talents, which was a very large sum of money in those times, especially at
Athens, carried the ambassadors to sup in the Academy; and placed just a
sufficiency before them, without any apparatus. When they asked him, the
next day, to whom he wished the money which they had for him to be paid:
“What?” said he, “did you not perceive by our slight repast of yesterday,
that I had no occasion for money?” But when he perceived that they were
somewhat dejected, he accepted of thirty minæ, that he might not seem to
treat with disrespect the king’s generosity. But Diogenes took a greater
liberty, like a Cynic, when Alexander asked him if he wanted anything:
“Just at present,” said he, “I wish that you would stand a little out of
the line between me and the sun,” for Alexander was hindering him from
sunning himself. And indeed this very man used to maintain how much he
surpassed the Persian king, in his manner of life and fortune; for that he
himself was in want of nothing, while the other never had enough; and that
he had no inclination for those pleasures of which the other could never
get enough to satisfy himself: and that the other could never obtain his.
XXXIII. You see, I imagine, how Epicurus has divided his kinds of desires,
not very acutely perhaps, but yet usefully: saying, that they are “partly
natural and necessary; partly natural, but not necessary; partly neither.
That those which are necessary may be supplied almost for nothing; for
that the things which nature requires are easily obtained.” As to the
second kind of desires, his opinion is, that any one may easily either
enjoy or go without them. And with regard to the third, since they are
utterly frivolous, being neither allied to necessity nor nature, he thinks
that they should be entirely rooted out. On this topic a great many
arguments are adduced by the Epicureans; and those pleasures which they do
not despise in a body, they disparage one by one, and seem rather for
lessening the number of them: for as to wanton pleasures, on which subject
they say a great deal, these, say they, are easy, common, and within any
one’s reach; and they think that if nature requires them, they are not to
be estimated by birth, condition, or rank, but by shape, age, and person:
and that it is by no means difficult to refrain from them, should health,
duty, or reputation require it; but that pleasures of this kind may be
desirable, where they are attended with no inconvenience, but can never be
of any use. And the assertions which Epicurus makes with respect to the
whole of pleasure, are such as show his opinion to be that pleasure is
always desirable, and to be pursued merely because it is pleasure; and for
the same reason pain is to be avoided, because it is pain. So that a wise
man will always adopt such a system of counterbalancing as to do himself
the justice to avoid pleasure, should pain ensue from it in too great a
proportion; and will submit to pain, provided the effects of it are to
produce a greater pleasure: so that all pleasurable things, though the
corporeal senses are the judges of them, are still to be referred to the
mind, on which account the body rejoices, whilst it perceives a present
pleasure; but that the mind not only perceives the present as well as the
body, but foresees it, while it is coming, and even when it is past will
not let it quite slip away. So that a wise man enjoys a continual series
of pleasures, uniting the expectation of future pleasure to the
recollection of what he has already tasted. The like notions are applied
by them to high living; and the magnificence and expensiveness of
entertainments are deprecated, because nature is satisfied at a small
expense.
XXXIV. For who does not see this, that an appetite is the best sauce? When
Darius, in his flight from the enemy, had drunk some water which was muddy
and tainted with dead bodies, he declared that he had never drunk anything
more pleasant; the fact was, that he had never drunk before when he was
thirsty. Nor had Ptolemy ever eaten when he was hungry: for as he was
travelling over Egypt, his company not keeping up with him, he had some
coarse bread presented him in a cottage: upon which he said, “Nothing ever
seemed to him pleasanter than that bread.” They relate too of Socrates,
that, once when he was walking very fast till the evening, on his being
asked why he did so, his reply was that he was purchasing an appetite by
walking, that he might sup the better. And do we not see what the
Lacedæmonians provide in their Phiditia? where the tyrant Dionysius
supped, but told them he did not at all like that black broth, which was
their principal dish; on which he who dressed it said, “It was no wonder,
for it wanted seasoning.” Dionysius asked what that seasoning was; to
which it was replied, “Fatigue in hunting, sweating, a race on the banks
of Eurotas, hunger, and thirst:” for these are the seasonings to the
Lacedæmonian banquets. And this may not only be conceived from the custom
of men, but from the beasts, who are satisfied with anything that is
thrown before them, provided it is not unnatural, and they seek no
farther. Some entire cities, taught by custom, delight in parsimony, as I
said but just now of the Lacedæmonians. Xenophon has given an account of
the Persian diet; who never, as he saith, use anything but cresses with
their bread, not but that, should nature require anything more agreeable,
many things might be easily supplied by the ground, and plants in great
abundance, and of incomparable sweetness. Add to this, strength and
health, as the consequence of this abstemious way of living. Now compare
with this, those who sweat and belch, being crammed with eating, like
fatted oxen: then will you perceive that they who pursue pleasure most,
attain it least: and that the pleasure of eating lies not in satiety, but
appetite.
XXXV. They report of Timotheus, a famous man at Athens, and the head of
the city, that having supped with Plato, and being extremely delighted
with his entertainment, on seeing him the next day, he said, “Your suppers
are not only agreeable whilst I partake of them, but the next day also.”
Besides, the understanding is impaired when we are full with over-eating
and drinking. There is an excellent epistle of Plato to Dion’s relations,
in which there occurs as nearly as possible these words: “When I came
there, that happy life so much talked of, devoted to Italian and Syracusan
entertainments, was no ways agreeable to me; to be crammed twice a day,
and never to have the night to yourself, and the other things which are
the accompaniments of this kind of life, by which a man will never be made
the wiser, but will be rendered much less temperate; for it must be an
extraordinary disposition that can be temperate in such circumstances.”
How, then, can a life be pleasant without prudence and temperance? Hence
you discover the mistake of Sardanapalus, the wealthiest king of the
Assyrians, who ordered it to be engraved on his tomb,
I still have what in food I did exhaust,
But what I left, though excellent, is lost.
“What less than this,” says Aristotle, “could be inscribed on the tomb,
not of a king but an ox?” He said that he possessed those things when
dead, which, in his lifetime, he could have no longer than whilst he was
enjoying them. Why, then, are riches desired? And wherein doth poverty
prevent us from being happy? In the want, I imagine, of statues, pictures,
and diversions. But if any one is delighted with these things, have not
the poor people the enjoyment of them more than they who are the owners of
them in the greatest abundance? For we have great numbers of them
displayed publicly in our city. And whatever store of them private people
have, they cannot have a great number, and they but seldom see them, only
when they go to their country seats; and some of them must be stung to the
heart when they consider how they came by them. The day would fail me,
should I be inclined to defend the cause of poverty: the thing is
manifest, and nature daily informs us how few things there are, and how
trifling they are, of which she really stands in need.
