive demean-
our, their unflinching perseverance and constancy,
their firm and imperturbable courage: or, to cite
Cicero's expressions, their £-ram^as (see note ^ at end)
contifientia, and animi magnitudo (Tusc. i, 1,2). The
beau ideal of a genuine Roman of the old stock is
summed up in the old-world formula vir fortis atque
strenuus (Cato ap. Festum, p. 201, A. Gell. xvii, 13, 3)
which, at a later period in the time of the Scipios, was
under Greek influence restated (as we find it on the
tomb of Barbatus) in the form fortis vir sapiensque.
The valour of Roman citizens qualified them in an
eminent degree for soldiers, their intelligence and
practical understanding made them statesmen and
lawyers, their calm and unruffled common sense and
their clear apprehension fitted them for oratory of
every kind. The words applied by Cato the elder to
the Gauls, "Duas potissimum res Gallia sequitur, rem
militarem et argute loqui "('^), hold good in a measure
of his own countrymen. It was to the special capacity
of her sons for war and politics that Rome owed her
rise from an unimportant state to a world-power of
the first order.
2. As the mental endowments of the Romans were
severely practical, and such as inclined them to take
a sober view of the circumstances of life, we cannot
be surprised to find that they had no special taste
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 3
for either Art or Science. Their imagination could
not soar to the height of either. Vergil confesses as
much in his melancholy reflexions contained in the
lines (Aen. vi, 847 sqq.)\
Excudent alii spirantia moUius aera,
Credo equidem, vivos ducent de marmore voltus,
Orabunt causas melius caelique meatus
Describent radio at surgentia sidera dicent,
and Cicero confesses " Doctrina Graecia nos et
omni litterarum genere superavit: (Tusc. i, i, 3), nay,
he actually goes so far as to say " Nos, qui rudes
harum rerum sumus " (Verr. ii, 87). In like man-
ner the greatest Roman epic poet confesses that even
as a she-bear brings forth awkward and mis-shapen
cubs, which she has to lick into shape, even so are
the offspring of his brain raw and imperfect, and he
can only impart to them the features they should
wear by long and toilsome labour. The inhabitants
of Latium care to occupy themselves with such pur-
suits only as far as may serve some practical advan-
tage, more especially the good of the state; for, from
a Roman point of view, as Tacitus says (Dial. 5):
"ad utilitatem vitae omnia consilia factaque diri-
eenda." We cannot wonder that the unremunerative
arts are designated by the significant appellations
siudia leviora (Cic. De Or. i, 49, 212, De Sen.
14, 50), studia minora (Cic. Brut. 18, 70), a7'tes
leviorcs (Cic. Brut, i, 3), or artes mediocres (Cic.
De Or. i, 2, 6), and that it was only by a slow
process, and after a long struggle, that under the
influence of the Hellenic spirit they were enabled
to attain a higher level and to claim more respect.
4 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
What is more, the Romans possessed in a very-
moderate degree the gift of sympathizing with the
beauties of nature and penetrating into her secrets.
The joy of wood and field, of rambles on wide moor-
lands, of scaling lofty mountains, of all, in short,
that has charms for chivalrous races like the Celts
and the Greeks, has no voice for them, and while
the Greeks enliven their heaven and their earth with
a throng of gods of fair form and dazzling beauty,
the Romans cannot rise above the idea of endowing
certain abstract powers of nature with divine attri-
butes. They are unable to create myths, or to people
seas, rivers, mountains, and moorlands with the fair
figures of graceful nymphs.
3. Now let us consider how these national charac-
teristics of the Romans have stamped their features on
the Latin language (^). It has long been recognized
that the vocabulary of Latin is poorer than that of
Greece (^), and it is equally certain that a large portion
of this vocabulary had to be recruited from foreign
countries. Now when a nation borrows a largre num-
ber of words from a foreign tongue, it proves itself
to have been deeply susceptible to the influence of
the nation from whom it borrows; it proves, more-
over, that the borrowing nation possesses a less active
mental activity and less power of imagination. It is
notorious that while the number of Greek interlopers
into Latin may be reckoned by the thousand (^), the
Greek language, in spite of the mighty tide of
Orientalism which flooded all Hellas, can point to
scarcely a few hundred words of Asiatic origin. The
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 5
imaginative disciples of the Phoenicians have im-
pressed the stamp of the Greek spirit on most of the
gains for which they are indebted to their Eastern
neighbours. They have suited their borrowings to
their needs and have renamed them in their own
style. Thus we could hardly guess from language
that the potter's wheel {Tpoy^o<; from rptx^iv), that frank-
incense (Ou'o? from 6u%i^) and the gourd (ttettwi/ fromTrto-o-fn/)
are natives of Asia, or that vocivoc from vg (the hyena),
the ichneumon (from l^vsunv, to track, i.e., crocodile's
eggs), and ^poy-ocg, the dromedary (from ^ptx,[/.s7i/, to
run) are words of foreign origin (*^),
4. The Roman methods were very different. With
them the traces of such creative linguistic activity
are small indeed. It is true that they made some
efforts in this direction; for instance, they invented
some names of their own coinage for the pomegran-
ate {malum gi'anatuui), the arbutus, the litter {lectica),
letters of the alphabet {littera), the cloister {porticus),
the amulet {amuletum from aiitoliri, a translation of
(px)Xot,v.TY\piO]/* see, too, Weise's essay in the " Zeitschrift
fiir Volkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft,"
xiii, 244). But they never advanced very far in this
direction ; indeed, in many cases they actually gave
up genuine Latin expressions already in use in favour
of foreign ones, as in the case of elephas for bos
Luca, and the chestnut {^mx mollusca or calva), etc.
In cases where the orio^in and the derivation of a
* More probably from amoliri, as an averter of evil; and if so,
a genuine Latin word. See Walde, " Etymologisches Worter-
buch," s.v.
6 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
Greek word were obvious to their apprehension, they
certainly rose to the height of translating it, more
particularly from the middle of the first century B.C.
There are many departments in which their efforts
in this sense were perfectly successful C), but their
proceeding was, as a rule, to avail themselves of
the Greek expressions for art. Can we therefore
be surprised at Cicero thus expressing himself (De
Nat. Deor. i, 4, 8): " Complures enim Graecis in-
stitutionibus eruditi ea, quae didicerant, cum civi-
bus suis communicare non poterant, quod ilia, quae
a Graecis accepissent, Latine dici posse diffiderent,"
and (De Fin. iii, 15, 51): "Quod nobis in hac inopi
lingua non conceditur"; or that Seneca (Ep. 6 i),
thus laments: "Quanta nobis verborum paupertas,
immo egestas sit, nunquam magis quam hodierno
die intellexi. Mille res inciderunt, cum forte de
Platone loqueremur, quae nomina desiderarent nee
haberent, quaedam vero, cum habuissent, fastidio
nostro perdidissent "?
5. Another cogent reason for the large scale on
which the Romans borrowed foreign words is to be
found in the incapacity of their own tongue for the
manufacture of compounds, a peculiarity which has
descended also to its Romance daughters C"). The
poet Lucretius (De Rerum Natura, i, 830) dwells
on this fault in his own tongue in the followingf
words :
Nunc et Anaxagorae scrutemur homoeomerian
Quam Graii memorant nee nostra dieere lingua
Concedit nobis patriae sermonis egestas,
Sed tamen ipsam rem facile est exponere verbis
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 7
and Livy makes a similar remark when referring to
the word a7idrogynus\ he writes in terms significant
indeed, but intended to spare the national self-respect:
" quos androgynos vulgus ut pleraque faciliore ad
duplicanda verba Graeco sermone appellat." Cicero
expresses himself in the same sense (De Fin. iii,
4, 15): " Equidem soleo etiam quod uno Graeci, si
aliter non possum, idem pluribus verbis exponere.
Et tamen puto concedi nobis oportere, ut Graeco
verbo utamur, si quando minus occurrat Latinum,
ne hoc ephippiis et acratophoris potius quam proeg-
menis et apoproegmenis concedatur " ; and Gellius
writes in the same spirit (Noct. Att. xi, 16, i) when
touching on the topic of the borrowing and transla-
tion of Greek words like TroXv-n-pocyixoa-vvri, 7rokv(piX(o(,,
TroXvTpoTTia.: " Adjecimus saepe animum ad vocabula
rerum non paucissima, quae neque singulis verbis, ut
a Graecis, neque si maxime pluribus eas res verbis
dicamus, tam dilucide tamque apte demonstrari
Latina oratione possunt, quam Graeci ea dicunt
privis vocibus "; and further: " in me igitur infecun-
dia, qui ne pluribus quidem verbis potuerim obscur-
issime dicere, quod a Graecis perfectissime uno verbo
et planissime dicitur." As we may gather from the
passages cited, the Romans eked out their resources
by simply borrowing words from the Greek, or else
they preferred to employ periphrases.
6. The poverty of the Roman imagination is also
evidenced by the fact that they lack native expres-
sions for many phenomena of the material world
around them. Hence Fronto admitted, on some
8 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
occasion when the lack of Latin words to express
different shades of colour was commented on, the
superiority of the Greek language in this respect *
(A. Gell. Noct. Att. ii, 27, 5), and it cannot be
denied that in Roman literature very few names for
mountains, valleys, springs, and moors have de-
scended to us, a fact which considerably increases
the labour of the geographer of ancient Rome. Of
course this statement must not be taken absolutely :
some localities had special names, as the spring of
Bandusia and the mountain of Lucretilis : but the
territory of Latium cannot pretend to vie with Greece
in this respect. Indeed, Lucan's remark about the
Trojan territory, " Nullum sine nomine saxum," is
more or less true of all Greek-speaking regions, but
less so of Latin countries. Again, the number of
genuine Latin terms for flowers and weeds which
adorn our meadows and woodlands is very small:
e.g., kellis, the white daisy, f ^r^^ feniculum {fxocpccdpou),
fennel: indeed many which look like genuine Latin
words are merely literal translations of the Greek,
like ranuncidus, from jSarpap^tov.
Again, while Greeks and Germans alike, to aid
their designations of remarkable products of nature,
especially in the case of plants and trees, borrow the
* See Geiger, "Lectures and Dissertations" (1880), on colour
sense. Both Romans and Greeks confounded blue and violet,
especially with gray and brown. The Romance languages found
no word for blue in Latin, and were obliged to borrow one from
the Germans; cf. bleu and old Italian biavo, from blau, which itself
originally meant black.
t Probably connected with English bale in bale-fire, and with
Russian bielie, white.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 9
names of the most striking domestic animals, the
Romans lack all sense for such comparisons. They
have therefore no words which can challenge com-
parison with the Greek iTnroa-iXmou, 'iTnrovpig, (iovyXcoTO-oi;,
or with the English horse radish, horse chestnut,*
or the German Rosskastanie or Ochsenzunge, etc. :
for words like Equisetum (horse's tail) betray at once
that they are mere importations from Greece.
Further, we find in Greek literature many more
graceful adjectives which testify to a keen observa-
tion of nature on the part of those who used them.
In Homer all is light and colour: epithets such as
shining, glittering, radiant, and again picturesque
touches, like trailing-footed, crumpled-horned oxen
meet us at every turn and become to our fancy an
indispensable accessory to the Homeric poems. The
Roman imagination, on the other hand, receives such
faint impressions from nature that it is uneible to
impart them in any high degree to its poetry.
Latin again lays in many cases a greater stress on
number and magnitude, where we commonly empha-
size the quality or effect of a substantive. Thus the
word niagnus is combined with the following words :
argumentum (a convincing proof), exemplum (a strik-
ing example), suspicio (a strong suspicion), preces
(fervent prayers), vox (a loud voice), hiems (a violent
storm), occasio (a lucky chance), coniunctio (a close
alliance), usus (a lively intercourse), officium (a sacred
duty). The adjectives which we attach to such words
are less vague and general, and denote rather some
* Cf. mare's tail; also such words as ladies-fingers, catkins,
larkspur, henbane, cowslip, oxlip, etc.
lo LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
quality which, as it were, individualizes the substan-
tive in each case. Again, how poor is Latin in such
words as the particles which serve to express differ-
ent shades of our mental attitude, and to bring into
bold relief the object of our thoughts! We have only
to compare such Greek words as olv, olptz, ys, rot, ^ri,
etc., which from Homer down serve to enliven and
adorn the language of the Greeks, with the very
meagre resources provided by Roman literature, and
we shall find that the Greek laneuaore is far more
flexible, and far more capable of expressing the finer
nuances of thouofht than its Italian sister.
7. We find greater activity in the process of word-
creation in Latin in places where the peculiar Roman
characteristics most assert themselves. C. Abel, in
his " Sprachwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen," p. 25,
says with perfect truth: " A nation which possesses
many words for any conception, be it material or
spiritual, must be much concerned in the object of
that conception, must have dwelt on it, developed it,
and refined upon it." *
Examples are not far to seek: to bear pain with
patience was not merely a trait of Stoicism, but an
essentially Roman characteristic. From Mucius Scae-
vola, who thrust his right hand into the burning fire
before the eyes of the Tuscan King Porsena, Roman
history has furnished us with plenty of instances of
this national virtue. The Romans accepted bodily
* See Heine, Reisebilder: Reise von Miinchen nach Genua.
" The Arab has a thousand words for a sword, the Frenchman for
ove, the EngHshman for hanging, the German for drinking."
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE ii
pain without a murmur of complaint : the most that
pain could wring from them was a short cry, the
reflex of their agony. Hence it comes to pass that
the interjections expressive of painful feelings are
more numerous than those of any other nature, and
they bear a more national and truly Roman stamp
than interjections expressive of joy, which latter, it
may be remarked, are mostly borrowed from Greece.
To the distinctively Roman utterances belong o, heu,
eheu, pro, vae, ak, kei, oke, au\ while among those
borrowed from the Greek we may mention io, euoe^
euax, eu, cuge, eia. Again, the Roman has a large
number of expressions for slaves : without slaves his
life was impossible: he required their services at
every turn and for every purpose : thus servus is to
the Roman a slave looked at as a social inferior:
famulus, as one of th.Q: familia or household (Oscan
fama, a house): majiciphwi, as a marketable com-
modity: verna, as born in the household: piter, with
reference to his age: ininister and micilla, with
reference to his or her capacity for service. But it
would take us too far to ransack the entire vocabulary
of the Latin tongue for instances of this kind: two
more may suffice. We are purposely setting aside
the peculiar department of knowledge which the
Roman from the earliest times proudly proclaimed
his own, that of Law and Politics, or Statecraft.
The terms in which these two sciences express them-
selves permeate the whole Latin language, and can-
not here be referred to more particularly. But it
may be interesting to cite in favour of what we have
advanced a few facts referring to the words which
12 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
carry the signification of relationship, and to articles
of food.
8. The Romans had a warmer feeling and sym-
pathy for family and its ties than the Greeks. The
entire contents of a single household were regarded
as a single large unity, ruled by the pater familias,
duly organized, and each member knowing accurately
his position in respect to the rest; in fact, the family
was in its constitution an exact counterpart of the
Roman State. They reverenced and venerated their
forefathers : the virtue of such reverence was called
pietas : it was one of their chief delights to compose
genealogical trees, and they loved to connect the
origin of their own gens with the Fall of Troy and
the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. Thus we need not
be surprised to find that they had a rich store of
names expressive of family relationships. We speak
of uncles and aunts ; the Romans mark the difference
such between maternal and paternal relatives; avun-
culus 2iVidpatruus; matertera and amita\ their lineage
extends back from avus, abavus, proavus to tritavus:
patruelis denotes the brother's child, consobrinus the
child of the sister. They actually possess a word to
denote the relationship of two women married to two
brothers : ianitrices*
The favourite animal food of the Romans was
pork. Pliny tells us that they knew no less than fifty
different ways of preparing it for the table (Nat.
Hist, viii, 209; cf Friedlander, " Sittengeschichte,"
iii, 28). The very term caro suilla, a diminutive
* So glos is a husband's sister.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 13
form, shows the weakness of the Romans for their
national dish.* In the ancient compound suovetaur-
ilia ( = sus + ovis + taurus) it is the sow that takes
precedence of the sheep and the ox. It is therefore
natural to expect to meet in Latin with more terms
to express "swine" than any other animal. Besides
sus we 'twidi porcus, porca, verves, apcr, scro/a, mazalis,
nefrens. In Roman farces the swine appears as a
constant object of diversion : the writer of Atellanes,
Pomponius, named no less than four pieces after this
animal : Porcetra (a young sow which has once far-
rowed); Maialis (a fat hog); Verves aegvotus (the
sick boar); and Vevves salvus{\}ii^\>02iX convalescent).
We may regret that it was not usual in Roman times
to christen the chief actors in the national farces
with the name of one of the national tastes or fail-
ings. In that case he would probably have been
called some name like Jack Porker, as the Germans
call their chief figure in their farces Hans Wurst,
the French Jean Potage, and the English Jack
Pudding. Besides, the weakness for this dish gave
rise to a number of popular proverbs. The German
talks of roasted pigeons flying into his mouth: the
Greek makes roasted fieldfares {o-K-val yiiyXcLi) per-
form the same kind office : the Roman people uses
cocti povci in a similar sense (cf. Petron. 45, 4).
Indeed Cato, quoted by Cicero (De Sen. 15,
56) declares that peasants call their gardens, "a
second flitch of bacon" ; "jam hortum ipsum agricolae
succidiam alteram appellant." To act harshly and
* It is noteworthy that one of the reasons which made the Jews
unpopular at Rome was their aversion to pork.
14 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
without reflection is expressed by the proverb
"apros immittere liquidis fontibus"; to kill two birds
with one stone, "duos apros capere"; I shoot the
game and another eats it, " ego semper apros
occido, sed alter semper utitur pulpamento." All of
these are convincing proofs that the " animal propter
convivia natum " was the delicacy most prized by
the Roman palate.*
9. Metaphors are one of the main factors in the
development of language, and they accurately reflect
the spirit of the nation which employs them. We
may therefore expect to find in the metaphorical
expressions of the Romans a faithful mirror of their
popular beliefs and predilections. It is only natural
that when the speaker casts about for a fit com-
parison, he should seize on the subject of his predilec-
tion : t and mankind is only too prone to extend his
own circumstances and qualities to the external
world. Hence it happens that in the similitudes he
* Cf. Cels., lib. iii, 9, " Protinus suillam assam et vinum homini
dabant."
t Mr. Keble in his " Praelectiones Academicae," Oxonii. 1844,
p. 150, describes the Homeric metaphors and similes. They will
be found to show that Homer was a keen observer of nature,
II. viii, 553; iii, 10; conversant with the sea, iv, 274; with
agricultural occupations, xxi, 343; xii, 451; xiii, 701, etc. The
metaphors in Aeschylus are very often taken from the customs
of animals wild and tame. Cf. Agam. 11, ibid.^ 35; Eum. i;
Suppl. 354, et saepe. Pindar's are mostly taken from Public
Games, cf Isthm. 5, 1. The metaphors in Lucretius indicate
a great love of nature (De Rerum Natura, iv, i). The English
reader may consult Minto's "Manual of Prose Literature," p. 15;
he also gives the sources whence the greatest English writers draw
their figures of speech.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 15
employs he presents us with a view of his intellectual
impulses, his feelings, his emotions. In Lessing's
works the commonest metaphors are those taken
from combat, and this harmonizes with the writer's
fondness for disputes and feuds.* If certain meta-
phors are found to colour a language not merely in
special periods, but in all its stages; when, in fact,
they are the common property of all the writers and
speakers in that language, we are justified in con-
cluding that they comprise the favourite conceptions
of an entire people. And it is indeed true that
agriculture and military life, the two main columns
on which the Roman state rested, are called, in
Latin, to do service as metaphors with surprising
frequency.
10. When we find a nation insisting on its
members being addressed in their civil and polit-
ical capacity as "• Quirites'' i.e., "Spearmen" or
" warriors," and investing its politically emancipated
citizens and its armed reserves with a similar name ;
when, in short, we find military service and military
privileges regarded as identical with civic service
and civic privileges, we cannot be surprised to find
that such a nation scatters military metaphors broad-
cast through its literature. It has been well said by
D. Wollner (" Landauer Programm," 1886), "When
the Romans have to express any circumstance in
which two opposing forces meet, they immediately
* English readers will remember that few writers can be said to
have shown their complete philosophy by their choice of meta-
phors so much as Omar Khayyam.
i6 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
employ some metaphor which indicates their warHke
propensity"; and S. von Raumer lays stress on the
fact that of all metaphors those which have reference
to war are the commonest (" Die Metapher bei
Lukrez," Erlangen, 1893, p. 121). Indeed, war is
the very life and soul of the Roman. Thus Dio
Cassius (xxxviii) makes Caesar at Vesontio address
his soldiers inclined to mutiny from terror of Ario-
vistus and his Germans, "OTa^ ovu Xiyv\ tk, otj ov y^pri
TToXi^iiv Yi[jt,oi.i;f ovStv txXXo (pri(Tiv v\ oTi ov ^py) 7^AouT£^^, ov
ypri iTtpuv ap^siv, oJk iXsu^spovg, ov 'Fooy-ociovg slvai ; and
Livy (xxii, 12, 4) puts these words into the mouth
of Hannibal: " Victos tandem illos Martios animos
Romanis"; while Cicero (Tusc. ii, 16, ^y) says:
" Nam scutum, gladium, galeam in onere nostri
milites non plus numerant quam humeros, lacertos,
manus; arma enim membra militis esse dicunt."
Expressions like spoliare are of ancient date : it
signifies strictly to strip a conquered foe of his arms :
then, generally, to despoil.
Intervallwn means strictly the open space within
the mound or breastwork of a camp, the space be-
tween two palisades {inter vallos) and then comes to
be used of any interval.
Prae7mu7n {prae and emere, to get or take before
another) means in the first place profit derived from
booty (cf. c\\so praeda) and then, generally speaking,
reward or recompense.
Princeps originally = qiii priimuu capit, he who is
the first to seize booty (cf. particeps = partem,
capiens) : then the first or most prominent in rank.
Excellerc applies in the first instance to the shoot-
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 17
ing of weapons over a mark, and so means " to sur-
pass " generally.
In the case of these words the original significa-
tion has almost entirely disappeared. There are other
words used in a tropical sense, in which the metaphor
is more apparent: for instance, sub hasta vendere,
which means to sell at auction, but which refers to
the custom of selling captured foes beneath the spear
(German subhastiren). Substantives again like tiro
{bonus homo semper tiro est), tirocinium, eommi/ito,
acies, telum, arx, stipendium, signifer, militia, bel-
lum, castra, clipeus, etc., are frequently employed
metaphorically. Fabius was nicknamed 5^2^/2^?;^; Mar-
cellus, gladius Romanorum : the discoverer of a trick
is in Plautus often called "General": "to outwit"
is military strategy or a siege; the object of the
trick is an enemy's town, more especially Troy.
Novius says to a wordy poetaster, " Ut sol crescit,
cerea castra crebro catapulta impulit," and Cicero
calls the lex Aelia et Fufia, " propugnacula tran-
quillitatis." Varro begins his treatise on agriculture
with the words, " Annus octogesimus admonet me,
ut sarcinas colligam, antequam proficiscar e vita,"
and in Pliny the Elder we find the tropical use of
such words as exctibare, infestare, rebellare, occupare,
quite an ordinary occurrence (J. Miiller, " Der Stil
des alteren Plinius," Innsbruck, 1883, p. 119). Ovid
makes the morning star (Met. ii, 115) who occu-
pies the last rank in the army of the stars (" qua-
rum agmina claudit Lucifer ") leave, last of the
soldiers, his post in Heaven ('* novissimus caeli sta-
tione exit"). Our proverb, "to make a mountain
c
i8 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
out of a mole-hill" is rendered in Latin by " arcem
ex cloaca facere." To risk much for nothing is
" hastis trium nummorum causa sub falas subire";
to burn one's boats, " abicere hastam, scutum"; to
abscond safely, " tecto latere, abscedere": all these
are proverbial expressions drawn from military
life.*
1 1. Aorriculture and cattle-breedinor are as fruitful
a field for metaphors as the last. The inclination of
the Latins was for agriculture, and they carry its
stamp. Horace calls his countrymen (Carm. iii, 6):
" rusticorum mascula militum proles, Sabellis docta
ligonibus versare glebas." " Roman life depended
wholly on agriculture, and maintained its moral force
as long as this branch of social activity existed in its
simple purity."
The pursuit of agriculture remained even in the
period of refined luxury the ideal life of the noblest
and most honoured Romans, the life most respected
after that of the statesman and the soldier, so that
Horace can reckon the man happy, " qui procul neg-
otiis Ut prisca gens mortalium Paterna rura bobus
exercet suis" (Epod. ii, i sqq.\ cf Verg. Georg.
" divini gloria ruris"). The plough was used to
draw the furrow round the enclave of a town about
to be founded, to mark the circumference of the
future walls, and the division into gentcs, and indeed
the constitution itself was based during republican
times on the possession of land. It thus happens
* Cf. Macrob. Sat. ii, 8, " Congrediendum igitur et tamquam
in acie quadam cum vini liccntia cominus deccrncndum."
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 19
that Latin displays a large store of expressions
borrowed from ao-riculture and used in a new
sense.
Delirare, lit. to go out of the furrow : then to act
like a madman (cf. delirious).
Tribitlare, to thrash with a tribulum: then to
plague.
Praevaricari, to plough in crooked lines: then
said of a counsel who plays into the hands of an
opponent.
E7nolumentum, what is ground out {e-molere)'. then
gain or profit.
Calamitas, a. plague, destructive to crops, such as
fire or hailstorm : then calamity [the derivation from
calamus is doubtful. See Walde, ^.z^.].
Adoria, glory in war [connected by popular ety-
mology with ador, spelt].*
Rivalis, a rival, connected by popular etymology
with rivus as if it were "the neighbour on the
bank."
Acervus [possibly] from acus, aceris, chaff.
Saecuhun [probably] " sowing season " (cf. saison
from satid) : then a century (cf. Saeturnus, Sa-
turnus from the root of severe).
Cohors, the hedge of a field or garden : then a
cohort.
Manipulus, an arm-filling bundle.
Inanis, empty [possibly] from acna, a measure of
land (with in privativunt).
* Copiae, plenty, is specially applied to troops or forces, and
copiae marinae is used for the fish supply. Cf. Macrob. Sat. ii,
X, ad init.
20 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
Felix, originally " fruit bearing " (cf. fe-cundzis,
fettcs, fenus) : then *' happy." *
Who would think of connecting pecunia with
pecus [cf fee], egregms with grex, septentrio with the
three oxen for treading out corn, as the people
called the seven stars in the constellation of the
Bear?
In the language of the poets we find in common
use such expressions as vada carina sulcare, cerea
prata sulcare, aequor arare, librtim exarare, proelia
serere, barbam metere, via7n carpere \Jioram carpere\
poliLs sidera pascit, uber glebae, mare niugit, etc.
Then we find proverbial expressions like arare bove
et asino to manage awkwardly; arare litus (to
plough the sands); adhtic tua messis in herba est, 'tis
too soon to begin : and 'Axpdya? is by popular ety-
mology converted into Agri-gentum . Similarly
measures of space like jugerum from jugum, actus
from agere [in quo boves agimtur, cum aratur, cum
impettt jtisto. — Plin. i8, 59], vorsus from vertere
(the turning of the plough), and such words as cam-
pus, flos, ager, segcs, fructtis, trisulcus, give material
for many metaphors: e.g., Cicero calls Clodius
segetem (field or soil) ac materiem gloriae Milonis.
12, The signification of Latin words affords us a
profound appreciation of the moral and intellectual
views of the Romans; indeed, it is not too much to
assert that in no other way are they so faithfully
mirrored. Their wishes, their sentiments, their
thoughts and their poetry all stand revealed through
* Cf. fructus, cultura, peculuim, evincere, protelare.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 21
this medium. Language, as we know, never ex-
presses any notion in its entirety. A curt denom-
ination cannot possibly denote all the characteristics
or qualities of any subject:* but only the most
striking, or those which appear so to the speaker or
writer. Lessinof's maxim was true to life when he
stated that the poet should not bring into promin-
ence more than a single feature of a subject at one
time. " The etymological meaning of a word never
exhausts the full meaning; it is impossible that it
should do so: all elements of language are merely
representative [and not full pictures] (Steinthal,
" Klassif." 281). And it is precisely for this reason
that personal views and personal feelings are no
small factor in the growth and spread of words. It
may happen that one people may hold one feature
as the essential characteristic of the word : another
people may hold another feature as more truly so.
Thus it is that etymology enables us to realize every
corner of the intellectual storehouse of any given
people. It is no doubt true that by its aid we are
able to catch merely the earliest phase of the mean-
ing of any given word; we can only state with
absolute certainty the sense attached to the word
by those who coined it, and what they considered
the principal characteristic of the object denoted.
But if we study the semasiology, the development
of the signification of any given word, the restric-
tions and expansions of its meaning caused by the
feelings and impressions which have attached them-
selves to it in the course of its existence, we shall
* See Whitney, p. 409 sqq.
22 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
be enlightened as to many psychological processes
in the human mind, and shall obtain many a glimpse
into the spirit of those who used the word as well as
of those who coined it. The essential lesson for the
Roman student {discipulus) to learn {discere) was
discipline {disciplina).* This word corresponds in
form to the Greek [jLcx.hiJ.cx.Tixv, but how far apart
have the words drifted!
The father of a Roman family rules his household
with autocratic rigour : and just as the father's
authority over his son is unquestioned (as it is in-
deed over his son's kin) so is that of the patromis
over the cliens: that of tho. patricii over the plebeii:
thcLt of the p^^res "elders" over other citizens: the
idea of paternal authority is felt throughout. The
very name for "country" is "fatherland" i^patria):
that for mother-tongue, patrius sermo. We call our
laneuaofe the " mother-tonsfue " — and think with
more sentiment of the lovino- care with which she
taught us to lisp our first sounds. It is significant
that whereas Homer introduces his hero Odysseus
by the epithet cJTo?, Vergil presents us his ^neas
with the title oi pater.
13. Woman is in the Roman's parlance, viulier
(probably connected with mollis), the soft creature
who needs men's protection : he calls a boy pue7^, but
employs the diminutive pttella for a girl: so ancus,
and ancilla. The Germans, according to Tacitus, in
* Discipulus is derived by Waldc from dis-capio, I receive men
and teach, its opposite being praecipere, to undertake something
with pupils.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 23
the remotest times reorarded the woman as " sane-
turn aHquid et providum": the word weid [wife]
denotes something inspired [so Kluge; Skeat says it
is thought to come from a root signifying ^0 tremble\ :
hence the awe and veneration with which the priest-
esses were regarded. At a later period the Germans
exalt their woman into Frau (O.H.G., f7'otiwa,
M.H.G., vrouwe), i.e., house-mistress, wife of the
house-master: this word is connected with the
Qio\.\{\Q. frauja, Lord, and with the H.G. Fron (seen
in Frondienst, Frohnleichnamsfest, and fronen [to
labour for a master]). Comparing the mental atti-
tude of Roman and German toward the gentler sex,
we find that in Latin the -wordfratres denotes brother
and sister, and spoiisus and sponsa are used for two
spouses. The Germans use the terms Geschwister
and Brautpaar respectively, denoting, it must be
admitted, a greater feeling of reverence towards the
ewig weibliche. On the other hand it must be con-
ceded that lanoruagfe seems to indicate that woman
stood higher in the estimation of the Roman than of
the Greek. The Greeks say r^Y.voc v.ou ywoc'ixsg, the
Romans say, conjuges liberique, when they would
express what they hold dearest, and mulieres
puerique, when they would dwell on their helpless-
ness: and in this they agree with our method of
expression.
Love is to the Roman more an impulse of the
intellect than of the heart. Diligere signifies in the
first instance simply to discriminate.* The idea of
* Or it may be from the same root as aXf'yw, " to trouble one-
self about." See Walde, s.v.
24 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
dutiful affection attending on certain situations con-
ditioned by relationships or other outside circum-
stances is genuinely Roman : caritas denotes affection
for one's own flesh and blood or for a friend (cf.
chariU) : pietas dutiful respect towards the gods or
parents, and to the mother country as the lasting
benefactor of each man: studiwn denotes an affec-
tion based on political or personal obligations, and
aiming at merely worldly ends.* Here we have the
picture of the Roman, his life and his love: he took
full advantage of the closest natural relations, but
he respected them as well, and he utilized them for
his own purpose, while regarding them with honest
goodwill. He turned his affections to the quarter
whence came his needs, and he held it his sacred
duty to requite those who aided him (C. Abel,
" Sprachwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen," Leipzig,
1885, p. 88 sqq?). Even the love which flows from
the depths of his heart, the love which the Latins
call amor, was regarded by the Roman people not
from its spiritual side: amor was to the Roman a
malady, a consuming fire, a fatal wound. f With the
exception perhaps of Tibullus, the poets seized on
the strongest possible expressions, which indeed
they could not heighten, to express the power of
such love (cf. Weidner on Verg. Aen. i, 660).
How different is the Teutonic conception! Luther
betrays a profound knowledge of his own mother-
tongue when he says in a letter on interpretation :
* Adfectus is the nearest Latin word for an emotional love,
t This is most noticeable in the well-known passage of Lucre-
tius (De Rcrum Natura, iv), the most Roman of poets.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 25
" I hardly know whether it be possible to translate
the word lieb, dear, into Latin or any other language
so as to express its tenderness, so that it may call
such a responsive echo from our hearts as it does in
German." The tenderness of love in the case of
Teutonic nations depends on faith and mutual con-
fidence: hence it is that such words as the German
Glaube {ge-loube) and Liebe, and in Gothic indeed
the word lubains (hope) come from the same stem.
The Teutonic conception of love is that it rests
on the emotions : and our emotional nature, irradiated
and warmed by the quickening sun of Christianity,
is a flower which never came to its perfection on
Roman soil. Indeed neither Latin nor the Romance
languages possess any expression which exactly
renders Gemiit: and the derivatives of aniniiLs point
rather to a source of wrath and passion than to one
of what the Germans call Gcmiitlichkeit (a term
lacking in English as well).
14. Again, the conception of marriage in Latin is
based on no deeper insight into nature. Betrothal
(nuptiae) is simply "taking the veil " {^luba^e alicui,
to veil oneself before the bridegroom) : * or again it
is a matrimoniufii or "mothering," i.e., an arrange-
ment for the continuation of the race : or again a
common sacrifice of a cake of spelt {confarreatio
from far). In the eyes of the German, marriage is
a lasting contract, a legal agreement and bond be-
tween husband and wife, voidable only by death
* Nubere is derived, however, by Walde from a root snu, signi-
fying in Slavonic (O. Bulgarian) "to love."
26 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
[cwig and Eke, originally ewa, are from the same
stem as aevum [cf. to wed, from A.S. weddian, to
pledge]). The Teutonic conception of marriage is
a Hock Zeit, a sublime and glorious day, or an
event depending on mutual confidence; a betrothal.
His consort stands so hio-h in his estimation that he
regards her as entitled to the same rights and privi-
leges as himself, and calls her in fact his " Ehehalfte "
(cf. our "better-half").*
The Roman regarded school not as a place for
intellectual exertion, but as a "sport" {Itidus). Ac-
cordingly we are not surprised to find that Latin
takes over the Greek word o-^^oAti, leisure, and em-
ploys it in the signification of school, nor that it
attaches to the word otiuin the connotation of intel-
lectual occupation: such occupation serves as a re-
freshing rest after effort. It is significant, too, that
Cicero represents most of his dialogues as spoken
in the holidays (cf De Or. ii, 13; i, 102; and
Seyffert-M tiller on " Laelius," p. 93) [and Wilkins'
edit, of De Or., p. 6]. Literary activity in primitive
times hardly goes beyond letter-writing: litterae
signifies in the first instance what is committed to
writing, especially a letter: and only at a later stage
science in oreneral. In the Greek lan(juao-e the words
TTo\,iiv, irpocTTut^, and oiysiv, to act or do, which have de-
veloped a vague and colourless meaning, manifest
in the substantives derived from them three essential
characteristics of the Greek popular character —
TTOj'na-if, rrpri^ig (Homer), oiyuv : the taste for poetry
and art in general, for trade and for contests. The
* Uxor is now supposed to mean "the woman carried home."
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 27
Roman derivatives answering to the Greek assume
a political, or, at any rate, a practical signification,
far removed from any notions of literary or artistic
taste. The relimous side of the Roman character
comes out in such ancient derivations as agere, as
axamenta, and indigitamenta [but both these words
are now connected with aio\ acta dmrna would be a
better instance].
15. The Roman holds pleasures to be mere
temptations {deliciae and delectare from delicere),*
and we may gather his ideas of dancing from
Cicero's utterance : " Nemo fere saltat sobrius, nisi
forte insanit " t (Pro Mur. 13). An honest man
may indeed allow himself to thaw a trifle over his
meals: convivitmi is, according to the Roman, "a
living together" in the literal sense: a favourable
opportunity for exchange of thought, not for a
carouse, as with Teutonic nations, with whom it
might be more correctly described as a co7ivimum,
just as the Greeks call it a symposmm. Cicero is
fully justified in putting into the mouth of the elder
Cato the words: "Bene maiores accubitionem epu-
larum amicorum, quia vitae coniunctionem haberet,
convivium nominaverunt melius quam Graeci, qui
hoc idem tum compotationem, tum concenationem
vocant, ut quod in eo genere minimum est, id maxime
probare videantur,"
Of the good gifts of life Glory is the noblest.
* More probably connected with laqueus, a snare,
t Macrobius, Sat. ii, lo, devotes a chapter to proving that the
ancient Romans saw no harm in dancing or singing.
28 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
Hence to be ignored {ig7Z07ninia) is the greatest
dishonour. " Apex autem senectutis auctoritas est "
(Cic. De Sen. 17, 60). Virtus is the essence of
all that shows man in his best and noblest light;
and it brings into special prominence his bravery
("melius est virtute jus; nam saepe virtutem mali
nanciscuntur," Enn. Fr. 223, v). Later it comes
to mean uprightness in general. The Romance
languages have adopted only the latter meaning
(Fr. la vertu, It. virtu, Span, virtud). The Greek,
on the other hand, held moderation, or o-wfpoo-uV/, as
the highest virtue. The maxim ^-n^h olyccv was attri-
buted to one of the seven wise men ; and it appeared
in the Pronaos of the temple of Apollo at Delphi
side by side with the caution " know thyself" {yvu^i
The corresponding Roman word \^77iodes^ia] has
received its colouring from Roman ideas and has
come to signify political loyalty, while in its military
usage it means a sense of discipline. BoniLS denotes
in a legal sense a man of honour, and in a political
sense a patriot; fortis unites in old Latin the two
meanings of brave and noble (cf. Plant. Trin. v,
2, 9, and O. Hey, " Semasiolog. Studien," Leipzig,
1 891, p. 114); mollis has a more or less depreciatory
connotation, for constancy and rigour are the qual-
ities prized. The Romans call an impudent person
a novelty, or, as we should say, 2i freak {insolens\ It
is siofnificant too that Cicero renders the Greek word
jcaA&i/, beautiful, or morally good, by ho7iestuni, hon-
ourable (cf Cic. De Off. ed. Heine, p. 23).
The Greeks, then, look at morality from an aes-
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 29
thetic point of view, and thereby betray their artistic
appreciation of this virtue. The Romans, on the
other hand, think first and foremost of the impres-
sion Hkely to be made on others by moral actions,
and they show their full sense of the value of such
impression : Honour brings honourable posts (" Hon-
estum fert honores ").
The temples of Virtus and of Honos stood side
by side in Rome, and in fact after the victory over ,
the Cimbri the two deities were united in one temple.
16. The pride of self-consciousness is manifested
in the Roman denomination of the Mediterranean
as mare nostrum. And indeed the sea which had
once been swayed by Phoenicians, Greeks, Carth-
aginians, and Etrurians, and which had assumed
Greek names even for the portions adjoining Italy
(such as Tyrrhenean and Ionic Sea), had passed
into Roman possession from Cyprus to the pillars
of Hercules. The British, who rule the Ocean and
despise other European nations, express the Latin
ego by I, always expressed in capital letters: can we
then grudge the Roman this mark of his self-com-
placency?
The pious Israelite in sign of greeting cries
"Peace be with thee!" the merry Greek shouts
XoAfi, rejoice ! The Roman regards health and
strength as the prime necessities of life: hence his
greeting is vale! and salve ! " Bide ye strong and
bide ye healthy! "
Names of measures of length, which in Greek
are often taken from recreation grounds and from
30 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
sports (cf. (jTci^iov, SoXi-)(ji(;, lirinxov, etc.), are formed in a
much less imaginative fashion by the Romans, who
reproduce in language merely the number of the
feet {duo millia, i.e., passuum, etc.). Similarly Roman
coins are named according to the sum of the asses
which they contain: thus sestertius = sern-is-tertius,
lit. the third half of an as, i.e., 2^ asses, denarius =
de7ii asses. We may contrast with these names such
Greek words as o^oXoc [probably = copper nails used
as money] Spx-x^ixri, lit. a handful, rxXxyrov, a weight.
17. We may now consider the methods used by
the Roman to denominate the months of year.
Many of them he simply denotes numerically, as
September, October, November; and we know that in
addition to these there were originally a Quintilis
and a Sextilis, whose names were changed in honour
of Julius Caesar and Augustus. A significant con-
trast to such names is seen in the old German and
Greek nomenclatures. The Roman method reminds
us of the American's method of simply numbering
the streets of his towns instead of naming them after
distinguished persons or accidents of situation.
We need not be surprised at finding that the
Romans apply the same numerical method of nomen-
clature to their system of proper names, with the
result that many of these remind us of a numbered
exhibition catalogue, e.g., Quintus, Sextus, Septimus,
Octavus, Decimus, and again the names Sextius, Sep-
timius, Octavius, No7iius, Dccius.
There are yet other conclusions to be drawn from
a scrutiny of Roman proper names. Originally they
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 31
were appellatives, and they bring out some marked
taste on the part of the parents who conferred the
name, more commonly a wish expressed by these for
the future of their child. And, indeed, it seems quite
natural that parents should wish to endow their off-
spring with some name expressive of the quality
which would be most useful to them throughout
their whole life. Our Teutonic ancestors, who
combined passionate love for quarrels and fighting
with a deeply religious spirit, manifested in the
names which they gave their children the feelings
which animated their own hearts : hence a large
proportion of German [and of English] names re-
call memories of war cries and bellicose sounds;
others again reveal what our forefathers regarded as
the ideals of life, such as Prudence, Force, Wealth,
Constancy, Courage, and Daring [cf. in English
such names as Wise, Good, Strong, Richard, Steel,
Dare, etc.]. Greek names likewise denote such noble
and sublime qualities as youth may fitly imitate;
they contain ideas of Glory, Valour, skill in wielding
weapons, or again, of political influence: most of
these end in -xx^g, i.e., xXtog, glory, or begin with
Kauto-, KA£o-. Names of this kind are comparatively
rare among the Romans : on the other hand their
taste for agriculture and for cattle-breeding comes
out strongly in their nomenclature. Pliny the Elder
has remarked (Nat. Hist, xviii, 3) that Fabitis
means Beanman, LentuluSy Lentilman, Piso and
Cicero, Peaman (from pisuni and cicer respectively),
and the gentile names of the Porcii, Asmii, Vitellii,
Ca7ii7iii, Caprarii, Ovidii, Ovitiii (cf. also Taurtis,
32 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
Asellio, Bubulcus, etc.), all seem taken from the
names of domestic animals.* Besides this, there
are in Latin many more proper names derived from
bodily peculiarities, such as infirmities of any kind,
or the colour of the hair, than we find to be the case
with either Greeks or Teutons. A whole series of
ge7ites or clans bears the names of colours: Albii,
Rufii, Rutilii, Flavii, Livii, Caesii, Ftdvii, Nigidii,
etc. : then there are proper names like Plancus
(Broadfoot), Plohis, Pedo, Pedticaeus (Flat foot),
Scaurus, Varus, Var^'o, Valgius (Crooked leg), Clau-
dius (Lame), Flaccus (Slack), Sulla from sura, surula
(Small calf), Capito (Great head), Fro7ito (Great
brow), Mejito (Chin-man), Naso (Nosey), Silo (Snub
nose), Labeo (Big lip), Bucco (Big mouth), Deutio
(Big tooth), Barbo (Big beard), Balbus (Stutterer),
Turpio (Ugly man),t Ltirco (Glutton), Strabo, Paetus
(Squinter), Calvus 2iXi6. Glabi'io (Bald head), Crispus
(Curly head), Cj^assus (Thickman), Tubero (Crook-
back), Nacvius (Warty), StoloX (Dullman), etc.
[so too Brutus~\ (cf Horace, Sat, i, 3, 44). Such
names as these (and more might be added) show
the delight manifested by the Romans in marking
and pillorying bodily defects, and how they loved
twitting each other and holding each other up to
ridicule. All the proper names cited above are, in
* Macrobius, Sat. i, 6, ad fifi., explains the origin of the
Roman names Scrofa and Asina.
t Plautus, Most. 4, 2, I, coins a nickname Restio — rope-man,
i.e., gallow's-bird — a parody on such names.
X Stolo is properly " a stock," and Varro (R. R. i, 2, 9) plays
upon his name.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 33
fact, nicknames, and exemplify the " Italum ace-
tum" (Horace, Sat. i, 7, 32). The Romans were,
in fact, at once coloni and " clowns," like the English
of old.*
We conceive a higher idea of the Roman imagina-
tion as evinced in its nomenclature when we turn to
the list of stately agnomi7ta conferred on victorious
generals, Africanus, Asiaticus, Numaniinus, Numi-
dicus, Creiiczis, etc. The names were, of course,
taken from the name of the country in which they
had gained their renown. They testify at once to
the deep gratitude borne by the Romans to those
who had succeeded in bringing great wars to a happy
conclusion, and to the pride and respect with which
they uttered the names of such heroes. And this
custom harmonizes with the Roman habit of select-
ing the most impressive method possible of celebrat-
ing great occasions in Roman national life, methods
which could not fail to strike the imagination of the
beholders, such as the triumphal processions, and
the ceremonies observed in a declaration of war.
With the Greeks, whose highest ambition was to
win an olive crown in the Olympic games, we find
nothing of the kind. Modern civilized nations have,
however, in many cases copied the Roman usage:
cf Blucher von Wahlstatt, York von Wartenburg,
Lannes, due de Montebello, Massena, due de Rivoli,
Diebitsch Sabalkansky, Pasjewitsch Eriwansky
[Lord Napier of Magdala, Lord Dufferin of Ava,
Lord Kitchener of Khartoum].
* Coloni and clowns are not etymologically connected; the
latter word is probably of Scandinavian origin. See Skeat, s.v.
D
34 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
1 8. What do we learn from the names of the
gods? For they, too, throw light on the thoughts
and genius of the people who worship them. Myth-
ology is the product of popular imagination ; it is
closely bound up with the spirit of the people, and
thus serves as an index to their profoundest thoughts.
In the legends of the Hellenic deities do we not see
mirrored the brightness of the Greek skies, and the
graceful charm that was the prerogative of the
Hellenic nation? In old German myths do we not
see a reproduction of the seriousness and the melan-
choly of Northern races? But besides these general
traits, our interest is further challenged by the
changes undergone by separate ancient deities, as
modified by the character of each nation among
whom their cult has prevailed. It is highly charac-
teristic of the mental attitude of our Teutonic fore-
fathers that they should have taken the highest
deity of the Indo-Germanic primitive epoch — the
ZfJ? of the Greeks and J ovis-pater = Jupiter of the
Romans, and, under the name of Tiu connected
him with war, and made him their war god. Side by
side with him, the Franks first, and shortly after
them the other German tribes, revered Wotan, the
wind god, the representative of the cloud-covered
Heavens, and of the raging storms (O.H.G. Wuotan
is connected with N.H.G. J^w/ = wrath). Thus the
dispenser of the radiant light which spread over
Italy and Greece had to give place to the god of the
northern cloudy sky: but at his side sat his sister
and spouse, Freia, the loving and kindly mother of
the gods. Thus the names of Tiu and of Freia
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 35
represent the twofold aspect of the Teutonic nature:
the mood for battle and the mood for profundity and
earnestness; the two moods which we have already
observed to be denoted by their personal names.
In primitive times the Romans held their most
important deities to be the agricultural god Saturnus,
protector of crops {sala) and the war god Mars
[Sabine Mamers\. A number of Italian names of
tribes and places were taken from Mars: such as
the Marsi, Marrucini, Mamertini, Marruvium, etc.
The first month in the Roman year, the inensis
Martins, takes its name from this god : and Mars
is dignified with the same honourable title as Jove
himself (Marspiter), in fact, his name is in common
metonymic use for bellum, as in the phrases aequo
Marte, suo Marte, etc. Originally, like most of the
Aryan deities, a god of light* he was metamor-
phosed into a war god by a warlike people. Saturn
was not identified with Kp6uo<; until the influence of
Greek culture began to make itself felt in Italy.
After this identification he is revered as the father
of Jupiter, now raised again to the highest seat of
power: Mars, on the other hand, appears as his son,
just as Tiu appears as the son of Wotan and Freia.
Saturnus owns Ops as his consort, the goddess of
agricultural prosperity and agricultural industry (cf.
oJ>us,f whence too the Osci = 0/>sd, rural workers,
take their name). Side by side with these we find
* Cf. fiapfialpu. Very probably, however, the name Mars is con-
nected with fxapva/jiai. See Walde, s.v. Mars.
t 0/>us is, however, probably unconnected with ops: opus =
Sanskrit dj>nas, wealth; ops — Sanskrit dpas, worth.
