13

14

15

21

23

24

vestra: the plurals, vos and vester, it will be noticed, are used in addressing Africanus, where his fellow-mortals are included; the Latins did not until late use vos and vester, like nos and noster, for the singular. For the sentiment cp. de Senect. XXI. 77.

quin aspicis: 'why, do you not...?' i. e. 'come! look' (quin = old ablative quoi + the negative ne).

venientem: Mai asks: 'quo pacto venientem?' He remarks that Proclus and Porphyry (of the Neo-Platonic School of Philosophy) thought that light was the 'vehiculum animarum'.

vim lacrimarum: 'a flood of tears': like the Greek dúvaμs (cp. the vulgar use of the word power, e.g. 'a power of money') vis is frequently used in the sense of copia: the notion of 'abundance' is further carried on in profudi, 'profuse'.

§ 7.

templum: like Greek Téμevos, ‘a place cut or marked off': hence, in the language of the Augurs, templa were regions, including the prospect of the heavens, marked out by their divining rod (lituus), for the purpose of observing the auspicia.

liberaverit: Plato, Phaedo 62 B, ev tivi opovpậ čoμev oi äv0pwñoi καὶ οὐ δεῖ δὴ ἑαυτὸν ἐκ ταύτης λύειν οὐδ ̓ ἀποδιδράσκειν. ‘We mortals are at a post, as it were; and one may not relieve one's self from this, nor desert from it'. Cp. de Senect. XX. 73, vetatque Pythagoras iniussu imperatoris, id est Dei, de praesidio et statione vitae decedere. Cp. Plato, Apolog. 28 E.

tuerentur: 'keep, dwell on': cp. de Senect. XXI. 77, credo deos inmortales sparsisse animos in corpora humana, ut essent qui terras tuerentur, quique, caelestium ordinem contemplantes, imitarentur eum vitae modo atque constantia. Some think that tuerentur intuerentur; but Scipio is expressly told (§ 12) to disregard things sublunar. As Mr Reid remarks, Cicero carries on Plato's notion of the ppoupá. The imperfect conjunctive, as Moser observes, is used to call attention to the design of God at the time of the creation. (See Madvig, L. G. § 383. 2.)

25

27

28

32

medium: the ancients regarded the earth as the central point of the planetary system: cp. § 10.

quae: the relative is frequently accommodated to the gender of the following noun (Madvig, § 316): cp. § 13 n., quem Oceanum.

sidera: 'constellations': Macrobius says: 'sic et apud Graecos ἀστήρ εἰ ἄστρον diversa significant et ἀστήρ stella una est, ἄστρον signum stellis coactum, quod nos sidus vocamus'; but these distinctions are not always observed.

divinis: cp. de N. D. 11. xv. 39, hac mundi divinitate perspecta, tribuenda est sideribus eadem divinitas quae ex nobilissima purissimaque aetheris parte gignuntur neque ulla praeterea sunt admixta natura, totaque sunt callida atque perlucida.

1

circulos: orbes is probably added by way of explanation (see § 20, natura, note): cp. de N. D. 1I. xviii. 47, circulus aut orbis, qui KÚKλos Graece dicitur. Macrobius, however, says that orbis here= the revolution of a planet in its orbit; while circus (M. reads here circos) refers to its passage through the signs of the Zodiac.

migrandum: cp. de Senect. XXIII. 84, ex vita ita discedo tamquam ex hospitio, non tamquam e domo, commorandi enim natura deversorium nobis, non habitandi dedit. Plato, Apolog. 40 C, speaks of death as a μεταβολή τις—καὶ μετοίκησις τῇ ψυχῇ τοῦ τόπου τοῦ ἐνθένδε εἰς ἄλλον τόπον, ‘a shifting and a change of habitation for the soul, from this world to another'.

munus: cp. de Senect. XXI. 77, dum sumus in his inclusi compagibus corporis, munere quodam necessitatis et gravi opere (? onere) perfungimur.

[humanum] has every appearance of a gloss.

§ 8, P. 16.

2 qui te genui: 'your sire': pater following avus would have been misleading, as Paulus was not the elder Scipio's son: moreover, by Roman law, Paulus was no longer entitled to this name: cp. § 6. pietatem: § 4, impias, note.

3

in parentibus: 'in the case of parents', 'where parents are concerned' in parentes 'towards parents'. Cp. de Off. 1. xvii. 57, sed

5

7

8

9

13

14

19

20

cum omnia ratione animoque lustraris, omnium societatum nulla est gravior, nulla carior, quam ea, quae cum republica est unicuique nostrum. Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, familiares; sed omnes omnium caritates patria una complexa est.

vixerunt: euphemistic, 'finished their lives': cp. ad Attic. XIV. 21, sed mihi quidem ßeßíwraL. Thus too Cicero is said to have announced the execution of the Catilinarian conspirators.

laxati: cp. § 6, corporum vinculis.

flammas: i.e. the stars.

orbem: Greek å yaλağías (kúkλos), ‘Milky way' (via lactea); acc. to Theophrastus, this was the parting, where the two hemispheres, of which the celestial sphere was composed, were joined together. Democritus rightly held that it was composed of innumerable little stars. (Macrob. I. xv.)

cetera: the other heavenly bodies, as contrasted with the earth. aliena: 'borrowed', lit. 'belonging to another': cp. § 9, luna radiis solis accensa.

iam: 'by this time': the longer Scipio gazed, the more insignificant did the earth appear.

