PRAENESTINE ASOM FERO PAULINE TURNBULL UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND [In Corpus Inscr. Lat. 1a. 2. 560 ASOM FERO is to be interpreted adsum, fero. The interpretation is supported by parallels from Plautus.] There is a bronze cista from Praeneste, first published by L. Duvau in 1890,1 around the side of which, in a circular band, the preparation of a meal is portrayed. The scene includes seven men, divided into three groups of two each with the seventh man by himself; and every man is attended by a short inscription. The first pair has to do with the carving of the meat; the second with cutting it into small pieces and carrying the pieces on platters to the fire; the third with the cooking, which is evidently a boiling process, since the inscriptions of this group contain the words made and misc. The seventh man hurries away from the fire carrying in each hand a long spit on which there are several pieces of the cooked meat; he utters the words ASOM FERO. It is the word asom that I wish to discuss. Duvau3 saw its exact equivalence to Latin assum 'roasted', but rejected this interpretation because the meat had not been roasted, but boiled. He therefore took asom = assum, supine of areo, or = arsum, supine of ardeo, with the meaning 'I am bringing (the meat) to be roasted', and sought to justify the writing of the supine with -om, although the supine is a u-stem, and there is no basis for a change of -um to -om in Latin of an early date.5 1 In Mélanges d'Archéologie et d'Histoire (École Française de Rome), 10. 303–16 and Plate VI, without naming the collection in which it was. W. Fröhner, publishing it in La Collection Tyzskiewicz 27-8 and Plate XXIX, revealed the location and the ownership. 'A critical consideration of these legends is to be found in the next article in this issue of LANGUAGE. 3 Fröhner accepts asom = assum 'le rôti'. Difficulties in the formation of assum are raised by Conway, Ital. Dial. 2. 603, but are solved by views presented in Walde, Lat. etym. Wörtb.2, s.v. areo. " Umbrian supine aso for assum shows a special Umbrian change of -um to -om, which cannot be used to support Praen. asom as a supine. No advance on this interpretation has since been made. But I object to this interpretation not merely because of the impossibility of a Latin (Praenestine) supine in -om, but also because it does not seem natural that such an elaborate cooking scene should end with the cooking still unfinished. On the other hand, this method of carrying food is still used in Italy and in Greece, and the attitude of the man suggests that he is hurrying to the patrons who are waiting for their meal. The Italian waiter of to-day often cries eccomi 'here I am', as he is leaving the kitchen in haste to serve his customer. So I propose that asom fero fero 'here I am, I am bringing it'. = adsum, Plautus uses two words assum, one the accusative of assus 'roasted', the other the assimilated form of adsum 'I am present'. The former is found only Asin. 179-80:6 eum quouis pacto condias l uel patinarium uel assum, uorses quo pacto lubet; in the nominative it is seen also in Most. 1115: nam elixus esse quam assus soleo suavior. But assum or adsum 'I am present' is used thirteen times: Curc. 164: adsum: nam si apsim, hau recusem quin mihi male sit, mel meum. Mil. 1031: adsum, impera si quid uis. Poen. 279: AG. Milphio, heus, Milphio, ubi es? MI. assum apud te eccum. AG. at ego elixus sis uolo. Rud. 1273: adsum equidem, ne censionem semper facias. Truc. 514: adsum, adduco tibi exoptatum Stratophanem. Truc. 826-7: adsum, Callicles: per te opsecro/genua..... Amph. 956: Amphitruo, adsum. siquid opus est, impera, imperium exsequar. Capt. 978: Hegio, adsum. si quid me uis, impera. Trin. 276: pater, adsum, impera quiduis. Amph. 1131: Bono animo es, adsum auxilio, Amphitruo, tibi et tuis. Rud. 1050: quoniam ego adsum, faciet nemo iniuriam. The parallelism to the use in Praenestine asom fero is very clear. In the first six of these passages adsum is the first word of the speaker, and in the next three it is preceded only by a vocative; in two more it heads its clause. In the first nine, adsum is soon followed by a coordinate verb. Such also is the usage in asom fero = adsum, fero. That The citations from Plautus follow the text of Lindsay's Oxford edition. The Goetz and Schoell edition of 1898 reads assum also in Amph. 956, Capt. 978, Curc. 164, following good manuscript authority; and there is lesser warrant for assum in several other passages. Conversely, there is excellent authority for adsum