BOOK IX.
ARGUMENT.
The subject of the ninth book is known from several notices in the old grammarians.[1726] It is said to have contained strictures on the orthography of the ancient writers; some emendations of the verses of Accius and Ennius (with especial reference to the former, who is said to have always used double vowels to express a long syllable), and a mention of the double genius, who, according to the notion of Euclides the Socratic, attends upon each individual of the human race. The exact connection of this latter topic with the foregoing, is not at present evident to us. It appears that this book had anciently the title of "Fornix" as the work of Pomponius on a cognate subject was called "Marsyas." Van Heusde supposes that it took its name from the Fabian arch on the Via Sacra, and that its subject resembled the ninth of Horace's first book of Satires. The poet, in his walk along the Via Sacra, meets with a troublesome fellow near the arch of Fabius, who pesters him with a speech which he is about to deliver, as defendant in a cause, and which he wishes Lucilius to look over and correct; and that this furnishes the poet with the groundwork for a discussion on several points in grammar, orthography, and rhetoric. With this view Gerlach so far agrees, as to suppose the subject of both Horace's and Lucilius's Satires to have been similar; especially since many similar phrases and sentiments occur in both; but he considers a detailed disquisition on single letters and syllables inconsistent with a desultory conversation, or with a cursory criticism of an oration, and considers it better to confess one's ignorance honestly than indulge in vain-glorious conjecture. Particularly, since many other Fragments of this book have come down to us, wholly irreconcilable with this view of the subject; some referring to avarice, others to the Salii; which, though they might certainly be incidentally mentioned, imply too diversified a subject to be definitely circumscribed within so limited an outline, as Van Heusde conjectures.
1 ... only let the nap of the woof stand erect within....[1727]
2 First is A. I will begin with this; and the words spelled with it. In the first place, A is either a long or short syllable; consequently we will make it one, and, as we say, write it in one and the same fashion, "Pācem, Plăcide, Jānum, Aridum, Acetum," just as the Greeks do. Ἄρες Ἄρες.[1728]
3 ... not very different from this, and badly put together, if with a burr like a dog, I say AR ... this is its name.[1729]
4 ... and there is no reason why you should make it a question or a difficulty whether you should write ACCURRERE with a D or a T.[1730]
5 But it is of great consequence whether ABBITERE have a D or B—[1731]
6 "Now come PUEREI." Put E and I at the end, to make "pueri" the plural; if you put I only, as PupillI, PuerI, LuceilI, this will become the singular number. "Hoc illi factum est unI." Being singular, you will put I only. "Hoc IllEI fecere." Add E to mark the plural. Add also E to MendacEI and FurEI, when you make it the dative case." MEIle hominum, dub MEIlia." Here too we must have both vowels, MEIles, MEIlitiam. Pila, "a ball to play with," Pilum, "a pestle to pound with," will have I simply. But to PEIla, "javelins," you must add E, to give the fuller sound.[1732]
7 Our S, and what after a semi-Greek fashion we call Sigma, admits of no mistake.
8 ... in the word PeLLiciendo.[1733]
9 For just as we see Intro (within) to be a very different word from Intus (inside), so apud se is very different from, and has not the same force as, ad se. "A man invites us to come in and join him (intro ad se). He keeps himself at home, inside his own house (intus apud se)."
10 "The water boils," may be expressed by Fervit (of the third conjugation), or Fervet (of the second conjugation). Or again, Fervit may be the present tense, Fervet the future; both of the third conjugation.
11 So Fervĕre (with the E short, of the third conjugation).
12 You do not perceive the force of this; or how this differs from the other. In the first place, this which we call "Poema" is a small portion. So also an epistle, or any distich which is of no great length, may be a "Poema." A "Poësis" is a whole work, as the whole Iliad; it is one Thesis. So also the Annals of Ennius, that is also a single work, and of much greater magnitude than what I just now styled Poëma. Wherefore I assert, that no one who finds fault with Homer, finds fault with him all through; nor does he criticise, as I said before, the whole Poesis; but simply a single verse, word, proposition, or passage.
13 ... that he is a misshapen old man, gouty in his joints and feet—that he is lame, wretched, emaciated, and ruptured—
14 I seize his beak, and smash his lips, Zopyrus-fashion, and knock out all his front teeth.[1734]
15 For he who makes bricks never has any thing more than common clay with chaff, and stubble mixed with mud.[1735]
16 If she is nothing on the score of beauty, and if in former days she was a harlot and common prostitute, you must have coin and money.
17 ... What if I see some oysters? Shall I be able to detect the very river, and mud, and slime they came from?[1736]
18 He is a corn-chandler, and brings with him his bushel-measure and his leveling-stick.[1737]
19 Study to learn: lest the fact itself and the reasoning confute you—
20 with one thousand sesterces you can gain a hundred—-
21 he had scratched himself, like a boar with his sides rubbed against a tree—
22 ... hence the ancilia, and high-peaked caps, and sacrificial bowls[1738]
23 as the priest begins the solemn dance, and then the main body takes it up after him.[1739]
24 ... herself cuts all the thongs from the hide—
25 ... how he differs from him whom Apollo has rescued. So be it.
26 her motion was as though she were winnowing corn.[1740]