Kitap 11
1
Furthermore, Marcus Varro, in the twenty-first book of his Human Antiquities, also says xxi. fr. 1, Mirsch. that the word for fine (multa) is itself not Latin, but Sabine, and he remarks that it endured even to within his own memory in the speech of the Samnites, who are sprung from the Sabines. But the upstart herd of grammarians have asserted that this word, like some others, is used on the principle of opposites. That is, the lucus a non lucendo idea. Furthermore, since it is a usage and custom in language for us to say even now, as the greater number of the early men did, multam dixit and multa dicta est, I have thought it not out of place to note that Marcus Cato spoke otherwise. Fr. 82, Peter2. For in the fourth book of his Origins are these words: Our commander, if anyone has gone to battle out of order, imposes (facit) a fine upon him. But it may seem that Cato changed the word with an eye to propriety, since the fine was imposed in camp and in the army, not pronounced in the comitium or in the presence of the people.
2
That the word elegantia in earlier days was not used of a more refined nature, but of excessive fastidiousness in dress and mode of life, and was a term of reproach.
