XVI. 49. Ad has omnis visiones inanis Antiochus quidem et permulta dicebat et erat de hac una re unius diei disputatio. Mihi autem non idem faciendum puto, sed ipsa capita dicenda. Et primum quidem hoc reprehendendum, quod captiosissimo genere interrogationis utuntur, quod genus minime in philosophia probari solet, cum aliquid minutatim et gradatim additur aut demitur. Soritas hoc vocant, quia acervum efficiunt uno addito grano. Vitiosum sane et captiosum genus! Sic enim adscenditis: Si tale visum obiectum est a deo dormienti, ut probabile sit, cur non etiam ut valde veri simile? cur deinde non ut difficiliter a vero internoscatur? deinde ut ne internoscatur quidem? postremo ut nihil inter hoc et illud intersit? Huc si perveneris, me tibi primum quidque concedente, meum vitium fuerit: sin ipse tua sponte processeris, tuum. 50. Quis enim tibi dederit aut omnia deum posse aut ita facturum esse, si possit? quo modo autem sumis, ut, si quid cui simile esse possit, sequatur ut etiam difficiliter internosci possit? deinde ut ne internosci quidem? postremo ut eadem sint? ut, si lupi canibus similes sunt, eosdem dices ad extremum. Et quidem honestis similia sunt quaedam non honesta et bonis non bona et artificiosis minime artificiosa: quid dubitamus igitur adfirmare nihil inter haec interesse? Ne repugnantia quidem videmus? Nihil est enim quod de suo genere in aliud genus transferri possit. At si efficeretur, ut inter visa differentium generum nihil interesset, reperirentur quae et in suo genere essent et in alieno. 51. Quod fieri qui potest? Omnium deinde inanium visorum una depulsio est, sive illa cogitatione informantur, quod fieri solere concedimus, sive in quiete sive per vinum sive per insaniam. Nam ab omnibus eiusdem modi visis perspicuitatem, quam mordicus tenere debemus, abesse dicemus. Quis enim, cum sibi fingit aliquid et cogitatione depingit, non simul ac se ipse commovit atque ad se revocavit, sentit quid intersit inter perspicua et inania? Eadem ratio est somniorum. Num censes Ennium, cum in hortis cum Ser. Galba vicino suo ambulavisset, dixisse: 'Visus sum mihi cum Galba ambulare?' At, cum somniavit, ita narravit:
'visus Homerus adesse poeta.'
Idemque in Epicharmo:
'Nam videbar somniare med ego esse mortuum.'
Itaque, simul ut experrecti sumus, visa illa contemnimus neque ita habemus, ut ea, quae in foro gessimus.
XVII. 52. At enim dum videntur, eadem est in somnis species eorumque, quae vigilantes videmus! Primum interest: sed id omittamus. Illud enim dicimus, non eandem esse vim neque integritatem dormientium et vigilantium nec mente nec sensu. Ne vinolenti quidem quae faciunt, eadem approbatione faciunt qua sobrii: dubitant, haesitant, revocant se interdum iisque, quae videntur, imbecillius adsentiuntur, cumque edormiverunt, illa visa quam levia fuerint intellegunt. Quod idem contingit insanis, ut et incipientes furere sentiant et dicant aliquid, quod non sit, id videri sibi, et, cum relaxentur, sentiant atque illa dicant Alcmaeonis:
'Sed mihi ne utiquam cor consentit cum oculorum
adspectu' ...
53. At enim ipse sapiens sustinet se in furore, ne approbet falsa pro veris. Et alias quidem saepe, si aut in sensibus ipsius est aliqua forte gravitas aut tarditas aut obscuriora sunt quae videntur aut a perspiciendo temporis brevitate excluditur. Quamquam totum hoc, sapientem aliquando sustinere adsensionem, contra vos est. Si enim inter visa nihil interesset, aut semper sustineret aut numquam. Sed ex hoc genere toto perspici potest levitas orationis eorum, qui omnia cupiunt confundere. Quaerimus gravitatis, constantiae, firmitatis, sapientiae iudicium: utimur exemplis somniantium, furiosorum, ebriosorum. Illud attendimus in hoc omni genere quam inconstanter loquamur? Non enim proferremus vino aut somno oppressos aut mente captos tam absurde, ut tum diceremus interesse inter vigilantium visa et sobriorum et sanorum et eorum, qui essent aliter adfecti, tum nihil interesse. 54. Ne hoc quidem cernunt, omnia se reddere incerta, quod nolunt, ea dico incerta, quae αδηλα Graeci. Si enim res se ita habeant, ut nihil intersit, utrum ita cui videatur, ut insano, an sano, cui possit exploratum esse de sua sanitate? quod velle efficere non mediocris insaniae est. Similitudines vero aut geminorum aut signorum anulis impressorum pueriliter consectantur. Quis enim nostrum similitudines negat esse, cum eae plurimis in rebus appareant? Sed, si satis est ad tollendam cognitionem similia esse multa multorum, cur eo non estis contenti, praesertim concedentibus nobis? et cur id potius contenditis, quod rerum natura non patitur, ut non suo quidque genere sit tale, quale est, nec sit in duobus aut pluribus nulla re differens ulla communitas? ut [sibi] sint et ova ovorum et apes apium simillimae: quid pugnas igitur? aut quid tibi vis in geminis? Conceditur enim similis esse, quo contentus esse potueras: tu autem vis eosdem plane esse, non similis: quod fieri nullo modo potest. 55. Dein confugis ad physicos eos, qui maxime in Academia irridentur, a quibus ne tu quidem iam te abstinebis, et ais Democritum dicere innumerabilis esse mundos et quidem sic quosdam inter sese non solum similis, sed undique perfecte et absolute ita pares, ut inter eos nihil prorsus intersit [et eos quidem innumerabiles], itemque homines. Deinde postulas, ut, si mundus ita sit par alteri mundo, ut inter eos ne minimum quidem intersit, concedatur tibi ut in hoc quoque nostro mundo aliquid alicui sic sit par, ut nihil differat, nihil intersit. Cur enim, inquies, ex illis individuis, unde omnia Democritus gigni adfirmat, in reliquis mundis et in iis quidem innumerabilibus innumerabiles Q. Lutatii Catuli non modo possint esse, sed etiam sint, in hoc tanto mundo Catulus alter non possit effici?
XVIII. 56. Primum quidem me ad Democritum vocas, cui non adsentior potiusque refello propter id, quod dilucide docetur a politioribus physicis singularum rerum singulas proprietates esse. Fac enim antiquos illos Servilios, qui gemini fuerunt, tam similis quam dicuntur, num censes etiam eosdem fuisse? Non cognoscebantur foris, at domi: non ab alienis, at a suis. An non videmus hoc usu venire, ut, quos numquam putassemus a nobis internosci posse, eos consuetudine adhibita tam facile internosceremus, uti ne minimum quidem similes viderentur? 57. Hic, pugnes licet, non repugnabo: quin etiam concedam illum ipsum sapientem, de quo omnis hic sermo est, cum ei res similes occurrant, quas non habeat dinotatas, retenturum adsensum nec umquam ulli viso adsensurum, nisi quod tale fuerit, quale falsum esse non possit. Sed et ad ceteras res habet quandam artem, qua vera a falsis possit distinguere, et ad similitudines istas usus adhibendus est. Ut mater geminos internoscit consuetudine oculorum, sic tu internosces, si adsueveris. Videsne ut in proverbio sit ovorum inter se similitudo? Tamen hoc accepimus, Deli fuisse compluris salvis rebus illis, qui gallinas alere permultas quaestus causa solerent: ii cum ovum inspexerant, quae id gallina peperisset dicere solebant. 58. Neque id est contra nos: nam nobis satis est ova illa non internoscere: nihil enim magis adsentiri par est, hoc illud esse, quasi inter illa omnino nihil interesset: habeo enim regulam, ut talia visa vera iudicem, qualia falsa esse non possint: ab hac mihi non licet transversum, ut aiunt, digitum discedere, ne confundam omnia. Veri enim et falsi non modo cognitio, sed etiam natura tolletur, si nihil erit quod intersit: ut etiam illud absurdum sit, quod interdum soletis dicere, cum visa in animos imprimantur, non vos id dicere, inter ipsas impressiones nihil interesse, sed inter species et quasdam formas eorum. Quasi vero non specie visa iudicentur! quae fidem nullam habebunt sublata veri et falsi nota. 59. Illud vero perabsurdum, quod dicitis, probabilia vos sequi, si re nulla impediamini. Primum qui potestis non impediri, cum a veris falsa non distent? deinde quod iudicium est veri, cum sit commune falsi? Ex his illa necessario nata est εποχη, id est adsensionis retentio, in qua melius sibi constitit Arcesilas, si vera sunt quae de Carneade non nulli existimant. Si enim percipi nihil potest, quod utrique visum est, tollendus adsensus est. Quid enim est tam futile quam quicquam approbare non cognitum? Carneadem autem etiam heri audiebamus solitum esse eo delabi interdum, ut diceret opinaturum, id est peccaturum esse sapientem. Mihi porro non tam certum est esse aliquid, quod comprehendi possit, de quo iam nimium etiam diu disputo, quam sapientem nihil opinari, id est, numquam adsentiri rei vel falsae vel incognitae. 60. Restat illud, quod dicunt, veri inveniendi causa contra omnia dici oportere et pro omnibus. Volo igitur videre quid invenerint. Non solemus, inquit, ostendere. Quae sunt tandem ista mysteria? aut cur celatis, quasi turpe aliquid, sententiam vestram? Ut, qui audient, inquit, ratione potius quam auctoritate ducantur. Quid, si utroque? num peius est? Unum tamen illud non celant, nihil esse quod percipi possit. An in eo auctoritas nihil obest? Mihi quidem videtur vel plurimum. Quis enim ista tam aperte perspicueque et perversa et falsa secutus esset, nisi tanta in Arcesila, multo etiam maior in Carneade et copia rerum et dicendi vis fuisset?
XIX. 61. Haec Antiochus fere et Alexandreae tum et multis annis post, multo etiam adseverantius, in Syria cum esset mecum, paulo ante quam est mortuus. Sed iam confirmata causa te, hominem amicissimum—me autem appellabat—et aliquot annis minorem natu, non dubitabo monere: Tune, cum tantis laudibus philosophiam extuleris Hortensiumque nostrum dissentientem commoveris, eam philosophiam sequere quae confundit vera cum falsis, spoliat nos iudicio, privat approbatione, omnibus orbat sensibus? Et Cimmeriis quidem, quibus adspectum solis sive deus aliquis sive natura ademerat sive eius loci, quem incolebant, situs, ignes tamen aderant, quorum illis uti lumine licebat, isti autem, quos tu probas, tantis offusis tenebris ne scintillam quidem ullam nobis ad dispiciendum reliquerunt: quos si sequamur, iis vinculis simus adstricti, ut nos commovere nequeamus. 62. Sublata enim adsensione omnem et motum animorum et actionem rerum sustulerunt: quod non modo recte fieri, sed omnino fieri non potest. Provide etiam ne uni tibi istam sententiam minime liceat defendere. An tu, cum res occultissimas aperueris in lucemque protuleris iuratusque dixeris ea te comperisse, quod mihi quoque licebat, qui ex te illa cognoveram, negabis esse rem ullam quae cognosci, comprehendi, percipi possit? Vide, quaeso, etiam atque etiam ne illarum quoque rerum pulcherrimarum a te ipso minuatur auctoritas. Quae cum dixisset ille, finem fecit. 63. Hortensius autem vehementer admirans, quod quidem perpetuo Lucullo loquente fecerat, ut etiam manus saepe tolleret, nec mirum: nam numquam arbitror contra Academiam dictum esse subtilius, me quoque, iocansne an ita sentiens—non enim satis intellegebam—, coepit hortari, ut sententia desisterem. Tum mihi Catulus: Si te, inquit, Luculli oratio flexit, quae est habita memoriter, accurate, copiose, taceo neque te quo minus, si tibi ita videatur, sententiam mutes deterrendum puto. Illud vero non censuerim, ut eius auctoritate moveare. Tantum enim non te modo monuit, inquit adridens, ut caveres ne quis improbus tribunus plebis, quorum vides quanta copia semper futura sit, adriperet te et in contione quaereret qui tibi constares, cum idem negares quicquam certi posse reperiri, idem te comperisse dixisses. Hoc, quaeso, cave ne te terreat. De causa autem ipsa malim quidem te ab hoc dissentire. Sin cesseris, non magno opere mirabor. Memini enim Antiochum ipsum, cum annos multos alia sensisset, simul ac visum sit, sententia destitisse. Haec cum dixisset Catulus, me omnes intueri.
XX. 64. Tum ego non minus commotus quam soleo in causis maioribus, huius modi quadam oratione sum exorsus: Me, Catule, oratio Luculli de ipsa re ita movit, ut docti hominis et copiosi et parati et nihil praetereuntis eorum, quae pro illa causa dici possent, non tamen ut ei respondere posse diffiderem. Auctoritas autem tanta plane me movebat, nisi tu opposuisses non minorem tuam. Adgrediar igitur, si pauca ante quasi de fama mea dixero. 65. Ego enim si aut ostentatione aliqua adductus aut studio certandi ad hanc potissimum philosophiam me applicavi, non modo stultitiam meam, sed etiam mores et naturam condemnandam puto. Nam, si in minimis rebus pertinacia reprehenditur, calumnia etiam coercetur, ego de omni statu consilioque totius vitae aut certare cum aliis pugnaciter aut frustrari cum alios tum etiam me ipsum velim? Itaque, nisi ineptum putarem in tali disputatione id facere, quod, cum de re publica disceptatur, fieri interdum solet, iurarem per Iovem deosque penates me et ardere studio veri reperiendi et ea sentire, quae dicerem. 66. Qui enim possum non cupere verum invenire, cum gaudeam, si simile veri quid invenerim? Sed, ut hoc pulcherrimum esse iudico, vera videre, sic pro veris probare falsa turpissimum est. Nec tamen ego is sum, qui nihil umquam falsi approbem, qui numquam adsentiar, qui nihil opiner, sed quaerimus de sapiente. Ego vero ipse et magnus quidem sum opinator—non enim sum sapiens—et meas cogitationes sic dirigo, non ad illam parvulam Cynosuram,
'Qua fidunt duce nocturna Phoenices in alto,'
ut ait Aratus, eoque directius gubernant, quod eam tenent,
'Quae cursu interiore, brevi convertitur orbe,'
sed Helicen et clarissimos Septemtriones, id est, rationes has latiore specie, non ad tenue elimatas. Eo fit ut errem et vager latius. Sed non de me, ut dixi, sed de sapiente quaeritur. Visa enim ista cum acriter mentem sensumve pepulerunt, accipio iisque interdum etiam adsentior, nec percipio tamen; nihil enim arbitror posse percipi. Non sum sapiens; itaque visis cedo nec possum resistere. Sapientis autem hanc censet Arcesilas vim esse maximam, Zenoni adsentiens, cavere ne capiatur, ne fallatur videre. Nihil est enim ab ea cogitatione, quam habemus de gravitate sapientis, errore, levitate, temeritate diiunctius. Quid igitur loquar de firmitate sapientis? quem quidem nihil opinari tu quoque, Luculle, concedis. Quod quoniam a te probatur—ut praepostere tecum agam, mox referam me ad ordinem—haec primum conclusio quam habeat vim considera.
XXI. 67. Si ulli rei sapiens adsentietur umquam, aliquando etiam opinabitur: numquam autem opinabitur: nulli igitur rei adsentietur. Hanc conclusionem Arcesilas probabat: confirmabat enim et primum et secundum. Carneades non numquam secundum illud dabat: adsentiri aliquando. Ita sequebatur etiam opinari, quod tu non vis et recte, ut mihi videris. Sed illud primum, sapientem, si adsensurus esset, etiam opinaturum, falsum esse et Stoici dicunt et eorum adstipulator Antiochus: posse enim eum falsa a veris et quae non possint percipi ab iis, quae possint, distinguere. 68. Nobis autem primum, etiam si quid percipi possit, tamen ipsa consuetudo adsentiendi periculosa esse videtur et lubrica. Quam ob rem cum tam vitiosum esse constet adsentiri quicquam aut falsum aut incognitum, sustinenda est potius omnis adsensio, ne praecipitet, si temere processerit. Ita enim finitima sunt falsa veris, eaque, quae percipi non possunt, iis quae possunt—si modo ea sunt quaedam: iam enim videbimus—, ut tam in praecipitem locum non debeat se sapiens committere. Sin autem omnino nihil esse quod percipi possit a me sumpsero et, quod tu mihi das, accepero, sapientem nihil opinari, effectum illud erit, sapientem adsensus omnes cohibiturum, ut videndum tibi sit, idne malis an aliquid opinaturum esse sapientem. Neutrum, inquies, illorum. Nitamur igitur, nihil posse percipi: etenim de eo omnis est controversia.
XXII. 69. Sed prius pauca cum Antiocho, qui haec ipsa, quae a me defenduntur, et didicit apud Philonem tam diu, ut constaret diutius didicisse neminem, et scripsit de his rebus acutissime, et idem haec non acrius accusavit in senectute quam antea defensitaverat. Quamvis igitur fuerit acutus, ut fuit, tamen inconstantia levatur auctoritas. Quis enim iste dies illuxerit quaero, qui illi ostenderit eam, quam multos annos esse negitavisset, veri et falsi notam. Excogitavit aliquid? Eadem dicit quae Stoici. Poenituit illa sensisse? Cur non se transtulit ad alios et maxime ad Stoicos? eorum enim erat propria ista dissensio. Quid? eum Mnesarchi poenitebat? quid? Dardani? qui erant Athenis tum principes Stoicorum. Numquam a Philone discessit, nisi postea quam ipse coepit qui se audirent habere. 70. Unde autem subito vetus Academia revocata est? Nominis dignitatem videtur, cum a re ipsa descisceret, retinere voluisse, quod erant qui illum gloriae causa facere dicerent, sperare etiam fore ut ii, qui se sequerentur, Antiochii vocarentur. Mihi autem magis videtur non potuisse sustinere concursum omnium philosophorum. Etenim de ceteris sunt inter illos non nulla communia: haec Academicorum est una sententia, quam reliquorum philosophorum nemo probet. Itaque cessit, et ut ii, qui sub Novis solem non ferunt, item ille, cum aestuaret, veterum, ut Maenianorum, sic Academicorum umbram secutus est. 71. Quoque solebat uti argumento tum, cum ei placebat nihil posse percipi, cum quaereret, Dionysius ille Heracleotes utrum comprehendisset certa illa nota, qua adsentiri dicitis oportere, illudne, quod multos annos tenuisset Zenonique magistro credidisset, honestum quod esset, id bonum solum esse, an quod postea defensitavisset, honesti inane nomen esse, voluptatem esse summum bonum: qui ex illius commutata sententia docere vellet nihil ita signari in animis nostris a vero posse, quod non eodem modo possit a falso, is curavit ut quod argumentum ex Dionysio ipse sumpsisset, ex eo ceteri sumerent. Sed cum hoc alio loco plura, nunc ad ea, quae a te, Luculle, dicta sunt.
XXIII. 72. Et primum quod initio dixisti videamus quale sit: similiter a nobis de antiquis philosophis commemorari atque seditiosi solerent claros viros, sed tamen popularis aliquos nominare. Illi cum res non bonas tractent, similes bonorum videri volunt. Nos autem dicimus ea nobis videri, quae vosmet ipsi nobilissimis philosophis placuisse conceditis. Anaxagoras nivem nigram dixit esse. Ferres me, si ego idem dicerem? Tu, ne si dubitarem quidem. At quis est? num hic sophistes?—sic enim appellabantur ii, qui ostentationis aut quaestus causa philosophabantur—: maxima fuit et gravitatis et ingeni gloria. 73. Quid loquar de Democrito? Quem cum eo conferre possumus non modo ingeni magnitudine, sed etiam animi? qui ita sit ausus ordiri: 'Haec loquor de universis.' Nihil excipit de quo non profiteatur. Quid enim esse potest extra universa? quis hunc philosophum non anteponit Cleanthi, Chrysippo, reliquis inferioris aetatis? qui mihi cum illo collati quintae classis videntur. Atque is non hoc dicit, quod nos, qui veri esse aliquid non negamus, percipi posse negamus; ille verum plane negat esse: sensus quidem non obscuros dicit, sed tenebricosos: sic enim appellat [eos]. Is, qui hunc maxime est admiratus, Chius Metrodorus initio libri, qui est de natura: 'Nego,' inquit, 'scire nos sciamusne aliquid an nihil sciamus, ne id ipsum quidem, nescire aut scire, scire nos, nec omnino sitne aliquid an nihil sit.' 74. Furere tibi Empedocles videtur: at mihi dignissimum rebus iis, de quibus loquitur, sonum fundere. Num ergo is excaecat nos aut orbat sensibus, si parum magnam vim censet in iis esse ad ea, quae sub eos subiecta sunt, iudicanda? Parmenides, Xenophanes, minus bonis quamquam versibus, sed tamen illi versibus increpant eorum adrogantiam quasi irati, qui, cum sciri nihil possit, audeant se scire dicere. Et ab iis aiebas removendum Socratem et Platonem. Cur? an de ullis certius possum dicere? Vixisse cum iis equidem videor: ita multi sermones perscripti sunt, e quibus dubitari non possit quin Socrati nihil sit visum sciri posse. Excepit unum tantum, 'scire se nihil se scire,' nihil amplius. Quid dicam de Platone? qui certe tam multis libris haec persecutus non esset, nisi probavisset. Ironiam enim alterius, perpetuam praesertim, nulla fuit ratio persequi.
