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    Delphi Complete Works of Persius (Illustrated)
    Delphi Complete Works of Persius (Illustrated)
    Delphi Complete Works of Persius (Illustrated)
    Ebook457 pages3 hours

    Delphi Complete Works of Persius (Illustrated)

    By Aulus Persius Flaccus

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    About this ebook

    A first century Roman poet of Etruscan origin, Persius wrote polished satires that reveal his interest in Stoicism and a strong criticism for what he considered to be the stylistic abuses of his poetic contemporaries. Like Juvenal who would write half a century later, Persius was the heir to the style of Latin verse satire developed by Lucilius and Horace, which were clearly aimed at a sophisticated and urban audience. He adopts the mask of an angry man, while his sharp criticism of the society in which he lives is combined with flashes of sardonic humor. Delphi’s Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical world, with both English translations and the original Latin texts. This comprehensive eBook presents Persius’ complete extant works, with illustrations, an informative introduction and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)


    * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Persius’ life and works
    * Features the complete extant works of Persius, in both English translation and the original Latin
    * Concise introduction to the poetry
    * Provides both verse and prose translations
    * Also includes the 1918 translation previously appearing in the Loeb Classical Library edition
    * Features the translators’ original footnotes, giving important contextual information
    * Excellent formatting of the texts
    * Easily locate the poems you want to read with individual contents tables
    * Provides a special dual English and Latin text, allowing readers to compare the sections paragraph by paragraph — ideal for Latin students
    * Features three biographies — discover Persius’ ancient world
    * Ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres


    Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to explore our range of Ancient Classics titles or buy the entire series as a Super Set


    CONTENTS:


    The Translations
    Brief Introduction to Persius
    Lewis Evans’ Prose Translation, 1881
    William Gifford’s Verse Translation, 1881
    George Gilbert Ramsay’s Prose Translation, 1918


    The Latin Text
    Contents of the Latin Text


    The Dual Text
    Dual Latin and English Text


    The Biographies
    The Life of Aulus Persius Flaccus (c. 121) by Suetonius
    An Essay on the Roman Satirists (1881) by William Gifford
    Life of Persius (1918) by George Gilbert Ramsay


    Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDelphi Publishing Ltd
    Release dateSep 8, 2021
    ISBN9781801700290
    Delphi Complete Works of Persius (Illustrated)

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      Delphi Complete Works of Persius (Illustrated) - Aulus Persius Flaccus

      cover.jpg

      The Complete Works of

      PERSIUS

      (AD. 34-62)

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      Contents

      The Translations

      Brief Introduction to Persius

      Lewis Evans’ Prose Translation, 1881

      William Gifford’s Verse Translation, 1881

      George Gilbert Ramsay’s Prose Translation, 1918

      The Latin Text

      Contents of the Latin Text

      The Dual Text

      Dual Latin and English Text

      The Biographies

      The Life of Aulus Persius Flaccus (c. 121) by Suetonius

      An Essay on the Roman Satirists (1881) by William Gifford

      Life of Persius (1918) by George Gilbert Ramsay

      The Delphi Classics Catalogue

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      © Delphi Classics 2021

      Version 1

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      Browse Ancient Classics

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      The Complete Works of

      AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS

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      By Delphi Classics, 2021

      COPYRIGHT

      Complete Works of Persius

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      First published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by Delphi Classics.

      © Delphi Classics, 2021.

      All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

      ISBN: 978 1 80170 029 0

      Delphi Classics

      is an imprint of

      Delphi Publishing Ltd

      Hastings, East Sussex

      United Kingdom

      Contact: sales@delphiclassics.com

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      www.delphiclassics.com

      The Translations

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      Volterra, a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy, which was originally an Etruscan stronghold — Persius was born in Volterra.

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      Remains of the Etruscan acropolis at Volterra

      Brief Introduction to Persius

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      According to tradition, Persius (AD 34-62) was born into a wealthy equestrian family at Volterra, a small Etruscan city in the province of Pisa. His father died when he was six years old and his stepfather died a few years later. At the age of twelve Persius was sent to Rome to be educated, where he was taught by Remmius Palaemon and the famous rhetor Verginius Flavus. During the next four years he developed important friendships with the Stoic Lucius Annaeus Cornutus, the lyric poet Caesius Bassus and the epic poet Lucan. The latter would become a great admirer of all of Persius’ work. He also became close friends with Thrasea Paetus, the husband of Arria who was his relative; over the next ten years Persius and Thrasea Paetus shared many travels together.

