Theophrastus of Eresus, Commentary Volume 9.2: Sources on Discoveries and Beginnings, Proverbs et al. (Texts 727-741)

312 Pages·2014·1.25 MB·English

by  William W. Fortenbaugh, Dimitri Gutas

Theophrastus of Eresus, Commentary Volume 9.2
Philosophia Antiqua
A Series of Studies on Ancient Philosophy
PreviousEditors
J.H.Waszink†
W.J.Verdenius†
J.C.M.VanWinden
Editedby
K.A.Algra
F.A.J.deHaas
J.Mansfeld
C.J.Rowe
D.T.Runia
Ch.Wildberg
VOLUME136
TheophrastusofEresus
SourcesforHisLife,Writings,ThoughtandInfluence
CommentaryVolume9.2
SourcesonDiscoveriesandBeginnings,Proverbsetal.
(Texts727–741)
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/pha
Theophrastus of Eresus
Commentary Volume 9.2
Sources on Discoveries and Beginnings, Proverbs et al.
(Texts 727–741)
By
WilliamW.Fortenbaugh
WithContributionsontheArabicMaterialby
DimitriGutas
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2014
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Fortenbaugh,WilliamW.
TheophrastusofEresus.Commentary,volume9.2,Sourcesondiscoveriesandbeginnings,
Proverbsetal.(texts727-741)/byWilliamW.Fortenbaugh;withcontributionsontheArabic
materialbyDimitriGutas.
pagescm.–(PhilosophiaAntiqua,ISSN0079-1687;VOLUME136)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindexes.
ISBN978-90-04-26882-1(hardback:acid-freepaper)–ISBN978-90-04-26876-0(e-book)1.
Theophrastus.2.Peripatetics.3.Proverbsinliterature.I.Gutas,Dimitri.II.Title.
PA4450.F672014
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2013048956
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CONTENTS
Preface.................................................................. ix
I. Introduction ...................................................... 1
II. TheSources ....................................................... 7
1. GreekandLatinSourcesBelongingtoFourDifferent
Periods........................................................ 8
i. TheHellenisticPeriod/RomanRepublic................. 8
ii. TheHighRomanEmpire:no.2–8 ........................ 11
iii. TheCarolingianRenaissance:no.9–12 ................... 32
iv. Byzantium:no.13–14 ..................................... 43
2. Anthologies:no.15–16 ........................................ 44
3. Scholia:no.17–20 ............................................. 49
4. ArabicSources:no.21–26 ..................................... 65
III. TitlesofBooks727no.1–5,137no.26a–b,727no.6–11,666no.4,
727no.12–16a–b................................................... 67
IV. TheTexts.......................................................... 135
1. DiscoveriesandBeginnings:728,582,729–736C,718 ......... 135
2. Proverbs:529A–B,737–738,738.5,710,624,549 .............. 195
3. Unassigned:739–741.......................................... 235
V. Summary.......................................................... 243
VI. Bibliography ...................................................... 253
VII. IndicestotheTitlesandTexts .................................... 259
1. ImportantWords ............................................. 259
Greek ......................................................... 259
Latin.......................................................... 262
2. TitlesofBooks ................................................ 264
TheophrasteanGreek......................................... 264
Latin.......................................................... 264
viii contents
Arabic......................................................... 264
Non-TheophrasteanGreek.................................... 265
3. Gods,Persons,GroupsofPeopleandPlacesNamedor
ReferredtoinGreek,LatinorArabictexts.................... 265
VIII. IndicestotheCommentary....................................... 269
1. PassagesCitedinChaptersII–V............................... 269
2. SubjectsDiscussedinChaptersII–V.......................... 290
IX. CorrigendaandAddendaintheText-TranslationVolumes ....... 295
PREFACE
ThiscommentaryvolumeistheseventhtobepublishedbyBrillonthetwo-
volumeworkTheophrastusofEresus:SourcesforHisLife,Writings,Thought
and Influence. Of the six volumes that precede, two were written by Bob
Sharples(onphysicsandbiology),twobyPamelaHuby(onlogicandpsy-
chology)andtwobymyself(onethicsandrhetoric-poetics).Infiveofthesix
cases,DimitriGutascontributedsignificantcommentsontheArabicmate-
rial.Nowcomestheseventhvolume(ondiscoveries,proverbsetal.),which