XXXVI. Let us inquire, then, if obscurity, the want of power, or even the
being unpopular, can prevent a wise man from being happy. Observe if
popular favour, and this glory which they are so fond of, be not attended
with more uneasiness than pleasure. Our friend Demosthenes was certainly
very weak in declaring himself pleased with the whisper of a woman who was
carrying water, as is the custom in Greece, and who whispered to another,
“That is he—that is Demosthenes.” What could be weaker than this? and yet
what an orator he was! But although he had learned to speak to others, he
had conversed but little with himself. We may perceive, therefore, that
popular glory is not desirable of itself; nor is obscurity to be dreaded.
“I came to Athens,” saith Democritus, “and there was no one there that
knew me:” this was a moderate and grave man who could glory in his
obscurity. Shall musicians compose their tunes to their own tastes; and
shall a philosopher, master of a much better art, seek to ascertain, not
what is most true, but what will please the people? Can anything be more
absurd than to despise the vulgar as mere unpolished mechanics, taken
singly, and to think them of consequence when collected into a body? These
wise men would contemn our ambitious pursuits, and our vanities, and would
reject all the honours which the people could voluntarily offer to them:
but we know not how to despise them till we begin to repent of having
accepted them. There is an anecdote related by Heraclitus the natural
philosopher, of Hermodorus the chief of the Ephesians, that he said, “that
all the Ephesians ought to be punished with death, for saying, when they
had expelled Hermodorus out of their city, that they would have no one
amongst them better than another; but that if there were any such, he
might go elsewhere to some other people.” Is not this the case with the
people everywhere? do they not hate every virtue that distinguishes
itself? What! was not Aristides (I had rather instance in the Greeks than
ourselves) banished his country for being eminently just? What troubles,
then, are they free from who have no connexion whatever with the people!
What is more agreeable than a learned retirement? I speak of that learning
which makes us acquainted with the boundless extent of nature, and the
universe, and which even while we remain in this world discovers to us
both heaven, earth, and sea.
XXXVII. If, then, honour and riches have no value, what is there else to
be afraid of? Banishment, I suppose; which is looked on as the greatest
evil. Now, if the evil of banishment proceeds not from ourselves, but from
the froward disposition of the people, I have just now declared how
contemptible it is. But if to leave one’s country be miserable, the
provinces are full of miserable men; very few of the settlers in which
ever return to their country again. But exiles are deprived of their
property! What, then! has there not been enough said on bearing poverty?
But with regard to banishment, if we examine the nature of things, not the
ignominy of the name, how little does it differ from constant travelling?
in which some of the most famous philosophers have spent their whole life:
as Xenocrates, Crantor, Arcesilas, Lacydes, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Zeno,
Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Antipater, Carneades, Panætius, Clitomachus, Philo,
Antiochus, Posidonius, and innumerable others; who from their first
setting out never returned home again. Now what ignominy can a wise man be
affected with (for it is of such a one that I am speaking) who can be
guilty of nothing which deserves it; for there is no occasion to comfort
one who is banished for his deserts. Lastly, they can easily reconcile
themselves to every accident who measure all their objects and pursuits in
life by the standard of pleasure; so that in whatever place that is
supplied, there they may live happily. Thus what Teucer said may be
applied to every case:
Wherever I am happy, is my country.
Socrates, indeed, when he was asked where he belonged to, replied, “The
world;” for he looked upon himself as a citizen and inhabitant of the
whole world. How was it with T. Altibutius? Did he not follow his
philosophical studies with the greatest satisfaction at Athens, although
he was banished? which, however, would not have happened to him, if he had
obeyed the laws of Epicurus, and lived peaceably in the republic. In what
was Epicurus happier, living in his own country, than Metrodorus who lived
at Athens? Or did Plato’s happiness exceed that of Xenocrates, or Polemo,
or Arcesilas? Or is that city to be valued much, that banishes all her
good and wise men? Demaratus, the father of our king Tarquin, not being
able to bear the tyrant Cypselus, fled from Corinth to Tarquinii, settled
there, and had children. Was it, then, an unwise act in him to prefer the
liberty of banishment to slavery at home?
XXXVIII. Besides the emotions of the mind, all griefs and anxieties are
assuaged by forgetting them, and turning our thoughts to pleasure.
Therefore, it was not without reason that Epicurus presumed to say that a
wise man abounds with good things, because he may always have his
pleasures: from whence it follows, as he thinks, that that point is
gained, which is the subject of our present inquiry, that a wise man is
always happy. What! though he should be deprived of the senses of seeing
and hearing? Yes; for he holds those things very cheap. For, in the first
place, what are the pleasures of which we are deprived by that dreadful
thing, blindness? For though they allow other pleasures to be confined to
the senses, yet the things which are perceived by the sight do not depend
wholly on the pleasure the eyes receive; as is the case when we taste,
smell, touch, or hear; for, in respect of all these senses, the organs
themselves are the seat of pleasure; but it is not so with the eyes. For
it is the mind which is entertained by what we see; but the mind may be
entertained in many ways, even though we could not see at all. I am
speaking of a learned and a wise man, with whom to think is to live. But
thinking in the case of a wise man does not altogether require the use of
his eyes in his investigations; for if night does not strip him of his
happiness, why should blindness, which resembles night, have that effect?
For the reply of Antipater the Cyrenaic, to some women who bewailed his
being blind, though it is a little too obscene, is not without its
significance. “What do you mean?” saith he; “do you think the night can
furnish no pleasure?” And we find by his magistracies and his actions,
that old Appius(119) too, who was blind for many years, was not prevented
from doing whatever was required of him, with respect either to the
republic or his own affairs. It is said, that C. Drusus’s house was
crowded with clients. When they, whose business it was, could not see how
to conduct themselves, they applied to a blind guide.
XXXIX. When I was a boy, Cn. Aufidius, a blind man, who had served the
office of prætor, not only gave his opinion in the senate, and was ready
to assist his friends, but wrote a Greek history, and had a considerable
acquaintance with literature. Diodorus the Stoic was blind, and lived many
years at my house. He, indeed, which is scarcely credible, besides
applying himself more than usual to philosophy, and playing on the flute,
agreeably to the custom of the Pythagoreans, and having books read to him
night and day, in all which he did not want eyes, contrived to teach
geometry, which, one would think, could hardly be done without the
assistance of eyes, telling his scholars how and where to draw every line.
They relate of Asclepiades, a native of Eretria, and no obscure
philosopher, when some one asked him what inconvenience he suffered from
his blindness, that his reply was, “He was at the expense of another
servant.” So that, as the most extreme poverty may be borne, if you
please, as is daily the case with some in Greece; so blindness may easily
be borne, provided you have the support of good health in other respects.
