Chapter 6

P. 1. -- 1. O TITE etc.: the lines are a quotation from the _Annales_ of Q. Ennius (born at Rudiae in Calabria 239 B.C., died 169), an epic poem in hexameter verse, the first great Latin poem in that metre, celebrating the achievements of the Roman nation from the time of Aeneas to the poet's own days. The incident alluded to in Ennius' verses is evidently the same as that narrated by Livy 32, cc. 9, 10. Titus Quinctius Flamininus, who commanded in 198 B.C. the Roman army opposed to Philip of Macedon, found the king strongly posted on the mountains between Epirus and Thessaly. For forty days Flamininus lingered, hoping to find some path which would give him access to the enemy's quarters. A shepherd who knew every nook of the mountains came before the general, and promised to lead the Roman soldiers to the ground above Philip's camp. This was done, and Flamininus drove the Macedonians into Thessaly. It is the shepherd who in the first line addresses Flamininus by his first name Titus. Cicero here cleverly applies the lines to his life-long friend Titus Pomponius Atticus. He several times takes the two words _'O Tite'_ to designate the whole treatise; cf. Att. 16, 11, 3 _'O Tite' tibi prodesse laetor_. -- QUID: accusative of respect or extent; so _nihil_ in 30, _aliquid_ in 82. A.[56] 240, _a_; G. 331, 3; H. 378, 2. -- ADI[)U]ERO: for _adi[=u]vero,_ the long vowel having become short after the falling out of the _v_ between the two vowels. Catullus 66, 18 has _i[)u]erint_ at the end of a pentameter verse, and the same scanning is found in Plautus and Terence. A. 128, _a_; G. 151, 1; H. 235. -- LEVASSO: a form of _levavero,_ which was originally _levaveso_. For the formation of this class of future-perfects see Peile, _Introduction to Greek and Latin Etymology,_ p. 295, ed. 3; also Roby, _Gram._ 1, p. 199, who has a list of examples; he supports a different view from that given above; cf. A. 128, _e_, 3; G. 191, 5; H. 240, 4. -- COQUIT: 'vexes.' This metaphorical use of _coquere_ occurs in poetry and late prose; cf. Plaut. Trin. 225 _egomet me coquo et macero et defetigo_; Verg. Aen. 7, 345 _quam ... femineae ardentem curaeque iraeque coquebant_; Quint. 12, 10, 77 _sollititudo oratorem macerat et coquit_. -- VERS[=A]T: we have here the original quantity of the vowel preserved, as in _poneb[=a]t_ below, 10; the _a_ in _versat_ was originally as long as the _a_ in _vers[=a]s_. Plautus has some parallels to this scanning (see Corssen, Aussprache 11², 488), but it is rarely imitated by poets of the best period. Horace, however, has _ar[=a]t_, Odes 3, 16, 26. A. 375, _g_, 5; H. 580, III n. 2. -- PRAEMI: the genitive in _ĭ-ī_ from nouns in _ium_ only began to come into use at the end of the Republic. A. 40, _b_; G. 29, Rem. 1; H. 51, 5. -- ISDEM: Cicero may have written _isdem_ or _eisdem_ (two syllables), but he probably did not write the form most commonly found in our texts, _iisdem._ H. p. 74, foot-note 2. -- FLAMININUM: T. Quinctius Flaminīnus first served against Hannibal during the Second Punic War. He was present at the capture of Tarentum in 209 B. c., and in 208 was military tribune under Marcellus. After being employed on minor business of state, he became quaestor in 199, and, immediately after his year of office, consul, passing over the aedileship and praetorship, and attaining the consulship at the extraordinarily early age of 30. In 197 he won the victory of Cynoscephalae over the Macedonians, which ended the war. At the Isthmian games in the spring of 196 Flamininus made his famous proclamation of freedom to all the Greeks. He returned to Rome in 194 to enjoy a splendid triumph. For the rest of his life was employed chiefly on diplomatic business concerning Greece and the East. One of his embassies was to Prusias, king of Bithynia, call on him to surrender Hannibal, who was living at his court in advanced old age; this led to Hannibal's suicide. Flamininus was censor in 189 (see below, 42), and lived on till some time after 167, in which year he became augur; but the date of his death is unknown. He was a man of brilliant ability both as general and as diplomat, and also possessed much culture and was a great admirer of Greek literature. -- ILLE VIR etc.: _i.e._ the shepherd mentioned in n. on line 1. Livy 32, II, 4 says that Flamininus sent to the master of the