1. Hesiod, Works And Days, 42-46, 50, 311 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE)
| 311. Remember all that I have said to you |
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2. Cicero, On The Nature of The Gods, 2.161 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 2.161. The great beasts of the forest again we take by hunting, both for food and in order to exercise ourselves in the mimic warfare of the chase, and also, as in the case of elephants, to train and discipline them for our employment, and to procure from their busy a variety of medicines for diseases and wounds, as also we do from certain roots and herbs whose values we have learnt by long-continued use and trial. Let the mind's eye survey the whole earth and all the seas, and you will behold now fruitful plains of measureless extent and mountains thickly clad with forests and pastures filled with flocks, now vessels sailing with marvellous swiftness across the sea. |
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3. Cicero, On Duties, 1.11-1.13, 2.16-2.17 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 1.11. Principio generi animantium omni est a natura tributum, ut se, vitam corpusque tueatur, declinet ea, quae nocitura videantur, omniaque, quae sint ad vivendum necessaria, anquirat et paret, ut pastum, ut latibula, ut alia generis eiusdem. Commune item animantium omnium est coniunctionis adpetitus procreandi causa et cura quaedam eorum, quae procreata sint; sed inter hominem et beluam hoc maxime interest, quod haec tantum, quantum sensu movetur, ad id solum, quod adest quodque praesens est, se accommodat paulum admodum sentiens praeteritum aut futurum; homo autem, quod rationis est particeps, per quam consequentia cernit, causas rerum videt earumque praegressus et quasi antecessiones non ignorat, similitudines comparat rebusque praesentibus adiungit atque annectit futuras, facile totius vitae cursum videt ad eamque degendam praeparat res necessarias. 1.12. Eademque natura vi rationis hominem conciliat homini et ad orationis et ad vitae societatem ingeneratque in primis praecipuum quendam amorem in eos, qui procreati sunt, impellitque, ut hominum coetus et celebrationes et esse et a se obiri velit ob easque causas studeat parare ea, quae suppeditent ad cultum et ad victum, nec sibi soli, sed coniugi, liberis ceterisque, quos caros habeat tuerique debeat; quae cura exsuscitat etiam animos et maiores ad rem gerendam facit. 1.13. In primisque hominis est propria veri inquisitio atque investigatio. Itaque cum sumus necessariis negotiis curisque vacui, tum avemus aliquid videre, audire, addiscere cognitionemque rerum aut occultarum aut admirabilium ad beate vivendum necessariam ducimus. Ex quo intellegitur, quod verum, simplex sincerumque sit, id esse naturae hominis aptissimum. Huic veri videndi cupiditati adiuncta est appetitio quaedam principatus, ut nemini parere animus bene informatus a natura velit nisi praecipienti aut docenti aut utilitatis causa iuste et legitime imperanti; ex quo magnitudo animi exsistit humanarumque rerum contemptio. 2.16. Longiores hoc loco sumus, quam necesse est. Quis est enim, cui non perspicua sint illa, quae pluribus verbis a Panaetio commemorantur, neminem neque ducem bello nec principem domi magnas res et salutares sine hominum studiis gerere potuisse? Commemoratur ab eo Themistocles, Pericles, Cyrus, Agesilaus, Alexander, quos negat sine adiumentis hominum tantas res efficere potuisse. Utitur in re non dubia testibus non necessariis. Atque ut magnas utilitates adipiscimur conspiratione hominum atque consensu, sic nulla tam detestabilis pestis est, quae non homini ab homine nascatur. Est Dicaearchi liber de interitu hominum, Peripatetici magni et copiosi, qui collectis ceteris causis eluvionis, pestilentiae, vastitatis, beluarum etiam repentinae multitudinis, quarum impetu docet quaedam hominum genera esse consumpta, deinde comparat, quanto plures deleti sint homines hominum impetu, id est bellis aut seditionibus, quam omni reliqua calamitate. 