Endnotes
Archilochus was a native of Paros, and flourished about 714–676 BC. His poems were chiefly Iambics of bitter satire. Horace speaks of him as the inventor of Iambics, and calls himself his pupil.
Parios ego primus Iambos
Ostendi Latio, numeros animosque secutus
Archilochi, non res et agentia verba Lycamben.
Epistles I xix 25.
And in another place he says,
Archilochum proprio rabies armavit Iambo
Ars Poetica 74.
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This was Livius Andronicus: he is supposed to have been a native of Tarentum, and he was made prisoner by the Romans, during their wars in Southern Italy; owing to which he became the slave of M. Livius Salinator. He wrote both comedies and tragedies, of which Cicero (Brutus 18) speaks very contemptuously, as “Livianae fabulae non satis dignae quae iterum legantur”—not worth reading a second time. He also wrote a Latin Odyssey, and some hymns, and died probably about 221 BC. ↩
C. Fabius, surnamed Pictor, painted the temple of Salus, which the dictator C. Junius Brutus Bubulus dedicated 302 BC. The temple was destroyed by fire in the reign of Claudius. The painting is highly praised by Dionysius, xvi 6. ↩
For an account of the ancient Greek philosophers, see the sketch at the end of the Disputations. ↩
Isocrates was born at Athens 436 BC. He was a pupil of Gorgias, Prodicus, and Socrates. He opened a school of rhetoric, at Athens, with great success. He died by his own hand at the age of ninety-eight. ↩
So Horace joins these two classes as inventors of all kinds of improbable fictions:
Pictoribus atque poetis
Quidlibet audendi semper fuit æqua potestas.
Ars Poetica 9.
Which Roscommon translates:
Painters and poets have been still allow’d
Their pencil and their fancies unconfined.
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Epicharmus was a native of Cos, but lived at Megara, in Sicily, and when Megara was destroyed, removed to Syracuse, and lived at the court of Hiero, where he became the first writer of comedies, so that Horace ascribes the invention of comedy to him, and so does Theocritus. He lived to a great age. ↩
Pherecydes was a native of Scyros, one of the Cyclades; and is said to have obtained his knowledge from the secret books of the Phoenicians. He is said also to have been a pupil of Pittacus, the rival of Thales, and the master of Pythagoras. His doctrine was that there were three principles, Ζεὺς, or Aether, Χθὼν, or Chaos, and Χρόνος, or Time; and four elements (Fire, Earth, Air, and Water), from which everything that exists was formed. Vide Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology ↩
Archytas was a native of Tarentum, and is said to have saved the life of Plato by his influence with the tyrant Dionysius. He was especially great as a mathematician and geometrician, so that Horace calls him
Maris et terra numeroque carentis arenæ
Mensorem.
Odes i 28.1.
Plato is supposed to have learned some of his views from him, and Aristotle to have borrowed from him every idea of the Categories. ↩
This was not Timaeus the historian, but a native of Locri, who is said also in the De Finibus (c. 29) to have been a teacher of Plato. There is a treatise extant bearing his name, which is, however, probably spurious, and only an abridgment of Plato’s dialogue Timaeus. ↩
Dicaearchus was a native of Messana, in Sicily, though he lived chiefly in Greece. He was one of the later disciples of Aristotle. He was a great geographer, politician, historian, and philosopher, and died about 285 BC. ↩
Aristoxenus was a native of Tarentum, and also a pupil of Aristotle. We know nothing of his opinions except that he held the soul to be a harmony of the body; a doctrine which had been already discussed by Plato in the Phaedo, and combated by Aristotle. He was a great musician, and the chief portions of his works which have come down to us are fragments of some musical treatises.
—Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology; to which source I must acknowledge my obligation for nearly the whole of these biographical notes. ↩
The Simonides here meant is the celebrated poet of Ceos, the perfecter of elegiac poetry among the Greeks. He flourished about the time of the Persian war. Besides his poetry, he is said to have been the inventor of some method of aiding the memory. He died at the court of Hiero, 467 BC. ↩
Theodectes was a native of Phaselis, in Pamphylia, a distinguished rhetorician and tragic poet, and flourished in the time of Philip of Macedon. He was a pupil of Isocrates, and lived at Athens, and died there at the age of forty-one. ↩
Cineas was a Thessalian, and (as is said in the text) came to Rome as ambassador from Pyrrhus after the battle of Heraclea, 280 BC, and his memory is said to have been so great that on the day after his arrival he was able to address all the senators and knights by name. He probably died before Pyrrhus returned to Italy, 276 BC. ↩
Charmadas, called also Charmides, was a fellow-pupil with Philo, the Larissaean of Clitomachus, the Carthaginian. He is said by some authors to have founded a fourth academy. ↩
Metrodorus was a minister of Mithridates the Great; and employed by him as supreme judge in Pontus, and afterward as an ambassador. Cicero speaks of him in other places (De Oratore ii 88) as a man of wonderful memory. ↩
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 BC. ↩
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. ↩
The epigram is,
Εἴπας Ἥλιε χαῖρε, Κλεόμβροτος Ὥμβρακιώτης
ἥλατ’ ἀφ’ ὑψηλοῦ τείχεος εἰς Ἀΐδην,
ἄξιον οὐδὲν ἰδὼν θανάτου κακὸν, ἀλλὰ Πλάτωνος
ἓν 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.
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This is alluded to by Juvenal:
Provida Pompeio dederat Campania febres
Optandas: sed multæ urbes et publica vota
Vicerunt. Igitur Fortuna ipsius et Urbis,
Servatum victo caput abstulit.
Satires x 283.
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Pompey’s second wife was Julia, the daughter of Julius Caesar, she died the year before the death of Crassus, in Parthia. Virgil speaks of Caesar and Pompey as relations, using the same expression (socer) as Cicero:
Aggeribus socer Alpinis atque arce Monoeci
Descendens, gener adversis instructus Eois.
Aeneid vi 830.
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This idea is beautifully expanded by Byron:
Yet if, as holiest men have deem’d, there be
A land of souls beyond that sable shore
To shame the doctrine of the Sadducee
And sophist, madly vain or dubious lore,
How sweet it were in concert to adore
With 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
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The epitaph in the original is:
Ὧ ξεῖν ἀγγεῖλον Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων πειθόμενοι νομίμοις
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This was expressed in the Greek verses,
Ἀρχὴν μὲν μὴ φῦναι ἐπιχθονίοισιν ἄριστον,
φύντα δ’ ὅπως ὤκιστα πύλας Ἀΐδἃο περῆσαι’
which by some authors are attributed to Homer. ↩
This is the first fragment of the Cresphontes. Ed. Var. vii, p. 594:
Ἔδει γὰρ ἡμᾶς σύλλογον ποιουμένους
Τὸν φύντα θρηνεῖν εἰς ὅσ’ ἔρχεται κακά
Τὸν δ’ αὖ θανόντα καὶ πόνων πεπαυμένον
Χαίροντας εὐφημοῖντας ἐκπέμπειν δόμών.
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The Greek verses are quoted by Plutarch:
… Ἤπου νήπιε, ἠλίθιοι φρένες ἀνδρῶν
Εὐθύνοος κεῖται μοιριδίῳ θανάτῳ
Οὐκ ἦν γὰρ ζώειν καλὸν αὐτῷ οὄτε γονεῦσι.
