31. non pudet: ‘You are not ashamed?’ (you ought to be). See G., 455.—discincti: Comp. discinctus aut perdam nepos, Hor., Epod., 1, 34 (Schol.). The discinctus is ‘a man of loose habits.’—Nattae: taken at random from Hor., Sat., 1, 6, 124.
32. stupet: ἀναισθητεῖ (Casaubon). He is ‘past feeling,’ his conscience is benumbed, is ‘seared with a hot iron.’—fibris increvit opimum pingue: ‘his heart is overgrown with thick collops of fat’ (Conington). The Scriptural parallels are familiar: Psa., 119, 70; Matt., 13, 15; John, 12, 40. The Delphin ed. comp. Tertull., de Anima, 20: Opimitas impedit sapientiam. On opimum pingue, comp. 1, 107.
33. caret culpa: Perhaps because the Stoic would not hold him responsible, Epictet., Diss., 1, 18. Conington well remarks that Casaubon’s quotation from Menand., Mon., 430—ὁ μηδὲν εἰδὼς οὐδὲν ἐξαμαρτάνει—does not meet the case. In Menander we have to do with ‘a sin of ignorance’ against others. Here the sin is against the man’s own nature. Possibly culpa is = conscientia culpae.
34-43. The terrors of remorse.
34. rursum non bullit: ‘he makes no bubbles,’ ‘makes no further struggles,’ ‘he is down among the dead men.’
36. velis: ‘deign.’ Velle gives a reverential turn to the wish.
37. moverit: Perf. Subj. Attraction of mood. G., 666; A., 66, 2.—ferventi tincta veneno: The gelidum venenum chills, this poison fires the blood. Comp. Alciphr., 1, 37, 3: θερμότερον φάρμακον, of a love potion. Occultum inspires ignem fallasque veneno, Verg., Aen., 1, 688. Tincta is a reminiscence of the shirt of Nessus and the bridal-gift of Medea to Glaucé.
38. intabescant: belongs to the same sphere of comparison. Intabescere, κατατήκεσθαι, is hopeless pining for a lost love. Comp. Theocr., 1, 66; 11, 14. For the figure, see Ov., Met., 3, 487: ut intabescere flavae | igne levi cerae—solent, sic attenuatus amore | liquitur.—relicta: sc. virtute. Conington comp. Verg., Aen., 4, 692: quaesivit caelo lucem ingemuitque reperta. Relicta = quod religuerint.
39. anne = an.—Siculi iuvenci: Every one has heard of the brazen bull made by Perillus for Phalaris of Agrigentum, Cic., Off., 2, 7, 26, and the sword of Damocles, in the next verse, is a proverb in English. Comp. Hor., Od., 3, 1, 17; Cic., Tusc. Dis., 5, 21, 61.—aera: poet. Plur. Vivid personification and identification.
40. auratis laquearibus = de a. l. Laquearibus, ‘sunken panels (lacus) between the cross-beams of the ceiling.’ See Verg., Aen., 1, 726.—ensis: a poetic word, ‘glaive,’ ‘brand.’
41. purpureas cervices: Damocles was arrayed in royal purple; hence purpureas (Casaubon). Others apply the expression to tyrants generally. Comp. Hor., Od., 1, 35, 12: purpurei tyranni.
42. imus: Better to have a sword hanging by a hair over your neck than yourself to be hanging above an abyss of misery. The commentators refer to Tiberius’s letter to the senate (Tac., Ann., 6, 6; Suet., Tib., 67), by way of illustrating the shuddering perplexity of the sinful tyrant.—dicat: The subject is loosely involved.—intus | palleat: This ‘not very intelligible expression’ (Conington) is paralleled by Shaksp., Macb., 2, 2: ‘My hands are of your color, but I shame | to wear a heart so white.’
43. quod: dependent on the notion of fear contained in pallere. G., 329, R. 1; A., 52, 1, a.—proxima uxor: ‘the wife at his side,’ ‘the wife of his bosom.’—nesciat: ‘is not to know.’
44-51. You have not the excuse of an unenlightened conscience, nor have you the plea of the ignorance of boyhood. Boys will be boys. I was a boy myself, played boyish tricks, loved boyish sports. My training was bad, my behavior only to be justified by my training.
44. parvus: ‘as a small boy:’ Memini quae plagosum mihi parvo | Orbilium dictare, Hor., Ep., 2, 1, 70.—olivo: The boy would tip (tangere) his eyes with oil, in order to make believe, by the use of the remedy, that he was suffering from the disease. For the anointing of sore eyes, see Hor., Sat., 1, 8, 25; Ep., 1, 1, 29.
45. grandia: ‘sublime.’ Grandia verba is the American ‘tall talk.’—nollem: Iterative conditional. G., 569, R. 2; A., 59, 5, b.—morituri Catonis: Such compositions were very much in vogue as rhetorical exercises. Comp. Juv., 1, 16 (oration to Sulla, advising a withdrawal from public life); 7, 161 (speech made for Hannibal). Seneca (Ep., 24, 6) does not seem to regard the theme of Cato’s death as threadbare.
46. discere: better than dicere. The boy shirks the learning rather than the speaking, and the sore eyes would be a better excuse for the one than for the other.—non sano: Comp. Petron., cap. 1; Tac., Or., 35, on this system of training. Hermann reads et insano.—laudanda = quae laudaret, the free adjective use of the Gerundive, which is more common in later times.
47. quae pater audiret: Juv., 7, 166: ut totiens illum pater audiat.—sudans: from excitement; hardly ‘in a glow of perspiring ecstasy’ (Conington). Sudans is thrown in maliciously as a comment.
48. iure: εἰκότως, ‘and well I might.’—etenim: is καὶ γάρ. Theoretically the predicate of the preceding sentence is to be repeated with the et. Practically it is often best to leave et untranslated. G., 500, R. 2 and 3; A., 43, 3, d.—senio, etc.: ‘The game was played with four tali, which, unlike the tesserae, were rounded on two sides, while the other four faces were marked with one, three, four, or six pips, and called respectively unio, ternio, quaternio, senio. The canis was the worst throw, when all four tali showed single pips (Ov., A. A., 2, 206; Trist., 2, 474; Mart., 13, 1, 6; Prop., 4, 8, 46), and the Venus the best, when all the faces turned up were different (Lucian, Amor., p. 415); or else, for it varied upon occasion, when all showed sices. The ace was a losing throw and the sice a winning one, when the pips were counted’ (Pretor, after Jahn). Persius wanted to know the value of each throw, what one brought in (ferret) another swept off (raderet).
49. scire erat in voto: Hoc erat in votis, Hor., Sat., 2, 6, 1.
50. angustae collo non fallier orcae: The allusion is to a game at nuces, called τρόπα or ‘cherry-pit.’ ‘’Tis not for gravity to play at cherry-pit with Satan,’ Shaksp., Twelfth N., 3, 4. Fr. à la fossette. Comp. Rabelais, 1, 2. The modern equivalent of nuces is marbles, and the modern τρόπα is ‘pitch-in-the-hole,’ or ‘knucks.’ Instead of the hole in the ground (βόθρος), the ancients used a small jar (orca), and to enhance the difficulty of getting in, the neck of this jar was made narrow (collo angustae orcae = angusto collo orcae, by Hypallagé, v. 4). So the modern hole admits but one marble. Comp. [Ov.] Nux, 85, 86: Vas quoque saepe cavum spatio distante locatur, | in quod missa levi nux cadat una manu.—fallier: like dicier, 1, 28.
51. neu quis = et ne quis. G., 546. ‘Et [erat in voto] ne quis callidior [esset].’—buxum: ‘top,’ because made of ‘boxwood.’ Comp. Verg., Aen., 7, 382: volubile buxum.—torquere: see Prol., 11, and 1, 118.
52. You have had a better training. You have reached years of discretion. You know Right from Wrong.—curvos = pravos. Comp. scilicet ut possem curvo dinoscere rectum, Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 44, and Persius, 4, 12; 5, 38.
53. quaeque docet: Quae depends by Zeugma on some notion involved in deprendere, such as tenere. G., 690; M., 478, Obs. 4.—sapiens porticus: Comp. sapientem barbam, Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 35; eruditus pulvis, Cic., N. D., 2, 18, 48.—bracatis inlita Medis: The στοὰ ποικίλη, the resort of Zeno and his school, was adorned with paintings by Polygnotus and others. One of these paintings represented the battle of Marathon, hence ‘the wise Porch bepainted with the trouser’d Medes.’ Inlita perhaps contemptuous, not necessarily ‘frescoed.’ The bracae ἀναξυρίδες, θύλακοι, a mark of barbaric luxury and display. Comp. Prop., 4, 3, 17: Tela fugacis equi et bracati militis arcus and Persica braca, Ov., Tr., 5, 10, 34 (Freund).—quibus: Neuter. Quibus et = et quibus. Trajection, G., 693.—detonsa: ‘close-cropped,’ for so the Stoics wore their hair, although they let their beard grow long ἐν χρῷ κουρίαι, Luc., Hermot., 18; Vit. Auct., 20. Comp. Juv., 2, 15: supercilio brevior coma.
55. invigilat: ‘rather tautological after insomnis. Nec capiat somnos invigiletque malis, Ov., Fast., 4, 530’ (Conington). Positive and negative sides of an action are more frequently combined in Latin and Greek than in English, and ‘sleepless vigil’ would not be strange even in English.—siliquis: ‘pulse.’ Hor., Ep., 2, 1, 123: vivit [vates] siliquis et pane secundo.—grandi polenta: ‘mighty messes of porridge;’ coarse, thick stuff (Macleane). ‘Polenta, ἄλφιτα, “pearl barley,” a Greek, not a Roman dish (Plin., H. N., 18, 19, 28), mentioned as a simple article of diet by Attalus, Seneca’s preceptor (Ep., 110, 18)’ (Conington, after Jahn).
56. Samios = Pythagorean, from Pythagoras of Samos. ‘And the letter, which is disparted into Samian branches, has pointed out to you the steep path whose track is on the right.’—diduxit: as demanded by the sense against the MSS., which have deduxit.—littera: The letter Y, or rather its old form , was selected by Pythagoras to embody the immemorial image of the two paths (Hesiod, O. et D., 287-292), so familiar in the apologue of Hercules at the cross-roads (Xen., Comm., 2, 1, 20), and alluded to again by our author, 5, 34. Hence this letter was called the Pythagorean; Auson., Id., 12, de litt. monos., 9: Pythagorae bivium ramis patet ambiguis Υ (comp. also Id., 15, 1: quod vitae sectabor iter?) Hence the rami Samii above. ‘The stem stands for the unconscious life of infancy and childhood, the diverging branches for the alternative offered to the youth, virtue or vice’ (Conington).
57. surgentem: The path to the right is the surgens callis of Persius, the ὄρθιος οἶμος of Hesiod. The character itself points upward, and the right-hand path is a clear-cut line (limes), so that there is no mistaking the road, unless you are bent on following Shakspeare’s ‘primrose path of dalliance,’ instead of ‘the steep and thorny path to heaven.’
58. stertis adhuc: The preacher finds his audience still snoring, despite his eloquence. As stertis can not be divorced from what follows, it is better to take it as an exclamation than as a rhetorical question.—laxumque caput, etc.: ‘Your head a-lolling with its coupling loose, yawns a yawn of yesterday with jaws unhinged at every point.’ The head is laxum on account of its weight. Comp. καρηβαρεῖν Alciphr., 3, 32, and Menand., fr. 67 (4, 88 Mein.).
59. oscitat hesternum: ‘Yawning off yesterday’ (Conington); the yawn is yesterday’s yawn, because it comes from yesterday’s debauch, Alexis, fr. 277 (3, 515 Mein.).—undique: ‘from all points of the compass’ (Conington), ‘an intentional exaggeration for utraque parte.’—malis: Jahn’s malis? (1843) is not good. The description is too minute for the interrogative form.
60. est aliquid: Ironical; hence the expectation of a negative answer is suppressed. G., 634, R. 1; A., 65, 2, a.—quo = in quod. Schlüter combines with tendis arcum.—in quod: The other reading, in quo, is unsatisfactorily defended by Hermann and Pretor.
61. ‘A wild-goose chase’ is the corresponding English expression for the Latin corvos sequi, the Greek τὰ πετόμενα διώκειν. ‘Each word is carefully selected. Thus the chase is a random one (passim), the object worthless (corvos), the missile any thing that comes first to hand’ (Pretor, after Jahn). Jahn refers further to Aeschyl., Ag., 394 (Dind.): διώκει παῖς ποτανὸν ὄρνιν. Familiar is Eurip.: πτηνὰς διώκεις, ὦ τέκνον, τὰς ἐλπίδας.
62. ex tempore: ‘for the moment,’ ‘at the beck of the moment,’ ‘by the rule of the moment’ (Conington).
63-76. A general preachment begins. Wake up, you snorer. Wake up, all you snorers. You are all sick, or all threatened with sickness. Do not postpone the remedy until it is too late. That remedy is to be found in the principles of true wisdom; in other words, in the doctrines of the Stoic creed. Before the sermon is finished, the preacher notices an unfriendly stir in his audience, and is punching a member of his congregation when he is interrupted.
63. helleborum: The black hellebore this time (1, 51). The black was good for dropsy, Plin., H. N., 25, 5, 22. It was the great ‘purger of melancholy.’—cutis aegra tumebit: Comp. vv. 95, 98.—venienti occurrite morbo: Every one will remember the well-worn Ovidian Principiis obsta, R. A., 91. The comparison of moral with physical disease was a favorite topic with the Stoics, who overdid it, according to Cic., Tusc. Dis., 4, 10, 23.
64. poscentis: Elsewhere Persius uses after video the less vivid Infinitive, 1, 19. 69; 3, 91. On the difference, see G., 527, R. 1; A., 72, 3, d. So after facio, 1, 44.
65. quid opus: G., 390, R.; A., 52, 3, a.—Cratero: More bookishness. Craterus was a famous physician of the time of Cicero. Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 161.—magnos promittere montis: A proverbial phrase, which survives in several modern languages: Fr. monts et merveilles; Germ. goldene Berge versprechen. Jahn compares Ter., Phormio, 1, 2, 18: modo non montis auri pollicens; Heinr., Sall., Cat. 23: maria montisque polliceri coepit.
