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ἀκοινονόητοι
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Elementary Classics.
It is hoped that this series of short stories from A. Gellius may serve as a pleasant change to young boys after a course of Cornelius Nepos, Eutropius, etc. The language of the original has been simplified in parts, and some rare or late words and constructions cut out. The Notes have been made, with few exceptions, as short as possible; a few more lengthy digressions, such as those upon the ablative absolute and the gerundial constructions, will need no apology, if they succeed in leading boys to think out for themselves the difficulties which these constructions present. Some simple Exercises have been added at the request of the Publishers, and for these an English-Latin Vocabulary has been compiled. In this Vocabulary the words are arranged in alphabetical order, since the Exercises are intended principally for viva voce drill in form, and the Editor’s experience does not confirm the theory of some Editors, that a boy’s knowledge of a language is increased in proportion to the time that he spends in hunting for words that he does not know; he considers that the “paragraph” vocabulary makes the lazy boy take refuge in guessing, whilst it wastes the time of the industrious boy.
The Editor acknowledges his obligations to the Latin Grammars of Dr. Kennedy and Mr. Roby, and to Dr. Smith’s Dictionaries of Biography and Antiquities, and to similar works which lie at every schoolmaster’s elbow.
| PAGE | |
| Preface, | v |
|
Life of Aulus Gellius, |
ix |
|
Text of the “Stories from Aulus Gellius,” |
1 |
|
Notes on the Text, |
33 |
| Exercises, | 75 |
|
Latin-English Vocabulary, |
98 |
|
English-Latin Vocabulary, |
137 |
|
Table showing the order of the “Stories” compared with the Books of the “Noctes Atticae,” |
147 |
|
Index to Notes, |
148 |
|
Index to Proper Names. |
152 |
Nothing is known about the life of A. Gellius beyond what can be gathered from occasional hints in his own writings; it has even been disputed whether his name was Agellius or A. Gellius. Probably he was a Roman by birth, of good family and connections. He seems to have spent his early years at Rome, studying under the celebrated teachers, Sulpicius Apollinaris, T. Castricius, and Antonius Julianus (cf. xxxiv. 1): to have continued his studies at Athens, where he lived on terms of familiarity with Herodes Atticus, Calvisius Taurus, Peregrinus Proteus, and other famous philosophers of that day: and after the lapse of many years to have returned to Rome, and devoted the remaining years of his life to literary pursuits and the society of a large circle of friends. The dates of his birth and death are unknown, but from the names of his teachers and friends it is certain that he lived during the reigns of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, 117-180 A.D.
The only work of A. Gellius that has reached us, possibly the only one that he wrote, is the “Noctes Atticae,” so called because it was begun during the long nights of winter in a country house in Attica (longinquis per hiemen noctibus in agro terrae Atticae). It consists of numerous extracts from Greek and Roman writers on subjects connected with history, philosophy, philology, and antiquities, illustrated by abundant criticisms and discussions. These extracts are thrown together without any attempt at order or arrangement, and divided into twenty books. He had been accustomed whilst reading, he says, to make notes upon anything which struck him as worth remembering. These notes he embodied with little change in his work, in the same haphazard order in which they had been made (usi autem sumus ordine rerum fortuito quem antea in excerpendo feceramus).
Naturally the various parts of such a ‘Miscellany’ vary greatly in quality. Some portions of it are highly valuable and interesting. For instance, many quotations are preserved from ancient authors whose works have perished, some of which throw light upon questions of constitutional and antiquarian interest, which would otherwise have remained obscure; many literary and historical anecdotes are given which are valuable in themselves; and some important grammatical usages and theories are noted. But the author’s appetite was omnivorous. He is as eager to tell the story of a marvellous African serpent, 120 feet in length, whose destruction required the utmost efforts of a whole Roman army, with their ballistae and catapultae (magna totius exercitus conflictione, ballistis atque catapultis diu oppugnatum. —N. A. vii. 3), or to discuss some absurd etymology, such as that of avarus from avidus aeris, as to preserve some really valuable detail of senatorial procedure, or record the use and origin of obscure constitutional phrases. His own criticisms, moreover, are as a rule worthless, and his translations are feeble; but in spite of all these defects his work is exceedingly interesting, and we could ill afford to lose it.
His Latin style shows the defects of his age, an age in which the Romans had ceased to feel the full meaning of the words which they used, and endeavoured to gain emphasis by employing obscure phrases and unnatural turns of expression. But these peculiarities are even more noticeable in the writings of his contemporaries.
Vergil, who spent much labour in polishing his verses, used to compare himself to a bear, which licks its cubs into shape.
Dicebat P. Vergilius, ut amici eius familiaresque ferunt, se parere versus more ursino. “Namque ut illa bestia” inquit, “fetum edit informem lambendoque postea conformat et fingit, sic ingenii quoque mei partus primum rudes et inperfecti sunt, sed 5 tractando corrigendoque reddo iis oris et vultus liniamenta.”
The poet Menander, meeting his successful rival Philemon, asked him if he did not feel ashamed to defeat him.
Menander a Philemone, nequaquam pari scriptore, in certaminibus comoediarum ambitu gratiâque saepenumero vincebatur. Ei forte obviam factus est Menander, et “Quaeso” inquit, “Philemo, bonâ veniâ dic mihi, cum me vincis, nonne erubescis?” 5
The palm has been made the emblem of victory, because its wood does not yield, when heavy weights are placed upon it.
Rem hercle mirandam Aristoteles et Plutarchus dicunt. “Si super palmae arboris lignum” inquiunt “magna pondera imponis, non deorsum palma cedit nec intra flectitur, sed adversus pondus resurgit et sursum recurvatur; propterea in certaminibus palma 5 signum victoriae facta est, quoniam urgentibus opprimentibusque non cedit.”
Socrates, when asked why he endured his quarrelsome wife, replied that to bear her temper was good discipline.
Xanthippe, Socratis philosophi uxor, admodum morosa et litigiosa fuisse fertur, irisque muliebribus per diem perque noctem scatebat. Quam rem in maritum Socraten Alcibiades demiratus, “Cur mulierem” inquit “tam acerbam domo non exigis?” 5 “Quoniam,” respondit Socrates, “cum illam domi talem perpetior, insuesco et exerceor, ut ceterorum quoque foris petulantiam et iniuriam facilius feram.”
Socrates used to train himself to bear fatigue by standing motionless for twenty-four hours at a time. His health was always perfect.
Inter labores voluntarios corporis firmandi causâ id quoque accepimus Socraten facere insuevisse: stabat per diem perque noctem a lucis ortu ad solem alterum orientem immobilis, iisdem in vestigiis, et ore atque oculis eundem in locum directis, cogitans, 5 tamquam quodam secessu mentis atque animi facto a corpore.
Temperantiâ quoque tantâ fuisse traditus est, ut omnem fere vitam valitudine integrâ vixerit. In eâ etiam pestilentiâ, quae in belli Peloponnensiaci 10 principiis Atheniensium civitatem depopulata est, dicitur vigorem corporis retinuisse.
How Alexander obtained his famous charger Bucephalas, how it saved his life in battle, and how the King showed his gratitude.
Equus Alexandri regis nomine Bucephalas fuit. Emptum Chares scripsit talentis tredecim et regi Philippo donatum; hoc autem aeris nostri summa est sestertia trecenta duodecim. De hoc equo haec memoriâ digna accepimus. Ubi ornatus erat armatusque 5 ad proelium, haud umquam inscendi sese ab alio, nisi ab rege passus est. Bello Indico cum insidens in eo Alexander facinora faceret fortia, in hostium cuneum, non satis sibi providens, inmisit. Coniectis undique in Alexandrum telis, vulneribus altis in cervice atque 10 in latere equus perfossus est. Moribundus tamen ac prope iam exanguis e mediis hostibus regem citato cursu retulit atque, ubi eum extra tela extulerat, ilico concidit et, domini iam superstitis securus, animam expiravit. Tum rex Alexander, partâ eius belli 15 victoriâ, oppidum in iisdem locis condidit idque ob equi honores Bucephalon appellavit.
Alcibiades, when a boy, refused to learn to play the pipes, because they distorted the player’s mouth.
Alcibiades Atheniensis apud avunculum Periclen educatus est, qui artibus ac disciplinis liberalibus puerum docendum curavit. Inter alios magistros tibicinem arcessi iussit, ut eum canere tibiis doceret, quod honestissimum tum videbatur. Traditas sibi 5 tibias Alcibiades ad os adhibuit inflavitque; sed ubi oris deformitatem vidit, abiecit infregitque. Cum ea res percrebuisset, omnium tum Atheniensium consensu disciplina tibiis canendi desita est.
Fabricius refused rich presents, which the Samnites offered him, saying that, while he retained command over his senses, he had all that he needed.
Legati a Samnitibus ad C. Fabricium, imperatorem populi Romani, venerunt et, memoratis multis magnisque rebus, quae bene post redditam pacem Samnitibus fecisset, dono grandem pecuniam obtulerunt. “Quae facimus” Samnites inquiunt, “quod multa ad 5 splendorem domus atque victus defieri videmus.” Tum Fabricius manus ab auribus ad oculos et infra deinceps ad nares et ad os et ad gulam deduxit, et legatis ita respondit: “Dum his omnibus membris, quae attigi, imperare possum, numquam quicquam 10 mihi deerit; quamobrem hanc pecuniam, quâ nihil mihi est usus, a vobis, qui eâ uti scitis, non accipio.”
Antiochus, proud of his army, asked Hannibal if they were ‘enough for the Romans.’ ‘Quite enough,’ replied Hannibal, ‘however greedy the Romans are.’
Antiochus ostendebat Hannibali in campo copias ingentis, quas bellum populo Romano facturus comparaverat, convertebatque exercitum insignibus argenteis et aureis micantem; inducebat etiam currus cum falcibus et elephantos cum turribus equitatumque 5 frenis, ephippiis, monilibus, phaleris fulgentem. Atque ibi rex Hannibalem aspicit et “Putasne” inquit “satis esse Romanis haec omnia?” Tum Poenus, eludens ignaviam militum eius tam pretiose armatorum, “Satis, plane satis esse credo Romanis haec omnia, etiamsi 10 avarissimi sunt.”
Milo, when enfeebled by age, tried to tear a tree open, but the wood closed on his hands and he perished miserably.
Milo Crotoniensis, athleta inlustris, exitum habuit e vita miserandum et mirandum. Cum iam natu grandis artem athleticam desisset iterque faceret forte solus in locis Italiae silvestribus, quercum vidit proxime viam rimis in parte mediâ hiantem. 5 Tum experiri 5 etiam tunc volens, an ullae sibi vires adessent, inmissis in cavernas arboris digitis, diducere et rescindere quercum conatus est. Ac mediam quidem partem discidit divellitque; quercus autem in duas diducta partis, cum ille manus laxasset, rediit in 10 naturam, manibusque eius retentis inclusisque dilacerandum hominem feris praebuit.
The young Papirius, pressed by his mother to reveal the secret proceedings of the Senate, told her that they had debated whether it was better for one husband to have two wives, or one wife two husbands.
Mos antea senatoribus Romae fuit, in curiam cum praetextatis filiis introire. Forte res maior quaepiam consultata et in diem posterum prolata est, placuitque ut eam rem ne quis enuntiaret, priusquam decreta esset. Sed mater Papirii pueri, qui cum patre 5 suo in curiâ fuerat, percontata est filium, quidnam in senatu patres egissent. Puer respondit tacendum esse neque id dici licere. Mulier autem fit audiendi cupidior, ac tandem puer matre urgente lepidi mendacii consilium capit. Actum in senatu dixit, utrum 10 videretur utilius exque republicâ esse, unusne ut duas uxores haberet, an ut una duobus nupta esset.
The consternation of the Roman Matrons, the bewilderment of the Senators, the confession of Papirius, and the reward for his discretion.
Ubi illa hoc audivit, domo trepidans egreditur, ad ceteras matronas se adfert. Pervenit ad senatum postridie matrum familias caterva. Lacrimantes atque obsecrantes orant, ut una potius duobus nupta fieret quam ut duae uni. Senatores in curiam ingredientes 5 mirabantur, quae illa mulierum insania et quid sibi postulatio istaec vellet. Puer Papirius in medium curiae progressus, quid mater audire institisset, quid ipse matri dixisset, denarrat. Senatus fidem atque ingenium pueri laudat et consultum facit, uti posthac 10 pueri cum patribus in curiam ne introeant, praeter illum unum Papirium, cui postea cognomen honoris gratiâ datum “Praetextatus.”
