50. #angustae collo non fallier orcae#: The allusion is to a game at
_nuces_, called +tropa+ or 'cherry-pit.' ''Tis not for gravity to play
at _cherry-pit_ with Satan,' Shaksp., Twelfth N., 3, 4. Fr. _à la
fossette_. Comp. Rabelais, 1, 2. The modern equivalent of _nuces_ is
marbles, and the modern +tropa+ is 'pitch-in-the-hole,' or 'knucks.'
Instead of the hole in the ground (+bothros+), the ancients used a small
jar (_orca_), and to enhance the difficulty of getting in, the neck of
this jar was made narrow (_collo angustae orcae = angusto collo orcae_,
by Hypallagé, v. 4). So the modern hole admits but one marble. Comp.
[Ov.] Nux, 85, 86: _Vas quoque saepe cavum spatio distante locatur, | in
quod missa levi nux cadat #una# manu._ --#fallier#: like _dicier_, 1,
28.
51. #neu quis# = _et ne quis_. G., 546. '_Et [erat in voto] ne quis
callidior [esset]._' --#buxum#: 'top,' because made of 'boxwood.' Comp.
Verg., Aen., 7, 382: _volubile #buxum#_. --#torquere#: See Prol., 11,
and 1, 118.
52. You have had a better training. You have reached years of
discretion. You know Right from Wrong. --#curvos# = _pravos_. Comp.
_scilicet ut possem #curvo# dinoscere rectum_, Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 44, and
Persius, 4, 12; 5, 38.
53. #quaeque docet#: _Quae_ depends by Zeugma on some notion involved in
_deprendere_, such as _tenere_. G., 690; M., 478, Obs. 4. --#sapiens
porticus#: Comp. _sapientem barbam_, Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 35; _eruditus
pulvis_, Cic., N. D., 2, 18, 48. --#bracatis inlita Medis#: The +stoa
poikilê+, the resort of Zeno and his school, was adorned with paintings
by Polygnotus and others. One of these paintings represented the battle
of Marathon, hence 'the wise Porch bepainted with the trouser'd Medes.'
_Inlita_ perhaps contemptuous, not necessarily 'frescoed.' The _bracae_
+anaxurides, thulakoi+, a mark of barbaric luxury and display. Comp.
Prop., 4, 3, 17: _Tela fugacis equi et #bracati militis# arcus_ and
_Persica braca_, Ov., Tr., 5, 10, 34 (Freund). --#quibus#: Neuter.
_Quibus et = et quibus._ Trajection, G., 693. --#detonsa#:
'close-cropped,' for so the Stoics wore their hair, although they let
their beard grow long +en chrô kouriai+, Luc., Hermot., 18; Vit. Auct.,
20. Comp. Juv., 2, 15: _supercilio brevior coma_.
55. #invigilat#: 'rather tautological after _insomnis_. _Nec capiat
somnos #invigiletque# malis_, Ov., Fast., 4, 530' (Conington). Positive
and negative sides of an action are more frequently combined in Latin
and Greek than in English, and 'sleepless vigil' would not be strange
even in English. --#siliquis#: 'pulse.' Hor., Ep., 2, 1, 123: _vivit
[vates] #siliquis# et pane secundo_. --#grandi polenta#: 'mighty messes
of porridge;' coarse, thick stuff (Macleane). '_Polenta_, +alphita+,
"pearl barley," a Greek, not a Roman dish (Plin., H. N., 18, 19, 28),
mentioned as a simple article of diet by Attalus, Seneca's preceptor
(Ep., 110, 18)' (Conington, after Jahn).
56. #Samios# = Pythagorean, from Pythagoras of Samos. 'And the letter,
which is disparted into Samian branches, has pointed out to you the
steep path whose track is on the right.' --#diduxit#: as demanded by the
sense against the MSS., which have _deduxit_. --#littera#: The letter
+Y+, or rather its old form [[symbol]], was selected by Pythagoras to
embody the immemorial image of the two paths (Hesiod, O. et D.,
287-292), so familiar in the apologue of Hercules at the cross-roads
(Xen., Comm., 2, 1, 20), and alluded to again by our author, 5, 34.
