[3.30.1] Sunt omnia, ut dixi, facilia naturae: Cross-referencing NQ 3.27.2 supra. Nature later in the NQ will be equated with fate, vis illum naturam vocare, non peccabis; hic est ex quo nata sunt omnia (NQ 2.45.2) and such things are easy for natura because everything is connected, nullius rei finis est, sed in orbem nexa sunt omnia, fugiunt ac sequuntur; diem nox premit, dies noctem…, Ep. 24.26.
utique a primo facere constituit, ad quae non subito sed ex denuntiato venit: Because these events were planned from the beginning (a primo, cf. Ben. 2.11.4: a primo usque ad extremum), it is that much easier. ex denuntiato = “after due warning”, cf. Ep. 79.18: idem fuit, sive ex denuntiato videbatur, sive inparatus ac subito. One may see some tension here because natura should not be able to make a sudden decision (subito), if it is analogous to fate (see Dial. 11.11.1 and notes to the various constituta naturae at 3.16.3 and 3.29.4 supra). The personification of Natura is strong here and makes her into a sort of judge (note the legal language of constiuit and ex denuntiato).
iam autem a primo die mundi, cum in hunc habitum ex informi unitate discederet: iam autem = “Indeed, already…”, cf. NQ 4b.10.1. For other descriptions of the first day of the world, cf. Lucr. 2.1105-1117, Verg. G. 2.336-42, Ovid Met. 1.5-88. For the expression dies mundi, cf. Luc. 5.181-82 of the Sibyl, non prima dies, non ultima mundi, / non modus Oceani, numerus non derat harenae, 8.292, Prop. 3.5.31: sit ventura dies mundi quae subruat arces with the comments of Heyworth and Morwood 2011: ad loc. In de Otio, Seneca muses on how his cogitatio asks about what is beyond the visible cosmos: qualis sit habitus exclusis, informia et confusa sint… (see Williams 2003: ad Dial. 8.5.6) and also of the original differentiation of physical bodies: quis fuerit universi status, antequam singula in partes discederent (Dial. 8.5.5). When writing of Plato’s forms, Seneca posits, formam: haec est habitus et ordo mundi, quem videmus, Ep. 65.9. informi unitate is Seneca’s take on Ovid’s Met. 1.5-6: ante mare et terras et quod tegit omnia caelum / unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe and 1.17-18: nulli sua forma manebat, / obstabatque aliis aliud. Obviously the flood should be looked at as an agent of transformation in both Ovid and Seneca.
quando mergerentur terrena decretum est: quando takes the subjunctive as part of this indirect question (A&G 573-75). mergere has been used of the flood at 3.27.7 and will be used again at 3.30.4. See the note on 3.pr.12 supra on decreto dei, and cf. 2.35.2: sic ordinem fati rerum aeterna series rotat, cuius haec prima lex est, stare decreto, 6.13.2.
ne sit quandoque velut in novo opere dura molitio: ne sit is a negative purpose clause, “in order that, whenever it happens (quandoque), it is not tough work, as in a new endeavor”. molitio = “effort, labour” (OLD 4), but it is also used of construction (for which in novo opere is fitting). What is ironic here, is that it is used for the destruction of the world, not its creation (see Cic. N.D. 1.19, 1.23 for its use in the creation of the cosmos). For molitio in NQ, see 6.2.3, and 7.16.1: nec magna molitione detrahanda est auctoritas Ephoro: historicus est.
olim ad hoc maria se exercent: olim = “for a long time” (OLD 2). The personified seas have been practicing for this in the continual ebb and flow of the tides. For the collocation, see Cicero Orat. 99.3: si ad hoc unum est natus aut in hoc solo se exercuit, and Sen. Ep. 121.8: sic infans, qui stare meditator et ferre se adsuescit, simul temptare vires suas coepit, cadit et cum fletu totiens resurgit, donec se per dolorem ad id, quod natura poscit, exercuit. Cf. Ep. 90.46: virtus non contingit animo nisi instituto et decoto et ad summum adsidua exercitatione perducto. Ad hoc quidem, sed sine hoc nascimur…
[3.30.2] non vides ut fluctus in litora tamquam exiturus incurrat?: By contextualizing the reader’s experiences, Seneca transforms this everyday occurrence to something rather more menacing. The waves are made into an attacking force aiming to escape (exiturus) its normal boundaries. For incurrere+in in Seneca in general, cf. e.g. Ep. 7.5.4: Quare tam timide incurrit in ferrum?, Ep. 37.5: Non minus saepe fortuna in nos incurrit quam nos in illam; to describe the action of water, cf. NQ 5.13.1, 6.7.4: aliquando illic amnis excrescat et relictis ripis violentus in obstantia incurrat. Seneca’s use of exiturus may hearken back to 3.pr.14 (see note supra), and can be paralleled at Phaed. 1241-42: recipe me aeterna domo / non exiturum.
