I.to hold back firmly, to keep back, to hold fast (rare; not in Cic.).
I. Lit.: “cur me retentas?” Plaut. As. 3, 3, 1; id. Rud. 3, 6, 39; cf. “agmen,” Liv. 10, 5: “legiones,” Tac. H. 4, 13: “fugientes,” id. ib. 5, 21: “admissos equos,” Ov. A. A. 2, 434; cf. “frena,” id. Am. 2, 9, 30: “puppes,” Tac. H. 2, 35; Luc. 3, 586: “vires regni,” id. 4, 723: “pecuniam, calones, sarcinas,” Tac. H. 4, 60: “caelum a terris,” i. e. to hold apart, Lucr. 2, 729: “iste qui retentat sese tacitus, quo sit tutus,” restrains himself, Auct. Her. 4, 49, 62.—
II. Trop.: “iras,” i. e. to suppress, Val. Fl. 3, 97.—
B. Transf., to hold back from destruction, preserve, maintain: (mens divina) Quae penitus sensus hominum vitasque retentat, Cic. poët. Div. 1, 11, 17.
