Note 8 — URBIS RŌMAE VIRĪ INLŪSTRĒS Complete text as printed
Reading edition
6.8 See Vocab., Iūlius.
86.9 ablative of source.
86.10 Cf. p. 73, n. 1.
86.11 i.e. Sulla.
86.12 neque potuit: ‘but he was not able.’
86.13 ēlābor.
87.1 quārtānae (sc. febris) . . . labōrābat: ‘he was suffering from intermittent fever.’ morbō is abl. of cause.
87.2 prope . . . noctēs: ‘almost every night.’
87.3 nē . . . ēvāsit: ‘he barely, by giving money, escaped being surrendered to Sulla.’ nē . . . perdūcerētur expresses the purpose of datā pecūniā.
87.4 Cf. p. xxiii, K 8.
87.5 = a rel. clause (cf. p. xxiv, L 1): ‘who pleaded (for Caesar)’; lit., ‘who sought to beg him off.’
87.6 For the subjunctive, see p. 63, n. 5. Sulla said: Vincite, dummodo sciātis, etc. Translate prōclāmāsse . . . scīrent thus: ‘cried out (bidding them) have their way, but at the same time to (lit. provided they) realize.’
87.7 See H 587 (513, I): M 920: A 314: G 573: B 310.
87.8 ‘oratory.’
87.9 prope abesse = ‘to be near by,’ is a common idiom.
88.1 See Vocab., Hispānia.
88.2 i.e. even in so insignificant a place.
88.3 = quod avidus erat.
88.4 aliīs rēbus: ‘under other circumstances,’ ‘otherwise.’ For the case, see p. 27, n. 3.
88.5 The subjunctive here = an imperative: see p. 31, n. 9. Note also that colās is an example of the indefinite or universal second person, since the command is addressed, not to any particular individual, but to any one and every one.
88.6 lūdōs ēdidit: ‘he celebrated games.’ On the magnificence of the games which the Aediles gave depended very largely their chance of promotion to the higher offices.
88.7 ‘whereby’; abl. of means.
88.8 sibi . . . sēstertium: with mīlliēs sc. centēna mīlia, and take sēstertium as gen. plural from sēstertius, and dependent on mīlia. Translate: ‘that he needed 100,000,000 sesterces,’ i.e. about $4,000,000. See Vocab., sēstertius.
88.9 societātem . . . iūnxit: this combination is called ‘The First Triumvirate.’
89.1 sī . . . sīgnārent: an instance of the iterative subjunctive (p. 45, n. 2) = ‘whenever they affixed their seals as witnesses.’
89.2 cōnsulibus . . . Bibulō: for this way of dating events, see XIV, 1.
89.3 Sc. esse.
89.4 fūnctus (fungor) = postquam fūnctus est.
89.5 Cf. p. xvii, C 2.
89.6 Sc. eīs, as dat. of indirect object with imperāvit. Caesar’s operations were confined to the southern portion of Great Britain.
89.7 = Hōc tempore, i.e. during this campaign. The language of this whole sentence is somewhat loose. The writer begins as if he were going to say: Hīc, cum . . . nārrantur, tum Caesarem ipsum ēgregium fēcisse nārrant, but changes the construction at tum.
89.8 cum . . . tum: cf. p. 67, n. 7.
89.9 illud is explained by the clause quod . . . restituit. The episode occurred in one of Caesar’s Gallic campaigns, not, as here stated, in Britain. It is related in the second book of Caesar’s Gallic War. Cf. also Longfellow’s Courtship of Miles Standish, II.
89.10 iam conversum = quī iam conversus erat.
89.11 comprehēnsum . . . dētrāxit = comprehendit et . . . dētrāxit.
90.1 ‘preserved.’
90.2 Sc. erant; also erat with gravis. Through the influence of iam prīdem both verbs have the force of Eng. pluperfects: H 535, 1 (469, 2): M 738: A 277, b: G 234: B 260, 4.
90.3 Point out the chiasmus (p. 21, n. 15) in Caesaris . . . superiōrem.
90.4 The law required a candidate to give notice of his candidacy in person at Rome within seventeen days of the election. Caesar desired to stand for the consulship in 49 B.C.
90.5 Cf. p. xviii, E 5.
90.6 bellandum (sc. esse): an impersonal passive: ‘that war was necessary.’
90.7 quī . . . erat: this river also formed the boundary between Italy proper and Cisalpine Gaul; hence by crossing it Caesar put himself in a position of open hostility to the government.
90.8 = per, ‘through the midst of.’
