it, I shall live at Rome in such a wise as to desire always that right
be done. Our friend Trebatius I thank heartily in that he has disclosed
your sincere and friendly feeling toward me, and has shown me that him
whom I have always loved of my own free will I ought with the more
reason to esteem and honor. Bene vale et me dilige."
With these words our knowledge of Matius comes almost to an end. His life was prolonged into the imperial period, and, strangely enough, in one of the few references to him which we find at a later date, he is characterized as "the friend of Augustus" (divi Augusti amicus). It would seem that the affection which he felt for Caesar he transferred to Caesar's heir and successor. He still holds no office or title. In this connection it is interesting to recall the fact that we owe the best of Cicero's philosophical work to him, the "Academics," the "De Finibus," and the "Tusculan Questions," for Cicero tells us in his letter that he was induced to write his treatises on philosophy by Matius. It is a pleasant thing to think that to him we may also be indebted for Cicero's charming essay "On Friendship." The later life of Matius, then, we may think was spent in retirement, in the study of philosophy, and in the pursuit of literature. His literary pursuits give a homely and not unpleasant touch to his character. They were concerned with gastronomy, for Columella, in the first century of our era, tells us[147] that Matius composed three books, bearing the titles of "The Cook," "The Butler," and "The Picklemaker," and his name was transmitted to a later generation in a dish known as "mincemeat a la Matius" (minutal Matianum).[148] He passes out of the pages of history in the writings of Pliny the Elder as the man who "invented the practice of clipping shrubbery."[149] To him, then, we perhaps owe the geometrical figures, and the forms of birds and beasts which shrubs take in the modern English garden. His memory is thus ever kept green, whether in a way that redounds to his credit or not is left for the reader to decide.
Footnotes
[1] Cf. A. Ernout, Le Parler de Preneste, Paris, 1905.
[2] The relation between Latin and the Italic dialects may be illustrated by an extract or two from them with a Latin translation. An Umbrian specimen may be taken from one of the bronze tablets found at Iguvium, which reads in Umbrian: Di Grabouie, saluo seritu ocrem Fisim, saluam seritu totam Iiouinam (Iguvinian Tables VI, a. 51), and in Latin: Deus Grabovi, salvam servato arcem Fisiam, salvam servato civitatem Iguvinam. A bit of Oscan from the Tabula Bantina (Tab. Bant. 2, 11) reads: suaepis contrud exeic fefacust auti comono hipust, molto etanto estud, and in Latin: siquis contra hoc fecerit aut comitia habuerit, multa tanta esto.
[3] Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, IX, 782, furnishes a case in point.
[4] Cf. G. Mohl, Introduction a la chronologie du Latin vulgaire, Paris, 1899.
[5] Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopadie, IV, 1179 ff.
[6] Marquardt, Roemische Staatsverwaltung, II, p. 463.
[7] Cf., e.g., Pirson, La langue des inscriptions Latines de la Gaule, Bruxelles, 1901; Carnoy, Le Latin d'Espagne d'apres les inscriptions, Bruxelles, 1906; Hoffmann, De titulis Africae Latinis quaestiones phoneticae, 1907; Kuebler, Die lateinische Sprache auf afrikanischen Inschriften (Arch, fuer lat. Lex., vol. VIII), and Martin, Notes on the Syntax of the Latin Inscriptions Found in Spain, Baltimore, 1909.
[8] Cf. L. Hahn, Rom und Romanismus im griechisch-roemischen Osten (esp. pp. 222-268), Leipzig, 1906.
[9] Proceedings of the American Philological Association, XXIX (1898), pp. 31-47. For a different theory of the results of language-conflict, cf. Groeber, Grundriss der romanischen Philologie, I, pp. 516, 517.
[10] A very interesting sketch of the history of the Latin language in this region may be seen in Ovide Densusianu's Histoire de la langue Roumaine, Paris, 1902.
[11] Gorra, Lingue Neolatine, pp. 66-68.
[12] Groeber, Grundriss der romanischen Philologie, pp. 517 and 524.
[13] Cf. Groeber in Archiv fuer lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik, I, p. 210 ff.
[14] Is Modern-Language Teaching a Failure? Chicago, 1907.
[15] Cf. Abbott, History of Rome, pp. 246-249.
[16] Schuchardt, Vokalismus des Vulgaerlateins, I, 103 ff.
[17] Cf. Groeber, Archiv fuer lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik, I, 45.
[18] Thielmann, Archiv, II, 48 ff.; 157 ff.
[19] From the "Laws of the Twelve Tables" of the fifth century B.C. See Bruns, Fontes iuris Romani antiqui, sixth edition, p. 31.
[20] Appendix Probi, in Keil's Grammatici Latini, IV, 197 ff.
[21] "The Accent in Vulgar and Formal Latin," in Classical Philology, II (1907), 445 ff.
[22] Buecheler, Carmina Latina epigraphica, No. 53. The originals of all the bits of verse which are translated in this paper may be found in the collection whose title is given here. Hereafter reference to this work will be by number only.
[23] No. 443.
[24] No. 92.
[25] No. 128.
[26] No. 127.
[27] No. 876.
[28] No. 1414.
[29] No. 765.
[30] No. 843.
[31] No. 95.
[32] No. 1578.
[33] Nos. 1192 and 1472.
[34] No. 1037.
[35] No. 1039.
[36] G. W. Van Bleek, Quae de hominum post mortem eondicione doceant carmina sepulcralia Latina.
[37] No. 1495.
[38] No. 1496.
[39] No. 86.
[40] No. 1465.
[41] No. 1143.
[42] No. 1559.
[43] No. 1433.
[44] No. 225.
[45] No. 143.
[46] No. 83.
[47] No. 1500.
[48] No. 190.
[49] No. 244.
[50] No. 1499.
[51] No. 856.
[52] Society and Politics in Ancient Rome, p. 183.
[53] No. 562.
[54] No. 52.
[55] No. 1251.
[56] No. 106.
[57] No. 967.
[58] No. 152.
[59] No. 1042.
[60] No. 1064.
[61] No. 98.
[62] Buecheler, Carmina Latino epigraphica, No. 899.
[63] No. 19.
[64] No. 866.
[65] No. 863.
[66] No. 937.
[67] No. 949.
[68] No. 943.
[69] No. 945.
[70] No. 354.
[71] Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, IV, 6892.
[72] Buecheler, No. 928.
[73] No. 333.
[74] No. 931.
[75] No. 933.
[76] No. 38.
[77] No. 270.
[78] Habeat scabiem quisquis ad me venerit novissimus.
[79] Rex erit qui recte faciet, qui non faciet non erit.
[80]
Gallos Caesar in triumphum ducit, idem in curiam;
Galli bracas deposuerunt, latum clavom sumpserunt.
[81]
Brutus quia reges eiecit, consul primus factus est;
Hic quia consoles eiecit, rex postremo factus est.
[82] Salva Roma, salva patria, salvus est Germanicus.
[83] Cf. Schmid, "Der griechische Roman," Neue Jahrb., Bd XIII (1904), 465-85; Wilcken, in Hermes, XXVIII, 161 ff., and in Archiv f. Papyrusforschung, I, 255 ff.; Grenfell-Hunt, Fayum Towns and Their Papyri (1900), 75 ff., and Rivista di Filologia, XXIII, I ff.