rm of transition is used in 26,
29, 46, 53. The whole of this passage to _suasissem_ is an exhibition of
antiquarian learning quite unnatural and inappropriate in a dialogue. --
PROBE MEMINISSE POTESTIS: cf. De Or. 3, 194 _quem tu probe meministi_; Fin.
2, 63 _L. Thorius quem meminisse tu non potes. Memini_ can take a
_personal_ accusative only when the person who remembers was a contemporary
of the person remembered; otherwise the gen. follows. Cf. Roby, 1333; A.
219, Rem.; H. 407, n. 1. -- HI CONSULES: 'the present consuls'. -- T.
FLAMININUS: commonly said to be the son of the great Flamininus (1, l. 1).
He was altogether undistinguished, as also were the Acilius and the Caepio
here mentioned. This passage gives the imagined date of the dialogue as 150
B.C. -- PHILIPPO: this was Q. Marcius Philippus, who was consul in 186 and
took part in the suppression of the great Bacchanalian conspiracy of that
year. For the next 17 years he was a leading senator and much engaged in
diplomacy in the East. In 169 he was again consul and commanded against
Perseus in the early part of the war. -- CUM ... LEGEM VOCONIAM ...
SUASISSEM: 'after I had spoken publicly in favor of the law oL Voconius'.
For _suasissem_ cf. 10 _suasor_ with n. The _Lex Voconia de mulierum
hereditatibus_ aimed at securing the continuance of property in families.
By its provisions no man who possessed property valued in the censors'
lists at 100,000 sesterces or more, could appoint a woman or women as his
_heres_ or _heredes_; further, no person or persons, male or female, could
receive under the will legacies amounting in all to a larger sum than that
received by the principal heir or heirs. Every Roman will named a _heres_
or _heredes_, on whom devolved all the privileges and duties of the
deceased, with such duties as were enjoined by the will; particularly the
duty of paying the legacies left to those who were not _heredes_. See
Maine, Ancient Law, Ch. 6; also Hunter, Introd. to Roman Law, Ch. 5. --
MAGNA: in Latin the word _magnus_ is the only equivalent of our 'loud'. --
LATERIBUS: 'lungs'. Cic. and the best writers rarely use _pulmones_ for
'lungs'; the few passages in which it occurs either refer to victims
sacrificed at the altar, or are medical or physiological descriptions.
'Good lungs' is always '_bona latera_' never _pulmones_. -- DUO ...
SENECTUTEM: Ennius is said to have kept a school in his later days, and to
have lived in a cottage with one servan