Cato Maior de Senectute with Introduction and Notes · Marcus Tullius Cicero
NOTES TO CATO MAIOR.
Audaciter_ is of importance as showing that _c_ before _i_ must have been pronounced just like _c_ in any other position, not as in modern Italian. -- CERTIS SENSIBUS: Acad. 2, 19 _integris incorruptisque sensibus_. -- IPSA ... QUAE: see n. on 26. H. 569, I. 2. -- COAGMENTAVIT: Cic. is fond of such metaphors; cf. Orat. 77 _verba verbis quasi coagmentari_; Phil. 7, 21 _docebo ne coagmentari quidem pacem posse_ ('that no patched-up peace can be made'). -- CONGLUTINAVIT: a still more favorite metaphor than _coagmentare_. Cic. has _conglutinare rem _ (Or. 1, 188); _amicitias_ (Lael. 32 and Att. 7, 8, 1); _voluntates_ (Fam. 11, 27, 2); _concordiam_. (Att. 1, 17, 10); in Phil. 3, 28 Cic. says of Antony that he is _totus ex vitiis conglutinatus_. -- IAM: 'further', so below. -- CONGLUTINATIO: the noun occurs only here and Orat. 78 _c. verborum_. -- RELIQUUM: not infrequently, as here, used substantively with an adjective modifier. -- SINE CAUSA: 'without sufficient reason'.
73. VETAT PYTHAGORAS etc.: the passage is from Plato, Phaedo 61 A-62 C. Plato makes Socrates there profess to quote Philolaus, the Pythagorean; Cic. therefore refers the doctrine to Pythagoras Cf. Tusc. 1, 74; Rep. 6, 15. The Stoics held the same view about suicide, which they authorized in extreme cases, but much less freely than is commonly supposed; cf. Sen. Ep. 117, 22 _nihil mihi videtur turpius quam optare mortem_. See Zeller, Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, Ch. 12, C (2); cf. also Lecky, Hist. of European Morals, I. p. 228 _et seq_. (Am. ed.) -- IMPERATORIS ... PRAESIDIO: here Cic. seems to understand Plato's φρουραι as referring to warfare; in Tusc. and Rep. he understands it of a prison. -- SAPIENTIS: Solon was one of the 'Seven Sages of Greece'. -- ELOGIUM: the distich is preserved by Plutarch, and runs thus: μηδε μοι ακλαυστος θανατος μολοι, αλλα φιλοισι Καλλειποιμι θανων αλγεα και στοναχας. Cic. thus translates it in Tusc. 1, 117 _Mors mea ne careat lacrimis, linquamus amicis Maerorem, ut celebrent funera cum gemitu_. The epitaph of Ennius is also quoted there and is declared to be better than that of Solon (cf. Tusc. 1, 34). -- VOLT SE ESSE CARUM: 'he wishes to make out that he is beloved'; _volt esse carus_ would have had quite a different sense. Cf. Fin. 5, 13 _Strato physicum se volt_, with Madvig's n. -- HAUD SCIO AN: see n. on 56. -- FAXIT: the subject is _quisquam_ understood from _nemo_. For the form see A. 142, 128, _e_, 3; G. 191, 5; H. 240, 4. The end of the epitaph is omitted here as in Tusc. 1, 117, but is given in Tusc. 1, 34 _cur? volito vivas per ora virum_. Notice the alliteration.
74. ISQUE: cf. n. on 13 _vixitque_. -- AUT OPTANDUS AUT NULLUS: cf. 66 _aut neglegenda ... aut optanda; nullus_ almost = _non_ as in 67, but only in the Letters does Cic. (imitating Plautus and the other dramatists) attach _nullus_ in this sense to the name of a particular person; _e.g._ Att. 11, 24, 4 _Philotimus nullus venit_. -- SED ... ESSE: 'but we must con this lesson from our youth up'. For the passive sense of _meditatum_ cf. n. on 4 _adeptam_. In Tusc. 1, 74 Cic., imitating Plato, says _tota philosophorum vita commentatio mortis est_. So Seneca, _tota vita discendum est mori_. -- SINE QUA ... NEMO POTEST: these words bring the position of Cicero with regard to death wonderfully near that of Lucretius: the latter argues that for peace of mind one must believe '_nullum esse sensum post mortem_'; the former's lesson is '_aut nullum esse sensum aut optandum_'. -- TIMENS: = _si quis timet_; the subject of _poterit_ is the indefinite _quis_ involved in _timens_. A. 310, _a_; G. 670; H. 549, 2. -- QUI: = _quo modo_, as in 4. -- ANIMO CONSISTERE: so in pro Quint. 77; also _mente consistere_ in Phil. 2, 68; Div. 2, 149; Q. Fr. 2, 3, 2 _neque mente neque lingua neque ore consistere_. The word is, literally, 'to stand firm', 'to get a firm foothold'.
