_oino_, _aede_ in _ii_) is,
however, not in any way a peculiarity of early Latin.
however, not in any way a peculiarity of early Latin.
Oxford Book of Latin Verse
This view had
the support of Bentley, who in the _Phalaris_ (226-8) identified the
Saturnian with a metre of Archilochus. [11] 'There's no difference at
all', he says blithely. In more recent times the quantitative theory, in
one form or another, has numbered among its adherents scholars of
repute: e. g. Ritschl, Lucian Mueller, Christ, Havet. To-day it may be
said to be a dead superstition. Its place has been taken by what may be
called the 'semi-quantitative' theory.
2. The 'semi-quantitative' theory was popularized in this country by H.
Nettleship[12] and J. Wordsworth[13]. It enjoyed the vogue which
commonly attends a compromise; and it still has its adherents, as, for
example, E. V. Arnold[14] (who follows the Plautine scholar F. Leo). But
the more it is examined the more it tends, I think, to melt into a
'pure-accentual' theory. 'It allows the shortening of a long syllable
when unaccented (_dĕvictis_)', says Nettleship[15]. Surely to say that
_dĕvictis_ is 'allowed' for _dēvictis_ is to abandon the cause outright.
But it is considerations of a more general character which seem likely
to render untenable both the 'quantitative' and the 'semi-quantitative'
theories. The recent researches of Sievers[16] and others into the
earliest metrical forms tend to shew that this metre is an
'Indo-European' heritage, and that it must be judged in the light of its
Eastern and Germanic cognates.
3. The best opinion, therefore, in recent years has been strongly on the
side of the view which makes the principle of the Saturnian metre purely
accentual. At the moment this view may, in fact, be said to hold the
field. Unhappily those who agree in regarding the metre as purely
accentual agree in little else. We may distinguish two schools:
(a) There is, first, what I may perhaps be allowed to call the
Queen-and-Parlour school. 'There cannot be a more perfect Saturnian
line', says Macaulay, 'than one which is sung in every English nursery--
The queen was in her parlour eating bread and honey'.
Place beside this English line the Latin line which has come to be
regarded as the typical Saturnian--
dabunt malum Metelli Naeuio poetae.
If we accent these five words as Naevius and the Metelli would in
ordinary speech have accented them, we shall have to place our accents
thus:--
dábunt málum Metélli Naéuio poétae;
since by what is known as the Law of the Penultimate the accent in Latin
always falls on the penultimate syllable save in those words of three
(or more) syllables which have a short penultimate and take the accent
consequently on the ante-penultimate syllable. But those who accommodate
the Latin saturnian to the rhythm of 'The queen was in her parlour . . . '
have to postulate an anomalous accentuation:--
dabúnt malúm Metélli | Naéuió poétae.
The Saturnian line is, they hold, a verse falling into two cola, each
colon containing three accented (and an undefined number of unaccented)
syllables--word-accent and verse-accent (i. e. metrical _ictus_)
corresponding necessarily only at the last accented syllable in each
colon (as Metélli . . . poétae above).
Now here there are at least four serious difficulties:
1. While the principle of the verse is accentual half the words in any
given line may be accented as they were never accented anywhere else.
2. Sometimes verse-accent and word-accent do not correspond even at the
last accent in a colon. There is, for example, no better authenticated
Saturnian than
Cornelius Lucius Scipio Barbatus:
and it is incredible that at any period in the history of the Latin
language the word-accent ever fell on the middle syllable of
_Lucius_[17].
3. The incidence of word-accent is left unfixed save so far as the
incidence of verse-accent enables us to fix it. But the incidence of the
verse-accent is itself hopelessly uncertain. In a very large percentage
of saturnian lines we abandon the natural word-accent and have at the
same time no possible means of determining upon what syllable of what
word we are to put the verse-accent.
dabúnt malúm Metélli Naéuió poétae
is simple enough: but when we come to
sin illos deserant fortissimos uiros
magnum stuprum populo fieri per gentes
or
dedet Tempestatibus aide meretod
we come, to speak frankly, to chaos.
4. A large number of well-attested saturnians yield only two accents in
the second _colon_.
(b) Beside the 'Queen-and-Parlour' theory there is what I may call the
Normal Accent Theory. It originated with two papers by W. M. Lindsay in
the _American Journal of Philology_ vol. xiv--papers which furnish a
more thorough and penetrating treatment of the whole subject than is to
be found anywhere else. Lindsay's view is in substance this:
1. The saturnian line falls into two _cola_ of which the first (_a_)
contains _three_, the second (_b_) _two_ accented syllables.
2. _a_ contains seven syllables in all, _b_ contains six (occasionally
five), save when ᵕᵕ takes the place of one accented syllable.
3. The accent is always the normal Latin accent, according to the Law of
the Penultimate.
