SATIRES.--BOOK I

SATIRES.--BOOK I

SATIRE I.

The professed purpose of this Satire, or that with which Horace seems to have begun, may be gathered from the first two lines. Discontent with the condition that Providence had assigned them; disappointment with the position many years' labor, and perhaps dishonesty, have gained them; envy of their neighbors' circumstances, even if they be worse than their own; dissatisfaction, in short, with what they have and are, and craving for something they have not and are not,--these are features common to the great majority of men. For this vice of discontent the Greeks had a comprehensive name, μεμψιμοιρία. It will be seen that, after propounding the whole subject in the shape of a question to Mæcenas, Horace confines himself to one solution of it, and that not the most comprehensive (see notes on vv. 28, 108). Avarice is the only reason he assigns for the universal disease, and any one will see that hereby he leaves many untouched who are as culpably restless as the avaricious, but not in their sordid way.

The Satire is put first in the order of this book, not as an introduction (of which it bears no signs), but because it is addressed to Mæcenas.

1. quam sibi sortem] See note on C. i. 9. 14, as to 'sors' and 'fors.' These two are opposed, as effect and cause, the condition and that which produces it. 'Fors' and 'ratio' are opposed as that which a man cannot help, and that which he carves out for himself. 'Fors' is 'accident,' 'ratio' is 'choice.'

3. laudet] This sense of 'laudare,' 'felicem praedicare,' μακαρίζειν is repeated below, v. 9, and in v. 109, where it occurs in combination with, and as equivalent to, 'probare.' So Cicero (De Am. c. 7) says: "Ex quo illorum beata mors videtur, horum vita laudabilis."

laudet diversa sequentes?] This is briefly expressed, for 'sed quisque laudet.' In the transition from negative to positive statements, the positive element which is contained in the former is often carried on in the mind, so as to affect the latter, as in those sentences which are coupled by 'nec' and 'et,' οὔτε and τε. 'Nemo vivit' is 'quisque non vivit'. 'Diversa' indicates, not merely different, but 'opposite' careers.

4. gravis annis] Virgil says (Aen. ix. 246): "Hic annis gravis atque animi maturus Aletes." And 'gravis' is one of the commonest words applied to old age, as may be gathered from Cicero's treatise De Senect.; and βαρύς is equally common in the same connection. Horace, in his own campaigning, had undoubtedly heard many a veteran grumbling at his condition.

7. Quid enim, concurritur:] See C. ii. 18. 23, n.

horae Momento] 'Horae momento' is a common phrase in Livy and other writers. Horace has below, 'puncto mobilis horae.' 'Punctum' is perhaps a little more precise than 'momentum,' which signifies the progress of time, though conventionally its smallest division. Pliny draws a distinction between them (Panegyr. iv. c. 56): "Quod momentum, quod immo temporis punctum aut beneficio sterile aut vacuum laude?"

9. juris legumque peritus] 'Jurisperiti,' 'jurisconsulti,' were persons who expounded the law. Their expositions were called 'responsa,' and they gave them gratuitously. They were distinct from the professors or teachers ('advocati') and others, who were paid for their services, and from 'oratores,' though the 'consultus' sometimes combined with his calling as such that of the 'orator' or 'patronus.' If we are to believe this statement of Horace, and another to the same effect (Epp. ii. 1. 103), we must suppose that these learned persons sacrificed their own convenience to the anxiety of their clients, and received them at a very early hour in the morning. 'Jus' embodied all law. As to 'leges,' see Epp. i. 16. 41, n. On 'laudat,' see v. 3, n.

11. datis vadibus] 'Vades' were sureties provided by the defendant, to secure his appearance before the prætor at a time agreed upon between the plaintiff and himself. If he did not appear, he forfeited the amount of the 'vadimonium' or agreement, and his 'vades' were liable to pay it if he did not (see S. 9. 36, n.). The person here represented, therefore, is the defendant in an action, going up reluctantly to Rome, to appear before the prætor according to his agreement. 'Ille' is as if the man were before us.

14. Delassare valent] Though 'delasso' does not occur elsewhere, there is no reason to suspect the word, or alter it. The intensive force of 'de' is well added to 'lasso.' It corresponds to κατά, which has the same force. Who Fabius was, it is impossible even to conjecture with probability.

15. Si quis Deus,] This is not a Roman way of speaking but Greek, εἰ δαίμων τις. 'En ego' does not belong to 'faciam,' but is absolute: 'Here am I.' 'Eia' is an exclamation of haste, 'Away!' 'Nolint,' 'they would not' (οὐκ ἐθέλοιεν ἄν), is the apodosis to 'si quis Deus.' Compare S. ii. 7. 24. "Si quis ad illa deus subito te agat, usque recuses." 'Atqui' is another form of 'atquin,' and 'quin' represents 'qui,' with a negative particle affixed.

18. partibus:] An expression taken from the language of the theatre: 'the part you have to play' in life.

21. Iratus buccas inflet,] An obvious, but not very reverential, representation of passion.

25. olim] See C. ii. 10. 17, n.

27. Sed tamen amoto] 'Sed,' 'sed tamen,' 'veruntamen,' are often used, and especially by Cicero, not to express opposition, but after a parenthesis or digression, as here and C. iv. 4. 22. See, for another instance among many, Cic. in Verr. ii. 3. 2.

28. Ille gravem] The cause of that discontent which was spoken of at the beginning is here traced to the love of money, each man thinking that his neighbor is getting it faster than he is, and wishing therefore to change places with him. But Horace does not mean that to be the only solution of the universal discontent. That would be absurd, and one at least of his own examples would contradict his theory, the jurisconsultus, who did not pursue his laborious vocation for pay. He therefore shifts or limits his ground a little, and dwells upon that which he supposes to be the most prevalent cause of discontent; and with his ground he changes his examples. 'Nauta' and 'mercator' here are the same person, the trader navigating his own ship. (See C. i. 28. 23.) 'Perfidus caupo' appears again in 'cauponibus atque malignis' (S. i. 5. 4). 'Per omne Audaces mare qui currunt' is repeated from C. i. 3. 9, sqq.

32. cibaria:] This word, which is generally used for the rations of soldiers or slaves, is used here ironically for the humblest provision that can be made for the latter years of life, as if that was all that these men set before their minds.

33. nam exemplo est,] 'for this is their model.'

35. haud ignara ac non incauta futuri.] Experience tells her that times will change, and instinct teaches her to provide against that change; she knows what is coming, and provides accordingly. This is what Horace means; but the ant is torpid in the winter, and lays up no store in her house for that season, though no error is more common than to suppose she does. These animals work hard during the warmer months of the year, but the food they gather is consumed before the winter.

36. Quae, simul inversum] 'Quae' is opposed to 'quum te' (v. 38): 'now she.' 'Inversum annum' is compounded of the two notions 'inversum caelum' and 'mutatum annum.' The sun enters Aquarius in the middle of January. Virgil uses the word 'contristat' (Georg. iii. 279): "unde nigerrimus Auster Nascitur, et pluvio contristat frigore caelum." The ant is one of the "four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise,"--the ants, the conies, the locusts, and the spiders. (Prov. xxx. 24, sqq.)

39. ignis, mare, ferrum,] This is a mere proverbial way of speaking, common to all languages. No obstacles are too great for a man who has a selfish purpose to serve, if he has set his heart upon it. The second person is used to give force to the language. The self-deceiver is confronted with his own illustration.

43. Quod si comminuas] The miser is supposed to interrupt, and say, "But if you were to take from it, it would soon dwindle to a paltry 'as.'" 'Quod' is always the neuter of the relative, but here, as often elsewhere, it is used to connect a new sentence with what precedes, and is not connected with 'pondus' as its antecedent.

45. Millia frumenti] 'Modiorum' must be supplied. As to 'millia,' 'mille,' see S. ii. 3. 197, n. On 'area,' see C. i. 1. 10, n. 'Triverit,' 'suppose that it threshes.' This is the concessive use of the subjunctive. The practice of putting a note of interrogation in such sentences as this is exploded. The older editions generally have it. Similar constructions are S. 10. 64, "Fuerit Lucilius inquam Comis et urbanus; fuerit limatior--sed ille," etc.; S. 3. 15, "Decies centena dedisses:--quinque diebus nil erat in loculis"; S. ii. 6. 50; Epp. i. 1. 87; and many other places.

46. plus ac meus:] This construction occurs again, S. i. 6. 130; 10. 34, 59; ii. 3. 270. Cicero likewise uses 'ac' with the comparative (Ad Att. xiii. 2), "Diutius abfuturus ac nollem." 'Plus quam' occurs immediately below. The scene that follows is that of a rich man's household preceding him to the country, a pack of slaves ('venales'), some carrying provisions and particularly town-made bread in netted bags ('reticula'), and others with different burdens, and some with none at all. The man who carried the bread would not get any more of it on that account, when the rations were given out, but all would share alike.

49. Quid referat--viventi,] 'Refert' is 'rem fert,' and the construction 'mea,' 'tua,' etc.; 'refert' is no more than a corruption of 'meam,' 'tuam,' etc., 'rem fert.' So 'magni refert' is 'rem magni fert,' 'it brings with it a matter of great price,' and 'refert viventi' signifies 'it brings something that concerns him who lives,' that is, it affects him, and 'quid refert' is 'wherein does it affect him?'

51. At suave est] 'At' introduces the supposed answer to the preceding question. A rejoinder immediately follows to this effect: "You might as well say, if you only wanted a pitcher of water, you had rather draw it from a broad stream, like the Aufidus, than from the little spring by your side. The consequence of which might be that you would be drowned."

53. cumeris] Acron explains 'cumera' as a large basket of wicker-work, or earthen-ware vessel like a 'dolium,' in which the poorer sort kept their wheat.

54. liquidi] This word is used for 'aqua' by Ovid (Met. v. 454): "Cum liquido mixta perfundit diva polenta." The 'urna,' one of the Roman liquid measures, contained half an 'amphora,' or twenty four 'sextarii.' As observed before (C. iii. 19. 14), the 'cyathus' contained one twelfth of a 'sextarius,' which was one forty-eighth of an 'amphora.'

55. malim] 'Malim' simply means 'I would rather'; 'mallem' (the reading of the early editions), 'I would have done it if I could, but the time is past.' The Aufidus (Horace's native river, C. iii. 30. 10) is still described as a rapid and violent stream at some seasons.

61. bona pars] 'The greater part.' A. P. 297: "Bona pars non ungues ponere curat." On 'cupido,' see C. ii. 16. 15, n.

62. quia tanti quantum habeas sis.] 'because you are valued according to your wealth.'

63. illi?] 'Such a man as this.' 'Quatenus' signifies 'since.' 'Bid him be miserable, since he likes to be so.' 'Facio' is sometimes used in this way. See C. iii. 24. 30. The story that follows may have been picked up by Horace at Athens, or invented by him. The language ('sibilat--plaudo') is taken from the theatre.

68. Tantalus] See Epod. xvii. 66, n.

69. Quid rides?] The miser is supposed to laugh at Horace's trite illustration, and the solemn way in which it is announced.

71. tamquam parcere sacris] This appears to have been a proverbial expression. See S. ii. 3. 109, sq.

72. Cogeris] 'you force yourself.'

74. sextarius,] See v. 54, n. A 'sextarius' of wine would be enough for one temperate man's consumption in a day.

78. compilent fugientes,] 'rob you, and run away.'

79. pauperrimus--bonorum.] C. iii. 30. 11: "Pauper aquae Daunus." S. ii. 3. 142.

80. At si condoluit] This is an argument urged by the avaricious man: 'If you have money, you will have anxious friends to nurse you in sickness.' The answer is, 'Your nearest relatives have no wish you should live, and no wonder either, since you prefer your money to all the world.'

tentatum frigore] 'Tentatum' is the word commonly used in connection with diseases.

85. pueri atque puellae.] This, which appears to be a proverbial sort of expression, occurs again S. ii. 3. 130.

86. argento post omnia ponas,] i.e. 'postponas omnia argento.'

88. An si cognatos,] 'But say, if you seek to retain and keep the affection of those relations whom nature gives you without any trouble of your own, would you lose your labor, like the luckless fool that tries to turn an ass into a racer?' Training an ass to run in the Campus Martius among the thorough-bred horses that were there exercised (see C. i. 8. 5; iii. 12. 8) was perhaps a proverbial way of expressing lost labor. 'Amicos' belongs to 'cognatos' in the way I have translated it, and 'servare amicos' is 'to keep them fond of you.'

92. quaerendi,] 'money-getting.' 'Plus' means 'a superfluity.'

94. ne facias] 'Lest you fare,' μὴ πράσσης.

95. Ummidius quidam;] Who this person was, is unknown. All that can be safely said of him is what Horace says, that he was very rich and mean, and that he was murdered by one of his freedwomen (his mistress probably), who, Horace says, was as stout-hearted as Clytemnestra, the bravest of her family, who killed her husband Agamemnon. 'Tyndaridarum' is masculine: 'Tyndaridum' would be the feminine form. The sons of Tyndarus, therefore, as well as his daughters, should, strictly speaking, be included.

97. adusque] Forcellini gives only two other instances of this word from writings of Horace's day,--Virgil (Aen. xi. 262), and Horace himself (S. i. 5. 96). It is only an inversion of 'usque ad,' 'every step to.'

101. ut vivam Maenius?] The construction is the same as "discinctus aut perdam nepos" (Epod. i. 34), where it has been proposed to insert 'ut' before 'nepos.' Mænius and Nomentanus appear to have been squanderers of money, and good livers, according to the obvious meaning of this passage. They are united again in S. i. 8. 11, ii. 1. 21, where the former appears under the name Pantolabus, one who lays his hands on anything he can get (πάντα λαβών), or borrows money from any one who will lend it. He spent his money and turned parasite. Both Mænius and Nomentanus are names used by Lucilius for characters of the same kind, and Horace may very probably have only borrowed the names to represent some living characters, whom he does not choose to point out by their own names. Nomentanus was the name of one of the guests at the dinner of Nasidienus (S. ii. 8. 25). He appears again, S. ii. 3. 224, sqq.

103. Frontibus adversis componere:] These words go together, 'to bring face to face, and compare or match.'

104. vappam] 'Vappa,' wine which has got flat and sour, expresses a worn-out debauchee: 'nebulo,' a frivolous fellow, light as a mist ('nebula').

105. Tanaïn--socerumque Visellî.] The Scholiast says that Horace has conveyed under these names a well-known Greek proverb. What the distinction between them may have been, is unknown.

108. nemo ut avarus] 'I return to that point from which I have digressed, how that no covetous man is satisfied with himself.' The reading is not certain, and the hiatus is unusual. Horace qualifies the general assertion he made at the outset, by limiting his remark to the avaricious. See note on v. 28; and on 'laudet,' see v. 3.

114. Ut, quum carceribus] These lines are a little like the last three verses of Virgil's first Georgic.

119. Cedat uti conviva satur,] These are so like the words of Lucretius (iii. 951), that perhaps Horace remembered them when he wrote,--

"Cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis, Aequo animoque capis securam, stulte, quietem?"

120. Crispini scrinia lippi] We know nothing about Crispinus. The fertility of his pen has profited him nothing. He was more anxious to write much than to write well. See S. i. 4. 14, sqq. Crispinus appears in the third Satire of this book (v. 139), where he is the only attendant of the would-be 'rex.' He appears again in S. ii. 7. 45. 'Lippi' is used for mental blindness.

SATIRE II.

This Satire, the coarsest of all written by Horace, seems to have been suggested by the death of Tigellius, a celebrated musician of the time. It is directed against the tendency of men to run into extremes, and to pass from one extreme to the other. Illustrations of this subject are drawn from the social life of Rome. The ideas and the language are marked by a grossness which is unusual with Horace.

SATIRE III.

The last Satire was, as has been said, written on the death of one Tigellius, an eminent musician, a native of Sardinia, and a friend of Julius Cæsar. Some of the vices and follies of the age are attacked in strong language, and besides Tigellius, who was dead, it is probable many living persons felt injured by that Satire, and perhaps by others that have not come down to us. We may infer from the present poem, that Horace wished to clear himself from the imputation of a censorious spirit, and so to set himself right with Mæcenas and his friends. The connection between the two Satires is seen in the opening of this, in which Tigellius is again introduced, and the peculiarities of his character described, for no other reason, as it would seem, than to serve as a text for the discourse that follows, on the duty of judging others charitably, as we wish to be judged ourselves. In the course of his remarks on this subject, Horace falls upon two of the Stoic absurdities; one, that all faults are alike (v. 96, sqq.), which he meets by the Epicurean absurdity that expediency is the foundation of right; and the other, that every wise man (that is, every Stoic) is endowed with all the gifts of art and fortune, from the skill of the mechanic to the power of a king. With a jest upon this folly the Satire closes.

4. Tigellius] See Introduction. This person is described as a capricious, inconsistent man, of whom you never could tell what he would do next.

6. ab ovo Usque ad mala] The 'promulsis,' otherwise called 'gustus,' preceded the regular meal, and consisted of things calculated to provoke the appetite, of which a list is given in the eighth Satire of the second book, v. 8, sq., where, however, eggs are not mentioned, but they were usual, and 'ab ovo usque ad mala,' 'from the eggs to the dessert,' was a common way of speaking. The 'gustus' was eaten with a draught of 'mulsum' (S. ii. 2. 15, n.) sometimes before they sat down, or even before they left the bath.

7. citaret, Io Bacche!] This use of 'citare,' 'to shout,' is not common. There were convivial songs among the Greeks to which they gave the name ἰόβακχοι. Several fragments of such songs by Archilochus have been preserved. The final syllable in 'Bacche' is lengthened, and should properly be pronounced as the singer might be supposed to pronounce it.

modo summa] The strings in the tetrachord, or harp with four strings, which continued to be used even after the heptachord was invented (see A. P. 83, n.), from which the low notes proceeded, were uppermost as the player held it in his hand, and the notes of the voice which corresponded with these are expressed by 'summa voce.' For the same reason, the high notes would be those which harmonized with the lowest of the strings. The 'summa chorda' was called in Greek ὑπάτη, and the 'ima' νήτη. 'Chordis' is the dative case, the literal translation being, 'that voice which is the lowest (where, for the above reason, those notes are called the lowest which we should call the highest), and that echoes to the four strings.'

11. Junonis sacra ferret;] This refers to the 'canephoroe,' damsels who carried the basket of sacred instruments on their head at sacrifices. Those of Juno are mentioned here; but the practice was observed at all sacrifices.

habebat saepe ducentos,] Ten slaves were a very small household for a rich man, and Tigellius was rich. The number of slaves in wealthy houses in primitive times was small, but afterwards grew to an extraordinary number.

12. modo reges atque tetrarchas,] 'Modo,' as an adverb of time, signifies 'now,' or some time not far from the present. It is the ablative of 'modus,' 'measure,' and 'modo' is 'within measure,' and therefore its sense is confined to limited quantities. Compare the use of 'modo' and 'admodum' in Terence (Hec. iii. 5. 8): "Advenis modo? Pam. Admodum." 'Are you coming now?--Just now.' 'Modo' thus comes to have the meaning of 'nunc,' and to be used in the same combinations, as here 'nunc reges--loquens; nunc, sit mihi mensa tripes' would have the same meaning; and likewise in S. 10. 11. Tetrarchs were properly governors of a fourth part of a province or other territorial division; but the title was not so limited in practice. It was a title originally confined to the petty princes of Asia Minor; the Romans gave it to different members of Herod's family, who succeeded to different parts of his dominions.

