SATIRE I.

Persius. 'O THE vanity of human cares! O what a huge vacuum man's nature admits!'

Friend. Whom do you expect to read you?

P. 'Was your question meant for me? Nobody, I assure you.'
F. Nobody?

P. 'Well-one or two at most?'

F. A most ignominious and pitiable catastrophe.

P. 'Why are you afraid that Polydamas and the Trojan ladies will be setting their own dear Labeo above me? Stuff! If that

4. ne connects the sentence not with turpe et miserabile,' but with something similar implied by Quare.' 'For fear that Polydamas,' etc. 'Nae,' which Heinr. prefers, with some of the old commentators, would destroy the sense, the ironical assertion showing that he doubted the fact, and 'ne praetulerint,' 'suppose they were not to prefer,' would be equally inappropriate here, though idiomatic. For Polydamas,' two MSS. have Pulydamas,' representing Homer's Пovλvdáμas. The reference is to Il. 22. 100, 105, the former of which is quoted by Aristot. Eth. 3. 8, and both of them more than once by Cicero (Ep. Att. 2. 5. 1; 7. I. 4; 8. 16. 2), who applies the name Polydamas to Cato, and also to Atticus himself. Here the expression is particularly pointed; 'Polydamas and the Trojan ladies' of course stand for the

bugbears of respectability, the influential
classes of Rome: the pride of the Ro-
mans as Troiugenae' is glanced at (Juv.
I. Ico; 8, 181; 11. 95), while the
women are dwelt on rather than the
men, ̓Αχαιίδες, οὐκέτ' Αχαιοί [comp.
(with Mr. Pretor on Cic. ad Att. I. 12)
Cicero's Teûkpis, in all probability a
nickname for C. Antonius.] To crown
all, there is an allusion to Attius Labeo
[see Teuffel, Geschichte der Römischen
Literatur, p. 673, 2nd ed.] as the
author of a translation of the Iliad, of
which the Schol. has preserved one line,
'Crudum manduces Priamum Priamique
pisinnos' (Il. 4. 35), as if he had said,
Lest Labeo's interest with Polydamas
and the Trojan ladies should get them
to prefer him to me.' The story perhaps
only rests on a statement by Fulgentius
(see Jahn), but the internal evidence is
very strong, and it is much more pro-
bable than the supposition that 'Labeo'
is merely used as a Horatian synonym
for a madman. (Hor. 1 S. 3. 82), to
which Jahn inclines, Prolegomena, pp.
72, 73. The scholiast's notion that Nero

Labes

praetulerint? nugae. non, si quid turbida Roma
elevet, accedas examenque improbum in illa

castiges trutina, nec te quaesiveris extra.

nam Romae quis non-? a, si fas dicere-sed fas
tum, cum ad canitiem et nostrum istud vivere triste
aspexi ac nucibus facimus quaecumque relictis,
cum sapimus patruos. Tunc, tunc ignoscite.'

Nolo.

'Quid faciam? sed sum petulanti splene cachinno.
Scribimus inclusi, numeros ille, hic pede liber,
grande aliquid, quod pulmo animae praelargus anhelet.
"for the purpose of mouthing it."

6. examénue ( post n superscr.)

is meant by Polydamas is as absurd as his
derivation woλùs dáμap, 'id est, multinuba.'

5. nugae. Nugas' is used similarly
as an exclamation in Plaut. Most. 5. 1.
31, Pers. 4. 7. 8.

non for 'ne.' Hor. 2 S. 5. 91, I Ep. 18. 72, A. P. 460, and in postAugustan prose, though blamed as a solecism by Quintilian (Freund).

turbida, muddled,' like Aeschylus' ŏμμa qvæμévov (Supp. 394), in keeping with the metaphor which follows from weighing in a balance.

6. elevet, makes light of,' suggesting the metaphor of a balance.

examen, 5. IOI.

improbum, 'unfair,' not telling
truth. Not unlike is merces improbae,'
Plaut. Rud. 2. 4. 43.

7. The construction is 'Non accedas
castigesque, nec quaesiveris extra te,'' Nor
ask any opinion but your own.'
ar 8. Most MSS. insert est' before 'quis
non,' the transcribers not seeing that Persius
here breaks off what he afterwards com-
pletes in v. 121. The stolidity of Rome
is treated as a secret, like the ass's ears of
Midas, and kept till the end of the Satire,
when it breaks out.

a, si fas, four MSS. and two others
from a correction, most of the others
'ac,' a few. at' or 'et,' none of which
would be equally appropriate. If I might
only say it but I feel I may, when-.'

