MORGAN. — THE PREFACE OF VITRUVIUS. 171 



terminandum in Campaniam ire). Similarly of an inspection of cloth- 

 ing and tools in Col. 11, 1, 21, and of the equites in Suet. Claud. 16. 

 Seneca has it of self-examination {recognitionem sui, Ira 3, 36, 2). The 

 elder Pliny, in his celebrated account of the habits of ants (N. H. 11, 

 109), says that they have regular times on which they meet and inspect 

 together the stock which they have gathered : et quoniam ex diverso con- 

 vehunt altera alterius ignara, certi dies ad recognitionem mutuam nun- 

 dinis dantur. Here the context shows that recognitionem does not mean 

 a recognition of the ants by each other, and as ants live a community 

 life it does npt signify the identification or "knowing again" of in- 

 dividual property, as in the Livian passage (5, 16, 7) already quoted. 

 This same idea of an investigation or inquiry survived in low Latin ; 

 cf. Du Cange (ed. Favre) s. v., where we find that the word was used 

 in charters to denote inquiries into cases of disputed lands (cf . Livy 42, 

 19, 1, quoted above). These are the only meanings of recognitio which 

 I have found in ancient Latin. Although Vitruvius does not use the 

 word elsewhere, yet he has the participle recognoscentes once (213, 11), 

 where, after speaking of the useful discoveries made by great men, he 

 adds : quae recognoscentes necessario his tribui honores oportere homines 

 co?ifitebuntur, "on reviewing these discoveries, people will admit 

 that honors ought to be bestowed upon them." In this sense, recog- 

 nosco, though a less technical word, is often a synonym of recenseo, as 

 a glance at any good lexicon will show. This is well illustrated by 

 Columella, 11, 1, 20, turn etiam per ferias instrumentum rusticum 

 (vilicus) recognoscat et saepius inspiciat ferramenta as compared with 

 11, 1, 21, tarn vestem servitiorum quam, ut dixi, ferramenta bis debebit 

 singulis mensibus recensere. Nam frequens recognitio nee impunitatis 

 spem iiec peccandi locum praebct. Now in the passage in our preface, 

 to what does recognitio refer? Obviously to commoda, for Vitruvius 

 says: "after originally bestowing these upon me, you continued 

 (servasti, see below) your recognitio " — which can only mean "your 

 recognitio of these commoda." It is natural to suppose that the Roman 

 ruler reviewed or revised at intervals the list of persons who were re- 

 ceiving commoda, and that at such times suggestions for additions to 

 the list might be made. Persons whose names were in the list might 

 well be described as recogniti, just as recensi was used of persons in 

 the list of those who received corn at the public cost; cf. Suet. Caes. 

 41, in demortuorum locum ex Us qui recensi non essent. ,And the act 

 of setting a name in the list would thus, by a slight extension of mean- 

 ing, be expressed by the word recognitio. But as Vitruvius had at 

 some earlier time (primo) received commoda, the act in his case was a 

 renewal, and this to his mind may have been further indicated by the 



