if I had hit upon any obsolete or
questionable
word
45 .
45 .
Satires
, 32, "sententia dia Catonis").
By Valerius
he here supposes Q. Valerius Soranus to be intended; a man of
great learning and an intimate friend of Publius Scipio and
Lucilius. He was author of a treatise on grammar, entitled
ἐποπτίδων; which contained, according to Turnebe's conjecture, a
discussion on the mysteries of literature and learning (ἐπόπτης
being applied to one initiated into the mysteries). This is not
improbable; as he is said to have lost his life for divulging the
sacred and mysterious name of Rome. Vid. Plut. , Qu. Rom. , lxi.
«Two verses of his are quoted by Varro, L. L. , vii. , 3, and x. ,
70. Cf. Plin. , H. N. , Præf. , p. 6, Hard. A. Gell. , ii. , 10. »
With him, therefore, as a man of judgment and experience,
Lucilius, who had already acquired some ill-will from his
Satires, consults, as to the best method of avoiding all odium
for the future, and as to the subjects he shall select for
his compositions. This book then contains an account of this
interview between the poet and his adviser; and Gerlach most
ingeniously arranges the fragments in such an order as to
represent in some manner the topics of discussion in a methodical
sequence. These are, chiefly, the propriety of his continuing
to pursue the same style of writing, and the enunciation of
the opinions of both on matters relating to war, marriage, and
literary pursuits.
Van Heusde and Schoenbeck give no definite idea of the subject.
Petermann considers the subject matter to have been far more
diversified. The book begins, in his opinion, with a vivid
description of the miseries of conjugal life, introducing a very
graphic matrimonial quarrel; this is followed by so infinitely
diversified a farrago of sentiments that it is hopeless to
attempt to establish any systematic connection between them.
Corpet considers the whole to have been a philosophical discussion
of the miseries of human life, especially those attendant on the
married state, which the poet illustrated by the very forcible
example of Agamemnon and Clytæmnestra.
The whole of the book was composed in the Trochaic metre;
consisting of tetrameters catalectic and acatalectic. A few
Fragments consist of Iambic heptameters and octometers (Iambici
septenarii et octonarii), unless, as is not improbable, these
lines have been referred to this book, through the inadvertence
of grammarians or copyists. It might, however, have been
intentional, as in the succeeding books we find Iambic, Trochaic,
and Dactylic metres indiscriminately employed.
1 Men, by their own act, bring upon themselves this trouble and
annoyance; they marry wives, and bring up children, by which
they cause these. [1831]
2 For you say indeed, that what was secretly intrusted to you,
you would neither utter a single murmur, nor divulge your
mysteries abroad. . . . [1832]
3 If she were to ask me for as much iron as she does gold, I
would not give it her. So again, if she were to sleep away from
me, she would not get what she asks.
4 . . . but Syrus himself, the Tricorian, a freedman and thorough
scoundrel; with whom I become a shuffler, and change all
things. [1833]
5 . . . covered with filth, in the extremity of dirt and
wretchedness, exciting neither envy in her enemies, nor desire
in her friends.
6 . . . but that I should serve under Lucilius as collector of the
taxes on pasturage in Asia, no, that I would not! [1834]
7 . . . just as the Roman people has been conquered by superior
force, and beaten in many single battles; but in war never, on
which every thing depends.
8 Some woman hoping to pillage and rifle me, and filch from me my
ivory mirror. [1835]
9 In throwing up a mound, if there is any occasion for bringing
vineæ into play, their first care is to advance them.
10
11 Take charge of the sick man, pay his expenses, defraud his
genius. [1836]
12 . . . But for whom? One whom a single fever, one attack of
indigestion, nay, a single draught of wine, could carry
off. . . . [1837]
13 If they commiserate themselves, take care you do not assign
their case too high a place. [1838]
14 Now, in like manner . . . we wish to captivate their mind . . .
just to the people and to authors. . . . [1839]
15 . . . you do not collect that multitude of your friends which you
have entered on your list. . . . [1840]
16 . . . wherefore it is better for her to cherish this, than bestow
all her regard on that. . . .
17 . . . in the first place, all natural philosophers say, that man
is made up of soul and body.
18 . . . to have returned and retraced his steps[1841]
19 . . . and that which is greatly to your fancy is excessively
disagreeable to me. . . .
