Etymologies & Works 15

ON BUILDINGS AND FIELDS. I. ON CITIES. Concerning the founders of the cities that were established, disagreement is for the most part found, so much so that not even the origin of the city of Rome itself can be accurately known. For Sallust says (Catiline 6): 'The city of Rome, as I have received it, was founded and inhabited in the beginning by the Trojans and, together with them, by the Aborigines.' Others say it was founded by Evander, according to which Virgil writes (Aeneid 8:313): Then king Evander, founder of the Roman citadel. Others say by Romulus, as (Virgil, Aeneid 6:781): Behold, my son, under his auspices that renowned Rome. If, therefore, no certain account appears for so great a city, it is no wonder if there is doubt in the opinion held about others. Whence we ought not ignorantly to condemn either historians or commentators for saying various things, because antiquity itself created the error.

Certainly, concerning some cities whose sure origin either the holy Scriptures or the histories of the nations report, it is fitting to recount them in very few words. Before the Flood, Cain first founded the city of Enoch in Naid, named after his son, and he filled that city with the sheer multitude of his own posterity. After the Flood, the giant Nembroth (Nimrod) first founded the city of Babylon in Mesopotamia. Semiramis, queen of the Assyrians, enlarged it, and built the wall of the city with bitumen and baked brick. It took its name from confusion, because there the tongues of those building the tower were confounded and mingled.

The Jews assert that Shem, son of Noah, whom they call Melchizedek, first after the Flood founded in Syria the city of Salem, in which was the kingdom of that same Melchizedek. Afterwards the Jebusites held it, from whom it also drew the name Jebus; and thus, with the two names joined, Jebus and Salem, it was called Jerusalem, which afterwards was called by Solomon Hierosolyma, as if Hierosolomonia. This too was corruptly named Solyma by the poets, and later was called Aelia by Aelius Hadrianus. This same is also Sion, which in Hebrew is interpreted 'watch-tower' (or 'looking out'), because it was built on a height and looks out upon things coming from afar. But Jerusalem is rendered 'peaceful' in our speech.

Dionysus, who is also Father Liber, when as victor he had traversed India, founded the city of Nysa after his own name beside the river Indus, and filled it with fifty thousand men. But Medus, son of Aegeus, built Media; whence also his region obtained the name Media. Perseus, son of Adeas, founded Persepolis, the capital city of the Persian kingdom, most famous and most crowded with wealth; from whom Persia too was named. The Parthians also founded Ctesiphon in Parthia in rivalry with the city of Babylon. They say that the brother of Memnon established Susa, a town of Persia. And it was called Susa because it overlooks the river Susa.

There is the royal palace of Cyrus, adorned with white and variegated stone, with golden columns and coffered ceilings and gems, containing also an image of the heavens marked out with glittering stars, and other things incredible to human minds. The Bactrians founded the town of Bactrum, naming it after their own river, which is called Bactros. Carra (Carrhae), a city of Mesopotamia beyond Edessa, was founded by the Parthians, where once a Roman army was cut down and the general Crassus was captured. Nembroth (Nimrod), son of Chus (Cush), founded the city of Edessa in Mesopotamia after he had migrated from Babylon, and reigned in it; it was formerly named Arach. He also built Chalanne, which afterwards, with its name changed, was called Seleucia by King Seleucus.

Raphaim (the Rephaim), a most ancient people whom the sons of Lot destroyed, founded the city of Philadelphia in Arabia. Seleucus, one of the successors of Alexander, after the death of that same Alexander, when he had seized the kingdom of the East, founded a city in Syria, and named it Antioch after the name of his father Antiochus, and made it the capital of Syria. He also built Laodicea and Seleucia, he also Apamea and the city of Edessa. Damascus of Syria was founded and named after Damascus, the son of Abraham's steward. This city formerly held the primacy in all Syria; for Antioch, Laodicea, and Apamea were not yet flourishing there, which cities we know were built after Alexander.

This is the Damascus (Eliezer) whom Abraham had said would be his heir, before Isaac was promised to him. The Hivites founded the town of Gaza in Palestine, in which the Cappadocians dwelt after the former inhabitants had been slain. And it was called Gaza because there Cambyses, king of the Persians, deposited his treasures when he had made war upon the Egyptians; for in the Persian tongue a treasure is called 'gaza.' The Allophyli (foreigners, i.e. Philistines) founded the city of Philistim; this is Ascalon, of which we made mention above, named after Cesloim (Casluhim), who was the grandson of Ham and the son of Mesraim (Mizraim). Dor was once a most powerful city; and in turn it was the Tower of Strato, afterwards named Caesarea by Herod, king of Judaea, in honour of Caesar Augustus.

In this city the Church of Christ has seen the house of Cornelius, and the little dwellings of Philip, and the chamber of the four prophetesses, the virgins. The same Palestinians built Joppa, a maritime town of Palestine; where a rock is shown that still retains the marks of the chains of Andromeda; the form of that sea-monster was larger than elephants. Jericho is reported to have been founded by the Jebusites, from whom it is said also to have taken its name. Joshua (Jesus son of Nave) overthrew this. After it, he built another, Oza of Bethel, from the tribe of Ephraim. But this too, at the time when Jerusalem was being besieged by the Romans, was captured and destroyed on account of the treachery of its citizens; and on account of this a third city was built, which remains even today.

Emor (Hamor) built Shechem, a city of Samaria, which in Latin and Greek is called Sichima, and he named it by the name of his son Shechem. This is now Neapolis, the city of the Samaritans. The Jebusites founded Bethel, a city of Samaria, which was formerly called Luza; but after Jacob, sleeping there, saw a ladder resting upon heaven and said (Gen. 28:17), 'Truly this is the house of God and the gate of heaven,' for this reason the place received the name Bethel, that is, house of God. But when the golden calves were fashioned there by Jeroboam, it was called Bethaven, that is, house of the idol, which was formerly called house of God. Bethlehem of Judah, the city of David, which brought forth the Saviour of the world, is said to have been founded by the Jebusites and first named Ephrata.

But when Jacob pastured his flocks there, he imposed on that same place the name Bethlehem by a certain prophecy of the future, which is interpreted 'house of bread,' on account of that bread which there came down from heaven. Hebron, a city of Judaea, which was once called Arbe, was founded by the giants seven years before the city of Tanis in Egypt was founded by them. This same is Arbe, so called from the number, because there three patriarchs are buried and Adam as a fourth. This same is also called Mambre, after one friend of Abraham. Samaria, from which the whole region that was around it received its name, was built by Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, and he called it Samaria, that is, 'guard-post,' because, when he transferred Israel into Media, he set guards there.

Antiochus, having captured it by siege, levelled it with the ground. Herod afterwards, restoring it from its foundations, called it Augusta in honour of Augustus, that is, Sebastia in the Greek tongue. There are buried the prophets Elisha and Obadiah, and John the Baptist, than whom among those born of women none was greater. But another Herod founded Tiberias in Judaea in the name of Tiberius Caesar. Tyre, a city of the Phoenicians, was founded by the Phoenicians. This is the city from which gold was brought to King Solomon; in which the finest purple is dyed: whence the noble purple is also called Tyrian. The Phoenicians, having set out from the Red Sea, founded the most opulent city of Sidon, which they called Sidon from the abundance of fish. For the Phoenicians call a fish 'sidon.'