      In his youth, Persius composed a tragedy based on an episode in Roman history, before he read the satires of Lucilius, which was an instant source of inspiration to the young scholar. Persius then made the decision to emulate the great satirist and he set to work on producing a book of his own satires. However, he wrote seldom and slowly and his premature death prevented him from completing the task. The surviving accounts of his life describe Persius as having a gentle disposition, girlish modesty and personal beauty and he is believed to have lived a life of exemplary devotion towards his mother, sister and aunt. He left a considerable fortune to his mother and sister. His great friend Cornutus suppressed all of his work except for the satires, to which he made some slight alterations, before handing the manuscript over to the poet Bassus for editing. The satires proved to be an immediate success.

      The chief interest of Persius’ style is his interpretation of Roman Stoicism and for his accomplished use of the Latin tongue. As well as his devotion to Lucilius, the six extant satires also reveal his debt to Horace, in equal if not a higher measure. Numerous characters, phrases, thoughts and situations appear to come direct from Horace’s own poems. Persius’ satires are noted for their earnestness and moral purpose, rising above the political rancour or teasing persiflage of his predecessors, including Juvenal’s rhetorical indignation. Persius demonstrates how philosophy can work on minds, while preserving the depth and purity of the old Roman gravitas. He likes to censure the style of his day, although he also imitates it, with excess of detail and obscurity and a curious tendency to use popular words.

      Like Juvenal who would write half a century later, Persius was the heir to the style of Latin verse satire developed by Lucilius and Horace, which were clearly aimed at a sophisticated and urban audience. He adopts the mask of an angry man, while his sharp criticism of the society in which he lives is combined with flashes of sardonic humor. Numbering just over 700 lines, the satires are composed in hexameters. The first satire criticises the literary tastes of the day, serving as a reflection of the decadence of the national morals. The vivid description of the recitator and literary twaddlers after dinner is of especial interest to the student of Roman sociology. The second satire deals with the question as to what we may justly ask of the gods; the third explores the importance of having a definite aim in life; and the fourth concerns the necessity of self-knowledge for public men.  Th fifth satire looks at the Stoic doctrine of liberty, which is introduced by generous allusions to Cornutus’ teaching, while the sixth and final satire explores the ideal use of money.

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      A seventeenth century depiction of Persius by Francesco Stelluti

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      ‘Horace reads before Maecenas’ by Fyodor Bronnikov, Odessa Art Museum, 1863 — Horace was an important influence on the development of Persius’ work.

      Lewis Evans’ Prose Translation, 1881

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      CONTENTS

      PROLOGUE.

      ENDNOTES.

      SATIRE I ARGUMENT.

      SATIRE I.

      ENDNOTES.

      SATIRE II ARGUMENT.

      SATIRE II.

      ENDNOTES.

      SATIRE III ARGUMENT.

      SATIRE III.

      ENDNOTES.

      SATIRE IV ARGUMENT.

      SATIRE IV.

      ENDNOTES.

      SATIRE V ARGUMENT.

      SATIRE V.

      ENDNOTES.

      SATIRE VI ARGUMENT.

      SATIRE VI.

      ENDNOTES.

      PROLOGUE.

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      I HAVE NEITHER steeped¹ my lips in the fountain of the Horse;² nor do I remember to have dreamt on the double-peaked³ Parnassus, that so I might on a sudden come forth a poet. The nymphs of Helicon, and pale Pirene,⁴ I resign to those around whose statues⁵ the clinging ivy twines.⁶ I myself, half a clown,⁷ bring⁸ my verses as a contribution to the inspired effusions of the poets.

      Who made⁹ the parrot¹⁰ so ready with his salutation, and taught magpies to emulate our words? — That which is the master of all art,¹¹ the bounteous giver of genius — the belly: that artist that trains them to copy sounds that nature has denied¹² them. But if the hope of deceitful money shall have shone forth, you may believe that ravens turned poets, and magpies poetesses, give vent to strains of Pegaseian nectar.¹³

      ENDNOTES.

