# The Satires of A. Persius Flaccus

## Part 17

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116-118. The drift of the passage is plain enough. 'A change of fortune does not bring with it a change of character. If you possess all that you say you possess, then you are free and wise. But if you are, after all, the same old man, I take back all that I have granted. You are a fool, a slave.' This familiar Stoic thesis is covered over with a mass of confused metaphors, at least according to the commentators and translators. --#pelliculam veterem retines#: is supposed to be: 1. An ass in a lion's skin, after Hor., Sat., 1, 6, 22; or, 2. A snake that has not cast its slough (Jahn). --#astutam servas vulpem#: is the fox dressed up like a lion, Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 186. --#vapido pectore#: contains an allusion to 'dead wine,' _vappa_, v. 77, and is opposed to _incoctum generoso pectus honesto_, 2, 74. --#funem reduco#: 1. Of a beast that has had rope allowed it and is pulled in; 2. Of a cock-chafer that is played at the end of a string (Ar., Nub., 763). --#fronte# #politus#: words that do not fit in very satisfactorily with ass, fox, flat wine, restiff beast, or buzzing cock-chafer. My admiration of Persius is not unqualified, but this medley is almost too wild even for his turbid genius; and here, as elsewhere, commentators have been misled by looking at mere verbal coincidences with Horace. There is an Aesopic fable (149 Halm), the moral of which gives the substance of this passage: +ho logos dêloi hoti hoi phauloi tôn anthrôpôn, kan ta proschêmata lamprotera analabôsi, tên goun phusin ou metatithentai+. In this fable, which bears a family likeness to +walê pot' andros+ (Babr. 32), _La Chatte Metamorphosée en Femme_ (La Fontaine, 2, 18), Zeus, charmed with the cleverness of Reynard, had made him king of the beasts; but wishing to try whether fortune had changed his character, he caused a beetle to fly before His Majesty's eyes as he was borne by in state. The fox could not withstand the temptation, leaped from the litter, and tried to catch the game in such unseemly guise that Zeus deposed him. The fox is Dama, made Marcus; nay, become a philosopher (_nostrae farinae_), and the philosopher is king: _sapiens-- dives | #liber#, honoratus, pulcher, #rex# denique regum_, as Horace puts the Stoic doctrine (Ep., 1, 1, 107). But if despite his fair seeming, his smooth regal brow (_fronte politus_), he retains his old nature (_pelliculam veterem_), and the old Reynard-- the old rascal that swindled his master for a feed of corn-- is still in his heart (_astutam servas sub pectore vulpem_), our _deus ex machina_ takes back all that he has granted; he is a slave still.

117. #relego#: So Jahn. Inferior MSS. have _repeto_. _Relego_ evidently suggested the new figure, _funem reduco_.

119. #digitum exsere, peccas#: a favorite expression with the Stoics to show that the wise man alone understands the conduct of life. Epictet., fr. 53: +hê philosophia phêsin hoti oude ton daktulon ekteinein eikê prosêkei+ (Casaubon).

120. #nullo ture litabis#: Comp. 2, 75. Here _litabis_ = _litando impetrabis_.

122. #fossor#: 'a ditcher, a clown, a clodhopper.' _Fossor_ = _in cultus_. Comp. 'navvy.' Juvenal (11, 80) speaks of the _squalidus fossor_; Catullus (22, 10) combines _fossor_ and _#caprimulgus#_, Eur. (El., 252), +skapheus+ and +bouphorbos+.

123. #tris tantum ad numeros moveare#: 'dance three steps in time.' _Ad_, as often, of the standard; _numerus_ = +ruthmos+; _moveri_ of the dance, as in Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 125, and as _motus_ in Od., 3, 6, 21: _#motus# doceri gaudet Ionicos | matura virgo_. --#satyrum#: a kind of Cognate Accusative, as in Hor., l.c.: _qui | nunc #satyrum#, nunc agrestem Cyclopa movetur_. Persius selects the _satyrus_ in distinct opposition to the _agrestis Cyclops_, a more congenial dance for the _agrestis fossor_. See the commentators on Horace. --#Bathylli#: Bathyllus was a famous dancer in the time of Augustus. More bookishness. See Phaedr., 5, 7, 5; Juv., 6, 63.