Hence this letter was called the Pythagorean; Auson., Id., 12, de litt.
monos., 9: _#Pythagorae# bivium ramis patet ambiguis_ +Y+ (comp. also
Id., 15, 1: _quod vitae sectabor iter?_) Hence the _rami Samii_ above.
'The stem stands for the unconscious life of infancy and childhood, the
diverging branches for the alternative offered to the youth, virtue or
vice' (Conington).
57. #surgentem#: The path to the right is the _surgens callis_ of
Persius, the +orthios oimos+ of Hesiod. The character itself points
upward, and the right-hand path is a clear-cut line (_limes_), so that
there is no mistaking the road, unless you are bent on following
Shakspeare's 'primrose path of dalliance,' instead of 'the steep and
thorny path to heaven.'
58. #stertis adhuc#: The preacher finds his audience still snoring,
despite his eloquence. As _stertis_ can not be divorced from what
follows, it is better to take it as an exclamation than as a rhetorical
question. --#laxumque caput#, etc.: 'Your head a-lolling with its
coupling loose, yawns a yawn of yesterday with jaws unhinged at every
point.' The head is _laxum_ on account of its weight. Comp. +karêbarein+
Alciphr., 3, 32, and Menand., fr. 67 (4, 88 Mein.).
59. #oscitat hesternum#: 'Yawning off yesterday' (Conington); the yawn
is yesterday's yawn, because it comes from yesterday's debauch, Alexis,
fr. 277 (3, 515 Mein.). --#undique#: 'from all points of the compass'
(Conington), 'an intentional exaggeration for _utraque parte_.'
--#malis#: Jahn's _malis?_ (1843) is not good. The description is too
minute for the interrogative form.
60. #est aliquid#: Ironical; hence the expectation of a negative answer
is suppressed. G., 634, R. 1; A., 65, 2, _a_. --#quo# = _in quod_.
Schlüter combines with _tendis arcum_. --#in quod#: The other reading,
_in quo_, is unsatisfactorily defended by Hermann and Pretor.
61. 'A wild-goose chase' is the corresponding English expression for the
Latin _corvos sequi_, the Greek +ta petomena diôkein+. 'Each word is
carefully selected. Thus the chase is a random one (_passim_), the
object worthless (_corvos_), the missile any thing that comes first to
hand' (Pretor, after Jahn). Jahn refers further to Aeschyl., Ag., 394
(Dind.): +diôkei pais potanon ornin+. Familiar is Eurip.: +ptênas
diôkeis, ô teknon, tas elpidas+.
62. #ex tempore#: 'for the moment,' 'at the beck of the moment,' 'by the
rule of the moment' (Conington).
63-76. A general preachment begins. Wake up, you snorer. Wake up, all
you snorers. You are all sick, or all threatened with sickness. Do not
postpone the remedy until it is too late. That remedy is to be found in
the principles of true wisdom; in other words, in the doctrines of the
Stoic creed. Before the sermon is finished, the preacher notices an
unfriendly stir in his audience, and is punching a member of his
congregation when he is interrupted.
63. #helleborum#: The black hellebore this time (1, 51). The black was
good for dropsy, Plin., H. N., 25, 5, 22. It was the great 'purger of
melancholy.' --#cutis aegra tumebit#: Comp. vv. 95, 98. --#venienti
occurrite morbo#: Every one will remember the well-worn Ovidian
_Principiis obsta_, R. A., 91. The comparison of moral with physical
disease was a favorite topic with the Stoics, who overdid it, according
to Cic., Tusc. Dis., 4, 10, 23.
64. #poscentis#: Elsewhere Persius uses after _video_ the less vivid
Infinitive, 1, 19. 69; 3, 91. On the difference, see G., 527, R. 1; A.,
72, 3, _d_. So after _facio_, 1, 44.
65. #quid opus#: G., 390, R.; A., 52, 3, _a_. --#Cratero#: More
bookishness. Craterus was a famous physician of the time of Cicero.
Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 161. --#magnos promittere montis#: A proverbial
phrase, which survives in several modern languages: Fr. _monts et
merveilles_; Germ. _goldene Berge versprechen_. Jahn compares Ter.,
Phormio, 1, 2, 18: _modo non #montis# auri pollicens_; Heinr., Sall.,
Cat. 23: _maria #montis#que polliceri coepit_.
