Noctes Atticae

An error of the jurist Alfenus in the interpretation of early words.

THE jurist Alfenus, a pupil of Servius Sulpicius and a man greatly interested in matters antiquarian,

in the thirty-fourth book of his Digests and the second of his Miscellanies, says: [*](Fr. 1, Huschke; Resp. 14, Dig. 99, Bremer (i, pp. 287,322, 330).)

In a treaty which was made between the Roman people and the Carthaginians the provision is found, that the Carthaginians should pay each year to the Roman people a certain weight of argenti puri puti, and the meaning of puri puti was asked. I replied,

he says,

that putus meant very pure,' just as we say novicius for novus (new) and propicius for proprius (proper), when we wish to augment and amplify the meaning of novus and proprius.

Upon reading this, I was surprised that Alfenus should think that the relation of purus and putus was the same as that of novicius and novus; for if the word were puricius, then it would indeed appear to be formed like novicius. It was also surprising that he thought that novicius was used to imply amplification, since in fact novicius does not mean

more new,

but is merely a derivative and variant of novus. Accordingly, I agree with those who think that putus is derived from puto and therefore pronounce the word with the first syllable short, not long as Alfenus seems to have thought it, since he wrote that putus came from purus. Moreover, the earlier writers used putare of removing and pruning away from anything whatever was superfluous and unnecessary, or even injurious and foreign, leaving only what seemed useful and without blemish. For that was the meaning of putare,

to prune,

as applied to trees and vines, and so too as used of accounts. [*](That is, to clear one's accounts.) The verb puto itself also, which we use for the purpose of stating our opinion, certainly means nothing else than that in an obscure and difficult matter we do our best, by cutting away and lopping off false views, to retain what seems true and pure and sound. Therefore in the treaty with Carthage silver was called putum, as having been thoroughly purified and refined, as free from all foreign matter, and as spotless and whitened by the removal from it of all impurities.

But the expression purum putum occurs, not only in the treaty with Carthage, but also in many other early writings, including the tragedy of Quintus Ennius entitled Alexander, [*](62, Ribbeck3.) and the satire of Marcus Varro called Di\s Pai=des oi( Ge/rontes, [*](Fr. 91, Bücheler.) or Old Men are Children for a Second Time.

That Julius Hyginus was hasty and foolish in his criticism of Virgil for calling the wings of Daedalus praepetes; also a note on the meaning of aves praepetes and of those birds which Nigidius called inferae.

1. FROM Minos' realms in flight brave Daedalus
2. On pinion swift (praepetibus), 'tis said, did dare the sky.

In these lines of Virgil [*](Aen. vi. 14 f.) Julius Hyginus [*](Fr. 6, Fun.) criticizes the use of pennis praepetibus as an improper and ignorant expression.

For,

says he,

those birds are called praepetes by the augurs which either fly onward auspiciously or alight in suitable places.

Therefore he thought it inappropriate in Virgil to use an augural term in speaking of the flight of Daedalus, which had nothing to do with the science of the augurs.

But of a truth it was Hyginus who was altogether foolish in supposing that the meaning of praepetes was known to him, but unknown to Virgil and to

Gnaeus Matius, a learned man, who in the second book of his Iliad called winged Victory praepes in the following line: [*](Fr. 3, Bährens (F.P.R.).)

1. While Victory swift (praepes) the victor's palm bestows.

Furthermore, why does he not find fault also with Quintus Ennius, who in his Annals uses praepes, not of the wings of Daedalus, but of something very different, in the line: [*](488, Vahlen2. Cf. Gell. ix. 4. 1.)

1. Brundisium girt with fair, propitious (praepete) port?

But if Hyginus had regarded the force and origin of the word rather than merely noting the meaning given to it by the augurs, he would certainly pardon the poets for using words in a figurative and metaphorical sense rather than literally. For since not only the birds themselves which fly auspiciously, but also the places which they take, since these are suitable and propitious, are called praepetes, therefore Virgil called the wings of Daedalus praepetes, since he had come from places in which he feared danger into safer regions. Furthermore, the augurs call places praepetes, and Ennius in the first book of his Annals said: [*](94, Vahlen2.)

1. In fair, propitious (praepetibus) places they alight.

But birds that are the opposite of praepetes are called inferae, or

low,

[*](That is, low-flying, as opposed to swift-, or high-, flying.) according to Nigidius Figulus, who says in the first book of his Private Augury: [*](Fr. 80, Swoboda.)

The right is opposed to the left, praepes to infera.

From this we may infer that birds were called praepetes which have a higher and loftier flight, since Nigidius said that the praepetes were contrasted with the inferae.

In my youth in Rome, when I was still in attendance on the grammarians, I gave special attention to Sulpicius Apollinaris. Once when there was a discussion about augural law and mention had been made of praepetes aves, I heard him say to Erucius Clarus, the city prefect, that in his opinion praepetes was equivalent to Homer's tanupte/ruges, or

wide-winged,

since the augurs had special regard to those birds whose flight was broad and wide because of their great wings. And then he quoted these verses of Homer: [*](Iliad xii. 237 f.)

1. You bid me trust the flight of wide-winged birds,
2. But I regard them not, nor think of them.