Note 40 — BOOK III

The text here is doubtful. There seems to be no exact parallel to the absolute use of praesumpsere. In the Medicean MS. the whole passage, from revirescere at the end of chap. 7 down to inimici here, has been transposed to the beginning of chap. 5, where it stands between the second and third syllables of the word Saturnino. Thus in M. praesumpsere stands immediately after partes. It is possible that the word partes may belong to this passage as well as to the end of chap. 7. Praesumpsere partes would mean 'they took their own cause for granted' (cp. Quintilian xi. 1. 27). The addition of ut inimici would add the sense of 'hostile prejudice'.