63. _The Latin of Daily Life._--While the leading writers of the Ciceronian and Augustan eras enable us to trace the gradual development of the Latin language to its utmost finish as an instrument of literary expression, there are some less important authors who supply valuable evidence of the character of the _sermo plebeius_. Among them may be placed the authors of the _Bellum Africanum_ and the _Bellum Hispaniense_ appended to Caesar's Commentaries. These are not only far inferior to the exquisite _urbanitas_ of Caesar's own writings; they are much rougher in style even than the less polished _Bellum Alexandrinum_ and _De Bello Gallico Liber VIII._, which are now with justice ascribed to Hirtius. There is sufficient difference between the two to justify us in assuming two different authors; but both freely employ words and constructions which are at once antiquated and vulgar. The writer of the _Bellum Alexandrinum_ uses a larger number of diminutives within his short treatise than Caesar in nearly ten times the space; _postquam_ and _ubi_ are used with the pluperfect subjunctive; there are numerous forms unknown to the best Latin, like _tristimonia_, _exporrigere_, _cruciabiliter_ and _convulnero_; _potior_ is followed by the accusative, a simple relative by the subjunctive. There is also a very common use of the pluperfect for the imperfect, which seems a mark of this _plebeius sermo_ (Nipperdey, _Quaest. Caes._ pp. 13-30).
Another example of what we may call the Latin of business life is supplied by Vitruvius. Besides the obscurity of many of his technical expressions, there is a roughness and looseness in his language, far removed from a literary style; he shares the incorrect use of the pluperfect, and uses plebeian forms like _calefaciuntur_, _faciliter_, _expertiones_ and such careless phrases as _rogavit Archimedem uti in se sumeret sibi de eo cogitationem_. At a somewhat later stage we have, not merely plebeian, but also provincial Latin represented in the Satyricon of Petronius. The narrative and the poems which are introduced into it are written in a style distinguished only by the ordinary peculiarities of silver Latinity; but in the numerous conversations the distinctions of language appropriate to the various speakers are accurately preserved; and we have in the talk of the slaves and provincials a perfect storehouse of words and constructions of the greatest linguistic value. Among the unclassical forms and constructions may be noticed masculines like _fatus_, _vinus_, _balneus_, _fericulus_ and _lactem_ (for _lac_), _striga_ for _strix_, _gaudimonium_ and _tristimonium_, _sanguen_, _manducare_, _nutricare_, _molestare_, _nesapius_ (_sapius_ = Fr. _sage_), _rostrum_ (= _os_), _ipsimus_ (= master), _scordalias_, _baro_, and numerous diminutives like _camella_, _audaculus_, _potiuncula_, _savunculum_, _offla_, _peduclus_, _corcillum_, with constructions such as _maledicere_ and _persuadere_ with the accusative, and _adiutare_ with the dative, and the deponent forms _pudeatur_ and _ridetur_. Of especial interest for the Romance languages are _astrum_ (_désastre_), _berbex_ (_brébis_), _botellus_ (_boyau_), _improperare_, _muttus_, _naufragare_.