expressly on Cato's authority. The words cannot be said to be unsuited
either to the person or to the occasion. -- DISCEBANT ... FIDIBUS: the verb
_canere_, which means 'to play' as well as 'to sing', must be supplied;
_fidibus_ is then an ablative of the means or instrument. There is the same
ellipsis of _canere_ in the phrases _docere fidibus_ (Fam. 9, 22, 3) and
_scire fidibus_ (Terence, Eunuchus 133). Cf. Roby, 1217.

P. 12. -- 27. NE ... QUIDEM: these two words together correspond to the
Greek ουδε (ου = ne, δε = quidem), and are best translated here by 'nor'
rather than by 'not even'. The rendering 'not even', though required by
some passages, will often misrepresent the Latin. -- LOCUS: _locus_ (like
τοπος in Greek) is a rhetorical term with a technical meaning. The pleader
is to anticipate the arguments he may find it necessary to use in different
cases, and is to arrange them under certain heads; each head is called a
τοπος or _locus_, meaning literally the _place_ where a pleader is to look
for an argument when wanted. Hence _locus_ came to mean 'a cut-and-dried
argument' or, as here, a 'commonplace'. It is often found in Cicero's
rhetorical writings. -- NON PLUS QUAM: 'any more than'. After the negative
_ne_ above it is incorrect to translate _non_ by a negative in English,
though the repetition of the negative is common enough in Latin, as in some
English dialects. Cf. n. on 24. _Plus_ here = _magis_. -- QUOD EST: _sc.
tibi_, 'what you have', so Paradoxa 18 and 52 _satis esse, quod est_. --
AGAS: _quisquis_ is generally accompanied by the indicative, as in Verg.
Aen. 2, 49 _quidquid id est_ etc.; see Roby, 1697; A. 309, _c_; G. 246, 4;
H. 476, 3. The subjunctive is here used, with the imaginary second person,
to render prominent the hypothetical and indefinite character of the verb
statement. Roby, 1544-1546; Madvig, 370, 494, Obs. 5, (6). -- VOX:
'utterance'; the word is used only of speeches in some way specially
remarkable. -- CONTEMPTIOR: 'more despicable'. The passive participle of
_contemno_ has the sense of an adjective in -_bilis_, like _invictus_ and