The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations Part 33

"In consequence of the letter which you wrote to me about Varro, I have taken the Academy entirely out of the hands of those distinguished persons, and transferred it to our friend. And from two books I have made it into four. These are longer than the others were, though there are several parts left out.... In truth, if my self-love does not deceive me, these books have come out in such a manner that there is nothing of the same kind like them even in Greek."-Ep. 13.

"I have transferred the whole of that Academical Treatise to Varro.

It had at first been divided among Catulus, Lucullus, and Hortensius. Afterwards, as this appeared unsuitable, owing to those persons being, not indeed unlearned, but notoriously unversed in such subjects, as soon as I got home I transferred those dialogues to Cato and Brutus. Your letter about Varro has just reached me, and there is no one by whom the opinions of Antiochus could be more fitly supported."-Ep. 16.

"I had determined to include no living persons in my dialogues; but since you inform me that Varro is desirous of it, and sets a great value upon it, I have composed this work, and completed the whole Academical Discussion in four books; I know not how well, but with such care that nothing can exceed it. In these, what had been excellently collected by Antiochus against the doctrine of incomprehensibility, I have attributed to Varro; to this I reply in my own person, and you are the third in our conversation. If I had made Cotta and Varro disputing with one another, as you suggest in your last letter, my own would have been a mute character....

"The Academics, as you know, I had discussed in the persons of Catulus, Lucullus, and Hortensius; but in truth the subject did not suit their characters, being more logical than what they could be supposed ever to have dreamt of. Therefore, when I read your letter to Varro, I seized on it as a sort of inspiration. Nothing could be more adapted to that species of philosophy in which he seems to take particular delight; or to the support of such a part that I could manage to avoid making my own sentiments predominant. For the opinions of Antiochus are extremely persuasive, and are so carefully expressed as to retain the acuteness of Antiochus with my own brilliancy of language, if indeed I possess any."-Ep. 19.

The Antiochus mentioned above was a native of Ascalon, and the founder of the fifth Academy; he had been the teacher of Cicero while he studied at Athens; and he had also a school in Syria and another in Alexandria. Cicero constantly speaks of him with great regard and esteem. The leaders of the Academy since the time of Plato, (and Cicero ranks even him among those philosophers who denied the certainty of any kind of knowledge,) had gradually fallen into a degree of scepticism that seemed to strike at the root of all truth, theoretical and practical. But Antiochus professed to revive the doctrines of the old Academy, maintaining, in opposition to Carneades and Philo, that the intellect had in itself a test by which it could distinguish between what was real and what existed only in the imagination. He himself appears to have held doctrines very nearly coinciding with those of Aristotle; agreeing however so far with the Stoics as to insist that all emotions ought to be suppressed. So that Cicero almost inclines to cla.s.s him among the Stoics; though it appears that he considered himself as an Eclectic philosopher, uniting the doctrines of the Stoics and Academics so as to revive the old Academy.

2 t.i.tus Pomponius Atticus was three years older than Cicero, with whom he had been educated, and with whom he always continued on terms of the greatest intimacy; his daughter was married to Agrippa. He was of the Epicurean school in philosophy. He died B.C. 32.

3 Marcus Terentius Varro was ten years older than Cicero, and a man of the most extensive and profound learning. He had held a naval command against the pirates, and against Mithridates, and served as lieutenant to Pompey in Spain, at the beginning of the civil war, adhering to his party till after the battle of Pharsalia, when he was pardoned, and taken into favour by Caesar. He was proscribed by the second triumvirate, but escaped, and died B.C. 28. He was a very voluminous author, and according to his own account composed four hundred and ninety books; but only one, the three books De Re Rustica, have come down to us, and a portion of a large treatise De Lingua Latina.

In philosophy he had been a pupil of Antiochus, and attached himself to the Academy with something of a leaning to the Stoics.

