The theme of this Satire is contained in the closing verses. It is the
Apollinic +gnôthi sauton+. Want of self-knowledge is the fault which is
scourged. The basis is furnished by the Platonic dialogue, known as the
First Alcibiades, and the characters are the same. The person lectured
under the mask of Alcibiades is a young Roman noble, in whom
commentators of a certain school have recognized the familiar features
of Nero.
ARGUMENT.-- Socrates is supposed to be addressing Alcibiades. You
undertake to engage in politics? You rely on your genius, do you? What
do you know of the norms of right and wrong, you callow youngster? What
do you know of the subtle distinctions of casuistry, that you undertake
to say what is just and what is unjust? You have a goodly outside, but
that is all, and you are fitter for a course of hellebore than for a
career of statesmanship. What is your end and aim in life? Dainty dishes
and basking in the sunshine? The first old crone you meet has the same
exalted ideal. Or do you boast of your descent? You praise your lineage,
you trumpet forth your beauty, just as yon market-woman cries up her
greens (1-22).
You do not know yourself. Who knows himself? Every one sees his
neighbor's faults, no one his own. You sneer at the curmudgeon who
groans out a health over the sour stuff he gives his laborers on a
holiday (23-32). And while you make mock at him, some fellow, who is
standing at your side, nudges you with his elbow, and tells you that you
are as bad as he, though in another way (33-41). And so we give and take
punishment. This is our plan of life. We hide our faults from ourselves.
We get testimonials from our neighbors to impose on our own consciences.
Awake to righteousness! Put your goodness to the test! If you yield to
the temptation of covetousness, of lust, in vain will you drink in the
praises of the rabble. Reject what you are not. Let Rag, Tag, and
Bobtail take away their tributes. Live with yourself, and you will find
out how scanty is your moral furniture (42-52).
Jahn regards this Satire as the earliest of the six, and it certainly
shows even greater immaturity than the others. The well-known
individuality of Socrates is coarsely handled, the irony lacks the
subtle play, the mischievous good-nature of the great Athenian; and
though the glaring anachronisms may be defended by such exemplars as
Horace (notably in Sat., 2, 5), there is all the difference in the world
between the sly humor of the older poet, who peeps from behind the Greek
mask and winks at the Roman audience, and the grim contortions of the
beardless representative of the bearded master.
The indecency of a part of the Satire is considered by Teuffel a valid
objection to the view taken by Jahn, but the imagination of early youth
and the experience of corrupt old age often meet in disgusting detail,
and the obscenities of bookish men are among the worst in literature.
Add to this the peculiar views of the Stoic school as to the corruption
of the flesh (2, 63), and the consequent Stoic tendency to degrade the
body by the most contemptuous representations of physical functions, and
we can the more readily understand how Marcus Antoninus, the purest
character of his time, should have besmirched his Meditations with
passages which lack a parallel for their crudity; and why Persius, the
poet of virginal life, should have outdone the _praegrandis senex_ of
Attic comedy in the coarseness of his expressions.
1-22. Socrates exposes the incompetence of Alcibiades for affairs of
state, his lack of ethical training, his need of a just balance, his
grovelling views of life, his puerile pride in his ancient family and in
his handsome face. Socrates and Alcibiades were contrasts so tempting
that dialogues between them were favorite philosophical exercises.
1. #rem populi# = _rem publicam_. --#tractas?# On the form of the
question, see G., 455; A., 71, 1, R. Comp. Plato, Alc. I., p. 106C:
+dianoei gar parienai sumbouleusôn Athênaiois entos ou pollou chronou+,
and further, p. 118B, and Conv., p. 216A. --#barbatum#: The beard was
the conventional mark of the philosopher in the time of Persius; it is
an anachronism in the case of Socrates, who lived before shaving was the
rule and the beard a badge. However, the custom was old in Persius's
day, and the slip is slight. So Plato's long beard is noticed by
Ephippus ap. Athen., 11, p. 509C (3, 332 Mein.). Comp. Juv., 14, 12:
_barbatos-- magistros_. --#crede#: advertises a want of art.
2. #sorbitio#: 'draught,' 'dose.' So Sen., E. M., 78, 25. --#tollit# =
_sustulit_. A solitary Historical Present with a relative is harsh to us
for all the examples and all the commentators.
3. #quo fretus?# See 3, 67. Comp. Plato, Alc. I., p. 123E: +ti oun pot'
estin hotô #pisteuei# to meirakion+. --#magni pupille Pericli#: Because
Alcibiades owed his start in life to his guardian and kinsman Pericles.
