clxxvi

secus adv.

Definition: otherwise, differently; (with atque, quam, ut, usually after negative) otherwise (than)

Sententia: Tacitus Annales, 13.6

pleraque in summa fortuna auspiciis et consiliis quam telis et manibus geri. daturum plane documentum honestis an secus amicis uteretur, si ducem amota invidia egregium quam si pecuniosum et gratia sumnixum per ambitum deligeret.

and the most fortune in the highest ones [is said] to be borne in plans and in auspices rather than in spears and in bands. a document given plainly [shows] whether he might use [the advice of] honest or otherwise friends, if jealousy having been unmoved he might select an excellent leader than if [he might select] one full of money and by favor resting through ambition.

Tacitus, a Silver Age historian, is discussing in Book 13 the years 54-58 AD, specifically in this section Nero and his youth. People had been worried that with unrest with the Parthians their leader Nero, scarcely 17, was too young to properly lead. However, another view, which Tacitus states here, is that age doesn't actually matter--Gnaius Pompey and Octavian (soon to be Augustus) were 18 and 19 respectively, and played a huge role in the civil wars. It is not your age, but your friends and your decisions and integrity which show your strength as a leader.

As a note, yesterday's sententia also used "secus."

"Secus" is a lonely adverb, which can hardly bear to be without another of its kind. Just like Lesbia's Catullus, it gives its attention to two different "people:" first to "non," and then to "haud." It wavers between the two, with Ovid (in the Metamorphoses) using "non" more with a 5-2 majority, and Vergil (in the Aeneid) using "haud" more with an 8-4 majority. Other adjectives, "quam," "atque," and the like, are merely hangers on, witnesses to the affection of "secus" for "non" and "haud," its litotes-creating companions. Which one is the sparrow, and which one is Catullus, I wonder? (If you were confused, you should read Catullus 2 and 3!)

Anyway, despite its many occurrences with its negating comrades in Vergil's Aeneid, "secus" only occurs once on syllabus, in the oak simile in Book 4. Consequently, Catullus also has a tree simile in his poem 64, and both deal with the strength of Aeneas and Theseus respectively, though in the first Aeneas is like an oak in not giving way to Anna's pleas, and in the latter Theseus is like a storm which tears up a tree by the roots in defeating the Minotaur. Both men are described similarly, and cause harm to a woman much enamored by them. Etymologically, "secus" comes from "sequor," "to follow," which is also seen as "secor."