Varro: DE LINGVA LATINA

Quemadmodum vocabula essent imposita rebus in lingua Latina, sex libris exponere institui. De his tris ante hunc feci quos Septumio misi: in quibus est de disciplina, quam vocant etymologiken: quae contra eam dicerentur, volumine primo, quae pro ea, secundo, quae de ea, tertio. In his ad te scribam, a quibus rebus vocabula imposita sint in lingua Latina, et ea quae sunt in consuetudine apud populum et ea quae inveniuntur apud poetas.

In what manner vocables have been imposed upon things in the Latin tongue, I have undertaken to expound in six books. Of these I made three before this, which I sent to Septumius: in which is about the discipline which they call etymologikē; what things would be said against it, in the first volume; what things for it, in the second; what things about it, in the third. In these I shall write to you from what things the vocables have been imposed in the Latin tongue, both those which are in customary use among the people and those which are found among the poets.

Cum unius cuiusque verbi naturae sint duae, a qua re et in qua re vocabulum sit impositum (itaque a qua re sit pertinacia cum requiritur, ostenditur esse a pertendendo; in qua re sit impositum dicitur cum demonstratur, in quo non debet pertendi et pertendit, pertinaciam esse, quod in quo oporteat manere, si in eo perstet, perseverantia sit), priorem illam partem, ubi cur et unde sint verba scrutantur, Graeci vocant etymologian, illam alteram peri semainomenon. De quibus duabus rebus in his libris promiscue dicam, sed exilius de posteriore.

Since each single word has two natures—both the thing from which and the matter in which the vocable has been imposed (and so, when it is asked from what thing pertinacity is, it is shown to be from pressing-on; in what matter it is imposed is said when it is demonstrated that, in the case in which one ought not to press on and he does press on, there is pertinacity, whereas, where one ought to remain, if he persists in it, there is perseverance)—that earlier part, where they scrutinize why and whence words are, the Greeks call etymology, the other peri sēmainomenōn. About these two matters I shall speak promiscuously in these books, but more slenderly about the latter.

Quae ideo sunt obscuriora, quod neque omnis impositio verborum exstat, quod vetustas quasdam delevit, nec quae exstat sine mendo omnis imposita, nec quae recte est imposita, cuncta manet (multa enim verba litteris commutatis sunt interpolata), neque omnis origo est nostrae linguae e vernaculis verbis, et multa verba aliud nunc ostendunt, aliud ante significabant, ut hostis: nam tum eo verbo dicebant peregrinum qui suis legibus uteretur, nunc dicunt eum quem tum dicebant perduellem.

These things are therefore more obscure, because neither does the whole imposition of words survive (antiquity has effaced certain ones), nor is what survives in its imposition entirely without blemish, nor does what was rightly imposed all remain (for many words have been interpolated, with letters changed), nor is the whole origin of our language from vernacular words; and many words now display one thing, but formerly signified another, as with hostis: for then by that word they meant a foreigner who used his own laws, now they say the one whom then they called a public enemy.

In quo genere verborum aut casu erit illustrius unde videri possit origo, inde repetam. Ita fieri oportere apparet, quod recto casu quom, dicimus inpos, obscurius est esse a potentia quam cum dicimus inpotem; et eo obscurius fit, si dicas pos quam inpos: videtur enim pos significare potius pontem quam potentem.

In whatever kind of words or in whatever case it will be more manifest whence the origin can be seen, thence I shall trace it back. That it ought to be done thus appears, because in the straight case, when we say inpos, it is more obscure that it is from potency than when we say inpotem; and it becomes still more obscure if you say pos rather than inpos: for pos seems to signify rather pontem than potentem.

Vetustas pauca non depravat, multa tollit. Quem puerum vidisti formosum, hunc vides deformem in senecta. Tertium seculum non videt eum hominem quem vidit primum.

Age does not deprave only a few things; it removes many. The boy whom you saw handsome, this one you see deformed in old age. The third generation does not see the man whom the first saw.

Quare illa quae iam maioribus nostris ademit oblivio, fugitiva secuta sedulitas Muci et Bruti retrahere nequit. Non, si non potuero indagare, eo ero tardior, sed velocior ideo, si quivero. Non mediocres enim tenebrae in silva ubi haec captanda neque eo quo pervenire volumus semitae tritae, neque non in tramitibus quaedam obiecta quae euntem retinere possent.

Wherefore those things which oblivion has already taken from our elders, the sedulousness of Mucius and Brutus, pursuing what is fugitive, cannot draw back. I shall not, if I cannot indagate it, be the slower for that, but the swifter for that, if I can. For the darknesses are no mean ones in the wood where these things are to be captured, nor are there trodden paths to the place we wish to reach; and in the cross-ways there are also certain obstacles thrown in the way which could hold back the one going.

Quorum verborum novorum ac veterum discordia omnis in consuetudine communi, quot modis commutatio sit facta qui animadverterit, facilius scrutari origines patietur verborum: reperiet enim esse commutata, ut in superioribus libris ostendi, maxime propter bis quaternas causas. Litterarum enim fit demptione aut additione et propter earum traiectionem aut commutationem, item syllabarum productione aut correptione, denique adiectione aut detrectione; quae quoniam in superioribus libris cuiusmodi essent exemplis satis demonstravi, hic ammonendum esse modo putavi.

Whoever has observed in common usage the whole discord between new and old words, by how many ways change has been made, will more easily allow the origins of words to be scrutinized: for he will find that they have been altered, as I have shown in the preceding books, chiefly on account of twice four causes. For it happens through the subtraction or addition of letters, and because of their transposition or commutation; likewise, through the lengthening or shortening of syllables; and finally, through addition or detraction: and since in the preceding books I have sufficiently demonstrated by examples of what sort these are, I have thought that only a reminder should be given here.

Nunc singulorum uerborum origines expediam, quorum quattuor explanandi gradus. Infimus quo populus etiam venit: quis enim non videt unde argentifodinae et viocurus? Secundus quo grammatica escendit antiqua, quae ostendit, quemadmodum quodque poeta finxerit uerbum, quod confinxerit, quod declinarit; hic Pacui:
          Rudentum sibilus,
hic:
           Incurvicervicum pecus,
hic:
           Clamide clupeat bracchium.

Now I will unfold the origins of individual words, of which there are four grades of explanation. The lowest, to which even the populace comes: for who does not see whence silver-mines and the curator of roads? The second, to which ancient grammar ascends, which shows how each poet has fashioned a word, what he has compounded, what he has declined; here of Pacuvius:
          The hissing of the ropes,
here:
          A herd of bent-necked creatures,
here:
          Let him shield the arm with a chlamys.

Tertius gradus, quo philosophia ascendens pervenit atque ea quae in consuetudine communi essent aperire coepit, ut a quo dictum esset oppidum, vicus, via. Quartus, ubi est adytum et initia regis: quo si non perveniam ad scientiam, at opinionem aucupabor, quod etiam in salute nostra nonnunquam facit cum aegrotamus medicus.

The third grade, to which philosophy, ascending, arrived and began to open up those things that were in common consuetude, such as from what each was so called—oppidum, vicus, via. The fourth, where there is the adytum and the initiations of the king: where, if I do not arrive at science, at least I will go hunting for opinion—something which even the medicus sometimes does, in regard to our health, when we are ill.

Quodsi summum gradum non attigero, tamen secundum praeteribo, quod non solum ad Aristophanis lucernam, sed etiam ad Cleanthis lucubravi. Volui praeterire eos, qui poetarum modo verba ut sint ficta expediunt. Non enim videbatur consentaneum quaerere me in eo verbo quod finxisset Ennius causam, neglegere quod ante rex Latinus finxisset, cum poeticis multis verbis magis delecter quam utar, antiquis magis utar quam delecter.

But if I shall not have reached the highest step, nevertheless I will pass by the second, since I have lucubrated not only by Aristophanes’ lamp but even by Cleanthes’. I wished to pass over those who, in the poets’ manner, set out words as though they were coined. For it did not seem consentaneous that I should seek the cause in a word which Ennius had fashioned, and neglect what earlier King Latinus had fashioned, since in many poetic words I rather take delight than make use, while in ancient words I rather make use than take delight.

An non potius mea verba illa quae hereditate a Romulo rege venerunt quam quae a poeta Livio relicta?

Or should I not rather use those my words which came by inheritance from King Romulus, than those left by the poet Livius?

Igitur quoniam in haec sunt tripertita verba, quae sunt aut nostra aut aliena aut oblivia, de nostris dicam cur sint, de alienis unde sint, de obliviis relinquam: quorum partim quid tamen invenerim aut opiner scribam. In hoc libro dicam de vocabulis locorum et quae in his sunt, in secundo de temporum et quae in his fiunt, in tertio de utraque re a poetis comprehensa.

Therefore, since words are tripartite into these—either ours, or foreign, or oblivions—about our own I will say why they are; about the foreign, whence they are; about the oblivions I will leave them aside, of which, however, I will write in part what I have found or suppose. In this book I will speak about the vocabulary of places and what are in them; in the second, about that of times and what are done in them; in the third, about both matters as comprehended by the poets.

Pythagoras Samius ait omnium rerum initia esse bina ut finitum et infinitum, bonum et malum, vitam et mortem, diem et noctem. Quare item duo status et motus, utrumque quadripertitum: quod stat aut agitatur, corpus, ubi agitatur, locus, dum agitatur, tempus, quod est in agitatu, actio. Quadripertitio magis sic apparebit: corpus est ut cursor, locus stadium qua currit, tempus hora qua currit, actio cursio.

Pythagoras the Samian says the beginnings of all things are in pairs, such as the finite and the infinite, the good and the evil, life and death, day and night. Wherefore likewise there are two, rest and motion, and each is fourfold: that which stands or is moved, the body; where it is moved, the place; while it is moved, the time; what is in the movement, the action. The fourfold division will appear more clearly thus: the body is as the runner, the place the stadium in which he runs, the time the hour in which he runs, the action the running.

Quare fit, ut ideo fere omnia sint quadripertita et ea aeterna, quod neque unquam tempus, quin fuerit motus: eius enim intervallum tempus; neque motus, ubi non locus et corpus, quod alterum est quod movetur, alterum ubi; neque ubi is agitatus, non actio ibi. Igitur initiorum quadrigae locus et corpus, tempus et actio.

Wherefore it comes about that therefore almost all things are quadripartite, and that these are eternal, because there is never time without motion—for time is the interval of it; nor motion where there is not place and body, of which the one is that which is moved, the other the where; nor, where this is agitated, is there not action there. Therefore the four-horse team of beginnings are place and body, time and action.

Quare quod quattuor genera prima rerum, totidem verborum: e quis de locis et iis rebus quae in his videntur in hoc libro summatim ponam. Sed qua cognatio eius erit verbi quae radices egerit extra fines suas, persequemur. Saepe enim ad limitem arboris radices sub vicini prodierunt segetem.

Therefore, since there are four primary kinds of things, there are just so many kinds of words: of which I will set down, in this book, a summary concerning places and those things which are seen in them. But whatever cognation of a word has put forth roots beyond its own borders, we shall pursue. For often up to the boundary the roots of a tree have come forth beneath a neighbor’s crop.

Quare non, cum de locis dicam, si ab agro ad agrarium, hominem, ad agricolam pervenero, aberraro. Multa societas uerborum, nec Vinalia sine uino expediri nec Curia Calabra sine calatione potest aperiri.

Why, then, when I speak about places, if I have come from field to agrarian, from man to farmer, should I be thought to have wandered? There is much society of words; neither can the Vinalia be expedited without wine, nor can the Curia Calabra be opened without a calation.

II.

Incipiam de locis ab ipsius loci origine. Locus est, ubi locatum quid esse potest, ut nunc dicunt, collocatum. Veteres id dicere solitos apparet apud Plautum:
Filiam habeo grandem dote cassam atque inlocabilem
Neque eam queo locare cuiquam.

I shall begin about places from the origin of the place itself. A place is where something located can be, as they now say, collocated. It appears that the ancients were wont to say this, as in Plautus:
I have a grown daughter, void of a dowry and unplaceable
Nor am I able to place her with anyone.

Apud Ennium:
O Terra Thraeca, ubi Liberi fanum inclutum
Maro locavit.

In Ennius:
O Thracian Earth, where the illustrious fane of Liber
Maro located.

Ubi quidque consistit, locus. Ab eo praeco dicitur locare, quod usque idem it, quoad in aliquo constitit pretium. Inde locarium quod datur in stabulo et taberna, ubi consistant.

Wherever anything comes to a stand, that is a place. From this the auctioneer is said to let (locate), because he keeps going with the same thing until the price has settled on someone. Hence locarium, the rent that is given in a stall and a shop, where they stand.

Sic loci muliebres, ubi nascendi initia consistunt.

Thus the female places, where the beginnings of birth consist.

III.

Loca naturae secundum antiquam divisionem prima duo, terra et caelum, deinde particulatim utriusque multa. Caeli dicuntur loca supera et ea deorum, terrae loca infera et ea hominum. Ut Asia sic caelum dicitur modis duobus.

The places of nature, according to the ancient division, are first two: earth and heaven; then, in particulars, many of each. The places of heaven are called the upper places and those of the gods; of earth, the lower places and those of men. As “Asia,” so “heaven” is said in two modes.

Nam et Asia, quae non Europa, in quo etiam Syria, et Asia dicitur prioris pars Asiae, in qua est Ionia ac provincia nostra.

For “Asia” is both that which is not Europe, in which also is Syria, and “Asia” is called a part of the former Asia, in which are Ionia and our province.

Sic caelum et pars eius, summum ubi stellae, et id quod Pacuvius cum demonstrat dicit:
           Hoc vide circum supraque quod complexu continet Terram.
Cui subiungit:
           Id quod nostri caelum memorant.
A qua bipertita divisione Lucilius suorum unius et viginti librorum initium fecit hoc:
          Aetheris et terrae genitabile quaerere tempus.

Thus the heaven and a part of it—the highest region where the stars are—and this is what Pacuvius, when he points it out, says:
           Look at this around and above, which in its embrace contains the Earth.
To which he adds:
           That which our people call the heaven.
From which two-part division Lucilius made the beginning of his twenty-one books thus:
           to seek the begetting time of aether and earth.

Caelum dictum scribit Aelius, quod est caelatum, aut contrario nomine, celatum quod apertum est; non male, quod impositor, multo potius caelare a caelo quam caelum a caelando. Sed non minus illud alterum de celando ab eo potuit dici, quod interdiu celatur, quam quod noctu non celatur.

Aelius writes that “caelum” is so called because it is “caelatum” (chased/engraved), or, by a contrary name, “celatum,” because it is open; not badly, for the name-imposer would much rather derive “caelare” from “caelum” than “caelum” from “caelandum.” But no less could that other derivation from “celare” be said on this ground, that by day it is hidden, than on the ground that by night it is not hidden.

Omnino ego magis puto a chao choum cavum et hinc caelum, quoniam, ut dixi, "hoc circum supraque quod complexu continet terram," cavum caelum. Itaque dicit Andromeda Nocti:
           Quae cava caeli
           Signitenentibus conficis bigis;
et Agamemno:
           In altisono caeli clipeo:
cavum enim clipeum; et Ennius item ad cavationem:
           Caeli ingentes fornices.

Altogether I am more inclined to think that from Chaos comes choum, “hollow,” and from this “heaven,” since, as I said, “this which around and above, with its embrace, contains the earth,” the heaven is hollow. And so Andromeda says to Night:
           You who the hollows of heaven
           complete with a sign-bearing two-horsed chariot;
and Agamemnon:
           On the high-sounding shield of heaven:
for the shield is hollow; and Ennius likewise with regard to the cavation:
           The vast vaults of heaven.

Quare ut a cavo cavea et caullae et convallis, cavata vallis, et cavernae a cavatione ut cavum, sic ortum, unde omnia apud Hesiodum, a chao cavo caelum.

Wherefore, just as from the hollow (cavum) come the cavea and the caulae and the convallis, a hollowed valley, and caverns (cavernae) from excavation (cavatio) as from a hollow (cavum), so too origin (ortum), whence, according to Hesiod, all things; and from hollow Chaos, the heaven.

IV.

Terra dicta ab eo, ut Aelius scribit, quod teritur. Itaque tera in augurum libris scripta cum R uno. Ab eo colonis locus communis qui prope oppidum relinquitur teritorium, quod maxime teritur.

Earth is called thus, as Aelius writes, because it is worn/trodden. Therefore “tera” in the augurs’ books is written with one R. From this comes for the colonists the communal place that is left near the town, the “teritorium,” because it is most trodden.

Hinc linteum quod teritur corpore extermentarium. Hinc in messi tritura, quod tum frumentum teritur, et tribulum, qui teritur. Hinc fines agrorum termini, quod eae partes propter limitare iter maxime teruntur; itaque hoc cum I in Latio aliquot locis dicitur, ut apud Accium, non terminus, sed terimen; hoc Graeci quod termona.

Hence the linen cloth which is rubbed on the body, the extermentarium. Hence at harvest the tritura, because then the grain is rubbed/threshed, and the tribulum, which rubs/threshes. Hence the boundaries of fields are termini, because those parts, on account of the path made to the boundary, are most worn down; and so this with I in Latium in several places is said, as in Accius, not terminus but terimen; this the Greeks call termona.

Pote vel illinc; Euander enim, qui venit in Palatium, e Graecia Arcas.

It can be even from there; for Evander, who came to the Palatine, was an Arcadian from Greece.

Via quidem iter, quod ea vehendo teritur, iter item actus, quod agendo teritur; etiam ambitus iter, quod circumeundo teritur: nam ambitus circuitus; ab eoque Duodecim Tabularum interpretes "ambitus parietis" circuitum esse describunt. Igitur tera terra et ab eo poetae appellarunt summa terrae quae sola teri possunt, "sola terrae."

A road (via) indeed is a way (iter), because it is worn by conveying; a way likewise is a drive (actus), because by driving it is worn; an ambitus too is a way, because by going around it is worn: for ambitus is a circuit; and from this the interpreters of the Twelve Tables describe “the ambitus of a wall” to be a circuit. Therefore terra is from terere, and from that the poets have called the topmost parts of the earth, which alone can be worn, “the soles of the earth.”

Terra, ut putant, eadem et humus; ideo Ennium in terram cadentis dicere:
Cubitis pinsibant humum;
et quod terra sit humus, ideo is humatus mortuus, qui terra obrutus; ab eo qui Romanus combustus est, si in sepulcrum, eius abiecta gleba non est aut si os exceptum est mortui ad familiam purgandam, donec in purgando humo est opertum (ut pontifices dicunt, quod inhumatus sit), familia funesta manet. Et dicitur humilior, qui ad humum, demissior, infimus humillimus, quod in mundo infima humus.

Earth, as they think, is the same as humus; therefore Ennius says of one falling to the earth:
With their elbows they were pounding the humus;
and because earth is humus, therefore the dead man is inhumed, he who is covered with earth; moreover, in the case of one who as a Roman has been burned, if into his sepulcher a clod has not been cast, or if a bone of the dead has been taken out for purging the household, until in the purging it is covered with soil (as the pontiffs say, because he is un-inhumed), the family remains funest. And he is called more humble, who is down to the humus; more downcast, lowest, most humble, because in the world the lowest thing is the humus.

Humor hinc. Itaque ideo Lucilius:
Terra abiit in nimbos humoremque.
Pacuvius:
Terra exhalat auram atque auroram humidam;
humidam humectam; hinc ager uliginosus humidissimus; hinc udus uvidus; hinc sudor et udor.

Humor from this. And so for that reason Lucilius:
The earth went into clouds and humor.
Pacuvius:
The earth exhales a breeze and a humid dawn;
humid, humected; hence the uliginous field, most humid; hence wet and uvid; hence sudor and udor.