They themselves also founded Tyre in Syria, they Utica in Africa, Hippo, Leptis, and other cities on the sea coast. They founded Thebes in Boeotia under the leadership of Cadmus; they at last, extending to the farthest parts of the world, built a city on the Ocean, and named it in their own tongue Gades. For it was the ancient custom of the Phoenician people to set out from home in great numbers together for the sake of trading, and, when they had won over the hearts of the inhabitants by the commerce of things previously unknown to them, to seize places that seemed suitable for founding cities. From these Dido also set out and founded a city on the shore of Africa, and named it Carthada, which in the Phoenician tongue expresses 'new city'; presently, with the word changed, it was called Carthage: this Scipio destroyed.

But the one that now exists was afterwards founded by the Romans. Now Carthage was formerly called Byrsa, then Tyrus, and afterwards Carthage. Epaphus, son of Jupiter, built Memphis, a city of Egypt, when he was reigning in the second Egypt. This is the city where papyrus grows, where also the best mathematicians (astronomers) were. For the traces of ancient error, right up to the present time, show this city to have been given over to magical arts. Tanis, the metropolis of Egypt, where Pharaoh was, and Moses performed all the signs which are written in Exodus. The Titans, that is, the giants, are reported to have built this city, and named it after their own name. Heliopolis, a city of Egypt, which is interpreted in Latin 'city of the sun,' as the seventy translators (the Septuagint) judge.

It was built by the sons of Israel, in which Potiphar was a priest, whom Ezekiel mentions. Alexander the Great founded the city of Alexandria, which also retains his name. For he established it on the borders of Africa and Egypt, and ordered it to be the capital of the region of Egypt. It lies between Egypt and the sea, like a barrier, without a harbour. This is the Egyptian city Noo (No), afterwards changed into Alexandria. Cadmus founded Egyptian Thebes, which among the Egyptian cities is held more noble for its number of gates, to which the Arabs bring merchandise from every side. Hence the Egyptian region was called Thebaica. But there are Thebes both of Boeotia and of Egypt, yet founded by one and the same author.

Ptolemais and Berenice were named by the Egyptian kings, by whom they were also built. Perseus, offspring of Danae, built Caesarea of Cappadocia and Tarsus of Cilicia. From this city was the Apostle Paul (Acts 22:3): 'Born,' he says, 'in Tarsus of Cilicia.' There is also a certain place in India called Tarsus. Seleucus, who founded Antioch too, founded Seleucia of Isauria. But Ilus, son of Apollo, founded Ilium in Phrygia. The Amazons built Ephesus in Asia. But Theseus built Smyrna, which was the fatherland of the poet Homer; and it was called Smyrna because the river Hermus cuts through its plains. Amphitus and Cercius, the charioteers of Castor and Pollux, built Dioscorias, a city of the Colchians, naming it after their own name;

for Castor and Pollux are called in Greek Dioskouroi. Nicomedia was built by Nicomedes, king of Bithynia. Bithynia was founded by Phoenix, and was at first called Mariandyna. Constantine established the city of Constantinople in Thrace after his own name, the only city made equal to Rome in merits and power. It was first founded by Pausanias, king of the Spartans, and called Byzantium, either because it lies open so widely between the Adriatic Sea and the Propontis, or because it is a receptacle for the resources of land and sea. Whence Constantine judged it most fit to found, so that it might become a receptacle for himself by land and sea. Whence now it is the seat of the Roman empire and the capital of the whole East, just as Rome is of the West.

Epirus, a city of Thrace, was founded by Pyrrhus and named after him. Cecrops founded Athens in Hellas, and named it Cecropia after his own name. Amphictyon, the same who reigned third in Greece after Cecrops, dedicated it to Minerva and gave the city the name Athens; for Minerva is called Athene in Greek. Whence the Greeks also assert that Minerva is the inventress of many arts, because both letters and the arts of diverse studies and philosophy itself had Athens as, so to speak, their temple. Corinthus, son of Orestes, founded Corinth in Achaia. The Greeks call it Corinthea, that is, the administration of the commonwealth. Cadmus, coming from the Phoenicians, founded Thebes of Boeotia, Egyptian Thebes having first been built by him.

Mycenae, a city of Greece. Lacedaemon was founded by Lacedaemon, son of Semele. Sparta was named after Spartus, son of Phoroneus, who was the son of Inachus. And this same Sparta is that city which is also called Lacedaemonia, and hence the Lacedaemonians are called Spartans. Achaia was built by Achaeus: Pelops, who reigned at Argos, founded the city of Peloponnesus: Cecrops built Rhodus on the island of Rhodes: Carpathus built Cos: Aeos, son of Typhon, built Paphos: Angeus, son of Lycurgus, built Samos: but Dardanus founded Dardania: Thessalus, son of the Greek, built Thessalonica, in which he also reigned. The Greeks built Brundisium: and Brundisium was so called in Greek because 'brunda' means a stag's head:

for it is so, in that both the horns and the head and the tongue seem to appear in the layout of that very city. But in Italy, Janiculum was founded from Janus, and Saturnia and Latium from Saturn, the latter so named because he had hidden there in flight (latuisset). By Hercules, Pompeia in Campania was founded, who as victor had led a procession (pompa) of oxen from Spain. But Aeneas, coming into that same Italy after the destruction of Troy, founded Lavinium from the name of his wife. And Ascanius, having left the kingdom of Lavinia his stepmother, built Alba Longa. It was called Alba because of the colour of a sow; Longa, because it is a long town, following the length of the hill on which it is situated. From this city too the kings of the Albans began to be called.

Capys Silvius, king of the Albans, built Capua, named after the name of its founder; although there are those who say it was called Capua from its capacity (capacitas), because its land takes in (capiat) every fruit of life: others from the level places (campi) in which it is situated. It is the capital of the cities of Campania, reckoned among the three greatest, Rome and Carthage; from which too the province of Italy was called Campania. Romulus, when, after Amulius had been slain at Alba, he had restored his grandfather Numitor to the kingdom, came to the place where Rome now is, and there set his seat, built walls, and called the city Rome after his own name. But this city is said to have been founded earlier by Evander, as is that verse (Virgil, Aeneid 8:313): Then father Evander, founder of the Roman citadel.

Ancus Marcius, born of the daughter of Numa Pompilius: he founded a city at the mouth of the Tiber which might both receive foreign wares and delay the enemy, which he called Ostia from its very location. Certain Gauls, stirred by internal discord and constant dissensions of their own people, seeking new dwellings, set out for Italy, and having expelled the Tuscans from their own dwellings, founded Milan and other cities. And it was called Mediolanum (Milan) from the fact that a sow woolly in the middle (medio lanea) is reported to have been found there. It pleases the historians that Messapia derived its origin from the Greek Messapus, afterwards changed into the name Calabria, which at the outset the brother of Oenotrus, Peucetius, had named Peucetia.

Manto, daughter of Tiresias, after the destruction of the Thebans, is said to have been carried into Italy and to have founded Mantua: it is in Venetia, which is called Cisalpine Gaul: and it was called Mantua because it watches over the shades of the dead (manes tuetur). Parthenopea was called Parthenope from a certain virgin Parthenope buried there; which town Augustus afterwards preferred to be Neapolis. At the promontory of Leucate, on which there was a temple of Actian Apollo, Augustus waged war against Antony. When he had conquered him, he founded a city in the Actian bay, which he called Nicopolis from his victory. Phalantus, leader of the Parthenii, established the Parthenii. Taras was a son of Neptune, from whom the city Tarentum was both founded and named.

