ncil'; the senate was originally
_regium consilium_, the king's body of advisers. Here translate _summum
consilium_ 'the supreme deliberative body'. -- SENATUM: 'assembly of
elders'. Cf. 56 _senatores, id est senes_. _Senatus_ implies a lost verb
_sen[=a]-re_, to be or grow old from the stem of which both _sen[=a]-tus_
and _sen[=a]-tor_ are derived. This stem again implies a lost noun or
adjective _senus_, old. The word _senatus_ was collective, like
_comitatus_, a body of companions, _exercitus_, a trained band etc.

20. AMPLISSIMUM: 'most honorable'. -- UT SUNT ... SENES: the Spartan
[Greek: gerousia], as it is commonly called, consisted of 28 members, all
over 60 years of age. Herodotus uses the term [Greek: gerontes] (_senes_)
for this assembly; Xenophon [Greek: gerontia]. In the Laconian dialect
[Greek: geroia] was its name; we also find [Greek: geronteuein] 'to be a
senator'. For _ut ... sic_ cf. Academ. 2, 14, _similiter vos cum
perturbare, ut illi rem publicam_, _sic vos philosophiam velitis_; also
Lael. 19. -- AUDIRE: like [Greek: akouo], used especially of historical
matters, since instruction in them was almost entirely oral. Cf. [Greek:
anekoos] = 'ignorant of history'. -- VOLETIS: see note on 7 _faciam ut
potero_; cf. Roby, 1464, _a_; Madvig, 339, Obs. 1; A. 278, _b_; G. 234,
Rem. 1; H. 470, 2. -- ADULESCENTIBUS: Cic., when he wrote this, was
possibly thinking of Athens and Alcibiades. -- LABEFACTATAS: the verb
_labefacio_ is foreign to good prose, in which _labefacto_ is used. --
SUSTENTATAS: Cic. does not use _sustentus_. In Mur. 3 _sustinenda_ is
followed by _sustentata_ in the same sentence. -- CEDO ... CITO: the line
is of the kind called tetrameter iambic acatalectic (or octonarius), and is
scanned thus: --

v v -' | - - | - -' | v - || - -' | - - | - -' | v -.

In all kinds of iambic verse the old Romans freely introduced spondees
where the Greeks used iambi; so in hexameters spondees for dactyls. Cf.
Hor. Ep. ad Pis. 254 _et seq._ -- CEDO: = _dic_; from _ce_, the enclitic
particle involved in _hic = (hi-ce)_ etc. and _da_, the root of _do_. So
_cette = ce-d[)a]te = cedte_, then _cette_ by assimilation of _d_ to _t_.
The original meaning would thus be 'give here', and in this sense the word
is often used. See Lex. _Dare_ is commonly put for _dicere_, as _accipere_
is for _audire_. -- QUI: 'how'. -- TANTAM: = [Greek: otsauten ousan]. --
NAEVI: Naevius lived about 264-194 B.C. His great work was a h