(A tetrasyllabic word has two accents when it stands at the beginning of
a line, and a pentasyllabic word always. )
4. Each line begins with an accented syllable.
These are the essential rules. In addition Lindsay has been at pains to
determine carefully the accentuation of 'word-groups'. Each word in a
Latin sentence has not necessarily an accent of its own. Thus _apud uos_
is accented _apúd-uos_; so again _in-grémium_, _quei-númquam_, _ís
hic-sítus_. No part of Lindsay's papers throws so much light on the
scansion of the saturnian verses as that which deals with these
word-groups: but it is impossible here to deal with the subject in
detail. I will give here the first two Scipio Epitaphs (5. _i_, _ii_) as
they are scanned and accented by Lindsay:--
_i. _
Cornélius Lúcius | Scípio Barbátus,
Gnáiuod páter prognátus, | fórtis-uir sapiénsque,
quoìus fórma uirtútei | parísuma fúit,
cónsol, cénsor, aidílis | queí-fuit apúd-nos,
Tàurásia, Cisáuna, | Sámnio cépit,
Súbigit ómne Loucánam | ópsidesque abdóucit
_ii. _
Hónc óino plóirime | coséntiunt Római
dùonóro óptimo | fuíse uíro
Lúcium Scípiònem | fílios Barbáti
cónsol cénsor aidílis | híc-fuet apúd-nos:
híc cépit Córsica | Alériaque úrbe,
dédet Tèmpestátebus | áide méretod.
But is it certain, after all, that the accent-law in Saturnian verse
_is_ the Law of the Penultimate? There was, as is well known, a period
in the history of the Latin language when this Law did not obtain, but
all Latin words were alike accented on the first syllable. When this
period ended we cannot precisely determine. But, as Lindsay himself
points out, the influence of the old protosyllabic accentuation was not
quite dead even in the time of Plautus. [18] Now the saturnian verse
undoubtedly reaches back to a very remote antiquity: even of our extant
specimens some are very likely as old as the eighth century. It is
probable enough, therefore, that the accent-law known at any rate to the
first saturnian poets was the old protosyllabic law. And when we
remember the hieratic character of the earliest poetry, when we take
into account the conservatism of any priestly ritual or rule, may we not
suppose it possible that saturnian verse retained the ancient law of
accentuation long after the Law of the Penultimate had asserted itself
in ordinary speech and in other forms of literature? Accented, as
Lindsay accents it, according to the Law of the Penultimate, the
saturnian loses the lilt and swing which it has under the old
'Queen-and-Parlour' system.
dábunt málum Metélli Naéuio poétae
is not a music to pray to or dance to or die to. A much easier and more
lively movement would be
dábunt málum Mételli Naéuio póetae,
that is, the movement given by the old protosyllabic accentuation.
The suggestion that the protosyllabic accent survived as a conscious
archaism in saturnian verse right down to the time of the Scipios is, I
think, at any rate worth considering. It carries us into speculations
far wider than the particular problem with which it is immediately
concerned. For if the protosyllabic law did actually survive in this way
we can the more easily explain the swift and decisive victory which the
Hellenizing Latin poetry won over the old native verse. What was
conquered was an archaism, something purely artificial. The conquering
force was not merely Hellenism but Hellenism _plus_ a complete and
radical change in Latin speech.
If anyone cares to analyse the extant remains of saturnian verse in the
light of this suggestion, I would formulate three rules which can, I
think, be deduced:
1. Each line has five feet, and each foot contains one accented syllable
_plus_ either one or two unaccented syllables. [19] The first foot,
however, _may_ consist of a monosyllable.
2. The third foot must consist of a trisyllabic word or
'word-group'[20]: save that occasionally the second and third feet
together may be formed of a quadrisyllabic (or pentasyllabic) word with
secondary accent.
3. The first and second, and again the fourth and fifth, feet may be
either disyllabic or trisyllabic: but (_a_) two trisyllables may not
follow one another in the first two feet, and (_b_) if the fifth foot
(usually trisyllabic) is a disyllable the fourth must be trisyllabic.
The normal type is
─́─ ── │ ─́─ ── │ ─́─ ── ── ││ ─́─ ── │ ─́─ ── ──
││ ─́─ ── ──
A common variation in the first two feet is either
─́─ ── ── │ ─́─ ──, or ─́─ ── │ ─́─ ── ──. A somewhat rare variation
in the last two is ─́─ ── ── │ ─́─ ──. In the first foot ─́─ sometimes
replaces ─́─ ── (or ─́─ ── ──), no doubt owing to the greater stress
at the opening of the verse.
Some exceptions (or apparent exceptions) to these rules will no doubt be
found. But the rules cover most of the extant examples of saturnian
verse: and it must be remembered that the text of our fragments is often
not at all certain. The system outlined has, however, the merit--which
it shares with Lindsay--that it dispenses with most of the alterations
of the text in which other systems involve us.
THE HYMN OF THE ARVAL BROTHERHOOD.
I have given the text of this celebrated piece according to what may be
called the Vulgate; and in the sub-title, in the Glossary and in my
Introduction p. 1 I have followed the ordinary interpretation. I may
perhaps be allowed here to suggest a different view of the poem.
It begins with an appeal to the Lares. These are apparently the Lares
Consitivi, gods of sowing. Then comes an appeal to Marmar, then to Mars.
Then the Semones are invoked, who, like the Lares, are gods of sowing.
There follows a final appeal to Marmar.
It is pretty clear that the Mars, Marmar, or Marmor, invoked in such
iteration is not the war-god, but Mars in his more ancient character of
a god of agriculture. But if this be so, what are we to make of lines
7-9,
satur fu, fere Mars: limen sali: sta berber,
'Be thou glutted, fierce Mars, leap the threshold, stay thy
scourge',--or, as Buecheler takes it, 'stand, wild god'? This sort of
language is appropriate enough to Mars as god of war, but utterly
inappropriate to the farmer's god[21].
