Attic Nights, Vol. II

A. GELLIUS

ATTIC NIGHTS: BOOK ELEVEN

I

On the origin of the word for the land of Italy; on the fine that is called 'supreme'; on the reasoning behind that name and the Aternian Law; and with what words, in antiquity, a minimal fine was accustomed to be spoken.

Timaeus in the histories he composed in Greek concerning the affairs of the Roman people, and M. Varro in his Antiquities of Human Affairs, wrote that the land of Italy was named from a Greek word, because in the ancient Greek language oxen were called italoi bulls, of which there was a great abundance in Italy, and many calves original: "buceta" were accustomed to be born and fed in that land.

We may conjecture, however, that for this same reason, because Italy was at that time very full of livestock, the fine that is called 'supreme' was established as two sheep and thirty oxen per day, based, of course, on the abundance of oxen and the scarcity of sheep. But when a fine of this kind of livestock was pronounced by the magistrates...