155. sequeris: See note on 3, 5.—subeas oportet: G., 535, R. 1; A., 70, 3, f, R.

156. oberres: Gr. δραπετεύειν, ‘go at large’ (Pretor).

157-158. nec—dicas = neu dicas. See note on 1, 5.

159. nam et: (Don’t say so) ‘for.’ ‘Why, there’s the dog that, like you (et), breaks its fastening.’—luctata: ‘by a wrench.’—nodum: ‘is the knot by which the chain is fastened to the bar of the door, (sera). Comp. Prop., 4, 11, 25-6: Cerberus et nullas hodie petat improbus umbras, | sed iaceat tacita lapsa catena sera’ (Pretor).—et tamen: So Jahn (1868). At tamen, the reading of most MSS., can not stand, if Madvig is right in maintaining that at tamen always means ‘at least.’ Hermann’s ast tamen is well supported by MSS., and is more vigorous than et.

160. a collo: G., 388, R. 2; A., 42, 2.—pars longa catenae: The long chain hampers its flight, and makes it easier to catch. The comparison clearly suggests the next picture.

161-175. Persius, knowing little of love or liaison, goes to his Greek books for an example, and finds it, where it was not far to seek, in Menander’s Eunuch. Horace (Sat., 2, 3, 259 seqq.) follows Terence’s adaptation, Persius seems to have stuck to the original. Hence the dialogue is between Chaerestratus (Χαιρέστρατος), the young master, and Davus (Δᾶος), the confidential servant, and not between Phaedria and Parmeno, as in the Latin dramatist.

Ch. Davus, I’m going to put a stop to this sort of thing.—D. Thank Heaven for that!—Ch. But—I should not like to hurt her feelings. Do you think she’ll cry?—D. Well, if you talk that way, you had better not kick over the traces at all. She will give it to you soundly when she gets hold of you again, and she will get hold of you again as soon as she calls you. Don’t be making suppositions. Go back to her in no case.

A man who can make such a resolution and keep it—here is your free man, not the lictor’s whirligig.

161. Dave, cito: Observe how he jerks out the words between the gnawings.—credas iubeo: G., 546, R. 3.—finire dolores, etc.: From Hor., l.c. 263: an potius mediter finire dolores.

162. praeteritos: logically superfluous with finire, and yet not bad dramatically; ‘that I have been having, undergoing.’—crudum: predicative, ‘to the raw,’ to the quick.’ Comp. 1, 106: demorsos unguis.

163. adrodens: more natural than abrodens. ‘He is in meditation, not in despair’ (Hermann).—siccis: opp. to madidis, ebriis. ‘What! shall I be a standing disgrace in the way of my sober relations?’

164. rumore sinistro: ‘What? make myself the talk of all the scandal-mongers by squandering my estate?’

165. limen ad obscenum: ‘at a bawdy-house.’ See note on 1, 109. He puts the case strongly. Remember that he is shut out.—frangam: colloquial, ‘smash up,’ ‘make flinders of.’—Chrysidis: In Terence the lady’s name is Thais, not Chrysis.—udas: ‘dripping.’ With what? With perfumes (Lucr., 4, 1179), with wine (Hor., Od., 1, 7, 22), with tears (Ov., Am., 1, 6, 18), with rain (Hor., Od., 3, 10, 19), with the sweat of the commentators of Persius.

166. Comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 4, 51: ebrius et, magnum quod dedecus, ambulet ante | noctem cum facibus.—ante fores canto: Antique erotic literature is full of the caterwaulings of excluded lovers (παρακλαυσίθυρα).

167. puer: ‘Davus encourages his master, hence puer instead of Terence and Horace’s ere’ (Conington). ‘My young master’ gives the tone here, ‘my boy’ below.—sapias: ‘I do hope you are going to show your sense.’ Rather optative than imperative.—dis depellentibus: depulsoribus = dis averruncis. The Gr. is ἀποτρόπαιος, ἀπωσίκακος, ἀλεξίκακος. Comp. ἀποτρόποισι δαίμοσι, Aesch., Pers., 203 (quoted by Pretor).

169. Nugaris: ‘at your old nonsense, I see.’ See v. 127.—solea: The slipper was and is a matronly instrument of torture (Luc., D. D., 11, 1), and hence the fun of its application to grown-up men, as in the familiar story of Hercules and Omphalé, Luc., D. D., 13, 2. ‘To slipper’ would be understood as well in a modern nursery as βλαυτοῦν was in a Greek gynaikonitis. Philtra quibus valeat mentem vexare mariti | et solea pulsare natis, Juv., 6, 611-12.—obiurgabere: a terminus technicus. Petron., 34: colaphis objurgare puerum iussit.—rubra: A dramatic touch. This ‘No Goody Two Shoes’ wore the fashionable red slippers. Comp. the talon rouge of the last century.

170. ne trepidare velis = noli trepidare. ‘Pray don’t undertake to be restiff, to be plunging about.’ Chaerestratus is a wild beast in the toils. This suggests ferus, and then the metaphor is dropped, unless exieras, v. 174, be a remnant of it.

171. The distribution of what follows is not clear. Jahn and Hermann make Davus’s speech end with dicas, so that haud mora is the reply which the slave puts into the mouth of his master. ‘If she should call you, you would say: “Anon, anon, mistress.”’ Chaerestratus speaks the words from Quidnam to accedam, and Davus concludes with si totus—nec nunc. If Jahn’s view be adopted, I do not see how we are to reject the old conjecture ne tunc or nec tunc for the reading ne nunc, nec nunc, v. 174. According to Heinrich, followed by Macleane and Conington, haud mora is adverbial, and the words quidnam—accedam are attributed by Davus to Chaerestratus. ‘In Terence,’ says Conington, ‘the lover has received a summons before the scene begins, and he deliberates whether to obey it. In Persius he is trying to resolve under the pressure of disappointment, and even then can not make up his mind; so that his servant tells him that if he should be summoned back, he is pretty sure to entertain the question.’ I have followed Heinrich’s arrangement. Speech within speech is as characteristic of Persius as metaphor within metaphor.

172. nec nunc: So Jahn in his ed. of 1868. Ne nunc, his former reading, for ne nunc quidem, condemned by Madvig, has a doubtful support in Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 262, a clear support in Petron., 9, 47.—arcessat: So Jahn for arcessor, which is excessively harsh, by reason of the double change, person and mood, in supplicet.

174. si exieras: εἴ γ᾽ ἐξέβης. ‘If (as you pretend you did) you got away heart-whole and fancy-free, don’t go to her even now.’ Si with Pluperf. Ind. (not iterative) is not common, Cic., N. D., 2, 35, 90. Others read exieris.—nec nunc: sc. accedas.—hic, hic: The Adverb, as appears from in festuca. Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 17, 39: hic est aut nusquam quod quaerimus.

175. festuca: is generally explained as a synonyme for vindicta. Others refer it to the practice of throwing stubble on the manumitted slave, Plut., De Sera Num. Vind., p. 550 (Conington).—ineptus: ‘as if a lictor could make a man truly free!’ (Jahn).

176-179. Ambition’s Slave.

176. palpo: literally ‘patter, stroker,’ ‘softsawder-man,’ i.e., electioneerer. Another of the verba togae. See note on 1, 12. Palpo is explained by Io. Sarisberiensis (ap. Jahn) as ‘one who feels his way with the people;’ but this is not so simple nor so much in accordance with the use of palpare.—ducit hiantem: Comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 2, 88: emptorem inducat hiantem, where Bentley reads ducat on account of this passage. Also Verg., Georg., 2, 508: hunc plausus hiantem | corripuit, and Solon, 13, 36 (Bergk), χάσκοντες κούφαις ἐλπίσι τερπόμεθα.

