fetialis

Forms

fētiālis m (genitive fētiālis); third declension^[1][2] As an adjective: fētiālis (neuter fētiāle); third-declension two-termination adjective.^[1][2] Manuscripts often spell it faet-.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *fēti-āli-, a noun use of an adjective meaning “of the (religious) congregation”, formed with -ālis.^[3][1] Its base *fētis goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-ti- (“the putting, making”), a noun of *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).^[3][1] De Vaan explains the sense as a development from “placement” to “prescription, law” and then to “body of priests”;^[3] the OLD, more cautiously, sees “ordinance” in it.^[2] Cognate with Ancient Greek θέσις (thésis, “setting, position”), Lithuanian dė́tis (“load”), Old Norse dáð (“deed”) and Old High German tāt (“deed”).^[3][1]

Varro connected the fetials with fidēs¹ (“faith”), because they watched over public good faith between peoples, in his work on the Latin language (5.86).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro,^[3] Köbler from Cicero;^[5] in the laws of Cicero's De legibus the fetials are to be the judges of treaties, peace and war (foederum pacis, belli … fetiales iudices sunto).^[6]

Semantic evolution

The fetials were a college of twenty priests who represented the Roman people in its dealings with other nations: they made treaties and truces sacred, demanded redress from peoples who had wronged Rome, and declared a war just only when redress was refused.^[7][2][3] Those sent out as envoys were called fetiales legati, and in the singular Livy writes legatus fetialis.^[7][8]

As an adjective it qualifies their law (ius fetiale, Cicero),^[8][7] their ceremonies (caerimoniae, Livy)^[8][7] and, in Arnobius, their rights (iura).^[7] Apuleius also uses the adjective.^[6]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it and explains the name.^[3][4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero writes of the ius fetiale.^[8][7][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy writes of fetial envoys and ceremonies.^[8][7][5]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius speaks of the iura fetialia.^[7][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fetial, one of a college of Roman priests who acted for the Roman people in its dealings with other nations, in treaties, demands for redress and declarations of war.^[2][7]

Adjective

1. Of the fetials or their functions: iūs fētiāle, the fetial law;^[2][8] lēgātus fētiālis, a fetial envoy.^[2][8]

Related words

• English fetial

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina (text of The Latin Library; book and paragraph numbers as there).
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press