[3.26.1] Aestate quaedam flumina augentur, ut Nilus, cuius alias ratio reddetur: Seneca continues his miscellany of curious qualities by mentioning rivers that rise in the summer and possible reasons for such a rise. The Nile, as so often in this first book, is set aside for its own treatment “elsewhere” (alias) in NQ 4a. For more on the flooding of the Nile there, see Gross 1989: 148-83, Berno 2003: 111-44, and Williams 2012: 93-135. It is especially notable that the Nile rises slowly from July through August and September and usually is said to reach its maximum on the first of October (Leonard and Smith 1942: ad 6.712).
Theophrastus est auctor in Ponto quoque quosdam amnes crescere tempore aestivo: Fr. 211D (Fortenbaugh). This is the final mention of Theophrastus in NQ 3. At NQ 4a1.1 when mentioning the Nile’s summer flooding, Seneca writes that philosophers also note the Danube is fuller in summer – could Theophrastus be behind that statement? Sharples 1998: ad loc. is reticent about the rivers in the Pontus, although he claims this statement may have been part of Theophrastus’ On Waters (cf. Steinmetz 1964: 287). At NQ 1.8.7 Seneca will write about summer using the plural temporibus aestivis. He mentions the Pontus again at NQ 3.29.8, where it will lose its name in the final flood – these rivers in spate during the summer could presage such destruction.
quattuor esse iudicant causas: Gross 1989: 140 believes Theophrastus is one of the philosophers who make up the third person plural subject of iudicant, but Sharples 1998: ad loc. is doubtful.
aut quia tunc maxime in umorem mutabilis terra sit: Earth may be particularly mutable during the summer because of the idea that the heat could “melt” the earth and it would become liquid, much like metals (NQ 3.15.3). By this moment in the book, Seneca has stressed often the mutability of earth (3.9.3, 3.101, 3.15.6) and he will do so one final time during the flood (3.29.4). All four reasons for summer flooding will be redeployed in the final flood.
maiores in remoto imbres sint, quorum aqua per secretos cuniculos reddita tacite suffunditur: For use of the neuter substantive of remotus, cf. Sen. Ben. 7.1.15: ex remoto spectantibus and Tac. Ag. 19.5: in remota et avia. Seneca has cuniculus mean “channels for water” at Dial. 5.21.3 (of Cyrus diverting the Gyndes river into a number of smaller channels), mine shafts (Ep. 94.58, NQ 5.15.4), and a military technique to undercut walls (Dial. 2.6.4, Ep. 49.8). Lucretius mentions the possibility that rains at the source of Nile would cause the flood (6.729), which was a theory of Democritus (Aetius 4.1.3, D.S. 1.38.4-7). Although Seneca earlier believed that rainwater is unable to support rivers (3.6.1-7.4), his belief in the various veins and underground channels would seem to support the secretos cuniculos that could transport water from one place to another (for the importance of “secret” information in the NQ, see note on 3.pr.1 supra). cuniculus is used by Pliny to mean channels for underground rivers (Nat. 3.6, 6.128 – of the Tigris, which Seneca will subsequently discuss infra) and was the terminology used for underground drainage systems in Rome (Walsh 2013: 97).
[3.26.2] si crebrioribus ventis ostium caeditur et reverberatus fluctu amnis restitit, qui crescere videtur quia non effunditur: The ability for winds to do this is also posited as a possible reason for the rising of the Nile (NQ 4a.2.22-25 – a theory that Seneca discounts). Seneca’s language there recasts this passage: reverberatus in se recurrit nec crescit, sed exitu prohibitus resistit (4a.2.22). Seneca links his discussions in this manner and we can see the way that he carefully constructs his larger treatise by such repetitions. In addition, the plugging up of a river’s mouth can also be found in the flood description (3.27.10). Seneca also likes to use effundere as a metaphor for speaking style (cf. Ep. 40.2, Ep. 100.2).
quarta siderum ratio est: “The fourth reason [for flooding] takes the stars into consideration”. Seneca reports that Berosus (3rd C. BCE Babylonian author) believes the great flood will occur when the stars align in a certain manner (see note on NQ 3.29.1 infra), but this explanation takes into consideration an aspect of Stoic physics.