Now it so happens that for
satur fu, fere Mars: limen sali, sta berber
the monumental stone to which we owe this inscription offers at one
point
satur fu, fere Mars limen saii sia berber.
Now, when we remember the Lares Consitivi and the Semones, does it not
look very much as though _satur_ stood for _sator_, as though _fere_
were a blunder for _sere_, as though _saii_ were the vocative of Saius,
'sower' (cf. Seia a goddess of sowing, and Greek σάω σήθω), as though
_sia_ were the imperative of the verb _sio_ (moisten)[22], and as
though, finally, _berber_ were to be connected with the Greek βόρβορυς
and meant 'loam'? (I would give much the same sense, 'fat soil' to
_limen_: (from the root _lib-_: cf. Gk. λείβω λειμών). )
We get, then,
sator fu: sere Mars limen Saii, sia berber,
'Be thou the sower: sower Mars, sow the soil, moisten the loam'. And
this suggests what _ought_ to be the meaning of _enos iuuate_. _enos_
_ought_ to mean _harvests_, or at any rate something in that kind. And
why should it not? Hesychius knew a word ἔνος which he glosses by
ἐνιαυτός, ἐπέτειος καρπός. See Suidas _s. v. _ and Herwerden _Lexicon
Suppletorium_.
The Hymn is a hymn for Seedtime. We know, however, that the festival at
which it was sung fell in the month of May. The explanation of this has
been hinted at by Henzen. [23] Henzen points out that the Arval Brothers
entered on their duties at the Saturnalia, and that their worship is
probably connected in its origin with Saturn, the god of sowing. (See
Varro _L. L. _ 5, 57, and _apud_ Aug. _C. D. _ 7. 13 p. 290, 28, Festus
_s. v. _ Saturnus. ) We must suppose, therefore, that at some date when the
meaning of its words had been already lost this hymn was transferred
from a seedtime festival to a harvest festival.
GLOSSARY OF OLD LATIN
1.
_i. _
cante: _cante_ (sometimes said to be an Athematic imper.
2 pers. plur. ).
_ii. _
quome: _cum_.
Leucesie: (_Lucerie_? ) a title of Jupiter as god of lightning.
tet: _te_.
tremonti: _tremunt_.
quor: _cur_.
Curis: 'god of spear-men' (? ): Etruscan _curis_, a spear:
(cf. _Iunonis Curitis_).
decstumum: _dextimum_, 'on the right' (the suffix _-imus_ is not
strictly a superlative suffix, but denotes position: cf. _summus_
(_sup-mus_), _finitimus_, _citimus_).
_iii. _
ulod: _illo_ (? ) (_ollod_) (cf. Umbrian _ulu_).
oriese: _oriere_: future for imperative as in 2 _aduocapit_.
isse: _ipse_ (_ipese_): the form _isse_ is merely
the vulgar spelling of a later period.
ueuet: _uiuit_.
po melios: _optimus_ (? ) ('_po_ pro _potissimum_ positum est in
Saliari carmine', _Festus_).
eu: _heu_ (admirantis).
recum: _regum_ (as _uirco_ for _uirgo_ in the _Duenos Inscription_:
and so always in early Latin until 312 B. C. ).
2.
enos: _nos_ (? ) cf. ἐμέ, ἐμοί.
Lases: _Lares_.
lue rue: _luem et ruinam_.
Marmar: _Mars_.
sins: _sinas_ (? ).
sers: _siueris_ (? ).
pleoris: _pluris_ (cf. πλε(ί)ων = πλεονς = pleios = pleor).
fu: _esto_ (_fufere_ = _esto_, others: as though _fufuere_).
sta berber, 'stay thy scourge' (? ): sta = ἵστα; berber: _uerbera_.
Others interpret, 'stand, fierce one' (berber = _barbare_).
semunis: _semones_, 'gods of the sown fields'.
aduocapit: _aduocabitis_.
5.
_i. _
Gnaiuod: _Gnaeo_: the old abl. in -d: cf. _meretod_ in _ii_.
parisuma: superlative of _par_.
Taurasia Cisauna Samnio: _Taurasiam Cisaunam (in) Samnio_
(or _Samnium_). The dropping of _-m_ (cf.
_oino_, _aede_ in _ii_) is,
however, not in any way a peculiarity of early Latin.
subigit: _subegit_.
abdoucsit: _abduxit_.
_ii. _
oino: _unum_.
ploirime: _plurimi_.
duonoro . . uiro: _bonorum . . uirum_.
Scipione: _Scipionem_.
Corsica Aleriaque urbe: _Corsicam Aleriamque urbem_.
aide: _aedem_.
meretod: _merito_.
_iii. _
apice insigne: _apicem insignem_.
recipit: _recepit_ (as _subigit_ in _i_).
_iv. _
quei minus: _cur minus_.
mactus: 'blessed', 'honoured', 'endowed'.
6.
_i. _
insece: _inseque_, imperat. from _inquam_ (_in(s)quam_): ἔννεπε.
_iv. _
dacrimas: _lacrimas_.
noegeo: 'noegeum amiculi genus', _Festus_: φᾶρος.
