# The Satires of A. Persius Flaccus

## Part 13

Book page: https://www.cyberlibrary.org/la/books/the-satires-of-a-persius-flaccus-22119/index.md

104. #conpositus#: 'laid out.' 'By foreign hands thy decent limbs _composed_,' Pope. --#crassis lutatus amomis#: Every word is contemptuous: 'bedaubed with lots of coarse ointments.' The Plural _amoma_ indicates the cheap display. With _crassis_, comp. Hor., A. P., 375: _#crassum# unguentum_; with _amomis_, Juv., 4, 108: _#amomo# | quantum vix redolent duo funera_.

105. #in portam#: A custom at least as old as Homer, Il., 19, 212. _Porta_ here = _ianua_, _fores_, but 'nowhere else' (Macleane). --#rigidas#: The gender of _calx_ is unsteady. See Neue, _Formenlehre_, 1, 694.

106. #hesterni Quirites#: 'Citizens of twenty-four hours' standing' (Conington); slaves left free by him. Hence _capite induto_, with the _pilleus_ 'cap of liberty' on. The winding up of the man reminds one of Petron., 42: _bene elatus est, planctus est optime, manumisit aliquot_.

107. Persius hauls out his man-of-straw, his _souffre-douleur_, and makes him talk. --#Tange venas#: 'Feel my pulse,' the regular expression, as in Sen., Ep., 22, 1: _vena #tangenda# est_. --#miser#: Comp. v. 15. 'You're another!' 'Poor creature yourself' (Conington). --#pone in pectore dextram#: If you are not satisfied with my pulse, put your hand on my heart.

108. #nil calet hic#: After some hesitation, I have given the whole passage from _Tange miser_ to _non frigent_ to one person, who anticipates the verdict of the monitor by _nil calet hic_ and _non frigent_. 'You must admit that my heart is not hot nor my feet cold.' At the same time the very clearness is an objection.

109. #Visa est si forte#: On the form of the conditional, see G., 569; A., 59, 2, _b_. On the obvious thought, see 2, 52 foll.; 4, 47.

111. #rite#: 'regularly.' --#positum est#: 'served up.'

112. #durum holus#: 'tough cabbage,' 'half boiled' (Pretor). --#populi# (= _plebis_) #cribro#: 'A coarse, common sieve.' Hence _p. c. decussa farina_, 'coarse-bolted flour,' the _panis secundus_ of Horace, Ep., 2, 1, 123, the 'seconds' of the modern miller. The ancients were very dainty in this article. The parasite in Alciphron (1, 21, 2) expresses his disgust at the +artos ho ex agoras+.

114. #putre quod haud deceat#: The Relative with the Subjunctive is parallel with the Adjective. G., 439, R. Comp. 1, 14. _Haud deceat_, 'it won't do,' 'it won't answer.' --#plebeia beta#: The beet is a vulgar vegetable, Mart., 13, 13 (Jahn). The irony is evident, as the beet is proverbially tender. See Dictionaries, s.v. _betizare_.

115. #excussit#: _Excutere aristas_ seems to be a vulgar expression, like the English 'raise a goose-skin, goose-flesh, duck-flesh.' --#aristas# = _pilos_. Jahn refers to Varro, L. L., 6, 49. --#timor albus#: See note on Prol., 4.

116. #face supposita#: The heart is the caldron and passion the fire-brand.

118. #Orestes#: the typical madman.

CRITICAL APPENDIX.

SATURA III.