124. #Liber ego#: The language of Dama. Only Dama is fading out. 'Persius meets this reassertion of freedom with a new answer. Before he had contended that fools had no _rights_; now he shows that they have no independent _power_' (Conington). --#Unde datum hoc sentis#: So Hor., Sat., 2, 2, 31: _Unde datum hoc sentis_, only _sentis_ here is equivalent to _censes_ (Jahn). On the interrogative with the Participle, see 3, 67. _Unde datum_, 'Who allowed you?' _unde_ being = _a quo_. Comp. _inde_, 1, 126, and G., 613, R. 1; A., 48, 5. --#tot subdite rebus#: Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 7, 75: _tune mihi dominus rerum imperiis hominumque | #tot tantisque# minor_ = +hêssôn+ = _subditus_.

125. #an#: 'or' (do you mean to say?) 'what?' See 1, 41. --#relaxat#: in a general sense. Exit Dama. Enter Impersonal _Tu_.

126. #I puer#: sample order of a sample master. --#strigiles#: A man might go to a common bath, but he would not like to use a common scraper (_strigilis_, +xustra+). On the _strigilis_, see, if needful, the commentators on Juv., 3, 263. --#Crispini#: Perhaps the bath-keeper. The name is Horatian, Sat., 1, 2, 120, and elsewhere.

127. #si increpuit#: The slave loiters, the master scolds. --#'cessas nugator:'# Much more effective in the mouth of the master than as an apodosis to _si increpuit_, as Hermann has it, and Jahn (1868); though Schlüter's remark, _verba_ '_cessas nugator?' dominum, non philosophum decent_, does not amount to much, when we consider that the philosopher is Persius himself. _Nugator_ is used here of wasting time; but the use of _nugari_ and its forms, which were often addressed to slaves, is wider, like the English 'fool.' So in Petron., 52, a boy lets a cup fall, and Trimalchio cries, _ne sis nugax_. With _cessas_ comp. Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 14: _semel hic cessavit_. 'What do you mean by this loitering, you dawdler, you?' --#servitium acre#: 'the goad of bondage,' as Conington suggests. _Acre_, from the same radical as _aculeus_.

128. #nihil nec quicquam#: G., 482, R. 3.

129. #nervos#: 'wires.' The figure of the puppet (_sigillarium_, +agalma neurospaston+) as a favorite one with the Stoics, to judge by M. Antoninus, who uses it very often, e.g., +sigillaria neurospastoumena+, 7, 3; +neurospastia+, 6, 28. Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 7, 80: _tu mihi qui imperitas alii servis miser atque | duceris ut #nervis# alienis mobile lignum_. --#agitet#: 'There is nothing from without to set your wires going.' Your masters are within. --#iecore#: See 1, 25.

130. #domini#: An immemorial figure. So Sophocles of Love. _Di meliora, inquit, libenter vero istinc sicut a #domino# agresti ac furioso profugi_, Cic., Cat. Mai., 14, 47. --#qui#: 'how?' --#exis# = _evadis_. See 1, 46; 6, 60.

131. #atque# = _quam_. G., 311, R. 6. --#hic# = _de quo loquimur_. G., 290, 3. --#metus erilis# = _metus eri_. G., 360, R. 1; 363, R.; A., 50, 1, _a_. 'If I be a master, where is _my fear_?' Mal., 1, 6. The assumption of Hendiadys, 'fear of the master's whip,' is unnecessary, and makes the passage less forcible.

132-191. The remainder of the Satire is taken up with descriptions of the ruling passions: Avarice (132-142), Luxury (143-160), Love (161-175), Ambition (176-179), Superstition (180-189). The language is lively and mimetic, and forcibly recalls the connection between comedy and satire.

