P. [31] — [75.] L. Brutum: fell in single combat with Aruns, son of the exiled Tarquin; see Liv. 2, 6. The accusatives Brutum etc. are not the objects of recorder but the subjects of infinitives to be supplied from profectas. — duos Decios: see [n. on 43]. — cursum equorum: the word equos would have been sufficient; but this kind of pleonasm is common in Latin; see n. on Lael. 30 causae diligendi. — Atilius: i.e. Regulus, whose story is too well known to need recounting. There are many contradictions and improbabilities about it. — Scipiones: see [n. on 29]. In Paradoxa 1, 12 Cic. says of them Carthaginiensium adventum corporibus suis intercludendum putaverunt. — Poenis: on the dat. see A. 235, a; H. 384, 4, n. 2. — Paulum: [n. on 29] L. Aemilius. — collegae: M. Terentius Varro. There is no reason to suppose that he was a worse general than many other Romans who met Hannibal and were beaten; the early historians, being all aristocrats, fixed the disgrace of Cannae on the democratic consul. Varro's contemporaries were more just to him. Far from reproaching him, the Senate commended his spirit, and several times afterwards entrusted him with important business. — Marcellum: the captor of Syracuse in 212 B.C. He fell into an ambush in 208 and was killed; Hannibal buried him with military honors. — cuius interitum: abstract for concrete = quem, post interitum. — crudelissimus hostis: this, the traditional Roman view of Hannibal, is the reverse of the truth, so far as extant testimony goes. See Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, Bk. III. Ch. 4; Ihne, Hist. of Rome, Bk. IV. — sed ... arbitrarentur: these words are almost exactly repeated in Tusc. 1, 89 and 101. — rustici: cf. Arch. 24 nostri illi fortes viri sed rustici ac milites; also above, 24.
[76.] omnino: see [n. on 9]. — num igitur etc.: cf. [33] nisi forte et seq. — constans: cf. [n. on 33]. — ne ... quidem: see [n. on 27]. — satietas vitae: cf. [85] senectus autem et seq., and satietas vivendi in pro Marc. 27; also Tusc. 1, 109 vita acta perficiat ut satis superque vixisse videamur.
[77.] cernere: of the mind also in [82]. With the context cf. Div. 1, 63 animus appropinquante morte multo est divinior; facilius evenit appropinquante morte ut animi futura augurentur. — vestros patres: [n. on 15]. The elder Laelius was prominent both as general and as statesman. He commanded the fleet which co-operated with Scipio Africanus in Spain and afterwards served with honor in Africa. He was an intimate friend of Cato. See Liv. 26, 42 et seq. — tuque: so in Lael. 100 C. Fanni et tu, Q. Muci; but above, [4] and [9] simply Scipio et Laeli. — quae est sola vita: cf. [n.] on vitam nullam in [7]. — nam dum sumus etc.: the whole of this doctrine is Platonic; cf. Lael. 13. — munere necessitatis et ... opere: 'function and task allotted as by fate'.
P. [32] — immortalis: Cicero rarely mentions the gods without this epithet. — sparsisse: Horace calls the soul divinae particulam aurae. — tuerentur: rule, or guard, or care for. Most editors wrongly take tuerentur to be for intuerentur, 'to look upon', and regard it as an intentional archaism. But cf. Rep. 6, 15 (where no archaism can be intended): homines sunt hac lege generati, qui tuerentur illum globum quae terra vocatur; also tuentur below in [82]. — contemplantes imitarentur: perhaps more Stoic than Platonic; the Stoics laid great stress on the ethical value of a contemplation and imitation of the order of the universe. Cf. N.D. 2, 37 ipse homo ortus est ad mundum contemplandum et imitandum; Sen. Dial. 8, 5, 1 Natura nos ad utrumque genuit, et contemplationi rerum et actioni. — modo: here modus seems to be the Platonic το μετριον, or perhaps a reminiscence of the Aristotelian doctrine of the mean ([n. on 46]). Translate 'in moderation and consistency of life'; and cf. Off. 1, 93 rerum modus 'moderation in all things'. For constantia see [n. on 4]. — ita: cf. [n. on 16] et tamen sic.