Is si quamvis deorsum in terra, unde sumi pote, puteus; nisi potius quod Aeolis dicebant ut pytamon sic pyteon a potu, non ut nunc phrear. A puteis oppidum ut Puteoli, quod incircum eum locum aquae frigidae et caldae multae, nisi a putore potius, quod putidus odoribus saepe ex sulphure et alumine. Extra oppida a puteis puticuli, quod ibi in puteis obruebantur homines, nisi potius, ut Aelius scribit, puticuli quod putescebant ibi cadavera proiecta, qui locus publicus ultra Esquilias.

This, if anywhere downward in the earth whence it can be taken, is a well; unless rather because the Aeolians said, as “pytamon,” so “pyteon” from potus (drink), not as now “phrear.” From wells comes the town-name Puteoli, because around that place there are many cold and hot waters, unless rather from stench (putor), because it is putrid with odors, often from sulphur and alum. Outside towns, from wells, “puticuli,” because there men were covered over in pits, unless rather, as Aelius writes, “puticuli” because the cadavers thrown there grew putrescent (putescebant); this was a public place beyond the Esquiline.

Itaque eum Afranius putilucos in Togata appellat, quod inde suspiciunt per puteos lumen.

And so Afranius calls them ‘putiluci’ in the Togata, because from there they look up the light through the wells.

Lacus lacuna magna, ubi aqua contineri potest. Palus paululum aquae in altitudinem et palam latius diffusae. Stagnum a Graeco, quod ii stegnon quod non habet rimam.

Lake, a great lacuna, where water can be contained. Marsh, a little water in depth and plainly diffused more broadly. Pond, from Greek, because they say stegnon, which does not have a fissure.

Hinc ad villas rutunda stagna, quod rutundum facillime continet, anguli maxime laborant.

Hence for villas, rotund ponds; because what is rotund contains most easily, corners are most troublesome.

Fluvius, quod fluit, item flumen: a quo lege praediorum urbanorum scribitur:
Stillicidia fluminaque uti nunc, ut ita cadant fluantque;
inter haec hoc interest, quod stillicidium eo quod stillatim cadit, flumen quod fluit continue.

A fluvius, because it flows, likewise a flumen: from which, in the law of urban estates, it is written:
Let the stillicidia and the flumina be as now, so that thus they may fall and flow;
between these this is the difference, that a stillicide, because it falls drop by drop, and a flumen, because it flows continuously.

Amnis id flumen quod circuit aliquod: nam ab ambitu amnis. Ab hoc qui circum Aternum habitant, Amiternini appellati. Ab eo qui populum candidatus circum it, ambit, et qui aliter facit, indagabili ex ambitu causam dicit.

Amnis is that river which goes around something: for amnis is from ambitus. From this, those who dwell around the Aternus are called Amiternini. From it, of the one who as a candidate goes around the people, he ambits; and he who does otherwise pleads a case investigable on a charge from ambitus.

Itaque Tiberis amnis, quod ambit Martium Campum et urbem; oppidum Interamna dictum, quod inter amnis est constitutum; item Antemnae, quod ante amnis, qua Anio influit in Tiberim, quod bello male acceptum consenuit.

And so the Tiber river, because it encircles the Campus Martius and the city; the town Interamna is so named, because it is constituted between rivers; likewise Antemnae, because it is before the rivers, where the Anio flows into the Tiber, which, having fared ill in war, has grown decrepit.

Tiberis quod caput extra Latium, si inde nomen quoque exfluit in linguam nostram, nihil ad etymologon Latinum, ut, quod oritur ex Samnio, Volturnus nihil ad Latinam linguam: at quod proximum oppidum ab eo secundum mare Volturnum, ad nos, iam Latinum vocabulum, ut Tiberinus nomen. Et colonia enim nostra Volturnum et deus Tiberinus.

The Tiber, since its head is outside Latium, if from there the name also flows out into our tongue, has nothing to do with a Latin etymology, just as the Volturnus, which rises from Samnium, has nothing to do with the Latin language: but the nearest town from it, next to the sea, Volturnum, is for us already a Latin vocable, as is the name Tiberinus. For both our colony is Volturnum and the god Tiberinus.

Sed de Tiberis nomine anceps historia. Nam et suum Etruria et Latium suum esse credit, quod fuerunt qui ab Thebri vicino regulo Veientum, dixerint appellatum, primo Thebrim. Sunt qui Tiberim priscum nomen Latinum Albulam vocitatum litteris tradiderint, posterius propter Tiberinum regem Latinorum mutatum, quod ibi interierit: nam hoc eius ut tradunt sepulcrum.

But about the name of the Tiber the history is ambivalent. For both Etruria claims it as its own and Latium its own, since there were those who said it was named from Thebris, a neighboring regulus of the Veientes, at first Thebris. There are those who have handed down in writing that the ancient Latin name of the Tiber was Albula, later changed on account of Tiberinus, king of the Latins, because he perished there: for this, as they hand down, is his tomb.

Ut omnis natura in caelum et terram divisa est, sic caeli regionibus terra in Asiam et Europam. Asia enim iacet ad meridiem et austrum, Europa ad septemtriones et aquilonem. Asia dicta ab nympha, a qua et Iapeto traditur Prometheus.

As all nature is divided into heaven and earth, so, by the regions of the sky, the earth is into Asia and Europe. For Asia lies toward the south and the south-wind, Europe toward the Septentrions and the Aquilon. Asia is said to be named from a nymph, from whom and from Iapetus Prometheus is handed down to be begotten.

Europa ab Europa Agenoris, quam ex Phoenice, Manlius scribit taurum exportasse, quorum egregiam imaginem ex aere Pythagoras Tarenti.

Europe from Europa, daughter of Agenor, whom, from Phoenicia, Manlius writes that a bull carried off; of whom an excellent image in bronze Pythagoras at Tarentum made.

Europae loca multae incolunt nationes. Ea fere nominata aut translaticio nomine ab hominibus ut Sabini et Lucani, aut declinato ab hominibus, ut Apulia et Latium, aut utrumque, ut Etruria et Tusci. Qua regnum fuit Latini, universus ager dictus Latius, particulatim oppidis cognominatus, ut a Praeneste Praenestinus, ab Aricia Aricinus.

Many nations inhabit the places of Europe. These are generally named either by a transferred name from men, as the Sabines and the Lucanians, or by a declined (derived) one from men, as Apulia and Latium, or both, as Etruria and the Tusci. Where the realm of Latinus was, the whole land was called Latian, and in particular it was surnamed from its towns, as from Praeneste “Praenestine,” from Aricia “Aricine.”

Ut nostri augures publici disserunt, agrorum sunt genera quinque: Romanus, Gabinus, peregrinus, hosticus, incertus. Romanus dictus unde Roma ab Romulo; Gabinus ab oppido Gabiis; peregrinus ager pacatus, qui extra Romanum et Gabinum, quod uno modo in his servantur auspicia; dictus peregrinus a pergendo, id est a progrediendo: eo enim ex agro Romano primum progrediebantur: quocirca Gabinus quoque peregrinus, sed quod auspicia habet singularia, ab reliquo discretus; hosticus dictus ab hostibus; incertus is, qui de his quattuor qui sit ignoratur.

As our public augurs discourse, there are five kinds of fields: Roman, Gabine, peregrine, hostile, uncertain. Roman is so called from Rome, from Romulus; Gabine from the town Gabii; peregrine is a pacified field, which lies outside the Roman and the Gabine, because in these the auspices are observed in a single manner; it is called peregrine from pergere, that is, from progressing: for to there from the Roman field they first advanced: wherefore the Gabine also is peregrine, but because it has auspices singular, it is separated from the rest; hostile is so called from hostes, “enemies”; uncertain is that which, of these four, it is unknown which it is.

VI.

Ager dictus in quam terram quid agebant, et unde quid agebant fructus causa; alii, quod id Graeci dicunt agron. Ut ager quo agi poterat, sic qua agi actus. Eius finis minimus constitutus in latitudinem pedes quattuor (fortasse an ab eo quattuor, quod ea quadrupes agitur); in longitudinem pedes centum viginti; in quadratum actum et latum et longum esset centum viginti.

A field (ager) is said [to be named] from that land into which they drove something, and from which they drove something for the sake of produce; others [say], because the Greeks call it agron. Just as ager is that wherein something could be driven (agi), so that along which it could be driven is the actus. Its least limit was set at a width of four feet (perhaps on account of that “four,” because it is driven by a quadruped); in length, 120 feet; if made into a square, the actus, both in breadth and in length, would be 120.

Multa antiqui duodenario numero finierunt ut duodecim decuriis actum.

Many things the ancients delimited by the duodenary number, as the actus by twelve decuries.

Iugerum dictum iunctis duobus actibus quadratis. Centuria primum a centum iugeribus dicta, post duplicata retinuit nomen, ut tribus a partibus, populi tripartito divisi dictae nunc multiplicatae idem tenent nomen. Ut qua agebant actus, sic qua vehebant, viae dictae; quo fructus convehebant, villae.

The iugerum was so called from two square actūs joined. The centuria was at first named from one hundred iugera; afterward, though doubled, it retained the name, just as the tribes, named from the parts, with the people divided tripartitely, now multiplied, keep the same name. As those along which they drove were called actūs, so those along which they were borne by vehicle were called ways; the places to which they conveyed the produce were villas.

Qua ibant, ab itu iter appellarunt; qua id anguste, semita, ut semiter dictum.

Where they went, from “going” (itus) they called it “way” (iter); where that was narrow, “path” (semita), as if “semi-iter” were said.

Ager cultus ab eo quod ibi cum terra semina coalescebant, et ubi non consitus incultus. Quod primum ex agro plano fructus capiebant, campus dictus; posteaquam proxuma superiora loca colere coeperunt, a colendo colles appellarunt; quos agros non colebant propter silvas aut id genus, ubi pecus possit pasci, et possidebant, ab usu salvo saltus nominarunt. Haec etiam Graeci neme, nostri nemora.

A field was called cultivated from the fact that there the seeds coalesced with the earth; and where it was not planted, uncultivated. That from which they first took produce from the level ground was called a “campus”; afterward, when they began to cultivate the neighboring higher places, from cultivating they called them “colles” (hills); the fields which they did not cultivate on account of woods or the like, where cattle could graze, and which they possessed, with the use preserved, they named “saltus.” These the Greeks also call “neme,” our people “nemora.”

Ager quod videbatur pecudum ac pecuniae esse fundamentum, fundus dictus,
aut quod fundit quotquot annis multa. Vineta ac vineae a vite multa. Vitis a vino, id a vi; hinc vindemia, quod est vinidemia aut vitidemia.

The field, because it seemed to be the fundament of flocks and of pecuniary wealth, was called fundus,
or because it “pours out” many things year after year. Vineyards (vineta) and vine-lands (vineae) from the vine (vitis), many [derivatives]. Vitis from wine (vinum), and that from vis “force”; hence vindemia (vintage), which is vinidemia or vitidemia.

Seges ab satu, id est semine. Semen, quod non plane id quod inde; hinc seminaria, sementes, item alia. Quod segetes ferunt, fruges, a fruendo fructus, a spe spicae, ubi et culmi, quod in summo campo nascuntur et summum culmen.

Crop from sowing, that is, from seed. Seed, a name not quite the same as that which comes from it; hence seminaries/seed-beds (seminaria), sowings (sementes), and likewise others. What the crops bear are fruits (fruges), from enjoying (fruendo) fruit (fructus); from hope (spes), spikes/ears (spicae), where there are also culms (culmi), because they are born on the top of the field and are the highest culmen.

Ubi frumenta secta, ut terantur, arescunt, area. Propter horum similitudinem in urbe loca pura areae; a quo potest etiam ara deum, quod pura, nisi potius ab ardore, ad quem ut sit fit ara; a quo ipsa area non abest, quod qui arefacit ardor est solis.

Where the grains, once cut so that they may be threshed, dry, is the area. Because of the likeness of these, in the city the clean places are “areas”; from which word the altar of the gods may also come, because it is pure—unless rather from ardor, for the sake of which—so that there may be ardor—the altar is made; and from this the area itself is not far, since that which dries is the sun’s ardor.

Ager restibilis, qui restituitur ac reseritur quotquot annis; contra qui intermittitur, a novando novalis ager. Arvus et arationes ab arando; ab eo quod aratri vomer sustulit, sulcus; quo ea terra iacta, id est proiecta, porca.

A restible field, which is restored and re-sown every year; conversely, the one that is intermitted is, from renewing, a noval field. Arable and arations are from plowing; from that which the share of the plow has lifted, the furrow; where that earth is cast, that is, projected, the ridge.

Prata dicta ab eo, quod sine opere parata. Quod in agris quotquot annis rursum, facienda eadem, ut rursum capias fructus, appellata rura. Dividi tamen esse ius scribit Sulpicius plebei rura largiter ad adoream.

Meadows are said to be so called from this, that they are prepared without work. Because in the fields, every so many years, the same things must be done again, so that you may again take the fruits, they are called rura. Nevertheless Sulpicius writes that it is lawful that the plebeian lands be divided liberally for adorea (spelt-allowance).

Praedia dicta, item ut praedes, a praestando, quod ea pignore data publice mancupis fidem praestent.

Estates are so called, just as sureties, from guaranteeing, because, when they are given in pledge publicly, they furnish assurance to the contractors.

VII.

Ubi nunc est Roma, Septimontium nominatum ab tot montibus quos postea urbs muris comprehendit; e quis Capitolinum dictum, quod hic, cum fundamenta foderentur aedis Iovis, caput humanum dicitur inventum. Hic mons ante Tarpeius dictus a virgine Vestale Tarpeia, quae ibi ab Sabinis necata armis et sepulta: cuius nominis monimentum relictum, quod etiam nunc eius rupes Tarpeium appellatur saxum.

Where Rome now is, the Septimontium was named from as many hills as the city later encompassed with walls; among which the Capitoline was so called, because here, when the foundations of the temple of Jupiter were being dug, a human head is said to have been found. This hill was formerly called Tarpeian from the Vestal virgin Tarpeia, who there was slain by the Sabines with their arms and buried: a monument of whose name has been left, because even now its cliff is called the Tarpeian rock.

Hunc antea montem Saturnium appellatum prodiderunt et ab eo Latium Saturniam terram, ut etiam Ennius appellat. Antiquum oppidum in hoc fuisse Saturniam scribitur. Eius vestigia etiam nunc manent tria, quod Saturni fanum in faucibus, quod Saturnia Porta quam Iunius scribit ibi, quam nunc vocant Pandanam, quod post aedem Saturni in aedificiorum legibus privatis parietes postici "muri Saturnii" sunt scripti.

They have handed down that this hill was previously called Saturnian, and that from it Latium is Saturnian land, as even Ennius calls it. It is written that on this there was an ancient town, Saturnia. Its vestiges even now remain, three: that the shrine of Saturn is at the pass, that the Saturnian Gate which Junius writes was there, which they now call the Pandana, that behind the temple of Saturn, in the private building statutes, the back walls are designated “Saturnian walls.”

Aventinum aliquot de causis dicunt. Naevius ab avibus, quod eo se ab Tiberi ferrent aves, alii ab rege Aventino Albano, quod ibi sit sepultus, alii Adventinum ab adventu hominum, quod commune Latinorum ibi Dianae templum sit constitutum. Ego maxime puto, quod ab advectu: nam olim paludibus mons erat ab reliquis disclusus.

They say the Aventine for several causes. Naevius: from birds, because birds would bear themselves thither from the Tiber; others: from King Aventinus the Alban, because he is buried there; others: Adventine from the advent of men, because the common temple of Diana of the Latins was established there. I for my part most think that it is from advection (bringing in): for once upon a time the hill was cut off from the rest by marshes.

Itaque eo ex urbe advehebantur ratibus, cuius vestigia, quod ea qua tum advectum dicitur Velabrum, et unde escendebant ad infimam Novam Viam locus sacellum Velabrum.

Accordingly, thither from the city they used to be conveyed by rafts, the vestiges of which are that the way by which at that time the bringing-in is said to have been done is called the Velabrum, and that the place from which they disembarked to the lowest part of the Nova Via is the sacellum Velabrum.

Velabrum a vehendo. Velaturam facere etiam nunc dicuntur qui id mercede faciunt. Merces (dicitur a merendo et aere) huic vecturae qui ratibus transibant quadrans.

Velabrum from carrying. Those who do it for hire are even now said to “make the conveyance.” The wage (is said from meriting and bronze) for this transport, for those who crossed by rafts, was a quadrans.

Ab eo Lucilius scripsit:
Quadrantis ratiti.

From this Lucilius wrote:
Raftage of a quadrans.

VIII.

Reliqua urbis loca olim discreta, cum Argeorum sacraria septem et viginti in quattuor partis urbis sunt disposita. Argeos dictos putant a principibus, qui cum Hercule Argivo venerunt Romam et in Saturnia subsederunt. E quis prima scripta est regio Suburana, secunda Esquilina, tertia Collina, quarta Palatina.

The remaining places of the city were once distinct, since the shrines of the Argei, twenty-seven in number, are arranged in four parts of the city. They think the Argei are so called from the princes who came with Argive Hercules to Rome and settled in Saturnia. Of these, the first region is written as Suburan, the second Esquiline, the third Colline, the fourth Palatine.

In Suburanae regionis parte princeps est Caelius mons a Caele Vibenna, Tusco duce nobili, qui cum sua manu dicitur Romulo venisse auxilio contra Tatium regem. Hinc post Caelis obitum, quod nimis munita loca tenerent neque sine suspicione essent, deducti dicuntur in planum. Ab eis dictus Vicus Tuscus, et ideo ibi Vortumnum stare, quod is deus Etruriae princeps; de Caelianis qui a suspicione liberi essent, traductos in eum locum qui vocatur Caeliolum.

In the Suburan region’s part the chief is the Caelian Hill, [named] from Caeles Vibenna, a Tuscan (Etruscan) noble leader, who with his own band is said to have come to Romulus as help against King Tatius. Hence, after Caeles’s death, because they held positions too well-fortified and were not without suspicion, they are said to have been led down into the plain. From them the Vicus Tuscus was named, and for that reason Vortumnus stands there, because he is the chief god of Etruria; and of the Caelians who were free from suspicion, they were translated into that place which is called the Caeliolum.

Cum Caelio coniunctum Carinae et inter eas quem locum Caeriolensem appellatum apparet, quod primae regionis quartum sacrarium scriptum sic est:
Caeriolensis: quarticeps circa Minervium qua in Caelium montem
itur: in tabernola est.
Caeriolensis a Carinarum iunctu dictus; Carinae pote a caerimonia, quod hinc oritur caput Sacrae Viae ab Streniae sacello quae pertinet in arcem, qua sacra quotquot mensibus feruntur in arcem et per quam augures ex arce profecti solent inaugurare. Huius Sacrae Viae pars haec sola volgo nota, quae est a Foro eunti primore clivo.

Joined with the Caelian are the Carinae, and between them there appears a place called the Caeriolense, because the fourth shrine of the first region is written thus:
Caeriolensis: under the fourth-heading near the Minervium, where one goes up onto the Caelian hill;
it is in a little booth.
Caeriolensis is said to be named from its junction with the Carinae; Carinae perhaps from caerimonia (ceremony), because from here arises the head of the Sacred Way from the shrine of Strenia, which extends to the citadel, along which the sacred things, as often as monthly, are borne into the citadel, and along which the augurs, having set out from the citadel, are accustomed to inaugurate. Of this Sacred Way only this part is commonly known, which is, for one going from the Forum, the first slope.

Eidem regioni adtributa Subura, quod sub muro terreo Carinarum; in eo est Argeorum sacellum sextum. Suburam Iunius scribit ab eo, quod fuerit sub antiqua urbe; cui testimonium potest esse, quod subest ei loco qui terreus murus vocatur. Sed ego a pago potius Succusano dictam puto Succusam: quod in nota etiam nunc scribitur SVC tertia littera C, non B. Pagus Succusanus, quod succurrit Carinis.

