Tigris, HoR.), which sweeps away the man who does not understand its current, or from a race-course in which there is no stopping, as Conington thinks (3, 67). Others understand rapidae simply as 'fleeting.'

95. sambucam: The ordinary translation, 'dulcimer,' is not strictly correct, though dulcimer' suggests the exotic refinement of the sambuca, a four-stringed instrument of Eastern origin, synonymous with cultivated luxury.-citius aptaveris: Gãтtov àv ȧpμóociaç; written out=citius aptaveris quam praetor det, but it is better not written out. Notice the Perf. Subj. 'You would sooner succeed in making a dulcimer fit, sooner get a dulcimer to fit [the hand of] a gawky camp-porter.'-caloni: used in its original sense of a soldier's hewer of wood and drawer of water. PERSIUS, who has no admiration for soldiers themselves, would naturally select a soldier's drudge as a type of awkwardness and stupidity. So, in effect, Conington.-alto: We combine 'tall and gawky;' 'hulking' (Conington). Comp. the sneer at the ingentis Titos, 1, 20, and Pulfennius ingens, 5, 190, and the ảvýp τρισκαιδεκάπηχυς of THEOCR., 15, 17.

96. stat contra: 'confronts,' 'stops the way.' Jahn comp. MART., 1, 53, 12: stat contra, dicitque tibi tua pagina: Fur es, a parallel which no conscientious commentator can quote without qualms. Juv., 3, 290: stat contra starique iubet.-ratio: ‘Right reason' here is equivalent to natura below, which is itself equivalent to publica lex hominum. See Knickenberg, 1. c. p. 20 seqq. -secretam: 'private.'-garrit: It is hard choosing between gannit and garrit. MARTIAL has garrire in aurem, in auriculam, 1, 89, 1; 3, 28, 2, and aurem dum tibi praesto garrienti, 11, 24, 2; AFRAN., ap. NON., 452, 11 (283 Ribb.): gannire ad aurem numquam didici dominicam.

97. liceat: with reference to v. 84.

98. publica lex hominum naturaque: "The universal law of human nature.' Of course in the peculiar Stoic sense. See note on 3, 67. The doctrine of a supreme law of Nature, the actual source and ideal standard of all particular laws, was characteristic of the Stoics, and lay at the bottom of the Roman juristical notion of a ratio naturalis or ius gentium' (Conington).

99. teneat actus: As tenere cursum is sometimes used in the

sense of 'check a course,' 'refrain from a course,' so tenere vetitos actus means to refrain from, or, as Pretor translates, 'hold in abeyance forbidden actions.' To this effect König. But as tenere cursum is also used in the sense of 'hold a course, keep on a course,' Jahn's version, which makes it a law of nature for weak ignorance to pursue forbidden actions, is not without justification. In that case fas est=‘it is to be expected,' as in operi longo fas est obrepere somnum. For the thought of the necessity of sin for the ignorant, see v. 119. But the immediate context favors the former interpretation. Casaubon's tenere vetitos = habere pro vetitis is without warrant in usage.

100-104. Popular illustrations of the doctrine drawn from medicine and navigation, and from HOR., Ep., 2, 1, 114: navem agere ignarus navis timet: abrotonum aegro | non audet, nisi qui didicit dare.

100. certo conpescere puncto, etc.: although you do not know how to check [that is, to bring to the perpendicular and keep there] the tongue or index [of the steelyard by putting the equipoise or pea] at a certain point.' 'Although you do not know how to use the steelyard' (statera). On the examen, see 1, 6; punctum is one of the points or notches (notae) on the graduated With nescius conpescere comp. callidus suspendere, 1, 118, and Prol., 11.-naturalex, as above.

arm.

102. peronatus: The pero was a thick boot of raw-hide, crudus pero, VERG., Aen., 7, 690, and Juv., 14, 186: quem non pudet alto | per glaciem perone tegi, qui summovet Euros | pellibus inversis (Jahn). The peronatus arator is a clodhopper, a country bumpkin.

