Part 12

45. ALIOS: _sc. nomino_. -- PRIMUM: the corresponding _deinde_ is omitted, as often. -- SODALIS: the _sodalitates_ or _sodalitia_, brotherhoods for the perpetuation of certain rites accompanied with feasting, were immemorial institutions at Rome. The clause _sodalitates ... acceptis_ must not be taken to mean that Cicero supposed these brotherhoods to have been first instituted in the time of Cato; it is only introduced to show that Cato, so far from being averse to good living, assisted officially in the establishment of new clubs. Most of the _sodalitates_ were closely connected with the _gens_; all members of a _gens_ were _sodales_ and met together to keep up the old _sacra_, but in historical times fictitious kinship largely took the place of real kinship, and feasting became almost the sole raison d'être of these clubs. [See Mommsen's treatise _De collegiis et sodaliciis Romanis_] The parallel of the London City Companies readily suggests itself. The national _sodalitates_ or priesthoods such as those of the _Sodales Titii, Luperci, Augustales_ etc. were somewhat different. -- AUTEM: for the form of the parenthesis cf. 7. -- MAGNAE MATRIS: the image of Cybele was brought to Rome in 204 B.C. from Pessinus in Phrygia. See Liv. 29, 10. The _Sacra_ are called _Idaea_ from Mount Ida in Phrygia, which was a great centre of the worship of Cybele. _Acceptis_, sc. _in civitatem_; the worship of strange gods was in principle illegal at Rome unless expressly authorized by the State. -- IGITUR: the construction of the sentence is broken by the introduction of the parenthesis, and a fresh start is made with _epulabar igitur. Igitur_ is often thus used, like our 'well then', to pick up the broken thread of a sentence. So often _sed_ or _ergo_. -- FERVOR: Cf. Hor. Od. 1, 16, 22 _me quoque pectoris temptavit in dulci iuventa fervor_. -- AETATIS, QUA PROGREDIENTE: 'belonging to that time of life, but as life advances'. The word _aetas_ has really two senses here; in the first place it is _bona aetas_ or _iuventus_ (cf. 39 where _aetas = senectus_), in the second place _vita_ (for which see n. on 5). -- NEQUE ENIM: the _enim_ refers to _modice_. -- COETU ... SERMONIBUS: for the order of the words see n. on 1 _animi tui_. -- METIEBAR: cf. n. on 43 _referenda_. -- ACCUBITIONEM: a _vox Ciceroniana_, rarely found in other authors. -- VITAE CONIUNCTIONEM: 'a common enjoyment of life'. -- TUM ... TUM: here purely temporal, 'sometimes ... sometimes'; often however = 'both ... and'; cf. 7. -- COMPOTATIONEM etc.: cf. Epist. ad Fam. 9, 24, 3. _Compotatio_ = συμποσιον; _concenatio_ = συνδειπνον. -- IN EO GENERE: see n. on 4. -- ID: _i.e._ eating and drinking.

46. TEMPESTIVIS ... CONVIVIIS: 'even in protracted banquets'. Those banquets which began _early_ in order that they might last long were naturally in bad repute, so that the phrase _tempestivum convivium_ often has almost the sense of 'a debauch'. Thus in Att. 9, 1, 3 Cicero describes himself as being evil spoken of _in tempestivis conviviis, i.e._ in dissolute society. Cf. pro Arch. 13. The customary dinner hour at Rome was about three o'clock in the afternoon. The word _tempestivus_, which in 5 means 'at the right time', here means 'before the right time'. So in English 'in good time' often means 'too early'. See Becker's Gallus, p. 451 _et seq_. -- QUI PAUCI: the substitution of the nominative of the relative for the partitive genitive (_quorum_) is not uncommon. A. 216, _e_; G. 368, Rem. 2; H. 397, 2, n. -- PAUCI ADMODUM: Cic. usually says _admodum pauci_ rather than _pauci admodum_. -- VESTRA AETATE: = _eis qui sunt vestra aetate_. Cf. n. on 26 _senectus_. -- SERMONIS ... SUSTULIT: notice the indicatives _auxit, sustulit_, the relative clauses being attributive, though they might fairly have been expected here to be causal. G. 627; H. 517, 2. In this passage Cic. imitates Plato, Rep. 328 D. -- BELLUM INDICERE: common in the metaphorical sense; _e.g._ De Or. 2, 155 _miror cur philosophiae prope bellum indixeris_; Hor. Sat. 1, 5, 7 _ventri indico bellum_. -- CUIUS EST etc.: _i.e._ nature sanctions a certain amount of pleasure. This is the Peripatetic notion of the _mean_, to which Cicero often gives expression, as below, 77; also in Acad. 1, 39; 2, 139; and in De Off.; so Hor. Sat. 1, 1, 106 _sunt certi denique fines quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum_; cf. Od. 2, 10. -- NON INTELLEGO NE: for the negatives cf. nn. on 24, 27.

