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

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obrutis eius oculis, infestantia magnitudinem vada praena-
tans demonstrat, oculorumque vice fungitur.^^*
Although it is not essential for a belief to be well-founded
in order to gain sufficient currency to effect a transfer, the
metaphor of Vegetius appears too involved to appeal to
the popular consciousness. It is hardly probable that the
soldiers strained their imagination to such an extent when
easy and obvious comparisons presented themselves at every
turn.
In order to gain currency, a transfer must appeal to the
rank and file of the soldiery. This means that the story
would have to be generally known to the troops, and, in
addition, that the preliminary manoeuvring of the musculi
must be a regular part of siege tactics, a thing which
is not emphasized by military writers.
Isidore's fanciful derivation from murusculus (musculus
cuniculo similis fit, quo murus perfoditur, ex quo appellatur,
quasi murusculus) ,^^^ is another indication of the density of
the mist that beclouded the real etymology.
Oman states^^" that the bore and its shelter are sometimes
referred to in the chronicles under the one term " musculus,
' the mouse,' because its object was to gnaw a round hole in
the lower courses of the rampart."
In classic times, the musculus was always clearly differen-
tiated from the terebra, and its employment to protect the
operation of the latter machine was but one of several ap-
plications.
If the figure were that of gnawing, we should expect the
term musculus to be applied first to the bore or pick, and
then by synecdoche to the mantlets, whereas the converse
appears to have been the case, e. g. cupiunt murum succidere
musclis.-^^^
"'Plin. Nat. ix, 62, 88, (186). Cf. also id. xi, 37, 62, (165), Musculus
marinus, qui balaenam antecedit. The English has a close analogy in the
pilot-fish, "so named because it is often seen in company with a shark,
swimming near a ship, on account of which sailors imagine that it acts as
a pilot to the shark." Webster.
"°Isid. Orig. xviii, 11, 4-
"° Oman, A History of the Art of War, p. 133.
^ Abbo, De Bellis Parisiacae Urbis, i, 99 in Scriptores Rerum Germani-
carum.