When Cyrus was occupying the maritime cities of Greece, and the Phocaeans, defeated by him, were being pressed by every hardship, they swore that they would flee as far as possible from the empire of the Persians, where they would not even hear their name; and so, having set out by ship into the farthest bays of Gaul, and defending themselves with arms against Gallic fierceness, they founded Massilia and named it after the name of their leader. Varro says these people are trilingual, because they speak both Greek and Latin and Gallic. Their own colonists founded Narbonne and Arles and Poitiers. They say Burdigala (Bordeaux) was so called because it first had the Burgi as Gallic colonists, by which cultivators it was previously filled. The Scipios built Tarraco in Spain;

therefore it is the capital of the province of Tarraconensis. Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza), a town of Tarraconensian Spain, was both sited and named by Caesar Augustus, more excellent than all the cities of Spain for the pleasantness and delights of its location, and more illustrious, flourishing with the burials of holy martyrs. The Africans under Hannibal, occupying the maritime regions of Spain, built Carthago Spartaria (New Carthage), which, soon captured by the Romans and made a colony, also gave its name to the province. But now it has been overthrown by the Goths and reduced to desolation. The Greeks, having set out from the island of Zacynthus, founded Saguntum in Spain; which the Africans afterwards, having assailed it in war, destroyed.

Caesar Augustus built Emerita (Merida) after he had taken Lusitania and certain islands of the Ocean, giving it a name from the fact that he had settled veteran soldiers there. For veterans, discharged from military service, are called emeriti. Olisipo (Lisbon) was founded and named by Ulysses; in which place, as the historians say, the sky is distinguished from the earth and the seas from the lands. Julius Caesar founded Hispalis (Seville), which he named Julia Romula from his own name and that of the city of Rome. And Hispalis was named from its site, because it was placed on marshy ground upon piles fixed deep down, lest it should give way on a slippery and unstable foundation. The town of Gades (Cadiz) was founded by the Carthaginians, who also founded Carthago Spartaria.

Septe (Ceuta) is a town named from seven mountains, which from their resemblance are called the Brothers and overhang the strait of Gades. Antaeus is the founder of the city of Tingis (Tangier) and of Lix, whom Hercules is said to have slain, having overcome him in a wrestling contest. And Lix was named from the river Lixus of Mauretania, where the palace of Antaeus was, and Sala, because it overhangs the river Sala. Juba, king of the Moors, founded Caesarea, a town of Mauretania, in honour of Caesar Augustus, which he named Caesarea after his name; just as Herod founded another Caesarea in Palestine, which is now a most renowned city. Icosium, a town of Caesariensian Mauretania, was built by twenty men separating from the company of Hercules as he was passing there.

Lest anyone should privately boast of a name imposed by himself, the name was given to the city Icosium from the number of its founders. Cyrene was a queen of Libya who founded the city Cyrene after her own name, from which she also called it Cyrenensian Libya. II. ON PUBLIC BUILDINGS. A city (civitas) is a multitude of men united by a bond of society, called from the citizens (cives), that is, from the very inhabitants of the town, because it takes in and holds together the lives (vitae) of many. For the town (urbs) itself is the walls, but a city (civitas) means not the stones but the inhabitants. There are three societies: of families, of towns, of peoples. A town (urbs) is called from a circle (orbis), because ancient cities were made in a circle; or from urbum, a part of the plough, by which the walls were marked out; whence is that verse (Virgil, Aeneid 3:109; 1:425):

'And he chose a place for the kingdom and to enclose it with a furrow.' For the site of a future city was marked out by a furrow, that is, by a plough. Cato says (Origins 1:18): 'He who founds a new city ploughs with a bull and a cow; where he has ploughed, he makes the wall; where he wishes a gate to be, he lifts up the plough and carries it, and calls it a gate (porta).' And for this reason a city was surrounded by a plough, with yokes of oxen of unlike sex, on account of the mingling of families, and as an image of one who sows and renders fruit. A city (urbs) is founded with a plough, and is overturned with a plough. Whence Horace (Odes 1:16:20): 'And should drive the hostile plough over the walls.' Some have said 'town' (oppidum) is from the opposition (oppositio) of walls; others from the storing up of resources (opes), because it is fortified; others because in it the assembly of inhabitants gives itself mutual aid (opem) against the enemy.

For at first men, being as it were naked and unarmed, had neither defences against wild beasts, nor refuges from cold and heat, nor were men themselves sufficiently safe among themselves from other men. At length, by natural ingenuity, in caves and woodland coverings, they wove together huts and cottages for themselves out of shrubs and reeds, so that life might be safer, lest there be an approach for those who could do harm. This is the origin of towns (oppida), which, because they gave aid (opem), were for that reason called towns (oppida). But a town (oppidum) differs from a village (vicus), a fort (castellum), and a district (pagus) in magnitude and walls. Now settlements are called either cities, or colonies, or municipia, or villages, or forts, or districts. A city (civitas) is properly so called which not newcomers, but men born in the same soil, have founded.

And therefore towns founded by their own citizens are called cities (civitates), not colonies. But a colony is one that, from a lack of native inhabitants, is filled up with new cultivators. Whence too a colony is named from the cultivation (cultus) of the field. A municipium is one which, while the status of the city remains, obtains from the emperor some right of a lesser or greater office. And a municipium is named from munia, that is, duties, because they render only munia, that is, tributes owed or gifts. For liberal and most celebrated cases, and those that proceed from the emperor, are not conducted there. For these pertain to the dignity of cities.

Villages (vici), forts (castella), and districts (pagi) are those which are adorned with no dignity of a city, but are inhabited by a common assembly of men, and on account of their smallness are assigned to greater cities. A village (vicus) is named only from the dwellings themselves, or because it has only streets (viae) without walls. For it is without the fortification of walls; although the dwellings of a city too are called vici. And a village is called vicus because it is in place of (vice) a city, or because it has only streets without walls. The ancients used to call a fortress (castrum) a town situated in a very high place, as it were a high dwelling (casa alta); the plural of this is castra, and the diminutive is castellum, either that, or because the license of those dwelling therein was restrained (castrabatur), lest, wandering everywhere, it should lie open to the enemy.

Districts (pagi) are places suited for buildings among the fields for those dwelling there. These are also called conciliabula, from the gathering and society of many into one. Compita are where it was customary for assemblies of country folk to be held; and they are called compita because many places in the fields meet (competant) at the same point; and where country folk come together. Suburbs (suburbana) are the buildings lying around a city, as it were under the city (sub urbe). Ramparts (moenia) are the walls of a city, so called because they fortify (muniant) the city, as it were the fortifications (munimenta) of the town, that is, its safeguards. And munium is named as it were 'made by hand' (manu factum): so too munus. Walls (muri) are named from fortification (munitio), as it were to be fortified (muniri), because they fortify and protect the interior of the town. But moenia have a twofold meaning; for sometimes moenia are loosely used for all the public buildings of a city, as (Virgil,

Aeneid 2:234): 'We breach the walls, and lay open the ramparts (moenia) of the city'; but properly moenia are only the walls. Now a wall is adorned with towers and battlements. Towers (turres) are so called because they are rounded (teretes) and long; for teres is something round together with height, like a column. For even though they are built square or broad, yet to those seeing them from a distance they are reckoned round; and this is because every image of any angle vanishes and is consumed through the long expanse of air, and appears round. Battlements (propugnacula) are the merlons of walls, so called because from them one fights out (propugnatur). A promurale (outer wall) is so called because it is in place of the fortification of the wall (pro munitione muri). For it is a wall nearest before the wall. A gate (porta) is so called because through it something can be either carried in (importari) or carried out (exportari).