P. 20. -- MAGISTERIA: generally explained as referring to the practice of appointing at each dinner a 'master of the feast', _arbiter bibendi_ or συμποσιαρχης. This explanation is not quite correct. Mommsen shows in his work '_de collegiis_' that each one of the _collegia_ or _sodalicia_ annually appointed a _magister cenarum_ whose duty it was to attend to the club-dinners during his year of office and no doubt to preside at them. That some office is meant more important than that of the _arbiter bibendi_ appointed for a particular feast is shown by the words _a maioribus instituta_. It is scarcely likely that Cicero was ignorant of the Greek origin of the custom of appointing an _arbiter bibendi_. -- ET IS SERMO etc.: 'and the kind of talk in which following the fashion of our fathers we engage, beginning at the upper table, as the cup goes round'. The cup circulated from left to right, not, as with us, from right to left. The guests at a Roman dinner reclined on three couches, placed at three tables; two of the couches (_lecti_) were parallel, and the third was at right angles to the other two. The _lectus_ at which the cup began to circulate was _summus_, the next _medius_, the last _imus_. For a _summo_ cf. _da (sc. bibere) a summo_ in Plaut. Asin. 5, 2, 41. See Becker's Gallus, p. 471 _et seq_. -- SICUT ... EST: 'as we find'; so Off. 1, 32 _ut in fabulis est_, and often. -- IN SYMPOSIO: 2, 26. -- MINUTA: see n. on 52. -- RORANTIA: here with an active sense, 'besprinkling', representing επιψεκαζειν in Xenophon; often however not different in sense from _'roscida'_. -- REFRIGERATIO ... HIBERNUS: cf. closely 57 _ubi et seq_. Note the changes of expression in passing from _refrigeratio_ to _sol_ (_apricatio_ would have more exactly corresponded with _refrigeratio_) and from _aestate_ to _hibernus_ (for _hieme_). -- IN SABINIS: 'when with the Sabines', who were celebrated for their simplicity of life. Cato had an estate in the Sabine district. -- CONVIVIUM VICINORUM COMPLEO: 'I make up (_i.e._ to the proper number) a company of my neighbors'. -- QUOD ... PRODUCIMUS: 'and we continue our companionship to as late an hour as we can, with changing talk'. The phrases _multa nocte_ or _de nocte_ 'late in the night', _multo die_ 'late in the day', are common; cf. also Att. 13, 9, 1 _multus sermo ad multum diem_; Rep. 6, 10 _sermonem in multam noctem produximus_.

