Meditations/Source/Glossary
Title: Meditations
Author: Marcus Aurelius
June, 2001 [Etext #2680]
NOTES
THIS being neither a critical edition of the text nor an emended edition of Casaubon's translation, it has not been thought necessary to add full notes. Casaubon's own notes have been omitted, because for the most part they are discursive, and not necessary to an understanding of what is written. In those which here follow, certain emendations of his are mentioned, which he proposes in his notes, and follows in the translation. In addition, one or two corrections are made where he has mistaken the Greek, and the translation might be misleading. Those which do not come under these two heads will explain themselves.
The text itself has been prepared by a comparison of the editions of 1634 and 1635. It should he borne in mind that Casaubon's is often rather a paraphrase than a close translation; and it did not seem worth while to notice every variation or amplification of the original. In the original editions all that Casauhon conceives as understood, but not expressed, is enclosed in square brackets. These brackets are here omitted, as they interfere with the comfort of the reader; and so have some of the alternative renderings suggested by the translator. In a few cases, Latin words in the text have been replaced by English.
Numbers in brackets refer to the Teubner text of Stich, but the divisions of the text are left unaltered. For some of the references identified I am indebted to Mr. G. H. Rendall's Marcus Aurelius.
BOOK I
I "Both to frequent" (4). Gr. to mh, C. conjectures to me. The text is probably right: "I did not frequent public lectures, and I was taught at home." VI Idiots. . . . philosophers (9). The reading is doubtful, but the meaning seems to be: "simple and unlearned men"
XII "Claudius Maximus" (15). The reading of the Palatine MS. (now lost) was paraklhsiz Maximon, which C. supposes to conceal the letters kl as an abbreviation of Claudius.
XIII "Patient hearing. . . He would not" (16). C. translates his conjectural reading epimonon ollan. on proapsth Stich suggests a reading with much the same sense:
.....epimonon all antoi
"Strict and rigid dealing" (16). C. translates tonvn (Pal. MS.) as though from tonoz, in the sense of "strain." "rigour." The reading of other MSS. tonvn is preferable.
XIII "Congiaries" (13). dianomais, "doles."
XIV "Cajeta" (17). The passage is certainly corrupt. C. spies a reference to Chryses praying by the sea-shore in the Illiad, and supposes M. Aurelius to have done the like. None of the emendations suggested is satisfactory.
At § XV. Book II. is usually reckoned to begin.
BOOK II
III. Do, soul" (6). If the received reading be right, it must be sarcastic; but there are several variants which show how unsatisfactory it is. C. translates "en gar o
bioz ekasty so par eanty " which I do not understand. The sense required is: "Do not violence to thyself, for thou hast not long to use self-respect. Life is not (v. 1. so) <long> for each, and this life for thee is all but done."
X. "honour and credit do proceed" (12). The verb has dropt out of the text, but C. has supplied one of the required meaning.
XI. "Consider," etc. (52). This verb is not in the Greek, which means: "(And reason also shows) how man, etc."
BOOK IV
XV. "Agathos" (18): This is probably not a proper name, but the text seems to be unsound. The meaning may be "the good man ought"
XVI. oikonomian (16) is a "practical benefit," a secondary end.
XXXIX. "For herein lieth all...." (~3). C. translates his conjecture
olan for ola.
BOOK V
XIV. katorqwseiz (15): Acts of "rightness" or "straightness."
XXIII. "Roarer" (28): Gr. "tragedian." Ed. 1 has whoremonger,' ed. 2 corrects to "harlot," but omits to alter' the word at its second occurrence.
XXV. "Thou hast . . . them" (33): A quotation from Homer, Odyssey, iv. 690.
XXVII. " One of the poets" (33) : Hesiod, Op. et Dies, 197.
XXIX and XXX. (36). The Greek appears to contain quotations from sources not known, and the translation is a paraphrase. (One or two alterations are here made on the authority of the second edition.)
BOOK VI
XIII. "Affected and qualified" (i4): exis, the power of cohesion shown in things inanimate; fusiz, power of growth seen in plants and the like.
XVII. "Wonder at them" (18) : i.e. mankind.
XXXVII. "Chrysippus" (42): C. refers to a passage of Plutarch De Communibus Notitiis (c. xiv.), where Chrysippus is represented as saying that a coarse phrase may be vile in itself, yet have due place in a comedy as contributing to a certain effect.
XL. "Man or men . . ." There is no hiatus in the Greek, which means: "Whatever (is beneficial) for a man is so for other men also."
