Authors unknown; Ribbeck, Frag. Trag. pp. 289 and 276. The first passage (with one change) is also quoted by Quintilian, IX 4. 140. See, however, Tyrrell, Latin Poetry, p. 39, who calls this passage the beginning of Attius’s Atreus. ↩
Authors unknown; Ribbeck, Frag. Trag. pp. 289 and 276. The first passage (with one change) is also quoted by Quintilian, IX 4. 140. See, however, Tyrrell, Latin Poetry, p. 39, who calls this passage the beginning of Attius’s Atreus. ↩
A favourite trick; cf. Quintilian II 15. 25 mangones, qui colorem fuco et verum robur inani sagina mentiuntur. ↩
The reader will be interested to compare this letter with the treatise (or essay) Of Benefits, translated by Thomas Lodge in 1614 from Seneca’s work De Beneficiis, which was dedicated to Aebutius Liberalis, the subject of Letter XCI. ↩
See De Beneficiis I 1. 9 f. non est autem quod tardiores faciat ad bene merendum turba ingratorum. ↩
Calculi were counters, spread out on the abacus, or counting-board; they ran in columns, by millions, hundred thousands, etc. ↩
Talio (from talis, “just so much”) is the old Roman law of “eye for eye and tooth for tooth.” As law became less crude, it gave way to fines. ↩
This “long-established terminology” applies to the verborum proprietas of philosophic diction, with especial reference to τὰ καθήκοντα, the appropriate duties of the philosopher and the seeker after wisdom. Thus, referre is distinguished from reddere, reponere, solvere, and other financial terms. ↩
I.e., the Stoics. ↩
E.g., “Only the wise man is king,” “there is no mean between virtue and vice,” “pain is no evil,” “only the wise man is free,” “riches are not a good” etc. ↩
Frag. 54 Körte. ↩
Literally, “more than the capital and in addition to the rate of interest.” ↩
Beneficence is a subdivision of the second cardinal virtue of the Stoics, Justice. Cicero discusses this topic at length in De Officiis I 42 ff. ↩
Perhaps a figure from the vintage. For the same metaphor, though in a different connection, see Letter I, paragraph 5, and Letter CVIII, paragraph 19: quemadmodum ex amphora primum, quod est sincerissimum, effluit, gravissimum quodque turbidumque subsidit, sic in aetate nostra quod est optimum, in primo est. ↩
Cf. paragraph 3: “The good man so arranges the two sides of his ledger that he voluntarily cheats himself by adding to the benefit and subtracting from the injury.” Cf. also paragraph 7: “The good man will be easygoing in striking a balance; he will allow too much to be set against his credit.” ↩
When by law or special enactment novae tabellae were granted to special classes of debtors, their debts, as in our bankruptcy courts, were cancelled. ↩
Cf. Letter XXXI, paragraph 3 quid ergo est bonum? rerum scientia. ↩
The words are put into the mouth of an imaginary benefactor who fears for his own life. ↩
Cf. Tacitus Agricola 42 proprium humani ingenii est odisse quem laeseris. ↩
One who incurs liability by taking upon himself the debt of another. It is part of the process known as intercessio. ↩
Rather than mollis. ↩
Conditivum (more frequently and properly conditorium) is a grim jest. The word is mostly found in an adjectival sense applying to fruits and grain stored for later use. ↩
Compare Arnold’s nineteenth-century definition of culture. ↩
Virgil, Aeneid, VI 261. ↩
Frag. 196 von Arnim. ↩
Defined by the Greeks as “things which have no direct connection either with happiness or unhappiness.” See Cicero, De Finibus, III 50 ff. ↩
I.e., are “indifferent” (cf. paragraph 7 indifferentia ac media dicuntur). ↩
Presumably D. Junius Brutus, who finally incurred the enmity of both Octavian and Antony. He was ignominiously put to death by a Gaul while fleeing to join M. Brutus in Macedonia. ↩
Media: a technical word in Stoic philosophy, meaning neither good or bad. ↩
See Virgil, Aeneid, VI 400 f. and VIII 296 f. ↩
Virgil, Aeneid, VI 95 f., the advice of the Sibyl to Aeneas. ↩
Cf. paragraph 6. ↩
Cf. paragraph 6. ↩
Cf. Letter XLVIII, paragraph 2 ff. ↩
Cf. Livy, II 49. 1 familiam unam subisse civitatis onus. ↩
Οὕτως ἀριστᾶτε ὡς ἐν ᾅδου δειπνήσοντες—quoted by Stobaeus, Plutarch, and Diodorus. Cicero says (Tusculanae Disputationes I 101) hodie apud inferos fortasse cenabimus. ↩
Calpurnius, in Sicily, during the first Punic war. Cf. Livy, XXII 60. 11. ↩
The soldiers of Leonidas. ↩
An especially large machine for assaulting walls; a nickname, like the modern “Long Tom.” ↩
Cf. Letter LXXXV, paragraph 1 pudet in aciem descendere pro dis hominibusque susceptam subula armatum. ↩
Cf. Letter XLI, paragraph 1 sacer intra nos spiritus, … malorum bonorumque
