Delphi Complete Works of Varro

by Marcus Terentius Varro

  Maclaurin, a Scotch physicist, checked Koenig’s computations and reported to the Royal Society in London in 1743 that he found a solution in exact accord with Maraldi’s measurements, thereby completely justifying the mathematics of the bee architect.

  162 The Romans were as curious and as constant in the use of perfumes as we are of tobacco. It is perhaps well to remember that they might find our smoke as offensive as we would their unguents.

  163 Indeed one of the marvels of nature is the service which certain bees perform for certain plants in transferring their fertilizing pollen which has no other means of transportation. Darwin is most interesting on this subject.

  164 The ancients, even Aristotle, did not know that the queen bee is the common mother of the hive. They called her the king, and it remained for Swammerdam in the seventeenth century to determine with the microscope this important fact. From that discovery has developed our modern knowledge of the bee; that the drones are the males and are suffered by the (normally) sterile workers to live only until one of them has performed his office of fertilizing once for all the new queen in that nuptial flight, so dramatically fatal to the successful swain, which Maeterlinck has described with wonderful rhetoric, whereupon the workers massacre the surviving males without mercy. This is the “driving out” which Varro mentions.

  165 This picture of the queen bee is hardly in accord with modern observations. It seems that while the queen is treated with the utmost respect, she is rather a royal prisoner than a ruler, and, after her nuptial flight, is confined to her function of laying eggs incessantly unless she may be unwillingly dragged forth to lead a swarm. Maeterlinck thus pictures (La Vie des Abeilles, 174) her existence with a Gallic pencil:

  “Elle n’aura aucune des habitudes, aucunes des passions que nous croyons inherentes à l’abeille. Elle n’eprouvera ni le desir du soleil, ni le besoin de l’espace et mourra sans avoir visite une fleur. Elle passera son existence dans l’ombre et l’agitation de la foule à la recherche infatigable de berceaux à peupler. En revanche, elle connaitra seule l’inquietude de l’amour.”

  166 It would have interested Axius to know that the annual consumption of honey in the United States today is from 100 to 125 million pounds and that the crop has a money value of at least ten million dollars. To match Seius, we might put forward a bee farmer in California who produces annually 150,000 pounds of honey from 2,000 hives.

  167 Maeterlinck has made a charming picture of this habit of propinquity of the bee-stand to the human habitation. He describes (La Vie des Abeilles, 14) the old man who taught him to love bees when he was a boy in Flanders, an old man whose entire happiness “consistait aux beautés d’un jardin et parmi ces beautés la mieux aimee et la plus visitées etait un roucher, composé de douze cloches de paille qu’il avait peint, les unes de rose vif, les autres de jaune clair, la plupart d’un bleu tendre, car il avail observé, bien avant les experiences de Sir John Lubbock, que le bleu est la couleur preferée des abeilles. Il avait installé ce roucher centre le mur blanchi de la maison, dans l’angle que formait une des ces savoureuses et fraiches cuisines hollondaises aux dressoirs de faience ou étincalaient les etains et les cuivres qui, par la porte ouverte, se reflétaient dans un canal paisible. Et l’eau chargés d’images familières, sous un rideau de peupliers, guidait les regards jusqu’au répos d’un horizon de moulins et de prés.”

  168 Reading Apiastro. This is the Melissa officinalis of

  Linnaeus. Cf. Pliny, XX, 45 and XXI, 86.

  169 Bee keepers attribute to Reaumur the invention of the modern glass observation hive, which has made possible so much of our knowledge of the bee, but it may be noted that Pliny (H.N. XXI, 47) mentions hives of “lapis specularis,” some sort of talc, contrived for the purpose of observing bees at work. The great advance in bee hives is, however, the sectional construction attributed to Langstroth and developed in America by Root.