XXIV. 75. Videorne tibi, non ut Saturninus, nominare modo illustris homines, sed imitari numquam nisi clarum, nisi nobilem? Atqui habebam molestos vobis, sed minutos, Stilponem, Diodorum, Alexinum, quorum sunt contorta et aculeata quaedam σοφισματα; sic enim appellantur fallaces conclusiunculae. Sed quid eos colligam, cum habeam Chrysippum, qui fulcire putatur porticum Stoicorum? Quam multa ille contra sensus, quam multa contra omnia, quae in consuetudine probantur! At dissolvit idem. Mihi quidem non videtur: sed dissolverit sane. Certe tam multa non collegisset, quae nos fallerent probabilitate magna, nisi videret iis resisti non facile posse. 76. Quid Cyrenaici tibi videntur, minime contempti philosophi? Qui negant esse quicquam quod percipi possit extrinsecus: ea se sola percipere, quae tactu intimo sentiant, ut dolorem, ut voluptatem: neque se quo quid colore aut quo sono sit scire, sed tantum sentire adfici se quodam modo.
Satis multa de auctoribus. Quamquam ex me quaesieras nonne putarem post illos veteres tot saeculis inveniri verum potuisse tot ingeniis tantisque studiis quaerentibus. Quid inventum sit paulo post videro, te ipso quidem iudice. Arcesilam vero non obtrectandi causa cum Zenone pugnavisse, sed verum invenire voluisse sic intellegitur. 77. Nemo, inquam, superiorum non modo expresserat, sed ne dixerat quidem posse hominem nihil opinari, nec solum posse, sed ita necesse esse sapienti. Visa est Arcesilae cum vera sententia tum honesta et digna sapiente. Quaesivit de Zenone fortasse quid futurum esset, si nec percipere quicquam posset sapiens nec opinari sapientis esset. Ille, credo, nihil opinaturum, quoniam esset, quod percipi posset. Quid ergo id esset? Visum, credo. Quale igitur visum? tum illum ita definisse, ex eo, quod esset, sicut esset, impressum et signatum et effictum. Post requisitum etiamne, si eiusdem modi esset visum verum, quale vel falsum. Hic Zenonem vidisse acute nullum esse visum quod percipi posset, si id tale esset ab eo, quod est, ut eiusdem modi ab eo, quod non est, posset esse. Recte consensit Arcesilas; ad definitionem additum: neque enim falsum percipi posse neque verum, si esset tale, quale vel falsum. Incubuit autem in eas disputationes, ut doceret nullum tale esse visum a vero, ut non eiusdem modi etiam a falso possit esse. 78. Haec est una contentio, quae adhuc permanserit. Nam illud, nulli rei adsensurum esse sapientem, nihil ad hanc controversiam pertinebat. Licebat enim nihil percipere et tamen opinari, quod a Carneade dicitur probatum: equidem Clitomacho plus quam Philoni aut Metrodoro credens, hoc magis ab eo disputatum quam probatum puto. Sed id omittamus. Illud certe opinatione et perceptione sublata sequitur, omnium adsensionum retentio, ut, si ostendero nihil posse percipi, tu concedas numquam adsensurum esse.
XXV. 79. Quid ergo est quod percipi possit, si ne sensus quidem vera nuntiant? quos tu, Luculle, communi loco defendis: quod ne [id] facere posses, idcirco heri non necessario loco contra sensus tam multa dixeram. Tu autem te negas infracto remo neque columbae collo commoveri. Primum cur? Nam et in remo sentio non esse id, quod videatur, et in columba pluris videri colores nec esse plus uno. Deinde nihilne praeterea diximus?—Manent illa omnia, iacet ista causa: veracis suos esse sensus dicit.—Igitur semper auctorem habes eum, qui magno suo periculo causam agat! Eo enim rem demittit Epicurus, si unus sensus semel in vita mentitus sit, nulli umquam esse credendum. 80. Hoc est verum esse, confidere suis testibus et importune insistere! Itaque Timagoras Epicureus negat sibi umquam, cum oculum torsisset, duas ex lucerna flammulas esse visas: opinionis enim esse mendacium, non oculorum. Quasi quaeratur quid sit, non quid videatur. Sed hic quidem maiorum similis: tu vero, qui visa sensibus alia vera dicas esse, alia falsa, qui ea distinguis? Desine, quaeso, communibus locis: domi nobis ista nascuntur. Si, inquis, deus te interroget: Sanis modo et integris sensibus, num amplius quid desideras? quid respondeas?—Utinam quidem roget? Audiret quam nobiscum male ageret. Ut enim vera videamus, quam longe videmus? Ego Catuli Cumanum ex hoc loco video, Pompeianum non cerno, neque quicquam interiectum est quod obstet, sed intendi acies longius non potest. O praeclarum prospectum! Puteolos videmus: at familiarem nostrum C. Avianium, fortasse in porticu Neptuni ambulantem, non videmus. 81. At ille nescio qui, qui in scholis nominari solet, mille et octingenta stadia quod abesset videbat: quaedam volucres longius. Responderem igitur audacter isti vestro deo me plane his oculis non esse contentum. Dicet me acrius videre quam illos pisces fortasse qui neque videntur a nobis et nunc quidem sub oculis sunt neque ipsi nos suspicere possunt. Ergo ut illis aqua, sic nobis aër crassus offunditur. At amplius non desideramus. Quid? talpam num desiderare lumen putas? Neque tam quererer cum deo, quod parum longe quam quod falsum viderem. Videsne navem illam? Stare nobis videtur: at iis, qui in nave sunt, moveri haec villa. Quaere rationem cur ita videatur: quam ut maxime inveneris, quod haud scio an non possis, non tu verum testem habere, sed eum non sine causa falsum testimonium dicere ostenderis.
XXVI. 82. Quid ego de nave? Vidi enim a te remum contemni. Maiora fortasse quaeris. Quid potest esse sole maius? quem mathematici amplius duodeviginti partibus confirmant maiorem esse quam terram. Quantulus nobis videtur! Mihi quidem quasi pedalis. Epicurus autem posse putat etiam minorem esse eum quam videatur, sed non multo: ne maiorem quidem multo putat esse vel tantum esse, quantus videatur, ut oculi aut nihil mentiantur aut non multum. Ubi igitur illud est semel? Sed ab hoc credulo, qui numquam sensus mentiri putat, discedamus: qui ne nunc quidem, cum ille sol, qui tanta incitatione fertur, ut celeritas eius quanta sit ne cogitari quidem possit, tamen nobis stare videatur. 83. Sed, ut minuam controversiam, videte, quaeso, quam in parvo lis sit. Quattuor sunt capita, quae concludant nihil esse quod nosci, percipi, comprehendi possit, de quo haec tota quaestio est. E quibus primum est esse aliquod visum falsum, secundum non posse id percipi, tertium, inter quae visa nihil intersit, fieri non posse ut eorum alia percipi possint, alia non possint, quartum nullum esse visum verum a sensu profectum, cui non appositum sit visum aliud, quod ab eo nihil intersit quodque percipi non possit. Horum quattuor capitum secundum et tertium omnes concedunt. Primum Epicurus non dat; vos, quibuscum res est, id quoque conceditis. Omnis pugna de quarto est. 84. Qui igitur P. Servilium Geminum videbat, si Quintum se videre putabat, incidebat in eius modi visum, quod percipi non posset, quia nulla nota verum distinguebatur a falso: qua distinctione sublata quam haberet in C. Cotta, qui bis cum Gemino consul fuit, agnoscendo eius modi notam, quae falsa esse non posset? Negas tantam similitudinem in rerum natura esse. Pugnas omnino, sed cum adversario facili. Ne sit sane: videri certe potest. Fallet igitur sensum, et si una fefellerit similitudo, dubia omnia reddiderit. Sublato enim iudicio illo, quo oportet agnosci, etiam si ipse erit, quem videris, qui tibi videbitur, tamen non ea nota iudicabis, qua dicis oportere, ut non possit esse eiusdem modi falsa. 85. Quando igitur potest tibi P. Geminus Quintus videri, quid habes explorati cur non possit tibi Cotta videri qui non sit, quoniam aliquid videtur esse, quod non est? Omnia dicis sui generis esse, nihil esse idem, quod sit aliud. Stoicum est quidem nec admodum credibile 'nullum esse pilum omnibus rebus talem, qualis sit pilus alius, nullum granum.' Haec refelli possunt, sed pugnare nolo. Ad id enim, quod agitur, nihil interest omnibusne partibus visa res nihil differat an internosci non possit, etiam si differat. Sed, si hominum similitudo tanta esse non potest, ne signorum quidem? Dic mihi, Lysippus eodem aere, eadem temperatione, eodem caelo atque ceteris omnibus, centum Alexandros eiusdem modi facere non posset? Qua igitur notione discerneres? 86. Quid? si in eiusdem modi cera centum sigilla hoc anulo impressero, ecquae poterit in agnoscendo esse distinctio? an tibi erit quaerendus anularius aliqui, quoniam gallinarium invenisti Deliacum illum, qui ova cognosceret?
XXVII. Sed adhibes artem advocatam etiam sensibus. Pictor videt quae nos non videmus et, simul inflavit tibicen, a perito carmen agnoscitur. Quid? hoc nonne videtur contra te valere, si sine magnis artificiis, ad quae pauci accedunt, nostri quidem generis admodum, nec videre nec audire possimus? Iam illa praeclara, quanto artificio esset sensus nostros mentemque et totam constructionem hominis fabricata natura! 87. Cur non extimescam opinandi temeritatem? Etiamne hoc adfirmare potes, Luculle, esse aliquam vim, cum prudentia et consilio scilicet, quae finxerit vel, ut tuo verbo utar, quae fabricata sit hominem? Qualis ista fabrica est? ubi adhibita? quando? cur? quo modo? Tractantur ista ingeniose: disputantur etiam eleganter. Denique videantur sane, ne adfirmentur modo. Sed de physicis mox et quidem ob eam causam, ne tu, qui idem me facturum paulo ante dixeris, videare mentitus. Sed ut ad ea, quae clariora sunt, veniam, res iam universas profundam, de quibus volumina impleta sunt non a nostris solum, sed etiam a Chrysippo:—de quo queri solent Stoici, dum studiose omnia conquisierit contra sensus et perspicuitatem contraque omnem consuetudinem contraque rationem, ipsum sibi respondentem inferiorem fuisse, itaque ab eo armatum esse Carneadem.—88. Ea sunt eius modi, quae a te diligentissime tractata sunt. Dormientium et vinolentorum et furiosorum visa imbecilliora esse dicebas quam vigilantium, siccorum, sanorum. Quo modo? quia, cum experrectus esset Ennius, non diceret 'se vidisse Homerum, sed visum esse,' Alcmaeo autem:
'Sed mihi ne utiquam cor consentit ...'
Similia de vinolentis. Quasi quisquam neget et qui experrectus sit, eum somnia reri et cuius furor consederit, putare non fuisse ea vera, quae essent sibi visa in furore. Sed non id agitur: tum, cum videbantur, quo modo viderentur, id quaeritur. Nisi vero Ennium non putamus ita totum illud audivisse,
'O pietas animi ...',
si modo id somniavit, ut si vigilans audiret. Experrectus enim potuit illa visa putare, ut erant, somnia: dormienti vero aeque ac vigilanti probabantur. Quid? Iliona somno illo:
'Mater, te appello ...'
nonne ita credit filium locutum, ut experrecta etiam crederet? Unde enim illa:
'Age adsta: mane, audi: iterandum eadem istaec mihi!' num videtur minorem habere visis quam vigilantes fidem?
XXVIII. 89. Quid loquar de insanis? qualis tandem fuit adfinis tuus, Catule, Tuditanus? quisquam sanissimus tam certa putat quae videt quam is putabat quae videbantur? Quid ille, qui:
'Video, video te. Vive, Ulixes, dum licet,'
nonne etiam bis exclamavit se videre, cum omnino non videret? Quid? apud Euripidem Hercules, cum, ut Eurysthei filios, ita suos configebat sagittis, cum uxorem interemebat, cum conabatur etiam patrem, non perinde movebatur falsis, ut veris moveretur? Quid? ipse Alcmaeo tuus, qui negat 'cor sibi cum oculis consentire,' nonne ibidem incitato furore:
'unde haec flamma oritur?'
et illa deinceps:
'Incedunt, incedunt: adsunt, adsunt, me expetunt:'
Quid? cum virginis fidem implorat:
'Fer mi auxilium, pestem abige a me, flammiferam
hanc vim, quae me excruciat!
Caerulea incinctae angui incedunt, circumstant
cum ardentibus taedis.'
Num dubitas quin sibi haec videre videatur? Itemque cetera:
'Intendit crinitus Apollo
arcum auratum, luna innixus:
Diana facem iacit a laeva.'
90. Qui magis haec crederet, si essent, quam credebat, quia videbantur? Apparet enim iam 'cor cum oculis consentire.' Omnia autem haec proferuntur, ut illud efficiatur, quo certius nihil potest esse, inter visa vera et falsa ad animi adsensum nihil interesse. Vos autem nihil agitis, cum illa falsa vel furiosorum vel somniantium recordatione ipsorum refellitis. Non enim id quaeritur, qualis recordatio fieri soleat eorum, qui experrecti sint, aut eorum, qui furere destiterint, sed qualis visio fuerit aut furentium aut somniantium tum cum movebantur. Sed abeo a sensibus.
91. Quid est quod ratione percipi possit? Dialecticam inventam esse dicitis, veri et falsi quasi disceptatricem et iudicem. Cuius veri et falsi? et in qua re? In geometriane quid sit verum aut falsum dialecticus iudicabit an in litteris an in musicis? At ea non novit. In philosophia igitur. Sol quantus sit quid ad illum? Quod sit summum bonum quid habet ut queat iudicare? Quid igitur iudicabit? quae coniunctio, quae diiunctio vera sit, quid ambigue dictum sit, quid sequatur quamque rem, quid repugnet? Si haec et horum similia iudicat, de se ipsa iudicat. Plus autem pollicebatur. Nam haec quidem iudicare ad ceteras res, quae sunt in philosophia multae atque magnae, non est satis. 92. Sed quoniam tantum in ea arte ponitis, videte ne contra vos tota nata sit: quae primo progressu festive tradit elementa loquendi et ambiguorum intellegentiam concludendique rationem, tum paucis additis venit ad soritas, lubricum sane et periculosum locum, quod tu modo dicebas esse vitiosum interrogandi genus.
XXIX. Quid ergo? istius vitii num nostra culpa est? Rerum natura nullam nobis dedit cognitionem finium, ut ulla in re statuere possimus quatenus. Nec hoc in acervo tritici solum, unde nomen est, sed nulla omnino in re minutatim interrogati, dives pauper, clarus obscurus sit, multa pauca, magna parva, longa brevia, lata angusta, quanto aut addito aut dempto certum respondeamus [non] habemus.—93. At vitiosi sunt soritae.—Frangite igitur eos, si potestis, ne molesti sint. Erunt enim, nisi cavetis. Cautum est, inquit. Placet enim Chrysippo, cum gradatim interrogetur, verbi causa, tria pauca sint anne multa, aliquanto prius quam ad multa perveniat quiescere, id est, quod ab his dicitur, ‛ησυχαζειν. Per me vel stertas licet, inquit Carneades, non modo quiescas. Sed quid proficit? Sequitur enim, qui te ex somno excitet et eodem modo interroget. Quo in numero conticuisti, si ad eum numerum unum addidero, multane erunt? Progrediere rursus, quoad videbitur. Quid plura? hoc enim fateris, neque ultimum te paucorum neque primum multorum respondere posse. Cuius generis error ita manat, ut non videam quo non possit accedere. 94. Nihil me laedit, inquit: ego enim, ut agitator callidus, prius quam ad finem veniam, equos sustinebo, eoque magis, si locus is, quo ferentur equi, praeceps erit. Sic me, inquit, ante sustineo nec diutius captiose interroganti respondeo. Si habes quod liqueat neque respondes, superbus es: si non habes, ne tu quidem percipis. Si, quia obscura, concedo. Sed negas te usque ad obscura progredi. Illustribus igitur rebus insistis. Si id tantum modo, ut taceas, nihil adsequeris. Quid enim ad illum, qui te captare volt, utrum tacentem irretiat te an loquentem? Sin autem usque ad novem, verbi gratia, sine dubitatione respondes pauca esse, in decimo insistis: etiam a certis et illustrioribus cohibes adsensum. Hoc idem me in obscuris facere non sinis. Nihil igitur te contra soritas ars ista adiuvat, quae nec augentis nec minuentis quid aut primum sit aut postremum docet. 95. Quid? quod eadem illa ars, quasi Penelope telam retexens, tollit ad extremum superiora. Utrum ea vestra an nostra culpa est? Nempe fundamentum dialecticae est, quidquid enuntietur—id autem appellant αξιωμα, quod est quasi effatum—, aut verum esse aut falsum. Quid igitur? haec vera an falsa sunt? Si te mentiri dicis idque verum dicis, mentiris an verum dicis? Haec scilicet inexplicabilia esse dicitis. Quod est odiosius quam illa, quae nos non comprehensa et non percepta dicimus.
XXX. Sed hoc omitto. Illud quaero, si ista explicari non possunt, nec eorum ullum iudicium invenitur, ut respondere possitis verane an falsa sint, ubi est illa definitio: 'effatum esse id, quod aut verum aut falsum sit'? Rebus sumptis adiungam ex his sequendas esse alias, alias improbandas, quae sint in genere contrario. 96. Quo modo igitur hoc conclusum esse iudicas? 'Si dicis nunc lucere et verum dicis, lucet; dicis autem nunc lucere et verum dicis: lucet igitur.' Probatis certe genus et rectissime conclusum dicitis. Itaque in docendo eum primum concludendi modum traditis. Aut quidquid igitur eodem modo concluditur probabitis aut ars ista nulla est. Vide ergo hanc conclusionem probaturusne sis: 'Si dicis te mentiri verumque dicis, mentiris; dicis autem te mentiri verumque dicis, mentiris igitur.' Qui potes hanc non probare, cum probaveris eiusdem generis superiorem? Haec Chrysippea sunt, ne ab ipso quidem dissoluta. Quid enim faceret huic conclusioni? 'Si lucet, lucet; lucet autem: lucet igitur.' Cederet scilicet. Ipsa enim ratio conexi, cum concesseris superius, cogit inferius concedere. Quid ergo haec ab illa conclusione differt? 'Si mentiris, mentiris: mentiris autem: mentiris igitur.' Hoc negas te posse nec approbare nec improbare. 97. Qui igitur magis illud? Si ars, si ratio, si via, si vis denique conclusionis valet, eadem est in utroque. Sed hoc extremum eorum est: postulant ut excipiantur haec inexplicabilia. Tribunum aliquem censeo adeant: a me istam exceptionem numquam impetrabunt. Etenim cum ab Epicuro, qui totam dialecticam et contemnit et irridet, non impetrent ut verum esse concedat quod ita effabimur, 'aut vivet cras Hermarchus aut non vivet' cum dialectici sic statuant, omne, quod ita diiunctum sit, quasi 'aut etiam aut non,' non modo verum esse, sed etiam necessarium: vide quam sit catus is, quem isti tardum putant. Si enim, inquit, alterutrum concessero necessarium esse, necesse erit cras Hermarchum aut vivere aut non vivere; nulla autem est in natura rerum talis necessitas. Cum hoc igitur dialectici pugnent, id est, Antiochus et Stoici: totam enim evertit dialecticam. Nam si e contrariis diiunctio—contraria autem ea dico, cum alterum aiat, alterum neget, si talis diiunctio falsa potest esse, nulla vera est. 98. Mecum vero quid habent litium, qui ipsorum disciplinam sequor? Cum aliquid huius modi inciderat, sic ludere Carneades solebat: 'Si recte conclusi, teneo: sin vitiose, minam Diogenes reddet.' Ab eo enim Stoico dialecticam didicerat: haec autem merces erat dialecticorum. Sequor igitur eas vias, quas didici ab Antiocho, nec reperio quo modo iudicem 'si lucet, lucet,' verum esse ob eam causam, quod ita didici, omne, quod ipsum ex se conexum sit, verum esse, non iudicem 'si mentiris, mentiris,' eodem modo [esse] conexum. Aut igitur hoc et illud aut, nisi hoc, ne illud quidem iudicabo.