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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. ↩
Menoeceus was son of Creon, and in the war of the Argives against Thebes, Teresias declared that the Thebans should conquer if Menoeceus would sacrifice himself for his country; and accordingly he killed himself outside the gates of Thebes. ↩
The Greek is,
μήδε μοι ἄκλαυστος θάνατος μόλοι, ἀλλὰ φίλοισι
ποιήσαιμι θανὼν ἄλγεα καὶ στοναχάς·
↩
Sophocles, The Trachiniae 1047. ↩
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 for Aeschylus. ↩
From Exerceo. ↩
Each soldier carried a stake, to help form a palisade in front of the camp. ↩
Insania—from in, a particle of negative force in composition, and sanus, healthy, sound. ↩
The man who first received this surname was L. Calpurnius Piso, who was consul, 133 BC, in the Servile War. ↩
The Greek is:
Ἀλλά μοι οἰδάνεται κραδίη χόλῳ ὅπποτ’ ἐκείνον
Μνήσομαι, ὅς μ’ ἀσύφηλον ἐν Ἀργείοισιν ἔρεξεν.
II ix 642
I have given Pope’s translation in the text. ↩
This is from the Theseus:
Ἐγὼ δὲ τοῦτο παρὰἰ σοφοῦ τινος μαθὼν
εἰς φροντίδας νοῦν συμφοράς τ’ ἐβαλλόμην
φυγάς τ’ ἐμαυτῷ προστιθεὶς πάτρας ἐμῆς.
θανάτους τ’ ἀώρους, καὶ κακῶν ἄλλας ὁδούς,
ὡς, εἴ τι πάσχοιμ’ ὧν ἐδόξαζόν ποτε
Μή μοι νέορτον προσπεσὸν μᾶλλον δάκοι.
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Terence, Phormio II i 11. ↩
This refers to the speech of Agamemnon in Euripides, in the Iphigenia in Aulis
Ζηλῶ σέ, γέρον,
ζηλῶ δ’ ἀνδρῶν ὃς ἀκίνδυνον
βίον ἐξεπέρασ’, ἀγνὼς ἀκλεής
v. 15
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This is a fragment from the Hypsipyle:
Ἔφυ μὲν οὐδεὶς ὅστις οὐ πονεῖ βροτῶν·
θάπτει τε τέκνα χἄτερ’ αὗ κτᾶται νεὰ,
αὐτός τε θνῄσκει. Καὶ τάδ’ ἄχθονται βροτοὶ
εἰς γῆν φέροντες γῆν. Ἀναγκαίως δ’ ἔχει
βίον θερίζειν ὥστε κάρπιμον στάχυν.
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Πολλὰς ἐκ κεφαλῆς προθελύμνους ἕλκετο χαίτας.
Iliad x 15
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Ἤτοι ὁ κὰπ πεδίον τὸ Ἀλήϊον οἶος ἀλᾶτο
ὃν θυμὸν κατέδων, πάτον ἀνθρώπων ἀλεείνων.
Iliad vi 201
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This is a translation from Eurpides:
Ὥσθ’ ἵμερος μ’ ὑπῆλθε γῇ τε κ’ οὐρανῷ
λέξαι μολούσῃ δεῦρο Μηδείας τύχας.
Medea 57
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Λίην γὰρ πολλοὶ καὶ ἐπήτριμοι ἤματα πάντα
πίπτουσιν, πότε κέν τις ἀναπνεύσειε πόνοιο;
ἀλλὰ χρὴ τὸν μὲν καταθαπτέμεν, ὅς κε θάνῃσι,
νηλέα θυμὸν ἔχοντας, ἔπ’ ἤματι δακρυσάντας.
Homer Iliad 57 xix 226
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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 μὲν τόδ’ ἦμαρ πρῶτον ἦν κακουμένῳ
καὶ μὴ μακρὰν δὴ διὰ πόνων ἐναυστόλουν
εἰκὸς σφαδάζειν ἦν ἂν ὡς νεόζυγα
πῶλον, χάλινον ἀρτίως δεδεγμένον·
νῦν δ’ ἀμβλύς εἰμι καὶ κατηρτυκὼς κακῶν.
