Part 8

96. #Arma virum!# 'Compare with these elegant verses _Arma virum_; what a rough affair!' Not only were the opening words of a poem used to indicate the poem itself-- +Mênin aeide+ the Iliad, +Andra moi ennepe+ the Odyssey, _Arma virum_ the Aeneid-- but the first verses were considered peculiarly significant. So the metrical structure of the first verse of the Iliad is very different from that of the first verse of the Odyssey. _Arma virum_, etc., with its short words and its frequent caesurae, was harsh to the ear of the interlocutor, and is compared with the rough, cracked bark of the cork-tree. --#spumosum et cortice pingui#: 'frothy and fluffy' (Conington). As usual, Persius works out his comparison into minute details.

97. #vegrandi subere#: So Jahn, instead of _praegrandi subere_. Do not translate 'huge, overgrown bark' (Conington), but 'dwarfed, stunted cork-tree.' See Ribbeck (_Beiträge zur Lehre von den lateinischen Partikeln_, S. 9), who has discussed _ve_ and this verse at some length. Both Conington and Pretor admire the metaphysics of Jahn, who has 'explained, after Festus and Nonius, _vegrandis_ as _male grandis_, so as to include the two senses attributed to it by Gell., 5, 12; 16, 5, of _too small_ and _too large_.' But _ve-_ means separation (Vanicek, _Etym. Wb._, S. 166); _ve-cor-s_, 'out of one's mind;' _ve-sanu-s_, 'out of one's sound senses;' _ve-grandi-s_, 'shrunken,' 'dwarfed,' 'undergrown' (if the word is admissible). For the growth of the cork-tree, R. refers to Plin., N. H., 16, 8, 13: _suberi #minima arbor#-- cortex tantum in fructu, praecrassus ac renascens atque etiam in denos pedes undique explanatus_. Some of the best commentators give these two verses (96 and 97) to Persius, and consider _Arma virum_ as an invocation of the shades of Vergil, 'as Horace, A. P., 141, contrasts the opening of the Odyssey with _Fortunam Priami cantabo_.' _Hoc_ is supposed to refer to the specimen verses. Ribbeck also (l.c.) regards the swollen, light bark of the low cork-tree as the image of the _genus tumidum et leve_, as opposed to the _grande et grave_. --#coctum#: 'thoroughly dried.'

98. #Quidnam igitur#: _Igitur_ is not unfrequently used in questions, as our 'then.' So _quidnam igitur censes?_ Juv., 4, 130. But, unless the question is a rejoinder, it is not very appropriate. 'If the Aeneid is rough, give us something really soft,' would be a fit reply to _Arma virum_, etc., in the mouth of the objector. Conington, who gives 96-98 to Persius, connects thus: 'If these are your specimens of finished versification, give us something peculiarly languishing.' --#laxa cervice#: the attitude of the _mobile guttur_, v. 18.

99. #Torva mimalloneis#: Persius can not wait for a specimen, and gives one himself. This is much more dramatic than the arrangement, which makes the respondent cite the verses. The verses are attributed to Nero by the scholiast, and in fact Nero is said to have composed a poem on the Bacchae, Dio., 61, 20. The theme is so common that no conclusion is to be drawn from that statement. Mr. Pretor, who understands by _iunctura_ 'a resetting of old verses,' regards 99-102 as a weak _réchauffé_ of Catull., 64, 257 seqq., and compares Tac., Ann., 14, 16. --#Torva#: 'grim.' So _#torvum#que repente | clamat_, Verg., Aen., 7, 399 (of Bacchanalian madness). --#mimalloneis#: from Mimas, on the coast opposite Chios. With the whole verse comp. _multis raucisonos efflabant cornua bombos_, Catull., 64, 264, and Lucr., 4, 544.