132-160. Avarice finds you snoring, makes you get up, thrusts a bill of lading in your hand, cuts out work for you-- not very honest work either-- and chides you till she gets you to the ship. As you are about to embark, Luxury takes you aside, remonstrates with you, reminds you of the annoyances of a sea voyage. And all for what? The difference between five and eleven per cent. Why so greedy? 'Life let us cherish.' Enjoy it while you may. And so you are in a strait betwixt two. First you submit to one, then to the other master; and when you have once rebelled, you must not say, 'I have broken my bonds.' So a struggling hound may wrench away the staple, but drags the chain after it.

132. #Mane stertis#: a reminiscence of himself, 3, 3.

134. #saperdam#: Sing. for the Plur. Comp. _mena_, 3, 76. The _saperda_ (+saperdês, korakinos+) was a cheap fish for salting. The best came from the Palus Maeotis (Sea of Azow, Balik-Denghis, or Fish-sea), where they were caught in vast quantities. 'Salt herring.' --#Ponto#: a whence case.

135. #castoreum, stuppas, hebenum, tus#: A mere hodge-podge. Comp. Menand., fr. 720 (4, 279 Mein.): +stuppeion, elephant', oinon, aulaian, muron+. The wares are mainly Eastern. Musk came from Pontus, ebony and frankincense from the Far East. --#lubrica Coa#: 'slippery Coans,' may be understood of 'oily (or laxative) Coan wines,' Hor., Sat., 2, 4, 29, or of 'soft Coan vestments,' which were little more than woven air, Hor., Od., 4, 13, 13. The use of _Coa_ for 'Coan robes' is sustained by Ov., A. A., 2, 298: _#Coa# decere puta_, even if Hor., Sat., 1, 2, 101, be cavilled at, and the effect is droller.

136. #recens primus piper#: _Recens_, 'fresh,' 'just in;' _primus_, 'forestall the market.' --#ex sitiente camelo#: The thirsty camel brings the scene before our eyes-- comp. _ante boves_, 1, 74-- and shows that the genuine Indian pepper is meant, the _rugosum piper_ of v. 55. The camel must have come a long way to be thirsty (_sitim quadriduo tolerat_, Plin., H. N., 8, 18), but Madam Avarice will not let her slave wait until the camel has been unloaded and has had its drink.

137. #verte aliquid; iura#: _Verte aliquid_ is said with impatience, and _aliquid_ is to be urged. Comp. _frange #aliquid#_, 6, 32; _dest #aliquid#_, 6, 64; _fodere aut arare aut #aliquid# ferre_, Ter., Heaut., 1, 1, 17. 'Do something or other in the way of trade.' This obviates Jahn's objection, who finds the expression tame after the preceding list, and prefers to make _vertere_ = _versuram facere_, 'borrow money' (to pay debts), and to interpret _iura_ of swearing out of the obligation. But the connection in which _iura_ stands shows that it is professional, and hence dishonorable; and though _verte aliquid_ is not necessarily immoral, observe that in English we add 'honest' to the phrase 'turn a penny,' if we wish to prevent a sinister interpretation, which is the interpretation here, as König remarks. As for the 'tameness,' _mercare_ is 'tame' after _vende animam lucro_, 6, 75.

138. #varo#: or _baro_, 'lout.' This obscure word is entered by Vanicek (_Etym. Wörterb._, S. 36) under KAR (KVAR)-- comp. _varus_, 'crooked'-- so that _varo_ would be 'a wrong-headed creature,' 'a perverse blockhead.' The verb _obvaro_ occurs in Ennius (Trag., 2 Vahl.), and _varo_ (Subst.) would be a formation like _cachinno_ (1, 12) and _palpo_ (5, 176). --#regustatum digito terebrare salinum#: After the Greek proverb: +halian trupan+ (of extreme poverty). Casaubon quotes, and every body after him, Apoll. Tyan., Ep., 7: +emoi d' eiê tên halian trupan en Themidos oikô.+ 'To taste and taste until you bore a hole with your finger in the salt-cellar.' 'To lick the platter clean.' --#salinum#: Only the most advanced philosophers professed to consider salt, which even the miser could not well dispense with (4, 30), as a luxury. So Thrasycles, in Luc., Tim., 56: +opson de hêdiston thumon ê kardamon ê #ei pote truphôên oligon tôn halôn#+.

