Book 1
5.43
But we find not a trace of such a usage in any Latin author. On the contrary phrases such as devenere locos, Aen. i. 369: They came to the places. conticuere omnes Aen. ii. l: All were silent. and consedere duces Ovid, Met. xiii. l: The chiefs sat them down. clearly prove that they have nothing to do with the dual. Moreover dixere, Dixere, they have spoken, was said when the advocates had finished their pleading. although Antonius Rufus cites it as proof to the contrary, is often used by the usher in the courts to denote more than two advocates.
5.44
Again, does not Livy near the beginning of his first book write tenuere arcem Sabini Liv. I. xii.: The Sabines held the citadel. The Romans marched up the slope against them. and later in adversum Romani subiere? But I can produce still better authority. For Cicero in his Orator says, I have no objection to the form scripsere, though I regard scripserunt as the more correct. Orat. xlvii. 157.
5.45
Similarly in vocables and nouns solecisms occur in connexion with gender, number and more especially case, by substitution of one for another. To these may be added solecisms in the use of comparatives and superlatives, or the employment of patronymics instead of possessives and vice versa.
