Empta intercessione

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Barry Hofstetter
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Empta intercessione

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

From Cicero's Pro Milone 14:

divisa sententia est postulante nescio quo—nihil enim necesse est omnium me flagitia proferre—sic reliqua auctoritas senatus empta intercessione sublata est.

I get the general idea, but what is the exact sense of "empta?" The translation I have says "corrupt" but I'm not precisely sure how to derive that from "empta."
N.E. Barry Hofstetter

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mwh
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Re: Empta intercessione

Post by mwh »

He's claiming the intercession was “bought” i.e. procured by bribery. Vote buying is not a new practice.

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Barry Hofstetter
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Re: Empta intercessione

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mwh wrote: Tue Apr 30, 2019 8:18 pm He's claiming the intercession was “bought” i.e. procured by bribery. Vote buying is not a new practice.
That's how I originally took it, but the translation (and lack of note,) made me second guess. Thanks!
N.E. Barry Hofstetter

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hlawson38
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Re: Empta intercessione

Post by hlawson38 »

Barry Hofstetter wrote: Tue Apr 30, 2019 6:46 pm From Cicero's Pro Milone 14:

divisa sententia est postulante nescio quo—nihil enim necesse est omnium me flagitia proferre—sic reliqua auctoritas senatus empta intercessione sublata est.
Because I had to work hard on this quotation, I present a trial translation for correction.

At the demand of somebody [postulante nescio quo] the proposal [sententia] was divided into separate parts for decision[divisa est]--I needn't [nihil enim necesse est . . . me] detail shameful misconduct [ flagitia proferre] that involved everybody [omnium]--in this way the remaining authority of the senate[sic reliqua auctoritas senatus ] was thrown away[sublata est] by a purchased vote. [empta interecessione]
Hugh Lawson

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Barry Hofstetter
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Re: Empta intercessione

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Hlawson, that sounds good to me. It's not difficult from the syntax, which is actually quite straightforward, but because of the technical use of the vocabulary.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter

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hlawson38
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Re: Empta intercessione

Post by hlawson38 »

Many thanks Barry. For me, the technical meaning of divisa est was hard to find. In addition, I hesitated for a time over the antecedent of omnium. Finally it took me a while to work up a satisfactory reading of postulante ...quo.
Hugh Lawson

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