haec enim quibusdam mensibus magis urgent et exhauriunt flumina: The Stoics believed the stars absorbed exhalations from the earth (SVF 1.501, 504; SVF 2.421, 2.650, 2.663, 2.1145; NQ 5.8.1, NQ 7.21.2 Cic. N.D. 2.15, 3.37 and Pease 1958: ad loc.). The rising and setting of various constellations will influence the amount of water that will be used for fuel for the stars – as such, it is another example of the sumpatheia between heavenly bodies and the mundane world (for more on this, see Jones 2003: 340-42). Herodotus writes about the sun’s influence on the summer flooding of the Nile (2.24-26) and Aristotle of the sun’s ability to create changes in water (Mete. 354b24-355a32). In that same section, Aristotle maligns those philosophers who believed the sun was nourished by water vapor (possibly an idea that originates in Heraclitus). Seneca will return to the idea of the earth and its exhalations as nourishment for the rest of the cosmos at NQ 2.5.1-2. See Sambursky 1976: 167-68 for more on this idea in Stoic thought.
cum longius recesserunt, minus consumunt atque trahunt: For the supplement, see Hine 1996: 60 who remarks that Seneca rarely uses atque before consonants and, when it does, it is for the sake of rhythm. adtrahunt can be paralleled at NQ 5.10.4 in a similar context. Once again, an idea introduced in Book 3 comes to the fore in a later book.
ita quod impendio solebat, id incremento accidit: “And so that which was accustomed to cause a reduction turns out to cause an addition”. impendium = “cost, outlay” (OLD 2) and accidere should be understood with solebat (see Hine 1996: 60). When certain constellations are further away, the river will have a greater volume. The greatest star is the sun and it is what would evaporate the majority of the water on earth, but here Seneca implies that additional stars can counteract that during the summer months (for certain rivers). Seneca writes of the miraculous incrementum of rivers that rise in summer at Ben. 4.5.3: ex quibus quaedam aestatis diebus mirabile incrementum trahunt, ut arida et ferventi subiecta caelo loca subita vis aestivi torrentis irriget. That passage is part of a larger reverie about the gratitude one owes to god/natura.
[3.26.3] Quaedam flumina palam in aliquem specum decidunt et sic ex oculis auferuntur: Seneca has already alluded to this above (broadly at NQ 3.8-10), but the numerous rivers of the Mediterranean (and beyond) that disappear openly (palam) into caves is common to such karstic landscapes such as the famous Melissani Cave in Kephalonia 
. The three famous rivers who do this are the Lycus, Erasinus and Tigris (all of which Seneca will name infra), and Pliny additionally remarks on the Timavus in Aquileia, and a river on the Plain of Atinas (Nat. 2.225, cf. Pliny the Younger’s “response” to his father’s observation at Ep. 8.20). Strabo 6.2.9 gives his catalogue of such underground rivers when writing of an underground river near Matauros (Sicily) and the author of Aetna mentions similar disappearing rivers at 116-127, see Goodyear 1965: ad loc. Seneca will mention this phenomenon again at NQ 6.8.2 with similar examples (and as part of a larger discussion about the Nile, cf. Ep. 104.15). See Clendenon 2009: 281-92 for the waters of karstic caves. For more on these underground rivers and their connections to the underworld, cf. Baleriaux 2016.
quaedam consummuntur paulatim et intercidunt: intercidere meaning “to perish, to be destroyed during an action” (OLD 4b) and not intercīdere, although intercīdere is common when discussing waters that are cut off or interrupted (cf. Hirt. Gal. 8.43.4: cuniculis venae fontis intercisae sunt atque aversae).
eadem ex intervallo revertuntur recipiuntque et nomen et cursum: ex intervallo is common in Seneca, e.g. NQ 1.15.12, Ep. 46.2, Ep. 123.9. For the use of revertor here, cf. the note on 3.5.1 supra. If these streams and rivers are often thought of in anthropomorphic ways, then there is a sense of resurrection and rebirth with the river returning and receiving (again) its name. There may be a shade of legal innuendo with recipiunt nomen “to put a name on the list, i.e. to consent to hear a case against a person” (s.v. recipere OLD 7c, cf. Apo. 14.1, Ep. 87.23) For more on such sinking streams, see Clendenon 2009: 265-79. Other sinking streams receive different names when they reappear, cf. Pausanias’ discussion of the Helicon river who becomes Baphyra when it reappears (9.30.8).
