• .. stripe on the tunic of a senator. tribuno: the military tribunes of the first four legions had senatorial rank. For the case of tribuno, cf. 1. 1. 19. 27. ut=simul ac, 'as soon as.' nigris pellibus: the upper part of the senatorial shoe was composed of four corrigiae, or bands of black leather (nigra aluta Juv. 7. 192) wrapped crosswise across the calf; on the ankle was an ivory crescent (lunula); the shoe was white or purple. medium, 'up to the middle.' 28. pectore, 'on (or down) his breast.' The stripe (in the tunic) began at the neck. et, 34. promittit: 31. et cupiat: et as well as the other reading, ut, explains morbus. however, has a great preponderance of MS. authority. Orelli takes this to refer to the promises of a candidate for office. It more likely refers to the form of oath taken by elected magistrates. 35. imperium, 'the empire' external to Italy; properly, the sway held by Rome over conquered countries. The omission of et before delubra better contrasts things profane and sacred than if the copula were present. matre: cf. line 6. line 96. • 36. ignota inhonestus, 'dishonoured by'; cf. honestos with abl. 38. Syrus, Dama, Dionysius are names of slaves taken at haphazard. Dama is a Latinised form of Δημᾶς, which is a shortened form of Δημόδωρος : cf. Apella, 1. 5. 100. 39. deicere: three syllables; cf. reice, two syllables, Virg. Ecl. 3. 96. saxo: the Tarpeian rock. Cic. ad Att. 14. 15 o mirificum Dolabellam meum !...de saxo, in crucem: Dolabella was consul and acting with great severity. Cadmo: Cadmus is supposed to have been the name of a public executioner; Porph. says: Cadmus carnifex illo tempore fuisse dicitur. The carnifex, however, executed slaves or foreigners, not citizens, and probably Cadmus was the name of a gaoler. This would suit tradere as well or better; see many instances in Dict. of tradere used of handing a person over in custodiam. 40. at: the reply of the ignobilis. The name Novius is selected by Horace with some reference to novus: 'Newman.' gradu sedet, 'takes his seat one grade behind me,' a metaphor from the theatre and the rows there allotted the spectators, of whom the knights were entitled to the front fourteen rows next to the orchestra, which was occupied by the senators; Ep. 1. 1. 62 n. 43. tria funera, magna sonabit. So Heind., Holder in his larger edition, Dill., L. Müller, Schütz, etc. point. Orelli, Fritzsche, Holder ed. min., and others join magna to funera; magna, however, so applied, seems to weaken rather than strengthen the expression; plaustra has no epithet denoting size. It is the number of the waggons, and of the funerals, not their size, that is referred to. magna sonare is a stock phrase, used of fluent spouters: cf. 1. 4. 43 os | magna sonaturum; Juv. 7. 108 ipsi magna sonant. Hence magna sonabit is, in fact, equivalent to a single word, so that there is no difficulty in quod. Translate, 'he will bawl loud enough to drown the horns and trumpets.' Aristophanes, ehumerating the qualifications for a popular leader, says, Eq. 217 τὰ δ ̓ ἄλλα σοι πρόσεστι δημαγωγικά, | φωνὴ μιαρά, γέγονας κακῶς, ἀγόραιος εἶ. Horns and trumpets were used at funerals, the latter especially. Cf. Prop. 4. 11. 9 sic maestae cecinere tubae; Pers. 3. 103 hinc tuba, candelae. 44. 45. nunc ad me redeo, a reminiscence of Lucil. 1092 nunc ad te redeo. 47. sim, which has decidedly better MS. authority than sum, is supported by pareret. The subjunctive assigns the reason, from the point of view of those who ran Horace down. convictor (vivo) implies close familiarity; one who is admitted within the inner circle of domestic life. Ov. Ep. 4. 3. 15 ille ego convictor densoque domesticus usu. 49. forsit: the only place where this word, contracted for fors sit, occurs. 52. ambitione procul: sc. ὄντας, 'those who are far removed from base self-seeking'; for the ellipse cf. Ov. Met. 1. 19 frigida pugnabant calidis... | mollia cum duris, sine pondere habentia pondus. Others wrongly refer the words to Maecenas who selects his friends 'apart from any respect to persons,' i.e. uninfluenced by their rank and station: but no one could suppose that Maecenas showed prava ambitio in choosing his intimates. 53. sortitus: sc. sim. The omission of the auxiliary verb is common in the Satires: see on 2. 8. 2. casu is emphatic. 55. quid essem, 'what sort of a man I was,' 'what I was made of'; cf. Ov. Her. 12. 