or even patibulatus:22 an English equivalent might be ‘gallows-bird’, ‘hang-dog’. The abusive i in malam maximam crucem thus meant something like ‘Be hanged!’23 Varro, Cicero’s contemporary, uses the offensive word crux as a vivid illustration for his etymological theory: lene est auribus cum dicimus ‘voluptas’, asperum cum dicimus ‘crux’ … ipsius verbi asperitas cum doloris quem crux efficit asperitate concordet (to say ‘pleasure’ is gentle on the ears, but to say ‘cross’ is harsh. The harshness