[Linenotes:
1-2. +bellum ultro intulisset+ = _had begun an aggressive_ (+ultro+)
_war_.
+ultro+ = lit. _to a place beyond_, hence = _beyond expectation_,
_unprovoked_.
2. +de imperio+ = _uter imperaret_. --Holden.
3. +perfuga+ = _a deserter_. Aulus Gellius says the traitor was
Nicias, a friend of Pyrrhus; Florus and Eutropius, a physician of
Pyrrhus.
8. +atqui+ = _and yet_, a more emphatic +at+.
8-9. +speciem utilitatis opinionemque+ (sc. +utilitatis+) = _the
semblance and (popular) opinion of expediency_. --H.
11-13. +sed magnum ... superatum+ = _but it would have been a
lasting disgrace and scandal for a general, with whom the struggle
lay for glory, to have been overcome by an act of wickedness and not
by valour_. --H.
14. +Aristides Athenis.+ Aristides the Just. ‘Sans Peur et sans
Reproche.’
19. +quoquo modo+ = _in any way_. Cf. _quacumque ratione_. --H.]
+Parallel Passage.+ Eutropius ii. 7. 8. 14: _Tum Pyrrhus admiratus eum
dixisse fertur: ‘Ille est Fabricius, qui difficilius ab honestate quam
sol a cursu suo averti potest.’_
+Fabricius+, like Cincinnatus and M’. Curius Dentatus, is the
representative of the purity and honesty of the good old times.
D43
THE WAR WITH THE TARENTINES AND PYRRHUS. (3)
_Appius the Blind, 280 B.C._
Ad Appi Claudi senectutem accedebat etiam ut caecus esset; tamen is, cum
sententia senatus inclinaret ad pacem cum Pyrrho foedusque faciendum,
non dubitavit dicere illa, quae versibus persecutus est Ennius: {5}
_Quo vobis mentes, rectae quae stare solebant
Antehac, dementis sese flexere viai?_
ceteraque gravissime, notum enim vobis carmen est, et tamen ipsius Appi
exstat oratio. Atque haec ille egit septemdecim annis post alterum
consulatum, {10} cum inter duos consulatus anni decem interfuissent
censorque ante superiorem consulatum fuisset, ex quo intelligitur Pyrrhi
bello grandem sane fuisse. . . . Quattuor robustos filios, quinque
filias, tantam domum, tantas clientelas Appius regebat et caecus {15} et
senex; intentum enim animum tamquam arcum habebat nec languescens
succumbebat senectuti. Tenebat non modo auctoritatem, sed etiam imperium
in suos: metuebant servi, verebantur liberi, carum omnes habebant;
vigebat in illo animus {20} patrius et disciplina.
CICERO, _De Senectute_, §§ 16, 37.
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