11. #harundo#: arundo, J{a}., H. --12. #querimur#: queritur, J{a}. --#umor#: humor, J{a}., H. --13. #quod#: J{a}., H.; sed, J{w}. --14. #querimur#: queritur, J{a}. --15. #hucine#: huccine, J{a}., H. --17. #pappare#: papare, J{a}. --29. #censoremne#: Casaubon.; censoremque, J{w}.; censoremve, J{a}., H. --31. #Nattae?# J{a}., H.; Nattae. J{w}. --32. #vitio et#: _om._ et H. --46. #discere non sano#: dicere et insano, H. --48. #iure: (;)#: J{a}., H.; iure etenim, J{w}. --53. #bracatis#: braccatis, H. --56. #diduxit#: deduxit, H. --58. #adhuc#: adhuc? J{a}. --59. #malis!#: malis? J{a}. --60. #in quod#: in quo, H. --68. #qua#: quam, H. --73. #nec#: neque, J{a}. --76. #mena#: maena, J{a}. --78. #quod sapio satis est mihi#: quod satis est sapio mihi, J{a}., H. --89. #alitus#: halitus, J{a}., H. --92. #lagoena#: lagena, J{a}., H. --93. #rogabit#: rogavit, J{a}. --94. #istuc#: istud, J{a}., H. --99. #sulpureas exalante#: sulfureas exhalante, J{a}., H. --#mefites#: mephites, J{a}. --100. #triental#: J{a}.; trientem, J{w}., H. --105. #rigidas#: rigidos, J{a}. --112. #holus#: olus, J{a}., H.

* * * * *

SATURA IV.

'Rem populi tractas?' barbatum haec crede magistrum dicere, sorbitio tollit quem dira cicutae 'quo fretus? dic hoc, magni pupille Pericli. scilicet ingenium et rerum prudentia velox ante pilos venit, dicenda tacendaque calles. 5 ergo ubi commota fervet plebecula bile, fert animus calidae fecisse silentia turbae maiestate manus. quid deinde loquere? "Quirites, hoc puta non iustum est, illud male, rectius illud." scis etenim iustum gemina suspendere lance 10 ancipitis librae, rectum discernis, ubi inter curva subit, vel cum fallit pede regula varo, et potis es nigrum vitio praefigere theta. quin tu igitur, summa nequiquam pelle decorus, ante diem blando caudam iactare popello 15 desinis, Anticyras melior sorbere meracas! quae tibi summa boni est? uncta vixisse patella semper et adsiduo curata cuticula sole? exspecta, haud aliud respondeat haec anus. i nunc "Dinomaches ego sum," suffla "sum candidus." esto; 20 dum ne deterius sapiat pannucia Baucis, cum bene discincto cantaverit ocima vernae.' Ut nemo in sese temptat descendere, nemo, sed praecedenti spectatur mantica tergo! quaesieris 'Nostin Vettidi praedia?' "Cuius?" 25 'Dives arat Curibus quantum non miluus errat.' "Hunc ais, hunc dis iratis genioque sinistro, qui, quandoque iugum pertusa ad compita figit, seriolae veterem metuens deradere limum ingemit: _hoc bene sit!_ tunicatum cum sale mordens 30 caepe et farrata pueris plaudentibus olla pannosam faecem morientis sorbet aceti?" at si unctus cesses et figas in cute solem, est prope te ignotus, cubito qui tangat et acre despuat 'hi mores! penemque arcanaque lumbi 35 runcantem populo marcentis pandere vulvas! tu cum maxillis balanatum gausape pectas, inguinibus quare detonsus gurgulio exstat? quinque palaestritae licet haec plantaria vellant elixasque nates labefactent forcipe adunca, 40 non tamen ista filix ullo mansuescit aratro.' caedimus inque vicem praebemus crura sagittis. vivitur hoc pacto; sic novimus. ilia subter caecum vulnus habes; sed lato balteus auro praetegit. ut mavis, da verba et decipe nervos, 45 si potes. 'Egregium cum me vicinia dicat, non credam?' Viso si palles, inprobe, nummo, si facis in penem quidquid tibi venit amarum, si puteal multa cautus vibice flagellas: nequiquam populo bibulas donaveris aures. 50 respue, quod non es; tollat sua munera cerdo; tecum habita: noris, quam sit tibi curta supellex.

NOTES.

FOURTH SATIRE.

The theme of this Satire is contained in the closing verses. It is the Apollinic +gnôthi sauton+. Want of self-knowledge is the fault which is scourged. The basis is furnished by the Platonic dialogue, known as the First Alcibiades, and the characters are the same. The person lectured under the mask of Alcibiades is a young Roman noble, in whom commentators of a certain school have recognized the familiar features of Nero.

