[55.] possum: see [n. on 24]. — ignoscetis: 'you will excuse (me)'. — provectus sum: 'I have been carried away'. Cicero often uses prolabi in the same sense. — in hac ... consumpsit: Cic. probably never, as later writers did, used consumere with a simple ablative. — Curius: see [n. on 15]. — a me: = a mea villa; cf. [n. on 3] apud quem. — admirari satis non possum: a favorite form of expression with Cicero; e.g. De Or. 1, 165. — disciplinam: 'morals'; literally 'teaching'.
[56.] Curio: Plutarch, Cat. 2, says the ambassadors found him cooking a dinner of herbs, and that Curius sent them away with the remark that a man who dined in that way had no need of gold. The present was not brought as a bribe, since the incident took place after the war. Curius had become patronus of the Samnites, and they were bringing the customary offering of clientes; see Rep. 3, 40. — ne: here = num, a rare use; so Fin. 3, 44; Acad. 2, 116. — sed venio ad: so in [51] venio nunc ad. Redeo ad (see [n. on 32]) might have been expected here. — in agris erant: 'lived on their farms'. For erant cf. [n. on 21] sunt. — id est senes: cf. [19] [n.] on senatum. — si quidem: often written as one word siquidem = ειπερ. — aranti: emphatic position. — Cincinnato: L. Quinctius Cincinnatus is said to have been dictator twice; in 458 B.C., when he saved the Roman army, which was surrounded by the Aequians, and ended the war in sixteen days from his appointment; in 439, when Maelius was killed and Cincinnatus was eighty years old. In our passage Cic. seems to assume only one dictatorship. The story of Cincinnatus at the plough is told in Livy 3, 26. — factum: the technical term was dicere dictatorem, since he was nominated by the consul on the advice of the senate. — dictatoris: in apposition with cuius.
P. [24] — Maelium: a rich plebeian, who distributed corn in time of famine and was charged with courting the people in order to make himself a king. Ahala summoned him before the dictator, and because he did not immediately obey, killed him with his own hand. For this, Ahala became one of the heroes of his nation. See Liv. 4, 13. Cicero often mentions him with praise. Cf. in Catil. I. 3; p. Sestio 143, etc. — appetentem: = quia appetebat; so occupatum = cum occupasset. — viatores: literally 'travellers', so 'messengers'. They formed a regularly organized corporation at Rome and were in attendance on many of the magistrates. Those officers who had the fasces had also lictors, who, however, generally remained in close attendance and were not despatched on distant errands. The statement of Cic. in the text is repeated almost verbatim by Plin. N.H. 18, 21. — miserabilis: 'to be pitied'. The word does not quite answer to our 'miserable'. — agri cultione: a rare expression, found elsewhere only in Verr. 3, 226; then not again till the 'Fathers'. — haud scio an nulla: since haud scio an is affirmative in Cicero, not negative as in some later writers, nulla must be read here, not ulla. Cf. 73 haud scio an melius Ennius, 'probably Ennius speaks better'; also [74] incertium an hoc ipso die, 'possibly to-day'. Roby, 2256; G. 459, Rem.; H. 529, II. 3, 20, n. 2. — quam dixi: = de qua dixi, as in [53]. — saturitate: the word is said to occur nowhere else in Latin. — quidam: i.e. the authors of the tertia vituperatio senectutis, whom Cato refutes in [39], [59]. — porco ... gallina: these words are used collectively, as rosa often is; so Fin. 2, 65 potantem in rosa Thorium. — iam: 'further'. — succidiam alteram: 'a second meat-supply'. The word seems to be connected with caedo, and probably originally meant 'slaughter'. In a fragment of Cato preserved by Gellius 13, 24, 12 (in some editions 13, 25, 12) we find succidias humanas facere. Varro, R.R. 2, 14 has the word in the sense of 'meat'. — conditiora facit: 'adds a zest to'; cf. condita in [10]. — supervacaneis operis: 'by the use of spare time'; literally 'by means of toils that are left over', i.e. after completing the ordinary work of the farm.
