Volume I Part 23 (1/2)

530 ”Pendant qu'il restait au logis, il n'etait incommode a personne; il y pa.s.sait la meilleure partie de son temps tranquillement dans sa chambre.... Il se divertissait aussi quelquefois a fumer une pipe de tabac; ou bien lorsqu'il voulait se relacher l'esprit un peu plus longtemps, il cherchait des araignees qu'il faisait battre ensemble, ou des mouches qu'il jetait dans la toile d'araignee, et regardait ensuite cette bataille avec tant de plaisir qu'il eclatait quelquefois de rire.”-Colerus, _Vie de Spinoza_.

531 This is noticed by George Duval in a curious pa.s.sage of his _Souvenirs de la Terreur_, quoted by Lord Lytton in a note to his _Zanoni_.

_ 532 Essay on Goodness._

533 This contrast has been noticed by Archbishop Whately in a lecture on Egypt. See, too, Legendre, _Traite de l'Opinion_, tome ii. p. 374.

534 Tacit. _Annal._ xiv. 45.

535 Senec. _De Clemen._ i. 14.

536 Val. Max. ii. 9. This writer speaks of ”the eyes of a mistress delighting in human blood” with as much horror as if the gladiatorial games were unknown. Livy gives a rather different version of this story.

537 Tacit. _Annal._ i. 76.

538 Sueton. _Calig._ xi.

539 Spartian. _Caracalla._ Tertullian mentions that his nurse was a Christian.

540 Capitolinus, _Marcus Aurelius_. Capitolinus, who wrote under Diocletian, says that in his time the custom of spreading a net under the rope-dancer still continued. I do not know when it ceased at Rome, but St. Chrysostom mentions that in his time it had been abolished in the East.-Jortin's _Remarks on Ecclesiastical History_, ii. 71 (ed. 1846).

541 Tacit. _Ann._ iii. 55.

542 Champagny, _Les Antonins_, tome ii. pp. 179-200.

543 p???te?es?a?.-Diog. Laert. _Zeno_.

544 Thus Tigellinus spoke of ”Stoicorum arrogantia sectaque quae turbidos et negotiorum appetentes faciat.”-Tacit. _Ann._ xiv. 57. The accusation does not appear to have been quite untrue, for Vespasian, who was a very moderate emperor, thought it necessary to banish nearly all the philosophers from Rome on account of their factiousness. Sometimes the Stoics showed their independence by a rather gratuitous insolence. Dion Ca.s.sius relates that, when Nero was thinking of writing a poem in 400 books, he asked the advice of the Stoic Cornutus, who said, that no one would read so long a work.

”But,” answered Nero, ”your favourite Chrysippus wrote still more numerous books.” ”True,” rejoined Cornutus, ”but then they were of use to humanity.” On the other hand, Seneca is justly accused of condescending too much to the vices of Nero in his efforts to mitigate their effects.

545 The influence of Stoicism on Roman law has been often examined. See, especially, Degerando, _Hist. de la Philosophie_ (2nd ed.), tome iii. pp. 202-204; Laferriere, _De l'Influence du Stocisme sur les Jurisconsultes romains_; Denis, _Theories et Idees morales dans l'Antiquite_, tome ii. pp. 187-217; Troplong, _Influence du Christianisme sur le Droit civil des Romains_; Merivale, _Conversion of the Roman Empire_, lec. iv.; and the great work of Gravina, _De Ortu et Progressu Juris civilis_.

546 Cic. _De Legib._ ii. 4, 23.

547 There were two rival schools, that of Labeo and that of Capito. The first was remarkable for its strict adherence to the letter of the law-the second for the lat.i.tude of interpretation it admitted.

_ 548 Dig._ lib. i. t.i.t. 17-32.

549 Ibid. i. t.i.t. 1-3.

550 Ibid. i. t.i.t. 1-4.

_ 551 Dig._ lib. i. t.i.t. 4-5.

552 Laferriere, p. 32. Wallon, _Hist. de l'Esclavage dans l'Antiquite_, tome iii. pp. 71-80. M. Wallon gives many curious instances of legal decisions on this point.

553 To prove that this is the correct conception of law was the main object of Cicero's treatise _De Legibus_. Ulpian defined jurisprudence as ”divinarum atque humanarum rerum not.i.tia, justi atque injusti scientia.”-_Dig._ lib. i. t.i.t. 1-10. So Paul ”Id quod semper aequum ad bonum est jus dicitur ut est jus naturale.”-_Dig._ lib. i. t.i.t. 1-11. And Gaius, ”Quod vero naturalis ratio inter omnes homines const.i.tuit ... vocatur jus gentium.”-_Dig._ lib. i. t.i.t.

1-9. The Stoics had defined true wisdom as ”rerum divinarum atque humanarum scientia.”-Cic. _De Offic._ i. 43.

554 Cicero compares the phraseology of the Stoics with that of the Peripatetics, maintaining that the precision of the former is well adapted to legal discussions, and the redundancy of the latter to oratory. ”Omnes fere Stoici prudentissimi in disserendo sint et id arte faciant, sintque architecti pene verborum; iidem traducti a disputando ad dicendum, inopes reperiantur: unum excipio Catonem....