EPITAPH OF LUCIUS SCIPIO. 55 This document is followed very closely, in point of time, by the well-known inscription on the sarcophagus of L. Cornelius Scipio1 Barbatus, and the epitaph on his son, which are both written in the old Saturnian metre. Scipio Barbatus was the great-grandfather of the conqueror of Hannibal, and was consul in A. U. c. 456, the first year of the third Samnite war. His sarcophagus was found A. D. 1780 in a tomb near the Appian Way, whence it was removed to the Vatican. The epitaph is as follows: Cornelius Lucius Scipio Barbatus Gnaivod Subigit omne Loucana opsidesque abdoucit. "Cornelius L. Scipio Barbatus, son of Cnæus, a brave and wise man, whose beauty was equal to his virtue. He was amongst you Consul, Censor, Edile. He took Taurasia, Cisauna, and Samnium; he subjugated all Lucania, and led away hostages." His son was Consul A. U. c. 495.3 The following inscription is on a slab which was found near the Porta Capona. The title is painted red (rubricatus:)— L. Cornelio L. F. Scipio, Aidiles, Consol, Censor. Honc oino ploirume cosentiunt R. Duonoro optimo fuise viro Luciom Scipionem. Filios Barbati Hic cepit Corsica Aleria que urbe Dedet tempestatebus aide mereto. “Romans for the most part agree, that this one man, Lucius Scipio, was the best of good men. He was the son of Barbatus, Consul, Censor, Edile. He took Corsica and the city Aleria. He dedicated a temple to the Storms as a just return." i Orell. No. 550. 2 Ibid. No. 552. Meyer's Anth. Nos. 1, 2; where see also No. 5. 3 B. C. 259. It is not a little remarkable that the style of this epitaph is more archaic than that of the preceding. The consul of the year B. C. 260 was C. Duilius, who in that year gained his celebrated naval victory over the Carthaginians; the inscription, therefore, engraved on the pedestal of the Columna Rostrata, which was erected in commemoration of that event, may be considered as a contemporary monument of the language.1 Some alterations were probably made in its orthography at a period subsequent to its erection, for it was rent asunder from top to bottom by lightning A. U. c. 580,2 and is supposed not to have been repaired until the reign of Augustus, for the restoration of a temple built by Duilius was begun by that emperor and completed by Tiberius.3 The principal peculiarities to be observed in this inscription are, that the ablatives singular end in d, as in the words Siceliad, obsidioned; c is put for g, as in macistratos, leciones; e for i, as in navebos, ornavet; o for u, as in Duilios, aurom; classes, nummi, &c., are spelt clases, numei, and quinqueremos, triremos, quinresmos, triesmos. This monument was discovered A. D. 1565, in a very imperfect state, but its numerous lacuna were supplied by Grotefend. About sixty years after the date of this epitaph, the Senatusconsultum, respecting the Bacchanals, was passed." This monument was discovered A.D. 1692, in the Calabrian village of Terra di Feriolo, and is now preserved in the Imperial Museum of Vienna. There is scarcely any difference between the Latinity of this inscription and that of the classical period except in the orthography and some of the grammatical inflexions. The expressions are in accordance with the usage of good authors, and the construction is not without elegance. Nor is this to be wondered at when it is remembered that, at the period when this decree was published, Rome already possessed a written literature. Ennius was now known as a poet and an historian, and many of the comedies of Plautus had been acted on the public stage. Having thus enumerated the existing monuments of the old 1 Orellius, No. 549. 4 U. c. 568; B. c. 186. 2 Liv. xlii. 20. 3 Tac. Ann. ii. 49. LATIN AND GREEK ALPHABETS. 57 Roman language and its constituent elements, it remains to compare the Latin and Greek alphabets, for the purpose of exhibiting the variations which the Latin letters have severally undergone. The letters then may be arranged according to the following classification: Owing to the relation which subsists between P, B, and F or V, as the soft medial and aspirated pronunciation of the same letters, P and B, as well as F and V, in Latin, are the representatives or equivalents of the Greek F sound (p and F,) and V also sometimes stands in the place of B. For example (1,) the Latin fama, fero, fugio, vir, &c., correspond to the Greek φημή, φέρω, φεύγω (F)" Αρης. (2.) Nebula, caput, albus, ambo, to νεφέλη, κεφαλή, ἀλφός, άμφω. Similarly, duonus