16. σπουδάζειν: Usener adopts F’s reading σπουδάζεσθαι, with the remark “medii rari vestigium servandum erat.” But he quotes no examples; and Dionysius elsewhere uses the active (e.g. σπουδαζόντων, [66] 8 supra). The verb is so frequently found in a passive form and signification, that it seems unlikely that forms common to passive and middle would be used in the middle when the active was available. A middle future, σπουδάσομαι, occurs in Plato Euthyphro 3 B and in Demosth. Mid. 213; but the future middle in many verbs stands quite by itself, and in the passage of Demosthenes we have σπουδάσεται ... σπουδάσατε, while in the passage of Plato there is an important variation in the reading.
προσεποιήθησαν αὐτῶν καὶ περὶ τοῦτο τὸ μέρος ὡς ἀναγκαῖον
ὂν τῷ λόγῳ καὶ τέχνας γέ τινας ἔγραψαν ὑπὲρ τῆς συντάξεως
τῶν τοῦ λόγου μορίων· ἀλλὰ πολύ τι πάντες ἀπὸ τῆς
ἀληθείας ἀπεπλάγχθησαν καὶ οὐδ’ ὄναρ εἶδον, τί ποτ’ ἐστὶ
τὸ ποιοῦν ἡδεῖαν καὶ καλὴν τὴν σύνθεσιν. ἐγὼ γοῦν ὅτε 5
διέγνων συντάττεσθαι ταύτην τὴν ὑπόθεσιν, ἐζήτουν εἴ τι
τοῖς πρότερον εἴρηται περὶ αὐτῆς καὶ μάλιστα τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς
Στοᾶς φιλοσόφοις, εἰδὼς τοὺς ἄνδρας οὐ μικρὰν φροντίδα τοῦ
λεκτικοῦ τόπου ποιουμένους· δεῖ γὰρ αὐτοῖς τἀληθῆ μαρτυρεῖν.
οὐδαμῇ δ’ οὐδὲν εἰρημένον ὑπ’ οὐδενὸς ὁρῶν τῶν γοῦν 10
ὀνόματος ἠξιωμένων οὔτε μεῖζον οὔτ’ ἔλαττον εἰς ἣν ἐγὼ
προῄρημαι πραγματείαν, ἃς δὲ Χρύσιππος καταλέλοιπε
συντάξεις διττὰς ἐπιγραφὴν ἐχούσας “περὶ τῆς συντάξεως
τῶν τοῦ λόγου μερῶν” οὐ ῥητορικὴν θεωρίαν ἐχούσας ἀλλὰ
διαλεκτικήν, ὡς ἴσασιν οἱ τὰς βίβλους ἀνεγνωκότες, ὑπὲρ 15
ἀξιωμάτων συντάξεως ἀληθῶν τε καὶ ψευδῶν καὶ δυνατῶν
καὶ ἀδυνάτων ἐνδεχομένων τε καὶ μεταπιπτόντων καὶ ἀμφιβόλων
καὶ ἄλλων τινῶν τοιουτοτρόπων, οὐδεμίαν οὔτ’ ὠφέλειαν
οὔτε χρείαν τοῖς πολιτικοῖς λόγοις συμβαλλομένας εἰς γοῦν
ἡδονὴν καὶ κάλλος ἑρμηνείας, ὧν δεῖ στοχάζεσθαι τὴν 20
σύνθεσιν· ταύτης μὲν τῆς πραγματείας ἀπέστην, ἐσκόπουν
δ’ αὐτὸς ἐπ’ ἐμαυτοῦ γενόμενος, εἴ τινα δυναίμην εὑρεῖν
φυσικὴν ἀφορμήν, ἐπειδὴ παντὸς πράγματος καὶ πάσης ζητήσεως
αὕτη δοκεῖ κρατίστη εἶναι ἀρχή. ἁψάμενος δέ τινων
θεωρημάτων καὶ δόξας ὁδῷ μοι τὸ πρᾶγμα χωρεῖν ὡς ἔμαθον 25
ἑτέρωσέ ποι ταύτην ἄγουσαν ἐμὲ τὴν ὁδόν, οὐχ ὅποι προὐθέμην
to make a serious study of this department also, as being absolutely essential to good writing, and wrote some manuals on the grouping of the parts of speech. But they all went far astray from the truth and never even dreamt what it is that makes composition attractive and beautiful. At any rate, when I resolved to treat of this subject methodically, I tried to find out whether anything at all had been said about it by earlier writers, and particularly by the philosophers of the Porch, because I knew that these worthies were accustomed to pay no little attention to the department of discourse: one must give them their due. But in no single instance did I light upon any contribution, great or small, made by any author, of any reputation at all events, to the subject of my choice. As for the two treatises which Chrysippus has bequeathed to us, entitled “on the grouping of the parts of speech,” they contain, as those who have read the books are aware, not a rhetorical but a dialectical investigation, dealing with the grouping of propositions, true and false, possible and impossible, admissible and variable, ambiguous, and so forth. These contribute no assistance or benefit to civil oratory, so far at any rate as charm and beauty of style are concerned; and yet these qualities should be the chief aim of composition. So I desisted from this inquiry, and falling back upon my own resources proceeded to consider whether I could find some starting-point indicated by nature itself, since nature is generally accepted as the best first principle in every operation and every inquiry. So applying myself to certain lines of investigation, I was beginning to think that the plan was making fair progress, when I became aware that my path of progress was leading me in a quite different direction, and not towards the goal which I
1 αὐτῶι F,M 2 ὂν F: om. P || τ(ω) λογ(ω) P || γε om. PMV || ἔγραψαν PM: ἔγραψεν F: ἐπέγραψαν V || ὑπερ * * P 4 ἀπεπλανήθησαν PMV || οὐδε P, MV 5 ἐγὼ γ’ οὖν F: ἔγωγ’ οὖν PMV || ὅτε διέγνων PMV: ὅτ’ ἔγνων F 9 τόπου] λόγου F || τε ποιημένους P 10 οὐδαμεῖ (suprascr. ηι) P1 || δ’ om. P || εἰρημένον om. PMV || γοῦν om. PV 13 περὶ] οὐ περὶ PM 14 οὐ] καὶ P 16 τε] δὲ PMV 17 ἀμφιλόβων P 18 οὔτ’ ὠφέλειαν om. P 19 συμβαλλομένων PMV 20 καὶ F: ἢ PMV 22 δὲ PMV 24 δοκεῖ] δοκεῖ καὶ P 25 μοι FP: τινι MV || τὰ πράγματα προχωρεῖν F 26 ἐμὲ om. F || προὐθέμην PMV: πρ[ου]θέμην ‘πορευοίμην cum litura F
4. οὐδ’ ὄναρ εἶδον = ‘ne somnio quidem viderunt,’ ‘ne per somnia quidem viderunt.’
6. For ἔγνων (as a v.l. for διέγνων) συντάττεσθαι cp. Antiqq. Rom. i. 1 ... οὔτε διαβολὰς καθ’ ἑτέρων ἐγνωκὼς ποιεῖσθαι συγγραφέων. The passage which begins here and ends with the words πραγματείας ἀπέστην is quoted under the head Dialectica in von Arnim’s Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta ii. 67.
9 ff. Cic. Brut. 31. 118 “Tum Brutus: Quam hoc idem in nostris contingere intellego quod in Graecis, ut omnes fere Stoici prudentissimi in disserendo sint et id arte faciant sintque architecti paene verborum, idem traducti a disputando ad dicendum inopes reperiantur.”