66. #discite o#: To remove the hiatus, Barth suggested _io_, Guyet
_vos_. Hor., Od., 3, 14, 11: _male ominatis_, is not a parallel for the
hiatus, even if the reading be correct, and the parallel in Catull., 3,
16, is conjectural. --#causas cognoscite rerum#: Comp. Verg., Georg., 2,
490: _Felix qui potuit #rerum cognoscere causas#_, and _sapientia est
rerum divinarum et humanarum #causarumque scientia#_, Cic., Off., 2,
2, 5. On the connection of the different articles of this catechism, see
Knickenberg, l.c. p. 35 seqq. _Discite_ is the exhortation to the study
of philosophy. _Causas cognoscite rerum_ bids us pursue what the Stoics
called Physic, for without a knowledge of nature there can be no
knowledge of duty. Ethic is based on Physic; +telos esti to
homologoumenôs tê phusei zên+ (Stob., Ecl., 2, 132). See Long's
_Antoninus_, p. 56. The constitution of nature once understood, we shall
know what we owe to God, what to ourselves, what to mankind, what things
are good, what evil. _Quid fas optare_ refers to our duty to God, _quem
te deus esse iussit_ to our duty to ourselves, _patriae carisque
propinquis_ to our duty to our neighbors. But nothing is more evident
than the absence of any logical development. Comp. with the whole
passage, Sen., Ep., 82, 6: _sciat quo iturus sit, unde ortus, quod illi
bonum, quod malum sit, quid petat, quid evitet, quae sit illa ratio quae
appetenda ac fugienda discernat, qua cupiditatum mansuescit insania,
timorum saevitia conpescitur_.
67. #quid sumus#: The independent form with the Indicative is more
lively; the regular dependent form with the Subjunctive comes in below,
v. 71. G., 469, R. 1; A., 67, 2, _d_. --#quidnam# = _quam vitam_. G.,
331, R. 2; A., 52, 3, _a_, N. --#victuri#: The use of the Participle in
an interrogative clause is unnatural in English (G., 471). The future
Participle of purpose is late or poetical (G., 673; A., 72, 4, _a_).
'And what the life that we are born to lead.' --#ordo#: According to
Heinr. and Jahn _ordo_ is used with reference to the position in the
chariot-race, so that the comparison begins here, and not at _metae_.
Soph., El., 710: +stantes d' hin' autous hoi tetagmenoi brabeis |
klêrois epêlan kai katestêsan diphrous+. But as +taxis+ (_ordo_) is a
Stoic term, it is not unlikely that the use of the word suggested the
figure, which came in as an after-thought. The Stoic preacher, as well
as the Christian, finds it necessary to repeat himself in slightly
different forms, and we must not look for a sharp distinction between
_ordo quis datus_ and _humana qua parte locatus es in re_, between
_quidnam victuri gignimur_ and _quem te deus esse iussit_.
68. #quis# = _qui_. So 1, 63. G., 105; A., 21, 1, _a_. --#qua et unde#:
where (how) it lies and from what point to begin, 'where to take it'
(Conington). Herm.'s _quam_ is not so good. --#metae flexus#: 'turn
round the goal.' The difficulty of rounding the goal in a chariot-race
is notorious. See Il., 23, 306 foll.; Soph., El., 720 foll., and the
commentators on Plato, Io, 537. With the expression _metae flexus_ Jahn
comp. Stat., Theb., 6, 433: _flexae-- metae_. _Mollis_, 'gradual,'
'easy.' So Caes., B. G., 5, 9: _#molle# litus_, of a gently sloping
shore.
69. #quis modus argento#: The Sixth Satire deals with a similar theme.
--#quid fas optare#: the argument of the Second Satire. --#asper
nummus#: 'coin fresh from the mint,' 'rough from the die,' Suet., Nero,
44. So Jahn. Others consider this distinction too subtle, and make
_a. n._ simply equivalent to 'coined silver,' as opposed to 'silver
plate,' _argentum_. Conington suggests the meaning, 'What is the use of
money hoarded up and not circulated (_tritus_)?' Comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 1,
41 foll., 73: _nescis quo valeat nummus? quem praebeat usum?_