50. ACUTIS: requiring keenness of intellect. -- NAEVIUS: see n. on 20. -- TRUCULENTO ... PSEUDOLO: these plays of Plautus (lived from 254 to 184 B.C.) we still possess. The Truculentus is so named from one of the characters, a slave of savage disposition who is wheedled; the Pseudolus from a cheating slave. The latter name is commonly supposed to be a transcription from a Greek word ψευδυλος, which however nowhere occurs; and as the change from Greek υ to Latin _o_ is not found before _l_, Corssen assumes ψευδαλος as the original word. The form _Pseudulus_ of the name is probably later than _Pseudolus_. -- LIVIUM: Livius Andronicus, the founder of Latin literature (lived from about 285 to 204 B.C.), who translated the Odyssey, also many Greek tragedies. Livius was a Greek captured by Livius Salinator at Tarentum in 275 B.C.; for a time he was the slave of Livius, and, according to custom, took his name when set free. For an account of his writings see Cruttwell's Hist. of Roman Literature, Ch. 3; Sellar, Roman Poets of the Rep., Ch. 3. -- DOCUISSET: 'had brought on to the stage'. _Docere_ (like διδασκειν in Greek, which has the same use) meant originally to instruct the performers in the play. -- CENTONE TUDITANOQUE CONSULIBUS: _i.e._ in 240 B.C. The use of _que_ here is noticeable; when a date is given by reference to the consuls of the year it is usual to insert _et_ (not _que_ or _atque_, which rarely occur) between the two names, if only the _cognomina_ (as here) be given. If the full names be given, then they are put side by side without _et_. Cf. n. on 10. -- CRASSI: see n. on 27. -- PONTIFICI ET CIVILIS IURIS: the _ius pontificium_ regarded mainly the proper modes of conducting religious ceremonial. _Ius civile_, which is often used to denote the whole body of Roman Law, here includes only the secular portion of that Law. Cf. n. on 38. -- HUIUS P. SCIPIONIS: 'the present P. Scipio'. So in 14 _hi consules_ 'the present consuls'; Rep. 1, 14 _Africanus hic, Pauli filius_, and often. The P. Scipio who is meant here is not Africanus, but Nasica Corculum. -- FLAGRANTIS: 'all aglow'; so _ardere studio_ in Acad. 2, 65. -- SENES: = _cum senes essent_, so _senem_ below. -- SUADAE MEDULLAM: 'the essence (lit. marrow) of persuasiveness'. The lines of Ennius are preserved by Cicero, Brut. 58. _Suada_ is a translation of πειθω, which the Greek rhetoricians declared to be the end and aim of oratory. This Cethegus was consul in 204 and in 203 defeated Mago in the N. of Italy. -- EXERCERI: here reflexive in meaning. A. 111, n. 1; G. 209; H. 465. -- VIDEBAMUS: see n. on 49. -- COMPARANDAE: for the idea of _possibility_ which the gerundive sometimes has (but only in negative sentences or interrogative sentences implying a negative answer, and in conditional clauses) see Madvig, 420, Obs.; Roby, 1403. -- HAEC QUIDEM: a short summary of the preceding arguments, preparatory to a transition to a new subject, introduced by _venio nunc ad_.