Non hic qui in crepidas Graiorum ludere gestit Nec qui abaco numeros et secto in pulvere metas Si cynico barbam petulans nonaria vellat. His mane Edictum, post prandia Calliroen do. 130 read the poetry aloud to himself, and to be clear that the first sentence refers to arithdelighted as he hears it. 127. Non hic qui in crepidas] Not the man who laughs at all that is Greek,' which he expresses by 'crepidas Graiorum,' the 'crepida' being the Greek shoe (KPIs), from which the Romans called their tragedies with Greek plots 'crepidatae' (see note on Hor. A. P. 288). 'Sordidus' is a low fellow with no taste, a man who has no more wit than to cry 'lusce' after a man with one eye, and thinks himself somebody because he has been an aedile in a country town. Possit' means his power of satire extends so far and no farther. The mood is not the same as in 'gestit,' but neither is the sense. He takes pleasure in the one, and would be able to do the other. Casaubon substitutes 'poscit' for the sake of the indicative. As to the country aediles, who looked to the market and the weights and measures, among other things, see notes on Juv. iii. 179; x. 100. 'Hemina' was half a 'sextarius.' 'Iniquus' was the usual word for a false measure, as in Juv. xiv. 126: "modio castigat iniquo." 'Arretium' (Arezzo) was a town of Etruria, between the Tiber and the Arnus. There was an old city of great antiquity, and a more modern on the site of the present town, where many curious relics have been found, particularly of pottery, for which this town was famous. It is said to have been the birth-place of Maecenas. Supinus' seems to mean proud,' with his head up, or as one says, walking as if he had swallowed a spit, quoting Epictetus (apud Arrianum i. 21), OBÉλLOKOV KATаπιν TеρITATEîs (Plum). Forcellini takes it so, and all the commentators. Martial (v. 8) has "Haec et talia dum refert supinus" in the same sense. 131. Nec qui abaco numeros] 'Abacus' was a board or tray, with raised border and wooden divisions, used for calculating numbers with pebbles. The way of doing it is given conjecturally in Dict. Antiqq. The author of the article Abacus' in that dictionary has mistaken this passage. It is 6 metical computations on an abacus,' and the second to geometrical figures drawn on sand, for which an abacus' was also used. Metas' are cones, but any diagrams may be understood. Scit risisse vafer' is sarcastic, like 'possit dicere' above. Sit' has been proposed, for which Heinrich quotes authority, but I prefer the common reading: "He knows how to laugh, the clever fellow, at arithmetic and geometry, and is ready at any time to be delighted if a wanton prostitute pulls the beard of a philosopher." 'Nonaria' (meretrix) does not occur elsewhere, and the only explanation given of it is by the Scholiast, who says that these women were so called because they might not begin their trade till the ninth hour, the reason for which, he says, was that young men might not leave their military exercises to go to them. The Scholiast on Juv. vi. 117 gives the same explanation of the name. See Gesner, Thes. L. L. 'Nonaria.' Horace speaks of the boys pulling the Stoic by his beard, S. i. 3. 133. 134. His mane Edictum,] His' is 'to such as these' (Juv. xv. 10, n.). To such readers as these he leaves the life of the idle and the profligate, the first of which he expresses by the praetor's edictum' to represent the business of the forum much frequented by idle people in the morning, and the second by the name of some woman, as it seems, of bad character, or a name commonly borne by such women. As to the "edicta' of Roman magistrates, see Long's Cic. vol. i. p. 162. Jahn seems to incline to the notion that the edictum' Persius means is a play-bill of the games, with the names of the gladiators and other matters. His note is rather in the Ruperti style, acknowledging the right but coquetting with the wrong. Prandia' is not used strictly. The 'prandium' was eaten about noon. He means 'coena,' as in 67. SATIRA II. INTRODUCTION. THIS Satire is nearly free from difficulty. It is addressed to one Macrinus on his birthday, and Persius is led to contrast the prayers his friend, an honest man, will offer on that day with those of the generality of men, who, while openly they appear to pray for a good understanding and a good report, in private ask for the gratification of their meanest desires, sacrificing their flocks in the hope the gods will increase them, and in their infatuated love of gold offering gold to the gods, and driving out the simplicity of the old temple service, judging divine tastes by those of human corruption. The moral is that of Horace's address to the rustic Phidyle, that he who brings to the altar clean hands and an honest heart may offer the humblest sacrifice and it will be accepted. The Satire may be read with pleasure and some instruction. There is nothing forced or unnatural in the language. The illustrations are not numerous, and the connexion of the parts is easily followed. Above all, the lesson is not out of date, and as long as God and Mammon continue to be worshipped together, the imposture of hollow and selfish prayer will continue too. It is one of the inconsistencies of the human mind to acknowledge the power of God by invoking it to the assistance of its own wickedness, which it must be the first purpose of that power, if it exists, to punish. It has been said perseveringly by the commentators and