-.6 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
o
in earliest antiquity a numerous company of other
agricultural deities, such as Ceres, the deity who
presides over Cerealia; Flora, the flower goddess;
Maia, deity of the Spring to whom the barrow-pig
i^Maialis) was consecrated and sacrificed,* Tellus,
the god of the fruit-bearing earth, Faunus (the
favouring deity, ixov^ favere), the protector of herds,
worshipped as the wolf-scarer under the name of
Lupercus {liipos arcens), Pales, the tutelary deity of
shepherds and cattle. Terminus, the god of bound-
aries, and Pomona, who produces fruit in its season.
But when we look for ancient Roman grods of the
sea and of rivers, we look in vain. The sea and all
its wonders have no attraction for the Romans, and
hence it comes to pass that the deities of the river
and sea are of Grecian or Etrurian origin, or at any
rate they have taken their rise under the influence
of these nations. Neptunus, the ancient Roman
cloud-god, sufl^ered his transformation under Hel-
lenic influences.!
The Greeks, then, by the aid of their lively ima-
gination and their refined aesthetic sense, created
tangible and palpable images of their own deities.
The soberer imagination of the Romans contented
itself with mere abstractions, and their creations
were lifeless by comparison. \ On the other hand,
* Maia and maialis are, however, only connected by popular
etymology. See Macrob. Sat. i, 12.
t Macrobius, Sat. i, 1 7, tells us that Neptune was called both
ivoaiyQhiv and uiT(j)aXi(i)v — at once earth's shaker and pacifier —
epithets more appropriate to a deity of the sky than of the sea.
X Cf. Macrob. Sat. i, 7. "Antevor/a et Postvoria apud Ro-
manos coluntur." So Porrima, Ov. Fast, i, 633.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE :,j
they feel it their bounden duty, owing- to their con-
scientious scrupulousness in religious observances,
to set apart special divinities to preside over every
possible manifestation of human activity. The
countryman, on first ploughing up the soil, invoked
the Vervactor: at his second ploughing, tho. Redara-
tor: on drawing the furrows, \}i\^Imporcitor\ on sow-
ing, the Insitor'. on commencing to cross plough,
the Obarator: to harrow, the Occator: to weed, the
Sarritor: to trench, the Subruncator: to mow, the
Messor: to bind the sheaves, the Connecto7': to store
in granaries, the Conditor, and so on. The Roman
people impressed even on their deified virtues and
qualities that practical character which appears in
their moral views.
19. Another important criterion of the connection
between lanofuaee and national character consists in
proverbial expressions and " winged words." Goethe
said: "Proverbs mark nations, but these nations
must have been their home." And it is a fact that
none can appreciate the close relationship between
a nation's humour and its proverbs but one who has
had his finger on that nation's pulse, and is suffi-
ciently familiar with its thoughts and feelings.
Proverbs touch every side of popular humour: they
disclose to us its attitude towards the animal world,
to nature, and to all objects which recall primitive
times and the childish simplicity of view of primitive
people. They give us a purview of a nation's pro-
cess in culture, and enable us to realize how it judges
of its neighbours and of its progenitors. Thus it is
38 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
interesting to observe how prone the Romans were
to hold up to ridicule the prominent characteristics
and the disagreeable traits of foreign nationalities,
with whom commercial or other dealings brought
them into contact. It is equally instructive to note
how eager these same Romans were to magnify the
glorious deeds of their own ancestors.* If we take
proverbial phrases (for such they have become) like
Punica fides (treachery), Galloj^twz credtilitas, Cam-
panortim mn'ogantia,^ we are able to recognize not
merely that the bad qualities referred to were be-
lieved by the Romans to be inherent in those na-
tions, J but further that the nations thus stigmatized
were from the earliest times strangers to the
Romans, and were regarded by them with little
sympathy. In contrast to such phrases stands " more
Romano " or " Latine loqui " (cf. Cic. Phil. 8, 6, and
Wolfflln's "Archiv.," Hi, 376A). This phrase signifies
to speak out truly and plainly, and It is not hard to
parallel in modern times. In German and English
alike, If we desire to insist on an unpalatable truth,
we commonly say, " to speak in good plain German "
or " English " as the case may be.§
Again, we know that the Greeks used to drink
out of larger wine-cups than the Romans. Accord-
* Cf. Macrob. Sat. ii, x, "Vetustas quidcm nobis semper, si
sapimus, adoranda est. Ilia quippe saecula sunt, quae hoc impe-
rium vel sanguine vel sudore pepererunt."
t Cf. Cic. In Pisonem, 11, " buccae dignae Capua."
X Cf. Macrob. Sat. i, Introd. " ' Sum ' inquit, ' homo Romanus,
natus in Latio, et eloquium Graecum a nobis alienissimum est.' "
§ Other such popular maxims were, " crassa Minerva"; "hoc
age"; "leges bonae ex malis moribus procreantur."
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 39
ingly we find not merely the expressions Graeco
more bibere, pergraecari {i.e., " maioribus poculis bi-
bere "), but we have the Latin expression for " be-
tween the Hp and the cup" — "Inter os et offam "
(Cell, xiii, 18. i), as contrasted with the Greek
TToXXqi fji.tTOi^v TTtXii xuAiKOf y.x\ -^iixioq otupov. And where
the Germans say of a person of whom nothing can
ever be made, " All the hops and malt in the world
can make nothing of him," the Romans say " operam
et oleum perdidi,"* a metaphor taken from the
gladiatorial schools. Moreover, in the spirit with
which the Romans mention disastrous episodes in
their country's history, and the names of their
national heroes, we may note a great difference from
that of the Greeks. The Romans take such events
as the/>7i£-7ia Oscu/ana, Cannefisis, etc., as stepping-
stones in their history, and for their national
heroes they adopt Romulus f and Remus, Camillus,
[Cethegus], Curius Dentatus, Fabricius, the rigorous
moralist Cato, and Fabius Maximus, the hero who
" Cundando restituit rem." The Hellenes prefer to
cite the names of those of their countrymen who have
distinguished themselves in science and art, as stock
examples of those whom it is their delight to re-
member with honour. Perhaps it has also some
significance that, among all the Roman gods and
heroes, none enters so frequently into proverbial
expressions as the puissant figure of Hercules [Ex
* '"Tis labour lost," or, as the vulgar proverb has it, "You
cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."
t Cf. Macrob. Sat. ii, 17 "(Romuli) vita virtutes nunquam
deseruit."
40 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
pede Herculeni, mehercule, Herculi quaestum con-
terere, Plaut. Most. 4, 2, 68].
20. And now for the "winged words" or dicta which
have passed into maxims. We may for our purpose
disregard all such as owe their oriorin to Greek cul-
ture and passed from the mouths of educated and
influential families into the speech of the people, such
as Circaeum poculuni, Alcinoi dapes, etc. [" Epicuri
porcus "].* There remains a large remnant of
regular Roman dicta which were the genuine output
of Roman feeling simply because they were the
expression of the heart of the people. This holds
true not merely of the characteristic utterances of
old Cato, and of the still more ancient Appius
Claudius, but of many epigrammatic sayings of later
authors. What phrase reflects more accurately the
genuine view of a Roman than the well-known
" Fortes fortuna adiuvat " ? And hence it comes to
pass that no phrase in all Roman literature occurs,
with its variants, so frequently as this. From
Ennius and Terence down to Lucan and Claudian,
we find Roman authors ringing the same changes, f
And could any words more truly reflect the com-
placent haughtiness of the Roman character than
the exclamation of Atreus in Accius (203 Ribbeck),
" Oderint, dum metuant! " We are not surprised to
find that it is so often harped on and cited. We
* Cf. " Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum," Hor.
Ep. i, 17, 36.
t Cf. " Romani audendo, et fallendo, et bella ex belHs serendo,
magni facti," Tac. Hist, ii, 71.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 41
meet with it no less than three times in Cicero
(Phil, i, 14, 34; De Off. i, 28-97; ^^^'^ Sestio, 48,
102); Caligula frequently quoted it, as we are
told by his biographer (Suet. Calig. 30) ; and
we may gather from the pages of the gentle, nay
almost Christian, Seneca, that the phrase had, even
in later times, not lost its power of fanning the glow
of martial ardour in Roman hearts. That philo-
sopher employs it several times (De Ira, i, 20, 4;
De dementia, i, 12, 3, and ii, 2, 2), and he couples
it with the remark: " Illud mecum considero multas
voces macrnas sed detestabiles in vitam humanam
pervenisse celebresque vulgo ferri, ut illam : oderint,
dum metuant." Again, Cicero's remark " Silent
leges inter arma " notoriously passed into the com-
mon stock of the entire nation : Ouintilian (v, 14, 17)
and Lucan (i, 277) refer to it in their works.
21. We can hardly be surprised that a nation in
whom intelligence was so strongly developed as it
was in the Romans should have manifested a sfreat
predilection for playing upon words. This tendency
shows itself at every period of Roman literature,
more particularly in the comic poets and orators,
but also in the epic and lyric poets. Plautus, Cicero,
and Ovid are inexhaustible in their store of puns.*
Each writer seizes on any occasion for introducing
such: indeed, not infrequently, the same pun is
employed to satiety. We may remember the
* Macrobius has six chapters on Roman jokes and puns, Sat.
ii, cap. I s</(/. Julia, the daughter of Augustus, was particularly
noted for her smart sayings.
42 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
laborious frequency of play on the word Ve^'res in
Cicero's Verrine orations,* and his tedious juggling
with the double meanings of such names as Brutus,
Balbus, Lepidus, etc., in his letters to Atticus [cf.
" aureum nomen Chrysogoni "]. It may be, too, that
many verbal quips occur in literature which have
escaped our notice from insufficient knowledge of
historical occurrences, f Cicero, in his orations, strains
after this method of producing effect, that he may
tickle the jaded ears of his audience. In this respect
he forms a decided contrast to the Greek orator
Demosthenes, with whom verbal echoes like paVa? —
pa6u|a£rv (Ol. i, 13) are comparatively rare. Besides
this we hear from Plutarch and Ouintilian that
Cicero employed witticisms in his ordinary con-
versation to an even greater extent than in his
writings (cf. Herwig, " Das Wortspiel in Cicero's
Reden," Attendorn, 1889).
22. The syntax of a language, no less than the
signification of the words, carries the mark of the
spirit of the people. A masculine and vigorous
tone characterizes the construction of Latin sen-
tences — an energizing breath of logical consecution —
which marks the Latin lanofuaee as a fit vehicle for
oratory, more particularly for speeches spoken by
the accusing counsel, and for the historian of cam-
paigns, but as a less suitable medium for lyrical
expression. No one was more conscious of this
* Cf. In Verr. iii, § 46, ad fin.
t Tibullus calls his first love Delia, from dijXor, her real name
being Plania. See Postgate's "Tibullus," Introduction, p. xx.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 4^
o
defect than the Romans themselves. Quintihan, for
example, declares his conviction that it is impossible
for Latin writers to attain to Hellenic grace and
attractiveness (xii, 10, 36). " Non possumus esse
tarn graciles, simus fortiores: subtilitate vincimur,
valeamus pondere." And if it be granted that
Cicero succeeded in rendering the Latin language
more flexible, by modelling it on the Greek, it
must also be noted that such transformation was
only partially possible : a complete revolution in the
genius of the language would only have been pos-
sible by an absolutely new creation and a radical
revolution in the genius of the people. Cicero's
followers, too, lag behind their master in grace of
style. The truth was, that in order to ensure the
growth of the new graft by which Cicero wished to
improve the stock of the mother tongue, one neces-
sary condition was absent: the Roman remained
always a Roman, and could never belie his nature:
" Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret."
23. The first feature that strikes us in the ar-
rangement of the Latin sentence is the energy and
decision, the virility and the dignity which radiate
from its very form. There is hardly any trace of
affectation or literary refinement. The periods suc-
ceed each other with dignity and in well marked
cadence — spirited and irresistible like the Roman
legionary. Their entire colouring recalls to us the
picture of his weather-beaten face, and their stately
march reminds us of his proud and masterful bearing.
In fact, this well-matched pair, warrior and language.
44 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
have stepped forth from their home in the full con-
sciousness of victory, and have overcome the world
between them.
Where pathos is demanded, the style of the
Romans corresponds with their love of rhetorical
colouring. In consonance with their love of oratory,
expressions are unnaturally inflated in places where,
according to our taste, simplicity and precision
would have been preferred. We cannot then be
surprised to find that the language employed often
produces the effect of artificial measurement rather
than that of simple and unconstrained movement,
nor that the phrase, " poets and prose-writers,"
should be represented in Latin by " poetae et ora-
tores." The superlative degree plays an important
role in the Latin language, not merely in addresses
like "viri nobilissimi, amplissimi, ornatissimi," but
also when placed in apposition to proper names, e.g.,
" Corinthus, urbs opulentissima."* Not infrequently
we find the " Futurum exactum " taking the place
of the simple future. The standard-bearer of the
tenth legion, on the occasion of Caesar's landing in
Britain, exclaims (Caes. B. G. iv, 25): " Desilite
milites, nisi vultis aquilam hostibus prodere : ego
certe meum reipublicae atque imperatori officium
praestitero." The plural is employed instead of the
singular to express emphatically and distinctly the
strength of any emotion.f This is particularly
remarkable in the case of abstract words.
* Cf. "vir fortissimus, Piso Aquitanus," Cic. Verr. 4, 16.
t Cf. iniviicitiae, repeated acts of unfriendliness; so furiae, etc.
Cf. also such uses as esuriiiones, etc., siccitates tand doviesticae forti-
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 45
24. Another distinctive Roman trait reflected in
Latin style is the careful and strict principle of
subordination. That force of will, which is so pro-
minent in the Roman character, gives rise to a
certain stiffness and inflexibility which we admire
in T. Manlius Torquatus, and many others of his
countrymen; hence the uncompromising discipline,
the stout soldierly spirit, and the unequalled obedi-
ence to orders, which characterize the Romans.
It is not without significance that Cicero employs
the word velle to express the views and opinions of
his ancestors with respect to what they deemed the
welfare of the State (e.g., Cic. De Off. iii, 31, iii ;
Pro Lege Man. 11, 39). Here again the Roman
attitude is in strong contrast with the Greek, an
attitude which Mommsen characterizes as follows:
" The Greek sacrificed the whole to the individual :
the nation to the commune: the commune to the
individual burgess. The Greek's first proceeding,
dictated by his religious views, was to create human
beings out of his gods; he then proceeded to deny
their existence : the Roman kept his son in the awe
of the father: the citizen in the awe of the ruler,
and kept every one in the fear of the gods. To the
Roman the State was all in all, and the only lofty
idea not proscribed to him was the enlargement of
the State. The will of the all-powerful capital
decided the destinies of the provinces : every one in
the Empire who desired a wide culture, a political
post, or fame and distinction, turned his gaze on
inclines, cases of heroism in civil life, Cic. De Off. i, 78: con-
sdenfiae = pucks of conscience; spumae, masses of foam.
46 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
Rome. Centralization was carried out as completely
under the sway of Rome as under our neighbours,
the French. In the same way, it was Rome which
was responsible for the formation of the literary lan-
guage : the capital of the empire was also the central
point of literary activity."
The principle of subordination runs through all
the arrangement of sentences and words in classical
Latin, and is applied much more widely and com-
pletely than in any other of the Indo-Germanic
languages.* Even the Latin poets are not averse to
long sentences, ^.^., Lucretius, i, 930-50; andCatullus,
in the commencement of his poem on Berenice,
employs a lengthy and unbroken period.
The Roman writer likes to make his main thought
stand out in relief by duly subordinating the less
important clauses of the sentence; and this not in-
frequently in cases where the Greek, the German,
and the Englishman would prefer to employ co-
ordinate sentences. In the place of such particles as
" indeed . . . but," "and so," "and hence," and the
Greek (xtu . . . $s, we find, as a rule, subordinate clauses,
denoting time, cause, concession. F. A. Krummacher
has engaged -in some rather recondite speculations
on the words " and," " but," as used by the Hebrews
and Greeks respectively, and has endeavoured to
show the relations of these words to the intellectual
life of those two nations. No doubt he pushes these
speculations too far, and he reads into these two
little words more than they really contain; but it
can hardly be disputed that they are characteristic
* Cf. Zielinski, " Our Debt to Antiquity," lecture i, ad fin.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 47
of the genius of the two races. The emotional and
sensitive Hebrew thought as a child and acted as a
child, and his language, with its quaint and naive
expressions, was the language of childhood. The
imaginative Greek held it his first duty to render
his language plastic and the mirror of his thoughts.
But the Latin is of another cast. In every trait of
that language we catch the tendency to subordina-
tion. The method of connecting sentences by means
of relative clauses (and this method occurs no less
than three hundred and eighty times in Caesar's " De
Bello Gallico" and "De Bello Civili ") aives ex-
pression to this tendency, and the Latin disposal of
its moods does so in a yet higher degree. The
Latin usage contrasts with that of German, Greek,
and English, in the fact that it has developed
gradually, in place of the Indicative usual in asser-
tions, the dependent method of speech (conjunctive)
simply with the idea of bringing the subordination
of such dependent clauses more into prominence,
and to show by this method that the subordinate
clause represents the thought of the speaker, who
is regarded as the subject.
In sentences denoting sequence, and in sentences
with the historic, or causal, or concessive cu77i, which
in older stages of Latinity are not uncommonly em-
ployed to denote a fact as having actually occurred,
in ordinary Latin, the dependent form of the sen-
tence has come to be the usual type. This usage is
still seen in the case of quonia^n = quom iam = cum
iam : as, indeed, it is still seen after the Greek con-
junctions ua-Ts and airti, and after such German copu-
48 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
lative words as so dass and ah (cf. English " so
that"). These conjunctions can all be used to intro-
duce actual facts. The same holds orood of indirect
interrogative sentences. Indeed, after Livy's time,
this usage took a wider range and spread even to
such words as p7'ucsquam and to du77z, quamgua7n,
etc.; strictly speaking, words introducing simple
narration, without any clear reason appearing in the
sentences for the point of such usage. Again, cunt
iterative is, before Livy's time, seldom connected
with the conjunctive mood, but by him it is fre-
quently so connected. Cf. xxi, 28, 10; xxxiii, 3,
10.
25. This unmistakable note of discipline and sub-
ordination manifests itself in the orderly way in
which the Romans carry out the sequence of their
tenses, all dependent tenses being subordinated to
the main clause : and it again comes out in the pre-
ference shown by Latin for dependent speech {pratio
obliqua), in which sentence after sentence, and clause
after clause, are set under the strict regime oi a single
governing verb {dixit, respondit, etc.), as soldiers
under that of a general. Here, again, we have a con-
trast between Latin and Greek. Just as soldiers in a
regiment keep their eyes fixed on their commander,
all the pronouns in oratio obliqua which have re-
ference to the speaker look back to him. Add to
this the marked and energetic accent which doubt-
less aided to invest Latin with its virile and almost
defiant qualities, and we shall understand what Heine
said : " The lansfuag-e of the Romans can never belie
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 49
its origin." It is the language for commanders
in the field, for administrators in their decretals, the
legal language for usurers, the language for the in-
scriptions on the adamantine Roman people (Heine,
" Gesammelte Werke," v, 144).
Again, in the management of the Latin accent, the
law of subordination is well marked. In classical
Latin we must suppose that the main stress-accent
fell on the verb. As the verb was in most cases
shifted to the end of the sentence this accent too
gradually passed to the end of the sentence, and the
series of unaccented or weakly accented words pre-
pared the way for the accented or stressed expres-
sion, as effectually as the lictors who preceded him
prepared the way for consul or dictator,
26. Another sign of the practical turn of mind,
and clear mental vision of the Romans, is found in
their marked preference for concrete expression.
The Germans (and, in a lesser degree, the English)
prefer to soar in abstractions. The Roman, on the
contrary, is a realist: he prefers to take a positive
and actual instance to a general conception. We
have only to think of such expressions as " urbe
capta," after the taking of the city; " prudentis est,"
one needs prudence; " alicui hortanti parere," to obey
some one's exhortations: " verum dicere," to speak
the truth; " ex aliquo quaerere quid sentiat," to ask
some one's opinion; " clamor admirantium," a shout
of admiration — and we shall find ample confirmation
of this statement (cf also such expressions as "inter-
fectus Caesar " for " the murder of Caesar"; " stans
E
50 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
Caesar" — Lucan, for "Caesar brought to a halt").
The liveHness of representation and of feeling which
comes out of such Greek constructions as (p^ouovfxon
(cf. <p^ov£iv Tivi and a,7roTiiJ.v£T<x.i rriv xecpocXriu) OT again in
the preference shown in Greek for the Active as
against the Passive (<?.^., (ia,(vov<rii/ = z^ur) is quite alien
to the Latin spirit.
27. The sound judgment of the Romans enabled
them to discriminate ideas with exactitude, and fur-
thered lucidity alike in description and in language.
Needless to say, this observation does not apply to
the language of the ordinary man, who is habitually
careless in his utterances, but it does apply to classic
prose with its studied perfection, which in these
points may challenge comparison with the style of
the best Greek and German writers. The educated
Roman is scrupulously careful in the tenses which
he employs: " I will come if I can " is expressed by
" Veniam si potero" [as in French and other Romance
languages at the present day, "je viendrai si je
pourrai "] " As thou sowest, so shalt thou reap," ** ut
sementem feceris, ita metes"; *' as often as he fell
he got up," " cum ceciderat surgebat." Moreover, in
the Latin use of degrees of comparison and of num-
bers, we shall find that classic usage is more exact
than ours. We often hear " which of you two is the
eldest?" but in Latin the rendering of this is " uter
vestrum maior natu est ? " " Hither Gaul " is " Gallia
Citerior," so " pestilentia minacior quam perniciosior,"
a plague more alarming than destructive. The
Plural in Latin takes the place of the Singular in
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 51
cases where the idea of plurality is with us denoted
but not expressed, as ligna = wood, nives = a snow-
storm, or drift ; " pedibus ire " = to go on foot ;
" adulatoribus aures praebere " = to lend one's ear
to flattery. Delicate distinctions may be noticed in
the syntax of mood and case. Latin is the first to
teach us that we cannot, strictly speaking, give
such a command as " Be ashamed of yourself," or
"Be happy!" but " te pudeat!" "sis felix!" and we
often find that a distinction is drawn between anim-
ate and inanimate objects, and between proper and
transferred signification in the construction of words;
we know that in the former case prepositions, such
2iS per,ciiniy ab, etc., are employed, but in the latter
alternative the mere case is used.*
Again, the Romans are able to employ their case
system in connection with their present participle so
as to discriminate between a lasting- characteristic
and a transitory action or feeling : cf. " patriae
amans," " patriam amans." We note, too, that the
neuter form of the pronoun is preserved in the
nominative and accusative cases ("studium aliquid
legendi "), while in the oblique cases the word res
is added (" studium alicuius rei "), because in this
instance obscurity might result if the bare pronoun
were used, which might possibly be taken to refer to
another case. The Romans avoid placing two nouns
in the same case in juxtaposition, as this arrange-
ment might lead to misunderstanding, and in any
* Eg., "fastiditur ab illis," but " versatur aratro"; and things
are personified by the use of ab, as "animus bene informatus a
Natura."
52 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
case is inharmonious; thus we get " bos cervi figura,"
not " figurae " — "laudatos fore," not " futuros esse"
— " ad imitandum propositus," not " imitandus" :
hence, again, we find that forms such as " inter-
fectus existimatus es," for "you were thought dead"
are not used in Latin : nor can two prepositions be
placed in immediate juxtaposition as, for instance,
" de cum Persis gestis bellis," where the German
language allows " liber mit den Persern gefiihrte
Krieofe."
28. The Latin method of employing the ablative
betokens a clear and intelligent apprehension of cir-
cumstances as they are. The German (and English-
man) hardly penetrates in thought beneath the mere
surface, and records merely the superficial impres-
sions made by the outer world on his consciousness.
The scrutinizing eye of the Roman sees deeper.
For him it seems essential to fathom the true con-
nection of ideas: and hence, he in many cases ex-
presses the relation of causality, where we deem it
sufficient to express merely the relation of place.
For instance, we say " to lean iip07t something " :
the Romans said " aliqua re niti": and more com-
monly again, the Latin ablative of the instrument
represents in English merely the relations of place:
e.g.y where we say to receive some one in a town,
the Romans said " recipere aliquem oppido " : to con-
ceal oneself in a wood, " se occultare silva": to
maintain oneself in the camp, " se castris tenere":
to be conquered in battle, " praelio vinci " : to march
in a square, " quadrato agmine proficisci": to swim
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 53
in blood, " redundare sanguine ": to carry in a litter,
*' lecticaferre": to hold in one's hand, "manu tenere":
to bathe in cold water, " frigida (aqua) lavari " : to
go so far in recklessness, " tantum audacia progredi":
to be initiated into a ritual, " initiari sacris " : to keep
in memory, " memoria tenere " : to confuse oneself
in error, " erroribus implicari " : views expressed in
admirable language, " sententiae optimis verbis ex-
pressae " : to seek safety in flight, " fuga salutem
quaerere " : to surpass any one in speed, " celcritate
alicui praestare": to lead any one by the hand,
"manu ducere aliquem": to tremble in every limb,
"omnibus artibus contremiscere ": to accustom any
one to cold, or to accustom oneself to cold, " aliquem
frigore assuefacere," or " f rigor i assuefacere " : to
abound in, " abundare aliqua re": to travel by car-
riage, on shipboard, etc., "curru, navi vehi " : to trans-
port corn up a river, " frumentum flumine subvehere " :
to carry on one's shoulders, " sustinere humeris " :
to transport across in boats, " ratibus traicere " : to
travel on the Appian way, ** Appia via proficisci":
to go on foot, " pedibus proficisci " : by sea and
land, " terra marique " : to serve in the cavalry, " equo
merere": to challenge any one to combat, " praelio
lacessere aliquem": to condemn anyone to death,
"aliquem capite damnare": to condemn to a fine of
ten talents, " decem talentis damnare " : to transport
troops over the Rhine to Gaul, " copias Rheno in
Galliam traducere " : to enter Rome by the Porta
Capena, " porta Capena Romam intrare " : to live on
meat, " carne vivere" or " carne vesci": to drop
blood, "sanguine manare."
54 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
Such examples might be multiplied almost in-
definitely, but those mentioned may suffice to show
that our way of expression betrays a more super-
ficial view than that of the Romans, for we record
merely the impression made on our senses: while
the Roman with profounder reflection apprehends
logical relations more critically and exactly.
29. It is the same principle which inspires the
Romans to balance their sentences by a twofold
division. Lessing's style may serve as an example
of how far intelligibility, perspicuity, and easy appre-
hension are aided by this method. [The beginning
of Macaulay's Essay on Byron is a good instance of
how a series of antitheses produces an effect of per-
fect lucidity. Mr. Swinburne's prose style, which,
though often subtly allusive, is never obscure, owes
much of its perspicuity to combinations of antitheses.]
Lessing, more than any other German author, has
adopted this method for the formation of his sen-
tences, and it is to this that we owe the lucidity of
style which is his peculiar claim to admiration. In
the periods of Latin writers — whether prose-writers
or poets — we constantly meet with antitheses and
parallel clauses. Indeed, these may be looked on as
the main pivots on which the construction of Latin
sentences turns. The fondness for the corresponding
conjunctions et . . . et, aitt . . . a?i^, non sohiin . . . sed
etiavi, etc., and of the correlatives quot . . . tot, quantus
. . . tatitus, ita . . .ut, cum . . . ttu7t, is based on the same
principle. Indeed, this same antithetical principle
manifests itself not infrequently when the second
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 55
notion alone presents itself to the sense, as in " dex-
ter" (the ter being in fact a comparative termina-
tion equivalent to the Greek -T£po?) : and similarly in
Germaftia inferior. The reflection of a single thought
in two words closely akin, yet unconnected by a
copula, as velitis iudeatis, optimus maxi7?zus, pitrus
putus, scniel saepms, voce vultu, etc., dates from very
ancient literary times (cf. S. Preuss " De bimembris
dissoluti apud Scriptores Romanos usu sollemni,"
Edenkoben, 1881), and the figure known as hendia-
dys developed itself gradually, and became of fre-
quent occurrence.
From what has been said it may be gathered that
the most weighty law in Roman style is logical con-
secution and discrimination. Thus O. Willman is
correct in assumino- an inherent LoQfic as the main
characteristic of the Latin language and grammar.
Intelligence dictates the words, beauty of form is
merely a secondary consideration, or indeed of no
account at all ; style is treated with cruel neglect.
In Greece, on the other hand, the demands for
harmony in the construction of sentences play an
important part. The language of the Hellenes holds
a happy medium between the intuitive naturalism of
the simple populace and the severely intellectual
methods of cool-thinking savants. Good humour
and understanding, an easy carelessness displayed
in graceful forms, and strict, consecutive accuracy
in thought, show their effects side by side, produce
variety and manysidedness of expression, and stamp
their unique beauty on the linguistic representation
of Greek thought. Attraction, formation by analogy,
56 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
and other psychological processes, which meet us so
often in Greek authors, poets and prose-writers alike,
do not appear in anything like so large a proportion
among Roman writers. For " such a lively move-
ment of thought as is presented us in the syntactic
assimilation, assumes a great wealth of grammatical
forms and a lively popular imagination; and this is
precisely what we find among the Greeks. Where
the main purpose is to express meaning, as with the
Romans ; where the process of thought is ever more
abstract and sharply defined, and maintains a scien-
tific precision, or, in other words, a logical form, as
in the case of German and still more in French;
where the exactitude of word formation passed away,
as with all modern nations; in all such cases, these
syntactical processes tend more and more to dis-
appear and the language flows on confined in the
iron rut of forms more or less immovable."
30. We have still to glance at the inflexional
system of the Latin language.
Latin, in its word-inflexion, lacks the richness,
flexibility, and rhythmical movement of the Greek.
The more sensitive Greek has retained far more of
the primitive store of forms of the Indo-Germanic
original language than the more practically-minded
Roman. The latter, disinclined to luxury of any
kind, even to superfluities in language, dispensed
with all he could, and used what he did retain with
the greatest economy. This can be readily seen in
the conjugations, in which the Roman has fused the
optative with the conjunctive, and the aorist with
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 57
the perfect [cf. sim = si-em with sUv and dix-i with
i-^n^-cc']. In Latin, again, the number of the par-
ticiples is greatly reduced, and we look in vain for
the store of Greek tense forms. Consider the wealth
of forms evidenced by a word like Tpt-rru with its six
aorists as against the Latin /e£-o\ The gradations
and mutations of the stem have almost disappeared;
the differentiation of verbs in -/xi and -w, as of
thematic and non-thematic verbs, is laid aside: nay,
even the auorment as the mark of differentiation be-
tween primary and historic tenses is not maintained.
Even reduplication and Ad/atc^ appear only in scanty
survivals. This was not always so : the old speakers
of the Latin tongue had obviously much more sense
of the picturesque, like all primitive people. Also
the Oscan and Umbrian dialects exhibit a stately
series of verb and noun forms, whose Latin equiva-
lents show no trace of reduplication [e.£^., mamers,
deded, fefure, fefaccd^ .
With the sole exception of the few so-called neu-
tral-passives \_e.g., gaudeo, Jido, soleo\ the Latin verbs
have lost their faculty of forming their tenses as
either active or middle: |aai/0ai/w, y.a,^ricro[A.o(,i has no
analogue in classical Latin. In other respects Latin
lacks flexibility: its elements are congealed and re-
ceive once for all the lasting stamp they are to bear.
Classical Latin was averse to the creation of com-
pounds: yet when such were once created, the uni-
fication of the component parts of the compound was
so strictly maintained, and the interpenetration of
the two members was felt to be so complete, that all
thought of separation was excluded. The indcpend-
58 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
ence of the parts disappears, as often as ever the
composition is realized.* Such phenomena as the
Greek Tmesis meet us only occasionally, and prin-
cipally in the poets [And what Tmeses! " Saxo cere
— comminuit — brum" (Ennius)]t to suit the exi-
gences of metre. The freer usage of prepositions
with which we are familiar in German [and in a
less degree in English] is unknown to the Latin.
For instance, in the German words vorsagen, ein-
sehe7i, etc., the first syllable is separable, and appears
in the present as "ich sage vor," " ich sehe ein"
[sometimes in English a shade of meaning is con-
veyed by the shifting of such prepositions; as out-
spoken, spoken out : the outlook, the look out, etc.].
Moreover, the intrusion of the reduplication between
the preposition and stem of the perfect is felt to be
irregular, and is commonly omitted, as in contigit as
against tetigit.
31. Noun forms in Latin which have once been
petrified into adverbs, retain their form perennially,
like lava which has hardened into immovable rock.
In this Latin contrasts with German, in which lan-
guage conceptions of time, place, etc., can be imme-
diately re-transformed, by means of flexional termina-
tions, into living and declinable nouns. Take such
instances as "die einstigen Gewohnheiten," "die
damaligen Verhaltnisse," "die dortigen Behorden,"
* Probably the coalescence of the parts is least felt in the case
of the composition of an adverb with a verb as ciraimdare^ satis-
facere, etc.
t Cf. too "seplem subjccta trioni," Verg.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 59
" das jenseitige Ufer." We may again contrast this
immovability witli the Greek usage, where the article
when prefixed suffices to recall the adverb again
into life, as in ol vvu au^puiroi, ron ftoca-iXEvg^ v a^w
TToAif. [It is probable that the English usage of
such phrases as " the then king" came straight from
the classical usage.]
In its impersonal verbs, again, Latin presents
some peculiarities which distinguish it from the
other cog-nate lanofuaofes mentioned. For instance,
it possesses a certain number of verbs signifying
feeling, which have become fixed and unchangeable
in impersonal use : compare pudet with a.\(T')(yMo^oi.\.
and with "I am ashamed" [though in English we
can still say, " it shames me, it behoves, it irks," etc.].
We must also mark the difference in the treat-
ment of diminutives in Greek and in Latin. Greek
and German have the power of transforming diminu-
tives, by changing the gender, into new significa-
tions, e.g., " der Mann," "das Mannchen," "das
Mannlein," " die Frau," " das Frauchen," " das Frau-
lein": TraK, TraK^/o^ : ;)^pt;(r(j?, ;)(^pu(r/ov. These diminutives
have more or less divested themselves of their
nature, and their diminished vitality is shown in
the neuter gender. Latin, on the contrary, exhibits
neither the same freedom in its treatment of gender,
nor the same delicacy of discrimination, for it passes
on the gender of the original noun to its derivative
diminutive, as liber, libellus\ silva, silvitla,
32. Finally, we must briefly examine the vowel
conditions of Latin. W. von Humboldt long since
6o LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
insisted on the fact that the vowel system in any
language must stand in close relationship to the
trend of the national taste of those who speak it,
reflecting, as it does, the mental power of the human
organism in its entirety.* This principle comes out
very clearly in a comparison of the modern North
and South European languages. In the German
and, more particularly, in the Slavic sound-system,
the consonants play a much more prominent part
than in the Romance languages, which, however, are
distinguished by greater variety in their vowel
sounds. Thanks to this cause, Italian, for instance,
is endowed with its incomparable grace and delicacy
(cf. Byron, " Beppo," 44). The language viewed as
the artistic creation of an entire people reflects
the fact that the Italians possess a remarkable sense
of form, a sense which stands adequately revealed
in other directions, such as the fine arts, painting
and music, poetry and architecture.
No one can deny that the northern nations stand
in this respect far behind their southern neigh-
bours.
Latin holds a middle position between the rich
vowel system and liquid sweetness of the Italian,
and the consonantal agglomerations of the Russian
language. In its position with regard to these it
resembles rather the German written language than
the Greek, and indeed it shares with German certain
peculiarities in its sound-changes. Friedrich August
Wolf said long since: "The Latin language is far
* See Byrne, " Principles and Structure of Language " vol. i,
p. 12.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 6i
from possessing the harmony of the Greek. It is
military, stern, and stately. Its numerous consonants,
and the paucity of its vowels, give it a hard repel-
lent look, and are indeed characteristic of the
nation"; and Fr. Scerbo gives as his opinion
(" Caratteristiche del Greco e del Latino," Firenze,
1893, P- 0- " ^^ vocalismo greco e piu ricco, piu
delicato e vario, ritraente piu la freschezza e I'agilita
dei suoni primitivi; il vocalismo latino ci appare
meno armonioso e snello od integro ed un po piu
incerto." Lastly, W. von Humboldt gives as his
opinion (" Uber die Verschiedenheit des mensch-
lichen Sprachbaus, herausgegeben v. Pott," ii, 232,
Berlin, 1876) that "in the language of the Romans
no luxuriant variety, no freedom of imagination, has
been wasted in the formation of sounds; the virile,
earnest sense of that people which regarded rather
the truth of things as they are, and craved only so
much of things intellectual as consorted with such
truth, had no room for any such luxuriance or any
such free upgrowth of sounds." Just as the Greeks
were the masters of the Romans in sculpture, archi-
tecture, painting, and music, in short, in all arts, so
they display in their language, full as it is of the
magic of their harmony, more feeling for formal
beauty, and for pleasing and melodious tone effects.
Hence it is that the Greeks possess such a strong
taste for assonance and the correspondence of
vowel sounds, while the ear and heart of the Romans
were far more open to impressions from consonantal
alliteration. This alliteration o-ives the verse a char-
acteristic ring of its own, rather than a melody; it
62 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
renders it not indeed more graceful, but stronger
and more forceful.* The Romans, like our own
ancestors, ranked character above beauty, essence
above form. Old Roman versification — the Sa-
turnian, for example — was full of alliteration, f and
there are many old formulas, depending on this trick
of language, which have maintained themselves
through all the life of the Latin tongue; such as
"purus putus," "sane sarteque " J [" locutio ex
auguralibus sumpta "]. Such go to confirm the idea
that the Romans reo;arded alliteration as an ancient
national trait of the technique of their poetry; and
thus it is that Vergil in his " -^neid," that sustained
eulogium of the national virtues of the Romans, has
employed it to so large an extent.
33. We have exhausted our remarks on this sub-
ject. We trust that it has been made plain that
Latin contrasts with Greek in many essential points,
and that this contrast depends for the most part on
the difference in the national character of the two
races. As they differ in thought and in action, so
do they markedly differ in diction and in style. If
it were necessary to cite in support of our conten-
* It is well known that the most salient feature in Anglo-Saxon
literature was its regular alliteration, and this holds good generally
of the old Northern or Icelandic. Cf. Marsh, "Student's Enghsh
Literature," p. 389 sqq., who gives many instances of its use by
modern English poets. It may be worth noticing that Milton and
the Classic School of poets generally avoid alliteration altogether;
cf "Alliterative Poems," Morris and Skeat, Part II, xiii.
t E.g., " eorum sectam sequontur multi mortales " (Naevius).
X Cf. our kith and kin, health and happiness, etc.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 63
tion that where the contrary cause holds good the
contrary effect follows, we might easily show that
peoples which share many prominent traits of char-
acter, manifest also a great resemblance in their
speech. We might cite as an instance of this the
intellectual relationship between the Spartans and
the Romans. Of all the Grecian stock, none was in
this respect so nearly related to the Romans as the
Spartans. Both nations were alike adepts at manual
labour, and proud of their powers. Both were strict
disciplinarians; both were weak in cavalry, and both
alike had an aversion to a sea-faring life. On the
other hand, both had a genius for jurisprudence and
political activity ; in both we find two characteristics
strongly brought out — great reverence for old age,
and the lofty position assigned to woman. On the
other hand, in artistic capability and in scientific
attainments, both nations alike stand behind the
other Greek races. We find, accordingly, in the
languages of the two nations a number of similar
traits: a lack of flexibility in the formation of com-
pounds, a poverty of words, a stiff and formal
rhythm, a logical acuteness, an endeavour after
pregnancy of utterance (Cic. Ad Fam. ii, 25, 2), a
taste for brief and neat witticisms (O. Miiller,
" Dorians," ii, 385 sqq.), especially for puns, a taste
which comes from a fortunate trait of whimsical
humour common to both: we also find in both less
mobility in their vowel sounds, and a greater ad-
herence to the old traditional form of the termina-
tions of verbs.
The traits and features of the lancruaofe on which
64 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER, ETC.
we have touched are, in themselves no doubt, unim-
portant enough, but " straws show how the wind
blows." Just as we are enabled to understand the
real character of a man through the trifling in-
cidents of daily life, so the tiny stones that we have
set together form, in their entirety, a faithful mosaic
of old Roman action and deeds, poetry and thought.
They thus permit us to appreciate more than super-
ficially the salient traits of the Roman character;
and, what is more, they enable us to take an intelli-
gent view of the monuments of Roman art and of
outstanding events in Roman history. Riickert then
is right when he says " the science of language is
the subject which of all the circle of the Sciences
affords us the most satisfactory revelations about
human thought and methods of apprehension."
II
ROMAN STYLE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROMAN
CULTURE
34
LANGUAGE is the most faithful companion of
man on his earthly pilgrimage. The impres-
sions of his journey stamp ineffaceable marks in the
shape of language, like the annual rings in trees,
and thus these recorded impressions indicate to
future generations many facts in their past history.*
How their ancestors lived and suffered, what they
thought and what they felt, their aims and ambitions,
all this is revealed by language in eloquent accents
to those who can understand. Thus it is that in
language we have a real history, and more especially
a history of civilization or of culture. The views and
prejudices of his time are apt to fasten indelibly on
each individual. It falls to none but to a few privi-
leged souls to free themselves more or less per-
fectly from such prejudices. But even this chosen
few, whose names are written in gold on the pages
of history, cannot fully escape the influence of the
* Cf. Geiger, " Language and its importance in the History of
the Development of the Human Race," Triibner, 1880; but more
especially Marsh, "Student's English Language," pp. 155 sqq. On
the influence of words on thought see Max Miiller, " Lectures on
the Science of Language," vol. ii, pp. 622 sqq.
F
66 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
moral outlook of their age. The mental products
even of such giants as these bear, to some degree at
least, the mark of their epoch. They think theyarethe
propelling force, but they are in fact propelled them-
selves : they would fain strike out a new path for the
moral course of their age to pursue: but they are
forced to run on confined in the old rut of the spirit
of their time. Use and wont is a tyrant, whether in
things intellectual or things material. Just as the
architecture of any given age reflects the concep-
tions of the generation of its builders, so the style
of different authors sharply and clearly exhibits the
traits of contemporary thought. It is no uninterest-
ing task to follow the reciprocal relations between
style and moral outlook by watching the develop-
ment of the Latin lano^uagre for several centuries.
35. OuintiliansaysofEnnius: "Enniumsicutsacros
vetustate lucos adoremus, in quibus grandia et an-
tiqua roborajamnontantam habentspeciem,quantam
relis'ionem." His remark holds true of all the more
ancient Roman literature. Indeed, the style of the
old Roman writers does resemble the oak in its
tough exterior. Simple, downright, and straightfor-
ward was the life and character of the " prisci Latini,"
and their expression is accordingly. Affectation and
tricks of style are completely absent from their writ-
ings, and there is no symptom of straining after effect.
Whether they speak, or whether they write, they do
either with a definite purpose, and they have little
regard to form. Of all the maxims given by the old
Cato, the genuine pattern of a genuine Roman, to
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 67
his son, at his start in Hfe, perhaps the most teUing
is that contained in the well-known saying: "Rem
tene, verba sequentur." Those words of blame are
indeed unsparing which the aged Consul Appius ad-
dressed to the Senators; and they were totally un-
fettered by what are to-day known as parliamentary
conventions. " Whither has your sense, so sound
and firm of old, senselessly strayed from the straight
path?" (Ennius ap. Cic. De Sen. ix, 16). Thus it
was that he controlled his people, a king among
assembled kings, and the honourable counsellor gave
way to the words of the most honourable speaker.
Thus was it that he celebrated the highest triumph
to be obtained by oratory, an oratory energetic and
forceful, yet far enough removed from any artificial
claims to embellishment, nor indeed was there any
public at that time capable of welcoming and critic-
izing any such claims.
36. It is almost impossible to think of two more
wide contrasts than those which we witness in the
early stages of Greek and Roman literature respect-
ively. The oldest Greek work is the Homeric poems :
the oldest Roman work, the Laws of the Twelve
Tables. Differing as these do in the matter which
formed the object of instruction of the youth of
Greece and Rome, their linguistic contrast is not
less striking. Liveliness and perspicuity on the one
hand are confronted with sobriety on the other. To
take another point of contrast, the old Roman heroes
make dry speeches: the words of the old Homeric
heroes run glibly from their mouths, fresh as morn-
68 LANGUAGE AXD CHARACTER
inof dew. It is not without reason that the aored
Nestor is described as axt-yJc xyo^rTr:, a clear-voiced
orator: not without reason that the utterances of the
Trojan graybeards are Hkened to the tuneful song of
the Cicada, so loved by antiquit)- (II. iii, 151). Modu-
lation and emphasis must at that time have produced
the effect afterwards produced by the artificial struc-
ture of (rh}-thmical) periods. In consonance with
this we find in Homer the speeches introduced by
words like z'ixi, ^a^sTv, p^eyy-c-^zi, etc.. which fitly
represent the full sounding melody of the old recita-
tions: while in Latin the correlative words /o^iiz\
dicere, fari, have no such delicate connotation.
37. True to the maxim " Naturalia non sunt tur-
pia," the simple apprehension of primitive Rome
took no offence at what was natural. " To the pure
all things are pure," and thus Sisenna, and after him
Ennius and Plautus [Li\y, Cicero, etc.], say without
any misgiving, " concubia nocte." [Thus again venter
is commonly used for appetite?^ In fact the practice
was to adopt the Stoic principle: " suo quamque rem
nomine appellare: nihil esse obscoenum, nihil turpe
dictu" (Cic. xAd Fam. ix, 22).
38. In these old times the difference between the
diction of poetr}- and prose was not yet ver)- marked.
The cadence of the old Ar\-al sonor and that of the
" Carmina Saliorum ' consorted well with the slow
and measured march of the Saturnian measure, as
did that of the trampling paces of the Roman legions
in Naevius' " Bellum Punicum." Alliteration and
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 69
word- repetition, ir.-z ~i:n factors in poetical tech-
nique, were not unknown to prose. Alliteration,
which per\'ades both the H}Tnns and the tables of
the Laws, lent energy* and strength to the language,
forcing the thews and sinews of its structure to stand
out in bold relief, especially in the arrangement of
its consonants.
This particular device is a very old Indo-Ger-
manic method of emphasizing and quickening lan-
guage, especially in compressed st^ie. In magic
lormulae the threefold rep>etition of a word pla)"s a
great part,* and in the popular songs of Germany the
refrain is a regular feature. Thus in the song of the
Ar\*al brothers ever)* sentence is pronounced with a
like number of words, finom Encs, Loses, . . down
to the concluding word triumpe.
Ornamental adjectives are conspicuously lacking
to the poetr\- of that age. The writers have no ap-
prehension of tenderer feelings, finer thoughts, or
captivating pictures. The structure of the sentence
is forceful and compressed, reminding us of the
Indian Vedas: but it is clums\- and without onrace.
The Latin Odyssey of Li\-ius Andronicus is com-
pared by Cicero to a stiff piece of wood-car\*ing by
Daedalus : and it is true that the most ancient srsle
of Latin poetr)- contrasts as strongly with its Greek
model as an awkward wooden statue with a master-
piece in marble- The prose of Cato, again, in the
beginning of the third centurj* B.C., is straightfor-
ward and simple, lacking grace and art. We find
* See the collection of Triads by Kuno Meyex : . Koyal
Irish Academy, Todd Lecrare Series, vol. xiii, pp. i r .-,--.
70 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
pleasure in his brief but pregnant sentences: they
reflect so completely the character of the man, and
indeed of the Romans generally; and they were
noticed with approval by Cicero (De Or. ii, 12, 53)
and by Sallust (Fr. i, 2) for their "magna verborum
Q^ravitas et sententiarum." No one could have writ-
ten more strongly, no one more energetically. The
structure of his periods and of his rhythm have not
gone beyond the first stages of literature. The sen-
tences know no subordination : they are set paratac-
tically. The language of feeling and sensibility does
not, like that of careful and reflective intelligence,
move in lengthy periods, artificially divided and
balanced. Each several expression stands apart and
is complete in itself; it is blunt enough to serve its
purpose: it needs no rounding off, no gradation due
to the orderly arrangement of a scrutinizing intelli-
gence.
39. The expression is often obscure through the
frequent change of subject. Asyndeton, too, which
meets us in ancient formulae such as "velitis jubeatis,"
" patres conscript!," etc., is very common in Cato.*
In Fragment 108 he says : " multa me dehortata sunt
hue prodire: anni, aestas, vox, vires, senectus"; Fr.
loi: "exercitumsuum pransum.paratum, cohortatum
eduxit foras atque instruxit." One may compare with
this utterance passages from the old poets, as, for
instance, that of Neevius [Bell. Pun. lib.iv,ii, Miiller]:
" The Roman goes to Malta — he burns the whole
* We find asyndeton mounting to climax in later writers, e.g.,
Pliny, Ep. 9, 22, "in litteris veteres aemulatur exprimit rcddit."
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 71
island, the coast — ravages, lays waste, plunders — foes,
property." He has recourse to the " Figura ety-
mologica," ^.^. Fr. 105 : "cognobilioremcognitionem,"
and Orat., p. T^i^ 10: " vecticulariam vitam vivere "
[to live from hand to mouth, lit., to live the life of
one who uses a vectis, a robber's instrument].* Then
certain turns in his sentences recur frequently, remind-
ing us of the " versus iterati " of the Homeric Epos:
e.g., he uses the three adjectives viagnus^pulcher, and
pisculentus in speaking of the Ebro (Fr. no) and
also of the Nar (Fr. 97). At the same time he has no
objection to massingiwords on words in order to obtain
a particular effect: e.g., in Fr. 95a, a sentence of his
" Oratio Rhodiensis " is reported, in which he brings
out several conceptions in this way. " Scio solere
plerisque hominibus rebus secundis atque prolixis
atque prosperis animum excellere atque superbiam
atque ferociam augescere atque crescere."
