used elsewhere. It is to run through,' as we say, to come to the end of his property. 'Puer,' at the end of the sentence, is emphatic, as in Horace (C. i. 9. 15), nec dulces amores Sperne puer, neque tu choreas," i. e., while you are young (Epp. i. 2. 67), “Nunc adbibe puro Pectore verba, puer."

22. Utar ego, utar,] This is imitated from Horace, Epp. ii. 2. 190:

"Utar, et ex modico quantum res poscet

acervo

Tollam, nec metuam quid de me judicet heres."

The verb is put absolutely, but the meaning is easily seen. The pronoun though emphatic is omitted, whatever others may do.' He says he will enjoy his fortune, which was ample, and yet he is not on that account so extravagant as to feed his 'liberti' upon turbot, or such an epicure as to distinguish the delicate taste of a hen thrush or fieldfare. The difference of taste

between a cock and a hen was imaginary perhaps, but the masculine here would have no force. Though the MSS. differ therefore, and the masculine is the vulgar read

ing, there is no doubt the feminine is right. This the Scholiast recognizes and explains: "❝turdarum' abusive posuit cum 'turdorum' dicere debuerit." Nearly all the MSS. have 'tenues salivas,' which no editor has adopted that I am aware of, except Duebner, who has introduced it into Casaubon's text. 'Saliva' is equivalent to 'sapor,' as in Propertius (v. 8. 38, Paley), "Et Mithymuaei Graeca saliva meri," where it seems Hertzberg disputes this meaning. There is no doubt about it here. Lautus ponere,' sollers nosse,' is a construction noticed on Prol. 11. This sense of lautus' is common. Forcellini gives examples. See Juv. xi. 1,

"Atticus eximie si coenat lautus habetur." 25. Messe tenus propria vive,] We should call this living up to one's income.' He adds, 'don't hoard but grind all your grain. What have you to fear? only harrow your

ground, and you get another crop.' 'In herba' is 'in the blade.' Horace, Epp. ii. 2. 161, has "Cum segetes occat tibi mox frumenta daturas," where see note on ' occare:' 'Quid metuas' is better than 'metuis,' which Jahn adopts, and it has more MSS. authority. Quid metuas' occurs in iii. 26.

27. Ast vocat officium:] This is by some taken to be an objection of the man, So Halliday translates it,— who does not like parting with his grain.

"Why, I should thus spend, But duty hinders me: for my poor friend, His ship being split," &c. Dryden and Gifford give the same sense, which is not that of Persius. He supposes a case in which a particular duty calls for greater generosity. A friend is wrecked, his property and the vows he offered for its safety all buried alike in the waves; he is cast on shore, and lies grasping the rocks. with the ship's gods lying by him, and the gulls flying over the scattered timbers as In this case, he they float on the waters. adds, you may go further, and give the poor man a piece of your land to save him from S. v. 141, and Horace, C. i. 1. 13, "trabe begging. 'Trabe' is used for a ship, as in Cypria." By way of giving reality to the picture, he fixes the place of the wreck on the south coast of Italy, where he lies like Palinurus in the Eneid. vi. 360, “Prensantemque uncis manibus capita aspera montis." 'Surdus' is not used elsewhere in this sense

exactly. It means vows to which the gods are deaf. Where it means' silent,' as in Juv. vii. 71; xiii. 194, it is as being unheard, which is an analogous use. As to Ionio, see Juv. vi. 93, n. Images of gods were carried in the stern of a ship. Ovid, describing a storm he encountered on his voyage from Rome, says,

"Monte nec inferior prorae puppique re

curvae

Insilit, et pictos verberat unda Deos." (Trist. i. 4. 7 sq.)

are much troubled by maris expers.' Casaubon was the first who thought of maris' being the genitive of 'mas,' and the sense being emasculated.' Weber approves this interpretation, and compares i. 103, "si testiculi vena ulla paterni Viveret in nobis ?" Our translators Halliday and Gifford so render the words. But it is manifest that Persius, in whose mind the words of Horace were continually running, thought of "Chium maris expers" (S. ii. 8. 15), and whatever he may have taken the meaning to be there he meant here. One of the interpretations of 'maris expers' in the passage of Horace is without salt water,' which was mixed with some Greek wines; and Heinrich supposes that Persius means 'salis expers,' insulsum.' This is an ingenious solution of the difficulty. So it would be this witless, silly taste of ours.' The expression would be far-fetched; but I think though it would not have occurred to the writer himself, it is not improbable he may have thus applied it. Jahn, taking Horace's meaning in the same sense, follows close upon Heinrich's interpretation. But he takes the sense to be corrupt,' that is, wanting in that salt which preserves all things from corruption. The other interpretation of Horace's meaning is, that the wine had never crossed the seas, and so some interpreters take this place as a taste of home growth. This is the interpretation of Turnebus (Adv. 30. 7), and of Meister, who has written a treatise on this passage. (Ueber A. Persii S. vi. 37-40. Leipzig, 1810.) The words as they stand in the text will not bear this meaning, and to sustain it they separate nostrum hoc maris expers' from what goes before. When I wrote my note on Horace (1. c.) I thought this was the meaning of Persius and of Horace. But on farther reflection I do not think it is, but that maris expers' here means without salt' (wit), as there it is