  170 Columella, (IX, 14) referring to the myth of the generation of bees in the carcase of an ox (out of which Virgil made the fable of the pastor Aristaeus in the Fourth Georgic), explains the practice mentioned in the text with the statement “hic enim quasi quadam cognatione generis maxime est apibus aptus.” The plastering of wicker hives with ox dung persisted and is recommended in the seventeenth century editions of the Maison Rustique.

  171 Reading seditiosum.

  172 This is a mistake upon which Aristotle could have corrected Varro.

  173 After studying the commentators on this obscure passage,

  I have elected to follow the emendation of Ursinus, which, although

  Keil sneers at its license, has the advantage of making sense.

  174 Sinapis arvensis, Linn.

  175 Sium sisarum, Linn.

  176 The philosophy of the bee is not as selfish as that human principle which Varro attributes to them. The hive does not send forth its “youth” to found a colony, but, on the contrary, abandons its home and its accumulated store of wealth to its youth and itself ventures forth under the leadership of the old queen to face the uncertainties of the future, leaving only a small band of old bees to guard the hive and rear the young until the new queen shall have supplied a new population.

  177 Reading imbecilliores.

  178 Pliny (H.N. IX, 81) relates that this loan was made to supply the banquet on the occasion of one of the triumphs of Caesar the dictator, but Pliny puts the loan at six thousand fishes.

  179 It is impossible to translate this pun into English, dulcis being the equivalent of both “fresh” and “agreeable,” and amara of “salt” and “disagreeable.” A French translator would have at his command doux and amer.

  180 Cf. Pliny (H.N. II, 96): “In Lydia the islands called Calaminae are not only driven about by the wind, but may even be pushed at pleasure from place to place, by which means many people saved themselves in the Mithridatic war. There are some small islands in the Nymphaeus called the Dancers, because, when choruses are sung, they move in tune with the measure of the music.”

  181 Reading in ius vocare, with the double entendre of service in a sauce and bringing to justice.

  ON THE LATIN LANGUAGE

  Translated by Roland G. Kent

  Varro’s De lingua latina libri (On the Latin Language) was originally formed of 25 Books, of which six books (V–X) survive, though partly mutilated. It is believed the complete work was a monumental achievement of scholarship, typical of the author’s interest not only in antiquarian matters but also in the collection of scientific facts. The text consisted of three parts: etymology of Latin words (I-VII); their inflexions and other changes (VIII-XIII); and syntax (XIV-XXV). The extant text includes a section applying to the etymology of words of time and place and poetic expressions (V-VI). There also remains a section on analogy as it occurs in word formation (VII-IX) and a section concerning analogy to word derivation (X-XII). The book, in spite of its fragmentary state, is an invaluable resource for information on the study and origin of the Latin language, offering a rare insight into the application of Roman antiquarian studies.

  An eighteenth century imagined portrait of an elderly Varro by an unknown artist

  CONTENTS

  BOOK V

  BOOK VI

  BOOK VII

  BOOK VIII

  BOOK IX

  BOOK X

  FRAGMENTS

  BOOK V

  1. In what way names were applied to things in Latin, I have undertaken to expound, in six books. Of these, I have already composed three before this one, and have addressed them to Septumius; in them I treat of the branch of learning which is called Etymology. The considerations which might be raised against it, I have put in the first book; those adduced in its favour, in the second; those merely describing it, in the third. In the following books, addressed to you, I shall discuss the problem from what things names were applied in Latin, both those which are habitual with the ordinary folk, and those which are found in the poets.

  2. Inasmuch as each and every wor
d has two innate features, from what thing and to what thing the name is applied (therefore, when the question is raised from what thing pertinacia ‘obstinacy’ is, it is shown to be from pertendere ‘to persist’: to what thing it is applied, is told when it is explained that it is pertinacia ‘obstinacy’ in a matter in which there ought not to be persistence but there is, because it is perseverantia ‘steadfastness’ if a person persists in that in which he ought to hold firm), that former part, where they examine why and whence words are, the Greeks call Etymology, that other part they call Semantics. Of these two matters I shall speak in the following books, not keeping them apart, but giving less attention to the second.