177. cretata = candidata. Togas were chalked then, as belts are pipe-clayed now. The candidate naturally put on his best. ‘My Lady Canvass in holiday attire, in spotless white.’—vigila: ‘Be up early,’ in the same sense as our phrase, ‘You must get up early to do this or that.’ There is no special reference to the morning salutatio.—cicer: Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 182: in cicere atque faba bona tu perdasque lupinis, | latus ut in circo spatiere et aeneus ut stes. The vetch was a vulgar vegetable.

178. nostra: nobis aedilibus celebrata (Jahn). On the ironical First Person, see 3, 3.—Floralia: See the Dictionaries.

179. aprici = apricantes. See 4, 18. 19. To ‘love to live i’ th’ sun’ (Shaksp.) is common to the feebleness of age and the luxury of youth, 4, 33.—quid pulchrius: Snatch of the old men’s chat (Hermann). Ironical comment of Persius (Jahn). The former is more in Persius’s manner.

at: An abrupt transition to the Thraldom of Superstition (180-188). Whether the slave of superstition is identical with the slave of ambition or not is not certain—probably not.

180. Herodis—dies: Probably Herod’s birthday, celebrated by the sect of the Herodians. Persius takes Herod as the most familiar Jewish personage to indicate Jewish superstition. On the spread of Judaism in the Roman Empire, see Friedländer, Sittengesch., 3, 489.—uncta fenestra: The ‘window’ is ‘greasy’ from the oil-lamps.

181. lucernae: Those who wish illustrations for what they can see with their own eyes, may consult Friedländer, l.c. 1, 292. The lights remind one of the Feast of Tabernacles.

182. violas: Comp. Juv., 12, 90: omnis violae iactabo colores. The violet may be our violet or the pansy (viola bicolor).—rubrumque amplexa catinum: The tunny is so large that it embraces the dish, and is not embraced by it. Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 4, 77: angustoque vagos piscis urgere catino. Rubrum, the common color of pottery.

183. cauda thynni: The tunny has a large tail, hence some such adjective as ‘taily’ is desiderated. Comp. note on 6, 10.—natat: Makes fun of the fish’s swimming in the circumstances.—tumet: ‘bulges.’ The big belly of the jar looks as if it were ‘swollen’ with wine.

184. labra movet tacitus: Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 16, 60: labra movet, metuens audiri (of a prayer to Laverna). A recondite allusion to the secret prayer of the Jews is unlikely.—recutita sabbata = recutitorum sabbata. Comp. Ov., Rem. Am., 219, 220: nec te peregrina morentur | sabbata.—palles = pallidus times. G., 329, R. 1; A., 52, 1, a. Comp. our English ‘blanch’ or ‘blench.’

185. tum: As soon as the man has got over his Jewish fright he is assailed by other superstitions.—lemures: ‘hobgoblins.’ See note on 2, 3. Comp. Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 208: somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas, | nocturnos lemures, portentaque Thessala rides?ovoque pericula rupto: The Schol. refers these words to the Gr. ᾠοσκοπική (Jahn). ‘The priests used to put eggs on the fire, and observe whether the moisture came out from the side or the top, the bursting of the egg being considered a very dangerous sign.’ So Conington, after the Scholiast. Lemures and pericula have no strict grammatical connection. Some supply timentur out of palles, others connect with incussere by Zeugma.

186. grandes galli: Juvenal’s ingens | semivir (6, 512). The peculiar worship of Cybelé had long been familiar to the Romans.—sistro: The σεῖστρον, or ‘timbrel,’ was peculiar to the service of Isis, which had been imported more recently. On its significance, see Plut., De Isid. et Osir., p. 376. The vibratory theory of life, with its perpetual sensuous unrest, is no novelty, as some of its eloquent advocates seem to think.—lusca: Why lusca? The priestess is supposed to have been struck blind by Isis, who visited offenders in that way. Comp. Ov., Ep. ex P., 1, 1, 53, and Juv., 13, 93: Isis et irato feriat mea lumina sistro. One homely explanation is that the priestess, being one-eyed, had betaken herself to religion in despair of a husband! (Schol.)

187. incussere: Gr. Aorist. Comp. 3, 101. The expression, ‘strike the gods into you,’ after the analogy of incutere metum, terrorem, is the other side of Vergil’s famous magnum si pectore postit | excussisse deum (Aen., 6, 78).—inflantis: ‘who have a way of swelling.’ Compare the use of depellentibus for depulsoribus, v. 167. See G., 439.

188. praedictum: ‘prescribed.’—alli: The superstitious usage here referred to has not yet been paralleled.

189-91. Last scene of all. Horse-laughter of the muscular military.

189. Dixeris—ridet = si dixeris—ridet. Comp. v. 78.—varicosos: Comp. Juv., 6, 397: varicosus fiet haruspex (from long-standing). Varicose veins would naturally be common with men who were as much on their legs as the soldiers of that day. But as varicare means to stand or walk, as if one had varices, ‘to straddle’ (Quint., 11, 3, 125), and as vāricus means ‘straddling’ (Ov., A. A., 3, 304), it seems better to translate varicosos ‘straddling’ here, always remembering the origin. With the change of quantity, comp. văcillo and vācillo (vaccillo), Lachm., Lucret., p. 37.—centurionum: See note on 3, 77.

190. crassum ridet: Comp. subrisit molle, 3, 110.—Pulfennius: Jahn’s last. The name is variously written. Notice a similar trouble about a hircosus centurio in Caes., B. G., 5. 44, once Pulfio, now Pulio. Heinrich recognizes a fellow-countryman in Vulfennius (Wulfen).—ingens: Comp. torosa inventus, 3, 86; caloni alto, 5, 95.

191. Graecos: Comp. doctores Graios, 6, 38.—curto: ‘clipped.’—licetur: A similar notion is worked out with admirable humor in Lucian’s Vitarum Auctio.


SIXTH SATIRE.

The Sixth Satire is addressed to Caesius Bassus, a friend of Persius. The theme of it is the Proper Use of the Goods of this Life, which takes the personal form of a vindication of the poet’s course in preferring moderate enjoyment to mean parsimony or grasping avarice.

Argument.—Are you by this time snugly ensconced by your Sabine fire? And do the chords of your lyre wake to life at your vigorous touch? O cunning craftsman! in whose song the noble tongue of our sires is set to manly music, while young and old alike feel the play of your sportive wit, which in all its sport never forgets the gentleman (1-6).

While you are yonder, I am in my dear Liguria, where the coast is warm, the sea is wintry but kindly, the rocks bar out the storm, and the shore retreats far inland.

‘Luna’s port—’tis well worth while, good people, to know it.’

This was a saying of Ennius, as he woke up in his senses from his Pythagorean dreams and became plain Quintus, instead of the ‘blind old man of Scio’s rocky isle,’ and a wise saying of that hearty old cock it was (7-11).

Well, here I am, caring nothing for the rabble rout, caring nothing what an ill wind may be getting up for my flock. My neighbor may have a better patch of ground, men of lower birth may be growing rich over me. I will not fret myself into a crooked old man for that, nor dine without a bit of something nice, nor nose out a swindle in the imperfect seal of a flagon of flat wine (12-17).

