Sec.117. Vim:  = [Greek:  ananken], cf. cogere in 116. Ne ille:  this asseverative ne is thus always closely joined with pronouns in Cic. Sententiam eliget et:  MSS. have (by dittographia of m, eli) added melius after sententiam, and have also dropped et.  Dav. wished to read elegerit, comparing the beginning of 119. Insipiens eliget:  cf. 115 quale est a non sapiente explicari sapientiam? and 9 statuere qui sit sapiens vel maxime videtur esse sapientis. Infinitae quaestiones:  [Greek:  theseis], general propositions, opposed to finitae quaestiones, limited propositions, Gk. [Greek:  hypotheseis].  Quintal III. 5, 5 gives as an ex. of the former An uxor ducenda, of the latter An Catoni ducenda.  These quaestiones are very often alluded to by Cic. as in D.F. I. 12, IV. 6, De Or. I. 138, II. 65—­67, Topica 79, Orat. 46, cf. also Quint.  X. 5, II. E quibus omnia constant:  this sounds like Lucretius, omnia = [Greek:  to pan].

Sec.118.  For these physici the student must in general be referred to R. and P., Schwegler, and Grote’s Plato Vol.  I. A more complete enumeration of schools will be found in Sext. P.H. III. 30 sq.  Our passage is imitated by Aug De Civ.  Dei XVIII. 37. Concessisse primas:  Cic. always considers Thales to be sapientissimus e septem (De Leg. II. 26).  Hence Markland on Cic. Ad Brutum II. 15, 3 argued that that letter cannot be genuine, since in it the supremacy among the seven is assigned to Solon. Infinitatem naturae:  [Greek:  to apeiron], naturae here = [Greek:  ousias]. Definita:  this is opposed to infinita in Topica 79, so definire is used for finire in Orat. 65, where Jahn qu. Verr. IV. 115. Similis inter se:  an attempt to translate [Greek:  homoiomereias]. Eas primum, etc.:  cf. the exordium of Anaxagoras given from Diog.  II. 6 in R. and P. 29 [Greek:  panta chremata en homou eita nous elthon auta diekosmese]. Xenophanes ... deum:  Eleaticism was in the hands of Xenoph. mainly theological. Neque natum unquam:  cf. neque ortum unquam in 119. Parmenides ignem:  cf.  Arist. Met.  A. 5 qu.  R. and P. 94.  He only hypothetically allowed the existence of the phenomenal world, after which he made two [Greek:  archai, thermon kai psychron touton de to men kata men to hon thermon tattei, thateron de kata to me on]. Heraclitus:  n. on I. 39. Melissus:  see Simplicius qu.  R. and P. 101, and esp. [Greek:  to eon aiei ara en te kai estai]. Plato:  n. on I. 27. Discedent:  a word often used of those vanquished in a fight, cf.  Hor. Sat. I. 7, 17.