[§12]. Brutus: the same praise often recurs in D.F. and the Brutus Graecia desideret so all Halm's MSS., except G, which has Graeca. Halm (and after him Baiter) adopts the conj. of Aldus the younger, Graeca desideres. A reviewer of Halm, in Schneidewin's Philologus XXIV. 483, approves the reading on the curious ground that Brutus was not anxious to satisfy Greek requirements, but rather to render it unnecessary for Romans to have recourse to Greece for philosophy. I keep the MSS. reading, for Greece with Cicero is the supreme arbiter of performance in philosophy, if she is satisfied the philosophic world is tranquil. Cf. Ad Att. I. 20, 6, D.F. I. 8, Ad Qu. Fr. II. 16, 5. I just note the em. of Turnebus, a Graecia desideres, and that of Dav. Graecia desideretur. Eandem sententiam: cf. Introd. p. [56]. Aristum: cf. II. [11], and M.D.F. V. 8.
[§13]. Sine te: = σου διχα. Relictam: Cic. very rarely omits esse, see note on II. [77], for Cicero's supposed conversion see Introd. p. [20]. Veterem illam: MSS. have iam for illam. The position of iam would be strange, in the passage which used to be compared, Pro Cluentio 16, Classen and Baiter now om. the word. Further, vetus and nova can scarcely be so barely used to denote the Old and the New Academy. The reading illam is from Madv. (Em. 115), and is supported by illam veterem ([18]), illa antiqua ([22]), istius veteris (D.F. V. 8), and similar uses. Bentl. (followed by Halm and Bait.) thinks iam comprises the last two syllables of Academiam, which he reads. Correcta et emendata: a fine sentiment to come from a conservative like Cic. The words often occur together and illustrate Cic.'s love for small diversities of expression, cf. De Leg. III. 30, D.F. IV. 21, also Tac. Hist. I. 37. Negat: MSS. have negaret, but Cic. never writes the subj. after quamquam in oratio recta, as Tac. does, unless there is some conditional or potential force in the sentence; see M.D.F. III. 70. Nothing is commoner in the MSS. than the substitution of the imp. subj. for the pres. ind. of verbs of the first conjug. and vice versa. In libris: see II. [11]. Duas Academias: for the various modes of dividing the Academy refer to R. and P. 404. Contra ea Philonis: MSS. have contra Philonis merely, exc. Halm's V., which gives Philonem, as does the ed. Rom. (1471). I have added ea. Orelli quotes Ad Att. XII. 23, 2, ex Apollodori. Possibly the MSS. may be right, and libros may be supplied from libris above, so in Ad Att. XIII. 32, 2, Dicaearchi περι ψυχης utrosque, the word libros has to be supplied from the preceding letter, cf. a similar ellipse of bona in [19], [22]. Madvig's Philonia is improbable from its non-appearance elsewhere, while the companion adjective Antiochius is frequent. Halm inserts sententiam, a heroic remedy. To make contra an adv. and construe Philonis Antiochus together, supplying auditor, as is done by some unknown commentators who probably only exist in Goerenz's note, is wild, and cannot be justified by D.F. V. 13.
[§14]. A qua absum iam diu: MSS. have strangely aqua absumtam diu, changed by Manut. Renovari: the vulg. revocari is a curious instance of oversight. It crept into the text of Goer. by mistake, for in his note he gave renovari. Orelli—who speaks of Goerenz's "praestantissima recensio," and founds his own text upon it two years after Madvig's crushing exposure in his Em. often quoted by me—not only reads revocari, but quotes renovari as an em. of the ed. Victoriana of 1536. From Orelli, Klotz, whose text has no independent value, took it. Renovare in Cic. often means "to refresh the memory," e.g. [11], Brut. 315. Nisi molestum est: like nisi alienum putas, a variation on the common si placet, si videtur. Adsidamus: some MSS. have adsideamus, which would be wrong here. Sane istud: Halm istuc from G. Inquit: for the late position of this word, which is often caused by its affinity for quoniam, quidem, etc., cf. M.D.F. III. 20 Quae cum essent dicta, in conspectu consedimus (omnes): most edd. since Gulielmus print this without essent as a hexameter, and suppose it a quotation. But firstly, a verse so commonplace, if familiar, would occur elsewhere in Cic. as others do, if not familiar, would not be given without the name of its author. Secondly, most MSS. have sint or essent before dicta. It is more probable therefore that omnes was added from an involuntary desire to make up the hexameter rhythm. Phrases like quae cum essent dicta consedimus often occur in similar places in Cic.'s dialogues cf. De Div. II. 150, and Augustine, the imitator of Cic., Contra Academicos, I. 25, also consedimus at the end of a clause in Brut. 24, and considitur in De Or. III. 18. Mihi vero: the omission of inquit, which is strange to Goer., is well illustrated in M.D.F. I. 9. There is an odd ellipse of laudasti in D.F. V. 81.
