Lucilius and Nigidius Figulus on orthographic iconicity

The comic poet Lucilius proposed several orthographic prescriptions in the ninth book of his Satirae, written in the period 115-110 B.C. In dealing with this topic, Lucilius severely criticised Accius’ statements on orthography, refusing his proposals of doubling vowels (“geminatio vocalium”) and overgeneralization of for /i:/. Lucilius’ prescriptions, which were borrowed by the philosopher Nigidius Figulus a century later, clearly follow the iconical principles of the pseudo-Stoic συμπάσχειν-theory. In this paper a new interpretation of the orthographic iconicity in Lucilius’ and Nigidius’ doctrine is proposed, with reference to the case morphemes of *-ŏ- and *-ā- stems. As a matter of fact, “thickening” and “thinning” of the letter-forms (addĕre vs tenuāre, pinguis vs tenuis) can be satisfactorily explained only by taking account of and spellings in a cursive script (namely vs ). Finally, the key to explain the technical terms tenuis “thin” vs pinguis “thick” is traced back to an ancient metaphor of the wool-spinning practices.