Led by Aristippus of Cyrene. As the Cynics developed into the Stoics, so the Cyrenaics developed into the Epicureans. ↩
Frag. 357 von Arnim. ↩
Seneca translates θεωρητική. ↩
Ὸρμητική; the ὁρμαί, impetus, in the Stoic philosophy, are the natural instincts, which require training and regulation before they can be trusted. ↩
Πρακτική. ↩
Σωματική and ἀσώματος. ↩
Ποιητικά and παθητικά. ↩
I.e., has no subdivisions. ↩
Virgil, Aeneid, I 342. ↩
For the thought compare Petronius, Satyricon 48 nunc coniungere agellis Siciliam volo, ut, cum Africam libuerit ire, per meos fines navigem. ↩
I.e., by building embankments, etc. Cf. Horace, Odes II 18. 22 parum locuples continente ripa. ↩
Cf. paragraph 12. ↩
Cf. Plato, Crito 48, “not life itself, but a good life, is chiefly to be desired.” ↩
Compare the “knowledge of things divine and things human” of LXXXIX, paragraph 3. ↩
The “Golden Age” motif was a frequent one in Latin literature. Compare, e.g., Tibullus, I 3. 35 ff., the passage beginning:
Quam bene Saturno vivebant rege, priusquam
Tellus in longas est patefacta vias!
Cf. paragraph 33, summing up the message of Seneca’s letter.
While modern philosophy would probably side with Seneca rather than Posidonius, it is interesting to know the opinion of Macaulay, who holds (“Essay on Bacon”) that there is much in common between Posidonius and the English inductive philosopher, and thinks but little of Seneca’s ideas on the subject. Cf. W. C. Summers, Select Letters of Seneca, p. 312. ↩
Cleobulus of Rhodes, Periander of Corinth, Pittacus of Mitylene, Bias of Priene, Thales of Miletus, Chilon of Sparta, and Solon of Athens. For some of these substitutions are made in certain lists. ↩
Cf. Letter LXXXVIII, paragraph 12 ad alia multum, ad virtutem nihil. ↩
Virgil, Georgics I 144. ↩
Cf. Juvenal, III 254 ff.:
Longa coruscat
Serraco veniente abies, atque altera pinum
Plaustra vehunt, nutant alte populoque minantur.
Compare also the “towering tenements” of paragraph 6.
Virgil, Georgics I 139 f. ↩
Cf. T. Rice Holmes, Ancient Britain, pp. 121 f., who concludes that the discovery of ore-smelting was accidental. ↩
Cf. Diogenes Laertius VI 37 θεασάμενός ποτε παιδίον ταῖς χερσὶ ἐξέῤῥιψε τῆς πήρας τὴν κοτύλην, εἰπών, Παιδίον με νενίκηκεν εὐτελεία. ↩
Compare the halls of Nero which Seneca may easily have had in mind: (Suetonius Nero 31) cenationes laqueatae tabulis eburneis versatilibus … praecipua cenationum rotunda, quae perpetuo diebus ac noctibus vice mundi circumageretur. ↩
Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses I 121 f.:
Domus antra fuerunt
Et densi frutices et vinctae cortice virgae.
Among many accounts by Roman writers of early man, compare this passage of Ovid, and that in the fifth book of Lucretius.
Ovid, Metamorphoses VI 55 ff. ↩
Professor Summers calls attention to the similarity of this passage and Cicero, De Natura Deorum II 134 ff. dentibus manditur … a lingua adiuvari videtur … in alvo … calore … in reliquum corpus dividantur. ↩
Besides lapis specularis (window-glass) the Romans used alabaster, mica, and shells for this purpose. ↩
Suetonius tells us that a certain Ennius, a grammarian of the Augustan age, was the first to develop shorthand on a scientific basis, and that Tiro, Cicero’s freedman, had invented the process. He also mentions Seneca as the most scientific and encyclopaedic authority on the subject. ↩
Possibly either the manes or the indigitamenta of the early Roman religion. ↩
I.e., λόγος. ↩
Seneca, himself one of the keenest scientific observers in history (witness Naturales Quaestiones, Letters LVII, LXXIX, etc.), is pushing his argument very far in this letter. His message is clear enough; but the modern combination of natural science, psychology, and philosophy shows that Posidonius had some justification for his theories. Cf. also Lucretius, V 1105–7 ff. ↩
This Scythian prince and friend of Solon, who visited Athens in the sixth century BC, is also said to have invented the bellows and the anchor. Cf., however, Iliad XVIII 600 f. ὡς ὅτε τις τροχὸν ἄρμενον ἐν παλάμηισιν ἑζόμενος κεραμεὺς πειρήσεται, and Leaf’s comment: “The potter’s wheel was known in pre-Mycenean times, and was a very ancient invention to the oldest Epic poets.” Seneca is right. ↩
Seneca (see next sentence) is right again. The arch was known in Chaldaea and in Egypt before 3000 BC. Greek beehive tombs, Etruscan gateways, and early Roman remains, testify to its immemorial use. ↩
The ancients judged precious stones merely by their colour; their smaragdus included also malachite, jade, and several kinds of quartz. Exposure to heat alters the colour of some stones; and the alchemists believed that the “angelic stone” changed common flints into diamonds, rubies, emeralds, etc. See G. F. Kunz, The Magic of Jewels and Charms, p. 16. It was also an ancient superstition
