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would fancy jackdaw poets and poetess pies to be singing pure Pierian sweetness.

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SATURA I.

'O CURAS hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane!’

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An attack on the corruptions of literature, as symptomatic of corruption in morals, intended as introductory to the Satires, as would seem from the latter part. He is disgusted with the taste of his day, and would have his reader's mind formed on the old models.

The form is that of a dialogue, more or less regularly sustained, between Persius and a friend, who lectures him very much as Trebatius does Horace. Nothing can be decided about the time of the composition of this Satire from its subject. The mention of Pedius, if it proves anything, only proves that passage to have been written late.

The connection between intellectual and moral vigour would naturally be suggested by the Stoic doctrine (Sat. 5), that virtue consists in correct knowledge. With the whole Satire comp. Sen. Ep. 114. I-12. P. Vanity of vanities!' F. You will get no readers if you write like that. P. 'I want none-every one at Rome, princes and people, is-may I say

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4. Nec mihi.

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what?' F. Certainly not. P. But I must have my laugh somehow.'

1. Pinzser conjectures that this line is from Lucilius, on the strength of a notice in the Schol., who says that v. 2 is taken from Lucilius, and may have confounded the numbers. There would certainly be more point in supposing that Persius begins by pitching his voice in Lucilius' key and is interrupted. On the other hand in rebus inane is found in Lucr. 1. 330, 382, 511, 569, 655, 660, 742, 843; 5. 365 (most of them quoted by Jahn), with reference to the Epicurean theory; and it is at least as likely that Persius was alluding to this. 'How great

a vacuum (human) nature admits!'

2. The friend says, Quis leget haec? as Hor. I S. 4. 22 complains of finding no readers. Persius says, Min' tu istud ais? apparently expressing surprise at the address. Nemo hercule! Readers? I want none.' (Jahn. Others give ‘Nemo hercule' to the friend, 'Nemo' to P.)

SATIRE I.

Persius. 'O THE vanity of human cares! O what a huge vacuum man's nature admits!'

Friend. Whom do you expect to read you?

P. 'Was your question meant for me? Nobody, I assure you.' F. Nobody?

P. 'Well-one or two at most?'

F. A most ignominious and pitiable catastrophe.

P. 'Why? are you afraid that Polydamas and the Trojan ladies will be setting their own dear Labeo above me? Stuff! If that

3. Persius repeats his disclaimer, ' One or two, which is as good as none.' Casaubon refers to the Greek phrases, ἢ ὀλίγοι ἢ οὐδείς and ἤ τις ἢ οὐδείς. 'A most lame and impotent conclusion to it all,' returns the friend. 'Why?' asks P.

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4. ne connects the sentence not with ' turpe et miserabile,' but with something similar implied by Quare.' 'For fear that Polydamas,' etc. 'Nae,' which Heinr. prefers, with some of the old commentators, would destroy the sense, the ironical assertion showing that he doubted the fact, and 'ne praetulerint,' 'suppose they were not to prefer,' would be equally inappropriate here, though idiomatic. For 'Polydamas,' two MSS. have 'Pulydamas,' representing Homer's Пovλvdáμas. The reference is to Il. 22. 100, 105, the former of which is quoted by Aristot. Eth. 3. 8, and both of them more than once by Cicero (Ep. Att. 2. 5. 1; 7. I. 4; 8. 16. 2), who applies the name Polydamas to Cato, and also to Atticus himself. Here the expression is particularly pointed; Polydamas and the Trojan ladies' of course stand for the

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bugbears of respectability, the influential classes of Rome: the pride of the Romans as Troiugenae' is glanced at (Juv. I. 100; 8, 181; 11. 95), while the women are dwelt on rather than the men, ̓Αχαιίδες, οὐκέτ ̓ ̓Αχαιοί [comp. (with Mr. Pretor on Cic. ad Att. 1. 12) Cicero's Teûkpis, in all probability a nickname for C. Antonius.] To crown all, there is an allusion to Attius Labeo [see Teuffel, Geschichte der Römischen Literatur, p. 673, 2nd ed.] as the author of a translation of the Iliad, of which the Schol. has preserved one line, 'Crudum manduces Priamum Priamique pisinnos' (Il. 4. 35), as if he had said,

Lest Labeo's interest with Polydamas and the Trojan ladies should get them to prefer him to me.' The story perhaps only rests on a statement by Fulgentius (see Jahn), but the internal evidence is very strong, and it is much more probable than the supposition that 'Labeo' is merely used as a Horatian synonym for a madman. (Hor. I S. 3. 82), to which Jahn inclines, Prolegomena, pp. 72, 73. The scholiast's notion that Ner

praetulerint? nugae. non, si quid turbida Roma elevet, accedas examenque improbum in illa

castiges trutina, nec te quaesiveris extra.

nam Romae quis non-? a, si fas dicere-sed fas
tum, cum ad canitiem et nostrum istud vivere triste
aspexi ac nucibus facimus quaecumque relictis,
cum sapimus patruos. Tunc, tunc ignoscite.'

Nolo.

'Quid faciam? sed sum petulanti splene cachinno. Scribimus inclusi, numeros ille, hic pede liber, grande aliquid, quod pulmo animae praelargus anhelet.

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improbum, unfair,' not telling truth.' Not unlike is merces improbae,' Plaut. Rud. 2. 4. 43.

