Noctes Atticae
Gellius, Aulus
Gellius, Aulus. The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, 1927 (printing).
A story taken from the books of Herodotus about the destruction of the Psylli, who dwelt in the African Syrtes.
THE race of the Marsians in Italy is said to have sprung from the son of Circe. 'Therefore it was given to the Marsic men, provided their families were not stained through the admixture of foreign alliances, by an inborn hereditary power to be the subduers of poisonous serpents and to perform wonderful cures by incantations and the juices of plants.
We see certain persons called Psylli endowed with this same power. And when I had sought in ancient records for information about their name and race, I found at last in the fourth book of Herodotus [*](iv. 173.) this story about them: that the Psylli had once been neighbours in the land of Africa of the Nasamones, and that the South Wind at a certain season in their territories blew very long and hard; that because of that gale all the water in the regions which they inhabited dried up; that the Psylli, deprived of their water supply, were grievously incensed at the South Wind because of that injury and voted to take up arms and march against the South Wind as against an enemy, and demand restitution according to the laws of war. And when they had thus set out, the South Wind
Of those words which Cloatius Verus referred to a Greek origin, either quite fittingly or too absurdly and tastelessly.
CLOATIUS VERUS, in the books which he entitled Words taken from the Greek, says not a few things indeed which show careful and keen investigation, but also some which are foolish and trifling.
Errare (to err),he says, [*](Fr. 3, Fun.)
is derived from the Greek e)/rrein,and he quotes a line of Homer in which that word occurs: [*](Odyss. x. 72.) Swift wander (e)/rrei) from the isle, most wretched man. Cloatius also wrote that alucinari, or
dream,is derived from the Greek a)lu/ein, or
be distraught,and from this he thinks that the word elucus also is taken, with a change of a to e, meaning a certain sluggishness and stupidity of mind, which commonly comes to dreamy folk. He also derives fascinum, or
charm,as if it were bascanum, [*](Gk. baska/nion.) and fascinare, as if it were bascinare, [*](Gk. baskai/nw.) or
bewitch.All these are fitting and proper enough. But in his fourth book he says: [*](Fr. I, Fun.)
Faenerator is equivalent to; and he declared that this was stated by Hypsicrates, a grammarian whose books on Words Borrowed from the Greeks are very well known. But whether Cloatius himself or some other blockhead gave vent to this nonsense, nothing can be more silly. For faenerator, as Marcus Varro wrote in the third book of his Latin Diction, [*](Frag. 57. G. and S.)v3.p.177fainera/twr, meaning 'to appear at one's best,' since that class of men present an appearance of kindliness and pretend to be accommodating to poor men who are in need of money
is so called from feanus, or 'interest,' but faenus,he says,
is derived from fetus, [*](Thurneysen, T.L.L. s. v. fenus, thinks this derivation is perhaps correct; we may compare Greek to/kos, which means both offspring and interest.) or 'offspring,' and from a birth, as it were, from money, producing and giving increase.Therefore he says that Marcus Cato [*](Frag. inc. 62, Jordan.) and others of his time pronounced generator without the letter a, just as fetus itself and fecunditas were pronounced.
The meaning of municipium and how it differs from colonia; and what municipes are and the derivation and proper use of that word; and also what the deified Hadrian said in the senate about the name and rights of municipes.
MUNICIPES and municipia are words which are readily spoken and in common use, and you would never find a man who uses them who does not think that he understands perfectly what he is saying. But in fact it is something different, and the meaning is different. For how rarely is one of us found who, coming from a colony of the Roman people, does not say what is far removed from reason and from truth,
colony,as well as the belief that coloniae are better off than municipia. With regard to the errors in this opinion which is so general the deified Hadrian, in the speech which he delivered in the senate In Behalf of the Italicenses, [*](O.R.F.2 p. 608. Italics was a city of Spain on the river Baetis, opposite Hispalis (Seville). It was founded by Scipio Africanus the Elder and peopled by his veterans; whence the name the Italian city. It was the birthplace of Trajan and Hadrian.) from whom he himself came, discoursed most learnedly, showing his surprise that the Italicenses themselves and also some other ancient municipia, among whom he names the citizens of Utica, when they might enjoy their own customs and laws, desired instead to have the rights of colonies. Moreover, he asserts that the citizens of Praeneste earnestly begged and prayed the emperor Tiberius that they might be changed from a colony into the condition of a municipium, and that Tiberius granted their request by way of conferring a favour, because in their territory, and near their town itself, he had recovered from a dangerous illness.
Municipes, then, are Roman citizens from free towns, using their own laws and enjoying their own rights, merely sharing with the Roman people an honorary munus, or
privilege[*](Such as serving in the legions and not among the auxiliaries.) (from the enjoyment of which privilege they appear to derive their name), and bound by no other compulsion and no other law of the Roman people, except such as their own citizens have officially ratified. [*](For fundus cf. xix. 8. 12.) We learn besides that the people of Caere were the first municipes without the right of suffrage, and that it was allowed them to assume the honour of Roman citizenship, but yet to be free from service and burdens, in return for receiving and guarding sacred
But the relationship of the
coloniesis a different one; for they do not come into citizenship from without, nor grow from roots of their own, but they are as it were transplanted from the State and have all the laws and institutions of the Roman people, not those of their own choice. This condition, although it is more exposed to control and less free, is nevertheless thought preferable and superior because of the greatness and majesty of the Roman people, of which those colonies seem to be miniatures, as it were, and in a way copies; [*](Their government was modelled on that of Rome, with a senate (decuriones), two chief magistrates (Ilviri iure dicundo), elected annually, etc.) and at the same time because the rights of the municipal towns become obscure and invalid, and from ignorance of their existence the townsmen are no longer able to make use of them.
That Marcus Cato said there was a difference between properare and festinare, and how inappropriately Verrius Flaccus explained the origin of the latter word.
FESTINARE and properare seem to indicate the same thing and to be used of the same thing. But Marcus Cato thinks that there is a difference, and that the difference is this—I quote his own words from the speech which he pronounced On his Own Merits: [*](p. 44. 4, Jordan.)
It is one thing to hasten (properare), another to hurry (festinare). He who finishes some one thing in good season, hastens (properat); one who begins many things at the same time but does not finish them, hurries (festinat).Verrius Flaccus, wishing to explain the nature of this difference, says [*](p. xv, Müller.)
Festinat is derived from for (to speak), since those idle folk who can accomplish nothing talk more than they act.But that seems too forced and absurd, nor can the first letter of the two words be of such weight that because of it such different words as festino and for should appear to be the same. But it seems more fitting and closer to explain festinare as equivalent to fessum esse or
be wearied.For one who tires himself out by hastily attacking many things at once no longer hastens, but hurries. [*](Both derivations are fanciful. Festino is related to confestim, but its origin is uncertain.)
The strange thing recorded of partridges by Theophrastus and of hares by Theopompus.
THEOPHRASTUS, most expert of philosophers, declares [*](Frag. 182, Wimmer.) that in Paphlagonia all the partridges have two hearts; Theopompus, [*](F.H.G. i. 301.) that in Bisaltia the hares have two livers each.