The extraordinary influence that Sertorius exercised over the minds of his soldiers, and the means by which he maintained this influence.
Sertorius, vir acer egregiusque dux, et utendi et regendi exercitus peritus fuit. Is in temporibus difficillimis et mentiebatur ad milites, si mendacium prodesset, et litteras compositas pro veris legebat, et somnium simulabat, et falsas religiones conferebat, si 5 quid istae res eum apud militum animos adiuvabant. Haec hominum barbarorum credulitas Sertorio in magnis rebus magno usui fuit. Memoria prodita est, neminem umquam ex his nationibus, quae cum Sertorio faciebant, cum multis proeliis superatus esset, 10 ab eo descivisse, quamquam id genus hominum esset mobilissimum.
Sertorius pretended that divine revelations were made to him through a white doe. This doe once ran away, but was soon found again. The use which Sertorius made of this incident.
Huic Sertorio cerva alba eximiae pulchritudinis et celeritatis a Lusitano quodam dono data est. Hanc persuasit omnibus, oblatam sibi divinitus et instinctam Dianae numine, conloqui secum et monere et docere, quae utilia factu essent, ac, si quid durius videbatur, 5 quod imperandum militibus foret, a cervâ sese monitum praedicabat. Id cum dixerat, universi, tamquam si deo, libentes ei parebant. Ea cerva quodam die, cum incursio hostium esset nuntiata, tumultu consternata in fugam se proripuit atque in palude proximâ delituit, 10 et postea requisita periisse credita est. Neque multis diebus post inventam esse cervam Sertorio nuntiatur. Tum eum qui nuntiaverat iussit tacere ac, ne cui palam diceret, interminatus est praecepitque, ut eam postero die repente in eum locum, in quo ipse cum amicis 15 esset, inmitteret. Admissis deinde amicis postridie, cervam ait, quae periisset, visam esse in quiete ad se reverti et, ut prius consuerat, quod opus esset facto praedicere; tum servo quod imperaverat significat, cerva emissa in cubiculum Sertorii introrupit, 20 clamor factus et orta admiratio est.
A Sibyl offered to sell King Tarquin nine books for a large sum. On his scornful refusal she burnt three, and offered the remaining six for the same sum, but he again refused. She burnt three more and offered the remaining three for the same sum: these the King bought and deposited in the ‘Sacristy.’
In antiquis annalibus haec memoria de libris Sibyllinis prodita est: Anus hospita atque incognita ad Tarquinium Superbum regem adiit, novem libros ferens, quos divina oracula esse dicebat; eos velle vendere. Tarquinius pretium percontatus est. Mulier 5 nimium atque inmensum poposcit: rex, quasi anus aetate desiperet, derisit. Tum illa foculum coram cum igni apponit, tris libros ex novem deurit et, ecquid reliquos sex eodem pretio emere vellet, regem interrogavit. Sed enim Tarquinius id multo magis risit, 10 dixitque anum iam procul dubio delirare. Mulier ibidem statim tris alios libros exussit atque id ipsum denuo placide rogat, ut tris reliquos eodem illo pretio emat. Tarquinius ore iam serio atque attentiore animo fit, eam constantiam confidentiamque non 15 contemnendam intellegit, libros tris reliquos mercatur nihilo minore pretio, quam quod erat petitum pro omnibus. Sed ea mulier tunc a Tarquinio digressa postea nusquam loci visa est. Libri tres, in sacrarium conditi, “Sibyllini” appellati; ad eos quasi ad oraculum 20 quindecimviri adeunt, cum di immortales publice consulendi sunt.
Scipio was accused of having received bribes from Antiochus. Scorning to answer such a charge, he reminded the people that this was the anniversary of his great victory at Zama, and called upon them to follow him to the Capitol and there return thanks to the gods.
M. Naevius tribunus plebis accusavit Scipionem ad populum, dixitque eum accepisse a rege Antiocho pecuniam, ut condicionibus mollibus pax cum eo populi Romani nomine fieret, et quaedam item alia indigna tali viro addidit. Tum Scipio pauca 5 praefatus, quae dignitas vitae suae atque gloria postulabat, “Memoriâ” inquit, “Quirites, repeto, diem esse hodiernum, quo Hannibalem Poenum, imperio vestro inimicissimum, magno proelio in terrâ Africâ vici, pacemque et victoriam vobis peperi praeclaram. Non 10 igitur simus adversum deos ingrati et, censeo, relinquamus nebulonem hunc, eamus hinc protinus Iovi optimo maximo gratulatum.” Id cum dixisset, avertit et ire ad Capitolium coepit. Tum contio universa, quae ad sententiam de Scipione ferendam convenerat, 15 relicto tribuno Scipionem in Capitolium comitata, atque inde ad aedes eius cum laetitiâ et gratulatione sollemni prosecuta est.
Scipio on another occasion was accused of embezzling the money paid by Antiochus as a war indemnity: he answered the charge by tearing his accounts in pieces before the eyes of the Senators.
Item aliud est factum eius praeclarum. Petilii quidam tribuni plebis a M., ut aiunt, Catone, inimico Scipionis, comparati in eum atque inmissi, desiderabant in senatu, ut pecuniae Antiochinae praedaeque in eo bello captae rationem redderet: fuerat enim 5 L. Scipioni Asiatico, fratri suo, imperatori in eâ provinciâ legatus. Ibi Scipio exurgit et, prolato e sinu togae libro, rationes in eo scriptas esse dixit omnis pecuniae omnisque praedae; allatum, ut palam recitaretur et ad aerarium deferretur. “Sed enim id iam non 10 faciam” inquit, “nec me ipse afficiam contumeliâ,” eumque librum statim coram discidit suis manibus, aegre passus, quod, cui salus imperii ac reipublicae accepta referri deberet, ab eo ratio praedae posceretur.
Scipio believed that he was a special favourite of the gods: before entering on any important work he used to spend hours of quiet meditation in the temple on the Capitol. A story is given showing his power of foreseeing the future.
Id etiam dicere haut piget, quod ii, qui de vitâ et rebus Africani scripserunt, litteris mandaverunt. Solitus est noctis extremo ante primam lucem in Capitolium ventitare ac iubere aperiri cellam Iovis, atque ibi solus diu demorari, quasi consultans de 5 republicâ cum Iove. Aeditumi eius templi saepe admirati, quod in eum solum id temporis in Capitolium ingredientem canes, semper in alios saevientes, neque latrarent neque incurrerent. Has volgi de Scipione opiniones confirmare atque approbare 10 videbantur dicta factaque eius pleraque admiranda. Ex quibus est unum huiuscemodi. Assidebat oppugnabatque oppidum in Hispaniâ situm, moenibus defensoribusque validum et munitum, re etiam cibariâ copiosum, nullaque eius potiundi spes erat. Quodam 15 die ius in castris sedens dicebat, atque ex eo loco id oppidum procul visebatur. Tum quispiam e militibus, qui in iure apud eum stabant, interrogavit ex more, in quem diem locumque vadimonium promitti iuberet: et Scipio manum ad ipsam oppidi, quod obsidebatur, 20 arcem protendens, perendie sese sistere illo in loco iussit. Atque ita factum: die tertio, in quem vadari iusserat, oppidum captum est eodemque eo die in arce eius oppidi ius dixit.
How a man, when trying a friend who was guilty, succeeded in reconciling the claims of duty and of friendship, by himself voting for condemnation, but persuading his fellow iudices to vote for acquittal.
Super amici capite iudex cum duobus aliis fui. Ita lex fuit, uti eum hominem condemnari necesse esset. Aut amico igitur caput perdendum aut adhibenda fraus legi fuit. Multa cum animo meo ad casum tam ancipitem medendum consultavi; tandem hoc, quod 5 feci, visum est optimum. Ipse tacitus ad condemnandum sententiam tuli, iis qui simul iudicabant, ut absolverent, persuasi. Sic mihi et iudicis et amici officium in re tantâ salvum fuit.
Favorinus rebuked a young man, who affected the use of archaic language, by telling him to hold his tongue altogether if he did not wish to be understood: if he admired the purity of the good old times he should imitate their ways, not their words.
Favorinus philosophus adulescenti, veterum verborum cupidissimo et plerasque voces nimis priscas et ignotas in cotidianis sermonibus expromenti, “Curius” inquit “et Fabricius et Coruncanius, antiquissimi viri, et his antiquiores Horatii illi trigemini plane ac 5 dilucide cum suis locuti sunt, neque Auruncorum aut Sicanorum aut Pelasgorum, qui primi coluisse Italiam dicuntur, sed aetatis suae verbis usi sunt; tu autem, proinde quasi cum matre Euandri nunc loquare, sermone abhinc multis annis iam desito uteris, quod 10 neminem vis scire atque intellegere quae dicas. Nonne, homo inepte, ut quod vis abunde consequaris, taces? Sed antiquitatem tibi placere ais, quod honesta et bona et sobria et modesta sit. Vive ergo moribus praeteritis, loquere verbis praesentibus: atque id, 15 quod a C. Caesare scriptum est, habe semper in memoriâ atque in pectore, ut tamquam scopulum sic fugias insolens verbum.”
In one of the struggles between the Romans and the Gauls in 361 B.C. a gigantic Gaul challenged the Romans to send out a champion to meet him: all held back except the young T. Manlius.
Titus Manlius summo loco natus fuit. Ei cognomen factum est Torquatus. Causa cognomenti fuisse dicitur torquis, quam ex hoste, quem occiderat, detractam induit. Quis hostis fuerit et qualis pugna ita accepimus. 5
Galli contra Romanos pugnabant, cum interim Gallus quidam nudus praeter scutum et gladios duos, torque atque armillis decoratus, qui et viribus et magnitudine et adulescentiâ et virtute ceteros praestabat, processit et manu significare coepit utrisque, ut 10 quiescerent. Extemplo silentio facto voce maximâ conclamat, si quis secum depugnare vellet, uti prodiret. Nemo audebat propter magnitudinem atque inmanem faciem. Deinde Gallus inridere coepit atque linguam exertare. Doluit Titus Manlius, tantum flagitium 15 civitati adcidere, e tanto exercitu neminem prodire. Processit ipse scuto pedestri et gladio Hispanico cinctus et contra Gallum constitit.
In the struggle which followed Manlius disconcerted the Gaul by suddenly with his shield dashing him back from his posture of defence; he then came to close quarters with the Gaul, and slew him. He put on his own neck the necklace which the Gaul had worn; hence he was named Torquatus. This same Manlius executed his son for disobeying orders and slaying an enemy who had challenged him.
Metu magno ea congressio in ipso ponte, utroque exercitu inspectante, facta est. Constitit Gallus suâ disciplinâ scuto proiecto cunctabundus; Manlius, animo magis quam arte confisus, scuto scutum percussit atque statum Galli conturbavit. Dum se Gallus iterum eodem 5 pacto constituere studet, Manlius iterum scuto scutum percutit atque de loco hominem iterum deiecit; eo pacto ei sub Gallicum gladium successit atque Hispanico pectus hausit; deinde continuo umerum dextrum incidit neque recessit usquam, donec subvertit. Ubi eum 10 evertit, caput praecidit, torquem detraxit eamque sanguinulentam sibi in collum inponit. Quo ex facto ipse posterique eius Torquati sunt cognominati.
Ab hoc Tito Manlio imperia et aspera et immitia Manlia dicta sunt, quoniam postea, cum bello adversum 15 Latinos esset consul, filium suum securi percussit, qui speculatum ab eo missus, pugnâ interdictâ, hostem, a quo provocatus fuerat, occiderat.
On another occasion the young Valerius accepted the challenge of a gigantic Gaul. During the fight a raven aided the Roman by attacking his enemy with its talons; thus helped Valerius slew the Gaul, and received the name of Corvinus.
