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account be led into a mistake for our rule will prevent us from making any positive assertion
about the eggs." Adsentiri: for the passive use of this verb cf. 39. Par est: so Dav. for per, which
most MSS. have. The older edd. and Orelli have potest, with one MS. Quasi: the em. of Madv.
for the quam si of the MSS. Transversum digitum: cf. 116. Ne confundam omnia: cf. 53, 110.
Natura tolletur: this of course the sceptics would deny. They refused to discuss the nature of
things in themselves, and kept to phenomena. Intersit: i.e. inter visa. In animos: Orelli with one
MS. reads animis; if the MSS. are correct the assertion of Krebs and Allgayer (Antibarbarus, ed.
4) "imprimere wird klas sisch verbunden in aliqua re, nicht in aliquam rem," will require
modification. Species et quasdam formas: e?d? ?a? ?e??, quasdam marks the fact that formas is
a trans. I have met with no other passage where any such doctrine is assigned to a sceptic. As it
stands in the text the doctrine is absurd, for surely it must always be easier to distinguish between
two genera than between two individuals. If the non before vos were removed a better sense
would be given. It has often been inserted by copyists when sed, tamen, or some such word,
comes in the following clause, as in the famous passage of Cic Ad Quintum Fratrem, II. 11,
discussed by Munro, Lucr. p. 313, ed. 3.
§59. Illud vero perabsurdum: note the omission of est, which often takes place after the emphatic
pronoun. Impediamini: cf. n. on 33. A veris: if visis be supplied the statement corresponds
tolerably with the Academic belief, if rebus be meant, it is wide of the mark. Id est ... retentio:
supposed to be a gloss by Man., Lamb., see however nn. on I. 6, 8. Constitit: from consto, not
from consisto cf. 63 qui tibi constares. Si vera sunt: cf. 67, 78, 112, 148. The nonnulli are Philo
and Metrodorus, see 78. Tollendus est adsensus: i.e. even that qualified assent which the
Academics gave to probable phenomena. Adprobare: this word is ambiguous, meaning either
qualified or unqualified assent. Cf. n. on 104. Id est peccaturum: "which is equivalent to sinning,"
cf. I. 42. Iam nimium etiam: note iam and etiam in the same clause.
§60. Pro omnibus: note omnibus for omnibus rebus. Ista mysteria: Aug. Contra Ac. III. 37, 38
speaks of various doctrines, which were servata et pro mysteriis custodita by the New
Academics. The notion that the Academic scepticism was merely external and polemically used,
while they had an esoteric dogmatic doctrine, must have originated in the reactionary period of
Metrodorus (of Stratonice), Philo, and Antiochus, and may perhaps from a passage of Augustine,
C. Ac. III. 41 (whose authority must have been Cicero), be attributed to the first of the three (cf.
Zeller 534, n.). The idea is ridiculed by Petrus Valentia (Orelli's reprint, p. 279), and all
succeeding inquirers. Auctoritate: cf. 8, 9. Utroque: this neuter, referring to two fem. nouns, is
noticeable, see exx. in Madv. Gram. 214 c.
§61. Amicissimum: "because you are my dear friend". Commoveris: a military term, cf. De Div.
II. 26 and Forc., also Introd. p. 53. Sequere: either this is future, as in 109, or sequeris, the
constant form in Cic. of the pres., must be read. Approbatione omni: the word omni is emphatic,
and includes both qualified and unqualified assent, cf. 59. Orbat sensibus: cf. 74, and D.F. I. 64,
where Madv. is wrong in reproving Torquatus for using the phrase sensus tolli, on the ground that
the Academics swept away not sensus but iudicium sensuum Cimmeriis. Goer. qu. Plin. N.H. III.
5, Sil. Ital. XII. 131, Festus, s.v. Cimmerii, to show that the town or village of Cimmerium lay
close to Bauli, and probably induced this mention of the legendary people. Deus aliquis: so the
best edd. without comment, although they write deus aliqui in 19. It is difficult to distinguish
between aliquis and aliqui, nescio quis and nescio qui, si quis and si qui (for the latter see n. on
81). As aliquis is substantival, aliqui adjectival, aliquis must not be written with impersonal
nouns like terror (T.D. IV. 35, V. 62), dolor (T.D. I. 82, Ad Fam. VII. 1, 1), casus (De Off. III. 33).
In the case of personal nouns the best edd. vary, e.g. deus aliqui (T.D. I. 23, IV. 35), deus aliquis
(Lael. 87, Ad Fam. XIV. 7, 1), anularius aliqui (86 of this book), magistratus aliquis (In Verr. IV.
146). With a proper name belonging to a real person aliquis ought to be written (Myrmecides in
120, see my n.). Dispiciendum: not despiciendum, cf. M.D.F. II. 97, IV. 64, also De Div. II. 81,
verum dispicere. Iis vinculis, etc. this may throw light on fragm. 15 of the Acad. Post., which see.
§62. Motum animorum: n. on 34. Actio rerum: here actio is a pure verbal noun like p?a???, cf.
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