118. #excusso#: Persius would not be Persius, if he did not give us a
problem even in his best passages. _Excusso naso_ stronger than
_emunctae naris_, Hor., Sat., 1, 4, 8 (Jahn). According to Heinr.,
_excusso = sursum iactato_, like _excussa brachia_, Ov., Met., 5, 596,
which seems to suit _suspendere_. Conington renders, 'with a sly talent
for tossing up his nose and catching the public on it,' doubtless with
reference to 'tossing in a blanket,' a pastime not unknown to the
ancients: _Ibis ab #excusso# missus in astra sago_, Mart., 1, 3, 8.
Comp. Suet., Otho, 2; Cervantes, Don Quijote, 1, 17; and on the
_sagatio_, see Friedländer, _Sittengesch._, 1, 25. As the blanket is
drawn tight in order to effect the elevation of the person tossed, we
may combine with this figure the old version of an 'unwrinkled nose,'
a nose that is 'kept straight' (_exporrectus_) by the owner to
disguise his merriment (_ac si nihil tule ageret_). But this is
over-interpretation, the besetting sin of the editors of Persius.
--#callidus suspendere#: On the construction, see Prol., 11. --#naso#:
_Naso #suspendis# adunco_, Hor., Sat., 1, 6, 5. Comp. 2, 8, 64.
119. #men#: On _ne_ in rhetorical questions, see v. 22. --#nec clam--nec
cum scrobe#: 'neither to myself nor with a hole in the ground for my
listener.' The negative in _nefas_ is subdivided by _nec-- nec_, G.,
444, R. Others supply _fas_, G., 446, R. --#nusquam#: The answer of the
critic, Jahn (1843). In the ed. of 1868 he writes with Hermann,
_nusquam?_ as a part of Persius's question. The arrangement in the text
seems to be more in accordance with Persius's fashion of anticipating an
answer (+anthupophora+). 'Nowhere? you say.' --#scrobe#: Allusion to the
story of Midas and his barber, for which no reader will need to be
referred to Ov., Met., 11, 180 seqq.
121. #quis non habet?# According to the _Vita Persii_, the poet had
written _Mida rex habet_, intended for King Populus. Cornutus, afraid
that Nero would take the fling to himself, changed the words to _quis
non habet?_ The story is not very consistent with the theory that
Persius went so far as to ridicule Nero's poetry.
122. #ridere meum#: See v. 9. --#nulla#: G., 304, R. 2. --#vendo#: 'I am
going to sell;' familiar present for future; hence = _vendito_.
123. #Iliade#: Probably the Iliad of Labeo. Homer's Iliad would be too
extravagant. --#audaci quicumque#, etc.: The poet distinctly points to
the mordant Old Attic Comedy as his model; yet there is little trace of
direct imitation of the worthies whom he cites, and the interval of
conception is abysmal. --#adflate#: Persius, like some other Roman
poets, goes beyond reasonable bounds in the use of the Vocative as a
predicate. G., 324, R. 1; A., 35, _b_. The Greeks were cautious, and in
Vergil the Vocative can be detached and felt as such, but not here, nor
in 3, 28. --#Cratino#: the oldest of the famous comic triumvirate:
_Eupolis atque #Cratinus# Aristophanesque poetae_, Hor., Sat., 1, 4, 1.
Cratinus was the Archilochus of the Attic stage, hence _audax_. See the
famous characteristic in Aristophanes, Eq., 527.
124. #iratum Eupolidem#: The epithet is borne out by the fragments.
--#praegrandi cum sene#: Aristophanes. The adjective refers to his
greatness: 'the old giant.' _Sene_ is not to be pressed. Men who come
before the public early are often called old before their time. Hannibal
calls himself an old man when he was only in his forty-fourth year,
Liv., 30, 30. Others understand _sene_ as a compliment to an 'ancient'
author. Instead of Aristophanes, Heinrich and others suppose that
Lucilius is meant. Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 1, 34: _vita #senis#_, although
Lucilius was only about forty-five at the time of his death-- but see L.
Müller, _Lucilius_, p. 288. --#palles#: 'study yourself pale over.' The
combination with the Accusative is bold, but not bolder than other
cognate Accusatives. 'Gain a Eupolidean pallor' = 'a pallor due to
Eupolis.' For different phases of _pallere_ with Accus., see 3, 43. 85;
5, 184.
125. #decoctius#: The figure is from wine that is 'boiled down,' 'well
refined.' Not 'opposed to the _spumosus_ of v. 96' (Conington), as is
shown by _coctum_, v. 97. --#audis#: 'have an ear for' (Conington).
