Chapter 14

_i.e. hunc unum plurimi consentiunt Romae bonorum optimum fuisse virum virorum_. Ritschl thus completes the _elogium_ of Atilus, by comparison with others still preserved: _dictator_ (ending the second line), _Consul, censor, aedilis hic fuit apud vos_. But Cicero's words (_nolum ... sepulcro_) seem to imply a longer inscription than one of three lines; the analogy of the Scipionic inscriptions points the same way. The older monumental inscriptions of Rome were written in the Saturnian metre, which depended partly on accent. The normal line ran thus:

v -' v - v -' v' | -' v - v -' v'

but there were many deviations. -- UNUM: intensifies _primarium_, 'the very first'; cf. the common use of _unus_ with a superlative adjective, for which see n. on Lael. 1 _unum_ etc. -- ESSET CONSENTIENS: cf. n. on 26 _agens aliquid_. -- NUPER: like _modo_ (see n. on 27) _nuper_ is loosely used, and has its meaning defined by the context. Cf. n. on Lael. 13. In Plin. Ep. 1, 2, 2 the orator Calvus, a younger contemporary of Cicero, is said to have existed _nuper_. -- LEPIDUM: _pontifex maximus_ from 180 B.C., consul in 187 and in 175; censor in 179; he is said to have been chosen _princeps senatus_ by six sets of censors in succession. He died in 152. -- PAULO: see 29 _L. Aemilius_ with n. -- MAXIMO: see 10 _et seq_. -- SENTENTIA: _i.e._ a set speech in the senate. Cf. De Or. 1, 38 _is non accurata orationis copia, sed nutu atque verbo libertinos in urbanas tribus transtulit_. -- HONORATA: see n. on 22.

62. IN OMNI ORATIONE: 'everywhere throughout my speech'. _Tota oratione_ would have meant 'my speech viewed as a whole'. -- DEFENDERET: the tense is accommodated to that of _dixi_, according to Latin custom; see n. on 42 _efficeret_. -- CANI: _sc. capilli_; the same ellipsis is found in Ovid. Cf. _calda (sc. aqua), laurea (sc. corona), natalis (sc. dies), Latinae (sc. feriae)_, etc.; also _cereo_ in 44. -- FRUCTUS ... EXTREMOS: 'receives the reward of influence at the last'.

63. APPETI: 'to be courted'; _decedi_: 'to take precedence', literally 'that there should be a yielding of the way'. -- ASSURGI: 'the honor shown by rising'. Cf. Iuv. 13, 54 _credebant grande nefas et morte piandum si iuvenis vetulo non assurrexerat_, where see Mayor's note. -- DEDUCI REDUCI: 'the escort from home and the attendance homeward'. The difference between these two words, which has often been misunderstood, is shown by Val. Max. 2, 1, 9 _iuvenes senatus die utique aliquem ex patribus conscriptis ad curiam deducebant, affixique valvis exspectabant donec reducendi etiam officio fungerentur_. -- CONSULI: probably refers to private legal consultations as well as to the deliberations of the senate. -- UT QUAEQUE OPTIME: Cic. often uses _ut quisque_ with superlatives, _ita_ following; see n. on Lael. 19. Translate _ut ... ita_ 'in proportion as ... so'. -- MORATA: from _mos_. -- MODO: in 59. -- MEMORIAE PRODITUM EST: in Verr. 5, 36 Cic. uses _ad memoriam_ instead of the dative. The best writers have _memoriae prodere_ and _prodi_, '_for the recollection of_ posterity', _memoria prodi_, 'to be handed down _by_ tradition'; but not _memoria prodere_. -- LUDIS: _sc. Panathenaicis_, abl. of time. The Panathenaea was the greatest of the Athenian festivals and was celebrated in honor of Athene, patron goddess of the city, once in four years. The story that follows is told in almost the same words by Val. Max. 4, 5, ext. 2.

P. 27. -- QUI: at this point the _oratio obliqua_ is broken off, but it is resumed in the next sentence, _dixisse_ being dependent on _proditum est_. -- LEGATI CUM ESSENT: 'being ambassadors'. -- ILLI: 'in his honor'. -- SESSUM RECEPISSE: Val. Max. uses the same phrase; cf. Fam. 10, 32, 2 _sessum deducere_; N.D. 3, 74 _sessum ire_.