non vides ut aestus fines suos transeat et in possessionem terrarum mare inducat?: The action of the tides become that of a general claiming new territory (s.v. OLD 2 for military senses of possessio). transire features again and one may think of its use in the transformations of elements (see 3.10.3) as well as mankind’s own movement across the seas (3.17.1). The idea of natural limits (fines suos) reappears at 4a.pr.1, which may link these two books, see the note on 3.27.10 supra. For the collocation in possessionem…inducere, see Ben. 5.16.4, Ep. 92.32: Hunc [animum] inponere dominio rerum omnium licet, hunc in possessionem rerum naturae inducer, ut sua orientis occidentisque terminis finiat… To lead the sea to the land is the mark of the rich who rejoice in doing things adversum naturam at Sen. Contr. 2.1.13: alii fossis inducunt mare.
non vides ut illi perpetua cum claustris suis pugna sit?: The anaphora of non vides ut concludes here (for non vides repeated twice, cf. Ep. 121.22, Dial. 7.11.1-2). The wind inside the earth likewise struggles against its bonds to cause earthquakes: tum ille quaerens locum omnes angustias dimovet et claustra sua conatur effringere, NQ 6.12.2. For pugna of natural forces, see NQ 6.14.3, 5.12.2: quia non fusus nec per apertum venit sed laborat et iter sibi vi ac pugna parat. For claustra imposed on water, see Verg. G. 2.161-2 and the comments of Thomas 1988: ad loc. “the wording and the personification suggest violence and reaction against violence. The imposing of barriers (claustra) on a natural force, particularly on water, was at best a hazardous undertaking in antiquity”.
quid porro?: A common question in Seneca that introduces a further point or question, cf. NQ 4b.13.2, 6.2.8, 1.15.1.
istinc tantum unde tumultum vides metus est, e mari et magno spiritu erumpentibus fluviis?: One needs to move beyond the senses and the calls of non vides ut and vides here will be shown to offer only part of the story. The idea that there is more to fear than what can first be observed is revisited at 6.1.4-6.2.8 about fearing earthquakes. At 3.27.12, the survivors’ fear (metus) was transformed to stupor, and 3.pr.13 also discusses bad fortune as tumultus. Seneca recalls previous moments to stress the intellectual growth that has occurred as part of reading this work. Perceptive readers know that water is under our feet as well as in the rivers and seas (NQ 3.12.1-3.13.2, 3.15.1-8, 3.19.1-4, passim) and it will come up again and again in the work to remind the reader (5.14.2, 5.15.1-4, 6.7.1-6, 6.8.1-5). Rivers burst forth with “great force” (magno spiritu, 3.3.1, 3.7.3, 3.15.8, cf. 6.8.3 of the Nile), as they are impelled by the spiritus inside the earth, cf. NQ 6.16.1, 6.25.1, 2.9.2-3. Such a sight was often worthy of veneration in its own right: magnorum fluminum capita veneramur; subita ex abito vasti amnis eruptio aras habet, Ep. 41.3. For the larger movement ex oculis ad rationem, see Williams 2012: 232-41.
