Cambridge English Empower Elementary. Teacher's Book

Political Value of the Tribunates, II. II. The Valerio-Horatian Laws. 25. I. XIV. Corruption of Language and Writing. 26. In the two epitaphs, of Lucius Scipio consul in 456, and of the consul of the same name in 495, -m and -d are ordinarily wanting in the termination of cases, yet Luciom and Gnaivod respectively occur once; there occur alongside of one another in the nominative Cornelio and filios; cosol, cesor, alongside of consol, censor; aidiles, dedet, ploirume (= plurimi) hec (nom. sing.) alongside of aidilis, cepit, quei, hic. Rhotacism is already carried out completely; we find duonoro (= bonorum), ploirume, not as in the chant of the Salii foedesum, plusima. Our surviving inscriptions do not in general precede the age of rhotacism; of the older -s only isolated traces occur, such as afterwards honos, labos alongside of honor, labor; and the similar feminine praenomina, Maio (= maiosmaior) and Mino in recently found epitaphs at Praeneste. 27.Litterator and grammaticus are related nearly as elementary teacher and teacher of languages with us; the latter designation belonged by earlier usage only to the teacher of Greek, not to a teacher of the mother-tongue. Litteratus is more recent, and denotes not a schoolmaster but a man of culture. 28. It is at any rate a true Roman picture, which Plautus (Bacch. 431) produces as a specimen of the good old mode of training children: [...] ubi revenisses domum, Cincticulo praecinctus in sella apud magistrum adsideres; Si, librum cum legeres, unam peccavisses syllabam, Fieret corium tam maculosum, quam est nutricis pallium. 29. I. XIV ...»