_tot_, which, like _quot_, cannot be used as a substantive. -- SCIPIONES:
'men like Scipio', _i.e._ the elder Africanus; so 15 _Fabricii Curii
Coruncanii_. Cicero has here put his own opinion of Scipio into the mouth
of Cato, who, during a large part of his life, was a staunch and even
bitter opponent of Scipio, and therefore not likely to couple him with
Fabius. Cf. Introd. -- UT ... RECORDENTUR: the repetition of _ut_ with each
clause for the sake of effect may be compared with the repetition of
_nihil_ in 15, 27, 41; of _non_ in 32; of _hinc_ in 40; of _sibi_ in 58. --
PEDESTRIS: for _terrestris_; the usage is very common; so in Greek
πεζομαχια and ναυμαχια, πεζομαχειν and ναυμαχειν are often contrasted (see
Liddell and Scott). It is not recorded by historians that either Scipio or
Fabius took part personally in naval warfare. -- RECORDENTUR: this verb
implies the habitual dwelling of the memory upon the past. -- QUIETE ET
PURE ATQUE ELEGANTER: the enumeration consists of two branches connected by
_et_, the second branch being subdivided into two members connected by
_atque_. Had each of the adverbs been intended to stand on exactly the same
footing Cic. would have written _et_ instead of _atque_, or else would have
omitted the copula altogether; see n. on 53 _capitum iugatio_. In
enumerations of the form A + (Bl + B2), the + outside the bracket is
expressed by _et_, the + inside the bracket generally being expressed by
_ac_, for which _atque_ is substituted when the following word (_i.e._ B2)
begins with a vowel, a guttural (_c, q, g_) or _h_, before which _ac_ was
very seldom written. -- PURE ATQUE ELEGANTER: 'sinlessly and gently'.
_Pure_ implies moral stainlessness, _eleganter_, literally 'in choice
fashion', implies daintiness combined with simplicity in regard to the
external conditions of life. The same ideas are put together in Sull. 79
_cum summa elegantia atque integritate vixistis_. -- AETATIS: see n. on 5.
-- PLACIDA AC LENIS: 'quiet and mild'; _placida_ refers to the external
surroundings, _lenis_ to the temper and character. -- ACCEPIMUS: _sc.
fuisse_; for the ellipsis of the infinitive cf. n. on 22 _videretur_. --
UNO ET OCTOGESIMO: but below _quarto_ (not _quattuor_) _nonagesimo_. In the
compound _ordinal_ numbers corresponding to those _cardinal_ numbers which
are made up of one and a multiple of ten, the Latins use _unus_ oftener
than _primus_, which would be strictly correct; so in English 'one and
eightieth' for 'eighty-first'. The ordinary Grammar rule (Roby, Vol. I, p.
443 'the _ordinal_ not the _cardinal_ is used in giving the date') requires
slight correction. For the position of the words see G. 94, 3; H. 174,
footnote 3. -- SCRIBENS EST MORTUUS: 'died while still engaged upon his
works'; cf. 23 _num Platonem ... coegit in suis studiis obmutiscere
senectus?_ Diog. Laert. 3, 2 quoting Hermippus (a Greek writer of biography
who lived about the time of the Second Punic war), says that Plato died in
the middle of a marriage-feast at which he was a guest. Val. Max. 8, 7, 3
gives a slightly different account. -- ISOCRATI: this form of the genitive
of Greek proper names in _-es_ was probably used by Cicero rather than the
form in _-is_; see Madvig on Fin. 1, 14; Neue, Formenlehre, 1² 332.
