, 38, says the
_feminine_
form is
not Latin.
not Latin.
Satires
"I have done so"--already
it returns three-fold, four-fold, ten-fold to my scrip. Mark where I am
to stop. Could I do so, he were found, Chrysippus,[1546] that could put
the finish to thy heap!
FOOTNOTES:
[1511] _Bruma. _ The learned Romans, who divided their time between
business and study, used to begin their lucubrations about the time of
the Vulcanalia, which were held on the 23d of August (x. Kal. Sept. ),
and for this purpose usually returned from Rome to their country
houses. Pliny, describing the studious habits of his uncle, says
(iii. , Ep. 5), "Sed erat acre ingenium, incredibile studium, summa
vigilantia. Lucubrare a Vulcanalibus incipiebat, non auspicandi causâ
sed studendi, statim a nocte. " So Horace, i. , Ep. vii. , 10, "Quod si
_bruma_ nives Albanis illinet agris, Ad mare descendet vates tuus et
sibi parcet Contractusque leget. " He gives the reason, ii. , Ep. ii. ,
77, "Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus et fugit urbem. " Cf. Juv. ,
vii. , 58. Plin. , i. , Ep. 9.
[1512] _Basse. _ Cæsius Bassus, a lyric poet, said to have approached
most nearly to Horace. Cf. Quint. , Inst. , X. , i. , 96. Prop. , I. , iv. ,
1. He was destroyed with his country house by the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius, in which Pliny the elder perished. Vid. Plin. , vi. , Ep. 16.
[1513] _Vivunt_, Casaubon explains by the Greek ἐνεργεῖν "to be in
active operation. "
[1514] _Tetrico_ is spelt in some editions with a capital letter.
The sense is the same, as the rough, hardy, masculine virtues of the
ancient Romans were attributed to Sabine training and institutions.
Tetricus, or Tetrica, was a hill in the Sabine district. Virg. , Æen. ,
vii. , 712, "Qui Tetricæ horrentis rupes, montemque severum Casperiamque
colunt. " Liv. , i. , 18, "Suopte igitur ingenio temperatum animum
virtutibus fuisse opinor magis; instructumque non tam peregrinis
artibus quam disciplina _tetricâ_ ac tristi veterum Sabinorum: quo
genere nullum quondam incorruptius fuit. " Ov. , Am. , III. , viii. , 61,
"Exæquet _tetricas_ licet illa Sabinas. " Hor. , iii. , Od. vi. , 38. Cic.
pro Ligar. , xi.
[1515] _Vocum. _ Another reading is "rerum," which Casaubon adopts, and
supposes Bassus to have been the author of a Theogony or Cosmogony. He
is said, on the authority of Terentianus Maurus and Priscian, to have
written a book on Metres, dedicated to Nero. Those who read "vocum,"
suppose that Persius meant to imply that he successfully transferred to
his Odes the nervous words of the older dialects of his country.
[1516] _Ligus ora. _ Fulvia Sisennia, the mother of Persius, is said to
have been married, after her husband's death, to a native of Liguria,
or of Luna. It was to her house that Persius retired in the winter.
[1517] _Lunai portum. _ A line from the beginning of the Annals of
Ennius. The town of Luna, now Luni, is in Etruria, but only separated
by the river Macra (now Magra) from Liguria. The Lunai Portus, now
Golfo di Spezzia, is in Liguria, and was the harbor from which the
Romans usually took shipping for Corsica and Sardinia. Ennius therefore
must have known it well, from often sailing thence with the elder Cato.
[1518] _Cor Ennii. _ "Cor" is frequently used for sense. It is here a
periphrasis for "Ennius in his senses. " Quintus Ennius was born B. C.
239, at Rudiæ, now Rugge, in Calabria, near Brundusium, and was brought
to Rome from Sardinia by Cato when quæstor there B. C. 204. He lived in
a very humble way on Mount Aventine, and died B. C. 169, of gout (morbus
articularis), and was buried in Scipio's tomb on the Via Appia. He
held the Pythagorean doctrine of Metempsychosis, and says himself, in
the beginning of his Annals, that Homer appeared to him in a dream,
and told him that he had once been a peacock, and that his soul was
transferred to him. The fragment describing this is extant. "Transnavit
cita per teneras Caliginis auras (anima Homeri) visus Homerus adesse
poeta. Tum memini fieri me pavum. " «Cf. Hor. , ii. , Ep. i. , 50.
