24. AGE: a common form of transition to a new subject; brief for _'hoc age'_, 'do this', _i.e._ 'attend to this that I am going to say'. The common use of αγε in Greek is exactly similar. -- UT ... OMITTAMUS: Cf. n. on 52 _ut_. -- POSSUM NOMINARE: 'I am able to name'; in colloquial English 'I _might_ name'. The Latins occasionally use also a hypothetical form, where _possim_ or _possem_ stands in the apodosis of a conditional sentence, the protasis of which is not expressed; but the missing protasis is generally easily supplied and was distinctly present to the writer's mind. _E.g._ in Tusc. 1, 88 we have _dici hoc in te non potest; posset in Tarquinio; at in mortuo ne intellegi quidem (potest)_, where the reason for the change from _potest_ to _posset_ is quite evident. In translating from English into Latin it is far safer to use the indicative. Cf. 55 _possum persequi_. A. 311, _c_; G. 599, Rem. 3; H. 511, 1, n. 3, 476, 4. -- EX AGRO ... ROMANOS: 'country-bred Romans (_i.e._ Roman citizens) belonging to the Sabine district'. The words _ex agro Sabino_ form an attributive phrase qualifying _Romanos_ just as _rusticos_ does. -- NUMQUAM FERE: 'scarcely ever'. -- MAIORA OPERA: 'farm work of any importance'. This use of _opera_ is common in Vergil's Georgics. -- NON: the repetition of the negative after _numquam_ is common in Latin; in English _never ... not_ is found in dialects only. Cf. Lael. 48 _non tantum ... non plus quam_. -- SERENDIS: ablative of respect, 'as regards sowing'. See Roby 1210; Kennedy, 149. -- PERCIPIENDIS: so 70; cf. N.D. 2, 156 _neque enim serendi neque colendi, nec tempestive demetendi percipiendi que fructus, neque condendi nec reponendi ulla pecudum scientia est_. -- IN ALIIS: see n. on 3 _ceteris_. Notice the proleptic use. -- IDEM: a better form of the plural than _iidem_, commonly found in our texts. For the use here cf. n. on 4 _eandem_. -- PERTINERE: present for future. -- SENT ... PROSINT: the line is given as Ribbeck prints it. He scans it as a '_bacchius_', consisting of four feet, with the measurement | v - - |, the last syllable of _saeclo_ seeming to be shortened. Cicero quotes the same line in Tusc. 1, 31 adding _ut ait (Statius) in Synephebis, quid spectans nisi etiam postera saecla ad se pertinere? Saeclo_ = 'generation'. For mood of _prosint_ see A 317; G. 632, H. 497, I. -- STATIUS NOSTER: 'our fellow-countryman Statius'. So Arch. 22 _Ennius noster_. Caecilius Statius, born among the Insubres, wrote Latin comedies which were largely borrowed from the Greek of Menander. The original of the _Synephebi_ was Menander's Συνε φηβοι 'young comrades'. See Sellar, Rom. Poets of the Rep., Ch. 7.