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The Language of the Vindolanda Writing Tablets: An Interim Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2012

J. N. Adams
J. N. Adams
Affiliation:
University of Reading
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Extract

The recent publication by A. K. Bowman and J. D. Thomas of The Vindolanda Writing Tablets (Tabulae Vindolandenses II) (1994) provides another substantial corpus of Latin from a military outpost in the early Empire. The tablets take their place alongside such important military finds as the letters of Claudius Terentianus, which are roughly of the same date, the ostraca from Bu Njem, and the ostraca from Wâdi Fawâkhir, which again are dated to the first/second centuries.

The Latin of the Vindolanda tablets has recently been discussed by H. Petersmann as a specimen of ‘Vulgar Latin’, at a conference devoted to Vulgar and Late Latin. But while the influence of spoken varieties of the language can be detected in some misspellings, and in aspects of the syntax, morphology, and lexicon of the tablets, one must resist the temptation to find ‘Vulgar Latin’ (however one defines that problematical term: see below, IX.4) as the sole or principal element of the tablets. Many of the documents were not composed by free composition, but have a formulaic structure which made little or no demand on the linguistic competence of the writer (e.g. applications for leave (166–77), the daily reports of a type found at Bu Njem, which have certain distinctive features of syntax (155–6)). Accounts and lists (178–209) too may in their syntax and format, if not necessarily in their spellings, be heavily influenced by the conventions of their genre. Moreover record-keeping of this type usually falls to individuals with a degree of education and numeracy, and their writing may have little or nothing to reveal about the spoken language which they used or heard.

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The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 85 , November 1995 , pp. 86 - 134
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Copyright © J. N. Adams 1995. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 I call this paper an ‘interim report’, because tablets continue to be found at Vindolanda. See Birley, A. R., ‘Four new writing-tablets from Vindolanda’, ZPE 100 (1994), 431–46Google Scholar. Others have been read but are still unpublished, for example Inv. 93/1544, which contains the address ‘Ceriali regi suo’ (with which compare Claudius Tiberianus, P. Mich. VIII.472, ‘Longino Prisco domin[o] et regi suo”).

2 See Youtie, H. C. and Winter, J. G., Papyri and Ostraca from Karanis, Michigan Papyri VIII (1951)Google Scholar.

3 See Marichal, R., Les ostraca de Bu Njem, Suppléments de ‘Libya Antiqua’ VII (1992)Google Scholar.

4 See Guéraud, O., ‘Ostraca grecs et latins de l' Wâdi Fawâkhir’, BIFAO 49 (1942), 141–96Google Scholar.

5 See Petersmann, H., ‘Zu den neuen Vulgärlateinischen Sprachdenkmälern aus dem römischen Britannien. Die Täfelchen von Vindolanda’, in M. Iliescu and W. Marxgut (eds), Latin vulgaire — latin tardif III. Actes du IIIème colloque international sur le latin vulgaire et tardif (Innsbruck, 2–5 septembre 1991) (1992), 283–91Google Scholar.

6 See the pertinent remarks of Petersmann, op. cit. (n. 5), 284–5.

7 The editors have found abundant evidence for the activities of scribes at Vindolanda. Tablet 234, for example, contains a dictation error (see the editors, 42). Some letters are written by a first hand, with an appended final greeting in a different hand, almost certainly of the author (e.g. the letters of Severa, 291, 292, 293: see Bowman and Thomas, 256; see also the letter of Chrauttius, 310, with the comments of Bowman and Thomas, 289–90). A letter of Severa, wife of Brocchus, no. 292, is in the same hand as that of Brocchus, no. 246; both were no doubt written by the same scribe, associated with the household (Bowman and Thomas, 260). By contrast another letter of Severa (291) is in a different hand, which is however probably also found in 243, 244, and 248, all letters by Brocchus (248 by Brocchus and Niger) (see Bowman and Thomas, 256). The household of Brocchus made use of at least three different scribes. Similarly Bowman and Thomas (199) tentatively identify the hand of 225–232 as that of the prefect Cerialis himself, but they find four or five other hands at work drafting Cerialis' correspondence.

8 On the ethnic origins of those garrisoned at Vindolanda, see Bowman and Thomas, 30–2.

9 See Adams, J. N., ‘The Latinity of C. Novius Eunus’, ZPE 82 (1990), 230–1Google Scholar.

10 See Flobert, P., ‘Le témoignage épigraphique des apices et des I longae sur les quantités vocaliques en latin impérial’, in G. Calboli (ed.), Latin vulgaire — latin tardif II. Actes du IIème colloque international sur le latin vulgaire et tardif (Bologne, 29 août - 2 septembre 1988) (1990), 105.Google Scholar

11 For the evidence from Pompeii, see V. Väänänen, Le latin vulgaire des inscriptions pompéiennes 3 (1966), 23–5. See also Coleman, R. G. G., “The monophthongization of /ae/ and the Vulgar Latin vowel system’, TPhS (1971), 175–91Google Scholar. Coleman (‘Vulgar Latin and Proto-Romance: minding the gap’, Prudentia 25 (1993), 5) points out that Servius (GL IV.421.21) implies a monophthongal pronunciation of ae in contemporary educated usage.

