[p. 369] evidence on this subject Marcus Tullius, citing these words from the speech entitled In Defence of Gaius Rabirius: 1 “Lictor, bind his hands.” This is what Valgius says. Now, I for my part agree with him; but Tullius Tiro, the freedman of Marcus Cicero, wrote 2 that the lictor got his name from limus or licium. “For,” says he, “those men who were in attendance upon the magistrates were girt across with a kind of girdle called limus.” But if there is anyone who thinks that what Tiro said is more probable, because the first syllable 3 in lictor is long like that of licium, but in the word ligo is short, that has nothing to do with the case. For in lictor from ligando, lector from legendo, vitor from viendo, tutor from tuendo, and structor from struendo, the vowels, which were originally short, are lengthened.
IV
[4arg] Lines taken from the seventh book of the Annals of Ennius, in which the courteous bearing of an inferior towards a friend of higher rank is described and defined.QUINTUS ENNIUS in the seventh book of his Annals describes and defines very vividly and skilfully in his sketch of Geminus Servilius, a man of rank, the tact, courtesy, modesty, fidelity, restraint and propriety in speech, knowledge of ancient history and of customs old and new, scrupulousness in keeping and guarding a secret; in short, the various remedies and methods of relief and solace for guarding against the