Isocrates, the greatest teacher of rhetoric of his time, lived from 436 to
338, when he died by voluntary starvation owing to his grief at the loss of
Greek freedom through the battle of Chaeronea. Milton, Sonnet X. 'That
dishonest victory At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty, Kill'd with report that
old man eloquent'. -- EUM ... INSCRIBITUR: the periphrasis is common, and
the verb _inscribere_ is nearly always in the present tense (in later prose
as well as in Cicero) as in 59. This is sometimes the case even where the
neighboring verbs are in past tenses, as in Acad. 1, 12 _nec se tenuit quin
contra suum doctorem librum etiam ederet qui Sosus inscribitur_. The
present seems to mean that the name mentioned is continually given to each
copy of the book as produced; where the continuing multiplication of copies
is not looked to, we have the perfect, as Att. 8, 5, 2 _tu fasciculum_
(bundle of letters) _qui est inscriptus 'des M'. Curio', velim cures ad eum
perferendum_. Cf. also De Or. 2, 61 _deceptus indicibus librorum qui sunt
fere inscripti_ ('to which the authors--once for all--have given the
titles') _de virtute, de iustitia_, etc.; so Div. 2, 1 _eo libro qui
inscriptus Hortensius_. -- DICIT: the 'Panathenaicus', an encomium of
Athens written for recitation at the great festival of the Panathenaea, is
among the works of Isocrates which we still possess. In c. 1 Isocrates says
τοις ετεσι ενενηκοντα και τετταρσιν, ‛ων εγω τυγχανω γεγονως. -- VIXITQUE:
'and yet he lived'. The _que_ here has a slight adversative force, as is
often the case with _et_. Cf. n. on 28, 43, 73. -- GORGIAS: the greatest of
the sophists, born at Leontini in Sicily about 485 B.C.; his death took
place, according to the varying accounts, in 380, 378, or 377. In his old
age he lived in Thessaly where Isocrates studied with him; see Or. 176;
Fin. 2, 1. For the adjective _Leontinus_ placed before the name rather than
after cf. 43 _Thessalo Cinea_. -- CENTUM ET SEPTEM ANNOS: Kennedy, Gram., §
34, vii, _c_, says, 'in compound numbers above 100 the larger number, with
or without _et_, generally precedes the smaller'; cf. Roby, Vol. 1 p. 443.
-- CESSO: does not correspond in meaning with our 'cease', _i.e._ '_to come
to_ a standstill'; _cesso_ is 'I am in a state of rest', 'I am idle'. --
QUAERERETUR: the past tense, though the principal verb _inquit_, is in the
present, because the present is the _historical_ present and so equivalent
to a past tense. Cf. Roby, 1511-1514; Kennedy 229, 2. A. 287, _e_; G. 511,
Rem. 1; H. 495, II. The idiom by which the imperfect stands where we should
expect a tense of completed action, should be noticed; cf. Tusc. 2, 60
_quem cum rogaret, respondit._ The explanation of the imperfect in such
cases is that it marks out, more clearly than the pluperfect would, the
fact that the action of the principal verb and the action of the dependent
verb are practically contemporaneous. In our passage if _quaesitum esset_
had been written it would have indicated merely that at some quite
indefinite time after the question was put the answer was given. Cf. N.D.
1, 60 _auctore ... obscurior_. -- CUR ... VITA: a hint at suicide, which
the ancients thought a justifiable mode of escape from troubles,
particularly those of ill health or old age. See n. on 73 _vetat
Pythagoras. Esse in vita_ is stronger than _vivere_; cf. Qu. Fr. 1, 3, 5.
-- NIHIL HABEO QUOD ACCUSEM: 'I have no reason to reproach'. Cf. the common
phrase _quid est quod ...? Quod_, adverbial acc. A. 240, _a_; G. 331, R. 3;
H. 378, 2. For mood of _accusem_ see H. 503, I. n. 2, and references on 12
_discerem_. -- PRAECLARUM RESPONSUM: _est_ is not required, because
_responsum_ is in apposition to the last part of the preceding sentence.
Similar appositions occur in Laelius, 67, 71, 79. -- DOCTO: applied
especially to philosophers, but also to poets. The word implies
_cultivation_ as well as mere _knowledge_; 'a learned man', merely as such,
is '_homo litteratus_'; cf. n. on 54.
P. 7. -- 14. CUIUS ... FECI: 'the aforesaid' is in good Latin always
expressed by a parenthesis like this and not by a participle in agreement
with the noun. The phrases '_ante dictus_', '_supra dictus_', belong to
silver Latin, where they are common. Cf. 23 _quos ante dixi_. -- SIC UT
etc.: the lines are from the Annals of Ennius, for which see n. on 1. --
ECUS: Ennius did not write _uu_, nor most likely did Cicero; the former may
have written either _ecus, equos,_ or _equs_. The last form Vahlen prints
in his edition of Ennius. -- SPATIO SUPREMO: 'at the end of the
race-course', 'at the goal', or it may be 'at the last turn round the
course', the race requiring the course to be run round several times; cf.
