Videre, sc. Domitianum.—Aspici, sc. a Domitiano. For difference in the signification in these words, cf. 40: viso aspectoque, note.
Suspiria—subscriberentur. When our sighs (of sympathy with the condemned) were registered against us (by spies and informers, as a ground of accusation before the Emperor).
Rubor. Redness, referring to the complexion of Dom., which was such as to conceal a blush, cf. Suet. Dom. 18: vultu ruboris pleno.
Opportunitate mortis. An expression of Cic., in the similar passage above cited (de Orat. 3, 2, 8), touching the death of Crassus.
Pro virili portione, lit. for one man's share, referring primarily to pecuniary assessments. Here: for thy part—so far as thou wast concerned. A. died with a calmness which would scarcely admit of the supposition, that he felt himself to be a victim of poison and imperial jealousy.
Filiaque ejus. The apostrophe is here dropped to be resumed at optime parentum. So the MSS. For they read ejus here, and amissus est below. Rhenanus omitted ejus, and wrote es for est; and he has been followed in the common editions since.
Conditione. By the circumstance, or by virtue of our long absence. T. and his wife had parted with A. four years before his death, and had been absent from Rome ever since, where or why does not appear.
Superfuere. Cf. superest, G. 6, note.
XLVI. Sapientibus. Cf. sapientiae professoribus, 2, note.—Te immortalibus laudibus. I feel constrained to recur to the reading of Lipsius and Ritter, it is so much more spirited than quam temporalibus. Potius manifestly should refer back to lugeri and plangi. The comparison contained in the more common reading is uncalled for in the connection, and of little significance in itself. The MSS. read temporalibus laudibus without quam and this may be more easily resolved into te immortalibus, than quam can be supplied.— Similitudine. Al. aemulatione. For such a use of similitudo, cf. Cic. Tusc. Quaest. 1, 46, 110: quorum (sc. Curii, Fabricii, Scipionum, etc.), similitudinem aliquam qui arripuerit, etc.
Decoremus. Ennius (cited by Cic. Tusc. Q. 1, 49, 117, and de Senect. 20, 73), uses the same word in expressing the same sentiment: nemo me lacrumis decoret nec funera fletu faxit. Cf. also G. 28.