Kitap 5
21
Then that friend of mine, thinking that the self-confident fellow deserved few words, said: There are numerous letters of Sinnius Capito, a very learned man, collected in a single volume and deposited, I think, in the Temple of Peace. The first letter is addressed to Pacuvius Labeo, and it is prefixed by the title, 'Pluria, not plura, should be used.' Fr. 1, Huschke. In that letter he has collected the grammatical rules to show that pluria, and not plura, is good Latin. Therefore I refer you to Capito. From him you will learn at the same time, provided you can comprehend what is written in that letter, that pluria, or plura, is the positive and simple form, not, as it seems to you, a comparative.
21
It also confirms that view of Sinnius, that when we say complures or several, we are not using a comparative. Moreover, from the word compluria is derived the adverb compluriens, often. Since this is not a common word, I have added a verse of Plautus, from the comedy entitled The Persian: v. 534. What do you fear?—By Heaven! I am afraid; I've had the feeling many a time and oft (compluriens). Marcus Cato too, in the fourth book of his Origins, has used this word three times in the same passage: Fr. 79, Peter. Often (compluriens) did their mercenary soldiers kill one another in large numbers in the camp; often (compluriens) did many together desert to the enemy; often (compluriens) did they attack their general.