64. PLAUSUS MULTIPLEX: cf. Verg. Aen. 1, 747 _ingeminant plausu_. Cic. generally says _plausus maximus_. -- FACERE NOLLE: cf. the well-known saying of Demosthenes, Olynth. 3, § 3 πεπεισμαι γαρ τα πλειω των πραγματων ‛υμας εκπεφευγεναι τωι μη βουλεσθαι τα δεοντα ποιειν, η τωι μη συνιεναι. -- COLLEGIO: the college or board of augurs to which Cato belonged. In his time there were nine members; later the number was increased. -- ANTECEDIT: _sc. alios_. -- SENTENTIAE PRINCIPATUM: 'precedence in debate'. Meissner quotes Verr. 4, 142 _ut quisque aetate et honore antecedit, ita primus solet sua sponte dicere itaque a ceteris ei conceditur_. -- HONORE: _i.e._ as regards office, past or present. -- QUI ... SUNT: actual praetors or consuls. -- COMPARANDAE: n. on 50. -- FABULAM AETATIS: cf. 5, 70, 85. The comparison of life to a play, and mankind to the players, is common in all literature; _e.g._ 'All the world's a stage, etc.'. When Augustus was on his deathbed he asked his friends _ecquid eis videretur mimum vitae commode transegisse_ (Suet. Aug. 99); cf. Gay's epitaph, 'Life's a jest, etc.'. -- CORRUISSE: _i.e._ through fatigue; cf. _defetigationem_ in 85.

65. AT: see n. on 21. -- MORUM: cf. 7 _in moribus est culpa, non in aetate_. -- EA VITIA: _i.e. ea alia vitia_. -- HABENT etc.: cf. Thucyd. 3, 44 εχοντες τι συγγνωμης. -- NON ... VIDEATUR: 'not well grounded indeed, but such as it may seem possible to allow'. _Ille_ is often used with _quidem_ in making concessions where the English idiom requires no pronoun. Roby, 2259; Madvig, 489, _b_; Kennedy, 65, n. 2; A. 151, _e_; G. 292, Rem. 4; H. 450, 4, n. 2. -- CONTEMNI ... DESPICI: see n. on 43 _spreta et contempta_. -- MORIBUS BONIS ET ARTIBUS: for the order of the words cf. n. on 1 _animi tui_. -- IN VITA: 'in everyday life' -- ADELPHIS: _Adelphi_ = αδελφοι, The Brothers; this play of Terence is still extant. -- DIRITAS: 'harshness of temper'; but Suet. Tib. 21 has _diritas morum_, and Varro _scena quem senem Latina vidit dirissimum_. Both _dirus_ and _diritas_ are rare in Cicero; the former word does not once occur in the whole range of the speeches, the latter scarcely excepting here and in Vat. 9; in Tusc. 3, 29 Cic. uses it in translating from Euripides.

P. 28. -- 66. SOLLICITAM HABERE: 'to keep in trouble'. _Sollicitus_ is, literally, 'wholly in motion', from _sollus_, which has the same root with ‛ολος, and _citus_; cf. the rare words _sollifides_, _solliferreus_. The perfect participle with _habeo_ emphasizes the continuance of the effect produced. Zumpt, 634; A. 292, _c_; G. 230; H. 388, 1, n. -- NOSTRAM AETATEM: cf. n. on 26 _senectus_. -- ESSE LONGE: more usually _abesse_. -- O MISERUM: 'O, wretched is that old man'. Cicero oftener joins _O_ with the accusative than with the nominative: he rarely, if ever, uses the interjection with the vocative in direct address to persons. -- EXTINGUIT ANIMUM: the doctrine of the annihilation of the soul after death was held by many of Cicero's contemporaries, professedly by the Epicureans (_e.g._ Lucretius, De Rerum Nat. 3, 417 _et seq._; cf. also Caesar's argument at the trial of the Catilinian conspirators, Sall. Bell. Catil. c. 51, Cic. in Catil. 3, c. 4), practically by the Stoics, who taught that there is a future existence of limited though indefinite length. -- DEDUCIT: cf. n. on 63. -- ATQUI: see n. on 6. -- TERTIUM ... POTEST: 'nothing can be found as a third alternative': so in Tusc. 1, 82 _quoniam nihil tertium est._

