Chapter M: Tulli Ciceronis (3)

12. ADMIRABILIUS: 'more amazing'. The Latin word has a much stronger meaning than the English word derived from it. -- QUO MODO TULIT: = _eum modum quo tulit_, so that the clause is not really dependent on _cognovi_, nor _tulit_ irregularly put for _tulerit_. In Lael. 9 Laelius exclaims, of Cato himself, _quo modo, ut alia omittam, mortem fili tulit_. And no doubt Cic. meant here to make Cato allude to _his_ loss, described in 84. -- FILI: see n. on 1 _praemi_. -- CONSULARIS: the son of Fabius was consul in 213 with Ti. Sempronius Gracchus -- EST IN MANIBUS: 'is in every one's hands', 'is commonly read'. The expression is common enough in this sense; _e.g._ Lael. 96 _in manibus est oratio_. -- LAUDATIO: _sc. funebris_, the funeral speech. This composition was read in Cicero's time (see Tusc. 3, 70; Fam. 4, 6, 1) and existed in the time of Plutarch. See Plutarch's life of Fab. 24. -- QUEM PHILOSOPHUM: many of the ancient philosophers wrote popular treatises in which the principles of philosophy were applied to the alleviation of sorrow. The most famous of these in Cicero's time was Crantor's [Greek: peri penthous], which Cicero used largely in writing his _Tusculan Disputations_, and also in his _De Consolatione_ on the death of his daughter. -- IN LUCE ... CIVIUM: 'in public and under the gaze of his fellow-countrymen'. Do not translate _in oculis_ by the English phrase 'in the eyes of', which has another sense. The metaphor in _lux_ is often used by Cicero, as Qu. Fr. 1, 1, 7 _in luce Asiae, in oculis provinciae_. -- NOTITIA: _notitia_ is general knowledge, often merely the result of superficial observation; _scientia_ is thorough knowledge, the result of elaboration and generalization. -- MULTAE LITTERAE: 'great literary attainments.' In this sense _magnae_ could not be used to represent 'great'. Note the ellipsis of _erant_. -- UT IN HOMINE ROMANO: 'considering that he was a Roman', or 'for a Roman'. On the backwardness of the Romans in literary pursuits see Teuffel, Hist. of Rom. Lit, § 2; cf. also Ritter, Hist. of Ancient Philosophy, Vol. IV. pp. 1-13, Eng. ed. In parenthetic clauses like this, the introductory _ut_ may convey two very different meanings according to the context. Thus in Acad. 2, 98 _homo acutus, ut Poenus_ is 'a keen witted man, _as might be expected of_ a Carthaginian' (cf Colum 1, 3, 8 _acutissimam gentem Poenos_) while Nepos, Epam. 5, 2 _exercitatum in dicendo ut Thebanum_ implies that oratory was _not_ to be expected of a Theban. -- DOMESTICA ... EXTERNA BELLA: here the _domestica bella_ are those wars which belong to the history of Rome, the _externa bella_ those wars which belong to the history of other states; but usually _domestica bella_ are civil wars, _externa_ foreign wars in which Rome is engaged; _e.g._ Leg. agr. 2, 90 _omnibus domesticis externisque bellis_; in Catil 2, 11 _omnia sunt externa unius virtute pacata; domesticum bellum manet, intus insidiae sunt_. The practice of reading military history was common among Roman commanders; see for instance Acad. 2, 3 of Lucullus; the practice is ridiculed by Marius in Sall. Iug. 85. -- ITA: _ita_ does not qualify _cupide_, and has not the sense of _tam_, it means rather 'in this state', 'under these conditions'; the words from _quasi_ to the end of the sentence really form an explanation of _ita_. This mode of expression is often found, _ita_ and _sic_ frequently look on to clauses introduced by _quasi_, _si_, _ut_, _cum_ etc. Cf below 26 _sic quasi, cupiens_ (where see n.); Sall. Iug. 85, 19 _ita aetatem agunt quasi vestros honores contemnunt, ita hos petunt quasi honeste vixerint_. -- DIVINAREM: see references on 6 _confeceris_. -- ILLO EXSTINCTO: Fabius died in 203 B.C. -- FORE UNDE DISCEREM NEMINEM: cf. Acad. 1, 8 _quae nemo adhuc docuerat nec erat unde studiosi scire possent. Unde_ of persons (here = _a quo_); is common in both verse and prose (so [Greek: hothen] and [Greek: hothenper], vid. Liddell and Scott in vv.); cf. Horace 1, 12, 17 _unde nil maius generatur ipso_; 1, 28, 28; Cic. de Or. 1, 67 _ille ipse unde cognorit_; ib. 2, 285. So _ubi = apud quem_ in Verr. 4, 29; _quo = ad quos_ below, 83, and in Verr. 4 38; cf. also n. on _istinc_ in 47. For mood of _discerem_ see A. 320; G. 634; H. 503, I.