Homer's πυματον δρομον in Iliad 23, 768. So 83 _decurso spatio_; Verg. Aen.
5, 327 _iamque fere spatio extreme fessique sub ipsam finem adventabant_.
-- VICIT OLUMPIA: a direct imitation of the Greek phrase νικαν Ολυμπια, to
win a victory at an Olympic contest. So Horace Ep. 1, 1, 50 has _coronari
Olympia_ = στεφανουσθαι Ολυμπια. The editors print _Olympia_, but the use
of _y_ to represent Greek υ did not come in till long after the time of
Ennius. -- SENIO: differs from _senectute_ in implying not merely old age,
but the weakness which usually accompanies it. -- CONFECTUS: for the
disregard of the final _s_ in scanning cf. n. on 1, l. 6. -- EQUI VICTORIS:
for the almost adjectival use of the substantive _victor_, cf. Verg. Aen.
7, 656 _victores equos_; ib. 12, 751 _venator canis_; ib. 10, 891; 11, 89,
and Georg. 2, 145 _bellator equus_, in Theocritus 15, 51 πολεμισται ‛ιπποι.
The feminine nouns in _-trix_ are freely used as adjectives both in verse
and in prose. A. 88, _c_; H. 441, 3. -- QUEM QUIDEM: the same form of
transition is used in 26, 29, 46, 53. The whole of this passage to
_suasissem_ is an exhibition of antiquarian learning quite unnatural and
inappropriate in a dialogue. -- PROBE MEMINISSE POTESTIS: cf. De Or. 3, 194
_quem tu probe meministi_; Fin. 2, 63 _L. Thorius quem meminisse tu non
potes. Memini_ can take a _personal_ accusative only when the person who
remembers was a contemporary of the person remembered; otherwise the gen.
follows. Cf. Roby, 1333; A. 219, Rem.; H. 407, n. 1. -- HI CONSULES: 'the
present consuls'. -- T. FLAMININUS: commonly said to be the son of the
great Flamininus (1, l. 1). He was altogether undistinguished, as also were
the Acilius and the Caepio here mentioned. This passage gives the imagined
date of the dialogue as 150 B.C. -- PHILIPPO: this was Q. Marcius
Philippus, who was consul in 186 and took part in the suppression of the
great Bacchanalian conspiracy of that year. For the next 17 years he was a
leading senator and much engaged in diplomacy in the East. In 169 he was
again consul and commanded against Perseus in the early part of the war. --
CUM ... LEGEM VOCONIAM ... SUASISSEM: 'after I had spoken publicly in favor
of the law o£ Voconius'. For _suasissem_ cf. 10 _suasor_ with n. The _Lex
Voconia de mulierum hereditatibus_ aimed at securing the continuance of
property in families. By its provisions no man who possessed property
valued in the censors' lists at 100,000 sesterces or more, could appoint a
woman or women as his _heres_ or _heredes_; further, no person or persons,
male or female, could receive under the will legacies amounting in all to a
larger sum than that received by the principal heir or heirs. Every Roman
will named a _heres_ or _heredes_, on whom devolved all the privileges and
duties of the deceased, with such duties as were enjoined by the will;
particularly the duty of paying the legacies left to those who were not
_heredes_. See Maine, Ancient Law, Ch. 6; also Hunter, Introd. to Roman
Law, Ch. 5. -- MAGNA: in Latin the word _magnus_ is the only equivalent of
our 'loud'. -- LATERIBUS: 'lungs'. Cic. and the best writers rarely use
_pulmones_ for 'lungs'; the few passages in which it occurs either refer to
victims sacrificed at the altar, or are medical or physiological
descriptions. 'Good lungs' is always '_bona latera_' never _pulmones_. --
DUO ... SENECTUTEM: Ennius is said to have kept a school in his later days,
and to have lived in a cottage with one servant only.
15. ETENIM: this word generally introduces either an explanation or a proof
of a preceding statement. Here the words are elliptic, and the real
connection with what precedes can only be made clear by a paraphrase.
