1 Lucan, owing to the jealousy of Nero, was induced to join Piso’s conspiracy in 65 and suffered the penalty. His heroic poem, the Pharsalia, though in many respects crude, is a wonderful production for a man of twenty-six.

2 From Spain, besides the Senecas, Lucan and Martial, already mentioned, came Columella, Pomponius Mela, Quintilian, etc.; from Gaul came many rhetoricians; Africa sent so many of the same class that by Juvenal’s time (circ. 100) it could with propriety be designated “nursery of lawyers” (see Teuffel, Hist. of Rom. Lit. vol. ii. 6).

3 His maternal aunt acted as nurse on the occasion: see Consol. ad Helviam, xvii.

4 This lady must not be confounded with her mother, who bore the same name.

5 Dio Cassius is often very caustic in his criticisms, but even he recognises Seneca’s sterling merit and services to the state.

6 Mr. Henderson’s The Life and Principate of the Emperor Nero should also be studied.

7 One would have expected that Claudius’ fate would be to be enrolled among—the Pumpkins. But the piece as we have it contains no allusion to this.

8 See Mr. Henderson’s Life and Principate of Nero, 286–7, and Mr. Glover’s The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire, 149.

9 The procurator was in this case practically governor. In some instances he was the representative of a chief governor (praeses) to whom he was subject, e.g. Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judaea under the Governor of Syria.

10 See particularly Pliny’s treatment of Comets (ii. xxii.), Winds (xliv.-l.), Lightning (liii.), Floating Islands (xcvi.). But most striking of all is the reproduction (lxiii.) of Seneca’s remark (208 end of c. xv.), “If any nether gods existed, they would have been dug up long ere this in the mines sunk by our avarice and luxury.” The two authors had hit upon the same thought, and Seneca had happened to use it first. Or it may have been a current witticism in an age of unbelief.

11 Seneca’s name does occur in the lists attached to Books VI. IX. and XXXVI.; the first is geographical, dealing with Asia and Africa, the second has for subject fishes and aquatic life in general, while the third deals with the natural history of stones.

12 “The Stoics affected to despise physical studies, or at any rate to postpone them to morals. Seneca shared this edifying but far from scientific persuasion. But after his final withdrawal from court, as the wonders of nature forced themselves on his notice, he reconsidered his old prejudice, and entered with ardour on the contemplation of physical phenomena” (Cruttwell, op. cit. 381).

13 Gercke says (Preface, xlvi) that the traditional text of the Q.N. is utterly corrupt and still requires the united efforts of many earnest scholars for its restoration. He writes as recently as two years ago (1907), and has himself probably made the most considerable contribution of all the editors to the correction of the text; but he modestly calls himself only a pioneer.

14 See Professor Davidson’s The Stoic Creed, p. 42, where it is pointed out that each of these may be subdivided so as to bring the number up to six—Physics and Theology, Ethics and Politics, Logic and Rhetoric. See also Seneca, Epist. lxxxix., where the division is discussed. For further information on the subject, the article on the Stoics in the Encyclopaedia Britannica and any of the histories of philosophy, e.g. Erdmann or Zeller, may be consulted.

15 Cf. Professor Burnet’s Early Greek Philosophy for illustration of this in earlier times.

16 Cf. footnote 2 to p. xxxiv.

17 The method was not obsolete for many centuries, even if it is yet wholly dead. On more than one occasion the study of Natural History has been advocated on account of the abundance of figures of speech that may be drawn from it! Erasmus esteemed it because of the light it threw on the classics; his insensibility to the wonders of natural forces and processes provoked Luther’s remark that “Erasmus looks upon external objects as cows look upon a new gate.”

18 “There are pictures of voluptuous ease and jaded satiety which may be the work of a keen sympathetic observation, but which may also be the expression of repentant memory” (Dill, op. cit. p. 298).

19 The fulfilment, or at least the beginning of the fulfilment, of this prediction may be dated from Newton in 1680.

20 Ideler’s Meteorologia veterum Graecorum et Romanorum, which forms the Prolegomena to his edition of Aristotle’s Meteorology, but is printed as a separate volume, also contains much curious information on this recondite subject.