How men differ in such matters! The very same horoscope may bring forth rights and lefts. Here is one that even on his birthday allows himself only the scantiest and meanest fare. Here is another that eats up, like a spirited lad as he is, a vast estate. For my part, ‘Enjoyment, enjoyment,’ is my motto, although I do not intend to treat my freedmen to turbots, and do not understand the difference between cock-ortolan and hen-ortolan after they are cooked (18-24).

Now this is the way to live, I take it. Up to your harvest, up to the last grain of your garners. What are you afraid of? It is a mere matter of harrowing, and lo! another crop is there (25, 26).

But you say, Mr. Critic, ‘There are claims on one. A friend is shipwrecked, the poor fellow is utterly ruined. One must do something for him.’

Well and good! Sell a piece of land, give the proceeds to the needy friend, and keep him from begging up and down with a pictorial appeal to the benevolent (27-33).

Ay, but what of the heir? He will dock the funeral meats, if you dock the estate. One, sure, would not be stenchful when one’s dead, and your bones will not be perfumed, or the perfumes will be stale or adulterated. One can not expect to diminish one’s property without paying for it. Why, I heard Bestius say of your Greek teachers, from whom you learned this precious wisdom of yours, that ever since this new doctrine came to town the very haymakers have been spoiling their good, wholesome fare by rancid grease.

Well, what of all this—the heir’s neglect and Bestius’s fault-finding—would you fear them beyond the grave? (34-41).

But come, my heir, let us dismiss the critic, and have a quiet chat together. Consider the claims on me. Here comes a glorious piece of news from the Emperor. The Germans have been defeated with great slaughter. A grand triumph is preparing. This is no time to hold back. I am going to bring out a hundred pairs of gladiators in honor of the occasion. Forbid it, if you dare. If you don’t like that, I am going to give largess to the people—none of your vile vetches, but oil and pasties. Do you object? Out with it (42-51).

What do you say? ‘My farm is hardly worth having after that.’ Well, if you don’t want it, I can get some of the women to take it; and if there is none of them left, I can go to the next village, and Hodge will accept. ‘A son of earth?’ you say; ‘a nobody?’ Pshaw! If you come to that, I can just remember who my great-great-grandfather was. Two generations further back and I come to a son of earth, a nobody, and Hodge is a relation—a distant relation, but still a relation—a kind of great-great-uncle. Believe me, the Lord No Zoo is father of us all (52-60).

You are an impatient heir, I must say. Why can’t you wait for my shoes until I take them off? I am the God of Fortune to you, just as he is painted in the pictures, with a purse in his hand. Will you take what I leave, and be glad to get it? It falls short; I know it does. But if I have lessened it, it is for myself that I have lessened it, and what is left is all yours. Don’t stop to ask about that old legacy, and serve up a stale dish of fatherly advice. I know how fathers talk. ‘Credit yourself by the interest. Debit yourself by the expenses. What is the remainder?’ Remainder? Fudge! Souse the cabbage, boy. Don’t spare the oil. Am I to dine off cow-heel and turnips on a holiday, that your graceless grandson may stuff himself with pâté de foie gras, and indulge himself in aristocratic connections? Am I to go through the eye of a cambric needle that he may have a priestly paunch? (61-74).

Furthermore, if you are not content with the little that I can leave you, sell your life for gain. Try every trade. Try every nook and corner of the earth. Go to Cappadocia, for instance, where you can make something by dealing in slaves, and become an adept in that dainty business. Double your capital. ‘I have done so. Nay, I have trebled it, quadrupled it, decupled it. Tell me where to draw the line.’ Tell you where to draw the line? Why, Chrysippus himself could not find the limit between wealth and poverty. A dollar more does not make a man rich, a dollar less does not make him poor. Where is the turning-point? And yet this man talks as if the turning-point had been found! (75-80.)


The Sixth Satire is the most obscure and unsatisfactory of the poems of Persius, and baffled interpreters have taken refuge in the hypothesis that the Satire is incomplete. The roughness of the metre and the harshness of the transitions favor this view; but parts are wrought out with all the minuteness of detail that is characteristic of our author’s style, and some of the highest authorities, such as Jahn, consider the Satire complete. The close, as Mr. Pretor remarks, is exactly in Persius’s manner, and we must look elsewhere in the Satire for the breaks—if breaks there be.

1-11. Are you spending the winter on your Sabine farm, Bassus, and have you resumed your poetry? I am in my Ligurian resort, so praised by Ennius.

1. iam: in the question implies uncertainty, ‘actually?’ ‘so?’—bruma = brevuma = brevissuma (dies), ‘the shortest day,’ ‘winter-solstice,’ ‘midwinter.’—foco: contrast between the fireside of the land of the Sabines and the open-air warmth of Liguria.—Basse: ‘Caesius Bassus, one of the intimate friends of Persius, was deputed by Cornutus to edit his Satires after his death. He is classed with Horace, as a lyric poet, by Quintilian (10, 1, 96), who, however, thinks him inferior to some of his own contemporaries, and he is probably the same with the author of a treatise on Metres, which is referred to by various grammarians, and still exists in an interpolated epitome, but different from Gabius or Gavius Bassus, who wrote works on the origin and signification of words and on the gods. Bassus was killed, according to the Scholiast, in the famous eruption of Vesuvius’ (Conington, after Jahn). See also v. 5.—Sabino: The simplicity of the Sabines has already been noted (see 1, 20), and Jahn thinks that the life about the fireside (Verg., Georg., 2, 532) is an indication of the primitive tastes of Bassus and his family. Sabino also prepares the way for tetrico (below). Comp. tetrica ac tristis disciplina Sabinorum, Liv., 1, 18 (quoted by Jahn).

2. tetrico: ‘austere.’—vivunt: Persius was thinking of Horace’s vivuntque commissi calores | Aeoliae fidibus puellae, Od., 4, 9, 11. 12. Iam vivunt, ‘wake to life’ (Pretor), where ‘wake’ represents iam. See note on 5, 33.

3. mire: is an Adjective or an Adverb, according as opifex is a Substantive or an Adjective.—opifex: Commentators supply es, but the Nom. can be used in characteristic exclamation. See G., 340, R. 1, and comp. 1, 5. With opifex intendisse comp. Prol., 11, and egregius lusispe below. For the Perf., see 1, 41, note.—veterum primordia vocum: Perhaps ‘the racy richness of our early tongue.’ Lucr. (4, 531) uses primordia vocum of the beginnings of articulate sound, as Quint., 1, 9, 1, uses dicendi primordia of instruction in the rudimentary preparation for rhetoric. Bassus, as the whole context shows, affected to belong to the antiquiores homines, and imitated the diction of an earlier time. Persius belongs to a different school of art, and his friendship makes him guarded. Jahn understands a grammatical poem, of which Lucilius furnishes a familiar example in his Ninth Book (see L. Müller’s Lucilius, p. 221), but, as Pretor remarks, numeris—marem strepitum fidis intendisse Latinae indicates lyric poetry.

4. marem strepitum: like ἄρρην φθόγγος. Comp. Hor., A. P., 402: mares animos.—fidis Latinae: Stress is to be laid on Latinae. Persius himself is intensely Latin in his vocabulary.—intendisse:Verg., Aen., 9, 774, speaks of stringing the numbers on the chords; Persius goes further [and fares worse], and talks of stringing sounds on the numbers’ (Conington).

