Catullus 17: Sur le Pont d'Avignon / L'on y danse, l'on y danse.

 

Verona, Catullus’ hometown, has an ancient bridge at which ceremonies are held – there is in Roman religion a connection between bridges and religion, and hence pontifex `bridge-builder’. The city fears that the bridge is too old for frivolous dancing and jumping and will collapse. Catullus has a solution: throw an old man off the bridge as a kind of atonement. There are indeed some allusions to throwing a sexagenarian off a bridge at some stage of Roman religion – a less attractive side of this religion for people of my age. The poet has a candidate in mind too: an old man who doesn’t take care for his young wife and allows her to have extramarital liaisons. Note that the old man is reproached for that, not his young wife.

 Catullus XVII.

Meter: priapean – ˘ – ˘ ˘ – ˘ – // – ˘ – ˘ ˘ – × (= glyconic plus pherecratean, I have the division marked with a double spacing)                                                     

O Colonia, quae cupis ponte ludere longo,
et salire paratum habes, sed vereris inepta
crura ponticuli axulis stantis in redivivis,
ne supinus eat cavaque in palude recumbat:
sic tibi bonus ex tua pons libidine fiat,
in quo vel Salisubsali sacra suscipiantur,
munus hoc mihi maximi da, Colonia, risus.
quendam municipem meum de tuo volo ponte
ire praecipitem in lutum per caputque pedesque,
verum totius ut lacus putidaeque paludis
lividissima maximeque est profunda vorago.
insulsissimus est homo, nec sapit pueri instar
bimuli tremula patris dormientis in ulna.
cui cum sit viridissimo nupta flore puella
et puella tenellulo delicatior haedo,
adservanda nigerrimis diligentius uvis,
ludere hanc sinit ut lubet, nec pili facit uni,
nec se subleuat ex sua parte, sed velut alnus
in fossa Liguri iacet suppernata securi,
tantundem omnia sentiens quam si nulla sit usquam;
talis iste meus stupor nil videt, nihil audit,
ipse qui sit, utrum sit an non sit, id quoque nescit.
nunc eum volo de tuo ponte mittere pronum,
si pote stolidum repente excitare veternum,
et supinum animum in gravi derelinquere caeno,
ferream ut soleam tenaci in voragine mula.


Colonia: Verona, though some argue for modern Cologna, a town nearby Verona  

ludere and salire refer to merriment and jumping around at a religious festival

salire paratum habes: you have jumping in readiness

inepta crura ponticuli axulis stantis in redivivis:  the inadequate pillars (`legs’) of the bridge (note the diminutive to denote its shaky construction) standing on reused (redivivis) timber (axulis from axis is a diminutive too and occurs only here)

supinus eat: `falls flat’

cavus: deep

palus paludis (f.): marsh, pool

recumbo recubui (-ere): to fall down

sic: in this way, on this condition

ex tua libidine: for your requirement

salisubsali: this word occurs only here and is probably a genitive (the rites of Salisubsalus)  and the name of a god, probably a cult-name  of Mars, as this word is undoubtedly connected with the Salii, the dancing priests of Mars.

suscipio suscepi susceptum (-ere): to take up, begin

munus maximi risus: a spectacle of hilarious laughter

municeps municipis (m. and f.): fellow citizen

praeceps preacipitis: headlong

lutum: mud

per caputque pedesque: `over head and ears’

verum totius ut lacus = verum ut (but where) etc..

lacus –us (m.): lake (lacus is streaming water while palus is stagnant)

putidus: stinking

lividus: dark blue, dirty

vorago voraginis: abyss

insulsus: insipid, silly

homo has a pejorative connotation in such a context

nec sapit pueri instar: he has not as much sense as a child            

bimulus: of two years old (this too is a diminutive)

tremula in ulna: in the rocking elbows (pars pro toto for arms)

patris: a Dutch commentary published in 1950 - written by a female teacher - notes that in Southern countries fathers are far more involved in caring for their young children.

