§ 10. 20 sonus: with this passage cp. Milton, P. L. 620 foll. 'Mystical danse, which yonder starry sphere 'Eccentric, intervolved yet regular Then most, when most irregular they seem; 'And, in their motions, harmony divine 'So smooths her charming tones, that God's own ear intervallis: according to the Pythagoreans, the intervals between the Planets (which determined the nature of the sounds produced by their revolution § 10, natura fert cet.) corresponded with the intervals of a certain musical scale: the soul of the Universe was conceived by them as a harmony. (See also Mr Pattison's note to Pope's Essay on Man, I. 202.) disiunctus: this is the reading of Macrobius: other MSS have coniunctus; in this case we should have to supply ex. pro rata parte: 'in proportion': according to Macrobius the distance between Sun and Earth was twice that from Earth to Moon; and from Earth to Venus thrice that from Earth to Sun, &c. ratione: according to a system', 'exactly'. incitari: cp. N. D. 11. xl. 103, stellae, quarum motus tum incitantur, tum retardantur. natura fert: Macrobius illustrates this by the difference in the sound produced by a rod in striking the air, according as the stroke is quick or slow. He remarks also: numquam sonus fit nisi aëre percusso. stellifer cursus: notice the hypallage: for caeli stelliferi cursus : this figure is more common in the poets. duorum: some edd. insert Mercurii et Veneris; which, of course, are the two referred to. 22 nodus: cp. § 4. Macrobius explains: neque planities sine tribus neque soliditas sine quattuor potest vinciri. Ergo septenarius numerus geminam vim obtinet vinciendi quia ambae partes eius vincula prima sortitae sunt, i.e. because the plane superficies and the cube are the simplest forms. 23 imitati: : cp. Quinctil. 1. 10, Pythagoras atque eum secuti acceptam sine dubio antiquitus opinionem vulgaverunt, mundum ipsum eius ratione esse compositum, quam postea sit lyra imitata. 26 27 7 The heptachord was the correct final form of the Greek lyre. Cic. de Legg. II. xv. 39, cp. Virg. Aen. vI. 646, obloquitur numeris septem discrimina vocum, Iamque eadem digitis, iam pectine pulsat eburno. The tetrachord preceded it. § 11. obsurduerunt: 'have grown dull'; cp. Shakspere, Merchant of Venice, Act v. Sc. i.: 'Look how the floor of heaven 'Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold. 'There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest 'But in his motion like an angel sings, 'Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins: 'But whilst this muddy vesture of decay 'Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it'. obsurdesco is not connected in any way with absurdus (rt svar found in σûp-y and su-surr-us) 'out of tune'; but surdus (rt svarda, cp. sordes, Saxon svart, 'swarthy') 'dark', 'dull' (Vanicek, Etymol.). Catadupa: Tà Karádovтa, the Cataracts of the Nile. Seneca relates that a nation settled there by the Persians was unable to endure the noise, and had to be removed to a quieter place. Probably the story originated in the well-known fact that people living in the vicinity of a steam-hammer, for instance, in time lose all consciousness of that particular noise. § 12, P. 18. celebrit. serm. hom.: 'renown among men': hominum is added by Cicero to explain what he here means by celebritas (prim. signifi 8 13 16 17 20 21 cation, 'frequency '), the meaning of which, in this phrase, no single English word would exactly represent: cp. Tuscul. 1. 28, famae celebritate, Off. II. 44, celebritatis et nominis; where our 'celebrity' is expressed by a hendiadys. expetendam: aiperóv, ' choiceworthy'. obliquos: in a slanting direction': obliqui (ävтoiko) are those who inhabit the S. Temperate Zone of our hemisphere. transversi, 'right across' (Teрioкo), those in the N. Temp. Zone of the other hemisphere. adversi (ȧvтíпodes) those in the S. Temp. Zone of the other hemisphere. § 13. cingulis: 'zones' (šŵva‹): cp. Virg. Georg. 111. 233 foll., where it is the sky that is said to be girdled: Macrobius explains that the zones of the earth subtend those of the heavens. quasi quibusdam apologises for this use of the word cingulis. As Mr Reid observes, quasi is frequently prefixed to translations of Greek terms, to modify their strangeness: cp. de Rep. 1. iv. 8, neque enim hac nos patria lege genuit aut educavit, ut nulla quasi alimenta exspectaret a nobis: here alimenta is manifestly a rendering of the Greek τροφεία οι θρεπτηρία. diversos: the frigid zones, N. and S., which are farthest removed from each other. caeli verticibus: the two poles: vertex, 'turning-point' (wóλos): cp. N. D. II. xli. Io5, 'Extremusque adeo duplici de cardine vertex australis: cp. Tuscul. 