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[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,

Who may the causes vast of war unfold?

Enn. 1741
This kind of jest finds its most frequent opportunity in ambiguity,

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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