Cato Maior de Senectute with Introduction and Notes · Marcus Tullius Cicero
NOTES TO CATO MAIOR.
55. POSSUM: see n. on 24. -- IGNOSCETIS: 'you will excuse (me)'. -- PROVECTUS SUM: 'I have been carried away'. Cicero often uses _prolabi_ in the same sense. -- IN HAC ... CONSUMPSIT: Cic. probably never, as later writers did, used _consumere_ with a simple ablative. -- CURIUS: see n. on 15. -- A ME: = _a mea villa;_ cf. n. on 3 _apud quem_. -- ADMIRARI SATIS NON POSSUM: a favorite form of expression with Cicero; _e.g._ De Or. 1, 165. -- DISCIPLINAM: 'morals'; literally 'teaching'. 56. CURIO: Plutarch, Cat. 2, says the ambassadors found him cooking a dinner of herbs, and that Curius sent them away with the remark that a man who dined in that way had no need of gold. The present was not brought as a bribe, since the incident took place after the war. Curius had become _patronus_ of the Samnites, and they were bringing the customary offering of _clientes_; see Rep. 3, 40. -- NE: here = num, a rare use; so Fin. 3, 44; Acad. 2, 116. -- SED VENIO AD: so in 51 _venio nunc ad. Redeo ad_ (see n. on 32) might have been expected here. -- IN AGRIS ERANT: 'lived on their farms'. For _erant_ cf. n. on 21 _sunt_. -- ID EST SENES: cf. 19 n. on _senatum_. -- SI QUIDEM: often written as one word _siquidem_ = ειπερ. -- ARANTI: emphatic position. -- CINCINNATO: L. Quinctius Cincinnatus is said to have been dictator twice; in 458 B.C., when he saved the Roman army, which was surrounded by the Aequians, and ended the war in sixteen days from his appointment; in 439, when Maelius was killed and Cincinnatus was eighty years old. In our passage Cic. seems to assume only one dictatorship. The story of Cincinnatus at the plough is told in Livy 3, 26. -- FACTUM: the technical term was _dicere dictatorem_, since he was nominated by the consul on the advice of the senate. -- DICTATORIS: in apposition with _cuius_.
P. 24. -- MAELIUM: a rich plebeian, who distributed corn in time of famine and was charged with courting the people in order to make himself a king. Ahala summoned him before the dictator, and because he did not immediately obey, killed him with his own hand. For this, Ahala became one of the heroes of his nation. See Liv. 4, 13. Cicero often mentions him with praise. Cf. in Catil. I. 3; p. Sestio 143, etc. -- APPETENTEM: = _quia appetebat_; so _occupatum_ = _cum occupasset_. -- VIATORES: literally 'travellers', so 'messengers'. They formed a regularly organized corporation at Rome and were in attendance on many of the magistrates. Those officers who had the _fasces_ had also lictors, who, however, generally remained in close attendance and were not despatched on distant errands. The statement of Cic. in the text is repeated almost _verbatim_ by Plin. N.H. 18, 21. -- MISERABILIS: 'to be pitied'. The word does not quite answer to our 'miserable'. -- AGRI CULTIONE: a rare expression, found elsewhere only in Verr. 3, 226; then not again till the 'Fathers'. -- HAUD SCIO AN NULLA: since _haud scio an_ is affirmative in Cicero, not negative as in some later writers, _nulla_ must be read here, not _ulla_.
