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).

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.)

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.)
O Mars, if ever I return, I vow
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.)

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.)

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.

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He says: [*](Id. v. 147. With fullonicam, sc. artem and see Archiv für lat. Lex. u. Gram. x, p. 240.)

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.)

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.)

My jaws I've tamed (malaxavi),

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

This is that dolt (gurdus) who, when two months ago
From Africa I came, did meet me here,
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:

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

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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.)

Two wives? More trouble this, the haggler (cocio) says;
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:

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

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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,

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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

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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.

The meaning of the expression susque deque, which occurs frequently in the books of early writers.

SUSQUE dequefero, susque deque sum, or susque deque habeo [*](Susque deque, both up and down, is an expression denoting indifference. It occurs without a verb in Cic. ad Att. xiv. 6. 1, de Octavio susque deque. See Paul. Fest. p. 271 Linds., susque deque significat plus minusve.) —for all these forms occur, meaning

it's all
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one to me

—is an expression used in the everyday language of cultivated men. It occurs frequently in poems too and in the letters of the early writers; but you will more readily find persons who flaunt the phrase than who understand it. So true is it that many of us hasten to use out-of-the-way words that we have stumbled upon, but not to learn their meaning. Now susque deque ferre means to be indifferent and not to lay much stress upon anything that happens; sometimes it means to neglect and despise, having about the force of the Greek word a)diaforei=n. Laberius says in his Compitalia: [*](v. 29, Ribbeck3.)

Now you are dull, now 'tis all one to you (susque deque fers);
Your wife sits by you on the marriage bed, [*](The marriage bed in the early Roman house stood in the atrium, opposite the door, whence it was called lectus adversus; in later times a symbolic bed stood in the sane place.)
A penny slave unseemly language dares.

Marcus Varro in his Sisenna, or On History says: [*](256, Riese.)

But if all these things did not have similar beginnings and sequels, it would be all one (susque deque esset).

So Lucilius in his third book writes: [*](110 ff., Marx.)

All this was sport, to us it was all one (susque deque fierunt),
All one it was, I say, all sport and play;
That was hard toil, when we gained Setia's bourne:
Goat-traversed heights, Aetnas, rough Athoses.

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The meaning of proletarii and capite censi; also of adsiduus in the Twelve Tables, and the origin of the word.

ONE day there was a cessation of business in the Forum at Rome, and as the holiday was being joyfully celebrated, it chanced that one of the books of the Annals of Ennius was read in an assembly of very many persons. In this book the following lines occurred: [*](Ann. 183 ff.)

With shield and savage sword is Proletarius armed
At public cost; they guard our walls, our mart and town.

Then the question was raised there, what proletarius meant. And seeing in that company a man who was skilled in the civil law, a friend of mine, I asked him to explain the word to us; and when he rejoined that he was an expert in civil law and not in grammatical matters, I said: " You in particular ought to explain this, since, as you declare, you are skilled in civil law. For Quintus Ennius took this word from your Twelve Tables, in which, if I remember aright, we have the following: [*](i. 4.) 'For a freeholder let the protector [*](The vindex is here one who voluntarily agrees to go before the magistrate as the representative of the defendant, and thereby takes upon himself the action in the stead of the latter (Allen, Remnants of Early Latin, p. 85).) be a freeholder. For a proletariate citizen [*](The proletarii (cf. proles) were child-producers, who made no other contribution to the State; see § 13.) let whoso will be protector.

We therefore ask you to consider that not one of the books of Quintus Ennius' Annals, but the Twelve
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Tables are being read, and interpret the meaning of 'proletariate citizen' in that law.

It is true,

said he,

that if I had learned the law of the Fauns and Aborigines, I ought to explain and interpret this. But since proletarii, adsidui, sanates, vades, subvades, 'twenty-five asses,' 'retaliation,' and trials for theft 'by plate and girdle' [*](XII Tab. i. 4, 5, 10; viii. 2, 4, 15. For proletarii see note, p. 167. The adsidui were permanent settlers, or taxpayers, belonging to one of the five upper Servian classes. The sanates seem to have been clients or dependents of the wealthy Roman citizens. Vades were sureties, who gave bail; subvades, sub-sureties, who gave security for the bail. On viginti quinque asses, the penalty for an assault, see xx. 1. 12; for taliones, xx. 1. 14; and for cum lance et licio, note on xi. 18. 9.) have disappeared, and since all the ancient lore of the Twelve Tables, except for legal questions before the court of the centumviri, was put to sleep by the Aebutian law, [*](The date is unknown,) I ought only to exhibit interest in, and knowledge of, the law and statutes and legal terms which we now actually use.

