33 $33. recle tu quidem: the same ellipse in 8, 1. 27; cf. also the passages quoted on 1. 31. P. 39. I audite vero: so De Or. 2, 28 et ille: audite vero, audite inquit. optimi viri: a form of address which is commonly ironical, though not so here. In Cat. m. 39 Cato addresses Scipio and Laelius as optimi adulescentes. quamquam ille quidem: Kaíтoɩ èkeîvós ye; cf. 97, p. 58, 1. 5. Quamquam seems to imply that Laelius did not altogether agree with Scipio on this subject. expediret: sc. utrique: sentiretur: sc. ab utroque. saepe: probably to be taken with mutari, not with dicebat (cf. 1. 9 saepe deponerentur), so that alias...alias is an expansion or explanation of saepe. For alias see n. on 1, l. 10. aetate ingravescente: 'as age grows burdensome'. earum rerum etc.: 'he obtained an instance in support of such changes by comparing the early days of life, since etc.'. In exemplum capiebat ex similitudine there is the same kind of pleonasm as above, 1. 8 sunt causae diligendi profectae. praetexta toga: n. on 1, 1. 4. § 34. perduxissent: sc. pueri amicitiam: cf. Cat. m. 60 nec aetas impedit quo minus agri colendi studia teneamus. M. quidem Valerium Corvinum accepimus ad centesimum annum produxisse (sc. studia agri colendi). contentione condicionis: for the construction cf. n. on 37, 1. 16. Condicio (conditio is a mistaken spelling of the word) often means a proposal or agreement to marry ('a match') even without the addition of uxoria; Nep. Att. 12, 1 nullius condicionis non habere potestatem. quod si etc.. but if they had lived on in friendship to a later time'. labefactari: sc. amicitiam, which is probably also the subject of dirimi above, though Seyffert makes the subject of both infinitives to be the same as the subject of perduxissent. It would be possible to use dirimi of persons, but scarcely labefactari with the sense to be rendered changeful'. amicitiis: a dativus commodi' like sibi in 11, 1. 22. Cf. Off. 2, 9 consuetudo...honestatem ab utilitate secernens...qua nulla pernicies maior hominum vilae potuit afferri. In 16 optimis quibusque so Arch. 26 optimus quisque gloria maxime ducitur. The love of fame is 'the last infirmity of noble minds'. optimis quibusque we have a very rare usage. The best writers use only the neuter plural of quisque, and that with a superlative adjective (cf. 67, 1. 20 veterrima quaeque), not the masc. or fem. plurals. In Cicero (putting aside Fam. 7, 33, 2 litteras longissimas quasque as exceptional 18 19 20 22 23 24 25 26 28 because litterae in the sense of an epistle has no singular) we have only one passage like the present, viz. Off. 2, 75 leges, et proximae quaeque duriores. A glance at that passage will shew that the reading proximae quaeque makes poor sense; I propose to read proxima-'laws, and harsher, each of them, than its predecessor'. In our passage quibusque may be used as exάorous is often in Greek, to mean ' each set of people'; or the plural may be due merely to assimilation with plerisque. It may further be mentioned that Cicero does not use expressions like bonus quisque, or melior quisque, except when the comparative is preceded by quo (quo quisque melior). discidia: n. on 23, 1. 16. § 35. iusta: i. e. with good reason on one side or the other. ...postularetur: for this subjunctive see Roby § 1722, Kennedy cum... § 211. libidinis ministri: Liv. 3, 44, 6 minister decemviri libidinis. adiutores ad: the common construction of adiutor in Cic. is with a genitive of the thing wherein aid is given (but dative of the person to whom aid is given, as in 42, p. 42, l. 2); cf. however Flacc. I adiutor ad rem perficiendam. Adiuvare ad, adiumentum ad often occur. quod etc.: 'since those who declined, however honourable their action was, were by those whom they refused to obey charged with disregarding the claims of friendship'. Madvig, Em. Liv. p. 417 ed. 2, seems to misunderstand this passage, through taking quod as the neuter pronoun, instead of the conjunction; so others, Halm included. deserere: for the infinitive dependent on the personal arguerentur instead of the impersonal construction argueretur eos deserere, cf. n. on 9, p. 29, 1. 