100. #vitulo superbo#: variously caricatured as 'the haughty, the scornful calf.' No such effect could have been produced by the original. Comp. +tauroi hubristai+, Eur., Bacch., 743 (Jahn); +gaurotera moschô+, Theocr., 11, 21; _equae superbiunt_, Plin., 10, 63. The Bacchanal rending of animals is familiar. --#ablatura#: On this free use of the future participle, see G., 672; A., 72, 4.

101. #Bassaris#: a Bacchante. Jahn cites a Greek epigram (Anth. Pal., 6, 74), which shows how close a resemblance may be due simply to community of theme. --#lyncem#: 'The lynx was sacred to Bacchus as the conqueror of India.'

102. #euhion#: Gr. +euion+, Accus. of +euios+ (commonly but falsely spelled _Evius_), _Euhius_, Bacchus. --#reparabilis#: Actively, as Horace's _dissociabilis_, Od., 1, 3, 22; 'renewing,' 'restoring,' 'reawakening.' So Ov., Met., 1, 11, of the moon: _#reparat# nova cornua_. --#adsonat#: 'chimes in.'

103. #testiculi vena ulla paterni#: '_Honestius expressit_, Ov., Her., 16, 291: _si sint vires in semine avorum_.' 'If we had one spark of our fathers' manhood alive in us' (Conington).

104. #delumbe#: 'backboneless,' 'marrowless.' Comp. +ischiorrôgikos+ --#saliva#: Spittle is 'foolish rheum' as well as tears.

105. #in udo est Maenas et Attis#: 'Your Maenas and your Attis-- it drivels away.'

106. #nec pluteum caedit#, etc.: _Pluteus_, which is commonly rendered 'desk,' is, 'according to the scholiast, the back-board of the _lecticula lucubratoria_,' or studying-sofa, such as Augustus indulged in, Suet., Aug., 78; comp. v. 53. 'The man lies on his couch after his meal, listlessly drivelling out his verses, without any physical exertion or even motion of impatience' (Conington). Persius underrates the artistic finish, as he has overdrawn the moral conclusion. --#demorsos#: 'bitten down to the quick.' _Et in versu faciendo | saepe caput scaberet vivos et roderet ungues_, Hor., Sat., 1, 10, 70.

107-121. M. But what is the use of offending people? We must not tell the truth at all times. You will have a cool reception at certain great houses. Nay, the dog will be set on you. --P. Well! I make no struggle. Every thing is lovely. No nuisance, you say. All right. Boys, let us go somewhere else. But there was Lucilius-- he wielded the lash, he gnawed the bones of his victims. There was Horace-- he probed his friend's heart and punched him in the ribs, and had the town dangling from the gibbet of his tip-tilted nose. And I am not to say-- Bo! Not all to myself? Not with a ditch for my confidant? Nowhere? Nowhere, you say? But I will. I have found a place-- a ditch. It is my book. Here, book, is my great secret: 'All the world's an ass.' What a relief!

107. #quid#: What case? --#radere#: 'rasp.' --#mordaci vero#: _Verum_ is so completely a substantive that there is no difficulty about _mordaci vero_ (comp. G., 428, R. 2). Much bolder is _generoso honesto_, 2, 74; _opimum pingue_, 3, 32.

108. #vid[)e]#: like _cav[)e]_, and other iambic Imperatives. G., 704, 2; A., 78, 2, _d_. --#sis# = _si vis_, to soften the Imperative, 'pray do.' --#maiorum tibi forte#: Hor., Sat., 2, 1, 60: _O puer ut sis | vitalis metuo et maiorum ne quis amicus | #frigore# te feriat._ _Maiores_ = 'grandees.'

109. #limina frigescant#: like the modern slang, 'leave one out in the cold.' _Limen_ is used in many Latin turns where 'threshold' would be too stately in English. Mrs. Gamp would render: 'the great man's cold doorsteps will settle on your lungs.' --#canina littera#: 'R is for the dog,' Shaksp., Romeo and Jul.; 'A dog snarling R,' Ben Jonson. See Dictionaries, s.v. _hirrire_. Gr. +ararizein+. An allusion to the familiar _cave canem_. 'The snarl is that of the great man' (Scholiast). Conington compares _ira cadat naso_, 5, 91. The obvious interpretation is the right one. 'There is a sound of snarling in the air,' refers simply to the great man's dog, which will be set on the unwelcome satirist.

