The succession of two clauses both containing _quidem_ seems awkward, but occurs in Fin. 5, 80 and elsewhere. -- HONESTUM SIT: 'does him honor'. -- UT ANTE DIXI: in 26, where see the notes. -- POTEST ESSE: Meissner (n. on 27) says that Cicero's rule is to say _potest esse, debet esse_ and the like, not _esse potest_ and the like. It is true that _esse_ in such cases is very seldom separated from the word on which it depends, but _esse potest_ is just as common as _potest esse_; the difference to the sense is one of emphasis only, the _esse_ having more emphasis thrown on it in the latter case. 51. MIHI ... VIDENTUR: see Introd. -- HABENT RATIONEM CUM 'they have their reckonings with', 'their dealings with'; a phrase of book-keeping. -- IMPERIUM: so Verg. Georg. 1, 99 _exercetque frequens tellurem atque imperat agris_; ib. 2, 369 _dura exerce imperia et ramos compesce fluentes_; Tac. Germ. 26 _sola terrae seges imperatur._ -- SED ALIAS ... FAENORE: put for _sed semper cum faenore, alias minore, plerumque maiore_. -- VIS AC NATURA: 'powers and constitution'. These two words are very often used by Cic. together, as in Fin. 1, 50 _vis ac natura rerum_. -- GREMIO: so Lucret. 1, 250 _pereunt imbres ubi eos pater aether In gremium matris terrai praecipitavit_, imitated by Verg. Georg. 2, 325. -- MOLLITO AC SUBACTO: _i.e._ by the plough. _Subigere_, 'subdue', is a technical word of agriculture; so Verg. Georg. 2, 50 _scrobibus subactis_; see also below, 59. P. 22. -- OCCAECATUM: 'hidden'. _Caecus_ has the sense of 'unseen' as well as that of 'unseeing' or 'blind'. -- OCCATIO: Cicero's derivation, as well as Varro's (De Re Rust. 1, 31, 1) from _occidere_, because the earth is cut up, is unsound. _Occa_ is _rastrum_, probably from its _sharp_ points (root _ak-_); _occatio_ therefore is 'harrowing'. -- VAPORE: 'heat'. This word has not in the best Latin the meaning of our 'vapor'. -- COMPRESSU: a word found only here in Cicero's writings and elsewhere in Latin only in the ablative case, like so many other nouns whose stem ends in _-u_. -- DIFFUNDIT ET ELICIT: 'expands and lures forth'. -- HERBESCENTEM: this word occurs nowhere else in Latin. -- NIXA: A. 254, _b_; G. 403, Rem. 3; H. 425, 1, 1), n. -- FIBRIS STIRPIUM: so Tusc. 3, 13 _radicum fibras_. -- GENICULATO: 'knotted'. The verb _geniculo_, from _genu_, scarcely occurs excepting in the passive participle, which is always used, as here, of plants. So Plin. Nat. Hist. 16, 158 _geniculata cetera gracilitas nodisque distincta_, speaking of the _harundo_. -- SPICI: besides _spica_, the forms _spicum_ and _spicus_ are occasionally found. _Spici_ here is explanatory _frugem_. -- VALLO: for the metaphor compare N.D. 2, 143 _munitae sunt palpebrae tamquam vallo pilorum_; Lucr. 2, 537.