SATIRE X

[Lucilius, how faulty you are I will prove clearly by the witness of Cato, your own advocate, who is setting to work to remove faults from your ill-wrought verses. This task is done so much more gently by him, as he is a better man, of much finer taste than the other, who as a boy was ofttimes gently entreated by the lash and moist ropes, so that later he might give aid to the poets of old against our present daintiness, when he had become the most learned of pedagogic knights. But to return " :]

a

b

1 To be sure I did say that the verses of Lucilius run on with halting foot. Who is a partisan of Lucilius so in-and-out of season as not to confess this? And yet on the self-same page the self-same poet is praised because he rubbed the city down with much salt.

5 Yet, while granting this virtue, I would not also allow him every other; for on those terms I should also have to admire the mimes of Laberius as pretty poems.c Hence it is not enough to make your It is surely impossible “by reaching back over the relative clause intervening" to refer these words to Cato, as does Hendrickson, who upholds the genuineness of these verses.

In Sat. i. 4, which may be compared with this Satire throughout.

• Mimes were dramatic scenes from low life, largely farcical and grotesque in character. Laberius, a Roman knight, who was compelled by Julius Caesar to act in his own mimes, was no longer living when Horace wrote.

virtus :

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auditoris; et est quaedam tamen hic quoque est brevitate opus, ut currat sententia neu se impediat verbis lassas onerantibus auris ; et sermone opus est modo tristi, saepe iocoso, defendente vicem modo rhetoris atque poetae, interdum urbani,1 parcentis viribus atque extenuantis eas consulto. ridiculum acri fortius et melius magnas plerumque secat res. illi scripta quibus comoedia prisca viris est hoc stabant, hoc sunt imitandi; quos neque pulcher Hermogenes umquam legit neque simius iste

nil praeter Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum.

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At magnum fecit, quod verbis Graeca Latinis 20 miscuit."

O seri studiorum, quine putetis difficile et mirum, Rhodio quod Pitholeonti contigit !

At sermo lingua concinnus utraque suavior, ut2 Chio nota si commixta Falerni est."

Cum versus facias, te ipsum percontor, an et cum 25 dura tibi peragenda rei sit causa Petilli ?

scilicet oblitus3 patriaeque patrisque, Latine1 cum Pedius causas exsudet Publicola atque

1 urbane, II.

2 et, II.

3 oblitos Bentley; so Holder, Vollmer.

4 Latine comm. Cruq.: Latini V, I, Bentley.

"This, according to Porphyrio, is the Demetrius mentioned in 1. 90 below. Hendrickson thinks it is Bibaculus (C.P. xii. p. 87).

For cantare "to satirize" cf. Sat. ii. 1. 46. These words are not, as commonly believed, said in depreciation of Calvus and Catullus, for there was no opposition between them and the Augustan poets. See Rand, "Catullus and the Augustans," Harv. St. xvii. p. 28, and Ullman, Horace, Catullus, and Tigellius," C.P. x. pp. 270 ff.

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hearer grin with laughter-though even in that there is some merit. You need terseness, that the thought may run on, and not become entangled in verbiage that weighs upon wearied ears. You also need a style, now grave now gay, in keeping with the rôle, now of orator or poet, at times of the wit, who holds his strength in check and husbands it with wisdom. Jesting oft cuts hard knots more forcefully and effectively than gravity. Thereby those great men who wrote Old Comedy won success; therein we should imitate them-writers whom the fop Hermogenes has never read, nor that ape," whose skill lies solely in droning Calvus and Catullus.

20 But that was a great feat," you say, mixing of Greek and Latin words.'

66 'his

O ye late learners! ye who really think that a hard and wondrous knack, which Pitholeon of Rhodes achieved!

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But a style, where both tongues make a happy blend, has more charm, as when the Falernian brand is mixed with Chian."

25 In your verse-making only (I put it to yourself), or does the rule also hold good when you have to plead the long, hard case of the defendant Petillius? Would you forsooth forget fatherland and father, and, while Pedius Publicola and Corvinus sweat over their causes in Latin, would

Seri studiorum is a translation of oualeîs, used of those who make a show of their newly acquired knowledge. In the words following, -ne should not be regarded as interrogative. It is an affirmative particle, as Priscian held it to be. Nothing is known about Pitholeon, but Bentley plausibly supposed he was the same as Pitholaus, who assailed Julius Caesar in verse (Suet. Jul. 75).

Corvinus, patriis intermiscere petita

verba foris malis, Canusini more bilinguis ?

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Atque1 ego cum Graecos facerem, natus mare citra, versiculos, vetuit me tali voce Quirinus,

post mediam noctem visus, cum somnia vera :

In silvam non ligna feras insanius ac si

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magnas Graecorum malis implere catervas." Turgidus Alpinus iugulat dum Memnona dumque defingit2 Rheni luteum caput, haec ego ludo, quae neque in aede sonent certantia iudice Tarpa, nec redeant iterum atque iterum spectanda3 theatris. Arguta meretrice potes Davoque Chremeta eludente senem comis garrire libellos unus vivorum, Fundani; Pollio regum facta canit pede ter percusso; forte epos acer, ut nemo, Varius ducit; molle atque facetum Vergilio adnuerunt gaudentes rure Camenae. hoc erat, experto frustra Varrone Atacino

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atque quibusdam aliis, melius quod scribere possem,5 inventore minor; neque ego illi detrahere ausim haerentem capiti cum multa laude coronam.

1 atqui Bentley.

2 defingit, I: diffingit K, II, Porph.

3 spectata K, II.

4 adnuerant a: adnuerint D.

5 possim, II.

a At Canusium, in Apulia, both Greek and Oscan were spoken.

A sarcastic reference to M. Furius Bibaculus, who wrote an epic on Caesar's Gallic Wars, and also an Aethiopis, in which Memnon is slain by Achilles. The references would be more intelligible if the poems of Bibaculus were extant, but his bombastic style is clearly parodied. See further, Sat. ii. 5. 41.

i.e. the Temple of the Muses, where new poetry could be read. For Tarpa see Index, under Maecius.

d A reference to New Comedy, such as that of Terence.

you prefer to jumble with your native speech words imported from abroad, like the Canusian's jargon a ?

a

31 I, too, though born this side of the sea, once took to writing verses in Greek; but after midnight, when dreams are true, Quirinus appeared and forbade me with words like these: ""Tis just as foolish to carry timber to a wood as to wish to swell the crowded ranks of the Greeks."

b

36 So while the pompous poet of the Alps murders Memnon and botches with mud the head of the Rhine, I am toying with these trifles, which are neither to be heard in the Temple as competing for Tarpa's verdict, nor are to come back again and again to be witnessed on the stage.

e

40 You alone of living poets, Fundanius, can charm us with the chit-chat of comedies, where the artful mistress and Davus fool old Chremes. In measure of triple beat Pollio sings of kings' exploits. Surpassing all in spirit, Varius moulds the valorous epic. To Virgil the Muses rejoicing in rural life have granted simplicity and charm. This satire, which Varro of the Atax and some others had vainly tried, was what I could write with more success, though falling short of the inventor ; nor would I dare to wrest from him the crown that clings to his brow with so much glory.

e Pollio used the iambic trimeter in his tragedies.

This was written before Virgil had composed his Aeneid. A reference to the Eclogues. Professor C. N. Jackson has won wide acceptance for his view that in molle atque facetum, commonly rendered as "tenderness and grace,' Horace refers to distinctive features of the genus tenue, or plain style of writing (Harv. St. xxv. pp. 117 ff.).

h Lucilius.