Attic Nights (12.13-13.2)

What is meant by the expression

within the Kalends,

whether it signifies

before the Kalends

or

on the Kalends,

or both; also the meaning of

within the Ocean

and

within Mount Taurus

in a speech of Marcus Tullius, and of

within the limit

in one of his letters.

WHEN I had been named by the consuls a judge extraordinary at Rome, [*] and ordered to give judgment

within the Kalends,

I asked Sulpicius Apollinaris, a learned man, whether the phrase

within the Kalends

included the Kalends themselves; and I told him that I had been duly appointed, that the Kalends had been set as the limit, and that I was to give judgment

within

that day.

Why,

said he,

do you make this inquiry of me rather than of some one of those who are students of the law and learned in it, whom you are accustomed to take into your counsel when about to act as judge?

Then I answered him as follows:

If I needed information about some ancient point of law that had been established, one that was contested and ambiguous, or one that was newly ratified, I should naturally have gone to inquire of those whom you mention. But when the meaning, use and nature of Latin words is to be investigated, I should indeed be stupid and mentally blind, if, having the opportunity of consulting you, I had gone to another rather than to you.

Hear then,

said he,

my opinion about the meaning of the word, [*] but be it understood that you will not act according to what I shall say about its nature, but according to what you shall learn to be the interpretation agreed upon by all, or by very many, men; for not only are the true and proper significations of common words changed by long usage, but even the provisions of the laws themselves become a dead letter by tacit consent.

Then he proceeded to discourse, in my hearing and that of several others, in about this fashion:

When the time,

said he, "is so defined that the judge is to render a decision 'within the Kalends, everyone at once jumps to the conclusion that there is no doubt that the verdict may lawfully be rendered before the Kalends, and I observe that the only question is the one which you raise, namely, whether the decision may lawfully be rendered also on the Kalends. But undoubtedly the word itself is of such origin and such a nature that when the expression 'within the Kalends' is used, no other day ought to be meant than the Kalends alone. For those three words intra, citra, ultra (within, this side, beyond), by which definite boundaries of places are indicated, among the early writers were expressed by monosyllables, in, cis, uls. Then, since these particles had a somewhat obscure utterance because of their brief and slight sound, the same syllable was added to all three words, and what was formerly cis Tiberim (on this side of the Tiber) and uls Tiberim (beyond the Tiber) began to be called citra Tiberim and ultra Tiberim; and in also became intra by the addition of the same syllable. Therefore all these expressions are, so to speak, related, being united by common terminations: intra oppidum, ultra oppidum, citra oppidum, of which intra, as I have said, is equivalent to in; for one who says intra oppidum, intra cubiculum, intra ferias means nothing else than in oppido (in the town), in cubiculo (in the room), in feriis (during the festival)."

'Within the Kalends,' then, is not 'before the Kalends,' but 'on the Kalends'; that is, on the very day on which the Kalends fall. Therefore, according to the meaning of the word itself, one who is ordered to give judgment 'within the Kalends,' unless he do so on the Kalends, acts contrary to the order contained in the phrase; for if he does so earlier, he renders a decision not ' within' but ' before the Kalends.' But somehow or other the utterly absurd interpretation has been generally adopted,

v2.p.403

that ' within the Kalends' evidently means also ' on this side of the Kalends' or 'before the Kalends'; for these are nearly the same thing. And, besides, it is doubted whether a decision may be rendered on the Kalends also, since it must be rendered neither beyond nor before that date, but 'within the Kalends,' a time which lies between these; that is to say, ' on the Kalends.' But no doubt usage has gained the victory, the mistress not only of all things, but particularly of language.

After this very learned and clear discussion of the subject by Apollinaris, I then spoke as follows:

It occurred to me,

said I,

before coming to you, to inquire and investigate how our ancestors used the particle in question. Accordingly, I found that Tullius in his Third Oration against Verres wrote thus: [*] 'There is no place within the ocean (intra oceanum) either so distant or so hidden, that the licentiousness and injustice of our countrymen has not penetrated it.' He uses 'within the ocean' contrary to your reasoning; for he does not, I think, wish to say 'in the ocean,' but he indicates all the lands which are surrounded by the ocean and to which our countrymen have access; and these are 'this side the ocean,' not 'in the ocean.' For he cannot be supposed to mean some islands or other, which are spoken of as far within the waters of the ocean itself.