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      ¹ Prolui. Proluere, to dip the lips, properly applied to cattle. So procumbere, Sulp., 17. Cf. Stat. Sylv., V., iii., 121, Risere sorores Aonides, pueroque chelyn submisit et ora imbuit amne sacro jam tum tibi blandus Apollo.

      ² Fonte Caballino. Caballus is a term of contempt for a horse, implying a gelding, drudge, or beast of burden, nearly equivalent to Cantherius. Cf. Lucil., ii., fr. xi. (x.), Succussatoris tetri tardique Caballi. Hor., i., Sat. vi., 59, Me Satureiano vectari rura caballo. Sen., Ep., 87, Catonem uno caballo esse contentum. So Juv., x., 60, Immeritis franguntur crura caballis. Juvenal also applies the term to Pegasus: Ad quam Gorgonei delapsa est pinna caballi, iii., 118. Pegasus sprang from the blood of Medusa when beheaded by Perseus. Ov., Met, iv., 785, Eripuisse caput collo: pennisque fugacem Pegason et fratrem matris de sanguine natos. The fountain Hippocrene, ἱππουκρήνη, sprang up from the stroke of his hoof when he lighted on Mount Helicon. Ov., Fast., iii., 456, Cum levis Aonias ungula fodit aquas. Hes., Theog., 2-6. Hesych., v. ἱππουκρήνη. Paus., Bœot., 31. Near it was the fountain of Aganippe, and these two springs supplied the rivers Olmius and Permissus, the favorite haunts of the Muses. Hesiod, u. s. Hence those who drank of these were fabled to become poets forthwith. Mosch., Id., iii., 77, ἀμφότεροι παγαῖς πεφιλαμένοι· ὃς μεν ἔπινε Παγασίδος κράνας ὁ δὲ πῶμ’ ἔχε τᾶς Ἀρεθοίσας.

      ³ Bicipiti. Parnassus is connected toward the southeast with Helicon and the Bœotian ridges. It is the highest mountain in Central Greece, and is covered with snow during the greater portion of the year. The Castalian spring is fed by these perpetual snows, and pours down the chasm between the two summits. These are two lofty rocks rising perpendicularly from Delphi, and obtained for the mountain the epithet δικόρυφον. Eur., Phœn., 234. They were anciently known by the names of Hyampeia and Naupleia, Herod., viii., 39, but sometimes the name Phædriades was applied to them in common. The name of Tithorea was also applied to one of them, as well as to the town of Neon in its neighborhood. Herod., viii., 32. These heights were sacred to Bacchus and the Muses, and those who slept in their neighborhood were supposed to receive inspiration from them. Cf. Propert., III., ii., 1, Visus eram molli recubans Heliconis in umbrâ, Bellerophontei quà fluit humor equi; Reges, Alba, tuos et regum facta tuorum tantum operis nervis hiscere posse meis. Cf. Virg., Æn., vii., 86. Ov., Heroid., xv., 156, seq.

      ⁴ Pirenen. The fountain of Pirene was in the middle of the forum of Corinth. Ov., Met., ii., 240, Ephyre Pirenidas undas. It took its name from the nymph so called, who dissolved into tears at the death of her daughter Cenchrea, accidentally killed by Diana. The water was said to have the property of tempering the Corinthian brass, when plunged red-hot into the stream. Paus., ii., 3. Near the source Bellerophon is said to have seized Pegasus, hence called the Pirenæan steed by Euripides. Electr., 475. Cf. Pind., Olymp., xiii., 85, 120. Stat. Theb., iv., 60, Cenchreæque manus, vatûm qui conscius amnis Gorgoneo percussus equo. Ov., Pont., I., iii., 75. The Latin poets alone make this spring sacred to the Muses. Pallidam may refer either to the legend of its origin, or to the wan faces of the votaries of the Muses.

      ⁵ Imagines. Cf. Juv., vii., 29, Qui facis in parvâ sublimia carmina cellâ ut dignus venias hederis et imagine macrâ. Poets were crowned with ivy as well as bay. Doctarum hederæ præmia frontium. Hor., i., Od. i., 29. The Muses being the companions of Bacchus as well as of Apollo. Ov., A. Am., iii., 411. Mart., viii., Ep. 82. The busts of poets and other eminent literary men were used to adorn public libraries, especially the one in the temple of Palatine Apollo.

