Re: Cases and Prepositions (amongst others)

At 5:23 pm -0400 12/6/00, John Cowan wrote:
>Raymond Brown wrote:
>
>> And neither phrase is Classical, so it's interesting to find 'absque'
>> preserved in post-classical legal parlance.
>
>Hmm.  Which legal writers (other than Cicero, who probably doesn't need
>the expression, since most of his cases were of a public character)
>are reckoned Classical?
Cicero is one of the writers who does use 'absque', but only legal
contexts; the other Classical writer is Quintillian.

In the post-Classical (but pre-medieval) it is found in Gellius (late 2nd
cent grammarian), the Codex Theodosianus (5th cent.), & Ammianus
Mercellinus (5th cenr. historian) - all in legal contexts AFAIK.

But the phrase 'damnum absque iniuria' must be of medieval origin since it
has the form: noun + prep. + noun.

Ray.



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