13. mensa tripes] This was the simplest and most old-fashioned shape, and the tables were small, only suited to a person dining by himself, or with one or two companions. The wealthy Romans were very extravagant about their tables. See S. ii. 2. 4, n. The salt-cellar was usually, except among the poorest sort, of silver, and an heirloom. It stood in the middle of the table, and had a sacred character. See C. ii. 16. 14. As to 'concha,' see C. ii. 8. 23, n. 'Puri' means 'clean.'

15. Decies centena] 'A million of sesterces,'--a common way of expressing the largest number. The sestertium was a sum of money equal to 1,000 sestertii, each sestertius being of the value of twopence and a very small fraction, of English money. After 'centena' must be understood 'millia.' On the construction, see above, S. 1. 45, n. 'Erat' is used in an uncommon way; ἦν ἄν would be the Greek equivalent. It is a loose, conversational way of speaking.

19. Nunc aliquis dicat mihi:] Here we leave Tigellius, and enter upon the subject of mutual charity in judging of each other.

20. Immo alia] Professor Key has given the precise meaning of 'immo' here (L. G. 1429): "'Immo' seems to have signified properly an assent with an important qualification." This explanation is borne out by the etymology of the word, which is compounded of 'in' and 'modo.' The qualification is found in 'et fortasse minora.' Horace means to say, he admits he has his faults, though they may not be so glaring as those of Tigellius, and he is not so selfish and foolish as Mænius (see S. 1. 101 of this book), who reviled the man Novius behind his back, and, when told to look at his own faults, said he made excuses for himself which he would not make for others. Novius may be anybody: we know nothing about him. Whether he has any connection with the Novius mentioned in the sixth Satire of this book, v. 40, the plebeian tribune, or the usurer in v. 121 of the same Satire, it is impossible to say. 'Dare verba' means to give words in the place of facts, to deceive.

24. improbus] See C. iii. 24. 62, n. 'Amor' means 'self-love.' As to 'notari,' see S. 6. 14.

25. Cum tua pervideas] 'While you see through your own faults, as well as a blear-eyed man sees with his eyes smeared with ointment.'

27. serpens Epidaurius?] The serpents of Epidaurus (on the Sinus Saronicus) were proverbial, in consequence of Æsculapius having been conveyed in the form of a serpent from that place, where above others he was worshipped, to Rome, to avert a pestilence. (See Liv. Epit. lib. xi.)

29. Iracundior est paulo,] Horace is illustrating here the tendency of those quick-sighted critics of their neighbors' characters to magnify the faults they find. The first instance is of a man who is sensitive under ('not suited for') the sharp judgment of the men of that day ('horum hominum'), men who had the keenness of a bloodhound's scent in finding out defects, and no delicacy in proclaiming them. 'Rusticius' belongs to 'tonso,' and 'defluit' is absolute, 'hangs down.' 'Male' belongs to 'laxus.' (See v. 45, and C. i. 17. 25, n.) To be slipshod (μείζω τοῦ ποδὸς ὑποδήματα φορεῖν, Theophr. Char. 4) has always been the proverbial characteristic of a sloven. "Nec vagus in laxa pes tibi pelle natet" (Ovid, A. A. i. 516). 'At' is often repeated in the same way as here by Cicero.

34. hoc sub corpore.] He speaks as if the man were before him.

35. Concute] The metaphor is probably derived from the shaking of a cloak, or anything of that sort, to see if there is anything hid in it. It means 'to search,' as suspected persons are searched by the police. 'Excutio' is used in that connection. See Phædrus (Fab. v. 16):

"Sic porcelli vocem est imitatus sua Verum ut subesse pallio contenderent Et excuti juberent."

37. Neglectis urenda filix] This has the appearance of a proverb. Virgil calls the fern "curvis invisam aratris."

38. Illuc praevertamur,] 'Before we go further, let us first turn our attention to this, namely, how lovers are blind to the faults of their mistresses.' Balbinus and Hagna are persons unknown. The former is a Roman name. Hagna is derived from ἁγνή, 'pure.' The first syllable of 'polypus' is always long, though derived from πολὺς ποῦς, the Æolic form, πωλύς, being followed rather than the Attic.

42. nomen virtus posuisset] The Romans used 'ponere nomen,' after the Greek ὄνομα τιθέναι.

44. strabonem Appellat paetum] The difference between 'strabo' and 'paetus' is one only of degree; 'strabo' signifies 'squinting'; 'paetus,' 'a slight cast of the eye,' which is by some considered a beauty, whence Venus had the epithet 'paeta' applied to her. Sisyphus was the name of a dwarf kept by M. Antonius. Dwarfs were kept by the rich to amuse them and play to them, for they were generally instructed in music. That 'varus' is a soft term for those who have bent legs, and 'scaurus' for one whose ankles are ricketty, we may gather from this passage. From 'varus' is derived 'praevaricari,' 'to shuffle.'

49. frugi] See S. ii. 5. 77, n.

Ineptus] This word signifies want of tact. Cicero thus defines the word (De Or. ii. 4): "Qui aut tempus quid postulet non videt, aut plura loquitur aut se ostentat--aut denique in aliquo genere aut inconcinnus aut multus est, is ineptus dicitur." Such a man's failing is to be softened down, Horace says, into a wish to make himself agreeable to his friends. 'Truculentior' means coarse and approaching to brutality in his behavior. 'Acres' means 'high-spirited.'

56. Sincerum cupimus vas incrustare.] 'We are ready and even anxious to foul the clean vessel.' This is the original meaning of 'sincerus.'

57. multum demissus homo:] 'Demissus' is used in a bad sense: 'a very abject fellow,' 'a driveller.' Compare v. 147 of S. ii. 3, "multum celer atque fidelis"; "multum similis metuenti" (S. ii. 5. 92).

58. Tardo cognomen] 'Another because he is slow we call fat, lazy.' The dative 'pingui' is correct, as "cui nunc cognomen Iulo Additur" (Aen. i. 267). It is the common construction, in prose as well as poetry, to put the name in the dative.

59. malo] This is masculine: he lays himself open to no malignant person, gives him no handle. 'Hoc genus vitae' means men who live on the principles of the present day; like 'horum hominum' (v. 30).

63. Simplicior quis et est,] By 'simplicior' Horace means 'unsophisticated': one who in the simplicity of his feelings may perhaps sometimes obtrude himself upon those he likes, thinking he must be welcome because he is himself pleased to meet them. He says he has often acted in that way with Mæcenas.

65. impellat] 'Impellere' means here 'to interrupt' or 'intrude upon': he breaks in upon one when reading or meditating, with some irrelevant talk. 'Common sense,' for which the Greeks had the expression ὁ κοινὸς νοῦς, is so called, not as being exercised upon common, every-day things, but as being supposed to be common property, and not confined to the learned.

67. legem sancimus] 'Sancire legem' is properly to give full effect to a law, by inserting a penalty for the breach of it. See Cic. de Am. c. 13 (Long): "Haec igitur prima lex amicitiae sanciatur."

70. Cum mea compenset vitiis bona;] 'Cum' belongs to 'vitiis.' 'Compensare' is a legal term. 'Compensatio' is a 'set-off.'

72. trutina] This word applies equally to the 'libra,' a balance with two scales ('lances'), and to the 'statera,' or steelyard, both of which were in common use among the Romans. 'In trutina ponetur eadem,' 'he shall be weighed in the same balance,' is another, but not very exact, way of saying, he shall be tried by the same standard, his character shall be estimated in the same way. 'Hac lege' is 'on this condition.'

76. quatenus excidi penitus] He now draws his conclusion from the preceding remarks. 'In short, inasmuch as (C. iii. 24. 30) the vice of passion and all other vices that cleave to us fools cannot be entirely eradicated, we ought to judge others as we judge ourselves, and visit each fault with no more than its due censure.' Literally, 'Why does not our judgment use its own weights and measures, and, according to the circumstances of each case, check faults with their penalties?' All were fools with the Stoics, who were not wise after their fashion.

80. patinam] 'Pisces patinarii' were boiled fish served up with sauce in an open dish.

82. In cruce suffigat,] Cicero has the expressions 'in crucem sublatum' (Verr. ii. 5. 3), 'ad palum alligatos' (Ib. c. 6), which have the same meaning. In the latter place he has the construction "damnatis crucem servis fixeras." See Dict. Antt. art. 'Crux,' for an account of the punishment by crucifixion, which was only inflicted as a general rule upon slaves or the worst sort of malefactors. A master might put his slave to death, or punish him in any other way he pleased.

Labeone insanior] Different persons are identified with this Labeo, but it is impossible to say who is meant.

84. paulum deliquit amicus,] 'Say your friend has committed a small fault; such that, if you do not excuse it, you must be looked upon as harsh; you hate him in your bitterness, and run away from him.' 'Concedo' is used in this way by other writers.

86. Rusonem] Ruso, whoever he was, seems to have made a stipulation with his debtors that they should, besides paying interest, listen to his recitations of his own writings. 'Historias' means tales or narratives of some sort. See C. iii. 7. 20.

87. tristes--Kalendae] See note on Epod. ii. 70. 'Merces' is used only by Horace in the sense of 'usurae,' 'interest' (S. 2. 14). It signifies money paid for rent (see S. ii. 2. 115), or for the use of anything.

90. catillum Evandri manibus tritum] A plate that had been used by Evander, the old king and ally of Æneas; an exaggeration meant to heighten the absurdity of the man.

92. Aut positum ante] The words are not very regularly placed. 'Or because to the chicken served on my part of the dish he helps himself before me, in the eagerness of his hunger.' The meats were cut up on a side table by a slave called 'structor,' and the guests helped themselves with their fingers, and threw the bones and remnants on the floor. The man who had a dish before him, and fancied a particular part of it, might count it unmannerly if his neighbor stretched out his hand and took what he had set his heart upon.

95. fide] This is a form both of the genitive and dative. See C. iii. 7. 4: "Constantis juvenem fide." As to 'sponsum,' see S. ii. 6. 23.

96. Quis paria esse fere] See Introduction. This common doctrine of the Stoics is noticed by Cicero (De Fin. iv. 19) and condemned on the principles of common sense and truth, as here. 'Laborant,' 'they are in a dilemma.'

98. justi prope mater] In making expediency the parent of justice, or something like it ('prope,' S. ii. 3. 32), Horace follows an Epicurean notion. One of the dogmas of Epicurus appears to have been, that justice was nothing by itself, but merely a social compact, by which men bound themselves to abstain from injuring one another: a very narrow view of the case. The Stoics had more true notions of Justice, whom they held to be the daughter of Zeus.

99. Cum prorepserunt] He goes on to illustrate this doctrine, saying that men lived at first like beasts, till expediency taught them to make laws.

102. usus,] Here this signifies 'need.' It generally occurs (in this sense) in combination with 'est' or 'venit.'

103. Donec verba] 'Verba nominaque' embraces all the parts of speech, like the Greek ὀνόματα καὶ ῥήματα. (A. P. 234.) 'Notae' are symbols, as in short-hand writing for instance; and this line may perhaps be most accurately rendered, 'till they invented language, whereby they could give a symbolical form to the sounds of their voice, and to their feelings.'

110. Viribus editior] 'Superior in strength.' 'Editus' is used for 'exalted,' 'high.' It nowhere else appears in the sense Horace gives it here.

111. Jura inventa metu injusti] If this be admitted, as of course it must be, then Injustice--and, if so, Justice--was anterior to any laws or social compact, express or implied; so that the doctrine above laid down falls to the ground; and that justice of which expediency is said to be the mother, turns out to be nothing more than magistrates' justice,--the justice of statutes, which may be just or unjust.

112. evolvere] This word which signifies 'to read,' is taken from the unrolling of a parchment 'usque ad umbilicum.' See Epod. xiv. 8, n. As to 'fastos,' see C. iii. 17. 4, n. Epp. ii. 1. 48, n.

114. bona diversis,] 'Bona' means things which it is good to have and to get, not virtues, but the gifts of fortune and such like.

115. Nec vincet ratio hoc,] 'Nor will any logic prove this.' 'Vincere causam' is an ordinary expression for winning a cause. 'Idem' is explained by 'tantundem,' the same in degree of guilt.

117. sacra divum legerit.] 'Legere' is not uncommonly used in the sense of robbing. Hence our word 'sacrilege.'

119. Ne scutica dignum] The epithet 'horribili' belongs to 'flagello,' which was a severer instrument than the 'scutica,' and was sometimes constructed with horrible cruelty, and fatal in its application. The 'scutica' had but one thong, of leather. 'Ferula' was a switch, usually from the vine. The Latin derivatives from σκῦτος are short in the first syllable. There are other instances (as 'anchŏra' from ἄγκῡρα, 'crĕpida' from κρηπίς, etc.) in which the quantity of the Greek vowel is changed in the Latin.

120. ut ferula caedas] The rule in respect to verbs of fearing is that "the Latin inserts a negative where the English has none, and vice versa," that is, 'vereor ne' means 'I fear it will'; 'vereor ut,' 'I fear it will not.' There is no deviation from the rule here; for the position of 'ut' makes it independent of 'vereor.' 'For that you should beat,' or 'as to your beating with a switch one who deserves to undergo a severer flogging, of this I have no fear.'

122. Furta latrociniis] This is not strictly a technical distinction, nor is 'latrocinium' a technical term. All robbery was 'furtum,' whether attended with violence or not; but Horace means to distinguish between thefts without violence and robbery with violence ('rapina'). 'Cum dicas,' 'though you do say.'

124. Si dives qui sapiens est,] The word 'regnum' turns the discourse to another doctrine of the Stoics not connected with the main subject of the Satire, namely, that the sage is the only rich, capable, handsome man, and a king. The absurdity of the doctrine, which is repeated in Epp. i. 1. 107, consists not so much in the statement that the wise man's intelligence contains in itself the germ of all practical knowledge, and that such knowledge is power, as in the limitation of wisdom to the pale of a sect, and the attempt to give a practical application to a notion of this kind.

127. Chrysippus dicat:] The later Stoics looked to Chrysippus as the founder of their philosophy; but he adhered, with little essential deviation, to the doctrines taught him by his master Cleanthes, and Cleanthes was a devoted disciple of Zeno. He was born at a town in Cilicia, B.C. 280, and was a very voluminous writer. 'Inquit' means that some Stoic says this, including from 'non nosti' to 'sapiens,' and after 'qui?' to 'sic rex' (v. 133). What he means to affirm in reply to the taunt 'cur optas quod habes?' is, that a man may be, in the Stoic sense, a king, and yet not be in a condition to exercise authority, as an artisan or a singer may still be great in his calling, even when he has laid aside the practice of it.

crepidas--soleas] 'Crepida' (κρηπίς) was a low shoe or slipper copied from the Greeks and worn in undress: 'solea' was a plain sandal fastened over the instep by a strap, and worn by men as the 'sandalium' was worn by women. The 'soccus' was not materially different from the 'crepida,' and the 'Gallica,' adopted from Gaul, was like the 'solea.' None of these were walking shoes ('calcei') fit for wet or dirty roads, but were ordinarily worn only in the house.

129. Hermogenes] This person has been confounded with Tigellius, whose death is mentioned in the second Satire, and whose character is described at the beginning of this. Hermogenes is also called Tigellius in S. 4. 72; 10. 80, 90. But as he is always spoken of as alive, it is impossible he can be Tigellius the Sardinian, to whom there are no grounds for giving the name Hermogenes, though the Scholiasts give it him. Hermogenes Tigellius was a teacher of music (S. 10. 90), and (whether ironically or not it is not easy to say) Horace calls him a first-rate singer here, and implies as much in S. 9. 25. But he had a contempt for him in other respects as appears from S. 4. 72; 10. 17 (where he calls him a coxcomb); and 10. 79 (where he introduces him with a fool for his friend or parasite). He may have had some private pique against him.

130. Alfenius vafer,] Who Alfenius was, is very doubtful, and the reading 'sutor' is not quite certain. Some editions have 'tonsor.' From 'erat' it has been inferred that Alfenius was dead when the Satire was written. It merely means, that, though he threw up his trade, he still continued to be a 'sutor.'

133. Vellunt tibi barbam] The Romans of this period did not usually wear beards. But those who affected philosophy let theirs grow, and may have been hooted and insulted by the boys in the streets for doing so (see S. ii. 3. 17).

137. Ne longum faciam:] The chief subject of the Satire is a censorious temper. To this Horace returns, and says that, as long as he can live on terms of mutual indulgence with his friends, the Stoics and their crabbed doctrines are nothing to him: he will be happier than all the self-styled kings in the world.

dum tu quadrante lavatum] 'Quadrante lavari' (Juvenal, S. vi. 447) was an expression equivalent to taking a public bath, because a 'quadrans' was the ordinary fee paid by each visitor. But it may be inferred from Horace's words, that they who paid this sum were not the richer sort of bathers; for he seems to say, 'While you, a fine king as you are, go and bathe for a quadrans.' The rich may perhaps have paid more, and had more privacy and better bathing and attendance. The 'quadrans,' which was the fourth of an 'as,' and therefore the sixty-fourth part of a 'denarius,' after the reduction of the 'as' to one sixteenth of that coin, was of the value of about half a farthing of English money, taking the value of the 'denarius' at 8½_d_. The Romans were great bathers.

139. Crispinum] See S. i. 1. 120, n. The bodyguards of kings were called 'stipatores.' Horace therefore uses the word ironically in that sense.

SATIRE IV.

Here again Horace is at pains to defend himself from the charge of malevolence. This charge, no doubt, was loudly brought against him by those who were or thought themselves the objects of his satire; and he attributes it, as well as the neglect his poems experienced compared with the inferior poetry of the day and the old poetry of Lucilius, to the jealousy and fears of the multitude, every man apprehending that he may be attacked next; and also in some measure to a false taste, which preferred a wordy, flowing style to the terseness and accuracy of his own. His object is to contrast his own style and pretensions with those of Lucilius and of the Crispinuses and Fanniuses of the day, as well as to quiet the apprehensions of his friends, and disarm the malignity of his enemies. Everybody must admire the way in which he takes occasion, from the necessity of self-defence, to pay a tribute of grateful affection to his father's memory; and it would be difficult to find a more pleasing picture of paternal solicitude and sound sense, as applied to a boy's education, than Horace has drawn in the latter part of this Satire.

1. Eupolis atque Cratinus Aristophanesque] He begins by describing the character of Lucilius as a satirist, and says he followed in the steps of the old Greek comedians. The Greek comedy was divided by the Alexandrine grammarians into three periods, the Old, the Middle, and the New. The three persons here named were the chief poets of the Old Comedy. Cratinus was the eldest of the three, and died B.C. 422, when Aristophanes was a young man. He was the last of that period. The other writers of the Old Comedy, whom Horace alludes to with respect, are very little known to us. Horace fixes on the Comoedia Prisca, because the subsequent phases of the Greek Comic Drama were not of the same personally satirical cast, the license granted to the old writers having been taken away by law. The words 'poëtae' and 'virorum' are used emphatically, as below in S. 10. 16: "Illi scripta quibus comoedia prisca viris est."