[57.] ordinibus: cf. [59] ordines. — brevi praecidam: 'I will cut the matter short', for praecidam (sc. rem or sermonem) cf. Acad. 2, 133 praecide (sc. sermonem); for brevi (= 'in brief', εν βραχει) cf. De Or. 1, 34 ne plura consecter comprehendam brevi. — usu uberius: cf. 53 fructu laetius ... aspectu pulchrius. — ad quem ... retardat: some have thought that there is zeugma here, supposing ad to be suited only to invitat, not to retardat. That this is not the case is clear from such passages as Caes. B.G. 7, 26, 2 palus Romanos ad insequendum tardabat (= tardos faciebat); Cic. Sull. 49 nullius amicitia ad pericula propulsanda impedimur. On fruendum see Madvig, 421, a, Obs. 2 and 265, Obs. 2; G. 428, Rem. 3, exc.; H. 544, 2, n. 5. — invitat atque allectat: one of the 'doublets' of which Cicero is so fond; cf. Lael. 99 allectant et invitant.
[58.] sibi habeant: sc. iuvenes; contemptuous, as in Lael. 18 sibi habeant sapientiae nomen Sull. 26 sibi haberent honores, sibi imperia etc.; cf. the formula of Roman divorce, tu tuas res tibi habeto. — hastas: in practising, the point was covered by a button, pila; cf. Liv. 26, 51 praepilatis missilibus iaculati sunt. — clavam: cf. Vegetius de Re Mil. 1, 11 clavas ligneas pro gladiis tironibus dabant, eoque modo exercebantur ad palos; Iuv. 6, 246. The palus is called stipes by Martial 7, 32. — pilam ... venationes ... cursus: all national amusements, well known to readers of Horace; see Becker's Gallus. Venationes, em. for nataliones. — talos ... tesseras: tali, 'knucklebones', were oblong, and rounded at the two ends; the sides were numbered 1 and 6 (1 being opposite to 6), 3 and 4. Four tali were used at a time and they, like the tesserae, were generally thrown from a box, fritillus. The tesserae, of which three were used at a time, were cubes, with the sides numbered from 1 to 6 in such a way that the numbers on two opposite sides taken together always made 7. A separate name was used by dicers for almost every possible throw of the tesserae and tali. The two best known are canis, when all the dice turned up with the same number uppermost; and venus, when they all showed different numbers. The word alea was general and applicable to games of chance of every kind. These games, which were forbidden by many ineffectual laws ('vetita legibus alea') were held to be permissible for old men; see Mayor on Iuv. 14, 4. — id ipsum: sc. faciunt; the omission of facere is not uncommon. Roby, 1441; H. 368, 3, n. 1. — ut: em. for ordinary readings unum and utrum.
[59.] legite: 'continue to read'. Cf. De Or. 1, 34 pergite, ut facitis, adulescentes. In Tusc. 2, 62 it is stated that Africanus was a great reader of Xenophon.
