Chapter 8

11. SALINATORI: there can be no doubt that Cicero is guilty of a blunder here, and in De Or. 2, 273 where the story also occurs. Livy (27, 34, 7) gives M. Livius Macatus as the name of the Roman commander who held the citadel of Tarentum while Hannibal was in possession of the town. Cicero probably found the commander described by the annalists merely as M. Livius (so in Livy 24, 20, 13; 26, 39, 1), and then jumped to tne conclusion that he was the famous M. Livius Salinator. This man, the father of the Salinator mentioned in 7, was consul in 219 and subdued the Illyrians, but was condemned for misappropriation of public moneys and went into exile. In 210 he was induced to return by the desire of the senate. In 207 he became consul with C. Claudius Nero, and defeated Hasdrubal in the great battle of the Metaurus. In 204 Livius was censor with Nero as his colleague, and won his name _Salinator_ by imposing a tax on salt. The title was bestowed in ridicule, but clung to the family. Salinator was a relative of M. Livius Macatus. See Liv 27, 34, 7. -- ITA DICENTI etc.: the anecdote is told by Livy, 27, 25, 5 and Plutarch, Fab. 23. Both, however, refer the story not to the time at which Tarentum was taken, but to the year after, when altercations about it took place in the senate. -- TOGA: here put for 'civil life', the _toga_ being replaced in time of war by the _sagum_. Cf. in Pisonem 73 _pacis est insigne et oti toga, contra autem arma tumultus atque belli;_ De Or. 3, 167 _'togam', pro 'pace', 'arma', ac 'tela', pro 'bello'._ We have the same contrast between _arma_ and _toga_ in Cicero's own much-derided verse, _cedant arma togae, concedat laurea laudi_, which is defended by him, in Pis. 73 and Off. 1, 77. -- CONSUL ITERUM etc.: as the second consulship of Fabius was in 228 B.C., while the law of Flaminius was passed in 232 (according to Polybius), it is very difficult to understand the statement here made. It is possible that Flaminius was one of the commissioners for executing his own law, and that its execution lasted over the time of Fabius' second consulship. The Flaminius here mentioned is the same who fell as consul in 217 at the battle of lake Trasimenus. He held large and statesman-like views on the policy of securing Italy by planting Romans and Latins in the territory then recently taken from the Gauls, in the neighborhood of Ariminum. This particular measure was carried against the will of the senate, and was the first law passed, since the _lex Hortensia_ of 287, in defiance of its wishes. It was also the first agrarian law since the Licinio-Sextian law of 367. Polybius dates the decline of the Roman constitution from the passing of the _lex Flaminia_. Cf.'Rheinisches Museum', 1843, p. 573. -- SP. CARVILIO QUIESCENTE: this Sp. Carvilius was consul in 234 when he conquered the Corsicans and Sardinians. In 228 he was again consul, and died as augur in 212. He is said, but erroneously, to have been the first Roman who divorced his wife. In 216, just after the battle of Cannae, he made a most remarkable proposal, to fill up the gaps which that battle had made in the numbers of the senate by selecting two members from each of the Latin communities. It was almost the only occasion in the course of Roman history when anything like modern representative government was advocated. Carvilius was not sprung from one of the noble families, who for the most part monopolized the higher offices of state, it is therefore not surprising that he should have sympathized with Flaminius. -- CONTRA SENATUS AUCTORITATEM: 'against the expressed wish of the senate' _Senatus auctoritas_ is, strictly speaking, an opinion of the senate not formally embodied in a decree, _senatus consultum_. Cicero, in Invent. 2, 52 says Flaminius carried his law _contra voluntatem omnium optimatium_. -- DIVIDENTI: 'when he tried to divide'. The participle is here equivalent to _cum_ with the imperfect indicative (dividebat). So in 54 _lenientem_ A. 290, _a_; G 668; H 549, 1.

