70. #urtica#: Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 12, 7: _abstemius herbis | vivis et
#urtica#_; and Sat., 2, 2, 117: _#holus fumosae# cum pede pernae_
(Jahn). --#sinciput#: 'pig's cheek.' The swine was the common sacrifice
and the common dish. --#aure#: _Fissa aure_ seems to be nothing more
than a picturesque detail. The pig's head was bung up in the smoke by a
slit in its ear.
71. #tuus iste nepos#: Mr. Pretor sees a trace of incompleteness in the
mention of _tuus iste nepos_, 'whose existence has never before been
hinted at.' The _nepos_ is hauled up out of the inane like the
_quisquis_ heir himself. --#anscris extis#: Comp. Juv., 5, 114:
_#anseris# ante ipsum magni #iecur#_.
73. #patriciae#: implies great expense. This coarse combination of
sensual pleasures is an argument in favor of the old-fashioned
interpretation of _Calliroen_, 1, 134. --#trama#: Fr. _trame_, 'woof.'
Such terms are apt to stick. Others translate falsely 'warp.' '_Trama
figurae_ is "a thread-paper figure," as _trama_ is the thread of the
woof, which crosses that of the upright _stamen_ or warp, and when the
nap is worn off the cloths, these threads are laid bare.' Stocker,
quoted by Pretor.
74. #tremat#: 'quiver,' like jelly, 'wag.' --#omento#: 'fatty caul,'
'fat,' 2, 47. --#popa#: used as a Substantive. Comp. Prol., 13.
'Alderman-belly,' instead of an 'aldermanic belly.' 'They which waited
at the altar'-- for the _popae_ were the priests' assistants-- 'were
partakers with the altar' (1 Cor., 9, 13), and waxed fat on the _iunicum
omenta_. Pretor quotes Prop., 4, 3, 62: _succinctique calent ad nova
lucra #popae#_.
75-80. Commentators notice the abrupt transition. Jahn says that the
dialogue is dropped, but who expects invariably close connection between
two heads of a sermon? In my judgment Persius is still hammering away at
his impatient heir, and bids him earn money for himself, if he is not
content to wait for Persius's death, and does not like Persius's mode of
living. 'Sell your life, ransack the world, drive every trade. Double,
treble, quadruple, decuple your property. But you will find that there
is no point where you can stop, where you will be rich enough.'
75. #vende animam lucro#: Casaubon comp. the Greek proverb: +thanatou
ônion to kerdos+, and Longin., Sublim., 44: +to ek tou pantos kerdainein
ônoumetha tês psuchês+. --#excute#: (for the last time of eight)
'ransack.'
76. #latus mundi#: Hor., Od., 1, 22, 19 (Conington). --#nec# = _neu_.
See 1, 7.
77. #Cappadocas#: The slaves of Cappadocia were, as a rule, tall and
well grown (Petron., 63), and good litter-bearers (Mart., 6, 77, 4)
(Jahn), but in other respects extremely undesirable cattle. --#rigida#:
'fixed upright.' _#Rigidae# columnae_, Ov., Fast., 3, 529 (Jahn).
--#plausisse#: So Jahn (1868). In 1843 he edited _pavisse_, and comp.
_quot pascit servos?_ Juv., 3, 141, and other passages. But _p[-a]visse_
may have been intended as a Third Conjugation Perf. from _p[)a]vio_, and
hence = _plausisse_. So Longfellow uses 'dove' for 'dived.' Slaves were
slapped to try their condition. On the Inf. and the Perfect, see _opifex
intendisse_, v. 3, note. --#catasta#: 'platform.' The sense of the
passage, 'Make yourself an expert in slave flesh.'
78. #feci--sistam#: words of the avaricious man. The passage is imitated
from Hor., Ep., 1, 6, 34: _mille talenta rotundentur, totidem altera,
porro | tertia succedant et quae pars quadret acervum_. --#quarto#: as
if he had written _ter_ before.
79. #redit#: the regular word for 'income,' 'revenue.' Comp. _reditus_.
--#rugam#: _Ruga_ = _sinus_, 'fold in a garment.' The _sinus_ answers to
our 'pocket,' hence 'purse.' The _ruga_, then, is the _rugosum
marsupium_ (Heinrich), or the 'yet unfilled bosom' of Juv., 14, 327. 'It
comes into a purse that wrinkles still.' To bring this out more clearly
Mr. Paley (ap. Pretor) puts a semicolon after _deciens_. --#depunge#: So
Jahn (1868) for his previous _depinge_. 'Prick a hole.' --#ubi sistam#:
G., 469, 623; A., 67, 2, _b_.
80. #inventus#: Ironical. 'So some one has been found, Chrysippus, to
mark the limit of your heap.' If you can find a man to put a bound to
greed, you can find a man to solve the _sorites_ of Chrysippus. The
fallacy called the +sôreitês+, or +sôritês+, Lat. _acervus_, is often
mentioned; so in Hor., Ep., 2, 1, 47, where it is illustrated by pulling
hair after hair from the tail of a horse, and taking year after year
from the age of a poet. See Hamilton's Lectures on Logic, p. 268 (Am.
ed.).