Then with a smile Sulpicius Apollinaris replied:

Keenly and cleverly, by Heaven! have you confronted me with this Ciceronian passage; but Cicero said ' within the ocean,' not, as you interpret it, ' this side ocean.' What pray can be said to be 'on this side of the ocean,' when the ocean surrounds and

v2.p.405

encircles all lands on every side? [*] For that which is 'on this side' of a thing, is outside of that thing; but how can that be said to be ' within' which is without? But if the ocean were only on one side of the world, then the land in that part might be said to be 'this side the ocean,' or 'before the ocean.' But since the ocean surrounds all lands completely and everywhere, nothing is on this side of it, but, all lands being walled in by the embrace of its waters, everything which is included within its shore is in its midst, just as in truth the sun moves, not on this side of the heavens, but within and in them.

At the time, what Sulpicius Apollinaris said seemed to be learned and acute. But later, in a volume of Letters to Servius Sulpicius by Marcus Tullius, I found

within moderation

(intra modum) used in the same sense that those give to

within the Kalends

who mean to say

this side of the Kalends.

These are the words of Cicero, which I quote: [*]

But yet since I have avoided the displeasure of Caesar, who would perhaps think that I did not regard the present government as constitutional if I kept silence altogether, I shall do this [*] moderately, or even less than moderately (intra modum), so as to consult both his wishes and my own desires.

He first said

I shall do this moderately,

that is, to a fair and temperate degree; then, as if this expression did not please him and he wished to correct it, he added

or even within moderation,

thus indicating that he would do it to a less extent than might be considered moderate; that is, not up to the very limit, but somewhat short of, or

on this side of

the limit.

Also in the speech which he wrote In Defence of Publius Sestius Cicero says

within Mount Taurus

in such a way as to mean, not

on Mount Taurus,

but

as far as the mountain and including the mountain itself.

These are Cicero's own words in the speech which I have mentioned: [*]

Our forbears, having overcome Antiochus the Great after a mighty struggle on land and sea, ordered him to confine his realm 'within Mount Taurus.' Asia, which they had taken from him, they gave to Attalus, to be his kingdom.

Cicero says:

They ordered him to confine his realm within Mount Taurus,

which is not the same as when we say

within the room,

unless

within the mountain

may appear to mean what is within the regions which are separated by the interposition of Mount Taurus. [*] For just as one who is

within a room

is not in the walls of the room, but is within the walls by which the room is enclosed, which walls themselves are yet equally in the room, just so one who rules

within Mount Taurus,

not only rules on Mount Taurus but also in those regions which are bounded by Mount Taurus.

According therefore to the analogy of the words of Marcus Tullius may not one who is bidden to make a decision

within the Kalends

lawfully make it before the Kalends and on the Kalends themselves? And this results, not from a sort of privilege conceded to ignorant usage, but from an accurate regard for reason, since all time which is embraced by the day of the Kalends is correctly said to be

within the Kalends.

The meaning and origin of the particle saltem.

WE were inquiring what the original meaning of the particle saltem (at least) was, and what was the derivation of the word; for it seems to have been so formed from the first that it does not appear, like some aids to expression, to have been adopted inconsiderately and irregularly. And there was one man who said that he had read in the Grammatical Notes of Publius Nigidius [*] that saltem was derived from si aliter, and that this itself was an elliptical expression, since the complete sentence was si aliter non potest,

if otherwise, it cannot be.

But I myself have nowhere come upon that statement in those Notes of Publius Nigidius, although I have read them, I think, with some care.

However, that phrase si aliter non potest does not seem at variance with the meaning of the word under discussion. But yet to condense so many words into a very few letters shows a kind of misplaced subtlety. There was also another man, devoted to books and letters, who said that saltem seemed to him to be formed by the syncope of a medial u, saying that what we call saltem was originally salute.

For when some other things have been requested and refused, then,

said he,

we are accustomed, as if about to make a final request which ought by no means to be denied, to say ' this at least (saltem) ought to be done or given,' as if at last seeking safety salutem, which it is surely most just to grant and to obtain.