P. 6. -- CUM ESSET: '_though_ he was'. What Fabius declared was reaily that the _auspicia_ were a political instrument in the hands of the aristocrats, rather than a part of religion. Fabius, according to Liv. 30, 26, 7, was augur for 62 years before his death, and had no doubt had a large experience in the manipulation of the _auspicia_ for political purposes. Compare Homer, Iliad, 12, 243, also Cic. Phil. 11, 28 _Iuppiter ipse sanxit ut omnia quae rei publicae salutaria essent legitima et iusta haberentur_. Consult Mommsen, Hist of Rome, Bk. IV. Ch. 12.

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 περι πενθους, 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 ‛οθεν and ‛οθενπερ, 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 πεζομαχια and ναυμαχια, πεζομαχειν and ναυμαχειν are often contrasted (see Liddell and Scott). It is not recorded by historians that either Scipio or Fabius took part personally in naval warfare. -- RECORDENTUR: this verb implies the habitual dwelling of the memory upon the past. -- QUIETE ET PURE ATQUE ELEGANTER: the enumeration consists of two branches connected by _et_, the second branch being subdivided into two members connected by _atque_. Had each of the adverbs been intended to stand on exactly the same footing Cic. would have written _et_ instead of _atque_, or else would have omitted the copula altogether; see n. on 53 _capitum iugatio_. In enumerations of the form A + (Bl + B2), the + outside the bracket is expressed by _et_, the + inside the bracket generally being expressed by _ac_, for which _atque_ is substituted when the following word (_i.e._ B2) begins with a vowel, a guttural (_c, q, g_) or _h_, before which _ac_ was very seldom written. -- PURE ATQUE ELEGANTER: 'sinlessly and gently'. _Pure_ implies moral stainlessness, _eleganter_, literally 'in choice fashion', implies daintiness combined with simplicity in regard to the external conditions of life. The same ideas are put together in Sull. 79 _cum summa elegantia atque integritate vixistis_. -- AETATIS: see n. on 5. -- PLACIDA AC LENIS: 'quiet and mild'; _placida_ refers to the external surroundings, _lenis_ to the temper and character. -- ACCEPIMUS: _sc. fuisse_; for the ellipsis of the infinitive cf. n. on 22 _videretur_. -- UNO ET OCTOGESIMO: but below _quarto_ (not _quattuor_) _nonagesimo_. In the compound _ordinal_ numbers corresponding to those _cardinal_ numbers which are made up of one and a multiple of ten, the Latins use _unus_ oftener than _primus_, which would be strictly correct; so in English 'one and eightieth' for 'eighty-first'. The ordinary Grammar rule (Roby, Vol. I, p. 443 'the _ordinal_ not the _cardinal_ is used in giving the date') requires slight correction. For the position of the words see G. 94, 3; H. 174, footnote 3. -- SCRIBENS EST MORTUUS: 'died while still engaged upon his works'; cf. 23 _num Platonem ... coegit in suis studiis obmutiscere senectus?_ Diog. Laert. 3, 2 quoting Hermippus (a Greek writer of biography who lived about the time of the Second Punic war), says that Plato died in the middle of a marriage-feast at which he was a guest. Val. Max. 8, 7, 3 gives a slightly different account. -- ISOCRATI: this form of the genitive of Greek proper names in _-es_ was probably used by Cicero rather than the form in _-is_; see Madvig on Fin. 1, 14; Neue, Formenlehre, 1² 332. Isocrates, the greatest teacher of rhetoric of his time, lived from 436 to 338, when he died by voluntary starvation owing to his grief at the loss of Greek freedom through the battle of Chaeronea. Milton, Sonnet X. 