Re: CHAT: Excessive alliteration

On Tue, 30 May 2000, Irina Rempt wrote:

>On Tue, 30 May 2000, Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:
>
>> À propos of nothing, I just encountered this line from Ennius (Quintus
>> Ennius, 239-169? BCE):
>>
>>         O TITE TUTE TATE TIBI TANTA TYRANNE TULISTI
>>
>> The commentary said: "Already early quoted in commentaries on style to
>> show the excessive use of alliteration."
>
>I was about to write "it's a good thing that the Romans didn't have
>false teeth" when I realized that the Romans *did* have false teeth.
>Not all Romans, of course, but senators and such, being old and rich,
>would have been most likely to have them.
I dearly wish I had kept the email now! A couple of years ago, a
friend sent me an article about a Roman era false tooth found in
a soldier in Gaul. It was apparently quite well shaped, made of
iron, and shoved into the poor fellow's empty tooth socket with
a rod. One can only imagine the quantities of alchohol imbibed
before taking on such an operation! The operation itself didn't
kill the fellow, since the bone had ample time to grow around
the prosthesis. I suppose them rich Senators could afford some-
thing more denturelike and rather less instrument-of-torture-
like. Either that or they were really into pain.

Padraic.

>   Irina