NOTES.

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3

:

§ 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 war— the 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 ❝v, 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.

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.

7 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 :

10

II

13

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.

7

8

9

de via: 'after my journey': condensed for quia de via fessus essem: cp. Acad. 1. 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 a Roman historical epic : Annales, a

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 rápel: 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.).

το

paene miles: i.e. as contrasted with the Consul, who had the imperium; although the tribuni militum were the chief officers of the legion.

II hoc biennio: 'within these two years': i.e. before two years have passed. Although Scipio was Consul in 147, it was as pro-Consul that he conquered Carthage in 146,– —or almost three years from this date.

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15

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cognomen: sc. Africani: according to Livy, xXX. 45, after the precedent of the elder Africanus, many persons of less distinction were dignified by an additional cognomen (technically agnomen, in later Latin only), with which they ennobled their family: properly such distinctions were hereditary, at most, only by an extension of courtesy.

censor: B. C. 142, cp. de Orat. II. 272, Africanus censor tribu movebat eum centurionem, qui in Paulli pugna non affuerat; cum ille se custodiae caussa diceret in castris remansisse quaereretque cur ab eo notaretur: non amo', inquit, nimium diligentes'.

6

legatus: Cicero, Acad. pr. II. 5, places the date of this mission before the censorship.

Asiam: Asia, like Africa (§ 1 n.), usually signified nothing more than that part of Asia Minor with some adjacent islands, which was formed into a Roman province, Asia Propria, on the death of Attalus.

iterum consul: B. C. 134.

By the lex Villia Annalis, the age at which a Roman became eligible for the consulship was fixed at 43. It is therefore evident that Scipio was elected, for the first time, before the legal age, if he was really born B. C. 185 (§ 2 n.),

absens: this does not necessarily mean that he was really absent from Rome, but that he did not personally present himself as a candidate.

Numantiam: a city of Hisp. Tarraconensis, near the sources of the Douro. After an obstinate struggle to preserve its independence, in the course of which it more than once imposed capitulations upon the Roman commanders (e.g. Pompeius, pro-Consul, B. C. 140, Mancinus, Consul, 137), which were afterwards repudiated, it was

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finally captured by Scipio, B. C. 133, after a blockade of fifteen months, and ruthlessly destroyed. The famous Gaius Marius served with distinction in this his first campaign.

offendes: 'find': lit. 'knock against', 'hit upon': the radical signif. of the verb: cp. pedis offensio.

nepotis: Tiberius Gracchus, son of his daughter Cornelia. In the year B.C. 133, Gracchus, as Tribunus Plebis, succeeded in carrying an agrarian measure; the object of which was to distribute the ager publicus into small holdings: and in connexion with this, the treasure left by King Attalus was to be distributed among holders of allotments. This exasperated the nobles, who had encroached upon the public domain; and when Gracchus sought re-election as tribune, he was assassinated in a tumult headed by Scipio Nasica.

§ 4.

ancipitem: 'double': the one leading to the Dictatorship, &c., the other to an untimely end.

septenos: Scipio died B.C. 129, aged 56: i.e.in anno climacterico', as it is called; usually 63, i.e. 7×9, is styled the 'grand climacteric'.

amfractus reditusque: periphr. for annos: 'amfractus propter zodiaci ambitum, reditus quia eadem signa per annos singulos certa lege metitur'. Macrobius. Meissner remarks that the sun's orbit, according to the view of the ancients, is a spiral, in consequence of its twofold revolution (§ 9 n.). For reditus cp. de N. D. II. 40, sol modo accedens, tum autem recedens binas in singulis annis reversiones ab extremo contrarias facit:-i.e. the sun crosses the equator twice in each year.

plenus: Gk. Teleos åpilμós. Cp. Plato, Timaeus, 39 D. The ancients imagined that certain virtues resided in particular numbers: Macrobius adduces many curious reasons for this: eg. 7 is a quarter of the lunar month and the cube of 2 is 8: cp. § 10, nodus n.

summam: 'the sum (of years) pertaining to thy destiny', i.e. the great crisis of thy life. Moser quotes Catil. III. 4, fatalem hunc annum esse ad interitum huius urbis atque imperii. The climacterical years