Kitap 13
9
What Tullius Tiro wrote in his commentaries about the Suculae, or Little Pigs, and the Hyades, which are the names of constellations.
9
TULLIUS TIRO was the pupil and freedman of Marcus Cicero and an assistant in his literary work. He wrote several books on the usage and theory of the Latin language and on miscellaneous questions of various kinds. Pre-eminent among these appear to be those to which he gave the Greek title Pande/ktai, Literally, all-embracing. implying that they included every kind of science and fact. In these he wrote the following about the stars which are called the Suculae, or Little Pigs: pp. 7 ff. Lion. The early Romans, says he, were so ignorant of Grecian literature and so unfamiliar with the Greek language, that they called those stars which are in the head of the Bull Suculae, or 'The Little Pigs,' because the Greeks call them u(a/des; for they supposed that Latin word to be a translation of the Greek name because u(/es in Greek is sues in Latin. But the u(a/des, says he, are so called, ou)k a)po\ tw=n u(w=n (that is, not from pigs), as our rude forefathers believed, but from the word u(/ein; for both when they rise and when they set they cause rainstorms and heavy showers. And pluere, (to rain) is expressed in the Greek tongue by u(/ein.
