1.P. Vergilius Maro, the greatest of Roman epic poets, was born 70B.C.near Mantua, in the N. of Italy, and died 19B.C.at Brundusium, in the S.E. of Italy. His chief works were theBūcŏlĭcă(βου-κολέω, I tend cattle), orEclŏgae(‘Selections,’ fromἐκ-λέγω, I choose out), a series of short poems, chiefly pastoral; theGĕorgĭcă(γῆ ἔργον), a poetical treatise on agriculture; and theAenēïs, or story of Aenēas, a poem in twelve books, relating the adventures of Aeneas after the fall of Troy.
2.se parere versus, ‘that he produced his verses like a bear,’ lit. ‘in a bear-like manner.’
părĕre, frompărio. Distinguish three words, (1)păro, -avi, -atum, -are, ‘I prepare,’ (2)pāreo, -ui, -itum, -ēre, ‘I obey,’ gov. dat. case, (3)părio, pĕpĕri, partum, orparĭtum,-ĕre, ‘I bring forth.’
3.lambendo, abl. of the gerund, ‘by licking it’; sotractando corrigendoque, ‘by polishing and correcting them.’
5.partus, nom. pl., best translated by the English sing., ‘the offspring of...’
6.reddo, compound ofreanddo.Rĕdis used forreinredămo,redarguo,reddo,redeo,redhibeo,redigo,redimo,redoleo,redundo. In composition thereis short except in ...rēligio(often speltrelligio),rēliquiae(often speltrelliquiae), and the perfects ofrĕpello,rĕperio, andrĕfero, viz.,rēpuli(orreppuli),rēperi(orrepperi), andrētuli(orrettuli).Rēfert, the impersonal verb, ‘it concerns,’ is a compound ofres-fert:rĕfero,makes 3rd sing,rĕfert.Reorredin composition has two principal meanings, (1) ‘back’ or ‘backward,’ asredeo, ‘I go back,’ (2) ‘again,’ asreficio, ‘I make again, repair.’ It also frequently denotes (3) ‘duty’ or ‘obligation,’ soreddohere means ‘I give as is due,’ ‘render.’
1.Menander(342-291B.C.), an Athenian comic poet, famous as the model of Roman dramatists, especially Terence.
Philemon, also an Athenian comic poet, the contemporary and rival of Menander.
2.in certaminibus comoediarum. In Athens dramas were represented at the great festivals in honour of Dionysus, at which “every citizen was present, as a matter of course, from daybreak to sunset” (Donaldson). Judges were appointed by lot to decide upon the merits of the rival plays. The successful poet was crowned with ivy, and his name was proclaimed before the audience.
ambitus, ‘bribery,’ fromambio; properly a ‘going round’ to canvass for votes, etc., especially by bribery.Ambitio, from the same verb, is used both in this sense and also as ‘a desire for power,’ etc., our ‘ambition.’
4.quaeso, used parenthetically like our ‘pray!’
bonâ veniâ, ‘apologizing for the question’; lit. ‘with your good leave...’i.e.‘pardon me, but...’
5.nonneintroduces a question expecting the answer ‘Yes,’ e.g.nonne erubescis, ‘do you not blush?’Numintroduces a question expecting the answer ‘No,’ e.g.num erubescis, ‘you do not blush, do you?’-neis used when the answer is doubtful, e.g.erubescisne, ‘do you blush?’
erubesco. The termination-scoshows that the verb is inceptive or inchoative,i.e.denotes the beginning (inceptum) of an action or state. Such verbs are always of the 3rd conjugation, and form their perfects and supines (if they have supines, but in most inceptives the supine is wanting) from the simple verb or stem from which they spring, e.g.pallesco(frompalleo),pallui, (no supine),pallescere, I begin to grow pale;vĕtĕrasco(from old formvĕter, classicalvĕtus,-ĕris),-ravi, no sup.,veterascĕre, ‘I grow old.’
1.Aristoteles, the Greek philosopher, was born at Stagīra, in Macedonia, 384B.C.He lived for twenty years at Athens, where he was a pupil of Plato; afterwards he returned to Macedonia, and became the tutor of Alexander. When Alexander succeeded to the throne, Aristotle again went to Athens and taught philosophy for 13 years in the Lyceum, a gymnasium sacred to Apollo Lyceus. He died in 322B.C.at Chalcis in Euboea. Many of his writings upon logic, moral and political philosophy, natural history, etc., have reached us.
