Timaeus (Latin translation)
Timaeus
Headnote
Cicero’s Timaeus is a Latin rendering of the central cosmological discourse of Plato’s dialogue of that name — the account of how the world was made — undertaken as part of his campaign to give Rome a philosophical literature of its own. It survives as a fragment, and its exact date and purpose are uncertain; it may have been meant as raw material for a dialogue of Cicero’s own, or as a companion to other works of these years. It opens, in any case, with a setting of Cicero’s own invention: a meeting at which he falls into philosophical conversation with Publius Nigidius Figulus, the most learned Roman of the age after Varro and a reviver of Pythagorean studies, and with Cratippus the Peripatetic, whom Cicero counted the first philosopher of his time.
From the third section the text becomes Plato: the discourse of Timaeus of Locri on the origin of the universe. There is that which always is and never comes to be, and that which is always coming to be and never is; the world, being visible and tangible, belongs to the second kind, and so must have had a maker and a beginning. That maker, being good and free of envy, framed the world upon the model of the eternal pattern, made it a single living creature endowed with soul and mind, and shaped its body out of fire and earth bound fast by the proportions of air and water. Cicero follows Plato through the mathematics of the world-soul, the harmonic intervals by which it is divided, and the circles of the same and the different that carry the heavens — the most demanding stretch of the work, where Latin is made to do what it had never done before.
The chief interest of the piece is precisely that strain. Cicero is inventing a philosophical Latin as he goes, coining words and stretching old ones to carry Greek metaphysics, and he says as much in passing — that one must be bold, since these things are here first being named anew. Plato’s Timaeus, in the later Latin version of Calcidius, would become the one dialogue the Latin Middle Ages knew at first hand and the seedbed of medieval cosmology; Cicero’s earlier and partial rendering is the first attempt to bring that vision into Latin at all, and a rare chance to watch a great writer of prose wrestling another language’s deepest abstractions into his own.
I have written much in my Academica against the natural philosophers, and have often debated with Publius Nigidius in the manner and method of Carneades. For that man was furnished with all the other arts that befit a free man, and was besides a keen and careful investigator of those things that nature seems to keep hidden away; and in the end my judgment is this: that after those famous Pythagoreans, whose teaching had in a sense died out, though it had flourished for several centuries in Italy and Sicily, it was he who arose to bring it back to life.
Multa sunt a nobis et in Academicis conscripta contra physicos et saepe cum P. Nigidio Carneadeo more et modo disputata. Fuit enim vir ille cum ceteris artibus, quae quidem dignae libero essent, ornatus omnibus, tum acer investigator et diligens earum rerum, quae a natura involutae videntur; denique sic iudico, post illos nobiles Pythagoreos, quorum disciplina extincta est quodam modo, cum aliquot saecla in Italia Siciliaque viguisset, hunc extitisse, qui illam renovaret.
When he was waiting for me at Ephesus as I was setting out for Cilicia — he himself returning to Rome from his post — and when Cratippus too had come to the same place from Mytilene to greet me and to see me — Cratippus, in my judgment easily the first of all the Peripatetics I have heard — I saw Nigidius with great pleasure and came to know Cratippus. And the first stretch of time, the time of greeting, we spent in inquiry...
Qui cum me in Ciliciam proficiscentem Ephesi expectavisset Romam ex legatione ipse decedens, venissetque eodem Mytilenis mei salutandi et visendi causa Cratippus, Peripateticorum omnium, quos quidem ego audierim, meo iudicio facile princeps, perlibenter et Nigidium vidi et cognovi Cratippum. Ac primum quidem tempus salutationis in percontatione consumpsimus * * *
What is it that always is and has no coming into being, and what is it that comes into being and never is? The one is grasped by intelligence and reason, being always one and the same; the other, which presents itself to opinion by way of sense without reason, and is wholly a matter of opinion, comes into being and perishes and can never truly be. But everything that comes into being must of necessity come into being from some cause; for the origin of nothing can be found if its cause is removed.
Quid est, quod semper sit neque ullum habeat ortum, et quod gignatur nec umquam sit? Quorum alterum intellegentia et ratione conprehenditur, quod unum atque idem semper est; alterum, quod adfert opinionem sensus rationis expers, quod totum opinabile est, id gignitur et interit nec umquam esse vere potest. Omne autem, quod gignitur, ex aliqua causa gigni necesse est; nullius enim rei causa remota reperiri origo potest.
Therefore, if the one who undertakes to make some work looks to the pattern that is always the same and sets that before himself as his model, he must of necessity produce a splendid work; but if he looks to the pattern that comes into being, he will never attain the beauty he is reaching for. The whole heavens, then, or the world — or whatever other name it delights to bear, by this let it be called by us —
Quocirca si is, qui aliquod munus efficere molitur, eam speciem, quae semper eadem est, intuebitur atque id sibi proponet exemplar, praeclarum opus efficiat necesse est; sin autem eam, quae gignitur, numquam illam, quam expetet, pulchritudinem consequetur. Omne igitur caelum sive mundus, sive quo alio vocabulo gaudet, hoc a nobis nuncupatus sit—
concerning it let us first consider the question that must be considered at the outset of every inquiry: whether it always was, generated by no coming into being, or whether it has come into being from some beginning in time. It has come into being, since it is seen and touched and is on every side endowed with body. But all such things move the sense, and the things that move the sense are the same that settle in opinion; and these, we have said, have a coming into being and are generated, and nothing can come into being without causes.
de quo id primum consideremus, quod principio est in omni quaestione considerandum, semperne fuerit nullo generatus ortu, an ortus sit ab aliquo temporis principatu. Ortus est, quandoquidem cernitur et tangitur et est undique corporatus. Omnia autem talia sensum movent, sensusque moventia quae sunt, eadem in opinatione considunt; quae ortum habere gignique diximus, nihil autem gigni posse sine causis.
And indeed to find that one who is, as it were, the parent of this whole is difficult, and, once you have found him, to declare him to the crowd is forbidden. Again, then, it must be considered whether that maker of so great a work imitated the pattern that is always one and the same and like itself, or the one that we call generated and come into being. And surely, if this world is beautiful and its craftsman good, beyond doubt he chose rather to imitate the pattern of eternity; but if otherwise — which it is not even permitted to say — he followed a generated model in place of an eternal one.
Atque illum quidem quasi parentem huius universitatis invenire difficile et, cum iam inveneris, indicare in vulgus nefas. Rursus igitur videndum, ille fabricator huius tanti operis utrum sit imitatus exemplar, idne, quod semper unum et idem et sui simile, an id, quod generatum ortumque dicimus. Atqui si pulcher est hic mundus et si probus eius artifex, profecto speciem aeternitatis imitari maluit, sin secus, quod ne dictu quidem fas est, generatum exemplum est pro aeterno secutus.
There is no doubt, then, that he chose rather to pursue eternity, since nothing is more beautiful than the world and nothing more excellent than its builder. So, then, it was generated, fashioned after that which is grasped by reason and wisdom and held fast by unchanging eternity. From which it follows that this world we behold must of necessity be the eternal image of something eternal. But the most difficult thing in every search of reason is the beginning. Of the things we have said, then, let this be the first distinction.