103. luciferi rudis: Not a good stroke. Some knowledge of the stars was necessary for the ploughman himself, as Casaubon remarks. See VERG., Georg., 1, 204 seqq. So notably of the Pleiades, HESIOD, O. et D., 383. 615.-Melicerta: Portunus, patron of sailors, VERG., Georg., 1, 437.-perisse: Comp. HOR., Ep., 2, 1, 80: clament periisse pudorem | cuncti paene patres.

104. frontem: the seat of modesty for modesty itself. In English, 'face,' 'front,' and 'forehead' are used for the absence of modesty; but 'frontless' and 'effrontery' accord with the usage here and in Juv., 13, 242: quando recepit | eiectum simul attrita

de fronte pudorem ?—de rebus: 'from the world,' or omitted. See 1, 1.-recto talo: Comp. HOR., Ep., 2, 1, 176: cadat an recto stet fabula talo. Jahn comp. further PIND., Isthm., 6, 12: ¿pdų ἔστασας ἐπὶ σφυρῷ, and EUR., Hel., 1449: ὀρθῷ βῆναι ποδί. Transl. ' uprightly.'

105. ars: Philosophy.

[Philosophus] artem vitae professus, CIC., Tusc. Dis., 2, 4, 12; sapientia ars est, SEN., Ep., 29, 3.—speciem: Jahn gave up in 1868 the hopeless specimen of 1843, which left qua in the next line utterly unprovided for. That this aberration of a distinguished scholar should have been followed at all is a sad instance of Nachbeterei—a German word, not exclusively a German vice.

106. ne qua: sc. species. Ne because of the general notion of apprehension in the sentence, as after videre. G., 548, R. 2; A., 70, 3, e. subaerato auro: Subaeratus is a translation of vπÓɣаλκος. Ὑπόχαλκον νόμισμα is literally a coin (of gold or silver) with copper underneath. Of course we should say gilt or silvered copper coin. Subaerato auro, Abl. Abs. mendosum tinniat: With mendosum comp. sonat vitium, 3, 21; solidum crepet, v. 25 ; with tinniat, QUINT., 11, 3, 31: sonis homines, ut aera tinnitu, dinoscimus. Translate the line: 'that no [seeming truth] give a faulty ring, due to the copper underneath the gold.'

107. forent: On the sequence, see G., 511, R. 2; A., 58, 10, a. 108. illa prius creta, etc. Comp. HOR., Sat., 2, 3, 246: sanin creta an carbone notandi.

109. modicus voti: On the Gen., see G., 374, R. 2; A., 50, 3, c. -presso lare: 'Your establishment within your means?' Pressus opposed to diffusus. — dulcis: 'indulgent.' Observe the 'sweet reasonableness' of the ancient religionist. He, too, was an apostle of 'sweetness and light.'

110. iam nunc-iam nunc: At the very moment,' 'just at the right time,' hence at one instant, at another.'-astringas-laxes: 'shut tight-open wide.'-granaria: 6, 25, Plural of abundance. Comp. 2, 33.

111. inque luto: It was a favorite trick of the Roman boys to solder a piece of money to a stone in the pavement, in order to have a laugh at any one who might stoop to pick it up (Scholiast). Similar pranks are common enough now. Comp. HoR.,

Ep., 1, 16, 63: qui liberior sit avarus | in triviis fixum cum se demittit ob assm | non video.

'Licker

112. glutto: On the formation, see cachinno, 1, 12. ish-mouthed that you are' would give the coarse tone.-salivam: Doth not our mouth water?—Mercurialem: Excited by gain and not by food. See 2, 12. 'Water of treasure-trove' (Conington).

113. haec mea sunt, teneo: The commentators notice the legal tone.-cum dixeris: G., 584.

114. -que ac: a rare combination.-praetoribus ac Iove dextro: a kind of Zeugma=praetoribus [auctoribus] et Iove dextro, 'by the grace of the praetors and Jove.' The Jupiter here meant is the Iuppiter Liberator (Zɛùç ¿λev‡épɩog), so famous in connection with the death of PERSIUS's friend, Thrasea Paetus, TAC., Ann., 16, 35. See Introd., xiii.

