Attic Nights (16.8-16.12)

The meaning of what the logicians call

an axiom,

and what it is called by our countrymen; and some other things which belong to the elements of the dialectic art.

WHEN I wished to be introduced to the science of logic and instructed in it, it was necessary to take up and learn what the dialecticians call ei)sagwgai/ or

introductory exercises.

[*] Then because at first I had to learn about axioms, which Marcus Varro calls, [*] now proposita, or

propositions,

and now proloquia, or

preliminary statements,

I sought diligently for the Commentary on Proloquia of Lucius Aelius, a learned man, who was the teacher of Varro; and finding it in the library of Peace, [*] I read it. But I found in it nothing that was written to instruct or to make the matter clear, but Aelius [*] seems to have made that book rather as suggestions for his own use than for the purpose of teaching others.

I therefore of necessity returned to my Greek books. From these I obtained this definition of an axiom: lekto\n au)totele\s a)po/fanton o(/son a)f' au(tw. [*] This I forbore to turn into Latin, since it would have been necessary to use new and as yet uncoined words, such as, from their strangeness, the ear could hardly endure. But Marcus Varro in the twenty-fourth book of his Latin Language, dedicated to Cicero, thus defines the word very briefly: [*]

A proloquium is a statement in which nothing is lacking.

But his definition will be clearer if I give an example. An axiom, then, or a preliminary proposition, if you prefer, is of this kind:

Hannibal was a Carthaginian

;

Scipio destroyed Numantia

;

Milo was found guilty of murder

;

pleasure is neither a good nor an evil

; and in general any saying which is a full and perfect thought, so expressed in words that it is necessarily either true or false, is called by the logicians an

axiom,

by Marcus Varro, as I have said, a

proposition,

but by Marcus Cicero [*] a pronuntiatum, or

pronouncement,

a word however which he declared that he used

only until I can find a better one.

But what the Greeks call sunhmme/non a)ci/wma, or

a hypothetical syllogism,

[*] some of our countrymen [*] call adiunctum, others conexum. [*] The following are examples of this:

If Plato is walking, Plato is moving

;

if it is day, the sun is above the earth.

Also what they call sumpeplegme/non, or

a compound proposition,

we call coniunctum or copulatum; for example:

Publius Scipio, son of Paulus, was twice consul and celebrated a triumph, and held the censorship, and was the colleague of Lucius Mummius in his censorship.

But in the whole of a proposition of this kind, if one member is false, even if the rest are true, the whole is said to be false. For if to all those true statements which I have made about that Scipio I add

and he worsted Hannibal in Africa,

which is false, all those other statements which are made in conjunction will not be true, because of this one false statement which is made with them.

There is also another form, which the Greeks call diezeugme/non a)ci/wma, or

a disjunctive proposition,

and we call disiunctum. For example:

Pleasure is either good or evil, or it is neither good nor evil.

[*] Now all statements which are contrasted ought to be opposed to each other, and their opposites, which the Greeks call a)ntikei/mena, ought also to be opposed. Of all statements which are contrasted, one ought to be true and the rest false. But if none at all of them is true, or if all, or more than one, are true, or if the contrasted things are not at odds, or if those which are opposed to each other are not contrary, then that is a false contrast and is called paradiezeugme/non. For instance, this case, in which the things which are opposed are not contraries:

Either you run or you walk or you stand.

These acts are indeed contrasted, but when opposed they are not contrary; for

not to walk

and

not to stand

and

not to run

are not contrary to one another, since those things are called

contraries

which cannot be true at the same time. But you may at once and at the same time neither walk, stand, nor run.

But for the present it will be enough to have given this little taste of logic, and I need only add by way of advice, that the study and knowledge of this science in its rudiments does indeed, as a rule, seem forbidding and contemptible, as well as disagreeable and useless. But when you have made some progress, then finally its advantages will become clear to you, and a kind of insatiable desire for acquiring it will arise; so much so, that if you do not set bounds to it, there will be great danger lest, as many others have done, you should reach a second childhood amid those mazes and meanders of logic, as if among the rocks of the Sirens.

