04-10-2019, 11:01 AM
On Numbers and Ages
Ambrose (LETTER XLIV. [A.D.389.])
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/ambros...m#Letter44
3. Wherefore in six days He created the world, on the seventh day He rested from His works. The number seven is good, and we treat it not according to the manner of Pythagoras and other philosophers, but according to the form and divisions of spiritual grace, for the prophet Isaiah has set forth the seven principal virtues of the Holy Spirit. This sacred seven, like the venerable Trinity of the Father Son and Holy Ghost, knows neither time nor order, and is the origin of number, not bound by any of its laws. Wherefore as the heaven the earth and the sea were formed in honour of the eternal Trinity, and also the sun moon and stars, so in like manner we observe that it is according to this sevenfold circle of spiritual virtues, and this swiftly |297 revolving orbit of Divine operation, that a certain sevenfold ministry of planets, whereby this world is illuminated, has been created. And their service is said to agree with the number of these stars, which are fixed, or, as they are called in Greek, a)planei=j 15. The North has likewise received its Latin name (Septemtrio) from being irradiated by seven stars, upon the brightness of which as their guide pilots are said specially to fix their gaze.
12. Let then this number seven be observed by us, seeing that the life of man passes through seven stages to old age, as Hippocrates the teacher of medicine has explained in his writings. The first age is infancy, the second boyhood, the third youth, the fourth adult age, the fifth manhood, the sixth fulness of years, the seventh old age. Thus we have the infant, the boy, the youth, the young man, the man, the elder, the aged.
13. Solon however made ten periods of life, each of seven years; so that the first period, or infancy, should extend to the growth of the teeth, to chew its food, and utter articulate words so as to seem intelligible; boyhood again extends to the time of puberty and of carnal temptation; youth to the growth of the beard; adult age lasts until virtue has attained its perfection; the fifth is the age of manhood, fitted, during its whole course, for marriage; the sixth belongs also to manhood, in that it is adapted to the combat of prudence, and is strenuous in action; the seventh and eighth period also exhibit man ripe in years, vigourous in faculties, and his discourse endowed with a grace of utterance not unpleasing; the ninth period has still some strength remaining, and it speech and wisdom are of a chastened kind; the tenth period fills up the measure, and he who has strength to reach it, will after a full period of years knock late at the gate of death.
14. Thus Hippocrates and Solon recognized either seven ages, or periods of age consisting of seven years. In this then let the number seven prevail;…
*
A. Klotz , Das Geschichtswerk des Alteren Seneca, in Rh, Mus, für
Theologie, I/VI (1901), 429-442, says:
Unter den gelehrten Prunkstücken, mit denen
Vopiscus seine Kaiserbiographien ausgestattet hat, findet sich
auch der Vergleich der römischen Geschichte mit den Lebens-altern.
Among the learned showpieces with which Vopiscus has furnished his emperor biographies, finds himself also the comparison of Roman history with the aging of life.
Vita Cari
Nam si volumus ab ortu Urbis repetere, quas varietates sit passa Roma
respublica, inveniemus nullam magis vel bonis floruisse, vel malis
laborasse. Et, ut a Romulo incipiam, vero patre ac parenti reipublicae,
quae illius félicitas ? qui fundavit, constituit, roboravitque rempu-
blicam, atque turns omnium conditorum perfectam Urbem reliquit ?
Quid deinde Nurnarn loquar ? qui frequentem bellis, et gravidamtrium-
phis, civitatem religione munivit. Viguit igitur usque ad Tarquinii
Superbi tempora nostra respublica, sed passa tempestatem de moribus
regiis, non sine gravi exitio semel ulta est, Adolevit deinde usque ad tem
pora Gallicani belli ; sed, quasi quodam mersa naufragio, capta praeter
arcem Urbe, plus paene mali sensit quam tunc boni liabuerat. Reddidit
se deinde in integrum ; sed eousque gravata est Punicis bellis, ac
terrore Pyrrhi, ut mortalitatis mala praecordium timoré sentiret.
Crevit deinde, victa Carthagine, traus maria missis imperiis ; sed
socialibus affecta discordiis, extenuato felicitatis sensu, usque ad
Augustum bellis civilibus confecta, consenuit Per Augustum deinde
reparata : si reparata dici potest, libertate deposita…
Translation from French:
http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/historiens/.../carus.htm
If we wish to recapitulate the various revolutions undergone by the Roman republic since the foundation of Rome, we shall find that no state can boast or complain of having had a greater number of good or bad princes. And to begin with Romulus, who is the real father and creator of the republic, what happiness does he not enjoy under him, who, after having founded it, ordained and strengthens his power, and who, among all the founders, is the only one who left a perfect city? Shall I then speak of Numa, who fortified by religion this belligerent and triumphant city? Our republic was thus flourishing until the reign of Tarquin the Superb; but if she had to suffer from the tyranny of that prince, she knew how to punish him, at whatever price vengeance was. It then grew until the time of the war against the Gauls; but, submerged as if by shipwreck, Rome being taken, with the exception of the citadel, she felt then perhaps more ills than hitherto she had had no happiness. Subsequently she recovered all her splendor; but the Punic wars, and the terror with which Pyrrhus inspired him, affected him so much that his discouragement reduced him to the last extremities. III. Carthage conquered, it increased still more, and extended its empire beyond the seas; but, weakened by the Social War, having lost to the feeling of well-being, exhausted by civil wars until the reign of Augustus, it was no more than a body worn out by old age. Auguste, however, restores her, if it can be said that he restores her by depriving her of her liberty. Be that as it may, though afflicted within, it flourished outside.
It seems that the French (and English Loeb translation) did not correctly reproduce the symbolic meaning of the latin text.