Plutarchuswas born at Chaeronea in Boeotia about 50A.D.He came to Rome at an early age, and spent many years there and in other parts of Italy. In his old age he returned to Chaeronea, where he died at an unknown date. His works were written in Greek: the most famous of them is theParallel Livesof forty-six Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs, a Greek and a Roman together (e.g.Alexander and Caesar, Demosthenes and Cicero), the life of each pair being followed by a short discussion of their comparative merits.
hercleis a nominative form; the similar exclamationsmehercules,mehercule,mehercle,hercules,hercule, andhercleare all abbreviations for ‘me Hercules juvet!’ ‘may Hercules help me!’ Cf. the interjectional phrase, ‘medius fidius,’ for ‘me deus Fidius juvet’,‘so help me the God of Faith!’
2.si super ..., the order is ‘si imponis magna pondera super lignum palmae arboris.’
3.non deorsum, the wood does not yield and bend inwards beneath the weight, but rises up against it and bends outwards.
6.urgentibus opprimentibusque, dat. after cedit, ‘it does not yield to....’
1.Socrateswas born at Athens 469B.C.His father was a statuary, and in early life Socrates followed the same profession, but he soon abandoned it and devoted himself entirely to philosophy. He did not follow the usual custom of giving public lectures or opening a school, but went about in the city talking to men wherever he met them, and endeavouring to awake in them a love of true knowledge. By his attacks uponthe popular theories and his free discussion of religious questions he roused a strong antagonism; at last he was impeached on the three charges of corrupting the Athenian youth, despising the gods of the State, and introducing new deities, and was executed by a draught of hemlock poison, 399B.C.He left no written works, so that our knowledge of him is derived from the writings of his pupils and contemporaries, chiefly Plato and Xenophon.
3.iris ... scatebat, lit. ‘bubbled over with,’ ‘overflowed with ...’ Cf. Hor.Od.iii. 27, 26, ‘scatentem beluis pontum,’ ‘the ocean teeming with monsters’; and Aulus Gellius,N. A.l. 15, uses ‘scatere verbis.’
quam rem ... demiratus, ‘having expressed his astonishment at this fact to her husband Socrates.’
4.Alcibiades, 450-404B.C., was a brilliant but unprincipled Athenian statesman, who became famous during the Peloponnesian war. He enjoyed the friendship of Socrates, was saved by Socrates at the battle of Potidaea, 432B.C., and saved the life of Socrates at the battle of Delium, 424B.C.
5.ăcerbum,ăcer-busfromācer, assŭper-busfromsŭper. Usually words retain the quantity of the word from which they are derived, but there are many exceptions, e.g.hŏmoandhūmanus,nōtusandcog-nĭtus, sorex, gen.rēgis, butrĕgo,dux, gen.dŭcis, butdūco.
7.insuesco. Cf.note onerubesco, ii. 5.
exerceor, in a middle sense, ‘I exercise myself.’ Cf.faciunt idem, cum exercentur, athletae(Cic.Tusc.ii. 23, 56), ‘athletes do the same when they exercise themselves.’ Many Latin passives have thus a ‘middle’ force; cf.vertor, I turn myself;lavor, I wash myself; and the deponentsglorior, I boast myself;vescor, I feed myself, etc.
8.ut ... feram, ‘so that I bear more easily.’Utused in a consecutive sense,i.e.denoting the consequence or result.
1.corporis firmandi causâ, ‘(undergone) for the sake of strengthening his body’—the gerundive attraction. Cf.note xiii. 1.
3.ad solem alterum orientem, ‘till the next sunrise.’Sol oriensis used for sunrise,i.e.the rising of the sun, as‘summus mons’ for ‘the top of the mountain,’Caesar mortuusfor ‘the death of Caesar,’ etc.
5.tanquam ... facto, lit. a certain withdrawal, as it were, of mind and feeling from the body having taken place,i.e.‘mind and feeling having, as it were, left his body.’ He stood in seeming unconsciousness.Animus, when contrasted withmens, is the mind as the seat of the passions, etc.;mensthe higher reasoning faculty, the intellect.
9.valitudine integra, the abl. absolute, ‘in unimpaired health.’
Ablative Absolute, ‘absolute’ (absolutus, fr.ab·solvo, ‘I release’) here means ‘released’ from government by any word in the principal sentence.
The construction is one of many varieties of the adverbial ablative;e.g.the abl. of time, the abl. of place where, the abl. of manner, etc.; but it differs from these ablatives—
(1) In being equivalent to a complete clause, e.g.Caesar hoc dixit, convocatis militibusis equivalent tocum milites convocati essent.
