[p. 217] is the colour green expressed by more terms in your language, and Virgil, when he wished to indicate the green colour of a horse, could perfectly well have called the horse caerulus rather than glaucus, but he preferred to use a familiar Greek word, rather than one which was unusual in Latin. 1 Moreover, our earlier writers used caesia as the equivalent of the Greek γλαυκῶπις, as Nigidius says, 2 from the colour of the sky, as if it were originally caelia." After Fronto had said this, Favorinus, enchanted with his exhaustive knowledge of the subject and his elegant diction, said: “Were it not for you, and perhaps for you alone, the Greek language would surely have come out far ahead; but you, my deal Fronto, exemplify Homer's line: 3
Thou would'st either have won or made the result indecisive.But not only have I listened with pleasure to all your learned remarks, but in particular in describing the diversity of the colour flavus you have made me understand these beautiful lines from the fourteenth book of Ennius' Annalns 4 which before I did not in the least comprehend:
The calm sea's golden marble now they skim;for 'the green seas' did not seem to correspond with 'golden marble.' But since, as you have said, flavus is a colour containing an admixture of green and white, Ennius with the utmost elegance called the foam of the green sea 'golden marble.'”
Ploughed by the thronging craft, the green seas foam;