Ambrose (LETTER XLIV. [A.D.389.])
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/ambros...m#Letter44
3. Wherefore in six days He created the world, on the seventh day He rested from His works. The number seven is good, and we treat it not according to the manner of Pythagoras and other philosophers, but according to the form and divisions of spiritual grace, for the prophet Isaiah has set forth the seven principal virtues of the Holy Spirit. This sacred seven, like the venerable Trinity of the Father Son and Holy Ghost, knows neither time nor order, and is the origin of number, not bound by any of its laws. Wherefore as the heaven the earth and the sea were formed in honour of the eternal Trinity, and also the sun moon and stars, so in like manner we observe that it is according to this sevenfold circle of spiritual virtues, and this swiftly |297 revolving orbit of Divine operation, that a certain sevenfold ministry of planets, whereby this world is illuminated, has been created. And their service is said to agree with the number of these stars, which are fixed, or, as they are called in Greek, a)planei=j 15. The North has likewise received its Latin name (Septemtrio) from being irradiated by seven stars, upon the brightness of which as their guide pilots are said specially to fix their gaze.
12. Let then this number seven be observed by us, seeing that the life of man passes through seven stages to old age, as Hippocrates the teacher of medicine has explained in his writings. The first age is infancy, the second boyhood, the third youth, the fourth adult age, the fifth manhood, the sixth fulness of years, the seventh old age. Thus we have the infant, the boy, the youth, the young man, the man, the elder, the aged.
13. Solon however made ten periods of life, each of seven years; so that the first period, or infancy, should extend to the growth of the teeth, to chew its food, and utter articulate words so as to seem intelligible; boyhood again extends to the time of puberty and of carnal temptation; youth to the growth of the beard; adult age lasts until virtue has attained its perfection; the fifth is the age of manhood, fitted, during its whole course, for marriage; the sixth belongs also to manhood, in that it is adapted to the combat of prudence, and is strenuous in action; the seventh and eighth period also exhibit man ripe in years, vigourous in faculties, and his discourse endowed with a grace of utterance not unpleasing; the ninth period has still some strength remaining, and it speech and wisdom are of a chastened kind; the tenth period fills up the measure, and he who has strength to reach it, will after a full period of years knock late at the gate of death.
14. Thus Hippocrates and Solon recognized either seven ages, or periods of age consisting of seven years. In this then let the number seven prevail;…
*
A. Klotz , Das Geschichtswerk des Alteren Seneca, in Rh, Mus, für
Theologie, I/VI (1901), 429-442, says:
Unter den gelehrten Prunkstücken, mit denen
Vopiscus seine Kaiserbiographien ausgestattet hat, findet sich
auch der Vergleich der römischen Geschichte mit den Lebens-altern.
Among the learned showpieces with which Vopiscus has furnished his emperor biographies, finds himself also the comparison of Roman history with the aging of life.
Vita Cari
Nam si volumus ab ortu Urbis repetere, quas varietates sit passa Roma
respublica, inveniemus nullam magis vel bonis floruisse, vel malis
laborasse. Et, ut a Romulo incipiam, vero patre ac parenti reipublicae,
quae illius félicitas ? qui fundavit, constituit, roboravitque rempu-
blicam, atque turns omnium conditorum perfectam Urbem reliquit ?
Quid deinde Nurnarn loquar ? qui frequentem bellis, et gravidamtrium-
phis, civitatem religione munivit. Viguit igitur usque ad Tarquinii
Superbi tempora nostra respublica, sed passa tempestatem de moribus
regiis, non sine gravi exitio semel ulta est, Adolevit deinde usque ad tem
pora Gallicani belli ; sed, quasi quodam mersa naufragio, capta praeter
arcem Urbe, plus paene mali sensit quam tunc boni liabuerat. Reddidit
se deinde in integrum ; sed eousque gravata est Punicis bellis, ac
terrore Pyrrhi, ut mortalitatis mala praecordium timoré sentiret.
Crevit deinde, victa Carthagine, traus maria missis imperiis ; sed
socialibus affecta discordiis, extenuato felicitatis sensu, usque ad
Augustum bellis civilibus confecta, consenuit Per Augustum deinde
reparata : si reparata dici potest, libertate deposita…
Translation from French:
http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/historiens/.../carus.htm
If we wish to recapitulate the various revolutions undergone by the Roman republic since the foundation of Rome, we shall find that no state can boast or complain of having had a greater number of good or bad princes. And to begin with Romulus, who is the real father and creator of the republic, what happiness does he not enjoy under him, who, after having founded it, ordained and strengthens his power, and who, among all the founders, is the only one who left a perfect city? Shall I then speak of Numa, who fortified by religion this belligerent and triumphant city? Our republic was thus flourishing until the reign of Tarquin the Superb; but if she had to suffer from the tyranny of that prince, she knew how to punish him, at whatever price vengeance was. It then grew until the time of the war against the Gauls; but, submerged as if by shipwreck, Rome being taken, with the exception of the citadel, she felt then perhaps more ills than hitherto she had had no happiness. Subsequently she recovered all her splendor; but the Punic wars, and the terror with which Pyrrhus inspired him, affected him so much that his discouragement reduced him to the last extremities. III. Carthage conquered, it increased still more, and extended its empire beyond the seas; but, weakened by the Social War, having lost to the feeling of well-being, exhausted by civil wars until the reign of Augustus, it was no more than a body worn out by old age. Auguste, however, restores her, if it can be said that he restores her by depriving her of her liberty. Be that as it may, though afflicted within, it flourished outside.
It seems that the French (and English Loeb translation) did not correctly reproduce the symbolic meaning of the latin text.