cui cum sit viridissimo nupta flore puella : though he has married a girl in her prime blossom

tenellulus: a double diminutive of tener `soft’

haedus: young goat

adservo: to watch over

uva: grape (when grapes are black they are ripe and so  a prey for thieves)

ludere hanc sinit ut lubet: he allows her to play as it pleases her (ludere has here erotic connotations)

pilus: hair, a trifle (nec pili facit uni is an idiomatic expression `he doesn’t  give a damn’, cf. non flocci facere/pendere  with the same meaning; uni = unius)

se sublevo (are): to come into motion, rise up (someone lying in bed)

alnus (f.): alder (a kind of tree with reddish wood, both words have a common PIE root  *el-, ol- `red’)

fossa: ditch

Liguri: ablative from Liguris –is (= from Liguria, a coastal province in North-West Italy) can qualify both fossa and securi (securis –is (f.): axe), according to the commentary of Kroll, but others take it with securi only (Fordyce, Quinn)

suppernatus: lamed in the hip, hamstrung, cut down

tantundem omnia sentiens quam si nulla sit usquam : as much aware of everything as though she didn’t exist (Guy Lee)

talis isti meus stupor: stupor (dullness) is here abstractum pro concreto  `that’s what he is like, this slow-wit I have picked for you ’ (Quinn)

pronus: head foremost

si pote: in case he can

stolidus: slow, stupid

repente: suddenly

veternus: lethargy

supinum animum: indolent mind

derelinquo –licui -lictum (-ere): to leave behind

caenum: mud

ferream soleam: leather horseshoe with iron sole, attached with leather slippers to the hoof and so more likely to get stuck and lost in the mud. The Celts invented the horseshoe attached with nails.

mula: mule

  

Translation by Leonard C. Smithers (London, 1894)

 O Colonia, you who long to play on a long bridge and have it readied to dance on, but fear the shaky legs of the little bridge standing on second-hand sticks, lest it tumble flat in the deep swamp; let the bridge be as good as you desire, on which even the Salian dances may be undertaken: for which give to me, Colonia, the gift of greatest laughter. I want a certain townsman of mine to go head over heels from your bridge into the mud, in truth where the brimming, stinking swamp is darkest and an especially deep-sunk mire. He's the biggest ass of a man, lacking the sense of a two-year-old dozing in his father's cradling arm. Although a girl is wedded to him flushed with springtide's bloom (and a girl more dainty than a tender kid needs to be watched with keener diligence than the lush-black grape-bunch), he leaves her to play as she wants, cares not a single hair, nor troubles himself with marital office, but lies like an alder tree felled by a Ligurian hatchet in a ditch, as aware of everything as though no woman were anywhere. Such is my thick-headed friend! he sees not, he hears not. He also knows not who he is himself, or whether he is or is not. Now I want to chuck him head first from your bridge, if it is possible to suddenly rouse this sleepy dullard and to leave behind in the heavy mud his sluggish spirit, as does a mule its iron shoe in the sticky mire.

Tacitus, Germania 24 -25: of games and slaves.

 Recently I bought a reprint of Jacob’s Grimm Deutsche Mythology (Teutonic Mythology, 4^th edition 1875), a pioneering work and a milestone in the scholarship of Germanic religion and customs. The foremost early source about Germanic tribes is Tacitus’ Germania, but this work is not without its problems when taken as an ethnographical description. I think Grimm was more aware of this than some later scholars, but it is almost all we have. The following two chapters – 24 and 25 - are about games and servitude, neatly connected by the voluntary servitude of those who lost a game of dice, but this is likely to have been an exception rather than common practice.  Chapter 24 starts with sword dancing of young men and I can’t help thinking of Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance. The conditions described in c.25 are almost applicable to feudalism during the Middle-Ages in Western-Europe.

 Tacitus, Germania:

 24] Genus spectaculorum unum atque in omni coetu idem. Nudi iuvenes, quibus id ludicrum est, inter gladios se atque infestas frameas saltu iaciunt. Exercitatio artem paravit, ars decorem, non in quaestum tamen aut mercedem: quamvis audacis lasciviae pretium est voluptas spectantium. Aleam, quod mirere, sobrii inter seria exercent, tanta lucrandi perdendive temeritate, ut, cum omnia defecerunt, extremo ac novissimo iactu de libertate ac de corpore contendant. Victus voluntariam servitutem adit: quamvis iuvenior, quamvis robustior adligari se ac venire patitur. Ea est in re prava pervicacia; ipsi fidem vocant. Servos condicionis huius per commercia tradunt, ut se quoque pudore victoriae exsolvant.

