Seneca, epistulae morales, 7th letter

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Bart
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Seneca, epistulae morales, 7th letter

Post by Bart »

Reading Seneca's 7th letter to Lucilius:

- 7.1: Quid tibi vitandum praecipue existimes, quaeris ? Turbam. Nondum illi tuto committeris.

Committeris is the passive used with reflexive meaning, right? -> entrust yourself to...


-7.3: Nihil habent quo tegantur, ad ictum totis corporibus expositi numquam frustra manum mittunt

Would an ablative absolute as in 'totis corporibus expositis' here also be possible? Or would this change the meaning?


7.4: Hoc plerique ordinariis paribus et postulaticiis praeferunt

I'm not sure if I understand paribus here: does it refer to gladiators who fight in pairs?


7.11: Bene et ille, quisquis fuit, ambigitur enim de auctore,cum quaereretur ab illo, quo tanta diligentia artis spectaret ad paucissimos perventurae, " Satis sunt," inquit, " mihi pauci, satis est unus, satis est nullus."

quo tanta diligentia artis spectaret ad paucissimos perventurae: I can't get my head around this clause, and I think the difficulty lies in some meaning of specto/ spectaret that evades me.
-> to what (purpose) 'spectaret' a so great diligence in an art that will come to so few
So tanta diligentia is the subject of the clasue and perventurae goes with artis. Spectaret must mean something like 'aims' in that case.

Thanks.

Hylander
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Re: Seneca, epistulae morales, 7th letter

Post by Hylander »

7.1 Yes.

7.3 Well, the idea would be more or less the same, but of course the literal meaning would be somewhat different.

7.4 I don't know.

7.11 quo spectat -- quo is literally "where/whither," "to what place"; "to what purpose" is an extended, metaphorical meaning in just such an expression as this. "Where/to what place would such meticulousness . . . look?" is more or less equivalent to "what would be the purpose/goal/intention/aim of such meticulousness in an art that will reach so few?"
Bill Walderman

Aetos
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Re: Seneca, epistulae morales, 7th letter

Post by Aetos »

Bart wrote:7.4: Hoc plerique ordinariis paribus et postulaticiis praeferunt
This is all I could find in the Lewis&Short:

B pār, păris, n., a pair: gladiatorum par nobilissimum, Cic. Opt. Gen. Or. 6, 17: ecce tibi geminum in scelere par, id. Phil. 11, 1, 2: par nobile fratrum, Hor. S. 2, 3, 243: par columbarum, Ov. M. 13, 833: par mularum, Gai. Inst. 3, 212: par oculorum, Suet. Rhet. 5: tria aut quatuor paria amicorum, Cic. Lael. 4, 15: scyphorum paria complura, id. Verr. 2, 2, 19, § 47: paria (gladiatorum) ordinaria et postulaticia, Sen. Ep. 7, 3: pocula oleaginea paria duo, Lab. Dig. 32, 1, 30.Hence, adv.: părĭter, equally, in an equal degree, in like manner, as well.

Bart
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Re: Seneca, epistulae morales, 7th letter

Post by Bart »

Thanks!

Well, there you have it.

B pār, păris, n., a pair: gladiatorum par nobilissimum, Cic. Opt. Gen. Or. 6, 17: ecce tibi geminum in scelere par, id. Phil. 11, 1, 2: par nobile fratrum, Hor. S. 2, 3, 243: par columbarum, Ov. M. 13, 833: par mularum, Gai. Inst. 3, 212: par oculorum, Suet. Rhet. 5: tria aut quatuor paria amicorum, Cic. Lael. 4, 15: scyphorum paria complura, id. Verr. 2, 2, 19, § 47: paria (gladiatorum) ordinaria et postulaticia, Sen. Ep. 7, 3: pocula oleaginea paria duo, Lab. Dig. 32, 1, 30.Hence, adv.: părĭter, equally, in an equal degree, in like manner, as well.


The translation I check (Aris and Philips Classical texts: Seneca 17 letters) has 'matches' as translation for paribus (Most of the spectators prefer this to the regular matches and the special demand ones), which confused me a bit. Lewis&Short beats the Latin-Dutch dictionary I'm using hands down.

Aetos
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Re: Seneca, epistulae morales, 7th letter

Post by Aetos »

Richard Gummere (Heinemann, 1953) translates it as "usual pairs":

"Many persons prefer this programme to the usual pairs and to the bouts "by request".

Bart, I don't know if you have access to it from Belgium, but this is a link to Logeion, which is hosted by the University of Chicago:
http://logeion.uchicago.edu/

It features several Latin lexica, including of course Lewis & Short. There's even a Latin-Dutch lexicon! It may be the same one you're using, but here's the entry:

2. n sg. en plur. (a) het gelijke; ➤ par pari,pro pari referre, paria paribus respondere metgelijke munt betalen; par pari respondet het één is evenveel waard als hetander; paria facere de rekening vereffenen; paria pessimisaudere de slechtsten proberen te evenaren; par impar ludere evenof oneven spelen; sprw.: nisi paria non pugnant waar er twee vechten, hebben twee schuld; m. gen.: paria horum dezelfde gebeurtenissen als deze; (b)het paar [consulum; nobilefratrum; gladiatorum; oculorum];paar, koppel (ihb. v.vogels) [columbarum; aquilarum].

Edit: I originally put Netherlands, then saw you're from Antwerp, so I corrected the country.

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