The R/ictorica of Philodemus. 259 



TroXtTiKrj and TToAiriKos should strictly speaking be rendered so 

 as to keep the etymological connection, e. g. "politics" or 

 "political science" and "politician." However as TroXtn/cds has 

 none of the opprobrium which sometimes attaches to politician 

 in English, I have rendered it by "statesman." There is not in 

 the case of this pair the reason for keeping the etymological con- 

 nection plain which we have noticed in the case of prjTU)p-pr]TopiK6<;. 



The date of the Rhetorica cannot be determined with exact- 

 ness. It was written in the lifetime of Zeno, if we may be allowed 

 to interpret strictly the present tenses of the paragraph referring 

 to him; Suppl. p. 44 ff . ; p. 45, 1. I : o Trap' 17/xaJv ianv Zrjvoiv, 

 p. 48, I. 13: rts 6 €KUV dvaypai/'as icrriv ; Ov Z-qvatv ye- Zeno's dates 



cannot be determined exactly; he was born as early as 150, was 

 teaching and apparently head of the school in Athens in 79/8, and 

 was succeeded by Phaedrus shortly thereafter, if Phaedrus was 

 succeeded by Patro in 70/69.^^ If we place Zeno's death at 75 

 we should have the inferior limit for the Rhetorica. One other 

 point may be taken into consideration ; the Uepl pr]TopLKrj<; was 

 addressed to a certain young Gains (w rate ttui, I, 223, 5). This 

 would suggest that Philodemus was at Rome, acting as tutor in 

 some Roman family. The beginning of Philodemus' Roman 

 sojourn may be approximated as follows: he met Piso when the 

 latter was adolescens.^'^ If we place the limit of adolescentia at 

 30, the acquaintance must have begun before 71, as Piso was 

 born at least as early as loi. That would make it possible for 

 Philodemus to have been in Rome in the seventies, and so to 

 have addressed the Rhetorica to his pupil Gains before the death 

 of Zeno in (circ.) 75.^^ 



It is almost paradoxical to pass judgment on the style of an 

 author from whom we have scarcely a single sentence that has 

 remained entire. Much of the obscurity is undoubtedly due to 



^'We really are not certain about the date of the succession of Patro. 

 Phaedrus was contemporary with Zeno and probably did not long survive 

 him. The only certainty is that Patro became head of the school before 

 51 B. C, V. Cic. Ad Fam. XIII, i. For a fuller discussion of the dates v. 

 Zeller III, i (3rd ed.), pp. 373-5, Susemihl II, p. 261 ff. 



'* Cic. In Pis. 28, 68. 



"" Comparetti on slightly different grounds arrives at a conclusion 

 regarding the limits of Philodemus' literary activity which admits of the 

 date given above for the publication of the Rhetorica. v. La Biblio- 

 theque de Philodeme, Melanges Chatelain, p. 128. 