 pectaculum: show, spectacle

coetus (= coitus), -us (m.): gathering, meeting

quibus id ludicrum est: for whom this is a game (thus unlike gladiators, who were often forced to fight in the arena)

infestas frameas: threatening spears

se saltu iaceo: to jump/leap

exercitio…artem… decorum: exercise…skill…gracefulness

quaestus –us (m.): profit, gain

merces mercedis (f.): reward

quamvis audacis: though daring/dangerous

lascivia: playfulness

alea: (game of) dice (at Rome dicing though formally forbidden, was tolerated)

quod mirere (= mireris): what will surprise you

sobrius: sober, not drunken (unlike the Romans, who played dice often after dinner)

inter seria: amongst their serious occupations (note that dicing also plays an important role in the Indian epos Mahabharata and at an earlier period in groups of young man, the vratyas, who were send outside society before being integrated as full men)

tanta lucrandi perdendive temeritate: with such a recklessness for winning or losing

deficio defeci defectum: to lose

extremo ac novissimo iactu: with the last and final throw

quamvis iuvenior, quamvis robustior: i.e. a younger and stronger man would have won in a physical fight for freedom

adligari se ac venire: to be bound and sold (venire from veneo – venii `to be sold’)

pravus: crooked, distorted

pervicacia: stubbornness

fidem: keeping one’s word (Tacitus disproves of such stubbornness, but there is also another element: only Romans can have true fides: the fides of barbarians is folly))

condicionis huius: of this sort (i.e. won by gambling)

ut se quoque pudore victoriae exsolvant: to release them also from the shame of their victory (maybe the term pudor reflects more Tacitus’ moral attitude towards this practise than that of the German tribes. As for selling such slaves: Rudolf Much (1937 ) thought this was unlikely, as the kinsmen (Sippe) of such a slave would not allow him to be sold abroad. Anderson (1938) suggested that they were sold in other to prevent troubles with the kinsmen of the enslaved man)

 [25] Ceteris servis non in nostrum morem, descriptis per familiam ministeriis, utuntur: suam quisque sedem, suos penates regit. Frumenti modum dominus aut pecoris aut vestis ut colono iniungit, et servus hactenus paret: cetera domus officia uxor ac liberi exsequuntur. Verberare servum ac vinculis et opere coercere rarum: occidere solent, non disciplina et severitate, sed impetu et ira, ut inimicum, nisi quod impune est. Liberti non multum supra servos sunt, raro aliquod momentum in domo, numquam in civitate, exceptis dumtaxat iis gentibus quae regnantur. Ibi enim et super ingenuos et super nobiles ascendunt: apud ceteros impares libertini libertatis argumentum sunt.

 eteris servis: slaves consisted of people taken prison in war from other tribes

descriptis per familiam ministeriis: with their duties well-defined for a household

penates: family gods  and so `household’

frumentum: grain

modum: measurement

pecus pecoris (n.): cattle

vestis –is (f.): clothing

ut colono: as (a Roman landlord does from his) tenant (colonus)

iniungo – inunxi –iniunctum (-ere): to impose

hactenus: to this extent

cetera domus official: the further duties of the house (of the master)

verbero (-are): to whip, beat

vinculis et opere coercere: to punish (force) with chains and hard labour (which with not unusual by the Romans, especially forced working in mines was a harsh punishment)

non disciplina et severitate = non disciplinae severitate (hedyadis) : not for (keeping up)  the strictness of discipline (all the slaves of a household could be executed for a severe crime, such as the murder of a master)

impetu et ira = impetu irae: in an impulse of anger

ut inimicum: as if it were an enemy

nisi quod impune est: except that their deed remains unpunished (a slave-owner could do with his slaves what he wanted, but when he killed the slave of another, he had to pay wergild, i.e. an amount of money to the owner of the slave killed)

liberti: freedman still depended on their former masters for protection

raro aliquod momentum (sunt): seldom something important (monumentum; weight in a scale. In Rome freedman could gain high positions and even become very rich, cf. the Cena Trimalchionis by Petronius)

dumtaxat: only

regnantur: some Germanic tribes had kings, especially those in Eastern Germania and Scandinavia

ingenuus: freeborn

apud ceteros (populous) impares libertini libertatis argumentum sunt: amongst the other (tribes) the inferior freedman (= the inferior position of freedmen) are proof of (their,  i.e. the higher ranking people) liberty. (For the aristocrat Tacitus, the fact that freedmen could gain high positions was a gruelling thought and what he does here is applying Roman terminology to Germanic social conditions as a mirror for his Roman readers: true freedom doesn’t depend on freedmen!)

