... detur aliqui ludus aetati; sit adulescentia liberior; non omnia voluptatibus denegentur; non semper superet vera illa et derecta ratio; vincat aliquando cupiditas voluptasque rationem, dum modo illa in hoc genere praescriptio moderatioque teneatur: ...
- detur aliquid aetati or detur aliqui ludus aetati ← the latter
- detur, sit, denegentur subjunctive present
- ludus - what you do when you're not working (including school)
- aetati - in general, a period of age, e.g. your adulescentia is an aetas, your senectus is an aetas.
- omnia - there's apparently three flavours of omnis:
- omnis, omne - two-termination adjective meaning "every, all"
- omnes, omnium (masc PL) - every person, everybody
- omnia, omnium (nt PL) - every thing
- voluptatibus - what case is this?? dative or ablative?? what sort of ablative is it?? anyways it probably doesn't matter
- "let everything not be denied to pleasure"
- "let everything not be denied enjoyment"
- or abl.respect "let everything pleasurable not be denied"
- dum modo + subjunctive = "provided that"
- while only → as long as; basically introduces a temporal clause
- hoc genere = in this matter (common colloquialism?)
- illa → "that thing" → refers to what Cicero says next → "the following"
... let some sport be given to that time of life; let adolescence be more free; let not everything pleasurable be denied; that true and direct principle should not always win; sometimes desire and pleasure should conquer principles, as long as rule and restraint is held, in this manner:
... parcat iuventus pudicitiae suae, ne spoliet alienam, ne effundat patrimonium, ne faenore trucidetur, ne incurrat in alterius domum atque familiam, ne probrum castis, labem integris, infamiam bonis inferat, ne [ali]quem vi terreat, ne intersit insidiis, scelere careat; ...
- iuventus feminine btw.
- parco
- (+dat or +acc) to spare up, save up, economise
- (figuratively, +dat) to forgive someone, have mercy for, be lenient to
- to omit
- (+dat or +(a/ab + abl)) to refrain, abstain, avoid
- faenu NT - lit. interest (in the sense of finance), commentary said to take as debt
- alterius genitive of alter - nb. alter vs altus
- castis ... integrsi ... bonis substantive
- vi force in a bad way → violence
- intersit sjt of intersum
young men save up their own chastity, so he doesn't spoil someone else's, so he doesn't pour out inheritance, so he is not slaughtered by debt, so he doesn't intrude upon someone else's house and family of someone else, so he doesn't carry disgrace to the moral, fault to the untouched, disgrace to the good, so he doesn't frighten someone with strength, so he is not in treachery, [so] he is absent from evil;
... postremo cum paruerit voluptatibus, dederit aliquid temporis ad ludum aetatis atque ad inanes hasce adulescentiae cupiditates, revocet se aliquando ad curam rei domesticae, rei forensis reique publicae, ut ea quae ratione antea non perspexerat satietate abiecisse experiendo contempsisse videatur.
- pareo, parere, parui, _ - to obey, note pareo vs parco
- hasce - hic/haec/hoc + ce - emphatic form of hic/haec/hoc
- adulescentia abstract noun
- prolative infinitive - completing the meaning of another word that wouldn't be complete otherwise, e.g. potest videre
- ut [ea quae ratione antea non perspexerat] satietate abiecisse experiendo contempsisse videatur
- the whole thing is a purpose clause
- abiceisse, contempsisse - prolative infinitives. Not an indirect statement, although indirect
at last, when he will have obeyed the pleasures, [when] he will have given some time to the sport of youth and to these foolish desires of adolescence, he should call himself back, at some point, to the care of domestic matters, forensic matters, and public matters, so that he is seen to have abandoned due to satiety, to have rejected due to experience, the things which he had not previously understood with reason.
adulescens, ntis - adj
adulescentia, ae - fem noun, abstract - "adolescence"
iuventus, tutis - fem noun - youth; young persons
adulescentulus, i - masc noun, diminuitive
adulescentula, i - fem noun, diminuitive
What is Cicer doing here?
- presents himself as a reasonable person
- highkey avoiding the charges lmao. Like bro does NOT mention Clodia being poisoned
- this is the opposite of what he did to Clodia. Like he was arguing why having the affair (note that he is arguing about having an affair, not attempted murder) meant that Clodia was a bad person. And now he's arguing why having the affair is completely reasonable for Caelius.