9. canitiem. The reproach of old age runs through the Satire, vv. 22, 26, 56; an unhonoured old age, produced partly by luxury (v. 56), partly by use

8. Romae est quis ñac si.

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less sedentary pursuits (here and v. 26), and instead of teaching wisdom, employing itself with corrupting the taste of youth (v. 79), and aping youthful sentimentalism. [Comp. perhaps Lucilius 15. 4' senium atque insulse sophista.']

nostrum istud vivere triste. The austerity of affected morality, such as is lashed by Juvenal (S. 2), dreary fretting over study, and genuine peevishness. Persius is very fond of the use of the inf. as a regular subst. 'scire tuum' v. 27; ridere meum' v. 122: 'pappare minutum' 3. 17; ' mammae lallare' ib. 18; 'velle suum 5. 53; sapere nostrum 6. 38.

10. aspicere ad, an archaism, used by Pacuvius and Plautus (Freund).

=

nucibus.. relictis Horace's abiectis nugis' (2 Ep. 2. 141). Catull. 61. 131 Da nuces pueris, iners Concubine: satis diu Lusisti nucibus.' Hor. 2 S. 3. 171 talos nucesque.' Suet. Aug. 83 'talis aut ocellatis nucibusque ludebat cum pueris minutis.' Comp. the poem de Nuce,' also 3. 50. [Tristis nucibus puer relictis' Martial 5. 84. 1.] II. cum, referring to 'nucibus relictis,' not in apposition to 'cum' preceding.

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sapimus may have a double sense. The Romans probably acknowledged no such sharp distinction between the different meanings of the same word as we do, being less conscious and critical. 'Sapere' with acc. of the flavour or of the thing about which one is wise is common enough, and here patruos,' though a person, is equivalent to a thing, so that

muddle-headed Rome does make light of a thing, don't you be walking up and correcting the lying tongue in that balance of theirs, or asking any opinion but your own-for who is there at Rome that has not-if I might only say it! But surely I may, when I look at these gray hairs of ours, and this dreary way of living; and, in short, all our actions from the time of flinging our toys aside, when we take the tone of uncles and guardians. Yes, you must excuse me, then.

F. No, I won't.

P. 'What am I to do? but I am constitutionally a great laugher, with a saucy spleen of my own.

'We shut ourselves up and write, one verse, and another prose, all in the grand style to be panted forth by the lungs with a vast

we may compare such expressions as 'Cy. clopa moveri.'

patruos, patruae verbera linguae' Hor. 3 Od. 12. 3, 'ne sis patruus mihi' 2 S. 3. 88.

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nolo is said by the friend, 'I won't admit the excuse,' tunc tunc ignoscite' being only another way of saying fas est tunc.' [Jahn's punctuation (1868) 'tunc tunc ignoscite, nolo;' is difficult to understand.]

12. quid faciam, etc., imitated from Hor. 2 S. 1. 24, who asks the same question, and appeals similarly to his temperament and tastes. Laughter was attributed to the spleen by the ancient physiologists. Pliny 11. 37 (80) 'Sunt qui putent adimi simul risum homini, intemperantiamque eius constare lienis magnitudine.' Serenus Samonicus 439 Splen tumidus nocet, et risum tamen addit ineptum.'

petulantes et petulci appellantur qui protervo impetu et crebro petunt laedendi alterius gratia' Fest. p. 206. ed. Müll. (Freund).

cachinno, according to the Schol. a noun, like gluto' 5. 112, 'palpo' ib. 176. Lucilius appears to have been fond of words of this kind, possibly as being in use among the common people, as 'lurco,' 'comedo,' 5. 29: 'conbibo' 26. 53, 'mando' Inc. 128, catillo' 28. 31. ['Comedo' also in Varro Modius fr. 16 in Riese's ed. of the Saturarum Menippearum reliquiae.] Hermann, following Heindorf, makes 'cachinno' a verb, taking ignoscite.. splene' as a parenthesis-Excuse me, I am sorry to do it, but I cannot help my spleen; but this would be awkward: and though cachinno,' as a noun, is

found nowhere else, the evidence of the Schol. is enough to show that its existence was not thought impossible at the time when Latin was still a living language.

13-23. The attack begins. P. 'A composition is produced with intense labour. It is then recited in public by the author, dressed in holiday attire, with the most effeminate intonation; and the descendants of Romulus are tickled, and feel their passions excited. Shame that an old man like that should so disgrace himself!'

13. The form of the verse was possibly suggested by Hor. 2 Ep. 1. 117 'Scribimus indocti,' etc.

13. inclusi points the satire-' a man shuts himself up for days and days, and this is the upshot.' Jahn compares Ov. Trist. I. I. 41' Carmina secessum scribentis et otia quaerunt.' Juv. 7. 28 'Qui facis in parva sublimia carmina cella.' Markland ingeniously but needlessly conjectures inclusus numeris ille.'

