Sec.65. Studio certandi:  = [Greek:  philoneikia]. Pertinacia ... calumnia:  n. on 14. Iurarem:  Cic. was thinking of his own famous oath at the end of his consulship.

Sec.66. Turpissimum:  cf.  I. 45, N.D. I. 1. Opiner:  opinio or [Greek:  doxa] is judgment based on insufficient grounds. Sed quaerimus de sapiente:  cf. 115, T.D. IV. 55, 59 also De Or. III. 75 non quid ego sed quid orator. Magnus ... opinator:  Aug. Contra Acad. III. 31 qu. this passage wrongly as from the Hortensius.  He imitates it, ibid. I. 15 magnus definitor. Qua fidunt, etc.:  these lines are part of Cic.’s Aratea, and are quoted in N.D. II. 105, 106. Phoenices:  the same fact is mentioned by Ovid, Fasti III. 107, Tristia IV. 3, 1. Sed Helicen:  the best MSS. om. ad, which Orelli places before Helicen. Elimatas:  the MSS. are divided between this and limatas. Elimare, though a very rare word occurs Ad Att. XVI. 7, 3. Visis cedo:  cf. n. on 38. Vim maximam:  so summum munus is applied to the same course of action in D.F. III. 31. Cogitatione:  “idea”. Temeritate:  cf.  I. 42, De Div. I. 7, and the charge of [Greek:  propeteia] constantly brought against the dogmatists by Sext. Praepostere:  in a disorderly fashion, taking the wrong thing first.

Sec.67. Aliquando ... opinabitur:  this of course is only true if you grant the Academic doctrine, nihil posse percipi. Secundum illud ... etiam opinari:  it seems at first sight as though adsentiri and opinari ought to change places in this passage, as Manut. proposes.  The difficulty lies in the words secundum illud, which, it has been supposed, must refer back to the second premiss of Arcesilas’ argument.  But if the passage be translated thus, “Carneades sometimes granted as a second premiss the following statement, that the wise man sometimes does opine” the difficulty vanishes.  The argument of Carneades would then run thus, (1) Si ulli rei, etc. as above, (2) adsentietur autem aliquando, (3) opinabitur igitur.

Sec.68. Adsentiri quicquam:  only with neuter pronouns like this could adsentiri be followed by an accusative case. Sustinenda est:  [Greek:  ephekteon]. Iis quae possunt:  these words MSS. om. Tam in praecipiti:  for the position of in cf. n. on I. 25.  The best MSS. have here tamen in.  Madv. altered tamen to tam in n. on D.F. V. 26.  The two words are often confused, as in T.D. IV. 7, cf. also n. on I. 16. Sin autem, etc.:  cf. the passage of Lactantius De Falsa Sapientia III. 3, qu. by P. Valentia (p. 278 of Orelli’s reprint) si neque sciri quicquam potest, ut Socrates docuit, neque opinari, oportet, ut Zeno, tota philosophia sublata est. Nitamur ... percipi:  “let us struggle to prove the proposition, etc.”  The construction is, I believe, unexampled so that I suspect hoc, or some such word, to have fallen out between igitur and nihil.