126. #inde# = _ab iis_, 'by these' (G., 613, R. 1; A., 48, 5), 'by the
study of these,' dependent on _vaporata_. --#vaporata#: 'steamed,' hence
'cleansed,' 'refined' (Jahn). Comp. _#purgatas# aures_, 5, 63; _aurem
mordaci #lotus# aceto_, 5, 86. --#lector mihi ferveat#: _Mihi_ really
depends on _ferveat_, though it may be conveniently translated by 'my'
with _lector_. 'Let my reader be one who comes to me with his ears aglow
from the pure effluence of such poetry.'
127. #non hic#: _Hic_ is different in tone from _is_, more distinctly
demonstrative, and hence more distinctly contemptuous. --#in crepidas#:
The simple Accusative with _ludere_ is the regular construction.
_Crepidae_, a part of the Greek national dress. Comp. Suet., Tib., 13:
_redegit se_ [_Tiberius_], _deposito patrio habitu, ad pallium et
#crepidas#_. Hence _fabulae crepidatae_ of tragedies with Greek plots.
--#Graiorum#: the rarer and more stilted form for _Graecorum_, perhaps
by way of rebuking the impertinence of this stolid would-be wag.
128. #sordidus#: 'low creature,' 'dirty dog.' Himself vulgar, he can not
understand refinement of manners or attire. --#qui possit#: Casaubon
reads _poscit_ to match _gestit_. But Indicative and Subjunctive may
well be combined, the former of a fact, the latter of a characteristic:
'a man who-- and a man to--.' So in the famous line: _sunt qui non
habeant, est qui non curat habere_, Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 182. --#lusce#:
'Old One-eye' (Conington). The lowness of the wit is evident. In v. 56
the poet appears to break his own rule, but baldness and corpulence are
in his eyes badges of vice, not simple misfortunes.
129. #aliquem#: G., 301. --#Italo#: 'provincial.' --#supinus# =
_superbus_. The head is thrown back with the chin in the air, a familiar
stage attitude. Others render 'lolling at his ease.'
130. #fregerit#: G., 541; A., 63, 2. --#heminas iniquas#: 'short
half-pint measures.' This was the duty of the aedile. --#Arreti#:
Arretium in Etruria. So Juvenal takes Ulubrae as the type of a small
provincial town: _vasa minora | frangere pannosus vacuis aedilis
#Ulubris#_, 10, 102.
131. #abaco#: The _abacus_ was a slab of marble or other material which
was covered with sand (_pulvis_), for the purpose of drawing
mathematical figures or making calculations (Jahn). Or _pulvere_ may be
dissociated from _abaco_, and then _abacus_ would be a counting-board,
_pulvis_, the sand on the ground (_eruditus pulvis_, Cic., N. D., 2, 18,
48), familiar from the story of the murder of Archimedes. --#metas#:
'cones.'
132. #scit#: as if this were a feat. Comp. v. 53. --#risisse#:
+gelasai+, 'to have his laugh at,' one of the Perfect Infinitives
mentioned in note on v. 41. --#vafer#: ironical. --#gaudere paratus#:
_Paratus_, as a Participle from _parare_, takes the Infinitive with
ease. The grammars generally treat it as an exceptional Adjective. Here
_paratus_ is +hoios+; 'Just your man to have a fit of glee.' Comp.
Petron., 43: _#paratus# fuit quadrantem de stercore mordicus tollere_.
133. #Cynico barbam#: 'a Cynic's beard for him.' G., 343, R. 2.
_#Vellunt# tibi #barbam# | lascivi pueri_, Hor., Sat., 1, 3, 133 (of a
Stoic). The beard was the badge of a philosopher. --#nonaria#: so called
because women of that class were not allowed to ply their trade before
the 'ninth hour'-- 'callet,' 'trull.' --#vellat#: because dependent;
otherwise _gaudet si vellit_. G., 666; A., 66, 2. The Cynic philosopher
and the _nonaria_ (+ho kai hê kuôn+) belong to each other by elective
affinity, Alciphron, 3, 55, 9. See an amusing parallel between
philosopher and courtesan in the same sophist, 1, 34; and on the worst
specimens of the 'Capuchins of antiquity,' as the Cynics have been
called, comp. Friedländer, _Sittengesch._, 3, 572.
134. #edictum#: 'play-bill,' after Sen., Ep., 117, 30. Others, 'the
business of the courts,' the praetor's court being a favorite
lounging-place. --#prandia#: See v. 67. --#Calliroen#: possibly one of
the _elegidia procerum_ (v. 51), after the order of Phyllis and
Hypsipyle (v. 34). Comp. Ov., Met., 9, 407, Rem. Am., 455-6. Others
suppose that Persius meant a _nonaria_. See note on 6, 73, and comp.
Plutarch, Quaest. Conv., 3, 6, 4. With this gracious permission,
Casaubon compares the edict of Hor., Ep., 1, 19, 8: _Forum putealque
Libonis | mandabo siccis, adimam cantare severis_.