causa manifesta est: sub terra vacat locus: Seneca repeats causa manifesta est is at NQ 1.8.6. The legal innuendo continues with causa manifestus (s.v. OLD 1 and 2). vacat locus “space is available” is Erasmus’ correction of vagatur locus. Seneca often writes of such spaces (NQ 6.25.3, Her. F. 673, Phaed. 601 has a different sense but similar collocation). If Seneca is building his case that such underground conduits of water exist, he has been collecting evidence carefully from the underground water as a source of rivers (NQ 3.8-10) to the veins of the earth (NQ 3.15). sub terra becomes a sort of refrain in this book, appearing at 3.9.3, 3.15.7, 3.17.3, 3.24.3, and 3.26.3 as a way for Seneca to stress the subterranean existence of water.
omnis autem natura umor ad inferius et ad inane defertur: By insisting on what happens naturally (natura, abl., cf. NQ 2.24.1: sicut aqua natura defertur), Seneca is able to encourage the reader to understand this as a necessary and expected action. The striking position of natura (as Hine 1996: 60 notes), draws further attention to the natural movement of the water. He will then return to it at 6.7.3: illic [sub terra] quoque aliae [aquae] vasto cursu deferuntur. inferius and inane are both neuter adjectives used substantively (A&G 288). Forms of inferior are found to indicate “further below the surface” elsewhere (cf. Ovid Pont. 4.14.2: siquid et inferius quam Styga mudus habet). Seneca take a Lucretius “buzz-word” (inanis) and shows how such empty spaces are filled (i.e. there is no “void”).
illo itaque recepta flumina cursus egere secretos: agere+cursum is used elsewhere in the NQ of celestial lights (1.15.4 – of fulgora, 6.16.2 – of the sun), but is found infra at 3.26.5 about Alpheus/Arethusa (cf. Apo. 7.12 of the river Arar). Vergil utilizes the expression agere+viam when discussing the Alpheus running under the sea at A. 3.695.
Although the manuscripts have secreto (cf. 3.5.1 supra), I accept the conjecture secretos (cf. 3.26.1 supra) of Castiglioni 1921.
perrupta parte quae minus ad exitum repugnabat, repetiere cursum suum: Seneca will describe how such obstacles can even create greater force to the water at NQ 6.17.1-2 and he will write about the idea that fires underground seek an exit in similar language at NQ 6.9.1: ipse in obvia incurrit exitum quaerens ac divellit repugnantia, donec per angustum aut nactus est viam exeundi ad caelum aut vi et iniuria fecit. See Herc. F. 1081 for a metaphorical use of repetere cursum.
[3.26.4] sic ubi terreno…undis: A quotation of Ovid’s Met. 15.273-76, another moment from the speech of Pythagoras (cf. 3.20.3-6 supra, and Bömer 1986: ad loc.). While Seneca does not mention the Lycus river elsewhere, its disappearing stream may have fed into the Maeander (Hdt. 7.30, a topos that Seneca knows well, cf. Herc. F. 684, Phoen. 606 and esp. Ep. 104.15 where it is paired with the Tigris: ut Maeander, poetarum omnium exercitatio et ludus). Authors such as Vergil (G. 4.367) and Pliny Nat. 2.225 mention it among such disappearing rivers. Seneca’s potatus (Ovid has epotus) recalls his application of that verb at 3.25.3, 3.25.4, and 3.25.11 supra and Seneca likes using potare of rivers (cf. Med. 373, Phaed. 58). Herodotus mentions the underground nature of the Erasinus (6.76). Seneca mentions the Erasinus at Ag. 318, but without any connection to its underground flowing (Tarrant 1976: ad loc. mentions “the rivers described here lacked settled characteristics in Roman poetry”). Likewise, Seneca’s tacito (Ovid has tecto) probably is a way for him to connect this passage to the tacite as 3.26.1 supra and his undis (Ovid has arvis) may link this with the final word of the subsequent quotation of Vergil (3.26.6). It is also possible that Seneca’s memory lapsed, cf. De Vivo 1995. The explorer William Marin Leake proved that waters from caves near Lerna were connected with the Erasinus river by throwing pine cones into the cave and watching them reappear 40 km. to the south in the river (see Kroonenberg 2011: 94-95 for more).
