Cicero, de officiis, no. 25

Latin Learning Latin
1

Here’s a sentence from Cicero, de officiis:

[25] 8. Expetuntur autem divitiae cum ad usus vitae necessarios, tum ad perfruendas voluptates.

I think I see how “ad perfruendas voluptates” works. It means perhaps “for fully enjoying pleasures”. Allen and Greenough cite this very quotation, and gloss it thus:

Note 2— In the gerundive construction the verbs ūtor, fruor, etc., are treated like transitive verbs governing the accusative, as they do in early Latin (§ 410.a, Note 1)

ad perfruendās voluptātēs (Off. 1.25)
for enjoying pleasures

However, I am in a muddle about “ad usus vitae necessarios”. I think it ought to mean something like “for getting the necessary-things for life.”

But that reading seems to make the two phrases non-parallel. Besides that I always have trouble with Latin words like “usus”. They have so many meanings! “Res” and “ratio” are other examples.

I request a commentary on this passage that might help me out of this muddle.

2

Well, one uses a gerundive and the other doesn’t, but they’re both phrases with ad and of similar length and even without the cum-tum pairing we should certainly view them as being in parallel. But of course you’re right that usus has a variety of uses (if you’ll pardon the pun).

3

Got it. If it’s parallel enough for Cicero and Michael, it’s parallel enough for me.

Clearing that up lets me see one of my other confusions. Here is the sentence again:

Expetuntur autem divitiae cum ad usus vitae necessarios, tum ad perfruendas voluptates.

What is the grammatical relationship between usus and necessarios? Now, after thinking it over, I want to see necessarios as an adjective, accusative plural. That makes it agree with usus (I believe), taken as a noun. But, I’m having trouble seeing the meanings. Maybe the “inescapable needs of life”?? Shouldn’t we take usus as a noun, accusative object of the preposition ad.

4

You see the basic distinction, Hugh: people seek wealth first for life’s essentials (e.g. food) and then for indulging in pleasures. Cicero’s phrases don’t always lend themselves to being broken down word by word, but this one is exact enough: ad governing usus acc.pl., necessarios modifying usus vitae—just as you say, in fact.

5

Many thanks. Before I happened on this reading, in trying several non-helpful ones I worked myself into a state of confusion.

That’s an interesting point on Cicero’s phrases.