5. mox: points to another side of Bassus’s poetry, the non-lyrical, probably satires, for one Bassus in satyris, mentioned by Fulgentius (ap. Jahn), is most likely our man, despite Jahn’s objections.—iocis: Heinrich, ex coni. The passage is a very difficult one. The interpretation turns on the two words, iocos (or iocis), senes (or senex), as the reading egregios for egregius may be discarded.

(1.) Jahn reads in both editions (1843 and 1868) iocos and senes.

(2.) Hermann’s senex, the reading of Montepess., was enthusiastically advocated by Hermann himself.

(3.) Heinrich’s iocis has the merit of making a perfectly clear sense, and is accepted by Mr. Pretor.

(1.) If we read iocos with the MSS., iuvenes must be considered an Adjective, and iuvenes iocos = iuvenilis iocos. This almost compels us to make senes an Adjective also, and the following translation may be given: ‘Rare genius for carrying on the frolics of youth [in song], and for giving play with virtuous skill to the jests of the aged.’

(2.) Hermann’s reading labors under the difficulty of requiring us to understand senex of Bassus, who was not an old man at the time; but compare the note on praegrandi sene, 1, 124. Notice also the want of balance in the absolute lusisse. ‘Then showing yourself excellent in your old age at wakening young loves and frolicking over the chords with a virtuous touch’ (Conington). Iocus is often used of love. Comp. Catull., 8, 6: ibi illa multa tum iocosa fiebant.

(3.) Heinrich’s iocis gives us, ‘Rarely skilled to rally the young with jibe and jest and have a fling at old sinners, but all in high-bred style.’ Pollice honesto is the ingenuo ludo of 5, 16. Comp. also 2, 74: generoso honesto; and the honesta oratio of Ter., Andr., 1, 1, 114: quae opponitur plebeiae, as Gesner says, s.v. It is hardly necessary to say that the English language has no synonyme for honestus, which embraces the goodly outside as well as the pure heart.

Mr. Conington translates Hermann’s text and comments on Jahn’s. Lusisse senes he understands as amavisse senili more, the poet being said to do the deed he writes about, Verg., Ecl., 9, 19. It would be far more simple to make iocos senes = amores senilis, harsh as that would be. Old men’s philanderings are fair game for the satirist or comic poet to have his fling at (lusisse). Turpe senilis amor, as the master says, Ov., Am., 1, 9, 4. Compare the Casina of Plautus.—pollice: the cithern being played chiefly with the thumb.

6. lusisse: Comp. scit risisse, 1, 132.—mihi: The step-father of Persius probably had a seat there.

7. intepet: The warmth of the coast made it a favorite resort for invalids. It is not unlikely that Persius was a man of delicate constitution.—hibernat: According to some, ‘my sea winters,’ that is, ‘rests for the winter,’ is not vexed by the keels of ships (Schol.). According to others, ‘is wintry,’ like hiemat (the more common word in this sense). A stormy sea was supposed to lash itself warm. Jahn quotes, among other passages, Cic., N. D., 2, 10, 26: maria agitata ventis tepescunt.—meum: ‘my sea,’ ‘my favorite haunt.’ Some have inferred falsely from this passage that Luna was the birthplace of Persius.

8. latus dant: ‘present their giant side,’ ‘interpose a mighty barrier’ against the winds. Jahn comp. Verg., Aen., 1, 105: undis dat latus.—valle = sinu. The Abl. of manner may be translated locally; ‘into a deep bay’ (Conington).—se receptat: ‘retreats,’ ‘retires’ from the storms. So Horace (Od., 1, 17, 17; Epod., 2, 11) speaks of a reducta vallis. Jahn refers the frequentative to the windings of the bay. ‘Keeps retreating,’ ‘retreats further and further,’ might very well be said from the traveller’s point of view. The description of the harbor, now the Gulf of Spezia, is said to be very accurate.

9. Lunai portum, etc.: Ennius, Ann., v. 16 (Vahl.). Luna, from which the harbor took its name, was not on the gulf, but on the eastern side of the Macra (Magra), near the modern Sarzana.—est operae: Commonly explained by the ellipsis of pretium. But the Gen. is very elastic.—cognoscite: is easier in tone, cognoscere is easier for translation. cives: ‘good people all.’ Ger. Leutlein. Jahn notices the antiqua gramtas of civis.

10. cor Enni: Comp. re-cor-dor and cor-datus, and our ‘get by heart.’ So credidit meum cor, Enn., Ann., 374 (Vahl.). See Mart., 3, 26, 4; 11, 84, 17. The expression is little more than cordatus Ennius, as in the familiar passage, tergemini vis Geryonaï, Lucr., 5, 28. So corpore Turni, Verg., Aen., 7, 650; Greek, βία, ἴς, δέμας, στόμα (Ἀνύτης στόμα, Anthol. P., 9, 26, 3). On the same principle are based such combinations as mens provida Reguli, Hor., Od., 3, 5, 13, and venit et Crispi iucunda senectus. Juv., 4, 81, and Montani quoque venter adest, l.c. 107. ‘Ennius, in his sober moments’ (Gifford).—destertuit: On the Tense, see G., 563; A., 62, 2, a. ‘Snored off his being,’ i.e., the dream that he was Homer. Ennius’s dreams are touched up in Prol., 2, where it has been mentioned that Ennius dreamed that he had seen Homer. For the further visions, see the citations in Vahlen’s ed. of Ennius, Ann., v. 15.

11. Maeonides: poetic ‘flash-name,’ like the ‘Bard of Avon.’—Quintus: ‘plain Quintus’ (Gifford). The Scholiast fancies that quintus is a numeral, and gives the following order of transmigrations: 1. Pythagoras; 2. A peacock; 3. Euphorbus; 4. Homer. Tertullian gives: 1. Euphorbus; 2. Pythagoras; 3. Homer; 4. A peacock. The pun would be a wretched one, but that is no objection; more serious is the wrong use of the Preposition ex for ab. Heinrich combines confidently Maeonides Quintus, ‘Homer with a Roman praenomen.’ Conington follows doubtingly.—pavone: Memini me fiere pavum, Enn., Ann., v. 15 (Vahl.).—Pythagoreo: ‘Since Pythagoras’ time that I was an Irish rat,’ Shaksp.

12-17. Here I am in happy unconcern, caring naught for vulgar herd or threatened flock. I do not pine because my neighbor waxes fat. Let who will get up in the world; I won’t let my hair turn gray for that, nor stint myself, nor poke my nose into the wax of every jar of wine I open to see whether somebody has not been tampering with the seal.

12. securus: with Gen., Verg., Aen., 1, 350; 10, 326.—quid praeparet auster: Jahn comp. quid cogitet umidus auster, Verg., Georg., 1, 462; and 444: arboribusque satisque Notus pecorique sinister.

13. infelix: with Dat. Verg., Georg., 2, 239: tellusinfelix frugibus, quoted by Conington.—pecori: as it were, doubly dependent.—securus et: The trajection of et (1, 23) gives securus a better position.—angulus: as in O si angulus ille | proximus accedat, Hor., Sat., 2, 6, 8.

14. pinguior: Jahn quotes appositely for the thought, fertilior seges est alienis semper in agris, Ov., A. A., 1, 349. So Juv., 14, 142: maiorque videtur | et melior vicina seges.—adeo omnes: The emphasis of adeo may be given by repetition, all, ay, all. The supposition is an extreme one, hence the Subjunctive ditescant. Notice the harsh elision at this point, which is avoided by smoother writers. Persius has it fourteen times in all—eight times in this one Satire—which may be interpreted as an indication of its incompleteness.

