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Headword: *tarsoi\ kala/mwn
Adler number: tau,134
Translated headword: frames of reeds
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
"The Lazi, having dug pits and securely fixed spears within them, concealed the openings of the holes with frames of reeds and material that has no firm foundation but would give way to any load placed upon it; and having thrown earth on top and tilled the ground to either side and sown wheat, they put the Romans to flight."[1]
'Frames of reeds' in Herodotus [means] the [?]drying-rack, where they used to dry the brick.[2]
Greek Original:
*tarsoi\ kala/mwn. oi( de\ *lazoi\ bo/qrous o)ru/cantes kai\ do/rata toi=s bo/qrois e)gkataph/cantes tarsoi=s kala/mwn kai\ u(/lh| mh\ bebai/an e)xou/sh| ba/sin, a)lla\ pro\s to\ e)pifero/menon a)/xqos o)lisqainou/sh|, ta\ sto/mata tw=n o)rugma/twn e)ka/luyan: kai\ xou=n e)pibalo/ntes ta/ te par' e(ka/tera xwri/a gewrgh/santes kai\ purou\s spei/rantes e)tropw/santo tou\s *(rwmai/ous. *tarsoi\ kala/mwn par' *(hrodo/tw| h( prasia/, ou(= e)ch/rainon th\n pli/nqon.
Notes:
The headword phrase lacks a gloss. (For tarso/s cf. tau 130, tau 132, and plural at tau 133. tau 132 is the city of that name.) In addition to the quotation provided here, the phrase tarsoi\ kala/mwn or tarsoi\ kala/mou is attested, with somewhat different meanings, in three ancient authors: Herodotus 1.179.2 (reed matting used to strengthen brickwork), Thucydides 2.76.1 (baskets filled with clay used in the construction of a siege mound) and Aeneas Tacticus 32.2 (wicker screens against missiles). The passage of Thucydides is cited at epsilon 1282, epsiloniota 109, tau 130. Compare also Hesychius tau210 (Cunningham/Latte), where the accusative plural lemma tarsou\s kala/mwn is clearly cited from Herodotus.
[1] An extract from a late antique classicizing historian, derived from the Excerpta Constantiniana. Bernhardy (1853) first assigned the extract to Priscus, and it was thereafter included in collected fragments of Priscus by Dindorf (1870) and Bornmann (1979), but omitted without argumentation by Blockley (1981-3), who is followed by Carolla (2008). Rance (2015) presents textual, historical and linguistic evidence in favour of Priscus' authorship. For the Lazi of the southern Caucasus see also epsilon 2315. Only two Roman-Lazi conflicts are known, the first in the mid 450s (reported in fragments of Priscus), the second in 541-8 (described by Procopius, who offers no parallel to the extract).
[2] This alternative meaning derives from a glossary of Herodotean usages. See Glossae in Herodotum (Ἡροδότου λέξεις) 1.48 in H. Stein (ed.), Herodoti Historiae (Berlin 1869-71), II 441-82 at 452, 470; repr. in K. Latte and H. Erbse (edd.), Lexica Graeca minora (Hildesheim 1965), 191-231 at 200, 218. The glossarist seems to have misconstrued Herodotus' technical description of the construction of the walls of Babylon at 1.179.2 (see n.1 above), where the phrase tarsoi\ kala/mwn in fact refers not to a place for drying bricks but to reed matting inserted at regular intervals to bind the brickwork.
The reading prasia/, 'allotment' or 'garden-plot', is transmitted in all the Suda mss, and accepted by Adler, but the original gloss reads more plausibly trasia/, a wicker frame or crate used to dry bricks or foodstuffs (see LSJ 1811, s.v. trasia/). See likewise Gregory of Corinth, De dialectis 4.643 (Schäfer), which derives from an older copy of the Suda or a common source. The close palaeographical resemblance leaves little doubt that the prasia/ of the Suda mss arose from a misreading of trasia/.
Reference:
P. Rance, 'A Roman-Lazi War in the Suda: a fragment of Priscus?', Classical Quarterly 65 (2015)
Keywords: agriculture; botany; daily life; definition; dialects, grammar, and etymology; food; geography; historiography; history; military affairs; science and technology; trade and manufacture
Translated by: Philip Rance on 1 May 2014@02:31:07.
Vetted by:
Philip Rance (Notes and keywords) on 1 May 2014@02:56:09.
David Whitehead (expanded n.1; more keywords; tweaks and cosmetics; raised status) on 1 May 2014@03:26:53.
David Whitehead (further small adjustments) on 1 May 2014@04:39:09.
Catharine Roth (coding) on 15 February 2015@12:27:13.
Catharine Roth (coding) on 27 March 2015@23:15:50.
Catharine Roth (cosmetics) on 25 June 2022@00:20:58.

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