Democritus was so blind he could not distinguish white from black: but he
knew the difference betwixt good and evil, just and unjust, honourable and
base, the useful and useless, great and small. Thus one may live happily
without distinguishing colours; but without acquainting yourself with
things, you cannot; and this man was of opinion, that the intense
application of the mind was taken off by the objects that presented
themselves to the eye, and while others often could not see what was
before their feet, he travelled through all infinity. It is reported also
that Homer(120) was blind, but we observe his painting, as well as his
poetry. What country, what coast, what part of Greece, what military
attacks, what dispositions of battle, what army, what ship, what motions
of men and animals can be mentioned which he has not described in such a
manner as to enable us to see what he could not see himself? What, then!
can we imagine that Homer, or any other learned man, has ever been in want
of pleasure and entertainment for his mind? Were it not so, would
Anaxagoras, or this very Democritus, have left their estates and
patrimonies, and given themselves up to the pursuit of acquiring this
divine pleasure? It is thus that the poets who have represented Tiresias
the Augur as a wise man and blind, never exhibit him as bewailing his
blindness. And Homer, too, after he had described Polyphemus as a monster
and a wild man, represents him talking with his ram, and speaking of his
good fortune, inasmuch as he could go wherever he pleased and touch what
he would. And so far he was right, for that Cyclops was a being of not
much more understanding than his ram.
XL. Now, as to the evil of being deaf: M. Crassus was a little thick of
hearing; but it was more uneasiness to him that he heard himself ill
spoken of, though, in my opinion, he did not deserve it. Our Epicureans
cannot understand Greek, nor the Greeks Latin: now, they are deaf
reciprocally as to each other’s language, and we are all truly deaf with
regard to those innumerable languages which we do not understand. They do
not hear the voice of the harper; but then they do not hear the grating of
a saw when it is setting, or the grunting of a hog when his throat is
being cut, nor the roaring of the sea when they are desirous of rest. And
if they should chance to be fond of singing, they ought in the first place
to consider that many wise men lived happily before music was discovered;
besides, they may have more pleasure in reading verses than in hearing
them sung. Then, as I before referred the blind to the pleasures of
hearing, so I may the deaf to the pleasures of sight: moreover, whoever
can converse with himself doth not need the conversation of another. But
suppose all these misfortunes to meet in one person: suppose him blind and
deaf,—let him be afflicted with the sharpest pains of body, which, in the
first place, generally of themselves make an end of him; still, should
they continue so long, and the pain be so exquisite, that we should be
unable to assign any reason for our being so afflicted,—still, why, good
Gods! should we be under any difficulty? For there is a retreat at hand:
death is that retreat—a shelter where we shall for ever be insensible.
Theodoras said to Lysimachus, who threatened him with death, “It is a
great matter, indeed, for you to have acquired the power of a Spanish
fly!” When Perses entreated Paulus not to lead him in triumph, “That is a
matter which you have in your own power,” said Paulus. I said many things
about death in our first day’s disputation, when death was the subject;
and not a little the next day, when I treated of pain; which things if you
recollect, there can be no danger of your looking upon death as
undesirable, or at least it will not be dreadful.
That custom which is common among the Grecians at their banquets should,
in my opinion, be observed in life:—Drink, say they, or leave the company:
and rightly enough; for a guest should either enjoy the pleasure of
drinking with others, or else not stay till he meets with affronts from
those that are in liquor. Thus, those injuries of fortune which you cannot
bear, you should flee from.
XLI. This is the very same which is said by Epicurus and Hieronymus. Now,
if those philosophers, whose opinion it is that virtue has no power of
itself, and who say that the conduct which we denominate honourable and
laudable is really nothing, and is only an empty circumstance set off with
an unmeaning sound, can nevertheless maintain that a wise man is always
happy, what, think you, may be done by the Socratic and Platonic
philosophers. Some of these allow such superiority to the goods of the
mind, as quite to eclipse what concerns the body and all external
circumstances. But others do not admit these to be goods; they make
everything depend on the mind: whose disputes Carneades used, as a sort of
honorary arbitrator, to determine. For, as what seemed goods to the
Peripatetics were allowed to be advantages by the Stoics, and as the
Peripatetics allowed no more to riches, good health, and other things of
that sort, than the Stoics, when these things were considered according to
their reality, and not by mere names, his opinion was that there was no
ground for disagreeing. Therefore, let the philosophers of other schools
see how they can establish this point also. It is very agreeable to me
that they make some professions worthy of being uttered by the mouth of a
philosopher, with regard to a wise man’s having always the means of living
happily.
XLII. But as we are to depart in the morning, let us remember these five
days’ discussions; though, indeed, I think I shall commit them to writing:
for how can I better employ the leisure which I have, of whatever kind it
is, and whatever it be owing to? and I will send these five books also to
my friend Brutus, by whom I was not only incited to write on philosophy,
but, I may say, provoked. And by so doing, it is not easy to say what
service I may be of to others; at all events, in my own various and acute
afflictions, which surround me on all sides, I cannot find any better
comfort for myself.
THE END
FOOTNOTES
1 The following are the most important of the passages referred
to:—“Since I entered upon these philosophical inquiries, Varro has
given me notice of a valuable and honourable dedication of a work of
his to me.... In the mean time I have been preparing myself as he
desired to make him a return.
αὐτῷ τῷ μέτρῳ καὶ λῶιον αἴκε δύνωμαι.
“I may as well, therefore, remove from my Academical Disputations
the present speakers, who are distinguished characters indeed, but
by no means philosophical, and who discourse with too much subtlety,
and substitute Varro in their place. For these are the opinions of
Antiochus, to which he is much attached. I can find a place for
Catulus and Lucullus elsewhere.”—Ep. 12.
“The Catulus and Lucullus I imagine you have had before; but I have
made new introductions to these books which I wish you to have,
containing an eulogium upon each of these persons, and there are
some other additions.”—Ep. 32.
“In consequence of the letter which you wrote to me about Varro, I
have taken the Academy entirely out of the hands of those
distinguished persons, and transferred it to our friend. And from
two books I have made it into four. These are longer than the others
were, though there are several parts left out.... In truth, if my
self-love does not deceive me, these books have come out in such a
manner that there is nothing of the same kind like them even in
Greek.”—Ep. 13.
“I have transferred the whole of that Academical Treatise to Varro.
It had at first been divided among Catulus, Lucullus, and
Hortensius. Afterwards, as this appeared unsuitable, owing to those
persons being, not indeed unlearned, but notoriously unversed in
such subjects, as soon as I got home I transferred those dialogues
to Cato and Brutus. Your letter about Varro has just reached me, and
there is no one by whom the opinions of Antiochus could be more
fitly supported.”—Ep. 16.
“I had determined to include no living persons in my dialogues; but
since you inform me that Varro is desirous of it, and sets a great
value upon it, I have composed this work, and completed the whole
Academical Discussion in four books; I know not how well, but with
such care that nothing can exceed it. In these, what had been
excellently collected by Antiochus against the doctrine of
incomprehensibility, I have attributed to Varro; to this I reply in
my own person, and you are the third in our conversation. If I had
made Cotta and Varro disputing with one another, as you suggest in
your last letter, my own would have been a mute character....
“The Academics, as you know, I had discussed in the persons of
Catulus, Lucullus, and Hortensius; but in truth the subject did not
suit their characters, being more logical than what they could be
supposed ever to have dreamt of. Therefore, when I read your letter
to Varro, I seized on it as a sort of inspiration. Nothing could be
more adapted to that species of philosophy in which he seems to take
particular delight; or to the support of such a part that I could
manage to avoid making my own sentiments predominant. For the
opinions of Antiochus are extremely persuasive, and are so carefully
expressed as to retain the acuteness of Antiochus with my own
brilliancy of language, if indeed I possess any.”—Ep. 19.