12 It is highly unlikely that there were just two speakers at Vindolanda who pronounced the original diphthong as a monophthong.

13 See Väänänen, op. cit. (n. 11), 41.

14 For the insertion of a glide [w] in hiatus after a back vowel, cf. e.g. CIL XI.6289 puuer = puer, O. Bu Njem 86 duua = VL dua, Varro, Men. 290 clouaca = cloaca, Petron. 44.18 plouebat = pluebat.

15 For Eunus' error, see Adams, op. cit. (n. 9), 230.

16 See Bowman and Thomas, 30.

17 See Adams, J. N., The Vulgar Latin of the Letters of Claudius Terentianus (P. Mich. VIII, 467–72) (1977), 12.Google Scholar

18 See Adams, J. N., ‘Latin and Punic in contact? The case of the Bu Njem ostraca’, JRS 84 (1994), 103Google Scholar.

19 See, for example, Gaeng, P. A., An Inquiry into Local Variations in Vulgar Latin as Reflected in the Vocalism of Christian Inscriptions, University of North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures LXXVII (1968)Google Scholar, Herman, J., ‘Aspects de la différenciation territoriale du latin sous l'Empire’, BSL 60 (1965), 53–70Google Scholar ( = idem, Du latin aux langues romanes (1990), 10–28).

20 On the hypercorrect addition in substandard texts of -m where it has no place, see Adams, op. cit. (n. 9), 236.

21 See Adams, op. cit. (n. 9), 236.

22 See Adams, op. cit. (n. 17), 22.

23 See Marichal, R., Les graffites de La Graufesenque, Gallia, supplément XLVII (1988), 67Google Scholar.

24 ibid., 67.

25 See Bowman and Thomas, 125.

26 See Adams, op. cit. (n. 9), 238.

27 See Marichal, op. cit. (n. 23), 67.

28 See Adams, op. cit. (n. 17), 35.

29 For nissi (nessi), see Tab. Sulis 32.7, 14, 65.10, and R. S. O. Tomlin, ‘The Curse Tablets’, in B. Cunliffe (ed.), The Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath II. The Finds from the Sacred Spring, Oxford University Committee for Archaeology Monograph XVI (1988), 151, 199. For a few further early examples of hypercorrect -ss- in this environment, see Väänänen, op. cit. (n. 11), 60. On such spellings in Eunus, see below.

30 218, 252, 259, 271, 292, 295, 300, 311, 317, 320, 345.

31 P. Mich. VIII. 467.27, 29, 468.5, 8, 15, 28.

32 Transmisi at 76, 77, 78, 79, 86, 87(?), 101, 104, 110, 148(?), misi at 95, remisi at 103. [Tr]ạsmiṣse at 105 may represent transmisisse, with a haplography, but the text is very fragmentary.

33 On the phenomenon, see in general Leumann, M., Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre 6 (1977), 181Google Scholar. For a few examples of -ss- in this environment at Pompeii, see also Väänänen, op. cit. (n. 11), 59.

34 Full details can be found in Adams, op. cit. (n.9), 239.

35 See Sommer, F., Handbuch der lateinischen Laut und Formenlehre4 1 (rev. R. Pfister, 1977), 154Google Scholar n. 5, and on the history of the spelling, Löfstedt, B., Studien über die Sprache der langobardischen Gesetze. Beiträge zur frühmittelalterlichen Latinität (1961), 77Google Scholar.

36 See Bowman and Thomas, 200.

37 Annibal (32, 34, 68), mi (86), ora/ura (91, 103, 105, 113), ordeum (97), Vrtato (113), abes (116).

38 Hora (67), mihi (83).

39 See further Adams, op. cit., (n. 18), 96.

40 cf. Väänanen, op. cit. (n. 11), 64.

41 For xs spellings at Pompeii, see Väänanen, op. cit. (n. 11), 64.

42 See e.g. Adams, op. cit. (n. 17), 27–8, idem, op. cit. (n. 9), 237.

43 218 bis, 226 bis, 252, 263, 318.

