"
[1400] _Quantum non milvus.
[1400] _Quantum non milvus.
Satires
Let the
cobbler[1407] bear off his presents. Dwell with yourself,[1408] and you
will know how short your household stuff is.
FOOTNOTES:
[1386] _Rem populi tractas? _ from the Greek περὶ τῶν τοῦ δήμου
πραγμάτων βουλεύεσθαι. The imitations of the First Alcibiades are very
close throughout the Satire. Even in our own day, in looking back upon
ancient history, it would be difficult to find two persons so nearly
counterparts of each other as Nero and Alcibiades; not only in their
personal character but in the adventitious circumstances of their life.
Both came into public life at a very early age. Nero was emperor before
he was seventeen years old, and Alcibiades was barely twenty at the
siege of Potidæa. Seneca was to Nero what Socrates was to Alcibiades.
Both derived their claims to pre-eminence from the _mother's_ side:
Nero through Agrippina, from the Julian gens; Alcibiades through
Dinomache, from the Alemæonidæ. The public influence of both extended
through nearly the same period, thirteen years. Both were notorious
for the same vices: love of self-indulgence, ambition of pre-eminence,
personal vanity, lawless insolence toward others, lavish expenditure,
and utter disregard of all principle. It would be very easy to carry
out the parallel into greater detail. Comp. Suet. , Nero, c. 26, with
Grote's Greece, vol. vii. , ch. 55.
[1387] _Barbatum. _ Cf. Juv. , xiv. , 12, "Barbatos licet admoveas mille
inde magistros. " Cic. , Fin. , iv. , "Barba sylvosa et pulcrè alita
inter hominis eruditi insignia recensetur. " Hor. , ii. , Sat. iii. , 34,
"Tempore quo me solatus jussit sapientem pascere barbam. "
[1388] _Cicutæ. _ Cf. ad Juv. , vii, 206.
[1389] _Pupille. _ Alcibiades was left an orphan at the age of five
years, his father, Clinias, having been killed at the battle of
Coronea; when he was placed with his younger brother Clinias, under
the guardianship of Pericles and his brother Ariphron, to whom his
ungovernable passions, even in his boyhood, were a source of great
grief. Of this connection Alcibiades was very proud. Cf. Plat. , Alc. ,
c. 1. Nero lost his father when scarcely three years old; and at the
age of eleven, he was adopted by Claudius and placed under the care
of Annæus Seneca. It is curious that the first public act of both was
an act of liberality to the people. Compare the account of Nero's
proposing the Congiarium (Suet. , Nero, c. 7), with the anecdote of
the quail of Alcibiades told by Plutarch (in Vit. , c. 10). There is
probably also a bitter sarcasm in the word "pupille," as it was the
term of contempt applied to Nero by Poppæa, who was impatient to be
married to him, which the control of his mother Agrippina, and the
influence of Seneca and Burrhus, delayed. Cf. Tac. , Ann. , xiv. , I,
"Quæ (Poppæa) aliquando per facetias incusaret Principem et _pupillum_
vocaret qui jussis alienis obnoxius non modo imperii sed libertatis
etiam indigeret. " Some imagine _pericli_ to be intended as a pun, "One
that would prove _dangerous_ hereafter;" as Alcibiades was compared to
a lion's whelp, Arist. , Ran. , 1431, οὐ χρὴ λέοντος σκύμνον ἐν πόλει
τρέφειν ἤν δ' ἐκτρέφῃ τις, τοῖς τρόποις ὑπηρετεῖν.
[1390] _Majestate manûs. _ Ov. , Met. , i. , 205, "Quam fuit illa Jovi: qui
postquam voce, _manuque_ Murmura compressit, tenuere silentia cuncti. "
So Lucan says of Cæsar, "Utque satis trepidum turbâ coeunte tumultum
Composuit vultu, _dextrâque_ silentia jussit. " Cf. Acts, xiii. 16.
[1391] _Curva. _ The Stoic notion that virtue is a straight line; vices,
curved: the virtues occasionally approaching nearer to one curve than
the other. Cf. Arist. , Eth. , II. , vii. and viii. ; and Sat. , iii. , 52,
"Haud tibi inexpertum _curvos_ deprendere mores, Quæque docet sapiens
braccatis illita Medis Porticus. "
[1392] _Nigrum Theta. _ The Θ, the first letter of θάνατος, was set
by the Judices against the names of those whom they adjuged worthy
of death, and was hence used by critics to obelize passages they
condemned or disapproved of; the contrary being marked with Χ, for
χρηστόν. Cf. Mart. , vii. , Ep. xxxvii. , 1, "Nosti mortiferum quæstoris,
Castrice, signum, Est operæ pretium discere theta novum. " Auson. , Ep.
128, "Tuumque nomen theta sectilis signet. " Sidon. , Carm. , ix. , 335,
"Isti qui valet exarationi Districtum bonus applicare theta. " (It was
also used on tomb-stones, and as a mark to tick off the dead on the
muster-roll of soldiers. )
[1393] _Summâ pella decorus. _ The personal beauty of Alcibiades is
proverbial. Suetonius does not give a very unfavorable account of
Nero's exterior, "Staturâ fuit prope justâ, sufflavo capillo, vultu
pulchro magis quam venusto, oculis cæsiis. " The rest of the picture
is not quite so flattering. It should be observed, by the way,
that Suetonius speaks in terms by no means disparaging of Nero's
verses, which, he says, flowed easily and naturally: he discards the
insinuation that they were mere translations, or plagiarisms, as he
says he had ocular proof to the contrary. Suet. , Vit. , c. 51, 2.
