In all kinds of iambic verse the old Romans freely introduced spondees where the Greeks used iambi; so in hexameters spondees for dactyls. Cf. Hor. Ep. ad Pis. 254 _et seq._ -- CEDO: = _dic_; from _ce_, the enclitic particle involved in _hic = (hi-ce)_ etc. and _da_, the root of _do_. So _cette = ce-d[)a]te = cedte_, then _cette_ by assimilation of _d_ to _t_. The original meaning would thus be 'give here', and in this sense the word is often used. See Lex. _Dare_ is commonly put for _dicere_, as _accipere_ is for _audire_. -- QUI: 'how'. -- TANTAM: = οτσαυτην ουσαν. -- NAEVI: Naevius lived about 264-194 B.C. His great work was a history of the First Punic War written in Saturnian verse, the rude indigenous metre of early Roman poetry. He wrote also plays,--tragedies and comedies, both _palliatae_ and _praetextae_. For an account of him see Cruttwell, History of Roman Literature; also, Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, Ch. 3. If _Ludo_ be read, it may be either from the Latin _ludus_ (Naevius entitled a comedy _Ludius_) or from Λυδος, Lydian. -- POETAE: Naevius seems to have been in the habit of adding _poeta_ to his name. It appears in the well-known epitaph said to have been written by himself, also in the lines written against him by the family poet of the Metelli: '_malum dabunt Metelli Naevio poetae_'. The name _poeta_ was new in Naevius' time and was just displacing the old Latin name _vates_; see Munro on Lucr. 1, 102. -- PROVENIEBANT etc.: the same metre as above, divided thus by Lahmeyer: -- _provéni | ebant | orát | ores || noví | stultí adu | lescén / iuli_. The whole line has the look of being translated from the Greek: προυβαινον (εις το βημα) ‛ρητορες κανοι τινες, μειρακια γελοια. Lr. takes _provenire_ in the sense of 'to grow up', comparing Plin. Ep. 1, 13, 1 _magnum proventum_ ('crop') _poetarum annus hic attulit_; Sall. Cat. 8, 3 _provenere ibi scriptorum magna ingenia_. -- VIDELICET: 'you see'.