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Rixanti populo, nostra ut Floralia possint

Aprici meminisse senes. Quid pulchrius?' At quum 180 Herodis venere dies unctaque fenestra

Dispositæ pinguem nebulam vomuere lucernæ
Portantes violas rubrumque amplexa catinum
Cauda natat thynni, tumet alba fidelia vino:
Labra moves tacitus recutitaque sabbata palles.

ing calls, on these occasions, before daybreak. CAS. cf. Mart. IV. Ixxviii. Sen. Br. V. 24. or 'Be on the watch,' 'be always on the look out for an opportunity of ingratiating yourself with the people.' M. K.

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The candidates for popularity used to throw among the mob a number of tallies entitling the bearer to a certain quantity of some sort of grain. in cicere atque faba bona tu perdasque lupinis; Hor. II S. iii. 182. This was the method pursued by the ædiles at the games of Flora.' The sums squandered in these largesses, under the republic, far surpassed the most lavish cost of our contested elections, and were frequently ruinous to the parties, et populare sacrum bis millia dena tulisset; Mart. X. xli. 7. even when the emperors had engrossed the whole power, and the only subject of contention was, to be a slave with the title of an office, or without it. A, vi. 8. PR. G. cf. Suet. sap. cicer was a very plebeian food. Hor. A. P. 249. I S. vi. 115. cf. Mart. VIII. lxxix. 7 sqq. Stat. S. I. vi. 9 sqq. (B.) K. cf. vi. 50,

note.

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178. Scrambling.' PR.

Floralia; Macr. S. i. 4. Aug. Civ. D. vi. 7. PR. Juv. vi. 249, note. K.

179. Juv. xi. 203. This basking in the sun is characteristic of old age. "Together they totter about, Or sit in the sun at the door;" Darby and Joan. M. Cic. Sen. 16. K.

180. We now come to the tyranny of Superstition. The Herodians were a considerable party among the Jews. Under Herod the Great, the government attained a pitch of power, which it had not reached since the captivity. He was greatly favoured by Dolabella and Antony, and, subsequently, by Augustus; who, like the two former, extended his empire, and, at his request, conferred

privileges and immunities upon the Jews then resident in Rome: to this, must be added that he restored the temple, the idol of Jewish vanity, with surpassing magnificence. This was enough for that factious and selfish people: many of them honoured his memory, (execrable as it was,) and kept the day of his accession as a festival. Persius, like all the writers of his time, speaks of the Jews with equal ignorance and contempt; and, in this place, confounds a simple festival with their solemn sabbaths. G. VS. CAS. PR. cf. Juv. xiv. 96 sqq, notes. St. Matthew xiv. 6. St Mark vi. 21. M.

181. Juv. xii. 90-92, notes. moratur Dei ancilla in laribus alienis, et inter illos omnibus honoribus dæmonum, omnibus solennibus regum, incipiente anno, incipiente mense, nidore thuris agitabitur: et procedat de janua laureata et lucernata, ut de novo consistorio libidinum publicarum; Tert. ad Ux. xi. PR.

Vomuere; Virg. Æ. v. 682. M.

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182. Cumano rubicundam pulvere testam; Mart. XIV. cxiv. 1. paropsis rubra; XI. xxvii. 5. PR. This is put by hypallage for the dish embracing the tail of the fish.' LU. The red earthenware,' 'the large coarse fish,' and 'the tail,' which was not the prime part of it,' the white jug,' and 'the frothy wine,' are all mentioned contemptuously and with reference to the meanness and poverty of the Jews. M.

183. Præcipua magnitudine thynni. invenimus talenta xv pependisse. ejusdem caudæ latitudinem duo cubita et palmum, &c. Plin. ix. 15 s 17 and 20. PŘ.

Tumet may simply mean 'is filled to the brim.' CAS. or "The crude must foams o'er the pitcher's brims." G. cf. Virg. G. ii. 6.

184. Cf. ii. 6, note. PR.

The sabbaths of the circumcised.' VS. Mart. VII. xxix. 5. K.