5. multa cum libertate notabant.] During the period of the Old Comedy, the law of Athens did not interfere with the poet's liberty of speech, except upon two occasions, when psephisms were passed prohibiting the introduction upon the stage of living characters as objects of satire by name,--a restriction of no great force, since the substitution of a feigned name, slightly altered from the true, would make the allusions equally intelligible and more ridiculous. Neither of these psephisms lasted more than a couple of years. See S. i. 6. 14, n., on 'notare.'

6. Hinc omnis pendet Lucilius,] 'Hinc' means 'upon them,' as 'unde' is elsewhere used with reference to persons. What Horace says of Lucilius is briefly this: that his whole strength was laid out on the satirizing of vice in the persons of living characters, that he especially imitated herein the writers of the Old Comedy, only changing their metre; that he was funny ('facetus') and acute ('emunctae naris'), but harsh in his style of versification; wordy and sometimes vulgar, in consequence of the haste with which he wrote and his impatience of the trouble of correcting. He adds below (S. 10. 3), that the most idolatrous admirer of Lucilius could not deny that his style was uncouth. He there also adds, that Lucilius loved to mix up Greek words with his own language (v. 20), that he was good-tempered, notwithstanding his satirical vein (v. 53), and again that he was very unreserved and frank (S. ii. 1. 30-34). The fragments of Lucilius that have come down to us are too short to form a very accurate opinion upon, but in some points, at least, (such as the absurd mixture of Greek and Latin,) they bear out Horace's statements.

7. Mutatis tantum pedibus] The writings of Lucilius appear to have been very early divided by the grammarians into thirty books, of which two thirds were written in hexameter verse, and the rest in the iambic and trochaic measures. That Lucilius imitated the comedians in all but their measures, cannot be true. The character of their plays could not be transferred to satirical poems like his, though some of their features might suit, as their coarseness and personalities.

8. Emunctae naris,] 'Emunctae naris' is one who has his nose well wiped, and is therefore no driveller. Phædrus explains it in his description of Æsop (1. iii. f. 3, v. 14):--

"Aesopus ibi stans naris emunctae senex, Natura nunquam verba cui poterit dare."

'Emungere' is used by the comic writers for 'cheating,' as among other places (see A. P. 238) in the fragment from the Epiclerus of Cæcilius quoted by Cicero de Am. 26. "To wipe a man's nose for him, is, to imply that he is a driveller who cannot do it for himself, and hence it means to 'outwit' and to 'cheat' him." (Long in loco.) Others explain 'emunctae naris' as 'keen-scented,' like a hound, which is wrong.

10. versus dictabat] See S. 10. 92, n. The words 'stans pede in uno' mean with the utmost facility, or 'standing at ease,' as we might say. Others explain 'stans pede in uno' to mean within the time a man could stand on one foot. The other is right.

11. Cum flueret lutulentus] 'Lutulentus' combines two notions, dirtiness and obscurity. Lucilius may have imitated the obscenity of the old comedians; and in this, as in other respects, his verse may have been like a muddy stream. The word, no doubt, comprehends defects of taste as well as style.

12. piger scribendi ferre laborem,] 'Piger ferre' is a Greek construction, common in the Odes, but not so in the language of the Satires. (See C. i. 1. 18, n.) In C. iv. 14. 22, we have 'impiger' in the same construction.

14. Crispinus minimo] See S. i. 1. 120, n. 'Minimo me provocat,' 'he offers me the greatest odds,' literally, 'he challenges me at the smallest amount' to be staked on my side, while he puts down a large one on his. The mention of the negligent way in which Lucilius wrote, leads on to the mention of small poets of the day, Crispinus and Fannius. See Introduction.

15. Accipiam tabulas;] This is nothing more than a polite challenge to see which could write most verses in a given time. 'Take tablets if you please, and I will take them too.' The omission of the personal pronoun before 'accipiam' to express antithesis, is nothing in familiar talk, where there could be no mistake. 'Custodes' are umpires to see that there is no foul play.

18. raro et perpauca loquentis.] 'The gods have done me a kindness in making me of a poor and unpretending disposition, that speaks but seldom, and very little at a time.' This is Horace's reply to the challenge, which he declines.

19. At tu conclusas] Persius imitates this, S. v. 10.

21. Beatus Fannius] This Fannius is spoken of in another place (S. i. 10. 80) as a contemptible person, and a parasite of Hermogenes Tigellius (S. 3. 129, n.). It appears probable, from Horace's words, that he had his admirers, as rant and emptiness will always have, and that they made him a present, by way of a testimonial as it is called, of a set of handsome 'capsae' and a bust. The 'capsa' was a round box, suited to hold one or more rolled volumes. The larger sort was called 'scrinium.'

22. cum mea nemo] See Introduction. That Horace wrote many pieces which have not been preserved, appears clear from this passage and v. 71, sqq.

23. vulgo recitare timentis] See note on v. 73. The usage which leaves the personal pronoun to be inferred from the possessive, is common both in Greek and Latin. (See C. iii. 22. 6.) Compare Ovid (Heroid. v. 45): "Et flesti, et nostros vidisti flentis ocellos." 'Timeo' and 'metuo' do not govern an infinitive mood in the prose writings of Horace's day. 'Vereor' is used in that construction.

24. sunt quos] 'There are some who are by no means pleased with this sort of writing, as being for the most part worthy of censure themselves.' As to 'sunt quos,' see C. i. 1. 3, n. He seems to have particular persons or classes in view.

26. Aut ob avaritiam] 'Laborare ob' is an unusual construction, and the sentence begins with one form of expression and ends with another. 'Ambitio' generally had an epithet of a strong kind applied to it. Horace has 'prava,' 'inanis,' 'mala,' 'misera'; and Cicero (De Off. i. 26) says, "Miserrima est omnino ambitio honorumque contentio." The practice, therefore, seems to have been habitual, which, if we consider the evils that arose out of personal ambition, and the eagerness with which places of honor were sought at all times of the Republic, is not surprising.

28. Hunc capit argenti splendor;] Cups and other vessels curiously wrought in silver and Corinthian bronze, and very costly (such as Juvenal describes, S. i. 76), were among the many objects of extravagance at Rome. The exaggerated admiration of the persons Horace alludes to, for such works of art, might be comparatively harmless, if it did not lead them into dishonest ways of acquiring them, and beggaring their families, as Albius did, of whom we know nothing. His son is mentioned below (v. 108), as living in want through his father's extravagance. 'Stupet,' with the ablative, occurs below (S. 6. 17); and 'torpere,' an equally strong word, is used in the same connection in S. ii. 7. 95.

29. Hic mutat merces] See C. i. 31. 12, n.

surgente a sole, etc.] This means from east to west ("ad ortus Solis ab Hesperio cubili," C. iv. 15. 15). 'Mutare merces' can hardly be applied to any but a mercator. 'Mala' means dangers and hardships.

34. Foenum habet in cornu;] A law of the XII. Tables gave an action to any man who was injured by a vicious animal. It became customary, therefore, that any ox or other animal of vicious propensities should be marked in such a way as to warn passengers, and enable them to get out of its way. Hence the proverb, "He has a wisp of hay on his horn."

37. a furno] 'Furnus' is the bakehouse, to which the lower sort of people, old women and children, carried their bread to be baked. 'Lacus' were tanks distributed in all parts of the city, into which water was conveyed from the aqueducts, and to which poorer persons resorted who could not afford to have water laid on at their houses.

38. Agedum,] 'Dum,' as an enclitic, signifies 'awhile'; 'agedum,' 'come a moment.'

39. Primum ego me illorum] 'Primum' means 'in the first place'; before I begin, let me dispose of the fallacy which classes writers like myself among poets (the word assumed above, "Omnes hi metuunt versus, odere poëtas," v. 33). This question occupies twenty-four verses, after which he returns to the main point, which is the odium attaching to writers of Satire. The dative is commonly used after 'licet esse,' 'datur esse,' etc. See S. i. 1. 19; 2. 51. A. P. 372.

40. concludere versum] This expression is repeated below (S. 10. 59: "si quis pedibus quid claudere senis").

42. Sermoni propiora:] 'Sermoni' means common conversation. Hence the name 'Sermones' given to the Satires and Epistles.

43. os Magna sonaturum,] This form does not appear elsewhere in this word. Cicero uses 'praestaturus,' and Sall. (Jug. 47) 'juvaturus.' Horace has 'intonata' in Epod. ii. 51. See Virg. (Georg. iii. 294): "Nunc veneranda Pales, magno nunc ore sonandum." The attributes of a poet, which Horace considers essential, are genius, inspiration, and dignified sentiments, and language suited to high subjects.

45. Idcirco quidam] 'In reference to this, certain persons have raised the question whether a comedy was or was not a poem': "utrum comoedia esset poëma necne esset." This is a grammarian's question, and depends upon the definition assumed for a poem, in which, however, imagination is generally supposed to have a conspicuous place, and this would exclude the comedies of Plautus and Terence, and their Greek originals of the New Comedy, from the title of poetry. But the same rule would exclude much more that has passed for poetry, with less pretension to the name even than Horace's Satires, or the Heautontimorumenos. 'Quidam' signifies the grammarians of Alexandria.

48. Differt sermoni] 'Discrepare,' 'dissidere,' 'distare,' 'differre,' Horace uses with the dative (see C. i. 27. 5, n.), but the two last also with the ablative and 'ab.' "It must not be supposed, however, that 'from' can in any way be the signification of the dative," which remark Professor Key applies to the analogous construction in use by the poets with verbs of taking away.

At pater ardens] Demea in the Adelphi of Terence, and Plautus's Theuropides are instances in point. 'At,' which usually in such places introduces an objection, here seems to be the remark of one who supposed that the fury and ranting of the enraged father in the comedy might be supposed to partake of the fire of poetry. But Horace disposes of the objection very easily. Any father who had such a son as Pomponius, for instance, a dissolute youth (of whom we know nothing more), would probably storm at him in much the same terms that the man on the stage uses. It was the aim of the New Comedy, which the Roman writers followed, to put real life upon the stage by means of a plot natural and probable, and to represent men and women as they were seen and heard every day, in which it differed essentially from the Old Comedy, a mere vehicle for political and personal satire.

54. puris--verbis,] 'Puris' corresponds to 'inornata' (A. P. 234). It means plain language, free from any mixture of trope or other ornament. See Terence (Heaut. Prol. 44):--

"Si quae laboriosa est ad me curritur: Si lenis est ad alium defertur gregem. In hac est pura oratio."

So Cicero (In Verr. ii. 4. 22) speaks of "purum argentum," plate with the ornamental work taken off. He says it is not enough (to constitute a poem) that it should be written throughout in plain language, which, if you take to pieces, it will be found that any father in common life expresses his wrath in the same terms as the father in the play.

56. His ego quae nunc,] 'From these verses that I now write and Lucilius wrote formerly, if you take away certain times and measures (measures regulated by beating time), and change the position of the words, you will not (as you would if you broke up such a verse as the following, Postquam, etc.) find the members of the poet thus torn to pieces.' That is, his language would be unintelligible, or there would be no more of the poet left.

60. Postquam Discordia tetra] The Scholiasts imply that this is a verse of Ennius, but they do not say from what poem it is taken. Virgil (Aen. i. 294) has "claudentur belli portae." As to the position of 'non,' see S. 6. 1.

63. alias justum sit necne poëma,] The question he has been discussing since v. 38, namely, whether he and such as he are or are not properly called poets, is not resumed, though we may perceive that Horace does not consider that his arguments have quite settled it. He goes on to show that the public have no reason to be afraid of him.

65. Sulcius acer Ambulat et Caprius] These persons are said by the Scholiasts to have been public informers, or else 'causidici,' 'pleaders,' and Horace may mean that they have made themselves hoarse with roaring in the courts. The 'libelli' they carried were their note-books. 'Ambulat' signifies their strutting through the streets with the consciousness that men were afraid of them. 'Delatores,' 'informers,' were more common in after years, but they were sufficiently abundant in Horace's time. Cælius and Birrus are said by Acron to have been profligate youths, meaning probably that they were young men of fortune, who had run through their money and had taken to robbing.

69. Ut sis] 'Say that you are.' Horace says he is not like the informers, going about seeking whom they may charge, and no one with clean hands need be afraid of him.

71. Nulla taberna meos habeat] In the next place, he has no wish to see his books in the shops and thumbed by the vulgar. The 'taberna' was sometimes under a porticus, in which case the titles of the books for sale within were hung upon the columns ('pilae') in front. Horace alludes to this when he says (A. P. 372), "Mediocribus esse poëtis. Non Dii, non homines non concessere columnae," which means that indifferent poets would not be patronized by the booksellers. 'Habeat' expresses a wish. On Hermogenes Tigellius, see S. 3. 129, n.

73. Nec recito cuiquam] Nor does he go about reciting his works in public. This practice grew to be an intolerable nuisance in the course of time. Persons who had money and dabbled in literature inflicted their productions upon their clients and others, whom they bribed to listen and applaud them. What Horace goes on to complain of are silly people reciting their own verses in public places (the forum and the baths) to chance acquaintances, or even strangers, and annoying the neighbors while they gratified themselves. Round the baths were spaces called 'scholae.' On these, people sat or walked about, and conceited authors could tease their acquaintance and the strangers that were compelled to listen to them, and in the act of bathing they could do the same.

77. haud illud quaerentes,] 'Illud' is thus used commonly to introduce something about to be mentioned.

78. Laedere gaudes, Inquit,] Horace has said, that, even if he does write or recite, it is only in a private way, and no one therefore need be afraid of him. He now disposes of the charge of writing with malicious intent. 'Studio' is used adverbally, 'of set purpose in your malignity you do it.'

80. Est auctor quis denique eorum] 'Quis' may be taken as an interrogative or an enclitic. It is not easy to decide. As to 'auctor,' see C. 1. 28. 14, n.

84. commissa tacere Qui nequit;] This, which is too commonly softened into a weakness, the inability to keep a secret, Horace very justly marks as one of the most prominent signs of a mischievous character. See C. iii. 2. 25, n. On 'Romane,' see C. iii. 6. 2, n.

86. Saepe tribus lectis] Four persons on each 'lectus tricliniaris' would be an unusually large party at one table. Three on each was the usual number when the table was full. Respecting the arrangement of the guests, see S. ii. 8. 20, n.

87. E quibus unus amet] 'Amet' is used in the same sense as in "umbram hospitalem consociare amant" (C. ii. 3. 10). 'Quavis' is 'qua ratione vis.' 'Qui praebet aquam' is an uncommon expression, but it seems to be used for the host "qui aquam temperat ignibus." See C. iii. 19. 6, n. On 'verax Liber,' see C. i. 18. 16; iii. 21. 16; Epod. xi. 14. Epp. i. 18. 38; 5. 16. A. P. 434.

92. Pastillos Rufillus olet,] This verse is quoted from a former Satire (2. 27) only to show the innocent subjects with which Horace's satire dealt, and he goes on to show that his satire has none of the malignity which is common in society. 'Pastillus' is a diminutive form of 'panis,' and signifies 'a small roll,' whence in a derived sense it came to mean small balls of perfume. Who Rufillus and Gargonius may have been, we cannot tell.

94. De Capitolini furtis] Petillius Capitolinus was charged, according to some stories, with stealing the golden crown from the statue of Jupiter when he was in charge of the Capitol. That he was tried on some serious charge and acquitted, and that the verdict did not escape scandal, is clear from the context. See also S. 10. 26. The nature of the accusation must remain a matter of doubt. We may also gather that he was a person of influence from v. 97, which he must have been, if he was acquitted, or supposed to have been acquitted, through the corruption of the jury.

95. ut tuus est mos:] 'In your peculiar way,' that is, sarcastically.

99. Sed tamen admiror,] There is sarcasm in this, which Horace calls 'succus loliginis,' the dark secretion of the cuttle-fish, black and malignant. 'Aerugo mera,' nothing but copper-rust, that eats into character and destroys it.

102. ut si quid] There is a little obscurity in the construction, but the sense is plain. 'I promise, as I truly can, if I can promise of myself aught else with truth.' 'Promitto, ut vere possum si aliud quid vere de me promittere possum.'

104. hoc mihi juris] 'So much liberty as this';--'hoc jus' would not do.

105. insuevit pater optimus hoc me,] 'Suesco' and its compounds have an active as well as a neuter signification, taking usually an accusative of the person and dative of the thing, which order is inverted in Virg. (Aen. vi. 833): "Ne, pueri, ne tanta animis assuescite bella." See below, S. ii. 2. 109: "Pluribus assuerit mentem corpusque superbum." I am not aware of any instances of a double accusative after 'suesco' except this. The construction is that of the Greeks, who said ἐθίζειν τί τινα. 'Notando' has something of the technical sense. The father taught his son to avoid vices, and he did so by branding them in each instance by means of examples, which he says was the origin of his tendency to satire. See S. i. 6. 14, n., on 'notare.'

108. quod mi ipse parasset:] Horace's father had lived a life of frugal industry, and, in addition to any 'peculium' he may have laid by as a 'servus,' he made enough money by his occupation of 'coactor' (S. 6. 86) to purchase a farm of no great value at Venusia, to pay for his son's education at Rome, and enable him to continue it at Athens.

109. Albi ut male vivat filius,] See above, v. 28, n. This person, of whom nothing is known, is to be distinguished from the coxcomb in the sixth Satire (v. 30). Scetanius (otherwise Sectanius) is not more known than Barrus. Trebonius was the name of a plebeian gens of some distinction, but which of them Horace alludes to, it is impossible to say.

115. Sapiens vitatu quidque petitu] 'The philosopher may give you good reasons as to what is best to be avoided and what to be sought; I am satisfied if I can maintain the practice of my fathers,' etc. Horace's father had no mind to refine upon the foundation of morals, nor any pretension to a philosophical view of these matters. He knew that right was right and wrong was wrong, and followed the beaten track, and would have his son do the same. Horace expresses the same below, S. 6. 82, sqq. The whole of the passage there should be compared with this. The elder Horace was no doubt a plain, sensible man. As to 'sapiens,' see C. i. 34. 2.

121. Formabat] This is Horace's usual word for education. C. i. 10. 2: "Qui feros cultus hominum recentum Voce formasti." See C. iii. 24. 54, n.

123. Unum ex judicibus selectis] It was the duty of the Prætor Urbanus annually to select a certain number of persons whose names were registered in the Album Judicum Selectorum, and from whom were chosen by lot the 'judices' for each trial. It is uncertain whether at this time, or by a subsequent 'lex' of Augustus, their functions were extended to civil as well as criminal proceedings. The number of these 'judices' varied. By the 'lex Servilia Glaucia Repetundarum' it was fixed at 450. The law that was in force at the time Horace refers to was the 'lex Aurelia,' by which the Judices Selecti were made eligible from the Senators, Equites, and Tribuni Aerarii. Horace's father, as plain men are wont, looked up with reverence to the body in whom were rested such high functions; but the office was not an enviable one, nor always most purely exercised. See C. iv. 9. 39, n. As to 'auctor,' see above, v. 80.