shepherd, Charopus, an Epirote prince, to ask how far he might be trusted. Charopus replied that Flamininus might trust him, but had better keep a close watch on the operations himself. -- HAUD MAGNA CUM RE: 'of no great property'; _re_ = _re familiari_, as is often the case elsewhere in both verse and prose. Cf. pro Caelio 78 _hominem sine re. Cum_ is literally 'attended by'; it is almost superfluous here, since _vir haud magna re_ would have had just the same meaning. Madvig, Gram. § 258 has similar examples. -- PLENUS: final _s_ was so lightly pronounced that the older poets felt justified in neglecting it in their scanning. It was probably scarcely pronounced at all by the less educated Romans, since it is often wholly omitted in inscriptions, and has been lost in modern Italian. Cicero, Orator 161, says that the neglect to pronounce final _s_ is 'somewhat boorish' (_subrusticum_), though formerly thought 'very refined' (_politius_). Even Lucretius sometimes disregards it in his scanning. In the ordinary literary Latin a large number of words has lost an original _s_; _e.g._ all the nouns of the _-a_ declension. A. 375, _a_; G. 722; H. 608, 1, n. 3. -- FIDĒI: this form of the genitive of _fides_ is found also in Plautus, Aulularia 575, and Lucretius 5, 102. _Fidĕi_ as genitive seems only to occur in late poets, but as dative it is found in a fragment of Ennius. _Fidē_ as genitive occurs in Horace and Ovid. H. 585, III. 1; Roby, 357, (c). -- QUAMQUAM: see n. on 2 _etsi_. -- SOLLICITARI etc.: Cicero probably has not quoted the line as Ennius wrote it. The word _sic_, at least, is evidently inserted on purpose to correspond with _ut_ before _Flamininum_, -- NOCTESQUE DIESQUE: the use of _que ... que_ for _et ... et_ is almost entirely poetical, Sallust being the only prose writer of the best period in whose works the usage is beyond doubt. _Noctes_ is put before _dies_ here, as in _noctes diesque_ (Verr. 5, 112), _noctes et dies_ (Brut. 308 _etc._), _nodes ac dies_ (Arch. 29); cf. also Verg. Aen. 6, 127; and νυκτας τε και ημαρ in Iliad 5, 490; but the collocations _dies noctesque_, _dies et noctes_ are far commoner in Cicero. Madvig (Emend. Liv. p. 487 n., ed 2) says that in writers of Livy's time and earlier, when an action is mentioned which continues throughout a number of days and nights, either _dies et noctes_ and the like phrases are used, or _die et nocte_ and the like, but not _diem noctemque_ or _diem et noctem,_ which expression, he says, would imply that the action continued only throughout _one_ day and _one_ night. But Madvig has overlooked De Or. 2, 162 _eandem incu dem diem noctemque tundentibus;_ also three passages of Caesar: viz Bell. Gall. 7, 42, 6 and 7, 77, 11; Bell. Civ. 1, 62, 1; to which add a passage in the Bell. Hisp. 38. Though _diem noctemque_ does often mean 'throughout _one_ day and _one_ night' (as _e.g._ in Nep. Them. 8, 7), yet it would seem that the other sense cannot be excluded. -- MODERATIONEM ... AEQUITATEM: 'the self-control and even balance of your mind'. _Moderatio_ is in Cic. a common translation of σωφροσυνη. _Aequitas_ is not used here in its commonest sense of 'reasonableness' or 'equity', but as the noun corresponding to _aequus_ in the ordinary phrase _aequus animus_ (Horace, '_aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem_'), cf. Tusc. 1, 97 _hanc maximi animi aequitatem in ipsa morte._ said of Theramenes' undisturbed composure before his execution. -- ANIMI TUI: for the position of these words between _moderationem_ and _aequitatem_, to both of which nouns they refer (a form of speech called by the Latin grammarians _coniunctio_), see note on Laelius 8 _cum summi viri tum amicissimi_. -- COGNOMEN: _i.e._ the name _Atticus_, which Cicero's friend did not inherit, but adopted. For the word _cognomen_ cf. n. on 5. -- DEPORTASSE: it should be noted that the verb _deportare_ is nearly always in the best writers used of bringing things from the provinces to Italy or Rome, and not _vice versa_, the Romans using 'down' (_de_) of motion towards the capital. _Italia deportare_ occurs in Tacitus and late writers, but only in the sense of banishing a person (cf. Ann 14, 45). So _decedere de provincia_ is common, but not _Roma decedere_. As to the form _deportasse_, it may be remarked that Cic. in the vast majority of instances uses the