(2) Or, to express the same fact in another way, it consists of two words each in the ablative, one of which stands to the other in the relation of predicate to subject; the ‘subject’ being a substantive or pronoun, the ‘predicate’ a participle, adjective, substantive, or, more rarely, a pronoun.
Exceptions:But (a) sometimes the subject is not expressed, and a participle is used impersonally by itself in the abl. absol.—the participle here being equivalent to a clause containing an impersonal verb, e.g.mihi,errato,nulla venia, ‘there is no pardon for me, if I blunder’ (errato = si erratum erit a me).
(b) Sometimes a whole clause is substituted for the abl. of the ‘subject’: e.g.excepto quod non simul esses, cetera laetus, ‘happy in all respects, except the fact that you were not with me’ (lit. ‘the fact that you were not with me being excepted’).
Examples:(1) Subst. and participle,Tullio regnante vixerunt, ‘they lived whilst Tullius was king.’ (2) Subst. and adj.,Hannibale vivo Romani semper Poenos timuerunt, ‘the Romans always feared the Carthaginians whilst Hannibal lived.’ (3) Subst. and subst.,Nil desperandum Teucro duce, ‘there is no cause for despair whilst Teucer is our leader.’ (4) Subst. and pron.,quid hoc populo obtineri potest, ‘what can be maintained with such a people as this?’ (5) Pron.and participle,eis occisis ceteri domum redierunt, ‘when those men had been slain the rest returned home.’ (6) Pron. and adj.,me invito id fecit, ‘he did it contrary to my wishes.’ (7) Pron. and subst.,eo rege tuti erant, ‘they were safe whilst he was king.’
Note.—(1) The abl. absolute sometimes expresses merely time (e.g.inita aestate, ‘at the beginning of summer’), but more often attendant circumstances, or cause.
(2) The abl. absol. cannot be used when the ‘subject’ of the clause is the same as the subject or object of the principal clause. This rule is sometimes, but rarely, violated.
(3) In Greek the genitive is the absolute case: in most modern languages the nom. is thus used: but the acc. is sometimes used absolutely in German, and in Old English the accusative (representing the dative of Anglo-Saxon) was used absolutely. Milton uses both nom. and acc.: cf. “Us dispossessed,”Par. L.,vii. 140; “I extinct,” id.ix. 994.
10.pestilentia, the famous plague of Athens, which raged during the second and third years of thePeloponnesian war. This was a war between Athens with her allies and Sparta with her allies, which lasted for 28 years, from 431 to 404B.C., and ended in the defeat of Athens and the loss of her maritime supremacy.
1.Alexander III. (356-323B.C.), surnamed the Great, ascended the throne of Macedonia on the death of his father Philip, 336B.C.In the 13 years of his reign he conquered the greater part of Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, and marched even into Northern India and Egypt. The incident here mentioned happened in his Indian campaign. In 327 he crossed the Indus, entered thePunjaub, defeated and captured the Indian king Porus in a great battle on the banks of the Hydaspes, and founded there two towns—Bucephalon and Nicaea. He continued his progress as far as the banks of the Hyphasis, but here his wearied troops mutinied and refused to advance any further.
Būcĕphălās(βουκεφάλας, βοῦς κεφαλή), ‘ox-head,’ so called from the breadth of its forehead.
2.emptum, ‘Chares has stated that it was bought for 13 talents.’talentis, abl. of price.
Chareswas an officer at Alexander’s court, who wrote a series of anecdotes about the life and exploits of the king.
3.hoc autem, the orderis hoc est nostri aeris summa trecenta duodecim sestertia, ‘this is in (lit. of) our money the sum (of) 312 sestertia.’ Sestertium = 1,000 sestertii, about £8 at this time. Therefore 312 sestertia = £312 x 8 = £2,496. Forsestertiumcf.xxxiii. 2.
6.haud unquam, etc., ‘it never allowed itself to be mounted by any one except the king.’
8.faceret, subj. aftercum.
