II] OF COWS AND OXEN i8i 



answered presently, my merry ^ friends, and will 

 bring along ^ my hide and the whips, ^ but now will 

 you, Murrius, comeas my legal adviser, while I pay my 

 pence to the Lares,* so that you can give evidence 



^ Balatrones. The word is rare and is generally taken to 

 mean a professional jester. It is probably connected with 

 blaterones which, Gellius (i, 15) says, was a term applied by the 

 ancients to foolish chatterers. Perhaps there is an allusion to 

 the balatus of Atticus (cf. iii, i) : Quoniavi satis halasti, inquit^ 

 o Faustule noster. 



^ Hoc. The old form of Hue — common in Plautus. Vergil 

 uses it (Aeneid, viii, 423) : Hoc tunc Ignipotens caelo descenditab 

 alto^ where Servius remarks, Nam Verrius Flaccus . . . dicens 

 in adverbiis pro ** «," *'o ^'' plerumque viaiores ponere consuetos : 

 et sic pro * ' hue " ' ' hoc " veteres dicere solebant. 



' Flagra. Used in the punishment of runaway slaves, etc. 



* Laribus. The reading of the MSS. is Palibus. Ursinus 

 conjectures Palilibus, Schneider Pali. Neither word makes 

 very good sense. Keil gives Laribus, and quotes a fragment 

 (Nonius, 538) of Varro to the effect that "asses " were paid to 

 the Lares. But this was in the case of brides. And even 

 granted the general custom, for which there is no evidence, 

 why is Lucienus to pay asses to them? 



I would with diffidence suggest Palicis. The Palici (cf. 

 Servius, Aen., ix, 584, and Diodorus Siculus, xi, 89) were two 

 benevolent deities who presided over agriculture (though the 

 pseudo-Servius says Nauticos .deos Varro appellat) and were 

 worshipped in a temple not far from Mount Aetna and 

 the river Synaethus. This temple gave asylum to runaway 

 slaves, who were not given up to their masters until lenient 

 treatment had been assured by an oath taken by the latter. 

 The word Palicus was popularly derived from iraXiv and 'Utiv 

 to come back. Now, owing to the loss of some of this book, 

 we do not know precisely the scene of the dialogue ; the time 

 was when Varro, as legatus of Pompey in the war against 