And properly it is called the gate either of a city or of a camp, as was said above. A vicus, as was said before, is the dwellings themselves of a city; whence too neighbours (vicini) are named. Streets (viae) are the very narrow spaces which are between the vici. Broad streets (plateae) are the continuous and wider streets of cities, named according to the property of the Greek tongue from their breadth; for the Greeks call broad 'platus.' The quintana is a fifth part of a broad street, by which a wagon (carpentum) can proceed. Sewers (cloacae) are so called because through them the waters are strained off (percolantur). Tarquinius Priscus is said to have first made these at Rome, so that, as often as a flooding of rains occurred, the waters might be sent out beyond the city through them, lest, in very great and continual storms, the ravage of waters should overturn the plain or the foundations of the cities.

Imboli (arcades) are so called either because they are vaultings underneath, or because people walk beneath them. For they are the porticoes on either side of the broad streets. The forum (forus) is a place for the conducting of lawsuits, named from speaking (fando) [or from King Phoroneus, who first gave law to the Greeks]. These places are also called prorostra, for the reason that from the Punic War, when the ships of the Carthaginians were captured, their beaks (rostra) were taken off and fixed up in the Roman forum, that there might be this token of that victory. The senate-house (curia) is so called because there care (cura) concerning all matters is administered through the senate. The praetorium is so called because there the praetor sits to examine cases. A gymnasium is a general place of exercises. Yet at Athens there was a place where philosophy was taught and the pursuit of wisdom was practised;

for it is called gymnasion in Greek, which in Latin is called 'exercise' (exercitium), that is, meditation (meditatio). But baths too, and places of runners and athletes, are gymnasia, because there men exercise themselves in the pursuit of their own art. The Capitol at Rome was so called because it was the supreme head (caput) of the city of Rome and of its religion. Others say that when Tarquinius Priscus was opening the foundations of the Capitol at Rome, he found in the place of the foundation the head (caput) of a man marked with Etruscan letters, and therefore called it the Capitol. Citadels (arces) are the lofty and fortified parts of a city. For whatever things of cities are safest are called citadels (arces) from warding off (arcere) the enemy. Whence too come bow (arcus) and chest (arca). The Romans think the Circus is so called from the circuit (circuitus) of horses, because there the horses run around (circum) the turning-posts.

The theatre (theatrum) is named from spectacle, from theoria, because in it the people, standing above and watching, would contemplate the scenic games. But the amphitheatre is so called because it is composed of two theatres. For the amphitheatre is round, but the theatre is half of an amphitheatre, having the figure of a semicircle. A labyrinth is a building with intricate walls, such as the one made at Crete by Daedalus, where the Minotaur was shut up; into which if anyone enters without a ball of thread, he is not able to find the way out. The layout of this building is such that to those opening the doors a terrible thunder is heard within: one descends by more than a hundred steps;

Within are images and monstrous figures, and countless passages leading off in different directions through the darkness, and other things devised to bewilder those who enter, so that it seems impossible to come out of its darkness into the light. There are four labyrinths: the first Egyptian, the second Cretan, the third on Lemnos, the fourth in Italy; all so constructed that not even the ages themselves can dissolve them. The lighthouse (farus) is a very great tower which the Greeks and Latins alike named 'farus' from the use of the thing itself, because by a signal of flames it is seen from afar by seafarers; such a one Ptolemy is said to have built near Alexandria at the cost of eight hundred talents.

Its use is to display fires during the night-course of ships, to announce shoals and the entrances of harbours, lest seafarers, deceived by the darkness, run upon the rocks; for Alexandria, with its treacherous shoals, has perilous approaches. Hence, then, the structures built in harbours for the service of shining ahead are called 'pharos.' For 'phos' means light, and 'opos' means sight. Whence also the Morning Star is in Greek called 'phosphoros.' Spiral stairs (cocleae) are lofty round towers; and they are called 'cocleae' as though 'cycleae,' because in them one ascends as though along a circle and orbit; such a one is at Rome, of a hundred and seventy-five feet. Hot baths (thermae) are so called because they are warm; for the Greeks call heat 'thermon.' To the baths (balnea) the name was given from the lifting of grief;

for the Greeks said 'balaneion,' because it takes away the anxiety of the mind. These are also called gymnasia (gymnasia), because there the athletes exercise with the body anointed and rubbed down by hand; for 'gymnasion' in Greek is called 'exercise' in Latin. The undressing-room (apodyterium), where the garments of the bathers are laid, is so called from stripping off; for 'apoduein' in Greek means to strip off. 'Propina' is a Greek word, which among us is corruptly called 'popina': it is the place beside the public baths, where after the bath men are refreshed from hunger and thirst. Whence too come 'propina' and 'to drink one's health' (propinare). For 'peina' in Greek signifies hunger, because this place takes away hunger. Taverns (tabernae) were formerly the name for the small and simple dwellings of the common folk in the streets, closed with boards and planks;

whence too come the 'tavern-keepers' (tabernariae), because they were accustomed to sit there. And they were called 'tabernae' because they were built of boards (tabulae) and timbers, structures which now, even if not in appearance, yet retain their former name. The meat-market (macellum) is so called because there the cattle that are sold to buyers are slaughtered (mactentur). The market (mercatum) is named from commerce (commercium). For there it is customary to sell or buy goods; just as the place where the dues of ships and the profits of sailors are paid is called the toll-house (teloneum). For there the collector of the tax sits, about to set a price on the goods, and demanding it aloud from the merchants. The prison (carcer) is that from which we are prevented from going out, and 'carcer' is so called from restraining (coercendo). [Hence Fronto: 'And they seemed rather to revel in pleasant places than to be confined in prison.'] III. ON DWELLINGS.

A dwelling (habitatio) is named from having (habendo), as in 'to dwell in cottages' (Virgil, Eclogues 2,29). The house (domus) is named from the Greek appellation; for the Greeks call roofs 'domata.' Now a house is the dwelling of one family, just as a city is that of one people, and just as the world is the dwelling-place of the whole human race. Every building the ancients called 'aedes.' Others suppose that 'aedes' took its name from eating something (edendo), giving the example from Plautus (Poenulus 529): 'If I had invited you into the house for lunch.' Hence too 'building' (aedificium), because it was first made for eating. The hall (aula) is a royal house, or a spacious dwelling enclosed by four porticoes. The atrium (atrium) is a great edifice, or a rather ample and spacious house; and it is called 'atrium' because three porticoes are added to it on the outside.