21 These are, of course, only for the classical scholar.

22 It is from this poem (l. 5) that Paul quotes (Acts xvii. 28), “For we are also his offspring.” Aratus was a native of Soli in Cilicia, and therefore a compatriot of Paul.

23 He claims to have read about 2000 volumes of 100 choice authors, but his lists seem to include a much larger number of names—146 Roman and 327 foreign writers. See Teuffel, Rom. Lit. vol. ii., under Pliny the Elder. Cf. Dill, op. cit. p. 146 and note.

24 See, besides, pp. 387, 541, 547, 560, 569, etc.

25 In other words, the principles of human conduct.

26 The received text gives “diversity of colours.”

27 In a writer less prone to repetition the words to the end of the sentence would seem the insertion of a copyist.

28 The reading of the MSS. is admittedly corrupt. I have followed Ruhkopf’s conjecture, though without conviction. The argument seems to require dissimilis = unlike, or non similis (cf. c. v. 13), instead of similis = like (“resemble” in the text): in that case the meaning would be: how an image unlike the original ought to be reflected from the cloud as from a mirror. Cf. § 13 below.

29 Another reading gives “twisted.”

30 The common reading makes this adjective refer to clouds—the clouds which are near the earth.

31 He has altered Virgil’s word “carmine” to “nomine” to suit his meaning, or, as the editors say, lapsu memoriae.

32 The term might also mean struck by lightning. A commoner reading gives the meaning: which, when grazed by this means, the Greeks called plecta (= struck).

33 The meaning may be, In addition, i.e. to artificial mirrors, objects in nature, etc.

34 Viz. that of the heavenly bodies which constitute the subject matter of astronomy.

35 This difficult passage, according to Gercke’s text, runs: You will understand the meaning of this, and the necessity for my axiomatic position if I take up the argument a little farther back, and say that there is one kind of body possessing unity, another that is continuous, and another that is formed by junction. For junction is the contact of two bodies joined one to another, continuity is the uninterrupted joining of parts one to another, unity is continuity without junction (i.e. without a break).

36 That is, are not composite.

37 The words in brackets are in all probability spurious, the addition of some commentator. The whole passage is very uncertain.

38 Or, except in a body of uniform texture.

39 Nisard translates, What imparts movement, in man, to the vital principle?

40 περίστασις = a standing around. The Latin equivalent in the text is circumstantia, rendered “displacement.”

41 The reading at several points is so uncertain that one cannot be at all sure of the meaning. Probably the whole passage is very corrupt. So far as the main theme is concerned, the argument seems to be, As mobility is a presupposition of motion, so tensibility is a necessary condition of actual tension produced in a body by another body. One is tempted to employ “elasticity,” but the term contains implications with which the author was apparently unfamiliar.

42 A conjecture widely adopted gives “crane.”

43 The general sense is clear, but the particular text is uncertain.

44 The ancient counterparts of cannon.

45 These words seem of more than doubtful genuineness.

46 The specific word vox = voice is used in the text.

47 Or, Turn their view upon man no less than on the other living creatures now from one point, now from another, i.e. under more varied aspects. The passage is doubtful. The general sense is plain: nearness, frequency of appearance, and variety of aspect severally are or may be special factors in determining a star’s influence on the fate of man.

48 The text is corrupt and the sense more or less conjectural. Ruhkopf suggests that the words may have been transferred from some other passage to this. One would be inclined to suspect that adjice = add, instead of aspice = see, regard, is the correct word at the beginning of the sentence.

49 Admoneri = to be admonished, seems necessary, instead of the authoriser admoveri, to which it is impossible to attach any satisfactory meaning in this connection. The word means to be moved towards; amoveri = to be removed, would make sense.

50 The ordinary text, as Koeller saw, is evidently wrong. It runs: “For by a secret path the sea water enters the ground and becomes visible, and returns stealthily, and is filtered, etc.” No author can be supposed to have written such a sentence. The restoration must be conjectural. I have adopted what seems simplest and most in keeping with the context.