contracted and not the full forms of the infinitives corresponding to perfects in -_avi_. So _putassent_ in 4. An extensive collection of examples of this and similar contractions may be found in Frohwein, Die Perfectbildungen auf -vi bei Cicero; Gera, 1874. -- HUMANITATEM: 'culture', _i.e._ learning resulting in gentleness and refinement of character. -- PRUDENTIAM: φρονησιν or practical wisdom. Corn. Nepos (or his imitator) in his life of Atticus 17, 3 says of him _principum philosophorum ita percepta habuit praecepta ut his ad vitam agendam non ad ostentationem uteretur_. -- ISDEM REBUS: _i.e._ the state of public affairs at the time, see Introd. -- QUIBUS ME IPSUM: strictly speaking the construction is inaccurate, since _suspicor commoveri_ must be supplied, and Cicero does not really mean to say that he merely _conjectures_ himself to be seriously affected by the state of public affairs; _ego ipse commoveor_ would have accurately expressed his meaning. The accusative is due to the attraction of _te_ above. -- MAIOR: = _difficilior_ as often; _e.g._ Lael. 29 _quod maius est_. -- VISUM EST MIHI CONSCRIBERE: = _placuit mihi_, 'I have determined to write'. The best writers rarely use the impersonal _videtur etc._ followed by an infinitive. When the usage occurs _videtur mihi etc._ generally have the meaning (as here) of δοκει μοι κ.τ.λ. = 'I have made up my mind'. Cf. Tusc. 5, 12 _Non mihi videtur ad beate vivendum satis posse virtutem_; ib. 5, 22 (a curious passage) _mihi enim non videbatur quisquam esse beatus posse cum esset in malis; in malis autem sapientem esse posse_; Off. 3, 71 _malitia quae volt illa quidem videri se esse prudentiam_ ('craft which desires that people should believe it to be wisdom'); Liv. 1, 10, 7 _dis visum nec irritam conditoris templi vocem esse_ ... ('the gods decided that the word of the founder of the shrine should not remain of no effect'). It would be difficult, if not impossible, to find a passage in a writer before silver Latin times where the best texts still exhibit anything like _videtur eum facere_ for _is videtur facere_. H 534, 1, n. 1; Roby, 1353. -- ALIQUID AD TE: 'some work dedicated to you'; so below, 3; cf. also Lael. 4 _ut de amicitia scriberem aliquid_; ib. _Catone maiore qui est scriptus ad te de senectute_; Div. 2, 3 _liber is quem ad nostrum Atticum de senectute misimus._

2. AUT ... AUT CERTE: so often in Cic.; _certe_, 'at any rate'. -- SENECTUTIS: at the time the words were written Cic. was 62 years old, Atticus three years older. For the meaning of _senectus_ see n. on 4. -- LEVARI VOLO: the best Latin writers frequently use the passive infinitive after verbs expressing desire, where moderns would incline to the active; here Cic. instead of saying 'I wish to relieve yourself and me of the burden' says 'I wish yourself and me to be relieved'. -- ETSI: = καιτοι 'and yet'. This use of _etsi_ to introduce a clause correcting the preceding clause, though not uncommon (_e.g._ below 29; Tusc. 1, 99; 3, 17; 4, 63; 5, 55), is far less common than that of _quamquam_, which we have in 1, 9, 10, 24, 47, 67, 69. -- TE QUIDEM: 'you at all events', 'you for one'. -- MODICE AC SAPIENTER: _modice_ recalls _moderationem_ above (_modice_ and _moderate_ are used with exactly the same sense by Cic.), while _sapienter_ recalls _aequitatem_, since _sapientia_ produces stability and an even balance of the mind. In De Or. 1, 132 we have _modice et scienter_. -- SICUT OMNIA: cf. Fin. 1, 7 _facete is quidem sicut alia_; also below, 65 _sicut alia_. -- ET FERRE ET LATURUM ESSE: Tischer rightly remarks that when a verb is repeated thus with a variation of tense Cic. very nearly always uses _et ... et_, and not a single _et_ merely. The contrast between the two tenses is thus made more pointed. Cf. 3 _et diximus et dicemus_. -- CERTO SCIO: one of the best MSS., followed by some editors, has here _certe scio_. The latter phrase would mean 'I am sure that I know' (a sense which seems out of place here); the former 'I have certain or sure knowledge'. Observe that _certe_ may be used with all verbs, while _certo_ is only used with _scire_. A. 151, c. -- SED: the idea implied is, 'but though I well know you do not need such consolation, I have yet resolved to address my book to you'. -- OCCURREBAS DIGNUS: a condensed construction for _occurrebat te digmim esse_.