      ⁶ Lambunt, properly said of a dog’s tongue, then of flame. Cf. Virg., Æn., ii., 684, Tractuque innoxia molli Lambere flamma comas, et circum tempora pasci. So the ivy, climbing and clinging, seems to lick with its forked tongue the objects whose form it closely follows.

      ⁷ Semipaganus. Paganus is opposed to miles. Juv., xvi., 33. Plin., x., Ep. xviii. Here it means, not wholly undisciplined in the warfare of letters. So Plin., vii., Ep. 25, Sunt enim ut in castris, sic etiam in litteris nostris plures cultu pagano, quos cinctos et armatos, et quidem, ardentissimo ingenio, diligentius scrutatus invenies.

      ⁸ Affero. εἰς μέσον φέρω. Casaubon.

      ⁹ Quis expedivit. To preserve his incognito, Persius in this 2d part of the Prologue represents himself as driven by poverty, though but unprepared, to write for his bread. So Horace, ii., Ep. xi., 50, Decisis humilem pennis inopemque paterni et Laris et fundi paupertas impulit audax ut versus facerem.

      ¹⁰ Psittaco. Cf. Stat. Sylv., II., iv., 1, 2, Psittace, dux volucrûm, domini facunda voluptas, Humanæ solers imitator, Psittace linguæ! Mart., xiv., Ep. lxxiii., 76. χαῖρε was one of the common words taught to parrots. So εὗ πράττε, Ζεὺς ἵλεως, Cæsar ave. Vid. Mart., u. s.

      ¹¹ Magister artis. So the Greek proverb, Λιμὸς δὲ πολλῶν γίγνεται διδάσκαλος. Theoc., xxi., Id. 1, Ἁ Πενιὰ, Διοφαντε, μόνα τὰς τέχνας ἐγείρει. Plaut. Stich., Paupertas fecit ridiculus forem. Nam illa omnes artes perdocet. Cf. Arist., Plut., 467-594. So Ben Jonson, in the Poetaster, And between whiles spit out a better poem than e’er the master of arts, or giver of wit, their belly, made.

      ¹² Negatas. So Manilius, lib. v., Quinetiam linguas hominum sensusque docebit Aerias volucres, novaque in commercia ducet, Verbaque præcipiet naturæ sorte negatas.

      ¹³ Nectar is found in two MSS.; all the others have melos, which has been rejected as not making a scazontic line. But Homer, in his Hymn to Mercury, makes the first syllable long; and also Antipater, in an Epigram on Anacreon, ἀκμὴν οἳ λυρόεν μελίζεται ἀμφι βαθύλλῳ. Cf. Theoc., Id., vii., 82, οὕνεκά οι γλυκὺ Μοῖσα στόματος χέε νέκταρ.

      SATIRE I ARGUMENT.

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      UNDER THE COLOR of declaring his purpose of writing Satire and the plan he intends to adopt, and of defending himself against the idle criticism of an imaginary and nameless adversary, Persius lashes the miserable poets of his own day, and in no very obscure terms, their Coryphæus himself, Nero. The subject of the Satire is not very unlike the first of the second book of Horace’s Satires, and comes very near in some points to the first Satire of Juvenal. But the manner of treatment is distinct in each, and quite characteristic of the three great Satirists. Horace’s is more full of personality, one might say, of egotism, and his own dislike and contempt of the authors of his time, more lively and brilliant, more pungent and witty, than either of the others; more pregnant with jokes, and yet rising to a higher tone than the Satire of Persius. That of Juvenal is in a more majestic strain, as befits the stern censor of the depraved morals of his day; full of commanding dignity and grave rebuke, of fiery indignation and fierce invective; and is therefore more declamatory and oratorical in its style, more elevated in its sentiment, more refined in its diction. While in that of Persius we trace the workings of a young and ardent mind, devoted to literature and intellectual pleasures, of a philosophical turn, and a chastened though somewhat fastidious taste. We see the student and devotee of literature quite as much as the censor of morals, and can see that he grieves over the corruption of the public taste almost as deeply as over the general depravity of public morals. Still there breathes through the whole a tone of high and right feeling, of just and stringent criticism, of keen and pungent sarcasm, which deservedly places this Satire very high in the rank of intellectual productions.

