rOL. XLIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 685 



is unfolded, being that which treats of music. At length the name of the au- 

 thor, who was called Philodemus, is found written twice, at the end of the 

 piece. The name is written once in a small, and a second time in a large hand, 

 and in a good Greek character. They are now beginning to open, or rather to 

 unroll another manuscript; but hitherto without much success; from some frag- 

 ments we may collect that it treats of rhetoric. 



Dr. fVatson makes the following Observations on the preceding. 



I think it probable, that Philodemus, the author of this treatise on music, was 

 the Epicurean philosopher of that name, who was, as Strabo informs us, a native 

 of Gadara in Syria. He wrote many pieces in prose and verse, and his ]Oth 

 book, TTfpi ruv (f)iXo(ro(puv trmrx^iu;, is quoted by Diogenes Laertius. Indeed his 

 sect, time, and abode, will allow of the supposition of his writings on music 

 being at Herculaneum at the time of its destruction. He resided at Rome, and 

 was the acquaintance of Tully, and the preceptor of Lucius Piso the consul. We 

 learn from Asconius Pediaims, that it is Philodemus the Epicurean, of whom 

 Cicero speaks with that admirable mixture of praise, and invective, and excuse, 

 in his oration against Piso; where he says, that he knew him to be a man of 

 elegance and polite literature; tliat it was from him that Piso learned his philo- 

 sophy; which was, that pleasure ought to be the end of all our pursuits; that 

 indeed the philosopher did at first divide, and distinguish the sense in which that 

 maxim was to be understood; but the young Roman perverted every thing to 

 make it favour his inclinations and pleasures; and the Greek was too polite and 

 well-bred to resist too obstinately a senator of Rome. He then tells us that 

 Philodemus was highly accomplished in philosophy, as well as polite literature, 

 which other Epicureans were apt to neglect; that he wrote verses, which were so 

 sweet, so elegant, and so charming, that nothing could exceed them; that he 

 was betrayed into a too hasty friendship with Piso, from which he could not dis- 

 engage himself without the imputation of inconstancy, and that, rogatus, invi- 

 tatus, coactus, ita multa ad istum de isto scripsit, ut omnes libidines, omnia 

 stupra, omnia caenarum conviviorumque genera, adulteria denique ejus, delica- 

 tissimis versibus expressit. 



I have met with some epigrams of Philodemus yet extant, some of which are, 

 in my opinion, most facetious, and elegant. We might have had many more, 

 had not Planudes, as the scholia inform us, rejected such out of his collection, 

 as he thought too loose and voluptuous. Horace seems to have had some of 

 these epigrams in his eye more than once, when he wrote his 2d satire of the first 

 book; particularly where he says, 



banc Philodemus ait; sibi, quae neque magno 



Stet pretio, neque cunctetur, cum est jussa venire. 



Is not this almost a translation of the 