[3.30.3] ubi non umorem natura disposuit, ut undique nos cum voluisset adgredi posset?: Again there is a sense that the personified natura has a will (voluisset) and at some point will want to attack (aggredi, OLD 3) mankind. Even disponere can have military overtones of stationing a force in position. The stores of water underground everywhere will allow nature to attack “from all sides” (undique). Seneca has natura disposuit at NQ 2.1.3, Ep. 94.57, Ep. 78.7, Ep. 29.9, Dial. 12.10.5. Seneca stresses how death attacks us similarly: ingenti itaque animo mors provocanda est, sive nos aequo vastoque impeto aggreditur, sive cotidiano et vulgari exitu, NQ 6.32.3.
mentior nisi eruentibus terram umor occurrit: The first person adds a personal element to this observation and is further marked by the moral tone of the statement, esp. the mention of avaritia. For mentior nisi, a collocation only found in Seneca and [Quint.], cf. Ep. 106.5, Ep. 118.6. The use of a form of eruere here (and later in this sentence) is meant to recall the opening of the work, see the note on NQ 3.pr.1 supra. Manilius (5.523-24) writes of mining, quaerere sub terris aurum furtoque latentem / naturam eruere omnem orbemquen invertere praedae and Seneca has mining on his mind here as well.
et quotiens aut avaritia nos defodit aut aliqua causa penetrare altius cogit, eruendi finis a liquido est: avaritia is ever-present in Seneca’s works, see Motto 1970: 31. For additional examples in the NQ, cf. NQ 4a.pr.18, 1.pr.6, 5.15.2-4. defodere can be “to bury” or “to cause to send (men, beasts) underground” (OLD 1a and 1b). Seneca has a negative attitude towards mining in his works, cf. Dial. 12.9.2 for mining (auri argentique venae eruuntur), Ep. 94.57, NQ 1.17.6, 5.15.1-4 (where he plays with the idea of mining = being buried alive and features forms of defodere and eruere, 5.15.3). For more on Seneca’s attitudes toward mining and this passage, cf. Williams 2005b: 418-22. aliqua causa could be the sinking of foundations or other civil engineering projects, but I wonder if it could also signify the mental movement underground that the reader of this book of the NQ undergoes. It also looks back to the preface where the purpose of the work is explained as causas secretaque eius eruere, 3.pr.1. penetrare altius then could have philosophical or metaliterary resonance, cf. OLD 4 for penetrare = “to penetrate with the senses or intellect” and Ep. 94.44 for an additional use of penetrare altius. Death, another finis, will lead us all underground at Herc. F. 674: locis in quae omne mersum penetrat humanum genus. The “end of digging” (eruendi finis) might be caused by water (for the reading a liquido, see Alexander 1948: 292), but it also indicates the end of such mental “searching out” (OLD 2) in this book, where the end is the deluge. For the deep mines that the Greeks and Romans favored, the engineers had to deal with the water table and Pliny mentions how water was pumped from a mine at all hours (Nat. 33.97). The connection with water is more than just for show, but was an important element of mining, see Craddock 2008.
adice quod inmanes sunt in abdito lacus et multum maris conditi, multum fluminum per operta labentium: Seneca sums up many of his ideas from this book and utilizes select language from earlier to do so, for adice see 3.7.3, for in abdito see 3.28.4 and 3.14.3: abdita est virium ratio. For the rivers slipping underground through hidden locations, see Verg. G. 4.365-7: ingenti motu stupefactus aquarum / omnia sub magna labentia flumina terra / spectabat diversa locis, and Ovid’s Jupiter who swears on the rivers of the underworld before destroying mankind in the flood at 1.188-89: perdendum est mortale genus: per flumina iuro / infera sub terras Stygio labentia luco! There may even be some word play with inmanes evoking manes “ghosts”, and Seneca has a similar pun (manibus for “hands” / “ghosts”) at Tr. 192-93 (see Fontaine et al. 2018: xix-xx). In the innocuous flooding of the Nile the hidden fields are a most beautiful sight (illa facies pulcherrima est cum iam se in agros Nilus ingessit: latent campi opertaeque sunt valles, oppida insularum modo extant, NQ 4a.2.11.