This peculiarity was noticed even by A. Gellius
(Noct. Att. xiii, 25, 13). The passage cited shows
also the predilection of the author for the emphatic
word atque [ = and what is more], and it is Cato's
way to employ such emphatic particles {e.g., verum,
enifn, verd).
Further, he is at pains to interlard his diction with
such archaic words as tuburchinabtmdus, " greedily
swallowing," and lurchinabtindus, " devouring " (cf.
Quintilian, i, 6, 42). Fronto calls these expressions
* Asyndeton was common in later writers in animated narra-
tion of events happening contemporaneously, as Liv. 3, 37, 7,
"hi ferre agere plebem," "These worried and harassed the com-
mons."
72 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
" iligneae nuces " ; they invest Cato's style with a
primitive and archaic air. It is no wonder, then, as
he so ostentatiously avoids any attempt to copy
Greek rhetoric by any graces of style, that Cicero
calls his speeches horridulae (Orat. 45, 152).
40. From what has been said we may gather that
Cato did not seek to impress either his readers or
his hearers with rhetorical embellishments or ortho-
dox methods of emphasizing his statements, but
relied on the force and vigour of their contents.*
He wrote on agriculture and the right conduct of
life, and sketched the outline of speeches made by
himself, thereby responding to the needs and re-
quirements of his time. And his Latinity was in
the main the Latinity of his contemporaries : it was
the lapidary style of the old inscriptions, unadorned
by art and plain to a degree, but full of energy and
of old-world strength. " A good man, my son Mar-
cus, can command his speech" (" vir bonus dicendi
peritus"; cf. Quintilian, xii, 1,1) were the words of
Cato to his son. He meant that a Roman had no
need of Greek rhetoric to speak well.
41. For Greek rhetoric had at that time taken
deep root in Rome, and had fallen upon no unfertile
soil. Indeed, the influence of the Greek spirit had
* See Macrob. Sat. i, Praef. for Cato's scomma against Albinus.
" Ne tu, inquit, Aule, nimium nugator es, cum maluisti culpam
deprecari, (juam culpa vacare. Nam petere veniam solemus aut
cum imprudentes erravimus, aut cum noxam imperio compellentes
admisimus. Te, inquit, oro, quis perpulit ut id committeres, quod
priusquam faceres, pcteres uti ignoscerctur?"
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE jz
shown itself increasingly strong since the time of
Livius Andronicus, that is to say since the Tarentine
war; for it was in the agony of this war that Roman
literature entered on its life. Pliny the Elder said
several centuries later: " Ingeniorum Graeciae flatu
impellimur," and this saying had been already veri-
fied. The contact of the Romans with the Greek
colonial settlements of Lower Italy, brought about
long before by commerce, entered now, thanks to
this war, on a new stage of closer intercourse. The
movement which bes^an in the Tarentine war con-
tinued in the Punic war. " Bello Punico secundo
Musa pinnato gradu Intulit se bellicosam in Romuli
gentem feram" (Porcinus Licinus apttd Gell., Noct.
Att. xvii, 2i). And hence we find Ennius in the
beginning of his annals invoking the Greek Muses,
and not the native Latin Camenae, to inspire his
song. The symptoms of the influence of this Hel-
lenic culture were notably manifested in all the
departments of life, in art and in science, in trade
and in commerce: and they were not slow to mani-
fest themselves likewise in literature. For the liter-
ature of Rome was — as is commonly the case in the
early development of letters — exposed to great varia-
tions not merely in its scheme of sounds and flexions,
but in that of its periods as well ; and if it be true
that the idiom of the Capital had for many centuries
differed from that of the adjacent communes — as, for
instance, from that of Praeneste — still the language
in any case needed a ripening and a confirming
process. A simple example may serve to show our
meaning. When Ennius in his "Annals" cites the
74 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
names of Rome's twelve supreme deities in the two
Hexameters:
Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars,
Mercurius, Jovi(s), Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo,
we can gather from the varying rhythmical power
allotted to the final s, the doubtful pronunciation of
the sibilant in his day. In the rest of the words s
maintains its normal power of making position : but
\nJovis it is not recognized at all,* so that the word
has to be scanned as a pyrrich. Even in Lucretius
the traces of this shifting value of many terminal
sounds may be seen : indeed, the elision of final m
before the following vowel has maintained its position
triumphantly through all periods of Roman poetry.
We may, however, gather from the words of Cicero
that the recognition of the existence of these final
consonants grew stronger with time. He says (Orat.
48, 161) that the elision of the s in " omnibu(s) prin-
ceps " is " iam subrusticum," but he adds " olim autem
politius."
42. Naturally enough this process was very gradual
in its development. " Language is the offspring of
need and the foster child of social feeling : its growth
and its enrichment are the effect of time : its beauti-
fication is the work of taste, and we must look to
the union of all the Muses for its perfection. The
written language of a great nation which rises by
slow degrees (and this merely by imitating other
stages of culture alien to its own) from the mere level
* Cf. "tcmpus fcrt" (Plautus), " magis stetisse " (Terence).
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 75
of Nature, passing through every stage of barbarism
— such written language requires a series of centuries
before it can attain even a moderate degree of
perfection. Such development presupposes the con-
currence of numerous favourable circumstances. But
of all these circumstances one especially must be
insisted on: that the learned class of any nation,
and chief of these the writers of genius and taste,
the poets, orators, historians and popular philoso-
phers, always contribute most to its enrichment,
development and refinement" (Wieland, 1872).
Luther, we know, had, as a Central German, a
specially keen ear for dialectic peculiarities, seeing
that he listened simultaneously to the dialects of
Higher and Lower Germany, and thus seemed
chosen by Providence to ensure for the written lan-
guage of the High German chancelleries, by his
translation of the Bible, the wide distribution which
it enjoyed. In the same way the written language
of Rome was influenced by Greeks, half-Greeks,
Oscans, Umbrians, and Celts, for these had to learn
Latin and to adapt it to their circumstances.
43. As a matter of fact, the taste of the old Roman
poets was far from refined, and the Public made no
great demands, because it was destitute of all pro-
found aesthetic culture. Their very poems aimed
at exciting interest rather by their subject than by
their grace. The appeal of Ennius to the Muses in
the Proemium to the ''Annals," " Musae, quae ped-
ibus magnum pulsatis Olympum," might be as effect-
ually addressed to trampling steeds : and the childish
76 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
pleasure which the poet finds in imitating by onoma-
topoeia the braying- of martial trumpets, " At tuba
terribili sonitu taratantara dixit" (Ann. 452, v),
draws from us an involuntary smile. The mutilation
of such words as gaudium into gau (" laetificum gau,"
Ann. 451) is harsh and violent, and the junction of
such forms as quicquam, quisquavi, cuiquam in one
drama (Trag. 448) is unclassical not to say un-
Roman. The violent separation of words into two
parts depends upon a complete misapprehension of
so-called Tmesis, which completely jars with the
genius of the Latin language. Such are "cere —
comminuit— brum " (Ann. 586) and " Massili— port-
abant iuvenes ad litora — tanas" (Ann. 605). In
their vocabulary the writers of this time were not
delicate. Expressions which were at a later date
banned and barred from classical usage, and con-
signed to the language of the people, are, at this time,
regular and normal : indeed, whole groups of words
bearing the popular stamp, such as adverbs in -iter
formed from adjectives of the second declension,
substantives in -ela, -mo7mmi, -tudo, are remarkably
prevalent. Sometimes we alight on whole Greek
sentences: and the anomaly of the formation of
hybrid compounds of Greek and Latin, such as
t/termo-pofare, ante-logitwi, ra-pacida, is seen in its
infancy; indeed it may be paralleled by the recast-
ing of several Greek dramas to make one Roman
play, and by the mixture of Greek and Roman local
colour that we often see in the process. Again, most
of the old Roman poets acted and wrote as thoup-h
each one of them was equally able to compose
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE ^^
comedies or tragedies, for following the example of
the Greeks, Plautus was the first to adopt a system-
atic separation of the two. Thus the characteristic
of this period is its lack of finish. The writers are
animated with the best intentions, but the words of
Horace, " Versate diu, quid ferre recusent, Quid
valeant humeri," had not yet been written — still less
his maxim " nonum prematur in annum" — and we
must remember the proverb "ultra posse nemo obli-
gatur." The Romans of that time thought differ-
ently on this subject; indeed, even in later times
there were found persons to admire and patronize
those /rzJr<;z, and casciviri, who, misled by a prejudice
for old Roman simplicity and naivete, possessed,
from our point of view, but little critical faculty.
For instance, the inscription on the tomb of the
poet Naevius, most likely composed by Varro,
celebrates in Saturnian verse the high merits of the
poet: "Were it seemly that immortals should weep
for mortals, the divine Camenae would weep for the
poet Naevius. And so, since he has been made over
to the place of death, Rome has forgotten to speak
in the Latin tongue," i.e. in old Latin, in national
Roman: and Aelius Stilo's view was that if the
Muses had wished to speak in Latin, they would
unquestionably have chosen the diction of Plautus:
a verdict which did not quite meet with the approba-
tion of Ouintilian. He, the arch-Ciceronian, fully
appreciated the difference between the language of
a classical author with its fine o^radations and ex-
quisite style, and the straightforward diction of a
Plautus, created to suit the demands of the popular
yZ LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
taste. What Ouintilian says about Accius and Pacu-
vius, " Nitor et summa in excolendis operibus manus
magis videri potest temporibus quam ipsis defuisse,"
is far more true of their predecessors.
44. Yet, with all their defects, those works con-
tained the germ of a new phase of life in both litera-
ture and language. Ennius was the first to take a
bold and decisive step in the direction of progress —
Ennius, who in Lucretius' judgment was the first
to bear the evergreen chaplet from Helicon. The
Saturnian verse had to give way to the Greek Hexa-
meter, i.e., the accentual rhythm to the quantitative.*
Syllables, after a long period of uncertainty
and fluctuation, now for the first time received a
certain fixed quantity, and terminal sounds acquired
a greater steadiness. The stiff lapidary form was
gradually given up, and the *' broken-winded con-
geries of lanky limbs" was replaced by flesh and
blood and more pleasing harmonies, and, following
the Hellenic model, the vocabulary was enriched by
a stately train of newly-minted compounds. Foreign
words were added. Till now Greek expressions had
* There are, however, two main theories as to the character of
Saturnian verse, the quantitative and the accentual. Those who
hold the former theory regard the Saturnian verse as a verse of
six feet with an anacrusis, and a break after the fourth, or more
rarely after the third thesis; cf. The Qu6en was in her parlour,
dating bread and h6ney. According to the second theory, this
verse was an accentual one, no regard being paid to quantity.
Lindsay holds that the first hemistich has three accents and the
second two, as dabiint malum MetcUi || Naevio poetae. See Lane's
Lat. Gr. § 2553.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 79
found their way into Latin merely as the result of
lonof commercial intercourse, but now came the re-
ception of other expressions due to distinct literary
influence. Such were dacdalus {^xiSoiXog), nialacus
[fAxXcx.y.oq, mollis), cumatilis (from >tu/>(,a, sea-green),
dia deartmi {^Toc. 0£awi/), pelagus (jreXccyog), termo (rtp/xajv,
terminus), ephebus (t(pri(^og'), poema {Troiytfxot,), poeta
(7rot*)Tn'j), potitus {jovToq), campsare {v.a.^-KTuy), etc.
Such words, found in great numbers in the oldest
Latin poets, especially in Ennius, are a proof of the
influence of Greek poetry. It became more and more
the custom to enliven style by epithets coined after
Greek models, and conforming to the exigences of
the Hexameter. Similes and metaphors, formerly
rare in verse, appear with increased frequency,
though these in many cases were either translated or
imitated directly from Homer. Side by side with
metaphors taken from agriculture and war, tropes
taken from the sea and the chase played a great part.
The comparison of the people restlessly stirring to
and fro in the assembly, with the sea, seemed to the
Roman Senate in the year 189 B.C. new and striking
(Polybius, xxi, 31. cf. xi, 29, 9, Hultsch), but by the
time of Cicero it was trite, and in Livy's day hack-
neyed. It was possibly at this time that the transition
oi percoutari {{vom contus = xoi/to?) properly "to sound
with a steering pole" [and allied by popular ety-
mology with percimctor\ was applied to research in
general, and such expressions appear as " verborum
fluctus — animus fluctuat" (Plant. Merc, v, 2, 49),
" praeda undat" (Enn. Trag. 520), " iacturam facere,"
to jettison and then to lose. Of like character are
8o LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
indagare, to track out, properly to hunt into a net
(cf. vestigium, a track), a meaning which was subse-
quently transferred to all possible acts of pursuit :
indeed, Ennius introduces the simile: "Sicut si
quando vinclis venatica velox Apta solet canis forte
feram sei nare sagaci Sensit voce sua nictit ululatque
ibi acute," etc.
While admitting that much of the metaphorical
colouring of the early Latin poets was due to Hel-
lenic influence, we must nevertheless remember that
at the time to which we are now referring, ocean travel
and the chase were fairly popular in Rome, other-
wise the poets would scarcely have adopted so freely
metaphors taken from such pursuits. It is a gener-
ally admitted truth, that a nation's metaphors and
similes reflect the contemporary culture of that nation.
The language of Homer gives us information relative
to the manners and customs of Homeric times.
" The poet borrows the majority of his similes from
elementary natural phenomena, the occupations of
simple uncivilized men, hunters, the fishermen, cattle-
herds, rustics, smiths, carpenters, tanners, etc." The
ship seldom occurs in these early tropes because
ocean travel was at that time but little developed.
But we are able to follow the progress of the Greeks
in sea-faring matters by the metaphors in use in
their later poets. In Pindar we find already seven-
teen such metaphors : in Aeschylus thirty, in Sophocles
eleven, in Euripides no less than thirty-six. Thus
Pecz ("Beitrage zur vergleichenden Tropik der
Poesie," i Teil, Berlin, 1886) is perfectly right in
maintaining that in the metaphors of Aeschylus we
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 8i
see reflected the times of the Persian war: in those
of Sophocles the age of Pericles, and in those of
Euripides the period of Demagogy. Thus the figures
of speech of old Latin poetry teach us that the
Romans of that time, after an intermission of cen-
turies, entered into maritime commerce with spirit
and energy, and that, after the Punic Wars, it was
the custom to devote much time to the chase, after
the Oriental fashion.
45. Generally speaking, poetry and poets alike
stood in that age in no great repute. Cato says
" Poeticae artis honos non erat." In the circle of
the Scipios we meet with the most aesthetic taste
and the highest scientific culture. This great family
found pleasure in appreciating the poets of their own
circle, not, it must be admitted, without an eye to
their own advantage. In fact, just as they began by
forming a cohoj's praetoria in order to increase, in the
eyes of subject nations, the prestige of the greatest
power in the world, they were eager to encourage
in every way the singers of their exploits, and prob-
ably also to influence the language of their race. At
all events A. Gellius (Noct. Att. ii, 20, 5) states the
tradition that " Scipionem omnium aetatis suae pur-
issime locutum." The scridae, to whom had been
assigned xX\\ now a chamber intended for meetings
situated on the Aventine in the Plebeian quarter,
were summoned from their dark corner and invited
to bask in the glory of their Impe^'atores. Cato
brought Ennius with him to Rome, and M. Fulvius
Nobilior, on his Aetolian campaign, kept him in his
G
82 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
cntotcrage: others followed his example, and it be-
came the fashion, especially after the days of Afri-
canus the younger, for generals to take poets in
their escort. The influence of the Scipionic circle is
particularly noticeable in Terence. The language of
the plays of Terence is purer and more refined, and
generally more correct, than that of Plautus. But
how little such virtues of style were prized at that
time is plain from the judgments of his mistrustful
colleagues, who called his " oratio " tenuis, and his
"scriptura" levis (pale and expressionless) in com-
parison with that of Caecilius. It was with Terence,
too, that rhetoric began to force its way even more
and more into poetry : indeed, rhetoric raised itself
in no long time to a power of the first rank, and
spread itself gradually over all Roman literature.
In the first half of the second century before
Christ, the impulse given to literature by Greek
philosophers and rhetors in Rome was so great,
that all the efforts of the "national " party in Rome
to stay the current proved unavailing.* The Epi-
cureans Alcaeus and Philiscus, who were exiled in
173 B.C., and especially the grammarian Crates of
Mallus [who in 157 B.C. was sent by Attains as an
ambassador to Rome, where he introduced for the
first time the study of grammar], and further, the
historian Polybius, with all the numerous other
Achaeans who were detained for years in captivity at
Rome as hostages, and lastly, the Athenian Embassy
* For the effects of Greek culture on Roman thought, see
Mayor's " Ancient Philosophy " (Cambridge University Press),
pp. 209 sqq.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 83
sent to Rome under the superintendence of the
Academic philosopher, Carneades, made such a
strong impression on the youth of Rome, that
henceforth erammatical and rhetorical studies entered
into the daily necessities of a Roman's life. They
were greedily caught at by every one, "quasi
diuturnam sitim explere cupiens " (Cic. De Sen.
viii, 26). For rhetoric aided the Roman taste for
lucidity of thought and logical definiteness of repre-
sentation. Soon Latin rhetoricians, too, opened their
schools. Thus it came to pass that in Pacuvius and
Ennius the results of rhetorical studies were even
more apparent than in their predecessors. The anti-
theses and the parallelism observable in the construc-
tion of the sentences, and the better rounded and
fuller periods of their style, stand out in sharp con-
trast to that of the ordinary language of the day,
which contains many vulgarisms,
46. But the orators reaped the main advantage
of the new rhetoric. The art of persuasion alike
in the Senate, in the popular assembly, and in the
Law Courts, had been practised from the earliest
times, and it is sufficiently remarkable that the first
prose work published by a Roman author contains
a speech of the blind Censor, Appius Claudius.
The opportunity now presented itself of learning
the principles of a correct training, and these prin-
ciples were eagerly hailed as offering a greater
chance of success in oratory. Especially did M. An-
tonius and L. Licinius distinguish themselves — the
only orators whom Cicero considers worthy (as he
84 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
says in his De Or.) to serve as the interpreters of
his ideas and reflections on rhetoric. According to
him (De Or. i, 26, 178) they especially avoided the
" barbaries forensis," and endeavoured to employ a
correct language. That they attained to this correct-
ness by means of strict academical training appears,
not merely from the surviving fragments of their
speeches, but, at least in the case of Crassus, from a
hexameter of Lucilius {^Fr. inc. xxxiii). " Crassum
habeo generum, ne rhetoricoteros tu sis " [quoted by
Cic. De Or. iii, -^^i^ 171]; ^^^ when the same poet
says: "Crassi pater huius panaethi " = splendidi, it
seems probable that he refers to the same orator.
Thus oratorical grace of form may be dated from
Licinius Crassus. His style of expression was care-
fully chosen and lucid, clever, and sparkling with
wit. He aimed also at pregnancy of exposition, and
strictly limited his periods. He employed, too,
parallelism in the division of his sentences, which
materially contributes to clearness of style. In con-
trast to him, M. Antonius,* in his quality of zealous
disciple of the great master, Cato, strove to attain a
simpler and less ornate styleof expression. Buthehad
the art of marshalling every clause in every sentence
so that each fell into its appropriate place, with the
result that his periods resembled a skilfully arranged
army in battle array. Considerations not of beauty,
* A full account of the oratory of Crassus and of M. Antonius
is given in Prof. Wilkins' " De Oratore," p. 12. Antonius always
tried to avoid the appearance of undue elaboration, though, as a
matter of fact, he prepared his speeches very carefully. Brut. 37,
139-
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 85
but of utility directed his impulses. Sallust, too,
followed close on Cato's footsteps and set himself
deliberately to seek out archaic forms. But in
Hortensius the turgid style of Asiatic oratory seemed
to gain new ground.
47. Not till the time of Cicero did the elegance
and grace of Hellenic form ally itself with Roman
earnestness and dignity. Cicero was the first who
enabled the Latin language to become what fate
intended it should become, the means whereby
classic culture — in fact, it may be said all the
culture of antiquity — became known to the north-
ern barbarians. Thus Velleius Paterculus has grood
grounds for his assertion (i, 17, 3): "At oratio ac
vis forensis perfectumque prosae eloquentiae decus,
pace P. Crassi Scipionisque et Laeli et Gracchorum
et Fanni et Servi Galbae dixerim, ita universa sub
principium operis sui erupit Tullio, ut delectari ante
eum paucissimis, mirari neminem possis." On this
ground, too, Tacitus, Dial. c. 18, was justified in
maintaining " Mutari cum temporibus formas quoque
et genera dicendi; sic Catoni seni comparatus C.
Gracchus plenior et uberior, sic Graccho politior
et ornatior Crassus, sic utroque distinctior et uberior
et altior Cicero." Of him it may be said more truly
than of any Roman that he was ^£ivo<; xky^v — as far
as any Roman could merit this high praise; he,
more than any other orator, was a supreme master
of language. Doubtless Cicero's efforts were not
always received with favour: opposition to them
manifested itself from more than one quarter. Thus
86 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
he was opposed by the Roman Atticists under the
guidance of C. Licinius Calvus, and these criticized
him sharply and bitterly (Quint, xii, lo, 12).* Be-
sides this, he was met by a set of critics of inflexible
and defiant national pride, who actually piqued
themselves on speaking in the highest degree in-
usitate and mqzmtate, affecting as they did to believe
that correctly and zi^iusually were convertible terms.
The improvement of style was proceeding rapidly,
and was not to be checked: but still there were men
of the old school who would have nothing to do with
the new Hellenism, and expressed their decided
preference for the old Roman style. Of course their
efforts were fruitless. On the other hand, Cicero
had no lack of admirers and disciples. Caesar gave
him the most remarkable testimony when he wrote
on dedicating to the orator his work, " De Analogia " :
" You have discovered all the treasures of oratory,
and have been the first to employ them. Thereby you
have laid the Roman people under a mighty obliga-
tion, and you honour your fatherland. You have
gained the brightest glory, and a triumph which is
to be preferred to the triumph of the greatest gen-
erals : for it is a nobler thing to enlarge the bound-
aries of the intelligence than those of the empire."
48. In any case it is true that with Cicero the
"parens facundiae Latinarumque litterarum" (Plin.
Nat. Hist, vii, 30), oratorical and philosophical
prose had attained its high water mark. No one,
* [Cf. also Cic. Orator, § 76 sqq.: and especially Tac. Dial.
18.]
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 87
either of his predecessors or of his successors, has
approached him in lucidity and appropriate expres-
sion, in dehcate exposition, in rhythm, in harmony,
in the just accentuation of syllables, and in the careful
balancing" of his sentences, and of their periods. The
orator might easily have been betrayed into a too
implicit trust in his own oratory: and in this confid-
ence he might have set himself to conquer even in a
bad cause, and deliberately have tried to deceive the
people : and certainly Cicero has not altogether
escaped this danger. His style, together with his
vacillating political views, worked deleteriously on
his character. What Cato once dreaded for the
young men of Rome, on the occasion of the visit
of the three Greek philosophers — that they might
be tempted to rate the glory of words higher than
that of deeds, and that in the glamour of Greek
dialectics they might find it hard to see the truth
(Plut. Cato, 22; Plin. Nat. Hist, vii, 31, iii) —
followed as a natural sequel of the new methods of
rhetorical training.
49. We have been engaged on the features of
style which reflected and forwarded the improve-
ment and the ennoblement of the Latin tongue; it
is now time to turn to those which reflect more
particularly the influence of growing culture on
language. We get a good idea of these from the
figures of speech, and especially from the metaphors,
employed by Cicero. Side by side with the old and
favourite figures borrowed from agriculture, war, and
jurisprudence, we find a series of new metaphorical
SS LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
expressions: the technical terms of horse-racing and
gladiatorial shows came into fashion. Then the stage,
medicine, arts, and sciences contributed their colour-
ing, and references to Greek literature, and especially
to Homer, became common. The language, too,
was enriched by the study, the translation, and the
editing of philosophical writings and other scientific
Greek works : hence new terminations were formed,
and the number of abstract terms was materially
increased : conceptions of species, too, the lack of
which had not made itself felt in a primitive stage
of culture, were more defined. Still this process was
but slow : for instance, the word " pardon " had to
be expressed by " ignoscendi ratio " (Cic. Rose.
Am. i, 3): for "being," to ov, even Seneca had no
expression : he wrote (Ep, 58, 6): " to ov dico ' quod
est '; cogor verbum pro vocabulo ponere " ; at a later
period essentia and ens were formed after Greek
analogy.
50. The number of borrowed words multiplied in
all branches of life, and more especially in intellectual
conceptions. However successful Cicero's authority,
and his endeavour to call into being a philosophical
terminology, might be deemed, and however much
encouragement he received in his efforts to supersede
Greek artistic expressions by those of Latin origin,
still, as a rule, the Greek word was taken over in
its simplicity. Even such a genial poet as Lucretius,
who solved the difficult problem of representing a
philosophical system in verse, had to confess (i,
136 sqqY
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 89
Nee me animi fallit Graiorum obscura reperta
difficile illustrare Latinis versibus esse,
multa novis verbis praesertim cum sit agendum
propter egestatem linguae et rerum novitatem;
and again, in iii, 259 sqq. :
Rationem reddere aventem
abstrahit invitum patrii sermonis egestas.
and others found themselves in the same difficulty.
Hence the number of foreign words in Latin in-
creased amazingly, and Roman writers grew more
and more to employ Greek as a neat auxiliary to
round off their phrases, much as the Germans, es-
pecially since the time of Louis XIV, employed
French: only with this difference, that the Germans
kept their poetry as far as possible free from foreign
elements, while in Rome the poets, more than any
other class of writers, had recourse to them. The
Germans feel a profound conviction that poetry, as
the expression of man's deepest feelings, of all that
moves and stirs his heart most powerfully, must be
before all things national: the Romans, on the other
hand, acted on the principle that the ear of the
hearers must be captivated by melodious harmonies
and pleasing form : " Non satis est pulchra esse
poemata, dulcia sunto" [Horace, Ars Poet. 99].
51. A further sign of growing refinement in
culture appeared in the endeavour manifested by the
authors of the period to avoid or to veil words and
ideas which suofo-ested coarseness.
Writers in the first instance abstained from using
such words, replacing them by harmless, colourless
90 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
expressions. But through frequent usage, even these
came to be more and more connected with increas-
ingly unpleasant associations, so that they in their
turn began to be banned, and finally disappeared
from use in cultured circles. Several vulvar words
which had been in general use in Latin literature
went out of usage and were employed by satirists only,
and merely for the purpose of emphasizing the dark
side of Roman civilization. Cicero writes in a letter to
Paetus (Ad Fam. ix, 22): " Ego servo et servabo —
sic enim assuevi — Platonis verecundiam. Itaque
tectis verbis ea ad te scripsi, quae apertissimis Stoici.
Sed illi etiam crepitus aiunt aeque liberos ac ructus
esse oportere," and in a similar spirit he says (De
Or. iii, 164): " Fugienda est omnis turpitude . . .
nolo dici morte Africani castratam esse rempublicam;
nolo stercus curiae dici Glauciam." It thus appears
that literary men knew the coarse terms, but avoided
mentioning them, and preferred to cloak them with
a decent veil.
As a counterfoil to this process it was unavoidable
that at this period perfectly innocent words and ideas
received in some cases an ironical connotation, and
were degraded into expressions of contempt. For
the civil war, so long protracted, and especially the
degrading influence of the delatores^ had spoiled the
character of the people. The period of childish art-
lessness, self-complacency, and simplicity, had passed
away. Malice and evil of every kind had become so
much a matter of course, that it became an involuntary
factor in the pessimistic colouring given to the signi-
fication of words. Thucydides mentions (iii, 82) the
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 91
influence of the Peloponnesian war on the language
of Greece : " Proper shame is now termed sheer
stupidity : shamelessness, on the other hand, is called
manliness: voluptuousness passes for good tone:
hauorhtiness for ofood education : lawlessness for free-
dom : honourable dealing is dubbed hypocrisy, and
dishonesty, good fortune." Sallust has a similar utter-
ance with regard to his era. He puts into the mouth
of the younger Cato, the tribune designate, the words
(Catil. 52, 11): "Hie mihi quisquam mansuetudinem
et misericordiam nominat ! Jam pridem equidem nos
vera vocabula rerum amisimus : quia bona aliena
largiri liberalitas, malarum rerum audacia fortitudo
vocatur, eo respublica in extremo sita est ? " And
he represents Licinius as uttering the same thought
(Hist, fr, iii, 82, 13, Kritz): "Quod ego vos moneo
quaesoque, ut animum advortatis neu nomina rerum
adignaviam mutantes* otiumproservitio appelletis?"
52. As soon as Augustus mounted the Imperial
throne, a new chapter of Roman literature was
opened. Poetry now rose to the zenith of its brilli-
ancy. Rome was warmed into new life by the gentle
air of peace : the rays from the sun of His Imperial
Majesty sent a glow through men's hearts and ex-
panded them. A spring-tide of song succeeded, such
as Latium had never before witnessed : wine, woman
and song were celebrated by singers of genius. And
the ruler earnestly wished his people to devote
themselves with increasinof interest to art and science :
he wished to divert their thoughts from politics.
* Cf. too Hon " at vos virtutes ipsas invertitis," etc.. Sat. i, 3, 55.
92 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
Hence, in conjunction with Maecenas, he made it his
object to give poetry the greatest possible encourage-
ment : he drew the most celebrated poets of the day
into his circle and honoured them with his society : he
expended vast sums on shows and spectacles, more
especially on pantomimes and mimic naval battles.
Oratory, which had hitherto won its laurels in the
Forum, found itself, under the depressing influence
of political restraint, now relegated to the schools
of declamation : more than ever young and old flocked
to the rhetoricians' schools to take their part in the
Controversiae and Suasoriae which were held in
these institutions, to learn the method whereby a
given theme is treated from every side with all kinds
of subtleties and refinements of argument. Unques-
tionably poetry was the gainer by this method
" That firm and sure technique of arrangement and
representation, that plastic of the word, which gives
the stamp of classicism even to mediocre writings,
dates from this school, through which every poet
passed " (Ribbeck, "Geschichte der romischen Dich-
tung," ii, p. 7). But since it is true that such rhetorical
methods belong rather to prose than to poetry, we
cannot help feeling, even while perusing the most
important productions of that time, that they were
to some extent the creations of sober intelligence:
we often feel the lack of the warm breath of inspira-
tion which comes directly from the heart, and goes
straight to the heart in turn. And we are supported
in our view by the inclination of the Roman poets to
masquerade in the guise of superior erudition. Fol-
lowing the precedent of the Alexandrian poets, whom
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 93
it was the fashion to take more and more as models,
it became increasingly the fashion to unpack the
treasury of knowledge before the patient hearers or
readers of the poets of this day. It is a genuine
pleasure to Ovid to recite in his Metamorphoses the
names of all the rivers and mountains which had
to suffer the heat of the sun on the occasion of
Phaethon's wild drive.
Propertius, in his elegies, overwhelms us with
references to Greek mythology; * Horace, too, likes
to make a brave show with his Greek names; and
Vergil not unfrequently breaks the calm flow of epic
poetry by learned reflections, or again, by such
phrases as that of Aen. vi, 173: "si credere dignum
est." Such phrases are not the natural language of
poetry, which, as Schiller has well remarked, has to
make its way not through the cold region of the
intelligence, and ought not to summon erudition as
interpreter, but, as it springs from the heart, so
to the heart should it appeal. Besides this, no one
hesitated to grovel before the mighty emperor with
the utmost self-abasement, and, indeed, to pay him
homage with almost oriental servility.
53. The thorough education which Augustus had
enjoyed, had given him a fine appreciation of form :
the brilliancy of contemporary literature rendered
him unsympathetic to the simplicity and roughness
of the old literature of Rome. He reproved his step-
* See Postgate, "Propertius, Select Elegies," cap. v. "The
ambition of Propertius was to be the ' Roman Callimachus ' "
(v. I, 64).
94 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
son, the future Emperor Tiberius, for his taste for
archaisms, and actually spoke of the " foetores recon-
ditorum verborum" (Sueton. Aug. 86). With the sole
exception of Vergil, who made it his object to attain
the solemn dignity and earnest note of antiquity,
scarcely one of the Augustan poets permitted him-
self the scanty licence allowed by Horace in his " Ars
Poetica," with respect to antique precedents (lines
48 sqq.). On the other hand, authors never ceased
their endeavours to render their language pliable
and flexible after Greek models, whence Tacitus
speaks of " calamistri Maecenatii " (Or. c. 25).
In some cases Greek constructions were simply
taken over, as: " gaudet potitus": in other cases
genuine old Roman constructions were employed
more freely than before, and made to follow Greek
analogy; these constructions were used with words
of similar signification. We may instance the objec-
tive genitive after the adjective (as in the case of
dives, which follows the construction o{ plemis, and is
influenced by such Greek constructions as TrAouVio?
Tiwof): and again the simple infinitive [used instead
of ut with the subjunctive] after impellere, which is
made to follow the analogy of iubere, but was in-
fluenced by tViTpETTEn/ : such constructions were much
favoured. Again, following the example given by
Greek poets, certain figures of speech came into
general vogue, e.g., the aVo y.o\voZ^* the usage of
which increased to such an extent that we find it in
* Cf. Horace, Odes, i, 3, 6, and ii, xi, 11, "Quid aeternis mi-
norem consiliis animum fatigas," and ii, xvii, 22, "impio tutela
Saturno."
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 95
Catullus nine times, in Tibullus twenty-three, in
Propertius fifty-seven, in Horace a hundred and
eighty-eight (Aken. " De figurae utto xcj^ou usu apud
Catullum.TibulIum, Propertium. Schweriner Progr."
1884; " Zeitschrift fiir Gymnasialw." xxxi, t,2>7 ^<^^-)-
But Greek inflexional forms also took root in
Latin; this usage was remarked in Accius, and criti-
cized in his case, but was afterwards regarded as
not unusual. In older Latin, writers adopting foreign
words had been careful to give them a Latin stamp,
and with this view had Latinized their terminations:
but now an opposite tendency set in. Greek case-
forms were held to be more melodious and graceful
than those of Latin, and more suitable for the higher
flights of Lyric poetry; thus they came into more
constant use. Propertius is full of them, Horace
employs them more sparingly. In the Satires he
writes Europam and Pefielopam : in the Odes Eitropen
and Penelopen. More particularly in the case of
proper names the Greek form is maintained, and
thus we commonly meet with formations of the first
declension in e, es, en, and an : in the second in os
and on: besides these we find accusatives of the third
in in, yn, a, and as : genitives in os, and dative plurals
in sin. With this Censorinus' * remark tallies (De Die
Nat. c. 24) "Stella quam Plautus Vesperuginem,
Ennius Vesperam, Vergilius Hesperon appellat."
54. Prose could not but follow in the wake of
poetry; but its progress marked decadence. The
language of prose should stand midway between the
* Circ. A.D. 238.
96 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
diction of the people and that of poetry, and should
maintain itself at an equal distance from each; if it
approaches either extreme too closely, it loses its
balance. Old Latin prose writers inclined too much
to the vulgar style. Silver Latinity fell into the
other extreme ; under Vergil's influence it simulated
originality by the poetical colouring of its style.
Tacitus admits in the Dialogue about illustrious
orators (20) "Exigitur iam ab oratore etiam poeticus
decor," and Quintilian enlarges on his precepts by
adding "A corruptissimo quoque poetarum figuras
ac translationes mutuamur"; generally speaking the
principle, " Historia quasi solutum carmen," was
challenoed.*
But the declamations so popular at that time
"necessariadeseruntjdumspeciosasectantur" (Seneca,
Controv. 9, praef. 2). If the periods of the ancient
writers may be compared to temples constructed
" rudi caemento et informibus tegulis," the periods
of these later writers resemble more nearly such as
"marmore nitent et auro radiantur" (Tacitus, loc.
citat.).
Doubtless it may be objected that prose writing in
Germany was mainly brought to perfection by poets,
but these were at the same time masters of a good
prose style. Indeed, it is open to discussion whether
Lessing and Goethe, the former thanks to his shrewd
insight, the latter owing to his realistic appreciation
of all his surroundings, were not intended by Nature
for prose writers, and for holding the mirror up to
* Cicero's views on the language of poetry may be seen in the
Orator, 20, § 66 sqq.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 97
Nature with marvellous exactitude. Should it, how-
ever, be maintained that a good prose writer must
perforce be a poet, this were to mistake the essence
of prose, as indeed the writers of the Silver Latinity
actually did. Still these were the children of their
age; they were obliged, if they counted on any
response to their writings, to reckon with the spirit
of that aore.
*&'
55. The Romans of that epoch were sunk in
luxury and debauchery. With evil morals, evil words
found their way into the language, " Tuncque pri-
mum" (says Tacitus, Ann. vi, i) " ignota antea
vocabula reperta sunt sellariorum et spintriarum ex
foeditate loci ac multiplici patentia." In Cicero's
time, perhaps, too much obvious attention was paid
to masking indecencies. But now speakers and
readers went so far as to suspect improprieties as
lurking behind good, honest, innocent expressions.
No doubt Sallust used the phrases " ductare exer-
citus " and " patrare bellum " without any sinister
connotation; but ordinary modesty had by Ouin-
tilian's time sunk so much in common estimation,
that these expressions conveyed to the minds of
readers or hearers some unpleasant or sinister
significance. Expressions, harmless in themselves,
were thus classed as improper, because the genera-
tion of readers was morally depraved. The genera-
tion was called xotxocpixTov, and exemplified the dictum
of Ouintilian, viii, 3: "Si mala consuetudine in ob-
scoenum intellectum sermo detortus est."
The graceful old custom of beginning letters with
H
98 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
the formula "si vales, bene est; ego valeo," which
had begun even in Cicero's age to fall into disuse,
now completely ceased. Hence Seneca could say
(Ep. 15) : " Mos antiquus fuit usque ad meam serva-
tus aetatem primis epistulae verbis adicere : si vales
bene est." And Pliny (Ep. i, 1 1, i) confirms this with
the words : " Scribe solum illud, unde incipere priores
solebant: 'si vales, bene est, ego valeo.' Hoc mihi
sufficit; est enim maximum."
As with the beginning of letters, so was it with
the opening of speeches. In olden times the custom
was to open every speech with an invocation to the
gods. Servius on Vergil (Aen. ii, 301) says:
" Maiores nullam orationem nisi invocatis numinibus
inchoabant sicut omnes orationes Catonis et Gracchi;
nam generale caput in omnibus legimus." But by
Cicero's time this pleasant old custom had com-
pletely died out : there is no trace of any such thing
in Cicero's speeches; nay, he actually treats with
derision {Servius, /oc.ci^. "per irrisionem") this custom
in the words: " Et si quid ex vetere aliqua oratione
* lovem ego Optimum Maximum,' aut aliquid eius-
modo ediscere potueris, praeclare te paratum in
iudicium venturum arbitraris " (in Caecil. 13, 43)
[cf also Livy, I, chap. i].
56. The enrolment of many foreigners speaking
Gaulish, or some other non-Latin language, in the
ranks of Roman citizenship or of Roman communi-
ties, and, further, the gradual extinction of the old
gentes of the nobility, who had kept jealous watch
and ward over the purity and propriety of the Ian-
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 99
guage; the boundless selfishness, which reflected
itself in the language owing to the increasingly per-
sonal and subjective standpoint of authors — these
and other causes contributed to hasten the downfall
of Latin. The sentences became as ill-constructed as
the buildings of the time; Livy's periods often tran-
scend the limits of the beautiful by their lengthiness,
those of later writers by their brevity and terse-
ness. Cicero always studied neatness and balance
in the structure of his sentences; but it was now
the fashion to avoid such balancinor. Instead of
** alii . . . alii " they wrote " alii . . . magna pars,"
etc. ; ablatives were made to correspond with par-
ticiples (Tac. Ann. i, 2y,Jletu and verberans, ii, i, nietu
and diffiistis), so again adverb is balanced against
noun (Tac. Ann. xv, 45, " prospere aut in metu");
or, again, different cases are balanced against each
other (Tac. Ann. xiv, 19, " ut par ingenio ita morum
diversus," Ann. vi, 30, " effusae dementia, modicus
severitate"). Sentences which in classical Latin were
carefully connected were often placed asyndetically in
juxtaposition. Asyndeton and parenthesis were very
much in favour (examples may be found in Drager,
" Einleitung zu Tac. Ann.," § 70, 75, 120). Words
grew into a most unwieldy length — adjectives of
seven syllables ending in -His and -dilis came to pre-
dominate : clumsy superlative forms, which had
hitherto been avoided, occurred now with increasing
frequency.
57. As material extravagance increased, style
grew more bombastic and pointed, more showy
loo LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
and pompous, more affected and artificial, and withal
less attractive and more obscure In its expressions.
It became overloaded with figures of speech, similes,
and other poetical accessories intended to tickle the
ear of blase readers to the greatest possible degree.
In old Latin, matter was the first consideration
and form was of secondary consequence: the case
was now reversed. Fawning and servility were on
the increase, especially since the tyrannical rigi7ne
of Nero and Domitian; men's last utterances were
those of flattery, " Talis hominlbus fuit oratio, quails
vita" (Seneca, Ep. 114, i). Thus the style of this
period corresponded strongly with that of the Ger-
mans in the commencement of the seventeenth cen-
tury.* Stlfi^ and manier^ 2iS the Spanish fashions in
dress of that century, high-flown and affected was
the style of both Germans and Romans; the aim
was to appear witty and to make a brave show of
striking and unfamiliar phrases; in both cases lan-
guage was laden with daring metaphors and similes,
far-fetched points and commonplaces of every kind.
The writers hoped to carry off their intrinsic empti-
ness and lack of thought by high-flown phraseology.
To this must be added a fawning politeness and
cringing attitude towards the court and all high
officials, the natural result of absolute government.
The learned, at the Reformation, chose Cicero and
the other classic authors as their models: — those of
the following century lend themselves to the attrac-
* Cf. Eui)hui.sm in English, and such tricks of style as anno-
mination. Sec Marsh, pp. 404 sqq. ; see also Minto's commentaries
on the style of Fuller, p. 307.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE loi
tions of their intellectual kinsmen, the late Latin
authors, and are anxious to outdo these in their
pompous and florid style.
58. But extremes meet. In Rome a reaction set
in. Quintilian and the younger Pliny are the pair of
writers who, more than any others, turned their
eyes on antiquity and chose Cicero as their model.
The classic written language had gradually died
out, and seemed a strange tongue to its own people;
the fact that the idiom employed in literature, and
learnt in the school, began to be imperfectly under-
stood by their contemporaries compelled authors to
form their style on older models. But they found
few imitators. Their efforts were a brief spring,
followed by no summer; a nerveless struggle against
the ever increasing self-consciousness of the age,
itself the fruit of a period of tyrannical enslavement.
The whole generation was, as Pliny himself
(Ep. viii, 14, 9) appositely remarked, " hebetata,
fracta, contusa." It was unable, under the pressure
of that stifling atmosphere, to rise into intellectual
freedom. The flight of poetic genius was crippled;
the only notable poet of the time was, significantly
enough, a satirist — Juvenal. Prose advanced further
on the downward path on which it had entered after
the commencement of the Empire. Even finer
natures, such as Nerva and Trajan, were unable,
from the Imperial throne, to effect any change. Only
strong characters, such as Tacitus, raised themselves
by sheer strength of will and personality above the
great mass, and went their own ways. Steeled by
I02 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
misfortune, he created that pithy, weighty, com-
pressed, concise style, which compels from us in-
voluntary admiration for the man who could write it.
"It is the gloomy flare of a devouring lire, wrath
repressed, and prophetic melancholy, which finds its
issue in the construction of these sentences. This
sullen brevity, these swift lights and shades of thought
and of irony, these volcanic oscillations of language,
recall the symbols of a Cassandra who stands pens-
ively on the verge of the destruction of the old
world" (Mundt, " Deutsche Prosa," p. 58). Tacitus
remarked with absolute clearness the moral degen-
eration of his people, and just as the Greeks held
up the Hyperboreans, who, according to their con-
ception, were in a state of childish simplicity and
innocence, as their ideal, the great historian painted
our forefathers, the old Germans, as the ideals of
primeval force and virility, and as creatures of healthy
frame and sound spirit. "Through all the narrative
of Tacitus one seems to feel something of the spirit
of bucolic poetry, with which civilized man appeases
the longings of his fancy for primitive innocence "
(Scherer, " Literaturgeschichte," p. 5). Tacitus paved
the way for the literature to follow; the literature of
Hadrian and the Antonines; — the hall-mark of this
period is regret for the good old times that are past
and gone; — this regret has left less traces on the
morals of the period than on the literature. Ouin-
tilian indeed harked back to Cicero, but the authors
of his day went further; Cato and his times were to
rise anew. His style now came into favour, chal-
lenged imitation, and gained admiration. Favorinus,
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 103
the philosopher, twitted a young man with employing
old-fashioned expressions as though he were hold-
ing- converse with the mother of Evander (Gellius,
Moct. Att. i, 10, i). The Africans Pronto and
/.puleius, whose glowing imagination, like their
fadierland, produced monsters, outdid all in their
aflected archaisms (cf. A. Ebert, " De Syntaxi
FrDntoniana, acta semin. phil." Erlangen, ii, 3 1 1 sqq. ;
H. Koziol, " Der Stil des L. Apuleius," Vienna, 1872,
p. 354; Kretschmann, " De Latinitate L. Apulei
Madaurensis," Konigsberg, 1865); Gellius was less
pretentious and terser in style. That arch-dilettante,
the Emperor Hadrian himself, favoured this tend-
ency. The archaisms employed by these authors
to place their language in singular and bold relief,
remind one of old spots on a new garment. In
short, the Renascence due to Ouintilian was a mar-
vellous rococo epoch (" Multi ex alieno saeculo
petunt verba: duodecim tabulas loquuntur. Gracchus
illis et Crassus et Curio nimis culti et recentes sunt;
ad Appium usque et ad Coruncanium redeunt " —
Sen. Ep. 114, 13). The tide of foreign influence
set in more vigorously than ever in the Capital, a
natural consequence of the admission to full political
privileges of those Roman subjects who now refused
to recognize the literary supremacy of Rome, and
presented themselves shamelessly with all their
Provincialisms (" Unaquaeque gens facta Roman-
orum cum suis opibus vitia quoque et verborum et
morum Romam transmisit" — Isid. Orig. i, 31). This
sealed the fate of correct Latinity; numerous vul-
garisms crept into the written language; caprice and
I04 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER, ETC.
lawlessness ran riot, until finally literary and popular
language began to coincide, and, as soon as the
Germans had broken up the Roman kingdom, found
a new life in the Romance languages.
59. It thus appears that it stands with the lan-
guage and literature of the Romans as with their
art, in fact, as with all art. Indeed, as Winckelmann
has pointed out in one of his letters, art reflects in
the first instance the Necessary, then the Beautiful,
finally the Superfluous. In the oldest period of
literature, material interest took precedence, thought
influenced form ; in the classic period the two stood
side by side with equal rights; the fair body de-
manded a fair dress; in Silver Latinity predomin-
ance was granted to Form.
It will be seen, then, that the last period contained
already the germ of death. There was no substance
beneath the surface, no truth underlying the style.
It is true that the lano-uao"e contained enouofh force
to serve as the expression of the new spirit of
Christendom; but this was an expiring flare, and,
what is more, in the Latin of the Church Fathers
Greek influence is so evident that patristic literature
may be described as half Hellenized.
Ill
THE LANGUAGE OF THE POETS
60
AT all times, and among all peoples whom the
Muses have deigned to patronize, we find a
broad distinction between the creations of prose and
poetry.* The lofty attitude of the singer, himself
too far removed from the views of ordinary life, de-
mands in its language a loftier tone. All that, in his
hour of melancholy, comes from his heart is sacred,
and can therefore only appear clothed in dignified
and stately language. It is the task of the poet
to describe the beautiful, to lull the heart by his
sweet melodies and by his utterances of divine
sublimity; hence he must ever be careful to clothe
these sublime thoughts in a fair dress, to delight at
once eye and ear, heart and sense; the highest law
of his diction is in fact Beauty.
61. The poet's art is in fact nearly allied with
music. Singers and poets occupy common ground
in popular estimation, and frequently meet in the
language which they employ. The notes of the
* Cf. Abbot and Seeley's " English Lessons for English People:
the Diction of Poetry," pp. 54 sqq. " The prose writer, in his choice
of a word, will prefer that which conveys his meaning most suc-
cessfully; the poet will prefer that which gives most pleasure," etc,
105
io6 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
harp accompanied the lays of the rhapsodists of old,
uttered by the lips of the Maeonian bard, and even
at the present day many an utterance of the lyric
poets is converted by the art of the composer into a
melodious song.
Sweet and soft sound the rhythms whereby the
poet's thoughts are wafted lightly as on wings;
indeed, as Freytag in his " Technik des Dramas,"
p. 275, remarks: " In the rhythmic harmony of
verse, feeling and emotion, divorced from the reali-
ties of life, become, as it were, transfigured, and
enchant the spirit of the listener."
The technique of Indo-Germanic poetry was
straightforward and simple. The long line moved
in stately cadence, its principle reposed on the rise
and fall of the pitch accent. From it were developed
the Indian Sloka and the German metre of the
" Niebelungenlied," as well as the Hexameter of the
Greeks, and the Saturnian of the old Romans.
Each nation, in the course of centuries, recast into a
new form its ancient hereditary heirloom; as national
peculiarities developed, the ancient long line of each
nation's poetry took a new colour; the light gliding
movement of the Hexameter suited the versatility
of the Greeks; the serious and dignified demeanour
of the ancient Romans was satisfied by their de-
velopment of the Saturnian, with its accentual stress,
its alliteration, its progression in sober and measured
time. Horace calls this metre " numerus horridus "
(Epist. ii, I, 157); he dislikes it, in fact, as much as
he dislikes the uncultured language of that period.
