[270] As if the parent stock were exhausted--_Sicuti effoeta parentum_. This is the reading of Cortius, which he endeavors to explain thus: "Ac sicuti _effoeta parens_, inter parentes, _sese habere solet_, ut nullos amplius liberas proferat, sic Roma sese habuit, ubi multis tempestatibus nemo virtute magnus fuit." "_Est_," he adds, "or _solet esse_, or _sese habere solet_, may very well be understood from the _fuit_ which follows." But all this only serves to show what a critic may find to say in defense of a reading to which he is determined to adhere. All the MSS., indeed, have _parentum_, except one, which has _parente_. Dietsch thinks that some word has been lost between _effoeta_ and _parentum_, and proposes to read _sicuti effoetá aetate parentum, with the sense, _as if the age of the parents were too much exhausted to produce strong children_. Kritzius, from a suggestion of Cortius (or rather of his predecessor, Rupertus), reads _effoetae parentum_ (the effoetae agreeing with Romae which follows), considering the sense to be the same as as _effoetae parentis_--as _divina dearum_ for _divina dea_, etc. Gerlach retains the rending of Cortius, and adopts his explanation (4to. ed., 1827), but says that the _explicatio_ may seem _durior_, and that it is doubtful whether we ought not to have recourse to the _effoeta parente_ of the old critics. Assuredly if we retain _parentum_, _effoetae_ is the only reading that we can well put with it. We may compare with it _loca nuda gignentium_, (Jug. c. 79), i.e. "places bare of objects producing any thing." Gronovius know not what to do with the passage, called it _locus intellectus nemini_, and at last decided on understanding _virtute_ with _effoetae parentum_, which, _pace tarti viri_, and although Allen has followed him, is little better than folly. The concurrence of the majority of manuscripts in giving _parentum_ makes the scholar unwilling to set it aside. However, as no one has explained it satisfactorily even to himself, I have thought it better, with Dietsch, to regard it a _scriptura non ferenda_, and to acquiesce, with Glareanus, Rivius, Burnouf, and the Bipont edition, in the reading _effoetâ parente_. [271] LIV. Though attained by different means--_Sed alia alii_. "Alii alia _gloria_," for _altera alteri_. So Livy, i. 21: _Duo reges_, alius alia via. [272] Simplicity--_Pudore_. The word here seems to mean the absence of display and ostentation. [273] With the temperate--_Cum innocente_. "That is _cum integro et abstinente_. For _innocentia_ is used for _abstinentia_, and opposed to _avaritia_. See Cic. pro Lego Manil., c. 13." _Burnouf_. [274] LV. The triumvirs--_Triumviros_. The _triumviri capitales_, who had the charge of the prison and of the punishment of the condemned. They performed their office by deputy, Val. Max., v. 4. 7.