negleget, iratus quod rem curtaveris; urnae tune bona incolumis minuas? et Bestius urguet cum pipere et palmis venit nostrum hoc maris expers; fenisecae crasso vitiarunt unguine pultes.' haec cinere ulterior metuas? At tu, meus heres o bone, num ignoras? missa est a Caesare laurus 46. clamidens. uictis. metuas' in v. 41 to this line.] 35 40 45 39. Everything is jumbled in the condemnation foreign pepper (5. 55. 136), foreign palms, and foreign notions. palmis, dates.' Quid vult palma sibi rugosaque carica (dixi)' Ov. F. 1. 185, Freund; or perhaps oil, Cato R. R. 113, Jahn. nostrum, of the age. I. 9., 2. 62. maris expers, from Hor. 2 S. 8. 15 Chium maris expers,' not mixed with salt water, which was supposed to make the wine more wholesome (Athen. I. p. 32 D, repeated by Jahn), and so Jahn understands it here. The metaphor from wine would agree with 5. 117, and with the classification with pepper and palms. 'Maris expers = = 'insulsum (Heinrich), so that sapere maris expers' would be an oxymoron. Casaubon takes 'maris' from 'mas,' in which case Persius for your clipping your property: he will put your ashes into the urn in an unfragrant state, resolved to ask no questions, whether it be that the cinnamon has lost its sense of smell, or that the casia has become involved with cherry bark. As if you were going to impair your property and lose nothing in your own person! And Bestius is severe on the Greek teachers, 'That's how it is, ever since this unpickled philosophy of ours came to town with pepper and dates, our haymakers have spoilt their porridge with those nasty thick oils.' Do you mean to say that you would be afraid of this on the other side of the grave? However, my heir, whoever he may be, will perhaps step aside from the crowd and let me say a word to him. My good sir, haven't you heard the news? bays have arrived from the emperor in honour of a signal victory over the Germans; the cold ashes are being shovelled away from the altars; the empress has begun to contract for arms for the temple-gates, and royal mantles, and yellow woollen for the must have intended a pun, as he evidently took the words from Horace. 40. fenisex is the commoner form. crasso.. unguine, an epithet of bad ointment, Hor. A. P. 375, here applied contemptuously to all condiments. vitiarunt; 2. 65, spoilt their good honest meal by mixing it. pultes. 4. 31 note. 41. Would you be afraid of this when you are yourself removed beyond those ashes which are to suffer by the supposed neglect?' 5. 152 'cinis et manes et fabula fies,' note. 41-60. I would address my heir in this way-Here is an occasion of national rejoicing-I mean to celebrate it by an act of patriotic bounty. Do you mean to question my right? I am not obliged to leave you what I have? If you despise it, I can easily get another heir-some beggar, who is what my own ancestors were, and therefore my kinsman even in law.' 42. quisquis eris indicates Persius' own indifference. seductior; 2. 4, 'paulum' with 'seductior' or with ' ' audi? 43. For Caligula's German expedition, see Suet. Cal. 43 foll. He ordered a triumph which was to be unprecedentedly splendid, and cheap in proportion, as he had a right to the property of his subjects -changed his mind, forbade any proposal on the subject under capital penalties, abused the senate for doing nothing, and finally entered the city in ovation, on his birthday. This happened, as Gifford observes, when Persius was seven years' old, so that he may have been struck with it. Perhaps he intended a suppressed sneer at Caligula to glance off on Nero. num ignoras. Surely you have heard the news, and will not wonder at my enthusiasm. laurus, for the laureatae litterae,' or 'laureatae' simply, the letter bound with bay, in which the general announced his victory to the senate. 45. Compare Virg. Aen. 11. 211 'cinerem et confusa ruebant Ossa focis.' frigidus, perhaps alluding to the rarity of such rejoicings. Lubin. postibus, for the temple gates; ‘in postibus arma,' Virg. Aen. 7. 183. So Aen. 3. 287, Aesch. Ag. 579. 46. Caligula chose captives who were to appear in procession, Suet. Cal. 47. gausapa (other forms of which are gausapiae,'' gausapes,'' gausape '), is explained by König, Heinr., and Jahn, of false hair, from the passage 4. 37 (where, however, the word is plainly metaphorical), like the use of vestis' for a beard. From Suet. 1. c., it appears that Caligula 'captivos.. coegit rutilare et submittere comam,' and the provision of false hair would be quite in keeping with the whole of the sham as Persius represents it. Casaubon however refers to Varro, as showing that the Gauls, who were dressed essedaque ingentesque locat Caesonia Rhenos. vac, nisi conives! oleum artocreasque popello 54. sterelis. like the Germans, and actually selected to figure in this triumph (Suet. 1. c.), wore gausapa,' and the dress was not uncommon at Rome, (Ov. A. A. 2. 