The Extant Works of Macrobius, Vol. 2

wait for you to advance through these things alone, for the learning of which you yourself diligently keep watch, but I also act so that I may read for you as well; and whatever has been elaborated by me, either while you were already brought into the light or before you were born, in the various volumes of either the Greek or Roman language, let all that be a store of knowledge for you, as if from a certain pantry of letters, so that if ever the need arises to recall either a history which lies hidden in the pile of books unbeknownst to the common crowd, or a memorable saying or deed, 3 it may be easily found and brought forth by you. Nor have I gathered things worthy of memory in a disorderly fashion, as if into a heap; but the disparity of various matters, confused by different authors and times, has been digested into a certain body, so that those things which I had annotated indistinctly and promiscuously for the aid of memory might come together into an order coherent like the members of a body. And do not hold it against me if I explain the things which I shall borrow from various reading often in the very words in which they were narrated by the authors themselves, because the present work promises not a display of eloquence but a collection of things to be known; and it is fitting that you take it in good part if you recognize the knowledge of antiquity now not obscurely, now faithfully in the very words of the ancients, just as each thing suggests itself either to be narrated or translated. For we ought to imitate bees, which wander about and pluck flowers, then arrange whatever they have brought back and distribute them through the combs, and...

2. promoveas] "Old ed. te promoveas. But there is no need for the addition of te, because promovere, i. e., to progress, also occurs simply, as in Gell. V, 10 [7]: When he had progressed abundantly in the study of eloquence." Zeun.

quasi de quodam litterarum peno] Gellius N. A. Pref. § 2, which passage Macrobius had before his eyes when he was writing this, wrote quasi quoddam litterarum penus, so there is certainly no reason why we should follow the editions in which there is penu rather than the manuscript books. Cf. on this word Klausen. Aen. n. d. Pen. II. p. 636 sqq.

clam vulgo est] i. e., it escapes the common crowd. Cf. I, 4, 1: quod .. clam veteris esse velis; VI, 7, 3: quod ea de quibus ambigis clam te esse non pateris. Handius Turs. II, p. 93 teaches that the formula clam te est for it escapes you is read among the comic poets and indeed in Terence in one Hecyra (II, 2, 19; III, 4, 10; IV, 1, 53; IV, 2, 1).

3. Nec indigeste cet.] With these words he opposes his own method to that of Gellius, which is explained in the place cited.

variarum rerum disparilitas .. in quoddam digesta corpus est] The word disparilitas is owed to Gellius in the place cited § 3, where see Lion, who cites the same VII, 3, 47 and Varron. L. L. IX, 2 § 36; the hypallage rerum disparilitas .. digesta est is not his.

4. Nec mihi vitio vertas cet.] Certain learned men did not grant him this indulgence, whose unfair judgments I have written down in the prolegomena p. LVIII.

noscendorum] i. e., of things worthy to be known.

si notitiam vetustatis .. recognoscas] One might expect either "if you have a knowledge of antiquity," or "if you recognize the opinions of antiquity noted for yourself," or something similar. Then, to not obscurely and faithfully, a participle like set forth or something similar should have been added. Cf. Comm. I, 18, 17: quia profectum ulterius non requirit, where ulterius is to be referred not so much to the verb requirit as to the noun profectum. See note to c. I, § 2.