      The Satire opens with a dialogue between the poet himself and some one who breaks in upon his meditations. This person is usually described as his Monitor; some well-meaning acquaintance, who endeavors to dissuade the poet from his purpose of writing Satire. But D’Achaintre’s notion, that he is rather an ill-natured critic than a good-natured adviser, seems the more tenable one, and the divisions of the first few lines have been ingeniously made to support that view. After expressing supreme contempt for the poet’s opening line, he advises him, if he must needs give vent to verse, to write something more suited to the taste and spirit of the age he lives in. Persius acknowledges that this would be the more likely way to gain applause, but maintains that such approbation is not the end at which a true poet ought to aim. And this leads him to expose the miserable and corrupt taste of the poetasters of his day, and to express supreme contempt for the mania for recitation then prevalent, which had already provoked the sneers of Horace, and afterward drew down the more majestic condemnation of Juvenal. He draws a vivid picture of these depraved poets, who pander to the gross lusts of their hearers by their lascivious strains. Their affectation of speech and manner, their costly and effeminate dress, the vanity of their exalted seat, and the degraded character of their compositions; and on the other hand, the excessive and counterfeited applause of their hearers, expressed by extravagance of language and lasciviousness of gesture corresponding to the nature of the compositions, are touched with a masterly hand. He then ridicules the pretensions of these courtly votaries of the Muses, whose vanity is fostered by the interested praise of dependents and sycophants, who are the first to ridicule them behind their backs. He then makes a digression to the bar; and shows that the manly and vigorous eloquence of Cicero and Hortensius and Cato, as well as the masculine energy and dignity of Virgil, is frittered away, and diluted by the introduction of redundant and misplaced metaphor, labored antitheses, trifling conceits, accumulated epithets, and bombastic and obsolete words, and a substitution of rhetorical subtleties for that energetic simplicity which speaks from and to the heart. Returning to the poets, he brings in a passage of Nero’s own composition as a most glaring example of these defects. This excites his friend’s alarm, and elicits some cautious advice respecting the risk he encounters; which serves to draw forth a more daring avowal of his bold purpose, and an animated description of the persons whom he would wish to have for his readers.

      SATIRE I.

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      PERSIUS. "OH THE cares of men!¹⁴ Oh how much vanity is there in human affairs!" —

      Adversarius.¹⁵ Who will read this?¹⁶

      P. Is it to me you say this?

      A. Nobody, by Hercules!

      P. Nobody! Say two perhaps, or —

      A. Nobody. It is mean and pitiful stuff!

      P. Wherefore? No doubt "Polydamas¹⁷ and Trojan dames" will prefer Labeo to me —

      A. It is all stuff!

      P. Whatever turbid Rome¹⁸ may disparage, do not thou join their number; nor by that scale of theirs seek to correct thy own false balance, nor seek¹⁹ thyself out of thyself. For who is there at Rome that is not²⁰ — Ah! if I might but speak!²¹ But I may,²² when I look at our gray hairs,²³ and our severe way of life, and all that we commit since we abandoned our childhood’s nuts.²⁴ When we savor of uncles,²⁵ then — then forgive!

      A. I will not!

      P. What must I do?²⁶ For I am a hearty laugher with a saucy spleen.

      We write, having shut ourselves in,²⁷ one man verses, another free from the trammels of metre, something grandiloquent, which the lungs widely distended with breath may give vent to.

      And this, of course, some day, with your hair combed and a new toga,²⁸ all in white with your birthday Sardonyx,²⁹ you will read out from your lofty seat,³⁰ to the people, when you have rinsed³¹ your throat, made flexible by the liquid gargle; languidly leering with lascivious eye! Here you may see the tall Titi³² in trembling excitement, with lewdness of manner and agitation of voice, when the verses enter their loins,³³ and their inmost parts are titillated with the lascivious strain.

      P. And dost thou, in thy old age,³⁴ collect dainty bits for the ears of others? Ears to which even thou, bursting³⁵ with vanity, wouldst say, Hold, enough!

      A. To what purpose is your learning, unless this leaven, and this wild fig-tree³⁶ which has once taken life within, shall burst through your liver and shoot forth?

