J. B. Greenough, G. L. Kittredge, Select Orations of Cicero, Allen and Greenough's Edition.

etiamsi . . . dixero, . . . poterit: § 516, c (307, c); B. 264, a; G. 244, 2; H. 574, 2 (508, 2); cf. H.-B. 494 and 579, a.

similiter, in like manner, i.e. as if a man of rank had spoken.

exire, etc., i.e. this speech will not be quoted and talked over, and hence any allusions to politics which it may contain will not seem more significant than they really are.

emanare not to be confounded with manere.

deinde quod: the second reason, corresponding to quia in 1. 14.

ceterorum, opposed to ego in 1.6, below.

dictum: noun, limited by ceterorum; dicto (l.5) is also a noun, though modified by an adv. ; § 321, b (207, c) ; G. 437, R. ; H.-B. 250, 2, b, N.

concedi, impersonal: § 372 (230); B. 187, ii, b; G. 217; H.426, 3 (384, 5); H.-B. 364, 2.

nondum . . . accessi, I have not yet gone into public life, i.e. become candidate for any office. Cicero began his political career five years later, with the quaestorship.

tametsi, although, in its so-called "corrective" use, — the concession coming after the general statement, as a kind of limitation of it.

ignoscendi ratio, the idea of pardon. The vaguely general word ratio with the gen. of the gerund expresses little more than our word pardoning alone. The Latin, being poor in abstract words, has to resort to such shifts as this to supply their place. So cognoscendi consuetudo, the habit of judicial investigation, is almost equivalent to judicial investigation simply. This was a bold speech to make under the rule of the tyrant Sulla.