The Antiochus mentioned above was a native of Ascalon, and the
founder of the fifth Academy; he had been the teacher of Cicero
while he studied at Athens; and he had also a school in Syria and
another in Alexandria. Cicero constantly speaks of him with great
regard and esteem. The leaders of the Academy since the time of
Plato, (and Cicero ranks even him among those philosophers who
denied the certainty of any kind of knowledge,) had gradually fallen
into a degree of scepticism that seemed to strike at the root of all
truth, theoretical and practical. But Antiochus professed to revive
the doctrines of the old Academy, maintaining, in opposition to
Carneades and Philo, that the intellect had in itself a test by
which it could distinguish between what was real and what existed
only in the imagination. He himself appears to have held doctrines
very nearly coinciding with those of Aristotle; agreeing however so
far with the Stoics as to insist that all emotions ought to be
suppressed. So that Cicero almost inclines to class him among the
Stoics; though it appears that he considered himself as an Eclectic
philosopher, uniting the doctrines of the Stoics and Academics so as
to revive the old Academy.
2 Titus Pomponius Atticus was three years older than Cicero, with whom
he had been educated, and with whom he always continued on terms of
the greatest intimacy; his daughter was married to Agrippa. He was
of the Epicurean school in philosophy. He died B.C. 32.
3 Marcus Terentius Varro was ten years older than Cicero, and a man of
the most extensive and profound learning. He had held a naval
command against the pirates, and against Mithridates, and served as
lieutenant to Pompey in Spain, at the beginning of the civil war,
adhering to his party till after the battle of Pharsalia, when he
was pardoned, and taken into favour by Cæsar. He was proscribed by
the second triumvirate, but escaped, and died B.C. 28. He was a very
voluminous author, and according to his own account composed four
hundred and ninety books; but only one, the three books De Re
Rusticâ, have come down to us, and a portion of a large treatise De
Linguâ Latinâ.
In philosophy he had been a pupil of Antiochus, and attached himself
to the Academy with something of a leaning to the Stoics.
4 Amafanius was one of the earliest Roman writers of the Epicurean
school. He is mentioned by no one but Cicero.
5 We do not know who this Rabirius was.
6 Lucius Ælius Præconinus Stilo was a Roman knight, and one of the
earliest grammarians of Rome. Cicero in the Brutus describes him as
a very learned man in both Greek and Roman literature; and
especially in old Latin works. He had been a teacher of Varro in
grammar, and of Cicero himself in rhetoric. He received the name of
Stilo from his compositions; and of Præconinus because his father
had been a herald.
7 Menippus was originally a slave, a native of Gadara in Cœle Syria,
and a pupil of Diogenes the Cynic. He became very rich by usury,
afterwards he lost his money and committed suicide. He wrote nothing
serious, but his books were entirely full of jests. We have some
fragments of Varro’s Satyræ Menippeæ, which were written, as we are
here told, in imitation of Menippus.
8 Cicero ranges these poets here in chronological order.
Ennius was born at Rudiæ in Calabria, B.C. 239, of a very noble
family. He was brought to Rome by M. Porcius Cato at the end of the
second Punic war. His plays were all translations or adaptations
from the Greek; but he also wrote a poetical history of Rome called
Annales, in eighteen books, and a poem on his friend Scipio
Africanus; some Satires, Epigrams, and one or two philosophical
poems. Only a few lines of his works remain to us. He died at the
age of seventy.
Pacuvius was a native of Brundusium, and a relation, probably a
nephew, of Ennius. He was born about B.C. 220, and lived to about
the year B.C. 130. His works were nearly entirely tragedies
translated from the Greek. Horace, distinguishing between him and
Accius, says—
“Aufert
Pacuvius docti famam senis; Accius alti.”—Epist. II. i. 55.
9 From περιπατέω, to walk.
10 This Lucius Lucullus was the son of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, who
was prætor B.C. 103, and was appointed by the senate to take the
command in Sicily, where there was a formidable insurrection of the
slaves under Athenion and Tryphon. He was not however successful,
and was recalled; and subsequently prosecuted by Servilius for
bribery and malversation, convicted and banished. The exact time of
the birth of this Lucullus his son is not known, but was probably
about B.C. 109. His first appearance in public life was prosecuting
Servilius, who had now become an augur, on a criminal charge, (which
is what Cicero alludes to here.) And though the trial terminated in
the acquittal of Servilius, yet the part Lucullus took in it appears
to have added greatly to his credit among his contemporaries. The
special law in his favour mentioned a few lines lower down, was
passed by Sylla with whom Lucullus was in high favour; so much so
that Sylla at his death confided to him the charge of revising and
correcting his Commentaries. Cicero’s statement of his perfect
inexperience in military affairs before the war against Mithridates
is not quite correct, as he had served with distinction in the
Marsic war. The time of his death is not certainly known, but Cicero
speaks of him as dead in the Oration concerning the consular
provinces, delivered B.C. 56, while he was certainly alive B.C. 59,
in which year he was charged by L. Vettius with an imaginary plot
against the life of Pompey. His second wife was Servilia,
half-sister to Cato Uticensis.
11 From σωρὸς, a heap.
12 From μύρμηξ an ant.
13 It is not even known to what work Cicero is referring here.
14 In the Heautontimorumenos. Act i. Sc. 1.
15 Cæcilius Statius was the predecessor of Terence; by birth an
Insubrian Gaul and a native of Milan. He died B.C. 165, two years
before the representation of the Andria of Terence. He was
considered by the Romans as a great master of the art of exciting
the feelings. And Cicero (de Opt. Gen. Dic. 1.) speaks of him as the
chief of the Roman Comic writers. Horace says—
Vincere Cæcilius gravitate, Terentius arte.
16 Marcus Atilius, (though Cicero speaks of him here as a tragedian,)
was chiefly celebrated as a comic poet. He was one of the earliest
writers of that class; but nothing of his has come down to us. In
another place Cicero calls him “duris simusscriptor.” (Epist. ad
Att. xiv. 20.)
17 Diogenes was a pupil of Chrysippus, and succeeded Zeno of Tarsus as
the head of the Stoic school at Athens. He was one of the embassy
sent to Rome by the Athenians, B.C. 155, and is supposed to have
died almost immediately afterwards.
18 Antipater was a native of Tarsus, and the pupil and successor of
Diogenes. Cicero speaks in very high terms of his genius. (De Off.
iii. 12.)
19 Mnesarchus was a pupil of Panætius and the teacher of Antiochus of
Ascalon.
20 Panætius was a Rhodian, a pupil of Diogenes and Antipater, which
last he succeeded as head of the Stoic school. He was a friend of P.
Scipio Æmilianus, and accompanied him on his embassy to the kings of
Egypt and Asia in alliance with Rome. He died before B.C. 111.
