Lucius Seneca - Yale Required Reading - Collected Works (Vol. 2)

8A town of Caria. The Apollonius mentioned above, c. 17, was Apollonius Molon, a native of Rhodes. Proust.

9The young Roman nobles were accustomed to pursue one of three studies, jurisprudence, eloquence, or war. Proust.

10Cotta speaks ironically.

11Invention, disposition, embellishment, memory, and delivery. See ii. 19. Ellendt.

12 Atque id egisse . Most critics have supposed these words in some way faulty. Gesner conjectured, atque digessisse; Lambinus, atque in artem redegisse; Ernesti, ad artemque redegisse. Ellendt supposes that id egisse may mean ei rei operam dedisse.

13 Sed iis, qui ingrediuntur . Orellius and Ellendt retain this reading, though Ernesti had long before observed that there is no verb on which iis can be considered as dependent, and that we must read ii or hi as a nominative to the following possunt.

14 Quam maxime ad veritatem accommodate , 'with as much adaptation as possible to truth.'

15See c. x.

16 Adolescens . When he imitated the practice of Carbo, he was, he says, adolescentulus.

17A practice recommended by Quintilian, x. 5.

18This is sufficiently explained in book ii. c. 87. See also Quint xi. 2.

19 Veste . Under this word is included tapestry, coverings of couches, and other things of that sort.

20An illustration, says Proust, borrowed from the practice of trader who allow goods, on which they set a high value, to be seen only through lattice-work.

21Not Quintus Scaevola the augur, the father-in-law of Crassus, in whose presence Crassus is speaking, but another Quintus Scaevola, who was an eminent lawyer, and held the office of pontifex; but at the time to which Crassus alludes he was tribune of the people, 105 B.C. Proust.

22The case was as follows: As Scaevola the pontiff was going into the Campus Martius, to the election of consuls, he passed, in his way, through the forum, where he found two orators in much litigation, and blundering grievously through ignorance of the civil law. One of them was Hypsaeus, the other Gnaeus Octavius, who had been consul 128 B.C. Hypsaeus was accusing some guardian of maladministration of the fortunes of his ward. This sort of case was called iudicium tutelae. Octavius defended the guardian. The judge of this controversy was Marcus Crassus, then city praetor, 105 B.C. He that was condemned on such a trial, was decreed to pay damages to his ward to the amount of what his affairs had suffered through his means, and, in addition, by the law of the Twelve Tables, was to pay something by way of fine. But if the ward, or his advocate, sought to recover more from the defendant than was due, he lost his cause. Hypsaeus proceeded in this manner, and therefore ought to have been nonsuited. Octavius, an unskilful defender of his client, should have rejoiced at this, for if he had made the objection and proved it, he would have obtained his cause; but he refused to permit Hypsaeus to proceed for more than was due, though such proceeding would, by the law, have been fatal to his suit. Proust.

23Quintus Mucius Scaevola, mentioned in the last note but one.

24The cause was this. One man owed another a sum of money, to be paid, for instance, in the beginning of January; the plaintiff would not wait till that time, but brought his action in December; the ignorant lawyer who was for the defendant, instead of contesting with the plaintiff this point, that he demanded his money before it was due, (which if he had proved, the plaintiff would have lost his cause,) only prayed the benefit of the exception, which forbade an action to be brought for money before the day of payment, and so only put off the cause for that time. This he did not perceive to be a clause inserted for the advantage of the plaintiff, that he might know when to bring his suit. Thus the plaintiff, when the money became due, was at liberty to bring a new action, as if this matter had never come to trial, which action he could never have brought, if the first had been determined on the other point, namely, its having been brought before the money was due; for then the defendant might have pleaded a former judgment, and precluded the plaintiff from his second action. See Justin. Instit. iv. 13. 5. de re iudicata. 'Of which sum there is a time for payment,' were words of form in the exception from whence it was nominated; as, 'That the matter had before come into judgment,' were in the other exception re iudicata. Proust. B. See Gaius, Instit. iv. 131, and Heffter, Obs. on Gaius, iv. 23, p. 109 seq. Ellendt.

25 Infitiator . The defendant or debtor.

26 Petitor . The plaintiff or creditor.

27Publius Licinius Crassus Mucianus, son of Publius Mucius Scaovola, who had been adopted into the Licinian family. He was consul with Lucius Valerius Flaccus, 131 B.C. . . . But the name of Dives had previously been in the family of the Crassi, for Publius Crassus. who was consul with Publius Africanus, 205 B.C., was so called. Ellendt.

28By birth. He had his name of Crassus from adoption, as stated in the preceding note.

29Publius Scaevola, his brother. In the phrase, neque illum in iure civili satis illi arti facere posse , the words illi arti are regarded by Ernesti and Orellius as spurious, but Ellendt thinks them genuine, explaining in iure civili by quod ad ius civile attinet. I have followed Orellius and Ernesti in my translation.

30Publius Crassus.

31 Illa tempora atque illa aetas . By tempora is meant the state of the times as to political affairs; by aetas, the period of advancement in learning and civilization which Rome had reached.

32Antonius.

33A body of inferior iudices, chosen three out of each tribe, so that the full number was a hundred and five. They took cognisance of such minor causes as the praetor entrusted to their decision.

34 Gentilitatum . Kindred or family. Persons of the same family or descent had certain peculiar rights, e.g. in entering upon an inheritance, in undertaking guardianship. In such rights slaves, freedmen, and capite deminuti had no participation. See Cic. Top. 6, 29. Proust.

35The agnati , as a brother by the same father, a brother's son or grandson, an uncle's son or grandson, had their peculiar rights. See Gaius, i. 156.

36About these, various controversies might arise; as, when the force of a river has detached a portion from your land, and added it to that of your neighbour, to whom does that portion belong? Or if trees have been carried away from your land to that of your neighbour, and have taken root there, etc. Proust.

37When a person was obliged to let the water, which dropped from his house, run into the garden or area of his neighbour; or to receive the water that fell from his neighbour's house into his area. Adam's Roman Antiquities, p. 49.

38For he who had a son under his power should have taken care to institute him his heir, or to disinherit him by name; since if a father pretermitted or passed over his son in silence, the testament was of no effect. Just. Inst. ii. 13. And if the parents disinherited their children without cause, the civil law was, that they might complain that such testaments were invalid, under colour that their parents were not of sound mind when they made them. Just. Inst. ii. 18. B.

39The son of a freedman of the Claudian family had died without making a will, and his property fell by law to the Claudii: but there were two families of them, the Claudii Pulchri, who were patricians, and the Claudii Marcelli, who were plebeians; and these two families went to law about the possession of the dead man's property. The patrician Claudii (whose family was the eldest of the name) claimed the inheritance by right of gens, on the ground that the freedman was of the gens Claudia, of which their family was the chief; . . . while the Claudii Marcelli, or plebeian Claudii, claimed it by right of stirps, on the ground that the freedman was more nearly related to them than to the Pulchri. Pearce. The term gens was used in reference to patricians; that of stirps, to plebeians. Proust.