III

ON MUTUAL FORBEARANCE

66

THE Connexion between this satire and the preceding one is indicated at the outset, for the musician Tigellius is again introduced as a person who well illustrates the foibles and inconsistencies of a large class of people. But, says Horace, some one may ask me, Have you yourself no faults ? Yes, I have, though they may not be as bad as his. I trust I am not like Maenius, who laid bare the faults of others, but overlooked his own. Self-satisfaction of this sort well deserves to be satirized. A man should examine himself and search out his own faults before criticizing others (1-37).

Think how blind is the lover to the defects of his beloved, or how tenderly a fond father treats his child's deformities. Even so we should be indulgent to the weaknesses of our friends. On the contrary, we often look upon real virtues as faults, calling for example modest behaviour stupidity, and simplicity boorishness. We must exercise mutual forbearance and also discriminate between failings, for a mere impropriety is not as serious as a heinous crime (38-95).

In fact the Stoic paradox that all offences are equal," omnia peccata paria esse " (Cicero, De finibus,

iv. 19. 55), besides being repugnant to common sense, is historically unsound, our social ethics being the result of a process of evolution. Yet your Stoic would punish all offences alike, if he were a king (96-124).

"If he were a king," did I say? Why, according to another of his paradoxes, the Stoic is already a king, even as he is rich and handsome and everything else that is good. Yes," he would explain, "I am a king potentially, even as Hermogenes is a singer, though he does not open his lips." "Well," replies Horace, I cannot see that your crown wins you esteem or saves you from ill-treatment. For myself, not being a philosopher, I will remain a private citizen, and live on terms of mutual forbearance with others" (124-142).

In striking contrast with Satire II., this one is kindly and genial in tone, and it would seem that the author was disarming criticism by his assurance that he was not disposed to be over-censorious, as we learn from 11. 63 ff. Horace has now become acquainted with Maecenas, and this improvement in his worldly prospects may to some extent account for the change of tone, and the doffing of the severity of Lucilian invective.

III.

5

10

Omnibus hoc vitium est cantoribus, inter amicos ut numquam inducant animum cantare rogati, iniussi numquam desistant. Sardus habebat ille Tigellius hoc. Caesar, qui cogere posset, si peteret per amicitiam patris atque suam, non quicquam proficeret ; si collibuisset, ab ovo usque ad mala citaret "io Bacche1!" modo summa voce, modo hac, resonat2 quae chordis quattuor ima. nil aequale homini fuit illi: saepe velut qui currebat fugiens hostem, persaepe velut qui3 Iunonis sacra ferret; habebat saepe ducentos, saepe decem servos; modo reges atque tetrarchas, omnia magna loquens, modo sit mihi mensa tripes et concha salis puri et toga, quae defendere frigus quamvis crassa queat.' deciens centena dedisses 15 huic parco, paucis contento, quinque diebus nil erat in loculis. noctes vigilabat ad ipsum mane, diem totum stertebat. nil fuit umquam sic impar sibi.

1 Bacchae BE.

2 resonet xl.

3 B omits l. 10; see C.R. xxx. p. 15.

a A dinner opened with the gustatio or promulsis, supposed to whet the appetite. In this eggs played a part. Fruit was served as a dessert just as with us.

The refrain of a drinking-song.

Editors commonly take summa and ima as defining the position of strings on the lyre, summa = iπárη and ima= výry; the former therefore being "lowest," and the latter "highest," and voce being "the note." But see Clement L. Smith in C.R. xx. (1906) pp. 397 ff.

SATIRE III

All singers have this fault: if asked to sing among their friends they are never so inclined; if unasked, they never leave off. That son of Sardinia, Tigellius, was of this sort. If Caesar, who might have forced him to comply, should beg him by his father's friendship and his own, he could make no headway. If the man took the fancy, then from the egg-course to the fruit he would keep chanting "Io Bacche!" now with highest voice and now with one responding in lowest pitch to the tetrachord. There was nothing consistent in the fellow. Often he would run as if fleeing from a foe; very often he would stalk as slowly as some bearer of Juno's holy offerings.a Often, he would keep two hundred slaves, often only ten. Now he would talk of kings and tetrarchs, everything grand, and now he'd say, Give me a three-legged table, a shell of clean salt, and a coat that, however coarse, can keep out the cold." Suppose you had given a million to this thrifty gentleman, contented with so little; in a week there was nothing in his pockets. All night, till dawn, he would stay awake; all day would snore. Never was a creature so inconsistent.

e

66

d A reference to the κavnpopol, or basket-bearers, who in religious processions walked with slow and stately stride. e i.e. sesterces. The sum in question would amount, roughly speaking, to £10,000 or $50,000.

66

66

19

Nunc aliquis dicat mihi : quid tu ? nullane habes vitia ? immo alia et fortasse minora.1 Maenius absentem Novium cum carperet, heus tu quidam ait, "ignoras te, an ut ignotum dare nobis verba putas? egomet mi ignosco " Maenius inquit.

66

stultus et improbus hic amor est dignusque notari. Cum tua pervideas2 oculis mala3 lippus inunctis, 25 cur in amicorum vitiis tam cernis acutum

quam aut aquila aut serpens Epidaurius? at tibi

contra

evenit, inquirant vitia ut tua rursus et illi.

Iracundior est paulo, minus aptus acutis5

naribus horum hominum; rideri possit eo, quod 30 rusticius tonso toga defluit et male laxus

in pede calceus haeret: at est bonus, ut melior vir non alius quisquam, at tibi amicus, at ingenium ingens inculto latet hoc sub corpore.6 denique te ipsum concute, num qua tibi vitiorum inseverit' olim natura aut etiam consuetudo mala; namque neglectis urenda filix innascitur agris.

Illuc praevertamur, amatorem quod amicae8 turpia decipiunt caecum vitia, aut etiam ipsa haec delectant, veluti Balbinum polypus Hagnae. vellem in amicitia sic erraremus, et isti errori nomen virtus9 posuisset honestum.

1 B omits l. 20.

2 praevideas Bentley.

a

6

4 ac MSS.

pectore, II.

3 male Bentley. 5 aduncis Bentley.

7 insederit, II. 8 amici, II.

9 victus Housman, in J.P. xviii. p. 3.

35

40

Epidaurus was famous for the worship of Aesculapius, whose symbol was a serpent or dpáкwv, a word supposed to come from déркоμаι, "to see."