  3. These relations are often rather obscure for the following reasons: Not every word that has been applied, still exists, because lapse of time has blotted out some. Not every word that is in use, has been applied without inaccuracy of some kind, nor does every word which has been applied correctly remain as it originally was; for many words are disguised by change of the letters. There are some whose origin is not from native words of our own language. Many words indicate one thing now, but formerly meant something else, as is the case with hostis ‘enemy’: for in olden times by this word they meant a foreigner from a country independent of Roman laws, but now they give the name to him whom they then called perduellis ‘enemy.’

  4. I shall take as starting-point of my discussion that derivative or case-form of the words in which the origin can be more clearly seen. It is evident that we ought to operate in this way, because when we say inpos ‘lacking power’ in the nominative, it is less clear that it is from potentia ‘power’ than when we say inpotem in the accusative; and it becomes the more obscure, if you say pos ‘having power’ rather than inpos; for pos seems to mean rather pons ‘bridge’ than potens ‘powerful.’

  5. There are few things which lapse of time does not distort, there are many which it removes. Whom you saw beautiful as a boy, him you see unsightly in his old age. The third generation does not see a person such as the first generation saw him. Therefore those things that oblivion has taken away even from our ancestors, the painstaking of Mucius and Brutus, though it has pursued the runaways, cannot bring back. As for me, even if I cannot track them down, I shall not be the slower for this, but even for this I shall be the swifter in the chase, if I can. For there is no slight darkness in the wood where these things are to be caught, and there are no trodden paths to the place which we wish to attain, nor do there fail to be obstacles in the paths, which could hold back the hunter on his way.

  6. Now he who has observed in how many ways the changing has taken place in those words, new and old, in which there is any and every manner of variation in popular usage, will find the examination of the origin of the words an easier task; for he will find that words have been changed, as I have shown in the preceding books, essentially on account of two sets of four causes. For the alterations come about by the loss or the addition of single letters and on account of the transposition or the change of them, and likewise by the lengthening or the shortening of syllables, and their addition or loss: since I have adequately shown by examples, in the preceding books, of what sort these phenomena are, I have thought that here I need only set a reminder of that previous discussion.

  7. Now I shall set forth the origins of the individual words, of which there are four levels of explanation. The lowest is that to which even the common folk has come; who does not see the sources of argentifodinae ‘silver-mines’ and of viocurus ‘road-overseer’? The second is that to which old-time grammar has mounted, which shows how the poet has made each word which he has fashioned and derived. Here belongs Pacuvius’s

  The whistling of the ropes,

  here his

  Incurvate-neckèd flock,

  here his

  With his mantle he beshields his arm.

  8. The third level is that to which philosophy ascended, and on arrival began to reveal the nature of those words which are in common use, as, for example, from what oppidum ‘town’ was named, and vicas ‘row of houses,’ and via ‘street.’ The fourth is that where the sanctuary is, and the mysteries of the high-priest: if I shall not arrive at full knowledge there, at any rate I shall cast about for a conjecture, which even in matters of our health the physician sometimes does when we are ill.

  From this meaning, either an entire small ‘village’ or a ‘street’ in a large city. 9. But if I have not reached the highest level, I shall none the less go farther up than the second, because I have studied not only by the lamp of Aristophanes, but also by that of Cleanthes. I have desired to go farther than those who expound only how the words of the poets are made up. For it did not seem meet that I seek the source in the case of the word which Ennius had made, and neglect that which long before King Latinus had made, in view of the fact that I get pleasure rather than utility from many words of the poets, and more utility than pleasure from the ancient words. And in fact are not those words mine which have come to me by inheritance from King Romulus, rather than those which were left behind by the poet Livius?