"Ennius et sapiens et fortis et _alter Homerus_, Ut critici dicunt,
leviter curare videtur Quo promissa cadant et somnia Pythagorea. "
Tertull. , de An. , 24, "Pavum se meminit Homerus, Ennio Somniante. "»
The interpretation in the text seems the most reasonable. Others take
_quintus_ as a numeral adjective, and explain the meaning to be, that
the soul of a peacock transmigrated first into Euphorbus, then into
Homer, then into Pythagoras, and then into Ennius, who was consequently
fifth from the peacock.
[1519] _Auster_, the Sirocco of the modern Italians, was reckoned
peculiarly unwholesome to cattle. Cf. Virg. , Georg. , i. , 443, "Urget
ab alto Arboribusque satisque Notus pecorique sinister. " 462, "Quid
cogitet humidus Auster. " Ecl. , ii. , 58. Tibul. , I. , i. , 41. Hor. ,
ii. , Sat. vi. , 18, "Nec mala me ambitio perdit nec plumbeus Auster,
Auctumnusque gravis, Libitinæ quæstus acerbæ. " ii. , Od. xiv. , 15. Some
derive the name from "Ardeo," others from αὐὼ, "to parch or burn up:"
so Austerus, from αὐστηρός.
[1520] _Angulus. _ Hor. , ii. , Sat. vi. , 8, "Oh! si angulus ille proximus
accedat qui nunc denormat agellum. "
[1521] _Senio. _ "The premature old age brought on by pining at
another's welfare. " So Plautus, "Præ mærore adeo miser æquè ægritudine
consenui. " Cf. Capt. , I. , ii. , 20. Truc. , ii. , 5, 13.
[1522] _Naso tetigisse. _ "I will not become such a miser as to seal
up vapid wine, and then closely examine the seal when it is again
produced, to see whether it is untouched. " Cf. Theophr. π. αἰσχροκερδ.
So Cicero says, "Lagenas etiam inanes obsignare. " Fam. , xiv. , 26.
[1523] _Horoscope. _ Properly, "the star that is in the ascendant at the
moment of a person's birth, from which the nativity is calculated. "
Persius has just ridiculed the Pythagoreans, he now laughs at the
Astrologers. Whatever they may say, twins born under exactly the same
horoscope, have widely different characters and pursuits. "Castor
gaudet equis--ovo prognatus eodem Pugnis. " Hor. , ii. , Sat. i. , 26. Cf.
Diog. Laert. , II. , i. , 3.
[1524] _Muria. _ Either a brine made of salt and water, or a kind of
fishsauce made of the liquor of the thunny. Every word is a picture.
"He buys his sauce _in a cup_; instead of _pouring_ it over his
salad, he _dips_ the salad in it, and then scarcely moistens it: he
will not trust his servant to season it, so he does it himself; but
only sprinkles the pepper like _dew_, not in a good shower, and as
sparingly as if it were some _holy_ thing. " Cf. Theophr. , π. μικρολογ,
καὶ ἀπαγορεῦσαι τῇ γυναικὶ, μήτε ἅλας χρωννύειν μήτε ἐλλύχνιον, μήτε
κύμινον, μήτε ὀρίγανον, μήτε οὐλὰς, μήτε στεμματα, μήτε θυηλήματα·
ἀλλὰ λέγειν, ὅτι τὰ μικρὰ ταῦτα πολλά ἐστι τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ. Hor. , i. ,
Sat. i. , 71, "Tanquam parcere _sacris_ cogeris. " ii. , Sat. iii. , 110,
"Metuensque velut contingere sacrum. "
[1525] _Turdarum. _ So the best MSS. and the Scholiasts read, and
Casaubon follows. Varro, L. L. , viii.