[3.30.4] undique ergo erit causa diluvio: The book, with its insistence on the pervasive presence of water both in its elemental form and manifested in springs, rivers, swamps, etc. has been leading to this moment to explain that the cause of the diluvium will come from all sides (undique – note how this word is highlighted at 3.30.4, and 3.30.5). undique resonates with the various forms of unda and verbs with unda as a root found throughout the flood passage (e.g. undare 3.28.6).
cum aliae aquae subterfluant terras, aliae circumfluant: He does not mention the water flowing from above in the form of precipitation, focusing instead of the water flowing under the earth (his only use of subterfluere) and encircling it (usually thought to be the ocean, cf. Phaed. 1162-63: quidquid Oceanus vagis / complexus undis ultimo fluctu tegit, Oed. 504, Dial. 6.18.6, Dial. 12.20.2, see Wright 1995: 58-60). subterlabere appears at Verg. E. 10.4 and G. 2.158 provides the image of rivers running under walls (subter labentia).
quae diu coercitae vincent, et amnes amnibus iungent, paludibus stagna: Although these waters have been “bound, confined” (OLD 2), they will be victorious. Military imagery once again enhances Seneca’s writing as often captives were bound (Liv. 1.40.6, Sen. Ben. 5.20.2): now the (previously) conquered will prevail and yoke together different waters. iungere itself has military resonance of both joining together forces (OLD 6) as well as the yolk of subjection, iugum (OLD 2). The word order amnes amnibus…paludibus stagna joins together isosyllabic words (amnes, stagna) with rhyming dative plurals. paludibus stagna alludes to the end of Ovid’s flood when Jupiter sees that Deucalion and Pyrrha are the sole survivors, cf. Met. 1.324-26: Iuppiter ut liquidis stagnare paludibus orbem…vidit. Ovid revisits it when his Pythagoras describes the changes that occur on earth over time: Met. 15.269: stagnata paludibus ument. Both of these moments from Ovid’s Metamorphoses are important to this book of the NQ and their presence may indicate Seneca's desire to encompass all of Ovid's epic in this opening book of the NQ.
omnium tunc mare ora fontium implebit, et maiore hiatu solvet: The use of forms of mare, os, fons makes this resound with the opening quotation of Vergil from 3.1.1 supra: fontem superare Timavi, / unde per ora novem vasto cum murmure montis / it mare… (A. 1.244-46) and the imagery is reminiscent of Ovid’s Met. 1.281-82: hi [amnes] redeunt ac fontibus ora relaxant / et defrenato volvuntur in aequora cursu and Met. 15.273-76 (which Seneca quoted at 3.26.4 – note forms of hiatus and os). While os is common as a source of water, the mouth imagery is furthered by the use of hiatus (OLD 3). It personifies the waters in such a way that it appears the mouths of fountains are drowning at sea. This leads to his subsequent analogy with the human body in the following sentence. Seneca writes of Scylla: rabidos utero succincta canes, / omnis pariter solvit hiatus? (Med. 352) and of Charybdis (magno hiatu profundoque navigia sorbentem, Dial. 6.17.2). hiatus is frequently used of earthquakes by Seneca, Dial. 6.26.6, 12,7.4, Ben. 7.20.4, NQ 6.2.4, 6.9.2.
quemadmodum corpora nostra deiectu venter exhaurit: See Hine 1996: 67-68 for this reading. deiectio is the common word for diarrhea, but deiectus must be Seneca’s neologism. The idea of the belly somehow draining the body through diarrhea gives the idea that somehow the body itself is dissolving into excrement. Seneca makes a brief mention about diarrhea at Ep. 120.16 and a mention at NQ 2.59.11 may be purposeful parallelism by Seneca: quid ergo? honestius putas deictione perire quam fulmine? The analogy here then becomes concrete at the conclusion of the work as a whole and is part of Seneca’s consolatio about death. Harper 2017: 72-91 mentions the just how common diarrhea must have been as a cause of death during the Roman empire, effecting rich and poor alike, “In the letters of Marcus [Aurelius], we catch glimpses of the fevers and diarrheas that laid low so many little scions of the imperial line, and a Stoic father tried by misfortunes” (74).
quemadmodum in sudorem eunt vires, ita tellus liquefiet: The loss of sweat is equated with the loss of strength just as the water rushing to the surface of the earth makes it lose its integrity. For sweat as indication of weakness, cf. Ep. 11.2: quibusdam etiam constantissimis in conspectus populi sudor erumpit non aliter quam fatigatis et aestuantibus solet, Ep. 51.6. Food becomes vires through digestion at Ep. 84.6. Seneca’s only other use of liquefacere is about the possible discovery of ore smelting: cum incendio silvarum adusta tellus in summo venas iacentis liquefacta fudisset (Ep. 90.12).