13. QUORSUS IGITUR HAEC: _sc. dixi._ -- TAM MULTA: this takes the place of _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 [Greek: pezomachia] and [Greek: naumachia], [Greek: pezomachein] and [Greek: naumachein] 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 [Greek: tois etesi enenêkonta kai tettarsin, hôn egô tynchanô gegonôs]. -- 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 [Greek: pymaton dromon] 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 [Greek: nikan Olympia], to win a victory at an Olympic contest. So Horace Ep. 1, 1, 50 has _coronari Olympia_ = [Greek: stephanousthai Olympia]. The editors print _Olympia_, but the use of _y_ to represent Greek [Greek: u] 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 [Greek: polemistai hippoi]. 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 [Greek: ouden legein], the opposite of which is [Greek: legein ti]. 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 [Greek: gerousia], as it is commonly called, consisted of 28 members, all over 60 years of age. Herodotus uses the term [Greek: gerontes] (_senes_) for this assembly; Xenophon [Greek: gerontia]. In the Laconian dialect [Greek: gerôia] was its name; we also find [Greek: geronteuein] '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 [Greek: akouô], used especially of historical matters, since instruction in them was almost entirely oral. Cf. [Greek: anêkoos] = '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: = [Greek: otsautên ousan]. -- 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 [Greek: Lydos], 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: [Greek: proubainon (eis to bêma) rhêtores kanoi tines, meirakia geloia]. 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: = [Greek: alla gar]; 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', [Greek: tis]: '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.

P. 10. -- 22. QUID ... SENES: _sc. tibi videntur_; 'what do you think of old men as lawyers, etc.?' So without ellipsis, Fam. 9, 21, 1 _quid tibi ego in epistulis videor?_ -- INGENIA: = _suum cuique ingenium_; 'old men retain their wits'. -- PERMANEAT: A. 266, _d_; G. 575; H. 513, I. -- STUDIUM ET INDUSTRIA: 'earnestness and activity'; not a case of hendiadys, as some editors make it. Cf. n. on 15 _iuventute et viribus_. -- NEQUE EA SOLUM: = [Greek: oude tauta monon], 'and that not only'. -- HONORATIS: this does not correspond to our 'honored', but implies that the persons have held high offices (_honores_); cf. 61 _senectus honorata praesertim_. Here translate 'statesmen'. -- IN VITA ... QUIETA: 'in an unofficial and retired life'. There is chiasmus here, since _privata_ is contrasted with _honoratis_ and _quieta_ with _claris_. -- SUMMAM SENECTUTEM: Sophocles died at the age of 90 in 405 B.C. -- QUOD PROPTER STUDIUM: 'from his devotion to this occupation'. -- FILIIS: except Plutarch, who probably follows Cicero's words, all the authorities tell the story of the poet's eldest son Iophon only. The tale is full of improbabilities. -- REM: = _rem familiarem_ as in 1. -- PATRIBUS BONIS INTERDICI SOLET: 'fathers are often prevented from managing their