SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

Itane
THE EPISTLES OF SENECA
37 est. Quid? Quod ista liberal! um artium consectatio
molestos, verbosos, intern pestivos, sibi placentas facit
et ideo non discentes necessavia, quia supervacua
didicerunt. Quattuor milia librorum Didymus
grammaticus scripsit. Misererer, si tani multa
supervacua legisset, In his libris de patria Hoineri
in his libids-
quaeritur, in his de Aeneae matre vera,
nosior Anacreon an ebriosior vixerit, in his an Sappho
publica fuerit, et alia, quae erant dediscenda, si
38 scires. I nunc et longam esse vitam nega. Sed ad
nostros quoque cum perveneris, osteiidam multa
securibus recidenda.
Magno impendio temporum, magna alienarum
aurium molestia laudatio haec constat : O hominein
litteratum ! Simus hoc titulo rusticiore contenti :
39 virum bonum ! est ? Annales evolvam omnium
gentium et quis primus carmina scripserit
quaeram ? Quantum temporis inter Orphea intersit
et Homerum, cum fastos non habeam, computabo
?
Et Aristarchi ineptias, quibus aliena carmina conpunxit,
recognoscam et aetatem in syllabis conteram?
Itane in geometriae pulvere haerebo ? Adeo mihi
praeceptum ilhid salutare excidit : "Tempori parce" ?
Haec sciam ? Et quid ignorem
?
a Compare the schoolmaster of Juvenal (vii. 231 ff.), v/ho
must know
Nutricem Anchisae, nomen patriamque novercae
Anchemoli, dicat quot Acestes vixerit annis, etc.,
and Friedlander's note.
6
A tradition, probably begun by the Greek comic writers,
and explained by Professor Smyth (Greek Melic Poets, pp.
227 f.) as due to the more independent position of women
among the Aeolians.
c
Marking supposedly spurious lines by the obelus, and
using other signs to indicate variations, repetitions, and
interpolations. He paid special attention to Homer,
Pindar, Hesiod, and the tragedians.
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