Praeteritos meditor" (crudum Chaerestratus unguem 66 Ne trepidare velis atque artos rodere casses. Ad medium fracta est." Limen ad obscoenum' is like 'invisis foribus' in the same satire, v. 262. 165. udas Ebrius ante fores] Lovers poured wine on their mistresses' doors, or daubed them with sweet ointment. In the first scene of Plautus' Curculio, Phaedromus pours wine on the door of his mistress and says, "Agite, bibite, festivae fores! Potate, fite mihi volentes propitiae." Lucretius (iv. 1171) has "At lacrimans exclusus amator limina 165 170 167. Euge, puer; sapias,] The slave applauds his master's intention, and bids him be wise, and sacrifice a lamb to the gods averters of evil, 'dii averrunci,' as they were called, or by the Greeks ἀποτρόπαιοι, αλεξίκακοι. The gods universally received in this character were Jupiter and Apollo, and among the heroes, Hercules and the Dioscuri. But individuals had their own protecting gods, and for particular evils there were particular divinities, which took their names from the ills they averted, as Febris, Robigus, Timor, and others. Sapias percute' is like Horace's "Sapias vina liques, et spatio brevi Spem longam reseces (C. i. 11. 6). 168. Sed censen' plorabit,] He begins to hesitate, and we know what that leads to under such circumstances. The slave tells him he is a fool, and if he goes back she will beat him with her slipper. "Utinam tibi commitigari videam sandalio caput,' says Gnatho to the valiant captain (Ter. Eun. v. 7. 4). 170. Ne trepidare velis] According to the usual punctuation this verse is separated from the one before it by a full stop. This makes the words a bidding of Davus. I do not take it so. The woman he says will beat him with her slipper and teach him not to fret and bite his toils. As to 'trepidare,' which expresses confusion in various ways, see note on Hor. C. i. 11. 4. Haud mora must be joined closely with 'dicas.' 'Straightway you would say, What then must I do?' Jahn has haud mora, dicas,' making them the man's answer to the summons. The words that follow are copied closely from Terence, and Horace has copied them as closely (1. c.) : "Quid igitur faciam? Non eam? ne nunc quidem Quum arcessor ultro." The answer of the slave is, 'You would not even now if you had left her whole and sound. Here, here is the man we look for; E e Nunc ferus et violens: at si vocet, haud mora dicas, 'Quidnam igitur faciam? nec nunc cum arcessat et ultro Supplicet accedam?' Si totus et integer illine Exieras, nec nunc." Hic, hic quem quaerimus, hic est, Jus habet ille sui palpo quem ducit hiantem here, not in the rod which the silly lictor flourishes' (asto which see v. 75, n.). Horace has "Hicest aut nusquam quod quaerimus," Epp. i. 17. 39. The man Persius means is he who is 'totus et integer.' Terence has 'ne nunc quidem,' and therefore Jahn and Heinrich have 'ne nunc' here, as Bentley. has in the corresponding place of Horace. But the best MSS. and early editors, as well as Passow and Orelli, have 'nec nunc,' which is equivalent to ne nunc quidem.' 'Ne nunc,' if it is Latin, has not the force of 'nec nunc.' Several MSS. have nunc nunc' in 174, which only supports 'nec,' both words being abbreviated in the MSS. 176. Jus habet ille sui palpo] He takes another case, and asks "is that cajoling fellow 'sui juris' who is led open-mouthed by ambition?" A man who was sui juris' was not in the power of another. 'Palpo is a noun formed like cachinno' (S. i. 12, n.), and means a flatterer, such as one must be who goes about canvassing for votes. 'Hiantem' expresses the man's eagerness, as in Hor. S. i. 2. 88, “ ne si facies ut saepe decora Molli fulta pede est, emptorem inducat hiantem." 'Ambitio' is called 'cretata,' because candidates had their togas well whitened with 'creta,' fuller's earth, from which practice they got their name. See note on Hor. S. i. 2. 61, and above S. ii. 40, "quamvis te albata rogarit. 177. Vigila et cicer ingere large] So in Horace the man Servius Oppidius says to his sons, "In cicere atque faba bona tu perdasque lupinis, Latus ut in Circo spatiere et aeneus ut stes," S. ii. 3. 