[1394] _Caudam jactare_, a metaphor either from "a dog fawning," or "a
peacock displaying its tail. " Hor. , ii. , Sat. ii. , 26, "Rara avis et
pictâ pandat spectacula caudâ. "
[1395] _Anticyras. _ Cf. ad Juv. , xiii. , 97. Hor. , ii. , Ep. ii. , 137,
"Expulit helleboro morbum bilemque meraco. " Lucian, ἐν Πλοίῳ, 45, καὶ
ὁ ἑλλέβορος ἱκανὸς ποιῆσαι ζωρότερος ποθείς. _Meracus_ is properly
applied to unmixed _wine_; _merus_, to any _other_ liquid.
[1396] _Curata cuticula sole. _ Cf. ad Juv. , xi. , 203, "Nostra bibat
vernum contracta cuticula solem. " Alluding to the _apricatio_, or
"sunning themselves," of which old men are so fond. Line 33. Sat. v. ,
179. Cic. , de Senect. , xvi. Mart. , x. , Ep. xii. , 7, "I precor et totos
avida cute combibe soles, Quam formosus eris, dum peregrinus eris. "
Plin. , Ep. iii. , 1. "Ubi hora balinei nuntiata est, in sole, si caret
vento, ambulat nudus. " iv. , Ep. 5, "Post cibum sæpe æstate si quod
otii, jacebat in sole. " Cic. , Att. , vii. , 11. Mart. , i. , Ep. lxxviii. ,
4. Juv. , ii. , 105, "Et curare cutem summi constantia civis. " Hor. ,
i. , Ep. iv. , 29, "In cute curandâ plus æquo operata juventus. " iv. ,
15, "Me pinguem et nitidum bene curatâ cute vises. " Cf. Sat. ii. , 37,
"Pelliculam curare jube. "
[1397] _Dinomaches. _ Vid. line 1. Plut. , Alc. , 1. It appears from
Plat. , Alc. , cxviii. , that it was a name Alcibiades delighted in.
[1398] _Ocima. _ Properly the herb "Basil," _ocimum Basilicum_, either
from ὠκὺς, from its "rapid growth," or from ὄζειν, from its "fragrance. "
[1399] _Mantica. _ From Phædrus, lib. iv. , Fab. x. , "Peras imposuit
Jupiter nobis duas: propriis repletam vitiis post tergum dedit: Alienis
ante pectus suspendit gravem. Hâc re videre nostra mala non possumus:
alii simul delinquunt, censores sumus. " So Petr. , Frag. Traj. , 57, "In
alio peduclum vides: in te ricinum non vides. " Cat. , xxii. , 20, "Suus
quoique attributus est error: Sed non videmus manticæ quod in tergo
est.
"
[1400] _Quantum non milvus. _ Cf. Juv. , ix. , 55, "Tot milvos intra tua
pascua lassos. "
[1401] _Pertusa ad compita. _ "Compita" are places where three or more
roads meet, from the old verb bito or beto. At these places altars,
or little chapels, were erected with as many sides as there were ways
meeting. (Jani bifrontes. ) Cf. v. , 35, "Ramosa in compita. " Hence they
are called "pertusa," i. e. , _pervia_, "open in all directions. " At
these chapels it was the custom for the rustics to suspend the worn-out
implements of husbandry. Though some think this was more especially
done at the Compitalia. This festival was one of those which the Romans
called Feriæ Conceptivæ, being fixed annually by the Prætor. They
generally followed close upon the Saturnalia, and were held sometimes
three days before the kalends of January, sometimes on the kalends
themselves. Vid. Cic. , Pis. , iv. Auson. , Ecl. de Fev. , "Et nunquam
certis redeuntia festa diebus, Compita per vicos quum sua quisque
colit. " According to Servius, they are described, though not by name,
by Virgil, Æn. , viii. , 717. Like the Quinquatrus, they lasted only
one day, and on that occasion additional wooden chapels were erected,
the sacrificial cakes were provided by different houses, and slaves,
not freedmen, presided at the sacrifices. Vid. Plin. , XXXVI. , xxvii. ,
70. The gods whom they worshiped are said to have been the Lares
Compitales, of whom various legends are current. But this is doubtful.
Augustus appointed certain rites in their honor, twice in the year.
Suet. , Vit. , c. xxxi. , "Compitales Lares ornari bis anno instituit
vernis floribus et æstivis. " It seems to have been a season of rustic
revelry and feasting, and of license for slaves, like the Saturnalia.
The avarice of the miser, therefore, on such an occasion, is the more
conspicuous. His vessel is but a small one (seriola), and its contents
woolly (pannosam) with age (veterem); yet he grudges scraping off the
clay (limum) with which they used to stop their vessels, in order to
pour a libation of his sour wine.