, 38, says the _feminine_ form is
not Latin. The "turdus" (Greek κίχλη), probably like our "field-fare,"
was esteemed the greatest delicacy by the Greeks and Romans. In the
Nubes of Aristophanes, the λόγος δίκαιος says, "In former days young
men were not allowed οὐδ' ὀψοφαγεῖν, οὐδὲ κιχλίζειν. " (Ubi vid. Schol. ;
but cf. Theoc. , Id. , xi. , 78, cum Schol. ) To be able to distinguish the
sex of so small a bird by the flavor would be the acme of Epicurism.
Hor. , i. , Ep. xv. , 41, "Cum sit obeso nil melius turdo. " Mart. , xiii. ,
Ep. 92, "Inter aves turdus, si quis me judice certet, Inter quadrupedes
mattya prima lepus. " Cf. Athen. , ii. , 68, D.
[1526] _Prendit amicus. _ From Hom. , Od. , v. , 425, τόφρα δέ μιν μέγα
κῦμα φέρε τρηχεῖαν ἐπ' ἀκτήν· ἔνθα κ' ἀπὸ ῥινοὺς δρύφθη, σὺν δ' ὀστέ'
ἀράχθη, and 435. Virg. , Æn. , vi. , 360. Cf. Palimirus," Prensantemque
uncis manibus capita ardua montis. "
[1527] _Ingentes de puppe dei. _ The tutelary gods were placed at the
stern as well as the stem of the ship. Cf. Æsch. , S. Theb. , 208. Virg. ,
Æn. , x. , 170, "Aurato fulgebat Apolline puppis. " Ov. , Trist. , I. , x. ,
l. Hor. , i. , Od. xiv. , 10. Acts, xxviii. , 11. Catull. , I. , iv. , 36.
Eurip. , Hel. , 1664.
[1528] _Mergis. _ Cf. Hom. , Od. , v. , 337. The Mergus (αἴθυια of the
Greeks) is put for any large sea-bird. Hor. , Epod. x. , 21, "Opima
quodsi præda curvo litore porrecta mergos juveris. "
[1529] _Pictus oberret. _ Cf. ad Juv. , xiv. , 302, "Pictâ se tempestate
tuetur. " xii. , 27.
[1530] _Sed. _ "But perhaps you will object," etc. He now ridicules
the folly of those who deny themselves all the luxuries and even the
necessaries of life, in order to leave behind a splendid inheritance to
their heirs. "Quum sit manifesta phrenesis Ut locuples moriaris egenti
vivere fato. " Juv. , xiv. , 186. Cf. Hor. , ii. , Ep. ii. , 191, "Utar,
et ex modico quantum res poscet acervo Tollam, nec metuam quid de me
judicet hæres Quod non plura datis invenerit. " i. , Ep. v. , 13, "Parcus
ob hæredis curam, nimiumque severus assidet insano. " ii. , Od. xiv. , 25.
[1531] _Bestius_, from Hor. , i. , Ep. xv. , 37, "Diceret urendos
corrector Bestius. " Probably both Horace and Persius borrowed from
Lucilius. Weichert, P. L. , p. 420.
[1532] _Maris expers. _ Hor. , ii. , Sat. viii. , 15, "Chium maris
expers," which is generally interpreted to mean that Nasidienus set
before his guests wine which he called Chian, but which in reality had
never crossed the seas, being made at home. It may be put therefore
for any thing "adulterated, not genuine. " Another interpretation
is, "effeminate, emasculate, void of manly vigor and energy," from
the supposed enervating effect of Greek philosophy on the masculine
character of the Romans of other days. A third explanation is, "that
which has experienced the sea," from the _active_ sense of expers, and
therefore is simply equivalent to "foreign, or imported. " Casaubon
seems to incline to the latter view.
[1533] _Sapere. _ So "Scire tuum," i. , 27 and 9, "Nostrum illud vivere
triste. " In the indiscriminate hatred of all that was Greek, philosophy
and literature were often included.