182 sq., where it is stated on the authority of the Scholiast that the aediles were wont at the Floralia to distribute grain to the people. Nostra Floralia' is the poet identifying himself ironically with the man of the text. The Floralia was celebrated in honour of Flora from the 28th of April to the 2nd of May inclusive, with much dissipation and licen 175 180 tiousness. The old men are called 'aprici' because they love the sun. See note on S. iv. 18. As to ingere,' see v. 6, n. The 179. At cum Herodis venere dies,] Other slaves are those of superstition, and to these he now passes. The Scholiast says that 'Herodis dies' means the birthday of Herod the Great observed by his sect the Herodians. Whether this king's birthday was kept or not I do not believe Persius knew or cared, any more than Horace's friend knew what he was speaking of when he excused himself on the score of the day being the thirtieth sabbath (S. i. 9. 69, "hodie tricesima sabbata "). Romans were well acquainted with the name of Herod, who ruled Judaea in the interest of Rome, and whose party were favourable to the Roman government. Josephus refers to the illuminations at the Jewish festivals (c. Apion. ii. 9). He says ironically in answer to a charge that they had been imposed upon by a fellow acting Apollo with the help of torches: Auxrov yàp ovčεпь čŋλον ὅτι πρόσθεν έωράκασιν οὶ τὰς τοσαύτας καὶ τηλικαύτας λυχνοκαίας ἐπιτελοῦντες. The windows Persius speaks of as anointed with oil, and the lamps crowned with violets. See Juv. xii. 89, sqq. Rubrum catinum' is a dish of red clay, and most of the Italian pottery was of that colour. 'Fidelia' occurs twice in S. iii. vv. 22, 73. 'Labra moves tacitus' is an imitation of Horace's "Labra movet metuens audiri" (Epp. i. 16. 60). See notes on S. ii. 3 and on Juvenal xiv. 96: "Quidam sortiti metuentem sabbata patrem Nil praeter nubes et caelinumen adorant." Persius means that the man at these Jewish festivals adopts their way of praying in silence, of which Tacitus says "Judaei mente sola unumque numen intelligunt" (Hist. v. 5). Persius adds that the man stands in awe of the sabbath, to which he transfers the epithet Dispositae pinguem nebulam vomuere lucernae that belongs to the Jews themselves. As to these superstitions see, besides the above passage of Juvenal, vi. 159, n. 542, n. 185. Tunc nigri lemures] Lemures and Larvae were spirits of the bad, as Manes and Lares were of the good. See note on Hor. Epp. ii. 2. 209, "Nocturnos lemures portentaque Thessala rides ? The Scholiast explains the dangers of the broken egg. He says that eggs were put by the priests on the fire to roast, and if one broke it portended mischief to him for whom the trial was made, or to his property. There were various superstitions about eggs, such as that as soon as the inside was eaten the spoon should be thrust through the shell. Witches used them in their incantations. Livia is said to have ascertained by hatching a hen's egg by artificial means, and its producing a cock, that the child of which she was pregnant would be a boy (Sueton. Tib. 14. Plin. x. 55). Eggs were used for other superstitious purposes (see Plum's note). 186. Tune grandes Galli] These are the priests of Cybele. Tunc-tunc' are 'now one and now the other.' See notes on Juv. S. ii. 111; vi. 511. 'Grandes Galli' corresponds to the ingens Semivir' of the latter passage. As to sistrum' see note on Juv. xiii. 93, and Wilkinson's Anc. Egypt, vol. ii. p. 322, sqq. Lusca sacerdos' is here the priestess of Isis, to whom this instrument particularly belonged, and with it she struck blind those with whom she was angry, as Juvenal says (1. c.), "Isis et irato feriat mea lumina sistro." The priestess is therefore called 'lusca.' She may be supposed to have had a touch of the goddess'sistrum.' 187. Incussere deos inflantes corpora,] The influences usually attributed to Isis are here assigned to the several causes 185 190 named. The gods that swell out men's bodies' is only a way of expressing their various diseases sent by the gods. "Et phthisis et vomicae putres," as Juvenal says in a similar connexion (1. c.). Turnebus (Adv. xviii. 12, quoted by Plum) has some remarks about the superstitious use of garlic, but they throw no light on this place. It is enough that the Egyptians held this herb in particular reverence, and it may be assumed, in the absence of information, that the ceremony of eating a head of garlic three times in the morning (three successive mornings, as it seems), was invented by Persius for this occasion. 