44 Adams, op. cit. (n. 17), 27–8.

45 O. Bu Njem 71, 76, 77, 78, 79; 86, 101, 104.

46 See especially Löfstedt, op. cit. (n. 35), 56–66 (with extensive bibliography).

47 Neither in the document s of C. Novius Eunus nor at Bu Njem is there a certain case of such a misspelling: see Adams, op. cit. (n. 9), 231, idem, op. cit. (n. 18), 103. On e for i at Pompeii, see Väänänen, op. cit. (n. 11), 21–2 (considering the possibility of Oscan influence).

48 In Bowman, A. K. and Thomas, J. D., Vindolanda: the Latin Writing Tablets, Britannia Monograph Series IV (1983), 73Google Scholar.

49 See Meyer-Lübke, W., Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch 3 (1935), 8802Google Scholar.

50 The o of the participle of torqueo in CL was short.

51 See Meyer-Lübke, op. cit. (n. 49), and especially O. Bloch and W. von Wartburg, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française 5 (1968), 642, s.v. tourte.

52 See Baehrens, W. A., Sprachlicher Kommentar zur vulgärlateinischen Appendix Probi (1922), 55Google Scholar; also Leumann, op. cit. (n. 33), 48.

53 See Löfstedt, op. cit. (n. 35), 77–82.

54 ibid., 81.

55 See Ernout, A. and Meillet, A., Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine 4 (1959), 248.Google Scholar

56 See Adams in Bowman and Thomas, op. cit. (n. 48), 73.

57 See Väänänen, V., Introduction au latin vulgaire 4 (1981), 42Google Scholar on domnus/domna in contrast to other Romance words which retain an original Latin sequence -min-: ‘Quant à dominus, domina, la syncope tient à l'emploi de ce substantif comme appellation ou comme titre…’

58 C. Novius Eunus offers in the early first century A.D. the spellings sestertis, medis, and isdem (see Adams, op. cit. (n. 9), 235), against one case of iis. Contrast iissestertiis in the correct (scribal) version of TP 15.

59 On the variable spelling of Cerealis/Cerialis, see TLL Onom. 11.343.37ff. (in inscriptions usually Ceri-); also Servius on Virg., Aen. 1.177.

60 See, e.g. Adams, op. cit. (n.9), 235.

61 See Leumann, op. cit. (n. 33), 146.

62 See Hannah M. Cotton and Geiger, J., Masada II. The Yigael Yadin Excavations 1963–1965, Final Reports. The Latin and Greek Documents (1989), 722.7, 14 (with 37 n. 33)Google Scholar.

63 See e.g. Väänänen, op. cit. (n. 11), 67–8, Adams, op. cit. (n. 9), 241.

64 For details, see J. N. Adams, ‘The interpretation of souxtum at Tab. Vindol. II.301.3’, forthcoming in ZPE.

65 See Bowman and Thomas, 56–7.

66 Note also Cic., Mur. 25. See M. B. Parkes, Pause and Effect. An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West (1992), 10, T. N. Habinek, The Colometry of Latin Prose (1985), 43 with n., Parsons, P. J. in Anderson, R. D., Parsons, P. J. and Nisbet, R. G. M., ‘Elegiacs by Gallus from Qaṣr Ibrîm’, JRS 69 (1979), 131Google Scholar with n. 43.

67 See R. W. Müller, Rhetorische und syntaktische Interpunktion. Untersuchungen zur Pausenbezeichnung im antiken Latein (1964), 36: ‘Erst das Verschwinden der Wortinterpunktion machte es möglich, den Punkt in mittlerer Höhe für die Bezeichnung von Sinnpausen zu verwenden’. Müller cites (36–7) P. Oxy. 1.32 ( = R. Cavenaile, Corpus Papyrorum Latinarum (1958), 249), a second-century letter of recommendation, where some clauses are divided by interpunction. For such use of medial points in early manuscripts, see Habinek, op. cit. (n. 66), 61, 82–3 (on the Medicean manuscript of Virgil). On interpunct s in the Bu Njem ostraca which correspond ‘à une coupure logique’, see Marichal, op. cit. (n. 3), 40 (see O. Bu Njem 68, 71, 72, 81; perhaps too 77, 78).

68 See e.g. W. S. Allen, Accent and Rhythm. Prosodic Features of Latin and Greek: a Study in Theory and Reconstruction (1973), 24–5.

69 See E. O. Wingo, Latin Punctuation in the Classical Age (1972), 16.

70 But see P. Berl. inv. 11649, ‘salutem tibi ·dicunt· nostri’.

71 op. cit. (n. 10), e.g. 104, 106.

72 See Leumann, op. cit. (n. 33), 109–10, Allen, op. cit. (n. 68), 179–85.

73 Leumann, op. cit. (n. 33), 110.

74 ibid.