90.9 cōpiīs . . . cēssantibus: causal abl. abs.: ‘when, because his forces . . . tarried too long, he had sent,’ etc.
91.1 Cf. p. xx, G 4.
91.2 abl. both of cause and means. Join with praeferōcem.
91.3 intrā . . . vēnit: ‘within four days of his arrival (and) within four hours after he caught sight of him.’
91.4 See p. xvii, C 2.
91.5 Strictly, we ought to have ante victum esse quam vīsus esset, the subjunctive being due to the indirect discourse. Caesar said: ante victus est quam vīsus (est). The infinitive vīsum (esse) is due to attraction of the neighboring infinitive victum esse.
91.6 Ponticō . . . triumphō: i.e. the procession in which he celebrated his victory in Pontus. triumphō is dat. with praetulit.
91.7 Q. Metellus Pius Scipio, father-in-law of Pompey.
91.8 at Thapsus, 46 B.C.
91.9 Cf. XXVI, 49.
91.10 auxiliīs . . . cōnfluentibus: the abl. abs. denotes both cause and attendant circumstance.
91.11 = eōrum quī sequēbantur. Cf. volentibus, XIII, 97.
92.1 ‘His own,’ i.e. his usual.
92.2 plūs . . . Mārte: ‘since the battle was more than doubtful.’ The battle was fought at Munda, 45 B.C.
92.3 Cf. p. 63, n. 5.
92.4 = quālem. So quō = quālī.
92.5 fāstōs corrēxit: In III, 22, it is stated that Numa divided the year into twelve months according to the course of the moon. This year contained only 355 days. In order, therefore, to make the months coincide with the seasons to which they belong, Numa ordered that every two years an extra month, called a mēnsis intercalāris, should be added. These intercalary months were inserted after February 23d, and contained alternately 22 and 23 days. This arrangement made the average length of the year 366-1/4 days. A further cause of confusion was the fact that the Pontifices, who had charge of the calendar, often, for political reasons, omitted the intercalary month. In Caesar’s time the error amounted to about three months. The calendar arranged by him is almost identical with that in use to-day.
92.6 from quisque: ‘each,’ ‘every.’
92.7 Sc. rērum. rēs repetundae was a technical term for ‘extortion.’ For the gen., see p. 36, n. 8.
92.8 A lēx sumptuāria was a law regulating the sums of money which might be spent for various purposes. Caesar attempted especially to check extravagance in dress and at banquets.
92.9 The infinitives in lines 146-151 are used because the clauses in which they stand are in apposition to plūra ac māiōra, l. 144. See p. 86, n. 5.
93.1 quās . . . pūblicāre: ‘to throw open to the public as large libraries as possible.’
93.2 The celebrated Mark Antony.
93.3 ā . . . virīs: ‘by more than sixty men.’ For the case of virīs, see p. 10, n. 18.
93.4 ‘had warned him,’ not ‘had predicted’: hence it may be construed with a substantive clause of purpose (ut . . . cavēret) as its object.
93.5 speciē officiī: ‘under pretense of doing him honor.’ Cf. per speciem vēnandī, XIX, 60.
93.6 Sc. eī: dat. of interest.
93.7 ‘by’; cf. p. 11, n. 10.
93.8 adversum (sc. eum) vulnerat: ‘wounds him in front.’ The wound was in the shoulder. For adversum as = an adverbial phrase, cf. p. 4, n. 4.
94.1 ‘assailed.’
94.2 obtingō.
95.1 suā morte: ‘a natural death’; an ablative of manner.
95.2 Quō rārior . . . hōc laudanda magis: ‘The rarer . . . the more praiseworthy.’ Quō and hōc are ablative of the degree of difference (a variety of the ablative of means): cf. p. 39, n. 12.
95.3 i.e. over his fellow-citizens.
95.4 quī . . . partibus: ‘who had apparently belonged,’ etc. How literally? With dīversīs sc. Pompēiō.
95.5 nē . . . darent: ‘that they might not by any chance give occasion to vigorous measures,’ etc.
95.6 cūius . . . īgnōrābat: ‘by whose verses, as he very well knew, his own fair fame had been wounded.’
95.7 ablatives of characteristic.
95.8 paulō plēniōre: ‘somewhat full.’
95.9 Sc. corōnae, and cf. the frequent omission of manus with dextra and sinistra.
96.1 Vīnī parcissimum: cf. Cibī vīnīque temperāns, somnī parcus, XXVI, 21, and note.
96.2 ut . . . praevenīret expresses result, not purpose.