XIV.
Primi per figuras animalium Aegyptii sensus mentis effingebant (primi per figuras animalium Aegyptii sensus mentis effingebant: ‘[the Egyptians] first expressed thought through animal images.’ sensus mentis: concepts, ideas, notions) (ea antiquissima monimenta memoriae humanae (ea antiquissima monimenta memoriae humanae: ‘those [were] the most ancient records of human history.’ History as preserved memory of the past) impressa saxis cernuntur), et litterarum semet inventores perhibent; (litterarum semet inventores perhibent: ‘they regard themselves as the inventors of the alphabet.’ The enclitic particle -met may or may not indicate emphasis with personal or reflexive pronouns. Often used by poets for metrical reasons.) inde Phoenicas, quia mari praepollebant, intulisse Graeciae gloriamque adeptos, tamquam reppererint quae acceperant. (inde Phoenicas, quia mari praepollebant, intulisse Graeciae gloriamque adeptos, tamquam reppererint quae acceperant: ‘from Egypt (inde), [it is said] that the Phoenicians, who were superior on the sea, had brought it to Greece, having undeservedly acquired renown for inventing what they had received [from the Egyptians].’ Phoenicas … intulisse is infinitive clause in indirect discourse after an understood verb of saying; Phoenicas from Phoenicae, alternative of Phoenices, ‘the Phoenicians’, an ancient people from Syria, famous mariners; quia … praepollebant: the quia clause is incidental and purely explanatory, therefore outside the construction in indirect speech; causal quia, quod, quoniam, and quando are regularly with indicative; tamquam reppererint: ‘under pretense that they had found … ‘; conditional conjunction of comparison like tamquam and quasi imply that the comparison is contrary to fact, thus with subjunctive. Both are usually found followed by present or (as in this case) by perfect subjunctive, even when the imperfect or pluperfect is called for by the sequence of tenses (Ernout). adeptus from adipiscor is deponent, thus having active sense, ‘having acquired’.) quippe fama est Cadmum classe Phoenicum vectum rudibus adhuc Graecorum populis artis eius auctorem fuisse. quidam Cecropem Atheniensem vel Linum Thebanum et temporibus Troianis Palamedem Argivum memorant sedecim litterarum formas, mox alios ac praecipuum Simoniden ceteras repperisse. (Cadmum … Cecropem … Linum … Palamedem … Simoniden: Cadmus was a Phoenician prince who founded Thebes in Boeotia and introduced writing to the Greeks. Cecrops was the mythical first king of Athens and founder of the Acropolis for the worship of the goddess Athena. Linus of Thebes, the son of Apollo and Psamathe or of the muse Urania, is claimed to be one of the probable inventors of the original sixteen-letter Greek alphabet, another being Palamedes of Argos, one of the Greek princes who participated in the war of Troy in the twelfth century B.C., and is credited with several inventions, including either the Greek alphabet or of only four additional letters. Simonides of Ceos (an island in the Aegean Cyclades) is remembered as a man of great wisdom, a poet, and as the man who added another four new letters to the Greek alphabet, bringing the total to twenty-four.) at in Italia Etrusci ab Corinthio Demarato, Aborigines Arcade ab Evandro didicerunt; (at in Italia Etrusci ab Corinthio Demarato, Aborigines Arcade ab Evandro didicerunt: ‘in Italy, on the other hand, the Etruscans learnt the alphabet from Demaratus of Corinth, the Latins (Aborigenes) from the Arcadian Evander.’ Demaratus, a Greek nobleman, fled to Etruria in Italy from his native Corinth on charges of sedition in about 650 B.C. He married and founded the Tarquin dynasty, his son being the fifth king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus. Evander emigrated to Latium in central Italy from Arcadia in the Greek Peloponnese, bringing laws, the Greek gods, and the alphabet.) et forma litteris Latinis quae veterrimis Graecorum. (forma litteris Latinis [ea] quae veterrimis Graecorum [est]: lit. ‘the Latin letters had that shape, which the most ancient [letters] of the Greeks had.’ litteris Latinis and veterrimis are datives of possessor with est understood; in English they both become subjects in a clause with the verb ‘have’. Note how Tacitus in his quest for stylistic variety changes construction and has Graecorum in place of Graecis.) sed nobis quoque paucae primum fuere, deinde additae sunt. quo exemplo Claudius tres litteras adiecit, quae usui imperitante eo, post oblitteratae, (quo exemplo Claudius tres litteras adiecit, quae usui [erant] imperitante eo, post oblitteratae: lit. ‘on which example Claudius added three letters, which [were] for use during his reign, and struck out afterwards.’ Briefly stated, one of the three new letters expressed the Latin sound of ps and bs; the second expressed the sound intermediate between i and u (as that of u in French), to eliminate the double spelling of certain Latin words (e.g. maximus vs. maxumus, optimus vs. optumus); the third, the symbol of which looked like an inverted F, to differentiate the sound of the Latin vowel U from that of the semi-consonant V, a problem that still baffles experts today. All in all, the changes proposed by Claudius were not as foolish as might at first appear. imperitante eo: ‘he (Claudius) reigning’, abl. abs.; post is here adverb, not prep.) aspiciuntur etiam nunc in aere +publico+ dis plebiscitis per fora ac templa fixo. (aspiciuntur etiam nunc in aere +publico+ dis plebiscitis per fora ac templa fixo: the original text is uncertain at +publico+ dis plebiscitis. Fixes have been proposed, the best perhaps (and the one requiring the least change) being that the text should read in aere publicandis plebiscitis, which gives: ‘[the new letters] are seen even now on bronze [tablets] affixed in squares and temples for publicizing laws.’ publicandis plebiscitis: dative gerundive expressing purpose, ‘for plebiscites to be brought to the attention of the public’; plebiscita are resolutions of the plebs in the comitia tributa, or assembly of the people by tribes, having force of laws. per fora ac templa: per + acc. replaces in + abl. whenever the places are several and separate, ‘throughout’.)