MORGAN. — ON THE LANGUAGE OP VITRDVIDS. 471 



see Ronsch, Itala u. Vulgata, p. 50. To be sure these are late writers, 

 but let us, before concluding that the occurrence, say of ignotitia, in 

 Vitruvius is a proof that the work which goes under his name is a late 

 production, inquire what other abstracts there are which he could have 

 used in the sense of ' ignorance ' ? There are four, ignorantia, ignoratio, 

 inscientia, and inscitia. But all of these are new contributions to the 

 enrichment of the language made, so far as we know, in the time of Cicero 

 or by him. The first, as we know, did not please him and it is usually 

 avoided (Schmalz, Antibarbarus, 6 I, p. 618). Vitruvius does not use 

 any one of the four, but has instead once ignotitia, a violation of the 

 rules of composition (the only one of this sort in Vitruvius), but paral- 

 leled by insatletas (Plaut.), intemperies (Plaut., Cic), invaletudo (Cic), 

 inreligio (Rhet. ad. Herenn.). Of course I am aware that the last two 

 have been emended away, yet see Wolfflin, Archiv, IV, p. 403. And 

 ignotitia is not surprising in a writer who has notitia three times (5, 12; 

 7, 13 ; 133, 27) in the sense of 'knowledge.' The second abstract, inde- 

 centia, would be surprising if the truth were, as one might gather from 

 the Lexicon and from Schmalz (ibid. p. 660), that indecens first appears 

 in the Silver age. But Vitruvius has it only three lines below (174, 12), 

 and why is he led to employ these words ? Because he is employing 

 them technically in an anecdote illustrative of sins against propriety 

 (deco?') in art (173, 19), — propriety, which with him is one of the six 

 component elements of true architecture (11, 12 ff.), and a subject to 

 which he frequently alludes. 8 In thinking of decor he forms indecentia 

 as naturally as Cicero, thinking of dolor, forms indolentia (Fin. 2, 11). 

 The third abstract, nascentia, occurs in the context non e nascentia sed ex 

 conceptione genethliologiae rationes explicatas, where Vitruvius is referring 

 to those astrologers who based horoscopes not on the moment of birth but 

 on that of conception. Here the Greek technical terras were yeVecm or 

 c/crcfis and o-uAAt^is ; cf . Sext. Emp. p. 737, 18 Bk. : tt/i/ Se yeVecrii/ tw 



VTTO T7]V iTTL(TK€l}/LV 7rCO"OU/X,eVwV O.p)(CLLK<)iT€.p0V 7/TOl <Z7TO TTj<S TOV (TTrtpjAaTOS 



KaTafioXrjs Kal o-uAAT^ews \afij3dvcLi' t] oltto rfjs CKrefecos. See also Hippo- 

 lytus, Ref. Haer. 4, 3. Another word for ' birth ' in this connection was 

 d7ior€|t; (Sext. Emp. p. 737, 7), and the simple re£is was also used (ibid. 

 p. 739, 12). Vitruvius's conceptio is obviously a translation of a-vWrjxpis 

 and it was thus used by Cicero (Div. 2, 50). For yeWcm or a7roTe£is 

 what should he have used? This is a question which seems not to have 



8 Praun, Syntax des Vitruv, p. 43, has also urged that in the whole anecdote 

 Vitruvius is following a Greek source. 