translators, and Addison has laid it down as a fact in the Spectator, No. 207, that the ideas in this Satire are taken from the Dialogue falsely ascribed to Plato, and called “Alcibiades Secundus." I have looked through that spurious production, and can see no thought or trace of expression that Persius need be supposed to have taken from that source; and whether he ever read the Dialogue may be doubtful. He had suggestion enough close at hand, in the book he studied most attentively-the men and women about him-to have enabled him to write as much as he pleased about hypocrisy, whether it took the form of prayer or any other; and every time we imagine him borrowing from writers rather than from real life, we degrade him into a position he certainly does not deserve, that of an imitator and mere rhetorician. This remark obviously does not apply to a case like that in S. iv. ; where for the sake of illustrating a general truth, which is the subject of the Satire, a scene is taken from Plato. ARGUMENT. Set down a white mark for this day, Macrinus, and pour libations to your Genius. You do not need to take the gods apart and buy their favour, as most of our great men do; for 'tis not all can venture open prayer, banishing whispers from our temples. They've common prayers for strangers' ears, but mutter to themselves-'Oh that my uncle would depart this life.' 'Kind Hercules, grant a treasure may turn up beneath my plough.' 'Would my ward's name were blotted from the will: he's scrofulous and bilious.' 'Nerius is burying his third wife.' To offer prayers like these without offence you dip your head in the Tiber twice or thrice, and wash away the night's debauch. V. 17. Now tell me 'tis not much-are you prepared to place Jove above-whom?— why, Staius say, an upright man as any. Go, ask of Staius what you ask of Jove— how would he cry, 'O Jupiter!' and shall not Jove cry out, 'O Jupiter!' V. 24. Think you to pluck his beard because his lightning spares you and your house? What is the price you pay for the god's ears? Nothing but greasy entrails? See the old superstitious grandmother or aunt takes up the baby from its cradle, with spittle charms the Evil Eye away, then prays her hopeful may be rich some day, a son-in-law for kings, the girls all mad for him, and roses growing wheresoe'er he treads. Grant not their prayers, O Jove, though they come all in white to offer them. V. 41. You ask for health and strength; well, be it so; but your gross feeding will not let the gods be kind. V. 44. You think to make a fortune by your sacrifices, and pray Mercurius to increase your flocks. How can he while you waste so many in the flames? Yet the man goes on hoping, thinking to win by entrails and meal-cakes-'now are my landsnow are my flocks increasing-now-now,' till the last coin is left to sigh forlorn at the bottom of the chest. V. 52. If I should bring you presents chased in gold, how you would sweat with joy! Therefore you gild the statues of the gods and those who send good dreams above the rest. V. 59. Gold has driven out the old-fashioned earthenware. Ye grovelling spirits! why bring our tastes into the temples, and judge the gods by this vile flesh of ours? 'Tis this adulterates plain olive oil with casia, dyes the white wool with purple, and scrapes the pearl from out its shell, and beats the gold from its native stone. The flesh is wrong, but yet it gets enjoyment from its wrong: but what's the use of gold in sacred things? No more than maidens' dolls offered to Venus. Let us bring that which riches cannot offer, just and religious hearts, holy and honest, and then I care not if I offer grain. HUNC, Macrine, diem numera meliore lapillo, Qui tibi labentes apponit candidus annos; Funde merum Genio. Non tu prece poscis emaci 1. Hunc, Macrine, diem] One Scholiast calls Macrinus by the gentilician name Plotius. Another says he was a learned man and a pupil of Servilius, whose instruction Persius also received according to the writer of his life. No more is known of Macrinus than this. As to 'meliore lapillo' the Scholiast quotes ́ Horace (C. i. 36. 10, and note), "Cressa ne careat pulcra dies nota." This use of 'candidus' to express that which is cheerful and fair is sufficiently common. (See Forcellini.) The Greeks used λeuròs in the same way. On their birthdays the Romans sacrificed to their Genius. It was on the eve of his birthday that Horace wrote to Lamia, in his references to Horace, quotes for 'apponit' C. ii. 5. 13, "Currit enim ferox Aetas, et illi quos tibi dempserit Apponet annos." Persius means that each succeeding birthday adds a year to his friend's life. 3. Non tu prece poscis emaci] 'Emaci' is explained by v. 29 below, "qua tu mercede Deorum Emeris auriculas." He says his friend does not ask with mercenary prayer for that which he must take the gods aside to trust them with. Seductis divis' does not require explanation. The ideas of the ancients in respect to secret prayer are explained on Horace, Epp. i. 16. 59. That passage Persius no doubt had in mind. Horace's Labra movet metuens audiri' is repeated in 'murmurque humilesque susurros,' 'sub lingua immurmurat.' 'Bona pars' is an expression Horace uses repeatedly. 'Acerra' is a box of frankincense (BávwTIs). The derivation is uncertain (Hor. C. iii. 8. 2, " Quid velint flores et acerra thuris "). The MSS. vary Quae nisi seductis nequeas committere divis. 