Sec.14. Similiter:  it is noticeable that five MSS. of Halm have simile. Xenophanem:  so Victorius for the MSS. Xenoplatonem. Ed. Rom. (1471) has Cenonem, which would point to Zenonem, but Cic. does not often name Zeno of Elea. Saturninus:  of the question why he was an enemy of Lucullus, Goer. says frustra quaeritur.  Saturninus was the persistent enemy of Metellus Numidicus, who was the uncle of Lucullus by marriage. Arcesilae calumnia:  this was a common charge, cf. Academicorum calumnia in N.D. II. 20 and calumnia in 18 and 65 of this book.  So August. Contra Acad. II. 1 speaks of Academicorum vel calumnia vel pertinacia vel pericacia. Democriti verecundia:  Cic. always has a kind of tenderness for Democritus, as Madv. on D.F. I. 20 remarks, cf. De Div. II. 30 where Democr. is made an exception to the general arrogantia of the physici. Empedocles quidem ... videatur:  cf. 74.  The exordium of his poem is meant, though there is nothing in it so strong as the words of the text, see R. and P. 108. Quale sit:  the emphasis is on sit, the sceptic regards only phenomenal, not essential existence. Quasi modo nascentes:  Ciacconus thought this spurious, cf. however T.D. II. 5 ut oratorum laus ... senescat ... , philosophia nascatur.

Sec.15. haesitaverunt:  Goer. cf. De Or. I. 40. Constitutam:  so in 14. Delitisceret:  this is the right spelling, not delitesceret, which one good MS. has here, see Corssen II. 285. Negavissent:  “had denied, as they said.” Tollendus est:  a statement which is criticised in 74. Nominibus differentis ... dissenserunt:  genuine Antiochean opinions, see the Academica Posteriora 17, 43. De se ipse:  very frequent in Cic. (cf.  Madv. Gram. 487 b). Diceret:  this is omitted by the MSS., but one has agnosceret on the margin; see n. on 88. Fannius:  in his “Annals.”  The same statement is quoted in De Or. II. 270, Brutus 299.  Brutus had written an epitome of this work of Fannius (Ad Att. XII. 5, 3).

Sec.16. Veteribus:  Bentley’s em. of MSS. vetera:  C.F.  Hermann (Schneid Philol. VII. 457), thinking the departure from the MSS. too great, keeps vetera and changes incognita into incondita, comparing De Or. I. 197, III. 173.  A glance, however, at the exx. in Forc. will show that the word always means merely “disordered, confused” in Cic.  The difference here is not one between order and no order, but between knowledge and no knowledge, so that incognita is far better.  I am not at all certain that the MSS. reading needs alteration.  If kept the sense would be:  “but let us suppose, for sake of argument, that the doctrines of the ancients were not knowledge, but mere opinion.”