Re: The reason for Caesar's obtaining the two Gauls as province

From: Torsten
Message: 68615
Date: 2012-02-28

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "guestu5er" <guestuser.0x9357@...> wrote:
>
> >Pokorny:
> >'kalni- "enger Durchgang, enger Pfad"?
> >Lat. callis "Bergpfad, Waldweg, Gebirgstrift';
>
> Lewis & Short: callis "a stony footway, foot-path, mountain-path,
> pass, defile"
>
> >bulgar. klánik "Raum zwischen Herd und Wand",
> >serb. klánac, Gen. klánca "Engpaß",
>
> And Bg./Sb. kolnik. (Its Romanian variant is spelled colnic, with
> senses that makes it akin to Lat. collina, -ae < collinus, Fr.
> colline, Ital. collina.)
>
> (Seemingly only this South-Slavic word is a bit closer to callis,
> callem - all the others are of a KLAN- + -NIK, -NETZ kind.)

That's not a problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_metathesis
As you can see, this rule would, given a loan before ca. 800 CE of exactly the 'kolnik-' you cite produce the Slavic forms cited by Ernout-Meillet.
>
> >sloven. klánəc "Hohlweg, Gebirgsweg, Rinnsal eines Baches,
> >Dorfgasse",
> >čech. klanec "Bergsattel, Paß".
> >WP. I 356 f., WH. I 140 f.'
> >
> >The geographical distribution points to an original Venetic word.
> >Suetonius' 'silvae callesque' seems to point to some connection
> >with "forest", pace Ernout-Meillet.
>
> An E-Eur. language that has it too is Romanian (= Vlach/Walachian):
> cale (plural cäi [k&y]).
>
> It means not only a "Bergpfad, Waldweg", but also any kind of
> "Pfad/path"; as well as "avenue" (and "way", incl. in the fig.
> sense).
>
> e.g. Calea Laptelui "Milky Way"; din cale-afarä "unusual; odd;
> very; utmost"; calea-valea [vale "valley"] "awright; schon gut";
> cale feratä "railway; railroad"; cale respiratorie "part of the
> breathing system"; dor de cale "Reiselust; -sehnsucht"; cale
> bunä! "farewell! Gute Reise!"; cale de atac "(jur.) Anfechtungs-
> möglichkeit"; pe cale administrativä "auf (der) Verwaltungsebene;
> auf'm Dienstweg".
>
> Cale is phonetically close to cal (pl. cai [kay]) "horse" and
> cälare "mounted". Hence a sentence like this can be concocted:
> Cälare pe cal pe cale spre munte. ("On a horse's back on a
> road/way/path to a mountain.")
>
> http://www.etimo.it/?term=calle&find=Cerca
>
> (Romanian was spoken in various places within your geographical
> distribution for centuries, incl. by Istrorumanians, Mavrovlachs
> of Dalmatia, and Arumanians; as well as those "Valašskis" who were
> absorbed in Moravia, Slovakia as well as S-Poland & W-Ukraine.)

The question is whether it was spoken at the time referred to by Tacitus, ie. 60 BCE; if so, then in connection with the slave trade through Nauportus. If so, Burebista himself might have used it.

> In Romanian, a semantic "rival" of cale is cärare < Lat. carraria,
> which is restricted, a bit more specialized on "Bergpfad".
> Its semantics changed a bit from that of the initial carraria.
> So, as synonyms they're are only in some cases interchangeable.
> A boulevard in Bucharest, Calea Victoriei, were ludicrous/mocking
> to be called Cärarea Victoriei, despite the fact that it better
> fits for... car traffic.)

That kind of alternation is indicative of the word being a loan, but I'm not aware of any r/l alternation in other loans from Venetic(?).

As E.-M. remarks, the Romans believed
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/68605
it was derived from
E.-M.
'callum (et callus m., le pl. est toujours callī), -ī n.:
peau épaisse et dure (des animaux ou des plantes), durillon, cal(us). -
Ancien. M.L.1521. A ce sens technique se rattachent
callōsus,
callōsitās,
callitia (-tiÄ"s),
callÄ"scō
et ses composés (con-, in-, oc-, per-).
Un sens figuré apparaît dans le dérivé:
calleō, -e:s, -uī, -e:re: être endurci,
callent rure manus, Aetna 261; d'où "être habile dans quelque chose, savoir par expérience". Plaute joue sur le double sens du mot, Pe.305, mugis calleo quam aprugnum callum callet. S'emploie absolument, ou avec l'acc. ou l'abl., avec ou sans in.
De là:
callidus: Cic., N.D.3,25, appello... callidos quorum, tamquam manus opere, sic animus usu concalluit; "habile" souvent avec une nuance péjorative, "rusé, roué" (cf. ueterātor et uersūtus). Dans la Bible traduit ´υποκριτής et πανου~ργος. Non roman, mais conservé en celt.: britt. call.
Dérivés: calliditās; callidulus.
Sans étymologie. Mot populaire.'

Thus a callis is a 'worn' road.

If true, it is tempting to equate it with the Hohl- of Hohlweg.

For the sense of 'calles', see also Tacitus Annales 4.27

'[4.27] Eadem aestate mota per Italiam servilis belli semina fors oppressit. auctor tumultus T. Curtisius, quondam praetoriae cohortis miles, primo coetibus clandestinis apud Brundisium et circumiecta oppida, mox positis propalam libellis ad libertatem vocabat agrestia per longinquos saltus et ferocia servitia, cum velut munere deum tres biremes adpulere ad usus commeantium illo mari. et erat isdem regionibus Curtius Lupus quaestor, cui provincia vetere ex more calles evenerant: is disposita classiariomm copia coeptantem cum maxime coniurationem disiecit.'

"The same summer, the germs of a slave war in Italy were crushed by a fortunate accident. The originator of the movement was Titus Curtisius, once a soldier of the praetorian guard. First, by secret meetings at Brundisium and the neighbouring towns, then by placards publicly exhibited, he incited the rural and savage slave-population of the remote forests to assert their freedom. By divine providence, three vessels came to land for the use of those who traversed that sea. In the same part of the country too was Curtius Lupus, the quaestor, who, according to ancient precedent, had had the charge of the "woodland pastures" assigned to him. Putting in motion a force of marines, he broke up the seditious combination in its very first beginnings."

The translation (Loeb?) uses "woodland pastures" for 'calles' which makes no sense in the context. The context is interesting; it is a slave rebellion on the sea route around Italy between Aquileia, the port of the trafic overland from Nauportus, where Caesar became proconsul (ie. the 'silvae callesque') and the port of Puteoli, which was used for trade with the east. The appearance of the quaestor with the responsibilty for the 'calles' on the scene of the rebellion seems auspicious to Tacitus. That makes me suspect that the 'calles', the control of which was important enough for the Romans to appoint high civil servants to guard them, was the route by which slaves were transported to Rome, and that the use of that word was an euphemism for that disreputable business. Note also that quaestors were in charge of the slave auctions after successful campaigns.



Torsten