'Ennius seemed to delight in old age. And no wonder, since there are four
causes which make men think old age wretched, and no one of these will bear
examination'. _Etenim_ may generally be translated 'indeed', or 'in fact'.
-- CUM COMPLECTOR ANIMO: 'when I grasp them in my thoughts'. The object of
_complector_ is to be supplied from _causas_. -- AVOCET: _sc. senes_. The
subjunctives denote that these are the thoughts not of the speaker, but of
the persons who do think old age a wretched thing. See n. on 3 _ferat_; but
cf. Kennedy, Grammar, pref., p. 30. -- ALTERAM ... TERTIAM: in enumerations
of more than two things _unus and alter_ generally take the place of
_primus_, and _secundus_: in Cic. these latter rarely occur under such
circumstances. Cf. Att. 3, 15, 1; Fin. 5, 9; Off. 1, 152; Cluent. 178. --
INFIRMIUS: _sc. auam antea erat_. -- QUAM SIT IUSTA: Cicero generally
separates from the words they qualify _quam_, _tam_, _ita_, _tantus_,
_quantus_, often, as here, by one small word. Cf. below, 35 _quam fuit
imbecillus_; 40 _tam esse inimicum_. -- QUIBUS: the preposition _a_ is
often omitted; cf. in Pis. 91 _Arsinoen ... Naupactum fateris ab hostibus
esse captas. Quibus hostibus? Nempe eis_ etc.; Tusc. 3, 37 _sed traducis
cogitationes meas ad voluptates. Quas?_ Even when relative and antecedent
are in the same sentence the preposition is not often repeated; _e.g._ Fin.
5, 68 _eodem in genere quo illa_. -- AN EIS: _an_ always introduces a
question which is not independent, but follows upon a previous question
either expressed or implied. Here _quibus_ implies _omnibusne_. Cf. div. in
Caec. 52 _quid enim dices? An id quod dictitas_ ... where _quid_ implies
_nihilne_: also below, 23, 29 _anne_. A 211, _b_; G. 459; H. 353, 2, n. 4.
-- IUVENTUTE ET VIRIBUS: commonly explained as a hendiadys, _i.e._ as put
for _iuventutis viribus_; but Cic. no more meant this than we mean 'the
strength of youth' when we speak of 'youth and strength'. Real instances of
hendiadys are much rarer than is generally supposed. -- QUAE: = _tales ut_.
-- L. PAULUS: this is L. Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus, consul in 182 B.C.,
and again in 168 when he finished the third Macedonian war by utterly
defeating Perseus at Pydna. For his connection with Scipio and Cato see
Introd. -- PATER TUUS: _i.e. Scipio_; so in 29 _avi tui_, and in 75 _avum
tuum_, without mention of young Scipio's name, but in 49 _patris tui,
Scipio_; so 77. -- FABRICII etc.: for the plurals see n. on 13. C.
Fabricius Luscinus, consul in 282, 278, and 273 B.C., censor in 275, held
the command against Pyrrhus. The Roman writers, Cicero especially, are
never tired of eulogizing him as a pattern of old-fashioned Roman virtue.
Manius Curius Dentatus, consul in 290, 275, and 274 practically, if not
formally, ended the third Samnite war, and also commanded against Pyrrhus;
see 55. He was famed for his sturdy Roman simplicity and frugality.
Tiberius Coruncanius as consul in 280 crushed an Etruscan insurrection. In
252 he became the first plebeian pontifex maximus. These three men are very
frequently mentioned together by Cicero; cf. below, 43, Lael. 18. -- NIHIL
AGEBANT: observe that _nihil agebat_ is put at the beginning of the first
sentence, _nihil agebant_ at the end of the second; chiasmus.
16. A. CLAUDI: Appius Claudius, the head of the most strongly aristocratic
family in Rome, was censor in 311 B.C., when he constructed the _via
Appia_, and consul in 307 and 296. He had to be carried into the
senate-house in order to oppose the peace with Pyrrhus -- ACCEDEBAT UT:
_accedit_ is far oftener followed by a clause with _quod_ and indicative
than by a clause with _ut_ and subjunctive. When the _quod_ clause follows,
it contains a fact looked at merely as a fact and nothing more, but the
_ut_ clause views the fact as consequent upon, or dependent on some other
fact. Here the blindness is regarded as being the consequence of old age,
though Livy 9, 29, 11 and other authors attribute it to the anger of the
gods, because as censor Appius had taken the administration of the worship
of Hercules away from the ancient family of the Potitii, and had placed it
in the hands of public slaves. The mental vigor of Appius in his old age is
mentioned by Cic. in Tusc. 5, 112.
