[174] Formal defense--_Defensionem._ Opposed to _satisfactionem_, which follows, and which means a private apology or explanation. "_Defensio_, a defense, was properly a statement or speech to be made against an adversary, or before judges; _satisfactio_ was rather an excuse or apology made to a friend, or any other person, in a private communication." _Cortius._ [175] Though conscious of no guilt--_Ex nullâ conscientiâ de culpâ_. This phrase is explained by Cortius as equivalent to "Propter conscientam denullâ culpâ," or "inasmuch as I am conscious of no fault." "_De culpâ_, he adds, is the same as _culpae_; so in the ii. Epist. to Caesar, c. 1: Neque _de futuro_ quisquam satix callidus; and c. 9: _de illis_ potissimum jactura fit." [176] To make no formal defense--to offer you some explanation --_Defensionem--parare; satisfactionem--proponere_. "Parare," says Cortius, "is applied to a defense which might require some study and premeditation; _proponere_ to such a statement as it was easy to make at once". [177] On my word of honor--_Me dius fidius_, sc. juvet. So may the god of faith help me, as I speak truth. But who is the god of faith? _Dius_, say some, is the same as _Deus_ (Plautus has _Deus_ fidius, Asin i. 1, 18); and the god here meant is probably Jupiter (_sub dio_ being equivalent to _sub Jove_); so that _Dius fidius_ (_fidius_ being an adjective from _fides_) will be the [Greek: _Zeus pistios_] of the Greeks. "_Me dius fidius_" will therefore be, "May Jupiter help me!" This is the mode of explication adopted by Gerlach, Bernouf, and Dietsch. Others, with Festus (sub voce _Medius fidius_) make _fidius_ equivalent to _filius_, because the ancients, according to Festus, often used D for L, and _dius fidius_ will then be the same as [Greek: _Dios_] or Jovis filius, or Hercules, and _medius fidius_ will be the same as _mehercules_ or _mehercule_. Varro de L. L. (v. 10, ed. Sprengel) mentions a certain Aelius who was of this opinion. Against this derivation there is the quantity of _fidius_, of which the first syllable is short: _Quaerebam Nonas Sanco fidone referrem_, Ov. Fast. vi. 213. But if we consider _dius_ the same as _deus_, we may as well consider _dius fidius_ to be the god Hercules as the god Jupiter, and may thus make _medius fidius_ identical with _mehercules_, as it probably is. "Tertullian, de Idol. 20, says that _medius fidius_ is a form of swearing by Hercules." Schiller's Lex. sub _Fidius_. This point will be made tolerably clear if we consider (with Varro, v. 10, and Ovid, _loc. cit._) Dius Fidius to be the same with the Sabine Sancus, or Semo Sancus, and Semo Sancus to be the same with Hercules. [178] You may receive as true--_Veram licet cognoscas_. Some editions, before that of Cortius, have _quae--licet vera mecum recognoscas_; which was adopted from a quotation of Servius ad Aen. iv. 204. But twenty of the best MSS., according to Certius, have _veram licet cognoscas_.