20 . . . strive with the highest powers of your nature: whereas I,
on the other hand . . . that I may be different[1842]
21 . . . whether he should hang himself, or fall on his sword, that
he may not look upon the sky. . . . [1843]
22 . . . study the matter, and give your attention to my words, I
beg.
23 . . . in order that I may escape from that which I perceive it is
the summit of your desires to attain to. [1844]
24 On the other hand, it is a disgrace not to know how to conquer
in war the sturdy barbarian Hannibal. [1845]
25 . . . but if they see this, they think that a wise man always
aims at what is good. . . .
26 . . . delighted with your pursuit, you write an ancient history
to your favorites. . . . [1846]
27 . . . who I am, and with what husk I am now enveloped, I can
not. . . . [1847]
28 . . . then to oppose to my mind a body worn out with pains.
29 . . . nor before he had handled a man's veins and heart. . . .
30 Let us appear kind and courteous to our friends--[1848]
31 Why should not you too call me unlettered and uneducated? [1849]
32 . . . call together the assembly, with hoarse sound and crooked
horns. [1850]
33 They will of their own accord fight it out for you, and die,
and will offer themselves voluntarily.
34 When I bring forth any verse from my heart--[1851]
35 He is not on that account exalted as the giver of life or of
joy. . . . [1852]
36 As each one of us has been brought forth into light from his
mother's womb[1853]
37 . . . if you wish to have your mind refreshed through your
ears[1854]
38 . . . they who drag on life for six months, vow the seventh to
Orcus.
39 . . . we are easily laughed at; we know that it is highly
dangerous to be angry--[1855]
40 Part is blown asunder by the wind, part grows stiff with
cold--[1856]
41 . . . if he tastes nothing between two market days. [1857]
42 . . . let it be glued with warm glue spread over it. . . .
43 . . . wherefore I quit the straight line, and gladly discharge
the office of rubbish--[1858]
44 . . .
if I had hit upon any obsolete or questionable word
45 . . . your youth, tired and tested to the highest degree by
me. [1859]
46 . . . when I had invigorated my body with a double stadium on the
exercise-ground, and with ball. . . . [1860]
47 . . . those who will take food from a clean table must needs wash.
48 Now obscurity is to these a strange and monstrous thing--[1861]
49 . . . what you would think you should beware of and chiefly
avoid. . . .
50 . . . enter on that toil which will bring you both fame and
profit--
51 . . . what he understood, I showed that not a few could:
52 . . . how disgusting and poor a thing it is to live «with
loathing for food». [1862]
53 . . . for my part, I am not persuaded publicly to change mine.
54 . . . then my tithes, which treat me so ill, and turn out so badly
55 . . . we see that he who is ill in mind gives evidence of it in
his body.
56 . . . make the battle of Popilius resound[1863]
57 . . . Sylvanus, the driver away of wolves . . . and trees struck by
lightning. [1864]
58 . . . that you transport yourself from the fierce storms of life
into quiet.
59 Moreover, it is a friend's duty to advise well, watch over,
admonish--
60 Since I found it out from great crowds of boon
companions--[1865]
61 . . . a faithless wife, a sluggish household, a dirty home--[1866]
62 . . . nor is peace obtained . . . because he dragged Cassandra from
the statue[1867]
63 . . . Eager to return home, we almost infringed our king's
command[1868]
64 . . . Let something, at all events, which I have attempted, turn
out, some way. . . .
65 . . . Thither our eyes of themselves entice us, and hope hurries
our mind to the spot.
66 . . . he thinks by clothes to ward off cold and shivering.
67 . . . unless you write of monsters and snakes with wings and
feathers. [1869]
68 . . . for I grow contemptuous and am weary of Agamemnon--
69 . . . he is tormented with hunger, cold, dirt, unbathed
filthiness, neglect.
70 . . . a sieve, a colander, a lantern . . . a thread for the
web. [1870]
71 May the gods suggest better things, and avert madness from you
72 . . . a dry, wretched, miserable stock he calls an elder--
73 . . . be more learned than the rest; abandon, or change to some
other direction, those faults which have become sacred with you.
74 It were better to get gold from the fire or food out of the mud
with our teeth.
75 Let him chop wood, perform his task-work, sweep the house, be
beaten.