§ 9.

novem tibi: the dative (ethical) of the personal pronouns is frequently used to attract attention or denote surprise: the person referred to being supposed to have an interest in the matter: cp. Ecce tibi! and Quid mihi Celsus agit?

omnia: Greek Tò πâν, the Universe. Plato (Repub. x. 616) represents the revolution of the Universe as a distaff turning round upon the knees of 'Aváyкŋ, and the orbits of the planets-which he arranges in the following order: celestial sphere, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Sun, Moon—as a large hollow whorl (σøóvduλos) into which seven similar whorls have been successively inserted, in such a way that the rim of each projects a little beyond that of the one in which it is itself inserted; and while as a whole the distaff revolves uniformly in the same direction, these seven inner whorls

P. C.

3

21

23

24

27

travel slowly round in an opposite direction, with different velocities: and, as they revolve, a siren standing on each circle and revolving with it, keeps uttering one note in one tone, so that the eight notes blend together in one harmony.

[qui—conplectitur] Osann brackets as spurious: it is certainly

redundant.

summus ipse deus: cp. de N. D. 1. xiv. 37, Cleanthes autem— tum ipsum mundum Deum dicit esse, tum totius naturae menti atque animo tribuit hoc nomen, tum ultimum et altissimum, atque undique circumfusum et extremum omnia cingentem atque complexum ardorem, qui aether nominetur, certissimum Deum iudicat.

qui volvuntur: a bold licence, we should have expected in quo infixae sunt stellae, quae sempiterno cursu volvuntur. Macrobius thinks that Cicero intentionally leaves open the disputed question, whether the fixed stars were really stationary or had a movement of their own, however imperceptible, independently of the celestial sphere.

qui versantur: the celestial sphere (the outermost whorl), in its diurnal revolution from E. to W., as Macrobius explains, carried with it the inner spheres; which again had also a particular revolution of their own, from W. to E., through the signs of the zodiac. With contrario atque cp. similis ac.

prosperus et s.: this planet was supposed to exercise a propitious influence over the lives and fortunes of men: Cicero (de N. D. II. 25) says: Iovem appellamus a iuvando; according to him, Iupiter= iuvans pater. Modern philologists, however, compare Diouis, the old Italian name for Jupiter, and the Greek Zeus with the Sanscrit diva, 'heaven'; so that Jupiter = caeli pater: the root DIV, which they assume as underlying these words, signifying 'brightness' or 'shining', may be plainly traced in the Latin words iubar, dies, dives, Diana, &c. (See Vanicek, Etymol.)

Cp. Horat. Od. II. xvii. 23, te Iovis impio Tutela Saturno refulgens Eripuit. Persius, Sat. v. 50, Saturnumque gravem nostro Iove frangimus una.

Iovis Martium: the genitive of possession frequently stands beside the adjective: cp. meus ipsius.

28

29

30

31

32

rutilus: the Greek name of Mars' was o IIupóeis: cp. de N. D. II. XX. 53.

dux: so in Sophocles (Antig. 1147), Dionysus, as Sun-God, is invoked as Tuρ πνeóνтwν Xоpayòs äσтρwv. Сp. Tuscul. 1. xxviii. 68, dierum et noctium-moderatorem et ducem Solem.

mens: cp. Milton, P. L. Bk v.:

'Thou Sun! of this great world both eye and soul'.

'Moon, that now meet'st the orient Sun, now fliest,
'With the fixed stars,-fixed in their orb that flies!
· And ye five other wandering fires! that move
'In mystic dance, not without song, resound
'His praise, who out of darkness called up light'.

temperatio=is qui temperat: abstr. for concrete: cp. N. D. 11. 49, cited § 4.

lustret: some read collustret: cp. de N. D. 11. 36, sol omnia clarissima luce collustrans: the simple form is not usual in this sense except in the poets: cp. Virgil, Aen. Iv. 607, Lucret. V. 575.

comites: Macrobius explains: Venus, Mercury and the Sun, respectively traverse the Zodiac in a year. He says that Plato places their orbits above the Sun (§ 9 n.), following the Egyptians, who held that Mercury and Venus revolve round the Sun: Venus in the outer and Mercury in the inner circle.

P. 17.

5 nam introduces a parenthesis: as for that which, &c.': a

6

common use of nam.

infima: the Earth being regarded as the central point of the Universe: medium infimum in sphaera est, de N. D. 11. xlv. 116, cp. Tuscc. v. xxiv. 69.

nutu: 'inclination, downward tendency', Ty olкela porn, Planudes: cp. de N. D. II. xxxix. 98, terra-locata in media mundi sede, solida et globosa et undique ipsa in sese nutibus suis conglobata: cp. also Tusc. I. 40, where pondere is added as an explanation of nutu.