15 Cicero, De Amicitia 22–23
At this point Laelius feels the need to point out that by “virtue” and by “good” we do not mean the kind of person who is a Stoic “saint” (the sapiēns)—who exists only in theories of the learned (docti), but just those people who in ordinary life (commūnis vīta) are reckoned to be good and virtuous. Life is not worth living (vītālis) without friends to share both the good times and the bad times. Other “goods” are directed toward a single end, but friendship embraces (continet) many; especially the kind of perfect friendship that good men enjoy.
| 1 | [22] Tālis igitur inter virōs amīcitia tantās opportūnitātēs habet, quantās vix queō dīcere. |
| 2 | Prīncipiō quī potest esse vīta “vītālis,” ut ait Ennius, quae nōn in amīcī mūtuā benevolentiā conquiēscat? |
| 3 | Quid dulcius quam habēre, quīcum omnia audeās sīc loquī ut tēcum? |
| 4 | Quī esset tantus frūctus in prōsperīs rēbus, nisi habērēs, quī illīs aequē ac tū ipse gaudēret? |
| 5 | adversās vērō ferre difficile esset sine eō, quī illās gravius etiam quam tū ferret. |
| 6 | Dēnique cēterae rēs, quae expetuntur, opportūnae sunt singulae rēbus ferē singulīs: dīvitiae, ut ūtāre, opēs, ut cōlāre, honōrēs, ut laudēre, voluptātēs, ut gaudeās, valētūdō, ut dolōre careās et mūneribus fungāre corporis; |
| 7 | amīcitia rēs plūrimās continet; quōquō tē verteris, praestō est, nūllō locō exclūditur, numquam intempestīva, numquam molesta est; |
| 8 | itaque “nōn aquā, nōn ignī,” ut āiunt, locīs plūribus ūtimur quam amīcitiā. |
| 2 | quī: this is an archaic form of the ablative sing. m./n. (so, quo [modo], “how”). The archaic touches remind us that the dialogue is set a generation before Cicero’s birth and 85 years before the date of composition.
vīta: subject of potest. Ennius: an early Roman poet (239-169 BCE); composed an epic on Roman history that was very influential for later poets, especially Virgil. conquiēscat: what kinds of relative clauses take the subjunctive? (Is it the same as the potential subjunctives, audeas and gauderet, in lines 3–4?) Take a look at AG 519. |
| 3 | quīcum: = an older or archaic form of quōcum = cum quō.
sīc…ut…: note when ut is coordinating like elements (instead of introducing a verb). |
| 4 | frūctus esset: “fruit” in the sense of “reward, success, etc.”; ecce, this looks like a conditional sentence; what kind?
illīs: <rēbus>. ac: frequently used in comparisons of similarity and dissimilarity. |
| 5 | esset: ecce, another potential subjunctive!
gravius: comparative adverb. |
| 6 | dēnique: introduces the final point in the argument (the conclusion of the extension signaled by igitur in line 1).
ūtāre, etc.: NOT an infinitive, since utor is deponent—and third conjugation! Where else do we find -re as an ending? dīvitiae…valētūdō: each of the nouns in this list governs an understood form of expetuntur. careās… fungāre (compare ūtāre): both verbs take the ablative. |
| 7 | praestō : here, the adv. |
| 8 | nōn aquā nōn ignī: fire and water are the proverbial (ut āiunt) necessities of life; don’t forget that ūtor utī takes the ablative.
locīs: “places” in the sense, here, of “times” or “occasions”. |