P. 8. -- CUM PYRRHO: note the position of the words between _pacem_ and
_foedus_, with both of which they go. This usage is called by the
grammarians _coniunctio_; cf. n. on Lael. 8 _cum summi viri tum
amicissimi_, also above, _quae iuventute geruntur et viribus_, below 18
_quae sunt gerenda praescribo et quo modo_. -- FOEDUS: this seems opposed
to _pacem_ as a formal engagement is to a mere abstention from hostilities.
-- NON DUBITAVIT DICERE: when _dubitare_ means 'to hesitate' (about a
course of action), and the sentence is _negative_, or an interrogative
sentence assuming a negative answer, the infinitive construction generally
follows, as here; but the infinitive is rare in a _positive_ sentence. When
_dubitare_ means to 'be in doubt' (as to whether certain statements are
true or not), the regular construction is either _quin_ with subj. or some
form of indirect interrogative clause. Cf. below, 25. -- QUO VOBIS: from
the _Annales_. In _mentis dementis_ we have _oxymoron_ (an intentional
contradiction in terms) as in 38 _sensum sine sensu_; 39 _munus ...
aufert_. On the case of _vobis_, see Roby, 1154, A. 235, _a_, H. 384, 4, n.
2. -- ANTEHAC: always a dissyllable in verse, and probably so pronounced in
prose -- VIAI: the old genitive. A. 36 _a_, G. 27, Rem. 1, H. 49, 2. The
reading is not quite certain, if _viai_ be read it is not altogether
certain whether it depends on _quo_ or on _sese flexere_. In the former
construction we have a partitive gen with an adv; A. 216, _a_, 4, G. 371,
Rem. 4, H. 397, 4, in the latter, a distinct Graecism like _desine
querellarum_ (Hor Od 2, 9, 17) and the like; A. 243 Rem., G. 373 Rem. 6, H.
410 V 4. -- ET TAMEN: the sense is incompletely expressed, in full it is
'and yet there is no need for me to refer to Appius' speech as given by
Ennius, since the speech itself is in existence.' Exactly similar ellipses
are found with _et tamen_ in Fin 1, 11 and 15; 2, §§ 15, 21, 64 and 85,
Att. 7, 3, 10, Lucretius 5, 1177. In Munro's note on the last passage a
collection of examples will be found. -- APPI ... ORATIO: the speech was
known to Cicero, and was one of the oldest monuments of prose composition
in Latin extant in his time, see Brut. 61. Plutarch, Pyrrhus 19, gives an
account of Appius' speech, which may founded on the original, he mentions
it also in his tract commonly called '_an seni sit gerenda res publica_',
c. 21. Ihne (History of Rome, Vol. I. p. 521, Eng. ed.) doubts whether the
speech, as Cic. knew it, was committed to writing by Appius himself. --
HAEC ILLE EGIT: 'he made this speech'. -- SEPTEMDECIM ANNIS: as the second
(_alterum_) consulship was in 296, and the speech in 280, both these years
are included in the reckoning by a usage very common in Latin. For the
ablative cf. 19. -- CENSOR ... ANTE CONSULATUM: this was unusual, and
therefore to Claudius' honor. -- GRANDEM SANE: 'undoubtedly old'. -- ET
TAMEN SIC: _i.e. eum tum grandem fuisse_ Lahmeyer wrongly says that _sic_
points to the words _atque haec ille egit_. It may be noted that _sic_
takes the place of an object after _accipimus_, cf. 77 _ita crederem_; 78
_sic mihi persuasi_, also 18 _male cogitanti_.
