I.e., the word breviarium, “abridgment,” “abstract,” has displaced the better word summarium, “outline of chief points.” ↩
I.e., to do the reading and to review it by means of the summary. The reading will enable Lucilius to identify for himself the authors of the several passages or doctrines. ↩
I.e., their pleasures. These ills, by being cultivated, become vices. ↩
This person cannot be identified. ↩
The explanation of Professor Summers seems sound, that the metaphor is taken from a mountain-torrent. Compare the description of Cratinus’ style in Aristophanes, The Acharnians 526, or that of Pindar in Horace, Odes IV 2. 5 ff. ↩
Iliad, III 222 (Odysseus), and I 249 (Nestor). ↩
Seneca’s phrase, quae fieri posse non crederes, has been interpreted as a definition of παράδοξα. It is more probable, however, that he is comparing with the juggler’s tricks the verbal performances of certain lecturers, whose jargon one marvels at but does not care to hear again. ↩
The Greek texts were still written without separation of the words, in contrast with the Roman. ↩
Gradarius may be contrasted with tolutarius, “trotter.” The word might also mean one who walks with dignified step, as in a religious procession. ↩
Cf. Martial, XI 27. 7 aut cum perfricuit frontem posuitque pudorem. After a violent rubbing, the face would not show blushes. ↩
Virgil, Aeneid, VIII 352,
Hoc nemus, hune, inquit, frondoso vertice collem,
Quis deus incertum est, habitat deus,
and cf. Quintillian, I 10. 88, where he is speaking of Ennius, whom “sicut sacros vetustate lucos adoremus, in quibus grandia et antiqua robora iam non tantum habent speciem quantem religionem.” ↩
The spectators of the fight, which is to take place between the two lions, applaud the wild lion and bet on him. ↩
Seneca doubtless has in mind the famous passage of Simonides, ἄνδρ᾽ ἀγαθὸν μὲν ἀληθῶς γενέσθαι χαλεπόν, discussed by Plato, Protagoras, 339 A. ↩
I.e., Rome. ↩
Lucilius was at this time the imperial procurator in Sicily. ↩
Alluding to seats reserved for the knights at the theatre. ↩
Plato, Theaetetus, p. 174 E. ↩
Compare with the whole argument Menander, Frag. 533 Kock, ending: ὂς ἂν εὖ γεγονὼς ᾖ τῇ φύσει πρὸς τἀγαθά, κἂν Αἰθίοψ ᾖ, μῆτερ, ἐστὶν εὐγενής. ↩
Cf. Gellius, XVIII 2. 9 quod non perdidisti, habes; cornua non perdidisti; habes igitur cornua; cf. also Seneca, Letter XLVIII. ↩
E.g. Gellius, XVIII 2. 10 cum mentior et mentiri me dico, mentior an verum dico? ↩
A book was unrolled with the right hand; the reader gathered up the part already perused with the left hand. Nearly all books at this time were papyrus rolls, as were letters of any great length. ↩
Possibly levis in the sense of light, referring to size. ↩
Much of the following is quoted by Macrobius, Saturnalia I 11. 7 ff., in the passage beginning vis tu cogitare eos, quos ios tuum vocas, isdem seminibus ortos eodem frui caelo, etc. ↩
Glabri, delicati, or exoleti were favourite slaves, kept artifically youthful by Romans of the more dissolute class. Cf. Catullus, LXI 142, and Seneca, De Brevitate Vitae, 12. 5 (a passage closely resembling the description given above by Seneca), where the master prides himself upon the elegant appearance and graceful gestures of these favourites. ↩
The master of Callistus, before he became the favourite of Caligula, is unknown. ↩
There is some doubt whether we should not read Variana, as Lipsius suggests. This method of qualifying for senator suits the Empire better than the Republic. Variana would refer to the defeat of Varus in Germany, AD 9. ↩
Plato was about forty years old when he visited Sicily, whence he was afterwards deported by Dionysius the Elder. He was sold into slavery at Aegina and ransomed by a man from Cyrene. Diogenes, while travelling from Athens to Aegina, is said to have been captured by pirates and sold in Crete, where he was purchased by a certain Corinthian and given his freedom. ↩
I.e., as the praetor himself was normally accustomed to do. ↩
The Epicureans, who reduced all goods to “utilities,” could not regard a friend’s advantage as identical to one’s own advantage. And yet they laid great stress upon friendship as one of the chief sources of pleasure. For an attempt to reconcile these two positions see Cicero, De Finibus, I 65 ff. Seneca has inadvertantly used a phrase that implies a difference between a friend’s interest and one’s own. This leads him to reassert the Stoic view of friendship, which adopted as its motto κοινὰ τὰ τῶν φίλων. ↩
The sides are given in the reverse order in the two clauses: to the Stoic the terms
