Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights
John C. Rolfe, Ed.

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[p. 113] troops withdraw from camp into the towns? Have we not then also a truce? Again, if a truce is to be defined as only lasting for a few days, what are we to say of the fact, recorded by Quadrigarius in the first book of his Annals, that Gaius Pontius the Samnite asked the Roman dictator for a truce of six hours? ¹ The definition “a holiday in war,” too, is rather happy than clear or precise.

Now the Greeks, more significantly and more pointedly, have called such an agreement to cease from fighting ἐκεχειρία, or “a staying of hands,” substituting for one letter of harsher sound a smoother one. ² For since there is no fighting at such a time and their hands are withheld, they called it ἐκεχειρία. But it surely was not Varro's task to define a truce too scrupulously, and to observe all the laws and canons of definition; for he thought it sufficient to give an explanation of the kind which the Greeks call τύποι (“typical” ) and ὑπογραφαί (“outline” ), rather than ὁρισμοί (“exact definition” ).

I have for a long time been inquiring into the derivation of indutiae, but of the many explanations which I have either heard or read this which I am going to mention seems most reasonable. I believe that indutiae is made up of inde uti iam (“that from then on” ). The stipulation of a truce is to this effect, that there shall be no fighting and no trouble up to a fixed time, but that after that time all the laws of war shall again be in force. Therefore, since a definite date is set and an agreement is