75 Birley, op. cit. (n. 1), 441.

76 Whereas -i is normal in -is adjectives, there is some variation in other types: e.g. par, pari, but uetus, uetere. On the whole it is true to say that the language had set up an economical distinction between -e and -i, with the former allocated to nouns, and the latter to many adjectives.

77 Cited by Väänänen, op. cit. (n. 11), 84 n. 2.

78 See further Väänänen, op. cit. (n. 11), 84.

79 See the index to CIL I2, p. 819, quoting more than thirty examples of -i ablatives. Some, but by no means all, are in -i stem words. See also Leumann, op. cit. (n. 33), 435, stating: ‘Endungen: -ě vorwiegend bei Substantiven, und -ī vorwiegend bei Adjektiven. Im Altlatein war die Verwendung nach Ausweis der Inschriften noch nicht so fest geregelt’. The situation in old Latin is difficult to determine, because most archaizing inscriptions are not old. But there can be no doubt that -i in nouns of consonant stem was by some considered to be old.

80 See Skutsch, O., The Annate of Q. Ennius (1985), 500Google Scholar, Kroll on Catull. 68.124 (also on 68.99, on -e for -i in adjectives and i-stem nouns in poetry, for metrical reasons).

81 For examples in Diehl's, E.Vulgärlateinische Inschriften (1910)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, see e.g. nos 242 funeri, 536 pro piaetati, 1493 generi, 1556 Bautoni, 1566 adulescenti.

82 For further parallels, see Adams, J. N., ‘The Latin of the Vindolanda writing tablets’, BICS 22 (1975), 20Google Scholar.

83 For which see Ernout-Meillet, op. cit. (n. 55), 556; most obviously found in quicum.

84 See Lindsay, W. M., Syntax of Plautus (1907), 43Google Scholar.

85 For a comprehensive discussion of qui/quis, see Löfstedt, E., Syntactica. Studien und Beiträge zur historischen Syntax des Lateins (1956), 11, 79–96Google Scholar.

86 I have consulted Callebat, L.et al., Vitruve, De Architectura, Concordance (1984)Google Scholar, s.v.; see also Löfstedt, op. cit. (n. 85), 11, 92–3.

87 See, e.g. Löfstedt, E., Philologischer Kommentar zur Peregrinatio Aetheriae (1911), 132Google Scholar.

88 See Adams, op. cit. (n. 9), 243–4.

89 See TLL VII.I.370.10ff., Adams, op. cit. (n. 17), 45, Neue, F. and Wagener, C., Formenlehre der lateinischen Sprache3 (1892–1905), 11, 428–9Google Scholar.

90 See Väänäen, op. cit. (n. 11), 86 for further examples.

91 See Adams, op. cit. (n. 17), 45.

92 See also Jeanneret, M., La langue des tablettes d'exécration latines (1918), 79Google Scholar for examples in curse tablets.

93 See Leumann, op. cit. (n. 33), 499.

94 Neue-Wagener, op. cit. (n.89), 11, 208–9.

95 At TLL VII.1.620.49ff. the form impiissimus is illustrated, but not impientissimus; so at Neue-Wagener, op. cit. (n. 89), 11, 206.

96 See Ernout-Meillet, op. cit. (n. 55), 62 (s.v. axis 1).

97 See, e.g. Bloch-von Wartburg, op. cit. (n. 51), 211 s.v. écouter.

98 Note, for example, propositus = praepositus at O. Bu Njem 84, 85 (see further J. Svennung, Untersuchungen zu Palladius und zur lateinischen Fach- und Volkssprache (1935), 378).

99 See Löfstedt, op. cit. (n. 35), 294–7.

100 See Bowman and Thomas, 73–6 for a discussion of these documents.

101 See Bowman and Thomas, 75 on the problem of interpretation which this locution raises.

102 See Adams, op. cit. (n. 17), 51.

103 Bowman and Thomas, 74.

104 On optiones as authors of the documents, see Bowman and Thomas, 74.

105 Note that the correct form debent is found in the account 181.

106 See TLL V.1.97.33ff.

107 I am grateful to Professor A. R. Birley for supplying me with a text of the letter.

108 For examples, see Leumann, op. cit. (n. 33), 234, 598, Neue-Wagener, op. cit. (n. 89), in, 500–5.

109 See Leumann, op. cit. (n. 33), 287.

110 O. Gradenwitz, Laterculi Vocum Latinarum (1904), 482.

111 I owe this information to Dr Wild. See J. P. Wild, ‘Vindolanda 1985–89: first thoughts on new finds’, in L. B. Jørgensen and E. Munksgaard (eds), Archaeological Textiles in Northern Europe: Report from the 4th NESAT Symposium 1–5. May 1900 in Copenhagen (1992), 72; idem, ‘Vindolanda 1985–1988, The Textiles’, in Vindolanda, Research Reports, new series, 111. The Early Wooden Forts, 89 n. 23 on a cloak converted to a tunic.

