_Defendere causam_ here is simply to act as counsel in a case, whether the client be defendant or plaintiff. So in Lael. 96 and often. -- NUNC CUM MAXIME: 'now more than ever', νυν μαλιστα. The phrase is elliptic; in full it would be '_cum maxime conficio orationes, nunc conficio_', 'when I most of all compose speeches, I now compose them'; _i.e._ 'the time when I most of all compose is now'. The words _cum maxime_ generally follow _tum_ or _nunc_ and add emphasis to those words, but are sometimes used alone to express the ideas 'then' and 'now' more emphatically than _tum_ and _nunc_ would. Cf. Ver. 4, 82; Tac. Ann. 4, 27. The orators were in the habit of working over their speeches carefully for publication and preservation. -- IUS AUGURIUM etc.: 'the law pertaining to the augurs and pontifices'; _i.e._ the principles applied by them in the performance of their duties. The pontifices had the general oversight of religious observances. See Dict. of Antiq. -- CIVILE: the meaning of _ius civile_ varies according to the context. Here it is the secular law as opposed to the sacred law, as in 50; sometimes it is the whole body of Roman law as opposed to the law of other states; often, again, it is the older portion of the Roman law as opposed to the newer or 'equity' portion. -- COMMEMORO: 'I say over to myself'. In Cicero _commemoro_ is a verb of speaking, and never has the meaning of _recordor_ or _memini_. -- CURRICULA: see nn. on 33. -- MAGNO OPERE: better so written than in one word _magnopere_; so _maximo, minimo, nimio opere_. -- ADSUM AMICIS: 'I act as counsel to my friends'. This legal sense of _adesse_ is common. -- FREQUENS: literally the word means 'crowded' (connected with _farcire_ 'to cram' or 'to crowd together'), hence _frequens senatus_ and the like phrases. Then _frequens_ comes to be used of actions or events that often recur; _e.g._ Orat. 15 _Demosthenes frequens Platonis auditor_; De Or. 1, 243 _frequens te audivi_. On the use of the adj. here see A. 191; G. 324, Rem. 6; H. 443. -- ULTRO: 'unasked', 'of my own motion', a reference to the well-known story that, whatever subject was discussed, Cato gave as his opinion '_delenda est Carthago_'. See Introd. -- TUEOR: 'advocate', 'support'. -- LECTULUS: a couch usually stood in the Roman study, on which the student reclined while reading, composing or dictating, or even writing. Cf. De Or. 3, 17, _in eam exedram venisse in qua Crassus lectulo posito recubuisset, cumque eum in cogitatione defixum esse sensisset, statim recessisse ..._; Suet. Aug. 78 _lecticula lucubratoria_. -- EA IPSA COGITANTEM: = _de eis ipsis cog._: so Acad. 2, 127 _cogitantes supera atque caelestia_, and often. -- ACTA VITA: 'the life I have led'; cf. 62 _honeste acta superior aetas_; so Tusc. 1, 109; Fam. 4, 13, 4. -- VIVENTI: dative of reference. A. 235; G. 354; H. 384, 4, n. 3. 'As regards one who lives amid these pursuits and tasks'. -- ITA SENSIM etc.: _sensim