IIO cantat et apponit: 'Meus est amor huic similis; nam atque aestus curasque gravis e pectore pelli? quaerere plus prodest et inane abscindere soldo? Num, tibi cum fauces urit sitis, aurea quaeris 115 pocula? Num esuriens fastidis omnia praeter pavonem rhombumque? Tument tibi cum inguina, ancilla aut verna est praesto puer, impetus in quem continuo fiat, malis tentigine rumpi? Non ego: namque parabilem amo venerem facilemque. 120 Illam, 'Post paulo,' 'Sed pluris,' 'Si exierit vir,' Gallis, hanc Philodemus ait sibi, quae neque magno stet pretio neque cunctetur, cum est iussa venire. 102) in which the lover is compared to a hunter; the game that he prefers is that which costs him trouble in the pursuit and capture. - apponit: the point of the epigram is here added in direct quotation and in a very close paraphrase, almost a translation of the original. The comparison was probably common enough. Ovid (Amor. 2, 9, 9) has compressed the whole into a single line. 109-110. versiculis: 'do you think that such verses are a healing charm which will cure your troubles?' III. natura modum: the same thought is in Sat. 1, 1, 49 f., 59, 73. 112. dolitura negatum: cf. Sat. I, I, 75. 113. inane: the void or space of Epicurean physics, in which the atoms or matter (solidum) moved. But here figuratively, like the English substance and shadow; 'to distinguish the mere appearance from the reality.' 116. pavonem rhombumque: the fashion which dictated the use of certain fish or fowls as a part of every formal dinner is directly ridiculed in other satires, esp. Sat. 2, 2, 23 ff., and 48 ff. 120-122. A reference to an epigram of Philodemus, an Epicurean of Cicero's time. This particular Candida rectaque sit, munda hactenus, ut neque longa 125 Haec ubi supposuit dextro corpus mihi laevum, 666 epigram is not extant, but the construction reflects the colloquial tone; that one (the matrona) for the Galli, this one (the libertina) for me," says Philodemus.' 123. munda: neat, but with the suggestion that adornment may be carried too far. - hactenus: only so far. 129. vepallida: the prefix is here intensive, very pale; elsewhere it is negative, as in vesanus = insanus. 130. conscia: the slave-woman who was the accomplice. 134. Fabio: probably the Stoic philosopher referred to in Sat. 1, I, 14. The Stoic doctrine was that no evil could befall the true philosopher. The point therefore is that the misfortune of being caught is so great that not even a Stoic, in spite of his doctrine, could deny that it was miserum. 3 The only indication of the date of this satire is the allusion in vs. 64, which implies a considerable degree of intimacy with Maecenas, to whom Horace was introduced in the year 38. In style and thought it is one of the more mature satires of the First Book. 'Musical people are odd. Look at Tigellius, a bundle of inconsistent absurdities. 66 Very fine," says some one, "but how about you, who criticize others with so much penetration? Are you faultless yourself?" "Not at all," answers the critic, "but, frankly, I don't think my faults are as bad as his." No, you do not, and your self-satisfied attitude is a proper subject for a satire. 'Your habit of criticism brings its natural result, that others criticize you, and both you and they, seizing upon some trifling fault, fail to see the finer and nobler qualities and, still worse, make no effort to correct your own faults. 'I wish that we might rather be as blind to the faults of a friend as a lover is to the defects in the face of his mistress or, if see them we must, might treat them with the indulgent tenderness of a father toward his child, interpreting bluntness as frankness and a hot temper as only an excess of high spirit. 'But we follow just the opposite course and turn good qualities into faults, modesty into stupidity, prudence into trickiness. A fairer judgment would show us that virtues are more common than vices and would teach us to exchange pardon rather than censure. 'A reasonable philosophy for a world of faulty men should not be over-strict. To break a friendship for some trifling breach of good manners is to lose all sense of proportion between crime and penalty. 