[1402] _Balanatum gausape. _ The Balanus, or "Arabian Balsam," was
considered one of the most expensive perfumes. πρὸς τὰ πολυτελῆ μύρα
ἀντ' ἐλαίου ἔχρωντο. Dioscor. , iv. , 160. Cf. Hor. , iii. , Od. xxix. , 4,
"Pressa tuis _balanus_ capillis Jamdudum apud me est. " The gausape is
properly a thick shaggy kind of stuff. Hence Sen. , Ep. 53, "Frigidæ
cultor mitto me in mare quomodo psychrolutam decet, gausapatus. "
Lucil. , xx. , Fr. 9, "Purpureo tersit tunc latas gausape mensas. " From
whom Horace copies, ii. , Sat. viii. , 10, "Puer alte cinctus acernam
gausape purpureo mensam pertersit. " It is here used for "a very thick,
bushy beard. "
[1403] _Cædimus. _ A metaphor from gladiators, which is continued
through the next three lines. "While we are intent on wounding our
adversaries, we leave our own weak points unguarded;" i. e. , while
satirizing others, we are quite forgetful of and blind to our own
defects. There is here also a covert allusion to Nero, who, though so
open to sarcasm, yet took upon him to satirize others. Cf. ad Juv. ,
iv. , 106, "Et tamen improbior satiram scribente cinædo. "
[1404] _Non credam. _ Sen. , Ep. lix. , 11, "Cito nobis placemus: si
invenimus qui nos bonos viros dicat, qui prudentes, qui sanctos,
agnoscimus. Nec sumus modicâ laudatione contenti: quidquid in nos
adulatio sine pudore congessit, tanquam debitum prendimus: optimos nos
esse sapientissimos affirmantibus assentimur. "
[1405] _Puteal flagellas. _ "This line," Casaubon says, "was purposely
intended to be obscure; that while all would apply it in one sense
to Nero, Persius, if accused, might maintain that he intended only
the other sense, which the words at first sight bear. " Puteal is
put for the forum itself by synecdoche. It is properly the "puteal
Libonis," a place which L. Scribonius Libo caused to be inclosed
(perhaps cir. A. U. C. 604). It had been perhaps a bidental (cf. ad Sat.
ii. , 27), or, as others say, the place where the razor of the augur
Nævius was deposited. Near it was the prætor's chair, and the benches
frequented by persons who had private suits, among whom the class of
usurers would be most conspicuous. (Hence Hor. , i. , Epist. xix. , 8,
"Forum putealque Libonis Mandabo siccis. " ii. , Sat. vi. , 35. ) _Puteal
flagellare_, therefore, is taken in its primitive sense to mean, "to
frequent the forum for the purpose of enforcing rigorous payment from
those to whom you _have_ lent money; or the benches of the usurers, in
quest of persons to whom you _may_ lend it on exorbitant interest. "
Cf. Ov. , Remed. , Am. , 561, "Qui _puteal_ Janumque timet, celeresque
Kalendas. " Cic. , Sext. , 8. In its secondary sense, it may apply to the
nightly atrocities of Nero, who used to frequent the forum, violently
assaulting those he met, and outrageously insulting females, not
unfrequently committing robberies and even murder; but having been
soundly beaten one night by a nobleman whose wife he had outraged, he
went ever after attended by gladiators, as a security for his personal
safety; who kept aloof until their services were required. Nero might
well, therefore, be called the "scourge of the Forum," and be said
to leave scars and wales behind him in the scenes of his enormities.
Juvenal (Sat. iii. , 278, _seq. _) alludes to the same practices. A
description of them at full length may be found in Tacitus (Ann. ,
xiii. , 26) and Suetonius (Vit. Neron. , c. 26).
[1406] _Bibulas. _ "Those ears which are as prone to drink in the
flattery of the mob as a sponge to imbibe water. "
[1407] _Cerdo_, Put here for the lower orders generally, whose applause
Nero always especially courted. So Juv. , iv. , 153, "Sed periit postquam
cerdonibus esse timendus cœperat. " viii. , 182, "Et quæ turpia cerdoni
volesos Brutosque decebunt. " "Give back the rabble their tribute of
applause. Let them bear their vile presents elsewhere! "
[1408] _Tecum habita. _ "Retire into yourself; examine yourself
thoroughly; your abilities and powers of governing: and you will find
how little fitted you are for the arduous task you have undertaken. "
Compare the end of the Alcibiades. Juv. , xi. , 33, "Te consule, die tibi
qui sis. " Hor. , i. , Sat. iii. , 34, "Te ipsum concute. " Sen. , Ep. 80,
_fin. _, "Si perpendere te voles, sepone pecuniam, domum, dignitatem:
intus te ipse considera. Nunc qualis sis, aliis credis. "
SATIRE V.
ARGUMENT.