300, Plin. 8. 48. 73, Mart. 14. 145,) 'gausapum' being a shaggy woollen material, to which the epithet villosum' is applied, and this seems the simpler explanation. 47. esse da Britanna,' Prop. 2. 1. 76, Belgica' Virg. G. 3. 204, common, or considered to be so, to the various barbarians of the West of Europe. ['In Britannia ne ab essedariis decipiaris, caveto,' Cicero to Trebatius then in Britain, Div. 7. 6: essedum aliquod suadeo capias' ib. 7.]. 6 locat may point to the intended cheapness of the display, as of course it does to the fraud, as if the materials were always kept on hand. Caesonia was first Caligula's mistress, afterwards, on the birth of a daughter, his wife, Suet. Cal. 25. Jahn Rhenos, explained by almost all the commentators as 'Rhenanos :' but pictures or images of different parts of the conquered territory were borne in triumph. refers to Ov. A. A. 1. 223 foll. loca, qui montes, quaeve ferantur aquae.. Hic est Euphrates, praecinctus arundine frontem Cui coma dependet caerula, Tigris erit.' So the Nile in the triumphal representation, Virg. G. 3. 28. Thus the pl. is sarcastic. 48. Caligula punished those who did not swear by his genius, Suet. Cal. 27. 'Mille Lares Geniumque ducis qui tradidit illos Urbs habet' Ov. F. 5. 145 of Au 51. audeo. 56. Cliviumque uirbii. gustus, König, Juv. 4. 145., 7. 21, calls Domitian dux,' with like sarcasmperhaps referring to a similar exploit of his, a sham triumph with manufactured captives, Tac.. Agr. 39. centum paria, from Hor. 2 S. 3. 85 Ni sic fecissent, gladiatorum dare centum Damnati populi paria atque epulum,' where it is part of the provision of a will. These displays were not confined to the Emperor, but were sometimes given by private persons, Suet. Claud. 34 ‘ gladiatorio munere vel suo vel alieno,' Juv. 3. 34 Mayor's note, though of course on a scale like this they required princely means. paria, alone, as in Sen. Ep. 7. 4 'ordinariis paribus.' 49. induco. A me autem gladiatorum par nobilissimum inducitur' Cic. Opt. Gen. Orat. 6. 17. = aude, as we should say, 'I dare you.' 50. coniveo, nearly 'concedo,' in connection with which it is used, Cic. Ph. 1. 7, opp. to 'ferendum non puto.' Persius threatens to go further, if his heir blames him. oleum; Caesar gave the people 2lbs. of oil per man, on the occasion of his triumphs, after all his wars were over, Suet. Caes. 38. Nero gave oil to the senate and equites when he dedicated warm baths and gymnasia, Suet. Nero 12, Tac. Ann. 14. 47, König. artocreas, = ' 'visceratio,' according to Stephens' glossary, p. 116, and that of Philoxenus, quoted by Casaubon and Jahn, so that we must suppose bread and meat to have been distributed separately, though prisoners, and chariots, and Rhines as large as life. Well, I am coming forward with a hundred pair in acknowledgment to the gods and our general's destiny for this brilliant advantage. Who's to say me nay? Just try. Woe to you if you don't wink at it! I am to treat the mob with oil and bread and meat. Do you mean to hinder me? Speak out. You won't accept the inheritance, you say? Here is a field, now, cleared for ploughing. Suppose none of my paternal aunts survive me, none of my female cousins on the father's side; suppose I have no female first cousin twice removed in existence, my maternal aunt dies without issue, and there is no representative of my grandmother living, why, I go to Bovillae, to Virbius' hill, and there is Manius an heir ready to my hands. 'What, a groundling?' Ask me who is my great-great-grandfather. . 51. Don't mutter but speak out.' adeo seems to be a verb, adire hereditatem' is a common phrase, 'to enter on or accept an inheritance,' and 'adire nomen' is used for 'to assume a name by will,' Freund s. v., and the sense agrees with what follows-whereas no parallel instance of the adverb adeo' is produced. Perhaps there should be a question at 'inquis ;' 'Do you say, I won't accept?' 52. exossatus ager iuxta est. The early commentators explain exossatus 'cleared of stones,' after the Scholiast, who singularly renders it 'lapidibus plenus,' referring to Ov. M. 1. 