32 ut videris; also Rosc. Am. 37 Roscius arguitur occidisse patrem; also quaeruntur in 16, 1. 21; constituendi sunt in 56, p. 45, 1. 30; perspiciuntur in 63, 1. 5. quidvis: anything and everything'. omnia: not different in sense from quidvis above. Cf. Att. 9, 18, 3 ad omnia descensurum ('would stick at nothing'). inveterata: 'undying'; often used with ira, odium etc. sempiterna: in contrast to amicitiae sempiternae in 32, 1. 29. haec etc. these almost destined ends threaten friendships, he said, in such numbers that etc.'. Quasi merely modifies the metaphor (n. on 3, p. 28, 1. 2); fatum is used very much in its poetical sense of mors or interitus. diceret sibi videri: these words take the place of esset, which would be used if the sentence were entirely logical. Cf. De Or. 2, 278 illud Siculi cui cum familiaris quidam quereretur quod diceret uxorem suam suspendisse se de ficu... Similar examples are exceedingly common in Cicero; see some in Roby § 1746. 29 30 32 I 2 3 4 6 § 36. quatenus etc.. this paragraph is really inconsistent with § 18 where Laelius says sentio nisi in bonis amicitiam esse non posse. Trans. here 'how far affection should lead us to proceed in dealing with friendship'. Cf. 56, p. 45, 1. 30 qui sint in amicitia fines et quasi termini diligendi; and for progredi 34, 1. 13 in amicitia provecti: the limits of friendly service are discussed also in Off. 3, 43. numne: a rare form, found in N. D. 1, 88 quid? deum ipsum numne vidisti? Vecellinum...Maelium: nn. on § 28. § 37. P. 40. vexantem: Cicero uniformly speaks of the Gracchi as traitors and iure caesi. Tuberone: son of a sister of Africanus minor; plebeian tribune in 133; a great opponent of Gracchus; a strict Stoic. aequalibus amicis: those of his contemporaries who were his friends'. Carbo and Cato, mentioned at the end of § 39, were only prope aequales (Brut. 96). videbamus: the imperfect because referred to vexantem; we saw him during the whole of his seditious action'; cf. 6, p. 28, 1. 32 tribuebatur. Cumanus...hospes: Cumae did not receive the Roman franchise till after the Social War. The Blosii or Blossii were a noble family at Cumae (Cic. leg. agr. 2, 93; Liv. 23, 7, 8; 27, 3, 5). This member of the family was a Stoic philosopher and pupil of Antipater of Tarsus. aderam...in consilio: 'was present as one of the advisers to...' The consilium was a most important institution both in the public and priIvate life of the Romans. There was deeply ingrained in the Roman mind a feeling that no person having serious business to transact, whether private or official, ought to proceed without taking the opinion of those best qualified to advise him. The body of advisers is the consilium. The senate was the consilium of the king, and then became the standing consilium of the consuls. Officials exercising judicial functions generally summoned to their aid leading lawyers; in the case here mentioned, as the trials were political, statesmen of experience were resorted to. Laenati...Rupilio: consuls of the year 132 when the enquiry into the acts of Gracchus and his followers took place. For Rupilius cf. $73 and Introd. p. 19. Of Laelius Val. Max. 4, 7, I says consilio eius consules (Rupilius and Laenas) praecipue utebantur. fecisset...putaret: faceret could not have been written because Gracchus was dead, but the mind having once been carried back to the past, it is permissible to use the imperfects vellet and putaret to denote that so long as Gracchus continued to live, the opinion of Blossius continued as here described. 7 etiamne: sc. hoc putares? 9 videtis quam nefaria vox: for the omission of sit cf. Off. 1, 152 comparatio de duobus, utrum honestius. Seyffert, and after him Lahmeyer and Nauck, makes the words quam nefaria vox interjectional and not dependent on videtis. Cf. also n. on 96, 1. 24. 13 dixit: sc. se fuisse facturum. comitem...ducem: cf. 96, 11. 19, 20; Fam. 10, 3, 2 duce natura comite fortuna; Balb. 9 non duces sed comites; Flacc. 5; Marcell. 11. illius furoris: n. on 30, p. 38, 1. 