BOOK XXVIII

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ARGUMENT.

Van Heusde considers that this book contained some severe strictures on the part of a morose old man, or stern uncle, on the over-indulgence of a fond and foolish father. Yet a considerable portion of the Satire seems to contain a defense of the poet himself against the assaults of some invidious maligners, and in order to do this, he enters, generally, into a discussion of the habits and manners of young men of the age. Their licentiousness, he is prepared to admit, has been in great measure produced by the want of restraint in early youth. This petulance develops itself in an uncontrolled license of speech, regardless of all annoyance to the feelings of others--in avarice--in haughtiness, the peculiar vice of men of rank--ambition, luxury, and love of sensual pleasure. These charges he illustrates by a passage quoted from Cæcilius. Even those who do show some taste for better things, and apply themselves to the cultivation of philosophy, do not, like Polemon, adopt the severe maxims of a self-denying system, but attach themselves to the school of Epicurus or Aristippus. To such as these, all good advice, all endeavors to reclaim them to the rugged paths of a stricter morality, are utterly hopeless and unavailing.

1 Let him grant the man what he wishes; cajole him, corrupt him altogether, and enfeeble all his nerves.[1887]

2 You can shorten your speech, while your hide is still sound.[1888]

3 He both loved Polemo, and bequeathed his "school" to him after his death; as they call it.[1889]

4 ... wherefore I am resolved to act against him; to prosecute him, and give up his name....

5 ... she will steal every thing with bird-limed hands; will take every thing, believe me, and violently sweep off all--[1890]

6 ... that ancient race, of which is Maximus Quintus, the knock-kneed, the splay-footed....[1891]

7 ... what they say Aristippus the Socratic sent of old to the tyrant....[1892]

8 ... to concede that one point, and yield in that in which he is overcome....[1893]

9 ... or if by chance needs be, elsewhere; if you depart hence for any place--

10 ... though the old woman returns to her wine-pot.[1894]

11 ... to threaten openly to name the day for his trial.

12 ... unhonored, unlamented, unburied--[1895]

13 ... substitute others, if you think whom you can.

14 ... lest he do this, and you escape from this sorrow.

15 ... what will become of me? since you do not wish to associate with the bad.[1896]

16 ... he never bestirs himself, nor acts so as to bring ruin on himself.

17 Here then was the meeting: arms and an ambuscade were placed.[1897]

18 I made away with a large quantity of fish and fatlings; that I deny....[1898]

19 ... add, moreover, a grave and stern philosopher.

20 ... rap at the door, Gnatho: keep it up! they stand firm! We are undone!

21 Come, come, you thieves; prate away your lies![1899]

22 But flight is prepared; greatly excited, he steps with timid foot.[1900]

23 Why do you thus use engines throwing stones of a hundred pounds' weight?[1901]

24 ... in the first place, gold is superabundant, and the treasures are open--

25 ... persuade ... and pass: or tell me why you should pass.

26 † he besides orders our ... who are entering....[1902]

27 ... to your own mischief, you destroyers of hinges[1903]

28 If Lucilius has provoked him in his love.

29 Whether you have kept aloof from your husband, a year, or this year--

30 besides this, some extra work, whenever you please[1904]

31 to whom I intrusted implicitly my life and fortunes.[1905]

32 ... on whom I have often inflicted a thousand stripes a day

33 ... that he is a capital botcher: sews up patchwork excellently.[1906]

34 ... by such great power they will elate their minds to heaven[1907]

35 But what are you doing? tell me that I may know--

36 ... Youth must provide now against old age.

37 As though you had dropsy in your mind.

38 ... as to face and stature....[1908]

39 ... and what is filthy in look and smell--

40 ... to forge supports of gold and brass--[1909]

41 Nor challenges at any price--

42 Go in, and be of good cheer.

43 Care nothing about teaching letters to a clod.[1910]

44 I have made up my mind, Hymnis, that you are taking from a madman[1911]

45 You know the whole affair. I am afraid I shall be blamed

46 Chremes had gone to the middle. Demænetus to the top.

47 Here you will find firm flesh, and the breasts standing forth from a chest like marble--[1912]

48 I will surpass the forms and atoms of Epicurus--

49 † Now you come toward us....[1913]

50 ... I come to the pimp ... that he intends to buy her outright for three thousand sesterces.[1914]

FOOTNOTES:

[1887] Nonius explains _eligere_ by _defatigare_. It is used by Varro and Columella in the sense of "plucking up, weeding out," eridicare; and metaphorically by Cicero in the same sense. (Tusc., iii., 34.) Gerlach maintains that _nervos eligere_ is not Latin, and reads _nervos elidat_ «which is confirmed by a passage in the same treatise of Cicero, "Nervos omnes virtutis elidunt." Tusc., ii., 11».

[1888] _Compendi facere._ Plaut., Most., I., i., 57, "Orationis operam compendiface." Pseud., IV., vii., 44, "Quisquis es adolescens operam fac compendi quærere." Asin., II., ii., 41, "Verbivelitationem fieri compendi volo." Capt., V., ii., 12. Bacch., I., ii, 51; II., ii., 6. _Terginum_ is a scourge made of hide (the "cowskin" of the Americans). Cf. Plaut., Ps., I., ii., 22, "Nunquam edepol vostrum durius _tergum_ erit quam _terginum_ hoc meum."

