66 Rev. Mr Williams on the Force of the prefix Ve or Vce 



grandia, and small grain they call vesca. If such be the force 

 of the word, why should I not suspect that the temple of Ve- 

 jovis is the temple of Jovis, not large," (of the little Jupiter). 



Ovid probably derived this information from the works or con- 

 versation of Verrius Flaccus, the learned grammarian, to whom 

 Augustus entrusted the education of his grandsons Lucius and 

 Caius Cesar*. On that occasion, he transferred the whole body 

 of his then existing pupils to the Palatium, on condition that no 

 new member was to be admitted. It was undoubtedly owing to 

 the advantages of his new situation, of his increased and in- 

 creasing leisure, and the boundless command of books in the Pa- 

 latine Library, that he was enabled to accomplish his great work 

 " De Verborum Significatione," which can be regarded in no other 

 light than an Encyclopaedia, containing an explanation of every 

 word connected with the language, the laws, the religion, and 

 the public and domestic life of the ancient Romans. As he had 

 before him the works of Cato-j-, of Varro^:, of Julius Cesar ||, 

 of Messala §, of Appius Claudius Pulcher ^[, of Sinnius Ca- 

 pito,**, and of others who had treated of such subjects, and who 

 had all the opportunities of gaining the requisite knowledge, 

 there cannot be a doubt that he had embodied in it all that 

 could be known on such subjects, by men, to whom one great 



* " Ab Augusto nepotibus ejus praeceptor electus transiit in Palatium cum tota 

 schola, verum ut ne quem amplius posthac discipulum recuperet.'" — Suet. De Gram. 



•f- Cato, his " Origines," and many other dissertations on similar subjects. 



I Varro, his great work " De Lingua Latina^of which we still have a portion- 



|| Julius Cesar, his work " On the Analogy of the Latin Language.' 1 



§ The eloquent Messala of Horace, called also by him Corvinus. He wrote 

 a book " In Explanatione Auguriorum, &c. duodecim tabularum ;" also, " De 

 Dictis involute." 



*(]" Claudius Pulcher, he wrote a book concerning " Scientia Auguralis." 



** Sinnius Capito. 