Non igitur dubium, quin aeternitatem maluerit exsequi, quandoquidem neque mundo quicquam pulchrius neque eius aedificatore praestantius. Sic ergo generatus ad id est effectus, quod ratione sapientiaque conprehenditur atque aeternitate inmutabili continetur. Ex quo efficitur, ut sit necesse hunc, quem cernimus, mundum simulacrum aeternum esse alicuius aeterni. Difficillimum autem est in omni conquisitione rationis exordium. De iis igitur, quae diximus, haec sit prima distinctio.
Every discourse, it seems, has a kinship with the things it sets forth. And so, when the discourse argues about what is stable and unchanging, let it be such as that subject is — such as can neither be refuted nor convicted. But when it has entered upon what is imitated, upon fashioned images, it thinks it does well if it attains a likeness of the truth. For as much as eternity is to that which has come into being, so much is truth to belief. And so, if perhaps in discoursing on the nature of the gods and the coming into being of the world we attain less than our heart desires — namely that the whole discourse should be clear and plainly set out, consistent with itself and in every part in agreement with itself — it will surely be no wonder, and you ought to be content if probable things are said. For it is fair to remember both that I, who shall discourse, am a man, and that you, who judge, are men, so that, if probable things are said, you require nothing beyond them.
Omni orationi cum iis rebus, de quibus explicat, videtur esse cognatio. Itaque cum de re stabili et inmutabili disputat oratio, talis sit, qualis illa, quae neque redargui neque convinci potest. Cum autem ingressa est imitata et efficta simulacra, bene agi putat, si similitudinem veri consequatur. Quantum enim ad id, quod ortum est, aeternitas valet, tantum ad fidem veritas. Quocirca si forte de deorum natura ortuque mundi disserentes minus id, quod avemus animo, consequemur, ut tota dilucide et plane exornata oratio sibi constet et ex omni parte secum ipsa consentiat, haut sane erit mirum, contentique esse debebitis, si probabilia dicentur. Aequum est enim meminisse et me, qui disseram, hominem esse et vos, qui iudicetis, ut, si probabilia dicentur, ne quid ultra requiratis.
Let us ask, then, the cause that moved the one who contrived these things to seek the origin of all things and a new making. He excelled, plainly, in goodness; and the good man envies no one; and so he generated all things like himself. This, surely, was the most just cause of the world’s coming into being. For when god had determined to fill the world with all good things and to mingle nothing of evil in it, so far as nature would allow, he took to himself whatever fell within the perception of sight — not tranquil and at rest, but stirred without measure and adrift — and he led it from disorder into order; for this he judged to be the better.
Quaeramus igitur causam, quae inpulerit eum, qui haec machinatus sit, ut originem rerum et molitionem novam quaereret. Probitate videlicet praestabat; probus autem invidet nemini; itaque omnia sui similia generavit. Haec nimirum gignendi mundi causa iustissima. Nam cum constituisset deus bonis omnibus explere mundum, mali nihil admiscere, quoad natura pateretur, quicquid erat, quod in cernendi sensum caderet, id sibi adsumpsit non tranquillum et quietum, sed inmoderate agitatum et fluitans, idque ex inordinato in ordinem adduxit; hoc enim iudicabat esse praestantius.
And it is not permitted, nor ever was, that the one who is best should make anything but the most beautiful. So when he had taken thought, he found that of the things perceived by nature nothing without intelligence could in its whole kind be more excellent than that which has intelligence. For which reason he enclosed intelligence within soul, and soul within body. Thus he reckoned that work to be made most beautiful. For this cause it must not be hesitated to declare, if only something can be traced out by conjecture, that this world is a living being, and that intelligent and established by divine providence.
Fas autem nec est nec umquam fuit quicquam nisi pulcherrimum facere ei, qui esset optumus. Cum rationem igitur habuisset, reperiebat nihil esse eorum, quae natura cernerentur, inintellegens intellegente in toto genere praestantius. Quocirca intellegentiam in animo, animum inclusit in corpore. Sic ratus est opus illud effectum esse pulcherrimum. Quam ob causam non est cunctandum profiteri, si modo investigari aliquid coniectura potest, hunc mundum animal esse, idque intellegens et divina providentia constitutum.
This being laid down, what follows must be considered: in fashioning the world, the likeness of which living being god followed. Of none, surely, of those living beings known to us; for they are all divided into certain kinds, or are merely begun and in no part complete; but nothing can be beautiful that resembles what is imperfect and unfinished. Let us say, then, that the world resembles that of which every living being is, as it were, a small particle, whether it be discerned in single instances or in the whole kind. For all the living beings that are discerned by the mind and grasped by reason are embraced within the compass of reason and intelligence, just as men and cattle and all things that fall under sight are embraced by this world.
Hoc posito, quod sequitur, videndum est, cuiusnam animantium deus in fingendo mundo similitudinem secutus sit. Nullius profecto id quidem, quae sunt nobis nota animantia; sunt enim omnia in quaedam genera partita aut inchoata nulla ex parte perfecta; imperfecto autem nec absoluto simile pulchrum esse nihil potest. Cuius ergo omne animal quasi particula quaedam est, sive in singulis sive in universo genere cernatur, eius similem mundum esse dicamus. Omnes igitur, qui animo cernuntur et ratione intelleguntur, animantes conplexu rationis et intellegentiae sicut homines hoc mundo et pecudes et omnia, quae sub aspectum cadunt, conprehenduntur.
For that which can be conceived as most beautiful in the nature of things, and which is in every part most complete — when god wished to make the world its likeness, he made one visible living being, in which all living beings might be contained. Have we then rightly said that the world is one, or was it better and truer to say there were several or countless worlds? One, surely, if indeed it was made after the pattern. For that which embraces all living beings that are grasped by reason cannot be together with another. For again there would have to be another living being to contain it, of which the former living beings would be parts, and these heavens would be the image of that last one, not of the nearer. So that none of this might come about, and that this world might be most like the complete living being, for this very reason — that it was alone and one — god therefore brought forth this world single and only-begotten.
Quod enim pulcherrimum in rerum natura intellegi potest, et quod ex omni parte absolutissimum est, cum deus eius similem mundum efficere vellet, animal unum aspectabile, in quo omnia animalia continerentur, effecit. Rectene igitur unum mundum diximus, an fuit pluris aut innumerabilis dictu melius et verius? Unus profecto, siquidem factus est ad exemplum. Quod enim omnis animantis eos, qui ratione intelleguntur, complectitur, id non potest esse cum altero. Rursus enim alius animans, qui eum contineat, sit necesse est, cuius partes sint animantes superiores, caelumque hoc simulacrum illius ultimi sit, non proximi. Quorum ne quid accideret, atque ut hic mundus esset animanti absoluto simillimus, hoc ipso, quod solus atque unus esset, idcirco singularem deus hunc mundum atque unigenam procreavit.
But everything that has come into being must of necessity be bodily and visible and likewise tangible. Further, nothing can be looked upon and seen that is empty of fire, nor indeed touched that lacks the solid, and nothing solid that is without earth; for which reason god, in laboring to make the world, first joined earth and fire. But all two things require some third thing for their cohesion, and seek, as it were, a knot and bond. And of bonds that one is most fitting and most beautiful which makes itself and the things it binds together as much one as possible. This is best achieved by what in Greek is called analogia, and which in Latin — for one must be bold, since these things are first being coined anew by us — may be called comparison or proportion.