[1534] _Laurus. _ After a victory, the Roman soldiers saluted their
general as Imperator. His lictors then wreathed their fasces, and his
soldiers their spears, with bays, and then he sent letters wreathed
with bays (literæ laureatæ) to the senate, and demanded a triumph. If
the senate approved, they decreed a thanksgiving (supplicatio) to the
gods. The bays were worn by himself and his soldiers till the triumph
was over. (Branches of bay were set up before the gate of Augustus,
by a decree of the senate, as being the perpetual conqueror of his
enemies. Cf. Ov. , Trist. , III. , i. , 39. ) These letters were very rare
under the emperors, vid. Tac. , Agric. , xviii. , except those sent by the
emperors themselves. Mart. , vii. , Ep. v. , 3, "Invidet hosti Roma suo
veniat laurea multa licet. " Caligula's mock expedition into Germany
(A. D. 40) is well known. The account given by Suetonius tallies exactly
with the words of Persius. "Conversus hinc ad curam triumphi præter
captivos ac transfugas barbaros, _Galliarum_ quoque _procerissimum
quemque_ et ut ipse dicebat ἀξιοθριαμβευτον legit ac seposuit ad
pompam; coegitque non tantum _rutilare et submittere comam_, sed et
sermonem Germanicum addiscere et nomina barbarica ferre. " Vid. Domit. ,
c. xlvii. Cf. Tac. , German. , xxxvii. (Virg. , Æn. , vii. , 183. Mart. ,
viii. , Ep. xxxiii. , 20. )
[1535] _Exossatus ager. _ Among the Romans it was esteemed a great
disgrace for a legatee to refuse to administer to the estate of the
testator. Persius says, "even though you refuse to act as my heir, I
shall have no great difficulty in finding some one who will. Though
I have spent large sums in largesses to the mob, and in honor of the
emperor, I have still a field left near the city, which many would
gladly take. " Such is unquestionably the drift of the passage; but
"exossatus" is variously explained. It literally means that from which
the bones have been taken: vid. Plaut. , Aul. , II. , ix. , 2, "Murænam
exdorsua, atque omnia exossata fac sient. " Amph. , I. , i. , 163. So
Lucr. , iv. , 1267. Ter. , Ad. , III. , iv. , 14. As stones are "the bones of
the earth" (Ov. , Met. , i. , 393, "Lapides in corpore terræ ossa reor"),
it may mean "thoroughly cleared from stones;" or, as Casaubon says, so
thoroughly exhausted by constant cropping, that the land is reduced to
its very bones (as Juv. , viii. , 90, "Ossa vides regum vacuis exhausta
medullis").
it returns three-fold, four-fold, ten-fold to my scrip. Mark where I am
to stop. Could I do so, he were found, Chrysippus,[1546] that could put
the finish to thy heap!
FOOTNOTES:
[1511] _Bruma. _ The learned Romans, who divided their time between
business and study, used to begin their lucubrations about the time of
the Vulcanalia, which were held on the 23d of August (x. Kal. Sept. ),
and for this purpose usually returned from Rome to their country
houses. Pliny, describing the studious habits of his uncle, says
(iii. , Ep. 5), "Sed erat acre ingenium, incredibile studium, summa
vigilantia. Lucubrare a Vulcanalibus incipiebat, non auspicandi causâ
sed studendi, statim a nocte. " So Horace, i. , Ep. vii. , 10, "Quod si
_bruma_ nives Albanis illinet agris, Ad mare descendet vates tuus et
sibi parcet Contractusque leget. " He gives the reason, ii. , Ep. ii. ,
77, "Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus et fugit urbem. " Cf. Juv. ,
vii. , 58. Plin. , i. , Ep. 9.
[1512] _Basse. _ Cæsius Bassus, a lyric poet, said to have approached
most nearly to Horace. Cf. Quint. , Inst. , X. , i. , 96. Prop. , I. , iv. ,
1. He was destroyed with his country house by the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius, in which Pliny the elder perished. Vid. Plin. , vi. , Ep. 16.
[1513] _Vivunt_, Casaubon explains by the Greek ἐνεργεῖν "to be in
active operation. "
[1514] _Tetrico_ is spelt in some editions with a capital letter.
The sense is the same, as the rough, hardy, masculine virtues of the
ancient Romans were attributed to Sabine training and institutions.
