8.35 We have various abilities... : The text here appears to be corrupt and the
translation is necessarily uncertain.
8.38 Look at it clearly: The text, meaning and articulation of entries 38 and 39
are very uncertain. Earlier editors printed the opening of 38 as the end
of 37, and took the phrases “Look at it clearly—if you can” and “To the
best of my judgment” as a single unit, though the resulting sentence
yields no coherent sense. I follow J. Dalfen in separating them.
8.39 “To the best of my judgment.. .”: I have placed the entry in quotation
marks on the basis of the opening phrase, which includes a parenthetical
“he [or “someone”] says.” This assumes that the phrase is correctly
transmitted (it is certainly not easy to construe), and that it should be
taken with what follows rather than what precedes, which is far from
certain (see previous note). However, the entry as a whole (an implicit
criticism of the Epicureans’ view of pleasure as the supreme good) does
not strike me as being typical of Marcus’s style, and I suspect he may
indeed be quoting some earlier writer.
8.41 “a sphere.. .”: Empedocles frg. B27, quoted in fuller form at 12.3.
8.57 Its beams get their name... : This (false) derivation is a typical example of
ancient etymology, a science in which the early Stoics were much
interested.
9.2 the “next best voyage”: A proverbial phrase meaning having to row when
one cannot sail.
9.24 “Odysseus in the Underworld”: The reference is to Book 11 of the
Odyssey, in which Odysseus descends to Hades and encounters the
shades of his companions who died at Troy.
9.29 Demetrius of Phalerum: It has been suggested that “of Phalerum” is a later
reader’s (mistaken) addition, and that Marcus had in mind the
Hellenistic monarch Demetrius Poliorcetes (“the city-sacker”). But
there seems no reason to doubt the transmitted text.