G. Plinius Secundus, more familiar as Pliny the Elder, wrote a Natural
History at it will have plenty of references to birds, quite apart
from Book 10 which is dedicated solely to Birds. For example his
passage of the nightingale's endless supply of breath and it's
excellent knowledge of music. He also has a large section about ravens
and praises both their accomplishments and usefulness, especially the
famous talking raven that was given an elaborate funeral in the reign
of Tiberius.
Birds are fairly central to many parts of classical culture. The
ancient Greeks believed a legendary bird called the Halcyon that
mated and nested at sea (brooding on a floating nest) during a week of
calm weather around the winter solstice. Hence halcyon meaning calm,
and the family Halcyonidae - the Greeks associated the legend to the
kingfisher. In Ovid, Aeolus (god of the winds) has a daughter Alcyone,
whose husband Ceyx drowned at sea. In grief Alcyone threw herself into
the sea to drown, at that moment she is transformed into a bird - the
kingfisher.
Each winter during seven full days of calm
Halcyone broods on her floating nest--
her nest that sails upon a halcyon sea:
the passage of the deep is free from storms,
throughout those seven full days; and Aeolus
restraining harmful winds, within their cave,
for his descendants' sake gives halcyon seas.
- Ovid Metamorphoses 11.742-8
Then there is also Cicero's On Divination.
Cicero was a member of the college of Augurs. Augury was the
foretelling of signs from the study of the flight of birds. One of the
consuls would mark out a quarter of the sky, and describe the flight
of birds to the blindfolded augur. The augur in turn would interpret
the signs for the consul. No important action could occur inside Rome
without the augurs being consulted - failure to do so may render the
action illegal in Roman law. There were also the famous sacred
chickens, which were fed corn and their feeding watched for portents.
Famously, after a particularly bad omen, P. Claudius Pulcher, in
command of a fleet in the 1st Punic War, was said to have had them
thrown them into the sea (although probably just the Tiber) with the
words "if they will not eat, then let them drink". He inevitably lost
the battle; an object lesson in impiety and hubris.
Despite being an Augur, Cicero is generally pretty sceptical about the
reality of the reading of prodigies, portents, and signs. But that's
Romans for you.
regs
scot
On 09/06/2009, at 21:42 , Paul Dodd wrote:
Well Aristotle did write "History of Animals" and "Generation of
Animals",
both regarded as seminal works on the subject...
The earliest reference I can find to Latin works are the
"Bestiaries" by the
Dominican friar Albert the Great - but these are basically embellished
versions of Aristotle's works.
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of L&L Knight
Sent: Tuesday, 9 June 2009 8:58 PM
To: Birding Aus
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Accipiter v Accipiter
In the interests of relevance, perhaps the erudite members of group
might like to open a discussion of the Latin and Greek roots of
ornithological discourse ...
On 09/06/2009, at 8:43 PM, Scot Mcphee wrote:
I just want to add that this habit for the abbreviation of Latin
terms is not an English phenomenon at all either. Its usage dates
from classical Latin itself, particularly that found in monumental
epigraphy. A typical inscription that you might find on an altar for
example as this one found at Maryport:
I O M
COH I HISP EQ
CVI PRAEEST
L ANTISTIVS L F
QVIRINA LVPUS
VERIANVS PRAEF
DOMV SICCA
EX AFRICA
In Latin, this is "Iupitter Optimus Maximus Cohors Primae Hispanorum
Equitata Cui Praeest Lucius Antistius Lucius Filius Quirina Lupus
Verianus Praefectus Domu Sicca Ex Africa", or in English: "To
Jupiter Best and Greatest, the First Cohort of Spaniards, part-
mounted, under the command of the Prefect Lucius Antistius Lupus
Verianus, son of Lucius, of the Quirine voting tribe, from Sicca in
Africa (set this up)". (set this up) is meant but not written even
in the Latin.
The Roman god "Jupiter", is nearly always written on inscriptions as
"I O M" or Iupitter Optimus Maximus (Jupiter Best and Greatest).