See Plat., l.c. p. 104B. For the form _Pericli_, see G., 72; A., 11, I.,
4.
4. #scilicet#: Ironical, 1, 15; 2, 19. 'Of course.' Comp. the old 'God
wot.' --#ingenium et rerum prudentia#: 'wit and wisdom.' _Prudentia_ may
be translated 'knowledge,' and _rerum_ 'world,' 'life,' but not
necessarily. See 1, 1. --#velox#: Predicative (Schol.), 'have been quick
in coming' (Conington).
5. #ante pilos#: 'before your beard.' 'A contrast with _barbatum
magistrum_' (Conington), but _b._ can hardly be used in the same breath
as the mark of mature years and as the ensign of a philosopher.
--#venit#: On the number, see G., 281, Exc. 2; A., 49, 1, _b._
--#dicenda tacendaque#: Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 7, 72-- _dicenda tacenda
locutus_-- for the expression. For the sense, Conington comp. Aeschylus,
Cho., 582: +sigan hopou dei kai legein ta kairia+. In Horace it means
'all sorts of things;' here, 'what you must say, what leave unsaid.'
6. #commota fervet bile#: Comp. Hor., Od., 1, 13, 4: _fervens difficili
#bile# tumet iecur_.
7. #fert animus#: Well-known phrase of Ov., Met., 1, 1. So in Greek,
+pherei ho nous, hê gnômê, hê phrên+. The verse has a stately irony, and
should have a stately translation. 'The spirit moves you' (Pretor) is
degraded to slang. 'Your bosom's lord biddeth you wave a hush profound.'
--#fecisse#: Comp. 1, 91. --#silentia#: Comp. 3, 81.
8. #maiestate manus#: 'with majestic hand'. (G., 357, R. 2), 'by the
imposing action of your hand' (Conington). --#quid deinde loquere?# The
orator has not considered his speech. 'Now that you have got your
silence, what have you got to say.' --#Quirites#: Persius drops his
Greek. Alcibiades is a mere quintain.
9. #puta#: 'put case,' 'say,' 'for instance,' is an iambic Imperative,
with the ultimate shortened, like _cav[)-e]_, _vid[)-e]_, etc., 1, 108.
Hermann gives it to Socrates, which is favored by the sense; Jahn and
others to Alcibiades, as caricatured by Socrates, which is favored by
the position. Heinrich reads _puto_.
10. #scis etenim#, etc.: _and_ (well you may) _for you know how_, etc.
On _scis_, see 1, 53; on _etenim_, 3, 48. Comp. Plato, l.c. 110C: +ôou
ara epistasthai kai pais ôn, hôs eoike, ta dikaia kai ta adika+. It may
be necessary to observe that all this is sarcasm. Conington takes it
literally, and considers these statements as so many concessions.
--#gemina lance# = _geminis lancibus_. Comp. Ov., A. A., 2, 644:
_geminus pes_.
11. #ancipitis#: 'wavering.' --#rectum discernis#: 'You can distinguish
the straight line when it runs among crooked lines on either hand-- ay,
even when your square with twisted leg is but a faulty guide.' The
straight line is virtue, the crooked lines are vices. The difficulty of
picking out the right course is much enhanced when the rule by which we
go is itself warped-- that is, 'as Casaubon explains it, when justice
has to be corrected by equity.' The _regula_ here is not the _regula_ of
5, 38, but the _norma_, or carpenter's square.
13. #potis es#: See 1, 56. --#theta#: +Th+, the initial of +thanatos+,
was the mark of condemnation used in the time of Persius, instead of the
older C (_condemno_). It was also employed in epitaphs, in army lists,
and the like, for 'deceased.' Translate 'black mark.'
14. #quin desinis#: See 2, 71. --#tu#: The elision of the monosyllable
is harsh (Jahn). See 1, 51. 66. 131. --#igitur#: 'If all this is so, why
then--.' Comp. the indignant _igitur_ (+eita+) of 1, 98. --#summa pelle
decorus#: Hor. Ep., 1, 16, 45: _Introrsus turpem, speciosum #pelle
decora#_. --#nequiquam#: 'because you can not impose on me.' Comp. 3, 30
(Conington).