126. Avidos] This signifies 'intemperate,' as in C. i. 18. 11.

129. Ex hoc ego sanus] Horace says that, owing to his father's training ('ex hoc'), he had been kept in a sound and healthy state, and preserved from those vices which in their worst form bring destruction, but which in a moderate degree may be overlooked. He implies that in this venial form he is liable to such faults; but even from this smaller measure, time, the candor of friends, and reflection will deduct a good deal. The sentence is a little irregular, but sufficiently intelligible. 'Consilium proprium' is the counsel a man takes with himself when he reviews his life, and is bent upon correcting the errors of it. This sort of reflection a man may pursue, if he be in earnest, either as he lies on his bed (see below, S. 6. 122, n.), or as he walks abroad, alone among crowds. By 'porticus' Horace means any one of the public porticoes, covered walks, of which there were many at Rome, and which were usually crowded by persons of all sorts, resorting thither for exercise, conversation, or business.

137. olim] See C. ii. 10. 17, n.

139. Illudo chartis.] This means, 'I put it down in my notes by way of amusement.' As to 'chartae,' see S. ii. 3. 2, n.

141. Multa poëtarum veniat manus] Horace, in winding up his discourse, stops the lips of his opponents with a sally of good humor, which they would find it hard to resist. He says, if they will not make excuses for this little sin of his (that of taking notes of his neighbors' vices), he will bring a host of sinners (poets) as bad as himself, and, like the proselytizing Jews (S. 9. 69, n.), they will attack them till they have made converts and poets of them all. 'Plures' signifies any number more than one, as in Epp. i. 5. 28, "Locus est et pluribus umbris." 'Multo plures sumus' means 'there are many besides me.'

SATIRE V.

In the spring of the year B.C. 37, M. Antonius brought over an army to Italy, and a fleet of 300 ships (Plut. Ant. c. 35): ἔκ τινων διαβόλων παροξυνθεὶς πρὸς Καίσαρα, says Plutarch. He pretended, Dion says, to come for the purpose of helping to put down Sextus Pompeius, his real object being rather to see what was going on, than to take any active part. He came to Brundisium, but the people would not let him come into the harbor (according to Plutarch), and he therefore went on to Tarentum. Negotiations were carried on between the two rivals (Cæsar being at Rome) through agents employed by both, but without effect, till Octavia undertook to mediate between her husband and brother, and was finally successful in reconciling them. It has been supposed, with every probability, that the mission which Horace accompanied was sent by Augustus to meet Antonius on his expected arrival at Brundisium, on this occasion.

Horace started from Rome with only one companion, Heliodorus the rhetorician (v. 2), and these two travelled together three days and one night, about fifty-six miles, till they reached Tarracina or Anxur, where, by appointment, they were to meet the official members of their party. These were Mæcenas and Cocceius, who had been employed in negotiating the first reconciliation between Augustus and Antonius (B.C. 40), and Fonteius, an intimate friend of the latter. Three days afterwards, they met at Sinuessa Horace's three most intimate friends, Plotius Tucca, Varius, and Virgil; one of whom, Varius, kept them company only for six days, and left them, for reasons which are not mentioned, at Canusium (v. 93). The rest of the party went on together till they reached Brundisium, seventeen days after Horace had left Rome. The route they took was not the shortest or the easiest, which lay through Venusia and Tarentum. They preferred taking the northeastern road, which strikes across the country from Beneventum, and, reaching the coast at Barium continues along the shore till it comes to Brundisium. They were evidently not pressed for time, and probably took the road they did because it passed through Canusium, whither one of the party was bound. Mæcenas made his journey as agreeable as, under the circumstances, it could be, by taking with him such companions; and they all appear to great advantage in Horace's good-humored diary. There was no restraint between the patron and his friends, and it is very pleasant to contemplate their affection for him and one another.

It is probable that, before Horace returned to Rome, he visited Tarentum and his native place, Venusia, through which he would naturally pass. He seems to have had in mind the description by Lucilius of a journey he took to Capua, of which three or four verses only have been preserved (see note on v. 6).

1. Egressum magna me excepit Aricia] They left Rome by the Porta Capena, between Mons Aventinus and Mons Cælius, in the southern quarter of the city. Aricia (La Riccia), one of the most ancient towns of Latium, was sixteen miles from Rome. It was situated on the side of a hill, sloping down to a valley called Vallis Aricina, through which the Appia Via passed. This part of the road is still in good preservation. The citadel was placed on the top of the hill (Strabo, v. p. 239), and on that spot stands the modern town. Aricia was a considerable town in Horace's time, and for some centuries after. Cicero calls it "municipium--vetustate antiquissimum, splendore municipum honestissimum" (Phil. iii. 6). Its neighborhood to Rome, and accessible position, contributed to its prosperity, which was assisted by its association with the worship of Diana Aricina, who had a temple among the woods on the small lake (Lacus Nemorensis), a short way from the town, probably on the site of the modern town Nemi. The wealthy Romans had villas in the neighborhood.

By 'hospitio modico' Horace means an indifferent inn; but 'hospitium' is not the Latin for an 'inn,' which was called 'caupona,' or 'taberna,' or 'diversorium,' and its keeper 'caupo.' The inns at the different stages on the great roads were never very good, the chief reason being that travellers of any importance usually found friends at the principal towns, who entertained them.

2. rhetor comes Heliodorus,] Horace jocularly exaggerates the merits of this Greek. Nothing is known of him from other sources. Appii Forum was thirty-nine miles from Rome, and was so called by Appius Claudius, surnamed Cæcus, who in his censorship (A.U.C. 441) constructed the Via Appia and the great aqueduct which bore his name. Some ruins of this town are said by Walckenaer still to exist. Its modern name is Borgo Lungo. The participle 'differtus' means 'full,' and is formed as from 'differcio,' which verb is not found. 'Differtus' occurs below (Epp. i. 6. 59). 'Malignis' belongs to 'cauponibus' in the same sense as 'perfidus' (S. 1. 29). 'Nautae' were the boatmen who plied on the canal mentioned below (v. 7, n.). It was to Appii Forum that some of the Christians, when they heard of St. Paul's approach, went, from Rome, to meet him. Others met him at a place called Tres Tabernae (La Castella), which was about seven miles from Aricia, and sixteen from Appii Forum. Horace must have passed through this town without stopping. It was a well-known place, and from it a Christian bishop took his title, "Felix a Tribus Tabernis."

5. Hoc iter] i.e. the journey from Rome to Appii Forum, which was usually made in one day, they took two to accomplish. 'Praecinctus' is opposed to 'discinctus,' and means 'one well girt,' εὔζωνος, and ready for active exertion, running, etc. Horace uses the word more literally, S. ii. 8. 70: "ut omnes Praecincti recte pueri comptique ministrent." The Asiatics tuck up in their girdles their long garments, when they are preparing to run or walk quick. Hence such expressions as we meet with in Scripture, "Gird up the loins of your mind." 'Succinctus,' 'tucked up,' is the more usual word.

6. minus est gravis Appia tardis.] Horace means, that the Via Appia was less fatiguing to the slow traveller than to the quick; that it was a rough road, over which the slower you went, the less unpleasant was the journey. This road was constructed with a foundation of large squared blocks of basaltic stone, over which was laid a coating of gravel, until the Emperors Nerva and Trajan laid it with silex, according to an inscription found on a mile-stone in the neighborhood of Forum Appii. Horace speaks elsewhere of the traveller "qui Romam Capua petit imbre lutoque Adspersus" (Epp. i. 11. 11). In one of the verses of the Satire of Lucilius, mentioned in the Introduction, he says, "Praeterea omne iter est labosum atque lutosum."

7. Hic ego propter aquam,] At Appii Forum they were to embark at night in a boat that was to carry them by canal to Tarracina. A party were waiting at the same inn to go with them, and Horace waited with impatience till they had done supper. These he means by 'comites.' This canal was constructed by Augustus. There are still traces of it to be seen. It was nineteen miles long, and was called in consequence Decennovium. The road may have been defective hereabouts, as it was the general practice of travellers to exchange it for the canal, and to make the journey by night.

9. Jam nox inducere terris] This is a parody of the heroic style, unless it be taken from some poet, as Ennius.

12. Huc appelle!] "Put in here, and take us on board!" cries a servant. "How many more?--you'll swamp the boat!" says another to the boatman, who wants to get as many as he can. The bank is crowded; the passengers all want to be attended to at once. The collection of the fare and putting-to the mule being accomplished, Horace goes on board. The boat starts, and he lies down to sleep, disturbed much by the mosquitos and the croaking of frogs. The boatman and one of the passengers, half drunk, sing songs till the one drops off to sleep, and the other, having a mind to do the same, stops the boat, turns the mule out to graze, lays himself down and snores till the dawn of day, when one of the passengers wakes, starts up in a passion, and falls foul of the boatman and the poor mule, who is put to again, and a little after the fourth hour they reach their destination, a temple of Feronia, about seventeen miles from the place where they embarked. 'Cerebrosus' is an old word signifying 'choleric.' 'Dolare' is properly to turn a piece of wood with an axe, 'dolabra.' 'He rough-hewed him with a cudgel.' It is only here used in this sense. Feronia was a goddess, worshipped originally by the Sabines. On the site of the temple near which Horace and his party disembarked, there now stands an old tower, bearing the name Torre Ottofacia. Horace says they only washed their hands and face, which would be no little refreshment after a night spent in a canal-boat.

25. Millia tum pransi tria repimus] Three miles farther, on the top of a steep ascent, stood the town of Tarracina (Terracina), which by the Volscians was called Anxur, by which name it is always mentioned by the poets. The winding of the road up the hill, and the difficulty of the ascent, explains the word 'repimus.' The old town of Tarracina was built on the top of the hill, but this site was afterwards abandoned, and a new town built on the plain below, close upon the shore, which is the site of the modern Terracina. It was in Horace's day, and had been for a long time, and long continued to be, a town of great importance, as it was one of great antiquity. The buildings of white marble, perhaps, gave it the appearance described in 'late candentibus.' The same appearance is observed still in the modern town. After leaving the boat, the party lunched before they proceeded. The 'prandium' was a light meal, usually eaten about noon, but sometimes earlier, as probably was the case in this instance.

27. Huc venturus erat] See Introduction. L. Cocceius Nerva was a friend of M. Antonius, and was among those whom Augustus found in Perusia when he took it (B.C. 41). He offered these persons no indignity, but made friends of them, and Cocceius seems to have become especially intimate with Augustus, without betraying his friendship for M. Antonius.

29. aversos soliti componere amicos.] After the taking of Perusia, war was threatened between Augustus and Antonius, which was averted by an arrangement made through the medium of Mæcenas, on the part of Augustus, and of Cocceius and Pollio, on the part of Antonius. This is what Horace alludes to.

30. nigra meis collyria lippus] 'Collyrium,' an ointment for sore eyes, was composed of juices expressed from the poppy and various shrubs, as the lycium, glaucion, acacia, hypocystis, etc. The etymology of the word is not known.

32. Capitoque simul Fonteius,] Not much is known of C. Fonteius Capito. He was deputed by Augustus on this occasion, as being a particular friend of M. Antonius, who afterwards, as Plutarch relates (Anton. 36), sent him, while he was in Syria, to fetch Cleopatra thither from Egypt. The expression 'ad unguem factus' is taken from the craft of the sculptor, who tries the surface of his statue by passing the nail over it; if the parts be put perfectly together, and the whole work well finished, the nail passes over the surface, and meets with no obstruction. See Persius, S. i. 64. Compare also A. P. 294. Below (S. ii. 7. 86) the perfect man is described as

"in se ipso totus, teres atque rotundus, Externi ne quid valeat per leve morari,"

which is like the description of the text, though the metaphor is not quite the same.

33. non ut magis alter] This is equivalent to 'quam qui maxime' in prose.

34. Fundos Aufidio Lusco praetore] They arrived at Tarracina about noon, and there the principal personages met them. At Tarracina they slept, and proceeded next morning to Fundi (Fondi), sixteen miles farther to the northeast of Tarracina. Fundi was situated on the north shore of a lake, which was called after it Fundanus; and also Amyclanus from an old Greek town Amyclæ, the existence of which was only traditional when Horace wrote, but is occasionally mentioned by the poets. Fundi was one of that class of towns called 'praefectura,' which, instead of having the administration of its own affairs, was governed by a 'praefectus' sent annually from Rome by the Prætor Urbanus. At this time the 'praefectus' was one Aufidius Luscus (not otherwise known), an upstart whom Horace calls Prætor by way of ridicule. The officers of the other municipal towns were allowed to wear the 'toga praetexta,' the 'toga' with a purple border (Livy xxxiv. 7), but the 'praefecti' were not, and yet Luscus wore it. The 'latus clavus' was a broad purple stripe down the front of the tunic, and was a badge that belonged only to senators. 'Prunae batillum' was a pan of hot coals, which may have been used for burning incense or otherwise in connection with sacrifice. But its use is uncertain. Aufidius, it appears, had been a 'scriba' or clerk, probably in the prætor's office,--such a situation as Horace held at this time in the quæstor's. Persons in that capacity had opportunities of pushing their fortunes if they managed well, and the honors of Luscus are spoken of as 'praemia,' rewards of service rendered to his master.

37. In Mamurrarum] Disgusted with the officiousness of the promoted scribe, the party move on, in the course of the day, to Formiæ (Mola di Gaeta), about twelve miles farther, where the road, having taken an upward bend from Tarracina to Fundi, goes straight down from thence to the coast, where Formiæ was situated at the head of the Sinus Caietanus. Its supposed identity with the Læstrygonia of Homer has been noticed before (C. iii. 16. 34, n., and 17, Int.). As the scene of Cicero's frequent retirement, and his death, it is a place of much interest. Its wines Horace mentions more than once. He here calls it the city of the Mamurræ,--a family of respectability in this town. When the party got to Formiæ, having travelled upwards of twenty-five miles, they were tired, and resolved to pass the night there. Licinius Murena (C. ii. 10, Int.), having a house at this place, gave them the use of it, but as he was not there himself, and probably had no establishment in the house suitable to the entertainment of such guests, Fonteius Capito invited his fellow travellers to dine with him. He therefore appears to have had a house at Formiæ likewise.

40. Sinuessae] Leaving Formiæ next day, the party set out for Sinuessa, eighteen miles distant. The road crossed the Liris (C. i. 31. 7) at Minturnæ, and went down the coast till it reached Sinuessa, the most southerly of the Latin towns. The site is now called Monte Dragone (Cramer). It was on the sea, and said to have been founded on the ruins of the Greek city Sinope. Strabo (v. 234) derives its name from the Sinus Vescinus on which it stood. Plotius Tucca appears to have been a native of Cisalpine Gaul. He was associated with L. Varius Rufus by Virgil, who loved them both, as the executor of his will, and he was employed in the task of editing the Æneid after his death. Nothing more is known of him, but what we gather from this passage and S. i. 10. 81, that he was one of Mæcenas's friends, and on intimate terms with Horace. As to L. Varius, see C. i. 6. 1. S. i. 10. 44.

45. Proxima Campano ponti] After Sinuessa, the Appia Via continued to take a southerly direction, and crossed the Savo (Savone) about three miles from that town, and just within the borders of Campania. That river was crossed by a bridge bearing the name Pons Campanus, near which was a small house erected for the accommodation of persons travelling on public business, where there were officers appointed to supply them with ordinary necessaries. Hence they were called 'parochi,' from the Greek παρέχειν. In this house the party passed the night.

47. Hinc muli Capuae] When it reached the right bank of the Vulturnus, four miles below the Savo, the Appia Via turned, striking inland along that bank of the river, which it crossed at the town of Casilinum, where Hannibal met with stout resistance from the Romans who garrisoned it after the battle of Cannæ (Liv. xxiii. 17). This is perhaps the site of the modern Capua. About two miles farther on the road, which now took a southeasterly direction, lay Capua, on the site of which is the modern village Santa Maria di Capoa. There the party arrived 'betimes,'--in time probably for dinner, after which meal Mæcenas and others of the party went to play at ball, while Horace, whose sight, and Virgil, whose digestion, interfered with that amusement, went early to bed. Virgil is said to have had uncertain health, and to have suffered frequently, either from toothache, headache, or complaints of the stomach.

50. Hinc nos Cocceii] The road, continuing in a southeast direction, passed through two small Campanian towns, Calatia (Le Galazze) and Ad Novas (La Nova), but the usual halting-place after Capua was the town of Caudium, which was the first Samnite town on the Appia Via, and was situated at the head of the pass called the Furcæ (or Fauces) Caudinæ, celebrated for the surprise and capture of the Roman army by C. Pontius, in the second Samnite war, B.C. 321. At Caudium, Cocceius had a handsome house, and Horace marks its situation by saying it lay beyond the public tavern. The town was twenty one miles from Capua.

51. Nunc mihi paucis] The scene that follows represents a scurrilous contest between two parasites, whom Mæcenas carried with him for the entertainment of himself and his party. The description begins with an invocation of the Muse, after the fashion of the Epic poets. Sarmentus was an Etrurian by birth, and originally a slave of M. Favonius (well known in the civil wars, and put to death by Augustus after the battle of Philippi). On the confiscation of the property of Favonius, Sarmentus passed by public sale into the hands of Mæcenas, who gave him his liberty. He then obtained the office of 'scriba' in the quæstor's department, and affected the position of an Eques. He was brought to trial for pretending to a rank he had no claim to (perhaps under the law of Otho), and got off only by the favor of the judges, and by the accuser being put out of the way. When old, he was reduced to great poverty through his licentiousness and extravagance, and was obliged to sell his place as 'scriba.' When persons taunted him with this, he showed his ready wit by replying that he had a good memory; by which probably he meant that he had no occasion to write anything down, for he could carry it in his head. It appears that at the time Horace wrote he was free, and held his scribe's office, though he continued to attend Mæcenas, for his adversary says, though he was a scribe, he was in fact only a runaway, and still belonged to his mistress, the widow of Favonius (v. 66), which is only a joke that would amuse Mæcenas, who had bought and manumitted Sarmentus. When Horace says that Messius was of the noble blood of the Osci, he only means, by way of joke, to say that he was of old and high descent. Perhaps he also alludes to the scar on his temple, which indicated the disease called Campanian (the Campanians were of Oscan descent), of which we are told that it consisted of great excrescences over the temples like horns, which used to be cut out, and left a scar. The Oscans also were the authors of the 'Atellanae fabulae,' which were full of broad raillery and coarse wit, which may have something to do with Horace's joke. 'Cicirrhus' is a nickname from κίκιῤῥος, which signifies, according to Hesychius, 'a cock.' With these explanations most of the allusions will be intelligible.