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pede liber opposed to numeros,' apparently' soluta oratio,' as no kind of verse could be well contrasted with ' numeri,' even Pindar's dithyrambics being considered numeri lege soluti.' The stress, however, is laid throughout the Satire on poetical recitations, as in Juv. S. 1 and 7; and rhetoric is merely introduced (v. 87) with reference to the courts of law. 'Pede liber'='pede libero.'

14. grande aliquid, in apposition to numeros' and to the notion contained in 'pede liber.' 'Res grandes' v. 68, Grande locuturi' 5. 7. 'Grandis' seems to have been a cant term at Rome

scilicet haec populo pexusque togaque recenti et natalicia tandem cum sardonyche albus sede leges celsa, liquido cum plasmate guttur mobile collueris, patranti fractus ocello.

hic neque more probo videas nec voce serena ingentis trepidare Titos, cum carmina lumbum intrant, et tremulo scalpuntur ubi intima versu. tun, vetule, auriculis alienis colligis escas, auriculis, quibus et dicas cute perditus ohe?' Quo didicisse, nisi hoc fermentum et quae semel intus

expenditure of breath. Yes-you hope to read this out some day, got up sprucely with a new toga, all in white with your birthday ring on at last, perched up on a high seat, after gargling your supple throat by a liquid process of tuning, with a languishing roll of your wanton eye. At this you may see great brawny sons of Rome all in a quiver, losing all decency of gesture and command of voice, as the strains glide into their very bones, and the marrow within is tickled by the ripple of the measure. What! an old man like you to become caterer for other men's ears—ears to which you will be fain to cry Enough at last when bursting yourself?'

F. What is the good of past study, unless this leaven-unless Kladapo's = "fragile so languishing?

18. collueris explained by liquido,' the modulation having, as it were, the effect of rinsing the throat.

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fractus 'dissolutus.' Here fractus ocello seems to be a translation οι κλαδαρόμματος. The Greeks also talked of κεκλασμένη φωνή. [Ρυθμὸς κεκλασμένος λόγῳ καὶ σεσοβημένος Longinus 41. I. Illum (animum) non esse sincerum et habere aliquid fracti' Sen. Ep. 115. 2.] Compare too θρύπτεσθαι. Fragilis' is similarly used of effeminacy, Hor. I S. 8. 39. The meaning of 'patranti' is doubted, but we shall probably be right in rendering it 'wanton.'

19. hic is probably 'hereupon,' as in v. 32, where see note, though König explains it illo loco ubi recitatur.'

probus pudicus,' with which it was constantly coupled. 'Saltare elegantius quam necesse est probae' Sall. Cat. 25.

20.

serena'composita.'

'celsi ingentis.. Titos, like Rhamnes' Hor. A. P. 342, only that ingentes' refers to the physical size of these sons of old Rome (like ingens Pulfennius 5. 190, torosa iuventus' 3. 86, 'caloni alto' 5. 95), to show the monstrousness of the effeminacy to which they are surrendering themselves.

trepidare like exsultat,' v. 82, they cannot keep their posture. Virgil's 'stare loco nescit.'

21. tremulo seems to express the movement of the line.

22. vetule, note on v. 9.
'Do you
lend yourself to pampering the ears of
others?' Casaubon compares the Greek
phrases εὐωχίαι and εστιάσεις ἀκοῶν.

23. When, after all, you are sure to
be tired before they are satisfied.'

cute perditus='cute perdita,' like
'pede liber'='pede libero.' It is vari-
ously explained. The Schol. gives a
choice emaciated by midnight study'-
'pale with old age-and 'so diseased as to
show it even externally. The early com- (31.

(19

mentators seem divided between the two
first, several of them quoting Juvenal's
'deformem pro cute pellem.' Casaubon, fol-
lowed by Jahn, understands it as dropsical,
though he thinks it may denote cuta-
neous disease. König accepts neither view,
but supposes the point intended to be ina (4)
bility to blush, however produced. Heinr.
thinks it refers to the parched skin of high (5)
fever May it mean, You will at least
have to cry Hold when you burst? (So (6).
v. 23 end.) In support of the third ex-
planation offered by the Schol. we may per-
haps compare the language of Seneca, Ep.
122. 4, about people who feast all night

and sleep all day: quippe suspectior illis supporting (3)

quam morbo pallentibus color est: languidi
evanidi albent, et in vivis caro morticina
est.'1

ohe. Hor. 1 S. 5. 12; 2. 5. 96, in which
latter passage the first syllable is short.

24-27. F. What is the good of study, unless a man brings out what he has in him? P.Hear the student! as if knowledge did no good to the possessor unless he were known to possess it!'

24. Quo is read by a few MSS. Most of the others have 'quid,' which seems to