Library

Roman Stoicism being lectures on the history of the Stoic...

Source notes

Open passage
[1] ‘est peccare tanquam transilire lineas’ Cic. Par. iii 20.
Open passage
[2] ‘Who among us does not speak of good and bad, of useful and not useful?... Adapt the preconception properly to the particular things’ Epict. Disc. ii 17, 10 and 11.
Open passage
[3] ‘omnes [hae perturbationes] sunt genere quattuor, partibus plures; aegritudo, formido, libido, quamque Stoici communi nomine corporis et animi ἡδονήν appellant, ego malo laetitiam appellare, quasi gestientis animi elationem voluptariam’ Cic. Fin. iii 10, 35; ‘est igitur aegritudo opinio recens mali praesentis, ... laetitia opinio recens boni praesentis; ... metus opinio impendentis mali, ... libido opinio venturi boni’ Tusc. disp. iv 7, 14; ‘hinc metuunt cupiuntque, dolent gaudentque’ Verg. Aen. vi 733. See also Diog. L. vii 110 and Stob. ii 7, 10 b.
Open passage
[4] Χρύσιππος ἀποδεικνύναι πειρᾶται, κρίσεις κενὰς εἶναι τοῦ λογιστικοῦ τὰ πάθη, Ζήνων δὲ οὐ τὰς κρίσεις αὐτάς, ἀλλὰ τὰς ἐπιγιγνομένας αὐταῖς συστολὰς καὶ χύσεις, ἐπάρσεις τε καὶ πτώσεις τής ψυχῆς ἐνόμιζεν εἶναι τὰ πάθη Galen Hipp. et Plat. v i, p. 429 K; cf. ib. iv p. 387 K (Arnim i 461).
Open passage
[5] In this sense there are four vices, each the precise opposite of one of the virtues; they are ἀφροσύνη (insipientia), ἀδικία (iniustitia), δειλία (ignavia) and ἀκολασία (intemperantia); and each of these is rooted in a fixed perverse judgment, so that he who has one vice has all (Stob. ii 7, 11 k, p. 106, 7 Wachsmuth).
Open passage
[6] This view is summed up in the phrase that ‘the perturbations are κακά, but not κακίαι’ (Stob. ii 7, 5 b), which accords with the principle that only vice and what is akin to vice is evil. The Roman writers realized the difficulty in the use of words: ‘morbi autem et aegrotationes partes sunt vitiositatis; sed perturbationes sintne eiusdem partes quaestio est. vitia enim adfectiones sunt manentes, perturbationes autem moventes, ut non possint adfectionum manentium partes esse’ Cic. Tusc. disp. iv 13, 29 and 30.
Open passage
[7] ‘utrum satius sit modicos habere adfectus an nullos, saepe quaesitum est; nostri illos expellunt, Peripatetici temperant’ Sen. Ep. 116, 1; ‘vacandum omni est animi perturbatione, tum cupiditate et metu, tum etiam aegritudine et voluptate nimia et iracundia’ Cic. Off. i 20, 69; ‘contra adfectus impetu, non subtilitate pugnandum est’ Sen. Dial. x 10, 1.
Open passage
[8] ὀργὴ μὲν οὖν ἐστιν ἐπιθυμία τοῦ τιμωρήσασθαι τὸν δοκοῦντα ἠδικηκέναι Stob. ii 7, 10 c; ὑπὸ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ὑπάγεται ὀργή ib. 10 b.
Open passage
[9] Here Panaetius is faithful to the Stoic view: ‘ira procul absit, cum qua nihil recte fieri, nihil considerate potest’ Cic. Off. i 38, 136.
Open passage
[10] ‘[ira] extollit animos et incitat; nec quicquam sine illa magnificum in bello fortitudo gerit’ Sen. Dial. iii 7, 1.
Open passage
[11] ‘“non potest” inquit “fieri” Theophrastus, “ut non vir bonus irascatur malis”’ ib. 14, 1; ‘“quid ergo?” inquit “vir bonus non irascitur, si caedi patrem suum viderit, si rapi matrem?”’ ib. 12, 1.
Open passage
[12] ‘stat Aristoteles (fr. 80 Rose) defensor irae et vetat illam nobis exsecari; calcar ait esse virtutis’ Sen. Dial. v 3, 1.
