Noctes Atticae

On the verb quiesco, whether it should be pronounced with a long or a short e.

A FRIEND of mine, a man of much learning and devoted to the liberal arts, pronounced the verb quiescit (

be quiet

) in the usual manner, with a short e. Another man, also a friend of mine, marvellous in the use of grammatical rules as jugglers' tricks, so to say, and excessively fastidious in rejecting common words, thought that the first man had been guilty of a barbarism, maintaining that he ought to have lengthened the e, rather than shortened it. For he asserted that quiescit ought to be pronounced like calescit, nitescit, stupescit and many other words of that kind. He also added the statement that quies (quiet) is pronounced with the e long, not short. But my first-named friend, with the unassuming modesty which was characteristic of him in all matters, said that not even if the Aelii, the Cincii and the Santrae [*](Mentioned as typical grammarians. The gens Aelia included several famous jurists and men of letters; the reference here is to Lucius Aelius Stilo, the teacher of Varro and Cicero. Santra was a grammarian of the first century B.C.; the Cincii were less well known.) had decided that the word ought to be so pronounced, would he follow their ruling against the universal usage of the Latin language, nor would he speak in such an eccentric fashion as to be discordant and strange in his diction. Nevertheless he wrote a letter on the subject, among some exercises for his own amusement, in which he tried to prove that quiesco is not like those words which I have quoted above; that it is not derived from quies but rather quies from quiesco. He also maintained that quiesco has the form and derivation of a Greek word, [*](A fanciful derivation from Ionic e)/xw, e)/sxw.) and he tried to show, by reasons that were by no means without force, that the word should not be pronounced with a long e. [*](The e is however long; quiésco occurs in C.1.L. vi, 6250 and 25521.)

On a use by the poet Catullus of the word deprecor, which is unusual, it is true, but appropriate and correct; and on the origin of that word, with examples from early writers.

As we chanced to be strolling one evening in the

Lyceum, [*](A gymnasium at Athens, the favourite resort of Aristotle and his pupils.) we were furnished with sport and amusement by a certain man, of the kind that lays claim to a reputation for eloquence by a superficial and ill-regulated use of language, without having learned any of the usages and principles of the Latin tongue. For while Catullus in one of his poems had used the word deprecor rather cleverly, that fellow, unable to appreciate this, declared that the following verses which I have quoted were very flat, although in the judgment of all men they are most charming: [*](xcii.)

1. My Lesbia constantly speaks ill of me
2. And ceases not. By Jove! she cares for me!
3. How do I know? 'Tis just the same with me;
4. I rail at, but by Jove! I worship, her.

Our good man thought that deprecor in this passage was used in the sense that is commonly given the word by the vulgar; that is,

I pray earnestly,

I beseech,

I entreat,

where the preposition de is used intensively and emphatically. And if that were so, the verses would indeed be flat. But as a matter of fact the sense is exactly the opposite; for the preposition de, since it has a double force, contains two meanings in one and the same word. For deprecor is used by Catullus in the sense of

denounce, execrate, drive away,

or

avert by prayers

; but it also has the opposite meaning, when Cicero In Defence of Publius Sulla speaks as follows: [*](§ 72.)

How many men's lives did he beg off (est deprecatus) from Sulla.

Similarly in his speech Against the Agrarian Law Cicero says: [*](ii. 100.)

If I do any

v2.p.137

wrong, there are no masks of ancestors to intercede (deprecentur,

beg off

) for me with you by their prayers.

But Catullus was not alone in using this word with that meaning. Indeed, the books are full of cases of its occurrence in the same sense, and of these I have quoted one or two which had come to mind. Quintus Ennius in the Erectheus, not differing greatly from Catullus, says: [*](128, Ribbeck3.)

1. Who now win freedom by my own distress
2. For those whose slavery I by woe avert (deprecor).

He means

I drive away

and

remove,

either by resort to prayer or in some other way. Similarly in the Chresphontes Ennius writes: [*](121, Ribbeck3.)

1. When I my own life spare, may I avert (deprecer)
2. Death from mine enemy.

Cicero, in the sixth book of his Republic, wrote: [*](2.2.)

Which indeed was so much the more remarkable, because, while the colleagues were in the same case, they not only did not incur the same hatred, but the affection felt for Gracchus even averted (deprecabatur) the unpopularity of Claudius.

Here too the meaning is not

earnestly entreated,

but

warded off

unpopularity, so to speak, and defended him against it, a meaning which the Greeks express by the parallel word paraitei=sqai.

Cicero also uses the word in the same way in his Defence of Aulus Caecina, saying: [*](§ 30.)

What can you do for a man like this? Can you not sometimes permit one to avert (deprecetur) the odium of the greatest wickedness by the excuse of the most abysmal folly?

Also in the first book of his second Arraignment of Verres: [*](ii. 2. 192.)

Now what can Hortensius do? Will he try to avert (deprecetur) the charge of avarice by the praise of economy? But he is defending a man who is utterly disgraced and sunk in lust and crime.

So then Catullus means that he is doing the same as Lesbia, in publicly speaking ill of her, scorning and rejecting her, and constantly praying to be rid of her, and yet loving her to madness.