[73] For a short account of these ancient Greek philosophers, see the sketch prefixed to the Academics (Classical Library).
[74] Cicero wrote his philosophical works in the last three years of his life. When he wrote this piece, he was in the sixty-third year of his age, in the year of Rome 709.
[75] The Academic.
[76] Diodorus and Posidonius were Stoics; Philo and Antiochus were Academics; but the latter afterward inclined to the doctrine of the Stoics.
[77] Julius Cæsar.
[78] Cicero was one of the College of Augurs.
[79] The Latinæ Feriæ was originally a festival of the Latins, altered by Tarquinius Superbus into a Roman one. It was held in the Alban Mount, in honor of Jupiter Latiaris. This holiday lasted six days: it was not held at any fixed time; but the consul was never allowed to take the field till he had held them.—Vide Smith, Dict. Gr. and Rom. Ant., p. 414.
[80] Exhedra, the word used by Cicero, means a study, or place where disputes were held.
[81] M. Piso was a Peripatetic. The four great sects were the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Academics, and the Epicureans.
[82] It was a prevailing tenet of the Academics that there is no certain knowledge.