58. Accipio, caput et movet.] Messius accepts Sarmentus's joke as a challenge, and shakes his head fiercely at him, on which Sarmentus takes him up and pretends to be alarmed. The wild horse to which Messius is likened is the unicorn, an imaginary animal described by Pliny as a very terrible beast.

63. Pastorem saltaret] That he should dance the Cyclops' dance, in which the uncouth gestures of Polyphemus courting Galatea were represented. See Epp. ii. 2. 125. Ovid (Trist. ii. 519) uses 'salto' in the passive voice: "Et mea sunt populo saltata poëmata saepe."

64. larva] The Greek actors always wore masks on the stage suited to the character they were performing. The Romans adopted them about B.C. 100. They were called πρόσωπα by the Greeks, and 'personae' or 'larvae' by the Romans. As to 'cothurnus,' see C. ii. 1. 12, n.

65. Donasset jamne catenam] See Epp. i. 1. 4, n.

67. Nihilo deterius] 'Nihilo' is to be pronounced as a dissyllable, like "vehemens et liquidus" (Epp. ii. 2. 120).

68. una Farris libra] The allowance of 'far' to each slave was four or five 'modii' by the month, and it was served out to them monthly, or sometimes daily (Epp. i. 14. 40). That allowance would give three pints a day, which Messius considers would be three times as much as Sarmentes could possibly require, so he could not better himself by running away. The 'far' was otherwise called 'adoreum' (C. iv. 4. 41, n.), and seems to have been the same as the Greek ζειά or ὄλυρα. The nature of this grain is not exactly known. That two persons above the condition of slaves should be found in waiting on any man, great or otherwise, for the purpose of entertaining him with such low buffoonery as the above, seems surprising to us; but we know that there was no personal degradation to which this class of people, called 'parasites' (diners out), would not demean themselves for the pleasure of a good dinner and the company of the great. The entertainment of these persons would serve to keep the conversation from turning upon politics, which, as the deputies from both sides were now together, it was desirable to avoid.

71. Beneventum,] The Appia Via took a northeast turn from Caudium, for ten miles, till it came to Beneventum (Benevento), a very ancient town, by tradition said to have been founded by Diomed, and the name of which was originally, when the Samnites had it, Maleventum, or some name that sounded so like Maleventum to a Latin ear that the Romans thought fit to change it (for good luck) to Beneventum. Thither the party proceeded next day, and put up at an inn, when the host nearly set fire to his house through carelessness in roasting some indifferent thrushes for their dinner. 'Hospes paene arsit,' 'the host nearly got himself on fire,' means that he nearly burnt the house down, as the context shows. The expression is the same as in Aen. ii. 311. "Jam proximus ardet Ucalegon." The position of 'macros' is a little careless.

78. quos torret Atabulus] This was a cold wind, said to be peculiar to Apulia. 'Torret' is a word which applies to the effect of cold, as well as heat. 'Atabulus' is generally looked upon by the commentators as the Sirocco, a hot land wind. But it came directly off the sea from the east, and Pliny speaks of it as a winter wind.

79. Nunquam erepsemus] This is one of the many abbreviated forms Horace uses. See C. i. 36. 8, n., and to the examples there given add the present, and also 'surrexe,' 'divisse,' 'evasti.' 'Vixet,' in Aen. xi. 118, is a like contraction of the same tense as 'erepsemus.' Horace says that they would never have got out of these hills (the range that borders Samnium and separates it from Apulia) had they not found an inn at the town of Trivicum (Trevico), at which they were able to put up for the night. He means that the next stage, which was twenty-four miles farther on, would have been too long a journey. Horace had been familiar with these mountains in his early childhood, for they overlooked his native town. 'Notos' refers to these early reminiscences. Trivicum was probably on a cross road (Cramer, ii. 259) which lay between the two branches of the Appia Via, one of which took the most direct course from Beneventum through Venusia to Tarentum and Brundisium, and the other took a more northerly course across the Apennines, near Equus Tuticus; and then, striking directly eastward till it arrived very near the sea-coast, near Cannæ, proceeded down the line of coast till it reached Brundisium.

81. camino.] See Epod. ii. 43, n.

86. rhedis,] See S. ii. 6. 42.

87. Mansuri oppidulo] It appears probable that the road on which Trivicum lay, entering Apulia about ten miles from that town, passed through or near the Apulian Asculum (Ascoli), and it is in that neighborhood that the little town with the unrhythmical name, at which the party stopped after Trivicum, is supposed to have stood. Of its name we must be content to be ignorant.

91. Nam Canusi lapidosus,] In a plain between the hills and the right bank of the Aufidus, about twelve miles from its mouth, stood the town of Canusium (Canosa), one of the ancient Greek settlements of Apulia. This town and others in Apulia (Venusia and Brundisium among them), and in other parts of Eastern Italy, were represented to have been founded by Diomed, when, after the Trojan war, he was driven to the coast of Apulia, and hospitably entertained and presented with land by Daunus, its king. His name was retained by the islands now called Tremiti, but by the ancients Diomedeæ. Many remains found among its ruins testify to the former importance and wealth of Canusium. The present town stands on a height where the citadel stood, and contains not above 300 houses. A supply of good water was brought into this town by Hadrian, the emperor. That Apulia was not well watered, has been observed before (Epod. iii. 16, n.). The turbid waters of the Aufidus must have been unfit for drinking. The bread of Canosa is described by modern travellers to be as bad as ever. It is accounted for by the softness of the millstones.

91. aquae non ditior urna] The only way of taking this regularly is to make 'ditior' agree with 'locus,' 'which place, being not richer in water (than the last) by a single pitcher, was built by brave Diomed.' So Orelli takes it. The construction is not very agreeable; but to avoid it we must suppose great irregularity.

93. Varius] See above, v. 40, n.

94. Rubos] This town of the Peucetii retains its name under the form Ruvo, and was thirty miles from Canusium. The road from Canusium was called Via Egnatia, from the town it led to. A modern traveller describes the remains of it for twelve miles from Canosa as paved with common rough pebbles, and passing over a pleasant down.

96. ad usque] See S. i. 1. 97, n.

97. Bari moenia piscosi;] Barium still retains its name Bari, occupying a rocky peninsula of a triangular form, about a mile in circumference. It was an important town on the coast, and a municipium. Its distance from Rubi was twenty-two miles, "a most disagreeable stony road through a vine country," and half-way there lay the town Butuntum (Bitonto). There was a harbor here formerly, but there is scarcely any now.

Gnatia] This was perhaps the local way of pronouncing Egnatia. It was another seaport town, and thirty-seven miles from Barium. Between them lay formerly two small forts called Turris Juliana (Torre Pellosa) and Turris Aureliana (Ripagnola), the first eleven miles and the second twenty miles from Barium. Of Egnatia nothing important is recorded. Its ruins are still in existence near Torre d'Agnazzo, six miles from the town of Monopoli. Horace says it was built under the displeasure of the Nymphs, because the water was so bad, and it is so still according to the statements of travellers. 'Lymphae' and 'Nymphae' are essentially the same word, but Nymphs are not elsewhere called Lymphæ. These Nymphs are the Naiades, who protected rivers and fountains. See C. i. 1. 22, n.

100. Judaeas Apella,] The majority of the Jews at Rome were freedmen, and 'Apella' was a common name for 'libertini.' Their creed was a superstition of the most contemptible kind, in the eyes of a Roman; and a Jew was only another name for a credulous fool. The Jews returned their contempt with hatred, which showed itself in a turbulent spirit that made them very troublesome. Horace intimates that he had learnt from the school of Epicurus that the gods were too happy to mind the small affairs of this world, which he expresses in the words of Lucretius (vi. 57): "Nam bene qui didicere deos securum agere aevum." See C. i. 34. 2, n., and the Introduction to that Ode.

104. Brundisium] From this abrupt conclusion, we may judge that Horace had got tired of his journal as well as his journey. Brundisium (Brindisi) was for centuries the most important town on the eastern coast of Italy, chiefly through the convenience of its position for communicating with Greece, and the excellence of its harbor. Its distance from Egnatia was thirty-five miles. There was a station named Speluncæ (now Grotta Rosa) midway, where the party may have halted one night, and which Horace, having nothing he cared to tell us about it, has passed over in silence.

SATIRE VI.

In addition to the obloquy brought upon him by his Satires, Horace, after his intimacy with Mæcenas had begun to be known, had to meet the envy such good fortune was sure to excite. His birth would furnish a handle for the envious, and he was probably called an upstart and hard names of that sort. In this Satire, which is nothing but an epistle to Mæcenas, he spurns the idea of his birth being any objection to him, while, at the same time, he argues sensibly against men trying to get beyond their own legitimate sphere, and aiming at honors which are only attended with inconvenience, fatigue, and ill-will. This Satire, besides the good sense and good feeling it contains, is valuable as bearing upon Horace's life. His introduction to Mæcenas is told concisely, but fully, and with much propriety and modesty; and nothing can be more pleasing than the filial affection and gratitude shown in those parts that relate to his father, and the education he gave him. He takes pleasure in referring whatever merits he might have to this good parent, as he did in the fourth Satire.

The Satire, then, may be supposed to have been written chiefly for the purpose of disarming envy, by showing the modesty of the author's pretensions, and the circumstances that led to his intimacy with Mæcenas. The views of public life which it contains were no doubt sincere, and the daily routine described at the end was better suited to Horace's habit of mind than the fatigues and anxieties of office. There is not the least appearance in any of his writings of his having been spoiled by his good fortune and by his intercourse, on terms of rare familiarity, with Augustus, Mæcenas, and others; and probably malignity never attacked any one less deserving of attack than Horace.

1. Lydorum quidquid Etruscos] On Mæcenas's connection with Etruria, see C. i. 1. 1, n. The legend of the Lydian settlement of Etruria is first mentioned by Herodotus (i. 94), as a tradition current among the Lydians themselves. The tradition was, that on one occasion, when Lydia was suffering from famine, the king, Atys, divided the people into two equal parts, of whom one remained at home, and the other took ship and made the coast of Etruria, and there settled, under Tyrrhenus, the son of Atys. Horace and Virgil (Aen. ii. 781) both adopted this story, which was familiar to men of learning, and perhaps believed by many. 'Lydorum quidquid,' 'all the Lydians that ever inhabited,' etc., is like Epod. v. 1: "At, o deorum quidquid in caelo regit."

3. avus tibi maternus] It seems from inscriptions to have been the practice of the Etrurians for men to be distinguished by the name of their mother, as well as their father.

5. naso suspendis adunco] This the Greeks expressed by μυκτηρίζειν. It is taken from that instinctive motion of the features which expresses contempt. How to account for it may not be easy, though it is so common. The expression 'naso suspendere' Horace may have invented. It occurs nowhere else, except in Persius (S. i. 118). It is repeated below, S. ii. 8. 64: "Balatro suspendens omnia naso." 'Ut' occurring twice in these two lines introduces confusion. The second means 'as for instance.'

6. libertino patre natum.] The difference between 'libertus' and 'libertinus' is, that the latter expressed a man who had been manumitted, the former a freedman in his relation to the master who had given him his freedom. The son of a 'libertinus,' born after his father's manumission, and all other persons born free, were 'ingenui'; and Horace says that Mæcenas, though he would not take into his intimacy a freedman, made no inquiry as to the parentage of any one born free, but would make him his friend if he deserved it.

9. Ante potestatem Tulli] Horace here follows the legend which made Servius Tullius the son of a slave-girl, and himself a slave in the palace of King Tarquinius (see Livy, i. 39). On this account his reign was ignoble, while in true nobility it was surpassed by none of the others. Another legend (which Ovid follows, Fast. vi. 627, sqq.) makes Tullius the son of Vulcan; but his mother is there also a slave, having been taken captive at Corniculum, a city taken by Tarquinius Priscus.

12. Laevinum, Valeri genus] The Valeria gens was one of the most ancient in Rome, and embraced some of the most distinguished families, among others that of Publicola, the earliest member of which mentioned in history is Valerius Publicola, the colleague of Brutus after the expulsion of the kings. The family of Lævinus was another distinguished branch of the same gens. The Lævinus in the text is said to have been a man of abandoned character, so bad that even the populace, who were not easily deterred from conferring their honors upon the vicious, could not be prevailed on by admiration of his high ancestry to advance him beyond the quæstorship; that is to say, he never held a curule office. As to 'genus,' see C. i. 3. 27. On 'unde,' which is equivalent to 'a quo,' see C. i. 12. 17, n.; ii. 12. 7. 'Fugit' is the historic present, as it is called.

14. pluris licuisse,] 'Licere' is 'to be put up for sale,' and its correlative term is 'liceri,' 'to bid for an article at a sale by auction.' 'Notare' is to set a bad mark upon, to brand, and was technically applied to the censors (see note on v. 20). 'Judice quo nosti' is an instance of attraction, which figure the Romans borrowed from the Greeks, but did not use so commonly.

17. titulis et imaginibus.] These were inscriptions, and waxen busts, recording the distinctions of any member of a family who had borne a curule office.

quid oportet Nos facere] Horace means to say, that those who by education and profession and experience were very far removed from the common people, ought to judge differently from them, and better. In this number he places himself. 'Longe longeque' is not an uncommon phrase. See Cicero (De Fin. ii. 21), and Ovid (Met. iv. 325). The repetition is only analogous to many others in the Latin language, as 'etiam atque etiam,' 'nimium nimiumque,' 'magis magisque,' etc.

19. Namque esto] He goes on to show, that though the value set upon titles and birth by the populace might be exaggerated, yet the other extreme is not to be allowed; and that he who seeks to push himself beyond his sphere, might be justly rebuked for his presumption.

20. Quam Decio mandare novo,] P. Decius Mus, who devoted himself to death for his country at the battle of Vesuvius, in the Latin war, B.C. 340, was the first consul of his family. He held the office with T. Manlius Torquatus in that year. After the curule magistracies were opened to the plebeians, an order of nobility sprung up among themselves, based upon the holding of these offices. Those families of which any member had ever held a curule office were 'nobiles,' the rest 'ignobiles,' and he in whose person such dignity was first attained was called, originally no doubt through the contempt of the patricians, but afterwards conventionally by all, 'novus homo.' The Decia gens was plebeian.

censorque moveret Appius] The Appius who is here taken as the type of severe censorship is Appius Claudius Caecus, the constructor of the road and aqueduct that bore his name (see S. 5. 2). He was made Censor B.C. 312. It was the province of the Censors, till that office was merged in the imperial power, to supply vacancies in the senate from the list of those who were eligible, who were all citizens of at least equestrian rank, of not less than a certain age (which is not known exactly but it was between thirty and forty), and those persons who had served in the principal magistracies. But they could also, in revising the list of senators at the beginning of their censorship, degrade those who had previously been in the senate, as well as exclude such as by their official rank were entitled to be senators. This they did, at their own discretion, for various offences by which 'ignominia' was liable to be incurred, or from the senator having been chosen improperly. They effected this exclusion merely by marking the name, and their mark was called 'nota censoria,' and the act itself, 'notare.' Horace, therefore, means that if he, through the favor of Mæcenas or other means, sought as a freedman's son to reach the dignity of a senator, and succeeded, the censors, if they did their duty strictly, would degrade him. The censor Appius, however, is notorious for his laxity in having chosen, for party purposes, the sons of freedmen, and other unqualified people, into the senate. But he was harsh and arbitrary in the exercise of his office, and his name was proverbial in connection with the censorship, which is enough to account for his appearance here. There was no money qualification for the senate, but only one of rank. 'Movere' is the technical word for degrading a senator, and those who were degraded, or not admitted, were called 'praeteriti senatores' from the circumstance of their being merely passed by when the lists were made out, and their names not appearing, which would prevent them from acting.

22. in propria non pelle quiessem.] This is the old story of the ass in the lion's skin.

23. Sed fulgente trahit] This verse may or may not be taken from some heroic poem. It is introduced humorously, and yet with a serious meaning. 'Let the populace set their hearts upon rank and descent, and let the censors make that their standard for the senate, yet the humbly born may have their honors as well'; that is, the honors that arise from virtue and genius. The picture of Glory mounted on her car is repeated in Epp. ii. 1. 177, where the epithet 'fulgente' is exchanged for 'ventoso,' 'fickle as the winds.'

24. Quo tibi, Tilli,] This person is said to have been a senator, and to have been degraded by Julius Cæsar, as being of Pompeius's party, but reinstated after Cæsar's death, and made a military tribune. Whether or not he is different from the person mentioned below, v. 107, it is not easy to say.

25. fierique tribuno?] Each legion in the Roman army (the number varied at different times, but at Philippi there were nineteen on each side, each legion consisting of about 6,000 men, rather less than more) had six tribunes (the post Horace held in the army of Brutus), who were their principal officers. The military tribunes of the first four legions were entitled to sit in the senate. (See Epod. iv. 15, n.) As to the 'latus clavus,' see note on the 34th verse of the last Satire. 'Quo,' 'to what purpose.' (See C. ii. 2. 9, n.)

27. Nam ut quisque insanus] The senators' 'calceus,' an outdoor shoe, was fastened by four thongs ('nigris pellibus'), two on each side, which went spirally up to the calf of the leg ('medium crus'). These thongs were called 'corrigiae,' and were black. The shoe itself appears to have varied in color.

30. quo morbo Barrus,] His disease was a thirst for admiration among women. He was a man of bad passions, it is said. But we do not know much about him. He need not be identified with the man in S. 4. 110. A foul-mouthed person of the same name occurs in the next Satire (v. 8).

34. Sic qui promittit] This refers to the promises of candidates for office, and the three principal magistracies are implied: the city prætorship, in the words 'urbem sibi curae'; the consulship, in 'imperium et Italiam'; and the ædileship, in 'delubra deorum,' because it was the duty of the ædile to attend to the temples and other public buildings.

38. Syri, Damae, aut Dionysi] These were common names of slaves. The practice of executing criminals by throwing them from the Tarpeian Rock (part of the Mons Capitolinus) was not common in the latter period of the republic. It was never applied to slaves, who were put to death, chiefly by crucifixion, outside the city on the Esquiliæ. (See Epod. v. 99, n.) Cadmus is said to have been a public executioner of that day.

40. At Novius] The upstart who is supposed to be addressed in the previous lines, is a plebeian tribune, and he here affirms that, if his birth is low, that of his colleague Novius (who may be anybody, see note on S. 3. 21) is still lower. Freedmen, and persons following low trades, were admitted into the senate, and forced into high magistracies by Julius Cæsar, and it was not till some years after this Satire was written that Augustus purged the senate of these members. The words 'gradu post me sedet uno' may be a metaphor taken from the theatre, of which the first fourteen rows were assigned to the Equites (Epod. iv. 15, n.).

41. Hoc tibi Paullus Et Messalla] These were names belonging to two of the most distinguished families of Rome, the Æmilia and Valeria. Horace introduces the name Messalla probably out of compliment to his friend Corvinus, for whom he wrote C. iii. 21. As to 'hoc,' in the sense of 'propter hoc,' see above, S. 1. 46, n. The same person who puts the question 'tune Syri, etc.?' is here supposed to rejoin, saying, that, though this worthy tribune has a colleague a degree less illustrious than himself, he need not think himself a Paullus; and besides, though Novius be his inferior in one way, he beats him in strength of lungs, "and that is what we like," where the speaker ironically puts himself for the people.

