[374] iam dudum: forthwith, modifying dedatur; the emphasis rests on iam, as the speaker looks from a distant beginning; cf. Verg. G. 1.213 “papaver tempus humo tegere et iam dudum incumbere aratris” ; Aen. 2.103 “iam dudum sumite poenas” . But in Plautus the phrase generally means ‘a long time ago,’ the emphasis usually resting upon dudum, as the speaker looks backward from the present; though the play on Amphitruo's misunderstanding of the term as a synonym for modo (Pl. Amph. 692) points toward the beginning of the use here fairly inaugurated by Catullus.
Catullus. Catullus. E. T. Merrill. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1893.
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