XXXI. Sed, ut omnes istos aculeos et totum tortuosum genus disputandi relinquamus ostendamusque qui simus, iam explicata tota Carneadis sententia Antiochea ista corruent universa. Nec vero quicquam ita dicam, ut quisquam id fingi suspicetur: a Clitomacho sumam, qui usque ad senectutem cum Carneade fuit, homo et acutus, ut Poenus, et valde studiosus ac diligens. Et quattuor eius libri sunt de sustinendis adsensionibus. Haec autem, quae iam dicam, sunt sumpta de primo. 99. Duo placet esse Carneadi genera visorum, in uno hanc divisionem: 'alia visa esse quae percipi possint, alia quae non possint,' in altero autem: 'alia visa esse probabilia; alia non probabilia.' Itaque, quae contra sensus contraque perspicuitatem dicantur, ea pertinere ad superiorem divisionem: contra posteriorem nihil dici oportere: qua re ita placere: tale visum nullum esse, ut perceptio consequeretur, ut autem probatio, multa. Etenim contra naturam esset, si probabile nihil esset. Et sequitur omnis vitae ea, quam tu, Luculle, commemorabas, eversio. Itaque et sensibus probanda multa sunt, teneatur modo illud, non inesse in iis quicquam tale, quale non etiam falsum nihil ab eo differens esse possit. Sic, quidquid acciderit specie probabile, si nihil se offeret quod sit probabilitati illi contrarium, utetur eo sapiens ac sic omnis ratio vitae gubernabitur. Etenim is quoque, qui a vobis sapiens inducitur, multa sequitur probabilia, non comprehensa neque percepta neque adsensa, sed similia veri: quae nisi probet, omnis vita tollatur. 100. Quid enim? conscendens navem sapiens num comprehensum animo habet atque perceptum se ex sententia navigaturum? Qui potest? Sed si iam ex hoc loco proficiscatur Puteolos stadia triginta, probo navigio, bono gubernatore, hac tranquillitate, probabile videatur se illuc venturum esse salvum. Huius modi igitur visis consilia capiet et agendi et non agendi, faciliorque erit, ut albam esse nivem probet, quam erat Anaxagoras, qui id non modo ita esse negabat, sed sibi, quia sciret aquam nigram esse, unde illa concreta esset, albam ipsam esse, ne videri quidem. 101. Et quaecumque res eum sic attinget, ut sit visum illud probabile neque ulla re impeditum, movebitur. Non enim est e saxo sculptus aut e robore dolatus, habet corpus, habet animum, movetur mente, movetur sensibus, ut ei multa vera videantur, neque tamen habere insignem illam et propriam percipiendi notam: eoque sapientem non adsentiri, quia possit eiusdem modi exsistere falsum aliquod, cuius modi hoc verum. Neque nos contra sensus aliter dicimus ac Stoici, qui multa falsa esse dicunt, longeque aliter se habere ac sensibus videantur.
XXXII. Hoc autem si ita sit, ut unum modo sensibus falsum videatur, praesto est qui neget rem ullam percipi posse sensibus. Ita nobis tacentibus ex uno Epicuri capite, altero vestro perceptio et comprehensio tollitur. Quod est caput Epicuri? 'Si ullum sensus visum falsum est, nihil percipi potest.' Quod vestrum? 'Sunt falsa sensus visa.' Quid sequitur? ut taceam, conclusio ipsa loquitur: 'nihil posse percipi.' Non concedo, inquit, Epicuro. Certa igitur cum illo, qui a te totus diversus est: noli mecum, qui hoc quidem certe, falsi esse aliquid in sensibus, tibi adsentior. 102. Quamquam nihil mihi tam mirum videtur quam ista dici, ab Antiocho quidem maxime, cui erant ea, quae paulo ante dixi, notissima. Licet enim haec quivis arbitratu suo reprehendat, quod negemus rem ullam percipi posse, certe levior reprehensio est: quod tamen dicimus esse quaedam probabilia, non videtur hoc satis esse vobis. Ne sit: illa certe debemus effugere, quae a te vel maxime agitata sunt: 'nihil igitur cernis? nihil audis? nihil tibi est perspicuum?' Explicavi paulo ante Clitomacho auctore quo modo ista Carneades diceret. Accipe quem ad modum eadem dicantur a Clitomacho in eo libro, quem ad C. Lucilium scripsit poëtam, cum scripsisset isdem de rebus ad L. Censorinum, eum, qui consul cum M. Manilio fuit. Scripsit igitur his fere verbis—sunt enim mihi nota, propterea quod earum ipsarum rerum, de quibus agimus, prima institutio et quasi disciplina illo libro continetur—, sed scriptum est ita: 103. 'Academicis placere esse rerum eius modi dissimilitudines, ut aliae probabiles videantur, aliae contra: id autem non esse satis cur alia posse percipi dicas, alia non posse, propterea quod multa falsa probabilia sint, nihil autem falsi perceptum et cognitum possit esse.' Itaque ait vehementer errare eos, qui dicant ab Academia sensus eripi, a quibus numquam dictum sit aut colorem aut saporem aut sonum nullum esse, illud sit disputatum, non inesse in his propriam, quae nusquam alibi esset, veri et certi notam. 104. Quae cum exposuisset, adiungit dupliciter dici adsensus sustinere sapientem: uno modo, cum hoc intelligatur, omnino eum rei nulli adsentiri: altero, cum se a respondendo, ut aut approbet quid aut improbet, sustineat, ut neque neget aliquid neque aiat. Id cum ita sit, alterum placere, ut numquam adsentiatur, alterum tenere, ut sequens probabilitatem, ubicumque haec aut occurrat aut deficiat, aut 'etiam' aut 'non' respondere possit. †Nec, ut placeat, eum, qui de omnibus rebus contineat se ab adsentiendo, moveri tamen et agere aliquid, reliquit eius modi visa, quibus ad actionem excitemur: item ea, quae interrogati in utramque partem respondere possimus, sequentes tantum modo, quod ita visum sit, dum sine adsensu: neque tamen omnia eius modi visa approbari, sed ea, quae nulla re impedirentur. 105. Haec si vobis non probamus, sint falsa sane, invidiosa certe non sunt. Non enim lucem eripimus, sed ea, quae vos percipi comprehendique, eadem nos, si modo probabilia sint, videri dicimus.
XXXIII. Sic igitur inducto et constituto probabili, et eo quidem expedito, soluto, libero, nulla re implicato, vides profecto, Luculle, iacere iam illud tuum perspicuitatis patrocinium. Isdem enim hic sapiens, de quo loquor, oculis quibus iste vester caelum, terram, mare intuebitur, isdem sensibus reliqua, quae sub quemque sensum cadunt, sentiet. Mare illud, quod nunc Favonio nascente purpureum videtur, idem huic nostro videbitur, nec tamen adsentietur, quia nobismet ipsis modo caeruleum videbatur, mane ravum, quodque nunc, qua a sole collucet, albescit et vibrat dissimileque est proximo et continenti, ut, etiam si possis rationem reddere cur id eveniat, tamen non possis id verum esse, quod videbatur oculis, defendere. 106. Unde memoria, si nihil percipimus? Sic enim quaerebas. Quid? meminisse visa nisi comprehensa non possumus? Quid? Polyaenus, qui magnus mathematicus fuisse dicitur, is postea quam Epicuro adsentiens totam geometriam falsam esse credidit, num illa etiam, quae sciebat, oblitus est? Atqui, falsum quod est, id percipi non potest, ut vobismet ipsis placet. Si igitur memoria perceptarum comprehensarumque rerum est, omnia, quae quisque meminit, habet ea comprehensa atque percepta. Falsi autem comprehendi nihil potest, et omnia meminit Siron Epicuri dogmata. Vera igitur illa sunt nunc omnia. Hoc per me licet: sed tibi aut concedendum est ita esse, quod minime vis, aut memoriam mihi remittas oportet et fateare esse ei locum, etiam si comprehensio perceptioque nulla sit. 107. Quid fiet artibus? Quibus? Iisne, quae ipsae fatentur coniectura se plus uti quam scientia, an iis, quae tantum id, quod videtur, secuntur nec habent istam artem vestram, qua vera et falsa diiudicent?
Sed illa sunt lumina duo, quae maxime causam istam continent. Primum enim negatis fieri posse ut quisquam nulli rei adsentiatur. At id quidem perspicuum est. Cum Panaetius, princeps prope meo quidem iudicio Stoicorum, ea de re dubitare se dicat, quam omnes praeter eum Stoici certissimam putant, vera esse haruspicum [responsa], auspicia, oracula, somnia, vaticinationes, seque ab adsensu sustineat: quod is potest facere vel de iis rebus, quas illi, a quibus ipse didicit, certas habuerint, cur id sapiens de reliquis rebus facere non possit? An est aliquid, quod positum vel improbare vel approbare possit, dubitare non possit? an tu in soritis poteris hoc, cum voles: ille in reliquis rebus non poterit eodem modo insistere, praesertim cum possit sine adsensione ipsam veri similitudinem non impeditam sequi? 108. Alterum est, quod negatis actionem ullius rei posse in eo esse, qui nullam rem adsensu suo comprobet. Primum enim videri oportet in quo sit etiam adsensus. Dicunt enim Stoici sensus ipsos adsensus esse, quos quoniam appetitio consequatur, actionem sequi: tolli autem omnia, si visa tollantur.
XXXIV. Hac de re in utramque partem et dicta sunt et scripta multa, sed brevi res potest tota confici. Ego enim etsi maximam actionem puto repugnare visis, obsistere opinionibus, adsensus lubricos sustinere, credoque Clitomacho ita scribenti, Herculi quendam laborem exanclatum a Carneade, quod, ut feram et immanem beluam, sic ex animis nostris adsensionem, id est, opinationem et temeritatem extraxisset, tamen, ut ea pars defensionis relinquatur, quid impediet actionem eius, qui probabilia sequitur, nulla re impediente? 109. Hoc, inquit, ipsum impediet, quod statuet, ne id quidem, quod probet, posse percipi. Iam istuc te quoque impediet in navigando, in conserendo, in uxore ducenda, in liberis procreandis plurimisque in rebus, in quibus nihil sequere praeter probabile.
Et tamen illud usitatum et saepe repudiatum refers, non ut Antipater, sed, ut ais, 'pressius.' Nam Antipatrum reprehensum, quod diceret consentaneum esse ei, qui adfirmaret nihil posse comprehendi, id ipsum saltem dicere posse comprehendi, quod ipsi Antiocho pingue videbatur et sibi ipsum contrarium. Non enim potest convenienter dici nihil comprehendi posse, si quicquam comprehendi posse dicatur. Illo modo potius putat urguendum fuisse Carneadem: cum sapientis nullum decretum esse possit nisi comprehensum, perceptum, cognitum, ut hoc ipsum decretum, quod sapientis esset, nihil posse percipi, fateretur esse perceptum. Proinde quasi nullum sapiens aliud decretum habeat et sine decretis vitam agere possit! 110. Sed ut illa habet probabilia non percepta, sic hoc ipsum, nihil posse percipi. Nam si in hoc haberet cognitionis notam, eadem uteretur in ceteris. Quam quoniam non habet, utitur probabilibus. Itaque non metuit ne confundere omnia videatur et incerta reddere. Non enim, quem ad modum, si quaesitum ex eo sit, stellarum numerus par an impar sit, item, si de officio multisque aliis de rebus, in quibus versatus exercitatusque sit, nescire se dicat. In incertis enim nihil probabile est, in quibus autem est, in iis non deerit sapienti nec quid faciat nec quid respondeat. 111. Ne illam quidem praetermisisti, Luculle, reprehensionem Antiochi—nec mirum: in primis enim est nobilis—, qua solebat dicere Antiochus Philonem maxime perturbatum. Cum enim sumeretur, unum, esse quaedam falsa visa, alterum nihil ea differre a veris, non adtendere, superius illud ea re a se esse concessum, quod videretur esse quaedam in vivis differentia, eam tolli altero, quo neget visa a falsis vera differre; nihil tam repugnare. Id ita esset, si nos verum omnino tolleremus. Non facimus. Nam tam vera quam falsa cernimus. Sed probandi species est: percipiendi signum nullum habemus.
XXXV. 112. Ac mihi videor nimis etiam nunc agere ieiune. Cum sit enim campus in quo exsultare possit oratio, cur eam tantas in angustias et in Stoicorum dumeta compellimus? si enim mihi cum Peripatetico res esset, qui id percipi posse diceret, 'quod impressum esset e vero,' neque adhiberet illam magnam accessionem, 'quo modo imprimi non posset a falso,' cum simplici homine simpliciter agerem nec magno opere contenderem atque etiam, si, cum ego nihil dicerem posse comprehendi, diceret ille sapientem interdum opinari, non repugnarem, praesertim ne Carneade quidem huic loco valde repugnante: nunc quid facere possum? 113. Quaero enim quid sit quod comprehendi possit. Respondet mihi non Aristoteles aut Theophrastus, ne Xenocrates quidem aut Polemo, sed qui his minor est: 'tale verum quale falsum esse non possit.' Nihil eius modo invenio. Itaque incognito nimirum adsentiar, id est, opinabor. Hoc mihi et Peripatetici et vetus Academia concedit: vos negatis, Antiochus in primis, qui me valde movet, vel quod amavi hominem, sicut ille me, vel quod ita iudico, politissimum et acutissimum omnium nostrae memoriae philosophorum. A quo primum quaero quo tandem modo sit eius Academiae, cuius esse se profiteatur? Ut omittam alia, haec duo, de quibus agitur, quis umquam dixit aut veteris Academiae aut Peripateticorum, vel id solum percipi posse, quod esset verum tale, quale falsum esse non posset, vel sapientem nihil opinari? Certe nemo. Horum neutrum ante Zenonem magno opere defensum est. Ego tamen utrumque verum puto, nec dico temporis causa, sed ita plane probo.
XXXVI. 114. Illud ferre non possum. Tu cum me incognito adsentiri vetes idque turpissimum esse dicas et plenissimum temeritatis, tantum tibi adroges, ut exponas disciplinam sapientiae, naturam rerum omnium evolvas, mores fingas, finis bonorum malorumque constituas, officia describas, quam vitam ingrediar definias, idemque etiam disputandi et intellegendi iudicium dicas te et artificium traditurum, perficies ut ego ista innumerabilia complectens nusquam labar, nihil opiner? Quae tandem ea est disciplina, ad quam me deducas, si ab hac abstraxeris? Vereor ne subadroganter facias, si dixeris tuam. Atqui ita dicas necesse est. 115. Neque vero tu solus, sed ad suam quisque rapiet. Age, restitero Peripateticis, qui sibi cum oratoribus cognationem esse, qui claros viros a se instructos dicant rem publicam saepe rexisse, sustinuero Epicureos, tot meos familiaris, tam bonos, tam inter se amantis viros, Diodoto quid faciam Stoico, quem a puero audivi? qui mecum vivit tot annos? qui habitat apud me? quem et admiror et diligo? qui ista Antiochea contemnit? Nostra, inquies, sola vera sunt. Certe sola, si vera: plura enim vera discrepantia esse non possunt. Utrum igitur nos impudentes, qui labi nolumus, an illi adrogantes, qui sibi persuaserint scire se solos omnia? Non me quidem, inquit, sed sapientem dico scire. Optime: nempe ista scire, quae sunt in tua disciplina. Hoc primum quale est, a non sapiente explicari sapientiam? Sed discedamus a nobismet ipsis, de sapiente loquamur, de quo, ut saepe iam dixi, omnis haec quaestio est.
116. In tres igitur partis et a plerisque et a vobismet ipsis distributa sapientia est. Primum ergo, si placet, quae de natura rerum sint quaesita, videamus: at illud ante. Estne quisquam tanto inflatus errore, ut sibi se illa scire persuaserit? Non quaero rationes eas, quae ex coniectura pendent, quae disputationibus huc et illuc trahuntur, nullam adhibent persuadendi necessitatem. Geometrae provideant, qui se profitentur non persuadere, sed cogere, et qui omnia vobis, quae describunt, probant. Non quaero ex his illa initia mathematicorum, quibus non concessis digitum progredi non possunt. Punctum esse quod magnitudinem nullam habeat: extremitatem et quasi libramentum in quo nulla omnino crassitudo sit: liniamentum sine ulla latitudine [carentem]. Haec cum vera esse concessero, si adigam ius iurandum sapientem, nec prius quam Archimedes eo inspectante rationes omnis descripserit eas, quibus efficitur multis partibus solem maiorem esse quam terram, iuraturum putas? Si fecerit, solem ipsum, quem deum censet esse, contempserit. 117. Quod si geometricis rationibus non est crediturus, quae vim adferunt in docendo, vos ipsi ut dicitis, ne ille longe aberit ut argumentis credat philosophorum, aut, si est crediturus, quorum potissimum? Omnia enim physicorum licet explicare; sed longum est: quaero tamen quem sequatur. Finge aliquem nunc fieri sapientem, nondum esse, quam potissimum sententiam eliget et disciplinam? Etsi quamcumque eliget, insipiens eliget. Sed sit ingenio divino, quem unum e physicis potissimum probabit? Nec plus uno poterit. Non persequor quaestiones infinitas: tantum de principiis rerum, e quibus omnia constant, videamus quem probet: est enim inter magnos homines summa dissensio.
XXXVII. 118. Princeps Thales, unus e septem, cui sex reliquos concessisse primas ferunt, ex aqua dixit constare omnia. At hoc Anaximandro, populari et sodali suo, non persuasit: is enim infinitatem naturae dixit esse, e qua omnia gignerentur. Post eius auditor Anaximenes infinitum aëra, sed ea, quae ex eo orirentur, definita: gigni autem terram, aquam, ignem, tum ex his omnia. Anaxagoras materiam infinitam, sed ex ea particulas, similis inter se, minutas, eas primum confusas, postea in ordinem adductas a mente divina. Xenophanes, paulo etiam antiquior, unum esse omnia neque id esse mutabile et id esse deum neque natum umquam et sempiternum, conglobata figura: Parmenides ignem, qui moveat terram, quae ab eo formetur: Leucippus, plenum et inane: Democritus huic in hoc similis, uberior in ceteris: Empedocles haec pervolgata et nota quattuor: Heraclitus ignem: Melissus hoc, quod esset infinitum et immutabile, et fuisse semper et fore. Plato ex materia in se omnia recipiente mundum factum esse censet a deo sempiternum. Pythagorei ex numeris et mathematicorum initiis proficisci volunt omnia. Ex his eliget vester sapiens unum aliquem, credo, quem sequatur: ceteri tot viri et tanti repudiati ab eo condemnatique discedent. 119. Quamcumque vero sententiam probaverit, eam sic animo comprehensam habebit, ut ea, quae sensibus, nec magis approbabit nunc lucere, quam, quoniam Stoicus est, hunc mundum esse sapientem, habere mentem, quae et se et ipsum fabricata sit et omnia moderetur, moveat, regat. Erit ei persuasum etiam solem, lunam, stellas omnis, terram, mare deos esse, quod quaedam animalis intellegentia per omnia ea permanet et transeat, fore tamen aliquando ut omnis hic mundus ardore deflagret.
