An Oscanism in Catullus 53

An Oscanism in Catullus 53Author(s): Michael WeissSource: Classical Philology, Vol. 91, No. 4 (Oct., 1996), pp. 353-359Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/270441 .

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NOTES AND DISCUSSIONS 353

AN OSCANISM IN CATULLUS 53

Catullus 53 reports an amusing anecdote from Calvus' prosecution of Vatinius:

Risi, nescioquem modo e corona qui, cum mirifice, Vatiniana meus crimina Calvos explicasset, admirans ait haec manusque tollens, "di magni, salaputium disertum!"

I laughed just now at some guy from the bleachers. When my friend Calvus had nicely charged Vatinius, He raised his hands in admiration and said: "Great gods, that's what I call salaputium disertum!"

The mysterious salaputium of the last line has been endlessly discussed in the literature on Catullus. Already in the eighteenth century Doering catalogued ten proposed emendations, concluding with an exasperated "ohe! tollite manus et admiramini diserta criticorum salaputia."l And since his time interpretations have continued un- abated. Where to begin in such a jungle of possibilities? The manuscripts of Catullus read salapantium. A second hand in R has a correction salapputium.2 The probable source of this correction is Seneca the Elder's Controversiae 7.4(19), where part of the line in question is quoted with the form salaputtium. Most editors since Guarinus have read salaputium, and Gustave Friedrich has plausibly explained salapantium as reflecting a misinterpretation of an earlier salapautium.3 This, in turn, must have been a correction of *salapatium arising through (graphic) perseveration from salaputium. That the majority of editors were entirely justified in printing salaputium was subsequently confirmed by the appearance of a clearly related cognomen Sal- aputis on an inscription from Suk el-Khmis in Tunisia (the ancient Saltus Buruni- tanus) from the reign of Commodus (C.IL. VIII 10570): G. Iulio (PelJope Salaputi mag.4 The possibility of a chance resemblance is, I think, fairly slim. Subsequently the flow of emendations has slowed to a trickle, if not entirely dried up.5

Having dealt with the textual situation, we must now deal with the one extant ancient interpretation of Catullus 53. In a little discussion about Calvus, Seneca the Elder mentions that Calvus once stood upon a cippus to address an unruly crowd (Controv. 7.4 [19]): erat enim parvolus statura propter quod etiam Catullus in hen- decasyllabis vocat illum salaputium disertum. This passage has been the lodestar

1. F G. Doering, ed., C. Valerii Catulli Veronensis ad Cornelium Nepotem Liber (Gotha, 1788), 96: "Alii saluputium vel saliputium vel salapusium vel sapientium vel salapichium vel solopugium vel salapantium vel holopachium vel ascolapation vel colobotion vel -ohe! tollite manus et admiramini diserta criticorum salaputia."

2. D. F S. Thomson, Catullus. A Critical Edition (Chapel Hill, 1978), 114. 3. G. Friedrich, Catulli Veronensis Liber (Leipzig, 1908), 240. 4. See F Buecheler, "Altes Latein," RhM 37 (1882): 530. On the inscription in general see T. Momm-

sen, "Decret des Commodus fur den Saltus Burunitanus," Hermes 15 (1880): 385-411, and "Nachtrag zu den Decret des Commodus," Hermes 15 (1880): 478-80.

5. For example, H. W. Garrod, "Salapantium Disertum," CQ 8 (1914): 48-49.



354 NOTES AND DISCUSSIONS

for all modern interpretations, and few, if any, have questioned Seneca the Elder's suggestion that salaputium refers, one way or the other, to Calvus' shortness.

But it should be clearly noted that Seneca's discussion of the meaning of salaputium does not have the value of an independent witness. He cites no other text in support of the meaning he gives to salaputium, and the argument procedes from the fact of Calvus' shortness to the meaning of salaputium and not from the meaning of salaputium to Calvus' shortness. That the real meaning of salaputium, which, whatever its ultimate explanation, was undoubtedly a somewhat slangy word of limited occurrence, should have been lost to Seneca, born as he was in Corduba thirty years after Catullus, seems to me probable. The extremely evanescent nature of hip language is well-known and readers may verify this for themselves if they only think about the many "in-words" of their own high school days that are now incomprehensible to their students. Seneca then is merely the first in a long line of interpreters of Catullus 53. Possibly, he arrived at his interpretation by combining the apparently well-known facts about Calvus' height deficit6 with a folk-etymological connection between salaputium and putus "boy." Since Seneca's day some commentators have been more or less content to follow Seneca's lead, making explicit the connection with putus.7