  10. Therefore since words are divided into these three groups, those which are our own, those which are of foreign origin, and those which are obsolete and of forgotten sources, I shall set forth about our own why they are, about those of foreign origin whence they are, and as to the obsolete I shall let them alone: except that concerning some of them I shall none the less write what I have found or myself conjecture. In this book I shall tell about the words denoting places and those things which are in them; in the following book I shall tell of the words denoting times and those things which take place in them; in the third I shall tell of both these as expressed by the poets.

  11. Pythagoras the Samian says that the primal elements of all things are in pairs, as finite and infinite, good and bad, life and death, day and night. Therefore likewise there are the two fundamentals, station and motion, each divided into four kinds: what is stationary or is in motion, is body; where it is in motion, is place; while it is in motion, is time; what is inherent in the motion, is action. The fourfold division will be clearer in this way: body is, so to speak, the runner, place is the race-course where he runs, time is the period during which he runs, action is the running.

  12. Therefore it comes about that for this reason all things, in general, are divided into four phases, and these universal; because there is never time without there being motion — for even an intermission of motion is time — ; nor is there motion where there is not place and body, because the latter is that which is moved, and the former is where; nor where this motion is, does there fail to be action. Therefore place and body, time and action are the four-horse team of the elements.

  13. Therefore because the primal classes of things are four in number, so many are the primal classes of words. From among these, concerning places and those things which are seen in them, I shall put a summary account in this book; but we shall follow them up wherever the kin of the word under discussion is, even if it has driven its roots beyond its own territory. For often the roots of a tree which is close to the line of the property have gone out under the neighbour’s cornfield. Wherefore, when I speak of places, I shall not have gone astray, if from ager ‘field’ I pass to an agrarius ‘agrarian’ man, and to an agricola ‘farmer.’ The partnership of words is one of many members: the Wine Festival cannot be set on its way without wine, nor can the Curia Calabra ‘Announcement Hall’ be opened without the calatio ‘proclamation.’

  14. Among places, I shall begin with the origin of the word locus ‘place’ itself. Locus is where something can be locatum ‘placed,’ or as they say nowadays, collocatum ‘established.’ That the ancients were wont to use the word in this meaning, is clear in Plautus:

  I have a grown-up daughter, lacking dower, unplaceable, Nor can I place her now with anyone.

  In Ennius we find:

  Thracian Land, where Bacchus’ fane renowned Did Maro place.

  15. Where anything co
mes to a standstill, is a locus ‘place.’ From this the auctioneer is said locare ‘to place’ because he is all the time likewise going on until the price comes to a standstill on someone. Thence also is locarium ‘place-rent,’ which is given for a lodging or a shop, where the payers take their stand. So also loci muliebres ‘woman’s places,’ where the beginnings of birth are situated.

  16. The primal places of the universe, according to the ancient division, are two, terra ‘earth’ and caelum ‘sky,’ and then, according to the division into items, there are many places in each. The places of the sky are called loca supera ‘upper places,’ and these belong to the gods; the places of the earth are loca infera ‘lower places,’ and these belong to mankind. Caelum ‘sky’ is used in two ways, just as is Asia. For Asia means the Asia, which is not Europe, wherein is even Syria; and Asia means also that part of the aforementioned Asia, in which is Ionia and our province.

  17. So caelum ‘sky’ is both a part of itself, the top where the stars are, and that which Pacuvius means when he points it out:

  See this around and above, which holds in its embrace The earth.

  To which he adds:

  That which the men of our days call the sky.

  From this division into two, Lucilius set this as the start of his twenty-one books:

  Seeking the time when the ether above and the earth were created.

  18. Caelum, Aelius writes, was so called because it is caelatum ‘raised above the surface,’ or from the opposite of its idea, celatum ‘hidden’ because it is exposed; not ill the remark, that the one who applied the term took caelare ‘to raise’ much rather from caelum than caelum from caelare. But that second origin, from celare ‘to hide,’ could be said from this fact, that by day it celatur ’is hidden,’ no less than that by night it is not hidden.