property'. For the construction cf. the expression _interdicere alicui aqua et igni: interdici_ is here used impersonally with _patribus_ in the dat.; A. 230; H. 384, 5; _bonis_ is abl. of separation (deprivation). The fragment of the XII tables here referred to is thus given in Dirksen's edition: _sei fouriosos aut prodicos (prodigus) escit (erit) adenatorum centiliomque (gentiliumque) eius potestas estod, i.e._ the agnates (male relatives whose kinship with the _furiosus_ is derived through males) and members of his _gens_ are to administer his property. We have preserved the form in which the judgment was made by the _praetor urbanus_ (Paulus, Sent. 3, 4a, 7): '_quando tibi tua bona paterna avitaque nequitia tua disperdis liberosque tuos ad egestatem perducis, ob eam rem tibi ea re commercioque interdico_'. -- QUASI DESIPIENTEM: '[Greek: hôs paraphronounta]' says the author of the anonymous life of Sophocles. Cf. Xenophon, Mem. 1, 2, 49. -- IN MANIBUS HABEBAT: 'had on hand' _i.e._ in preparation. _Est in manibus_ in 12 has a different meaning. -- SCRIPSERAT: he had written it but not finally corrected it. -- RECITASSE: the common version of the story states that not the whole play was read but only the fine chorus beginning [Greek: euippou, xene, tasde chôras]. -- VIDERETUR: _sc. esse_; the infinitive is often omitted thus after verbs of desiring, thinking etc., also verbs of speaking and hearing; cf. Lael. 18 _eam sapientiam interpretantur_; ib. 29 _quam natam volunt_; ib. 64 _homines ex maxime raro genere iudicare;_ Acad. 2, 12 _viderenturne ea Philonis._

23. HESIODUM: see n. on 54. -- Simoniden: Simonides of Ceos (not S. of Amorgos), one of the greatest Greek lyric poets, lived from 556 to about 469 B.C. -- STESICHORUM: of Himera in Sicily, also a lyric poet; lived from about 630 to about 556 B.C. -- ISOCRATEN GORGIAN: nn. on 13. -- PHILOSOPHORUM PRINCIPES: 'in the first rank of philosophers'. -- PYTHAGORAN: neither the date of his birth nor that of his death can be determined; he 'flourished' about 530. He lived mostly in the Greek settlements of lower Italy, where his school existed for some centuries after his death. -- DEMOCRITUM: of Abdera, one of the originators of the theory of atoms; said to have lived from 460 to 361 or 357 B.C. -- XENOCRATEN after Plato, Speusippus was the first head of the Academic School; Xenocrates succeeded him. He lived from 397 to 315 or 313. -- ZENONEM: of Citium in Cyprus, founder of Stoicism, born about 357, is said to have lived to the age of 98. -- CLEANTHEN: he followed Zeno in the presidency of the Stoic school. His age at death is variously given as 99 and as 80 years. -- QUEM VIDISTIS: see Introd. It is rather curious that Cic. should make Cato speak with admiration of Diogenes, to whom he had shown great hostility. -- DIOGENEN: Cic. probably wrote in _-an, -en,_ not in _-am, -em_ the accusatives of Greek proper names in _-as, -es_. -- STOICUM: to distinguish him from Diogenes the Cynic. -- AGITATIO: Cic. uses _agitatio_ and _actio_ almost interchangeably; cf. _agitatio rerum_ in De Or. 3, 88 with _actio rerum_ in Acad. 2, 62 and elsewhere. _Actus_ in this sense occurs only in silver Latin.

