# The Satires of A. Persius Flaccus

## Part 5

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

Persius, then, was a preacher of Stoicism-- Stoicism, at once the philosophy and the religion of a time when serious and noble natures had no city of refuge except in their inmost selves, when the only possible activity seemed to be submission to the inevitable. The hydrostatic pressure of the imperial time forced all the better elements into this mould; and in so far Persius bears the stamp of his period, and the very absence of political and personal allusions shows how imperfect life must have been. But one school of commentators, headed by Casaubon, and represented to-day in Germany by Lehmann, in England by Pretor, see in Persius much more than a disciple of the Stoa; and the satires of our author-- especially the First and Fourth-- are supposed to be full of more or less oblique references to Nero's person, his habits, his literary pretensions, his aristocratic birth. At one time it seemed as if this thesis, which was suggested by the scholiast, had been abandoned, but the field for historical ingenuity is too tempting; and one of the vaguest of all the satires, the Fifth, has been discovered by Lehmann to be full of the most stinging allusions to Nero. It is not enough to grant to this school that Nero, as the type of his age, may have been present to the mind of the author. They scornfully reject this concession, and resort to all manner of legerdemain in order to explain away the impossibilities of such an attack and the improbabilities of its execution. With such scope as these scholars allow themselves we may find parallels every where, and covert assaults may be detected in the most innocent literary performances. But it would not answer the purpose of this Introduction to enter into an elaborate discussion of this question, which seems to be destined to an uncomfortable resurrection as often as it is laid. Every plausible coincidence has been mentioned in the Notes, and it will be sufficient for ingenuous youth to know the opinions of distinguished scholars on the subject.

If this essay had not been prolonged beyond the limit proposed, it might be well to give some account of the grammatical and rhetorical peculiarities of the style of Persius; but the grammar of Persius will present few difficulties to those who are at all familiar with the poetic syntax of the Latin language; and enough has been said to prepare the student, in a measure, for coping with the labored terseness of our author.

The manuscripts of Persius are remarkable for their age, their number, and the stupid bewilderment of the transcribers. The best is the _Codex Montepessulanus_, or Montpellier manuscript, with which the _Codex Vaticanus_ closely coincides; but, in the words of Jahn, _Nullus Persii codex tantae auctoritatis est ut in rebus dubiis eius vestigia tuto sequaris sed semper inter complures optio eaque non raro incerta datur_.

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A. PERSII FLACCI

SATURARUM

LIBER.

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PROLOGUS.

Nec fonte labra prolui caballino, nec in bicipiti somniasse Parnaso memini, ut repente sic poeta prodirem. Heliconidasque pallidamque Pirenen illis remitto, quorum imagines lambunt 5 hederae sequaces: ipse semipaganus ad sacra vatum carmen adfero nostrum. quis expedivit psittaco suum chaere picamque docuit nostra verba conari? magister artis ingenique largitor 10 venter, negatas artifex sequi voces; quod si dolosi spes refulserit nummi, corvos poetas et poetridas picas cantare credas Pegaseium nectar.

NOTES.

PROLOGUE.

ARGUMENT.-- I never drank of Hippocrene, never dreamed on Parnassus. The maids of Helicon and the waters of Pirene are meat and drink for my masters-- the acknowledged classics-- not for me, a poor lay-brother, with my humble, homely song (1-7). Others succeed: the parrot with his Greek, the pie with her Latin. They have not dreamed on Parnassus either; but they have a teacher-- the great master Belly-- and Sixpence is their Phoebus Apollo. Hark how they troll forth their notes! (8-14).

Alas for me! no golden Muse, no silver sixpence inspires me. _Quis leget haec?_

This prologue is a survival of the dramatic element of the satire, as Casaubon has remarked. Peculiarly personal, the prologue is found in the earlier and in the later stages of art, in ballad literature and in reflective poetry. The spurious verses which precede the Aeneid-- _Ille ego_-- were intended to serve as a prologue, and prologues in prose and poetry are familiar to the readers of Martial, Statius, Ausonius, and Claudian.

There is no good reason to doubt the genuineness of the prologue, or to attribute the authorship to Caesius Bassus, the Editor of Persius, as Heinrich has done. Nor is there any sufficient ground for supposing that the prologue is fragmentary. The two parts-- of seven verses each-- do not hang well together, but the connection of the thought is not so remote after all. 'In the former part, Persius ridicules the pretended source of the poetical inspiration of his time, in the latter he exposes its real origin' (Teuffel).