110. #per me#: 'for all I care,' +emou g' heneka+, a familiar use of the preposition _per: #per me# habeat licet_, Plaut., Mercat., 5, 4, 29. --#equidem#: Not for _ego quidem_, although this opinion affected the practice of Cicero, Horace, Vergil, Quintilian, the younger Pliny. Sallust, like Varro, combines _equidem_ with every person. So Ribbeck (l.c. S. 36), who derives _equidem_ from _e_ interj. and _quidem_. Conington tries to save the rule here by making the expression equivalent to _equidem concedo_. Another exception is found 5, 45, where C. goes through the same legerdemain: _non #equidem# dubites_, 'I would not have you doubt.' --#alba#: 'lovely,' 'whitewash them as much as you please.'

111. #nil moror#, etc.: The whole line, indeed the whole passage, is strongly conversational in its tone. _Nil moror_, 'I don't wish to be in your way, to spoil sport.' Comp. Ter., Eun., 3, 2, 7, and Gesner, s.v. _moror_. --#bene#: Comp. Cic., Fam., 7, 22: _bene potus._ See also note on 4, 22. --#mirae res#: 'wonders of the world' (Conington), 'miracles of perfection.'

112. #hoc iuvat?# 'I hope that is satisfactory.' --#veto quisquam faxit oletum#: 'commit no nuisance.' Observe the legal tone. _Quisquam_, on account of the negative idea. The negative _ne_ is omitted after _veto_ as often after _caveo_. G. 548, R. 2; A., 57, 7, _a_. _Faxit_, a disputed form. G., 191, 5; A., 30, 6, _e_.

113. #pinge duos anguis#: 'a sign of dedication rather than of prohibition' (Pretor). The dedication involves the prohibition. This is one of the innumerable phases of serpent-worship. For the serpent, as the symbol of the _genius loci_, which is Greek as well as Latin, see Verg., Aen., 5, 95, and the commentators. The reading _pinguedo sanguis_ of some of the best MSS. may be mentioned, _animi causa_.

114. #secuit#: 'cut to the bone.' --#Lucilius#: The _loci classici_ are Hor., Sat., 1, 4, 6; 1, 10, 1; 2, 1, 62; Juv., 1, 19, 165. The _testimonia de Lucilio_ have been collected and annotated by L. Müller, Lucil., p. 170 seqq.; p. 288 seqq.

115. #Lupe, Muci#: L. Cornelius Lentulus Lupus Cons. A.U.C. 598, and P. Mucius Scaevola Cons. A.U.C. 621, Juv., 1, 154. --#genuinum#: 'Breaking the back-tooth' shows the eagerness with which the satirist gnawed the bones of his victims. Comp. Petron., 58: _venies sub #dentem#_, 'you will be "chawed" up.'

116. A deservedly admired characteristic of Horace. --#vafer#: a hard word to catch. _Vafer_ crowns the formidable list of synonyms in the well-known passage of Cic., Off., 3, 13, 57: _versuti, obscuri, astuti, fallacis, malitiosi, callidi, veteratoris, #vafri#_, 'a shuffler, a hoodwinker, a trickster, a cheat, a designing rascal, a cunning fox, a blackleg, _a sly dog_.' The indirectness of _vafer_ may sometimes be rendered by 'politic,' 'adroit.' 'Rogue' is a tolerable equivalent. --#amico#: is much happier than _amici_ would be; it makes the friend a party to the game. _Horatius qui ridendo verum dicit_ (Sat., 1, 1, 24) _tam leniter vitia tangit, ut ipse, quem tangit, amicus rideat et poetam, qui dum ludere videtur intima aggreditur, lubens admittat et excipiat_ (Jahn, after Teuffel). --#admissus#: 'gets himself let in,' 'gains his entrance' (Conington, after Gifford).

