The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations, of M.T. Cicero, With a Sketch of the Greek Philosophers Mentioned by CiceroCicero, Marcus Tullius
Philosophy
The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations, of M.T. Cicero, With a Sketch of the Greek Philosophers Mentioned by Cicero
Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Ethics -- Early works to 1800; Happiness -- Early works to 1800
I will not, said he, reply to each point of your question, as you are not,
as I suspect, ignorant of what I am going to say, but seeking rather to
find something to carp at in my brief answer: I will rather, since we have
plenty of time, explain to you, unless you think it foreign to the
subject, the whole opinion of Zeno and the Stoics on the matter. Very far
from foreign to the subject, said I; indeed, your explanations will be of
great service in elucidating to me the points about which I am inquiring.
Let us try, then, said he, although this system of the Stoics has in it
something rather difficult and obscure; for, as formerly, when these
matters were discussed in the Greek language, the very names of things
appeared strange which have now become sanctioned by daily use, what do
you think will be the case when we are discussing them in Latin? Still,
said I, we must do so; for if Zeno might take the liberty when he had
discovered anything not previously common, to fix on it a name that was
likewise unprecedented, why may not Cato take the same? Nor will it be
necessary for you to render what he has said word for word, as translators
are in the habit of doing who have no command of language of their own,
whenever there is a word in more ordinary use which has the same meaning.
I indeed myself am in the habit, if I cannot manage it any other way, of
using many words to express what the Greeks have expressed in one; and yet
I think that we ought to be allowed to use a Greek word on occasions when
we cannot find a Latin one, and to employ such terms as _proegmena_ and
_apoproegmena_, just as freely as we say _ephippia_ and _acratophori_,
though it may be sufficient to translate these two particular words by
_preferred_ and _rejected_. I am much obliged to you, said he, for your
hint; and I will in preference use those Latin terms which you have just
mentioned; and in other cases, too, you shall come to my assistance if you
see me in difficulties. I will do so, said I, with great goodwill; but
fortune favours the bold. So make the attempt, I beg of you; for what more
divine occupation can we have?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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