oincides with him exactly. And though
the men of your school do this, they do not show sufficient gratitude to
the original discoverers.

VI. But enough of this. Let us now, I beg, consider the chief good, which
contains all philosophy, and see whether Zeno has brought forward any
reason for dissenting from the original discoverers and parents of it, as
I may call them. While speaking, then, on this topic--although, Cato, this
summit of goods, which contains all philosophy, has been carefully
explained by you, and though you have told us what is considered so by the
Stoics, and in what sense it is called so--yet I also will give my
explanation, in order that we may see clearly, if we can, what new
doctrine has been introduced into the question by Zeno. For as preceding
philosophers, and Polemo most explicitly of all, had said that the chief
good was to live according to nature, the Stoics say that three things are
signified by these words: one, that a man should live exercising a
knowledge of those things which happen by nature; and they say that this
is the chief good of Zeno, who declares, as has been said by you, that it
consists in living in a manner suitable to nature: the second meaning is
much the same as if it were said that a man ought to live attending to
all, or nearly all, the natural and intermediate duties. But this, when
explained in this manner, is different from the former. For the former is
right, which you called {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}, and it happens to the wise man alone;
but this is only a duty which is begun and not perfected, and this may
happen to some who are far from being wise: the third is that a man should
live, enjoying all things, or at least all the most important things which
are according to nature; but this does not always depend on ourselves, for
it is perfected both out of that kind of life which is bounded by virtue,
and out of those things which are according to nature, and which are not
in our own power.

But this chief good, which is understood in the third signification of the
definition, and that life which is passed in conformity with that good,
can happen to the wise man alone, because virtue is connected with it. And
that summit of good, as we se