67. QUID TIMEAM etc.: so Tusc. 1, 25 _quo modo igitur aut cur mortem malum tibi videri dicis? quae aut beatas nos efficiet, animis manentibus, aut non miseros, sensu carentis;_ ib. 1, 118 _ut aut in aeternam domum remigremus aut omni sensu careamus._ For mood see A. 268; G. 251; H 486, II. -- AUT NON MISER ... AUT BEATUS: a dilemma, but unsound and not conclusive; for _non miser_ is used with reference to annihilation, and the soul may exist after death in a state of unhappiness. -- FUTURUS SUM: see n. on 6 _futurum est_. -- QUAMVIS SIT: prose writers of the Republican period use _quamvis_ with the subjunctive only; see Roby, 1624, 1627; A. 313,_a, g_; G. 608; H. 515, III. and n. 3. -- CUI: see n. on 38 _viventi_. -- AD VESPERUM ESSE VICTURUM: 'that he will be alive when evening comes', _not_ 'that he will live till the evening'. With the prepositions _ad_, _sub_, _in_ the form _vesper_ is generally used, not _vespera._ With this passage cf. Fin. 2, 92 _an id exploratum cuiquam potest esse quo modo sese habiturum sit corpus. non dico ad annum, sed ad vesperum?_ Also cf. the title of one of Varro's Menippean Satires, _nescis quid vesper serus vehat_, probably a proverb. -- AETAS ILLA ... ADULESCENTES: some suppose that this sentence was borrowed from Hippocrates. -- TRISTIUS: '_severioribus remediis_'. Manutius. So Off. 1, 83 _leviter aegrotantis leniter curant, gravioribus autem morbis periculosas curationes et ancipites adhibere coguntur_. The adverb _tristius_, which has in prose a superlative but no positive, occurs in Fam. 4, 13, 5. -- MENS ... RATIO ... CONSILIUM: cf. n. on 41. -- QUI ... NULLI: cf. n. on 46 _qui pauci_; but _nulli_ here almost = _non_. -- NULLAE ... FUISSENT: _i.e._ the young men would have brought every country to ruin; see 20. -- CUM ... CUM: see n. on 4.

68. IN FILIO ... IN FRATRIBUS: cf. Lael. 9. As to Cato's son cf. 15, 84. -- TU: _sc. sensisti_. -- EXSPECTATIS AD: a rare construction, perhaps without parallel; _exspectatis_ is an adjective and takes the construction of _aptus_, _idoneus_ etc., 'of whom hopes were entertained as regards honor'. -- FRATRIBUS: the sons of Paulus Macedonicus, two of them died within seven days (Fam. 4, 6, 1), one just before and one just after Paulus' great triumph in 167 B.C. -- IDEM: see n. on 4 _eandem_. -- INSIPIENTER: adversative asyndeton. -- INCERTA ... VERIS: chiasmus avoided. With the thought cf. Off. 1, 18. -- AT ... AT: the objection and its answer are both introduced by _at_, as here, in 35. -- AT ... ADULESCENS: these words look back to the preceding sentence, to which they are an answer. -- ILLE ... HIC: here _hic_ denotes the person who is more important, _ille_ the person who is less important for the matter in hand; the former may therefore be regarded as nearer to the speaker, the latter as more remote. A. 102, _a_; G. 292, Rem. 1; H. 450, 2, n.

69. QUAMQUAM: see n. on 2 _etsi_. -- QUID EST ... DIU: cf. Tusc. 1, 94 _quae vero aetas longa est, aut quid omnino homini longum? ... quia ultra nihil habemus, hoc longum dicimus_. For _est_ see n. on 72. -- TARTESSIORUM ... GADIBUS: the whole of the south coast of Spain bore the name _Tartessus_, but the name is often confined to Gades, the chief city. -- FUIT: = _vixit_. -- SCRIPTUM VIDEO: so in Acad. 2, 129; Div. 1, 31; cf. also N.D. 1, 72 _ut videmus in scriptis_; Off. 2, 25 _ut scriptum legimus_; also cf. n. on 26 _videmus_. -- ARGANTHONIUS: the story is from Herodotus 1, 163.

P. 29. -- ALIQUID EXTREMUM: see n. on 5; cf. pro Marcello 27 -- EFFLUXIT: strongly aoristic in sense 'at once is gone'. -- TANTUM: -- 'only so much'. -- CONSECUTUS SIS: 'you may have obtained'. The subjunctive is here used in the indefinite second person to give a hypothetical character to the statement of the verb. The indicative might have been expected; the expression almost = _consecuti sumus, consecutus aliquis est_. Roby, 1546; G. 252, Rem. 3; H. 486, III. -- VIRTUTE ET RECTE FACTIS: the same opinion is enforced in Tusc. 1, 109. -- QUID SEQUATUR: 'the future'; cf. Lucr. 1, 459 _transactum quid sit in aevo, Tum quae res instet, quid porro deinde sequatur_. -- QUOD ... CONTENTUS: this passage with the whole context resembles Lucretius 3, 931-977; cf. especially 938 _cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis_; 960 _satur ac plenus discedere rerum_. Cf. also Hor. Sat. 1, 1, 117-118.

