"Scipio invicte;"
and likewise I myself in
"Hoc motu radiantis ETESIAE IN Vada Ponti."
This, however, would seldom be suffered among us, though the Greeks often commend it as a beauty.
But why do I speak of a collision of vowels? for, omitting this, we have frequently contracted our words for the sake of brevity; as in multi' modis, vas' argenteis, palm' et crinibus, tecti' fractis, &c. We have sometimes also contracted our proper names, to give them a smoother sound: for as we have changed Duellum into Bellum, and duis into bis, so Duellius, who defeated the Carthagenians at sea, was called Bellius, though all his ancestors were named Duellii. We likewise abbreviate our words, not only for convenience, but to please and gratify the ear. For how otherwise came axilla to be changed into ala, but by the omission of an unweildy consonant, which the elegant pronunciation of our language has likewise banished from the words maxillae, taxillae, vexillum, and paxillum?
Upon the same principle, two or more words have been contracted into one, as sodes for si audes, sis for si vis, capsis for cape si vis, ain' for aisne, nequire for non quire, malle for magis velle, and nolle for non velle; and we often say dein' and exin' for deinde and exinde. It is equally evident why we never say cum nobis, but nobiscum; though we do not scruple to say cum illis;—viz. because, in the former case, the union of the consonants m and n would produce a jarring sound: and we also say mecum and tecum, and not cum me and cum te, to correspond with nobiscum and vobiscum. But some, who would correct antiquity rather too late, object to these contractions: for, instead of prob DEÛM atque hominum fidem, they say Deorum. They are not aware, I suppose, that custom has sanctified the licence. The same Poet, therefore, who, almost without a precedent, has said patris mei MEÛM FACTÛM pudet, instead of meorum factorum,—and textitur exitiûm examen rapit for exitiorum, does not choose to say liberum, as we generally do in the expressions cupidos liberûm, and in liberûm loco, but, as the literary virtuosos above-mentioned would have it,
neque tuum unquam in gremium extollas LIBERORUM ex te genus,
and,
namque Aesculapî LIBERORUM.
But the author before quoted says in his Chryses, not only