[§§15]—[42]. Antiochus' view of the history of Philosophy. First part of Varro's Exposition, [15]—[18]. Summary. Socrates rejected physics and made ethics supreme in philosophy ([15]). He had no fixed tenets, his one doctrine being that wisdom consists in a consciousness of ignorance. Moral exhortation was his task ([16]). Plato added to and enriched the teaching of his master, from him sprang two schools which abandoned the negative position of Socrates and adopted definite tenets, yet remained in essential agreement with one another—the Peripatetic and the Academic ([17], [18]).
[§15]. A rebus ... involutis: physical phenomena are often spoken of in these words by Cic., cf. [19], Timaeus c. 1, D.F. I. 64, IV. 18, V. 10, N.D. I. 49. Ursinus rejected ab here, but the insertion or omission of ab after the passive verb depends on the degree to which natura is personified, if [28] be compared with Tim. c. 1, this will be clear. Involutis = veiled; cf. involucrum. Cic. shows his feeling of the metaphor by adding quasi in II. [26], and often. Avocavisse philosophiam: this, the Xenophontic view of Socrates, was the popular one in Cicero's time, cf. II. [123], T.D. V. 10, D.F. V. 87, 88, also Varro in Aug. De Civ. Dei, VIII. 3. Objections to it, however occurred to Cic., and were curiously answered in De Rep. I. 16 (cf. also Varro in Aug. De Civ. Dei, VIII. 4). The same view is supposed to be found in Aristotle, see the passages quoted by R. and P. 141. To form an opinion on this difficult question the student should read Schleiermacher's Essay on the Worth of Socrates as a Philosopher (trans. by Thirlwall), and Zeller's Socrates and the Socratic Schools, Eng. Trans., pp. 112—116 [I dissent from his view of Aristotle's evidence], also Schwegler's Handbook, so far as it relates to Socrates and Plato. Nihil tamen ad bene vivendum valere: valere is absent from MSS., and is inserted by Halm, its use in [21] makes it more probable than conferre, which is in ed. Rom. (1471). Gronovius vainly tries to justify the MSS. reading by such passages as D.F. I. 39, T.D. I. 70. The strangest ellipse with nihil ad elsewhere in Cic. is in De Leg. I. 6.
[§16]. Hic ... illum: for this repetition of pronouns see M.D.F. IV. 43. Varie et copiose: MSS. omit et, but it may be doubted whether Cic. would let two adverbs stand together without et, though three may (cf. II. 63), and though with pairs of nouns and adjectives, et often is left out, as in the passages quoted here by Manut. Ad Att. IV. 3, 3, Ad Fam. XIII. 24, XIII. 28, cf. also the learned note of Wesenberg, reprinted in Baiter and Halm's edition, of Cic.'s philosophical works (1861), on T.D. III. 6. Varie et copiose is also in De Or. II. 240. Cf. the omission of que in [23], also II. [63]. Perscripti: Cic. like Aristotle often speaks of Plato's dialogues as though they were authentic reports of Socratic conversations, cf. II. [74]. Nihil adfirmet: so T.D. I. 99. "Eoque praestare ceteris" this is evidently from Plato Apol. p. 21, as to the proper understanding of which see note on II. [74]. Ab Apolline, Plato Apol. 21 A, Omnium: Dav. conj. hominum needlessly. Dictum: Lamb., followed by Schutz, reads iudicatum, it is remarkable that in four passages where Cic. speaks of this very oracle (Cato Mai. 78, Lael. 7, 9, 13) he uses the verb iudicare. Una omnis: Lamb. hominis, Baiter also. Omnis eius oratio tamen: notwithstanding his negative dialectic he gave positive teaching in morals. Tamen: for MSS. tam or tum is due to Gruter, Halm has tantum. Tam, tum and tamen are often confused in MSS., e.g. In Veri (Act II.) I. 3, 65, II. 55, 112, V. 78, where see Zumpt. Goer. abuses edd. for not knowing that tum ... et, tum ... que, et ... tum, correspond in Cic. like tum ... cum, tum ... tum. His proofs of this new Latin may be sampled by Ac. II. [1], [43]. Ad virtutis studium cohortandis: this broad assertion is distinctly untrue; see Zeller's Socrates 88, with footnote.
