On the Construction fatale peregi in CIL VI, 5953 (CLE 1068)

Latomus 75, 2016 On the Construction fatale peregi in CIL VI, 5953 (CLE 1068)* To José Miguel The aim of this paper is to put forward a significant observation about the recent correction of CIL VI, 5953 1, a carmen epigraphicum, proposed by M. Massaro 2. This correction has resulted in a construction fatale peregi with no epigraphic or literary parallels, a construction to be included in the Latin dictionaries. CIL VI, 5953 contains an eight lined epitaph dedicated to a young man, Successus, by his sister Primigenia. The first three lines are in prose; the remainder make up a poem formed by two elegiac couplets with some prosodic faults. The text contained in the major editions and compilations, such as CIL (see fig. 1) or F. Bücheler’s CLE, had been transmitted unaltered since it was established in the eighteenth century. Fig. 1. CIL VI, 5953 Massaro has rightly corrected the noun iter, at the beginning of the poem, in the third line, by the adverb ter, given that the stone clearly contains no -i. Consequently, the first verse of the carmen must be read ter VII annis ego iam fatale peregi. Most probably, this mistake was triggered by misinterpreting a stroke, * This work has been undertaken in the framework of a Spanish research group (PAIDI HUM-156). 1 Preserved in the Palazzo Nuovo of the Capitoline Museum, fixed in the wall of the Sala delle colombe (inv. NCE 1941). 2 M. MASSARO, Un “iter” di fantasia. Revisione e commento di CIL VI 5953 / CLE 1068, in ZPE 187, 2013, p. 164-172. 986 MARÍA LIMÓN BELÉN actually a uirgula, used to separate the praescriptum in prose from the verse 3. This uirgula was wrongly understood as an -i giving as a result the reading of a word iter which no one had thus far questioned. As a matter of fact, from a semantic outlook, the sequence fatale peregi, at the end of the first hexameter, reflects the “life is a journey” metaphor of which there are close parallels in Classical Latin authors. In the frame of this metaphor, a construction with peragere demands a noun such as tempus, aeuum, cursum or iter. There are examples of perago construed with all these nouns with the meaning ‘to live out / to complete (a period of time)’ or ‘to life out one’s life’ 4: – Verg., A. IV, 653: et quem dederat cursum Fortuna peregi. – Ov., Met. XV, 485: qui postquam senior regnumque aeuumque peregit. – Hor., S. I, 6, 93-94: nam si natura iuberet / a certis annis aeuum remeare peractum. – Sen., Epist. XCIX, 12: cui ante lassitudinem peractum est iter? – Val. Fl. I, 788-789: et non segne peractum / lucis iter. According to these examples, the word iter was likely to be read on CIL VI, 5953. This would explain why the first editors opted for the lectio facilior by reading (or reconstructing) this word, which was perfectly appropriate in the context of the inscription. In addition, some other examples of similar constructions with perago meaning ‘to live’ can also be found both in verse and prose epigraphs: – CIL VI, 38425 (CLE 1948): Hic ego nunc iaceo... peragens tertium et uicensimum annum. – CIL VIII, 27587 (CLE 1869): annos peregit duos et octoginta. – AÉ 1364, 1995: M(arci) Aurelii Sam[---] iter qui conducens uitam peregit. The closest parallel for the fatale peregi construction is in CIL VI, 25022: nullum dolorem accepi tui nisi quod fatalem diem celeriter peregisti 5. Nonetheless, what we have in CIL VI, 5953 is a construction fatale peregi without the expected object. This aporia can be tackled from two different points of view: either fatale is substantivised as the object of perago, or fatale is used as an adverbial accusative modifying the verb. Massaro stands for the first solution by interpreting this construction as the result of the use of the adjective fatale as a noun 6. This possibility is supported by the ThLL, where some instances of fatale used as a substantive are mentioned 7. These instances can be divided in three categories, among which the following passages are significant: 1.1. Stat., Silu. II, 1, 226: quae nubes fatale sonet. 1.2. Cic., Fam. XII, 13, 1: fatale nescio quid tuae uirtuti datum. 3 About this uirgula see M. LIMÓN, On the Recent Correction of CIL VI, 5953, in Tyche 29, 2014, p. 273-274; MASSARO, Un “iter” [n. 2], p. 165 also mentions it briefly. 4 See perago 10, in P. G. W. GLARE, Oxford Latin Dictionary, Oxford, 2012². 5 I owe this example to one of the anonymous reviewers. 6 MASSARO, Un “iter” [n. 2] p. 168. 7 O. HEY, art. fatalis, in ThLL VI.1, 1912-1926, col. 334, 81ss. ON THE CONSTRUCTION FATALE PEREgI IN CIL VI, 5953 987 2. Fatale referring to an infinitive clause: CIL VI, 22251 (CLE 1127): si pietate aliquem redimi fatale fuisset Marsidia Stabilis prima redempta forem. 3.1. Fatale referring to a sentence: Ov., Epist. 4, 63: hoc quoque fatale est: placuit domus una duabus. 