he requests him to send over from Greece Putealia sigillata duo, two embossed Font-lids. Various have been the interpretations of the latter part of this verse. Some suppose the poet to allude to Nero's bullying freaks in which he took care (multa cautus vibice) to have several attendant bravos to defend him. But this interpretation does not harmonize with the text. In the first place, it sup poses the whole passage to be addressed to Nero, to whom verse 47 can hardly be applied. In the next, it is observable that Persius is here mentioning those vices, a consciousness of which, notwithstanding the laudes viciniæ, ought to strike a sense of shame into the person addressed. But these freaks in the Forum were a public grievance, and it would sound somewhat strange to say, "If you kick up midnight brawls and beat the populace, it is in vain that you drink the praises of that same populace with such a greedy ear." The above solution is given by Casaubon. Of all the other solutions which I have yet seen, that of Britannicus seems the most reasonable, and this I have adopted in my translation.

Britannicus (says Koenig) Puteal debitores essc, et multa vibice flagellat pro, molestum esse debitoribus in usuris exigendis, existimat. I see but one objection to this interpretation. This lies in the word cautus and in its particular situation, which would lead us to suppose that the action (be it what it may) expressed by the words multa vibice flagellare Puteal implied caution. But the exaction of usury implies rather covetousnesss than great caution, since in order to gain much in that way, it is necessary to hazard much. Now Vibex, though it properly denote a weal occasioned by stripes, may perhaps by a little poetical licence be extended to signify the Thong or Cord by which those stripes are inflicted. Flagello also, like our word to lash, may I believe mean to bind or tie round. It seems therefore not impossible that multa vibice flagellas intimates the binding down a debtor by many bonds of security. Horace has some thing similar (B. 2. S. iii. 70.) Mille adde catenas: which the old scholiast explains by cautiones et nexus juris. If this conjecture be just (and I offer it as a mere conjecture) the use and position of the

word cautus is peculiarly emphatical.

is the only tolerable one in his book.

Sheridan's note on this verse

52. Nôris is here used as an imperative, as in S. v. 8. The ex pression Tecum habita resembles Horace's, Non horam tecum esse potes, B. 2. S. vii. 112.

NOTES ON SAT. V.

Persius in this satire seems to have had in his eye the philosophical discovery of Stertinius, so humourously enlarged upon by Horace, B. 2. S. iii. where he attempts to shew that all men are mad, the timid-the fool-hardy-the usurious-the avaricious-the profuse-the cruel-the ambitious-the luxurious-the lascivious-and the superstitious. He also sometimes imitates Hor. B. 2. Sat. vii. where honest Davus attempts to convince his master that he was virtually as much a slave as himself.

1. Vatibus hic mos est. See Homer Il. II. 484. Virg. Æn. vi. 625, and elsewhere. The author of the The new Bath Guide has an excellent parody on the above passages:

O, had I a voice that was stronger than steel,
With twice fifty tongues, to express what I feel,
And as many mouths, yet I never could utter

All the speeches my Lord made to Lady Bunbutter.

4. Vulnera seu Parthi, &c. So Hor. B. 2. S. i. 15. in lines which attest those very powers which he is disclaiming, and which 1 have thus attempted in English:

To paint such scenes and paint them as they are,

To roll in verse the thunder of the war,

variety of similar allusions in classical authors. Assuredly this is an ingenious conjecture, and the slightness of the alteration which it proposes would seem to recommend it. Yet there lie two strong objections against it. First it p.oduces a huddle of metaphors, which even from Persius (who, we must confess, is not very nice in this point) we should hardly expect. The goal, put for the finis ultimus as the philosophers called it, is itself a pretty strong figure of speech; what shall we say, then, to the immediate introduction of another figure, by which the winding round this goal is compared to the delicate curvature of a wave? But secondly the whirling of a chariot about a goal bears no resemblance that I can see to what is usually called a wave-like motion.

