BOOK THE FIRST

DF_OFFICIIS] Gr. περὶ τοῦ καθήκοντος, more rarely περὶ καθηκόντων, as in Lucian Hermot. § 82, Aul. Gell. N. A. 1. c. 13. Cicero tells us himself why he prefers the title de officiis to de officio (Ep. ad Attic. XVI 11, § 2), Tà TEρÌ TоÛ KаOŃKOVтOS, Quatenus Panaetius, absolvi duobus...Quod de inscriptione quaeris, non dubito quin кalîкov officium sit, nisi quid tu aliud; sed inscriptio plenior ‘de officiis.' Пpoσowvŵ autem Ciceroni filio. Visum est non ȧvoiкelov. It agrees better with Cicero's treatment of the subject of ‘moral duties,' inasmuch as these vary with a man's social position and other circumstances which he considers in this treatise, see I § 122125, compare also III § 77 virum bonum...cum ea res innumerabilibus officiis et laudibus contineretur.

CHAPTER I.

P. 3 § 1, 1. 1. annum iam audientem] Cicero sent his son to Athens about the first of April B.C. 45, as he tells us in a letter to Atticus written the next year (xv 15), in which speaking of his son he writes scripsit ad Tironem sibi post Kal. April.-sic enim annuum tempus confici—nihil datum esse. As Cicero speaks in the text of his son annum iam audientem Cratippum, it is inferred that he began this Treatise in the spring or early in the summer of B.C. 44, two or three months at most after the assassination of Caesar. On the other hand, the following reasons may be given for believing that the treatise was not commenced until the autumn of the same year. (1) In the very frequent letters of this period, which give us a full account almost of the daily occupations of Cicero, there is no mention of a work de officiis until Oct. 24 (Ep. ad Att. XV 13). (2) Cicero implies (Off. III § 121) that this book was intended as a substitute for the instruction which he had designed giving his son in person at Athens. It may be supposed therefore that it was written after the project of visiting Greece was abandoned. Now we learn from Ep. ad Att. XVI 7 that having set out on a voyage, he was driven back to the vicinity of Rhegium on the 6th of August, and was induced to give up his visit to his son and return to Rome by the representations of his friends that a favourable change in public affairs had taken place, and that his presence was demanded. He reached the Capitol on the last day of August, and having on September the 2nd delivered his first Philippic, retired soon after to his villa at Puteoli. Here he spent the months of October and November, and is supposed to have employed himself in writing this work. It is agreed that it was finished before the ninth of December. A. W. Zumpt suggests that the disagreement may be reconciled by supposing that the young Cicero, although he left home on the first of April, did not for some time actually commence his attendance on the instructions of Cratippus; and further, that Cicero does not intend to speak with exactness in using the words

annum iam audientem. On the adjectival use of audientem see Madvig Gr. § 289 a, and for the accusative annum to specify duration of time, ib. § 235.

1. 2. Cratippum] An eminent Peripatetic philosopher, born at Mitylene, where he consoled Pompey after his flight from the battle of Pharsalia (Plutarch v. Pomp. p. 659 c. 75). When Cicero visited Cilicia, Cratippus met him at Ephesus and obtained through his intercession with Caesar the Roman franchise. On coming to Athens he was requested, at the instance also of Cicero, by the Areopagites to open a school there (Plutarch v. Cicer. p. 873 c. 24). He wrote a treatise de divinatione and somniorum interpretatione (Cic. de div. I c. 3, II c. 48 sqq., Tertullian de anima II c. 46). Cicero's opinion of him may be learned from I § 3, where he is spoken of as princeps huius aetatis philosophorum, and III § 5 principe huius memoriae philosophorum. Again in II § 8 Cic. says that he deserved to be ranked with the greatest men of his school iis simillimo qui ista praeclara pepererunt and de div. I§ 5 Cratippus familiaris noster quem ego parem summis Peripateticis iudico, also de div. 11 § 107 veniamus ad optimum virum, familiarem nostrum Cratippum. Young Cicero seems to have been much attached to him. In a letter to Tiro (Ep. ad Fam. XVI 21) he writes Cratippo me scito non ut discipulum sed ut filium esse coniunctissimum ; nam et audio illum libenter, tum etiam propriam eius suavitatem vehementer amplector. Sum totos dies cum eo noctisque saepenumero partem: exoro enim ut mecum quam saepissime cenet. Hac introducta consuetudine, saepe inscientibus nobis et cenantibus obrepit sublataque severitate philosophiae humanissime nobiscum iocatur. Quare da operam ut hunc talem` tam iucundum tam excellentem virum videas quam primum. He was his travelling companion in Asia (ad Fam. XII 16).

idque]=kal Taûta ‘and that too,' Zumpt Gr. § 699.

abundare oportet praeceptis institutisque philosophiae] 'you cannot fail to be well supplied with the practical rules and principles of philosophy.' Beier thus paraphrases the passage: 'Aliter non potuit` quin aemulatio tua incenderetur, cum Athenis, in litterarum emporio, quo tamquam ad mercaturam bonarum artium tot iuvenes discendi cupidi humanitatisque studia sectantes confluxerunt, horum ovupiλoσopoúvтwv et doctrinae eruditionisque aemulorum laudabilia exempla intuerere.'