More open to debate is the relation of the prologue to the satires. Is it an introduction to all, or only to the first? It is true that the prologue seems to belong especially to the first. Both furnish us with a programme of the poet's views, with a confession of faith which consisted in a want of faith in the age; but as the First Satire itself contains a vindication of the poet's work, and forms an introduction to the other five satires, it is safer not to restrict the prologue to the narrower office.

It is needless to say that these verses have not lacked admirers and imitators. The latter half is parodied by Milton (_In Salmasii Hundredam_), and the line _magister artis ingenique largitor_ is expanded by Rabelais (4, 59).

The metre is the _scazon_ or _choliambus_ (G., 755; A., 82, 2, _a_, R), and as the combination of different rhythms is one of the peculiarities of the earlier _satura_, it is not unlikely that Persius followed an older pattern. In Petronius, cap. 5, the choliambus is in like manner followed by the hexameter, but the analogy is not close. The choliambus, the invention of the great lampoonist Hipp[-o]nax, is admirably adapted by its structure for the expression of disappointment, vexation, discontent. The march of the iambus is suddenly checked in the fifth foot, and the rapid measure violently tripped up. It is a mischievous metre, and betrays in its malice the Thersitic character of its inventor.

1. The allusion is to Ennius, the _alter Homerus_, who drank of Hippocrene (Prop., 3, 2 [4], 6), and dreamed that he had seen his great original on Parnassus (Cic., Ac. Pr., 2, 16, 51). --#fonte#: '_in_ the spring.' The Latin Abl. often has a locative translation, when the conception is not necessarily or not distinctly locative. (G.,[2] 387.) --#prolui#: 'drenched' is designedly misused. The figure is _Litotes_. (G., 448, R. 2.) The greater the depression, the greater the rebound. _Non prolui labra_ = _ne primoribus quidem labris attigi_. --#caballino#: _Fons caballinus_, 'hack's spring,' is a mock translation of _Hippocrene_ = +hippou krênê+: the fountain opened by Pegasus with his hoof. _Caballus_ is a comic equivalent of _equus_. Comp. Juvenal's _Gorgonei #caballi#_ (3, 118).

[Footnote 2: G. = Gildersleeve's L. Grammar; A. = Allen and Greenough's; M. = Madvig's.]

2. #bicipiti#: 'two-peaked.' Parnassus is called _biceps_, either because it appears to have two peaks from such common points of view as the entrance to the Corinthian Gulf (+dikorumbos ho Parnasos+, Lucian, Char., 5), or because of the two tall cliffs (Ov., Met., 1, 316; 2, 221)-- the +Phaidriades+ of Diodorus (16, 28), the +dilophos petra+ of Sophocles (Ant., 1126)-- between which the Castalian spring takes its rise. --#somniasse#: sc. _me somniasse_ (G., 527, R. 2; M., 401). With _memini_ the Pres. Inf. is more common of Personal Recollection (G., 277, R; A., 58, 11, _b_), but the Perfect is also found when the action is distinctly recognized as a by-gone. Comp. _saepe velut gemmas eius signumque probarem_ | _per causam #memini# me #tetigisse# manum_, Tib., 1, 6, 26. Also Ov., Am., 3, 7, 25-6; A. A., 2, 169. The Perfect is especially appropriate here, as the balance of the period would seem to require _nec prolui nec_ (_quod meminerim_) _somniavi_; and so Conington with correct instinct translates, 'never that #I# can remember.'

3. #sic#: +houtôs+, 'just so,' 'without any warning, any preparation.' --#prodirem#: 'make my appearance' (as it were on the stage).

4. #Heliconidas#: The Muses. Comp. Hesiod (Theog., 1). Hermann prefers the epic form, _Heliconiadas_. --#-que# --#-que#: G., 478; A., 43, 2, _a._ --#pallidamque Pirenen#: Pirene is the fountain of Acrocorinthus, where Pegasus was broken in by Bellerophon. The poetic virtue of its water was a late discovery. _Pallidam_, attribute for effect. Comp. _pallida mors_, +chlôron deos+, and the like. The pallor of students and poets needs no illustration.

5. #remitto#: +aphiêmi+, for the more usual _relinquo_, which is a common v.l. Kisselius (_Specimen criticum_, p. 51) cites Cic., De Orat., 1, 58: _tibi #remittunt# istam voluptatem et ea se carere patiuntur_; and Tac., Hist., 4, 11: _vim principis complecti, nomen remittere_. --#imagines#: 'busts' (set up in libraries, public and private). Comp. _ut dignus venias hederis et imagine macra_, Juv., 7, 29. --#lambunt#: more frequently used of flames.

