t may be doubted whether the best writers _ever_ use any accusative in
that sense, though they do occasionally use the ablative to express
duration (cf. Prop. I. 6, 7 and Madv. _Gram._ 235, 2). _L. Cassium_: this
is L. Cassius Longinus Ravilla, a man of good family, who carried a ballot
bill (_De Leg._ III. 35), he was the author of the _cui bono_ principle and
so severe a judge as to be called _scopulus reorum_. Pompeium: apparently
the man who made the disgraceful treaty with Numantia repudiated by home in
139 B.C. _P. Africanum_: i.e. the younger, who supported the ballot bill of
Cassius, but seems to have done nothing else for the democrats. _Fratres_:
Lamb. _viros_, but cf. _Brut._ 98. _P. Scaevolam_: the pontifex, consul in
the year Tib. Gracchus was killed, when he refused to use violence against
the tribunes. The only connection these brothers had with the schemes of
Gracchus seems to be that they were consulted by him as lawyers, about the
legal effect the bills would have. _Ut videmus ... ut suspicantur_: Halm
with Gruter brackets these words on the ground that the statement about
Marius implies that the demagogues lie about all but him. Those words need
not imply so much, and if they did, Cic. may be allowed the inconsistency.

Sec.14. _Similiter_: it is noticeable that five MSS. of Halm have _simile_.
_Xenophanem_: so Victorius for the MSS. _Xenoplatonem_. _Ed. Rom._ (1471)
has _Cenonem_, which would point to _Zenonem_, but Cic. does not often name
Zeno of Elea. _Saturninus_: of the question why he was an enemy of
Lucullus, Goer. says _frustra quaeritur_. Saturninus was the persistent
enemy of Metellus Numidicus, who was the uncle of Lucullus by marriage.
_Arcesilae calumnia_: this was a common charge, cf. _Academicorum calumnia_
in _N.D._ II. 20 and _calumnia_ in 18 and 65 of this book. So August.
_Contra Acad._ II. 1 speaks of _Academicorum vel calumnia vel pertinacia
vel pericacia_. _Democriti verecundia_: Cic. always has a kind of
tenderness for Democritus, as Madv. on _D.F._ I. 20 remarks, cf. _De Div._
II. 30 where Democr. is made an exception to the general _arrogantia_ of
the _physici_. _Empedocles quidem ... videatur_: cf. 74. The exordium of
his poem is meant, though there is nothing in it so strong as the words of
the text, see R. and P. 108. _Quale sit_: the emphasis is on _sit_, the
sceptic regards only phenomenal, not essential existence. _Quasi modo
nascentes_: Ciacconus thought this spurious, cf