Eusebius Riddle 19: De V littera
ALEXANDRAREIDER
Date: Mon 27 Dec 2021Original text:
Quinta vocor princeps vocum; est mihi trina potestas.
Nam nunc sola sonans loquor; aut nunc consono verbis;
Nunc medium pactum retinens nil dicor haberi.
Me malus Arrius expellit de iure fidei.
Translation:
The fifth, I am called the first of speech; my power is threefold.
For now, sounding alone, I speak; or now, I harmonise with words;
Now, keeping to the middle way, I am said to be nothing.
Wicked Arius expelled me from the law of faith. (1)
On the letter “V”
Notes:
(1) “Fifth” here in the first line could refer either to the fact that “V” is the Roman numeral for five or that the letter “u” (interchangeable with “v” in early Latin) is the fifth vowel. The three “powers” of “v” are as vowel (meaning “u”), consonant, and its “nothing” role following “q” in “qu-.”
Tags: riddles latin Eusebius