4, 77: angustoque vagos piscis urgere catino. Rubrum, the common color of pottery.

183. cauda thynni: The tunny has a large tail, hence some such adjective as 'taily' is desiderated. Comp. note on 6, 10.— natat: Makes fun of the fish's swimming in the circumstances. -tumet: 'bulges.' The big belly of the jar looks as if it were 'swollen' with wine.

184. labra movet tacitus: Comp. HOR., Ep., 1, 16, 60: labra 5 movet, metuens audiri (of a prayer to Laverna). A recondite allusion to the secret prayer of the Jews is unlikely.—recutita sabbata = recutitorum sabbata. Comp. Ov., Rem. Am., 219, 220: nec te peregrina morentur | sabbata.—palles = pallidus times. G., 329, R. 1; A., 52, 1, a. Comp. our English 'blanch' or‘blench.' 185. tum: As soon as the man has got over his Jewish fright he is assailed by other superstitions.-lemures: hobgoblins.' See note on 2, 3. Comp. Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 208: somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas,| nocturnos lemures, portentaque Thessala rides? — ovoque pericula rupto: The Schol. refers these words to the Gr. YoσкoπIKý (Jahn). The priests used to put eggs on the fire, and observe whether the moisture came out from the side or the top, the bursting of the egg being considered a very dangerous sign.' So Conington, after the Scholiast. Lemures and pericula have no strict grammatical connection. Some supply timentur out of palles, others connect with incussere by Zeugma.

186. grandes galli: JUVENAL's ingens | semivir (6, 512). The peculiar worship of Cybelé had long been familiar to the Romans.-sistro: The σɛσтρov, or 'timbrel,' was peculiar to the service of Isis, which had been imported more recently. On its significance, see PLUT., De Isid. et Osir., p. 376. The vibratory theory of life, with its perpetual sensuous unrest, is no novelty, as some of its eloquent advocates seem to think.-lusca: Why lusca? The priestess is supposed to have been struck blind by Isis, who visited offenders in that way. Comp. Ov., Ep. ex P., 1, 1, 53, and Juv., 13, 93: Isis et irato feriat mea lumina sistro. One homely explanation is that the priestess, being one-eyed, had betaken herself to religion in despair of a husband! (Schol.) 187. incussere: Gr. Aorist. Comp. 3, 101. The expression,

'strike the gods into you,' after the analogy of incutere metum, terrorem, is the other side of VERGIL's famous magnum si pectore possit | excussisse deum (Aen., 6, 78).—inflantis: 'who have a way of swelling.' Compare the use of depellentibus for depulsoribus, v. 167. See G., 439.

188. praedictum: prescribed.'-alli: The superstitious usage here referred to has not yet been paralleled.

189-91. Last scene of all. Horse-laughter of the muscular military.

189. Dixeris-ridet—si dixeris-ridet. Comp. v. 78.—varicosos: Comp. Juv., 6, 397: varicosus fiet haruspex (from long-standing). Varicose veins would naturally be common with men who were as much on their legs as the soldiers of that day. But as varicare means to stand or walk, as if one had varices, 'to straddle' (QUINT., 11, 3, 125), and as vāricus means 'straddling' (Ov., A. A., 3, 304), it seems better to translate varicosos 'straddling' here, always remembering the origin. With the change of quantity, comp. văcillo and vācillo (vaccillo), Lachm., Lucret., p. 37.—centurionum: See note on 3, 77.

190. crassum ridet: Comp.subrisit molle, 3, 110.—Pulfennius: Jahn's last. The name is variously written. Notice a similar trouble about a hircosus centurio in CAES., B. G., 5, 44, once Pulfio, now Pulio. Heinrich recognizes a fellow-countryman in Vulfennius (Wulfen).—ingens: Comp. torosa inventus, 3, 86; caloni alto, 5, 95.

191. Graecos: Comp. doctores Graios, 6, 38.--curto: 'clipped.' -licetur: A similar notion is worked out with admirable humor in LUCIAN'S Vitarum Auctio.

