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

Bishop Avitus to Viventiolus the rhetorician. A rumor has reached me from your circle that in the homily I recently preached to the people of Lyon at the dedication of a basilica, you claim I committed a barbarism — publicly censuring me for having made an error in a formal address. I confess this could have happened, especially to me, since whatever study of literature I once pursued in my younger years has been carried off by age. I had hoped to hear this criticism from you in person, because even if my capacity for knowledge diminishes, my desire to learn does not change. But since I have learned that you spoke in my absence, I have taken care to respond in writing, though absent myself. They say you criticized me for pronouncing the middle syllable of POTITUR as long, claiming I failed to follow Virgil, who used that syllable as short, saying "Vi potitur." But this is forgivable as a necessity of verse — for we find that Virgil frequently took such liberties, expediting the law of meter by disregarding barbarism where needed and inverting the natural quantity of syllables in certain places without following the rules of grammar. Consider: "Non erimus regno indecores," or "Fervere Leucaten," or "Namque ut supremam falsa inter gaudia noctem / Egerimus, nosti." Yet no grammarian would claim that these three words — fervere, egerimus, or indecores — should have their penultimate syllables shortened; rather, they would insist they be placed with their naturally long penultimate syllables. Virgil, therefore, using poetic license as I described above, presumes to shorten the middle syllable of POTITUR. But let us set aside poetic freedom for a moment and treat this word by the rules of grammar. Since the middle syllable is long in POTIRIS, it follows that the third person — POTITUR — should likewise be long, just as we say SORTIOR, SORTIRIS, SORTITUR. So too in the perfect tense: POTITUS SUM, ES, EST; and in the imperative present: POTIRE, just like SORTIRE. Similarly in the optative mood, present and imperfect tenses, through all three persons the syllable is equally long: UTINAM POTIRER, POTIRERIS, POTIRETUR. But if you make the third person POTITUR short, you would be forced to do the same with the second person and say POTIRIS — which the integrity of the Latin language excludes from all example and usage. There you have it — the word you criticized, about which I dare to borrow a defense. Now, paying my respectful greetings and pressing my requests with earnest prayers, I ask that — since I have freely expressed my view by right of friendship on the page — you likewise explain to me by return letter what reasoning I should follow, setting aside the Virgilian authority cited above, whom we should not follow in the usurpation of barbarisms precisely because we cannot match him in the dignity of his verse, even though the same Virgil placed POTITUS or POTITI with a long syllable, as in "auroque potiti." Or if you prefer to teach me who asks by citing the authority of any ancient orators whom you rightly teach to your students, I hope you will share what you have searched for and found more diligently. But if this is found neither by the argument of grammar nor by oratorical usage, then allow our shared students — whose talents I would prefer at the present time to be nourished by you as the first teacher rather than the only one — to be content with this one fault alone. Let them, even now at the beginning of their studies, drink from that abundant flowing fountain of your learning this lesson above all: that it befits a friend to attract others to studies rather than to disparage, and an orator to speak eloquently rather than to speak against.

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.