SIMBOLO ―SUBSISTENTE‖ SIMBOLO ―MANIFESTADO‖ O POTENCIAL O ACTUAL

Varro’s Sabine glosses can be placed into three rough categories: religious terminology (sol,

februm, lepesta), agricultural terms (fircus, fedus, †apruno porco por, teba) and poetic words (creper, cascus, catus). Ciprus concerns the history and geography of Rome, making it most like the

religious terminology, which often attempts to put Rome’s cults into a historical context. The only words which do not fit comfortably into these categories are lixula and similixula, which are specific cultural items with no convenient Roman word to describe them. Notably, the 406

Sabine glosses are confined to books V-VII, which deal with etymology and have a more antiquarian slant. There are no Sabine glosses in books VIII-X, which deal with inflection. Instead, Greek features heavily, along with isolated examples of Gaulish, Punic and Egyptian (LL VIII.65).

Where did Varro come across his glosses? Many would say that his origin in the Sabine territory is crucial. Symmachus (Ep. 2.2 = GRF Varro T2) claims Varro was born in Reate, but Augustine gives Rome as his birthplace (CD IV.1). Even if the Reate suggestion is the one generally favoured by scholars, there is no real evidence to disprove Augustine’s claim. Some scholars believe, on the evidence of a fragment of Logistoricon in Non. 155L that Varro had a stern Sabine upbringing, much like that described by Cato (see §1.2.2). However, the Sabine 407

territory is not explicitly mentioned in the Varronian fragment, and the first person singular does not mean the passage is autobiographical. 408

Despite this, mentions of Varro’s Sabine origins and interests are everywhere in

See chapter six on Sabine glosses and core vocabulary.

406

Tilly 1973b:3; Bonner 1977:4; Della Corte 1991:7.

407

See Cornell et al. 2013a:412 n.4.

modern scholarship. Reate is identified as his patria alongside Rome. He is described as a 409

“native of Reate” or “a Sabine”, whose origin gives him special insight into Sabine. While 410

some see his Sabine status as giving him authority, others view him instead as a monomaniac whose interest in Sabine is so aggressive it sidelines other languages. Words such as 411

‘sabinophile’, ‘pansabinism’ and ‘sabinomania’ are often used. Varro’s Sabine glosses can be 412

read as a sign of his Sabine authority or as proof of his personal Sabine obsession.

This interpretation of the evidence is one-sided at best. While Reate may have been further away than many of the villas in the suburbium, it was easily accessible by the Via Salaria. It is possible that Reate still retained its local flavour in the late Republic, but we 413

cannot assume that every Reatinian would seem equally non-Roman. Varro was from an

Tilly 1973a:19; Della Corte 1991:8; Lehmann 1997:33-50; Cardauns 2001:9; Adams 2007:153.

409

Leumann 1977:442 and Adams 2007:434 suggest that Varro’s uncommon u-stem plural -uis is Reatinian in origin.

Schrijnen 1922:235; Collart 1954b:229; Palmer 1974:172; Collart 1978:19; Horsfall 1982:288;

410

Musti 1985:78; Rawson 1985:26; Deschamps 1985-1986:127; Deschamps 1990:295; Bloomer 1997:56; Coleman 1990:12; Della Corte 1991:26; Stuart-Smith 2004:124; Farney 2007:103; Wiseman 2009:112; Ferriss-Hill 2014:86.

Schulze [1904] 1991:465 n.1; Ribezzo 1930:88; Collart 1954b:229; Salmon 1967:32; Poucet

411

1972:108; Poucet 1985:79; Dench 1995:157; Coleman 2001:84; Dench 2005b:317; Biville 2013:43; Cornell et al. 2013c:516-517; Smith 2014b:133.

Collart 1952:70; Collart 1954b:239; Poucet 1985:79; Poccetti, Poli and Santini 2001:65; Lundy

412

2013:214 n.225.

Tilly 1973b:280; J. Patterson 2004:67; Farrell 2014:96.

413

Table 4. Non-Latin glosses in Varro’s LL.

Language Number of glosses Percentage of total

Greek 120 82 % Sabine 14 9.6% Oscan 3 2 % Etruscan 3 2 % Syrian 2 1 % Lucanian 1 <1% Gaulish 1 <1% Armenian 1 <1% Punic 1 <1% Total 146

equestrian family, and was undoubtedly destined for military service and politics from an early age. The fact that his family lived in Reate is not any real indication of ethnic identity, as Rome was an unhealthy place which was often avoided, particularly in the summer. Varro would have experienced Reate (if indeed that is where he was from) very differently from the local farm-hand, slave or artisan (see §1.2.2). Because of this privilege, which leads to isolation from other societal groups, we cannot assume that Varro is an unbiased Sabine witness. 414

The idea of Sabine glosses as a particularly Varronian concept may well be a consequence of survival. He cannot have been the first to have written of them – at LL V.66, he reports that his old teacher Aelius Stilo saw Sancus as the Sabine name of Hercules (see §5.6.4). Varro may have taken his glosses from earlier works. Unlike in modern scholarship, the Romans had no culture of citation, and it is unlikely that Varro always discloses his sources. It is also possible that Varro’s antiquarian colleagues who have not survived wrote of them.

The number of glosses of different languages in LL are presented in Table 4. Sabine is the second most common, after Greek, which has more than 80 percent of the words. Sabine is dominant only in comparison to languages mentioned three times or less. Here too it is important to remember how random the survival of ancient literature is. We only have six books of the twenty-five that made up LL. If we had the entire work, or more of Varro’s writings in general, we might have very different numbers. If we had lost book V, we would have had only six Sabine glosses, and our understanding of Varro and Sabine would again be different. The fragments that have survived in later authors (see §2.4 for references) show that Varro discussed Sabine glosses in the lost material, but we cannot assume that Sabine glosses are as common in his other work as they are in book V of LL. The fact that Varro is mentioned by name in the fragments may have less to do with Varro as the originator of the Sabine phenomenon and more to do with his authority as a scholar in general.

Varro’s Sabine glosses do not exist in a vacuum. Even if no glosses are attested in other late Republican works, the Sabines are clearly important ideologically and mythohistorically. Varro is not interested in Sabine words in their own right. They do not occur as interesting curiosities, but are presented as etymologies of Latin words. As with the Sabines in contemporary rhetoric and historiography, Varro is interested in Sabine as an actor in the emergence of Roman language.

Cf. Smith 2014b:133 who sees Varro’s writing as the closest we can get to a true Sabine voice.

Chapter Three

Sabine Glosses in Festus and Paulus’ epitomes of Verrius

Flaccus’ De Verborum Significatu

Cornell has described Paulus-Festus, the two surviving epitomes of Verrius Flaccus’ De

Verborum Significatu (DVS) taken together as one whole, as “a mess”. It is no wonder that 415

many avoid this Frankenstein’s monster of antiquarianism, partially recreated in Lindsay’s 1913 Teubner edition. To be able to use this material, we must consider issues of authorship and subjectivity.

3.1 The history of De Verborum Significatu