Tusculan Disputations by Cicero (reading books for 7 year olds .txt) 📕

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.

↩

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.

↩

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