﻿140 THE AGE OF PETRONIUS ARBITER. 



by the humbler personages of the story establishes the very important fact, that, with 

 few exceptions, these forms belong to the earlier period of the language, from the times 

 of Ennius, Cato, Plautus, and Terence to the age of Varro and Cicero. To these excep- 

 tions belong " cornum," which has only the authority of Ovid ; " lorus," which is used 

 by Apuleius (I have mentioned above that the well-known partiality of Apuleius for 

 old, especially Plautinian forms, renders it highly probable that in using " lorus" he im- 

 itated the example of an older writer whose works are lost) ; " margaritum," used by 

 Augustus and Tacitus ; " effluere," as a transitive verb, only once used by Claudian ; 

 and perhaps " fatus," which occurs in a few inscriptions only, of doubtful age. Besides 

 these, a few must be noticed ha-\ing the authority of later Avriters as well as earlier : 

 "Jovis," used by Hyginus and Apuleius, as well as Ennius and Varro; "lactem," 

 used by both Gellius and Plautus ; the repetition of negatives, of which an instance 

 occurs in Gellius, besides the more numerous instances in Ennius, Plautus, and Terence. 

 The remainder and larger number belong, so far as our means of ascertaining the fact 

 extend, exclusively to the earlier age of Latin literature; viz. " coelus," used by En- 

 nius ; " vasum," by Plautus, Fabius Pictor, and Cato ; " sanguen," by Ennius, Cato, and 

 Lucretius ; " lacte," by Plautus and Cato ; " candelabrus," by Ca3cilius ; " schemas," by 

 Plautus, to which is to be added the important remark of Priscianus, " Haec tamen 

 antiquissimi secimdum primam declinationem saepe protulerunt et generis feminini " ; 

 "nervia," by Varro; "usio," by Q, Scaevola, Cato, and Varro; "bovis," by Varro; 

 "mi" (for "mei), by Plautus; " intelligere," as a substantive, by Cicero ; "faciatur," 

 bv Titinius and Nigidius; "foenerari," by Terence; "mavoluit," by Nsevius and Plau- 

 tus; "ne," for "ne . . . quidem," by Cicero, Horace, and Persius; "facit" followed 

 by the infinitive, by Varro, Coliunella, and Livy ; " pote," by Varro and Cicero ; " opor- 

 tet" with the subjiinctive, by Cicero; omission of "si," in Cicero and Terence; " scio, 

 quod," in Plautus and Livy, if not in Cicero and Phaedrus ; " contra aurum," by Varro ; 

 "esse" with "in" and the accusative, by Plautus and Cicero, together with the impor- 

 tant remark of GeUius ; " fruuiscor," by Plautus, Nonius, Q. MeteUus Numidicus, with 

 the highly important remark of Gellius ; " arguto," by Ennius and Propertius. This 

 great majority of grammatical forms belonging exclusively to the earlier language is 

 certainly a significant fact, which would naturally lead us to assign to the Satyricon a 

 time not very distant from the period, the language of which the humbler personages 

 borrow so largely. It may, indeed, be objected, that the vulgar are tenacious of 

 established usages, in language as well as in other things ; and this is unquestionably 

 true, and it becomes necessary, therefore, in order to complete the argument, to ascertain 

 the limit of time beyond which it is not probable that the vulgar retained those older 