185 Tune nigri lemures ovoque pericula rupto : Tunc grandes Galli et cum sistro lusca sacerdos Incussere deos inflantes corpora, si non Prædictum ter mane caput gustaveris allî. Dixeris hæc inter varicosos centuriones,

185. Understand timentur. CAS. somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas, nocturnos lemures, portentaque Thessala rides? Hor. II Ep. ii. 208 sq. animus virtute perfectus genius vocatur. animum humanum emeritis vitæ stipendiis corpore suo abjurantem vetere Latina lingua lemurem dictitatum reperio. ex hisce lemuribus qui posterorum suorum curam sortitus, placato et quieto numine domum possidet, Lar familiaris dicitur: qui vero ob adversa vita merita, nullis bonis sedibus, incerta vagatione, seu quodam exsilio punitur, inane terriculamentum bonis hominibus, ceterum noxium malis, id genus plerique Larvas perhibent. cum vero incertum est, quæ cuique eorum sortitio evenerit, utrum Lar sit, an Larva, nomine Manem deum nuncupant; Apul. de D. Socr. duat tibi Deus obvias species mortuorum, quidquid Umbrarum est usquam, quidquid Lemurum, quidquid Manium, quidquid Larvarum, oculis tuis aggerat, omnia noctium occursacula, omnia bustorum formidamina, omnia sepulcrorum terriculamenta; Id. Apol. cf. Varr. de V. P. R. i. Ov. F. v. 419 sqq. PR.

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Eggs were much used in lustrations and expiations. Ov. A. A. ii. 329 sq. Hor. Ep. v. 19 sq. K. If an egg broke when put on the fire, it portended jeopardy to the person or property of the individual. VS. There was another superstition relative to an egg: huc pertinet exsorbuerit quisque calices cochlearumque protinus frangi aut eosdem cochlearibus perforari; Plin. xxviii. 2. The danger was in case the shells should be pricked with a needle. T. Many persons even at the present day, after eating an egg, always break the bottom of the shell; some from superstitious motives, and others without knowing why.

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186. Cf. Juv. vi. 513, note. PR. Galli priests of Cybele' said to be so called after Gallus a river of Phrygia, whose water drove them mad: Plin. xi. 49. Varro. inter viridem Cybelen altasque

Celanas amnis it insana, nomine Gallus, aqua: qui bibit inde, furit; Ov. F. iv. 363 sqq. PR.

Sistro; Juv. xiii. 93, note. Apuleius calls it aureum crepitaculum; l. c. K. it was also made of silver or brass. PR.

This one-eyed lady, having never had a matrimonial offer, devoted herself to the service of Isis, VS. where her defect might be turned to good account, for she might represent it as the act of the offended goddess: if the ministers of that deity were so exposed to her wrath, what must other mortals be? cf. Juv. xiii. 93. Ov. Pont. I. i. 51 sqq. PR. M.

187. Have inculcated the dread of the gods: LU. i. e. of Venus and her son. SA. T. Ulcers and tumours are very common in Syria and Egypt. Aret. Morb. Ac. 6. rv Evglar Bear of duoidalμovss voμílov ζουσιν, ἂν μαινίδα τις ἢ ἀφύας φάγῃ, τὰ ἀντικνήμια διεσθίειν, ἕλκεσι τὸ σῶμα πιμπλάναι, συντήκειν τὸ ἦπαρ· Plut. Superst. 9. t. viii. p. 76. CAS. Mart. IV. xliii. 2. PR.

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188. Named before you eat it.' LU. 'A head of garlick eaten fasting was reckoned a specific against magical fascination. LU. T.

189. Στρατιωτικὴ ἀλογία was proverbial among the Greeks. PR. Surely Persius has shown little judgement in propounding his Stoical paradoxes to such an audience: but he seems to bear a rooted dislike to the soldiery; and whenever he has occasion for a more illiterate and worthless character than ordinary, he commonly repairs to the camp for him. His conduct, in this instance, will perhaps remind the reader of Fielding and Smollett, who, in compliance with the wretched cant of their times, manifested a patriotic abhorrence of the military, and seldom went further for a blockhead, a parasite, or an adept in low villainy, than the Army List. We have outlived this stupid piece of injustice; and a led-captain" is no

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190 Continuo crassum ridet Volfenius ingens, Et centum Græcos curto centusse licetur.

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SATIRE VI.

ARGUMENT.

This is one of the most pleasing and original of these Satires. Its primary object is to point out the proper use of riches: and the author (after a beautiful exordium, in which the genius and learning of his friend Bassus are complimented with all the warmth of friendship, 1—6.) exhibits his own conduct in the regulation of his desires, as explanatory of his views. 6-24.

A kind and liberal attention to the necessities of others is then recommended; and the various artifices of avarice to disguise its sordid and selfish feelings under the specious names of prudence, ancient simplicity, a regard for the welfare of successors, &c. are detected and exposed with marked severity. 25-40.

The poem concludes with some sarcastic reproof of the greediness of heirs in expectation, 41–74. and a striking description of the nature of cupidity, which strengthens with indulgence, and becomes more craving in proportion as it is more abundantly supplied. 75-80.