Corporeum autem et aspectabile itemque tractabile omne necesse est esse, quod natum est. Nihil porro igni vacuum aspici ac videri potest nec vero tangi, quod careat solido, solidum autem nihil, quod terrae sit expers; quam ob rem mundum efficere moliens deus terram primum ignemque iungebat. Omnia autem duo ad cohaerendum tertium aliquid anquirunt et quasi nodum vinculumque desiderant. Sed vinculorum id est aptissimum atque pulcherrimum, quod ex se atque de iis, quae stringit, quam maxime unum efficit. Id optime adsequitur, quae Graece a)nalogi/a, Latine (audendum est enim, quoniam haec primum a nobis novantur) conparatio proportiove dici potest.
For whenever it happens, among three numbers or figures or things of any kind whatever, that the one which is the middle stands to the first in the same proportion in which the last stands to it, and again that, as the last is to the middle, so the middle is to the first, then the term that is middle becomes at once first and last, while the last and the first become middle terms; in this way necessity compels that those which had been distinct should be the same, and once they have been made the same, the result is that all are one. And if the body of the whole had been laid out flat and even, with nothing... in it, a single middle term set between would have bound together both itself and the things between which it was placed.
Quando enim trium vel numerorum vel figurarum vel quorumcumque generum contingit ut, quod medium sit, ut ei primum proportione, ita id postremo comparetur, vicissimque, ut extremum cum medio, sic medium cum primo conferatur, id, quod medium est, tum primum fit, tum postremum, postrema autem et prima media fiunt; ita necessitas cogit, ut eadem sint ea, quae diiuncta fuerant; eadem autem cum facta sint, efficitur, ut omnia sint unum. Quodsi universi corpus planum et aequabile explicaretur neque in eo quicquam esset † requisitum, unum interiectum medium et se ipsum et ea, quibus esset interpositum, conligaret.
But since solidity was sought for the world, and since solid things are never joined by one middle term but always by two, it so came about that god set water and air between fire and earth, and brought them into proportion with one another and joined them by analogy, so that, as fire is to air, so air is to water, and as air is to water, so by the same proportion water is to earth. From this conjunction the heavens have been so fitted together that they fall under sight and touch. And so for this reason, and out of these elements four in number, the body of the world was wrought, bound by the proportion I have described; whence it embraces itself in a kind of concordant friendship and affection, and so aptly coheres that it can in no way be dissolved except by the one by whom it was bound together.
Sed cum soliditas mundo quaereretur, solida autem omnia uno medio numquam, duobus semper copulentur, ita contigit, ut inter ignem atque terram aquam deus animamque poneret eaque inter se conpararet et proportione coniungeret, ut, quem ad modum ignis animae, sic anima aquae, quodque anima aquae, id aqua terrae proportione redderet. Qua ex coniunctione caelum ita aptum est, ut sub aspectum et tactum cadat. Itaque et ob eam causam et ex iis rebus numero quattuor mundi est corpus effectum ea constrictum conparatione, qua dixi; ex quo ipse se concordi quadam amicitia et caritate conplectitur atque ita apte cohaeret, ut dissolvi nullo modo queat nisi ab eodem, a quo est conligatus.
And of those four things which I named above, all the parts have been so disposed throughout the whole world that no part of any one of these kinds was left outside, and that within this whole all those kinds were present entire; and this for these reasons: first, that the world, being a living creature, might be made perfect out of perfect parts; next, that it might be one, with no part left over from which another might be generated; and finally, that no disease and no old age might be able to touch it.
Earum autem quattuor rerum, quas supra dixi, sic in omni mundo partes omnes conlocatae sunt, ut nulla pars huiusce generis excederet extra, atque ut in hoc universo inessent genera illa universa, id ob eas causas, primum ut mundus animans posset ex perfectis partibus esse perfectus, deinde ut unus esset nulla parte, unde alter gigneretur, relicta, postremo ne qui morbus eum posset aut senectus attingere.
For every framing-together of a body is shaken and broken by the force of heat or of cold or by some violent impact, and is driven on toward diseases and old age. This, then, was the reckoning that god, the maker and builder of the world, kept in view: that he should bring to completion a single work, whole and perfect, out of elements all whole and perfect, a work free from every disease and from age. And he gave it a shape both most akin to it and most fitting. For from the living creature by which he willed all the rest of living creatures to be contained, he fashioned this one in that shape within which alone all other shapes are enclosed, and he made it spherical, which the Greeks call sphairoeides, every point of whose surface is reached by equal radii from the center; and he turned it on the lathe in such a way that he could make nothing rounder, that it might have nothing of roughness, nothing of obstruction, nothing cut into angles, nothing of windings, nothing jutting out, nothing hollowed, and all its parts most alike to all the others — for to his judgment likeness was better than unlikeness.
Omnis enim coagmentatio corporis vel caloris vel frigoris vi vel aliqua inpulsione vehementi labefactatur et frangitur et ad morbos senectutemque conpellitur. Hanc igitur habuit rationem effector mundi et molitor deus, ut unum opus totum atque perfectum ex omnibus et totis atque perfectis absolveret, quod omni morbo et senio vacaret. Formam autem et maxime cognatam et decoram dedit. A quo enim animanti omnis reliquos contineri vellet animantes, hunc ea forma figuravit, qua una omnes formae reliquae concluduntur, et globosum est fabricatus, quod sfairoeide/s Graeci vocant, cuius omnis extremitas paribus a medio radiis attingitur, idque ita tornavit, ut nihil efficere posset rotundius, nihil asperitatis ut haberet, nihil offensionis, nihil incisum angulis, nihil anfractibus, nihil eminens, nihil lacunosum, omnesque partes simillimas omnium, quod eius iudicio praestabat dissimilitudini similitudo.
And he surrounded the whole figure of the world all over with smoothness. For it had no need of eyes, since nothing was left outside that could be seen, nor of ears, since there was nothing even to be heard, nor was there breath poured around the outer edges of the world, that it should require respiration; nor indeed did it want either nourishment of the body or the removal of food digested and consumed; for no departure could take place and no addition, nor was there anywhere for these to come from. And so it fed itself by the wasting and aging of itself, since by itself and through itself and from itself it both suffered and did all things. For so he reckoned, the one who joined and founded these things, that the world should be content with itself and have no need of anything else.
Omni autem totam figuram mundi levitate circumdedit. Nec enim oculis egebat, quia nihil extra, quod cerni posset, relictum erat, nec auribus, quia ne quod audiretur quidem, neque erant anima circumfusa extrema mundi, ut respirationem requireret, nec vero desiderabat aut alimenta corporis aut detractionem confecti et consumpti cibi; neque enim ulla decessio fieri poterat neque accessio, nec vero erat unde. Itaque se ipse consumptione et senio alebat sui, cum ipse per se et a se et pateretur et faceret omnia. Sic enim ratus est ille, qui ista iunxit et condidit, ipsum se contentum esse mundum neque egere altero.
And so he attached to it no hands, since there was nothing to be grasped and nothing to be repelled, nor feet nor other limbs by which it might support the body’s walking. For he gave to the heavens the motion that was most fitting to its shape, the one which of the seven motions stirs mind and intelligence most. And so by one and the same revolution it is turned and spun about itself. The remaining six motions he kept apart from it, and thus freed it from all wandering. For this revolution, then, which had no need of feet or stepping, he gave it no limbs for walking.