51 The numerals here have no counterpart in the original.

52 In Cilicia.

53 The text seems to be at fault, but the argument is quite clear.

54 I.e. that to which all others may be reduced: the text seems corrupt, and the meaning is more or less conjectural. Gercke’s text reads, “are also of the same or an analogous opinion.”

55 All the texts give via = way. The obvious correction is vis = amount, supply. Gercke confirms this correction.

56 The passage is almost hopelessly corrupt. The meaning of this sentence seems to be that luxury gets some respite from the fatigues of the table by watching the mullet’s death-struggle. Ruhkopf suggests an emendation which would give the sense: Our somnolent, jaded luxury has taken a long time to discover this new enjoyment. That would certainly be well in keeping with the following sentence.

57 The allusion is not quite evident.

58 The technical name is “worm.”

59 There is considerable doubt regarding the correct text and meaning.

60 The text is uncertain, but the meaning fairly obvious.

61 The passage is evidently corrupt; the facts with which it deals are in part unknown.

62 The meaning of the last clause is taken by some to be: and even falls below it—a somewhat pointless remark.

63 The quotation is really from Tibullus.

64 The text is very uncertain.

65 Or, its least service is that it tempers the soil.

66 Some render—is dissolved and gives off its lead.

67 The text is uncertain; the general meaning is, however, plain.

68 The argument seems to require ulla = any, instead of nulla = no.

69 The specific references are not contained in the Latin words; the modern counterpart of the Roman games of ball serves, however, to bring out the meaning of the illustration.

70 I.e. the moral turpitude of sinking into such debased luxury as to require snow should be set forth rather than mere theories of the formation of snow; the ethical should take precedence of the physical.

71 Which you now use in your baths.

72 This remark would have been more apposite in Chap. I., above; possibly that is its correct place.

73 The precise meaning of this and the following sentence is doubtful; one would suspect that the latter originally ran—varieties of the breeze are longer or shorter in duration according as, etc.

74 The meaning is very obscure. The text has been suspected, not without cause: the words “he still . . . hemisphere” are out of place, to say the least of it.

75 No explanation of this name of the nor’-easter is forthcoming.

76 I.e. the Thracian; Thrace must have been N.W. of the region in which the name had its origin.

77 The name is doubtful, as is, indeed, the quotation also.

78 The sense may be: I would have the heavens fall along with me; this meaning would suit the context better.

79 The meaning may rather be—the grandeur of the subject.

80 The so-called “sudd.”

81 The text is uncertain, and the argument down to the end of the chapter rather obscure.

82 The argument seems to be: Two winds can blow simultaneously. One may be beneath the earth (causing or during earthquake), one above. Therefore, stillness of the upper atmosphere is not a necessary concomitant of earthquake. The fact has at times been otherwise.

83 There seems a slight lapse of memory here. Cf. pp. 126, 196.

84 Or spirit: there is almost a play upon the ambiguous meaning of the term.

85 The usual reading, maris = sea, contradicts the argument; it cannot surely be right.

86 I.e. were the air distributed all through the earth.

87 Or purified.

88 It would seem that ingenti and aequo have by some means got transposed in the ordinary texts. Gercke reads saevo for aequo.

89 It is almost impossible to express in English the play on habeo = have; French is more amenable. “J’ai soixante ans! Parlez-vous des soixante ans que vous n’avez plus?”—Nisard.

90 There is some corruption in the text, but no probable restoration has been suggested. From the Latin words it would appear that this clause is merely an explanation of the previous one, inserted by some officious copyist and therefore spurious.

91 The common reading, aliis = others, seems an error for illis = them.

92 I.e. are cone-shaped.

93 The word is usually applied to a flexible fastening, hawser, cable, or the like.

94 Or, between the earth and it.

95 The argument is resumed from the beginning of XIII. after the digression about the “firmament.”

96 I.e. the tail of a comet.

97 Planets may be specially referred to; the Latin word is the generic one, stella.

98 The meaning seems to be, there may be passages—inlets and outlets—by which occasional visitants like comets may temporarily enter the heavens as we know them, and subsequently pass out of them. The text is doubtful.