31 tunc ego te vidi, tunc coepi scire, quid esses. the stammering alliteration of the line. 57. infans, 'tongue-tied.' Note 59. Satureiano = Tarentino; cf. the oracle given to Phalantus Strab. vi. 3 Σατυρίον τοι δῶκα Τάραντά τε πίονα δῆμον | οἰκῆσαι: Diod. Sic. Exc. Vat. 12 (Dind.) Σατύριον φράζου τὸ Τάραντός τ ̓ ἀγλαὸν ὕδωρ. The first syllable was long in Greek, as these passages show. caballo, 'a hack': from this unpoetic word, which would not be admissible in lyrics or heroics, and so is especially appropriate to the Sermones, came cheval, cavalier. 63. turpi, honestum: probably masculine. 65. atqui, 'but after all' it is to this very freedman father of mine I owe everything good about me. 68. sordes, 'meanness': cf. line 107; 2. 5. 105. neque ...neque...aut: this seems to have been quite a favourite syntax with Horace. Bentley, accepting aut from Porph. against nec of vet. Bland. and ac of most MSS., quotes Od. 3. 12. 1; 23.5; S. 2. 2. 22; 1.9.31; 2. 1. 13. mala lustra, 'haunts of vice'; Lucr. 4. 1136 desidiose agere aetatem lustrisque perire. 70. ut me collaudem, 'to blow my own trumpet.' 72. The school of Flavius was at Venusia. magni: centurions and their sons were looked on as great people in the little country town. 74. laevo. lacerto, 'having their satchel and slate hanging on their left shoulder.' loculi (in this sense always in plur.) is the same as the capsa, or receptacle for holding books, etc. Cf. Juv. 10. 116 quisquis adhuc uno partam colit asse Minervam | quem sequitur custos angustae vernula capsae. Horace hints that these great centurions' sons, in spite of their greatness, carried their own satchels, having no paedagogi or capsarii to carry them for them. suspensi is a direct translation of ἐξηρτημένοι, 'having hanging to them': cf. Aristoph. Eccl. 494 πώγωνας ἐξηρτημέναι : Roby, L. G. 1126, S. G. 471. tabulam: strictly a tablet of wood or metal covered with wax, for doing writing lessons or arithmetic on. 75. octonos ... • • The aeris: sc. asses, 'eight asses,' the monthly stipend (δίδακτρον). Acron had this reading (which has strong MS. authority), as his comment shows octonos asses aeris; cf. Plin. N. H. 14. 14. 95 censores edixerunt ne quis vinum Graecum octonis aeris singula quadrantalia venderet; Orell. Inscr. Lat. 7115 municipes praesentes acciperent aeris octonos; Cic. Rosc. Com. 10. 28 merere per se non amplius poterant duodecim aeris. Idibus: cf. 1. 3. 87 n. old reading, octonis Idibus aera, could only mean on eight Ides in the year, four months of the year (from July to Oct., cf. Mart. 10. 62) being supposed to have been holidays. 76. est ausus, 'had the face'; he did not shrink from being considered pushing for the sake of his boy. artes, i.e. liberales, all the branches of a gentleman's education. ... 77. 79. in magno ut populo. Cf. Ov. Trist. 1. 1. 17 si quis, ut in populo, nostri non inmemor illic; Ep. 4. 5. 11 si quis, ut in populo, qui sitis et unde requirat. The full construction would be something of this sort, ut in populo (fieri potest): 'if my dress and slaves had attracted the gaze of any one, as may or may not happen in the throng.' 80. crederet: cf. 1. 3. 4 n. The imperf. subj. both in prose and verse is frequently used where the pluperfect might be expected: cf. Virg. Aen. 8. 643 at tu dictis, Albane, maneres, 'you should have stood by your word'; Plaut. Pseud. 1. 3. 53 iam haberes : invenires mutuom, 'you should have had it by this time: you should have borrowed.' 81. ipse. Horace's father would not trust him to any paedagogus, but acted in that capacity himself. 85. olim, 'one day,' 'bye-and-bye.' 86. praeco. It would seem from this passage that Horace was originally intended to become an auctioneer. coactor, 'a collector,' either of taxes or of money bid at auctions. See Intr. p. viii. 87. at hoc nunc, i.e. because he might have made me a praeco or coactor, I owe him, as matters stand (nunc), all the more gratitude. nil me paeniteat, 'I never can be ashamed of such a father, while in my senses': paeniteat is potential, not optative, equivalent to a future, and the words are a strong denial. 90. dolo suo=culpa sua, a juristic use. istis: dat., cf. 1. 4. 48; Od. 2. 2. 18. 89. 92. 94. a certis annis, 'beginning at some fixed year' (for instance, let us suppose, five, or six). 95. ad fastum, 'to suit his pride.' quoscumque is best joined to optaret, and so most editors print. Holder and Fritzsche, placing a colon at parentes, take optaret sibi quisque separately: 'each man might choose for himself'; but a parallel to alios quoscumque, taken absolutely, is hard to find. 96. honestos = decoratos: cf. line 36. 