Amcus fidlis medicmentum vtae et immortlittis. (Sirach [Ecclesiasticus] 6.16: medi cmentum, -, n., medication, drug; remedy.—immortlits, immortlittis, f., deathlessness, immortality.)
Forsan et haec lim meminisse iuvbit. (Vergil Aen. 1.203: forsan, adv., perhaps.—et = etiam.—memin, meminisse, defective verb with chiefly perf. system tenses, to remember; “memento,” “reminisce.”—iuvbit: used here impersonally, = it will….)
Impia sub dulc melle venna latent. (Ovid Am. 1.8.104: impius, -a, -um, impious, immoral, wicked.—mel, mellis, n., honey; “mellifluous,” and the cognate “Melissa.”—vennum, -, n., herb [used for medicine, magic, etc.]; poison; “venom,” “venomous.”—late, latre, latu, to go into hiding, hide, lurk; lie hidden, be concealed; “latent.”)
Perculsum est crdere et nn crdere. (Phaedrus Fab. 3.10.1: perculsus, -a, -um [from perculum], dangerous, risky; “perilous”: the suffix -sus in Lat. and the derivative “-ous” in Eng. = “full of, characterized by.”)
Quod in iuventte nn discitur, in matr aette nescitur. (Cassiodorus Var. 1.24.3: iuvents, iuventtis, f., young men [collectively], the youth; [the period or qualities of] early manhood, youth; “juvenile.”—mtrus, -a, -um, ripe, full grown; adult, mature, old; “maturity.”)
Dictum sapient sat est. (Plautus Pers. 729: dictum here = verbum, but what familiar verb is this from and what form of that verb is it?—sat = satis.)
Omnia disce: vidbis poste nihil esse superfluum; coartta scientia icunda nn est. (Hugo of St. Victor, Didasc. 6.3.801a: superfluus, -a, -um, more than one needs, superfluous.—coart [1], to make narrower; restrict, confine, limit.)
LITTERTRA
Laws of the 12 Tables: Types of Punishment
Oct genera poenrum in lgibus esse scrbit Tullius: damnum, vincula, verbera, tlinem, ignminiam, exilium, mortem, servittem.
For a brief discussion of the XII Tabulae, see Capvt XXIV.
lx, lgis, f., law, statute; “legality,” “legislature.”—Tullius: the famous Roman lawyer, senator, and statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero, source for much of our knowledge of the 12 Tables.—damnum, -, n., financial penalty, fine; loss; “condemn.”—vinculum, -, n., bond, chain.—verbera, verberum, n. pl., blows, a beating; “reverberate.”—tli, tlinis, f., exaction of compensation in kind, talion; “retaliation.”—ignminia, -ae, f., degradation by a censor; “ignominy,” “ignominious” the censors were a board of officials who maintained Rome’s citizenship lists, determined the social class to which a citizen belonged, and had authority to demote an individual to a lower class for commission of a crime or immoral act.—exilium, -, n., exile.
Live Yesterday!
Crs t vctrum, crs, dcis, Postume, semper:
dc mihi, “crs” istud, Postume, quando venit?
Quam long “crs” istud! ubi est? aut unde petendum?
Numquid apud Parths Armenisque latet?
Iam “crs” istud habet Priam vel Nestoris anns.
“Crs” istud quant, dc mihi, possit em?
Crs vvs? Hodi iam vvere, Postume, srum est:
ille sapit quisquis, Postume, vxit her.
Martial Epig. 5.58: Martial offers us wisdom on living life to its fullest, every day, and not waiting for that “tomorrow” that never comes; “Postumus” is a fictitious addressee, though doubtless inspired by the addressee of a poem by Horace on this same theme. Meter: elegiac couplet.
vctrum: sc. esse.—quando: final - was often shortened in poetry, as in actual speech.—long, adv., long, far (off ) (in space or time).—unde, adv., whence, from what place.—petendum: sc. est; this sort of ELLIPSIS was common even in conversational Lat. (the so-called serm ctdinus, everyday speech).—numquid, interrog. adv., introduces a question that expects a “no” answer, as in “it doesn’t…does it?”—apud, prep. + acc., among, in the presence of, at the house of.—Parth, -rum, m. pl., Parthians, people of Parthia (situated in the northeast of modern Iran and thus at the far reaches of the Roman empire).—Armeni, -rum, m. pl., Armenians, inhabitants of Armenia, north of the Parthians and like them at the empire’s easternmost boundaries.—Priamus, -, m., Priam, king of Troy in the Trojan war saga.—vel, conj., or.—Nestor, Nestoris, m., Nestor, king of Pylos, oldest of the Greeks in the Trojan War and here, like the aged king Priam, an example of longevity.—quantus, -a, -um, how large, how great, how much; “quantify,” “quantity” here GEN. OF VALUE, (of=for) how much.—possit: pres. subjunct., here essentially = potest.—em, emere, m, mptum, to buy, purchase; “pre-empt,” “caveat emptor” (“let the buyer beware”).—srus, -a, -um, belated, slow, tardy; too late.—sapi, sapere, sapv (cf. sapientia, sapins), to have good taste; have good sense, be wise; “sapient,” “homo sapiens,” “insipid.”