21 Posidonius was a native of Apamea, in Egypt, a pupil of Panætius,
and a contemporary of Cicero. He came to Rome B.C. 51, having been
sent there as ambassador from Rhodes in the time of Marius.
22 Lucius Afranius lived about 100 B.C. His comedies were chiefly
_togatæ_, depicting Roman life; he borrowed largely from Menander,
to whom the Romans compared him. Horace says—
Dicitur Afranî toga convenisse Menandro.
Cicero praises his language highly (Brut. 45).
23 Caius Lucilius was the earliest of the Roman satirists, born at
Suessa Aurunca, B.C. 148; he died at Naples, B.C. 103. He served
under Scipio in the Numantine war. He was a very vehement and bold
satirist. Cicero alludes here to a saying of his, which he mentions
more expressly (De Orat. ii.), that he did not wish the ignorant to
read his works because they could not understand them: nor the
learned because they would be able to criticise them.
Persium non curo legere: Lælium Decimum volo.
This Persius being a very learned man; in comparison with whom
Lælius was an ignoramus.
24 Polyænus, the son of Athenodorus was a native of Lampsacus: he was a
friend of Epicurus, and though he had previously obtained a high
reputation as a mathematician, he was persuaded by him at last to
agree with him as to the worthlessness of geometry.
25 Hieronymus was a disciple of Aristotle and a contemporary of
Arcesilaus. He lived down to the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus.
26 Trabea was a Roman comic poet, who flourished about 130 B.C.
27 Dark, obscure.
28 We know nothing more of Callipho than what we derive from this and
one or two other notices of him by Cicero.
29 The Hymnis was a comedy of Menander, translated by Cæcilius.
30 It is hardly possible to translate this so as to give the force of
the original. Cicero says, If _cupiditas_ is in a man he must be
_cupidus_, and we have no English word which will at all answer to
this adjective in this sense.
31 The Latin is “quicum in tenebris,”—the proverb at full length being,
“Dignus quicum in tenebris mices.” Micare was a game played, (much
the same as that now called _La Mora_ in Italy,) by extending the
fingers and making the antagonist guess how many fingers were
extended by the two together.
32 This was Quintus Pompeius, the first man who raised his family to
importance at Rome. He was consul B.C. 141. Being commander in
Spain, he laid siege to Numantia; and having lost great numbers of
his troops through cold and disease, he proposed to the Numantines
to come to terms. Publicly he required of them an unconditional
surrender, but in private he only demanded the restoration of the
prisoners and deserters, that they should give hostages and pay
thirty talents. The Numantines agreed to this, and paid part of the
money, but when Popilius Lænas arrived in Spain as his successor, he
denied the treaty, though it had been witnessed by his own officers.
The matter was referred to the senate, who on the evidence of
Pompeius declared the treaty invalid, and the war was renewed.
33 The Voconia lex was passed on the proposal of Quintus Voconius Saxa,
one of the tribunes, B.C. 169. One of its provisions was, that a
woman could not be left the heiress of any person who was rated in
the census at 100,000 sesterces; though she could take the
inheritance _per fidei commissum_. But as the law applied only to
wills, a daughter could inherit from a father dying intestate,
whatever the amount of his property might be. A person who was not
_census_ could make a woman his heir. There is, however, a good deal
of obscurity and uncertainty as to some of the provisions of this
law.
34 There appears to be some corruption in the text here.
35 Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus, the father of Lucretia, was made
consul as the colleague of Valerius Publicola, in the place of
Brutus, who had been slain in battle by Aruns, one of the sons of
Tarquin.
36 Themista was a female philosopher, wife of a man named Leonteus, or
Leon, and a friend and correspondent of Epicurus.
37 He means when he was banished, and when Torquatus joined in
promoting the measures for his recal.
38 Cicero alludes here to the story of Damon, who, when his friend
Pythias was condemned to death by Dionysius of Syracuse, pledged his
life for his return in time to be put to death, if the tyrant would
give him leave to go home for the purpose of arranging his affairs,
and Pythias did return in time.—See Cic. de Off. iii. 10; Just. Div.
v. 22.
39 B.C. 363.
40 B.C. 480.
41 The Greek line occurs in the Orestes, 207.
Ὡ πότνια λήθη τῶν κακῶν ὡς εἶ γλυκύ.
Virgil has the same idea—
Vos et Scyllæam rabiem, penitusque sonantes
Accêtis scopulos, vos et Cyclopia saxa
Experti; revocate animos, moestumque timorem
Pellite: forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.—Æn. i. 200.
Which Dryden translates—
With me the rocks of Scylla have you tried,
Th’ inhuman Cyclops and his den defied:
What greater ills hereafter can you bear?
Resume your courage and dismiss your care;
An hour will come with pleasure to relate
Your sorrows past as benefits of fate.
42 That is, of the past, the present, and the future.
43 This seems to refer to the Greek epigram—
Τὸν γαίης καὶ πόντου ἀμειφθείσαισι κελεύθοις,
Ναύτην ἠπείρου, πεζόπορον πελάγους.
Ἐν τρίσσαις δοράτων ἑκατοντάσιν ἔστεγεν Ἄρης
Σπάρτης αἰσχυνεσθ᾽ οὔρεα καὶ πελάγη.
Which may be translated—
Him who the paths of land and sea disturb’d,
Sail’d o’er the earth, walk’d o’er the humbled waves,
Three hundred spears of dauntless Sparta curb’d.
Shame on you, land and sea, ye willing slaves!
44 The Latin is _ærumnæ_: perhaps it is in allusion to this passage
that Juvenal says—
Et potiores
Herculis _ærumnas_ credat, sævosque labores
Et Venere et cœnis, et pluma Sardanapali.
Sat. x. 361.
45 The great Lucullus, father of this young Lucullus, was married to
Servilia, half-sister to Cato, and daughter of Quintus Servilius
Cæpio, who was killed in the Social war, having been decoyed into an
ambush by Pompædius, B.C. 90. The young Lucullus was afterwards
killed in the battle of Philippi.
46 “Malitia, badness of quality ... especially malice, ill-will, spite,
malevolence, artfulness, cunning, craft.”—Riddle and Arnold, Lat.
Dict.
47 The Greek proverb was, ἐμοῦ θανόντος γαῖα μιχθήτω πυρί.
48 The Curia Hostilia was built by Tullus Hostilius, and was originally
the only place where a Senatus Consultum could be passed, though the
senate met at times in other places. But, under Cæsar, the Curia
Julia, an immense edifice, had been built as the senate-house.
49 Pope’s Homer, Odys. xii. 231.
50 Archilochus was a native of Paros, and flourished about 714-676,
B.C. His poems were chiefly Iambics of bitter satire. Horace speaks
of him as the inventor of Iambics, and calls himself his pupil.
Parios ego primus Iambos
Ostendi Latio, numeros animosque secutus
Archilochi, non res et agentia verba Lycamben.
Epist. I. xix. 25.
