Appius the Blind, 280 B.C.
Ad Appi Claudi senectutem accedebat etiam ut caecus esset; tamen is, cum sententia senatus inclinaret ad pacem cum Pyrrho foedusque faciendum, non dubitavit dicere illa, quae versibus persecutus est Ennius: 5
Quo vobis mentes, rectae quae stare solebant
Antehac, dementis sese flexere viai?
ceteraque gravissime, notum enim vobis carmen est, et tamen ipsius Appi exstat oratio. Atque haec ille egit septemdecim annis post alterum consulatum, 10 cum inter duos consulatus anni decem interfuissent censorque ante superiorem consulatum fuisset, ex quo intelligitur Pyrrhi bello grandem sane fuisse. . . . Quattuor robustos filios, quinque filias, tantam domum, tantas clientelas Appius regebat et caecus 15 et senex; intentum enim animum tamquam arcum habebat nec languescens succumbebat senectuti. Tenebat non modo auctoritatem, sed etiam imperium in suos: metuebant servi, verebantur liberi, carum omnes habebant; vigebat in illo animus 20 patrius et disciplina.
Cicero, De Senectute, §§ 16, 37.
1 Appi Claudi. This was the Appius Claudius whose Censorship, 312 B.C., was famous for his great public works, the Via Appia, the great South road of Rome, and the Aqua Appia, an aqueduct which brought water to Rome a distance of eight miles; and also for his measure (corresponding to a Parliamentary Reform Bill) admitting freedmen as full citizens by enrolling them in Tribes.
2-9 tamen is . . . exstat oratio. When the Senate was about to yield to the persuasive eloquence of Cineas, the envoy of Pyrrhus, he had himself led into the Senate-house to make the speech which turned the scale against the invader.
4 versibus persecutus est = has followed out in the lines. J. S. R.
7 viai (= viae old genit.) = i. quo viae, cf. ubi terrarum, or ii. sese flexere viae, a Greek genitive.