6. #hederae#: Notice the plural, 'ivy wreaths,' G., 195, R. 6. The ivy, being sacred to Bacchus, formed the wreath of victors in scenic contests; thence transferred to poets generally. --#sequaces#: 'lissom, pliant.' Persius seldom, if ever, uses a merely descriptive epithet, and hence some commentators have detected a sneer in these words, 'lackeying ivy belicks.' --#semipaganus#: 'poor half-brother of the guild' (Conington). The _paganus_ is admitted to all the _sacra pagi_ (_paganalia_); the _semipaganus_ is a lay-brother. Persius is not a _vates_, but a _semivates_. He is not initiated into what Aristophanes calls the +gennaiôn orgia Mousôn+, Ran., 356. Those who believe that the Satires of Persius were aimed at Nero, see in _semipaganus_, 'half-educated,' as well as in the last seven verses, a deliberate disguise of the poet's real condition, as a man of culture and of wealth. They overlook the sneer at the class which he is not worthy to join.

7. #vatum#: with the same tone of derision as in the English equivalent, 'bards.' --#nostrum#: perhaps not simply = _meum_, but 'native, home-made.'

8. #expedivit#: _Expedire_ and _conari_ both imply difficulty (Jahn), but the difficulty is completely conquered in _expedire_; not so in _conari_. The parrot, if not a Greek (+psittakos+), is a Hellenized Hindoo (_bitak_), and has learned to utter glibly his familiar _Bonjour_. The magpie is an Italian, and not so deft. Others regard this interpretation, which is essentially Jahn's, as too subtle, and make _verba nostra_, which many prefer to _nostra verba_, simply equivalent to 'human speech.' --#chaere# = +chaire+. Greek was the language of small talk, love talk, parrot-talk.

10. #magister artis ingenique largitor#: _Magister_, of that which is taught; _largitor_, of that which comes from nature's bounty; _-que_ combines the two into an exhaustive unit (G., 478; A., 43, 3, _a_). The thought recurs in numberless forms. Comp. +ha penia, Diophante, mona tas technas egeirei+, Theocr., 21, 1; _Paupertas omnes artis perdocet_, Plaut., Stich., 1, 3. 23 (Jahn). Add +chreia didaskei, kan bradus tis ê, sophon+, Eur., fr. 709 (Nauck), and Alexis, fr. 205 (3, 479 Mein.), where the +gastêr+ is expressly mentioned. Birds, it seems, were trained to talk by hunger.

11. #negatas#: (_a natura_). --#artifex sequi#: poetic syntax for _a. sequendi_. G., 424, R. 4. (comp. 429, R. 4); A., 57, 8, _f_, 3. A so-called Greek construction. See 1, 59. 70. 118; 5, 15. 24; 6, 6. 24. --#sequi# = _sectari_. --#voces#: (articulate) 'speech.'

12. #quod si#: 'Nay, if but.' Commentators on Horace still indulge in remarks on the unpoetical character of _quod si_, copying Orelli on Od., 1, 1, 35. If _quod si_ is prosaic, Propertius is to be pitied; he uses it at every turn. --#dolosi#: 'seductive, alluring.' Persius does not deal much in 'general epithets;' hence +dolion kerdos+ (Pind., Pyth., 4, 140) is not a sufficient parallel. --#refulserit#: better every way than _refulgeat_, which Jahn accepts in his ed. of 1868. The Perf. Subj. is more vivid and more correct than the Present. _Re-_ must not be overlooked. Like the English 'again,' it denotes the reversal of a previous condition. _Refulgere_, 'to catch the eye by its glitter,' 'to flash on the sight'-- whereas it lay unnoticed before. --#nummi#: better translated as a coin. Comp. 'The Splendid Shilling,' 'The Almighty Dollar;' perhaps 'The Magic Sixpence.' Comp. Juv., 7, 8: _nam si Pieria #quadrans# tibi nullus in umbra | ostendatur_, etc.

13. #corvos poetas et poetridas picas#: 'Raven poets and poetess pies,' the substantive standing for an epithet, like _popa venter_, 6, 74. Which of the substantives is adjective to the other does not appear. For the _corvus_, Poe and Dickens will answer as well as Macrob., Sat. 2, 4. The male poet has a female counterpart in the magpie (_pica_). According to Ov. (Met., 5, 294, foll.), the daughters of Pierus, the Macedonian, were changed into magpies because they had challenged the Muses to a contest, and reviled the victorious goddesses. There seems to be an allusion to the literary ladies of the day, the blue-stockings of Juvenal's Satire (6, 434 foll.). See Friedländer, _Sittengeschichte_, 1, 481. _Poetridas_ after Gr. analogy.