76 He alone warded off Vulcan's violence from the fleet. . . .
77 Therefore, they think all will escape sickness. . . .
78 I therefore dispose, for money, of that which costs me dearer.
FOOTNOTES:
[1831] _Producunt_, i. e. , "instituunt," Nonius: vel "gignunt," Plaut. ,
Rud. , IV. , iv. , 129. Pers. , vi. , 18, "Geminos Horoscope varo producis
genio. " Juv. , viii. , 271, "Quam te Thersitæ similem producat Achilles. "
Plaut. , As. , III. , i. , 40. Ter. , Ad. , III. , ii. , 16. Juv. , xiv. , 228.
This, and the 3d, 4th, and 5th Fragments refer to the miseries of
married life.
[1832] _Mutires_, "to grumble, mutter. " Plaut. , Amph. , I. , i. , 228,
"Etiam muttis? jam tacebo. "
[1833] The Tricorii were a people of Gallia Narbonensis, on the
banks of the Druentia, now Durance, near Briançon, bordering
on the Allobroges and Vocontii. Hannibal marched through their
territory, after leaving the Arar. Cf. Plin. , ii. , 4. Liv. , xxi. , 31.
_Versipellis. _ Cf. Plaut. , Amph. , Prol. , 123, "Ita versipellem se facit
quando lubet. "
[1834] Van Heusde's interpretation is followed, which seems the most
obvious one. Gerlach takes the contrary view, and says, these very
words prove that Lucilius could not have been a scriptuarius or
decumanus. Lucilius means, "he would not change his present condition
and pursuits, even for a very lucrative post in Asia. "
[1835] _Depeculassere_ and _deargentassere_, are examples of the
old form of a future infinitive ending in _assere_. Cf. Plaut. ,
Amphit. , I. , i. , 56, "Sese igitur summâ vi virisque eorum oppidum
_expugnassere_. " _Decalauticare_, "to deprive of one's hood," from
calautica, "a covering for the head, used by women, and falling over
the shoulders. " It seems that Cicero charged Clodius with wearing one,
when he was detected in Cæsar's house. "Tunc cum vincirentur pedes
fasceis, cum calauticam capiti accommodares. " Cic. in Clod. ap. Non. ,
in voc. _Decalicasse_, is another reading.
[1836] _Defrudet. _ Cf. Plaut. , Asin. , I. , i. , 77, "Me defrudato.
Defrudem te ego? Age, sis, tu sine pennis vola! "
[1837] Cf. Shaksp. , Measure for Measure, act iii. , sc.
he here supposes Q. Valerius Soranus to be intended; a man of
great learning and an intimate friend of Publius Scipio and
Lucilius. He was author of a treatise on grammar, entitled
ἐποπτίδων; which contained, according to Turnebe's conjecture, a
discussion on the mysteries of literature and learning (ἐπόπτης
being applied to one initiated into the mysteries). This is not
improbable; as he is said to have lost his life for divulging the
sacred and mysterious name of Rome. Vid. Plut. , Qu. Rom. , lxi.
«Two verses of his are quoted by Varro, L. L. , vii. , 3, and x. ,
70. Cf. Plin. , H. N. , Præf. , p. 6, Hard. A. Gell. , ii. , 10. »
With him, therefore, as a man of judgment and experience,
Lucilius, who had already acquired some ill-will from his
Satires, consults, as to the best method of avoiding all odium
for the future, and as to the subjects he shall select for
his compositions. This book then contains an account of this
interview between the poet and his adviser; and Gerlach most
ingeniously arranges the fragments in such an order as to
represent in some manner the topics of discussion in a methodical
sequence. These are, chiefly, the propriety of his continuing
to pursue the same style of writing, and the enunciation of
the opinions of both on matters relating to war, marriage, and
literary pursuits.
Van Heusde and Schoenbeck give no definite idea of the subject.
Petermann considers the subject matter to have been far more
diversified. The book begins, in his opinion, with a vivid
description of the miseries of conjugal life, introducing a very
graphic matrimonial quarrel; this is followed by so infinitely
diversified a farrago of sentiments that it is hopeless to
attempt to establish any systematic connection between them.
Corpet considers the whole to have been a philosophical discussion
of the miseries of human life, especially those attendant on the
married state, which the poet illustrated by the very forcible
example of Agamemnon and Clytæmnestra.
The whole of the book was composed in the Trochaic metre;
consisting of tetrameters catalectic and acatalectic. A few
Fragments consist of Iambic heptameters and octometers (Iambici
septenarii et octonarii), unless, as is not improbable, these
lines have been referred to this book, through the inadvertence
of grammarians or copyists. It might, however, have been
intentional, as in the succeeding books we find Iambic, Trochaic,
and Dactylic metres indiscriminately employed.