But the eyes of the singer who was commonly
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 107
occupied with the rules of Greek rhythm, were
partially blinded — he could no longer look with an
unprejudiced and impartial view upon the creations
of his ancestors.
62. In old Ionic Greek, with its plastic and melo-
dious forms and its great flexibility, the Hexameter
was in its right place, more especially in the de-
scriptions of details suited to epic poetry, for the
Hexameter is not merely the natural vehicle for
simple narration, but it suits the regular construction
of the sentence, and it favours generally a current of
language which is lively in tone and moves con-
fidently onwards. But it was less fitted to suit the
exigences of Latin. When, however, it had been
once introduced and cordially welcomed by the Hel-
lenized portion of the better classes, the Romans had
to reckon with it and bring it into harmony with
their national character. Hence it was that Latin
poets departed from Greek usage by intercalating
the more weighty and impressive spondee, and this
is also the reason why they preferred to employ the
masculine caesura, with its more rigid delimitations,
strongly marking the divisions into which the line
naturally falls, particularly in the third foot {caesura
serniquinaria, TO[jt.ri Trsv^riixiixsprig). Again they disliked
lengthy words of four syllables .(Horace's sesqtd-
pedalia verba) at the end of the Hexameter, which
the Greeks preferred as giving the verse a soft and
melodious ending ("gracili mollem pede claudere
versum," Verg. Cir. 20). It was for this reason, too,
that they had such a strong objection to spondaic
io8 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
lines in the penultimate foot of the Hexameter
{versus spondiaci) which, as we know, fell mostly
on quadrisyllabic words (cf. Ouintilian, ix, 4, 65).
Though Ennius, and following him Lucretius, em-
ployed soft verse terminations like natural, we may
look in vain for such in classical Latin; the only ex-
ception to this rule is to be found in the fact that
writers of the latter period allowed certain excep-
tions in the case of Greek words (cf. "lenissimus
Onchesmites," Cic. Ad Att vii, 2).
63. As in the case of the Hexameter, so the lyric
metres which made their way more freely into Roman
poetry had to yield to the levelling influence of the
Roman linguistic spirit. Thus, for instance, it is
notorious that Horace in his Alcaics and Sapphics re-
places, where the verse admits, a trochee or an iam-
bus by a spondee, just as in his Odes he has carried
through the long syllable in the anacrusis; these
are mere tricks of style, aiming at bringing the metres
which took their origin on foreign soil into harmony
with the peculiarities of the Latin tongue.
64. It was, however, the sense of beauty which
dictated not merely the new shape of the metres,
but also the choice of words. There is indeed no
doubt that the tone and the expression of the Satires
and Epistles approach much more nearly the lan-
guage of the people than the more refined diction
of the Odes and Elegies, and that many words are
admitted into the former which are banned by the
latter. But speaking generally we must admit that
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 109
the poet has not merely in his expressions, but par-
ticularly in his choice of words, kept the ideal of
beauty before his eyes. His one irrefragable law is
to avoid sullying his style with common words. The
motto on his ensign is " Odi profanum vulgus (verb-
orum) et arceo."*
Hackneyed and vulgar expressions, far from set-
ting off poetry, rob it of its charm and therefore are
in place only when the poet wishes to attain a certain
definite end.f Vulgar expressions like agaso, bala-
tro, caupo, nebulo, popino certainly occur in Horace,
but in his more or less popular works, the Satires X
and the Epistles; the portals of lyric poetry are
closed to them; we may look for them in vain in the
Odes and Epodes. A genuinely inspired poet, in
whom the true poetic fire burns bright and clear,
will permeate his diction with harmony, stateliness,
and purity; and noble as his mind and intellect will
be the words which issue from his mouth:
Audebit, quaecumque parum splendoris habebunt
Et sine pondere erunt et honore indigna ferentur
Verba movere loco, quamvis invita recedant
Et versentur adhuc intra penetralia Vestae.
(Hor. Ep. ii, 2, m.)
* Cf. Mackail, "Latin Literature," p. 114. "In his measured
epithets, his curious fondness for a number of very simple and
abstract words, and the studious simplicity of effect in his most
elaborately designed lyrics, he reminds one of the method of
Greek bas-reliefs or ... of the sculptured work of Mino of
Fiesole."
t Such as characterization, or, again, it may be bathos.
X The first book of the Satires shows, to quote Mr. Mackail,
" a vein of artistic vulgarity " which is wanting in his later work.
no LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
65. In every Literature there occur a large num-
ber of expressions which are exclusively, or almost
exclusively, confined to poetic use. These expres-
sions were either the actual creations of the poets,
as many ornamental adjectives certainly were; or
else they came in course of time to be specially
favoured for the purposes of poetry, and were thereby
maintained as living factors in the language of the
poets, while they disappeared from the popular lan-
guage; such are for instance latices and lynipha, for
"water." It were an interesting task to trace accur-
ately the conceptions to which different nations, in
their poetical vocabulary, apply such special words;
such a quest would throw many an interesting side-
light on national peculiarities. It is characteristic of
German that the words Maid and Ross are con-
trasted with M'ddchen and Pferd; * we recognize in
this distinction a testimony to the high admiration
for woman and for the noblest of the brute creation
entertained by Teutonic peoples. It is not less sig-
nificant that the Hebrew in his poetic style possesses
special words to express the name of God. The
lifework of Israel lay, in fact, in religion; the main
current of the Semitic spirit set not towards the
world with its manifold external phenomena, but
looked beyond this, to the Godhead itself. Thus
again, the Roman possesses two words for the sword,
the ^rosdAc gladius and poetical e7isis. It would thus
appear that ideas which appeal most to the popular
imagination tend to lose by time the definiteness of
* Much as " wench " and " nag " may be contrasted with " girl "
and "horse" in English.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE iii
their meanino-, and are the first to suffer from the
differentiation between the diction of poetry and
prose.
It frequently happens that the difference between
poetical and prose diction consists merely in the
employment of a different suffix as pauperies = pati-
pertas\ iuventa = iuventus\ contagium = contagio;
obliviwin = oblivio\ Graii = Graeci; rabidus = rabi-
osus\ or again it may be in a newly formed plural
such as sibila = sibili\ which last, as it could find no
place in a Hexameter, may be due to metrical exi-
gences.
66. Besides this, foreign influences must be taken
into account. As the German looks on everything
which comes from " near here " as less valuable than
what comes from a distance, the Roman resembles
him in the preference shown by Latin authors for
Greek snippets rather than for good old Latin words.
For instance, the names Tartarus and carbasus,
whose usage instead of inferi and vehim is reserved
almost exclusively for the language of poetry, hail
from Greece. Besides, Greek expressions fell in
most cases more agreeably on the ears than sounds
of home origin. Indeed, Quintilian expressly re-
marks (xii, lo, 2)Z)'- " Tanto est sermo Graecus
Latino iucundior ut nostri poetae, quoties dulce
carmen esse voluerunt illorum id nominibus exor-
narent." How could the harmony of the words diota,
barbitos, pkilyra, a7?iystis, and the varied lights and
shades of their liquid vowels, escape the notice of a
writer like Horace?
112 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
d^j. The second main requirement of the poet is
Vividness and Perspicuity.* " For poetical repre-
sentation, keen and sharp-cut outHnes and subtlety
of reasoning are of less account than the impression
produced on the mind of the reader and the fascina-
tion produced by figurative expression. The poet
appeals in the first instance to the heart; his crea-
tions appeal to the feelings rather than to the under-
standing; and from the feelings they challenge a
lively response. The prose writer, on the other
hand, appeals first and foremost to intelligence; his
productions challenge careful and well-considered
reflection. It follows that the prose writer must
choose words appropriate to the subject, such as
represent the subject of the discourse in proper
perspective; — he must express himself clearly and
logically, for his object is to produce conviction.
The poet, on the other hand, must write gracefully
and suit his style to his subject. He must write with
liveliness and observation, and the form of his dis-
course must be graceful and must appeal to the
heart, for his aim is to give pleasure, f But, we may
ask, how does a poet attain this vividness and per-
spicuity? It may be that he brings objects directly
before our view by means of picturesque expression
* The German term AnschauUchkeit has no exact English
equivalent. It means the property of standing out boldly before
the eye or mind of the reader, so that he cannot fail to visualize
the conception.
t Poetry should be " simple, sensuous, and passionate" (Milton).
By "sensuous" is meant that which appeals readily to the senses,
and hence poetry prefers picturesque images to the enumeration
of dry facts. (Abbot and Seeley, p. 56.)
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE ii
o
or action dramatically quickened into life, or it may
be by means of rhetorical exaggeration and the
effects produced by contrast."
68. Forcible pictures are gained in poetry by
the use of picturesque side-touches. Much that in
prose would be omitted as superfluous is often an
indispensable element for the poet. Thus we find,
e.g. in Vergil (Aen. i, 614), "ore locuta est"; i, 94,
" voce refert " ; i, 579, " animum arrecti," and in other
places words like manu, oailis, etc., which appear for
the sense of the passage superfluous. We may add
to this the ornamental adjectives characteristic of
poetry, which resemble dewdrops sparkling like
diamonds under the sun's rays. They lend a mar-
vellous charm to poetic language and appeal power-
fully to the imagination, for by bringing out the most
marked characteristics of different objects they force
them on our attention in the most striking way.*
If they are new and original they produce a greater
effect still. In this respect it must be admitted that
the Roman poets are somewhat unfortunate; they
frequently mutilate what they have found in their
old Greek models, and thus it is that they often fall
short of the fine observation and grace of the cor-
responding Greek expression. How commonplace
and ineffective appears the rendering of wTspoci? by
celer\ of vr\i<; olfMipiixia-a-on by curvae naves; of jcaAAjppow
TroTix[j^u} by jiumine pulchro; of fii/oo-i^uAAo? by silvis
* Cf. such instances as "the dog with ivory teeth" (Cowper);
"the thunder winged with red Hghtning" (MiUon); "reaped in
iron harvests of the field" (Pope). (Abbot and Seeley, p. 58.)
I
114 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
coi'-uscis [or by frondosum as in Catullus] : or again
the attributes of the Homeric heroes [as xopuOa/oXo? (of
Hector) and Ares] are poorly rendered by cristatus,
and xoiXXiiroipvog and y.a.KXi'KXoKoc(j.oq by pulcher\ And
how different the effect produced by n'w? %p\ykviia. from
Ovid's imitation in "Aurora vigil" (Met. ii, 112)!
The incomparable beauty of the Homeric epithets,
however, depends not merely upon their individual-
izing power, but upon their comprehension of several
traits in a terse and pregnant form. Homer's com-
posite epithets are as a rule more graceful than his
simple ones, and the skill of the master-poet displays
itself in the formation of such compounds. In his hap-
piest moments it falls to the creative spirit of the
singer to give life and being to many a brilliant union
of ideas, embodied in a word found in no dictionary,
and as yet unconsecrated by the usage of language.
Lessing spoke in high approval of Wieland's happy
power of coining words; and when Schiller speaks
of the " giftgeschwoUene Baiiche" [venom - puffed
bellies] of serpents, or of " leichtgeschiirzte Horae"
(gossamer-kirtled Hours), and Goethe of " feucht-
verklartes Blau " (mist-transfigured blue), or of the
"■ wellenatmende Mond " (the wave-panting moon),
we can at once in such epithets as these recognize
the genius of the true poet,* "ex ungue leonem."
Now beyond all question such compounds are more
* Cf. :
The always-wind-obeying deep
With rocks unscaleable, and roaring waters.
The multitudinous seas.
Shakespeare,
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 115
striking and give a truer picture than tactless peri-
phrases, and they are certainly terser and more
easily intelligible. A single word is surely more
effective than a series of several words ; for instance,
pohSacxTvXog is more striking and powerful than "plena
rosarum " (Ovid, Met. ii, 113). We cannot then
wonder that the Roman poets from the earliest times
directed their efforts to the task of rendering their
stiff Latin more flexible and more manageable. Fol-
lowing the lead of Homer, that inexhaustible source
whence all the epic poets of Rome have drunk deep,
even the oldest Roman poets created a series of new
terminations, and from that time the Romans pain-
fully and steadfastly set themselves to attain what
the unfortunate nature of their language denied
them:
Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem, si
Graeco fonte cadent, parce detorta.
HoR. Ars Poet. 52 sgg.
The epic poets since Ennius had a particular fancy
for formations which owe their origin to the influence
of dactylic rhythm, i.e., words which in the second
half of the compound began with a short syllable,
and were mainly derivatives of verbs with a short
stem-syllable, as for instance magniloqims; — in such
a case we can see that a dactyl is produced by the
process of composition, when a trochaic precedes it
as the first member of the compound.
69. In cases where the poet finds that a mere
epithet fails to touch our fancy he likes to avail
himself of a fuller presentation of the idea, e.g., of
ii6 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
the figure called " Distributio " or division of the
parts of the statement. Thus when Vergil wishes
to insist on the fact that somethino- in his mind will
last for ever, he expresses himself (Aen. i, 567) in
these words:
In freta dum fluvii current, dum montibus umbrae
Lustrabunt convexa, polus dum sidera pascet.
Semper honos nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt,
and Ovid (Met. xv, 871) repeats the same thought:
" lamque opus exegi, quod nee lovis ira nee ignis
Nee poterit ferrum nee edax abolere vetustas." * As
we know from Lessing's " Laocoon," it was a fine
artistic touch of Homer's to translate the description
of objects into action, in fact to change co-existence
into sequence.
Writers like Goethe in the same spirit (e.g:, in the
description of the host in " Hermann und Dorothea ")
followed this example. Now the old Romans were
completely lacking in apprehension of this fine trait
of epic technique, and although they read Homer as
well as we do, they devoted their utmost efforts to
dry descriptions of objects. What a feeble repro-
duction of the famous picture of Achilles' shield is
the corresponding episode of the eighth book of the
" Aeneid " (607-731) with its ever-recurring "here
is" and "there is"!
Homer presents us with the picture of Hephaestus,
and we see by the aid of his master-hand the shield
* a.:
Thou mass of honour, thou King Richard's tomb,
And not King Richard: thou most beauteous inn, etc.
Shakespeare, K. Rich. II.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 117
ordered by Thetis composed and welded together.
Vergil tells us how one picture after another is seen
on the work of art he is describincr. It is worth while
to compare the representation given by the same
poet of the door of the Temple of Apollo at Cumae
(Aen. vi, 20 sqq.), and the description of the pictures
in the temple of Juno at Carthage (Aen. i, 465 sqq.),
or the sketch of the sun-god given by Ovid (Met.
ii, I sqq.): and we shall speedily be in a position to
judge how inferior were the Romans to the Greeks
in such pictures.
70. Effective expression is, however, sometimes
secured by figures of speech. At one time the poet
appeals to the imagination of the reader or hearer
by putting a part for the whole: 2iS picppisy carina, or
it may be velu7n, for an entire ship. In this case he
appeals to the reader to widen by his own efforts
the conception presented to him.* Sometimes again
the poet causes the hearer to apprehend, say, the
idea of an elephant under an elephant's tooth, while
the oak tree shrinks in his description down to an
oak leaf. He gives us the ash for the spear, the
gold for the golden vessels, ox flanima for heat, htx
for day; that is to say he changes the agent and the
object acted upon. Just as Schiller speaks of stones
as feeling, of nature as devout, of flight as hurrying,
so the Roman poet endows ears and arms with
* This very effort produces a sense of surprise on the mind of
the reader, and a series of new impressions is part of the tech-
nique of poetry in general. See Herbert Spencer's " Philosophy
of Rhetoric."
ii8 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
feeling and receptivity when he sings " Auriculae
gaudent praenomine " or " brachia gaudentia loris."
Inanimate nature assumes life before his mind's eye:
he breathes the breath of life into all that surrounds
him.*
71. It is true that even in their treatment of these
figures of speech, the Romans must be ranked far
behind their kinsmen the Greeks. They are most
independent and most original in the employment
of Synecdoche,! a form of trope employed by all
poets more frequently than any other. There was
nothing more to do in this case than to interchange
two conceptions which, as a rule, stand spatially con-
nected, and thus suggest each other. Those next in
frequency are metonymy and antonomasia, the tropes
most applicable to attributes and apposition. In
these the relation of the conceptions to each other is
somewhat harder to gather, as it does not present
itself immediately to the mind. Now the employment
of metonymy must be admitted to be a little mono-
tonous, and the frequent recurrence of Mars for
be Hum, of Ceres ior frtimenhim, of Liber or Bacchus
for vinum, of Vulcanus for ig7iis, of Phoebus for Sol,
of Nereus for mare, and of all the rest of the deities
who have to be marshalled in procession whenever
their products are mentioned, is not calculated to
* The English reader may consult Blair's " Lectures on Rhe-
toric "(xiv), "on the origin and nature of figurative language,"
and Campbell's " Rhetoric," and Whateley's " Rhetoric."
t See Bain's "English Composition," p. 22, for numerous in-
stances of these figures of speech.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 119
ofive us an exalted idea of the I maq^i nation of the
Roman poets.* The violence of the change is still
more felt in the case of antonomasia. The Greek
patronymics are extremely useful in such cases
{e.g., Pelidcs = Achilles): we may set against these
sahis, editus, natus {e.g., Maia nattts = Mercuritis),
genus {lapeti genus = Prometheus), senex Py litis =
Nestor, filius A nc his ae = Aeneas, fr aires Helenae =
Castor and Pollux, etc.
72. The invention of the Roman poets appears
poorer than ever in its attempts at metaphors and
similes. Settinsf aside the cases of such transfer-
ences of signification as it shares with prose, it
possesses but a scanty stock of metaphors; certainly
such cases as Aen. vi, i sqq., where they are regu-
larly packed together, must be considered rarities;
much that we find in the poets of the Augustan age
takes its origin from the Alexandrine poets. The
similes, too, are in many cases borrowed directly
from the Greek, and Father Homer, above all others,
has been ransacked for the purpose: e.g., passages
like Aen. i, 589 sqq., and i, 498, point straight to
Odyssey, vi, 232 sqq., and vi, 102 sqq. But we
cannot describe the imitation as particularly happy:
it appears rather artificial and forced. How far
more graceful is the comparison of Nausicaa sporting
cheerfully in the circle of her playmates, with
Artemis and her train of hunters and huntresses,
than that of Dido, who, mid a circle of men, pro-
ceeds to the temple of Justice, with the Huntress-
* See Bain, p. 20, " Figures of contiguity."
I20 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
Goddess! When the Roman poets stand on their
own ground they do not shrink from repeating them-
selves. The comparison of human activity with the
restless activity of the bees, which we find in Aen. i,
430 sqq., is repeated by the poet almost word for
word from Georg. iv, 162, 169. Certain similes, as,
for instance, where a hard heart is likened to a rock,
or to iron, occur quite frequently. As early as
Ennius we meet with (Fr. loi) "quasi ferrum aut
lapis durat," and (Fr. i74)"lapideo corde": pos-
sibly after the pattern of the Greek tragedians
(Eurip. Medea, 29, 1279; Andr. 537). Ovid offers
similar examples: Met. ix, 613; vii, 32; xiv, 712.
Heroid. 7, 2>1\ Trist. i, 8, 41; iii, 11, 3; iv, 12, 31.
In like manner we mark the recurrence of a com-
parison of an unfeeling person with some monster of
the sea such as Scylla or Charybdis, or with some
beast such as a lion or a tiger; such are frequently
met with (cf. Catull. 60, i, 64, 154. Ovid, Met. viii,
120; ix, 613; vii, 32). Besides this the poets fall
not unfrequently into the fault of heaping simile on
simile in a single passage; and they not seldom run
the risk of wearying their readers by citing strings of
examples.
"Jl. In one class of figures ot speech the Romans
surpass their Greek masters, namely, in allegory,
and in the personification of emotions such as
Terror, Desire, Wrath. Such personifications are
much in favour with authors. Indeed, Herder
goes so far as to assign to Horace as a special
virtue his personification of abstract, and especially
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 121
of moral, ideals: e.g., Odes, iii, i, 14 " Necessitas
sortitur " ("this is a master trait of his genius, and
one of the ornaments of his odes "). But surely
such personifications were not peculiar to Horace:
other writers afford in a greater or less degree
examples of the same use of this figure. In Tibul-
lus Spcs, Pax, Mors, Poena, etc., in Ovid Cttra,
Amor, etc., appear as personified beings : and the
more closely we scrutinize Roman literature from
its origin downwards, the more we find the pro-
pensity developed for dead abstraction and cold
allegory. Doubt, Hunger, Age, Illness, etc., find
full play in Silius, Italicus, Claudius, and his con-
temporaries. The Italian too often peoples his
Pantheon with bloodless and colourless figures, and
similar figures compose a good portion of his
poetry.
From what has been said it is evident that the
Roman poets were not endowed with the vigor-
ous imagination or the versatility and cleverness of
the Greeks, but that they devoted themselves to
the purely intellectual mental processes of reflection
and abstraction. Greek poetry is a delightful garden
provided with an abundance of Flora's choicest
products, with many-hued and joyous nymphs sport-
ing around. Roman poetry resembles rather a well-
tended, tastefully laid out, and carefully parcelled
veofetable orarden.
74. If Plastic^ in language serves to bring an
* There is no word in English which exactly renders the Ger-
man Plastik. Perhaps the nearest is visualization. It means the
122 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
object nearer to our view, figures of augmentation
and contrast are employed by the poets to magnify
such object, and to render it more sensible to our
view. Repetitio (Anaphora), Epizeuxis or Epana-
lepsis, Gradatio (Climax), Litotes, Hendiadys, Pleo-
nasm, Hyperbole, Polysyndeton, Antithesis, Chias-
mus, Oxymoron, and many other figures, all tend to
the same end. Where the prose writer says " ubi
secuit, in membra redegit," it is open to the poet, in
order to bring out the speedy sequence of the
actions described, to use the pleonastic expression,
" secuit sectamque in membra redegit " (Ovid, Met. i,
33). Again, Vergil, with characteristically epic re-
dundance, writes " cavae cavernae" (Aen. ii, 53),
" rursus relegens" (Aen. ii, 690), etc.* This kind
of pleonasm is not, it is true, specifically Latin, but
it is a prominent characteristic of Roman poetry,
and can easily be explained as that of a people who
have from the earliest times busied themselves with
the study of jurisprudence, and who have accord-
ingly accustomed themselves to exact and lucid
methods of expression.
The same purpose of " raising" is served by the
frequent use of concrete nouns in the plural instead
of in the singular, which is very common with parts
of the human body, such as colla, co7'da, pectora, etc. ;
objects serving for traffic, such as currus, arcus, itcga,
carinae, and designations of localities, such as litora^
power of presenting an image so that it shall stand out in just
perspective and bold relief.
* Cf. the _^gur a etymologica so often met with in Plautus; e.g.^
"Venus venusta."
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 123
rura, scdcs, tecta (cf. P. Maas, " Studien zum poet-
ischen Plural," Wolfflin's " Archiv f. lat. Lex." xii,
479 ^(IQ- ; Ed. Hailer, " Beitrage zur Erklarung
des poet. Plur. bei den rom. Elegikern, Freisinger
Progr.," 1902, and above, § 27), and similarly the
employments of milk, centum, etc., for a number
however small. Ordinary mortals may find it neces-
sary to reckon with accuracy the sum of certain
figures; the singer does not worry himself about such
prosaic trifles. He prefers to speak in round num-
bers in order to increase his impressiveness: 7nille
lacer spargere locis is the prophecy uttered to Pen-
theus in Ovid's " Metamorphoses" (iii, 522), and to
the rainbow a thousand hues are ascribed (Aen.
iv, 701). No scholar will take exception to such ex-
aggerations on the score of his more exact informa-
tion, for the store of colours in the broken sunrays
can hardly be expressed in a single word more grace-
fully than it is here.
The figure called Litotes was a very favourite
one with the classical poets: it occurs frequently in
formulae which have passed from generation to
generation; e.g., " non dissimulator amoris," Ov.
Met. V, 61; "cura non levis," Hor. Carm. i, 14, 18
(cf. C. Weymann, " Studien liber die Figur der
Litotes," Jahrb. f. Phil, Supplem. xv, 1887, pp. 453-
556). The Hyperbole is more effective still ; we find
it in Vergil employed on a far more extensive scale
than in Homer. Sometimes the number or the size
is exaorcrerated, as in the case of mountains, rocks,
trees, vessels; sometimes the qualities of human
beings or of beasts — their strength or swiftness —
124 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
sometimes the power of emotion (cf. R. Hunziger,
"Die Figur der Hyperbel in den Gedichten Vergils,"
Berlin, 1896).
75. We meet very frequently with allusions to
natural monstrosities. Such allusions depend on the
Roman taste for strong contrasts and their effects.
This taste appears strongly developed as early as
the Alexandrian poets, and in composers of idylls,
like Theocritus; but it occurs also, though more
rarely, in Archilochus (Fr. 76); Euripides (Medea,
410, etc.). The Romans must have borrowed from
these models, as is clear from their frequently using
identical phraseology. Thus Naevius (Bell. Pun.
fr. inc. 1 1) says : " prius locusta pariet Lucam bovem."
In Plautus we read amongst other passages, Poen.
iii, 5, 31: "lupo agnum eripere postulant," Asin. 99:
" iubeas me piscari in aere," and Asin. 79: " nudo
detrahere vestimenta": in Lucretius (v, 128 [and
Sy8]) : " sicut in aethere non arbor, non aequore salso
Nubes esse queunt neque piscesvivere in arvis Nee
cruor in lignis neque saxis succus inesse.* This con-
ception appears again and again in varying forms.
The other figures of speech also had become part
and parcel of the stock phraseology of the Roman
people. Their genius for rhetoric and their forensic
training alike rendered such figures indispensable
adjuncts even to their poetry. A striking turn for
* Cf. also for such pictures Hor. Ars Poetica, 1-5, which seems
itself to have been borrowed from Plato's "Phaedr." p. 246
(Jowett's translation). Cf. also Vergil's picture of Scylla, Aen.
iii, 426, and of the Triton, Aen. x, 211.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 125
oratorical and declamatory pathos manifested itself
even in the Roman poets of the first rank, and only
too often hollow phrases and empty verbiage took
the place of warm and genuine feeling: they strove
to mask their shallow thoughts and their lack of
profundity by pompous pretentiousness and mere-
tricious ornament.
"^6. Of course different writers have their own
peculiarities : Vergil and Propertius display a marked
tendency towards parallelism/^ resembling that found
in Hebrew poetry, and they thus enable us to ap-
proach an idea from different sides: no one surpasses
Propertius in rhetorical questions and in the figure
of Apostrophe : the Hendiadys, of which we meet but
a single example in Propertius (iii, 4, 9), meets us
often in the poems of Vergil. We find the figure
aVo v.QiyoZ more frequently in Horace than in other
poets. The effective dismemberment of a conception
into its parts, or of an occurrence into its separate
stages is a characteristic of the technique of Tibul-
lus : t Ovid — not to mention the comic poets — is
fond of plays upon words. 'j;
Naturally all these rhetorical accessories give the
* Cf. Postgate's " Propertius, Select Elegies," p. Ixxi. An in-
stance is: "sive illam Hesperiis sive illam ostendet Eois, Uret et
Eoos, uret et Hesperios."
t A peculiarity of Tibullus is that an epithet which belongs to
each of a group of nouns is sometimes expressed once' only, and
then with the last noun, as i, i, 32, "messes et bona vina date,"
i.e.y " messes bonas et vina bona." See Postgate, ad loc.
X Cf. Met. xiii, " Non oblita animorum, annorum oblita suorum"
= " forgetting her age but not her rage," as Simmons renders it.
Other instances are Tristia, i, 16; ii, 16; and iv, 5, 7.
126 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
language the appearance of artificiality. The expres-
sion seems too often cold and afiected : the verve
that springs from the heart in Greek poetry is felt
to be lacking. Just as the Romans fell below the
Greeks in their power of creating life-like figures out
of blocks of marble, so did they miss the secret of
drawing^ Hvino- harmonies from lang-uaofe.
yy. The third main law of the diction of poetry is
Naturalness. The poet may be as childishly simple
as Homer, or he may awake pathos as Horace has
done in his Odes: in no case should his language
suggest the result of deep thought or appeal to the
intellect alone. No one in periods of high emotion
thinks of speaking in orderly and artificially grouped
periods : and in the language of the poet, the logic
which marshals facts, the care which disposes them,
the intellect which weighs them and calculates their
consequences, should remain unseen. The tendency
to employ simple and uncomplicated constructions
corresponds with the effort after easiness of com-
prehension and plainness of expression. The lan-
guage of poets moves by preference in main sentences
(cf. Aen. i, 402: "Dixit et avertens rosea cervice
refulsit"; i, 438: "Aeneas ait et fastigia suspicit
urbis "). The free use of adjectives (^•£'., Aen. i, 208 :
" curisque ingentibus aeger " = " quamquam curis in-
gentibus aeger erat ") * and the preference for par-
* For a more striking instance still see Lucan " Pharsalia," ii,
231 sg^. : " Neuter civilia bella moveret Contaitus quo Sulla fuit ":
"Neither Caesar nor Pompey would begin Civil War if they were
content with what contented Sulla."
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 127
ticiples instead of subordinate sentences lends their
phrases an impressive terseness : clumsy gerundial
constructions are avoided where possible, and final
sentences have a tendency to be replaced by an in-
finitive. Co-ordination in their sentences is some-
times used instead of subordination ; the connections
of the sentences therefore resemble a long-drawn
chain, in which link is joined to link: while the rhe-
torical and historical periods remind us rather of a
closely welded ring which fastens all parts, great or
small, in orderly and precise sequence in a single and
well-arranged whole. Where the prose-writer would
say "ubi corripuere, ruunt," Vergil says (Aen. v, 145) :
"corripuere ruuntque" (cf. ix, 410: " dixerat et . . .
conicit ") : and instead of ** cum inversum" we often
find ecce {e.g., "certum est dare lintea retro; ecce au-
tem," Aen. iii, 686).* Sometimes we meet with a
simple parataxis as " iam Lucifer surgebat : cessi,"
Aen. ii, 801 sqq. (cf. also vii, 62 1 ; viii, 83 ; ix, 432). A
lengthy period of oratio obliqua is suitable enough
for the historian, but for the poet it is too ponderous.
']Z. Though it is, generally speaking, true that
the Roman poets have held by the principles men-
tioned, there are still many passages in their works
which might seem to support the contrary view.
Too frequently they succumb to the innate weak-
ness of the Roman writers, the habit of moralizing
(cf. Aen. iii, 496; iv, 14). The Odes of Horace
leave the impression of being constructed to order
* Where we should expect some such expression as "When
suddenly."
128 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
from a turner's workshop. Thus we find these are
written with due regard paid to the method of join-
ing sentences in prose: even such conjunctions as
are usual in the case of syllogisms, such as ergo
and quodsi* are not rarely found in these composi-
tions.
Dovetailincr his sentences ag-ain is a characteristic
trait of Horace: we often find all kinds of paren-
thetical insertions just as in the artistically con-
structed periods of the historian, so that the poet
seems to have written his Strophes rather for the
eye than the ear. Of all the Augustan poets Horace
stands in his language nearest to the prose-writers.
In Vergil's poetry we often find long periods,
especially in the speeches of the persons intro-
duced as actors; and the elegiac poets have uninter-
mittently striven, in order to meet the requirements
of the distich, to render their language more and more
flexible. Propertius was the first to achieve a fair
success in closing the thought with the close of the
pentameter.f
* Cf. Lucretius, who abounds with such conjunctions as igitur,
quandoguidem, proinde. He, at any rate, never strives to conceal
"the logic which marshals facts"; and he is wont to recapitulate
the results of long passages in a few short lines — a rhetorical trait.
His scrupulous endeavour to be circumstantial, causing him to
repeat such phrases as nt docin', quod quoniam doaa', sometimes
reminds one of a legal document; another aspect in which he is
typically Roman.
t Cf. Postgate, " Select Elegies," chap. iv. " Propertius'
general superiority in vigour and variety to Tibullus appears in
their versification. That of Tibullus is hardly ever impressive,
and is apt sometimes to become monotonous. Both in hexameter
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 129
79. The fourth and last quaHty pecuHar to poetry
consists in its ereater freedom from the restrictions
which rule the composition of prose. In the first
place the poet enjoys a greater licence in the position
of his words than the prose-writer. In the case of
modern languages this holds true in certain cases
only, but in ancient languages, in which the reten-
tion of the full terminations aided quick appre-
hension of the meaning, and in which the close
relationship of the several clauses could, without
trouble, be discovered, the greatest licence prevailed.
To emphasize very strongly two connected concep-
tions, the poets not uncommonly inserted words
so that the adjectival attribute formed the com-
mencement and the substantive the end of the
verse: indeed, they even postponed the subject,
when particular stress was to be laid upon it, to the
end of the sentence, and at the same time to the
beo-inning- of a verse. For instance in Ovid's Met.
ii, 818, the three words steinus isto pacto are
parted by the words introducing the oratio recta
so that the verse runs: '' Steimis'' ait ''pacto''' velox
Cylleiiius " isto!' Again, by placing monosyllabic
words at the end of the hexameter the impression
of contrast is insisted upon, or some artificial aim
attained, e.g., "parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus
mus." * In short the poet, by the freedom granted
him in the arrangement of his words, has the privi-
and pentameter Propertius shows a freer structure than Tibullus,
and, we need not add, than Ovid."
* "Procumbit humi bos." Cf. also Verg. Aen. i, 105, " Prae-
ruptus aquae mons."
K
I
-.o LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
o
lege of a method whereby he attains marvellous
effects, assuming that he is capable of employing
them artistically.
80. The poet enjoys one further privilege; he can
employ archaisms much more widely than the prose-
writer; he can overleap many barriers which from a
linguistic point of view divide different ages. The
historian, the orator, the prose-writer generally, are
fairly circumscribed by these. Just as at the present
day we seek by every means to maintain and to
protect against wind and weather ruins hoary with
age and rich in story, which rise from the smiling
landscape silent witnesses of ages long past and
gone : so do poets, more or less in their degree,
aim at rescuing from oblivion the waifs and strays
of laneuaofe which lino-er in the diction of the
ancient singers. The diction of poets is conser-
vative : it cherishes and loves antique forms from a
feeling of piety and discipline, especially as such
forms generally possess a fuller and more power-
ful sonority and lend a romantic flavour to the
vehicle of verse. Many obsolete words, many forms
which in prose are superannuated, and have passed
out of use, are again introduced to language from an
older period and restored to life. Klopstock has
the merit of having introduced anew into the Ger-
man language, under English influence, words from
older stages of German, as Halle, Ham, Elf, Heiiu,
Harm: and Uhland has quickened words like Gadeni,
balcony, Ferge, ferryman, pirsclien, to stalk game,
Wat, garment, Brackc, hound, fahen=fange7t, to
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 131
catch, lobesavi, iRudiihle, g'emac/isa?^, comfortable, into
new, though artificial, Hfe.
81. Horace,true to his maxim: "Multarenascentur,
quae jam cecidere " (Ars Poet. 70), recalls old words
like altercari (Sat. ii, 7, 57) and indecorare (Od. iv,
4, 36). Again, words like divus, civicus, and hosticus,
which occur again and again in the Augustan poets,
had, except in certain combinations such as divi
manes, corona civica, in kostico, almost fallen into
disuse. Well-known words meet us again with
meanings which had long disappeared from the living
language: ^ such as tcmplum (Aen. iv, 484) = refj-svoi;:
aphis, Aen. iv, 482 = fitted on to, armed: quiescere in
Aen. iv, 523, and in other places, is used inchoatively
after the analogy of other verbs in -sco : orare stands
in its original meaning "to speak," Aen. x, 96; vii,
446, etc.
Old forms of words, too, are saved from total
disappearance by the language of the poet. In
German the use of certain such words is allowed to
poets, but not to prose-writers. Such words are
zuriicke, geschwinde, Herze =M.W.G. zerucke, (ge)
* For several instances of such words see Heerdegen, " Ueber
historische Entwicklung lateinischer Wortbedeutungen," Erlangen,
1881. He shows, Part III, p. 18, that the use of orare was already
in Plautus' time an archaism, and that the way in which it came
to mean to " beg " or " pray " was the fact that orare in the sense
of " to speak " ^ was commonly joined with Jus and aequum. Cf.
Livy, 39, 40, 12, "ipse pro se oravcrit scripseritque," referring to
Cato the Elder.
^ The older sense remains, of course, in orator.
132 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
swinde, herze'. they prefer such forms as wob and
ward to webte and warde, and they employ the forms
Bande and Lande side by side with Bander and
Lander.* In the same way it is a favourite device
with Horace to use words which in their form affect
an archaic look : such are czipresszts, inttwms, optumus,
proxumus, lacru^nosus, formonstis, thensatirus, lavere,
sectarier, gnatus, 77ti= mi/ii, caldior = calidior, surpite
= surripite, surrexe = surrexisse ; and Vergil com-
mits himself to such forms as olli= illi, quis — gtiibus,
iinpete = impetu, faxo, accestis, accmgier, fervere, ceu,
ast, etc., all with the view of investing his epic with
an old-world colouring. Then the poets use simple
instead of compound forms, to excite the imagina-
tion of the reader, who has accordingly to puzzle
out for himself what is ordinarily expressed by the
preposition: thus words like piare, solari, tabere,
temnere, linqitere, suescere, tendere, etc., have main-
tained themselves.
[In late Latin grammarians, such as the one who
calls himself Vergilius Maro, we actually find forms
\\k.^ sidera = co7isideraP\ Active verbs again appear
taking the place of the more ordinary deponents:
thus populant (Aen. iv, 403) : on which Servius re-
marks " Populant antique dixit ; nam hoc verbum
apud ueteres activum fuit, nunc autem deponens
* See Abbot and Seeley, "The Diction of Poetry," p. 55.
"The antique and venerable associations which connect them-
selves with everything that is ancient, contain in themselves suffi-
cient reason why archaic words should linger in elevated poetry.
From such considerations as these Spenser employed throughout
the whole of his ' Faery Queene ' a diction which was almost as
archaic to his contemporaries as it is to us."
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 133
est " ; and who can deny that the old imperfect forms
mollibat (Ovid, Met. viii, 199), mitribat (Aen. vii,
485), lenibat (Aen. vi, 468), and that such forms as
saecla, vincla, oracla, with 21 slurred and omitted, are
stronger and more effective, and hence more fitted
to heroic Epic poetry than the corresponding forms
common in prose: saecitla, vinnila, oracula}
Who can deny that the genitive in -{Im in the first
and second declension, the accusative in -is in the
third declension, and the perfect form in -re instead
of -runt give the language a more stately stamp?
82. Often considerations of metre come into play.
In German* the unrelenting bond of rhyme has pro-
tected and preserved many an old formation which
would otherwise have fallen into oblivion. Roman
poetry, however, which makes but spare use of
rhyme, has preserved many forms from the fact that
they fitted into the strict framework of the dactylic
metre. Thus we find that in many cases the long
vowels are maintained in verbal and nominal ter-
minations. For the same reason Vergil forms the
genitive plurals of participial and other noun forms
in -ns exclusively in -iim instead of -itmi, as inoder-
antum, legenhmt', and thus, under the stress of the
demands of metre, he selects the old consonantal
stems. But the demands of metre suggested other
expedients as well : for as Cicero has said, Or. 202 :
" Poetae in numeris quasi necessitati parerecoguntur."
Cf. Ouintil. i, 6, 2; viii, 6, 17. Vowels again are
shortened, lengthened, or suppressed; for instance
* And in a less degree in English, e.g.^ abideth, guideth.
134 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
we read in Vergil co7istiterunt (Aen. iii, 68 1) for
constitcrunt, relligio iox religio (Aen. xii, 182), aspris
for asperis (Aen. ii, 379). The forms imperator and
imperare are brought into verse by Ennius [Juvenal
and others] by the employment of induperator and
indupei'-are\ by Accius and Lucretius by that of
imperitare: for 7nagnit2ido Accius writes magnitas,
Lucretius maximitas [and Auct. Carm. de Phoenic.
1 45, niagnities] : for be^ieficia Catullus writes bene/acta ;
for eloquentia Horace (Ars Poet. 217) writes eloquium
as did Vergil (Aen. xi, 383) ; for supervacaneumWoxds:^
(Od. ii, 20, 24) writes supervacuiun (so again Ars Poet.
'^'l']\ Epist. i, 15, 3); so for the oblique cases of
adulte}' those of Tnoecktcs are substituted (cf. " Archiv
fiir lat. Lexicogr." xii, 435). Then there are certain
typical and standing phrases or collocations of words
which are handed down from generation to genera-
tion, and become current coin: indeed, it may well
be doubted whether the Roman poets have not
plundered the stores of their predecessors more
effectually than those of any other country. Forms
found in Ennius like Caerula caeli recur in Lucretius,
Vergil, and others, and frequently in the very part
of the verse which they occupied in the original.
Thus the words " haec ubi dicta dedit," which Vergil
borrowed from Ennius, open a verse in Vergil, and
have even passed into Livy's prose, in which they
open a sentence (xxii, 50). Thus Statins (Silv. iii,
I, 15) takes over Vergil's formula " Cernere erat "
(?!/ »(ff^^) and uses it at the opening of a verse :
thus again there occurs an Epic formula conditioned
by the metre, in the case of the perfect participle
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 135
passive coupled with the obHque case of a word of
two syllables occurring at the end of a verse, as
"dilectasorori" (Verg. Aen. iv, 31), "obsessacolono"
(Tibul. iv, I, 139), " Exterrita somno," " concita
cursu," etc. Thus Valerius Flaccus, after the model
of Aen. vi, 273, " primis in faucibus Orci," writes
•'primis stant faucibus Orci," i, 784; after Aen. viii,
25, "summique ferit laquearia tecti," v, 243 "per
summi fulgor laquearia tecti " (cf A. Griineberg,
" De Valerio Flacco imitatore," Berlin, 1893, p. 52,
sqq.). Few nations feel the influence of tradition
and imitation so strongly as the Romans; in few is
individualism so feebly developed.
83. Finally we have to range under this head
syntactical archaisms. As such are to be counted the
use of the simple accusative and ablative in answer
to the questions whither and whence, in the case of
words which are not names of towns ; and again the
dative of the direction whither [" It clamor caelo "
Verg.], which has maintained itself in the language
of the poets, especially in the case of such common
conceptions as Heaven, Orcus, earth, sea, Olym-
pus, etc.
84. On the other hand innovations, or neologisms,
appear in the language of the poets. These new
turns o^iven to lanouaore manifest themselves in the
formation, the signification, and the syntax alike of
words. We remember that Horace proudly claims
the right of the poet to enrich his native language,
" Ego cur, acquirere pauca Si possum, invideor.
136 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
cum lingua Catonis et Enni Sermonem patrium
ditaverit et nova rerum Nomina protulerit? Licuit
semperque licebit Signatum praesente nota producere
nomen" (Ars Poet. 55), and " adsciscet nova, quae
genitor produxerit usus " (Ep. ii, 2, 1 19). And without
a doubt most of the Latin poets have availed them-
selves of this right. As has been remarked before,
the Latin writer felt the lack of compound adjectives,
those almost indispensable auxiliaries to the poet
for the embellishment of his diction. Hence since
Ennius it was the aim of poets to supply this need
as best they could. It is not unlikely that altitonans
was a word coined by Ennius, arcitenens by Nae-
vius, magnisoiius by Accius, frugiferens by Lucre-
tius, suaveolens by Catullus, blandiloqttens by Lab-
erius, miricoma^is by Vergil, centimamts by Horace,
racemifer by Ovid : these words appear for the first
time in their respective works. But it would take us
too far were we to attempt to submit all such ex-
pressions to close scrutiny: so we content ourselves
with pointing out a list of such similar formations as
Ennius himself offers us. We find besides alti-
tonans mentioned above: velivolis A. 381, saxifragis
A. 564, altisonus A. 561, bellicrepa A. 105, caeli-
cohim A. 483, doctiloqtii A. 568, dulci ferae A. 71,
fiammiferam Tr. 50, inortiferiLin Tr. 363, opifcrani
' Tr. 165, la7tigeriLm Sat. 42, belligerantcs A. 201,
altivolans A. 84, bel/ipotentes, Sapientipotentes A. 188,
om7iipotens Tr. 202, bipate^itibus A. 62, blandilo-
quentia Tr. 305, signitenentibus Tr. 132, velivolan-
tibus Tr. 89. On the other hand, wc must not pass
over the final portions of the composite words most
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 137
frequently in use, especially as they lend the words
their typical stamp, and set the stereotyped patterns
of word-formation to which the following genera-
tions of Roman poets conform : for the latter made
it their object not so much to find new derivative
syllables, as to connect these with new word-stems.
The following are the principal of these: somis,
loqutts, volus, genus, fragzis, comus, fiats, dicus,
sequus, raptis, captis, legits, fttgus, pettts, pants,
gradus, spicus, vagtts, premus, V077ius, iugus, tents,
crepits, fer, ger, canens, potens, parens, volans, 7nanus,
color, modits, etc. The poets of the Augustan and
of the post-Augustan periods followed the precedent
of the older poets, so that a large number of new
formations arose, modelled on the pattern of those
already in use.
Thus, to quote a single example, Latin literature
displays about 170 compounds ending in fer, and
about 80 in ger, of which the following make their
first appearance in the Aeneid: calli-, coni-, fati-,
fumi-, legi-, 7nali-, olivi-,paci-, somni-, sopori-fer-, all-,
turri-ger; while Ovid shows 29 new formations in
fer, and 9 in ger, which the following words seem
to be employed by him alone : aerifer, alifer, arun-
difer, bipenjiifer, caditcifer, chimaerifer, cory^nbifer,
citpressifer, gramifer, herbifer, papyrifer, popitlifer,
racemifer, sacrifer, secttrifer^ tae difer, tridentifer,
htrrifer-, bicorniger, penatiger, tridentiger.
85. Composition was not, however, the only pro-
cess whereby new words were created; derivation
played its part as well. In this process also Cicero
138 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
assigns greater liberty to the poets than to the
orators. He writes, Or. 20, 6S : " Ego autem, etiamsi
quorundam grandis et ornata vox est poetarum,
tamen in ea . . . Hcentiam statuo maiorem esse
quam in nobis faciendorum iungendorumque ver-
borum." Thus Horace forms from ci7ictus the ad-
jective cincttihis (Ars Poet. 50), from iuvenis the
verb mvenari (Ars Poet. 246), from ampulla, am-
pullari (E^. i, 3, 14); Vergil among others gesta77teny
affatus, latrator, nimbosus, fumeus, cristahts, crinalis,
stridulus, sternax,acervare\ Ovid is particularly fond
of coining new adjectives in -alls, -abilis, -eus, -osus,
and verbal substantives in us of the fourth declen-
sion, as well as in -a7nen and -ii7ie7i, which lend
themselves better to the exigences of metre than
those in -alio and -itio, e.g., pacalis, agitabilis, dttbita-
bilis, narratus, si77izila77ieii: Martial has celebrator,
do7'77iito7% esu7^itor, pa7ia7Holuiit. Greek terminations,
too, are attached to Latin stems, and in this way
hybrid stems were created as Scipiddes (Lucr. iii,
1032, etc.), Me77mimdae (Lucr. i, 26), Stoicidae (Juv.
ii, 65).
86. Further, the poet possesses an inexhaustible
source of novelties in the domain of word-significa-
tion. In this process he may give free rein to his
fancy : he may exhibit his poetical genius in the
most brilliant way, " Dixeris egregie, notum si
callida verbum Reddiderit iunctura novum " (Ars
Poet. 47). Horace himself gives in the same Ars
Poetica, verse 49, an example of this maxim in the
use of indicium. Again, such terms as corripere
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 139
viam (Verg. Aen. i, 418) are new, as are exigere " to
beg news'* (Aen. i, 309), memorare (Aen. i, 631),
resequi{Ov. Met. vi, 36) "to answer": the important
question of metaphors, too, comes into considera-
tion in this connection.
^j. Side by side with these changes, the syntax
of the poets was enriched by a larger number of
new constructions. They often seem purposely to
make a new departure from the methods of prose-
writers: otherwise what reason was there for
changing the moods followed respectively by qua^n-
quam and quamvis, and connecting the latter with
the indicative, and the former with the conjunctive?
For what other possible reason could Catullus, Ti-
bullus, Propertius, and Horace have purposely
avoided utrum . . . an, and have substituted an . . .
an, ne . . . ne, or Vergil have written seu . . . seu
(Aen. i, 287, etc.), requirmit . . . seu vivere credent,
sive extrema patP. In most cases such novel methods
of expression are analogical formations after ancient
Roman or Greek models, though it is often hard
to trace the exact source of the thought that in-
spired the innovation. It was once the fashion to
explain these new phenomena in language as due
solely to Greek influence; at present there is an
inclination to fall into the opposite mistake, of
referring these wherever possible to old Roman
methods of speech. Probably the right path lies
mid-way. There can be no doubt that the Greek
language in many cases gave the impulse, and
there can be no doubt either that this impulse
I40 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
was followed more readily when old Roman forms
of language were at hand to support it: in other
words when the "feeling for language" was not
outraged.
The fact that verbs expressive of willing admitted
a simple infinitive to follow them [as in Romance] is
explained by the analogy of ittbere, vetare, and other
verbs which admitted of such constructions from the
earliest times: at the same time it is probable that
Greek influence was a factor in this construction.