17. NIHIL AFFERUNT: 'they bring forward nothing', _i.e._ what they bring
forward is worthless, so in Greek ουδεν λεγειν, the opposite of which is
λεγειν τι. Cf. 8 _est istuc aliquid_. -- SIMILES UT SI: a very rare
construction. Equally unusual is _similes tamquam si_ in Div. 2, 131. In
Tusc. 4, 41 and Off. 1, 87 we find _similiter ut si_ in Fin. 2, 21 and 4,
31 _similiter_ or _similis et si_, in N.D. 3, 8 _similiter ac si_, also in
Liv. 5, 5, 12 _dissimilia ac si_, in 35, 42, 10 _idem ac si_. As regards
the _ut_ after _similes_, we may compare a few passages in which _simul ut_
appears for _simul ac_, see Reid's n. on Academ 2, 51. In the English Bible
there are expressions like _similes sunt ut si qui dicant_, 'they are like
as if some men should say.' -- SCANDANT: '_cum_ is used with the
subjunctive when it expresses a kind of comparison, and especially a
contrast, between the contents of a leading proposition and a subordinate
("whereas", etc.)' Madvig, 358, Obs. 3. The underlying idea in this use is
generally cause, sometimes concession. -- PER FOROS 'over the deck'. --
ILLE: for the omission of _sed_ or _autem_ (_asyndeton adversativum_) see
n. on 3 _librum_, etc. -- CLAVUM: 'tiller'. With this passage Lahmeyer well
compares what Cicero says of himself in Fam. 9, 15, 3 _sedebamus in puppi
et clavum tenebamus; nunc autem vix est in sentina locus_. -- VELOCITATE:
_velocitas_ and _celeritas_ differ very slightly; the former means rather
speed of movement in one line the latter rather power of rapid motion with
frequent change of direction. The emphatic word in this clause is
_corporum_. Cf. Off. 1, 79 _honestum ... animi efficitur non corporis
viribus_. -- CONSILIO ... SENTENTIA: _consilio_, advice; _auctoritate_,
weight of influence; _sententia,_ an opinion or vote formally given. --
QUIBUS: in twofold relation; with _orbari_, abl. of separation, with
_augeri_ of specification.
18. NISI FORTE: ironical, used to introduce a possible, but absurd
objection to something which has gone before. The verb that follows is
always in the indicative. -- MILES etc.: 'as common soldier'; see n. on 10.
-- IN VARIO GENERE: we use the plural, 'in different kinds'. Cf. Acad. 2, 3
_in omni genere belli_; Deiot. 12 _in omni genere bellorum_. -- CESSARE:
cf. n. on 13. -- AT SENATUI etc.: exactly the same ideas are expressed,
with the same mention of Cato's activity in Off. 1, 79. -- MALE COGITANTI:
'which has now for a long time been plotting mischief'; A. 290, _a_; G.
671, 221; H. 549, 4; 467, III. 2. Cf. pro Sulla 70 _nefarie cogitare_; for
the use of the adverb see n. on 16 _sic_. On Cato's attitude toward
Carthage see Introd. -- VERERI: the construction is unusual. _Vereor_
regularly takes after it an accusative, or else a clause with _ne_ or _ut_.
A passage much resembling this is Rab. Post. 10 _omnes qui aliquid de se
verebantur_; cf. also Att. 10, 4, 6 _de vita sua metuere_; Verg. Aen. 9,
207 _de te nil tale verebar_; in all these examples the ablative with _de_
denotes the quarter threatened, not, as here, the quarter from which the
threat comes. -- EXSCISAM: from _exscindo_; most edd. _excisam_, but to
raze a city is _urbem exscindere_ not _excidere_; _e.g._ Rep. 6, 11
_Numantiam exscindes_.
19. QUAM PALMAM etc.: a prophecy after the event, like that in Rep. 6, 11
_avi relliquias_, the finishing up of the Punic wars. For the use of
_relliquias_ cf. Verg. Aen. 11, 30 _Troas relliquias Danaum atque immitis
Achilli_; ib. 598; ib. 3, 87. -- TERTIUS: so all our MSS. This places the
elder Scipio's death in 183, which agrees with Livy's account in 39, 50,
10. But the year before Cato's censorship was 185 not 183, hence some edd.
read _quintus_ and some _sextus_ in place of _tertius_.