aliis causis quiescentibus, intra se quo mergatur inveniet: It is unclear why the other causes may die down or be halted (quiescentibus), but Seneca stresses that even without excessive precipitation or tidal height, the earth has enough water within it to cause the flood. intra se = “by itself, alone” (OLD 7c), cf. Ben. 2.31.1, Ep. 113.5. mergatur looks back to 3.30.3 and 3.27.7.
sed magis omnia coitura crediderim: Seneca reasserts his own view of the multiple causes working in unison to cause the deluge and the destruction (cf. 3.27.1-2). This also justifies the various reasons he has explored over the course of the last three sections. Not only is Seneca able to flex his rhetorical muscle on this promising material (as with the multiple perspectives of the death of the mullet supra 3.17.1-3.18.7), but he can tie this material to the larger doxography of Book 3 and the larger philosophical outlook of the NQ as a whole. While particular views have their adherents (Berosus, Fabianus, Ovid), Seneca’s stress on multiple causation may echo Epicurean ideas, but without its larger ramifications, see Asmis 1984: 321-30.
[3.30.5] Nec longa erit mora exitii: temptatur divelliturque concordia: Seneca believes the end is in sight. His contemporary era is tantamount to the time of Lycaon (Roma lupa?) and deserves to be purged. concordia is both the proper harmony of the elements and nature, as well as the political dimension represented by the goddess Concordia (see Clark 2007: 54-57, 170-76, passim). This emphasis on the current discord troubling concordia recalls Ovid’s famous oxymoron discors concordia (Met. 1.433), cf. Hor. Ep. 1.12.19: quid velit et possit rerum concordia discors, Luc. 1.98, Man. 1.142, Sen. NQ 7.27.4: tota haec mundi concordia ex discordibus constat. At Ep. 94.46 Seneca quotes a saying of Agrippa’s nam concordia parvae res crescent, discordia maximae dilabuntur (cf. Sal. Iug. 10.6). temptare can be “to put to the test” (OLD 3c), but also may have a stronger valence after exitium and paired with divellere, perhaps “attack” (like a disease, OLD 10). divellere implies strong violence, cf. Phoen. 448: haec membra passim spargite ac divellite, Phaed. 1172-73, NQ 5.18.7, 6.24.6.
cum semel aliquid ex hac idonea diligentia remiserit mundus: Once the world “lets down its accustomed diligence”, the waters will assemble. The mundus once again is personified and granted a type of oversight, possibly like a parent for its children (cf. diligenti nutrimento at NQ 3.27.2 supra). diligentia in this work should be the mark of good scholarship (cf. 5.1.1, 5.14.4, 6.4.2, 7.25.4), or a philosophical outlook (2.59.4), but it can be twisted for meaningless luxuria (4b.13.3). The fact that the “enemy is at the gates” and needs to be diligently watched makes mundus resemble the emperor worried about possible incursions against the empire.
statim undique ex aperto atque abdito, superne, ab infimo, aquarum fiet inruptio: The attack of waters will happen from all sides and from all possible sources. When contemplating attitudes towards death, Seneca writes: quid stultius quam timere nutationem terrae aut subitos montium lapsus et irruptiones maris extra litus eiecti, cum mors ubique praesto sit et undique occurat… NQ 6.2.6.
[3.30.6] nihil est tam violentum, tam incontinens sui, tam contumax infestumque retinentibus, quam magna vis undae: For the construction, cf. Dial. 6.22.3: nihil est tam fallax quam vita humana, nihil tam insidiosum… and the use of nihil est recalls Seneca’s repetition of this at 3.18.1, 3.18.4, 3.18.6 of the dying mullet. The adjectives describing the great power of water insist on its persistent rage (something of an oxymoron for Seneca), but see Ep. 119.2 for natura as “unyielding” (contumax est, non potest vinci, suum poscit), Ben. 7.23.1 for the proverbial violence of rivers, infestum mare for the stormy sea (Ag. 525), incontinens is used of women who can not control their desires (Dial. 2.14.1) – but incontinens sui is a nice Senecan touch with his use of the reflexive pronoun (e.g. Oed. 594: gravis Senectus sibimet). Earlier in this work Seneca described the need of a soul that was contumax and hostile to luxury (luxuriae…infestus), see note on 3.pr.13 supra. Such ring composition heightens the cyclic nature of time as represented by Seneca in this section.