24. AGE: a common form of transition to a new subject; brief for _'hoc age'_, 'do this', _i.e._ 'attend to this that I am going to say'. The common use of [Greek: age] in Greek is exactly similar. -- UT ... OMITTAMUS: Cf. n. on 52 _ut_. -- POSSUM NOMINARE: 'I am able to name'; in colloquial English 'I _might_ name'. The Latins occasionally use also a hypothetical form, where _possim_ or _possem_ stands in the apodosis of a conditional sentence, the protasis of which is not expressed; but the missing protasis is generally easily supplied and was distinctly present to the writer's mind. _E.g._ in Tusc. 1, 88 we have _dici hoc in te non potest; posset in Tarquinio; at in mortuo ne intellegi quidem (potest)_, where the reason for the change from _potest_ to _posset_ is quite evident. In translating from English into Latin it is far safer to use the indicative. Cf. 55 _possum persequi_. A. 311, _c_; G. 599, Rem. 3; H. 511, 1, n. 3, 476, 4. -- EX AGRO ... ROMANOS: 'country-bred Romans (_i.e._ Roman citizens) belonging to the Sabine district'. The words _ex agro Sabino_ form an attributive phrase qualifying _Romanos_ just as _rusticos_ does. -- NUMQUAM FERE: 'scarcely ever'. -- MAIORA OPERA: 'farm work of any importance'. This use of _opera_ is common in Vergil's Georgics. -- NON: the repetition of the negative after _numquam_ is common in Latin; in English _never ... not_ is found in dialects only. Cf. Lael. 48 _non tantum ... non plus quam_. -- SERENDIS: ablative of respect, 'as regards sowing'. See Roby 1210; Kennedy, 149. -- PERCIPIENDIS: so 70; cf. N.D. 2, 156 _neque enim serendi neque colendi, nec tempestive demetendi percipiendi que fructus, neque condendi nec reponendi ulla pecudum scientia est_. -- IN ALIIS: see n. on 3 _ceteris_. Notice the proleptic use. -- IDEM: a better form of the plural than _iidem_, commonly found in our texts. For the use here cf. n. on 4 _eandem_. -- PERTINERE: present for future. -- SENT ... PROSINT: the line is given as Ribbeck prints it. He scans it as a '_bacchius_', consisting of four feet, with the measurement | v - - |, the last syllable of _saeclo_ seeming to be shortened. Cicero quotes the same line in Tusc. 1, 31 adding _ut ait (Statius) in Synephebis, quid spectans nisi etiam postera saecla ad se pertinere? Saeclo_ = 'generation'. For mood of _prosint_ see A 317; G. 632, H. 497, I. -- STATIUS NOSTER: 'our fellow-countryman Statius'. So Arch. 22 _Ennius noster_. Caecilius Statius, born among the Insubres, wrote Latin comedies which were largely borrowed from the Greek of Menander. The original of the _Synephebi_ was Menander's [Greek: Syne phêboi] 'young comrades'. See Sellar, Rom. Poets of the Rep., Ch. 7.

P. 11. -- 25. DIS: the spellings _diis_, _dii_ which many recent editors still keep, are probably incorrect, at all events it is certain that the nominative and ablative plural of deus formed monosyllables, except occasionally in poetry, where _dei_, _deis_ were used. Even these _dissyllabic_ forms scarcely occur before Ovid. -- ET: emphatic at the beginning of a sentence: 'aye, and'. -- MELIUS: _sc. dixit_. -- ILLUD: 'the following' A. 102, b, G. 292, 4; H. 450, 3. -- IDEM: _idem_, not _idem_. -- EDEPOL: literally, 'ah, god Pollux', _e_ being an interjection, _de_ a shortened form of the vocative of _deus, pol_ abbreviated from _Pollux_. The asseveration is mostly confined to comedy. The lines come from a play by Statius called Plocium ([Greek: plokion] 'necklace'), copied from one by Menander with the same title; see Ribbeck's 'Fragmenta' The verses are iambic trimeters A. 365; G. 