Copiae Gallorum ingentes agrum Pomptinum insederant instruebanturque acies a consulibus. Dux interea Gallorum, vastâ proceritate armisque auro praefulgentibus, manu telum vibrans incedebat perque contemptum et superbiam circumspicit despicitque 5 omnia, et venire iubet et congredi, si quis pugnare secum ex omni Romano exercitu auderet. Tum Valerius adulescens, tribunus iam militaris, ceteris inter metum pudoremque ambiguis, impetrat a consulibus, ut in Gallum pugnare sese permitterent, et 10 progreditur intrepidus obviam. Et congrediuntur et consistunt et conserebantur iam manus. Atque ibi vis quaedam divina fit: corvus repente advolat et super galeam tribuni insistit atque inde in adversarii os atque oculos pugnare incipit, eius manum unguibus 15 laniabat atque, ubi satis saevierat, revolabat in galeam tribuni. Sic tribunus, spectante utroque exercitu, et suâ virtute nixus et operâ, alitis adiutus, ducem hostium ferocissimum vicit interfecitque, atque ob hanc causam cognomen habuit Corvinum. 20
Statuam Corvino isti divus Augustus in foro suo statuendam curavit. In eius statuae capite corvi simulacrum est, rei pugnaeque, quam diximus, monimentum.
Aesop in his fables gives good advice in a pleasant way, and hence men attend to him. An instance of this is his fable of the lark, which has been put into verse by Ennius.
Aesopus ille e Phrygia fabularum scriptor haud inmerito sapiens existimatus est; quae enim utilia monitu suasuque erant, non severe praecepit, ut philosophis mos est, sed hilares iucundosque apologos commentus, in mentes hominum cum audiendi quâdam 5 inlecebrâ induit. Velut haec eius fabula de parvae avis nidulo lepide praemonet spem fiduciamque rerum, quas efficere quis possit, haut umquam in alio, sed in semetipso habendam. Hunc Aesopi apologum Q. Ennius in satiris versibus quadratis composuit, quorum 10 duo postremi hi sunt:
Hóc erit tibi árgumentum sémper in promptú situm,
Né quid expectés amicos, quód tute agere póssies.
A certain lark found the corn, in which it had built, ripe for cutting before its young were fledged. It therefore ordered them to report anything unusual which might happen in its absence. The first day they announced that the master had been to the field and had sent to ask his friends to help him to reap the corn. On hearing this the mother said that there was no immediate need for them to leave the field.
Avis est parva, nomen est cassita. Habitat in segetibus, id ferme temporis ut appetat messis pullis iam iam plumantibus. Ea cassita in sementes forte congesserat tempestiviores; propterea frumentis flavescentibus pulli etiam tunc inplumes erant. Dum igitur 5 ipsa iret cibum pullis quaesitum, monet eos, ut, si quid ibi rei novae fieret dicereturve, animadverterent idque sibi, ubi rediisset, nuntiarent. Dominus postea segetum illarum filium adulescentem vocat et 10 “Videsne” inquit “haec maturuisse et manus iam postulare? idcirco cras, ubi primum dilucescit, fac amicos eas et roges, ut veniant operamque mutuam dent et in hac messi nos adiuvent.” Haec ubi ille dixit, et discessit. Atque ubi redit cassita, pulli tremibundi orare matrem, ut iam statim properet inque alium 15 locum sese asportet: “Nam dominus” inquiunt “misit, qui amicos roget, uti luce oriente veniant et metant.” Mater iubet eos otioso animo esse: “Si enim dominus” inquit “messim ad amicos reiicit, cras seges non metetur, neque necesse est hodie uti vos auferam.” 20
Next day the young ones reported that the master, finding his friends had not come, had sent to ask the aid of his relations. The mother still tells them to be in no fear, and next day again goes out to seek food. This time the young ones report that the master, finding his relations lingered, had determined to cut the corn himself. On hearing this the mother announces that they must go at once.
Die postero mater in pabulum volat. Dominus, quos rogaverat, opperitur. Sol fervit, et fit nihil; it dies, et amici nulli eunt. Tum ille rursum ad filium “Amici isti” inquit “cessatores sunt. Quin potius imus et cognatos adfinesque nostros oramus, ut adsint cras ad 5 metendum?” Itidem hoc pulli pavefacti matri nuntiant. Mater hortatur, ut tum quoque sine metu ac sine curâ sint; cognatos adfinesque nullos ferme tam faciles esse ait, ut ad laborem capessendum nihil cunctentur et statim dicto oboediant: “Vos modo” inquit 10 “advertite, si modo quid denuo dicetur.” Aliâ luce ortâ avis in pastum profecta est. Cognati et adfines operam, quam dare rogati sunt, neglexerunt. Ad postremum igitur dominus filio “Valeant” inquit “amici cum propinquis. Afferes primâ luce falces 15 duas; unam egomet mihi et tu tibi capies alteram et frumentum nosmetipsi manibus nostris cras metemus.” Id ubi ex pullis dixisse dominum mater audivit, “Tempus” inquit “est cedendi et abeundi; fiet nunc dubio procul quod futurum dixit. In ipso enim iam 20 vertitur cuia res est, non in alio, unde petitur.” Atque ita cassita e nido migravit, seges a domino demessa est.
A friend of King Pyrrus came to the Roman general Fabricius and offered to poison the King for a bribe. Fabricius reported the matter to the Senate, who warned Pyrrus to be on his guard. Pyrrus showed his gratitude by sending back all the Roman prisoners.
Cum Pyrrus rex in terrâ Italiâ esset et unam atque alteram pugnas prospere pugnasset et pleraque Italia ad regem descivisset, tum Ambraciensis quispiam Timochares, regis Pyrri amicus, ad C. Fabricium consulem furtim venit ac praemium petivit et, si de 5 praemio conveniret, promisit se regem venenis necaturum; idque facile esse factu dixit, quoniam filius suus pocula in convivio regi ministraret. Eam rem Fabricius ad senatum scripsit. Senatus ad regem legatos misit mandavitque, ut de Timochare nihil 10 proderent, sed monerent, uti rex cautius ageret atque a proximorum insidiis salutem tutaretur. Quamobrem Pyrrus populo Romano laudes atque gratias scripsisse dicitur captivosque omnes, quos tum habuit, vestivisse et reddidisse. 15
At the games in the Circus a lion of gigantic size was seen to fawn upon one of the condemned slaves exposed in the arena.
In circo maximo venationis pugna populo dabatur. Multae ibi ferae, sed praeter alia omnia leo corpore vasto terrificoque fremitu et sonoro animos oculosque omnium in sese converterat. Introductus erat inter compluris ceteros ad pugnam bestiarum datos servus 5 viri consularis; ei servo Androclus nomen fuit. Hunc ille leo ubi vidit procul, repente quasi admirans stetit ac deinde sensim atque placide, tamquam familiaris, ad hominem accedit. Tum caudam more adulantium canum blande movet cruraque et manus hominis, 10 prope iam exanimati metu, linguâ leniter demulcet. Homo Androclus inter illa tam atrocis ferae blandimenta amissum animum recuperat, paulatim oculos ad contuendum leonem refert. Tum quasi mutuâ 15 recognitione factâ laetos et gratulantes videres hominem et leonem.
When questioned by the Emperor the slave explained that he had fled from his master into the African desert, that he had by accident taken refuge in this lion’s cave, and, when the lion had returned to its home lame, he had extracted a thorn from its foot.
Haec tam mira res maximos populi clamores excitat et Caesar Androclum vocat quaeritque causam, cur illi uni atrocissimus leo pepercisset. Ibi Androclus rem mirificam atque admirandam narrat. “Cum provinciam” inquit “Africam proconsulari imperio meus 5 dominus obtineret, ego ibi iniquis eius et cotidianis verberibus ad fugam sum coactus et, quo mihi a domino, terrae illius praeside, tutiores latebrae forent, in locos desertos et remotos concessi ac, si defuisset cibus, consilium fuit mortem aliquo pacto quaerere. 10 Tum die medio sole flagrante specum quemdam nanctus remotum latebrosumque, in eum me recondo. Neque multo post ad eundem specum venit hic leo, debili uno et cruento pede, gemitus edens et murmura ob dolorem cruciatumque vulneris. Atque illic 15 primo quidem conspectu advenientis leonis territus et pavefactus sum; sed postquam introgressus leo videt me procul delitescentem, mitis et mansuetus accessit et sublatum pedem ostendere mihi et porrigere quasi opis petendae gratiâ visus est. Ibi ego stirpem ingentem, 20 vestigio pedis eius haerentem, revelli conceptamque saniem volnere intimo expressi et sine magnâ iam formidine siccavi penitus atque detersi cruorem. Illâ tunc meâ operâ levatus, pede in manibus meis posito, recubuit et quievit.” 25
For three years he and the lion had lived together. At last he had grown weary of the savage life, but as soon as he had returned to the haunts of men he had been captured, condemned, and sent to Rome to be exposed to the wild beasts in the circus. Androclus was pardoned and the lion was given to him.
“Ex eo die triennium totum ego et leo in eodem specu eodemque et victu viximus. Nam, quas venabatur feras, membra opimiora ad specum mihi ferebat, quae ego, ignis copiam non habens, meridiano sole torrens edebam. Sed ubi me vitae illius ferinae iam 5 pertaesum est, leone in venatum profecto, reliqui specum et, viam ferme tridui permensus, a militibus visus adprehensusque sum et ad dominum ex Africâ Romam deductus. Is me statim rei capitalis damnandum dandumque ad bestias curavit. Intellego autem” 10 inquit “hunc quoque leonem me tunc separato captum, gratiam mihi nunc beneficii et medicinae referre.”
Haec dixit Androclus; quae cum scripta essent circumlataque populo et declarata, cunctis petentibus 15 dimissus Androclus et poenâ solutus et leone suffragiis populi donatus. Postea Androclus et leo, loro tenui revinctus, urbe totâ circum tabernas ibat: donatus est aere Androclus, floribus sparsus est leo, omnesque ubique obvii exclamant, “Hic est leo hospes hominis, 20 hic est homo medicus leonis.”
Polus, having to act the part of Electra soon after his only son had died, appeared on the stage holding the urn which contained the remains of his son, and over this he wept the tears of real grief.
Histrio in terrâ Graeciâ fuit famâ celebri, cui nomen erat Polus. Is unice amatum filium morte amisit, sed ubi cum satis visus est luxisse, rediit ad quaestum artis.
Eo tempore Athenis Electram Sophoclis acturus, 5 gestare urnam quasi cum Oresti ossibus debebat. Ita compositum fabulae argumentum est ut, veluti fratris reliquias ferens, Electra comploret interitum eius existimatum. Igitur Polus, lugubri habitu Electrae indutus, ossa atque urnam e sepulcro tulit filii et, 10 quasi Oresti amplexus, opplevit omnia non simulacris sed luctu atque lamentis veris. Itaque cum agi fabula videretur, dolor actus est.
A Greek orator—some say Demosthenes, others Demades—at first opposed a request of the Milesians for aid, but took a bribe to withdraw his opposition. When the matter was again discussed he announced that he was suffering from an inflamed throat, and so could not speak. He afterwards openly boasted that he had been paid to hold his tongue.
Legati Mileto auxilii petendi causâ venerunt Athenas. Tum qui pro sese verba facerent advocaverunt; hi, uti erat mandatum, verba pro Milesiis ad populum fecerunt, sed Demosthenes Milesiorum postulatis acriter respondit; neque Milesios auxilio 5 dignos neque ex republicâ id esse contendit. Res tandem in posterum diem prolata est. Tum legati ad Demosthenen venerunt oraveruntque, uti contra ne diceret. Is pecuniam petivit et quantam petiverat abstulit. Postridie, cum res agi denuo coepta esset, 10 Demosthenes, lanâ multâ collum circumvolutus, ad populum prodit et dixit se synanchen pati; eo contra Milesios loqui non quire. Tum e populo quidam exclamavit, non synanchen eum pati sed argyranchen.
Ipse etiam Demosthenes non id postea celavit, quin 15 gloriae quoque hoc sibi adsignavit. Nam cum interrogasset Aristodemum, actorem fabularum, quantum mercedis, uti ageret, accepisset, et Aristodemus talentum respondisset, “At ego plus” inquit “accepi, ut tacerem.” 20
Quod hic diximus de Demosthene, id nonnulli scriptores in Demaden contulerunt.