Another line of thought, apparently first put forward by Vossius,8 and found, for example, in Forcellini's lexicon and in many other places,9 has seen a connection between salaputium and praeputium "foreskin," that is, "what is in front of the *put-(o-)." Thus salaputium would be some sort of slang term for "phallus." Bickel has tried to have the best of both worlds and has started what I call "the Little Elvis" school of interpretation. In his view, a word for phallus might be used as a nickname for a short man.10 So Augustus called Horace, another short man, puris- simam penem et homuncionem lepidissimum (Suet. Poet. frag. 40 [p. 46Re]). Modern translators such as Peter Whigham and Charles Martin have followed Bickel in combining shortness and obscenity: "a cock that size and it spouts!" (Whigham); "Great gods, this little pecker's sure persuasive!" (Martin)."

But both these mainstream lines of explanation are seriously flawed from the linguistic point of view. To begin with the connection with putus: this word is clearly a descendent of the PIE root *put-"little" (Skt. put-ra' "son," Avest. puG-ra- "son," Russian ptfca "little bird," Russian Church Slavonic puta "bird"), which had an in-

6. Exiguus in Ovid Tristia 2.431: par fuit exigui similisque licentia Calvi is sometimes taken to refer to Calvus' shortness. Cf., e.g., G. Luck, ed., P. Ovidius Naso Tristia, vol. 2.2 (Heidelberg, 1972), 143. It may just as easily refer to his style. Cf. Ovid Fasti 2.4 nunc primum velis, elegi, maioribus itis: exiguum nuper eratis opus. One might almost say that to give a biographical interpretation to a textual obscurity was the default mode of interpretation for the ancient critics. Numerous examples of this sort may be found in Mary Lefkowitz's Lives of the Greek Poets (London, 1981).

7. For example, W. Kroll, ed., C. Valerius Catullus6 (Stuttgart, 1980), 95 and C. J. Fordyce, ed., Ca- tullus (Oxford, 1961), 225.

8. See R. Ellis, A Commentary on Catullus (Oxford, 1887), 184. 9. A. Forcellini, Lexicon Totius Latinitatis, vol. 4 (Padua, 1940), 198. See also M. Lenchantin de

Gubernatis, ed., ll Libro de Catullo Veronese (Turin, 1928), 94, and A. Baehrens, ed., Catulli Veronensis Liber (Leipzig 1893), 265-66.

10. E. Bickel, "Salaputium: Mentula Salax," RhM 96 (1953): 94-95. Essentially the same opinion is already offered in Baehrens, Catulli Veronensis Liber, 265-66.

11. P. Whigham, The Poems of Catullus. A Bilingual Edition (Berkeley, 1969), 112; C. Martin, The Poems of Catullus (Baltimore, 1990), 53.



NOTES AND DiSCUSSIONS 355

herent short u and shows up in Italic only in the zero-grade, for example, pullus < *p't(s)lo- (cf. Hittite pulla- "son" < *p9tslo-), Osc. puklo- "son" < *p'tlol-, putillus. 12 Moreover, putus is clearly short in its one classical occurrence in Virgil, Ca- talepton 7.2: dispeream, nisi me perdidit iste putus, if Scaliger's emendation for the manuscripts'pot(h)us is correct.13 The Romance evidence, now most fully collected in von Wartburg (Lang. poutoto f. "petite fille" [cf. croutz < *cruce(m)], Umbrian potto "ragazzo," etc.), point to a pre-form *puttus with a double t best attributed to affective gemination.14 Thus the long a of salaputium would not be easily explica- ble if connected with putus. Furthermore the suffix -ium does not find any obvious explanation. Latin does not make productive diminutives in -ium, and those few that are found are clearly on a Greek model, for example, pallium < palla after xXaivtov < Xdtva.15