And in another place he says—
Archilochum proprio rabies armavit Iambo.—A. P. 74.
51 This was Livius Andronicus: he is supposed to have been a native of
Tarentum, and he was made prisoner by the Romans, during their wars
in Southern Italy; owing to which he became the slave of M. Livius
Salinator. He wrote both comedies and tragedies, of which Cicero
(Brutus 18) speaks very contemptuously, as “Livianæ fabulæ non satis
dignæ quæ iterum legantur,”—not worth reading a second time. He also
wrote a Latin Odyssey, and some hymns, and died probably about B.C.
221.
52 C. Fabius, surnamed Pictor, painted the temple of Salus, which the
dictator C. Junius Brutus Bubulus dedicated B.C. 302. The temple was
destroyed by fire in the reign of Claudius. The painting is highly
praised by Dionysius, xvi. 6.
53 For an account of the ancient Greek philosophers, see the sketch at
the end of the volume.
54 Isocrates was born at Athens, B.C. 436. He was a pupil of Gorgias,
Prodicus and Socrates. He opened a school of rhetoric, at Athens,
with great success. He died by his own hand at the age of 98.
55 So Horace joins these two classes as inventors of all kinds of
improbable fictions—
Pictoribus atque poetis
Quidlibet audendi semper fuit æqua potestas.—A. P. 9.
Which Roscommon translates—
Painters and poets have been still allow’d
Their pencil and their fancies unconfined.
56 Epicharmus was a native of Cos, but lived at Megara, in Sicily, and
when Megara was destroyed, removed to Syracuse, and lived at the
court of Hiero, where he became the first writer of comedies, so
that Horace ascribes the invention of comedy to him, and so does
Theocritus. He lived to a great age.
57 Pherecydes was a native of Scyros, one of the Cyclades; and is said
to have obtained his knowledge from the secret books of the
Phœnicians. He is said also to have been a pupil of Pittacus, the
rival of Thales, and the master of Pythagoras. His doctrine was that
there were three principles, Ζεὺς, or Æther, Χθὼν, or Chaos, and
Χρόνος, or Time; and four elements, Fire, Earth, Air, and Water,
from which everything that exists was formed.—Vide Smith’s Dict.
Gr., and Rom. Biog.
58 Archytas was a native of Tarentum, and is said to have saved the
life of Plato by his influence with the tyrant Dionysius. He was
especially great as a mathematician and geometrician, so that Horace
calls him
Maris et terræ numeroque carentis arenæ
Mensorem—Od. i. 28. 1.
Plato is supposed to have learnt some of his views from him, and
Aristotle to nave borrowed from him every idea of the Categories.
59 This was not Timæus the historian, but a native of Locri, who is
said also in the De Finibus (c. 29) to have been a teacher of Plato.
There is a treatise extant bearing his name, which is, however,
probably spurious, and only an abridgment of Plato’s dialogue
Timæus.
60 Dicæarchus was a native of Messana, in Sicily, though he lived
chiefly in Greece; he was one of the later disciples of Aristotle.
He was a great geographer, politician, historian, and philosopher,
and died about B.C. 285.
61 Aristoxenus was a native of Tarentum, and also a pupil of Aristotle.
We know nothing of his opinions except that he held the soul to be a
_harmony_ of the body; a doctrine which had been already discussed
by Plato in the Phædo, and combated by Aristotle. He was a great
musician, and the chief portions of his works which have come down
to us are fragments of some musical treatises.—Smith’s Dict. Gr. and
Rom. Biog., to which source I must acknowledge my obligation for
nearly the whole of these biographical notes.
62 The Simonides here meant, is the celebrated poet of Ceos, the
perfecter of Elegiac poetry among the Greeks. He flourished about
the time of the Persian war. Besides his poetry, he is said to have
been the inventor of some method of aiding the memory. He died at
the court of Hiero, B.C. 467.
63 Theodectes was a native of Phaselis, in Pamphylia, a distinguished
rhetorician and tragic poet, and flourished in the time of Philip of
Macedon. He was a pupil of Isocrates, and lived at Athens, and died
there at the age of 41.
64 Cineas was a Thessalian, and (as is said in the text) came to Rome
as ambassador from Pyrrhus after the battle of Heraclea, B.C. 280,
and his memory is said to have been so great that on the day after
his arrival he was able to address all the senators and knights by
name. He probably died before Pyrrhus returned to Italy, B.C. 276.
65 Charmadas, called also Charmides, was a fellow pupil with Philo, the
Larissæan of Clitomachus, the Carthaginian. He is said by some
authors to have founded a fourth academy.
66 Metrodorus was a minister of Mithridates the Great; and employed by
him as supreme judge in Pontus, and afterwards as an ambassador.
Cicero speaks of him in other places (De Orat. ii. 88) as a man of
wonderful memory.
67 Quintus Hortensius was eight years older than Cicero; and, till
Cicero’s fame surpassed his, he was accounted the most eloquent of
all the Romans. He was Verres’s counsel in the prosecution conducted
against him by Cicero. Seneca relates that his memory was so great
that he could come out of an auction and repeat the catalogue
backwards. He died B.C. 50.
68 This treatise is one which has not come down to us, but which had
been lately composed by Cicero in order to comfort himself for the
loss of his daughter.
69 The epigram is—
Εἴπας Ἥλιε χαῖρε, Κλεόμβροτος Ὅμβρακιώτης
ἥλατ᾽ ἀφ᾽ ύψηλοῦ τείχεος εἰς Ἀίδην,
ἄξιον οὐδὲν ἰδὼν θανάτου κακὸν, ἀλλὰ Πλάτωνος
ἔν τὸ περὶ ψύχης γράμμ᾽ ἀναλεξάμενος.
Which may be translated, perhaps—
Farewell, O sun, Cleombrotus exclaim’d,
Then plung’d from off a height beneath the sea;
Stung by pain, of no disgrace ashamed,
But mov’d by Plato’s high philosophy.
70 This is alluded to by Juvenal—
Provida Pompeio dederat Campania febres
Optandas: sed multæ urbes et publica vota
Vicerunt. Igitur Fortuna ipsius et Urbis,
Servatum victo caput abstulit.—Sat. x. 283.
71 Pompey’s second wife was Julia, the daughter of Julius Cæsar; she
died the year before the death of Crassus, in Parthia. Virgil speaks
of Cæsar and Pompey as relations, using the same expression (socer)
as Cicero—
Aggeribus socer Alpinis atque arce Monœci
Descendens, gener adversis instructus Eois.—Æn. vi. 830.
72 This idea is beautifully expanded by Byron:—
Yet if, as holiest men have deem’d, there be
A land of souls beyond that sable shore
To shame the doctrine of the Sadducee
And sophist, madly vain of dubious lore,
How sweet it were in concert to adore
With those who made our mortal labours light,
To hear each voice we fear’d to hear no more,
Behold each mighty shade reveal’d to sight,
The Bactrian, Samian sage, and all who taught the right.
_Childe Harold_, ii. 8.