2.17. Cum igitur hie locus nihil habeat dubitationis, quin homines plurimum hominibus et prosint et obsint, proprium hoc statuo esse virtutis, conciliare animos hominum et ad usus suos adiungere. Itaque, quae in rebus iimis quaeque in usu et tractatione beluarum fiunt utiliter ad hominum vitam, artibus ea tribuuntur operosis, hominum autem studia ad amplificationem nostrarum rerum prompta ac parata virorum praestantium sapientia et virtute excitantur. | 2.16. I have dwelt longer on this point than was necessary. For who is there to whom those facts which Panaetius narrates at great length are not self-evident â namely, that no one, either as a general in war or as a statesman at home, could have accomplished great things for the benefit of the state, without the hearty coâoperation of other men? He cites the deeds of Themistocles, Pericles, Cyrus, Agesilaus, Alexander, who, he says, could not have achieved so great success without the support of other men. He calls in witnesses, whom he does not need, to prove a fact that no one questions. And yet, as, on the one hand, we secure great advantages through the sympathetic cooperation of our fellow-men; so, on the other, there is no curse so terrible but it is brought down by man upon man. There is a book by Dicaearchus on "The Destruction of Human Life." He was a famous and eloquent Peripatetic, and he gathered together all the other causes of destruction â floods, epidemics, famines, and sudden incursions of wild animals in myriads, by whose assaults, he informs us, whole tribes of men have been wiped out. And then he proceeds to show by way of comparison how many more men have been destroyed by the assaults of men â that is, by wars or revolutions â than by any and all other sorts of calamity. 2.17. Since, therefore, there can be no doubt on this point, that man is the source of both the greatest help and the greatest harm to man, I set it down as the peculiar function of virtue to win the hearts of men and to attach them to one's own service. And so those benefits that human life derives from iimate objects and from the employment and use of animals are ascribed to the industrial arts; the cooperation of men, on the other hand, prompt and ready for the advancement of our interests, is secured through wisdom and virtue [in men of superior ability]. |
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4. Cicero, Republic, 3.1 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 3.1. Non. 301M Est igitur quiddam turbulentum in hominibus singulis, quod vel exultat voluptate vel molestia frangitur. | |
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5. Lucretius Carus, On The Nature of Things, 5.228-5.234 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
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6. Philo of Alexandria, On The Posterity of Cain, 47, 46 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)
| 46. And again, the name Lamech, which means humiliation, is a name of ambiguous meaning; for we are humiliated either when the vigour of our soul is relaxed, according to the diseases and infirmities which arise from the irrational passions, or in respect of our love for virtue, when we seek to restrain ourselves from swelling selfopinions. |
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7. Seneca The Elder, Controversies, 2.1.13 (1st cent. BCE
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8. Vergil, Aeneis, 4.386, 4.412, 9.62, 10.727, 12.250, 12.261 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 4.386. me bear on winged winds his high decree. 4.412. but carefully dissembling what emprise 9.62. dappled with white he rode; a crimson plume 10.727. in shining vesture he, and glittering arms. 12.250. Father omnipotent, I call; on thee 12.261. unto Evander's city! From these plains |
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9. Vergil, Georgics, 1.118-1.159 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 1.118. Hales o'er them; from the far Olympian height 1.119. Him golden Ceres not in vain regards; 1.120. And he, who having ploughed the fallow plain 1.121. And heaved its furrowy ridges, turns once more 1.122. Cross-wise his shattering share, with stroke on stroke 1.123. The earth assails, and makes the field his thrall. 1.124. Pray for wet summers and for winters fine 1.125. Ye husbandmen; in winter's dust the crop 1.126. Exceedingly rejoice, the field hath joy; 1.127. No tilth makes placeName key= 1.128. Nor Gargarus his own harvests so admire. 1.129. Why tell of him, who, having launched his seed 1.130. Sets on for close encounter, and rakes smooth 1.131. The dry dust hillocks, then on the tender corn 1.132. Lets in the flood, whose waters follow fain; 1.133. And when the parched field quivers, and all the blade 1.134. Are dying, from the brow of its hill-bed 1.135. See! see! he lures the runnel; down it falls 1.136. Waking hoarse murmurs o'er the polished stones 1.137. And with its bubblings slakes the thirsty fields? 