Cf. 73 _haud scio an melius Ennius_, 'probably Ennius speaks better'; also 74 _incertium an hoc ipso die_, 'possibly to-day'. Roby, 2256; G. 459, Rem.; H. 529, II. 3, 20, n. 2. -- QUAM DIXI: = _de qua dixi_, as in 53. -- SATURITATE: the word is said to occur nowhere else in Latin. -- QUIDAM: _i.e._ the authors of the _tertia vituperatio senectutis_, whom Cato refutes in 39, 59. -- PORCO ... GALLINA: these words are used collectively, as _rosa_ often is; so Fin. 2, 65 _potantem in rosa Thorium_. -- IAM: 'further'. -- SUCCIDIAM ALTERAM: 'a second meat-supply'. The word seems to be connected with _caedo_, and probably originally meant 'slaughter'. In a fragment of Cato preserved by Gellius 13, 24, 12 (in some editions 13, 25, 12) we find _succidias humanas facere_. Varro, R.R. 2, 14 has the word in the sense of 'meat'. -- CONDITIORA FACIT: 'adds a zest to'; cf. _condita_ in 10. -- SUPERVACANEIS OPERIS: 'by the use of spare time'; literally 'by means of toils that are left over', _i.e._ after completing the ordinary work of the farm.
57. ORDINIBUS: cf. 59 _ordines_. -- BREVI PRAECIDAM: 'I will cut the matter short', for _praecidam_ (_sc. rem_ or _sermonem_) cf. Acad. 2, 133 _praecide_ (_sc. sermonem_); for _brevi_ (= 'in brief', εν βραχει) cf. De Or. 1, 34 _ne plura consecter comprehendam brevi_. -- USU UBERIUS: cf. 53 _fructu laetius ... aspectu pulchrius_. -- AD QUEM ... RETARDAT: some have thought that there is zeugma here, supposing _ad_ to be suited only to _invitat_, not to _retardat_. That this is not the case is clear from such passages as Caes. B.G. 7, 26, 2 _palus Romanos ad insequendum tardabat_ (= _tardos faciebat_); Cic. Sull. 49 _nullius amicitia ad pericula propulsanda impedimur_. On _fruendum_ see Madvig, 421, _a_, Obs. 2 and 265, Obs. 2; G. 428, Rem. 3, exc.; H. 544, 2, n. 5. -- INVITAT ATQUE ALLECTAT: one of the 'doublets' of which Cicero is so fond; cf. Lael. 99 _allectant et invitant_.
58. SIBI HABEANT: _sc. iuvenes_; contemptuous, as in Lael. 18 _sibi habeant sapientiae nomen_ Sull. 26 _sibi haberent honores, sibi imperia_ etc.; cf. the formula of Roman divorce, _tu tuas res tibi habeto_. -- HASTAS: in practising, the point was covered by a button, _pila_; cf. Liv. 26, 51 _praepilatis missilibus iaculati sunt_. -- CLAVAM: cf. Vegetius de Re Mil. 1, 11 _clavas ligneas pro gladiis tironibus dabant, eoque modo exercebantur ad palos_; Iuv. 6, 246. The _palus_ is called _stipes_ by Martial 7, 32. -- PILAM ... VENATIONES ... CURSUS: all national amusements, well known to readers of Horace; see Becker's Gallus. _Venationes_, em. for _nataliones_. -- TALOS ... TESSERAS: _tali_, 'knucklebones', were oblong, and rounded at the two ends; the sides were numbered 1 and 6 (1 being opposite to 6), 3 and 4. Four _tali_ were used at a time and they, like the _tesserae_, were generally thrown from a box, _fritillus_. The _tesserae_, of which three were used at a time, were cubes, with the sides numbered from 1 to 6 in such a way that the numbers on two opposite sides taken together always made 7. A separate name was used by dicers for almost every possible throw of the _tesserae_ and _tali_. The two best known are _canis_, when all the dice turned up with the same number uppermost; and _venus_, when they all showed different numbers. The word _alea_ was general and applicable to games of chance of every kind. These games, which were forbidden by many ineffectual laws ('_vetita legibus alea_') were held to be permissible for old men; see Mayor on Iuv. 14, 4. -- ID IPSUM: sc. _faciunt_; the omission of _facere_ is not uncommon. Roby, 1441; H. 368, 3, n. 1. -- UT: em. for ordinary readings _unum_ and _utrum_.