70. UT PLACEAT: 'in order to secure approval'. -- PERAGENDA: cf. n. on 50 _comparandae_. -- PLAUDITE: the Latin plays nearly always ended with this word, addressed by the actor to the audience; cf. Hor. A.P. 153 _si plausoris eges aulaea manentis et usque Sessuri donec cantor 'vos plaudite' dicat_. -- BREVE TEMPUS etc.: one of the poets has said that 'in small measures lives may perfect be'. Cf. also Tusc. 1, 109 _nemo parum diu vixit qui virtutis perfectae perfecto functus est munere_; Seneca, Ep. 77 _quo modo fabula, sic vita: non quam diu, sed quam bene acta sit refert_. -- PROCESSERIT: probably the subject is _sapiens_, in which case _aetate_ must also be supplied from _aetatis_; the subject may however be _aetas_. -- OSTENDIT: 'gives promise of'; cf. Fam. 9, 8, 1 _etsi munus_ (gladiatorial show) _flagitare quamvis quis ostenderit, ne populus quidem solet nisi concitatus_. With the whole passage cf. pro Cael. 76.

71. UT ... DIXI: in 9, 60, 62. -- SECUNDUM NATURAM: = κατα φυσιν a Stoic phrase; cf. n. on 5 _naturam optimam ducem_. -- SENIBUS: dative of reference; _emori_ stands as subject to an implied _est_. -- CONTINGIT: see n. on 8. -- EXSTINGUITUR: there is the same contrast between _opprimere_ and _exstinguere_ in Lael. 78. -- QUASI ... EVELLUNTUR: it is rare to find in Cic. or the other prose writers of the best period a verb in the indicative mood immediately dependent on _quasi_, in the sense of _sicut_ or _quem ad modum_. When two things are compared by _quasi ... ita_, the indicative verb is nearly always put in the second clause, and may be supplied in the clause with _quasi_; very rarely are there two different verbs for the two clauses. Cf. however Plautus, Stich. 539 _fuit olim, quasi nunc ego sum senex_; Lucr. 3, 492 _agens animam spumat quasi_ ... _fervescunt undae_. -- SI ... SI: for the more usual _si ... sin_. -- ACCEDAM: see A. 342; G. 666; H. 529, II. -- IN PORTUM: speaking of death, Cic. says in Tusc. 1, 118 _portum potius paratum nobis et perfugium putemus: quo utinam velis passis pervehi liceat! Sin reflantibus ventis reiciemur tamen eodem paulo tardius referamur necesse est_; cf. also ib. 1, 107.

P. 30. -- 72. MUNUS OFFICI: see n. on 29. -- TUERI: 'uphold'. -- POSSIT: subject indefinite. -- EX QUO FIT etc.: the argument seems to be that youth knows how long it has to last and is therefore less spirited than age, which knows not when it will end. -- ANIMOSIOR ... FORTIOR: Horace, Odes 2, 10, 21 _rebus angustis animosus atque fortis appare_; the two words are joined also in Cic. Mil. 92: _animosus_, 'spirited'. -- HOC ILLUD EST etc.: 'this is the meaning of the answer made by Solon etc'. Cf. Div. 1, 122 _hoc nimirum illud est quod de Socrate accepimus_, also the Greek phrase ‛η τουτ' εκεινο. _Est_ = _valet_ as in 69. -- PISISTRATUS: the despot of Athens, who seized the power in 560 B.C. Plutarch, who tells the story, 'An Seni Sit Gerenda Respublica' c. 21, makes Solon speak to the friends of Pisistratus, not to P. himself. -- QUAERENTI: see n. on 11 _dividenti_. -- AUDACITER: Quintil. 1, 6, 17 condemns those who used _audaciter_ for _audacter_, which latter form, he says, had been used by 'all orators'. Yet the form _audaciter_ is pretty well attested by MSS. here and elsewhere in Cicero. [See Neue, Formenlehre, 1² 662.] For the two forms cf. _difficiliter, difficulter. Audaciter_ is of importance as showing that _c_ before _i_ must have been pronounced just like _c_ in any other position, not as in modern Italian. -- CERTIS SENSIBUS: Acad. 2, 19 _integris incorruptisque sensibus_. -- IPSA ... QUAE: see n. on 26. H. 569, I. 2. -- COAGMENTAVIT: Cic. is fond of such metaphors; cf. Orat. 77 _verba verbis quasi coagmentari_; Phil. 7, 21 _docebo ne coagmentari quidem pacem posse_ ('that no patched-up peace can be made'). -- CONGLUTINAVIT: a still more favorite metaphor than _coagmentare_. Cic. has _conglutinare rem _ (Or. 1, 188); _amicitias_ (Lael. 32 and Att. 7, 8, 1); _voluntates_ (Fam. 11, 27, 2); _concordiam_. (Att. 1, 17, 10); in Phil. 3, 28 Cic. says of Antony that he is _totus ex vitiis conglutinatus_. -- IAM: 'further', so below. -- CONGLUTINATIO: the noun occurs only here and Orat. 78 _c. verborum_. -- RELIQUUM: not infrequently, as here, used substantively with an adjective modifier. -- SINE CAUSA: 'without sufficient reason'.