15. #ante diem#: 'before your time.' --#blando caudam iactare popello#:
Casaubon thinks that a peacock is meant, Jahn suggests a horse. The
Scholiast says that the image is that of a (pet) dog. _Pelle decorus_
would not apply to the peacock, nor very well to the horse. It does
apply to Alcibiades as the lion's whelp of Aristoph., Ran., 1431. Comp.
the famous description in Aeschyl., Agam., 725 (Dindorf). The comparison
of politicians with lions is found also in Plato, Gorg., 483E. The only
difficulty lies in _blando popello_, but petting implies _blanditiae_ on
both sides. 'The dog fawns on those who caress him' (Conington).
--#popello#: contemptuously, 6, 50; Hor., Ep., 1, 7, 65.
16. #Anticyras#: There were two towns of that name, one on the Maliac
Gulf, the other in Phocis; both famous for their hellebore, but
especially the latter. The town for its product, after the pattern of
Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 83; A. P., 300 (Jahn). The Plural is the familiar
poetic exaggerative. --#meracas#: 'undiluted,' 'without a drop of
water.'Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 137: _expulit helleboro morbum bilemque
#meraco#_. On the use of hellebore as a preparative for philosophy,
comp. the well-known experience of Chrysippus: +ou themis genesthai
sophon, ên mê tris ephexês tou elleborou piês+, Lucian, Vit. Auct., 23
(1, 564 R.). --#melior sorbere# = _qui melius sorberes_ (comp. _quo
graves Persae #melius# perirent_, Hor., Od., 1, 2, 22).
17. #summa boni# = _summum bonum_. --#uncta patella#: 'rich dishes.'
Comp. 3, 102. The reference to a sacrificial dish (3, 26) is less
likely. As the character of Alcibiades is not kept up with any care by
Persius, it is hardly worth while to note that he was a most sensitive
_gourmet_, as is shown by the curious anecdote, Teles ap. Stob., Flor.,
5, 67. --#vixisse#: The Perfect with intention. G., 275, 1; A., 58, 11,
_e._ 'To have the satisfaction of _having lived_ on the daintiest fare,'
so that you may say when you come to die, _vixi dum vixi bene_. Comp.
Sen., Ep., 23, 10: _Id agendum est ut satis #vixerimus#_.
18. #curata cuticula sole#: with reference to the _apricatio_ or
_insolatio_. Comp. Juv., 11, 203: _nostra bibat vernum contracta
#cuticula solem#_. What was a matter of hygiene became a matter of
luxury. The sun-cure has been revived of late years. _Curare cuticulam_,
_cutem_, _pelliculam_ is commonly used of 'good living' generally,
'taking very good care of one's dear little self.' See Hor., Ep., 1, 2,
29. 4, 15; Sat., 2, 5, 38; Juv., 2, 105. --#haec#: +deiktikôs+. --#i
nunc#: '_Irridentis vel exprobrantis formula_,' Jahn, who gives an
overwhelming list of examples (comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 6, 17; 2, 3, 76). The
usage requires it to be connected with _suffla_. 'Go on, then, and blow
as you have been blowing.' _Suffla_ in this sense is quite as 'low' as
our Americanism. Persius has the aristocrat's contempt for superfine
language, and by a natural reaction falls, not unfrequently, into slang.
Jahn compares 5, 13 and 3, 27, and the Greek proverbial expression
+phusa gar ou smikroisin auliskois epi+. Add Menand., fr. 296 (4, 157
Mein.): +hoioi laloumen ontes hoi trisathlioi | hapantes #hoi phusôntes
eph' heautois mega#+. 'Mouth it out' (Conington), 'spout it out'
(Macleane).
20. #Dinomaches#: The mother of Alcibiades came of the great house of
the Alcmaeonidae, and it was to her that he owed his connection with
Pericles. The Gen. without _filius_ (G., 360, R. 3; A., 50, 1, _b_) is
rare in the predicate. --#candidus# = _pulcher_. Comp. 3, 110. The
beauty of Alcibiades is well known, Plat., l.c. p. 104A. --#esto#:
+eien+; an ironical concession.
21. #dum ne#: Comp. G., 575; A., 61, 3. Final sentences are often
elliptical (comp. note on 1, 4). 'Only you must admit that,' etc.; '_dum
ne neges deterius sapere_.' --#pannucia#: Here not 'ragged,' but
'shrivelled.' Comp. Mart., 11, 46, 3. --#Baucis#: The name is copied
from the Baucis of Ovid, Met., 8, 640, the wife of Philemon, the Joan of
the antique Darby; a poor woman, who had a patch of vegetables. The
_anicula quae agreste holus vendebat_, in Petron., 6, is a similar
figure.
