[3.4.1] Primum: The first topic to be considered is how the earth supplies enough water for the various rivers and springs.
ad continuandos fluminum cursus: Seneca uses continuare in a different sense of the Nile at 4a.2.8 continuatis aquis, but here it indicates “to renew without a break” TLL 4.724.39). Seneca the Elder writes that descriptions of fluminum decursus (Cont. 2.pr.3) were typical in certain suasoriae, but the genitive of flumen + cursus is first found here and repeated at 3.14.3.
terra sufficiat: sufficere used intransitively with ad+gerund/gerundive as at Dial. 7.16.3: Quid ergo? Virtus ad beate vivendum sufficit?; or Ep. 94.52: quaeritur deinde an ad faciendum sapientem sola sufficiat.
tantum aquarum: tantum will often take a partitive genitive (A&G 346).
miramur: The sense of wonder here is stressed, as at numerous points in the NQ when discussing natural phenomena such as rainbows (mira arte naturae, 1.3.4), lightning (2.31.1), and earthquakes (6.4.1). This discussion of earthquakes leads to Seneca’s impassioned rationale for studying the natural world (nosse naturam, 6.4.2), whose reward is hominem magnificentia sui detinet nec mercede sed miraculo colitur (6.4.2). Both Plato (Theat. 155c-d) and Aristotle (Metaphysics 982b) posit that philosophy begins with a sense of wonder, cf. Nightingale 2017: 39-49 and Smith 2016: passim. Lucretius’ discussion of the constant size of the sea is the first in his catalogue of natural wonders and is introduced with mirantur (6.608). Lucretius’ meteorological account stresses the marvelous throughout, cf. Bakker 2016: 109-27. See Callebat 1988 for more on the tradition of mirabilia aquarum, Beagon 2011 for an attempt to differentiate between Pliny’s terrestrial wonders and Seneca’s meteorological phenomena, and Williams 2012: 43-4, 116, and 219-51 for Seneca’s attempts to rationalize such wonders with a “rhetoric of necessity”. For miror quod+subjunctive indicating that it is a supposed/alleged reason and Seneca is not necessarily endorsing it, cf. Woodcock 240.
accessionem fluminum: accessio can have negative connotations in Seneca (of fever, Ep. 85.12; of rage, Ben. 2.14.3), but can also simply mean an addition or accession (OLD 3).
maria non sentiant: For similar language, cf. Ep. 92.24: virtus enim tantum bonum est ut istas accessiones minutas non sentiat, brevitatem aevi et dolorem et corporum varias offensiones. Seneca describes the wonders of the world in a similar manner at Dial. 1.1.2: ut infusa vallibus maria molliant terras nec ullum incrementum fluminum sentiant. This is an old problem discussed by Xenophanes Diels 21 B 30; Aristophanes Nub. 1290-6; Aristotle Mete. 225b20-25, 354b1-18; Pliny Nat. 2.166 on veins of water that regulate its volume; Lucr. 5.261-72 gives his view of how water perishes and is recreated and, at 6.608-38, he writes of the constant size of the sea. Vergil’s Neptune, as god of the sea, feels any storm (emissamque hiemem sensit Neptunus (A. 1.125). Seneca distinguishes here between the seas (for the Romans, usually the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian) and the Ocean, as at Med. 755 (cf. Hine 2000: ad loc.). The use of sentire here and below, of the earth, not only personifies these elements, but will help lead the reader to the larger analogy of the earth as living being and the Stoic belief that the cosmos is living, cf. D.L. 7.139 “the entire cosmos too, being an animal and alive and rational”.
aeque mirandum est: Seneca signals the move from a common topic of meteorological treatises to a less-studied one by the use of the passive periphrastic. This structurally similar clause points out the reciprocal nature of the process of waters pouring into the seas and the repercussions of their removal from the earth.
quod: Here with the indicative (sentit) indicating that the statement is regarded as fact, and quod should be translated as “that, the fact that” (A&G 572).
detrimentum exeuntium: Seneca also uses detrimentum with the gen. at Dial. 7.4.3: magno temporis detrimento and here it is acting as the opposite of accessio. Exeuntium picks up on exeat in the opening sentence of NQ 3.4.1.
terra non sentit: The casual personification of the sea and earth feeling such losses and additions is restated at NQ 3.8.1: quos quid miraris si terra detractos non sentit, cum adiectos maria non sentiant?
quid est quod: Although this is a common phrase, it may make the reader recall the quid est praecipuum of the preface, cf. 3.pr.10 supra. The phrase introduces a relative clause of characteristic (A&G 535).
illam aut sic impleverit: Seneca will later write of the sea’s own veins quibus impletur atque aestuat (3.14.3), but here illam = terram.
ut praebere tantum ex recondito possit: praebere here indicating “to provide” (OLD 4). ex recondito = “from its hidden supply”. Note how Ovid has the river Inachus “hidden away” (imoque reconditus antro / fletibus auget aquas, Met. 1.583-4) in a passage that describes rivers running into the sea.
aut subinde sic suppleat?: The slight difference hinges upon the verbal action of impleverit vs. suppleat. subinde indicates the action is happening “repeatedly, constantly” (OLD 2), and Seneca picks up on the sub prefix as well as the alliteration to choose supplere “to make up for (a loss)” (OLD 3). While implere gives the sense of water having poured (perfect subjunctive) into the hidden reservoir, the use of supplere (present subjunctive) makes it sound as if the waters are below the reservoir and regularly filling them up from below (which Seneca’s “veins” theory, and elemental transmutation may support, cf. NQ 3.10). Cato used both verbs when discussing how to steep oil jars in which implere indicates the initial filling of the jar and supplere is used when one has to “top off” the jar (Agr. 69: Amurca inpleto dies VII, facito ut amurcam cotidie suppleas).
quamcumque rationem reddiderimus: The phrase ratio+reddere “to give an explanation/reason” is common throughout Latin literature (OLD 5b) and Seneca will use it occasionally (9 times) in the NQ (e.g. 1.1.7: Aristoteles rationem eiusmodi reddit; 3.26.1).
rivorum ac fontium: Seneca distinguishes between large rivers (fluminis) and smaller streams (rivus). While the origin of rivers and streams may be seen as commensurate, a spring (fons) may be considered a different classification. Vitruvius treats river water (8.2.6) separately from spring water (8.3.1-3), but Seneca wants to show that the same explanation (eadem) can be held for all terrestrial waters.