47. AT: so in 21, where see n. -- QUASI TITILLATIO: the _quasi_, as often in Cicero's writings, marks a translation from the Greek. Here the Epicurean word γαργαλισμος is referred to; it is often in Cic. represented by _titillatio_; cf. N.D. 1, 113; Fin. 1, 39; Tusc. 3, 47. -- BENE: _sc. dixit_. -- AFFECTO AETATE: 'wrought on by age'. Cf. De Or. 1, 200 _in eius infirmissima valetudine affectaque iam aetate_. -- UTERETURNE etc.: 'whether he still took pleasure in love'; _uti = frui_. Cf. Ovid, Met. 4, 259 _dementer amoribus uti_ with Cic. Tusc. 4, 68 _venereis voluptatibus frui_. -- DI MELIORA: _sc. duint_; this archaic form usually occurs when the phrase is given in full. The story of Sophocles is taken by Cicero from Plato (Rep. 329 B) who has ευφημει. -- ISTINC etc.: cf. the passage in Plato, Rep. 1, 329 C. For _istinc_ used otherwise than of place cf. _unde_ in 12 with n. -- AGRESTI: 'boorish'; _rusticus_ denotes simply an ordinary countryman. -- QUAMQUAM ... ERGO: these words may be scanned as a hexameter line, but the pause before _ergo_ would prevent them from being taken as a verse. -- HOC NON DESIDERARE: 'this absence of regret'; the words form the subject of _est_. So _hoc non dolere_ in Fin. 2, 18. For the pronoun in agreement with the infinitive treated as noun cf. Persius 1, 9 _istud vivere_; 1, 122 _hoc ridere meum_. H. 538, 3.

48. SI: 'even if', 'granting that'. -- BONA AETAS: 'the good time of life', _i.e._ youth. Tischer qu. Varro de Re Rustica 2, 6, 2 _mares feminaeque bona aetate_ = 'young'. For _bona aetas = homines bona aetate_ cf. n. on 26 _senectus_. -- UT DIXIMUS: not expressly, but the opinion is implied in 44, 45. -- TURPIONE AMBIVIO: L. Ambivius Turpio was the most famous actor of Cato's time, and appeared especially in Terence's plays. In old Latin commonly, occasionally in the Latin of the best period, and often in Tacitus, the _cognomen_ is placed before the _nomen_ when the _praenomen_ is not mentioned. Cf. Att. 11, 12, 1 _Balbo Cornelio_. The usage is more common in Cicero's writings than in those of his contemporaries. -- PRIMA CAVEA: 'the lower tier'. The later Roman theatres consisted of semicircular or elliptic galleries, with rising tiers of seats; the level space partially enclosed by the curve was the _orchestra_, which was bounded by the stage in front. There can be little doubt that Cicero is guilty of an anachronism here; his words do not suit the circumstances of Cato's time. Till nearly the end of the Republic the theatres were rude structures of wood, put up temporarily; it is even doubtful whether they contained seats for the audience. Cato himself frustrated an attempt to establish a permanent theatre. -- PROPTER: 'close by'. The adverbial use of _propter_ (rarely, if ever, met with outside of Cicero) is denied by some scholars, but is well attested by MSS. here and elsewhere. -- TANTUM ... EST: these words qualify _delectatur_.

49. ILLA: put for _illud_, as in Greek ταυτα and ταδε are often put for τουτο and τοδε. The words from _animum_ to the end of the sentence are explanatory of _illa_. -- QUANTI: 'how valuable!' but the word may have exactly the opposite meaning if the context require it; thus in N.D. 1, 55 and Rep. 6, 25 the sense is 'how worthless!' -- STIPENDIIS: 'campaigns'. The four words from _libidinis_ to _inimicitiarum_ are to be taken in pairs, while _cupiditatum_ sums them up and is in apposition to all. -- SECUM ESSE: cf. Tusc. 1, 75; Pers. 4, 52 _tecum habita_. -- SI ... ALIQUOD: the sense is scarcely different from that of _si ... quod_; the distinction is as slight as that in English between 'if' followed by 'some', and 'if' followed by 'any'. Cf. n. on Lael. 24 _si quando aliquid_. -- PABULUM: for the metaphorical sense rendered less harsh by _tamquam_, cf. Acad. 2, 127; Tusc. 5, 66 _pastus animorum_. -- STUDI: an explanatory genitive dependent on _pabulum_. -- OTIOSA SENECTUTE: 'leisured age'; _otium_ in the Latin of Cicero does not imply idleness, but freedom from public business and opportunity for the indulgence of literary and scientific tastes. -- VIDEBAMUS: for the tense cf. Lael. 37 _Gracchum rem publicam vexantem ab amicis derelictum videbamus, i.e._ 'we saw over a considerable period'. See also 50, 79. -- IN STUDIO etc.: 'busied with the task of almost measuring bit by bit (_di-metiendi_) the heavens and the earth'. For the sense cf. Hor. Od. 1, 28 (of Archytas). -- GALLUM: consul in 157 B.C., famous as an astronomer and as the first Roman who predicted an eclipse before the battle of Pydna. See Liv. 44, 37.

