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.