P. 9. -- NOVEM ANNIS: as Cato's consulship was in 195 these words also
apparently disagree with _tertius_ above. _Novem annis post_ means nine
_full_ years after, _i.e._ 185 not 186; cf. 42 _septem annis post_. --
ENIM: implies that the answer 'no' has been given to the question and
proceeds to account for that answer. -- EXCURSIONE: a military term =
'skirmishing'; Cf. Div. 2, 26 _prima orationis excursio_. -- HASTIS:
loosely used for _pilis_. The long old Roman _hasta_, whence the name
_hastati_, had long before Cato's time been discarded for the _pilum_ or
short javelin, which was thrown at the enemy from a distance before the
troops closed and used the sword. -- CONSILIUM: the repetition of consilium
in a different sense from that which it had in the sentence before seems to
us awkward; but many such repetitions are found in Cicero. _Consilium_
corresponds to both 'counsel' and 'council'; the senate was originally
_regium consilium_, the king's body of advisers. Here translate _summum
consilium_ 'the supreme deliberative body'. -- SENATUM: 'assembly of
elders'. Cf. 56 _senatores, id est senes_. _Senatus_ implies a lost verb
_sen[=a]-re_, to be or grow old from the stem of which both _sen[=a]-tus_
and _sen[=a]-tor_ are derived. This stem again implies a lost noun or
adjective _senus_, old. The word _senatus_ was collective, like
_comitatus_, a body of companions, _exercitus_, a trained band etc.
20. AMPLISSIMUM: 'most honorable'. -- UT SUNT ... SENES: the Spartan
γερουσια, as it is commonly called, consisted of 28 members, all over 60
years of age. Herodotus uses the term γεροντες (_senes_) for this assembly;
Xenophon γεροντια. In the Laconian dialect γερωια was its name; we also
find γεροντευειν 'to be a senator'. For _ut ... sic_ cf. Academ. 2, 14,
_similiter vos cum perturbare, ut illi rem publicam_, _sic vos philosophiam
velitis_; also Lael. 19. -- AUDIRE: like ακουω, used especially of
historical matters, since instruction in them was almost entirely oral. Cf.
ανηκοος = 'ignorant of history'. -- VOLETIS: see note on 7 _faciam ut
potero_; cf. Roby, 1464, _a_; Madvig, 339, Obs. 1; A. 278, _b_; G. 234,
Rem. 1; H. 470, 2. -- ADULESCENTIBUS: Cic., when he wrote this, was
possibly thinking of Athens and Alcibiades. -- LABEFACTATAS: the verb
_labefacio_ is foreign to good prose, in which _labefacto_ is used. --
SUSTENTATAS: Cic. does not use _sustentus_. In Mur. 3 _sustinenda_ is
followed by _sustentata_ in the same sentence. -- CEDO ... CITO: the line
is of the kind called tetrameter iambic acatalectic (or octonarius), and is
scanned thus: --
v v -' | - - | - -' | v - || - -' | - - | - -' | v -.
In all kinds of iambic verse the old Romans freely introduced spondees
where the Greeks used iambi; so in hexameters spondees for dactyls. Cf.
Hor. Ep. ad Pis. 254 _et seq._ -- CEDO: = _dic_; from _ce_, the enclitic
particle involved in _hic = (hi-ce)_ etc. and _da_, the root of _do_. So
_cette = ce-d[)a]te = cedte_, then _cette_ by assimilation of _d_ to _t_.
The original meaning would thus be 'give here', and in this sense the word
is often used. See Lex. _Dare_ is commonly put for _dicere_, as _accipere_
is for _audire_. -- QUI: 'how'. -- TANTAM: = οτσαυτην ουσαν. -- NAEVI:
Naevius lived about 264-194 B.C. His great work was a history of the First
Punic War written in Saturnian verse, the rude indigenous metre of early
Roman poetry. He wrote also plays,--tragedies and comedies, both
_palliatae_ and _praetextae_. For an account of him see Cruttwell, History
of Roman Literature; also, Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, Ch. 3. If
_Ludo_ be read, it may be either from the Latin _ludus_ (Naevius entitled a
comedy _Ludius_) or from Λυδος, Lydian. -- POETAE: Naevius seems to have
been in the habit of adding _poeta_ to his name. It appears in the
well-known epitaph said to have been written by himself, also in the lines
written against him by the family poet of the Metelli: '_malum dabunt
Metelli Naevio poetae_'. The name _poeta_ was new in Naevius' time and was
just displacing the old Latin name _vates_; see Munro on Lucr. 1, 102. --
PROVENIEBANT etc.: the same metre as above, divided thus by Lahmeyer: --
_provéni | ebant | orát | ores || noví | stultí adu | lescén / iuli_.