But this also, though ingeniously contrived, seems too far-fetched. I thought therefore that further investigation was necessary. [*]

That Sisenna in his Histories has frequently used adverbs of the type of celatim, vellicatim and saltuatim.

WHILE diligently reading the History of Sisenna, I observed that he used adverbs of this form: cursim (rapidly), properatim (hastily), celatim, vellicatim, salluatim. Of these the first two, since they are more common, do not require illustration. The rest are to be found in the sixth book of the Histories in these passages:

He arranged his men in ambush as secretly (celatim) as he could.

[*] Also in another place: [*]

I have written of the events of one summer in Asia and Greece in a consecutive form, that I might not by writing piecemeal or in disconnected fashion (vellicatim aut saltuatim) confuse the minds of my readers.

[*]

A somewhat careful inquiry into these words of Marcus Tullius in his first Oration against Antony:

But many things seem to threaten contrary even to nature and to fate

; and a discussion of the question whether the words

fate

and

nature

mean the same thing or something different.

MARCUS CICERO, in his first Oration against Antony,[*] has left us these words:

I hastened then to follow him whom those present did not follow; not that I might be of any service, for I had no hope of that nor could I promise it, but in order that if anything to which human nature is liable should happen to me (and many things seem to threaten contrary even to nature and contrary to fate) I might leave what I have said to-day as a witness to my country of my constant devotion to its interests.

Cicero says

contrary to nature and contrary to fate.

Whether he intended both words,

fate

and

nature,

to have the same meaning and has used two words to designate one thing, [*] or whether he so divided and separated them that nature seems to bring some casualties and fate others, I think ought to be investigated; and this question ought especially to be asked—how it is that he has said that many things to which humanity is liable can happen contrary to fate, when the plan and order and a kind of unconquerable necessity of fate are so ordained that all things must be included within the decrees of fate; unless perhaps he has followed Homer's saying:

Lest, spite of fate, you enter Hades' home.

[*]

But there is no doubt that Cicero referred to a violent and sudden death, which may properly seem to happen contrary to nature.

But why he has put just that kind of death outside the decrees of fate it is not the part of this work to investigate, nor is this the time. The point, however, must not be passed by, that Virgil too had that same opinion about fate which Cicero had, when in his fourth book he said of Elissa, who inflicted a violent death upon herself: [*]

For since she perished not by fate's decree,

Nor earned her death;

just as if, in making an end of life, those deaths which are violent do not seem to come by fate's decree. Cicero, however, seems to have followed the words of Demosthenes, a man gifted with equal wisdom and eloquence, which express about the same idea concerning nature and fate. For Demosthenes in that splendid oration entitled On the Crown wrote as follows [*] :

He who thinks that he was born only for his parents, awaits the death appointed by fate, the natural death; but he who thinks that he was born also for his country, will be ready to die that he may not see his country enslaved.

What Cicero seems to have called

fate

and

nature,

Demosthenes long before termed

fate

and

the natural death.

For

a natural death

is one which comes in the course of fate and nature, as it were, and is caused by no force from without.

About an intimate talk of the poets Pacuvius and Accius in the town of Tarentum.

THOSE who have had leisure and inclination to inquire into the life and times of learned men and hand them down to memory, have related the following anecdote of the tragic poets Marcus Pacuvius and Lucius Accius:

Pacuvius,

they say,

when already enfeebled by advanced age and constant bodily illness, had withdrawn from Rome to Tarentum. Then Accius, who was a much younger man, coming to Tarentum on his way to Asia, visited Pacuvius, and being hospitably received and detained by him for several days, at his request read him his tragedy entitled Atreus.

Then they say that Pacuvius remarked that what he had written seemed sonorous and full of dignity, but that nevertheless it appeared to him somewhat harsh and rugged.

What you say is true,

replied Accius,

and I do not greatly regret it; for it gives me hope that what I write hereafter will be better. For they say it is with the mind as it is with fruits; those which are at first harsh and bitter, later become mild and sweet; but those which at once grow mellow and soft, and are juicy in the beginning, presently become, not ripe, but decayed. Accordingly, it has seemed to me that something should be left in the products of the intellect for time and age to mellow.