g slave. -- SOMNICULOSAE: the
adj. contains a diminutive noun stem (_somniculo-_). -- PETULANTIA:
'waywardness'. -- NON PROBORUM: Cic. avoids _improborum_ as being too
harsh; with exactly similar feeling Propertius 3, 20, 52 (ed. Paley) says
_nec proba Pasiphae_ for _et improba P._ Cf. Off. 3, 36 _error hominum non
proborum_. -- ISTA: implying contempt. A. 102, _c_; G. 291, Rem.; H. 450,
1. n. and foot-note 4. -- DELIRATIO: 'dotage'; a rare word, used by Cic.
only here and in Div. 2, 90.
37. ROBUSTOS: 'sturdy'; implying that the sons were grown up. -- TANTAM:
_sc. quantam habuit_; only a little more emphatic than _magnam_ would have
been; see n. on 52. -- APPIUS: see n. on 16. -- REGEBAT: the _pater
familias_ in early Roman times was an almost irresponsible ruler over his
children and household. For a full discussion of the _patria potestas_ see
Coulanges, Ancient City, Bk. II. Ch. 8; Maine, Ancient Law, Ch. 5; Hadley,
Introd. to Roman Law, Chapters 5 and 6. -- ET ... SENEX: 'though both blind
and old'. -- INTENTUM: commonly used of _animus_, like the opposite
_remissus_ (28). -- TENEBAT etc.: the _patria potestas_ is often denoted by
the word _imperium_; cf. De Invent. 2, 140 _imperium domesticum_. --
VIGEBAT etc.: 'in him ancestral spirit and principles were strong'. While
_animus patrius_ here evidently means the strong will for which the
patrician Claudii were proverbial (as _e.g._ in Rosc. Am. 46 _intellegere
qui animus patrius sit in liberos_) it indicates the feeling of a
particular father for his children.
P. 16. -- 38. ITA: = _ea lege_ 'on these conditions, viz. ...', the clause
with _si_ being an explanation of _ita_. This correspondence of _ita ...
si_ is common in Cicero; see n. on 12 _ita ... quasi_. Here translate 'age
can only be in honor if it fights for itself'. -- SE IPSA: cf. Cic. Acad.
2, 36 _veritas se ipsa defendet_; see also the n. on 4. -- SI ... EST: 'if
it has passed into bondage to nobody'. _Mancipium_ is a piece of property;
_emancipare_ is to pass a piece of property out of its owner's hands. The
word acquired two exactly opposite meanings. When used of a slave, or of a
son _in patria potestate_, who was legally subject to many of the same
ordinances as a slave, it means 'to set free', unless, as in Fin. I, 24
_filium in adoptionem D. Silano emancipaverat_, some person is mentioned to
whom the original owner makes over his rights. But in Plaut. Bacchid. 1, 1,
90 _mulier, tibi me emancupo_
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