This kind of jest finds its most frequent opportunity in ambiguity,Who may the causes vast of war unfold?
Enn. 1741
[86]
Cicero on the other hand employed dissimulation when Sextus Annalis gave evidence damaging
to the client whom lie was defending, and the accuser
kept pressing him with the question, “Tell me, Marcus
Tullius, what have you to say about Sextus Annalis?”
[p. 487]
To which he replied by beginning to recite the Sixth
book of the Annals of Ennius, which commences with
the line,
1 (with oras for causas).The question (numquid, etc.) is treated by Cicero as meaning “Can you quote anything from the sixth book of the Annals?” ingentis is ace. plural.
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