in the course of Roman history
when anything like modern representative government was advocated.
Carvilius was not sprung from one of the noble families, who for the most
part monopolized the higher offices of state, it is therefore not
surprising that he should have sympathized with Flaminius. -- CONTRA
SENATUS AUCTORITATEM: 'against the expressed wish of the senate' _Senatus
auctoritas_ is, strictly speaking, an opinion of the senate not formally
embodied in a decree, _senatus consultum_. Cicero, in Invent. 2, 52 says
Flaminius carried his law _contra voluntatem omnium optimatium_. --
DIVIDENTI: 'when he tried to divide'. The participle is here equivalent to
_cum_ with the imperfect indicative (dividebat). So in 54 _lenientem_ A.
290, _a_; G 668; H 549, 1.
P. 6. -- CUM ESSET: '_though_ he was'. What Fabius declared was reaily that
the _auspicia_ were a political instrument in the hands of the aristocrats,
rather than a part of religion. Fabius, according to Liv. 30, 26, 7, was
augur for 62 years before his death, and had no doubt had a large
experience in the manipulation of the _auspicia_ for political purposes.
Compare Homer, Iliad, 12, 243, also Cic. Phil. 11, 28 _Iuppiter ipse sanxit
ut omnia quae rei publicae salutaria essent legitima et iusta haberentur_.
Consult Mommsen, Hist of Rome, Bk. IV. Ch. 12.
12. ADMIRABILIUS: 'more amazing'. The Latin word has a much stronger
meaning than the English word derived from it. -- QUO MODO TULIT: = _eum
modum quo tulit_, so that the clause is not really dependent on _cognovi_,
nor _tulit_ irregularly put for _tulerit_. In Lael. 9 Laelius exclaims, of
Cato himself, _quo modo, ut alia omittam, mortem fili tulit_. And no doubt
Cic. meant here to make Cato allude to _his_ loss, described in 84. --
FILI: see n. on 1 _praemi_. -- CONSULARIS: the son of Fabius was consul in
213 with Ti. Sempronius Gracchus -- EST IN MANIBUS: 'is in every one's
hands', 'is commonly read'. The expression is common enough in this sense;
_e.g._ Lael. 96 _in manibus est oratio_. -- LAUDATIO: _sc. funebris_, the
funeral speech. This composition was read in Cicero's time (see Tusc. 3,
70; Fam. 4, 6, 1) and existed in the time of Plutarch. See Plutarch's life
of Fab. 24. -- QUEM PHILOSOPHUM: many of the ancient philosophers wrote
popular treatises in which the principles of philosophy were applied to the
alleviation of sorrow. The most famous of these in Cicero's time was
Crantor's [Greek: peri penthous
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