139. #perages#: according to Casaubon, an imitation of the Gr. +diagein+. Warrant for the ellipsis of _vitam_ or _aetatem_ seems to be lacking. Some wish to read _perges_ here, and combine it with _terebrare_. If so, the word _perges_ must not be translated 'continue' +trupôn diateleis+, but 'proceed.' See the Dictionaries. There is no authority for making _perages_ = _perges_. --#vivere cum Iove#: Madam Avarice is blasphemously familiar in her expressions. 'To live on good terms with Jupiter.'

140. #pellem#: simply 'a skin,' which might serve as many purposes as a modern traveller's shawl. Jahn interprets it as meaning a sort of packing cloth (_segestre_), and compares Petron., 102. This is much more likely than the _pastoria pellis_ of Ov., Met., 2, 680, the +baitê+ of Theocr., 3, 25, elsewhere called +nakos+, 5, 2, 'a peasant's coat of raw hide.' --#succinctus#: 'high girt,' hence 'equipped.' --#oenophorum#: 'a wine case.' Comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 6, 109: _pueri lasanum portantes #oenophorumque#_.

141. #Ocius ad navem#: It matters not who says this: 'Off to the ship this instant.' We are on the wharf, where such cries are in the air; but if we must assign them to somebody, they are best assigned to the master, who hurries the slaves on board. --#quin#: G., 551,1; A., 70, 4, _g_. --#trabe vasta#: 'mammoth ship.' The man's greed is indicated by the size of the ship, as contrasted with the slenderness of his personal equipment. _Vastum Aegaeum_, another reading, would be an epithet wasted, a rare extravagance in Persius.

142. #rapias#: 'scour.' Casaubon comp. Stat., Theb., 5, 3: _#rapere# campum_. So Verg., Georg., 3, 103: _campum | #corripuere#_. The notion is that of devouring. --#sollers#: 'artful' (literally, all-art).

143. #seductum#: Comp. 2, 4; 6, 42. --#quo deinde ruis?# So Verg., Aen., 5, 741. _Deinde_, 'next.'

144. #quid tibi vis?# Comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 2, 69. G., 351, R.; A., 51, 7, _d_. --#calido#: is proleptic. 'Your breast is heated by a rising of potent bile.' --#mascula# = _robusta_ (Jahn). _Mascula bilis_ means _bilis nigra_, +melancholia+. Conington compares the Greek use of +arsên+ as +ktupos arsên+, Soph., Phil., 1455. See 6, 4.

145. #intumuit#: Comp. 2, 14; 3, 8. --#non exstinxerit#: +ouk an sbeseie+. G., 629 (250); A., 60, 2, _b_. --#urna#: nearly three gallons, half an amphora. --#cicutae#: the remedy for madness from this cause, Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 53.

146. #mare transilias#: G., 251; A., 57, 6. Conington's 'skip across' would hardly answer for Horace's _non tangenda rates | #transiliunt# vada_, Od., 1, 3, 24. Tr. 'vault over.' --#torta cannabe#: 'Twisted hemp' is 'rope,' but Persius probably means a 'coil of rope.' --#fulto#: with _tibi_. Jahn quotes Juv., 3, 82: _#fultusque# toro meliore recumbet_. A coil of rope will be your cushion and a bench your table.