SIXTH SATIRE.

THE Sixth Satire is addressed to Caesius Bassus, a friend of PERSIUS. The theme of it is the Proper Use of the Goods of this Life, which takes the personal form of a vindication of the poet's course in preferring moderate enjoyment to mean parsimony or grasping avarice.

ARGUMENT. Are you by this time snugly ensconced by your Sabine fire? And do the chords of your lyre wake to life at your vigorous touch? O cunning craftsman! in whose song the noble tongue of our

sires is set to manly music, while young and old alike feel the play of your sportive wit, which in all its sport never forgets the gentleman (1-6).

While you are yonder, I am in my dear Liguria, where the coast is warm, the sea is wintry but kindly, the rocks bar out the storm, and the shore retreats far inland.

'Luna's port-'tis well worth while, good people, to know it.' This was a saying of Ennius, as he woke up in his senses from his Pythagorean dreams and became plain Quintus, instead of the 'blind old man of Scio's rocky isle,' and a wise saying of that hearty old cock it was (7-11).

Well, here I am, caring nothing for the rabble rout, caring nothing what an ill wind may be getting up for my flock. My neighbor may have a better patch of ground, men of lower birth may be growing rich over me. I will not fret myself into a crooked old man for that, nor dine without a bit of something nice, nor nose out a swindle in the imperfect seal of a flagon of flat wine (12-17).

How men differ in such matters! The very same horoscope may bring forth rights and lefts. Here is one that even on his birthday allows himself only the scantiest and meanest fare. Here is another that cats up, like a spirited lad as he is, a vast estate. For my part, 'Enjoyment, enjoyment,' is my motto, although I do not intend to treat my freedmen to turbots, and do not understand the difference between cock-ortolan and hen-ortolan after they are cooked (18-24).

Now this is the way to live, I take it. Up to your harvest, up to the last grain of your garners. What are you afraid of? It is a mere matter of harrowing, and lo! another crop is there (25, 26). But you say, Mr. Critic, 'There are claims on one. wrecked, the poor fellow is utterly ruined. One must do something for him.'

A friend is ship

Well and good! Sell a piece of land, give the proceeds to the needy friend, and keep him from begging up and down with a pictorial appeal to the benevolent (27-33).

Ay, but what of the heir? He will dock the funeral meats, if you dock the estate. One, sure, would not be stenchful when one's dead, and your bones will not be perfumed, or the perfumes will be stale or adulterated. One can not expect to diminish one's property without paying for it. Why, I heard Bestius say of your Greek teachers, from whom you learned this precious wisdom of yours, that ever since this new doctrine came to town the very haymakers have been spoiling their good, wholesome fare by rancid grease.

Well, what of all this-the heir's neglect and Bestius's fault-findingwould you fear them beyond the grave? (34-41).

But come, my heir, let us dismiss the critic, and have a quiet chat to

gether. Consider the claims on me. Here comes a glorious piece of news from the Emperor. The Germans have been defeated with great slaughter. A grand triumph is preparing. This is no time to hold back. I am going to bring out a hundred pairs of gladiators in honor of the occasion. Forbid it, if you dare. If you don't like that, I am going to give largess to the people-none of your vile vetches, but oil and pasties. Do you object? Out with it (42-51).

What do you say? My farm is hardly worth having after that.' Well, if you don't want it, I can get some of the women to take it; and if there is none of them left, I can go to the next village, and Hodge will accept. 'A son of earth?' you say; 'a nobody?' Pshaw! If you come to that, I can just remember who my great-great-grandfather was. Two generations further back and I come to a son of earth, a nobody, and Hodge is a relation-a distant relation, but still a relation—a kind of great-great-uncle. Believe me, the Lord No Zoo is father of us all (52

60).