59. LEGITE: 'continue to read'. Cf. De Or. 1, 34 _pergite, ut facitis, adulescentes_. In Tusc. 2, 62 it is stated that Africanus was a great reader of Xenophon. P. 25. -- LIBRO QUI EST DE: so in Fat. 1 _libris qui sunt de natura deorum,_ and similarly elsewhere; but the periphrasis is often avoided, as in Off. 2, 16 _Dicaearchi liber de interitu hominum_. -- QUI: _quique_ might have been expected, but the words above, _qui ... familiari,_ are regarded as parenthetical. -- OECONOMICUS: Cicero translates from this work c. 4, 20-25. -- INSCRIBITUR: see n. on 13. -- REGALE: 'worthy of a king'; different from _regium_, which would mean 'actually characteristic of kings'. Yet Cic. sometimes interchanges the words; thus _regalis potestas_ in Har. Resp. 54 is the same as _regia potestas_ in Phil. 1, 3. -- LOQUITUR CUM CRITOBULO etc.: 'discourses with Critobulus of how Cyrus etc.'. The construction of _loqui_ with acc. and inf. belongs to colloquial Latin, as does the construction _loqui aliquam rem_ for _de aliqua re_; cf. Att. 1, 5, 6 _mecum Tadius locutus est te ita scripsisse_; ib. 9, 13, 1 _mera scelera loquuntur_. -- CYRUM MINOREM: Cyrus the younger (cf. 79 _Cyrus maior_), well known from Xenophon's _Anabasis_. As Cyrus never arrived at the throne (having been killed at Cunaxa in 401 in his attempt to oust his brother the king with the help of the 10,000 Greeks) _regem_ is used in the sense of 'prince', as in Verr.
4, 61 and elsewhere; βασιλευς is used in exactly the same way in a passage of the Oeconomicus which comes a little before the one Cic. is here rendering (4, 16). -- LYSANDER: the great commander who in 405 B.C. won the battle of Aegospotamos against the Athenians. -- SARDIS: acc. pl.; _-is_ represents Gk. -εις. -- CONSAEPTUM AGRUM: 'park'; the phrase is a translation of Xenophon's παραδεισον; this will account for the omission of _et_ before _diligenter consitum_. -- DILIGENTER: 'carefully'. -- PROCERITATES: the plural probably indicates the height of each _kind_ of tree. -- QUINCUNCEM: thus:·:·:·:·:·:·: This was the order of battle in the Roman army during a great part of its history. The cause for this application of the term is rather difficult to see; it originally meant five-twelfths of an _uncia_; possibly it was thus applied because by drawing lines between the points the letter V (five) might be produced. As regards its application to trees, see Verg. Georg. 2, 277-284. -- PURAM: so the farmers talk of 'cleaning' the land. -- DIMENSA: notice the passive use of this participle, originally deponent; cf. n. on 4 _adeptam_. -- DISCRIPTA: 'arranged'; so _discriptio_ a little farther on. Cf. n. on 5 _descriptae_. -- ORNATUM: 'costume', used by Latin writers of any dress a little unfamiliar. So in Plaut. Miles 4, 4, 41 (1177 R) _ornatus nauclericus_.
60. IMPEDIT: _sc. nos_; with this construction the pronoun is always omitted. -- VALERIUM: when a young man, in 349 B.C., he engaged in combat with a Gaul, in sight of the Roman and Gallic armies, and came off victor by the aid of a raven, _corvus_; hence the name Corvinus (Liv. 7, 26). His first consulship was in 348, his last in 299; Cic. has miscalculated. Valerius was also twice dictator and is said to have held altogether 21 terms of curule offices. -- PERDUXISSE: _sc. agri colendi studia_. Cf. Lael. 33 _quod -- perduxissent_. -- ESSET: cf. n. on 21. -- AETATE: here = the vigorous period of life; cf. _bona aetas_ in 48. -- CURSUS HONORUM: 'official career'. -- HUIUS: _ille_ and _hic_ are not often found in the same sentence referring to the same person. _Eius_ would have been more regular here. -- MEDIA: cf. n. on 33 _constantis aetatis_. P. 26. -- APEX: 'the crown', 'the highest glory'. The word meant originally 'knot', being connected with _ap-tus ap-isci ap-ere_ and other words containing the idea of binding fast or grasping. It was properly applied to the olive-twig bound round with wool, which was stuck in the cap worn by the _flamines_ and _salii_. It is sometimes employed to translate διαδημα (a word originally of similar meaning), the royal _insigne_, as in Horace, Odes, 3, 21, 20 _regum apices_, with which cf. Odes, 1, 34, 14. The word is scarcely found elsewhere in a metaphorical sense. Our passage is imitated by Ammianus Marcellinus (a great imitator of Cicero) 27, 7, 2 _Rufinus velut apicem honoratae senectutis praetendens_.