43. Concurrantque foro tria funera,] These would be public funerals, 'funera indictiva,' at which the corpse of the deceased was carried in procession from his house, with the noise of trumpets and horns and fifes; and women ('praeficae') singing dirges; and 'mimi,' dancers and stage-players, who recited passages suited to the occasion, and sometimes acted the part of merry-andrews, mixing mirth with woe; and after these came men who represented the ancestors of the deceased, wearing masks suited to each character; and then the corpse on an open bier, which was followed by the relations and friends, all dressed in black. They went thus in procession to the Forum, when the bier was set down, and one of the relations pronounced a funeral oration, after which the body was taken up again, and the procession went on, with the same noisy accompaniments, to the place without the city (intramural burials were forbidden by the laws of the Twelve Tables) where the body was first to be burnt, and then buried. The idiom 'magna sonabit' occurs above, S. 4. 43, 'os magna sonaturum.'

48. Quod mihi pareret] See above, on v. 25.

49. forsit] This word is compounded of 'fors sit.' Whether it occurs elsewhere, or whether the passages in which it is supposed to occur are correctly copied, is doubted. Horace says, it might be that people had cause to grudge him the honorable post of military tribune, because he was not qualified for it; but no one could deny that he deserved the friendship of Mæcenas, because he was so particular in choosing only the deserving. 'Prava ambitione' means low flattery, to which Mæcenas would not listen.

52. Felicem dicere] 'Felix' is 'lucky.' Horace means he did not owe his introduction to Mæcenas to his luck, but to his friends. As to 'hoc,' see above, v. 41, n.

55. Virgilius, post hunc Varuis] See S. 5. 40, n.

56. singultim] Catching his breath, as a nervous man might.

59. Satureiano] A fine horse, bred in the pastures of Saturium in Calabria, near Tarentum. The lengthening of the antepenult is required by the metre.

64. sed vita et pectore puro.] 'Not as being the son of a distinguished father, but because my life and heart were pure.'

68. aut mala lustra] 'Bad haunts.' Horace repeatedly introduces 'aut' after 'neque,' twice repeated. Other passages are C. iii. 23. 5; S. i. 9. 31; ii. 1. 15; 2. 22. The construction with 'nec' and 'et' is of the same kind, and has been noticed before.

71. macro pauper agello] This small farm of his father's, at Venusia, was confiscated during the time he was with the army of Brutus and Cassius.

72. Noluit in Flavi ludum] His father, who knew the value of a good education, and formed a right estimate of Horace's abilities, would not send him to a small provincial school, kept by one Flavius, where nothing but arithmetic was taught, but took him for his education to Rome, where, though Horace complains that the teaching lay chiefly in figures, and the pursuits of a practical life (Epp. ii. 1. 103, sqq.; A. P. 325, sqq.), there were means of acquiring a knowledge of literature and the arts, for those who chose to take advantage of them. Ovid in like manner was sent from Sulmo, his native town, to Rome (Trist. iv. 10. 16). 'Magni,' 'magnis,' may mean 'big,' 'coarse,' contemptuously, or they may mean 'important,' as centurions and their sons might be in a small municipal town.

74. Laevo suspensi loculos] This verse is repeated in Epp. i. 1. 56. Each boy went to school with a bag, in which he carried his books and pens, and perhaps his 'calculi,' or pebbles used in calculation. 'Tabulam' probably signifies the wooden tablet covered with wax, for writing upon. These country schoolboys did for themselves what at Rome was done for boys of good birth by slaves, 'capsarii.'

75. Ibant octonis] The Ides were eight days (inclusive) after the Nones, and hence I imagine the epithet 'octonis.' 'Aera' means the teacher's fee, which appears to have been paid monthly.

76. Sed puerum est ausus] At what age Horace was sent to Rome he does not inform us, but it is probable he went when he was about twelve years old.

77. Artes quas doceat] In the earlier days of Roman history, the education of a boy was of the simplest kind, consisting chiefly of reading, writing and arithmetic. 'Calculator' and 'notarius' continued until the time of Martial to be names for a schoolmaster; and, as observed before (v. 72, n.), the majority of boys learned little more than the above, even in Horace's time. When Cicero was a boy, the learning of the Twelve Tables formed a necessary part of education. Freer intercourse with Greece and the Greek towns of Italy brought a more liberal class of studies to Rome, where Horace says he studied Homer (Epp. ii. 2. 41, sq.). Rhetoric was a branch of study much pursued by the young Romans; poetry likewise, and the philosophy of Greece. Their studies commenced at an early age, at first under the teaching of their 'paedagogi,' and afterwards (till they assumed the 'toga virilis,' and in some cases longer) at the 'ludi literarii,' private schools which they attended as day scholars.

79. In magno ut populo,] 'So far as one could see me in such a busy crowd.'

81. custos incorruptissimus] The 'paedagogus' ('custos'), whose office was of late growth at Rome, and borrowed from Greece, had the same functions as the παιδαγωγός among the Greeks, and was a slave, as there. He was continually about the boy's person, and went with him to his masters. This task Horace's father, who could have had but few slaves, and had none whom he could trust with such important duties, performed himself. Besides the 'paedagogus,' as observed above (v. 74, n.), other slaves went with the boy, to carry his bag, etc., and to give him consequence.

86. praeco--coactor] The first of these functionaries was a crier, either at auctions (one of his duties being to induce persons to attend and buy, see A. P. 419), or in courts of justice, or the public assemblies. There was a 'praeco' at all punishments and executions, to declare the crime of the offender (Epod. iv. 12, n.); also town-criers, who cried lost property, as with us. There were other kinds of criers. Which class Horace refers to, we cannot tell. Nor is it decided what class of 'coactores' his father belonged to. There were persons employed by the 'publicani' to collect the revenue, and who were called 'coactores.' The person who collected the money bid at an auction, was also a 'coactor,' and, generally, persons employed to collect money bore that title. It is probable that the 'coactores' of the first class made a good deal of money. Matthew the Apostle was one, and he was rich. It is generally believed that the elder Horace belonged to the second of the above classes, and some color is given to this by the association of the word with 'praeco.' But Suetonius, or the author of Horace's life attributed to him, says that he was in the employ of the 'publicani.'

87. at hoc nunc] 'Hoc,' in the sense of 'propter hoc,' ἐπὶ τούτῳ, is commonly used by Horace. See in this Satire, vv. 41 and 52. It is also common in Cæsar.

89. Nil me poeniteat sanum] 'I hope while I have my senses I may never be ashamed.' Horace uses this mode of expression elsewhere, as in the last Satire, v. 44, and S. ii. 3. 322.

90. dolo] 'Dolus' is used like 'fraus' in C. i. 28. 30, for a fault generally: 'dolo suo,' 'by his own fault.'

93. Et vox et ratio:] 'My language and my judgment.'

94. A certis annis] 'From any given period.' He means that, at all times from his cradle upwards, his father had been to him all that a father could be. 'Legere ad fastum,' to choose with reference to ambition whatever parents each man might desire. We know nothing of Horace's mother, whom he probably lost in very early life; but he here intimates his respect for her memory, as well as his father's.

97. Fascibus et sellis] The 'fasces' were bundles of sticks, with or without an axe in the middle, which were carried before the consuls and prætors by lictors. The 'sella curulis' was a chair ornamented with ivory, the use of which during the republic was confined to the consuls, prætors, curule ædiles, and censors.

98. fortasse] The Greeks used ἴσως this way, where a certain and not a doubtful proposition is intended.

101. salutandi plures,] This means, that in order to preserve his position he must sell his independence, bowing to persons he would not otherwise notice, and paying visits of ceremony early in the morning,--a trouble that Horace would feel more than most men. He must also, he says, hire one or two persons to go about with him in the character of clients; he must buy a number of horses and slaves of the lower sort.

103. plures calones] 'Calones' were properly slaves who went with the army, carrying the heavier part of the soldier's accoutrements. But the word was also applied to domestic slaves employed on menial work.

104. ducenda petorrita] The 'petorritum' was a four-wheeled carriage, said to have been introduced from Gaul beyond the Alps.

curto Ire licet mulo] It is impossible to do more than conjecture what Horace means by 'curto.' Probably a stout, short-bellied animal is intended, an ugly beast.

105. usque Tarentum,] Along the most frequented of all the roads, the Via Appia, and to the farthest part of Italy, carrying his portmanteau behind him. Public officers could not go beyond a certain distance from Rome, without the permission of the senate.

107. Tilli,] See v. 24. He appears to have been a parsimonious person, going into the country with no company of friends, but only five slaves to attend him (see note on S. i. 3. 11), carrying a jar of their master's cheap wine. The Via Tiburtina left Rome by the Esquiline gate, and bore that name as far as Tibur, whence the Via Valeria completed the communication with Aternum on the Hadriatic.

111. Millibus atque aliis] See note on S. ii. 3. 197.

112. quanti olus ac far;] Horace means that he lounges in the market and talks freely to the market people, without fear of lowering his dignity, or being remarked.

113. Fallacem Circum] The Circus Maximus was said to have been built by Tarquinius Priscus for races and athletic exhibitions. Different writers mention that fortune tellers and other impostors resorted to the Circus, and gave it a bad name; but it was also frequented by prostitutes in vast numbers, who lined the vaults under the 'cavea,' and carried on their vile trade there, and was surrounded with shops established for the benefit of the spectators. The Circus Maximus was called Circus κατ᾽ ἐξοχήν. When there were no races or games going on, it was probably frequented as a lounge by all manner of people; but probably men of consequence did not care to be seen there among the vulgar, at such times. The Forum was not frequented in the evening by the richer class of people, who were then eating their dinner. Horace liked to stroll out at that hour, and take his light meal afterwards, and to stop and hear what the fortune-tellers had to say for themselves. Respecting these persons, see C. i. 11.

115. Ad porri et ciceris] This Pythagorean meal of leeks, pulse, and fritters, was partly perhaps matter of choice, and partly of necessity. Horace was poor at this time, and his health was indifferent. A vegetable diet was and is much more common in Italy than with us, and probably the most luxurious of the Romans, when by themselves, frequently abstained from meat. A dish of 'cicer,' ready boiled, was sold in the streets for an as, in the time of Martial (i. 104. 10). 'Laganus' is described by the Scholiasts as a flat, thin cake, fried and eaten with condiments. It was sometimes fried under roast meat or fowls, so as to get their dripping, and so would be like our Yorkshire pudding. Horace had no doubt the plainer sort.

116. pueris tribus,] This number was the lowest, probably, that at that time waited on any person who had any slaves at all. (See above, on v. 107.) 'Lapis albus' was a small side-table of white marble. The wealthy Romans had a great variety of tables of the handsomest sort in their dining-rooms, for exhibiting their plate. (See below, S. 2. 4, n.; and above, S. 3. 13, n.) All the plate Horace had to show was two cups and a cyathus (C. iii. 19. 12), and these it is probable were usually empty. The 'echinus' is a vessel nowhere else mentioned by that name, and is variously interpreted as a salt-cellar (in the shape of an 'echinus' or sea-hedgehog), a glass bottle, a leather bottle, and a wooden bowl in which to wash the cups. 'Paterae' were broad, flat, saucer-shaped cups, and were much used in libations. 'Guttus' was a long, thin-necked bottle, from which wine or oil was poured very slowly, drop by drop. It was also used in libations, and these two vessels, as here joined, have reference to the practice of offering a libation at every meal to the Lares. See C. iv. 5. 34, n. These were of the commonest earthenware which came from Campania. See S. ii. 3. 144.

120. obeundus Marsya,] Horace says he goes to bed without the nervous feeling that he must be up early to go to the Forum, where a statue of Marsyas was erected near the Rostra. Marsyas was a fabulous person, who was said to have challenged Apollo to play the lyre against his flute. Apollo, having gained the victory, caused Marsyas to be flayed alive. Marsyas or Silenus was the symbol of a city having the Jus Italicum, one part of which was a free constitution of its own. It would therefore appear in the Forum as the symbol of free jurisdiction. The only representations of Marsyas that remain, exhibit him either in the agony of punishment, or in the suspense that preceded it. Wherefore "a Marsyas countenance" was synonymous with dejection and ill-humour; and Horace seems to indicate that his face was distorted, and ascribes it humorously to his detestation of the younger Novius, who is said to have been a usurer.

122. Ad quartam jaceo;] The first hour he considers late enough for any man to sleep (Epp. i. 17. 6). Sometimes he got up early and went out to walk (S. 9); but as a general rule he remained in bed till the fourth hour, after which he got up and took a stroll, as he had done the evening before; or else, after reading and writing (or thinking, as he says S. 4. 133) by himself ('tacitum') and in bed, as much as he felt inclined, he anointed himself with oil, and went to the Campus Martius to get some exercise. The Romans rubbed oil on their limbs, either before swimming in the Tiber (C. iii. 12. 7, S. ii. 1. 8), or before their more violent exercises (C. i. 8. 8, sqq.). The parsimonious Natta, who robbed the lamps to oil himself, was probably a person of good family, that being the cognomen of the Pinaria gens, one of the oldest patrician families in Rome.

125. Ast ubi me fessum] When the sun began to get hot about noon, and Horace was tired with his game, he went to the public baths to bathe, which was usual after playing, and then took a light luncheon (see above S. 5. 25, n.), after which he lounged at home till evening, when he went out for his stroll perhaps, and came home again to his supper, as he told us before. 'Lusum trigonem' was a game of ball only mentioned elsewhere by Martial. The players, as the name implies, were three in number, and stood in a triangle. Their skill appears to have been shown in throwing and catching the ball with the left hand.

127. quantum interpellet] 'As much as would prevent me from going all day on an empty stomach.' The prose construction would be 'interpellet quin,' or 'quominus,' or 'ne durem.'

131. Quaestor] The office of 'quaestor,' which was at one time a high magistracy, when the 'quaestores' had charge of the 'aerarium' or public treasury, was at this time one of little weight. Its functions were not clearly defined. Horace was a scribe in the quaestor's office, which perhaps leads him to speak of a quaestor. The office was high enough for the occasion.

SATIRE VII.

The subject of this Satire is a dispute between Rupilius Rex, one of the officers on the staff of Brutus, and a merchant named Persius, of Clazomenæ (a town on the gulf of Smyrna), arising, it may be supposed, out of some money transactions. Horace treats the matter much in the same way as the dispute got up between the two parasites for the amusement of Mæcenas and his friends at Caudium (S. 5. 51, sqq.). He no doubt had some reason for disliking Rupilius, which the Scholiasts supply, whether with any sufficient authority it is impossible to say. They tell us that this man's native place was Præneste (which may be gathered from v. 28); that he was banished from that town by his fellow-citizens; that he then served in Africa in the army of Attius Varus, proprætor of Cn. Pompeius; that he was received into favor by Julius Cæsar and made Prætor; that after Cæsar's death he was proscribed by the Triumvirs, and joined the army of Brutus. Finally, that he was disgusted at Horace, a man of low birth, being made a military tribune, and continually insulted him, which indignities Horace retorted in this Satire. Persius, the Scholiasts say, was born of a Greek father and a Roman mother. Beyond this, which may or may not be true, we know nothing about him but what we gather from this Satire, that he was a wealthy man, and carried on a large business of some kind at Clazomenæ. The dispute arose when Brutus and his army were in Asia Minor, which was in B.C. 43-44 (see note on v. 18). How soon afterwards the Satire was written, it is impossible to say; not long, probably. It may have been made on the spot, and shown to those who would find most amusement in it, in the camp.

1. Proscripti Regis Rupili] The Rupilia gens was a plebeian family of no great note in Rome. The only one of the name who was distinguished was P. Rupilius, consul in B.C. 132, and the following year proconsul in Sicily. He was the intimate friend of Lælius and the Younger Scipio (Cic. de Amicit. 27). As to Rupilius Rex and Persius, see Introduction. By 'proscripti' it is perhaps intended to compare this Rex with the last of the Reges, Tarquinius. If so, the play upon the name is repeated in the last line. See note.

2. Hybrida quo pacto sit Persius ultus,] 'Hybrida' applies to all cross-bred animals, and was used for a man one of whose parents was a Roman and the other a foreigner.

3. Omnibus et lippis notum et tonsoribus] The apothecaries' and barbers' shops were constantly crowded with idlers, who had nothing to do but to gossip about the news of the hour. With the barbers it has been so in all ages and countries. The Romans were commonly afflicted with weakness of the eyes, and this caused the apothecary to be as much mixed up with idlers as the barber.

7. Confidens tumidusque,] See C. iii. 4. 50, n.

8. Sisennas Barros ut equis] Of Sisenna and Barrus nothing is known; but it may be conjectured, from this place, that their names were proverbial for foul-mouthed, abusive persons. The plural number is used here for the singular, according to a usage common to all languages. So Virg. Georg. ii. 169: "Haec Decios, Marios, magnosque Camillos, Scipiadas duros bello." Cic. Cat. Maj. 6: "Fabricii Curii Coruncanii." See also above, C. i. 12. 37, where Scauros is probably put for the best of that family, M. Æmilius. 'Equis albis' is equivalent to 'fleet horses,' according to that line of Virgil in which he describes the horses of Turnus, "Qui candore nives anteirent, cursibus auras" (Aen. xii. 84). The expression 'equis praecurreret albis' is proverbial, 'he would soon outstrip them.'

9. Postquam nihil inter utrumque Convenit,] When they found they could not settle their quarrel privately, they went before the prætor (v. 18). The digression that intervenes is a comparison between such disputants and the warriors of the Iliad. When men fall out, says he, they fight after the fashion of two brave heroes engaged in a deadly feud, even as Hector and Achilles, who hated each other so mortally, and were so exceedingly brave, that they could not be separated when they came together in conflict till one or other was killed; or else they behave as when two cowards meet, and both are glad to give way; or as when the strong meets the weak, Diomed meets Glaucus, and the weak gives in, and humbles himself before his enemy.

11. inter Hectora--atque inter Achillem] This repetition of 'inter' is not uncommon. See Cic. Lael. c. 25: "Contio--judicare solet quid intersit inter popularem civem, et inter constantem, severum, et gravem." See Epp. i. 2. 11. 'Animosum' belongs to 'Achillem,' 'atque' being often put by Horace after the first word of its clause. See Epod. xvii. 4. S. i. 5. 4; 6. 131.

15. vexet] The meeting between Glaucus and Diomed, in which the former loses heart and gives up his arms to his adversary, is related in Hom. Il. vi. 234, sqq. On 'ultro,' see C. iv. 4. 51, n.

18. Bruto praetore tenente] Brutus was 'praetor urbanus' in the year B.C. 44, when Cæsar was killed; and in the course of the same year he left Rome for the purpose of taking possession, as proprætor, of the two provinces of Macedonia and Bithynia, which had been assigned him by the senate, who revoked his appointment before he had reached his province, and assigned it to M. Antonius, and he made it over to his brother Caius. Brutus, however, in defiance of the senate, took possession of the province of Macedonia, and retained it after the formation of the coalition between Augustus and M. Antonius. Being then at war with the senate, he led his troops into Asia Minor as into a foreign country, and overran Lycia, and dealt with Asia as his own province. Proceeding through the country he probably held 'conventus' (see below, v. 22) at particular places, for the purpose of hearing disputes as proprætor; and it was at such a gathering at Clazomenæ that this cause of Persius and Rex was heard. Horace calls Brutus 'praetor,' though he was not entitled strictly to the name, particularly in respect to the province of Asia, which had never been assigned him. He called himself at this time 'imperator,' as appears from coins still existing.