Cum(= when), like other temporal conjunctions, takes as a rule the indic. mood; but the subj. is required when the time of thecumclause is regarded as depending on the time of the principal clause. This is usually the case in past time, hence the rule is thatcumin past time requires the imperf. or plup. subj., unless (1) it is used in a frequentative sense,e.g.‘as often as’ (but later writers,e.g.Livy, often use the subj. even in this sense), e.g.cum palam ejus anuli ad palmam converterat, a nullo videbatur(Cic.Off.), ‘as often as he turned the bezel of that ring to his palm, he was seen by no one,’ cf.xiv. 7,id cum dixerat, ‘as often as he had said that’; (2) it is simply equivalent toet tum, e.g.castra ibi posita, cum subito advenere Samnitium legiones(Livy), ‘the camp had been pitched there, when the Samnite legions suddenly arrived’; (3) the two clauses mark strictly contemporaneous events,tumbeing often added in the principal clause to mark this fact, e.g.vos tum paruistis cum paruit nemo(Cic.p. Lig.7), ‘you were obedient at a time when no one (else) was obedient.’
9.non satis sibi providens, ‘without sufficient forethought.’
inmisitused absolutely,i.e.without an object; this, if expressed, would be ‘equum,’ ‘spurred it forward against.’
11.moribundus. The terminationbundus, orcundus, denotes fulness, e.g.vagabundus, ‘wandering’;iracundus, ‘wrathful.’ Cf.L. Primer, p. 58, § 70E.
12.e mediis hostibus, ‘from the midst of the enemy.’ In many phrases the adj. is used in Latin where in English we use a subst. with another subst. depending on it, andvice versa: e.g.summus mons, ‘the top of the mountain’; butanimi dolor, ‘mental pain’; cf.v. 3,sol oriens.
14.domini iam superstitis securus, ‘relieved from anxietyfor its master, now safe.’ For the genitivedominiaftersecurus, cf.sēcūră fŭtūri, Ovid;sēcūrus pĕlăgi atque mei, Verg.
1.Alcibiades. Cf.iv. 4. note.
Pericleswas a great Athenian statesman. He was born about 490B.C.(the year of the battle of Marathon), and first took part in public affairs in 469, when Athens was beginning to develop rapidly after the Persian wars. From this time till his death in 429 he was the recognised leader of the democratic party. Under his guidance Athens became the most powerful state and the most beautiful city in Greece.
ăvuncŭlus(deminutive ofăvus, a grandfather) is an uncle on the mother’s side—a mother’s brother;pătruus(pā̆ter), an uncle on the father’s side—a father’s brother.
3.puerum docendum curavit, ‘had the boy educated.’ This use of the gerundive in a final sense, as ‘an oblique predicate’ with the direct object of certain transitive verbs, e.g.curo,do,suscipio, etc., is common in Latin writers, especially Caesar. Cf.pontem faciendum curavit, ‘he had a bridge made’;agros eis habitandos dedit, ‘he gave them lands to dwell in’;me dandum ad bestias curavit(xxx.), ‘he had me given to the wild beasts.’ Cf. Notexiii. 1. iv., on the Gerundive.
4.canere tibiis, ‘to play on the pipes.’ Both Greeks and Romans usually played on a double pipe, composed of two instruments not unlike flageolets, joined at the mouth-piece, and spreading out in the form of a V; hence the pluraltibiae.Tibiameans originally the shin bone, and then a musical instrument, pipes or flutes being at first made of bone.
1.C. FabriciusLuscīnus was one of the most popular heroes in Roman history. He was regarded as the type of the old-fashioned honest warrior, who was proof against the luxury and corruption of the rising generation. In his first consulship, 282B.C., he defeated the Lucanians, Bruttians, and Samnites; in 280-278B.C.he served with distinction against Pyrrus (cf.xxvii.).
TheSamniteswere a powerful people living to the east ofRome. The Romans first came into contact with them in 343B.C.; for 50 years there was war between the two nations; at last the Samnites were conquered, but they still maintained their love of freedom, and once more proved formidable opponents to Rome in the Social War, 90B.C.
2.memoratis ... rebus, abl. absolute, ‘after mentioning the many great services which he had rendered (rebus quae bene fecisset) to the Samnites after the restoration of peace....’
3.post redditam pacem.Pax reddita, ‘the restoration of peace.’ Cf.sol oriens, ‘the rising of the sun,’v. 3. note.
4.dono, as a gift, the predicative dative, or dative of purpose used as a complement. Cf. Hor.exitio est avidum mare nautis, ‘the greedy sea is [as] a destruction to sailors.’
11.quâ, abl. afterusus, ‘for which I have no use.’
