[175] Though conscious of no guilt--_Ex nulla conscientia de culpa_.
This phrase is explained by Cortius as equivalent to "Propter
conscientam denulla culpa," or "inasmuch as I am conscious of no
fault." "_De culpa_, he adds, is the same as _culpae_; so in the ii.
Epist. to Caesar, c. 1: Neque _de futuro_ quisquam satix callidus;
and c. 9: _de illis_ potissimum jactura fit."

[176] To make no formal defense--to offer you some explanation
--_Defensionem--parare; satisfactionem--proponere_. "Parare," says
Cortius, "is applied to a defense which might require some study and
premeditation; _proponere_ to such a statement as it was easy to make
at once".

[177] On my word of honor--_Me dius fidius_, sc. juvet. So may the
god of faith help me, as I speak truth. But who is the god of faith?
_Dius_, say some, is the same as _Deus_ (Plautus has _Deus_ fidius,
Asin i. 1, 18); and the god here meant is probably Jupiter (_sub dio_
being equivalent to _sub Jove_); so that _Dius fidius_ (_fidius_ being
an adjective from _fides_) will be the [Greek: _Zeus pistios_] of the
Greeks. "_Me dius fidius_" will therefore be, "May Jupiter help me!"
This is the mode of explication adopted by Gerlach, Bernouf, and
Dietsch. Others, with Festus (sub voce _Medius fidius_) make _fidius_
equivalent to _filius_, because the ancients, according to Festus,
often used D for L, and _dius fidius_ will then be the same as [Greek:
_Dios_] or Jovis filius, or Hercules, and _medius fidius_ will be the
same as _mehercules_ or _mehercule_. Varro de L. L. (v. 10, ed.
Sprengel) mentions a certain Aelius who was of this opinion. Against
this derivation there is the quantity of _fidius_, of which the first
syllable is short: _Quaerebam Nonas Sanco fidone referrem_, Ov. Fast.