Complete Works, Vol. III

seas beat against the shore of the Peloponnese. Victors at the Isthmus were crowned with a pine wreath, as Pliny reports in book 15. Plutarch relates that the Isthmian games were first instituted by Theseus in honor of Neptune, in emulation of Hercules, who first instituted the Olympic games for Jupiter. Others say the Isthmian games were instituted in honor of Palaemon, like the poet Archias, whose noble Greek epigram exists, encompassing the famous contests of the Greeks. The Athenians approaching the spectacle of the Isthmian games were preferred to other spectators by being given seats. Regarding the Isthmus, which the dictator Caesar, C. Caligula, Nero, and Demetrius attempted to dig through, we have written sufficiently in the commentaries on Tranquillus.

Pag. 7. TENAROS SPARTIACA. In Laconia, there is a promontory called Tenaros, and a town. There is also a vent of the same name, from which a descent to the underworld lies open. In Tenaros itself, there is a temple dedicated to Neptune: Pomponius Mela and Solinus are the authorities. It is called Spartiaca from the city of Sparta, which is the metropolis of Laconia, founded by Sparte, the daughter of Phoroneus, as Eusebius the chronographer teaches: hence the Spartans or Spartiates, who are most celebrated under the other name of Lacedaemonians. Sparta was, however, in ancient times, as the Greeks say, πόλις ἀτείχιστος a city without walls; that is, a city without walls, as if the true fortifications of a city were armed men, not constructed stones. Hence, once asked, "Why is Sparta without walls?" Agesilaus, pointing to his armed citizens, said: ταῦτ’ ἔστι λακεδαιμονίων τείχη These are the walls of the Lacedaemonians. The Laconians were almost uniquely lovers of brevity, both in speaking and writing. Hence, also, Laconism signifies brief speech, about which Cicero says in his letters: I will not use your Laconism. And it was likewise said by Symmachus in his letters: I remember Spartan brevity was once considered a virtue. One must note here the Apuleian expression, by which he enunciates Isthmos, Tenaros, and Hymettos as feminine, whereas almost all others have used them in the masculine gender. But our Lucius seems to have wished not so much to signify the places as the cities founded there.

Ibid. GLEBAE FELICES. The meaning is: these aforementioned places are believed to be happy due to the richness of their soil and the fertility of their crops: because this has been handed down in the books of writers, who are undoubtedly happier, as they are eternal themselves and grant eternity to those of whom they speak. Glebae of the soil is in the case which is commonly called the genitive. For thus we speak in Latin and elegantly, Happy of age a construction meaning 'blessed in time'. Silius says:

Happy, alas, of groves, and to be praised for a secluded life.

Pag. 8. PROSAPIA. The origin of a lineage and family, derived from proserpere to creep forth/spread out. By another name, it is called prosapiens. It is an old term, and as Quintilian says, repeated from the furthest and now obliterated times.

Ibid. IN ATHIDE. He signifies Athens. For Athis is the Attic region, to which the daughter of Cranaus, named Athis, gave her name: which Justin also reports. Regarding this, Strabo in the 9th book of his Geography reports as follows: From Actaeus, they call it Activa. But Athid and Athica they call from Athis, the daughter of Cranaus, from whom the inhabitants are also called Cranaoi; the city of Athens itself obtained its name from the goddess Minerva, whom the Greeks call ἀθήνην Athenē.

Ibid. PUERITIAE STIPENDIIS. He signifies that he learned the first elements of Greek letters in Athens, which city was the home and, as it were, the workshop of the liberal arts.

Ibid. MERUI. I served as a soldier. The military service of boys and their military wages are in the literary gymnasium: for merere signifies to serve as a soldier. Varro: They serve with a public horse. And in Suetonius, in the life of Julius Caesar, it is written: He also served under Servilius Isauricus in Cilicia. Merere is sometimes used for mereri, as in Plautus: Even if you behave differently, you deserve [better]. There is also merere, to gain a most sordid profit. Hence mercenaries and prostitutes are so named. Aulus Gellius: Lais, he says, the Corinthian, earned a large sum of money for the elegance and charm of her beauty.

Pag. 9. IN URBE LATIA. He signifies Rome, the head not only of Latium but of all lands, which can be called the common fatherland, according to Seneca.

Ibid. STUDIORUM QUIRITIUM. He signifies that he learned the studies of the Roman language in the city of Rome itself. There is no one who does not know that the Romans are called Quirites. He calls the "indigenous speech" the vernacular and peculiar language of the Romans, which is the Latin language. For Latinity (as Diomedes the grammarian says) is the uncorrupted observance of speaking according to the Roman language. All men in ancient times, as well as the unlearned, women as well as men, boys as well as old men, spoke Latin among the Romans, though not grammatically. For it is one thing to speak in Latin, and another to speak grammatically, as Quintilian teaches in his first book; he who in the 12th book revealed that there were some who thought that eloquence was only natural when it was most similar to daily speech: with which we speak to friends, spouses, and servants, requiring nothing forced or labored. Likewise, M. Tullius says in Brutus that the people are the judge of eloquence and of the orator. He who in the third book On the Orator handed down that the common crowd sees if there is a mistake in a verse, and feels if anything limps in an oration. Which, certainly, someone ignorant of Latinity could not do. Likewise, he says: No one ever admired an orator because he spoke Latin: if it is otherwise, they mock him, and they do not consider him an orator, or even a man. This, undoubtedly, he would not say if speaking Latin had been among the few, as it is in the present. The same author relates that women preserve uncorrupted antiquity more easily, because, being without the experience of the speech of many, they hold those things through which, at first, they learned to speak.