idem et in oriente Tigris facit: Seneca mentions this disappearing activity at Ep. 104.15 and later in the NQ at 6.8.2. Elsewhere he mentions the Tigris as a major river of the east at Herc. F. 1324, Tr. 11, and Med. 723. Seneca uses forms of oriens for the East at NQ 6.23.3, Ben. 1.13.1, and Ben. 7.3.3. For more on the Tigris’ disappearance, cf. Strabo 6.2.9, Pliny Nat. 2.225, and Nat. 6.127-30 (on the Tigris more generally) – Vottero 1989: ad loc. mentions that it is difficult to find the subterranean course of the Tigris today. It is notable that one of the fragments of Nero’s poetry mentions the Tigris, quique pererratam subductus Persida Tigris / deserit et longo terrarum tractus hiatus / reddit quaesitas iam non quaerentibus undas, cf. Tracy 2014: 250. Is Seneca giving a possible reader (Nero) what he wants or is Nero influenced by Seneca’s description?
absorbetur, et desideratus diu tandem longe remoto loco, non tamen dubius an idem sit, emergit: absorbere can be used of water that “engulfs” something (cf. Sen. Suas. 1.9), but here the water of the river is being absorbed (cf. Lucan’s echo of this passage: Tigrim subito tellus absorbet hiatus (3.261). Seneca has longe+remotus elsewhere, e.g. Thy. 113: longe remotos latus exaudi sonos, NQ 5.18.12: nulla terra tam longe remota est quae non emitter aliquod suum malum possit. Although the river emerges again far off, it is clearly the same river (see Pliny’s description of the two times the Tigris moves underground, Nat. 6.128 and Seneca’s own description at NQ 6.8.2: cum videas emergere iterum non minorem eo qui prius fluxerat). emergere is often used to describe the appearance of waters/springs in the NQ (3.19.4, 3.26.5).
[3.26.5] Quidam fontes certo tempore purgamenta eiectant: The sea is said to do this by Pliny (Nat. 2.220) and Curtius mentions such flotsam (8.9.19, 9.10.10). Seneca uses purgamentum of spittle (directed towards Cato the Younger, Dial. 2.2.3: sacrum illud caput purgamentis oris adspersit) and of weeds from a field poorly tended (Ep. 73.16). Seneca wrote earlier of purgatio that occurred at specific times as well (see note on 3.16.2 supra) and the purgamenta aquarum that solidifies around springs (3.25.10).
ut Arethusa in Sicilia: Arethusa is one of the most famous springs in the ancient world. On Ortygia, an island in the middle of the harbor of Syracuse, it was first settled in the 8th C. BCE and colonists may have used this myth to maintain connections with mainland Greece (Paus. 5.7.3 and Ovid Met. 5.493-97 make this explicit). Syracusan coins often featured an image of Arethusa with dolphins surrounding her indicating the miraculous fresh water in the midst of sea water (there were additional outlets of fresh water in the harbor as well). For more on Arethusa in Greek thought, see Larson 2001: 213-15 and for more of the hydrology and use of Arethusa in Syracuse, see Crouch 1993: 94-96, 133-35. Seneca himself writes about it as celebratissimum carminibus fontem Arethusam, nitidissimi ac perlucidi ad imum stagni, gelidissimas aquas profundentem, sive illas ibi primum nascentis invenit, sive inlapsum terris flumen integrum subter tot maria et a confusione peioris undae servatum reddidit, Dial. 6.17.3 (cf. Cicero’s description of it, Ver. 2.4.118 and Mela 2.117). Ovid Met. 5.572-641 is the full story of her transformation and migration from Arcadia to Sicily (cf. Moschus fr. 3 for the “love” story) and Arethusa appears in each of Vergil’s works (Ecl. 10.1, G. 4.344, A. 3.694-96 and Horsfall 2006: ad loc.). She figures as the muse of pastoral poetry at Ecl. 10.1 and her movement from Greece (Arcadia) to Sicily (home to the Greek pastoral tradition) nicely encapsulates Vergil’s own poetic creation of Arcadia (for Arethusa as a source of pastoral song, see Coleman 1977: ad loc. and Clausen 1994: ad loc. [Moscus] Epitaph. Bion. 76-77). See note on 3.1.1 supra.
