Alexander. The principal emphasis of the sentence contrasts the fact of his birth with the time of its occurrence and tuae is essential to the meaning. With the last three words Gellius renders the Greek phrase, κατὰ τὴν σὴν ἡλικίαν.

XVII 9.25 mandasse me dicito, ut caput tuum, sicut nuper egomet feci, deradat.

Vester is used also with the meaning "which you are interested in ", which is your specialty ". This use is an extension from that of simple possession and can possibly be regarded as a superfluous addition. It does, however, add something to the thought: XVI 10.5 cum illic se iuris, non rei grammaticae peritum esse respondisset, eo maxime inquam te dicere hoc oportet, quando, ut praedicas peritus iuris es. nam Q. Ennius verbum hoc ex duodecim tabulis vestris accepit. The reference is to the famous XII Tables of Roman law.

c) Possessives of the reflexive pronoun used for clearness :

III 10. 17 tum ibi addit se... ad eum diem septuaginta hebdomadas librorum conscripsisse, ex quibus aliquammultos, cum proscriptus esset, direptis bibliothecis suis non comparuisse.

The omission of suis would leave it unclear in the reader's mind what libraries are meant; therefore, the possessive is needful for the correct understanding of the sentence.

I 5.2 Q. Hortensius omnibus ferme oratoribus aetatis suae, nisi M. Tullio, clarior: IX 11.10 statuam Corvino isti divus Augustus in foro suo statuendam curavit.

There were numerous fora in Rome and the addition of suo in the last passage is necessary for the identification of the particular forum to which the writer refers.

The passages quoted so far are typical examples of the possessive adjectives which are used by Gellius for clearness. They are without emphasis of their own and they regularly follow the noun.

d) Special phrases containing an unemphatic possessive. A number of special phrases are found in Gellius, some of them stereotyped and more or less formal, which include a possessive adjective used without emphasis. These also stand after the noun :

(1) Possessive with animus. There was a formula used by the censors at Rome : IV 20.4 ut tu ex animi tui sententia uxorem habes? in which the phrase animi tui is equivalent to the possessive tua, “to

11. All the occurrences of this phrase are treated together as a special type on pages 33-4.

the best of your knowledge ". A certain man possessed of a humorous turn of mind could not forego the opportunity to make a play on the formal words of this question when it was put to him. His reply was: 5 habeo equidem uxorem, sed non hercle ex animi mei sententia 12. The last phrase equals ex sententia mea. Other occurrences are :

I 3.5 multa cum animo meo... consultavi, “ I reflected much with myself". Cum animo meo is here equivalent to mecum. X 17.1 animi sui XVI 8.16 in animo tuo: XIX 1.18 animi sui, 19 animi sui : similar is VI 3. 12 de statu mentis suae, which equals de statu suo.

(2) Possessive with causa. Like the above is causa followed by a possessive. The phrase occurs only twice: V 10.14 nam si iudices pro causa mea senserint, nihil tibi ex sententia debebitur... sin contra me pronuntiaverint.

The phrase pro causa mea is equivalent to pro me, as is shown by the fact that it is contrasted with contra me. The other instance is VI 3.6 verbisque suppliciter pro causa sua factis.

(3) domus sua in the locative and ablative cases is in Gellius a stereotyped phrase meaning " at home" and "from home" respectively. The possessive has little force and can even be considered superfluous: VII 10.4 e domo sua Megaris Athenas ad Socratem commeabat : XX I.II ex domo sua, 26 domi suae.

This order of words is not reversed even when the phrase is emphatic in a contrast, as is shown in II 2.10 itaque utere apud me his honoribus prius, quibus domi quoque vestrae te uti priorem decet.