XXXVIII. Sint ista vera—vides enim iam me fateri aliquid esse veri—, comprehendi ea tamen et percipi nego. Cum enim tuus iste Stoicus sapiens syllabatim tibi ista dixerit, veniet flumen orationis aureum fundens Aristoteles, qui illum desipere dicat: neque enim ortum esse umquam mundum, quod nulla fuerit novo consilio inito tam praeclari operis inceptio, et ita esse eum undique aptum, ut nulla vis tantos queat motus mutationemque moliri, nulla senectus diuturnitate temporum exsistere, ut hic ornatus umquam dilapsus occidat. Tibi hoc repudiare, illud autem superius sicut caput et famam tuam defendere necesse erit, cum mihi ne ut dubitem quidem relinquatur. 120. Ut omittam levitatem temere adsentientium, quanti libertas ipsa aestimanda est non mihi necesse esse quod tibi est? Cur deus, omnia nostra causa cum faceret—sic enim voltis—, tantam vim natricum viperarumque fecerit? cur mortifera tam multa ac perniciosa terra marique disperserit? Negatis haec tam polite tamque subtiliter effici potuisse sine divina aliqua sollertia. Cuius quidem vos maiestatem deducitis usque ad apium formicarumque perfectionem, ut etiam inter deos Myrmecides aliquis minutorum opusculorum fabricator fuisse videatur. 121. Negas sine deo posse quicquam. Ecce tibi e transverso Lampsacenus Strato, qui det isti deo immunitatem magni quidem muneris: sed cum sacerdotes deorum vacationem habeant, quanto est aequius habere ipsos deos! Negat opera deorum se uti ad fabricandum mundum. Quaecumque sint, docet omnia effecta esse natura, nec, ut ille, qui asperis et levibus et hamatis uncinatisque corporibus concreta haec esse dicat interiecto inani. Somnia censet haec esse Democriti non docentis, sed optantis. Ipse autem singulas mundi partis persequens, quidquid aut sit aut fiat, naturalibus fieri aut factum esse docet ponderibus et motibus. Ne ille et deum opere magno liberat et me timore. Quis enim potest, cum existimet curari se a deo, non et dies et noctes divinum numen horrere et, si quid adversi acciderit—quod cui non accidit?—extimescere ne id iure evenerit? Nec Stratoni tamen adsentior, nec vero tibi. Modo hoc, modo illud probabilius videtur.
XXXIX. 122. Latent ista omnia, Luculle, crassis occultata et circumfusa tenebris, ut nulla acies humani ingeni tanta sit, quae penetrare in caelum, terram intrare possit: corpora nostra non novimus: qui sint situs partium, quam vim quaeque pars habeat ignoramus. Itaque medici ipsi, quorum intererat ea nosse, aperuerunt, ut viderentur. Nec eo tamen aiunt empirici notiora esse illa, quia possit fieri ut patefacta et detecta mutentur. Sed ecquid nos eodem modo rerum naturas persecare, aperire, dividere possumus, ut videamus terra penitusne defixa sit et quasi radicibus suis haereat an media pendeat? 123. Habitari ait Xenophanes in luna eamque esse terram multarum urbium et montium. Portenta videntur, sed tamen neque ille, qui dixit, iurare posset, ita se rem habere, neque ego non ita. Vos etiam dicitis esse e regione nobis, e contraria parte terrae, qui adversis vestigiis stent contra nostra vestigia, quos αντιποδας vocatis: cur mihi magis suscensetis, qui ista non aspernor, quam iis, qui, cum audiunt, desipere vos arbitrantur? Hicetas Syracusius, ut ait Theophrastus, caelum, solem, lunam, stellas, supera denique omnia stare censet neque praeter terram rem ullam in mundo moveri: quae cum circum axem se summa celeritate convertat et torqueat, eadem effici omnia, quae, si stante terra caelum moveretur. Atque hoc etiam Platonem in Timaeo dicere quidam arbitrantur, sed paulo obscurius. Quid tu, Epicure? loquere. Putas solem esse tantulum? Egone? ne bis quidem tantum! Et vos ab illo irridemini et ipsi illum vicissim eluditis. Liber igitur a tali irrisione Socrates, liber Aristo Chius, qui nihil istorum sciri putat posse. 124. Sed redeo ad animum et corpus. Satisne tandem ea nota sunt nobis, quae nervorum natura sit, quae venarum? tenemusne quid sit animus, ubi sit? denique sitne an, ut Dicaearcho visum est, ne sit quidem ullus? Si est, tresne partis habeat, ut Platoni placuit, rationis, irae, cupiditatis, an simplex unusque sit? si simplex, utrum sit ignis an anima an sanguis an, ut Xenocrates, numerus nullo corpore—quod intellegi quale sit vix potest—et, quidquid est, mortale sit an aeternum? nam utramque in partem multa dicuntur. Horum aliquid vestro sapienti certum videtur, nostro ne quid maxime quidem probabile sit occurrit: ita sunt in plerisque contrariarum rationum paria momenta.
XL. 125. Sin agis verecundius et me accusas, non quod tuis rationibus non adsentiar, sed quod nullis, vincam animum cuique adsentiar deligam ... quem potissimum? quem? Democritum: semper enim, ut scitis, studiosus nobilitatis fui. Urguebor iam omnium vestrum convicio. Tune aut inane quicquam putes esse, cum ita completa et conferta sint omnia, ut et quod movebitur corporum cedat et qua quidque cesserit aliud ilico subsequatur? aut atomos ullas, e quibus quidquid efficiatur, illarum sit dissimillimum? aut sine aliqua mente rem ullam effici posse praeclaram? et cum in uno mundo ornatus hic tam sit mirabilis, innumerabilis supra infra, dextra sinistra, ante post, alios dissimilis, alios eiusdem modi mundos esse? et, ut nos nunc simus ad Baulos Puteolosque videamus, sic innumerabilis paribus in locis isdem esse nominibus, honoribus, rebus gestis, ingeniis, formis, aetatibus, isdem de rebus disputantis? et, si nunc aut si etiam dormientes aliquid animo videre videamur, imagines extrinsecus in animos nostros per corpus irrumpere? Tu vero ista ne asciveris neve fueris commenticiis rebus adsensus. Nihil sentire est melius quam tam prava sentire. 126. Non ergo id agitur, ut aliquid adsensu meo comprobem; quae tu, vide ne impudenter etiam postules, non solum adroganter, praesertim cum ista tua mihi ne probabilia quidem videantur. Nec enim divinationem, quam probatis, ullam esse arbitror, fatumque illud, quo omnia contineri dicitis, contemno. Ne exaedificatum quidem hunc mundum divino consilio existimo, atque haud scio an ita sit.
XLI. Sed cur rapior in invidiam? licetne per vos nescire quod nescio? an Stoicis ipsis inter se disceptare, cum his non licebit? Zenoni et reliquis fere Stoicis aether videtur summus deus, mente praeditus, qua omnia regantur. Cleanthes, qui quasi maiorum est gentium Stoicus, Zenonis auditor, solem dominari et rerum potiri putat. Ita cogimur dissensione sapientium dominum nostrum ignorare, quippe qui nesciamus soli an aetheri serviamus. Solis autem magnitudinem—ipse enim hic radiatus me intueri videtur ac monet ut crebro faciam mentionem sui—vos ergo huius magnitudinem quasi decempeda permensi refertis: huic me quasi malis architectis mensurae vestrae nego credere. Ergo dubium est uter nostrum sit, leniter ut dicam, verecundior? 127. Neque tamen istas quaestiones physicorum exterminandas puto. Est enim animorum ingeniorumque naturale quoddam quasi pabulum consideratio contemplatioque naturae. Erigimur, elatiores fieri videmur, humana despicimus, cogitantesque supera atque caelestia haec nostra ut exigua et minima contemnimus. Indagatio ipsa rerum cum maximarum tum etiam occultissimarum habet oblectationem. Si vero aliquid occurrit, quod veri simile videatur, humanissima completur animus voluptate. 128. Quaeret igitur haec et vester sapiens et hic noster, sed vester, ut adsentiatur, credat, adfirmet, noster, ut vereatur temere opinari praeclareque agi secum putet, si in eius modi rebus veri simile quod sit invenerit. Veniamus nunc ad bonorum malorumque notionem: at paulum ante dicendum est. Non mihi videntur considerare, cum physica ista valde adfirmant, earum etiam rerum auctoritatem, si quae illustriores videantur, amittere. Non enim magis adsentiuntur neque approbant lucere nunc, quam, cum cornix cecinerit, tum aliquid eam aut iubere aut vetare, nec magis adfirmabunt signum illud, si erunt mensi, sex pedum esse quam solem, quem metiri non possunt, plus quam duodeviginti partibus maiorem esse quam terram. Ex quo illa conclusio nascitur: si sol quantus sit percipi non potest, qui ceteras res eodem modo quo magnitudinem solis approbat, is eas res non percipit. Magnitudo autem solis percipi non potest. Qui igitur id approbat, quasi percipiat, nullam rem percipit. Responderint posse percipi quantus sol sit. Non repugnabo, dum modo eodem pacto cetera percipi comprehendique dicant. Nec enim possunt dicere aliud alio magis minusve comprehendi, quoniam omnium rerum una est definitio comprehendendi.
XLII. 129. Sed quod coeperam: Quid habemus in rebus bonis et malis explorati? nempe fines constituendi sunt ad quos et bonorum et malorum summa referatur: qua de re est igitur inter summos viros maior dissensio? Omitto illa, quae relicta iam videntur, ut Herillum, qui in cognitione et scientia summum bonum ponit: qui cum Zenonis auditor esset, vides quantum ab eo dissenserit et quam non multum a Platone. Megaricorum fuit nobilis disciplina, cuius, ut scriptum video, princeps Xenophanes, quem modo nominavi, deinde eum secuti Parmenides et Zeno, itaque ab his Eleatici philosophi nominabantur. Post Euclides, Socratis discipulus, Megareus, a quo iidem illi Megarici dicti, qui id bonum solum esse dicebant, quod esset unum et simile et idem semper. Hic quoque multa a Platone. A Menedemo autem, quod is Eretria fuit, Eretriaci appellati, quorum omne bonum in mente positum et mentis acie, qua verum cerneretur, Herilli similia, sed, opinor, explicata uberius et ornatius. 130. Hos si contemnimus et iam abiectos putamus, illos certe minus despicere debemus, Aristonem, qui cum Zenonis fuisset auditor, re probavit ea quae ille verbis, nihil esse bonum nisi virtutem, nec malum nisi quod virtuti esset contrarium: in mediis ea momenta, quae Zeno voluit, nulla esse censuit. Huic summum bonum est in his rebus neutram in partem moveri, quae αδιαφορια ab ipso dicitur. Pyrrho autem ea ne sentire quidem sapientem, quae απαθεια nominatur. Has igitur tot sententias ut omittamus, haec nunc videamus, quae diu multumque defensa sunt. 131. Alii voluptatem finem esse voluerunt: quorum princeps Aristippus, qui Socratem audierat, unde Cyrenaici. Post Epicurus, cuius est disciplina nunc notior, neque tamen cum Cyrenaicis de ipsa voluptate consentiens. Voluptatem autem et honestatem finem esse Callipho censuit: vacare omni molestia Hieronymus: hoc idem cum honestate Diodorus: ambo hi Peripatetici. Honeste autem vivere fruentem rebus iis, quas primas homini natura conciliet, et vetus Academia censuit, ut indicant scripta Polemonis, quem Antiochus probat maxime, et Aristoteles eiusque amici nunc proxime videntur accedere. Introducebat etiam Carneades, non quo probaret, sed ut opponeret Stoicis, summum bonum esse frui rebus iis, quas primas natura conciliavisset. Honeste autem vivere, quod ducatur a conciliatione naturae, Zeno statuit finem esse bonorum, qui inventor et princeps Stoicorum fuit.
XLIII. 132. Iam illud perspicuum est, omnibus iis finibus bonorum, quos exposui, malorum finis esse contrarios. Ad vos nunc refero quem sequar: modo ne quis illud tam ineruditum absurdumque respondeat: 'Quemlibet, modo aliquem.' Nihil potest dici inconsideratius. Cupio sequi Stoicos. Licetne—omitto per Aristotelem, meo iudicio in philosophia prope singularem—per ipsum Antiochum? qui appellabatur Academicus, erat quidem, si perpauca mutavisset, germanissimus Stoicus. Erit igitur res iam in discrimine. Nam aut Stoicus constituatur sapiens aut veteris Academiae. Utrumque non potest. Est enim inter eos non de terminis, sed de tota possessione contentio. Nam omnis ratio vitae definitione summi boni continetur, de qua qui dissident, de omni vitae ratione dissident. Non potest igitur uterque sapiens esse, quoniam tanto opere dissentiunt, sed alter. Si Polemoneus, peccat Stoicus, rei falsae adsentiens—nam vos quidem nihil esse dicitis a sapiente tam alienum—: sin vera sunt Zenonis, eadem in veteres Academicos et Peripateticos dicenda. Hic igitur neutri adsentietur? Sin, inquam, uter est prudentior? 133. Quid? cum ipse Antiochus dissentit quibusdam in rebus ab his, quos amat, Stoicis, nonne indicat non posse illa probanda esse sapienti? Placet Stoicis omnia peccata esse paria. At hoc Antiocho vehementissime displicet. Liceat tandem mihi considerare utram sententiam sequar. Praecide, inquit: statue aliquando quidlibet. Quid, quod quae dicuntur et acuta mihi videntur in utramque partem et paria? nonne caveam ne scelus faciam? Scelus enim dicebas esse, Luculle, dogma prodere. Contineo igitur me, ne incognito assentiar: quod mihi tecum est dogma commune. 134. Ecce multo maior etiam dissensio. Zeno in una virtute positam beatam vitam putat. Quid Antiochus? Etiam, inquit, beatam, sed non beatissimam. Deus ille, qui nihil censuit deesse virtuti, homuncio hic, qui multa putat praeter virtutem homini partim cara esse, partim etiam necessaria. Sed ille vereor ne virtuti plus tribuat quam natura patiatur, praesertim Theophrasto multa diserte copioseque dicente. Et hic metuo ne vix sibi constet, qui cum dicat esse quaedam et corporis et fortunae mala, tamen eum, qui in his omnibus sit, beatum fore censeat, si sapiens sit. Distrahor: tum hoc mihi probabilius, tum illud videtur, et tamen, nisi alterutrum sit, virtutem iacere plane puto. Verum in his discrepant.
XLIV. 135. Quid? illa, in quibus consentiunt, num pro veris probare possumus? Sapientis animum numquam nec cupiditate moveri nec laetitia efferri. Age, haec probabilia sane sint: num etiam illa, numquam timere, numquam dolere? Sapiensne non timeat, si patria deleatur? non doleat, si deleta sit? Durum, sed Zenoni necessarium, cui praeter honestum nihil est in bonis, tibi vero, Antioche, minime, cui praeter honestatem multa bona, praeter turpitudinem multa mala videntur, quae et venientia metuat sapiens necesse est et venisse doleat. Sed quaero quando ista fuerint ab Academia vetere decreta, ut animum sapientis commoveri et conturbari negarent? Mediocritates illi probabant et in omni permotione naturalem volebant esse quendam modum. Legimus omnes Crantoris veteris Academici de luctu. Est enim non magnus, verum aureolus et, ut Tuberoni Panaetius praecipit, ad verbum ediscendus libellus. Atque illi quidem etiam utiliter a natura dicebant permotiones istas animis nostris datas: metum cavendi causa, misericordiam aegritudinemque clementiae, ipsam iracundiam fortitudinis quasi cotem esse dicebant, recte secusne alias viderimus. 136. Atrocitas quidem ista tua quo modo in veterem Academiam irruperit nescio: illa vero ferre non possum, non quo mihi displiceant: sunt enim Socratica pleraque mirabilia Stoicorum, quae παραδοξα nominantur, sed ubi Xenocrates, ubi Aristoteles ista tetigit? hos enim quasi eosdem esse voltis. Illi umquam dicerent sapientis solos reges, solos divites, solos formosos? omnia, quae ubique essent, sapientis esse? neminem consulem, praetorem, imperatorem, nescio an ne quinquevirum quidem quemquam nisi sapientem? postremo, solum civem, solum liberum? insipientis omnis peregrinos, exsules, servos, furiosos? denique scripta Lycurgi, Solonis, duodecim tabulas nostras non esse leges? ne urbis quidem aut civitatis, nisi quae essent sapientium? 137. Haec tibi, Luculle, si es adsensus Antiocho, familiari tuo, tam sunt defendenda quam moenia: mihi autem bono modo, tantum quantum videbitur.
XLV. Legi apud Clitomachum, cum Carneades et Stoicus Diogenes ad senatum in Capitolio starent, A. Albinum, qui tum P. Scipione et M. Marcello coss. praetor esset, eum, qui cum avo tuo, Luculle, consul fuit, doctum sane hominem, ut indicat ipsius historia scripta Graece, iocantem dixisse Carneadi: 'Ego tibi, Carneade, praetor esse non videor, quia sapiens non sum: nec haec urbs nec in ea civitas.' Tum ille: 'Huic Stoico non videris.' Aristoteles aut Xenocrates, quos Antiochus sequi volebat, non dubitavisset quin et praetor ille esset et Roma urbs et eam civitas incoleret. Sed ille noster est plane, ut supra dixi, Stoicus, perpauca balbutiens. 138. Vos autem mihi veremini ne labar ad opinionem et aliquid asciscam et comprobem incognitum, quod minime voltis. Quid consilii datis? Testatur saepe Chrysippus tres solas esse sententias, quae defendi possint, de finibus bonorum: circumcidit et amputat multitudinem: aut enim honestatem esse finem aut voluptatem aut utrumque: nam qui summum bonum dicant id esse, si vacemus omni molestia, eos invidiosum nomen voluptatis fugere, sed in vicinitate versari, quod facere eos etiam, qui illud idem cum honestate coniungerent, nec multo secus eos, qui ad honestatem prima naturae commoda adiungerent: ita tres relinquit sententias, quas putat probabiliter posse defendi. 139. Sit sane ita—quamquam a Polemonis et Peripateticorum et Antiochi finibus non facile divellor, nec quicquam habeo adhuc probabilius—, verum tamen video quam suaviter voluptas sensibus nostris blandiatur. Labor eo, ut adsentiar Epicuro aut Aristippo. Revocat virtus vel potius reprehendit manu: pecudum illos motus esse dicit, hominem iungit deo. Possum esse medius, ut, quoniam Aristippus, quasi animum nullum habeamus, corpus solum tuetur, Zeno, quasi corporis simus expertes, animum solum complectitur, ut Calliphontem sequar, cuius quidem sententiam Carneades ita studiose defensitabat, ut eam probare etiam videretur. Quamquam Clitomachus adfirmabat numquam se intellegere potuisse quid Carneadi probaretur. Sed, si istum finem velim sequi, nonne ipsa veritas et gravis et recta ratio mihi obversetur? Tu, cum honestas in voluptate contemnenda consistat, honestatem cum voluptate tamquam hominem cum belua copulabis?
XLVI. 140. Unum igitur par quod depugnet reliquum est, voluptas cum honestate. De quo Chrysippo fuit, quantum ego sentio, non magna contentio. Alteram si sequare, multa ruunt et maxime communitas cum hominum genere, caritas, amicitia, iustitia, reliquae virtutes: quarum esse nulla potest, nisi erit gratuita. Nam quae voluptate quasi mercede aliqua ad officium impellitur, ea non est virtus, sed fallax imitatio simulatioque virtutis. Audi contra illos, qui nomen honestatis a se ne intellegi quidem dicant, nisi forte, quod gloriosum sit in volgus, id honestum velimus dicere: fontem omnium bonorum in corpore esse, hanc normam, hanc regulam, hanc praescriptionem esse naturae, a qua qui aberravisset, eum numquam quid in vita sequeretur habiturum. 141. Nihil igitur me putatis, haec et alia innumerabilia cum audiam, moveri? Tam moveor quam tu, Luculle, neque me minus hominem quam te putaveris. Tantum interest, quod tu, cum es commotus, adquiescis, adsentiris, approbas, verum illud certum, comprehensum, perceptum, ratum, firmum, fixum esse vis, deque eo nulla ratione neque pelli neque moveri potes: ego nihil eius modi esse arbitror, cui si adsensus sim, non adsentiar saepe falso, quoniam vera a falsis nullo discrimine separantur, praesertim cum iudicia ista dialecticae nulla sint.
142. Venio enim iam ad tertiam partem philosophiae. Aliud iudicium Protagorae est, qui putet id cuique verum esse, quod cuique videatur: aliud Cyrenaicorum, qui praeter permotiones intimas nihil putant esse iudicii: aliud Epicuri, qui omne iudicium in sensibus et in rerum notitiis et in voluptate constituit. Plato autem omne iudicium veritatis veritatemque ipsam abductam ab opinionibus et a sensibus cogitationis ipsius et mentis esse voluit. 143. Num quid horum probat noster Antiochus? Ille vero ne maiorum quidem suorum. Ubi enim aut Xenocratem sequitur, cuius libri sunt de ratione loquendi multi et multum probati, aut ipsum Aristotelem, quo profecto nihil est acutius, nihil politius? A Chrysippo pedem nusquam.