P. 31. -- 75. L. BRUTUM: fell in single combat with Aruns, son of the exiled Tarquin; see Liv. 2, 6. The accusatives _Brutum_ etc. are not the objects of _recorder_ but the subjects of infinitives to be supplied from _profectas_. -- DUOS DECIOS: see n. on 43. -- CURSUM EQUORUM: the word _equos_ would have been sufficient; but this kind of pleonasm is common in Latin; see n. on Lael. 30 _causae diligendi_. -- ATILIUS: _i.e._ Regulus, whose story is too well known to need recounting. There are many contradictions and improbabilities about it. -- SCIPIONES: see n. on 29. In Paradoxa 1, 12 Cic. says of them _Carthaginiensium adventum corporibus suis intercludendum putaverunt_. -- POENIS: on the dat. see A. 235, _a_; H. 384, 4, n. 2. -- PAULUM: n. on 29 _L. Aemilius_. -- COLLEGAE: M. Terentius Varro. There is no reason to suppose that he was a worse general than many other Romans who met Hannibal and were beaten; the early historians, being all aristocrats, fixed the disgrace of Cannae on the democratic consul. Varro's contemporaries were more just to him. Far from reproaching him, the Senate commended his spirit, and several times afterwards entrusted him with important business. -- MARCELLUM: the captor of Syracuse in 212 B.C. He fell into an ambush in 208 and was killed; Hannibal buried him with military honors. -- CUIUS INTERITUM: abstract for concrete = _quem, post interitum_. -- CRUDELISSIMUS HOSTIS: this, the traditional Roman view of Hannibal, is the reverse of the truth, so far as extant testimony goes. See Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, Bk. III. Ch. 4; Ihne, Hist. of Rome, Bk. IV. -- SED ... ARBITRARENTUR: these words are almost exactly repeated in Tusc. 1, 89 and 101. -- RUSTICI: cf. Arch. 24 _nostri illi fortes viri sed rustici ac milites_; also above, 24.
76. OMNINO: see n. on 9. -- NUM IGITUR etc.: cf. 33 _nisi forte et seq._ -- CONSTANS: cf. n. on 33. -- NE ... QUIDEM: see n. on 27. -- SATIETAS VITAE: cf. 85 _senectus autem et seq._, and _satietas vivendi_ in pro Marc. 27; also Tusc. 1, 109 _vita acta perficiat ut satis superque vixisse videamur_. 77. CERNERE: of the mind also in 82. With the context cf. Div. 1, 63 _animus appropinquante morte multo est divinior; facilius evenit appropinquante morte ut animi futura augurentur_. -- VESTROS PATRES: n. on 15. The elder Laelius was prominent both as general and as statesman. He commanded the fleet which co-operated with Scipio Africanus in Spain and afterwards served with honor in Africa. He was an intimate friend of Cato. See Liv. 26, 42 _et seq._ -- TUQUE: so in Lael. 100 _C. Fanni et tu, Q. Muci_; but above, 4 and 9 simply _Scipio et Laeli_. -- QUAE EST SOLA VITA: cf. n. on _vitam nullam_ in 7. -- NAM DUM SUMUS etc.: the whole of this doctrine is Platonic; cf. Lael. 13. -- MUNERE NECESSITATIS ET ... OPERE: 'function and task allotted as by fate'.
P. 32. -- IMMORTALIS: Cicero rarely mentions the gods without this epithet. -- SPARSISSE: Horace calls the soul _divinae particulam aurae_. -- TUERENTUR: rule, or guard, or care for. Most editors wrongly take _tuerentur_ to be for _intuerentur_, 'to look upon', and regard it as an intentional archaism. But cf. Rep. 6, 15 (where no archaism can be intended): _homines sunt hac lege generati, qui tuerentur illum globum quae terra vocatur_; also _tuentur_ below in 82. -- CONTEMPLANTES IMITARENTUR: perhaps more Stoic than Platonic; the Stoics laid great stress on the ethical value of a contemplation and imitation of the order of the universe. Cf. N.D. 2, 37 _ipse homo ortus est ad mundum contemplandum et imitandum_; Sen. Dial. 8, 5, 1 _Natura nos ad utrumque genuit, et contemplationi rerum et actioni_. -- MODO: here _modus_ seems to be the Platonic το μετριον, or perhaps a reminiscence of the Aristotelian doctrine of the mean (n. on 46). Translate 'in moderation and consistency of life'; and cf. Off. 1, 93 _rerum modus_ 'moderation in all things'. For _constantia_ see n. on 4. -- ITA: cf. n. on 16 _et tamen sic_.