15. peioribus: Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 6, 22: peioribus ortus. The social sense is the more prominent.—usque = ubi-s-que, ‘no matter where or when,’ hence ‘every where,’ and, as here, ‘always.’

16. curvus: ‘bent double.’—minui: ‘lose flesh’ (Conington).—senio: before my time. Comp. 1, 26.—uncto: synonymous with ‘dainty.’ Jahn comp. Hor., A. P., 422, and 3, 102; 4, 17.

17. signum tetigisse: Only good wines were sealed. The miser not only seals up his vile stuff, but, in his anxious scrutiny into the state of the seal, butts his nose against it—perhaps with the additional idea of helping the sense of sight with the sense of smell. Recusem tetigisse = nolim tetigisse. Comp. note on 1, 91.

18-24. Others may not agree with me in these views. Even twins born under the same star may be widely different. One gives himself a treat only on his birthday, and a poor treat it is. Another devours his substance before he comes of age. I am for enjoyment, but not for waste; for enjoyment, but not for a subtle discernment of the pleasures of the table.

18. his: On the Dat., see G., 388, R. 1; A., 51, 2, g. His is Neuter. ‘These views of mine.’—geminos: Comp. Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 183 seqq.—horoscope: ‘natal star,’ ‘star of nativity.’ Comp. note on 5, 46.—varo genio: ‘of diverging temper.’ Varus is often used of distorted, bowed legs, and varo genio is only Persius’s way of saying that the dispositions of twins often go apart.

19. producis: ‘bring forth,’ ‘give birth to,’ ‘beget,’ Plaut., Rud., 4, 4, 129; Prop., 5, 1, 89 (Conington). Jahn renders it in lucem edit et educat, which is more in conformity with general usage and with the notion of control in the star of nativity.—solis natalibus: This picture has been much admired. Every word tells. This high-day comes but once a year (solis), the cabbage is dry (sine uncto), he does not souse it with oil, as Persius does (ungue, puer, caules, v. 69), but moistens it (tingat) with fish brine (muria), which he has bought—sly fox that he is (vafer)—in a cup (a cupful at a time, to prevent waste), while, with his own hand (ipse)—for he trusts no other—he dusts (inrorans) the platter with the dear, precious pepper, sacred in his eyes (sacrum).

20. muria: was a cheap sauce, ‘made of the thynnus, and less delicate than garum, made of the scomber’ (Macleane); hence the point of buying it only as he wanted it—a small quantity at a time.—empta: Both Conington and Pretor direct us to combine empta with muria. It can not be combined with any thing else, as calice is rigidly masculine, Neue, Formenl., 1, 691.

21. sacrum: Acerbe dictum quia avarus tamquam sacro parcit (Jahn). Jahn compares ἅλς θεῖος, but has not overlooked the real point, as Mr. Pretor intimates.—inrorans: Comp. instillat in a similar description of a miser (Avidienus), in Hor., Sat., 2, 2, 62.—dente peragit: ‘gobbles up’ (Conington). Peragere, ‘go through,’ ‘run through.’

22. magnanimus: Ironical, like Hor., Ep., 1, 15, 27: rebus maternis atque paternis | fortiter absumptis. ‘High-hearted hero.’—puer: while a mere lad. ‘Gifford notices the rapidity of the metre, and contrasts it with the slowness of v. 20.’ It would have been more to the purpose if he had noticed the mockery of the position, which suspends the sense. ‘He—his property—with nothing but his teeth—his vast estate—heroic being—runs through—while nothing but a boy.’

23. rhombos: It suffices to refer to Juv., Sat., 4.—ponere: 1, 53. For the construction, see Prol., 11.

24. tenuis—salivas: ‘delicate juices,’ ‘subtle flavors.’ Saliva = sapor, as in Plin., H. N., 22, 1, 22: sua cuique vino saliva, by a natural transfer from the consumer to the consumed; or, as Conington puts it, from effect to cause. See 5, 112.—sollers nosse: Prol., 11.—turdarum: ‘thrushes,’ ‘fieldfares,’ a well-known delicacy, Hor., Sat., 2, 5, 10; Ep., 1, 15, 41. The Scholiast tells us that the feminine is used for the ordinary masculine, because the Brillat-Savarins of the period undertook to tell the sex by the taste. The difference between turdorum and turdarum reminds one of ‘calipash’ and ‘calipee.’

25-33. The true course is to live fully up to your income and trust to the next crop. ‘But suppose an extraordinary demand is made on you. Suppose a friend is shipwrecked.’ What easier than to sell a piece of land and relieve his wants?

25. tenus: here ‘fully up to.’ Jahn makes tenus an Adverb, compares Verg., Aen., 1, 737: summo tenus attigit ore, and explains messe propria vive as = consume fructus agrorum tuorum usque ad finem, quoad suppetunt.—propria: ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?’

26. emole: to the last grain.—occa: Comp. Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 161: cum segetes occat tibi mox frumenta daturas.—in herba: ‘in the blade.’ Ov., Her., 17, 263: adhuc tua messis in herba est. Have something of the farmer’s hopeful spirit. Comp. the Gr. proverb: ἀεὶ γεωργὸς εἰς νέωτα πλούσιος.

27. ast: 2, 39. An impersonal objector speaks.—officium = τὸ καθῆκον, which embraces our charity. The Stoics insisted on χρηστότης, without prejudice to ἀπάθεια. They wanted benevolentia without misericordia. See Knickenberg, l.c. p. 90. The poet gets the better of the philosopher in Persius.trabe rupta: Comp. 1, 89.—Bruttia saxa: In the toe of the Italian boot.

28. prendit: Casaubon comp. prensantemque uncis manibus capita aspera montis, Verg., Aen., 6, 360 (of Palinurus).—surdaque vota: Surdus is ‘dull of hearing’ and ‘dull of sound,’ ‘deaf,’ and, as here, ‘unheard,’ Comp. κωφός, The radical is SVAR, ‘heavy;’ ‘neither his ear heavy that it can not hear.’

29. Ionio: sc. sinu, if we may judge by Juv., 6, 92: lateque sonantem pertulit Ionium. Gr. Ἰόνιος κόλπος. Comp. Thuc., 1, 24 with 6, 30. It is used here in a wide sense, as is shown by Bruttia saxa, v. 27. Comp. Serv. ad Aen., 3, 211: sciendum Ionium sinum esse immensum ab Ionia usque ad Siciliam. On the translation and construction of Ionio, see note on Prol., 1.—ipse: the master of the vessel. G., 297, R. 1.

30. de puppe dii: Paintings of the gods. Comp. Verg., Aen., 10, 171: aurato fulgebat Apolline puppis. The gods may have been Castor and Pollux, no unlikely ‘sign,’ Acts, 28, 11. Ingentes implies the size of the ship and the magnitude of the loss (Jahn). See note on trabe vasta, 5, 141.—obvia mergis: Jahn comp. Hor., Epod., 10, 21: opima quod si praeda eurvo litore | porrecta mergos iuveris. Any large sea-bird will answer, such as ‘cormorant.’

31. lacerae: Conington comp. Ov., Her., 2, 45: at laceras etiam puppes furiosa refeci.—et: καί, ‘if need be.’—caespite vivo: Comp. Hor., Od., 1, 19, 13; 3, 8, 4; ‘live sod,’ ‘green turf.’ Here landed property is meant, in contrast to the income, represented by the messis.

32. pictus: See note on 1, 89. ‘With his picture’ (Conington).—oberret: ‘go up and down the country.’—tabula caerulea: ‘a sea-green board,’ as might be expected from the subject.

