academica of cicero. - 912 Freedom Library

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middle of June . He had in the time immediately following Tullia's death entertained an
aversion for Tusculum, where she died. This he felt now compelled to conquer, otherwise he
must either abandon Tusculum altogether, or, if he returned at all, a delay of even ten years
would make the effort no less painful [147] . Before setting out for Antium Cicero wrote to Atticus
that he had finished while at Astura duo magna s??ta?µata, words which have given rise to
much controversy [148] . Many scholars, including Madvig, have understood that the first edition
of the Academica, along with the De Finibus, is intended. Against this view the reasons adduced
by Krische are convincing [149] . It is clear from the letters to Atticus that the De Finibus was
being worked out book by book long after the first edition of the Academica had been placed in
the hands of Atticus. The De Finibus was indeed begun at Astura [150] , but it was still in an
unfinished state when Cicero began to revise the Academica [151] . The final arrangement of the
characters in the De Finibus is announced later still [152] ; and even at a later date Cicero
complains that Balbus had managed to obtain surreptitiously a copy of the fifth book before it
was properly corrected, the irrepressible Caerellia having copied the whole five books while in
that state [153] . A passage in the De Divinatione [154] affords almost direct evidence that the
Academica was published before the De Finibus. On all these grounds I hold that these two
works cannot be those which Cicero describes as having been finished simultaneously at Astura.
Another view of the s??ta?µata in question is that they are simply the two books, entitled
Catulus and Lucullus, of the Priora Academica. In my opinion the word s??ta?µa, the use of
which to denote a portion of a work Madvig suspects [155] , thus obtains its natural meaning.
Cicero uses the word s??ta??? of the whole work [156] , while s??ta?µa [157] , and s????aµµa [158] ,
designate definite portions or divisions of a work. I should be quite content, then, to refer the
words of Cicero to the Catulus and Lucullus. Krische, however, without giving reasons, decides
that this view is unsatisfactory, and prefers to hold that the Hortensius (or de Philosophia) and
the Priora Academica are the compositions in question. If this conjecture is correct, we have in
the disputed passage the only reference to the Hortensius which is to be found in the letters of
Cicero. We are quite certain that the book was written at Astura, and published before the
Academica. This would be clear from the mention in the Academica Posteriora alone [159] , but
the words of Cicero in the De Finibus [160] place it beyond all doubt, showing as they do that the
Hortensius had been published a sufficiently long time before the De Finibus, to have become
known to a tolerably large circle of readers. Further, in the Tusculan Disputations and the De
Divinatione [161] the Hortensius and the Academica are mentioned together in such a way as to
show that the former was finished and given to the world before the latter. Nothing therefore
stands in the way of Krische's conjecture, except the doubt I have expressed as to the use of the
word s??ta?µa, which equally affects the old view maintained by Madvig.
Whatever be the truth on this point, it cannot be disputed that the Hortensius and the Academica
must have been more closely connected, in style and tone, than any two works of Cicero,
excepting perhaps the Academica and the De Finibus. The interlocutors in the Hortensius were
exactly the same as in the Academica Priora, for the introduction of Balbus into some editions of
the fragments of the Hortensius is an error [162] . The discussion in the Academica Priora is
carried on at Hortensius' villa near Bauli; in the Hortensius at the villa of Lucullus near Cumae.
It is rather surprising that under these circumstances there should be but one direct reference to
the Hortensius in the Lucullus [163] .
While at his Tusculan villa, soon after the middle of June, B.C. 45, Cicero sent Atticus the
Torquatus, as he calls the first book of the De Finibus [164] . He had already sent the first edition
of the Academica to Rome [165] . We have a mention that new prooemia had been added to the
Catulus and Lucullus, in which the public characters from whom the books took their names
were extolled. In all probability the extant prooemium of the Lucullus is the one which was then
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