Noctes Atticae

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

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

vestibule,

a word frequently met in conversation, yet not wholly clear to all who readily make use of it. For I have observed that some men who are by no means without learning think that the vestibule is the front part of the house, which is commonly known as the atrium. Gaius Aelius Gallus, in the second book of his work On the Meaning of Words relating to the Civil Law, says [*](Frag. 5, Huschke; 23, Bremer.) that the vestibule is not in the house itself, nor is it a part of the house, but is an open place before the door of the house, through which there is approach and access to the house from the street, while on the right and left the door is hemmed in by buildings extended to the street and the door itself is at a distance from the street, separated from it by this vacant space. Furthermore, it is often inquired what the derivation of this word is; but nearly everything that I have read on the subject has seemed awkward and absurd. But what I recall hearing from Sulpicius Apollinaris, a man of choice learning, is as follows:

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

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

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

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

[*](In the Roman house the term faces was applied to the passageway leading from the front door into the atrium. The fauces and the vestibulum formed one continuous passageway, separated by the door, the fauces being inside and the vesti. bulum outside; see Harv. Stud. Class. Phil. i. 1 ff. and most modern handbooks. In § 10 vestibulum is correctly defined; in § 12 the relative positions of fauces and vestibulum are inverted, and both are put outside the door. The vestibulum can properly be said to be approached by the fauces only from within. Virgil probably used fauces in its ordinary sense of jaws.)

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

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

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

and he invited anyone to ask him anything whatever which one wished to learn. Then I, marvelling at the assurance of the ignorant fellow, said:

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

Bidentes,

said he,

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

I replied:

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

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

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

And he, without a moment's hesitation, but with the greatest possible assurance, said:

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

Where on earth, pray,

said I,

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

Then he, greatly disturbed and angry with me, cried:

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

I laughed at the wit of the blockhead and left him.

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

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

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

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infancy to a less tender age.

Whether this opinion of Hyginus is true or not may be determined by observation without resort to argument. [*](Hyginus' explanation is the accepted one.)