Aulus Gellius (125-180) was an avid reader and when he
stayed at Athens he read during the evening and wrote down what seems to him
strange or remarkable. His Noctes Atticae
are a collection are thus a collection of sometimes pedantic marginalia. Take
for instance his remarks on bibosus `given
to drinking’. Reading through a work on grammar by Publius Nigidius Figulus
(100-45 BC), he noted this word and with indignation he remarks that this word
is WRONG: it only occurs in the mime Salinator
(The Salt Dealer) by Laberius (105-43
BC). A mimus was a play about sex and
crime, using words from daily language and unfortunately not a single mime has
come down to us, though some 700 lines from the writer Publilius Syrus have
been preserved. As for Nigidius and Laberius: their works are
lost, apart from quotations here and there put down by other writers. During
their lifetime they were famous, but are now remembered for using the inadmissible
word bibosus. So far eternal glory!
The chapter ends with a quote from the Salinator, describing a girl who nowadays
wouldn’t make it in the showbiz: she young (non annosa), she is not busty (mammosa),
not addicted to alcohol (bibosa) and
not insolent (procax).
Aulius Gellius Noctes Attica III, 12
Largum atque
avidum bibendi a P. Nigidio, doctissimo viro, nova et prope absurda vocabuli
figura "bibosum" dictum.
1 Bibendi
avidum P. Nigidius in commentariis grammaticis "bibacem" et
"bibosum" dicit. 2 "Bibacem" ego ut "edacem" a
plerisque aliis dictum lego; "bibosum" dictum nondum etiam usquam
repperi nisi apud Laberium, neque aliud est, quod simili inclinatu dicatur. 3
Non enim simile est ut "vinosus" aut "vitiosus" ceteraque,
quae hoc modo dicuntur, quoniam a vocabulis, non a verbo, inclinata sunt. 4
Laberius in mimo, qui Salinator inscriptus est, verbo hoc ita utitur: non mammosa,
non annosa, non bibosa, non procax.
largus (+ gen.):
abounding in (with an implied `someone’)
avidus (+ gen.):
greedy for
vocabuli figura:
formation of a word (abl.!)
bibax -acis:
prone to drinking (adjectives ending in ax
denote a lasting habit. Bibax, like bibosus, is only found in this chapter).
edax -acis: voracious
aliis (auctoribus)
reperio repperi
repertum: to find
inclinatus – us
(m.): formation (of a word)
vinosus:
Gellius rightly remarks that adjectives in osus
are made from a noun (vocabulum).
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