XLVII. Quid ergo Academici appellamur? an abutimur gloria nominis? aut cur cogimur eos sequi, qui inter se dissident? In hoc ipso, quod in elementis dialectici docent, quo modo iudicare oporteat verum falsumne sit, si quid ita conexum est, ut hoc, 'si dies est, lucet,' quanta contentio est! Aliter Diodoro, aliter Philoni, Chrysippo aliter placet. Quid? cum Cleanthe doctore suo quam multis rebus Chrysippus dissidet! quid? duo vel principes dialecticorum, Antipater et Archidemus, opiniosissimi homines, nonne multis in rebus dissentiunt? 144. Quid me igitur, Luculle, in invidiam et tamquam in contionem vocas? et quidem, ut seditiosi tribuni solent, occludi tabernas iubes? quo enim spectat illud, cum artificia tolli quereris a nobis, nisi ut opifices concitentur? qui si undique omnes convenerint, facile contra vos incitabuntur. Expromam primum illa invidiosa, quod eos omnis, qui in contione stabunt, exsules, servos, insanos esse dicatis: deinde ad illa veniam, quae iam non ad multitudinem, sed ad vosmet ipsos, qui adestis, pertinent. Negat enim vos Zeno, negat Antiochus scire quicquam. Quo modo? inquies: nos enim defendimus etiam insipientem multa comprehendere. 145. At scire negatis quemquam rem ullam nisi sapientem. Et hoc quidem Zeno gestu conficiebat. Nam, cum extensis digitis adversam manum ostenderat, 'visum,' inquiebat, 'huius modi est.' Deinde, cum paulum digitos contraxerat, 'adsensus huius modi.' Tum cum plane compresserat pugnumque fecerat, comprehensionem illam esse dicebat: qua ex similitudine etiam nomen ei rei, quod ante non fuerat, καταληψιν imposuit. Cum autem laevam manum adverterat et illum pugnum arte vehementerque compresserat, scientiam talem esse dicebat, cuius compotem nisi sapientem esse neminem. Sed qui sapientes sint aut fuerint ne ipsi quidem solent dicere. Ita tu nunc, Catule, lucere nescis nec tu, Hortensi, in tua villa nos esse. 146. Num minus haec invidiose dicuntur? nec tamen nimis eleganter: illa subtilius. Sed quo modo tu, si nihil comprehendi posset, artificia concidere dicebas neque mihi dabas id, quod probabile esset, satis magnam vim habere ad artis, sic ego nunc tibi refero artem sine scientia esse non posse. An pateretur hoc Zeuxis aut Phidias aut Polyclitus, nihil se scire, cum in iis esset tanta sollertia? Quod si eos docuisset aliquis quam vim habere diceretur scientia, desinerent irasci: ne nobis quidem suscenserent, cum didicissent id tollere nos, quod nusquam esset, quod autem satis esset ipsis relinquere. Quam rationem maiorum etiam comprobat diligentia, qui primum iurare 'ex sui animi sententia' quemque voluerunt, deinde ita teneri 'si sciens falleret,' quod inscientia multa versaretur in vita, tum, qui testimonium diceret, ut 'arbitrari' se diceret etiam quod ipse vidisset, quaeque iurati iudices cognovissent, ea non ut esse facta, sed ut 'videri' pronuntiarentur.
XLVIII. 147. Verum, quoniam non solum nauta significat, sed etiam Favonius ipse insusurrat navigandi nobis, Luculle, tempus esse et quoniam satis multa dixi, est mihi perorandum. Posthac tamen, cum haec quaeremus, potius de dissensionibus tantis summorum virorum disseramus, de obscuritate naturae deque errore tot philosophorum, qui de bonis contrariisque rebus tanto opere discrepant, ut, cum plus uno verum esse non possit, iacere necesse sit tot tam nobilis disciplinas, quam de oculorum sensuumque reliquorum mendaciis et de sorite aut pseudomeno, quas plagas ipsi contra se Stoici texuerunt. 148. Tum Lucullus: Non moleste, inquit, fero nos haec contulisse. Saepius enim congredientes nos, et maxime in Tusculanis nostris, si quae videbuntur, requiremus. Optime, inquam, sed quid Catulus sentit? quid Hortensius? Tum Catulus: Egone? inquit, ad patris revolvor sententiam, quam quidem ille Carneadeam esse dicebat, ut percipi nihil putem posse, adsensurum autem non percepto, id est, opinaturum sapientem existimem, sed ita, ut intellegat se opinari sciatque nihil esse quod comprehendi et percipi possit: qua re εποχην illam omnium rerum non probans, illi alteri sententiae, nihil esse quod percipi possit, vehementer adsentior. Habeo, inquam, sententiam tuam nec eam admodum aspernor. Sed tibi quid tandem videtur, Hortensi? Tum ille ridens: Tollendum. Teneo te, inquam: nam ista Academiae est propria sententia. Ita sermone confecto Catulus remansit: nos ad naviculas nostras descendimus.
§§1—14. Summary. Cic., Varro and Atticus meet at Cumae (1). Cic., after adroitly reminding Varro that the promised dedication of the De Lingua Latina is too long delayed, turns the conversation towards philosophy, by asking Varro why he leaves this subject untouched (2, 3). Varro thinks philosophy written in Latin can serve no useful purpose, and points to the failures of the Roman Epicureans (4—6). He greatly believes in philosophy, but prefers to send his friends to Greece for it, while he devotes himself to subjects which the Greeks have not treated (7, 8). Cic. lauds this devotion, but demurs to the theory that philosophy written in Latin is useless. Latins may surely imitate Greek philosophers as well as Greek poets and orators. He gives reasons why he should himself make the attempt, and instancing the success of Brutus, again begs Varro to write on philosophy (9—12). Varro putting the request on one side charges Cic. with deserting the Old Academy for the New. Cic. defends himself, and appeals to Philo for the statement that the New Academy is in harmony with the Old. Varro refers to Antiochus as an authority on the other side. This leads to a proposal on the part of Cic. to discuss thoroughly the difference between Antiochus and Philo. Varro agrees, and promises an exposition of the principles of Antiochus (13, 14).
§1. Noster: our common friend. Varro was much more the friend of Atticus than of Cic., see Introd. p. 37. Nuntiatum: the spelling nunciatum is a mistake, cf. Corssen, Ausspr. I. p. 51. A M. Varrone: from M. Varro's house news came. Audissemus: Cic. uses the contracted forms of such subjunctives, as well as the full forms, but not intermediate forms like audiissemus. Confestim: note how artfully Cic. uses the dramatic form of the dialogue in order to magnify his attachment for Varro. Ab eius villa: the prep is absent from the MSS., but Wesenberg (Em. M.T. Cic. Epistolarum, p. 62) shows that it must be inserted. Cic. writes abesse Roma (Ad Fam. V. 15, 4), patria (T.D. V. 106) etc., but not abesse officio (De Off. I. 43, where Wes. alters it) or the like. Satis eum longo intervallo: so all the MSS.; but Halm, after Davies, reads se visentum for satis eum, quoting Ad Att. I. 4, Madv. tum for eum (Baiter and Halm's ed. of 1861, p. 854). The text is sound; the repetition of pronouns (illum, eum) is quite Ciceronian. The emphatic ille is often repeated by the unemphatic is, cf. T.D. III. 71, and M.D.F. V. 22. I may note that the separation of satis from longo by the word eum is quite in Cicero's style (see my note on 25 quanta id magis). Some editors stumble (Goerenz miserably) by taking intervallo of distance in space, instead of duration in time, while others wrongly press satis, which only means "tolerably," to mean "sufficiently." The words satis longo intervallo simply = "after a tolerably long halt." For the clause ut mos, etc., cf. De Or. II. 13.
§2. Hic pauca primo: for the omission of locuti, cf. the very similar passages in D.F. I. 14, III. 8, also my note on 14. Atque ea: Halm brackets ea, quite needlessly, for its insertion is like Cic. Ecquid forte Roma novi: Roma is the ablative, and some verb like attulisset is omitted. (So Turnebus.) To take it as nom., understanding faciat, is clearly wrong. Percontari: the spelling percunctari rests on false derivation (Corss. I. 36). Ecquid ipse novi: cf. De Or. II. 13. The MSS. have et si quid, bad Latin altered by Manutius. Istum: some edd. ipsum, but Cic. often makes a speaker use iste of a person who is present. Goer. qu. Brut. 125, De Or. II. 228. Velit: Walker reads velis with St Jerome. For quod velit = quod quis velit, cf. De Or. I. 30. In manibus: so often, cf. Cat. Mai. 38. Idque: MSS. have in the place of this quod with variants que, quae, qui, quo. Dav. gave quia, which was the vulgate reading down to Halm, who reads idque, after Christ. Ad hunc enim ipsum: MSS. have eum for enim (exc. Halm's G). Such a combination of pronouns is vainly defended by Goer.; for expressions like me illum ipsum (Ad Att. II. 1, 11) are not in point. Of course if quia be read above, eum must be ejected altogether. Quaedam institui: the De Lingua Latina; see Ad. Att XIII. 12.
§3. E Libone: the father-in-law of Sext. Pompeius; see Cæsar B. Civ. III. 5, 16, 24. Nihil enim eius modi again all MSS. except Halm's G. have eum for enim. Christ conj. enim eum; so Baiter. Illud ... requirere: i.e. the question which follows; cf. requiris in 4. Tecum simul: Halm's G om. tecum; but cf. De Or. III. 330. Mandare monumentis—letteris illustrare: common phrases in Cic., e.g. D.F. I. 1, T.D. I. 1, De Div. II. 4. Monumentis: this, and not monimentis (Halm) or monementis, is probably the right spelling; cf. Corss. II. 314. Ortam a: Cic. always writes the prep. after ortus; cf. M.D.F. V. 69. Genus: regularly used by Cic. as opus by Quintilian to mean "department of literature." Ea res: one of Halm's MSS. followed by Baiter has ars; on the other hand Bentley (if the amicus so often quoted in Davies' notes be really he) reads artibus for rebus below. The slight variation, however, from res to artibus is such as Cic. loves. Ceteris: the spelling caeteris (Klotz) is absolutely wrong, cf. Corss. I. 325. Antecedat: some MSS. give antecellat. a frequent variant, cf. De Off. I. 105
§4. Deliberatam—agitatam: Cic. as usual exaggerates the knowledge possessed by the personae of the dialogue; cf. Introd. p. 38, De Or. II. 1. In promptu: so II. 10. Quod ista ipsa ... cogitavi: Goer., who half a page back had made merry over the gloss hunters, here himself scented a miserable gloss; Schutz, Goerenz's echo expels the words. Yet they are thoroughly like Cic. (cf. De Div. II. 1, Cat. Mai. 38), and moreover nothing is more Ciceronian than the repetition of words and clauses in slightly altered forms. The reason here is partly the intense desire to flatter Varro. Si qui ... si essent: the first si has really no conditional force, si qui like ειτινες merely means "all who," for a strong instance see Ad Fam. I. 9, 13, ed Nobbe, si accusandi sunt, si qui pertimuerunt. Ea nolui scribere, etc.: very similar expressions occur in the prologue to D.F. I., which should be compared with this prologue throughout.
§5. Vides ... didicisti: MSS. have vides autem eadem ipse didicisti enim. My reading is that of Dav. followed by Baiter. Halm, after Christ, has vides autem ipse—didicisti enim eadem—non posse, etc. Similis: Halm, in deference to MSS., makes Cic. write i and e indiscriminately in the acc. plur. of i stems. I shall write i everywhere, we shall thus, I believe, be far nearer Cicero's real writing. Though I do not presume to say that his usage did not vary, he must in the vast majority of instances have written i, see Corss. I. 738—744. Amafinii aut Rabirii: cf. Introd. p. 26. Definiunt ... partiuntur: n. on 32. Interrogatione: Faber saw this to be right, but a number of later scholars alter it, e.g. Bentl. argumentatione, Ernesti ratione. But the word as it stands has exactly the meaning these alterations are intended to secure. Interrogatio is merely the conclusio or syllogism put as a series of questions. Cf. Paradoxa 2, with T.D. II. 42 which will show that interrogatiuncula and conclusiuncula are almost convertible terms. See also M.D.F. I. 39. Nec dicendi nec disserendi: Cic.'s constant mode of denoting the Greek ‛ρητορικη and διαλεκτικη; note on 32. Et oratorum etiam: Man., Lamb. om. etiam, needlessly. In Ad Fam. IX. 25, 3, the two words even occur without any other word to separate them. For oratorum Pearce conj. rhetorum. Rhetor, however is not thus used in Cic.'s phil. works. Utramque vim virtutem: strange that Baiter (esp. after Halm's note) should take Manutius' far-fetched conj. unam for virtutem. Any power or faculty (vis, δυναμις) may be called in Gk. αρετη, in Lat virtus. Two passages, D.F. III. 72, De Or. III. 65, will remove all suspicion from the text. Verbis quoque novis: MSS. have quanquam which however is impossible in such a place in Cic. (cf. M.D.F. V. 68). Ne a nobis quidem: so all the MSS., but Orelli (after Ernesti) thinking the phrase "arrogantius dictum" places quidem after accipient. The text is quite right, ne quidem, as Halm remarks, implies no more than the Germ. auch nicht, cf. also Gk. ουδε. Suscipiatur labor: MSS. om. the noun, but it is added by a later hand in G.
§6. Epicurum, id est si Democritum: for the charge see D.F. I. 17, IV. 13, N.D. I. 73. Id est often introduces in Cic. a clause which intensifies and does not merely explain the first clause, exx. in M.D.F. I. 33. Cum causas rerum efficientium sustuleris: cf. D.F. I. 18, the same charge is brought by Aristotle against the Atomists, Met. A, 2. Many editors from Lamb. to Halm and Baiter read efficientis, which would then govern rerum (cf. D.F. V. 81, De Fato, 33, also Gk. ποιητικος). But the genitive is merely one of definition, the causae are the res efficientes, for which cf. 24 and Topica, 58, proximus locus est rerum efficientium, quae causae appellantur. So Faber, though less fully. Appellat: i.e. Amafinius, who first so translated ατομος. Quae cum contineantur: this reading has far the best MSS. authority, it must be kept, and adhibenda etiam begins the apodosis. Madvig (Emendationes ad Ciceronis Libros Philosophicos, Hauniae, 1825, p. 108) tacitly reads continentur without cum, so Orelli and Klotz. Goer. absurdly tries to prop up the subj. without cum. Quam quibusnam: Durand's em. for quoniam quibusnam of the MSS., given by Halm and also Baiter. Madv. (Em. p. 108) made a forced defence of quoniam, as marking a rapid transition from one subject to another (here from physics to ethics) like the Gk. επει, only one parallel instance, however, was adduced (T.D. III. 14) and the usage probably is not Latin. Adducere?: The note of interrogation is Halm's; thus the whole sentence, so far, explains the difficulty of setting forth the true system of physics. If quoniam is read and no break made at adducere, all after quoniam will refer to ethics, in that case there will be a strange change of subject in passing from quisquam to haec ipsa, both which expressions will be nominatives to poterit, further, there will be the almost impossible ellipse of ars, scientia, or something of the kind after haec ipsa. On every ground the reading of Madv. is insupportable. Quid, haec ipsa: I have added quid to fill up the lacuna left by Halm, who supposes much more to have fallen out. [The technical philosophical terms contained in this section will be elucidated later. For the Epicurean ignorance of geometry see note on II. 123] Illi enim simpliciter: "frankly," cf. Ad Fam. VIII. 6, 1 Pecudis et hominis: note on II. 139.
§7. Sive sequare ... magnum est: for the constr. cf. II. 140. Magnum est: cf. quid est magnum, 6. Verum et simplex bonum: cf. 35. Quod bonum ... ne suspicari quidem an opinion often denounced by Cic., see esp T.D. III. 41, where Cic.'s Latin agrees very closely with the Greek preserved by Diog. Laert. X. 6 (qu. Zeller, 451), and less accurately by Athenaeus, VII. 279 (qu. R. and P. 353). Ne suspicari quidem: for this MSS. give nec suspicari, but Madv. (D.F., Excursus III.) has conclusively shown that nec for ne ... quidem is post Augustan Latin. Christ supposes some thing like sentire to have fallen out before nec suspicari; that this is wrong is clear from the fact that in D.F. II. 20, 30, T.D. III. 46, N.D. I. 111, where the same opinion of Epicurus is dealt with, we have either ne suspicari quidem or ne intellegere quidem (cf. also In Pisonem 69). Further, ne ... quidem is esp frequent with suspicari (D.F. II. 20), and verbs of the kind (cogitari II. 82), and especially, as Durand remarked, at the end of sentences eg Verr. II. 1, 155. Notice negat ... ne suspicari quidem without se, which however Baiter inserts, in spite of the numerous passages produced from Cic. by Madv. (Em. 111), in which not only se, but me, nos, and other accusatives of pronouns are omitted before the infinitive, after verbs like negat. Cf. also the omission of sibi in Paradoxa 40. Si vero: this, following sive enim above, is a departure from Cic.'s rule which is to write sive—sive or si—sin, but not si—sive or sive—si. This and two or three other similar passages in Cic. are explained as anacolutha by Madv. in a most important and exhaustive excursus to his D.F. (p. 785, ed. 2), and are connected with other instances of broken sequence. There is no need therefore to read sive here, as did Turn. Lamb. Dav. and others. Quam nos ... probamus: cf. Introd. p. 62. Erit explicanda: for the separation of these words by other words interposed, which is characteristic of Cic., see 11, 17. I am surprised that Halm and Baiter both follow Ernesti in his hypercritical objection to the phrase explicare Academiam, and read erunt against the MSS., making illa plural. If erunt is read, erit must be supplied from it to go with disserendum, which is harsh. Quam argute, quam obscure: at first sight an oxymoron, but argute need not only imply clearness, it means merely "acutely". Quantum possum: some MSS. have quantam, which is scarcely Latin, since in Cic. an accusative only follows nequeo, volo, malo, possum, and such verbs when an infinitive can be readily supplied to govern it. For velle see a good instance in D.F. III. 68, where consult Madv. Constantiam: the notions of firmness, consistency, and clearness of mind are bound up in this word, cf. II. 53. Apud Platonem: Timaeus, 47 B, often quoted or imitated by Cic., cf. De Leg. I. 58, Laelius 20, 47, T.D. I. 64.
§8. Id est ... jubeo: these words have been naturally supposed a gloss. But Cicero is nothing if not tautological; he is fond of placing slight variations in phrase side by side. See some remarkable instances of slightly varied phrases connected by id est in D.F. I. 72, II. 6, 90. I therefore hold Halm and Baiter to be wrong in bracketing the words. Ea a: Lamb., objecting to the sound (which is indeed not like Cic.), would read e for a, which Halm would also prefer. De, ab, and ex follow haurire indifferently in Cic. Rivulos consectentur: so Wordsworth, "to hunt the waterfalls". The metaphor involved in fontibus—rivulos is often applied by Cic. to philosophy, see esp. a sarcastic passage about Epicurus in N.D. I. 120. Nihil enim magno opere: magno opere should be written in two words, not as magnopere, cf. the phrases maximo opere, nimio opere, the same holds good of tanto opere, quanto opere. L. Aelii: MSS. Laelii. The person meant is L. Aelius Stilo or Praeconinus, the master of Varro, and the earliest systematic grammarian of Rome. See Quintil. Inst. Or. X. 1, 99, Gellius X. 21, Sueton. Gramm. 3. Occasum: an unusual metaphor. Menippum: a Cynic satirist, see Dict. Biogr. Considerable fragments of Varro's Menippean Satires remain, and have often been edited—most recently by Riese (published by Teubner). Imitati non interpretati: Cic. D.F. I. 7, gives his opinion as to the right use to be made of Greek models. †Quae quo: these words are evidently wrong. Halm after Faber ejects quae, and is followed by Baiter. Varro is thus made to say that he stated many things dialectically, in order that the populace might be enticed to read. To my mind the fault lies in the word quo, for which I should prefer to read cum (=quom, which would be written quō in the MSS.) The general sense would then be "Having introduced philosophy into that kind of literature which the unlearned read, I proceeded to introduce it into that which the learned read." Laudationibus: λογοις επιταφιοις, cf. Ad Att. XIII. 48 where Varro's are mentioned. †Philosophe scribere: the MSS. all give philosophie. Klotz has philosophiam, which is demonstrably wrong, physica, musica etc. scribere may be said, but not physicam, musicam etc. scribere. The one passage formerly quoted to justify the phrase philosophiam scribere is now altered in the best texts (T.D. V. 121, where see Tischer). Goer. reads philosophiae scribere; his explanation is, as Orelli gently says, "vix Latina." I can scarcely think Halm's philosophe to be right, the word occurs nowhere else, and Cic. almost condemns it by his use of the Greek φιλοσοφως (Ad Att. XIII. 20). In older Greek the adverb does not appear, nor is φιλοσοφος used as an adjective much, yet Cic. uses philosophus adjectivally in T.D. V. 121, Cat. Mai. 22, N.D. III. 23, just as he uses tyrannus (De Rep. III. 45), and anapaestus (T.D. III. 57) Might we not read philosophis, in the dative, which only requires the alteration of a single letter from the MSS. reading? The meaning would then be "to write for philosophers," which would agree with my emendation cum for quo above. Philosophice would be a tempting alteration, but that the word φιλοσοφικος is not Greek, nor do philosophicus, philosophice occur till very late Latin times. Si modo id consecuti sumus: cf. Brut. 316.
