| 24-25 | uideo x3: epanaphora. |
| 24-2 | The series of very short clauses results in a style that is staccato in the extreme. |
| 1-2 | sollicauit seruos, potionem parauit: alliteration. |
| 7 | pro tua praestanti prudentia: Cicero is highly adept at flattery when he wants to be. |
| 10 | familias: a Greek form of the genitive singular; cf. pater familias. |
| 13-14 | quod .... debeamus: a relative clause of characteristic. |
| 14 | ut .... repellamus: a noun clause. |
| 15 | facerem .... intercederent: unreal condition, present time. |
| 16 | uiro - fratrem uolui dicere: Austin hesitates to call a spade a spade. Cicero is suggesting an incestuous relationship between Clodia and her brother. Clodius was rumoured to have committed incest with his other sisters too. See OCCL 142. |
| 18 | coget has two singular subjects, fides and causa, and logically requires a plural verb. Cicero, however, makes it agree with the nearer subject. (MBA 28) |
| 19-21 | There is a skilful use of repetition in putaui ... putauerunt, omnes .... omnium, quam .... potius quam cuiusquam. |
| 20-21 | amicam omnium: In other words, Clodia is promiscuous, i.e. 'amica' in the sense that Catullus and other poets use it = 'girlfriend', (mistress). So much for nunc agam modice .... (17)
amicam omnium .... cuiusquam inimicam: a telling antithesis, arranged chiastically. |
| Austin's introduction to Sections 33-34 is most important. prosopopoeia is a Greek term, literally "face-making". | |
| 23-24 | The two groups of adverbs, three in each, form a carefully crafted antithesis. |
| 25 | barbula: The diminutive has contemptuous force. |
| 27-1 | qui obiurget .... loquatur: relative clauses of purpose. (MBA 501) |
| 2 | Caecus ille: Further to Austin, see OCCL 138, s.v. "Claudius (2)". |
| 3 | qui istam non uidebit: the archetypal sick joke. |
| 5 | Further to Austin's reference to familiar speech, this Section and the next mingle the grand style with the colloquial and the trivial. The result is a delightful incongruity, wholly characteristic of comedy.
adulescentulo: Further to Austin, Cicero implies Clodia has been "cradle-snatching". Today many people still look askance at a relationship between an older woman and a younger man, who is sometimes referred to as a "toy boy", or "himbo". |
| 5-6 | quid cum x 3: epanaphora. |
| 6-7 | tam familiaris .... uenenum timeres: an elaborate antithesis. |
| 7 | non: nonne would have been more orthodox. |
| 8-9 | Cicero's excursion through the family tree must have been accompanied by some hilarious over-acting. Compare some of the lengthy genealogies in the Bible, e.g. Matthew 1.1-17. |
| 14 | nupsisses: nubere is the verb used for a woman marrying. Meaning basically "to put on the veil for" (cf. nubes, "cloud"), it is commonly followed by a dative of the person married, a dative of advantage, one would like to think. The term for a man marrying is ducere ( i.e. in matrimonium). |
| 16-19 | nonne te .... aemulam .... esse admonebat: admonere, "to urge, counsel", is normally followed by an ut or ne clause of indirect command rather than the accusative and infinitive used here. |
| 21 | plebei: the fifth declension noun plebes, plebei, a collateral form of plebs, plebis. |
| 24-27 | A highly effective example of epanaphora and parallelism. A no-holds-barred sentence if ever there was one.
Further to Austin, Appius Claudius Caecus=s achievements as a civil engineer were certainly towering ones. The completion of the Aqua Appia in 312 BC coincided with the commencement of the Via Appia. This began at the Porta Capena, ran through Aricia, Tarracina, Fundi and Formiae to Capua, then across the peninsula via Beneventum to Brundisium. Over 560 km. long, it was the great highway between Rome and Greece and the provinces of the East. It was well built, although the present pavement of large hexagonal blocks, mainly lava, laid on a firm foundation and reinforced with cement, is probably not the original base. Despite the steep Alban Hills and the Pontine Marshes, its path from Rome to Tarracina is almost completely straight. Just out of Rome the road was lined with tombs, the remnants of several still being visible today. Sections of the Via Appia are still in use. Rome had nine aqueducts in all, the Aqua Appia being the first. These provided Rome with around 173714 kilolitres each day. Sections of some are still in use, supplying water to Rome=s many fountains. |
| 2 | uidero: Complement Austin's important note with GL 244, Note 1. |
| 4 | tu uero: Further to Austin's note, apostrophe (Greek "turning away") is a figure of speech in which a thing, a place, an abstract quality, an idea, a dead or absent person is addressed as if present, e.g. "Milton! Thou should=st be living at this hour" (Wordsworth, London 1812); "Break, break, break,/On thy cold grey stones, o Sea!" (Tennyson, Break, Break, Break) |
| 6-8 | The five quae-clauses and three tantae phrases are a striking example of epanaphora and parallelism. |
| 7-8 | rationem .... reddas: an accounting metaphor. |
| 8-9 | reddas .... exponas necesse est: parataxis. See the note on 7.2-3. |
| 10 | actas: from acta (Greek akte), actae, f., "the seashore, beach, beach party".
