Delphi Complete Works of Varro

by Marcus Terentius Varro

  Fr. 17. I learn that Marcus Varro and Publius Nigidius, the most learned of all the Romans, always said and wrote senatuis, domuis, and fluctuis as the genitive case of the words senatus ‘senate,’ domus ‘house,’ and fluctus ‘wave,’ and used senatui, domui, fluctui as the dative; and that they used other similar words with the corresponding endings.

  Fr. 18. Amni was used by Vergil as ablative of amnis ‘river,’ as in He drifts with the stream of the river.

  On this point, Pliny in the same book says: “By the old writers, whom Varro criticizes adversely, all observance of the rule is disregarded, yet not utterly. For we still say,” says he, “canali ‘canal,’ siti ‘thirst,’ tussi ‘cough,’ febri ‘fever’ as the ablative forms. But in most words the form has been changed, and uses the ablative which ends in E: cane ‘dog,’ orbe ‘circle,’ carbone ‘charcoal,’ turre ‘tower,’ falce ‘sickle,’ igne ‘fire,’ veste ‘garment,’ fine ‘limit,’ monte ‘mountain,’ fonte ‘spring,’ ponte ‘bridge,’ strigile ‘scraper,’ tegete ‘mat,’ ave ‘bird,’ asse ‘as,’ axe ‘axle,’ nave ‘ship,’ classe ‘fleet.’”

  Fr. 19. Varro, whom Pliny mentions as having said, in the eleventh book of his treatise addressed to Cicero “a plantation of trees set in rows rure ‘in the country.’”

  Fr. 20. Fonteis ‘springs,’ accusative plural spelled with EIS: “The nouns which gain an I in the genitive plural before the ending UM,” says Pliny, “have the Instead of the usual locative form ruri. accusative in EIS, like genitive montium ‘mountains,’ accusative monteis; although Varro,” he continues, “tried to refute this rule by examples of the following sort: to the genitive falcium ‘sickles’ the accusative is falces and not falceis, nor is the proper spelling merceis ‘wares,’ nor axeis ‘axles,’ lintreis ‘skiffs,’ ventreis ‘bellies,’ stirpeis ‘stocks,’ urbeis ‘cities,’ corbeis ‘baskets,’ vecteis ‘levers,’ menteis ‘minds.’ And yet he gives up the fight against the aforesaid rule in a ridiculous fashion, saying that apart from these nouns the rule holds.”

  Fr. 21. In the second and the third books Varro constantly uses the genitive poematorum, ‘poems’ and the dative poematis, as though the word were poematum in the nominative and not poema. For in the eleventh book of the treatise addressed to Cicero he says that genitive poematorum and dative poematis are the proper forms to be used.

  Fr. 22. Git ‘fennel’: Varro in the eleventh book of the treatise addressed to Cicero states that this form ought to be used in all the cases; but people quite commonly say gitti in the ablative.

  XIII

  Fr. 23. Varro in the thirteenth book of the treatise addressed to Cicero used palpetrae, with T. But Fabianus, in the first book On Animals, wrote palpebrae with B. Others say that palpetrae means the eyelids, and palpebrae the eyelashes. Fr. 24. Oxo, ablative: “Varro, in the thirteenth book of the treatise addressed to Cicero, expresses the opinion that it is composed of olive-oil and oxos ‘vinegar,’” says Pliny in the sixth book of the treatise entitled Variations in Speech.

  XVIII

  Fr. 25. Indiscriminatim means ‘without difference.’ Varro in the eighteenth book of the treatise On the Latin Language says: “Which in this book we shall use indiscriminatim ‘without distinction,’ promiscuously, just as if there were no difference between them.”

  XXII

  Fr. 26. The ablative rure is used by Terence in the Eunuchus:

  I get this comfort from my near-by country-seat.

  So also Varro, in the twenty-second book of the treatise addressed to Cicero, says: “I have come rure ‘from the country.’”

