Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 3.10 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.10
We have also in Posidonius a competent witness to the fact. He writes in one of his letters that Publius Rutilius Rufus, who also was a pupil of Panaetius's, used to say that "as no painter had been found to complete that part of the Venus of Cos which Apelles had left unfinished (for the beauty of her face made hopeless any attempt adequately to represent the rest of the figure), so no one, because of the surpassing excellence of what Panaetius did complete, would venture to supply what he had left undone."
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.10, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/3.10
Cicero, On Duties (De Officiis), tr. Walter Miller (Loeb, 1913). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesAn anecdote comparing Panaetius's unfinished work to Apelles's unfinished Venus: the sheer excellence of what was completed put off anyone from finishing it.
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