1. xxviii. 68, altera (ora) australis ignota nobis, quam vocant Graeci åvтix@ova. adversa: cp. Acad. 11. 123, 'habitari ait Xenophanes in luna, eamque esse terram multarum urbium et montium. Portenta videntur; sed tamen neque ille, qui dixit, iurare posset, ita se rem habere, neque ego non ita. Dicitis etiam, esse e regione nobis, e contraria parte terrae, qui adversis vestigiis stent contra nostra vestigia'. nihil ad: understand pertinet: cp. Piso XXVIII. 68, recte an secus, nihil ad nos aut si ad nos, nihil ad hoc tempus'. See Roby, L. G. § 1441. verticibus: 'at the poles', i. e. North and South: lateribus, East and West. The Ocean was regarded as a great stream flowing round the Earth-'кeаvòs πотаuós, as Homer calls him. insula: cp. N. D. 11. lxvi. 165, sin autem iis consulunt (dii inmortales), qui quasi magnam quandam insulam incolunt, quam nos orbem terrae vocamus: etiam illis consulunt, qui partes eius insulae tenent, Europam, Asiam, Africam. In quem Oceanum, the relative, as usual, is attracted into the gender of the defining substantive: cp. § 5, quae civitates (see Roby, L. Gr., ‘Attraction). P § 14. obeuntis: in prose occidentis would be the regular form; but, as we have noticed, the style verges upon the poetic. P. 19. 2 3 vestra: § 6 n.: cp. Seneca, Epist. XCI. 17, Alexander, Macedonum rex, discere Geometriam, infelix! coeperat, sciturus quam pusilla terra esset, ex qua minimum occupaverat. quam diu: the tmesis serves to bring diu into an emphatic position: cp. ad Q. Fr. 1. i. 7, quoties quisque voluit dixit, et quam voluit diu. § 15. 5 6 deinceps in succession', 'from generation to generation': cp. de Legg. 111. 4, deinde etiam deinceps posteris prodebatur. eluviones exustionesque: according to Heraclitus, who stood to the Stoics in the same relation as Democritus to the Epicureans, the Universe as an everliving fire alternately extinguishing and rekindling itself, was in a perpetual flux (πάντα ῥεῖ καὶ μένει οὐδέν): now the Stoics held that the ethereal fire of the heavenly bodies was fed by exhalations from the earth and from the Ocean-stream (Toîs θεοῖς ἀρκεῖ εἰς τροφὴν οἱ ἀπὸ γῆς καὶ ὕδατος ἀναφερόμενοι ἀτμοί. Musonius, ap. Stob. XVII. 160. Cleanthes thought that the fire of 8 12 15 18 the Sun was like the bodily heat of living beings. Cic. N. D. 11. 15). Accordingly it sometimes happened that the fiery element being overfed and having consumed the earth's moisture, a conflagration ensued (èкTúρwσis): then again the fiery element having spent itself in conflagration, the water began to prevail until there was a flood (κaтaкλvσμbs). So, as Macrobius says: manente mundo inter exuberantes caloris humorisque vices terrarum cultus cum hominum genere saepe intercidit et reducta temperie rursus novatur. Cp. N. D. 11. 46, Lucret. v. 380 foll. non modo non in a sentence like this, where both clauses have a common predicate to which the negative belongs, the second non is frequently omitted, the negation conveyed in ne quidem being referred to the whole. Cp. Lael. 24, assentatio non modo amico, sed ne libero quidem digna est. In all probability it depended entirely upon the emphasis (see Madvig, L. G. § 461). pauciores: the dead were sometimes spoken of as plures (oi Tλeloves), the majority'. Cp. Plaut. Trin. 291 cur non me penetravi ad plures. Arist. Eccl. 1073, ǹ ypaûs åveσтηkvîa tapà tŵv Tλeιóvwv. The degeneracy of modern times is a theme, which has been harped upon since Homer's time: Aristotle, however, ventures a protest it is probable', says he, 'that the first men, whether sprung from earth, or the survivors of some catastrophe, were just like mere chance-met, ignorant people' (Polit. II. 8). § 16. populariter: in the language of the people; opposed to that of philosophy: cp. de Legg. 1. 19. descriptionem: a 'map', or 'picture': discriptio='division', classification': cp. de Legg. III. 7, populi partes in tribus discribunto. Cicero here has in mind Plato, Timaeus, XI. 39: the annus mundanus, 'Heaven's great year' (Milton, P. L. v. 583), was sup. posed to be fulfilled, when all the heavenly bodies, after a complete revolution of the Universe, simultaneously returned to the same positions which they occupied at the commencement. The length of this year was variously computed at 12,000 to 15,000 solar years: cp. N. D. II. xx. 51, magnum annum-qui tum efficitur, cum solis |