Others said that the atrium was 'atrum' (black) as it were from fire and lamp; for it becomes blackened (atrum) from smoke. The palace (palatium) is named from Pallas, prince of the Arcadians, in whose honour the Arcadians built the town of Pallanteum, and, founding a royal residence under his name, called it 'Palatium.' The bridal chamber (thalamus) they say was so named for this reason. When the Sabine women had been carried off by the Romans, and among them one, noble in beauty beyond the rest, was being seized amid the great admiration of all, it was answered by an oracle that she should be given to the leader Thalamon; and since this marriage had turned out happily, it was established that in all marriages the name of the bridal chamber (thalamus) should be repeated. The Egyptians too, in their own language, name 'thalamus' the places into which the newlyweds enter and lie down. The dining-room (coenaculum) is named from the fellowship of eating (communione vescendi);

whence too comes 'coenobium,' a congregation. For the ancients ate publicly and in common, and no one had a private banquet, lest in secret indulgences should breed extravagance. The triclinium (triclinium) is a dining-room, so called from the three couches (tres lectuli) of those reclining. For among the ancients, in the place where the provision for the banquet was set out, three couches were spread, on which those reclining feasted. For 'kline' in Greek means a couch or reclining-place, from which it came about that it was called 'triclinium.' A cell (cella) is so called because it conceals and hides (celat) us. But the bedchamber (cubiculum), because we lie down (cubamus) in it and there rest while sleeping. And a resting-place (cubile) is a place for lying down (cubandi). A retreat (secessus), because it is a secluded place, that is, without access. A lodging (diversorium) is so called because there people gather from different (diversis) roads.

A guest-lodging (hospitium) is a Greek word, where one dwells for a time by the right of hospitality, and again passing thence departs. Hence too 'metatum' (billet), because it is changed (mutatur). Whence one also reads: 'they encamped' (castra metati sunt), for 'they changed'; for the army does not remain there, but passes through. Moenius, colleague of Crassus, threw out beams in the forum, so that there might be places on which spectators could stand, which from his name were called 'Moeniana' (balconies). These are also called 'solaria,' because they lie open to the sun (soli). After these some built balconies of stone, others of timber, and added them to the porticoes, and to doors and houses. Storeys (tabulata) were formerly made of wooden houses. Thence the name of 'tabulata' (flooring) remains. An underground chamber (hypogeum) is a building constructed beneath the earth, which we call a cave (antrum) or cavern (spelunca).

A sun-terrace (solarium), because it lies open to the sun and the breezes—such was the place from which David beheld Bathsheba bathing and fell in love with her. When Antiochus was besieging Jerusalem, Hyrcanus, prince of the Jews, having opened the tomb of David, took thence three thousand talents of gold, of which he gave three hundred to Antiochus, that he might abandon the siege; and, to remove the odium of the deed, he is said to have been the first to establish, out of the remaining money, hospices (xenodochia), in which he might receive the arrival of the poor and of strangers; whence it took its name. For from Greek into Latin 'xenodocheion' is called 'the reception of strangers.' But the place where the sick are gathered from the streets is called in Greek 'nosokomeion' (hospital); in which the limbs of the wretched, worn away by sicknesses and want, are cherished. IV.

ON SACRED BUILDINGS. Sacred (sacra) are places set apart for divine worship, inasmuch as they are those in which altars are consecrated by the pontiffs offering sacrifice according to custom. According to the ancients, the 'holy' (sancta) are the outer parts of the temple. But the Holy of Holies (sancta sanctorum) is the more secret place of the temple, to which there was access for none but the priest alone. And it is called the Holy of Holies because they are holier than the outer shrine, or because they are holier in comparison with the holy things; just as the Song of Songs, because it surpasses all songs. Now the holy (sanctum) is named from the blood of the victim; for among the ancients nothing was called holy unless it had been consecrated or sprinkled with the blood of a victim. Likewise 'holy' (sanctum), because it stands ratified (sancitum).

For 'to ratify' (sancire) is to confirm and to defend from injury by the imposition of a penalty; thus laws too are said to be 'holy' (sanctae) and walls 'inviolable' (sancti). The mercy-seat (propitiatorium) [is as it were the oratory of propitiation; for propitiation is appeasement]. Oracles (oracula) are so called because from them responses are given; and 'oracula' is from the mouth (ore). Inner sanctuaries (penetralia) are the secret parts of the oracles; and they are called 'penetralia' from that which is 'deep within' (penitus), that is, 'almost within' (pene intus). An oratory (oratorium) is consecrated to prayer alone, in which no one ought to do anything except that for which it was made; whence too it received its name. A monastery (monasterium) is the dwelling of a single monk. For 'monos' among the Greeks means alone, and 'sterion' a station; that is, the dwelling of a solitary. A cenobium (coenobium) seems to be composed of Greek and Latin.

For it is the dwelling of many living in common; for 'koinon' in Greek means 'common.' The name 'temple' (templum) is general; for the ancients called any great places 'temples': and 'temples' are so called as though 'ample roofs' (tecta ampla). But also a place marked out toward the east was called a 'temple' from contemplation (contemplatione). Its four parts were: the front (antica) toward the sunrise, the back (postica) toward the sunset, the left (sinistra) toward the north, the right (dextra) looking toward the south. Whence too, when they built a temple, they faced the equinoctial east, so that lines drawn from the sunrise to the sunset made the parts of the sky on right and left equal; so that whoever consulted and prayed might look straight toward the east.

Shrines (fana) are named from the Fauns, for whom the error of the heathen built temples, that from them those consulting might hear the responses of demons. The ancients called 'delubra' the temples that had springs, in which men washed before entering; and they are called 'delubra' from washing (diluendo). These are now the churches with sacred fonts, in which the faithful, regenerated, are purified: and by a certain fitting presage they were called 'delubra'; for they serve for the washing away of sins. Now the font (fons) in the churches is the place of the regenerated, in which seven steps are formed in the mystery of the Holy Spirit; three in the descent and three in the ascent: but the seventh is that which is also the fourth, that is, 'like the Son of man,' quenching the furnace of fire, the stay of the feet, the foundation of the water;

in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. Basilicas (basilicae) were formerly the name for the dwellings of kings, whence too they have their name; for 'basileus' means king, and basilicas royal dwellings. But now the divine temples are called basilicas for this reason, because there worship and sacrifices are offered to God, the King of all. A martyrium (martyrium), the place of martyrs, by Greek derivation, because it is built in memory of a martyr, or because the sepulchres of the holy martyrs are there. Some have said that the altar (ara) is so called because there the burnt victims blaze (ardeant). Others say that 'arae' come from prayers, that is, those which the Greeks call 'arai'; whence, on the contrary, a curse is called 'katara.' Others would have 'arae' from height (altitudine), but wrongly. But the altar (altare) is agreed to be named from height (altitudine), as though a 'high altar' (alta ara).

The pulpit (pulpitum), because on it the reader or psalmist, being placed in public, can be seen by the people, so that he may be more freely heard. The tribunal (tribunal), because from it the precepts of living are dispensed (tribuantur) by the priest. For it is a place set on high, from which all can hear. Otherwise 'tribunal' is named from a tribe (tribu), because the tribe is summoned to it. The reading-desk (analogium) is so called because from it the discourse is preached; for 'logos' in Greek means discourse; which too is itself set higher up [so that the reader or psalmist placed on it can be seen in public by the people, that he may be more freely heard]. V. ON STOREROOMS. The sacristy (sacrarium) is properly the place of the temple in which the sacred things are stored; just as the treasury (donarium) is that in which the offered things are placed;

just as 'lectisternia' are so called where men have been accustomed to sit. Therefore from carrying in and bearing off the sacred things (sacra), the sacristy (sacrarium) is named. But the treasuries (donaria), because there are stored the gifts (dona) which they were accustomed to offer in the temples. The treasury (aerarium) is so called because formerly stamped bronze (aes) was stored there. For this was once in use before gold and silver had yet been stamped: and although money was afterwards made from these metals, yet the name of 'aerarium' remained from that metal from which money took its beginning. An armory (armarium) is the place where the instruments of any crafts whatever are placed. But the arsenal (armamentarium) is where only the weapons of arms are kept. Whence Juvenal (13,83): 'Whatever of weapons the arsenals of heaven hold.'

