Arnobius

Footnotes

^[3494] In cardinem vergere qui orientis est solis seems to be the reading of all edd.; but according to Crusius the ms. reads vertere—“to turn.” Hildebrand, on the contrary, affirms that instead of t, the ms. gives c.

^[3495] i.e., originally earlier.

^[3496] So most edd., reading desituros, for which Stewechius suggests desulturos—“leap down;” LB. exituros—“go out.”

^[3497] Reference is here made to one of the most extraordinary of the Platonic myths (Pol., 269–274), in which the world is represented as not merely material, but as being further possessed of intelligence. It is ever in motion, but not always in the same way. For at one time its motion is directed by a divine governor (τοῦ παντὸς ὁ μὲν κυβερνήτης); but this does not continue, for he withdraws from his task, and thereupon the world loses, or rather gives up its previous bias, and begins to revolve in the opposite direction, causing among other results a reverse development of the phenomena which occurred before, such as Arnobius describes. Arnobius, however, gives too much weight to the myth, as in the introduction it is more than hinted that it may be addressed to the young Socrates, as boys like such stories, and he is not much more than a boy. With it should be contrasted the “great year” of the Stoics, in which the universe fulfilled its course, and then began afresh to pass through the same experience as before (Nemesius, de Nat. Hom., c. 38).

^[3498] LB. makes these words interrogative, but the above arrangement is clearly vindicated by the tenor of the argument: You laugh at our care for our souls’ salvation; and truly you do not see to their safety by such precautions as a virtuous life, but do you not seek that which you think salvation by mystic rites?

^[3499] Lit., “fastened with beam” (i.e., large and strong) “nails.”

^[3500] Cf. on the intercessory prayers of the Magi, c. 62, infra.

Chapter XIV

^[3501] Pl. Cf. Milman’s note on Gibbon, vol. 2, c. xi. p. 7.

^[3502] Lit., “certain fires.”

^[3503] Plato, in the passage referred to (Phædo, st. p. 113, § 61), speaks of the Styx not as a river, but as the lake into which the Cocytus falls. The fourth river which he mentions in addition to the Acheron, Pyriphlegethon, and Cocytus, which he calls Stygian, is the Ocean stream.

^[3504] So the ms., according to Hild., reading parvæ; but acc. to Rigaltius and Crusius, it gives pravæ—“of no mean.”

^[3505] So LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading doloris afficiat sensu, by merely dropping m from the ms. sensu-m; while all the other edd. read doloribus sensuum—“affects with the pains of the senses.”

^[3506] i.e., not compounded of soul and body.

^[3507] Or, “not unsuitably,” absone.

^[3508] Lit., “in the failure (or ‘disappointment’) of,” etc.

^[3509] i.e., neither immortal nor necessarily mortal.

^[3510] So Gelenius emended the unintelligible ms. reading se-mina by merely adding s, followed by all edd., although Ursinus in the margin suggests se mîam, i.e., mi-sericordiam—“pity;” and Heraldus conjectures munia—“gifts.”

^[3511] So almost all edd., from a conjecture of Gelenius, supplying ut, which is wanting in the ms., first ed., and Oehler.

^[3512] It is worth while to contrast Augustine’s words: “The death which men fear is the separation of the soul from the body. The true death, which men do not fear, is the separation of the soul from God” (Aug. in Ps. xlviii., quoted by Elmenhorst).

^[3513] In the first ed., Gelenius, Canterus, Ursinus, and Orelli, both verbs are made present, but all other edd. follow the ms. as above.

^[3514] In the first ed., Gelenius, Canterus, Ursinus, and Orelli, both verbs are made present, but all other edd. follow the ms. as above.

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