To the same region the Subura is attributed, because it is under the earthen wall of the Carinae; in it is the sixth shrine of the Argei. Junius writes that the Subura derives from this, that it was under the ancient city; a testimony for which can be that it lies beneath that place which is called the earthen wall. But I rather think that Succusa was named from the pagus Succusanus: because in the notation even now it is written SVC, the third letter C, not B. The pagus Succusanus, because it adjoins the Carinae.

Secundae regionis Esquiliae. Alii has scripserunt ab excubiis regis dictas, alii ab eo quod aesculis excultae a rege Tullio essent. Huic origini magis concinunt loca vicina, quod ibi lucus dicitur Facutalis et Larum Querquetulanum sacellum et lucus Mefitis et Iunonis Lucinae, quorum angusti fines.

Of the second region, the Esquiliae. Others have written that these were so called from the king’s excubiae, others from the fact that they were cultivated with aesculi by King Tullius. To this origin the neighboring places agree more, because there a grove is called Facutalis and the sacellum of the Querquetulan Lares and the grove of Mefitis and of Juno Lucina, whose boundaries are narrow.

Non mirum: iam diu enim late avaritia una domina est.

No wonder: for indeed, for a long time now, far and wide, avarice alone has been mistress.

Esquiliae duo montes habiti, quod pars Oppius pars Cespius mons suo antiquo nomine etiam nunc in sacris appellatur. In Sacris Argeorum scriptum sic est:
          Oppius Mons: princeps Esquiliis uls lucum Facutalem; sinistra via
          secundum moerum est.
          Oppius Mons: terticeps cis lucum Esquilinum; dexteriore via in
          tabernola est.

The Esquiliae were considered to have two hills, because one part is the Oppian, another the Cespius hill, which by its ancient name even now in the sacred rites is so called. In the Sacred Rites of the Argei it is written thus:
Oppian Hill: first, at the Esquiliae beyond the Facutalis grove; on the left the road is along the wall.
Oppian Hill: third, on this side of the Esquiline grove; by the right-hand road it is in a little shop.

          Oppius Mons: quarticeps cis lucum Esquilinum; via dexteriore in
          figlinis est.
          Cespius Mons: quinticeps cis lucum Poetelium; Esquiliis est.
          Cespius Mons: sexticeps apud aedem Iunonis Lucinae, ubi aeditumus           habere solet.

          Oppius Hill: fourth-head on this side of the Esquiline grove; by the right-hand road in
          the potteries it is.
          Cespius Hill: fifth-head on this side of the Poetelian grove; it is on the Esquiline.
          Cespius Hill: sixth-head at the temple of Juno Lucina, where the temple-keeper           is accustomed to have it.

Tertiae regionis colles quinque ab deorum fanis appellati, e quis nobiles duo. Collis Viminalis a Iove Viminio, quod ibi ara eius. Sunt qui, quod ibi vimineta fuerint.

The five hills of the third region are named from the shrines of the gods, among which two are notable. The Viminal Hill from Jupiter Viminius, because his altar is there. There are those who say it is because osier-beds had been there.

Collis Quirinalis, quod ibi Quirini fanum. Sunt qui a Quiritibus, qui cum Tatio Curibus venerunt ad Romam, quod ibi habuerint castra.

the Quirinal Hill, because there is the fane of Quirinus. There are those who [derive it] from the Quirites, who came with Tatius from Cures to Rome, because they had their camp there.

Quod vocabulum coniunctarum regionum nomina obliteravit. Dictos enim collis pluris apparet ex Argeorum Sacrificiis, in quibus scriptum sic est:
Collis Quirinalis: terticeps cis aedem Quirini.
Collis Salutaris: quarticeps adversum est Apollinar cis aedem Salutis.

Which vocable has obliterated the names of the conjoined regions. For it appears that more hills were named from the Sacrifices of the Argei, in which it is written thus:
Quirinal Hill: third head on this side of the temple of Quirinus.
Salutaris Hill: fourth head; it is opposite the Apollinare, on this side of the temple of Salus.

          Collis Mucialis: quinticeps apud aedem Dei Fidi; in delubro, ubi
          aeditumus habere solet.
          Collis Latiaris: sexticeps in Vico Insteiano summo, apud auguraculum;
          aedificium solum est.
Horum deorum arae, a quibus cognomina habent, in eius regionis partibus sunt.

          Mucial Hill: fifth station by the temple of the god Fidius; in the shrine, where the temple-warden is wont to be.
          Latiarian Hill: sixth station at the top of the Insteian Vicus, near the auguraculum;
          it is only a building.
The altars of these gods, from whom they have their cognomina, are in the parts of that region.

Quartae regionis Palatium, quod Pallantes cum Euandro venerunt, qui et Palatini; alii quod Palatini, aborigines ex agro Reatino, qui appellatur Palatium, ibi consederunt; sed hoc alii a Palanto uxore Latini putarunt. Eundem hunc locum a pecore dictum putant quidam; itaque Naevius Balatium appellat.

Of the fourth region, the Palatium, because the Pallantes came with Evander, who are also Palatini; others [say] that the Palatini, Aborigines from the Reatine countryside, which is called Palatium, settled there; but others thought this from Palanto, the wife of Latinus. Some think this same place was named from livestock; and so Naevius calls it Balatium.

Huic Cermalum et Velias coniunxerunt, quod in hac regione scriptum est:
Germalense: quinticeps apud aedem Romuli.
Et
Veliense: sexticeps in Velia apud aedem deum Penatium.
Germalum a germanis Romulo et Remo, quod ad ficum ruminalem, et ii ibi inventi, quo aqua hiberna Tiberis eos detulerat in alveolo expositos.

To this they joined Cermalus and Velia, because in this region it is written:
Germalensian: five-headed at the temple of Romulus.
And
Velian: six-headed on the Velia at the temple of the gods, the Penates.
Germalus from the german brothers Romulus and Remus, because at the Ruminal fig-tree, and they were found there, whither the winter water of the Tiber had carried them, exposed in a little trough.

Veliae unde essent plures accepi causas, in quis quod ibi pastores Palatini ex ovibus ante tonsuram inventam vellere lanam sint soliti, a quo vellera dicuntur.

Concerning the Veliae, whence they are, I have received several causes, among which is that there the Palatine shepherds, from the sheep, before the tonsure was invented, were accustomed to pluck the wool, whence fleeces are called “vellera.”

IX.

Ager Romanus primum divisus in partis tris, a quo tribus appellata Titiensium, Ramnium, Lucerum. Nominatae, ut ait Ennius, Titienses ab Tatio, Ramnenses ab Romulo, Luceres, ut Iunius, ab Lucumone; sed omnia haec vocabula Tusca, ut Volnius, qui tragoedias Tuscas scripsit, dicebat.

The Roman territory was at first divided into three parts, whence the tribes were called the Titienses, Ramnes, Luceres. Named, as Ennius says, the Titienses from Tatius, the Ramnenses from Romulus, the Luceres, as Junius [says], from Lucumo; but all these vocables are Tuscan, as Volnius, who wrote Tuscan tragedies, used to say.

Ab hoc partes quoque quattuor urbis tribus dictae, ab locis Suburana, Palatina, Esquilina, Collina; quinta, quod sub Roma, Romilia; sic reliquae triginta ab his rebus quibus in Tribuum Libro scripsi.

From this, the four parts of the city also were called tribes, from the places Suburana, Palatine, Esquiline, Colline; the fifth, because it is under Rome, Romilia; thus the remaining thirty from those matters which I have written in the Book of the Tribes.

10.

Quod ad loca quaeque his coniuncta fuerunt, dixi; nunc de his quae in locis esse solent immortalia et mortalia expediam, ita ut prius quod ad deos pertinet dicam. Principes dei Caelum et Terra. Hi dei idem qui Aegypti Serapis et Isis, etsi Harpocrates digito significat, ut taceam.

As to the places which were conjoined to these, I have said; now I will expound about those things which are wont to be in the places, immortal and mortal, in such wise that first I say what pertains to the gods. The principal gods are Heaven and Earth. These gods are the same as Egypt’s Serapis and Isis, although Harpocrates, with his finger, signifies that I should be silent.

Idem principes in Latio Saturnus et Ops.

The same principal gods in Latium are Saturn and Ops.

Terra enim et Caelum, ut Samothracum, initia docent, sunt dei magni, et hi quos dixi multis nominibus, non quas Samothracia ante portas statuit duas virilis species aeneas dei magni, neque ut volgus putat, hi Samothraces dii, qui Castor et Pollux, sed hi mas et femina et hi quos Augurum Libri scriptos habent sic "divi potes," pro illo quod Samothraces Theoi dynatoi.

For Earth and Heaven, as the initiations of the Samothracians teach, are Great Gods; and these are those whom I said are called by many names—not the two bronze figures of male form which Samothrace set up before the gates, of the Great God, nor, as the common crowd thinks, are these the Samothracian gods who are Castor and Pollux—but these are male and female, and these are those whom the Books of the Augurs have written thus, "divi potes," in place of that which the Samothracians [call] Theoi dynatoi.

Haec duo Caelum et Terra, quod anima et corpus. Humidum et frigidum terra, sive
           Ova parire solet genus pennis condecoratum,
           Non animam,
ut ait Ennius, et
          Post inde venit divinitus pullis
          Ipsa anima,
sive, ut Zenon Citieus,
          Animalium semen ignis is qui anima ac mens.
Qui caldor e caelo, quod huic innumerabiles et immortales ignes.

These two, Heaven and Earth, like soul and body. Moist and cold the earth, or
           A race adorned with feathers is wont to bear eggs,
           Not a soul,
as Ennius says, and
           Thereafter there comes divinely to the chicks
           The soul itself,
or, as Zeno of Citium,
           The seed of animals is fire, that which is soul and mind.
Which heat is from heaven, since to it there belong innumerable and immortal fires.

Itaque Epicharmus cum dicit de mente humana ait
Istic est de sole sumptus ignis;
idem de sole:
Isque totus mentis est,
ut humores frigidae sunt humi, ut supra ostendi.

And so when Epicharmus speaks about the human mind, he says
There is the fire taken from the sun;
the same about the sun:
and it is wholly of mind,
as the cold humors are on the ground, as I have shown above.

Quibus iuncti Caelum et Terra omnia ex se genuerunt, quod per hos natura           Frigori miscet calorem atque humori aritudinem.
Recte igitur Pacuius quod ait
          Animam aether adiugat,
et Ennius
          terram corpus quae dederit, ipsam
          capere, neque dispendi facere hilum.
Animae et corporis discessus quod natis is exitus, inde exitium, ut cum in unum ineunt, initia.

Joined together, Heaven and Earth begot all things from themselves, because through these nature          mixes heat with cold and dryness with moisture.
Rightly therefore Pacuvius says
          the aether yokes the soul,
and Ennius
          that the earth, which has given the body, itself
          takes it up, and does not make a whit of expenditure.
The parting of soul and body, which for those born is the exit; thence the destruction, just as when they go into one, the beginnings.

Inde omne corpus, ubi nimius ardor aut humor, aut interit aut, si manet, sterile. Cui testis aestas et hiems, quod in altera aer ardet et spica aret, in altera natura ad nascenda cum imbre et frigore luctare non volt et potius ver expectat. Igitur causa nascendi duplex: ignis et aqua.

Thence every body, when there is excessive heat or moisture, either perishes or, if it remains, is sterile. Of this summer and winter are witnesses: for in the one the air burns and the ear of grain parches, in the other nature is unwilling to wrestle for begetting with rain and cold and rather awaits spring. Therefore the cause of begetting is twofold: fire and water.

Ideo ea nuptiis in limine adhibentur, quod coniungitur hic, et mas ignis, quod ibi semen, aqua femina, quod fetus ab eius humore, et horum vinctionis vis Venus.

Therefore these are employed at nuptials on the threshold, because it is conjoined here, and the male is fire, because there is the semen there; water is the female, because the fetus is from its humor, and the force of the binding of these is Venus.

Hinc comicus:
Huic victrix Venus, videsne haec?
Non quod vincere velit Venus, sed vincire. Ipsa Victoria ab eo quod superati vinciuntur.

Hence the comic poet:
For this man, Venus the Victress, do you see these?
Not that Venus wishes to conquer, but to bind. Victory herself [is so called] from the fact that the conquered are bound.

Utrique testis poesis, quod et Victoria et Venus dicitur caeligena: Tellus enim quod prima vincta Caelo, Victoria ex eo. Ideo haec cum corona et palma, quod corona vinclum capitis et ipsa a vinctura dicitur vieri, id est vinciri; a quo est in Sota Enni:
Ibant malaci viere Veneriam corollam.
Palma, quod ex utraque parte natura vincta habet paria folia.

Poetry is witness for both, that both Victory and Venus are called heaven-born: for Earth, because she was first bound to Sky; from this, Victory. Therefore she is [depicted] with a crown and a palm, because a crown is a head-binding, and it itself is said “to be viere-d” (vieri), that is, “to be bound” (vinciri); from which is in Ennius’s Sota:
The soft ones were going to wreathe the Venerian garland.
The palm, because by nature bound on both sides, has paired leaves.

Poetae de Caelo quod semen igneum cecidisse dicunt in mare ac natam "e spumis" Venerem, coniunctione ignis et humoris, quam habent vim significant esse Veneris. A qua vi natis dicta vita et illud a Lucilio:
Vis est vita, vides, vis nos facere omnia cogit.

The poets say concerning Heaven that a fiery seed fell into the sea and that Venus was born “from the foams,” by the conjunction of fire and humor (moisture), which power they signify to be Venus’s. From which force, for those born, “life” is said; and that from Lucilius:
Force is life, you see; force compels us to do all things.

Quare quod caelum principium, ab satu est dictus Saturnus, et quod ignis, Saturnalibus cerei superioribus mittuntur. Terra Ops, quod hic omne opus et hac opus ad vivendum, et ideo dicitur Ops mater, quod terra mater. Haec enim
          Terris gentis omnis peperit et resumit denuo,
quae
          Dat cibaria,
ut ait Ennius, quae
          Quod gerit fruges, Ceres;
antiquis enim quod nunc G C.

Wherefore, because heaven is the beginning, Saturn is said to be from sowing; and because he is fire, at the Saturnalia wax candles are sent to superiors. The earth is Ops, because here is every work (opus) and by this there is need (opus) for living; and therefore she is called Mother Ops, because the earth is mother. For she
          has borne on the lands every race and takes it up again anew,
who
          gives provisions,
as Ennius says, and she
          because she bears the fruits, is Ceres;
for among the ancients what is now G was C.

Idem hi dei Caelum et Terra Iupiter et Iuno, quod ut ait Ennius:
          Istic est is Iupiter quem dico, quem Graeci vocant
          Aerem, qui ventus est et nubes, imber postea,
          Atque ex imbre frigus, ventus post fit, aer denuo.
          Haece propter Iupiter sunt ista quae dico tibi,
          Qui mortalis, arva atque urbes beluasque omnis iuvat.
Quod hinc omnes et sub hoc, eundem appellans dicit:
          Divumque hominumque pater rex.

The same gods, Sky and Earth, are Jupiter and Juno, because, as Ennius says:
          There is that Jupiter whom I speak of, whom the Greeks call
          Air, which is wind and clouds, afterward rain,
          and from rain, frigidity; afterward wind comes to be, air anew.
          For these reasons Jupiter is those things which I tell you,
          who aids mortals, fields and cities and every beast.
Because from him are all things and under him, calling the same one, he says:
          father and king of gods and men.

Pater, quod patefacit semen: nam tum esse conceptum patet, inde cum exit quod oritur.

Father, because he makes the seed patent: for then it is patent that conception has taken place, and thence, when it goes out, that which is born arises.

Hoc idem magis ostendit antiquius Iovis nomen: nam olim Diovis et Diespiter dictus, id est dies pater; a quo dei dicti qui inde, et dius et divum, unde sub divo, Dius Fidius. Itaque inde eius perforatum tectum, ut ea videatur divum, id est caelum. Quidam negant sub tecto per hunc deierare oportere.

This same thing is shown more by an older name of Jupiter: for formerly he was called Diovis and Diespiter, that is “day-father”; whence the dei are so called who are from that, and dius and divum, whence “sub divo,” and Dius Fidius. And thus from this his roof is perforated, so that the divum, that is, the heaven, may be seen. Certain people deny that it is proper to swear by him under a roof.

Aelius Dium Fidium dicebat Diovis filium, ut Graeci Dioskopon Castorem, et putabat hunc esse Sancum ab Sabina lingua et Herculem a Graeca. Idem hic Dis pater dicitur infimus, qui est coniunctus terrae, ubi omnia ut oriuntur ita aboriuntur; quorum quod finis ortuum, Orcus dictus.

Aelius said that Dius Fidius was the son of Diovis, as the Greeks [call] Castor the Dioskopos, and he thought this one to be Sancus in the Sabine tongue and Hercules in the Greek. This same figure is called Dis Pater the lowermost, who is conjoined to the earth, where all things, just as they arise, so they die away; and of these, that which is the end of the risings is called Orcus.

Quod Iovis Iuno coniunx et is Caelum, haec Terra, quae eadem Tellus, et ea dicta, quod una iuvat cum Iove, Iuno, et Regina, quod huius omnia terrestria.

Because Juno, the consort of Jupiter, and he is Sky, she is Earth, who is the same as Tellus, and she is called this because she helps together with Jove, Juno, and Queen, because all things terrestrial are hers.

Sol vel quod ita Sabini, vel quod solus ita lucet, ut ex eo deo dies sit. Luna, vel quod sola lucet noctu. Itaque ea dicta Noctiluca in Palatio: nam ibi noctu lucet templum.

Sun, either because thus the Sabines [named him], or because he alone thus shines, so that from this god there is day. Moon, either because she alone shines by night. And so she is called Noctiluca on the Palatine: for there the temple shines at night.

Hanc ut Solem Apollinem quidam Dianam vocant (Apollinis vocabulum Graecum alterum, alterum Latinum), et hinc quod luna in altitudinem et latitudinem simul it, Diviana appellata. Hinc Epicharmus Ennii Proserpinam quoque appellat, quod solet esse sub terris. Dicta Proserpina, quod haec ut serpens modo in dexteram modo in sinisteram partem late movetur.

This one, as they call the Sun Apollo, some call Diana (of Apollo the appellation: the one is Greek, the other Latin); and hence, because the moon goes at the same time in altitude and in latitude, she is called Diviana. Hence Epicharmus, as in Ennius, also calls her Proserpina, because she is wont to be under the earth. She is called Proserpina, because she, like a serpent, now to the right, now to the left side moves widely.

Serpere et proserpere idem dicebant, ut Plautus quod scribit:
Quasi proserpens bestia.

They used to say that to creep and to creep forth were the same, as Plautus writes:
As a beast creeping forth.

Quae ideo quoque videtur ab Latinis Iuno Lucina dicta vel quod est et Terra, ut physici dicunt, et lucet; vel quod ab luce eius qua quis conceptus est usque ad eam, qua partus quis in lucem, luna iuvat, donec mensibus actis produxit in lucem, ficta ab iuvando et luce Iuno Lucina. A quo parientes eam invocant: luna enim nascentium dux quod menses huius. Hoc vidisse antiquas apparet, quod mulieres potissimum supercilia sua attribuerunt ei deae.

She therefore also seems to have been called by the Latins Juno Lucina, either because she is also Earth, as the physicists say, and shines; or because from her light by which one is conceived up to that by which a child is brought into the light, the moon aids, until, the months having been completed, she has produced into the light—Juno Lucina being fashioned from aiding and light. Hence those giving birth invoke her: for the moon is the leader of the nascent, because the months are hers. It appears that the ancients perceived this, since women most especially assigned their eyebrows to that goddess.

Hic enim debuit maxime collocari Iuno Lucina, ubi ab diis lux datur oculis.

Here, indeed, Juno Lucina ought most of all to be placed, where light is given to the eyes by the gods.