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This is only a fragment preserved by Stobaeus:
Τοὺς δ’ ἂν μεγίστους και σοφωτάτους φρενὶ
τοιούσδ’ ἴδοις ἂν, οἶός ἐστι νῦν ὅδε,
καλῶς κακῶς πράσσοντι συμπαραινέσαι·
ὅταν δὲ δαίμων ἀνδρὸς εὐτυχοῦς τὸ πρὶν
μάστιγ’ ἐπίσῃ τοῦ βίου παλίντροπον,
τὰ πολλὰ φροῦδα καὶ κακῶς εἰρημένα.
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Ωκ.
Οὐκοῦν Προμηθεῦ τοῦτο γιγνώσκεις ὅτι
ὀργῆς νοσούσης εἰσὶν ἰατροὶ λόγοι.
Πρ.
ἐάν τις ἐν καιρῷ γε μαλθάσσῃ κεάρ
καὶ μὴ σφριγῶντα θυμὸν ἰσχναίνη βιᾳ.
Aeschylus Prometheia v 378
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Cicero alludes here to Iliad vii 211, which is thus translated by Pope:
His massy javelin quivering in his hand,
He stood the bulwark of the Grecian band;
Through every Argive heart new transport ran,
All Troy stood trembling at the mighty man:
E’en Hector paused, and with new doubt oppress’d,
Felt his great heart suspended in his breast;
’Twas vain to seek retreat, and vain to fear,
Himself had challenged, and the foe drew near.
But Melmoth (Note on the Familiar Letters of Cicero, book ii. Letter 23) rightly accuses Cicero of having misunderstood Homer, who “by no means represents Hector as being thus totally dismayed at the approach of his adversary; and, indeed, it would have been inconsistent with the general character of that hero to have described him under such circumstances of terror.”
Τὸν δὲ καὶ Ἀργεῖοι μέγ’ ἐγήθεον εἰσορόωντες,
Τρωὰς δὲ τρόμος αἶνος ὑπήλυθε γυῖα ἕκαστον,
Ἕκτορι δ’ αὐτῷ θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι πάτασσεν.
But there is a great difference, as Dr. Clarke remarks, between θυμὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι πάτασσεν and καρδέη ἔξω στηθέων ἔθρωσκεν, or τρόμος αἶνος ὑπήλυθε γυῖα. The Trojans, says Homer, trembled at the sight of Ajax, and even Hector himself felt some emotion in his breast. ↩
Cicero means Scipio Nasica, who, in the riots consequent on the reelection of Tiberius Gracchus to the tribunate, 133 BC, having called in vain on the consul, Mucius Scaevola, to save the republic, attacked Gracchus himself, who was slain in the tumult. ↩
Morosus is evidently derived from mores—“Morosus, mos, stubbornness, self-will, etc.” —Riddle and Arnold, A Complete English-Latin and Latin-English Dictionary ↩
In the original they run thus:
Οὔκ ἐστιν οὐδὲν δεινὸν ὧδ’ εἰπεῖν ἔπος,
Οὐδὲ πάθος, οὐδὲ ξυμφορὰ θεήλατος
ἧς οὐκ ἂν ἀροιτ’ ἄχθος ἀνθρώπον φύσις.
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This passage is from the Eunuch of Terence, act I, scene 1, 14. ↩
These verses are from the Atreus of Accius. ↩
This was Marcus Atilius Regulus, the story of whose treatment by the Carthaginians in the first Punic War is well known to everybody. ↩
This was Quintus Servilius Caepio, who, 105 BC, was destroyed, with his army, by the Cimbri, it was believed as a judgment for the covetousness which he had displayed in the plunder of Tolosa. ↩
This was Marcus Aquilius, who, in the year 88 BC, was sent against Mithridates as one of the consular legates, and, being defeated, was delivered up to the king by the inhabitants of Mitylene. Mithridates put him to death by pouring molten gold down his throat. ↩
This was the elder brother of the triumvir Marcus Crassus, 87 BC. He was put to death by Fimbria, who was in command of some of the troops of Marius. ↩
Lucius Caesar and Caius Caesar were relations (it is uncertain in what degree) of the great Caesar, and were killed by Fimbria on the same occasion as Octavius. ↩
M. Antonius was the grandfather of the triumvir; he was murdered the same year, 87 BC, by Annius, when Marius and Cinna took Rome. ↩
This story is alluded to by Horace:
Districtus ensis cui super impiâ
Cervice pendet non Siculæ dapes
Dulcem elaborabunt saporem,
Non avium citharæve cantus
Somnum reducent.
iii 1. 17.
