Note 284 — FIRST SECTION. (continued 2)

On the digitus medius (middle finger) or infamis compare Upton on Arrian’s Diss. Epictet, II. 2. p. 176.—“Abhandlung von den Fingern, deren Verrichtungen und symbolischen Bedeutung.” (Treatise on the Fingers, their Gestures and Symbolic Meaning). Leipzig 1756. pp. 172-221. But in particular Forberg, loco citato p. 338. note h.: Cum digitus medius porrectus, reliquis incurvatis, tentam repraesentet mentulam cum coleis suis, factum est, ut medium digitum hoc modo ostenderent (Graeci uno verbo dixerunt σκιμαλίζειν) cinaedis, sive pelliciendis, sive irridendis. (In as much as the middle finger stretched out, the other fingers being bent under, represents the extended penis with its bags (testicles), it came about that the Greeks used to show the middle finger in this way (the Greeks expressed it by one word σκιμαλίζειν) to cinaedi, whether to beckon them or by way of derision.). Martial, I. 93., Saepe mihi queritur Celsus.... Tangi se digito, Mamuriane, tuo. (Often Celsus complains to me that he is touched by your finger, Mamurianus.) VI. 70., Ostendit digitum, sed impudicum. (He shows a finger, but an indecent one). Οἱ δὲ Ἀττικοὶ καὶ τὸν μέσον τῆς χειρὸς δάκτυλον καταπύγωνα ὠνόμαζον. (Now the Attics used to call the middle finger of the hand the lewd finger.) Pollux, Onomast., II. 4. 184. Suetonius, Caligula, ch. 56., Osculandam manum offerre, formatam commotamque in obscoenum modum. (To offer his hand to be kissed, put into an obscene shape and moved in an obscene way.) Th. Echtermeyer, “Progr. über Namen und symbol. Bedeut. der Finger bei den Griechen und Römern.” (Names and Symbolic Meaning of the Fingers amongst the Greeks and Romans.) Halle 1835. 4to., pp. 41-49., treats very exhaustively of this subject.