BOOK I CH. X § 24, 99

as he refers hactenus to qui velint=quatenus ili volunt, Adn. Cr. 11 5) but I am not able to point to a parallel case. For the general form of the sentence Sch. compares Div. 1132 nune ila testabor following haec habui de divinatione quae dicerem.
qui animantem—velint : ‘(their stupidity) in being ready to predicate roundness of a being who is immortal and blessed into the bargain’, I take animans as a Subst.; Vell. had previously stated that the Stoics con- sidered the world to be alive; here he adopts their view and shows its absurd consequences. Velint subj. after gui=quod i, Roby § 1740; neget subj. as dependent on subjunctival clause.
Plato: Zim. 33 8, cf. V. D. 11 46 foll. where Balbus criticizes Vell.
ut: sc. ejusmodi ut.
celeritate. As the earth was generally assumed to be at rest in the centre of the universe it was supposed that the heavens made a complete revolution abeut it every 24 hours. Aristarchus (280B.c.) propounded the Copernican or heliocentric hypothesis, and was charged with impiety by Cleanthes as xiwvotvra Tod Kéopov thy éoriav. Hicetas the Pythagorean (about 400 B.c.) and Heraclides of Pontus (350 B.c.) are said to have accounted for the apparent movement of the heavens by attributing rota- tion to the earth, and this is discussed as a legitimate hypothesis by Aristotle. See Lewis Astronomy of the Ancients pp. 170, 189, 252. The question, already debated by the ancients, whether Plato held the same doctrine, is discussed by Lewis p. 142, and at greater length by Grote in a paper contained in his Minor Works.
contorqueatur : used with a Middle force.
mens constans: that ‘a steadfast mind’ is essential to vita beata is asserted §§ 34 and 52. The objection is taken from Arist. Cael. 11 1 ‘nor can we suppose that the heaven is kept eternally in its place by the coercive influence of a soul: it is impossible that a soul thus engaged should enjoy happiness, for, if we assume the heaven to have a different natural movement of its own, such coercive movement must necessarily be adoxodov kal maons amndAaypévnv paotérvns €udpovos to a soul which has no refreshment of sleep, like the souls of mortaJs, but is for ever spinning round like Ixion on his wheel’.
insistere : ‘find a foot-hold’.
quodque—in deo. The natural way of taking this sentence is cer- tainly to suppose that it continues the argument against a rotatory God. ‘The motion would be destructive of the tranquillity we ascribe to God, and, if we may judge from our own feelings, it would also be very uncom- fortable’, But then how are we to explain the enim of the next sentence? for the earth is supposed to be immovable; it is the mundus which moves. Sch. therefore following Mady. Fin. 1 73, understands que as passing on to another point in the argument, and makes the clause refer to the extremes of heat and cold spoken of below. To this Heidt. p. 46 objects that the reference of guod must have been made clear by the addition of
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100 BOOK I CH. X § 24.
some such clause as molestum autem est in nostro corpore nimio affict aut calore aut frigore. He would therefore omit quodgue—etiam dei alto- gether, considering the first part a gloss on the preceding sentence, and the latter part a gloss to give precision to the argument of the following quoniam mundi partes sunt; (it would also be necessary to change the following atguz into atgue). I see no objection to the former clause, if we accept Lachmann’s emendation sic zncitetur ‘if it is carried along so fast’ instead of the Ms reading stgnificetur, which there is no authority for interpreting (with Wyttenbach zn loc. and Beier Of. 1 46) to mean ‘if there were the slightest hint (faintest trace) of it’. Sch.’s emendation (Opuse. 111 284, 308) ste aficiatur only adds an obscurer sic to the obscure guod. Another objection to the Ms reading might be that minima er parte, though true enough if we imagine our body hurried along by itself with the velocity then attributed to the sphere of the fixed stars, would be absurd exaggeration if spoken with reference to our power of enduring tropical heat or arctic cold; but we must remember that the ancients, in their ignorance of geography, really believed that human life was in- supportable except in the temperate zones. On the whole I have thought it better to follow the mss, though I am not satisfied that the text is correct.
minima ex parte: ‘in the slightest degree’.
inhabitabiles. On the frigid and torrid zones see Tusc. 1 68, Rep. vi 21.
appulsu : ‘by the sun’s rays beating upon them’, cf. 11141 frigoris et caloris appulsus.
exarserit. Heind., with whom Miiller agrees, says conjunctivt rationem nullam video. Is it not the Subj. in orat. obl. after videmus? Previous to subordination the clause would be incultae sunt quod exarsit. The mood is changed, not because the speaker disclaims responsibility for the statement, but merely to show that quod gives the reason for zncultae, not for the principal verb.
si mundus est deus. Probably C. meant to have continued dei mem- bra sunt, but interposed guoniam—sunt to make the argument clearer. Lactantius dwells upon the same point /nst, vir 3. See also Aug. C.D. Iv 12.
B. b. WHistorical Section x 25—xvi 43. See Jntroduction.
i. Epicurean polemic against the theological tenets of 27 philosophers Jrom Thales to Diogenes of Babylon § 25—A4l,
§ 25. The mode of argument adopted by Vell. is extremely simple. He begins by assuming the truth of the Epicurean definition of God as a per- fectly happy eternal being, possessed of reason, and therefore in human shape (cf. the words of Epicurus in Diog. L. x 123 rpdérov peév rov Ocdv Cdov GpOaprov Kat paxapiov vopifwr, ws 7 Kow? Tod Oeod vonots Umeypadn, unbev