﻿THE AGE OF PETRONIUS ARBITER. 141 



forms. Here the above passage of Gelliiis becomes of great importance. It proves 

 that a word, which, at the time when the Satpicon was written, was in so general use 

 among the vulgar as to be employed by thi'ee different persons of that class, although 

 no longer used by the educated and in writing, had at the time when GeUius wrote — 

 in or before the middle of the second century — so entirely disappeared from both the 

 written and spoken language, that persons not familiar with the earlier Uteratm-e (" im- 

 periti antiquitatis") doubted whether it was a Latin word. Hence it follows that the 

 time which elapsed between the composition of the Satyricon and Gellius must have 

 been considerable, because the disappearance of an old, or the introduction of a new 

 word, is not brought about at once, but is the result of slowly and gradually operating 

 causes ; and we are not only allowed, but obliged, so far as the grammatical forms of 

 the vulgar language in the work are concerned, to place the composition of the Satyri- 

 con as early as the age of Augustus or Tiberius. 



I proceed, in the nest place, to the consideration of the words and ^;7irase5 employed 

 by the same class of persons, the humbler dramatis personae. 



Trimalchio says, c. 33. 1, " absentivus " ; c. 39. 3, "Eogo"; c. 39. 5, "frontem expu- 

 doratam," " scholastici" ; c. 39. 8, "et hoc et illoc," for " et hue et illuc"; c. 39. 10, 

 "laniones"; c. 47. 4, "suae rei causa facere"; c. 47. 5, "desomnem"; c. 47. 10, "in 

 coenam fieri"; c. 47. 12, "emtitius"; c. 50. 5, "nesapium" and "scelio"; c. 50. 6, 

 "statuncula"; c. 51. 4, "martiolum" ; c. 51. 5, " condituram " ; c. 51. 6, "decoUari" ; 

 c. 59. 1, " scordalias " ; c. 63. 3 and c. 68. 8, "omnium mimenim"; c. 63. 4, "tristimo- 

 nio"; c. 63.5, "valde audaculum"; c. 63. 8, " manuciolum," "stramentitium," and "va- 

 vatonem"; c. 64. 2, "cantiuire" ; c. 69. 3, "debatuere"; c. 71. 3, "publico"; c. 73. 6, 

 " barbatoriam fecit," " praefiscini," and "micarius"; c. 74. 2, " buccinus " ; c. 75. 4, "ar- 

 tiseUium"; c. 75. 6, "fnlcipedia" and " amasiuncula" ; c. 75. 9, " sterteia" or "ster- 

 tera"; c. 75. 10, "rostriun barbatmn"; c. 76. 2, "patrimonium laticla-vium " ; c. 76. 8, 

 "corrotimdavi";* c. 76. 9, "libertos foenerare"; c. 76. 10, "Graeculio"; c. 77. 4, 

 " marmoratas," " cellationem," and "sessorium"; c. 77. 5, "Ad summa" ; c. 77. 7. 

 "■^italia" and "gustum"; c. 78. 2, "ut totus mihi populus bene imprecetur." 



Hermeros uses, c. 57. 2, "berbex"; c. 57. 3, "larifuga"; c. 57. 10, "dignitoso"; 

 c. 58. 3, "de praesentiarum " (and c. 74. 17, where Trimalchio uses it); c. 58. 11, "oc- 

 cuponem." — Xiceros uses, c. 61. 3, " gaudimonio " ; c. 61. 4, " scholasticos" ; c. 61. 7, 



* Wherever the word occurs, (Sen. Quaest. Nat. 4. 3, 7. 26, Epist. 113. 18.) it is used in its literal sense, 

 " to make round." In the figurative sense, " to collect, to accumulate," it does not occur anywhere. Horace 

 (Ep. 1. 6. 34) uses "rotundare" in this sense: " Mille talenta rotundentur, totidem altera, porro et Tertia 

 succedant, et quae pars quadrat acervum." 



VOL. VI. NEW SERIES. 19 