P. 2. -- MUNERE ... UTERETUR: 'a gift such as we both might make use of in company'. -- MIHI QUIDEM: this forms a correction upon _uterque nostrum_ above: 'whatever you may think of the work, _I at least_ have found the writing of it pleasant'. -- CONFECTIO: 'composition'; 'completion'; a word scarcely found in the classical Latin except in Cicero's writings. Cf. De Or. 2, 52 _annalium confectio;_ pro. Font. 3 _confectio tabularum_ ('account-books'). -- FUIT UT ABSTERSERIT: the sequence of tenses _fuit ut abstergeret_ would have been equally admissible, but the meaning would have been slightly different. With the perfect the sense is 'was so pleasant that it _has_ wiped away'; with the imperfect 'was so pleasant that it _did_ (while I was writing) wipe away'. The metaphor in _absterserit_ is common: _e.g._ Tusc. 3, 43 _luctum omnem absterseris_. With this statement of Cicero's concerning the effect the work had on himself contrast Att. 14, 21, 3 _legendus mihi saepius est Cato maior ad te missus. Amariorem enim me senectus facit. Stomachor omnia_. -- OMNIS: acc. pl. A. 55, _c_; G. 60, 1; H. 67. -- EFFECERIT MOLLEM: so 56 _poteratne tantus animus efficere non iucundam senectutem_; but 56 _conditiora facit haec aucupium_. _Efficio_ gives more emphatically than _facio_ the idea of the completion of the action. Cf. Lael. 73 _efficere aliquem consulem_, 'to carry through a man's election as consul'; _facere aliquem consulem_ being merely 'to vote for a man's election to the consulship'. -- SATIS DIGNE: 'as she deserves', lit. 'in a sufficiently worthy manner.' Some editors have thought _digne_ superfluous and wished to cast it out but we have _satis digne_ elsewhere, as in Verr. Act. II. 1, 82; cf. also Sex. Rosc. 33 _pro dignitate laudare satis commode_. -- QUI PAREAT ... DEGERE: a conditional sentence of irregular form (_qui_ = _siquis_; _cui_ simply connective, = _et ei_). Cf. Div. 1, 127 _qui enim teneat causas rerum futurarum, idem necesse est omnia teneat quae futura sint_; also the examples in Roby's Grammar, 1558. A. 310, _a_, 307, _b_; G. 594, 1, 598; H. 507, II. and III. 2. Some, however, make _possit_ a subjunctive of characteristic or of cause with _cui_, and _pareat_ a subjunctive by attraction. -- OMNE TEMPUS AETATIS: 'every season of life'; so in 55 _extremum tempus aetatis_; 70 _breve tempus aetatis._ The opposite phrase _aetas temporis_ is very rare; it occurs in Propertius 1, 4, 7.