66. discite o: To remove the hiatus, Barth suggested io, Guyet vos. Hor., Od., 3, 14, 11: male ominatis, is not a parallel for the hiatus, even if the reading be correct, and the parallel in Catull., 3, 16, is conjectural.—causas cognoscite rerum: Comp. Verg., Georg., 2, 490: Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, and sapientia est rerum divinarum et humanarum causarumque scientia, Cic., Off., 2, 2, 5. On the connection of the different articles of this catechism, see Knickenberg, l.c. p. 35 seqq. Discite is the exhortation to the study of philosophy. Causas cognoscite rerum bids us pursue what the Stoics called Physic, for without a knowledge of nature there can be no knowledge of duty. Ethic is based on Physic; τέλος ἐστὶ τὸ ὁμολογουμένως τῇ φύσει ζῆν (Stob., Ecl., 2, 132). See Long’s Antoninus, p. 56. The constitution of nature once understood, we shall know what we owe to God, what to ourselves, what to mankind, what things are good, what evil. Quid fas optare refers to our duty to God, quem te deus esse iussit to our duty to ourselves, patriae carisque propinquis to our duty to our neighbors. But nothing is more evident than the absence of any logical development. Comp. with the whole passage, Sen., Ep., 82, 6: sciat quo iturus sit, unde ortus, quod illi bonum, quod malum sit, quid petat, quid evitet, quae sit illa ratio quae appetenda ac fugienda discernat, qua cupiditatum mansuescit insania, timorum saevitia conpescitur.
67. quid sumus: The independent form with the Indicative is more lively; the regular dependent form with the Subjunctive comes in below, v. 71. G., 469, R. 1; A., 67, 2, d.—quidnam = quam vitam. G., 331, R. 2; A., 52, 3, a, N.—victuri: The use of the Participle in an interrogative clause is unnatural in English (G., 471). The future Participle of purpose is late or poetical (G., 673; A., 72, 4, a). ‘And what the life that we are born to lead.’—ordo: According to Heinr. and Jahn ordo is used with reference to the position in the chariot-race, so that the comparison begins here, and not at metae. Soph., El., 710: στάντες δ᾽ ἵν᾽ αὐτοὺς οἱ τεταγμένοι βραβεῖς | κλήροις ἔπηλαν καὶ κατέστησαν διφρους. But as τάξις (ordo) is a Stoic term, it is not unlikely that the use of the word suggested the figure, which came in as an after-thought. The Stoic preacher, as well as the Christian, finds it necessary to repeat himself in slightly different forms, and we must not look for a sharp distinction between ordo quis datus and humana qua parte locatus es in re, between quidnam victuri gignimur and quem te deus esse iussit.
68. quis = qui. So 1, 63. G., 105; A., 21, 1, a.—qua et unde: where (how) it lies and from what point to begin, ‘where to take it’ (Conington). Herm.’s quam is not so good.—metae flexus: ‘turn round the goal.’ The difficulty of rounding the goal in a chariot-race is notorious. See Il., 23, 306 foll.; Soph., El., 720 foll., and the commentators on Plato, Io, 537. With the expression metae flexus Jahn comp. Stat., Theb., 6, 433: flexae—metae. Mollis, ‘gradual,’ ‘easy.’ So Caes., B. G., 5, 9: molle litus, of a gently sloping shore.
69. quis modus argento: The Sixth Satire deals with a similar theme.—quid fas optare: the argument of the Second Satire.—asper nummus: ‘coin fresh from the mint,’ ‘rough from the die,’ Suet., Nero, 44. So Jahn. Others consider this distinction too subtle, and make a. n. simply equivalent to ‘coined silver,’ as opposed to ‘silver plate,’ argentum. Conington suggests the meaning, ‘What is the use of money hoarded up and not circulated (tritus)?’ Comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 1, 41 foll., 73: nescis quo valeat nummus? quem praebeat usum?
70. carisque propinquis: Hor., Sat., 1, 1, 83.
72. locatus: ‘posted,’ τεταγμένος, ‘a military metaphor’ (Arrian, Diss., 1, 9, 16; M. Anton., 11, 13).—humana re: ‘humanity,’ inter homines.
73. disce, nec invideas: sc. discere, according to Jahn. His te quoque iungere, Caesar | invideo, Lucan., 2, 550, like φθονεῖν: μὴ φθόνει μοι ἀποκρίνασθαι τοῦτο, Plat., Gorg., 489A. Persius singles out one of his audience, who is tempted away from philosophy by his gains as an advocate. Others, less satisfactorily, suppose that the lawyer is outside of the congregation. On nec invideas, see 1, 7.—multa fidelia putet: ‘Many a jar of good things is spoiling;’ ‘The details are contemptuous. There is a coarseness in fees paid in kind’ (Conington). Comp. Juv., 7, 119.—pinguibus Umbris: ‘fat’ in every sense, in figure, in fortune, and in wit. In Mart., 7, 53, an Umbrian sends by eight huge Syrian slaves a miscellaneous lot of presents, value 30 nummi—a proceeding due as much to stupidity as to stinginess (parcus Umber, Cat., 39, 11). The appearance of the Umbrians was not prepossessing, if we may judge by Ovid’s portrait of an Umbrian dame (A. A., 3, 303-4).
75. et piper et pernae: The piper is not the Indian, but the inferior Italian (Plin., H. N., 12, 7, 4; 16, 32, 59) (Meister). Pernae, a stock present. Comp. siccus petasunculus et vas | pelamydum, Juv., 7, 119. To supply putet with piper is not satisfactory, and we must take refuge in Zeugma. Pretor is for dropping v. 75, and sees in Persius’s awkwardness traces of a duplex recensio, as in vv. 12-14.—Marsi: For the simplicity of the Marsians, Jahn compares Juv., 3, 169; 14, 180.
76. mena: ‘sprat,’ cheap sea-fish of some sort. ‘You have not yet come to the last sprat of the first barrel’ (Conington).—defecerit: As non quod more commonly takes the Subjunctive, the shifting to the Subjunctive from the Indicative, after nec invideas, is not strange. G., 541, R. 1; A., 66, 1, d, R.
77-85. The discourse is cut short by a military man, who, with the dogmatism of his class (vieux soldat, vieille bête), sets down all philosophers as a pack of noodles. The lines of the picture which he draws are familiar to every student of manners. ‘Persius hates the military cordially (comp. 5, 189-191) as the most perfect specimens of developed animalism, and consequently most antipathetic to a philosopher. See Nisard, Études sur les Poetes Latins [1, 3e éd. 273-277; Martha, Moralistes Romains, p. 141]. Horace merely glances at the education their sons received, as contrasted with that given him by his father, in spite of narrow means, Sat., 1, 6, 72. Juvenal has an entire satire on them (16), in which he complains of their growing power and exclusive privileges, but without any personal jealousy’ (Conington). Persius is so bookish that I suspect Greek influence. Comp. κομψὸς στρατιώτης, οὐδ᾽ ἐὰν πλάττῃ θεός, | οὐδεὶς γένοιτ᾽ ἂν, Menand., fr. 711 (4, 277 Mein.). See Introd., xx.
77. de gente: G., 371, R. 5; A., 50, 2, e, R. 1. Gente, ‘tribe,’ ‘crew.’—hircosa: ‘Rammish’ is not too strong, opposed to unguentatus in a fragment of Sen., ap. Gell., 12, 2, 11 (cited by Jahn). The unsavory soldier and the perfumed dandy are alike foes to the simplicity of the Stoic school. Your old soldier prided himself on his stench, as would appear from the dainty anecdote in Plutarch, Mor., 180C: ὦ βασιλεῦ, θάρρει καὶ μὴ φοβοῦ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν πολεμίων, αὐτὸν γὰρ ἡμῶν τὸν γράσον οὐχ ὑπομενοῦσι.—centurionum: The rank is higher, but the intellectual level is that of the typical German Wachtmeister.
78. Quod sapio satis est mihi: Jahn (1868); Quod satis est sapio mihi, Jahn (1843), Herm. With the latter reading the words quod satis est = satis must be taken together, and a little more stress is laid on mihi. The general sense is the same. Comp. Plato, Phaedr., 242C: ὥσπερ οἱ τὰ γράμματα φαῦλοι ὅσον ἐμαυτῷ μόνον ἱκανός, with a very different tone.—non ego: ‘no—not I.’ See 1, 45.—curo: ‘care,’ i.e., ‘want.’ See 2, 18.
79. Arcesilas: Arcesilaus, the founder of the New Academy, flourished about 300 B.C. His great advance on Socrates was his knowing that he did not even know that he knew nothing, Cic., Acad., 1, 12, 45. Solon flourished about 600 B.C. Our hircose friend is made to jumble his samples.—aerumnosi Solones: Notice the contemptuous use of the Plural. Aerumnosus, κακοδαίμων, ‘God-forsaken,’ ‘poor devil,’ is a strange epithet for Solon, but we have to do with an ignoramus and a jolter-head.
80. obstipo capite: ‘with stooped head,’ ‘bent forward,’ κεκυφότες. Hor., Sat., 2, 5, 92: Davus sis comicus atque | stes capite obstipo, multum similis metuenti. Comp. the description of Ulysses in Il., 3, 217 foll.—figentes lumine terram: Jahn quotes a parallel from Stat., Silv., 5, 1, 140. More common forms are figere lumina terra, in humo, in terram. ‘They bore the ground with their eyes,’ ‘look at it as if they would look through it.’ Casaubon comp. Plat., Alcib. II., 138A. Add Lucian, Vit. Auct., 7; Aristaenet., 1, 15.
81. murmura: Imitated by Auson., Id., 17, 24: murmure concluso rabiosa silentia rodunt.—rabiosa: ‘Mad dogs do not bark.’—silentia: Poetic Plural; very common.—rodunt: ‘biting the lips and grinding the teeth.’ ‘Whether murmura and silentia are Accusatives of the object, or cognates, is not clear’ (Conington). ‘Chewing the cud of mumbled words and mad-dog silence’ is very much in the vein of Persius. Comp. rarus sermo illis et magna libido tacendi, Juv., 2, 14.
82. exporrecto trutinantur: The lips are thrust out (a sign of deep thought) and quiver like a balance; hence they are said ‘to poise their words upon the quivering balance of a thrust-out lip’—a caricature of the simple figure ponderare verba. Jahn compares Luc., Hermot., 1, 1: καὶ τὰ χείλη διεσάλευες ἠρέμα ὑποτονθορύζων; and Casaubon, Aristaen., 2, 3: ἠρέμα τῷ χείλη κινεῖ καὶ ἄττα δήπου πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ψιθυρίζει.
83. aegroti veteris: The aegri somnia of Hor., A. P., 7. As usual, Persius exaggerates, and makes the sick man (aegroti) a dotard to boot (veteris). Jahn understands, ‘a confirmed invalid.’ Comp. Juv., 9, 16: aegri veteris quem tempore longo | torret quarta dies, etc.—gigni | de nihilo nihilum: The cardinal doctrine of Epicurus (Lucr., 1, 150), but not confined to him.
85. hoc est quod palles: G., 331, R. 2; A., 52, 1, b. Comp. 1, 124. The Cognate Accusative is susceptible of a great variety of translations. ‘Is this the stuff that you get pale on?’ (Pretor). ‘Is this what makes you pale?’—prandeat: The prandium, originally a military meal, was dear to the military stomach. Comp. impransi correptus voce magistri, Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 257.
86. his: Abl. Conington makes it a Dative, and cites an evident Abl. to prove it, Verg., Aen., 4, 128. Jahn comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 8, 83: ridetur fictis rerum.—multum: with torosa, according to Jahn.
87. Conington notices the grandiloquence of the line. ‘Cloth of frize’ is often ‘matched’ with ‘cloth of gold’ in Persius.—naso crispante: ‘curling nostrils.’ The mob laughs, the soldiers snicker. The listening rabble is frankly amused. The crew to which the centurion belongs sneer too much to laugh out. Or perhaps the poet makes the distinction between the general ridere (γελᾶν) and the mocking laughter of cachinnare (καγχάζειν).
88-106. It is strange, as Pretor observes, that the sudden change introduced by this line should not have been noticed by the commentators. With a more mature artist there would be a suspicion of dislocation. As it is, the unity of the Satire would gain by omitting 66-87. Persius composed slowly, and we find here as elsewhere traces of piecemeal work.
The preacher takes up his parable. A man feels sick, consults a physician, lies by; is more comfortable, takes a fancy to a bath and a draught of wine. He meets a friend, perhaps his medical friend, on the way. ‘My dear fellow, you are pale as a ghost.’—‘Pshaw!’—‘Look out! You are yellow as saffron, and bless me! if you are not swelling.’—‘Pale? Why, you are paler than I am. Don’t come the guardian over me. My guardian has been dead a year and a day.’—‘Go ahead, I’m mum.’—He goes ahead, stuffs himself, takes his bath. While he is drinking a chill strikes him, and he is a dead man. No expense spared on the funeral. ‘You can’t mean that for me,’ says a literalist. ‘If I’m sick, you are another. I have no fever, no ague.’ Nay, but you are subject to the worst of diseases—to the fever of covetousness, the fever of lust, to daintiness with its sore mouth, to fear with its cold chill, and, worse than all, to the raging delirium of anger.
88. inspice: ἐπίσκεψαι, a medical term. Comp. Plaut., Pers., 2, 5, 15.—nescio quid: G., 469, R. 2; A., 67, 2, e. Quid is the Accusative of the Inner Object. ‘I have a strange fluttering at my heart.’—aegris: ‘out of order.’ As aegris is emphatic, co-ordinate in English. There is ‘something wrong about my throat and—’
89. exsuperat: Neuter. Comp. exsuperant flammae, Verg., Aen., 2, 759.—gravis: ‘foul.’ So Ov., A. A., 3, 277: gravis oris odor.—sodes: The original form is commonly supposed to be si audes (saudes), Plaut., Trin., 2, 1, 18; from audeo (comp. avidus), ‘if you have the heart,’ ‘an thou wilt,’ A., 35, 2, a. Others put sodes under SA (pron.), as akin to sodalis, and comp. ἠθεῖος, ‘own dear friend,’ ‘mon cher.’ See Vaniček, Lat. Etym. Wb., S. 165. Sodes = socius is an old tradition.
90. requiescere: ‘keep quiet.’—postquam vidit: with a causal shade. See 5, 88; 6,10, and G., 567; A., 62, 2, e.
91. tertia nox: The patient thinks that he has the more common semitertian, whereas he has the quartan. When the third night comes without a chill, he fancies that he is safe.
92. de maiore domo: The ‘great house’ is clearly that of a rich friend, rather than that of a large dealer. Casaubon compares Juv., 5, 32: cardiaco numquam cyathum, missurus amico.—modice sitiente lagoena: Thirst and capacity are near akin; a flagon of moderate thirst is a flagon ‘of moderate swallow,’ as Conington renders it. The personification of the flagon is old and not uncommon. See the humorous epigram, Anthol. Pal., 5, 135.
93. lenia Surrentina: Lenia is either ‘mild’ or ‘mellow.’ The Surrentine was a light wine often recommended to invalids, Plin., H. N., 14, 6, 8; 23, 1, 20.—loturo: He asks before bathing; he drinks after bathing. For the custom Jahn compares Sen., Ep., 122, 6.—rogabit: So Jahn (1868) and Hermann. Jahn (1843) reads rogavit, like the Greek Aorist in descriptions. The Future makes it more distinctly a supposed case.
94. videas: rather optative than imperative in its tone.
95. surgit: ‘is swelling,’ ‘getting bloated.’—tacite: ‘insensibly’ (Conington).—pellis: ‘hide.’ Comp. Juv., 10, 192: deformem pro cute pellem.