112 Adams ap. Bowman and Thomas, op. cit. (n. 48), 74.

113 ibid.

114 op. cit. (n. 48), 142.

115 See Väänänen, op. cit. (n. n), 91–5.

116 See Latham, R. E., Revised Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources (1965), 73Google Scholar (uia carraria, c. 1216).

117 See also Fink, R. O., Roman Military Records on Papyrus (1971), 58.ii.6.Google Scholar

118 See further Bowman and Thomas, op. cit. (n. 48), 110.

119 von Wartburg, W., Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch II.1 (1940), 613Google Scholar. See also G. N. Olcott, Studies in the Word Formation of the Latin Inscriptions (1898), 147f., giving the sense as ‘brewer’.

120 See Adams, J. N., ‘The origin and meaning of Lat. ueterinus, ueterinarius’, IF 97 (1992), 70–95Google Scholar.

121 See too the examples of such terms at Pompeii collected by Väänänen, op. cit. (n. 11), 95.

122 See FEW, op. cit. (n. 119), V, 390.

123 The editors, on the other hand, are undoubtedly correct in stating, 144: ‘the word can be interpreted as a charge for lodging or accommodation either for people or for animals’. See further Collart, J., REL 26 (1948), 61Google Scholar noting the two interpretations which I mention below, and adding a third of his own.

124 See Kleberg, T., Hôtels, restaurants et cabarets dans l'antiquité romaine (1957), 18–19Google Scholar (stabulum), 19–20 (taberna).

125 See also Bowman and Thomas, 138 ad loc., citing Bruckner, A. and R. Marichal, Chartae latinae antiquiores (1954-), III.204.4.Google Scholar

126 See (e.g.) Baehrens, op. cit. (n. 52), 121.

127 op. cit. (n. 119), 183.

128 See Olcott, op. cit. (n. 119), 151, TLL V.1.2258.5ff.

129 See Olcott, op. cit. (n. 119), 168.

130 See TLL 11.1703.27ff.

131 Olcott, op. cit. (n. 119), 162.

132 Olcott, op. cit. (n. 119), 164.

133 Bowman and Thomas, 354 on no. 463.

134 For cerebellum as a culinary term, see J. André, Le vocabulaire latin de l'anatomie (1991), 34–5, and for capitulum, Adams, J. N., ‘Anatomical terms transferred from animals to humans in Latin’, IF 87 (1982), 106Google Scholar. See also below on codicula ‘tail’ of a pig, and labelli, found at Apicius VII.I.

135 See André, J., L'alimentation et la cuisine à Rome (1981), 137 n. 43Google Scholar.

136 André, J., Apicius, L'art culinaire, De re coquinaria (1965), 186Google Scholar.

137 See Adams, op. cit. (n. 134), 100.

138 See André, J., ‘Notes de lexicologie’, RPh 40 (1966), 46–58Google Scholar.

139 See André, op. cit. (n. 138), 46.

140 ibid.

141 See also Heraeus, W., Kleine Schriften (ed. J. B. Hofmann, 1937), 24–5Google Scholar.

142 Dunbabin, R. L., ‘Notes on Lewis and Short’, CR 49 (1935), 10Google Scholar.

143 See Bowman and Thomas, 328.

144 See Petersmann, op. cit. (n. 5), 288, referring to Niermeyer, J. F., Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon minus (1976)Google Scholar, s.v. For coriatio Petersmann cites Latham, op. cit. (n. 116), s.v. An example of coriatio mentioned there is dated to the fifteenth century, but no reference is given. Greater detail can be found in the full Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources (ed. R. E. Latham, fasc. II, 1981), 491: ‘coriatio, (?) covering with leather’, citing one example (Fabr. York 27, A.D. 1404). It would be hazardous to assume that there could be a direct line of descent linking an isolated fifteenth-century British example of a noun not reflected in the Romance languages, and our second-century example. The medieval example may be a very late, neo-Latin coinage. In any case, the attestation of the word in the fifteenth century does nothing to assist in the elucidation of the numerous difficulties which surround coriatione in the Vindolanda tablet.

145 For such abstracta pro concretis in technical vocabularies, see e.g. A. Önnerfors, Pliniana. In Plinii Maioris Naturalem Historiam studia grammatica semantica critica (1956), 12–13, J. B. Hofmann and A. Szantyr, Lateiniscke Syntax und Stilistik (1965), 749–50. Hofmann-Szantyr (749) cite as an early example habitatio = ‘dwelling’ at Plaut., Most. 498, Cato, Agr. 128.