22. #bene#: with _discincto_, according to Jahn, who compares _bene
mirae_, 1, 111. Mr. Pretor says that if thus combined, '_bene_ is weak
and adds nothing to the picture.' He forgets that there is such a thing
as being _male discinctus_. Comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 2, 132: _#discincta#
tunica fugiendum est ac pede nudo_. If _bene_ is combined with
_cantaverit_, it must be used in its mercantile sense with _vendere_,
_cantare_ being equivalent to _cantando vendere_. 'When she has cried
off her herbs at a good figure.' --#discincto vernae#: _Verna_, of
itself a synonym for all that is saucy and pert, is heightened by
_discinctus_, for which see 3, 31. --#ocima#: 'basil,' 'water-cress,' or
what not, stands for 'greens' generally. Jahn thinks that it was an
aphrodisiac, referring to Eubul., fr. 53 (3, 229 Mein.). Persius, as we
have seen, delights in picturesque detail, and his comparisons must not
be pressed. Alcibiades cries his wares, just as the herb-seller cries
hers. So the 'apple-woman' or 'orange-girl' in modern times might be
selected as the standard of a rising politician, hawking his wares from
hustings to hustings, from stump to stump. The far-fetched
interpretation that _ocima cantare_ = _convicia ingerere_, because, as
Pliny tells us (19, 7), 'basil is to be sown with curses,' may be
mentioned as a specimen of the way in which the text of our author has
been smothered by learning.
23-41. The satire becomes more general. No one tries to know his own
faults; each has his eyes fixed on his neighbor's short-comings. Take
some rich skinflint, and, as soon as he is mentioned, the details of his
meanness will be spread before us. And yet you are as great a sinner in
a different direction. Comp. M. Anton., 7, 71: +geloion esti tên men
idian kakian mê pheugein ho kai dunaton esti, tên de tôn allôn pheugein
hoper adunaton+.
23. #Ut#: _how_. --#in sese descendere#: 'go down into his own heart.'
The thought is simply _noscere se ipsum_. The heart is a depth, a well,
a cellar, a sea. This is not the _recede in te ipsum quantum potes_ of
Sen., Ep., 7, 8. Comp. M. Anton., 4, 3. Still less is it Mr. Pretor's
'enter the lists against yourself,' which would make 'self' at once the
arena and the antagonist.
24. #spectatur#: The positive (_quisque_) must be supplied from the
preceding negative. Comp. G., 446, R.; M., 462 b. --#mantica#: According
to the familiar fable of Aesop (Phaedr., 4, 10), each man carries two
wallets. The one which holds his own faults is carried on his back; the
other, which contains his neighbor's, hangs down over his breast. Comp.
Catull., 22, 21: _sed non videmus #manticae# quod in tergo est_. Persius
reduces the two wallets to one. Each man's knapsack of faults is open to
the inspection of all save himself.
25. #quaesieris#: G., 250; A., 60, 2, _b_; +eroit' an tis+. Persius gets
away from Socrates and Alcibiades into a land of shadowy second persons.
One of these is supposed to ask another whether he knows a certain
estate. The casual question leads to a caustic characteristic of the
owner, which is interrupted by another indefinite character, who quotes
an _ignotus aliquis_, and the general impression at the close is that
every body is violently preached at except the son of Dinomache, with
whom we started. --#Vettidi#: With the characteristic of Vettidius,
comp. Horace's Avidienus (_cui canis cognomen_, Sat., 2, 2, 55), and the
+aneleutheros+ and the +mikrologos+ of Theophrastus.
26. #Curibus#: in the land of the Sabines, the land of frugal habits.
Comp. 6, 1. --#miluus errat#: So Jahn (1868). _Miluus_ is trisyllabic,
as in Hor., Epod., 16, 31. Hermann, _oberrat_; Jahn (1843), _oberret_.
The expression is proverbial: _quantum #milvi# volant_, Petron., 37.
Comp. Juv., 9, 55.
27. #dis iratis genioque sinistro#: Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 8: _#iratis#
natus paries #dis# atque poetis_. A substantive expression of quality
without a common noun is rare in Latin as in English (M., 287, Obs. 3),
but not limited in time. See Dräger, _Histor. Syntax_, § 226. 'The
aversion of the gods and at war with his genius,' his 'second self,' who
'delights in good living,' _quia genius laute vivendo gaudere putabatur_
(Jahn).
