Etymologies & Works 15 part 2/3

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.