Itaque ei nec manus adfixit, quoniam nec capiendum quicquam erat nec repellendum, nec pedes aut alia membra, quibus ingressum corporis sustineret. Motum enim dedit caelo eum, qui figurae eius esset aptissimus, qui unus ex septem motibus mentem atque intellegentiam cieret maxime. Itaque una conversione atque eadem ipse circum se torquetur et vertitur. Sex autem reliquos motus ab eo separavit itaque ab omni erratione eum liberavit. Ad hanc igitur conversionem, quae pedibus et gradu non egeret, ingrediendi membra non dedit.
This god who already was, thinking of a god that would one day be, made it smooth and even on every side, equal from the center to the edge, and perfect and complete out of things complete and perfect. And as he set the soul in the middle of it, so he stretched it through the whole; then he surrounded it with body and clothed it from without, and embraced it with a heaven solitary in its wandering and revolving and driven round in a circle, one which by reason of its excellence could readily keep company with itself and want no other, being sufficiently known and familiar to itself.
Haec deus is, qui erat, de aliquando futuro deo cogitans levem illum effecit et undique aequabilem et a medio ad summum parem et perfectum atque absolutum ex absolutis atque perfectis. Animum autem ut in eo medio conlocavit, ita per totum tetendit; deinde eum circumdedit corpore et vestivit extrinsecus caeloque solivago et volubili et in orbem incitato conplexus est, quod secum ipsum propter virtutem facile esse posset nec desideraret alterum satis sibi ipsum notum et familiare.
Thus that eternal god brought forth this god, perfectly blessed. But he did not begin the soul, as we just now spoke of it, only then, when he had made the body for it; for it would not be right that the greater should obey the lesser. But we say many things rashly and without consideration. God, however, begot the soul both prior in origin and prior in excellence, and set it over the body as its master and ruler over what obeys; and he wrought this in some such manner as this. Out of that matter which is indivisible and always of one mode and like itself, and out of that which is generated as divisible in bodies, he mingled into the middle a third kind of matter from the two, which should be both of the same nature and of the other; and this he set between the indivisible and that which was divisible in body.
Sic deus ille aeternus hunc perfecte beatum deum procreavit. Sed animum haud ita, ut modo locuti sumus, tum denique, cum corpus ei effecisset, inchoavit; neque enim esset rectum minori parere maiorem; sed nos multa inconsiderate ac temere dicimus. Deus autem et ortu et virtute antiquiorem genuit animum eumque ut dominum atque imperantem oboedienti praefecit corpori, idque molitus tali quodam est modo: Ex ea materia, quae individua est et quae semper unius modi suique similis, et ex ea, quae in corporibus dividua gignitur, tertium materiae genus ex duobus in medium admiscuit, quod esset eiusdem naturae et quod alterius, idque interiecit inter individuum atque id, quod dividuum esset in corpore.
When he had taken these three, he tempered them into a single form, and that nature which we have called the other he joined by force with the same, though it shrank away and was averse to that coupling; and mingling these with matter, when he had made one out of three, he divided that very thing into the parts that were fitting. Now he tempered the single parts out of the same and out of the other and out of matter. And this was the division: first he drew off one part from the whole; then a second, double the first; then a third, which was one and a half times the second and triple the first; then a fourth, which was double the second; then a fifth, which was triple the third; then a sixth, eight times the first; and last a seventh, which exceeded the first by twenty-seven parts.
Ea cum tria sumpsisset, in unam speciem temperavit naturamque illam, quam alterius diximus, vi cum eadem coniunxit fugientem et eius copulationis alienam; quae permiscens cum materia cum ex tribus effecisset unum, id ipsum in ea, quae decuit, membra partitus est. Iam partis singulas ex eodem et ex altero et ex materia temperavit. Fuit autem talis illa partitio: unam principio partem detraxit ex toto, secundam autem primae partis duplam, deinde tertiam, quae esset secundae sesquialtera, primae tripla, deinde quartam, quae secundae dupla esset, quintam inde, quae tertiae tripla, tum sextam octuplam primae, postremo septimam, quae septem et viginti partibus antecederet primae.
Then he set about filling out the double and triple intervals, cutting parts again from the whole; and these he so placed within the intervals that in each there were two means (for I scarcely dare say "medieties," which the Greeks call mesotētas; but let it be understood as though I had so said, for it will be plainer that way): one of them exceeding the extremes by the same part by which it was exceeded, the other exceeding the extremes by an equal number and exceeded by an equal number. And taking from these conjunctions intervals of one and a half, of one and a third, and of one and an eighth, he filled out all the intervals of one and a third within the first intervals by an interval of one and an eighth, leaving over a little portion of each.
Deinde instituit dupla et tripla intervalla explere partis rursus ex toto desecans; quas in intervallis ita locabat, ut in singulis essent bina media (vix enim audeo dicere medietates, quas Graeci meso/thtas appellant; sed quasi ita dixerim, intellegatur; erit enim planius), earum alteram eadem parte praestantem extremis eademque superatam, alteram pari numero praestantem extremis parique superatam. Sesquialteris autem intervallis et sesquitertiis et sesquioctavis sumptis ex his conligationibus in primis intervallis sesquioctavo intervallo sesquitertia omnia explebat, cum particulam singulorum relinqueret.
And with the interval of that little portion left over, number had to number, among the extremes, the same proportion and ratio that two hundred and fifty-six have to two hundred and forty-three; and so that mixture out of which he cut these parts he had now wholly used up. This whole conjunction, then, he split lengthwise into two, and fitting middle to middle he crossed them as in the letter X; then he bent them into a circle, so that they should be joined both each to itself and to each other at the junction lying opposite, and by that motion whose circle was always in the same place and stirred in the same way, he embraced them on every side.
Eius autem particulae intervallo relicto habebat numerus ad numerum eandem proportionem conparationem que in extremis, quam habent ducenta quinquaginta sex cum ducentis quadraginta tribus, atque ita permixtum illud, ex quo haec secuit, iam omne consumpserat. Hanc igitur omnem coniunctionem duplicem in longitudinem diffidit mediaeque accommodans mediam quasi decussavit, deinde in orbem intorsit, ut et ipsae secum et inter se ex commissura, quae e regione esset, iungerentur, eoque motu, cuius orbis semper in eodem erat eodemque modo ciebatur, undique est eas circumplexus.
And so, when he had set the one to embrace the outer circle and the other the inner, he marked the former as of the nature of the same, the latter as of the other; and that which was of the same he turned aside from the flank toward the right, while this nearer one he directed from the median line toward the left, but he gave sovereignty to the upper, which alone he left undivided. The inner he divided into six parts, and bade seven unequal circles be moved at intervals of double and triple in courses contrary to one another. Of these he made three equal in speed, but four both unequal among themselves and unlike the remaining three.
Atque ita cum alterum esset exteriorem, alterum interiorem amplexus orbem, illum eiusdem naturae, hunc alterius notavit eamque, quae erat eiusdem, detorsit a latere in dexteram partem, hanc autem citimam a mediana linea direxit ad laevam, sed principatum dedit superiori, quam solam individuam reliquit. Interiorem autem cum in sex partis divisisset, septem orbis dispares duplo et triplo intervallo moveri iussit contrariis inter se cursibus. Eorum autem trium fecit pares celeritates, sed quattuor et inter se dispares et dissimilis trium reliquorum.