28. #quandoque# = _quandocumque_, as Hor., Od., 4, 1, 17, 2, 34.
--#pertusa# = _pervia_, according to Jahn; 'roads and thoroughfares'
(Conington); = _calcata_, _trita_, Heinr., which seems more natural.
--#compita#: 'The _compitalia_ is meant. Comp. Cato, R. R., 5, 4: _Rem
divinam nisi #compital#ibus in #compito# [vilicus] ne faciat._ It was
one of the _feriae conceptivae_, held in honor of the _Lares compitales_
on or about the 2d of January. It is said to have been instituted by
Servius Tullius, and restored by Augustus (Suet., Aug., 31), and was
observed with feasting. Comp. Cato, R. R., 5, 7, and _uncta compitalia_.
Anthol. Lat., 2, 246, 27B. n. 105, 27M.' So Pretor, after Jahn. With
_com-pit-a_ comp. Greek +pat-os+, _path_. --#figit#: The suspension of
the yoke symbolizes the suspension of labor. The yoke stands for the
plough as well, Tibull., 2, 1, 5.
29. #metuens deradere#: See 1, 47. Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 4, 80:
_#metuentis reddere# soldum_. --#limum#: 'the dirt' on the jar. Comp.
_sive gravis veteri craterae #limus# adhaesit_, Hor., Sat., 2, 4, 80.
The Scholiast understands 'the seal.'
30. #hoc bene sit#: The formula in drinking a health. Comp. Plaut.,
Pers., 5, 1, 20. Here used also as a kind of grace. --#tunicatum |
caepe#: +polulopon krommuon+ (Casaubon). _#Tunicatum# caepe_, 'bulbous
or coated onion,' as opposed to the _sectile #porrum#_, or 'chives'
(Pretor). It may be going too far to exclude _epitheta ornantia_ from
Persius, but he certainly uses them sparingly. _Tunicatum_ is commonly
understood to mean 'skin and all,' as we say of a potato, 'jacket and
all.' Comp. Juv., 14, 153: _#tunicam# mihi malo lupini_. But as the skin
of an onion is not very 'filling,' and as _tunica_ may be used in the
sense of 'coat' or 'layer,' the slight change to _tunicatim_-- 'layer by
layer'-- has suggested itself to me. It is not a whit more exaggerated
than Juvenal's _filaque sectivi numerata includere porri_ (14, 133).
31. #farrata olla#: 'porridge pot of spelt,' an every-day meal with
others, holiday fare with these unfortunates, hence _plaudentibus_. The
Abl. of Cause. _Farratam ollam_ (Jahn [1843] and Hermann) may be
defended by Stat., Silv., 5, 3, 140 (cited by Jahn): _#fratrem plausere#
Therapnae_, but there is danger of the miser's eating it.
32. #pannosam#: 'mothery.' Every word tells. It is not wine, but
vinegar; it is not even good vinegar, but vinegar that is getting flat;
it is not even clear vinegar, but the lees of vinegar; and not even
honest lees, but mothery lees. --#morientis#: 'Dying vinegar' is not so
familiar to us as 'dead wines.' Comp. Mart., 1, 18, 8. --#aceti#: Comp.
_faece rubentis #aceti#_, Mart., 11, 56, 7.
33. Picture of a sensualist. --#figas in cute solem#: +eilêtherein+,
'fix the sun in your skin,' 'let the sun's rays pierce your skin,'
instead of _bibere_, _combibere solem_, Juv., 11, 203 (quoted above, v.
18), and Mart., 10, 12, 7; or the more prosaic _sole uti_, Mart., 1, 77,
4.
34. #cubito tangat#: an immemorial familiarity. Examples range from
Homer, Od., 14, 485 to Aristaen., 1, 19, 27. Persius has in mind Hor.,
Sat., 2, 5, 42: _nonne vides (aliquis #cubito# stantem prope #tangens#)
inquiet_, etc.
35. #acre | despuat#: 'empty acrid spittle,' sc. on you. Others read _in
mores_ with Jahn (1843). Jahn (1868) reads with Hermann, _Hi mores_. Of
course it is impossible to analyze this spittle, which flows to the end
of v. 41. See the Introduction to the Satire. '_Persium_,' as Quintilian
says of Horace, _in quibusdam nolim interpretari_ (1, 8, 6). This is one
of the passages that called down on our author the rebuke of that
verecund gentleman Pierre Bayle: _Les Satires de Perse sont
dévergondées_.