XLII. There is no hiatus in the Greek.
BOOK VII
IX. C. translates his conjecture mh for h. The Greek means " straight, or rectified," with a play on the literal and metaphorical meaning of ortoz.
XIV. endaimonia. contains the word daimwn in composition.
XXII.The text is corrupt, but the words "or if it be but few " should be "that is little enough."
XXIII. "Plato": Republic, vi. p. 486 A.
XXV. "It will," etc. Euripides, Belerophon, frag. 287 (Nauck). "Lives," etc. Euripides, Hypsipyle, frag. 757 (Nauck). "As long," etc. Aristophanes, Acharne, 66 i. "Plato" Apology, p. 28 B. "For thus" Apology, p. 28 F.
XXVI. "But, 0 noble sir," etc. Plato, Gorgias, 512 D.
XXVII. "And as for those parts," etc. A quotation from Euripides, Chryssipus, frag. 839 (Nauck). "With meats," etc. From Euripides, Supplices, 1110.
XXXIII. "They both," i.e. life and wrestling. "Says he" (63): Plato, quoted by Epictetus, Arr. i. 28, 2 and 22.
XXXVII. "How know we," etc. The Greek means: "how know we whether Telauges were not nobler in character than Sophocles?" The allusion is unknown.
XXVII. "Frost" The word is written by Casaubon as a proper name, " Pagus.' "The hardihood of Socrates was famous"; see Plato, Siymposium, p. 220.
BOOK X
XXII. The Greek means, "paltry breath bearing up corpses, so that the tale of Dead Man's Land is clearer."
XXII. "The poet" (21) : Euripides, frag. 898 (Nauck); compare Aeschylus, Danaides, frag. 44.
XXIV. "Plato" (23): Theaetetus, p. 174 D.
XXXIV. "The poet" (34): Homer, Iliad, vi. 147.
XXXIV. "Wood": A translation of ulh, "matter."
XXXVIII. "Rhetoric" (38): Rather "the gift of speech"; or perhaps the "decree" of the reasoning faculty.
BOOK XI
V. "Cithaeron" (6) : Oedipus utters this cry after discovering that he has fulfilled his awful doom, he was exposed on Cithaeron as an infant to die, and the cry implies that he wishes he had died there. Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus, 1391.
V. "New Comedy . . .," etc. C. has here strayed from the Greek rather widely. Translate: "and understand to what end the New Comedy was adopted, which by small degrees degenerated into a mere show of skill in mimicry." C. writes Comedia Vetus, Media, Nova.
XII. "Phocion" (13): When about to be put to death he charged his son to bear no malice against the Athenians.
XXVIII. " My heart," etc. (31): From Homer, Odyssey ix. 413. "They will" From Hesiod, Opera et Dies, 184. "Epictetus" Arr. i. II, 37. XXX. "Cut down grapes" (35): Correct "ears of corn." "Epictetus"(36): Arr. 3, 22, 105.
GLOSSARY
This Glossary includes all proper names (excepting a few which are insignificant or unknown) and all obsolete or obscure words.
ADRIANUS, or Hadrian (76-138 A. D.), i4th Roman Emperor.
Agrippa, M. Vipsanius (63-12 B.C.), a distinguished soldier under Augustus.
Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia, and Conqueror of the East, 356-323 B.C.
Antisthenes of Athens, founder of the sect of Cynic philosophers, and an opponent of Plato, 5th century B.C Antoninus Pius, 15th Roman Emperor, 138-161 AD. one of the best princes that ever mounted a throne.
Apathia: the Stoic ideal was calmness in all circumstance an insensibility to pain, and absence of all exaltation at, pleasure or good fortune.
Apelles, a famous painter of antiquity.
Apollonius of Alexandria, called Dyscolus, or the 'ill-tempered,'
a great grammarian.
Aposteme, tumour, excrescence.
Archimedes of Syracuse 287-212 B.C., the most famous mathematician of antiquity.
Athos, a mountain promontory at the N. of the Aegean Sea.
Augustus, first Roman Emperor (ruled 31 B.C.-14 AD.).
Avoid, void.
BACCHIUS: there Were several persons of this name, and the one meant is perhaps the musician.
Brutus (1) the liberator of the Roman people from their kings, and (2) the murderer of Caesar.
Both names were household words.
Caesar, Caius, Julius, the Dictator and Conqueror.
Caieta, a town in Latium.
Camillus, a famous dictator in the early days of the Roman Republic.
Carnuntum, a town on the Danube in Upper Pannonia.