20. Compositum melius cum Bitho Bacchius] 'Compositum' agrees with 'par' understood, that word being used as a substantive for 'a pair,' both in the singular, as here, and the plural, as Cic. Lael. c. 4: "Ex omnibus seculis vix tria aut quattuor nominantur paria amicorum." Bithus and Bacchius are said to have been gladiators of great repute, who, after having in their time killed many antagonists, finally killed each other. As to 'in jus,' see S. 9. 77.

22. ridetur ab omni Conventu;] 'Ridetur' is used impersonally. 'Conventus' was a meeting, at fixed times and places, of the inhabitants of a province before the prætor or governor, for the purpose of settling disputes and transacting business. The name was also applied to certain districts out of which such meetings were composed.

23. laudatque cohortem:] The official staff of a provincial governor was called his 'cohors' and 'comites.' See Epp. i. 3. 6; 8. 2, 14. The lower officials, who did not belong to the 'cohors,' but were a good deal about the person of the governor, Cicero speaks of as those "qui quasi ex cohorte praetoris appellari solent" (Ad Qu. Fr. 1. i. Ep. 1. c. 4, where see Long's note). 'Comes' was retained as a title of honor during the empire, and has survived to the present day in the word 'count.'

25. canem] The 'dog-star,' as opposed to the 'stellae salubres.' 'Excepto Rege' shows that Rupilius belonged to the 'cohors,' and therefore held a post of trust about Brutus.

27. fertur quo rara securis.] Between precipitous banks covered with trees, where the axe seldom comes, from their inaccessible position.

28. Tum Praenestinus] See Introduction. 'Salso multoque fluenti' means, as he went on with his bitterness, pouring on like a full stream. His abuse is salt, the other man's vinegar.

29. Expressa arbusto] 'Drawn from the vineyard.' The illustration Horace chooses for the abuse which the enraged Rupilius hurls back ('regerit') upon his antagonist, is that which the vine-dresser retorts upon the passenger, who provokes him, in the first instance, by calling to him "Cuckoo!" but who is fain to retreat before the storm of foul language the vine-dresser returns him, still however calling as he retires, "Cuckoo, cuckoo!" He was considered a tardy person who had not got his vines trimmed by the arrival of the cuckoo, and the joke consists in the passenger telling the vine-dresser that the cuckoo was coming, and would find his trees unpruned, which was as much as to call him a lazy fellow. The Greeks had a proverb to the same effect, and modern travellers observe similar practices among the Neapolitan peasantry now. In 'vindemiator' the third syllable coalesces with the fourth. See C. iii. 4. 41, and add S. i. 8. 43; 5. 67; ii. 2. 21; 3. 245. Epp. ii. 2. 120. 'Invictus' means one who could not be beaten with his own weapons of abuse.

32. Italo perfusus aceto,] 'Pus,' 'venenum,' 'sal,' 'acetum,' are all words well chosen for describing the poisonous character of these men's malice.

34. qui reges consueris tollere,] The man plays upon the name of Brutus, alluding to him whom the prætor claimed for his ancestor, L. Junius Brutus, who helped to expel the last of the kings. See note on v. 1.

SATIRE VIII.

On the outside of the city walls, in front of Mons Esquilinus, lay the Campus Esquilinus, in which was a public burial-ground for the poorest of the people, and the Sestertium or place of execution for slaves and others of the lower sort, whose bodies were left unburied, for the dogs and vultures to prey upon (see Epod. v. 100). This place, which must always have been a public nuisance and a source of malaria, was given (as some say) by a decree of the senate to Mæcenas, or else purchased by him, cleared, drained, and laid out in gardens, in which he afterwards built a handsome house. (See C. iii. 29. Epod. ix. 3. S. ii. 3. 309.) His example was afterwards followed by a member of the house of Lamia, in whose gardens Caligula was buried. (Suet. Calig. c. 59.) The following Satire was suggested by a figure of Priapus set up in Mæcenas's garden. The god is represented as contrasting the present state of the ground with what it once was, by which a compliment is conveyed to Mæcenas for his public spirit in ridding the city of such a nuisance. Priapus is also made to complain of the trouble he has, in keeping the ground clear of trespassers, but more particularly of the witches, who, having formerly carried on their practices among the tombs and bones of the dead, continued to haunt the scene of their iniquity. This is introduced for the purpose of dragging in the woman whom Horace satirized under the name of Canidia (v. 23, sqq.). The description is in some parts very like that of the fifth Epode, and the two may have been written about the same time.

1. inutile lignum,] The uselessness of the wood of the fig-tree was proverbial. Hence σύκινοι ἄνδρες meant men fit for nothing. Priapus was a rural divinity, borrowed by the Romans from the later mythology of the Greeks. He was the protector of flocks, fields, and gardens, and symbolized the fertility of nature generally. His images were made in a rough fashion, and the ancients had but little respect for him, unless it were those of the lowest sort; though Horace, who treats him so contemptuously here, speaks of him elsewhere (Epod. ii.), in conjunction with Silvanus, as receiving the sacrifice due to him. No one could better have appreciated than a Roman of Horace's way of thinking, whether, in respect to this deity or any other, the ironical description of the prophet Isaiah (xliv. 9-20), which may be referred to with advantage. There is no smoke in the whole of that description more severe than Horace's "incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum Maluit esse deum." The figures of Priapus were generally busts, but sometimes they were full length, of the kind Horace describes. Usually they held a sickle or a club in their right hand, by way of frightening thieves, and a wisp of straw, or something of that sort, to frighten the birds.

6. importunas volucres] Virgil applies the same epithet to destructive birds "Obscoenaeque canes importunaeque volucres" (Georg. i. 470). The word is used with a variety of meanings, to reduce which to one character we must know more than we do of its etymology.

8. Huc prius angustis] See Introduction. The poor people were buried in ill-dug graves, which had the name 'puticuli,' probably a form of 'putei.' The manner of their funeral is here stated with painful satire. The poor wretch is neglected by his master; and a fellow-slave, out of his 'peculium,' goes to the expense of hiring ('locabat') 'vespillones' (common corpse-bearers, νεκροφόρους) to carry him out on a bier to the public burial ground, where his corpse was tossed naked into a pit into which other corpses had been tossed before. This scene could not have occurred in all its particulars very often, since every master was bound by law to bury his slave, and if any one did it for him, he was entitled to recover the cost of the funeral from the master of the slave. The 'vilis arca' was called 'sandapila,' a bier of narrow dimensions.

11. Pantolabo scurrae Nomentanoque nepoti:] As to these persons, see note on S. 1. 101. In consequence of their extravagance, Priapus foretells they will come to a pauper's funeral.

12. Mille pedes in fronte,] This public burial ground was 1,000 feet in breadth and 300 in depth. 'In fronte' means facing the public road, the Via Tiburtina (6. 108), or the Via Praenestina, one of which, or both, must have passed very close to it. (See Cæsar, B. G. ii. 8, and Mr. Long's note.) It was usual to engrave on monuments the following letters, H. M. H. N. S., which stand for "Hoc monumentum heredes non sequitur", or H. M. AD H. N. TRANS. The words were sometimes given at full length. Sometimes EX T. (ex testamento) were inserted between H. and N. Such sepulchres were called 'sepulcra familiaria'; those that were built for a man and his heirs were called 'hereditaria.' Horace writes as if there were a stone ('cippus') which defined ('dabat') the extent of this burial ground and bore the inscription usual on private monuments, H. M. H. N. S., which is obviously only a satire. The words could only apply to a private place of burial. All he really means is, that a space of ground of the extent he mentions was marked off for the burial of these poor people.

14. Nunc licet Esquiliis] The whole of the Esquiline or fifth region of Rome was called Esquiliæ. This, from having been an eye-sore and a plague-spot, became a healthy and pleasant residence. Suetonius tells us that Augustus, when he was ill, went to Mæcenas's house in the Esquiliæ, to recruit (Octav. c. 72). The 'agger' here referred to was a raised terrace, commenced by Servius Tullius, and continued by Tarquinius Priscus, being in all about twelve stadia in length, and about fifty feet in breadth. Here the Romans walked in cold weather to get the sun, and had a full view of the pestilent plain which Mæcenas converted into a paradise. Juvenal calls it 'ventosus' (S. viii. 43). 'Quo' is used in the sense of 'ex quo.'

17. Cum mihi non tantum] 'Cum' is thus connected with what goes before. Priapus says the locality is now made healthy, and the citizens may take their walk without being sickened with the sight of bones bleaching upon the plain, whereas his vexations still remain,--the driving away of thieves and wild animals, which still frequented the spot, and, yet worse, the punishment and scaring away of the witches, who there continued to carry on their abominable practices. We may suppose that, though the place was cleared, the witches still continued, from habit, to haunt the scene of their iniquities, and that the 'fures' and 'ferae' are the depredators that came to rob the gardens which were the god's particular care. There is no other instance of 'suetus' being used as a trisyllable. Lucretius so uses 'suevit' (vi. 854): "Qui ferri quoque vim penetrare suevit."

23. Vidi egomet nigra] The god proceeds to relate a scene that happened before the tombs were cleared away (v. 36), in which the characters introduced are the notorious Canidia, of whom we have seen enough in the Epodes, and Sagana, who is associated with her in Epod. v. 25, sqq. Their appearance and behavior are much the same as there.

nigra succinctam vadere palla] The 'palla' was the upper garment worn by women out of doors, as the men wore the toga. (See S. 2. 29, n.) Here 'succinctam' signifies 'expeditam,' 'swift in her movements,' as in Epod. v. 25. It is equivalent to 'praecinctis' in S. 5. 6, where see note. It occurs again, S. ii. 6. 107.

25. Cum Sagana majore] 'Majore' probably signifies that Sagana was older than Canidia.

27. pullam] Æneas offers a black lamb to Nox and Terra (Aen. vi. 249): "Ipse atri velleris agnam Aeneas matri Eumenidum magnaeque sorori Ense ferit." Tibullus uses the same word as Horace (i. 2. 61):--

"Et me lustravit taedis et nocte serena Concidit ad magicos hostia pulla deos."

28. confusus] 'Poured and stirred.' Compare Tibull. (i. 2. 45):--

"Haec cantu finditque solum, Manesque sepulcris Elicit, et tepido devocat ossa rogo."

29. Manes] See Epp. ii. 1. 138, n.

30. Lanea et effigies erat, altera cerea:] The meaning of the woollen image, which was to punish the waxen one, is not very clear. The wax was to melt, and, as it melted, so was the lover to consume in the fires of love.

32. servilibus--modis.] There was scarcely any imaginable form of cruelty to which slaves were not liable, through the caprice of their owners, and this of roasting or half roasting alive may have happened to more than one poor wretch of this class.

34. serpentes--Infernas errare canes,] Snakes in her hair, round her waist, and in her hand for a whip, are insignia always to be found in the representations of Tisiphone. Virgil mentions the infernal hounds as howling at the approach of Hecate (Aen. vi. 257): "Visaeque canes ululare per umbram, Adventante Dea." She was worshipped under three forms, as Luna in heaven; as Artemis (by the Greeks) or Diana (by the Romans) upon earth; and as Proserpina in Tartarus. In the first and last of these forms she was invoked by witches. Here it is in her infernal character.

36. sepulcra.] These were great barrows formed by the burial of a number of corpses in one pit (v. 8, n.).

39. Julius et fragilis Pediatia] The connection between these persons, Julius and Pediatius, is stated to have been of a kind not mentionable. Julius may have been a freedman of the dictator, C. Julius Cæsar, and the other person is said to have been a Roman eques. The feminine termination is affixed to his name to indicate that he was addicted to the vilest practices. Of Voranus nothing is known; but he was some notorious thief.

41. resonarent triste et acutum,] This corresponds with Virgil's description (Aen. vi. 492), "pars tollere vocem Exiguam."

43. cerea] The last two syllables coalesce. See S. 7. 30, n.

45. Furiarum] Horace calls the two witches Furies, by a way of speaking common to all times since the decline of the reverential feeling which made the Greeks shrink from mentioning the name of these σεμναὶ θεαί. Before Euripides, no writer would have made so free with the name of the Erinnyes. He applies it to Helen (Orest. 1390, περγάμων Ἀπολλωνίων Ἐρινύν), and to Medea (Med. 1260, ἔξελ᾽ οἴκων τάλαιναν φονίαν τ᾽ Ἐρινὺν ὑπ᾽ ἀλαστόρων).

48. caliendrum] This is variously stated to be a wig, or a cap, or some ornament for the head. The etymology is uncertain.

50. Vincula] These may mean love-knots, or long grass woven into chains for refractory and faithless lovers.

SATIRE IX.

This Satire, which is justly popular for its humor and great dramatic power, has an historical value as showing, undesignedly, but more clearly than almost any description could do, the character of Horace. It puts the man before us as in a picture.

He represents himself as sauntering alone and early on the Sacra Via, when a person he knew no more than by name, a forward coxcomb, comes up familiarly and falls into conversation with him, to his great annoyance, for he wanted to be alone, and knew the fellow's character, which was probably notorious. Horace does his best to shake him off, but he is too amiable to cope with the effrontery of his companion, whose object is to get, through Horace, an introduction to Mæcenas. The man's vulgarity and want of tact are conspicuous throughout the scene, while Horace exhibits in every part good breeding and an amiable temper, and though he is tried to the utmost by reflections on his patron and his friends, he is incapable of saying a rude word, is taken off his guard continually, and is amusingly conscious of his inferiority to the man of insolence on his own ground. The effect of this picture is heightened by the introduction, towards the end of the scene, of Fuscus Aristius, an old friend of the poet, and a man of the world, who, like Horace understood character, but had that sort of moral courage and promptitude which his friend wanted. The readiness with which he takes up the joke and enters into Horace's absurd position, and the despair to which his desertion reduces the poet, are highly ludicrous. After various ineffectual attempts to get rid of the man, Horace is at last delivered by one who seizes upon the intruder and carries him off to appeal before the prætor on some suit he has against him.

1. Ibam forte via Sacra,] Horace does not mean that it was his custom to stroll on the Sacra Via, especially at that hour in the morning, about eight o'clock (v. 35); but that, when he walked, his mind generally diverted itself with trifles, being of an easy turn, and having few anxieties to trouble it. On the Via Sacra, see Epod. iv. 7, n., vii. 8, n.

4. Quid agis,] See Epp. i. 3. 15.

5. Suaviter ut nunc est,] 'Pretty well as times go'; by which he means nothing at all, not caring what he answers, but annoyed at the forwardness of his assailant. 'Cupio omnia quae vis' is a common formula of politeness.

6. Num quid vis? occupo.] 'Num quid vis quin abeam?' 'Is there any thing else I can do for you before I go?' Professor Key (L. G. 1183) quotes this phrase from Terence (Ad. ii. 2. 39), and adds in a note, "This or a shorter form, 'numquid vis'? was a civil mode of saying good-by." 'Occupo' means 'I anticipate him before he has time to speak.'

10. Dicere nescio quid puero,] When the Romans walked abroad even for a stroll on the most ordinary occasions, they had one or more slaves with them. They were a particular class in the 'familia,' and called, from their occupation, 'pedisequi.'

11. O te, Bolane, cerebri Felicem!] The meaning of 'cerebri' is seen in the adjective 'cerebrosus' noticed above (5. 21). Horace, remembering an acquaintance of quick, strong temper, envies him that quality, for he is too mild to shake off his companion. Who Bolanus was, is unknown. It was a cognomen of one at least of the families at Rome, and derived from Bola, a town of the Æqui.

18. Trans Tiberim--cubat is] 'Cubat' means that his friend is lying sick. (See Sat. ii. 3. 289, and Epp. ii. 2. 68.) Julius Cæsar had some pleasure-grounds, which he bequeathed to the Roman people, on the right bank of the Tiber, a long way from the Sacra Via.

22. non Viscum pluris amicum,] Who Viscus was it is impossible to say with certainty. The name occurs in S. 10. 83, where there are two; and in S. ii. 8. 20, where mention is made of Viscus of Thurii. The name is always associated with Varius, concerning whom see S. 5. 40, n.

25. Hermogenes] See S. 3. 129, n.

28. Felices! nunc ego resto.] This and what follows must be supposed to have been uttered inwardly. He wishes himself dead. The witch's prophecy is only an absurd notion suggested by his present position. 'Confice' means 'despatch me,' 'finish me.' It is a technical word for the transaction and completion of business. As to the Sabine witches, see Epod. xvii. 28, and on 'urna,' see C. ii. 3. 25, n. As Fate, so the witch shakes her urn, and the lot or name of this or that person falls out, on which she pronounces her prophecies. All the three words, 'divina,' 'mota,' 'urna,' are in the ablative. 'Quandocunque' has sometimes, but rarely, the sense of 'aliquando,' 'some time or other,' which is its meaning here.

35. Ventum erat ad Vestae,] They had now had an hour's walk, and, having passed through the Forum, were approaching the Tiber, not far from which, and to the west of Mons Palatinus, stood the temple of Vesta, with the Atrium Numæ and Lucus Vestæ attached (C. i. 2. 16, n.). The temple of Vesta was near one of the courts of law where the man had to make his appearance, or forfeit his 'vadimonium.' It was now past the third hour, when the business of the courts commenced.

36. casu tunc respondere vadato] The expression 'vadari aliquem' means to require 'vades,' 'sureties,' of a party. The corresponding term is 'vadimonium promittere,' which is said of him who gives 'vades.' The 'vadatus' therefore was the plaintiff in an action, in which the hero of this Satire was defendant. He had entered into an engagement ('vadimonium') to appear on a certain day to answer to the action, and if he failed he would lose his cause, forfeit the amount of his 'vadimonium,' and be liable to be arrested in satisfaction of the remainder of the debt, if that were not covered by the 'poena desertionis' deposited when the 'vadimonium' was entered into. The amount of this was sometimes equal to the sum in dispute, sometimes only one half. 'Litem' means the amount claimed by the plaintiff, as in a criminal action it was the amount of damages assessed under a 'litis aestimatio.'

38. Si me amas,--hic ades.] "'Adesse' is a word of technical use to accompany a person to court, there to give him your aid and advice." (Long on Cicero in Verr. ii. 2. 29.) 'Hic' shows they were within sight of the court to which the speaker points.

39. Aut valeo stare] 'Stare' here means 'to stop.'

40. quo scis.] See v. 18.

41. Tene relinquam an rem.] On the use of 'ne--an,' see Key's L. G. § 1423, b. 'Res' is technically used here and elsewhere (in legal formulæ) as an equivalent for 'lis.'