quinta quaque aestate per Olympia: Counting collectively the four-years between the games, held in July/Augustus = quinta aestate. per Olympia = “during the Olympic games”. Seneca mentions the Olympic games elsewhere at Dial. 1.4.2.
inde opinio est Alpheon ex Achaia eo usque penetrare et agere sub mari cursum, nec ante quam in Syracusano litore emergere: Seneca has opinio est at Dial. 6.19.1, Ep. 102.8, and Ep. 117.6. Seneca often has penetrare of excursions into the underworld (Oed. 918, Herc. F. 831) and utilizes it in connection with water in the NQ at 3.7.3 and 3.30.3. Achaia is the official term for the Peloponnesus and central Greece, established by Mummius after his sack of Corinth in 146 BCE (Seneca mentions it elsewhere often in connection with earthquakes, e.g. Ep. 91.9-10, NQ 6.1.13). Seneca’s language here repeats collocations used earlier whether agere+cursum (cf. 3.26.3) or emergere (like the Tigris in 3.26.4) to show how the Arethusa acts as the most miraculous example of a disappearing and reappearing water. Vergil has Alpheum fama est huc Elidis amnem / occultas egisse vias subter mare (A. 3.694-95) and one can see Seneca’s opinio est as a veritable “Alexandrian footnote” like fama est, see Hinds 1998: 1-5. Seneca seems to be responding to the larger tradition and pointing to his use of the source material (including his own previous writing about Syracuse, Dial. 6.17.2-6) to prove his larger point about not only the plausibility of underground waters more generally, but also the specifics about the expulsion of purgamenta.
ideoque his diebus quibus Olympia sunt, victimarum stercus secundo traditum flumini illic redundare: In the 5th C. BCE the Olympics were held over five days. Under Roman rule, the Olympics had been reduced to a relatively local affair, but Augustus invested in the games and Nero (after Seneca’s death) notoriously postponed the games, added musical competitions, and combined it with other competitions so he could compete in 67 CE (Suet. Nero 22-24). He is said to have won 1,808 victories. It was traditional for a hekatomb (the sacrifice of one hundred oxen) to be given to Zeus during the games and the conical Altar of Zeus was made from the ashes of previous sacrificial victims (see Miller 2004: 113-28 for a description of the festival). Some of the waste produced by the sacrifice was apparently deposited in the river (a tributary borders the temenos on the west and the river itself is directly south of Olympia). This waste, flowing downstream (secundo flumini, OLD 2), subsequently appeared in the fountain of Arethusa (illic). Strabo 6.2.4 warily transmits the story of the muddy appearance of Arethusa during the Olympics, and Pliny concurs that it smells of dung during the Olympic games (31.55). For the sensory onslaught of Roman sacrifice, see Weddle 2013.
[3.26.6] hoc et a te creditum est, ut in prima parte, Lucili carissime: For creditum est, cf. note on 3.25.11 supra. It is not uncommon for Seneca to label his addressee carissime, e.g. Dial. 9.4.1 (Serenus), Dial. 10.18.1 (Paulinus), Dial. 12.14.1 (Helvia), see note on 3.1.1 supra. Lucilius is present in Sicily as procurator and Seneca will “move” him to Egypt at the beginning of 4a.1.1 (see Williams 2012: 116 for the way “the wonders of Sicily (mirabilia, 4a.1.1) are trumped by those of Egypt (cf. miracula, 4a.2.6) in Seneca’s treatment of the sublime Nile”). This sort of communication between Greece and Sicily in some way is then trumped by the subsequent journey from Sicily to Egypt. The self-citation to the opening of the work proper not only ties Lucilius strongly to Vergil, but also works to create ring-composition between this moment and the quaestio under consideration. If the reader at the start of the book wondered about the plausibility of such subterranean rivers, now near the conclusion of his deliberation about terrestrial waters (from 3.27 until the end may be considered an epilogue in its discussion of the flood), the reader should find such a possibility easy to believe. The book's construction, then, can be paralleled in Book 6 with the opening about the death of sheep and cleaving of a statue and his subsequent discussion and explanation of those phenomena near the end of that book (6.1.3 ~ 6.27.1-6.30.1).
