Note 38 — Chapter XIV · THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY AS A WHOLE AND ITS HISTORICAL POSITION.

According to Cic. Tusc. iv. 3, 6, Amafinius seems to have come forward not long after the philosophic embassy of 156 B.C.; nor is this at variance with Lucr. v. 336, who claims primus cum primis to have set forth the Epicurean teaching in Latin. His works made a great impression at the time, according to Cic. l.c. (cujus libris editis commota multitudo contulit se ad eam potissimum disciplinam). According to Acad. i. 2, 5, he pursued natural science, carefully following the views of Epicurus. Cicero then complains of him and Rabirius, we know not which one is meant, nor whether he was an Epicurean, qui nulla arte adhibita de rebus ante oculos positis vulgari sermone disputant: nihil definiunt, nihil partiuntur, &c. Conf. Tusc. ii. 3, 7. Cassius, too (Cic. Ad Fam. xv. 12), calls him and Catius (see p. 414, 3) mali verborum interpretes. ↑