1.138. Or why of him, who lest the heavy ear 1.139. O'erweigh the stalk, while yet in tender blade 1.140. Feeds down the crop's luxuriance, when its growth 1.141. First tops the furrows? Why of him who drain 1.142. The marsh-land's gathered ooze through soaking sand 1.143. Chiefly what time in treacherous moons a stream 1.144. Goes out in spate, and with its coat of slime 1.145. Holds all the country, whence the hollow dyke 1.146. Sweat steaming vapour? 1.147. But no whit the more 1.148. For all expedients tried and travail borne 1.149. By man and beast in turning oft the soil 1.150. Do greedy goose and Strymon-haunting crane 1.151. And succory's bitter fibres cease to harm 1.152. Or shade not injure. The great Sire himself 1.153. No easy road to husbandry assigned 1.154. And first was he by human skill to rouse 1.155. The slumbering glebe, whetting the minds of men 1.156. With care on care, nor suffering realm of hi 1.157. In drowsy sloth to stagnate. Before Jove 1.158. Fields knew no taming hand of husbandmen; 1.159. To mark the plain or mete with boundary-line— |
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10. Epictetus, Discourses, 1.6.32-1.6.36, 1.24.1-1.24.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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11. Seneca The Younger, De Beneficiis, 2.29 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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12. Seneca The Younger, Letters, 74.19, 74.21, 90.7-90.14, 90.16, 90.19, 90.22, 90.24-90.26 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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13. Seneca The Younger, Natural Questions, 3.18.2-3.18.3 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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14. Tacitus, Annals, 11.26, 11.36 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 11.26. By now the ease of adultery had cloyed on Messalina and she was drifting towards untried debaucheries, when Silius himself, blinded by his fate, or convinced perhaps that the antidote to impending danger was actual danger, began to press for the mask to be dropped:â "They were not reduced to waiting upon the emperor's old age: deliberation was innocuous only to the innocent; detected guilt must borrow help from hardihood. They had associates with the same motives for fear. He himself was celibate, childless, prepared for wedlock and to adopt Britannicus. Messalina would retain her power unaltered, with the addition of a mind at ease, could they but forestall Claudius, who, if slow to guard against treachery, was prompt to anger." She took his phrases with a coolness due, not to any tenderness for her husband, but to a misgiving that Silius, with no heights left to scale, might spurn his paramour and come to appreciate at its just value a crime sanctioned in the hour of danger. Yet, for the sake of that transcendent infamy which constitutes the last delight of the profligate, she coveted the name of wife; and, waiting only till Claudius left for Ostia to hold a sacrifice, she celebrated the full solemnities of marriage. 11.36. Only Mnester caused some hesitation, as, tearing his garments, he called to Claudius to look at the imprints of the lash and remember the phrase by which he had placed him at the disposal of Messalina. "Others had sinned through a bounty of high hope; he, from need; and no man would have had to perish sooner, if Silius gained the empire." The Caesar was affected, and leaned to mercy; but the freedmen decided him, after so many executions of the great, not to spare an actor: when the transgression was so heinous, it mattered nothing whether it was voluntary or enforced. Even the defence of the Roman knight Traulus Montanus was not admitted. A modest but remarkably handsome youth, he had within a single night received his unsought invitation and his dismissal from Messalina, who was equally capricious in her desires and her disdains. In the cases of Suillius Caesoninus and Plautius Lateranus, the death penalty was remitted. The latter was indebted to the distinguished service of his uncle: Suillius was protected by his vices, since in the proceedings of that shameful rout his part had been the reverse of masculine. |
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15. Epicurus, Letter To Menoeceus, 126
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