Cicero's Tusculan Disputations

18

Quintus Hortensius was eight years older than Cicero; and, till Cicero’s fame surpassed his, he was accounted the most eloquent of all the Romans. He was Verres’s counsel in the prosecution conducted against him by Cicero. Seneca relates that his memory was so great that he could come out of an auction and repeat the catalogue backward. He died 50 b.c.

19

This treatise is one which has not come down to us, but which had been lately composed by Cicero in order to comfort himself for the loss of his daughter.

20

The epigram is,

Εἴπας Ἥλιε χαῖρε, Κλεόμβροτος Ὥμβρακιώτηςἥλατ’ ἀφ’ ὑψηλοῦ τείχεος εἰς Ἀΐδην,ἄξιον οὐδὲν ἰδὼν θανάτου κακὸν, ἀλλὰ Πλάτωνοςἓν τὸ περὶ ψύχης γράμμ’ ἀναλεξάμενος.

Which may be translated, perhaps,

Farewell, O sun, Cleombrotus exclaim’d,Then plunged from off a height beneath the sea;Stung by pain, of no disgrace ashamed,But moved by Plato’s high philosophy.

21

This is alluded to by Juvenal:

Provida Pompeio dederat Campania febresOptandas: sed multæ urbes et publica votaVicerunt. Igitur Fortuna ipsius et Urbis,Servatum victo caput abstulit.—Sat. x. 283.

22

Pompey’s second wife was Julia, the daughter of Julius Cæsar, she died the year before the death of Crassus, in Parthia. Virgil speaks of Cæsar and Pompey as relations, using the same expression (socer) as Cicero:

Aggeribus socer Alpinis atque arce MonœciDescendens, gener adversis instructus Eois.—Æn. vi. 830.

23

This idea is beautifully expanded by Byron:

Yet if, as holiest men have deem’d, there beA land of souls beyond that sable shoreTo shame the doctrine of the SadduceeAnd sophist, madly vain or dubious lore,How sweet it were in concert to adoreWith those who made our mortal labors light,To hear each voice we fear’d to hear no more.Behold each mighty shade reveal’d to sight,The Bactrian, Samian sage, and all who taught the right! Childe Harold, ii.

24

The epitaph in the original is:

Ὦ ξεῖν’ ἀγγεῖλον Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδεκείμεθα, τοῐς κείνων πειθόμενοι νομίμοις.

25

This was expressed in the Greek verses,

Ἀρχὴς μὲν μὴ φῦναι ἐπιχθονίοισιν ἄριστον,φύντα δ’ ὅπως ὤκιστα πύλας Ἀΐδϋο περῆσαι

which by some authors are attributed to Homer.

26

This is the first fragment of the Cresphontes.—Ed. Var. vii., p. 594.

Ἔδει γὰρ ἡμᾶς σύλλογον ποιουμένουςΤὸν φύντα θρηνεῖν, εἰς ὅσ’ ἔρχεται κακά.Τὸν δ’ αὖ θανόντα καὶ πόνων πεπαυμένονχαίροντας εὐφημοῖντας ἐκπέμειν δόμων

27

The Greek verses are quoted by Plutarch:

Ἤπου νήπιε, ἠλίθιοι φρένες ἀνδρῶνΕὐθύνοος κεῖται μοιριδίῳ θανάτῳΟὐκ ἠν γὰρ ζώειν καλὸν αὐτῷ οὔτε γονεῦσι.

28

This refers to the story that when Eumolpus, the son of Neptune, whose assistance the Eleusinians had called in against the Athenians, had been slain by the Athenians, an oracle demanded the sacrifice of one of the daughters of Erechtheus, the King of Athens. And when one was drawn by lot, the others voluntarily accompanied her to death.

29

Menœceus was son of Creon, and in the war of the Argives against Thebes, Teresias declared that the Thebans should conquer if Menœceus would sacrifice himself for his country; and accordingly he killed himself outside the gates of Thebes.

30

The Greek is,

μήδε μοι ἄκλαυστος θάνατος μόλοι, ἀλλὰ φίλοισιποιήσαιμι θανὼν ἄλγεα καὶ στοναχάς.

31

Soph. Trach. 1047.

32

The lines quoted by Cicero here appear to have come from the Latin play of Prometheus by Accius; the ideas are borrowed, rather than translated, from the Prometheus of Æschylus.

