198 E S SAT. upon the PR INC I PL E S 



' commercia prohibebant * ;" and, " Regio hoftibus ignara f." 

 TACITUS, who frequently imitates particular expreffions of 

 SALLUST, not only takes this feeming liberty with the com- 

 pounded, but aflumes a correfponding one with the radical 

 word. 



IT is, by no means, common to find the word objidium taken 

 to denote, " in the way of a hoftage." " MEHERDATES objidio 

 " nobis datus^:." Obfidium properly denotes, the ac~l of invert- 

 ing a fortified place ; but, inftead of this act, there is here fub- 

 flituted the manner in which a perfon is delivered up as a fecu- 

 rity, that a ftipulation made to thofe who raife the fiege will 

 be performed. 



BUT the irregularities in the flyle of TACITUS may, perhaps, 

 appear more flriking in his ufe of certain particles than of the 

 terms mentioned. Let us attend, then, to his ufe of thefe four, 

 Alias, An, Et, Penes, and obferve, firft, the radical power, and 

 then the ordinary applications of each. 



ALIAS, in its primary meaning, refers to an event as taking 

 place occafionally, or at times both prior and pofterior to that 

 at which the term is ufed. The occafional occurrence of the 

 event is fignified when the verb appears in the aorift of the 

 indicative j fo that the time at which the propofition is an- 

 nounced, is comprehended by that in which the fact affirmed 

 takes place. Thus, " Mutantur faepe hominum mores, alias 

 " adverfis rebus, alias state ingravefcente ||." The future ex- 

 iftence of the event fuppofes the time of affirmation prior to 

 that at which the fact is to take place, and the paft fuppofes 

 this pofterior to that at which it actually did j and they ap- 

 pear in fuch inftances as the two following : " Sed haec ad te 

 " fcribam alias fubtilius ." " Quibus de rebus et alias faepe 



" nobis multa qugefita et difputata funt * *." 



ALIAS, 



x 



* Bell. Jug. cap. 18. t Ibid. cap. 52. 



t Ann. lib. u. cap. 10. H Cic. de Oral. 



Cic. Ep. ad ATT. lib. I. cap. u. ** Cic. Acad. Quaeft. lib. 4. cap. 4. 



