(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.).