QUAERERETUR: the past tense, though the principal verb _inquit_, is in the
present, because the present is the _historical_ present and so equivalent
to a past tense. Cf. Roby, 1511-1514; Kennedy 229, 2. A. 287, _e_; G. 511,
Rem. 1; H. 495, II. The idiom by which the imperfect stands where we should
expect a tense of completed action, should be noticed; cf. Tusc. 2, 60
_quem cum rogaret, respondit._ The explanation of the imperfect in such
cases is that it marks out, more clearly than the pluperfect would, the
fact that the action of the principal verb and the action of the dependent
verb are practically contemporaneous. In our passage if _quaesitum esset_
had been written it would have indicated merely that at some quite
indefinite time after the question was put the answer was given. Cf. N.D.
1, 60 _auctore ... obscurior_. -- CUR ... VITA: a hint at suicide, which
the ancients thought a justifiable mode of escape from troubles,
particularly those of ill health or old age. See n. on 73 _vetat
Pythagoras. Esse in vita_ is stronger than _vivere_; cf. Qu. Fr. 1, 3, 5.
-- NIHIL HABEO QUOD ACCUSEM: 'I have no reason to reproach'. Cf. the common
phrase _quid est quod ...? Quod_, adverbial acc. A. 240, _a_; G. 331, R. 3;
H. 378, 2. For mood of _accusem_ see H. 503, I. n. 2, and references on 12
_discerem_. -- PRAECLARUM RESPONSUM: _est_ is not required, because
_responsum_ is in apposition to the last part of the preceding sentence.
Similar appositions occur in Laelius, 67, 71, 79. -- DOCTO: applied
especially to philosophers, but also to poets. The word implies
_cultivation_ as well as mere _knowledge_; 'a learned man', merely as such,
is '_homo litteratus_'; cf. n. on 54.

P. 7. -- 14. CUIUS ... FECI: 'the aforesaid' is in good Latin always
expressed by a parenthesis like this and not by a participle in agreement
with the noun. The phrases '_ante dictus_', '_supra dictus_', belong to
silver Latin, where they are common. Cf. 23 _quos ante dixi_. -- SIC UT
etc.: the lines are from the Annals of Ennius, for which see n. on 1. --