78. PYTHAGORAN: see n. to 23. No ancient philosopher held more firmiy than Pythagoras to belief in the immortality of the soul; it formed a part of his doctrine of Metempsychosis. He was also noted for his numerical speculations in Astronomy and Music. With him is said to have originated the doctrine of the 'harmony of the spheres'. -- QUI ESSENT: 'inasmuch as they were'. Cicero often tries to make out a connection between Pythagoras and the early Romans; cf. Tusc. 4, 2; also Liv. 1, 18. -- EX UNIVERSA MENTE: the world-soul. Diog. Laert 8 gives as Pythagorean the doctrine ψυχην ειναι αποσπασμα του αιθερος και αθανατον. Similar doctrines occur in Plato and the Stoics; cf. Div. 1, 110 _a qua (i.e. a natura deorum) ut doctissimis sapientissimisque placuit, haustos animos et libatos habemus_; Tusc. 5, 38 _humanus animus decerptus ex mente divina_; Sen. Dial. 12, 6, 7. -- HABEREMUS: imperfect where the English requires the present. A. 287, _d_; H. 495, V. -- SOCRATES: in Plato's Phaedo. -- IMMORTALITATE ANIMORUM: this is commoner than _immortalitas animi_, for 'the immortality of the soul'; so Lael. 14; Tusc. 1, 80 _aeternitas animorum_. -- DISSERUISSET: subjunctive because involving the statements of some other person than the speaker.
A. 341, _c_; G. 630; H. 528, 1. -- IS QUI ESSET etc.: 'a man great enough to have been declared wisest'. See n. on Lael. 7 _Apollinis ... iudicatum_. -- SIC: cf. _ita_ above. -- CELERITAS ANIMORUM: the ancients pictured to themselves the mind as a substance capable of exceedingly rapid movement; cf. Tusc. 1, 43 _nulla est celeritas quae possit cum animi celeritate contendere_. -- TANTAE SCIENTIAE: as the plural of _scientia_ is almost unknown in classical Latin, recent editors take _scientiae_ here as genitive, 'so many arts requiring so much knowledge'. In favor of this interpretation are such passages as Acad. 2, 146 _artem sine scientia esse non posse_; Fin. 5, 26 _ut omnes artes in aliqua scientia versentur_. Yet in De Or. 1, 61 _physica ista et mathematica et quae paulo ante ceterarum artium propria posuisti, scientiae sunt eorum qui illa profitentur_ it is very awkward to take _scientiae_ as genitive. -- CUMQUE SEMPER etc.: this argument is copied very closely from Plato's Phaedrus, 245 C. -- PRINCIPIUM MOTUS: αρχη κινησεως in Plato. -- SE IPSE: cf. n. on 4 _a se ipsi_. -- CUM SIMPLEX etc: from Plato's Phaedo, 78-80. The general drift of the argument is this: material things decay because they are compounded of parts that fall asunder; there is nothing to show that the soul is so compounded; therefore no reason to believe that it will so decay. Notice the imperfects _esset ... haberet ... posset_ accommodated to the tense of _persuasi_ above, although the other subjunctives in the sentence are not; cf. n. on 42 _efficeret_. -- NEQUE ... DISSIMILE: in modern phraseology the whole of this clause would be briefly expressed thus, -- 'and was homogeneous'. -- POSSET: _quod si_ ='whereas if', the subject of _posset_ being _animus_, and _dividi_ being understood. -- MAGNO ARGUMENTO: ‛ικανον τεκμηριον in Pl. Phaed.