Less doubtful still is it that Greek influence was at
work in combinations like maior videri " more stately
to behold," niveus videri, "white to look at" = /xf/i^w^,
Afuxo? \U<T^xi [cf " vultus nimium lubricus adspici,"
Hor. Od. i, 19, 8]: "cernere erat," e.g., in Aen.
vii, 596, reminds us of y\v 'i^C^v. "quem virum aut
heroa lyra vel acri Tibia sumis celebrare Clio?" of
a.lpB'ia-^cni, Si§ovxi with the infinitive : " Pelidae cedere
nescii," "puer dignus cantari," remind us of ^>ca^of
and a^jof with the infinitive. More manifest still is
foreign influence in places like Catullus, iv, 2 :
" phaselus ille ... ait fuisse navium celerrimus," or
Vergil, Aen. iv, 305 : " dissimulare sperasti "; in these
cases the true Latin feeling for language would
lead us to expect the accusative and infinitive. In
the same way constructions like " sensit delapsus "
(Aen. ii, 377), or "gaudent scribentes" in Horace,
Ep. ii, 2, 107, remind us of Greek constructions
like x*»'/!w ajtouVa? : but more than all the infinitive
of the perfect used in the sense of the present in-
finitive — as in Propertius, i, i, 15: "ergo velocem
potuit domuisse puellam " : and in Tibullus, i, 10, 6 1 :
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 141
" sit satis . . . rescindere vestem, Sit satis ornatus
dissoluisse comae," cf. i, i, 29, 45, and M. Haupt in
Belger's " Biographic," p. 233.
The treatment of cases is not unHke that of the
treatment of moods. The so-called Greek accusative
and dative, which belongs chiefly to Roman poetry,
and, as its name indicates, was referred exclusively
to a Greek origin, existed even in old Latin, This
fact could not but encourage later poets to employ
on a larger scale the construction which was so
much favoured in Greek. Hence Ovid employs this
dative more commonly than the ablative with ab,
and it occurs in Silius Italicus about a hundred and
fifty times as against twenty cases of the ablative
employed with ab. On the other hand certain
phrases appear to be direct copies of Greek idioms:
such are desinere querelarum (Hon Od. ii, 9, 18),
desistere ptignae (Aen. x, 441) = a^tVT«(70at' th/o?,
solvere operum (Hor. Od. iii, 17, i6) = aTroAJfji/ tjvc?,
inirari laborum (Aen. xi, 126) = OaU|aa^ni/ -zivd t»i/o?,
and again regnare populorum (Hor. Od. iii, 30, 12),
and ctipere alicuius in Plautus (Mil. 964) may be
formed on the analogy of ol^t-xjuv, iTri^ufj^uT/; though the
construction regent, cupidzcm esse, may have sug-
gested them : cf. eius videndi aipidus in Terence,
Hec. iii, 3, 12. And when Horace, in the passage
quoted from the Ars Poetica in § 86, in speaking
of the enrichment of language by the poet [Ars
Poet. 56] writes invideor for mihi invidetur, it is
obvious that he is copying the Greek <p6oi/oujaa» (from
(pOoi/a^ T»n). [Of course the exigences of metre had
here to be considered. Cf. too the construction of
142 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
imperor, Epp. i, 5, 21, and in Verg. Aen. ii, 247,
" non unqiiam credita Teucris "].
%^. These, then, are the main features of the
diction of the Roman poets as exhibited in their
works. They convince us that these poets have
worked with plenty of goodwill and honest effort,
but that their strength was no match for that of
the Greeks, and their language again could not com-
pare in elegance with that of their Hellenic teachers.
The assertion may fairly be made about the Roman
poets which Lessing, at the end of his " Ham-
burgische Dramaturgic," makes about himself: viz.,
that these poets have no eye for the living source
which by its innate power springs upwards with rich,
fresh, and clear rays : but that they find themselves
constrained to squeeze their outpourings from them-
selves by dint of water-pipes and pressure. Even
the most honoured bards of the grand era of Au-
gustus were in the main gifted with talent rather
than genius. While Horace says : " Graiis ingenium,
Graiis dedit ore rotundo Musa loqui," it must be
admitted that the nation which called even the
set form in which war was declared a "Carmen"
was by nature rather intended for prose than verse,
and that it has indeed attained to a high pitch of
eloquence in oratory. But it is not alone in the
bent of the Latin national poets that we have to
look for the faultiness of their expression, but in the
essence of the Latin lancruacfe itself. This lanofuaore
was a hard metal, only to be worked by dint of
much toil and pains, and it justified the complaint
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 143
made in "the legend of Pilate" regarding the Ger-
man language * : its toughness renders it an unfit
instrument for poetry, but it must be treated like
steel which is hammered on the anvil till soft; it
requires toil and labour to render it malleable.
* For "the Legend of Pilatus," see "Die geistliche Dichtung
des Mittelalters," Zweiter Teil, " Die Legenden und die Deutsche
Ordensdichtung," bearbeitet von Prof. Dr. Paul Piper, Berlin,
Spemann, p. 24.
IV
The Language of the Latin People
89
ONLY a few years ago the conviction was pre-
valent in Germany that the language of the
people had, by a process of mutilation and decay,
developed out of the language of the educated classes.
This view is at the present day superseded, mainly
owing to the works of Klaus Groth, who has shown
by irresistible proofs that dialect is not a caricature of
cultivated language, but is in fact the marble block
out of which the language of culture is hewn. The
views of scholars have come to a similar conclusion
with regard to the popular dialect of the Romans.
The conviction is forced upon us that the relation-
ship of daughter and mother, by which it was cus-
tomary to illustrate that of vulgar to cultured Latin,
is in this case inapplicable. Vulgar Latin cannot
indeed have taken its rise by the simple process of
vulofarizinor the idiom of the better educated classes;
rather are both idioms to be regarded as the child-
ren of a common mother, viz.. Old Latin.* They
* "What we call Vulgar Latin is the speech of the middle
classes as it grew out of Early Classic Latin. It is not an inde-
pendent offshoot of old Latin; it continues the Classic, not the
primitive, vowel system. Neither is it the dialect of the slums or
of the fields; grammarians tell us of not a few urban and rustic
144
LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER, ETC. 145
thus are related collaterally, and neither preceded
the other, but they lived side by side. At the same
time it remains doubtful whether they were locally
separate, i.e., whether one idiom was prevalent in
Rome, while another was spoken in the Latin dis-
tricts (cf. B. Maurenbrecher, " Jahrbucher f. Philol,"
1892, p. 204), or whether we are justified in suppos-
ing with Schuchardt that the degree of education
professed by the speaker or writer was responsible
for his linoruistic usag^e. Between the two extremes
— the written language and the popular — stands the
language of conversation, for which we may regard
Cicero's Letters and the Epistles and Satires of
Horace as our main authorities. Just as Quintilian,
the erudite professor of rhetoric, loved to discard the
stately stiffness of the language of the professorial
chair (xii, 10, 40) and employed that of the ser7no
cotidianus {co7isuetudo), so does Cicero express him-
self "Quid tibi ego videor in epistulis? Nonne
plebeio sermone agere tecum? Epistulas vero coti-
dianis verbis texere solemus" (Ad Fam. ix, 21, i).
One of the most characteristic examples of this
familiar conversational language is to be found in
Cicero's letter to Atticus (i, 16), with its loose con-
nection of sentences, its terse and sketchy style : its
ellipses, puns, and proverbial turns, its exaggera-
tions and its frequent emphatic asseverations. How-
vulgarisms that are not perpetuated in the Romance tongues.
It is distinct from the consciously polite utterance of cultivated
society, from the brogue of the country, and from the slang of
the lowest quarters of the city, though affected by all of these." —
(Grandgent, "Vulgar Latin," § 3; cf. also Olcott, "Studies in the
word formation of Latin inscriptions," Rome, 1898, p. xi, § i.)
L
146 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
ever, the most important sources of vulgar Latin
are the writings of the Patristic Fathers, the Ro-
mances, the Comedies; and also writers on special
subjects, like Vitruvius and the later Jurists, the
writings of Petronius, the " Bellum Hispaniense,"
the " Bellum Africum," etc.
90. At the time when Roman literature came into
life, the popular dialect had already suffered con-
siderable losses in respect of its sounds. The ter-
minal sounds of words were particularly exposed to
such atrophy : the d of the singular in the termina-
tions dd, od, ed, id, etc., had fallen away, m, s, and t
were in process of disappearing {see Corssen, " Voca-
lismus," i, 294) : Vowels were abbreviated or cast off,
in medial syllables they were syncopated, or again
were inserted to avoid harsh sounds. All these
changes owed their origin mainly to the conditions
of the pitch accent. For the more strongly the
accentuated syllable was uttered, the less power of
articulation remained for the unaccented syllable
which followed it, and this was accordingly more or
less mutilated.
Other readjustments followed: m and n, when they
preceded their kindred labial or dental sounds, lost
their ancient force and were sometimes not pro-
nounced at all, sometimes pronounced less forcibly.
In the same way the contraction of diphthongs into
simple sounds was noticeable. The sounds ei, eu, ou,
ai, oi had already, in the " Prisca Latinitas," shrunk
to I, H, ae, and oe, but now ae sunk to e, and au to o
{e.g., sodes = si audes). It is to this sound-change that
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 147
the gens Plotia and gens Clodia, which hived off
from the Plautii and the Claudii, owe the form of
their name. In certain cases this weakening process
has spread even to the classic language, e.g., in ex-
plodo compared with applaudo, and in Lotus with
lautits. The uncertainty which even educated Ro-
mans attached to the pronunciation of the au in
Cicero's time is well shown by the illegitimate in-
trusion of this sound in the word origa (from oreae,
i.e., hadenae: the bridle which drags at the mouth).
For even assuming that the form auriga owes its
form to popular etymology which refers it to aureus
or to auris, still when used by the educated Ro-
man it makes on us the same impression as the form
Kauscher for Koscher in the mouth of the half-
educated German [there was the same tendency
to pronounce osculum, ausculuni]. Both changes are
referable to the efforts made to avoid plebeian pro-
nunciation, and to ignorance of etymology.
91. From the beginning of the first century on-
wards the confusion spread ever wider and identified
the pronunciation of v and b (hence the French
avoir = habere), of ^ and x (hence O. Fr. samit,
velvet = l^ocfj-iTov, from i^ and ju»Tof, six-threaded stuff),
of i and e, of u and 0, while cL, pt, sc, in medial syl-
lables, are often reduced to tt and ss, and in the case
of words commencing with s and consonant, the
opening sound, or anlaut, was preserved by the sub-
stitution of an inserted vowel (hence French etait,
O. Fr. cstait = stabat, and SpSe = espee = spatJia\
In most of these changes it is obvious that a dis-
148 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
position to ease pronunciation and a desire to spare
trouble assert themselves. The masses like to save
their breath; they are shy of long words, and where
they meet with sound groups hard to pronounce,
which they cannot manage to employ off-hand and
with ease, they simplify them, and thus suit them to
their articulation.
92. This trait is also markedly prominent in
verbal inflexion. Ordinary persons are not prone to
prolonged reflexion : they do not trouble to master
the variety and multipHcity of inflexional forms;
they are averse to a multitude of nominal and verbal
endings. They are content with the differentiation
of the word-stem comprising the meaning of the
word, and they drop the terminations as soon as
possible; these are, after all, of merely secondary
importance. Nowhere has analogy such large and
wide play as in the language of the people; no-
where is the tendency towards a certain definite
uniform model so marked. Thus the strong {i.e.,
consonantal) conjugation has suffered considerable
losses at the cost of the denominatival in -are, -ere,
and -ire. Not merely is the future in most of the
verbs formed in -abo, -ebo, and -ibo, but many verbs
pass wholesale into the vowel conjugation: instead
oi fodere, consteritere, spernere, we find fodare, con-
sternare, spernarc: the form moriri so common in
Plautus ( = Fr. mourir)^' for the classical form mori,
has even found its way into the Metamorphoses of
Ovid, xiv, 215. Reduplication, so seldom found in
* Ital. morirc.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 149
classical Latin, almost disappears, so that ciirri takes
the place of cucurri.
93. Similar phenomena are also to be seen in the
case of the declensions. A large number of con-
sonantal stems have passed into the first or second
declension by the addition of a or o. This holds
good of foreign words also, e.g., Ci'oiona = Croton,
Troezena = Troezen, Hellada = Hellas, lanipada =
lampas, atilona = anion, onycha = 07zyx, as well as of
genuine Latin words; e.g., of Cassida = Cassis^
retium = rete, etc. The Greek neuters in -ma, and
neuter -s stems in -us were treated more simply still
by analogy with the termination of the nominative
case; they were treated as feminine nouns of the
first, or sometimes as masculine nouns of the second;
diadema, diade^nae; plasma, plasmae; temptis, tempi \
corpus, corpi; hence we get Italian plural forms like
tempi, e.g., in the proverb tempi passati. In other
cases the genitive case gives the impulse to the
change: hence we find nominatives like ladis and
falcis substituted for lac and falx. A remarkable
uniformity established itself in the proper names
belonging to the masculine as well as the feminine
gender: most of these assumed the metaplastic forms
in -tis and -nis; more particularly nomina propria in
-es, -as, -is, -os, -e, and -a; Agathoclenis (nom.
Agatkocles) ; Niceronis (nom. Niccros) ; Hermionctis
(nom. Hermione); Felicianetis (nom. Feliciana).
Irregular case-forms, such as those in -izis and -i —
the genitive and dative of the pronominal second
declension — were for the most part discarded and
I50 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
replaced by "regular" forms; e.g., totae = totius,
nullo = ntdli. Generally speaking, exceptions in
every form were banned from use : thus the mascu-
lines of the third declension in -is, such 2.s finis and
pulvis, became feminine under the influence of this
termination, which is mainly characteristic of femi-
nines : hence the French la fin and la potidre —
neuters crumbled away in large numbers : they were
mostly converted into substantives of the masculine
or feminine gender, a circumstance which has led to
the almost complete disappearance of the neuter in
the Romance languages. It is easy to understand
that this concentration of the genders was greatly
helped by the disappearance of the terminal con-
sonants; if -tLs and -um in the second declension
were pronounced in the same way, it was not a
difficult process to reduce the words of the second
declension to uniformity in gender also; in which
process the stronger masculine gained the day.
94. As' in its inflexions, so in its word formations,
vulgar Latin exhibits a strong tendency to uniformity.
Thus the adverbial termination, -iter, which in classi-
cal Latin is almost exclusively employed for deriva-
tives of adjectives of the third declension, spreads
to those of the second declension, as aeguiter,
amoc7titer, amiciter {q.{. Osthoff, " Archiv fur Lexiko-
graphie," iv, 455 and 99), Neue, " Formenlehre," ii, 2,
653 sqq-
The followincr terminations were much favoured:
-7)ionia, -inonium {Iristimonia, viiseriuiomttm), -tna
[collifia, calcina, lapsina), -menhiin [ltistrameniii?ny
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 151
odoramentujn, decor amenhmi), -ela (fuge/a, hiela),
-ntia (nascentia, crescentia, resonantia); and again,
personal names ending in -0 and -onis are in constant
use, such as agaso, balatro, caupo. Adjectives in
-His, -bills, -eus, -aster are as plentiful as leaves in
Vallombrosa, cf. Wolfflin, " Archiv fiir Lexiko-
graphie," xii, 419): -Idtis is also a very common
termination : and we find many so-called factitive
words, especially such as come from adjectives in
-ficus, such as ^nagnljlcare and paclficare, and -Idus,
such as frlgldare, candldare. Inchoative verbs are
also extraordinarily popular in vulgar Latin (see
K. Sittl. " De Latinae Linguae Verbi Inchoativis,"
'* Archiv fiir Lexikogr." i, 465-532); and these have
multiplied with interest in the Romance languages,
and notably in Italian. Verbs in -lllare are also
favourites (cf. A. Funck, loc. citat. N. 68, 223 sgq.),
as are desideratives in -urlo, which it may be noted
are avoided by Ouintilian, Tacitus, the younger
Pliny, and also by Livy (who has only the form
parturlo); but such forms occur with great frequency
in comedy, satire, letters, in Petronius, Martial, and
Apuleius, while they have almost disappeared from
the Romance languages (vide loc. cltat., i, 408 sqq.).
Finally there are certain verbs derived from super-
latives like approximare, tiltwtare, Infimare, which
seem to be a special characteristic of African Latin
(vide loc. cltat., \\, 355 sqq). It may be argued that
these features of vulgar Latin seem to imply a cer-
tain monotony and uniformity; still, we cannot over-
look the fact that the luxuriant prodigality and the
ultimate triumph of such new formations are evidence
152 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
of a vitality and propelling force of language quite
foreign to the genius of classical Latin which,
like other literary dialects, remains artificially barri-
caded against outside influences. At the same time,
the terminations mentioned testify that vulgar Latin
prefers strength and weight to weakness and lack
of energy: hnstimonia is fuller toned and more
effective than tristitia, niiserimonium than miseria,
duriter than dure. It is also worth while remark-
ing that these forms, like others, seem to have de-
veloped differently in different localities, e.g., the
abstract-sufhx -itia i^-ezza) was much used in Italy,
while Spain prefers -ura, and France, at least in
early times, -tas (sanU = sanitatem). (Cf Meyer-
Lubke, ''Archiv fur Lexikogr." viii, 313-338,
especially p. 336).*
95. We may naturally expect that the syntax of
vulgar Latin will in its turn afford plenty of ex-
amples of a tendency towards uniformity in the
shaping of constructions. The vulgar dialect mani-
fests a clear effort to simplify the existing relations
of a complex sentence. The ablative absolute gains
ground at the expense of the verb with the con-
junctive particle, and, in the place of the accusative
and infinitive, sentences with quod appear with in-
creasing frequency.
As early as Petronius and the author of the
" Bellum Hispanicum " we find traces of this change:
at a later period it manifests itself very strongly in
* See Olcott, " Word Formation," pp. 75, 80, and Grandgent,
" Introduction to Vulgar Latin," p. 20.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 153
the writings of the African Fathers, especially of
Tertullian : of the poets, Commodian was the first to
adopt it. In P"rench qitod (in the shape of que,
"that") has almost completely displaced the old
construction (cf. G. Mayen, " De Particulis Quod
&c. . . . positis," Kiel, 1889, and '* Archiv fiir
Lexikogr." viii, 148). It also happens that verba
sentiendi et declarandi are parenthetically inserted
or merely connected paratactically, according to the
usage in modern languages, " You are ill, I fear,"
" Tu es malade, je le crois." As early as Plautus,
and also among other old Latin authors, we find
this usage attached to the following words obsecro —
amabo (cf. Lindskog, " Quaestiones de Parataxi et
Hypotaxi apud Priscos Latinos," Lund, 1897, pp. 7
sqq^. The so-called dubitative subjunctive gives
place more and more to the indicative : " cui dono
hunc librum ? " takes the place of the classically
regular "cui donem?" Many impersonal verbs are
treated like personal ones : paenites stands instead of
te paenitet. In the speech of the educated, where
the words alter, qtiisque, unus, uterque are employed,
the substantive is commonly attached in the same
case; so in the lingua vulgaris with maxima pars
{homines), etc. As early as Cato we meet with
accusatives like id genus, hoc genus, 07jt7ie ge7ius,\n-
stead of an attributive genitive with a substantive,
eg., " libri huius generis," " libri eius modi " (see
Schmalz " Lat. Syntax," in J. Mtiller's " Handbuch,"
ii, 274).
96. Even in the matter of word signification, the
154 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
tendency to consult convenience is clearly to be
seen. There are certain wide receptacles into which
everything possible is packed. Such receptacles are
words of quite ordinary signification, which are in
every one's mouth, and which come ready to hand
at a moment's notice. Such is the word machen in
German. Whoever wants to travel to Berlin macht
(is making) for it: commercial travellers make (are
dealing) in cigars : a common greeting is " Was
machst du?" For "to open" and "to shut," the
German idiom is " to make open " and " to make
shut": for to blame "to make lower," for to split
wood "to make wood," etc.* Similarly in Latin,
facere in the vulgar idiom signifies (i) aesiimare:
(2) to travel, se facere Romam: (3) as a medical term
curare: again (4) cacare and (5) coire: (6) sero
facit — the French il se fait tard: f (7) mcnquam
facit tale fngus (L. Augustin, serm. 25, 3) — Una
ja7nais fait aussi froid. But it is particularly used
in connection with an infinitive, e.g., stoniachari vie
fecisti,X or in connecting words like liquc-facere so
as to form factitive words, in which Latin is some-
what defective.
From Lucretius to Ovid this usage is rare, but in
Tertullian, Cyprian, and their contemporaries, it is
very common (cf. Ph. Thielmann, " Facere mit
Infinitiv"; "Archiv fur Lexikogr."iii, 1 17 ff.; Deecke,
* Cf. the uses of the Engh'sh "to do" in "How do you do?"
"do you see?" "to do up," "to do honour to," "to do away
with," etc.
t ^o facit se hora quifita, Bechtel, 126, quoted by Grandgent,
§ 114-
X Cf. "ecce Pater fecit Filium nasci de vergine," ib., § 117.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 155
'' Facere wnA fieri in ihrer Komposition mit anderen
Verben," Strassburg, 1873). The same tendency is
manifest in the treatment of substantives. Many
conceptions occurring in the daily life of the ordinary
man form the starting-point of new terms which are,
in fact, simply adjectival attributes used as substan-
tives. Thus there were different kinds of vestes, such
as alba, nigra, dalmatica : and each of these epithets
was used as a new substantive. As the connection
in which these words were used excluded any pos-
sible misunderstanding, and as, in addition, the
meaning and gender of the adjective indicate the
way in which the word is intended to be understood,
the substantive was for convenience' sake merely
dropped. In this way arose the numerous ellipses
in which the vulgar idiom delights, e.g.,ferina,por-
cina {caro), terliana, qttartana {fedris), decuma
{pars).
97. Finally we have to remember the borrowed
words in Latin, for in these the popular desire for
convenience and ease appears in a very marked
way. The educated portion of a nation frequently
imitates with elaborate conscientiousness the pro-
nunciation of a foreign word introduced into their
language, and faithfully reproduces all its sounds.
Not so the masses: they follow the promptings of
their own mind. For the plain man, no peculiar
sanctity attaches to these strange words ; no law of
the Medes and Persians forbids his remodelling
them or changing them at his caprice. In their
sounds and combinations of sounds no two Ian-
156 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
guages are exactly similar; sounds assume different
characters to suit each nation's idiosyncrasy. Hence
it is often a matter of difficulty for the borrowing
nation to reproduce the borrowed expressions in
their correct pronunciation. But the people have no
great scruple in shaping anew, to suit the require-
ments of their own language, what occurs to them
as harsh; in some cases by dropping certain sounds,
in others by modifying unmanageable sounds into
more familiar ones. It follows as a matter of course
that those words suffer the most mutilation in which
the phonetic differences of the two idioms are most
marked. " All languages," says Jacob Grimm in the
Introduction to his German Dictionary, p. xxvi,
" if they are in a natural and healthy state, possess
an innate tendency to exclude foreign elements,
and if these persist in intruding, to oust them
again, or else to identify them with native ele-
ments. No single language is capable of giving ex-
pression to all possible sounds, and all languages
reject such as are unnecessary, finding them a mere
incumbrance. If by any chance a foreign word falls
into the current of a language, it is tossed and
pitched till it takes the same hue, and, in defiance
of its alien stock, looks like a native product."
98. The terminations of words like Ulixes =
'0(J'L/(3-(r£jf, and Perses = Ilfpa-fu?, are explained by the
want of the diphthong cu in old Latin : the lack of
sounds exactly answering to the Greek aspirates,
including <^, accounts for their representation in
Latin by the tenues/, c, t, and the spirant s, ss:
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 157
hence purpura = 7rop(p)jpa, tus = Ou'o?, malacisso = (j.cx,Xa,-
Ki^u, etc. It is true that classical Latin did take
over the words which had established themselves in
archaic Latin, accepting them in their established
form; in the case of new borrowings, however, it
permitted no such transformations, but clung with
servile care to the original, and rendered sound for
sound. Jacob Grimm is completely wrong when in
his treatise on the pedantic element in the German
language (" Kleine Schriften," i, 344) he regards
this trait of pedantry as specifically German : rather
is it characteristic of all written languages as con-
trasted with the language of the people. The names
of towns which found their way into German owing
to commercial and other intercourse before the rise
of the High German written language, plainly show
the stamp of popular handling. Milan is called not
Milano but Mailand: Venezia is called Venedig:
Paris is called Paris : Brussels is not called Brux-
elles, but Briissel. On the other hand, the Germans
of the present day affect such pronunciations for
Niagara as would be rendered in German Neiagara.*
And it is much the same in Latin — Paeshim =
rioo-fiJ^wi/ia, Carthago = keret chadeschet (Newtown),
Sipontuni = StTrou?, Massilia = Moca-crxXix, etc. And
we may contrast with these the names of most o
the towns in European and Asiatic Greece, which
came to be known in Rome through literary chan-
nels only. But the procedure was the same in other
words, and not merely with place names: for in-
* Just so we talk of Leghorn, and sailors speak of the Bellero-
phon as the Billy Ruffian.
158 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
stance, in German we have the popular form ordnen
by the side of the literary form ordiniereji, both bor-
rowed from or dinar e\ schreiben as against reskri-
bieren, to write back; opfern as against offeriren,
dichten as against diktieren, trumpfen as against
triumpJiieren . *
In Latin the old form massa represented juafa,
but the later literary Latin preferred the form maza.
In Plautus we find exanclare — k^a,vi:K{ly: the later
form antlia represents the Greek ai/rA/a.f
99. But the people went even a step farther. Not
content with merely transforming the sounds to suit
their own convenience, they endeavoured in many
cases to read into the borrowed word a similarity of
meaning with some word in their own vocabulary.
Here we come to a new kind of transformation. In
the former process the people merely consulted their
own convenience in pronunciation, but the new
process manifests a wish to render the language
clear and perfectly intelligible.
The popular ear catches sometimes in foreign
idioms what seem to be echoes of native words, and
the result is not unfrequently a complete change and
reconstruction of the word. The uneducated man
feels unconsciously and without reflection that the
expressions which he employs are no empty sound :
the name of a thing cannot be a mere dead " sign "
because (to use Steinthal's words, " Geschichte der
* We may compare in English, order ordination and ordain ;
trump and triumph; proctor and procurator,
t " A pump"; used by Martial, 9, 19.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 159
Sprachwissenschaft bei Griechen und Romern," p. 5)
forhim the factof hearing'anameimplies its existence:
he thinks of the thing imphed in the word, and hence
it happens that to his mind word and thing- are one
— but he has no idea of worrying himself about the
real origin of the word or of groping after its etymo-
logy; in fact, owing to his ignorance of the historical
development of language he is in no position to
elucidate such points. His transformations of words
are instinctive,* and wholly unscientific. Of course
it may well seem in such cases that the sound of
words thus created does not tally with the concep-
tion intended. In practice, however, we all know
from daily experience what the words do actually de-
note: it is the power of usage which stamps on them
the hall mark of propriety, and the sound of the
word rings true. It has been said of the German
language (O. Jaenicke, " Zeitschrift fiir Gymnasial-
wesen," xxv, p. 753): "The people treat foreign
words, both with regard to their accentuation and to
their capricious transformations, almost as casually
as they did a thousand years ago." This judgement
holds good of all languages and of all times. At all
times and in all places the people have accommo-
* " The nation always thinks that the word must have an idea
behind it. So what it does not understand it converts into what
it does; it transforms the word until it can understand it. Thus,
words and names have their forms altered, e.g. the French ecre-
visse becomes in English crawfish, and the heathen god Svantevit
was changed by the Christian Slavs into St. Vitus, and the
Parisians converted Mons Martis into Mont-martre." — (Steinthal,
in Goldzihers' " Mythology among the Hebrews," quoted by A. S.
Palmer, " Introduction to Folk Etymology," p. xix.)
i6o LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
dated foreign sound-groups to their own usages.
And it follows that Forstemann was emphatically
right when he spoke of this linguistic proceeding as
"popular etymology." A few examples may serve
to illustrate our meaning.
lOO. The lower Italian- Greek town MaXo/'sig (from
the Doric y.a,xov, Attic fxriXou, apple, hence signifying
Apple-town) was in the first instance converted in
the mouth of the Roman into Maleventum. This was
commonly understood by the Latins as a word com-
pounded of vialus and ventus, and it came to be
regarded as the name of a town of bad weather.*
But no sooner was Pyrrhus defeated here, and good
fortune set in, than it seemed only fitting to change
the ill-omened name to Beneventum.f So o^ii-xjx.Xy.ov
(tin) influenced by aurtmt became aurichalcum:
xrpvxsiov (Dorian form xa,pv>i£iov) under the influence of
cadere \cadticus\ caduceus\ 'Axpaya?, Agrigentum,
fancifully connected with agerX; Uspa-KpUr, was turned
into Proserpina, for she favoured the growth of
plants from the earth [pro-serpere) ; JIoAuJ^suxk?
was conceived of as the bright star from pollucere.%
* Storm town ; but may it not have been popularly connected
with male ventum, from veniol
t Cf. the change oi" kUivoq into Euxinus.
X We may compare the transformation of Bocage Walk into
Birdcage Walk, and of L'Enfant en Castille into Elephant and
Castle.
§ This word means "to bring as an offering," and the deriva-
tion from luceo is not certain. The meaning may in the first in-
stance have been understood as the "favouring" or "appeased"
deity.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE i6i
From Celeddon, brushwood, the native Cehic name
of Scotland, was made the name Caledonia, as if
from ^«/zrt!?^5^ = " warm-land " ; and out of the neigh-
bouring Ireland (Celtic Erin, Greek 'Ie/jv») by asso-
ciation with Iver?iia, was made Hidernia, "the
winter land." The Pennine Alps (from Ce\x\c pen, a
head) were connected with the Poeni, and the name
was said to bear witness to the passage of the Car-
thaginians over this part of the Alps. We know,
too, that the Graian Alps were alleged to bear their
name in memory of Greeks who were supposed to
have settled there. Regium (strictly speaking Rhe-
gium='^-^yiov, a cleft) suggested a connection with
regius, "Royal town" : percontari, from coiitus a pole,
to explore the depth of water, was perverted into
percunctari, and connected with cunctus: and if
palnia, the palm, is borrowed from the Phoenician
tamar, tomer,^ with anlaut as in pavo = ro<.uq,'\ the
notion of the flat hand contained inpalma may have
contributed to this result. " The game of Troy," so
popular in Rome from Sulla's time down to that of
Nero, which seems to have derived its name from
the word troare or truare = o-aAsuo-aj [properly to move
with a ^rua or trowel], was in the time of Augustus
fancifully connected with the town Troja, whence
the Julian dynasty drew their origin.;!;
The name of the aborigines of Italy is probably
* Or Padmar; cf. Palmyra, Tadtnor.
t Both Oriental loanwords.
J Cf. the derivation of the French ^ruie, a sow, from Troja =
the pregnant sow, suggesting the Trojan house full of armed
warriors.
M
i62 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
a mere transformation of a word less understood,
Aurunci — Atisonici.^
The construction of the Tullianum, the well-known
subterranean state prison of the Romans, was
ascribed by the Roman legend to Servius Tullius.
As a matter of fact the word comes from Tullius, a
spring or source, and it indicates, originally, the
spring of water in that prison. The quarter of Rome
called Argiletum, mentioned in Aen. viii, 345, was
commonly alleged by the ancients to have received
its title from the fact that a certain Argos had found
his death there {Argi-letuni)\ but there is no doubt
whatever that it takes its name from the clay pans
in the vicinity, Argiletum from a7gilla.\ We are
expressly told that the names of the towns Nequi-
num and Epidamnus, owing to the ill-omened sug-
gestions of nequam and damnum, were changed into
Narnia (Nar-town) and Dyrrhachium.
The myth of the nursing of the twins Romulus
and Remus by a wolf is to be explained not by the
fact that the wolf was sacred to Mars, but solely by
the similarity of the two words rtima, rumis, rume7i
(udder), and Rumo, the oldest name of the Tiber
and of the city of Rome (7??^///^ = stream, cf. pnu;
Roma = Streamtown), with Romulus = son of Stream-
town. By this means the origin of the stubborn
spirit and the unbridled strength of the Roman
people are at once symbolically denoted.;};
* Fredegar renders the German proper name Wintrio by
Quintio.
t Cf. the name Tuileries.
X Diaz thinks that tlie mid-Latin cecinus, a swan, got its name
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE i6
J
loi. To the tendency towards clearness and ease
of apprehension we may further ascribe many other
properties of vulgar Latin. The masses prefer in-
direct expressions and high-sounding, even strongly
exaggerated words. The man of the people loves to
fill his mouth with such expressions (cf J. Egli,
" Die Hyperbel in den Komodien des Plautus und
in Ciceros Briefen an Atticus, drei Gymnasial-pro-
gramme von Zug," 1891-1893). Every kind of
exaggeration in language, such as pleonasms, ad-
verbial expressions, derivations, intensives, and com-
position of words with particles of augmentative
force, enter into his utterances : coe/>z, with the
infinitive, replaced the so-called ingressive Aorist,
as " clamare coepit," "he burst into a cry"; for
simul and nunquam they preferred to say m7io
tempore, and nullo tempore ; also instead of noctiL and
mane, nocturno and mattitino tempore; for non, 7iullus
was often preferred, e.g., " is nullus venit."
For emere, the word comparare (Italian coinprare)
came into use as early as Plautus, and adcaptare
(French acketer) at a later period; instead of discere
they preferred to say apprehendcrc and wiparare.
The periphrastic phrases with dare ?ir\A/acere cimt
adiectivo, in place of the simple verb, were favourite
methods of expression.
A tendency to pleonasm is also manifested by
the usage of fici, fue7^a7}i, fuero, for sum, eram,
ero in the passive composite moods; and in the con-
nection of the present participle with esse, e.g., avians
from cicer, with reference to the excrescences on its bill. See
Palmer, p. 238.
i64 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
est instead of simple verb, ainat. The regular
addition of the personal pronouns ego, tu, nos, vos, to
the verbs, even in unemphatic positions, gives a
greater fullness to the language ; while the strength-
ening g&mtive:s,gentmm, loci, locorum, terrarum,^\.z.,
where places are defined, as in ubi genthim, lend
greater force to the language employed. Needless
to say, such drastic expressions 2iS fac abeas, instead
of the simple word abi, the more circumstantial
nescio qitis for aliquis, and the more emphatic tamen-
etsi=etsi are in perfect accord with the tendency of
the ordinary man to express himself with em-
phasis.
1 02. The strength of exaggeration manifests itself
with peculiar frequency in Latin negations. It is in-
credible how many changes it is possible to ring on
this theme; how many variations the fancy of the
common people can bring into play. In classical
Latin, as we all know, two negatives cancel each
other, or, it may be, result in making an affirmation
stronger; but in popular Latin, as indeed in the
common German idiom, in old English, and in
Greek, the multiplication of negatives is conceived
solely as a method of strengthening an affirmation.
And is there any possible object so insignificant as
not to have been utilized for the purpose of denoting
absolute nothineness ?
The German, to emphasize his negations, can say
" not a hair," " not a farthing," " not a rush," " not
a copper," " not an idea," " not a bean," " not a try,"
" not a trace." The Frenchman can say ne . . .J>cls,
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 165
"not a step"; ne . . . point, "not a point" (p2tnc-
ium), and nda7tt {no7i ens), etc.* Thus we cannot
object to the Roman if, besides m/ii/= ne-/it/um,
" not a thread," he employs ideas such as non natici,
Jlocci,pili, as sis, teruncii, hettae, etc., z-h^v facer e, in
the sense of " valuing at so much." Besides these,
we read in Plautus, Cicctim non inter duim, Rud.
580; granum tritici, Stich. IV, i, 52; pluma, Most.
II, i, 60; 71UX, Mil. II, iii, 45; digitus, Aul. I, i, 17;
triobolus, Rud. V, iii, 11, all employed in this sense.
We meet with the repetition of one and the same
substantive (especially with the relative pronoun) in
all periods of the popular dialect of Plautus, down to
that of late Latin, especially with locus, dies, and res.
And when an English peasant says " Your father,
he was my friend," why should It not be permitted
to the Roman peasant to say: " Pater tuus is erat
patruelis meus," or "pone aedem Castoris ibi sunt
homines".-*
103. Frequentative and intensive verbs in vulgar
Latin often take the place of their primitives. For
instance, agitare, pulsare (Fr. pousser), iactare (Fr.
Jeter), cantare (Fr. chanter), quassare (Fr. casser) are
used where classic writers are commonly content to
employ the simple verbs agere, pcllere, iacere, etc.,
just as in German, where similar Idioms are con-
fined mainly or exclusively to the language of the
people, such as lungern (to loaf), rankern (to plot),
drdngeln (to press — as we should say, to squash),
* Also ne mie^non mica. In English we say not a bit, not a
rap, not a scrap, not at all, not a fig, etc.
i66 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
etc.* Just as these verbal components were weakened
in their signification, so did the comparative and the
superlative frequently subside into simple positives ;
hence, in order to express degrees of comparison, the
addition of suffixes denoting a higher deofree or the
prefixing of augmentative adverbs was found neces-
sary. These peculiarities made their earliest appear-
ance in the cases of superlatives in -mus. In this
way such forms arose as proximior, postremiory
ininhnissimus, postremissimtLS, praeclarissimus, per-
paucissimi [cf. our Most Highest]. f On the other
hand, instead of comparison made by means of suf-
fixes, we find the custom of using periphrases with
adverbs such as valde, bene^ plane, satis, adeo, tarn,
sane, vekementer, fortiter, abiifide, nmiium, affatim,
7nultum. Such combinations as turpiter malevohis,
insanum mag^ius, hnmaniter arrogans, crudelitcr
ininiicus, are characteristic of these pleonasms. J
Again, both methods of gradation are found zon-
ne^cted, e.g., maximedignissimus, 7nagis utilior{Qo\\xm.
viii, 5, 5); and we must notice such exaggerations as
imniortaliter gaudeo (Cic. Ad Ouintum Fr. iii, i, 9),
immortales gratias {^X^iViO.. in Cic. Ad Fam. x, 1 1), and
pleonastic combinations such as niox deinde (Colum.
ii, I, 5), admodum 7timius (Joe. cit. iv, 21, 2).\
* Cf. such English expressions as to pitch away, to chuck, to
smash, etc.
t This usage was very common in Elizabethan English; cf.
Abbot's " Shakespcrean Grammar," § 11.
X With which we might compare such English conversational
exaggerations as awfully pretty, dreadfully ugly, terribly small,
etc.
§ Plautus has " moUior magis," "more tenderer," Aul. 422.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 167
The same principle is answerable for the substitution
of compounds containing one or more prepositions
for simple verbs; e.g., szifflarc (Fr. sotiffler) iox flare.
The latter had come to be felt as too unexpressive
and feeble; and the common people clamoured for
a stronger speech than the educated classes. Words
compounded with con and ad gained a wide popu-
larity; e.g., condignus, condenstts, condormire, com-
placere, conflare (Fr. gonfler), concastigare (found in
Plautus), assimilis, adaeque, accredere, etc. Similarly
monosyllabic prepositions were ousted by compound
ones, as abante = Fr. avant, desud = Fr. dessous. This
explains the fact that in Romance languages short
substantive stems either disappear as in the case of
reSy OS, 7mis, ius, sus, ver, or were lengthened by
means of suffixes, as spes (It. speme), vas (It. vasello),
lex (It. legge), dux (It. doge), nox (It. notte).
104. Further we must remark that the desire for
clearness entailed the substitution of cases * joined
with prepositions for the simple cases ; only this does
not arise from any weakening of signification; its
cause is to be sought in the gradual weathering off
and disappearance of the terminations, and in the
shedding of final consonants, such as m, s, d, t, etc.
By this process the relations between the governing
word and the mere inflexion fell into such confusion
that finally in order to arrange relations of syntax
and to promote definiteness in meaning, the usage
of defining words to take the place of inflexions was
* Cf. Grandgent, pp. 46 sqq.
i68 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
deemed necessary. This is specially true of de =
French de,^ which took the place of the genitive, and
indeed, even in old Latin was often substituted for
the partitive: oi adi^r. a) to express the dative; of
in to denote incidence of time, and of per and cum
to denote the means whereby, in other words, the
agent. Thus Muller, in the Pfalzburger Programm
for 1888, shows that in Sidonius Apollinaris ex
occurs much less frequently than de\ cf. too Clairin,
" Du genitif latin et de la preposition de," Paris,
1880.
We have thus approached the question of the
syntax of vulgar Latin which we have still to con-
sider briefly, as well as that of style. The language
of the people is, like many of its ways, harsh and
brusque, but is instinct with lively feeling, and is
simple and easy to understand. It knows nothing of
artistic combinations of periods; one thought connects
itself to another with the greatest 7idivet6. The heart,
and not the understanding, is the chief factor in the
arrangement of the periods employed by the common
man. His sentences are set paratactically, and in
the simplest form. All complications of language
are as far as possible avoided. Hence his style
leaves the impression of brevity and abruptness;
thoughts and sentences alike seem to be running
away, and not unfrequently to proceed by a series
of jumps, disregarding all logical continuity. And,
what is more, even the semblance of connection
is frequently enough very faint. The word and
plays a great part in the paratactic arrangement of
* Cf. Grandgent, p. 43.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 169
the sentences of the uneducated, though not unfre-
quently even this word is omitted. Oratio obliqua is
replaced by direct speech. If a peasant relates what
another has confided in him, he brings his interlo-
cutor before us as speaking the words in his own
person, so that we have him as in actual life before
our eyes, and can hear the words fall from his lips.
This artificial form is precisely that used by the
brothers Grimm in the composition of their Fairy
Tales.*
105. Abstract ideas and high-flown phrases are
unpopular with the man in the street. Not that he
is lacking in the power of expressing conceptions
remote from reality, and lying beyond the domain
of the senses, but rather that he fails to give what
We may call objective expression to his inner life
and ideas. His thoughts have so naturally come to
be identified with himself that he never comes to
reflect upon the nature of these thoughts at all. He
lives through the various circumstances of life with
his inner consciousness, without caring to appeal to
any exterior agency as accountable for their exist-
ence. He looks on life as bounded and conditioned
by his surroundings, and forms his views from those
surroundings: and thus it comes to pass that he
lends life and picturesqueness to his language by the
formation of numerous metaphors taken from the
various phenomena forced upon his attention by his
surroundings. "The journalist or closet philosopher,"
says Schroder in his treatise on the journalese style
* This artifice is characteristic of Defoe's works.
I70 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
(no doubt with some exaggeration) " never suspects
that the groom and the dairymaid employ in a single
year more tropes and figures of speech than he will
find in all the literary masterpieces of the world."
And Biese actually asserts (" Das Naturgefiihl bei
Griechen und Romern," ii, 20) that in Roman
comedy figures of speech and similes are rare! Cer-
tainly we do not find any long drawn-out similes
such as characterize epic poetry, but we light on
very many picturesque expressions and pointed
parallels drawn from the sphere of daily life, as is
the way of the people. In fact, the nearer the people
stand to an object, and the better they feel that they
know it, the more frequently and with the greater
pleasure do they drag it into their language by the
aid of metaphor. Things which they have loved or
known force themselves on their attention, such as
parts of the body, domestic animals, implements,
trees, the heavens, the stars, and, again, common
actions and processes, habits which have become
second nature. Even Cicero was struck by the fact
that the language of the people possesses a large
store of metaphors; for he says, Or. 24, 81:
'' tralatio qua frequentissime sermo omnis utitur
non modo urbanorum, sed etiam rusticorum, siqui-
dem est eorum: ' gemmare vites, sitire agros, laetas
esse segetes, luxuriosa frumenta' " ; and again, De Or.
iii, 38, 135, he expresses himself in the same way:
" nam gemmare vites, luxuriam esse in herbis, laetas
segetes etiam rustici dicunt" (cf. Quint, viii, 6, 6).
The Roman people loved expressions quaint and
forceful, such as testa (a potsherd), used for a heady
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 171
tete; spatha, a stirring spoon = dpde for a broad-
sword (Tac. Ann, xii, 35); biicca, "puff cheek" for
"mouth," (Fr. boiichc); iugulare for i7iterficere^ pro-
perly" to cut the throat"; calculare (from calculus^
a little stone which was used for reckoning) = com-
piUare, to reckon ; or phrases like " corium concidere
alicui," " to cut about any one's leather," that is to
say, to hide any one (applied strictly to wild beasts),
and " sub manus succidere," originally a technical
term of joiners and potters, which even in Plautus
occurs with the metaphorical meaning of " to leave
the hands of the maker" (cf. too O. Ribbeck. "Gesch.
der rom. Dichtung," i-, 123). But the Roman loved
above all things metaphors taken from military life
and from the science of law. Each of these depart-
ments lay near to his heart, and appealed so strik-
ingly at once to his taste and his powers that he
lived for them and in them.
106. This whimsical trait of the people reveals
itself, moreover, in their method of naming the
objects of daily life. Thus we have numerous plants
and beasts for which the Roman countryman pos-
sesses native names, or, it may be, names given
them by himself in the course of time, while the
classical language mostly took over the correspond-
ing terms from the Greek. These expressions are
pretty and picturesque, simple and easily intelligible.
For example, the onion {cacpa), from the fact of its
possessing a single bulb, was called by the country-
men z^;22d7= Fr. ^7>;2^;z; the almond tree (ajnygdala)
was called micicla = micic7ila, properly "little nut";
172 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
the sycamore isycaminos), celsa\ the centaury (cen-
taurea), fel terrae. In the same way he bestows
upon the chamaepitys the name of abiga (the re-
pellent) ; he calls the sneeze-wort (abrotonum) by the
name of veratrii^ny on account of its supposed power,
if strewn upon the head, to sharpen men's wits.*
Recalls the heliotrope verrucaria, wart-weed; the
rkamnus, our Christ's thorn, he calls seittis ursina,
or bear thorn; the strychnos, ttva lupma, wolfs
grape ; the giraffe {camelopai'dalis) becomes the
ovis fera\ the elephant (elephanhis) bos Ltica; the
hippopotamus, bos Aegyptius\ the ostrich, passer
marinus (Plant. Pers. II, ii, 17), the leeck [kirudo)
sanguisuga, the blood-sucker, etc.
107. And there is a strong contrast between the
vulgar dialect and polite diction in the use of re-
flexive verbs, tenses, and the Figura ety^nologica.
All these peculiarities mark the language of the
people, and are intended to promote clearness. How
seldom does Caesar employ such expressions as
se flectere, se effimdere, se movere, instead of flecti,
effundi, moveri, and how commonly do we meet with
such expressions in the lingua rustica ! Involuntarily
we call up such German expressions as "der Rock
nutzt sich bald ab," f or such French expressions as
" Paris ne s'est pas fait en un jour; les spectacles se
donnent," etc. Further, if we find that the infinitive
present instead of the infinitive future (a usage em-
* Connecting it with verus.
t Or such English phrases as "do move yourself off," "pull
yourself up," etc.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 173
ployed byCaesar only occasionally, Bell. Gall. 11,32,3;
iv, 21, 5; 22, i; vi, 9, 7 ; in order to express the
immediate completion of any action) occurs far from
unfrequently in vulgar Latin, this is surely a testi-
mony to the lively and rapid thoughts of the people,
who can with such facility transpose the future into
the present. But the Figura etymologica has ever
been a favourite in popular Latin from the time of
Plautus down to Apuleius, Tertullian, and St. Augus-
tine. Thus as early as Plautus we find quite com-
monly such expressions as " vitam vivere " {e.g. Merc.
473), "servitutem servire " {eg. Capt. 391), "messem
metere" {e.g. Epidic. 701), " obsonium obsonare "
{e.g. Stich. 410), " statuam statuere " {e.g. Asin. 712);
these and similar expressions are found equally
in all later writers ; indeed, new expressions are
constantly being coined upon these models, e.g.,
"laudeslaudare" (Pronto), "questus queri" (Statius),
" vigiliam vigilare " (Gellius), " indumentum induere,"
" somnia somniare," " sortem sortiri " (all in Vul-
gate). (Cf. too Landgraf, " De Figuris etymo-
logicis Linguae Latinae," Acta semin. philol. Erlang.
ii, 1-70, and Fr. Leiffholdt, " Etymologische Figuren
im Romanischen," Erlangen, 1884.)
108. We have still to touch on the third main
characteristic of the vulgar tongue, namely, the
ofreater 7'ole assicrned to the emotions than to the
intellect. The educated man speaks only after
mature reflection. We remember that Tallyrand
goes so far as to remark sarcastically, " La parole
a 6te donnee a I'homme pour deguiser ses pensees! "
174 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
The people, however, wear their heart always upon
their sleeve. They repudiate all disguises and reveal
all their feelings, all their thoughts, all their emotions,
not merely in their looks and gestures, but in their
utterances and words as well. Hence it comes to
pass that in these words, unconsciously and even
against their wishes, they reveal their sympathies
and their antipathies alike. One instance of this
tendency is their strong predilection for diminutives
in sign of cordiality, and of the share taken by their
sympathies in the moulding of their speech. Such
diminutives are more particularly employed to denote
sympathy and affection, as ai^iiculus, the dear, or, it
may be, t/ie poor friend ; lectulus, the dear, or the
comfortable, bed ; or the use of the diminutive may
be, though it is a rarer case, a sign of dislike, as in
the case of Asellus, the stupid, stubborn ass ; specula,
the faint hope ; voculae, disagreeable remarks. These
diminutives have, however, become so completely
identified with the thoughts of the people, and so
little are they felt as real diminutives, that further
diminutives were actually coined from these, as for
instance from asellus, asellulus', from aurictda, atiri-
cilla; from cistula, cistellaSind cistelltila.^ There are
certain diminutive forms, adjectival and verbal, which
bear a specifically popular stamp, such 2.S pulchellus,
formosulus, tacitulus, inisellus, liquidkisctthis, nitidius-
culus, niimisctihts , maiusculus. Parenthetical phrases
such as the following imply ease and intimacy on
the part of the speaker — ftari^o tibi, " I only tell
* Os (mouth) gives osculum (which also has the particular sense
of " kiss ") and oscilhnu.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 175
you " ; miJii auscnlta, " hear what I say "; amabo te =
quaeso, " tell me, love." * Again the vulgar tongue
is rich in ethical datives, which even with Plautus
had become favourites, and it is likewise partial to
formulae of assertion and to interjectional expressions
which meet us in all stages of the Latin language.
