Amicum, tutorem patrem. The word tutorem in this line, alludes to the Roman custom of appointing guardians, which was usually performed with great ceremony: frequently on a dead-bed. The person who intended to constitute a tutor or guardian, made use of a set form of words, which were spoken before witnesses, when the ward was delivered to the guardian, with these words, “Hunc (vel hanc) tibi commendo, Tutor esto.” I commend him (or her) to your protection, be to him a guardian. Thus Ovid,
“Hæc progeniesque mea est
Hanc tibi commendo.”
Trist., B. III. El. 14. L. 14.
To your protection I commit my offspring.
Some words were also addressed to the ward, as “Hunc tibi tutorem do,” I appoint this person your guardian.
Donatus observes, that the line
——“Te isti virum do, amicum, tutorem, patrem,”
ought to be read with a long pause between each word, as Terence intended to describe the broken, interrupted voice of a person at the point of death.
[NOTE 108.]
Charinus, Byrrhia.