sciatque nihil esse quod comprehendi et percipi possit:
qua re [Greek: epochen] illam omnium rerum non
probans, illi alteri sententiae, nihil esse quod percipi
possit, vehementer adsentior. Habeo, inquam,
sententiam tuam nec eam admodum aspernor. Sed
tibi quid tandem videtur, Hortensi? Tum ille ridens:
Tollendum. Teneo te, inquam: nam ista Academiae
est propria sententia. Ita sermone confecto Catulus
remansit: nos ad naviculas nostras descendimus.
* * * *
*
NOTES.
Sec.Sec.1—14. Summary.
Cic., Varro and Atticus meet at Cumae (1). Cic.,
after adroitly reminding Varro that the promised
dedication of the De Lingua Latina is too
long delayed, turns the conversation towards philosophy,
by asking Varro why he leaves this subject untouched
(2, 3). Varro thinks philosophy written in
Latin can serve no useful purpose, and points
to the failures of the Roman Epicureans (4—6).
He greatly believes in philosophy, but prefers
to send his friends to Greece for it, while he
devotes himself to subjects which the Greeks have
not treated (7, 8). Cic. lauds this devotion,
but demurs to the theory that philosophy written
in Latin is useless. Latins may surely imitate
Greek philosophers as well as Greek poets and orators.
He gives reasons why he should himself make the
attempt, and instancing the success of Brutus,
again begs Varro to write on philosophy (9—12).
Varro putting the request on one side charges Cic.
with deserting the Old Academy for the New.
Cic. defends himself, and appeals to Philo for the
statement that the New Academy is in harmony with the
Old. Varro refers to Antiochus as an authority
on the other side. This leads to a proposal
on the part of Cic. to discuss thoroughly the difference
between Antiochus and Philo. Varro agrees,
and promises an exposition of the principles of
Antiochus (13, 14).
Sec.1. Noster: our common friend.
Varro was much more the friend of Atticus than of
Cic., see Introd. p. 37. Nuntiatum: the
spelling nunciatum is a mistake, cf. Corssen,
Ausspr. I. p. 51. A M. Varrone:
from M. Varro’s house news came. Audissemus:
Cic. uses the contracted forms of such subjunctives,
as well as the full forms, but not intermediate forms
like audiissemus. Confestim: note
how artfully Cic. uses the dramatic form of the dialogue
in order to magnify his attachment for Varro. Ab
eius villa: the prep is absent from the MSS.,
but Wesenberg (Em. M.T. Cic. Epistolarum,
p. 62) shows that it must be inserted. Cic. writes
abesse Roma (Ad Fam. V. 15, 4), patria
(T.D. V. 106) etc., but not abesse
officio (De Off. I. 43, where Wes. alters
it) or the like. Satis eum longo intervallo:
so all the MSS.; but Halm, after Davies, reads se
visentum for satis eum, quoting Ad Att.