P. 21. -- DESCRIBERE: technically used of the drawing of mathematical figures. _Ingredior_ often has an infinitive dependent on it even in the best Latin; _e.g._ Cic. Top. 1 _nos maiores res scribere ingressos_.

50. ACUTIS: requiring keenness of intellect. -- NAEVIUS: see n. on 20. -- TRUCULENTO ... PSEUDOLO: these plays of Plautus (lived from 254 to 184 B.C.) we still possess. The Truculentus is so named from one of the characters, a slave of savage disposition who is wheedled; the Pseudolus from a cheating slave. The latter name is commonly supposed to be a transcription from a Greek word ψευδυλος, which however nowhere occurs; and as the change from Greek υ to Latin _o_ is not found before _l_, Corssen assumes ψευδαλος as the original word. The form _Pseudulus_ of the name is probably later than _Pseudolus_. -- LIVIUM: Livius Andronicus, the founder of Latin literature (lived from about 285 to 204 B.C.), who translated the Odyssey, also many Greek tragedies. Livius was a Greek captured by Livius Salinator at Tarentum in 275 B.C.; for a time he was the slave of Livius, and, according to custom, took his name when set free. For an account of his writings see Cruttwell's Hist. of Roman Literature, Ch. 3; Sellar, Roman Poets of the Rep., Ch. 3. -- DOCUISSET: 'had brought on to the stage'. _Docere_ (like διδασκειν in Greek, which has the same use) meant originally to instruct the performers in the play. -- CENTONE TUDITANOQUE CONSULIBUS: _i.e._ in 240 B.C. The use of _que_ here is noticeable; when a date is given by reference to the consuls of the year it is usual to insert _et_ (not _que_ or _atque_, which rarely occur) between the two names, if only the _cognomina_ (as here) be given. If the full names be given, then they are put side by side without _et_. Cf. n. on 10. -- CRASSI: see n. on 27. -- PONTIFICI ET CIVILIS IURIS: the _ius pontificium_ regarded mainly the proper modes of conducting religious ceremonial. _Ius civile_, which is often used to denote the whole body of Roman Law, here includes only the secular portion of that Law. Cf. n. on 38. -- HUIUS P. SCIPIONIS: 'the present P. Scipio'. So in 14 _hi consules_ 'the present consuls'; Rep. 1, 14 _Africanus hic, Pauli filius_, and often. The P. Scipio who is meant here is not Africanus, but Nasica Corculum. -- FLAGRANTIS: 'all aglow'; so _ardere studio_ in Acad. 2, 65. -- SENES: = _cum senes essent_, so _senem_ below. -- SUADAE MEDULLAM: 'the essence (lit. marrow) of persuasiveness'. The lines of Ennius are preserved by Cicero, Brut. 58. _Suada_ is a translation of πειθω, which the Greek rhetoricians declared to be the end and aim of oratory. This Cethegus was consul in 204 and in 203 defeated Mago in the N. of Italy. -- EXERCERI: here reflexive in meaning. A. 111, n. 1; G. 209; H. 465. -- VIDEBAMUS: see n. on 49. -- COMPARANDAE: for the idea of _possibility_ which the gerundive sometimes has (but only in negative sentences or interrogative sentences implying a negative answer, and in conditional clauses) see Madvig, 420, Obs.; Roby, 1403. -- HAEC QUIDEM: a short summary of the preceding arguments, preparatory to a transition to a new subject, introduced by _venio nunc ad_. The succession of two clauses both containing _quidem_ seems awkward, but occurs in Fin. 5, 80 and elsewhere. -- HONESTUM SIT: 'does him honor'. -- UT ANTE DIXI: in 26, where see the notes. -- POTEST ESSE: Meissner (n. on 27) says that Cicero's rule is to say _potest esse, debet esse_ and the like, not _esse potest_ and the like. It is true that _esse_ in such cases is very seldom separated from the word on which it depends, but _esse potest_ is just as common as _potest esse_; the difference to the sense is one of emphasis only, the _esse_ having more emphasis thrown on it in the latter case.