Ignis a gnascendo, quod hinc nascitur et omne quod nascitur ignis succendit; ideo calet, ut qui denascitur cum amittit ac frigescit. Ab ignis iam maiore vi ac violentia Volcanus dictus. Ab eo quod ignis propter splendorem fulget, fulgur et fulmen, et fulguritum quod fulmine ictum.

Fire [is named] from “being born” (gnascendo), because from it birth arises and fire kindles everything that is born; therefore it is hot, while that which “un-births” (denascitur), when it loses it, grows cold. From fire, now with greater force and violence, Vulcan is said. From the fact that fire gleams on account of its splendor come fulgur and fulmen, and fulguritum, that which has been struck by a thunderbolt.

In contrariis diis, ab aquae lapsu lubrico lympha. Lympha Iuturna quae iuvaret: itaque multi aegroti propter id nomen hinc aquam petere solent. A fontibus et fluminibus ac ceteris aquis dei, ut Tiberinus ab Tiberi, et ab lacu Velini Velinia, et Lymphae Commotiles ad lacum Cutiliensem a commotu, quod ibi insula in aqua commovetur.

Among the contrary gods, from the lubricous lapse of water, Lympha. Lympha Juturna, who would aid: and so many sick people, on account of that name, are accustomed to seek water from here. From springs and rivers and the other waters [are] gods, as Tiberinus from the Tiber, and from Lake Velinus, Velinia, and the Lymphae Commotiles at the Cutilian lake from commotion, because there an island is moved in the water.

Neptunus, quod mare terras obnubit ut nubes caelum, ab nuptu, id est opertione, ut antiqui, a quo nuptiae, nuptus dictus. Salacia Neptuni ab salo. Venilia a veniendo ac vento illo, quem Plautus dicit:
Quod ille dixit qui secundo vento vectus est
Tranquillo mari, ventum gaudeo.

Neptune, because the sea veils the lands as clouds the sky, from nuptu, that is, a covering, as the ancients [said], whence nuptiae (nuptials), “nuptus” so called. Salacia of Neptune from the brine. Venilia from coming and from that wind, which Plautus says:
Which that man said who was borne with a favorable wind
On a tranquil sea, I rejoice in the wind.

Bellona ab bello nunc, quae Duellona a duello. Mars ab eo quod maribus in bello praeest, aut quod Sabinis acceptus ibi est Mamers. Quirinus a Quiritibus.

Bellona from war now, who was Duellona from duel. Mars from the fact that he presides over males in war, or because among the Sabines, having been received there, he is Mamers. Quirinus from the Quirites.

Virtus ut viritus a virilitate. Honos ab onere: itaque honestum dicitur quod oneratum, et dictum:
Onus est honos qui sustinet rem publicam.
Castoris nomen Graecum, Pollucis a Graecis; in Latinis litteris veteribus nomen quod est, inscribitur ut Polydeukes Polluces, non ut nunc Pollux.

Virtue, as “viritus,” from virility. Honor from burden: and so the honorable is said to be that which is burdened, and it has been said:
A burden is honor which sustains the republic.
Castor’s name is Greek, Pollux’s from the Greeks; in old Latin letters the name that there is is inscribed as Polydeukes Polluces, not as now Pollux.

Concordia a corde congruente.

Concord from a heart congruent.

Feronia, Minerva, Novensides a Sabinis. Paulo aliter ab eisdem dicimus haec: Palem, Vestam, Salutem, Fortunam, Fontem, Fidem. Et arae Sabinum linguam olent, quae Tati regis voto sunt Romae dedicatae: nam, ut annales dicunt, vovit Opi, Florae, Vediovi Saturnoque, Soli, Lunae, Volcano et Summano, itemque Larundae, Termino, Quirino, Vortumno, Laribus, Dianae Lucinaeque; e quis nonnulla nomina in utraque lingua habent radices, ut arbores quae in confinio natae in utroque agro serpunt: potest enim Saturnus hic de alia causa esse dictus atque in Sabinis, et sic Diana, de quibus supra dictum est.

Feronia, Minerva, the Novensides are from the Sabines. A little otherwise from these same we say these: Pales, Vesta, Salus (Health), Fortuna (Fortune), Fons (Fountain), Fides (Faith). And the altars smell of the Sabine tongue, which by the vow of King Tatius were dedicated at Rome: for, as the annals say, he vowed to Ops, Flora, Vediovis and Saturn, Sol, Luna, Vulcan and Summanus, likewise to Larunda, Terminus, Quirinus, Vortumnus, the Lares, Diana and Lucina; of which some names have roots in both languages, like trees which, born on a boundary, creep into each field: for Saturn here can be said to be named from a different cause than among the Sabines, and so Diana, about which has been said above.

XI.

11.

Quod ad immortalis attinet, haec; deinceps quod ad mortalis attinet videamus. De his animalia in tribus locis quod sunt, in aere, in aqua, in terra, a summa parte ad infimam descendam. Primum nomina omnium: alites ab alis, volucres a volatu.

As to the immortals, so much; next, as to mortals, let us consider. Regarding these, since animals are in three places—in the air, in the water, on the earth—I shall descend from the highest part to the lowest. First, the names of all: alites from wings, volucres from flight.

Deinde generatim: de his pleraeque ab suis vocibus ut haec: upupa, cuculus, corvus, hirundo, ulula, bubo; item haec: pavo, anser, gallina, columba.

Then by categories: of these, most are from their own voices, as these: hoopoe, cuckoo, raven, swallow, screech-owl, eagle-owl; likewise these: peacock, goose, hen, dove.

Sunt quae aliis de causis appellatae, ut noctua, quod noctu canit et vigilat, lusciniola, quod luctuose canere existimatur atque esse ex Attica Progne in luctu facta avis. Sic galeritus et motacilla, altera quod in capite habet plumam elatam, altera quod semper movet caudam. Merula, quod mera, id est sola, volitat; contra ab eo graguli, quod gregatim, ut quidam Graeci greges gergera.

There are those which are named for other causes, as the noctua (owl), because by night it sings and keeps vigil, the lusciniola (nightingale), because it is thought to sing lugubriously and to be the bird made from Attic Procne in mourning. So the galeritus and the motacilla, the one because it has an elevated plume on its head, the other because it always moves its tail. The merula (merle, i.e., blackbird), because it flies “mere,” that is, alone; by contrast from this the grackles, because [they go] in a flock, as certain Greeks call flocks “gergera.”

Ficedulae et miliariae a cibo, quod alterae fico, alterae milio fiunt pingues.

Ficedulae and miliariae from food, since the former grow fat on fig, the latter on millet.

XII.

12.

Aquatilium vocabula animalium partim sunt vernacula, partim peregrina. Foris muraena, quod myraina Graece, cybium et thynnus, cuius item partes Graecis vocabulis omnes, ut melander atque uraeon. Vocabula piscium pleraque translata a terrestribus ex aliqua parte similibus rebus, ut anguilla, lingulaca, sudis; alia a coloribus, ut haec: asellus, umbra, turdus; alia a vi quadam, ut haec: lupus, canicula, torpedo.

The names of aquatic animals are partly vernacular, partly peregrine. From abroad are muraena, since myraina in Greek, cybium and thynnus, whose parts likewise all are by Greek vocabularies, such as melander and uraeon. The names of fishes for the most part are transferred from terrestrial things similar in some part, such as anguilla, lingulaca, sudis; others from colors, such as these: asellus, umbra, turdus; others from a certain force, such as these: lupus, canicula, torpedo.

Item in conchyliis aliqua ex Graecis, ut peloris, ostrea, echinus. Vernacula ad similitudinem, ut surenae, pectunculi, ungues.

Likewise among shellfish (conchylia), some are from Greek, such as peloris, oyster (ostrea), and echinus; the vernacular ones are by likeness, such as surenae, pectunculi (cockles/scallops), and “nails” (ungues).

XIII.

13.

Sunt etiam animalia in aqua, quae in terram interdum exeant: alia Graecis vocabulis, ut polypus, hippos potamios, crocodilos, alia Latinis, ut rana, anas, mergus; a quo Graeci ea quae in aqua et terra possunt vivere vocant amphibia. E quis rana ab sua dicta voce, anas a nando, mergus quod mergendo in aquam captat escam.

There are also animals in the water, which sometimes go out onto the land: some with Greek vocabula, such as polyp, hippopotamus, crocodiles, others with Latin ones, such as rana, anas, mergus; whence the Greeks call those which can live in water and on land amphibia. Of these, rana is said from its own voice, anas from swimming, and mergus because by diving into the water it catches food.

Item alia in hoc genere a Graecis, ut querquedula, quod kerkedes, alcedo, quod ea halkyon; Latina, ut testudo, quod testa tectum hoc animal, lolligo, quod subvolat, littera commutata, primo volligo. Ut Aegypti in flumine quadrupes sic in Latio, nominati lutra et fiber. Lutra, quod succidere dicitur arborum radices in ripa atque eas dissolvere: ab luere lutra.

Likewise other creatures in this kind are from the Greeks, as querquedula, because [the Greeks say] kerkedes, and alcedo, because they call it halkyon; Latin ones, as testudo, because this animal is roofed by a testa (shell), and lolligo, because it “under-flies,” with a letter changed—at first volligo. As in Egypt there is a quadruped in the river, so in Latium there are, named lutra and fiber. Lutra, because it is said to cut down the roots of trees on the bank and to loosen them: from luere, lutra.

Fiber, ab extrema ora fluminis dextra et sinistra maxime quod solet videri, et antiqui februm dicebant extremum, a quo in sagis fimbriae et in iecore extremum fibra, fiber dictus.

The beaver, because it is especially wont to be seen at the extreme border of a river, on the right and on the left; and the ancients used to call the extremity februm, whence in cloaks the fringes (fimbriae) and in the liver the outermost part, the fibra; hence it is called fiber.

XIV.

14.

De animalibus in locis terrestribus quae sunt hominum propria primum, deinde de pecore, tertio de feris scribam. Incipiam ab honore publico. Consu nominatus qui consuleret populum et senatum, nisi illinc potius unde Accius ait in Bruto:
Qui recte consulat, consul cluat.

About animals in terrestrial places I shall write—first, those which are proper to men; then about cattle; third, about wild beasts. I shall begin from public honor. He was named from consu-, he who would consult the people and the senate, unless rather from that source whence Accius says in the Brutus:
He who consults rightly, let him be called consul.

Praetor dictus qui praeiret iure et exercitu; a quo id Lucilius:
Ergo praetorum est ante et praeire.

Praetor was so named as one who would go before in law and in the army; whence Lucilius has this:
Therefore it is the praetors’ part to be before and to go before.

Censor ad cuius censionem, id est arbitrium, censeretur populus. Aedilis qui aedis sacras et privatas procuraret. Quaestores a quaerendo, qui conquirerent publicas pecunias et maleficia, quae triumviri capitales nunc conquirunt; ab his postea qui quaestionum iudicia exercent quaesitores dicti.

Censor, by whose cension—that is, arbitration—the people was assessed. Aedile, who took care of sacred and private buildings. Quaestors, from inquiring, who would seek out public moneys and malefactions, which the capital triumvirs now seek out; from these, later, those who exercise the judgments of the courts of inquiry are called quaesitors.

Tribuni militum, quod terni tribus tribubus Ramnium, Lucerum, Titium olim ad exercitum mittebantur. Tribuni plebei, quod ex tribunis militum primum tribuni plebei facti, qui plebem defenderent, in secessione Crustumerina.

Military tribunes, because in former times three apiece were sent to the army by the three tribes, the Ramnes, the Luceres, the Tities. Plebeian tribunes, because from the military tribunes at first the plebeian tribunes were made, to defend the plebs, in the Crustumerine secession.

Dictator, quod a consule dicebatur, cui dicto audientes omnes essent. Magister equitum, quod summa potestas huius in equites et accensos, ut est
summa populi dictator, a quo is quoque magister populi appellatus. Reliqui, quod minores quam hi magistri, dicti magistratus, ut ab albo albatus.

Dictator, because he was declared by the consul, to whose dictum all were obedient. Master of the Horse, because the highest power of this man is over the horsemen and the accensi, just as the dictator is the highest over the people, from which he also was called master of the people. The rest, because they are lesser than these masters, were called magistrates, as albatus from albus.

XV.

15.

Sacerdotes universi a sacris dicti. Pontufices, ut Scaevola Quintus pontufex maximus dicebat, a posse et facere, ut potentifices. Ego a ponte arbitror: nam ab his Sublicius est factus primum ut restitutus saepe, cum ideo sacra et uls et cis Tiberim non mediocri ritu fiant.

All priests are named from sacred rites. Pontiffs, as Quintus Scaevola the pontifex maximus used to say, [are] from “to be able” and “to do,” as “potentifices.” I think [the name is] from “bridge”: for by them the Sublician Bridge was first made and often restored, since for that reason sacred rites are performed both beyond and on this side of the Tiber with no ordinary ritual.

Curiones dicti a curiis, qui fiunt ut in his sacra faciant.

Curiones are named from the curiae, who are appointed so that in these they may perform the sacra.

Flamines, quod in Latio capite velato erant semper ac caput cinctum habebant filo, filamines dicti. Horum singuli cognomina habent ab eo deo cui sacra faciunt; sed partim sunt aperta, partim obscura: aperta ut Martialis, Volcanalis; obscura Dialis et Furinalis, cum Dialis ab Iove sit (Diovis enim), Furinalis a Furrina, cuius etiam in fastis feriae Furinales sunt. Sic flamen Falacer a divo patre Falacre.

Flamines, because in Latium they were always with head veiled and had the head cinctured with a filum (thread), were called filamines. Each of these has cognomina from that god to whom they perform the sacred rites; but some are open, some obscure: open, such as Martialis, Volcanalis; obscure, Dialis and Furinalis, since Dialis is from Jupiter (for Diovis), Furinalis from Furrina, whose Furinalian holidays are also in the fasti. Thus the flamen Falacer is from the divine father Falacer.

Salii ab salitando, quod facere in comitiis in sacris quotannis et solent et debent. Luperci, quod Lupercalibus in Lupercali sacra faciunt. Fratres Arvales dicti qui sacra publica faciunt propterea ut fruges ferant arva: a ferendo et arvis Fratres Arvales dicti.

The Salii, from saltation (leaping), because they both are accustomed and are obliged to do this annually at the Comitia, in the sacra. The Luperci, because at the Lupercalia, in the Lupercal, they perform the sacra. The Arval Brothers (Fratres Arvales) are so called, who perform the public sacra in order that the fields may bear fruits: from ferre “to bear” and arva “fields” they are called the Arval Brothers.

Sunt qui a fratria dixerunt: fratria est Graecum vocabulum partis hominum, ut Neapoli etiam nunc. Sodales Titii ab avibus titiantibus dicti, quas in auguriis certis observare solent.

There are those who have said from phratria: phratria is a Greek vocable of a division of men, as at Neapolis even now. The Sodales Titii were named from the titiating birds, which they are accustomed to observe in certain auguries.

Fetiales, quod fidei publicae inter populos praeerant: nam per hos fiebat ut iustum conciperetur bellum, et inde desitum, ut foedere fides pacis constitueretur. Ex his mittebantur, ante quam conciperetur, qui res repeterent, et per hos etiam nunc fit foedus, quod fidus Ennius scribit dictum.

Fetials, because they presided over the public faith among peoples: for through them it came about that a just war was conceived, and thereafter it was desisted from, so that by a treaty the faith of peace might be established. From these were sent, before it was conceived, those who would demand restitution; and through them even now a treaty (foedus) is made, which trusty Ennius writes is so called.

XVI.

16.

In re militari praetor dictus qui praeiret exercitui. Imperator, ab imperio populi qui eos, qui id attemptassent, oppressit hostis. Legati qui lecti publice, quorum opera consilioque uteretur peregre magistratus, quive nuntii senatus aut populi essent.

In military affairs, he was called praetor who would go before/lead the army. Imperator, from the imperium of the people, he who crushed the enemy—those who had attempted that. Legates, who were publicly chosen, whose service and counsel a magistrate abroad would use, or who would be messengers of the senate or of the people.

Exercitus, quod exercitando fit melior. Legio, quod leguntur milites in delectu.

Army, because by exercising it becomes better. Legion, because soldiers are selected in the levy.

Cohors, quod ut in villa ex pluribus tectis coniungitur ac quiddam fit unum, sic hic ex manipulis pluribus copulatur: cohors quae in villa, quod circa eum locum pecus cooreretur, tametsi cohortem in villa Hypsicrates dicit esse Graece Xorton apud poetas dictam. Manipulus exercitus minima manus quae unum sequitur signum. Centuria qui sub uno centurione sunt, quorum centenarius iustus numerus.

Cohort, because as in a villa out of several roofs/buildings it is joined together and something becomes one, so here out of several maniples it is coupled: the cohort which is in a villa, because around that place the herd would run together, although Hypsicrates says that the cohort in a villa is called in Greek Xorton by the poets. Manipulus the army’s smallest band, which follows one standard. Century, those who are under one centurion, whose just number is a centenary hundred.

Milites, quod trium milium primo legio fiebat ac singulae tribus Titiensium, Ramnium, Lucerum milia militum mittebant. Hastati dicti qui primi hastis pugnabant, pilani qui pilis, principes qui a principio gladiis; ea post commutata re militari minus illustria sunt. Pilani triarii quoque dicti, quod in acie tertio ordine extremi subsidio deponebantur; quod hi subsidebant ab eo subsidium dictum, a quo Plautus:
Agite nunc, subsidite omnes quasi solent triarii.

Soldiers, because at first a legion was made of three thousand, and each of the tribes of the Titienses, the Ramnes, and the Luceres sent a thousand soldiers. Hastati were so called who first fought with spears (hastae), pilani those who with pila, principes those who from the beginning with swords; these, after the military system was changed, are less illustrious/clear. Pilani were also called triarii, because in the battle line, in the third order, the last, they were set down for succor/reserve; because these would sit down, from that “reserve” (subsidium) is said, whence Plautus:
Come on now, sit down all of you as the triarii are wont.

Auxilium appellatum ab auctu, cum accesserant ei qui adiumento essent alienigenae. Praesidium dictum qui extra castra praesidebant in loco aliquo, quo tutior regio esset. Obsidium dictum ab obsidendo, quo minus hostis egredi posset.

Aid (auxilium) was so called from augment (auctus), when foreigners (aliens) had come to him to be a help. Presidio/Presidium (praesidium) was said of those who presided outside the camp in some place, so that the region might be safer. Siege (obsidium) was said from besieging (obsidendo), to the end that the enemy might be less able to go out.

Insidiae item ab insidendo, cum id ideo facerent quo facilius deminuerent hostis. Duplicarii dicti quibus ob virtutem duplicia cibaria ut darentur institutum.

Ambushes likewise [are so called] from lying-in-wait, since they did this for this reason, that they might more easily diminish the enemy. Duplicarii were so named, for whom, on account of valor, it was instituted that double rations be given.

Turma terima (E in V abiit), quod ter deni equites ex tribus tribubus Titiensium, Ramnium, Lucerum fiebant. Itaque primi singularum decuriarum decuriones dicti, qui ab eo in singulis turmis sunt etiam nunc terni. Quos hi primo administros ipsi sibi adoptabant, optiones vocari coepti, quos nunc propter ambitionem tribuni faciunt.

Turma, “terima” (E has gone into V), because three tens of horsemen were formed from the three tribes of the Titienses, the Ramnes, the Luceres. And so the first men of each decury were called decurions, who from this are even now three apiece in each turma. These men at first selected for themselves assistants, who began to be called optiones, whom now, on account of ambition, the tribunes appoint.

Tubicines a tuba et canendo, similiter liticines. Classicus a classe, qui item cornu aut lituo canit, ut tum cum classes comitiis ad comitiatum vocant.

Tubicines from the tuba and from singing/playing, similarly liticines. Classicus from classis, who likewise plays the horn or the lituus, as then when the classes at the comitia call to the assembly.

XVII.

17.

