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The Project Gutenberg eBook of ... Democritus. I see some good in Strato, yet I will not assent absolutely either to his system or to yours (121). All these matters lie far beyond our ken. We know nothing of our bodies, which we can dissect, while we have not the advantage of being able to dissect the constitution of things or of the earth to see whether she is firmly fixed or hovers in mid air (122). Xenophanes, Hicetas, Plato and Epicurus tell strange things of the heavenly bodies. How much better to side with Socrates and Aristo, who hold that nothing can be known about them! (123) Who knows the nature of mind? Numberless opinions clash, as do those of Dicaearchus, Plato and Xenocrates. Our sapiens will be unable to decide (124). If you say it is better to choose any system rather than none, I choose Democritus. You at once upbraid me for believing such monstrous falsehoods (125). The Stoics differ among themselves about physical subjects, why will they not allow me to differ from them? (126) Not that I deprecate the study of Physics, for moral good results from it (127). Our sapiens will be delighted if he attains to anything which seems to resemble truth. Before I proceed to Ethics, I note your weakness in placing all perceptions on the same level. You must be prepared to asseverate no less strongly that the sun is eighteen times as large as the earth, than that yon statue is six feet high. When you admit that all things can be perceived no more and no less clearly than the size of the sun, I am almost content (128). §116. Tres partes: cf. I. 19. Et a vobismet: "and especially by you". The threefold division was peculiarly Stoic, though used by other schools, cf. Sext. P.H. II. 13 (on the same subject) ??? St?? ??? ?a? a???? t??e?. For other modes of dividing philosophy see Sext. A.M. VII. 2. At illud ante: this is my em. for the MSS. velut illud ante, which probably arose from a marginal variant "vel ut" taking the place of at; cf. a similar break in 40 sed prius, also in 128 at paulum ante. Such breaks often occur in Cic., as in Orator 87 sed nunc aliud, also T.D. IV. 47 repenam fortasse, sed illud ante. For velut Halm writes vel (which Bait. takes), Dav. verum. Inflatus tumore: cf. De Off. I. 91 inflati opinionibus. Bentl. read errore. Cogere: this word like a?a??a?e?? and ß?a?es?a? often means simply to argue irresistibly. Initia: as in 118, bases of proof, themselves naturally incapable of proof, so a??a? in Gk. Digitum: cf. 58, 143. Punctum esse etc.: s?µe??? est?? ?? µe??? ???e? (Sext. P.H. III. 39), st??µ? = t? aµe?e? (A.M. IX. 283, 377). Extremitatem: = ep? fa?e?a?. Libramentum: so this word is used by Pliny (see Forc.) for the slope of a hill. Nulla crassitudo: in Sext. the ep?fa?e?a is usually described not negatively as here, but positively as µ???? µeta p?at??? (P.H. III. 39), pe?a? (extremitas) s?µat?? d?? e??? d?astase??, µ???? ?a? p?at?? (A.M. III. 77). Liniamentum ... carentem: a difficult passage. Note (1) that the line is defined in Greek as µ???? ap?ate?. (Sext. as above), (2) that Cic. has by preference described the point and surface negatively. This latter fact seems to me strong against the introduction of longitudinem which Ursinus, Dav., Orelli, Baiter and others propose by conjecture. If anything is to be introduced, I would rather add et crassitudine before carentem, comparing I. 27 sine ulla specie et carentem omni illa qualitate. I have merely bracketed carentem, though I feel Halm's remark that a verb is wanted in this clause as in the other two, he suggests quod sit sine. Hermann takes esse after punctum as strongly predicative ("there is a point," etc.), then adds similiter after liniamentum and ejects sine ulla. Observe the awkwardness of having the line treated of after the superficies, which has induced some edd. to transpose. For liniamentum = lineam cf. De Or. I. 187. Si adigam: the fine em. of Manut. for si adiiciamus of MSS. The construction adigere aliquem ius iurandum will be found in Caes. Bell. Civ. I. 76, II. 18, qu. by Dav., cf. also Virg. Aen. III. 56 quid non mortalia pectora cogis auri sacra fames? Sapientem nec prius: this is the "egregia lectio" of three of Halm's MSS. Before Halm sapientemne was read, thus was destroyed the whole point of the sentence, which is not that the sapiens will swear to the size of the sun after he has seen Archimedes go through his calculations, but that the sapiens, however true he admits the bases of proof to be which Archimedes uses, will not swear to the truth of the elaborate conclusions which that geometer rears upon them. Cicero is arguing as in 128 against the absurdity of attaching one and the same degree of certainty to the simplest and the most complex truths, and tries to condemn the Stoic sapiens out of his own mouth, cf. esp. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14970/14970-h/14970-h.htm[1/5/2010 10:31:57 AM]