Translation by Edward Brooks (1897)

 24. They have only one kind of public spectacle, which is exhibited in every company. Young men, who make it their diversion, dance naked amidst drawn swords and presented spears. Practice has conferred skill at this exercise; and skill has given grace; but they do not exhibit for hire or gain: the only reward of this pastime, though a hazardous one, is the pleasure of the spectators. What is extraordinary, they play at dice, when sober, as a serious business: and that with such a desperate venture of gain or loss, that, when everything else is gone, they set their liberties and persons on the last throw. The loser goes into voluntary servitude; and, though the youngest and strongest, patiently suffers himself to be bound and sold.  Such is their obstinacy in a bad practice—they themselves call it honor. The slaves thus acquired are exchanged away in commerce, that the winner may get rid of the scandal of his victory.

 5. The rest of their slaves have not, like ours, particular employments in the family allotted them. Each is the master of a habitation and household of his own. The lord requires from him a certain quantity of grain, cattle, or cloth, as from a tenant; and so far only the subjection of the slave extends. His domestic offices are performed by his own wife and children. It is usual to scourge a slave, or punish him with chains or hard labor. They are sometimes killed by their masters; not through severity of chastisement, but in the heat of passion, like an enemy; with this difference, that it is done with impunity. Freedmen are little superior to slaves; seldom filling any important office in the family; never in the state, except in those tribes which are under regal government. There, they rise above the free-born, and even the nobles: in the rest, the subordinate condition of the freedmen is a proof of freedom.

Sabre Dance - Aram Khachaturian.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqg3l3r_DRI

Legenda Aurea, Julian the Hospitaller.

The legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller is one of the better narratives in the Legenda Aurea. As often, the origin of this saint is unknown and he is in all likelihood a completely fictitious character. His story takes up the motive of the inescapability of fate: Julian is told by a deer that he will kill his parents, and in order to make this prediction undone Julian leaves his house and travels far away. His parents are searching for him, come to his abode and yes, what has been predicted befalls. It is with some alteration a Christian version of King Oedipus, but Julian and his faithful spouse will be redeemed.

 acobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea, de sancto Iuliano.

 ...] Fuit etiam alius Iulianus, qui utrumque parentem, nesciens, occidit. Cumque is Iulianus, praedictus iuvenis ac nobilis, quadam die venationi insisteret et quendam cervum repertum insequeretur. Subito cervus versus eum divino nutu se vertit eique dixit: "Tu me insequeris, qui patris et matris tuae occisor eris!" Quod ille audiens vehementer extimuit et, ne sibi forte contingeret, quod a cervo audierat, relictis omnibus clam discessit. Ad regionem remotam pervenit ibique cuidam principi adhaesit et tam strenue ubique et in bello et in pace se habuit, quod princeps eum militem fecit et quandam castellanam viduam in coniugem ei tradidit et castellum pro dote accepit.

 lius: various saints with the name Julianus are mentioned at the beginning of this legend

cumque: and when

praedictus: already mentioned

venationi insisteret: set out for hunting

cervum repertum: a deer he discovered

nutus –us (m.): nod, hint, command

subito: suddenly

occisor (m.): murderer

extimesco –ui (-ere): become very afraid

forte: by chance

contingo –tigi -tactum (-ere): to happen, befall

clam: secretly

cuidam principi adhaesit: he joined some ruler

strenue: strenuously

se habeo: to behave

castellanam viduam: a widow who had a castle

in conjugem trado: to give in marriage

pro dote accepit: accepted as dowry (the subject is now Iulianus, note that it is the widow/bride who had to provide for the dowry)