Quae a fortuna vocabula, in his quaedam minus aperta ut pauper, dives, miser, beatus, sic alia. Pauper a paulo lare. Mendicus a minus, cui cum opus est minus nullo est.

Words deriving from fortune; among these some are less evident, such as pauper, rich, miserable, blessed, and likewise others. Pauper, from a small household. Mendicant, from “less”: for whom, when there is need, there is less than nothing.

Dives a divo qui ut deus nihil indigere videtur. Opulentus ab ope, cui eae opimae; ab eadem inops qui eius indiget, et ab eodem fonte copis ac copiosus. Pecuniosus a pecunia magna, pecunia a pecu: a pastoribus enim horum vocabulorum origo.

Wealthy from “divus,” who, like a god, seems to need nothing. Opulent from “ops,” for whom those resources are “opimae”; from the same, inops, one who lacks it; and from the same source, “copiae” and copious. Pecunious from great “pecunia,” and “pecunia” from “pecus”: for from shepherds is the origin of these terms.

XVIII.

18.

Artificibus maxima causa ars, id est, ab arte medicina ut sit medicus dictus, a sutrina sutor, non a medendo ac suendo, quae omnino ultima huic rei: hae enim earum rerum radices, ut in proxumo libro aperietur. Quare quod ab arte artifex dicitur nec multa in eo obscura, relinquam.

For craftsmen the greatest source is ars, that is, that a medic is said to be named from the art medicina, a sutor from the sutrina, not from healing and sewing, which are altogether last for this matter: for these are the roots of those things, as will be opened in the next book. Wherefore, since artifex is said from ars and there is not much obscure in it, I will leave it.

Similis causa quae ab scientia vocantur, aliqua ut praestigiator, monitor, nomenclator; sic etiam quae a studio quodam dicuntur, cursor, natator, pugil. Etiam in hoc genere quae sunt vocabula pleraque aperta, ut legulus, alter ab oleis, alter ab uvis. Haec si minus aperta vindemiator, vestigator et venator, tamen idem, quod vindemiator vel quod vinum legit dicitur vel quod de viti id demunt; vestigator a vestigiis ferarum quas indagatur; venator a vento, quod sequitur cervum ad ventum et in ventum.

A similar cause is found in those which are named from knowledge, some such as prestidigitator, monitor, nomenclator; likewise those that are said from a certain pursuit, runner, swimmer, pugilist. Also in this class most of the terms are plain, as picker, one from olives, another from grapes. If these are less plain—vintager, tracker/investigator, and hunter—still it is the same: for the vintager is so called either because he is said to gather the wine, or because they take it down from the vine; the tracker from the tracks of the wild beasts which are hunted out; the hunter from the wind, because he follows the stag toward the wind and into the wind.

XIX.

19.

Haec de hominibus: hic quod sequitur de pecore, haec. Pecus ab eo quod perpascebant, a quo pecora universa. Quod in pecore pecunia tum pastoribus consistebat et standi fundamentum pes (a quo dicitur in aedificiis area pes magnus et qui negotium instituit pedem posuisse), a pede pecudem appellarunt, ut ab eodem pedicam et pedisequum et peculiariae oves aliudve quid: id enim peculium primum.

These things about humans: now what follows about livestock, as follows. “Pecus” from the fact that they thoroughly pastured (per-pastured), whence “pecora” for the whole class. Because in livestock the pecuniary wealth then for shepherds consisted; and the foundation of standing is the foot (whence in buildings the ground-space is called a “great foot,” and he who sets up a business is said to have “set down a foot”), from “foot” they named a head of cattle “pecudem,” as from the same source “pedica” (a foot-fetter) and “pedisequus” (a foot-follower, attendant) and “peculiar” sheep (i.e., belonging to a peculium), or anything else: for that is the original “peculium.”

Hinc peculatum publicum primo dixerunt cum pecore diceretur multa et id esset coactum in publicum, si erat aversum.

Hence they at first called it public peculation, when much concerned livestock, and when it had been collected for the public, if it was turned aside.

Ex quo fructus maior, hic est qui Graecis usus: sus, quod hys, bos, quod bous, taurus, quod tauros, item ovis, quod ois: ita enim antiqui dicebant, non ut nunc probaton. Possunt in Latio quoque ut in Graecia ab suis vocibus haec eadem ficta. Armenta, quod boves ideo maxime parabant, ut inde eligerent ad arandum; inde arimenta dicta, postea I tertia littera extrita.

From which the greater profit—here is what follows Greek usage: “sus,” because “hys,” “bos,” because “bous,” “taurus,” because “tauros,” likewise “ovis,” because “ois”: for thus the ancients used to say, not as now “probaton.” These same names can also in Latium, as in Greece, be fashioned from their own voices. “Armenta,” because they therefore especially prepared oxen, in order to choose from them for plowing; hence they were called “arimenta,” afterward the third letter I rubbed away.

Vitulus, quod Graece antiquitus italos, aut quod plerique vegeti, vegitulus. Iuvencus, iuvare qui iam ad agrum colendum posset.

Vitulus, because in Greek in antiquity italos, or because most are vigorous, vegitulus. Iuvencus, from iuvare, one who could already aid in cultivating a field.

Capra carpa, a quo scriptum
Omnicarpae caprae.
Hircus, quod Sabini fircus; quod illic fedus, in Latio rure hedus, qui in urbe ut in multis A addito haedus. Porcus, quod Sabini dicunt aprunum porcum; proinde porcus, nisi si a Graecis, quod Athenis in libris sacrorum scripta est porke et porkos.

She-goat, ‘carpa’, from which is written
‘all-plucking goats.’
He-goat, ‘hircus’, because the Sabines [say] ‘fircus’; and because there it is ‘fedus’, in rural Latium ‘hedus’, which in the city, as in many cases, with an A added, ‘haedus’. Pig, ‘porcus’, because the Sabines say ‘aprunum porcum’ (boar-pig); hence ‘porcus’, unless from the Greeks, because at Athens in the books of sacred rites it is written ‘porke’ and ‘porkos’.

Aries, ut quidam dicebant, ab aris; veteres nostri ariuga, hinc ariugus. Haec sunt quarum in sacruficiis exta in olla, non in veru coquuntur, quas et Accius scribit et in pontificiis libris videmus. In hostiis eam dicunt ariugam, quae cornua habeat; quoniam si cui ovi mari testiculi dempti et ideo vi natura versa, verbex declinatum.

Aries, as some used to say, from aris; our elders [said] ariuga, hence ariugus. These are those whose entrails in sacrifices are cooked in a pot, not on a spit, which both Accius writes and we see in the pontifical books. Among victims they call that one ariuga which has horns; since if the testicles are removed from any male sheep and therefore its force is by nature altered, verbex is the declined term.

Pecori ovillo quod agnatus, agnus. Catulus a sagaci sensu et acuto, ut Cato Catulus; hinc canis: nisi quod ut tuba ac cornu, aliquod signum cum dent, canere dicuntur, quod hic item et noctulucus in custodia et in venando signum voce dat, canis dictus.

For the ovine flock, because it is agnate, agnus (“lamb”). Catulus from a sagacious and acute sense, as Cato and Catulus; hence canis: unless that, as a trumpet and a cornu, when they give some signal, are said “to sing” (canere), because this creature likewise, even by night, in guarding and in hunting, gives a signal with its voice, it is called canis.

XX.

20.

Ferarum vocabula item partim peregrina, ut panthera, leo: utraque Graeca, a quo etiam et rete quoddam panther et leaena et muliercula Pantheris et Leaena. Tigris qui est ut leo varius, qui vivus capi adhuc non potuit, vocabulum e lingua Armenia: nam ibi et sagitta et quod vehementissimum flumen dicitur Tigris. Ursi Lucana origo vel, unde illi, nostri ab ipsius voce.

The names of wild beasts likewise are in part peregrine, as panthera, lion: both are Greek; whence also a certain net is called panther and leaena, and a little woman Pantheris and Leaena. The tiger, which is variegated like the lion, which up to now has not been able to be captured alive, is a vocable from the Armenian tongue: for there both an arrow and the most vehement river is called Tigris. Of the bear, a Lucanian origin for them; ours from its very voice.

Camelus suo nomine Syriaco in Latium venit, ut Alexandrea camelopardalis nuper adducta, quod erat figura ut camelus, maculis ut panthera.

The camel came into Latium by its own Syriac name, as from Alexandria a camelopard was recently brought in, because it was in figure like a camel, in spots like a panther.

Apri ab eo quod in locis asperis, nisi a Graecis quod hi kaproi. Caprea a similitudine quadam caprae. Cervi, quod magna cornua gerunt, gervi, G in C mutavit ut in multis.

Boars, from the fact that they are in rough (asperous) places—unless from the Greeks, since these are “kaproi.” The roe from a certain likeness to a she-goat. Deer, because they bear great horns—originally “gervi”; the G was changed into C, as in many [cases].

Lepus, quod Siculi, ut Aeolis quidam Graeci, dicunt leporin: a Roma quod orti Siculi, ut annales veteres nostri dicunt, fortasse hinc illuc tulerunt et hic reliquerunt id nomen. Volpes, ut Aelius dicebat, quod volat pedibus.

Hare, because the Siculi, as certain Greeks of Aeolis, say “leporin”: from Rome, since the Siculi originated, as our old annals say, perhaps from here to there they carried and here left that name. Fox, as Aelius used to say, because it flies with its feet.

XXI.

21.

Proxima animalia sunt ea quae vivere dicuntur neque habere animam, ut virgulta. Virgultum dicitur a viridi, id a vi quadam humoris; quae si exaruit, moritur. Vitis, quod ea vini origo.

The next animals are those which are said to live and not to have a soul, such as shrubs. Virgultum is said from green (viridis), and that from a certain force of humor; which, if it has dried out, dies. Vine (vitis), because it is the origin of wine.

Malum, quod Graeci Aeolis dicunt malon. Pinus, *** Iuglans, quod cum haec nux antequam purgatur similis glandis, haec glans optima et maxima a Iove et glande iuglans est appellata. Eadem nux, quod ut nox aerem huius sucus corpus facit atrum.

Apple, which the Greeks in Aeolis call malon. Pine, *** Iuglans, because since this nut, before it is cleansed (husked), is similar to an acorn, this acorn, the best and greatest, from Jove and glans has been called iuglans. The same nut, because, like night, the juice of it makes the body black.

Quae in hortis nascuntur, alia peregrinis vocabulis, ut Graecis ocimum, menta, ruta quam nunc peganon appellant; item caulis, lapathium, radix: sic enim antiqui Graeci, quam nunc rhaphanon; item haec Graecis vocabulis: serpyllum, rosa, una littera commutata; item ex his Graecis Latina koliandron, malache, kyminon; item lilium ab leirio et malva ab malachei et sisymbrium a sisymbrioi.

Those things which are born in gardens, some have foreign vocabula, as in Greek ocimum, mint, rue, which they now call peganon; likewise cole, lapathium, root: for thus the ancient Greeks [spoke], what they now call rhaphanon; likewise these with Greek vocabula: serpyllum, rose, with one letter changed; likewise from these Greek [words] Latin: koliandron, malache, kyminon; likewise lily from leirion and mallow from malachē and sisymbrium from sisymbrion.

Vernacula: lactuca a lacte, quod holus id habet lact; brassica ut praesica, quod ex eius scapo minutatim praesicatur; asparagi, quod ex asperis virgultis leguntur et ipsi scapi asperi sunt, non leves; nisi Graecum: illic quoque enim dicitur asparagos. Cucumeres dicuntur a curvore, ut curvimeres dicti. Fructus a ferundo, res eae quas, fundus et eae quas quae in fundo ferunt ut fruamur.

Vernacular: lettuce from milk, because that vegetable has milk; brassica as “praesica,” because from its stalk it is cut off bit by bit; asparagus, because they are gathered from rough brushwood and the stalks themselves are rough, not smooth; unless it is Greek: for there too it is said “asparagos.” Cucumbers are said to be from “curvore,” as they were called “curvimeres.” Fruit from “bearing,” the things which the farm, and those which on the farm they bear, so that we may enjoy.

Hinc declinatae fruges et frumentum, sed ea e terra; etiam frumentum, quod ad exta ollicoqua solet addi ex mola, id est ex sale et farre molito. Uvae ab uvore.

Hence are derived fruits and grain, but those from the earth; also grain, which is accustomed to be added to boiled entrails from the mola, that is, from salt and milled far (spelt). Grapes from uvor (moisture).

XXII.

22.

Quae manu facta sunt dicam, de victu, de vestitu, de instrumento, et si quid aliud videbitur his aptum. De victu antiquissima puls; haec appellata vel quod ita Graeci vel ab eo unde scribit Apollodorus, quod ita sonet cum aquae ferventi insipitur. Panis, quod primo figura faciebant, ut mulieres in lanificio, panus; posteaquam ei figuras facere instituerunt alias, a pane et faciendo panificium coeptum dici.

I will speak of things made by hand: about victuals, about vestiture, about instrument, and if anything else shall seem apt to these. Of victuals the most ancient is puls; this is appellated either because thus the Greeks [call it], or from that whence Apollodorus writes, that it makes such a sound when it is put into boiling water. Bread (panis), because at first they used to make it in a figure like women in wool‑working, a panus; afterwards, when they began to make other figures for it, from panis and making, panification (panificium) began to be said.

Hinc panarium, ubi id servabant, sicut granarium, ubi granum frumenti condebant, unde id dictum: nisi ab eo quod Graeci id kranon, a quo a Graecis quoque granarium dictum in quo ea quae conduntur.

Hence panarium, where they kept it, just as granarium, where they stored the grain of corn—whence it is so called; unless from the fact that the Greeks call it kranon, from which by the Greeks too granarium is said of the place in which the things that are stored are put.

Hordeum, ab horrido. Triticum, quod tritum e spicis. Far a faciendo, quod in pistrino fit.

Barley, from horrid. Wheat, because it is triturated from the ears. Far, from making, because it is made in the bakehouse.

Milium a Graeco: nam id meline. Libum, quod ut libaretur, priusquam essetur, erat coctum. Testuacium, quod in testu caldo coquebatur, ut etiam nunc Matralibus id faciunt matronae.

Millet from the Greek: for it is meline. Libum, because it was baked so that it might be libated before it was eaten. Testuacium, because it was cooked in a hot testum, as even now at the Matralia the matrons do this.

Circuli, quod mixta farina et caseo et aqua circuitum aequabiliter fundebant.

Circles, because, with flour mixed with cheese and water, they would pour it evenly in a circle.

Hos quidam qui magis incondite faciebant vocabant lixulas et similixulas vocabulo Sabino: quae frequentia Sabinis. A globo farinae dilatato, item in oleo cocti, dicti a globo globi. Crustulum a crusta pultis, cuius ea, quod ut corium et uritur, crusta dicta.

Some, who made these more inconditely (crudely), called them lixulae and similixulae by the Sabine vocable: which are frequent among the Sabines. From a globe of flour spread out, and likewise cooked in oil, they were called globi from globus (“globe”). A little crust-cake (crustulum) from the crust of pottage (puls), of which that part, because it is like a hide and is scorched, is called a crust.

Cetera fere aperta a vocabulis Graecis sumpta, ut thrion et placenta.

The rest are for the most part obvious, taken from Greek vocables, such as thrion and placenta.

Quod edebant cum pulte, ab eo pulmentum, ut Plautus; hinc pulmentarium dictum: hoc primum defuit pastoribus. Caseus a coacto lacte ut coaxeus dictus. Dein posteaquam desierunt esse contenti his quae suapte natura ferebat sine igne, in quo erant poma, quae minus cruda esse poterant decoquebant in olla.

What they used to eat with pottage, from that comes “pulmentum,” as Plautus; hence “pulmentarium” was said: this was the first thing that was lacking to shepherds. Cheese (caseus) from coagulated milk, as “coaxeus” was said. Then, after they ceased to be content with those things which by their own nature came without fire, among which were fruits, what could be made less raw they would cook down in a pot.

Ab olla holera dicta, quod earum macerare cruda holera. E quis ad coquendum quod e terra eruitur, ruapa, unde rapa. Olea ab elaia; olea grandis orchitis quod eam Attici orchin morian.

From the pot (olla) greens (holera) are said to be named, because they macerate raw greens in it. From those for cooking that are dug out of the earth, ruapa, whence rapa. Olive (olea) from elaia; the large olive is orchitis, because the Attics call it orchin morian.

Hinc ad pecudis carnem perventum est. Ut ab sue suilla, sic ab aliis generibus cognominata. Hanc primo assam, secundo elixam, tertio e iure uti coepisse natura docet.

Hence the discussion has come to the flesh of livestock. As from the sow, suilla, so it is cognominated from other kinds. Nature teaches that this began to be used: first roasted, second boiled, third with jus.

Dictum assum, quod id ab igni assudescit, id est uvescit: uvidum enim quod humidum, et ideo ubi id non est, sucus abest; et ideo sudandum assum destillat calore, et ut crudum nimium habet humoris, sic excoctum parum habet suci. Elixum e liquore aquae dictum; et ex iure, quod iucundum magis conditione.

It is called roast, because it sweats from the fire, that is, becomes moist: for uvid is what is humid, and therefore where that is not, the juice is absent; and therefore the roast, needing to be sweated, drips with heat; and as the raw has too much moisture, so the overcooked has too little juice. Boiled is so called from the liquor of water; and “from jus” (sauce), because it is more pleasant by its seasoning/condiment.

Succidia ab suibus caedendis: nam id pecus primum occidere coeperunt, domini et ut servarent sallere. Tegus suis ab eo quod eo tegitur. Perna a pede.

Succidia from the cutting/slaughtering of swine: for that kind of cattle the masters first began to kill, and to salt it so that they might preserve it. The hide (tegus) of a pig, from the fact that one is covered with it. Ham from the foot.

Sueris a nomine eius. Offula ab offa, minima suere. Insicia ab eo quod insecta caro, ut in Carmine Saliorum prosicium est, quod in extis dicitur nunc prosectum.

Sueris from its name. Offula from offa, the smallest bit of swine-flesh. Insicia from the fact that the flesh is “in-sected,” i.e., cut up; as in the Song of the Salii prosicium occurs, which in the entrails is now called prosection.

Murtatum a murta, quod ea additur large fartis.

Murtatum from myrtle, because it is added copiously to forcemeats.

Quod fartum intestinum e crassundiis, Lucanicam dicunt, quod milites a Lucanis didicerint, ut quod Faleriis Faliscum ventrem; fundolum a fundo, quod non ut reliquae lactes, sed ex una parte sola apertum; ab hoc Graecos puto tuphlon enteron appellasse. Ab eadem fartura farcimina in extis appellata, a quo farticulum: in eo quod tenuissimum intestinum fartum, hila ab hilo dicta illo quod ait Ennius:
Neque dispendi facit hilum.
Quod in hoc farcimine summo quiddam eminet, ab eo quod ut in capite apex, apexabo dicta.

Because the stuffed intestine from the thick bowels they call a Lucanica, since the soldiers learned it from the Lucanians, just as at Falerii they call the belly “Faliscan”; fundolus from fundus (“bottom”), because, not like the rest, the lactes, it is opened from one side only; from this I think the Greeks called it tuphlon enteron. From the same stuffing the farcimina in the entrails are so named, whence farticulum: in that case, the thinnest stuffed intestine, hila from hilum, as Ennius says:
Nor does it make a whit of loss.
Because in this sausage at the top something stands out, from that, as the apex on a head, it is called apexabo.

Tertium fartum est longavo, quod longius quam duo illa.

The third stuffed-meat is the longavo, because it is longer than those two.

Augmentum, quod ex immolata hostia desectum in iecore imponitur in porriciendo augendi causa. Magmentum a magis, quod ad religionem magis pertinet: itaque propter hoc magmentaria fana constituta locis certis quo id imponeretur. Mattea ab eo quod ea Graece mattye.

