4 132. 128. pueri, 'my sons.' We cannot look upon Ofellus now as possessing a number of slaves, ditis examen domus; so the pueri are the nati, line 115. nituistis: nitere is used of those who are in good case, well-fed and welldressed; cf. Dan. i. 15 'fairer and fatter in flesh' of Daniel and his fellowcaptives. ut, 'since,' Od. 4. 4. 42 n. 129. propriae telluris erum, 'as lord of the soil to hold it as his own.' propriae, a tertiary predicate, is much better than the weakly-supported proprie. Lucil. 478 proprium nil neminem habere; and 664 cum sciam nil esse in vita proprium mortali datum | iam qua tempestate vivo, chresin ad me recipio, where chresin (χρῆσιν)=usum, line 134. 130. statuit, 'has fixed,' as the abiding possessor. postremum, 'at last': supposing neither want of thrift, nor ignorance of law, cause his ejection, death certainly will. Palmer reads postremo, denying that postremum (which Kiessling makes masc. 'when at his last hour') can be an adverb. 133. nunc ager: Anthol. Pal. 9. 74. 1; 3. pp. 238, 410 ̓Αγρὸς ̓Αχαιμενίδου γενόμην ποτε νῦν δὲ Μενίππου | καὶ πάλιν ἐξ ἑτέρου βήσομαι εἰς ἕτερον. | καὶ γὰρ κεῖνος ἔχειν μέ ποτ ̓ ᾤετο καὶ πάλιν οὗτος | οἴεται, εἰμὶ δ ̓ ὅλως οὐδενός, ἀλλὰ Τύχης. sub nomine: to be taken with Umbreni only, not with dictus. Ofelli dictus go together, 'called that of Ofellus.' 136. Cf. Virg. Aen. 6. 95 tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito; 1. 207 durate et vosmet rebus servate secundis. DAMASIPPUS (line 16 n.), who had lost all his property through dealing in antiques, and had been converted, when on the point of committing suicide, to the Stoic view that the above text is true, by the sage Stertinius, repeats to Horace the discourse of Stertinius on that text: Madness is folly and ignorance of truth, 43. There are many kinds of madness-there is the raving lunatic, 53-62; but Damasippus, who wastes his all on curiosities, and the creditor, who rashly trusts him, are mad, too, 64-76. Ambition, avarice, luxury, superstition, are all phases of madness, 78-80; in fact, all but the Sapiens are mad, 81; but especially the man of avarice, 82-98. Staberius thought so much of riches that he forced his heirs to inscribe the amount of their inheritance on his tombstone. It is difficult to say whether he or Aristippus, who made his slaves throw away their burden of gold, was more insane, 102-105. The miser who hoards his wealth, never to use it, is insane, 105-128; he often goes mad worse than Orestes, poisoning his relatives for their money, 131-141. Opimius the miser was mad, who would rather die of starvation than pay for what would keep him alive. The two most common types of madness are avarice and its opposite, prodigality, as exemplified in Aulus and Tiberius Oppidius, 168-175. Ambition, too, is another kind of madness, 179-186. Agamemnon, who slew his daughter from a confusion of the ideas of right and wrong, was as mad as mad Ajax, who slew sheep, taking them for men, 187-223. The prodigal is next exposed: Nomentanus, who gave away his property wholesale; young Aesopus, who dissolved and drank a pearl; the young Arrii, who lunched on nightingales, were all mad, 225-246. The infatuated lover is as mad as a grown man playing hobby-horse and other children's games, 247-272. Love is bad enough when it only makes men silly; though the lover who seeks for an omen of his sweetheart's affection by shooting apple-pips at the ceiling, and the old dotard lisping amorously, are both out of their senses; but what of the murders and suicides occasioned by love? 272-280. Next, the superstitious are mad; for instance, a man who prayed to the gods every day to grant him immortality : or the mother who kills her child by plunging him in the Tiber to fulfil a vow, 280-295. I, Damasippus, may be mad, but woe to the man who calls me so ! He shall be told to look behind him,' 295-299. Damasippus then, at Horace's request, points out wherein Horace's insanity consists, namely, in building fine houses, and in aping the great in other ways-like the frog trying to equal in size the calf-in writing poetry, in ill-temper, and in living beyond his means, 300 ad fin. The date of the Satire is fixed from the mention of the aedileship of Agrippa, line 185, in 33 or 32 в.с. 1. si raro scribis, ut ... 'if you write rarely (so) that ... what will become of you?' sic has more authority than si and, if read, a full stop must be placed after canas. It is, however, probably a correction due (1) to the apodosis quid fiet? being so distant, and (2) to the desire to provide an antecedent to ut. For the omission of such an antecedent cf. 1. 