33

From exerceo.

34

Each soldier carried a stake, to help form a palisade in front of the camp.

35

Insania—from in, a particle of negative force in composition, and sanus, healthy, sound.

36

The man who first received this surname was L. Calpurnius Piso, who was consul, 133 b.c., in the Servile War.

37

The Greek is,

Ἀλλά μοι οἰδάνεται κραδίη χόλῳ ὅπποτ’ ἐκείνουΜνήσομαι ὅς μ’ ἀσύφηλον ἐν Ἀργείοισιν ἔρεξεν.—Il. ix. 642.

I have given Pope’s translation in the text.

38

This is from the Theseus:

Ἐγὼ δὲ τοῦτο παρὰ σοφοῦ τινος μαθὼνεὶς φροντίδας νοῦν συμφοράς τ’ ἐβαλλόμηνφυγάς τ’ ἐμαυτῷ προστιθεὶς πάτρας ἐμῆς.θανάτους τ’ ἀώρους, καὶ κακῶν ἄλλας ὁδοὺςὡς, εἴ τι πάσχοιμ’ ὠν ἐδόξαζόν ποτεΜή μοι νέορτον προσπεσὸν μᾶλλον δάκοι.

39

Ter. Phorm. II. i. 11.

40

This refers to the speech of Agamemnon in Euripides, in the Iphigenia in Aulis,

Ζηλῶ σε, γέρον,ζηλῶ δ’ ἀνδρῶν ὃς ἀκίνδυνονβίον ἐξεπέρασ’, ἀγνὼς, ἀκλεής.—v. 15.

41

This is a fragment from the Hypsipyle:

Εφυ μὲν οὐδεὶς ὅστις οὐ πονεῖ βροτῶνθάπτει τε τέκνα χἄτερ’ αὖ κτᾶται νεὰ,αὐτός τε θνήσκει. καὶ τάδ’ ἄχθονται βροτοὶεἰς γῆν φέροντες γῆν ἀναγκαίως δ’ ἔχειβίον θερίζειν ὥστε κάρπιμον στάχυν.

42

Πολλὰς ἐκ κεφαλῆς προθελύμνους ἕλκετο χαίτας.—Il. x. 15.

43

Ἤτοι ὁ καππέδιον τὸ Ἀληΐον οἶος ἀλᾶτοὅν θυμὸν κατεδὼν, πάτον ἀνθρώπων ἀλεείνων.—Il. vi. 201.

44

This is a translation from Euripides:

Ὥσθ’ ἵμερος μ’ ὑπῆλθε γῇ τε κ’ οὐρανῷλέξαι μολούσῃ δεῦρο Μηδείας τύχας.—Med. 57.

45

Λίην γὰρ πολλοὶ καὶ ἐπήτριμοι ἤματα πάνταπίπτουσιν, πότε κέν τις ἀναπνεύσειε πόνοιο;ἀλλὰ χρὴ τὸν μὲν καταθαπτέμεν, ὅς κε θάνησι,νηλέα θυμὸν ἔχοντας, ἔπ’ ἤματι δακρυσάντας.—Hom. Il. xix. 226.

46

This is one of the fragments of Euripides which we are unable to assign to any play in particular; it occurs Var. Ed. Tr. Inc. 167.

Εἰ μεν τόδ’ ἦμαρ πρῶτον ἦν κακουμένῳκαὶ μὴ μακρὰν δὴ διὰ πόνων ἐναυστόλουνεἰκὸς σφαδάζειν ἦν ἂν, ὡς νεόζυγαπῶλον, χάλινον ἀρτίως δεδεγμένοννῦν δ’ ἀμβλύς εἰμι, καὶ κατηρτυκὼς κακῶν.

47

This is only a fragment, preserved by Stobæus:

Τοὺς δ’ ἂν μεγίστους καὶ σοφωτάτους φρενὶτοιούσδ’ ἴδοις ἂν, οἶός ἐστι νῦν ὅδε,καλῶς κακῶς πράσσοντι συμπαραινέσαιὅταν δὲ δαίμων ἀνδρὸς εὐτυχοῦς τὸ πρὶνμάστιγ’ ἐπίσῃ τοῦ βίου παλίντροπον,τὰ πολλὰ φροῦδα καὶ κακῶς εἰρημένα.