[54] Why do they call the meat-markets macella and macellae?
Is this word corrupted from mageiroi (cooks) and has it prevailed, as many others have, by force of habit? For c and g have a close relationship in Latin, and it was only after many years that they made use of g, which Spurius Carvilius[127] introduced. And l, again, is substituted lispingly for r when people make a slip in the pronunciation of r because of the indistinctness of their enunciation.
Or must this problem also be solved by history? For the story goes that there once lived in Rome a violent man, a robber, Macellus by name, who despoiled many people and was with great difficulty caught and punished: from his wealth the public meat-market was built, and it acquired its name from him.