4 Amafanius was one of the earliest Roman writers of the Epicurean school. He is mentioned by no one but Cicero.

5 We do not know who this Rabirius was.

6 Lucius aelius Praeconinus Stilo was a Roman knight, and one of the earliest grammarians of Rome. Cicero in the Brutus describes him as a very learned man in both Greek and Roman literature; and especially in old Latin works. He had been a teacher of Varro in grammar, and of Cicero himself in rhetoric. He received the name of Stilo from his compositions; and of Praeconinus because his father had been a herald.

7 Menippus was originally a slave, a native of Gadara in Cle Syria, and a pupil of Diogenes the Cynic. He became very rich by usury, afterwards he lost his money and committed suicide. He wrote nothing serious, but his books were entirely full of jests. We have some fragments of Varro's Satyrae Menippeae, which were written, as we are here told, in imitation of Menippus.

8 Cicero ranges these poets here in chronological order.

Ennius was born at Rudiae in Calabria, B.C. 239, of a very n.o.ble family. He was brought to Rome by M. Porcius Cato at the end of the second Punic war. His plays were all translations or adaptations from the Greek; but he also wrote a poetical history of Rome called Annales, in eighteen books, and a poem on his friend Scipio Africa.n.u.s; some Satires, Epigrams, and one or two philosophical poems. Only a few lines of his works remain to us. He died at the age of seventy.

Pacuvius was a native of Brundusium, and a relation, probably a nephew, of Ennius. He was born about B.C. 220, and lived to about the year B.C. 130. His works were nearly entirely tragedies translated from the Greek. Horace, distinguishing between him and Accius, says-

"Aufert Pacuvius docti famam senis; Accius alti."-Epist. II. i. 55.

9 From pe??pat??, to walk.

10 This Lucius Lucullus was the son of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, who was praetor B.C. 103, and was appointed by the senate to take the command in Sicily, where there was a formidable insurrection of the slaves under Athenion and Tryphon. He was not however successful, and was recalled; and subsequently prosecuted by Servilius for bribery and malversation, convicted and banished. The exact time of the birth of this Lucullus his son is not known, but was probably about B.C. 109. His first appearance in public life was prosecuting Servilius, who had now become an augur, on a criminal charge, (which is what Cicero alludes to here.) And though the trial terminated in the acquittal of Servilius, yet the part Lucullus took in it appears to have added greatly to his credit among his contemporaries. The special law in his favour mentioned a few lines lower down, was pa.s.sed by Sylla with whom Lucullus was in high favour; so much so that Sylla at his death confided to him the charge of revising and correcting his Commentaries. Cicero's statement of his perfect inexperience in military affairs before the war against Mithridates is not quite correct, as he had served with distinction in the Marsic war. The time of his death is not certainly known, but Cicero speaks of him as dead in the Oration concerning the consular provinces, delivered B.C. 56, while he was certainly alive B.C. 59, in which year he was charged by L. Vettius with an imaginary plot against the life of Pompey. His second wife was Servilia, half-sister to Cato Uticensis.

11 From s????, a heap.

12 From ???? an ant.

13 It is not even known to what work Cicero is referring here.

14 In the Heautontimorumenos. Act i. Sc. 1.

15 Caecilius Statius was the predecessor of Terence; by birth an Insubrian Gaul and a native of Milan. He died B.C. 165, two years before the representation of the Andria of Terence. He was considered by the Romans as a great master of the art of exciting the feelings. And Cicero (de Opt. Gen. Dic. 1.) speaks of him as the chief of the Roman Comic writers. Horace says-

Vincere Caecilius gravitate, Terentius arte.

16 Marcus Atilius, (though Cicero speaks of him here as a tragedian,) was chiefly celebrated as a comic poet. He was one of the earliest writers of that cla.s.s; but nothing of his has come down to us. In another place Cicero calls him "duris simusscriptor." (Epist. ad Att. xiv. 20.)

17 Diogenes was a pupil of Chrysippus, and succeeded Zeno of Tarsus as the head of the Stoic school at Athens. He was one of the emba.s.sy sent to Rome by the Athenians, B.C. 155, and is supposed to have died almost immediately afterwards.

