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

v3.p.147

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.

v3.p.151

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

v3.p.153

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.)

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

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

beggary,

moechimonium, adulterio or adulteritas for

adultery,

depudicavit for

dishonoured,

and abluvium for diluvium, or

deluge

; in the farce which he entitled The Basket [*](Id. v. 39.) he uses manuatus est for

he stole,

and in The Fuller [*](Id. v. 46.) he calls a thief manuarius, [*](manuarius, an adj. from manus, hand (e.g. manuaria mola, a hand-mill). The transition, in the substantive, to the meaning thief is made easier by manuarium aes, money won at dice, Gell. xviii. 13. 4.) saying: Thief (manuari), you have lost your shame, and he makes many other innovations of the same kind. He also used obsolete and obscene words, such as are spoken only by the dregs of the people, as in the Spinners' Shop: [*](v. 87, Ribbeck3.)

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

He uses [*](v. 151, Ribbeck3.) elutriare for

washing out

linen, and lavandaria, or

wash,

of those things which are sent to be washed. He says: [*](Id. v. 147. With fullonicam, sc. artem and see Archiv für lat. Lex. u. Gram. x, p. 240.)

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

and [*](Id. v. 148. Ribbeck's Calidoniam, would'st outstrip the Calidonian maid? i.e. Atalanta, makes excellent sense; but with that reading we have no odd or unusual word at all. caldonia, as a common noun, might mean heater, or bath attendant (so Weiss), or it might be derived from calidus in the sense of quick, hasty. There is nothing to indicate that it is a proper name, as Hosius takes it to be.)

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

Also in the Ropemaker [*](Id. v. 79.) he applies the term talabarriunculi to those whom the general public call talabarriones. [*](The meaning is not known.) He writes in the Compitlia: [*](Id. v. 37; malaxavi, from the Greek malaki/zw. It is clear that the choice of the word is due to the assonance, or jingle, of mala malaxavi.)

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

and in The Forgetful Man, [*](Id. v. 13.)

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

Also in the farce entitled Natalicius he uses [*](Id. vv. 60 and 61.) cippus for a small column, obba for a cup, camella for a bowl, [*](Literally, a little room, a diminutive of camera.) pittacim for a flap [*](The T.L.L. defines capitium as foramen tunicae capiti aptum, which seems meaningless with induis. The Forcellini-De Vit makes capitium a breast-band (= strophium?) and pittacium, plagula, segmentum, quod vesti assuitur, with the explanation: quod, tamquam pittacium, tunicae adsutum et adfixum est.) and capitium for a breast band; the last-named passage reads:

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

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

slight.

In the Necyomantia too he uses the very vulgar expression cocio for what our forefathers called arillator or

haggler.

His words are these: [*](Id. v. 63.)

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

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

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

The meaning of what the logicians call

an axiom,

and what it is called by our countrymen; and some other things which belong to the elements of the dialectic art.

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

introductory exercises.

[*](II. 194, Arn.) Then because at first I had to learn about axioms, which Marcus Varro calls, [*](Fr. 29, G. and S.) now proposita, or

propositions,

and now proloquia, or

preliminary statements,

I sought diligently for the Commentary on Proloquia of Lucius Aelius, a learned man, who was the teacher of Varro; and finding it in the library of Peace, [*](Vespasian's Temple of Peace in the Forum Pacis.) I read it. But I found in it nothing that was written to instruct or to make the matter clear, but Aelius [*](p. 54. 19. Fun.) seems to have made that book rather as suggestions for his own use than for the purpose of teaching others.

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

A proloquium is a statement in which nothing is lacking.

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

Hannibal was a Carthaginian

;

Scipio destroyed Numantia

;

Milo was found guilty of murder

;

pleasure is neither a good nor an evil

; and in general any saying which is a full and perfect thought, so expressed in words that it is necessarily either true or false, is called by the logicians an

axiom,

by Marcus Varro, as I have said, a

proposition,

but by Marcus Cicero [*](Tusc. Disp. i. 14.) a pronuntiatum, or

pronouncement,

a word however which he declared that he used

only until I can find a better one.

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

a hypothetical syllogism,

[*](Literally, a connected axiom. See II. 213. Arn.) some of our countrymen [*](Aelius Stilo, Fr. 74, p. 75 Fun.) call adiunctum, others conexum. [*](Two connected sentences of which the second follows as the result of the first. 4 II. 218. Arn.) The following are examples of this:

If Plato is walking, Plato is moving

;

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

Also what they call sumpeplegme/non, or

a compound proposition,

we call coniunctum or copulatum; for example:

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

But in the whole of a proposition of this kind, if one member is false, even if the rest are true, the whole is said to be false. For if to all those true statements which I have made about that Scipio I add

and he worsted Hannibal in Africa,

which is false, all those other statements which are made in conjunction will not be true, because of this one false statement which is made with them.

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

a disjunctive proposition,

and we call disiunctum. For example:

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

[*](aut s.d. sum, added by Hertz; aut s.d. est, Skutsch.) Now all statements which are contrasted ought to be opposed to each other, and their opposites, which the Greeks call a)ntikei/mena, ought also to be opposed. Of all statements which are contrasted, one ought to be true and the rest false. But if none at all of them is true, or if all, or more than one, are true, or if the contrasted things are not at odds, or if those which are opposed to each other are not contrary, then that is a false contrast and is called paradiezeugme/non. For instance, this case, in which the things which are opposed are not contraries:

Either you run or you walk or you stand.

These acts are indeed contrasted, but when opposed they are not contrary; for

not to walk

and

not to stand

and

not to run

are not contrary to one another, since those things are called

contraries

which cannot be true at the same time. But you may at once and at the same time neither walk, stand, nor run.

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