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Hieronymus was a Rhodian, and a pupil of Aristotle, flourishing about 300 BC. He is frequently mentioned by Cicero. ↩
We know very little of Dinomachus. Some manuscripts have “Clitomachus.” ↩
Callipho was in all probability a pupil of Epicurus, but we have no certain information about him. ↩
Diodorus was a Syrian, and succeeded Critolaus as the head of the Peripatetic School at Athens. ↩
Aristo was a native of Ceos, and a pupil of Lycon, who succeeded Straton as the head of the Peripatetic School, 270 BC. He afterward himself succeeded Lycon. ↩
Pyrrho was a native of Elis, and the originator of the sceptical theories of some of the ancient philosophers. He was a contemporary of Alexander. ↩
Herillus was a disciple of Zeno of Cittium, and therefore a Stoic. He did not, however, follow all the opinions of his master: he held that knowledge was the chief good. Some of the treatises of Cleanthes were written expressly to confute him. ↩
Anacharsis was (Herodotus, iv, 76) son of Gnurus and brother of Saulius, King of Thrace. He came to Athens while Solon was occupied in framing laws for his people; and by the simplicity of his way of living, and his acute observations on the manners of the Greeks, he excited such general admiration that he was reckoned by some writers among the Seven Wise Men of Greece. ↩
This was Appius Claudius Caecus, who was censor 310 BC, and who, according to Livy, was afflicted with blindness by the Gods for persuading the Potitii to instruct the public servants in the way of sacrificing to Hercules. He it was who made the Via Appia. ↩
The fact of Homer’s blindness rests on a passage in the Hymn to Apollo, quoted by Thucydides as a genuine work of Homer, and which is thus spoken of by one of the most accomplished scholars that this country or this age has ever produced: “They are indeed beautiful verses; and if none worse had ever been attributed to Homer, the Prince of Poets would have had little reason to complain.
“He has been describing the Delian festival in honor of Apollo and Diana, and concludes this part of the poem with an address to the women of that island, to whom it is to be supposed that he had become familiarly known by his frequent recitations:
Χαίρετε δ’ ὑμεῖς πᾶσαι, ἐμεῖο δὲ καὶ μετόπισθε
μνήσασθ’, ὅπποτέ κέν τις ἐπιχθονίων ἀνθρώπων
ἐνθάδ’ ἀνείρηται ξεῖνος ταλαπείριος ἐλθὼν
ὦ κοῦραι, τίς δ’ ὕμμιν ἀνὴρ ἥδιστος ἀοιδῶν
ἐνθάδε πωλεῖται καὶ τέῳ τέρπεσθε μάλιστα;
ὑμεῖς δ’ εὖ μάλα πᾶσαι ὑποκρίνασθε ἀφ’ ἡμῶν,
Τυφλὸς ἀνὴρ, οἰκεῖ δὲ Χίῳ ἐνὶ παιπαλοέσσῃ,
τοῦ πᾶσαι μετόπισθεν ἀριστεύουσιν ἀοιδαί.
Virgins, farewell—and oh! remember me
Hereafter, when some stranger from the sea,
A hapless wanderer, may your isle explore,
And ask you, ‘Maids, of all the bards you boast,
Who sings the sweetest, and delights you most?’
Oh! answer all—‘A blind old man, and poor,
Sweetest he sings, and dwells on Chios’ rocky shore.’ ”
Coleridge’s Introduction to the Study of the Greek Classic Poets.
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