68 Rev. Mr Williams on the Force of the prefix Ve or Vcb 



Paulus, a Lombard monk, justly termed by the great Scaliger 

 an illiterate barbarian, compelled Festus to undergo the same 

 process which Verrius Flaccus had undergone under the prun- 

 ing hands of Festus. In a dedication to no less a person than 

 Charles the Great, the restorer of the Western Empire, as the 

 degenerate Italians falsely called him, Paulus, justly terming 

 himself ultimus servulus, thus writes : " Being anxious to add to 

 your library, and having no means of my own, I have been com- 

 pelled to borrow from another. Now Festus Pompeius, a man 

 deeply versed in Roman literature, has, in explaining the origin 

 both of obscure expressions, and of certain circumstances, ex- 

 tended his work to twenty prolix volumes. I, therefore, omit- 

 ting every thing superfluous and unnecessary in his tedious work, 

 thoroughly enucleating with my own pen certain abstruse points, 

 leaving some few things as I found them, have offered this 

 abridgment to the perusal of your Highness *." In the words of 

 Antoninus Augustinus f , the learned bishop of Ilerda (for there 

 have been most learned bishops even in Spain), " this book gave 

 such satisfaction to the unlearned men of the age, that it was 

 substituted for Festus in all libraries." " So that in a short 

 time" (adds Dacier J) " a true copy of Festus was not to be 

 found." At a later period, a small fragment of the original Fes- 

 tus was discovered in Illyricum, and published by Aldus. This, 



* " Cupiens aliquid vestris bibliothecis addere, quia ex proprio perparum valeo, 

 necessario ex alieno rautuavi. Festus denique Pompeius, Romanis studiis affatim 

 eruditus, tam sermonum abditorum, quam etiam quarundam causarum origines ape- 

 riens, opus suum ad viginti usque prolixa volumina extendit, ex qua ego, prolixitate 

 superflua quaeque et minus necessaria pra?tergrediens, et quaedam abstrusa penitus 

 stylo proprio enucleans nonnulla ita ut erat relinquens, hoc vestrae Celsitudini le- 

 gendum compendium obtuli." 



-f- " Is liber indoctis viris adeo placuit ut pro Festo in omnibus bibliothecis sub- 

 stitueretur." — Valp. Delph. Fest. p. 12. 



J " Unde brevi factum est ut verus Festi liber non amplius apparuerit." — Ibid, 

 p. 7. 