The meaning of the expression susque deque, which occurs frequently in the books of early writers.

SUSQUE dequefero, susque deque sum, or susque deque habeo [*] —for all these forms occur, meaning

it's all

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one to me

—is an expression used in the everyday language of cultivated men. It occurs frequently in poems too and in the letters of the early writers; but you will more readily find persons who flaunt the phrase than who understand it. So true is it that many of us hasten to use out-of-the-way words that we have stumbled upon, but not to learn their meaning. Now susque deque ferre means to be indifferent and not to lay much stress upon anything that happens; sometimes it means to neglect and despise, having about the force of the Greek word a)diaforein. Laberius says in his Compitalia: [*]

Now you are dull, now 'tis all one to you (susque deque fers);

Your wife sits by you on the marriage bed, [*]

A penny slave unseemly language dares.

Marcus Varro in his Sisenna, or On History says: [*]

But if all these things did not have similar beginnings and sequels, it would be all one (susque deque esset).

So Lucilius in his third book writes: [*]

All this was sport, to us it was all one (susque deque fierunt),

All one it was, I say, all sport and play;

That was hard toil, when we gained Setia's bourne:

Goat-traversed heights, Aetnas, rough Athoses.

The meaning of proletarii and capite censi; also of adsiduus in the Twelve Tables, and the origin of the word.

ONE day there was a cessation of business in the Forum at Rome, and as the holiday was being joyfully celebrated, it chanced that one of the books of the Annals of Ennius was read in an assembly of very many persons. In this book the following lines occurred: [*]

With shield and savage sword is Proletarius armed

At public cost; they guard our walls, our mart and town.

Then the question was raised there, what proletarius meant. And seeing in that company a man who was skilled in the civil law, a friend of mine, I asked him to explain the word to us; and when he rejoined that he was an expert in civil law and not in grammatical matters, I said: " You in particular ought to explain this, since, as you declare, you are skilled in civil law. For Quintus Ennius took this word from your Twelve Tables, in which, if I remember aright, we have the following: [*] 'For a freeholder let the protector [*] be a freeholder. For a proletariate citizen [*] let whoso will be protector.

We therefore ask you to consider that not one of the books of Quintus Ennius' Annals, but the Twelve

v3.p.169

Tables are being read, and interpret the meaning of 'proletariate citizen' in that law.

It is true,

said he,

that if I had learned the law of the Fauns and Aborigines, I ought to explain and interpret this. But since proletarii, adsidui, sanates, vades, subvades, 'twenty-five asses,' 'retaliation,' and trials for theft 'by plate and girdle' [*] have disappeared, and since all the ancient lore of the Twelve Tables, except for legal questions before the court of the centumviri, was put to sleep by the Aebutian law, [*] I ought only to exhibit interest in, and knowledge of, the law and statutes and legal terms which we now actually use.

"

Just then, by some chance, we caught sight of Julius Paulus passing by, the most learned poet within my recollection. We greeted him, and when he was asked to enlighten us as to the meaning and derivation of that word, he said: "Those of the Roman commons who were humblest and of smallest means, and who reported no more than fifteen hundred asses at the census, were called proletarii, but those who were rated as having no property at all, or next to none, were termed capite censi, or 'counted by head.' And the lowest rating of the capite censi was three hundred and seventy-five asses. But since property and money were regarded as a hostage and pledge of loyalty to the State, and since there was in them a kind of guarantee and assurance of patriotism, neither the proletarii nor the capite censi were enrolled as soldiers except in some time of extraordinary disorder, because they had

