Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/226

206 king, and of frankincense in sacrifice, as well as by the very ancient borrowed names for them (🇬🇷, linum; 🇬🇷, purpura; 🇬🇷, 🇬🇷, scipio; perhaps also 🇬🇷, ebur; 🇬🇷, thus). Of similar significance is the derivation of a number of words relating to articles used in eating and drinking, particularly the names of oil (comp. P. 196), of jugs (🇬🇷, amp(h)ora, ampulla; 🇬🇷, cratera), of feasting (🇬🇷, commissari), of a dainty (🇬🇷, obsonium), of dough (🇬🇷, massa), and various names of cakes (🇬🇷, lucuns; 🇬🇷, placenta; 🇬🇷, turunda); while conversely the Latin names for dishes (patina, 🇬🇷) and for lard (arvina, 🇬🇷) have found admission into Sicilian Greek. The later custom of placing in the tomb beside the dead Attic and Corcyrean ornamental vases proves, what these testimonies from language likewise show, the early traffic in Greek pottery-wares to Italy. That Greek leather-work made its way into Latium at least in the shape of armour is apparent from the application of the Greek word for leather (🇬🇷), to signify among the Latins a shield (scutum; like lorica, from lorum). Finally, we deduce a similar inference from the numerous nautical terms borrowed from the Greek (although it is remarkable that the chief expressions requisite in navigation—the terms for the sail, mast, and yard—are pure Latin forms); and from the recurrence in Latin of the Greek designations for a letter (🇬🇷, epistula), a token (tessera, from 🇬🇷), a balance (🇬🇷, statera), and earnest-money (🇬🇷, arrabo, arra); and conversely from the adoption of Italian law-terms in Sicilian Greek (P. 165), as well as from the exchange of the proportions and names of coins, weights, and measures, which we shall notice in the sequel. The character of barbarism which all these borrowed terms bear on the face of them, and especially the characteristic formation of the nominative from the accusative (placenta = 🇬🇷; ampora = 🇬🇷; statera = 🇬🇷), constitute the clearest evidence of their antiquity. The worship of the god of traffic (Mercurius) also