Tetricus, or Tetrica, was a hill in the Sabine district. Virg. , Æen. ,
vii. , 712, "Qui Tetricæ horrentis rupes, montemque severum Casperiamque
colunt. " Liv. , i. , 18, "Suopte igitur ingenio temperatum animum
virtutibus fuisse opinor magis; instructumque non tam peregrinis
artibus quam disciplina _tetricâ_ ac tristi veterum Sabinorum: quo
genere nullum quondam incorruptius fuit. " Ov. , Am. , III. , viii. , 61,
"Exæquet _tetricas_ licet illa Sabinas. " Hor. , iii. , Od. vi. , 38. Cic.
pro Ligar. , xi.
[1515] _Vocum. _ Another reading is "rerum," which Casaubon adopts, and
supposes Bassus to have been the author of a Theogony or Cosmogony. He
is said, on the authority of Terentianus Maurus and Priscian, to have
written a book on Metres, dedicated to Nero. Those who read "vocum,"
suppose that Persius meant to imply that he successfully transferred to
his Odes the nervous words of the older dialects of his country.
[1516] _Ligus ora. _ Fulvia Sisennia, the mother of Persius, is said to
have been married, after her husband's death, to a native of Liguria,
or of Luna. It was to her house that Persius retired in the winter.
[1517] _Lunai portum. _ A line from the beginning of the Annals of
Ennius. The town of Luna, now Luni, is in Etruria, but only separated
by the river Macra (now Magra) from Liguria. The Lunai Portus, now
Golfo di Spezzia, is in Liguria, and was the harbor from which the
Romans usually took shipping for Corsica and Sardinia. Ennius therefore
must have known it well, from often sailing thence with the elder Cato.
[1518] _Cor Ennii. _ "Cor" is frequently used for sense. It is here a
periphrasis for "Ennius in his senses. " Quintus Ennius was born B. C.
239, at Rudiæ, now Rugge, in Calabria, near Brundusium, and was brought
to Rome from Sardinia by Cato when quæstor there B. C. 204. He lived in
a very humble way on Mount Aventine, and died B. C. 169, of gout (morbus
articularis), and was buried in Scipio's tomb on the Via Appia. He
held the Pythagorean doctrine of Metempsychosis, and says himself, in
the beginning of his Annals, that Homer appeared to him in a dream,
and told him that he had once been a peacock, and that his soul was
transferred to him. The fragment describing this is extant. "Transnavit
cita per teneras Caliginis auras (anima Homeri) visus Homerus adesse
poeta. Tum memini fieri me pavum. " «Cf. Hor. , ii. , Ep. i. , 50.
"Ennius et sapiens et fortis et _alter Homerus_, Ut critici dicunt,
leviter curare videtur Quo promissa cadant et somnia Pythagorea. "
Tertull. , de An. , 24, "Pavum se meminit Homerus, Ennio Somniante. "»
The interpretation in the text seems the most reasonable. Others take
_quintus_ as a numeral adjective, and explain the meaning to be, that
the soul of a peacock transmigrated first into Euphorbus, then into
Homer, then into Pythagoras, and then into Ennius, who was consequently
fifth from the peacock.
[1519] _Auster_, the Sirocco of the modern Italians, was reckoned
peculiarly unwholesome to cattle. Cf. Virg. , Georg. , i. , 443, "Urget
ab alto Arboribusque satisque Notus pecorique sinister. " 462, "Quid
cogitet humidus Auster. " Ecl. , ii. , 58. Tibul. , I. , i. , 41. Hor. ,
ii. , Sat. vi. , 18, "Nec mala me ambitio perdit nec plumbeus Auster,
Auctumnusque gravis, Libitinæ quæstus acerbæ. " ii. , Od. xiv. , 15. Some
derive the name from "Ardeo," others from αὐὼ, "to parch or burn up:"
so Austerus, from αὐστηρός.
[1520] _Angulus. _ Hor. , ii. , Sat. vi. , 8, "Oh! si angulus ille proximus
accedat qui nunc denormat agellum. "
[1521] _Senio. _ "The premature old age brought on by pining at
another's welfare. " So Plautus, "Præ mærore adeo miser æquè ægritudine
consenui. " Cf. Capt. , I. , ii. , 20. Truc. , ii. , 5, 13.
[1522] _Naso tetigisse. _ "I will not become such a miser as to seal
up vapid wine, and then closely examine the seal when it is again
produced, to see whether it is untouched. " Cf. Theophr. π. αἰσχροκερδ.
