Voconia de mulierum hereditatibus_ aimed at securing the continuance of property in families. By its provisions no man who possessed property valued in the censors' lists at 100,000 sesterces or more, could appoint a woman or women as his _heres_ or _heredes_; further, no person or persons, male or female, could receive under the will legacies amounting in all to a larger sum than that received by the principal heir or heirs. Every Roman will named a _heres_ or _heredes_, on whom devolved all the privileges and duties of the deceased, with such duties as were enjoined by the will; particularly the duty of paying the legacies left to those who were not _heredes_. See Maine, Ancient Law, Ch. 6; also Hunter, Introd. to Roman Law, Ch. 5. -- MAGNA: in Latin the word _magnus_ is the only equivalent of our 'loud'. -- LATERIBUS: 'lungs'. Cic. and the best writers rarely use _pulmones_ for 'lungs'; the few passages in which it occurs either refer to victims sacrificed at the altar, or are medical or physiological descriptions. 'Good lungs' is always '_bona latera_' never _pulmones_. -- DUO ... SENECTUTEM: Ennius is said to have kept a school in his later days, and to have lived in a cottage with one servant only. 15. ETENIM: this word generally introduces either an explanation or a proof of a preceding statement. Here the words are elliptic, and the real connection with what precedes can only be made clear by a paraphrase. 'Ennius seemed to delight in old age. And no wonder, since there are four causes which make men think old age wretched, and no one of these will bear examination'. _Etenim_ may generally be translated 'indeed', or 'in fact'. -- CUM COMPLECTOR ANIMO: 'when I grasp them in my thoughts'. The object of _complector_ is to be supplied from _causas_. -- AVOCET: _sc. senes_. The subjunctives denote that these are the thoughts not of the speaker, but of the persons who do think old age a wretched thing. See n. on 3 _ferat_; but cf. Kennedy, Grammar, pref., p. 30. -- ALTERAM ... TERTIAM: in enumerations of more than two things _unus and alter_ generally take the place of _primus_, and _secundus_: in Cic. these latter rarely occur under such circumstances. Cf. Att. 3, 15, 1; Fin. 5, 9; Off. 1, 152; Cluent. 178. -- INFIRMIUS: _sc. auam antea erat_. -- QUAM SIT IUSTA: Cicero generally separates from the words they qualify _quam_, _tam_, _ita_, _tantus_, _quantus_, often, as here, by one small word. Cf. below, 35 _quam fuit imbecillus_; 40 _tam esse inimicum_. -- QUIBUS: the preposition _a_ is often omitted; cf. in Pis. 91 _Arsinoen ... Naupactum fateris ab hostibus esse captas. Quibus hostibus? Nempe eis_ etc.; Tusc. 3, 37 _sed traducis cogitationes meas ad voluptates. Quas?_ Even when relative and antecedent are in the same sentence the preposition is not often repeated; _e.g._ Fin. 5, 68 _eodem in genere quo illa_. -- AN EIS: _an_ always introduces a question which is not independent, but follows upon a previous question