Augmentum, that which, cut off from the immolated victim, is placed upon the liver in the porricial offering for the sake of augmenting. Magmentum from magis (“more”), because it pertains more to religion: and therefore, on this account, magmentary fanes were established in fixed places where it might be set. Mattea from the fact that in Greek it is mattye.

Item a Graecis *** singillatim haec: *** ovum, bulbum.

Likewise from the Greeks *** individually these: *** ovum, bulb.

XXIII.

23.

Lana Graecum, ut Polybius et Callimachus scribunt. Purpura a purpurae maritumae colore, ut Poenicum, quod a Poenis primum dicitur allata. Stamen a stando, quod eo stat omne in tela velamentum.

Lana is Greek, as Polybius and Callimachus write. Purple from the color of the sea-purple, as “Phoenician,” which is said to have been first brought by the Phoenicians. Stamen from standing, because by it every veiling in the loom stands.

Subtemen, quod subit stamini. Trama, quod trameat frigus id genus vestimenti. Densum a dentibus pectinis quibus feritur.

Subtemen, which goes under the stamen (warp). Trama, because the cold goes through that kind of garment. Dense, from the teeth of the comb with which it is struck.

Filum, quod minimum est hilum: id enim minimum est in vestimento.
Pannus Graecum, ubi E A fecit. Panuvellium dictum a pano et volvendo filo.

Thread, because the least thing is a hilum: for that is the least in a vestment.
Cloth is Greek, where E has made A. Panuvellium is said from panus and from rolling the thread.

Tunica ab tuendo corpore, tunica ut tuendica. Toga a tegendo. Cinctus et cingillum a cingendo, alterum viris, alterum mulieribus attributum.

Tunic from protecting the body, tunic as though “tuendica.” Toga from covering. Cinctus and cingillum from girding, the one attributed to men, the other to women.

XXIV.

24.

Arma ab arcendo, quod his arcemus hostem. Parma, quod e medio in omnis partis par. Conum, quod cogitur in cacumen versus.

Arms from warding off, because with these we ward off the enemy. Parma, because from the middle it is equal in all parts. Cone, because it is compressed toward the summit.

Hasta, quod astans solet ferri. Iaculum, quod ut iaciatur fit. Tragula a traiciendo.

Hasta, because, standing, it is wont to be borne. Javelin, because it is made so that it may be cast. Tragula from trans-piercing.

Scutum a sectura ut secutum, quod a minute consectis fit tabellis. Umbones a Graeco, quod ambones.

Shield from cutting, as “cut,” because it is made from little boards minutely cut up. Bosses from Greek, because “ambones.”

Gladium C in G commutato a clade, quod fit ad hostium cladem gladium; similiter ab omine pilum, qui hostis periret, ut perilum. Lorica, quod e loris de corio crudo pectoralia faciebant; postea subcidit gallica e ferro sub id vocabulum, ex anulis ferrea tunica. Balteum, quod cingulum e corio habebant bullatum, balteum dictum.

Gladius, with C changed into G, from clade, because it is made for the enemies’ clade; similarly from omen pilum, that the enemy might perish, as “perilum.” Lorica, because from lora out of raw hide they used to make pectorals; afterward the Gallic one of iron fell under that term, an iron tunic from rings. Balteum, because they had a girdle of leather, bossed, it is called balteum.

Ocrea, quod opponebatur ob crus. Galea ab galero, quod multi usi antiqui.

Greave, because it was set in front of the leg. Helmet from galero, because many of the ancients used it.

Tubae ab tubis, quos etiam nunc ita appellant tubicines sacrorum. Cornua, quod ea quae nunc sunt ex aere, tunc fiebant bubulo e cornu. Vallum vel quod ea varicare nemo posset vel quod singula ibi extrema bacilla furcillata habent figuram litterae V. Cervi ab similitudine cornuum cervi; item reliqua fere ab similitudine ut vineae, testudo, aries.

Trumpets from tubes, which even now the trumpeters of the sacred rites so call. Horns, because those which now are of bronze were then made from bovine horn. Rampart, either because no one could straddle them, or because the individual little end-sticks there, forked, have the shape of the letter V. Stags from the likeness to a stag’s horns; likewise almost the rest from resemblance, as “vines,” “tortoise,” “ram.”

XXV.

25.

Mensam escariam cillibam appellabant; ea erat quadrata ut etiam nunc in castris est; a cibo cilliba dicta; postea rutunda facta, et quod a nobis media et a Graecis mesa, mensa dicta potest; nisi etiam quod ponebant pleraque in cibo mensa. Trulla a similitudine truae, quae quod magna et haec pusilla, ut truella; hanc, Graeci tryelen. Trua qua e culina in lavatrinam aquam fundunt; trua, quod travolat ea aqua.

They used to call the eating-table a cilliba; it was square, as even now in the camps it is; cilliba, said to be from cibus ‘food’; later it was made rotund, and because what is in the middle is called media by us and mesa by the Greeks, it can be called mensa; unless also because they placed most things in the meal on the table. A trulla from the likeness to a trua, since that is large and this small, as ‘truella’; this the Greeks call tryelen. A trua with which they pour water from the kitchen into the wash-room; trua, because the water flies across.

Ab eodem est appellatum truleum: simile enim figura, nisi quod latius est, quod concipiat aquam, et quod manubrium cavum non est nisi in vinario truleo.

From the same source is named the truleum: for it is similar in figure, except that it is broader, so that it may take up water, and that the handle is not hollow, except in the wine‑truleum.

Accessit matellio a matula dictus et fictus, qui, posteaquam longius a figura matulae discessit, et ab aqua aqualis dictus. Vas aquarium vocant futim, quod in triclinio allatam aquam infundebant; quo postea accessit nanus cum Graeco nomine et cum Latino nomine Graeca figura barbatus. Pelvis pedeluis a pedum lavatione.

There was added the matellio, so called and fashioned from the matula; which, after it departed farther from the figure of the matula, was also called aqualis from water. They call the water-vessel a futis, with which in the triclinium they would pour the water that had been brought in; to which there was later added a nanus with a Greek name, and, with a Latin name, a bearded figure in Greek style. The basin pedeluis, from the washing of the feet.

Candelabrum a candela: ex his enim funiculi ardentes figebantur. Lucerna post inventa, quae dicta a luce aut quod id vocant lychnon Graeci.

A candelabrum from the candle: for on these burning wicks were fastened. The lamp was afterward invented, which is named from light, or because the Greeks call it lychnon.

Vasa in mensa escaria: ubi pultem aut iurulenti quid ponebant, a capiendo catinum nominarunt, nisi quod Siculi dicunt katinon ubi assa ponebant; magidam aut langulam alterum a magnitudine alterum a latitudine finxerunt. Patenas a patulo dixerunt, ut pusillas, quod his libarent cenam, patellas. Tryblia et canistra quod putant esse Latina, sunt Graeca: tryblion enim et kanoun dicuntur Graece.

Vessels on the dining table: where they would place porridge or something brothy, from taking they named a catinum, except that the Sicilians say katinon where they placed roasted things; magida or langula they coined, the one from magnitude, the other from latitude (breadth). They said patenas from patulous, and the small ones—because with these they would taste the dinner—patellas. Tryblia and canistra, which they think are Latin, are Greek: for tryblion and kanoun are said in Greek.

Reliqua quod aperta sunt unde sint relinquo.

The remaining things, because it is apparent whence they are, I relinquish.

XXVI.

26.

Mensa vinaria rotunda nominabatur cilliba ante, ut etiam nunc in castris. Id videtur declinatum a Graeco kylikeioi, id a poculo cylice qui in illa. Capides et minores capulae a capiendo, quod ansatae ut prehendi possent, id est capi.

The round wine-table used to be called cilliba formerly, as even now in the camps. This seems to be declined (derived) from the Greek kylikeioi, and that from the cup kylix which are on it. Capides and the smaller ones capulae are from “taking” (capere), because they are ansate (furnished with handles) so that they might be grasped, that is, taken.

Harum figuras in vasis sacris ligneas ac fictiles antiquas etiam nunc videmus.

Even now we see ancient wooden and fictile figures of these on sacred vessels.

Praeterea in poculis erant paterae, ab eo quod late patent ita dictae. Hisce etiam nunc in publico convivio antiquitatis retinendae causa, cum magistri fiunt, potio circumfertur, et in sacrificando deis hoc poculo magistratus dat deo vinum. Pocula a potione, unde potatio et etiam posca.

Furthermore, among cups there were paterae, so called from the fact that they lie open wide. These even now, at a public banquet, for the sake of retaining antiquity, when magistrates are made, a potion is carried around; and in sacrificing to the gods, with this cup the magistrate gives wine to the god. Cups are from potio “drink,” whence potation and also posca.

Haec possunt a potoi, quod potos potio Graece.

These can be from potoi, because potos is “potation” in Greek.

Origo potionis aqua, quod aequa summa. Fons unde funditur e terra aqua viva, ut fistula a qua fusus aquae. Vas vinarium grandius sinum ab sinu, quod sinum maiorem cavationem quam pocula habebant.

The origin of potation is water, since its top is level. A fountain, whence living water is poured out of the earth, as a pipe from which there is a pouring of waters. A larger wine vessel, the sinum, from sinus, because the sinum had a greater cavitation than cups.

Item dictae lepestae, quae etiam nunc in diebus sacris Sabinis vasa vinaria in mensa deorum sunt posita; apud antiquos scriptores Graecos inveni appellari poculi genus depestan: quare vel inde radices in agrum Sabinum et Romanum sunt profectae.

Likewise they are called lepestae, which even now on sacred days among the Sabines the wine-vessels are set on the table of the gods; among ancient Greek writers I find a genus of cup called depestan: wherefore even from there the roots have proceeded into the Sabine and Roman field.

Qui vinum dabant ut minutatim funderent, a guttis guttum appellarunt; qui sumebant minutatim, a sumendo simpulum nominarunt. In huiusce locum in conviviis e Graecia successit epichysis et cyathus; in sacruficiis remansit guttus et simpulum.

Those who gave wine so as to pour it little by little, from “drops” they called it a guttum; those who took it little by little, from “taking” they named the simpulum. In place of this, at banquets there came in from Greece the epichysis and the cyathus; in sacrifices the guttus and the simpulum remained.

Altera vasaria mensa erat lapidea quidrata oblonga una columella; vocabatur cartibulum. Haec in aedibus ad compluvium apud multos me puero ponebatur et in ea et circum eam aenea vasa: a gerendo cartibulum potest dictum.

Another vessel-table was stone, square, oblong, with a single columella; it was called a cartibulum. This, in houses by the compluvium, among many when I was a boy, used to be set, and both on it and around it were bronze vessels: from bearing (gerere) the cartibulum can be said to have been named.

XXVII.

27.

Praeterea erat tertium genus mensae item quadratae vasorum; vocabatur urnarium, quod urnas cum aqua positas ibi potissimum habebant in culina. Ab eo etiam nunc ante balineum locus ubi poni solebat urnarium vocatur. Urnae dictae, quod urinant in aqua haurienda ut urinator.

Moreover, there was a third kind of table, likewise a square one, for vessels; it was called an urnarium, because they chiefly kept there in the kitchen urns filled with water set there. From this, even now the place before the bath where the urnarium used to be set is called the urnarium. Urns are so named, because they dive in drawing water, like a diver.

Urinare est mergi in aquam.

To dive is to be merged into water.

Amburvom fictum ab urvo, quod ita flexum ut redeat sursum versus ut in aratro quod est urvum. Calix a caldo, quod in eo calda puls apponebatur et caldum eo bibebant. Vas ubi coquebant cibum, ab eo caccabum appellarunt.

Amburvom, formed from urvum, because it is thus bent so that it turns back upward, as on a plough the part that is the urvum. Chalice from caldo (“hot”), because in it hot porridge was set out and they drank hot from it. The vessel in which they cooked food, from that they named a caccabus.

Veru a versando.

Spit from turning.

XXVIII.

28.

Ab sedendo appellatae sedes, sedile, solium, sellae, siliquastrum; deinde ab his subsellium: ut subsipere quod non plane sapit, sic quod non plane erat sella, subsellium. Ubi in eiusmodi duo, bisellium dictum. Arca, quod arcebantur fures ab ea clausa.

From sitting are appellated seat (sedes), sedile, solium (throne), sellae (chairs), siliquastrum; then from these, subsellium: just as one says subsipere for what does not quite have savor, so what was not plainly a sella was a subsellium. Where there are two of this sort, it is called a bisellium. Arca (a chest), because thieves were warded off (arcebantur) from it when it was closed.

Armarium et armamentarium ab eadem origine, sed declinata aliter.

Armarium and armamentarium are from the same origin, but are declined differently.

XXIX.

29.

Mundus ornatus muliebris dictus a munditia. Ornatus quasi ab ore natus: hinc enim maxime sumitur quod eam deceat, itaque id paratur speculo. Calamistrum, quod his calfactis in cinere capillus ornatur.

Mundus, the muliebral adornment, is said from cleanliness. Ornament, as if born from the face: for from there especially is taken what befits her, and thus it is prepared by means of a mirror. The calamistrum, by which, these having been heated in ash, the hair is adorned.

Qui ea ministrabat, a cinere cinerarius est appellatus. Discerniculum, quo discernitur capillus. Pecten, quod per eum explicatur capillus.

He who ministered these things was called a cinerarius from cinder. The discerniculum, by which the hair is parted. The pecten (comb), because through it the hair is unfolded.

Speculum a speciendo, quod ibi se spectant.

Mirror from ‘looking’ (speciō), because there they inspect themselves.

Vestis a vellis vel ab eo quod vellus lana tonsa universa ovis: id dictum, quod vellebant. Lanea, ex lana facta. Quod capillum contineret, dictum a rete reticulum; rete ab raritudine; item texta fasciola, qua capillum in capite alligarent, dictum capital a capite, quod sacerdotulae in capite etiam nunc solent habere.

Vesture from velling, or from that which is vellus, the fleece of wool shorn from the whole sheep: it is so called, because they used to pluck it. Woolen, made from wool. That which would contain the hair, reticulum was named from rete; rete from rarity (open-meshedness); likewise a woven little band, by which they would bind the hair on the head, called capital from caput, which little priestesses even now are wont to have on the head.

Sic rica ab ritu, quod Romano ritu sacrificium feminae cum faciunt, capita velant. Mitra et reliqua fere in capite postea addita cum vocabulis Graecis.

Thus the rica from rite, because when women perform sacrifice in the Roman rite, they veil their heads. The mitre and the rest for the head were for the most part added later, along with Greek vocables.

XXX.

30.

Prius deinde indutui, tum amictui quae sunt tangam. Capitium ab eo quod capit pectus, id est, ut antiqui dicebant, comprehendit. Indutui alterum quod subtus, a quo subucula; alterum quod supra, a quo supparus, nisi id quod item dicunt Osce.

First then I will touch on the things for the indument, then for the amict. Capitium from the fact that it “takes” the chest, that is, as the ancients used to say, it “comprehends” it. For the indument, one is that which is beneath, whence subucula; another that which is above, whence supparus, unless it is that which likewise the Oscans so call.

Alterius generis item duo, unum quod foris ac palam, palla; alterum quod intus, a quo indusium, ut intusium, id quod Plautus dicit:
Indusiatam patagiatam caltulam ac crocotulam.
Multa post luxuria attulit, quorum vocabula apparet esse Graeca, ut asbestinon.

Likewise of another kind there are two, one which is worn outside and openly, the palla; the other which is worn inside, whence indusium, as “intusium,” that which Plautus says:
an under-shirted, border-trimmed little dress and a little saffron one.
Afterwards luxury brought in many things, whose names appear to be Greek, such as “asbestinon.”

Amictui dictum quod ambiectum, est, id est circumiectum, a quo etiam quo vestitas se involuunt, circumiectui appellant, et quod amictui habet purpuram circum, vocant circumtextum. Antiquissimi amictui ricinium; id quod eo utebantur duplici, ab eo quod dimidiam partem retrorsum iaciebant, ab reiciendo ricinium dictum.

It is called a wrap (amictus) because it is an “ambiectum,” that is, a “circumjection,” from which also that with which dressed women enfold themselves they call a “circumjection”; and that clothing of the wrap which has purple around it they call a “circumtext.” The most ancient wrap was the ricinium; because they used it double, from the fact that they would cast half of it backward, from “re-jecting” it was called ricinium.

Pallia hinc, quod facta duo simplicia paria, parilia primo dicta, R exclusum propter levitatem. Parapechia, chlamydes, sic multa, Graeca. Laena, quod de lana multa, duarum etiam togarum instar; ut antiquissimum mulierum ricinium, sic hoc duplex virorum.

Pallia hence, because two simple equal pieces were made, at first called parilia, the R excluded on account of lightness. Parapechia, chlamydes, thus many [terms], Greek. Laena, because [it is] of much wool, even in the likeness of two togas; as the most ancient ricinium of women, so this is the double [garment] of men.

XXXI.

31.

Instrumenta rustica quae serendi aut colendi fructus causa facta. Sarculum ab serendo ac sariendo. Ligo, quod eo propter latitudinem quod sub terra facilius legitur.

Rustic instruments which are made for the sake of sowing or cultivating the fruit. Sarculum from sowing and weeding. Ligo, because with it, on account of its breadth, what is under the earth is more easily gathered up.

Pala a pangendo, L GL quod fuit. Rutrum ruitrum a ruendo.

The spade (pala) from pangere, on account of the GL which it once had. Rutrum (also ruitrum) from ruere.

Aratrum, quod arruit terram. Eius ferrum vomer, quod vomit eo plus terram. Dens, quod eo mordetur terra; super id regula quae stat, stiva ab stando, et in ea transversa regula manicula, quod manu bubulci tenetur.

The plow, because it plows the earth. Its iron is the plowshare, which by it “vomits” more earth. The tooth, because by it the earth is bitten; above it a rule which stands, the stilt from standing, and in it a crosswise rule, a little handle, which is held by the hand of the oxherd.

Qui quasi temo est inter boves, bura a bubus; alii hoc a curvo urvum, appellant. Sub iugo medio cavum, quod bura extrema addita oppilatur, vocatur coum a cavo. Iugum et iumentum ab iunctu.

That which is as it were the pole between the oxen, the bura, is from “bubus” (oxen); others call this urvum from “curvus,” curved. Beneath the yoke in the middle there is a hollow, which is stoppered when the ends of the bura are added, it is called coum from “cavus,” hollow. Yoke and draught-animal are from the juncture.

Irpices regula compluribus dentibus, quam item ut plaustrum boves trahunt, ut eruant quae in terra serpunt; sirpices, postea irpices S detrito, a quibusdam dicti. Rastelli ut irpices serrae leves; itaque homo in pratis per fenisecia eo festucas corradit, quo ab rasu rastelli dicti. Rastri, quibus dentatis penitus eradunt terram atque eruunt, a quo rutu ruastri dicti.

Irpices are a straight-bar with several teeth, which, just as a wagon, oxen drag, so that they may tear out the things that creep in the earth; “sirpices,” later “irpices” with the S worn away, as some have said. Rastelli, like the irpices, are light saws; and so a man in the meadows during the hay-cuttings scrapes together the stalks with it, whence from shaving/scraping (rasus) they are called rastelli. Rastri, by which with teeth they thoroughly scrape out the soil and root it up, from which “by rooting-up” they are called ruastri.

Falces a farre littera commutata; hae in Campania seculae a secando; a quadam similitudine harum aliae, ut quod apertum unde, falces fenariae et arborariae et, quod non apertum unde, falces lumariae et sirpiculae. Lumariae sunt quibus secant lumecta, id est cum in agris serpunt spinae; quas quod ab terra agricolae solvunt, id est luunt, lumecta. Falces sirpiculae vocatae ab sirpando, id est ab alligando; sic sirpata dolia quassa, cum alligata his, dicta.

