VIRTUE Copy link • VIRTUEPower, efficacy, vis (Cic.): potestas (Plin.): efficacitas (Cic.): efficientia (C, once): efficacia (Plin.): The natural virtues of plants, potestates herbarum (Plin., 25, 2, 5): the virtues of medicines, facultates medicamentorum (Cels., 5, 1): to possess a certain virtue, vim habere; valere; efficere aliquid; potestatem habere; pertinere ad aliquid: in or by virtue of, e or ex (conformably to; e.g., ex pacto, ex conventu); per (by authority of; e.g., per senatus decretum, etc.). It may also be expressed by the simple ablative; e.g., by virtue of this command, quo imperio (as Nep., Milt., 7, 1). Good quality of anything, virtus (e.g., arboris, equi, Cic.; ferri, herbarum, etc.). Wine has this virtue, vinum eo nomine commendatur, hanc laudem habet: fidelity is the virtue of a dog, summa virtus, or laus, canis in fide cernitur, posita est. Moral goodness, virtus (as showing itself in meritorious and becoming actions): innocentia (as showing itself in blameless, especially disinterested, conduct): honestas (as showing itself in virtuous and noble sentiments): ☞ Neither of these words corresponds exactly to our word “virtue” in this sense: virtus denotes, strictly speaking, only excellence (virtus est nihil aliud quam ad summum perducta natura, Cic., Leg., 1, 8, 25; compare Tusc., 4, 15, 34; 5, 13, 39; Beier ad Cic., Off., 2, 6, 29), and honestas, in the Roman sense, has too exclusive a reference to character, reputation, and human opinion: Grotefend remarks, that honestas is nearer to our idea than virtus; but perhaps virtus must be usually adopted, the sense in which a modern writer uses the term being fully understood. Or we may say, honestum, rectum, virtus vera; or, by circumlocution, id quod proprie dicitur vereque est honestum (Cic., Off., 3, 4, 17): The path of virtue, virtutis via (Sall.): lovely, heavenly virtue, virtus amabilis, admirabilis, divina (Cic.): sing., extraordinary virtue, virtus eximia, praeclara, singularis, excellens (Cic.): tried virtue, virtus spectata, probata: oppressed virtue, virtus afflicta, prostrata: active virtue, virtus actuosa; virtus, quae in agendo versatur: a pattern of virtue, exemplar virtutis (Sen.); lumen probitatis et virtutis (Cic., Amic., 8, 27): to be possessed of virtue, virtutem habere; virtute praeditum, ornatum esse: in quo virtus inest: to depart or deviate from virtue, a virtute discedere; honestatem deserere: virtue commends itself by action, omnis laus virtutis in actione consistit (Cic., Off., 1, 6, 19). A single feature of moral goodness, virtus. The virtue of temperance, of justice, virtus continentiae, justitiae (Cic.); all virtues are equal, omnes virtutes sunt inter se aequales et pares (Cic., De Or., 3, 14, 55): to make a virtue of necessity, laudem virtutis necessitati dare (Quint.); necessitati cedere, concedere, parere, aliquid dare, tribuere (after Cic.). Chastity, pudicitia: pudor.