MORGAN. — THE PREFACE OF VITRUVIUS. 161 



de la dignite imperiale appelle aussi une remarque qui n'est pas sans 

 interet. Ce n'est pas a Auguste, pensons-nous avec W. Newton, 

 que Vitruve aurait parle d'une translation reguliere de l'empire. 

 Le langage de l'auteur de la Preface s'applique a une £poque ou Ton 

 6tait deja habitue a des change ments reguliers dans la premiere 

 fonction de l'Etat: Auguste ne l'aurait point tolere pour des raisons 

 politiques qu'il est facile de comprendre." But it is a pure assumption 

 that Vitruvius is speaking of "a regular transmission of the empire," 

 and the very use of the word "empire " in this connection is a part 

 of the difficulty created, as I have suggested above, by modern com- 

 mentators and not really existing in the Latin of Vitruvius. I have 

 already pointed out (in my note on 1, 2) the republican meaning of 

 imperium. Julius Caesar had imperium, and we know that Octavian 

 received it in 43 or 42 b. c. (see on 1, 1). The language of our preface 

 is therefore no more "imperial " than is the language of the unknown 

 republican orator in Ad Herennium, 4, 13 : imperium, orbis terrae . . . 

 ad se trcm sf err e ; cf. Caes. B. G. 7, 63, 5, ut ipsis summa imperi trans- 

 datur. The verb transfero was the regular one to use of transfers of 

 power ; cf . Cic. L. A. 2, 54, earum rerum omnium potestatem ad deeem- 

 viros esse translatam ; Mur. 2, cum omnis deorum immortalium potestas 

 aut translata sit ad vos ; and Mon. Ancyr. 6, 15, rempublicam ex mea 

 potestate in senatus populique Roma?ii arbitrium transtuli. When we 

 get down to Tacitus we do indeed find: suscepere duo manipulares 

 imperium populi Romani transjerendum, et transtulerunt (H. 1, 25). 

 But there was nothing "regular" in this transfer! 



2. idem studium meum in eius memoria permanens: These words 

 should not be separated with Mortet,29 who punctuates thus: idem 

 studium meum, in eius memoria, permanens in te, eontulit javorem, and 

 translates, "Le merae zele que j'avais de sons temps, subsistant 

 envers vous, m'a apporte votre faveur." He compares 63, 12, aeterna 

 memoria ad posteritatem sunt permanentes. But I believe that the idea 

 which Vitruvius was struggling to express was this: "While Caesar 

 was among us, I was devoted to his person ; now that he is gone, my 

 devotion continuing unchanged as I remembered him," etc. He 

 expresses it obscurely, but for a somewhat similar use of in memoria, 

 cf. Cic. Att. 9, 11 A, 3, pius . . . in maximi beneficii memoria, "loyal 

 as I remember my extreme obligation"; and for the mere syntax of 

 permanens with in and the ablative, cf. for instance Cic. Fam. 5, 2, 10, 

 ut in mea erga te voluntate permanerem, and Quint. 3, 4, 4, mihi in 

 ilia vctere persuasione permanenti. Ussing 30 renders the phrase thus : 



29 Rev. Arch., 41, 49 (1902). 30 Observations, p. 9. 



VOL. XLIV. — 11 



