Figurative uses of animal names in Latin and their ... - mura di tutti

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to imagine Plautus and Terence,*^ or Horace, without them. The possibilities of mirth-making from this source were keenly appreciated by writers of the Old Comedy in Greece, as the citation of a few titles will show; e. g., the Birds and Frogs of Magnes, the Beasts of Crates, the Goats of Eupolis, the Fishes of Archippus, the Snakes of Menippus, the Nightingales of Cantharus, the Ants of Plato, the Wasps of Aristophanes, and the like. That such transferred uses are popular in origin is ap- parent without demonstration. Accordingly we are not surprised to learn from Servius that the soldiers were fond of animal names and were in the habit of coining them for military weapons. Commenting on the military testudo, he says :'" in armorum generibus milites sumunt ab animalibus nomina, ut aries. That the names are non-technical is at- tested by Vegetius :*^ testudines, musculos, arietes, vineas, ut appellant, ' as the laity say.' There can be no doubt that the list of such names was far larger than the number now extant. This can easily be inferred from the opposition to those that did manage to force their way into good standing. How many names of this kind perished under the censorship of the technical writers and purists who had the summa potestas over them, can only be conjectured. Besides this source of loss, some words have disappeared through the destruction of the works in which they were embodied. The preservation of our clearest passage on the ericius,^^ cheval-de-frise, is due solely to antiquarian curiosity. That Tacitus^* and Plutarch regarded such names as un- " Cf. E. F. Wortmann, De comparaiionibus Plautinis et Terrentianis ad animalia spectantibus. °° Serv. Aen. ix, " Veg. ii, 25. 503. Quoted in Isid. Orig. xviii, 12, 6. ^Sallust ap. Nonius, 555, M. °' Although Tacitus describes a large number of sieges and military engagements, testudo is the only animal name that he uses for the various devices. Though cuneus is frequent, caput porci never appears. Such passages as tormentis hastas, saxa, et faces ingerere (^Ann. ii, 81), must include the onager and scorpio. Perhaps vague expressions like tormentis servorum patefacta sunt flagitia {Ann. iii, 23) refer to the eculeus. In Hist.
•dignified, may be inferred from their infrequent or guarded use of them. Signs of the struggle that such words had, to attain recognition and standing, face us on every hand. While the citation of a few examples may not be convin- cing, the multiplication of apologetic expressions by various authors affords conclusive proof of the opposition to them. About four centuries after Xenophon used Kpw
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Page 9 and 10: PREFACE. The writer first became in
Page 11 and 12: Figurative Uses of Animal Names IN
Page 13 and 14: He found it both convenient and nec
Page 15: Much homely wisdom and many shrewd
Page 19 and 20: Catus. Machinam quandam parvam, qua
Page 21 and 22: II . . . adventaret, prominentem ei
Page 23 and 24: . 13 peated attacks. The similarity
Page 25 and 26: 15 TOW reixow iwl ttjv iXeiroXiv /x
Page 27 and 28: : 17 Greeks of the term ram to an i
Page 29 and 30: 19 animals. A hint of this might po
Page 31 and 32: 21 In Athenaeus there appears the s
Page 33 and 34: 23 ^eX&vai eXa^paC ' light tortoise
Page 35 and 36: 25 equipped with wheels; finally pr
Page 37 and 38: 27 obrutis eius oculis, infestantia
Page 39 and 40: 29 ' walking ' is very apropos for
Page 41 and 42: 31 had only two, and they were mani
Page 43 and 44: 33 GRUS, Gk. ye'pavoi, Crane; trans
Page 45 and 46: 35 ultimately achieved a signal vic
Page 47 and 48: 37 tleinde latior procedit et adver
Page 49 and 50: 39 Vergil uses the adjective arbore
Page 51 and 52: 41 It is quite possible that it is
Page 53 and 54: 43 Analogous to this use of equuleu
Page 55 and 56: 45 Pliny informs us that Cato, in o
Page 57 and 58: : 47 While the second alternative d
Page 59 and 60: 49 appendage and the threating arm
Page 61 and 62: SI from the breaking on board of he
Page 63 and 64: S3 In spite of the statement of Var
Page 65 and 66: 55 tion is due to the burden rather

Figurative uses of animal names in Latin and their ... - mura di tutti

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