45. #non equidem hoc dubites#: On _equidem_, see note on 1, 110. With
_non dubites_ comp. _non accedas_, 1, 5. --#foedere certo#: Jahn comp.
Manil., 2, 475: _iunxit amicitias horum sub #foedere certo#_. _Foedus
certum_, 'fixed law,' 'fixed principle.'
46. #consentire dies#: On the Inf., instead of the normal _quin_ with
Subj., see G., 551, R. 4; M., 375 c., Obs. 2. For the thought, comp.
Hor., Od., 2, 17, 21: _utrumque nostrum incredibili modo | #consentit#
astrum_. --#ab uno sidere duci#: Astrology was very popular in Persius's
time, having been brought into vogue by Tiberius. It was the
aristocratic mode of divination, and is compared by Friedländer
(_Sittengesch._, 1, 347) with the spiritualism and table-turning of the
present day. Philosophy was not proof against it; indeed, the later
Stoics always had a leaning to it, and Panaetius was the only one that
rejected it (Knickenberg, l.c. p. 79). All people of 'culture' talked
about 'horoscope,' 'nativity,' and 'malign aspect,' just as the same
class in our time speak of 'the spectroscope,' 'heat a mode of motion,'
and 'the survival of the fittest.' Horace and Persius, who imitates
Horace, have caught up some of the current terms, and travel along the
Zodiac in blissful ignorance of their own stars.
47. #aequali Libra#: So Hor., Od., 2, 17, 17: _seu #Libra# seu me
Scorpios adspicit_. Comp. the whole passage.
48. #Parca tenax veri#: Comp. _Parca non mendax_, Hor., Od., 2, 16, 39.
'Fate is represented with scales in her hands, also as marking the
horoscope on the celestial globe' (Jahn). The _Parca_ of mythology is
identified with the _Fatum_ of the Stoics. --#seu#: Observe the
irregularity of _vel-- seu_ instead of _seu-- seu_. --#nata#
#fidelibus#: 'ordained for faithful friends.' 'The hour of birth is said
to be born itself, as in Aeschyl., Ag., 107, +xumphutos aiôn+; Soph.,
O. R., 1082, +sungeneis mênes+' (Conington).
49. #Geminos#: Casaubon quotes Manil., 2, 628: _magnus erit #Geminis#
amor et concordia duplex_.
50. #Saturnumque gravem#, etc.: 'We together cross malignant Saturn by
propitious Jove.' 'Saturnine' and 'jovial' are remnants of astrological
belief. _Nostro_ is not only 'our,' but 'on our side,' 'propitious.'
51. #nescio quod#: almost = _aliquod_. See v. 12. --#est quod temperat#:
On the Mood, see G., 634, R. 1; M., 365, Obs. 2. With the expression,
comp. Hor., Ep., 2, 2, 187: _scit genius, natale comes qui #temperat#
astrum_, where the parts are reversed. --#me tibi temperat#: The Dative
is used after the analogy of _miscere_. 'Blends my being with thine.'
52-61. Our aims, our lives are one. But 'many men, many minds.' Each has
his passion-- the merchant, the man of ease, the lover of sport, the
gamester, the rake-- but they have to reckon with disease at last, and
groan over the failure of their lives.
52. #Mille hominum species#: The Schol. quotes Hor., Sat., 2, 1, 27:
_quot capitum vivunt, totidem studiorum | milia_. Proverbial is Ter.,
Phorm., 2, 3, 14: _quot homines, tot sententiae: suos cuique mos_.
--#usus rerum#: 'practice of life,' 'practice.' See 1, 1, note.
--#discolor#: 'of various hue.'
53. #velle suum cuique est#: Comp. Verg., Ecl., 2, 65: _trahit sua
quemque voluptas_. On _velle suum_, see 1, 9. --#nec uno vivitur voto#:
Comp. 2, 7: _aperto vivere voto_. The negative form of a proposition
following the positive strengthens it. _Nec uno_, 'far different.' With
the examples that follow, Jahn comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 18, 21 seqq.
54. #mercibus mutat piper#: On the Abl., see G., 404, R.; A., 54, 8. The
normal construction is _merces mutat pipere_; the other does not occur
in archaic Latin nor in model prose. Horace is the first to use it,
e.g., Od., 3, 1, 47; Epod., 9, 27. Livy introduces it into prose, but
employs it only once (5, 30, 3). So Dräger, _Histor. Syntax_, § 235.
--#sub sole recenti#: The Schol. comp. Hor., Sat., 1, 4, 29: _hic mutat
merces #surgente a sole# ad eum quo | vespertina tepet regio_.