73. VETAT PYTHAGORAS etc.: the passage is from Plato, Phaedo 61 A-62 C. Plato makes Socrates there profess to quote Philolaus, the Pythagorean; Cic. therefore refers the doctrine to Pythagoras Cf. Tusc. 1, 74; Rep. 6, 15. The Stoics held the same view about suicide, which they authorized in extreme cases, but much less freely than is commonly supposed; cf. Sen. Ep. 117, 22 _nihil mihi videtur turpius quam optare mortem_. See Zeller, Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, Ch. 12, C (2); cf. also Lecky, Hist. of European Morals, I. p. 228 _et seq_. (Am. ed.) -- IMPERATORIS ... PRAESIDIO: here Cic. seems to understand Plato's φρουραι as referring to warfare; in Tusc. and Rep. he understands it of a prison. -- SAPIENTIS: Solon was one of the 'Seven Sages of Greece'. -- ELOGIUM: the distich is preserved by Plutarch, and runs thus: μηδε μοι ακλαυστος θανατος μολοι, αλλα φιλοισι Καλλειποιμι θανων αλγεα και στοναχας. Cic. thus translates it in Tusc. 1, 117 _Mors mea ne careat lacrimis, linquamus amicis Maerorem, ut celebrent funera cum gemitu_. The epitaph of Ennius is also quoted there and is declared to be better than that of Solon (cf. Tusc. 1, 34). -- VOLT SE ESSE CARUM: 'he wishes to make out that he is beloved'; _volt esse carus_ would have had quite a different sense. Cf. Fin. 5, 13 _Strato physicum se volt_, with Madvig's n. -- HAUD SCIO AN: see n. on 56. -- FAXIT: the subject is _quisquam_ understood from _nemo_. For the form see A. 142, 128, _e_, 3; G. 191, 5; H. 240, 4. The end of the epitaph is omitted here as in Tusc. 1, 117, but is given in Tusc. 1, 34 _cur? volito vivas per ora virum_. Notice the alliteration.

74. ISQUE: cf. n. on 13 _vixitque_. -- AUT OPTANDUS AUT NULLUS: cf. 66 _aut neglegenda ... aut optanda; nullus_ almost = _non_ as in 67, but only in the Letters does Cic. (imitating Plautus and the other dramatists) attach _nullus_ in this sense to the name of a particular person; _e.g._ Att. 11, 24, 4 _Philotimus nullus venit_. -- SED ... ESSE: 'but we must con this lesson from our youth up'. For the passive sense of _meditatum_ cf. n. on 4 _adeptam_. In Tusc. 1, 74 Cic., imitating Plato, says _tota philosophorum vita commentatio mortis est_. So Seneca, _tota vita discendum est mori_. -- SINE QUA ... NEMO POTEST: these words bring the position of Cicero with regard to death wonderfully near that of Lucretius: the latter argues that for peace of mind one must believe '_nullum esse sensum post mortem_'; the former's lesson is '_aut nullum esse sensum aut optandum_'. -- TIMENS: = _si quis timet_; the subject of _poterit_ is the indefinite _quis_ involved in _timens_. A. 310, _a_; G. 670; H. 549, 2. -- QUI: = _quo modo_, as in 4. -- ANIMO CONSISTERE: so in pro Quint. 77; also _mente consistere_ in Phil. 2, 68; Div. 2, 149; Q. Fr. 2, 3, 2 _neque mente neque lingua neque ore consistere_. The word is, literally, 'to stand firm', 'to get a firm foothold'.