Open passage
[13] ‘abominandum remedii genus est sanitatem debere morbo’ ib. iii 12, 6.
Open passage
[14] ‘haec arma quae Aristoteles virtuti dat, ipsa per se pugnant, non expectant manum, et habent non habentur’ ib. 17, 1.
Open passage
[15] ‘adfectus cito cadit, aequalis est ratio’ ib. 17, 5.
Open passage
[16] ‘corrigendus est qui peccat meliorque faciendus, non sine castigatione, sed sine ira’ ib. 15, 1.
Open passage
[17] ‘[Fabius] iram ante vicit quam Hannibalem’ ib. 11, 5.
Open passage
[18] ‘nec [athletae] cum ira suadet, feriunt, sed cum occasio ... ira enim perturbat artem’ ib. iv 14, 2 and 3.
Open passage
[19] ὀργὴ μὲν οὖν ἐστιν ἐπιθυμία [τοῦ] τιμωρήσασθαι τὸν δοκοῦντα ἠδικηκέναι παρὰ τὸ προσῆκον Stob. ii 7, 10 c; ‘ira est cupiditas ulciscendae iniuriae, aut, ut ait Posidonius, cupiditas puniendi eius, a quo te inique putes laesum’ Sen. Dial. iii 2, 4.
Open passage
[20] ‘ira furor brevis est’ Hor. Ep. i 2, 62; ‘quidam ex sapientibus viris iram dixerunt brevem insaniam’ Sen. Dial. iii 1, 2.
Open passage
[22] ‘non pietas iram, sed infirmitas movet, sicut pueris, qui tam parentibus amissis flebunt quam nucibus’ ib. 12, 4.
Open passage
[23] ‘nec in ea tantum, quae destinavit, sed in occurrentia obiter furit’ ib. v 1, 3.
Open passage
[24] ‘nobis placet nihil [iram] per se audere, sed animo adprobante’ ib. iv 1, 4; ‘nunquam impetus sine adsensu animi est’ ib. 3, 4.
Open passage
[26] ‘maximum remedium irae mora est’ ib. 29, 1; ‘Keep quiet, and count the days on which you have not been angry’ Epict. Disc. ii 18, 12.
Open passage
[27] ‘pleraque eorum, propter quae irascimur, offendunt nos magis quam laedunt’ Sen. Dial. v 28, 4; ‘contempt is that which putteth an edge upon anger, as much or more than the hurt itself’ Bacon, Essay 57.
Open passage
[28] ‘eo nos loco constituamus, quo ille est cui irascimur’ Sen. Dial. 12, 3.
Open passage
[29] ‘quibusdam, ut ait Sextius, iratis profuit adspexisse speculum’ ib. iv 36, 1.
Open passage
[31] ‘percussit te: recede. referiendo enim et occasionem saepius feriendi dabis et excusationem’ ib. 34, 5.
Open passage
[32] ‘quaedam [irae] ultra querelas et adversationes non exeunt. quaedam altae gravesque sunt et introrsus versae’ ib. iii 4, 3.
Open passage
[33] ‘inter hos morosum ponas licet, delicatum iracundiae genus. quaedam enim sunt irae, quae intra clamorem concidant, quaedam non minus pertinaces quam frequentes’ Sen. Dial. 2 and 3.
Open passage
[34] Defined as ‘atrocitas animi in exigendis poenis’ or ‘inclinatio animi ad asperiora’ Sen. Clem. ii 4, 1 and 3.
Open passage
[36] ‘domini crudeles tota civitate commonstrantur invisique et detestabiles sunt’ ib. 18, 3.
Open passage
[37] ‘ferina ista rabies est sanguine gaudere et vulneribus’ ib. 24, 3.
Open passage
[38] ‘tunc ille dirus animi morbus ad insaniam pervenit ultimam, cum crudelitas versa est in voluptatem et iam occidere hominem iuvat’ ib. 25, 3.
Open passage
[40] ‘puta tutam esse crudelitatem; quale eius regnum est?’ ib. 26, 2.

Source attribution

Roman Stoicism being lectures on the history of the Stoic philosophy with special reference to its development within the Roman Empire, Project Gutenberg eBook #64488

CHAPTER XIV. SIN AND WEAKNESS. CHAPTER XV. COUNSELS OF PERFECTION.