Seneca, the Stoic philosopher and tutor of Nero, had a poor opinion of Baiae, where he once went for a holiday: "I left it the day after I arrived. Though it has certain natural endowments, it=s a place to avoid because luxury has claimed it as her exclusive resort .... When a man is thinking of withdrawing from the world, he'll never choose Canopus (though Canopus doesn't forbid anyone to be virtuous), nor Baiae either. These have begun to be resorts for vice. At Canopus luxury pampers itself to the utmost; at Baiae it is even less inhibited, as if the area were entitled to a certain amount of licence. Just as I shouldn't want to live in a place of torture, nor should I want to live in the cafes. Why must I see drunks wandering along the shores, the drinking bouts of those out boating, the lakes adin with choral song, and all the other abuses which luxury, as if freed of law, not only perpetrates but publicises?" (Epistulae Morales 51.1, 3-4) The last sentence echoes very closely Cicero's catalogue of abuses in lines 9-11. |
| 11 | symphonias: See OCD 1002 ff., s.v. Music, 1, "In Greek and Roman Life", 2nd paragraph; 4, "History", last paragraph. There is some doubt whether symphonia was vocal or instrumental. It may refer to glee-singers, as e.g. in Venice today, or to bands of flute-players playing part music. |
| 12-13 | nescio qua: MBA 362-363. |
| 14-15 | diluas oportet .... doceas .... fateare: parataxis again. |
| 18 | minimum: contemptuous; cf. pusio (21). |
| 21 | Further to Austin, pusio comes from the same root as puer and pubes. |
| 21-22 | cum maiore sorore cubitabat: But not, of course, because he was afraid of the dark. Cicero casts his scandalous aspersions with consummate skill and subtlety. |
| 22 | putato: 2nd singular, future imperative. |
| 24 | Lit. "Why, having-begun a-shout, do-you-make a-small thing big with-words?" |
| 27 | Further to Austin, see OCD 624, s.v. "Gardens". |
| 1 | patre: ablative of quality, qualifying filium. |
| 3 | alio: adverb, "to another place".
tanti: genitive of value. |
| 4-5 | hortos .... diligenter eo loco paratos quo omnis iuuentus .... uenit: another veiled accusation of promiscuity. |
| 5 | licet .... legas: parataxis again. |
| 7 | redeo: Further to Austin, the prefix re- means "back, again" or "duly", here the latter. |
| 8 | patriam: the adjective. |
| 9 | Caecilianum: See OCCL 105 on Caecilius. The Caecilius excerpts are undoubtedly delivered with comic exaggeration. |
| 11ff | Austin's notes on text and metres are for interest only. |
| 16 | dicam, uelim: deliberative subjunctives. |
| 17 | ut .... uelim: noun clause, object of facis. |
| 18 | diceret: unreal condition, present time, the si- clause suppressed. |
| 21 | dide: from dido, didere, dididi, diditum, "to divide, distribute, disseminate", a third conjugation compound of dare. |
| 22 | tibi dolebit: Austin's note may be complemented with GL 346, Note 1, which refers quaintly to "dative of the suffering person". It is, in MBA terms, a dative of disadvantage. |
| 23 | qui: Further to Austin, see MBA 157, Note 6. qui oblectem: a relative final clause. |
| 27 | Further to Austin, paranomasia means a play on words, or pun. With iactura and uersura we have not a pun in the ordinary sense but a play on the similar sound of words, which is more akin to assonance.
