Complete Works of Lactantius, Vol. I

CHAP. V. ON THE FORM OF ANIMALS AND THEIR LIMBS.

In the curvature of the body, God made four projections: two behind, which in all are the feet; likewise two near the head, which provide various uses to living beings. In animals and wild beasts, these are similar to the rear ones, but in humans, they are hands; which were created not for walking, but for making and fashioning. There is a third type, in which those former ones are neither feet nor hands, but wings, in which feathers are fixed in order to provide the use of flying. Thus, the creative wisdom has different species and uses. And so that it might firmly grasp the thickness of the body, having joined the larger and shorter bones together by turns, he fashioned a keel, which we call the spine. He did not wish to form it from one continuous bone, lest the animal have no ability to bend or turn itself. In the middle part of this, so to speak, he extended the ribs—that is, transverse bones—in different directions, by which the vital parts, being enclosed as if in a circle, might be covered, so that those things which were soft and needed to be made strong could be protected by the fortification of that solid cage. In the very top of the structure, which we said is similar to the keel of a ship, he placed the head, in which the governance of the entire living being might reside. To it, this name is given—as indeed Varro writes to Cicero—because from here senses and nerves take their beginning. Furthermore, the things we said were produced for the sake of the body, whether for walking, touching, or flying, he did not wish to consist of long bones, on account of rapid mobility, nor

A of overly short ones, on account of firmness, but of few and large bones. For they are either two, as in humans; or four, as in quadrupeds: yet he did not make them solid, lest sluggishness and heaviness retard them in walking, but hollowed out and full of marrow internally to conserve the vigor of the body; and these again he did not finish as uniformly extended: but he gathered the ends of them with thicker knots, so that they might be bound more easily by tendons and turned more safely, whence they were named vertibula hinge-joints/sockets. He covered those firmly solidified knots with a smooth covering, which is called cartilage, so that they might bend without friction and without any sensation of pain. Yet he did not form them in a single way: for he made some simple and round in a circle, at least in those joints where it was necessary for limbs to move in all directions, as in the shoulders; since it is necessary for the hand to be agitated and twisted in any direction: but others he made broad, and equal, and round on one side, and in these locations specifically where it was only necessary for limbs to curve, as in the knees and in the elbows, and in the hands themselves. For just as it was both beautiful and useful for the hand to be moved in every direction from the place whence it arises, so surely, if this same thing happened to the elbows, such movement would be both superfluous and unsightly.

For if the hand lost the dignity it now possesses, it would seem similar to a proboscis due to excessive mobility, C and the human would be clearly anguimanus snake-handed: a type which in that

VARIOUS NOTES.

and all manuscript codices, except for one recent Colbertine [manuscript], in which, just as in the common versions, there is "erent": which is the same. To produce in the same sense, "producere," "perducere," in Terence. Nor do I doubt that this is the reading of Lactantius. To produce in the same sense, Columella. For who would have substituted "perducerent" for the scribe's "producerent," a word known to all?
"ac feris" [and wild beasts]. These are missing in the Bov. manuscript.
"ad faciendum temperandumque" [for making and tempering]. The true reading of Lactantius, in my opinion, which is in the manuscripts Reg., Cauc., Goth., 3 Colb., Nav., Vict., and manuscript 1 Brun. and the Roman editions of 1470, 1474, and Beroaldus; among manuscripts 1 Colb. and Marm., in which is "temperandumque," with "sed ad faciendum" omitted. The Roman edition of 1468 has "separandumque" for "temperandumque"; which many scribes, not understanding the true word, substituted with "operandumque," as 2 Bon., 2 Reg., 2 Colb., Tax., Bold., Clar., Baluz., 1 Brun., which is the same. But some other editors wish for "ad faciendum operandumque"? As if to "do" and not to "work" were the same.
"majoribus et brevibus ossibus" [with larger and shorter bones]. Manuscripts Brun. and the editions have "majoribus et brevioribus ossibus" [with larger and shorter bones].
"viscera" [vital parts]. Manuscripts 1 Bonon., 2 Reg., 2 Colbert., Baluz. have "viscera." The others with all the editions, as in our text.
"cratis" [cage/lattice]. Virgil, Aeneid 12, verse 508: "The sword pierces the ribs and the cage of the chest." Ovid, Metamorphoses Book 8, verse 806: "The chest and only held by the cage of the spine." Metamorphoses verse 370: "Which (the spear) broke through the cage of the sides." Bun.
"faciendi" [of making]. Added from all manuscripts and 14 editions: but in Thys. and Gall. it is missing.

Missing in the editions of Thys. and Gall.
"finivit" [finished]. In the Bov. manuscript, "finirent."
"informavit" [formed]. I restored this from all the older editions and manuscripts, except for 2 Colb. recent [manuscripts], in which is "reformavit," and one Reg. also recent, in which, just as in the common recent ones, there is "formavit," which is the same. For Lactantius often uses compound words for simple ones, and simple for compound: which later [editors], wishing to amend, changed incorrectly. — "Informavit." He used the compound skillfully for the simple, as in chapter 8: "God did not wish to form (the ears) too softly with skin"; chapter 12: "Both coagulated to be formed"; chapter 19, "formation of the body." Bun.
"curvari membra oportebat" [it was necessary for the limbs to be curved]. Ven. 1472 and both 78, 95, 97, Pier., Parrh., Paris., incorrectly insert "curvari membra in omnes partes oportebat," awkwardly repeated from the previous section, which "tantummodo" [only] opposes. Bun.
"Ex eo loco unde oriuntur ubique, etc." [From the place whence they arise, everywhere, etc.]. Thus I restored it from the older editions and very many manuscripts. Five others and the common recent ones omit "eo," and after "oriuntur" add "a corpore" [from the body]: which is superfluous.
"proboscidi similis videretur" [would seem similar to a proboscis]. The proboscis is the hand of the elephant, by which it is said to move aside anything encountered: which, since it is flexible like a snake, Lucretius, in books 2 and 5, called the elephant "anguimanus." Cicero speaks of the same in 2 "On the Nature of the Gods," and Aristotle, book 2 "On the Parts of Animals," chapter 16, Isidore book 12, chapter 2. The snout of the elephant is called the "promuscis," by which it moves food to its mouth, and is like a snake. Rittershusius. — Seven manuscripts have "proboscidis similis"; eight with the Roman edition of 1470, "promuscidis"; 2 Reg. recent and Marm., "promoscidis."
"Anguimanus" [snake-handed]. He notes Lucretius, who calls the elephant "anguimanus" in book 2, because the proboscis, like a snake, is twisted in all directions.