97. fascibus. The consuls and praetors had the right to the fasces: they and the censors and curule aediles had the sella curulis, an ivory chair without back or arms. 98. sanus [iudicio] tuo: egregie hoc dixit quia Maecenas eques Romanus permansit contempto senatorio ordine-Acron. 101. salutandi. This includes calling on others, and receiving their calls. The best commentary on the words is furnished by Jerome, Ep. 43 pudet dicere frequentiam salutandi qua aut ipsi quotidie ad alios pergimus aut ad nos venientes ceteros exspectamus. The duty of attending morning levees became a great burden, repeatedly referred to by Juvenal and Martial. ducendus et=et ducendus. 102. peregreve: for the hypermeter, cf. 1. 4. 96; Virg. G. 1. 295; 2.344; 3.242, 449. peregre is 'to foreign parts,' or, elsewhere, 'from foreign parts.' peregri is 'abroad.' 103. calones, 'grooms.' 104. petorritum is a four-wheeled carriage, especially used by servants, pilenta vehicula matronarum sicut petorrita famulorum Comm. Cruq. on Ep. 2. 1. 192. This suits ducenda here well; the meaning being, 'I should have to bring along with me a train of waggons carrying the slaves and luggage.' The word, like reda and essedum, is of Celtic origin, from petor=quattuor; rit=rota. curto: sometimes explained 'bobtailed,' curtata cauda, but better humble, unpretending; cf. curta supellex, curta res. 105. ire mulo. So ire pedibus, equis, curru, etc. 106. mantica, 'portmanteau' (manus). armi nearly always in good Latin the shoulders of a beast : umeri, of a man. When Ovid says, Met. 12. 396, ex umeris medios coma dependebat in armos, one might guess he was speaking of the Centaurs who had both. Porph. observed that Horace is here copying Lucilius (1023 Lach.) mantica cantheri costas gravitate premebat. 107. Tillius having re-acquired senatorial rank (line 24 n.) and obtained the praetorship, exhibits ostentation and meanness combined. His ostentation appears in the fact that he will not go as far as Tibur (Tivoli, 16 miles NE. of Rome) without a train of slaves: his meanness appears in his having so few as five, whereas a praetor, if he had any train with him, should have a handsome one: and also in the fact that these slaves carry with them necessary articles to avoid the expense of putting up at inns. 108. Tiburte: nom. Tiburs. 109. lasanum, λάσανον, 'a commode.' 111. milibus atque aliis: parallel to hoc, 'in this and in thousands of other things.' 113. fallacem circum: the circus was the haunt of fortune-tellers, astrologers, and suchlike impostors. Cf. Cic. de Divin. 1. 58. 132 de circo astrologos; Juv. 6. 582. 114. adsisto divinis, 'I stand beside the fortune-tellers,' who carried on a busy trade with the lower orders in superstitious Rome: cf. divina, 1. 9. 30. 116. pueris tribus: when an abl. of the agent without a or ab is used, the circumstances or result, rather than the agent, are called attention to. Here the fact that the slaves were three in number is called attention to; but see Od. 1. 6. 1 n. That three was not a large number of slaves to wait at dinner, we may perhaps infer from 1. 3. 11 habebat saepe ducentos, | saepe decem servos: on the other hand, it is not meant for a small number. Horace kept the mean a gentleman should between ostentation and meanness. lapis albus, a table consisting of a slab of white marble, supported on three legs : see 1. 3. 13 n. 117. pocula duo: a pair of cups are put on the table because such articles were generally in pairs, cf. Cic. Verr. 2. 2. 19.47 scyphorum paria complura. A second clean cup might be wanted for a fresh sort of wine. cyatho, 'a ladle,' containing sth of the sextarius. echinus: an unknown vessel somewhat in the shape of a 'sea-urchin.' ἐχῖνος, χύτρας εἶδος Erotianus p. 170; Pollux 6. 13. 91. 118. cum patera gutus, 'an oil-flask with its saucer,' for dropping oil on the salad. gutus is any flask with a narrow neck for pouring liquids, especially oil guttatim: cf. Gell. 17. 8. 5. It would naturally have a saucer (patera), to prevent drops running down on the table. Campana supellex, i.e. fictilis, of cheap pottery (cf. 2. 3. 144), not silver. 120. Marsya: statues of Marsyas, or Silenus, the attendant of Bacchus, were erected in the market-place of many free towns, as a symbol of liberty. The statue had the hand uplifted (Serv. on Aen. 4. 58 Marsyas in foro positus libertatis indicium est, qui erecta manu testatur nihil urbi deesse), and Horace here comically explains the uplifted hand as a gesture of disgust at the face of the younger of the Novii, usurers, who carried on their business in the Forum. 122. ad quartam iaceo, 'I lie until the fourth hour,' not sleeping; for though Horace was somni benignus, yet he considered sleep to the first hour as a long night's sleep, Ep. 1. 