and duellum become bonus and bellum; the transition being from du to a sound like the English w, thence to v, and lastly to b. The old Latin c was used as the representative of its corresponding medial G, as well as K; for example, magistratus, legiones, Carthaginienses were written on the Columna Rostrata, leciones, macistratus, Cartacinienses. The representative of the Greek was c; thus caput stands for xpaλn: the sound qu also, as might be expected, from its answering to the Greek koppa (Q,) and the Hebrew koph (,,) had undoubtedly in the old Latin the same sound as C or K, and, therefore, quatio becomes, in composition, cutio; and quojus, quoi, quolonia, become, in classical Latin, cujus, cui, colonia. This pronunciation has descended to the modern French language, although it has become lost in the Italian. A passage from the "Aulularia"1 of Plautus illustrates this assertion, and Quintilian also bears testimony to the existence of the same pronunciation in the time of Cicero. 1 Ver. 276. 2 Lib. vi. 3, 47. The aspirate H is in Latin the representative of the Greek X, as, for example, hiems, hortus, and humi correspond to χείμων, χόρτος, χάμαι, whilst the third Greek aspirated mute e becomes a tenuis in the mouths of the early Latins, as in Cartaginienses, and the h sound was afterwards restored when Greek exercised an influence over the language as well as the literature of Rome. The absence of the th sound in the old Latin is compensated for in a variety of ways; sometimes by an f, as fera, fores, for θήρ and θύρα. 1 The interchanges which take place between the T and D, and the liquids L, N, R, can be accounted for on the grammatical principle, which is so constantly exemplified in the literal changes of the Semitic languages, that letters articulated by the same organ are frequently put one for the other. Now D, T, L, N are all palatals, and in the pronunciation of R also some use is made of the palate. Hence we find a commutation of r and n in dwpov, donum; æreus, æneus; of t and 7 in owns and lorica; d and l in olfacio and odere facio, Ulysses and Odvocevs; r and d in auris and audio, arfuise, and adfuisse. To the remaining liquid, m, little value seems to have been attached in Latin. In verse it was elided before a vowel; in verbs it was universally omitted from the first person of the present tense, although it was originally its characteristic, and was only retained in sum and inquam: it was also omitted in other words, as omne for omnem; and Cato the Censor was in the habit of putting dice and facie for dicam (or dicem) and faciam (faciem.) 2 As the Roman x was nothing more than a double letter compounded of g or c and s, as rego, regsi, rexi; dico, dicsi, dixi, the only consonant now remaining for consideration is the sibilant s. The principal position which it occupies in Latin is as corresponding to the aspirate in Greek words derived from the same Pelasgic roots. Thus s, t, Dan, &c., are represented by sus, sex, silva. This may possibly be accounted for by the fact that S is in reality a very powerful aspirate. It is only necesSee epitaph on L. C. Scipio. See Bythner's Lyra Prophet. CHANGE IN VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS. 59 sary to try the experiment, in order to prove that a strong expiration produces a hissing sound. Those words which in classical Greek are written without an aspirate, such as si, araž, &c., which, nevertheless, have an s in Latin, as si, senex, &c., may possibly have been at one period pronounced with the stronger breathing. The most remarkable change, however, which has taken place with respect to this letter, in the transition from the old to the classical Latin, is the substitution of r for s. Thus Fusius, Papisius, eso, arbos, &c., become Furius, Papirius, ero, arbor, &c. The following table exhibits the principal changes undergone y the vowels and diphthongs: In modern Latin. In ancient Latin. E was represented by i, sometimes u, as luci, condumnari, The vowels were sometimes doubled, as leegi, luuci, haace.' In the grammatical inflexions, the principal difference between the old and the new Latin is, that in nouns the old forms were longer, and assumed their modern form by a process of contraction, and that the ablative ended in d, as Gnaivod, sententiad; consequently the adverbial termination was the same as suprad, bonod, malod. The same termination appears in the form of tod in the singular number of the imperative mood. 1 See Bant. Table. |