by Socrates to be certain; and maintained that since arguments of
equal strength could be urged in favour of the truth or falsehood of
phenomena, the proper course to take was to suspend judgment entirely
(45). His views were really in harmony with those of Plato, and were
carried on by Carneades (46).

Sec.43. _Breviter_: MSS. _et breviter;_ see 37. _Tunc_: rare before a
consonant; see Munro on _Lucr._ I. 130. _Verum esse [autem] arbitror_: in
deference to Halm I bracket _autem_, but I still think the MSS. reading
defensible, if _verum_ be taken as the neut. adj. and not as meaning _but_.
Translate: "Yet I think the truth to be ... that it is to be thought," etc.
The edd. seem to have thought that _esse_ was needed to go with _putandam_.
This is a total mistake; cf. _ait ... putandam_, without _esse_ II. 15,
_aiebas removendum_ II. 74; a hundred other passages might be quoted from
Cic.

Sec.44. _Non pertinacia aut studio vincendi_: for these words see n. on II.
14. The sincerity of Arcesilas is defended also in II. 76. _Obscuritate_: a
side-blow at _declaratio_ 41. _Confessionem ignorationis_: see 16. Socrates
was far from being a sceptic, as Cic. supposes; see note on II. 74. _Et iam
ante Socratem_: MSS. _veluti amantes Socratem;_ Democritus (460--357 B.C.)
was really very little older than Socrates (468--399) who died nearly sixty
years before him. _Omnis paene veteres_: the statement is audaciously
inexact, and is criticised II. 14. None of these were sceptics; for
Democritus see my note on II. 73, for Empedocles on II. 74, for Anaxagoras
on II. 72. _Nihil cognosci, nihil penipi, nihil sciri_: the verbs are all
equivalent; cf. _D.F._ III. 15 _equidem soleo etiam quod uno Graeci ...
idem pluribus verbis exponere_. _Angustos sensus_: Cic. is thinking of the
famous lines of Empedocles [Greek: steinopoi men gar palamai k.t.l.] R. and
P. 107. _Brevia curricula vitae_: cf. Empedocles' [Greek: pauron de zoes
abiou meros]. Is there an allusion in _curricula_ to Lucretius' _lampada
vitai tradunt_, etc.? _In profundo_: Dem. [Greek: en bytho], cf. II. 32.
The common trans. "well" is weak, "abyss" would suit better. _Institutis_:
[Greek: nomo] of Democritus, see R. and P. 50. Goerenz's note here is an
extraordinary display of ignorance. _Deinceps omnia_: [Greek: panta
ephexes] there is no need to read _denique_ for _deinceps_ as Bentl., Halm.
_Circumfusa tenebris_: an allusion to the [Greek: skotie gnosis] of
D