Perhaps the common reading unde will afford sufficiently good sense. Meta quam mollis flexus, i. e. How smooth and delicate must be the winding about the goal,' et unde, and from what point we are to begin the turn: In other words, in what we are to fix the finis ultimus of life, and how difficult, when fixed, to attain it. If we read with some copies qua instead of quam, which indeed for my own part I prefer, the sense is a little, but not materially altered. Qua will mean what direction we must take so as to steer around the goal; and unde, as before, from what point we must commence the Words of this kind are not unfrequently coupled together, energy is aimed at, as in Hor. B. 2. S II. 18. Unde putas aut qui partum? It is observable that aut in this line is the only disjunctive which occurs in the whole passage, and weakens its cumulative effect. I have ventured to change it into et: or we might read-ordo Quis datus est: metæ, &c. Casaubon's note on this passage is by no means worthy of so sagacious a scholar. After proposing the above interpretation of the word Meta, he tells his readers that, if they like it better, they may take it in the sense of Death, like Virgil's

turn. where

Metasque dati pervenit ad ævi.

He also explains mollis by these words: Qui cito et rapide peragitur. It rather signifies here smooth and fine, or such as requires

consummate address, like Horace's Molles aditus.-One of the English prose translators of Persius proposes to read-qua mollis flexus abunde, which is abundantly absurd. If conjecture may be indulged, which however seems unnecessary, it were better to read the whole line thus:

Quis datus: ut metæ mollis flexura petendæ.

69. Asper nummus, rough, i. e. coined silver. So asper crater not plain, but chased. Ov. Met. XII. 235. The above is from Ainsworth's Dictionary, and confirms Casaubon's note.

73. To modern ears it sounds somewhat harsh to blame the advocate for receiving any acknowledgment from his client. But the following extract from Middleton's excellent Life of Cicero will shew that such monumenta clientis were disgraceful in no small degree. "The business of pleading, though a profession of all others the most laborious, yet was not mercenary, or undertaken for pay: for it was illegal to take money or to accept even a present for it but the richest, the greatest, and the noblest of Rome freely offered their talents to the service of their citizens, as the common guardians and protectors of the innocent and distressed. This was a constitution as old as Romulus, who assigned the patronage of the people to the patricians or senators, without fee or reward: but in succeeding ages when, through the avarice of the nobles, it was become a custom for all clients to make annual presents to their patrons, by which the body of the citizens was made tributary, as it were, to the senate, M. Cincius a Tribune published a law prohibiting all Senators to take money or gifts on any account, and especially for pleading causes." Vol. I. p. 59. Ed. 1750.

77. Gente hircosa, &c.

Here again we must put off the modern : Yet Shakespear's soldier is "bearded like the pard." Owen observes that the shaggy soldier's speech here is something like what Swift puts into the mouth of his smart modern Captain:

Your Noveds and Bluturks and Omurs and stuff-
By my faith I don't value them this pinch of snuff.

*For Ovids and Plutarchs and Homers.

Stobæus has preserved a fragment of Menander which shews that even in the politest age of Athens, the military profession was not considered as it now is, the school of elegance.

Κομψος στρατιώτης, οὐδ ̓ ἂν εἰ πλαττει θεος,

A polish'd soldier not the Gods themselves
Could mould.

79. Bishop Hall has closely copied from this passage in B. 2. Sat. 2.

Tush! what care I to be Arcesilas,

Or some sad Solon, whose deep furrow'd face
And sullen head, and yellow-clouded sight
Still on the steadfast earth are musing pight;
Muttering what censures their distracted minde
Of brainsick paradoxes deeply hath defined !

Long would it be 'ere thou hast purchase bought,
Or welthier wexen by such idle thought.

80. Obstipo capite. So Hor. B. 2. Sat. V. 92. Stes capite obstipo.

83. The antient philosophers stumbled at the idea of pure creation out of nothing. They could admit a former, but not a creator, of the universe.

Horace calls Xenocrates Im

85. Cur quis non prandeat, &c. pransus Magister,' B. 2. S. III. 257.

86. 1orosa juventus; muscular, brawny. So Ovid, describing a bull, says Colla toris extant; the muscles of his neck are promi

nent.

94. Nihil est. So Phædrus in his fable of the Dog and the Wolf: Unde hoc, amice? Nihil est. Dic, quæso, tamen.

97. Jampridem hunc sepeli; tu restas? This is like Horace, B. 1. Sat. IX. 28. Omnes composui. Felices! nunc ego resto. In the next line, Turgidus hic epulis atque albo ventre is also like Ho