§9. Sunt ista: = εστι ταυτα, so often, e.g. Lael. 6. Some edd. have sint, which is unlikely to be right. Nos in nostra: Augustine (De Civ. Dei VI. 2) quotes this with the reading reduxerunt for deduxerunt, which is taken by Baiter and by Halm; who quotes with approval Durand's remark, "deducimus honoris causa sed errantes reducimus humanitatis." The words, however, are almost convertible; see Cat. Mai. 63. In Lael. 12, Brut. 86, we have reducere, where Durand's rule requires deducere, on the other hand cf. Ad Herennium IV. 64, hospites domum deducere. Aetatem patriae etc., August. (De Civ. Dei VI. 3) describes Varro's "Libri Antiquitatum" (referred to in 8), in which most of the subjects here mentioned were treated of. Descriptiones temporum: lists of dates, so χρονοι is technically used for dates, Thuc. V. 20, etc. Tu sacerdotum: after this Lamb. inserts munera to keep the balance of the clauses. Cic. however is quite as fond of variety as of formal accuracy. Domesticam—bellicam: opposed like domi bellique, cf. Brut. 49, De Off. I. 74. Augustine's reading publicam shows him to have been quoting from memory. Sedem: so the best MSS. of Aug., some edd. here give sedium. The argument for sedem is the awkwardness of making the three genitives, sedium, regionum, locorum, dependent on the accusatives, nomina, genera, officia, causas. Cic. is fond of using sedes, locus, regio together, see Pro Murena, 85, Pro Cluentio, 171, quoted by Goer. Omnium divinarum humanarumque rerum: from the frequent references of Aug. it appears that the "Libri Antiquitatum" were divided into two parts, one treating of res humanae, the other of res divinae (De Civ. Dei, IV. 1, 27, VI. 3). Et litteris luminis: for luminis, cf. T.D. I. 5. Et verbis: Manut. reads rebus from 26. Varro's researches into the Latin tongue are meant. Multis locis incohasti: Varro's book "De Philosophia" had apparently not yet been written.
§10. Causa: = προφασις. Probabilem: = specious. Nesciunt: Halm with his one MS. G, which is the work of a clever emendator, gives nescient to suit malent above, and is followed by Baiter. It is not necessary to force on Cic. this formally accurate sequence of tenses, which Halm himself allows to be broken in two similar passages, II. 20, 105. Sed da mihi nunc, satisne probas?: So all MSS. except G, which has the evident conj. sed ea (eam) mihi non sane probas. This last Baiter gives, while Halm after Durand reads sed eam mihi non satis probas, which is too far from the MSS. to please me. The text as it stands is not intolerable, though da mihi for dic mihi is certainly poetic. Da te mihi (Manut., Goer., Orelli) is far too strong for the passage, and cannot be supported by 12, Brut. 306, Ad Fam. II. 8, or such like passages. Attius: the old spelling Accius is wrong. Si qui ... imitati: note the collocation, and cf. 17. Halm needlessly writes sint for MSS. sunt. For this section throughout cf. the prologues to D.F. I., T.D. I. and II.
§11. Procuratio: for the proper meaning of procurator and procuratio see Jordan on Pro Caecina 55. Implacatum et constrictum: the conjunction introduces the intenser word, as usual; cf. 17 plenam ac refertam, II. 127 exigua et minima, so και in Greek. Inclusa habebam: cf. T.D. I. 1. Obsolescerent, used of individual memory, is noteworthy. Percussus volnere: many edd. give the frequent variant perculsus. The volnus, which Goer. finds so mysterious, is the death of Tullia, cf. N.D. I. 9, De Consolatione, fragment 7, ed. Nobbe, and Introd. p. 32. Aut ... aut ... aut ... aut: This casting about for an excuse shows how low philosophy stood in public estimation at Rome. See Introd. p. 29. The same elaborate apologies often recur, cf. esp the exordium of N.D. I.
§12. Brutus: the same praise often recurs in D.F. and the Brutus Graecia desideret so all Halm's MSS., except G, which has Graeca. Halm (and after him Baiter) adopts the conj. of Aldus the younger, Graeca desideres. A reviewer of Halm, in Schneidewin's Philologus XXIV. 483, approves the reading on the curious ground that Brutus was not anxious to satisfy Greek requirements, but rather to render it unnecessary for Romans to have recourse to Greece for philosophy. I keep the MSS. reading, for Greece with Cicero is the supreme arbiter of performance in philosophy, if she is satisfied the philosophic world is tranquil. Cf. Ad Att. I. 20, 6, D.F. I. 8, Ad Qu. Fr. II. 16, 5. I just note the em. of Turnebus, a Graecia desideres, and that of Dav. Graecia desideretur. Eandem sententiam: cf. Introd. p. 56. Aristum: cf. II. 11, and M.D.F. V. 8.
§13. Sine te: = σου διχα. Relictam: Cic. very rarely omits esse, see note on II. 77, for Cicero's supposed conversion see Introd. p. 20. Veterem illam: MSS. have iam for illam. The position of iam would be strange, in the passage which used to be compared, Pro Cluentio 16, Classen and Baiter now om. the word. Further, vetus and nova can scarcely be so barely used to denote the Old and the New Academy. The reading illam is from Madv. (Em. 115), and is supported by illam veterem (18), illa antiqua (22), istius veteris (D.F. V. 8), and similar uses. Bentl. (followed by Halm and Bait.) thinks iam comprises the last two syllables of Academiam, which he reads. Correcta et emendata: a fine sentiment to come from a conservative like Cic. The words often occur together and illustrate Cic.'s love for small diversities of expression, cf. De Leg. III. 30, D.F. IV. 21, also Tac. Hist. I. 37. Negat: MSS. have negaret, but Cic. never writes the subj. after quamquam in oratio recta, as Tac. does, unless there is some conditional or potential force in the sentence; see M.D.F. III. 70. Nothing is commoner in the MSS. than the substitution of the imp. subj. for the pres. ind. of verbs of the first conjug. and vice versa. In libris: see II. 11. Duas Academias: for the various modes of dividing the Academy refer to R. and P. 404. Contra ea Philonis: MSS. have contra Philonis merely, exc. Halm's V., which gives Philonem, as does the ed. Rom. (1471). I have added ea. Orelli quotes Ad Att. XII. 23, 2, ex Apollodori. Possibly the MSS. may be right, and libros may be supplied from libris above, so in Ad Att. XIII. 32, 2, Dicaearchi περι ψυχης utrosque, the word libros has to be supplied from the preceding letter, cf. a similar ellipse of bona in 19, 22. Madvig's Philonia is improbable from its non-appearance elsewhere, while the companion adjective Antiochius is frequent. Halm inserts sententiam, a heroic remedy. To make contra an adv. and construe Philonis Antiochus together, supplying auditor, as is done by some unknown commentators who probably only exist in Goerenz's note, is wild, and cannot be justified by D.F. V. 13.
§14. A qua absum iam diu: MSS. have strangely aqua absumtam diu, changed by Manut. Renovari: the vulg. revocari is a curious instance of oversight. It crept into the text of Goer. by mistake, for in his note he gave renovari. Orelli—who speaks of Goerenz's "praestantissima recensio," and founds his own text upon it two years after Madvig's crushing exposure in his Em. often quoted by me—not only reads revocari, but quotes renovari as an em. of the ed. Victoriana of 1536. From Orelli, Klotz, whose text has no independent value, took it. Renovare in Cic. often means "to refresh the memory," e.g. 11, Brut. 315. Nisi molestum est: like nisi alienum putas, a variation on the common si placet, si videtur. Adsidamus: some MSS. have adsideamus, which would be wrong here. Sane istud: Halm istuc from G. Inquit: for the late position of this word, which is often caused by its affinity for quoniam, quidem, etc., cf. M.D.F. III. 20 Quae cum essent dicta, in conspectu consedimus (omnes): most edd. since Gulielmus print this without essent as a hexameter, and suppose it a quotation. But firstly, a verse so commonplace, if familiar, would occur elsewhere in Cic. as others do, if not familiar, would not be given without the name of its author. Secondly, most MSS. have sint or essent before dicta. It is more probable therefore that omnes was added from an involuntary desire to make up the hexameter rhythm. Phrases like quae cum essent dicta consedimus often occur in similar places in Cic.'s dialogues cf. De Div. II. 150, and Augustine, the imitator of Cic., Contra Academicos, I. 25, also consedimus at the end of a clause in Brut. 24, and considitur in De Or. III. 18. Mihi vero: the omission of inquit, which is strange to Goer., is well illustrated in M.D.F. I. 9. There is an odd ellipse of laudasti in D.F. V. 81.
§§15—42. Antiochus' view of the history of Philosophy. First part of Varro's Exposition, 15—18. Summary. Socrates rejected physics and made ethics supreme in philosophy (15). He had no fixed tenets, his one doctrine being that wisdom consists in a consciousness of ignorance. Moral exhortation was his task (16). Plato added to and enriched the teaching of his master, from him sprang two schools which abandoned the negative position of Socrates and adopted definite tenets, yet remained in essential agreement with one another—the Peripatetic and the Academic (17, 18).
§15. A rebus ... involutis: physical phenomena are often spoken of in these words by Cic., cf. 19, Timaeus c. 1, D.F. I. 64, IV. 18, V. 10, N.D. I. 49. Ursinus rejected ab here, but the insertion or omission of ab after the passive verb depends on the degree to which natura is personified, if 28 be compared with Tim. c. 1, this will be clear. Involutis = veiled; cf. involucrum. Cic. shows his feeling of the metaphor by adding quasi in II. 26, and often. Avocavisse philosophiam: this, the Xenophontic view of Socrates, was the popular one in Cicero's time, cf. II. 123, T.D. V. 10, D.F. V. 87, 88, also Varro in Aug. De Civ. Dei, VIII. 3. Objections to it, however occurred to Cic., and were curiously answered in De Rep. I. 16 (cf. also Varro in Aug. De Civ. Dei, VIII. 4). The same view is supposed to be found in Aristotle, see the passages quoted by R. and P. 141. To form an opinion on this difficult question the student should read Schleiermacher's Essay on the Worth of Socrates as a Philosopher (trans. by Thirlwall), and Zeller's Socrates and the Socratic Schools, Eng. Trans., pp. 112—116 [I dissent from his view of Aristotle's evidence], also Schwegler's Handbook, so far as it relates to Socrates and Plato. Nihil tamen ad bene vivendum valere: valere is absent from MSS., and is inserted by Halm, its use in 21 makes it more probable than conferre, which is in ed. Rom. (1471). Gronovius vainly tries to justify the MSS. reading by such passages as D.F. I. 39, T.D. I. 70. The strangest ellipse with nihil ad elsewhere in Cic. is in De Leg. I. 6.
§16. Hic ... illum: for this repetition of pronouns see M.D.F. IV. 43. Varie et copiose: MSS. omit et, but it may be doubted whether Cic. would let two adverbs stand together without et, though three may (cf. II. 63), and though with pairs of nouns and adjectives, et often is left out, as in the passages quoted here by Manut. Ad Att. IV. 3, 3, Ad Fam. XIII. 24, XIII. 28, cf. also the learned note of Wesenberg, reprinted in Baiter and Halm's edition, of Cic.'s philosophical works (1861), on T.D. III. 6. Varie et copiose is also in De Or. II. 240. Cf. the omission of que in 23, also II. 63. Perscripti: Cic. like Aristotle often speaks of Plato's dialogues as though they were authentic reports of Socratic conversations, cf. II. 74. Nihil adfirmet: so T.D. I. 99. "Eoque praestare ceteris" this is evidently from Plato Apol. p. 21, as to the proper understanding of which see note on II. 74. Ab Apolline, Plato Apol. 21 A, Omnium: Dav. conj. hominum needlessly. Dictum: Lamb., followed by Schutz, reads iudicatum, it is remarkable that in four passages where Cic. speaks of this very oracle (Cato Mai. 78, Lael. 7, 9, 13) he uses the verb iudicare. Una omnis: Lamb. hominis, Baiter also. Omnis eius oratio tamen: notwithstanding his negative dialectic he gave positive teaching in morals. Tamen: for MSS. tam or tum is due to Gruter, Halm has tantum. Tam, tum and tamen are often confused in MSS., e.g. In Veri (Act II.) I. 3, 65, II. 55, 112, V. 78, where see Zumpt. Goer. abuses edd. for not knowing that tum ... et, tum ... que, et ... tum, correspond in Cic. like tum ... cum, tum ... tum. His proofs of this new Latin may be sampled by Ac. II. 1, 43. Ad virtutis studium cohortandis: this broad assertion is distinctly untrue; see Zeller's Socrates 88, with footnote.
§17. Varius et multiplex, et copiosus: these characteristics are named to account for the branching off from Plato of the later schools. For multiplex "many sided," cf. T.D. V. 11. Una et consentiens: this is an opinion of Antiochus often adopted by Cic. in his own person, as in D.F. IV. 5 De Leg. I. 38, De Or. III. 67. Five ancient philosophers are generally included in this supposed harmonious Academico-Peripatetic school, viz. Aristotle, Theophrastus, Speusippus, Xenocrates, Polemo (cf. D.F. IV. 2), sometimes Crantor is added. The harmony was supposed to have been first broken by Polemo's pupils; so Varro says (from Antiochus) in Aug. De Civ. Dei XIX. 1, cf. also 34. Antiochus doubtless rested his theory almost entirely on the ethical resemblances of the two schools. In D.F. V. 21, which is taken direct from Antiochus, this appears, as also in Varro (in Aug. as above) who often spoke as though ethics were the whole of philosophy (cf. also De Off. III. 20). Antiochus probably made light of such dialectical controversies between the two schools as that about ιδεαι, which had long ceased. Krische Uber Cicero's Akademika p. 51, has some good remarks. Nominibus: the same as vocabulis above. Cic. does not observe Varro's distinction (De L. L. IX. 1) which confines nomen to proper nouns, vocabulum to common nouns, though he would not use vocabulum as Tac. does, for the name of a person (Annals XII. 66, etc.). Quasi heredem ... duos autem: the conj. of Ciaconus "ex asse heredem, secundos autem" is as acute as it is absurd. Duos: it is difficult to decide whether this or duo is right in Cic., he can scarcely have been so inconsistent as the MSS. and edd. make him (cf. Baiter and Halm's ed., Ac. II. 11, 13 with De Div. I. 6). The older inscr. in the Corpus vol. I. have duo, but only in duoviros, two near the time of Cic. (C.I. vol. I. nos. 571 and 1007) give duos, which Cic. probably wrote. Duo is in old Latin poets and Virgil. Chalcedonium: not Calchedonium as Klotz, cf. Gk. Χαλκηδονιον. Praestantissimos: Halm wrongly, cf. Brut. 125. Stagiritem: not Stagiritam as Lamb., for Cic., exc. in a few nouns like Persa, pirata, etc., which came down from antiquity, did not make Greek nouns in -ης into Latin nouns in -a. See M.D.F. II. 94. Coetus ... soliti: cf. 10. Platonis ubertate: cf. Quintilian's "illa Livii lactea ubertas." Plenum ac refertam: n. on 11. Dubitationem: Halm with one MS., G, gives dubitantem, Baiter dubitanter, Why alter? Ars quaedam philosophiae: before these words all Halm's MSS., exc G, insert disserendi, probably from the line above, Lipsius keeps it and ejects philosophiae, while Lamb., Day read philosophia in the nom. Varro, however, would never say that philosophy became entirely dialectical in the hands of the old Academics and Peripatetics. Ars = τεχνη, a set of definite rules, so Varro in Aug. (as above) speaks of the certa dogmata of this old school as opposed to the incertitude of the New Academy. Descriptio: so Halm here, but often discriptio. The Corp. Inscr., vol. I. nos. 198 and 200, has thrice discriptos or discriptum, the other spelling never.
§18. Ut mihi quidem videtur: MSS. transpose quidem and videtur, as in 44. Quidem, however nearly always comes closely after the pronoun, see M.D.F. IV. 43, cf. also I. 71, III. 28, Opusc. I. 406. Expetendarum fugiendarumque: ‛αιρετων και φευκτων, about which more in n. on 36. The Platonic and Aristotelian ethics have indeed an external resemblance, but the ultimate bases of the two are quite different. In rejecting the Idea of the Good, Aristotle did away with what Plato would have considered most valuable in his system. The ideal theory, however, was practically defunct in the time of Antiochus, so that the similarity between the two schools seemed much greater than it was. Non sus Minervam: a Greek proverb, cf. Theocr. Id. V. 23, De Or. II. 233, Ad Fam. IX. 18, 3. Binder, in his German translation of the Academica, also quotes Plutarch Præc. Polit. 7. Inepte ... docet: elliptic for inepte docet, quisquis docet. Nostra atque nostros: few of the editors have understood this. Atticus affects everything Athenian, and speaks as though he were one of them; in Cic.'s letters to him the words "tui cives," meaning the Athenians, often occur. Quid me putas: i.e. velle. Exhibiturum: Halm inserts me before this from his one MS. G, evidently emended here by its copyist. For the omission of me, cf. note on 7.
§§19—23. Part II. of Varro's Exposition: Antiochus' Ethics. Summary. The threefold division of philosophy into ηθικη, φυσικη, διαλεκτικη. Goodness means obedience to nature, happiness the acquisition of natural advantages. These are of three kinds, mental, bodily, and external. The bodily are described (19); then the mental, which fall into two classes, congenital and acquired, virtue being the chief of the acquired (20), then the external, which form with the bodily advantages a kind of exercise-ground for virtue (21). The ethical standard is then succinctly stated, in which virtue has chief part, and is capable in itself of producing happiness, though not the greatest happiness possible, which requires the possession of all three classes of advantages (22). With this ethical standard, it is possible to give an intelligent account of action and duty (23).
§19. Ratio triplex: Plato has not this division, either consciously or unconsciously, though it was generally attributed to him in Cicero's time, so by Varro himself (from Antiochus) in Aug. De Civ. Dei VIII. 4, and by Diog. Laert. III. 56 (see R. and P., p. 195). The division itself cannot be traced farther back than Xenocrates and the post-Aristotelian Peripatetics, to whom it is assigned by Sext. Emp. Adv. Math. VII. 16. It was probably first brought into strong prominence by the Stoics, whom it enabled more sharply and decisively to subordinate to Ethics all else in philosophy. Cf. esp. M.D.F. IV. 3. Quid verum ... repugnans iudicando: MSS. exc. G have et before quid falsum, whence Klotz conj. sit in order to obviate the awkwardness of repugnet which MSS. have for repugnans. Krische wishes to read consequens for consentiens, comparing Orator 115, T.D. V. 68, De Div. II. 150, to which add T.D. V. 21 On the other hand cf. II. 22, 91. Notice the double translations of the Greek terms, de vita et moribus for ηθικη, etc. This is very characteristic of Cic., as we shall see later. Ac primum: many MSS. and edd. primam, cf. 23, 30. A natura petebant: how Antiochus could have found this in Plato and Aristotle is difficult to see; that he did so, however, is indubitable; see D.F. V. 24—27, which should be closely compared with our passage, and Varro in Aug. XIX. 3. The root of Plato's system is the ιδεα of the Good, while so far is Aristotle from founding his system on the abstract φυσις, that he scarcely appeals even incidentally to φυσις in his ethical works. The abstract conception of nature in relation to ethics is first strongly apparent in Polemo, from whom it passed into Stoic hands and then into those of Antiochus. Adeptum esse omnia: put rather differently in D.F. V. 24, 26, cf. also D.F. II. 33, 34, Ac. II. 131. Et animo et corpore et vita: this is the τριας or τριλογια των αγαθων, which belongs in this form to late Peripateticism (cf. M.D.F. III. 43), the third division is a development from the βιος τελειος of Aristotle. The τριας in this distinct shape is foreign both to Plato and Arist, though Stobaeus, Ethica II. 6, 4, tries hard to point it out in Plato; Varro seems to merge the two last divisions into one in Aug. De Civ. Dei XIX 3. This agrees better with D.F. V. 34—36, cf. also Aug. VIII. 8. On the Antiochean finis see more in note on 22. Corporis alia: for ellipse of bona, see n. on 13. Ponebant esse: n. on 36. In toto in partibus: the same distinction is in Stob. Eth. II. 6, 7; cf. also D.F. V. 35. Pulchritudinem: Cic. Orator 160, puts the spelling pulcher beyond a doubt; it often appears in inscr. of the Republic. On the other hand only pulcrai, pulcrum, etc., occur in inscr., exc. pulchre, which is found once (Corp. Inscr. I. no 1019). Sepulchrum, however, is frequent at an early time. On the tendency to aspirate even native Latin words see Boscher in Curtius' Studien II. 1, p. 145. In the case of pulcher the false derivation from πολυχροος may have aided the corruption. Similarly in modern times J.C. Scaliger derived it from πολυ χειρ (Curtius' Grundz ed. 3, p. 8) For valetudinem viris pulchritudinem, cf. the ‛υγιεια ισχυς καλλος of Stob. Eth. II. 6, 7, and T.D. V. 22. Sensus integros ευαισθησια in Stob., cf. also D.F. V. 36 (in sensibus est sua cuiusque virtus). Celeritatem: so ποδωκεια in Stob., bene currere in Aug. XIX. 3. Claritatem in voce: cf. De Off. I. 133. Impressionem: al. expressionem. For the former cf. De Or. III. 185, which will show the meaning to be the distinct marking of each sound; for the latter De Or. III. 41, which will disprove Klotz's remark "imprimit lingua voces, non exprimit." See also De Off. I. 133. One old ed. has pressionem, which, though not itself Ciceronian, recalls presse loqui, and N.D. II. 149. Pliny, Panegyric, c. 64, has expressit explanavitque verba; he and Quintilian often so use exprimere.