On this Satire, which is the longest and the best of all, Persius
may be said to rest his claims to be considered a Philosopher
and a Poet. It may be compared with advantage with the Third
Satire of the second book of Horace. As the object in that is to
defend what is called the Stoical paradox, "that none but the
Philosopher is of _sound mind_,"
"Quem mala stultitia et quemcunque inscitia veri
Cæecum agit, insanum Chrysippi porticus et grex
Autumat:" i. , 43-45,
so here, Persius maintains that other dogma of the Stoics, "that
none but the Philosopher is truly a _free_ man. " Horace argues
(in the person of a Stoic) that there can be but _one_ path that
leads in the right direction; all others must lead the traveler
only farther astray. "Unus utrique error sed variis illudit
partibus" (ἐσθλοὶ μὲν γὰρ ἁπλῶς, παντοδαπῶς δὲ κακοί. Arist. ,
Eth. , II. , vi. , 4). So Persius argues, whatever are the varied
pursuits of different minds, he that is under the influence of some
overwhelming passion, can offer no claim to be accounted a free
agent. "Mille hominum species, et rerum discolor usus. " (52. ) In
fact, if we substitute "freedom" for "wisdom," the whole argument
of the last part of the Satire may be expressed in the two lines of
Horace:
"Quisquis
_Ambitione_ malâ aut _argenti_ pallet amore
Quisquis _Luxuria_ tristive _Superstitione_
Aut alio mentis morbo calet:"
that man can neither be pronounced free or of sound mind.
The Satire consists of two parts; the first serving as a Proëm to
the other. It is, in fact, the earnest expression of unbounded
affection for his tutor and early friend Annæus Cornutus, from
whom he had imbibed those principles of philosophy, which it is
the object of the latter part of the Satire to elucidate. After a
few lines of ridicule at the hackneyed prologues of the day, he
puts into the mouth of Cornutus that just criticism of poetical
composition which there is very little doubt Persius had in reality
derived from his master; and in answer to this, he takes occasion
to profess his sincere and deep-seated love and gratitude toward
the preceptor, whose kind care had rescued him from the vicious
courses to which a young and ardent temperament was leading him;
and whose sound judgment and dexterous management had weaned him
from the temptations that assail the young, by making him his own
companion in those studies which expanded his intellect while
they rectified the _obliquity_ (to use the Stoics' phrase) of his
moral character. Such mutual affection, he urges, could only exist
between two persons whom something more than mere adventitious
circumstances drew together; and he therefore concludes that the
same natal star must have presided over the horoscope of both.
He then proceeds to the main subject of the Satire, viz. , that all
men should aim at attaining that freedom which can only result from
that perfect "soundness of mind" which we have shown to be the
summum bonum of the Stoics. This real freedom no mere external or
adventitious circumstances can bestow. Dama, though freed at his
master's behest, if he be the slave of passion, is as much a slave
as if he had never felt the prætor's rod. Until he have really cast
off, like the snake, the slough of his former vices, and become
changed in heart and principles as he is in political standing,
he is so far from being really free from bondage that he can not
rightly perform even the most trivial act of daily life. True
freedom consists in virtue alone; but "Virtus est vitium fugere:"
and he who eradicates all other passions, but cherishes still one
darling vice, has but changed his master. The dictates of the
passions that sway his breast are more imperious than those of the
severest task-master. Whether it be avarice, or luxury, or love,
or ambition, or superstition, that is the dominant principle, so
long as he can not shake himself free from the control of these, he
is as much, as real a slave as the drudge that bears his master's
strigil to the bath, or the dog that fancies he has burst his bonds
while the long fragment of his broken chain still dangles from his
neck. The last few lines contain a dignified rebuke of the sneers
which such pure sentiments as these would provoke in the coarse
minds of some into whose hands these lines might fall; perhaps,
too, they may be meant as a gentle reproof of the sly irony in
which the Epicurean Horace indulged, while professing to enunciate
the Stoic doctrine, that none but the true Philosopher can be said
to be of sound mind.
It is the custom of poets to pray for a hundred voices,[1409] and to
wish for a hundred mouths and a hundred tongues for their verses;[1410]
whether the subject proposed be one to be mouthed[1411] by a
grim-visaged[1412] Tragœdian, or the wounds[1413] of a Parthian drawing
his weapon from his groin. [1414]
CORNUTUS. [1415] What is the object of this? or what masses[1416]
of robust song are you heaping up, so as to require the support
of a hundred throats? Let those who are about to speak on grand
subjects collect mists on Helicon;[1417] all those for whom the pot
of Procne[1418] or Thyestes shall boil, to be often supped on by the
insipid Glycon. [1419] You neither press forth the air from the panting
bellows, while the mass is smelting in the furnace; nor, hoarse with
pent-up murmur, foolishly croak out something ponderous, nor strive to
burst your swollen cheeks with puffing. [1420] You adopt the language of
the Toga,[1421] skillful at judicious combination, with moderate style,
well rounded,[1422] clever at lashing depraved morals,[1423] and with
well-bred sportiveness to affix the mark of censure. Draw from this
source what you have to say; and leave at Mycenæ the tables, with the
head[1424] and feet, and study plebeian dinners.
PERSIUS. For my part, I do not aim at this, that my page may be
inflated with air-blown trifles, fit only to give weight[1425]
to smoke. We are talking apart from the crowd. I am now, at the
instigation of the Muse, giving you my heart to sift;[1426] and delight
in showing you, beloved friend, how large a portion of my soul is
yours, Cornutus! Knock then, since thou knowest well how to detect what
rings sound,[1427] and the glozings of a varnished[1428] tongue.
cobbler[1407] bear off his presents. Dwell with yourself,[1408] and you
will know how short your household stuff is.
