28. ORATOR: emphatic position. -- SENECTUTE: causal ablative; not 'in age', but 'owing to age'. -- OMNINO -- SED TAMEN: 'no doubt -- but still'. _Omnino_ (literally, 'altogether') has two almost exactly opposite uses -- (1) the affirmative, cf. 9; (2) the concessive, which we have here and in 45. The circumstance which is contrasted with the admitted circumstance is usually introduced by _sed tamen_ or _sed_ as in 45, but in Lael. 98 by the less emphatic _autem_, while in Lael. 69 there is no introductory particle. -- CANORUM ... SENECTUTE: _canorum_ implies the combination of power with clearness in a voice. For the mixture of metaphors in _canorum splendescit_ edd. quote Soph. Phil. 189 αχω τηλεφανης; Cic. De Or. 2, 60 _illorum tactu orationem meam quasi colorari_. -- NESCIO QUO PACTO: literally, 'I know not on what terms'; quite interchangeable with _nescio quo modo_; cf. 82. A. 334, _e_; G. 469, Rem. 2; H. 529, 5, 3). -- ADHUC NON: purposely put for _nondum_, because more emphasis is thus thrown both on the time-word and on the negation. The common view that _nondum_ was avoided because it would have implied that Cato _expected_ to lose the _canorum_ is certainly wrong. -- ET VIDETIS: 'though you see my years'. The adversative use of _et_ for _autem_ or _tamen_ after the negative is not very uncommon in Cicero, but there are few examples of the usage in the speeches. Cf. Lael. 26 _et quidquid_; so sometimes _que_ as above, 13; also Lael. 30 _ut nullo egeat suaque omnia in se posita iudicet_. -- SENI: Madvig's em. for _senis_. In Leg. 1, 11 allusion is made to the great change which advancing years had wrought in Cicero's own impassioned oratory. He was no doubt thinking of that change when he wrote the words we have here. -- SERMO: 'style of speaking'; a word of wider meaning than _oratio_, which only denotes public speaking. -- QUIETUS ET REMISSUS: 'subdued and gentle'. The metaphor in _remissus_ (which occurs also in 81) refers to the loosening of a tight-stretched string; cf. _intentum_ etc. in 37 with n. With the whole passage cf. Plin. Ep. 3, 1, 2 _nam iuvenes confusa adhuc quaedam et quasi turbata non indecent; senibus placida omnia et ordinata conveniunt_. -- FACIT AUDIENTIAM: 'procures of itself a hearing for it'. In the words _per se ipsa_ there is no doubt an allusion to the custom at large meetings in ancient times whereby the _praeco_ or κηρυξ called on the people to listen to the speakers. Cf. Liv. 43, 16, 8 _praeconem audientiam facere iussit_. Note that this is the only classical use of the word _audientia_; it has not the meaning of our 'audience' either in the sense of a body of listeners, or as used in the expression 'to give audience'. -- COMPOSITA ET MITIS: 'unimpassioned and smooth'. Cf. Quintil. 6, 2, 9 _affectus igitur hos concitatos, illos mitis atque compositos esse dixerunt_. -- QUAM ... NEQUEAS: 'and if you cannot practise oratory yourself'. Evidently _quam_