115. sin: (if not) but if,' G., 593; A., 59, 1, a; Ribbeck, 1. c. 14.-cum: 'whereas,' after,' adversative.-nostrae farinae: 'one of our grain, batch, set,' 'one of our kidney'-doubtless a proverbial expression. The metaphor is taken from the mill or from the bakery. The batch referred to is the Stoic school. Of course the statement is ironical. Whereas (to judge by your bold pretensions to liberty) you were a little while ago in our

set.'

6

116-118. The drift of the passage is plain enough. A change of fortune does not bring with it a change of character. If you possess all that you say you possess, then you are free and wise. But if you are, after all, the same old man, I take back all that I have granted. You are a fool, a slave.' This familiar Stoic thesis is covered over with a mass of confused metaphors, at least according to the commentators and translators.-pelliculam veterem retines: is supposed to be: 1. An ass in a lion's skin, after HOR., Sat., 1, 6, 22; or, 2. A snake that has not cast its slough (Jahn).—astutam servas vulpem: is the fox dressed up like a lion, HOR., Sat., 2, 3, 186.-vapido pectore: contains an allusion to 'dead wine,' vappa, v. 77, and is opposed to incoctum generoso pectus honesto, 2, 74.-funem reduco: 1. Of a beast that has had rope allowed it and is pulled in; 2. Of a cock-chafer that is played at the end of a string (AR., Nub., 763).—fronte

politus: words that do not fit in very satisfactorily with ass, fox, flat wine, restiff beast, or buzzing cock-chafer. My admiration of PERSIUS is not unqualified, but this medley is almost too wild even for his turbid genius; and here, as elsewhere, commentators have been misled by looking at mere verbal coincidences with HORACE. There is an Aesopic fable (149 Halm), the moral of which gives the substance of this passage: ὁ λόγος δηλοῖ ὅτι οἱ φαῦλοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων, κἂν τὰ προσχήματα λαμπρότερα ἀναλάβωσι, τὴν γοῦν φύσιν οὐ μετατίθενται. In this fable, which bears a family likeness to Ƒaλñ ñoτ ávôρós (BaBR. 32), La Chatte Metamorphosée en Femme (LA FONTAINE, 2, 18), Zeus, charmed with the cleverness of Reynard, had made him king of the beasts; but wishing to try whether fortune had changed his character, he caused a beetle to fly before His Majesty's eyes as he was borne by in state. The fox could not withstand the temptation, leaped from the litter, and tried to catch the game in such unseemly guise that Zeus deposed him. The fox is Dama, made Marcus; nay, become a philosopher (nostrae farinae), and the philosopher is king: sapiens-dives | liber, honoratus, pulcher, rex denique regum, as HORACE puts the Stoic doctrine (Ep., 1, 1, 107). But if despite his fair seeming, his smooth regal brow (fronte politus), he retains his old nature (pelliculam veterem), and the old Reynard—the old rascal that swindled his master for a feed of corn-is still in his heart (astutam servas sub pectore vulpem), our deus ex machina takes back all that he has granted; he is a slave still.

117. relego: So Jahn. Inferior MSS. have repeto. Relego evidently suggested the new figure, funem reduco.

119. digitum exsere, peccas: a favorite expression with the Stoics to show that the wise man alone understands the conduct of life. EPICTET., fr. 53: ἡ φιλοσοφία φησὶν ὅτι οὐδὲ τὸν δάκτυλον ἐκτείνειν εἰκῆ προσήκει (Casaubon).

120. nullo ture litabis: Comp. 2, 75. Here litabis-litando impetrabis.

122. fossor: 'a ditcher, a clown, a clodhopper.' Fossor-incultus. Comp. 'navvy.' JUVENAL (11, 80) speaks of the squalidus fossor; CATULLUS (22, 10) combines fossor and caprimulgus; Ευκ. (Εl., 252), σκαφεύς and βουφορβός.

123. tris tantum ad numeros moveare: 'dance three steps in