ancient writers as a specimen of an insignificant community (_e.g._
Aristoph. Acharn. 542; Cic. N.D. 1, 88), but it had the honor of being one
of the three island states which refused to give earth and water to the
Persian envoys, the other two being the adjacent islands of Melos and
Siphnus (Herodotus, 8, 46). -- IURGIO: _iurgium_ is a quarrel which does
not go beyond words; _rixa_ a quarrel where the disputants come to blows.
-- SI EGO: but further on, _tu si_. The contrast would certainly be more
perfect if _ego si_ were read, as has been proposed, in place of _si ego_.
-- QUOD EODEM MODO ... DICI: Cic. commonly says _quod ita dicendum_ and the
like; see n. on 35 _quod ni ita fuisset_. Cato means that just as
Themistocles' success was due to two things, his own character and his good
fortune, so two things are necessary to make old age endurable, viz.
moderate fortune and wisdom. He then in 9 insists that of these two
conditions wisdom is far the more important. -- NEC ... LEVIS ... NEC ...
NON GRAVIS: notice the chiasmus.

9. OMNINO: here = πανταπασι 'undoubtedly', in a strongly affirmative sense,
as in 76; but in 28 (where see n.) it is concessive. -- CUM DIU MULTUMQUE
VIXERIS: literally 'when you have lived long and much', _i.e._ when you
have not only had a long life but have done a great deal in the course of
it. The phrases _diu multumque, multum et diu_ are common in Cic., as
below, 38; Acad. 1, 4; Div. 2, 1; Off 1, 118; Leg. Agr. 2, 88; De Or. 1,
152. For mood see A. 309, a; H. 518, 2. -- ECFERUNT: _ecferunt_ for
_efferunt_ (_ec_ = _ex_ = _ecs_; so εκ = εξ = εκς) was old-fashioned in
Cicero's time, but forms of the sort, as below, 39 _ecfrenate_, according
to the evidence of the best MSS., occur in a good many passages. See Neue,
Formenlehre, Vol. 2, pp. 766 seq., ed. 2. -- NUMQUAM DESERUNT: the omission
of the object after _deserunt_ is not common. With the general sense of
this passage cf. Arch. 16 _litterarum studia adulescentiam alunt,
senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solarium