  XXIII

  Fr. 27. Varro, in the twenty-third book of the treatise addressed to Cicero, says: “The ingluvies is the bulging muscles around the throat, which are produced by fatness and have creases between them.” But now the word is used merely for the throat. Fr. 28. (1) 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 logicians call εἰσαγωγαί, or ‘introductory exercises.’ (2) Then because at first I had to learn about axioms, which Marcus Varro calls, now profata or ‘propositions,’ and now proloquia or ‘forthright 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, I read it. (3) But I found in it nothing that was written to instruct or to make the matter clear; Aelius seems to have made that book rather as suggestions for his own use than for the purpose of teaching others.

  (4) I therefore of necessity returned to my Greek books. From these I obtained this definition of an axiom: “a proposition complete in itself, declared with reference to itself only.” (5) This I have forborne 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. (6) But Marcus Varro, in the twenty-fourth book of his treatise On the Latin Language, dedicated to Cicero, thus defines the word very briefly: “A proloquium is a statement in which nothing is lacking.”

  (7) But his definition will be clearer if I give an example. An axiom, then, or a forthright statement, 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”; (8) 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 proloquium or ‘forthright statement’; but by Marcus Cicero a pronuntiatum or ‘pronouncement,’ a word however which he declared that he used “only until I can find a better one.”

  (9) But what the Greeks call a συνημμένον ἀξίωμα or ‘connected axiom,’ some of our countrymen call adiunctum ‘adjoined,’ others call conexum ‘connected.’ The following are examples of this: “If Plato is walking, Plato is moving”; “If it is day, the sun is above the earth.” (10) Also what they call συμπεπλεγμένον or a ‘compound axiom,’ we call coniunctum ‘conjoined’ or copulatum ‘coupled’; 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 consulship.” (11) But if in the whole of a proposition of this kind one member is false, even if the others 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 have been made in conjunction will not be true, on account of this one false statement which has been added to them, because they will now all be spoken of together as one statement of fact.

  (12) There is also another form, which the Greeks call a διεζευγμένον ἀξίωμα or ‘disjunctive proposition,’ and we call disiunctum ‘separated.’ For example: “Pleasure is either good or evil, or it is neither good nor evil.” (13) Now all statements which are contrasted ought to be opposed to each other, and their opposites, which the Greeks call ἀντικείμενα, ought also to be opposed. Of all statements which are contrasted, one ought to be true and the rest false. (14) 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 παραδιεζευγμένον or ‘wrong-disjunctive.’ 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 their opposites 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 together and at the same time neither walk nor stand nor run.

  Fr. 29. Exceptions are haurio ‘I draw off,’ perfect hausi (yet haurivi or haurii also is found; Varro, in the twenty-fourth book of the treatise addressed to C
icero, says “when they haurierint ‘have drained’ from the same”), saepio ‘I fence in,’ perfect saepsi...

  Fragments of Undeterminable Position

  Fr. 30a. Proceres: Varro in the treatise addressed to Cicero said that proceres are those who processerunt ‘have advanced’ ahead of others, whence also those beams are called proceres which project beyond the other beams.

  Fr. 30b. Proceres however, according to Varro, is a name applied to leaders of the state, because they stand out in it, just as in buildings certain mutules, that is, heads of beams, stand out, which are called proceres.

  Fr. 31a. Senior: according to Varro, senior and iunior are comparatives of diminution.... Therefore senior is not a man who is completely old, just as a iunior is not an entirely youthful person, but one not quite as much as a iuvenis ‘young man,’ as a pauperior ‘poorer’ person is not even as much as pauper ‘poor.’ Varro says this in the books addressed to Cicero.

  Fr. 31b. Iam senior ‘now older’: either he set this as a positive, namely senex, or, as we have said, a senior is a vigorous old man, as a iunior is one not yet a youth. The matter is mentioned by Varro, and is confirmed by Pliny.

  Fr. 32. But at the top of this edifice, which we have said was like a ship’s keel, he set the caput ‘head,’ in which there was to be the guidance of the whole creature, and the name caput was given to it, as indeed Varro writes in the treatise addressed to Cicero, because from it the senses and the nerves capiunt ‘take’ their start.

  Fr. 33. Some think that the stems of lupines are properly called alae ‘wings’; thus Aelius: “alae of lupine, shoots without leaves”; Cato in the Origins: “alae of lupine pulse”; Varro in the treatise On the Latin Language instructs us that the stalk of the bean is called an ala.

