de renovando: LLPSI Cap XLV

Latin Learning Latin
1

Revocatis deinde ad concilium Latinis, Tarquinius primum eos collaudavit ‘quod Turnum pro manifesto scelere merita poena affecissent’, deinde cum iis egit de renovando foedere inter Romanos Latinosque.

  1. Does pro here mean ‘in proportion to’ or ‘according to’. I notice that L&S offers this as one of its meanings and it would seem right here?

  2. Deinde cum iis egit de renovando foedere inter Romanos Latinosque
    He dissuaded / forced them from renewing the pact…?

Then we have

Haud difficulter persuasit Latinis, quamquam in eo foedere superior Romana res erat;
He easily persuaded / forced the Latini, although the pact was to the greater advantage of the Romans…

So I must have de renovando wrong because this doesn’t follow from the previous sentence..

But I can find no meaning of de other than meaning ‘from’ in some sense?

2

I think this just means he then discussed, or settled by discussion, the (renewal of the) treaty with them. The OLD gives these usages for agere de aliquo under subsections 40 and 41 of ago. HTH

3

Many thanks. That interpretation was my first instinct…but it was an unconscious instinct. In Latin the use of ‘de’ to mean about or concerning is so common I should have gone with it… but I got sidetracked …1

4

a. Agere cum aliquo, de aliquo or re or ut, to treat, deal, negotiate, confer, talk with one about a person or thing; to endeavor to persuade or move one, that, etc

Lewis, C. T., & Short, C. (1891). Harpers’ Latin Dictionary (p. 76). New York; Oxford: Harper & Brothers; Clarendon Press.

Dē frequently means “concerning, about…”

5

Thank you.