When, then, that god who brought forth the world had begotten the soul out of his own mind and will, only then did he spread beneath the soul, and make inner to it, all that was concrete and corporeal, and so, fitting middle to middle, he coupled them together. Thus the soul, setting out from the center, threw itself in a round circuit about the outermost edge of the heavens from the highest region, and, turning upon itself, ushered in the divine beginning of an everlasting and wise life.
Animum igitur cum ille procreator mundi deus ex sua mente et voluntate genuisset, tum denique omne, quod erat concretum atque corporeum, substernebat animo interiusque faciebat atque ita medio medium accommodans copulabat. Sic animus a medio profectus extremitatem caeli a suprema regione rotundo ambitu circumiecit seseque ipse versans divinum sempiternae sapientisque vitae induxit exordium.
And the body of the heavens, indeed, was made visible, but the soul escapes the gaze of the eyes. It is, of all things, the one that shares in and partakes of reason and of that concord which the Greeks call harmonia, of the eternal things that fall under intelligence; than which nothing better has been generated by the best and most excellent begetter. For, joined out of the same nature and the other, with matter set alongside and compacted by the proportionate tempering of three parts, it turns itself about; and when it has laid hold on changeable matter, and again on what is indivisible and simple, it is moved through itself entire and discerns what is of the same kind and what is of the other, and judges all the rest — what is most fitting to each thing, what falls to each in its place or manner or time, and what distinction there is between the things that come into being and the things that are forever the same.
Et corpus quidem caeli aspectabile effectum est, animus autem oculorum effugit optutum. Est autem unus ex omnibus rationis concentionisque, quae a(rmoni/a Graece, sempiternarum rerum et sub intellegentiam cadentium compos et particeps, quo nihil est ab optimo et praestantissimo genitore melius procreatum; quippe qui ex eadem iunctus alteraque natura adiuncta materia temperatione trium partium proportione conpactus, se ipse conversans, cum materiam mutabilem arripuit et cum rursus individuam atque simplicem, per se omnis movetur discernitque, quid sit eiusdem generis, quid alterius, et cetera diiudicat, quid cuique rei sit maxime aptum, quid quoque loco aut modo aut tempore contingat, quaeque distinctio sit inter ea, quae gignantur, et ea, quae sint semper eadem.
But true reason, which is concerned with the things that are forever the same and with the things that change, when it is moved within the same and within the other, by itself, without voice and without any sound, when it touches that part by which sense can be stirred, and the circuit of that other kind, unaltered and straight, declares all things to the soul and the mind, then there are generated firm and true opinions and assents; but when it turns among those things which, abiding ever the same, are held together not by sense but by intelligence... By reason, then, and by the divine mind, for the origin of time the course of the sun and the moon was devised
Ratio autem vera, quae versatur in iis, quae sunt semper eadem, et in iis, quae mutantur, cum in eodem et in altero movetur ipsa per sese sine voce et sine ullo sono, cum eam partem attingit, qua sensus cieri potest, et orbis illius generis alterius inmutatus et rectus omnia animo mentique denuntiat, tum opiniones adsensionesque firmae veraeque gignuntur; cum autem in illis rebus vertitur, quae manentes semper eadem non sensu, sed intellegentia continentur * * * Ratione igitur et mente divina ad originem temporis curriculum inventum est solis et lunae
... nature would turn, so that the course of the moon would circle nearest the earth, and next above the earth would be the revolution of the sun. Then the Morning Star and the holy star of Mercury hold a course equal in swiftness to the sun, but a certain force contrary to it; and by that running together which the Morning Star, Mercury, and the sun have among themselves, the one outstrips the others and is outstripped by them in turn.
* * * ius natura converteret, ut terram lunae cursus proxime ambiret eique supra terram proxima solis circumvectio esset. Lucifer deinde et sancta Mercuri stella cursum habent solis celeritati parem, sed vim quandam contrariam, eaque concursatione, quam inter se habent Lucifer, Mercurius, sol, alii alios vincunt vicissimque vincuntur.
What the reason was for placing the remaining heavenly bodies, and what their placement is, must be deferred to another discourse, lest a longer account be set down upon the matter that had to be touched on than upon the matter for whose sake we touch on it. When, therefore, each of those heavenly bodies had obtained the seemly course from which the measure of time was to be marked out, and when, their bodies being bound together by living bonds, living beings came into being and learned to obey command, then, running across by the motion of the other nature into the motion of the same nature, and clinging there and held fast within it, since some traversed a larger orbit and some a smaller — those a larger more slowly, those a smaller more swiftly — by the motion of the one and the same nature the ones that moved most swiftly seemed to be outstripped in speed by the slower, and, when they were overtaking, to be overtaken.
Reliquorum siderum quae causa collocandi fuerit, quaeque eorum sit conlocatio, in sermonem alium differendum est, ne in eo, quod attingendum fuit, quam in eo, quoius causa id attingimus, longior ponatur oratio. Quando igitur sibi quodque eorum siderum cursum decorum est adeptum, ex quibus erat modus temporis consignandus, conligatisque corporibus vinculis animalibus animantia orta sunt eaque imperio parere didicerunt, tum ex alterius naturae motione transversa in eiusdem naturae motum incurrentia in eaque haerentia atque inpedita, cum alia maiorem lustrarent orbem, alia minorem, tardius quae maiorem, celerius quae minorem, motu unius eiusdemque naturae quae velocissime movebantur, ea celeritate vinci a tardioribus et, cum superabant, superari videbantur.
For it turned every orbit of theirs by a kind of spiral inflexion, because the two movements proceeding contrariwise at once brought it about that what was slowest came nearest to the swiftest. And so that there might be some clear measure to declare the swiftnesses and slownesses in the eight courses, the god himself kindled the sun like a lamp at the second circuit above the earth, so that the heavens might shine out as brightly as possible upon all things, and that the living beings which had the right to be taught might learn the nature and force of numbers from the motion of the same and of that which was like it.
Omnis enim orbis eorum quasi helicae inflexione vertebat, quia bifariam contrarie simul procedentia efficiebant, ut, quod esset tardissimum, id proximum fieret celerrimo. Atque ut esset mensura quaedam evidens, quae in octo cursibus celeritates tarditatesque declararet, deus ipse solem quasi lumen accendit ad secundum supra terram ambitum, ut quam maxime caelum omnibus conluceret animantesque, quibus ius esset doceri, ab eiusdem motu et ab eius, quod simile esset, numerorum naturam vimque cognoscerent.
Night, then, and day, generated in this manner and for these causes, make up one circuit of the most wise and best orbit; and the month, when the moon, having traversed her course, has caught up with the sun; and the year, when the sun has completed and traveled over his whole orbit.
Nox igitur et dies ad hunc modum et ob has generata causas unum circumitum orbis efficit sapientissimum atque optimum, mensis autem, quando luna lustrato suo cursu solem consecuta est, annus, ubi sol suum totum confecit et peragravit orbem.
But the circuits of the other heavenly bodies, of which men are ignorant save for very few, they neither call by name nor measure off against one another by number. And so they do not know that these wanderings of the heavenly bodies are that very thing which is rightly called time, endowed as they are with infinite multitude and wondrous variety. And yet this much can be perceived and understood: that, by the absolute and perfect number of time, the absolute and perfect year is then at last completed, when the eight circuits, their courses being run, have returned to the same starting point, and when one and the same orbit, ever like itself, has measured them all out.