1.Hannibal, the famous general of the Carthaginians in the second Punic war, was born in 247B.C.In 218 he began his march from Spain into Italy, crossed the Alps, and defeated the Romans in N. Italy on the Ticinus and the Trebia; then followed the great victories at Lake Trasimenus, 217, and Cannae, 216. In 203 Hannibal was compelled to return to Africa to oppose Scipio, who had defeated the Carthaginian troops and their ally Syphax. A decisive battle was fought at Zama, October 19th, 202, in which Scipio gained a great victory over Hannibal. In the following year peace was made. Hannibal now set to work to prepare Carthage for a fresh struggle, but his political enemies denounced his designs to the Romans, and he was compelled in 193B.C.to take refuge at the court ofAntiochusthe Great, King of Syria, who was on the eve of war with Rome. On the defeat of Antiochus the surrender of Hannibal was made one of the conditions of peace; but he fled to Prusias, King of Bithynia, 188B.C.The Romans still pursued him, and sent messengers to Prusias demanding his surrender. Fearing that Prusias would be unable to resist this demand, and not knowing whither to flee to escape the vengeance of his enemies, he took poison, 183B.C.
2.ingentis. The acc. pl. of-inouns of the 3rd decl. varies in the mss. between-īs,-eis, andēs. All three forms seem to have been used till the Augustan age, after which period theform in-esprevailed. A nom. pl. also in-isand-eisis found sometimes in the mss. of Plautus and Lucretius and in old inscriptions.
populo Romano, dat. of the ‘Remoter Object’ afterfacturus, the ‘nearer object’ beingbellum.
4.currus cum falcibus. The wheels of these chariots were armed with projecting scythes or hooks, which kept the enemy at a distance, or cut them down, as the charioteers drove at full speed through their ranks. These war chariots were in use among the Assyrians, Persians, Medes, and Syrians in Asia, and in Europe among the Gauls and Britons. Some have supposed that these are the ‘chariots of iron’ referred to in the books of Joshua and Judges; but Xenophon (Cyrop., vi. i. 30) says that ‘scythe chariots’ were not introduced into Asia Minor till the time of Cyrus.
5.elephantos cum turribus, small turrets placed on the backs of the elephants, and carrying a few soldiers.
6.frenis. The bits were sometimes made of silver and gold, and the bridles decorated with jewels, etc.
ephippiis. The saddles in use among Eastern nations, the Greeks and the Romans, consisted sometimes of a mere skin or cloth, sometimes of a wooden frame, upon which padded cloth, etc., was stretched; from either side cloths hung down, often dyed with bright colours, and decorated with fringes, etc.
monilibus, necklets used as ornaments for horses, as well as for men and women.
phaleris, bosses of metal attached as ornaments to the harness of horses and the armour of men. They were sometimes hung as pendants to the horse’s saddle, and jangled loudly as it charged forward against the enemy. For these military ornaments cf. the well-known passage in Verg.,Aen.vii. 276—
Omnibus extemplo Teucris jubet ordine duciInstratos ostro alipedes pictisque tapetis;Aurea pectoribus demissa monilia pendent;Tecti auro, fulvum mandunt sub dentibus aurum.
Omnibus extemplo Teucris jubet ordine duci
Instratos ostro alipedes pictisque tapetis;
Aurea pectoribus demissa monilia pendent;
Tecti auro, fulvum mandunt sub dentibus aurum.
7.putasne. Cf.ii. 5. note.
8.Poenus(PoenĭcusorPūnĭcus), properly Phoenician, but applied by Roman writers especially to the inhabitants of Carthage, which was founded about 850B.C.by Phoenician colonists, who came probably from Tyre.
1.Milowas the most famous wrestler in Greece; he was six times victor in wrestling at the Olympic games and seven times at the Pythian games. Many stories are told about his great strength: he is said to have carried a heifer four years old on his shoulders through the stadium (or race course, a distance of about 40 yards), to have then killed it with a blow of his fist, and eaten the whole of it the same day. He was a pupil of the great philosopher Pythagoras, at Crotona. One day the pillar on which the roof of the school rested suddenly gave way, but Milo supported the whole weight of the building, and gave the philosopher and his disciples time to escape.
Crotonawas a Greek city on the S.E. coast of Italy, founded 740B.C.by the Achaeans. It became the most important city in S. Italy, owing to its trade with the E. Mediterranean. It attained its greatest power in 510 by the defeat of its neighbour and rival Sybaris: on this occasion Milo commanded the army of Crotona.
Crotoniensis. Note the use of the adj. where we employ a subst. and prep., ‘Milo of Crotona’; sopugna Cannensis(xl. 1.), ‘the Battle of Cannae,’ etc.
