Sec.144. In contionem vocas:  a retort, having reference to 14, cf. also 63, 72.  For these contiones see Lange, Romische Alterthumer II. 663, ed 2.  They were called by and held under the presidency of magistrates, all of whom had the right to summon them, the right of the tribune being under fewer restrictions than the right of the others. Occludi tabernas in order of course that the artisans might all be at the meeting, for this see Liv.  III. 27, IV. 31, IX. 7, and compare the cry “to your tents, O Israel” in the Bible. Artificia:  n. on 30. Tolli:  n. on 26. Ut opifices concitentur:  cf. Pro Flacc. 18 opifices et tabernarios quid neqoti est concitare? Expromam:  Cic. was probably thinking of the use to which he himself had put these Stoic paradoxes in Pro Murena 61, a use of which he half confesses himself ashamed in D.F. IV. 74. Exsules etc.:  136.

Sec.145. Scire negatis:  cf.  Sext. A.M. VII. 153, who says that even [Greek:  katalepsis] when it arises in the mind of a [Greek:  phaulos] is mere [Greek:  doxa] and not [Greek:  episteme]; also P.H. II. 83, where it is said that the [Greek:  phaulos] is capable of [Greek:  to alethes] but not of [Greek:  aletheia], which the [Greek:  sophos] alone has. Visum ... adsensus:  the Stoics as we saw (II. 38, etc.) analysed sensations into two parts; with the Academic and other schools each sensation was an ultimate unanalysable unit, a [Greek:  psilon pathos].  For this symbolic action of Zeno cf. D.F. II. 18, Orat. 113, Sextus A.M. II. 7, Quint.  II. 20, 7, Zeller 84. Contraxerat:  so Halm who qu.  Plin. Nat.  Hist. XI. 26, 94 digitum contrahens aut remittens; Orelli construxerat; MSS. mostly contexerat. Quod ante non fuerat:  [Greek:  katalambanein] however is frequent in Plato in the sense “to seize firmly with the mind.” Adverterat:  the best MSS. give merely adverat, but on the margin admoverat which Halm takes, and after him Bait.; one good MS. has adverterat. Ne ipsi quidem:  even Socrates, Antisthenes and Diogenes were not [Greek:  sophoi] according to the Stoics, but merely were [Greek:  en prokopei]; see Diog.  VII. 91, Zeller 257, and cf.  Plut. Sto.  Rep. 1056 (qu. by P. Valentia p. 295, ed Orelli) [Greek:  esti de outos] (i.e. [Greek:  ho sophos]) [Greek:  oudamou ges oude gegone]. Nec tu:  sc. scis; Goer. has a strange note here.

Sec.146. Illa:  cf. illa invidiosa above (144). Dicebas:  in 22. Refero:  “retort,” as in Ovid. Metam. I. 758 pudet haec opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse et non potuisse referri; cf. also par pari referre dicto. Ne nobis quidem:  “nor would they be angry;” cf. n. on.  I. 5. Arbitrari:  the original meaning of this was “to be a bystander,” or “to be an eye-witness,” see Corssen I. 238. Ea non ut:  MSS. have ut ea non aut.  Halm reads ut ea non merely, but I prefer the reading I have given because of Cicero’s fondness for making the ut follow closely on the negative:  for this see Madv. Gram. 465 b, obs.