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.

IO dixit: sc. se fuisse facturum.

II

12

13

14

15

16

18

19

20

temeritati: 'infatuation'.

comitem...ducem: cf. 96, ll. 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, l. 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.

rei publicae: the country is the offended party, and the penalty is regarded as a debt due to it.

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, 1. II 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

numero qui; Vat. 41 in illorum numero. 1. 13 eum sermonem.

et...quidem:

those..."

For the attraction cf. n. on 2,

: 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

videmus: here, as in 56, p. 45, 1. 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, l. I. 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'.

'to

contendisse: for the construction contendere aliquid ab aliquo 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.

2

3

I

2

sanctissimi viri: 'the purest of men'.

rogatum: not in agreement with aliquid, but with the unexpressed subject (aliquem =Tià) of the infinitive facere; cf. rogati below.

4

6

8

P. 41.

at vero: 'but truly'. Laelius intends this sentence to carry with it the inference that the friendship between Gracchus on the one hand, and Carbo, Cato etc. on the other, was no true friendship.

Carbo: cf. §§ 41, 96. C. Papirius Carbo became, after the death of Ti. Gracchus, one of the commissioners for carrying out the agrarian law. He was tribune in 131 B.C. and introduced vote by ballot at the passing of laws in the Comitia. As consul in 120 he tried to reconcile himself with the aristocrats but failed. In 119 he was prosecuted for his share in the Gracchan troubles and committed suicide. Cf. § 96.

Cato: a grandson of the censor, and also of Paulus Macedonicus, whose daughter married the son of the censor. This Cato was consul in 114 and condemned for corruption in connexion with Iugurtha.

minime...acerrimus: a difficult passage, thoroughly dealt with by Madvig, Opusc. 2, 281, with whose interpretation, viz. that minime qualifies acer to be supplied from acerrimus, I agree. If minime qualifies sequebatur to be supplied from sequebantur then Cicero makes the statement that Gaius did not approve the principles of Tiberius while the latter was alive, and only took them up after his brother's deathstatement Cicero must have known to be false, since Gaius (then only 20 years of age) accepted from Tiberius the office of commissioner for executing the lex agraria. Cf. also pro Rab. perd. 14 fratris quocum concordissime vixerat (Gaius). Madvig illustrates the supplying of the positive acer from the superlative acerrimus by Livy 37, 41, 3 quae nihil admodum Romanis (sc. incommoda) eadem per-incommoda regiis erant; Cic. Rep. 1, 71 quem si habemus, etsi ne nunc quidem (sc. quisquam est florentior) tum vero quis te possit esse florentior? Trans. the whole sentence thus, but truly Ti. Gracchus had as his partisans C. Carbo, C. Cato and his own brother Gaius, who then was not very zealous, though now exceedingly so'. In the word acerrimus there is a hint at the suspicion that C. Gracchus had a hand in Scipio's death. See Introd. p. 18.

Gaius: n. on 3, p. 27, 1. 21.

§ 40.

neque...nec: common in Cic. for nec...nec; nec...neque, however, is rare (Arch. 29). Cf. 52, p. 44, l. 31.

minime accipienda: 'not to be allowed'. So πρόφασιν οι σκῆψιν ἀποδέχεσθαί τινος.

ceteris: n. on 16, 1. 21; 7, l. 9.

eo loco etc.: we are now placed in such a position that it is our duty to keep a vigilant (lit. distant) outlook for troubles still to come upon our country'. Nos = Romani; not Laelius and his sons-in-law.

aliquantum: see critical notes.

maiorum: all the editors seem to make this depend on consuetudo; but surely it is absurd to say 'the practice of our ancestors has swerved aside from its course and its career'. I prefer to make maiorum depend on spatio curriculoque (notwithstanding the collocation) and so construe 'our practice has swerved aside from the course and career marked out by our ancestors'. Metaphors from racing are exceedingly common in Cicero; cf. e.g. Academ. 2, 112 cum sit campus in quo exsultare possit oratio, cur eam tantas in angustias et in Stoicorum dumeta compellimus? Cf. also below, 101, 1. 29. That there is little or no difference in meaning between spatium and curriculum is shewn by passages like Orat. 12 Academiae spatia sunt curricula multiplicium variorumque sermonum. [Cf. 2, 9 lapsa consuetudo deflexit.]

§ 41.

regnum occupare: 'to establish a monarchy'. In Velleius 2, 4, 4 Scipio says of Ti. Gracchus 'si occupandae rei publicae animum habuisset'. vel: vel potius, 'or rather'.