146 For excutio in this specialized sense, see Bowman, A. K., Thomas, J. D., Adams, J. N., ‘Two letters from Vindolanda’, Britannia 21 (1990), 49–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Excutio has Romance reflexes with this meaning (op. cit., 50).

147 See Bowman, Thomas, Adams, op. cit. (n. 146), 50; Leumann, op. cit. (n. 33), 301, on the formation.

148 See Meyer-Lübke, op. cit. (n. 49), 2997, FEW, op. cit. (n. 119), 111, 286–7.

149 See in general Bowman and Thomas, 43–5.

150 So Terentianus, P. Mich. VIII.468.68 appears to have the address trade Claudio Tiberiano (restoration).

151 For the type of genitive to which Neptuni belongs (gen. definitivus), see Hofmann-Szantyr, op. cit. (n. 145), 62.

152 See Hassall, M. W. C. and Tomlin, R. S. O., ‘Inscriptions’, Britannia 19 (1988), 496CrossRefGoogle Scholar, no. 32.

153 Cited by Svennung, J., Anredeformen. Vergleichende Forschungen zur indirekten Anrede in der dritten Person und zum Nominativ für den Vokativ (1958), 23Google Scholar; also Cugusi, P., Evoluzione e forme dell' epistolografia latina nella tarda repubblica e nei primi due secoli dell' impero (1983), 65 n. 104Google Scholar.

154 See Adams, op. cit. (n. 17), 38.

155 See further the editors, 43–4 for two cases of Vindolande (= -ae) on a wooden leaf-tablet and a stilus tablet.

156 See Löfstedt, op. cit. (n. 85), 11, 73–8, Hofmann Szantyr, op. cit. (n. 145), 145.

157 See further Funaioli, G., ‘Der Lokativ und seine Auflösung’, ALL 13 (1904), 326–7Google Scholar.

158 See Kühner, R. and Stegmann, C., Ausführliche Grammatik der lateinischen Sprache: Satzlehre (3rd edn., rev. A. Thierfelder, 1955)Google Scholar, 1, 478, Anm. 4 (the uses of prepositions illustrated at Anm. 3, (b), (c) have various special motivations).

159 See Woodcook, E. C., A New Latin Syntax (1959), 4Google Scholar.

160 See Funaioli, op. cit. (n. 157), 325–6.

161 Examples may be found at TIL 1.528. 19ff.

162 This example, quoted by Weaver, P. R. C., Familia Caesaris. A Social Study of the Emperor's Freedmen and Slaves (1972), 268CrossRefGoogle Scholar n. 2 is filled out by him as ad Castorem, but it is more likely that Castoris is intended (see Löfstedt, op. cit. (n. 85), n, 249).

163 On this use of ad, see Kühner-Stegmann, op. cit. (n. 158), 1, 522.

164 See TLL VII.I 765.69ff.

165 See further Kühner-Stegmann, op. cit. (n. 158), I, 346, TLL VII.1.765.16ff., OLD S.V. in, 22.

166 See, e.g. Hofmann-Szantyr, op. cit. (n. 145), 29, Svennung, op. cit. (n. 98), 185–7. For such accusatives (of materials, etc.) on the walls of Pompeii, unaccompanied by any verb, see Väänänen, op. cit. (n. 11), 117.

167 See Löfstedt, E., Spätlateinische Studien (1908) 79–82Google Scholar, idem, op. cit. (n.85), I2, 271, idem, Vermischte Studien zur lateinischen Sprachkunde und Syntax (1936), 173; also Adams, op. cit. (n. 17), 40–2.

168 ‘A curiously persistent error: Satyricon 43–4’, CP 89 (1994), 162–6Google Scholar.

169 See Adams, op. cit. (n. 17), 40–2.

170 See the bibliography cited in n. 166; also D. Norberg, Syntaktische Forschungen auf dem Gebiete des Spatlateins und des frühen Mittellateins, Uppsala Universitets Årsskrift 1943: 9 (1943), 92–6, Å. Josephson, Casae Litterarum. Studien zum Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum (1950), 165–8.

171 See Svennung, op. cit. (n.98), 183.

172 218, 233, 291, 301, 310, 311, 312 (three times), 314, 326, 345. Similarly in the commeatus documents 167, 174, and 176 the expression rogo… dignum me habeas is more or less preserved, and it is likely that in the remainder, which are more fragmentary, it was also used. I have not included the three examples just listed in the figure of twelve.

173 257, 345. To these might be added 342, where rogamus rather than rogo seems to have a plain subjunctive complement, but there are gaps in the texts.

174 250 (a rather formal letter of commendation), 255, 313, 316 (twice).

175 Rogo ut never; rogamns ut at VI.35.5. Rogo/rogamus + subj. seven times (-o II.79.2, III.95.3, VI.5.2, VII.95.18; -amus I.35.13, V.80.4, VIII.2.8).

