Aggeribus socer Alpinis atque arce Monoeci
Aeneid vi 830.
Descendens, gener adversis instructus Eois.
This idea is beautifully expanded by Byron:
Yet if, as holiest men have deem’d, there be
Childe Harold, ii
A land of souls beyond that sable shore
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!
The epitaph in the original is:
Ὧ ξεῖν ἀγγεῖλον Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων πειθόμενοι νομίμοις
This was expressed in the Greek verses,
Ἀρχὴν μὲν μὴ φῦναι ἐπιχθονίοισιν ἄριστον,
φύντα δ᾿ ὅπως ὤκιστα πύλας Ἀΐδἃο περῆσαι᾿
which by some authors are attributed to Homer. ↩
This is the first fragment of the Cresphontes. Ed. Var. vii, p. 594:
Ἔδει γὰρ ἡμᾶς σύλλογον ποιουμένους
Τὸν φύντα θρηνεῖν εἰς ὅσ᾿ ἔρχεται κακά
Τὸν δ᾿ αὖ θανόντα καὶ πόνων πεπαυμένον
Χαίροντας εὐφημοῖντας ἐκπέμπειν δόμών.
The Greek verses are quoted by Plutarch:
… Ἤπου νήπιε, ἠλίθιοι φρένες ἀνδρῶν
Εὐθύνοος κεῖται μοιριδίῳ θανάτῳ
Οὐκ ἦν γὰρ ζώειν καλὸν αὐτῷ οὄτε γονεῦσι.
This refers to the story that when Eumolpus, the son of Neptune, whose assistance 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. ↩
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. ↩
The Greek is,
μήδε μοι ἄκλαυστος θάνατος μόλοι, ἀλλὰ φίλοισι
ποιήσαιμι θανὼν ἄλγεα καὶ στοναχάς·
Sophocles, The Trachiniae 1047. ↩
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 for Aeschylus. ↩
From Exerceo. ↩
Each soldier carried a stake, to help form a palisade in front of the camp. ↩
Insania—from in, a particle of negative force in composition, and sanus, healthy, sound. ↩
The man who first received this surname was L. Calpurnius Piso, who was consul, 133 BC, in the Servile War. ↩
The Greek is:
Ἀλλά μοι οἰδάνεται κραδίη χόλῳ ὅπποτ᾿ ἐκείνον
Μνήσομαι, ὅς μ᾿ ἀσύφηλον ἐν Ἀργείοισιν ἔρεξεν.
II ix 642
I have given Pope’s translation in the text. ↩
This is from the Theseus:
Ἐγὼ δὲ τοῦτο παρὰi σοφοῦ τινος μαθὼν
εἰς φροντίδας νοῦν συμφοράς τ᾿ ἐβαλλόμην
φυγάς τ᾿ ἐμαυτῷ προστιθεὶς πάτρας ἐμῆς.
θανάτους τ᾿ ἀώρους, καὶ κακῶν ἄλλας ὁδούς,
ὡς, εἴ τι πάσχοιμ᾿ ὧν ἐδόξαζόν ποτε
Μή μοι νέορτον προσπεσὸν μᾶλλον δάκοι.
Terence, Phormio II i 11. ↩
This refers to the speech of Agamemnon in Euripides, in the Iphigenia in Aulis
Ζηλῶ σέ, γέρον,
ζηλῶ δ᾽ ἀνδρῶν ὃς ἀκίνδυνον
βίον ἐξεπέρασ᾽, ἀγνὼς ἀκλεής
v. 15
This is a fragment from the Hypsipyle:
Ἔφυ μὲν οὐδεὶς ὅστις οὐ πονεῖ βροτῶν·
θάπτει τε τέκνα χἄτερ᾿ αὗ κτᾶται νεὰ,
αὐτός τε θνῄσκει. Καὶ τάδ᾿ ἄχθονται βροτοὶ
εἰς γῆν φέροντες γῆν. Ἀναγκαίως δ᾿ ἔχει
βίον θερίζειν ὥστε κάρπιμον στάχυν.
Πολλὰς ἐκ κεφαλῆς προθελύμνους ἕλκετο χαίτας.
Iliad x 15
Ἤτοι ὁ κὰπ πεδίον τὸ Ἀλήϊον οἶος ἀλᾶτο
ὃν θυμὸν κατέδων, πάτον ἀνθρώπων ἀλεείνων.
Iliad vi 201
This is a translation from Eurpides:
Ὥσθ᾿ ἵμερος μ᾿ ὑπῆλθε γῇ τε κ᾿ οὐρανῷ
λέξαι μολούσῃ δεῦρο Μηδείας τύχας.
Medea 57
Λίην γὰρ πολλοὶ καὶ ἐπήτριμοι ἤματα πάντα
πίπτουσιν, πότε κέν τις ἀναπνεύσειε πόνοιο;
ἀλλὰ χρὴ τὸν μὲν καταθαπτέμεν, ὅς κε θάνῃσι,
νηλέα θυμὸν ἔχοντας, ἔπ᾽ ἤματι δακρυσάντας.
Homer Iliad 57 xix 226
This is one of the fragments of Euripides which we are unable to assign to any play in particular; it occurs Var. Ed. Tr. Inc. 167.
Εἰ μὲν τόδ᾿ ἦμαρ πρῶτον ἦν κακουμένῳ
καὶ μὴ μακρὰν δὴ διὰ πόνων ἐναυστόλουν
εἰκὸς σφαδάζειν ἦν ἂν ὡς νεόζυγα
πῶλον, χάλινον ἀρτίως δεδεγμένον·
νῦν δ᾿ ἀμβλύς εἰμι καὶ κατηρτυκὼς κακῶν.
This is only a fragment preserved by Stobaeus:
Τοὺς δ᾿ ἂν μεγίστους και σοφωτάτους φρενὶ
τοιούσδ᾿ ἴδοις ἂν, οἶός ἐστι νῦν ὅδε,
καλῶς κακῶς πράσσοντι συμπαραινέσαι·
ὅταν δὲ δαίμων ἀνδρὸς εὐτυχοῦς τὸ πρὶν
μάστιγ᾿ ἐπίσῃ τοῦ βίου παλίντροπον,
τὰ πολλὰ φροῦδα καὶ κακῶς εἰρημένα.
Aeschylus Prometheia v 378
Ωκ. Οὐκοῦν Προμηθεῦ τοῦτο γιγνώσκεις ὅτι
ὀργῆς νοσούσης εἰσὶν ἰατροὶ λόγοι.Πρ. ἐάν τις ἐν καιρῷ γε μαλθάσσῃ κεάρ
καὶ μὴ σφριγῶντα θυμὸν ἰσχναίνη βιᾳ.
Cicero alludes here to Iliad vii 211, which is thus translated by Pope:
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. Letter 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
