τοις ετεσι ενενηκοντα και τετταρσιν, ‛ων εγω τυγχανω γεγονως. -- VIXITQUE: 'and yet he lived'. The _que_ here has a slight adversative force, as is often the case with _et_. Cf. n. on 28, 43, 73. -- GORGIAS: the greatest of the sophists, born at Leontini in Sicily about 485 B.C.; his death took place, according to the varying accounts, in 380, 378, or 377. In his old age he lived in Thessaly where Isocrates studied with him; see Or. 176; Fin. 2, 1. For the adjective _Leontinus_ placed before the name rather than after cf. 43 _Thessalo Cinea_. -- CENTUM ET SEPTEM ANNOS: Kennedy, Gram., § 34, vii, _c_, says, 'in compound numbers above 100 the larger number, with or without _et_, generally precedes the smaller'; cf. Roby, Vol. 1 p. 443. -- CESSO: does not correspond in meaning with our 'cease', _i.e._ '_to come to_ a standstill'; _cesso_ is 'I am in a state of rest', 'I am idle'. -- QUAERERETUR: the past tense, though the principal verb _inquit_, is in the present, because the present is the _historical_ present and so equivalent to a past tense. Cf. Roby, 1511-1514; Kennedy 229, 2. A. 287, _e_; G. 511, Rem. 1; H. 495, II. The idiom by which the imperfect stands where we should expect a tense of completed action, should be noticed; cf. Tusc. 2, 60 _quem cum rogaret, respondit._ The explanation of the imperfect in such cases is that it marks out, more clearly than the pluperfect would, the fact that the action of the principal verb and the action of the dependent verb are practically contemporaneous. In our passage if _quaesitum esset_ had been written it would have indicated merely that at some quite indefinite time after the question was put the answer was given. Cf. N.D. 1, 60 _auctore ... obscurior_. -- CUR ... VITA: a hint at suicide, which the ancients thought a justifiable mode of escape from troubles, particularly those of ill health or old age. See n. on 73 _vetat Pythagoras. Esse in vita_ is stronger than _vivere_; cf. Qu. Fr. 1, 3, 5. -- NIHIL HABEO QUOD ACCUSEM: 'I have no reason to reproach'. Cf. the common phrase _quid est quod ...? Quod_, adverbial acc. A. 240, _a_; G. 331, R. 3; H. 378, 2. For mood of _accusem_ see H. 503, I. n. 2, and references on 12 _discerem_. -- PRAECLARUM RESPONSUM: _est_ is not required, because _responsum_ is in apposition to the last part of the preceding sentence. Similar appositions occur in Laelius, 67, 71, 79. -- DOCTO: applied especially to philosophers, but also to poets. The word implies _cultivation_ as well as mere _knowledge_; 'a learned man', merely as such, is '_homo litteratus_'; cf. n. on 54.