7. 13 ira fuit capitalis, ut ...; 2.7.10 vixit inaequalis ut. For scribis many MSS. give scribes, which Palmer prints (see his Crit. Notes) but which looks like a correction metri gratia. On the other hand the lengthening of scribis is unparalleled, and quite different from miscueris 2.2.74. 2. membranam, 'parchment,' for transferring his notes to from his tabulae. In Horace's time completed books were still written on rolls of papyrus; and parchment, membrana Pergamena, which was still expensive, was only used either for the wrapper of the papyrusroll, or for the author to make his fair copy on. retexens, 'cancelling': lit. unweaving, like Penelope her web. 3. benignus, with gen. like parcus 2. 2. 62; prodigus Ep. 1. 7. 42. 4. dignum sermone, 'worth mention,' λόγου ἄξιον. quid fiet, 'what will come of it?' 5. Saturnalibus: from the 17th to the 19th of December, the chief festival of the Roman year, when great licence was permitted-drinking, gambling, and all sorts of rioting were legal: slaves enjoyed temporary freedom, 2. 7. 4. Our Christmas holidays have taken the place of the old Roman festival. huc, i.e. to your country house, his Sabine villa, given him by Maecenas about 34 B.C. fugisti: we have several instances of thoughtful Romans enjoying an escape from the tumultuous Roman festivals or games: cf. Cic. ad Att. 2. 1. 1 gladiatores cupide relinquenti; Juv. 11. 191. sobrius: though you might have indulged a little at such a season, when every one else was drinking; cf. Juv. 7. 96 vinum toto nescire Decembri. 6. promissis: cf. A. P. 138. nil est, 'there's nothing forthcoming.' 7. calami: pens made of reeds. The indolent writer blames his pen, Pers. 3. 12 tunc queritur, crassus calamo quod pendeat umor. 8. iratis natus dis is a poetic common-place: cf. 1.5.98; Juv. 10.129. The addition of atque poetis παρὰ προσδοκίαν introduces a comic touch. paries: the innocent wall gets thumped by the sterile bard. In Persius it is the back of the studying couch, 1. 106 nec pluteum caedit nec demorsos sapit ungues. minantis: cf. Ep. 1. 8. 3, and ἀπειλεῖν = 'to boast' Hom. Od. 8. 383 ἠμὲν ἀπείλησας βητάρμονας εἶναι ἀρίστους, or 'to promise' Il. 23. 863. 'if only,' 'once,' 'as soon as'; cf. Catull. 14. 17; Ep. 1. 7. 10 n. 'free from cares,' as he expected to be in the country. winter time, and so tepidus is 'warm,' cf. Ep. 1. 20. 19 n. 9. 10. si, vacuum, tepido, it was 11. Platona: not the philosopher, but the comic poet Plato, who flourished 428-389 в.с. The other three mentioned are poets; and Horace, as we have seen from 1. 4 and 1. 10, regarded the poets of the old comedy as the true precursors of satire. Eupolis and Plato both were of the old comedy, 1. 4. 1. Menander, the chief poet of the new comedy, lived 342-291 в.с. Archilochus, the inventor of Iambic verse, and a true satirist, lived 714-676 в.с. 13. invidiam placare paras, i.e. by giving up satire, which had made him unpopular. We see evident attempts to appease this envy, as in 1. 4. 64 seq., 1.6; 2.1.39 seq. virtute relicta: giving up the castigation of vice is meant. 14. contemnere: people will not cease to dislike you; they will, besides, despise you. inproba Siren, 'the bold Siren'; bold or shameless, because of their forwardness in inviting Ulysses to come to their island. inprobus: see 1.3.56. For the Sirens, see Hom. Od. 12. 39 seq. 15. quidquid : namely 'fame.' vita: instr. abl. 16. Damasippe : a well-known amateur of bric-a-brac, cf. Cic. ad Fam. 7. 23. 3 si Damasippus in sententia non manebit, aliquem Pseudodamasippum vel cum iactura reperiemus. 17. verum: may be either 'sincere,' or 'sound.' tonsore: Damasippus had turned philosopher, and grown a large beard as such, line 35. tonsore is παρὰ προσδοκίαν. 18. Ianum ad medium, 'at the central Arcade,' where many bankers and money-lenders did business='on 'Change.' All thoroughfares or arcades (transitiones perviae Cic. N. D. 2. 27. 67) might be called Iani, because of the double entrance; and in or leading into the forum were three Jani, perhaps covered ways, or arcades; and Livy 41.27 speaks of Ianos tres faciendos in a certain town, probably in imitation of those in Rome. Becker, however, supposes that the Jani were three buildings, similar to the Janus Quadrifrons, which still stands in the Forum Boarium, constructed of four archways joined in a square, with an attica, or chamber, above them. He thinks that the bankers transacted business partly in those chambers, and partly below, under the archways (Burn, 'Rome and the Campagna,' p. 105). In any case 'the middle Janus' was the place where, perhaps not excepting the Puteal Libonis, most business was done in lending and investing money in Rome. It corresponded to our Stock Exchange to some extent. Cic. Off. 2. 