117. #praecordia#: 'heartstrings.'

118. #excusso#: Persius would not be Persius, if he did not give us a problem even in his best passages. _Excusso naso_ stronger than _emunctae naris_, Hor., Sat., 1, 4, 8 (Jahn). According to Heinr., _excusso = sursum iactato_, like _excussa brachia_, Ov., Met., 5, 596, which seems to suit _suspendere_. Conington renders, 'with a sly talent for tossing up his nose and catching the public on it,' doubtless with reference to 'tossing in a blanket,' a pastime not unknown to the ancients: _Ibis ab #excusso# missus in astra sago_, Mart., 1, 3, 8. Comp. Suet., Otho, 2; Cervantes, Don Quijote, 1, 17; and on the _sagatio_, see Friedländer, _Sittengesch._, 1, 25. As the blanket is drawn tight in order to effect the elevation of the person tossed, we may combine with this figure the old version of an 'unwrinkled nose,' a nose that is 'kept straight' (_exporrectus_) by the owner to disguise his merriment (_ac si nihil tule ageret_). But this is over-interpretation, the besetting sin of the editors of Persius. --#callidus suspendere#: On the construction, see Prol., 11. --#naso#: _Naso #suspendis# adunco_, Hor., Sat., 1, 6, 5. Comp. 2, 8, 64.

119. #men#: On _ne_ in rhetorical questions, see v. 22. --#nec clam--nec cum scrobe#: 'neither to myself nor with a hole in the ground for my listener.' The negative in _nefas_ is subdivided by _nec-- nec_, G., 444, R. Others supply _fas_, G., 446, R. --#nusquam#: The answer of the critic, Jahn (1843). In the ed. of 1868 he writes with Hermann, _nusquam?_ as a part of Persius's question. The arrangement in the text seems to be more in accordance with Persius's fashion of anticipating an answer (+anthupophora+). 'Nowhere? you say.' --#scrobe#: Allusion to the story of Midas and his barber, for which no reader will need to be referred to Ov., Met., 11, 180 seqq.

121. #quis non habet?# According to the _Vita Persii_, the poet had written _Mida rex habet_, intended for King Populus. Cornutus, afraid that Nero would take the fling to himself, changed the words to _quis non habet?_ The story is not very consistent with the theory that Persius went so far as to ridicule Nero's poetry.

122. #ridere meum#: See v. 9. --#nulla#: G., 304, R. 2. --#vendo#: 'I am going to sell;' familiar present for future; hence = _vendito_.

123. #Iliade#: Probably the Iliad of Labeo. Homer's Iliad would be too extravagant. --#audaci quicumque#, etc.: The poet distinctly points to the mordant Old Attic Comedy as his model; yet there is little trace of direct imitation of the worthies whom he cites, and the interval of conception is abysmal. --#adflate#: Persius, like some other Roman poets, goes beyond reasonable bounds in the use of the Vocative as a predicate. G., 324, R. 1; A., 35, _b_. The Greeks were cautious, and in Vergil the Vocative can be detached and felt as such, but not here, nor in 3, 28. --#Cratino#: the oldest of the famous comic triumvirate: _Eupolis atque #Cratinus# Aristophanesque poetae_, Hor., Sat., 1, 4, 1. Cratinus was the Archilochus of the Attic stage, hence _audax_. See the famous characteristic in Aristophanes, Eq., 527.