FOOTNOTES:
[1386] _Rem populi tractas? _ from the Greek περὶ τῶν τοῦ δήμου
πραγμάτων βουλεύεσθαι. The imitations of the First Alcibiades are very
close throughout the Satire. Even in our own day, in looking back upon
ancient history, it would be difficult to find two persons so nearly
counterparts of each other as Nero and Alcibiades; not only in their
personal character but in the adventitious circumstances of their life.
Both came into public life at a very early age. Nero was emperor before
he was seventeen years old, and Alcibiades was barely twenty at the
siege of Potidæa. Seneca was to Nero what Socrates was to Alcibiades.
Both derived their claims to pre-eminence from the _mother's_ side:
Nero through Agrippina, from the Julian gens; Alcibiades through
Dinomache, from the Alemæonidæ. The public influence of both extended
through nearly the same period, thirteen years. Both were notorious
for the same vices: love of self-indulgence, ambition of pre-eminence,
personal vanity, lawless insolence toward others, lavish expenditure,
and utter disregard of all principle. It would be very easy to carry
out the parallel into greater detail. Comp. Suet. , Nero, c. 26, with
Grote's Greece, vol. vii. , ch. 55.
[1387] _Barbatum. _ Cf. Juv. , xiv. , 12, "Barbatos licet admoveas mille
inde magistros. " Cic. , Fin. , iv. , "Barba sylvosa et pulcrè alita
inter hominis eruditi insignia recensetur. " Hor. , ii. , Sat. iii. , 34,
"Tempore quo me solatus jussit sapientem pascere barbam. "
[1388] _Cicutæ. _ Cf. ad Juv. , vii, 206.
[1389] _Pupille. _ Alcibiades was left an orphan at the age of five
years, his father, Clinias, having been killed at the battle of
Coronea; when he was placed with his younger brother Clinias, under
the guardianship of Pericles and his brother Ariphron, to whom his
ungovernable passions, even in his boyhood, were a source of great
grief. Of this connection Alcibiades was very proud. Cf. Plat. , Alc. ,
c. 1. Nero lost his father when scarcely three years old; and at the
age of eleven, he was adopted by Claudius and placed under the care
of Annæus Seneca. It is curious that the first public act of both was
an act of liberality to the people. Compare the account of Nero's
proposing the Congiarium (Suet. , Nero, c. 7), with the anecdote of
the quail of Alcibiades told by Plutarch (in Vit. , c. 10). There is
probably also a bitter sarcasm in the word "pupille," as it was the
term of contempt applied to Nero by Poppæa, who was impatient to be
married to him, which the control of his mother Agrippina, and the
influence of Seneca and Burrhus, delayed. Cf. Tac. , Ann. , xiv. , I,
"Quæ (Poppæa) aliquando per facetias incusaret Principem et _pupillum_
vocaret qui jussis alienis obnoxius non modo imperii sed libertatis
etiam indigeret. " Some imagine _pericli_ to be intended as a pun, "One
that would prove _dangerous_ hereafter;" as Alcibiades was compared to
a lion's whelp, Arist. , Ran. , 1431, οὐ χρὴ λέοντος σκύμνον ἐν πόλει
τρέφειν ἤν δ' ἐκτρέφῃ τις, τοῖς τρόποις ὑπηρετεῖν.
[1390] _Majestate manûs. _ Ov. , Met. , i. , 205, "Quam fuit illa Jovi: qui
postquam voce, _manuque_ Murmura compressit, tenuere silentia cuncti. "
So Lucan says of Cæsar, "Utque satis trepidum turbâ coeunte tumultum
Composuit vultu, _dextrâque_ silentia jussit. " Cf. Acts, xiii. 16.
[1391] _Curva. _ The Stoic notion that virtue is a straight line; vices,
curved: the virtues occasionally approaching nearer to one curve than
the other. Cf. Arist. , Eth. , II. , vii. and viii. ; and Sat. , iii. , 52,
"Haud tibi inexpertum _curvos_ deprendere mores, Quæque docet sapiens
braccatis illita Medis Porticus. "
[1392] _Nigrum Theta. _ The Θ, the first letter of θάνατος, was set
by the Judices against the names of those whom they adjuged worthy
of death, and was hence used by critics to obelize passages they
condemned or disapproved of; the contrary being marked with Χ, for
χρηστόν. Cf. Mart. , vii. , Ep. xxxvii. , 1, "Nosti mortiferum quæstoris,
Castrice, signum, Est operæ pretium discere theta novum. " Auson. , Ep.
128, "Tuumque nomen theta sectilis signet. " Sidon. , Carm. , ix. , 335,
"Isti qui valet exarationi Districtum bonus applicare theta. " (It was
also used on tomb-stones, and as a mark to tick off the dead on the
muster-roll of soldiers. )
[1393] _Summâ pella decorus. _ The personal beauty of Alcibiades is
proverbial. Suetonius does not give a very unfavorable account of
Nero's exterior, "Staturâ fuit prope justâ, sufflavo capillo, vultu
pulchro magis quam venusto, oculis cæsiis. " The rest of the picture
is not quite so flattering. It should be observed, by the way,
that Suetonius speaks in terms by no means disparaging of Nero's
verses, which, he says, flowed easily and naturally: he discards the
insinuation that they were mere translations, or plagiarisms, as he
says he had ocular proof to the contrary. Suet. , Vit. , c. 51, 2.