P. [25] — libro qui est de: so in Fat. 1 libris qui sunt de natura deorum, and similarly elsewhere; but the periphrasis is often avoided, as in Off. 2, 16 Dicaearchi liber de interitu hominum. — qui: quique might have been expected, but the words above, qui ... familiari, are regarded as parenthetical. — Oeconomicus: Cicero translates from this work c. 4, 20-25. — inscribitur: see [n. on 13]. — regale: 'worthy of a king'; different from regium, which would mean 'actually characteristic of kings'. Yet Cic. sometimes interchanges the words; thus regalis potestas in Har. Resp. 54 is the same as regia potestas in Phil. 1, 3. — loquitur cum Critobulo etc.: 'discourses with Critobulus of how Cyrus etc.'. The construction of loqui with acc. and inf. belongs to colloquial Latin, as does the construction loqui aliquam rem for de aliqua re; cf. Att. 1, 5, 6 mecum Tadius locutus est te ita scripsisse; ib. 9, 13, 1 mera scelera loquuntur. — Cyrum minorem: Cyrus the younger (cf. [79] Cyrus maior), well known from Xenophon's Anabasis. As Cyrus never arrived at the throne (having been killed at Cunaxa in 401 in his attempt to oust his brother the king with the help of the 10,000 Greeks) regem is used in the sense of 'prince', as in Verr. 4, 61 and elsewhere; βασιλευς is used in exactly the same way in a passage of the Oeconomicus which comes a little before the one Cic. is here rendering (4, 16). — Lysander: the great commander who in 405 B.C. won the battle of Aegospotamos against the Athenians. — Sardis: acc. pl.; -is represents Gk. -εις. — consaeptum agrum: 'park'; the phrase is a translation of Xenophon's παραδεισον; this will account for the omission of et before diligenter consitum. — diligenter: 'carefully'. — proceritates: the plural probably indicates the height of each kind of tree. — quincuncem: thus :·:·:·:·:·:·: This was the order of battle in the Roman army during a great part of its history. The cause for this application of the term is rather difficult to see; it originally meant five-twelfths of an uncia; possibly it was thus applied because by drawing lines between the points the letter V (five) might be produced. As regards its application to trees, see Verg. Georg. 2, 277-284. — puram: so the farmers talk of 'cleaning' the land. — dimensa: notice the passive use of this participle, originally deponent; cf. [n. on 4] adeptam. — discripta: 'arranged'; so discriptio a little farther on. Cf. [n. on 5] descriptae. — ornatum: 'costume', used by Latin writers of any dress a little unfamiliar. So in Plaut. Miles 4, 4, 41 (1177 R) ornatus nauclericus.
[60.] impedit: sc. nos; with this construction the pronoun is always omitted. — Valerium: when a young man, in 349 B.C., he engaged in combat with a Gaul, in sight of the Roman and Gallic armies, and came off victor by the aid of a raven, corvus; hence the name Corvinus (Liv. 7, 26). His first consulship was in 348, his last in 299; Cic. has miscalculated. Valerius was also twice dictator and is said to have held altogether 21 terms of curule offices. — perduxisse: sc. agri colendi studia. Cf. Lael. 33 quod — perduxissent. — esset: cf. [n. on 21]. — aetate: here = the vigorous period of life; cf. bona aetas in [48]. — cursus honorum: 'official career'. — huius: ille and hic are not often found in the same sentence referring to the same person. Eius would have been more regular here. — media: cf. [n. on 33] constantis aetatis.
P. [26] — apex: 'the crown', 'the highest glory'. The word meant originally 'knot', being connected with ap-tus ap-isci ap-ere and other words containing the idea of binding fast or grasping. It was properly applied to the olive-twig bound round with wool, which was stuck in the cap worn by the flamines and salii. It is sometimes employed to translate διαδημα (a word originally of similar meaning), the royal insigne, as in Horace, Odes, 3, 21, 20 regum apices, with which cf. Odes, 1, 34, 14. The word is scarcely found elsewhere in a metaphorical sense. Our passage is imitated by Ammianus Marcellinus (a great imitator of Cicero) 27, 7, 2 Rufinus velut apicem honoratae senectutis praetendens.
[61.] Metello: see [n. on 30]. — A. Atilio Calatino: consul in 258 B.C. and again in 254; dictator in 249, censor in 247. Cicero classed him with old heroes like Curius and Fabricius (Planc. 60). His tomb was on the via Appia outside the Porta Capena, close to the well-known tomb of the Scipios (see Tusc. 1, 13). — in quem ... elogium: 'in whose honor there is the inscription'. With in quem = de quo cf. the occasional occurrence of κατα τινος in the sense of περι τινος. — elogium: Greek ελεγειον (so Curtius): for the representation of ε by o cf. oliva with ελαια, and Plautus' lopadas for λεπαδας. But cf. Roby, 929, d. — hunc etc.: the inscription (which is quoted by Cicero also in Fin. 2, 116) is strikingly like that on the tomb of Scipio Barbatus which has actually come down to us, and thus begins (Ritschl's recension):