ARGUMENT.-- Socrates is supposed to be addressing Alcibiades. You undertake to engage in politics? You rely on your genius, do you? What do you know of the norms of right and wrong, you callow youngster? What do you know of the subtle distinctions of casuistry, that you undertake to say what is just and what is unjust? You have a goodly outside, but that is all, and you are fitter for a course of hellebore than for a career of statesmanship. What is your end and aim in life? Dainty dishes and basking in the sunshine? The first old crone you meet has the same exalted ideal. Or do you boast of your descent? You praise your lineage, you trumpet forth your beauty, just as yon market-woman cries up her greens (1-22).

You do not know yourself. Who knows himself? Every one sees his neighbor's faults, no one his own. You sneer at the curmudgeon who groans out a health over the sour stuff he gives his laborers on a holiday (23-32). And while you make mock at him, some fellow, who is standing at your side, nudges you with his elbow, and tells you that you are as bad as he, though in another way (33-41). And so we give and take punishment. This is our plan of life. We hide our faults from ourselves. We get testimonials from our neighbors to impose on our own consciences. Awake to righteousness! Put your goodness to the test! If you yield to the temptation of covetousness, of lust, in vain will you drink in the praises of the rabble. Reject what you are not. Let Rag, Tag, and Bobtail take away their tributes. Live with yourself, and you will find out how scanty is your moral furniture (42-52).

Jahn regards this Satire as the earliest of the six, and it certainly shows even greater immaturity than the others. The well-known individuality of Socrates is coarsely handled, the irony lacks the subtle play, the mischievous good-nature of the great Athenian; and though the glaring anachronisms may be defended by such exemplars as Horace (notably in Sat., 2, 5), there is all the difference in the world between the sly humor of the older poet, who peeps from behind the Greek mask and winks at the Roman audience, and the grim contortions of the beardless representative of the bearded master.

The indecency of a part of the Satire is considered by Teuffel a valid objection to the view taken by Jahn, but the imagination of early youth and the experience of corrupt old age often meet in disgusting detail, and the obscenities of bookish men are among the worst in literature. Add to this the peculiar views of the Stoic school as to the corruption of the flesh (2, 63), and the consequent Stoic tendency to degrade the body by the most contemptuous representations of physical functions, and we can the more readily understand how Marcus Antoninus, the purest character of his time, should have besmirched his Meditations with passages which lack a parallel for their crudity; and why Persius, the poet of virginal life, should have outdone the _praegrandis senex_ of Attic comedy in the coarseness of his expressions.

1-22. Socrates exposes the incompetence of Alcibiades for affairs of state, his lack of ethical training, his need of a just balance, his grovelling views of life, his puerile pride in his ancient family and in his handsome face. Socrates and Alcibiades were contrasts so tempting that dialogues between them were favorite philosophical exercises.

1. #rem populi# = _rem publicam_. --#tractas?# On the form of the question, see G., 455; A., 71, 1, R. Comp. Plato, Alc. I., p. 106C: +dianoei gar parienai sumbouleusôn Athênaiois entos ou pollou chronou+, and further, p. 118B, and Conv., p. 216A. --#barbatum#: The beard was the conventional mark of the philosopher in the time of Persius; it is an anachronism in the case of Socrates, who lived before shaving was the rule and the beard a badge. However, the custom was old in Persius's day, and the slip is slight. So Plato's long beard is noticed by Ephippus ap. Athen., 11, p. 509C (3, 332 Mein.). Comp. Juv., 14, 12: _barbatos-- magistros_. --#crede#: advertises a want of art.

2. #sorbitio#: 'draught,' 'dose.' So Sen., E. M., 78, 25. --#tollit# = _sustulit_. A solitary Historical Present with a relative is harsh to us for all the examples and all the commentators.

3. #quo fretus?# See 3, 67. Comp. Plato, Alc. I., p. 123E: +ti oun pot' estin hotô #pisteuei# to meirakion+. --#magni pupille Pericli#: Because Alcibiades owed his start in life to his guardian and kinsman Pericles. See Plat., l.c. p. 104B. For the form _Pericli_, see G., 72; A., 11, I., 4.