18 Antipater was a native of Tarsus, and the pupil and successor of Diogenes. Cicero speaks in very high terms of his genius. (De Off.

iii. 12.)

19 Mnesarchus was a pupil of Panaetius and the teacher of Antiochus of Ascalon.

20 Panaetius was a Rhodian, a pupil of Diogenes and Antipater, which last he succeeded as head of the Stoic school. He was a friend of P.

Scipio aemilia.n.u.s, and accompanied him on his emba.s.sy to the kings of Egypt and Asia in alliance with Rome. He died before B.C. 111.

21 Posidonius was a native of Apamea, in Egypt, a pupil of Panaetius, and a contemporary of Cicero. He came to Rome B.C. 51, having been sent there as amba.s.sador from Rhodes in the time of Marius.

22 Lucius Afranius lived about 100 B.C. His comedies were chiefly _togatae_, depicting Roman life; he borrowed largely from Menander, to whom the Romans compared him. Horace says-

Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro.

Cicero praises his language highly (Brut. 45).

23 Caius Lucilius was the earliest of the Roman satirists, born at Suessa Aurunca, B.C. 148; he died at Naples, B.C. 103. He served under Scipio in the Numantine war. He was a very vehement and bold satirist. Cicero alludes here to a saying of his, which he mentions more expressly (De Orat. ii.), that he did not wish the ignorant to read his works because they could not understand them: nor the learned because they would be able to criticise them.

Persium non curo legere: Laelium Decimum volo.

This Persius being a very learned man; in comparison with whom Laelius was an ignoramus.

24 Polyaenus, the son of Athenodorus was a native of Lampsacus: he was a friend of Epicurus, and though he had previously obtained a high reputation as a mathematician, he was persuaded by him at last to agree with him as to the worthlessness of geometry.

25 Hieronymus was a disciple of Aristotle and a contemporary of Arcesilaus. He lived down to the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus.

26 Trabea was a Roman comic poet, who flourished about 130 B.C.

27 Dark, obscure.

28 We know nothing more of Callipho than what we derive from this and one or two other notices of him by Cicero.

29 The Hymnis was a comedy of Menander, translated by Caecilius.

30 It is hardly possible to translate this so as to give the force of the original. Cicero says, If _cupiditas_ is in a man he must be _cupidus_, and we have no English word which will at all answer to this adjective in this sense.

31 The Latin is "quic.u.m in tenebris,"-the proverb at full length being, "Dignus quic.u.m in tenebris mices." Micare was a game played, (much the same as that now called _La Mora_ in Italy,) by extending the fingers and making the antagonist guess how many fingers were extended by the two together.

32 This was Quintus Pompeius, the first man who raised his family to importance at Rome. He was consul B.C. 141. Being commander in Spain, he laid siege to Numantia; and having lost great numbers of his troops through cold and disease, he proposed to the Numantines to come to terms. Publicly he required of them an unconditional surrender, but in private he only demanded the restoration of the prisoners and deserters, that they should give hostages and pay thirty talents. The Numantines agreed to this, and paid part of the money, but when Popilius Laenas arrived in Spain as his successor, he denied the treaty, though it had been witnessed by his own officers.

The matter was referred to the senate, who on the evidence of Pompeius declared the treaty invalid, and the war was renewed.

33 The Voconia lex was pa.s.sed on the proposal of Quintus Voconius Saxa, one of the tribunes, B.C. 169. One of its provisions was, that a woman could not be left the heiress of any person who was rated in the census at 100,000 sesterces; though she could take the inheritance _per fidei commissum_. But as the law applied only to wills, a daughter could inherit from a father dying intestate, whatever the amount of his property might be. A person who was not _census_ could make a woman his heir. There is, however, a good deal of obscurity and uncertainty as to some of the provisions of this law.

34 There appears to be some corruption in the text here.

35 Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus, the father of Lucretia, was made consul as the colleague of Valerius Publicola, in the place of Brutus, who had been slain in battle by Aruns, one of the sons of Tarquin.