et a Vergilio, qui adloquitur Arethusam: For adloquor to introduce a quotation in Seneca, cf. Ep. 98.9.
sic tibi…undam: Ecl. 10.4-5. These lines stress that Arethusa’s waters are pure and not contaminated by the “bitter/salty sea [Doris]”. See 3.2.1 supra for use of amarus to describe water, an apparent Vergilian coinage, cf. Clausen 1994: ad loc.
est in Chersoneso Rhodiorum fons qui post magnum intervallum temporis foeda quaedam turbidus ex intimo fundat, donec liberatus eliquatusque est: The Rhodian Chersonesus is actually in Caria (north of Rhodes) and near to Idymos (see NQ 3.19.1 supra). Seneca writes of the magnum intervallum between Stoic sages (Dial. 2.7.1) or the creation of a phoenix (Ep. 42.1). He will write about the way the Nile, when running turbulentus leaves behind its sediment on the land (4a.2.9) and see infra at 3.26.7. See note on 3.11.2 supra for Seneca's use of ex intimo. liberatus eliquatus creates an evocative sonic parallelism that emphasizes how its expulsion of foeda leads to its cleanliness. Seneca use of foedus in this book moves from the fish found underground (3.19.1), to fountains causing skin disease (3.25.11), to the Cattle of the Sun (3.26.7 infra). Its only subsequent appearance is to describe Hostius Quadra’s disgraceful activities (1.16.3: foeda dictum sunt). Pliny writes that this fountain expels purgamenta every nine years, cf. Pliny Nat. 31.55.
[3.26.7] hoc quibusdam locis fontes faciunt: The hoc is anticipatory and sets up the following ut clause (A&G 297e, Ker 2011: xliv).
ut non tantum lutum sed folia testasque et quidquid putre iacuit expellant: Because many springs are actually resurgences from underground rivers, they can be impregnated by seepage, mud, and other detritus. One can imagine the sherds from broken water vessels appearing from upstream sources. The natural material would especially be present during seasonal floods (note how Seneca observes that the sources of Scipio’s bath became paene lutulenta during a rain storm, Ep. 86.11). Da Vinci noted in his Codex Leicester “A spring may be seen in Sicily which at certain times of the year discharges chestnut leaves in large quantity. Since chestnut trees do not grow in Sicily, this spring must issue from some lake in Italy and then pass beneath the sea and afterwards find outlet in Sicily” (Sheet 6A, folio 31v). See Crouch 1993: 74-75 for more on how karst terrain influences such a hydrological system.
ubique autem facit mare, cui haec natura est ut omne inmundum stercorosumque litoribus inpingat: Pliny attests to this occurring particularly at high tide (Nat 2.220). Seneca uses inpingere with litus elsewhere (cf. Ep. 4.11: quae [nos] in aliena litora impingunt) and the verb is often used to mean “to drive or dash (a ship onto rocks/the shore)” (OLD 2c). The adjective stercorosus “full of dung” personifies the sea as a living creature expelling waste like the earth at NQ 5.4.2 (immundius). The expulsion of flotsam and jetsam and even corpses makes the sea “pure” and a fit substance for purification ceremonies, see Beaulieu 2016: 32-36. Lapini 1993-94 finds Seneca’s description evocative of the Homer’s description of the sea as ἀτρύγετος.