The Roman comedies are throughout marked by
expressions of assurance such as medmsfidius, hercle,
pol, edepol, ecastor, nae, and again by particles be-
tokening affection or encouragement as atlat, attatae,
babae, bombax) or of joy, as io, eziax, euoe, euan, etc.
Everywhere the feeling of the moment, or what we
may call the subjective influence, forces itself upon
our notice. For what are interjections but flashes of
feeling shot straight and sudden from the heart?
109. But the deep sympathy of the people with
the persons and objects of which it speaks displays
itself equally in its very opposite trait: viz., in the
reticence and painful anxiety which it manifests to
avoid uttering certain words. The people recognize
no words as tabooed; no words which the un-
written law of polite society forbids them to men-
tion : they are unaware that they must avoid this or
that unconventional expression. But, religiously or
superstitiously disposed as they are, they feel appre-
hension and awe when called on to utter the name
of the divinity which directs their destinies. The
words spoken to the pious Israelites of old with
such distinctness and emphasis, " Thou shalt not
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,"
* Only used by women.
176 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
were unconsciously in the mind of every Roman.
Just as the Hebrews, from religious scruples, in-
stead of pronouncing the wSiVsx^ Jehovah, or J ahweh,
used the word Adonai, i.e., "the Lord"; and as the
Greeks called the goddesses of vengeance, the ter-
rible furies, the Eumenides, i.e., " the kindly beings,"
and li[ji,voci " the honourable goddesses " : just as the
Germans mutilate the names of God, of Jesus, and
of the Devil in the most varied ways, e.£:, Jesses,
Potz (-Gotts), Deiker, Deichsel = Teufel,* so did the
Romans mangle and disguise many expressions be-
cause their natural reverence prevented them from
unnecessarily repeating with their lips what they
deemed in their hearts to be holy. One might
cite as a proof of this assertion the formulae of
asseveration hercle, pol, edepol; but there are many
other words of the same kind. The terrible goddesses
of Fate who spared no one were called " Parcae,"
"the Sparing ones," to win their goodwill. f
The ancients were particularly unwilling to pro-
nounce words which recall in any way the notion of
death, because they were in terror of hastening its
approach. For instance, the word morbus, which is
etymologically connected with mors, was from the
earliest times avoided, and was replaced by injir-
mitas, languor, valetiido, vitiuni, passio, etc. (cf.
Wolfflin, " Sitzungsberichte der Bayr. Akad," 1880,
pp. 387 sqq).
* And as in England we have such words as deuce, marry,
and zounds in older English.
t This word is, however, connected with parcere by popular
etymology only ; it is more probably connected with pario.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 177
For the word 7nors was substituted fatum, qtiies,
finis, adilio, etc. : for the word " to die," hi7ic
migrarc, discedcre, transire, dormire, oppetcre, de-
siderari, odire, vixisse. In the same way iox funeshis
and fatalis the ancients preferred to employ euphe-
mistically iiifaustus and infortunatus,^ and the Ger-
man expression, "geh zum Henker" ("go to the
deuce ") finds its equivalent in the Greek tpp' ek
v.ofa.y.a.(;, and in the Latin " i ad Graecum Pi " on
account of the shape of the Greek letter tt, which
resem.bled a gallows.
no. Another instance of the bent of the peasant
mind is seen in the joy of the countryman exhibited
at the time of harvest and on other festive occasions.
This gaiety, coupled with the native Roman predilec-
tion for banter, led to the introduction of such popu-
lar amusements as the " Fescennines," the " Satura,"
the "Mimes," and the "Atellanae." Especially re-
markable is the Roman fondness for verbal wit and
puns.f This characteristic pervades the whole of
Roman comedy; on this more than on any other factor
depends the great effect which the plays of the
genial Plautus aimed at producing. But the taste is
everywhere manifest, for the plebs of the capital
found its delight in such jests no less than the
peasant. The wit of the soldiers presumed even to
play upon the sacred person of the Emperor. They
* Cf. Velleius, 2, cap. 93, "Si quid accidisset Caesari," i.e., "si
mortuus esset."
t Macrobius, Sat. ii, 4, gives many instances of Roman jokes.
N
178 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
twisted the name of Tiberius Claudius Nero malici-
ously into " Biberius Caldius Mero," with a play
upon bibere, calidum, and 7yLeru7n (Suet, Tiber. 42).
The Emperor Macrinus, who treated his servants to
a flogging for the slightest offence, gained as his
reward the nickname of " Macellinus" or "butcher's
boy" (cf. lul. Capitol, in vita Gordiani jun. c. 19).
Not unlike the banter of the soldiers is the comic
transformation of the word disciplina into dis-
plicina, as if from displicere, referred to by different
grammarians (Priscian, ii, 114, 3; Donat. 392, 20;
Consent, p. 16); in the same way the mutilation of
popina into propina shows popular influence (cf.
Isid. XV, 2, 42; Rossi, Inscr. i, 1055). Trans-
gulare for stra7igulare (cf. Schuchardt, " Vokalismus
des Vulgarlateins," iii, 12) testifies to the humour of
the people, and it seems worth noticing that the
saintly Cyprian was once styled " Coprianus," with
a play upon the Greek word v.ott^oc;, which naturally
enough called down the riofhteous wrath of Lactan-
tins (Inst. Div. v, i, 27): " Audivi ego quendam
hominem sacrilegum, qui eum (Cyprianum) immu-
tata una littera Coprianum vocaret, quasi elegans
ingenium et melioribus rebus aptum ad aniles fabulas
contulisset." *
in. In conclusion, to review briefly the whole
subject, we find the close connection between the
spirit and the language of the people fully proved.
Of the four phases of spiritual and intellectual life
* Levir, a husband's brother, was conceived of as '■'■ laevus vir."
See Waldc, p. 333.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 179
imagination and natural feeling are more strongly
emphasized than understanding and will power.
The scanty endowment of the masses in respect
of the last mentioned factors explains their tendency
to seek ease of expression, which tendency manifests
itself in the first place on the material side, as, for
instance, in ease of pronunciation, and secondly, on
the intellectual side, as revealed by their reduction
to simplicity of inflexional forms of syntax and of
word signification. On the other hand their power of
imagination conduces to lucidity of speech, and their
undisguised and lively feeling renders their language
so homely, so winning, and so sane.
The vulgar tongue, then, contrasts with classical
prose by its effacement of intelligence and will. In
the large play allowed to popular fancy and popular
genius it approaches poetic diction ; both alike lay
the greatest weight on liveliness of style, on pictur-
esque lucidity in form, and on warmth of feeling.
In both cases we find sentences loosely attached and
loosely constructed, in both a predilection for figura-
tive expressions, for alliteration, and for the use of
frequentatives.
Even in vocabulary there are some singular re-
semblances. Just as in the German language the
words " kosen, Maid, Born " are at once poetical and
vulgar, in the same way such vulgar Latin expres-
sions 2isfaczmdiis, facundia, and /oais ( = French /^?^,
fire) are not found in Cicero and Caesar, though they
appear in the Odes of Horace, and in the Elegies of
Propertius. Of course, the linguistic methods by
which the people attain their ends are widely dif-
i8o LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER, ETC.
ferent from those of the poet. Rough folk-lore has
rough methods — the more refined style of the poet
walks in tenderer ways. The former loves the real,
the latter the ideal. In the vulgar tongue change in
language sets in unconsciously, in that of the poet
with full consciousness. In the former case it affects
an entire class; but in the latter case the degree of
its influence is proportionate to the genius of the
author.
V
The Classical Language of Caesar and Cicero
I 12
WH I LE the vulgar tongue resembles a meadow
which flourishes and blossoms almost without
man's aid, the artificial language resembles a garden
fenced in by the hand of man, and demanding un-
remitting attention, if it is to produce good fruit.
Now one of the most important tasks of the gardener
is to rid his garden of weeds, and in the same way it
is imperative for a classical language to banish all
words and all verbal forms to which objection may
be taken from any quarter. It follows that classic
writers must in the first place be on their guard
against the introduction of obsolete and foreign
terms, and in the next place against the creation of
new and startling figures; lastly, they must do their
best to get quit of every element which in the eyes
of the educated classes must appear vulgar or com-
mon. Caesar and Cicero have acted according to
these maxims, and if we disregard the Letters, which
strike a more familiar note, they have closely scrutin-
ized their choice of words. That great statesman
and oreneral who brouo;ht Gaul under the Roman
yoke, was renowned not merely as an orator and a
historian, but also as an accomplished grammarian.
i8i
i82 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
As to the latter quality, in the two books, " De
Analogia," dedicated to Cicero, he has imposed the
strict demand, " Habe semper in memoria atque
pectore, ut tanquam scopulum sic fugias inaiiditum
et insolens verbum" (Gellius, i, lo, 4), for which
reason this document is described by Pronto as
" lib}^ scrupulosissimi,'' and the precepts therein
laid down were followed by himself most con-
scientiously; indeed, he goes so far, that of several
expressions connected in meaning he will employ
one only, because he deems the use of several words
superfluous when a single one would suffice. For,
as Caesar tells us (Brutus, 72, 253), he regarded the
" verborum delectus" as the " originem eloquentiae,"
and it is to this careful selection of words that he
owes " mira sermonis elegantia cuius proprie studio-
sus fuit" (Quintilian, x, i, 114).
It is for this reason that he is careful to avoid
the words Jiuvius and amnis, while the word Jltc-
men occurs in his writings more than two hundred
times. For the same reason he writes 7ion posse for
neqtdre, haud scire and non scire for nescire: he writes
timere and diligere, not metuere and amare; interest,
but not refert\ nudare and privare, but not orbare.
In the same spirit he discards quamqtcam, licet,
etiamsi, and quamvis (the latter word only in the
Bell. Gall, iv, 2, 5, and there connected w\x.\\ pauci)
in favour of etsi; quia (only Bell. Civ. iii, 30, 4) for
qnod donee, and quamdiit (only Bell. Gall, i, 17, 6) for
dum\ igitur (only Bell. Gall, i, 85) for itaque. The
word quomodo occurs nowhere in his writings, and
tanquain once only, in a fragment quoted by Gellius
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 183
(Noct. Att. i, 10, 4); porro only Bell. Gall, v, 27, 4;
ha2id only Bell. Gall, v, 54, 5; he renders our
word " before " almost exclusively by priusqua7n,
only twice by aiitcquam (Bell. Civ. i, 2, 2, and iii,
II, i); the word causa, "for the sake of," appears
one hundred and fifty times; gratia in the same
sense, twice only (Bell. Gall, vii, 43, 2, and Bell. Civ.
ii, 7, 3); frustra occurs ten times; nequiquam twice
only (Bell. Gall, ii, 27, 5, and Bell. Civ. i, i, 4); appel-
lare, " to name," occurs forty-six times, but nomiiiare
and vocare only once (Bell. Gall, vii, 'j^, 9, and
V. 21, 3), whilst in Cicero's speeches appel/are occwrs
some seventy-five times, and the other two verbs are
used some thirty times in all.
113. We also miss in Caesar's "Commentaries"
many expressions which are found in other historical
writers of that time. Although he speaks so often
of his enemies' defeat, still he never uses the word
clades, and if we compare the speeches which Sallust,
in his work on Catiline's conspiracy, puts into his
mouth, with his own writings, we discover that ex-
pressions commonly recur in Sallust's version which
are far removed from Caesar's usage. For instance,
such words as divitiae (found forty times in Sallust's
account), lubido or libido (thirty-five times), memorare
(twenty times), miseriae (fifteen times), strenuus
(fourteen i\n\&s), p7'o/ecio (fifteen times), etc., are no-
where found in " Bellum Gallicum " and the " Bellum
civile" (cf., too, Schnorr v. Carolsfeld, " Uber die
Reden bei Sallust," Leipzig, 1888, bes. pp. 34 sqq.).
A large number of words not seldom met with in
i84 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
Cicero's speeches are not employed by Caesar, it
may be from their rhetorical character or from some
other reason, such as nedmn, dummodo, nisi forte,
quippe qui, utpote qui (praesertim qui only in Bell.
Gall. V, 47, 4), dubito an {kaud scio an only in v, 54,
4), tantuin abest ut . . . ut, sequitur, restat, proximutn
est, reliquum est, extremum est, piget, miseret, taedet.
Further, a large quantity of grammatical peculiarities
referred to at length in our school grammars, do not
occur at all in Caesar, as, for instance, the use of
sHpplicare; maledicere,obtrectare,opei'am ^rt;r^ followed
by the dative, or se prae stare and se praebere; the
latter is only found in a letter in Cicero's collection,
Ad Att. ix, 7, I, followed by the accusative dL^Aparum
followed by the genitive.
114. It must not, however, be assumed that the
classical "stylist" sinks into monotony, nay, he rather
displays, on fit occasions, such change in style and
matter as suits his purpose, following the maxim
variatio delectat. For certain transactions, especially
in matters appertaining to war and the operations
of war, he sometimes employs as many as three or
tour different expressions for the same idea. True
it is that, in his method of producing variety, he by
no means equals a Livy or a Tacitus, but he certainly
escapes wrecking himself on the rock of monotony.
For instance, as a variation of the word castris
{milites continere), he writes also in castris, intra
vallzim, i7itra munimenta. And as a variant for
fortunain temptare he writes also experiri d^nd pericli-
tari. For the phrase, to draw a sword, he uses
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 185
sometimes gladios stringerc, sometimes destrifigere
or edticere\ to finish the war is with him bcllum
conficcre ox fiiiire. For "to surpass" he employs
superare, vincere, or praestare. On the other hand,
he hardly ever uses antecellere, excellerc, praecedcre,
anteccdere, praecurrere, etc.
Newly coined words are hardly to be found in his
writings, and even Greek ones he employs very
sparingly, although he was favourably disposed to
Greek culture and Greek customs, and as Suetonius
assures us (Julius Caesar, chap. 67) gave vent to
the utterance, " what matters it if my soldiers use
perfumes so long as they fight well." We must not
set down to his account old expressions like scopulus
and episttila, which had by his time admittedly
assumed a genuine Latin stamp. However, such
military technical terms as catapulta, ballista, scorpio
for siege-work, phalanga to express a roller for the
launching of ships, harpago for a bill-hook to bring
down walls, 2^\A phalanx to denote a military parade,
could hardly escape employment even by such a
purist, as there was no Latin substitute at his dis-
posal. The case was the same, and for the same
reason, with tetrarches, theatrum, ephippium, scapha,
mackinatio; it is, however, noticeable that when he
employs the word malacia to express a dead calm,
he finds it necessary to add the explanatory sub-
stantive, ac tranquillitas (Bell. Gall, iii, 15, 3).
1 1 5. Finally, Caesar has kept his narration as free
as possible from vulgarisms, and he has avoided
many words which are common both in old Latin
i86 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
and in later writers. Instances are: the intensive
expressions oppido and actutiim, and the preposition
absque in the sense of sine, the substantives prosapia,
obsequela, edtilmm, ambulacrtwz, the adjectives dis-
coi'diosMs, extinius, which Sallust, for instance, has
extracted from some ancient source. Moreover, he
has not employed many of the frequentatives so
popular in the vulgar tongue, in contrast to the last
mentioned writer and to Livy; and if he (Bell. Gall.
V, 27, i) says ventitare consuerunt or (v, 7, 8) saepe
clmnitans, these expressions are redundant only in
appearance, as the meaning in the former case is,
" they are wont to pass to and fro," and in the latter
case, " often crying aloud." On the other hand there
is a trace of vulgar Latin in the employment of
captivtis to qualify objects such as naves (Bellum
Civile, ii, 5, i ; cf. Bell. Alex. 42, 4; 47, 2), and again
in the use of scxe?inis and semestris for sex annoruin
and sex mensium (Bell. Civ. iii, 20, 5, and i, 9, 2), in
\h^ "^^xx'dL^^ in fugam dare (Bell. Gall, iv, 26, 5, and
V, 51, 5; cf. Bell. Afr. "j^, 8, and Ph. Thielmann
" Das verbum dare im Lateinischen," Leipzig, 1882,
p. 105), in albente caelo (Bell. Civ. i, 68, i; cf. Sisenn.
Fr. 103 P., also Bell. Afr. ii, i, 80). Again the fol-
lowing usages seem characteristic of vulgar Latin:
that of consimilis (Bell. Gall, ii, 11, i; v, 12, 3; vi,
21, i), convallis (Bell. Gall, iii, 20,4; v, 32, 2; regu-
larly used in Bell. Afr. and Hisp. for vallis), con-
Jieri (Bell. Gall, vii, 58, 2), adaugere (Bell. Civ. iii,
58, 14)-
I 16. Precisely the same principles are illustrated
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 187
by Cicero, theoretically in his rhetorical writings,
but practically in his speeches, and in his philosophi-
cal treatises. We are able to gather his own views
about the admission of obsolete expressions from
the passage De Orat. iii, 38, 153, where he says:
" Prisca fere ac vetusta ab usu cotidiani sermonis
jam diu intermissa poetarum licentiae liberiora quam
nostrae (i.e. oratorum)," and similarly in another pas-
sage (Or. 24, 80) " Sed etiam inusitata ac prisca sunt
in propriis, nisi quod raro utimur." Still Cicero the
orator is not so strict as Caesar the historian, for
Cicero maintains that a certain mystical charm
attaches to his style ("grandior atque antiquior
oratio saepe videri solet," cf. De Orat. loc. citat.) if
he, as occasion requires, employs old-fashioned terms
such as te^npestas used in the sense of tempus, or pone
in the place o{ post. This holds true especially if
the archaic expression is drawn from a poetical work,
for " raro habet etiam in oratione poeticum aliquod
verbum diirnitatem." The case is different in such
philosophical writings as the " Cato Maior," in which
the employment of old-fashioned tricks of speech is
intended to invest the language with an antique
appearance, just as Goethe's method is intended to
do in Hans Sachs' " Poetische Sendung." Still
Cicero with all his toleration confines himself within
the narrowest possible limits : he writes quasi in the
sense of quemad^nodmn (19, 71), and, to sum up here
briefly his use of inflexional forms and syntactical
peculiarities, he employs ineditatus (20, 74), dinicnsus
(17, 59) in a passive sense (2, 4; adepti is now taken
as the true reading, not adeptani), audaciter for audac-
i88 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
ter (20, 72), quam viam ingredienduin sit, for quae
via ingrediejida sit (2, 6).
117. In his admission of foreign words Cicero is
equally moderate, especially in his speeches, in
which, apart from the borrowed words which had
already acquired rights of citizenship in the Latin
language, very few Greek terms are to be found.
Cicero expressly advises (Or. 49, 164): " Quare
bonitate potius nostrorum verborum utamur quam
splendore Graecorum." In accordance with this
maxim, he introduces one, and only one, foreign
word into the speech " Pro Quinctio," viz.,
ephemeris (18, 57); in "Pro Ligario " none at all,
for barbarus can hardly be considered as such.
Most of these Greek words, as we might naturally
expect, are found in the Verrine Orations, where so
many Greek objects of art are mentioned. In his
philosophical works, however, Cicero could not
absolutely dispense with foreign appellatives, the
less so because the entire material for these pro-
ceeded from Hellenic sources, and technical ex-
pressions had to be employed for which no Latin
words had been coined. So the orator is justified in
saying (De Fin, iii, 2, 5): " Ouamquam ea verba
quibus instituto veterum utimur pro Latinis ut ipsa
philosophia, ut rhetorica, didactica, grammatica,
geometria,musica,quamquam Latine ea dici poterant,
tamen, quoniam usu recepta sunt, nostra ducamus."
In cases where the new terms which he employs
are not fairly incorporated into the language, he
adds some expression like " as they are called," as
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 189
in De Nat. Deor. 21, 53: "Qui theologi nomi-
nantur," or as in Paradoxa, 4: " Mira ista paradoxa
quae appellant maxime videntur esse Socratica,"
and in the same place, " Ea, quae dicuntur in scholis
thetica." But in oreneral his aim is to create satis-
factory Latin substitutes, sometimes by simply
transposing them, sometimes again by new forma-
tions, in accordance with his purpose expressed in
the Tusculan Orations (i, 8, 15) : " Dicam,si potero,
Latine; scis enim me Graece in Latino sermone
non plus solere quam in Graeco Latine," Thus it
happens that in many of his philosophical writings
the number of foreign terms is very limited, as, for
instance, in the Timaeus. Often he feels con-
strained to plead some excuse for his novel experi-
ments, as De Nat. Deor. 8, 18 : " Stoicorum 7rp6uoKx.v,
quam Latine licet providentiam dicere"; Acad, i, 40:
" Quam illi (pai/Tao-i'ai/ (appellant), nos visum appel-
lemus licet"; De P'in. iii, 6, 21: " Quod cum posi-
tum sit in eo, quod o^oXoylav Stoici appellant, nos
appellemus convenientiam, si placet." He expresses
himself again differently (De Fin. iii, 16, 53):
" Quod enim illi ol§ici,(popov dicunt, id mihi ita occurrit,
ut indifferens dicerem," or Top. 8, 35: "Quam
Graeci irvixoXoyiocu vocant, id est verbum ex verbo
veriloquium, nos autem novitatem verbi non satis
apti fugientes hoc genus notationem appellemus."
In other places he adds some qualification intro-
duced by quidam or quasi, as, for instance, when he
translates the Greek word Trojorrif (De Nat. Deor.
ii, 94; Acad, i, 24 ff.): " Id corpus et quasi quali-
tatem quandam nominabant." He seldom contents
I90 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
himself with the simple conjunctive of demand as
De Fin. iv, 27, 74: " Haec paradoxa illi (dicunt),
nos admirabilia dicamus "; similarly we do not often
find him setting the Latin expression before the
Greek, as De Leg. ii, 13, 32: " Divinatio, quam
Graeci //,a^T<>c7^^ appellant," or De Div. 60, 124: "Con-
venientia naturae, quam vocant (rii|W.7ra6fia^ Graeci."
On the other hand, he sometimes prefers, in cases
when he cannot translate quite literally, to use a
circumlocution, as De Fin. iii, 4, 14: " Equidem
soleo etiam quod uno Graeci, si aliter non possum,
idem pluribus verbis exponere," and De optimo
gen. die. 14: " Ne converti ut interpres, sed ut
orator, sententiis isdem et earum formis tamquam
figuris, verbis ad nostram consuetudinem aptis; in
quibus non verbum pro verbo necesse habui reddere,
sed genus omne verborum vimque servavi." Hence
he sometimes leaves us the choice between two
forms, as in Timaeus 4 : " Quae Graece oivxXoyia,,
Latine — audendum enim est, quoniam haec primum
a nobis novantur — comparatio proportiove dici
potest."
118. These examples may serve to show how
careful Cicero was, alike in his new formations of
words, and in his employment of expressions in
novel and metaphorical tenses. This characteristic
is rendered clearer by a comparison with other
passages, in which no question arises of the mere
transference of foreign names to express his ideas.
In De Or. iii, 41, 165, he lays down the following
precept for the orator: " Si vereare, ne paulo durior
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 191
translatio esse videatur, mollienda est proposito
verbo (ut ita dicam)." Besides, in his De Nat. Deor.
i, 34, 95, speaking- of the words bcatitas'a.Vid. deatiindo,
he adds: " Utrumque omnino durum" (possibly
thinking of the recurrence of / in the medial syl-
lables) " sed non mollienda nobis sunt." Lastly, a
passage in his correspondence with Tiro (Ad Pam.
xvi, 17, i) shows us how carefully he strove to
maintain his principles in this respect. In that place
hespeaksof theadverby^rti'<^/zV^r in the phrase " fideliter
inservire valetudini " to observe the laws of health.
He remarks that the strict application of this word
is to matters of duty : at the same time there are
many occasions for transference of meaning " verbo
migrationes sunt in alienum multae," for the word
" faithful " or "genuine " might be applied equally
to education, to a house, to art, and even to agri-
culture, so that the metaphorical meaning of the
word is hardly felt {vereamdus).
119. The same principles which guided their
choice of words were observed by Caesar and Cicero
in their use of inflexional forms. In this case, too,
they took care to avoid formations which were either
antiquated or vulgar. In Sallust, genitives like
senati, himtilti, and in the case of vowels, such forms
as lubido and optimius are quite common; again, in
Nepos, such forms as lacrumo, ulttiinus, face=fac,
parserat^pepercerat and other similar formations
occur, bearing an archaic stamp, and actually
deemed worthy of an apology by the writer, on the
192 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
ground that the style of history was still rude and
incorj''upttim when compared with the rhetorical and
philosophical style ennobled by Cicero. But in
Caesar's Commentaries, and in the speeches and
treatises of Cicero, little can be found which bears
the slightest trace of such archaisms. The perfect
forms ending in -re instead of -runt are rarely
found in either, and in Caesar especially the proofs
of their existence are far from certain. In the
" Bell. Gall." the form -erunt occurs some three
hundred and ninety or four hundred times, while,
according to one class of MSS., a formation in -ere
occurs once only [vertere, iii, 21, i); the rest show
three cases of the same form (i, 32, 3 ; ii, 11, 6; vi,
8, 6), while in the " Bell. Civ.," two cases alone, viz.,
sustinuere, i, 51, 5, and acccssere, iii, 63, 6, have been
at all creditably attested. Further, yb?T;>;^ is hardly
ever substituted for essem in these two authors, and
verbs joined with reflexive pronouns instead of the
reflexive passive, as se flectere=fiecti, seldom meet
us in either: participles perfect of deponents are
used only in the case of a few words in a passive
sense (cf. emeritus, pactus, partitiis, and the forms
mentioned above, dime^isus, meditatus, and adeptus).
Such middle voice formations as ratus = arbitraizts,
pertaesus, " annoyed 2L.t," perosus, "hating" are care-
fully avoided. In the case of declensions it is re-
markable that, according to Gellius, Caesar preferred
the older genitive form acie to aciei, and that Cicero
wrote on several occasions senati (Divin. in Caec. 5,
19; Phil, iii, 15, 38; De Har. Resp. 8, 14, and in
some passages of his letters).
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 193
1 20. Greek terminations are but rarely admitted
by either writer, and then only in the case of Greek
names like Salamis (ace. Salauiina, Tusc. i, 46), or
in that of appellatives, as in Bell. Gall, i, 52, 5,
phalanges, ox phalanga. Whether Caesar, like Tacitus
and other historians, formed the accusative plural
of Gallic and other foreign tribes in -as {e.g., in
Tacitus we find Brigantas, Neinetas, Siluras, Van-
gionas) cannot, in view of the uncertainty of MS.
tradition, be definitely ascertained. As against thirty
accusatives in -es occurring in Bell. Gall., the termina-
tion -as can claim to have been used in two places
only in both classes of MSS. (i, 26, 6, Lingojias;
and iii, 7, 4, Curiosolitas — besides this three times in
a, seven times in j3 : cf. further Bell. Civ. 35, 4, Sallyas) :
but even here it is possible that the termination may
be due to the negligence of the scribe.
Pronominal forms, like the datives singular alterae
(Bell. Gall, v, 27, 5), nullo (Bell. Gall, vi, 13, i;
Bell. Civ. ii, 7, i), altera (Cic. De Nat. Deor. ii,
66 Schn., Baiter reads alteri), and the genitives
nulli (Cic. Rose. Com. 48), aliae (Cic. De Div.
ii, 30), especially in the passages from Caesar,
are quite uncertain readings : finally the adverbial
ending -iter, connected with adjectives of the second
declension, appears very seldom. In Cicero's
speeches and philosophical writings we always read
dure [not duriter\ large, humane, etc., ^Lndfirnie, too,
occurs more frequently thdin fii'7niter, which is found
Rep. i, 69 and vi, 2 : only in the Letters do we
meet this suffix with any frequency {Jnimanitcr in
Ad Fam. vii, 9; Ad Att. i, 2 ; Ad Quint. Fr. ii, 11:
o
194 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
cf. too Helmuth, "Acta Sem. Phil.," Erlang., i,
114); but in Caesar such formations are rarely
found, e.g., firmiter, iv, 26, i, and largiter, i, 18, 6;
duriter and humaniter are not represented.
121. Nor was more licence permitted in the syn-
tax than in the inflexions. Collocations, such as that
of eo with the factitive genitive {co teTneritatis pro-
gressus est = ad earn temeritatem progressus est), which
are common alike to old Latin, to the popular dia-
lect, and to silver Latinity, are not found either in
Cicero or in Caesar: the same observation holds
good with respect to the distributive genitive after
the neuter singular or neuter plural of an adjective.
The genitive of definition, especially in the case of
place-names, a construction avoided by Caesar, is
not certainly proved to be used by Cicero (for in
oppido Antiochiae, Ad Att. v, 18, i, Heraeus reads
in oppido Antiochid). The present participle fol-
lowed by the genitive of a substantive occurs in
Caesar in one passage only. Bell. Civ. i, 69, 3
{fugiens laboris), and Cicero employs this in his
philosophical works only (see, however, De Imp. Cn.
Pomp. 3, 7; Pro Plane. 5, 13). The genitive of the
gerund and of the gerundive after relative adjec-
tives, a construction which is not found in Plautus
at all, occurs but rarely in the case of either of the
authors mentioned (cf. Bell. Gall, i, 2, 4, Cupidtis bel-
landi\ v, 6, 3, insuettis navigandi); while, on the
other hand, it frequently occurs in Livy and
Tacitus.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 195
122. The dative of the gerund employed after
adjectives, a favourite construction with later writers,
is only used by the historian after the word par, by
the philosopher and orator only after accommodatus:
but the modal usage of the ablative form of the
gerund, which became more and more frequent after
Livy's time, so that it has actually passed into the
Romance languages, is unknown to both alike. The
accusative, commonly called the accusative of re-
spect, dependent on a perfect participle passive, in
such phrases as pulvere caput conspersus, found in
different authors since Plautus and Ennius, seems to
have been unknown to both Caesar and Cicero.
The so-called Greek accusative can only be attri-
buted to Caesar if we count as such the expression
maxima77t partem, Bell. Gall, iv, i, 8, and it is
scarcely found in Cicero. Caesar, in Bell. Civ. iii,
88, 2, and there only, connects a singular subject to
which is attached an attribute with the preposition
cum with the plural of the verb {Ciciliensis legio con-
iuncta cum cohortibus Hispanis in dextro cornu posi-
tae erant): Cicero, too, is chary of such use, ^.^.,
Phil. 12, 27; Fam. xiv, 7, 2 (cf. too Lehmann on
Cicero's Epistles, p. 222); but this construction is
found often enough in Cato, Sallust, Livy, and others.
The use of the plural of a verb after a collective
substantive as subject seems foreign to Caesar,
though the different editions of his works afford a
few examples of such construction (cf. Meusel im
Jahresberichte des philolog. Vereins zu Berlin, xx,
1894, p. 263): it is also to be remarked that we do
not find many instances of the supine in -um fol-
!96 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
lowed by an accusative, as in Bell. Gall, i, ii, 2,
auxiliu^n rogatimi\ 31,9, auxiliu77t posttilatuvi\ vii,
5, 2, subsidumi rogatuui). A noun connected with a
preposition governing another noun [as, for instance,
"Every man in England"] is seldom found in
classical prose without a participle to support it, as,
for instance, " oratio pro Milone habita," " epistulae
ad Atticum datae." [Exceptions: (i) Verbal sub-
stantives, as " Rogatio de bello," " adventus in Gal-
liam." (2) Substantives expressing mental emotion
or service re^idered, e.g., " pietas erga parentes : bene-
ficium in Siculos." Moreover, Caesar usgs /am a de
and nuntius de without a supporting participle : and
Livy has " pugna ad Trebiam."] And when such
participle is not added, the noun and preposition
are commonly inserted between the attribute and
the substantive, as Bell. Gall, v, 13, i, " omnes ex
Gallia naves," and in the same section 4, " Certis ex
aqua mensuris": Bell. Civ. ii, 2>1^ ~ (" Caesaris in
Hispania res secundae").
123. The following peculiarities in the use of pre-
positions seem worth mentioning. Ante is not used
to indicate preference, intra is seldom used of time
(Bell. Gall, vi, 21, 5); ad \x\ a modal sense, except-
ing in Cicero's juvenile writings, only occurs in the
standing formula quemadmodum. The negative
particle hand, a favourite word of Livy and Tacitus,
occurs in Caesar only in the phrase " haud scio an,"
Bell. Gall, v, 54, 4, and in Cicero only when set in con-
nection with single adjectives and adverbs, as haud
facile, haud sane.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 197
Sometimes we find great discrepancies in the lin-
guistic usages of the two great classic prose writers.
For instance, the so-called Greek dative (as in
" mihi consultum ac provisum est," Cic. Catil. 1 2,
26) occurs very frequently in Cicero, while in Caesar
two examples only are to be found, viz. Bell. Gall,
vii, 20, and Bell Civ. i, 6 (cf., too, Tillmann, " Acta
sem. phil.," Erlang. ii, 79 sqq.). Again, we meet with
the temporal use of sub not unfrequently in the Com-
mentaries, and also with the word proprms used in
the sense of relation (nearer), which Cicero does not
use. Again, in Caesar we meet with frequent cases
in which the same substantive occurs connected
with both a "subjective" and an " objective" geni-
tive; for instance, Bell. Gall, i, 30, "veteres Helve-
tiorum iniuriae populi Romani " [" The ancient
wrongs done by the Helvetii to the Roman people "].
This construction is more rarely found in Cicero,
e.g., De Off. i, 43 (cf. too Andresen on Cicero's
Epistles, p. 186).
124. Syntactic combinations, resembling those
found in the popular dialect, meet us in Caesar's
Commentaries oftener than in Cicero's speeches
and philosophical works. One of these is the em-
ployment of the reflexive pronoun — instead of the
determinatival — not referring to the subject of the
same sentence, as Bell. Gall, vi, 9, 2, " quarum
(causarum) erat altera, quod auxilia contra se mise-
rant " [because they had sent forces against him] :
so again Bell. Civ. iii, 53, 5: "quem Caesar, ut erat
de se meritus, ad primipilum se transducere pronun-
198 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
tiavit " [in which case for se we should expect ilium'].
Cf. Cicero, Verr. 49, 128, and Pro Roscio Amerino,
2, 6, both, it should be remarked, productions of the
author's youthful style. Conversely, Caesar uses the
determinative instead of the reflexive (as in Bell.
Civ. i, 2, 2,7 > ^b eo = a se: i, 35, 4; iii, 75, 2, and
several times in the " Bellum Gallicum " : cf Cic.
Verr. i, 86). Then he employs constructions of
attraction as Bell. Gall, i, 39, 6 : " se rem frumen-
tariam ut satis commode supportari posset, timere
dicebant" (and Cic. Ad Att. 14, 21, " nosti virum
quam tectus"): the connection of imiltus with sin-
gular words like dies and nox {e.g., multo die, Bell.
Gall, i, 22, 4 : ad multain noctem, i, 26, 3): persuasum
mihi habeo, Bell. Gall, iii, 2, 5 : insertion of the word
credo Bell. Civ. ii, 31 : qtio 77iaiorem, credo, licentiam
habeant: the construction of [prae) optare with the
infinitive (Bell. Gall, i, 25, 4) found also in Hirtius
(Bell. Gall, viii, 9, 2): the double accusative in the
case oi velle alique7n aliquid (BeW. Gall, i, 32, 2: cf
Terence And, 536, and Phorm. 151). The union of
a sentence containing a condition with an imperative
is exceptional in Caesar, as in Bell. Gall, iv, 25:
" Desilite, nisi vultis aquilam prodere " (although
such sentences are characteristic of popular language
yet they are occasionally admitted into Cicero's
speeches): as is also the employment of the conjunc-
tive in iteratival sentences as Bell. Gall, v, 35: "sin
autem locum tenere vellent, nee virtuti locus relin-
quebatur neque tela vitare poterant."
There are also other respects in which differences
in the linguistic usages of these two authors are
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 199
noticeable. In Caesar, si is common after words of
expecting and attempting: this construction is more
commonly found in Cicero's letters [thus " conabor
an possim " would be the regular construction].
Nomie, in indirect questions, is known to Cicero
only, as is the use of the logical perfect in a gnomic
sense [as " multi cum obesse vellent, profuerunt, et
cum prodesse obfuerunt," De Nat. Deor. 3, 70], and
the dependent conjunctive of unrealized conditions
in the periphrastic conjugation in -uinis ftierim {e.g..
Pro Mil. 33; Verr. ii. 108; Phil, ix, i), [as " quaero
nonne tibi faciendum idem sit," De Fin. 3, 13].
Caesar says " confidere alicui," but "aliqua re,"
Cicero more frequently puts the thing in the dative.
The figura ety7iiologica, as it is called, is not found
in the Commentaries (for expressions like " tridui
viam progressi," Bell. Gall. 4, 5, contain simply an
accusative of space). In Cicero, on the other hand,
this fieure is far from uncommon. In certain cases
where the participle belonged to the construction
with the accusative and infinitive, Caesar seems to
have introduced a new construction by not placing
this participle, where it would naturally fall, in the
accusative, but by adopting it as the subject of the
main sentence: and this construction is known to
Sallust and Livy. An instance of this is found in
Bell. Gall, v, 39, 4, " Hanc adepti victoriam in per-
petuum se fore victores confidebant " (in which pas-
sage some editors read adeptos). Of the supines in
-u, Caesar admits, besides natu, onXy faclii (iv, 30, 2)
and aspectu (v, 14, 2). Cicero, on the other hand,
exhibits no less than twenty-four different formations
200 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
from the same supine, as audihc, dictu, memoratu,
visu, cognittL, intellecht,, scihL: at the same time he
favours far less than Caesar the construction with
the gerundive, which occurs no less than sixty-five
times in the " Bellum Gallicum " (seventeen of these
are in the eighth book) and thirty-nine times in the
" Bellum Civile." Further, the use of the ablative
absolute to express emphasis, in the place of the
mere connecting participle, is relatively more fre-
quent in the Commentaries than in the speeches and
treatises of Cicero, ^.^., Bell. Gall, iii, 14,4; iv, 12, i;
21, 6; V, 4, 3.
125. The greatest contrast, however, between
these two classic authors manifests itself in their
respective styles and their individual peculiarities.
In Caesar we are frequently called to notice the
occurrence of the so-called present of narration,
which meets us in nearly every section, and the
frequent use of the historical infinitive. This latter
occurs at least ten times (six in the Bell. Gall, i,
16, i; 32, 3; ii, 30, 3; iii, 4, 2; v, 6, 4; -^^i, i),
though not nearly as often as in Sallust: for the
latter writer, besides many instances of present
tenses of narration, has employed four hundred and
fifty-two such infinitives. Polysyndeton is in Caesar
exceptional (as in Bell. Gall, iv, 24, siimd et . . . et
. . . et): but asyndeton quite usual; this figure ex-
presses either haste (as Bell. Gall, i, 7, 20, 22, etc.),
or serves to mark a contrast (as Bell. Gall, i, i, 18;
vii, 50, 76, and Bell. Civ. iii, 36, 8), or it may be to
exaggerate such contrast (as Bell. Gall, i, 32, 39),
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 201
or to emphasize it (as Bell. Gall, i, 5, 20; vii, 59, ']'])y
or to mark a sequence (as in Bell. Gall, viii, 25, 45),
or a further explanation (as in Bell. Gall, iv, 27; v,
30 ; vi, 28). Anaphora, too, and chiasmus, are favour-
ite figures of this writer; chiasmus occurs in Bell.
Gall, ii, 10; vi, 12, 16; vii, i, 42, 47, 63, 66, 80:
anaphora in v, 6; vi, 21, 25, 26, 32, 34, 35, 36; vii,
20, 28, 32, 33, 38, 52, 59, 66; Bell. Civ. ii, z^, 6, etc.
So often do these figures occur in Roman writers
that they are called by Nagelsbach* " the forces that
reo^ulate the organism of the Latin sentence."
126. It is to his effort for clearness that we must
ascribe the marked pleonastic traits of Caesar's style.
The redundancy of his expressions is sometimes
visible in grammatical, sometimes in rhetorical, pecu-
liarities. To the former we must set down such
cases as " postridie eius diei " (Bell. Gall, i, 23, and
six times besides), ** pridie eius diei" (Bell. Gall.
47, 2, and Bell. Civ. i, 14, 3): also the repetition of
the substantive in relative sentences, probably after
the model of the ancient Curial style, especially in
the case of res, lex, pons, locus, dies, iter {e.g., Bell.
Gall, i, 6, 4; 16, 5; 49, i; iii, 3, i ; iv, 7; v, 2 ; vii,
72, i), propterea guod used in the sense of simple (/7wd
(Bell. Gall, ii, 4, 4; iii, 21,3, etc.; fourteen times in
the first book alone); " permittere, ut liceat," i.e.,
" alicuius voluntate " (Bell. Gall, i, 7,3; 30, 4 ; 35,3;
39, 3, etc.); ru7'sus occurring in connection with com-
pounds with re, as se recipere (Bell. Gall, v, 34, 4),
# ((
Lateinische Stylistik."
202 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
renovare (Bell. Civ. ii, 93, i), reducere (Bell. Gall,
vii, 9, 6), reverti (Bell. Gall, iv, 4, 4) : besides animo
joined to verbs expressive of some mental concep-
tion as/r^z/z^^r^(Bell. Gall, vii, 30, 2), circumspicere
(vi, 5, 3), labo7'are (vii, 3, i), perturbari {n, 21, 2): the
supine /ac^u in connection with the adjective derived
from the etymologically related adjective /^^27(? (Bell.
Gall, i, 3, 6; iv, 30, 2; vii, 64, 2); the double expres-
sion for diminutives (Bell. Civ. iii, 104, 3) ; " navicula
parvula" (cf. Bell. Afr. 54, i " causula parvula"
and 63, I " navigiolum parvulum"); " interea dum
haec geruntur" (Bell. Gall, vii, i, etc.). A rhetorical
pleonasm occurs. Bell. Gall, vi, 28, i ("specie et
colore et figura tueri"). Bell. Gall, vii, 18, 3, "carros
impedimentaque " (species and genus); Bell. Civ.
i, 2 1, 2, " portae murique " (the parts and the whole),
Bell. Gall, vi, 15, 2, " ambacti clientesque " (foreign
word and Latin expression); Bell. Gall. 26, 3,
" familiares necessariique " (synonymous ideas). One
kind of rhetorical pleonasm is the so-called hendi-
adys, which is far from common in old Latin (cf.
"per contemptum et superbiam," "in proud con-
tempt" in Claud. Quadrigarius), and only de-
veloped gradually. For instance, Ennius has the
phrase " otium otiosum " : from the next stage, "sum-
mum otium," was developed the twofold expression
"pax et otium" or "otium et tranquillitas."
Other instances from Caesar's writings exemplify
the same peculiarities, as Bell. Gall, i, 2, 5, "Gloria
belli atque fortitudinis" ; 31, 12, "omnia exempla
cruciatusque edere"; iv, 18, 3, "in solitudinem ac
silvas"; v, 19, 3, " labore atque itinere"; Bell. Civ.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 203
i, 13, "oppldo moenibusque prohibere"; Bell. Gall,
vii, ^;^, I, "vis atque arma"; iv, 17, 5, " vis atque
impetus"; vi, 14,6, " vis ac potestas "; iii, 13,3, "vis
et contumelia," etc. The same holds good of verbal
phrases like " cogere et conducere," Bell. Gall, ii,
2, 4; " conferre et comportare," i, 16, 4; " coactus
contractusque," iv, 22 ; " interdicere atque imperare,"
V, 22, 5, etc.: on the other hand the well-known
formula "fundere et fugare " is not found in Caesar.
Similarly the epithet zmmorlales added to di is a
species of pleonasm (Bell. Civ. ii, 5, 3, etc.).
127. With Cicero it is different. We cannot deny
that he shares with Caesar some of the peculiarities
just mentioned, as, for instance, the use of the hen-
diadys: but, in his quality of orator and philosopher
he exhibits many characteristics of style which do
not meet us in the Commentaries, or if they do, are
clearly quite exceptional. In Cicero, we remark in
the first place a large number of abstract substan-
tives connected with transitive verbs as active sub-
jects: such are atidacia, fortitudo, constantia, invidia,
valettido, improbitas, etc., and very often we find an
abstract noun in the plural to produce an impression
of oratorical redundancy. Next, he is very partial
to the figure called enthymeme {argtimentum ex con-
trario: cf. e.g. Pro Milone, 13, 44, 90, 92, 101; Pro
Archia, 10, 19, 25, 30): and, generally speaking, he
attaches great weight to rhetorical artifices produc-
tive of effect. He offers us unbidden a peep into his
workshop. He tells his friend Atticus (Ad Att. ii, i)
that on this occasion he has exhausted the whole
204 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
stock of I Socrates' ointment and all the samples of
his disciples : and he writes to the same friend
(i, 14): " If ever I had command of periods, of daring
turns of oratory, of logic and of rhetorical figures,
it was on that day. The applause was deafening."
He is referring to the day on which he was anxious
to plume himself on his consulate in the presence of
Pompey. This is the language in which Cicero
most aptly describes the most potent instruments
of his eloquence; and it is not without signi-
ficance that the German expression "verblumte
Rede," " Flowers of speech," came into use just
when the grand Ciceronian style had been intro-
duced by the Humanists, and when every one made
it his pride to show off " flores Latini," following
Cicero's counsel, " Oratio sit ornata." Such was the
main principle of Roman orators and of the writers
of the Renascence. Their object was to turn to
practical advantage the different elements of learn-
ing which they were busily assimilating and then
disseminating. They thus found it to their interest,
as Schiller says, "to appeal to the senses and to
call impressionism to their aid." Now the easiest
way of attaining this end was by personifying the
objects of which they treated, and by the employ-
ment of figurative or " improper " expressions. The
first method served to enhance, the second to pro-
duce, the perceptive faculty. Those who would
study Cicero's stylistic methods as interpreted by
a modern imitator, will find this interpreter in
Lessing, whose style is largely tinged with the
colours of ancient rhetoric, and shows each and
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 205
every form of the Roman methods of argumeni.
Those frequently recurring rhetorical figures, inter-
jections, repetitions of single words and phrases,
the lifelike personifications, the sudden precipitation
of some general reflection into the matter of the
debate, and, closely following thereon, and in sharp
contrast thereto, the expression of doubt (cf. Kett-
ner, " Herder's erstes kritisches Waldchen," Naum-
burg, 1887, p. 9).
128. The Roman loves to fancy himself pitted
against an adversary with whom he is engaged in
debate, and this even in a philosophical treatise like
Cicero's " De Senectute." With the adversary of his
imagination he chops logic, refutes arguments, con-
tradicts him, scathes him with irony. Hence the
frequent intercalated sentences beginning with ^^:
hence the recurrence of " dixerit quispiam," " dicet
aliquis," etc. In Cicero's time rhythm and accent
were more rigorously observed than ever before.
The cadences of poetry and such reminiscences of
hexameter verse as "esse videtur" were avoided
either by changing the order of the words, or by
other means: on the other hand it was held per-
missible and even recommendable to round off
periods by words like puto, arbitror, video, etc., e.g.,
Verr. iv, i, i ; Pro Rose. Am. 53, 153;* words which
were superfluous for the expression of the sense in-
* Besides the famous "esse videatur," a favourite ending in
Cicero is that which scans ->,--^---^ cf. "gloriam comparan-
dam." Two trochees are a common cadence in Livy; e.g., in
Bk. i, 51, we find ddvocdiur, inergcretur.
2o6 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
tended to be conveyed by the orator, and were
inserted merely with the idea of pleasantly rounding
off a sentence, a method which can be traced in
some cases even in Caius Gracchus. More ponder-
ous and emphatic words, like saepenumero instead of
the simple word saepe, found their way into suitable
places : the periods became full and rounded, neatly
and evenly constructed, and often became regular
models of painstaking industry delicately conceived
and carefully carried out. It must be remembered
that the public had changed, and demanded the true
oratorical style more than in Cato's time : it united
an augmented interest with more delicacy of ear
and a greater appreciation of rhetorical technique
(cf. Cic. Parad. iii, 2, 26; Hor. Ars Poet. 112 sqq.)\
so that even slight faults in rhythm or prosody were
criticized with an acuteness worthy of Athens.
129. One thing more remains for us to consider
briefly — how far charade^" finds its interpretation in
the writings of the two authors under consideration.
Boissier says of Cicero: " His oratory lacked those
very elements which were wanting to his character.
It manifests a universal want of decision and of
preciseness. Cicero is too much preoccupied with
his own personality, too little occupied with his sub-
ject in hand. He never attacks it directly and from
the obvious point of view. He loses himself in
pompous phraseology instead of employing the exact
and luminous language of actual affairs. If we
examine his speeches critically and proceed to analyze
them, it will appear that they contain before all else
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 207
much rhetoric, and a smattering of philosophy. His
rhetoric is the parent of all those admirable and
startling arguments, of those delicate points of dis-
cussion, and also of all that grand exhibition of
pathos which his oratory exhibits. To his philosophy
he owes all those commonplaces which he uses
with such consummate skill. In the place of all those
lengthy philosophical tirades, he might with more
advantage have presented us with a clear and in-
telligible exposition of his political principles, and
of the general ideas which govern his methods of
life."
In his speeches and in his scientific statements
these " lumina orationis " play an important part;
for it is his object to dazzle. His statements express
broad and easily apprehended effects: he appeals
much less to the intellect than Caesar or Tacitus.
But his instinct for foi-ni is so strongly developed,
that in his anxiety to attain equipoise in the con-
struction of his periods and to round off his sen-
tences, he does not hesitate to condescend to
repetitions, and even to errors in language (cf
H. Peter, " Jahrb. fur d. Klass. Altert." i, 641).
Vainglorious as he is, he loves to harp on himself
and his exploits: he possesses also the art of
so deftly grouping his matter, and of so affecting
his hearers by the glamour of his diction, that he
not unfrequently succeeded in winning a bad case.
