Chapter IX: Book I (3)

§44. _Non pertinacia aut studio vincendi_: for these words see n. on II. 14. The sincerity of Arcesilas is defended also in II. 76. _Obscuritate_: a side-blow at _declaratio_ 41. _Confessionem ignorationis_: see 16. Socrates was far from being a sceptic, as Cic. supposes; see note on II. 74. _Et iam ante Socratem_: MSS. _veluti amantes Socratem;_ Democritus (460--357 B.C.) was really very little older than Socrates (468--399) who died nearly sixty years before him. _Omnis paene veteres_: the statement is audaciously inexact, and is criticised II. 14. None of these were sceptics; for Democritus see my note on II. 73, for Empedocles on II. 74, for Anaxagoras on II. 72. _Nihil cognosci, nihil penipi, nihil sciri_: the verbs are all equivalent; cf. _D.F._ III. 15 _equidem soleo etiam quod uno Graeci ... idem pluribus verbis exponere_. _Angustos sensus_: Cic. is thinking of the famous lines of Empedocles [Greek: steinopoi men gar palamai k.t.l.] R. and P. 107. _Brevia curricula vitae_: cf. Empedocles' [Greek: pauron de zôês abiou meros]. Is there an allusion in _curricula_ to Lucretius' _lampada vitai tradunt_, etc.? _In profundo_: Dem. [Greek: en bythô], cf. II. 32. The common trans. "well" is weak, "abyss" would suit better. _Institutis_: [Greek: nomô] of Democritus, see R. and P. 50. Goerenz's note here is an extraordinary display of ignorance. _Deinceps omnia_: [Greek: panta ephexês] there is no need to read _denique_ for _deinceps_ as Bentl., Halm. _Circumfusa tenebris_: an allusion to the [Greek: skotiê gnôsis] of Democr., see II. 73. _Dixerunt_: Halm brackets this because of _dixerunt_ above, parts of the verb _dicere_ are however often thus repeated by Cic.

§45. _Ne illud quidem_: cf. 16. _Latere censebat_ Goer. omitted _censebat_ though in most MSS. Orelli and Klotz followed as usual. For the sense II. 122. _Cohibereque_: Gk. [Greek: epechein], which we shall have to explain in the _Lucullus_. _Temeritatem ... turpius_: for these expressions, see II. 66, note. _Praecurrere_: as was the case with the dogmatists. _Paria momenta_: this is undiluted scepticism, and excludes even the possibility of the _probabile_ which Carneades put forward. For the doctrine cf. II. 124, for the expression Euseb. _Praep. Evan._ XIV. c. 4 (from Numenius) of Arcesilas, [Greek: einai gar panta akatalêpta kai tous eis ekatera logous isokrateis allêlois], Sextus _Adv. Math._ IX. 207 [Greek: isostheneis logoi]; in the latter writer the word [Greek: isostheneia] very frequently occurs in the same sense, e g _Pyrrhon. Hyp._ I. 8 (add _N.D._ I. 10, _rationis momenta_)

§46. _Platonem_: to his works both dogmatists and sceptics appealed, Sextus _Pyrrhon. Hyp._ I. 221 [Greek: ton Platôna oin hoi men dogmatikon ephasan einai, hoi de apo êtikon, hoi de kata men ti aporêtikon, kata de ti dogmatikon]. Stobaeus II. 6, 4 neatly slips out of the difficulty; [Greek: Platôn polyphônos ôn, ouch hôs tines oiontai polydoxos]. _Exposuisti_: Durand's necessary em., approved by Krische, Halm, etc. for MSS. _exposui_. _Zenone_: see Introd. p. 5.

* * * * *

NOTES ON THE FRAGMENTS.

BOOK I.

1. _Mnesarchus_: see II. 69, _De Or._ I. 45, and _Dict. Biogr._ 'Antipater'; cf. II. 143, _De Off._ III. 50. Evidently this fragment belongs to that historical justification of the New Academy with which I suppose Cicero to have concluded the first book.

2. The word _concinere_ occurs _D.F._ IV. 60, _N.D._ I. 16, in both which places it is used of the Stoics, who are said _re concinere, verbis discrepare_ with the other schools. This opinion of Antiochus Cic. had already mentioned 43, and probably repeated in this fragment. Krische remarks that Augustine, _Cont. Acad._ II. 14, 15, seems to have imitated that part of Cicero's exposition to which this fragment belongs. If so Cic. must have condemned the unwarrantable verbal innovations of Zeno in order to excuse the extreme scepticism of Arcesilas (Krische, p. 58).