When we consider the connection with praeputium, the difficulties are no less severe. Praeputium undoubtedly does have a long u, since a short u would not be preserved as such in a non-initial open syllable. But morphologically praeputium is a prepositional governing compound, that is, the foreskin is that which is at the front of the *puit(o)- "penis." Unfortunately, this word for penis does not survive as a simplex in Latin, but it finds a partial match in Dialectical Russian (Pskov) and Byelorussian potka "penis" < *put-ika.l6 Now prepositional governing compounds are frequently characterized in Latin by the addition of the suffix -i- or -iyo- to the second, governed member of the compound, for example, grex > egregius, clavus > praeclavium,17 norma > enormis. Thus the fact that praeputium ends in -ium is certainly to be attributed to its membership in the class of prepositional governing compounds, and nothing can be concluded from this compound about the declen- sional class of the simplex *put(o)-. In all probability, the simplex *put(o)- was not an -iyo-stem, given that such a suffix would not have any obvious explanation in the simplex. Finally, since sala-, whatever its ultimate analysis, is certainly not a prepo- sition, it follows that the -ium of salaputium cannot be explained by reference to praeputium.

But these objections, though significant, are hardly conclusive. I have no doubt that an ingenious supporter of the putus or praeputium hypothesis could find a way around these obstacles. By far the greater weakness of both these hypotheses is their total inability to explain the first two syllables of salaputium. Some interpreters,

12. On the Indo-Iranian forms see M. Mayrhofer, Etymologisches Worterbuch des Altindoarischen, fasc. 12 (Heidelberg, 1992), 142. The form putillus is inconclusive because of the mamma-mamilla-law, on which see M. Leumann, Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre (Munich, 1928), 143.

13. This emendation is printed, e.g., by R. Ellis, ed., Appendix Vergiliana (Oxford, 1907). But W. Schmid, "Miscellen," Philologus 79 (1923): 315-17 has defended the MSS. reading.

14. W. v. Warthurg, Franzbsisches etymologisches Worterbuch, vol. 9 (Basel, 1959), 645. Puttus is in fact attested in CGL 2.165. The Romance evidence pointing to a long a and a double t (Italian putto, putta, etc.) may easily be explained as the result of affective lengthening and gemination in a word of clearly affectively marked semantics. Cf. Mod. English teeny-tiny. The folk-etymological influence of putidus may also have played a role here, cf. Catullus 42.12: redde, putida moecha, codicillos. Cf. W. Foer- ster, "Romanische Etymologien," Zeitschriftfu'r Romanische Philologie 3 (1879): 565-66. The basic facts on *put- were already stated correctly in all essentials by Felix Solmsen, "Zur Griechischen Wortfor- schung," IF 31 (1912): 474-75.

15. Leumann, Laut- und Formenlehre, 210. 16. M. Vasmer, Russiches etymologisches Worterbuch, (Heidelberg, 1953), 418. 17. Cf. Non. De compendiosa doctrina p. 64 M: pars vestis quae ante clavum texitur.




following Vossius, have seen a connection between sala- and salax.I8 For Bickel salaputium is mentula salax. 19 But this is quite impossible.

Even granting the possibility of the fairly uncommon adjective-noun determina- tive compound (type angiportus), the second short d of sald- is irreconcilable with the second long a of salax. Furthermore, even if one were prepared to entertain some sort of highly irregular shortening under dire metrical necessity, the absence of any trace of the k, that is, (c of salak-, would still be an insuperable difficulty. Another, far more desperate, explanation, offered by Knobloch, sees in sald- a "lallende Wortverlangerung."20 I think few have found this credible.

One other entirely different explanation is known to me. J. Whatmough took the word to be of Celtic origin.21 But this is clearly impossible. The p of salaputium makes any Celtic account difficult, since PIE *p > 0 in Celtic, for example, Old Irish athir "father" < *ph2ter, and a labio-velar before u was delabialized very early in Celtic (before *p ... *kw > kw .. . kw, e.g., *p6nkwe > Old Irish c6ic, Old Welsh pimp) giving k, to judge from the evidence of Hercynia < *perkwunia.22