[1394] _Caudam jactare_, a metaphor either from "a dog fawning," or "a
peacock displaying its tail. " Hor. , ii. , Sat. ii. , 26, "Rara avis et
pictâ pandat spectacula caudâ. "
[1395] _Anticyras. _ Cf. ad Juv. , xiii. , 97. Hor. , ii. , Ep. ii. , 137,
"Expulit helleboro morbum bilemque meraco. " Lucian, ἐν Πλοίῳ, 45, καὶ
ὁ ἑλλέβορος ἱκανὸς ποιῆσαι ζωρότερος ποθείς. _Meracus_ is properly
applied to unmixed _wine_; _merus_, to any _other_ liquid.
[1396] _Curata cuticula sole. _ Cf. ad Juv. , xi. , 203, "Nostra bibat
vernum contracta cuticula solem. " Alluding to the _apricatio_, or
"sunning themselves," of which old men are so fond. Line 33. Sat. v. ,
179. Cic. , de Senect. , xvi. Mart. , x. , Ep. xii. , 7, "I precor et totos
avida cute combibe soles, Quam formosus eris, dum peregrinus eris. "
Plin. , Ep. iii. , 1. "Ubi hora balinei nuntiata est, in sole, si caret
vento, ambulat nudus. " iv. , Ep. 5, "Post cibum sæpe æstate si quod
otii, jacebat in sole. " Cic. , Att. , vii. , 11. Mart. , i. , Ep. lxxviii. ,
4. Juv. , ii. , 105, "Et curare cutem summi constantia civis. " Hor. ,
i. , Ep. iv. , 29, "In cute curandâ plus æquo operata juventus. " iv. ,
15, "Me pinguem et nitidum bene curatâ cute vises. " Cf. Sat. ii. , 37,
"Pelliculam curare jube. "
[1397] _Dinomaches. _ Vid. line 1. Plut. , Alc. , 1. It appears from
Plat. , Alc. , cxviii. , that it was a name Alcibiades delighted in.
[1398] _Ocima. _ Properly the herb "Basil," _ocimum Basilicum_, either
from ὠκὺς, from its "rapid growth," or from ὄζειν, from its "fragrance. "
[1399] _Mantica. _ From Phædrus, lib. iv. , Fab. x. , "Peras imposuit
Jupiter nobis duas: propriis repletam vitiis post tergum dedit: Alienis
ante pectus suspendit gravem. Hâc re videre nostra mala non possumus:
alii simul delinquunt, censores sumus. " So Petr. , Frag. Traj. , 57, "In
alio peduclum vides: in te ricinum non vides. " Cat. , xxii. , 20, "Suus
quoique attributus est error: Sed non videmus manticæ quod in tergo
est.
"
[1400] _Quantum non milvus. _ Cf. Juv. , ix. , 55, "Tot milvos intra tua
pascua lassos. "
[1401] _Pertusa ad compita. _ "Compita" are places where three or more
roads meet, from the old verb bito or beto. At these places altars,
or little chapels, were erected with as many sides as there were ways
meeting. (Jani bifrontes. ) Cf. v. , 35, "Ramosa in compita. " Hence they
are called "pertusa," i. e. , _pervia_, "open in all directions. " At
these chapels it was the custom for the rustics to suspend the worn-out
implements of husbandry. Though some think this was more especially
done at the Compitalia. This festival was one of those which the Romans
called Feriæ Conceptivæ, being fixed annually by the Prætor. They
generally followed close upon the Saturnalia, and were held sometimes
three days before the kalends of January, sometimes on the kalends
themselves. Vid. Cic. , Pis. , iv. Auson. , Ecl. de Fev. , "Et nunquam
certis redeuntia festa diebus, Compita per vicos quum sua quisque
colit. " According to Servius, they are described, though not by name,
by Virgil, Æn. , viii. , 717. Like the Quinquatrus, they lasted only
one day, and on that occasion additional wooden chapels were erected,
the sacrificial cakes were provided by different houses, and slaves,
not freedmen, presided at the sacrifices. Vid. Plin. , XXXVI. , xxvii. ,
70. The gods whom they worshiped are said to have been the Lares
Compitales, of whom various legends are current. But this is doubtful.
Augustus appointed certain rites in their honor, twice in the year.
Suet. , Vit. , c. xxxi. , "Compitales Lares ornari bis anno instituit
vernis floribus et æstivis. " It seems to have been a season of rustic
revelry and feasting, and of license for slaves, like the Saturnalia.
The avarice of the miser, therefore, on such an occasion, is the more
conspicuous. His vessel is but a small one (seriola), and its contents
woolly (pannosam) with age (veterem); yet he grudges scraping off the
clay (limum) with which they used to stop their vessels, in order to
pour a libation of his sour wine.