51. MIHI ... VIDENTUR: see Introd. -- HABENT RATIONEM CUM 'they have their reckonings with', 'their dealings with'; a phrase of book-keeping. -- IMPERIUM: so Verg. Georg. 1, 99 _exercetque frequens tellurem atque imperat agris_; ib. 2, 369 _dura exerce imperia et ramos compesce fluentes_; Tac. Germ. 26 _sola terrae seges imperatur._ -- SED ALIAS ... FAENORE: put for _sed semper cum faenore, alias minore, plerumque maiore_. -- VIS AC NATURA: 'powers and constitution'. These two words are very often used by Cic. together, as in Fin. 1, 50 _vis ac natura rerum_. -- GREMIO: so Lucret. 1, 250 _pereunt imbres ubi eos pater aether In gremium matris terrai praecipitavit_, imitated by Verg. Georg. 2, 325. -- MOLLITO AC SUBACTO: _i.e._ by the plough. _Subigere_, 'subdue', is a technical word of agriculture; so Verg. Georg. 2, 50 _scrobibus subactis_; see also below, 59.

P. 22. -- OCCAECATUM: 'hidden'. _Caecus_ has the sense of 'unseen' as well as that of 'unseeing' or 'blind'. -- OCCATIO: Cicero's derivation, as well as Varro's (De Re Rust. 1, 31, 1) from _occidere_, because the earth is cut up, is unsound. _Occa_ is _rastrum_, probably from its _sharp_ points (root _ak-_); _occatio_ therefore is 'harrowing'. -- VAPORE: 'heat'. This word has not in the best Latin the meaning of our 'vapor'. -- COMPRESSU: a word found only here in Cicero's writings and elsewhere in Latin only in the ablative case, like so many other nouns whose stem ends in _-u_. -- DIFFUNDIT ET ELICIT: 'expands and lures forth'. -- HERBESCENTEM: this word occurs nowhere else in Latin. -- NIXA: A. 254, _b_; G. 403, Rem. 3; H. 425, 1, 1), n. -- FIBRIS STIRPIUM: so Tusc. 3, 13 _radicum fibras_. -- GENICULATO: 'knotted'. The verb _geniculo_, from _genu_, scarcely occurs excepting in the passive participle, which is always used, as here, of plants. So Plin. Nat. Hist. 16, 158 _geniculata cetera gracilitas nodisque distincta_, speaking of the _harundo_. -- SPICI: besides _spica_, the forms _spicum_ and _spicus_ are occasionally found. _Spici_ here is explanatory _frugem_. -- VALLO: for the metaphor compare N.D. 2, 143 _munitae sunt palpebrae tamquam vallo pilorum_; Lucr. 2, 537.