[78.] Pythagoran: see n. to 23. No ancient philosopher held more firmiy than Pythagoras to belief in the immortality of the soul; it formed a part of his doctrine of Metempsychosis. He was also noted for his numerical speculations in Astronomy and Music. With him is said to have originated the doctrine of the 'harmony of the spheres'. — qui essent: 'inasmuch as they were'. Cicero often tries to make out a connection between Pythagoras and the early Romans; cf. Tusc. 4, 2; also Liv. 1, 18. — ex universa mente: the world-soul. Diog. Laert 8 gives as Pythagorean the doctrine ψυχην ειναι αποσπασμα του αιθερος και αθανατον. Similar doctrines occur in Plato and the Stoics; cf. Div. 1, 110 a qua (i.e. a natura deorum) ut doctissimis sapientissimisque placuit, haustos animos et libatos habemus; Tusc. 5, 38 humanus animus decerptus ex mente divina; Sen. Dial. 12, 6, 7. — haberemus: imperfect where the English requires the present. A. 287, d; H. 495, V. — Socrates: in Plato's Phaedo. — immortalitate animorum: this is commoner than immortalitas animi, for 'the immortality of the soul'; so Lael. 14; Tusc. 1, 80 aeternitas animorum. — disseruisset: subjunctive because involving the statements of some other person than the speaker. A. 341, c; G. 630; H. 528, 1. — is qui esset etc.: 'a man great enough to have been declared wisest'. See n. on Lael. 7 Apollinis ... iudicatum. — sic: cf. ita above. — celeritas animorum: the ancients pictured to themselves the mind as a substance capable of exceedingly rapid movement; cf. Tusc. 1, 43 nulla est celeritas quae possit cum animi celeritate contendere. — tantae scientiae: as the plural of scientia is almost unknown in classical Latin, recent editors take scientiae here as genitive, 'so many arts requiring so much knowledge'. In favor of this interpretation are such passages as Acad. 2, 146 artem sine scientia esse non posse; Fin. 5, 26 ut omnes artes in aliqua scientia versentur. Yet in De Or. 1, 61 physica ista et mathematica et quae paulo ante ceterarum artium propria posuisti, scientiae sunt eorum qui illa profitentur it is very awkward to take scientiae as genitive. — cumque semper etc.: this argument is copied very closely from Plato's Phaedrus, 245 C. — principium motus: αρχη κινησεως in Plato. — se ipse: cf. [n. on 4] a se ipsi. — cum simplex etc: from Plato's Phaedo, 78-80. The general drift of the argument is this: material things decay because they are compounded of parts that fall asunder; there is nothing to show that the soul is so compounded; therefore no reason to believe that it will so decay. Notice the imperfects esset ... haberet ... posset accommodated to the tense of persuasi above, although the other subjunctives in the sentence are not; cf. [n. on 42] efficeret. — neque ... dissimile: in modern phraseology the whole of this clause would be briefly expressed thus, — 'and was homogeneous'. — posset: quod si ='whereas if', the subject of posset being animus, and dividi being understood. — magno argumento: ‛ικανον τεκμηριον in Pl. Phaed. 72 A. Belief in the immortality of the soul naturally follows the acceptance of the doctrine of pre-existence. — homines scire etc.: See Plato, Phaedo, 72 E-73 B. The notion that the souls of men existed before the bodies with which they are connected has been held in all ages and has often found expression in literature. The English poets have not infrequently alluded to it. See Wordsworth's Ode on the Intimations of Immortality from the Recollections of Early Childhood, 'Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting' etc.; also, in Tennyson's Two Voices the passage beginning, —
'Yet how should I for certain hold,
Because my memory is so cold,
That I first was in human mould?'
reminisci et recordari: a double translation of Plato's αναμιμνησκεσθαι, quite in Cicero's fashion; the former word implies a momentary act, the latter one of some duration. — haec Platonis fere: 'so far Plato'.
[79.] apud Xenophontem: Cyropaedia, 8, 7, 17; for apud cf. [30]; when Cic. says that a passage is 'in' a certain author (not naming the book) he uses apud, not in. — maior: 'the elder'; cf. [59] Cyrum minorem. — nolite arbitrari: a common periphrasis. A. 269, a, 2; G. 264, II.; H. 489, I. — dum eram: the imperfect with dum is not common; see Roby, 1458, c; A. 276, e, n.; G. 572, 571; H. 519, I., 467, 4 with n.