Large and statesmanlike thoughts are indeed not
often found in his speeches, and, what is more, these
speeches are often deficient in convincing and accur-
ate logic. Thus, as it was matter of common know-
2o8 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
ledofe in Rome that Cicero was more fitted to awake
emotions and to appeal to sympathy, than to arrange
logical arguments, the favourite plan was, on occa-
sions when several advocates were employed in the
same case, to leave him to make the final speech.
130. Caesar was cast in a different mould. Cool
calculation led him to leave unsaid much that we
should like to have heard fall from his lips, but
which in his own interest is better left unuttered.
His life, like his deeds, was the slave of no emotion:
his words are the dictates of his intellect alone :
hence his sang-froid, unpleasant as the trait fre-
quently appears to us; as for instance when he can
find no words of sympathy for the death of his arch-
enemy, Pompey, but is satisfied with the curt and
bare sentence : " ibi ab Achilla et Septimio inter-
ficitur" (Bell. Civ. iii, 104, 3); or again, when he
has no words of pity for the sad fate of the last hero
of Gaul, Vercingetorix. The tact which he displayed,
enablinor him with a sin2:le word to attain results
almost miraculous, is vouched for by the assurance
given us by Suetonius that he on many occasions
brought his soldiers to reason by merely addressing
them: as once when he Greeted them as " Ouirites!"
(Suet. Jul. Caes. c. ']6), and again when he called
them his " commilitones " {ib. c. 67). Reserved as
he was, he was not partial to the flowers of oratory,
in fact he strove to keep himself free from their in-
fluence. If there be any justification for Vauvenar-
gues' assertion that great men speak simply and as
nature dictates, this was true of Caesar: even among
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 209
the ancients his style was reckoned simple and con-
cise. Cicero expressly remarks (Brutus, 75, 262):
" Etiam commentarios scripsit rerum suarum: nihil
est brevitate dulcius." Nothing in all these is arti-
ficial, nothing is ponderous: but in his efforts to
attain clearness he sacrifices even elegance, and some-
times even terseness of expression. His style lies
midway between jejuneness and redundancy. To
vary the construction of his sentences is not his
supreme aim: for instance, he gives us a string
of ablatives absolute (there are no less than seven
hundred and seventy of these in the " Bellum
Gallicum "). Again, he is not so careful as Cicero to
round off his periods and to bring them t6 an impres-
sive close. On the other hand he avoids parentheses
and anacolutha. Freshness and straightforwardness
are the mark of all narrative which deals with events
witnessed by the narrator: thus Caesar's diction is,
as we might expect, characterized by great lucidity
and acuteness. Besides this, his facts are so cleverly
connected, and unimportant matters are so entirely
thrown into the background, that in every chapter
of his work we hear the accents of the trained dip-
lomat. Ready for action and quick of movement
as he was on the battlefield, he was none the less so
in his Commentaries, which exhibit the Aoyo? a-TpocTiu-
Ttxov ocu^po? (cf. Plutarch, Caes. c. 3). Quintilian
also dwells on the fact (" Caesarem eodem animo
dixisse quo bellavit"). We may recall the famous
sentence " veni, vidi, vici."
We may gather from the foregoing that this pair
of classic writers are models of style, each in his own
p
2IO LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER, ETC.
way. Thus the remark of a recent commentator holds
good: * " Whoever is anxious to obtain a mastery of
good Latin style must be referred to Cicero and
Caesar as models for his imitation. For simple
historical style Caesar's Commentaries must be taken
as the type for all time: for speeches, essays and
letters, the writings of Cicero, because in them the
most graceful harmony between form and contents
prevails."
* Schmalz, p. 400, Lat. Syntax in Ivan Miiller's Handbuch.
APPENDIX
ROMAN CULTURE AS REFLECTED IN THE LATIN
VOCABULARY
THE Latin vocabulary, no less than the style of
the great Latin authors, gives us an insight
into Roman culture. The latter, however, enables
us rather to judge of the intellectual characteristics,
the thoughts and feelings of the several epochs which
it illustrates: the former acquaints us with their man-
ners and customs, their plans and their performances.
We discover that they possess much in common with
the other Indo-Germanic peoples, but also that in
many respects they have preferred to go on their own
way. In this scrutiny we have the advantage of
being able to examine not merely their circumstances
as attested by history, but, aided by etymology, we
are actually enabled to penetrate into periods ante-
cedent to all historical records, and we are enabled
to throw light upon events in the development of
their culture and their history which have come to
our cognizance by this way only. Lack of space,
however, forbids us travelling over all this ground :
we can therefore aim merely at touching on the most
striking and siornificant cases, and even these we
cannot pretend to treat exhaustively, but merely
211
212 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
attempt to bring into relief some few significant
features, and thereby prompt our readers to further
independent study of the question.
The Praetor takes his title from pradre, and
hence the word is employed by Cicero and Nepos
alike to translate the word o-T/jarrj-yo? and to denote a
general in armies other than Roman. In ancient
Rome the name of Praetors was assigned to the
pair of highest officials chosen yearly, who repre-
sented the kinofs until the title of consides came in at
the time of the Decemvirs. From them the porta
praeto7'ia, or main front entrance of the Roman
camp, took its name " Gate of the General," in contra-
distinction to the porta decu7nana, or postern camp
entrance where the tenth cohorts {cohortcs decumae)
had their quarters: the tent of the general, too,
bears their name {Praetorhmi), as does also his
body-guard {coJiors praetoria). It was not till a
later date that the title of praetor was transferred to
judicial magistrates [388 Urb. Cond.]. The quaestor
takes his name from quaerere, ** to inquire into," be-
cause under the kings and during the early years of
the Republic, he was the magistrate charged with
the investigation of criminal offences, or President
of the Court of penal judicature, and, only in a minor
capacity, Chancellor of the public exchequer. In the
classic period he was exclusively charged with the
public purse. The aedilis was the officer in charge
of buildings in general (" aedilis qui aedes sacras et
privatas procuraret," Paul, ap, Fest. 13, 7). He took
his title from aedes, which in the singular denotes a
hearth [cf. Gk. aTOw], afterwards the cell of a temple,
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 213
and finally the sacred building itself: but in the
plural it signifies a house with reference to all its
rooms [in English we say " to search the house "
— in German, from the more frequent use of flats,
" durch alle Zimmer suchen"]. The tribuni were
originally headsmen of Tribes : afterwards they came
to be the magistrates charged with protecting the
Plebs: the raised seat which they occupied in virtue
of their high office was called tribunale (i.e., sugges-
tum): whence comes our "Tribunal." The tribes
in question were the three original ones called
Ramnes, Tities and Luceres, from which the free
burgesses of Rome sprang. But after the new dis-
tribution ascribed to Servius Tullius, they came to
mean the [local] divisions of the Roman people into
four city and twenty-six (later thirty-one) rural
tribes. The word tribuere means properly to tax
these tribes : and the word tributzun denoted the
tax so imposed, as Varro expressly tells us (Ling.
Lat. V, 8): " tributum dictum a tribubus tributim
exigebatur."
The augures, whose business it was to mark the
flight of birds, take their name from avis, a bird, and
from the root gar found in garrire, to chatter. [The
latter statement is uncertain, see Walde " Etym.
Wbch." p. 55], just as the auspices take their names
from avis, and specere, to look. The name haru-
spices is connected with hariolus, '*a diviner," and
with hiray Jiilla, " entrails." Pontijices are said to
take their name from the building of the plank
bridges which it was their duty to maintain in good
order [but see Walde, p. 480, who derives the word
214 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
from a Sabine ioxva pttntis connected with qui7iquare^
" to purify "].
Th.e fetiales are said to take their name from the
duty laid on them of uttering {profiteri) the solemn
declarations of war or peace. [This word is more
probably connected with facio and fie/xi?, see Walde,
p. 220; the meaning being "the statute maker,"]
The Salii, or priests of Mars, were called " leapers "
because the worship which they superintended was
associated with processions of jesting leapers, just
as we see in the Luxemburg town of Echternach at
the present day. The Qtiirites, i.e., the Romans in
their quality of free citizens, take their title from the
spear with which they were armed; curis being
the Sabine word for spear: thus the name means
the spear-men. [More probably inhabitants of the
Sabine town of Cures : Walde assumes that even
this explanation rests on popular etymology, though
probably the same root is seen in Cur- and Qziir-
alike.]
The advocatus, or " person summoned to aid,"
was in the time of the Republic a friend conversant
with law, on whose aid a suitor could rely, and who
supported his case by his personal presence: it was
not till Quintilian's time under the Empire that the
word received the sense it bears to-day of counsel
specially employed to conduct a cause. Candidates
was the epithet applied to an applicant for a magis-
terial post, from the bright white (candida) toga
which he wore when he went round to solicit votes:
fa7nulus is the slave regarded as a member of the
household {OscD.n /ama, a house), cf. oIhItv? from oJaog :
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 215
persona, connected with personare, denotes originally
the player's mask through which the player spoke :
then it comes to denote the actor, and, finally, " a
person " generally. The same change of meaning
is observable in the case of Trp&o-wTroi' [this is, however,
doubtful, Walde connects/^ri-^;^^ with zond\. Coquus
in old Latin denotes both cook and baker, because
the same person performed both functions. Such
at least is the testimony of Paulus ap. Festum, 58,
14: " Coquum et pistorem apud antiquos eundem
fuisse accepimus ": pistor (irom. pinsere, to crush) is,
strictly speaking, the name given to a person who
crushes or bruises corn in a mortar, and then applied
to one who grinds it small in a handmill. But as
the grinder served as baker also, the word received
the common acceptation of baker. There were
certainly special bakers in Rome as early as the year
171 B.C., for Pliny tells us, Nat. Hist, xviii, 107:
** Pistores Romae non fuere ad Persicum usque
bellum " {i.e., till the war against Perseus or Perses
of Macedonia) *' annos . . . gentium." The staple
kind of corn in ancient times was spelt (hat./ar):
the meal ground from this was called farina: but
since 300 B.C. wheat, which was probably newly
imported from Egypt about that time, took its
name friirneyihwi from frui: the word originally
signified what can be enjoyed generally, cf. Fr. fro-
77ient, corn; Ital. formento : or again it was called
triticu7n, properly what is thrashed out {teritur)
[cf. Spanish trogo : gramini has undergone the same
change of meaning]. Phrygio even as early as
Plautus' time has the signification of an embroiderer
2i6 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
from the skill which the Phrygians always showed
in this art [cf. such names as Cadurci and in French
rouennerie\.
Hastati was the name originally given to the
combatants in a legion armed with the hasta, the
spear; principes to the first rank, triarii to the
third. Now the principes originally fought in the
front line of the Roman legion : at a later period,
however, the arrangements were changed, and the
hastati were set before them [and were armed with
the pilum and gladius\ We can gather what kind
of wood went to the making of the spear-shaft from
the meaning attached to the words fraxinus and
cor7ttis, which, besides their ordinary significations of
ash and cornel, denote the javelins, the shafts of which
were made of these kinds of wood. We can con-
fidently assert that besides the metal helmet which
bore the name of cassis, a leathern one was in use,
from the word galea = yaAii, weasel-skin [cf. xuv£»)].
Marius introduced the custom of employing as
signals in the battlefield representations of wild
beasts, such as eagles, wolves, horses, etc., attached
to poles, so that the word sigfium came to be used
generally, as we should say, for the Roman Flag.
[The aqtiila was the signum of the entire legion:
each maniple in the legion had its own special
standard: see Plin. Nat. Hist, x, i6: " Romanis
eam legionibus dicavit, equi aprique singulos or-
dines anteibant."] The ruthlessness displayed in
ancient warfare is well illustrated by the first mean-
ing of populari and depoptilari, which signify " to
dispeople " from populus, people (cf. kopfen, to be-
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 217
head, from kopf, a head, and schlc7?tmcn, to wallow
in luxury, gormandize, from sch/am7?i, mud). [This
is doubtful. Walde is inclined to connect these
words with the root o^ pel/o, peptili.~\ It is also to be
remarked that spoliare, to rob or despoil, means
properly to take the hide off an animal, and hence to
strip a fallen foe of his armour. By tela, from tendo
[in the sense of to aim at], we are to understand
weapons of attack, by anna, weapons of defence
{arcere: \}i\\xsarina = arc7na). [These two words prob-
ably come from different roots. Arceo^QV. apxtu:
arma from the root ar found in a'papjVxw.]
Praediu7n, a landed property, is originally con-
nected \v\\.\s. praes, a surety: it is thus regarded as a
possession of value which may be pledged as a
caution : hence the expression of Cicero and Livy,
" praedibus et praediis cavere populo," " to guarantee
the safety of the State by sureties and by mort-
gaging property." [This derivation is also called in
question by Walde, who suggests a possible etymo-
logy in prae{s)di7tm, i.e.., a property situated (sedeo)
near a town]. Ho7^tus, like coho7^s (etymologically
connected with Goth, gai^ds, a house : Gk. %opTOf) is,
strictly speaking, merely a court or a fenced-in en-
closure. We may hence infer that in the earliest
times the sites of the different houses were sur-
rounded by an enclosed space which may have been
planted with pot-herbs. If we compare culmus
(German Hal7}t, a stalk) with cuh7ien, and opo(pog,
reed, with 6po(pv, a roof, we shall gather that in olden
times the houses of the Romans were thatched with
straw or rushes, as indeed, according to Ovid, Fast.
2i8 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
vi, 261, was the most ancient temple of Vesta:
** Quae nunc aere vides, stipula tunc tecta videres "
[czdmus and culmen are, however, probably not con-
nected: the latter is derived from a root gel, to
project, seen in ce/szis, see Walde, p. 134].
Even in Plautus' time, and all through Latin
literature, the upper rooms, or garrets, of a Roman
house were called cenacula or dininor-rooms. Varro
gives the following explanation of this custom:
" Since it became customary to dine upstairs all the
upper rooms acquired the name of dining-rooms."
We can see in Pompeii at the present day such
dining-rooms, supported by columns: they were
especially adapted for fine weather: e.g., Insula v, 2,
and vii, 3 (cf. Mau, Pompeii, p. 256). Maeniana\Y2iS
the name given to galleries, balconies, projecting
windows, etc, after the time of C. Maenius (Consul
338 B.C.), who was the first to erect them over the
shops {tabernae) in order to gain a view of the
games in the Forum. We may compare the French
word 7nansarde from the French architect Mansard,
1598-1666. [Cf. the English "attic."]
Templum is from the same root as contemplari,
and it denotes in the first instance the position taken
up by the augurs to watch the heavens, and only
secondarily the spot chosen on earth for the worship
of the gods, A consecrated building was called
fanum, and hence all the unconsecrated ground
which lay before the shrine v^d^s pro fanum, i.e.., pro
fano situm. The compitalia, or festival held in the
crossways in honour of the Lares, takes its name
from compittim, a cross road \tibi viae competunt].
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 219
The Manes are the spirits of the dead, properly
" the Good Beings." The opposite meaning is found
in i7n??tanis, not good, monstrous: and connected
with it is ma7te, "in good early hours" [dc bo7ine
heMre\ and Ma7iius = \\i^ person born in a good
hour. Immolare, to sacrifice, denotes the sprinkling
of the victim with " mola salsa," crushed spelt and
salt. Two kinds of oracles were known in primitive
times: the oracular lottery by sortes, slabs of wood
which were thrown or laid on each other (serere) and
then picked up (surados tollere in Tacitus, ccvccipsTv, to
lift up) : then the word sorUs comes to mean " pro-
phecy" generally; and also the forecasting of the
future by means of omens taken from birds, whence
omen is derived {*omsme?i, cf. oluvog, bird and omen :
oU(T^xi, to wait for a sign, to hope: from ok, a bird)
[omen is more probably derived from a word ovis,
meaning a presage, cf. Walde, s.v.]. Incantations,
which were very common, were carried out by means
of formulae, and the term for employing them was
thus iiicantare and cantare; and the formula itself
was called Carmen [cf the English charm] = ETroiJ^yf.
Venenum i^venesmim, from Venus) signified origin-
ally a love-potion : then the poison from which it
was prepared, and, finally, poison in general. The
Romans in the act of worship turned to the south —
in this, differing from the Greek custom : and thus
they held the left to be the fortunate quarter, and
the right to be the unlucky one: the Sun, Giver of
Light and Life, rises to the left. So the word sinister
came to mean " of good omen in general" (Cic. De
Div. 2, 32, " ita nobis — meliora"). Sinister 2ins\vtvs
220 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
to Sanskr. saniyas, the winner [rather to the vairya
of the Avesta, see Walde, s.v^^ just as the O.H.G.
wmistar answers to wini, friend. The word talio is
characteristic of the principles of law in olden times :
it is thus defined by Isidore, v, 27, " similitudo vin-
dictae ut taliter quis patiatur ut fecit sequatur "
(of. Rein, " Kriminalrecht," pp. 37 sqq.\ Strafrecht, p.
802). Thus the principle of " eye for eye and tooth
for tooth," or, in Greek, sav tk o'(p6aA|aov ly.y.o-^y\, dvTSX.-
x6\l/oci irapoio-^BTv tou iauTov, was known to the ancient
Romans.
Writing was originally a mere process of scratch-
ing marks on wooden tablets: hence scribe^^e =
<rxapKpa(r6af, " to scratch in"* (compare the English
word " write " with German ritsen). [The late gram-
marian Virgilius Maro actually uses the word carax-
are — yjx.poi.<T<Ti\\), for to write: cf. also the English
use of "characters" in script.] Liber, "book,"
originally means " bark," and codex means properly
a block or stump. Satuj'a (/anx) was strictly speak-
ing a pot-pourri of different ingredients [especially
for the use of gladiators] : hence it was applied to a
" medley "in literature, as may be seen in the Satires
of Lucilius. Ectdeus = eq2iuletis, or "little horse,"
was an instument of torture: a horse with a back
full of sharp points, on which victims had to sit :
Jicatum, {rovn. Jicus, "fig," denotes the goose's liver
artificially fattened with figs: hence Ital. fegaio,
and ¥r. foie, "liver": calculare, our word " to calcu-
* Cf. Geiger, '* On the Development of the human race," chap,
iv, on the origin of writing. The northern phrase was rista runir,
to scratch Runes.
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 221
late," comes from calculus, a small stone, such as
were used for reckoning: caro, flesh, is identical with
the Umbrian word karu andtheOscan carneis = partis
[allied to xn'/jw]: it signifies strictly a portion cut off,
and must have applied to the portion assigned to
each guest at meal time. Supplicui7n, punishment
by death, is connected with supplicare, to ask on
bended knees, because the convicted criminals re-
ceived their death stroke in that posture [this deri-
vation is disputed, the latter half of the word being
referred to the same stem as placare]: funus, a
funeral procession or ceremony, is connected with
6ot'i/»), a sacrificial banquet which was a part of the
ceremony in question [this derivation, too, is dis-
puted: Walde connects the word with a root
which appears in Gothic as gaunon, to utter wail-
ings, keening]; nuei^e is to nod the head in token
of acquiescence: hence nu7nen, the deity who
vouchsafes assent: the reverse is abnuere, to toss
the head back, a sign among the Romans of dis-
sent, which we signify by shaking our heads.
Sublatus is used in the sense of natus: for the
newly born infant was laid before the feet of the
father and not recognized as his child till he raised
it from the ground: cordaius means not merely
"heartened" but also "clever," as in the line of
Ennius quoted by Cicero, De Rep. i, 3: pe7tsum, a
task in general, is strictly speaking the quantity of
wool ** weighed out " to the female slaves to spin
[and pe7ido itself is properly to hang on to a
weight].
The three periods in the month from which the
222 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER
Romans, reckoning backwards, dated, are the Cal-
endae, JVonae, and Idus. Calendae takes its name
from calo, to call out [cf. our word " to hail "], be-
cause according to Varro, Ling. Lat.vi, 27, "primidies
nominati Calendae quod his diebus calantur quin-
tanae an septimanae sint futurae." From the same
stem we have calator and calebra, the place for call-
ing out public announcements on the Roman Capitol,
where the Pontifex minor publicly announced the
various days in the month on which festivals were cele-
brated or the law-courts opened : also nomenclator,
the slave whose business it was to prompt his master
by telling him the names of the acquaintances whom
he met in the street. The name Nonae, or ninth,
was applied to the fifth or to the seventh day of the
month, because it was the ninth day before the Ides.
The Idus signified the thirteenth or fifteenth day of
the month, from a word meaning "to divide," which
Macrobius, Saturn, i, 15, 17, assures us existed in
Etruscan [Varro, Ling. Lat. vi, 28, makes the same
assertion: but it is rejected by Walde, who connects
it with Ssce Ir. = *eid — skiom = mensis hmaris]. The
Ides divided the month into two halves. Nundmum
= novem dies is a space of eight days [reckoning in-
clusively], hence trmzcjidimcm, a space of twenty-
four days, and nundinae, the closing day of the period
which answered to our week, the market day, on
which the peasants brought their produce to town.
Bimus, two years old, and trimus, three years old,
are contracted from bitriinus and tritrimus: the latter
portion of these two words is connected with hiems,
and points to a time when reckoning by winters was
OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE 223
common [cf. in some English dialects twinter = 2i
beast two years old].
In Italy the Decemvirs, following no doubt the
example of the Greeks, attached a definite value to
copper, and thus created coin. The as, assis, very
possibly comes from the same root as asser, a rod or
stave (cf. vovns as against vomer), so that the Roman
as may be paralleled by the Greek o^oXo<; = ofitXog, a
spit [Walde takes the derivation to be from an
Umbrian root, ar- = Lat. ad-, denoting to settle or
arrange, so that as, assis = ad-ti, "statutory unity"].
The general name for a coin was nimtmzts, a word
borrowed from the Greek v&Vo?. with the signification
of " a statute," or statutory uniform standard of coin-
age. In later times immrmis was confined to the
meaning of sestertius', and since Ovid's time the
word moneta was employed from Juno Moneta [con-
nected with moneo\ : for it was in her temple that
after the introduction of silver coinage (269-268 b.c.)
a building was erected for a mint. The word ses-
tertius = semis — tertiusas\i.e., two are understood and
the third is an as like the German expression dritte-
Jialb = fsNo and a half]. Denarius is from de7ii = ten
as: solidus (our " solid ") denotes in the first instance
a gold coin of the value of twenty-five Denarii, which
at a later date decreased in value: in modern times it
denotes a copper coin = Fr. sou, and Ital. soldo. As
in ancient times unminted copper was in use (aes rude,
raudus), which was converted into copper pieces or
bars, the use of scales was needed : and hence we find
mpendo the double meaning of " to weigh " and " to
pay," and the old formula to express a legal pur-
224 LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER, ETC.
chase, " per aes et libram." For the bar-form which
we noticed when speaking of the as the expression
stipendium {stipipendiuifi) is a good parallel. It is
derived from slips, stipis, a stem or trunk. [The
original meaning of slips is uncertain : it may mean
an ear of corn, and thus a payment in corn; cf.
Walde, p. 596.] A passus (from pandere, to stretch
out) is the span of the arms when stretched out
horizontally, from the end of one set of fingers to
the other: thus it is neither a foot nor a step, but a
double step = 4I of a German foot : for quinque niillia
passuum = 24,000 feet or a German mile. \Passus
does really signify a man's step, i.e., two and a half
English feet; cf Pliny, ii, 23: "Stadium centum
viginti quinque nostros efficit passus, hoc est pedes
sexcentos viginti quinque." There were two kinds
of passus : the passus minor, and the passus maior
which consisted of two of \}i\^ passus minores.~\
NOTES
(i) § I. Cf. " Archiv fiir Lexicographic," vii, 333 sqq.\
and Isidore (Orig. ix, 2, 105): " Romanos graves, Graecos
laves"; Livy, xxx, ^,6: " Romana in adversis rebus con-
stantia": assiduus is from sedere, and perhaps sedultis [this
word is more probably derived from se dolo = si7ie dolo; cf.
Walde, s.v.\ Livy, xxii, 14, i, praises the " insita Romanis
industria": and Varro's dictum (i, 2, 2) tallies with this
view : " Romanu.s sedendo vincit " [cf Cicero, "Pro Flacco,'
for the Roman view of the Greek character].
[Cf. Dr. Voigt in Iwan Miiller's " Handbuch," iv, 2,
pp. 288 sqq. " The Roman is distinguished by a deep
sense of religion, and his religion afforded him the means
of satisfying its claims, while the believer experienced the
need of ensuring the aid of the gods in every circumstance
of life, by offerings, prayers, and invocations. He manifests
a certain lack of imagination which imparts to his religious
observances an earnest and sober character. On the other
hand, the Roman is distinguished by intellectual aptitude
and a good understanding, by presence of mind, and by an
inclination to indulge in ready wit and racy banter: by
self-control, self-confidence, and courage, and likewise by
an inflexible will: he possesses a strong and even exag-
gerated love and pride in his country which takes the form
sometimes of undue self-esteem, sometimes of enlightened
patriotism. Add to this strength, activity, and perseverance,
straightforwardness and love of truth, pride in the honour
of his name; add that he was conscientious in the discharge
of his duties, and inexorable in his claim that his neighbour
should requite him in kind. For the rest the Roman was
industrious and a careful householder, simple, temperate,
Q
226 NOTES
and modest : he cultivated gravitas, or decorum, in his own
outward appearance and actions, he respected authority
and took care that his own authority should be respected:
he was sensitive to the claims of friendship, and was him-
self steadfast in his friendships." Cf A. Novent, " De Mori-
bus Romanis," Leod, 1829; C. L. Roth, "Zur Theorie und
inneren Geschichte der romischen Satire," Stuttgart, 1848,
§ 6-10; Bernhardy, Rom. Litt., § i, 4; Teuffel, Rom. Litt,
§ i; Voigt, xii; Taf., § 5.]
(2) § 2. The reading argute loqui is not certain; Poly-
bius, ii, 17, 10, transcribing Cato, says: ra TtQ'htixiKa. xoci to.
KSiTa yeupylav aanm. Cf. also W. Soltau, " Prolegomena zu
einer romischen Chronologie," p. 70.
(3) § 3. The following works may be consulted on the
relations between the language of a nation and its char-
acter: Wedewer, " Uber die Wichtigkeit und Bedeutung
der Sprache fiir das tiefere Verstandniss des Volkschar-
acters," Frankfurt a/M., 1859; Fr. Stehlich, " Die Sprache
in ihrer Beziehung zum National -character," Casseler
Programm, 1881; J. Stocklein, " Beobachtungen liber den
Zusammenhang zwischen Sprache und Volkscharacter,"
Blatter fur das Bayr. Gymnasialschulwesen, xxx, 335-357;
A. Lefevre, " Les races et les langues," Paris, 1893; J. Le-
coultre, " Du genie de la langue francaise compare a celui
de la langue latine," Neuchatel, 1894; Lindsay, " The Latin
Language," Cambridge, 1895; and Weise's " Abhandlung
liber deutsche Sprache und deutsche Volksart in den Sam-
melwerke von Hans Meyer, Deutsches Volkstum," 2 Aufl.
Leipzig, pp. 213-260. [Cf also "General Principles of the
Structure of Language," by James Byrne, M.A., London,
Trubncr, 1885.]
(4) § 3. Cicero's assertion, De Nat. Deorum, i, 4, 8, is
mere self-complacency and exaggerated patriotism. "Quo
in genere tantum profecisse vidcmur, ut a Graccis ne
verborum quidem copia vinceremur"; and again where he
(De P'in. i, 3, 10) says: " Saepe discerni Latinam linguam
non modo non inopem, ut vulgo putarcnt, sed locupletiorem
etiam esse quam Graecam."
NOTES 227
(5) § 3- See Weise's treatise on the Greek loan-words in
Latin (Leipzig, 1882, and G. A. Saalfeld, " Thesaurus Italo-
graecus," Vienna, 1884).
(6) § 3. Other such words are: ypa/^/xa, a letter; raxavrov,
a talent; fxopov, a mulberry; Trxaravof, a plane tree; Kipaim,
fenugreek ; A105 (3aXavoj, edible chestnut ; m^7«j crTpoo6oi, ostrich ;
^ii0aMg, an antelope; piwKspu^, rhinoceros; Trvyapyog, a Libyan
antelope [or the great sea eagle] ; x^oxdJejaoj, crocodile;
KspoTTiOvHOi, ape; xaru^MTrm', [African] buffalo; upoMytov, sun-
dial ; TpiYipT^g, three-decker, etc.
(7) § 4. Cf Leo Tob, " De grammaticis vocabulis apud
Latinos," Paris, 1893; L. Jeep, " Zur Geschichte der Lehre
von den Redeteilen bci den lateinischen Grammatikern,"
Leipzig, 1893 ; B. Linderbauer, " De Verborum mutuatorum
et peregrinorum apud Ciceronem usu et compensatione."
Pars posterior. Programm von Metten bei Straubing, 1893.
(8) § 5, It is admitted, even by Hehn, the great admirer
of the Romance languages, that they are deficient in the
power of forming compounds (Italien 3 Aufl., p. 201).
For this question as applied to Latin, see P. Udolph, " De
Latinae linguae vocabulis compositis," Breslauer Disserta-
tion, 1865; G. V. Muyden, " De Vocabulorum in lingua
Latina compositione," Halle, 1858; F. Seitz, " De adjectivis
Latinorum poetarum compositis," Bonner Dissertation,
1878; F, Stolz, "Die lateinische Nominal-composition,"
1877. [For compounds in French, see Darmesteter, His.
Fr. Gr., § 272 sqq^^
(9) § 7. " If any circumstance has made a particularly
deep impression on the spirit of the people, this spirit is
tempted to forge new expressions to meet the occasion:
and to disclose ever new features in that spirit with a
manifold redundancy of words. Every characteristic attri-
bute which struck the fancy of a new observer yielded a
new name" (O. Kares, " Jahrbucher fur Phil.," 1S84, ii, 595).
[See H. Heine's witty application pf this thought: " Reise
von Munchen nach Genua, kap. iv, ad init." (Hamburg,
Hoffman, 1871), and Whitney, " Language and the Study
of Language," p. 123, Trlibner and Co., 1870.]
228 NOTES
(go) § 8. [So the name Palatium and Mons Palatinus
seem to answer to the deities of the domestic hearth, Pales
and Palatua.]
(10) § 9. W. Cosack, " Bild und Gleichniss in ihrer Be-
deutung fur Lessing's Stil," Danziger Progr., 1869, and
Immisch, " Jahrbucher fur Philol.," 1887, pp. 393 sqq.
(11) § 9. Reisig remarks in his " Vorlesungen liber
lateinische Sprachwissenschaft," § 173: "We can com-
monly learn certain characteristic traits of a nation by the
Figures of speech which it employs, particularly in the
case of certain special objects of its taste " ; and Jak. Bauer
remarks in the Ansbacher Programm of 1889, p. 33: "The
peculiarities of a nation are in no way more clearly mir-
rored than in its metaphors." See Brinkmann, " Die Meta-
phern, Studien iiber den Geist der modernen Sprachen,"
Bonn, 1878; R. Thomas, " Zur historischen Entwickelung
der Metapher im Griechischen," Erlanger Disputation,
1891 ; H. Blummer, " Studien zur Geschichte der Metapher
im Griechischen," Leipzig, 1891 ; Burmester, " Uber den
Einfluss der Metapher auf die Entwickelung der Sprache,"
Barmer Programm, 1863; A. Darmesteter, "La vie des
mots," Paris, 1887, pp. 96 sqq.
(12) § 10. Cf. the Sabine word curis: Lange and Momm-
sen, Rom. Geschich. 7 Aufl. i, 69.
(13) § 10. The great influence exercised by the ideas of
the Romans on their national proverbs is brought out by
Wolfflin, " Sitzungsberichte der Mlinchener Akademie,"
1888, pp. igy sgq. It is also worth noticing that the phrase-
ology connected with belluni has had a large development;
e.g., belluvi indicere, 7novere,concitare,confiare,parare,ducere,
tfahere, componere, conficere, fiiiire, etc. Again, some old
Roman names were taken immediately from words con-
nected with war, as Duilius = Duellius, from dnelluin =
belluni, Mctclliis = inerccnarius, paid soldier (after Festus,
p. 147) [from viete7'e: Duellius and Bellius are referred by
VValde rather to bellus = bonus. Pliny the Younger (vi, 12)
refers to a law court as his arena].
(14) § 10. Cf. Ribbeck, " Geschichte der romischen Dich-
NOTES 229
tung," i', 123, and Kampmann, "Res Militares Plauti,"
Breslau, 1839.
(15) § II. References to Law and matters of Law are
very common among the Romans. Cf H. Dcmelius,
" Plautinische Studien," Zeitschrift fiir Rechtsgeschichte,
i (1862), 351-372; ii, 177-238; J. Mispoulet, "Revue de
Philol." xii, I sqq. Jubei'e is properly " to hold as right "
{ins Mvai) [the connection of iubeo and ins is doubtful,
V. Walde s.v.^, arbitrari " to appoint an umpire," etc.
(16) § 13. The Germans [and English] seem to speak
more sympathetically than the Latins, as may be seen in
such expressions as " our poet," " our author," " our volume,"
etc., as compared with the more colourless hie poeta, hie
seriptor, hie liber.
(17) § 14. It is improbable that the word Indus = Lydius,
implying an influence exercised by Lydia on Etruria
[Walde connects it with a root from which comes Anglo-
Saxon gleo^ our " glee "].
(18) § 14. These two words are referred by others to ajo^
I say, agjo [agio].
(19) § 17. More details are given in Lohmeyer's " Zeitschr.
des allgemein. deutsch. Sprachvereins," iv, i, 5 sgg., and in
W. Wackernagel's " Schweitzerisches Museum," i, i, 69-
119.
(20) § 17. Pick, "Die griechischen Personennamen,"
Gottingen, 1874, cites about 300 names of both classes.
(21) § 19. Cf. the excellent collection of pertinent pro-
verbs by Otto, " Archiv fiir Lexicographie," iii, 355 sqq.,
and W. V. Wyss, " Die Sprichworter bei den romischen
Komikern," Zurich, 1889 bes. pp. 12 and 47, and for the
Greek proverbs, the Programme of Martin, Plauen, 1889.
(22) § 20. Also in the form " audentes fortuna iuvat "
(Verg. Aen, x, 284), or the same sentiment abbreviated,
"sed fortes fortuna" (Cic. De Fin. iii, 4, 16); or " fortibus
est fortuna viris data" (Enn.); "Fortuna fortes metuit,
ignavos premit" (Senec); " audendum est, fortes adjuvat
ipse dcus" (Ovid); "dimidium facti qui cocpit habet;
sapere aude" (Hor.); "omnia deficiant, animus tamen
230 NOTES
omnia vincit ; ille etiam vires corpus habere facit " (Ovid) ;
or in various other forms. Cf. Biichmann, " Gefliigelte
vvorte," 21 Aufl., pp. 383 sqq. [Cic. De Off. i, 23, " Fortis
animi est non perturbari in adversis "].
(23) § 23. Cf. too Tac. Ann. iii, 12, " id solum Germanico
super leges praestiterimus," besides the frequent use of
videro. Also the Conjunctive Perfect, which occurs so
often in sentences of commanding and willing, and in
doubting questions and in the Potential seems always to
imply that the speaker is under a strong emotion and full
of decision, and especially that he lays stress on the speedy
termination of the action spoken of (cf. H. C. Elmer,
" Studies in Latin Moods and Tenses," Ithaca, N. York,
1898, and Weise's review of this treatise in the "Berliner
Philol. Wochenschrift," 1898, No. 38, Sp. 1173 sqq?). We
should mention in this place the rhetorical Pluperfect
employed more especially by the historians, instead of the
Perfect, when they are intent on calling attention to what
is to follow, and pronounce their judgment from the point
of view of the following action. (Cf on this point H. Blase,
" Gesch. des Plusquamperf. im Latein," Giessen, 1894, pp. 38
sqq.\ also Schmalz' note on Catil. 18,6; Madvig, § 338;
Kuhner, " Ausfuhrliche Gramm.," § 35, 3.)
(24) § 24. Cum concessive or adversative is used by
Plautus with the Indicative only: it is found in Terence
sometimes with the Indicative, sometimes with the Sub-
junctive: quippe is, even in Sallust, always constructed
with the Indicative. A. Dittmar is hardly right in attempt-
ing to prove, as he does in his " Studien zur lat. Modus-
lehre," that the Conjunctive, wherever occurring, has a
polemic character, and is the expression of some mental
excitement; and that its use is thus explicable as ex-
pressive of doubt, irritation at contradiction, or some other
emotion (cf Weise's review of this treatise in the " Literar-
isches Centralblatt,"i897, Sp. 1464^^^.: and in the "Berliner
Philol. Wochenschrift," 1897, Sp. 1591). W. G. Hale views
the matter from another standpoint in his treatise, " The
Cum constructions," Ithaca, N. York, 1887 and 1889; his
NOTES 231
opinion is that the Conjunctive in ^«;;/-scntences is just as
little conditioned by causal or adversative considerations as
by the fact that the relation of subordination or the sub-
jective nature of the speaker's point of view exerts its
influence. He expresses himself thus: "The conjunctive
r/^w-sentence expresses the situation actually in being at
the time of the occurrence of the main action. The in-
dicative cum-sentence expresses the time or date at which
the main action occurs." The former, then, answers the
question : " Hozv stood matters when the main action
occurred?" The latter answers the question: " What was
the date of the main action? "
The following treatises on this question are also worthy
of attention: E. Hoffmann, "Die Konstruktion der latein-
ischen Zeitpartikeln," Wien, 1873, and "Das Modus-
gesetz im lateinischen Zeitsatz," Wien, 1891, which assume
that the use of the two moods respectively in Latin time-
sentences depends on the difference between absolute and
relative tihie: M. Wetzel, "Das Recht in dem Streite
zwischen Hale und E. Hoffmann iiber die tempora und
Modi in latein. Temporal satzen," Paderborn, 1892;
Stegmann, "Jahrb. f. Philol.," Bd. 142, pp. 454-474;
Heynacher, " Wochenschrift f klass. Philologie," 1890,
pp. 739 sqq., and Lubbert, " Die Syntax von quom und die
Entdeckung der relativen Tempora im Latein," Breslau,
1870.
(25) § 29. The same holds good of other iterative clauses
in Livy with guantuvi, quod, utcumque, etc. Cf. O. Riemann,
" Etude sur la langue et la grammaire de Tite-Live,"
2 Aufl., Paris, 1885, pp. 294 sqq.
(26) § 29. H. Ziemer says in his treatise, " tjber das
psychologische Moment in der Bildung syntactischer
Sprachformen," Programm von Colberg, 1879, p. 8: "There
can be no dispute that the Latin language during its
course of eight hundred years, if we may judge from its
documentary evidence, has undergone fewer changes than
other tongues, such as the German [and the English], in a
like space of time." We must also agree with G. Curtius,
232 NOTES
who lays stress on the larger capacity of Greek for ex-
pression generally, and especially for the admirable subtlety
displayed in the combination of its sentences. In Greek we
findamorecopious dialectic literaturethan in Latin ; thequick
and subtle mind of the Greek developed a vast redundancy
of forms, and we find prevailing over the entire language
undeniable traces of the activity of the " Psychological
moment." The Latin language, on the other hand, mani-
fests in its development, as disclosed to us, greater con-
sistency, greater simplicity, and much less freedom; in
its syntactic forms it follows more closely the Laws of
Logic.
(27) § 30. Lubbock (" Origin of Civilization," p. 403)
declares that in the Brazilian dialect Tupi, out of a
thousand words sixty-six are reduplicated; among the
Hottentots, seventy-five; in the Tonga dialect one hun-
dred and sixty-six, in the Maori one hundred and sixty-
nine. Cf. also Deecke, " De reduplicato Latinae linguae
praeterito," p. 19, and C. Jacoby, " Die reduplication im
Lateinischen," Danziger Programm, 1878. [On reduplica-
tion in the Polynesian dialects, see Whitney, " Language
and the Study of Language," p. 338: the languages of the
Australian aborigines are also largely characterized by
reduplication. The repetition of the root, either complete, or
by " reduplication," i.e., the repetition of its initial part, was
made to indicate symbolically the completion of the action
signified by the root, and furnished another tense, a perfect:
e.g.^ from the root ^i3 = give, Sanskrit ddddti, Greek ?£^w«a:,
Latin dedi, from dha, put, make, Greek TB^ina, O.H.G.
tetUy A.S. dide, our did. Whitney, p. 267 ; see also pp. 338
sqq. for reduplication in the Polynesian languages.]
(28) § 30. E.g., " Super unus eram," Verg. Aen. ii, 567 ;
" inque cruentatus," Ovid, Met. xii, 492 ; " Hac Troiana
tenus," Aen. vi, 62 ; " quae me cumque vocant," Aen. i, 60.
[" Inque salutatam linquo," Aen. v, 28, and Ennius, " Cere —
comminuit — brum ! "] Lucret. " inque pediri," " conque
globata," "ordia prima"; Cicero, Sest. 68: "quod iudicium
cumque subierat"; Ad Attic, v, 18: " faciam tamen satis."
NOTES 233
Seyffert-Muller on Laelius, p. 49; Schmalz, " Jahrblicher
f. klass. Philol.," 1892, ii, 364; M. Bonnet, " Le Latin de
Grcgoire de Tours," p. 480.
(29) § 32. The Greek is extremely sensitive as to the
terminations of his words, in which he allows hardly any
double letters, except such as those of which ?, p and v
are one factor [such words as Tyrins are now held to be
pre-Hellenic]: in the beginnings of his words, however, he
admits a comprehensive number of consonantal collocations:
the Roman, on the other hand, shows a greater sensitive-
ness as to the beginnings of his words, in which he avoids
such combinations as cm^ dm, tin, svi : en, dn,pn, mn : ct, pt:
bd, gd: ps, X, tl, scl {sil), all of which come naturally to the
Greek. On the other hand, in the endings of his words the
Roman admits of a series not merely of simple consonants,
but also of consonantal combinations, e.g., nt, rt, st, It: rs,
VIS, ns : nc. It seems as if the Roman were bent on verify-
ing in his treatment of the vowels what Hanno says in
Livy (Book xxi, 10, 7) about the national character of his
enemies: "Quo lenius agunt, segnius incipiunt, eo, cum
coeperint, vereor ne perseverantius saeviant." Cf. too
Benary, " Kuhn's Zeitschrift f vergleich. Sprachwissensch.,"
i, 51 sqq., and R. Kretschmer, loc. cit., xxxi, 412 sqq.
Latin writers, again, seem not to feel the same objection to
the hiatus which characterizes Greek writers,
(30) § 3-- Alliteration played a great part in the tech-
nique of old Latin verse. Cf. S. Preuss, " De Bimembris
Dissoluti apud Scriptores Romanos Usu Solemni," Edcn-
koben, 1881 ; and W. Ebrard, "Die Alliteration in der lat.
Sprache," Bayrcuth, 1882. This also holds true of the early
stage of the German language: cf. Heine, " Die Alliteration
im Munde des deutschen Volks," Anklam, 1882 [and was
common in Early English, where it was an essential part of
the rhythm. Cf Morris and Skeat's " Specimens of Early
English," pp. 151 sqq. The Deluge and the vision of
William concerning Piers the Plowman.]
(31) § 34. Cf. W. Stehlich, "Die Sprache in ihrem
Verhiiltnis zur Geschichte," Leipzig, 1892; and Weise's
234 NOTES
treatise on the German mother tongue. 5 Aufl., Leipzig,
1904, pp. 87-104. J. Grimm, " Kleine Schriften," i, 290,
says: " Our language is at the same time our history," and
W. V. Humboldt, in his treatise on the Kawi language,
says: "Language is intimately bound up with the develop-
ment of mankind: it accompanies it at every step of its
progress as if its retrogression, and the state of civilization
of those who speak it, is recognizable by its aid " [cf.
Whitney, pp. 383 sqq.'\.
(32) § 40. Cf. too O. Altenburg's essay " De sermone
pedestri Italorum vetustissimo," Leipzig, 1898: "In the
records of old Italian popular language, such as ancient
specimens of law, the writings of Cato, the municipal laws
of Bantia, the Eugubine tables, we meet with the same
absence of form and grace in style. The thought presses
ever to the front: the expression is of secondary import-
ance. This is the peculiar mark of the style of the old
Latin prayers, so grand in their very simplicity, of the
Laws, and of Cato's precepts with their somewhat pedantic
tone and character."
(33) § 40. " M. Catonis quae exstant," ed. Jordan, p. yj:
" Et hoc puta vatem dixisse, quandoque ista gens suas
litteras dabit, omnia corrumpet."
(34) § 43. Old Latin words found in Ennius, but not in
later Latin literature, have been collected by A. Reichardt,
"Jahrbucher fur PhiloL," 1889, pp. 81 sqq.: the old Latin
words in Plautus by H. A. Koch, Rhein. Mus. xxv, 617,
and S. Bugge, " Neue Jahrb. f. Phil.," 1872, 91 sqq. For
hybrid formations, see Tuchhandler, " De Vocabulis
Graecis in Linguam Latinam translatis," Berliner Dissert.,
1876, p. 64; and Weise's essays in Bezzenberger's " Beitrage
zur Kunde der Indog. Sprachen," ix, 90 sqq., and Philologus,
N. F. i, 45-52.
(35). Cf. Schulze, " De Archaismis Sallustianis," Halle,
1871 ; Briinnert, " De Sallustio imitatore Catonis, Sisennae
aliorumque veterum historicorum Romanorum," Berlin,
1864.
(36). Cf more especially § 44. In Cato alone we find no
NOTES 235
less than five similes drawn from the theatre: 2, 6; 10, 48;
18,64; 19,70; 23,86.
(37) § SO- Cicero (De Fin. iii, 2, 5) pronounces this
opinion as to the borrowing of Greek terminations : " Quodsi
in lingua concessum est, ut doctissimi homines de rebus
non pervagatis inusitatis verbis uterentur, quanto id nobis
magis concedendum, quia ea nunc primum audemus
attingere? "
(38) § 51. Cf. Herder, " Samtliche Werke," ii, 11, 258,
der Cottaschen Ausgabe von 1862: "Such names were
rejected by a general code of honour as improper: the
objects denoted by such names, however, are not regarded
as improper: nor indeed is there any diminution in the
desire to find some way of indicating these objects, inno-
cent as they are, and to do this gracefully. This is the
origin of the polite words a double entente of modern
society. Two or three expressions were ostracized from
the standard language of respectability and consigned to
the populace. But twenty periphrases, fifty " flowers of
speech," and a hundred expressions a double entente were
accepted in their place. These pass unperceived save by
the subtlest minds. And this was called " the modest and
simple language of the century " [cf suavufxoi : for apiarspog].
(39) § 53- He was reproached that it was his way, "a
prisca consuetudine movere et ad formas Graecas verborum
magis revocare." For the Greek inflexional terminations in
Roman poets cf. L. Sniehotta, " De vocum graecarum apud
Latinos poetas ab Ennio usque ad Ovidi tempora usu."
Breslauer philolog. Abhandlungen ix, 2, Breslau, 1908;
A. Thiel,"Juvenalis graecissans," Breslau, 1901, pp. 143 sqq.
(40) § 54. Even Livy borrows much from the Augustan
poets, especially from Vergil, and not merely single words
but entire phrases like " haec ubi dicta dedit," xxii, 50, 10;
" nubes iaculorum," xxi, 55; cf. Aen. x, 808, " nubes belli."
Cf also Decolle, " Reste elegischer Poesie im Livius," Ber-
liner philolog. Wochenschrift, 1892, Sp. 835, and Stacey,
*' Die Entwickelung des Livianischen Stils," Archiv f lat.
Lexicogr. x, 17 sq^. (1898). Of 319 words created by Vergil
236 NOTES
no less than 57 are repeated by Tacitus. The articles by
A. Czyczkiewicz, " De Taciti sermonis proprietatibus prae-
cipue quae ad poeticum dicendi genus pertineant." The
articles by Brody, 1890 and 1891, and those by Dosson,
"Etude sur Quinte Curce," Paris, 1887, 278 sqq., are also
worth consulting.
(41) § 55. He never employs them in letters addressed
to Tiro and Atticus, and in those to Terentia he does so
out of simple politeness: on the other hand he employs
them regularly in official documents and in replies to people
who had themselves employed them.
(42) § 57. The " Argonautica " of Valerius Flaccus con-
tain III similes: on the numerous metaphors found in
Tacitus cf. Drager, " Einleitung zu Tac. Ann." pp. 30 sqq.
A. Stitz, "Die Metapher bei Tacitus," Krems, 1883, 1884
Joh. Kitt, " De Translationibus Taciteis," Konitz, 1884
on the Personifications of Tacitus see the work of F. Meyer,
Gottingen, 1884.
(43) § 57- There are striking resemblances, too, in
the writing, and in the architecture of both periods. The
shapes of the letters are in both periods curved and spread
out: in architecture during the empire under the Claudian
dynasty vanity and luxury caused gigantic buildings to be
raised, while in the time of the Antonines the buildings
were overladen with ornamentation, just as in Germany
during the prevalence of the Barocco style.
(44) § 58. Quintilian, too, recommends the employment
of archaic words (i, 6), provided that they be only used
occasionally, and not too ostentatiously paraded. Cf , too
Gell. Noct. Att. i, 10.
(45) § 58. The style of Tacitus and its historical develop-
ment is treated by E. Wolfflin, " Philologus," xxv, 92 sqq. ;
xxvi, 92 sqq.; xxvii, 113 sqq. Cf, too, E. Norden, "Die
antike Kunstprosa," Leipzig, 1898; ii, pp. 321 sqq. (Tacitus) :
also Gontrelle, " Grammaire et style de Tac," Paris, 1874;
E. Wolff, " Die Sprache des Tacitus," PVankfurt a/M, 1879;
Drager, " Uber Syntax und Stil des Tacitus," 3 Aufl.