§20. Ingeniis: rejected by many (so Halm), but cf. T.D. III. 2, and animis below and in N.D. II. 58. In naturam et mores: for in ea quae natura et moribus fiunt. A similar inaccuracy of expression is found in II. 42. The division is practically Aristotle's, who severs αρεται into διανοητικαι and ηθικαι (Nic. Eth. I. c. 13, Magna Mor. I. c. 5). In D.F. V. 38 the διανοητικαι are called non voluntariae, the ηθικαι voluntariae. Celeritatem ad discendum et memoriam: cf. the ευμαθεια, μνημη of Arist. (who adds αγχινοια σοφια φρονησις), and the docilitas, memoria of D.F. V. 36. Quasi consuetudinem: the quasi marks a translation from the Greek, as frequently, here probably of εθισμος (Nic. Eth. II. c. 1). Partim ratione formabant: the relation which reason bears to virtue is set forth in Nic. Eth. VI. c. 2. In quibus: i.e. in moribus. All the late schools held that ethics formed the sole ultimate aim of philosophy. Erat: note the change from oratio obliqua to recta, and cf. the opposite change in II. 40. Progressio: this, like the whole of the sentence in which it stands, is intensely Stoic. For the Stoic προκορη, προκοπτειν εις αρετην, cf. M.D.F. IV. 64, 66, R. and P. 392, sq., Zeller, Stoics 258, 276. The phrases are sometimes said to be Peripatetic, if so, they must belong only to the late Stoicised Peripateticism of which we find so much in Stobaeus. Perfectio naturae: cf. esp. De Leg. I. 25. More Stoic still is the definition of virtue as the perfection of the reason, cf. II. 26, D.F. IV. 35, V. 38, and Madvig's note on D.F. II. 88. Faber quotes Galen De Decr. Hipp. et Plat. c. 5, ‛η αρετη τελειοτης εστι της ‛εκαστου φυσεος. Una res optima: the supremacy of virtue is also asserted by Varro in Aug. XIX. 3, cf. also D.F. V. 36, 38.
§21. Virtutis usum: so the Stoics speak of their αδιαφορα as the practising ground for virtue (D.F. III. 50), cf. virtutis usum in Aug. XIX. 1. Nam virtus: most MSS. have iam, which is out of place here. Animi bonis et corporis cernitur et in quibusdam: MSS. omit et between cernitur and in, exc. Halm's G which has in before animi and also before corporis. These last insertions are not necessary, as may be seen from Topica 80, causa certis personis locis temporibus actionibus negotiis cernitur aut in omnibus aut in plerisque, also T.D. V. 22. In Stob. II. 6, 8, the τελος of the Peripatetics is stated to be το κατ' αρετην ζην εν τοις περι σωμα και τοις εξωθεν αγαθοις, here quibusdam quae etc., denote the εξωθεν or εκτος αγαθα, the third class in 19. Hominem ... societate: all this is strongly Stoic, though also attributed to the Peripatetics by Stob. II. 6, 7 (κοινη φιλανθρωπια), etc., doubtless the humanitarianism of the Stoics readily united with the φυσει ανθρωπος πολιτικον ζωον theory of Aristotle. For Cic. cf. D.F. III. 66, De Leg. I. 23, for the Stoics, Zeller 293—296. The repetitions hominem, humani, hominibus, humana are striking. For the last, Bentley (i.e. Davies' anonymous friend) proposed mundana from T.D. V. 108, Varro, however, has humana societas in Aug. XIX. 3. Cetera autem: what are these cetera? They form portion of the εκτος αγαθα, and although not strictly contained within the summum bonum are necessary to enrich it and preserve it. Of the things enumerated in Stob. II. 6, 8, 13, φιλια, φιλοι would belong to the quaedam of Cicero, while πλουτος αρχη ευτυχια ευγενεια δυναστεια would be included in cetera. The same distinction is drawn in Aug. VIII. 8. Tuendum: most MSS. tenendum, but tuendum corresponds best with the division of αγαθα into ποιητικα and φυλακτικα, Stob. II. 6, 13. For the word pertinere see M.D.F. III. 54.
§22. Plerique: Antiochus believes it also Academic. Qui tum appellarentur: MSS. dum, the subj. is strange, and was felt to be so by the writer of Halm's G, which has appellantur. Videbatur: Goer. and Orelli stumble over this, not perceiving that it has the strong meaning of the Gr. εδοκει, "it was their dogma," so often. Adipisci: cf. adeptum esse, 19. Quae essent prima natura: MSS. have in natura. For the various modes of denoting the πρωτα κατα φυσιν in Latin see Madvig's Fourth Excursus to the D.F., which the student of Cic.'s philosophy ought to know by heart. The phrase prima natura (abl.) could not stand alone, for τα πρωτα τη φυσει is one of Goerenz's numerous forgeries. The ablative is always conditioned by some verb, see Madv. A comparison of this statement of the ethical finis with that in 19 and the passages quoted in my note there, will show that Cic. drew little distinction between the Stoic τα πρωτα κατα φυσιν and the Peripatetic τριλογια. That this is historically absurd Madvig shows in his Excursus, but he does not sufficiently recognise the fact that Cicero has perfectly correctly reported Antiochus. At all events, Varro's report (Aug. De Civ. Dei XIX. 3) coincides with Cic.'s in every particular. Even the inexplicabilis perversitas of which Madv. complains (p. 821) is traceable to Antiochus, who, as will be seen from Augustine XIX. 1, 3, included even virtus among the prima naturae. A little reflection will show that in no other way could Antiochus have maintained the practical identity of the Stoic and Peripatetic views of the finis. I regret that my space does not allow me to pursue this difficult subject farther. For the Stoic πρωτα κατα φυσιν see Zeller, chap XI. Ipsa per sese expetenda: Gk. ‛αιρετα, which is applied to all things contained within the summum bonum. As the Stoic finis was αρετη only, that alone to them was ‛αιρετον, their πρωτα κατα φυσιν were not ‛αιρετα, (cf. D.F. III. 21). Antiochus' prima naturae were ‛αιρετα to him, cf. Aug. XIX. 3, prima illa naturae propter se ipsa existimat expetenda so Stob., II. 6, 7, demonstrates each branch of the τριλογια to be καθ' ‛αυτο ‛αιρετον. Aut omnia aut maxima: so frequently in Cic., e.g. D.F. IV. 27, so Stob. II. 6, 8, τα πλειστα και κυριωτατα. 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 αρετη was αυταρκες προς ευδαιμονιαν was one of the most important to the late Greek philosophy. As to Antiochus, consult M.D.F. V. 67.
§23. Agendi aliquid: Gk. πραξεως, the usual translation, cf. II. 24, 37. Officii ipsius initium: του καθηκοντος αρχην, 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 επιεικεια. 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 (ποιον τι 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 φυσις and ουσια. Here it is ουσια 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 (ειδος), and of Matter (‛υλη) with logical differentia (διαφορα). For the duae res, cf. D.F. I. 18. Efficiens ... huic se praebens: an attempt to translate το ποιουν and το πασχον of the Theaetetus, το οθεν and το δεχομενον 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 τοδε τι as Aristotle calls it. Passive matter ‛υλη is only potentially τοδε τι, passing into actual τοδε τι, when affected by the form. (Cf. τοδε, τουτο, 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 ‛υλη 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 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 ιδεαι 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, φαμεν αναγκαιον ειναι που το ‛ον ‛απαν εν τινι τοπω. For ancient theories about space the student must be referred to the histories of philosophy. A fair summary is given by Stob. Phys. περι κενου και τοπου και χωρας, 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 ποιοτης and ποιον, the confusion is aided by the ambiguity of the phrase το ποιον in Greek, which may either denote the τοδε τι as ποιον, or the Force which makes it ποιον, hence Arist. calls one of his categories το ποιον and ποιοτης indifferently For the Stoic view of ποιοτης, 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 αλλοκοτον ονομα. Nova ... facienda: = imponenda in D.F. III. 5. Suis utuntur: so D.F. III. 4. Transferenda: transferre = μεταφερειν, 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 ‛απλα and συνθετα, 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 πολυειδεις, which is opposed to ‛απλους in Plat. Phaedr. 238 A, and often. Plato uses also μονοειδης 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, ειδη. 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 περι αρχων και στοιχειων και του παντος. It will be there seen that Cic. is wrong in making initia and elementa here and in 39 (αρχαι and στοιχεια) convertible terms. The Greeks would call the four elements στοιχεια but not αρχαι, 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: δεχεσθαι 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, which Orelli gives. Rebatur: an old poetical word revived by Cic. De Or. III. 153; cf. Quintil. Inst. Or. VIII. 3, 26.
§27. Subiectam ... materiam: the ‛υποκειμενη ‛υλη of Aristotle, from which our word subject-matter is descended. Sine ulla specie: species here = forma above, the ειδος or μορφη of Arist. Omnibus without rebus is rare. The ambiguity is sometimes avoided by the immediate succession of a neuter relative pronoun, as in 21 in quibusdam, quae. Expressa: chiselled as by a sculptor (cf. expressa effigies De Off. III. 69); efficta, moulded as by a potter (see II. 77); the word was given by Turnebus for MSS. effecta. So Matter is called an εκμαγειον in Plat. Tim. Quae tota omnia: these words have given rise to needless doubts; Bentl., Dav., Halm suspect them. Tota is feminine sing.; cf. materiam totam ipsam in 28; "which matter throughout its whole extent can suffer all changes." For the word omnia cf. II. 118, and Plat. Tim. 50 B (δεχεται γαρ ηι τα παντα), 51 A (ειδος πανδεχες). The word πανδεχες is also quoted from Okellus in Stob. I. 20, 3. Binder is certainly wrong in taking tota and omnia both as neut.—"alles und jedes." Cic. knew the Tim. well and imitated it here. The student should read Grote's comments on the passages referred to. I cannot here point out the difference between Plato's ‛υλη and that of Aristotle. Eoque interire: so MSS.; Halm after Dav. eaque. Faber was right in supposing that Cic. has said loosely of the materia what he ought to have said of the qualia. Of course the προτε ‛υλη, whether Platonic or Aristotelian, is imperishable (cf. Tim. 52 A. φθοραν ου προσδεχομενον). Non in nihilum: this is aimed at the Atomists, who maintained that infinite subdivision logically led to the passing of things into nothing and their reparation out of nothing again. See Lucr. I. 215—264, and elsewhere. Infinite secari: through the authority of Aristotle, the doctrine of the infinite subdivisibility of matter had become so thoroughly the orthodox one that the Atom was scouted as a silly absurdity. Cf. D.F. I. 20 ne illud quidem physici credere esse minimum, Arist. Physica, I. 1 ουκ εστιν ελαχιστον μεγεθος. The history of ancient opinion on this subject is important, but does not lie close enough to our author for comment. The student should at least learn Plato's opinions from Tim. 35 A sq. It is notable that Xenocrates, tripping over the old αντιφασις of the One and the Many, denied παν μεγεθος διαιρετον ειναι και μερος εχειν (R. and P. 245). Chrysippus followed Aristotle very closely (R. and P. 377, 378). Intervallis moveri: this is the theory of motion without void which Lucr. I. 370 sq. disproves, where see Munro. Cf. also Sext. Emp. Adv. Math. VII. 214. Aristotle denied the existence of void either within or without the universe, Strato allowed its possibility within, while denying its existence without (Stob. I. 18, 1), the Stoics did the exact opposite affirming its existence without, and denying it within the universe (Zeller 186, with footnotes). Quae intervalla ... possint: there is no ultimate space atom, just as there is no matter atom. As regards space, the Stoics and Antiochus closely followed Aristotle, whose ideas may be gathered from R. and P. 288, 9, and especially from M. Saint Hilaire's explanation of the Physica.
§28. Ultro citroque: this is the common reading, but I doubt its correctness. MSS. have ultro introque, whence ed. Rom. (1471) has ultro in utroque. I think that in utroque, simply, was the reading, and that ultro is a dittographia from utro. The meaning would be "since force plays this part in the compound," utroque being as in 24 for eo quod ex utroque fit. If the vulg. is kept, translate "since force has this motion and is ever thus on the move." Ultro citroque is an odd expression to apply to universal Force, Cic. would have qualified it with a quasi. Indeed if it is kept I suggest quasi for cum sic. The use of versetur is also strange. E quibus in omni natura: most edd. since Dav. (Halm included) eject in. It is perfectly sound if natura be taken as ουσια = existence substance. The meaning is "out of which qualia, themselves existing in (being co-extensive with) universal substance (cf. totam commutari above), which is coherent and continuous, the world was formed." For the in cf. N.D. II. 35, in omni natura necesse est absolvi aliquid, also a similar use ib. II. 80, and Ac. II. 42. If in utroque be read above, in omni natura will form an exact contrast, substance as a whole being opposed to the individual quale. Cohaerente et continuata: the Stoics made the universe much more of a unity than any other school, the expressions here and the striking parallels in N.D. II. 19, 84, 119, De Div. II. 33, De Leg. fragm. 1. (at the end of Bait. and Halm's ed.) all come ultimately from Stoic sources, even if they be got at second hand through Antiochus. Cf. Zeller 137, Stob. I. 22, 3. The partes mundi are spoken of in most of the passages just quoted, also in N.D. II. 22, 28, 30, 32, 75, 86, 115, 116, all from Stoic sources. Effectum esse mundum: Halm adds unum from his favourite MS. (G). Natura sentiente: a clumsy trans. of αισθητη ουσια = substance which can affect the senses. The same expression is in N.D. II. 75. It should not be forgotten, however, that to the Stoics the universe was itself sentient, cf. N.D. II. 22, 47, 87. Teneantur: for contineantur; cf. N.D. II. 29 with II. 31 In qua ratio perfecta insit: this is thorough going Stoicism. Reason, God, Matter, Universe, are interchangeable terms with the Stoics. See Zeller 145—150 By an inevitable inconsistency, while believing that Reason is the Universe, they sometimes speak of it as being in the Universe, as here (cf. Diog. Laert. VII. 138, N.D. II. 34) In a curious passage (N.D. I. 33), Cic. charges Aristotle with the same inconsistency. For the Pantheistic idea cf. Pope "lives through all life, extends through all extent". Sempiterna: Aristotle held this: see II. 119 and N.D. II. 118, Stob. I. 21, 6. The Stoics while believing that our world would be destroyed by fire (Diog. Laert. VII. 141, R. and P. 378, Stob. I. 20, 1) regarded the destruction as merely an absorption into the Universal World God, who will recreate the world out of himself, since he is beyond the reach of harm (Diog. Laert. VII. 147, R. and P. 386, Zeller 159) Some Stoics however denied the εκπυρωσις. Nihil enim valentius: this is an argument often urged, as in N.D. II. 31 (quid potest esse mundo valentius?), Boethus quoted in Zeller 159. A quo intereat: interire here replaces the passive of perdere cf. αναστηναι, εκπιπτειν ‛υπο τινος.
§29. Quam vim animum: there is no need to read animam, as some edd. do. The Stoics give their World God, according to his different attributes, the names God, Soul, Reason, Providence, Fate, Fortune, Universal Substance, Fire, Ether, All pervading Air-Current, etc. See Zeller, ch. VI. passim. Nearly all these names occur in N.D. II. The whole of this section is undilutedly Stoic, one can only marvel how Antiochus contrived to fit it all in with the known opinions of old Academics and Peripatetics. Sapientiam: cf. N.D. II. 36 with III. 23, in which latter passage the Stoic opinion is severely criticised. Deum: Cic. in N.D. I. 30 remarks that Plato in his Timaeus had already made the mundus a God. Quasi prudentium quandam: the Greek προνοια is translated both by prudentia and providentia in the same passage, N.D. II. 58, also in N.D. II. 77—80. Procurantem ... quae pertinent ad homines: the World God is perfectly beneficent, see Ac. II. 120, N.D. I. 23, II. 160 (where there is a quaint jest on the subject), Zeller 167 sq. Necessitatem: αναγκην, which is ειρμος αιτιων, causarum series sempiterna (De Fato 20, cf. N.D. I. 55, De Div. I. 125, 127, Diog. VII. 149, and Zeller as before). This is merely the World God apprehended as regulating the orderly sequence of cause upon cause. When the World God is called Fortune, all that is expressed is human inability to see this orderly sequence. Τυχη therefore is defined as αιτια αδηλος ανθρωπινωι λογισμωι (Stob. I. 7, 9, where the same definition is ascribed to Anaxagoras—see also Topica, 58—66). This identification of Fate with Fortune (which sadly puzzles Faber and excites his wrath) seems to have first been brought prominently forward by Heraclitus, if we may trust Stob. I. 5, 15. Nihil aliter possit: on posse for posse fieri see M.D.F. IV. 48, also Ac. II. 121. For the sense of Cleanthes' hymn to Zeus (i.e. the Stoic World-God), ουδε τι γιγνεται εργον επι χθονι σου διχα δαιμον. Inter quasi fatalem: a trans. of the Gk. κατηναγκασμενον. I see no reason for suspecting inter, as Halm does. Ignorationemque causarum: the same words in De Div. II. 49; cf. also August. Contra Academicos I. 1. In addition to studying the reff. given above, the student might with advantage read Aristotle's Physica II. ch. 4—6, with M. Saint Hilaire's explanation, for the views of Aristotle about τυχη and το αυτοματον, also ch. 8—9 for αναγκη. Plato's doctrine of αναγκη, which is diametrically opposed to that of the Stoics, is to be found in Timaeus p. 47, 48, Grote's Plato, III. 249—59.
§§30—32. Part iv. of Varro's Exposition: Antiochus' Ethics. Summary. Although the old Academics and Peripatetics based knowledge on the senses, they did not make the senses the criterion of truth, but the mind, because it alone saw the permanently real and true (30). The senses they thought heavy and clogged and unable to gain knowledge of such things as were either too small to come into the domain of sense, or so changing and fleeting that no part of their being remained constant or even the same, seeing that all parts were in a continuous flux. Knowledge based only on sense was therefore mere opinion (31). Real knowledge only came through the reasonings of the mind, hence they defined everything about which they argued, and also used verbal explanations, from which they drew proofs. In these two processes consisted their dialectic, to which they added persuasive rhetoric (32).