The whole line has the look of being translated from the Greek: προυβαινον
(εις το βημα) ‛ρητορες κανοι τινες, μειρακια γελοια. Lr. takes _provenire_
in the sense of 'to grow up', comparing Plin. Ep. 1, 13, 1 _magnum
proventum_ ('crop') _poetarum annus hic attulit_; Sall. Cat. 8, 3
_provenere ibi scriptorum magna ingenia_. -- VIDELICET: 'you see'.
21. AT: = αλλα γαρ; used, as in 32, 35, 47, 65, and 68, to introduce the
supposed objection of an opponent. -- CREDO: 'of course'. Cf. 47 where
_credo_ follows _at_ as here. -- EXERCEAS: the subject is the indefinite
'you' equivalent to 'one', τις: 'unless one were to practise it'. So 28
_nequeas_; 33 _requiras_. Cf. also Plin. Ep. 8, 14, 3 _difficile est tenere
quae acceperis, nisi exerceas_. For the mood see A. 309, _a_; G. 598, 597,
Rem. 3; H. 508, 5, 2). -- TARDIOR: 'unusually dull'; cf. Academ. 2, 97
_Epicurus quem isti tardum putant_. -- THEMISTOCLES: famed for his memory.
-- CIVIUM: 'fellow-countrymen'; _perceperat_: 'had grasped' or 'mastered'.
-- QUI ... SOLITUM: 'that he often addressed as Lysimachus some one who for
all that was Aristides'. The direct object of _salutare_ is omitted. For
_qui = tametsi is_ cf. Att. 1, 13, 3 _nosmet ipsi, qui Lycurgei fuissemus,
cotidie demitigamur_; also De Or. 1, 82. -- ESSET: A.342; G.631; H.529, II.
and n. 1, 1). -- LYSIMACHUM: for _ut L._ or _pro Lysimacho_. So Arch. 19
_Homerum Chii suum vindicant_ (= _ut suum_ or _pro suo_). Lysimachus was
the father of Aristides. -- SUNT: = _vivunt_, as often; so in 32 _esse =
vivere_; 54 _fuit = vixit_; 56, 60, 69. -- SEPULCRA LEGENS: Cato was a
great antiquarian; cf. 38 _Originum_. -- IN MEMORIAM REDEO MORTUORUM: the
genitive as with _memini, recordari_ etc. For the phrase cf. Verr. 1, 120
_redite in memoriam, iudices, quae libido istius fuerit_; also below, 59
_in gratiam redire cum voluptate_. Here translate 'I refresh my memory of
the dead'. -- QUEMQUAM SENEM: the best writers do not use _quisquam _as an
adjective, but there is no need to alter _senem_ into _senum_ as some
editors do, since _senem_ is a substitute for a clause _cum senex esset_;
'I never heard that anybody because he was an old man ...'. _Senes_ must be
so taken in 22, since _pontifices_ etc. cannot stand as adjectives. Cf. n.
on 10 _adulescentulus miles_. -- VADIMONIA: 'their appointments to appear
in court, the debts due to them and the debts they owe'. When the hearing
of a suit had to be adjourned, the defendant was bound over either on his
own recognizance merely (_pure_) or along with sureties (_vades_) to appear
in court on the day appointed for the next hearing, a sum or sums of money
being forfeited in case of his non-appearance. The engagement to appear was
technically called _vadimonium_; when the defendant entered into the
engagement he was said _vadimonium promittere_; if he kept the engagement,
_v. obire_ or _sistere_; if he failed in it, _v. deserere_. The plural
_vadimonia_ is here used because a number of suits is meant; the word
_constituta_ is chosen as a more general term than _promissa_, and as
referring to the circumstances of both plaintiff and defendant. Strictly
speaking, it is the presiding judge who _vadimonia constituit_. On this
account _vadimonia constituta_ should be translated as above
'appointments', and not _'bonds'_ or _'engagements_' to appear in court.