Leipzig, 1882; Constans, "Etude sur la langue de Tacite,"
NOTES 237
Paris, 1893; E. Kucera, " Uber die taciteische Inconcin-
nitat," Olmlitz, 1882; C. Clemm, " de breviloquentiae Taci-
teae quibusdam generibus," Leipzig, 1881; R. Schmidt,
" De ellipsi Tac," Dramburg, 1871.
(46) § 60. H. Corvinus in the " Zeitscrift flir gymnasial-
wesen" (1890), p. 319, says: " In poetry as contrasted with
the dull sobriety of prose, ordinary subjects of apprehen-
sion, the creations of poetic fancy, seem actually trans-
figured : they bear the same relation to the conceptions of
Prose as the image mirrored on the blue water-surface
bears to the stiff object mirrored, standing out in bold relief
under the sober light of day. Just as the mirrored image
attracts our gaze with its supernal charm, so does the ever
enchanting profundity of the poet's words attract and
captivate the soul of his hearers." On the poetical Lan-
guage of Rome cf J. Golling, " Syntax der lateinischen
Dichtersprache," Wien, 1892; Kone, " Uber die Sprache der
romischen Epiker," Munster, 1840; L. Muller, " Q. Ennius,
eine Einleitung in das Studium der rom. Poesie," Peters-
burg, 1884; R. Stern, " Grundriss einer Grammatik fur rom.
Dichter," Arnsberg, 185 1 ; C. G. Jacob, " Quaestiones epicae
siva symbolae ad grammaticam latinam poeticam," Qued-
linburg, 1839,
(47) § 62. Just so C. Humbert in a treatise on the laws
of French verse has shown that the spirit of the French
language, and also the French national character, exhibits
itself in the poetry of the French nation: particularly in
the stress accent, the dislike of the massing of consonants
and of hiatus ; and Herder says : " Poetry is the very
Proteus of the nations : it changes its form according to
their language, their customs, their habits, their temper-
ament and their climate; yes, and even according to their
accent." [Cf Tobler vers frangais, Paris, 1885.]
(48) § 62. In Ennius, out of 519 verses, 31 end in
words of four syllables, in which the first two syllables are
short, so that this peculiarity is found in that poet on
the average once in every 17 verses, in Lucretius once in
every 36 verses, and henceforward it becomes rarer and
2^,8 NOTES
•J
rarer. In Catullus the proportion is i to 134; in Horace's
Epistles I to 197 (Satires, i, 83); in Vergil i to 261; in
Ovid I to 1,500; cf. also W. Meyer, "Zur Gesch. d. Griech.
und lat. Hexameters," Miinchen, 1884; C. F. Hultgren,
"Die Technik der rom. Dichter im Epischen und eleg.
Versmasse," Jahrblicher flir Phil. 1873, 745 sqq.\ Lorey,
" Die Schwierigkeiten der Anwendung der Griech. Metrums
auf die lat. Sprache," Hameln, 1874.
(49) § 64. Cf., too, Fisch, " Programm des Andreas-Real-
gymnasiums zu Berlin," 1888, p. 23.
(50) § 6t. Cf. C. Freytag, " Technik des Dramas," p. 275.
J. H. von Kirchmann is of the same opinion in his intro-
duction to the study of philosophical works, p. 27: "The
Sciences concern themselves merely with general concep-
tions of things: the Fine Arts on the other hand aim at the
representation of a particular object; it may be a monument
of architecture, of a statue, of a picture, or a piece of music.
Poetry likewise creates some such special object or unity in
the imagination of the poet: but since the latter, in order to
impart an appreciation of his picture to others, can only
employ conceptions of general application, it follows that
he never perfectly achieves his end,^ and the picture given
by poetry hovers between the general concept and the in-
dividual unity. This explains the fact that the poets, in the
construction of their language, aim at individualizing their
subjects, and making them stand out in bold relief, while
the thinkers are constant in their endeavours so to develop
their language that it may serve to express general con-
ceptions and lofty ideas."
(50 § 70- On the Figures of Speech in the Roman
poets, and more particularly on Synecdoche and Metonymy,
see E. Lindskog, " In tropos scriptorum Latinorum studia,"
Upsala, 1903.
(52) § TZ- This tendency appears very strongly, Od. i,
36, where he speaks of " Erycina ridens, Quam locus cir-
cumvolat ct Cupido," etc. Cf, too, Od. iii, 24, 4; i, 35, 17;
^ For this view cf. Nietzsche, " Origin of Tragedy," § 6 ad fin.
NOTES 239
ii, 17, 22; 17, 15; ii, 2, 7; iii, 2, 32; iv, 5, 24; iv, 14, 4;
Tibull. i, 9, 4; Propertius, iv, 22, 20; and G. Dannehl, " De
Tropis I : De translationis, metonymiae, synechdoches apud
poetas Augustei aevi usu," Hallische Dissert, 1868.
(53) §75- Cf. Catull. 61, 202; Prop, iii, 15,31; 32,49;
i, IS, 29; ii, 3, 5; Verg. Eel. i, 59; iii, 91 ; iv, 91 ; Hor. Ep.
16, 31 ; Ov. Ex Pont, ii, 6, 37; iv, 5, 41 ; Met. xiii, 324; xi,
315; Trist. i, 8, i; iv, i, 57; Ars Am. i, 748. On late
Roman poets like Claudian and Nemesianus consult Biese,
" Naturgefuhl bei den Romern," p. 143: on the same
subject in German see Weise's " Abhandlung in der Zeit-
schrift fiir hochdeutsche Mundarten," iii, 47 sqq.
(54) § 75- Even descriptions and sketches are affected
by the influence of all powerful rhetoric, and Seneca has
good grounds for jesting (Apocolocynthosis, 2, 3) at the
poets, because, as he says : " acquiescunt oneri poetae,
non contenti ortus et occasus describere, ut etiam medium
diem inquietent." The places in which all the tricks and
devices of rhetorical technique are most fully displayed,
are the speeches placed by the Epic poets in the mouths
of their heroes, and the Dialogue of the Drama. The
representation of the struggles which agitated Dido in
the Aeneid, or Medea in Ovid, may well be paralleled with
the regular Suasoriae. Aspiring orators modelled them-
selves on these and other masterpieces, indeed Vergil,
during the Empire, was always regarded as the Classic
aid to rhetorical studies, and employed as such. Cf, too,
H. Peter, " Rhetorik und Poesie im klassisch. Altertum."
Jahrblicher fiir das klass. Altertum, 1898, i, 637 sqq.
(55) § 76. The first figure is found in his works 102
times, in the second book of 1,362 verses 62 times, while
Tibullus employs them in the first two books, i.e., in 1,352
verses, only 24 times: the last occurs in Propertius more
frequently than in all the rest of the Roman poets together,
e.g., i, 1,19, 20, 39, etc.
(56) § 77' The historical development of this infinitival
construction is traced by Drager, and also by Schmalz in
Iwan Miiller's Handbuch, ii, pp. 319 sqq. (§ 217 sqq. of his
240 NOTES
Latin Syntax). Special notice is taken of the works of
Ennius, Lucretius, and the Augustan poems.
(57) § 7^' Cf , too, Heerdegen, " Untersuchungen zur
lateinischen Semasiologie," ii, p. 64.
(58) § 78. E.o;. Aen. ix, 98-103; vi, 451; viii, 213, 407;
xi, 309. In Propertius, too, we meet with long periods, e.g.,
i, II, 9-18; iii, 14, i-io: Tibullus avoids them. On
Lucretius and Catullus see above, § 24.
(59) § 80. On these and other characteristics of the lan-
guage of poetry consult "Phil. Wegener, Neuhaldenslebener
Programm," 1889, pp. 18 sqg.
(60) § 80. Cf Hon Ep. II, 2, 115:
Obscurata diu populo bonus eruet atque
Proferet in lucem speciosa vocabula rerum.
Quae priscis memorata Catonibus atque Cethegis
Nunc situs informis premit et deserta vetustas.
Goethe, who in his "Iphigenie" and his "Tasso"uses
the best literary German, employs in others of his poems
striking archaisms : as, for instance, in his " Gotz," in some
parts of " Faust," in the legend of the horseshoe, and
in Hans Sachs' " Poetische Sendung." He has completely
succeeded in his design of reproducing the old-world
colour, and in suiting the language of the personages he
introduces to the old-fashioned times in which they live
and speak. In this free intermixture of words and forms
of words of different ages Poetry found a rich recompense
for the retrenchment of vocabulary imposed upon it by
the exigences of metre. For many words could not accom-
modate themselves to the rhythm, and these had accord-
ingly to be excluded from the poet's use and replaced by
others. Thus Homer could not employ words like tj-oae/zio?
(he uses ^mg, arpaTOTre^ov, etc.) : in the same way vituperare
was useless for the purpose of the dactylic poets, and
had to be replaced by reprche7idere. Ennius could indeed
use ferocia and tenacia, but not the words in -tas which
correspond thereto, because they would not suit the verse.
For qtiatUiordecini Verg., Aen. i, 71, uses bis septcni: for
NOTES 241
explicari we have in the same poem explicui: for capiti-
^«j" ((Aen. ii, 219), in spite of the fact that the word is
connected with cervicibus, we have the singular capite.
Celeriter with its four short syllables was replaced by celer,
citus, etc. In the case of forms like deerat, deinde, arjete,
parjetibus (Aen. ii, 442), semjayiimis, alterius, etc., recourse
was had to synizesis, dissolution of semi-vowels or shorten-
ing of vowels.
(61) § 82. Herewith should be mentioned the essay of
Reichardt, " Jahrblicher fur Philologie," 1889,!, pp. 797 sqq.,
on the archaisms in Vergil: cf, too, Wotke, "Wiener
Studien," viii, 1 31-148.
(62) § 82. E. Appel, " De Genere Neutro intereunte in
Lingua Latina," Miinchener Dissert., Erlangen, 1883,
remarks that the poets who employ hexameters prefer to
write gaudia, incendia, convivia, etc., rather than gaudiuin^
incendiuvi, conviviuin with elision. In Ovid the Plural
occurs more than 50 times, the Singular not once. Even
syntactic innovations follow under the stress of metre.
As " cruribus tenus " would not come into hexameter
verse, Vergil writes (Georg. iii, 53): " Et crurum tenus a
mento palearia pendent," and Catullus, for the same
reason, writes for " nutricibus tenus," " nutricum tenus," 64,
18. This was remarked even by the ancients: and thus we
read in the Corp. Gloss, v, 248, 19: " tenus praepositionem
Vergilius necessitate metri genetivo pluralis inuxit." Cf.,
too, E. Wolfflin, " Hexameter und Silberne Prosa," Archiv
f. lat. Lexicogr., xi, 503 sqq.
(63) § 82. Ribbeck, "History of Roman Poetry," ii, 339:
" Certain beginnings and endings of verses, the choice and
position of certain words, certain similes and figures of
speech, were for definite purposes bequeathed by one poet
to another, and their use became traditional." Cf, too,
A. Zingerle, "Ovid und sein Verhaltniss zu den Vorgangern
und den gleichzeitigen romischen Dichtern," Innsbruck,
1 869- 1 87 1 ; Schmalz, " Zeitschr. fiir Gymnasia! wesen," 1890,
718 sqq.
(64) § 83. E.g. Vergil, Aen. iv, 451: "it clamor caelo."
R
242 NOTES
Ovid, Met. ii, 580: " tendebam brachia caelo." Vergil,
Georg. iv, 562: " viamque affectat Olympo." Hon Od. i,
28, 10: "Oreo demissus." Prop, i, 15, 29: "nulla prius
vasto labentur flumina ponto." Aen. vi, 126: " facilis
descensus Averno."
(65) § 84. The new words formed by Ovid have been
collected by Drager in the Auricher Programm, 1888, p. 17.
He calculates their number at 392, including 153 which
occur in his writings alone, and 139 a7ra| ElpY]fx.eva like
reposior, novatrix, renovanien. According to E. Linse, " De
P. Ovidio Nasone Verborum inventore," Leipziger Dissert.,
1 89 1, the number of these new words is 487. Besides
these, the following works are worth consulting: H. Ploen,
" De copiae verborum differentiis inter varia poesis Ro-
manae antiquioris genera intercedentibus," Strassburg,
1883, with interesting collections of words in -tudo, -tas^
-ntia; Deipser, " Uber die Bildung und Bedeutung der lat.
Adjectiva auf-^^r und -ger," Bromberg, 1886; Seitz, " De
Fixis Poetarum Latinorum epithetis," Elberfeld, 1890;
Ladewig, "De Vergilio verborum Novatore," Neustreliz,
1870; E. Stephani, " De Martiale verborum novatore,"
Breslau, 1889; A. Rothmaler, " De Horatio verborum in-
ventore," Berlin, 1862; C. Zangemeister, " De Horatii
vocibus singularibus," Berlin, 1862; F. Teuffel," De Catulli,
Tibulli, Propertii vocibus singularibus," Freiburg im Breis-
gau, 1872; W.Schneider," De Propertio sermonis novatore
et amplificatore," Strassburg, 1888; G. Bordelle, " De
linguae Latinae nominibus -men et -mento ope formatis,"
Grossglogau, 1879; W. Wilbertz, " De adjectivis poetarum
Latinorum usque ad Catullum compositis," Marburg,
1884.
(66) § 86. Cic. Orator, 202: " Poetae transferunt verba
cum crebrius tum audacius." De Or. iii, 43, 170: " Trans-
latum vcrbum maxime tamquam stellis quibusdam notat
et illuminat orationem." On the metaphorical use oi cui'vus,
uncus, etc., introduced by Horace, cf A. Moller, " Archiv f
Lexicogr.," iii, 117 sgq., and Preuss, "Die metaphorische
Kunst Vergils in der Aeneide," Graudenz, 1894; ^- Brau-
NOTES 243
mliller, " Uber Tropen und Figuren in Vergils Aneide,"
Berlin, 1877 and 1882; P. Langen, "Die Metapher im
Latein von Plautus bis Terenz," Jahrbiicher fur Thilol.,
1882, pp. 673 sqq., 753 sqq.\ S. von Raumer, " Die Metapher
bei Lukrez," Erlangen, 1893; L. Geuther, " Uber den Ge-
brauch der Metapher bei Juvenal," Wittenberg, 1878.
(67) § ^7' The latest critical inquiry into the whole
question is from the pen of J. Shafler, Amberg, 1884,
p. 95. Other papers on the same subject appear in the
" Zeitschrift fiir Gymnasialwesen," 1886, p. 23: see also
M. Erenous, " Etudes sur les hellenismes dans la syntaxe
Latine," Paris, 1895; Piger, " Die sogenannten Gracismen
im Gebrauche des lat. Accus.," Iglau, 1879; Engelhardt,
" Passive Verba mit dem Accus. und der sogenannte
Accusativus graecus bei den latein. Epikern," Bromberg,
1879; G. Landgraf, " Der Ace. der Beziehung nach Adj.,
Subst. und pass. Verben," Archiv fiir Lexikogr., x, 209-
224; H. Tillman, " De dativo verbis passivis linguae latinae,
subjecto, qui vocatur Graecus," Acta semin. philol, Er-
lang., ii (1881), 71-140; H. Dittel, "De infinitivi apud
Horatium usu," Ried, 1881; G. Overholthaus, " Syntaxis
Catullianae capita II Diss.," Gottingen, 1875; G. V. Bucht,
"De Usu Infinitivi apud Ovidium," Upsala, 1875; E. Trill-
haas, "Der Infinitiv bei Ovid," Erlangen, 1877; v. Steltzer,
" Uber den Gebrauch des Infinitivs bei Vergil," Nordhausen,
1875; C. Wagener, "Der Infin. nach Adj. bei Horaz," Neue
philol. Rundschau, 1902, pp. 1-9. In 65 places in Horace
adjectives are found connected with an infinitive, and of
these 32 are followed by a genitive case.
(68) § 88. The judgment pronounced by Cicero on the
productions of Lucretius holds good in a greater or less
degree of all the Roman poets (Ad Quintum fratrem, ii,
11): " Non multis luminibus ingenii, multae tamen artis,"
Their imaginative powers were by no means extensive:
their greatest success lay in Elegiac poems and in Satire,
which suited the particular bent of their genius. There
were very few who could say with Ovid: " Quidquid tenta-
bam dicere, versus erat " [or with Pope: " I lisped in num-
244 NOTES
bers, for the numbers came." Ouintilian's proud boast may
be remembered here: " Satira tota nostra est"].
(69) § 89. Cf. K. Sittl, " Jahresbericht iiber das Vulgar-
und Spatlatein," i884-i890,imjahresber. iiber die Fortschr.
d. klass. Altertumswissensch., Ixviii, 226-286; P. Monceaux,
" Le Latin d'apres les dernieres pubHcations," Revue des
deux Mondes, 1891, 15 Juli, 429-448; M. Bonnet, " Le
Latin de Gregoire de Tours," Paris, 1890, 783 pp., numerous
papers in Wolfflin's " Archiv f. Lexikogr.," Leipzig, 1844,
sqq.\ Wolfflin, " Uber die Latinitat des Africaners Cassius
Felix," Munchen, 1880; H. Ronsch, " Itala und Vulgata,"
2 Aufl., Marburg, 1875; H. Hoppe, "Syntax und Stil des
Tertullian," Leipzig, 1903; H. Glasener, " Grammatik des
Laktanz," Musee Beige, 1900, pp. 26 sqq.^ 223 sqq., 1901,
pp. 65 sqq., 293 sqq. ; W. Kalb, " Roms Juristen nach ihrer
Sprache dargestellt," Leipzig, 1890; F, Polle, " Wie denkt
das Volk iiber die Sprache?" 3 Aufl., Leipzig, 1904;
O. Rebling, " Versuch einer Charakteristik der rom. Um-
gangssprache," 2 Abdruck, Kiel, 1883; P. Meyer, " De
Ciceronis in Epistulis ad Atticum Sermone," Bayreuth,
1887; A. Skinner, " De eo, quo Cicero in epistulis usus sit.
sermone," Oppeln, 1879, sqq. ; R. Klein, " Uber Ciceros
Briefstil," Chemnitz, 1895; Koffmane, " Geschichte des
Kirchenlateins," 1879.
(70) § 89. Sittl assumes that there were three kinds of
well-defined non-classical Latin: (i), the language of the
peasantry {rusticitas), and (2) the language spoken (not
written) by the educated classes {scrmo cotidianus, con-
suetudo), (3) a dialect standing midway between the two
spoken by the inhabitants of the small towns {oppidanutn
dicendt genus); see his lecture read before the Gorlitzer
Philologenversammlung, 1889, and cf "Jahrbiicher fiir
Phil.," 1890, ii, p. 142. He will not allow either inscriptions
or writers to be the authorities on Vulgar Latin, but he
regards the Romance languages alone as such. The litera-
ture commonly quoted as authoritative on the subject is,
according to him, composed neither in refined nor in popular
Latin, but merely in bad Latin. He probably goes too far
NOTES 245
in this assertion. No doubt it is true that no literary record
can give us sufficient data on which to found a satisfactory
theory of the pronunciation and accentuation of Vulgar
Latin, but the form taken by the words, and the syntax,
and the peculiarities in the formation and signification of
the words, are shown by the traits of agreement in all the
authorities mentioned, to mark a dialect contrasting with the
language of the refined classes: we may therefore fairly call
this dialect " the vulgar tongue."
(71) § 90. This holds good more particularly of the so-
called Svarabhakti,i.e.,\.\\e. insertion of a vowel sound before
or after r, /, n : this sound developed itself from the pitch
accent of these liquids in cases where a consonant preceded
or followed them, e.g., Tereboniiis= Trebonius : Militiades =
Miltiades. Cf. J. Schmidt, " Zur Geschichte des indogcr-
manischen Vokalismus," ii, 342-370; Corssen, " Vokalismus
usf.," ii, 384 sqq.
(72) § 90. For this section reference may be made to
H. Schuchardt, " Der Vokalismus des Vulgiirlateins,"
Leipzig, 1866-1868; E. Seelmann, "Die Aussprache des
Lateins nach physiologisch-historischen Grundsatzen,"
Heilbronn, 1885; K. Sittl, "Die lokalen Verschiedenheiten
der latein. Sprache," Erlangen, 1882; Diez, " Grammatik
der romanischen Sprachen," pp. 170 sqq.\ G. Landgraf,
" Historische Gramm. der lat. Sprache," Leipzig, 1903.
[Cf. also Grandgent," Vulgar Latin," Heath, Boston, 1907;
Lindsay's Latin Grammar.]
(73) § 93. Cf. Schuchardt, " Vokalismus des VulgUrla-
teins," i, 34, 232; O. Sievers," Quaestiones onomatologicae "
in Ritschl's "Acta societatis philol. Lipsiensis," ii, 55-104;
M. Bonnet, " Le Latin de Gr6goire de Tours," pp. 349 sqq. ;
Bucheler-Windekilde, " Grundriss der lat. Deklination,"
Bonn, 1879; F. Neue, " Formenlehre der lat. Sprache,"
2 Aufl., Berlin, 1875-1877.
(74) § 93- Cf., too, the treatise by E. Appel, " De Genere
Neutro Intereunte in Lingua Latina," Erlangen, 1883 ;
W. Meyer, " Das Schicksal des lat. Neutrums im Roman-
ischen," Halle, 1883; and H. Suchier,"Der Untergang der
246 NOTES
geschlechtlosen Substantivform," Archiv f. Lexicogr., iii,
i6i sqq. Forms like la reponse, la merveille, are to be ex-
plained by the fact that plurals like responsa and mirabilia
were treated as nouns singular of the first declension-
[See the whole question well and fully treated by Darmes-
teter, " Historical French Grammar," 1899, pp. 225-231. See
also Grandgent, § 352: " In late Latin this collective plural
in -a came to be taken for a feminine singular": cf " Ne
forte et mihi haec eveniat," Ronsch, " Itala und Vulgata,"
1869.] The Patristic Fathers actually preferred sometimes
to change the classical genders ; cf St. Jerome, who on
Ezekiel 40 writes that he purposely substitutes cubitus for
cubitum, to be better understood by his readers.
(75) § 94' Ott, " Jahrblicher fiir Philol. und Padagog.,"
1874, pp. 781 sqq.; Ronsch," Itala und Vulgata," pp. 22-257;
H. Ulrich, " De Vitruvii copia verborum," Frankenthal,
1883, und Schwabach, 1885; Stunkel, " De Varroniana
verborum formatione," Strassburg, 1875; R- Fisch, " Die
lat. nomina personalia auf -o, -onis, ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis
des Vulgarlateins," Berlin, 1890.
{y6) % 96. J. N. Ott, "Rottweiler Programm," 1874,
reckons in all no less than 208 such substantives which
may be omitted at will : cf , too, Drager, " Historische
Syntax der lat. Sprache," i, 47 sqq., and T. C. Rolfe,
" Archiv fiir Lex.," x, 229 sqq. on the Ellipse oi Ars.
(.77) § 99- More details are given in Andresen, " Uber
deutsche Volksetymologie," pp. 17 sqq., and in Weise's
essays on the " Charakteristik der Volksetymologie," in
the " Zeitschrift fiir Volkerpsychologie und Sprachwissen-
schaft," Bd. xii, pp. 203 sqq., and in Bezzenberger's " Bei-
trage zur kunde der indogermanischen Sprachen," Bd. v,
pp. 68 sqq. : also Weise's treatise on the Greek words in
Latin, Leipzig, 1882, pp. 67-75. [See, too, "English Folk
etymology," by Smythe Palmer (Bell and Sons, 1882),
" The violent dislike to the use of a word entirely new to
us, and of which we do not understand the source, is a
matter of daily experience; and the tendency to give a
meaning to adopted words by so changing them as to
NOTES 247
remove their seemingly arbitrary character has exercised a
permanent and appreciable influence on every language"
(Farrar, "Origin of Language," p. 56, quoted by Palmer,
p. x).]
(78) § 102. Cf., too,J. Grimm, Gramm., iii,726j-^^.; Diez,
" Gramm. d. latein. Sprache," iii,43i sqq. Examples taken
from German poetry are found in Hildebrand, " Zeitschrift
fijr den deutschen Unterricht," iii, 2, 149 sqq. [Cf Morris's
" Historical outlines of English Accidence," p. 201, % 312:
" For not, not a whit we sometimes find not a jot, not a bit'':
cf. O.E. never a del, never a whit, etc.]
(79) § 103- Cf. E. Wolffiin, " Bemerkungen Uber das
Vulgarlatein," Philologus, xxxiv, pp. 127-165, bes. 152-158;
K. Sittl, " Archiv f. Lexikogr.," iv, 197-222; R. Jonas," De
verbis frequentativis et intensivis," Posen, 1871, 1879,
Meseritz, 1872; Derselbe, "Die Verba frequentativa und
intensitiva bei Livius," Posen, 1884; C. Paucker, " Kuhn's
Zeitschr. f. vergl. Sprachw.," N.F. vi, 241-263 (1883).
[For double comparisons in English, see Morris, " English
Accidence," p. 196, §111. Even adjectives with a super-
lative sense are sometimes compared as " perfectest,"
" chiefest " in Shakespeare.]
(80) § 103. Cf. J. N. Ott, " tjber Doppelgradation des
lateinischen Adjectivs," Jahrbiicher fur Philologie und
Padagogik, 1875, pp. 787-800, and Wolfflin in " Archiv fur
Philologie," i, 97 sqq. ; H. Ziemer, " Vergleichende Syntax
der indogerm. Komparation," Berlin, 1884; Brix, " Zu
Plaut. Trinummus 28." It is also curious to remark the
increasing pretentiousness of Roman titles. Thus the
Emperors, during the first century, were usually addressed
simply as Imperator, Caesar, or Augusttis: in the second
century we find adjectives appended, commonly expres-
sive of the goodness and greatness of the rulers, such
as optiimis, maximns: in the third century we find more
exaggerated epithets applied, such as perpetuus victorio-
sissiiHUs indulgentissimus imperator (of Aurelian), piissi-
vius fortissimus felicissinius dominus noster{p{ Constantine),
hu7nanissimus invictissivius dominus (id.), nobilissimus ac
248 NOTES
fortissimus ac felicissimus Caesar (Constantius). More par-
ticulars are given by Chr. Schoner, " Die Titulaturen der
rom. Kaiser," Act. sem. phil. Erl, ii, 449 sqq.
(81) § 103. CfE. Wolfflin, "Philologus,"xxxiv,pp. 158-
165.
(82) § 105. Cicero writes in his letters to Atticus, i, 12,
4; 7, 10 ad fin, 14, 7, 2: " Quicquid in buccam venerit" —
" whatever comes into your mouth": but in his speeches
and philosophical treatises he writes : " quicquid in mentem
venit."
(83) § 106. It must not, however, be assumed that the
people, speaking generally, adopted no Greek words: on
the contrary, their contact with the numerous slaves im-
ported from Greek-speaking communities must have
familiarized them with many Greek expressions. Many
of these have passed into Romance, and have actually
ousted many genuine Latin words: as ?mn7is,petra, selus,
struthio, which have taken the place of the original words
pumilio, saxum, studium, passer marinus (cf. Fr. nain,pierre,
zele,antruche = avis struthid) [for other instances see Grand-
gent, § 19].
(84) § 107. See J. N. Ott, " Jahrbucher fur Philologie und
Padagogik," 1874, p. 575.
(85) § 108. Cf. L. Schwabe, " De Deminutivis Graecis et
Latinis," 1859; G. Muller, " De latinae linguae deminu-
tivis," Leipzig, 1865; E. Wolfflin, " Philologus," xxxiv,
153 •5"^^-; Lorenz, " Einleitung zu Plaut. Pseud.," pp. ^Zsqq.\
Stinner, " Uber den Stil in Ciceros Briefen," pp. 9 sqq. ;
Paucker, " Die lat. Deminutiva auf -ulus, -ula, -ulum,"
Mitau, 1876. The word bellus (diminutive of bonus =
benulus) [rather ben{p)los'\ is employed by Cicero in his
letters 38 times. [For diminutives, see Earle, " Philology of
the English Tongue," § 376 sqq?^
(86) §,109. Euphemisms in Latin are treated by O. Keller,
" Grammatische Aufsatze" (zur lat. Sprachgeschichte, ii),
Leipzig, 1895, PP- 154-188; and by O. Hey in Wolfflin's
" Archiv fiir lat. Lexik.," ix, 223 sqq., xi, 515 sqq.: cf too
W. Bokemann, " Franzosischer Euphcmismus," Berliner
NOTES 249
Dissert., 1899. Numerous euphemisms for death are col-
lected by Georges, " De Velleji Paterculi Elocutione," p. 5.
Besides this particular species of euphemism, which is
the product of terror, we may notice that which springs
from a sense of shame, on which see O. Hey, loc. citat.,
pp. 528 sqq.
(87) § no. Cf E. Wolfflin, "Das Wortspiel im Latein-
ischen, Sitzungsberichte der bayr, Akad. d, Wissensch.
Philol. hist. Klasse," 1887, pp. 187-209.
(88) § 112. Neguiguam, according to E. Wolfflin
" Archiv f. Lexikogr.," ii, 7, occurs once in the Bell. Civ.
in the connection eius auxilunn (i, i, 4) implorare, which,
according to Sallust, Cat. 52, 29, neguiguam deos implores
(in Cato's oration), seems to have been a traditional phrase
of ordinary use in the Council-chamber: besides this pas-
sage it is only found in Bell. Gall, ii, 27, 5: "Non nequiquam
tantae virtutis homines ausos esse transire latissimum
flumen," which must be regarded as a fault in style, for
the Romans usually said instead of noti ?ieguiguam, non
sine causa.
(89) § 114. See further on this subject Frohlich, " Real-
istisches und Stilistisches zu Caesar," Zurich, 1887. At the
same time it should be noticed that Caesar often uses the
same expressions in immediate succession; e.g., the word
locus occurs five times in the Bellum Gallicum, i, 49,
I sgg.., in close sequence. More will also be found in
Polascheck in the " Serta Harteliana," p. 224, and in Frese's
" Beitrage zur Beurtheilung der Sprache Casars," Programm
d. Luitpold-gymn. Munich, 1900, p. 21. Besides, we cannot
fail to notice a certain preference for special words and
phrases exhibited in particular books: for instance, in
Book I of the Bellum Gallicum, we find the expression
" propterea quod" repeated no less than 14 times, while,
as a rule, in the later books the simple word quod takes its
place: in the seventh Book the phrase "e regione " is
employed 6 times in the signification of " opposite to,"
a meaning in which it is used only once in the Bell. Civ.
i, 25, 6, and then not in the same sense: the word tardare,
250 NOTES
in the sense of " to retard," is found 8 times in the Bell.
Civ.: in the seventh Book of the Bell. Gall. 7 times:
elsewhere, only once in the second, and once in the sixth
Book: the phrase "proinde ac si" occurs for the first time
in the third Book of the Bell. Civ., and in that Book
four times: in the same vvay"namque etiam" is found in
this Book 3 times.
(90) § 114. " lactare solitus milites suos etiam unguen-
tatos bene pugnare posse."
(91) § 115. Cf Kraut, "tJber das vulgare Element in der
Sprache des Sallust," Blaubeuren, 1881.
(92) § 118. Cf. B. Linderbauer, " De verborum mutua-
torum et peregrinorum apud Ciceronem usu et compensa-
tione," Programm des Gymnasiums zu Metten bei Straub-
ing, 1 892- 1 893.
(93) § 119- Cf. " Jahrbiicher fur Philologie," 1892, p. 392.
(94) § 119. Cf. Meusel in " Jahresbericht des philolog-
ischen Vereins zu Berlin " (1894), p. 240.
(95) § 120. Cf Meusel, loc. citat., p. 229; Kubler,
" Ausgabe des Bell. Gall. Praef." p.cxxviii; Frese, loc. citat.,
p. 16. We may gather Caesar's readiness in Greek from
the assertion of Plutarch (Pomp. 60, 2), that at the critical
moment when he was crossing the Rubicon, he uttered
Menander's words sKkrwitni: av£ppi(p9o) w/3o$: and Suetonius
assures us (Div. Jul. 82) that his celebrated reproach to his
murderer, Brutus, was also in Greek : Koi au T-Umv.
(96) § 120. Cf. Koffmane, " Lexicon lateinischer Wort-
formen," Gottingen, 1874, and Meusel in the "Jahres-
bericht," XX, p. 231, mentioned above.
(97) § 121. The contents of this and the three following
sections are based upon the " Syntax " by Schmalz in
Iwan Muller's Handbuch.
(98) § 122. But cf Bell. Gall, vi, 37, 3: " cohors in
statione"; Bell. Civ. ii, 39, 2: "castra ad Bagradam." Cf.
Chr. Jarnicke, " Die Verbindung der Substantiva durch
Priipositionen bei Cicero," Wien, 1886- 1887.
(99) § 124. Cf. Schwenk, " Uber das Gerundium und
Gerundiv bei Casar und Nepos," Frankcnbcrg in Sachsen,
NOTES 251
1882; Gorlitz, " Das Gerundium und Supinum bei Ciisar,"
Rogasen, 1887.
(100) § 124. The language of Cicero and Caesar is
treated of by Jules Lebreton, " Etudes sur la langue et la
grammaire de Ciceron," and '* Caesariana syntaxis quatenus
a Ciceroniana differat," both Paris, 1901. The syntactical
variations of Livy from the usages of Cicero and Caesar
are collected by O. Riemann, " Etude sur la langue et la
grammaire deTite-Live," 2nd edit, Paris, 1885, pp. 255-311.
Other treatises dealing with the grammatical peculiarities of
Caesar are the following: Plochmann, " Die Kasuslehre bei
Casar," Schweinfurt, 1891 ; Fischer, " Die Kasuslehre bei
Casar," Programme der lat. Hauptschule in Halle, 1853-
1854; K. Brinker, " Zur Casarianischen Kasussyntax," Jahr-
biicher fur Philologie, iSgi,n,4gi S(/(/.,Si^sqq.,^S6sqq.; the
same author, " Zur Ciceronischen Kasussyntax," /oc. citat..,
1896, ii, 363 sqq.^ 432 sqq., 512 sqq. ; C. Kossak, " Observa-
tiones de ablativi qui dicitur absolutus usu apud Caesarem '
Gumbinnen, 1858. The sequence of tenses in Cicero is
dealt with by H. Lieven, " Die consecutio temporum bei
Cicero," Riga, 1872; M. Wetzel, "Consecutio temporum
Ciceroniana," Dissert, 1877; for Caesar's use, see A. Hug.
Jahrbiicher f. Philol., i860, Zyj sqq., 1882, 281 sqq.\
A. Procksh, Bautzener Programm, 1870, and Eisenberger
Programm, Leipzig, 1874; E. Hoffmann in " den Studien
auf dem Gebiete der lat. Syntax," Wien, 1884. Other
papers on the same subject are : M. Heynacher, " Was ergibt
sich aus dem Sprachgebrauch im Bell. Gall, fiir die Behand-
lung der lat. Syntax in der Schule?" Berlin, 1886; G. Ihm,
" Quaestiones syntacticae de elocutione Tacitea comparato
Caesaris, Sallustii, Velleii usu loquendi," Giessener Diss,,
1882; Ad. Lehmann, " De verborum compositorum, quae
apud Sallustium, Caesarem, Livium, Tacitum leguntur,
cum dativo structura," Leobschiitz, 1884; D. Rhode, " Ad-
jectivum quo ordine apud Caesarem et in Ciceronis ora-
tionibus coniunctum sit cum substantivo," Hamburg, 1884;
R. Menge, " tjber das Relativum in der Sprache Casars,
Halle, 1889; W. Kriebel, " Der Periodenbau bei Cicero und
252 NOTES
Livius," Prenzlau, 1873; Wania, " Das Praesens historicum
in Casars Bell. Gall.',' Wien, 1885; Kertelheim, " Uber
Grazismen in Ciceros Reden," Bergedorf, 1894.
(lOi) § 126. Cf. K. Lorenz, " Uber Chiasmus und Ana-
phora im Bellmn Gallicum" Kreuzburg in Oberschlesien,
1875; P. Helhvig, "ijber Pleonasmus bei Casar," Pro-
gramm des Berliner Sophiengymnasiums, 1889. The sub-
stantive is sometimes repeated after the determinative
pronoun, e.g., Bell. Gall, iii, 7 (" bellum : eius belli ") ; v, 32
("convallis: eius vallem ") vi, 11, vii, 72. The substantive
is, moreover, substituted for a pronoun, Bell. Gall, i, 48,
where castra is repeated no less than four times; i, 49 (five
times ^r?^j) ; ii, 19,33; 1^,12,25; v,9; viii, 69. Caesar does
not hesitate from time to time to repeat the same words at
short intervals, e.g., Bell. Gall, i, 3, 2 sqq., where two con-
secutive sentences begin with "ad eas res conficiendas.'
Even rhyming genitive forms in -ornvi seem to him
admissible, as, e.g.. Bell. Gall, iii, 6, 2, " potiundorum castro-
rum"; vii, 43, 3, " recuperandorum suorum"; Bell. Civ. ii,
42, 5, " quorum reficiendorum " prove. Cf., too, " Jahrblicher
fur Phil.," 1885, p. 242, and J. Aumuller, " Das sogenannte
Hendiadoin im Lateinischen," Blatter fur bayrisches Gym-
nasialschulwesen, 1896, 753-759. The peculiarities of the
rhetoric of Caesar and Cicero are noticed by E. Norden,
"Die antike Kunstprosa," Leipzig, 1898, i, 209-233.
(102) § 127. Cf Bock, " Subiecta rei cum actionis verbis
coniungendi usus quomodo in prisca quae vocatur Latini-
tate sit exortus et prolatus usque ad tempora Ciceroniana,"
Leipzig, 1889. Instances in Caesar are Bell. Civ. ii, i, " maior
vis oppresserat"; Bell. Gall, ii, i, " necessitas temporis
postulat." For the figures of speech in Cicero consult
J. Straub, " De tropis et figuris, quae inveniuntur in orationi-
bus Ciceronis," Aschaffenburg, 1883.
(103) § 127. Cf Driiger, 1878, pp. i sqq. In the literature
previous to Cicero, only about sixty such plurals are to be
found; in the age of Cicero about a hundred new plural
formations occur, about half of which are in -io.
(104) § 128. Cf. Bcrnhardy, " Grundriss der romischen
NOTES 253
Literatur," p. 58, Aum. 43 ; J. Schmidt, " Das rhythmische
Element in Ciceros Reden," Wiener Studien, xv, p. 209;
E. Mliller," De numero Ciceroniano," Kieler Dissert., 1886;
J. May," Der rednerische Rhythmus mit besonderer Bezieh-
ung auf Ciceros Orator," Durlach in Baden, 1899.
(105) § 130, A long period is to be found, Bell. Gall, ii,
25. The main sentence and 6 subordinate sentences, with
14 infinitives and 14 participles. For more details see
W. Busch, " Casar als Schriftsteller im Bell. Gall." Steglitzer
Programm, 1901.
(106) p. 212. Thus in this word aedesXht, signification is
changed and enlarged from that of hearth to that of
chamber. [Cf. the English expression " our hearth and
home."]
(107) p. 2 1 3. The older form of the name was, according
to Priscian, i, 554, auger.
(108) p. 215. Serv. on Aen. i, 179: "Quia apud maiores
nostros molarum usus non erat, frumenta torrebant et ea in
pilas missa pinsebant et hoc erat genus molendi, unde et
pinsores dicti sunt, qui nunc pistores vocantur."
(109) p. 218. Cf Trivialis, worshipped in the cross-
ways, more commonly Trivia, the goddess Diana, wor-
shipped at the crossways.
(i 10) p. 220. Cf. Grimm, "Gesch. d. deutsch. Sprache,"98o
sqq. ; Schrader, " Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte,"
2 Aufl., pp. 369 sgq.\ Brugmann, " Rheinisch. Mus.," Neue
Folge, 43, 399.
(in) p. 222. Cf the German expression ackt Tage, for a
week: the two Sundays being comprised in the reckoning;
and the French quinze j'otirs = fourteen days.
(112) p. 223. Cf O. Schrader, "Lexicon der indoger
manischen Altertumskunde," p. 286.
INDEX
ABEL, C, lo, 24.
Ablative, Latin, 52.
Accius, 78, 95.
Accusative, Greek, 141, 195.
Adjectives, ornamental, 113.
Advocatus, 214.
Aedilis, 212.
Aelius Stilo, 77.
Agnomina, Roman, 33.
Alcaeus, 82.
Alexandrian Poets, 92.
Allegory, 120.
Alliteration, 61, 68.
Analogical Formations, 139.
Analogy, 138, 149.
Greek, 88, 94.
Anaphora (Repetitio), 122, 201.
Antithesis, 122.
Antonines, 102.
Antonius, M., 83, 84.
Antonomasia, 118, 119.
Apostrophe, 125.
Appius Claudius, Zt^.
Apuleius, 151, 173.
Archaisms, 130.
syntactical, 135.
Archilochus, 124.
Argileium, 162.
Arval Song, 68.
Asyndeton, 70, 99, 200.
Atellanae, 177.
Atreus, 40.
Atticists, Roman, 86.
Augures, 213.
Augustus, 93.
poetry in time of, 91.
Bandusia, 8.
Boissier, 206.
Caecilius, 82.
Caesar, 86, 172, 179, 181, 185,
187.
Caesura, 107.
Calcndae, 222.
Caligula, 41.
Calvus, C. Licinius, 86.
Candidatns, 214.
Carmina Saliorum, 68.
Carneades, 83.
Cassius, Dio, 16.
Cato, the Elder, 2, 27, 40, 66, 70,
72, 81, 84, 87, 153, 195.
Cato, the Younger, 91.
Catullus, 46, 95, 140.
Cenacula, 218.
Censorinus, 95.
Ceres, 36.
Chiasmus, 122, 201.
Cicero, 2, 3, 6, 7, 13, 16, 17, 20,
26, 27, 41, 45, 72, 85, 86,
97, 99, 100, loi, 133, 137,
145. 170, 179. 181, 187, 188,
209, 212, 217.
255
256
INDEX
Claudius, 121,
Climax (Gradatio), 122.
Clodius, 20.
Coins, Roman, 223.
Commentaries of Caesar, 183,
192, 197, 209, 210.
Commodian, 153.
Compiialia, 218.
Consul Appius, 67.
Controversiae, 92.
Crassus, 84.
Crates, 82.
Cum, 47.
Dative, Greek, 141, 197.
De Analogia, 86, 182.
Declensions, 149.
Deities, names of Roman, 34.
delatores, 90.
JDelirare, and similar words bor-
rowed from agriculture, 19.
Demosthenes, 42.
De Senectute, 207.
Diminutives, Latin, 59.
use of, 174.
" Distributio," 116.
Domitian, 100.
Ennius, 40, 58, 66, 73, 78, 81,
108, IIS, 134, 195.202, 221.
Enthymeme, 203.
Epithets, 1 14.
Epizeuxis or Epanalepsis, 122.
Etymology, Popular, 160,
Eumenides, 176.
Euripides, 124.
ExcelUre, 16.
Fabius, 17.
Famului, 214.
Fanutn, 218.
Faunus, 36.
Favorinus, 103.
Fescennines, 177.
Fe Hales, 214.
Figiira Etymologica, 172, 199.
Flaccus, Valerius, 135.
Flora, 36.
Forstemann, 160.
Freia, 34.
Frequentative Verbs, 165.
Freytag, 106.
Fronto, 7, 71, 102, 182.
frumeniutn, 215.
Funus, 221.
Gaulish, 98.
Gellius, 7, 81, 103, 182, 191.
Goethe, 96, 114, 116, 187.
Gracchus, Caius, 206.
Grimm, Jacob, 156, 157.
Brothers, 169.
Groth, Klaus, 144.
Hadrian, 102, 103.
Hast at i, 216.
Hellenic Culture, influence of,
73-
Hendiadys, 122, 125, 202.
Herder, 2.
Hexameter, 107.
introduction of Greek, 78.
Hibernia, 161.
Homer, 9, 10, 22, 26, 88.
Honos, Temple of, 29.
Horace, 18, 94, 95, 106, 108,
120, 125, 128, 135, 138,
145. 179-
Hortus, 217.
Humanists, 204.
INDEX
257
Humboldt, W. von, 59, 61.
Hyperbole, 122, 123.
Hyperboreans, 102.
Idus^ 222.
Immolare, 219.
Indo-Germanic poetry, ro6.
Inflexional Forms of Cicero and
Caesar, 191.
Inflexions, Latin, 56.
verbal, 148.
Intensive verbs, 165.
Interjections, Latin, 11.
Ifitervallum, 16.
Ionic Greek, 107.
Italicus, 121, 141.
Jupiter, 34.
Jurists, 146.
Juvenal, loi.
Klopstock, 130.
Lactantius, 178.
Laocoon, Lessing's, 116.
Laws of the Twelve Tables, 67.
Lessing, 15, 21, 54, 96, 114, 116,
142, 204.
Licinius, 83, 91.
Litotes, 122, 123.
Livius Andronicus, 69.
Livy, 2, 7, 16, 99, 134, 151, 184,
194, 19s. 199. 217-
Lucan, 8, 40, 41.
Lucretilis, 8.
Lucretius, 6, 46, 78, 88, ro8, 124,
134.
Lupercus, 36.
Maecenas, 92.
Maeniana, 218.
Maenius, C, 218.
Maia, 36.
Manes, 219.
Marcellus, 17.
Marius, 216.
Mars, 35.
Martial, 151.
Metaphors, 14, 119.
from Agriculture and War, 15.
tropical sense of words in, 17.
from Sea and Chase, 79.
of Homer, 80.
of Aeschylus, Euripides, Pin-
dar, Sophocles, 80.
of Cicero, 87,
of the people, 170.
Metonymy, 118.
Mimes, 177.
Mommsen, 45.
Months, Roman denomination
of, 30.
Mucius Scaevola, 2, 10.
Naevius, 70, 124.
Negations, Latin, 164.
Neologisms, 135.
Nepos, 191, 212.
Neptunus, 36.
Nero, 100.
Nerva, loi.
Nobilior, M. Fulvius, 81.
Nonae, 222.
Novius, 17.
Niimen, 221.
Nundifiian, 222.
Odyssey, Latin, 69.
Ops, 35.
Oratio Obliqua, Latin, 48.
258
Oratio Rhodiensis, 71.
Osci, 35.
Ovid, 41, 93, 117, 120, 121, 125,
137, 217.
Oxymoron, 122,
Pacuvius, 78.
Pales, 36.
Parallelism, 125.
Parcae, 176.
Parenthesis, 99.
Patristic Fathers, 146.
Pecz, 80.
Persona, 215.
Petronius, 146, 151, 152.
Philiscus, 82.
Fhrygio, 215.
Pis for, 215.
" Plastic " in language, 121.
Plautus, 77, 124, 153, 165, 173,
177, 195-
Pleonasm, 122, 163.
Rhetorical, 202.
Pliny, 12, 73, 98, loi.
Polybius, 82.
Polysyndeton, 122, 200.
Pomona, 36.
Pomponius, 13.
Pontifices, 213.
Praedium, 217.
Praemiuni, 16.
Praeneste, 73.
Praetor, 212.
Princeps, 16.
Pruicipes, 216.
Proper Names, Roman, 30.
Propertius, 93, 95, 125, 128, 179.
Prose, Decadence of, 95.
Proverbs, 37.
popular, 13.
INDEX
Puns, 41, 63, 125, 177.
Quaestor, 212.
Quintilian, 41, 42, 43, 66, 71,
77> 78, 97j ioi> 102, 103,
III, 145, 151, 182, 209.
Quirites, 15, 214.
Quoniam, 47.
Raumer, S. von, 16.
Reformation, The, 100.
Regium, 161.
Rhetoric, Schools of, opened,
83.
Roman Literature, contrasted
with Greek, 67.
Roman poets, old, 75.
St. Augustine, 173.
Salii, 214.
Sallust, I, 85, 91, 97, 186, 191,
i95> 199-
Satura, 177.
Saturnian measure, 68.
Saturnus, 35.
Schiller, 93, 114, 117, 204,
Schroder, 169.
Scipios, Circle of the, 81.
Scribae, 81.
Semitic character, no.
Seneca, 6, 41, 88, 98.
Servius, 98, 132.
Servius Tullius, 213.
Sidonius Apollinaris, 168.
Silver Latinity, 96, 97, 104, 194.
Similes, 79, 119.
Sinister, 219.
Slaves, Roman expressions for
II.
Spoliare, 16.
INDEX
259
Statius, 134.
Stoicism, 10.
Suasoriae, 92.
Suetonius, 185, 208.
Superlative, Latin, 44.
Supplidum, 221.
Sus, numerous synonyms of, 13.
Synecdoche, ti8.
Tacitus, 3, 22, 96, loi, 151, 184,
192, 194.
Tallyrand, 173.
Tarentine War, 73.
Tellus, 36.
Templum, 218.
Terence, 82.
Terminus, 36.
Tertullian, 153, 154, 173.
Theocritus, 124.
Thucydides, 90.
Tiberius, Emperor, 94.
Tibullus, 24, 95, 121.
Timaeus, 189.
Tiu, 34.
Tmesis, 58, 76.
Torquatus, T. ManHus, 45.
Trajan, 10 1.
Triarii, 216.
Tribuni^ 213.
Tullianum, 162.
Tusculan Orations, i8g.
Uhland, 130.
Varro, 77, 218, 222.
Vedas, Indian, 69.
Velleius Paterculus, 85.
Venerium, 219.
Vergil, 3, 18, 22, 62, 93, 94, 96,
116, 125, 128, 132, 133,
134, 220.
Verrine Orations, 188.
Virtus y 28.
Virtus, Temple of, 29.
Vitruvius, 146.
Vowels, Latin, 59.
Vulgar Latin, 144, 186.
syntax of, 152, 168.
Wieland, 75, 114.
Willman, O., 55.
Winckelmann, 104.
" Winged \Vords," 40.
WoUner, D., 15.
Wotan, 34.
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