 nterea parentes Iuliani pro amissione filii Iuliani nimium dolentes vagabundi ubique pergebant et filium suum sollicite quaerebant. Tandem ad castrum, ubi Iulianus praeerat, devenerunt. Tunc autem Iulianus a castro casu recesserat. Quos cum uxor Iuliani vidisset et, quinam essent, inquisivisset, et illi omnia, quae filio suo acciderant, enarrassent, intellexit, quod viri sui parentes erant, ut puto, quia hoc a viro suo forte frequenter audierat. Ipsos igitur benigne suscepit et pro amore viri sui lectum iis dimisit et ipsa sibi alibi lectulum collocavit. Facto autem mane, castellana ad ecclesiam perrexit et ecce Iulianus mane veniens in thalamum quasi uxorem suam excitaturus intravit et inveniens duos pariter dormientes, uxorem cum adultero suo, silenter extracto gladio, ambos pariter interemit. Exiens autem domum vidit uxorem eius ab ecclesia revertentem et admirans interrogavit, quinam essent illi, qui in suo lecto dormirent. At illa ait: "Parentes vestri sunt, qui vos diutissime quaesierunt, et eos in vestro thalamo collocavi." Quod ille audiens paene exanimis effectus amarissime flere coepit ac dicere: "Heu miser, quid faciam! Quia dulcissimos meos parentes occidi. Ecce impletum est verbum cervi, quod, dum vitare volui, miserrimus adimplevi. Iam vale, soror dulcissima, quia de cetero non quiescam, donec sciam, quod Deus poenitentiam meam acceperit." Cui illa: "Absit, dulcissime frater, ut te deseram et sine me abeas, sed quae fui tecum particeps gaudii, ero particeps et doloris."

 missio –nis (f.): loss

nimium dolentes vagabundi:  exceedingly mourning, they were roaming (-bundus is in later Latin an alternative for the participle present active, hence vagabond)

ubique: everywhere

tandem: finally

sollicite: anxiously

pergo perrexi perrectum (-ere): to go forward, hasten

devenio deveni (-ire): to reach

casu: by chance

suscipio –cepi –ceptum (-ere): to take up, receive

lectum/lectulum: bed (lectulum is a diminutive)

colloco (-are): to put, place

alibi: elsewhere

facto mane: when it was morning (mane is an adverb)

thalamus: bedroom

quasi excitaturus: as for awakening

pariter: side by side

interimo or interemo emi, emptum, or emtum: to kill

admiror –atus: to wonder

diutissime: for a very long time

exanimis effectus: having become half death, fainting

amarus: bitter

coepio coepi coeptum (-ere): to start, begin

de cetero: further on

absit: it will not happen/ it shall not be

particeps –cipis (f., m.): partner

 

Tunc insimul recedentes iuxta quoddam magnum flumen, ubi multi periclitabantur. Quoddam hospitale maximum statuerunt, ut ibi poenitentiam facerent et omnes, qui vellent transire fluvium, incessanter transveherent et hospitio universos pauperes reciperent. Post multum vero temporis media nocte, dum Iulianus fessus quiesceret et gelu grave esset, audivit vocem miserabiliter lamentantem ac Iulianum, ut se traduceret fluvium, lugubri voce invocantem. Quod ille audiens concitus surrexit et iam gelu deficientem inveniens in domum suam portavit et ignem accendens ipsum calefacere studuit. Sed cum calefieri non posset et, ne ibi deficeret, timeret, ipsum in lectulum suum portavit et diligenter cooperuit. Post paululum ille, qui sic infirmus et quasi leprosus apparuerat, splendidus scandit ad aethera et hospiti suo dixit: "Iuliane, Dominus misit me ad te mandans tibi, quod tuam poenitentiam acceptavit et ambo post modicum in Domino quiescetis." Sicque ille disparuit et Iulianus cum uxore sua post modicum plenus bonis operibus et eleemosynis in Domino requievit. [. . .]

insimul: at the same time

periclitor: to be in danger

hospitale -is (n.): guesthouse

incessanter: incessantly, continuously

hospitium: hospitality

fessus: exhausted

gelu gelus (n.): frost, cold

Iulianum, ut se traduceret fluvium, lugubri voce invocantem: someone calling Julian with pitiable voice, that he would transport him over the river

gelu deficientem: exhausted by cold

ipsum calefacere studuit: tried to warm him

calefieri is the passive of calefacere

et, ne ibi deficeret, timeret = et timeret, ne ibi deficeret

cooperio –rui -rtum (-ire): to cover

paululum: a short time

scando - -  (-ere): to climb, ascend

mandans (here) announcing

ambo: you two

post modicum: after a short while

elemosyna/ eleemosyna: alms, mercy

 

Translation (modernized) by William Caxton (1483)