43. Maecenas quomodo tecum?] He asks abruptly, "How do you and Mæcenas get on together? a shrewd man, and does n't make himself common. No man ever made a better use of his opportunities. Could you not introduce me to him? I should be very happy to play into your hands, and, if I am not very much mistaken, we should soon push aside your rivals." 'Paucorum hominum' means a man of few acquaintances, as in Terence (Eun. iii. 1. 18):--

"Immo sic homo est Perpaucorum hominum. Gn. Immo multorum arbitror Si tecum vivit."

46. Magnum adjutorem] 'Ferre secundas' and 'adjutor' are scenic terms, and are said, the first of the δευτεραγωνιστής (see Epp. i. 18. 14), the other of all the subordinate players. 'Hunc hominem' is the Greek τόνδ᾽ ἄνδρα. 'Tradere' is a conventional term for introductions, and 'submovere' for the duty of the lictor in clearing the way (see C. ii. 16. 10).

48. Non isto vivimus] Horace indignantly declares that these are not the terms on which they live with Mæcenas, intriguing and jostling one another to get the first place in his favor.

53. Sic habet.] This is a literal adaptation of oὕτως ἔχει.

54. Velis tantummodo: quae tua virtus,] This is said ironically. 'You have only to desire it, and of course, such is your virtue, you will be sure to gain your point and Mæcenas is a man who may be won, and for this reason (because he likes to be won) he is difficult of access at first.' On the construction 'quae tua virtus,' see Key's L. G. 1131.

56. Haud mihi deero:] The man professes to suppose Horace is serious, and takes him at his word.

59. deducam.] "Haec enim ipsa sunt honorabilia quae videntur levia atque communia, salutari, appeti, decedi, assurgi, deduci, reduci, consuli" (Cic. de Senect. c. 18). To attend upon a person when he leaves home is 'deducere'; 'reducere' to accompany him on his return. Great men, when they went out of doors, were usually accompanied by friends, while numbers of parasites and expectants followed their steps, and were eager to be seen by them and to be known to have been in their company.

61. Fuscus Aristius] See Introduction, and C. i. 22.

62. Unde venis? et Quo tendis?] This was a common mode of salutation. See S. ii. 4. 1, "Unde et quo Catius?"; Virg. Ecl. ix. 1, "Quo te, Moeri, pedes? an, quo via ducit, in urbem?"

64. lentissima brachia,] 'Arms that had no feeling.' Fuscus pretends not to perceive his friend's hints, pulling his toga, pressing his arm, nodding and looking askance at him.

65. Male salsus] 'The wicked wag,' as we should say.

69. tricesima sabbata:] It is probable that Aristius Fuscus knew very little about the Jews, and invented the thirtieth Sabbath on the spot. I do not find that it is made out on any authority that the Jews had any Sabbath that they called the thirtieth. The plural σάββατα is commonly used by the writers of the New Testament for the Sabbath day. But among many superstitions prevalent, especially among women and persons of nervous habit and of the lower orders (see S. ii. 3. 291, n.), curses denounced upon the transgressors of the Sabbath, which the Jews, who were zealous in making proselytes, propagated among them, were objects of terror to many.

72. Huncine solem Tam nigrum surrexe] 'Huncine' is compounded of the pronoun, the demonstrative enclitic 'ce' (for 'ecce,' 'behold'), and the interrogative enclitic 'ne' (Key's L. G. 293). As to 'surrexe,' see S. i. 5. 79; and Terence (Ad. iv. 2. 22), "Non tu eum rus hinc modo Produxe aiebas?"

76. Licet antestari?] This word signifies the calling a by-stander to witness that there was nothing illegal in the conduct of the plaintiff in such a case as the above, and that the defendant had resisted, and that force was necessary. The process was by touching the ear of the person whose testimony was asked, who could not be compelled to be a witness; but after he had consented, he was bound to appear and give evidence if required. Horace was only too glad to help in the forcible removal of his persecutor, and gave his ear with all readiness. The parties begin to wrangle: a crowd of idlers of course forms round them, and Horace makes his escape. By 'vero' he means 'in good earnest.'

77. Rapit in jus;] 'In jus vocare' is a technical expression having reference to the first step in a civil action when both parties appeared before the prætor or other magistrates having 'jurisdictio,' with the view of fixing a day for the commencement of the trial. On this occasion the 'vadimonium' above described was entered into. 'In jus vocare,' therefore, being the first step, could not follow upon the neglect of the 'vadimonium' by Horace's companion; and the 'adversarius' in this case cannot be the plaintiff in the other (v. 36), unless Horace is speaking loosely.

SATIRE X.

The line of self-defence Horace took in the fourth Satire (see Introduction, and v. 6, n.) led him into a criticism of Lucilius, which gave a fresh handle to his adversaries, who professed an admiration for that poet, but admired him for his worst faults of taste, and especially for his combination of Greek words with his mother tongue,--a practice the affectation of which no one would more instinctively feel and condemn than Horace. Horace adheres to his criticism, and says, if Lucilius had lived, he would have been the first to find faults in his own style, and to correct it.

1. Nempe incomposito] See Introduction.

3. At idem] "'At' denotes rather addition than opposition. It is commonly employed after a concession" (Key's L. G. 1445). The concession here is in 'nempe.' 'You say, and I admit it, still in the same Satire I praised him.'

4. defricuit] This word is nowhere else used in this sense. It means 'to give a hard rub,' as we say. There are other vulgarisms in our own language akin to this expression.

6. Et Laberi mimos] Laberius was the most distinguished writer of this particular kind of play that we know of. He died the year before the battle of Philippi, A.U.C. 711, and therefore before this Satire was written. The Roman mimes were, in the time of Laberius, represented in the theatres with the regular drama. They were a combination of grotesque dumb-show, of dances by men and women, of farcical representations in verse-dialogue, of incidents in low and profligate life, and of grave sentiments and satirical allusions interspersed with the dialogue. Augustus was a great patron of these licentious representations. See Tac. Ann. i. 54.

9. Est brevitate opus,] The want of this quality in Lucilius he condemns in S. 4. 9, sqq.

11. modo tristi] 'Tristi' signifies 'serious.'

12. Defendente vicem] 'Supporting the part,' like "fungar vice cotis" (A. P. 304), and "Actoris partes chorus officiumque virile Defendat" (v. 193). On 'modo,' see S. 3. 12. The combination Horace commends is that of the orator sternly or gravely rebuking vice, of the humorous satirist ('poëtae') broadly ridiculing it, and of the polished wit, who, instead of throwing himself with all his strength upon his victim, substitutes sarcasm for invective, and lets his power be rather felt than seen. Of these three, the gravity of stern reproof Horace estimates lowest, saying that ridicule generally settles questions, of however grave importance, better and more decisively than severity.

15. secat res.] 'Secare' is used in the sense of 'decidere' in Epp. i. 16. 42. Cicero (De Or. ii. 58) says, "Est plane oratoris movere risum,--maxime quod tristitiam ac severum mitigat et relaxat odiosasque res saepe quas argumentis dilui non facile est joco risuque dissolvit."

16. Illi scripta quibus] See S. 4. 2, n. 'Hoc stabant,' 'stood on this ground,' as 'hinc pendet,' S. 4. 6.

18. Hermogenes] See S. 3. 129, n. 'Simius iste' probably means Demetrius, whom we meet with below (v. 79) as an abuser of Horace and (v. 90) as a trainer of 'mimae,' like Hermogenes, with whom he is associated. We know nothing more of him. His only skill was to sing the love-songs of Calvus and Catullus, who were favorite poets of the last generation, and great friends.

20. quod verbis Graeca Latinis] This is a new fault in the style of Lucilius, not before mentioned. See the note on S. 4. 6.

21. Seri studiorum!] This phrase represents the Greek ὀψιμαθεῖς. In 'quine putetis' the interrogative enclitic is somewhat redundant, but not more than in many other instances, as S. ii. 2. 107, and 3. 295, 317.

22. Rhodio quod Pitholeonti] This person is unknown. His name probably was Pitholaus; if so, Horace changed that termination in conformity with the Greek usage, as Τιμόλαος and Τιμόλεων, Μενέλαος and Μενέλεως, &c., are different forms of the same word.

24. ut Chio nota si] On 'nota' see C. ii. 3. 8. Here the Chian, a sweet wine, would represent the Greek, as the rougher wine of Campania would stand for the less polished Latin.

26. causa Petilli?] See S. 4. 94, n.

27. Scilicet oblitus] The sense of the passage from v. 25 to 30 is this: "You say that the language is more elegant if it be set off with Greek. But I ask you yourself, is it only when you are writing poetry, or when you have on hand a difficult cause, such as that of Petillius? Would you then likewise, forgetting your country and your birth, while our great orators Pedius and Messalla are elaborating their speeches in their pure mother tongue ('Latine'),--would you, I say, prefer mixing up a foreign jargon with your native language, like a double-tongued man of Canusium?" He puts the composition of verses on such themes as Lucilius chose, on a level with the gravity of forensic speaking, and asks why, if the man would not apply the rule to the latter, he should do so to the former.

28. Cum Pedius causas] Who Pedius was, is quite uncertain; but he must have been well known as an orator. It is also uncertain whether Poplicola belongs to Pedius or Corvinus, about whom see C. iii. 21. Quintilian describes him (x. 1. 113) as "orator nitidus et candidus et quodammodo prae se ferens in dicendo nobilitatem suam." And Horace speaks again of his eloquence, A. P. 370. His intimacy with Horace began in the army of Brutus, and continued unbroken till Horace's death.

30. Canusini more bilinguis?] As to Canusium, see S. 5. 91. It was one of those Greek towns which retained longest and most purely the language of its founders, as we may suppose from the text.

36. Turgidus Alpinus] This is supposed to be a bad poet named M. Furius Bibaculus, born at Cremona B.C. 102. 'Turgidus' refers to his person. Horace describes him elsewhere as "pingui tentus omaso" (S. ii. 5. 40), where a bombastic verse of his is quoted, which may account for his being called familiarly, by his contemporaries, Alpinus. Horace speaks of his murdering Memnon, and it is generally supposed that this refers to a translation he made of the Aethiopis of Arctinus, one of the Cyclic poets, in which Memnon was one of the principal heroes.

37. Defingit Rheni luteum caput,] Horace says that Furius, like some rude artist, had made a figure of Rhenus (the Rhine) with a head of clay, referring to the statues by which the different river-gods were represented, and to some description this poet had given of the Rhine, perhaps in a poem he is said to have written on the Gallic war. 'Defingo' is 'to fashion out,' and differs little from 'fingo.'

38. Quae neque in aede sonent] Sp. Mæcius Tarpa was the officer who licensed plays before they were acted. He is mentioned again in the Ars Poëtica (v. 387). His duties had previously formed part of the functions of the ædiles, and it was not till political allusions became common, and the position of affairs too critical to bear them, that this special censorship was created. 'Aedes' in the singular signifies 'a temple.' Temples of Apollo and the Muses are referred to by Juvenal (S. vii. 37) as the resort of poets, and other temples besides (see Ovid. Trist. iii. 1. 69) had buildings attached where men of letters assembled. In one of these, therefore, or some building especially consecrated to the Muses, poets who had plays they wished to get represented recited them, probably in the presence of Tarpa.

42. Unus vivorum, Fundani;] Of this Fundanius, who Horace says was the only man of the day who could write a comedy in the style of Menander and that school, nothing whatever is known. He is the narrator of the scene in S. ii. 8, the supper of Nasidienus. Probably Horace exaggerated his merits, as well as Pollio's, out of affection for the men. As to Pollio, see C. ii. 1, Int., and v. 10, n. 'Regum,' such as the "sacra Pelopis domus" (C. i. 6. 8, n.). 'Pede ter percusso' refers to the trimeter iambic, the common measure of tragedy.

44. Ut nemo Varius ducit;] As to Varius, see the Ode last mentioned, vv. 8, 11, and S. 5. 40. The derived significations of 'ducere' are various. As applied to a poem, it is probably taken from the process of spinning. See Epp. ii. 1. 225: "tenui deducta poëmata filo." See also S. ii. 1. 4.

45. Virgilio] Whether Virgil had at this time published his Georgics or not is quite uncertain, from the doubt that hangs over both the date of this Satire and the publication of those poems. But, at any rate, Virgil had them in hand, and his friends had probably heard a great part of them recited in private. The Bucolics had been published some time, and they seem to have been thought well of, though until the Aeneid had made some progress we have no reason to suppose that Virgil was classed by his contemporaries with poets of the first rank. 'Facetum' signifies 'elegant,' as in a coxcomb it would be called 'fine,' S. 2. 26.

46. Hoc erat,] Horace says, 'Fundanius may write comedy better than any man living, Pollio tragedy, Varius epics, Virgil pastorals: this (satire) was what, after Varro and some others had tried it in vain, I was able to write better than they, though not equal to its inventor' (Lucilius). Who he means by 'some others,' it is impossible to say.

Varrone Atacino] P. Terentius Varro was a poet of the day some years older than Horace. He was called Atacinus from the Atax, a river of Gallia Narbonensis, to distinguish him from M. Terentius Varro, who is sometimes called Reatinus. Different works are attributed to him. His attempts at satire--in which Horace says, most probably with justice, that he had failed--are nowhere noticed but here.

53. Nil comis tragici mutat Lucilius Acci?] See below, v. 65. Accius was born B.C. 170, and was a writer of tragedies, chiefly from the Greek. Cicero and Quintilian speak very highly of him, and the popular judgment was in his favor. See Epp. ii. 1. 56, and A. P. 259.

55. non ut majore reprensis?] 'Not as if he were superior to those he finds fault with.'

59. Quid vetat et nosmet] Horace says he is at liberty to inquire whether it is not a natural consequence of Lucilius's temperament, and the character of his subjects, that he wrote verses not more polished and smooth than might be expected of a man who was content with giving his lines the proper number of feet, and took delight in stringing together a vast number of them in the shortest possible time. 'Pedibus quid claudere senis' explains 'hoc,' 'contented merely with this,' that is to say, comprising something (that he calls a verse, for there is contempt in 'quid') in six feet.

61. Etrusci Quale fuit Cassi] Of this Cassius we know nothing, and what Horace says of him is no more than a jocular invention that his writings were so numerous and worthless that his funeral pile was made of them and the boxes that contained them.

63. capsis] See S. 4. 22, n.

64. Fuerit] See S. i. 1. 45.

65. Comis et urbanus] 'Agreeable and refined.'

66. Quam rudis et Graecis] 'Allow that he is more polished than the inventor of a rude style of poetry unknown to the Greeks might be expected to be, and than the mass of the older poets certainly were; still, if he had lived to this our time, he would have corrected much that he had written.'

71. vivos et roderet ungues] 'And would bite his nails to the quick,' as men sometimes do when they are thinking very nervously.

72. Saepe stilum vertas] 'Stilum vertere' means to erase what had been written, one end of the iron pen ('stilus') being broad like the end of a chisel, for the purpose of obliterating the letters made upon the wax tablet by the sharp end, which they called 'acumen.'

75. Vilibus in ludis] Such schools as Flavius's, perhaps, if poetry was ever taught there, or in those cheap schools in the back streets mentioned in Epp. i. 20. 18. The word 'dictari' refers to the practice of the teacher reading out a passage for the pupil to repeat after him, one of the earliest steps in education being accurate pronunciation. The words 'canere,' 'cantare,' which are frequently applied to the recitation of the pupil, show that the modulation of the voice was a primary consideration in teaching. To help this most probably was one principal purpose of the master's reciting to his scholars, which was done quite at the beginning, and probably before the boys could write; whence Horace says (Epp. ii. 1. 126), "Os tenerum pueri balbumque poëta figurat." It was a good preparation for their subsequent training under the teacher of rhetoric. It is a practice which might be more generally revived, for nothing can be worse than the way in which boys usually read or repeat their lessons in our schools.

77. explosa Arbuscula] This was a celebrated actress in Cicero's time. As she, when she was hissed off the stage, said she cared nothing for the rest of the spectators, and was satisfied if she pleased the front benches (the Equites), so Horace says he only wants to be read in the better sort of schools, where that class of people sent their sons.

78. cimex Pantilius,] This person, if it be a real name, is quite unknown. A more contemptible animal could not have been chosen to liken the man to, whether for its odor, its skulking, or its sting. So that δήγματα κορέων, λαθρόδακναι κόρεες, seem to have been proverbial expressions for calumny.

79. Demetrius,] See above on v. 18; and as to Fannius, see S. 4. 21, n. On Plotius, see S. 5. 40; and on Valgius, C. ii. 9, Int. He was consul in B.C. 13. Who Octavius was, we cannot tell. Horace does not mean Augustus, for, after the death of the dictator, Octavius became C. Julius Cæsar Octavianus, and could not at this time be called Octavius. On Fuscus (to whom the epithet 'optimus' belongs), see C. i. 22, Int., and S. 9. 61, and Epp. i. 10.

83. Viscorum laudet uterque!] If Viscus be the correct reading in S. 9. 22, and S. ii. 8. 20, the persons there mentioned may be one or other or both of these brothers.

84. Ambitione relegata] 'Dismissing flattery.'

85. tuo cum fratre,] This may have been Gellius Poplicola, Messalla's brother by adoption. He was with Brutus and Cassius in Asia Minor; but left them before the battle of Philippi, and joined M. Antonius, and commanded the right wing of his army at Actium. If therefore this be the person Horace alludes to, his acquaintance with him began in Brutus's camp. He was consul in the year B.C. 36.

86. Vos, Bibule et Servi,] This Bibulus was probably the youngest son of M. Calpurnius Bibulus, who was consul in B.C. 59, and of his wife Porcia, who afterwards married M. Brutus. He wrote an account of his stepfather's life, which Plutarch made use of. He must have been still quite young.

Servius Sulpicius Rufus was a distinguished lawyer and friend of Cicero, and he left a son named Servius. This son is perhaps the person Horace refers to. Cicero was very fond of him, to judge by his letters to his father. He must have been older than Horace, and very much older than Bibulus.

Furnius was also the son of a friend and correspondent of Cicero, and was a favorite with Augustus. The epithet 'candidus' applied to him by Horace shows that he deserved esteem. Shortly after the battle of Actium he got Augustus to take his father, who had followed M. Antonius, into favor.

88. Prudens] 'Designedly,' 'on purpose.'

91. Discipularum inter jubeo plorare cathedras.] Their pupils were chiefly 'mimae,' actresses, but some ladies of birth at this time learnt singing of professors, and it was not counted much to their praise. 'Jubeo plorare' corresponds to the Greek οἰμώζειν κελεύω, but 'plorare' represents, not only the above proverbial expression, but the drawling of the singing-master teaching his pupils sentimental or melancholy songs. 'Cathedra' was an easy-chair used chiefly by women.

92. I, puer,] Authors did not write themselves, but had slaves, called 'pueri a studiis,' or generally 'librarii,' to whom they dictated. See S. 4. 10. Epp. i. 10. 49; ii. 1. 110. We are to suppose that Horace extemporized this anathema against Demetrius and Tigellius, and then told his amanuensis to go before he forgot it and add it to the Satire as his 'subscriptio'; which in letters was the word 'vale,' or something civil of that sort.

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