Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Part 36

There is a treatise extant bearing his name, which is, however, probably spurious, and only an abridgment of Plato's dialogue Timaeus.

[11] Dicaearchus 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 Phaedo, 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.

[14] Theodectes was a native of Phaselis, in Pamphylia, a distinguished rhetorician and tragic poet, and flourished in the time of Philip of Macedon. He was a pupil of Isocrates, and lived at Athens, and died there at the age of forty-one.

[15] Cineas was a Thessalian, and (as is said in the text) came to Rome as amba.s.sador from Pyrrhus after the battle of Heraclea, 280 B.C., and his memory is said to have been so great that on the day after his arrival he was able to address all the senators and knights by name. He probably died before Pyrrhus returned to Italy, 276 B.C.

[16] Charmadas, called also Charmides, was a fellow-pupil with Philo, the Larissaean of c.l.i.tomachus, the Carthaginian. He is said by some authors to have founded a fourth academy.

[17] Metrodorus was a minister of Mithridates the Great; and employed by him as supreme judge in Pontus, and afterward as an amba.s.sador.

Cicero speaks of him in other places (De Orat. ii. 88) as a man of wonderful memory.

[18] Quintus Hortensius was eight years older than Cicero; and, till Cicero's fame surpa.s.sed his, he was accounted the most eloquent of all the Romans. He was Verres's counsel in the prosecution conducted against him by Cicero. Seneca relates that his memory was so great that he could come out of an auction and repeat the catalogue backward. He died 50 B.C.

[19] This treatise is one which has not come down to us, but which had been lately composed by Cicero in order to comfort himself for the loss of his daughter.

[20] The epigram is,

[Greek: Eipas Helie chaire, Kleombrotos Hombrakiotes helat' aph' hypselou teicheos eis Aiden, axion ouden idon thanatou kakon, alla Platonos hen to peri psyches gramm' a.n.a.lexamenos.]

Which may be translated, perhaps,

Farewell, O sun, Cleombrotus exclaim'd, Then plunged from off a height beneath the sea; Stung by pain, of no disgrace ashamed, But moved by Plato's high philosophy.

[21] This is alluded to by Juvenal:

Provida Pompeio dederat Campania febres Optandas: sed multae urbes et publica vota Vicerunt. Igitur Fortuna ipsius et Urbis, Servatum victo caput abstulit.--Sat. x. 283.

[22] Pompey's second wife was Julia, the daughter of Julius Caesar, she died the year before the death of Cra.s.sus, in Parthia. Virgil speaks of Caesar and Pompey as relations, using the same expression (socer) as Cicero:

Aggeribus socer Alpinis atque arce Monoeci Descendens, gener adversis instructus Eois.--aen. vi. 830.

[23] This idea is beautifully expanded by Byron:

Yet if, as holiest men have deem'd, there be A land of souls beyond that sable sh.o.r.e To shame the doctrine of the Sadducee And sophist, madly vain or dubious lore, How sweet it were in concert to adore With those who made our mortal labors light, To hear each voice we fear'd to hear no more.

Behold each mighty shade reveal'd to sight, The Bactrian, Samian sage, and all who taught the right!

_Childe Harold_, ii.

[24] The epitaph in the original is:

[Greek: o xein' angeilon Lakedaimoniois hoti tede keimetha, tois keinon peithomenoi nomimois.]

[25] This was expressed in the Greek verses,

[Greek: Arches men me phynai epichthonioisin ariston, phynta d' hopos okista pylas Aidyo peresai]

which by some authors are attributed to Homer.

[26] This is the first fragment of the Cresphontes.--Ed. Var. vii., p.

594.

[Greek: Edei gar hemas syllogon poioumenous Ton phynta threnein, eis hos' erchetai kaka.

Ton d' au thanonta kai ponon pepaumenon chairontas euphemointas ekpemein domon]

[27] The Greek verses are quoted by Plutarch:

[Greek: epou nepie, elithioi phrenes andron Euthynoos keitai moiridio thanato Ouk en gar zoein kalon auto oute goneusi.]

[28] This refers to the story that when Eumolpus, the son of Neptune, whose a.s.sistance the Eleusinians had called in against the Athenians, had been slain by the Athenians, an oracle demanded the sacrifice of one of the daughters of Erechtheus, the King of Athens. And when one was drawn by lot, the others voluntarily accompanied her to death.

[29] Menoeceus was son of Creon, and in the war of the Argives against Thebes, Teresias declared that the Thebans should conquer if Menoeceus would sacrifice himself for his country; and accordingly he killed himself outside the gates of Thebes.

[30] The Greek is,

[Greek: mede moi aklaustos thanatos moloi, alla philoisi poiesaimi thanon algea kai stonachas.]

[31] Soph. Trach. 1047.

[32] The lines quoted by Cicero here appear to have come from the Latin play of Prometheus by Accius; the ideas are borrowed, rather than translated, from the Prometheus of aeschylus.

[33] From _exerceo_.

[34] Each soldier carried a stake, to help form a palisade in front of the camp.

[35] Insania--from _in_, a particle of negative force in composition, and _sa.n.u.s_, healthy, sound.

[36] The man who first received this surname was L. Calpurnius Piso, who was consul, 133 B.C., in the Servile War.

[37] The Greek is,

[Greek: Alla moi oidanetai kradie cholo hoppot' ekeinou Mnesomai hos m' asyphelon en Argeioisin erexen.]--Il. ix. 642.

I have given Pope's translation in the text.

[38] This is from the Theseus:

[Greek: Ego de touto para sophou tinos mathon eis phrontidas noun symphoras t' eballomen phygas t' emauto prost.i.theis patras emes.

thanatous t' aorous, kai kakon allas hodous hos, ei ti paschoim' on edoxazon pote Me moi neorton prospeson mallon dakoi.]

[39] Ter. Phorm. II. i. 11.

[40] This refers to the speech of Agamemnon in Euripides, in the Iphigenia in Aulis,

[Greek: Zelo se, geron, zelo d' andron hos akindynon bion exeperas', agnos, aklees.]--v. 15.