Sickles from “far” by a letter changed; these in Campania are called seculae from “cutting”; from a certain likeness of these, others are named—where it is open whence, hay-sickles (fenariae) and tree-sickles (arborariae), and where it is not open whence, lumary sickles (falces lumariae) and sirpiculae. Lumariae are those with which they cut “lumecta,” that is, when thorns creep in the fields; which, because farmers loosen them from the earth, that is, “loosen” (luunt), are called lumecta. The sickles called sirpiculae are named from sirpando, that is, from binding; thus cracked jars (dolia), when bound with these, are called sirpata.

Utuntur in vinea alligando fasces, incisos fustes, faculas. Has zanclas, Chersonesice.

They use in the vineyard, for binding, bundles, cut stakes, and little torches. These are called “zanclas,” in the Chersonese.

Pilum, quod eo far pisunt, a quo ubi id fit dictum pistrinum (L et S inter se saepe locum commutant), inde post in Urbe Lucili pistrina et pistrix. Trapetes molae oleariae; vocant trapetes a terendo, nisi Graecum est; ac molae a molliendo: harum enim motu eo coniecta molliuntur. Vallum a volatu, quod cum id iactant volant inde levia.

The pestle, because with it they pound spelt, whence where that is done it is called a pistrinum (L and S often exchange place with each other), and thence later in the City, in Lucilius, pistrina and pistrix. Trapetes are oil-mills; they call trapetes from rubbing, unless it is Greek; and mills from mollifying: for by the motion of these, the things thrown into it are mollified. Vallum from flight, because when they toss it, the light things fly off from it.

Ventilabrum, quod ventilatur in aere frumentum.

Ventilabrum, by which grain is ventilated in the air.

Quibus conportatur fructus ac necessariae res: de his fiscina a ferendo dicta. Corbes ab eo quod eo spicas aliudve quid corruebant; hinc minores corbulae dictae. De his quae iumenta ducunt, tragula, quod ab eo trahitur per terram; sirpea, quae virgis sirpatur, id est colligando implicatur, in qua stercus aliudve quid vehitur.

By which produce and necessary things are con-ported: of these, the fiscina is so named from bearing. Corbes (baskets) from the fact that into them they used to heap spikes (of grain) or something else; hence the smaller ones are called corbulae. Of those which the beasts of burden draw, the tragula, because by it the load is dragged along the ground; the sirpea, which is woven with rods, that is, bound by entwining, in which dung or something else is carried.

Vehiculum, in quo faba aliudve quid vehitur, quod e viminibus vietur aut eo vehitur. Brevius vehiculum dictum est aliis ut arcera, quae etiam in Duodecim Tabulis appellatur; quod ex tabulis vehiculum erat factum ut arca, arcera dictum. Plaustrum ab eo quod non ut in his quae supra dixi ex quadam parte, sed ex omni parte palam est, quae in eo vehuntur quod perlucent, ut lapides, asseres, tignum.

A vehicle, in which beans or some other thing is carried, which is woven out of withies, or by means of it is conveyed. A shorter vehicle is called by some an arcera, which is also named in the Twelve Tables; because the vehicle was made out of boards like a chest (arca), it is called arcera. A plaustrum (wagon), from the fact that, not as in those which I said above from a certain side, but from every side it is in the open what things are carried on it, because it lets light through, as stones, planks, timber.

XXXII.

32.

Aedificia nominata a parte ut multa: ab aedibus et faciendo maxime aedificium. Et oppidum ab opi dictum, quod munitur opis causa ubi sint et quod opus est ad vitam gerendam ubi habeant tuto. Oppida quod opere muniebant, moenia; quo moenitius esset quod exaggerabant, aggeres dicti, et qui aggerem contineret, moerus.

Buildings are named from a part, as many things are: most especially the edifice, from a house and from making. And a town is said to be from resource, because it is fortified for the sake of resources, so that they may have safely both a place to be and what is needed for conducting life. From the fact that they fortified the towns by work, the defenses were called walls; what they heaped up to make it more fortified were called aggers, and that which contained the agger, the wall.

Quod muniendi causa portabatur, munus; quod sepiebant oppidum eo moenere, moerus.

What was carried for the sake of fortifying was a “munus”; that by which they fenced in the town—by that “moenere”—was the “moerus.”

Eius summa pinnae ab his quas insigniti milites in galeis habere solent et in gladiatoribus Samnites. Turres a torvis, quod eae proiciunt ante alios. Qua viam relinquebant in muro, qua in oppidum portarent, portas.

Its top, the pinnacles, are from those which insignia-bearing soldiers are accustomed to have on their helmets, and the Samnites among the gladiators. Towers from “torvi,” because they project before others. Where they left a way in the wall, by which they might port into the town, (they called) gates.

Oppida condebant in Latio Etrusco ritu multi, id est iunctis bobus, tauro et vacca interiore, aratro circumagebant sulcum (hoc faciebant religionis causa die auspicato), ut fossa et muro essent muniti. Terram unde exculpserant, fossam vocabant et introrsum iactam murum. Post ea qui fiebat orbis, urbis principium; qui quod erat post murum, postmoerium dictum, eo usque auspicia urbana finiuntur.

Many founded towns in Latium in the Etruscan rite, that is, with the cattle yoked—the bull and the cow, the cow on the inner side—they would lead a furrow around with a plow (they did this for the sake of religion on an auspicated day), so that they might be fortified by ditch and wall. The earth whence they had excavated it, they called the ditch, and, thrown inward, the wall. After these, the circle which was made was the beginning of a city; and that which was beyond the wall was called the postmoerium, up to that point the urban auspices are bounded.

Cippi pomeri stant et circum Ariciam et circum Romam. Quare et oppida quae prius erant circumducta aratro ab orbe et urvo urbes; et, ideo coloniae nostrae omnes in litteris antiquis scribuntur urbes, quod item conditae ut Roma; et ideo coloniae et urbes conduntur, quod intra pomerium ponuntur.

Cippi of the pomerium stand both around Aricia and around Rome. Therefore also the towns which earlier were circumscribed by the plow are called cities (urbes) from orbis and urvus; and, for that reason, all our colonies in ancient writings are written as “cities,” because they were founded in the same way as Rome; and therefore colonies and cities are founded, because they are placed within the pomerium.

Oppidum quod primum conditum in Latio stirpis Romanae, Lavinium: nam ibi dii Penates nostri. Hoc a Latini filia, quae coniuncta Aeneae, Lavinia, appellatum. Hinc post triginta annos oppidum alterum conditur, Alba; id ab sue alba nominatum.

The town which was first founded in Latium of the Roman stock, Lavinium: for there are our Household Gods, the Penates. This was named from the daughter of Latinus, who was conjoined to Aeneas, Lavinia. Hence, after 30 years, another town is founded, Alba; it was named from a white sow.

Haec e navi Aeneae cum fugisset Lavinium, triginta parit porcos; ex hoc prodigio post Lavinium conditum annis triginta haec urbs facta, propter colorem suis et loci naturam Alba Longa dicta. Hinc mater Romuli Rhea, ex hac Romulus, hinc Roma.

This sow, when she had fled from Aeneas’s ship to Lavinium, bore 30 piglets; from this prodigy, after Lavinium was founded, in 30 years this city was made, called Alba Longa on account of the color of the sow and the nature of the place. Hence Rhea, the mother of Romulus; from her, Romulus; hence Rome.

In oppido vici a via, quod ex utraque parte viae sunt aedificia. Fundulae a fundo, quod exitum non habent ac pervium non est. Angiportum, sive quod id, angustum, sive ab agendo et portu.

In a town, vici from via, because on both sides of the road there are edifices. Fundulae from fundus, because they do not have an exit and it is not pervious. Angiportum, either because it is narrow, or from agere and portus.

Quo conferrent suas controversias et quae venderentur vellent quo ferrent, forum appellarunt.

The place to which they would bring together their controversies, and to which they would wish to carry what was to be sold, they called a forum.

Ubi quid generatim, additum ab eo cognomen, ut Forum Bovarium, Forum Holitorium: hoc erat antiquum Macellum, ubi holerum copia; ea loca etiam nunc Lacedaemonii vocant makellon, sed Iones ostia hortorum makellotas hortorum, et castelli makella. Secundum Tiberim ad Portunium Forum Piscarium vocant: ideo ait Plautus:
Apud Forum Piscarium.
Ubi variae res ad Corneta Forum Cuppedinis a cuppedio, id est a fastidio, quod multi Forum Cupidinis a cupiditate.

Where something is by kind, an added cognomen is from that, as Forum Bovarium, Forum Holitorium: this was the ancient Macellum, where there was an abundance of vegetables; the Lacedaemonians even now call those places makellon, but the Ionians call the gates of gardens makellotas of gardens, and makella of a little fortress. Along the Tiber by Portunium they call the Forum Piscarium: therefore Plautus says:
At the Forum Piscarium.
Where assorted goods are near the Corneta, [they call it] the Forum Cuppedinis from cuppedo, that is from fastidium, whereas many [say] the Forum Cupidinis from cupiditas.

Haec omnia posteaquam contracta in unum locum quae ad victum pertinebant et aedificatus locus, appellatum Macellum, ut quidam scribunt, quod ibi fuerit hortus, alii quod ibi domus furis, cui cognomen fuit Macellus, quae ibi publice sit diruta, e qua aedificatum hoc quod vocetur ab eo Macellum.

After all these things which pertained to victuals had been contracted into one place, and a place had been built, it was called the Macellum, as some write, because there had been a garden there; others say it was because there was there the house of a thief, whose cognomen was Macellus, which was publicly demolished there, out of which was built this which is called from him the Macellum.

In Foro Lacum Curtium a Curtio dictum constat, et de eo triceps historia: nam et Procilius non idem prodidit quod Piso, nec quod is Cornelius secutus. A Procilio relatum in eo loco dehisse terram et id ex S.C. ad haruspices relatum esse; responsum deum Manium postilionem postulare, id est civem fortissimum eo demitti. Tum quendam Curtium virum fortem armatum ascendisse in equum et a Concordia versum cum eo praecipitatum; eo facto locum coisse atque eius corpus divinitus humasse ac reliquisse genti suae monumentum.

In the Forum it is agreed that the Lacus Curtius is named from Curtius, and about it there is a threefold history: for Procilius did not hand down the same as Piso, nor what that Cornelius followed. By Procilius it was related that in that place the earth gaped, and that this, by decree of the Senate, was referred to the haruspices; the response was that the gods Manes demanded a sacrifice, that is, that the bravest citizen be sent down there. Then a certain Curtius, a brave man, armed, mounted a horse and, turned from Concordia, was hurled headlong with it; with this done, the place closed up, and his body was buried by divine agency, and he left for his gens a monument.

Piso in Annalibus scribit Sabino bello, quod fuit Romulo et Tatio, virum fortissimum Mettium Curtium Sabinum, cum Romulus cum suis ex superiore parte impressionem fecisset, in locum palustrem, qui tum fuit in Foro antequam cloacae sunt factae, secessisse atque ad suos in Capitolium recepisse; ab eo lacum Curtium invenisse nomen.

Piso in the Annals writes that in the Sabine war, which was with Romulus and Tatius, a most brave man, Mettius Curtius, a Sabine, when Romulus with his men had made an assault from the higher ground, withdrew into a marshy place, which then was in the Forum before the sewers were made, and made his way back to his own on the Capitol; from him the Lake Curtius found its name.

Cornelius et Lutatius scribunt eum locum esse fulguritum et ex S. C. septum esse: id quod factum esset a Curtio consule, cui M. Genucius fuit collega, Curtium appellatum.

Cornelius and Lutatius write that that place was lightning-struck and, by decree of the Senate, was fenced off: which thing had been done by the consul Curtius, to whom Marcus Genucius was colleague, and it was called the Curtius.

Arx ab arcendo, quod is locus munitissimus Urbis, a quo facillime possit hostis prohiberi. Carcer a coercendo, quod exire prohibentur. In hoc pars quae sub terra Tullianum, ideo quod additum a Tullio rege.

Citadel from warding off, because that place is the most fortified of the City, from which an enemy can most easily be prohibited. Prison from coercing, because they are prohibited from going out. In this, the part which is under the earth is the Tullianum, for this reason, that it was added by King Tullius.

Quod Syracusis, ubi delicti causa custodiuntur, vocantur latomiae, inde lautumia translatum, quod hic quoque in eo loco lapidicinae fuerunt.

Because at Syracuse, where people are kept in custody for delict, they are called latomiae, from there the name lautumia was transferred, because here too, in that same place, there were stone-quarries.

In Aventino, Lauretum ab eo quod ibi sepultus est Tatius rex, qui ab Laurentibus interfectus est, aut ab silva laurea, quod ea ibi excisa et aedificatus vicus: ut inter Sacram Viam et Macellum editum Corneta a cornis, quae abscisae loco reliquerunt nomen, ut Aesculetum ab aesculo dictum et Fagutal a fago, unde etiam Iovis Fagutalis, quod ibi sacellum.

On the Aventine, Lauretum from the fact that King Tatius is buried there, who was slain by the Laurentians, or from a laurel grove, because it was cut down there and a vicus was built: as between the Sacred Way and the Macellum the raised ground Corneta, from cornel-trees, which, having been cut down, left their name to the place, as Aesculetum named from the aesculus (oak) and Fagutal from the beech, whence also “Jupiter Fagutalis,” because there is a little shrine there.

Armilustrium ab ambitu lustri: locus idem Circus Maximus, dictus, quod circum spectaculis aedificatus ubi ludi fiunt, et quod ibi circum metas fertur pompa et equi currunt. Itaque dictum in Cornicularia militis adventu, quem circumeunt ludentes:
Quid cessamus ludos facere? Circus noster ecce adest.

Armilustrium from the ambit of the lustrum: the same place is the Circus Maximus, so called because it was built around for spectacles where games are held, and because there the procession is borne around the turning-posts and the horses run. Accordingly it was said in the Cornicularia at a soldier’s arrival, whom they go around in play:
Why do we delay to make the games? Behold, our Circus is here.

In circo primum unde mittuntur equi, nunc dicuntur carceres, Naevius oppidum appellat. Carceres dicti, quod coercentur equi, ne inde exeant antequam magistratus signum misit. Quod ad muri speciem pinnis turribusque carceres olim fuerunt, scripsit poeta:
Dictator ubi currum insidit, pervehitur usque ad oppidum.

In the Circus, first, whence the horses are sent off, what are now called the carceres, Naevius calls a town. They are called carceres, because the horses are coerced, so that they do not go out from there before the magistrate has sent the signal. In that the carceres were once in the appearance of a wall with battlements and towers, the poet wrote:
When the Dictator mounts his chariot, he is carried all the way to the town.

Intumus circus ad Murciae, vocatur, ut Procilius aiebat, ab urceis, quod is locus esset inter figulos; alii dicunt a murteto declinatum, quod ibi id fuerit; cuius vestigium manet, quod ibi est sacellum etiam nunc Murteae Veneris. Item simili de causa Circus Flaminius dicitur, qui circum aedificatus est Flaminium Campum, et quod ibi quoque Ludis Tauriis equi circum metas currunt.

The innermost circus near Murcia is called, as Procilius used to say, from urcei, “pitchers,” because that place was among the potters; others say it is derived from a myrtle-grove, because that was there; whose vestige remains, since there is even now in that place a little shrine of Myrtle Venus. Likewise for a similar reason the Circus Flaminius is so named, which circus was built around the Flaminian Field, and because there too, at the Taurian Games, the horses run around the turning-posts.

Comitium ab eo quod coibant eo comitiis curiatis et litium causa. Curiae duorum generum: nam et ubi curarent sacerdotes res divinas, ut curiae veteres, et ubi senatus humanas, ut Curia Hostilia, quod primus aedificavit Hostilius rex. Ante hanc Rostra; cuius id vocabulum, ex hostibus capta fixa sunt rostra; sub dextra huius a Comitio locus substructus, ubi nationum subsisterent legati qui ad senatum essent missi; is Graecostasis appellatus a parte, ut multa.

The Comitium [is called so] from the fact that they came together there for the curiate comitia and for the sake of lawsuits. Curiae are of two kinds: both where the priests would care for divine matters, as the old curiae, and where the senate [handled] human matters, as the Curia Hostilia, which King Hostilius first built. Before this, the Rostra; whose appellation is from this, that the rostra (ship-prows) captured from enemies were fastened there. Beneath the right side of this, by the Comitium, there was a substructed place, where the envoys of the nations who had been sent to the senate would take their stand; this was called the Graecostasis from a part, as many things [are].

Senaculum supra Graecostasim, ubi Aedis Concordiae et Basilica Opimia; Senaculum vocatum, ubi senatus aut ubi seniores consisterent, dictum ut gerousia apud Graecos. Lautolae ab lavando, quod ibi ad Ianum Geminum aquae caldae fuerunt. Ab his palus fuit in Minore Velabro, a quo, quod ibi vehebantur lintribus, velabrum, ut illud de quo supra dictum est.

The Senaculum above the Graecostasis, where the Temple of Concord and the Basilica Opimia are; called “Senaculum,” where the senate or where the seniors would take their stand, named as the gerousia among the Greeks. The Lautolae from washing, because there by the Ianus Geminus there were hot waters. From these there was a marsh in the Lesser Velabrum, from which, because they were conveyed there by skiffs, “velabrum,” like that which was spoken of above.

Aequimaelium, quod aequata Maeli domus publice, quod regnum occupare voluit is. Locus ad Busta Gallica, quod Roma recuperata Gallorum ossa qui possederunt urbem ibi coacervata ac consepta. Locus qui vocatur Doliola ad Cluacam Maxumam, ubi non licet despuere, a doliolis sub terra. Eorum duae traditae historiae, quod alii inesse aiunt ossa cadaverum, alii Numae Pompilii religiosa quaedam post mortem eius infossa.

Aequimaelium, because the house of Maelius was leveled by public authority, since he wished to seize the kingship. A place by the Busta Gallica, because, with Rome recovered, the bones of the Gauls who possessed the city were heaped up and enclosed there. A place which is called Doliola by the Cloaca Maxima, where it is not permitted to spit, from the small jars under the earth. Two stories are handed down about these: for some say the bones of corpses are inside, others that certain religious things of Numa Pompilius were interred after his death.

Argiletum sunt qui scripserunt ab Argo Larisaeo, quod is huc venerit ibique sit sepultus, alii ab argilla, quod ibi id genus terrae sit.

Argiletum: some have written that it is from Argus the Larisaean, because he came here and was buried there; others derive it from argil, because that kind of earth is there.

Clivos Publicius ab aedilibus plebei Publiciis qui eum publice aedificarunt. Simili de causa Pullius et Cosconius, quod ab his viocuris dicuntur aedificati. Clivus proximus a Flora susus versus Capitolium Vetus, quod ibi sacellum Iovis Iunonis Minervae, et id antiquius quam aedis quae in Capitolio facta.

Clivus Publicius from the plebeian aediles the Publicii, who built it publicly. For a similar cause Pullius and Cosconius, because they are said to have been built by these viocuri (street-curators). The slope nearest from Flora upward toward the Old Capitol, because there is the sacellum of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and it is more ancient than the aedes which was made on the Capitol.

Esquiliis Vicus Africus, quod ibi obsides ex Africa bello Punico dicuntur custoditi. Vicus Cyprius a cypro, quod ibi Sabini cives additi consederunt, qui a bono omine id appellarunt: nam cyprum Sabine bonum. Prope hunc Vicus Sceleratus, dictus a Tullia Tarquini Superbi uxore, quod ibi cum iaceret pater occisus, supra eum carpentum mulio ut inigeret iussit.

On the Esquiline, the Vicus Africus, because hostages from Africa are said to have been kept there in the Punic War. The Vicus Cyprius [is] from cyprus, because Sabines, added as citizens, settled there, who named it that from a good omen: for cyprum in Sabine [means] good. Near this, the Vicus Sceleratus, named from Tullia, wife of Tarquinius Superbus, because there, when her father lay slain, she ordered the muleteer to drive the carriage over him.

XXXIII.

33.