      P. See that pallor and premature old age!³⁷ Oh Morals!³⁸ Is then your knowledge so absolutely naught, unless another know you have that knowledge?³⁹

      A. But it is a fine thing to be pointed at with the finger,⁴⁰ and that it should be said, That’s he! Do you value it at nothing, that your works should form the studies⁴¹ of a hundred curly-headed⁴² youths?

      P. See!⁴³ over their cups,⁴⁴ the well-filled Romans⁴⁵ inquire of what the divine poems tell. Here some one, who has a hyacinthine robe round his shoulders, snuffling through his nose⁴⁶ some stale ditty, distills and from his dainty palate lisps trippingly⁴⁷ his Phyllises,⁴⁸ Hypsipyles, and all the deplorable strains of the poets. The heroes hum assent!⁴⁹ Now are not the ashes⁵⁰ of the poet blest? Does not a tomb-stone press with lighter weight⁵¹ upon his bones? The guests applaud. Now from those Manes of his, now from his tomb and favored ashes, will not violets spring?⁵²

      A. You are mocking and indulging in too scornful a sneer.⁵³ Lives there the man who would disown the wish to deserve the people’s praise,⁵⁴ and having uttered words worthy of the cedar,⁵⁵ to leave behind him verses that dread neither herrings⁵⁶ nor frankincense?

      P. Whoever thou art that hast just spoken, and that hast a fair right⁵⁷ to plead on the opposite side, I, for my part, when I write, if any thing perchance comes forth⁵⁸ aptly expressed (though this is, I own, a rare bird⁵⁹), yet if any thing does come forth, I would not shrink from being praised: for indeed my heart is not of horn. But I deny that that excellently! and beautifully!⁶⁰ of yours is the end and object of what is right. For sift thoroughly all this beautifully! and what does it not comprise within it! Is there not to be found in it the Iliad of Accius,⁶¹ intoxicated with hellebore? are there not all the paltry sonnets our crude⁶² nobles have dictated? in fine, is there not all that is composed on couches of citron?⁶³ You know how to set before your guests the hot paunch;⁶⁴ and how to make a present of your threadbare cloak to your companion shivering with cold,⁶⁵ and then you say, I do love the truth!⁶⁶ tell me the truth about myself! How is that possible? Would you like me to tell it you? Thou drivelest,⁶⁷ Bald-pate, while thy bloated paunch projects a good foot and a half hanging in front! O Janus! whom no stork⁶⁸ pecks at from behind, no hand that with rapid motion imitates the white ass’s ears, no tongue mocks, projecting as far as that of the thirsting hound of Apulia! Ye, O patrician blood!⁶⁹ whose privilege⁷⁰ it is to live with no eyes at the back of your head, prevent⁷¹ the scoffs⁷² that are made behind your back!

      What is the people’s verdict? What should it be, but that now at length verses flow in harmonious numbers, and the skillful joining⁷³ allows the critical nails to glide over its polished surface: he knows how to carry on his verse as if he were drawing a ruddle line with one eye⁷⁴ closed. Whether he has occasion to write against public morals, against luxury, or the banquets of the great, the Muses vouchsafe to our Poet⁷⁵ the saying brilliant things. And see! now we see those introducing heroic⁷⁶ sentiments, that were wont to trifle in Greek: that have not even skill enough to describe a grove. Nor praise the bountiful country, where are baskets,⁷⁷ and the hearth, and porkers, and the smoky palilia with the hay: whence Remus sprung, and thou, O Quintius,⁷⁸ wearing away the plow-boards in the furrow, when thy wife with trembling haste invested thee with the dictatorship in front of thy team, and the lictor bore thy plow home — Bravo, poet!

      Some even now delight in the turgid book of Brisæan Accius,⁷⁹ and in Pacuvius, and warty⁸⁰ Antiopa, her dolorific heart propped up with woe. When you see purblind sires instilling these precepts into their sons, do you inquire whence came this gallimaufry⁸¹ of speech into our language? Whence that disgrace,⁸² in which the effeminate Trossulus⁸³ leaps up in ecstasy at you, from his bench.