754, H. 622. -- NIL QUICQUAM: see n. on 21 _quemquam senem_, cf. the common expression _nemo homo_, 84 _nemo vir_, etc. where two substantival words are placed side by side. -- VITI: see n. on 1, l 3 _praemi Viti_ here = _mali_; cf. Ter. Andr. 73 _ei vereor ne quid Andria adportet mali_. -- SAT EST: _sat_ for _satis_ in Cicero's time was old-fashioned and poetical. -- QUOD DIU: these words must be scanned as a spondee. The _i_ in _diu_ here probably had the sound of our _y_. A. 347, _c_, G. 717; H. 608, III. n. 2. Allen well compares a line of Publilius Syrus _heu quam multa paenitenda incurrunt vivendo diu_. -- VOLT: indefinite subject. -- VIDET: Tischer quotes Herod. 1, 32 (speech of Solon to Croesus) [Greek: en gar tôi makrôi chronôi polla men estin ideein, ta mê tis ethelei, polla de kai patheein]. -- TUM EQUIDEM etc.: these lines, as well as those above, occurred in a play of Statius called _'Ephesio'_ see Ribbeck's 'Fragmenta'. -- SENECTA: not used by prose writers before the time of silver Latin. -- DEPUTO: this compound is used by the dramatists and then does not occur again till late Latin times. -- EUMPSE: like _ipse_ and _reapse_ (for which see n. on Lael. 47) this word contains the enclitic particle _pe_ (probably another form of _que_), found in _nem pe_, _quis-p-iam_ etc., along with _se_, which belongs to an old demonstrative pronoun once declined _sos_, _sa_, _sum_, the masc. and fem. of which are seen in [Greek: ho], [Greek: hê]. The form was no doubt originally _eumpsum_, like _ipsom_ (_ipsum_), but has passed into its present form just as _ipsos_ (nom.) became _ipso_, then _ipse_. The only difference in sense between _eumpse_ and the simple _eum_ is that the former is more emphatic. The pronoun _eumpse_ is the subject of the infinitive _sentire_, but the substantive, _senex_, to which the pronoun refers, is not expressed. -- ODIOSUM: cf. n. on 4.

26. IUCUNDUM ... ODIOSUM: elliptic, = _'iucundum' potius quam 'odiosum' senem esse dicendum est_. -- UT ... DELECTANTUR: cf. Lael. 101; also below, 29. -- SAPIENTES SENES: neither of these words is used as an adjective here; the whole expression = _sapientes, cum facti sunt senes_. -- LEVIOR: cf. the fragm. of Callimachus: [Greek: gêraskei d' ho gerôn keinos elaphroteron, ton kouroi phileousi]. -- COLUNTUR ET DILIGUNTUR: _colere_ rather implies the external marks of respect (cf. _coli_ in 7), _diligere_ the inner feeling of affection. -- PRAECEPTIS etc.: cf. Off. 1, 122 _ineuntis enim aetatis inscitia senum constituenda et regenda prudentia est_. -- ME ... IUCUNDOS: put for _me iucundum esse quam vos mihi estis iucundi_. The attraction of a finite verb into the infinitive after _quam_ is not uncommon; cf. n. on 1 _quibus me ipsum_ (Roby, 1784, _b_; A. 336, _b_, Rem.; H. 524, 1, 2). _Minus_, be it observed, does not qualify _intellego_, but _iucundos_. -- SED: here _analeptic_, _i.e._ it introduces a return to the subject proper after a digression, so in 31. -- VIDETIS, UT ... SIT: here _ut = quo modo_; 'how'. -- SENECTUS ... CUIUSQUE: the abstract _senectus_ is put for _senes_ as in 34; hence _cuiusque, sc. senis_. So above _adulescentia_ = _adulescentes_. -- AGENS ALIQUID: this phrase differs from _agat_ in that while the subjunctive would express the _fact_ of action, the participial phrase expresses rather the constant _tendency_ to act. _Agens aliquid_ forms a sort of attribute to _senectus_, parallel with _operosa. Moliri_ differs from _agere_ in that it implies the bringing into existence of some object. Cf. Off. 3, 102 _agere aliquid et moliri volunt_; Acad. 