96. At tu deterius: Le trait est comique. Ce serait de la gaieté, si Perse savait rire, Nisard.—ne sis mihi tutor, etc.: Proverbial. So Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 88: ne sis patruus mihi.
97. iam pridem sepeli: Comp. Omnes composui. Felices! Nunc ego resto, Hor., Sat., 1, 9, 28. Sepeli for sepelii (sepelivi), a rare contraction.—turgidus his epulis: Hor., Ep., 1, 6, 61: crudi tumidique lavemur, and comp. Juv., 1, 142 seqq: paena tamen praesens, cum tu deponis amictus | turgidus et crudum pavonem in balnea portas | hinc subitae mortes atque intestata senectus.—hic: ‘our man.’—albo ventre: Turgidus epulis is one feature, albo ventre another. Ventre does not depend on turgidus. The color (λευκός) is a sign of weakness and sickness. The swollen belly makes a ghastly show.—lavatur: ‘takes his bath.’ Comp. G., 209; A., 39, c, N.
99. sulpureas mefites: Mefitis is originally the vapor from sulphur-water; hence the propriety of the epithet sulpureas.
100. calidum triental: The wine was heated to bring out the sweat. Bibere et sudare vita cardiaci est, Sen., Ep., 15, 3.—triental: restored by Jahn (1843) for trientem, to which he returned in 1868. Triens is the measure, ⅓ sextarius, triental would be the vessel. Comp. with this passage Lucil., 28, 39-40 (L. M.): ad cui? quem febris una atque una ἀπεψια | vini inquam cyathus unus potuit tollere.
101. crepuere: Vivid Aorist, not a simple return to the narrative form. Comp. 5, 187. For the Greek, which Persius imitates, see Kühner, Ausf. Gramm. (2te Ausg.), 2, 138.—retecti: He shows his teeth when he chatters.
102. uncta: Remember the large use of oil in Italian cookery.—cadunt = vomuntur, but there is a certain helplessness in cadunt.—pulmentaria: originally ὄψον, ‘relish,’ afterward ‘dainties.’ See the Dictionaries.
103. hinc: ‘hereupon.’—tuba: Trumpets announced the death, and trumpets were sounded at the funeral. See Hor., Sat., 1, 6, 42.—candelae = cerei, ‘wax lights,’ supposed by Jahn and others to have been used chiefly when the death was sudden, on the basis of Sen., Tranq., 11, 7.—tandem: ‘After all the preliminary performances’ (Macleane).—beatulus: μακαρίτης. Jahn cites Amm. Marcell., 25, 3: quem cum beatum fuisse Sallustius respondisset praefectus, intellexit occisum. ‘The dear departed’ (Conington). ‘Our sainted friend.’—alto: A mark of a first-class funeral.
104. conpositus: ‘laid out.’ ‘By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed,’ Pope.—crassis lutatus amomis: Every word is contemptuous: ‘bedaubed with lots of coarse ointments.’ The Plural amoma indicates the cheap display. With crassis, comp. Hor., A. P., 375: crassum unguentum; with amomis, Juv., 4, 108: amomo | quantum vix redolent duo funera.
105. in portam: A custom at least as old as Homer, Il., 19, 212. Porta here = ianua, fores, but ‘nowhere else’ (Macleane).—rigidas: The gender of calx is unsteady. See Neue, Formenlehre, 1, 694.
106. hesterni Quirites: ‘Citizens of twenty-four hours’ standing’ (Conington); slaves left free by him. Hence capite induto, with the pilleus ‘cap of liberty’ on. The winding up of the man reminds one of Petron., 42: bene elatus est, planctus est optime, manumisit aliquot.
107. Persius hauls out his man-of-straw, his souffre-douleur, and makes him talk.—Tange venas: ‘Feel my pulse,’ the regular expression, as in Sen., Ep., 22, 1: vena tangenda est.—miser: Comp. v. 15. ‘You’re another!’ ‘Poor creature yourself’ (Conington).—pone in pectore dextram: If you are not satisfied with my pulse, put your hand on my heart.
108. nil calet hic: After some hesitation, I have given the whole passage from Tange miser to non frigent to one person, who anticipates the verdict of the monitor by nil calet hic and non frigent. ‘You must admit that my heart is not hot nor my feet cold.’ At the same time the very clearness is an objection.
109. Visa est si forte: On the form of the conditional, see G., 569; A., 59, 2, b. On the obvious thought, see 2, 52 foll.; 4, 47.
111. rite: ‘regularly.’—positum est: ‘served up.’
112. durum holus: ‘tough cabbage,’ ‘half boiled’ (Pretor).—populi (= plebis) cribro: ‘A coarse, common sieve.’ Hence p. c. decussa farina, ‘coarse-bolted flour,’ the panis secundus of Horace, Ep., 2, 1, 123, the ‘seconds’ of the modern miller. The ancients were very dainty in this article. The parasite in Alciphron (1, 21, 2) expresses his disgust at the ἀρτος ὁ ἐξ ἀγορας.
114. putre quod haud deceat: The Relative with the Subjunctive is parallel with the Adjective. G., 439, R. Comp. 1, 14. Haud deceat, ‘it won’t do,’ ‘it won’t answer.’—plebeia beta: The beet is a vulgar vegetable, Mart., 13, 13 (Jahn). The irony is evident, as the beet is proverbially tender. See Dictionaries, s.v. betizare.
115. excussit: Excutere aristas seems to be a vulgar expression, like the English ‘raise a goose-skin, goose-flesh, duck-flesh.’ —aristas = pilos. Jahn refers to Varro, L. L., 6, 49.—timor albus: See note on Prol., 4.
116. face supposita: The heart is the caldron and passion the fire-brand.
118. Orestes: the typical madman.
The theme of this Satire is contained in the closing verses. It is the Apollinic γνῶθι σαυτόν. Want of self-knowledge is the fault which is scourged. The basis is furnished by the Platonic dialogue, known as the First Alcibiades, and the characters are the same. The person lectured under the mask of Alcibiades is a young Roman noble, in whom commentators of a certain school have recognized the familiar features of Nero.
Argument.—Socrates is supposed to be addressing Alcibiades. You undertake to engage in politics? You rely on your genius, do you? What do you know of the norms of right and wrong, you callow youngster? What do you know of the subtle distinctions of casuistry, that you undertake to say what is just and what is unjust? You have a goodly outside, but that is all, and you are fitter for a course of hellebore than for a career of statesmanship. What is your end and aim in life? Dainty dishes and basking in the sunshine? The first old crone you meet has the same exalted ideal. Or do you boast of your descent? You praise your lineage, you trumpet forth your beauty, just as yon market-woman cries up her greens (1-22).
You do not know yourself. Who knows himself? Every one sees his neighbor’s faults, no one his own. You sneer at the curmudgeon who groans out a health over the sour stuff he gives his laborers on a holiday (23-32). And while you make mock at him, some fellow, who is standing at your side, nudges you with his elbow, and tells you that you are as bad as he, though in another way (33-41). And so we give and take punishment. This is our plan of life. We hide our faults from ourselves. We get testimonials from our neighbors to impose on our own consciences. Awake to righteousness! Put your goodness to the test! If you yield to the temptation of covetousness, of lust, in vain will you drink in the praises of the rabble. Reject what you are not. Let Rag, Tag, and Bobtail take away their tributes. Live with yourself, and you will find out how scanty is your moral furniture (42-52).
Jahn regards this Satire as the earliest of the six, and it certainly shows even greater immaturity than the others. The well-known individuality of Socrates is coarsely handled, the irony lacks the subtle play, the mischievous good-nature of the great Athenian; and though the glaring anachronisms may be defended by such exemplars as Horace (notably in Sat., 2, 5), there is all the difference in the world between the sly humor of the older poet, who peeps from behind the Greek mask and winks at the Roman audience, and the grim contortions of the beardless representative of the bearded master.
The indecency of a part of the Satire is considered by Teuffel a valid objection to the view taken by Jahn, but the imagination of early youth and the experience of corrupt old age often meet in disgusting detail, and the obscenities of bookish men are among the worst in literature. Add to this the peculiar views of the Stoic school as to the corruption of the flesh (2, 63), and the consequent Stoic tendency to degrade the body by the most contemptuous representations of physical functions, and we can the more readily understand how Marcus Antoninus, the purest character of his time, should have besmirched his Meditations with passages which lack a parallel for their crudity; and why Persius, the poet of virginal life, should have outdone the praegrandis senex of Attic comedy in the coarseness of his expressions.
1-22. Socrates exposes the incompetence of Alcibiades for affairs of state, his lack of ethical training, his need of a just balance, his grovelling views of life, his puerile pride in his ancient family and in his handsome face. Socrates and Alcibiades were contrasts so tempting that dialogues between them were favorite philosophical exercises.
1. rem populi = rem publicam.—tractas? On the form of the question, see G., 455; A., 71, 1, R. Comp. Plato, Alc. I., p. 106C: διανοεῖ γὰρ παριέναι συμβουλεύσων Ἀθηναίοις ἐντὸς οὐ πολλοῦ χρόνου, and further, p. 118B, and Conv., p. 216A.—barbatum: The beard was the conventional mark of the philosopher in the time of Persius; it is an anachronism in the case of Socrates, who lived before shaving was the rule and the beard a badge. However, the custom was old in Persius’s day, and the slip is slight. So Plato’s long beard is noticed by Ephippus ap. Athen., 11, p. 509C (3, 332 Mein.). Comp. Juv., 14, 12: barbatos—magistros.—crede: advertises a want of art.
2. sorbitio: ‘draught,’ ‘dose.’ So Sen., E. M., 78, 25.—tollit = sustulit. A solitary Historical Present with a relative is harsh to us for all the examples and all the commentators.
3. quo fretus? See 3, 67. Comp. Plato, Alc. I., p. 123E: τὶ οὖν ποτ᾽ ἔστιν ὅτῳ πιστεύει τὸ μειράκιον.—magni pupille Pericli: Because Alcibiades owed his start in life to his guardian and kinsman Pericles. See Plat., l.c. p. 104B. For the form Pericli, see G., 72; A., 11, I., 4.
4. scilicet: Ironical, 1, 15; 2, 19. ‘Of course.’ Comp. the old ‘God wot.’—ingenium et rerum prudentia: ‘wit and wisdom.’ Prudentia may be translated ‘knowledge,’ and rerum ‘world,’ ‘life,’ but not necessarily. See 1, 1.—velox: Predicative (Schol.), ‘have been quick in coming’ (Conington).
5. ante pilos: ‘before your beard.’ ‘A contrast with barbatum magistrum’ (Conington), but b. can hardly be used in the same breath as the mark of mature years and as the ensign of a philosopher.—venit: On the number, see G., 281, Exc. 2; A., 49, 1, b.—dicenda tacendaque: Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 7, 72—dicenda tacenda locutus—for the expression. For the sense, Conington comp. Aeschylus, Cho., 582: σιγᾶν ὅπου δεῖ καὶ λέγειν τὰ καίρια. In Horace it means ‘all sorts of things;’ here, ‘what you must say, what leave unsaid.’
6. commota fervet bile: Comp. Hor., Od., 1, 13, 4: fervens difficili bile tumet iecur.
7. fert animus: Well-known phrase of Ov., Met., 1, 1. So in Greek, φέρει ὁ νοῦς, ἡ γνώμη, ἡ φρήν. The verse has a stately irony, and should have a stately translation. ‘The spirit moves you’ (Pretor) is degraded to slang. ‘Your bosom’s lord biddeth you wave a hush profound.’—fecisse: Comp. 1, 91.—silentia: Comp. 3, 81.
8. maiestate manus: ‘with majestic hand’. (G., 357, R. 2), ‘by the imposing action of your hand’ (Conington).—quid deinde loquere? The orator has not considered his speech. ‘Now that you have got your silence, what have you got to say.’—Quirites: Persius drops his Greek. Alcibiades is a mere quintain.
9. puta: ‘put case,’ ‘say,’ ‘for instance,’ is an iambic Imperative, with the ultimate shortened, like cavē̆, vidē̆, etc., 1, 108. Hermann gives it to Socrates, which is favored by the sense; Jahn and others to Alcibiades, as caricatured by Socrates, which is favored by the position. Heinrich reads puto.
10. scis etenim, etc.: and (well you may) for you know how, etc. On scis, see 1, 53; on etenim, 3, 48. Comp. Plato, l.c. 110C: ᾤου ἄρα ἐπίστασθαι καὶ παῖς ὤν, ὡς ἔοικε, τὰ δίκαια καὶ τὰ ἄδικα. It may be necessary to observe that all this is sarcasm. Conington takes it literally, and considers these statements as so many concessions.—gemina lance = geminis lancibus. Comp. Ov., A. A., 2, 644: geminus pes.
11. ancipitis: ‘wavering.’—rectum discernis: ‘You can distinguish the straight line when it runs among crooked lines on either hand—ay, even when your square with twisted leg is but a faulty guide.’ The straight line is virtue, the crooked lines are vices. The difficulty of picking out the right course is much enhanced when the rule by which we go is itself warped—that is, ‘as Casaubon explains it, when justice has to be corrected by equity.’ The regula here is not the regula of 5, 38, but the norma, or carpenter’s square.
13. potis es: See 1, 56.—theta: Θ, the initial of θάνατος, was the mark of condemnation used in the time of Persius, instead of the older C (condemno). It was also employed in epitaphs, in army lists, and the like, for ‘deceased.’ Translate ‘black mark.’
14. quin desinis: See 2, 71.—tu: The elision of the monosyllable is harsh (Jahn). See 1, 51. 66. 131.—igitur: ‘If all this is so, why then—.’ Comp. the indignant igitur (εἶτα) of 1, 98.—summa pelle decorus: Hor. Ep., 1, 16, 45: Introrsus turpem, speciosum pelle decora.—nequiquam: ‘because you can not impose on me.’ Comp. 3, 30 (Conington).
15. ante diem: ‘before your time.’—blando caudam iactare popello: Casaubon thinks that a peacock is meant, Jahn suggests a horse. The Scholiast says that the image is that of a (pet) dog. Pelle decorus would not apply to the peacock, nor very well to the horse. It does apply to Alcibiades as the lion’s whelp of Aristoph., Ran., 1431. Comp. the famous description in Aeschyl., Agam., 725 (Dindorf). The comparison of politicians with lions is found also in Plato, Gorg., 483E. The only difficulty lies in blando popello, but petting implies blanditiae on both sides. ‘The dog fawns on those who caress him’ (Conington).—popello: contemptuously, 6, 50; Hor., Ep., 1, 7, 65.