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41. Haec cinere ulterior metuas?] The poet drops his irony and asks in scorn, ‘Are you to fear such stuff as this when you are dead?' We say 'beyond the grave;' Persius says 'beyond the burning.' He then by way of shewing his own mind in this matter, turns and addresses his heres,' and asks for a word in his ear. By meus heres' he means his heres legitimus,' who would succeed to his property in the event of his dying intestate, and who might probably expect to be named 'heres' if he made a will. Persius so far identifies himself with his subject that he assumes the speaker to have no sui heredes' (Juv. x. 237), Persius having no children or wife himself.

43. O bone, num ignoras?] 'My good friend, haven't you heard?' as the doctor says, "Heus, bone, tu palles" (iii. 94). He goes on to say that Caesar has sent tidings of a great victory over the Germans, and arrangements are being made for a grand celebration: he therefore intends to offer a hundred pairs of gladiators, and asks who shall prevent him. The Caesar he means is Caligula, whose ridiculous pretence of an expedition against the Germans, B.C. 40, is related by Suetonius (Caligula, 43, sqq.). Tacitus speaks of it and a pretended expedition against Britain as“ Caianarum expeditionum ludibrium" (Hist. iv. 15). His object was plunder, of which he was insatiate. The son of a British chief came to Caligula in North Gallia and ceded the whole is and to him, whereupon he sent a flaming letter to announce the fact to the Senate. Afterwards he got up a sham engagement in a wood by the Rhine, sending some German prisoners across the river to represent the enemy, who were then reported as coming down in great force. He marched his army down to the sea-shore, and when they got there ordered them to pick up shells as spoils of the ocean, to be dedicated in the Capitol and Palatium, and built a lighthouse to commemorate this victory. He then made arrangements for a triumph on

45

a magnificent scale, for which he ordered that contributions should be collected from every quarter. As to 'laurus,' see note on Juv. iv. 149, "venisset epistola penna."

45. Frigidus excutitur cinis,] The old ashes were removed, he means, to make way for fresh sacrifices. Caesonia (Caligula's wife, whom he had married two years before, having had her for his mistress) contracts for arms to hang up at the temple doors, hires shawls for the kings to wear whom he is to bring home captive, and shaggy auburn beards for his pseudo-German prisoners, and war chariots, and stout Gauls from the banks of the Rhine. Suetonius (c. 47) says that besides his German prisoners and deserters he chose out the tallest Gauls he could get, those who would best adorn his triumph, and some Gaulish chiefs too, and ordered them to dye their hair red, and let it grow, and to learn the German language, and bear German names. 'Gausapum' or 'gausape' is a rough woollen cloth. But it is used in iv. 37, an obscene passage on which I have not commented, as a shaggy beard, and that is probably the meaning here. As to 'locare,' which signifies to give work to be done or something to be used, see note on Hor. C. ii. 18. 17, "Tu secanda marmora Locas." Forcellini understands Rhenos to mean statues of the Rhine,' such as were carried in triumphal processions. So the river Jordan is represented on the arch of Titus. Jahn so understands it too. But there is no reason to suppose a number of such statues would be carried in the procession, and the above passage of Suetonius shows what Caligula's orders were. The form Rhenos is Greek, 'Pivot. Rhenanos is the Latin form.

48. Centum paria] A hundred pairs of gladiators whom he intends to send into the arena (inducere in arenam) in honour of Caligula's Genius. A hundred pairs was the number to which Staberius' heredes were condemned if they did not carry out

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the provisions of his will (Hor. S. ii. 3. 85). The number exhibited on great occasions went on increasing during the Empire till a hundred became a small show. (See Dict. Ant., Gladiatores.)

50. Oleum artocreasque popello] He threatens to add to his extravagance by a largess of oil and bread and meat to the people. • Artocreas” (άρτος, κρέας) is not found elsewhere. It seems to be a compound of visceratio,' a distribution of meat, and 'frumentatio,' of corn, which were both common on great occasions. (See note on Horace last quoted.) Vae' is a threatening exclamation, ' Woe betide you!'

