Book 12
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When Taurus had said this and seemed to intend to say even more, we reached our carriages and entered them.
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On the Enigma.
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THE kind of composition which the Greeks call enigmas, some of our early writers called scirpi, or rushes. Apparently so called from the involved pattern of plaited rushes. An example is the enigma composed of three iambic trimeters which I recently found— very old, by Jove! and very neat. I have left it unanswered, in order to excite the ingenuity of my readers in seeking for an answer. The three verses are these: I know not if he's minus once or twice, Or both of these, who would not give his place, As I once heard it said, to Jove himself. He who does not wish to puzzle himself too long will find the answer The answer is Terminus. Once minus and twice minus = thrice (ter) minus. In the cella of Jupiter on the Capitolium, or possibly in the pronaos, there was a terminal cippus, representing Terminus, who refused to be removed from his original site. in the second book of Varro's Latin Language, addressed to Marcellus. Fr. 55. G. & S.
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Why Gnaeus Dolabella, the proconsul, referred to the court of the Areopagus the case of a woman charged with poisoning and admitting the fact.
