Perhaps the most important contribution to the history of Greek philosophy that has been made during the last twenty years is to be found in the work under-taken by Professors Burnet and A. E. Taylor in reconstructing the personality of the historical Socrates. There is, by this time, fairly general agreement that it is not to Xenophon's Memorabilia but to Plato's dialogues that we must go if we are to attempt to understand what Socrates meant for his own age and for all time. But Socrates' gain has been Plato's loss. We are compelled to deny to Plato any power of really original thinking until at least his fortieth year. He is, indeed, still left in possession of supreme literary and dramatic genius; but all that he wrote, down to and including the Republic, is not the fruit of his own thought, but the careful record of the thought of Socrates.

In an article entitled ‘Some Facts about our Oldest Latin Manuscripts,’ which appeared in this journal, the present writer put together a group of forty-seven MSS. which had this one feature in common, that each page or each column of a page they contained began with a large letter, regardless of whether that letter occurred in the middle of a sentence, or even in the middle of a word. It so happened that the list thus drawn up was composed almost entirely of very ancient MSS.; indeed, it contained a very large proportion of the oldest MSS. extant. In the circumstances it seemed useful to note down the behaviour of these MSS. with respect to four other features—namely, the manner of indicating the omission of m and n at the end of lines, the use of running titles in the top margin, the size and arrangement of the written space, and the manner of signing quires.

I have little to say on this passage, where it seems necessary to maintain the vulgate notwith standing its obvious defects. My only reason for discussing it is to call attention to the strangeness of Jebb's proceeding when seeking to support Hermann's conjecture παλλλοιν which he admits into the text. The objection to Hermann's view is that, as he himself admits, there is no evidence that πáλληλος could be used in the sense of λληλιφóνος. For that, I suppose, is the meaning of ‘mutual hands,’ which both Jebb and Campbell suggest as a translation, although ‘mutual violence’ would be better. But the chief purpose of this note is to protest against the mode of interpretation applied to Philo de Mose 3. 36. II. p. 175 M. διà τàς ν ὓδασι καí πνρì γɛνιμéνας συνɛχɛῖς καì παλλλονς φθορáς Turnebu s rightl yrenders ‘alternas interneciones,’ and why Jebb supposes him to have meant ‘mutual’ I do not know. Anyhow he admits that Philo used the word in its ordinary sense of successive, and proceeds to paraphrase ‘owing to the continuous and rapid succession of calamities by flood and fire’ (J.'s italics: observe the addition of and rapid). All this is quite beside the mark, for the reference is to the alternate destruction of the world (according to the Stoics) at the κπὐρωσις by fire and at the ξὐγρωσιςby water. I must take leave to refer to the evidence collected in my book on Zeno and Cleanthes, p. 253, to which should be added a most instructive passage of Origen (Chrysipp. Stoic. II . 337, 32 V. Arn.): περì τν κακν λóγος οὐ μɛνóντων ɛì ν ταὐτᾦ διà τν ἤτοι τηροσαν τà πì γ$$$ς πρóνοιαν ἤ κατακλνσμοῖ καì κπνρ03CE;σɛσι καθαíρονσαν.Add the passages from Lucan quoted by Mr. Heitland in his Introduction, p. xliii.

Gellia, of noble lineage, swore she would marry no one lower than a peer, but ultimately ( ‘as men should serve a cowcumber’) flung herself away on—whom ? Nupsisti, Gellia, cistifero, say the two best families of MSS.; nupsisti, Gellia, cistibero says the third.

The purpose of what follows is to show that if we assume March 1, 50 as the date on which ended the five years of imperium given to Caesar by the Lex Licinia Pompeia, we have a hypothesis which ‘works,’ in the sense that, as far as its relevance extends, it enables us to frame a coherent account of the dispute between Caesar and the Senate in the two years preceding the outbreak of civil war. The method followed will be to give a narrative based on that hypothesis and on the evidence which we possess. Many, at least, of the arguments and conclusions here adopted have been put forward already by various writers. I may mention, as an excuse for raising this question again (quippe qui cum ueterem turn uulgatam esse rent uideam), that a few suggestions will be made which I have not seen elsewhere. For the sake of clearness some very trite matters which belong to the years before 51 will first be recalled.