176 Rogol/amus ut: 64.1, 71.9, 75–8, 99.2, 134.11; + subj.: 49.6, 75.3, 137.6.

177 Rogo + subj. only at Fam. V.18.1 (rogo atque oro), XIII.57.2.

178 For rogo + subj., see Fam. V.10b (Vatinius), VIII.II. 4 (Caelius), X.21a twice (Plancus), X.24.8 (Plancus), XI.I.5 (D. Brutus), XI.9.1 (D. Brutus), XII.14.4 (Lentulus); for rogo ut, see VIII.2.2, VIII.9. 4 (both Caelius), X.9.3 (Plancus), XI.28.5 (Matius).

179 Rogo + subj. at IV.14.2, V.12.3.

180 For a collection of the evidence, see Cugusi, P., Corpus Epistolarum Latinarum (1992), 11, 37Google Scholar.

181 cf. 264, ‘opto… sis felicissimus’ (so 310), 346, ‘[o]pto felicissimus uiuas’.

182 For parallels and bibliography, see Bowman, Thomas, and Adams, op. cit. (n. 146), 48.

183 For frater and its implication, see O. Wâdi Fawâkhir 2.6–9, HA, Did. Iul. 4.1, Hor., Epist. 1.6.54.

184 On the type of document, see Bowman and Thomas, 77.

185 Similarly domine turns up at Bu Njem in letters addressed by soldiers to their commanding officer: e.g. O. Bu Njem 76.4, ‘transmisi at te domine …’

186 For a collection of such litterae commendaticiae, see Bowman and Thomas, op. cit. (n. 48), 106.

187 I am grateful to Dr F. Jones for supplying me with this last example.

188 See Sherwin-White, A. N., The Letters of Pliny. A Historical and Social Commentary (1966), 557Google Scholar.

189 Domine could even be addressed to a child, as e.g. at CIL v.1706 (aunt to nephew). This use represents a debasement of the deferential use into an empty (formal) form of address much the same as Master in English.

190 See Bowman and Thomas, 334.

191 For the evidence of comedy, see Adams, J. N., ‘Female speech in Latin comedy’, Antichthon 18 (1984), 71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

192 Homo inpientissime (311.5) belongs apart, as it is not deferential or friendly.

193 The only other names in the vocative are in the letter of Chrauttius, both accompanied by frater: 310.4 Veldei frater, 15 frater Virilis. Frater is not usually accompanied by a name when used in the vocative: see Bowman, Thomas, and Adams, op. cit. (n. 146), 37, 40.

194 See the evidence collected by Adams, op. cit. (n. 191), 71–2.

195 Marcus Aurelius seems deliberately to have used highly emotive language which might have been appropriately used by or to a woman.

196 Bowman and Thomas, 258 note that the expression anima dulcissima occurs on a gold-ring found in the fourth-century uicus at Vindolanda (see Wright, R. P. and Hassall, M. W. C., ‘Inscriptions’, Britannia 2 (1971), 301Google Scholar no. 72): could the ring have been presented by a man to a woman?

197 See Löfstedt, B., ‘Die betonten Hiatusvokale in Wörtern vom Typus pius, meus, tuus’, Eranos 60 (1962), 80–92Google Scholar, especially 89; also C. Lyons, ‘On the origin of the Old French strong-weak possessive distinction’, TPhS 1986, 22–7. For another example of ma, see Önnerfors, , ‘Iatromagische Beschörungen in der “Physica Plinii Sangallensis”’, Eranos 83 (1985), 237Google Scholar no. 4.

198 See Svennung, op. cit. (n. 98), 639 (‘wertloses item’).

199 See Marichal, op. cit. (n. 3), 194 ad loc.; also 48.

200 On the appropriateness of the verb to this activity, see C. Bailey, Titi Lucreti Cari De Rerum Natura libri sex (1947), ad loc.

201 For a silua as the appropriate place either for contemplation or for learned discussion, see Cic., De oral. III. 18, Att. XII. 15, and particularly Ovid, Am. III. 1.1–6. In the last passage Ovid strolls (spatior is the verb used) in a wood (silua) seeking inspiration from his Muse. Notable in the passage is the association of a silua, slow movement, and literary contemplation.

202 Cicero (Att. XII. 15) talks of ‘hiding himself away’ (me … abstrusi) in a wood for contemplation.

203 Lewis and Short, S.V. A.ε. cite only Bell. Alex. 1.3 for tutus + abl., and there the ablatival complement is a non-personal noun.