16. Anticyras: There were two towns of that name, one on the Maliac Gulf, the other in Phocis; both famous for their hellebore, but especially the latter. The town for its product, after the pattern of Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 83; A. P., 300 (Jahn). The Plural is the familiar poetic exaggerative.—meracas: ‘undiluted,’ ‘without a drop of water.’Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 137: expulit helleboro morbum bilemque meraco. On the use of hellebore as a preparative for philosophy, comp. the well-known experience of Chrysippus: οὐ θέμις γενέσθαι σοφόν, ἢν μὴ τρὶς ἐφεξῆς τοῦ ἐλλεβόρου πιῃς, Lucian, Vit. Auct., 23 (1, 564 R.).—melior sorbere = qui melius sorberes (comp. quo graves Persae melius perirent, Hor., Od., 1, 2, 22).
17. summa boni = summum bonum.—uncta patella: ‘rich dishes.’ Comp. 3, 102. The reference to a sacrificial dish (3, 26) is less likely. As the character of Alcibiades is not kept up with any care by Persius, it is hardly worth while to note that he was a most sensitive gourmet, as is shown by the curious anecdote, Teles ap. Stob., Flor., 5, 67.—vixisse: The Perfect with intention. G., 275, 1; A., 58, 11, e. ‘To have the satisfaction of having lived on the daintiest fare,’ so that you may say when you come to die, vixi dum vixi bene. Comp. Sen., Ep., 23, 10: Id agendum est ut satis vixerimus.
18. curata cuticula sole: with reference to the apricatio or insolatio. Comp. Juv., 11, 203: nostra bibat vernum contracta cuticula solem. What was a matter of hygiene became a matter of luxury. The sun-cure has been revived of late years. Curare cuticulam, cutem, pelliculam is commonly used of ‘good living’ generally, ‘taking very good care of one’s dear little self.’ See Hor., Ep., 1, 2, 29. 4, 15; Sat., 2, 5, 38; Juv., 2, 105.—haec: δεικτικῶς.—i nunc: ‘Irridentis vel exprobrantis formula,’ Jahn, who gives an overwhelming list of examples (comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 6, 17; 2, 3, 76). The usage requires it to be connected with suffla. ‘Go on, then, and blow as you have been blowing.’ Suffla in this sense is quite as ‘low’ as our Americanism. Persius has the aristocrat’s contempt for superfine language, and by a natural reaction falls, not unfrequently, into slang. Jahn compares 5, 13 and 3, 27, and the Greek proverbial expression φυσᾷ γὰρ οὐ σμικροῖσιν αὐλίσκοις ἔπι. Add Menand., fr. 296 (4, 157 Mein.): οἷοι λαλοῦμεν ὄντες οἱ τρισάθλιοι | ἅπαντες οἱ φυσῶντες ἐφ᾽ ἑαυτοῖς μέγα. ‘Mouth it out’ (Conington), ‘spout it out’ (Macleane).
20. Dinomaches: The mother of Alcibiades came of the great house of the Alcmaeonidae, and it was to her that he owed his connection with Pericles. The Gen. without filius (G., 360, R. 3; A., 50, 1, b) is rare in the predicate.—candidus = pulcher. Comp. 3, 110. The beauty of Alcibiades is well known, Plat., l.c. p. 104A.—esto: εἶεν; an ironical concession.
21. dum ne: Comp. G., 575; A., 61, 3. Final sentences are often elliptical (comp. note on 1, 4). ‘Only you must admit that,’ etc.; ‘dum ne neges deterius sapere.’—pannucia: Here not ‘ragged,’ but ‘shrivelled.’ Comp. Mart., 11, 46, 3.—Baucis: The name is copied from the Baucis of Ovid, Met., 8, 640, the wife of Philemon, the Joan of the antique Darby; a poor woman, who had a patch of vegetables. The anicula quae agreste holus vendebat, in Petron., 6, is a similar figure.
22. bene: with discincto, according to Jahn, who compares bene mirae, 1, 111. Mr. Pretor says that if thus combined, ‘bene is weak and adds nothing to the picture.’ He forgets that there is such a thing as being male discinctus. Comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 2, 132: discincta tunica fugiendum est ac pede nudo. If bene is combined with cantaverit, it must be used in its mercantile sense with vendere, cantare being equivalent to cantando vendere. ‘When she has cried off her herbs at a good figure.’—discincto vernae: Verna, of itself a synonym for all that is saucy and pert, is heightened by discinctus, for which see 3, 31.—ocima: ‘basil,’ ‘water-cress,’ or what not, stands for ‘greens’ generally. Jahn thinks that it was an aphrodisiac, referring to Eubul., fr. 53 (3, 229 Mein.). Persius, as we have seen, delights in picturesque detail, and his comparisons must not be pressed. Alcibiades cries his wares, just as the herb-seller cries hers. So the ‘apple-woman’ or ‘orange-girl’ in modern times might be selected as the standard of a rising politician, hawking his wares from hustings to hustings, from stump to stump. The far-fetched interpretation that ocima cantare = convicia ingerere, because, as Pliny tells us (19, 7), ‘basil is to be sown with curses,’ may be mentioned as a specimen of the way in which the text of our author has been smothered by learning.
23-41. The satire becomes more general. No one tries to know his own faults; each has his eyes fixed on his neighbor’s short-comings. Take some rich skinflint, and, as soon as he is mentioned, the details of his meanness will be spread before us. And yet you are as great a sinner in a different direction. Comp. M. Anton., 7, 71: γελοῖόν ἐστι τὴν μὲν ἰδίαν κακίαν μὴ φεύγειν ὃ καὶ δυνατόν ἐστι, τὴν δὲ τῶν ἄλλων φεύγειν ὅπερ ἀδύνατον.
23. Ut: how.—in sese descendere: ‘go down into his own heart.’ The thought is simply noscere se ipsum. The heart is a depth, a well, a cellar, a sea. This is not the recede in te ipsum quantum potes of Sen., Ep., 7, 8. Comp. M. Anton., 4, 3. Still less is it Mr. Pretor’s ‘enter the lists against yourself,’ which would make ‘self’ at once the arena and the antagonist.
24. spectatur: The positive (quisque) must be supplied from the preceding negative. Comp. G., 446, R.; M., 462 b.—mantica: According to the familiar fable of Aesop (Phaedr., 4, 10), each man carries two wallets. The one which holds his own faults is carried on his back; the other, which contains his neighbor’s, hangs down over his breast. Comp. Catull., 22, 21: sed non videmus manticae quod in tergo est. Persius reduces the two wallets to one. Each man’s knapsack of faults is open to the inspection of all save himself.
25. quaesieris: G., 250; A., 60, 2, b; ἔροιτ᾽ ἄν τις. Persius gets away from Socrates and Alcibiades into a land of shadowy second persons. One of these is supposed to ask another whether he knows a certain estate. The casual question leads to a caustic characteristic of the owner, which is interrupted by another indefinite character, who quotes an ignotus aliquis, and the general impression at the close is that every body is violently preached at except the son of Dinomache, with whom we started.—Vettidi: With the characteristic of Vettidius, comp. Horace’s Avidienus (cui canis cognomen, Sat., 2, 2, 55), and the ἀνελεύθερος and the μικρολόγος of Theophrastus.
26. Curibus: in the land of the Sabines, the land of frugal habits. Comp. 6, 1.—miluus errat: So Jahn (1868). Miluus is trisyllabic, as in Hor., Epod., 16, 31. Hermann, oberrat; Jahn (1843), oberret. The expression is proverbial: quantum milvi volant, Petron., 37. Comp. Juv., 9, 55.
27. dis iratis genioque sinistro: Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 8: iratis natus paries dis atque poetis. A substantive expression of quality without a common noun is rare in Latin as in English (M., 287, Obs. 3), but not limited in time. See Dräger, Histor. Syntax, § 226. ‘The aversion of the gods and at war with his genius,’ his ‘second self,’ who ‘delights in good living,’ quia genius laute vivendo gaudere putabatur (Jahn).
28. quandoque = quandocumque, as Hor., Od., 4, 1, 17, 2, 34.—pertusa = pervia, according to Jahn; ‘roads and thoroughfares’ (Conington); = calcata, trita, Heinr., which seems more natural.—compita: ‘The compitalia is meant. Comp. Cato, R. R., 5, 4: Rem divinam nisi compitalibus in compito [vilicus] ne faciat. It was one of the feriae conceptivae, held in honor of the Lares compitales on or about the 2d of January. It is said to have been instituted by Servius Tullius, and restored by Augustus (Suet., Aug., 31), and was observed with feasting. Comp. Cato, R. R., 5, 7, and uncta compitalia. Anthol. Lat., 2, 246, 27B. n. 105, 27M.’ So Pretor, after Jahn. With com-pit-a comp. Greek πάτ-ος, path.—figit: The suspension of the yoke symbolizes the suspension of labor. The yoke stands for the plough as well, Tibull., 2, 1, 5.
29. metuens deradere: See 1, 47. Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 4, 80: metuentis reddere soldum.—limum: ‘the dirt’ on the jar. Comp. sive gravis veteri craterae limus adhaesit, Hor., Sat., 2, 4, 80. The Scholiast understands ‘the seal.’
30. hoc bene sit: The formula in drinking a health. Comp. Plaut., Pers., 5, 1, 20. Here used also as a kind of grace.—tunicatum | caepe: πολύλοπον κρόμμυον (Casaubon). Tunicatum caepe, ‘bulbous or coated onion,’ as opposed to the sectile porrum, or ‘chives’ (Pretor). It may be going too far to exclude epitheta ornantia from Persius, but he certainly uses them sparingly. Tunicatum is commonly understood to mean ‘skin and all,’ as we say of a potato, ‘jacket and all.’ Comp. Juv., 14, 153: tunicam mihi malo lupini. But as the skin of an onion is not very ‘filling,’ and as tunica may be used in the sense of ‘coat’ or ‘layer,’ the slight change to tunicatim—‘layer by layer’—has suggested itself to me. It is not a whit more exaggerated than Juvenal’s filaque sectivi numerata includere porri (14, 133).
31. farrata olla: ‘porridge pot of spelt,’ an every-day meal with others, holiday fare with these unfortunates, hence plaudentibus. The Abl. of Cause. Farratam ollam (Jahn [1843] and Hermann) may be defended by Stat., Silv., 5, 3, 140 (cited by Jahn): fratrem plausere Therapnae, but there is danger of the miser’s eating it.
32. pannosam: ‘mothery.’ Every word tells. It is not wine, but vinegar; it is not even good vinegar, but vinegar that is getting flat; it is not even clear vinegar, but the lees of vinegar; and not even honest lees, but mothery lees.—morientis: ‘Dying vinegar’ is not so familiar to us as ‘dead wines.’ Comp. Mart., 1, 18, 8.—aceti: Comp. faece rubentis aceti, Mart., 11, 56, 7.
33. Picture of a sensualist.—figas in cute solem: εἰληθερεῖν, ‘fix the sun in your skin,’ ‘let the sun’s rays pierce your skin,’ instead of bibere, combibere solem, Juv., 11, 203 (quoted above, v. 18), and Mart., 10, 12, 7; or the more prosaic sole uti, Mart., 1, 77, 4.
34. cubito tangat: an immemorial familiarity. Examples range from Homer, Od., 14, 485 to Aristaen., 1, 19, 27. Persius has in mind Hor., Sat., 2, 5, 42: nonne vides (aliquis cubito stantem prope tangens) inquiet, etc.
35. acre | despuat: ‘empty acrid spittle,’ sc. on you. Others read in mores with Jahn (1843). Jahn (1868) reads with Hermann, Hi mores. Of course it is impossible to analyze this spittle, which flows to the end of v. 41. See the Introduction to the Satire. ‘Persium,’ as Quintilian says of Horace, in quibusdam nolim interpretari (1, 8, 6). This is one of the passages that called down on our author the rebuke of that verecund gentleman Pierre Bayle: Les Satires de Perse sont dévergondées.
42-52. Such is life. We hit and are hit in turn. We disguise our faults—our vulnera vitae—even from ourselves, and appeal to that common jade, common fame, for a certificate of health. But temptation reveals the corruption within. You are guilty of avarice, lust, swindling, and the praises of the mob are of no moment. Be yourself. Examine yourself, and know how scantily furnished you are.
42. caedimus, etc.: Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 97: caedimur et totidem plagis consumimus hostem (Casaubon). The resemblance here, as often elsewhere, is merely verbal, as in Horace ‘the passage of arms is a passage of compliments’ (Conington).—praebemus: ‘expose,’ ‘present.’
43. vivitur hoc pacto: Negatively expressed non aliter vivitur. In other words: haec est condicio vivendi, Hor., Sat., 2, 8, 65, which Casaubon compares. ‘These are the terms, this the rule of life.’—sic novimus = notum est (Jahn). ‘So we have learned it.’ ‘This is its lesson.’—ilia subter: G., 414, R. 3. The danger of the wound is well known.
44. caecum: ‘hidden.’—lato balteus auro: The baldric covered the groin, and was often ornamented with bosses of gold. Comp. Verg., Aen., 5, 312: lato quam circumplectitur auro | balteus. This broad gold belt is the symbol of wealth and rank.
45. ut mavis: Ironical. Hor., Sat., 1, 4, 21.—da verba: Comp. 3, 19.—decipe nervos: ‘cheat your muscle,’ ‘cheat yourself into the belief that you are sound;’ and certainly self-deception seems to be required by the context. Otherwise decipe nervos might be considered as equivalent to mentire robur, pro sano te iacta, sanum te finge.
47. non credam? G., 455; A., 71, 1, R.—inprobe: The inprobus is hard-headed as well as hard-hearted. Comp. plorantesque inproba natos—reliquit, Juv., 6, 86.
48. amarum: Jahn reads amorum in his ed. of 1843, but was sorry for it. In 1868 he reads amarum, and punctuates so as to throw it into the grave of the next line.
49. si puteal: A versus conclamatus (Jahn). The old explanation makes this passage refer to exorbitant usury. The puteal here meant is supposed to be the one mentioned by Hor., Sat., 2, 6, 13—the puteal Libonis, situated near the praetor’s tribunal, and on that account a favorite haunt of usurers, who would naturally have frequent occasion to appear in court. Comp. the poplar-tree, which was the rendezvous of a certain ‘ring’ of contractors in Athens, Andoc., 1, 133. Local allusions of this kind are the despair of commentators; the puteal is, after all, as mysterious as a ‘corner’ to the uninitiated, and we can only gather that puteal flagellare is slang for some recondite swindling process, which required a certain amount of knowingness (hence cautus). Conington renders, ‘flog the exchange with many a stripe.’ We may Americanize by ‘clean out, thrash out Wall Street.’ The Neronians, Casaubon at their head, understand the passage as referring to Nero’s habit of going out at night in disguise and maltreating people in the street—see Tac., Ann., 13, 25; Suet., Nero, 26—and cautus is supposed to allude to the measures which he took for his personal safety.
50. bibulas donaveris aures: The student is by this time familiar with Persius’s way of hammering a familiar figure into odd shapes. If ears drink in, then ears are thirsty; if they are thirsty, then they tipple; and if you can give ear, you can bestow ears. ‘In vain would you have given up your thirsty ears to be drenched by the praises of the mob.’ Donaveris, Perf. Subj., μάτην παρεσχηκὼς ἂν εἴης τὰ ὦτα. Future ascertainment of a completed action. G., 271, 2.