17. 6; but, after waking and probably taking his ientaculum, or light breakfast, still lying in bed reading or meditating; cf. Ep. 1. 2. 35 posces ante diem librum cum lumine. vagor, 'stroll.' lecto and scripto are abl. absolute. Horace after rising either takes a walk or continues his studies more methodically than he could in his bed. 123. unguor olivo, preparatory to engaging in athletic exercises, as the game of ball; cf. Od. 1.-8. 8. 124. Natta, unknown elsewhere, used lamp oil to rub himself with, thus cheating his lamps. 125. lavatum: the usual hour for bathing was the eighth, one hour before dinner cena (Becker's Gallus p. 396). But Horace's hours seem to have been differently arranged from those usual in Martial's time. For we find him taking his bath before luncheon (prandium), probably about one o'clock, while his ordinary dinner hour seems to have been much later than the ninth hour; cf. lines 113 and 115, and supremo sole on the 23rd September, Ep. 1. 5. 3, і.е. 6 o'clock. 126. campum, the Campus Martius, where games and manly exercises were carried on: cf. Od. 1. 8. 4. lusumque trigonem, 'and the game of ball I have now done playing': lusum is part. passive. The word is necessary here, and intentionally inserted to supply the omission of any previous mention by Horace of his playing the game. ludere often takes an acc. in the active voice; cf. ludum ludere Od. 3. 29.50; ludere par inpar S. 2. 3. 248; lidas opus 2. 3. 252. Against the ordinary interpretation of lusumque trigonem, viz. 'the game of ball,' it is to be urged that ludum trigonis would be expected. trigon, a sort of three-cornered game of hand ball, from τρίγωνος. This is the only passage where the word occurs in Latin before Martial, who several times uses it. For this reading, which is that of vet. Bland., other MSS. give fugio rabiosi tempora signi, and this is explained to mean (1) the season of the dog-star; (2) the meridian heat of the sun. The first explanation cannot stand, for it was not in Horace's power to avoid the tempora of the dogstar, and his habits during the whole year, not only during the month of the dog-star, are described. And one's whole feeling revolts against the idea that Horace could have called the sun rabiosum signum. 127. pransus, 'having eaten at lunch,' quantum . interpellet, 'enough to prevent me going fasting the whole day': interpellare in this sense in prose has quin, quominus or ne. • 128. domesticus simply=domi, at home. 131. quaestor. Horace contemptuously chooses the lowest rung in the ladder of public offices. fuisset: for the singular verb after more than one singular nominative cf. Od. 2. 13. 38 n. SATIRE VII A repartee made in Brutus's Court at Clazomenae. DATE, 43 or 42 B.C. Apparently the earliest of all the extant compositions of Horace. The event it describes happened in the year 43 or 42 B.C., at which time M. Brutus, the tyrannicide, was acting as propraetor in Asia, and it seems to have been composed at the time, or shortly after; certainly before the battle of Philippi. This is probable for several reasons. There is no allusion to the sad fate of Brutus: the murder of Caesar would be an unhappy subject to joke about if the power of Octavian, his heir, was established at Rome: the mention in line 18 of Brutus's usurpation as a regular praetorship looks as if his power was as yet not overthrown. Besides this, though the poor pun celebrated might at the time it was uttered be deemed worthy of a poetic dress-jokes in court always excite unbounded admiration to recur to it after years would show weakness and silliness of mind. - 1. proscripti: in 43 B.C. P. Rupilius Rex, of Praeneste, had been elected praetor in 43 B.c., but was proscribed by the triumvirs and fled to Brutus in Asia. The intentional juxtaposition of proscripti and Regis is to be noted. pus atque venenum, a periphrasis like virtus Catonis, etc., 'the foul-mouthed and venomous.' 2. hybrida, 'cross-breed': the scholiasts say his father was an Asiatic, his mother a Roman. The word hybrida (also spelt hibrida, ibrida) is generally connected with ὕβρις, but Kiessling refers to a gloss of Philoxenus iber ἡμίονος, and to imbri the name of cross-bred sheep in Pliny (8. 49. 199), cf. Gk. ὄβρια. 3. lippis: patients with sore eyes, a cominon complaint in Italy, would collect and talk in the apothecaries' shops (medicinae). Barbers' shops (tonstrinae) were proverbially the place for gossip. These places are joined together by Plautus, Amph. 4. 1. 5 in medicinis in tonstrinis apud |