(4) Possessives in appositional phrases. The possessive is usually for clearness in such phrases but is never stressed. I 18. lem. L. Aelium, magistrum suum: IV 11.7 e Xenophilo Pythagorico, familiari suo; 18.8 L. Scipioni Asiatico, fratri suo: V 10.3 Euathlum, discipulum suum: X 6.2 P. Claudius, frater meus: XIII 8.4 Macedo philosophus... familiaris meus; 20.8 Saloni, clientis sui: XIV 7.2 M. Varronem, familiarem suum: XV 7.3 Gaium, nepotem suum: XVI 10.3 quempiam... familiarem meum.

Exception: For no apparent reason the possessive precedes in such a phrase once. The phrase is more or less felt as a formal one. The type will be considered more fully later 13: V 21.1 pluria forte quis dixit sermocinans vir adprime doctus, meus amicus.

12. i.e., instead of replying gravely, "I have a wife to the best of my knowledge", he said, "Indeed I do have a wife, but by Hercules, she's not to my liking. 13. Page 31.

(5) The phrase nummi nostri or its equivalent occurs in three places :

I 8.5 at Lais pupías Spaxuas poposcit, hoc facit nummi nostratis denarium decem milia : III 17.3 emisse talentis Atticis tribus ea summa fit nummi nostri sestertia duo et septuaginta milia: V 2.2 emptum Chares scripsit talentis tredecim et regi Philippo donatum; hoc autem aeris nostri summa est sestertia trecenta duodecim.

In these three passages Roman currency is contrasted with Greek. The words nummus and aes are technical terms for Roman coins or units of monetary value, just as dpaxμh and tάλxvtov for Greek. The contrast is between the nouns, and the possessives are added for clearness or mere fullness of expression. A parallel would be a comparison of French francs and American dollars, where the adjectives could ordinarily be omitted without loss of clarity.

Besides the illustrative examples already given, and the special types, the other places where an unemphatic possessive seems to be necessary for clearness are these:

First Person: I 3.25; 7.4, 16: II 18.10 14; 29.11 V 13.2 (bis); 14.23 (meis); 21.5, 9: VI 18.2 VII 2.11 X 1.5: XI 18. lem. XIII 11.4; 21.2; 31.10: XIV 2.12: XIX 5.1.

Second Person: I 2.6 IV 18.3: X 19.2 (vestri): XII 13. 18: XIII 21.1, 8: XIV 6.1: XVII 20.5: XVIII 10.7: XIX 5.4; 10.13: XX 1.21.

Third Person: Praef. 6 I 1.2; 20.6; 24.1; 26.5 II 2.2; 11.4; 18.10; 22.27; 23.8; 24.11 : III 8. 1 ; 9.5; 10.6: IV 12.1 (bis); 14.5 (bis); 17.15; 18.3: V 1.6: VI 3.5, 10; 17.3; 20. lem. : VII 8.2 (suum); 10. lem.; 13.2: IX 13.20: X 1. lem.; 19.4; 24.2 : XI 18.24 XII 1.1, 4, 13, 18, 21; 5.7 (bis) (sui) (e seminibus suis), 9, II (suos); 9.4 : XIII 2.2; 5. lem., 2, 5; 24.1 (suas): XIV 1.7; 2. 17 (sui): XV 6.2; 12. lem. : XVI 13.2; 19.10: XVII 5.10; 7-3 ; 9.6 (bis), 22; 10.1; 20.2 : XVIII 2.3; 10.5 (suo): XIX 1.12, 20; 7.16; 8.10 : XX 1.13, 20; 9. lem., I.

B. POSITION OF EMPHATIC POSSESSIVES

When the possessive adjective, besides being necessary for clearness, is itself emphatic, it is placed before the noun instead of after it. The possessive may be stressed through comparison or through contrast. A

14. This passage involves a play on the word liberos, which, however, does not affect the force of the possessive.

**

contrast may be either directly expressed or implied in the general context. The passages in which the possessive is emphatic are here classified according to the manner in which the possessive is brought into relief 's.

1. Emphasis by Repetition :

XVII 1.6 quae ipsi fecimus aut quae de nostra voluntate nostroque consilio facta sunt.