Cicero once borrowed money to buy a house, but afterwards denied that he had ever taken the money or had intended to purchase the property. He did buy the house, and, when reminded of what he had said, replied that a prudent man always concealed his intended purchases.
Cicero cum emere vellet in Palatio domum neque pecuniam in praesens haberet, a P. Sulla, qui tum reus erat, mutua sestertium viciens tacita accepit. Ea res tamen, priusquam emeret, prodita est et in vulgus exivit, obiectumque ei est, quod pecuniam domus 5 emendae causâ a reo accepisset. Tum Cicero inopinatâ obprobratione permotus accepisse se negavit ac domum quoque se empturum negavit. Sed cum postea emisset et hoc mendacium in senatu ei ab amicis obiiceretur, risit satis atque inter ridendum: “ἀκοινονόητοι” 10 inquit “homines estis, cum ignoratis prudentis et cauti patrisfamilias esse, quod emere velit, empturum sese negare propter competitores emptionis.”
“Property in Rome,” said a friend, “would be worth far more if the risk from fire were not so great.” “Archelaus,” replied Julianus, “preserved his defensive outworks from fire by covering them with alum.”
Declamaverat Antonius Iulianus rhetor quam felicissime, eumque nos familiares eius circumfusi undique prosequebamur domum, cum subeuntes montem Cispium conspicimus insulam quandam multis, arduisque tabulatis editam, igni occupatam et propinqua iam 5 omnia flagrare vasto incendio. Tum quispiam ibi ex comitibus Iuliani, “Magni” inquit “reditus urbanorum praediorum, sed pericula sunt longe maxima. Si quid autem posset remedii fore, ut ne tam adsidue domus Romae arderent, venum hercle dedissem res rusticas 10 et urbicas emissem.” Atque illi Iulianus “Si annalem” inquit “undevicensimum Q. Claudi legisses, docuisset te profecto Archelaus, regis Mitridati praefectus, quo remedio ignem defenderes. In eo enim libro scriptum inveni, cum obpugnaret L. Sulla in terrâ Atticâ Piraeum 15 et contra Archelaus regis Mitridati praefectus ex eo oppido propugnaret, turrim ligneam defendendi gratiâ structam, cum ex omni latere circumplexa igni foret, ardere non quisse, quod alumine ab Archelao oblita fuisset.” 20
Arion, having gained much money in Italy and Sicily, took ship to return to Corinth, but was robbed and made to leap overboard by the sailors.
Vetus et nobilis cantor Arion fuit. Is oppido Methymnaeus, terrâ Lesbius fuit. Eum Arionem rex Corinthi Periander amicum habuit artis gratiâ. Is inde a rege proficiscitur, ut terras praeclaras Siciliam atque Italiam viseret. Ubi eo venit aures omnium 5 mentesque in utriusque terrae urbibus delectavit, et postea grandem pecuniam adeptus Corinthum instituit redire. Navem igitur et navitas, ut notiores amicioresque sibi, Corinthios delegit. Sed ei Corinthii, homine accepto navique in altum provectâ, praedae 10 pecuniaeque cupidi, consilium de necando Arione ceperunt. Tum ille pecuniam ceteraque sua eis dedit vitam modo sibi ut parcerent oravit. Navitae per vim suis manibus eum non necaverunt, sed imperaverunt, ut iam statim coram desiliret praeceps in mare. Homo 15 ibi territus, spe omni vitae perditâ, id unum postea oravit, ut, priusquam mortem obpeteret, induere permitterent sua sibi omnia et fides capere et canere carmen. Quod oraverat impetrat, atque ibi mox de more cinctus, amictus, ornatus stansque in summâ 20 puppi, carmen, quod “orthium” dicitur, voce sublatissimâ cantavit. Ad postrema cantus cum fidibus ornatuque omni, sicut stabat canebatque, iecit sese procul in profundum.
A dolphin carried him safely to Taenarum; thence he travelled to Corinth, and told his adventure to the King. The sailors on their arrival were confronted by Arion and convicted of their crime.
Navitae, hautquaquam dubitantes, quin periisset, cursum, quem facere coeperant, tenuerunt. Sed novum et mirum et pium facinus contigit. Delphinus repente inter undas adnavit, fluitantique sese homini subdidit, et dorso super fluctus edito vectavit 5 incolumique eum corpore et ornatu Taenarum in terram Laconicam devexit. Tum Arion prorsus ex eo loco Corinthum petivit talemque Periandro regi, qualis delphino vectus fuerat, inopinanti sese optulit, eique rem, sicuti acciderat, narravit. Rex istaec parum 10 credidit, Arionem, quasi falleret, custodiri iussit, navitas inquisitos, ablegato Arione, dissimulanter interrogavit, ecquid audissent in his locis, unde venissent, de Arione? Dixerunt hominem, cum inde irent, in terrâ Italiâ fuisse et illic bene agere. Tum inter 15 haec eorum verba Arion cum fidibus et indumentis, cum quibus se in salum deiecerat, extitit, navitaeque stupefacti convictique ire infitias non quiverunt. Hanc fabulam dicunt Lesbii et Corinthii, atque fabulae argumentum est quod simulacra duo aenea ad Taenarum 20 visuntur, delphinus vehens et homo insidens.
A Thracian having heard that trees required cutting and pruning, proceeded to chop the tops off his vines and olives, and thus in his ignorance destroyed all his property.
Homo Thracus ex ultimâ barbariâ ruris colendi insolens, cum in terras cultiores migrasset, fundum mercatus est oleo atque vino consitum. Qui nihil admodum de vite aut arbore colendâ sciret, videt forte vicinum rubos alte atque late obortas excidentem, 5 fraxinos ad summum prope verticem deputantem, suboles vitium e radicibus super terram fusas revellentem, stolones in pomis aut in oleis proceros amputantem; acceditque prope et cur tantam ligni atque frondium caedem faceret, percontatus est. Et vicinus 10 ita respondit: “Ut ager” inquit “mundus purusque fiat, eius arbor atque vitis fecundior.” Discedit ille a vicino gratias agens et laetus, tamquam adeptus rei rusticae disciplinam. Tum falcem ac securim capit; atque ibi homo miser imperitus vites suas sibi omnis et oleas detruncat, comasque arborum laetissimas uberrimosque vitium palmites decidit, et virgulta simul omnia, pomis gignendis felicia, cum sentibus et rubis purgandi agri gratiâ convellit.
Mitridates by the use of antidotes made himself proof against poisons: hence when he wished to kill himself he had to use his sword. He could speak perfectly the languages of the twenty-two nations over which he ruled.
Mitridates ille Ponti rex medicinae rei et remediorum sollers erat, quorum adsiduo usu a clandestinis epularum insidiis cavebat; quin et ultro ostentandi gratiâ venenum rapidum et velox saepenumero hausit, atque id tamen sine noxâ fuit. Quamobrem postea, cum 5 proelio victus in ultima regni refugisset et mori decrevisset, venena festinandae necis causâ frustra expertus, suo se ipse gladio transegit.
Quintus Ennius tria corda sese habere dicebat, quod loqui Graece et Osce et Latine sciret. Mitridates autem 10 duarum et viginti gentium, quas sub dicione habuit, linguas percalluit, earumque omnium gentium viris haut umquam per interpretem conlocutus est, sed linguâ et oratione cuiusque, non minus scite quam si gentis eius esset, locutus est. 15
Euathlus agreed to pay Protagoras a certain sum of money on the day when he won his first case. He never undertook one, so at last Protagoras brought an action against him to recover the money. “You are in this dilemma,” said the philosopher: “if you lose this action, the court will award me the money; if you win it, you will have won your first case, and will owe me the fee according to our agreement.” “Nay,” replied the pupil, “if I win the action, I shall owe you nothing according to the sentence of the court; if I lose, I shall owe you nothing according to our agreement.”
Euathlus, adulescens dives, eloquentiae discendae causarumque orandi cupidus fuit. Is in disciplinam Protagorae sese dedit daturumque promisit mercedem grandem pecuniam, quantam Protagoras petiverat, dimidiumque eius dedit iam tunc pepigitque, ut 5 reliquum dimidium daret, quo primo die causam apud iudices orasset et vicisset. Postea cum diu auditor Protagorae fuisset, causas tamen non reciperet, tempusque iam longum transcurreret et facere id videretur, ne relicum mercedis daret, capit consilium Protagoras, 10 ut tum existimabat, astutum: petere institit ex pacto mercedem, litem cum Euathlo contestatur.
Cum ad iudices venissent, tum Protagoras sic exorsus est: “Disce,” inquit “stultissime adulescens, utroque id modo fore, uti reddas quod peto, sive 15 contra te pronuntiatum erit sive pro te. Nam, si contra te lis data erit, merces mihi ex sententiâ debebitur, quia ego vicero; sin vero secundum te iudicatum erit, merces mihi ex pacto debebitur, quia tu viceris.” 20
Ad ea respondit Euathlus: “Disce igitur tu quoque, magister sapientissime, utroque modo fore, uti non reddam quod petis, sive contra me pronuntiatum fuerit sive pro me. Nam, si iudices pro causâ meâ senserint, nihil tibi ex sententiâ debebitur, quia ego 25vicero; sin contra me pronuntiaverint, nihil tibi ex pacto debebo, quia non vicero.”
Tum iudices hoc inexplicabile esse rati, causam in diem longissimam distulerunt. Sic ab adulescente discipulo magister doctissimus suo ipse argumento 30confutatus est.
Hannibal after the battle of Cannae sent ten captives to Rome to propose an exchange of prisoners, but bound the ten by an oath to return, if the Senate did not accept his offer. The Senate rejected it, and eight out of the ten returned, but two, yielding to the entreaties of their friends, and alleging that they had by a trick freed themselves from the obligation of the oath, remained behind. These two were treated with such scorn that they found life unbearable and committed suicide.
Post proelium Cannense Hannibal ex captivis nostris electos decem Romam misit, mandavitque eis pactusque est, ut, si populo Romano videretur, permutatio fieret captivorum et pro his, quos alteri plures acciperent, darent argenti pondo libram et 5 selibram. Hoc, priusquam proficiscerentur, iusiurandum eos adegit, redituros esse in castra Poenica, si Romani captivos non permutarent.
Veniunt Romam decem captivi. Mandatum Poeni imperatoris in senatu exponunt. Permutatio senatui 10 non placet. Parentes, cognati adfinesque captivorum amplexi eos postliminio in patriam redisse dicebant, statumque eorum integrum incolumemque esse, ac, ne ad hostes redire vellent, orabant. Tum octo ex his postliminium iustum non esse sibi responderunt, quoniam 15 iure iurando vincti forent, statimque, uti iurati erant, ad Hannibalem profecti sunt. Duo reliqui Romae manserunt solutosque se esse ac liberatos religione dicebant, quoniam, cum egressi castra hostium fuissent, commenticio consilio, tamquam ob 20 aliquam fortuitam causam, eodem regressi sunt, atque ita rursum iniurati abissent. Haec eorum fraudulenta calliditas tam esse turpis existimata est, ut contempti vulgo sint censoresque eos postea omnibus ignominiae notis adfecerint. 25
Multis autem in senatu placuit, ut datis custodibus ad Hannibalem deducerentur, sed ea sententia numero plurium, quibus id non videretur, superata. Usque adeo tamen invisi erant, ut taedio vitae necem sibi conscivissent. 30
1. P. Vergilius Maro, the greatest of Roman epic poets, was born 70 B.C. near Mantua, in the N. of Italy, and died 19 B.C. at Brundusium, in the S.E. of Italy. His chief works were the Būcŏlĭcă (βου-κολέω , I tend cattle), or Eclŏgae (‘Selections,’ from ἐκ-λέγω, I choose out), a series of short poems, chiefly pastoral; the Gĕorgĭcă (γῆ ἔργον), a poetical treatise on agriculture; and the Aenēïs, or story of Aenēas, a poem in twelve books, relating the adventures of Aeneas after the fall of Troy.
2. se parere versus, ‘that he produced his verses like a bear,’ lit. ‘in a bear-like manner.’
părĕre, from părio. Distinguish three words, (1) păro, -avi, -atum, -are, ‘I prepare,’ (2) pāreo, -ui, -itum, -ēre, ‘I obey,’ gov. dat. case, (3) părio, pĕpĕri, partum, or parĭtum, -ĕre, ‘I bring forth.’
