The Monastic Rules of Visigothic Iberia - eTheses Repository ...

therefore not specifically a feature of later Latin. Aulus Gellius, for example, tells the story
behind the popularity of adsentio, instead of the normal adsentior, after it was first used by a
certain Sisenna in the senate; 559 the sentiment echoed that of Quintilian, a century or so
before. 560 However, the fact that deponent verbs remained in popular use in the later Latin
period is suggested by the fact that Christian writing was responsible for a trend of deponent
neologisms: dominari, infirmari, iacturari, potentari, principari, profetari (Burton 2000:
182); even in the eighth century it is still possible to note the use of some eight-hundred and
eighty-eight deponent verb forms (Justus 2008: 500).
In the case where a verb possessed both a deponent and a normal active form, it
makes little sense why a writer would choose a deponent form over its active counterpart if it
were no longer in use, or at best likely to be confused by a reader or listener. For example:
“qui segregati a coetu fraterno ob negligentiam suam fuerant merentur indulgentiam”. 561
Neither are they likely to use a passive form of such a verb if the listeners were not able to
disassociate it from the deponent: “confestim in conspectus totius congregationis adductus,
sciscitabitur ab abbate utrum liber an seruus”. 562 It can be established, then, that on a
written level at least, that the authors of the monastic rules were perfectly capable of
manipulating correctly the deponent and passive verb forms. This is especially shown in
559 Noctes Atticae 2.25.9, “Inde M. Uarro in eodem libro: Sentior, inquit, nemo dicit et id per se nihil
est, adsentior tamen fere omnes dicunt. Sisenna unus adsentio in senatu dicebat et eum postea multi
secuti, neque tamen uincere consuetudinem potuerunt”.
560 Institutiones 9.3.7, “Quod minus mirum est quia in natura uerborum est et quae facimus patiendi
modo saepe dicere, ut "arbitror", "suspicor", et contra faciendi quae patimur, ut "uapulo": ideoque
frequens permutatio est et pleraque utroque modo efferuntur: luxuriatur luxuriat, fluctuatur fluctuat,
adsentior adsentio”.
561 Rule of Fructuosus 1.
562 Rule of Fructuosus 21.
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