P. 9. -- NOVEM ANNIS: as Cato's consulship was in 195 these words also apparently disagree with _tertius_ above. _Novem annis post_ means nine _full_ years after, _i.e._ 185 not 186; cf. 42 _septem annis post_. -- ENIM: implies that the answer 'no' has been given to the question and proceeds to account for that answer. -- EXCURSIONE: a military term = 'skirmishing'; Cf. Div. 2, 26 _prima orationis excursio_. -- HASTIS: loosely used for _pilis_. The long old Roman _hasta_, whence the name _hastati_, had long before Cato's time been discarded for the _pilum_ or short javelin, which was thrown at the enemy from a distance before the troops closed and used the sword. -- CONSILIUM: the repetition of consilium in a different sense from that which it had in the sentence before seems to us awkward; but many such repetitions are found in Cicero. _Consilium_ corresponds to both 'counsel' and 'council'; the senate was originally _regium consilium_, the king's body of advisers. Here translate _summum consilium_ 'the supreme deliberative body'. -- SENATUM: 'assembly of elders'. Cf. 56 _senatores, id est senes_. _Senatus_ implies a lost verb _sen[=a]-re_, to be or grow old from the stem of which both _sen[=a]-tus_ and _sen[=a]-tor_ are derived. This stem again implies a lost noun or adjective _senus_, old. The word _senatus_ was collective, like _comitatus_, a body of companions, _exercitus_, a trained band etc. 20. AMPLISSIMUM: 'most honorable'. -- UT SUNT ... SENES: the Spartan γερουσια, as it is commonly called, consisted of 28 members, all over 60 years of age. Herodotus uses the term γεροντες (_senes_) for this assembly; Xenophon γεροντια. In the Laconian dialect γερωια was its name; we also find γεροντευειν 'to be a senator'. For _ut ... sic_ cf. Academ. 2, 14, _similiter vos cum perturbare, ut illi rem publicam_, _sic vos philosophiam velitis_; also Lael. 19. -- AUDIRE: like ακουω, used especially of historical matters, since instruction in them was almost entirely oral. Cf. ανηκοος = 'ignorant of history'. -- VOLETIS: see note on 7 _faciam ut potero_; cf. Roby, 1464, _a_; Madvig, 339, Obs. 1; A. 278, _b_; G. 234, Rem. 1; H. 470, 2. -- ADULESCENTIBUS: Cic., when he wrote this, was possibly thinking of Athens and Alcibiades. -- LABEFACTATAS: the verb _labefacio_ is foreign to good prose, in which _labefacto_ is used. -- SUSTENTATAS: Cic. does not use _sustentus_. In Mur. 3 _sustinenda_ is followed by _sustentata_ in the same sentence. -- CEDO ... CITO: the line is of the kind called tetrameter iambic acatalectic (or octonarius), and is scanned thus: -- v v -' | - - | - -' | v - || - -' | - - | - -' | v -.