[§17]. Varius et multiplex, et copiosus: these characteristics are named to account for the branching off from Plato of the later schools. For multiplex "many sided," cf. T.D. V. 11. Una et consentiens: this is an opinion of Antiochus often adopted by Cic. in his own person, as in D.F. IV. 5 De Leg. I. 38, De Or. III. 67. Five ancient philosophers are generally included in this supposed harmonious Academico-Peripatetic school, viz. Aristotle, Theophrastus, Speusippus, Xenocrates, Polemo (cf. D.F. IV. 2), sometimes Crantor is added. The harmony was supposed to have been first broken by Polemo's pupils; so Varro says (from Antiochus) in Aug. De Civ. Dei XIX. 1, cf. also [34]. Antiochus doubtless rested his theory almost entirely on the ethical resemblances of the two schools. In D.F. V. 21, which is taken direct from Antiochus, this appears, as also in Varro (in Aug. as above) who often spoke as though ethics were the whole of philosophy (cf. also De Off. III. 20). Antiochus probably made light of such dialectical controversies between the two schools as that about ιδεαι, which had long ceased. Krische Uber Cicero's Akademika p. 51, has some good remarks. Nominibus: the same as vocabulis above. Cic. does not observe Varro's distinction (De L. L. IX. 1) which confines nomen to proper nouns, vocabulum to common nouns, though he would not use vocabulum as Tac. does, for the name of a person (Annals XII. 66, etc.). Quasi heredem ... duos autem: the conj. of Ciaconus "ex asse heredem, secundos autem" is as acute as it is absurd. Duos: it is difficult to decide whether this or duo is right in Cic., he can scarcely have been so inconsistent as the MSS. and edd. make him (cf. Baiter and Halm's ed., Ac. II. [11], [13] with De Div. I. 6). The older inscr. in the Corpus vol. I. have duo, but only in duoviros, two near the time of Cic. (C.I. vol. I. nos. 571 and 1007) give duos, which Cic. probably wrote. Duo is in old Latin poets and Virgil. Chalcedonium: not Calchedonium as Klotz, cf. Gk. Χαλκηδονιον. Praestantissimos: Halm wrongly, cf. Brut. 125. Stagiritem: not Stagiritam as Lamb., for Cic., exc. in a few nouns like Persa, pirata, etc., which came down from antiquity, did not make Greek nouns in -ης into Latin nouns in -a. See M.D.F. II. 94. Coetus ... soliti: cf. [10]. Platonis ubertate: cf. Quintilian's "illa Livii lactea ubertas." Plenum ac refertam: n. on [11]. Dubitationem: Halm with one MS., G, gives dubitantem, Baiter dubitanter, Why alter? Ars quaedam philosophiae: before these words all Halm's MSS., exc G, insert disserendi, probably from the line above, Lipsius keeps it and ejects philosophiae, while Lamb., Day read philosophia in the nom. Varro, however, would never say that philosophy became entirely dialectical in the hands of the old Academics and Peripatetics. Ars = τεχνη, a set of definite rules, so Varro in Aug. (as above) speaks of the certa dogmata of this old school as opposed to the incertitude of the New Academy. Descriptio: so Halm here, but often discriptio. The Corp. Inscr., vol. I. nos. 198 and 200, has thrice discriptos or discriptum, the other spelling never.
[§18]. Ut mihi quidem videtur: MSS. transpose quidem and videtur, as in [44]. Quidem, however nearly always comes closely after the pronoun, see M.D.F. IV. 43, cf. also I. 71, III. 28, Opusc. I. 406. Expetendarum fugiendarumque: ‛αιρετων και φευκτων, about which more in n. on [36]. The Platonic and Aristotelian ethics have indeed an external resemblance, but the ultimate bases of the two are quite different. In rejecting the Idea of the Good, Aristotle did away with what Plato would have considered most valuable in his system. The ideal theory, however, was practically defunct in the time of Antiochus, so that the similarity between the two schools seemed much greater than it was. Non sus Minervam: a Greek proverb, cf. Theocr. Id. V. 23, De Or. II. 233, Ad Fam. IX. 18, 3. Binder, in his German translation of the Academica, also quotes Plutarch Præc. Polit. 7. Inepte ... docet: elliptic for inepte docet, quisquis docet. Nostra atque nostros: few of the editors have understood this. Atticus affects everything Athenian, and speaks as though he were one of them; in Cic.'s letters to him the words "tui cives," meaning the Athenians, often occur. Quid me putas: i.e. velle. Exhibiturum: Halm inserts me before this from his one MS. G, evidently emended here by its copyist. For the omission of me, cf. note on [7].
