Originally called the Profundum Aequor by Curtius Rufus Quintus, meaning deep water sea, the word desert comes…with the negative connotation of desertion, suggesting abandonment of the established order for a place set apart from the world. The idea of deprivation eventually pervaded the very concept of deserts, and it became associated with the ideas of extremes- extreme temperatures, winds, erosion, distances- and severe shortage of water. Over time it came to connote abstract ideas like solitude, emptiness, and nothingness.
-Mysteries of the Great Egyptian Desert, Pauline and Philippe de Flers
When you are past Day 20 on the Way of the Forty, you do not think much about the etymology and connotations of the word “desert”. Desertum, Sahraa’, Rimal…nothing captures the imagination as well as a simple drink of water in the shade of a lone tree. There I have found camel ticks and fennec fox tracks. Everybody and everything must get out of the sun when there is nothing but that sun’s full torrid sweep across the sky ahead of you.
But during the Bush Wars it was hard to avoid pundits quoting Tacitus on the subject of deserts- ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant, “where they make a desert they call it peace”. But does the Latin “solitudinem” here really mean desert? Secondary meanings as in English are “solitude”, “desolation”, and “loneliness”. Why didn’t Tacitus use the more specific Latin word “desertum”?
Tacitus was quoting the speech of a Celt warrior named Calgacus who had arrayed in battle against Tacitus’ father in law Agricola during the Roman conquest of Scotland. Calgacus was tryng to rally his troops in a hopeless cause. Think Mel Gibson in Braveheart. I doubt that a Celt in the north of Britain where 180 inches of rain can fall in a year could have had any idea what a desert might be like. I have been in a real desert and I have also felt solitude, desolation, and loneliness. I think Calgacus was talking about the latter.
Quintus Curtius Rufus’ full quote about the Egyptian desert in his Histories of Alexander the Great is, “but when plains covered with deep sand disclosed themselves, just as if they had entered a vast sea [profundum aequor], they looked in vain for land. Not a tree met the eye.”
Those pundits should have given their Tacitus quote a Quintus twist. His Calgacus should have said of the Romans, “they fill the sea and call it land”. Where not a tree meets the eye. Where not a tick, fennec fox, or camel driver finds shade.
