Book 1
5.7
Trivial as these points may seem, our boys are still at school and I am reminding their instructors of their duty. And if one of our teachers is lacking in education and has done no more than set foot in the outer courts of his art, he will have to confine himself to the rules published in the elementary text-books: the more learned teacher on the other hand will be in a position to go much further: first of all, for example, he will point out that there are many different kinds of barbarism.
5.8
One kind is due to race, such as the insertion of a Spanish or African term; for instance the iron tire of a wheel is called cantus, Pers. v. 71. Usually, though wrongly, spelt oanthus. though Persius uses it as established in the Latin language; Catullus picked up ploxenum Cat. xcvii. 6. (a box) in the valley of the Po, while the author of the in Pollionem, be he Labienus or Cornelius Gallus, imported casamo from Gaul in the sense of follower. As for mastruca, In Or. pro Scauro. which is Sardinian for a rough coat, it is introduced by Cicero merely as an object of derision.
5.9
Another kind of barbarism proceeds from the speaker's temper: for instance, we regard it as barbarous if a speaker use cruel or brutal language.
5.10
A third and very common kind, of which anyone may fashion examples for himself, consists in the addition or omission of a letter or syllable, or in the substitution of one for another or in placing one where it has no right to be.