But both are named from arms (armis), that is, from the arms (brachiis) by which they are wielded. A library (bibliotheca) is the place where books are stored; for 'biblos' in Greek means book, and 'theke' a repository. The larder (promtuarium) is so called because from it the things necessary for sustenance are brought forth (promuntur), that is, produced. The storeroom (cellarium), because in it are gathered the furnishings of the tables, or whatever things necessary for sustenance are in surplus. But between the larder (promtuarium) and the storeroom (cellarium) there is this difference, that the storeroom is for a few days, while the larder is for a long time. But the granary (apotheca) or storehouses (horrea) can be called from the Greek, word for word, 'repositories' or 'places of storage,' because in these men store their worked-up crops. Whence too we call by the Greek name 'entheca' an abundant substance of a thing laid up. VI. ON WORKPLACES.

A workshop (ergasterium) is the place where some work is done. For in the Greek tongue 'erga' means works, and 'sterion' a station; that is, the workman's station. Workhouses (ergastula) too are themselves named from a Greek word, where the guilty are assigned to do some work; as gladiators and exiles are wont to be, who cut marble and are yet bound in the custody of chains. The women's quarters (gynaeceum) is so named in Greek because there the assembly of women gathers to carry on the work of wool-spinning. For a woman in Greek is called 'gyne.' The mill (pistrinum) is as it were 'pilistrinum,' because they formerly pounded the grain with a pestle (pilo). Whence too among the ancients they were called not 'millers' (molitores) but 'pounders' (pistores), as it were 'poundmen' (pinsores), from pounding (pinsendis) the grains of corn; for the use of the millstone did not yet exist, but they pounded the grain with a pestle. Whence too Virgil (Georg.

1,267) says: 'Now parch the grain with fire, now crush it with stone.' The oven (clibanus) [is named from a slope (clivo), because it is gathered up into an upright form; for we call a slope an ascent, or a winding one]. The furnace (furnum) is named by derivation from spelt (farre), because the bread made from it is baked there. The press (torcular) is so called because there the grapes are trodden and, being wrung out, are pressed. The treading-floor (forus) is the place where the grape is trodden, so called because the grape is carried (feratur) there, or because it is beaten (feriatur) with the feet there: whence too it is called 'calcatorium' (treading-vat). But this word signifies many things: the first kind of 'forus' is the place in the city left for holding markets; the second, where the magistrate is wont to give judgment; the third, that which we spoke of above, which we named the treading-vat.

The fourth, the level spaces in ships, of which Virgil (Aeneid 6,412): 'and he loosens the gangways (foros).' A vat (lacus) is so called because there the liquor of the fruits runs down. VII. ON APPROACHES. An approach (aditus) is named from going (eundo), through which we enter and are admitted. A forecourt (vestibulum) is either the approach of a private house, or the space adjoining public edifices. And 'vestibulum' is so called because by it the doors are clothed (vestiuntur), or because it clothes the approach with a roof, or from standing (stando). A portico (porticus), because it is more a passage than a place for standing, as it were a 'gate' (porta); and 'porticus,' because it is open (apertus). A door (ianua) is named from a certain Janus, to whom the heathen consecrated every entrance and exit. Whence Lucan (1,62): 'Let it restrain the iron thresholds of warlike Janus.' Now it is the first entrance of the house;

the rest, within the main door, are generally called 'ostia.' A doorway (ostium) is that by which we are barred by someone from entry, named from obstructing (ostando) [or 'ostium,' because it shows (ostendit) something within]. Others say it is called 'ostium' because it detains the enemy (ostem); for there we set ourselves against our adversaries: hence too Ostia on the Tiber, because they are set opposite the enemies (ostibus). Door-leaves (fores) and folding-doors (valvae) are barriers; but those are called 'fores' which open outward (foras), and 'valvae' those which roll inward (intus), and are double and foldable. But general usage has corrupted these words. Bars (claustra) are so called from being closed (claudantur). Windows (fenestrae) are those of which the outer part is narrow and the inner spread out, such as we see in granaries, so called because they lend (fenerent) light; for light in Greek is called 'phos';

or because through them a man placed within sees. Others think the window (fenestra) is so called because it ministers (ministret) light to the house, a name composed of Greek and Latin speech; for 'phos' in Greek is light. The hinge (cardo) is the place in which the door turns and is always moved, named 'apo tes kardias,' because, just as the heart governs the whole man, so that pivot governs and moves the door. Whence too the proverbial saying: 'The matter is on the hinge' (i.e., at the critical point). The thresholds (limina) of doorways are so called because they lie crosswise like a boundary (limes), and through them, as in a field, one either enters or goes out. Doorposts (postes) and jambs (antae) are as it were 'behind' (post) and 'before' (ante): and 'antae,' because they stand before (ante), or because we approach them before we enter the house; the posts (postes) because they stand behind (post) the door. VIII. ON THE PARTS OF BUILDINGS.

The foundation (fundamentum) is so called because it is the base (fundus) of the house. Likewise rubble-mortar (caementum) is named from cutting (caedendo), because it rises from cut, rough-hewn stone (caeso lapide). A wall (paries) is so named because there are always two that are equal (pares), whether on the side or on the front. For whether it be four-cornered or six-cornered, those that face each other will be of a pair (ex pari). For otherwise a structure made is misshapen. We call 'parietinae' as it were the ruins of walls: for they are walls standing without a roof, without inhabitants. An angle (angulus), because it joins two walls into one. Gable-tops (culmina) are so called because among the ancients roofs were covered with straw (culmo), as country folk do now. Hence the summit of a roof is called a 'culmen' (ridge). Vaults (camerae) are curved surfaces looking inward, named from the curve (curvo); for 'kamour' in Greek is 'curved.'

Panelled ceilings (laquearia) are those which cover and adorn the vault beneath, which are also called 'lacunaria.' But properly it is called 'lacus' (basin), as Lucilius (1290): 'The houses and the basins re-echo.' Its diminutive makes 'lacunar,' as Horace (Odes 2,18,1): 'Nor does a golden ceiling (lacunar) gleam in my house.' Thence comes another diminutive, 'lacunarium'; and by transposition of letters (antistichon) it makes 'laquearium.' The apse (absida) is a Greek word, in Latin rendered 'luminous' (lucida), because, receiving light, it shines back through the arch. But whether we ought to say 'absida' or 'absidem,' some of the learned reckon this kind of word ambiguous. The vault (testudo) is the curved ceiling of a temple. For the ancients made the roofs of temples in the manner of a tortoise-shell (testudo); and they were made thus so that it might reflect the image of the sky, which is agreed to be convex.