3. lambendo, abl. of the gerund, ‘by licking it’; so tractando corrigendoque, ‘by polishing and correcting them.’
5. partus, nom. pl., best translated by the English sing., ‘the offspring of...’
6. reddo, compound of re and do. Rĕd is used for re in redămo, redarguo, reddo, redeo, redhibeo, redigo, redimo, redoleo, redundo. In composition the re is short except in ... rēligio (often spelt relligio), rēliquiae (often spelt relliquiae), and the perfects of rĕpello, rĕperio, and rĕfero, viz., rēpuli (or reppuli), rēperi (or repperi), and rētuli (or rettuli). Rēfert, the impersonal verb, ‘it concerns,’ is a compound of res-fert: rĕfero, makes 3rd sing, rĕfert. Re or red in composition has two principal meanings, (1) ‘back’ or ‘backward,’ as redeo, ‘I go back,’ (2) ‘again,’ as reficio, ‘I make again, repair.’ It also frequently denotes (3) ‘duty’ or ‘obligation,’ so reddo here means ‘I give as is due,’ ‘render.’
1. Menander (342-291 B.C.), an Athenian comic poet, famous as the model of Roman dramatists, especially Terence.
Philemon, also an Athenian comic poet, the contemporary and rival of Menander.
2. in certaminibus comoediarum. In Athens dramas were represented at the great festivals in honour of Dionysus, at which “every citizen was present, as a matter of course, from daybreak to sunset” (Donaldson). Judges were appointed by lot to decide upon the merits of the rival plays. The successful poet was crowned with ivy, and his name was proclaimed before the audience.
ambitus, ‘bribery,’ from ambio; properly a ‘going round’ to canvass for votes, etc., especially by bribery. Ambitio, from the same verb, is used both in this sense and also as ‘a desire for power,’ etc., our ‘ambition.’
4. quaeso, used parenthetically like our ‘pray!’
bonâ veniâ, ‘apologizing for the question’; lit. ‘with your good leave...’ i.e. ‘pardon me, but...’
5. nonne introduces a question expecting the answer ‘Yes,’ e.g. nonne erubescis, ‘do you not blush?’ Num introduces a question expecting the answer ‘No,’ e.g. num erubescis, ‘you do not blush, do you?’ -ne is used when the answer is doubtful, e.g. erubescisne, ‘do you blush?’
erubesco. The termination -sco shows that the verb is inceptive or inchoative, i.e. denotes the beginning (inceptum) of an action or state. Such verbs are always of the 3rd conjugation, and form their perfects and supines (if they have supines, but in most inceptives the supine is wanting) from the simple verb or stem from which they spring, e.g. pallesco (from palleo), pallui, (no supine), pallescere, I begin to grow pale; vĕtĕrasco (from old form vĕter, classical vĕtus, -ĕris), -ravi, no sup., veterascĕre, ‘I grow old.’
1. Aristoteles, the Greek philosopher, was born at Stagīra, in Macedonia, 384 B.C. He lived for twenty years at Athens, where he was a pupil of Plato; afterwards he returned to Macedonia, and became the tutor of Alexander. When Alexander succeeded to the throne, Aristotle again went to Athens and taught philosophy for 13 years in the Lyceum, a gymnasium sacred to Apollo Lyceus. He died in 322 B.C. at Chalcis in Euboea. Many of his writings upon logic, moral and political philosophy, natural history, etc., have reached us.
Plutarchus was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia about 50 A.D. He came to Rome at an early age, and spent many years there and in other parts of Italy. In his old age he returned to Chaeronea, where he died at an unknown date. His works were written in Greek: the most famous of them is the Parallel Lives of forty-six Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs, a Greek and a Roman together (e.g. Alexander and Caesar, Demosthenes and Cicero), the life of each pair being followed by a short discussion of their comparative merits.
hercle is a nominative form; the similar exclamations mehercules, mehercule, mehercle, hercules, hercule, and hercle are all abbreviations for ‘me Hercules juvet!’ ‘may Hercules help me!’ Cf. the interjectional phrase, ‘medius fidius,’ for ‘me deus Fidius juvet’, ‘so help me the God of Faith!’
2. si super ..., the order is ‘si imponis magna pondera super lignum palmae arboris.’
3. non deorsum, the wood does not yield and bend inwards beneath the weight, but rises up against it and bends outwards.
6. urgentibus opprimentibusque, dat. after cedit, ‘it does not yield to....’
1. Socrates was born at Athens 469 B.C. His father was a statuary, and in early life Socrates followed the same profession, but he soon abandoned it and devoted himself entirely to philosophy. He did not follow the usual custom of giving public lectures or opening a school, but went about in the city talking to men wherever he met them, and endeavouring to awake in them a love of true knowledge. By his attacks upon the popular theories and his free discussion of religious questions he roused a strong antagonism; at last he was impeached on the three charges of corrupting the Athenian youth, despising the gods of the State, and introducing new deities, and was executed by a draught of hemlock poison, 399 B.C. He left no written works, so that our knowledge of him is derived from the writings of his pupils and contemporaries, chiefly Plato and Xenophon.
3. iris ... scatebat, lit. ‘bubbled over with,’ ‘overflowed with ...’ Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 27, 26, ‘scatentem beluis pontum,’ ‘the ocean teeming with monsters’; and Aulus Gellius, N. A. l. 15, uses ‘scatere verbis.’
quam rem ... demiratus, ‘having expressed his astonishment at this fact to her husband Socrates.’
4. Alcibiades, 450-404 B.C., was a brilliant but unprincipled Athenian statesman, who became famous during the Peloponnesian war. He enjoyed the friendship of Socrates, was saved by Socrates at the battle of Potidaea, 432 B.C., and saved the life of Socrates at the battle of Delium, 424 B.C.
5. ăcerbum, ăcer-bus from ācer, as sŭper-bus from sŭper. Usually words retain the quantity of the word from which they are derived, but there are many exceptions, e.g. hŏmo and hūmanus, nōtus and cog-nĭtus, so rex, gen. rēgis, but rĕgo, dux, gen. dŭcis, but dūco.
7. insuesco. Cf. note on erubesco, ii. 5.
exerceor, in a middle sense, ‘I exercise myself.’ Cf. faciunt idem, cum exercentur, athletae (Cic. Tusc. ii. 23, 56), ‘athletes do the same when they exercise themselves.’ Many Latin passives have thus a ‘middle’ force; cf. vertor, I turn myself; lavor, I wash myself; and the deponents glorior, I boast myself; vescor, I feed myself, etc.
8. ut ... feram, ‘so that I bear more easily.’ Ut used in a consecutive sense, i.e. denoting the consequence or result.
1. corporis firmandi causâ, ‘(undergone) for the sake of strengthening his body’—the gerundive attraction. Cf. note xiii. 1.
3. ad solem alterum orientem, ‘till the next sunrise.’ Sol oriens is used for sunrise, i.e. the rising of the sun, as ‘summus mons’ for ‘the top of the mountain,’ Caesar mortuus for ‘the death of Caesar,’ etc.
5. tanquam ... facto, lit. a certain withdrawal, as it were, of mind and feeling from the body having taken place, i.e. ‘mind and feeling having, as it were, left his body.’ He stood in seeming unconsciousness. Animus, when contrasted with mens, is the mind as the seat of the passions, etc.; mens the higher reasoning faculty, the intellect.
9. valitudine integra, the abl. absolute, ‘in unimpaired health.’
Ablative Absolute, ‘absolute’ (absolutus, fr. ab·solvo, ‘I release’) here means ‘released’ from government by any word in the principal sentence.
The construction is one of many varieties of the adverbial ablative; e.g. the abl. of time, the abl. of place where, the abl. of manner, etc.; but it differs from these ablatives—
(1) In being equivalent to a complete clause, e.g. Caesar hoc dixit, convocatis militibus is equivalent to cum milites convocati essent.
(2) Or, to express the same fact in another way, it consists of two words each in the ablative, one of which stands to the other in the relation of predicate to subject; the ‘subject’ being a substantive or pronoun, the ‘predicate’ a participle, adjective, substantive, or, more rarely, a pronoun.
Exceptions: But (a) sometimes the subject is not expressed, and a participle is used impersonally by itself in the abl. absol.—the participle here being equivalent to a clause containing an impersonal verb, e.g. mihi, errato, nulla venia, ‘there is no pardon for me, if I blunder’ (errato = si erratum erit a me).
(b) Sometimes a whole clause is substituted for the abl. of the ‘subject’: e.g. excepto quod non simul esses, cetera laetus, ‘happy in all respects, except the fact that you were not with me’ (lit. ‘the fact that you were not with me being excepted’).
Examples: (1) Subst. and participle, Tullio regnante vixerunt, ‘they lived whilst Tullius was king.’ (2) Subst. and adj., Hannibale vivo Romani semper Poenos timuerunt, ‘the Romans always feared the Carthaginians whilst Hannibal lived.’ (3) Subst. and subst., Nil desperandum Teucro duce, ‘there is no cause for despair whilst Teucer is our leader.’ (4) Subst. and pron., quid hoc populo obtineri potest, ‘what can be maintained with such a people as this?’ (5) Pron. and participle, eis occisis ceteri domum redierunt, ‘when those men had been slain the rest returned home.’ (6) Pron. and adj., me invito id fecit, ‘he did it contrary to my wishes.’ (7) Pron. and subst., eo rege tuti erant, ‘they were safe whilst he was king.’
Note.—(1) The abl. absolute sometimes expresses merely time (e.g. inita aestate, ‘at the beginning of summer’), but more often attendant circumstances, or cause.
(2) The abl. absol. cannot be used when the ‘subject’ of the clause is the same as the subject or object of the principal clause. This rule is sometimes, but rarely, violated.
(3) In Greek the genitive is the absolute case: in most modern languages the nom. is thus used: but the acc. is sometimes used absolutely in German, and in Old English the accusative (representing the dative of Anglo-Saxon) was used absolutely. Milton uses both nom. and acc.: cf. “Us dispossessed,” Par. L., vii. 140; “I extinct,” id. ix. 994.
10. pestilentia, the famous plague of Athens, which raged during the second and third years of the Peloponnesian war. This was a war between Athens with her allies and Sparta with her allies, which lasted for 28 years, from 431 to 404 B.C., and ended in the defeat of Athens and the loss of her maritime supremacy.
1. Alexander III. (356-323 B.C.), surnamed the Great, ascended the throne of Macedonia on the death of his father Philip, 336 B.C. In the 13 years of his reign he conquered the greater part of Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, and marched even into Northern India and Egypt. The incident here mentioned happened in his Indian campaign. In 327 he crossed the Indus, entered the Punjaub, defeated and captured the Indian king Porus in a great battle on the banks of the Hydaspes, and founded there two towns—Bucephalon and Nicaea. He continued his progress as far as the banks of the Hyphasis, but here his wearied troops mutinied and refused to advance any further.
Būcĕphălās (βουκεφάλας, βοῦς κεφαλή), ‘ox-head,’ so called from the breadth of its forehead.
2. emptum, ‘Chares has stated that it was bought for 13 talents.’ talentis, abl. of price.
Chares was an officer at Alexander’s court, who wrote a series of anecdotes about the life and exploits of the king.
3. hoc autem, the order is hoc est nostri aeris summa trecenta duodecim sestertia, ‘this is in (lit. of) our money the sum (of) 312 sestertia.’ Sestertium = 1,000 sestertii, about £8 at this time. Therefore 312 sestertia = £312 x 8 = £2,496. For sestertium cf. xxxiii. 2.
6. haud unquam, etc., ‘it never allowed itself to be mounted by any one except the king.’
8. faceret, subj. after cum.
Cum (= when), like other temporal conjunctions, takes as a rule the indic. mood; but the subj. is required when the time of the cum clause is regarded as depending on the time of the principal clause. This is usually the case in past time, hence the rule is that cum in past time requires the imperf. or plup. subj., unless (1) it is used in a frequentative sense, e.g. ‘as often as’ (but later writers, e.g. Livy, often use the subj. even in this sense), e.g. cum palam ejus anuli ad palmam converterat, a nullo videbatur (Cic. Off.), ‘as often as he turned the bezel of that ring to his palm, he was seen by no one,’ cf. xiv. 7, id cum dixerat, ‘as often as he had said that’; (2) it is simply equivalent to et tum, e.g. castra ibi posita, cum subito advenere Samnitium legiones (Livy), ‘the camp had been pitched there, when the Samnite legions suddenly arrived’; (3) the two clauses mark strictly contemporaneous events, tum being often added in the principal clause to mark this fact, e.g. vos tum paruistis cum paruit nemo (Cic. p. Lig. 7), ‘you were obedient at a time when no one (else) was obedient.’