51. cerdo: Κέρδων, a plebeian proper name. Conington translates by the ‘Hob and Dick’ of Shakspeare’s Coriolanus. The common rendering, ‘cobbler,’ is a false inference from Mart., 3, 59, 1; 99, 1.
52. tecum habita: Comp. 1, 7.—noris: The punctuation of all the editors makes noris an Imperative Subjunctive. Still a kind of condition is involved = si habites, noris. G., 594, 4; A., 60, 1, b. One of the most threadbare quotations from Latin poetry.
The theme of the Fifth Satire is the Stoic doctrine of True Liberty. All men are slaves except the philosopher, and Persius has learned to be a philosopher—thanks to Cornutus, to whom the Satire is addressed. Compare and contrast Horace’s handling of a like subject in Sat., 2, 3. In Teuffel’s commentary on his translation of this Satire, the matter is briefly summed up in these words: Horace is an artist, Persius a Preacher. See Introd., xxvi. Comp. also Hor., Sat., 2, 7, 46 seqq.
Argument.—Persius speaks: Poets have a way of asking for a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues, whether the theme be tragedy or epic.—Cornutus: A hundred mouths, a hundred tongues! What do you want with them? Or, for that matter, with a hundred gullets either, to worry down the tragic diet which other poets affect. You do not pant like a bellows, nor croak like a jackdaw, nor strain your cheeks to bursting in the high epic fashion. Your language is to be the language of every-day life, to which you are to give an edge by skilful combination. Your utterance is modest, and your art is shown in rasping the unhealthy body of the age, and in impaling its faults with high-bred raillery. Be such your theme. Let others sup full with tragic horrors, if they will. Do you know nothing beyond the frugal luncheon of our daily food (1-18).
Persius: It is not my aim to have my pages swollen with ‘Bubbles from the Brunnen of Poesy.’ We are alone, far from the madding crowd, and I may throw open my heart to you, for I would have you know how great a part of my soul you are. Knock at the walls of my heart, for you are skilful to distinguish the solid from the hollow, to tell the painted stucco of the tongue from the strong masonry of the soul. To this end I fain would ask—and ask until I get—a hundred voices, to show how deeply I have planted you in my heart of hearts; to tell you all that is past telling in my inmost being (19-29). When first the purple garb of boyhood withdrew its guardianship, and the amulet—no longer potent—was hung up, an offering to the old-fashioned household gods, when all about me humored me, and when the dress of manhood permitted my eyes to rove at will through the Subura with all its wares and wiles, what time the youth’s path is doubtful, and bewilderment, ignorant of life, brings the excited mind to the spot where the great choice of roads is to be made—in that decisive hour I made myself son to you, and you took me, Cornutus, to your Socratic heart. Where my character was warped, the quiet application of the rule of right straightened what in me was crooked. My mind was constrained by reason, wrestled with its conqueror, and took on new features under your forming hand. How I remember the long days I spent with you, the first-fruits of the festal nights I plucked with you. Our work, our rest we ordered both alike, and the strain of study was eased by the pleasures of a modest table (30-44). Nay, never doubt that there is a harmony between our stars. Our constellation is the Balance or the Twins. The same aspect rules our nativities. Some star, be that star what it may, blends my fate with yours (45-51).
We are attuned each to other; but look abroad, and see how different men are from us and from each other. Each has his own aims in life. One is bent on active merchandise, one is given up to sluggish sleep, another is fond of athletic sports. One is drained dry by dicing, another by chambering and wantonness; but when the chalk-stones of gout rattle among their fingers and toes, they awake to the choke-damp and the foggy light in which they have spent their days, and mourn too late their wasted life (52-61).
But you delight to wax pale over nightly studies. A tiller of the human soul, you prepare the soil, and sow the field of the ear with the pure grain of Stoic wisdom. Hence seek, young and old, an aim for your higher being, provision for your hoary head (62-65).
‘Hoary head, you say?’ interposes an objector. ‘That can be provided for as well to-morrow.’ To-morrow! ‘Next day the fatal precedent will plead.’ Another to-morrow comes, and we have used up yesterday’s to-morrow, and so our days are emptied one by one. To-morrow! It is always ahead of us, as the hind wheel can never overtake the front wheel, though both be in the self-same chariot (66-72).
The remedy for this and all the other ills of life is True Liberty—not such as gives a dole of musty meal, a soup-house ticket to the new-made citizen; not such as makes a tipsy slave free in the twinkling of an eye. Now Dama is a worthless groom, and would sell himself for a handful of provender. Anon he is set free, as you call it—becomes Marcus Dama. Excellent surety! Most excellent judge! If Marcus says it is so, it is so. Your sign and seal here, good Marcus. Pah! This is the liberty that manumission gives. Up speaks Marcus: ‘Well! Who is free except the man that can do as he pleases? I can do as I please. Argal I am free as air.’—‘Not so,’ says your learned Stoic. ‘Your logic is at fault. I grant the rest, but I demur to the clause “as you please.”’—‘The praetor’s wand made me my own man. May I not do what I please, if I offend not against the statute-book?’ (73-90).
‘Do what you please!’ cries Persius, who identifies himself with the Stoic philosopher. ‘Stop just there and learn of me; but first cease to be scornful, and let me get these old wives’ notions out of your head. The praetor could not teach you any thing about the conduct of life with all its perplexities. As well expect a man to teach an elephant to dance the tight-rope. Reason bars the way, and whispers, “You must not do what you will spoil in the doing.” This is nature’s law, the law of common-sense. You mix medicine, and know nothing of scales and weights? You, a clodhopper, and undertake to pilot a ship? Absurd, you say; and yet what do you know of life? How can you walk upright without philosophy? How can you tell the ring of the genuine metal, and detect the faulty sound of the base alloy? Do you know what to seek, what to avoid, what to mark with white, what with black? Can you control your wishes, moderate your expenses, be indulgent to your friends? Do you know how to save and how to spend? Can you keep your month from watering at the sight of money, from burning at the taste of ginger? When you can say in truth, “All this is mine,” then you are truly free. But if you retain the old man under the new title, I take back all that I have granted. You can do nothing that is right. Every action is a fault. Put forth your finger—you sin. There is not a half-ounce of virtue in your silly carcass. You must be all right or all wrong. Man is one. You can not be virtuous by halves. You can not be at once a ditcher and a dancer. You are a slave still, though the praetor’s wand may have waved away your bonds. You do not tremble at a master’s voice, ‘tis true, but there are other masters than those whom the law recognizes. The wires that move you do not jerk you from without, but masters grow up within your bosom’ (91-131).
Here the dialogue is dropped. We leave Dama, whose personality has been getting fainter all the time, and are treated to a series of more or less dramatic scenes in illustration of the Ruling Passions.
So Avarice and Luxury dispute about the body and soul of an un-Stoic slave (132-160).
A Lover tries to break the chain that binds him to an unworthy mistress (161-175).
Another is led captive by Ambition at her will (176-179).
Yet another is under the dominion of Superstition (180-188).
But why discourse thus? Imagine what the military would say to such a screed of doctrine. I hear the horse-laugh of Pulfennius, as he bids a clipped dollar for a hundred Greek philosophers—a cent apiece (189-191).
This Satire is justly considered by many critics the best of all the productions of Persius, as it is the least obscure. The warm tribute to his master Cornutus may have had its share in commending the poem to teachers, who, of all men, are most grateful for gratitude. But apart from this revelation of a pure and loving heart, the peculiar talent of Persius, which consists in vivid portraiture of character and situation, appears to great advantage in this composition. True, the introduction is not wrought into the poem, and the poet’s discourse is too distinctly a Stoic school exercise, and reminiscence crowds on reminiscence, but there is a certain movement in the Satire, or Epistle, as it were better called, which carries us on over the occasional rough places, without the perpetual jolt which we feel every where else on the ‘corduroy road’ of Persius’s Gradus ad Parnassum.
1-4. Persius: Oh for a hundred voices, a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues!
1. Vatibus hic mos est: Comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 2, 86: regibus hic mos est. Vatibus, with a sneer. see Prol., 7.—centum sibi poscere voces: Examples might be multiplied indefinitely from Homer to Charles Wesley. Comp. Il., 2, 489: οὐδ᾽ εἴ μοι δέκα μὲν γλῶσσαι, δέκα δὲ στόματ᾽ εἶεν; and Verg., Aen., 6, 625: non mihi si linguae centum sint oraque centum; also Georg., 2, 43; Ov., Met., 8, 532. Conington burlesques the passage by translating poscere ‘put in a requisition for,’ and optare ‘bespeak.’ By such devices humor of a certain kind might be extracted from elegies, and Vergil be made ‘to put in a requisition for Quintilius at the Bureau of the Gods,’ Hor., Od., 1, 24, 12.
3. seu ponatur: The mood after seu—seu is determined on general principles (A., 61, 4, c). In practice, however, the Indicative is more common (G., 597, R. 4). The Subjunctive is to be explained by G., 666 (see last example), and A., 66, 2.—ponatur = proponatur (Cic., Tusc. Dis., 1, 4, 7). Comp. θεῖναι, θέσις. Jahn understands it as ponere lucum, 1, 70, posuisse figuras, 1, 86. Perhaps there is a play on the different senses of ponere. ‘Serve up’ would not be bad in view of vv. 9, 10.—hianda: ‘To be spouted by some doleful actor.’ ‘Hianda has reference to the tragic mask, in which a wide aperture was cut for the mouth, to facilitate a distinct enunciation. From the appearance presented by the speaker, it soon came to be used of a bombastic style of utterance. Comp. carmen hiare, Prop., 2, 31, 6, and grande Sophocleo carmen bacchamur hiatu, Juv., 6, 636.’ Pretor, after Jahn.
4. vulnera Parthi: Is Parthi object or subject? The passage is a reminiscence of Hor., Sat., 2, 1, 15: aut labentia equo describat vulnera Parthi. If Parthi is the object, an interpretation which is favored by the Horatian passage and by the propriety of the epic theme—for why should a Roman enlarge upon the wounds that the Parthian deals?—ducentis ab inguine ferrum must be rendered ‘drawing the dart from his groin.’ Still ab is not a suitable preposition, nor can it be defended by such expressions as ducere suspiria ab imo pectore, Ov., Met., 10, 402. Others think of ‘trailing the shaft from his groin,’ in which it had been imbedded. Comp. v. 160: a collo trahitur pars longa catenae. If Parthi is the subject, translate, ‘The Parthian who draws the arrow from [the quiver] near his groin.’ The Eastern nations wore the quiver low, the Greeks upon the shoulder. This line refers to epic poetry as the preceding to tragedy.
5-18. Cornutus: What need have you of a hundred mouths? You have no foolish tragedy to cram, no big epics to mouth. Your simple satire demands a simple style, the talk of every day, only better put. Your business is to scourge and pierce, and yet remember that you are a gentleman. Let these themes suffice you, and leave to others the stage-horrors of cannibalic feasts; yourself content with the pot-luck of the Roman cit.
5. Quorsum haec: Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 7, 21.—aut: G., 460, R.; A., 71, 2.—robusti carminis offas: ‘dumplings of substantial poetry,’ ‘lumps of solid poetry’ (Conington). Offa is a dumpling of meal or flesh. Comp. Apul., Met., 1, 3, on the chokiness of a certain polentae caseatae offula grandior.
6. ingeris: ‘cram.’ The whole passage is intended to be coarse. ‘What great gobbets of stuffing song are you cramming yourself with, that you require a hundred throats to strain them down?’ Others understand: ingeris sc. populo. See v. 177.—centeno gutture = centum gutturibus. So centena arbore, Verg., Aen., 10, 207 (Conington).
7. grande: See 1, 14.—locuturi: See 1, 100.—nebulas: Jahn is reminded of Hor., A. P., 230: nubes et inania captet. Observe that legunto suggests the culinary figure below. The mists represent the vegetables, Procne and Thyestes furnish the meat.—Helicone: See Prologue. Persius is as intensely Roman in poetic practice as he is Greek in philosophic theory.—legunto: The Imperative, instead of the Subjunctive, gives the tone of an edict or of a cookery-book.
8. Prognes—Thyestae: See Classical Dictionaries for the familiar myths. Observe the balance. Procne served up her son, Thyestes made a dinner off his. Both are common tragic themes. See Hor., A. P., 91. 186-187.—olla fervebit: ‘Who are going to set Thyestes’s pot a-boiling’ (Conington).
9. Glyconi: Glyco was a stupid actor of the day, who could not understand a joke. The Neronians have made the most of the fact, as reported by the Scholiast, that G. was manumitted by Nero, who paid his half-owner Vergilius 300,000 sesterces for his share. So, for instance, Lehmann (De A. Persii Satira Quinta, p. 17), who has nosed out all manner of subtle Neronian flavors in this innocent satire.—cenanda: Comp. 3, 46.
10. coquitur dum: When the action with dum, ‘while,’ is co-extensive with the action in the leading clause, the limit may be expressed by until, ‘while it is smelting’ = ‘until it is smelted’—massa: See note on 2, 67.
11. folle: The wind is squeezed ‘with’ or ‘in’ the bellows rather than ‘from’ the bellows. The Scholiast notices the Horatian reminiscence, Sat., 1, 4, 19: at tu conclusas hircinis follibus auras | usque laborantes, dum ferrum molliat ignis | ut mavis, imitare. Comp. also Juv., 7, 111: tunc immensa cavi spirant mendacia folles.—nec clauso murmure, etc.: ‘Nor with pent-up murmur croak to yourself until you are hoarse some solemn nonsense.’
13. scloppo: So Jahn (1868), instead of stloppo (1843). This is supposed to be a word coined to express the sound (comp. bombis, 1, 99). Conington renders ‘plop.’ Vaniček records it under SKAR, S. 183, and it may well be the ‘slap’ with which the distended cheeks are reduced, and hence the ‘plop’ which is heard. The childish trick may be witnessed wherever there are children. Persius multiplies absurd and meaningless noises without any sharp distinction.
14. verba togae: ‘the language of every-day life.’ The fabula togata is Roman comedy, as opposed to the fabula praetexta, or Roman tragedy, and to the f. palliata, the subjects of which were Greek. Persius insists on the connection of the national satire with the national comedy, and the scanty remains of the fabula togata deserve close comparison.—sequeris = sectaris. Prol., 11.—acri iunctura: ‘nice grouping,’ ‘telling combination.’ The words are familiar, but the setting is new. Comp. Hor., A. P., 47: notum si callida verbum | reddiderit iunctura novum; and 242: tantum series iuncturaque pollet | tantum de medio sumptis accedit honoris. An important passage, as showing the intense self-consciousness of the poet’s art.