Quoniam vicus constat ex domibus, nunc earum vocabula videamus. Domus Graecum et ideo in aedibus sacris ante cellam, ubi sedes dei sunt, Graeci dicunt prodomon, quod post est, opisthodomon. Aedes ab aditu, quod plano pede adibant.

Since a vicus consists of houses, now let us look at their vocabulary. Domus is Greek, and therefore in sacred aedes, before the cella, where the seats of the god are, the Greeks say prodomon; what is behind, opisthodomon. Aedes is from aditus (“approach/entrance”), because they used to go to them with a level foot.

Itaque ex aedibus efferri indictivo funere praeco etiam eos dicit qui ex tabernis efferuntur, et omnes in censu villas inde dedicamus aedes.

Therefore, in a funeral by proclamation, the herald even says “from the aedes” of those who are carried out from taverns, and from that we designate in the census all villas as aedes.

Cavum aedium dictum qui locus tectus intra parietes relinquebatur patulus, qui esset ad communem omnium usum. In hoc locus si nullus relictus erat, sub divo qui esset, dicebatur testudo ab testudinis similitudine, ut est in praetorio et castris. Si relictum erat in medio ut lucem caperet, deorsum quo impluebat, dictum impluium, susum qua compluebat, compluium: utrumque a pluvia.

Cavum aedium was the term for that place under a roof, left open within the walls, which was for the common use of all. In this, if no opening had been left that was under the open sky, it was called a testudo from the likeness of a tortoise, as it is in the praetorium and in camps. If an opening had been left in the middle so that it might take light, the space downward where it rained in was called the impluvium, the place upward where it rained together, the compluvium: both from pluvia (rain).

Tuscanicum dictum a Tuscis, posteaquam illorum cavum aedium simulare coeperunt. Atrium appellatum ab Atriatibus Tuscis: illinc enim exemplum sumptum.

The Tuscanicum was called from the Tuscans, after they began to imitate their cavum aedium. The atrium was appellated from the Atriates, Tuscans: for from there the exemplar was taken.

Circum cavum aedium erat unius cuiusque rei utilitatis causa parietibus dissepta: ubi quid conditum esse volebant, a celando cellam appellarunt; penariam ubi penus; ubi cubabant cubiculum; ubi cenabant cenaculum vocitabant, ut etiam nunc Lanuvi apud aedem Iunonis et in cetero Latio ac Faleriis et Cordubae dicuntur. Posteaquam in superiore parte cenitare coeperunt, superioris domus universa cenacula dicta; posteaquam ubi cenabant plura facere coeperunt, ut in castris ab hieme hiberna, hibernum domus vocarunt; contraria ***

Around the cavum aedium, for the utility of each thing, it was partitioned by walls: where they wanted something to be stored, from concealing they called it a cella; where the provisions were, a penaria; where they lay down, a cubiculum; where they dined, they used to call it a cenaculum, as even now at Lanuvium by the temple of Juno and in the rest of Latium and at Falerii and at Corduba they are so called. After they began to dine in the upper part, the whole of the upper house was called cenacula; after they began to make several places where they dined, as in camps from winter hiberna, they called the winter-quarters of the house hibernum; the contrary ***

XXXIV.

34.

*** quam religionem Porcius designat cum de Ennio scribens dicit eum coluisse Tutilinae loca. Sequitur Porta Naevia, quod in nemoribus Naeviis: etenim loca, ubi ea, sic dicta. Deinde Rauduscula, quod aerata fuit.

*** which religion Porcius designates when, writing about Ennius, he says that he cultivated the places of Tutilina. Next follows the Naevian Gate, because it was in the Naevian groves: for the places where these were were so called. Then the Rauduscula, because it was brazen (bronze-plated).

Aes raudus dictum; ex eo veteribus in mancipiis scriptum:
Raudusculo libram ferito.
Hinc Lavernalis ab ara Lavernae, quod ibi ara eius.

Bronze was called “raudus”; from this, among the ancients in mancipations it was written:
Strike the scale with a small piece of bronze.
Hence Lavernalis from the altar of Laverna, because her altar is there.

Praeterea intra muros video portas dici in Palatio Mucionis a mugitu, quod ea pecus in buceta tum ante antiquum oppidum exigebant; alteram Romanulam, ab Roma dictam, quae habet gradus in Nova Via ad Volupiae sacellum.

Moreover, within the walls I see gates said to be named on the Palatine: “Mucionis,” from the mooing, because through it they used to drive the herd into the cow-pastures then, before the ancient town; another, “Romanula,” named from Rome, which has steps on the Nova Via to the little shrine of Volupia.

Tertia est Ianualis, dicta ab Iano, et ideo ibi positum Iani signum et ius institutum a Pompilio, ut scribit in Annalibus Piso, ut sit aperta semper, nisi cum bellum sit nusquam. Traditum est memoriae Pompilio rege fuisse opertam et post Tito Manlio consule bello Carthaginiensi primo confecto, et eodem anno apertam.

The third is the Janualis, called from Janus, and therefore the image of Janus is set there, and a ius instituted by Pompilius, as Piso writes in the Annals, that it should be open always, unless when war is nowhere. It has been handed down to memory that under King Pompilius it was shut, and afterward, with Titus Manlius as consul, when the First Carthaginian War was completed; and in that same year it was opened.

XXXV.

35.

Super lectulis origines quas adverti, hae: lectica, quod legebant unde eam facerent stramenta atque herbam, ut etiam nunc fit in castris; lecticas, ne essent in terra, sublimis in his ponebant; nisi ab eo quod Graeci antiqui dicebant lektron lectum potius. Qui lecticam involvebant, quod fere stramenta erant e segete, segestria appellarunt, ut etiam nunc in castris, nisi si a Graecis: nam stegastron ibi. Lectus mortui quod fertur, dicebant feretrum nostri, Graeci pheretron.

Concerning little couches, the origins which I have noticed are these: lectica, because they used to gather the straw-litter and grass from which to make it, as even now is done in the camps; the litters, so that they might not be on the ground, they used to set up raised upon these; unless rather from that which the ancient Greeks used to call lektron, “bed.” Those who wrapped the lectica, because for the most part the straw-litters were from the cornfield, called them segestria, as even now in the camps, unless it is from the Greeks: for there it is stegastron. The bed of a dead man, because it is borne, our people used to say feretrum, the Greeks pheretron.

Posteaquam transierunt ad culcitas, quod in eas acus aut tomentum aliudve quid calcabant, ab inculcando culcita dicta. Hoc quicquid insternebant ab sternendo stragulum appellabant. Pulvinar vel a plumis vel a pellulis declinarunt.

After they passed over to mattresses, because into them they would tread down needles or flock or some other thing, from inculcating it the culcita was so named. Whatever they would spread underneath upon this, from spreading they called a stragulum. Pulvinar they derived either from plumes or from little pelts.

Quibus operibantur, operimenta, et pallia opercula dixerunt. In his multa peregrina, ut sagum, reno Gallica, ut gaunaca et amphimallum Graeca; contra Latinum toral, ante torum, et torus a torto, quod is in promptu. Ab hac similitudine torulus, in mulieris capite ornatus.

The things with which they used to cover themselves they called “coverings” (operimenta), and they called pallia “covers” (opercula). Among these are many peregrine terms, such as the Gallic sagum and reno, and the Greek gaunaca and amphimallum; by contrast the Latin toral, set before the couch (ante torum), and torus from “twisted” (tortus), since that is in prompt view. From this similitude comes torulus, an ornament on a woman’s head.

Qua simplici scansione scandebant in lectum non altum, scabellum; in altiorem, scamnum. Duplicata scansio gradus dicitur, quod gerit in inferiore superiorem. Graeca sunt peristromata et peripetasmata, sic alia quae item convivii causa ibi multa.

By which simple ascent they used to climb onto a couch not high, a scabellum; onto a higher, a scamnum. A doubled ascent is called a gradus, because it bears the upper on the lower. Greek are the peristromata and peripetasmata, and likewise many other things there also for the sake of the banquet.

XXXVI.

36.

Pecuniae signatae vocabula sunt aeris et argenti haec: as ab aere; dupondius ab duobus ponderibus, quod unum pondus assipondium dicebatur; id ideo quod as erat libra pondo. Deinde ab numero reliquum dictum usque ad centussis, ut as singulari numero, ab tribus assibus tressis, et sic proportione usque ad nonussis.

The terms for coined money of bronze and silver are these: as, from aes; dupondius, from two weights, because one weight was called an assipondium; this for the reason that the as was a pound by weight. Then the rest was named from the number up to the centussis, as as in the singular number, from three asses tressis, and thus in proportion up to the nonussis.

In denario numero hoc mutat, quod primum est ab decem assibus decussis, secundum ab duobus decussibus vicessis, quod dici solitum a duobus bicessis;
reliqua conveniunt, quod est ut tricessis proportione usque ad centussis, quo
maius aeris proprium vocabulum non est: nam ducentis et sic proportione quae dicuntur non magis asses quam denarii aliaeve quae res significantur.

In the denarius reckoning this changes, that the first from ten asses is decussis, the second from two decusses vicessis, which used to be said from two bicessis;
the remaining agree, that is, as tricessis by proportion up to centussis, beyond which
a greater proper vocabulary of bronze does not exist: for at two hundred and thus by proportion the things that are said signify no more asses than denarii or other things.

Aeris minima pars sextula, quod sexta pars unciae. Semuncia, quod dimidia pars unciae: se valet dimidium, ut in selibra et semodio. Uncia ab uno.

The smallest part of bronze is the sextula, because it is the sixth part of an ounce. Semuncia, because it is the half part of an ounce: se means “half,” as in selibra and semodius. Uncia from one.

Sextans ab eo quod sexta pars assis, ut quadrans quod quarta, et triens quod tertia pars. Semis, quod semias, id est dimidium assis, ut supra dictum est. Septunx a septem et uncia conclusum.

Sextans from the fact that it is the sixth part of the as, just as quadrans because it is the fourth, and triens because it is the third part. Semis, because “semi-as,” that is, half of an as, as said above. Septunx, formed from seven and an uncia.

Reliqua obscuriora, quod ab deminutione, et ea quae deminuuntur ita sunt, ut extremas syllabas habeant: ut unde una dempta uncia deunx, dextans dempto sextante, dodrans dempto quadrante, bes, ut olim des, dempto triente.

The remaining are more obscure, because they are from diminution; and those which are diminished are such that they have the final syllables: as, whence, one ounce (uncia) removed, deunx; dextans, with the sextans removed; dodrans, with the quadrans removed; bes, as once des, with the triens removed.

In argento nummi, id ab Siculis: denarii, quod denos aeris valebant; quinarii, quod quinos; sestertius, quod semis tertius. Dupondius enim et semis antiquus sestertius: est et veteris consuetudinis, ut retro aere dicerent, ita ut semis tertius, semis quartus, semis quintus pronuntiarent. Ab semis tertius sestertius dictus.

In silver coinage, “nummi,” that term from the Sicilians: “denarii,” because they were worth 10 asses; “quinarii,” because 5; “sestertius,” because “half-third” (i.e., two and a half). For the dupondius and the semis together constituted the ancient sestertius; and it is also of old custom that, in bronze reckoning, they spoke backwards, so that they pronounced “half-third,” “half-fourth,” “half-fifth.” From “semis tertius” the “sestertius” is so named.

Nummi denarii decuma libella, quod libram pondo as valebat et erat ex argento parva. Simbella, quod libellae dimidium, quod semis assis. Terruncius a tribus unciis, quod libellae ut haec quarta pars, sic quadrans assis.

The denarius-coins: their tenth-part is the libella, because the as was worth a pound by weight, and it was small and of silver. The simbella, because it is half of a libella, that is, a semis of an as. The terruncius, from three unciae, because, in relation to the libella, as this is a fourth part, so it is a quadrans of the as.

Eadem pecunia vocabulum mutat: nam potest item dici dos, arrabo, merces, corollarium. Dos, si nuptiarum causa data; haec Graece dotine: ita enim hoc Siculi. Ab eodem donum: nam Graece ut Aeolis doneion, et ut alii doma et ut Attici dosin.

The same money changes its vocable: for it can likewise be called dos, arrabo, merces, corollarium. Dos, if given for the sake of nuptials; this in Greek dotine: for thus the Sicilians [call] it. From the same, donum: for in Greek, as the Aeolians, doneion, and as others, doma, and as the Attics, dosin.

Arrabo sic data, ut reliquum reddatur: hoc verbum item a Graeco arrhabon. Reliquum, quod ex eo quod debitum reliquum.

Arrabo is thus given, so that the remainder may be rendered: this word likewise is from the Greek arrhabon. Remainder, because from that which is owed, the remaining part.

Damnum a demptione, cum minus re factum quam quanti constat. Lucrum ab luendo, si amplius quam ut exsolveret, quanti esset, receptum. Detrimentum a detritu, quod ea quae trita minoris pretii.

Loss from demption, when less has been made in the thing than what it is valued at. Lucre from luere, if more than what would have to be paid out, given what it was worth, has been received. Detriment from detrition, because those things which are worn are of lesser price.

Ab eodem trimento, intertrimentum ab eo, quod duo quae inter se trita, et deminuta; a quo etiam intertrigo dicta.

From the same trimentum, intertrimentum from it, because two things which are rubbed between themselves are worn down and diminished; whence also “intertrigo” is so called.

Multa ea pecunia quae a magistratu dicta, ut exigi posset ob peccatum; quod singulae dicuntur, appellatae eae multae, et quod olim vinum dicebant multam: itaque cum in dolium aut culleum vinum addunt rustici, prima urna addita dicunt etiam nunc. Poena a poeniendo aut quod post peccatum sequitur. Pretium, quod emptionis aestimationisve causa constituitur, dictum a peritis, quod hi soli facere possunt recte id.

Mulct (fine) is that money which is pronounced by a magistrate, so that it might be exacted on account of a transgression; because they are said singly, those are called multae, and because in former times they called wine a multa: therefore, when rustics add wine into a cask or a leather-sack, they even now call the first urn added the multa. Penalty from punishing, or because it follows after a transgression. Price, which is established for the sake of a purchase or of a valuation, is said to be from the skilled (periti), because they alone can do that rightly.

Si quid datum pro opera aut opere, merces, a merendo. Quod manu factum erat et datum pro eo, manupretium, a manibus et pretio. Corollarium, si additum praeter quam quod debitum; eius vocabulum fictum a corollis, quod eae, cum placuerant actores, in scaena dari solitae.

If anything was given for service or for work, wages, from meriting. That which was done by hand and given in return for it, hand‑price, from hands and price. Corollary, if something added beyond what was owed; its vocable coined from corollas (garlands), because these, when the actors had pleased, were accustomed to be given on the stage.

Praeda est ab hostibus capta, quod manu parta, ut parida praeda. Praemium a praeda, quod ob recte quid factum concessum.

Prey is [what is] captured from enemies, because it is won by hand—like “parida” prey. A premium (reward) is from prey, because it is granted on account of something done rightly.

Si datum quod reddatur, mutuum, quod Siculi moiton: itaque scribit Sophron
Moiton antimon.
Et munus quod mutuo animo qui sunt dant officii causa; alterum munus, quod muniendi causa imperatum, a quo etiam municipes, qui una munus fungi debent, dicti.

If something is given to be returned, [it is] a mutuum, which the Sicilians [call] moiton: and so Sophron writes
Moiton antimon.
And a munus is what those who are of a mutual mind give for the sake of office; another kind of munus is that imposed for the sake of muniendi (fortifying), from which also municipes, who ought together to perform a munus, are named.

Si est ea pecunia quae in iudicium venit in litibus, sacramentum a sacro; qui petebat et qui infitiabatur, de aliis rebus uterque quingenos aeris ad pontificem deponebant, de aliis rebus item certo alio legitimo numero actum; qui iudicio vicerat, suum sacramentum e sacro auferebat, victi ad aerarium redibat.

If it is that money which comes into judgment in litigations, the sacrament from the sacred; the one who sought (the plaintiff) and the one who denied (the defendant), concerning certain matters each used to deposit five hundred asses of bronze with the pontiff; concerning other matters likewise it was transacted by some other fixed legitimate number; he who had won in the judgment took away his sacrament from the sacred fund, that of the defeated returned to the treasury.

Tributum dictum a tribubus, quod ea pecunia, quae populo imperata erat, tributim a singulis pro portione census exigebatur. Ab hoc ea quae assignata erat attributum dictum; ab eo quoque quibus attributa erat pecunia, ut militi reddant, tribuni aerarii dicti; id quod attributum erat, aes militare; hoc est quod ait Plautus:
Cedit miles, aes petit.
Et hinc dicuntur milites aerarii ab aere, quod stipendia facerent.

Tribute is so called from the tribes, because that money which had been imposed upon the people was exacted, tribe by tribe, from individuals in proportion to their census. From this, that which had been assigned was called an attributum; and from this also those to whom money had been attributed, in order that they might render it to the soldier, were called tribunes of the treasury; that which had been attributed was military bronze (aes militare); this is what Plautus says:
The soldier yields; he seeks the bronze.
And hence soldiers are called aerarii from aes (bronze), because they drew stipends.

Hoc ipsum stipendium a stipe dictum, quod aes quoque stipem dicebant: nam quod asses librae, pondo erant, qui acceperant maiorem numerum non in arca
ponebant, sed in aliqua cella stipabant, id est componebant, quo minus loci occuparet; ab stipando stipem dicere coeperunt. Stips ab stoibe fortasse, Graeco verbo. Id apparet, quod ut tum institutum etiam nunc diis cum thesauris asses dant stipem dicunt, et qui pecuniam alligat, stipulari et restipulari.

This very stipend was said from stips, because they also called bronze-money stips: for since the asses were of a pound-weight, those who had received a greater number did not place them in a chest
but in some storeroom packed them, that is, composed them, so that they might occupy less space; from packing they began to say stips. Stips perhaps from stoibe, a Greek word. This is evident, because as it was instituted then, even now they give asses to the gods with the treasuries and call it stips, and for the one who binds money, they say “to stipulate” and “to re-stipulate.”

Militis stipendia ideo, quod eam stipem pendebant; ab eo etiam Ennius scribit:
Poeni stipendia pendunt.

The soldier’s stipends are [so called] for this reason, because they paid that stips; from this also Ennius writes:
The Punics pay stipends.

Ab eodem aere pendendo dispensator, et in tabulis scribimus expensum et inde prima pensio et sic secunda aut quae alia, et dispendium, ideo quod in dispendendo solet minus fieri; compendium quod cum compenditur una fit; a quo usura, quod in sorte accedebat, impendium appellatum; quae cum non accederet ad sortem usu, usura dicta, ut sors quod suum fit sorte. Per trutinam solvi solitum: vestigium etiam nunc manet in aede Saturni, quod ea etiam nunc propter pensuram trutinam habet positam. Ab aere Aerarium appellatum.

From this same paying by bronze comes the dispenser; and in the account‑books we write “expense,” and from that the first payment and so the second or whatever other one; and “dispendium,” because in disbursing it is wont to become less; “compendium,” because when it is weighed together it becomes one; and from this “usury/interest,” that which was added to the principal, was called “impendium”; which, since by usage it did not accrue to the principal, was called “usury,” just as “lot” (sors) is so named because what becomes one’s own is by lot. It used to be paid out by the balance: a trace even now remains in the temple of Saturn, because that temple even now, on account of the weighing, has a balance set up. From bronze it is called the Aerarium (Treasury).

XXXVII.

37.

Ad vocabula quae pertinere sumus rati ea quae loca et ea quae in locis sunt satis ut arbitror dicta, quod neque parum multa sunt aperta neque, si amplius velimus, volumen patietur. Quare in proximo, ut in primo libro dixi, quod sequitur de temporibus dicam.

Regarding the terms which we have thought to pertain, I judge that enough has been said about those which are places and those which are in places, since neither are too few matters laid open, nor, if we should wish more, will the volume permit. Wherefore in the next, as I said in the first book, I shall speak about what follows, concerning times.