Varia V Gaulish Souxtu: Addendum

Abstract

VARIA V Gaulish souxtu:addendum In a previous publication I proposed to compare a Gaulish word souxtu, the name of a particular sort of vase, with OI suacht, used for translating olla 'cooking pot'.1Amongst possible comparanda,I suggested Modern Scottish suacan 'melting-pot, crucible'. I overlooked the existence of a British cognate, attested in only one document: the same word souxtum appears in aVindolanda letter published in 1994and written (probably in AD 103or a little earlier) by Seuerus to his friend Candidus,'(slave) of Genialis the prefect'. The contents of this very short message are: S[eu]er[u]s Candido suo salutem souxtum saturnalicium (asses) iiii aut sexs rogo frater explices et radices ne minus (denarii) s(emissem) ualefrater 'Severus to his Candidus,greetings. Regarding the...for the Saturnalia, I ask you, brother,to see to them at a price of 4 or six asses and radishes to the value of not less than 1/2 denarius.Farewell brother.'2 Alan Bowman and J.David Thomas did not translate souxtum, and they recognized in their commentary that it suggested no attested Latin word to them. However, they hesitantly considered a comparison with Lat. succus, with the meaning 'medicine', 'dye' or 'perfume'. More important is their comment on the adjective saturnalicium:Saturnalia is a feast particularly celebrated by slaves (both writer and correspondent are slaves); Bowman and Thomas note the same type of request for special items for festivities in an ostrakon fromWadi Fawakhir(a Roman militarystation in Egypt). Later, J.N. Adams offered another hypothesis,3 according to which souxtum would be a borrowing from Latin sumptus 'expense', simplified into suptus. He proposed to translate the text above as 'I ask that you send, as your Saturnalian costs, 4 or 6 asses'.This sumptus Saturnaliciuswould be a contribution towards the celebration of the Saturnalia. Roman military papyrisometimes record deductions fromsoldiers' payfor the Saturnalicium kastrense (as mentioned in the edition by Bowman and Thomas). Pierre-Yves Lambert,'VariaIII:Gaulish souxtu:Early Irishsuacht',triu 51 (2000), 189-92. 2 Alan K. Bowman and J.David Thomas,with contributions by J.N.Adams, TheVindolanda writing-tablets(Tabulae Vindolandenses II) (London 1994), letter no. 301, pp 276-8 and pls XXIII,XXV. 3 J.N. Adams, 'The interpretation of souxtum at Tab. Vindol. 11.301.3', Zeitschrift fiir Papyrologie und Epigraphik 110 (1996), 238-9: 238. Ariu LIV(2004) 263-264 @ Royal IrishAcademy 264 PIERRE-YVES LAMBERT It seems preferable to compare the Vindolanda souxtum with the Gaulish word souxtu(s)/suxtu(s) (acc.pl.), from Vayres,near Libourne (d6p. Gironde), which I discussed in my earlier note in Iriu.4 This is a kind of clay pot: probably a cooking pot, similar to the Latin olla. Concerning the exact meaning of souxtum in the Vindolanda letter, we must bear in mind that the name of a vase can be transferred to the food it contains (cf. Engl. dish, Frenchplat, assiette) or even to a special preparation associated with it (Fr.pot-au-feu, Engl. marmite);this is the case, indeed, for dialectal French ouille, the reflex of Lat. olla. Moreover, ne minus denarii semissem clearly indicates an operation akin to selling and not buying:Severus and Candidus were probably associated in retailing food to the soldiers, either as grocers or, more probably, as caupones, caterers delivering prepared food to the soldiers. Could explicare have passed from a basic meaning 'to wrap off' to the meaning 'to offer for sale'? If our analysis is correct, we should then translate Tab.Vindol. 301 as follows: 'Concerning the Saturnalian dish, I ask you to retail it at four or six asses'. We then have a third attestation for this word, a British one. One could argue that the term is not Brittonic but Gaulish-and we have plenty of evidence for coarse pottery being exchanged across the Channel as early as the first half of the first century AD, a fact which would explain the borrowing of a Gaulish term. But in my opinion, it would be difficult for us to find any significant difference between Gaulish and Brittonic (more exactly,Early British) at the end of the firstcentury AD: in so far as...