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unge,

But if the runners occupied their own ground, 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.

62. Sum tibi Mercurius;] He says he is the man's Mercurius, who was represented in works of art as offering different persons a 'marsupium,' bag of money, as stated on Horace, S. ii. 3. 68, "Rejecta praeda quam praesens Mercurius fert." Probably Persius had this passage in mind. He means the man would be a fool to reject the purse because he did not know how much it contained, or because it did not contain as much as he wished, and so he would be a fool to reject his 'hereditas' because part of the property had been spent.

63. vis tu gaudere relictis?] Most MSS. have 'vin' tu.' The rule now generally accepted in regard to 'vis' and vin',' is that which Gronovius has laid down on Seneca de Ira, c. 28, that 'vis,' though interrogative, contains something of command or exhortation, which 'vin"

70

does not. See note on Juv. v. 74. This being the case, I do not see why the editors have all adopted 'vin'' here, when there is authority for 'vis.'

64. minui mihi:] 'If some part of the whole is gone, I have curtailed it to my own loss; but whatever it is (that is left), to you it is entire.' I do not agree with Jahn, who puts Deest aliquid summae into the mouth of the 'heres.' Tadius is any body. The MSS. vary between this and Stadius or Staius (ii. 19). He tells the man not to din into his ears the old advice that fathers give their sons, that he should put his money out to interest and live upon the income. Reponere' is 'to repeat again and again.' 'Merces' is used for interest of money by Horace, S. i. 2. 14, "Quinas hic capiti mercedes ;" and 3. 88, "Mercedem aut nummos unde unde extricat." Here the expression 'foenoris merces' is more complete.

68. Quid reliquum est?] The heres is supposed to ask how much he has left after all his waste? At which the poet bursts out with an indignant answer, repeating the man's word, and then turning to his servant and telling him to pour on the oil more prodigally than ever. 'Urtica,' 'nettles,' was food for the poorest (Hor. Epp. i. 12. 8), and a dried pig's head with split ears was neither savoury nor elegant. 'Caules' are the better sort of vegetables of the cabbage kind (brassica), brocoli, cauliflower, &c. Iste' is as if the man were before him. As to goose's liver, see Juv. v. 114, where the master keeps that delicacy for himself.

73. Mihi trama figurae Sit reliqua,] He asks if he is to reduce himself to a

75

80

thread while the other is to get a paunch as fat as a popa's. 'Trama' is properly the woof,' the threads that cross the stamen or warp. Here it is the thread of which the trama' or 'subtemen' is composed. As to 'popa,' see note on Juv. xii. 14, “a grandi cervix ferienda ministro." The 'popa' had as his perquisite the parts of the victims that were not burnt, some of which he gave probably to his deputy the 'cultrarius,' and they both got fat upon the spoils. 'Popa venter,' a 'popa belly,' is like "Corvos poetas et poetridas picas" (Prol. 13). 'Omentum' is not elsewhere used for fat (adeps). See Juv. xiii. 118.

75. Vende animam lucro,] Here he begins a new branch of his subject, which is left unfinished. He ironically bids a man sell his life for money, and search every corner of the world as the Italian 'mercatores' did, the most adventurous traders the world has ever known, penetrating places where civilized persons had never been before, and acting as the pioneers of Roman conquest. Casaubon takes these verses for a continuation of what goes before, and supposes the 'heres' to be urging his friend to increase his store by trade, and the friend to answer ironically that he had done so. As to excute,' see i. 49, n. The Romans got many of their slaves from Cappadocia. (See Juv. vii. 15.) They were particularly used as bearers. The poet bids his man become a 'mango,' slave-dealer, and beat them all at a slaveauction in showing off his goods, clapping his fat men on the thigh, or arm, or other sinewy part, as they stood on the platform to be exhibited. Jahn has the reading of many MSS. 'pavisse,' for 'plausisse,' which has good authority, and was in the text of the Scholiast, [who was also acquainted with the reading 'plausisse,' of which he gives a foolish interpretation.] The other editors, including Casaubon, have plausisse.' It depends on

'praestantior. Catasta' was the regular word for a platform erected for this purpose. Rigida' is only a redundant epithet. It means 'firm,' not likely to give way, as temporary erections of that sort sometimes do. Cicero speaks of slaves 'de lapide emptos;' so they must have used a stone too sometimes for this purpose.

78. Rem duplica.] Juvenal (xiv. 229) has "per fraudes patrimonia conduplicare." What follows is like Horace's advice (Epp. i. 6. 34) ::

"Mille talenta rotundentur, totidem altera, porro et

Tertia succedant, et quae pars quadrat

Redit' means his principal comes back to him increased to that extent. Rugam' is here put for a money-bag, which if not full lies in wrinkles. 6 Depunge' is 'make a mark where I am to stop.' 'Depinge' is a variant, but not right. Jahn has it in his text, but seems to prefer 'depunge,' as Casaubon does. Heinrich has' depunge,' and compares drоKEVTEV, 'to prick off.' The allusion in the last line is to the argument called by the Greeks σwpírns, the nature of which is explained on Horace, Epp. ii. 1. 47, " Dum cadat elusus ratione ruentis acervi." The man means that if his friend will tell him where to stop, he will have done as much as to find the end of a 'sorites,' which goes on without end, as avarice does. [Jahn makes the answer "Feci," &c. end with 'sistam,' where he places a full stop, and so the last line will mean, "There is one found, Chrysippus, who can limit your sorites."] He treats the satire as complete, and so do most editors. I have no doubt Heinrich is right in treating the satire as a fragment. See Introduction.

[Redit in rugam :] Sc. 'vestis,' Jahn, who refers to Pliny, H. N. xxxv. 8. 34, a passage which does not help his interpretation, though it may be true.]

Bathing, 19

trology, 153

Britannicus, 10, 123