REMAINS OF FRONTO
6. Then Fronto replied as follows:
"Quadrigae, even though only one horse is yoked, always keeps the plural number, since four horses yoked together are called quadrigae, as if it were quadriiugae, and certainly that which denotes several horses should not be compressed into the oneness of the singular number. The same reasoning applies also to arena, but from a different point of view, for since arena, though used in the singular number, yet signifies a plurality and abundance of tiny particles of which it is composed, arenae would seem to be used ignorantly and improperly, as though that term required an enlargement of number, though the conception of multitude essential to it is naturally expressed by the singular number. But I have said this," he added, "not as the ratifier and endorser of this verdict and rule,[1] but that I might not leave the opinion of Caesar, a learned man, without anyone to stand up for it.
7. "For while caelum is always spoken of in the singular, mare and terra not always, and pulvis and ventus and fumus not always, why have the old writers occasionally used induciae (a truce) and caerimoniae in the singular, but never feriae (holidays) and nundinae (market-day) and inferiae (sacrifice to the dead) and exsequiae (obsequies)?[2] Why do mel and vinum and all other words of that kind admit of a plural, and lac not admit of one? All these things, I say, cannot be investigated and unravelled and hammered out by citizens so fully occupied in so busy a state. Nay, I see that I have kept
- ↑ Fronto himself used arena some few years later in 143 A.D.; see i. p. 160. It is often used by Ovid, and also by Vergil, Horace, Seneca, etc.
- ↑ So funerals in Old English. We use obsequies, though Shakespeare has obsequy.
S 2