3.artem athleticam desisset, ‘had given up athletics.’ The acc. afterdesinois rare, and chiefly poetical; but Cicero (Fam.vii. 1. 4) usesartem desinere.
5.rimis in parte mediâ hiantem, lit. ‘gaping open with cracks in the middle.’
6.an ullae ... adessent.Adessentis the subj. after the dependent interrogative wordan; the construction is called the Indirect or Dependent Question,Interrogatio Obliqua. Thus ‘who are you?’ is ‘quis es?’ but ‘I ask you who you are’ is ‘interrogo quis sis.’
ullae.Quisquam(pronoun) andullus(adjective) are used for ‘any’ in comparative and negative sentences, in questions expecting the answer No, and in hypothetical sentences.
11.rediit in naturam, ‘returned to its natural (i.e.former) position.’
12.feris, dat. afterpraebuit, ‘gave the man to the beasts to tear to pieces.’ For this use of the gerundive cf.xiii. 1. note.
1.Romae, ‘at Rome,’ the locative case. This case, which had almost died out in classical Latin, originally ended in-ifor the singular and-sfor the plural. In some forms it still survived, viz., (1) in such words asmilitiae(earliermilitiai),belli, ‘in the field,’ ‘at the war’;domi, at home;humi, ‘on the ground’;vesperi(or-e), ‘in the evening’;ruri, ‘in the country’;luci, ‘in the light’; and the adverbsubi, ‘in which place’;ibi, ‘in that place,’ etc.; (2) in the names of towns—Romae(earlierRomai), ‘at Rome’;Tarenti, ‘at Tarentum’;Carthagini(orCarthagine), ‘at Carthage,’ etc.; (3) in such phrases asanimi angor, ‘I am vexed in mind’;maturus aevi, ‘advanced in age,’ etc.
Curiam. The word Curia is connected with Cŭres, the chief town of the Sabines, and Quĭrītes (or Cŭrītes), the inhabitants of Cŭres. It originally denoted one of the 30 divisions into which the Romans and Sabines were divided when they united in one community. The word was then applied to the building used for the religious service of a Curia, and afterwards especially to the building in which the Senate met.
2.praetextatis,i.e.wearing thetoga praetexta, a white toga with a broad purple border, worn under the Republic by the higher magistrates, by persons engaged in paying vows, and by free-born children. It is said to have been adopted from the Etruscans, and made the royal robe by Tullus Hostilius; and to have been worn with thebullaby boys after the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, whose son at the age of fourteen slew an enemy with his own hand in the Sabine war, and was allowed as a reward to wear the royal robe.
maior, more important than usual.
4.placuitque ut eam rem ne quis.... ‘It was resolved that no one should mention the matter until a decision had been arrived at’ (lit. until it had been decreed).
ut ... ne quis, orne quis, ‘that no one,’ is always used in a final sentence instead ofut nemo; sone quid,ne ullus, andne unquam, instead ofut nihil,ut nullus,ut nunquam. The indefinite pronounquisis, as a rule, used for ‘any’ or ‘some’ in relative sentences, and aftersi,nisi,num,ne, andcum; butaliquisis sometimes found aftersi, more rarely afterne.
5.decreta esset. The subj. is required, because this is adependent sentence forming part of theOratio Obliquaafterplacuit.
7.egissent, subj. after the dependent interrogativequidnam. Cf.x. 6. note. For the same reasonvideretur, line 11, is in subj.
9.lepidi mendacii consilium capit, ‘bethought himself of an amusing falsehood.’
10.utrum ... unusne ... an.... The-neis ‘pleonastic,’i.e.more than is required, for the sentence would be complete without it—utrum videretur utilius ut unus ... an (videretur utilius) ut una....This idiom is chiefly ante-classical (found often in Plautus), but Cicero uses it, ‘est etiam illa distinctio, utrum illudne non videatur aegre ferendum ... an ...’ (Cic.Tusc.iv. 27, 59). Translate ‘He said the Senate had discussed whether it seemed more useful and advantageous to the State that one man should have two wives, or that one woman should be married to two men.’
3.matrum familias, gen. plur. ofmater familias. Whenfamiliais compounded withpater,mater,filius, andfilia, the old gen. sing.familiasis usually found, butfamiliaealso is frequently used by Cicero and other writers, by Livy always. In Sallust and later writers evenpatres familiarumis found.
4.una potius ... duae. The order isut una (uxor) nupta fieret duobus viris potius quam ut duae (uxores nuptae fierent) uni (viro).