=

is quidem: =¿Keîvós ye, or 8 ye as in Homer; not needed for the but added in order to point attention more closely to the subject of the verb. Cf. 66, 1. 13, n. on illa quidem.

sense,

num quid etc.: 'had the Roman nation either tradition or experience of anything resembling it?' The modern equivalent for hearing of such a matter would be reading about it in history. So the Greeks say ἀκούομεν we know from history'; άvýkoos 'a man ignorant of history'. Cf. 45, l. 17.

P. Scipione: I agree with Seyffert and Lahmeyer (against Nauck) in taking this person to be not Africanus minor but P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio the murderer of Ti. Gracchus. He is sometimes called pontifex (as in Cat. 1, 3) to distinguish him from Africanus, but in other passages merely P. Scipio as here; cf. Leg. 3, 20; Planc. 88. His father is mentioned in 101, 1. 20. Nasica Serapio was a son of a daughter of the elder Africanus, therefore a cousin of the Gracchi. The senate gave him a legatio to Pergamus, a form of honourable exile, in order to withdraw him from the fury of the democratic party. He committed suicide at Pergamus.

effecerint in P. Scipione: for the construction cf. 9, p. 30, 1. 3 in pueris. Seyffert rightly points out that fecerint could not stand here, since the democratic party had not itself done anything to Nasica, but had forced the senate to punish him.

non queo: n. on 22, 1. 18; cf. also n. on 71, 1. 26.

nam: this is elliptic, as often; so in Greek too yáp. The full sense would be 'I need hardly mention Carbo, for etc.' Cf. 45, l. 17; also 104, 1. 15 nam quid ego dicam?...

=

quocumque modo potuimus: 'as best we could'; 'we' here the aristocratic party.

16

propter poenam: i.e. it would have excited the populace too much to attempt to punish Carbo so soon after Ti. Gracchus' death.

sustinuimus: 'we have borne with'.

C. Gracchi autem: but in 69, p. 50, l. 4 Q. vero Maximum. The latter collocation is regular: here autem is postponed in order to make the contrast between Ti. Gracchi and C. Gracchi more exact.

17 tribunatu: this was still in the future at the time when Laelius is supposed to be speaking; Scipio died in 129 and C. Gracchus did not become tribune till 123 B.C.

18

19

20

serpit: cf. 87, 1. 1. Serpere means here 'to make progress imperceptibly or insinuatingly'. Nägelsbach, Stilistik § 129, has brought together a good many instances of this use, and of other words or phrases similarly used, as manare, fundi, fluere, often with longe and late. For serpere cf. Fin. 5, 65 caritas serpit sensim; ib. 2, 45 homo profectus a caritate domesticorum et suorum serpit longius; N. D. 3, 51 illa autem Balbe quae tu a caelo astrisque ducebas quam longe serpant, non vides?

deinde: the interpretation of this word (which Lahmeyer does not notice) is very difficult. Seyffert (as I understand him) explains it by a reference to deflexit iam consuetudo above. Putting a full stop at augurari, he makes the general drift to be this: 'our political practice has already departed from the right course. First Ti. Gracchus has tried to establish a tyranny; next (deinde) a proposition (res) is making progress of a sort that readily glides down the road to destruction, when once it has taken a start'. This proposition he supposes to be the lex tabellaria of Carbo (131 B. C.). But the present tenses are wholly inexplicable as applied to events disposed of two years before. (See, however, n. on 1. 20.) I therefore prefer to take the remark serpit...labitur as perfectly general in scope, and as intended to give the reason why Laelius dreaded to think of the future course of Gaius Gracchus. Deinde here is used proleptically, i.e. it presupposes semel which comes after; cf. n. on 7, 1. 9 reliqua. Trans. 'affairs soon move on, for they glide readily down the path of ruin, when once they have taken a start'. The sentence videtis... Cassia simply gives an actual example of this general principle. proclivis: here has an adverbial force; 'readily'. For reading see Appendix.

coepit: sc. labi. The omission of the infinitive is exceedingly common both with coepi and debeo; so with opinari in a passage quoted on 10, 1. 14. Cf. Cat. I, 10 perge quo coepisti. Observe that Cic. and Caesar do not, like Sallust, Livy and later writers, use coepi absolutely; i.e. an infinitive is always either expressed or implied.

in tabella: 'in the matter of voting'; lit. 'of the voting ticket'. (In as above, 1. 14 in P. Scipione.) For the collocation in tabella quanta sit cf. 24, p. 35, 1. 33 de amicitia quid sentirem.

iam ante: 'even before', i.e. before the time of C. Gracchus.
labes: 'corruption', i.e. of old institutions.

Gabinia lege: this law, entitled de magistratibus mandandis (Leg. 3, 35), was carried by A. Gabinius, tribune in 139 B. C., and introduced into