74 This was expressed in the Greek verses—

Ἀρχὴν μὲν μὴ φῦναι ἐπιχθονίοισιν ἄριστον, φύντα δ᾽ ὅπως ὤκιστα πύλας Ἀίδαο περῆσαι;

which by some authors are attributed to Homer.

75 This is the first fragment of the Cresphontes.—Ed. Var. vii. p. 594

Ἔδει γὰρ ἡμᾶς σύλλογον ποιουμένους Τὸν φύντα θρηνεῖν, εὶς ὅσ᾽ ἔρχεται κακά. Τὸν δ᾽ αὖ θανόντα καὶ πόνων πεπαυμένον χαίροντας εὐφημοῖντας ἐκπέμπειν δόμων.

76 The Greek verses are quoted by Plutarch—

... Ἤπου νήπιε, ἠλίθιοι φρένες ἀνδρᾶν Εὐθύνοος κεῖται μοιριδίῳ θανάτῳ Οὐκ ἦν γὰρ ζώειν καλὸν αὐτῷ οὄτε γονεῦσι.

77 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.

78 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.

79 The Greek is,

μήδε μοι ἄκλαυστος θάνατος μόλοι, ἀλλὰ φίλοισι ποιήσαιμι θανὼν ἄλγεα καὶ στοναχάς.

80 Soph. Trach. 1047.

81 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 of AEschylus.

82 From Exerceo.

83 Each soldier carried a stake, to help form a palisade in front of the camp.

84 Insania—from in, a particle of negative force in composition, and sanus, healthy, sound.

85 The man who first received this surname was L. Calpurnius Piso, who was consul, B.C. 133, in the Servile War.

86 The Greek is—

Ἀλλά μοι οἰδάνεται κραδίν χόλω ὅπποτ ἐκείνου Μνήσομαι ὅς μ᾽ ἀσύφηλον ἐν Ἀργείοισιν ἔρεξεν.—Il. ix. 642.

I have given Pope's translation in the text.

87 This is from the Theseus—

Ἐγὼ δὲ τοῦτο παρὰ σοφοῦ τινος μαθὼν εἰς φροντίδας νοῦν συμφοράς τ᾽ ἐβαλλόμην φυγάς τ᾽ ἐμαυτῷ προστιθεὶς πάτρας ἐμῆς. θανάτους τ᾽ ἀώρους, καὶ κακῶν ἄλλας ὁδοὺς ὥς, εἴ τι πάσχοιυμ᾽ ὦν ἐδοξαζόν ποτε Μή μοι νέορτον προσπεσὸν μᾶλλον δάκοι.

88 Ter. Phorm. II. i. 11.

89 This refers to the speech of Agamemnon in Euripides, in the Iphigenia in Aulis—

... Ζηλῶ σε, γέρον, ζηλῶ δ᾽ ἀνδρῶν ὅς ἀκίνδυνον βίον ἐξεπέρασ, ἀγνὼς, ἀκλεής.—v. 15.

90 This is a fragment from the Hypsipyle—

Ἔφυ μὲν οὐδεις ὅστις οὐ πονεῖ βροτῶν; θάπτει τε τέκνα χάτερ᾽ αὖ κτᾶται νεὰ, αὐτός τε θνήσκει. καὶ τάδ᾽ ἄχθονται βροτοὶ εἰς γῆν φέροντες γῆν; ἀναγκαιως δ᾽ ἔχει βίον θερίζειν ὦστε κάρπιμον στάχυν.

91 Πολλὰς ἐκ κεφαλῆς προθελύμνους ἕλκετο χαίτας.—Il. x. 15.

92 Ητοι ο καππεδιον το Αληιον οιος αλατο ον θυμον κατεδων, πατον ανθρωπων αλεεινων.—Il. vi. 201.

93 This is a translation from Euripides—

Ὥσθ᾽ ἵμερος μ᾽ ὑπῆλθε γῇ τε κ᾽ οὐρανῷ λέξαι μολούσῃ δεῦρο Μηδείας τύχας.—Med. 57.

94 Λίην γὰρ πολλοὶ καὶ ἐπήτριμοι ἤυατα πάντα πίπτουσιν, πότε κέν τις ἀναπνεύσειε πόνοιο? ἀλλὰ χρὴ τὸν μὲν καταθαπτέμεν, ὅς κε θάνησι, νηλέα θυμὸν ἔχοντας, ἔπ᾽ ἤματι δακρυσάντας.—Hom. Il. xix. 226.