Ceterorum autem siderum ambitus ignorantes homines praeter admodum paucos neque nomine appellant neque inter se numero commetiuntur. Itaque nesciunt hos siderum errores id ipsum esse, quod rite dicitur tempus, multitudine infinita, varietate admirabili praeditos. Ac tamen illud perspici et intellegi potest, absoluto perfectoque numero temporis absolutum annum perfectumque tum compleri denique, cum se octo ambitus confectis suis cursibus ad idem caput rettulerunt, cumque eos permensus est idem et semper sui similis orbis.
For these causes, then, were the stars born which, passing through the heavens, should turn themselves back by their solstitial and wintry return, so that this whole living being which we see might be most like to that living being which we apprehend by thought, in imitation of eternity. And the rest, indeed, up to the origin of time, he had molded as imprinted from those things which it imitated; but because he had not yet enclosed every living being within the world, in that respect the likeness of the image fell short of the pattern set before it. As many, then, and of such kinds, as were the forms of living beings that the mind, gazing upon the species of things, could discern, so many and of such kinds did he resolve to fashion within himself in this world.
Has igitur ob causas nata astra sunt, quae per caelum penetrantia solstitiali se et brumali revocatione converterent, ut hoc omne animal, quod videmus, esset illi animali, quod sentimus, ad aeternitatis imitationem simillimum. Et cetera quidem usque ad temporis ortum impressa ab illis, quae imitabatur, ecfinxerat; sed quia nondum omne animal in mundo intus incluserat, ex ea parte deficiebat ad propositum exemplar imaginis similitudo. Quot igitur et quales animalium formas mens in speciem rerum intuens poterat cernere, totidem et tales in hoc mundo secum cogitavit effingere.
Now there were four kinds of living beings: one divine and heavenly, the second winged and of the air, the third aquatic, the fourth of the earth. The form of the divine kind of life he made chiefly of fire, that it might be most splendid and most beautiful to look upon. And since he wished to make it like the nature of the whole, he rounded it into a sphere for the sake of its turning, and made it the companion of the wisdom of the best mind, and distributed it equally about the whole heavens, so that this thing, marked out with variety, the Greeks well call kosmon, and we the shining world.
Erant autem animantium genera quattuor, quorum unum divinum atque caeleste, alterum pinnigerum et ae+rium, tertium aquatile, terrestre quartum. Divinae animationis maxime speciem faciebat ex igne, ut et splendidissimus esset et aspectu pulcherrimus. Cumque eum similem universi naturae efficere vellet, ad volubilitatem rotundavit comitemque eum sapientiae quam optimae mentis effecit circumque omne caelum aequaliter distribuit, ut hunc varietate distinctum bene Graeci ko/smon, nos lucentem mundum nominaremus.
To the divine kinds he gave two kinds of motion: one, that it should always be in the same place... and revolve about the same axis for all things and in one manner; the other, that it should be driven forward by the revolution of the same and the like. But of the five remaining motions he willed it to be bereft and without share, unmoving and standing still. Of this kind are those heavenly bodies which, fixed in the heavens, do not move from their place, which are living beings, and divine, and for that cause cling to their seats and abide forever. But those which glide along in wandering and changeable straying were generated as we said above.
Dedit autem divinis duo genera motus, unum, quod semper esset in eodem † de quo et idem omnibus atque uno modo celaret, alterum, quod in anticam partem a conversione eiusdem et similis pelleretur. Quinque autem reliquis motibus orbum eum voluit esse et expertem, immobilem et stantem. Ex quo genere ea sunt sidera, quae infixa caelo non moventur loco, quae sunt animantia, eaque divina, ob eamque causam suis sedibus inhaerent et perpetuo manent. Quae autem vaga et mutabili erratione labuntur, ita generata sunt, ut supra diximus.
And the earth, indeed, our nurse, which is upheld by the axis driven through it, the maker of day and night and likewise their guardian, he willed to be the most ancient of all the gods that should be brought to birth within the heavens. But the sportings of the gods, and the encounterings among the gods themselves, and the revolutions and the advances that come about in their orbits, and how they almost touch one another — which of them are joined close, and in which opposite region and behind which others, or before which, they glide, and at what seasons they vanish from our sight and, emerging again, strike terror into those bereft of reason — if we should try to set these out in words with no image of those things placed before the eyes, the labor would be undertaken in vain. But let what we have said be enough; and let the things we have prefaced concerning the nature of the gods that are seen and that have come into being have this for their limit.
Iam vero terram, altricem nostram, quae traiecto axi sustinetur, diei noctisque effectricem eandemque custodem, antiquissimam deorum omnium voluit esse eorum, qui intra caelum gignerentur. Lusiones autem deorum et inter ipsos deos concursiones, quaeque in orbibus eorum conversiones quaeque antecessiones eveniant, cumque inter se paene contingant, eorum qui prope copulentur contrariaque regione et pone quos aut ante labantur quibusque temporibus a nostro aspectu oblitescant rursusque emersi terrorem incutiant rationis expertibus, si verbis explicare conemur nullo posito ob oculos simulacro earum rerum, frustra suscipiatur labor. Sed haec satis sint dicta nobis, quae que de deorum, qui cernuntur quique sunt orti, natura praefati sumus, habeant hunc terminum.
But concerning the rest, whom the Greeks call daimonas, and ours, I suppose, the Lares — if only this can rightly seem to have been so rendered — both to know and to declare their origin is a greater thing than that we should dare to profess to write of it. We must trust, no doubt, the men of old and of former times, as they say, who declared themselves the offspring of the gods, and so handed down to us their names. They could surely know their own begetters best of all, and it is hard not to put faith in men sprung from gods, although their account is confirmed neither by proofs nor by sure reasonings; but since they seem to speak of things known to them, we must obey the ancient law and custom.
Reliquorum autem, quos Graeci dai/monas appellant, nostri, opinor, Lares, si modo hoc recte conversum videri potest, et nosse et enuntiare ortum eorum maius est, quam ut profiteri nos scribere audeamus. Credendum nimirum est veteribus et priscis, ut aiunt, viris, qui se progeniem deorum esse dicebant, itaque eorum vocabula nobis prodiderunt. Nosse autem generatores suos optime poterant, ac difficile factu est a deis ortis fidem non habere, quamquam nec argumentis nec rationibus certis eorum oratio confirmatur; sed quia de suis notis rebus videntur loqui, veteri legi morique parendum est.
So then, as it has been handed down by them, let the origin of these gods be held and told: that we record Oceanus and Salacia as generated and brought forth by the sowing of Caelus and the conceiving of Terra; from these, Saturn and Ops; thereafter Jupiter and Juno, and the rest, whom we see treated and called brothers and kindred among themselves, and their lineage, to use the old word.
Sic igitur, ut ab iis est traditum, horum deorum ortus habeatur atque dicatur, ut Oceanum Salaciamque Caeli satu Terraeque conceptu generatos editosque memoremus, ex his Saturnum et Opem, deinceps Iovem atque Iunonem, reliquos, quos fratres inter se agnatosque usurpari atque appellari videmus, et eorum, ut utamur vetere verbo, prosapiam.