5 Haud cuivis promptum est murmurque humilesque susurros ‘Mens bona, fama, fides,' haec clare et ut audiat hospes : between 'libabit' and 'libavit.' Some also have 'litabit,' and others 'litavit,' against the metre. Heinrich prefers the perfect, libavit.' Madvig, whom Jahn follows, defends the future (Opusc. ii. 117, note). Most MSS. and editors favour 'libabit.' There can be no doubt that either tense is admissible. Madvig runs his rules too fine. The perfect would express a habit. The future expresses the same meaning as the Greek optative with ἄv. Cuivis is like the Greek τῷ τυχόντι, 'any ordinary person.' Heinrich reads 'aut' for 'haud,' and puts a (?) at 'voto,' making the sentence an ironical question. The MSS. are all in favour of haud,' for which some as usual have 'haut.' But some persons may prefer Heinrich's reading. 8. Mens bona, fama, fides,] 'Mens bona' is not what we should call a good heart, but a good understanding-"mens sana in corpore sano" (Juv. x. 356); 'fama' is 'a good report,' and 'fides' is what we mean by credit. The ancients would no more think of praying for virtuous affections than we should pray for a handsome face or an addition to our stature in manhood. A man's virtues and vices they believed were born with him, and their Genius was to be thanked or blamed according as their natural dispositions were bad or good (Persius iv. 27). In all other matters their sense of dependence upon the gods was as wide as that which we profess. 10. Ebulliat patruus,] Forcellini, who has the old reading 'ebullit,' explains it by 'prodit,' in reference to a funeral procession. The word is not easy to explain, and is not used elsewhere in any such sense as here. Heinrich says it is "facit morte sua ut funus denique erumpat." I think 'ebulliat' only means 'would breathe his 10 last,' the idea being taken from the bubbling of water. (S. iii. 34.) 'Funus' need not be taken for the man's funeral, but for his death, or his corpse. Ebullit,' Casaubon's reading, is in many MSS.; but it cannot be sustained as a subjunctive form, and the subjunctive is wanted here.. The line that follows is imitated from Horace (S. ii. 6. 10, and note), "O si urnam argenti fors quae mihi mon stret, ut illi Thesauro invento qui mercenarius agrum Seria' was an earthenware pot, and corresponds to Horace's 'urna (Persius iv. 29). 12. quem proximus heres] He speaks as a 'tutor' or guardian of a minor's property, and as the 'heres substitutus or 'heres secundo gradu,' whom the testator appointed to take the property if the 'heres' forfeited or declined it or died. (Horace, S. ii. 5. 53, n., "quid prima secundo Cera velit versu.") 'Impello' means 'he comes close after him,' treads on his heels. Expungere' here means to erase his name from the will, and he justifies his prayer as well as his secret hopes by saying the boy is scrofulous and bilious. 14. Nerio jam tertia conditur uxor.] This is the reading of the oldest MSS. Most of the later have ducitur,' which the modern editors too have adopted. Either way the man complains that 'neighbour Nerius,' as Brewster has it, is more lucky than himself, who has only had the chance of marrying one wife, and securing one 'dos,' as to which see note on Juv. S. xiv. 220. Conditur' has more force perhaps than ducitur.' Servius (on Virg. Georg. iv. 256) is the earliest authority, 15 Haec sancte ut poscas Tiberino in gurgite mergis Hoc igitur quo tu Jovis aurem impellere tentas 17. minimum est quod scire laboro:] Horace has "scire laboro" (Epp. i. 3. 2), and "pulcre fuerit tibi nosse laboro" (S. ii. 8. 19). He asks, and says sarcastically it is a very small matter that he wants to know, what the man thinks of Jove that he prays to him thus. Would he rank him above any man? Whereupon the other suggests that he should name some one: he names Staius, and when the man seems to hesitate he asks, who can be better than Staius either as a 'judex' or 'tutor.' But let him go and ask of him what he asks of Jove, and Staius would cry out with indignation. Shall not then Jove much more cry out? The reader may make what he can of this. The general sense is plain, that men are ready to ask of heaven what they would not ask of any man. But from the way the question is put we should expect to have a bad man brought forward, and the Scholiast says Staius (whom he calls Aelius) was a corrupt 'judex.' If so v. 20, "quis potior judex, puerisve quis aptior orbis ?" must be taken ironically, and in that case the wit 20 25 26. fibris ovium Ergennaque jubente] That is through the directions of Ergenna, and the sacrifices he bids you offer. Ergenna is in form an Etruscan name like Porsenna, as Casaubon observes, and these religious rites being all of Etruscan origin, an haruspex' of that nation is supposed. As to 'fibris' see S. i. 47, n. 'Bidental' is a spot struck by lightning, so called from the offering of a 'bidens' by which it was purified. See Horace, A. P. 471, "an triste bidental Moverit incestus," where as here the name of the spot is given to the corpse struck dead in it. 'Vellere barbam' we had in the last Satire (133). 'Quidnam est qua tu mercede,' Heinrich says, is the same as quidnam mercedis est qua tu.' That does not explain the construction. He begins, What is it?' and he adds 'With what price?' It is like 'quid,' 'quid enim,' at the beginning of a sentence. Lactes' are the small intestines. See Plautus, Curculio ii. 3. 40, "Ita cibi vacivitate venio laxis lactibus." The Greeks called them yaλakтides. See Forcellini. |