Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/751

 from nature. In fact the whole treatise is a tissue of special pleading on a question which is discussed in the same tone of extravagance on the opposite side by Juvenal in his tenth satire. The logic also is bad, for in several instances general propositions are attacked by a few specious particular cases which are mere exceptions to the rule. No one can doubt the truth of the assertions, that old age does incapacitate us for active business, that it does render the body feeble, and that it does blunt the keenness of our senses ; but while it is a perfectly fair style of argument to maintain that these are imaginary and not real ills, it is utterly absurd to deny their existence, because history affords a few instances of favoured individuals who have bееn exempted from their influence.

Cicero appears to have been indebted for the idea, if not for the plan, of this work to Aristo of Chios, a Stoic philosopher (c. 1 ) ; much has been translated almost literally from the Republic of Plato (see cc. 2, 3, 14), and more freely from the Oeconomics and Cyropaedeia of Xenophon. The passage with regard to the immortality of the soul is derived from the Timaeus, the Phaedon, the Phaedrus, and the Menon (see Kühner, p. 116), and some editors have traced the observations upon the diseases of young men (c. 19) to Hippocrates. It must be remarked, that although Cato was a rigid follower of the Porch, the doctrines here propounded have little of the austerity of that sect, but savour more of the gentle and easy discipline of the Peripatetics. (Kühner, l. с.)

The five earliest editions of the Cato Major were all printed at Cologne, the first three by Ulric Zell, the fourth by Winter de Homborch, the fifth by Arnold Therhoernen, not one of which bears a date, but some of them are certainly older than the edition of the collected philosophical works printed at Rome, in 2 vols, fol., by Sweynheym and Pannartz, which contains the De Senectute. [See above, p. 719, b.] The best modern editions arc those of Gernhard, which include the Paradoxa also, Leipzig, 8vo., 1819, and of Otto, Leipzig, 1830.

4. Laelius s. De Amicitia.

This dialogue was written after the preceding, to which it may be considered as forming a companion. Just as the dissertation upon old age was placed in the mouth of Cato because he had been distinguished for energy of mind and body preserved entire to the very close of a long life, so the steadfast attachment which existed between Scipio and Laelius pointed out the latter as a person peculiarly fitted to enlarge upon the advantages of friendship and the mode in which it might best be cultivated. To no one could Cicero dedicate such a treatise with more propriety than to Atticus, the only individual among his contemporaries to whom he gave his whole heart.

The imaginary conversation is supposed to have taken place between Laelius and his two sons-in- law, C. Fannius and Q. Mucius Scaevola, a few days after the death of Africanus (в. с. 129), and to have been repeated, in after times, by Scaevola to Cicero. Laelius begins by a panegyric on his friend. Then, at the request of the young men, he explains his own sentiments with regard to the origin, nature, limits, and value of friendship ; traces its connexion with the higher moral virtues, and lays down the rules which ought to be ob served in order to render it permanent and mutually advantageous. The most pleasing feature in this essay is the simple sincerity with which it is impressed. The author casts aside the affectation of learning, and the reader feels convinced throughout that he is speaking from his heart. In giving full expression to the most amiable feelings, his experience, knowledge of human nature, and sound sense, enabled him to avoid all fantastic exaggeration, and, without sacrificing his dignified tone, or pitching bis standard too low, he brings down the subject to the level of ordinary comprehension, and sets before us a model which all may imitate.

The exordium is taken from the Theaetetus, and in the 8th chapter we detect a correspondence with a passage in the Lysis of Plato ; the Ethics of Aristotle, and the Memorabilia of Socrates by Xenophon afforded some suggestions ; a strong resemblance can be traced in the fragments of Theo- phrastus 🇬🇷, and some hints are supposed to have been taken from Chrysippus 🇬🇷 and 🇬🇷. (Kühner, p. 118.)

The Editio Princeps was printed at Cologne by Joh. Guldenschaff, the second, which includes the Paradoxa, at the same place by Ulric Zell ; neither bears any date, but both are older than the collection of the philosophical works printed at Rome in 2 vols. fol. by Sweynheym and Pannartz, 1471, which contains the Laelius. The best modern editions are those of Gernhard, Leipzig, 8vo. 1825, and of Beier, Leipzig, 12mo. 1828

5. De Gloria Libri II.

Cicero completed a work under the above title, in two books dedicated to Atticus, on the 4th of July, в. c. 44. A few words only having been preserved, we have no means of determining the manner or tone in which the subject was handled. Petrarch was in possession of a MS. of the De Gloria, which afterwards passed into the hands of Bernardo Giustiniani, a Venetian, and then disappeared. Paulus Manutius and Jovius circulated a story that it had been destroyed by Petrus Alcyonius, who had stolen numerous passages and inserted them in his own treatise De Exilio; but this calumny has been refuted by Tiraboschi in his history of Italian literature. (See Orelli's Cicero, vol. iv. pt. ii. p. 487: Cic. de Off. ii. 9, ad Att. xv. 27, xvi. 2.)

6. De Consolatione s. De Luctu minuendo.

This treatise was written в. c. 45, soon after the death of his beloved daughter, Tullia, when seeking distraction and relief in literary pursuits. We learn from Pliny (praef. H.N.), that the work of Crantor the Academician was closely followed. A few inconsiderable fragments have been preserved chiefly by Lactantius, and will be found in Orelli's Cicero, vol. iv. pt. ii. p. 489. The tract published at Venice in 1583 under the title Consolatio Ciceronis is a notorious forgery, executed, as is generally believed, by Sigonius or Vianellus. (Cic. ad Att. xii. 20, 23, Tuscul. iii. 28, 31 ; Augustin, de Civ. Dei, xix. 4 ; Hieran. Epitaph. Nepot.)

D..

1. Academicorum Libri II.

The history of this work before it finally quitted the hands of its author is exceedingly curious and somewhat obscure, but must be clearly understood before we can explain the relative position of those