95 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 μέν τόδ᾽ ἦμαρ πρῶτον ἦν κακουμένω καὶ μὴ μακρὰν δὴ διὰ πόνων ἐναυστόλουν εἰκὸς σφαδάζειν ἦν ἄν, ὡς νεόζυγα πῶλον, χάλινον ἀρτίως δεδεγμένον; νῦν δ᾽ ἀμβλύς εἰμι, καὶ κατηρτυκὼς κακῶν.

96 This is only a fragment preserved by Stobaeus—

Τοὺς δ᾽ ἄν μεγίστους καὶ σοφωτάτους φρενὶ τοιούσδ᾽ ἴδοις ἄν, οἷός ἐστι νῦν ὅδε, καλῶς κακῶς πράσσοντι συμπαραινέσαι; ὅταν δὲ δαίμων ἀνδρὸς εὐτυχοῦς τὸ πρὶν μάστιγ᾽ ἐρείση τοῦ βίου παλίντροπον, τὰ πολλὰ φροῦδα καὶ κακῶς εἰρημένα.

97 Ωκ. Οὐκοῦν Προμηθεῦ τοῦτο γιγνώσκεις ὅτι ὀργῆς νοσούσης εἰσὶν ἰατροὶ λόγοι. Πρ. ἐάν τις ἐν καιρῷ γε μαλθάσση κέαρ καὶ μὴ σφριγῶντα θυμὸν ἰσχναίνη βίᾳ.

AEsch. Prom. v. 378.

98 Cicero alludes here to Il. 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. Let. 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 καρδίη 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.

99 Cicero means Scipio Nasica, who in the riots consequent on the re-election of Tiberius Gracchus to the tribunate, B.C. 133, having called in vain on the consul, Mucius Scaevola, to save the republic, attacked Gracchus himself, who was slain in the tumult.

100 Morosus is evidently derived from mores—"Morosus, mos, stubbornness, selfwill, etc."—Riddle and Arnold, Lat. Diet.

101 In the original they run thus:—

Οὔκ ἐστιν οὐδὲν δεινὸν ὧδ᾽ εἰπεῖν ἔπος, Οὐδὲ πάθος, οὐδὲ ξυμφορὰ θεήλατος Ἦς οὐκ ἄν ἄροιτ᾽ ἄχθος ἀνθρώπου φύσις.

102 This passage is from the Eunuch of Terence, Act i. sc. 1, 14.

103 These verses are from the Atreus of Accius.

104 This was Marcus Atilius Regulus, the story of whose treatment by the Carthaginians in the first Punic War is well known to everybody.

105 This was Quintus Servilius Caepio, who, B.C. 105, 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.

106 This was Marcus Aquilius, who, in the year B.C. 88, 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.

107 This was the elder brother of the triumvir Marcus Crassus, B.C. 87. He was put to death by Fimbria, who was in command of some of the troops of Marius.

108 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.

109 M. Antonius was the grandfather of the triumvir; he was murdered the same year, B.C. 87, by Annius, when Marius and Cinna took Rome.

110 This story is alluded to by Horace—

Districtus ensis cui super impia Cervice pendet non Siculae dapes Dulcem elaborabunt saporem, Non avium citharaeve cantus Somnum reducent.—iii. 1. 17.

111 Hieronymus was a Rhodian, and a pupil of Aristotle, flourishing about 300 B.C. He is frequently mentioned by Cicero.

112 We know very little of Dinomachus. Some MSS. have Clitomachus.

113 Callipho was in all probability a pupil of Epicurus, but we have no certain information about him.

114 Diodorus was a Syrian, and succeeded Critolaus as the head of the Peripatetic School at Athens.

115 Aristo was a native of Ceos, and a pupil of Lycon, who succeeded Stratton as the head of the Peripatetic School, B.C. 270. He afterwards himself succeeded Lycon.

116 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.

117 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.

118 Anacharsis was (Herod, 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.

119 This was Appius Claudius Caecus, who was censor B.C. 310, 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.

120 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 honour 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᾽ υμεῖς 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.

THE END