doubtful whether they contained seats
for the audience. Cato himself frustrated an attempt to establish a
permanent theatre. -- PROPTER: 'close by'. The adverbial use of _propter_
(rarely, if ever, met with outside of Cicero) is denied by some scholars,
but is well attested by MSS. here and elsewhere. -- TANTUM ... EST: these
words qualify _delectatur_.

49. ILLA: put for _illud_, as in Greek [Greek: tauta] and [Greek: tade] are
often put for [Greek: touto] and [Greek: tode]. The words from _animum_ to
the end of the sentence are explanatory of _illa_. -- QUANTI: 'how
valuable!' but the word may have exactly the opposite meaning if the
context require it; thus in N.D. 1, 55 and Rep. 6, 25 the sense is 'how
worthless!' -- STIPENDIIS: 'campaigns'. The four words from _libidinis_ to
_inimicitiarum_ are to be taken in pairs, while _cupiditatum_ sums them up
and is in apposition to all. -- SECUM ESSE: cf. Tusc. 1, 75; Pers. 4, 52
_tecum habita_. -- SI ... ALIQUOD: the sense is scarcely different from
that of _si ... quod_; the distinction is as slight as that in English
between 'if' followed by 'some', and 'if' followed by 'any'. Cf. n. on
Lael. 24 _si quando aliquid_. -- PABULUM: for the metaphorical sense
rendered less harsh by _tamquam_, cf. Acad. 2, 127; Tusc. 5, 66 _pastus
animorum_. -- STUDI: an explanatory genitive dependent on _pabulum_. --
OTIOSA SENECTUTE: 'leisured age'; _otium_ in the Latin of Cicero does not
imply idleness, but freedom from public business and opportunity for the
indulgence of literary and scientific tastes. -- VIDEBAMUS: for the tense
cf. Lael. 37 _Gracchum rem publicam vexantem ab amicis derelictum
videbamus, i.e._ 'we saw over a considerable period'. See also 50, 79. --
IN STUDIO etc.: 'busied with the task of almost measuring bit by bit
(_di-metiendi_) the heavens and the earth'. For the sense cf. Hor. Od. 1,
28 (of Archytas). -- GALLUM: consul in 157 B.C., famous as an astronomer
and as the first Roman who predicted an eclipse before the battle of Pydna.
See Liv. 44, 37.

P. 21. -- DESCRIBERE: technically used of the drawing of mathematical
figures. _Ingredior_ often has an infinitive dependent on it even in the
best Latin; _e.g._ Cic. Top. 1 _nos maiores res scribere ingressos_.

50. ACUTIS: requiring keenness of intellect. -- NAEVIUS: see n. on 20. --
TRUCULENTO ... PSEUDOLO: these plays of Plautus (lived from 254 to 184
B.C.) we still possess. The Truculentus is so named from one of th