The appearance of P. Oxy. 2080 makes possible the solution of an old puzzle in the περ συντάξεωσ of Apollonius Dyscolus. Speaking of the inadmissibility of the definite article with λλήλων, Apollonius says (p. 60, Uhlig): κα προϕανέσ στιν κ τσ παρ πσι χρήσεωσ κα το συμπαρεπομένου λόγου. μετ ῥματοσ γρ διαβατικν προσώπων διάθεσιν σημαίνει,

λλήλουσ τρώσητε (Od. τ 12)

λλήλουσ δ' λήϊσαν

λλήλωѵ λεείνοντεσ βέλεα στονόεντα (Il. P 374).

In pi. 48 of his Facsimilés de manuscrits grecs des XVe et XVIe Siècles M. Otnont gives a specimen of what purports to be the hand of Valeriano Albini. The MS. from which it is reproduced, Paris, gr. 1687, has at f. 158v τατην δ ββλον Οαλερίανοσ фορολɩβɩεὺσ Άλβνου Ενετὺσɩ, ν τψ το αϒοὐΕνετɩου μοναστηρψ εˣϒραΨε, εˣτη του κυρίον ᾑμων … αϕμ … (Omont, p. 15), which might be thought warranty enough. Unfortunately MS.

The least attentive Hellenist must have noticed that the Greek tongue contains a number of pairs of nouns of identical or nearly related meaning—one in the masculine, the other in the feminine. The subject attracted the notice of Lobeck, Pathoiogia, pp. 7 sq., Technologia, pp. 267 sq.; G. Meyer in Curtius' Studien V., p. 68; Stein in the introduction to his Herodotus, p. lx (on the variations in the MSS.); and the resultant list will be found in Kuhner-Blass I., pp. 501, 502. It is not complete (I can add one pearl of great price: ⋯ ⋯ν⋯μη from the Apophthegmata patrum, Migne, LXV. 261 B; and ⋯ν π⋯λψ E 397 was taken by Aristarchus to mean εν πύλῃ, and this may be the origin of the three πύλοι), and the question deserves investigation. The only doctrine that can be called such appears to be the remark in schol. BT on Σ 551 (which did not escape Lobeck), δρεπανας] Iωνɩκως, οủτοɩ ϒαρ τρεπουσɩ πάντα είς τ⋯φρη, ταϕρη αστραϒαλη.

The first volume of the collected works of Karl Marx, which is being issued by the Marx-Engels Institute of Moscow, opens with a dissertation entitled ‘Über die Differenz der demokritischen und epikureischen Naturphilosophie’, which he presented for his doctorate at the University of Jena in 1841. It is interesting to find one who was afterwards to win fame in very different fields starting his career with an enthusiastic tract on Greekphilosophy, which he evidently intended to make his work for years to come; for not only does he tell us in his introduction that this thesis is a prelude to a comprehensive study of Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Scepticism, ‘the philosophical basis of Roman life and character’, but appended to the dissertation are some seventy pages of preliminary notes for the larger work, which range over such varied subjects as ‘The Immanent Dialectic of the Epicurean Philosophy’, ‘The Idea of the “Wise Man” in Greek Philosophy,’, and ‘Parallels between the Epicureans, and the Pietists and Supernaturalists.’

The phrase may be rendered ‘uttering thick screams’, these English words bearing the same sense as in Scott,Heart of Midlothian, Chapter XXV.: ‘She proceeded to raise the family by her screams of horror, uttered as thick as if the Brownie had been flaying her.’

Professor Lindsay [Class. Rev. XLII. (February, 1928), p. 20] has drawn attention to a Celtic paralle (Ancient Lams of Ireland I., p. 27) to Aquilo, the Black Wind (from aquilus). A less remote parallel was found by Salmasius [Plin. Exerc. in Solinum (ed. 1629), p. 1258D] in the gloss (C.G.L. III. 84. 56) melatnboros uulturnus, on which he makes the following comment: ‘Glossae nostrae nondum editae: ‘ Septenirio, ΚЄρκίίας, Circius, Χωρupbs, Chaurus. Eaedem Glossae Volturnum Graece exponunt. An Volturnum quasi Volturinum idest nigrum dictum earum putauit auctor? Sed haec expositio conuenit Aquiloni, qui est μέλαςβορέαςƋς, unde et Aquilo id est aquilus uentus, casco uocabulo niger. ’He adds that the wind Volturnus was really so called because it blew towards Rome from Volturnum.