Discourses by Epictetus (good books to read for beginners txt) 📕

href="#chapter-1-19">book I chapter XIX. But Johann Schweighäuser says that this is not the meaning here, and that the meaning is this: He who before daybreak is waiting at the door of a rich man, whose favor he seeks, is said in a derisive way to be passing the night before a man’s chamber. ↩

See book I chapter IX at 20. ↩

See book II chapter VI at 22, ἄν σοι ποιῆ. (John Upton.) ↩

Johann Schweighäuser says that he does not clearly see what Epictetus means; nor do I. ↩

See Johann Schweighäuser’s note. ↩

The Roman word “patronus,” which at that time had the sense of a protector. ↩

On the syllogism named “lying” (ψευδόμενος) see book II chapter XVII at 34. ↩

“Murrhina vasa” were reckoned very precious by the Romans, and they gave great prices for them. It is not certain of what material they were made. Pliny (Naturalis Historia xxxvii chapter 2) has something about them. ↩

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations iii 13. “As physicians have always their instruments and knives ready for cases which suddenly require their skill, so do thou have principles (δόγματα) ready for the understanding of things divine and human, and for doing everything, even the smallest, with a recollection of the bond which unites the divine and human to one another. For neither wilt thou do anything well which pertains to man without at the same time having a reference to things divine; nor the contrary.” ↩

These verses are from the Golden Verses attributed to Pythagoras. See book IV chapter VI at 32. ↩

The beginning of a form of prayer, as in Macrobius, Saturnalia i 17: “namque Vestales Virgines ita indigitant; Apollo Maedice, Apollo Paean.” ↩

This passage is obscure. See Johann Schweighäuser’s note here, and also his note on s. 6. ↩

εἰ νομίμως ἤθλησας. “St. Paul has made use of this very expression ἐὰν μὴ νομίμως ἀθλήσῃ, 2 Timothy 2:3.” —⁠Elizabeth Carter ↩

The Greek is οὐ φιλολογῶ. See Johann Schweighäuser’s note. ↩

See book II chapter XVIII at 14. ↩

Et quid opus Cratero magnos promittere montes? Persius, iii 65. Craterus was a physician. ↩

John Upton compares Matthew 8:2. “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” ↩

Compare Marcus Aurelius, Meditations iv 48. τᾶς ὀφρῦς⁠ ⁠… συσπάσαντες. ↩

To this Stoic precept Horace (Epistles i 1, 19) opposes that of Aristippus:

Et mihi res, non me rebus, subjungere conor.

Both wisely said, if they are rightly taken. Johann Schweighäuser, who refers to book I chapter XII at 17. ↩

Lord Shaftesbury proposed to read τὸν ἰατρόν for τὸν ἀδελφόν. But see Johann Schweighäuser’s note. ↩

As to the divine law, see book III chapter XXIV at 32, and Xenophon’s Memorabilia, iv 4, 21, etc. (John Upton). ↩

The poet is Homer. The complete passage is in the Odyssey, xiv line 55, etc.:

Stranger, I must not, e’en if a worse man come,
Ill treat a stranger, for all come from Zeus,
Strangers and poor.

↩

“To set up a palm tree.” He does not mean a real palm tree, but something high and upright. The climbers of palm trees are mentioned by Lucian, De Dea Syria (chapter 29). Johann Schweighäuser has given the true interpretation when he says that on certain feast days in the country a high piece of wood is fixed in the earth and climbed by the most active youths by using only their hands and feet. In England we know what this is.

It is said that Diogenes used to embrace statues when they were covered with snow for the purpose of exercising himself. I suppose bronze statues, not marble which might be easily broken. The man would not remain long in the embrace of a metal statue in winter. But perhaps the story is not true. I have heard of a general, not an English general, setting a soldier on a cold cannon; but it was as a punishment. ↩

ἀνατοιχήσω. See the note of Johann Schweighäuser. ↩

This was done for the sake of exercise says John Upton; but I don’t understand the passage. ↩

There is a like fable in Aesop of the earthen pitcher and the brazen. (John Upton.) ↩

The text has ἀσυμμετρίαν. It would be easier to understand the passage if we read συμμετριάν as in book IV chapter I at 84 we have παρὰ τὰ μέτρα. See Johann Schweighäuser’s note. ↩

See book I chapter XXVI at 18; and book III chapter II at 5. ↩

Polybius, The Histories vi 36. ↩

Johann Schweighäuser refers to Arrian’s Expedition of Alexander (vi 26) for such an instance of Alexander’s abstinence. There was an Apollonius of Tyana, whose life was written by Philostratus: but it may be that this is not the man who is mentioned here. ↩

This was the doctrine of Heraclitus “that all things were composed from (had their origin in) fire, and