Aquilo, the Black Wind

Extract

Professor Lindsay [Class. Rev. XLII. (February, 1928), p. 20] has drawn attention to a Celtic paralle (Ancient Lams of Ireland I., p. 27) to Aquilo, the Black Wind (from aquilus). A less remote parallel was found by Salmasius [Plin. Exerc. in Solinum (ed. 1629), p. 1258D] in the gloss (C.G.L. III. 84. 56) melatnboros uulturnus, on which he makes the following comment: ‘Glossae nostrae nondum editae: ‘ Septenirio, ΚЄρκίίας, Circius, Χωρupbs, Chaurus. Eaedem Glossae Volturnum Graece exponunt. An Volturnum quasi Volturinum idest nigrum dictum earum putauit auctor? Sed haec expositio conuenit Aquiloni, qui est μέλαςβορέαςƋς, unde et Aquilo id est aquilus uentus, casco uocabulo niger. ’He adds that the wind Volturnus was really so called because it blew towards Rome from Volturnum.