A freeborn citizen: had he not been so,
The censor Claudius Appius would have stopt,
And driven me back.
[NOTE 150.]
A. III. S. III. Simo. (alone) I am not exactly, &c.
Terence uses an expression in the beginning of this scene that has been a source of discussion among the critics. It is in the following line,
“Atque haud scio AN quæ dixit sint vera omnia.”
I have selected from a very long note on this passage, by an eminent writer, the following extracts, which will afford, I trust, a satisfactory elucidation of the line in question.
“Atque haud scio an quæ dixit sint vera omnia: this seems, at first sight, to signify, I do not know if all that he has told me be truth; but, in the elegance of the Latin expression, however, haud scio an, means the same as fortasse (perhaps) as if he had said haud scio an non. Thus, in the Brothers, A. IV. S. V. v. 33. Qui infelix haud scio an illam misere non amat: which does not mean, I do not know whether he loves her, but, on the contrary, I do not know that he does not love her. Also, in Cicero’s Epistles, B. IX. L. 13., Istud quidem magnum, atque haud scio an maximum; this is a great thing, and perhaps the greatest of all, or, I do not know but it is the greatest of all. And, also, in his Oration for Marcellus, when he said that future ages would form a juster estimate of Cæsar’s character than could be made by men of his own times; he says, Servis iis etiam indicibus qui multis post sæculis de te judicabunt, et quidem haud scio, an incorruptius quam nos. There are numberless examples of this kind in the writings of Cicero, and I know that there are some which make for the opposite side of the question, as in his book on “Old Age,” speaking of a country life, he says, Atque haud scia an ulla possit esse beatior vita. But, it is my opinion, that these passages have been altered by some person who did not understand that mode of expression, and that it ought to be, Atque haud scio an nulla possit esse beatior vita.” The Author of the old Translation of Terence. Printed 1671. Paris.
Terence frequently has this construction: the two following sentences are of similar difficulty: they both occur in this play:
Id paves, ne ducas tu illam; tu autem, ut ducas.