little or no property and money. However, the class of proletarii was somewhat more honourable in fact and in name than that of the capite censi; for in times of danger to the State, when there was a scarcity of men of military age, they were enrolled for hasty service, [*] and arms were furnished them at public expense. And they were called, not capite censi, but by a more auspicious name derived from their duty and function of producing offspring, for although they could not greatly aid the State with what small property they had, yet they added to the population of their country by their power of begetting children. Gaius Marius is said to have been the first, according to some in the war with the Cimbri in a most critical period for our country, or more probably, as Sallust says, in the Jugurthine war, to have enrolled soldiers from the capite censi, since such an act was unheard of before that time. Adsidaus in the Twelve Tables [*] is used of one who is rich and well to do, [*] either because he contributed 'asses' (that is, money) when the exigencies of the State required it, or from his 'assiduity' in making contributions according to the amount of his property." [*]

Now the words of Sallust in the Iugurthine War about Gaius Marius and the capite censi are these: [*]

He himself in the meantime enrolled soldiers, not according to the classes, or in the manner of our forefathers, but allowing anyone to volunteer, for the most part the lowest class (capite censos). Some say that he did this through lack of good men,

v3.p.173

others because of a desire to curry favour, since that class had given him honour and rank, and as a matter of fact, to one who aspires to power the poorest man is the most helpful.

A story taken from the books of Herodotus about the destruction of the Psylli, who dwelt in the African Syrtes.

THE race of the Marsians in Italy is said to have sprung from the son of Circe. 'Therefore it was given to the Marsic men, provided their families were not stained through the admixture of foreign alliances, by an inborn hereditary power to be the subduers of poisonous serpents and to perform wonderful cures by incantations and the juices of plants.

We see certain persons called Psylli endowed with this same power. And when I had sought in ancient records for information about their name and race, I found at last in the fourth book of Herodotus [*] this story about them: that the Psylli had once been neighbours in the land of Africa of the Nasamones, and that the South Wind at a certain season in their territories blew very long and hard; that because of that gale all the water in the regions which they inhabited dried up; that the Psylli, deprived of their water supply, were grievously incensed at the South Wind because of that injury and voted to take up arms and march against the South Wind as against an enemy, and demand restitution according to the laws of war. And when they had thus set out, the South Wind

came to meet them with a great blast of air, and piling upon them mountainous heaps of sand, buried them all with their entire forces and arms. Through this act the Psylli all perished to a man, and accordingly their territories were occupied by the Nasamones.

Of those words which Cloatius Verus referred to a Greek origin, either quite fittingly or too absurdly and tastelessly.

CLOATIUS VERUS, in the books which he entitled Words taken from the Greek, says not a few things indeed which show careful and keen investigation, but also some which are foolish and trifling.

Errare (to err),

he says, [*]

is derived from the Greek e)/rrein,

and he quotes a line of Homer in which that word occurs: [*] Swift wander (e)/rrei) from the isle, most wretched man. Cloatius also wrote that alucinari, or

dream,

is derived from the Greek a)lu/ein, or

be distraught,

and from this he thinks that the word elucus also is taken, with a change of a to e, meaning a certain sluggishness and stupidity of mind, which commonly comes to dreamy folk. He also derives fascinum, or

charm,

as if it were bascanum, [*] and fascinare, as if it were bascinare, [*] or

bewitch.

All these are fitting and proper enough. But in his fourth book he says: [*]

Faenerator is equivalent to

v3.p.177

fainera/twr, meaning 'to appear at one's best,' since that class of men present an appearance of kindliness and pretend to be accommodating to poor men who are in need of money

; and he declared that this was stated by Hypsicrates, a grammarian whose books on Words Borrowed from the Greeks are very well known. But whether Cloatius himself or some other blockhead gave vent to this nonsense, nothing can be more silly. For faenerator, as Marcus Varro wrote in the third book of his Latin Diction, [*]

is so called from feanus, or 'interest,' but faenus,

he says,

is derived from fetus, [*] or 'offspring,' and from a birth, as it were, from money, producing and giving increase.

Therefore he says that Marcus Cato [*] and others of his time pronounced generator without the letter a, just as fetus itself and fecunditas were pronounced.