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Greeting and farewell expressions 117
asked him to put on his toga to hear the instructions of the Senate, as a
good omen for himself and for the state. He, astonished and asking ‘Is
everything all right?’ ordered his wife Racilla to bring his toga quickly
from the hut.
Here the speaker is clearly not encouraging immediate explanation on the
part of his visitors; the question must be a general expression of concern
along the lines of ‘Is something wrong?’
A related expression is sunt vestra salva?, as in the following example
where a teacher urges students to check their own affairs; here the function
must be an exhortation or a weak command:
(52) didicimus, dicebat enim magister: ‘sunt vestra salva? recta
domum. cave circumspicias; cave maiorem maledicas.’ (Petr. 58.13)
We had a different sort of schooling, for the teacher used to say, ‘Are all
your possessions safe? Go straight home; be careful not to stop and look
around you, and be careful not to speak ill of your elders.’
The parallelism between sunt vestra salva? and satin salve? is based on the
fact that salvus/-a sis is usually a mere variation of salve, as in the following
examples of replies in comedy:
(53) PI. salvos sis, Mnesiloche. MN. salve.
PI. Mnesilochus! bless you! MN. Same to you.
(Pl. Bac. 536)
(54) CR. O Mysis, salve! MY. Salvo’ sis, Crito.
CR. Hello, Mysis! MY. May you be well, Crito!
(Ter. An. 802)
The connection between salvus and salve is also emphasised by word plays:
(55) PE. ego sum. salve. PH. salva sum quia te esse salvom sentio.
(Pl. Epid. 558)
PE. I am. God save you! PH. I am saved, now that I see you are safe.
The Sabellic languages do not appear to have had any equivalent
of the verb salvere and therefore of the imperative salve; in greetings
they used a phrase corresponding corresponding to salvus sis,
as is indicated by sepulchral inscriptions containing greetings to the
deceased:
(56) statie silie. salavs s ( )
Statius Silius, greetings
(Rix 2002: Cm18; cf. Poccetti 1983)