'The Stoics, to be sure, teach in their paradoxical way that all faults are sins and deserve the heaviest penalty. But this doctrine is repugnant to our best feelings and opposed to all that we know of the gradual evolution of the moral code. A real understanding of the source of our moral sense makes it unreasonable to punish the slightest error with death, as the Stoic says he would do, if he were king. "And how now, my Stoic friend? Wishing that you were king? I thought another of your Paradoxes proved that you are a king already." "No, no, you don't understand. That means a potential king, not a king de facto." "Potential? What's that?" Why, like Hermogenes, who doesn't need to be singing all the time to prove that he's a singer. Even when he isn't singing, he's a potential singer. In the same way I'm a king, potentially." "Very well, I won't argue with you, but I don't think much of Your Majesty, hustled by street boys on your way to the cheap baths. I will remain a private citizen and forgive as 66 I hope to be forgiven.' It is not probable that the subject of this satire was suggested by any particular set of circumstances. Roman society was censorious, and Horace was himself an object of criticism, but this is neither a satire, in the proper sense, nor an argument in self-defence. It is a broadly human plea for generosity toward one's friends. The treatment of the Stoics is not to be taken seriously, and it would not be fair to press too far the obvious modern analogies. Thackeray's Roundabout Paper called On a Chalk-mark on the Door is an excellent companion piece to this satire in its general tone and especially in the manner in which the subject is introduced. 5 Omnibus hoc vitium est cantoribus, inter amicos 1-2. vitium: not vice, but defect, fault. rogati contrasted with iniussi, both predicate. 3. Sardus: with contemptuous emphasis. The Sardinians were in bad repute at Rome; cf. the saying, Sardi venales, alter altero nequior. 4. Tigellius: a musician of the Ciceronian period, several times alluded to in Cicero's letters and in the scholiasts. Cicero speaks of him always as Sardus Tigellius, but his name was Hermogenes Tigellius, and it is unlikely that Sardus was accepted by him as a cognomen. He was an acquaintance of many persons of prominence, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Cicero, and the younger Caesar, but not, apparently, on terms of equality. He had died shortly before the second satire was written. He is to be distinguished from another Hermogenes Tigellius, still alive, also a musician and probably a freedman or adopted son of the former. The tone of Horace toward the elder Tigellius is not hostile, though not respectful; toward the younger he is distinctly hostile (Sat. 1, 4, 72; 1, IO, 18, 80, 90). There are two places where the reference might be to either (1, 3, 129; 1,9, 25). — habebat. . . hoc had this way, habit; hoc does not refer grammatically to vitium. - Caesar: the young Octavius took this name immediately after the death of his greatuncle, in 44. The title Augustus was not given to him till 27. He is always referred to by Horace as Caesar, never as Octavianus, which could not be used in hexameter. — qui cogere posset: the words are not meant literally, but as a complimentary recognition of his position and influ ence. a 5. patris Julius Caesar, his adoptive father. - si peteret: future condition, put into past time. 6. collibuisset : an impf. in force. usque saepe decem servos; modo reges atque tetrarchas, 6-7. ab ovo usque ad mala : eggs were a usual part of the preliminary gustatio (cf. Sat. 2, 4, 12), and fruit was served as a dessert at the end of the dinner. 7-8. Io Bacche: the opening words or the refrain of a drinking song. The final e should be short, but may be explained as having been lengthened in the song by its position at the end of a musical phrase. summa, ima: the accompanying reference to the lyre shows that these words are used of the position of the strings, not of the tone. As the lyre was held, the bass string was uppermost. The Romans used summus and imus also of the tones of the voice in the same sense as the English high and low. 9. aequale: consistent. 10. The expression is somewhat condensed; in full it would be saepe currebat velut qui fugiens hostem (curreret), persaepe (incedebat or some similar verb) velut qui . . ferret. II. Iunonis sacra: the kavηpópo, who in religious processions carried the offerings and sacred vessels in baskets on their heads and would naturally walk with dignity. 11-12. ducentos . . . decem : one number suggests domestic profusion, the other a quiet dignity; neither is to be interpreted literally. Horace himself, in speaking of the easy simplicity of his own life, says that he was waited on at supper by three slaves (Sat. 1, 6, 116). 12. reges atque tetrarchas: that is, at one time he talked of court life and Oriental monarchs, at another time his attitude was that of a true philosopher who had reduced his desires to the bare necessities. 13-14. tripes, concha: the Roman gentleman regarded a handsome dining table, supported upon a central pedestal, as necessary to a properly furnished dining room, and even poor people had a silver salt cellar; cf. Carm. 2, 16, 13 f., Vivitur parvo bene cui paternum | splendet in mensa tenui salinum. puri: salt was sometimes perfumed or flavored. |