QUAESTINS: Why does Martial refer to Armenia and Parthia in asking Postumus where his “tomorrow” will be found? Specifically identify the several repetitions in this poem, and then comment on their effect. What single general conception do the references to Nestor and Priam, on the one hand, and to the Armenians and Parthians, on the other, have in common? How is the very end of the poem especially effective, and how in particular, through a kind of RING COMPOSITION, does the final verse connect back to the first?
Murder, She Wrote
nscrpsit tumuls septem scelerta virrum
“S fcisse” Chlo. Quid pote simplicius?
Martial Epig. 9.15: The individual, often a spouse, who paid for a deceased person’s tombstone typically concluded the inscription with his or her own name + FECIT = “(so and so) did it,” i.e., commissioned the monument; but as Martial jokes, CHLOE FECIT here bears a most unfortunate double-entendre. Meter: elegiac couplet.
nscrb, nscrbere, nscrps, nscrptum, to write on, inscribe; “inscription” (like the many in this book!).—tumulus, -, n., mound, tomb.—scelertus, -a, -um, criminal, wicked, accursed; what noun in the sentence must this adj. modify?—remember that in Lat. poetry noun-adj. pairs were often widely separated, and could be without ambiguity, since agreement of their number, gender, and case indicated their affinity.—pote, indecl. adj., having the power, able (to); here, as often, essentially = potest, and with the COMPLEMENTARY INFIN. esse understood.—simplicior, simplicius, compar. adj., simpler, plainer, more obvious.
QUAESTINS: What is the point of Martial’s rather dark joke? What is unusual about the position of Chloe’s name, and what is the intended effect?
Apophorta: Triplics
Tunc triplics nostrs nn vlia dna putbis,
cum s ventram scrbet amca tibi.
Martial Epig. 14.6: For Martial’s Apophoreta, see Capvt VII; this particular “gift card,” a single elegiac couplet like most of those in the volume, accompanies a writing tablet of the sort used to send short letters back and forth.
tunc, adv., then, at that time.—triplex, gen. triplicis, triple, three fold; as noun, three-leafed writing tablet; with triplics nostrs sc. esse.—vlis, -e, costing little, cheap; worthless, contemptible; “vile,” “revile,” “vilify.”—cum, conj., when; here, as often, correlative with the similarly positioned tunc.—ventram: sc. esse.
QUAESTI: Why may the recipient of this simple tablet eventually consider it precious?
Fresco (seen also on this book’s front cover), possibly depicting the baker Terentius Proculus and his wife, both with writing implements, Pompeii, Italy. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy
Scala /Art Resource, NY
GRAMMATICA
nfntva (“infinitives”): List all the infinitives in the chapter’s readings, and identify the tense and voice of each, consulting the Summrium Frmrum appendix, if necessary. Note which of these infinitives are employed in indirect statements.
CAPVT XXVI
Sour Grapes, the Gift of Death, and Smart Ways of Looking Good
Among this chapter’s selections are a lover’s graffito, Phaedrus’ fable of the fox and the grapes, epigrams by Martial advising men on how to profit from hatred and women on how to look prettier than they are, and several epitaphs, including one set up
by a Roman for his two wives, one from a Christian catacomb, another that proclaims the utility of death, and one penned by the emperor Hadrian for a poet friend. From the chapter’s Prverbia et Dicta we learn something about Roman views of the lawful use of force, the pleasure that comes from weeping, the power of habit, and the delusions of love.
Grammatica nova: Comparison of adjectives, declension of comparatives, and ablative of comparison.
NSCRPTINS
More Than a Little in Love
SEIANO AMANTISSIMO Sin amantissim.
CIL 4.5032: Graffito scribbled by an avid admirer of Sejanus; from the house of M. Casellius Marcellus at Pompeii.
Epitaph to His Wives
C • RVBELLIVS • CLYTIVS
MARCIAE • L • F • HELLADI
CASSIAE • SVLPICIAE • C • F • CRASSILLAE
CONIVGIBVS • CARISSIMIS
POSTERISQVE SVIS
QVI • LEGIS • HVNC • TITVLVM • MORTALEM
TE ESSE MEMENTO
G(ius) Rubellius Clytius Mrciae L(ci) f(liae) Hellad, Cassiae Sulpiciae G(i) f(liae) Crassillae, coniugibus crissims postersque sus.