42-52. Such is life. We hit and are hit in turn. We disguise our
faults-- our _vulnera vitae_-- even from ourselves, and appeal to that
common jade, common fame, for a certificate of health. But temptation
reveals the corruption within. You are guilty of avarice, lust,
swindling, and the praises of the mob are of no moment. Be yourself.
Examine yourself, and know how scantily furnished you are.
42. #caedimus#, etc.: Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 97: _#caedimur# et totidem plagis
consumimus hostem_ (Casaubon). The resemblance here, as often elsewhere,
is merely verbal, as in Horace 'the passage of arms is a passage of
compliments' (Conington). --#praebemus#: 'expose,' 'present.'
43. #vivitur hoc pacto#: Negatively expressed _non aliter vivitur_. In
other words: _haec est condicio vivendi_, Hor., Sat., 2. 8, 65, which
Casaubon compares. 'These are the terms, this the rule of life.' --#sic
novimus# = _notum est_ (Jahn). 'So we have learned it.' 'This is its
lesson.' --#ilia subter#: G., 414, R. 3. The danger of the wound is well
known.
44. #caecum#: 'hidden.' --#lato balteus auro#: The baldric covered the
groin, and was often ornamented with bosses of gold. Comp. Verg., Aen.,
5, 312: _#lato# quam circumplectitur #auro | balteus#_. This broad gold
belt is the symbol of wealth and rank.
45. #ut mavis#: Ironical. Hor., Sat., 1, 4, 21. --#da verba#: Comp. 3,
19. --#decipe nervos#: 'cheat your muscle,' 'cheat yourself into the
belief that you are sound;' and certainly self-deception seems to be
required by the context. Otherwise _decipe nervos_ might be considered
as equivalent to _mentire robur_, _pro sano te iacta_, _sanum te finge_.
47. #non credam?# G., 455; A., 71, 1, R. --#inprobe#: The _inprobus_ is
hard-headed as well as hard-hearted. Comp. _plorantesque #inproba#
natos-- reliquit_, Juv., 6, 86.
48. #amarum#: Jahn reads _amorum_ in his ed. of 1843, but was sorry for
it. In 1868 he reads _amarum_, and punctuates so as to throw it into the
grave of the next line.
49. #si puteal#: A _versus conclamatus_ (Jahn). The old explanation
makes this passage refer to exorbitant usury. The _puteal_ here meant is
supposed to be the one mentioned by Hor., Sat., 2, 6, 13-- the _puteal
Libonis_, situated near the praetor's tribunal, and on that account a
favorite haunt of usurers, who would naturally have frequent occasion to
appear in court. Comp. the poplar-tree, which was the rendezvous of a
certain 'ring' of contractors in Athens, Andoc., 1, 133. Local allusions
of this kind are the despair of commentators; the _puteal_ is, after
all, as mysterious as a 'corner' to the uninitiated, and we can only
gather that _puteal flagellare_ is slang for some recondite swindling
process, which required a certain amount of knowingness (hence
_cautus_). Conington renders, 'flog the exchange with many a stripe.' We
may Americanize by 'clean out, thrash out Wall Street.' The Neronians,
Casaubon at their head, understand the passage as referring to Nero's
habit of going out at night in disguise and maltreating people in the
street-- see Tac., Ann., 13, 25; Suet., Nero, 26-- and _cautus_ is
supposed to allude to the measures which he took for his personal
safety.
50. #bibulas donaveris aures#: The student is by this time familiar with
Persius's way of hammering a familiar figure into odd shapes. If ears
drink in, then ears are thirsty; if they are thirsty, then they tipple;
and if you can give ear, you can bestow ears. 'In vain would you have
given up your thirsty ears to be drenched by the praises of the mob.'
_Donaveris_, Perf. Subj., +matên pareschêkôs an eiês ta ôta+. Future
ascertainment of a completed action. G., 271, 2.
51. #cerdo#: +Kerdôn+, a plebeian proper name. Conington translates by
the 'Hob and Dick' of Shakspeare's Coriolanus. The common rendering,
'cobbler,' is a false inference from Mart., 3, 59, 1; 99, 1.
52. #tecum habita#: Comp. 1, 7. --#noris#: The punctuation of all the
editors makes _noris_ an Imperative Subjunctive. Still a kind of
condition is involved = _si habites, noris_. G., 594, 4; A., 60, 1, _b_.
One of the most threadbare quotations from Latin poetry.