see n. on 15. -- ID ... PERSUADERETUR: intransitive verbs are used in the
passive only impersonally (Roby, 1422; A. 230; G. 199, Rem. 1; H. 301, 1);
when so used the dative may follow as in the active (see Madvig, 244, _b_;
G. 208; H. 384, 5). A neuter pronoun in the singular sometimes, as here,
accompanies the passive, and may be regarded as an adverbial accusative of
respect or extent, or as a nominative qualifying the impersonal subject.
The former is probably the real construction. Cf. Roby, 1423, and Madvig,
229, _b_, Obs. 1. -- SAMNITIBUS: then in alliance with Pyrrhus. -- VIXERAT
... CUM: not to be taken literally of living in the same house; the phrase
merely indicates close friendship. In Acad. 2, 115 Cic. writes _Diodoto qui
mecum vivit tot annos, qui habitat apud me_, clearly showing that the
phrases _vivere cum aliquo_ and _habitare apud aliquem_ are not equivalent.
-- P. DECIO: this is P. Decius Mus, who at the battle of Sentinum in 295
gave his life as a propitiatory offering to the powers of the unseen world,
in order to bring victory to the Roman arms. His father had sacrificed
himself in the same way at the battle of Veseris (close to Vesuvius) in
340, fought against the Latins and Campanians. -- DEVOVERAT: Liv. 10, 28,
13 (speech of Decius) _datum hoc: nostro generi est ut luendis periculis
publicis piacula simus; iam ego mecum hostium legiones mactandas Telluri et
dis Manibus dabo_. -- ALIQUID etc.: 'some principle'; in his philosophical
works Cicero often confounds the Epicureans by quoting the action of the
Decii and others like it, as showing that pleasure is not the end of
existence. Cf. especially Fin. 2, 61 _P. Decius cum se devoverat et equo
admisso in mediam aciem Latinorum irruebat, aliquid de voluptatibus suis
cogitabat?_ Cf. also below, 75. With regard to _natura_ see n. on 5. -- SUA
SPONTE: 'for its own sake'; 'on its own account'. Cf. Leg. 1, 45 _vera et
falsa sua sponte non aliena iudicantur_, where a few lines later _sua
natura_ occurs as equivalent to _sua sponte_. -- EX PETERETUR: em. for
_peteretur_ in the MSS. The words _expetere_, _expetendum_ are technically
used in Cicero's philosophical works to express the Greek ‛αιρεισθαι,