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

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[p. 209] “Such is the sanctity (sanctitudo) of the fane,” says he, ¹ “that no one ever ventured to violate it.” Sanctitas and sanctimonia are equally good Latin, but the word sanctitudo somehow has greater dignity, just as Marcus Cato, in his speech Against Lucius Veturius, thought it more forcible to use duritudo than duritia, saying, ² “Who knew his impudence and hardihood (duritudinem).”

“Since the Roman people,” says Quadrigarius, ³ “had given such a pledge (arrabo) to the Samites.” He applied the term arrabo to the six hundred hostages and preferred to use that word rather than pignus, since the force of arrabo in that connection is weightier and more pointed; but nowadays arrabo is beginning to be numbered among vulgar words, and arra seems even more so, although the early writers often used arra, and Laberius ⁴ has it several times.

“They have spent most wretched lives (vitas),” says Quadrigarius, ⁵ and, ⁶ “This man is worn out by too much leisure (otiis).” In both cases elegance is sought by the use of the plural number. “Cominius,” says he, ⁷ “came down the same way he had gone up and so deceived the Gauls.” He says that Cominius “gave words to the Gauls,” meaning “deceived them,” although he had said nothing to anybody; and the Gauls who were besieging the Capitol had seen him neither going up nor coming down. But “he gave words” is used with the meaning of “he escaped the notice of, and circumvented.”

Again he says: ⁸ “There were valleys and great woods (arboreta).” Arboreta is a less familiar word, arbusta ⁹ the more usual one.