15. ore teres modico: Jahn comp. ore rotundo, Hor., A. P., 323. The mouth stands for the style, and the position of the mouth symbolized the utterance (ore magis quam labris loquendum est, Quint., 11, 3, 81). Teres as in Cic., De Orat., 3, 52, 199: est [oratio] et plena quaedam sed tamen teres et tenuis, non sine nervis et viribus. ‘A moderate rounding of the cheek’ (Conington); but although in view of v. 13 it would be desirable to retain the figure, it is hardly possible. ‘With smooth and compassed tone.’ As teres ore = ore modico, Hermann (L. P., II., 46) comp. Ov., Fast., 6, 425: lucoque obscurus opaco.—pallentis mores: The ‘spirit of the age’ is also the ‘body of the age.’ Hence the figure. ‘Pale’ with disease and vice (comp. 4, 47), ‘guilty.’—radere: Comp. 1, 107.
16. ingenuo ludo: ‘with high-bred raillery,’ ‘with raillery that a gentleman may speak and hear.’ Persius has in mind εὐτραπελία, the πεπαιδευμένη ὕβρις of Aristotle, Rhet., 2, 12, as Conington suggests.—defigere: Variously explained. So ‘post up,’ ‘placard’ (Casaubon); ‘pin to the ground’ (Conington); ‘pierce,’ like an arrow (Jahn); ‘sting,’ like a hornet, as in Ov., Fast., 3, 753: milia crabronum coeunt et vertice nudo, | spicula defigunt oraque summa notant. Comp. the use of figere, 3, 80.
17. hinc: From every-day life. König compares Hor., A. P., 318: vivas hinc ducere voces.—quae dicis: So Jahn (1868), after the best MSS. In 1843 we find dicas, which is more natural, but not necessary.—Mycenis: Dative, far more forcible than the locative Ablative. Jahn comp. Prol., 5: illis relinquo, a reading which he afterward abandoned. See G., 344, R. 3.
18. cum capite et pedibus: served up to Thyestes after he had finished his dinner. Comp. Aeschyl., Ag., 1594; Sen., Thyest., 764.—plebeia prandia: Your theme is ‘human nature’s daily food,’ not the heroic suppers of ‘raw-head and bloody-bones’ that teach us nothing. Mensa is contrasted with prandia (comp. Seneca’s sine mensa prandium, cited 1, 67) as ‘banquet’ with ‘meal,’ ‘Tafel’ with ‘Tisch.’
19-29. Persius: You understand my aims. I do not care to swell my page with frothy nonsense. And now that we are alone, I desire you to examine my heart, that you may see how you are enshrined in it—a theme for which I might well desire a hundred voices.
19. equidem: Here in accordance with common usage. See 1, 110.—bullatis nugis: ‘air-blown trifles’ (Gifford). Bullatis: so Jahn (1868) with Hermann. The reading of the oldest MSS., pullatis, ‘sad colored,’ explained now as ‘tragic stuff’ (because mourners were pullati); now as stuff for the groundlings (because the common people were pullati), is scarcely tenable. Ampullatis, Jahn’s conjecture, though defended by Lachmann (Lucret., 6, 1067), is metrically bad; but the sense is excellent, and the reference would be to a passage which Persius must have had in his mind. Hor., A. P., 97: proicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba. Even Thyestes is mentioned in the context, l.c. 91. Bullatis, ‘bubbly.’ Hermann (L. P., I., 32) comp. alata avis, and makes bullatis refer to tumorem et inanem verborum strepitum.
20. dare pondus fumo: Casaubon comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 19, 42: nugis addere pondus. Horace uses the expression in the sense of ‘attaching importance.’ Persius means that these trifles are fitted to lend importance, to give seeming substance to mere vapors. Fumus is a synonym for ‘humbug.’ On dare idonea = idonea quae det, see G., 424, R. 4; A., 57, 8, f.
22. excutienda: See 1, 49. But the figure changes below, or there is a figure within a figure, the heart being compared to a wall, the wall to a dress. On the construction, see G., 431; A., 72, 5, c.
23. pars animae: Comp. te meae partem animae, Hor., Od., 2, 17, 5; animae dimidium meae, Od., 1, 3, 8.—Cornute: See Introduction, ix.
24. ostendisse: once for all. See G., 275, 1; A., 58, 11, d.—pulsa: κροῦε. See 3, 21.—dinoscere cautus: Hor., Sat., 1, 6, 51: cautum adsumere dignos. Comp. Prol., 11.
25. solidum crepet: like sonat vitium, 3, 21. G., 331, R. 2; A., 52, 3, a.—pictae tectoria linguae: The comparison is taken from a stuccoed party-wall painted to look solid. Comp. Afran. ap. Non., 152, 28, v. 14 (Ribbeck): fallaci aspectu paries pictus putidus (= puter). The notion in pictae belongs rather to tectoria than to linguae—‘painted tongue-stucco.’ The figure will not bear close examination any more than the stucco.
26. his, ut = ad haec ut. Comp. hoc, ut, v. 19. Others read hic.—centenas = centum. G., 310, R.; A., 18, 2, d.—deposcere: Notice the determination that lies in deposcere.
27. quantum fixi: This is not conceived as a dependent interrogative, as is shown by v. 29, where the antecedent of the parallel clause is expressed. G., 469, R. 3.—sinuoso: Comp. Plin., H. N., 2, 37: cor prima domicilia intra se animo et sanguini praebet sinuoso specu. Sinuoso pectore = in recessu mentis, 2, 73.
28. voce: carelessly repeated after voces.—pura: ‘honest.’
29. non enarrabile: i.e., save by the hundred voices. There is no contradiction, and even if there were—this is supposed to be poetry.—fibra: 1, 47.
30-51. When first I put away the things of boyhood and encountered the temptations of youth, and stood bewildered at the cross-roads of life, I threw myself into your sheltering arms, and put myself under your guiding hand. Happy the memory of those days and nights, as they brought common work and common rest. Surely a common star controls our destinies and makes us one.
30. pavido: variously interpreted of the fear—1. Which an entrance on life breeds; 2. Which requires the protection of the praetexta; 3. Which the rule of tutors and governors inspires. The third view is favored by blandi comites, as Conington remarks. Comp. Mart., 11, 39, 2: et pueri custos assiduusque comes with v. 6: te dispensator, te domus ipsa pavet.—custos purpura: ‘the guardian purple.’ Purpura = praetexta, the dress of boyhood, which was of itself a protection. This was exchanged for the toga when the nonage was over. Per hoc inane purpurae decus precor, Hor., Epod., 5, 7.—mihi: If cessit is taken absolutely, mihi may depend on the predicative notion in custos = quae mihi custos fuerat. Casaubon explains, mihi cessit, ut iam annis maiori vel etiam ut hosti. It seems best to combine the two: ‘When the purple resigned its dreaded guardianship over me.’
31. bulla: the well-known ‘boss,’ which contained amulets and the like. Comp. 2, 70.—succinctis: ‘Like cinctutis (Hor., A. P., 50), incinctos (Ov., Fast., 2, 632), in allusion to the cinctus Gabinus, in which primitive dress they (the Lares) were always represented. It was worn over the left shoulder, leaving the right arm free’ (Pretor). Conington renders succinctis, ‘quaint.’
32. blandi: (fuerunt).—comites: Jahn considers these comites the same as those mentioned in 3, 7. See note. The epigram of Mart., cited above, v. 30, makes for this view: the harsh tutors have become blandi comites. But most commentators prefer to take comites in its general sense.—tota Subura: On the construction, see G., 386; A., 55, 3, f. The Subura, as the focus of business life, was the haunt of persons who are sufficiently characterized as Suburanae magistrae, Mart., 11, 78, 11.
33. permisit sparsisse: On the Inf., see G., 532, R. 1; A., 70, 3, a. On the tense, note on 1, 41. With the phraseology, Jahn comp. Val. Flacc., 5, 247: tua nunc terris, tua lumina toto | sparge mari. Spargere is a happy word for a rapid, roving glance.—iam: ἤδη. The English idiom often refuses to give the exact force of iam. The youngster has got a ‘sure enough’ candidus umbo. The contrast in time is the former praetexta.— candidus umbo: ‘Umbo was the knot into which the folds of the toga were gathered after passing the left shoulder’ (Pretor). Of course the umbo was candidus, as the toga was.
34. iter ambiguuum: See 3, 56.—vitae nescius error: is bewilderment from ignorance of life.
35. deducit: So Jahn (1843), a reading which he has strangely forsaken (1868) for diducit. Schlüter puts it neatly thus: homines in compita ubi viae diducuntur, deduci dicuntur. Compita does not mean the roads, but the place where the roads meet—the crossing (Schol.). De adds the notion of decision to ducit. Comp. in discrimen deducere, Cic., Fam., 10, 24, 4. The youth is brought to a point where he must choose.—trepidas: See 1, 74.
36. supposui: Almost ‘I made you adopt me.’ Supponere is used of supposititious children. As Persius’s own father died while the poet was young, there is a tone of orphanage about the expression that appeals to our sympathy. ‘I threw myself as a son into your arms.’—suscipis: is the correlative of supposui.
37. Socratico sinu: The loving care of Socrates is meant, as well as his wisdom, as Jahn has observed.—fallere sollers: On the construction, see G., 424, R. 4; A., 57, 8, f, 3; Prol., 11. ‘Skilful to deceive,’ in the sense of the gradual Socratic approach. The rule is not rudely applied, but cheats the warped nature into rectitude. Jahn’s note amounts to this, that a ruler that understands deception, understands detection, and hence is a true ruler.
38. regula: ‘ruler.’ See note on 4, 11.
39. premitur ratione: Comp. Verg., Aen., 6, 80: fera corda domans fingitque premendo.—vinci laborat = dum vincitur laborat, cum labore vincitur. ‘Laborat shows that the pupil’s mind co-operated with his teacher’ (Conington).
40. artificem: Passive, arte factum, ‘artistic,’ ‘finished.’ The figure is of course taken from moulding in wax or clay.—ducit vultum: Comp. exigite ut teneros mores ceu pollice ducat | ut si quis cera vultum facit, Juv., 7, 237; only there the workman moulds, here the material. Transl. ‘take on,’ ‘assume,’ as in Ov., Met., 1, 402: saxa ducere formam (Jahn).—pollice: The thumb is largely used in moulding. See Juv., l.c., and Ov., Met., 10, 285; Stat., Achill., 1, 332, quoted by Jahn.
41. etenim: καὶ γὰρ. See 3, 48.—memini consumere: See Prol., 2.—soles = dies. The antithesis runs throughout. Soles—opus—seria are opposed to noctes—requiem—mensa.
42. primas noctes: ‘the early hours of the night.’—epulis: ‘for feasting.’ Others, ‘from feasting,’ i.e., for study, 3, 54; 5, 62.—decerpere: The expression is a cross between carpe diem (Hor., Od., 1, 11, 8) and partem solido demere de die (Hor., Od., 1, 1, 20). Decerpere is to pluck with resolute, eager hand.
43. unum opus et requiem = unum opus et (unam) requiem (Jahn). Casaubon comp. Verg., Georg., 4, 184.
44. laxamus seria: Jahn comp. Verg., Aen., 9, 223: laxabant curas.
45. non equidem hoc dubites: On equidem, see note on 1, 110. With non dubites comp. non accedas, 1, 5.—foedere certo: Jahn comp. Manil., 2, 475: iunxit amicitias horum sub foedere certo. Foedus certum, ‘fixed law,’ ‘fixed principle.’
46. consentire dies: On the Inf., instead of the normal quin with Subj., see G., 551, R. 4; M., 375 c., Obs. 2. For the thought, comp. Hor., Od., 2, 17, 21: utrumque nostrum incredibili modo | consentit astrum.—ab uno sidere duci: Astrology was very popular in Persius’s time, having been brought into vogue by Tiberius. It was the aristocratic mode of divination, and is compared by Friedländer (Sittengesch., 1, 347) with the spiritualism and table-turning of the present day. Philosophy was not proof against it; indeed, the later Stoics always had a leaning to it, and Panaetius was the only one that rejected it (Knickenberg, l.c. p. 79). All people of ‘culture’ talked about ‘horoscope,’ ‘nativity,’ and ‘malign aspect,’ just as the same class in our time speak of ‘the spectroscope,’ ‘heat a mode of motion,’ and ‘the survival of the fittest.’ Horace and Persius, who imitates Horace, have caught up some of the current terms, and travel along the Zodiac in blissful ignorance of their own stars.
47. aequali Libra: So Hor., Od., 2, 17, 17: seu Libra seu me Scorpios adspicit. Comp. the whole passage.
48. Parca tenax veri: Comp. Parca non mendax, Hor., Od., 2, 16, 39. ‘Fate is represented with scales in her hands, also as marking the horoscope on the celestial globe’ (Jahn). The Parca of mythology is identified with the Fatum of the Stoics.—seu: Observe the irregularity of vel—seu instead of seu—seu.—nata fidelibus: ‘ordained for faithful friends.’ ‘The hour of birth is said to be born itself, as in Aeschyl., Ag., 107, ξύμφυτος αἰών; Soph., O. R., 1082, συγγενεῖς μῆνες’ (Conington).
49. Geminos: Casaubon quotes Manil., 2, 628: magnus erit Geminis amor et concordia duplex.
50. Saturnumque gravem, etc.: ‘We together cross malignant Saturn by propitious Jove.’ ‘Saturnine’ and ‘jovial’ are remnants of astrological belief. Nostro is not only ‘our,’ but ‘on our side,’ ‘propitious.’
51. nescio quod: almost = aliquod. See v. 12.—est quod temperat: On the Mood, see G., 634, R. 1; M., 365, Obs. 2. With the expression, comp. Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 187: scit genius, natale comes qui temperat astrum, where the parts are reversed.—me tibi temperat: The Dative is used after the analogy of miscere. ‘Blends my being with thine.’
52-61. Our aims, our lives are one. But ‘many men, many minds.’ Each has his passion—the merchant, the man of ease, the lover of sport, the gamester, the rake—but they have to reckon with disease at last, and groan over the failure of their lives.
52. Mille hominum species: The Schol. quotes Hor., Sat., 2, 1, 27: quot capitum vivunt, totidem studiorum | milia. Proverbial is Ter., Phorm., 2, 3, 14: quot homines, tot sententiae: suos cuique mos.—usus rerum: ‘practice of life,’ ‘practice.’ See 1, 1, note.—discolor: ‘of various hue.’
53. velle suum cuique est: Comp. Verg., Ecl., 2, 65: trahit sua quemque voluptas. On velle suum, see 1, 9.—nec uno vivitur voto: Comp. 2, 7: aperto vivere voto. The negative form of a proposition following the positive strengthens it. Nec uno, ‘far different.’ With the examples that follow, Jahn comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 18, 21 seqq.
54. mercibus mutat piper: On the Abl., see G., 404, R.; A., 54, 8. The normal construction is merces mutat pipere; the other does not occur in archaic Latin nor in model prose. Horace is the first to use it, e.g., Od., 3, 1, 47; Epod., 9, 27. Livy introduces it into prose, but employs it only once (5, 30, 3). So Dräger, Histor. Syntax, § 235.—sub sole recenti: The Schol. comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 4, 29: hic mutat merces surgente a sole ad eum quo | vespertina tepet regio.
