BOOK XIV

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ARGUMENT.

The fourteenth book contained, according to Schoenbeck's idea, the praises of a placid and easy life. Duentzer, on the other hand, says the subject was ambition. The two notions are not so much opposed, says Gerlach, as at first sight they seem: the object of the poet being to contrast the frugal simplicity and tranquil leisure of a rustic life, with the empty vanities and arrogant assumption of the ambitious man. Thus the Fragments 2, 4, 5, 12, 15, 16, and perhaps 1, contain the praises of frugal parsimony and an honorable leisure: 3, 6, 7, 8, and perhaps others, describe the heart-burnings and disappointments of a life devoted to ambition.

1 Is that rather the sign of a sick man that I live on bread and tripe? * * *[1766]

2 ... but you rather lead in peace a tranquil life, which you seem to hold more important than doing this.

3 Publius Pavus Tuditanus, my quæstor in the Iberian land, was a skulker, a mean fellow, one of that class, clearly.[1767]

4 ... these, I say, we may consider a sham sea-fight, and a game of backgammon ... but though you amuse yourself, you will not live one whit the better.[1768]

5 ... for that he preferred to be approved of by a few, and those wise men, than to rule over all the departed dead--[1769]

6 ... were he not associated with me as prætor, and annoyed me....[1770]

7 ... for that famous old Cato ... because he was not conscious to himself.[1771]

8 I will go as embassador to the king, to Rhodes, Ecbatana, and Babylon, I will take a ship....[1772]

9 ... no supper, he says; no portion for the god....[1773]

10 when that which we chew with our mouth, ...[1774]

11 I see the common people hold it in earnest affection--

12 The horse himself is not handsome, but an easy goer, a capital hackney.[1775]

13 ... whom oftentimes you dread; occasionally feel pleasure in his company.

14 ... In a moment, in a single hour....[1776]

15 ... the cheese has a flavor of garlic--[1777]

16 ... and scraggy wood-pigeons.[1778]

17 ... chalk....

FOOTNOTES:

[1766] Gerlach's reading is followed, "quod pane et viscere vivo." In the next line he thinks there is something of the same kind of pun as in Ovid, Met., xv., 88, "Heu quantum scelus est in viscera viscera condi."

[1767] _Lucifugus_, "one who shuns the light, because his deeds are evil." So Nebulo and Tenebrio are used for one who would gladly cloak his deeds of falsehood and cunning under the mist of darkness. Cic., de Fin., i., 61, "Malevoli, invidi, difficiles, _lucifugi_, maledici, monstrosi." Nebulo is also applied to a vain empty-headed fellow, of no more solidity than a mist; and then to a spendthrift, who had devoured all his substance and "left not a wrack behind." Vid. Ælium Stilum ap. Fest., in voc. Who this desirable person was, is doubtful. Gerlach thinks that Lucilius' quarrel with him began at the siege of Numantia, and that this Fragment is part of a speech which the poet puts into the mouth of Scipio respecting his quæstor. _Tuditanus_ was a cognomen of the Sempronian gens, from the "mallet-shaped" head of one of the family. _Pavus_ may have been derived from the taste shown by one of them for feeding and fattening peacocks. There was a Publius Sempronius Tuditanus consul with M. Cornelius Cethegus in B.C. 204, and a Caius Semp. Tuditanus consul B.C. 129, the year of Scipio Africanus' death. Cicero speaks highly of his eloquence (Brut., c. 25), and Dionysius Halicarnassus of his historical powers (i., p. 9).

[1768] Corpet supposes the allusion to be to the game called "duodecim scripta," which resembled our backgammon; the alveolus being a kind of table on which the dice were thrown, with a rim to prevent their rolling off. Cicero tells us P. Mutius Scævola was a great adept at this game. (Or., i., 50.) Gerlach supposes it to be a Fragment of the speech of some plain countryman, who couples all these things together, to show that they do not tend to make life happier. _Calces_ will be the white lines marked on the stadium.

[1769] ἢ πᾶσιν, κ. τ. λ. Part of Achilles' speech to Ulysses in the shades below, where he declares he would rather submit to the most menial offices on earth, than rule over all the shades of departed heroes. Odyss., xi., 491. Cf. Attii Epinausimache, "Probis probatum potius quam multis fore."

[1770] The prætor may probably be C. Cæcilius Metellus Caprarius, with whom Scipio was so wroth at Numantia, as Cicero tells us (de Or., ii., 66); to whom Gerlach also refers Fr. incert. 96, 97.

[1771] This Fragment is hopeless. Even Gerlach does not attempt to explain it.

[1772] _Cercurum._ Cf. ad viii., 4.

[1773] _Prosecta_, the same as _prosiciæ_ (from prosecando, as insiciæ from insecando). The gloss in Festus explains it by αἱ τῶν θυμάτων ἀπαρχαί. Cf. Arnob. adv. Gent., vii., "Quod si omnes has partes quas prosicias dicitis, accipere Dii amant, suntque illis gratæ." Scaliger reads _prosiciem_.

[1774] Cf. iv., Fr. 12, and Pomponius Pappo ap. Fest. in v., "Nescio quis ellam urget, quasi asinus, uxorem tuam: ita opertis oculis simul manducatur ac molet:" which is perhaps the sense here.

[1775] _Gradarius_ is said of a horse "trained to an easy, ambling pace," like that expressed by the word _tolutim_, cf. ix., Fr. 6 (exactly the contrary to succussator, ii., Fr. 10), xv., Fr. 2. Hence "pugna gradaria," where the advance to the charge is made at a slow pace. So Seneca (Epist., xl.) applies the term to Cicero's style of oratory, "lentè procedens, interpungens, intermittens actionem."

[1776] _Puncto._ So στιγμὴ χρόνου. Cf. Terent., Phorm., act. I., iv., 7, "Tum temporis mihi punctum ad hanc rem est."

[1777] _Allium olet_; instead of the old reading, "allia molliet."

[1778] _Macros._ So Horace, "Sedulus hospes pæne macros arsit dum turdos versat in igni." i., Sat. v., 72.

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