55. #rugosum piper#: 'wrinkled pepper,' 'shrivelled pepper,' the
shrivelling being the effect of the hot Eastern sun. None of your
Italian pepper, but the genuine Eastern article. See note on 3, 75.
--#pallentis cumini#: like _pallidam Pirenen_, Prol., 4. attribute for
effect, an imitation and, strange to say, without attempt at
enhancement, of the _exsangue cuminum_ of Hor., Ep., 1, 19, 18. _Cuminum
pallorem bibentibus gignit_, Plin., H. N., 20, 14, 57. Cumin was
considered an indispensable condiment. The large use of it is shown by
the compounds in Greek (+kuminodochê-- thêkê, kte+)-- see Seiler ad
Alciphron., 3, 58-- and it ranks with pepper in Petron., 49; with salt
in Alexis, fr. 169 (3. 465 Mein.). Add Plutarch, Quaest. Conv., 5, 10.
56. #inriguo somno#: _Inriguo_ is active. Sleep waters him, as it were,
and increases his fat. Comp. Verg., Aen., 3, 511: _fessos sopor
#inrigat# artus_. 'Dewy sleep' is almost too sweet for the passage.
König, a prosaic soul, thinks of the 'sweaty sleep' of a man who is
gorged with meat and drink.
57. #campo#: The gymnastic exercises of the _campus_, and especially of
the _campus Martius_ in Rome, are familiar. See Hor., Od., 1, 8, 4; Ep.,
1, 7, 59; A. P., 162, referred to by Jahn. --#decoquit# = _coquendo
vires absumit_. The word is employed of a man who has used up, run
through, his means. So Cic., Phil., 2, 18, 44: _tenesne memoria
praetextatum te #decoxisse#_? Here it is the man who is used up, who is
made to go to pot.
58. #putris#: Gr. +takeros+. 'In wanton dalliance melts away' (Gifford).
--#lapidosa cheragra#: Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 1, 31: _nodosa #cheragra#_.
The chalk-stones of gout are compared with hailstones.
59. #fregerit#: Perf. Subj. in a generic sense. G., 569, R. 2 (end).
Comp. _postquam illi iusta cheragra | #contudit# articulos_, Hor., Sat.,
2, 7, 15 seqq. --#veteris ramalia fagi#: The comparison is between the
fingers and the knotty boughs. Comp. Hesiod's +pentozos+, O. et D., 744.
--#fagi#: _Fagus_, +phêgos+, and 'beech' (BHAG) are etymologically, but
not botanically, the same. See Curtius, _Grundzüge_, No. 160.
60. A forcible passage, on which Conington says: 'The conception here is
of life passed in a Boeotian atmosphere of thick fogs and pestilential
vapors, which the sun never penetrates-- probably with especial
reference to the pleasures of sense, of which Persius has just been
speaking. So the "vapor, heavy, hueless, formless, cold," in Tennyson's
"Vision of Sin."' --#crassos dies#: _sub crasso aere_ (Jahn).
--#transisse#: Heinr. comp. Tib., 1, 4, 33: _vidi iam iuvenem, premeret
cum serior aetas, | maerentem stultos #praeteriisse# dies_. --#lucem
palustrem#: 'boggy' = 'foggy light' is 'light choked by fog.' _Crassos
dies lucemque palustrem_ must be connected closely-- 'gross days in
foggy light'-- so as to get rid of an awkward Zeugma with _transisse_.
61. #sibi#: with _ingemuere_ (Conington). --#iam seri#: 'too, too late.'
On _iam_, see v. 33. On _seri_, G., 324, R. 6; A., 47, 6. --#ingemuere#:
like the Gr. Aorist. Comp. v. 187 and 3, 101. G., 228, R. 2; A., 58, 5,
_c_. 'Heave a sigh' (Conington). --#relictam#: _anteactam_ (Casaubon).
_Iam post terga #reliquit# | sexaginta annos_, Juv., 13, 16.
62-65. Contrast of Cornutus's noble mission. His creed the only creed
for life.
62. #at#: in lively contrast. --#nocturnis#: Comp. 1, 90.
--#inpallescere#: Comp. 1, 26.
63. #purgatas#: _Purgare_ is an agricultural term like our 'clean,' and
the metaphor is kept up. The field is the ear. --#inseris#: where we
should expect _seris_.
64. #fruge Cleanthea#: Cleanthes is selected here on account of his
strict life and virtuous poverty, in opposition to the luxury and wealth
of the _Romulidae_, as Knickenberg remarks, l.c. p. 9. --#petite#: Mr.
Pretor supposes that this is Cornutus's invitation to the world. But if
Cornutus speaks here, where does Persius come in again?-- unless he
takes up the cudgels for his master in v. 66.