Many other common forms abound, also at the end of a dedication one
might have written V S L M or "Votum Soluit Libens Merito" or to
translate, "willingly and deservedly fulfilled his vow".
Coinage also follows this sort of use, e.g. "IMP CAES NERVAE TRAIANO
AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS V P P" or "Imperator Caesar Nervae Trajano
Augustus Germanicus Dacius Pontifex Maximus Tribinicia Potestas
Consul V Pater Patriae" or translated "Emperor Caesar Nerva Trajan
Augustus Germanicus Dacius, Chief Priest, Tribunican Power (for
life), Consul Five Times, Father of the Fatherland". (Germanicus
Dacius are names given to him to indicate he conquered, or won
battles against the Germans and the Dacians).
Last, the Romans would usually never write their first name either.
G. Iulius Caesar is Gaius Julius Caesar, conquerer of Gaul and
murdered dictator-for-life. There are a whole bunch of standard
abbreviations e.g. L==Lucius, Gn==Gnaeus, M==Marcus and so on.
On 09/06/2009, at 18:02 , Paul Dodd wrote:
For a little bit of fun I thought I'd contribute to this debate...
Initially I thought that the distinction between "v" and "vs" as
abbreviations was that legal practitioners tended to use "v" and
sportspeople and others used "vs". Checking through the various
documents
from solicitors in the various cases that I've been involved in
over the
years (as a business owner, not a criminal!), in cases where my
company has
been the plaintiff, the documents are addressed as ......
(plaintiff) v.
...... (defendant) - where v. is the abbreviation for "versus",
obviously.
Curiously when my company is the defendant, the documents are
addressed as
...... (defendant) a.t.s. ...... (plaintiff) - where a.t.s. is an
abbreviation of "at the suit of" - an English expression!
I then searched my mind for the Latin that I learnt at school many
years
ago. And in almost every case the common convention for the
abbreviation of
Latin expressions is the initial letter of each word followed by a
period.
For example:
e.g. exempli gratia (for example)
i.e. id est (that is)
q.e.d quod erat demonstrandum (which was to be shown or
demonstrated)
A.D. Anno Domini (in the Year of the Lord)
Modern usage tends to omit the periods between the letters, and
often the
period at the end.
So what about "etc"? This is actually a concatenation of a Latin
word "et"
(meaning "and") and the abbreviation for another Latin word "cetera"
(meaning "other unspecified things"). Over the years "et" and "c."
have
merged into "etc." or "etc".
For the religious Christian-minded, another well-known Latin
abbreviation is
"INRI" - Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum (Jesus of Nazareth, King of
the
Jews). Curiously, this phrase is often written without periods.
Other Latin phrases are used today without abbreviation including
"ad hoc",
"ab initio", "ad infinitum", "annus horribilis", and so on.
The only odd phrase I could find was "ad lib", which is a shortened
form of
"ad libitum" (at one's pleasure). A little more research indicated
this
phrase was always "ad libitum" until either 1919 or 1925 in America,
depending on the reference one believes, when the phrase "adlib"
was coined,
as one word.
So, in short, the "proper" abbreviation of "versus" is "v." with
"vs" being
a much more recent adoption.
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Rob Geraghty
Sent: Tuesday, 9 June 2009 9:18 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Accipiter v Accipiter
Just a point of pedantry not related to birding - can anyone tell
me when it
became common to concatenate "versus" to "v" rather than "vs"? I am
guessing it's something advertisers began to make headlines
narrower, a bit
like the new habit of leaving out the words "hundred" and
"thousand" in
advertising to make 17,990 sound smaller.
This is not a criticism of anyone on the list. I'm honestly
curious if
anyone noticed when this use of "v" began.
Rob
PS Ob-birding: miserable weekend for birding in Canberra. Cold,
windy, and
the birds had very sensibly looked elsewhere for shelter. :(
=======
Rob Geraghty
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