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The Project Gutenberg eBook of ... t??????a to be ?a?' ?a?t? ?a??et??. Aut omnia aut maxima: so frequently in Cic., e.g. D.F. IV. 27, so Stob. II. 6, 8, ta p?e?sta ?a? ?????tata. Ea sunt maxima: so Stob., Varro in Aug. passim. Sensit: much misunderstood by edd., here = iudicavit not animadvertit cf. M.D.F. II. 6. Reperiebatur: for change of constr. cf. D.F. IV. 26 Nec tamen beatissimam: the question whether a?et? was a?ta??e? p??? e?da?µ???a? was one of the most important to the late Greek philosophy. As to Antiochus, consult M.D.F. V. 67. §23. Agendi aliquid: Gk. p?a?e??, the usual translation, cf. II. 24, 37. Officii ipsius initium: t?? ? a?????t?? a????, Stob. II. 6, 7. This sentence is covertly aimed at the New Academics, whose scepticism, according to the dogmatists, cut away the ground from action and duty, see II. 24. Recti honestique: these words are redolent of the Stoa. Earum rerum: Halm thinks something like appetitio has fallen out, susceptio however, above, is quite enough for both clauses; a similar use of it is found in D.F. III. 32. Descriptione naturae: Halm with one MS. (G) gives praescriptione, which is in II. 140, cf. also praescriberet above. The phrase is Antiochean; cf. prima constitutio naturae in D.F. IV. 15. Aequitas: not in the Roman legal sense, but as a translation of ep?e??e?a. Eaeque: so Halm for MSS. haeque, haecque. Of course haecque, like hicque, sicque, would be un-Ciceronian. Voluptatibus: a side blow at the Epicureans. Forma see n. on 33. §§24—29. Part III of Varro's Exposition. Antiochus' Physics. Summary. All that is consists of force and matter, which are never actually found apart, though they are thought of as separate. When force impresses form on the formless matter, it becomes a formed entity (p???? t? or quale)—(24). These formed entities are either primary or secondary. Air, fire, water, earth are primary, the two first having an active, the two last a passive function. Aristotle added a fifth (26). Underlying all formed entities is the formless matter, matter and space are infinitely subdivisible (27). Force or form acts on the formless matter and so produces the ordered universe, outside which no matter exists. Reason permeates the universe and makes it eternal. This Reason has various names—Soul of the Universe, Mind, Wisdom, Providence, Fate, Fortune are only different titles for the same thing (28, 29). §24. Natura: this word, it is important to observe, has to serve as a translation both of f?s?? and ??s?a. Here it is ??s?a in the broadest sense, all that exists. In res duas: the distinction between Force and Matter, the active and passive agencies in the universe, is of course Aristotelian and Platonic. Antiochus however probably apprehended the distinction as modified by the Stoics, for this read carefully Zeller, 135 sq., with the footnotes. The clearest view of Aristotle's doctrine is to be got from Schwegler, Handbook, pp 99—105. R. and P. 273 sq. should be consulted for the important coincidence of Force with logical genus (e?d??), and of Matter (????) with logical differentia (d?af??a). For the duae res, cf. D.F. I. 18. Efficiens ... huic se praebens: an attempt to translate t? p????? and t? pas??? of the Theaetetus, t? ??e? and t? de??µe??? of the Timaeus (50 D). Cic. in Tim. has efficere and pati, Lucretius I. 440 facere and fungi. Ea quae: so Gruter, Halm for MSS. eaque. The meaning is this; passive matter when worked upon by an active generative form results in an aliquid, a t?de t? as Aristotle calls it. Passive matter ???? is only potentially t?de t?, passing into actual t?de t?, when affected by the form. (Cf. t?de, t??t?, Plato Tim. 49 E, 50 A, also Arist. Metaph H, 1, R. and P. 270—274). A figurative description of the process is given in Timaeus, 50 D. In eo quod efficeret ... materiam quandam: Cic. is hampered by the patrii sermonis egestas, which compels him to render simple Greek terms by laboured periphrases. Id quod efficit is not distinct from, but equivalent to vis, id quod efficitur to materia. Materiam quandam: it is extraordinary how edd. (esp Goer.) could have so stumbled over quandam and quasi used in this fashion. Both words (which are joined below) simply mark the unfamiliarity of the Latin word in its philosophical use, in the Greek ???? the strangeness had had time to wear off. In utroque: for in eo quod ex utroque (sc. vi et materia) fit, the meaning is clearly given by the next clause, viz. that Force and Matter cannot actually exist apart, but only in the compound of the two, the formed entity, which doctrine is quite Aristotelian. See the reff. given above. Nihil enim est quod non alicubi esse cogatur: the meaning of this is clear, that http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14970/14970-h/14970-h.htm[1/5/2010 10:31:57 AM]