_v. _
hemōnem: _hominem_ (cf. _ne-hemo_ = _nemo_) 'son of earth'
(_humus_: cf. Oscan _humuns_ = _homines_).
quamde: _quam_.
topper: _celeriter_: _(is)tod_ + _per_: the old explanation,
_toto opere_, is false.
_vi. _
inserinuntur: _inseruntur_. So in the active we find the 3 pl. pres.
in _-nunt_: _danunt_ (_dant_) _prodinunt_ (_prodeunt_) _nequinunt_
(_nequeunt_). But the forms are unexplained anomalies.
_vii. _
deuenies: _deueniens_ (? ).
ommentans: _ob-manens_ (_manto_ freq. of _maneo_).
7.
_ii. _
ipsus: _ipse_: so _ollus_ and _olle_ for _ille_.
_iii. _
procat: _poscit_.
_v. _
confluges: 'loca in quae diversi rivi confluunt', _Nonius_.
_vi. _
anculabant: _hauriebant_ (cf. Gk. ἀντλεῖν).
_vii. _
struices: 'struices antiqui dicebant exstructiones omnium rerum',
_Festus_.
_viii. _
nefrendem: _sine dentibus_ (_ne_ + _frendo_).
8.
_ii. _
Anchisa: _Anchises_ (_-as_): as _Aenea_ in _iv_, and in later
Latin _Atrida_ &c.
_iii. _
Troiad: _Troia_ (abl. ).
_iv. _
Aenea: _Aeneas_: so _Anchisa_ in _ii_.
_vi. _
concinnat: 'concinnare est apte componere', _Festus_.
_viii. _
mavolunt: _malunt_ (_mage-uolunt_).
9.
_iii. _
cedo: _dic, da_ (the demonstrative particle _-ce_ + old imperative
of _dare_).
_v. _
promicando: 'promicare est extendere et longe iacere', _Nonius_.
12.
nouentium: *nuentium (_annuentium_): cf. the spelling _souo_ = _suo_
in 44. So regularly in the oldest Latin. _ou_ for _u_.
duonum: _donum_ (cf. Umbrian _dunu_, Oscan _dunum_: old Latin
_duo_ = _do_).
negumate: _negate_ (_nec autumate_).
13.
endostaurata facito: _fac ut instaurentur_.
15.
quam mox: 'quam mox significat quam cito', _Festus_.
17.
indu: Greek ἔνδον; as 21. _viii_, and 32 (_endo_): later
the word became confused with, and then entirely supplanted by, _in_.
uolup, 'pleasantly': neut. of an extinct _volupis_,
used adverbially: cf. _facul_, _difficul_.
suaset: (i. e. _suasset_), _suasisset_.
uerbum paucum: _uerborum paucorum_.
21.
_viii. _
imbricitor: _qui imbres ciet_.
23.
euitari: _uita priuari_.
24.
melior mulierum: like _melios recum_ in 1. _iii_.
25.
postilla: _postea_.
29.
accedisset: _accidisset_.
34.
faxit: _fecerit_.
41.
perproquinquam: _perpropinquam_ (cf. πέντε (πέμπε) = quinque,
ἵππος = _equus_, _Pontius_ = _Quintius_).
uerruncent: _uertant_.
42.
dum . . dum: τότε μὲν . . τότε δέ: cf. the use of _dum_ in
_primumdum_, _agedum_, _adesdum_.
44.
souo: _suo_.
45.
clueor: _uocor_ (cf. κλυτός).
51.
_iii. _
cresti: _(de)creuisti_.
54.
fuat: _sit_.
fatust: _fatus est_.
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND PASSAGES
ABBREVIATIONS
_T. R. _ = Ribbeck, _Tragicorum Romanorum Fragmenta_
_C. R. _ = Ribbeck, _Comicorum Romanorum Fragmenta_
_P. L. M. _ = Baehrens, _Poetae Latini Minores_
_F. P. R. _ = Baehrens, _Fragmenta Poetarum Romanorum_
_A. L. _ = Riese, _Anthologia Latina, Ed. ii_
_C. E. _ = Buecheler, _Carmina Epigraphica_
The numerals in large type indicate the number of the _piece_ (not the
_page_, save where _p_. is prefixed).
(In the early fragments the numerals indicate the number of the _line_
as given in the principal editions. )
Accius, L. , 41-43 (_T. R. _ 17, 391; 156, 234, 314, 621, 651, 203)
Albinovanus: _see_ Pedo
Alcimius, 322-324 (_A. L. _ 740, 713, 715, 714)
Anonymous, 105 (_A. L. _ 414),
" , 189 (Tibullus 3, 20)
" , 191 (_C. E. _ 960)
" , 193 (_Copa_),
" , 194 (_P. L. M. _ i, p. 119)
" , 222 (_A. L. _ 720)
" , 228 (_Aetna_ 9-93)
" , 229 (_A. L. _ 5)
" , 230 (_C. E. _ 960)
" , 231 (_P. L. M. _ i, p. 78)
" , 246 (_A. L. _ 726)
" , 249 (_P. L. M. _ i, p. 234)
" , 286, _i_ (_C. E. _ 1109)
" , 286, _ii_ (_C. E. _ 1111)
" , 288 (_C. E. _ 97)
" , 289 (_C. E. _ 213)
" , 290 (_C. E. _ 29)
" , 301 (_C. E. _ 245)
" , 305 (_C. E. _ 106)
" , 306 (_A. L. _ 718)
" , 307 (_A. L. _ 388 _a_)
" , 308 (_C.
the support of Bentley, who in the _Phalaris_ (226-8) identified the
Saturnian with a metre of Archilochus. [11] 'There's no difference at
all', he says blithely. In more recent times the quantitative theory, in
one form or another, has numbered among its adherents scholars of
repute: e. g. Ritschl, Lucian Mueller, Christ, Havet. To-day it may be
said to be a dead superstition. Its place has been taken by what may be
called the 'semi-quantitative' theory.