[1402] _Balanatum gausape. _ The Balanus, or "Arabian Balsam," was
considered one of the most expensive perfumes. πρὸς τὰ πολυτελῆ μύρα
ἀντ' ἐλαίου ἔχρωντο. Dioscor. , iv. , 160. Cf. Hor. , iii. , Od. xxix. , 4,
"Pressa tuis _balanus_ capillis Jamdudum apud me est. " The gausape is
properly a thick shaggy kind of stuff. Hence Sen. , Ep. 53, "Frigidæ
cultor mitto me in mare quomodo psychrolutam decet, gausapatus. "
Lucil. , xx. , Fr. 9, "Purpureo tersit tunc latas gausape mensas. " From
whom Horace copies, ii. , Sat. viii. , 10, "Puer alte cinctus acernam
gausape purpureo mensam pertersit. " It is here used for "a very thick,
bushy beard. "
[1403] _Cædimus. _ A metaphor from gladiators, which is continued
through the next three lines. "While we are intent on wounding our
adversaries, we leave our own weak points unguarded;" i. e. , while
satirizing others, we are quite forgetful of and blind to our own
defects. There is here also a covert allusion to Nero, who, though so
open to sarcasm, yet took upon him to satirize others. Cf. ad Juv. ,
iv. , 106, "Et tamen improbior satiram scribente cinædo. "
[1404] _Non credam. _ Sen. , Ep. lix. , 11, "Cito nobis placemus: si
invenimus qui nos bonos viros dicat, qui prudentes, qui sanctos,
agnoscimus. Nec sumus modicâ laudatione contenti: quidquid in nos
adulatio sine pudore congessit, tanquam debitum prendimus: optimos nos
esse sapientissimos affirmantibus assentimur. "
[1405] _Puteal flagellas. _ "This line," Casaubon says, "was purposely
intended to be obscure; that while all would apply it in one sense
to Nero, Persius, if accused, might maintain that he intended only
the other sense, which the words at first sight bear. " Puteal is
put for the forum itself by synecdoche. It is properly the "puteal
Libonis," a place which L. Scribonius Libo caused to be inclosed
(perhaps cir. A. U. C. 604). It had been perhaps a bidental (cf. ad Sat.
ii. , 27), or, as others say, the place where the razor of the augur
Nævius was deposited. Near it was the prætor's chair, and the benches
frequented by persons who had private suits, among whom the class of
usurers would be most conspicuous. (Hence Hor. , i. , Epist. xix. , 8,
"Forum putealque Libonis Mandabo siccis. " ii. , Sat. vi. , 35. ) _Puteal
flagellare_, therefore, is taken in its primitive sense to mean, "to
frequent the forum for the purpose of enforcing rigorous payment from
those to whom you _have_ lent money; or the benches of the usurers, in
quest of persons to whom you _may_ lend it on exorbitant interest. "
Cf. Ov. , Remed. , Am. , 561, "Qui _puteal_ Janumque timet, celeresque
Kalendas. " Cic. , Sext. , 8. In its secondary sense, it may apply to the
nightly atrocities of Nero, who used to frequent the forum, violently
assaulting those he met, and outrageously insulting females, not
unfrequently committing robberies and even murder; but having been
soundly beaten one night by a nobleman whose wife he had outraged, he
went ever after attended by gladiators, as a security for his personal
safety; who kept aloof until their services were required. Nero might
well, therefore, be called the "scourge of the Forum," and be said
to leave scars and wales behind him in the scenes of his enormities.
Juvenal (Sat. iii. , 278, _seq. _) alludes to the same practices. A
description of them at full length may be found in Tacitus (Ann. ,
xiii. , 26) and Suetonius (Vit. Neron. , c. 26).
[1406] _Bibulas. _ "Those ears which are as prone to drink in the
flattery of the mob as a sponge to imbibe water. "
[1407] _Cerdo_, Put here for the lower orders generally, whose applause
Nero always especially courted. So Juv. , iv. , 153, "Sed periit postquam
cerdonibus esse timendus cœperat. " viii. , 182, "Et quæ turpia cerdoni
volesos Brutosque decebunt. " "Give back the rabble their tribute of
applause. Let them bear their vile presents elsewhere! "
[1408] _Tecum habita. _ "Retire into yourself; examine yourself
thoroughly; your abilities and powers of governing: and you will find
how little fitted you are for the arduous task you have undertaken. "
Compare the end of the Alcibiades. Juv. , xi. , 33, "Te consule, die tibi
qui sis. " Hor. , i. , Sat. iii. , 34, "Te ipsum concute. " Sen. , Ep. 80,
_fin. _, "Si perpendere te voles, sepone pecuniam, domum, dignitatem:
intus te ipse considera. Nunc qualis sis, aliis credis. "
SATIRE V.
ARGUMENT.