147. #Veientanumque rubellum#: The _Veientana uva_ (Mart., 2, 53, 4) yielded a coarse red wine. _Et Veientani bibitur faex crassa #rubelli#_, Mart., 1, 103, 9. Not a happy stroke, as Teuffel has observed. A sea voyage does not involve bad wine.

148. #vapida pice#: 'fusty pitch.' Jars were pitched to preserve the wine. --#laesum#: 'damaged.' --#sessilis obba#: 'broad-bottomed jorum,' 'squab jug' (Gifford). _Obba_ is an obsolete word for a large drinking-cup. Conington's 'noggin' does not hold enough.

149. #quincunce#: As an _as_ a month is twelve per cent. per annum, so 5/12 _as_ (_quincunx_) is five per cent., and _deunx_ eleven.

150. #nutrieras#: We use 'nursing' in similar connections, but rather in the sense of 'husbanding.' The figure is an extension of the Greek +tokos+. See Shaksp., M. of V., 1, 3, where the 'breed for barren metal' embodies an ancient prejudice. Comp. further Hor., Ep., 1, 18, 35: _nummos alienos #pascet#_. --#nummi-- pergant avidos sudare deunces#: So Jahn (1843). 'May go on to sweat out a greedy eleven per cent.' Hermann edits: _nummos-- peragant avido sudore deunces_, and so Jahn (1868). H. (_L. P._, II., 57) refers to _bona peragere_ (6, 22), and says that the merchant, dissatisfied with his modest five per cent. which had increased his capital, goes in for eleven per cent., which gobbles it up, and has his sweat for his pains. On _pergant_, see note on v. 139; with _sudare deunces_ comp. Verg., Ecl., 4, 30: _sudabunt roscida mella_.

151. #indulge genio#: See note on 2, 3. --#nostrum est quod vivis#: Variously interpreted. 'Your real life is mine,' i.e., 'only that part of life which you bestow on me is life' (Casaubon, and so, in effect, Jahn). 'Your life belongs to me and you (_nostrum_ answering to _carpamus dulcia_), not to any one else, such as Avarice, and it is all that we have' (Conington). 'It is all in our favor that you are alive' (Pretor)-- clearly wrong. There is an evident reminiscence of the Horatian _#quod spiro# et placeo, si placeo, #tuum# est_ (Od., 4, 3, 24), which sustains Casaubon's view.

152. #cinis et manes et fabula fies#: See note on 1, 36. There are clearly three stages, as Conington suggests: 'first ashes, then a shade, then a name.' With _fabula fies_ comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 13, 9: _fabula fias_, and Od., 1, 4, 16: _iam te premet nox #fabulaeque manes#_.

153. #vive memor leti#: So Hor., Sat., 2, 6, 97. --#hoc quod loquor inde est#: 'What I am saying-- this speech of mine-- is so much off, so much time lost.' Comp. _dum loquimur fugerit invida | aetas_, Hor., Od., 1, 11, 7.

154. #en quid agis?# See 3, 5. --#duplici hamo#: 'a couple of hooks.' If _hamo_ is a fish-hook, _scinderis_ is a metaphor within a metaphor. 'You are like a fish distracted by two hooks,' not knowing which to bite at. Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 7, 74: _occultum visus decurrere piscis ad #hamum#_, and for _scinderis_, Verg., Aen., 2, 39: _#scinditur# incertum studia in contraria vulgus_. The executioner's hook, which others understand, is generally _uncus_; Juv., 10, 66: _Seianus ducitur #unco#_.

155. #sequeris#: See note on 3, 5. --#subeas oportet#: G., 535, R. 1; A., 70, 3, _f_, R.

156. #oberres#: Gr. +drapeteuein+, '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 (+Chairestratos+), the young master, and Davus (+Daos+), 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. ##ad#rodens#: 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 (+paraklausithura+).

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 +apotropaios, apôsikakos, alexikakos+. Comp. +apotropoisi daimosi+, 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 +blautoun+ 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#: +ei g' exebês+. '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_.