j 



EXCURSUS III 



CRITICAL NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS 



Quae Coniecturae meae turn mihi placebunt cum a doctioribus 

 viris probari audiam. — ViCTORius. 



I, 13, I. ** Fructus, ut est vinum et oleum, loco piano 

 in cellis, item ut vasa vinaria et olearia potius faciendum : 

 aridus, ut est faba et faenum in tabulatis." Keil (p. 45) 

 simply expunges *' ut," and gives a wholly unsatisfactory 

 explanation of the untranslatable ''potius." Pontedera 

 (Curae Secundae) suggests '* ubi " instead of ** ut," and 

 ''possint esse" for "potius." But it is difficult to see 

 how ''potius" could have arisen from " possint esse." 

 Instead of the latter I would propose " ponas." In early 

 minuscule MSS. it is often difficult to discriminate be- 

 tween "ti" and "n" (cf. II, i, 15, where " statim " is 

 found in the Archetype for the obvious " sanum " — in 

 II, 2, 16 "n" becomes in the Archetype "ti"), and in 

 early Lombard script the word itself — "potius" — looks 

 extremely like " ponus " or "ponas." As I have shown 

 in Excursus II "a" and "u" are very frequently con- 

 fused in these books, e,g.^ " -um " for "-am" (passim)^ 

 "putulas" for " patulas " (II, 2, 11), etc. Again " ut " 

 or "uti" is frequently found for original "ubi" (cf. I, 

 6, 2, III, 6, 15). 



Varro appears to mention three places (i), "Cellae," 

 where liquid produce, such as wine and oil, was stored 



364 



