M. TULLIL GICERONIS

DE NATURA DEORUM
LIBRI TRES
WITH INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY
BY
JOSEPH B. MAYOR, M.A,
PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY AT KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON, FORMERLY FELLOW AND TUTOR OF ST JOHN’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
TOGETHER WITH
A NEW COLLATION OF SEVERAL OF THE ENGLISH MSS.
ce
By J. H. SWAINSON, M.A.
FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
VOL.
Cambridae : AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
Hondon; CAMBRIDGE WAREHOUSE, 17, Paternoster Row. Cambridge: DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO. Leipsig; F. A. BROCKHAUS. 1880
[The rights of translation and reproduction are reserved. }
Cambritge ¢ PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS,
6C(O 0
‘as QR ie naa
FRATRI DILECTO JOHANNI E. B. MAYOR, LATINARUM LITTERARUM APUD CANTABRIGIENSES PROFESSORI, QUI PRIMUS PUERILEM MIHI MENTEM QUO ET IPSE PUER FLAGRABAT ANTIQUITATIS AMORE IMBUIT,
HIC GRATI LABORIS FRUCTUS
DEDICATUR.
"HN MEN OYN TrpO THC TOY Kypioy Tapoyciac €ic AIKAIOCYNHN “EAAHCIN ANArKAIA IAOCOMIA, NYNI A€ YPHCIMH TIPOC OEOCEBEIAN FINETAl, TIPOTTAIAEIA TIC OYCA TOIC THN TICTIN AI ATTOAEIZEWC Kap- TroymMenoic. Crem. AL. Strom. 1. ce. 5 § 28.
Nam, ut vere loquamur, superstitio fusa per gentes oppressit omnium fere aninos atque hominum imbecillitatem occuparit. Quod et in vis libris dictum est, gui sunt de natura deorum, et hac disputatione 7d maxime egimus. Multum enim et nobismet ipsis et nostris profuturi videbamur, si eam fun- ditus sustulissemus, Nec vero (id enim diligenter intellegi volo) superstitione tollenda religto tollitur. Nam et majorum tnstituta tuert sacris caerimoniis- que retinendis sapientis est, et esse praucstantem aliquam aeternamque natu- ram, et eam suspiciendam admirandamque hominum generi pulchritudo mundi ordoque rerum caclestium cogit confitert. Quam ob rem, ut religio propaganda etiam est, quae est juncta cum cognitione naturae, sic supersti-
tions stirpes omnes ejiciendae. Cic. De Divin. 1 148,
PREFATORY NOTE.
In bringing out the First Volume of my edition of Cicero’s De Natura Deorwm, I have to return my best thanks to the Syndics of: the University Press for having undertaken its publication, and both to them and to Mr J. H. Swainson, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, for the use of the collations of various English MSS. made. by the latter, and placed by him in the hands of the Syndicate ; also to Mr Samuel Allen of Dublin for the loan of two valuable MSS., an account of which is given in the fifth section of my Introduction. I have further to acknowledge with my hearty thanks the assistance received from friends who have looked over portions of the proof-sheets, as they were passing through the press, especially to my brother,
the Rev. John FE. B. Mayor, Professor of Latin
vl PREFATORY NOTE.
at Cambridge, and to my former pupil, Mr H. P. Richards, now Fellow and Tutor of Wadham College, Oxford; but above all to Mr J. 8S. Reid, whose name is well known to scholars from his excellent editions of the Academica and other works of Cicero, and to my old and valued friend Mr H. J. Roby. The help which I have received from the two latter is only imperfectly represented by the additions and corrections marked with the signature /2., in the case of those supplied by Mr Roby, and J. S. /2., in the case of those supplied by Mr Reid. Many of my own notes have been modified, and perhaps more should have been, in deference to their candid and searching
criticism.
The remaining volume will, I hope, be completed
for publication during the course of next year.
April, 1880.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION :
(1) Historical Sketch of Greek Philosophy
(2) Analysis of Book I.
(3) Dramatis Personae
(4) Sources of Book I.
(5) Text and Orthography Appendix on Davies’ MSS. Explanation of Symbols
Text of Book I. with Critical Notes Mr Swainson’s Collations of Book I.
Commentary on Book I. .
PAGE
ix—xxxvli XXXV1I—Xxxix xl—xlii xlii—liv liv—lxvii lxvii—lxx
xx, xxi 1—43 45—64
65—228
ago 7 rT 7 at a Fad vate Petcare
may
ya
os
INTRODUCTION.
§ 1. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY FROM THALES TO CICERO*.
As Cicero continually refers to the views of earlier philosophers, it seems desirable here to give a short preliminary sketch, which may serve to show their relations to each other, leaving points of detail to be discussed in the notes on each particular passage.
Greek philosophy had its origin not in the mother country, but in the colonies of Asia Minor and Magna Graecia. This is owing partly to the reflectiveness belonging to a more advanced civilization, and partly to the fact that the colonists were brought in contact with the customs and ideas of foreign nations. The philosophers of the earliest, or Pre-Socratic period, are broadly divided into the Ionic and the Italic Schools. Both had the same object of interest, to ascertain the nature, the origin, the laws, the destiny of the visible
* The modern works which have been found most useful in drawing up this sketch are the following, arranged in what I consider to be their order of im- portance. Full references will be found in the two which stand at the head of the list.
Ritter and Preller, Historia Philosophiae Graecae et Romanae ex fontium locis contexta.
Zeller, History of Greek Philosophy.
Grote, History of Greece, together with his Plato and Aristotle.
Ueberweg, History of Philosophy, Vol. 1. tr. by Morris.
Schwegler, Hist. of Philosophy, tr. by Sterling.
Krische, Die theologischen Lehren der griechischen Denker.
Dollinger, The Gentile and the Jew, translated by Darnell.
Grant, Ethics of Aristotle, Vol. 1.
A. Butler, Lectures on Ancient Philosophy.
The Fragmenta Philosophorum in Didot’s series ought to have been more useful than any of these, but its value is much lessened by the want of discrimination shown in the selection and arrangement of the writers quoted.