2, 22 _ut moliatur aliquid et faciat_; N.D. 1, 2 _utrum di nihil agant, nihil moliantur_; Mur. 82 _et agant et moliantur_. -- QUID ... ALIQUID: for the ellipsis in _quid qui_ cf. n. on 22 _quid ... Addiscunt_ = [Greek: promanthanousi] = learn on and on, go on learning. -- UT ... VIDEMUS: put, as Allen observes, for _ut Solon fecit, quem videmus_. -- SOLONEM: see also 50. The line (_versibus_ here is an exaggeration; in 50 it is _versiculus_) is preserved by Plato in his Timaeus and by Plutarch, Sol. 31 [Greek: gaerasko d' aei polla didaskomenos]. The age of Solon at his death is variously given as 80 or 100 years. -- VIDEMUS: the Latins frequently use 'we see' for 'we read'. See n. on Lael. 39, also below, 69 _ut scriptum video_. -- GLORIANTEM: A. 292, _e_; G. 536, 527, Rem. 1; H. 535, I. 4. Notice the change to the infinitive in _uti_ below. -- SENEX: _i.e. cum senex essem_; so 27 _adulescens desiderabam_; 30 _memini puer_. Plutarch (Cato 2) gives an account of Cato's study of Greek in his old age. -- SIC: this word does not qualify _avide_, but refers on to _quasi_, so that _sic ... quasi cupiens_ = 'thus, _viz._ like one desiring'. Cf. n. on 12 _ita cupide fruebar quasi_; also 35 _tamquam ... sic_. _Quasi_ serves to soften the metaphor in _sitim_; cf. n. on Lael. 3. -- CUPIENS: after _quasi_ a finite verb _(cuperem)_ would have been more usual, as in 12 _ita ... quasi divinarem_. Cf. however 22 _quasi desipientem_. -- EA IPSA MIHI: for the juxtaposition of pronouns, which is rather sought after in Latin, cf. 72 _ipsa suum eadem quae_. -- EXEMPLIS: = _pro exemplis_, or _exemplorum loco_ (cf. n. on 21 _Lysimachum_), so that those editors are wrong who say that we have here an example of the antecedent thrust into the relative clause, as though _ea ipsa quibus exemplis_ were put for _ea ipsa exempla quibus_. -- QUOD: = _ut cum iam senex esset disceret_. -- SOCRATEN: Cic. probably learned this fact from Plato's Menexenus 235 E and Euthydemus 272 C where Connus is named as the teacher of Socrates in music. In the Euthydemus Socrates says that the boys attending Connus' lessons laughed at him and called Connus [Greek: gerontodidaskalon]. Cf. also Fam. 9, 22, 3 _Socraten fidibus docuit nobilissimus fidicen; is Connus vocitatus est_; Val. Max. 8, 7, 8. -- IN FIDIBUS: 'in the case of the lyre'. Tücking quotes Quintilian 9, 2, 5 _quod in fidibus fieri vidimus_. The Greek word _cithara_ is not used by Cicero and does not become common in Latin prose till long after Cicero's time, though he several times uses the words _citharoedus, citharista_, when referring to Greek professional players. The word _lyra_ too is rare in early prose; it occurs in Tusc. 1, 4 in connection with a Greek, where in the same sentence _fides_ is used as an equivalent. -- AUDIREM: for _audire = legendo cognoscere_ see n. on 20. -- VELLEM: _sc. si possem_. -- DISCEBANT ... ANTIQUI: doubts have been felt as to the genuineness of the clause. In Tusc. 4, 3 a passage of Cato is quoted which refers to the use of the _tibia_ among the ancient Romans; immediately afterwards the antiquity of practice on the _fides_ at Rome is mentioned, though not expressly on Cato's authority. The words cannot be said to be unsuited either to the person or to the occasion. -- DISCEBANT ... FIDIBUS: the verb _canere_, which means 'to play' as well as 'to sing', must be supplied; _fidibus_ is then an ablative of the means or instrument. There is the same ellipsis of _canere_ in the phrases _docere fidibus_ (Fam. 9, 22, 3) and _scire fidibus_ (Terence, Eunuchus 133). Cf. Roby, 1217.