C. allows the merit of perspicuity, /’n. 1 15 oratio me istius philosophi non

190 BOOK I CH. XXXI § 85.
offendit ; nam et complectitur verbis quod vult, et dicit plane quod tntellegam, and Seneca speaks of a nobilis sententia, apertior quam ut interpretanda sit, et disertior quam ut adjuvanda Ep. 21. Gellius 1 9 defends his style from some attacks of Plutarch. [Theon the rhetor blamed Epic. for an excessive attention to rhythm, see Blass Die Attische Beredsamkeit, p. 52. J.S. R.]
homine minime vafro: cf. Zwusc. 11 44 venit Epicurus, homo minime malus vel potius vir optimus; tantum monet quantum intellegit. In R. P. ui 26 the Epicureans are described with the same contemptuous good- nature as @ gui minime sunt in disserendo mali, qui non sunt in disputando vafri, non veteratores, non malitiosi, and in T'use. 111 oe as vire optim, nam nullum genus est minus malitiosum.
§ 86. an si quid sit. There is the same ambiguity in the original ro pakdpvoy as in C.’s translation quod beatum est; both assert that ampaypo- avvn is a necessary accompaniment of blessedness and immortality, without positively asserting the existence of a blessed and immortal being. The apodosis omitted after s¢ guid is of course id nec habere—negotium. The MS reading zd esse immortale is an attempt to supply the apodosis by a reader who misunderstood the sense, see Sch. Opuse. 111 pp. 318, 366.
non animadvertunt hic—sed: ‘they do not observe that, though he speaks ambiguously here’ &c., cf. the use of pévy and 6é, and see nn. on § 20 cujus principium, § 23 ut ea sapientis.
Metrodorum: see § 93 n.
quam—te: the correct construction tw ldocutus es is subordinated to animadvertunt, see § 82 n.
ille vero: ‘no, no! he isa believer’. The argument is ‘Ep. is eager to do away with religion because, he says, it inspires such overwhelming terrors; but experience does not show these terrors at work in ordinary men; Ep. must be judging others from himself’.
quibus mediocres—perterritas. For the feeling as to religious terrors among Epicureans and others see §§ 45, 54, 56, Zusc. 1 10 num te dla terrent ? triceps apud inferos Cerberus ?...Adeone me delirare censes ut ista credam ?...Atqui pleni sunt libri contra ista ipsa disserentium. Inepte sane; quis est enim tam excors quem ista moveant 2 Tusc. 1 48 liberatos se dicunt (Lprcuret) gravissimis dominis, terrore sempiterno et diurno ac nocturno metu. (Quo terrore? quo metu? Quae est anus tam delira quae timeat ista quae vos videlicet, si physica non didicissetis, timeretis? foll.; Fin. 1 64 e physicis et fortitudo sumitur contra mortis timorem, et constantia contra metum religionrs, et sedatio animt, omnium rerum occultarum tgno- ratione sublata, et moderatio, natura cupiditatum generibusque earum explicatis; Lucr. 162, 102, 110 aeternas quoniam poenas in morte timendumst, 146 foll.; above all the very interesting discussion on the nature and effects of religious fear in Plutarch’s treatise, Von posse suaviter vivi secundum Lpicureos, pp. 1101—1107, of which the purport is given in the following, Bedriov yap evuTapyew Te Kar ovyxexpacOa TH wept Oeav Sdn Kowov aidovs kat oBov mabos, ) rovto dhevyovtas pyr Amida pyre Xap €avTois pyre