On this Satire, which is the longest and the best of all, Persius
may be said to rest his claims to be considered a Philosopher
and a Poet. It may be compared with advantage with the Third
Satire of the second book of Horace. As the object in that is to
defend what is called the Stoical paradox, "that none but the
Philosopher is of _sound mind_,"
"Quem mala stultitia et quemcunque inscitia veri
Cæecum agit, insanum Chrysippi porticus et grex
Autumat:" i. , 43-45,
so here, Persius maintains that other dogma of the Stoics, "that
none but the Philosopher is truly a _free_ man. " Horace argues
(in the person of a Stoic) that there can be but _one_ path that
leads in the right direction; all others must lead the traveler
only farther astray. "Unus utrique error sed variis illudit
partibus" (ἐσθλοὶ μὲν γὰρ ἁπλῶς, παντοδαπῶς δὲ κακοί. Arist. ,
Eth. , II. , vi. , 4). So Persius argues, whatever are the varied
pursuits of different minds, he that is under the influence of some
overwhelming passion, can offer no claim to be accounted a free
agent. "Mille hominum species, et rerum discolor usus. " (52. ) In
fact, if we substitute "freedom" for "wisdom," the whole argument
of the last part of the Satire may be expressed in the two lines of
Horace:
"Quisquis
_Ambitione_ malâ aut _argenti_ pallet amore
Quisquis _Luxuria_ tristive _Superstitione_
Aut alio mentis morbo calet:"
that man can neither be pronounced free or of sound mind.
The Satire consists of two parts; the first serving as a Proëm to
the other. It is, in fact, the earnest expression of unbounded
affection for his tutor and early friend Annæus Cornutus, from
whom he had imbibed those principles of philosophy, which it is
the object of the latter part of the Satire to elucidate. After a
few lines of ridicule at the hackneyed prologues of the day, he
puts into the mouth of Cornutus that just criticism of poetical
composition which there is very little doubt Persius had in reality
derived from his master; and in answer to this, he takes occasion
to profess his sincere and deep-seated love and gratitude toward
the preceptor, whose kind care had rescued him from the vicious
courses to which a young and ardent temperament was leading him;
and whose sound judgment and dexterous management had weaned him
from the temptations that assail the young, by making him his own
companion in those studies which expanded his intellect while
they rectified the _obliquity_ (to use the Stoics' phrase) of his
moral character. Such mutual affection, he urges, could only exist
between two persons whom something more than mere adventitious
circumstances drew together; and he therefore concludes that the
same natal star must have presided over the horoscope of both.
He then proceeds to the main subject of the Satire, viz. , that all
men should aim at attaining that freedom which can only result from
that perfect "soundness of mind" which we have shown to be the
summum bonum of the Stoics. This real freedom no mere external or
adventitious circumstances can bestow. Dama, though freed at his
master's behest, if he be the slave of passion, is as much a slave
as if he had never felt the prætor's rod. Until he have really cast
off, like the snake, the slough of his former vices, and become
changed in heart and principles as he is in political standing,
he is so far from being really free from bondage that he can not
rightly perform even the most trivial act of daily life. True
freedom consists in virtue alone; but "Virtus est vitium fugere:"
and he who eradicates all other passions, but cherishes still one
darling vice, has but changed his master. The dictates of the
passions that sway his breast are more imperious than those of the
severest task-master. Whether it be avarice, or luxury, or love,
or ambition, or superstition, that is the dominant principle, so
long as he can not shake himself free from the control of these, he
is as much, as real a slave as the drudge that bears his master's
strigil to the bath, or the dog that fancies he has burst his bonds
while the long fragment of his broken chain still dangles from his
neck. The last few lines contain a dignified rebuke of the sneers
which such pure sentiments as these would provoke in the coarse
minds of some into whose hands these lines might fall; perhaps,
too, they may be meant as a gentle reproof of the sly irony in
which the Epicurean Horace indulged, while professing to enunciate
the Stoic doctrine, that none but the true Philosopher can be said
to be of sound mind.
It is the custom of poets to pray for a hundred voices,[1409] and to
wish for a hundred mouths and a hundred tongues for their verses;[1410]
whether the subject proposed be one to be mouthed[1411] by a
grim-visaged[1412] Tragœdian, or the wounds[1413] of a Parthian drawing
his weapon from his groin. [1414]
CORNUTUS. [1415] What is the object of this? or what masses[1416]
of robust song are you heaping up, so as to require the support
of a hundred throats? Let those who are about to speak on grand
subjects collect mists on Helicon;[1417] all those for whom the pot
of Procne[1418] or Thyestes shall boil, to be often supped on by the
insipid Glycon. [1419] You neither press forth the air from the panting
bellows, while the mass is smelting in the furnace; nor, hoarse with
pent-up murmur, foolishly croak out something ponderous, nor strive to
burst your swollen cheeks with puffing. [1420] You adopt the language of
the Toga,[1421] skillful at judicious combination, with moderate style,
well rounded,[1422] clever at lashing depraved morals,[1423] and with
well-bred sportiveness to affix the mark of censure. Draw from this
source what you have to say; and leave at Mycenæ the tables, with the
head[1424] and feet, and study plebeian dinners.
PERSIUS. For my part, I do not aim at this, that my page may be
inflated with air-blown trifles, fit only to give weight[1425]
to smoke. We are talking apart from the crowd. I am now, at the
instigation of the Muse, giving you my heart to sift;[1426] and delight
in showing you, beloved friend, how large a portion of my soul is
yours, Cornutus! Knock then, since thou knowest well how to detect what
rings sound,[1427] and the glozings of a varnished[1428] tongue.