73 The epitaph in the original is,—
Ὥ ξεῖν᾽ ἀγγεῖλον Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων πειθόμενοι νομίμοις.
74 This was expressed in the Greek verses—
Ἀρχὴν μὲν μὴ φῦναι ἐπιχθονίοισιν ἄριστον,
φύντα δ᾽ ὅπως ὤκιστα πύλας Ἀίδαο περῆσαι;
which by some authors are attributed to Homer.
75 This is the first fragment of the Cresphontes.—Ed. Var. vii. p. 594
Ἔδει γὰρ ἡμᾶς σύλλογον ποιουμένους
Τὸν φύντα θρηνεῖν, εὶς ὅσ᾽ ἔρχεται κακά.
Τὸν δ᾽ αὖ θανόντα καὶ πόνων πεπαυμένον
χαίροντας εὐφημοῖντας ἐκπέμπειν δόμων.
76 The Greek verses are quoted by Plutarch—
... Ἤπου νήπιε, ἠλίθιοι φρένες ἀνδρᾶν
Εὐθύνοος κεῖται μοιριδίῳ θανάτῳ
Οὐκ ἦν γὰρ ζώειν καλὸν αὐτῷ οὄτε γονεῦσι.
77 This refers to the story that when Eumolpus, the son of Neptune,
whose assistance the Eleusinians had called in against the
Athenians, had been slain by the Athenians, an oracle demanded the
sacrifice of one of the daughters of Erechtheus, the King of Athens.
And when one was drawn by lot, the others voluntarily accompanied
her to death.
78 Menœceus was son of Creon, and in the war of the Argives against
Thebes, Teresias declared that the Thebans should conquer if
Menœceus would sacrifice himself for his country; and accordingly he
killed himself outside the gates of Thebes.
79 The Greek is,
μήδε μοι ἄκλαυστος θάνατος μόλοι, ἀλλὰ φίλοισι
ποιήσαιμι θανὼν ἄλγεα καὶ στοναχάς.
80 Soph. Trach. 1047.
81 The lines quoted by Cicero here, appear to have come from the Latin
play of Prometheus by Accius; the ideas are borrowed rather than
translated from the Prometheus of Æschylus.
82 From Exerceo.
83 Each soldier carried a stake, to help form a palisade in front of
the camp.
84 Insania—from _in_, a particle of negative force in composition, and
_sanus_, healthy, sound.
85 The man who first received this surname was L. Calpurnius Piso, who
was consul, B.C. 133, in the Servile War.
86 The Greek is—
Ἀλλά μοι οἰδάνεται κραδίν χόλω ὅπποτ ἐκείνου
Μνήσομαι ὅς μ᾽ ἀσύφηλον ἐν Ἀργείοισιν ἔρεξεν.—Il. ix. 642.
I have given Pope’s translation in the text.
87 This is from the Theseus—
Ἐγὼ δὲ τοῦτο παρὰ σοφοῦ τινος μαθὼν
εἰς φροντίδας νοῦν συμφοράς τ᾽ ἐβαλλόμην
φυγάς τ᾽ ἐμαυτῷ προστιθεὶς πάτρας ἐμῆς.
θανάτους τ᾽ ἀώρους, καὶ κακῶν ἄλλας ὁδοὺς
ὥς, εἴ τι πάσχοιυμ᾽ ὦν ἐδοξαζόν ποτε
Μή μοι νέορτον προσπεσὸν μᾶλλον δάκοι.
88 Ter. Phorm. II. i. 11.
89 This refers to the speech of Agamemnon in Euripides, in the
Iphigenia in Aulis—
... Ζηλῶ σε, γέρον,
ζηλῶ δ᾽ ἀνδρῶν ὅς ἀκίνδυνον
βίον ἐξεπέρασ, ἀγνὼς, ἀκλεής.—v. 15.
90 This is a fragment from the Hypsipyle—
Ἔφυ μὲν οὐδεις ὅστις οὐ πονεῖ βροτῶν;
θάπτει τε τέκνα χάτερ᾽ αὖ κτᾶται νεὰ,
αὐτός τε θνήσκει. καὶ τάδ᾽ ἄχθονται βροτοὶ
εἰς γῆν φέροντες γῆν; ἀναγκαιως δ᾽ ἔχει
βίον θερίζειν ὦστε κάρπιμον στάχυν.
91 Πολλὰς ἐκ κεφαλῆς προθελύμνους ἕλκετο χαίτας.—Il. x. 15.
92 Ητοι ο καππεδιον το Αληιον οιος αλατο
ον θυμον κατεδων, πατον ανθρωπων αλεεινων.—Il. vi. 201.
93 This is a translation from Euripides—
Ὥσθ᾽ ἵμερος μ᾽ ὑπῆλθε γῇ τε κ᾽ οὐρανῷ
λέξαι μολούσῃ δεῦρο Μηδείας τύχας.—Med. 57.
94 Λίην γὰρ πολλοὶ καὶ ἐπήτριμοι ἤυατα πάντα
πίπτουσιν, πότε κέν τις ἀναπνεύσειε πόνοιο?
ἀλλὰ χρὴ τὸν μὲν καταθαπτέμεν, ὅς κε θάνησι,
νηλέα θυμὸν ἔχοντας, ἔπ᾽ ἤματι δακρυσάντας.—Hom. Il. xix. 226.
95 This is one of the fragments of Euripides which we are unable to
assign to any play in particular; it occurs Var. Ed. Tr. Inc. 167.
Εἰ μέν τόδ᾽ ἦμαρ πρῶτον ἦν κακουμένω
καὶ μὴ μακρὰν δὴ διὰ πόνων ἐναυστόλουν
εἰκὸς σφαδάζειν ἦν ἄν, ὡς νεόζυγα
πῶλον, χάλινον ἀρτίως δεδεγμένον;
νῦν δ᾽ ἀμβλύς εἰμι, καὶ κατηρτυκὼς κακῶν.
96 This is only a fragment preserved by Stobæus—
Τοὺς δ᾽ ἄν μεγίστους καὶ σοφωτάτους φρενὶ
τοιούσδ᾽ ἴδοις ἄν, οἷός ἐστι νῦν ὅδε,
καλῶς κακῶς πράσσοντι συμπαραινέσαι;
ὅταν δὲ δαίμων ἀνδρὸς εὐτυχοῦς τὸ πρὶν
μάστιγ᾽ ἐρείση τοῦ βίου παλίντροπον,
τὰ πολλὰ φροῦδα καὶ κακῶς εἰρημένα.
97 Ωκ. Οὐκοῦν Προμηθεῦ τοῦτο γιγνώσκεις ὅτι
ὀργῆς νοσούσης εἰσὶν ἰατροὶ λόγοι.
Πρ. ἐάν τις ἐν καιρῷ γε μαλθάσση κέαρ
καὶ μὴ σφριγῶντα θυμὸν ἰσχναίνη βίᾳ.
Æsch. Prom. v. 378.
