[67] ‘[God] has given me the things which are in the power of the will. How was he able to make the earthly body free from hindrance? [He could not], and accordingly he has subjected to the revolution of the whole possessions, household things, house, children, wife’ Epict. Disc. iv 1, 100. ‘What says Zeus? since I was not able to do for you what I have mentioned, I have given you a small portion of us’ ib. i 1, 10-12.
[68] ‘non potest artifex mutare materiam’ Sen. Dial. i 5, 9; see also Plut. comm. not. 34, and Mayor on Cic. N. D. ii 34, 86. In technical language, the gods cannot control the ἐπακολουθήματα and συναπτόμενα.
[69] ‘quicquid nobis negatum est, dari non potuit’ Sen. Ben. ii 29, 3.
[70] ‘dementes itaque et ignari veritatis illis imputant saevitiam maris, immodicos imbres, pertinaciam hiemis’ Dial. iv 27, 2.
[71] ‘frustra vota ac studia sunt; habebit quisque quantum illi dies primus adscripsit’ ib. vi 21, 6.
[72] ‘accusare fata possumus, mutare non possumus: stant dura et inexorabilia’ ib. xi 4, 1.
[73] See above, § [226], note 46. Fortune only has ultimate existence if identified with fate or providence; ‘sic nunc naturam voca, fatum, fortunam; omnia eiusdem dei nomina sunt varie utentis sua potestate’ Ben. iv 8, 3.
[74] ‘fortuna ceteros casus rariores habet, primum ab inanimis procellas, tempestates, naufragia, ruinas, incendia; deinde a bestiis ictus, morsus, impetus, etc.’ Cic. Off. ii 6, 19; ‘saepe ... optimorum virorum segetem grando percussit. fert sortem suam quisque’ Sen. Ben. ii 28, 3.
[75] So Fortune is technically defined as ‘a cause not discerned by human reason’; οἱ Στωϊκοὶ [τὴν τύχην] αἰτίαν ἄδηλον ἀνθρωπίνῳ λογισμῷ Aët. plac. i 29, 7.
[76] ‘in regnum Fortunae et quidem durum atque invictum pervenimus, illius arbitrio digna atque indigna passuri’ Sen. Dial. vi 10, 6; ‘hanc imaginem animo tuo propone, ludos facere fortunam’ Ep. 74, 7.