"Ed Cryer" <ed@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:fusgkp$9dn$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
> I agree with you. "Ut" is strictly required.
> I suspect that Cicero got his knickers in a bit of a twist when he
> came to the "vide". In English what arises to the mind is "beware lest
> ...."; at least to my mind, rather than "beware that". And then C went
> on with a slight change for the rest of the sentence.
> Maybe he'd intended to write something like "vide ne minor nobis
> adhibeatur religio quam si testimonium diceremus" but then changed
> horses in mid stream. Your French version with its "ne nous est pas
> moins nécessaire" brings out the underlying tendency to opt for some
> comparison phrase here.
>
> I guess another interpretation would be a Ciceronian joke, based on
> the "bella ironia, si iocaremur;". But I can't see it.
>
>
> Ed
>
A few sentences previously there's another "vide .... ne"; and from the
mouth of the same person, Titus Atticus. Now, it appears rather peculiar
there too.
I'm coming to suspect one very elaborate joke here.
Brutus and Atticus were Cicero's best friends. He'd know their speech
mannerisms like the back of his hand. And the discussion here is about
language, irony, comparing the Athenian Lysias with the Roman Cato,
Socrates' ploy of praising someone prior to knocking them down; and
more.
Ed
|