393 'lapides in corpore terrae Ossa reor dici :' γῆ ὀστώδης is used by Menander, the rhetorician, (ap. Casaubon) for stony ground. Casaubon and later editors interpret it exhausted, boneless, and hence without strength. Might it be literally cleared of bones,' like the field in Hor. I S. 7, having been once used as a burying-ground, and now prepared for cultivation? In that case Persius will say, 'Here is a good piece of property just by-I can easily find an heir for it.' If we take it exhausted, it will be open to us either to make Persius speak, 'Suppose all I have is a field, and that nearly worn out, I can still,' etc., or to make the heir say, 'That is as good as ('iuxta') spoiling your property for good and all.' [Jahn in his text of 1868 reads 'Non adeo' inquis 'Exossatus ager iuxta est,' making 'adeo' an adverb.] Age si; Hor. 2 S. 3. 117. Ob 33. amita is the aunt' by the father's side, 'matertera' by the mother's. serve that all the supposed relatives named here are females. He actually left his property to his mother and sisters, as appears from his life, which also speaks of a paternal aunt. 54. sterilis.. vixit, 'has died without issue.' 55. Bovillae, between Rome and Aricia (Hor. I S. 5. 1), the first stage on the Appian road, called 'suburbanae,' Prop. 5. I. 33, Ov. F. 3. 667. 56. clivum.. Virbi, mentioned more than once by Martial (2. 19. 3, etc.), as 'clivus Aricinus;' Virbius, the Italian Hippolytus, being the hero of Aricia, Virg. Aen. 7. 761 foll. It was a great resort for beggars, Mart. 1. c., Juv. 4. 117, Mayor's note, and Persius says that one of these is ready to be his heir. Multi Mani Ariciae,' was an old proverb, Fest. 'Manius,' (p. 145 Müller) who appears to understand it of the town in the days of its prosperity, when many great men were there- from this it may easily have passed into a sneer in the altered days of the place, so that 'one of the aristocracy of Aricia' would be synonymous with a beggar. But the name is given to a slave by Cato, R. R. 141. S. V. 57. Progenies terrae, is the heir's comment. You step at once from your relatives to the son of nobody knows who.' "Terrae filius occurs in Cic. Att. 1. 13, 'terrae filio nescio cui,' sit pater: haud prompte, dicam tamen; adde etiam unum, unum etiam terrae est iam filius, et mihi ritu Manius hic generis prope maior avunculus exit. Qui prior es, cur me in decursu lampada poscis? sum tibi Mercurius; venio deus huc ego ut ille pingitur; an renuis? vin tu gaudere relictis? dest aliquid summae. Minui mihi; sed tibi totum est, quidquid id est. ubi sit, fuge quaerere, quod mihi quondam legarat Tadius, neu dicta repone paterna. 'fenoris accedat merces; hinc exime sumptus, 60 65 quid reliquum est?' Reliquum? nunc, nunc inpensius ungue, ungue, puer, caules! mihi festa luce coquetur urtica et fissa fumosum sinciput aure, 58. patres is used generally of ancestry, so Persius calls the great-greatgrandfather (abavus') 'quartus pater.' [Pilumnusque illi quartus pater' Virg. Aen. 10. 619.] haud prompte, dicam tamen, μόλις μέν, ἐξερῶ δ' ὅμως, or something like it, would be the Greek equivalent. Jahn compares Lucan I. 378 invita peragam tamen omnia dextra.' adde etiam unum. 'Demo unum, demo etiam (if this and not 'et item' be the true reading) unum,' Hor. 2 Ep. 1. 46. 59. At last he is a son of earth.' ritu, with generis,' though Jahn separates them, by regular descent.' 60. maior avunculus was the greatgrandmother's brother, magnus' being the grandmother's, and 'maximus' the greatgreat-grandmother's. Freund referring to Paulus and Gaius, Isid. Orig. 9. 6. 17, gives proavunculus.' Persius does not pretend strict accuracy (prope') or he would not only have had to push the relationship several degrees back, but he would have said 'patruus,' not 'avunculus.' 'Avunculus maior' is sometimes used for avunculus magnus,' and 'avunculus' simply for avunculus maior;' see Freund. exit, like evadit,' 'turns out to be,' I. 45 note, though here there seems no definite metaphor. Persius' argument is like Juv. 8. 272, tracing the noble to 68. iam pensius. 63. uins tu. 69. unge. 70 Romulus' gang. Compare also Juv. 4. 98, where the 'terrae filii' are ennobled as little brothers of the earth-born giants. 61-74. Persius continues to his heir, Why wish to succeed before your time? Inheritance is fortune-take it for what it is worth. All I leave will be yours, but mark-it is what I leave, not what I have or have had. Your selfishness only makes me resolved on being selfish too. You would have me save-not only for you, but for your descendants, who are as likely as not to be spendthrifts and profligates.' 61. For the λaμжаdηpoрía see Dict. Ant. prior, 'you who are before me, and whose turn is not yet come.' Jahn seems right in laying a stress on 'in decursu,' 'while I am running,' 'before I have done running.' ['Nunc cursu lampada tibi trado' Varro, R. R. 3. 16.] decursus, as he remarks, is the word for a Roman custom of running in armour at funeral games, Virg. Aen. II. 189. Cicero has decursus mei temporis,' Fam. 3. 2, and decursus honorum,' de Or. I. I. |
