Note 12 — URBIS RŌMAE VIRĪ INLŪSTRĒS Complete text as printed
Reading edition
27.12 The subjunctive expresses both time and cause: cf. p. 2, n. 13, and p. xxii, J.
27.13 The Veientes fought almost constantly against Rome from a very early time (cf. IV, 57; Livy says that they were defeated by Romulus) till their city was completely destroyed in 396 B.C.
27.14 Fabiōs . . . date: ‘give the Veientes the Fabii as their enemies,’ i.e. let the war against the Veientes be the special business of the Fabii.
27.15 Cf. p. 24, n. 9.
27.16 nōbīs . . . est: since nōbīs is a dat. of possession (H 430 (387): M 542: A 231: G 349: B 190) with est, the phrase exactly = ‘we have it in mind.’ The subject of est is the clause id . . . gerere. Fabiōs is strongly opposed to vōs.
28.1 comitante . . . āgmine: ‘the Fabii accompanying him in a body.’ How literally?
28.2 ad . . . ferunt: so we ‘laud a person to the skies.’
28.3 Numquam . . . neque . . . neque: in Latin, as in English, two negatives neutralize each other and make an affirmative. To this law there are two regular exceptions in Latin: When a general negative like nōn, numquam, or nēmō is followed (1) by neque . . . neque or (2) by the emphatic nē . . . quidem. In the former case the negation is distributed by the neque . . . neque into two (or more) clauses or phrases; in the latter, the full weight of the negation is concentrated upon a single word or phrase. In English a single negative is always to be employed.
28.4 dat. of purpose: cf. p. 25, n. 6. This construction is especially frequent with phrases consisting of a gerundive and a noun.
28.5 nōn semel: ‘not once (only),’ i.e. repeatedly.
28.6 Cf. p. 4, n. 4.
28.7 Vēientēs . . . paenituisset: lit., ‘when it had repented the V. of the peace which they had secured.’ What is our idiom? paenituisset is wholly impersonal; Vēientēs is acc., though logically its subject, and pācis is gen., though logically its object. H 457 (409, III): M 585: A 221, b: G 377: B 209.
28.8 See p. 2, n. 13.
28.9 dat. of reference: H 425, 4, N. (384, 4, N. 2): M 537: A 235, a: G 346: B 187, II.
28.10 Sc. eīs: ‘to meet them.’
28.11 dēlābor.
28.12 refero.
28.13 locative: H 484, 2 (426, 2): M 622: A 258, d: G 411, R. 2: B 232, 2.
28.14 relinquō.
28.15 Is . . . Māximum: freely ‘he saved the family from extinction and became the ancestor of Maximus.’
28.16 See Selection XIX.
28.17 Fabius, by his ‘policy of masterly inactivity,’ gained the title of Cunctātor, ‘the Delayer.’
28.18 frangō.