Footnotes.
[1] Horace, Ep. 2, I, 156:—
Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes
Intulit agresti Latio.
[2] De Off. 1, 1, 2: philosophandi scientiam concedens multis etc.
[3] To judge rightly of Cicero it must be remembered that he was a politician only by accident: his whole natural bent was towards literature.
[4] To see the truth of this it is only necessary to refer for example to the weight given to the opinions of Cicero in the heated political discussions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
[5] Almost every branch of learning was ranked under the head of Philosophy. Strabo even claimed that one branch of Philosophy was Geography.
[6] 2, 3 interiectus est nuper liber is quem ad nostrum Atticum de senectute misimus. No argument can be founded on the words interiectus est, over which the editors have wasted much ingenuity. They simply mean 'there was inserted in the series of my works'.
[7] See 2, 23.
[8] 14, 21, 3; 16, 3, 1; 16, 11, 3.
[9] See Att. 14, 21, 1.
[10] It was certainly not written, as Sommerbrodt assumes, in the intervals of composing the De Divinatione. The words in 2, 7 of that work—quoniam de re publica consuli coepti sumus etc.—point to the end of September or beginning of October, 44, when Cicero returned to Rome and began to compose his Philippic orations.
[12] It is perhaps not a mere accident that the prowess of L. Brutus in liberanda patria is mentioned in § [75]. There may be a reference to the latest Brutus who had freed his country.
[13] In March, 45.
[17] In the notes exact references will be given to the places in the original where the other passages mentioned may be found.
[18] Particularly the first book of the Tusculan Disputations, the De Republica, and the Laelius.
[21] Works on Old Age are said to have been written by Theophrastus and Demetrius Phalereus, either or both of which Cicero might have used. One passage in § [67], facilius in morbos ... tristius curantur, is supposed by many to have been imitated from Hippocrates; but the resemblance is probably accidental. Cf. De Off. 1, 24, 83.
[23] See Att. 16, 11, 3; 16, 3, 1; 14, 21, 3.
[25] As Cicero's intention was to set old age in a favorable light, he slights Aristo Cius for giving to Tithonus the chief part in a dialogue on old age. See § [3]; cf. also Laelius, § 4.
[26] See below [(ii.), 1.]
[27] On the whole subject of Aristotle's dialogues see Bernays' monograph, Die Dialoge des Aristoteles.
[28] § [32] quartum ago annum et octogesimum. Cf. Lael. 11 memini Catonem ante quam est mortuus mecum et cum Scipione disserere etc.
[29] Cicero always indicates this date; cf. § [14]. Some other writers, as Livy, give, probably wrongly, an earlier date.
[30] He himself says (Festus, p.28l) ego iam a principio in parsimonia atque in duritia atque industria omnem adulescentiam, abstinui agro colendo, saxis Sabinis silicibus repastinandis atque conserendis. Cf. Gell. Noct. Att. 13, 23.
[32] Plut. C. 1; Cat. M. §§ [18], [32]: Cato himself ap. Fest. s.v. ordinarius says quid mihi fieret si non ego stipendia in ordine omnia ordinarius meruissem semper?
[34] If Plutarch may be trusted, Cato at the age of 30 had won for himself the title of 'the Roman Demosthenes'.
[36] In § [10] Cicero makes the quaestorship fall in 205, but he refers to the election, not to the actual year of office.
[37] Nepos (or pseudo-Nepos), Cat. 1.
[38] Cato afterwards made it a charge against M. Fulvius Nobilior that he had taken Ennius with him on a campaign (Tusc. 1, 3). But Cato used Ennius as soldier while Nobilior employed him as poet.
[39] It is difficult, however, to fix the date of this enactment. Some authorities place it after Cato's return from Spain.
[40] Livy 34, cc. 1-8.
[41] See Livy, 34, 18.
[42] i.e. he was legatus consularis. It was at the time a common thing for ex-consuls to take service under their successors. So Liv. 36, 17, 1, but Cic. Cat. M. [c 10] says tribunus militaris.
[43] Cicero's statements throughout the treatise concerning the relations between Cato and Africanus the elder, particularly in § [77] where Cato calls his enemy amicissimus, are audaciously inexact.
[45] We possess the titles of 26 speeches delivered during or concerning his censorship.
[46] He is said to have undergone 44 prosecutions, and to have been prosecutor as often.
[47] See Lael. 9; Cat. M. [12] and [84].
[48] Cf. Livy, 39, 40.
[49] The common view is that Cato said nothing of Roman history from 509-266 B.C.
[50] Cf. Cic. pro Arch. 7, 16.
[51] See Coulanges, 'Ancient City', Bk. II. Ch. 4.
[53] De Or. 2, 170; Fam. 9, 21, 3; Qu. Fr. 2, 3, 3.
[54] In De Re Publica 2, 1 Cicero makes Scipio talk extravagantly of Cato.
[55] See Introduction to the Laelius, pp. vi, vii.
[56] A. = Allen and Greenough's Grammar, Revised Ed.; G. = Gildersleeve's Grammar; H. = Harkness's Grammar, Rev. Ed. of 1881. In quoting from the works of Cicero reference is made to sections, not to chapters.