Page 134 - Manual of Roman Everyday Writing Volume 2: Writing Equipment

134| MANUAL OF ROMAN EVERYDAY WRITING
unwillingness to die, as because of the entreaties of his friends;
and he met a natural death while still in confinement.
(Transl. J. C. Rolfe, Loeb)
Symphosius, Aenigmata 1:
Graphium.
De summo planus sed non ego planus in imo / versor utrimque manu.
diverso munere fungor: / altera pars revocat quicquid pars altera fecit.
I am flat at the top but not flat at the bottom, I turn either way
in the hand. I have a conflicting task: one part of me undoes
whatever the other part did.
(Transl. A. Willi)
Symphosius, Aenigmata 2:
Harundo.
Dulcis amica dei, ripae vicina profundae, / suave canens Musis, nigro
perfusa colore, / nuntia sum linguae digitis signata magistris.
A sweet friend to the god, a neighbour to the fathomless bank,
singing sweetly for the Muses, steeped in black, I am the
messenger of the tongue when distinguished by the master’s
fingers.
(Transl. A. Willi)
Tacitus, Annals 5.8:
Mox crebris prolationibus spem ac metum iuxta gravatus Vitellius petito
per speciem studiorum scalpro levem ictum venis intulit vitamque
aegritudine animi finivit.
Later, as adjournment followed adjournment, Vitellius, anxious
to be rid alike of hope and fear, asked for a penknife on the
ground that he wished to write, slightly incised an artery, and in
the sickness of his heart made an end of life.
(Transl. J. Jackson, Loeb)
Valerius Maximus, Memorable Doings and Sayings 6.5.6:
Nec aliter <se> L. Crassus in eodem iustitiae experimento gessit. Cn.
Carbonis nomen infesto animo utpote inimicissimi sibi detulerat, sed
tamen scrinium eius a servo allatum ad se, complura continens quibus
facile opprimi posset, ut erat signatum cum servo catenato ad eum
VOLUME 2: WRITING EQUIMENT | 135
remisit.
In the same test of justice L. Crassus behaved no differently.
He had launched a prosecution against Cn. Carbo in a spirit of
hostility, for Carbo was his bitter enemy. All the same, when a
slave brought him a briefcase of Carbo’s containing a quantity
of material with which he could easily have been brought down,
Crassus returned it to him sealed as it was along with the slave
in chains.
(Transl. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Loeb)
Vitruvius 1.1.4:
Geometria autem plura praesidia praestat architecturae; et primum ex
euthygrammis circini tradit usum, e quo maxime facilius aedificiorum
in areis expediuntur descriptiones normarumque et librationum et
linearum directiones.
Mathematics again furnishes many resources to architecture.
It teaches the use of rule and compass and thus facilitates the
laying out of buildings on their sites by the use of set-squares,
levels and alignments.
(Transl. F. Granger, Loeb)
Vitruvius 7.10.2:
In fornace resina conlocatur. Hanc autem ignis potestas urendo cogit
emittere per nares intra laconicum fuliginem, quae circa parietem et
camerae curvaturam adhaerescit. Inde collecta partim componitur
ex gummi subacta1 ad usum atramenti librarii, reliquum tectores
glutinum admiscentes in parietibus utuntur.
Resin is placed in the furnace. Now the fiery potency burns
it and compels it to emit soot through the outlets into the
chamber. The soot clings round the walls and vaulting of the
chamber. It is then collected and in part compounded with gum
and worked up for the use of writing ink; the rest is mixed with
size and used by fresco-painters for colouring walls.
(Transl. F. Granger, Loeb)