[Meaning an] affair.
"A great and marvelous thing [is] a man [whose] mind is duly suited by his constitution from the outset to whatever he sets out to do within [the bounds] of human limitations."[1]
And elsewhere: "[one could] compare the thing to a great herd of cows." The phrase [is] about barbarian troop-marshalling.[2]
Herodotus [writes]: "the matter of the storm was unbearable."[3]
Aristophanes [writes]: "how long the matter of nights is!"[4] [This means] the length, the stretch. It was customary for the Attic [speakers] to use a logical sequence, like "a horse is a rare thing", "a woman is an evil thing". And [they apply this] to other things similarly, however they wish to exaggerate.
"He was not rich in things, nor did he have as many [things] as would have been sufficient for another to lead a life of bare necessity."[5]