72 A. Belief in the immortality of the soul naturally follows the acceptance of the doctrine of pre-existence. -- HOMINES SCIRE etc.: See Plato, Phaedo, 72 E-73 B. The notion that the souls of men existed before the bodies with which they are connected has been held in all ages and has often found expression in literature. The English poets have not infrequently alluded to it. See Wordsworth's Ode on the Intimations of Immortality from the Recollections of Early Childhood, 'Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting' etc.; also, in Tennyson's Two Voices the passage beginning, -- 'Yet how should I for certain hold, Because my memory is so cold, That I first was in human mould?' REMINISCI ET RECORDARI: a double translation of Plato's αναμιμνησκεσθαι, quite in Cicero's fashion; the former word implies a momentary act, the latter one of some duration. -- HAEC PLATONIS FERE: 'so far Plato'. 79. APUD XENOPHONTEM: Cyropaedia, 8, 7, 17; for _apud_ cf. 30; when Cic. says that a passage is 'in' a certain author (not naming the book) he uses _apud_, not _in_. -- MAIOR: 'the elder'; cf. 59 _Cyrum minorem_. -- NOLITE ARBITRARI: a common periphrasis. A. 269, _a_, 2; G. 264, II.; H. 489, I. -- DUM ERAM: the imperfect with _dum_ is not common; see Roby, 1458, _c_; A. 276, _e_, n.; G. 572, 571; H. 519, I., 467, 4 with n.
P. 33. -- 80. NEC ... TENEREMUS: the souls of the dead continue to exert an influence on the living, or else their fame would not remain; a weak argument. -- MIHI ... POTUIT: cf. 82 _nemo ... persuadebit_. -- VIVERE ... EMORI: adversative asyndeton. -- INSIPIENTEM: in Xen. αφρων, _i.e._ without power of thinking. -- SED: 'but rather that ...'. -- HOMINIS NATURA: a periphrasis for _homo_; cf. Fin. 5, 33 _intellegant, si quando naturam hominis dicam, hominem dicere me; nihil enim hoc differt_. -- NIHIL ... SOMNUM: poets and artists from Homer (Il. 16, 682) onwards have pictured death as sleep's brother. Cf. Lessing, How the Ancients Represented Death. 81. ATQUI: see n. on 6. -- DORMIENTIUM ANIMI etc.: see Div. 1, 60 where a passage of similar import is translated from Plato's Republic IX; ib. 115. -- REMISSI ET LIBERI: cf. Div. 1, 113 _animus solutus ac vacuus_; De Or. 2, 193 _animo leni ac remisso_. -- CORPORIS: the singular, though _animi_ precedes; so in Lael. 13; Tusc. 2, 12, etc. -- PULCHRITUDINEM: κοσμον; Cic. translates it by _ornatus_ in Acad. 2, 119 where _hic ornatus_ corresponds to _hic mundus_ a little earlier. -- TUENTUR: see n. on 77 _tuerentur_. -- SERVABITIS: future for imperative. A. 269, _f_; G. 265, 1; H. 487, 4.
82. CYRUS etc.: see n. on 78. -- SI PLACET: cf. n. on 6 _nisi molestum est_. -- NOSTRA: = _Romana = domestica_ in 12. -- NEMO etc.: this line of argument is often repeated in Cic.; see Tusc. 1, 32 _et seq._; Arch. 29. -- DUOS AVOS ... PATRUUM: see nn. on 29. -- MULTOS: _sc. alios_. -- ESSE CONATOS: loosely put for _fuisse conaturos_, as below, _suscepturum fuisse_. So in the direct narration we might have, though exceptionally, _non conabantur nisi cernerent_ for _non conati essent nisi vidissent_. -- CERNERENT: see n. on 13 quaereretur. -- UT ... GLORIER: in Arch. 30 Cic. makes the same reflections in almost the same words about his own achievements. -- ALIQUID: see n. on 1 _quid_. P. 34. -- SI ISDEM etc.: cf. Arch. 29 _si nihil animus praesentiret ... dimicaret_. -- AETATEM: = _vitam_. -- TRADUCERE: cf. Tusc. 3, 25 _volumus hoc quod datum est vitae tranquille placideque traducere_. -- NESCIO QUO MODO: A. 210, _f_, Rem.; G. 469, Rem. 2; H. 529, 5, 3). -- ERIGENS SE: Acad. 2, 127 _erigimur, elatiores fieri videmur_. -- HAUD ... NITERETUR: in Cicero's speeches _haud_ scarcely occurs except before adverbs and the verb _scio_; in the philosophical writings and in the Letters before many other verbs. -- IMMORTALITATIS GLORIAM: so Balb. 16 _sempiterni nominis gloriam_. Cf. also Arch. 26 _trahimur omnes studio laudis et optimus quisque maxime gloria ducitur_.