'That dishonest victory At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty, Kill'd with report that old man eloquent'. -- EUM ... INSCRIBITUR: the periphrasis is common, and the verb _inscribere_ is nearly always in the present tense (in later prose as well as in Cicero) as in 59. This is sometimes the case even where the neighboring verbs are in past tenses, as in Acad. 1, 12 _nec se tenuit quin contra suum doctorem librum etiam ederet qui Sosus inscribitur_. The present seems to mean that the name mentioned is continually given to each copy of the book as produced; where the continuing multiplication of copies is not looked to, we have the perfect, as Att. 8, 5, 2 _tu fasciculum_ (bundle of letters) _qui est inscriptus 'des M'. Curio', velim cures ad eum perferendum_. Cf. also De Or. 2, 61 _deceptus indicibus librorum qui sunt fere inscripti_ ('to which the authors--once for all--have given the titles') _de virtute, de iustitia_, etc.; so Div. 2, 1 _eo libro qui inscriptus Hortensius_. -- DICIT: the 'Panathenaicus', an encomium of Athens written for recitation at the great festival of the Panathenaea, is among the works of Isocrates which we still possess. In c. 1 Isocrates says τοις ετεσι ενενηκοντα και τετταρσιν, ‛ων εγω τυγχανω γεγονως. -- VIXITQUE: 'and yet he lived'. The _que_ here has a slight adversative force, as is often the case with _et_. Cf. n. on 28, 43, 73. -- GORGIAS: the greatest of the sophists, born at Leontini in Sicily about 485 B.C.; his death took place, according to the varying accounts, in 380, 378, or 377. In his old age he lived in Thessaly where Isocrates studied with him; see Or. 176; Fin. 2, 1. For the adjective _Leontinus_ placed before the name rather than after cf. 43 _Thessalo Cinea_. -- CENTUM ET SEPTEM ANNOS: Kennedy, Gram., § 34, vii, _c_, says, 'in compound numbers above 100 the larger number, with or without _et_, generally precedes the smaller'; cf. Roby, Vol. 1 p. 443. -- CESSO: does not correspond in meaning with our 'cease', _i.e._ '_to come to_ a standstill'; _cesso_ is 'I am in a state of rest', 'I am idle'. -- QUAERERETUR: the past tense, though the principal verb _inquit_, is in the present, because the present is the _historical_ present and so equivalent to a past tense. Cf. Roby, 1511-1514; Kennedy 229, 2. A. 287, _e_; G. 511, Rem. 1; H. 495, II. The idiom by which the imperfect stands where we should expect a tense of completed action, should be noticed; cf. Tusc. 2, 60 _quem cum rogaret, respondit._ The explanation of the imperfect in such cases is that it marks out, more clearly than the pluperfect would, the fact that the action of the principal verb and the action of the dependent verb are practically contemporaneous. In our passage if _quaesitum esset_ had been written it would have indicated merely that at some quite indefinite time after the question was put the answer was given. Cf. N.D. 1, 60 _auctore ... obscurior_. -- CUR ... VITA: a hint at suicide, which the ancients thought a justifiable mode of escape from troubles, particularly those of ill health or old age. See n. on 73 _vetat Pythagoras. Esse in vita_ is stronger than _vivere_; cf. Qu. Fr. 1, 3, 5. -- NIHIL HABEO QUOD ACCUSEM: 'I have no reason to reproach'. Cf. the common phrase _quid est quod ...? Quod_, adverbial acc. A. 240, _a_; G. 331, R. 3; H. 378, 2. For mood of _accusem_ see H. 503, I. n. 2, and references on 12 _discerem_. -- PRAECLARUM RESPONSUM: _est_ is not required, because _responsum_ is in apposition to the last part of the preceding sentence. Similar appositions occur in Laelius, 67, 71, 79. -- DOCTO: applied especially to philosophers, but also to poets. The word implies _cultivation_ as well as mere _knowledge_; 'a learned man', merely as such, is '_homo litteratus_'; cf. n. on 54.