9. non satis sibi providens, ‘without sufficient forethought.’
inmisit used absolutely, i.e. without an object; this, if expressed, would be ‘equum,’ ‘spurred it forward against.’
11. moribundus. The termination bundus, or cundus, denotes fulness, e.g. vagabundus, ‘wandering’; iracundus, ‘wrathful.’ Cf. L. Primer, p. 58, § 70 E.
12. e mediis hostibus, ‘from the midst of the enemy.’ In many phrases the adj. is used in Latin where in English we use a subst. with another subst. depending on it, and vice versa: e.g. summus mons, ‘the top of the mountain’; but animi dolor, ‘mental pain’; cf. v. 3, sol oriens.
14. domini iam superstitis securus, ‘relieved from anxiety for its master, now safe.’ For the genitive domini after securus, cf. sēcūră fŭtūri, Ovid; sēcūrus pĕlăgi atque mei, Verg.
1. Alcibiades. Cf. iv. 4. note.
Pericles was a great Athenian statesman. He was born about 490 B.C. (the year of the battle of Marathon), and first took part in public affairs in 469, when Athens was beginning to develop rapidly after the Persian wars. From this time till his death in 429 he was the recognised leader of the democratic party. Under his guidance Athens became the most powerful state and the most beautiful city in Greece.
ăvuncŭlus (deminutive of ăvus, a grandfather) is an uncle on the mother’s side—a mother’s brother; pătruus (pā̆ter), an uncle on the father’s side—a father’s brother.
3. puerum docendum curavit, ‘had the boy educated.’ This use of the gerundive in a final sense, as ‘an oblique predicate’ with the direct object of certain transitive verbs, e.g. curo, do, suscipio, etc., is common in Latin writers, especially Caesar. Cf. pontem faciendum curavit, ‘he had a bridge made’; agros eis habitandos dedit, ‘he gave them lands to dwell in’; me dandum ad bestias curavit (xxx.), ‘he had me given to the wild beasts.’ Cf. Note xiii. 1. iv., on the Gerundive.
4. canere tibiis, ‘to play on the pipes.’ Both Greeks and Romans usually played on a double pipe, composed of two instruments not unlike flageolets, joined at the mouth-piece, and spreading out in the form of a V; hence the plural tibiae. Tibia means originally the shin bone, and then a musical instrument, pipes or flutes being at first made of bone.
1. C. Fabricius Luscīnus was one of the most popular heroes in Roman history. He was regarded as the type of the old-fashioned honest warrior, who was proof against the luxury and corruption of the rising generation. In his first consulship, 282 B.C., he defeated the Lucanians, Bruttians, and Samnites; in 280-278 B.C. he served with distinction against Pyrrus (cf. xxvii.).
The Samnites were a powerful people living to the east of Rome. The Romans first came into contact with them in 343 B.C.; for 50 years there was war between the two nations; at last the Samnites were conquered, but they still maintained their love of freedom, and once more proved formidable opponents to Rome in the Social War, 90 B.C.
2. memoratis ... rebus, abl. absolute, ‘after mentioning the many great services which he had rendered (rebus quae bene fecisset) to the Samnites after the restoration of peace....’
3. post redditam pacem. Pax reddita, ‘the restoration of peace.’ Cf. sol oriens, ‘the rising of the sun,’ v. 3. note.
4. dono, as a gift, the predicative dative, or dative of purpose used as a complement. Cf. Hor. exitio est avidum mare nautis, ‘the greedy sea is [as] a destruction to sailors.’
11. quâ, abl. after usus, ‘for which I have no use.’
1. Hannibal, the famous general of the Carthaginians in the second Punic war, was born in 247 B.C. In 218 he began his march from Spain into Italy, crossed the Alps, and defeated the Romans in N. Italy on the Ticinus and the Trebia; then followed the great victories at Lake Trasimenus, 217, and Cannae, 216. In 203 Hannibal was compelled to return to Africa to oppose Scipio, who had defeated the Carthaginian troops and their ally Syphax. A decisive battle was fought at Zama, October 19th, 202, in which Scipio gained a great victory over Hannibal. In the following year peace was made. Hannibal now set to work to prepare Carthage for a fresh struggle, but his political enemies denounced his designs to the Romans, and he was compelled in 193 B.C. to take refuge at the court of Antiochus the Great, King of Syria, who was on the eve of war with Rome. On the defeat of Antiochus the surrender of Hannibal was made one of the conditions of peace; but he fled to Prusias, King of Bithynia, 188 B.C. The Romans still pursued him, and sent messengers to Prusias demanding his surrender. Fearing that Prusias would be unable to resist this demand, and not knowing whither to flee to escape the vengeance of his enemies, he took poison, 183 B.C.
2. ingentis. The acc. pl. of -i nouns of the 3rd decl. varies in the mss. between -īs, -eis, and ēs. All three forms seem to have been used till the Augustan age, after which period the form in -es prevailed. A nom. pl. also in -is and -eis is found sometimes in the mss. of Plautus and Lucretius and in old inscriptions.
populo Romano, dat. of the ‘Remoter Object’ after facturus, the ‘nearer object’ being bellum.
4. currus cum falcibus. The wheels of these chariots were armed with projecting scythes or hooks, which kept the enemy at a distance, or cut them down, as the charioteers drove at full speed through their ranks. These war chariots were in use among the Assyrians, Persians, Medes, and Syrians in Asia, and in Europe among the Gauls and Britons. Some have supposed that these are the ‘chariots of iron’ referred to in the books of Joshua and Judges; but Xenophon (Cyrop., vi. i. 30) says that ‘scythe chariots’ were not introduced into Asia Minor till the time of Cyrus.
5. elephantos cum turribus, small turrets placed on the backs of the elephants, and carrying a few soldiers.
6. frenis. The bits were sometimes made of silver and gold, and the bridles decorated with jewels, etc.
ephippiis. The saddles in use among Eastern nations, the Greeks and the Romans, consisted sometimes of a mere skin or cloth, sometimes of a wooden frame, upon which padded cloth, etc., was stretched; from either side cloths hung down, often dyed with bright colours, and decorated with fringes, etc.
monilibus, necklets used as ornaments for horses, as well as for men and women.
phaleris, bosses of metal attached as ornaments to the harness of horses and the armour of men. They were sometimes hung as pendants to the horse’s saddle, and jangled loudly as it charged forward against the enemy. For these military ornaments cf. the well-known passage in Verg., Aen. vii. 276—
Omnibus extemplo Teucris jubet ordine duci
Instratos ostro alipedes pictisque tapetis;
Aurea pectoribus demissa monilia pendent;
Tecti auro, fulvum mandunt sub dentibus aurum.
7. putasne. Cf. ii. 5. note.
8. Poenus (Poenĭcus or Pūnĭcus), properly Phoenician, but applied by Roman writers especially to the inhabitants of Carthage, which was founded about 850 B.C. by Phoenician colonists, who came probably from Tyre.
1. Milo was the most famous wrestler in Greece; he was six times victor in wrestling at the Olympic games and seven times at the Pythian games. Many stories are told about his great strength: he is said to have carried a heifer four years old on his shoulders through the stadium (or race course, a distance of about 40 yards), to have then killed it with a blow of his fist, and eaten the whole of it the same day. He was a pupil of the great philosopher Pythagoras, at Crotona. One day the pillar on which the roof of the school rested suddenly gave way, but Milo supported the whole weight of the building, and gave the philosopher and his disciples time to escape.
Crotona was a Greek city on the S.E. coast of Italy, founded 740 B.C. by the Achaeans. It became the most important city in S. Italy, owing to its trade with the E. Mediterranean. It attained its greatest power in 510 by the defeat of its neighbour and rival Sybaris: on this occasion Milo commanded the army of Crotona.
Crotoniensis. Note the use of the adj. where we employ a subst. and prep., ‘Milo of Crotona’; so pugna Cannensis (xl. 1.), ‘the Battle of Cannae,’ etc.
3. artem athleticam desisset, ‘had given up athletics.’ The acc. after desino is rare, and chiefly poetical; but Cicero (Fam. vii. 1. 4) uses artem desinere.
5. rimis in parte mediâ hiantem, lit. ‘gaping open with cracks in the middle.’
6. an ullae ... adessent. Adessent is the subj. after the dependent interrogative word an; the construction is called the Indirect or Dependent Question, Interrogatio Obliqua. Thus ‘who are you?’ is ‘quis es?’ but ‘I ask you who you are’ is ‘interrogo quis sis.’
ullae. Quisquam (pronoun) and ullus (adjective) are used for ‘any’ in comparative and negative sentences, in questions expecting the answer No, and in hypothetical sentences.
11. rediit in naturam, ‘returned to its natural (i.e. former) position.’
12. feris, dat. after praebuit, ‘gave the man to the beasts to tear to pieces.’ For this use of the gerundive cf. xiii. 1. note.
1. Romae, ‘at Rome,’ the locative case. This case, which had almost died out in classical Latin, originally ended in -i for the singular and -s for the plural. In some forms it still survived, viz., (1) in such words as militiae (earlier militiai), belli, ‘in the field,’ ‘at the war’; domi, at home; humi, ‘on the ground’; vesperi (or -e), ‘in the evening’; ruri, ‘in the country’; luci, ‘in the light’; and the adverbs ubi, ‘in which place’; ibi, ‘in that place,’ etc.; (2) in the names of towns—Romae (earlier Romai), ‘at Rome’; Tarenti, ‘at Tarentum’; Carthagini (or Carthagine), ‘at Carthage,’ etc.; (3) in such phrases as animi angor, ‘I am vexed in mind’; maturus aevi, ‘advanced in age,’ etc.
Curiam. The word Curia is connected with Cŭres, the chief town of the Sabines, and Quĭrītes (or Cŭrītes), the inhabitants of Cŭres. It originally denoted one of the 30 divisions into which the Romans and Sabines were divided when they united in one community. The word was then applied to the building used for the religious service of a Curia, and afterwards especially to the building in which the Senate met.
2. praetextatis, i.e. wearing the toga praetexta, a white toga with a broad purple border, worn under the Republic by the higher magistrates, by persons engaged in paying vows, and by free-born children. It is said to have been adopted from the Etruscans, and made the royal robe by Tullus Hostilius; and to have been worn with the bulla by boys after the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, whose son at the age of fourteen slew an enemy with his own hand in the Sabine war, and was allowed as a reward to wear the royal robe.
maior, more important than usual.
4. placuitque ut eam rem ne quis.... ‘It was resolved that no one should mention the matter until a decision had been arrived at’ (lit. until it had been decreed).
ut ... ne quis, or ne quis, ‘that no one,’ is always used in a final sentence instead of ut nemo; so ne quid, ne ullus, and ne unquam, instead of ut nihil, ut nullus, ut nunquam. The indefinite pronoun quis is, as a rule, used for ‘any’ or ‘some’ in relative sentences, and after si, nisi, num, ne, and cum; but aliquis is sometimes found after si, more rarely after ne.
5. decreta esset. The subj. is required, because this is a dependent sentence forming part of the Oratio Obliqua after placuit.
7. egissent, subj. after the dependent interrogative quidnam. Cf. x. 6. note. For the same reason videretur, line 11, is in subj.
9. lepidi mendacii consilium capit, ‘bethought himself of an amusing falsehood.’
10. utrum ... unusne ... an.... The -ne is ‘pleonastic,’ i.e. more than is required, for the sentence would be complete without it—utrum videretur utilius ut unus ... an (videretur utilius) ut una.... This idiom is chiefly ante-classical (found often in Plautus), but Cicero uses it, ‘est etiam illa distinctio, utrum illudne non videatur aegre ferendum ... an ...’ (Cic. Tusc. iv. 27, 59). Translate ‘He said the Senate had discussed whether it seemed more useful and advantageous to the State that one man should have two wives, or that one woman should be married to two men.’
