Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights
John C. Rolfe, Ed.

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[p. 181] bright and clear. So we all sat together in the stern and watched the brilliant stars. Then those of our company who were acquainted with Grecian lore discussed with learning and acumen such questions as these: what the ἅμαξα, or “Wain,” was, and what Boötes, which was the Great, and which the Little Bear and why they were so called; in what direction that constellation moved in the course of the advancing night, and why Homer says ¹ that this is the only constellation that does not set, in view of the fact that there are some other stars that do not set.

Thereupon I turned to our compatriots and said: “Why don't you barbarians tell me why we give the name of septentriones to what the Greeks call ἅμαξα. Now ' because we see seven stars' is not a sufficient answer, but I desire to be informed at some length,” said I, “of the meaning of the whole idea which we express by the word septentriones.”

Then one of them, who had devoted himself to ancient literature and antiquities, replied: "The common run of grammarians think that the word septentriones is derived solely from the number of stars. For they declare that triones of itself has no meaning, but is a mere addition to the word; just as in our word quinquatrus, so called because five is the number of days after the Ides, ² atrus means nothing. But for my part, I agree with Lucius Aelius ³ and Marcus Varro, ⁴ who wrote that oxen were called triones, a rustic term it is true, as if they were terriones, ⁵ that is to say, adapted to nominibus regionibusque docere nos ipse vellet,