ABSTRACT
The infinitive is hardly a problem: Praetendere, not protendere, must be the obvious choice. At first glance morti seems even less problematic. The manuscript support for it is very strong and it is backed, moreover, by all modern editors;2 morti praetendere muros, then, can be said to be 'shelter from death behind your wall' (Sidgwick).3 The word morti could either reveal an attitude of insolence sure of total success and therefore be in character with the person uttering the words, Numanus Remulus: 'you are doomed to die if you come out to fight'. Or morti could also be taken to refer to an outcome always to be reckoned with when people are courageous enough to fight, mors being always a possibility among fighting men.