55. rugosum piper: ‘wrinkled pepper,’ ‘shrivelled pepper,’ the shrivelling being the effect of the hot Eastern sun. None of your Italian pepper, but the genuine Eastern article. See note on 3, 75.—pallentis cumini: like pallidam Pirenen, Prol., 4. attribute for effect, an imitation and, strange to say, without attempt at enhancement, of the exsangue cuminum of Hor., Ep., 1, 19, 18. Cuminum pallorem bibentibus gignit, Plin., H. N., 20, 14, 57. Cumin was considered an indispensable condiment. The large use of it is shown by the compounds in Greek (κυμινοδόχη—θήκη, κτέ)—see Seiler ad Alciphron., 3, 58—and it ranks with pepper in Petron., 49; with salt in Alexis, fr. 169 (3. 465 Mein.). Add Plutarch, Quaest. Conv., 5, 10.
56. inriguo somno: Inriguo is active. Sleep waters him, as it were, and increases his fat. Comp. Verg., Aen., 3, 511: fessos sopor inrigat artus. ‘Dewy sleep’ is almost too sweet for the passage. König, a prosaic soul, thinks of the ‘sweaty sleep’ of a man who is gorged with meat and drink.
57. campo: The gymnastic exercises of the campus, and especially of the campus Martius in Rome, are familiar. See Hor., Od., 1, 8, 4; Ep., 1, 7, 59; A. P., 162, referred to by Jahn.—decoquit = coquendo vires absumit. The word is employed of a man who has used up, run through, his means. So Cic., Phil., 2, 18, 44: tenesne memoria praetextatum te decoxisse? Here it is the man who is used up, who is made to go to pot.
58. putris: Gr. τακερός. ‘In wanton dalliance melts away’ (Gifford).—lapidosa cheragra: Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 1, 31: nodosa cheragra. The chalk-stones of gout are compared with hailstones.
59. fregerit: Perf. Subj. in a generic sense. G., 569, R. 2 (end). Comp. postquam illi iusta cheragra | contudit articulos, Hor., Sat., 2, 7, 15 seqq.—veteris ramalia fagi: The comparison is between the fingers and the knotty boughs. Comp. Hesiod’s πέντοζος, O. et D., 744.—fagi: Fagus, φηγός, and ‘beech’ (BHAG) are etymologically, but not botanically, the same. See Curtius, Grundzüge, No. 160.
60. A forcible passage, on which Conington says: ‘The conception here is of life passed in a Boeotian atmosphere of thick fogs and pestilential vapors, which the sun never penetrates— probably with especial reference to the pleasures of sense, of which Persius has just been speaking. So the “vapor, heavy, hueless, formless, cold,” in Tennyson’s “Vision of Sin.”’—crassos dies: sub crasso aere (Jahn).—transisse: Heinr. comp. Tib., 1, 4, 33: vidi iam iuvenem, premeret cum serior aetas, | maerentem stultos praeteriisse dies.—lucem palustrem: ‘boggy’ = ‘foggy light’ is ‘light choked by fog.’ Crassos dies lucemque palustrem must be connected closely—‘gross days in foggy light’—so as to get rid of an awkward Zeugma with transisse.
61. sibi: with ingemuere (Conington).—iam seri: ‘too, too late.’ On iam, see v. 33. On seri, G., 324, R. 6; A., 47, 6.—ingemuere: like the Gr. Aorist. Comp. v. 187 and 3, 101. G., 228, R. 2; A., 58, 5, c. ‘Heave a sigh’ (Conington).—relictam: anteactam (Casaubon). Iam post terga reliquit | sexaginta annos, Juv., 13, 16.
62-65. Contrast of Cornutus’s noble mission. His creed the only creed for life.
62. at: in lively contrast.—nocturnis: Comp. 1, 90.—inpallescere: Comp. 1, 26.
63. purgatas: Purgare is an agricultural term like our ‘clean,’ and the metaphor is kept up. The field is the ear.—inseris: where we should expect seris.
64. fruge Cleanthea: Cleanthes is selected here on account of his strict life and virtuous poverty, in opposition to the luxury and wealth of the Romulidae, as Knickenberg remarks, l.c. p. 9.—petite: Mr. Pretor supposes that this is Cornutus’s invitation to the world. But if Cornutus speaks here, where does Persius come in again?—unless he takes up the cudgels for his master in v. 66.
65. finem = τέλος.—miseris: ‘wretched else.’—viatica: Jahn quotes Diog. Laert., 1, 5, 80: ἐφόδιον ἀπὸ νεότητος εἰς γῆρας ἀναλάμβανε σοφιαν; and 5, 11, 21: κάλλιστον ἐφόδιον τῷ γήρᾳ ἡ παιδεία.—canis: G., 195, R. 1.
66-72. ‘There is time enough for that,’ says an impersonal sinner. ‘To-morrow will do as well.’ ‘“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow.” To-morrow never becomes to-day.’
66. Cras hoc fiet, etc.: ‘I will do this that you ask of me to-morrow.’ ‘You will do to-morrow just what you are doing to-day.’ Jahn comp. Ov., R. A., 104: Cras quoque fiet idem. Hermann arranges: Cras hoc fiet idem. Cras fiet? ‘This will, can be done to-morrow as well as to-day.’ ‘To-morrow, you say?’ Comp. Petron., 82: quod hodie non est, cras erit.
67. nempe diem donas: ‘Well, what of it? Suppose I go on the same way to-morrow; it will only be a day—a great present, forsooth, to be haggling about!’ On nempe, see G., 500, R. 2.—cum venit—consumpsimus: more lively than cum venerit—consumpserimus (G., 229). One clause is involved in the other. G., 236, R. 4. This seems to be better than making venit iterative, and consumpsimus an Aoristic Perf.
69. egerit: ‘unloads,’ ‘carts off.’ Egerere is the opposite of ingerere (v. 6). Comp. Sen., Ep., 47, 2: venter maiore opera omnia egerit quam ingessit. Jahn makes egerit = impulerit, in order to save the figure. Compare truditur dies die, Hor., Od., 2, 18, 15, and Petron., 45: dies diem trudit; and 82: vita truditur. But even this does not save the figure, and the sudden change of metaphor is in Persius’s vein.—paulum erit ultra: ‘To-morrow will always be a little further on,’ is the common rendering, the figure changing at this point.
70. quamvis—vertentem: A later construction. G., 611, R.; M., 443, Obs.—cantum: ‘tire.’
72. cum curras: ‘seeing that you are running.’ Here cum is nearly equivalent to si, as it is thrown by sectabere into the future, and is thus made hypothetical. Comp. G., 591, R. 3, and 584.
73-90. What men need is Liberty—not the freedom of the city, which insures a quota of damaged corn; not the freedom of the freedman, which gives a slave a name to be free, while he is yet a slave; but the liberty wherewith Philosophy sets men free. The freedman demurs to this hard doctrine, but a Stoic adept silences him by his ‘Short Method.’
73. hac, ut, quisque: Hac is the adverb, ut = qua, quisque = quicunque (comp. quandoque = quandocumque, 4, 28), a sad complex of harshnesses, which may be rendered thus: ‘Liberty is what is wanted; not after the prevalent (G., 290, 7) fashion, by which each man that has worked his way up to a Publius in the Veline tribe is owner of a ticket for a ration of musty spelt.’ Other readings, such as hac quam ut quisque (Passow), hac qua quisque (Meister), are mere devices to relieve the grammatical situation, which is doubtless unnatural in the extreme, as hac seems to belong to libertate, and ut quisque is a familiar combination. Conington makes non hac the beginning of an independent sentence, and translates: ‘It is not by this freedom that every fire-new citizen, who gets his name enrolled in a tribe, is privileged to get a pauper’s allowance for his ticket.’—Velina: Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 6, 52: hic multum in Fabia valet, ille Velina. The Veline was one of the last two tribes instituted (Becker, Rom. Alt., 2, 1, 170), and is supposed by some to be one of the four city tribes to which the libertini were restricted. The name of the tribe to which a man belongs is put in the Abl. (as a whence case). So M. Larcius L. f. Pomptina Pudens (Becker, l.c. 198).
74. Publius: Only freemen were entitled to the praenomen. Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 5, 32: Quinte, puta, aut Publi (gaudent praenomine molles | auriculae).—emeruit: literally ‘has served his time’ (of a soldier), ‘has worked his way up to be a Publius’ (supplying esse).—tesserula: the well-known tessera frumentaria, Suet., Aug., 41.
75. Quiritem: Rare in the Singular (Schol.).
76. vertigo: the ‘twirl’ of the familiar process of manumissio per vindictam. ‘The lictor touched the slave with the vindicta, the master turning him round and “dismissing him from his hand” with the words Hunc hominem liberum esse volo’ (Conington).—facit: is causal as well as faciat. G., 627, R.; A., 63.—Dama: Δημᾶς = Δημήτριος; according to others for Δημέας (Mehlhorn, Gr. Gr., 183), a common slave’s name.—non tressis: Jahn comp. non semissis homo, Vatin. ap. Cic., Fam., 5, 10, 1.
77. vappa: ‘dead wine,’ hence ‘mean liquor.’—lippus: the effect of drinking.—in farragine tenui: ‘in the matter of,’ and hence ‘for a poor feed of corn.’
78. verterit—exit = si verterit—exit. G., 257; A., 57, 5. Comp. v. 189. The Perf. is aoristic, ‘give him a whirl.’—momento: literally by the ‘motion,’ ‘by virtue,’ ‘by the act of whirling.’ ‘By dint’ would give an ironical turn.
79. Marcus: as Publius, v. 74. Jahn cites an inscription: M · FVFIVS · M · L · DAMA.—papae: Ironical admiration. ‘Wondrous change! Every body will trust this thief, this liar now!’ Papae (Gr. παπαῖ, βαβαί). ‘Whew!’ ‘Prodigious!’—recusas? Fie on you, if you do! See note on 4, 1.
80. adsigna tabellas: ‘your hand and seal to this document,’ ‘witness this document.’
82. mera: ‘pure and simple’ (ironical).—pillea: See 3, 106.
83. An quisquam—Bruto: These words are generally assigned to Dama, and it is certainly more humorous to make the promoted stable-boy argue in mood and figure than to rake up one of Persius’s dead-alive spectators, as König does, and after him Pretor. Quisquam, because of the negative answer expected. See 1, 112, and G., 304; A., 21, 2, h.
84. ut voluit: The Stoic formula did not differ from the popular definition. Certainly it does not sound recondite to say: libertas est potestas vivendi ut velis, Cic., Parad., 5, 1, 34; or with Arrian, Diss., 4, 1, 1: ἐλεύθερός ἐστιν ὁ ζῶν ὡς βούλεται, but the words must be understood in their Stoic sense.
85. Mendose colligis: φαύλως συλλογίζει. ‘Your syllogism is faulty.’ ‘Marcus, thou reasonest ill.’
86. stoicus hic: ‘our Stoic friend’ (Conington). Persius himself.—aurem—lotus: Comp. v. 63 and 1, 126. Lotus may be reflexive. G., 332, R. 2; A., 53, 3, c, R.—aceto: Vinegar was used in cases of deafness, Cels., 6, 7, 2, 3 (König).
87. accipio—tolle: ‘Persius admits the major, but denies the minor; denies both that the man has a will (volo) and that he is free (licet) to follow it’ (Conington). Mr. Pretor limits the concession to vivere (τὸ ζῆν), and explains: ‘The mere fact that you are a living creature, I admit; the inference contained in licet and ut volo, I altogether deny.’ ‘This dissection of the argument word by word’ may be ‘more in keeping with the character of the Stoic’—the Stoics were great choppers of logic—but it is not in keeping with the style of Persius, who is subtle every where except in his arguments.
88. Vindicta: the festuca, or ‘wand,’ with which the lictor struck the manumittend. See v. 76.—postquam recessi: with a causal tone. See note on 3, 90.—meus: ‘my own man,’ hence ‘my own master’ (G., 299, R.); mei iuris (Schol.).
90. Masuri rubrica: ‘The canon of Masurius.’ ‘Masurius Sabinus, an eminent lawyer, lived in the reigns of Tiberius and Nero, and wrote a work in three books, entitled Ius Civile.’ Rubrica, ‘because the titles and first few words of the laws were commonly picked out with vermilion. Comp. perlege rubras | maiorum leges, Juv., 14, 192’ (Pretor, after Jahn). A low creature like Dama has a soul that is not above the statute-book; lofty spirits, like our Stoic, and believers in the higher law sneer at the canon and its maker. So Marc. Antonin., ap. Front., Ep., 2, 7 (p. 32 Naber), speaks of deliramenta Masuriana. Comp. Quint., 12, 3, 11.—vetavit: for vetuit, reminds us of the slip of another youthful genius, Kirke White, and his ‘rudely blow’d.’ There is no sufficient warrant for the form.
91-131. A Stoic sermon. Text: Do nothing that you will spoil in the doing. You know nothing as you ought to know it, and you can do nothing as you ought to do it. You are ignorant of the first principles of morals; you have no control over your desires, your appetites. You may call yourself free, but you are a slave for all that. For one master without, you have a legion of masters within.
91. Disce: Comp. 3, 66.—naso: the simple Abl. as a whence case. Comp. 1, 83. The nose is the familiar seat of anger. Theocr., 1, 18: καί οἱ ἀεὶ δριμεῖα χολὰ ποτὶ ῥινὶ κάθηται. For Biblical parallels, see Gesenius or Fürst, s.v. אַף . The anger is shown by snorting, or, as here, by snarling.—rugosa: Comp. corruget nares, Hor., Ep., 1, 5, 23.—sanna: 1, 62.
92. dum revello: ‘while I am plucking’ = ‘until I have plucked.’ See note on v. 10.—veteres avias: ‘old grandmothers,’ for ‘inveterate, rooted, grandmotherish notions.’ Comp. patruos sapere, 1, 11, and ὁ λεγόμενος γραῶν ὕθλος, Plat., Theaet., 176B.—de pulmone: The lung is the seat of pride in 3, 27 (comp. suffla, 4, 20). Jahn regards it here as the seat of wrath.
93. erat: ‘as you thought.’ G., 224, R. 3; A., 58, 3, d.—tenuia rerum officia: ‘mastery of the subtle distinctions of duty.’ Tenuia, a trisyllable, as often. G., 717. Rerum, parallel with vitae. See 1, 1.
94. usum rapidae vitae: ‘the right management of the rapid course of life.’ The metaphor is taken either from a river (rapidus amnis, rapidi fluminum lapsus, rapidum flumen, rapidus 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: θᾶττον ἂν ἁρμόσειας; 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 ἀνὴρ 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, l.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 arm. With nescius conpescere comp. callidus suspendere, 1, 118, and Prol., 11.—natura = lex, as above.
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 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: ὀρθῷ 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 ὑπόχαλκος. 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. ilia 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 assem | non video.
