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Lactantius
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Introductory Notice To Lactantius.
[449] Pythagoras taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and affirmed that he had lived already as Euphorbus, one of the heroes of Troy, who was slain by Menelaus in the Trojan war. Lactantius again refers to this subject, book vii. ch. 23, infra.
[450] This passage is not contained in Cicero’s treatise on the Laws, but the substance of it is in the Tusculan Questions
[451] See Dan. xii.; Matt. iii., xiii., xxv.; John xii.
[452] [See vol. iii. p. 231, and same treatise sparsim ]
[453] Silenus was the constant companion of Dionysus. He was regarded as an inspired prophet, who knew all the past and the most distant future, and as a sage who despised all the gifts of fortune.
[454] The Greeks included all nations, except themselves, under the general name of barbarians.
[455] In transversum, “crosswise or transversely.”
[456] Lactantius here uses cor, “the heart,” for wisdom, regarding the heart as the seat of wisdom.
[457] The allusion is to the upright figure of man, as opposed to the other animals, which look down upon the earth, whereas man looks upward. [Our author is partial to this idea. See p. 41, supra.]
[458] This oath is mentioned by Athenæus. Tertullian makes an excuse for it, as though it were done in mockery of the gods. Socrates was called the Athenian buffoon, because he taught many things in a jesting manner.
[459] To be distinguished from Zeno of Citium, the Stoic, and also from Zeno of Elea.
Chap. XXII.—Of the Precepts of Plato, and Censures of the Same.
[460] The Stoics not only regarded accidental things, but also our bodies themselves, as being without us.
[461] Justice comprises within herself all the virtues. And thus Aristotle calls her the mother of the other virtues, because she cherishes as it were in her bosom all the rest.
[462] [This caustic review of Plato is painfully just. Alas! that such opprobria should be incapable of reply.]
Chap. XXIII.—Of the Errors of Certain Philosophers, and of the Sun and Moon.
[463] That is, philosophers of less repute and fame.
[464] Cicero speaks of Tuditanus as scattering money from the rostrum among the people.
[465] [Anacreon, Ode 2. τοι̑ς ἀδράσιν φρόνημα.]
[466] Animals of a solitary nature, as opposed to those of gregarious habits.
[467] [He was nearer truth than he imagined, if the planet Mars may be called below us.]
Chap. XXIV.—Of the Antipodes, the Heaven, and the Stars.
[469] He alludes to the hanging gardens of Semiramis at Babylon.
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