Chapter V.
[1.] Administrator, διορθωτής; in Latin, Corrector—a State officer of whom inscriptions, etc., make frequent mention, but of whose functions not much appears to be known beyond what the present chapter of Epictetus reveals.
[2.] Cassiope was a port of Epirus, not far from Nicopolis, where Epictetus taught. Schw. conjectures that Maximus was sending his son to study philosophy at Nicopolis under Epictetus.
[3.] “For a correct view of these matters will reduce every movement of preference and avoidance to health of body and tranquillity of soul; for this is the perfection of a happy life.”—Epicurus, Diog. Laert. x. 128. Epictetus’s analysis of the Epicurean theory amounts to this, that the pleasure of the soul is the chief good, but that it is only felt through the body and its conditions.
[4.] The overseer of youth.—An officer in certain Greek cities. See Mahaffy’s Greek Life and Thought, ch. xvii., on the organization of the ephebi.
[5.] Aid in works that are according to Nature.—The Greek is—ἐν τοῖς κατὰ φύσιν ἔργοις παρακρατῆ. There is some difference of opinion among commentators as to the meaning of παρακρατῆ. Wolf translates, “hold the chief place” in natural works. Upton, Schw., and Long render it by “keep us constant,” “sustain us,” in such works. I do not see why we should not take the word in its plainest sense—that pleasure should act together with other forces in leading us to do well.
Chapter VII.
[1.] Zealous for evil things.—Epictetus must mean things which they know to be evil—evil things as evil. It was a Socratic doctrine which we find again alluded to in this chapter, that no evil is ever willingly or wittingly done.
[2.] A favorite theme of later Greek and of Roman comedy was the rivalship in love of a father and a son.