The Roman Poets of the Republic, 2nd editionSellar, W. Y. (William Young)
History
The Roman Poets of the Republic, 2nd edition
Sellar, W. Y. (William Young)
Latin poetry -- History and criticism
[Footnote 140: 'Behold this, which around and above encompasseth the
earth, and puts on brightness at the rising of the sun, becomes dark
at his setting; that which our people call Heaven, and the Greeks
Aether. Whatever this is, it is to all things the source of life, form,
nourishment, growth, existence; it is the grave and receptacle of all
things, and the parent, too, of all things: all things which arise from
it equally lapse into it again.' Compare with this passage Lucretius,
ii. 991--
'Denique caelesti sumus omnes semine oriundi' etc.
Both may be traced to a fragment of the Chrysippus of Euripides, quoted
by Ribbeck, Röm. Trag. p. 257; and also by Munro, Lucret. p. 455, third
edition.]
[Footnote 141: 'Philosophers say that Fortune is mad, blind, and
senseless, and represent her as set on a round rolling stone. They say
that she is mad, because she is harsh, fickle, untrustworthy; blind,
for this reason, that she can see nothing to which to attach herself;
senseless, because she cannot distinguish between the worthy and
unworthy. Other philosophers again deny the existence of Fortune, but
hold that all things are ruled by chance. That this is more probable,
common experience proves, as Orestes was but the other day a king, and
is now a beggar.']
[Footnote 142: 'For those men who understand the language of birds, and
have more wisdom from examining the liver of other beings than from
their own (i.e. understanding), I think should be heard rather than
listened to.']
[Footnote 143: 'Thou, too, Ulysses, although we see thee sore wounded,
art yet almost too much cast down; thou, who hast been used to pass thy
life in arms!']
[Footnote 144: 'To complain of adverse fortune is well, but not to
lament over it. The one is the act of a man; it is a woman's part to
weep.']
[Footnote 145: Sueton. Caes. 84.]
[Footnote 146: De Orat. ii. 46.]
[Footnote 147: 'Didst thou venture to let him part from thee, or to
enter Salamis without him; and didst thou not fear to see thy father's
face, when in his old age, bereft of his children, thou hast torn
him with anguish, robbed, crushed him; nor didst thou feel for thy
brother's death, and his child, who was trusted to thy protection--?']
[Footnote 148: Compare especially the fragments of the speeches of C.
Gracchus.]
[Footnote 149: 'Glad at their starting, they watch the play of the
fish, and are never weary of watching them. Meanwhile, nearly at
sunset, the sea grows rough, darkness gathers, the blackness of night
and of the storm-clouds hides the world, the lightning flashes between
the clouds, the heaven is shaken with the thunder, hail mixed with
torrents of rain dashes down in sudden showers; from all quarters all
the winds burst forth, the wild whirlwinds arise, the sea boils with
the surging waters.'--Quoted partly from Cic. De Div. i. 14; partly
from De Orat. iii. 39.]
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