nulli, nulla, nulla: epanaphora. |
| 5-6 | The Terence quotation is clearly a reflection of Cicero's fatherly attitude towards Caelius. |
| 7 | esset: unreal condition, present time.
in quo .... defenderet: a relative clause of characteristic. |
| 8 | nihil .... dico: He has already said a great deal, and, of course, there is more to come immediately, if indirectly. |
| 9-13 | The four quae-clauses are relative clauses of characteristic. |
| 9-15 | si esset .... uiueret .... putarem: unreal condition, present time. |
| 13-16 | si uidua .... salutasset: further to Austin, the nicely balanced phrases exemplify parallelism rather than antithesis as there are no contrasts involved. The clause is one of unreal condition in past time. |
| 23-3 | ut respueret ... conficeret .... putaret: result clauses. |
| 24 | labore corporis .... animi contentione: chiasmus. |
| 1-2 | quem .... delectaret: a relative clause of characteristic.
non quies, non remissio etc.: epanaphora, parallelism |
| 3 | quod esset ....: sub-oblique. |
| 4 | Further to Austin, pleonasm can sometimes be justified as a means of giving emphasis, though it is hard to do this here. It is still a common fault today, e.g. "in this day and age" instead of "now", "today" or "nowadays"; "in any shape or form"; "save and except". (MEU 440-441) |
| 6 | Further to Austin, rulers ancient and modern have regarded judicious reminiscence of a revered predecessor to be good politics. Vespasian found it expedient to use on his coins reverse types favoured by Augustus, e.g. the Altar of Providence. In this way he sought to win acceptance for his new dynasty and provide it with a firm foundation.
In 1981, the Shah of Iran, in an address-in-reply to a message of homage, stood in front of the palace of Persepolis and uttered these words: Hail, Cyrus, founder of the Persian Empire and immortal hero of human history .... On this historic day when the whole country renews its allegiance to its glorious past, I call history to witness that we, the heirs of Cyrus, have kept the promise made 2500 years ago. We have remained loyal to our mission, we have made our culture an instrument of peace and love.There followed an incredible march past of imperial warriors, authentically garbed and equipped, from different eras of the country's past. Clearly the Shah was seeking to legitimise his rule by building a bridge between himself and the great kings of the past. In 1989, the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, with an election in prospect, made great play of transferring provincial barons' powers of patronage and budget control to the seventy per cent of Indian voters who live in the countryside. In so doing, he invoked the memory of his namesake Mahatma Gandhi, proclaiming he was fulfilling a promise made during Mahatma's struggle for independence. In 1997, when William Clinton took the oath of office for his second term, he noted that he could see from the steps of the Capitol building the Lincoln Monument where Martin Luther King gave his famous "I have a dream" speech in 1963. He then said: Martin Luther King's dream was the American dream. His quest is our quest - the ceaseless striving to live out our true creed.His hearers responded warmly. Cicero's would have done the same. It is important to supplement Austin's brief notes on Camillus, Fabricius and Curius with the relevant articles in OCCL 113, 231 and 162 respectively. |
| 8-9 | "Possibly by libri Cicero refers to works in actual circulation, by chartae to the original parchments." (R. Gordon, Loeb edition, p. 457, Note) |
| 11 | re, uerbis: ablatives of respect. |
| 13 | Further to Austin, Horace had this to say about Greek learning:
Graecia capta ferum uictorem cepit, et artes intulit agresti Latio.
"Captive Greece took captive her fierce conqueror and instilled her arts in rustic Latium." But many Romans regarded Greeks as past masters in double-dealing. Cicero=s mingled praise and criticism in lines 12-14, are as nothing compared with Juvenal: grammaticus, rhetor, geometres, pictor, aliptes,"Grammarian, rhetorician, geometrician, painter, anointer, augur, rope-dancer, physician, sorcerer -he knows everything. The weedy, hungry Greek will, if you bid him, ascend to the sky." (Satire 3.76-78) cum .... possent: a concessive cum-clause. |
| 14-15 | mutatis Graeciae temporibus: in 148 the Achaean League (OCCL 3) had trouble with Sparta. Rome became involved and imposed harsh terms on the federation. It revolted and declared war on Rome. Under the consul Lucius Mummius, Rome sacked Corinth in 146 in revenge for the insults suffered by Roman ambassadors, and its populace was slaughtered or enslaved. The League was finally defeated and dissolved. |