Summers compares Lucian, Gallus 17. Seneca, however, does not take such gossip seriously. ↩
This sentence alludes to Calypso, Circe, the Cyclops, and the Sirens. ↩
Unfavourable comment by Lycophron, and by Cicero, De Natura Deorum III 22 (Mercurius) ex quo et Penelopa Pana natum ferunt. ↩
With acutae and graves supply voces. ↩
Perhaps the equivalent of a “minor.” ↩
I.e., for a certain term of years; see R. W. Leage, Roman Private Law, pp. 133 ff. Compare also Lucretius III 971, and Horace, Epistles II 2. 159. ↩
Virgil, Georgics I 336 f. ↩
Saturn and Mars were regarded as unlucky stars. Astrology, which dates back beyond 3000 BC in Babylonia, was developed by the Greeks of the Alexandrian age and got a foothold in Rome by the second century BC, flourished greatly under Tiberius. Cf. Horace, Odes I 11. 1 f.; Juvenal III 42 f., and F. Cumont, Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans (trans.), esp. pp. 68 ff. and 84 ff. ↩
Virgil, Georgics I 424 ff. ↩
An allusion to the sand and oil of the wrestling-ring. ↩
Cf. Letter XV, paragraph 1 copia ciborum subtleitas inpeditur. ↩
In a strict sense; not, as in paragraph 1, as Seneca thinks that the term should really be defined—the “liberal” study, i.e. the pursuit of wisdom. ↩
For the πρώτη ἀγωγή see Quintilian, II 1. 4. ↩
From what work of Posidonius Seneca is here quoting we do not know; it may be from the Προτρεπτικά, or Exhortations, indicating the training preliminary to philosophy. ↩
See endnote 640. ↩
I.e., mathematics is a department of philosophia naturalis. ↩
This line of argument inversely resembles the criticism by Seneca of Posidonius in Letter XC—that the inventions of early science cannot be properly termed a part of philosophy. ↩
See Natural Questions I 4 ff. ↩
According to Roman law, superficies solo cedit, “the building goes with the ground.” ↩
Except philosophy. ↩
I.e., in the more commonly accepted sense of the term. ↩
This usage is a not infrequent one in Latin; cf. Petronius, Satyricon 42 neminem nihil boni facere oportet; Petronius, Satyricon 58; Virgil Eclogue V 25, etc. See Draeger, Historische Syntax der Lateinischen Sprache II 75, and Roby, II 2246 ff. ↩
Cf. Letters XXXI, paragraph 3 and LXXXI, paragraph 11 aestimare res, de quibus … cum rerum natura deliberandum est. ↩
The ancient Stoics defined Time as “extension of the world’s motion.” The seasons were said to be “alive” because they depended on material conditions. But the Stoics really acknowledged Time to be immaterial. The same problem of corporeality was discussed with regard to the “good.” ↩
Compare the schoolmaster of Juvenal (VII 234 ff.), who must know
Nutricem Anchisae, nomen patriamque novercae
Anchemoli, dicat quot Acestes vixerit annis, etc.,
and Friedländer’s note.
A tradition, probably begun by the Greek comic-writers, and explained by Professor Smyth (Greek Melic Poets, pp. 227 f.) as due to the more independent position of women among the Aeolians. ↩
Marking supposedly spurious lines by the obelus, and using other signs to indicate variations, repetitions, and interpolations. He paid special attention to Homer, Pindar, Hesiod, and the tragedians. ↩
The geometricians drew their figures in the dust or sand. ↩
Originally, rhapsodists who recited from Homer; in general, “interpreters and admirers—in short, the whole ‘spiritual kindred’—of Homer” (D. B. Monro). ↩
An ancient explanation of the (now disproved) authorship by Homer of such poems as the Cypria, Little Iliad, Sack of Troy, etc. ↩
In other words, the unchangeable, perfect Being of the universe is contrasted with the mutable Non-Being of opinion and unreality. ↩
I.e., the universe. ↩
See Plato, especially Symposium 211 ff. ↩
I.e., an infinitely small divisio is the same as its opposite—confusio. ↩
“Love-of-Wisdom.” ↩
Θείων τε καὶ ἀνθρωπίνων ἐπιστήμη, quoted by Plutarch, De Placitis Philosophorum 874 E. ↩
Cicero, De Officiis II 2. 5. ↩
The ἄσκησις ἀρετῆς of the earlier Stoics. Seneca (Frag. 17) also calls it recta vivendi ratio. ↩
I.e., to make a bona mens out of a mala mens. ↩
It is doubtful whether this was the name of a real person, or a mere “Joe Miller” type from the Fabula Atellana. The character in Horace, Epistles II 1. 173, is certainly the latter; and the testimony of Pliny (Natural History XIV 15), who quotes a line from a play called Acharistio, is not reliable. ↩
I.e., logic. ↩
I.e., “the management of the home.” ↩
That is, of the various arts which deal with the departments of living, such as generalship, politics, business, etc. ↩
Frag. 242 Usener. ↩
Seneca by de iudicio is translating the Greek adjective δικανικός, “that which has to do