124. #iratum Eupolidem#: The epithet is borne out by the fragments. --#praegrandi cum sene#: Aristophanes. The adjective refers to his greatness: 'the old giant.' _Sene_ is not to be pressed. Men who come before the public early are often called old before their time. Hannibal calls himself an old man when he was only in his forty-fourth year, Liv., 30, 30. Others understand _sene_ as a compliment to an 'ancient' author. Instead of Aristophanes, Heinrich and others suppose that Lucilius is meant. Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 1, 34: _vita #senis#_, although Lucilius was only about forty-five at the time of his death-- but see L. Müller, _Lucilius_, p. 288. --#palles#: 'study yourself pale over.' The combination with the Accusative is bold, but not bolder than other cognate Accusatives. 'Gain a Eupolidean pallor' = 'a pallor due to Eupolis.' For different phases of _pallere_ with Accus., see 3, 43. 85; 5, 184.

125. #decoctius#: The figure is from wine that is 'boiled down,' 'well refined.' Not 'opposed to the _spumosus_ of v. 96' (Conington), as is shown by _coctum_, v. 97. --#audis#: 'have an ear for' (Conington).

126. #inde# = _ab iis_, 'by these' (G., 613, R. 1; A., 48, 5), 'by the study of these,' dependent on _vaporata_. --#vaporata#: 'steamed,' hence 'cleansed,' 'refined' (Jahn). Comp. _#purgatas# aures_, 5, 63; _aurem mordaci #lotus# aceto_, 5, 86. --#lector mihi ferveat#: _Mihi_ really depends on _ferveat_, though it may be conveniently translated by 'my' with _lector_. 'Let my reader be one who comes to me with his ears aglow from the pure effluence of such poetry.'

127. #non hic#: _Hic_ is different in tone from _is_, more distinctly demonstrative, and hence more distinctly contemptuous. --#in crepidas#: The simple Accusative with _ludere_ is the regular construction. _Crepidae_, a part of the Greek national dress. Comp. Suet., Tib., 13: _redegit se_ [_Tiberius_], _deposito patrio habitu, ad pallium et #crepidas#_. Hence _fabulae crepidatae_ of tragedies with Greek plots. --#Graiorum#: the rarer and more stilted form for _Graecorum_, perhaps by way of rebuking the impertinence of this stolid would-be wag.

128. #sordidus#: 'low creature,' 'dirty dog.' Himself vulgar, he can not understand refinement of manners or attire. --#qui possit#: Casaubon reads _poscit_ to match _gestit_. But Indicative and Subjunctive may well be combined, the former of a fact, the latter of a characteristic: 'a man who-- and a man to--.' So in the famous line: _sunt qui non habeant, est qui non curat habere_, Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 182. --#lusce#: 'Old One-eye' (Conington). The lowness of the wit is evident. In v. 56 the poet appears to break his own rule, but baldness and corpulence are in his eyes badges of vice, not simple misfortunes.

129. #aliquem#: G., 301. --#Italo#: 'provincial.' --#supinus# = _superbus_. The head is thrown back with the chin in the air, a familiar stage attitude. Others render 'lolling at his ease.'

130. #fregerit#: G., 541; A., 63, 2. --#heminas iniquas#: 'short half-pint measures.' This was the duty of the aedile. --#Arreti#: Arretium in Etruria. So Juvenal takes Ulubrae as the type of a small provincial town: _vasa minora | frangere pannosus vacuis aedilis #Ulubris#_, 10, 102.

131. #abaco#: The _abacus_ was a slab of marble or other material which was covered with sand (_pulvis_), for the purpose of drawing mathematical figures or making calculations (Jahn). Or _pulvere_ may be dissociated from _abaco_, and then _abacus_ would be a counting-board, _pulvis_, the sand on the ground (_eruditus pulvis_, Cic., N. D., 2, 18, 48), familiar from the story of the murder of Archimedes. --#metas#: 'cones.'

132. #scit#: as if this were a feat. Comp. v. 53. --#risisse#: +gelasai+, 'to have his laugh at,' one of the Perfect Infinitives mentioned in note on v. 41. --#vafer#: ironical. --#gaudere paratus#: _Paratus_, as a Participle from _parare_, takes the Infinitive with ease. The grammars generally treat it as an exceptional Adjective. Here _paratus_ is +hoios+; 'Just your man to have a fit of glee.' Comp. Petron., 43: _#paratus# fuit quadrantem de stercore mordicus tollere_.