6.esset, vellet, subj. after the dept. interrogativesquaeandquid; soinstitissetanddixisset. Cf.x. 6. note.
quid sibi postulatio istaec vellet, ‘what that demand of theirs meant.’Quid sibi res vult, ‘what does the thing mean?’ lit. ‘what does it wish for itself?’ ‘what is its object or drift?’ soquid tibi vis, ‘what do you mean, or want?’ and, more rarely,quid mihi volo, ‘what do I mean, or want?’
1.Sertoriuswas a Roman general, who first distinguished himself in Gaul. On the outbreak of civil war in 88B.C.between Marius and Sulla he joined the former. At first the Sullan party were victorious, but when their leader went to the Eastto fight against Mitridates they were defeated, and from 87-82 the Marian party were supreme. In 83 (or, according to another writer, 82) Sertorius was sent to Spain as governor in the Marian interest. Finding himself unable to hold his ground against the Sullan generals, he crossed to Africa, and gained various successes there. The Lusitani, who inhabited the western part of the Spanish peninsula, then invited him to become their leader against the Romans. He returned with a small force of 2,600 men, one third of whom were Libyans, and then by his extraordinary influence over the natives, and his great powers of organisation, succeeded in forming an army which for years set at defiance every effort made by the generals of the Sullan party, which was now in the ascendant. In 76 Pompeius was sent to Spain with a large army to reinforce the Sullan generals, but for five years more Sertorius held his ground. At last, in 72B.C., he was assassinated by Perperna and other of his own Roman officers, who were jealous of his power.
et utendi et regendi exercitus, the gerundial attraction. When an object is expressed after a gerund, the construction called the gerundial, orgerundival attractionis preferred. In this construction the object is attracted (if it differs) into the case of the gerund, and the gerund, taking adjectival inflections (and then called the gerundive), is made to agree adjectivally with the object in number and gender.
Examples:—
a.The Acc.,praemisit milites ad Gallos insequendos, ‘he sent the soldiers forward to pursue the Gauls.’b.The Gen.,causâ urbis delendae, ‘for the sake of destroying the city.’c.The Dat.,bello gerendo me praefecistis, ‘you placed me in command of the management of the war.’d.The Abl.,in vestigiis persequendis operam consumpsi, ‘I spent labour in following their tracks.’
a.The Acc.,praemisit milites ad Gallos insequendos, ‘he sent the soldiers forward to pursue the Gauls.’
b.The Gen.,causâ urbis delendae, ‘for the sake of destroying the city.’
c.The Dat.,bello gerendo me praefecistis, ‘you placed me in command of the management of the war.’
d.The Abl.,in vestigiis persequendis operam consumpsi, ‘I spent labour in following their tracks.’
The Gerundival Attraction is of course only used with transitive verbs which govern a direct object in the acc. case. The wordsfungor,fruor,utor,vescor,potiorare exceptions; they are used both in this construction and in the constructions explained in ii. and iii. below, because they were originally transitive, and governed an acc.
Thegerundsandgerundivesare the substantival and adjectival forms respectively of a participle in-ndus. Under thegerund are included the substantival forms in-ndum, -ndi, -ndo; under the gerundive the full adjectival declension in-ndus, a, um, etc.
The uses of the gerund and gerundivemay be divided under four headings.
i. By its oblique cases the gerund (and the gerundive in the construction mentioned above—the ‘gerundival attraction’) completes the active infinite verb noun, which is only used in the nom. and acc.,e.g.haec ad iudicandum sunt facillima, ‘these matters are very easy to decide’;amor agendi, canendi, etc., ‘love of acting, singing,’ etc.;causâ agendi, ‘for the sake of acting’;aqua utilis bibendo, ‘water useful for drinking’;mens alitur discendo, ‘the mind is nourished by learning.’
ii. The nom. (and inoratio obliquathe acc.) of the gerund is used intransitively with parts of the verbsum(est,erat,fuit,esse,etc.), as an impersonal verb to denote necessity, duty, or suitability,e.g.nunc est bibendum, ‘now it is right to drink’,eundum est, ‘there is a necessity to go’;parendum est legibus, ‘it is necessary to be obedient to the laws.’ The person on whom the duty falls is expressed by the dat. case, the ‘Dative of the Agent,’ except after verbs which govern a dative; after these, to avoid ambiguity, the agent is expressed byaorabwith the abl., e.g.eundum est mihi, ‘I must go,’ butparendum est ei a te, ‘you must obey him’.
iii. The gerundive is used (1) personally as a verb, usually with a passive signification, e.g.aqua bibenda est, ‘water ought to be drunk’; (2) as a mere epithet, e.g.ridenda poemata, ‘poems to be laughed at.’
iv. The acc. of the gerundive is used in a final sense as an oblique predicate, or complement, agreeing with the direct object of certain transitive verbs—curo,do,suscipio,habeo, etc., e.g.Caesar pontem faciendum curavit, ‘Caesar had a bridge made’;agros eis habitandos dedit, ‘he gave them the lands to dwell in’ Cf.vii.3. note.