1. 5. quorum] Madv. Gr. 214 b, 315 a.

1. 6. ad meam utilitatem]=cum mea utilitate, i. e. ' with my own improvement as a consequence,' not 'for my own improvement as an end.'

1. 7. semper] i. e. not merely when a young student. Comp. Brut. XC § 310: Commentabar declamitans......saepe cum M. Pisone et cum Q. Pompeio aut cum aliquo cotidie; idque faciebam multum etiam latine, sed graece saepius, vel quod graeca oratio plura ornamenta suppeditans consuetudinem similiter latine dicendi afferebat, vel quod a graecis summis doctoribus, nisi graece dicerem, neque corrigi possem neque doceri.

id...feci] h. e. cum graecis latina coniunxi, by speaking and writing on philosophy in Latin and Greek for his oratorical studies, comp. Brut. § 310 commentabar declamitans-idque faciebam multum etiam latine, sed graece saepius.

1. 9. ut ipse-idem tibi] For the sequence ut-idem instead of ut-sic quoque cp. de leg. II § 14 sed ut vir doctissimus fecit Plato,-id mihi credo esse faciendum: de fin. IV § 34 ut Phidias potest a primo instituere signum idque perficere, potest ab alio incohatum accipere et

absolvere, huic similis est sapientia. Lambinus' conjecture item is unnecessary.

ut par sis in utriusque orationis facultate] that you may possess equal command over both the Greek and Latin languages.' utraque lingua was an ordinary phrase for Greek and Latin, barbarous tongues being ignored: cp. Hor. Od. III 8, 5 docte sermones utriusque linguae. Beier however and Heine take utriusque to refer to both styles of discourse, illud forense dicendi et hoc quietum disputandi genus.

1. 10. quam quidem ad rem] i.e. ad ea quae a Graecis discuntur latine dicenda, BE. 'In this respect, if I mistake not, I have rendered considerable service to my countrymen, so that not only those of them who are not Greek scholars (qui illa, quae a Graecis accepissent, latine dici posse diffiderent, nat. deor. I § 8), but even those who are, consider that they have gained a good deal (aliquantum) to aid them not only as speakers but also as philosophical thinkers.' Cicero means that by his writings he had not only taught his countrymen to think, but also had so enriched (pleniorem effecit 1. 20) their language, ut graecis de philosophia litteris non egeant (de div. 11 2, 6). Comp. de fin. I ch. 2. Docti are opposed to graecarum literarum rudes: so Acad. Post. I § 4 the same who are called docti had been spoken of before as graecis doctrinis eruditi, and again, those who are said a Graecorum artibus et disciplinis abhorrere are afterwards referred to as indocti. The docti had been taught by Cicero that Greek philosophy was a subject capable of being expounded in Latin.

ut videmur] sc. nobis, i.e. nisi fallor, Zumpt Gr. § 380.

§ 2, 1. 14. disces tu quidem-et disces] On the use of quidem with a personal pronoun, when a concession is made but immediately qualified by an adversative clause, see P. S. Gr. p. 285, cp. § 66, § 95. The adversative clause is sometimes omitted as in IIS 32. The repetition of the verb after a conjunction is a frequent mode in Cicero of giving emphasis to an assertion: comp. below § 95 pertinet quidem―et ita pertinet, Verr. III 65 tenetur―et manifesto tenetur, Catil. 1 2, 4 vivis, et vivis...ad confirmandam audaciam, ib. 9, 6 vivis et vives ita ut nunc vivis, pro Mur. c. 26 § 53 petisset diligenter et ita petisset-ut.

1. 16. non paenitebit] 'you will not be dissatisfied.' Comp. Terent. Haut. Tim. I i. 20 at enim me quantum hic operis fiat paeniteret, Liv. Hist. I 8 cum jam virium haud paeniteret, Cic. ad Att. 1 20 a senatu quanti fiam, minime me paenitet, ad Fam. VI I ea perturbatio est omnium rerum, ut suae quemque fortunae paeniteat, ad Att. XII 28 non paenitet me quantum profecerim.

1. 17. a Peripateticis] i.q. a scriptis Peripateticorum, § 76 1. 5, n. utrique] both of us, i.e. the Peripatetics and myself. On the relation between Socrates and the New Academy, see nat. deor. I 5.