To my mind, a key and underappreciated advance in the explanation of salaputium was made by Vittore Pisani.23 He pointed out that the word cannot be Latin for the simple reason that a short d in a non-initial syllable cannot survive as such, but must be weakened to i. Compare *refakiyo > reficio. In fact, this is not precisely true. Sald- putium could be an example of the aldcer rule whereby a short vowel in an open non-initial syllable was not weakened to i provided that it was identical in quality to the vowel of the first syllable.24 This aldcer-hypothesis, however, does not lead to any plausible morphological analysis compatible with any of the alternative theo- ries thus far proposed. Pisani therefore suggested that the word was an Oscan compound made up of the Oscan words *sal(s) "salt" and *putio- "grinder," supposedly from the root of Latin pavio "to pound," that is, salaputium, literally, "saltgrinder," is Oscan slang for "phallus." The translation of the last line would then be "Great gods! a learned salt-grinder!" But pavio never means "to grind" in Latin. Compare Paulus, Epitoma Festi p. 244M: pavireferire est; Cicero, De Divinatione 2.72: necesse est aliquid ex ore (pullorum) cadere et terram pavire. More importantly we are fortu- nate enough to know that the vox propria for the grinding of salt in Sabellic was male- (cf. Lat. molo): TI 2.18 salu maletu "ground salt," salem molitum. Furthermore, once a direct connection with the *-piit- of praepitium is no longer being entertained, there is no particular reason to search for a word meaning phallus in salaputium, no reason except Pisani's well-known love of the obscene interpretation. Therefore, Pisani, although on the right track, has not solved the problem.

I propose that the second half of this compound should instead be identified with the root of Latin pui-rus "pure," that is, *peuhx-/puhx- (Skt. pavate "purifies," etc.).

18. For example, L. Doederlein, Lateinische Synonyme und Etymologien (Leipzig, 1838), 314. Accord- ing to Ellis, Commentary, 184, the idea goes all the way back to Vossius.

19. Bickel "Salaputium," 94-95. 20. J. Knobloch, "Catull c. 53,5 und Cicero," RhM 112 (1969): 23-29, esp. 26. 21. J. Whatmough, "On the Name of the Genius Cucullatus," Ogam 5 (1953): 65-66. 22. Cf. Latin quercus < *perkwus with the labio-velar restored from the oblique cases with full grade of

the suffix, *-ew-. 23. V. Pisani, "Zur lateinischen Wortgeschichte," RhM 96 (1953): 181-83, esp. 181-82. 24. Examples of the alacer rule may be found in Leumann, Laut- und Formnenlehre, 95-96. The exact

formulation of the rule I owe to the teachings of Alan Nussbaum.




Now it is an interesting fact of PIE nominal morphology that root-nouns of the shape *C(E)R(H)- regularly are extended by -t- when they function as the second member of compounds.25 For example, Sanskrit kr- "make" becomes -krt- in the compound madhu-krt- "making honey." In Greek the root of Pt-Ppc6-KCw "I eat" < *gwrh3- becomes -PppwT- in the compound 6Popp6q -TOg "eating raw flesh" (Eurip. +). In Latin, examples are sacerdos, -otis, probably from *deh3- "give" and locuples, -etis "rich" < *plehI-, compare plere. Therefore one would predict that, if a root noun of *puhx- occurred as the second member of a compound it would have taken the form *(X)-puhx-t-s. In fact, this very form may be attested in the lemma of Paulus, Epit- oma Festi p. 164 M, which reads nepus non purus, if from *ne-puts, which may have been transformed from an older *n-puts under the influence of nefas. Unfortunately, various alternative explanations cannot be excluded. In any case, this perfectly well- formed *-puts could have been combined with *sal(s) in an artifex type compound *salpuits, which would presumably have meant "purifier of salt."

Such an occupation would have been a necessity in ancient times, since white salt was especially valued. Compare Plin. (HN 31.85): suavissimus omnium Tarentinus atque candidissimus, and Cato (Agr. 83) gives explicit instructions for making sal candidus: Salem candidum sicfacito: amphoram defracto collopuram impletopurae aquae. Note the repeated use of purus and compare Catull. 23.19: quod culus tibi purior salillo est. Whether this purification process refers to the purification of ordi- nary rock or sea salt, or to a transmutation of the humble sal niger "lye salt" (Hor. Sat. 2.4.74; Epist. 2.2.60), which we know the Umbrians in particular used to make (Arist. Mete. 959a35), I leave to historians of ancient technology to decide.