So Cicero says, "Lagenas etiam inanes obsignare. " Fam. , xiv. , 26.
[1523] _Horoscope. _ Properly, "the star that is in the ascendant at the
moment of a person's birth, from which the nativity is calculated. "
Persius has just ridiculed the Pythagoreans, he now laughs at the
Astrologers. Whatever they may say, twins born under exactly the same
horoscope, have widely different characters and pursuits. "Castor
gaudet equis--ovo prognatus eodem Pugnis. " Hor. , ii. , Sat. i. , 26. Cf.
Diog. Laert. , II. , i. , 3.
[1524] _Muria. _ Either a brine made of salt and water, or a kind of
fishsauce made of the liquor of the thunny. Every word is a picture.
"He buys his sauce _in a cup_; instead of _pouring_ it over his
salad, he _dips_ the salad in it, and then scarcely moistens it: he
will not trust his servant to season it, so he does it himself; but
only sprinkles the pepper like _dew_, not in a good shower, and as
sparingly as if it were some _holy_ thing. " Cf. Theophr. , π. μικρολογ,
καὶ ἀπαγορεῦσαι τῇ γυναικὶ, μήτε ἅλας χρωννύειν μήτε ἐλλύχνιον, μήτε
κύμινον, μήτε ὀρίγανον, μήτε οὐλὰς, μήτε στεμματα, μήτε θυηλήματα·
ἀλλὰ λέγειν, ὅτι τὰ μικρὰ ταῦτα πολλά ἐστι τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ. Hor. , i. ,
Sat. i. , 71, "Tanquam parcere _sacris_ cogeris. " ii. , Sat. iii. , 110,
"Metuensque velut contingere sacrum. "
[1525] _Turdarum. _ So the best MSS. and the Scholiasts read, and
Casaubon follows. Varro, L. L. , viii.
, 38, says the _feminine_ form is
not Latin. The "turdus" (Greek κίχλη), probably like our "field-fare,"
was esteemed the greatest delicacy by the Greeks and Romans. In the
Nubes of Aristophanes, the λόγος δίκαιος says, "In former days young
men were not allowed οὐδ' ὀψοφαγεῖν, οὐδὲ κιχλίζειν. " (Ubi vid. Schol. ;
but cf. Theoc. , Id. , xi. , 78, cum Schol. ) To be able to distinguish the
sex of so small a bird by the flavor would be the acme of Epicurism.
Hor. , i. , Ep. xv. , 41, "Cum sit obeso nil melius turdo. " Mart. , xiii. ,
Ep. 92, "Inter aves turdus, si quis me judice certet, Inter quadrupedes
mattya prima lepus. " Cf. Athen. , ii. , 68, D.
[1526] _Prendit amicus. _ From Hom. , Od. , v. , 425, τόφρα δέ μιν μέγα
κῦμα φέρε τρηχεῖαν ἐπ' ἀκτήν· ἔνθα κ' ἀπὸ ῥινοὺς δρύφθη, σὺν δ' ὀστέ'
ἀράχθη, and 435. Virg. , Æn. , vi. , 360. Cf. Palimirus," Prensantemque
uncis manibus capita ardua montis. "
[1527] _Ingentes de puppe dei. _ The tutelary gods were placed at the
stern as well as the stem of the ship. Cf. Æsch. , S. Theb. , 208. Virg. ,
Æn. , x. , 170, "Aurato fulgebat Apolline puppis. " Ov. , Trist. , I. , x. ,
l. Hor. , i. , Od. xiv. , 10. Acts, xxviii. , 11. Catull. , I. , iv. , 36.
Eurip. , Hel. , 1664.
[1528] _Mergis. _ Cf. Hom. , Od. , v. , 337. The Mergus (αἴθυια of the
Greeks) is put for any large sea-bird. Hor. , Epod. x. , 21, "Opima
quodsi præda curvo litore porrecta mergos juveris. "
[1529] _Pictus oberret. _ Cf. ad Juv. , xiv. , 302, "Pictâ se tempestate
tuetur. " xii. , 27.