  Fr. 34. With regard to the four conjugations, these are the principles applying to the verbs which obey Regularity; examples are set down everywhere and are well known. Anyone who has mastered them will easily avoid error. For they are set forth clearly also by Varro of the Menippean Satire.

  Fr. 35. To sapio ‘I am wise,’ authors are found to have employed as perfect sapui or sapii as well as sapivi; yet Probus prefers sapui, Charisius sapui or sapivi, Asper sapivi or sapii in reliance on Varro, a view which Diomedes also approves.

  Fr. 36. There are other verbs, which lack different tenses; it is the use of a form that is lacking, the reason for the meaning exists. Certain verbs lack the perfect and all the forms made from it; such are ferio ‘I strike,’ sisto ‘I put,’ tollo ‘I pick up,’ fero ‘I bear,’ aio ‘I say,’ furo ‘I am mad’ — a list which Varro sets down. Therefore for the perfects of these verbs we use the perfects of other verbs which seem to have the same meaning.

  Fr. 37. Puer ‘boy’ the ancients used to use also as a feminine, like the Greek παῖς, masc. meaning ‘boy’ and fem, meaning ‘girl’; as in the old Odyssey, a very ancient poem:

  My child, what word is this I hear fall from your lips? And in the Song of Neleus, which is equally old:

  A wounded child, a daughter, I’ll take...

  In this however Varro thinks that puera, with A, was used, but his teacher Aelius Stilo and Asinius take the opposite view.

  Fr. 38. Leontion and Chrysion and Phanion are neuters in Greek, but when we took them into Latin we made femnines of them; Plautus used Phronesium as a feminine, and Caecilius used Leontium in the same way. But Varro thinks that such nouns are inflected only for the dative and the ablative, and that in the other cases the same form as the nominative is used.

  The Latin Texts

  The amphitheatre of the ancient Capua — Varro was one of the commission of twenty that carried out the great agrarian scheme of Julius Caesar for the resettlement of Capua and Campania in 59 BC.

  LIST OF LATIN TEXTS

  In this section of the eBook, readers can view Varro’s original Latin texts. You may wish to Bookmark this page for future reference.

  CONTENTS

  On Agriculture

  LIBER I

  LIBER II

  LIBER III

  On the Latin Language

  LIBER V

  LIBER VI

  LIBER VII

  LIBER VIII

  LIBER IX

  LIBER X

  FRAGMENTA

  On Agriculture

  LIBER I

  I.

  Otium si essem consecutus, Fundania, commodius tibi haec scriberem, quae nunc, ut potero, exponam cogitans esse properandum, quod, ut dicitur, si est homo bulla, eo magis senex. Annus enim octogesimus admonet me ut sarcinas conligam, antequam proficiscar e vita. Quare, quoniam emisti fundum, quem bene colendo fructuosum cum facere velis, meque ut id mihi habeam curare roges, experiar; et non solum, ut ipse quoad vivam, quid fieri oporteat ut te moneam, sed etiam post mortem. Neque patiar Sibyllam non solum cecinisse quae, dum viveret, prodessent hominibus, sed etiam quae cum perisset ipsa, et id etiam ignotissimis quoque hominibus; ad cuius libros tot annis post publice solemus redire, cum desideramus, quid faciendum sit nobis ex aliquo portento: me, ne dum vivo quidem, necessariis meis quod prosit facere. Quocirca scribam tibi tres libros indices, ad quos revertare, siqua in re quaeres, quem ad modum quidque te in colendo oporteat facere. Et quoniam, ut aiunt, dei facientes adiuvant, prius invocabo eos, nec, ut Homerus et Ennius, Musas, sed duodecim deos Consentis; neque tamen eos urbanos, quorum imagines ad forum auratae stant, sex mares et feminae totidem, sed illos XII deos, qui maxime agricolarum duces sunt. Primum, qui omnis fructos agri culturae caelo et terra continent, Iovem et Tellurem: itaque, quod ii parentes, magni dicuntur, Iuppiter pater appellatur, Tellus terra mater. Secundo Solem et Lunam, quorum tempora observantur, cum quaedam seruntur et conduntur. Tertio Cererem et Liberum, quod horum fructus maxime necessari ad victum: ab his enim cibus et potio venit e fundo. Quarto Robigum ac Floram, quibus propitiis neque robigo frumenta atque arbores corrumpit, neque non tempestive florent. Itaque publice Robigo feriae Robigalia, Florae ludi Floralia instituti. Item adveneror Minervam et Venerem, quarum unius procuratio oliveti, alterius hortorum; quo nomine rustica Vinalia instituta. Nec non etiam precor Lympham ac Bonum Eventum, quoniam sine aqua omnis arida ac misera agri cultura, sine successu ac bono eventu frustratio est, non cultura. Iis igitur deis ad venerationem advocatis ego referam sermones eos quos de agri cultura habuimus nuper, ex quibus quid te facere oporteat animadvertere poteris. in quis quae non inerunt et quaeres, indicabo a quibus scriptoribus repetas et Graecis et nostris.