 Another Julian there was that slew his father and mother by ignorance. And this man was noble and young, and gladly went for to hunt. And one time among all other he found an hart which returned toward him, and said to him, thou huntest me that shall slay thy father and mother. Hereof was he much abashed and afeard, and for dread, that it should not happen to him that the hart had said to him, he went privily away that no man knew thereof, and found a prince noble and great to whom he put him in service. And he proved so well in battle and in services in his palace, that he was so much in the prince’s grace that he made him knight and gave to him a rich widow of a castle, and for her dower he received the castle. And when his father and mother knew that he was thus gone they put them in the way for to seek him in many places. And so long they went till they came to the castle where he dwelt, but then he was gone out, and they found his wife. And when she saw them she inquired diligently who they were, and when they had said and recounted what was happened of their son, she knew verily that they were the father and mother of her husband, and received them much charitably, and gave to them her own bed, and made another for herself. And on the morn the wife of Julian went to the church, and her husband came home whiles she was at church, and entered into his chamber for to awake his wife. And he saw twain in his bed, and had weened that it had been a man that had lain with his wife, and slew them both with his sword, and after, went out and saw his wife coming from church. Then he was much abashed and demanded of his wife who they were that lay in his bed, then she said that they were his father and his mother, which had long sought him, and she had laid them in his bed. Then he swooned and was almost dead, and began to weep bitterly and cry, alas! caitiff that I am, what shall I do that have slain my father and my mother? Now it is happened that I supposed to have eschewed, and said to his wife: Adieu and farewell, my right dear love, I shall never rest till that I shall have knowledge if God will pardon and forgive me this that I have done, and that I shall have worthy penance therefor. And she answered: Right dear love, God forbid that ye should go without me, like as I have had joy with you, so will I have pain and heaviness. Then departed they and went till they came to a great river over which much folk passed, where they edified an hospital much great for to harbour poor people, and there do their penance in bearing men over that would pass.

 

After long time Saint Julian slept about midnight, sore travailed, and it was frozen and much cold, and he heard a voice lamenting and crying that said: Julian come and help us over. And anon he arose, and went over and found one almost dead for cold, and anon he took him and bare him to the fire and did great labour to chauffe and warm him. And when he saw that he could not be chauffed ne warm, he bare him in to his bed, and covered him the best wise he might. And anon after, he that was so sick and appeared as he had been measell, he saw all shining ascending to heaven, and said to Saint Julian his host: Julian, our Lord hath sent me to thee, and sendeth thee word that he hath accepted thy penance. And a while after Saint Julian and his wife rendered unto God their souls and departed out of this world.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_the_Hospitaller

Pliny the Elder on Elephants (N.H. 8, 1-3)

 

One of the Latin authors who is but little read, is Pliny the Elder (AD 23/24 – 79), a prolific writer, but whose writings have not survived, except the Naturalis Historiae. This work is an immense encyclopaedia concerning all knowledge about the natural world, plants, animals, anthropology, minerals etc. which was at his disposal. He died in 79 AD while investigating the volcanic eruption of the Vesuvius, before he could complete and edit his encyclopaedia. What he wrote at that time as natural science is now outdated and mostly only of antiquarian interest. Still, for people with an antiquarian interest, there is a lot to enjoy and wonder about in his writings. Take for instance what he has to say about elephants. Of course we can smile about his assertions; especially that elephants have some awareness of religion, but what is interesting for a historian is the fact that non-human beings were credited with such feelings and so the Naturalis Historia has turned from a work about nature into a mirror for Roman mentality.

 Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historiae Liber VIII, 1-3.

 1 Ad reliqua transeamus animalia et primum terrestria. Maximum est elephans proximumque humanis sensibus, quippe intellectus illis sermonis patrii et imperiorum obedientia, officiorum quae didicere memoria, amoris et gloriae voluptas, immo vero, quae etiam in homine rara, probitas, prudentia, aequitas, religio quoque siderum solisque ac lunae veneratio. 2 auctores sunt in Mauretaniae saltibus ad quendam amnem, cui nomen est Amilo, nitescente luna nova greges eorum descendere ibique se purificantes sollemniter aqua circumspergi atque ita salutato sidere in silvas reverti vitulorum fatigatos prae se ferentes. 3 alienae quoque religionis intellectu creduntur maria transituri non ante naves conscendere quam invitati rectoris iureiurando de reditu, visique sunt fessi aegritudine, quando et illas moles infestant morbi, herbas supini in caelum iacentes, veluti tellure precibus allegata. nam, quod docilitatem attinet, regem adorant, genua submittunt, coronas porrigunt. Indis arant minores, quos appellant nothos.

