ut Nomentanus?' Pergis pugnantia secum frontibus adversis componere? Non ego, avarum cum veto te fieri, vappam iubeo ac nebulonem. 105 Est inter Tanain quiddam socerumque Viselli. Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines, quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum. Illuc, unde abii, redeo, qui nemo ut avarus 102-104. Pergis: often used without an interrogative particle in half-exclamatory sentences. pugnantia secum, frontibus adversis, componere: these three expressions combine to suggest from different sides the figure of two gladiators, matched (componere is the technical word) against one another. So the argument of vss. IOI f. sets up the figure of the vappa ac nebulo to destroy the effect of the figure of the avarus, as described in the body of the satire. 105. The reference is probably to some Greek saying, then well enough known to make a mere allusion intelligible; at any rate, the names represent two widely separated extremes. 107. ultra citraque: the safe ' middle ground' is the only place where the right (ὀρθόν) can find a sure standing place. 108 f. Illuc, unde abii, redeo: this is not perfectly accurate. To return precisely to the opening question, "What is the source of our discontent?' would be absurd, since the whole satire has been spent in setting forth the answer to that question. But a repetition of the text is a very suitable way of bringing the sermon to its conclusion. Horace therefore repeats the opening words (qui nemo se probet = qui fit ut nemo contentus vivat), attaching them somewhat forcedly to the leading clause illuc redeo and inserting the substance of the answer in the brief phrase ut avarus, which is taken up more fully in vss. 110 ff. The obscurity produced by using qui nemo instead of qui fit ut nemo and by making it depend upon illuc redeo is increased by the use of ut avarus (= 'because of the love of money'; cf. ut male sanos, Epist. 1, 19, 3; ut capitis minor, Odes 3, 5, 42), which is easily mistaken for a repetition of the ut in qui fit ut. The obscurity of the passage has led copyists into making various changes in the text, nemo ut, nemon ut. The true reading was found only in a single manuscript. 'I come back to my starting point, the discontent of men, which comes from their love of money and their envy.' se probet ac potius laudet diversa sequentis, 110 quodque aliena capella gerat distentius uber, tabescat, neque se maiori pauperiorum turbae comparet, hunc atque hunc superare laboret. Sic festinanti semper locupletior obstat, ut, cum carceribus missos rapit ungula currus, 115 instat equis auriga suos vincentibus, illum 110. A mean and petty illustration is chosen intentionally. 112. hunc atque hunc: 'first one and then another.' The adversative idea, as often in Latin, is left unexpressed. 113. Sic : with festinanti ; 'one who is in such haste to be rich.' 114 ff. The figure of the chariot race is used with a serious effect which suits the tone of vss. III119. It is a natural comparison, often used in Latin literature, and it is not necessary to suppose that this passage is either copied from or imitated in Vergil, Georg. I, 512 ff. : Vt cum carceribus sese effudere quadrigae, house of technical terms. - carceribus : the stalls in which the chariots stood ready to be started (missos) by the raising of the barrier. rapit ungula: so quatit ungula, Ennius, Ann. 224 Vahl., Verg. Aen. 8, 596, in the same place in the verse. - illum: the one. - extremos inter: cf. venalis inter, 47, n. 117-119. Inde fit: this also, like vs. 108, is a return to the beginning of the satire, qui fit, but with a more sober restraint (raro instead of nemo) and with an effective use of the figure of the satisfied feaster. This is another reminiscence of Lucretius, 3, 938: Cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis, addunt in spatia et frustra retinacula tendens fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas. aequo animoque capis securam, stulte, quietem? The only similarity is in the use Compare also the closing lines of 120 Iam satis est. Ne me Crispini scrinia lippi compilasse putes, verbum non amplius addam. 120-121. It is thoroughly characteristic of Horace to turn abruptly from grave to gay, - ridentem dicere verum, - and the very abruptness of the change is often an effective enforcement of the moral. Several of the Satires will be found to close with a jest. Cf. also the close of some of the Odes; 1, 6; 2, 1; and especially 3, 3, quo, musa, tendis.- Crispini: said by Porphyrio to be Plotius Crispinus, a writer of much verse (cf. Sat. 1, 4, 14) and a teacher of Stoic doctrines (Sat. 1, 3, 139; 2, 7, 45). scrinia: cylindrical boxes in which the papyrus rolls were kept. lippi: personal peculiarities or defects, of which we should think it discourteous to speak, were frequently matter for ridicule to the ancients. 