Abstract
Of the formula made virtute esto the single words have been satisfactorily explained. By the investigations of H. J. Rose, O. Skutsch i), F. Pf ister 2), and A. N. van Omme 3) it has been settled, that this is a case of an attracted vocative of mactus (augmented, fortified). The deity was, in this formula, invoked in the vocative, but this invocation (the name of the deity) was often omitted either for sacred reasons or because the formula in very old times was perhaps also used for nameless numina, so that mactus took the ending of the vocative case. Van Omme4) has furthermore?in my opinion convincingly? shown, that virtus is to be regarded as a dynamistic word expressing the not purely corporeal virile strength, viz., the property which typifies the vir in the sense of the ideal warrior, whose results will be apparent from the achievements to be performed by him. The interpretation of the expression as a whole however, has remained unsatisfactory and, observing that he was unable to understand the meaning of a translation like you must be augmented by your virtus, Van Omme 5) tried to find another explanation. The latter he obtains from a text in Seneca's Epistulae morales
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