-- CUM COMPLECTOR ANIMO: 'when I grasp them in my thoughts'. The object of
_complector_ is to be supplied from _causas_. -- AVOCET: _sc. senes_. The
subjunctives denote that these are the thoughts not of the speaker, but of
the persons who do think old age a wretched thing. See n. on 3 _ferat_; but
cf. Kennedy, Grammar, pref., p. 30. -- ALTERAM ... TERTIAM: in enumerations
of more than two things _unus and alter_ generally take the place of
_primus_, and _secundus_: in Cic. these latter rarely occur under such
circumstances. Cf. Att. 3, 15, 1; Fin. 5, 9; Off. 1, 152; Cluent. 178. --
INFIRMIUS: _sc. auam antea erat_. -- QUAM SIT IUSTA: Cicero generally
separates from the words they qualify _quam_, _tam_, _ita_, _tantus_,
_quantus_, often, as here, by one small word. Cf. below, 35 _quam fuit
imbecillus_; 40 _tam esse inimicum_. -- QUIBUS: the preposition _a_ is
often omitted; cf. in Pis. 91 _Arsinoen ... Naupactum fateris ab hostibus
esse captas. Quibus hostibus? Nempe eis_ etc.; Tusc. 3, 37 _sed traducis
cogitationes meas ad voluptates. Quas?_ Even when relative and antecedent
are in the same sentence the preposition is not often repeated; _e.g._ Fin.
5, 68 _eodem in genere quo illa_. -- AN EIS: _an_ always introduces a
question which is not independent, but follows upon a previous question
either expressed or implied. Here _quibus_ implies _omnibusne_. Cf. div. in
Caec. 52 _quid enim dices? An id quod dictitas_ ... where _quid_ implies
_nihilne_: also below, 23, 29 _anne_. A 211, _b_; G. 459; H. 353, 2, n. 4.
-- IUVENTUTE ET VIRIBUS: commonly explained as a hendiadys, _i.e._ as put
for _iuventutis viribus_; but Cic. no more meant this than we mean 'the
strength of youth' when we speak of 'youth and strength'. Real instances of
hendiadys are much rarer than is generally supposed. -- QUAE: = _tales ut_.
-- L. PAULUS: this is L. Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus, consul in 182 B.C.,
and again in 168 when he finished the third Macedonian war by utterly
defeating Perseus at Pydna. For his connection with Scipio and Cato see
Introd. -- PATER TUUS: _i.e. Scipio_; so in 29 _avi tui_, and in 75 _avum
tuum_, without mention of young Scipio's name, but in 49 _patris tui,