P. 31. -- 75. L. BRUTUM: fell in single combat with Aruns, son of the exiled Tarquin; see Liv. 2, 6. The accusatives _Brutum_ etc. are not the objects of _recorder_ but the subjects of infinitives to be supplied from _profectas_. -- DUOS DECIOS: see n. on 43. -- CURSUM EQUORUM: the word _equos_ would have been sufficient; but this kind of pleonasm is common in Latin; see n. on Lael. 30 _causae diligendi_. -- ATILIUS: _i.e._ Regulus, whose story is too well known to need recounting. There are many contradictions and improbabilities about it. -- SCIPIONES: see n. on 29. In Paradoxa 1, 12 Cic. says of them _Carthaginiensium adventum corporibus suis intercludendum putaverunt_. -- POENIS: on the dat. see A. 235, _a_; H. 384, 4, n. 2. -- PAULUM: n. on 29 _L. Aemilius_. -- COLLEGAE: M. Terentius Varro. There is no reason to suppose that he was a worse general than many other Romans who met Hannibal and were beaten; the early historians, being all aristocrats, fixed the disgrace of Cannae on the democratic consul. Varro's contemporaries were more just to him. Far from reproaching him, the Senate commended his spirit, and several times afterwards entrusted him with important business. -- MARCELLUM: the captor of Syracuse in 212 B.C. He fell into an ambush in 208 and was killed; Hannibal buried him with military honors. -- CUIUS INTERITUM: abstract for concrete = _quem, post interitum_. -- CRUDELISSIMUS HOSTIS: this, the traditional Roman view of Hannibal, is the reverse of the truth, so far as extant testimony goes. See Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, Bk. III. Ch. 4; Ihne, Hist. of Rome, Bk. IV. -- SED ... ARBITRARENTUR: these words are almost exactly repeated in Tusc. 1, 89 and 101. -- RUSTICI: cf. Arch. 24 _nostri illi fortes viri sed rustici ac milites_; also above, 24.

76. OMNINO: see n. on 9. -- NUM IGITUR etc.: cf. 33 _nisi forte et seq._ -- CONSTANS: cf. n. on 33. -- NE ... QUIDEM: see n. on 27. -- SATIETAS VITAE: cf. 85 _senectus autem et seq._, and _satietas vivendi_ in pro Marc. 27; also Tusc. 1, 109 _vita acta perficiat ut satis superque vixisse videamur_.

77. CERNERE: of the mind also in 82. With the context cf. Div. 1, 63 _animus appropinquante morte multo est divinior; facilius evenit appropinquante morte ut animi futura augurentur_. -- VESTROS PATRES: n. on 15. The elder Laelius was prominent both as general and as statesman. He commanded the fleet which co-operated with Scipio Africanus in Spain and afterwards served with honor in Africa. He was an intimate friend of Cato. See Liv. 26, 42 _et seq._ -- TUQUE: so in Lael. 100 _C. Fanni et tu, Q. Muci_; but above, 4 and 9 simply _Scipio et Laeli_. -- QUAE EST SOLA VITA: cf. n. on _vitam nullam_ in 7. -- NAM DUM SUMUS etc.: the whole of this doctrine is Platonic; cf. Lael. 13. -- MUNERE NECESSITATIS ET ... OPERE: 'function and task allotted as by fate'.

P. 32. -- IMMORTALIS: Cicero rarely mentions the gods without this epithet. -- SPARSISSE: Horace calls the soul _divinae particulam aurae_. -- TUERENTUR: rule, or guard, or care for. Most editors wrongly take _tuerentur_ to be for _intuerentur_, 'to look upon', and regard it as an intentional archaism. But cf. Rep. 6, 15 (where no archaism can be intended): _homines sunt hac lege generati, qui tuerentur illum globum quae terra vocatur_; also _tuentur_ below in 82. -- CONTEMPLANTES IMITARENTUR: perhaps more Stoic than Platonic; the Stoics laid great stress on the ethical value of a contemplation and imitation of the order of the universe. Cf. N.D. 2, 37 _ipse homo ortus est ad mundum contemplandum et imitandum_; Sen. Dial. 8, 5, 1 _Natura nos ad utrumque genuit, et contemplationi rerum et actioni_. -- MODO: here _modus_ seems to be the Platonic το μετριον, or perhaps a reminiscence of the Aristotelian doctrine of the mean (n. on 46). Translate 'in moderation and consistency of life'; and cf. Off. 1, 93 _rerum modus_ 'moderation in all things'. For _constantia_ see n. on 4. -- ITA: cf. n. on 16 _et tamen sic_.