﻿n-l THE AGE OF PETRONIUS ARBITER. 



Lycas quidem crederet"; c. 132. 9: "nam nee nominare quidem te inter res serias 

 fas est" ; c. 13. 1 : " Nam adhuc nee suturae quidem attulerat rasticus curiosas manus." 

 I do not intend to enter into a discussion whether "nee . . . quidem" is good Latin or 

 not, nor whether it is good Latin but not Ciceronian, which question is ably discussed 

 by Hand in his Tursellinus (Vol. IV. p. 142); nor is it incumbent upon me to explain 

 how far, in those passages in which the reading "nee. . . quidem" cannot be doubted, 

 it differs in meaning from " ne . . . quidem." It is sufficient for me to ascertain in 

 what writers this expression, in the sense in which Petronius uses it, occurs. Cicero 

 cannot be quoted in support of it, as will be seen upon an examination of the fol- 

 lowing passages. Cic. de Nat. Deor. 3. 9. 23 : " Nihil igitur afiert pater iste Stoi- 

 corum, quare mundum ratione uti putemus, nee* cur animantem quidem esse." Of the 

 same kind is the passage in Cic. in Verr. 2. 20. 48 : " De isto, id quod omnes videbant, 

 neque iUe quidem obscure locutus est." In both these passages, the only ones in Cicero 

 in which the reading " nee" is sufficiently authenticated, "nee . . . quidem," signrfpng 

 " and not even," is not equivalent to " ne . . . quidem," and differs, therefore, from the 

 " nee . . . quidem" as used in the above-mentioned passages by Petronius. And the few 

 passages in which " nee . . . quidem " is used as in the above passages of Petronius, be- 

 long to writers of the silver age. Cf Flor. 2. 17. 3: "Alioquin ita undique mari 

 Pyrenaeoque vallata est, ut ingenio situs nee adm quidem potuerit." Sen. de Ira 1. 6. 

 2 : " Non est ergo natura hominis poenae appetens : et ideo nee ii-a quidem secundum 

 naturam hominis, quia poenae appetens est." Plin. Nat. Hist. 8. 36. 54. 129: "Pro- 

 cedunt vere, sed mares praepingues ; cujus rei causa non prompta est, quia nec-f somno 

 quidem saginatis praeter quatuordecun dies, ut diximus." 



C. 105. 11: "aut cujus tam crudeles manus in hoe supplieium durassent?" "who 

 could carry his cruelty so far as to inflict such a punishment"?" Tacitus (Ann. 1. 6) 

 uses the verb "durare" in a similar manner: "ceterum [Augustus] in nuUius unquam 

 suorum necem duravit." 



C. 106. 3 : " Deos immortales rerum humanarum agere euram, puto, intellexisti, o 

 Tryphaena !" Lycas uses the perfect, " intellexisti," for the present, " intelligis." 



C. 107.9: "si gratiam a legato moliebantur" ; for "per legatum." — C. 107. 15: 

 " Pharmace." I am not aware that any Latin Avriter, with the exception of Sereins, 

 the scholiast of Virgil, and Lactantius Plaeidus, the scholiast of Statins, mentions this 

 word. In Greek it was used in the same sense in which it appears to be used by Lycas, 

 namely, as an opprobrious epithet. Cf Arist. Equit. 1405 : 



* Orelli, while stating that a few manuscripts read " ne," adopts the reading " nee," and expresses in a 

 decided manner his opinion that " nee . . . quidem " means " and not even." 



t Sillig reads " ne," in opposition to all the manuscripts ; he says, " ita nos scripsimus ; nee, R, d, /3, y." 



