20. AMPLISSIMUM: 'most honorable'. -- UT SUNT ... SENES: the Spartan
γερουσια, as it is commonly called, consisted of 28 members, all over 60
years of age. Herodotus uses the term γεροντες (_senes_) for this assembly;
Xenophon γεροντια. In the Laconian dialect γερωια was its name; we also
find γεροντευειν 'to be a senator'. For _ut ... sic_ cf. Academ. 2, 14,
_similiter vos cum perturbare, ut illi rem publicam_, _sic vos philosophiam
velitis_; also Lael. 19. -- AUDIRE: like ακουω, used especially of
historical matters, since instruction in them was almost entirely oral. Cf.
ανηκοος = 'ignorant of history'. -- VOLETIS: see note on 7 _faciam ut
potero_; cf. Roby, 1464, _a_; Madvig, 339, Obs. 1; A. 278, _b_; G. 234,
Rem. 1; H. 470, 2. -- ADULESCENTIBUS: Cic., when he wrote this, was
possibly thinking of Athens and Alcibiades. -- LABEFACTATAS: the verb
_labefacio_ is foreign to good prose, in which _labefacto_ is used. --
SUSTENTATAS: Cic. does not use _sustentus_. In Mur. 3 _sustinenda_ is
followed by _sustentata_ in the same sentence. -- CEDO ... CITO: the line
is of the kind called tetrameter iambic acatalectic (or octonarius), and is
scanned thus: --

v v -' | - - | - -' | v - || - -' | - - | - -' | v -.

In all kinds of iambic verse the old Romans freely introduced spondees
where the Greeks used iambi; so in hexameters spondees for dactyls. Cf.
Hor. Ep. ad Pis. 254 _et seq._ -- CEDO: = _dic_; from _ce_, the enclitic
particle involved in _hic = (hi-ce)_ etc. and _da_, the root of _do_. So
_cette = ce-d[)a]te = cedte_, then _cette_ by assimilation of _d_ to _t_.
The original meaning would thus be 'give here', and in this sense the word
is often used. See Lex. _Dare_ is commonly put for _dicere_, as _accipere_
is for _audire_. -- QUI: 'how'. -- TANTAM: = οτσαυτην ουσαν. -- NAEVI:
Naevius lived about 264-194 B.C. His great work was a history of the First
Punic War written in Saturnian verse, the rude indigenous metre of early