24, 4 _Philotimus nullus venit_. -- SED ... ESSE: 'but we must con this
lesson from our youth up'. For the passive sense of _meditatum_ cf. n. on 4
_adeptam_. In Tusc. 1, 74 Cic., imitating Plato, says _tota philosophorum
vita commentatio mortis est_. So Seneca, _tota vita discendum est mori_. --
SINE QUA ... NEMO POTEST: these words bring the position of Cicero with
regard to death wonderfully near that of Lucretius: the latter argues that
for peace of mind one must believe '_nullum esse sensum post mortem_'; the
former's lesson is '_aut nullum esse sensum aut optandum_'. -- TIMENS: =
_si quis timet_; the subject of _poterit_ is the indefinite _quis_ involved
in _timens_. A. 310, _a_; G. 670; H. 549, 2. -- QUI: = _quo modo_, as in 4.
-- ANIMO CONSISTERE: so in pro Quint. 77; also _mente consistere_ in Phil.
2, 68; Div. 2, 149; Q. Fr. 2, 3, 2 _neque mente neque lingua neque ore
consistere_. The word is, literally, 'to stand firm', 'to get a firm
foothold'.

P. 31. -- 75. L. BRUTUM: fell in single combat with Aruns, son of the
exiled Tarquin; see Liv. 2, 6. The accusatives _Brutum_ etc. are not the
objects of _recorder_ but the subjects of infinitives to be supplied from
_profectas_. -- DUOS DECIOS: see n. on 43. -- CURSUM EQUORUM: the word
_equos_ would have been sufficient; but this kind of pleonasm is common in
Latin; see n. on Lael. 30 _causae diligendi_. -- ATILIUS: _i.e._ Regulus,
whose story is too well known to need recounting. There are many
contradictions and improbabilities about it. -- SCIPIONES: see n. on 29. In
Paradoxa 1, 12 Cic. says of them _Carthaginiensium adventum corporibus suis
intercludendum putaverunt_. -- POENIS: on the dat. see A. 235, _a_; H. 384,
4, n. 2. -- PAULUM: n. on 29 _L. Aemilius_. -- COLLEGAE: M. Terentius
Varro. There is no reason to suppose that he was a worse general than many
other Romans who met Hannibal and were beaten; the early historians, being
all aristocrats, fixed the disgrace of Cannae on the democratic consul.
Varro's contemporaries were more just to him. Far from reproaching him, the