  Qui Graece scripserunt dispersim alius de alia re, sunt plus quinquaginta. Hi sunt, quos tu habere in consilio poteris, cum quid consulere voles, Hieron Siculus et Attalus Philometor: de philosophis Democritus physicus, Xenophon Socraticus, Aristoteles et Theophrastus peripatetici, Archytas Pythagoreus: item Amphilochus Atheniensis, Anaxipolis Thasius, Apollodorus Lemnius, Aristophanes Mallotes, Antigonus Cymaeus, Agathocles Chius, Apollonius Pergamenus, Aristandros Atheniensis, Bacchius Milesius, Bion Soleus, Chaeresteus et Chaereas Athenienses, Diodorus Prieneus, Dion Colophonius, Diophanes Nicaeensis, Epigenes Rhodios, Euagon Thasius, Euphronii duo, unus Atheniensis, alter Amphipolites, Hegesias Maronites, Menandri duo, unus Prieneus, alter Heracleotes, Nicesius Maronites, Pythion Rhodius. De reliquis, quorum quae fuerit patria non accepi, sunt Androtion, Aeschrion, Aristomenes, Athenagoras, Crates, Dadis, Dionysios, Euphiton, Euphorion, Eubulus, Lysimachus, Mnaseas, Menestratus, Plentiphanes, Persis, Theophilus. Hi quos dixi omnes soluta oratione scripserunt; easdem res etiam quidam versibus, ut Hesiodus Ascraeus, Menecrates Ephesius. Hos nobilitate Mago Carthaginiensis praeteriit, poenica lingua qui res dispersas comprendit libris XXIIX, quos Cassius Dionysius Uticensis vertit libris XX ac Graeca lingua Sextilio praetori misit: in quae volumina de Graecis libris eorum quos dixi adiecit non pauca et de Magonis dempsit instar librorum VIII. Hosce ipsos utiliter ad VI libros redegit Diophanes in Bithynia et misit Deiotaro regi. Quo brevius de ea re conor tribus libris exponere, uno de agri cultura, altero de re pecuaria, tertio de villaticis pastionibus, hoc libro circumcisis rebus, quae non
arbitror pertinere ad agri culturam. Itaque prius ostendam, quae secerni oporteat ab ea, tum de his rebus dicam sequens naturales divisiones. Ea erunt ex radicibus trinis, et quae ipse in meis fundis colendo animadverti, et quae legi, et quae a peritis audii.

  II.

  Sementivis feriis in aedem Telluris veneram rogatus ab aeditumo, ut dicere didicimus a patribus nostris, ut corrigimur a recentibus urbanis, ab aedituo. Offendi ibi C. Fundanium, socerum meum, et C. Agrium equitem R. Socraticum et P. Agrasium publicanum spectantes in pariete pictam Italiam. Quid vos hic? inquam, num feriae sementivae otiosos huc adduxerunt, ut patres et avos solebant nostros? Nos vero, inquit Agrius, ut arbitror, eadem causa quae te, rogatio aeditumi. Itaque si ita est, ut annuis, morere oportet nobiscum, dum ille revertatur. Nam accersitus ab aedile, cuius procuratio huius templi est, nondum rediit et nos uti expectaremus se reliquit qui rogaret. Voltis igitur interea vetus proverbium, quod est ‘Romanus sedendo vincit’, usurpemus, dum ille venit?