189. Dixeris haec inter] This is the common construction for suppose you tell it.' See note on Hor S. i. 1. 45. 'Haec ' means all that has been said about liberty. The Centurions are brought in again, laughing at all this philosophy. See S. iii. 78, sqq. Varicosus' is taken by the commentators generally to be derived from varix,' a swelling of the veins. The first syllable of that word is said by Forcellini to be long: I do not know on what authority. Heinsius on Ovid, Ars Amat. iii. 304, "ingentes varica fertque gradus," says varicosus' is derived from varrio,' 'to straddle.' See Forcellini. The word occurs in Juvenal vi. 395. 'Vulfenius' appears in the MSS. under various forms. He is one of the stout captains, " 'qui in crepidas Graiorum ludere gestit" (i. 127), and he says he would not bid more than a clipped 'centussis' for a hundred Greeks, anas' apiece. The 'centussis' was the highest multiple of the 'as' that was coined. ceri' is to bid at an auction, and the man supposes contemptuously a hundred philosophers put up in one lot, to be sold to the highest bidder. 'Li SATIRA VI. INTRODUCTION. Persius' last satire, like Juvenal's, is a fragment. That he wrote slowly, as the Grammarian says, may be easily believed, and his early death may have overtaken him before he had time to finish this poem. This would give it an interest which in itself it has not. The poet has retired for the winter to the coast, and is living on the shores of the Gulf of Spezia (Lunae portus), where, if the Scholiast is to be believed, his mother lived after her second marriage. He sits down to write to his friend Caesius Bassus, the lyric poet; and after paying a high compliment to his genius, he commends the climate and scenery and retirement of the place he is staying at. There he lives free from all anxiety and all jealousy of his neighbours' prosperity. He contrasts his own state of mind with that of men, on the one hand, who deny themselves the necessaries of life, and, on the other, who run through their estate in their youth with riotous living. He expresses his resolution to enjoy what he has got, and advises all men to deal liberally with their means, living up to their income, and being ready to help a friend in time of need, even at the sacrifice of part of their estate. This suggestion brings up the principal subject of the satire, which is the folly of those who deny themselves for the sake of their heirs, a favourite subject with Horace. Whether it was the poet's intention to continue that subject to the end of the satire, or to put in any other point of view the spirit of moneygetting, it is impossible to say. But I am surprised that Casaubon, Jahn, and others should treat the satire as an entire composition. It is manifestly unfinished, and so the Grammarian's memoir expressly states. Of Caesius Bassus not much is known. He was a lyric poet, and Persius, with the partiality of a friend, speaks highly of his poems. But Quintilian had no great opinion of him. He says, what can easily be believed, that Horace was almost the only Roman lyric poet worth reading. There is no style that modern scholars have found so hard to imitate successfully, and it appears his countrymen did not succeed better, perhaps not so well. Quintilian adds, that if any body could be classed with Horace it was Caesius Bassus, but his abilities were far inferior to those of some poets then living. (Inst. x. 1. 95.) From what Persius says we may infer that his style was none of the smoothest. From the opening of the satire we learn that, like Horace, he had a house on the Sabine hills, and the Scholiast says that he had a villa in the neighbourhood of Mount Vesuvius, and was destroyed with his house by an eruption. This was, no doubt, in A.D. 79, when Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed, and the elder Pliny lost his life. According to late emendations of the text of the younger Pliny, in his description of his uncle's death (Epp. vi. 16), the name of Bassus is introduced in that celebrated letter. Jahn improves upon the emendations; but they are wholly conjectural, and cannot be received, the text of Pliny being