4. #scilicet#: Ironical, 1, 15; 2, 19. 'Of course.' Comp. the old 'God wot.' --#ingenium et rerum prudentia#: 'wit and wisdom.' _Prudentia_ may be translated 'knowledge,' and _rerum_ 'world,' 'life,' but not necessarily. See 1, 1. --#velox#: Predicative (Schol.), 'have been quick in coming' (Conington).

5. #ante pilos#: 'before your beard.' 'A contrast with _barbatum magistrum_' (Conington), but _b._ can hardly be used in the same breath as the mark of mature years and as the ensign of a philosopher. --#venit#: On the number, see G., 281, Exc. 2; A., 49, 1, _b._ --#dicenda tacendaque#: Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 7, 72-- _dicenda tacenda locutus_-- for the expression. For the sense, Conington comp. Aeschylus, Cho., 582: +sigan hopou dei kai legein ta kairia+. In Horace it means 'all sorts of things;' here, 'what you must say, what leave unsaid.'

6. #commota fervet bile#: Comp. Hor., Od., 1, 13, 4: _fervens difficili #bile# tumet iecur_.

7. #fert animus#: Well-known phrase of Ov., Met., 1, 1. So in Greek, +pherei ho nous, hê gnômê, hê phrên+. The verse has a stately irony, and should have a stately translation. 'The spirit moves you' (Pretor) is degraded to slang. 'Your bosom's lord biddeth you wave a hush profound.' --#fecisse#: Comp. 1, 91. --#silentia#: Comp. 3, 81.

8. #maiestate manus#: 'with majestic hand'. (G., 357, R. 2), 'by the imposing action of your hand' (Conington). --#quid deinde loquere?# The orator has not considered his speech. 'Now that you have got your silence, what have you got to say.' --#Quirites#: Persius drops his Greek. Alcibiades is a mere quintain.

9. #puta#: 'put case,' 'say,' 'for instance,' is an iambic Imperative, with the ultimate shortened, like _cav[)-e]_, _vid[)-e]_, etc., 1, 108. Hermann gives it to Socrates, which is favored by the sense; Jahn and others to Alcibiades, as caricatured by Socrates, which is favored by the position. Heinrich reads _puto_.

10. #scis etenim#, etc.: _and_ (well you may) _for you know how_, etc. On _scis_, see 1, 53; on _etenim_, 3, 48. Comp. Plato, l.c. 110C: +ôou ara epistasthai kai pais ôn, hôs eoike, ta dikaia kai ta adika+. It may be necessary to observe that all this is sarcasm. Conington takes it literally, and considers these statements as so many concessions. --#gemina lance# = _geminis lancibus_. Comp. Ov., A. A., 2, 644: _geminus pes_.

11. #ancipitis#: 'wavering.' --#rectum discernis#: 'You can distinguish the straight line when it runs among crooked lines on either hand-- ay, even when your square with twisted leg is but a faulty guide.' The straight line is virtue, the crooked lines are vices. The difficulty of picking out the right course is much enhanced when the rule by which we go is itself warped-- that is, 'as Casaubon explains it, when justice has to be corrected by equity.' The _regula_ here is not the _regula_ of 5, 38, but the _norma_, or carpenter's square.

13. #potis es#: See 1, 56. --#theta#: +Th+, the initial of +thanatos+, was the mark of condemnation used in the time of Persius, instead of the older C (_condemno_). It was also employed in epitaphs, in army lists, and the like, for 'deceased.' Translate 'black mark.'

14. #quin desinis#: See 2, 71. --#tu#: The elision of the monosyllable is harsh (Jahn). See 1, 51. 66. 131. --#igitur#: 'If all this is so, why then--.' Comp. the indignant _igitur_ (+eita+) of 1, 98. --#summa pelle decorus#: Hor. Ep., 1, 16, 45: _Introrsus turpem, speciosum #pelle decora#_. --#nequiquam#: 'because you can not impose on me.' Comp. 3, 30 (Conington).