83. NON VIDERE: either _non videre_ or _non item_ was to be expected, as Cicero does not often end sentences or clauses with _non_. -- COLUI ET DILEXI: so 26 _coluntur et diliguntur_. -- VIDENDI: Cic. for the most part avoids the genitive plural of the gerundive in agreement with a noun, and uses the gerund as here. Meissner notes that Latin has no verb with the sense 'to see again', which a modern would use here. -- CONSCRIPSI: in the _Origines_. -- QUO: = _ad quos_; see n. on 12 _fore unde_. -- PELIAN: a mistake of Cicero's. It was not Pelias but his half-brother Aeson, father of Iason, whom Medea made young again by cutting him to pieces and boiling him in her enchanted cauldron. She, however, induced the daughters of Pelias to try the same experiment with their father; the issue, of course, was very different. Plautus, Pseud. 3, 2, 80 seems to make the same mistake. -- SI QUIS DEUS: the present subjunctive is noticeable; strictly, an impossible condition should require the past tense, but in vivid passages an impossible condition is momentarily treated as possible. So Cic. generally says _si reviviscat aliquis_, not _revivisceret_. -- DECURSO SPATIO: 'when I have run my race'. See n. on 14. Lucretius 3, 1042 oddly has _decurso lumine vitae_. -- AD CARCERES A CALCE: _carceres_ were the barriers behind which the horses and cars stood waiting for the race; _calx_ (γραμμη), literally 'a chalked line', was what we should call 'the winning post'. Cf. Lael. 101; Tusc. 1, 15 _nunc video calcem ad quam cum sit decursum, nihil sit praeterea extimescendum._
84. HABEAT: concessive. A. 266, _c_; G. 257; H. 484, 3. -- MULTI ET EI DOCTI: as Nägelsbach, Stilistik § 25, 5, remarks, Cic. always uses this phrase and not _multi docti_. One of the books Cic. has in view is no doubt that of Hegesias, a Cyrenaic philosopher, mentioned in Tusc. 1, 84. -- COMMORANDI ... DIVORSORIUM: 'a hostelry wherein to sojourn'. The idea has been expressed in literature in a thousand ways. Cf. Lucr. 3, 938 _cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis_; Hor. Sat. 1, 1, 118 _vita cedat uti conviva satur_. Cicero often insists that heaven is the _vera aeternaque domus_ of the soul (cf. Tusc. 1, 118). Cf. Epist. to the Hebrews, 13, 14 'Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come'. -- CONCILIUM COETUMQUE: so in Rep. 6, 13 _concilia coetusque hominum quae civitates vocantur_. The words here seem to imply that the real _civitas_ is above; what seems to men a _civitas_ is merely a disorganized crowd. P. 35. -- CATONEM MEUM: see 15, 68; so Cicero in his letters often calls his own son _meus Cicero_. -- NEMO VIR: see n. on 21 _quemquam senem_. -- QUOD CONTRA: = ‛ο τουναντιον, 'whereas on the contrary'; cf. n. on Lael. 90 where, as well as here, many of the editors make the mistake of taking _quod_ to be the accusative governed by _contra_ out of place. -- MEUM: _sc. corpus cremari_. -- QUO: put for _ad quae_, as often. -- VISUS SUM: 'people thought I bore up bravely'. -- NON QUO ... SED: a relative clause parallel with a categorically affirmative clause. The usage is not uncommon, though Cic. often has _non quo ... sed quia_. For mood of _ferrem_ see A. 341, _d_, Rem.; G. 541, Rem. 1.; H. 516, II. 2.
85. DIXISTI: in 4. -- QUI: here = _cum ego_, 'since I ...'. -- EXTORQUERI VOLO: n. on 2 _levari volo_. -- MINUTI PHILOSOPHI: for the word _minutus_ cf. n. on 46; Cic. has _minuti philosophi_ in Acad. 2, 75; Div. 1, 62; in Fin. 1, 61 _minuti et angusti (homines)_; in Brut. 265 _m. imperatores_; cf. Suet. Aug. 83 _m. pueri_. -- SENTIAM: future indicative. -- PERACTIO: the noun is said to occur only here in Cic.; cf. however 64 _peragere_; 70. -- HAEC ... DICEREM: the same words occur at the end of the Laelius; for _habeo quod dicam_ Cic. often says _habeo dicere_, as in Balb. 34. [1] Horace, Ep. 2, 1, 156:-- _Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes Intulit agresti Latio._ [2] De Off. 1, 1 2: _philosophandi scientiam concedens multis_ etc. [3] To judge rightly of Cicero it must be remembered that he was a politician only by accident: his whole natural bent was towards literature. [4] To see the truth of this it is only necessary to refer for example to the weight given to the opinions of Cicero in the heated political discussions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. [5] Almost every branch of learning was ranked under the head of Philosophy. Strabo even claimed that one branch of Philosophy was Geography.
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