33-41. ‘But,’ resumes the interlocutor, ‘your heir will object to your curtailing your property, and not show you the proper respect when you are dead. You can’t expect to diminish your property without scath. And, in fact, you philosophers are very much spoken against on account of the bad example you set, the bad influence you have exerted on the common people.’—Well, what of it? Would you care any thing about what was done to you or said of you after you are dead?

The connection is much disputed.

33. cenam funeris: the epulum funebre, the ‘funeral baked meats’ of Hamlet, not the silicernium proper, not the exigua feralis cena patella of Juv., 5, 85, the scanty meal left at the funeral pile for the dis manibus.

34. curtaveris: G., 542; A., 70, 5, b.—urnae: Do not efface the personal conception (G., 344, R. 3; A., 51, N.) by translating ‘put into.’ The urn receives; hence dabit = ‘commit,’ ‘consign.’

35. inodora: Ov., Trist., 3, 3, 69: atque ea (= ossa) cum foliis et amomi pulvere misce; Tib., 3, 2, 23 (Jahn).—seu spirent: 5, 3.—cinnama—casiae: On the Plural, see G., 195, R. 6; A., 14, 1, a.—surdum: ‘faint,’ a transfer from hearing to smell. On the construction, see 5, 25.

36. ceraso: This passage is our only authority for the fraudulent admixture. Tr., ‘whether the cinnamon have lost the fragrance of its breath, or cassia be taken in adulteration with cherry-bark.’—nescire puratus: here ‘fully resolved,’ rather than as in 1, 132.

37. tune bona incolumis minuas: In his ed. of 1868 Jahn has followed Sinner’s suggestion, and transposed parts of vv. 37 and 41, so as to read Haec cinere ulterior metuas here, and Tune bona incolumis minuas below, as Hermann had done before him, only Hermann puts the words in the mouth, not of the objector, but of Persius. I am unable to see how either arrangement helps us out of the difficulties of the passage. In his ed. of 1843, Jahn makes tune bona incolumis minuas? the language of the heir, who asks angrily, ‘Do you expect to diminish your property without suffering for it?’ It is rather the language of the objector, who had just told Persius that he would miss a good funeral by curtailing his estate, and who goes on to cite Bestius, as another opponent of this new-fangled philosophy. Persius dismisses this tirade by the single question: ‘What would all this be to you or me after we are dead?’ This gets rid of Bestius as a new speaker. He is quoted by the objector. Mr. Pretor translates: ‘Do you mean to say, Persius, that you would thus break up your property, while hearty and strong, instead of waiting to bequeath it by will on your death-bed?’—incolumis: χαίρων, impune.—et: Others besides the heir are dissatisfied.—Bestius: the corrector Bestius of Hor., Ep., 1, 15, 37, who is quoted here by the opponent of Persius, as inveighing against doctrines that have taught the lower classes to waste their substance on condiments and spoil their wholesome fare, after the pattern of such gentlemen as Persius. Comp. usque recusem—cenare sine uncto, v. 16, and ungue, puer, caules, v. 69.

38. doctores Graios: Comp. 5, 191.—Ita fit: ‘That is the way of it.’—sapere nostrum: 1, 9.—urbi: with venit. Venire with the Dat., like the Greek ἐλθεῖν, on account of the personal interest involved, ‘came’ being = ‘was brought,’ allatum est. See Kühner, A. G., 2, 351, and Weissenborn on Liv., 32, 6, 4.

39. cum pipere et palmis: notoriously foreign productions. Comp. advectus Romam quo pruna et cottona vento, Juv., 3, 83. Palmis = ‘dates.’—nostrum hoc: ‘this new wisdom of our day.’—maris expers: Hor., Sat., 2, 8, 15: Chium maris expers. The explanations are by no means convincing. Maris expers. (1) Not mixed with salt water, which was supposed to be wholesome, as in Horace, l.c. (2) insulum, Heinr., the most simple, ‘foolish philosophy,’ ‘insipid sapience.’ (3) Devoid of manliness (Casaubon). Comp. 1, 103, 104, in which case maris would be a pun, as there is an evident Horatian reminiscence. See Introd., xxiii. But the Horatian passage is itself variously interpreted. (4) The rendering, ‘innocent of the sea,’ i.e., ‘home-grown,’ is in manifest contradiction to the drift of the passage.

40. fenisecae: Type of the rustic laborer. Comp. fossor, 5, 122. Fenisecae, the plebeian spelling for faenisecae, seems more appropriate here.—crasso unguine: They can not get a good article, but they are determined to imitate their betters, and so they take a poor one. With crasso unguine comp. 3, 104: crassis amomis.—vitiarunt pultes: On vitiarunt comp. 2, 65; puls is the national porridge, the farrata olla of 4, 31.

41. cinere ulterior: ‘when you are the other side of the grave’ (comp. 5, 152); περαιτέρω κόνεως (Casaubon).

41-60. Persius turns on his heir: ‘Glorious news has come of a great victory. I wish to celebrate it by games—by largess. Will you forbid it? If you don’t want what is left, let it alone. I can get somebody to take it—some beggar, perhaps, related to me through that son of earth, Adam.’

42. quisquis eris: does not so much show ‘the indifference of Persius himself’ to his successor as the utter lack of real personality in the Satire. See note on 1, 44.—seductior: Comp. 2, 4. Paulum with seductior. Comp. Petron., 13: seduxit me paululum a turba; and Plaut., Asin., 5, 2, 75; Ter., Eun., 4, 4, 39. The Accusative with the Comparative is rare but sure, Dräger, l.c. § 245, b; for examples with paulum, Sil., 15, 21; Stat., Theb., 10, 938 (Freund).

43. o bone, etc.: The only passage in Persius that deals with the political life of his time, the only passage that has any historic force. A keen observer in his narrow sphere, Persius has hit off very happily the features of this droll triumph of Caligula’s. True, he was only seven years old when it took place; but he lost his father when he was six, and yet recalls him vividly, and this parade must have made an abiding impression, whether he saw it or only heard of it. Caligula’s German expedition is recounted in Suet., Calig., 43 seqq.: ‘He ordered a triumph, which was to be unprecedentedly splendid, and cheap in proportion, as he had a right to the property of his subjects—changed his mind, forbade any proposal on the subject under capital penalties, abused the senate for doing nothing, and finally entered the city in ovation on his birthday’ (Conington). With o bone comp. heus bone, 3, 94.—laurus = laureata epistola, the letter bound with bays, in which victories were announced.

44. Germanae pubis: ‘flower of the German army’ (Pretor), pubes being = ἡλικία.

45. aris | frigidus excutitur cinis: Of course to make room for new sacrifices, but frigidus intimates that the ashes had had time to cool; such occasions were rare. Comp. Apul., Met., 4, 83: arae viduae frigido cinere foedatae. Aris, Dat. Excutitur denotes haste. ‘The ashes are hustled off.’—postibus: ‘for the door-posts’ (of temples, palaces, the residence of the triumphator, and other buildings). With the Dative comp. Juv., 6, 51: necte coronam | postibus.

46. lutea gausapa: ‘yellow wools.’ The coarse fabric known as gausapa was used to make yellow wigs for the mock German captives. The light hair of the Germans is a familiar characteristic, and a similar device is recorded of Domitian by Tacitus, Agr., 39 (Jahn). As the captives were actually Gauls, Casaubon understands gausapa of the common Gallic costume.