52. QUID EGO ... COMMEMOREM: this and similar formulae for passing to a new subject are common; cf. 53 _quid ego ... proferam_ etc.; often _nam_ precedes the _quid_, as in Lael. 104. The _ego_ has a slight emphasis. Cato implies that his own devotion to grape-culture was so well known as not to need description. -- ORTUS SATUS INCREMENTA: 'origin, cultivation, and growth'. For the omission of the copula see n. on 53. -- UT: final, and slightly elliptic ('I say this that etc.'); so in 6 (where see n.), 24, 56, 59, 82. -- REQUIETEM: the best MSS. of Cic. sometimes give the other form _requiem_, as in Arch. 13. -- VIM IPSAM: 'the inherent energy'. -- OMNIUM ... TERRA: a common periphrasis for 'all plants'; cf. _e.g._ N.D. 2, 120. The Latin has no one word to comprehend all vegetable products. -- QUAE ... PROCREET: 'able to generate'. -- TANTULO: strictly elliptic, implying _quantulum re vera est_. In such uses _tantus_ and _tantulus_ differ slightly from _magnus_ and _parvus_; they are more emphatic. -- ACINI VINACEO: 'a grape-stone'. -- MINUTISSIMIS: used here for _minimis_. Strictly speaking _minutus_ ought to be used of things which are fragments of larger things, _minutus_ being really the participle passive of _minuo_. In a well-known passage (Orat. 94) Cic. himself calls attention to the theoretical incorrectness of the use, which, however, is found throughout Latin literature. Cf. 46 _pocula minuta_; also below, 85 _minuti philosophi_. -- MALLEOLI: vine-cuttings; so called because a portion of the parent stem was cut away with the new shoot, leaving the cutting in the shape of a mallet. -- PLANTAE: 'suckers', shoots springing out of the trunk. -- SARMENTA: 'scions', shoots cut from branches not from the trunk. -- VIVIRADICES: 'quicksets', new plants formed by dividing the roots of the mother plant. -- PROPAGINES: 'layers', new plants formed by rooting a shoot in the earth without severing it from the parent plant; Verg. Georg. 2, 26. -- EADEM: n. on 4 _eandem_. -- CLAVICULIS: cf. N.D. 2, 120 _vites sic claviculis_. -- ARS AGRICOLARUM: _agricolae arte freti_, a strong instance of the abstract put for the concrete.

53. EIS: _sc. sarmentis_, those which have not been pruned away by the knife. -- EXSISTIT: 'springs up'. _Exsistere_ in good Latin never has the meaning of our 'exist', _i.e._ '_to be in_ existence', but always means '_to come into_ existence'. -- ARTICULOS: 'joints'; cf. 51 _culmo geniculato_. The word _tamquam_ softens the metaphor in _articuli_, which would properly be used only of the joints in the limbs of animals. -- GEMMA: Cicero took the meaning 'gem' or 'jewel' to be the primary sense of _gemma_ and considered that the application to a bud was metaphorical. See the well-known passages, Orat. 81 and De Or. 3, 155. -- VESTITA PAMPINIS: 'arrayed in the young foliage'. -- FRUCTU ... ASPECTU: ablatives of respect, like _gustatu_ above. -- CAPITUM IUGATIO: 'the linking together of their tops'; _i.e._ the uniting of the tops of the stakes by cross-stakes. So the editors; but Conington on Verg. Georg. 2, 355 seems to take _capita_ of the top-foliage of the vines, an interpetation which is quite possible. Those editors are certainly wrong who remove the comma after _iugatio_ and place it after _religatio_, as though _et_ were omitted between the two words. In enumerations of more than two things Cic. either omits the copula altogether or inserts it before each word after the first; but in enumerating two things _et_ cannot be omitted, except where there are several _sets_ or _pairs_ of things. Cf. n. on 13. -- RELIGATIO: _i.e._ the tying down of shoots so as to cause them to take root in the earth. _Religatio_ seems to occur only here.

P. 23. -- ALIORUM IMMISSIO: 'the granting of free scope to others'. _Immissio_ scarcely occurs elsewhere in good Latin. The metaphor is from letting loose the reins in driving; cf. Verg. Georg. 2, 364; Plin. N.H. 16, 141 _cupressus immittitur in perticas asseresque amputatione ramorum_; Varro, R.R. 1, 31, 1 _vitis immittitur ad uvas pariendas_. Some, referring to Columella de Arbor, c. 7, take the word to mean the setting in the earth of a shoot in order that it may take root before being separated from the parent stem. The context, however, is against this interpretation. -- IRRIGATIONES etc.: the plurals denote more prominently than singulars would the repetition of the actions expressed by these words. -- REPASTINATIONES: 'repeated hoeings'. The _pastinum_ was a kind of pitchfork, used for turning over the ground round about the vines, particularly when the young plants were being put in. -- MULTO TERRA FECUNDIOR: see n. on 3 _parum ... auctoritatis_.