7. The construction is 'Non accedas castigesque, nec quaesiveris extra te,'' Nor ask any opinion but your own.'

8. Most MSS. insert est' before 'quis non,' the transcribers not seeing that Persius here breaks off what he afterwards completes in v. 121. The stolidity of Rome is treated as a secret, like the ass's ears of Midas, and kept till the end of the Satire, when it breaks out.

a, si fas, four MSS. and two others from a correction, most of the others 'ac,' a few 'at' oret,' none of which would be equally appropriate. 'If I might only say it but I feel I may, when-.'

9. canitiem. The reproach of old age runs through the Satire, vv. 22, 26, 56; an unhonoured old age, produced partly by luxury (v. 56), partly by use

8. Romae est quis ñac si.

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less sedentary pursuits (here and v. 26), and instead of teaching wisdom, employing itself with corrupting the taste of youth (v. 79), and aping youthful sentimentalism. [Comp. perhaps Lucilius 15. 4' 'senium atque insulse sophista."]

nostrum istud vivere triste. The austerity of affected morality, such as is lashed by Juvenal (S. 2), dreary fretting over study, and genuine peevishness. Persius is very fond of the use of the inf. as a regular subst. 'scire tuum v. 27; ridere meum V. 122 pappare minutum' 3. 17; ' mammae lallare' ib. 18; 'velle suum 5. 53; sapere nostrum 6. 38.

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10. aspicere ad, an archaism, used by Pacuvius and Plautus (Freund).

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nucibus.. relictis Horace's 'abiectis nugis' (2 Ep. 2. 141). Catull. 61. 131 'Da nuces pueris, iners Concubine: satis diu Lusisti nucibus.' Hor. 2 S. 3. 171 'talos nucesque.' Suet. Aug. 83 'talis aut ocellatis nucibusque ludebat cum pueris minutis.' Comp. the poem 'de Nuce,' also 3. 50. [Tristis nucibus

puer relictis' Martial 5. 84. 1.]
II. cum, referring to 'nucibus relictis,'
not in apposition to cum' preceding.

sapimus may have a double sense. The Romans probably acknowledged no such sharp distinction between the different meanings of the same word as we do, being less conscious and critical. 'Sapere' with acc. of the flavour or of the thing about which one is wise is common enough, and here patruos,' though a person, is equivalent to a thing, so that

muddle-headed Rome does make light of a thing, don't you be walking up and correcting the lying tongue in that balance of theirs, or asking any opinion but your own-for who is there at Rome that has not-if I might only say it! But surely I may, when I look at these gray hairs of ours, and this dreary way of living; and, in short, all our actions from the time of flinging our toys aside, when we take the tone of uncles and guardians. Yes, you must excuse me, then.

F. No, I won't.

P. 'What am I to do? but I am constitutionally a great laugher, with a saucy spleen of my own.

'We shut ourselves up and write, one verse, and another prose, all in the grand style to be panted forth by the lungs with a vast

we may compare such expressions as 'Cy. clopa moveri.'

patruos, patruae verbera linguae' Hor. 3 Od. 12. 3, 'ne sis patruus mihi' 2 S. 3. 88.

nolo is said by the friend, I won't admit the excuse,' tunc tunc ignoscite ' being only another way of saying fas est tunc. [Jahn's punctuation (1868) 'tunc tunc ignoscite, nolo;' is difficult to understand.]

12. quid faciam, etc., imitated from Hor. 2 S. 1. 24, who asks the same question, and appeals similarly to his temperament and tastes. Laughter was attributed to the spleen by the ancient physiologists. Pliny 11. 37 (80) 'Sunt qui putent adimi simul risum homini, intemperantiamque eius constare lienis magnitudine.' Serenus Samonicus 439 'Splen tumidus nocet, et risum tamen addit ineptum.'

petulantes et petulci appellantur qui protervo impetu et crebro petunt laedendi alterius gratia' Fest. p. 206. ed. Müll. (Freund).

cachinno, according to the Schol. a noun, like 'gluto' 5. 112, 'palpo' ib. 176. Lucilius appears to have been fond of words of this kind, possibly as being in use among the common people, as 'lurco,' 'comedo,' 5. 29: 'conbibo' 26. 53, 'mando' Inc. 128, 'catillo' 28. 31. ['Comedo' also in Varro Modius fr. 16 in Riese's ed. of the Saturarum Menippearum reliquiae.] Hermann, following Heindorf, makes ' cachinno' a verb, taking ignoscite.. splene' as a parenthesis- Excuse me, I am sorry to do it, but I cannot help my spleen; but this would be awkward: and though cachinno,' as a noun, is

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found nowhere else, the evidence of the Schol. is enough to show that its existence was not thought impossible at the time when Latin was still a living language.

13-23. The attack begins. P. ‘A composition is produced with intense labour. It is then recited in public by the author, dressed in holiday attire, with the most effeminate intonation; and the descendants of Romulus are tickled, and feel their passions excited. Shame that an old man like that should so disgrace himself!'

13. The form of the verse was possibly suggested by Hor. 2 Ep. 1. 117 'Scribimus indocti,' etc.

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pede liber opposed to numeros,' apparently soluta oratio,' as no kind of could be well contrasted with ' numeri,' even Pindar's dithyrambics being considered numeri lege soluti.' The stress, however, is laid throughout the Satire on poetical recitations, as in Juv. S. 1 and 7; and rhetoric is merely introduced (v. 87) with reference to the courts of law. 'Pede liber'='pede libero.'

14. grande aliquid, in apposition to numeros' and to the notion contained in 'pede liber.' 'Res grandes' v. 68, Grande locuturi' 5. 7. 'Grandis' seems to have been a cant term at Rome

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