204 See Ernout-Meillet, op. cit. (n. 55), s. v.

205 See further the detailed discussion of Ernout-Meillet, loc. cit.

206 See TLL VIII. 643.73ff.

207 See Adams, J. N., ‘Some Latin veterinary terms relating to diseases of the back (pulmo, pulmunculus, pantex, cancer frigidum, pispisa, pilupia, clauus)’, in C. Deroux (ed.), Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History vi, Collection Latomus (1992), 486 n. 16, 493 n.43Google Scholar.

208 See Ernout-Meillet, op. cit. (n. 55), s.v. inter.

209 See Rönsch, H., Itala und Vulgata. Das Sprachidiom der urchristlichen Itala und der katholischen Vulgata (1875), 380 quoting examples of resideo = sedeo, e.g. Phaedr. 1.13.4.Google Scholar

210 See Ernout-Meillet, op. cit. (n. 55), 610, S.V. sedeo; Leumann, op. cit. (n. 33), 564.

211 Att. VI.6.1, VIII. 12a. 1 (Pompey), IX.4.1, IX.19.1, X.2.1, XI.17a.1, XII.5c, XII.34.1, XII.53; this list does not include ego uero, on which see below.

212 On which see Thesleff, H., Yes and No in Plautus and Terence (1960), 39–40Google Scholar.

213 See Leumann, op. cit. (n. 33), 300.

214 See further TLL IX.2.235.49ft.

215 See Adams in Bowman and Thomas, op. cit. (n. 48), 72; Kühner-Stegmann, op. cit. (n. 158), 1, 433.

216 See Adams, op. cit. (n. 215), 72 n. 1.

217 See Bowman, Thomas, and Adams, op. cit. (n. 146), 46. To the bibliography cited there, add Petersmann, H., Petrons urbane Prosa. Untersuchungen zu Sprache und Text (Syntax) (1977), 231–2Google Scholar.

218 See Bowman, Thomas, and Adams, op. cit. (n. 146), 37–8.

219 On which usage, see Svennung, op. cit. (n. 98), 383, Hofmann-Szantyr, op. cit. (n. 145), 277.

220 See Petersmann, op. cit. (n. 217), 114; also Hofmann, J. B., Lateinische Umgangssprache 3 (1951), 74, Hofmann-Szantyr, op. cit. (n. 145), 163Google Scholar.

221 See TLL 1.1957.4ft., Hofmann, op. cit. (n. 220), 127–8.

222 See Ernout-Meillet, op. cit. (n. 55), s.v.

223 See Meyer-Lübke, op. cit. (n. 49), 7650.

224 See André, J., Les noms de plantes dans la Rome antique (1985), 37Google Scholar.

225 So too in the Iberian peninsula (Meyer-Lübke, op. cit. (n. 49), 1830).

226 See TLL III.943.71ff. A bilingual exercise has been plausibly attributed to Gaul on the grounds that it contains both brads and ceruisia: see Dionisotti, A. C., ‘From Ausonius' schooldays? A schoolbook and its relatives’, JRS 72 (1982), 123Google Scholar.

227 So too Holder, A., Alt-Celtischer Sprachschatz I (1896), 366Google Scholar.

228 See André, J., ‘Tossia “couverture de lit”’, Études Celtiques II (1964–1965), 409–12Google Scholar.

229 On the place and the inscription, see Rivet, A. L. F. and Smith, C., The Place-Names of Roman Britain (1979), 467.Google Scholar

230 See further Bowman, A. K., ‘The Roman imperial army: letters and literacy on the northern frontier’, in A. K. Bowman and G. D. Woolf (eds), Literacy and Power in the Ancient World (1994), III.Google Scholar

231 See Bowman and Thomas, op. cit. (n.48), 129, citing Livy XXIX.22.5.

232 On which see Bowman and Thomas, op. cit. (n. 48), 131, citing Plin., Epist. 1.20.25.

233 See Bowman and Thomas, op. cit. (n. 48), 131, citing. e.g. Plin., Epist. X.28.

234 See Lee, A. D., Information and Frontiers. Roman Foreign Relations in Late Antiquity (1993), 28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

235 See Bowman, op. cit. (n. 230), 124.

236 See Bowman, Thomas, and Adams, op. cit. (n. 146), 37.

237 For this phenomenon, see Pinkster, H., Latin Syntax and Semantics (1990), 170Google Scholar.

238 It is worth noting that two centurions at Bu Njem wrote poems (see Adams, op. cit. (n. 18), 112). The military ἱππιαιρὀς Apsyrtus was written to by decurions for advice about the treatment of their horses (see Corpus Hippiatricorum Graecorum I, passim).

239 Coleman, R. G. G., ‘Vulgar Latin and Proto-Romance: minding the gap’, Prudentia 25 (1993), 2Google Scholar.

240 See Petersmann, op. cit. (n. 217), 231–2.

241 See the editors, 324 (on 343.4).