You are an impatient heir, I must say. Why can't you wait for my shoes until I take them off? I am the God of Fortune to you, just as he is painted in the pictures, with a purse in his hand. Will you take what I leave, and be glad to get it? It falls short; I know it does. But if I have lessened it, it is for myself that I have lessened it, and what is left is all yours. Don't stop to ask about that old legacy, and serve up a stale dish of fatherly advice. I know how fathers talk. 'Credit yourself by the interest. Debit yourself by the expenses. What is the remainder? Remainder? Fudge! Souse the cabbage, boy. Don't spare the oil. Am I to dine off cow-heel and turnips on a holiday, that your graceless grandson may stuff himself with pâté de foie gras, and indulge himself in aristocratic connections? Am I to go through the eye of a cambric needle that he may have a priestly paunch? (61-74).

Furthermore, if you are not content with the little that I can leave you, sell your life for gain. Try every trade. Try every nook and corner of the earth. Go to Cappadocia, for instance, where you can make something by dealing in slaves, and become an adept in that dainty business. Double your capital. 'I have done so. Nay, I have trebled it, quadrupled it, decupled it. Tell me where to draw the line.' Tell you where to draw the line? Why, Chrysippus himself could not find the limit between wealth and poverty. A dollar more does not make a man rich, a dollar less does not make him poor. Where is the turning-point? And yet this man talks as if the turning-point had been found! (75–80.)

The Sixth Satire is the most obscure and unsatisfactory of the poems of PERSIUS, and baffled interpreters have taken refuge in the hypothesis that the Satire is incomplete. The roughness of the metre and the harshness of the transitions favor this view; but parts are wrought

out with all the minuteness of detail that is characteristic of our author's style, and some of the highest authorities, such as Jahn, consider the Satire complete. The close, as Mr. Pretor remarks, is exactly in PERSIUS'S manner, and we must look elsewhere in the Satire for the breaks-if breaks there be.

1-11. Are you spending the winter on your Sabine farm, Bassus, and have you resumed your poetry? I am in my Ligurian resort, so praised by Ennius.

1. iam: in the question implies uncertainty, 'actually?' 'so?' ―bruma-brevuma brevissuma (dies), 'the shortest day,' 'wintersolstice,' ‚' 'midwinter.'—foco: contrast between the fireside of the land of the Sabines and the open-air warmth of Liguria.—Basse: 'Caesius Bassus, one of the intimate friends of PERSIUS, was deputed by Cornutus to edit his Satires after his death. He is classed with HORACE, as a lyric poet, by QUINTILIAN (10, 1, 96), who, however, thinks him inferior to some of his own contemporaries, and he is probably the same with the author of a treatise on Metres, which is referred to by various grammarians, and still exists in an interpolated epitome, but different from Gabius or Gavius Bassus, who wrote works on the origin and signification of words and on the gods. Bassus was killed, according to the Scholiast, in the famous eruption of Vesuvius' (Conington, after Jahn). See also v. 5.-Sabino: The simplicity of the Sabines has already been noted (see 1, 20), and Jahn thinks that the life about the fireside (VERG., Georg., 2, 532) is an indication of the primitive tastes of Bassus and his family. Sabino also prepares the way for tetrico (below). Comp. tetrica ac tristis disciplina Sabinorum, Liv., 1, 18 (quoted by Jahn).

2. tetrico: 'austere.'-vivunt: PERSIUS was thinking of HORACE's vivuntque commissi calores | Aeoliae fidibus puellae, Od., 4, 9, 11. 12. Iam vivunt, 'wake to life' (Pretor), where 'wake' represents iam. See note on 5, 33.

3. mire: is an Adjective or an Adverb, according as opifex is a Substantive or an Adjective.-opifex: Commentators supply es, but the Nom. can be used in characteristic exclamation. See G., 340, R. 1, and comp. 1, 5. With opifex intendisse comp. Prol., 11, For the Perf., see 1, 41, note.-vete

and egregius lusispe below.

rum primordia vocum: Perhaps the racy richness of our carly