When, therefore, all the gods had been created—both those who move and openly show themselves, and those who are revealed to us only so far as they themselves will it—then the god who had begotten all things speaks to them thus: "Give heed, you who are sprung from the seed of the gods. Of these works I am the parent and the maker; and they cannot be dissolved against my will—though everything that has been bound together can be dissolved. Yet it is in no way the part of a good being to wish to undo what reason has bound. And since you have come into being, you cannot indeed be immortal and indissoluble; yet you shall by no means be dissolved, nor shall any fated death destroy you, nor shall any treachery prove stronger than my purpose, which is a greater bond for your perpetuity than those by which you were bound together at the time you were begotten.
Quando igitur omnes, et qui moventur palamque se ostendunt, et qui eatenus nobis declarantur, qua ipsi volunt, creati sunt, tum ad eos is deus, qui omnia genuit, fatur: “Haec vos, qui deorum satu orti estis, attendite: quorum operum ego parens effectorque sum, haec sunt indissoluta me invito; quamquam omne colligatum solvi potest; sed haudquaquam boni est ratione vinctum velle dissolvere. Sed quoniam estis orti, inmortales vos quidem esse et indissolubiles non potestis, neutiquam tamen dissolvemini, neque vos ulla mortis fata periment nec fraus valentior quam consilium meum, quod maius est vinculum ad perpetuitatem vestram quam illa, quibus estis tum, cum gignebamini, conligati.
Learn, then, what is in my mind. Three kinds remain for us to make, and these are mortal; and if they are passed over, the completion of the heavens will not be perfect. For it will not embrace all the kinds of living things; yet it must embrace them, so that nothing be wanting from the whole. If these were made by me myself, they could match the life of the gods. That they may be generated, then, under a mortal condition, do you undertake the task: bring them into being, and imitate that power of mine which you remember I used in your own coming-to-be. And among them, those who shall be created of such a kind that they ought to be, as it were, kinsmen of the immortal gods, let them be called of the divine race, and let them hold the rule over all living things and willingly obey you by right and by law; the beginning and the seed of these shall be handed over to you by me, and you for your part shall weave on, to that which is immortal, a mortal part. So shall living creatures arise, whom you shall both feed while they live and receive into your bosom when they are spent."
Quid sentiam igitur, cognoscite: Tria genera nobis reliqua sunt, eaque mortalia; quibus praetermissis caeli absolutio perfecta non erit. Omnia enim genera animalium complexu non tenebit; teneat autem oportebit, ut ex eodem ne quid absit. Quae a me ipso effecta si sint, deorum vitam possint adaequare. Ut igitur mortali condicione generentur, vos suscipite, ut illa gignatis imiteminique vim meam, qua me in vestro ortu usum esse meministis. In quibus qui tales creabuntur, ut deorum inmortalium quasi gentiles esse debeant, divini generis appellentur teneantque omnium animantium principatum vobisque iure et lege volentes pareant; quorum vobis initium satusque tradetur a me, vos autem ad id, quod erit inmortale, partem attexitote mortalem. Ita orientur animantes, quos et vivos alatis et consumptos sinu recipiatis.”
Thus he spoke. Then he returned to the earlier mixing, in which, tempering the whole soul of universal nature, he blended it together; and pouring out the remnants of the earlier mixture, he made them even in much the same way as before, except that they were not so uncorrupted as those which are always the same, but second and even third in degree from these.
Haec ille dixit. Deinde ad temperationem superiorem revertit; in qua omnem animum universae naturae temperans permiscebat superiorisque permixtionis reliquias fundens aequabat eodem modo ferme, nisi quod non ita incorrupta, ut ea, quae semper idem, sed ab iis secundum sumebat atque etiam tertium.
When, therefore, the whole had been wholly established, he distributed a number of souls equal to the stars, and joined each to each, and so set them, as it were, upon the chariot of the universe; and he showed them the laws of fate and necessity, and revealed that there would be one first coming-to-be, the same for all, measured and constant and diminished by none; and that, the souls having been sown and scattered, as it were, there would arise at fixed intervals of time a living creature that should be most fitted for the worship of the gods.
Toto igitur omni constituto sideribus parem numerum distribuit animorum et singulos adiunxit ad singula atque ita quasi in currum universitatis inposuit commonstravitque leges fatales ac necessarias et ostendit primum ortum unum fore omnibus, eumque moderatum atque constantem nec ab ullo inminutum, satis autem et quasi sparsis animis fore uti certis temporum intervallis oreretur animal, quod esset ad cultum deorum aptissumum.
But since the nature of the human race was twofold, the matter stood thus: that the more excellent kind was that of those who were destined to be men. And when he had implanted the souls in bodies by necessity, and there came to those bodies now an accession, now a withdrawal, it was first of all necessary that there should arise a single sense, common to all, roused by a more violent motion and bound up with their nature; then love, mingled of pleasure and pain; and after these, anger and fear and the other motions of the soul, the companions of the former and others set against them in discord. Whoever rules these by reason will live justly; whoever surrenders himself to them, unjustly.
Sed cum duplex esset natura generis humani, sic se res habebat, ut praestantius genus esset eorum, qui essent futuri viri. Cum autem animos corporibus necessitate insevisset, cumque ad corpora tum accessio fieret, tum abscessio, principio necesse erat sensum exsistere unum communemque omnium vehementiore motu excitatum coniunctumque naturae, deinde voluptate et molestia mixtum amorem, post iram et metum et reliquos motus animi, comites superiorum et iis etiam contrarios dissidentes; quos qui ratione rexerit, iuste vixerit, qui autem iis se dediderit, iniuste.
And he who has rightly and honorably finished the course of living given him by nature shall return to the star with which he was paired; but he who has lived without measure and without restraint—a second birth shall transfer him into the form of a woman, and if not even then he makes an end of his vices, he shall be tossed still more harshly, and shall be transferred, after the likeness of his own character, into the forms of cattle and wild beasts; nor shall he see the end of his evils before he has begun to follow that revolution of the same and the like which was inborn and implanted within himself. And this shall come to pass when, by reason, he has driven off those turbulent and reason-bereft elements that have settled upon him out of fire, soul, water, and earth, and has come back to the first and best disposition of the soul.
Atque ille, qui recte atque honeste curriculum vivendi a natura datum confecerit, ad illud astrum, quocum aptus fuerit, revertetur; qui autem inmoderate et intemperate vixerit, eum secundus ortus in figuram muliebrem transferet, et, si ne tum quidem finem vitiorum faciet, gravius etiam iactabitur et in suis moribus simillimas figuras pecudum et ferarum transferetur neque terminum malorum prius aspiciet, quam illam sequi coeperit conversionem, quam habebat in se ipse eiusdem et similis innatam et insitam. Quod tum eveniet, cum illa, quae ex igni, anima, aqua, terra turbulenta et rationis expertia insederint, ratione depulerit et ad primam atque optimam affectionem animi pervenerit.
When he had ordained these things in this way, and had set himself beyond all blame and cause of blame, if afterward any wrongdoing or fault should arise, he sowed them, as it were, scattering some into the earth, some into the moon, some into the other parts of the world, which are set as the signs and marks of the spaces of time. But after that sowing he committed it to the gods—younger ones, so to speak—to fashion mortal bodies, and to put the final polish and completion upon all of the human soul that remained, that ought to be added, and upon all that followed from it; and then to offer themselves as the chiefs and guides of this living creature, and to rule and govern its life as beautifully as could be, so far as it should not, being itself well made, seek out some misery for itself through its own fault.