This Satire is not only the most agreeable and original, but the most interesting of our author's works. It was evidently written by him, while yet in the flower of youth, possessed of an independent fortune, of estimable friends, of dear connections, and of a cultivated mind, under the consciousness of irrecoverable disease; a situation in itself sufficiently affecting, and which is rendered still more so, by the placid, and even cheerful spirit which pervades every part of the poem. G.

ADMOVIT jam bruma foco te, Basse, Sabino?
Jamne lyra et tetrico vivunt tibi pectine chorda?
Mire opifex numeris veterum primordia vocum
Atque marem strepitum fidis intendisse Latinæ,
5 Mox juvenes agitare jocos et pollice honesto
Egregios lusisse senes? Mihi nunc Ligus ora
Intepet hibernatque meum mare, qua latus ingens
Dant scopuli et multa litus se valle receptat.

1. From this it appears that the wealthy Romans changed their residence with the seasons: and that they not only resorted to their villas in the spring, but at other times, when they were disposed for study and retirement. Cic. Att. Suet. Aug. 72. Hor. I Ep. vii. xv. PR. II Ep. ii. 65 sqq. 77 sq. Plin. Ep. i. 9. K. Literary characters, like our poets, were glad of any pretence to escape from the riotous excesses and the anarchy of the Saturnalia. G.

Bruma novi prima est veterisque novissima solis; Ov. F. i. 163. with us Thomas's day.' Festus. PR.

St

Focus is used for prædium, on account of the time of the year. K.

Casius Bassus, an eminent lyric poet; who was destroyed, together with his country house, in that great eruption of Vesuvius, VS. in which Pliny the elder is also said to have perished. G. He is mentioned as approaching most nearly to Horace Quint. Inst. x. 1, 96. PR. Prop. I. iv. 1. (BK.) WE, P. L. M. t. iii. p. xxxiii sqq. K. and p. xix. DB.

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2. While the strings quicken to thy manly quill." G. Ov. Ă. A. i. 721. Sen. H. F. 579 sq. lyra et chorda for strings of the lyre.' On this instrument, cf. Hor. I Od. x. 6. III. ii. 3. (JA.) K.

3. Of wondrous skill in adapting to minstrelsy the early forms of ancient words, and the masculine strain of the Latian lute.' It would appear from this, that Bassus was an antiquary and had successfully transferred to his odes some of the nervous words of the older dialects of his country. WB. "Great workman! whose blest muse sweet lines affordes, Full of the native beauty of old wordes." но.

4. Intendisse numeris is the same as numeris condere; Ov. F. vi. 24. or numeris coercere; Id. Pont. IV. viii. 73. cf.

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5. Juvenes for juveniles; LU. Ov. Tr. V. i. 7. K.

Agitare jocos; Ov. M. iii. 319. the same as jocari. K.

Jocos; Ov. Tr. II. 494. III. ii. 4. K. Amatory and playful themes.' LU. Musa dedit fidibus juvenum curas et libera vina referre; Hor. A. P. 83 sqq. CAS.

"With moral touch." G.

6. Ludere for canere; as in Virg. E. i. 10. PR. Hor. IV Od. ix. 9. or to play the good old man' by assuming an air of authority and sententiousness: bonum civem ludere; Cic. Ep. viii. 9. K.

He was staying with his mother Fulvia Sisennia, who, after his father's death, married again; her second husband was a Ligurian. VS.

Ligus is here a feminine adjective. LU.

7. Maria agitata ventis ita tepescunt, ut intelligi facile possit in tantis illis humoribus inclusum esse calorem: nec enim ille externus et adventitius habendus est tepor, sed ex intimis maris partibus agitatione excitatus; Cic. N. D. ii. 10 s 26. PR. Plut. Q. N. viii. t. xiii. cf. Prop. IV. i. 124. (PAS.) K.

Defendens pisces hyemat mare; Hor. II S. ii. 17. PR. vernat; Sen. Ep. 114. K.

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8. Dant present.' reginasistai & hipno ὄρεσιν ὑψηλοῖς, ἀφ ̓ ὧν τὰ πελάγη κατο TTSÚSTA Strab. v. PR. Sil. viii. 480. (R.) cf. Virg. Æ. i. 105. iii. 533 sqq. V. Flac. i. 619. Claud. xlix. 37. K. Luna where the villa stood was one of the many convenient and beautiful situations in which the gulf of Spezia abounded. The town itself has lain in ruins for ages; what now occupies a part of its site is called Larice. G.

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