utetur libertate permissa: libertas permissa is a phrase his father used of the oratory of Arellius Fuscus: in descriptionibus extra legem omnibus verbis dummodo niterent permissa libertas, Contr. 2.pr.1. For the use of utor+libertate, see Ep. 25.1: utar libertate tota: non amo illum nisi offendo, and Ep. 88.34 about the soul: quid sit factuturs cum per nos aliquid facere desierit, quomodo libertate sua usurus cum ex hac effugerit cavea. The only other use of libertas in NQ appears at 4b.3.6: inter nullos magi squam inter philosophos esse debet aequa libertas.
et iubente natura: For more on the orders of nature, see Hor. Serm. 1.6.93, Man. 2.562, Luc. 10.238. For nature’s orders in Seneca, see Dial. 6.9.1, Dial. 7.15.7: in regno nati sumus: deo parere libertas est, Dial. 7.24.3: Quis enim liberalitatem tantum ad togatos vocat? hominibus prodesse natura me iubet, Ep. 120.5: natura iubet augere laudanda, nemo non gloriam ultra verum tulit.
quae scindit circumitque complebit: The waters will fill locations that it usually has divided and surrounded. circumit may be meant to recall NQ 3.pr.1: qui mundum circumire constitui and the mental journey of this quaestio. This sort of ring composition would allow the reader to reflect on the way that the ethics of the preface have been contextualized and reflected in the physical investigations of the book. For example this sentence, with its use of language of freedom and compulsion reflects the idea of being free “not by the law of the Quirities, but by the law of nature” (3.pr.16: non e iure Quiritium liberum sed e iure naturae).
ut ignis diversis locis ortus cito miscet incendium, flammis coire properantibus: Another comparison to fire that not only evokes possible connections with ἐκπύρωσις, but also the common observations of the reader (cf. Cl. 1.25.5, NQ 2.14.2).miscere+incendium probably evokes Sinon and the destruction of Troy, see Verg. A. 2.329: victorque Sinon incendia miscet. coire may recall coitura at 3.30.4. Depending on the date of this book, it may recall the fire of Lyon in the late summer of 64 CE (Ep. 91), as well as the great fire in Rome (July 64 CE), but there is no specific evidence that Seneca was still working on this book at that time, cf. Williams 2014 for dating this work and the introduction of this commentary.
sic momento se redundantia pluribus locis maria committent: For redundare in this book, cf. 3.7.4, 3.26.5. Here the overflowing of water from a large number of different areas allow the seas to join together and the verb with its reflexive object nicely embrace all these locations (pluribus locis). For the conjunction of momento and cito, see 3.27.2 supra.
[3.30.7] Nec ea semper licentia undis erit: Seneca begins to conclude his description of the flood and the book itself. Section 3.30.5 likewise began with nec…erit. The libertas (3.30.6) is now called licentia, words that are often contrasted, cf. Quint. Inst. 3.8.48: quae in aliis libertas est, in aliis licentia vocatur, Cic. Dom. 131, Sen. Cl. 1.1.8 with the comments of Braund 2009: ad loc. Licentia in Seneca often has a pejorative sense of unruliness or disorderliness, see Dial. 5.11.3, Ep. 69.5, Ep. 74.19. It only appears elsewhere in the NQ to describe “poetic license” of Ovid (2.44.1), and Ovid himself utilizes it to describe the flood at Met. 1.309: obruerat tumulos immensa licentia ponti. While one might believe the book would end with the end of the world (like his use of a clausula at Ep. 77.20), Seneca frustrates such an expectation and resurrects the world in the final section of this book. This encourages the reader to move into NQ 4a and see its discussion there as a continuation of some of concerns of NQ 3 (compare the way Ovid often bridges book divisions in the Metamorphoses).
