Key to Reading Unit 22

1. O philosophy, guide of life, what could not only we, but the life of people as a whole, have been without you? (the subjects of potuisset are nos and vita but it agrees only with the latter). (Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, V, 5, 7 adapted)
   
   
2. The old philosophers did not usually give a reason for (lit. of) their opinion unless it was something to be explained (lit. unless something was to be . . .; quid is the indefinite pronoun) by numbers or descriptions. (Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, I, 38, 13 adapted)
   
   
3. Each can find what he wants. There is not one thing which pleases everyone. This man collect thorns, that man roses (inveniat and velit are potential subjunctives). (Petronius, fragment XXXV (Buecheler's ed.); as well as parts of the Satyrica (see 23.10 above), a small collection of poems has come down under name of Petronius)
   
   
4. Why were you sitting in the forum if you were a cook? (Plautus, Pseudolus, 800; Plautus (fl. 200BC) wrote comedies, which are the earliest works of Latin literature that survive complete)
   
   
5. Would that I were not really writing that! (Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares, V, 17, 3)
   
   
6. To where am I to turn? What road am I to begin to enter on? (Ennius, Tragedies, 217; Ennius (239 - 169BC) wrote an epic on the history of Rome (the Annales), tragedies, and works in other genres; only fragments survive of his writings)
   
   
7. If only some chance would show me an urn of silver! (quae is the indefinite adjective) (Horace, Satires, II, 6, 10)
   
   
8. If a snake does not eat a snake it will not become a dragon.
   
   
9. You should expect from another what you have done to another (feceris is fut. perf.).
   
   
10. You would with difficulty correct (lit. retrieve) what you allow to become a habit.
    
    
11. You would be unwilling to meet him in the middle of the night.
    
    
12. If I have done wrong I have acted unwitting[ly].
    
    
13. You would order me to fish in the air.
    
    
14. Let not anyone believe others more than himself [in matters] concerning himself (the use of ne shows that the subjunctive is jussive not potential).
    
    
15. One should not put food into a chamber pot
    
    
16. One should not do anything in excess.
    
    
17. You should not worry about what does not concern you.
    
    
18. Do not seek again a rose which you have passed (i.e. because it will have already faded).
    
    
19. Let him who wants peace prepare for war.
    
    
20. Let him who does wrong when drunk atone when sober.
    
    
21. You should become an old man early so that you remain [an old man] for a long time.
    
    
22. One should endure what cannot be avoided.
    
    
23. When I am dead let the earth be mixed with fire.
    
    
24. If you are a vulture wait for a corpse.
    
    
25. May you enjoy good health and may you prosper (lit. may it be well for you).
    
    
26. If we disregard war we shall never enjoy peace.
    
    
27. Even a mouse would bite a bad man.
    
    
28. Let him either drink or go away (i.e. you should be prepared to drink at a party).
    
    
29. Drive a donkey if you cannot [drive] an ox.
    
    
30. May such enemies always follow me.
    
    
31. Let help be given (lit. let it be helped) to a younger person. A lapse in youth is easy.
    
    
32. You should pardon others much, yourself nothing.
    
    
33. If I had a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths I could not go through all names of punishments. (Vergil, Aeneid, VI, 625, 627)
    
    
34. The Trojans turned and scattered in anxious fear, and if that care had immediately suggested itself to (subisset) the victor, [namely] to break the barriers with his hand and send his companions to the gates (portis is dative - 28.1/1j) that day would have been the last for the war and the [Trojan] race. (Vergil, Aeneid, IX, 756-759)
    
    

35. If the fates allowed me to lead my life under my own direction (lit. under my auspices) and to settle my troubles by myself (lit. by my own agency) I would first be caring for Troy (lit. the Trojan city) and the sweet remainder of my people; the lofty buildings of Priam would remain, and by my hand I would have built revived Pergama for the conquered. But now Grynian Apollo [and] the oracles (lit. [oracular replies given by] lots) of Lycia have ordered [me] to make for great Italy. This is my love, this is my country. If the citadel (arces is pl. for s.) of Carthage and the sight of the Libyan city occupy you, a Phoenician, why after all (tandem) do you begrudge the Trojans settling in the Ausonian land? (lit. what ill-will is there [in you] that the Trojans settle . . .; Dido had left the Phoenician city of Tyre to found Carthage, and Aeneas is saying that she should be sympathetic to his endeavour to do something similar). (Vergil, Aeneid, IV, 340-350)

36. Son, [you who are] troubled by the fates of Ilium, Cassandra alone used to sing to me of such events. Now I remember that [she] foretold [that] these [things] (i.e. the destiny of the Trojans to settle in Italy) [were] owed to our race and often named Hesperia, often a kingdom in Italy (regna is pl. for s.). But who would have believed that Trojans would come to the shores of Hesperia? Or whom would Cassandra as prophetess have then persuaded? (lit. moved; on the tense of crederet and moveret see 22.1/1b, ii). Let us yield to Phoebus and, having been warned, let us follow better things (Hesperia is another name for Italy used by poets). (Vergil, Aeneid, III, 182-188)

(c) Gavin Betts 2000