Chapter 15
_grieves for nor pities_. This quite obscures the point. Vergil says that a country life, with its absence of poverty, so commonly met with in a town, saves a man from the necessity of feeling a pang of pity for the poor.
Before you put aside this pa.s.sage, try to avail yourself of some of the following suggestions. Thus:--
I. _For the Poet Vergil_[17] (70 B.C.-19 B.C.).--The chief facts of his life and the subject of his great poems are clearly and shortly given in the _Student's Companion to Latin Authors_ (a useful and convenient book of reference).
[Footnote 17: See Short Lives, p. 343.] [[Appendix VI]]
II. _For the Georgics, Poems on Husbandry._ (The pa.s.sage for translation is taken from _Georgic II._ lines 490-499.) See--
(i.) _Student's Companion to Latin Authors_, pp. 157-8.
(ii.) Nettles.h.i.+p's _Vergil_, pp. 37-45.
(iii.) Sellar's _Vergil_, pp. 174-198.
Notice especially the _political purpose_ of the _Georgics_--to help the policy of Augustus, which aimed at checking the depopulation of the country districts. Compare the alarming migration from the country to the towns in England at the present day.
III. _Relation of Lucretius to the Georgics._
(i.) Sellar's _Vergil_, pp. 199-243.
(ii.) Munro's _Lucretius_, Notes on Book i. line 78, and Book iii.
line 449.
Notice in this connection the opening lines of the pa.s.sage, +Felix qui potuit... Acherontis avari+, which may be summarised as follows: 'Happy he who knows the laws of Nature, and has therefore ceased to fear natural phenomena and has learnt to despise the fabled terrors of Hades.' Munro says: 'I feel that by his +Felix qui+ Vergil does mean a poet-philosopher, who can only be Lucretius.'
Cf. also _Lucretius_, iii. 1-30. His address to Epicurus.
For the thought, cf. Wordsworth's _Happy Warrior_--
'He therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state.'
DEMONSTRATION VI.
_The Tomb of Archimedes._
(a) Archimedis ego quaestor ignoratum ab Syracusanis, c.u.m esse omnino negarent, saeptum undique et vest.i.tum vepribus et dumetis, indagavi sepulcrum. |II| Tenebam enim quosdam senariolos, quos in eius monumento esse inscriptos acceperam: qui declarabant in summo sepulcro sphaeram esse positam c.u.m cylindro. |III| Ego autem, c.u.m omnia coll.u.s.trarem oculis--est enim ad portas Agragantinas magna frequentia sepulcrorum--animadverti columellam non multum e dumis eminentem, in qua inerat sphaerae figura et cylindri. |IV| Atque ego statim Syracusanis--erant autem principes mec.u.m--dixi me illud ipsum arbitrari esse quod quaererem.
|VI| Quo c.u.m patefactus esset aditus, accessimus: |VII| apparebat in sepulcro epigramma, exesis posterioribus partibus versiculorum, dimidiatis fere. ||
CICERO.
_The Tomb of Archimedes._
(b) {I} Archimedis +ego quaestor+ ignoratum ab Syracusanis, [c.u.m esse omnino negarent,] saeptum undique et vest.i.tum vepribus et dumetis, +indagavi sepulcrum+. {II} +Tenebam+ enim quosdam +senariolos+, [quos in eius monumento esse inscriptos acceperam]: [qui declarabant in summo sepulcro sphaeram esse positam c.u.m cylindro.] {III} +Ego+ autem, [c.u.m omnia coll.u.s.trarem oculis]--est enim ad portas Agragantinas magna frequentia sepulcrorum--+animadverti columellam+ non multum e dumis eminentem, [in qua inerat sphaerae figura et cylindri]. {IV} Atque +ego+ statim Syracusanis--erant autem principes mec.u.m--+dixi+ me illud ipsum arbitrari esse [quod quaererem]. {V} +Immissi+ c.u.m falcibus multi +purgarunt loc.u.m+. {VI} [Quo c.u.m patefactus esset aditus], +accessimus+: {VII} +apparebat+ in sepulcro +epigramma+, exesis posterioribus partibus versiculorum, dimidiatis fere.
CICERO.
DEMONSTRATION VI.
CICERO, _Tusc._ v. 23. 64.
_Read the Pa.s.sage through carefully._--As you read you will notice many allusions and key-words, _e.g._ +Archimedes+, +ego quaestor+, +Syracusanis+, +sepulcrum+, etc. These, taken in connection with the heading and the author, will suggest to you the main subject of the pa.s.sage--the finding of the Tomb of Archimedes by Cicero.
+I.+ +Archimedis ego quaestor ignoratum ab Syracusanis, c.u.m esse omnino negarent, saeptum undique et vest.i.tum vepribus et dumetis, indagavi sepulcrum.+
(i.) _Vocabulary._--
+Quaestor+ (contr. from +quaesitor+--+quaero+), i.e. _investigator_, originally two main functions:--
(a) The preparation of evidence in public prosecutions (this about 240 B.C. transferred to the Tribunes).
(b) Treasurers of State. Of these the +Quaestores urbani+ stayed at Rome, while the +Quaestores provinciales+ or +militares+ acted as financial a.s.sistants to the _Consuls_ or _Praetors_ for the provinces.
+saeptum+ = _hedged in_; +saepes+ = _a hedge_, _fence_.
+vepribus+ = _with bramble-bushes_.
+dumetis+ = _with brushwood_.
+indagavi+ = _I traced out_. A metaphor from hunting. Cf.
'Dum trepidant alae, saltusque indagine cingunt.'
Verg. _Aen._ iv. 121.
'While the scouts (beaters) are all busy, and are encircling the coverts with nets.'
(ii.) _Translation._--The form of the sentence is quite simple. The princ.i.p.al verb is +indagavi+, with subject +ego quaestor+, and object +sepulcrum+. From +ignoratum... dumetis+ describes +sepulcrum+, and the subordinate clause +c.u.m... negarent+ emphasises +ignoratum a Syracusanis+. You may now translate
(a) literally: _I, when Quaestor, traced out the tomb of Archimedes, not known of by the Syracusans, for they said it was not there at all, hedged in on all sides and covered with brambles and brushwood._
(b) A better rendering: _When I was Quaestor I was able to trace the tomb of Archimedes, overgrown and hedged in with brambles and brushwood.
The Syracusans knew nothing of it, and entirely denied its existence._
Notice here the improvement made by breaking up the one long sentence into two.
+II.+ +Tenebam enim quosdam senariolos, quos in eius monumento esse inscriptos acceperam: qui declarabant in summo sepulcro sphaeram esse positam c.u.m cylindro.+
(i.) _Vocabulary._--
+senariolos+ = _some lines_, _i.e._ of poetry--dimin. of +senarius+ (+seni+) = _consisting of six each_, especially of the _iambic senarii_.
+sphaeram+ = _a sphere_, _globe_--sfa??a.
+cylindro+ = _a cylinder_,?????d???.
(ii.) _Translation._--The only princ.i.p.al verb is clearly +tenebam+ (with subject contained in the verb), and the princ.i.p.al object +senariolos+ (sc. +versus+). From +quos... cylindro+ we have two subordinate adjectival clauses enlarging +senariolos+.
_The fact is, I remembered some iambic lines which I had been told were inscribed on his monument, and which set forth that his tomb was surmounted by a sphere and a cylinder._