circa Messenen et Mylas fimo quiddam simile turbulenti vis maris profert: For more on the reading turbulenti vis maris, see Parroni 2001: 149-50. fimum = “dung, manure”. At 3.11.2 and 3.11.4 supra, Seneca has mentioned vis with water (springs and rivers, respectively). Pliny mentions these two cities as well, Nat. 2.220 (with the idea that the Cattle of the Sun were stabled there) and it is clear that both are relying on the same source (cf. Parroni 2002: ad loc.). Messana is on the northeastern tip of Sicily and Mylae a promontory (and small city) on the north coast of Sicily, directly west of Messana (see map in introduction). Mylae was mentioned as an unusually fertile place in Theophrastus H.P. 8.2.8 and there may have been a cult there to Phylacius, the herdsman of the Cattle of the Sun (cf. Schol. Hom. Od. 12.301). It is notable that these marvels are in Sicily (like Arethusa) and may have been observable by Lucilius himself. Strabo (6.2.3) mentions that Charybdis (which Seneca urges Lucilius to observe at Ep. 79.1) is near Messana and wreckage from shipwrecks is carried down the coast and gives it the name Kopria (“Refuse”). The excrement-like material (fimo quiddam simile) is probably volcanic in nature from the Lipari islands north of Sicily (see Lucchi et al. 2013). Williams 2014: 140 connects the dots between the NQ and Epistulae Morales to point out that the composition of NQ 3/4a would be compatible with Ep. 14, where Lucilius is already said to be in Sicily (Ep. 14.8: cum peteres Siciliam, traiecisti fretum), having crossed near (but not too near!) Charybdis.
fervetque et exaestuat non sine colore foedo: The boiling nature of the water suggests the volcanic activity, cf. 3.24.3 supra (of Baiae). Ag. 560-61 has forms of these verbs to describe the storm at sea and Ovid Met. 14.48 describes this water as ferventes aestibus undas.
unde illic stabulare Solis boves fabula est: Homer’s Cattle of the Sun appear in Ody. 12.127-41, 262-69, 320-98 (see Heubeck and Hoekstra 1989: ad 260-402), and they will reappear in Apollonius 4.964-78, and Appian 5.116. Seneca mentions Homer elsewhere in the NQ about Neptune’s epithet “earth-shaker” (Ἐνοσίχθονα, 6.23.4), about the island of Pharos (6.26.1), and he appears sporadically in his other prose works (e.g. as father of philosophy at Ep. 88.5-6, quoted at Ep. 63.2, as a source of Ennius at Ep. 108.34).
[3.26.8] sed difficilis ratio est quorundam: While difficulis ratio is common in Cicero (e.g. Clu. 23, Agr. 2.5), Seneca does not use it elsewhere. Here at the conclusion of the potpourri of phenomena dealing with terrestrial waters, Seneca admits certain wonders are difficult to explain. I wonder if Seneca chooses quorundam with an eye to wordplay with unda.
utique ubi tempus eius rei, de qua quaeritur, inobservatum seu incertum est: For the reading of seu instead of sed or vel, see Shackleton Bailey 1979: 451-52. utique ubi “Particularly when” can be found elsewhere in Seneca, see Dial. 9.2.10, Ep. 109.10, and NQ 2.27.2. A sort of “response” to this line can be found at 3.27.2 where nihil difficile naturae est, utique ubi in finem sui properat. Here inobservatus means “haphazard, not subject to rules” (OLD 2). For the importance of such observation for events such as comets, cf. NQ 7.3.1.
itaque proxima quidem inveniri et vicina non potest causa: proxima causa (“immediate cause” OLD 9) and vicina causa (“related cause” OLD 5b) define further influences on the phenomenon and draw upon Seneca’s thoughts about causation elsewhere, cf. Ep. 19.6: qualem dicimus seriem esse causarum ex quibus nectitur fatum, Ep. 87.31, NQ 6.20.1 (and Cicero Fat. 41 on “immediate/proximate” causa). In the NQ, Seneca will often posit numerous possible causes for an event in a way commensurate with Epicurus’ “multiple causation” (see Inwood 2006: 183). As Williams writes about the importance of doxography in demystifying phenomena in general: “The effort to explain counts for so much: hence Seneca’s indulgent attitude to past investigators, their main contribution lying in their pioneering spirit (cf. 6.5.2); and hence his coverage even of theories with which he disagrees, theories that nonetheless contribute to the collaborative historical effort from the Pre-Socratics onward that Seneca represents and updates in 6.6-26.” (Williams 2012: 231).
ceterum publica est illa: ceterum = “apart from these exceptions, however that may be” (OLD 5c). illa is anticipatory “the following explanation is common to all”. publicus in Seneca is often divorced from its political dimension and has a sense of “common to all” or “general”, cf. Dial. 11.14: princeps, qui publicum omnium hominum solacium est, Ep. 70.2: publicus finis generis humani, Ep. 9.9, Ep. 33.2.