The repetition of moster with nouns closely related in meaning shows that emphasis is placed upon it. In the next passage the repetition of nos and noster indicates that in the phrase extraque nostrum animum the possessive carries the principal idea and is emphatic. The noun animum is added for the needed clearness : II 29.19 ut in nobis tantum ipsis nitamur, alia autem omnia, quae extra mos extraque mostrum animum sunt, neque pro mostris neque pro nobis ducamus.

II 8.7 synlogismum tamquam in scolis philosophorum cum suis numeris omnibus et cum suis nibus.

The possessive suas repeated here is emphatic. It is not used as a direct reflexive to denote possession, but in an extended sense meaning “exact”, “correct", "proper". Suas can also here be regarded as emphatic by implied contrast. Of this type of contrast other examples are given later.

2. Emphasis by Expressed Contrast.

1) A second idea is contrasted or correlated with a preceding

one :

XIV 3.2 quod neque a Platone in tot numero libris mentio usquam Acta sit Xenophontis neque item contra ab eo in suis vis Platonis.

The second Loris is hardly necessary even for clearness. The possessive carries the burden of the contrast and the emphasis. Other examples of the same kind are: XVI 13.8 sed colonlarim alla necessirado est... ex divitate quasi propagatae sunt et iura institutque omnia populi Romani, non sai aratri, habent : Xil 6. 1. quae Griec Sunt enigmata, hoc genus quidam ex mustris veterious stirpes appellaverat : I 22.10 Griecos enim asorti in utramque partem pobere.....; sie weZIS ZUQÇUE Teteres superess is dire

In the last example the possessive is brought into strong relief by the addition of the adverò quaque between it and the following substan

tive. This is a common means used by Gellius to emphasize contrast. Since it involves the separation of possessive and noun, the remaining examples of the kind will appear later under the general subject of Separation 16.

b) The first idea anticipates the comparison with the second : More frequently the contrast or comparison is anticipated already in the first of a pair of contrasted ideas and is brought out by putting the possessive first in this member. In the first part of a comparison, other things being equal, the regular determinative or enunciative order of words would logically be expected 1. This principle seems to be operative in two passages in Gellius which exhibit the usual unemphatic order of words in the first of a pair of contrasted phrases: V 19.10 tutoribus in pupillos tantam esse auctoritatem potestatemque fas non est, ut caput liberum fidei suae commissum alienae dicioni subiciant.

The contrast in this sentence does not begin until alienae is reached, which is put first in its phrase for emphasis. The possessive suae is really unemphatic and used for clearness. The contrast of the sentence is brought out by what has been called regressive emphasis 18. Another factor may be invoked to explain the order of words in these contrasted phrases, namely, chiasmus, the nouns being the extremes and the adjectives the means: fidei suae alienae dicioni. But this principle may as easily account for the emphatic placing of the adjective alienae in the second phrase as for the unemphatic position of suae in the first. The second passage which shows the contrast not anticipated differs from the first in that the nouns are of different meaning. Again the possessive is for clearness and there is chiasmus: VI 3.24 quod erat procul dubio opinionis suae professio, non Rodiensium culpae confessio.

The examples which illustrate the contrast anticipated in the first member of a comparison or contrast are these :

II 15.4 qui pluris liberos quam collega aut in sua potestate habet aut bello amisit; 23.1 comoedias lectitamus nostrorum poetarum sumptas ac versas de Graecis Menandro aut Posidippo : IV 15.5 sui operis difficultate est arduum, non opinionis alienae erroribus: V 16.4 sua vi et externa nixum : VII 2.13 quae pessime fecerunt, ea non suae temeritati, sed fato esse attribuenda dicunt: IX 11.8 et sua virtute nixus et opera alitis XIV 2.18 nisi is, qui iudicat, crebris interrogationibus

16. See also note 8, p. 14.

17. Marouzeau, p. 17.

18. Menk, p. 35.