Introduction.
The following account of the two Books of the Academics is extracted from the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, edited by Dr, W. Smith:—
“The history of this work, before it finally quitted the hands of its author, is exceedingly curious and somewhat obscure; but must be clearly understood before we can explain the relative position of those portions of it which have been transmitted to modern times. By comparing carefully a series of letters written to Atticus, in the course of b.c. 45 (Ep. ad Att. xiii. 32;[1] 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21,
- ↑ The following are the most important of the passages referred to:—“Since I entered upon these philosqphical inquiries, Varro has given me notice of a valuable and honourable dedication of a work of his to me. . . . In the mean time I have been preparing myself as he desired to make him a return.
αὐτῷ τῷ μέτρῳ καὶ λώιον αἴκε δύνωμαι.
I may as well, therefore, remove from my Academical Disputations the present speakers, who are distinguished characters indeed, but by no means philosophical, and who discourse with too much subtlety, and substitute Varro in their place. For these are the opinions of Antiochus, to which he is much attached. I can find a place for Gatulus and Lucullus elsewhere.—Ep. 12.
“The Catulus and Lucullus I imagine you have had before; but I have made new introductions to these books which I wish you to have, containing an eulogium upon each of these persons, and there are some other additions—Ep. 32.
“In consequence of the letter which you wrote to me about Varro, I have taken the Academy entirely out of the hands of those distinguished persons, and transferred it to our friend. And from two books I have made it into four. These are longer than the others were, though there are several parts left out. . . . . In truth, if my self-love does not deceive me, these books have come out in such a manner that there is nothing of the same kind like them even in Greek.”—Ep. 13.