133. #Cynico barbam#: 'a Cynic's beard for him.' G., 343, R. 2. _#Vellunt# tibi #barbam# | lascivi pueri_, Hor., Sat., 1, 3, 133 (of a Stoic). The beard was the badge of a philosopher. --#nonaria#: so called because women of that class were not allowed to ply their trade before the 'ninth hour'-- 'callet,' 'trull.' --#vellat#: because dependent; otherwise _gaudet si vellit_. G., 666; A., 66, 2. The Cynic philosopher and the _nonaria_ (+ho kai hê kuôn+) belong to each other by elective affinity, Alciphron, 3, 55, 9. See an amusing parallel between philosopher and courtesan in the same sophist, 1, 34; and on the worst specimens of the 'Capuchins of antiquity,' as the Cynics have been called, comp. Friedländer, _Sittengesch._, 3, 572.

134. #edictum#: 'play-bill,' after Sen., Ep., 117, 30. Others, 'the business of the courts,' the praetor's court being a favorite lounging-place. --#prandia#: See v. 67. --#Calliroen#: possibly one of the _elegidia procerum_ (v. 51), after the order of Phyllis and Hypsipyle (v. 34). Comp. Ov., Met., 9, 407, Rem. Am., 455-6. Others suppose that Persius meant a _nonaria_. See note on 6, 73, and comp. Plutarch, Quaest. Conv., 3, 6, 4. With this gracious permission, Casaubon compares the edict of Hor., Ep., 1, 19, 8: _Forum putealque Libonis | mandabo siccis, adimam cantare severis_.

CRITICAL APPENDIX.

SATURA I.

6. #examenque#: examenve, J{a}., H. --8. #nam Romae quis non#: nam Romae est quis non, J{a} --a: ac, J{a}.; ah, H. --9. #tum#: tunc, J{a}., H. --11. #tunc, tunc, ignoscite-- 'Nolo:'# J{a}.; tunc, tunc-- ignoscite, nolo, J{w}., H. --12. #splene cachinno#: splene-- cachinno, H. --14. #quod#: J{a}., H.; quo, J{w}. --17. #leges#: legens, J{a}., H. --19. #nec#: neque, J{a}. --32. #circa#: circum, J{a}. --#umeros#: humeros, J{w}., H. --#hyacinthia#: hyacinthina, J{a}., H. --35. #supplantat#: subplantat, J{w}. --36. #adsensere#: assensere, J{a}., H. --57. #protenso#: propenso, J{a}. --60. #Apula#: Appula, H. --#tantae#: tantum, Heinrich, Conington. --66. #derigat#: dirigat, J{a}., H. --69. #adferre#: afferre, J{a}., H. --74. #cum#: J{a}.; quem, J{w}., H. --#dictatorem#: dictaturam, H. --76. #Acci#: Atti, J{a}. --78. #fulta#: fulta? H. --82. #exsultat#: J{a}., H.; exultat, J{w}. --88. #men moveat? quippe et#: men moveat quippe et, J{a}., H. --89. #protulerim#: protulerim? J{a}., H. --91. #querela#: J{a}., Brambach; querella, J{w}., H. --93. #cludere#: claudere, J{a}., H. --95. #Appennino#: Apennino, J{a}. --97. #vegrandi#: praegrandi, H. --102. #euhion#: evion, J{a}. --111. #omnes, omnes#: omnes etenim, J{a}. --114. #meite#: meiite, J{a}., H. --119. #nec cum scrobe? nusquam?# nec cum scrobe, nusquam? J{w}., H.; nec cum scrobe? 'nusquam.' J{a}. --130. #heminas#: J{a}., H.; eminas, J{w}.

* * * * *

SATURA II.