47. Caesonia: the mistress, and, after the birth of a daughter and the divorce of Lollia, the wife of Caligula, Suet., Cal., 25.—ingentis Rhenos: Jahn understands statues or pictures of the Rhine, to be carried in procession, referring to the Jordan on the Arch of Titus, and citing Ov., A. A., 1, 223 seqq., for the Euphrates and Tigris. Conington adds Verg., Georg., 3, 28, for the Nile, and considers the Plural Rhenos sarcastic. The more common interpretation regards Rhenos as Rhenanos. Suet., l.c. 47, mentions expressly the fact that Caligula picked out the tallest men he could find (procerissimum quemque) for the procession.

48. genioque ducis: On genio, see 2, 3. The genius of the Emperor was publicly worshipped, Ov., Fast., 5, 145. Caligula punished those who did not swear by his genius, Suet., Cal., 27. Ducis is sarcastic. ‘So Juv., 4, 145; 7, 21, calls Domitian dux, with reference to a similar exploit, a sham triumph with manufactured slaves’ (Conington, after Jahn).—centum paria: Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 85: ni sic fecissent gladiatorum dare centum | damnati populo paria atque epulum. The number is absurd for any ordinary fortune, and the extravagance of the threat destroys the dramatic effect on the heir.

49. induco: The familiar Present for the Future. Induco, verbum harenae (Casaubon).—aude: We should say, ‘I dare you’ (Conington).

50. oleum: Largesses of oil by Caesar and Nero are recorded by Suet., Caes., 38, Nero, 12 (Jahn).—artocreas: ἀρτόκρεας = visceratio, ‘bread-meat’ for ‘bread-and-meat.’ Outside of the numerals, such copulative compounds (dvandva in Sanskrit) are rare, and chiefly late. Comp. suovetaurilia, νυχθήμερον, the famous word of seventy-nine syllables in Ar., Eccl., 1169, and Mod. Gr. ἀνδρόγυνον, ‘man-and-wife.’ Some consider artocreas a kind of meat-pasty.—popello: 4, 15.

51, 52. dic clare: It were very much to be wished that he had. The context seems to require, on the one hand, a motive for the silence of the heir; on the other, a motive for declining the inheritance. The interpretation of non adeo—iuxta est depends on the meaning of exossatus, which is sometimes rendered ‘exhausted,’ ‘impoverished,’ ‘worn out,’ as if ‘boneless’ and ‘marrowless’ were the same thing here; sometimes, and with far more probability, ‘cleared of stones.’ A poetic allusion to the ‘bones of Mother Earth,’ Ov., Met., 1, 393 seqq. (Schol.), would be out of place, and the common culinary sense of exossatus, ‘boned,’ is in keeping with the homely character of Persius’s tropes. Adeo is sometimes considered a Verb, in the sense of adire hereditatem; sometimes an Adverb, and connected now with prohibeo (from prohibes), now with exossatus; and, finally, some give exossatus—est to the heir, others to Persius. I subjoin the chief distributions and interpretations:

(1.) Non adeo, inquis. Exossatus ager iuxta est. Jahn (1843). (Do you mean to hinder me? Out with it.) ‘Not exactly,’ you say. Here is a worn-out field hard by. If you won’t have it, another will.

(2.) ‘Non adeo,’ inquis? Exossatus ager iuxta est (Conington). You won’t accept the inheritance, you say? Here is a field, now, cleared for ploughing.

(3.) ‘Non adeo,’ inquis, ‘exossatus ager iuxta est,’ Jahn (1868), which may be rendered, ‘I am sure that your land here is not in such very good order’ (that you can afford such extravagance). Good order or not, I can find some one to take it off my hands, etc.

(4.) Hermann bases his interpretation on the Schol., and understands non adeo exossatus ager to be a field that is not wholly cleared of stones, to which the heir points as a cogent argument against his making a difficulty. He is afraid of a stoning from the people, as above he was afraid of doing any thing to disoblige the Emperor (Lect. Pers., II., 64).

(5.) Teuffel agrees with Hermann’s interpretation of exossatus, but separates non adeo, ‘Not exactly.’ See (1.). ‘There is a field hard by from which the stones have [just] been dug up,’ where they are lying in convenient heaps.

(6.) Heinrich takes adeo to be the Verb, exossatus as ‘impoverished,’ and iuxta = paene.

(7.) Non adeo, inquis. Exossatus ager iuxta est is rendered by Mr. Pretor, ‘I can’t quite forbid it; but let me suggest to you that your land is impoverished.’

(8.) König understands the heir to say: ‘I will not accept. I have a well-tilled piece of land of my own hard by.’

I am not ashamed to acknowledge that the only point about which I am convinced is the impossibility of making exossatus mean ‘impoverished.’

53. amitis: Amita is the aunt by the father’s side. See note on 2, 31. Persius left his property to his mother and sister, and all this string of suppositions is in keeping with the impersonal character of his heir. Teuffel notices the utter jumble of legal relations.—proneptis patrui: ‘female cousin twice removed.’

54. sterilis vixit: ‘has lived barren’ means ‘has died childless, without issue.’

55. nihilum: ‘neither chick nor child.’—Bovillas: Bovillae lay between Rome and Aricia, and was the first stage on the Appian road, hence called ‘suburban’ by Ov., Fast., 3, 667 (Jahn). Persius had an estate in the neighborhood.

56. clivum ad Virbi: Martial’s clivus Aricinus (2, 19, 3; 12, 32, 10), a noted station for beggars. Juv., 4, 17: dignus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes. Virbius was identified with Hippolytus, and worshipped as the hero of Aricia.—Manius: a typical beggar’s name. There was a proverb: multi Mani Ariciae, Fest., s.v., with the explanation, multos claros viros ibi fuisse. The ‘Arician aristocracy’ must have become a term of contempt by the time of Persius (πάλαι ποτ᾽ ἦσαν ἄλκιμοι Μιλήσιοι).

57. progenies terrae: is the indignant remonstrance of the heir, progenies terrae being = the more familiar terrae filius, Cic., Att., 1, 13, 4 al.; our ‘groundling’ can answer only as a play on the word.—quartus pater = abavus, ‘great-great-grandfather.’

58. haud prompte, dicam tamen: μόλις μὲν, ἐξερῶ δ᾽ ὅμως (Conington); μόλις μὲν, ἀλλ᾽ οὖν ἐξερῶ Comp. [Dem.] 58, 26.—adde etiam unum = atavum, ‘one step further back.’

59. unum etiam = tritavum.

60. ritu | generis: ‘by regular descent’ (Conington). Jahn connects generis with avunculus.—maior avunculus: avii aut aviae avunculus est (Jahn), ‘great-great-uncle.’ Persius qualifies this statement by prope, ‘something like,’ but he has not only got the degree wrong, but has passed over to the mother’s side. The thought of this frigidiuscula ratio, as Jahn calls it, does not need illustration. Still, comp. Juv., 4, 99: unde fit ut malim fraterculus esse gigantum.—exit = evadit, 1, 45; 5, 130.

61-74. Persius: ‘You are getting impatient. Why not wait for your turn? I am Fortune. Wait until I drop my purse into your hand, and then be satisfied with what I have left in it. Tadius bequeathed me some money. I know he did. What is that to you? None of your fatherly advice about looking after my balance at the banker’s. What do I care about “balance?” I will eat a good dinner, and not starve myself for your spoilt grandson’s sake.’

