I.imper. circumduce, Plaut. As. 1, 1, 83; id. Most. 3, 2, 159; id. Mil. 2, 2, 66), to lead or draw around (class.; esp. freq. in milit. lang.; in Cic. perh. only once).
I. Prop.: “circumduce exercitum,” Plaut. Mil. 2, 2, 66; cf. Liv. 1, 27, 8; 8, 13, 8: “miles aliquo circumducitur,” Plaut. Truc. 4, 4, 21: “quattuor cohortibus longiore itinere circumductis,” Caes. B. G. 3, 26: “alas ad latus Samnitium,” Liv. 10, 29, 9: “agmen per invia circa, etc.,” id. 21, 36, 4: “pars devio saltu circumducta,” id. 41, 19, 8; cf. id. 36, 24, 8: “captos Vitellii exploratores circumductos, ut robora exercitus noscerent, remittendo,” Tac. H. 3, 54: “aliquem per totam civitatem,” Petr. 141.— Also like the simple verb absol.: “praeter castra hostium circumducit,” marches around, avoids, Liv. 34, 14, 1: “aliquem vicatim,” Suet. Calig. 35: “per coetus epulantium,” id. ib. 32: “quosdam per organa hydraulica,” id. Ner. 41. —With two accs.: “eho istum, puer, circumduce hasce aedis et conclavia,” Plaut. Most. 3, 2, 159: “quos Pompeius... omnia sua praesidia circumduxit atque ostentavit,” Caes. B. C. 3, 61 Kraner ad loc.; cf. Verg. A. 6, 517 sq.— “And in tmesis: circum in quaestus ducere Asinum,” Phaedr. 4, 1, 4.—
B. Of things: Casilinum coloniam deduxisti, ut vexillum tolleres, ut aratrum circumduceres (as usu. in founding a new city; v. aratrum), * Cic. Phil. 2, 40, 102; cf.: “oppida, quae prius erant circumducta aratro,” Varr. L. L. 5, § 143 Müll.: bracchium (v. bracchium), Auct. B. Hisp. 6; Suet. Claud. 20: “flumen Dubis, ut circino circumductum, paene totum oppidum cingit,” Caes. B. G. 1, 38: “utro modo vero id circumductum est (of a round hole),” Cels. 8, 3, 16: “litteras subicere et circumducere,” i. e. when a line is filled, to place the remaining letters of a word below the line, and draw circular marks around them, to indicate that they belong above, Suet. Aug. 87 fin.; cf. Serv. ad Verg. A. 3, 204 and 226: “umbra hominis lineis circumducta,” i.e. represented by outlines, sketched, Plin. 35, 3, 5, § 15.—
II. Trop.
A. In conversat. language, aliquem aliqua re or absol., to deceive, cheat, impose upon (syn.: “circumvenio, decipio, fraudo, fallo): aliquem argento,” Plaut. Ps. 2, 2, 39; 1, 5, 16: “quadrigentis Philippis filius me et Chrusalus circumduxerunt,” id. Bacch. 5, 2, 64; cf. id. ib. 2, 3, 77: “quā me potes, circumduce, aufer,” id. As. 1, 1, 84; id. Poen. 5, 5, 8; 5, 2, 16; id. Ps. 1, 5, 115; Dig. 42, 33, 1 al.—
B. Of discourse, to use circumlocution, to prolong: “cum sensus unus longiore ambitu circumducitur,” Quint. 9, 4, 124; cf. id. 10, 2, 17.—
C. In prosody, to speak drawlingly, to drawl out; only in Quint. 11, 3, 172; 12, 10, 33; 1, 5, 23 Spald. and Zumpt.—
D. In jurid. Lat., to draw lines around a law, i. e. to cancel, annul, abrogate (cf. cancello, II., and circumscribo, II. D.), Dig. 5, 1, 73; 40, 12, 27; 49, 1, 22.