63. APPETI: 'to be courted'; _decedi_: 'to take precedence', literally 'that there should be a yielding of the way'. -- ASSURGI: 'the honor shown by rising'. Cf. Iuv. 13, 54 _credebant grande nefas et morte piandum si iuvenis vetulo non assurrexerat_, where see Mayor's note. -- DEDUCI REDUCI: 'the escort from home and the attendance homeward'. The difference between these two words, which has often been misunderstood, is shown by Val. Max. 2, 1, 9 _iuvenes senatus die utique aliquem ex patribus conscriptis ad curiam deducebant, affixique valvis exspectabant donec reducendi etiam officio fungerentur_. -- CONSULI: probably refers to private legal consultations as well as to the deliberations of the senate. -- UT QUAEQUE OPTIME: Cic. often uses _ut quisque_ with superlatives, _ita_ following; see n. on Lael. 19. Translate _ut ... ita_ 'in proportion as ... so'. -- MORATA: from _mos_. -- MODO: in 59. -- MEMORIAE PRODITUM EST: in Verr. 5, 36 Cic. uses _ad memoriam_ instead of the dative. The best writers have _memoriae prodere_ and _prodi_, '_for the recollection of_ posterity', _memoria prodi_, 'to be handed down _by_ tradition'; but not _memoria prodere_. -- LUDIS: _sc. Panathenaicis_, abl. of time. The Panathenaea was the greatest of the Athenian festivals and was celebrated in honor of Athene, patron goddess of the city, once in four years. The story that follows is told in almost the same words by Val. Max. 4, 5, ext. 2.
P. 27. -- QUI: at this point the _oratio obliqua_ is broken off, but it is resumed in the next sentence, _dixisse_ being dependent on _proditum est_. -- LEGATI CUM ESSENT: 'being ambassadors'. -- ILLI: 'in his honor'. -- SESSUM RECEPISSE: Val. Max. uses the same phrase; cf. Fam. 10, 32, 2 _sessum deducere_; N.D. 3, 74 _sessum ire_. 64. PLAUSUS MULTIPLEX: cf. Verg. Aen. 1, 747 _ingeminant plausu_. Cic. generally says _plausus maximus_. -- FACERE NOLLE: cf. the well-known saying of Demosthenes, Olynth. 3, § 3 πεπεισμαι γαρ τα πλειω των πραγματων ‛υμας εκπεφευγεναι τωι μη βουλεσθαι τα δεοντα ποιειν, η τωι μη συνιεναι. -- COLLEGIO: the college or board of augurs to which Cato belonged. In his time there were nine members; later the number was increased. -- ANTECEDIT: _sc. alios_. -- SENTENTIAE PRINCIPATUM: 'precedence in debate'. Meissner quotes Verr. 4, 142 _ut quisque aetate et honore antecedit, ita primus solet sua sponte dicere itaque a ceteris ei conceditur_. -- HONORE: _i.e._ as regards office, past or present. -- QUI ... SUNT: actual praetors or consuls. -- COMPARANDAE: n. on 50. -- FABULAM AETATIS: cf. 5, 70, 85. The comparison of life to a play, and mankind to the players, is common in all literature; _e.g._ 'All the world's a stage, etc.'. When Augustus was on his deathbed he asked his friends _ecquid eis videretur mimum vitae commode transegisse_ (Suet. Aug. 99); cf. Gay's epitaph, 'Life's a jest, etc.'. -- CORRUISSE: _i.e._ through fatigue; cf. _defetigationem_ in 85.
