... Tentamen strictuarum in quasdam M. Accii Plauti comoedias

§. II.

Act IV. Sc. III. v. 2.

It strikes me with surprise that this little verse has been a thorn in the side of the most learned men, such that some have thought about amending the text, seeking a knot in a bulrush. All difficulty seems to me to be removed if tergus is taken to have the same power as its primitive form tergum. The meaning will be: I will truncate (i.e., I will cut off) the necks (collos for colla, according to the usage of ancient speech) from the terga (i.e., from the backs placed upon the table).

The first point is beyond doubt: that ancient writers frequently use tergus for tergum and vice versa, interchangeably.

— — furca levat ille bicorni
Sordida terga suis nigro pendentia tigno,
Servatoque diu resecat de tergore partem
Exiguam — —
Ovid. Metam. lib. VIII. v. 650. sqq.

— — tunc diviso tergore
Silvas petivit etc. Phaedr. l. II. f. I. v. 9. sq.

— — praetruncavit tribus tergoribus glandia. Noster Scen. sq. v. 7.

Regarding this, interpreters in Stephanus’ Thesaurus Linguae Latinae under the entry Glandium have long accepted that glandia refers to a portion of the boar near the neck, or the neck itself, which is to be cut off from the tergum. Conversely, tergum is used for tergore in Aeneid I. v. 373:

That tergora is correctly taken for tergis in our passage—even though lexicons may not explicitly advise it—seems the less doubtful, the more certain it is that this meat was customarily held to be a delicacy above others.
Homer. Iliad. H. v. 321. et sq.

Νώτοισιν δ' Αἴαντα διηνεκέεσσι γέραιρεν
Ἥρως Ἀτρείδης εὐρυκρείων Ἀγαμέμνων.

And likewise Odyss. Δ. v. 65. sq.

— — καί σφιν νῶτα βοὸς παρὰ πίονα θῆκεν
Ὀπτ' ἐν χερσὶν ἑλών, τὰ ῥά οἱ γέρα πάρθεσαν αὐτῷ.