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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Mencken in discussing UK education mentions as a bit of trivia that every UK school kid is presumed to know,"Balbus built a wall". I have yet to find a word about Balbus' wall. I did find a fairly detailed biography of him at: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/6311/bal_bio.htmlInteresting to me, the bio said it is believed that his name came from a root meaning "stammerer", probably applied to one of his ancestors. That interested me, as "balbutier" is French verb meaning to stammer. I have yet to find a single word about his wall, though.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Shame on Gilbert. Balbus was not mythical. And Mencken seems to err in alleging every school kid knew "Balbus built a wall". Hadrian's Wall, and Offa's Dyke, quite possibly. Maybe Mencken got it from G&S.
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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Perhaps the Balbus famous for building a wall was a different one from the Balbus you linked to.
Bingley
Bingley
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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Lucius Cornelius Balbus was Julius Caesar's chief engineer for a time, so he could well have had a wall - somewhere. He had a nephew of the same name who also achieved some fame but was not involved with engineering - though he did have a theatre built in Rome.
This thread took me back to dreary Latin lessons with flies droning around sleepy hot rooms. "Balbus listened to the sweet voices of the girls singing" and all that. We had an atrocious Latin master and a highly effective French mistress (now, now, no sniggering at the back there). Probably accounted for my exam results being what they were!
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