Others hold that the 'testudo' is a place in a part of the atrium facing those who come in. Arches (arcus) are so called because they are curved with a tight (arta) closure; these are also 'fornices' (vaults). Pavements (pavimenta) have their origin among the Greeks, wrought with the art of picture; mosaic floors (lithostrota) with little bits of stone and small cubes (tessellae) dyed in various colours. Now they are called 'pavimenta' because they are tamped down (paviantur), that is, beaten. Whence too 'fear' (pavor), because it beats the heart. An 'ostracus' is a pavement of tile, because it is beaten with broken tiles (fractis testis) mixed with lime; for the Greeks call tile 'ostra.' The 'compluvium' is so called because from the surrounding parts the waters gather there. Tesserae (tessellae) are those with which dwellings are floored, named from 'tesserae,' that is, square little stones, by diminutive.

Bases (bases) are the supports of columns, which rise from the foundation and bear the weight of the structure placed upon them. Now 'bases' is the name of a very strong stone in the Syriac tongue. Columns (columnae) are named for their length and roundness, upon which the weight of the whole structure is raised. The ancient rule was that the height of columns should be a third part of their breadth. There are four kinds of round columns: Doric, Ionic, Tuscan, Corinthian, differing among themselves in the measure of thickness and height. There is a fifth kind, those that are called Attic, with four corners or more, with equal intervals of the sides. Capitals (capitolia) are so called because they are the heads (capita) of columns, just as the head is above the neck. Architraves (epistolia) are those which are placed above the capitals of columns;

and it is a Greek word [that is, 'placed above']. Tiles (tegulae), because they cover (tegant) the buildings; and gutter-tiles (imbrices), because they receive the rains (imbres). Bricks (lateres) and small bricks (laterculi), because they are moulded broad (lati) by boards set round on all four sides. A channel (canalis) is so called because it is hollow (cava) in the manner of a reed (canna). And indeed we better render 'canalis' in the feminine gender than the masculine. Water-pipes (fistulae) are so called because they pour out (fundant) and send (mittant) the waters; for 'stola' in Greek is 'to send.' Their forms are made according to the magnitude of the water and the measure of capacity. IX. ON FORTIFICATIONS. Something fortified (munitum) or a fortification (munimentum) is so called because it is made by hand (manu). A cohort-yard (cohors) is so called either because it confines together (coartet) all that is within, that is, encloses it, or because it restrains (coerceat) outsiders by its barrier and prevents them from approaching.

A rampart (vallum) is that which is raised by a mass of earth, so that a defence may be presented. Now 'vallum' is so called from the stakes (valli); for the 'valli' are the posts by which the rampart is fortified. And the stakes (valli) are so called because they are fixed (figantur) and pulled up (vellantur). Intervals (intervalla) are the spaces between the tops of the stakes (valli), that is, of the posts by which the rampart is made; whence too other spaces are so called, namely from the posts. A mound (agger) is a heaping-up of any thing whatever, by which ditches or hollows may be filled. Properly 'agger' is called the heaped-up (aggesta) earth which is placed closer to the rampart when it is made; but by misuse we call both walls and all fortifications 'agger.' Enclosure-walls (maceriae) are long walls by which certain vineyards are enclosed; for the Greeks call 'long' 'makron.'

'Formatum,' or 'formacium,' in Africa and Spain they call walls made of earth, because they are stuffed in—more truly stuffed than built—into a mould (forma) with two boards set round on either side. They endure through the ages uncorrupted, stronger than the winds, the fires, and all rubble-work. Hedges (sepes) are fences of sown fields; whence too they are so named. Sheepfolds (caulae) are the enclosures of sheep or the pens of sheepfolds. And it is a Greek name with the letter C removed; for the Greeks call the receptacles of animals 'aulae.' X. ON TENTS. Tents (tabernacula) are the shelters of soldiers, by which on the march they avoid the burning of the sun and the injuries of the tempests of rain and cold. Now they are called 'tabernacula' because the curtains, stretched by ropes with boards standing between, were hung so as to support the tents (tentoria).

A tent (tentorium) is so called because it is stretched (tendatur) by ropes and stakes; whence too even today they are said 'to pitch camp in front' (praetendere). Pavilions (papiliones) are named from the likeness of a small flying creature (the butterfly, papilio), which abound especially among flowering mallows. These are the little creatures that gather at a kindled light, and, flitting around, are forced to perish close by the fire. XI. ON SEPULCHRES. A sepulchre (sepulchrum) is named from the buried (sepulto). Formerly each person was buried in his own house. Afterward this was forbidden by the laws, lest the bodies of the living should be infected, contaminated by the very stench. A monument (monumentum) is so named because it admonishes (moneat) the mind to the memory of the deceased. For when you do not see a monument, it is that which is written (Psalm 31,12):

'I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind.' But when you do see it, it admonishes the mind and brings you back to memory, so that you remember the dead. Monuments (monumenta) and memorials (memoriae), therefore, are so named for the admonition (admonitione) of the mind. A burial-mound (tumulus) is so called as it were 'swelling earth' (tumens tellus). A sarcophagus (sarcophagus) is a Greek name, because there the bodies are consumed; for 'sarks' in Greek is flesh, and 'phagein' means to eat. Mausoleums (mausolea) are the sepulchres or monuments of kings, named from Mausolus, king of the Egyptians. For when he had died, his wife built a sepulchre of wondrous size and beauty, so great that to this day all precious monuments are named 'mausolea' from his name.

Pyramids (pyramides) are a kind of sepulchre, square and tapering to a point beyond every height that can be made by hand, whence they are said to have no shadow at all, having gone beyond the measure of shadows. Now they rise in such a structure that they begin from a broad base and end in a narrow point, like fire; for 'pyr' means fire. Egypt has these. For among our ancestors the powerful were buried either under mountains or in mountains. Thence it was derived that over the corpses either pyramids should be made, or huge columns set up. XII. ON RUSTIC BUILDINGS. A cottage (casa) is a rustic dwelling woven together with stakes and brushwood and reeds, by which men can protect themselves from the injury of cold or heat.

A hut (tugurium) is a little cottage which the guardians of vineyards make for themselves as a covering, as it were 'tegurium' (from covering, tegere), either to turn aside the heat and rays of the sun, or that from it they may drive off either men or the little beasts that are wont to lie in wait for the newborn fruits. This the country folk call a 'capanna,' because it holds (capiat) only one. Some think that 'tescua' are huts, others precipitous and rugged places. 'Magalia' are the oblong buildings of the rustic Numidians, roofed with curved sides, like the keels of ships, or round in the manner of ovens. And they are called 'magalia' as it were 'magaria,' because the Carthaginians call a new farmstead 'magar,' with one letter changed, L for R: magalia, magaria. XIII. ON FIELDS. A field (ager) is said to be so called in Latin because in it something is done (agatur).