2. The 'semi-quantitative' theory was popularized in this country by H.
Nettleship[12] and J. Wordsworth[13]. It enjoyed the vogue which
commonly attends a compromise; and it still has its adherents, as, for
example, E. V. Arnold[14] (who follows the Plautine scholar F. Leo). But
the more it is examined the more it tends, I think, to melt into a
'pure-accentual' theory. 'It allows the shortening of a long syllable
when unaccented (_dĕvictis_)', says Nettleship[15]. Surely to say that
_dĕvictis_ is 'allowed' for _dēvictis_ is to abandon the cause outright.
But it is considerations of a more general character which seem likely
to render untenable both the 'quantitative' and the 'semi-quantitative'
theories. The recent researches of Sievers[16] and others into the
earliest metrical forms tend to shew that this metre is an
'Indo-European' heritage, and that it must be judged in the light of its
Eastern and Germanic cognates.
3. The best opinion, therefore, in recent years has been strongly on the
side of the view which makes the principle of the Saturnian metre purely
accentual. At the moment this view may, in fact, be said to hold the
field. Unhappily those who agree in regarding the metre as purely
accentual agree in little else. We may distinguish two schools:
(a) There is, first, what I may perhaps be allowed to call the
Queen-and-Parlour school. 'There cannot be a more perfect Saturnian
line', says Macaulay, 'than one which is sung in every English nursery--
The queen was in her parlour eating bread and honey'.
Place beside this English line the Latin line which has come to be
regarded as the typical Saturnian--
dabunt malum Metelli Naeuio poetae.
If we accent these five words as Naevius and the Metelli would in
ordinary speech have accented them, we shall have to place our accents
thus:--
dábunt málum Metélli Naéuio poétae;
since by what is known as the Law of the Penultimate the accent in Latin
always falls on the penultimate syllable save in those words of three
(or more) syllables which have a short penultimate and take the accent
consequently on the ante-penultimate syllable. But those who accommodate
the Latin saturnian to the rhythm of 'The queen was in her parlour . . . '
have to postulate an anomalous accentuation:--
dabúnt malúm Metélli | Naéuió poétae.
The Saturnian line is, they hold, a verse falling into two cola, each
colon containing three accented (and an undefined number of unaccented)
syllables--word-accent and verse-accent (i. e. metrical _ictus_)
corresponding necessarily only at the last accented syllable in each
colon (as Metélli . . . poétae above).
Now here there are at least four serious difficulties:
1. While the principle of the verse is accentual half the words in any
given line may be accented as they were never accented anywhere else.
2. Sometimes verse-accent and word-accent do not correspond even at the
last accent in a colon. There is, for example, no better authenticated
Saturnian than
Cornelius Lucius Scipio Barbatus:
and it is incredible that at any period in the history of the Latin
language the word-accent ever fell on the middle syllable of
_Lucius_[17].
3. The incidence of word-accent is left unfixed save so far as the
incidence of verse-accent enables us to fix it. But the incidence of the
verse-accent is itself hopelessly uncertain. In a very large percentage
of saturnian lines we abandon the natural word-accent and have at the
same time no possible means of determining upon what syllable of what
word we are to put the verse-accent.
dabúnt malúm Metélli Naéuió poétae
is simple enough: but when we come to
sin illos deserant fortissimos uiros
magnum stuprum populo fieri per gentes
or
dedet Tempestatibus aide meretod
we come, to speak frankly, to chaos.
4. A large number of well-attested saturnians yield only two accents in
the second _colon_.
(b) Beside the 'Queen-and-Parlour' theory there is what I may call the
Normal Accent Theory. It originated with two papers by W. M. Lindsay in
the _American Journal of Philology_ vol. xiv--papers which furnish a
more thorough and penetrating treatment of the whole subject than is to
be found anywhere else. Lindsay's view is in substance this:
1. The saturnian line falls into two _cola_ of which the first (_a_)
contains _three_, the second (_b_) _two_ accented syllables.
2. _a_ contains seven syllables in all, _b_ contains six (occasionally
five), save when ᵕᵕ takes the place of one accented syllable.
3. The accent is always the normal Latin accent, according to the Law of
the Penultimate.