Qu legis hunc titulum: mortlem t esse mement.
CIL 10.7697: Inscription carved into the wall of a tomb erected by Gaius Rubellius Clytius for his wives, Marcia Hellas and Cassia Sulpicia Crassilla; from Cagliari (ancient Carales), in southern Sardinia. The Romans did not practice polygamy; rather, Rubellius’ first wife died, he remarried, and then his second wife also predeceased him; dedications to more than one spouse were quite unusual. The epitaph’s closing sentence, with its proverbial admonition to the passerby, is a dactylic hexameter verse.
Hellas, Helladis, f., Greece; here the woman’s cognomen.—coninx, coniugis, m. or f., spouse; “conjugal.”—posterus, -a, -um, occurring hereafter, later, future; m. pl. as noun, descendants; “posterity” including a dedication to the deceased person’s living descendants was a common feature of Roman funerary inscriptions.—titulus, -, m., label, title; placard; inscription; “titular.”—mement: fut. imperat. of the defective verb memin, meminisse, to remember; “memento.”
Tomb of the wives of Gaius Rubellius Clytius, Cagliari, Sardinia (CIL 10.7697)
Paolo Meloni
From the Catacomb of Priscilla
M, ACILIVS • V […C • V •…] PRISCILLA • C • [… M(nius) Acilius V[…], c(lrissimus) v(ir), [et] Priscilla, c(lrissima) [fmina].
CIL 6.31681: Fragmentary inscription from a marble sarcophagus in the so-called Catacomb of Priscilla, on the Via Salaria; Rome. A Christian burial site from the 2nd-4th centuries A.D.., this catacomb, famous for its wall paintings of biblical scenes, was named for the Priscilla memorialized here, member of the gns Acilia, a powerful senatorial family under the early empire; Manius Acilius Glabrio, likely an ancestor of the Manius Acilius in this inscription, had been exiled and in A.D.. 95 executed by Domitian for sedition, and is supposed by some scholars to have been an early Christian. C was a conventional abbreviation in funerary inscriptions for clrissimus/ clrissima.
Mnius, -, m., Manius, a common Roman praenomen, abbreviated with M followed by a mark like an apostrophe or a comma, M’ or M, (not to be confused with Mrcus, which was abbreviated simply with M).
Inscription from the catacomb of Priscilla, Rome, Italy, second century A.D.. (CIL 6.31681)
Scala / Art Resource, NY
Hail and Farewell
…]AVE • PVDENS G • MINICIVS • G • L CRHESTVS • PVDENTI VAL VLTERIVS • NIHIL • EST MORTE • NEQVE • VTILIVS [H]av, Pudns! G(ius) Minicius G(i) l(bertus) Crhestus Pudent: val()! Ulterius nihil est morte neque tilius.
CIL 5.4654: Epitaph found at Breschia, Italy, and set up by Gaius Minicius Chrestus (whose name is misspelled by the stonemason); the last line of the epitaph, with its philosophizing sentiment, is an elegiac pentameter.
av, interj., also spelled hav, greetings, hail!—pudns, gen. pudentis, behaving well, decent; modest; “impudent” here the deceased’s cognomen.—lbertus, -, m., freedman; “liberty.”—ulterior, ulterius, compar. degree adj., more distant, further; greater (in degree).—tilis, -e, useful, advantageous; “utility,” “utilize.”
Epitaph for Hateria Telete
HATERIA • TELETE VIXIT • ANN • XXVII TV • PATER • ET • MATER LACRVMIS • RETINETE DOLOREM • NAM • FATO RAPTAM • NON • POTES • ERIPERE Hateria Telet vxit ann(s) XXVII: T, pater, et mter, lacrums retinte dolrem, nam ft raptam nn potes ripere.
CIL 6.4385: From a funerary monument at Rome. The gns Hateria was a Roman family of senatorial rank; the young woman, whose cognomen was Greek, was likely a freedwoman. The last two lines in the transcription are an elegiac couplet.
lacrima (lacruma), -ae, f., tear; “lacrimal ducts,” “lacrimose.”—retine, retinre, retinu, retentum, to hold back, restrain; “retain,” “retention.”—dolor, dolris, m., pain, grief; “doleful,” “dolorous,” “condolences.”—ftum, -, n., fate, death.
QUAESTINS: Comment on the etymologizing wordplay involved in raptam/ ripere; how might ft be construed, in diff ering grammatical senses, with both words? What seems inconsistent in the writer’s use of second person? What might account for this?
PRVERBIA ET DICTA
Omns na manet nox et calcanda semel via lt. (Horace Carm. 1.28.15–16: omns: common alternate form for acc. pl. omns.—calc [1], to trample; tread, set foot on; “recalcitrant.”—semel, adv., a single time, once, once and for all.—ltum, -, n., death; “lethal.”)
