Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth · Marcus Tullius Cicero
FOOTNOTES:
Maris et terra numeroque carentis arenæ Mensorem. Od. i. 28.1. Plato is supposed to have learned some of his views from him, and Aristotle to have borrowed from him every idea of the Categories. [10] This was not Timæus the historian, but a native of Locri, who is said also in the De Finibus (c. 29) to have been a teacher of Plato. There is a treatise extant bearing his name, which is, however, probably spurious, and only an abridgment of Plato's dialogue Timæus. [11] Dicæarchus was a native of Messana, in Sicily, though he lived chiefly in Greece. He was one of the later disciples of Aristotle. He was a great geographer, politician, historian, and philosopher, and died about 285 B.C. [12] Aristoxenus was a native of Tarentum, and also a pupil of Aristotle. We know nothing of his opinions except that he held the soul to be a _harmony_ of the body; a doctrine which had been already discussed by Plato in the Phædo, and combated by Aristotle. He was a great musician, and the chief portions of his works which have come down to us are fragments of some musical treatises.--Smith's Dict. Gr. and Rom. Biog.; to which source I must acknowledge my obligation for nearly the whole of these biographical notes. [13] The Simonides here meant is the celebrated poet of Ceos, the perfecter of elegiac poetry among the Greeks. He flourished about the time of the Persian war. Besides his poetry, he is said to have been the inventor of some method of aiding the memory. He died at the court of Hiero, 467 B.C.
His massy javelin quivering in his hand, He stood the bulwark of the Grecian band; Through every Argive heart new transport ran, All Troy stood trembling at the mighty man: E'en Hector paused, and with new doubt oppress'd, Felt his great heart suspended in his breast; 'Twas vain to seek retreat, and vain to fear, Himself had challenged, and the foe drew near. But Melmoth (Note on the Familiar Letters of Cicero, book ii. Let. 23) rightly accuses Cicero of having misunderstood Homer, who "by no means represents Hector as being thus totally dismayed at the approach of his adversary; and, indeed, it would have been inconsistent with the general character of that hero to have described him under such circumstances of terror." [Greek: Ton de kai Argeioi meg' egêtheon eisoroôntes, Trôas de tromos ainos hypêlythe gyia hekaston, Hektori d' autô thymos eni stêthessi patassen.] But there is a great difference, as Dr. Clarke remarks, between [Greek: thymos eni stêthessi patassen] and [Greek: kardeê exô stêtheôn ethrôsken], or [Greek: tromos ainos hypêlythe gyia].--_The Trojans_, says Homer, _trembled_ at the sight of Ajax, and even Hector himself felt some emotion in his breast. [50] Cicero means Scipio Nasica, who, in the riots consequent on the reelection of Tiberius Gracchus to the tribunate, 133 B.C., having called in vain on the consul, Mucius Scævola, to save the republic, attacked Gracchus himself, who was slain in the tumult.
_Coleridge's Introduction to the Study of the Greek Classic Poets._ [72] Some read _scientiam_ and some _inscientiam;_ the latter of which is preferred by some of the best editors and commentators. [73] For a short account of these ancient Greek philosophers, see the sketch prefixed to the Academics (_Classical Library_). [74] Cicero wrote his philosophical works in the last three years of his life. When he wrote this piece, he was in the sixty-third year of his age, in the year of Rome 709. [75] The Academic. [76] Diodorus and Posidonius were Stoics; Philo and Antiochus were Academics; but the latter afterward inclined to the doctrine of the Stoics. [77] Julius Cæsar. [78] Cicero was one of the College of Augurs. [79] The Latinæ Feriæ was originally a festival of the Latins, altered by Tarquinius Superbus into a Roman one. It was held in the Alban Mount, in honor of Jupiter Latiaris. This holiday lasted six days: it was not held at any fixed time; but the consul was never allowed to take the field till he had held them.--_Vide_ Smith, Dict. Gr. and Rom. Ant., p. 414. [80] _Exhedra_, the word used by Cicero, means a study, or place where disputes were held. [81] M. Piso was a Peripatetic. The four great sects were the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Academics, and the Epicureans.
Translated from the beginning of the Medea of Euripides-- [Greek: Mêd' en napaisi Pêlion pesein pote tmêtheisa peukê.] [279] Q. Fabius Maximus, surnamed Cunctator. [280] Diogenes Laertius says he was pounded to death in a stone mortar by command of Nicocreon, tyrant of Cyprus. [281] Elea, a city of Lucania, in Italy. The manner in which Zeno was put to death is, according to Diogenes Laertius, uncertain. [282] This great and good man was accused of destroying the divinity of the Gods of his country. He was condemned, and died by drinking a glass of poison. [283] Tyrant of Sicily. [284] The common reading is, _in tympanidis rogum inlatus est_. This passage has been the occasion of as many different opinions concerning both the reading and the sense as any passage in the whole treatise. _Tympanum_ is used for a timbrel or drum, _tympanidia_ a diminutive of it. Lambinus says _tympana_ "were sticks with which the tyrant used to beat the condemned." P. Victorius substitutes _tyrannidis_ for _tympanidis_. [285] The original is _de amissa salute;_ which means the sentence of banishment among the Romans, in which was contained the loss of goods and estate, and the privileges of a Roman; and in this sense L'Abbé d'Olivet translates it. [286] The forty-seventh proposition of the first book of Euclid is unanimously ascribed to him by the ancients. Dr. Wotton, in his Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, says, "It is indeed a very noble proposition, the foundation of trigonometry, of universal and various use in those curious speculations about incommensurable numbers."
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