Cato, called of Utica, a Stoic who died by his own hand after the battle of Thapsus, 46 B.C. His name was proverbial for virtue and courage.
Cautelous, cautious.
Cecrops, first legendary King of Athens.
Charax, perhaps the priestly historian of that name, whose date is unknown, except that it must be later than Nero.
Chirurgeon, surgeon.
Chrysippus, 280-207 B.C., a Stoic philosopher, and the founder of Stoicism as a systematic philosophy.
Circus, the Circus Maximus at Rome, where games were held. There were four companies who contracted to provide horses, drivers, etc. These were called Factiones, and each had its distinguishing colour: russata (red), albata (white), veneta (blue), prasina (green). There was high rivalry between them, and riots and bloodshed not infrequently.
Cithaeron, a mountain range N.
of Attica.
Comedy, ancient; a term applied to the Attic comedy of Aristophanes and his time, which criticised persons and politics, like a modern comic journal, such as Punck. See New Comedy.
Compendious, short.
Conceit, opinion.
Contentation, contentment.
Crates, a Cynic philosopher of the 4th century B.C.
Croesus, King of Lydia, proverbial for wealth; he reigned 560-546 B.C.
Cynics, a school of philosophers, founded by Antisthenes. Their texts were a kind of caricature of Socraticism. Nothing was good but virtue, nothing bad but vice. The Cynics repudiated all civil and social claims, and attempted to return to what they called a state of nature. Many of them were very disgusting in their manners.
DEMETRIUS of Phalerum, an Athenian orator, statesman, philosopher, and poet. Born 345 B.C.
Democritus of Abdera (460-361 B.C.), celebrated as the 'laughing philosopher,' whose constant thought was 'What fools these mortals be.' He invented the Atomic Theory.
Dio of Syracuse, a disciple of Plato, and afterwards tyrant of Syracuse. Murdered 353 B.C.
Diogenes, the Cynic, born about 412 B.C., renowned for his rude-
ness and hardihood.
Diognetus, a painter.
Dispense with, put up with.
Dogmata, pithy sayings, or philosophical rules of life.
EMPEDOCLES of Agrigentum, fl. 5th century B.C., a philosopher, who first laid down that there were "four elements." He believed in the transmigration of souls, and the indestructibility of matter.
Epictetus, a famous Stoic philosopher. He was of Phrygia, at first a slave, then freedman, lame, poor, and contented. The work called Encheiridion was compiled by a pupil from his discourses.
Epicureans, a sect of philosophers founded by Epicurus, who "combined the physics of Democritus," i.e. the atomic theory, "with the ethics of Aristippus." They proposed to live for happiness, but the word did not bear that coarse and vulgar sense originally which it soon took.
Epicurus of Samos, 342-270 B.C. Lived at Athens in his "gardens," an urbane and kindly, if somewhat useless, life. His character was simple and temperate, and had none of the vice or indulgence which was afterwards associated with the name of Epicurean.
Eudoxus of Cnidus, a famous astronomer and physician of the 4th century B. C.
FATAL, fated.
Fortuit, chance (adj.).
Fronto, M. Cornelius, a rhetorician and pleader, made consul in 143 A.D. A number of his letters to M, Aur. and others are extant.
GRANUA, a tributary of the Danube.
HELICE, ancient capital city of Achaia, swallowed up by an earthquake, 373 B.C.
Helvidius Priscus, son-in-law of Thrasea Paetus, a noble man and a lover of liberty. He was banished by Nero, and put to death by Vespasian.
Heraclitus of Ephesus, who lived in the 6th century B.C. He wrote on philosophy and natural science.
Herculaneum, near Mount Vesuvius, buried by the eruption of 79 AD.
Hercules, p. 167, should be Apollo. See Muses.
Hiatus, gap.
Hipparchus of Bithynia, an astronomer of the 2nd century B.C., "The true father of astronomy."
Hippocrates of Cos, about 460-357 B.C. One of the most famous physicians of antiquity.
IDIOT, means merely the non-proficient in anything, the "layman," he who was not technically trained in any art, craft, or calling.
LEONNATUS, a distinguished general under Alexander the Great.
Lucilla, daughter of M. Aurelius, and wife of Verus, whom she survived.
MAECENAS, a trusted adviser of Augustus, and a munificent patron of wits and literary men.
Maximus, Claudius, a Stoic philosopher.
Menippus, a Cynic philosopher.
Meteores, ta metewrologika, "high philosophy," used specially of astronomy and natural philosophy, which were bound up with other speculations.