BobSharpleswantedtowrite,buthisuntimelydeathintervened.Picking
upthetaskfelltome.Fortunately,Ihadthesupportofseveralcolleagues,of
whomImentionfour.TizianoDorandihelpedmemightilywiththepapyro-
logicalmaterialthatisbroughttogetherundertheheadingἌτακτα,“Unas-
signed.”DimitriGutascontinuedhisparticipationbysupplyingcomments
onArabictitles.StefanSchornreadthroughmuchofthemanuscript,cor-
rectingphilologicalerrorsandcallingmyattentiontomodernliteraturethat
had escaped my notice. Charles George not only read through the entire
manuscript but also made the index of ancient sources. My hope for the
futureistoseealltheremainingcommentaries,thosepromisedwhenthe
text-translationvolumeswerepublished,completedandmadeavailableto
scholarsworldwide.
SinceIshallnotauthoranothervolumeintheBrillseries,Iwanttotake
theoccasiontostepbackintimeandtomentionseveralpersonswhotook
aninterestinmyworkonTheophrastusandinsodoinghelpedmakethe
series possible. One such person is Herwig Görgemanns, who befriended
meattheCenterforHellenicStudiesinWashingtonDC,whenIwasstill,as
itwere,wetbehindtheears(1967–1968).Heencouragedmetoimprovemy
German,invitedmetovisithiminHeidelbergandsubsequentlysponsored
aHumboldtfellowship(1976–1977),whichenabledmetowriteQuellenzur
Ethik Theophrasts (1984). Another person is Hans Herter, who was much
my senior and editor of Rheinisches Museum. He took an interest in my
work on Theophrastus’ Characters, accepted two articles for publication
(1975,1981)andinvitedmetolectureinGermanattheUniversityofBonn.
Thatlecturewasclosetobeingaterrifyingexperience,butitmovedmein
thedirectionofGermanscholarship,sothatIbecameacquaintedwiththe
writingsofoutstandingscholarslikeHansv.Arnim,OttoRegenbogenand
FranzDirlmeier.
x preface
WhenIbegantothinkofcollecting,editingandtranslatingthefragments
ofTheophrastus(quotations,reports,referencesinGreek,RomanandAra-
bic literature)—what would become known as Project Theophrastus—it
quickly became apparent that I could not accomplish such a task alone.
Hence,Ibegantocastaboutandcameupwithaprovisionalteam(1979),
allgoodpeoplebutonlyoneprovedtobeawinner:namely,PamelaHuby.
She was prepared to work with others and had the requisite training to
takeonthelogicalfragments.AdifferentnamewasadvancedbyRichard
Sorabji,whoovertheyearshasbeenastrongandloyalsupporterofProject
Theophrastus.HepointedtoBobSharplesassomeonewhonotonlycould
takeoverphysicsandbiologybutalsohadaphilologicalcompetencethatfar
exceededanythingtowhichIcanpretend.Therewasstilltheneedtofindan
Arabicscholar.BobSharplestalkedoflearningArabic,butmycolleagueat
Rutgers,FadlouShehadiofthePhilosophyDepartment,directedmyatten-
tiontoDimitriGutas,whocompletedtheinnercore,FHS&G.Thefourlet-
tersarearrangedalphabetically,buthappilytheyalsorepresenttheorderin
whichthecentralplayerscametogether.Otherswouldsooncomeaboard.I
listfourwhowereofespecialhelp:AndrewBarker(music),DavidMirhady
(politics),DavidSedley(papyrology)andMichaelSollengerger(biography).
EarlyonalooselyknitAdvisoryBoardwasformed.Membersrotatedonand
off,butoneremainedaconstantsourceofwisdom.ThatpersonwasGreorge
Kerferd,whomIcametothinkofasthesinequonon.Henotonlyoffered
scholarlyadvicebutalsosetatonethatencouragedcollegiality.
Althoughscholarsinthehumanitiesareusedtoworkingindependently
attheirownuniversity,ProjectTheophrastusneededfinancialsupport,in
order that the members could interact conveniently, occasionally face to
face,andpayforxeroxingandmailing,sinceemailwithattachmentswas
as yet unknown. To meet the need, I decided to apply to the National
EndowmentfortheHumanitiesforfunding.TheRutgersFoundation,the
fundraisingarmoftheuniversity,tooknoticeofmydecisionandassigned
David Cayre to assist me. He left nothing to chance. We went together to
Washington,wherethetwoofusmetwiththeresponsibleadministrator.
Three handsome grants were awarded over nine years (1980–1983, 1984–
1985, 1988). During this period, biennial conferences were held at which
issuesrelatedtoTheophrastuswerediscussed.Theconferencesgaveriseto
a publication series, Rutgers University Studies in Classical Humanities =
RUSCH,whichpleasedtheProvostandtheDeanofArtsandSciences,who
decidedtofund,albeitmodestly,thepublicationseries.
Twoimportantstepsalongthewaytopublicationshouldbementioned.
Onewasfindingsomeonewhocouldandwouldpreparecamera-readycopy.