3. matrum familias, gen. plur. of mater familias. When familia is compounded with pater, mater, filius, and filia, the old gen. sing. familias is usually found, but familiae also is frequently used by Cicero and other writers, by Livy always. In Sallust and later writers even patres familiarum is found.
4. una potius ... duae. The order is ut una (uxor) nupta fieret duobus viris potius quam ut duae (uxores nuptae fierent) uni (viro).
6. esset, vellet, subj. after the dept. interrogatives quae and quid; so institisset and dixisset. Cf. x. 6. note.
quid sibi postulatio istaec vellet, ‘what that demand of theirs meant.’ Quid sibi res vult, ‘what does the thing mean?’ lit. ‘what does it wish for itself?’ ‘what is its object or drift?’ so quid tibi vis, ‘what do you mean, or want?’ and, more rarely, quid mihi volo, ‘what do I mean, or want?’
1. Sertorius was a Roman general, who first distinguished himself in Gaul. On the outbreak of civil war in 88 B.C. between Marius and Sulla he joined the former. At first the Sullan party were victorious, but when their leader went to the East to fight against Mitridates they were defeated, and from 87-82 the Marian party were supreme. In 83 (or, according to another writer, 82) Sertorius was sent to Spain as governor in the Marian interest. Finding himself unable to hold his ground against the Sullan generals, he crossed to Africa, and gained various successes there. The Lusitani, who inhabited the western part of the Spanish peninsula, then invited him to become their leader against the Romans. He returned with a small force of 2,600 men, one third of whom were Libyans, and then by his extraordinary influence over the natives, and his great powers of organisation, succeeded in forming an army which for years set at defiance every effort made by the generals of the Sullan party, which was now in the ascendant. In 76 Pompeius was sent to Spain with a large army to reinforce the Sullan generals, but for five years more Sertorius held his ground. At last, in 72 B.C., he was assassinated by Perperna and other of his own Roman officers, who were jealous of his power.
et utendi et regendi exercitus, the gerundial attraction. When an object is expressed after a gerund, the construction called the gerundial, or gerundival attraction is preferred. In this construction the object is attracted (if it differs) into the case of the gerund, and the gerund, taking adjectival inflections (and then called the gerundive), is made to agree adjectivally with the object in number and gender.
Examples:—
a. The Acc., praemisit milites ad Gallos insequendos, ‘he sent the soldiers forward to pursue the Gauls.’
b. The Gen., causâ urbis delendae, ‘for the sake of destroying the city.’
c. The Dat., bello gerendo me praefecistis, ‘you placed me in command of the management of the war.’
d. The Abl., in vestigiis persequendis operam consumpsi, ‘I spent labour in following their tracks.’
The Gerundival Attraction is of course only used with transitive verbs which govern a direct object in the acc. case. The words fungor, fruor, utor, vescor, potior are exceptions; they are used both in this construction and in the constructions explained in ii. and iii. below, because they were originally transitive, and governed an acc.
The gerunds and gerundives are the substantival and adjectival forms respectively of a participle in -ndus. Under the gerund are included the substantival forms in -ndum, -ndi, -ndo; under the gerundive the full adjectival declension in -ndus, a, um, etc.
The uses of the gerund and gerundive may be divided under four headings.
i. By its oblique cases the gerund (and the gerundive in the construction mentioned above—the ‘gerundival attraction’) completes the active infinite verb noun, which is only used in the nom. and acc., e.g. haec ad iudicandum sunt facillima, ‘these matters are very easy to decide’; amor agendi, canendi, etc., ‘love of acting, singing,’ etc.; causâ agendi, ‘for the sake of acting’; aqua utilis bibendo, ‘water useful for drinking’; mens alitur discendo, ‘the mind is nourished by learning.’
ii. The nom. (and in oratio obliqua the acc.) of the gerund is used intransitively with parts of the verb sum (est, erat, fuit, esse, etc.), as an impersonal verb to denote necessity, duty, or suitability, e.g. nunc est bibendum, ‘now it is right to drink’, eundum est, ‘there is a necessity to go’; parendum est legibus, ‘it is necessary to be obedient to the laws.’ The person on whom the duty falls is expressed by the dat. case, the ‘Dative of the Agent,’ except after verbs which govern a dative; after these, to avoid ambiguity, the agent is expressed by a or ab with the abl., e.g. eundum est mihi, ‘I must go,’ but parendum est ei a te, ‘you must obey him’.
iii. The gerundive is used (1) personally as a verb, usually with a passive signification, e.g. aqua bibenda est, ‘water ought to be drunk’; (2) as a mere epithet, e.g. ridenda poemata, ‘poems to be laughed at.’
iv. The acc. of the gerundive is used in a final sense as an oblique predicate, or complement, agreeing with the direct object of certain transitive verbs—curo, do, suscipio, habeo, etc., e.g. Caesar pontem faciendum curavit, ‘Caesar had a bridge made’; agros eis habitandos dedit, ‘he gave them the lands to dwell in’ Cf. vii. 3. note.
8. usui, predicative dative or dat. of purpose. Cf. dono, viii. 4. note.
memoria, etc. The order is memoria prodita est neminem ex his nationibus, quae cum S. faciebant (‘who served with Sertorius’), cum multis proeliis superatus esset (‘although he had been defeated in many battles’), unquam ab eo descivisse.
9. neminem. The gen. of this word, neminis, is only found in writers before Cicero, the abl. nemine in late writers (e.g. Tacitus and Suetonius), and once in Plautus; the plural is not used. Hence we have
| Nom., | nemo, | nulli, etc. |
| Acc., | neminem, | nullos, etc. |
| Gen., | nullius, | nullorum, etc. |
| Dat., | nemini, | nullis. |
| Abl., | nullo or nullâ, | nullis. |
1. alba. Albus is a dull white as opposed to ater, dull black; candidus, shining white, opposed to niger, shining black.
eximiae pulchritudinis et celeritatis, genitives of quality.
2. dono, predicative dat., or dat. of purpose. Cf. dono, viii. 4. note.
5. factu, the supine in -u, used as an abl. of respect. Cf. foedum dictu est, ‘it is horrible to state’ (lit. ‘in the saying’), and xxiv. 2, utilia monitu suasuque.
quid, the indef. pron.; so cui, line 13. For its use after si cf. xi. 4. note.
7. dixerat, indic. after cum in a frequentative sense, ‘whenever he had said that.’ Cf. vi. 8. note.
10. in fugam se proripuit, ‘took to hasty flight.’
18. consuerat, indic., because it is not part of what Sertorius said, but a statement made by the author.
quod opus esset facto, ‘what had to be done.’ Facto is the abl. of the perf. part. pass.; for this use cf. maturato, properato opus est, ‘there is need of haste’; and the similar construction with the abl. of the supine, dictu opus est (Terence), ‘it is necessary to speak’; quod scitu opus est (Cicero), ‘what has to be known.’
Tarquinius Superbus, according to tradition, was the seventh and last of the Roman kings (535-510 B.C.), the others being Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Martius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius.
1. Libris Sibyllinis. Little is known about the famous Sibylline books. They were probably derived from Cumae in Campania, the seat of a celebrated oracle. At Rome they were kept in a stone chest (sacrarium) beneath the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, under the charge of certain officers (quindecimviri), and consulted only by the special command of the Senate. In 82 B.C. this temple was burnt and the books destroyed. A fresh collection of oracles was made by ambassadors sent to the chief cities of Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. When the temple was rebuilt these were deposited in the same place, but many spurious prophetic books, purporting to be Sibylline oracles, seem to have got into circulation at Rome, and several revisions of the books were ordered from time to time. Christian writers frequently appeal to the Sibylline oracles as containing prophecies of the Messiah.
2. hospita, feminine form of hospes. Cf. antistes and sacerdos, priest, antistita and sacerdota (in inscriptions), priestess, sospes and sospita, saviour, etc.
4. eos velle vendere, ‘(she said) that she wished to sell them.’
6. nimium atque inmensum, 300 pieces of gold, according to one form of the legend.
quasi ... desiperet. Quasi, ‘as if,’ introducing a statement which is not a fact, naturally governs the subj., ‘as if she were mad’ (but she was not). In sentences of comparison introduced by such conjunctions as tanquam, ceu, quasi, velut, etc., the subj. is usually found, because the statement is usually not true; but when the statement is a fact the indic. is employed, e.g. Fuit olim, quasi nunc ego sum, senex (Plautus). Frequently quasi, etc., are used, not as conjunctions introducing the sentence, but adverbially with a single word; in such cases they do not affect the mood, e.g. servis respublica et quasi civitas domus est (Pl. Ep. viii. 16), ‘to slaves their home is a state, and, as it were, a city.’ Cf. xviii. 5, quasi consultans cum Jove.
7. foculum. Fŏcŭlus, deminutiveof fŏcus (a hearth). Cf. rĭvŭlus, a rivulet, and rivus, a river.
9. vellet, subj. after the dependent interrogative ecquid. Cf. x. 6. note.
10. sed enim, ‘but indeed.’ Cf. the use of ἀλλὰ γὰρ in Greek.
14. ore ... fit, ‘now becomes serious and more attentive’ (lit. ‘of a serious countenance and more attentive mind’). Ore and animo are ablatives of quality.
19. nusquam loci, ‘nowhere in the world.’ The genitives loci, locorum, gentium and terrarum are frequently used with adverbs of place—ubi, quo, unde, usquam, nusquam, etc., e.g. ubi terrarum sumus (Cic.), ‘where on earth are we?’
1. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Maior was born in 234 B.C. He is first mentioned in 218 B.C. at the battle of the Ticinus (cf. ix. 1. note), in which he is said to have saved the life of his father P. Scipio. He fought at Cannae, 216, and was chosen with App. Claudius to command the remains of the Roman army after that great disaster. In 212 he was unanimously elected aedile. When the tribunes objected to the election, because he was under the legal age, he replied, ‘If all the Quirites wish to make me aedile, I am old enough.’ In 210, at the age of twenty-four, he was appointed to command the army in Spain, having come forward as a candidate for the post which all the old generals feared to accept. By 207 he had conquered almost the whole of that country from the Carthaginians. In 205 he was elected consul. He was anxious to cross over to Africa and end the war by a blow at Carthage itself, but the Senate, partly from jealousy, partly from timidity, opposed his plans and would only grant him the province of Sicily, with power to cross over to Africa if he thought it in the interests of the State; but this permission they endeavoured to render useless by refusing him an army. Volunteers however flocked from every part of Italy to his standard, and in 204 he was able to land in Africa with a large force. In 203 he defeated Hasdrubal and his ally Syphax, and in 202 brought the second Punic war to an end by a great victory at Zama over Hannibal, who had been recalled from Italy. In 201 peace was made, and Scipio, returning to Rome, received the agnomen Africanus, and was overwhelmed with every mark of honour. In 190 he served as legate under his brother, Lucius Scipio Asiaticus, in the war against Antiochus (cf. ix. and xvii.) On their return the accusations mentioned in xvi. and xvii. were made against the brothers. In 185 Scipio retired into private life, and died soon afterwards, probably in 183.
1. tribunus plebis. The tribuni plebis were appointed in 494, after the secession to Mons Sacer, to protect the plebeians against the patrician magistrates. At first they were two in number, afterwards they were increased to ten.
3. ut condicionibus, etc., ‘that peace might be made with him (i.e. Antiochus) on favourable conditions in the name of the Roman people.’
7. diem esse hodiernum, ‘that this is the day on which ...’ (lit. ‘that it is to-day on which ...’).
9. proelio. The battle of Zama, Oct. 19th, 202 B.C.
11. simus, ‘let us not be ungrateful therefore to the gods....’
12. censeo, used parenthetically, ‘I propose.’ Cf. quaeso, ii. 4.
13. gratulatum, the supine in -um, used to express purpose after the verb of motion, eamus.
17. aedes, in sing., a ‘temple’ (a single room), in the plur., a ‘house’ (a collection of rooms). As distinguished from templum, aedes is a simple building without division into rooms; templum is a large edifice consisting of many rooms, consecrated by the augurs, and belonging often to several deities.