1 Men, by their own act, bring upon themselves this trouble and
annoyance; they marry wives, and bring up children, by which
they cause these. [1831]
2 For you say indeed, that what was secretly intrusted to you,
you would neither utter a single murmur, nor divulge your
mysteries abroad. . . . [1832]
3 If she were to ask me for as much iron as she does gold, I
would not give it her. So again, if she were to sleep away from
me, she would not get what she asks.
4 . . . but Syrus himself, the Tricorian, a freedman and thorough
scoundrel; with whom I become a shuffler, and change all
things. [1833]
5 . . . covered with filth, in the extremity of dirt and
wretchedness, exciting neither envy in her enemies, nor desire
in her friends.
6 . . . but that I should serve under Lucilius as collector of the
taxes on pasturage in Asia, no, that I would not! [1834]
7 . . . just as the Roman people has been conquered by superior
force, and beaten in many single battles; but in war never, on
which every thing depends.
8 Some woman hoping to pillage and rifle me, and filch from me my
ivory mirror. [1835]
9 In throwing up a mound, if there is any occasion for bringing
vineæ into play, their first care is to advance them.
10
11 Take charge of the sick man, pay his expenses, defraud his
genius. [1836]
12 . . . But for whom? One whom a single fever, one attack of
indigestion, nay, a single draught of wine, could carry
off. . . . [1837]
13 If they commiserate themselves, take care you do not assign
their case too high a place. [1838]
14 Now, in like manner . . . we wish to captivate their mind . . .
just to the people and to authors. . . . [1839]
15 . . . you do not collect that multitude of your friends which you
have entered on your list. . . . [1840]
16 . . . wherefore it is better for her to cherish this, than bestow
all her regard on that. . . .
17 . . . in the first place, all natural philosophers say, that man
is made up of soul and body.
18 . . . to have returned and retraced his steps[1841]
19 . . . and that which is greatly to your fancy is excessively
disagreeable to me. . . .
20 . . . strive with the highest powers of your nature: whereas I,
on the other hand . . . that I may be different[1842]
21 . . . whether he should hang himself, or fall on his sword, that
he may not look upon the sky. . . . [1843]
22 . . . study the matter, and give your attention to my words, I
beg.
23 . . . in order that I may escape from that which I perceive it is
the summit of your desires to attain to. [1844]
24 On the other hand, it is a disgrace not to know how to conquer
in war the sturdy barbarian Hannibal. [1845]
25 . . . but if they see this, they think that a wise man always
aims at what is good. . . .
26 . . . delighted with your pursuit, you write an ancient history
to your favorites. . . . [1846]
27 . . . who I am, and with what husk I am now enveloped, I can
not. . . . [1847]
28 . . . then to oppose to my mind a body worn out with pains.
29 . . . nor before he had handled a man's veins and heart. . . .
30 Let us appear kind and courteous to our friends--[1848]
31 Why should not you too call me unlettered and uneducated? [1849]
32 . . . call together the assembly, with hoarse sound and crooked
horns. [1850]
33 They will of their own accord fight it out for you, and die,
and will offer themselves voluntarily.
34 When I bring forth any verse from my heart--[1851]
35 He is not on that account exalted as the giver of life or of
joy. . . . [1852]
36 As each one of us has been brought forth into light from his
mother's womb[1853]
37 . . . if you wish to have your mind refreshed through your
ears[1854]
38 . . . they who drag on life for six months, vow the seventh to
Orcus.
39 . . . we are easily laughed at; we know that it is highly
dangerous to be angry--[1855]
40 Part is blown asunder by the wind, part grows stiff with
cold--[1856]
41 . . . if he tastes nothing between two market days. [1857]
42 . . . let it be glued with warm glue spread over it. . . .
43 . . . wherefore I quit the straight line, and gladly discharge
the office of rubbish--[1858]
44 . . .
if I had hit upon any obsolete or questionable word
45 . . . your youth, tired and tested to the highest degree by
me. [1859]
46 . . . when I had invigorated my body with a double stadium on the
exercise-ground, and with ball. . . . [1860]
47 . . . those who will take food from a clean table must needs wash.
48 Now obscurity is to these a strange and monstrous thing--[1861]
49 . . . what you would think you should beware of and chiefly
avoid. . . .
