Letter 3001: Avitus, bishop, to Viventiolus the rhetorician.

Bishop Avitus to Viventiolus the rhetorician. Since a rumor whispers from your quarter that, in the homily which I am said recently to have delivered to the people of Lyons at the dedication of a basilica, you allege that I committed a barbarism, openly chastising me, that is, for having sinned in a public address: I confess that this could have happened, especially to me, from whom, if there were any literary studies in my greener years, age carries them all away. Yet I had wished to hear this very thing from you in person, because, even if the faculty of knowing is diminished in me, the desire of learning is not changed. But since I have learned that you say it in my absence, although absent I have taken care to reply. Therefore they report that you found fault, because I pronounced the middle syllable of POTITUR long, not following Virgil, namely, in this word, who used that very syllable as short, saying: Vi potitur ["he gains by force"]. But that is pardonable by the necessity of the poem, since we likewise often find that Virgil presumed in the same way, so that, of course, wherever there is need, with the barbarism disregarded he may serve the law of the meter, and in certain particular places, by no means following the rule, he may invert the nature of the syllables. Such as this: We shall not be without honor in the realm [Non erimus regno indecores], or: Leucate seethes [Fervere Leucaten], or that one: For how we passed the final night amid false rejoicings, you know [Namque ut supremam falsa inter gaudia noctem / Egerimus, nosti]. Whereas in any case no man of letters would assert that these three words, that is fervere, egerimus, or indecores, are shortened, but, with their penultimate syllables naturally long, he would urge that they ought to be set down as such. Virgil therefore, using the license of the poets according to those things which we have said above, shortening the middle syllable presumes POTITUR. Which word, the poetic liberty being set aside for a little while, let us treat rather by the rule of the art. According as the middle of POTIRIS is long, it attests that the third person, that is POTITUR, is likewise long; just as we say SORTIOR, SORTIRIS, SORTITUR. So in the past perfect tense the first, second, third person POTITUS SUM, ES, EST; so in the imperative mood, present tense, the second person POTIRE, just as SORTIRE. Similarly in the optative mood, present tense and past imperfect, under all three persons the syllable is equally long: UTINAM POTIRER, POTIRERIS, POTIRETUR. Moreover, if you set the third person POTITUR short, you are compelled to do the same also in the second, so that you say POTIRIS, which assuredly the integrity of Latinity excludes from every example and usage. Behold the word which had been censured by you, concerning which I dare to borrow a reasoning. But now, paying the honorific greeting, with earnest prayers I ask that, since I by the right of friendship have expressed in the writing of a rather free page what seemed right to me, you too in turn, with the example of Virgilian authority removed, as was said above (whom for this very reason we ought not to follow in the usurpation of barbarisms, because in the dignity of poems we cannot attain it, although the same Virgil placed POTITUS or POTITI long, as is that: and having gained the gold [auroque potiti]), that you rather expound to me, in a written reply, the reasoning which I ought to follow. Or if you certainly choose to instruct me, as I inquire, by the brief proof of any testimony whatsoever, I hope that you may set forth, the more diligently sought out and discovered, from the ancient orators rather, whom you deservedly hand down to your pupils. But if it is found neither by the argument of the art nor by the oratorical one, suffer our common sons, whose talents I would prefer that at the present time you should imbue as the first rather than as the only one, to be content with this one fault alone. Who nevertheless from that rich flowing fountain of doctrine may even now, among their beginnings, drink no less than letters, because it befits a friend to attract by studies rather than to disparage, and to speak well as an orator rather than to speak ill.

Avitus episcopus Viventiolo rhetori. Cum rumor ex vobis susurriat, quod in homilia, quam nuper ad populum Lug- dunensem in dedicatione basilicae videor concionatus, barbarismum me incurrisse di- catis, palam scilicet castigantes, quod publica oratione peccaverim: fateor istud potuisse contingere, praesertim mihi, cui, si qua in annis viridioribus fuerunt studia litterarum, omnia fert aetas. Ambieram tamen a vobis hoc ipsum coram positus audire, quia etiam si sciendi in me facultas minuitur, discendi cupiditas non mutatur. Sed quia vos absentem dicere comperi, quamquam absens respondere curavi. Igitur culpasse vos ferunt, quod POTITVR mediam syllabam productam dixerim, Virgilium in hoc verbo scilicet non secutus, qui syllaba ipsa correpte usus est dicens Vi potitur. Sed istud remissibile est poematis necessitate, quod perinde saepe invenimus Virgilium praesumpsisse, ut scilicet metri legem, sicubi opus est, barbarismo contempto expediat et syllabarum naturam certis quibusque locis artem minime secutus invertat. Quale est illud: Non erimus regno indecores, vel: Fervere Leucaten vel illud: Namque ut supremam falsa inter gaudia noctem Egerimus, nosti. Cum utique haec tria verba, id est fervere, egerimus aut indecores, nullus litteratorum corripi adserat, sed productis naturaliter paenultimis syllabis adhortetur ponenda. Virgilius ergo usus licentia poetarum secundum ea, quae supra diximus, corripiens mediam syllabam praesumit POTITVR. Quod verbum sequestrata paulisper poetica libertate artis potius lege tractemus. Secundum quod longa media est POTIRIS, testat, ut persona tertia, id est POTITVR, similiter longa sit; sicut dicimus SORTIOR SORTIRIS SORTITVR. Sic tempore praeterito perfecto prima, secunda, tertia persona POTITVS SVM ES EST; sic imperativo modo tempore praesenti secunda persona POTIRE, sicut SORTIRE. Similiter optativo modo tempore praesenti et praeterito imperfecto sub totis tribus personis aeque syllaba producta: VTINAM POTIRER POTIRERIS POTIRETVR. Ceterum si tertiam personam POTITVR brevem ponas, idem facere cogeris et in secunda, ut POTIRIS dicas, quod utique ab omni exemplo atque usu integritas Latinitatis ex- cludit. Ecce verbum, quod a vobis reprensum fuerat, de quo audeo rationem mutuari. Nunc autem honorificum salve persolvens impensis precibus quaeso, ut, quia ego ami- citiae iure, quid mihi videretur, stilo paginae liberioris expressi, vos quoque ad vicem sublato, ut supra dictum est, Virgilianae auctoritatis exemplo, quem vel ob hoc in bar- barismorum usurpatione non debemus sequi, quia in carminum dignitate non possumus consequi, licet idem Virgilius POTITVS vel POTITI producte posuerit, sicut est illud auroque potiti, vos mihi magis rationem, quam sequi debeam, rescripto exponente tractetis. Aut si certe sciscitantem testimonii cuiuscumque eligitis docere compendio, spero, ut de priscis magis oratoribus, quos discipulis merito traditis, perquisitum diligentius repertumque pandatis. Quod si nec argumento artis nec oratorio invenitur, patere communes filios, quorum ingenia mallem praesenti tempore ut primus quam solus imbueres, hoc uno tantum vitio esse contentos. Qui tamen ex illo profluentis uberi fonte doctrinae iam nunc inter initia sua non minus quam litteras bibant, quod amicum attrahere magis studiis quam detractare et oratorem eloqui potius quam obloqui decet.