From *salputs could be derived *salputiyom "purification of salt" just as arti- ficium "artistry, craftsmanship" is derived from artifex "artisan." Compare Oscan medicim (Vetter 2.30) "magistracy" < *med-dik-iyom. This would have yielded by regular Sabellic and Oscan sound law first *salputim, by syncope of short-vowels following y in a final syllable, and then *salaputim by Oscan anaptyxis. Compare precisely for both changes akaXovt; (Vetter 185) < *alponiyos (cf. Latin Alpionius).26 When fitted out with Latin inflection *salaputim would have become saldpatium.27

Having reached this conclusion on purely formal grounds, it remains to be seen what sense, if any, the meaning "salt purification" could have in this context. First we should note that, although nearly all commentators have taken salaputium disertum to refer to the person of Calvus himself, there is nothing in the text that makes this compelling. The outburst could refer just as well to the other essential entity in the forensic realm: Calvus' speech. In the closest phraseological parallel to 53.5, also made up of di magni followed by an accusative of exclamation, 14.10, another poem dealing with Calvus, the accusative refers not to a person, but to a literary produc- tion, a horribilem et sacrum libellum. Second, the adjective disertum does not refer

25. C = any consonant. E = any vowel. R = ily, ulw, 1/1, rfr, m/m, nln. H = any laryngeal. See J. Kellens, Les Nom-racines de lAvesta (Wiesbaden, 1974), 243 and E. Risch, Wortbildung der homer- ischen Sprache2 (Berlin, 1974), 178. In Sanskrit the -t- extension was limited to zero-grade anit roots. In Latin and Greek this restriction clearly did not apply.

26. M. Lejeune, LAnthroponymie osque (Paris, 1976), 23, 42. 27. The Oscan origin of this word is also supported by the cognomen Salaputis mentioned above. One

need only assume that the Oscans called the practitioners of the business of salt purification *salaputis < *salputiyos, literally "he of salt-purification." Naturally the Romans could have interpreted the nominative of this name as an -i- stem. The suffix -iyo- might also be explained as a quasi-patronymic.




only to persons but also to various kinds of speech, for example, Cic. Brut. 101 (his- toria), etc. In fact, if Leumann is correct in deriving disertus from *dis-arc-tus "explicit" from the root of arceo, the adjective must originally have referred ex- clusively to speech and only secondarily to speakers.28

Salaputium disertum, then, can unproblematically be taken as describing not Calvus' person, but his speech. How could "learned salt purification" be taken as a compliment for Calvus' speech? For starters, it is well known to all students of Latin literature in general, and of Catullus in particular, that sal represents the very es- sence of urbanity and wit. In 16, one of Catullus' key poetic self-definitions, Catullus describes his verses as having salem ac leporem. Compare also 86.4 nulla in tam magno est corpore (Quintia's) mica salis. The boors and bumpkins who are the object of Catullus' scorn or the butt of his jokes are frequently described as insulsus. Egnatius, the foolish Spaniard with the loathsome techniques of dental hygiene, and his drinking buddies are insulsi (37.6). Varus' girlfriend is insulsa male (10.33). Mar- rucinus Asinius thinks he is being salsum in stealing people's napkins, but he is sadly mistaken (12.4): hoc salsum esse putas? fugit te inepte. Finally, if we accept the nearly certain emendation (forfalse) in 14.16, Catullus describes Calvus himself as salse: non non hoc tibi, salse, sic abibit. This very same mistake is made at Plautus, Rud. 589 salsis B -falsis CD.

If then we take sal in its well-established metaphorical sense, salaputium would mean "purification," that is, "refinement of wit." In fact, this would be a highly appropriate compliment for Calvus' severe Attic style. For all accounts of Calvus' style, we know that it was frequently characterized precisely by its polished, worked-over (in the eyes of Cicero, at least), too-refined quality. For example, Quintilian (Inst. 10.1.115) says: "inveni qui Calvum praeferrent omnibus, inveni qui Ciceroni creder- ent eum nimia contra se calumnia verum sanguinem perdidisse. Sed est sancta et gravis et castigata et frequenter vehemens quoque." Tacitus (Dial. 25) calls Calvus adstrictior and notes that to Cicero he seemed exsanguem et aridum. Most relevant of all are Brutus 284: "Atticum se inquit Calvus noster dici oratorem volebat: inde erat ista exilitas quam ille de industria consequebatur ... insulsitatem enim et insolen- tiam tamquam insaniam quandam orationis odit, sanitatem autem et integritatem quasi religionem et verecundiam oratoris probat. . . Sin autem ieiunitatem et sicci- tatem et inopiam [probat], dum modo sit polita, dum urbana, dum elegans, in Attico genere ponit," and Brutus 283: "quod quamquam scienter eleganterque tracta- bat, nimium tamen inquirens in se atque ipse sese observans metuensque ne vitiosum colligeret, etiam verum sanguinem deperdebat." Disertus too would be the vox propria for Calvus' style. In fact Seneca the Elder (Controv. 7.4.7) reports that Vatinius himself granted that Calvus was disertus: rogo vos, iudices: num, si iste disertus est, ideo damnari oportet?