98 Cicero alludes here to Il. vii. 211, which is thus translated by
Pope—
His massy javelin quivering in his hand,
He stood the bulwark of the Grecian band;
Through every Argive heart new transport ran,
All Troy stood trembling at the mighty man:
E’en Hector paused, and with new doubt oppress’d,
Felt his great heart suspended in his breast;
’Twas vain to seek retreat, and vain to fear,
Himself had challenged, and the foe drew near.
But Melmoth (Note on the Familiar Letters of Cicero, book ii. Let.
23) rightly accuses Cicero of having misunderstood Homer, who “by no
means represents Hector as being thus totally dismayed at the
approach of his adversary; and indeed it would have been
inconsistent with the general character of that hero to have
described him under such circumstances of terror.”
Τὸν δὲ καὶ Ἀργεῖοι μέγ᾽ ἐγήθεον εἰσορόωντες,
Τρωὰς δὲ τρόμος αἶνος ὑπήλυθε γυῖα ἕκαστον,
Ἕκτορι δ᾽ αὐτῷ θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι πάτασσεν.
But there is a great difference, as Dr. Clarke remarks, between
θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι πάτασσεν and καρδίη ἔξω στηθέων ἔθρωσκεν, or
τρόμος αἶνος ὑπήλυθε γυῖα.—_The Trojans_, says Homer, _trembled_ at
the sight of Ajax, and even Hector himself felt some emotion in his
breast.
99 Cicero means Scipio Nasica, who in the riots consequent on the
re-election of Tiberius Gracchus to the tribunate, B.C. 133, having
called in vain on the consul, Mucius Scævola, to save the republic,
attacked Gracchus himself, who was slain in the tumult.
100 Morosus is evidently derived from mores—“Morosus, mos, stubbornness,
selfwill, etc.”—Riddle and Arnold, Lat. Diet.
101 In the original they run thus:—
Οὔκ ἐστιν οὐδὲν δεινὸν ὧδ᾽ εἰπεῖν ἔπος,
Οὐδὲ πάθος, οὐδὲ ξυμφορὰ θεήλατος
Ἦς οὐκ ἄν ἄροιτ᾽ ἄχθος ἀνθρώπου φύσις.
102 This passage is from the Eunuch of Terence, Act i. sc. 1, 14.
103 These verses are from the Atreus of Accius.
104 This was Marcus Atilius Regulus, the story of whose treatment by the
Carthaginians in the first Punic War is well known to everybody.
105 This was Quintus Servilius Cæpio, who, B.C. 105, was destroyed, with
his army, by the Cimbri,—it was believed as a judgment for the
covetousness which he had displayed in the plunder of Tolosa.
106 This was Marcus Aquilius, who, in the year B.C. 88, was sent against
Mithridates as one of the consular legates: and being defeated, was
delivered up to the king by the inhabitants of Mitylene. Mithridates
put him to death by pouring molten gold down his throat.
107 This was the elder brother of the triumvir Marcus Crassus, B.C. 87.
He was put to death by Fimbria, who was in command of some of the
troops of Marius.
108 Lucius Cæsar and Caius Cæsar were relations (it is uncertain in what
degree) of the great Cæsar, and were killed by Fimbria on the same
occasion as Octavius.
109 M. Antonius was the grandfather of the triumvir; he was murdered the
same year, B.C. 87, by Annius, when Marius and Cinna took Rome.
110 This story is alluded to by Horace—
Districtus ensis cui super impiâ
Cervice pendet non Siculæ dapes
Dulcem elaborabunt saporem,
Non avium citharæve cantus
Somnum reducent.—iii. 1. 17.
111 Hieronymus was a Rhodian, and a pupil of Aristotle, flourishing
about 300 B.C. He is frequently mentioned by Cicero.
112 We know very little of Dinomachus. Some MSS. have Clitomachus.
113 Callipho was in all probability a pupil of Epicurus, but we have no
certain information about him.
114 Diodorus was a Syrian, and succeeded Critolaus as the head of the
Peripatetic School at Athens.
115 Aristo was a native of Ceos, and a pupil of Lycon, who succeeded
Stratton as the head of the Peripatetic School, B.C. 270. He
afterwards himself succeeded Lycon.
116 Pyrrho was a native of Elis, and the originator of the sceptical
theories of some of the ancient philosophers. He was a contemporary
of Alexander.
117 Herillus was a disciple of Zeno of Cittium, and therefore a Stoic.
He did not, however, follow all the opinions of his master: he held
that knowledge was the chief good. Some of the treatises of
Cleanthes were written expressly to confute him.
118 Anacharsis was (Herod, iv. 76) son of Gnurus and brother of Saulius,
king of Thrace. He came to Athens while Solon was occupied in
framing laws for his people; and by the simplicity of his way of
living, and his acute observations on the manners of the Greeks, he
excited such general admiration, that he was reckoned by some
writers among the seven wise men of Greece.
119 This was Appius Claudius Cæcus, who was censor B.C. 310, and who,
according to Livy, was afflicted with blindness by the gods for
persuading the Potitii to instruct the public servants in the way of
sacrificing to Hercules. He it was who made the Via Appia.
120 The fact of Homer’s blindness rests on a passage in the Hymn to
Apollo, quoted by Thucydides as a genuine work of Homer, and which
is thus spoken of by one of the most accomplished scholars that this
country or this age has ever produced:—“They are indeed beautiful
verses, and if none worse had ever been attributed to Homer, the
Prince of Poets would have had little reason to complain.
“He has been describing the Delian festival in honour of Apollo and
Diana, and concludes this part of the poem with an address to the
women of that island, to whom it is to be supposed that he had
become familiarly known by his frequent recitations:
Χαίρετε δ᾽ υμεῖς πᾶσαι, ἐμεῖο δὲ καὶ μετόπισθε
μνήσασθ᾽, ὅπποτέ κέν τις ἐπιχθονίων ἀνθρώπων
ἐνθάδ᾽ ἀνείρηται ξεῖνος ταλαπείριος ἐλθὼν
ὦ κοῦραι, τίς δ᾽ ὕμμιν ἀνὴρ ἥδιστος ἀοιδῶν
ἐνθάδε πωλεῖται καὶ τέῳ τέρπεσθε μάλιστα?
ὑμεῖς δ᾽ εὖ μάλα πᾶσαι ὑποκρίνασθε ἀφ᾽ ἡμῶν,
Τυφλὸς ἀνὴρ, οἰκεῖ δὲ Χίῳ ἐνὶ παιπαλοέσσῃ,
τοῦ πᾶσαι μετόπισθεν ἀριστεύουσιν ἀοιδαί.
Virgins, farewell,—and oh! remember me
Hereafter, when some stranger from the sea,
A hapless wanderer, may your isle explore,
And ask you, “Maids, of all the bards you boast,
Who sings the sweetest, and delights you most?”
Oh! answer all,—“A blind old man, and poor,
Sweetest he sings, and dwells on Chios’ rocky shore.”
—_Coleridge’s Introduction to the Study of the Greek Classic Poets._