5 virtutis eius. hac amentia etc.: observe that in this sentence the clauses are not connected by particles. The omission is intentional, suiting the haste of Blossius. Hac amentia 'in this mad state'. quaestione nova: 'special court of enquiry'. For nova is usually written (with quaestio) extra ordinem, or extraordinaria. in Asiam...ad hostis: he joined Aristonicus, the pretender to the throne of Pergamus, then in arms against the Romans. When Aristonicus was finally defeated, Blossius committed suicide, as his Stoic tenets permitted him to do. 14- rei publicae: the country is the offended party, and the penalty is regarded as a debt due to it. 15 16 18 19 20 peccati: a stronger word than culpa; a translation of the Stoic ἁμαρτήματος = sin. si...peccaveris: 'if you have sinned in the interest of your friend, that is no justification of your sin'. conciliatrix: Cic. is particularly fond of these feminine nouns in -trix, many of which he manufactured himself; he frequently applies them, as here, to inanimate objects; cf. 89, p. 56, 1. 8 assentatio adiutrix. Conciliatrix occurs in Plautus in the sense of 'match-maker'. virtutis opinio: cf. 98, 1. 11; 30, p. 38, 1. 5 opinione; also §§ 28, 29. For virtutis=de virtuté cf. 34, l. 11 contentio condicionis· also n. on 20, P. 34, l. I. § 38. si statuerimus...si simus: double protasis; less awkward here than in many passages, because the quidem marks out the second protasis as distinctly subordinate to the first. Cf. pro imp. Cn. Pomp. 59 qui cum ex vobis quaereret, si in uno Cn. Pompeio omnia poneretis, si quid eo factum esset, in quo spem essetis habituri... perfecta sapientia etc.: cf. closely §§ 18, 100. res etc.: the practice would lead to no wrong'. Vitium here almost =culpa. 22 vita communis: 'everyday life', as in 18, 1. 8. ex hoc numero: =ex horum numero, the latter being a form of expression which Cic. very rarely uses. In De Or. 2, 56 we have ex eorum 23 24 For the attraction cf. n. on 2, numero qui; Vat. 41 in illorum numero. 1. 13 eum sermonem. et...quidem: those..." here concessive, not affirmative; "though especially of qui accedunt: these are the persons mentioned in 19, 1. 19 as viros bonos qui secuntur quantum homines possunt naturam optimam bene vivendi ducem. § 39. 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 = videmus: here, as in 56, p. 45, l. 31 and often, scriptum videmus. Cf. Academ. 2, 129 nobilis disciplina, cuius, ut scriptum video, princeps Xenophanes. Aemilium Luscino: Q. Aemilius Papus and C. Fabricius Luscinus (see n. on § 18) were colleagues in the consulship in 282 and 278 and in the censorship in 275 B.C. Familiaris, like amicus, takes a dative when it is treated as an adjective, and a genitive when it is a substantive. Cf. 60, p. 47, 1. 1. For Papum Aemilium, the cognomen put before the nomen (a practice extremely common in Tacitus and his contemporaries), cf. Q. Fr. 2, 4, 1 Macer Licinius. sic: the clauses bis...censura are explanatory of sic. patribus: maioribus, though in 6, p. 28, 1. 33 (apud patres nostros) patres has the strict sense. Note the omission of fuisse. tum: this probably has not a temporal meaning here, but=deinde 'next in order', as though primum had preceded. Curium... Coruncanium: nn. on § 18. memoriae: ad memoriam in Verr. 5, 36. The best writers seem to say memoria prodi (=to be handed down by tradition), memoriae prodi (to be handed down for the recollection of posterity) and memoriae prodere, but not memoria prodere. igitur: here (like our phrase 'well then') serves to introduce a new step in the statement. The position of igitur as first word in the sentence is exceptional in Cic. though regular in Sallust and very common in succeeding writers. ne suspicari quidem: this implies the contrast 'much less can we believe'. contendisse: for the construction contendere aliquid ab aliquo 'to press some one for something' cf. Planc. 12 meum beneficium ad eum potius detuli qui a me contenderat; Verr. 2, 131 hic magistratus a populo summa ambitione contenditur. A clause with ut often takes the place of the accusative. fidem: 'a promise', or 'a pledge'. hoc quidem: 'a request of this kind', dependent on impetraturum, not on dicere. in talibus viris: so 9, p. 30, 1. 3 in pueris. contendisset: sc. aliquis ex eis; for the omission of the subject to the verb cf. n. on 59, 1. 29. |