"Gestari junctis nisi desinis, Ædyle, capris,
Qui modo ficus eras, jam caprificus eris."
lib. iv. ep. 52.
In another he instructs those who delight in the chase how to avoid this affliction:
"Stragula succincti venator sume veredi:
Nam solet a nudo surgere ficus equo."
lib. xiv. ep. 86.
And lastly, he thus expresses himself immediately to the present purpose:
"Ut pueros emeret Labienus, vendidit hortos:
Nil nisi ficetum nunc Labienus habet."
lib. xii. ep. 32.
No one who has lived among Italians will fail to perceive the force of these quotations as applied to the feelings excited by this most offensive gesticulation, which is justly held in the greatest abhorrence. Whether it be abstractedly a symbol of the ficus itself, and, in the use, connected with the very worst of its causes; whether it be the genuine remains of a custom actually known among the Romans; or whether a corruption of the infamis digitus, must be left to every one's own determination. The complicated ambiguity of the word fica must be likewise attended to; and whoever is at a loss on this occasion may consult the early Italian dictionaries.
The author of these remarks, pursuing the opinions of others, had already offered another explanation, viz. the story of the Milanese revolt against the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. This he desires to withdraw, as resting on the very weak authority of Albert Crantz, a credulous, and comparatively modern, historian; neither is it probable that an incident so local would have spread so widely throughout Europe. Again, whoever will take the trouble of comparing the Hebrew word techor with the story itself, will feel very much inclined to reject the whole as a fabrication.
The earliest Italian authority for the use of this phrase is the Inferno of Dante. In the twenty-fifth canto are the following lines:
"Al fine delle sue parole, il ladro
Le mani alzò, con ambeduo le fiche
Gridando: togli Dio, ch'a te le squadro."
The miscreant who utters this blasphemy, refines on the gesticulation, and doubles the measure of it. It is also to be found in Sacchetti's hundred and fifteenth novel, and in the Cento novelle antiche, nov. 55.