‘Oblongae scvtvlae vel bipenni’: Tacitus, ‘Agricola’, 10, 3

W. K. Lacey

doi:10.1017/S0068673500002790

‘Oblongae scvtvlae vel bipenni’: Tacitus, ‘Agricola’, 10, 3

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2013

W. K. Lacey

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‘The shape of the whole of Britain Livy, the best of the older school, and Fabius Rusticus, the best of the moderns, have compared to an elongated scutula or a battle-axe.’

So runs the context in which these words are situated. On the surface all is plain, but when one asks further ‘what shape has Tacitus in mind?’ serious difficulties are met. Editors usually get round these by analysing the words separately and deciding on parallels from Strabo that vagueness was all that was needed, and that though Tacitus links the words with vel they need not be strikingly similar.

But this is impossible: first, Tacitus must have had in mind objects of mutually similar shape; secondly they must have had a clearly recognizable shape, which conveyed a very definite picture to the minds of those for whom Tacitus wrote. Thirdly why did Tacitus prefer oblongae scutulae vel bipenni to the descriptions of ‘the many writers who have spoken of the geography of Britain’? Tacitus does not claim that Livy and Fabius are most correct, only that they are eloquentissimi.

Type: Research Article
Information: Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (Second Series) , Volume 3 , 1955 , pp. 16 - 20

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068673500002790 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 1955

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^{page 16 note 1} II, 5, 14; II, 1, 30, etc. See Anderson, J. G. C.'s edition of the Agricola, p. 65Google Scholar.

^{page 16 note 2} C. 10, 1.

^{page 16 note 3} B.G. V, 13Google Scholar.

^{page 16 note 4} IV, 5, 1.

^{page 16 note 5} III, 6.

^{page 17 note 1} E.g. by Wex, Meusel and Klotz.

^{page 17 note 2} As in Mycenean art.

^{page 17 note 3} The notion of Tucker, T. G. in C.R. xv (1906), p. 46Google Scholar has rightly had no recent support.

^{page 17 note 4} Romanelli, P., La Colonna Traiana (Rome, 1942)Google Scholar, pl. 61.

^{page 17 note 5} Ibid. pll. 72, 94 and others.

^{page 17 note 6} Ibid. pl. 82 and cf. column of Marcus LV–LVI.

^{page 17 note 7} See Isidore s.v. securis: ‘ex una parte acuta est, ex altera fossoria: quod si sit utrimque acuta, bipennis.’

^{page 17 note 8} See Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, s.v. bipennis.

^{page 17 note 9} Met. VIII, 391Google Scholar.

^{page 17 note 10} Inst. Or. I, 4, 12Google Scholar.

^{page 18 note 1} De re militari IV, 46Google Scholar.

^{page 18 note 2} III, 2, 5.

^{page 18 note 3} N.H. VIII, 26Google Scholar.

^{page 18 note 4} Quoted above.

^{page 18 note 5} I, 6, 47.

^{page 18 note 6} Aen. II, 627Google Scholar; Georg. IV, 331Google Scholar; and cf. Trajan's column, p. 17, n. 5 above.

^{page 18 note 7} Aen. II, 479–80Google Scholar.

^{page 18 note 8} Ibid. v, 307.

^{page 18 note 9} Ibid. XI, 652.

^{page 18 note 10} Thesaurus, loc. cit.

^{page 18 note 11} Aen. XI, 656Google Scholar.

^{page 18 note 12} Commentary, ad loc.

^{page 18 note 13} II, 622, 624; v, 287, 293; v, 499, 507; XVI, 56, 63 with 48, 61.

^{page 18 note 14} v, 499, 507.

^{page 18 note 15} II, 190, 201.

^{page 18 note 16} XIV, 490.

^{page 18 note 17} E.g. Italians IV, 15; Campanians VIII, 50; Carthaginians v, 499, 507; Spaniards XVI, 56; and cf. Q. Curtius and Pliny, locc. citt.

^{page 18 note 18} Odes, IV, 4, 57Google Scholar.

^{page 18 note 19} Thesaurus, loc. cit.

^{page 19 note 1} E.g. Tristia IV, 2, 5Google Scholar; Met. XII, 248Google Scholar.

^{page 19 note 2} v, 64; XVI, 263.

^{page 19 note 3} I, 192; IV, 337.

^{page 19 note 4} Herc. Oet. 799. Illustrations in art can also be seen in Strong, Roman Sculpture, fig. 42, painting from Villa Medici; ibid. fig. 56, silver cup from Bosco Reale; ibid. fig. 81, fragment of relief in Louvre; ibid. fig. 156, Arch of Constantine.

^{page 19 note 5} Ag. 46, 897Google Scholar.

^{page 19 note 6} VI, 657.

^{page 19 note 7} 89, 24; 132.

^{page 19 note 8} I, 2ff.

^{page 19 note 9} Cf. Virgil, , Aen. VI, 819Google Scholar; Tacitus, , Ann. XII, 34Google Scholar; Horace, , Carm. Saec. 54Google Scholar; Ovid, Seneca, etc.

^{page 19 note 10} Cf. Livy, II, 5; X, 9; Cicero, , in Verr. II, 1, 30, 75Google Scholar; in Pis. 34, 84; Hirtius, , B.G. VIII, 38Google Scholar; Florus, I, 9, 5; II, 5, 4, etc.

^{page 19 note 11} Column of Marcus, LXI.

^{page 19 note 12} In point of fact the Amazonian weapons on the Mausoleum frieze where the blades survive resemble triangles rather than quadrilaterals, the upper blade being much smaller than the lower.

^{page 19 note 13} VII, 1, 4. When taken in its full context this cannot possibly be taken to mean triangular.

^{page 19 note 14} VIII, 1, 5.

^{page 19 note 15} The wide part of the shoulder-blades, ibid. The bones of the scapulae, III, 22. The distinction is not maintained by Pliny, , N.H. XXI, 89Google Scholar, 2, who uses scapulae loosely; this became the normal practice, and has come down into modern medicine.

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