A Study in Scarlet

[Kuba26]

I read the following phrase in Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet:

Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo
Ipse domi simul ac nummos contemplar in arca
(Part 2, Chapter 7)

People hiss at me, but I applaud
myself at home as soon as I contemplate the coins in [my] coffer.

(I presume 'count' is more natural than 'contemplate' here.) Two quick questions though, is the -e of 'contemplar' dropped here because of a vowel clash? And is simul often used in combination with ac so that both can be translated together as 'as soon as'?

 

[Pacifica]

contemplar

This should be contemplor, I believe.

(I presume 'count' is more natural than 'contemplate' here.)

Not necessarily, in my opinion. In any case, that isn't what contemplor means.

Two quick questions though, is the -e of 'contemplar' dropped here because of a vowel clash?

What -e? Were you thinking that contemplar (a typo for contemplor) was a shortened form for contemplare? It isn't.

And is simul often used in combination with ac so that both can be translated together as 'as soon as'?

Yes, it's a standard phrase.

 

[Dantius]

By the way, this is a quote from Horace's Satires:
ut quidam memoratur Athenis
sordidus ac dives, populi contemnere voces
sic solitus: 'populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo
ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca.'

And yes, it should be "contemplor".

 

[Kuba26]

Perhaps somewhat naively, I simply did not take such an error into account.
Gratias vobis.