P. 7. -- 14. CUIUS ... FECI: 'the aforesaid' is in good Latin always expressed by a parenthesis like this and not by a participle in agreement with the noun. The phrases '_ante dictus_', '_supra dictus_', belong to silver Latin, where they are common. Cf. 23 _quos ante dixi_. -- SIC UT etc.: the lines are from the Annals of Ennius, for which see n. on 1. -- ECUS: Ennius did not write _uu_, nor most likely did Cicero; the former may have written either _ecus, equos,_ or _equs_. The last form Vahlen prints in his edition of Ennius. -- SPATIO SUPREMO: 'at the end of the race-course', 'at the goal', or it may be 'at the last turn round the course', the race requiring the course to be run round several times; cf. Homer's πυματον δρομον in Iliad 23, 768. So 83 _decurso spatio_; Verg. Aen. 5, 327 _iamque fere spatio extreme fessique sub ipsam finem adventabant_. -- VICIT OLUMPIA: a direct imitation of the Greek phrase νικαν Ολυμπια, to win a victory at an Olympic contest. So Horace Ep. 1, 1, 50 has _coronari Olympia_ = στεφανουσθαι Ολυμπια. The editors print _Olympia_, but the use of _y_ to represent Greek υ did not come in till long after the time of Ennius. -- SENIO: differs from _senectute_ in implying not merely old age, but the weakness which usually accompanies it. -- CONFECTUS: for the disregard of the final _s_ in scanning cf. n. on 1, l. 6. -- EQUI VICTORIS: for the almost adjectival use of the substantive _victor_, cf. Verg. Aen. 7, 656 _victores equos_; ib. 12, 751 _venator canis_; ib. 10, 891; 11, 89, and Georg. 2, 145 _bellator equus_, in Theocritus 15, 51 πολεμισται ‛ιπποι. The feminine nouns in _-trix_ are freely used as adjectives both in verse and in prose. A. 88, _c_; H. 441, 3. -- QUEM QUIDEM: the same form of transition is used in 26, 29, 46, 53. The whole of this passage to _suasissem_ is an exhibition of antiquarian learning quite unnatural and inappropriate in a dialogue. -- PROBE MEMINISSE POTESTIS: cf. De Or. 3, 194 _quem tu probe meministi_; Fin. 2, 63 _L. Thorius quem meminisse tu non potes. Memini_ can take a _personal_ accusative only when the person who remembers was a contemporary of the person remembered; otherwise the gen. follows. Cf. Roby, 1333; A. 219, Rem.; H. 407, n. 1. -- HI CONSULES: 'the present consuls'. -- T. FLAMININUS: commonly said to be the son of the great Flamininus (1, l. 1). He was altogether undistinguished, as also were the Acilius and the Caepio here mentioned. This passage gives the imagined date of the dialogue as 150 B.C. -- PHILIPPO: this was Q. Marcius Philippus, who was consul in 186 and took part in the suppression of the great Bacchanalian conspiracy of that year. For the next 17 years he was a leading senator and much engaged in diplomacy in the East. In 169 he was again consul and commanded against Perseus in the early part of the war. -- CUM ... LEGEM VOCONIAM ... SUASISSEM: 'after I had spoken publicly in favor of the law o£ Voconius'. For _suasissem_ cf. 10 _suasor_ with n. The _Lex Voconia de mulierum hereditatibus_ aimed at securing the continuance of property in families. By its provisions no man who possessed property valued in the censors' lists at 100,000 sesterces or more, could appoint a woman or women as his _heres_ or _heredes_; further, no person or persons, male or female, could receive under the will legacies amounting in all to a larger sum than that received by the principal heir or heirs. Every Roman will named a _heres_ or _heredes_, on whom devolved all the privileges and duties of the deceased, with such duties as were enjoined by the will; particularly the duty of paying the legacies left to those who were not _heredes_. See Maine, Ancient Law, Ch. 6; also Hunter, Introd. to Roman Law, Ch. 5. -- MAGNA: in Latin the word _magnus_ is the only equivalent of our 'loud'. -- LATERIBUS: 'lungs'. Cic. and the best writers rarely use _pulmones_ for 'lungs'; the few passages in which it occurs either refer to victims sacrificed at the altar, or are medical or physiological descriptions. 'Good lungs' is always '_bona latera_' never _pulmones_. -- DUO ... SENECTUTEM: Ennius is said to have kept a school in his later days, and to have lived in a cottage with one servant only.