[1530] _Sed. _ "But perhaps you will object," etc. He now ridicules
the folly of those who deny themselves all the luxuries and even the
necessaries of life, in order to leave behind a splendid inheritance to
their heirs. "Quum sit manifesta phrenesis Ut locuples moriaris egenti
vivere fato. " Juv. , xiv. , 186. Cf. Hor. , ii. , Ep. ii. , 191, "Utar,
et ex modico quantum res poscet acervo Tollam, nec metuam quid de me
judicet hæres Quod non plura datis invenerit. " i. , Ep. v. , 13, "Parcus
ob hæredis curam, nimiumque severus assidet insano. " ii. , Od. xiv. , 25.
[1531] _Bestius_, from Hor. , i. , Ep. xv. , 37, "Diceret urendos
corrector Bestius. " Probably both Horace and Persius borrowed from
Lucilius. Weichert, P. L. , p. 420.
[1532] _Maris expers. _ Hor. , ii. , Sat. viii. , 15, "Chium maris
expers," which is generally interpreted to mean that Nasidienus set
before his guests wine which he called Chian, but which in reality had
never crossed the seas, being made at home. It may be put therefore
for any thing "adulterated, not genuine. " Another interpretation
is, "effeminate, emasculate, void of manly vigor and energy," from
the supposed enervating effect of Greek philosophy on the masculine
character of the Romans of other days. A third explanation is, "that
which has experienced the sea," from the _active_ sense of expers, and
therefore is simply equivalent to "foreign, or imported. " Casaubon
seems to incline to the latter view.
[1533] _Sapere. _ So "Scire tuum," i. , 27 and 9, "Nostrum illud vivere
triste. " In the indiscriminate hatred of all that was Greek, philosophy
and literature were often included.
[1534] _Laurus. _ After a victory, the Roman soldiers saluted their
general as Imperator. His lictors then wreathed their fasces, and his
soldiers their spears, with bays, and then he sent letters wreathed
with bays (literæ laureatæ) to the senate, and demanded a triumph. If
the senate approved, they decreed a thanksgiving (supplicatio) to the
gods. The bays were worn by himself and his soldiers till the triumph
was over. (Branches of bay were set up before the gate of Augustus,
by a decree of the senate, as being the perpetual conqueror of his
enemies. Cf. Ov. , Trist. , III. , i. , 39. ) These letters were very rare
under the emperors, vid. Tac. , Agric. , xviii. , except those sent by the
emperors themselves. Mart. , vii. , Ep. v. , 3, "Invidet hosti Roma suo
veniat laurea multa licet. " Caligula's mock expedition into Germany
(A. D. 40) is well known. The account given by Suetonius tallies exactly
with the words of Persius. "Conversus hinc ad curam triumphi præter
captivos ac transfugas barbaros, _Galliarum_ quoque _procerissimum
quemque_ et ut ipse dicebat ἀξιοθριαμβευτον legit ac seposuit ad
pompam; coegitque non tantum _rutilare et submittere comam_, sed et
sermonem Germanicum addiscere et nomina barbarica ferre. " Vid. Domit. ,
c. xlvii. Cf. Tac. , German. , xxxvii. (Virg. , Æn. , vii. , 183. Mart. ,
viii. , Ep. xxxiii. , 20. )
[1535] _Exossatus ager. _ Among the Romans it was esteemed a great
disgrace for a legatee to refuse to administer to the estate of the
testator. Persius says, "even though you refuse to act as my heir, I
shall have no great difficulty in finding some one who will. Though
I have spent large sums in largesses to the mob, and in honor of the
emperor, I have still a field left near the city, which many would
gladly take. " Such is unquestionably the drift of the passage; but
"exossatus" is variously explained. It literally means that from which
the bones have been taken: vid. Plaut. , Aul. , II. , ix. , 2, "Murænam
exdorsua, atque omnia exossata fac sient. " Amph. , I. , i. , 163. So
Lucr. , iv. , 1267. Ter. , Ad. , III. , iv. , 14. As stones are "the bones of
the earth" (Ov. , Met. , i. , 393, "Lapides in corpore terræ ossa reor"),
it may mean "thoroughly cleared from stones;" or, as Casaubon says, so
thoroughly exhausted by constant cropping, that the land is reduced to
its very bones (as Juv. , viii. , 90, "Ossa vides regum vacuis exhausta
medullis").