The Project Gutenberg eBook of ... nec ille iurare posset in 123. Multis partibus: for this expression see Munro on Lucr. I. 734, for the sense cf. 82, 123, 126, 128. Deum: see 126. §117. Vim: = a?a????, cf. cogere in 116. Ne ille: this asseverative ne is thus always closely joined with pronouns in Cic. Sententiam eliget et: MSS. have (by dittographia of m, eli) added melius after sententiam, and have also dropped et. Dav. wished to read elegerit, comparing the beginning of 119. Insipiens eliget: cf. 115 quale est a non sapiente explicari sapientiam? and 9 statuere qui sit sapiens vel maxime videtur esse sapientis. Infinitae quaestiones: ?ese??, general propositions, opposed to finitae quaestiones, limited propositions, Gk. ??p??ese??. Quintal III. 5, 5 gives as an ex. of the former An uxor ducenda, of the latter An Catoni ducenda. These quaestiones are very often alluded to by Cic. as in D.F. I. 12, IV. 6, De Or. I. 138, II. 65—67, Topica 79, Orat. 46, cf. also Quint. X. 5, II. E quibus omnia constant: this sounds like Lucretius, omnia = t? pa?. §118. For these physici the student must in general be referred to R. and P., Schwegler, and Grote's Plato Vol. I. A more complete enumeration of schools will be found in Sext. P.H. III. 30 sq. Our passage is imitated by Aug De Civ. Dei XVIII. 37. Concessisse primas: Cic. always considers Thales to be sapientissimus e septem (De Leg. II. 26). Hence Markland on Cic. Ad Brutum II. 15, 3 argued that that letter cannot be genuine, since in it the supremacy among the seven is assigned to Solon. Infinitatem naturae: t? ape????, naturae here = ??s?a?. Definita: this is opposed to infinita in Topica 79, so definire is used for finire in Orat. 65, where Jahn qu. Verr. IV. 115. Similis inter se: an attempt to translate ??µ???µe?e?a?. Eas primum, etc.: cf. the exordium of Anaxagoras given from Diog. II. 6 in R. and P. 29 pa?ta ???µata ?? ??µ?? e?ta ??? ? e???? a?ta d?e??sµ?se. Xenophanes ... deum: Eleaticism was in the hands of Xenoph. mainly theological. Neque natum unquam: cf. neque ortum unquam in 119. Parmenides ignem: cf. Arist. Met. A. 5 qu. R. and P. 94. He only hypothetically allowed the existence of the phenomenal world, after which he made two a??a?, ?e?µ?? ?a? ?????? t??t?? de t? µe? ?ata µe? t? ??? ? e?µ?? tatte?, ?ate??? de ?ata t? µ? ??. Heraclitus: n. on I. 39. Melissus: see Simplicius qu. R. and P. 101, and esp. t? e?? a?e? a?a ?? te ?a? esta?. Plato: n. on I. 27. Discedent: a word often used of those vanquished in a fight, cf. Hor. Sat. I. 7, 17. §119. Sic animo ... sensibus: knowledge according to the Stoics was homogeneous throughout, no one thing could be more or less known than another. Nunc lucere: cf. 98, also 128 non enim magis adsentiuntur, etc. Mundum sapientem: for this Stoic doctrine see N.D. I. 84, II. 32, etc. Fabricata sit: see 87 n. Solem: 126. Animalis intellegentia: reason is the essence of the universe with the Stoics, cf. Zeller 138—9, also 28, 29 of Book I. Permanet: the deity is to the Stoic p?e? µa e?d????? d? ????? t?? ??sµ?? (Plut. De Plac. Phil. I. 7 qu. R. and P. 375), spiritus per omnia maxima ac minima aequali intentione diffusus. (Seneca, Consol. ad Helvid. 8, 3 qu. Zeller 147). Deflagret: the Stoics considered the ??sµ?? f?a?t??, cf. Diog. VII. 141, Zeller 156—7. Fateri: cf. tam vera quam falsa cernimus in 111. Flumen aureum: Plut. Vita Cic. 24 alludes to this (??t? ???s??? p?taµ?? e?? ?e??t??). This is the constant judgment of Cic. about Aristotle's style. Grote, Aristot. Vol I. p. 43, quotes Topica 3, De Or. I. 49, Brut. 121, N.D. II. 93, De Inv. II. 6, D.F. I. 14, Ad Att. II. 1, and discusses the difficulty of applying this criticism to the works of Aristotle which we possess. Nulla vis: cf. I. 28. Exsistere: Walker conj. efficere, "recte ut videtur" says Halm. Bait. adopts it. Ornatus: = ??sµ??. §120. Libertas ... non esse: a remarkable construction. For the Academic liberty see Introd. p. 18. Quod tibi est: after these words Halm puts merely a comma, and inserting respondere makes cur deus, etc. part of the same sentence. Bait. follows. Nostra causa: Cic. always writes mea, tua, vestra, nostra causa, not mei, tui, nostri, vestri, just as he writes sua sponte, but not sponte alicuius. For the Stoic opinion that men are the chief care of Providence, see N.D. I. 23, II. 37, D.F. III. 67, Ac. I. 29 etc., also Zeller. The difficulties surrounding the opinion are treated of in Zeller 175, N.D. II. 91—127. They supply in Sext. P.H. I. 32, III. 9—12 an example of the refutation of ????µe?a by means of ????µe?a. Tam multa ac: MSS. om. ac, which I insert. Lactantius qu. the passage without perniciosa. Myrmecides: an actual Athenian artist, famed for http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14970/14970-h/14970-h.htm[1/5/2010 10:31:57 AM]
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