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exstinctum nec ipsum ab alio renascetur nec ex se aliud creabit, si quidem necesse est a principio oriri omnia. Ita fit ut motus principium ex eo sit, quod ipsum a se mouetur; id autem nec nasci potest nec mori: uel con5 cidat omne caelum omnisque natura et consistat necesse est nec uim ullam nanciscatur, qua a primo impulsa

moueatur.

IX. Cum pateat igitur aeternum id esse, quod a se 20 ipso moueatur, quis est qui hanc naturam animis esse 10 tributam neget? Inanimum est enim omne, quod pulsu agitatur externo, quod autem est animal, id motu cietur interiore et suo: nam haec est propria natura animi atque uis; quae si est una ex omnibus, quae se ipsa moueat, neque nata certe est et aeterna est. Hanc tu 21 15 exerce optumis in rebus; sunt autem optumae curae de

salute patriae, quibus agitatus et exercitatus animus uelocius in hanc sedem et domum suam peruolabit. Idque ocius faciet, si iam tum, cum erit inclusus in corpore, eminebit foras et ea, quae extra erunt, contemplans 20 quam maxime se a corpore abstrahet. Namque eorum animi, qui se corporis uoluptatibus dediderunt earumque se quasi ministros praebuerunt impulsuque libidinum uoluptatibus oboedientium deorum et hominum iura uiolarunt, corporibus elapsi circum terram ipsam uolu25 tantur nec hunc in locum nisi multis exagitati saeculis reuertuntur.'

Ille discessit, ego somno solutus sum.

NOTES.

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:

§ 1, P. 13.

Africam in its usual acceptation, Africa was for the Romans nothing more than the Roman province, Africa propria, which was created out of the territory of Carthage, after the 3rd Punic warthe modern Tunis. If they had wished to speak of Africa as a quarter of the globe, they would probably have preferred the Greek name Libya.

Manilio: Manius Manilius, Consul B. C. 149, one of the characters in this dialogue: cp. de Repub. III. 10, where he is spoken of as an authority on Jurisprudence. In this campaign he was preserved from disaster mainly by the aid of the tribune Scipio. The dative depends on tribunus; in the same way that it is used with legatus (esse alicui) and heres, to signify the 'relation of interest' (dativus commodi) in which one person stands to another (see Madvig, L. G. § 241). We must bear in mind that classical Latin does not use the participle ens, like the Greek wv, to express our participle 'being', but either employs a periphrasis or omits it altogether.

Masinissam: this Numidian prince played a most important part in the 2nd Punic war (B. C. 219-201), in the early part on the Carthaginian side, but afterwards as an ally of the Romans. His vicissitudes of fortune and the tragic fate of his bride Sophonisba, wife of Syphax and daughter of Hasdrubal, as narrated by Livy and others, read like the story of a romance. At the close of the war the elder Africanus, with whom he had formed a friendship confirmed by mutual services during the war, caused Masinissa to be established in the possession of his hereditary dominion together with a large slice from what was once the territory of his rival Syphax.

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10

II

13

He continued to receive the support of the Roman people, in his perpetual encroachments on his Carthaginian neighbours; and this was partly the cause of the 3rd Punic war (B. C. 149—146). He died somewhere about B. C. 148, leaving the younger Africanus as administrator for his children.

caelites: i. e. Moon and Stars, which are addressed as Gods. Ochsner calls attention to the poetic colouring of this passage and of the Somnium generally. Moser, indeed, arranges these words as an iambic senarius :

Grates tibi

Ago, summe Sol, vobisque, reliqui caelites.

But, as Mr Reid observes, it is utterly unlike Cicero's practice to introduce any but the most hackneyed verses without warning.

itaque: ‘and in this way', i.e. as now so always; itaque is certainly awkward: some editors prefer ita; and Meissner cites Plaut. Epid. 1. i. 77, Aul. III. i. 6, as instances of itaque=ita in colloquial language; but, as Moser remarks, itaque and ita are often interchanged in MSS.

viri: Africanus, the elder.

ego illum-percontatus: in English the verb would have been omitted in the second proposition, thus: ‘I questioned him, and he me'; but in Latin the position of the verb is generally last. This figure, by which a verb is referred to two subjects differing in person, &c., is sometimes called syllepsis, 'taking together'.

ultro citroque: lit. 'on that side and on this', i.e. on his side and on mine (ultro and ille spring from the same root; and so do citro and hic): cp. de Off. I. 56, ex beneficiis ultro citro datis acceptis.

nobis: dative of the agent: as in the case of the gerund and gerundive, this dative, 'of interest', depends on est (see Madvig, L. G. § 250). Some writers extend the use of this dative to the imperfect tenses of the passive verb.

17

§ 2.

cubitum: supine in -um, i.e. an abstract verbal noun depending on discessimus: an accusative of the object of motion.

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2

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8

9

de via: 'after my journey': condensed for quia de via fessus essem: cp. Acad. I. 1, de via fessus. Some editors add fessum here. vigilassem: conjunctive of the cause: qui quom ego (Madvig, L. G. § 366, Roby, § 1714).

Ennius: the father of Roman poetry, born at Rudiae in Calabria (B. C. 239): he was a special protégé of the elder Africanus. It is related of Ennius that he believed in the Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls, to such an extent as to be persuaded that Homer's spirit, after tenanting the body of a peacock, had passed into him: Persius, Sat. VI. 10, cor iubet hoc Enni postquam destertuit esse Maeonides Quintus pavone ex Pythagoreo. Cp. Horace, Epp. 11. i. 50. Cicero probably alludes here, as elsewhere, to a line of the Annales, a Roman historical epic:

In somnis mihi visus Homerus adesse poeta.

P. 14.

imagine: a Roman, who had held one of the higher offices of state, Magistratus Curules, acquired the right (ius imaginum) of having his imago, a wax mask of his features, set up in the Atrium of his descendants; who were then accounted Nobiles. The younger Africanus is said to have been born in the same year (B. C. 185) in which the elder died: Cato M. § 19. Polybius however placed the death of the elder Scipio in the same year as that of Hannibal (B. C. 183), Livy XXXIX. 52.

ades animo: 'collect yourself', 'be of good courage'; this phrase usually='be attentive'; and the Greek interpreter of the Somnium here reads T vot Tápel: but Cicero uses adeste animis (pro Milone, 4) with the same meaning as in this passage.

§ 3.

per me after Zama. per me, by me, as a means; a me, direct agent.

excelso loco: viz. the Galaxy or Milky way: see § 8.

illustri: connected with lux (luc-s), 'lighted up'; clarus, 'clear, bright', originally of sound, cp. cla-mor (Vanicek, Etymol.).

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