LIII.
‘Ceteris forsitan in rebus, patres conscripti, magis expediat me coram interrogari et dicere quid e re publica censeam: (magis expediat me coram interrogari et dicere quid e re publica censeam: expediat, here used impersonally, is potential subjunctive, followed by acc. + infinitive: ‘it would be more expedient that I be consulted in front of you all and that I say what I deem good for the state.’ censeam is subjunctive in indirect question introduced by quid; e re publica [esse]: ‘to be according to the public interest’) in hac relatione (in hac relatione: ‘in this debate’) subtrahi oculos meos melius fuit, ne, denotantibus vobis ora ac metum singulorum qui pudendi luxus arguerentur, ipse etiam viderem eos ac velut deprenderem. (ne, denotantibus vobis ora ac metum singulorum qui pudendi luxus arguerentur, ipse etiam viderem eos ac velut deprenderem: negative purpose clause: ‘lest , while you observe the signs of alarm in the faces of those individuals who might be accused of shameful luxury, I should notice them myself and, in a way, catch them out’; denotandibus vobis ora ac metum: abl. abs.: lit. ‘you watching closely the alarmed faces of …’; ora ac metum is hendiadys; the imperfect subjunctives arguerentur (potential), viderem, and deprenderem (with ne) are required by the sequence of tenses, in place of the present subjunctive, after a historical main verb, here melius fuit; pudendi luxus: ‘of the scandalous luxury’, ‘of the luxury one ought to be ashamed of’; velut: ‘as it were’, ‘so to speak’) quod si mecum ante viri strenui, aediles, consilium habuissent, nescio an suasurus fuerim omittere potius praevalida et adulta vitia quam hoc adsequi, ut palam fieret quibus flagitiis impares essemus. (quod si mecum ante … aediles, consilium habuissent, nescio an suasurus fuerim omittere potius … vitia quam hoc adsequi, ut palam fieret quibus flagitiis impares essemus: quod in quod si has no definite function in the phrase and may be ignored: ‘if the aediles had consulted with me in advance, I know not whether I would have persuaded them to leave alone these vices rather than to end up with this, that it should become public knowledge which outrages we are unable to cope with.’ si … consilium habuissent, nescio an suasurus fuerim …: the rather uncommon case of a conditional sentence with subjunctive in both protasis and apodosis, the latter in the form of an indirect question with an. The condition is future (type II or potential) in the past, habuissent representing the future anterior the clause would have if it were independent. As to the apodosis, the use of the future participle in -urus + subjunctive forms of esse (here suasurum fuerim) is the Latin way to preserve the future (potential) sense that otherwise would be lost if suaserim alone were used (Petitmangin, Rescigno, Ernout). Thus, suasurum fuerim = ‘I would have persuaded them to …’. The infinitive omittere potius …vitia quam …adsequi is a comparative sentence, object of nescio an suasurus fuerim (with potius …quam introducing the two parts of the sentence), followed by a consecutive sentence (with the correlative pair hoc …ut), in turn governing a relative clause with quibus. essemus is subjunctive by modal attraction to the previous fieret. See G. 663 and A.G. 593. nescio an, ‘I am not sure whether …’ can be translated by a single adverb, such as ‘perhaps’, ‘probably’.) sed illi quidem officio functi sunt, ut ceteros quoque magistratus sua munia implere velim: (velim: potential subjunctive, ‘I would wish’) mihi autem neque honestum silere neque proloqui expeditum, quia non aedilis aut praetoris aut consulis partis sustineo. (mihi autem neque honestum [est] silere neque proloqui expeditum, quia non … partis sustineo: ‘for me, however, it is neither proper to keep silent nor simple to offer an opinion, since I do not hold the office of …’; mihi is dat. of interest; quia non … sustineo: quia and quod are normally followed by indicative, unless subjunctive is requires for special reasons.) maius aliquid et excelsius a principe postulatur; et cum recte factorum sibi quisque gratiam trahant, unius invidia ab omnibus peccatur. (cum recte factorum sibi quisque gratiam trahant, unius invidia ab omnibus peccatur: use of narrative cum + subjunctive in a temporal clause when the action is contemporaneous with that of the main clause; cf. A.G. 546: ‘while everyone claims for himself the credit (gratiam) of things correctly done, the mistakes of all are ascribed to one man only.’ lit. ‘it is done amiss by all with the discredit of one man only’. peccatur is impersonal use of the passive of an intransitive verb; invidia is abl. of attendant circumstance, similar to abl. of manner; cf. G. 392.) quid enim primum prohibere et priscum ad morem recidere adgrediar? (quid … primum … adgrediar?: direct question with indicative: ‘which [excess] shall I tackle first?’) villarumne infinita spatia? familiarum numerum et nationes? argenti et auri pondus? aeris tabularumque miracula? promiscas viris et feminis vestis atque illa feminarum propria, quis lapidum causa pecuniae nostrae ad externas aut hostilis gentis transferuntur? (illa feminarum propria, quis lapidum causa pecuniae nostrae ad externas aut hostilis gentis transferuntur?: ‘those cravings peculiar to women, on account of which, (yes, for the sake of stones!), our wealth is passed into the hands of foreigners, even of people hostile to us’; illa, neuter plural, highly emphatic, left on purpose without a noun, for listeners (or readers) to guess the obvious: ‘that notorious appetite of women’; quis lapidum causa: both quis (= quibus) and causa are ablatives of cause, the second reinforcing and amplifying the first.)