The Project Gutenberg eBook of ... nothing can exist except in space (alicubi), it is more difficult to see why it should be introduced here. Unless est be taken of merely phenomenal existence (the only existence the Stoics and Antiochus would allow), the sentence does not represent the belief of Aristotle and Plato. The ? dea? for instance, though to Plato in the highest sense existent, do not exist in space. (Aristotle explicitly says this, Phys. III. 4). Aristotle also recognised much as existent which did not exist in space, as in Phys. IV. 5 (qu. R. and P. 289). Cic. perhaps translates here from Tim. 52 B, faµe? a? a??a??? e??a? p?? t? ??? ?apa? e? t??? t?p?. For ancient theories about space the student must be referred to the histories of philosophy. A fair summary is given by Stob. Phys. pe?? ?e??? ? a? t?p?? ?a? ???a?, ch. XVIII. 1. Corpus et quasi qualitatem: note that corpus is formed, as contrasted with materia, unformed matter. Qualitas is here wrongly used for quale; it ought to be used of Force only, not of the product of Force and Matter, cf. 28. The Greeks themselves sometimes confuse p???t?? and p????, the confusion is aided by the ambiguity of the phrase t? p???? in Greek, which may either denote the t?de t? as p????, or the Force which makes it p??? ?, hence Arist. calls one of his categories t? p???? and p???t?? indifferently For the Stoic view of p???t??, see Zeller, 96—103, with footnotes. §25. Bene facis: passim in comedy, whence Cic. takes it; cf. D.F. III. 16, a passage in other respects exceedingly like this. Rhetoricam: Hülsemann conj. ethicam, which however is not Latin. The words have no philosophical significance here, but are simply specimens of words once foreign, now naturalised. D.F. III. 5 is very similar. Cic.'s words make it clear that these nouns ought to be treated as Latin first declension nouns; the MSS. often give, however, a Gk. accus. in en. Non est vulgi verbum: it first appears in Theaet. 182 A, where it is called a?????t?? ???µa. Nova ... facienda: = imponenda in D.F. III. 5. Suis utuntur: so D.F. III. 4. Transferenda: transferre = µetafe?e??, which is technically used as early as Isocrates. See Cic. on metaphor, De Or. III. 153 sq., where necessitas is assigned as one cause of it (159) just as here; cf. also De Or. III. 149. Saecula: the spelling secula is wrong; Corss. I. 325, 377. The diphthong bars the old derivations from secare, and sequi. Quanto id magis: Cic. is exceedingly fond of separating tam quam ita tantus quantus, etc., from the words with which they are syntactically connected, by just one small word, e.g. Lael. 53 quam id recte, Acad. II. 125 tam sit mirabilis, II. 68 tam in praecipitem; also D.F. III. 5 quanto id nobis magis est concedendum qui ea nunc primum audemus attingere. §26. Non modo rerum sed verborum: cf. 9. Igitur picks up the broken thread of the exposition; so 35, and frequently. Principes ... ex his ortae: the Greek terms are ?ap?a and s???eta, see Arist. De Coelo, I. 2 (R. and P. 294). The distinction puzzled Plutarch (quoted in R. and P. 382). It was both Aristotelian and Stoic. The Stoics (Zeller, 187 sq.) followed partly Heraclitus, and cast aside many refinements of Aristotle which will be found in R. and P. 297. Quasi multiformes: evidently a trans. of p???e?de??, which is opposed to ?ap???? in Plat. Phaedr. 238 A, and often. Plato uses also µ???e?d?? for unius modi; cf. Cic. Tim. ch. VII., a transl. of Plat. Tim. 35 A. Prima sunt: primae (sc. qualitates) is the needless em. of Walker, followed by Halm. Formae = genera, e?d?. The word is applied to the four elements themselves, N.D. I. 19; cf. also quintum genus below, and Topica, 11—13. A good view of the history of the doctrine of the four elements may be gained from the section of Stob. Phys., entitled pe?? a???? ?a? st???e??? ?a? t?? pa?t??. It will be there seen that Cic. is wrong in making initia and elementa here and in 39 (a??a? and st???e?a) convertible terms. The Greeks would call the four elements st???e?a but not a??a?, which term would be reserved for the primary Matter and Force. Aër et ignis: this is Stoic but not Aristotelian. Aristot., starting with the four necessary properties of matter, viz. heat, cold, dryness, moisture, marks the two former as active, the two latter as passive. He then assigns two of these properties, one active and one passive, to each of the four elements; each therefore is to him both active and passive. The Stoics assign only one property to each element; heat to fire, cold to air (cf. N.D. II. 26), moisture to water, dryness to earth. The doctrine of the text follows at once. Cf. Zeller, pp. 155, 187 sq., with footnotes, R. and P. 297 sq. Accipiendi ... patiendi: de?es?a? often comes in Plat. Tim. Quintum genus: the note on this, referred to in Introd. p. 16, is postponed to 39. Dissimile ... quoddam: so MSS.; one would expect quiddam, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14970/14970-h/14970-h.htm[1/5/2010 10:31:57 AM]
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