FESTUS


Sextus Pompeius Festus probably lived in the later second century AD, perhaps at Narbo in Gaul. He wrote an encyclopaedic work (De verborum significatu, On the meaning of the words), containing a great variety of information.


De verborum significatu 214
Ostiam urbem ad exitum Tiberis in mare fluentis Ancus Martius rex condidisse, et feminino appellasse vocabulo fertur; quod sive ad urbem sive ad coloniam quae postea condita est refertur. {Quod} neutrum certe plura[liter pro?] ferri non debet. They say that Ancus Marcius founded the city of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber where it flows into the sea, and that he gave it a feminine name; which is applied either to the city, or to the colony that was founded later. Surely the neuter [plural?] should not be used.

De verborum significatu 304
Quiritium fossae dicuntur quibus Ancus Marcius circumdedit urbem, quam secundum ostium Tiberis posuit, ex quo etiam Ostiam. Et quia populi opera eas fecerat, appellavit Quiritium. Ditches of the Quirites is the name given to the ditches with which Ancus Marcius surrounded the city, which he placed behind the mouth of the Tiber, for which reason it too is called Ostia. And because he constructed the ditches by means of the effort of the people, he called them 'ditches of the Quirites'.

Translation: E.H. Bispham.