8.usui, predicative dative or dat. of purpose. Cf.dono,viii. 4. note.
memoria, etc. The order ismemoria prodita est neminem ex his nationibus, quae cum S. faciebant(‘who served with Sertorius’),cum multis proeliis superatus esset(‘although he had been defeated in many battles’),unquam ab eo descivisse.
9.neminem.The gen. of this word,neminis, is only found in writers before Cicero, the abl.neminein late writers (e.g.Tacitus and Suetonius), and once in Plautus; the plural is not used. Hence we have
1.alba.Albusis a dull white as opposed toater, dull black;candidus, shining white, opposed toniger, shining black.
eximiae pulchritudinis et celeritatis, genitives of quality.
2.dono, predicative dat., or dat. of purpose. Cf.dono,viii. 4. note.
5.factu, the supine in-u, used as an abl. of respect. Cf.foedum dictu est, ‘it is horrible to state’ (lit. ‘in the saying’), andxxiv. 2,utilia monitu suasuque.
quid, the indef. pron.; socui, line 13. For its use aftersicf.xi. 4. note.
7.dixerat, indic. aftercumin a frequentative sense, ‘whenever he had said that.’ Cf.vi. 8. note.
10.in fugam se proripuit, ‘took to hasty flight.’
18.consuerat, indic., because it is not part of what Sertorius said, but a statement made by the author.
quod opus esset facto, ‘what had to be done.’Factois the abl. of the perf. part. pass.; for this use cf.maturato, properato opus est, ‘there is need of haste’; and the similar construction with the abl. of the supine,dictu opus est(Terence), ‘it is necessary to speak’;quod scitu opus est(Cicero), ‘what has to be known.’
Tarquinius Superbus, according to tradition, was the seventh and last of the Roman kings (535-510B.C.), the others beingRomulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Martius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius.
1.Libris Sibyllinis. Little is known about the famous Sibylline books. They were probably derived from Cumae in Campania, the seat of a celebrated oracle. At Rome they were kept in a stone chest (sacrarium) beneath the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, under the charge of certain officers (quindecimviri), and consulted only by the special command of the Senate. In 82B.C.this temple was burnt and the books destroyed. A fresh collection of oracles was made by ambassadors sent to the chief cities of Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. When the temple was rebuilt these were deposited in the same place, but many spurious prophetic books, purporting to be Sibylline oracles, seem to have got into circulation at Rome, and several revisions of the books were ordered from time to time. Christian writers frequently appeal to the Sibylline oracles as containing prophecies of the Messiah.
2.hospita, feminine form ofhospes. Cf.antistesandsacerdos, priest,antistitaandsacerdota(in inscriptions), priestess,sospesandsospita, saviour, etc.
4.eos velle vendere, ‘(she said) that she wished to sell them.’
6.nimium atque inmensum, 300 pieces of gold, according to one form of the legend.
quasi ... desiperet.Quasi, ‘as if,’ introducing a statement which is not a fact, naturally governs the subj., ‘as if she were mad’ (but she was not). In sentences of comparison introduced by such conjunctions astanquam,ceu,quasi,velut, etc., the subj. is usually found, because the statement is usually not true; but when the statement is a fact the indic. is employed, e.g.Fuit olim, quasi nunc ego sum, senex(Plautus). Frequentlyquasi, etc., are used, not as conjunctions introducing the sentence, but adverbially with a single word; in such cases they do not affect the mood, e.g.servis respublica et quasi civitas domus est(Pl. Ep.viii. 16), ‘to slaves their home is a state, and, as it were, a city.’ Cf.xviii. 5,quasi consultans cum Jove.
7.foculum.Fŏcŭlus, deminutiveoffŏcus(a hearth). Cf.rĭvŭlus, a rivulet, andrivus, a river.
9.vellet, subj. after the dependent interrogativeecquid. Cf.x. 6. note.