omnis aquarum stantium clusarumque natura se purgat: omnis usually does not take a partitive genitive (A&G 346e) but Seneca seems to like the sound of omnis aquarum – there is a repetition of omnis aquarum…natura at NQ 6.7.3 to indicate all types of water inside the earth. For “standing” water, see 3.3.1 supra.
nam in his quibus cursus est, non possunt vitia consistere: Flowing water does not allow such purgamenta to build up. See NQ 3.19.4 and 3.27.8 for cursus est of moving water. For vitia of water and possible resonances with moral vitia in the NQ see note on 3.pr.10 supra. consistere is often used of water (6.14.1, OLD 1b, 7b) and may foreshadow a later use at NQ 3.28.3: ubi litus…proatum est et pelagus in alieno constitit. If vices can not build up in water provided there is movement, a similar claim can be made for humans, especially if there is no movement of the mind, see Montiglio 2006.
quae secunda vis defert et exportat: Seneca has deferre of water later of the flood taking away people at NQ 3.29.8 and this is its natural motion at NQ 2.24.1: sicut aqua natura defertur. See 3.26.7 for further uses of secundus of a current.
illae quae non emittunt quidquid insedit, magis minusve aestuant: In separating enclosed waters from rivers and springs, Seneca highlights the actions of the tide (aestuant) on these bodies of water, although for small lakes this might also simply imply the movement of waves on the shore (magis minusve). For aestus of the tide in Seneca, cf. Dial. 11.9.6: mare alternibus aestibus reciprocum, Med. 939: anceps aestus incertam rapit. For the verb aestuare of the tides, see TLL 1.5.113.43-65, and note Seneca’s use above 3.14.3. This is Seneca’s only use of magis minusve, but he does have magis aut minus at Ep. 40.11, Ep. 57.6, and Ep. 82.14. Seneca’s understanding of the tides can be found at Dial. 1.1.4 (see Manolaraki 2010: 303-4), Ben. 7.1.5, and is influenced by Posidonius F.214-29.
mare vero cadavera instrumentaque et naufragiorum reliquias alias ex intimo trahit: For the reading, see Hine 1996: 61. Seneca will describe the flood’s effects as tantamount to a naufragium (3.27.7, 3.28.2). For the “remnants of shipwrecks” see Cic. Fam. 13.5.2: cum in eam tamquam e naufragio religias contulisset, Livy 28.39.3: ad conciliandas reliquias naufragii nostri misistis, cf. 33.41.9), Sen. Contr. 8.6.1: illic iste naufragiorum reliquias conputabat. Seneca often utilizes shipwrecks as metaphors and imagery, see Armisen-Marchetti 1989: 141 and the excellent analyses of Jones 2014: 413-25, and Berno2015b: 287-96). He introduces the idea of “shipwreck” here and it seems to spur some of his subsequent usages in the flood passage (3.27.7, 3.28.2). Strabo 1.3.8-9 mentions a “certain catharsis of the sea, through which dead bodies and shipwrecks are cast up by the waves” (trans. Roller 2014) and the fact that this happens at all times, not just during blustery weather.
nec tantum tempestate fluctuque, sed tranquillum quoque placidum purgatur: The ablatives tempestate and fluctu are instrumental with purgatur (A&G 409). For additional collocations involving tempestas and fluctus in Seneca, cf. Dial. 10.18, Ep. 55.2, and Ep. 122.8. As with the previous cola, it seems as if Seneca is introducing this vocabulary in part to augur the flood and the purification of the earth there (et fluctum ultra extremum tempestatis maximae vestigium mittunt, NQ 3.28.3). Seneca writes of the tranquil and placid sea at Tr. 199-201 and often uses these adjectives to discuss the wise man, see Dial. 9.2.4 (fitting for de Tranquillitate Animi in general) Cl. 1.5.5, 1.13.1, Ep. 32.4, and Setaioli 1988: 97-107. Williams 2012: 128 comments on the world-body analogy at this moment “this vision of natural self-cleansing in 3.26 offers a suggestive reflection of human bodily function”.
******
******