3.2. With ut: Tac., Ann. XII, 64: fatale sibi, ut … ferret. However, all these examples can be refuted since it appears that fatale is rather used as an adjective. In the first case, fatale is considered by the OLD 8 as an example of adverbial accusative, a subtype of internal accusative whereby the adjective modifies the verb with which it is construed 9. In instance 1.2, fatale clearly modifies the compound pronominal form nescio quid as an adjective. Similar constructions can be found, for example, in Cic., Fam. VII, 5, 2: tanta fuit opportunitas ut illud nescio quid non fortuitum sed diuinum uideretur. Example number 2 is rather to be understood as a copulative construction in which fatale applies to an infinitive complement sentence as an adjective. This construction is the same as in Hor., Carm. 3.2.13: dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, a well-known example. The third case is slightly confusing, because fatale does not apply to the following sentence, as implied in the ThLL, but to the pronoun hoc. In fact, that sentence is the referent of hoc. It is the same case as in Man. IV, 118: hoc quoque fatale est, sic ipsum expendere fatum. The same construction is to be found with different adjectives in Sen., Phoen. 368: hoc quoque etiamnunc leue est: peperi nocentes. Finally, instance 3.2 is similar to number 2 but, in the former case, fatale applies to a finite sentence instead of to an infinitive. Then, how should we explain this fatale peregi construction? It is quite possible to understand the text without iter and still have it maintain its sense. According to the dictionaries, there is an absolute use of perago with the sense ‘to live’ 10 which is documented only once in the classic authors: Pers. V, 1389-1390: regustatum digito terebrare salinum / contentus perages, si uiuere cum Ioue tendis. This is a poetic employment that may exhibit Greek influence (see intr. διάγειν ‘to live’ = tr. [βίον, αἰῶνα, χρόνον] διάγειν) 11. We also have to bear in mind the possibility of an analogy after the attested use of ago and dego with the ellipse of uitam 12. In this regard, another example of intransitive perago on Vet. Lat., 8 fatalis, 1.b., in GLARE, Oxford Latin Dictionary [n. 4]. 9 Note that the neuter of an adjective is elsewhere used with this verb: VERG., A. 6. 50: nec mortale sonans. I thank one of the anonymous reviewers for this observation. See also g. 3.149: acerba sonans. 10 A. PERI, art. perago, in ThLL X.1, fasc. VIII, 1994, col. 1178, 56-62. 11 See διάγω in H. G. LIDDELL / R. SCOTT / H. S. JONES, A greek-English Lexicon, Oxford, 19409. 12 O. HEY, art. ago, in ThLL I, 1900, col. 1401, 51ss. and K. STÖGER, art. dego, in V.1, 1910, col. 385, 27 ss. On the example of Persius see also R. A. HARVEY, A commentary on Persius, Leiden, 1981, p. 165. 988 MARÍA LIMÓN BELÉN Tit. 3.3 is significant 13: seruientes… uoluptatibus uariis in auaritia et inuidia peragentes. It is to be noticed that peragentes translates διάγοντες in the Greek original 14 and that it was replaced by agentes in the Vulgate and by degentes in Theodore of Mopsuestia’s commentary 15. As seen above, perago can occasionally become intransitive, and as such, it might be determined by a neuter adjective in the accusative which becomes adverbialised, i.e. an internal accusative. In Latin this kind of accusative is typical of pronominal forms 16, but it is also attested with adjectives, especially in poetical texts 17. In my opinion, the best way to understand fatale peregi is by considering fatale an internal accusative. If this interpretation is correct, in CIL VI, 5953 we have a variant of the [aeuum, uitam, tempus] peragere construction, halfway between the absolute use of the verb and the expected transitive one, by employing the adjective fatale (‘ordained by fate’/ ‘according to fate’) as a modifier of the verb. Despite its seeming rare, this verse must have been perfectly understandable to a Latin speaker: Ter VII annis ego iam fatale peregi “In 21 years I already lived fatefully (i.e. as decreed by fate)” This is certainly most poetic, although we cannot determine whether it was the result of a conscious literary intention or of an awkward variation of an unknown model, since no exact parallels are known. Positively, this is not a common use of the internal accusative, but it is a more realistic option than the use of fatale as a noun, of which there seem to be no examples. Universidad de Sevilla. María LIMÓN BELÉN. 13 Two other late examples are also cited in the ThLL: CONC.S IV.2 p. 103, 36 (nunc uestrum est … sic peragere, ut…) and SACR. greg. 31 (fac nos ita peragere, ut tibi placere ualeamus). 14 ἐν κακίᾳ καὶ φθόνῳ διάγοντες. 15 H. B. SWETE (ed.), Theodori episcopi Mopsuesteni in epistolas B. Pauli commentarii. The Latin version with the greek fragments, II, Cambridge, 1882, p. 252. 16 For the neuter adjectives as internal accusatives see A. ERNOUT / F. THOMAS, Syntaxe latine, Paris, 19592, p. 26, §35 (“accusatif de qualification”); H. RUHENBAUER / J. B. HOFMANN, Lateinische grammatik, München, 19953, § 116.3.a. 17 “dichterisch auch mit anderen als Quantitätsadjektive” (RUHENBAUER / HOFMANN, Lateinische grammatik [n. 16], p. 132).