(A tetrasyllabic word has two accents when it stands at the beginning of
a line, and a pentasyllabic word always. )
4. Each line begins with an accented syllable.
These are the essential rules. In addition Lindsay has been at pains to
determine carefully the accentuation of 'word-groups'. Each word in a
Latin sentence has not necessarily an accent of its own. Thus _apud uos_
is accented _apúd-uos_; so again _in-grémium_, _quei-númquam_, _ís
hic-sítus_. No part of Lindsay's papers throws so much light on the
scansion of the saturnian verses as that which deals with these
word-groups: but it is impossible here to deal with the subject in
detail. I will give here the first two Scipio Epitaphs (5. _i_, _ii_) as
they are scanned and accented by Lindsay:--
_i. _
Cornélius Lúcius | Scípio Barbátus,
Gnáiuod páter prognátus, | fórtis-uir sapiénsque,
quoìus fórma uirtútei | parísuma fúit,
cónsol, cénsor, aidílis | queí-fuit apúd-nos,
Tàurásia, Cisáuna, | Sámnio cépit,
Súbigit ómne Loucánam | ópsidesque abdóucit
_ii. _
Hónc óino plóirime | coséntiunt Római
dùonóro óptimo | fuíse uíro
Lúcium Scípiònem | fílios Barbáti
cónsol cénsor aidílis | híc-fuet apúd-nos:
híc cépit Córsica | Alériaque úrbe,
dédet Tèmpestátebus | áide méretod.
But is it certain, after all, that the accent-law in Saturnian verse
_is_ the Law of the Penultimate? There was, as is well known, a period
in the history of the Latin language when this Law did not obtain, but
all Latin words were alike accented on the first syllable. When this
period ended we cannot precisely determine. But, as Lindsay himself
points out, the influence of the old protosyllabic accentuation was not
quite dead even in the time of Plautus. [18] Now the saturnian verse
undoubtedly reaches back to a very remote antiquity: even of our extant
specimens some are very likely as old as the eighth century. It is
probable enough, therefore, that the accent-law known at any rate to the
first saturnian poets was the old protosyllabic law. And when we
remember the hieratic character of the earliest poetry, when we take
into account the conservatism of any priestly ritual or rule, may we not
suppose it possible that saturnian verse retained the ancient law of
accentuation long after the Law of the Penultimate had asserted itself
in ordinary speech and in other forms of literature? Accented, as
Lindsay accents it, according to the Law of the Penultimate, the
saturnian loses the lilt and swing which it has under the old
'Queen-and-Parlour' system.
dábunt málum Metélli Naéuio poétae
is not a music to pray to or dance to or die to. A much easier and more
lively movement would be
dábunt málum Mételli Naéuio póetae,
that is, the movement given by the old protosyllabic accentuation.
The suggestion that the protosyllabic accent survived as a conscious
archaism in saturnian verse right down to the time of the Scipios is, I
think, at any rate worth considering. It carries us into speculations
far wider than the particular problem with which it is immediately
concerned. For if the protosyllabic law did actually survive in this way
we can the more easily explain the swift and decisive victory which the
Hellenizing Latin poetry won over the old native verse. What was
conquered was an archaism, something purely artificial. The conquering
force was not merely Hellenism but Hellenism _plus_ a complete and
radical change in Latin speech.
If anyone cares to analyse the extant remains of saturnian verse in the
light of this suggestion, I would formulate three rules which can, I
think, be deduced:
1. Each line has five feet, and each foot contains one accented syllable
_plus_ either one or two unaccented syllables. [19] The first foot,
however, _may_ consist of a monosyllable.
2. The third foot must consist of a trisyllabic word or
'word-group'[20]: save that occasionally the second and third feet
together may be formed of a quadrisyllabic (or pentasyllabic) word with
secondary accent.
3. The first and second, and again the fourth and fifth, feet may be
either disyllabic or trisyllabic: but (_a_) two trisyllables may not
follow one another in the first two feet, and (_b_) if the fifth foot
(usually trisyllabic) is a disyllable the fourth must be trisyllabic.
The normal type is
─́─ ── │ ─́─ ── │ ─́─ ── ── ││ ─́─ ── │ ─́─ ── ──
││ ─́─ ── ──
A common variation in the first two feet is either
─́─ ── ── │ ─́─ ──, or ─́─ ── │ ─́─ ── ──. A somewhat rare variation
in the last two is ─́─ ── ── │ ─́─ ──. In the first foot ─́─ sometimes
replaces ─́─ ── (or ─́─ ── ──), no doubt owing to the greater stress
at the opening of the verse.
Some exceptions (or apparent exceptions) to these rules will no doubt be
found. But the rules cover most of the extant examples of saturnian
verse: and it must be remembered that the text of our fragments is often
not at all certain. The system outlined has, however, the merit--which
it shares with Lindsay--that it dispenses with most of the alterations
of the text in which other systems involve us.
THE HYMN OF THE ARVAL BROTHERHOOD.
I have given the text of this celebrated piece according to what may be
called the Vulgate; and in the sub-title, in the Glossary and in my
Introduction p. 1 I have followed the ordinary interpretation. I may
perhaps be allowed here to suggest a different view of the poem.
It begins with an appeal to the Lares. These are apparently the Lares
Consitivi, gods of sowing. Then comes an appeal to Marmar, then to Mars.
Then the Semones are invoked, who, like the Lares, are gods of sowing.
There follows a final appeal to Marmar.
It is pretty clear that the Mars, Marmar, or Marmor, invoked in such
iteration is not the war-god, but Mars in his more ancient character of
a god of agriculture. But if this be so, what are we to make of lines
7-9,
satur fu, fere Mars: limen sali: sta berber,
'Be thou glutted, fierce Mars, leap the threshold, stay thy
scourge',--or, as Buecheler takes it, 'stand, wild god'? This sort of
language is appropriate enough to Mars as god of war, but utterly
inappropriate to the farmer's god[21].