[§§19]—[23]. Part II. of Varro's Exposition: Antiochus' Ethics. Summary. The threefold division of philosophy into ηθικη, φυσικη, διαλεκτικη. Goodness means obedience to nature, happiness the acquisition of natural advantages. These are of three kinds, mental, bodily, and external. The bodily are described ([19]); then the mental, which fall into two classes, congenital and acquired, virtue being the chief of the acquired ([20]), then the external, which form with the bodily advantages a kind of exercise-ground for virtue ([21]). The ethical standard is then succinctly stated, in which virtue has chief part, and is capable in itself of producing happiness, though not the greatest happiness possible, which requires the possession of all three classes of advantages ([22]). With this ethical standard, it is possible to give an intelligent account of action and duty ([23]).
[§19]. Ratio triplex: Plato has not this division, either consciously or unconsciously, though it was generally attributed to him in Cicero's time, so by Varro himself (from Antiochus) in Aug. De Civ. Dei VIII. 4, and by Diog. Laert. III. 56 (see R. and P., p. 195). The division itself cannot be traced farther back than Xenocrates and the post-Aristotelian Peripatetics, to whom it is assigned by Sext. Emp. Adv. Math. VII. 16. It was probably first brought into strong prominence by the Stoics, whom it enabled more sharply and decisively to subordinate to Ethics all else in philosophy. Cf. esp. M.D.F. IV. 3. Quid verum ... repugnans iudicando: MSS. exc. G have et before quid falsum, whence Klotz conj. sit in order to obviate the awkwardness of repugnet which MSS. have for repugnans. Krische wishes to read consequens for consentiens, comparing Orator 115, T.D. V. 68, De Div. II. 150, to which add T.D. V. 21 On the other hand cf. II. [22], [91]. Notice the double translations of the Greek terms, de vita et moribus for ηθικη, etc. This is very characteristic of Cic., as we shall see later. Ac primum: many MSS. and edd. primam, cf. [23], [30]. A natura petebant: how Antiochus could have found this in Plato and Aristotle is difficult to see; that he did so, however, is indubitable; see D.F. V. 24—27, which should be closely compared with our passage, and Varro in Aug. XIX. 3. The root of Plato's system is the ιδεα of the Good, while so far is Aristotle from founding his system on the abstract φυσις, that he scarcely appeals even incidentally to φυσις in his ethical works. The abstract conception of nature in relation to ethics is first strongly apparent in Polemo, from whom it passed into Stoic hands and then into those of Antiochus. Adeptum esse omnia: put rather differently in D.F. V. 24, 26, cf. also D.F. II. 33, 34, Ac. II. [131]. Et animo et corpore et vita: this is the τριας or τριλογια των αγαθων, which belongs in this form to late Peripateticism (cf. M.D.F. III. 43), the third division is a development from the βιος τελειος of Aristotle. The τριας in this distinct shape is foreign both to Plato and Arist, though Stobaeus, Ethica II. 6, 4, tries hard to point it out in Plato; Varro seems to merge the two last divisions into one in Aug. De Civ. Dei XIX 3. This agrees better with D.F. V. 34—36, cf. also Aug. VIII. 8. On the Antiochean finis see more in note on [22]. Corporis alia: for ellipse of bona, see n. on [13]. Ponebant esse: n. on [36]. In toto in partibus: the same distinction is in Stob. Eth. II. 6, 7; cf. also D.F. V. 35. Pulchritudinem: Cic. Orator 160, puts the spelling pulcher beyond a doubt; it often appears in inscr. of the Republic. On the other hand only pulcrai, pulcrum, etc., occur in inscr., exc. pulchre, which is found once (Corp. Inscr. I. no 1019). Sepulchrum, however, is frequent at an early time. On the tendency to aspirate even native Latin words see Boscher in Curtius' Studien II. 1, p. 145. In the case of pulcher the false derivation from πολυχροος may have aided the corruption. Similarly in modern times J.C. Scaliger derived it from πολυ χειρ (Curtius' Grundz ed. 3, p. 8) For valetudinem viris pulchritudinem, cf. the ‛υγιεια ισχυς καλλος of Stob. Eth. II. 6, 7, and T.D. V. 22. Sensus integros ευαισθησια in Stob., cf. also D.F. V. 36 (in sensibus est sua cuiusque virtus). Celeritatem: so ποδωκεια in Stob., bene currere in Aug. XIX. 3. Claritatem in voce: cf. De Off. I. 133. Impressionem: al. expressionem. For the former cf. De Or. III. 185, which will show the meaning to be the distinct marking of each sound; for the latter De Or. III. 41, which will disprove Klotz's remark "imprimit lingua voces, non exprimit." See also De Off. I. 133. One old ed. has pressionem, which, though not itself Ciceronian, recalls presse loqui, and N.D. II. 149. Pliny, Panegyric, c. 64, has expressit explanavitque verba; he and Quintilian often so use exprimere.