Cato Maior de Senectute with Introduction and NotesCicero, Marcus Tullius
Philosophy
Cato Maior de Senectute with Introduction and Notes
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Old age -- Early works to 1800
42. EFFICERET: _efficeret, liberet_, and _oporteret_ can be properly
rendered into English only by the present tense. Although these verbs
express circumstances which _continue_, since the general effect of old age
is being described, they are thrown into the past to suit the past tense
_dicebam_ or _dixi_ which, though not expressed, is really the principal
verb. Cf. below, 62, 78. -- CONSILIUM: 'deliberation'.
P. 18. -- UT ITA DICAM: this softens the metaphor, as _quasi_ or _quasi
quidam_ often does, and as ‛οιον, ‛ωσπερ do in Greek [but not ‛ως επος
ειπειν, which is often wrongly said to be the equivalent of _ut ita dicam_;
see n. on Lael. 2]. The phrase _mentis_ or _animi aciem praestringere_
often occurs without anything to soften the metaphor; _e.g._ Fin. 4, 37. --
NEC HABET etc: 'and has no relations with virtue'. The use of _commercium_
in the metaphorical sense is common. -- INVITUS: see ref. on 38 _frequens_.
-- FECI UT: a periphrasis not unusual. A. 332, _e_; G. 557; H. 498, II. n.
2. -- T. FLAMININI: see n. on 1, l. 1. -- L. FLAMININUM: as prætor he
commanded the fleet under his brother Titus during the Macedonian war; in
192 B.C. he was consul. _Septem annis_ denotes seven _complete_ years (cf.
n. on 19), as Cato was censor in 184. A reference to Livy 39, 43, 2 will
show that Cicero borrows his account of Flamininus' crime from the old
annalist Valerius Antias. Livy also quotes (39, 42, 7) an account of the
matter given by Cato himself in a speech, which is even more disgraceful to
Flamininus. -- EICEREM: the phrase commonly used is not _eicere_, but
_movere, aliquem senatu. Notare_ and _nota (censoria)_ are technically used
of degradation or disfranchisement inflicted by the censors. For the
spelling see Roby, 144, 2; A. 10, _d_; H. 36, 4 and footnote 1. -- FUISSET:
for the mood see A. 342; G. 666; H. 529, II. and n. 1, 1); for the tense
see Roby, 1491; A. 324, _a_; G. 233, 2; H. 471, 4. -- CUM ... GALLIA: not
'when he was consul in Gaul' but 'when he was in Gaul during his
consulship'. _Cum_ with the imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive often has a
sense differing very little from that of _cum_ with the imperfect or
pluperfect indicative. No doubt when the usage originally arose, the clause
with _cum_ was regarded as expressing the _cause_ of the action or event
denoted by the principal verb; here the presence of F. in Gaul might be
regarded as _a cause_ of the crime. It is more than doubtful, however,
whether in actual use the subjunctive in these phrases continued to carry
with it to Latin readers any idea of cause. See Roby, 1720, Kennedy, 211;
also A. 325, 323 and footnote 1; G. 586 with Rem.; H. 521, II. 2 and
footnote 1. -- EXORATUS EST: 'was persuaded'; cf. Liv. 39, 43. -- SECURI
FERIRET: the story was that L. Flamininus himself acted as executioner. --
EORUM QUI ... ESSENT: the subjunctive because of the class-notion, 'of such
persons as were'. -- TITO CENSORE: _i.e._ in 189 B.C.; see n. on 1. --
FLACCO: L.
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