14. #cantare nectar#: a poetic extension of the cognate accusative = _nectareum carmen cantare_ (G., 331; A., 52, 1, _b_). _Nectar_ is copied from Pind., Ol., 7, 7 (+nektar chuton, Moisan dosin+), and when combined with _Pegaseium_ is sufficiently grandiloquent to be as absurd as it is intended to be. The old reading, _melos_ (+melos+), with its faulty quantity, rarely finds a champion against _nectar_.

CRITICAL APPENDIX.

PROLOGUS.

2. #Parnaso#: Parnasso, H. --4. #Heliconidas#: Heliconiadas, J{a}., H. --5. #remitto#: relinquo, J{a}. --7. #adfero#: affero, J{a}., H. --8. #chaere#: +chaire+, J{a}., H. --9. #picam#: picas, J{a}. --#nostra verba#: verba nostra, H. --12. #refulserit#: J{a}.; refulgeat, J{w}., H.

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SATURA I.

O curas hominum! o quantum est in rebus inane! 'Quis leget haec?' Min tu istud ais? nemo hercule! 'Nemo?' Vel duo, vel nemo. 'Turpe et miserabile!' Quare? ne mihi Polydamas et Troiades Labeonem praetulerint? nugae. non, si quid turbida Roma 5 elevet, accedas examenque inprobum in illa castiges trutina, nec te quaesiveris extra. nam Romae quis non--? a, si fas dicere-- sed fas tum, cum ad canitiem et nostrum istud vivere triste aspexi ac nucibus facimus quaecumque relictis, 10 cum sapimus patruos; tunc, tunc, ignoscite-- 'Nolo.' Quid faciam? sed sum petulanti splene cachinno. Scribimus inclusi, numeros ille, his pede liber, grande aliquid, quod pulmo animae praelargus anhelet. scilicet haec populo pexusque togaque recenti 15 et natalicia tandem cum sardonyche albus sede leges celsa, liquido cum plasmate guttur mobile collueris, patranti fractus ocello. hic neque more probo videas nec voce serena ingentis trepidare Titos, cum carmina lumbum 20 intrant, et tremulo scalpuntur ubi intima versu. tun, vetule, auriculis alienis colligis escas? auriculis, quibus et dicas cute perditus _ohe_. 'Quo didicisse, nisi hoc fermentum et quae semel intus innata est rupto iecore exierit caprificus?' 25 En pallor seniumque! o mores! usque adeone scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter? 'At pulchrum est digito monstrari et dicier _hic est!_ ten cirratorum centum dictata fuisse pro nihilo pendas?' Ecce inter pocula quaerunt 30 Romulidae saturi, quid dia poemata narrent. hic aliquis, cui circa umeros hyacinthia laena est, rancidulum quiddam balba de nare locutus, Phyllidas Hypsipylas, vatum et plorabile si quid, eliquat ac tenero supplantat verba palato. 35 adsensere viri: nunc non cinis ille poetae felix? non levior cippus nunc inprimit ossa? laudant convivae: nunc non e manibus illis, nunc non e tumulo fortunataque favilla nascentur violae? 'Rides' ait 'et nimis uncis 40 naribus indulges. an erit qui velle recuset os populi meruisse et cedro digna locutus linquere nec scombros metuentia carmina nec tus?' Quisquis es, o, modo quem ex adverso dicere feci, non ego cum scribo, si forte quid aptius exit, 45 quando haec rara avis est, si quid tamen aptius exit, laudari metuam, neque enim mihi cornea fibra est; sed recti finemque extremumque esse recuso euge tuum et belle. nam belle hoc excute totum: quid non intus habet? non hic est Ilias Atti 50 ebria veratro? non si qua elegidia crudi dictarunt proceres? non quidquid denique lectis scribitur in citreis? calidum seis ponere sumen, scis comitem horridulum trita donare lacerna, et 'verum' inquis 'amo: verum mihi dicite de me.' 55 qui pote? vis dicam? nugaris, cum tibi, calve, pinguis aqualiculus protenso sesquipede exstet. o Iane, a tergo quem nulla ciconia pinsit, nec manus auriculas imitari mobilis albas, nec linguae, quantum, sitiat canis Apula, tantae! 60 vos, o patricius sanguis, quos vivere fas est occipiti caeco, posticae occurrite sannae! Quis populi sermo est? quis enim, nisi carmina molli nunc demum numero fluere, ut per leve severos effundat iunctura unguis? scit tendere versum 65 non secus ac si oculo rubricam derigat uno. sive opus in mores, in luxum, in prandia regum dicere, res grandis nostro dat Musa poetae. ecce modo heroas sensus adferre videmus nugari solitos graece, nec ponere lucum 70 artifices nec rus saturum laudare, ubi corbes et focus et porci et fumosa Palilia faeno, unde Remus, sulcoque terens dentalia, Quinti, cum trepida ante boves dictatorem induit uxor et tua aratra domum lictor tulit-- euge poeta! 