1. 18. Socratici et Platonici-esse] cp. nat. d. 1 § 11 haec in philosophia ratio contra omnia disserendi nullamque rem aperte iudicandi profecta a Socrate, repetita ab Arcesila, confirmata a Carneade usque ad nostram viguit aetatem; de div. II § 150 cum autem proprium sit Academiae iudicium suum nullum interponere, ea probare quae simillima veri videantur, conferre causas et quid in quamque sententiam dici possit, expromere...tenebimus hanc consuetudinem a Socrate traditam, Tusc. disp. v § 11, de fin. II § 2, Ac. Post. I § 45.

utere] i.q. uteris, the future as a softened imperative. For other examples of this form of the future of deponent verbs III § 121, or. in Cat. I g CIC. de Off.

ΙΟ

27 patiere, ib. 1, 1 abutere, 7, 17 verebere, sequere, 10, 26 perfruere, bacchabere: Verr. IV § 25 interpretabere, pro Flacc. c. 29 § 70 negotiabere, ep. ad Fam. x 14 consequere, de fin. Iỷ § 69 angere.

1. 20. efficies pleniorem] 'you must be sure to improve' not 'I am confident you will improve.' The clause de rebus ipsis etc. is really subSee too § 17 1. 27 and cp. § 51, § 84.

ordinate to this.

legendis nostris] Cum iam longius abesset illud nostra legens, repetit legendis nostris. Z.

1. 22. apte] sc. ad rerum dignitatem with propriety,' suitably to the subject we are handling: de orat. III § 53 qui distincte, qui explicate, qui abundanter, qui illuminate et rebus et verbis dicunt, ii sunt qui dicunt ornate; qui idem ita moderantur ut rerum, ut personarum dignitates ferunt, ii sunt in eo genere laudandi quod ego aptum nomino.

distincte] 'with perspicuity' refers to the method of a discourse : ornate, to the figures and ornaments of rhetoric employed in it.

1. 24. vindicare] sc. mihi: cp. § 22 1. 32 quoniam ortus nostri partem patria vindicat, sc. sibi.

P. 4, § 3, 1. 3. iam illis fere se aequarunt] 'have now come up to them' in bulk and number. Of the former he had composed 68, of the latter 51 including the present treatise: see Introd. to de divin. II. The MSS. reading_aequarunt instead of se aequarunt is shewn by Zumpt to be incorrect Latin: either illis fere se aequarunt, or illos fere aequarunt being required. The original construction was acquare aliquam rem cum aliqua re, or passively res aequatur cum re, e.g. de leg. 111 § 24 quo tenuiores cum principibus aequari se putarent; Brut. c. 36 latina dicendi copia cum graecorum gloria aequata. Sometimes a dative takes the place of the ablative with cum as in the phrase solo aequare urbem in Velleius Tacitus etc. Aequare again is often used in the sense of reaching' or 'coming up to' with a simple accusative, but never with a dative. This follows from the literal meaning, 'to bring a thing into equality with something belonging to yourself,' as in Liv. I 53 Tarquin is said belli arte superiores aequasse, Quint. Curt. IV I cursum equorum aequare, Hor. Od. II 5, 3 munia comparis aequare. But in this sense the dative is never similarly employed. Beier takes aequare to be used reflexively = aequare se, as muto is used by Catullus XXII II tantum abhorret ac mutati.q. mutat se.

1. 5. aequabile] uniform,' 'even,' 'unimpassioned.'

1. 8. elaboraret] 'worked at with success.' 'Elaboraret ex uno tantum sed bono libro MS. (Guelf. 2) editur. Laborat in aliqua re qui operam insumit, fere frustra, nisi adiungatur verborum aliquid, quemadmodum Cic. de orat. III 33 ait utroque in genere et laboravit et praestitit, sed qui sic laborat ut praestet aliquid, is uno verbo elaborat in aliqua re.' Z. Comp. Kühner Tusc. Qu. 1 § 1 'laborare est in re aliqua studiose atque enixe agenda tractandaque versari, notione adiuncta vel molestiae vel frustrationis vel curae: elaborare contra est e labore in aliqua re collocato quasi emergere et vel ad speratum fructum vel ad propositum finem pervenire; omninoque laborando aliquid efficere : hinc semper ponitur ubi non anxia sed liberior quaedam agendi ratio commemoratur.' Cp. § 116, § 133.

1.9. sequereturque] 'that is, aimed at,' ' endeavoured to attain.' Cp. 1. 14 utrumque certe secuti sumus, nat. deor. I § 12 cuius rei tantae... facultatem consecutum esse me non profiteor, secutum esse prae me fero.

dicendi-disputandi] Brut. § 118 idem (Stoici) traducti a dispu