Just then, by some chance, we caught sight of Julius Paulus passing by, the most learned poet within my recollection. We greeted him, and when he was asked to enlighten us as to the meaning and derivation of that word, he said: "Those of the Roman commons who were humblest and of smallest means, and who reported no more than fifteen hundred asses at the census, were called proletarii, but those who were rated as having no property at all, or next to none, were termed capite censi, or 'counted by head.' And the lowest rating of the capite censi was three hundred and seventy-five asses. But since property and money were regarded as a hostage and pledge of loyalty to the State, and since there was in them a kind of guarantee and assurance of patriotism, neither the proletarii nor the capite censi were enrolled as soldiers except in some time of extraordinary disorder, because they had

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little or no property and money. However, the class of proletarii was somewhat more honourable in fact and in name than that of the capite censi; for in times of danger to the State, when there was a scarcity of men of military age, they were enrolled for hasty service, [*](That is, to meet a tumultus, a rebellion or irregular warfare. At first used as a military term, tumultuarius later acquired a general sense; cf. tumultuario rogo, on a hastily erected pyre, Suet. Calig. lix.) and arms were furnished them at public expense. And they were called, not capite censi, but by a more auspicious name derived from their duty and function of producing offspring, for although they could not greatly aid the State with what small property they had, yet they added to the population of their country by their power of begetting children. Gaius Marius is said to have been the first, according to some in the war with the Cimbri in a most critical period for our country, or more probably, as Sallust says, in the Jugurthine war, to have enrolled soldiers from the capite censi, since such an act was unheard of before that time. Adsidaus in the Twelve Tables [*](i. 4, 10.) is used of one who is rich and well to do, [*](locuples seems to be derived from locus, in the sense of land, and the root ple- of pleo and plenus.) either because he contributed 'asses' (that is, money) when the exigencies of the State required it, or from his 'assiduity' in making contributions according to the amount of his property." [*](Both these derivations are fanciful; adsiduus is connected with adsideo, as the grammarian Caper knew (Gram. Lat. vii. 108. 5, Keil), and means a permanent settler.)

Now the words of Sallust in the Iugurthine War about Gaius Marius and the capite censi are these: [*](Jug. lxxxvi. 2.)

He himself in the meantime enrolled soldiers, not according to the classes, or in the manner of our forefathers, but allowing anyone to volunteer, for the most part the lowest class (capite censos). Some say that he did this through lack of good men,
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others because of a desire to curry favour, since that class had given him honour and rank, and as a matter of fact, to one who aspires to power the poorest man is the most helpful.

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

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came to meet them with a great blast of air, and piling upon them mountainous heaps of sand, buried them all with their entire forces and arms. Through this act the Psylli all perished to a man, and accordingly their territories were occupied by the Nasamones.

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
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fainera/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

; 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.)

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,

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namely, that he is municeps and that his fellow citizens are municipes? So general is the ignorance of what municipia are and what rights they have, and how far they differ from a

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

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objects during the war with the Gauls. Hence by contraries those tablets were called Caerites on which the censors ordered those to be enrolled whom they deprived of their votes by way of disgrace.

But the relationship of the

colonies

is 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.)

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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.

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That the name Agrippa was given to those whose birth was difficult and unnatural; and of the goddesses called Prorsa and Postverta.

THOSE at whose birth the feet appeared first, instead of the head, which is considered the most difficult and dangerous form of parturition, are called Agrippae, a word formed from aegritudo, or

difficulty,

and pedes (feet). But Varro says [*](Ant. Rer. Div. xiv, frag. 17 b, Agahd.) that the position of children in the womb is with the head lowest and the feet raised up, not according to the nature of a man, but of a tree. For he likens the branches of a tree to the feet and legs, and the stock and trunk to the head.

Accordingly,

says he,

when they chanced to be turned upon their feet in an unnatural position, since their arms are usually extended they are wont to be held back, and then women give birth with greater difficulty. For the purpose of averting this danger altars were set up at Rome to the two Carmentes, [*](Carmenta was a birth-goddess, whose festival, the Carmentalia (or Karmentalia) occurred on Jan. 11 and 15. The Carmentes may originally have been wise women who assisted at births and were later deified (Fowler, Roman Festivals, pp 290 ff.).) of whom one was called Postverta, [*](That is, head foremost.) the other Prorsa, [*](That is, feet foremost.) named from natural and unnatural births, and their power over them.