MORGAN. — THE PREFACE OF VITRUVIUS. 165 



examples similar to those which I have cited are given in the new 

 Thesaurus s. v. confero (184, 30-72) under the lemma "beneficia 

 sim. in aliquem conferre." 40 There is, however, an entirely different 

 interpretation of in te contulit favorem which should be mentioned 

 here, although I consider it erroneous. It has the support of Newton, 

 Gwilt, Reber, and Mortet. Newton translates: "procured me thy 

 favor"; Gwilt: "has been the cause of your goodwill towards me"; 

 Reber : " mir auch Deine Gunst erworben hat " ; Mortet : " m'apporte" 

 votre faveur." It will be observed that these versions, all practically 

 the same, are probably due in the first instance to that misconception 

 of the meaning of the word favorem to which I have already referred. 

 But even taking favorem in its correct sense and extending it a little 

 so as to apply to Augustus's "support " of Vitruvius, I do not see how 

 in te contulit favorem can mean "acquired" or "procured me thy 

 support." There are some examples of the use of confero gathered in 

 the Thesaurus (175, 16 ff.) under the lemma "iungendo efficere aliquid, 

 componere, acquirere," but, after a careful examination of them, I do 

 not find one which confirms that meaning here, and to adopt it would 

 oblige us to take te as ablative, not accusative, which in this context 

 seems impossible. Marini evidently felt this strongly, for he emended 

 in te to in me. At first thought, the following itaque might seem 

 logically to call for this interpretation. Perhaps it would, if itaque fui 

 praesto must be rendered "hence I have been appointed " (Gwilt, cf. 

 Terquem, p. 76) ; but there is nothing of this sort necessarily implied 

 in praesto. Vitruvius merely says : "I became one of your supporters, 

 and hence I was ready," etc. 



Aurelio . . . Minidio . . . Cornelio: These men cannot be identified 

 with any persons otherwise known to us. The nomina Aurelius and 

 Cornelius were of course common under the republic, but the gens 

 Minidia is elsewhere known, so far as I am aware, only from a tomb- 

 stone found at Ostia (CIL. 14, 1356), and presumably of the imperial 

 period. There is no MS. evidence for the reading Numisio substi- 

 tuted in our passage by Schneider, Stratico, and some earlier editors 

 in order to identify the colleague of Vitruvius with the architect of the 

 theatre of Herculaneum (CIL. 10, 1446). 



4. ad apparationem . . . fui praesto : For the meaning and the syntax 



where Vitruvius has the verb five times in the literal sense of "bring together" 

 (33, 5; 43, 10; 158,12; 168, 14; 280, 11); once meaning "compare" (157, 13); 

 and once each in the common phrases se conferre (105, 26) and sermonen 

 conferre (218, 7). 



*0 Our passage is not included here, but is wrongly, as I believe, placed 

 under the lemma "potestatem, honores, sim. deferre " (182, 30). 