3. CETERIS: neuter adjective used as a noun, equivalent to _ceteris rebus_ 'the other matters'; _i.e._ the political troubles hinted at above. The best writers do not often use the neuter adjective as noun in the _oblique_ cases unless there is something in the context to show the gender clearly, as in 24 _aliis ... eis quae_; we have, however, below in 8, _isto_ = _ista re_; 72, _reliquum_; 77, _caelestium_ = _rerum caelestium_; and in 78, _praeteritorum futurorumque_; see other instances in n. on Lael. 50 _similium_. The proleptic or anticipatory use of _ceteris_ should also be noticed; its sense is not fully seen till we come to _hunc librum_; the same use occurs below in 4, 5, 59, 60; so _aliis_ in 24; cf. also n. on Lael. 7 _reliqua_. -- DIXIMUS ... DICEMUS: when a clause or phrase consists of four parts, which go in pairs (as here _diximus_, _dicemus_ on one side, and _multa_, _saepe_ on the other), the Latins frequently arrange the words so as to put one pair between the two members of the other pair, as here. This usage is called by grammarians _chiasmus_. Thus if we denote the four parts by _AA' BB', chiasmus_ requires the order _ABB'A'_ or _BAA'B'_. See examples in 8, 20, 22, 38, 44, 71. For the more complicated forms of chiasmus consult Nägelsbach, Stil. §§ 167, 169. A. 344, _f_; G. 684; H. 562. -- LIBRUM ... MISIMUS: observe the omission of a particle at the beginning of the clause; the contrast between _ceteris_ and _hunc librum_ is made stronger by the omission. For this _asyndeton adversativum_ see n. on Lael. 5 _Laelium ... putes_. For tense of _misimus_, 'I send' see A. 282; G. 244, H. 472, 1. -- OMNEM: see n. on 62. -- TRIBUIMUS: perfect tense like _misimus_. -- TITHONO ... ARISTO: see Introd. -- CIUS: Greek Κειος (a native of Ceos), not to be confused with Χιος (a native of Chios), or Κωος (a native of Cos). Cicero generally denotes the Greek diphthong ει by _i_ not e. This Aristo was a Peripatetic. -- PARUM ... AUCTORITATIS: observe how often Cicero takes trouble to separate words which are, grammatically, closely connected. So above, _omnis ... molestias_; 7 _multorum ... senectutem_; 9 _mirificos ... fructus_; 21 _civium ... nomina_; 33 _minus ... virium_; 53 _multo ... fecundior_; etc. etc. See also n. on 15 _quam sit iusta_. A. 344, _c_, _d_, _e_; H. 561, III. -- ESSET: condition omitted. A. 311; G. 602; H. 510. -- MAIOREM AUCTORITATEM: cf. Lael. 4. -- APUD QUEM: 'at whose house'; so 55 _a me_, 'from my house'. A. 153; G. 417; H. 446, n. 4. -- LAELIUM ... SCIPIONEM: see Introd. -- FACIMUS ADMIRANTIS: 'we represent as expressing astonishment'. For _facere_, in this sense, Cic. more often uses _inducere_ 'to bring on the stage', as in Lael. 4 _Catonem induxi senem disputantem_. Cf. however 54 _Homerus Laerten colentem agrum facit_; also Brut. 218; Orat. 85. Instead of _facimus_ we might have expected either _fecimus_ to correspond with _misimus_ and _tribuimus_ above, or _faciemus_ to correspond with _videbitur_ below. On the use of the participle see A. 292, _q_; G. 536; H 535, I. 4. -- ERUDITIUS DISPUTARE: Cic. not infrequently in his dialogues makes people talk with more learning than they really possessed. He several times confesses this as regards Lucullus and Catulus in the Academica, and as regards Antonius in the De Oratore. -- FERAT: subjunctive because embodying the sentiment of Laelius and Scipio. Roby, 1744; Madvig, 357; H. 516, II. -- SUIS LIBRIS etc.: for the allusions here to Cato's life, works, and opinions see Introd. -- QUID OPUS EST PLURA? _sc. dicere_. cf. the elliptic phrases _quid multa? sc. dicam_ in 78; also below, 10 _praeclare_. A 206, _c_; H. 368, 3, n. 2.

