Anxia præcipiti venisset epistola penna.

But the expression of the poet is evidently figurative. It is true, an ancient writer informs us in one instance, that as news were good or bad, a laurel or a feather was ordered to be fixed on the letter, which conveyed the intelligence. These authors have mentioned the figure of Egeria with greater reason, who is represented with a pen in her hand. Beckmann, however, supposes the pen to have been added by a modern artist.

Ver. 13. Nigra quod infusa vanescat sepia lympha. The Romans seem to have employed several different kinds of ink. Some used the juice of the cuttlefish: others soot mixed with a liquid. The Romans also occasionally coloured and gilded their letters. See Pliny and Dioscorides.

Ver. 16.

at cur non potius teneroque columbo

Et similis regum pueris, &c.

I do not think the reader will understand this passage the better from Casaubon's note, which, however, if he think fit, he may consult. The manner in which the pigeon feeds its young, suggested the comparison which Persius makes.

Poscis; et iratus mamma, lallare recusas? The word pappare here signifies to feed.

I am doubtful if, in following Casaubon, I have not ill translated lallare, in the next verse. He thus expresses himself. Irati autem infantes lallare recusant ; hoc est, dormire nolunt, cum eos sive mater, sive nutrix in cunis collocatos, provocat ad somnum cantillando. But I am rather inclined to think lallare signifies to suck; and thus it was originally understood. The meaning of the whole passage then is." O wretch! and every, day more a wretch! are you then come to this pass? But why do you not rather, like a pampered child, or like a creature incapable of doing any thing for itself, desire that they would feed the poor little bantling, and then quarrelling with mamma, refuse to suck. In short, act the child completely over again." In a poeti cal version of an ancient and obscure author, I have sometimes found, that to give the spirit of the original, was the best thing, that could be done; and not unfrequently, that it was the only thing, that could be done.

Ver. 20.

-tibi luditur: effluis amens.

Contemnere, sonat vitium percussa, malignè

Respondet, viridi non cocta fidelia limo.

Udum et molle lutum es, nunc, nunc properandus, et›

acri

Fingendus sine fine rota.

The whole of this passage, is (to use the words of Dryden) insufferably strained. I have ventured to change the metaphor.

Ver. 25.

et sine labe salinum.

I am not satisfied with the explanation of Casaubon. He says, sali vis inest contra putredinem: inde purum vicant poetæ, &c. But Persius alludes here to the brightness of the salt-cellar, which even at the tables of the poor was generally made of silver.

Vivitur parvo bene, cui paternum

Splendet in mensa tenui salinum.

Even in decrees, by which the gold and silver of private persons were confiscated for the use of the state, and the precious metals were forbidden to be converted into plate, the salt-cellar was excepted. See Livy, xxvi. 36. Without this explanation, it is impossible to understand what Horace means by the word splendet, in the verses quoted above.

Ver. 26.

Cultrixque foci secura patelli.

It was a custom religiously observed by the ancients, to make an offering of part of their meals to the household gods, before eating any thing themselves. In every house there was a small and perpetual fire, which burnt in honour of Vesta. It was into this fire that the consecrated meat was thrown. This custom was at least as old as Homer:

- Θεοῖσι δὲ θυσαι ἀνώγει

Πάτροκλον ὃν ἑταῖρον ὁδ ̓ ἐν πυρὶ βάλλε θυηλάς.

The patella was a small but wide dish used in these domestic sacrifices.

Ver. 29.

-vel quod trabeate salutas? Suetonius says, there were three different kinds of the trabea: one consecrated to the gods, entirely of purple: another appropriated to kings, of purple and white: a third worn by the augurs, of purple mixed with scarlet. But it appears from Tacitus that the Roman knights also wore the trabea. Tacit. iii. Ann. 2. Rubenius says, existimo trabeam non forma, sed solo colore à vulgari paludamento et chlamyde differre: and afterwards, igitur censeo trabeam fuisse chlamydem albam, purpura prætextam, et insuper clavis aut trabibus è cocco distinctam, a quibus trabea dicebatur. Ferrarius justly remarks upon this : confundit, minime ferendo errore, Rubenius chlamydem cum trabea.

Ver. 46.

non sano multum laudanda magistro. One of the commentators and translators of Persius has the following curious note on these words. "This does not mean, that the master was mad, but that, in commending and praising such puerile performances, and the vehemence with which he did it, he did not act like one that was in his right senses." I cannot tell if this gentleman knew his own meaning, he certainly did not even guess at that of Persius. The Stoics admitted that man only to be wise, who understood and practiced their philosophy; and in the language of their sect, all other men were non sani. The meaning of Persius therefore is, that the dying speech of Cato, who was a

Stoic, was much extolled by the schoolmaster, who nevertheless did not understand it, and had never followed the wise injunctions it contained.

Ver. 48. Jure; etenim id summum quid dexter senio ferret Scire erat in voto; damnosa canicula quantum Raderet.

Who was the inventor of gambling? St. Chrysostom says, it was the Devil. Considering the consequences of this vice, St. Chrysostom's guess is not a bad one.

Learned men are not agreed about the form of the dice used by the ancients. Freigius and Polydore Virgil say, that the tessera had six sides, and the talus four; but Dempsterus and Beroaldus say the very reverse. The ancients gave names to all the throws at the dice. One was called after a hero; another after a goddess; and a third after a courtezan. Venus was the fortunate throw, or rather that repeated. Thus Propertius, Me quoque per talos Venerem quærente secundos. See also the words of Augustus in Suetonius.

Ver. 53.

Porticus.

braccatis illita Medis

The portico is here put by metonymy for the philophers who taught in it. This portico was the famous Ποικίλη 500, which Pausanias informs us, was adorned with statues and pictures. Among those which he describes, was a painting representing the battles between