50 . . . enter on that toil which will bring you both fame and
profit--
51 . . . what he understood, I showed that not a few could:
52 . . . how disgusting and poor a thing it is to live «with
loathing for food». [1862]
53 . . . for my part, I am not persuaded publicly to change mine.
54 . . . then my tithes, which treat me so ill, and turn out so badly
55 . . . we see that he who is ill in mind gives evidence of it in
his body.
56 . . . make the battle of Popilius resound[1863]
57 . . . Sylvanus, the driver away of wolves . . . and trees struck by
lightning. [1864]
58 . . . that you transport yourself from the fierce storms of life
into quiet.
59 Moreover, it is a friend's duty to advise well, watch over,
admonish--
60 Since I found it out from great crowds of boon
companions--[1865]
61 . . . a faithless wife, a sluggish household, a dirty home--[1866]
62 . . . nor is peace obtained . . . because he dragged Cassandra from
the statue[1867]
63 . . . Eager to return home, we almost infringed our king's
command[1868]
64 . . . Let something, at all events, which I have attempted, turn
out, some way. . . .
65 . . . Thither our eyes of themselves entice us, and hope hurries
our mind to the spot.
66 . . . he thinks by clothes to ward off cold and shivering.
67 . . . unless you write of monsters and snakes with wings and
feathers. [1869]
68 . . . for I grow contemptuous and am weary of Agamemnon--
69 . . . he is tormented with hunger, cold, dirt, unbathed
filthiness, neglect.
70 . . . a sieve, a colander, a lantern . . . a thread for the
web. [1870]
71 May the gods suggest better things, and avert madness from you
72 . . . a dry, wretched, miserable stock he calls an elder--
73 . . . be more learned than the rest; abandon, or change to some
other direction, those faults which have become sacred with you.
74 It were better to get gold from the fire or food out of the mud
with our teeth.
75 Let him chop wood, perform his task-work, sweep the house, be
beaten.
76 He alone warded off Vulcan's violence from the fleet. . . .
77 Therefore, they think all will escape sickness. . . .
78 I therefore dispose, for money, of that which costs me dearer.
FOOTNOTES:
[1831] _Producunt_, i. e. , "instituunt," Nonius: vel "gignunt," Plaut. ,
Rud. , IV. , iv. , 129. Pers. , vi. , 18, "Geminos Horoscope varo producis
genio. " Juv. , viii. , 271, "Quam te Thersitæ similem producat Achilles. "
Plaut. , As. , III. , i. , 40. Ter. , Ad. , III. , ii. , 16. Juv. , xiv. , 228.
This, and the 3d, 4th, and 5th Fragments refer to the miseries of
married life.
[1832] _Mutires_, "to grumble, mutter. " Plaut. , Amph. , I. , i. , 228,
"Etiam muttis? jam tacebo. "
[1833] The Tricorii were a people of Gallia Narbonensis, on the
banks of the Druentia, now Durance, near Briançon, bordering
on the Allobroges and Vocontii. Hannibal marched through their
territory, after leaving the Arar. Cf. Plin. , ii. , 4. Liv. , xxi. , 31.
_Versipellis. _ Cf. Plaut. , Amph. , Prol. , 123, "Ita versipellem se facit
quando lubet. "
[1834] Van Heusde's interpretation is followed, which seems the most
obvious one. Gerlach takes the contrary view, and says, these very
words prove that Lucilius could not have been a scriptuarius or
decumanus. Lucilius means, "he would not change his present condition
and pursuits, even for a very lucrative post in Asia. "
[1835] _Depeculassere_ and _deargentassere_, are examples of the
old form of a future infinitive ending in _assere_. Cf. Plaut. ,
Amphit. , I. , i. , 56, "Sese igitur summâ vi virisque eorum oppidum
_expugnassere_. " _Decalauticare_, "to deprive of one's hood," from
calautica, "a covering for the head, used by women, and falling over
the shoulders. " It seems that Cicero charged Clodius with wearing one,
when he was detected in Cæsar's house. "Tunc cum vincirentur pedes
fasceis, cum calauticam capiti accommodares. " Cic. in Clod. ap. Non. ,
in voc. _Decalicasse_, is another reading.
[1836] _Defrudet. _ Cf. Plaut. , Asin. , I. , i. , 77, "Me defrudato.
Defrudem te ego? Age, sis, tu sine pennis vola! "
[1837] Cf. Shaksp. , Measure for Measure, act iii. , sc.