Others more clearly believe that 'ager' is named from the Greek. Whence too 'villa' (farmstead) in Greek is called 'agros.' A villa (villa) is named from a rampart (vallum), that is, from a mound of earth, because it is wont to be set up as a boundary. Possessions (possessiones) are widely extending fields, public and private, which in the beginning each person occupied and possessed not by legal conveyance but as best he could; whence too they were named. An estate (fundus) is so called because by it the patrimony is founded (fundatur) or made stable. But 'fundus' is to be understood as both an urban building and a rustic one. A landed property (praedium), because out of all things it is most fully provided for (praevidetur) by the head of the family, that is, it is conspicuous, as it were 'praevidium'; or because the ancients held as by the name of 'booty' (praeda) the fields which they had taken in war. But every field, as Varro teaches, is divided fourfold:

for either a field is arable (arvus), that is, for sowing (sationalis); or planted (consitus), that is, suited to trees; or pasture (pascuus), which is given over only to grasses and animals; or flowery (florus), because there are gardens fitting for bees and flowers. This too Virgil followed in the four books of the Georgics. The ancients called uncultivated fields 'rura' (country), that is, woods and pastures; but 'ager' (field) that which was cultivated. For 'rus' is that from which honey, milk, and cattle can be had; whence too the rustic (rusticus) is named: this is the first and leisurely felicity of country dwellers. A crop-field (seges) is a field in which something is sown; whence too Virgil (Georg. 1,47): 'That crop at last answers the prayers of the greedy farmer.' A common-pasture field (compascuus ager) is so called which is left by the dividers of fields for common pasturing by the neighbours.

An alluvial field (alluvius ager) is that which a river little by little restores to the land. An arcifinial field (arcifinius ager) is so called which is not bounded by fixed measures of lines, but its boundaries are fended off (arcentur) by the interposition of rivers, mountains, trees; whence too in these fields no leftover parcels (subsiciva) come in between. A newly-broken field (novalis ager) is one first cut through, or one which lies fallow in alternate years for the sake of renewing (novandarum) its own strength. For 'novalia' will be once with fruit and once empty. A squalid field (squalidus ager) is as it were 'exculidus,' because it has already gone out from cultivation (cultura); just as an ex-consul (exconsul), because he has departed from the consulship. An oozing field (uliginosus ager) is always moist. For that is called 'humid' (humidus) which is at some time dried out. For 'uligo' is the natural moisture of the earth, never receding from it.

Offcuts (subseciva) are properly those things which the cobbler, cutting off from his material, casts away as though superfluous. Hence also 'subsiciva' are the fields which, when divided by the surveyor's rod (pertica), are rejected as though barren or marshy. Likewise 'subseciva' are those which, in the division of a field, do not make up a 'centuria,' that is, two hundred jugera. A threshing-floor (area) is so called from the levelness of the boards (tabularum). Now 'area' is named from flatness and levelness (planitie atque aequalitate); whence too 'ara' (altar). Others say the threshing-floor (area) is so called because it is scraped clear (eradatur) for threshing the crops, or because nothing is threshed in it unless it is dry (arida). A meadow (pratum) is one by whose abundance of hay the herds are maintained, to which the ancient Romans gave the name from the fact that it is at once ready (paratum) and does not require great labour of cultivation. And 'prata' are those which can be mown.

Marshes (paludes) are named from Pales, the pastoral goddess, because they nourish 'palea,' that is, the fodder (pabula) of the draught-animals. XIV. ON THE BOUNDARIES OF FIELDS. Boundaries (fines) are so called because the fields are divided by cords (funiculis). For lines of measurement are stretched out in the partition of lands, so that equality of measurement may be maintained. 'Limites' (boundary-paths) are called by an old word 'transverse,' for the ancients called all transverse things 'lima'; from which too come the 'limina' (thresholds) of doorways, through which one goes out or in, and the 'limites,' because through them one goes out into the fields. Hence too 'limus' received its name, the girdle with a slanting purple stripe with which the public slaves were girded. Boundary-stones (termini) are so called because they distinguish and declare the measures of the land (terrae). For by these the testimonies of the boundaries are understood, and the litigation and contention over fields is removed.

There are two greatest boundary-lines in fields: the 'cardo' and the 'decumanus.' The 'cardo' is that which is directed from the north from the pivot (cardine) of the sky; for without doubt the sky turns in the northern region. The 'decumanus' is that which is directed crosswise from east to west, which, because it makes the shape of an X, is called 'decumanus.' For a field twice divided produces the figure of the number ten (denarii). A boundary-marker (arca) is named from fending off (arcendo): for it guards the boundaries of a field and forbids access to them. A three-boundary point (trifinium) is so called because it binds together the boundaries of three properties. Hence too a four-boundary point (quadrifinium), because it does so for four. The remaining boundary-lines are narrower and stand apart from one another at unequal intervals and with designated names. XV. ON THE MEASURES OF FIELDS.

A measure (mensura) is whatever is bounded by weight, capacity, length, height, breadth, and by the mind. Our forefathers accordingly divided the globe into parts, the parts into provinces, the provinces into regions, the regions into places, the places into territories, the territories into fields, the fields into centuriae, the centuriae into jugera, the jugera into 'climata,' then the 'climata' into 'actus,' rods (perticae), paces (passus), steps (gradus), cubits (cubiti), feet (pedes), palms (palmi), inches (unciae), and finger-breadths (digiti); so great was their ingenuity. The finger-breadth (digitus) is the smallest part of rustic measures. Thence the inch (uncia), having three finger-breadths. But the palm (palmus) has four finger-breadths, the foot (pes) sixteen, the pace (passus) five feet, the rod (pertica) two paces, that is, ten feet. Now the rod (pertica) is named from carrying (portando), as it were 'portica.'

For all the preceding measures are taken from the body, such as the palm, the foot, the pace, and the rest; only the measuring-rod (pertica) is carried in the hand. It is ten feet long, after the manner of the reed with which the temple is measured in Ezekiel. The smallest 'actus' is four feet in width and one hundred and twenty feet in length. The 'climata' likewise have sixty feet on every side, thus (a figure follows). The square 'actus' is bounded on every side by one hundred and twenty feet, thus (a figure follows). This the people of Baetica call an 'arapennis,' namely from ploughing (arare). The doubled 'actus' makes a 'iugerum'; it received the name 'iugerum' from being joined together (iunctum). Now the iugerum consists of two hundred and forty feet in length and one hundred and twenty in width, thus (a figure follows). The country folk of the province of Baetica call the 'actus' an 'acnua.'

The Baetici likewise define the 'porca' as thirty feet in width and eighty in length (a figure follows). But the 'porca' is that which stands raised up in ploughing; what is dug down is the 'lira' (furrow). The Gauls call a space of a hundred feet in city plots the 'candetum,' as it were 'centetum' (from a hundred). But in country fields they call the just 'candetum' a square of one hundred and fifty feet. Further, the 'stadial' field has one hundred and twenty-five paces, that is, six hundred and twenty-five feet; and its measure, reckoned eight times, makes a mile, which consists of five thousand feet. The 'centuria' is a field of two hundred iugera, which among the ancients was called after a hundred iugera, but afterwards it was doubled and yet retained its former name. For in number the centuriae were multiplied, but they could not change the name. On roads.

The measures of roads we call 'miliaria' (miles), the Greeks 'stadia,' the Gauls 'leugae' (leagues), the Egyptians 'schoeni,' the Persians 'parasangae.' And each of these has its own proper distance. The mile is bounded by a thousand paces, and it is called 'miliarium' as if 'mille adium' (a thousand of somethings), having five thousand feet. The league is bounded by one thousand five hundred paces. The stadium is the eighth part of a mile, consisting of one hundred and twenty-five paces. They say that Hercules first established this, and that he fixed it at that distance which he himself completed in a single breath, and accordingly named it 'stadium' because at the end he took breath (respirasset) and at the same time stood still (stetisset). A 'via' (road) is that along which a vehicle can go; and it is called 'via' from the passage (incursus) of vehicles. For it holds two 'actus,' on account of the meeting of vehicles coming and going.