65. AT: see n. on 21. -- MORUM: cf. 7 _in moribus est culpa, non in aetate_. -- EA VITIA: _i.e. ea alia vitia_. -- HABENT etc.: cf. Thucyd. 3, 44 εχοντες τι συγγνωμης. -- NON ... VIDEATUR: 'not well grounded indeed, but such as it may seem possible to allow'. _Ille_ is often used with _quidem_ in making concessions where the English idiom requires no pronoun. Roby, 2259; Madvig, 489, _b_; Kennedy, 65, n. 2; A. 151, _e_; G. 292, Rem. 4; H. 450, 4, n. 2. -- CONTEMNI ... DESPICI: see n. on 43 _spreta et contempta_. -- MORIBUS BONIS ET ARTIBUS: for the order of the words cf. n. on 1 _animi tui_. -- IN VITA: 'in everyday life' -- ADELPHIS: _Adelphi_ = αδελφοι, The Brothers; this play of Terence is still extant. -- DIRITAS: 'harshness of temper'; but Suet. Tib. 21 has _diritas morum_, and Varro _scena quem senem Latina vidit dirissimum_. Both _dirus_ and _diritas_ are rare in Cicero; the former word does not once occur in the whole range of the speeches, the latter scarcely excepting here and in Vat. 9; in Tusc. 3, 29 Cic. uses it in translating from Euripides.
P. 28. -- 66. SOLLICITAM HABERE: 'to keep in trouble'. _Sollicitus_ is, literally, 'wholly in motion', from _sollus_, which has the same root with ‛ολος, and _citus_; cf. the rare words _sollifides_, _solliferreus_. The perfect participle with _habeo_ emphasizes the continuance of the effect produced. Zumpt, 634; A. 292, _c_; G. 230; H. 388, 1, n. -- NOSTRAM AETATEM: cf. n. on 26 _senectus_. -- ESSE LONGE: more usually _abesse_. -- O MISERUM: 'O, wretched is that old man'. Cicero oftener joins _O_ with the accusative than with the nominative: he rarely, if ever, uses the interjection with the vocative in direct address to persons. -- EXTINGUIT ANIMUM: the doctrine of the annihilation of the soul after death was held by many of Cicero's contemporaries, professedly by the Epicureans (_e.g._ Lucretius, De Rerum Nat. 3, 417 _et seq._; cf. also Caesar's argument at the trial of the Catilinian conspirators, Sall. Bell. Catil. c. 51, Cic. in Catil. 3, c. 4), practically by the Stoics, who taught that there is a future existence of limited though indefinite length. -- DEDUCIT: cf. n. on 63. -- ATQUI: see n. on 6. -- TERTIUM ... POTEST: 'nothing can be found as a third alternative': so in Tusc. 1, 82 _quoniam nihil tertium est._
67. QUID TIMEAM etc.: so Tusc. 1, 25 _quo modo igitur aut cur mortem malum tibi videri dicis? quae aut beatas nos efficiet, animis manentibus, aut non miseros, sensu carentis;_ ib. 1, 118 _ut aut in aeternam domum remigremus aut omni sensu careamus._ For mood see A. 268; G. 251; H 486, II. -- AUT NON MISER ... AUT BEATUS: a dilemma, but unsound and not conclusive; for _non miser_ is used with reference to annihilation, and the soul may exist after death in a state of unhappiness. -- FUTURUS SUM: see n. on 6 _futurum est_. -- QUAMVIS SIT: prose writers of the Republican period use _quamvis_ with the subjunctive only; see Roby, 1624, 1627; A. 313,_a, g_; G. 608; H. 515, III. and n. 3. -- CUI: see n. on 38 _viventi_. -- AD VESPERUM ESSE VICTURUM: 'that he will be alive when evening comes', _not_ 'that he will live till the evening'. With the prepositions _ad_, _sub_, _in_ the form _vesper_ is generally used, not _vespera._ With this passage cf. Fin. 2, 92 _an id exploratum cuiquam potest esse quo modo sese habiturum sit corpus. non dico ad annum, sed ad vesperum?_ Also cf. the title of one of Varro's Menippean Satires, _nescis quid vesper serus vehat_, probably a proverb. -- AETAS ILLA ... ADULESCENTES: some suppose that this sentence was borrowed from Hippocrates. -- TRISTIUS: '_severioribus remediis_'. Manutius. So Off. 1, 83 _leviter aegrotantis leniter curant, gravioribus autem morbis periculosas curationes et ancipites adhibere coguntur_. The adverb _tristius_, which has in prose a superlative but no positive, occurs in Fam. 4, 13, 5. -- MENS ... RATIO ... CONSILIUM: cf. n. on 41. -- QUI ... NULLI: cf. n. on 46 _qui pauci_; but _nulli_ here almost = _non_. -- NULLAE ... FUISSENT: _i.e._ the young men would have brought every country to ruin; see 20. -- CUM ... CUM: see n. on 4.