Next, we must ask ourselves why Catullus found this particular outburst so funny. Here we should point out that not every joke in Catullus is a dirty one. In particular, Catullus was not unfamiliar with the ethnic/dialect joke. Poem 84 about Arrius' in- appropriate aspirations is a case in point. The joke in 53 turns on the conflict between substandard pronunciation of a (probably) rustic word and the fine literary apprecia- tion shown by the content of the compliment. A similar effect might be obtained in

28. M. Leumann, "Lat. disertus," in Hommages a M. Renard, ed. J. Bibauw (Brussels, 1969), 549-50.




English if say, Gomer Pyle (to choose a figure of fun from my own adopted state), were to express some apt words of praise over a Susan Sontag essay in his own idiolect: "Golly, Sarge, that "Notes on Camp" shore was purty."

Finally, we may ask if there is anything more to this anecdote. Does the poem fit in any larger cultural panorama on our interpretation? Here again Cicero's Brutus supplies the answer. In polemicizing against the so-called Atticists Cicero says (Brut. 289): At cum isti Attici dicunt, non modo a corona, quod est ipsum misera- bile, sed etiam ab advocatis relinquuntur. It is clear from the context that Cicero has Calvus particularly in mind and elsewhere he expresses nearly the same opinion explicitly about Calvus (Brut. 283): Itaque eius oratio nimia religione attenuata doctis et attente audientibus erat inlustris, a multitudine autem et a foro, cui nata eloquentia est, devorabatur.

It was Cicero's view, expressed in writing in 46 B.C.E., but no doubt formulated much earlier at the height of the Atticist controversy and before Calvus' death, that Calvus' style was not suited for the delectation of the masses. The rhetorical gour- mands of the corona simply gobbled up (devorabatur) what Calvus had to offer without tasting its subtleties. In this light, Catullus' anecdote can now be seen as a stylistic defense of Calvus' work against the carping of an older generation. Far from being unsuitable for the common palate, Calvus' oration against Vatinius was fully savored, not only by the Roman man on the street, but even by the yokel in the corona whose speech was still tinged with an Oscan drawl.

The interpretation of salaputium offered here, unlike previous attempts, suffers from no formal defects, places Catullus 53 in a well-established genre of humor, the ethnic/dialect joke, and restores the poem to its proper place in the polemics of the "culture wars" of late republican Rome.29

MICHAEL WEISS

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

29. Cf. Seneca the Elder's comment (Controv. 7.4.6) about the iniquissimam litem de principatu eloquentiae that Calvus and Cicero were said to have had.

RECRIMINATIONS AFTER AD CASTORES: TACITUS, HISTORIES 2.30

In spring 69 at Ad Castores Aulus Caecina tried to ambush the Othonian forces under Suetonius Paulinus and Marius Celsus. Since his plan backfired, he was very nearly the one caught in a trap. The result was an indecisive battle with which neither side was happy. Recriminations were widespread among the Othonians, their prin- cipal target being Suetonius Paulinus.I But there was also finger-pointing among the Vitellians. For this Tacitus is our only source, and his account does not make it alto- gether clear for what reasons or at whom fingers were pointed.

In his initial comments on the subject Tacitus downplays the effect of the setback on the Vitellians. Their losses, he asserts, did not so much induce in them fear of the

1. The battle itself and the dispute over Paulinus' actions I plan to discuss elsewhere. Here I would like to thank Andrew Riggsby and the anonymous referee of CP for their advice and criticism.



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An Oscanism in Catullus 53