Six days without a jot of work I've past, Four more and hungry I must breathe my laft.

That paffage in Coelius likewife furnishes an inftance of it; in the fecond book of his hiftory"If you chufe to give me the cavalry, and follow me yourself with the army, I will take care that fupper fhall be prepared for you (die quinti) five days hence, in the capitol at Rome." But the story itself, and the words of it, Coelius has taken from Marcus Cato, where it is thus related : "Therefore the mafter of the horse thus advised the dictator of the Carthaginians, Send the cavalry with me to Rome, and five days hence your fupper fhall be dreffed in the capitol." But the laft fyllable of that compound, I find, terminated either by the letter e or i, which custom of using them indifferently was frequent among the ancients, as in the words præfefcine and præfefcini, proclivi (downwards) and proclivè; and many others of the fame nature, they used with various terminations. Die priftini (the day before) was alfo applied, which fignified die priftino, or die priore, which we commonly exprefs by pridie, changing the order of the compound, and deriving it as it were from priftino die. By a fimilar process, die craftini (to-morrow) was ufed from die craftino. So the, priests of the Roman people, when they fay, in diem tertium (for three days) exprefs themselves by

die

die perendini; but as many people fay, die priftini, fo Marcus Cato in his fpeech against Furius, has faid, die proximi (next day). And Cnæus Matius, a very learned man, in his Mimiambi, has ufed die quarto, instead of what we call nudiusquartus (four days ago) in the following lines.

Nuper die quarto ut recordor, et certè
Aquarium urceum unicum domi fregit.

Four days ago I have it in my book,
The only pitcher in my house he broke.

There only will remain this distinction, that we fay die quarto, fpeaking of time paft; die quarti, or die quarte, of the future.

CHAP. XXV.

The names of certain weapons, darts, and fwords; and the different forts of hips mentioned in the old books'.

Wringe,
W riage, in order to prevent one's mind

HILE we are fitting at ease in the car

from being poffeffed by other trifling matters, we may as well make fome enquiry into the names of the weapons, darts, and fwords, which are mentioned in the ancient books; as also into the different kinds and appellations of the fhips. Those which occur are as follows: the fpear, the javelin, pikes, half-pikes, iron-crows, Gallic darts, the lance, fpears, rumigeftri, torches, barbed javelins, ftaves, miffile fpears, flings, Thracian fwords, the engine for flinging darts, fcibones, broad-headed javelins, fhort-fwords, rapiers, daggers, hangers, fpades, wedges, ponyards, fmall ladders. Of the wedge (lingula) fince the ufe of it is not very common, it is neceffary to

A long differtation, or indeed a book, might be written on the subject of this chapter. It will be fufficient, perhaps, to refer the reader at once to Vegetius, and the other old military writers. The veffels mentioned at the conclufion åre all enumerated and explained in Potter's Grecian Antiquities.

obferve,

obferve, that the ancients fo called an oblong small sword, made in the form of a tongue, of which Nævius makes mention in his Tragedy of Hefion. These are his words;

"Sine mihi gerere morem videar, linguâ verum lingulâ."

2

And the long sword (rhomphea) is a species of weapon belonging to the Thracian nation, and its name occurs in the twenty-fourth of the Annals of Ennius. All the names of fhips we could call to mind are thefe; the gallies, merchantmen, ftore-fhips, long-veffels, tranfports, long-prows, pinnaces, or as the Greeks call them, xeλntes, barques, frigates, rowing-veffels, light barges, which the Greeks call ἱστυοποι, οι επαήίριδες, ketches or fpy-boats, or fifhing fmacks, catta fkiffs, ferry-boats, nuctuciæ, mediæ, yachts, galliots, long-galliots, fcullers, capulices, fair-weather fhips, the cidarum, lighters, cruizers.

2 Rhomphea.]-Many of these words are written differently in different editions of Gellius, as rumpia for rhumphæa, fibones for fcibones, &c.

CHAP.

CHAP. XXVI.

Salluft was unwifely cenfured by Afinius Pollio, for Saying tranfgreffum for tranfretationem, &c.

ALLUST has unjustly incurred the cenfure

SAL

of Afinius Pollio, in one of his letters addreffed to Plancus, and indeed of others, because in the first book of his hiftory he has called the act of tranfporting, and carrying over the fea, tranfgreffum, and the perfons carried over, which in our ufual phrafe is transfretasse, he has called tranfgreffos. Thefe are Salluft's words: "Sertorius having left a small guard in Mauritania, and taking the advantage of a dark night, was compelled, with a profperous wind and great speed, to avoid an engagement, by carrying his troops over the fea." He afterwards.

• The beginning of this chapter is different in different editions. H. Stephens has taken fome pains to prove that it should be read thus :-" Afinio Pollioni in quadam epistola quam ad Plancum fcripfit, et quibufdam aliis C. Salluftius iniquis dignum nota visum est quod, &c."

As to the matter of the chapter itself, the reader has probably by this time discovered, that however agreeable the work of Gellius may be as a book of miscellaneous entertainment, he certainly was himself no very acute critic. What he alledges here is reasonable enough.

fays,