Quae cum ita dissignasset seseque, si quid postea fraudis aut vitii evenisset, extra omnem culpam causamque posuisset, alios in terram, alios in lunam, alios in reliquas mundi partes, quae sunt ad spatiorum temporis signa et notae constitutae, spargens quasi serebat. Post autem eam sationem dis, ut ita dicam, iunioribus permisit, ut corpora mortalia effingerent, quantumque esset reliquum ex humano animo, quod deberet accedere, id omne, et quae consequentia essent, perpolirent et absolverent; deinde ut huic animanti principes se ducesque praeberent vitamque eius quam pulcherrime regerent et gubernarent, quatenus non ipse bene factus sua culpa sibi aliquid miseriae quaereret.
And he indeed, who had composed all things, abode constantly in his own state; but those who had been created by him, when they had come to know the order of their parent, followed it. And so, when they had received the immortal principle of a mortal living creature, imitating their begetter and maker, they borrowed from the world particles of fire and earth and water and soul, which they should give back again, and joined these among themselves—not with the same bonds by which they themselves were bound together, but with bonds of such a kind as could not be seen on account of their smallness; and with these, like close-set little wedges fused together, they made of all the parts a single body, and into it, as the divine soul’s circuit flowed in and flowed out, they bound that soul fast.
Atque is quidem, qui cuncta conposuit, constanter in suo manebat statu; qui autem erant ab eo creati, cum parentis ordinem cognovissent, hunc sequebantur. Itaque cum accepissent inmortale principium mortalis animantis, imitantes genitorem et effectorem sui particulas ignis et terrae et aquae et animae a mundo, quas rursus redderent, mutuabantur easque inter se copulabant haud isdem vinclis, quibus ipsi erant conligati, sed talibus, quae cerni non possent propter parvitatem, crebris quasi cuneolis inliquefactis unum efficiebant ex omnibus corpus atque in eo influente atque effluente animi divini ambitus inligabant.
And so those circuits, plunged into the stream, neither held nor were held, but with great force now bore things along, now were borne along themselves. Thus the whole living creature was indeed moved, but without measure and at random, so that it was carried by the six motions. For both forward and backward, and to the left and to the right, and upward and downward, now this way, now that...
Itaque illi in flumen inmersi neque tenebant neque tenebantur, sed vi magna tum ferebant, tum ferebantur. Ita totum animal movebatur illud quidem, sed inmoderate et fortuito, ut sex motibus veheretur. Nam et ante et pone et ad laevam et ad dextram et sursum et deorsum, modo huc, modo illuc * * *
But if it has settled upon a bright surface, then either the same image or sometimes an altered one is returned, when the fire of the eyes has merged and joined itself with that fire which is spread before the face. And the things on the left appear on the right, because the contrary parts of the eyes touch the contrary parts. But right answers to right and left to left in the reflection of the lights, when these do not cling together. This happens when the smoothness of mirrors has taken on a height from this side and from that, and so has thrust the right of the eyes into the left part and the left into the right. Faces are seen upside down too, by the throwing back of the lights, which, turning them, renders the lower parts that which are the upper.
Sed si in splendore consedit, tum vel eadem species vel interdum inmutata redditur, cum ignis oculorum cum eo igne, qui est ob os offusus, se confudit et contulit. Dextra autem videntur, quae laeva sunt, quia contrariis partibus oculorum contrarias partes attingunt. Respondent autem dextera dexteris, laeva laevis conversione luminum, cum ea inter se non cohaerescunt. Id fit, cum speculorum levitas hinc illincque altitudinem adsumpsit et ita dextera detrusit in laevam partem oculorum laevaque in dexteram. Supina etiam ora cernuntur depulsione luminum; quae convertens inferiora reddit, quae sunt superiora.
And all these things are of that kind which assist the causes of things; these are the ministrations the god employs, when, so far as it can be done, he brings about the appearance of the best. But most people suppose that these are not the helpers of causes, but are themselves the causes of all things—the things that have the power of cooling and heating, of condensing and dissolving, but lack all intelligence and reason, which are found nowhere in nature except in the soul. But the soul escapes wholly the sense of the eyes; whereas fire, soul, water, and earth are bodies, and these are seen.
Atque haec omnia ex eo genere sunt, quae rerum adiuvant causas; quibus utitur ministeriis deus, cum optimi speciem, quoad fieri potest, efficit. Sed existimant plerique non haec adiuvantia causarum, sed has ipsas esse omnium causas, quae vim habeant refrigerandi calfaciendi, concrescendi liquendi, careant autem omni intellegentia atque ratione, quae nisi in animo nulla alia in natura reperiantur. Animus autem sensum omnem effugit oculorum; at ignis, anima, aqua, terra corpora sunt, eaque cernuntur.
But he who declares himself a lover of intelligence and wisdom must seek out the first causes of an intelligent and wise nature, and then the secondary causes of those things which necessarily move others, while themselves being moved by others. Wherefore I judge that we must proceed thus: that we should ourselves speak of both kinds of causes, but separately—of those which, together with intelligence, are the makers of the most beautiful and the best of things, and of those which, devoid of foresight, bring about results inconstant and disordered.
Illum autem, qui intellegentiae sapientiaeque se amatorem profitetur, necesse est intellegentis sapientisque naturae primas causas conquirere, dein secundas earum rerum, quae necessario movent alias, cum ipsae ab aliis moventur. Quocirca nobis sic cerno esse faciendum, ut de utroque nos quidem dicamus genere causarum, separatim autem de iis, quae cum intellegentia sunt efficientes pulcherrimarum rerum atque optumarum, et de iis, quae vacantes prudentia inconstantia perturbataque efficiunt.
As for the causes of the eyes, that they should have the power they now have, I think enough has more or less been said. But their greatest usefulness, bestowed upon the human race by the gift of the gods, may now in turn be set forth. For it is the eyes that have brought us the knowledge of the best of things. For this discourse of ours about the universe would never have been discovered, if neither the stars nor the sun nor the heavens could have fallen under the gaze of our eyes. But as it is, day and night, made known to the eyes, and then the revolutions of months and years, have contrived the nature and power of number, and have measured out the span of time, and have driven us to the inquiry into the whole of nature; and from these things we have gained philosophy, than which no greater good has ever been given, nor shall be given, to the race of mortals by the granting and the gift of the gods...
Ac de oculorum quidem causis, ut haberent eam vim, quam nunc habent, satis ferme esse dictum puto. Maxuma autem eorum utilitas donata hominum generi deorum munere deinceps explicetur. Rerum enim optumarum cognitionem nobis oculi attulerunt. Nam haec, quae est habita de universitate oratio a nobis, haud umquam esset inventa, si neque sidera neque sol neque caelum sub oculorum aspectum cadere potuissent. Nunc vero dies noctesque oculis cognitae, tum mensum annorumque conversiones et numerum machinatae sunt et spatium temporis dimensae et ad quaestionem totius naturae inpulerunt; quibus ex rebus philosophiam adepti sumus, quo bono nullum optabilius, nullum praestantius neque datum est mortalium generi deorum concessu atque munere neque dabitur * * *