[1889] The story of Polemon entering intoxicated into the school of Xenocrates, and being suddenly converted by that philosopher's lecture on temperance, is told by Diogenes Laertius (in Vit., i., c. 1), and referred to by Horace, ii., Sat. iii., 253, "Faciasne quod olim mutatus Polemon? ponas insignia morbi Fasciolas, cubital, focalia, potus ut ille dicitur ex collo furtim carpsisse coronas postquam est impransi correptus voce magistri." He afterward succeeded Xenocrates; and Zeno and Arcesilaus were among his hearers. Cic., Orat., iii., 18.

[1890] _Viscatis manibus._ Cf. Sen., Ep. viii., 3, "Quisquis nostrum ista _viscata_ beneficia devitet."

[1891] To whom these vituperative alliterations (_vatia_, _vatrax_, _vatricosus_) are applied is uncertain. The Fabian gens are most probably alluded to. The reading "verrucosus," therefore, has been suggested, to identify the person with the great Fabius Cunctator. (Aur. Vict., Vir. Ill., 43.) But this violates the metre, and still leaves the two other epithets unaccounted for. Three famous men of the gens had the prænomen Quintus, Æmilianus, his son Allobrogicus, and his grandson. Gerlach considers the last to be the object of the Satire, as his profligacy and licentiousness were notorious. Cf. Val. Max., III., v., 2.

[1892] Of the numerous repartees of Aristippus to Dionysius, mentioned by Diogenes Laertius in his Life, it is difficult to say to which Lucilius alludes. Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 10; i., Epist. xvii., 13, _seq_.

[1893] Cf. Hor., Epod. xvii., 1, "Jam jam efficaci _do manus_ scientiæ."

[1894] _Armillum_, "a wine-pot," vini urceolus, vas vinarium; so called quia armo, i. e., humero deportatur. Old women being naturally wine-bibbers (vinibuæ), "anus ad armillum" passed into a proverbial expression. Cf. Prov., xxvi., 11. 2 Pet., ii., 22.

[1895] _Nullo honore._ Cf. Scott's Lay of Last Minstrel, "Unwept, unhonored, and unsung."

[1896] _Committere_, Nonius explains by "conjungere, sociare." Cf. Virg., Æn., iii., "Delphinum caudas utero commissa luporum." Ov., Met, xii., 478, "Quà vir equo commissus erat."

[1897] Nonius quotes this passage as an instance of "convenire" used in the sense of "interpellare."

[1898] _Altilium._ Cf. Juv., v., 168, "Ad nos jam veniet minor altilis." Hor., i., Ep. vii., 35, "Nec somnum plebis laudo satur altilium." Cf. iv., Fr. 5.

[1899] _Argutamini._ Cf. Enn. ap. Non., "Exerce linguam ut argutarier possis." Næv., ibid., "totum diem argutatur quasi cicada." Plaut., Amp., I., i., 196, "Pergin argutarier?" Bacch., I., ii., 19, "Etiam me advorsus exordire argutias?"

[1900] _Percitus_ is commonly used by the comic writers for the excitement of any strong passion, as love, anger, etc.

[1901] _Centenarias._ So pondere centenario. Plin., vii., 20. Cf. ad lib. v., Fr. 22.

[1902] Hopelessly corrupt. Dusa proposes _puer_.

[1903] _Confectores._ Connected probably with Fr. 20, and referring to the violent entrances lovers used to effect into the houses of their mistresses. Cf. lib. iv., Fr. 15; xxix., Fr. 47. Hor., iii., Od. xxvi., 7. Where Zumpt explains _vectes_ as instruments which "adhibebantur ad fores effringendas." _Conficere_, i. e., frangere. Nonius.

[1904] _Subsecivus_ is properly applied to that which is "cut off and left remaining over and above," as land in surveying, etc. So horæ subsecivæ, tempus subsecivum, "leisure hours, odd times," used by Cicero and Pliny. So Seneca says of philosophy, "Exercet regnum suum: dat tempus non accipit. Non est _res subseciva_: ordinaria est, domina est: adest et jubet." Cf. the Greek phrase ἐκ παρέργου.

[1905] _Concredidit._ Plaut., Aul., Prol., 6.

[1906] _Sarcinator._ Plaut., Aul., III., v., 41. _Cento_, "a patchwork coverlet." Juv., vi., 121. Vid. Fest in voc. "prohibere." The phrase _centones sarcire_ also means, "to impose upon a person by falsehoods." Cf. Plaut., Epid., III., iv., 19, "Quin tu alium quæras quoi centones sarcias."

[1907] The emendations of this Fragment are endless. The reading of the text is approved by Merula and Gerlach.

[1908] _Statura._ Cf. Cic., Phil., ii., 16, "Velim mihi docas, L, Turselius, qua _facie_ fuit, quâ _staturâ_."

[1909] _Fulmenta_, "any prop or support." Hence "a bed-post." Whence the proverb, "Fulmenta lectum scandunt." Plautus also uses it for the "heel of a shoe," "fulmentas jubeam suppingi soccis?" Trin., III., ii., 94, _seq_. Lib. iv., Fr. 19.

[1910] _Lutum_ for "lutulentum."

[1911] Gerlach thinks _Hymnis_, here and in lib. xxvii., Fr. 43, may be a proper name.

[1912] _Hic corpus._ "Verba conciliatricis Lenæ." Dusa. (Cf. Arist., Acharn., 1199).

[1913] Given up even by Gerlach.

[1914] _Destinet._ Cf. Plaut., Rud., Prol., 45, "Amare occœpit, ad lenonem devenit minis triginta sibi puellam destinat." Pers., IV., iii., 80. Mart., III., i., 109; IV., iii., 35. _Destinare_ is properly "to set one's mind upon a thing." So _obstinare_. Plaut., Aul., II., ii., 89.

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