[11]

IV
EUNTES AD LUDUM LITERARIUM—Going to School

Cirratus, Praetextatus, Titivillitium, Teresula (An Old Woman, A Woman Seller of Vegetables)

The names of the interlocutors in this dialogue for the most part signify something serious and ancient. Cirrati pueri were those boys who wore their hair curled and crisped. Krausz Haar. For the cirrus is an instrument devised for the curling of hair.

Martial:

Nec matutini cirrata caterva magistri.

Juvenal:

Flavam

Caesariem et madido torquentem cornua cirro.

Persius, Satyr, i.:

Ten’ cirratorum centum dictata fuisse