396 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



W. Miiller has retained the MS. reading, and rightly refused to accept 

 any of the alterations proposed. 



V. 12. fin. — Nunc eram plane in medio mari. 



These words would appear capable of bearing but one meaning, 

 viz., 'now I am absolutely in the open sea.' But in § 1 Itaqueerat in 

 aninio meo nihil festinare nee me Delo^ movere nisi omnia aKpa Tvpeoiv^ 

 pura vidissem would seem to show that Cicero wrote this letter, not 

 in the open sea, but at Delos. Hence it has been held by 0. E. Schmidt 

 {Briefivechsel, p. 76) that in medio mari means " auf dem ringsumflu- 

 teten Eiland," i.e. at Delos, the island in the midst of the sea. This is 

 extraordinarily ingenious, and if supported by a parallel would claim 

 acceptance. But perhaps another explanation is possible. Cicero began 

 the letter at Delos, and wrote there § 1 and probably § 2. The 

 weather proved favourable, and before he could find a messenger to 

 take his letter to Rome, he set sail for Ephesus. Having got out to 

 sea, in the most open stage of his journey (that between Delos and 

 Icaria), he probably wrote § 3. Cicero often wrote portions of letters 

 on one day and continued them subsequently. Q. Fr. iii. 1 is a 

 signal instance : cf. Sermathena, xxvi. (1900), p. 69. This would appear 

 to be a better solution than that of Schiche, who, with Eaernus, omits 

 Belo in § 1. But the words Sexto die Belum Athenis venimus and 

 in animo nihil festinare nee me movere compel us to suppose that the first 

 paragraph was written on terra firma at Delos. 



V. 16. 3. — Itaque incredibilem in modum concursus fiunt ex agris, ex 

 vicis, f ex nominibus (noibus) ex omnibus . . . lustitia, 

 abstinentia, dementia tui Ciceronis [itaque] opiniones 

 omnium superavit. Appius, ut audivit nos venire, in 

 ultimam provinciam se coniecit Tarsum usque. 



I can think of nothing better than the old correction of Yictorius 

 adopted by C. F. "W". Miiller ex domibus omnibus, unless we read ex 

 urbibus omnibus which is rather far from the MSS. In the next sentence 

 the usual course adopted with itaque is to cut it out : others read 

 Ciceronis : ita. . . . But perhaps it has got transposed, as we saw was 

 the case with Belo in 12. 1, and we should begin the next sentence Itaque 



^ This word is out of place in the MSS., appearing a.iiQv festinare . 



~ It is to be regretted that both Schiche (p. 18) and C. F. W. Miiller have not 

 adopted this very fine emendation of L. Dindorf, suggested by Archilochus 

 (frag. 54), and have preferred aKpur^pia ovpia. The Medicean gives AKPATHPEON 

 iura. 