  Sane, inquit Agrius, et simul cogitans portam itineri dici longissimam esse ad subsellia sequentibus nobis procedit.

  Cum consedissemus, Agrasius, Vos, qui multas perambulastis terras, ecquam cultiorem Italia vidistis? inquit. Ego vero, Agrius, nullam arbitror esse quae tam tota sit culta. Primum cum orbis terrae divisus sit in duas partes ab Eratosthene maxume secundum naturam, ad meridiem versus et ad septemtriones, et sine dubio quoniam salubrior pars septemtrionalis est quam meridiana, et quae salubriora illa fructuosiora, dicendum utique Italiam magis etiam fuisse opportunam ad colendum quam Asiam, primum quod est in Europa, secundo quod haec temperatior pars quam interior. Nam intus paene sempiternae hiemes, neque mirum, quod sunt regiones inter circulum septemtrionalem et inter cardinem caeli, ubi sol etiam sex mensibus continuis non videtur. Itaque in oceano in ea parte ne navigari quidem posse dicunt propter mare congelatum. Fundanius, Em ubi tu quicquam nasci putes posse aut coli natum. Verum enim est illud Pacuvi, sol si perpetuo sit aut nox, flammeo vapore aut frigore terrae fructos omnis interire. Ego hic, ubi nox et dies modice redit et abit, tamen aestivo die, si non diffinderem meo insiticio somno meridie, vivere non possum. Illic in semenstri die aut nocte quem ad modum quicquam seri aut alescere aut meti possit? Contra quid in Italia utensile non modo non nascitur, sed etiam non egregium fit? Quod far conferam Campano? Quod triticum Apulo? Quod vinum Falerno? Quod oleum Venafro? Non arboribus consita Italia, ut tota pomarium videatur? An Phrygia magis vitibus cooperta, quam Homerus appellat ampeloessan, quam haec? Aut tritico Argos, quod idem poeta polupuron? In qua terra iugerum unum denos et quinos denos culleos fert vini, quot quaedam in Italia regiones? An non M. Cato scribit in libro Originum sic: ‘ager Gallicus Romanus vocatur, qui viritim cis Ariminum datus est ultra agrum Picentium. In eo agro aliquotfariam in singula iugera dena cullea vini fiunt’? Nonne item in agro Faventino, a quo ibi trecenariae appellantur vites, quod iugerum trecenas amphoras reddat? Simul aspicit me, Certe, inquit, Libo Marcius, praefectus fabrum tuos, in fundo suo Faventiae hanc multitudinem dicebat suas reddere vites. Duo in primis spectasse videntur Italici homines colendo, possentne fructus pro impensa ac labore redire et utrum saluber locus esset an non. Quorum si alterutrum decolat et nihilo minus quis vult colere, mente est captus adque adgnatos et gentiles est deducendus. Nemo enim sanus debet velle impensam ac sumptum facere in cultura, si videt non posse refici, nec si potest reficere fructus, si videt eos fore ut pestilentia dispereant. Sed, opinor, qui haec commodius ostendere possint adsunt. Nam C. Licinium Stolonem et Cn. Tremelium Scrofam video venire: unum, cuius maiores de modo agri legem tulerunt (nam Stolonis illa lex, quae vetat plus D iugera habere civem R.), et qui propter diligentiam culturae Stolonum confirmavit cognomen, quod nullus in eius fundo reperiri poterat stolo, quod effodiebat circum arbores e radicibus quae nascerentur e solo, quos stolones appellabant. Eiusdem gentis C. Licinius, tr. pl. cum esset, post reges exactos annis CCCLXV primus populum ad leges accipiendas in septem iugera forensia e comitio eduxit. Alterum collegam tuum, viginti virum qui fuit ad agros dividendos Campanos, video huc venire, Cn. Tremelium Scrofam, virum omnibus virtutibus politum, qui de agri cultura Romanus peritissimus existimatur. An non iure? inquam. Fundi enim eius propter culturam iucundiore spectaculo sunt multis, quam regie polita aedificia aliorum, cum huius spectatum veniant villas, non, ut apud Lucullum, ut videant pinacothecas, sed oporothecas. Huiusce, inquam, pomarii summa sacra via, ubi poma veneunt contra aurum, imago.