§117. _Vim_: = αναγκην, cf. _cogere_ in 116. _Ne ille_: this asseverative _ne_ is thus always closely joined with pronouns in Cic. _Sententiam eliget et_: MSS. have (by _dittographia_ of _m_, _eli_) added _melius_ after _sententiam_, and have also dropped _et_. Dav. wished to read _elegerit_, comparing the beginning of 119. _Insipiens eliget_: cf. 115 _quale est a non sapiente explicari sapientiam?_ and 9 _statuere qui sit sapiens vel maxime videtur esse sapientis_. _Infinitae quaestiones_: θεσεις, general propositions, opposed to _finitae quaestiones_, limited propositions, Gk. ‛υποθεσεις. Quintal III. 5, 5 gives as an ex. of the former _An uxor ducenda_, of the latter _An Catoni ducenda_. These _quaestiones_ are very often alluded to by Cic. as in _D.F._ I. 12, IV. 6, _De Or._ I. 138, II. 65--67, _Topica_ 79, _Orat._ 46, cf. also Quint. X. 5, II. _E quibus omnia constant_: this sounds like Lucretius, _omnia_ = το παν.
§118. For these _physici_ the student must in general be referred to R. and P., Schwegler, and Grote's _Plato_ Vol. I. A more complete enumeration of schools will be found in Sext. _P.H._ III. 30 sq. Our passage is imitated by Aug _De Civ. Dei_ XVIII. 37. _Concessisse primas_: Cic. always considers Thales to be _sapientissimus e septem_ (_De Leg._ II. 26). Hence Markland on Cic. _Ad Brutum_ II. 15, 3 argued that that letter cannot be genuine, since in it the supremacy among the seven is assigned to Solon. _Infinitatem naturae_: το απειρον, _naturae_ here = ουσιας. _Definita_: this is opposed to _infinita_ in _Topica_ 79, so _definire_ is used for _finire_ in _Orat._ 65, where Jahn qu. _Verr._ IV. 115. _Similis inter se_: an attempt to translate ‛ομοιομερειας. _Eas primum_, etc.: cf. the exordium of Anaxagoras given from Diog. II. 6 in R. and P. 29 παντα χρηματα ην ‛ομου ειτα νους ελθων αυτα διεκοσμησε. _Xenophanes ... deum_: Eleaticism was in the hands of Xenoph. mainly theological. _Neque natum unquam_: cf. _neque ortum unquam_ in 119. _Parmenides ignem_: cf. Arist. _Met. A._ 5 qu. R. and P. 94. He only hypothetically allowed the existence of the phenomenal world, after which he made two αρχαι, θερμον και ψυχρον τουτων δε το μεν κατα μεν το ‛ον θερμον ταττει, θατερον δε κατα το μη ον. _Heraclitus_: n. on I. 39. _Melissus_: see Simplicius qu. R. and P. 101, and esp. το εον αιει αρα ην τε και εσται. _Plato_: n. on I. 27. _Discedent_: a word often used of those vanquished in a fight, cf. Hor. _Sat._ I. 7, 17.