112. glutto: On the formation, see cachinno, 1, 12. ‘Lickerish-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 (Ζεὺς ἐλευθέριος), 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, l.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.’
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 ϝαλῆ ποτ᾽ ἀνδρός (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 = in cultus. Comp. ‘navvy.’ Juvenal (11, 80) speaks of the squalidus fossor; Catullus (22, 10) combines fossor and caprimulgus, Eur. (El., 252), σκαφεύς and βουφορβός.
123. tris tantum ad numeros moveare: ‘dance three steps in time.’ Ad, as often, of the standard; numerus = ῥυθμός; moveri of the dance, as in Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 125, and as motus in Od., 3, 6, 21: motus doceri gaudet Ionicos | matura virgo.—satyrum: a kind of Cognate Accusative, as in Hor., l.c.: qui | nunc satyrum, nunc agrestem Cyclopa movetur. Persius selects the satyrus in distinct opposition to the agrestis Cyclops, a more congenial dance for the agrestis fossor. See the commentators on Horace.—Bathylli: Bathyllus was a famous dancer in the time of Augustus. More bookishness. See Phaedr., 5, 7, 5; Juv., 6, 63.
124. Liber ego: The language of Dama. Only Dama is fading out. ‘Persius meets this reassertion of freedom with a new answer. Before he had contended that fools had no rights; now he shows that they have no independent power’ (Conington).—Unde datum hoc sentis: So Hor., Sat., 2, 2, 31: Unde datum hoc sentis, only sentis here is equivalent to censes (Jahn). On the interrogative with the Participle, see 3, 67. Unde datum, ‘Who allowed you?’ unde being = a quo. Comp. inde, 1, 126, and G., 613, R. 1; A., 48, 5.—tot subdite rebus: Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 7, 75: tune mihi dominus rerum imperiis hominumque | tot tantisque minor = ἥσσων = subditus.
125. an: ‘or’ (do you mean to say?) ‘what?’ See 1, 41.—relaxat: in a general sense. Exit Dama. Enter Impersonal Tu.
126. I puer: sample order of a sample master.—strigiles: A man might go to a common bath, but he would not like to use a common scraper (strigilis, ξύστρα). On the strigilis, see, if needful, the commentators on Juv., 3, 263.—Crispini: Perhaps the bath-keeper. The name is Horatian, Sat., 1, 2, 120, and elsewhere.
127. si increpuit: The slave loiters, the master scolds.—‘cessas nugator:’ Much more effective in the mouth of the master than as an apodosis to si increpuit, as Hermann has it, and Jahn (1868); though Schlüter’s remark, verba ‘cessas nugator?’ dominum, non philosophum decent, does not amount to much, when we consider that the philosopher is Persius himself. Nugator is used here of wasting time; but the use of nugari and its forms, which were often addressed to slaves, is wider, like the English ‘fool.’ So in Petron., 52, a boy lets a cup fall, and Trimalchio cries, ne sis nugax. With cessas comp. Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 14: semel hic cessavit. ‘What do you mean by this loitering, you dawdler, you?’—servitium acre: ‘the goad of bondage,’ as Conington suggests. Acre, from the same radical as aculeus.
128. nihil nec quicquam: G., 482, R. 3.
129. nervos: ‘wires.’ The figure of the puppet (sigillarium, ἄγαλμα νευρόσπαστον) as a favorite one with the Stoics, to judge by M. Antoninus, who uses it very often, e.g., σιγιλλάρια νευροσπαστούμενα, 7, 3; νευροσπαστια, 6, 28. Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 7, 80: tu mihi qui imperitas alii servis miser atque | duceris ut nervis alienis mobile lignum.—agitet: ‘There is nothing from without to set your wires going.’ Your masters are within.—iecore: See 1, 25.
130. domini: An immemorial figure. So Sophocles of Love. Di meliora, inquit, libenter vero istinc sicut a domino agresti ac furioso profugi, Cic., Cat. Mai., 14, 47.—qui: ‘how?’—exis = evadis. See 1, 46; 6, 60.
131. atque = quam. G., 311, R. 6.—hic = de quo loquimur. G., 290, 3.—metus erilis = metus eri. G., 360, R. 1; 363, R.; A., 50, 1, a. ‘If I be a master, where is my fear?’ Mal., 1, 6. The assumption of Hendiadys, ‘fear of the master’s whip,’ is unnecessary, and makes the passage less forcible.
132-191. The remainder of the Satire is taken up with descriptions of the ruling passions: Avarice (132-142), Luxury (143-160), Love (161-175), Ambition (176-179), Superstition (180-189). The language is lively and mimetic, and forcibly recalls the connection between comedy and satire.
132-160. Avarice finds you snoring, makes you get up, thrusts a bill of lading in your hand, cuts out work for you—not very honest work either—and chides you till she gets you to the ship. As you are about to embark, Luxury takes you aside, remonstrates with you, reminds you of the annoyances of a sea voyage. And all for what? The difference between five and eleven per cent. Why so greedy? ‘Life let us cherish.’ Enjoy it while you may. And so you are in a strait betwixt two. First you submit to one, then to the other master; and when you have once rebelled, you must not say, ‘I have broken my bonds.’ So a struggling hound may wrench away the staple, but drags the chain after it.
132. Mane stertis: a reminiscence of himself, 3, 3.
134. saperdam: Sing. for the Plur. Comp. mena, 3, 76. The saperda (σαπέρδης, κορακῖνος) was a cheap fish for salting. The best came from the Palus Maeotis (Sea of Azow, Balik-Denghis, or Fish-sea), where they were caught in vast quantities. ‘Salt herring.’—Ponto: a whence case.
135. castoreum, stuppas, hebenum, tus: A mere hodge-podge. Comp. Menand., fr. 720 (4, 279 Mein.): στυππεῖον, ἐλέφαντ᾽, οἶνον, αὐλαίαν, μύρον. The wares are mainly Eastern. Musk came from Pontus, ebony and frankincense from the Far East.—lubrica Coa: ‘slippery Coans,’ may be understood of ‘oily (or laxative) Coan wines,’ Hor., Sat., 2, 4, 29, or of ‘soft Coan vestments,’ which were little more than woven air, Hor., Od., 4, 13, 13. The use of Coa for ‘Coan robes’ is sustained by Ov., A. A., 2, 298: Coa decere puta, even if Hor., Sat., 1, 2, 101, be cavilled at, and the effect is droller.
136. recens primus piper: Recens, ‘fresh,’ ‘just in;’ primus, ‘forestall the market.’—ex sitiente camelo: The thirsty camel brings the scene before our eyes—comp. ante boves, 1, 74—and shows that the genuine Indian pepper is meant, the rugosum piper of v. 55. The camel must have come a long way to be thirsty (sitim quadriduo tolerat, Plin., H. N., 8, 18), but Madam Avarice will not let her slave wait until the camel has been unloaded and has had its drink.
137. verte aliquid; iura: Verte aliquid is said with impatience, and aliquid is to be urged. Comp. frange aliquid, 6, 32; dest aliquid, 6, 64; fodere aut arare aut aliquid ferre, Ter., Heaut., 1, 1, 17. ‘Do something or other in the way of trade.’ This obviates Jahn’s objection, who finds the expression tame after the preceding list, and prefers to make vertere = versuram facere, ‘borrow money’ (to pay debts), and to interpret iura of swearing out of the obligation. But the connection in which iura stands shows that it is professional, and hence dishonorable; and though verte aliquid is not necessarily immoral, observe that in English we add ‘honest’ to the phrase ‘turn a penny,’ if we wish to prevent a sinister interpretation, which is the interpretation here, as König remarks. As for the ‘tameness,’ mercare is ‘tame’ after vende animam lucro, 6, 75.
138. varo: or baro, ‘lout.’ This obscure word is entered by Vaniček (Etym. Wörterb., S. 36) under KAR (KVAR)—comp. varus, ‘crooked’—so that varo would be ‘a wrong-headed creature,’ ‘a perverse blockhead.’ The verb obvaro occurs in Ennius (Trag., 2 Vahl.), and varo (Subst.) would be a formation like cachinno (1, 12) and palpo (5, 176).—regustatum digito terebrare salinum: After the Greek proverb: ἁλίαν τρυπᾶν (of extreme poverty). Casaubon quotes, and every body after him, Apoll. Tyan., Ep., 7: ἐμοὶ δ᾽ εἴη τὴν ἁλιαν τρυπᾶν ἐν Θέμιδος οἴκῳ. ‘To taste and taste until you bore a hole with your finger in the salt-cellar.’ ‘To lick the platter clean.’—salinum: Only the most advanced philosophers professed to consider salt, which even the miser could not well dispense with (4, 30), as a luxury. So Thrasycles, in Luc., Tim., 56: ὄψον δὲ ἥδιστον θύμον ἢ κάρδαμον ἢ εἴ ποτε τρυφῴην ὀλίγον τῶν ἁλῶν.
139. perages: according to Casaubon, an imitation of the Gr. διάγειν. Warrant for the ellipsis of vitam or aetatem seems to be lacking. Some wish to read perges here, and combine it with terebrare. If so, the word perges must not be translated ‘continue’ τρυπῶν διατελεῖς, but ‘proceed.’ See the Dictionaries. There is no authority for making perages = perges.—vivere cum Iove: Madam Avarice is blasphemously familiar in her expressions. ‘To live on good terms with Jupiter.’
140. pellem: simply ‘a skin,’ which might serve as many purposes as a modern traveller’s shawl. Jahn interprets it as meaning a sort of packing cloth (segestre), and compares Petron., 102. This is much more likely than the pastoria pellis of Ov., Met., 2, 680, the βαίτη of Theocr., 3, 25, elsewhere called νάκος, 5, 2, ‘a peasant’s coat of raw hide.’—succinctus: ‘high girt,’ hence ‘equipped.’—oenophorum: ‘a wine case.’ Comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 6, 109: pueri lasanum portantes oenophorumque.
141. Ocius ad navem: It matters not who says this: ‘Off to the ship this instant.’ We are on the wharf, where such cries are in the air; but if we must assign them to somebody, they are best assigned to the master, who hurries the slaves on board.—quin: G., 551,1; A., 70, 4, g.—trabe vasta: ‘mammoth ship.’ The man’s greed is indicated by the size of the ship, as contrasted with the slenderness of his personal equipment. Vastum Aegaeum, another reading, would be an epithet wasted, a rare extravagance in Persius.
142. rapias: ‘scour.’ Casaubon comp. Stat., Theb., 5, 3: rapere campum. So Verg., Georg., 3, 103: campum | corripuere. The notion is that of devouring.—sollers: ‘artful’ (literally, all-art).
143. seductum: Comp. 2, 4; 6, 42.—quo deinde ruis? So Verg., Aen., 5, 741. Deinde, ‘next.’
144. quid tibi vis? Comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 2, 69. G., 351, R.; A., 51, 7, d.—calido: is proleptic. ‘Your breast is heated by a rising of potent bile.’—mascula = robusta (Jahn). Mascula bilis means bilis nigra, μελαγχολία. Conington compares the Greek use of ἀρσην as κτύπος ἄρσην, Soph., Phil., 1455. See 6, 4.
145. intumuit: Comp. 2, 14; 3, 8.—non exstinxerit: οὐκ ἂν σβέσειε. G., 629 (250); A., 60, 2, b.—urna: nearly three gallons, half an amphora.—cicutae: the remedy for madness from this cause, Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 53.
146. mare transilias: G., 251; A., 57, 6. Conington’s ‘skip across’ would hardly answer for Horace’s non tangenda rates | transiliunt vada, Od., 1, 3, 24. Tr. ‘vault over.’—torta cannabe: ‘Twisted hemp’ is ‘rope,’ but Persius probably means a ‘coil of rope.’—fulto: with tibi. Jahn quotes Juv., 3, 82: fultusque toro meliore recumbet. A coil of rope will be your cushion and a bench your table.
147. Veientanumque rubellum: The Veientana uva (Mart., 2, 53, 4) yielded a coarse red wine. Et Veientani bibitur faex crassa rubelli, Mart., 1, 103, 9. Not a happy stroke, as Teuffel has observed. A sea voyage does not involve bad wine.
148. vapida pice: ‘fusty pitch.’ Jars were pitched to preserve the wine.—laesum: ‘damaged.’—sessilis obba: ‘broad-bottomed jorum,’ ‘squab jug’ (Gifford). Obba is an obsolete word for a large drinking-cup. Conington’s ‘noggin’ does not hold enough.
149. quincunce: As an as a month is twelve per cent. per annum, so 5/12 as (quincunx) is five per cent., and deunx eleven.
150. nutrieras: We use ‘nursing’ in similar connections, but rather in the sense of ‘husbanding.’ The figure is an extension of the Greek τόκος. See Shaksp., M. of V., 1, 3, where the ‘breed for barren metal’ embodies an ancient prejudice. Comp. further Hor., Ep., 1, 18, 35: nummos alienos pascet.—nummi—pergant avidos sudare deunces: So Jahn (1843). ‘May go on to sweat out a greedy eleven per cent.’ Hermann edits: nummos—peragant avido sudore deunces, and so Jahn (1868). H. (L. P., II., 57) refers to bona peragere (6, 22), and says that the merchant, dissatisfied with his modest five per cent. which had increased his capital, goes in for eleven per cent., which gobbles it up, and has his sweat for his pains. On pergant, see note on v. 139; with sudare deunces comp. Verg., Ecl., 4, 30: sudabunt roscida mella.
151. indulge genio: See note on 2, 3.—nostrum est quod vivis: Variously interpreted. ‘Your real life is mine,’ i.e., ‘only that part of life which you bestow on me is life’ (Casaubon, and so, in effect, Jahn). ‘Your life belongs to me and you (nostrum answering to carpamus dulcia), not to any one else, such as Avarice, and it is all that we have’ (Conington). ‘It is all in our favor that you are alive’ (Pretor)—clearly wrong. There is an evident reminiscence of the Horatian quod spiro et placeo, si placeo, tuum est (Od., 4, 3, 24), which sustains Casaubon’s view.
152. cinis et manes et fabula fies: See note on 1, 36. There are clearly three stages, as Conington suggests: ‘first ashes, then a shade, then a name.’ With fabula fies comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 13, 9: fabula fias, and Od., 1, 4, 16: iam te premet nox fabulaeque manes.
153. vive memor leti: So Hor., Sat., 2, 6, 97.—hoc quod loquor inde est: ‘What I am saying—this speech of mine—is so much off, so much time lost.’ Comp. dum loquimur fugerit invida | aetas, Hor., Od., 1, 11, 7.
154. en quid agis? See 3, 5.—duplici hamo: ‘a couple of hooks.’ If hamo is a fish-hook, scinderis is a metaphor within a metaphor. ‘You are like a fish distracted by two hooks,’ not knowing which to bite at. Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 7, 74: occultum visus decurrere piscis ad hamum, and for scinderis, Verg., Aen., 2, 39: scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus. The executioner’s hook, which others understand, is generally uncus; Juv., 10, 66: Seianus ducitur unco.