§30. Quae erat: the Platonic ην, = was, as we said. In ratione et disserendo: an instance of Cicero's fondness for tautology, cf. D.F. I. 22 quaerendi ac disserendi. Quamquam oriretur: the sentence is inexact, it is knowledge which takes its rise in the senses, not the criterion of truth, which is the mind itself; cf. however II. 30 and n. Iudicium: the constant translation of κριτηριον, a word foreign to the older philosophy. Mentem volebant rerum esse iudicem: Halm with his pet MS. writes esse rerum, thus giving an almost perfect iambic, strongly stopped off before and after, so that there is no possibility of avoiding it in reading. I venture to say that no real parallel can be found to this in Cic., it stands in glaring contradiction to his own rules about admitting metre in prose, Orator 194 sq., De Or. III. 182 sq. Solam censebant ... tale quale esset: probably from Plato's Tim. 35 A thus translated by Cic., Tim. c. 7 ex ea materia quae individua est et unius modi (αει κατα ταυτα εχουσης cf. 28 A. το κατα ταυτα εχον) et sui simile, cf. also T.D. I. 58 id solum esse quod semper tale sit quale sit, quam ιδεαν appellat ille, nos speciem, and Ac. II. 129. Illi ιδεαν, etc.: there is more than one difficulty here. The words iam a Platone ita nom seem to exclude Plato from the supposed old Academico-Peripatetic school. This may be an oversight, but to say first that the school (illi, cf. sic tractabatur ab utrisque) which included Aristotle held the doctrine of ιδεαι, and next, in 33, that Aristotle crushed the same doctrine, appears very absurd. We may reflect, however, that the difference between Plato's ιδεαι and Aristotle's τα καθαλου would naturally seem microscopic to Antiochus. Both theories were practically as dead in his time as those of Thales or Anaxagoras. The confusion must not be laid at Cicero's door, for Antiochus in reconciling his own dialectics with Plato's must have been driven to desperate shifts. Cicero's very knowledge of Plato has, however, probably led him to intensify what inconsistency there was in Antiochus, who would have glided over Plato's opinions with a much more cautious step.
§31. Sensus omnis hebetes: this stands in contradiction to the whole Antiochean view as given in II. 12—64, cf. esp. 19 sensibus quorum ita clara et certa iudicia sunt, etc.: Antiochus would probably defend his agreement with Plato by asserting that though sense is naturally dull, reason may sift out the certain from the uncertain. Res eas ... quae essent aut ita: Halm by following his pet MS. without regard to the meaning of Cic. has greatly increased the difficulty of the passage. He reads res ullas ... quod aut ita essent; thus making Antiochus assert that no true information can be got from sensation, whereas, as we shall see in the Lucullus, he really divided sensations into true and false. I believe that we have a mixture here of Antiochus' real view with Cicero's reminiscences of the Theaetetus and of Xenocrates; see below. Nec percipere: for this see Lucullus passim. Christ's conj. percipi, quod perceptio sit mentis non sensuum, which Halm seems to approve, is a wanton corruption of the text, cf. II. 101 neget rem ullam percipi posse sensibus, so 21, 119 (just like ratione percipi 91), also I. 41 sensu comprehensum. Subiectae sensibus: cf. II. 74 and Sext. Emp. Adv. Math. VIII. 9, τα ‛υποπιπτοντα τη αισθησει. Aut ita mobiles, etc.: this strongly reminds one of the Theaetetus, esp. 160 D sq. For constans cf. εστηκος, which so often occurs there and in the Sophistes. Ne idem: Manut. for MSS. eidem. In the Theaetetus, Heraclitus' theory of flux is carried to such an extent as to destroy the self-identity of things; even the word εμε is stated to be an absurdity, since it implies a permanent subject, whereas the subject is changing from moment to moment; the expression therefore ought to be τους εμε. Continenter: ουνεχως; cf. Simplicius quoted in Grote's Plato, I. p. 37, about Heraclitus, εν μεταβολη γαρ συνεχει τα οντα. Laberentur et fluerent: cf. the phrases ‛ροη, παντα ‛ρει, ‛οιον ‛ρευματα κινεισθαι τα παντα, etc., which are scattered thickly over the Theaet. and the ancient texts about Heraclitus; also a very similar passage in Orator 10. Opinabilem: δοξαστην, so opinabile = δοξαστον in Cic. Tim ch. II. The term was largely used by Xenocrates (R. and P. 243—247), Arist. too distinguishes between the δοξαστον and the επιστητον, e.g Analyt. Post. I. 33 (qu. R. and P. 264).
§32. For this cf. D.F. IV. 8—10. Notionibus: so one MS. for motionibus which the rest have. Notio is Cicero's regular translation for εννοια, which is Stoic. This statement might have been made both by Aristotle and Plato, though each would put a separate meaning on the word notio. Επιστημη in Plato is of the ιδεαι only, while in Aristotle it is τον καθολου; cf. Anal. Post. I. 33 (R. and P. 264), λεγω νουν αρχην επιστημης. Definitiones rerum: these must be carefully distinguished fiom definitiones nominum, see the distinction drawn after Aristotle in R. and P. 265, note b. The definitio rei really involves the whole of philosophy with Plato and Aristotle (one might almost add, with moderns too). Its importance to Plato may be seen from the Politicus and Sophistes, to Aristotle from the passages quoted in R. and P. pp. 265, 271, whose notes will make the subject as clear as it can be made to any one who has not a knowledge of the whole of Aristotle's philosophy. Verborum explicatio: this is quite a different thing from those definitiones nominum just referred to; it is derivation, which does not necessitate definition. ετυμολογιαν: this is almost entirely Stoic. The word is foreign to the Classic Greek Prose, as are ετυμος and all its derivatives. (Ετυμως means "etymologically" in the De Mundo, which however is not Aristotle's). The word ετυμολογια is itself not frequent in the older Stoics, who use rather ονοματων ορθοτης (Diog. Laert. VII. 83), the title of their books on the subject preserved by Diog. is generally "περι των ετυμολογικων" The systematic pursuit of etymology was not earlier than Chrysippus, when it became distinctive of the Stoic school, though Zeno and Cleanthes had given the first impulse (N.D. III. 63). Specimens of Stoic etymology are given in N.D. II. and ridiculed in N.D. III. (cf. esp. 62 in enodandis nominibus quod miserandum sit laboratis). Post argumentis et quasi rerum notis ducibus: the use of etymology in rhetoric in order to prove something about the thing denoted by the word is well illustrated in Topica 10, 35. In this rhetorical sense Cic. rejects the translation veriloquium of ετυμολογια and adopts notatio, the rerum nota (Greek συμβολον) being the name so explained (Top. 35). Varro translated ετυμολογια by originatio (Quintil. I. 6, 28). Aristotle had already laid down rules for this rhetorical use of etymology, and Plato also incidentally adopts it, so it may speciously be said to belong to the old Academico-Peripatetic school. A closer examination of authorities would have led Halm to retract his bad em. notationibus for notas ducibus, the word notatio is used for the whole science of etymology, and not for particular derivations, while Cic. in numerous passages (e.g. D.F. V. 74) describes verba or nomina as rerum notae. Berkley's nodis for notis has no support, (enodatio nominum in N.D. III. 62 is quite different). One more remark, and I conclude this wearisome note. The quasi marks rerum nota as an unfamiliar trans. of συμβολον. Davies therefore ought not to have placed it before ducibus, which word, strong as the metaphor is, requires no qualification, see a good instance in T.D. I. 27. Itaque tradebatur: so Halm improves on Madvig's ita for in qua of the MSS., which cannot be defended. Orelli's reference to 30 pars for an antecedent to qua (in ea parte in qua) is violent, while Goerenz's resort to partem rerum opinabilem is simply silly. Manut. conj. in quo, Cic. does often use the neut. pronoun, as in Orator 3, but not quite thus. I have sometimes thought that Cic. wrote haec, inquam (cf. huic below). Dialecticae: as λογικη had not been Latinised, Cic. is obliged to use this word to denote λογικη, of which διαλεκτικη is really one subdivision with the Stoics and Antiochus, ‛ρητορικη which is mentioned in the next sentence being the other; see Zeller 69, 70. Orationis ratione conclusae: speech drawn up in a syllogistic form which becomes oratio perpetua under the influence of ‛ρητορικη. Quasi ex altera parte: a trans. of Aristotle's αντιστροφος in the beginning of the Rhetoric. Oratoria: Halm brackets this word; cf. however a close parallel in Brut. 261 oratorio ornamenta dicendi. The construction is simply a variation of Cic.'s favourite double genitive (T.D. III. 39), oratoria being put for oratoris. Ad persuadendum: το πιθανον is with Arist. and all ancient authorities the one aim of ‛ρητορικη.
§§33—42. Part v. of Varro's exposition: the departures from the old Academico-Peripatetic school. Summary. Arist. crushed the ιδεαι of Plato, Theophrastus weakened the power of virtue (33). Strato abandoned ethics for physics, Speusippus, Xenocrates, Polemo, Crates, Crantor faithfully kept the old tradition, to which Zeno and Arcesilas, pupils of Polemo, were both disloyal (34). Zeno maintained that nothing but virtue could influence happiness, and would allow the name good to nothing else (35). All other things he divided into three classes, some were in accordance with nature, some at discord with nature, and some were neutral. To the first class he assigned a positive value, and called them preferred to the second a negative value and called them rejected, to the third no value whatever—mere verbal alterations on the old scheme (36, 37). Though the terms right action and sin belong only to virtue and vice, he thought there was an appropriate action (officium) and an inappropriate, which concerned things preferred and things rejected (37). He made all virtue reside in the reason, and considered not the practice but the mere possession of virtue to be the important thing, although the possession could not but lead to the practice (38). All emotion he regarded as unnatural and immoral (38, 39). In physics he discarded the fifth element, and believed fire to be the universal substance, while he would not allow the existence of anything incorporeal (39). In dialectic he analysed sensation into two parts, an impulse from without, and a succeeding judgment of the mind, in passing which the will was entirely free (40). Sensations (visa) he divided into the true and the untrue; if the examination gone through by the mind proved irrefragably the truth of a sensation he called it Knowledge, if otherwise, Ignorance (41). Perception, thus defined, he regarded as morally neither right nor wrong but as the sole ultimate basis of truth. Rashness in giving assent to phenomena, and all other defects in the application to them of the reason he thought could not coexist with virtue and perfect wisdom (42).
§33. Haec erat illis forma: so Madv. Em. 118 for MSS. prima, comparing formulam in 17, also D.F. IV. 19, V. 9, T.D. III. 38, to which add Ac. I. 23. See other em. in Halm. Goer. proposes to keep the MSS. reading and supply pars, as usual. His power of supplying is unlimited. There is a curious similarity between the difficulties involved in the MSS. readings in 6, 15, 32 and here. Immutationes: so Dav. for disputationes, approved by Madv. Em. 119 who remarks that the phrase disputationes philosophiae would not be Latin. The em. is rendered almost certain by mutavit in 40, commutatio in 42, and De Leg. I. 38. Halm's odd em. dissupationes, so much admired by his reviewer in Schneidewin's Philologus, needs support, which it certainly does not receive from the one passage Halm quotes, De Or. III. 207. Et recte: for the et cf. et merito, which begins one of Propertius' elegies. Auctoritas: "system". Inquit: sc. Atticus of course. Goer., on account of the omission of igitur after Aristoteles, supposes Varro's speech to begin here. To the objection that Varro (who in 8 says nihil enim meorum magno opere miror) would not eulogise himself quite so unblushingly, Goer. feebly replies that the eulogy is meant for Antiochus, whom Varro is copying. Aristoteles: after this the copyist of Halm's G. alone, and evidently on his own conjecture, inserts igitur, which H. adopts. Varro's resumption of his exposition is certainly abrupt, but if chapter IX. ought to begin here, as Halm supposes, a reader would not be much incommoded. Labefactavit, that Antiochus still continued to include Aristotle in the supposed old Academico-Peripatetic school can only be explained by the fact that he considered ethical resemblances as of supreme importance, cf. the strong statement of Varro in Aug. XIX. 1 nulla est causa philosophandi nisi finis boni. Divinum: see R. and P. 210 for a full examination of the relation in which Plato's ιδεαι stand to his notion of the deity. Suavis: his constant epithet, see Gellius qu. R. and P. 327. His real name was not Theophrastus, he was called so from his style (cf. loquendi nitor ille divinus, Quint. X. 1, 83). For suavis of style cf. Orat. 161, Brut. 120. Negavit: for his various offences see D.F. V. 12 sq., T.D. V. 25, 85. There is no reason to suppose that he departed very widely from the Aristotelian ethics; we have here a Stoic view of him transmitted through Antiochus. In II. 134 Cic. speaks very differently of him. Between the particular tenet here mentioned and that of Antiochus in 22 the difference is merely verbal. Beate vivere: the only translation of ευδαιμονιαν. Cic. N.D. I. 95 suggests beatitas and beatitudo but does not elsewhere employ them.
§34. Strato: see II. 121. The statement in the text is not quite true for Diog. V. 58, 59 preserves the titles of at least seven ethical works, while Stob. II. 6, 4 quotes his definition of the αγαθον. Diligenter ... tuebantur: far from true as it stands, Polemo was an inchoate Stoic, cf. Diog. Laert. IV. 18, Ac. II. 131, D.F. II. 34, and R. and P. Congregati: "all in the Academic fold," cf. Lael. 69, in nostro, ut ita dicam, grege. Of Crates and Crantor little is known. Polemonem ... Zeno et Arcesilas: scarcely true, for Polemo was merely one of Zeno's many teachers (Diog. VII. 2, 3), while he is not mentioned by Diog. at all among the teachers of Arcesilas. The fact is that we have a mere theory, which accounts for the split of Stoicism from Academicism by the rivalry of two fellow pupils. Cf. Numenius in Euseb. Praep. Ev. XIV. 5, συμφοιτωντες παρα Πολεμωνι εφιλο τιμηθησαν. Dates are against the theory, see Zeller 500.
§35. Anteiret aetate: Arcesilas was born about 315, Zeno about 350, though the dates are uncertain. Dissereret: was a deep reasoner. Bentl. missing the meaning conj. definiret. Peracute moveretur: Bentl. partiretur; this with definiret above well illustrates his licence in emendations. Halm ought not to have doubted the soundness of the text, the words refer not to the emotional, but to the intellectual side of Zeno's nature. The very expression occurs Ad Fam. XV. 21, 4, see other close parallels in n. on II. 37. Nervos ... inciderit: same metaphor in Philipp. XII. 8, cf. also T.D. II. 27 nervos virtutis elidere, III. 83 stirpis aegritudinis elidere. (In both these passages Madv. Em. Liv. 135 reads elegere for elidere, I cannot believe that he is right). Plato uses νευρα εκτεμνειν metaphorically. Notice inciderit but poneret. There is no need to alter (as Manut., Lamb., Dav.) for the sequence is not uncommon in Cic., e.g. D.F. III. 33. Omnia, quae: MSS. quaeque, which edd. used to take for quaecunque. Cf. Goerenz's statement "negari omnino nequit hac vi saepius pronomen illud reperiri" with Madvig's utter refutation in the sixth Excursus to his D.F. Solum et unum bonum: for the Stoic ethics the student must in general consult R. and P. and Zeller for himself. I can only treat such points as are involved in the special difficulties of the Academica.
§36. Cetera: Stoic αδιαφορα, the presence or absence of which cannot affect happiness. The Stoics loudly protested against their being called either bona or mala, and this question was one of the great battle grounds of the later Greek philosophy. Secundum naturam ... contraria: Gr. κατα φυσιν, παρα φυσιν. His ipsis ... numerabat: I see no reason for placing this sentence after the words quae minoris below (with Christ) or for suspecting its genuineness (with Halm). The word media is the Gk. μεσα, which word however is not usually applied to things, but to actions. Sumenda: Gk. ληπτα. Aestimatione: αξια, positive value. Contraque contraria: Cic. here as in D.F. III. 50 feels the need of a word to express απαξια (negative value). (Madv. in his note on that passage coins the word inaestimatio.) Ponebat esse: cf. 19, M.D.F. V. 73.
§37. To cope thoroughly with the extraordinary difficulties of this section the student must read the whole of the chapters on Stoic ethics in Zeller and Ritter and Preller. There is no royal road to the knowledge, which it would be absurd to attempt to convey in these notes. Assuming a general acquaintance with Stoic ethics, I set out the difficulties thus: Cic. appears at first sight to have made the αποπροηγμενα a subdivision of the ληπτα (sumenda), the two being utterly different. I admit, with Madv. (D.F. III. 50), that there is no reason for suspecting the text to be corrupt, the heroic remedy of Dav., therefore, who reads media in the place of sumenda, must be rejected. Nor can anything be said for Goerenz's plan, who distorts the Stoic philosophy in order to save Cicero's consistency. On the other hand, I do not believe that Cic. could so utterly misunderstand one of the cardinal and best known doctrines of Stoicism, as to think even for a moment that the αποπροηγμενα formed a branch of the ληπτα. This view of Madvig's is strongly opposed to the fact that Cic. in 36 had explained with perfect correctness the Stoic theory of the αδιαφορα, nor is there anywhere in the numerous passages where he touches on the theory any trace of the same error. My explanation is that Cic. began with the intention to speak of the sumenda only and then rapidly extended his thought so as to embrace the whole class of αδιαφορα, which he accordingly dealt with in the latter part of the same sentence and in the succeeding sentence. (The remainder has its own difficulties, which I defer for the present.) Cic. therefore is chargeable not with ignorance of Stoicism but with careless writing. A striking parallel occurs in D.F. III. 52, quae secundum locum obtinent, προηγμενα id est producta nominentur, quae vel ita appellemus, vel promota et remota. If this language be closely pressed, the αποπροηγμενα are made of a subdivision of the προηγμενα, though no sensible reader would suppose Cic. to have had that intention. So if his words in D.F. V. 90 be pressed, the sumenda are made to include both producta and reducta, in D.F. III. 16 appeterent includes fugerent, ibid. II. 86 the opposite of beata vita is abruptly introduced. So D.F. II. 88 frui dolore must be construed together, and ibid. II. 73 pudor modestia pudicitia are said coerceri, the writer's thoughts having drifted on rapidly to the vices which are opposite to these virtues.
I now pass on to a second class of difficulties. Supposing that by ex iis Cic. means mediis, and not sumendis, about which he had intended to talk when he began the sentence; I believe that pluris aestimanda and minoris aestimanda simply indicate the αξια and απαξια of the Greek, not different degrees of αξια (positive value). That minor aestimatio should mean απαξια need not surprise us when we reflect (1) on the excessive difficulty there was in expressing this απαξια or negative value in Latin, a difficulty I have already observed on 36; (2) on the strong negative meaning which minor bears in Latin, e.g. sin minus in Cic. means "but if not." Even the Greeks fall victims to the task of expressing απαξια. Stobaeus, in a passage closely resembling ours makes ελαττων αξια equivalent to πολλη απαξια (II. 6, 6), while Sext. Emp. after rightly defining αποπροηγμενα as τα ‛ικανην απαξιαν εχοντα (Adv. Math. XI. 62—64) again speaks of them as τα μη ‛ικανην εχοντα αξιαν (Pyrrhon. Hypot. III. 191) words which usually have an opposite meaning. Now I contend that Cicero's words minoris aestimanda bear quite as strong a negative meaning as the phrase of Sextus, τα μη ‛ικανην αξιαν εχοντα. I therefore conclude that Cicero has striven, so far as the Latin language allowed, to express the Stoic doctrine that, of the αδιαφορα, some have αξια while others have απαξια. He may fairly claim to have applied to his words the rule "re intellecta in verborum usu faciles esse debemus" (D.F. III. 52). There is quite as good ground for accusing Sextus and Stobaeus of misunderstanding the Stoics as there is for accusing Cicero. There are difficulties connected with the terms ‛ικανη αξια and ‛ικανη απαξια which are not satisfactorily treated in the ordinary sources of information; I regret that my space forbids me to attempt the elucidation of them. The student will find valuable aid in the notes of Madv. on the passages of the D.F. quoted in this note. Non tam rebus quam vocabulis: Cic. frequently repeats this assertion of Antiochus, who, having stolen the clothes of the Stoics, proceeded to prove that they had never properly belonged to the Stoics at all. Inter recte factum atque peccatum: Stob. speaks II. 6, 6 of τα μεταξυ αρετης και κακιας. (This does not contradict his words a little earlier, II. 6, 5, αρετης δε και κακιας ουδεν μεταξυ, which have regard to divisions of men, not of actions. Diog. Laert., however, VII. 127, distinctly contradicts Cic. and Stob., see R. and P. 393.) Recte factum = κατορθωμα, peccatum = ‛αμαρτημα, officium = καθηκον (cf. R. and P. 388—394, Zeller 238—248, 268—272). Servata praetermissaque: MSS. have et before servata, which all edd. since Lamb. eject. Where et and que correspond in Cic., the que is always an afterthought, added in oblivion of the et. With two nouns, adjectives, adverbs, or participles, this oblivion is barely possible, but when the conjunctions go with separate clauses it is possible. Cf. 43 and M.D.F. V. 64.