Now it so happens that for
satur fu, fere Mars: limen sali, sta berber
the monumental stone to which we owe this inscription offers at one
point
satur fu, fere Mars limen saii sia berber.
Now, when we remember the Lares Consitivi and the Semones, does it not
look very much as though _satur_ stood for _sator_, as though _fere_
were a blunder for _sere_, as though _saii_ were the vocative of Saius,
'sower' (cf. Seia a goddess of sowing, and Greek σάω σήθω), as though
_sia_ were the imperative of the verb _sio_ (moisten)[22], and as
though, finally, _berber_ were to be connected with the Greek βόρβορυς
and meant 'loam'? (I would give much the same sense, 'fat soil' to
_limen_: (from the root _lib-_: cf. Gk. λείβω λειμών). )
We get, then,
sator fu: sere Mars limen Saii, sia berber,
'Be thou the sower: sower Mars, sow the soil, moisten the loam'. And
this suggests what _ought_ to be the meaning of _enos iuuate_. _enos_
_ought_ to mean _harvests_, or at any rate something in that kind. And
why should it not? Hesychius knew a word ἔνος which he glosses by
ἐνιαυτός, ἐπέτειος καρπός. See Suidas _s. v. _ and Herwerden _Lexicon
Suppletorium_.
The Hymn is a hymn for Seedtime. We know, however, that the festival at
which it was sung fell in the month of May. The explanation of this has
been hinted at by Henzen. [23] Henzen points out that the Arval Brothers
entered on their duties at the Saturnalia, and that their worship is
probably connected in its origin with Saturn, the god of sowing. (See
Varro _L. L. _ 5, 57, and _apud_ Aug. _C. D. _ 7. 13 p. 290, 28, Festus
_s. v. _ Saturnus. ) We must suppose, therefore, that at some date when the
meaning of its words had been already lost this hymn was transferred
from a seedtime festival to a harvest festival.
GLOSSARY OF OLD LATIN
1.
_i. _
cante: _cante_ (sometimes said to be an Athematic imper.
2 pers. plur. ).
_ii. _
quome: _cum_.
Leucesie: (_Lucerie_? ) a title of Jupiter as god of lightning.
tet: _te_.
tremonti: _tremunt_.
quor: _cur_.
Curis: 'god of spear-men' (? ): Etruscan _curis_, a spear:
(cf. _Iunonis Curitis_).
decstumum: _dextimum_, 'on the right' (the suffix _-imus_ is not
strictly a superlative suffix, but denotes position: cf. _summus_
(_sup-mus_), _finitimus_, _citimus_).
_iii. _
ulod: _illo_ (? ) (_ollod_) (cf. Umbrian _ulu_).
oriese: _oriere_: future for imperative as in 2 _aduocapit_.
isse: _ipse_ (_ipese_): the form _isse_ is merely
the vulgar spelling of a later period.
ueuet: _uiuit_.
po melios: _optimus_ (? ) ('_po_ pro _potissimum_ positum est in
Saliari carmine', _Festus_).
eu: _heu_ (admirantis).
recum: _regum_ (as _uirco_ for _uirgo_ in the _Duenos Inscription_:
and so always in early Latin until 312 B. C. ).
2.
enos: _nos_ (? ) cf. ἐμέ, ἐμοί.
Lases: _Lares_.
lue rue: _luem et ruinam_.
Marmar: _Mars_.
sins: _sinas_ (? ).
sers: _siueris_ (? ).
pleoris: _pluris_ (cf. πλε(ί)ων = πλεονς = pleios = pleor).
fu: _esto_ (_fufere_ = _esto_, others: as though _fufuere_).
sta berber, 'stay thy scourge' (? ): sta = ἵστα; berber: _uerbera_.
Others interpret, 'stand, fierce one' (berber = _barbare_).
semunis: _semones_, 'gods of the sown fields'.
aduocapit: _aduocabitis_.
5.
_i. _
Gnaiuod: _Gnaeo_: the old abl. in -d: cf. _meretod_ in _ii_.
parisuma: superlative of _par_.
Taurasia Cisauna Samnio: _Taurasiam Cisaunam (in) Samnio_
(or _Samnium_). The dropping of _-m_ (cf.
_oino_, _aede_ in _ii_) is,
however, not in any way a peculiarity of early Latin.
subigit: _subegit_.
abdoucsit: _abduxit_.
_ii. _
oino: _unum_.
ploirime: _plurimi_.
duonoro . . uiro: _bonorum . . uirum_.
Scipione: _Scipionem_.
Corsica Aleriaque urbe: _Corsicam Aleriamque urbem_.
aide: _aedem_.
meretod: _merito_.
_iii. _
apice insigne: _apicem insignem_.
recipit: _recepit_ (as _subigit_ in _i_).
_iv. _
quei minus: _cur minus_.
mactus: 'blessed', 'honoured', 'endowed'.
6.
_i. _
insece: _inseque_, imperat. from _inquam_ (_in(s)quam_): ἔννεπε.
_iv. _
dacrimas: _lacrimas_.
noegeo: 'noegeum amiculi genus', _Festus_: φᾶρος.
_v. _
hemōnem: _hominem_ (cf. _ne-hemo_ = _nemo_) 'son of earth'
(_humus_: cf. Oscan _humuns_ = _homines_).
quamde: _quam_.
topper: _celeriter_: _(is)tod_ + _per_: the old explanation,
_toto opere_, is false.