15. #ante diem#: 'before your time.' --#blando caudam iactare popello#: Casaubon thinks that a peacock is meant, Jahn suggests a horse. The Scholiast says that the image is that of a (pet) dog. _Pelle decorus_ would not apply to the peacock, nor very well to the horse. It does apply to Alcibiades as the lion's whelp of Aristoph., Ran., 1431. Comp. the famous description in Aeschyl., Agam., 725 (Dindorf). The comparison of politicians with lions is found also in Plato, Gorg., 483E. The only difficulty lies in _blando popello_, but petting implies _blanditiae_ on both sides. 'The dog fawns on those who caress him' (Conington). --#popello#: contemptuously, 6, 50; Hor., Ep., 1, 7, 65.

16. #Anticyras#: There were two towns of that name, one on the Maliac Gulf, the other in Phocis; both famous for their hellebore, but especially the latter. The town for its product, after the pattern of Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 83; A. P., 300 (Jahn). The Plural is the familiar poetic exaggerative. --#meracas#: 'undiluted,' 'without a drop of water.'Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 137: _expulit helleboro morbum bilemque #meraco#_. On the use of hellebore as a preparative for philosophy, comp. the well-known experience of Chrysippus: +ou themis genesthai sophon, ên mê tris ephexês tou elleborou piês+, Lucian, Vit. Auct., 23 (1, 564 R.). --#melior sorbere# = _qui melius sorberes_ (comp. _quo graves Persae #melius# perirent_, Hor., Od., 1, 2, 22).

17. #summa boni# = _summum bonum_. --#uncta patella#: 'rich dishes.' Comp. 3, 102. The reference to a sacrificial dish (3, 26) is less likely. As the character of Alcibiades is not kept up with any care by Persius, it is hardly worth while to note that he was a most sensitive _gourmet_, as is shown by the curious anecdote, Teles ap. Stob., Flor., 5, 67. --#vixisse#: The Perfect with intention. G., 275, 1; A., 58, 11, _e._ 'To have the satisfaction of _having lived_ on the daintiest fare,' so that you may say when you come to die, _vixi dum vixi bene_. Comp. Sen., Ep., 23, 10: _Id agendum est ut satis #vixerimus#_.

18. #curata cuticula sole#: with reference to the _apricatio_ or _insolatio_. Comp. Juv., 11, 203: _nostra bibat vernum contracta #cuticula solem#_. What was a matter of hygiene became a matter of luxury. The sun-cure has been revived of late years. _Curare cuticulam_, _cutem_, _pelliculam_ is commonly used of 'good living' generally, 'taking very good care of one's dear little self.' See Hor., Ep., 1, 2, 29. 4, 15; Sat., 2, 5, 38; Juv., 2, 105. --#haec#: +deiktikôs+. --#i nunc#: '_Irridentis vel exprobrantis formula_,' Jahn, who gives an overwhelming list of examples (comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 6, 17; 2, 3, 76). The usage requires it to be connected with _suffla_. 'Go on, then, and blow as you have been blowing.' _Suffla_ in this sense is quite as 'low' as our Americanism. Persius has the aristocrat's contempt for superfine language, and by a natural reaction falls, not unfrequently, into slang. Jahn compares 5, 13 and 3, 27, and the Greek proverbial expression +phusa gar ou smikroisin auliskois epi+. Add Menand., fr. 296 (4, 157 Mein.): +hoioi laloumen ontes hoi trisathlioi | hapantes #hoi phusôntes eph' heautois mega#+. 'Mouth it out' (Conington), 'spout it out' (Macleane).

20. #Dinomaches#: The mother of Alcibiades came of the great house of the Alcmaeonidae, and it was to her that he owed his connection with Pericles. The Gen. without _filius_ (G., 360, R. 3; A., 50, 1, _b_) is rare in the predicate. --#candidus# = _pulcher_. Comp. 3, 110. The beauty of Alcibiades is well known, Plat., l.c. p. 104A. --#esto#: +eien+; 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: +geloion esti tên men idian kakian mê pheugein ho kai dunaton esti, tên de tôn allôn pheugein hoper adunaton+.

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_; +eroit' an tis+. 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 +aneleutheros+ and the +mikrologos+ 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).