sed peracto exitio generis humani, extinctisque pariter feris, in quarum homines ingenia transierant: The extinction of humans and animals are equated, especially since humans had taken on the characteristics of beasts. For the importance of ingenium to Seneca’s philosophical and literary project, see Graver 2014. Seneca similarly compares the behavior of men and beasts at Ep. 107.7: et fera nobis aliquo loco occurret et homo perniciosior feris omnibus, and Phaed. 558. exitio generis humani recalls NQ 3.27.1 (ad exitium humani generis), which bookends Seneca’s portrayal of the flood. The idea that humans had “crossed” into the behavior of animals not only recalls Lycaon’s transformation into a wolf (eadem feritatis imago est, Met. 1.239), but also the way that Seneca wrote of fish crossing to land and humans migrating at 3.17.1 supra.
iterum aquas terra sorbebit: Cf. NQ 3.7.2, Ovid Ars 2.352: terraque caelestes arida sorbet aquas. The flood waters recede and the terrestrial waters assume their previous locations.
iterum pelagus stare aut intra terminos suos furere coget: The land compels the sea to no longer overflow its borders but remain within its usual limits. Cf. 3.27.1 and 3.28.3 for the position of the pelagus during the flood. The phrase intra terminos suos was used by Seneca the Elder in recounting Alexander the Great’s exploits at Suas. 1.3: Aliquis etiam magnitudini modus est; non procedit ultra spatia sua caelum, maria intra terminos suos agitantur. It will be employed later in this work to describe a foreign king who wishes to expand his kingdom, 5.18.12: unde scio an nunc aliquis magnae gentis in abdito dominus, fortunae indulgentia tumens, non contineat intra terminos arma, an paret classes ignota moliens? (and see 5.18.10: parum est intra orbem suum furere).
reiectus e nostris sedibus in sua secreta pelletur oceanus: The ocean returns to its position encircling the land (cf. Dial. 6.18.6). See NQ 5.14.3: aliquod apertum ad hos efflatus iter occupent et per hanc cavernam in nostras sedes efferantur. While in sua secreta here probably indicates the “haunts” or “recesses” that the water of the ocean occupies (OLD 2), secreta is an important word for the NQ and the investigation that the reader must take on, see note on 3.pr.1 supra, 1.pr.3: illam [rerum naturam] non ab hoc parte video qua publica est, sed cum secretiora eius intravi, and 6.5.2.
antiquus ordo revocabitur: Variations of the phrase antiquus ordo appear in Lucretius 2.900 (of atoms) and Ovid Fast. 2.47 (of the calendar, see Robinson 2011: ad loc.), but it is not used elsewhere of an “ancient age” (but see the following note for more). Seneca will write about how Nature orders the course of heaven: quemadmodum ordinet mundum, per quas annum vices revocet, Ep. 93.9 and this yearly cycle is a microcosm of the larger cycle of world destruction/rebirth. For the idea of palingenesis of the cosmos, see Ep. 36.11 and Barnes 1978. See Hahm 1977: 194-95 and Long 2006: 261-63 about how this regeneration was key to Aristotle as well.
[3.30.8] omne ex integro animal generabitur: The conjunction of ordo with ex integro are meant to recall Vergil Ecl. 4: ultima Cumaei venit iam carmina aetas; / magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo (note how Seneca corrects the archaic ab integro, see Coleman 1977: ad loc.). Vottero 1989: ad loc. and Parroni 2002: ad loc. both note the Vergilian allusion. Seneca draws upon one of the most famous accounts of eternal recurrence and finds the promise of the Vergilian Golden Age quickly is tarnished. For more on exact recurrence see Campion 1994: 181 and Adamson 2015: 71-72; it is possible that Seneca recycles Vergilian language in order to show how these very words will reappear in the future (according to the “hard” version of such exact recurrence). Vergil himself had done something similar with intertexts to Catullus 64 in Eclogue 4 and internal repetitions of language in Eclogue 4. For the Golden Age of Ecl. 4, see Leach 1974: 216-32, Owen 1989: 77-88. For a modern take on eternal recurrence, see Nietzsche The Gay Science aphorism 341 (“The Heaviest Weight”) which discusses this idea. For the previous destruction of omne animal in the cataclysm, see Dial. 6.26.6: necabitque omne animal orbe submerso. For generabitur, see NQ 3.29.5 supra.