_vi. _
inserinuntur: _inseruntur_. So in the active we find the 3 pl. pres.
in _-nunt_: _danunt_ (_dant_) _prodinunt_ (_prodeunt_) _nequinunt_
(_nequeunt_). But the forms are unexplained anomalies.
_vii. _
deuenies: _deueniens_ (? ).
ommentans: _ob-manens_ (_manto_ freq. of _maneo_).
7.
_ii. _
ipsus: _ipse_: so _ollus_ and _olle_ for _ille_.
_iii. _
procat: _poscit_.
_v. _
confluges: 'loca in quae diversi rivi confluunt', _Nonius_.
_vi. _
anculabant: _hauriebant_ (cf. Gk. ἀντλεῖν).
_vii. _
struices: 'struices antiqui dicebant exstructiones omnium rerum',
_Festus_.
_viii. _
nefrendem: _sine dentibus_ (_ne_ + _frendo_).
8.
_ii. _
Anchisa: _Anchises_ (_-as_): as _Aenea_ in _iv_, and in later
Latin _Atrida_ &c.
_iii. _
Troiad: _Troia_ (abl. ).
_iv. _
Aenea: _Aeneas_: so _Anchisa_ in _ii_.
_vi. _
concinnat: 'concinnare est apte componere', _Festus_.
_viii. _
mavolunt: _malunt_ (_mage-uolunt_).
9.
_iii. _
cedo: _dic, da_ (the demonstrative particle _-ce_ + old imperative
of _dare_).
_v. _
promicando: 'promicare est extendere et longe iacere', _Nonius_.
12.
nouentium: *nuentium (_annuentium_): cf. the spelling _souo_ = _suo_
in 44. So regularly in the oldest Latin. _ou_ for _u_.
duonum: _donum_ (cf. Umbrian _dunu_, Oscan _dunum_: old Latin
_duo_ = _do_).
negumate: _negate_ (_nec autumate_).
13.
endostaurata facito: _fac ut instaurentur_.
15.
quam mox: 'quam mox significat quam cito', _Festus_.
17.
indu: Greek ἔνδον; as 21. _viii_, and 32 (_endo_): later
the word became confused with, and then entirely supplanted by, _in_.
uolup, 'pleasantly': neut. of an extinct _volupis_,
used adverbially: cf. _facul_, _difficul_.
suaset: (i. e. _suasset_), _suasisset_.
uerbum paucum: _uerborum paucorum_.
21.
_viii. _
imbricitor: _qui imbres ciet_.
23.
euitari: _uita priuari_.
24.
melior mulierum: like _melios recum_ in 1. _iii_.
25.
postilla: _postea_.
29.
accedisset: _accidisset_.
34.
faxit: _fecerit_.
41.
perproquinquam: _perpropinquam_ (cf. πέντε (πέμπε) = quinque,
ἵππος = _equus_, _Pontius_ = _Quintius_).
uerruncent: _uertant_.
42.
dum . . dum: τότε μὲν . . τότε δέ: cf. the use of _dum_ in
_primumdum_, _agedum_, _adesdum_.
44.
souo: _suo_.
45.
clueor: _uocor_ (cf. κλυτός).
51.
_iii. _
cresti: _(de)creuisti_.
54.
fuat: _sit_.
fatust: _fatus est_.
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND PASSAGES
ABBREVIATIONS
_T. R. _ = Ribbeck, _Tragicorum Romanorum Fragmenta_
_C. R. _ = Ribbeck, _Comicorum Romanorum Fragmenta_
_P. L. M. _ = Baehrens, _Poetae Latini Minores_
_F. P. R. _ = Baehrens, _Fragmenta Poetarum Romanorum_
_A. L. _ = Riese, _Anthologia Latina, Ed. ii_
_C. E. _ = Buecheler, _Carmina Epigraphica_
The numerals in large type indicate the number of the _piece_ (not the
_page_, save where _p_. is prefixed).
(In the early fragments the numerals indicate the number of the _line_
as given in the principal editions. )
Accius, L. , 41-43 (_T. R. _ 17, 391; 156, 234, 314, 621, 651, 203)
Albinovanus: _see_ Pedo
Alcimius, 322-324 (_A. L. _ 740, 713, 715, 714)
Anonymous, 105 (_A. L. _ 414),
" , 189 (Tibullus 3, 20)
" , 191 (_C. E. _ 960)
" , 193 (_Copa_),
" , 194 (_P. L. M. _ i, p. 119)
" , 222 (_A. L. _ 720)
" , 228 (_Aetna_ 9-93)
" , 229 (_A. L. _ 5)
" , 230 (_C. E. _ 960)
" , 231 (_P. L. M. _ i, p. 78)
" , 246 (_A. L. _ 726)
" , 249 (_P. L. M. _ i, p. 234)
" , 286, _i_ (_C. E. _ 1109)
" , 286, _ii_ (_C. E. _ 1111)
" , 288 (_C. E. _ 97)
" , 289 (_C. E. _ 213)
" , 290 (_C. E. _ 29)
" , 301 (_C. E. _ 245)
" , 305 (_C. E. _ 106)
" , 306 (_A. L. _ 718)
" , 307 (_A. L. _ 388 _a_)
" , 308 (_C.