75 est nunc Brisaei quem venosus liber Acci, sunt quos Pacuviusque et verrucosa moretur Antiopa, aerumnis cor luctificabile fulta. hos pueris monitus patres infundere lippos cum videas, quaerisne, unde haec sartago loquendi 80 venerit in linguas, unde istuc dedecus, in quo trossulus exsultat tibi per subsellia levis? nilne pudet capiti non posse pericula cano pellere, quin tepidum hoc optes audire _decenter_? 'Fur es' ait Pedio. Pedius quid? crimina rasis 85 librat in antithetis: doctas posuisse figuras laudatur 'bellum hoc!' hoc bellum? an, Romule, ceves? men moveat? quippe et, cantet si naufragus, assem protulerim. cantas, cum fracta te in trabe pictum ex umero portes? verum, nec nocte paratum 90 plorabit, qui me volet incurvasse querela. 'Sed numeris decor est et iunctura addita crudis. cludere sic versum didicit _Berecyntius Attis_ et _qui caeruleum dirimebat Nerea delphin_ sic _costam longo subduximus Appennino_. 95 _Arma virum_, nonne hoc spumosum et cortice pingui, ut ramale vetus vegrandi subere coctum?' 'Quidnam igitur tenerum et laxa cervice legendum? _Torva mimalloneis inplerunt cornua bombis,_ _et raptum vitulo caput ablatura superbo_ 100 _Bassaris et lyncem Maenas flexura corymbis_ _euhion ingeminat, reparabilis adsonat echo?'_ haec fierent, si testiculi vena ulla paterni viveret in nobis? summa delumbe saliva hoc natat in labris, et in udo est Maenas et Attis, 105 nec pluteum caedit, nec demorsos sapit unguis. 'Sed quid opus teneras mordaci radere vero auriculas? vide sis, ne maiorum tibi forte limina frigescant: sonat hic de nare canina littera.' Per me equidem sint omnia protinus alba; 110 nil moror. euge! omnes, omnes bene mirae eritis res. hoc iuvat? 'hic' inquis 'veto quisquam faxit oletum.' pinge duos anguis: pueri, sacer est locus, extra meite! discedo. secuit Lucilius urbem, te Lupe, te Muci, et genuinum fregit in illis; 115 omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico tangit et admissus circum praecordia ludit, callidus excusso populum suspendere naso: men muttire nefas? nec clam, nec cum scrobe? nusquam? hic tamen infodiam. vidi, vidi ipse, libelle: 120 auriculas asini quis non habet? hoc ego opertum, hoc ridere meum, tam nil, nulla tibi vendo Iliade. audaci quicumque adflate Cratino iratum Eupolidem praegrandi cum sene palles, aspice et haec, si forte aliquid decoctius audis. 125 inde vaporata lector mihi ferveat aure: non hic, qui in crepidas Graiorum ludere gestit sordidus, et lusco qui possit dicere 'lusce,' sese aliquem credens, Italo quod honore supinus fregerit heminas Arreti aedilis iniquas; 130 nec qui abaco numeros et secto in pulvere metas scit risisse vafer, multum gaudere paratus, si cynico barbam petulans nonaria vellat. his mane edictum, post prandia Calliroen do.

NOTES.

FIRST SATIRE.

This Satire is an attack on the literature of the day as the efflorescence of the corruption of the times. The age is personified by a critical friend, but it is not always easy to determine when the poet is speaking and when the friend, or when the satirist is meeting an imaginary objection from some other imaginary quarter. The unreality of the whole dialogue is confessed with more candor than art in v. 44. Instead of a firm outline, we have a floating _quisquis es_.

ARGUMENT.-- The poem opens with a line, which Persius recites to his man of straw, who forthwith urges him to abandon authorship (1-3). The poet acknowledges that he is at odds with his generation and expects no applause at their hands. But little does he care for their praise; let them prefer a Labeo to him. Their standard is not his standard. He is his own canon. He will not, can not follow the advice of his friend. He must obey the impulse of his temper and speak out (4-12).