99 Perhaps cormorants: the identity of the bird is difficult to determine.

100 Another reading runs: Nor has God revealed all things to man.

102 Seneca’s indebtedness to Aristotle is emphatically expressed by Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire in the Dissertation prefixed to his translation of the Meteorologica (Météorologie d’Aristote, 1863, pp. lxix-lxx).

103 Seneca, Epist. lxxix.

104 De Rerum Natura, v. 198.

105

rursus in antiquas referuntur religiones
et dominos acres adsciscunt, omnia posse
quos miseri credunt, ignari quid queat esse,
quid nequeat, finita potestas denique cuique
quanam sit ratione atque alte terminus haerens.—Op. cit. v. 86.

hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest
non radii solis neque lucida tela diei
discutiant, sed naturae species ratioque.—i. 146.

106 an tum bracchia consuescunt firmantque lacertos?—vi. 397.

107 De Rer. Nat. v. 564, 650, 680, 727.

108 See postea, Notes on Book VII.

109 Lucretius, too, had his views on evolution, which are well expressed in four lines of verse:

mutat enim mundi naturam totius aetas,
ex alioque alius status excipere omnia debet,
nec manet ulla sui similis res: omnia migrant,
omnia commutat natura et vertere cogit.

—De Rer. Nat. v. 828.

110 De Rer. Nat. v. 1287.

111 Similar views on thunder and lightning are expressed in the De Rerum Natura:

semina quod nubes ipsas permulta necessust
ignis habere.—vi. 206.

post ubi conminuit vis eius et impetus acer,
tum perterricrepo sonitu dat scissa fragorem.—Ibid. 128.

 . . . notaeque gravis halantis sulpuris auras.—Ibid. 221.

112 This is the view expressed by Lucretius:

  . . . ut in mare de terris venit umor aquai,
in terras itidem manare ex aequore salso;
percolatur enim virus, retroque remanat
materies umoris et ad caput amnibus omnis
confluit, inde super terras redit agmine dulci.

—De Rer. Nat. vi. 633.

113 Pliny, Hist. Nat. ii. 96. Pliny the Younger, Epist. viii. 20.

114 So Lucretius:

 . . . maria ac terras caelumque—
una dies dabit exitio.
—De Rer. Nat. v. 92, 94.

115 The various ancient interpretations of the cause of the Nile’s annual rise are succinctly given by Lucretius (De Rer. Nat. vi. 712–37), but he does not indicate a preference for any one in particular, though he devotes most space to the influence of the Etesian winds.

116 This view hardly agrees with what is expressed in Book II. (60, 61), but it more accurately expresses the fact.

117 It is possible that these ancient mines were driven in search of metal seams or veins traversing limestone, like those of lead among the caverned limestones of Derbyshire.

118 In Seneca’s letters, frequent reference is made to his visits to the district. He seems generally to have taken a villa at Baiae, or some adjacent place on that western part of the coast. He appears to have been a poor sailor, glad to make for the nearest landing-place between Baiae and Naples, so as to escape from the pangs of sea-sickness. On one of his excursions he revisited Pompeii, and was set into a reverie of his youth there. See his Letters, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 70, 77.

119 The collapse of the roofs or sides of underground caverns may undoubtedly be in some instances the cause of local earthquakes. This origin is enforced by Lucretius:

terra superne tremit magnis concussa ruinis,
subter ubi ingentes speluncas subruit aetas.

—De Rer. Nat. vi. 544.

120 Lucretius gives a picturesque recital of these views (De Rer. Nat. vi. 535–607).

121 This view of the nature of volcanic energy is graphically expressed by Lucretius (op. cit. vi. 639–702).

122 De Nat. Deor. ii. 38. See also Lucretius (ib. vi. 641), who describes the more conspicuous features of an eruption, and concludes with the line

ne dubites quin haec animai turbida sit vis (693).

123 For a discussion of the meaning of the term spiritus and the parallelisms in its use by Seneca and the author of the Aetna, see Professor Ellis’s edition of that poem, Prolegomena, pp. xl-xliii.