Middle Comedy, something midway between the Old and New Comedy. See Comedy, Ancient, and New Comedy.
Middle things, Book 7, XXV. The Stoics divided all things into virtue, vice, and indifferent things; but as "indifferent" they regarded most of those things which tbe world regards as good or bad, such as wealth or poverty. Of these, some were "to be desired," some "to be rejected."
Muses, the nine deities who presided over various kinds of poesy, music, etc. Their leader was Apollo, one of whose titles is Musegetes, the Leader of the Muses.
NERVES, strings.
New Comedy, the Attic Comedy of Menander and his school, which criticised not persons but manners, like a modern comic opera. See Comedy, Ancient.
PALESTRA, wrestling school.
Pancratiast, competitor in the pancratium, a combined contest which comprised boxing and wrestling.
Parmularii, gladiators armed with a small round shield (parma).
Pheidias, the most famous sculptor of antiquity.
Philippus, founder of the Macedonian supremacy, and father of Alexander the Great.
Phocion, an Athenian general and statesman, a noble and high-minded man, 4th century B.C. He was called by Demosthenes, "the pruner of my periods." He was put to death by the State in 317, on a false suspicion, and left a message for his son "to bear no grudge against the Athenians."
Pine, torment.
Plato of Athens, 429-347 B.C. He used the dialectic method invented by his master Socrates. He was, perhaps, as much poet as philosopher. He is generally identified with the Theory of Ideas, that things are what they are by participation with our eternal Idea. His "Commonwealth" was a kind of Utopia.
Platonics, followers of Plato.
Pompeii, near Mount Vesuvius, buried in the eruption of 79 A. D.
Pompeius, C. Pompeius Magnus, a very successful general at the end of the Roman Republic (106-48 B.C.).
Prestidigitator, juggler.
Pythagoras of Samos, a philosopher, scientist, and moralist of the 6th century B.C.
QUADI, a tribe of S. Germany.
M. Aurelius carried on war against them, and part of this book was written in the field.
RICTUS, gape, jaws.
Rusticus, Q. Junius, or Stoic philosopher, twice made consul by M. Aurelius.
SACRARY, shrine.
Salaminius, Book 7, XXXVII. Leon of Sala-mis. Socrates was ordered by the Thirty Tyrants to fetch him before them, and Socrates, at his own peril, refused.
Sarmatae, a tribe dwelling in Poland.
Sceletum, skeleton.
Sceptics, a school of philosophy founded by Pyrrho (4th contury B.C.). He advocated "suspension of judgment," and taught the relativity of knowledge and impossibility of proof. The school is not unlike the Agnostic school.
Scipio, the name of two great soldiers, P. Corn. Scipio Africanus, conqueror of Hannibal, and P.
Corn. Sc. Afr. Minor, who came into the family by adoption, who destroyed Carthage.
Secutoriani (a word coined by C.), the Sececutores, light-armed gladiators, who were pitted against others with net and trident.
Sextus of Chaeronea, a Stoic philosopher, nephew of Plutarch.
Silly, simple, common.
Sinuessa, a town in Latium.
Socrates, an Athenian philosopher (469-399 B.C.), founder of the dialectic method. Put to death on a trumped-up charge by his countrymen.
Stint, limit (without implying niggardliness).
Stoics, a philosophic system founded,by Zeno (4th century B.C.), and systematised by Chrysippus (3rd century B.C.). Their physical theory was a pantheistic materialism, their summum bonum "to live according to nature." Their wise man needs nothing, he is sufficient to himself; virtue is good, vice bad, external things indifferent.
THEOPHRASTUS, a philosopher, pupil of Aristotle, and his successor as president of the Lyceum. He wrote a large number of works on philosophy and natural history. Died 287 B.C.
Thrasea, P. Thrasea Pactus, a senator and Stoic philosopher, a noble and courageous man. He was condemned to death by Nero.
Tiberius, 2nd Roman Emperor (14-31 AD.). He spent the latter part of his life at Capreae (Capri), off Naples, in luxury or debauchery, neglecting his imperial duties.
To-torn, torn to pieces.
Trajan, 13th Roman Emperor, 52-117 A.D.
VERUS, Lucius Aurelius, colleague of M. Aurelius in the Empire. He married Lucilla, daughter of M. A., and died 169 A.D.
Vespasian, 9th Roman Emperor
XENOCRATES of Chalcedon, 396-314 B.C., a philosopher, and president of the Academy.