﻿THE AGE OF PETRONIUS ARBITER. 149 



moechae." Paiicgyr.* in C. Calp. Pisonem 107 : " Eara domus tenuem non aspcrnatur 

 amicuin, Raraque non humilem calcat fastosa clientem." 



It is apparent from this brief examination, that most of these expressions are sup- 

 ported by the authority of the oldest and best writers ; and even those few which now 

 have the autliority of later writers only are such that they are not necessarily of later 

 origin, but their not occurring in earlier writers is either accidental, it so happening 

 that the earlier writers had no occasion to use them, or is to be accounted for by the 

 fact that so large portions of the works of older writers have perished. So much is cer- 

 tain, — that an unprejudiced reader will find no evidence in these expressions militating 

 against the result of the historical examination, that Petronius belongs to the period of 

 time covered by the close of the reign of Augustus and the commencement of that of 

 Tiberius. Nay, if we allowed ourselves to be exclusively influenced by the character of 

 the language of the humbler persons introduced into the story, we might be tempted to 

 place the work in a period considerably earlier, were it not for one consideration. The 

 language of the vulgar retains grammatical forms, words, and phrases frequently for 

 generations after they have disappeared from the language of the cultivated. Hence, 

 though some of the humbler characters use expressions which remind us of the time 

 immediately succeeding Plautus, it does not follow that they lived in that time. But 

 however strong this conservative principle is, it is not lasting; the language of the 

 humble follows at some distance that of the educated, and adopts, though much later, 

 the innovations introduced by their superiors in learning and refinement. From the 

 entire want of similar works of the same or other periods, we are now unable to deter- 

 mine, and prove by positive evidence, at what distance these imperfectly educated men 

 followed their betters, and how long a time elapsed between their own time and the 

 time when the language of which their conversation furnishes a specimen was the lan- 

 guage of the cultivated ; but we are justified in availing ourselves of the important in- 

 formation contained in Gellius (17. 2) concerning the form " fruniscor," •[■ and of the 

 light thus thrown on the history of the grammatical element of this humbler language, 

 and in inferring, since grammar and vocabulary are two coexisting parts of one whole, 

 that what is by the statement in Gellius so clearly proved of the grammatical forms, 

 is equally true of the words and phrases. 



This appears to be the proper place to advert, in a few words, to the diminutives, to 

 the Greek forms and expressions, and to the proverbs occurring in this work, most of 

 which are put in the mouths of the humbler personages. 



* This poem is ascribed by some to Lucan, by otliers to Saleius Bassus, a protege of Calpurnius. 

 t See page 133. 

 VOL. VI. NEW SERIES. 20 