18. sollemni. Sollemnis, from sollus (cf. ὅλος, salvus), whole; prop. taking place every year, ‘established,’ especially of festivals; then, with the religious force predominating, ‘religious,’ ‘festive,’ ‘solemn.’
2. M. Porcius Cato, known as the Censor (234-149), first distinguished himself in the second Punic war; in 204-3 he served as Quaestor to Scipio Africanus in Sicily and Africa. From this time forward he became the declared enemy of the Scipios and their friends, who were introducing, he said, into Rome the luxury and refinement of degenerate Greece and ruining the simple and honest Roman character. He served with distinction in Spain, 195-4, and against Antiochus, 191. In 184 he was censor, and applied himself strenuously, but in vain, to stem the tide of Greek luxury. He was one of the ambassadors sent to Africa to arbitrate between Masinissa and the Carthaginians, and was so struck by the flourishing condition of Carthage, that on his return he insisted that, whilst that city existed, Rome would never be safe. Whenever he was called upon for his vote in the Senate, whatever the subject before the house was, he always concluded his remarks by ‘And I further am of opinion that Carthage must be destroyed (delendam esse Carthaginem).’ The third Punic war, which broke out soon after his death, was largely due to his influence.
5. L. Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus served under his brother Africanus in Spain, and in 190 defeated Antiochus at Mount Sipylus. Cf. xvi. 1.
3. comparati in eum. Comparare hominem in aliquem is the regular phrase for procuring a man to attack another. ‘Having been set upon him....’
4. pecuniae ... rationem redderet, ‘to give an account of the money paid by Antiochus, and the spoil....’
9. allatum, i.e. dixit librum allatum esse, ‘he said that it had been brought.’
10. aerarium, the public treasury at Rome, in which, besides the State treasure, the standards of the legions and copies of all decrees of the Senate were kept. After the expulsion of the kings the Temple of Saturn, at the head of the Forum, was used for this purpose.
10. sed enim, ‘but indeed.’ Cf. xv. 10.
11. nec me ipse afficiam contumeliâ, ‘nor will I insult myself with my own lips (ipse).’
12. coram, ‘before their eyes.’
13. quod cui. The order is quod ab eo ratio praedae posceretur, cui salus ... deberet, ‘indignant that an account of the booty was demanded from a man, to whom the safety of the State and constitution ought to be ascribed.’
Acceptum aliquid referre alicui, lit. ‘to put down a thing as received to a man’s account,’ ‘to credit him with it’; a metaphor from banking.
2. Scipio Africanus “was unquestionably one of the greatest men of Rome, and he acquired at an early age the confidence and admiration of his countrymen. His enthusiastic mind led him to believe that he was a special favourite of the gods; and he never engaged in any public or private business without first going to the Capitol, where he sat some time alone, enjoying communication from the gods. For all he proposed or executed he alleged the divine approval; and the Roman people gave credit to his assertions, and regarded him as a being almost superior to the common race of men. There can be no doubt that Scipio believed himself in the divine revelations, which he asserted to have been vouchsafed to him, and the extraordinary success which attended all his enterprises must have deepened this belief.”—Smith’s Classical Dictionary.
3. noctis extremo, ‘at the end of night.’ The neuter extremum is used as a substantive, meaning ‘the end.’ Cf. extremo anni, Livy, xxxv. 11. 1; sub extremum noctis, Sil. 4. 88.
4. ventitare. Ventito is the frequentative form of venio. Frequentative or iterative verbs denote repeated action: they are of the first conjugation, and formed by adding -to, -so, -ito, or -itor to the supine stem, or, more rarely, to the clipt stem, as can-to, ‘I sing often’; cur-so, ‘I run often’; rog-ito, ‘I ask often’; min-itor, ‘I threaten often’; haes-ito, ‘I stick fast.’ Sometimes one frequentative verb is formed from another, as cant-ito from canto.
ac iubere ... Iovis, ‘and to order the temple of Jupiter to be opened.’
5. quasi consultans. Cf. xv. 6. note.
7. id temporis. For this ‘genitive of the thing measured,’ depending on a neuter pronoun, expressing quantity, hence often called the ‘partitive genitive,’ cf. aliquid veri, falsi; id aetatis; nihil reliqui facere, ‘to leave nothing undone’ (Caes.); quantum mercedis (xxxii. 17.); si quid remedii (xxxiv. 8.), and such phrases as navium quod ubique fuerat in unum locum coegerant (Caes.). Id in this phrase is in the accusative. Similar adverbial accusatives are—hoc noctis, magnam partem, suam vicem, multum, etc. The use of the acc. has arisen from an extended use of the cognate acc. after intransitive verbs (e.g. servire servitatem, dormire noctem, dolere aliquid, etc.).
quod in eum solum ... incurrerent, the order is aeditumi ... admirati, quod canes, semper in alios saevientes, neque latrarent neque incurrerent in eum solum id temporis in Capitolium ingredientem, ‘because he was the only man who entered the temple at that time, at whom the dogs, that always attacked others, did not bark and fly.’
14. re cibaria copiosum, ‘well supplied with provisions.’
15. eius potiundi. Gerundival attraction, cf. xiii. 1. note.
16. ius dicebat, ‘he was administering justice,’ the technical term.
18. in iure stare, or esse, ‘to stand,’ ‘present oneself before a magistrate’; in ius ire, ‘to go before a magistrate.’
19. vadimonium promittere, to promise or give security (bail) for a man’s appearance, ‘for what day and what place’ (i.e. for his appearance on what day and place) ‘he would order security to be given.’
iuberet, subj. after the dependent interrog. quem. Cf. x. 6. note.
21. sese, object. of sistere, ‘ordered him to present himself on the third day in yonder place.’
22. atque ita factum, ‘and so it happened.’
vadari. Vador aliquem = ‘I bind a man over by bail’: the object. of vadari here is militem; “on the third day, on which he had ordered (them) to bind (the man) over to appear.”
1. capite. Caput denotes the legal status of a citizen: he lost it “as much if he were struck off the roll of citizens as if his head were struck off his shoulders” (Wilkins, R. Lit. Primer). “I and two others were trying a friend on a capital charge.”
4. ad casum ... medendum, ‘to remedy so perilous a mischance.’
6. ad condemnandum, sc. hominem, ‘I gave my vote in silence for condemning the man.’
1. Favorinus was a native of Arles, in Gaul; he was a famous philosopher, and resided at different periods of his life in Rome, Greece, and Asia Minor (about 110-130 A.D.).
3. Curius. M’ Curius Dentatus, consul in 290, 275, and 274 B.C., distinguished himself in the Samnite wars. He was a favourite hero of the Romans, and celebrated as a type of the old-fashioned virtue and frugality. The Samnites, it is said, once sent an embassy to him with costly gifts. The messengers found the great general sitting by his hearth, and roasting turnips. They proffered their gifts, but he rejected them, saying that he would rather rule over those who possessed gold than possess it himself.
4. Fabricius. Cf. viii. 1. note.
Coruncanius, consul 260 B.C., fought with success against the Etruscans and against Pyrrus (cf. xxvii. 1. note); he was also a distinguished lawyer, and the first plebeian who became Pontifex Maximus.
5. his, abl. after the comparative antiquiores.
antiquus, ‘former,’ ‘ancient,’ is used of what has existed in past time as opposed to novus, what has not previously existed, new. Vetus denotes what has existed for a long time, old, aged, opposed to rĕcens, what has not existed for long, recent.
Horatii. The three brothers of the Horatian gens, who, according to the legend, in the reign of Tullus Hostilius, fought against the Curiatii, three brothers from Alba, to determine whether Rome or Alba was to exercise the supremacy.
6. Auruncorum, etc., genitives depending of verbis, ‘used the language of the Aurunci,’ etc. The Aurunci, Sicani, and Pelasgi were old Italian races.
9. quasi loquare. Cf. xv. 6. note, ‘quasi desiperet.’
Euandri. The legend says that Euander, son of Hermes and an Arcadian nymph, about 60 years before the Trojan war, led a Pelasgian colony from Arcadia in Greece to Italy, and built the town of Pallantium at the foot of the Palatine hill. Vergil represents Euander as still alive when Aeneas came to Italy. (Aeneid, viii. 51.)
10. abhinc multis annis, ‘many years ago.’ To express ‘how long ago,’ abhinc and ante are used with either abl. or acc. case. Cf. abhinc triennium huc commigravit, ‘she came hither three years ago’ (Ter. An. i. 70).
11. quae dicas, ‘anything that you say.’ The subj. (a consecutive subjunctive) after the relative marks the statement as indefinite; quae dicis would mean the particular words which you are actually using.
14. sit, subjunctive, because a dependent sentence in the oratio obliqua after ais.
16. C. Julius Caesar, the Dictator, 100-44 B.C. This quotation is from his lost work De Analogia, written, it is said, when he was crossing the Alps.
18. ut tamquam, ‘that you should avoid a rare word, as (you would avoid) a rock.’
1. T. Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus was another of the favourite heroes of Roman history. His exploit here mentioned happened in 361. In 353 and again in 349 he was Dictator; in 347, 344, and 340, Consul. In this last year Torquatus and P. Decius Mus gained a great victory over the Latins near Mt. Vesuvius, and established the Roman supremacy in Latium. It was shortly before this battle that the disobedient act of his son occurred, mentioned at the end of xxii.
3. torquis, a ‘twisted neck chain,’ as opposed to monile (cf. ix. 6), which was made of beads, stones, etc., strung together.
ex hoste detractam induit, ‘he had taken from an enemy, and put on himself.’ A participle and verb are frequently used in Latin where in English two verbs are employed, e.g. scripsit se profectum celeriter adfore, ‘he wrote (to say) that he had set out and would soon arrive.’
4. fuerit, subj. after the dependent interrogative quis. Cf. x. 6. note.
6. cum ... processit, etc. The indicative is used in past time after cum, when the conjunction is purely temporal, and equivalent to et tum. Cf. vi. 8 note.
7. nudus, ‘unarmed.’ Nudus is used in many senses besides its usual one of ‘unclothed,’ ‘naked’: e.g. ‘without a toga,’ i.e. ‘in a tunic only,’ nudus ara, sere nudus (Verg. G. i. 299); ‘uncovered by turf,’ silex nuda (Verg. E. i. 15); ‘leafless,’ nudum nemus; ‘without a garrison,’ urbs nuda praesidio (Cic. Att. vii. 13-1); ‘destitute,’ nuda senectus (Juv.); ‘unadorned,’ nuda oratio (Cic.), etc.
12. si quis ... vellet, uti prodiret, ‘that if any one was willing to fight him, he should step forward.’ The tenses are historic, because conclamant is the historical present, and therefore equivalent to a past tense. Primary tenses are sometimes used after a historic present, but historic tenses are more common.
17. scuto pedestri. The scutum was an oblong or oval shield (4 ft. by 2½ ft., Polybius), made of wood or wickerwork. It was borrowed from the Sabines and made the shield of the whole Roman army, superseding the large circular clipeus, when the Roman soldiers first began to receive pay, and to form a permanent army instead of an irregular militia (Livy, viii. 8. etc.).
cinctus in this connection is properly ‘surrounded’ with a girdle to support a shield or sword, hence ‘armed with.’
1. metu magno, ‘amid great anxiety.’ An ablative of manner, closely akin to the “ablative absolute.”
2. sua disciplina, ‘according to his custom,’ i.e. way of fighting. Cf. eadem nos disciplina utimur, ‘our habits are the same’ (Plaut. As. i. 3. 49), and disciplina militiae, bellica militaris, etc., ‘the art of war.’
3. cunctabundus. Cf. moribundus, vi. 11. note. The Gaul stood on the alert ready to parry a blow, and waiting his opportunity. Manlius disconcerted him by suddenly dashing him backwards.
7. eo pacto ei ... , etc., ‘in that way he got to close quarters with him (ei successit) under his Gallic sword, and wounded his chest with his Spanish sword (sc. gladio).’ The “Spanish sword” was a short weapon, fitted for thrusting and stabbing at close quarters; the “Gallic sword” a much longer and heavier weapon.
9. pectus hausit. Haurire of a weapon in the sense of ‘wounding,’ ‘tearing open,’ is found in Lucretius, Vergil, and often in Ovid: probably the sword, etc., is regarded as devouring the flesh or drinking the blood (Conington). Cf. Verg. Aen. x. 313—