51. Non adeo (inquis):] 'Not at all,' say you, 'your land is pretty well exhausted;' like a body without the bones, it is worthless. So he supposes the man to turn up his nose at the inheritance. Forcellini's interpretation of 'exossatus' as land that has been well looked after and cleared of stones, is certainly wrong.

52. Age, si mihi nulla] He goes on, Very well, if you don't want my inheritance, and if I have not a relation left, I can go and pick up a heres among the beggars,' who were numerous on the Via Appia. 'Bovillae' was on that road, and about twelve miles from Rome, of which the poets speak of it as a suburb. Prop. v. 1. 33, "Quippe suburbanae parva minus urbe Bovillae." Ovid, Fast. iii. 667, "Orta suburbanis quaedam fuit Anna Bovillis." This old woman employed herself in making cakes for the poor people, with whom her neighbourhood abounded. The 'clivus Virbi' is the 'clivus Aricinus,' where the Appia Via enters Aricia, about four miles further than Bovillae from Rome. See note on Juv. iv. 117, "Dignus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes.' This place derived its name from Virbius, who, according to Virgil (Aen. vii. 771 sqq.) and his commentator, Servius, was the same as Hippolytus. When he was killed, Diana, admiring his chastity, had him restored to life by Acscu

55

lapius, and placed him under the care of the nymph Aegeria in the woods of Aricia.

56. praesto est mihi Manius heres.] There was a proverb, "multi Manii Ariciae," the meaning of which is doubtful. Erasmus follows Festus, who says it means there were many distinguished persons at Aricia. This is not the meaning if it is to this proverb Persius aliudes. He has only to go to Aricia, or its neighbourhood, and he will find ready to his hand a Manius for his heir.' Manius was a son of Earth, we see.

57. Progenies terrae !] As to this and 'terrae filius' (59), see note on Juv. iv. 98, "Unde fit ut malim fraterculus esse gigantis." The man says Manius is a son of Earth, he cannot tell his own father and mother, To which the poet answers, that if any one were to ask him who was his 'abavus,' his great-great-grandfather, he might be able to tell, though not very readily. Add another to him (atavus), and yet another (tritavus), and you come to a son of Earth, like Manius, who therefore turns out (v. 130, n.) in the course of generations to be brother to the poet's ancestor in the sixth degree. 'Major avunculus' is properly uncle to one's grandfather, and maximus avunculus' is one degree farther back. So as the poet cannot call Manius properly his major avunculus,' he calls him prope major,' which appears to Jahn "ratio sane frigidius. cula."

61. Qui prior es, cur me] The reference here is to the λaμmacηoopia, torch race, which occurred at several of the festivals in Greece. Some difficulty is found in determining all the conditions of the race, but the chief feature of it was the passing of a lighted torch or sort of candle from hand to hand, each runner being careful not to extinguish the flame, till he had delivered the torch to the runner in advance of him. This practice served the ancients as an illustration for several purposes. Herodotus compares with it the Persian way of passing

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on a royal message through the country by mounted couriers (viii. 98). Lucretius (ii. 77 sq) illustrates by the torch race the succession of generations in the animal world:

"Inde brevi spatio mutantur secla animantum,

Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt."

Plato had used the illustration in the same way (Legg. vi. p. 776). The author of the treatise Ad Herennium (iv. 46), applies it to one general succeeding another in command of an army, and here Persius likens to the runners a man of fortune and his expectant heir.

'Qui prior es' is variously interpreted. The commentators before Casaubon, and some since (Jahn, and most of our own translators). suppose it to mean that the heir stands in advance of the man he is to succeed, and receives the torch from him. There is no point in this, though Jahn tries to make one by saying the man in advance would try to snatch the torch from the man coming up as quick as he could, especially if it was nearly out. But if the runners occupied their own grd, and the rules of the race required that each should stay at his post, the one who left it would lose his chance. "Our critics would make a poor figure at Newmarket," says Gifford ; but he is not more successful himself, and says this is almost the only line in Persius in which he has found much real difficulty. Qui prior es' refers, as Casaubon, Plum, Koenig, Heinrich say, to the superior claims of the 'legitimus heres' over Manius. Gifford sees a pathetic allusion to the poet's delicate state of health, because he died young. For in decursu,' which is the reading of nearly all the MSS., and of all editions but his own, Heinrich reads 'indecursum :' but though 'spatium decursum' is a proper expression (Cic. de Senect. c. 23), 'cursor decursus ' is not.