at Poen. 279, where the pun requires assum. Eccum may fairly be included among these, since it has the same value in the sentence. adsum was in Plautus' time pronounced assum, is shown by the pun in Poen. 269, where the other speaker purposely misunderstands in order to make a joke: 'Here I am before you, see me', but the other replies 'But I prefer you to be boiled', as though the previous words had meant 'See me roasted before you'. That the older form of Latin sum was *som, is shown by Oscan súm, which is the writing for som in the native Oscan alphabet. In view of these facts, therefore, (1) that asom is a correct archiac writing for assum = adsum, (2) that assum was often, perhaps even normally, the pronunciation of adsum in the time of Plautus, (3) that adsum was used by Plautus in precisely parallel situations in the sentence, and (4) that this identification satisfies the action of the scene portrayed on the cista, I offer the interpretation 'Here I am, I am bringing it', for asom fero. THE COOKERY INSCRIPTION FROM PRAENESTE ROLAND G. KENT UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA [Interpretation of the other inscriptions of CIL 12. 2. 560, and discussion of their linguistic peculiarities; esp. POROD but RECIE, SANE; and the writing of the final diphthong in COFECI and COEPI.] The bronze cista from Praeneste first published by Duvau in 1890 bears around its side an interesting kitchen scene with inscriptions; I refer to the cista treated in the preceding article. As Duvau noted, there are seven men in the scene, and seven inscriptions, running one from near the mouth of each man, and therefore most probably utterances of those to whom they are respectively attached. The scene develops from left to right. Man No. 1 holds something in his hand. which because of injury to the cista cannot be identified; a dog looks up expectantly at him. No. 2 faces No. 1 and is in the act of removing from a rack on the wall a dressed carcass of a cloven-hoofed animal, a calf or a swine or a sheep; it is not large enough to be a beef. No. 3 faces to the right, holding in his right hand a carving knife and in his left a tray filled with small round pieces of meat, toward which a dog leaps up. No. 4 advances toward No. 3, swinging an empty platter in his right hand. No. 5 is stirring, with a large broad-bladed instrument, the contents of a tripod brazier standing over a fire. No. 6 faces No. 5 and takes from the brazier, with a seven-tined fork, pieces of cooked meat which he places on a tray held in his left hand. No. 7 is walking hastily to the right, carrying in his right hand a spit on which are impaled five pieces of meat, in his left a spit with at least four pieces-the drawing is here damaged, and it may have held more. The literature concerning this cista and its inscriptions, so far as I have been able to trace it, is as follows: L. Duvau, Mélanges d'Archéologie et d'Histoire (École Française de Rome) 10. 303– 16 and Plate VI (1890). R. Engelmann, Das homerische Pempobolon, in Jahrbuch d. kais. deut. Arch. Instituts 6.173-6 (1891); this deals only with the fork held by No. 6. E. Lattes, Iscrizioni Paleolatine 133 (not accessible to me). W. M. Lindsay, The Latin Language 277 (1894) = Die lateinische Sprache, übers. von H. Nohl 317 (1897). W. M. Lindsay, Handbook of Latin Inscriptions 31-2 (1897). R. von Planta, Grammatik der oskisch-umbrischen Dialekte 2. 586-7 (1897). R. S. Conway, The Italic Dialects 1. 311-2 (1897). W. Fröhner, La Collection Tyszkiewicz 27-8 and Plate XXIX (undated, but about 1898; the preface is dated 1892). A. Ernout, Le Parler de Préneste 9 = Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de E. Diehl, Altlateinische Inschriften3 (in Lietzmann's Kleine Texte), p. 65, no. 653 (1911). A. Ernout, Recueil de Textes Latins Archaïques 33 (1916). E. Lommatzsch, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum I. 2. 560 (1918). Duvau, Engelmann, and Fröhner give the facsimile of the entire scene; matzsch gives facsimiles of the inscriptions only. Lom FACSIMILE OF THE LEGENDS with original orientation, horizontal and vertical The legends in the scene, with the variant readings which have been suggested, are the following: (1) confice piscim Duvau; so all. (2) coenalia or possibly coepi alia Duvau; coenalia or coena pia Lindsay LL; coenalia Lindsay Hdb., von Planta, Conway, Fröhner, Ernout PP; crevi alia1 Diehl, Ernout RT, Lommatzsch. (3) cofeci Duvau; so all. 1 Presumably in the meaning 'I have cut some others', from cerno in its original meaning 'separate'. |