 ad reliquia: for the remainder (Book 7 is about anthropology)

primum: first of all

sermonis patria: the language of their country

imperium: command order

officium: duty, task

didicere = didicerunt (the memory of elephants is proverbial)

immo: yes indeed

rarus: rare

probitas –atis (f.): honesty

aequitas –atis (f.): fairness

auctores sunt: there are writers who etc. The following aci construction depends on an understood `dicentes’ or a similar word. Construct : nitescente luna nova greges eorum descendere in Mauretaniae saltibus ad quendam amnem, cui nomen est Amilo

nitisco: to begin to shine

grex gregis (f.) herd

Mauretania: modern Morocco

saltus –us (m.): forest, woodland

Amilo: it is uncertain which river is meant

circumspergo (-sparsi -sparsum) to sprinkle around (circumspargi is medial)

ita salutato sidere: abl.abs.

vitulus: male-calf

prae se ferentes: i.e. with their tusks and trunks

alienae quoque religionis intellectu: with their understanding for the religious feelings of others (alienae religionis probably refers to letting the helmsman (rector) swear (iusiuro) a save return (reditus -us), which implies a common reverence for oaths and religion)

transituri: about to cross over

conscendo conscendi conscensum: to climb, go aboard

invito: to request, summon (and of course also `to invite’, but the Latin verb has a broader range of meaning than its English heir). Here invito is constructed with the ablative: iusiurando an oath to be sworn

fessi aegriudine: exhausted by disease

quando et: since even

moles –is (f.): mass, enormity

infesto: to disturb, befall, infest

morbus, disease, illness

supinus: lying on the back

veluti tellure precibus allegata: (abl.abs.) as if the earth being adduced (for assistance) with their prayers (what Pliny wants to say is not quite clear, but I think he means that strewing herbs on the earth is a religious act for invoking assistance. Another possibility is that they want the earth to pray for them, so: adduced for its prayers)

docilitas – tatis (f.): aptness for being taught

regem: the king of Persia. Elephants were used in the Persian army, and what Pliny describes seems to be the lowering of elephants for making it easy to be mounted

genua submittunt: they lower their knees

porrigo porrexi porrectum: to offer, present

aro: to plough, use for ploughing (they were indeed used for ploughing)

minores: the Indian elephant is smaller than the African

nothus: bastard from a known father; a Greek word for which the Roman had no equivalent. PI have no idea where this information comes from, but it could be that one of the words for elephant (and there a quite a few in India) `naga’ was misunderstood.

 Philemon Holland, translator (1601): C. Plinius Secundus The Historie of the World.

 Of land beasts. The praise of Elephants: their wit and understanding.

 PASSE wee now to treat of other living creatures, and first of land beasts: among which, the Elephant is the greatest, and commeth neerest in wit and capacitie, to men: for they understand the language of that country wherein they are bred, they do whatsoever they are commaunded, they remember what duties they be taught, and withall take a pleasure and delight both in love and also in glorie: nay more than all this, they embrace goodnesse, honestie, prudence, and equitie, (rare qualities I may tell you to be found in men) and withall have in religious reverence (with a kind of devotion) not only the starres and planets, but the sunne and moone they also worship. And in very truth, writers there be who report thus much of them, That when the new moon beginneth to appeare fresh and bright, they come down by whole heards to a certaine river named Amelus, in the deserts and forrest of Mauritania, where after that they are washed and solemnly purified by sprinkling & dashing themselves all over with the water, and have saluted and adored after their manner that planet, they returne againe into the woods and chases, carrying before them their yong calves that be wearied and tired. Moreover, they are thought to have a sense and understanding of religion and conscience in others; for when they are to passe the seas into another countrey, they will not embarke before they be induced thereto by an oath of their governours and rulers, That they shall returne againe: and seen there have been divers of them, being enfeebled by sicknesse (for as bigge and huge as they be, subject they are to grievous maladies) to lie upon their backes, casting and flinging hearbs up toward heaven, as if they had procured and set the earth to pray for them. Now for their docilitie and aptnesse to learne any thing; the king they adore, they kneele before him, and offer unto him guirlands and chaplets of flowers and green hearbs. To conclude, the lesser sort of them, which they call Bastards, serve the Indians in good stead to care and plough their ground.

 Moghul miniature. Further details unknown.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_History_(Pliny)