“A Problem for Archimedes”

Abstract

Communications “A PROBLEM FOR ARCHIMEDES” To the Editor: The expression ιτρόβλεμα Άρχίμήδιον, “a problem for Archi­ medes,” meaning something very difficult, appears to have been well enough understood in Cicero’s day for him to use it in two letters to Atticus without any explanation. That expression must have survived a thousand years in the Greco-Roman world, since the Byzantine writer Tzetzes, who did not claim direct acquaintance with Cicero, used something similar: “τών Άρχιμήδουζ μηχανών χπείαν έχω.” Lit­ erally, “I have need of the machines of Archimedes,” or more aptly, “I need to be as clever as Archimedes.” There does not seem to be an equivalent expression in any of the languages of Western Europe, although in American there are various expressions about the as­ tuteness of Philadelphia lawyers.1 On the first occasion that Cicero used the phrase, he was complain­ ing to Atticus that he had to give a funeral oration for Cato, one of Julius Caesar’s principal enemies, in the presence of Caesar himself. It was this task he described as “a problem for Archimedes.” Its second use occurred when he informed Atticus that he had resolved the problem. Cicero’s letters in between seem to confirm that he was having this difficulty: “What sort of thing Caesar’s invective against my panegyric will be I have seen from the book which Hirtios has sent me. He has collected all Cato’s faults, but given me high praise.”2 But was it that difficult a task? Plutarch gives a quite contrary impression. He claimed that Caesar had said: “Cato, I grudge you your death, as you have grudged me the preservation of your life.” If Plutarch’s record be correct, then producing a funeral oration could ‘M. T. Cicero, Letters to Atticus, trans. E. D. Windstech (London, 1967), 3:8 (12.15); 166 (13.28). Curiously, the First translation is “a problem for a Philadelphia lawyer” and the second “an insoluble problem.” l'he nearest equivalent is possibly Dr. Johnson’s retort to someone's comment that plaving a certain passage on the violin was difficult: “Difficult, do you call it, sir? I wish it were impossible” (anecdotes bv William Seward, The Penguin Dictionary ofQuotations, comp. J. M. Cohen and M. |. Cohen f London, 1960], p. 211); T. L. Heath. Works ofArchimedes (1897; reprint, New York, 1953), p. xxii (Tzetzes, Chil. 12.270). Heath has no reference to Cicero. -Atticus, p. 83 (12.40). There are other references of a similar kind about Caesar’s critical attitude to Cato in the letters. Permission to reprint a communication in this section may be obtained only from the author. 177 178 D. L. Simms not have been that difficult, since Cicero would have been able to find plenty of words to praise Cato on his principles and Caesar for his proposed clemency. However, if Caesar had spoken those words as Plutarch reported, it is likely that Atticus would have known of them and quoted them back at Cicero. On the whole, Cicero is more likely to be expressing his dilemma accurately than Plutarch’s much later anecdote suggests. He did have “a problem for Archimedes.”3 D. L. Simms Dr. Simms is retired from the United Kingdom Department of the Environment . He thanks George Engle for helpful advice. •‘‘Plutarch's Lives, Dryden's ed., rev. with introduction bv A. H. Clough (London, 19 10; reprint, 1939), 3:82. ...