Vim v dfendere omns lgs omniaque ira permittunt. (Paulus Dig. 45.4: permitt, permittere, perms, permissum, to permit, allow; “permission.”)
Bona opni hominum ttior pecni est. (Publilius Sent.: opni, opninis, f., opinion, belief.—ttus, -a, -um, protected, safe, secure; “tutor,” “tutelage.”)
Est quaedam flre volupts. (Ovid Tr. 4.3.37: fle, flre, flv, fltum, to cry, weep.)
Gravissima est prob hominis racundia. (Publilius Sent.: probus, -a, -um, honest, upright; “probity,” “probation.”—racundia = ra.)
Gravissimum est imperium consutdinis. (Publilius Sent.: cnsutd, cnsutdinis, f., custom, habit.)
Nl aliud scit necessits quam vincere. (Publilius Sent.: nl = nihil.—necessits, necessittis, f., necessity.)
ntr mihi vidtur potius quam ab indigenti orta amcitia. (Cicero Amic. 27: potius, adv., rather, preferably.—indigentia, -ae, f., [sense of] need; “indigence.”—ortus, -a, -um [perf. partic. of DEPONENT VERB orior], arisen; originated, derived; “abort.”)
Amcus magis necessrius quam ignis et aqua. (Erasmus Ad. 2.2.75: magis, adv., more, rather; used to indicate compar. degree of some adjectives, esp. those whose base ends in a vowel; “magistrate.”—necessrius, -a, -um, essential, necessary, requisite.)
Potiusque sr quam numquam. (Livy Urbe Cond. 4.2: sr, adv., at a late period of time, late, tardily.)
Qu amant, ips sibi somnia fingunt? (Vergil Ecl. 8.108: somnium, -, n., dream, vision; fantasy, delusion; “somnambulist,” “insomnia.”—fing, fingere, fnx, fictum, to make by shaping, form, fashion; create, invent; “fiction.”)
Ubi idicat qu accsat, vs, nn lx, valet. (Publilius Sent.: idic [1], to consider, judge; “judicial,” “adjudicate.”—accs [1], to blame, censure; bring a charge, accuse; “accusation,” “accusative.”)
Nihil est autem praestantius de ab e igitur mundum necesse est reg. (Cicero Nat. D. 2.77: praestns, gen. praestantis, surpassing others, outstanding, excellent.—necesse, indecl. adj., necessary, inevitable; necesse est often, as here, takes an impers. acc. + infin. construction, = it is necessary [that]….)
LITTERTRA
Epitaph for a Poet
Lascvus vers, mente pudcus ers.
Apuleius Apol. 11: Apuleius reports that Hadrian, emperor A.D.. 117–138, composed this elegiac pentameter line as an epitaph for his friend the poet Voconius, whose racy verses, the emperor asserts, were purely fiction and not a reflection on his character—an echo of remarks made by Catullus, Ovid, and Martial in their own defense. Apuleiu
s himself (ca. A.D.. 125–170) was the author of the only ancient Latin novel to survive intact, Metamorphoses or “The Golden Ass,” the story of a young man transformed into an ass, who experiences a series of roguish adventures before a religious conversion and restoration by Isis to human form.
lascvus, -a, -um, playful, frisky; mischievous, naughty, risqué “lascivious.”
QUAESTI: Comment on the arrangement of the line’s first four words, and on the intended effect.
How to Look Pretty!
Omns aut vetuls habs amcs
aut turps vetulsque foedirs.
Hs dcis comits trahisque tcum
per convvia, portics, thetra.
Sc frmsa, Fabulla, sc puella es.
Martial Epig. 8.79: Fabulla here probably represents, not a real person, but a type—maybe like someone you know? Meter: hendecasyllabic.
vetulus, -a, -um, aging, elderly, old; “veteran” the identical metrical positioning of vetuls/ vetuls in the first two verses creates a catchy mid-line rhyme.—turps: for the form, see note on omns above, Prverbia et Dicta 1.—foedus, -a, -um, off ensive, foul, loathsome; hideous, ugly.—comes, comitis, m./ f., companion; friend, comrade; “concomitant,” “count” (a nobleman, originally one in service to a person of higher rank).—convvium, -, n., dinner party, banquet; “convivial,” “conviviality.”—porticus, -s, f., covered walk, portico, colonnade (here as part of public buildings, where Romans often enjoyed a stroll); “porch.”—thetrum, -, n., theater (for viewing plays); the omission of any conjunction in line 4, a rhetorical device known as ASYNDETON, is perhaps intended to help convey the rapid succession of sites these ladies visit.—sc: i.e., in this way, by this means.—frmsus, -a, -um, shapely, beautiful, attractive; “form,” “Formosa” (name given the island of Taiwan by the Portuguese).
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