Kitap 1
25
Now the Greeks, more significantly and more pointedly, have called such an agreement to cease from fighting e)kexeiri/a, or a staying of hands, substituting for one letter of harsher sound a smoother one. That is, e)kexeiri/a instead of an original e)xexeiri/a, from e)/xw and xei/r, the first x, an aspirate, being reduced to the smooth mute k, since in Greek an aspirate may not begin two successive syllables. For since there is no fighting at such a time and their hands are withheld, they called it e)kexeiri/a. But it surely was not Varro's task to define a truce too scrupulously, and to observe all the laws and canons of definition; for he thought it sufficient to give an explanation of the kind which the Greeks call tu/poi (typical ) and u(pografai/ (outline ), rather than o(rismoi/ (exact definition ).
