of Juvenal. ut dignus uenias Asdinis et imagus maira. memini, ut repente sic poeta prodirem. Asu I 402 clixit et avertens rossa cervice refulsit- 3. Memini me ut. of himself, preserved to us by Cic. Acad. 2. nec.. memini is a sneer at Ennius' 3. memini, humorous; 'never that I can remember;' implying that Ennius must have had a good memory. ut repente, so as to come before the world all at once as a poet.' prodirem, 'to come forth from this preparatory process,' which is also expressed by 'sic,' on the strength of this' (not like 'sic temere,' as Casaubon and Jahn). 'A ready made poet by the immediate agency of the gods.' Possibly Persius was thinking of Hor. 1 Ep. 19. 7 Ennius ipse pater nunquam nisi potus ad arma Prosiluit dicenda,' which might also warrant a conjecture that Ennius himself used some similar phrase. prodirem poeta, 'prodis e iudice Heliconiadas better supported by ference is perhaps to the opening of relates how the Muses made him a poet. The form Heliconis' is however found in Stat. Silv. 4. 4. 90, and MSS. are so untrustworthy in the matter of proper names that the point may be doubtful. At any rate it is not worth while to scan Heliconiadas' here by synizesis, as Jahn (1843) wished, following Schneider, as proper names have a metrical licence even in tragic iambics. ['Heliconidas' Jahn 1868.] 6 pallidam, as causing studious paleness. 'pallentis grana cumini' 5. 55; perhaps with some reference to Horace's expalluit haustus,' quoted on v. I. Pirene, mentioned from its connection with Pegasus, who was said to have been broken in there. Statius (Theb. 4. 60) follows or coins a story that it was produced, like Hippocrene, by a stroke of Pegasus' hoof. 5. To the poets, whose ivy-crowned busts adorn our public libraries.' Hor. I S. 4. 21. For the ivy, see Hor. 1 Od. 1. 29. Juvenal apparently imitates this passage (7. 29)'ut dignus venias hederis et imagine macra.' No sneer seems to be intended in lambunt or sequaces, which are simply poetical. [Relinquo' Jahn (1843): but remitto,' which he has since adopted, has better authority.] 6. semipaganus is rightly explained by Jahn after Rigalt with reference to the Paganalia, a festival celebrated by members of the same pagus. Dion. Hal. 4. 15; Sicul. Flacc. de Cond. Agr. p. 25. [See Preller, Römische Mythologie, p. 404.] This has more spirit than the The as to burst upon the world at once as a full-blown poet. daughters of Helicon and that cadaverous Pirene I leave to the gentlemen whose busts are caressed by the climbing ivy-as for me, it is but as a poor half-brother of the guild that I bring my verses to the festival of the worshipful poets' company. Who was it made the parrot so glib with its 'Good morning,' and taught magpies to attempt the feat of talking like men? That great teacher of art and bestower of mother-wit the stomach, which has a knack of getting at speech when nature refuses it. Only let a bright glimpse of flattering money dawn on their horizon, and you 8. Persius does not say that he writes for bread, which would have been too obviously untrue, as he was a wealthy man, but hints it in order to ridicule his contemporaries by affecting to classify himself with them. expedivit, 'made easy.' Comp. our use of impediment. suum not foreign (Jahn), as the parrot did not come from Greece, but simply its own 'that cry which it is now so ready with.' So there is no opposition between xaîpe and nostrà verba,' as if the magpie were intended to talk Latin as distinguished from Greek. The parrot talks Greek as the fashionable language for small talk, as now a days he might talk French, while nostra verba' means human speech. The antithesis is merely one of those which a man might use almost without intending it, between language viewed as belonging to its original owner and as afterwards appropriated -just as the parrot speaks' expedite,' while the magpie conatur,' though it is not meant that the former succeeds more perfectly than the latter. For the practice of keeping parrots and magpies in great houses, see Martial, referred to below. After v. 8 a few MSS. have a line, 'Corvos quis olim concavum salutare? where concavum' would doubtless refer to the sound, though one MS. gives 6 'Caesarem,' as in the first passage of Martial. ἁ πενία, Διόφαντε, μόνα τὰς τέχνας yeípe, Plaut. Stich. 1. 3. 23 'paupertas omnes artes perdocet.' Comp. also Hor. 1 Ep. 5. 18 of wine, 'addocet artes;' Virg. G. 1. 145 Tum variae venere artes: labor omnia vicit Improbus, et duris urgeus in rebus egestas' (quoted by Plautius). ingeni largitor. Plautius and Casaubon quote Manil. 1. 78. Et labor ingenium miseris dedit.' Jahn refers to Cicero's account of ingenium,' Fin. 5. 13. 36 Prioris generis (virtutum quae ingenerantur suapte natura) est docilitas, memoria, quae fere omnia appellantur uno ingeni nomine.' 'Ingeni largitor,' then, is a kind of oxymoron. II. venter as in Hom. Od. 17. 286 foll. γαστέρα δ ̓ οὔπως ἔστιν ἀποκρύψαι μεμαυίαν. negatas.. voces. Casaubon quotes Manil. 5. 378 Quinetiam linguas hominum sensusque docebit Aerias volucres Verbaque praecipiet naturae lege 12. dolosi, a general epithet of money, though with a special application here'beguiling them to the effort.' It might be almost said to refer to spes' as well as to 'nummi.' refulgeat, 'flash on the sight.' Virg. Aen. 1. 402, 588; 6. 204. 'Refulsit certa spes liberorum parentibus' Vell. 2. 103 (Freund), 'non tibi divitiae velut maximum generis humani bonum refulserunt' Sen. Cons. ad Helv. 16. (Jahn.) 24th December 24 SATURA I. from fucilius - or perhaps Lucratius. 'O CURAS hominum ! O quantum est in rebus inane!' 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-I2. 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 what?' Quare? 4. Nec mihi. 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.) |