61. qui prior es: In this form of the λαμπαδηφορία ‘the course was marked out in stations, at each of which a new set of runners stood ready to take up the race, and so long as the torch remained alight, and the conditions of the race were thus fulfilled, it could not exchange hands except at particular stations’ (Pretor, after Jahn). Here the man in advance is represented as trying to get the torch out of Persius’s hands before he has reached the station, while Persius is yet running (in decursu), which Jahn properly emphasizes. The interpretation is much disputed.—poscis: implies impatience.

62. Mercurius: See note on 2, 11.

63. pingitur: Ἑρμῆς κερδῷος, ‘with money-bag in hand.’ Comp. Ar., Ach., 991, 992: πῶς ἂν ἐμὲ καὶ σέ τις Ἔρως ξυναγάγοι λαβών, | ὥσπερ ὁ γεγραμμένος, ἔχων στέφανον ἀνθέμων.—vin tu gaudere relictis: Gaudere here almost = ἀγαπᾶν, ‘be thankful for whatever I shall leave you.’ According to the ordinary rules of grammar, vis would be the rhetorical, vin the genuine form of the question (G., 455), but ne can not be pinned down by strict rules, as has been remarked. See note on 1, 22.

64. dest aliquid summae: may be an objection of the heir, or an anticipated objection. Persius often reminds us of Mrs. Caudle.—minui mihi: It was mine, and I diminished it to suit myself. It was mine to lessen; what is left will be all your own to keep.

65. fuge quaerere = noli quaerere, as in Hor., Od., 1, 9, 13.

66. neu: 3, 51.—repone: ‘dish up again;’ the paterna dicta may be considered a crambe repetita. Comp. Quint., 2, 4, 29: cum eadem iudiciis pluribus dicunt, fastidium movent velut frigidi et repo siti cibi. Persius is nothing if not culinary. Jahn (1868) reads: oppone, which is clearer but tamer. Paterna d. is simply ‘the talk one hears from fathers,’ severe old gentlemen on the stage.

67. faenoris—reliquum est: clearly a specimen of fatherly counsel. Every Polonius has something to say to his Laertes on this subject (Hamlet, 1, 3). Persius’s Polonius advises his son to keep an account, enter (accedat = apponatur, see note on 2, 2) his interest on the credit side, charge his expenses to the debit side, and find the remainder—in other words, to live carefully within the income of his property. Before the old gentleman gets through, Persius repeats his last word mockingly: ‘Remainder? Hang the remainder.’ This is also Conington’s view, who compares the commercial arithmetic lesson in Hor., A. P., 327 seqq.—merces: Hor. uses merces alone in the same sense as faenoris merces here, Sat., 1, 2, 14. 3, 88.—hinc: from the capital, or from the interest, or from both. I am inclined to refer hinc to the side of the account.

69. ungue caules—festa luce: See note on v. 19.

70. urtica: Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 12, 7: abstemius herbis | vivis et urtica; and Sat., 2, 2, 117: holus fumosae cum pede pernae (Jahn).—sinciput: ‘pig’s cheek.’ The swine was the common sacrifice and the common dish.—aure: Fissa aure seems to be nothing more than a picturesque detail. The pig’s head was bung up in the smoke by a slit in its ear.

71. tuus iste nepos: Mr. Pretor sees a trace of incompleteness in the mention of tuus iste nepos, ‘whose existence has never before been hinted at.’ The nepos is hauled up out of the inane like the quisquis heir himself.—anscris extis: Comp. Juv., 5, 114: anseris ante ipsum magni iecur.

73. patriciae: implies great expense. This coarse combination of sensual pleasures is an argument in favor of the old-fashioned interpretation of Calliroen, 1, 134.—trama: Fr. trame, ‘woof.’ Such terms are apt to stick. Others translate falsely ‘warp.’ Trama figurae is “a thread-paper figure,” as trama is the thread of the woof, which crosses that of the upright stamen or warp, and when the nap is worn off the cloths, these threads are laid bare.’ Stocker, quoted by Pretor.

74. tremat: ‘quiver,’ like jelly, ‘wag.’—omento: ‘fatty caul,’ ‘fat,’ 2, 47.—popa: used as a Substantive. Comp. Prol., 13. ‘Alderman-belly,’ instead of an ‘aldermanic belly.’ ‘They which waited at the altar’—for the popae were the priests’ assistants—‘were partakers with the altar’ (1 Cor., 9, 13), and waxed fat on the iunicum omenta. Pretor quotes Prop., 4, 3, 62: succinctique calent ad nova lucra popae.

75-80. Commentators notice the abrupt transition. Jahn says that the dialogue is dropped, but who expects invariably close connection between two heads of a sermon? In my judgment Persius is still hammering away at his impatient heir, and bids him earn money for himself, if he is not content to wait for Persius’s death, and does not like Persius’s mode of living. ‘Sell your life, ransack the world, drive every trade. Double, treble, quadruple, decuple your property. But you will find that there is no point where you can stop, where you will be rich enough.’

75. vende animam lucro: Casaubon comp. the Greek proverb: θανάτου ὤνιον τὸ κέρδος, and Longin., Sublim., 44: τὸ ἐκ τοῦ παντὸς κερδαίνειν ὠνούμεθα τῆς ψυχῆς.—excute: (for the last time of eight) ‘ransack.’

76. latus mundi: Hor., Od., 1, 22, 19 (Conington).—nec = neu. See 1, 7.

77. Cappadocas: The slaves of Cappadocia were, as a rule, tall and well grown (Petron., 63), and good litter-bearers (Mart., 6, 77, 4) (Jahn), but in other respects extremely undesirable cattle.—rigida: ‘fixed upright.’ Rigidae columnae, Ov., Fast., 3, 529 (Jahn).—plausisse: So Jahn (1868). In 1843 he edited pavisse, and comp. quot pascit servos? Juv., 3, 141, and other passages. But pāvisse may have been intended as a Third Conjugation Perf. from păvio, and hence = plausisse. So Longfellow uses ‘dove’ for ‘dived.’ Slaves were slapped to try their condition. On the Inf. and the Perfect, see opifex intendisse, v. 3, note.—catasta: ‘platform.’ The sense of the passage, ‘Make yourself an expert in slave flesh.’

78. feci—sistam: words of the avaricious man. The passage is imitated from Hor., Ep., 1, 6, 34: mille talenta rotundentur, totidem altera, porro | tertia succedant et quae pars quadret acervum.—quarto: as if he had written ter before.

79. redit: the regular word for ‘income,’ ‘revenue.’ Comp. reditus.—rugam: Ruga = sinus, ‘fold in a garment.’ The sinus answers to our ‘pocket,’ hence ‘purse.’ The ruga, then, is the rugosum marsupium (Heinrich), or the ‘yet unfilled bosom’ of Juv., 14, 327. ‘It comes into a purse that wrinkles still.’ To bring this out more clearly Mr. Paley (ap. Pretor) puts a semicolon after deciens.—depunge: So Jahn (1868) for his previous depinge. ‘Prick a hole.’—ubi sistam: G., 469, 623; A., 67, 2, b.

80. inventus: Ironical. ‘So some one has been found, Chrysippus, to mark the limit of your heap.’ If you can find a man to put a bound to greed, you can find a man to solve the sorites of Chrysippus. The fallacy called the σωρείτης, or σωριτης, Lat. acervus, is often mentioned; so in Hor., Ep., 2, 1, 47, where it is illustrated by pulling hair after hair from the tail of a horse, and taking year after year from the age of a poet. See Hamilton’s Lectures on Logic, p. 268 (Am. ed.).