Delphi Complete Works of Varro (Illustrated) by Marcus Terentius Varro

Author:Marcus Terentius Varro [Varro]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ancient Classics
Publisher: Delphi Classics Ltd
Published: 2017-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

FRAGMENTS

Fragments of Books II-IV

III

Fr. 1. Deus ‘god’ or dea ‘goddess’ is in fact a general name for all.... Varro, in the third book of the treatise addressed to Cicero, says: “So let them give answer why they say dei ‘gods,’ when in reference to all of them the old-time Romans used to say divi.”

Fr. 2. Figor ‘I am transfixed’ is by the old writers inflected in two ways in the perfect tense. For we find both fictus and fixus;... Varro in the third book of the treatise addressed to Cicero has “fixum.”

Fr. 3. Though the old writers say that the name leaena ‘lioness’ is not good Latin, still it has the force of authority. For they used to say leo ‘lion’ both as masculine and as feminine.... But lea ‘lioness’ Varro has, in the third book of the treatise addressed to Cicero: “Just as panthera ‘panther’ and lea ‘lioness’ are not.” IV

Fr. 4. Varro in the fourth book of the treatise On the Latin Language: “Prolubium and lubidoi ‘desire’ are derived from lubet ‘it is pleasing’; whence also the grove of Venus Lubentina gets its name.”

Fragment of Book VIII

Fr. 5. (5) The eighth book of Marcus Varro’s treatise On the Latin Language, addressed to Cicero, maintains that no regard is paid to Regularity, and points out that in almost all words usage rules. (6) “As when we decline,” says he, “lupus ‘wolf,’ gen. lupi, probus ‘honest,’ gen. probi, but lepus ‘hare,’ gen. leporis; again, paro ‘I prepare,’ perf. paravi, and lavo ‘I wash,’ perf. lavi, pungo ‘I prick,’ perf. pupugi, tundo ‘I pound,’ perf. tutudi, and pingo ‘I paint,’ perf. pinxi. (7) And although,” he continues, “from ceno ‘I dine’ and prandeo ‘I lunch’ and poto ‘I drink’ we form the perfects cenatus sum, pransus sum, and potus sum yet from destringor ‘I scrape myself’ and extergeor ‘I wipe myself dry’ and lavor ‘I bathe myself’ we make the perfects destrinxi ‘I am scraped’ and extersi ‘I am dried’ and lavi ‘I have had a bath.’

(8) “Furthermore, although from Oscus ‘Oscan, Tuscus ‘Etruscan,’ and Graecus ‘Greek’ we derive the adverbs Osce ‘in Oscan,’ Tusce ‘in Etruscan,’ and Graece ‘in Greek,’ yet from Gallus ‘Gaul’ and Maurus ‘Moor’ we have Gallice ‘in Gallic’ and Maurice ‘in Moorish’; also from probus ‘honest’ comes probe ‘honestly,’ from doctus ‘learned’ docte ‘learnedly,’ but from rarus ‘rare’ there is no adverb rare, but some say raro, others rarenter.”

(9) In the same book Varro goes on to say: “No one uses the passive sentior, and that form by itself is naught, but almost every one says adsentior ‘I agree.’ Sisenna alone used to say adsentio in the senate, and later many followed his example, yet could not prevail over usage.”

(10) But this same Varro in other books wrote a great deal in defence of Regularity.

Fragments of Books XI–XXIV

XI

Fr. 6. Where the authority of our ancestors has not shown you the gender of a word, what in this instance must be done? Varro wrote, in the treatise

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