65. #finem# = +telos+. --#miseris#: 'wretched else.' --#viatica#: Jahn
quotes Diog. Laert., 1, 5, 80: #+#ephodion# apo neotêtos eis gêras
analambane sophian+; and 5, 11, 21: +kalliston #ephodion# tô gêra hê
paideia+. --#canis#: G., 195, R. 1.
66-72. 'There is time enough for that,' says an impersonal sinner.
'To-morrow will do as well.' '"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow."
To-morrow never becomes to-day.'
66. #Cras hoc fiet#, etc.: 'I will do this that you ask of me
to-morrow.' 'You will do to-morrow just what you are doing to-day.' Jahn
comp. Ov., R. A., 104: _Cras quoque fiet idem._ Hermann arranges: _Cras
hoc fiet idem. Cras fiet?_ 'This will, can be done to-morrow as well as
to-day.' 'To-morrow, you say?' Comp. Petron., 82: _quod hodie non est,
cras erit_.
67. #nempe diem donas#: 'Well, what of it? Suppose I go on the same way
to-morrow; it will only be a day-- a great present, forsooth, to be
haggling about!' On _nempe_, see G., 500, R. 2. --#cum venit--
consumpsimus#: more lively than _cum venerit-- consumpserimus_ (G.,
229). One clause is involved in the other. G., 236, R. 4. This seems to
be better than making _venit_ iterative, and _consumpsimus_ an Aoristic
Perf.
69. #egerit#: 'unloads,' 'carts off.' _Egerere_ is the opposite of
_ingerere_ (v. 6). Comp. Sen., Ep., 47, 2: _venter maiore opera omnia
e#gerit# quam in#gessit#_. Jahn makes _egerit_ = _impulerit_, in order
to save the figure. Compare _truditur dies die_, Hor., Od., 2, 18, 15,
and Petron., 45: _dies diem trudit_; and 82: _vita truditur_. But even
this does not save the figure, and the sudden change of metaphor is in
Persius's vein. --#paulum erit ultra#: 'To-morrow will always be a
little further on,' is the common rendering, the figure changing at this
point.
70. #quamvis--vertentem#: A later construction. G., 611, R.; M., 443,
Obs. --#cantum#: 'tire.'
72. #cum curras#: 'seeing that you are running.' Here _cum_ is nearly
equivalent to _si_, as it is thrown by _sectabere_ into the future, and
is thus made hypothetical. Comp. G., 591, R. 3, and 584.
73-90. What men need is Liberty-- not the freedom of the city, which
insures a quota of damaged corn; not the freedom of the freedman, which
gives a slave a name to be free, while he is yet a slave; but the
liberty wherewith Philosophy sets men free. The freedman demurs to this
hard doctrine, but a Stoic adept silences him by his 'Short Method.'
73. #hac, ut, quisque#: _Hac_ is the adverb, _ut_ = _qua_, _quisque_ =
_quicunque_ (comp. _quandoque_ = _quandocumque_, 4, 28), a sad complex
of harshnesses, which may be rendered thus: 'Liberty is what is wanted;
not after the prevalent (G., 290, 7) fashion, by which each man that has
worked his way up to a Publius in the Veline tribe is owner of a ticket
for a ration of musty spelt.' Other readings, such as _hac quam ut
quisque_ (Passow), _hac qua quisque_ (Meister), are mere devices to
relieve the grammatical situation, which is doubtless unnatural in the
extreme, as _hac_ seems to belong to _libertate_, and _ut quisque_ is a
familiar combination. Conington makes _non hac_ the beginning of an
independent sentence, and translates: 'It is not by _this_ freedom that
every fire-new citizen, who gets his name enrolled in a tribe, is
privileged to get a pauper's allowance for his ticket.' --#Velina#:
Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 6, 52: _hic multum in Fabia valet, ille #Velina#_.
The Veline was one of the last two tribes instituted (Becker, _Rom.
Alt._, 2, 1, 170), and is supposed by some to be one of the four city
tribes to which the _libertini_ were restricted. The name of the tribe
to which a man belongs is put in the Abl. (as a whence case). So
_M. Larcius L. f. #Pomptina# Pudens_ (Becker, l.c. 198).
74. #Publius#: Only freemen were entitled to the _praenomen_. Comp.
Hor., Sat., 2, 5, 32: _#Quinte#, puta, aut #Publi# (gaudent praenomine
molles | auriculae_). --#emeruit#: literally 'has served his time' (of a
soldier), 'has worked his way up to be a Publius' (supplying _esse_).
--#tesserula#: the well-known _tessera frumentaria_, Suet., Aug., 41.