dabiturque terris homo inscius scelerum: dabitur terris echoes Verg. A. 10.583: nunc belli finis et aevi / his dabitur terris. This Golden Age man is ignorant of crimes, a commonplace of the peaceful Golden Age, see Ovid Met. 1.89-112, Phaed. 559-62, and the survey of Blundell 1986: 156-60. Seneca elsewhere questions if ignorance is the same as innocence, cf. Ep. 90.46 and Van Nuffelen and Van Hoof 2013 for discussion. Note that Vergil’s description mentioned possible sceleris vestigia nostri, Ecl. 4.13.
melioribus auspicîs natus: For the phrase melioribus auspiciis, cf. Verg. A. 3.498-99 and Sen. Ep. 91.14: sint utinam diuturna et melioribus auspiciis in aevum longius condita! Seneca will write specifically about auspicium at NQ 2.32.3-2.34.3, but here it is probably more of a sense of “fortune” or “luck” (OLD 5), cf. Dial. 4.13.2: facilis est ad beatam vitam via: inite modo bonis auspciis ipsisque dis bene iuvantibus. Note the words of the chorus of the Thyestes, who see a different sort of cosmic cataclysm: o nos dura sorte creatos, / seu perdidimus solem miseri, / sive expulimus! (Thy. 879-81). For more on connections with Thyestes, see Volk 2006.
sed illis quoque innocentia non durabit, nisi dum novi sunt: Seneca’s Golden Age is short. For the difficulty of maintaining innocence in Seneca, cf. Dial. 2.4.3: rem difficilem optas humano generi, innocentiam, Dial. 4.9.2, 9.15.1, Cl. 1.1.5 with the comments of Braund 2009: ad loc., NQ 5.18.9.
cito nequitia subrepit: For the way that vices creep in, see Ep. 90.6: sed postquam subrepentibus vitiis in tyrannidem regna conversa sunt, and Ep. 7.2: tunc enim per voluptatem facilius vitia surrepunt. Seneca rails against nequitia often in his works, see Dial. 3.16.3, 3.19.5, 4.9.1, Ep. 75.15, Ep. 104.20. At Ben. 1.10.1 he basically says this is always the case and vice is always rampant among mankind, whereas NQ 7.32.1 states that it is still developing (nondum tota se nequitia protulit; adhuc nascitur). subrepit may echo the movement of rivers on land (repunt, NQ 3.23.1). The mentioning of nequitia here strongly connects this moment with the conclusion of his preface to this book: nihil est autem apertius his salutaribus quae contra nequitiam nostrum furoremque discuntur, quae damnamus nec ponimus (3.pr.18). The pessimism of this conclusion leads the reader to question her progress and understanding of the material, much like the plague at the conclusion of Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura. For more on the quick “fall” of mankind in Seneca, see MacGillivray 2017.
virtus difficilis inventu est, rectorem ducemque desiderat: A strong sententia, further modified by an additional consideration. Seneca has been stressing what has been easy for nature to do (3.27.2, 3.30.1), but virtus is difficult to discover. For a similar use of this supine in Seneca, cf. Ep. 90.30: nihil enim dignum inventu iudicasset quod non erat dignum perpetuo usu iudicaturus. The need for a teacher of virtus makes it that much harder to find in as much as virtus can not exist without philosophy (Dial. 7.25.5-6, Ep. 76.6, Ep. 89.8, Ep. 90.3, Ep. 123.16). For the relationship between virtus and vitia vis-à-vis education, cf. Ep. 50.7: virtutes discere vitia dediscere est. For the combination of rector and dux, see Ep. 65.23: Deus ista temperat, quae circumfusa rectorem secuntur et ducem.
etiam sine magistro vitia discuntur: Intratexts to 3.pr.10 (vitia domuisse) and 3.pr.18 (use of discuntur), strongly tie this conclusion to the preface. Seneca does this to connect the flood, even if it, at times, seemed to be a deviation, to the physics and ethics of the larger book. The phrase sine magistro appears at NQ 4b.3.3. For the way that vice is learned even without a teacher, cf. Ep. 97.10: ad deteriora faciles sumus, quia nec dux potest nec comes deesse, et res ipsa etiam sine duce, sine comite procedit. Non pronum est tantum ad vitia, sed praeceps…
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