2 This satire was written before 3, since the death of Tigellius, which is there (vs. 3 ff.) referred to as having occurred some time before, is here spoken of as a quite recent event, and before 4, where (in vs. 91) a line of this satire (vs. 27) is quoted. It is therefore to be placed in the group of early satires, with 7 and 8, written before the introduction to Maecenas in 39 or 38 B.c. The announced subject of the satire is the tendency of men to run to extremes, their inability to keep to the golden mean. Of this tendency the first part, down to vs. 28, gives various illustrations, not lacking in humor and unobjectionable in tone. But the particular illustration which is treated in detail, and which occupies the rest of the satire, is excess in sensual indulgence, and especially the vice of adultery, which had become rife in the Ciceronian period and was still increasing in Roman society. The satire betrays in various ways the immaturity of the writer. It is the most personal of Horace's writings; it is coarse in expression, and it is intentionally sensational in manner. These characteristics are in part the result of a too close adherence to the manner of Lucilius, in part of a desire to attract attention, in part of the bitter and rebellious feeling of the writer. Yet it is not difficult to find in it, as undoubtedly Vergil and Varius did, the indications of what the writer was later to become. 5 IO Ambubaiarum conlegia, pharmacopolae, mendici, mimae, balatrones, hoc genus omne frigus quo duramque famem propellere possit. 1. Ambubaiarum: flute-girls, like the copa Syrisca of Vergil's poem, whose associations are called conlegia, guilds, with a touch of derision. mimae : 2. mendici: the organizations of begging priests. women were not allowed to act in the more respectable dramas, but only in the farces called mimi. balatrones: cf. the use of this name for a parasite as a proper name in Sat. 2, 8, 21 and 40. 3. Tigelli: see note on Sat. 1, 3, 4. 4. benignus: kind, generous; the word is used as if in quotation. hic: this other man, the meaning being made plainer by contra. 7. Hunc a third person, not the same as hic, 4. Whatever slight confusion is caused by the use of the same pronoun is dispelled by the next line, which shows that this man was a spendthrift. 8. ingrata: unprofitable, that gives no adequate return for the money spent upon it. - stringat : strips, as leaves from a tree. 9. omnia . . . obsonia: all kinds of dainties, everything that his appetite suggested. — conductis : hired, i.e. borrowed at interest. 10. animi . . . parvi: mean; the opposite of benignus, 4. II. his, illis: one side, the other side, people who are of the same or of the opposite opinion. 12. Fufidius: a well-known family name, but the individual here referred to is unknown. He is a money-lender who combines in himself the extreme of great wealth 15 20 [dives agris, dives positis in faenore nummis]; quinas hic capiti mercedes exsecat, atque quanto perditior quisque est, tanto acrius urget; nomina sectatur modo sumpta veste virili sub patribus duris tironum. 'Maxime' quis non 'Iuppiter!' exclamat, simul atque audivit ? At in se pro quaestu sumptum facit hic.' Vix credere possis quam sibi non sit amicus, ita ut pater ille, Terenti ، fabula quem miserum gnato vixisse fugato inducit, non se peius cruciaverit atque hic. Si quis nunc quaerat, 'Quo res haec pertinet?' illuc: 14. quinas mercedes: the usual rate of interest was one per cent a month, but Fufidius collected five times this rate. - capiti: from the principal.- exsecat: the verb is chosen to express the severity of the demand; cuts off beforehand, as in discounting. In all such matters the methods of Roman business were less systematized than the banking of modern times. 15. perditior: nearer to ruin. 16 f. nomina: names, but with a suggestion of 'accounts, as in English. - tironum: young men who had just put on the toga virilis and whose fathers still kept them on small allowances would be the natural prey of the unscrupulous money-lender. 19. pro quaestu: in proportion to his gains; the supposed exclamation of some one who hears of his great income. This suggests at once the strangeness of the contrast between his wealth and his meanness, which is carried out in the next phrase, vix credere possis. 20. quam...non... amicus: not exactly the same as quam inimicus, but how far he is from being kind to himself.' pater ille: a father in the play of Terence, the Heautontimorumenos (Self-tormentor), who, because he thinks that his harshness has driven his son away from home, refuses himself all comforts until the son returns. 22. inducit: 'brings on the stage, but used like a verb of saying with the infin. vixisse; represents as having lived. — cruciaverit: a repetition of the word timorumenos, in the title of the play. 23. Quo... pertinet: what's the point of all this? Cf. Sat. 1, 1, 15 f., quo rem deducam, and Sat. 2, 7, 21. - illuc: the answer to the question, which is then explained in the next line. |