Circus and Circum: Historical Perspectives

Résumé 0

Circum as a preposition and preverb replaces the element amb- inherited from Indo-European; it is the immobilized accusative of circus, of which the primary sense ought to be “circular movement” and which replaced an earlier term based on amb- (compare Oscan amno-). Circum usually appears with verbs of movement, as appears from early words with preverbs such as circu(m)ire; there is no verb circumesse. Beside the two common constructions for “surround,” circumdare murum urbi and circumdare urbem muro, the use of circum as preverb led also in the case of triactanciels ( circumagere, -ducere, -ferre) to a construction with a double accusative, circumagere bouem agrum, in innovation of archaic Latin that did not develop further. The article deals finally with the parallelism in use between circumferre, meaning “to purify” in archaic Latin, and Umbrian amferom, with the same meaning. These two verbs take an accusative of the person purified, but only Latin preserves a trace of the instrument used for the lustration, in aliquem unda circumferre in Virgil.