hopelessly corrupt. ARGUMENT. V. 1. Has winter sent you to the country, Bassus? and is your lyre awake, great artist of the rough old manly song, and that which sings of young men's passions and of old men's wisdom? I'm on the warm Ligurian coast, whose seas are rough and rocks are bold, on Luna's port which Ennius praised, when he woke up from dreaming he was Homer. Here I forget all care, and envy not the wealth of meaner men. V. 18. Others may differ from me; even twins are born with different genii. One turns miser in his youth, the other runs through all his means with eating. For my part I shall use my fortune, not abuse it. Live up to your means: what should you fear? Harrow, and then your crop will come again. If duty calls, a friend cast on the coast, with all he has sunk in the sea, you may go further give him a slice of your estate. But then your heir will bury you shabbily; and cry out against luxury brought in with our new silly tastes from the East. What! do you fear beyond the grave? Come here, my heir, a word with you. My friend, a letter has arrived from Caesar, a great victory won, there'll be a triumph, all things are preparing. I mean to give two hundred gladiators. Who shall forbid me? Do so if you dare. I'll then give largess to the people. Do you say no? Speak out. "Not I: your land is well nigh worthless." Very well; I've no relations of my own, but I can go and find a Manius at Bovillae or Aricia. "A son of Earth!" Well, ask who was my father's grandfather; it may be I could tell you: but go back two steps, and he was son of Earth. So Manius is his brother and my uncle. You've better claims than he, then why not wait? I'm your Mercurius, as they have him in the pictures. Refuse you what I offer? will you not take what's left? If aught is gone I am the sufferer. Whatever you may get is Don't lecture me and bid me live upon my income. "How much Here, boy, pour faster oil upon my cabbage. Am I to live on nettles and pig's head that you and yours may live in gluttony and wantonness? Am I to starve that you may get a popa's belly? entire for you. V. 75. Go sell your life; and search the world around; let no man beat you at the auction mart. Double your capital. "I have; it comes back triple, or quadruple, or it may be ten times more. Tell me where I should stop, and then we shall have found one who can solve sorites." ADMOVIT jam bruma foco te, Basse, Sabino? 1. Admovit jam bruma foco] Horace retired to his Sabine farm for warmth: "multa et praeclara minantis Si vacuum tepido cepisset villula tecto" (S. ii. 3. 10, n.). Tetrico' shows that his style was severe, but we have no remains to judge by. Casaubon and others think there is a special allusion here to Mons Tetricus in the Sabine country, from the character of which Servius says dull men were called 'tetrici' (Serv. Aen. vii. 713). Opifex' goes with 'intendisse,' like "negatas artifex sequi voces (Prol. 11), and so egregius' goes with 'agitare.' 'Veterum primordia vocum' seems to mean that Bassus used archaic words, which practice Horace condemns, but Persius seems, or professes for his friend's sake, to admire it. Casaubon asks what Bassus had to do with words, and substitutes rerum,' which Heinrich adopts, against all the MSS. It would be as easy to ask what had Bassus to do with the elements of things. Lucretius (iv. 534) has 'primordia vocum' in a different connexion for elementary sounds. Jahn and others think Bassus may have written a poem upon the elements of language. I agree with Weber, who holds the other opinion; but it is not easy to say as we do not know orum, Et pugilem victorem, et equum certamine primum, Et juvenum curas, et libera vina referre." Heinrich on conjecture has 'jocis,' saying 'agitare jocos' is not Latin. It is not always easy to decide what is not Latin. Agitare jocos' may be said as 'agitare moenia,' quoted from Florus by Forcellini; 'to construct' verses of which 'joci' were the subject. Lusisse' has the same meaning, not to mock,' but 'to sing of,' as . "Ludere quae vellem calamo permisit agresti" (Virg. Ecl. i. 10). I do not see how Heinrich gets the meaning of 'delectare' from 'lusisse.' Most MSS. have egregios,' but egregius' has good authority. It is common to interpret these verses as alluding |