4. SAEPE NUMERO SOLEO: 'it is my frequent custom'. _Numero_ is literally 'by the count or reckoning', and in _saepe numero_ had originally the same force as in _quadraginta numero_ and the like; but the phrase came to be used merely as a slight strengthening of _saepe_. -- CUM HOC ... CUM CETERARUM: the use of _cum_ in different senses in the same clause, which seems awkward, is not uncommon; cf. below, 67. The spelling _quum_ was certainly not used by Cicero, and probably by no other Latin writer of the best period. H. 311, foot-note 4. It is worth remarking that _cum_ the conjunction and _cum_ the preposition, though spelt alike, are by origin quite distinct. The former is derived from the pronominal stem _ka_ or _kva_, and is cognate with _qui_; the latter comes from the root _sak_ 'to follow', and is cognate with Gk. συν, Lat _sequor_, etc. See Vanicek, Etymologisches Worterbuch, pp. 96, 984. -- RERUM ... SAPIENTIAM: 'wisdom _in_ affairs'; the objective genitive -- EXCELLENTEM: in sense much stronger than our 'excellent'; _excellentem perfectamque_ 'pre-eminent and indeed faultless'. -- QUOD ... SENSERIM: this clause takes the place of an object to _admirari_. The subjunctive is used because the speaker reports his own reason for the wonder, formerly felt, as if according to the views of another person, and without affirming his holding the same view at the time of speaking. Madvig, 357, _a_, Obs. 1. A 341, _d_, Rem. -- ODIOSA: this word is not so strong as our 'hateful', but rather means 'wearisome', 'annoying'. In Plautus the frequent expression _odiosus es_ means, in colloquial English, 'you bore me'. Cf. 47 _odiosum et molestum_; 65 _odiosa offensio_. -- ONUS AETNA GRAVIUS: a proverbial expression with an allusion to Enceladus, who, after the defeat of the Giants by Juppiter, was said to have been imprisoned under Mt. Aetna. Cf. Eurip. Hercules Furens, 637; also Longfellow's poem, Enceladus. -- HAUD SANE DIFFICILEM: 'surely far from difficult'; cf. 83 _haud sane facile_. -- QUIBUS: a _dativus commodi_, 'those for whom there is no aid in themselves'. Cf. Lael. 79 _quibus in ipsis_. -- BENE BEATEQUE VIVENDUM: 'a virtuous and happy life'; 'virtue and happiness'; so _bene honesteque_ below, 70. -- QUI ... PETUNT: these are the αυταρκεις, men sufficient for themselves, '_in se toti teretes atque rotundi_'. We have here a reminiscence of the Stoic doctrine about the wise man, whose happiness is quite independent of everything outside himself, and is caused solely by his own virtue. Cicero represents the same Stoic theory in Lael. 7. Cf. Juv. Sat. 10, 357-362; also Seneca, De Cons. Sap. VIII, De Prov. I. 5. -- A SE IPSI: 'themselves from themselves,' so in 78 _se ipse moveat ... se ipse relucturus sit_; 84 _me ipse consolabar_. Expressions like _a se ipsis_ are quite uncommon in Cicero. Cf. n. on Lael. 5 _te ipse cognosces_; also see below, 38 _se ipsa_ 78 _se ipse_. -- NATURAE NECESSITAS: 'the inevitable conditions of nature.' Cf. 71 _quid est tam secundum naturam quam senibus emori?_ -- AFFERAT: subjunctive because _nihil quod_ = _nihil tale ut_. A 320, _a_; G. 633, 634; H. 503, I. -- QUO IN GENERE: _sc. rerum_; with this phrase the defining genitive is commonly omitted by Cicero. So below, 45 _in eo genere_. -- UT ... ADEPTAM: notice the chiasmus. -- EANDEM: _idem_ is used in the same way, to mark an emphatic contrast in 24, 52, 68, 71. -- ADEPTAM: this is probably the only example in Cicero of the passive use of _adeptus_, which occurs in Sallust, Ovid, Tacitus, etc.; and in this passage the use cannot be looked on as certain, since one of the very best and several of the inferior MSS. read _adepti_. Cicero, however, uses a good many deponent participles in a passive sense (cf. below, 59 _dimensa_; 74 _meditatum_; see also a list, Roby, 734), and some of them occur very rarely. Thus _periclitatus, arbitratus, depastus_ as passives are found each in only one passage. -- INCONSTANTIA: 'instability', 'inconsistency'. _Constantia_, unwavering firmness and consistency, is the characteristic of the wise man; cf. Acad. 2, 23 _sapientia ... quae ex sese habeat constantiam_; also Lael. 8 and 64.