      Are you not ashamed⁸⁴ that you can not ward off danger from a hoary head, without longing to hear the lukewarm Decently⁸⁵ said! You are a thief! says the accuser to Pedius. What says Pedius?⁸⁶ He balances the charge in polished antitheses. He gets the praise of introducing learned figures. That is fine! Fine, is it?⁸⁷ O Romulus, dost thou wag thy tail?⁸⁸ Were the shipwrecked man to sing, would he move my pity, forsooth, or should I bring forth my penny? Do you sing, while you are carrying about a picture⁸⁹ of yourself on a fragment of wood, hanging from your shoulders. He that aims at bowing me down by his piteous complaint, must whine out what is real,⁹⁰ and not studied and got up of a night.

      A. But the numbers have grace, and crude as you call them, there is a judicious combination.

      P. He has learned thus to close his line. Berecynthean Atys;⁹¹ and, The Dolphin that clave the azure Nereus. So again, We filched away a chine from long-extending Apennine.

      A. Arms and the man.⁹² Is not this frothy, with a pithless rind?

      P. Like a huge branch, well seasoned, with gigantic bark!

      A. What then is a tender strain, and that should be read with neck relaxed?⁹³

      P. "With Mimallonean⁹⁴ hums they filled their savage horns; and Bassaris, from the proud steer about to rive the ravished head, and Mænas, that would guide the lynx with ivy-clusters, re-echoes Evion; and reproductive Echo reverberates the sound!" Could such verses be written, did one spark of our fathers’ vigor still exist in us? This nerveless stuff dribbles on the lips, on the topmost spittle. In drivel vests this Mænas and Attis. It neither beats the desk,⁹⁵ nor savors of bitten nails.

      A. But what need is there to grate on delicate ears with biting truth? Take care, I pray, lest haply the thresholds of the great⁹⁶ grow cold to you. Here the dog’s letter⁹⁷ sounds from the nostril. For me⁹⁸ then, henceforth, let all be white. I’ll not oppose it. Bravo! For you shall all be very wonderful productions! Does that please you? Here, you say, I forbid any one’s committing a nuisance. Then paint up two snakes. Boys, go farther away: the place is sacred! I go away.

      P. Yet Lucilius lashed⁹⁹ the city, and thee, O Lupus,¹⁰⁰ and thee too, Mucius,¹⁰¹ and broke his jaw-bone¹⁰² on them. Sly Flaccus touches every failing of his smiling friend, and, once admitted, sports around his heart; well skilled in sneering¹⁰³ at the people with well-dissembled¹⁰⁴ sarcasm. And is it then a crime for me to mutter, secretly, or in a hole?

      A. You must do it nowhere.

      P. Yet here I will bury it! I saw, I saw with my own¹⁰⁵ eyes, my little book! Who has not asses’ ears?¹⁰⁶ This my buried secret, this my sneer, so valueless, I would not sell you for any Iliad.¹⁰⁷

      Whoever thou art, that art inspired¹⁰⁸ by the bold Cratinus, and growest pale over the wrathful Eupolis and the old man sublime, turn thine eyes on these verses also, if haply thou hearest any thing more refined.¹⁰⁹ Let my reader glow with ears warmed by their strains. Not he that delights, like a mean fellow as he is, in ridiculing the sandals of the Greeks, and can say to a blind man, Ho! you blind fellow! Fancying himself to be somebody, because vain¹¹⁰ of his rustic honors, as Ædile¹¹¹ of Arretium,¹¹² he breaks up the false measures¹¹³ there. Nor again, one who has just wit enough to sneer at the arithmetic boards,¹¹⁴ and the lines in the divided dust; quite ready to be highly delighted, if a saucy wench¹¹⁵ plucks¹¹⁶ a Cynic’s¹¹⁷ beard. To such as these I recommend¹¹⁸ the prætor’s edict¹¹⁹ in the morning, and after dinner — Callirhoe.

      ENDNOTES.

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      ¹⁴ Oh curas! These are the opening lines of his Satire, which Persius is reading aloud, and is interrupted by his Adversarius. He represents himself as having meditated on all mundane things, and, like Solomon, having discovered their emptiness, Vanitas vanitatum! Cf. Juv., Sat. i., 85, Quidquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas, Gaudia, discursus; nostri est farrago libelli. It is an adaptation of the old Greek proverb, ὅσον τὸ κένον.

      ¹⁵ Adversarius. "Interpretes plerique hunc Persii amicum seu monitorem volunt:

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