15. ETENIM: this word generally introduces either an explanation or a proof of a preceding statement. Here the words are elliptic, and the real connection with what precedes can only be made clear by a paraphrase. 'Ennius seemed to delight in old age. And no wonder, since there are four causes which make men think old age wretched, and no one of these will bear examination'. _Etenim_ may generally be translated 'indeed', or 'in fact'. -- CUM COMPLECTOR ANIMO: 'when I grasp them in my thoughts'. The object of _complector_ is to be supplied from _causas_. -- AVOCET: _sc. senes_. The subjunctives denote that these are the thoughts not of the speaker, but of the persons who do think old age a wretched thing. See n. on 3 _ferat_; but cf. Kennedy, Grammar, pref., p. 30. -- ALTERAM ... TERTIAM: in enumerations of more than two things _unus and alter_ generally take the place of _primus_, and _secundus_: in Cic. these latter rarely occur under such circumstances. Cf. Att. 3, 15, 1; Fin. 5, 9; Off. 1, 152; Cluent. 178. -- INFIRMIUS: _sc. auam antea erat_. -- QUAM SIT IUSTA: Cicero generally separates from the words they qualify _quam_, _tam_, _ita_, _tantus_, _quantus_, often, as here, by one small word. Cf. below, 35 _quam fuit imbecillus_; 40 _tam esse inimicum_. -- QUIBUS: the preposition _a_ is often omitted; cf. in Pis. 91 _Arsinoen ... Naupactum fateris ab hostibus esse captas. Quibus hostibus? Nempe eis_ etc.; Tusc. 3, 37 _sed traducis cogitationes meas ad voluptates. Quas?_ Even when relative and antecedent are in the same sentence the preposition is not often repeated; _e.g._ Fin. 5, 68 _eodem in genere quo illa_. -- AN EIS: _an_ always introduces a question which is not independent, but follows upon a previous question either expressed or implied. Here _quibus_ implies _omnibusne_. Cf. div. in Caec. 52 _quid enim dices? An id quod dictitas_ ... where _quid_ implies _nihilne_: also below, 23, 29 _anne_. A 211, _b_; G. 459; H. 353, 2, n. 4. -- IUVENTUTE ET VIRIBUS: commonly explained as a hendiadys, _i.e._ as put for _iuventutis viribus_; but Cic. no more meant this than we mean 'the strength of youth' when we speak of 'youth and strength'. Real instances of hendiadys are much rarer than is generally supposed. -- QUAE: = _tales ut_. -- L. PAULUS: this is L. Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus, consul in 182 B.C., and again in 168 when he finished the third Macedonian war by utterly defeating Perseus at Pydna. For his connection with Scipio and Cato see Introd. -- PATER TUUS: _i.e. Scipio_; so in 29 _avi tui_, and in 75 _avum tuum_, without mention of young Scipio's name, but in 49 _patris tui, Scipio_; so 77. -- FABRICII etc.: for the plurals see n. on 13. C. Fabricius Luscinus, consul in 282, 278, and 273 B.C., censor in 275, held the command against Pyrrhus. The Roman writers, Cicero especially, are never tired of eulogizing him as a pattern of old-fashioned Roman virtue. Manius Curius Dentatus, consul in 290, 275, and 274 practically, if not formally, ended the third Samnite war, and also commanded against Pyrrhus; see 55. He was famed for his sturdy Roman simplicity and frugality. Tiberius Coruncanius as consul in 280 crushed an Etruscan insurrection. In 252 he became the first plebeian pontifex maximus. These three men are very frequently mentioned together by Cicero; cf. below, 43, Lael. 18. -- NIHIL AGEBANT: observe that _nihil agebat_ is put at the beginning of the first sentence, _nihil agebant_ at the end of the second; chiasmus.