68. IN FILIO ... IN FRATRIBUS: cf. Lael. 9. As to Cato's son cf. 15, 84. -- TU: _sc. sensisti_. -- EXSPECTATIS AD: a rare construction, perhaps without parallel; _exspectatis_ is an adjective and takes the construction of _aptus_, _idoneus_ etc., 'of whom hopes were entertained as regards honor'. -- FRATRIBUS: the sons of Paulus Macedonicus, two of them died within seven days (Fam. 4, 6, 1), one just before and one just after Paulus' great triumph in 167 B.C. -- IDEM: see n. on 4 _eandem_. -- INSIPIENTER: adversative asyndeton. -- INCERTA ... VERIS: chiasmus avoided. With the thought cf. Off. 1, 18. -- AT ... AT: the objection and its answer are both introduced by _at_, as here, in 35. -- AT ... ADULESCENS: these words look back to the preceding sentence, to which they are an answer. -- ILLE ... HIC: here _hic_ denotes the person who is more important, _ille_ the person who is less important for the matter in hand; the former may therefore be regarded as nearer to the speaker, the latter as more remote. A. 102, _a_; G. 292, Rem. 1; H. 450, 2, n. 69. QUAMQUAM: see n. on 2 _etsi_. -- QUID EST ... DIU: cf. Tusc. 1, 94 _quae vero aetas longa est, aut quid omnino homini longum? ... quia ultra nihil habemus, hoc longum dicimus_. For _est_ see n. on 72. -- TARTESSIORUM ... GADIBUS: the whole of the south coast of Spain bore the name _Tartessus_, but the name is often confined to Gades, the chief city. -- FUIT: = _vixit_. -- SCRIPTUM VIDEO: so in Acad. 2, 129; Div. 1, 31; cf. also N.D. 1, 72 _ut videmus in scriptis_; Off. 2, 25 _ut scriptum legimus_; also cf. n. on 26 _videmus_. -- ARGANTHONIUS: the story is from Herodotus 1, 163.
