Re: Numerals Re: Re: Agglutinating -> inflecting

Andreas Johansson scripsit:

> Would he have used _romani_ like that? Last I read of this episode, the writer
> assumed the expected address has been _milites_.
That's certainly how Suetonius tells it:

# Decimanos autem Romae cum ingentibus minis summoque etiam urbis
# periculo missionem et praemia flagitantes, ardente tunc in Africa bello,
# neque adire cunctatus est, quamquam deterrentibus amicis, neque dimittere;
# sed una voce, qua 'Quirites' eos pro militibus appellarat, tam facile
# circumegit et flexit, ut ei milites esse confestim responderint et quamvis
# recusantem ultro in Africam sint secuti; ac sic quoque seditiosissimum
# quemque et praedae et agri destinati tertia parte multavit.

Tacitus, who only mentions the story in passing, is rather more vague.  But
of course who knows what was in Caesar's mind at the time?
Lewis's Elementary Latin Dictionary says:

# Quiris, itis, gen plur. tium, m  [Cures] .-- Plur, the inhabitants of
# Cures, Quirites: prisci, V.--After the Sabines and the Romans were united,
# the people were called Quirites: ita geminata urbe . . . Quirites
# a curibus appellati, L.; the term implied civilians, while Romani was
# regarded as the name of warriors and rulers. The two were united in
# various phrases designating the whole people: populus R. Quiritium, the
# Roman commonwealth of Quirite citizens, L.: exercitus populi R. Quiritium,
# L.: populus R. Quiritesque, L.: Quirites Romani, L.; orators often
# addressed the people as Quirites.--In the phrase, ius Quiritium, the
# civil rights of a citizen in Rome: iure Quiritium liber esse.--Sing,
# a Roman citizen, Quirite: dona Quiritis, H.: reddere iura Quiriti, O.:
# Quis te re donavit Quiritem Dis patriis? i. e. unharmed, H.--Of bees,
# citizens, commonalty: ipsae regem, parvosque Quirites Sufficiunt, V.

--
"We are lost, lost.  No name, no business, no Precious, nothing.  Only empty.
Only hungry: yes, we are hungry.  A few little fishes, nassty bony little
fishes, for a poor creature, and they say death.  So wise they are; so just,
so very just."  --Gollum        jcowan@reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan

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