dicto

I. to say often; to pronounce, declare, or assert repeatedly.

I. In gen. (very rare): rogarem te, ut diceres pro me tu idem, qui illis orationem dictavisses, Cic. Fin. 4, 22 fin.: mercemur servum qui dictet nomina, Hor. Ep. 1, 6, 50; cf. Gell. 4, 1, 2.—Far more freq. and class.,

II. In partic.

A. To dictate to one for writing: quod non modo Tironi dictare, sed ne ipse quidem audere scribere, Cic. Att. 13, 9; 7, 13 b. fin.; 2, 23; Quint. 2, 4, 12; 10, 3, 18; Plin. Ep. 9, 36, 2; Hor. Ep. 1, 10, 49 et saep. So of the dictating of teachers (common for want of books): memini quae mihi parvo Orbilium dictare, Hor. Ep. 2, 1, 71; cf. id. Sat. 1, 10, 75.—

2. Transf. As the practice of dictating came, in the course of time, to be very general (v. Gesner upon Quint. 10, 3, 18), dictare, since the Aug. per., acquired the signif. to express in written language, make, compose: elegidia, Pers. 1, 52; so, ducentos versus, Hor. S. 1, 4, 10: carmina (for which, shortly before and after, scribere), id. Ep. 2, 1, 110: codicillos, Suet. Tib. 22; cf. testamentum, id. Ner. 32; hence also, summas, Dig. 32, 95; and in the pass.: non unus tibi rivalis dictabitur heres, Juv. 6, 218; so, actionem, Suet. Rhet. 2; and among jurists in gen., Dig. 15, 1, 50; also, judicium, ib. 9, 4, 22; 49, 9, 3 al.—

B. To prescribe, recommend, order, dictate (cf. 2. dico, no. I. B. 10; in this sense the primitive of dictator, although no ante-Aug. examples occur): sportulam, Quint. 11, 3, 131: dictataque jurant Sacramenta deis, Sil. 10, 448.—

2. Transf., of abstract subjects: ita videtur ratio dictare, Quint. 3, 4, 11; cf. Dig. 1, 2, § 11: quibus sordet omne, quod natura dictavit, Quint. 8 prooem. § 8; so with acc., id. 1, 3, 16; 2, 15, 6; Plin. 26, 4, 9, § 20.—Hence, dictāta, ōrum, n. (acc. to no. II. A.).

A. Things dictated by the master to his scholars, i. e. lessons, exercises, rules, Cic. Q. Fr. 3, 1, 4; id. Fin. 4, 4, 10; id. N. D. 1, 26; id. Tusc. 2, 11, 96; Hor. Ep. 1, 1, 55; 1, 18, 13; Pers. 1, 29 al.—Also, in gen.,

B. Precepts, rules, e. g. for gladiators, Suet. Caes. 26; for mimes, Juv. 5, 122.