P. 29. -- ALIQUID EXTREMUM: see n. on 5; cf. pro Marcello 27 -- EFFLUXIT: strongly aoristic in sense 'at once is gone'. -- TANTUM: -- 'only so much'. -- CONSECUTUS SIS: 'you may have obtained'. The subjunctive is here used in the indefinite second person to give a hypothetical character to the statement of the verb. The indicative might have been expected; the expression almost = _consecuti sumus, consecutus aliquis est_. Roby, 1546; G. 252, Rem. 3; H. 486, III. -- VIRTUTE ET RECTE FACTIS: the same opinion is enforced in Tusc. 1, 109. -- QUID SEQUATUR: 'the future'; cf. Lucr. 1, 459 _transactum quid sit in aevo, Tum quae res instet, quid porro deinde sequatur_. -- QUOD ... CONTENTUS: this passage with the whole context resembles Lucretius 3, 931-977; cf. especially 938 _cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis_; 960 _satur ac plenus discedere rerum_. Cf. also Hor. Sat. 1, 1, 117-118. 70. UT PLACEAT: 'in order to secure approval'. -- PERAGENDA: cf. n. on 50 _comparandae_. -- PLAUDITE: the Latin plays nearly always ended with this word, addressed by the actor to the audience; cf. Hor. A.P. 153 _si plausoris eges aulaea manentis et usque Sessuri donec cantor 'vos plaudite' dicat_. -- BREVE TEMPUS etc.: one of the poets has said that 'in small measures lives may perfect be'. Cf. also Tusc. 1, 109 _nemo parum diu vixit qui virtutis perfectae perfecto functus est munere_; Seneca, Ep. 77 _quo modo fabula, sic vita: non quam diu, sed quam bene acta sit refert_. -- PROCESSERIT: probably the subject is _sapiens_, in which case _aetate_ must also be supplied from _aetatis_; the subject may however be _aetas_. -- OSTENDIT: 'gives promise of'; cf. Fam. 9, 8, 1 _etsi munus_ (gladiatorial show) _flagitare quamvis quis ostenderit, ne populus quidem solet nisi concitatus_. With the whole passage cf. pro Cael. 76.
71. UT ... DIXI: in 9, 60, 62. -- SECUNDUM NATURAM: = κατα φυσιν a Stoic phrase; cf. n. on 5 _naturam optimam ducem_. -- SENIBUS: dative of reference; _emori_ stands as subject to an implied _est_. -- CONTINGIT: see n. on 8. -- EXSTINGUITUR: there is the same contrast between _opprimere_ and _exstinguere_ in Lael. 78. -- QUASI ... EVELLUNTUR: it is rare to find in Cic. or the other prose writers of the best period a verb in the indicative mood immediately dependent on _quasi_, in the sense of _sicut_ or _quem ad modum_. When two things are compared by _quasi ... ita_, the indicative verb is nearly always put in the second clause, and may be supplied in the clause with _quasi_; very rarely are there two different verbs for the two clauses. Cf. however Plautus, Stich. 539 _fuit olim, quasi nunc ego sum senex_; Lucr. 3, 492 _agens animam spumat quasi_ ... _fervescunt undae_. -- SI ... SI: for the more usual _si ... sin_. -- ACCEDAM: see A. 342; G. 666; H. 529, II. -- IN PORTUM: speaking of death, Cic. says in Tusc. 1, 118 _portum potius paratum nobis et perfugium putemus: quo utinam velis passis pervehi liceat! Sin reflantibus ventis reiciemur tamen eodem paulo tardius referamur necesse est_; cf. also ib. 1, 107.
P. 30. -- 72. MUNUS OFFICI: see n. on 29. -- TUERI: 'uphold'. -- POSSIT: subject indefinite. -- EX QUO FIT etc.: the argument seems to be that youth knows how long it has to last and is therefore less spirited than age, which knows not when it will end. -- ANIMOSIOR ... FORTIOR: Horace, Odes 2, 10, 21 _rebus angustis animosus atque fortis appare_; the two words are joined also in Cic. Mil. 92: _animosus_, 'spirited'. -- HOC ILLUD EST etc.: 'this is the meaning of the answer made by Solon etc'. Cf. Div. 1, 122 _hoc nimirum illud est quod de Socrate accepimus_, also the Greek phrase ‛η τουτ' εκεινο. _Est_ = _valet_ as in 69. -- PISISTRATUS: the despot of Athens, who seized the power in 560 B.C. Plutarch, who tells the story, 'An Seni Sit Gerenda Respublica' c. 21, makes Solon speak to the friends of Pisistratus, not to P. himself. -- QUAERENTI: see n. on 11 _dividenti_. -- AUDACITER: Quintil. 1, 6, 17 condemns those who used _audaciter_ for _audacter_, which latter form, he says, had been used by 'all orators'. Yet the form _audaciter_ is pretty well attested by MSS. here and elsewhere in Cicero. [See Neue, Formenlehre, 1² 662.] For the two forms cf. _difficiliter, difficulter.
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