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The Project Gutenberg eBook <strong>of</strong> ...<br />

Xenocrates, Polemo (cf. D.F. IV. 2), sometimes Crantor is added. The harmony was supposed to<br />

have been first broken by Polemo's pupils; so Varro says (from Antiochus) in Aug. De Civ. Dei<br />

XIX. 1, cf. also 34. Antiochus doubtless rested his theory almost entirely on the ethical<br />

resemblances <strong>of</strong> the two schools. In D.F. V. 21, which is taken direct from Antiochus, this<br />

appears, as also in Varro (in Aug. as above) who <strong>of</strong>ten spoke as though ethics were the whole <strong>of</strong><br />

philosophy (cf. also De Off. III. 20). Antiochus probably made light <strong>of</strong> such dialectical<br />

controversies between the two schools as that about ?dea?, which had long ceased. Krische Uber<br />

Cicero's Akademika p. 51, has some good remarks. Nominibus: the same as vocabulis above. Cic.<br />

does not observe Varro's distinction (De L. L. IX. 1) which confines nomen to proper nouns,<br />

vocabulum to common nouns, though he would not use vocabulum as Tac. does, for the name <strong>of</strong><br />

a person (Annals XII. 66, etc.). Quasi heredem ... duos autem: the conj. <strong>of</strong> Ciaconus "ex asse<br />

heredem, secundos autem" is as acute as it is absurd. Duos: it is difficult to decide whether this<br />

or duo is right in Cic., he can scarcely have been so inconsistent as the MSS. and edd. make him<br />

(cf. Baiter and Halm's ed., Ac. II. 11, 13 with De Div. I. 6). The older inscr. in the Corpus vol. I.<br />

have duo, but only in duoviros, two near the time <strong>of</strong> Cic. (C.I. vol. I. nos. 571 and 1007) give<br />

duos, which Cic. probably wrote. Duo is in old Latin poets and Virgil. Chalcedonium: not<br />

Calchedonium as Klotz, cf. Gk. ?a???d?????. Praestantissimos: Halm wrongly, cf. Brut. 125.<br />

Stagiritem: not Stagiritam as Lamb., for Cic., exc. in a few nouns like Persa, pirata, etc., which<br />

came down from antiquity, did not make Greek nouns in -?? into Latin nouns in -a. See M.D.F.<br />

II. 94. Coetus ... soliti: cf. 10. Platonis ubertate: cf. Quintilian's "illa Livii lactea ubertas."<br />

Plenum ac refertam: n. on 11. Dubitationem: Halm with one MS., G, gives dubitantem, Baiter<br />

dubitanter, Why alter? Ars quaedam philosophiae: before these words all Halm's MSS., exc G,<br />

insert disserendi, probably from the line above, Lipsius keeps it and ejects philosophiae, while<br />

Lamb., Day read philosophia in the nom. Varro, however, would never say that philosophy<br />

became entirely dialectical in the hands <strong>of</strong> the old Academics and Peripatetics. Ars = te???, a set<br />

<strong>of</strong> definite rules, so Varro in Aug. (as above) speaks <strong>of</strong> the certa dogmata <strong>of</strong> this old school as<br />

opposed to the incertitude <strong>of</strong> the New Academy. Descriptio: so Halm here, but <strong>of</strong>ten discriptio.<br />

The Corp. Inscr., vol. I. nos. 198 and 200, has thrice discriptos or discriptum, the other spelling<br />

never.<br />

§18. Ut mihi quidem videtur: MSS. transpose quidem and videtur, as in 44. Quidem, however<br />

nearly always comes closely after the pronoun, see M.D.F. IV. 43, cf. also I. 71, III. 28, Opusc. I.<br />

406. Expetendarum fugiendarumque: ?a??et?? ?a? fe??t??, about which more in n. on 36. The<br />

Platonic and Aristotelian ethics have indeed an external resemblance, but the ultimate bases <strong>of</strong><br />

the two are quite different. In rejecting the Idea <strong>of</strong> the Good, Aristotle did away with what Plato<br />

would have considered most valuable in his system. The ideal theory, however, was practically<br />

defunct in the time <strong>of</strong> Antiochus, so that the similarity between the two schools seemed much<br />

greater than it was. Non sus Minervam: a Greek proverb, cf. Theocr. Id. V. 23, De Or. II. 233, Ad<br />

Fam. IX. 18, 3. Binder, in his German translation <strong>of</strong> the Academica, also quotes Plutarch Præc.<br />

Polit. 7. Inepte ... docet: elliptic for inepte docet, quisquis docet. Nostra atque nostros: few <strong>of</strong> the<br />

editors have understood this. Atticus affects everything Athenian, and speaks as though he were<br />

one <strong>of</strong> them; in Cic.'s letters to him the words "tui cives," meaning the Athenians, <strong>of</strong>ten occur.<br />

Quid me putas: i.e. velle. Exhibiturum: Halm inserts me before this from his one MS. G,<br />

evidently emended here by its copyist. For the omission <strong>of</strong> me, cf. note on 7.<br />

§§19—23. Part II. <strong>of</strong> Varro's Exposition: Antiochus' Ethics. Summary. The threefold<br />

division <strong>of</strong> philosophy into ?????, f?s???, d?a?e?t???. Goodness means obedience<br />

to nature, happiness the acquisition <strong>of</strong> natural advantages. These are <strong>of</strong> three kinds,<br />

mental, bodily, and external. The bodily are described (19); then the mental, which<br />

fall into two classes, congenital and acquired, virtue being the chief <strong>of</strong> the acquired<br />

(20), then the external, which form with the bodily advantages a kind <strong>of</strong> exerciseground<br />

for virtue (21). The ethical standard is then succinctly stated, in which virtue<br />

has chief part, and is capable in itself <strong>of</strong> producing happiness, though not the greatest<br />

happiness possible, which requires the possession <strong>of</strong> all three classes <strong>of</strong> advantages<br />

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14970/14970-h/14970-h.htm[1/5/2010 10:31:57 AM]

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