25. 87 de quaerenda, de collocanda pecunia, vellem etiam de utenda, commodius a quibusdam optimis viris ad lanum medium sedentibus quam ab ullis philosophis ulla in schola disputatur; Cic. Phil. 6. 5. 15 itane? Ianus medius in L. Antonii clientela est ? quis umquam in illo Iano inventus est qui L. Antonio mille nummum ferret expensum? Cf. Ep. 1. 1. 54. 19. fracta est, 'was wrecked': the metaphor is either from shipwreck (cf. Cic. Sull. 14. 41 patrimonii naufragus) or from chariot-racing, excussus suiting equally with either, see Dict. Note the sarcasm of aliena propriis and the contrasted position of the contrasted words. .. • 20. quaerere, 'to ask': he wished to have its exact description, so as to be able to recognise it. 21. quo vafer ... aere, 'what was the genuine bronze in which the wily Sisyphus had bathed his feet.' In a fragment of the Sisyphus, a satyric drama of Aeschylus (fr. 229 Dind.) occur the words λεοντοβάμων ποῦ σκάφη χαλκήλατος; 'where is the brazen pan mounted on a lion?' Damasippus refers to that particular pan. There were forged ones in circulation, though, and he used to try and find which was the genuine one. the mania for antiquities cf. 1. 3. 90 n. vafer: Sisyphus was proverbially the cunningest of men, ὁ κέρδιστος γένετ ̓ ἀνδρῶν Hom. 11. 6. 153. Corinthian bronze (aes Corinthium) was famous from early times. Sisyphus was king of Corinth. 22. fusum durius, 'stiffly cast,' opp. mollius, Virg. Aen. 6. For 847 excudent alii spirantia mollius aera. 23. callidus ... ponebam, 'I knew to a nicety the exact value to place on a given statue.' ponebam: like our 'put a price on.' milia centum, 100,000 sesterces, about £870. 24. unus, 'the one of all others': 'I excelled,' 2. 6. 57. 25. Owing to his cleverness in bargains, Damasippus was surnamed by the crowded streetcorners (compita), where auctions were held, Mercurialis, 'the favourite of Mercury' (cf. Od. 2. 17. 28), the god of gain (merx), ἐριούνιος Ἑρμῆς. MSS. have Mercuriale in agreement with cognomen which would indicate that he was called 'Mercury.' Krüger, however, takes cognomen Mercuriale='the nickname Mercurialis,' cf. Tac. Ann. 1. 53 Sempronio nomine. 27. purgatum: with gen., like καθαρθῆναι τῆς νόσου. 28. mire: with emovit and in strong opposition to ut solet. The case of Damasippus presents an 'astonishing' instance of the 'common' phenomenon of one disease driving out another. In his case the new disease is πολυπραγμοσύνη, busying himself about other people's affairs. cor, the stomach = καρδία, Thuc. 2. 49. 3; so cardiacus line 161 and Juv. 5. 32 is a person with disease of the stomach. 29. traiecto: according to Porph. a technical word with physicians for diseases changing their seat. 30. ut cum: to be joined together, 'as in the case of a person afflicted with lethargy, who suddenly, owing to the malady changing its seat, takes to boxing, and assails his doctor.' • • .. • • 31. simile huic: i.e. 'provided you don't assault me.' o bone: ὠγαθέ, a familiar, but rather short mode of address, used in remonstrances. ne te frustrere: in comedy often ne frustra sis, 'don't deceive yourself, in supposing you are in your senses.' Damasippus is slightly nettled by Horace's answer, which seemed to imply that he, Damasippus, was a dangerous lunatic. 32. insanis et tu stultique, 'you are mad as well as I, and so are all fools.' Note that et que are not 'both and.' stultique prope omnes: the Stoic doctrine was that all fools were mad, πᾶς ἄφρων μαίνεται: prope somewhat modifies the harsh paradox, cf. 1. 3. 96 quis paria esse fere placuit peccata. Notice how Horace connects his main subject, viz., the madness of mankind, with his exordium, by seeming accident. He seems to have considered that this apparent drifting into his subject showed art by concealment of it: cf. 1.3 and 1.6. 33. Stertinius, an oracle among the Stoics, but unknown to us, save from this passage and Ep. 1. 12. 20 (Empedocles an Stertinium deliret acumen), where Acron tells us he wrote two hundred and twenty volumes in Latin on the Stoic philosophy. crepat: cf. Od. 1. 18. 5. unde, 'from whose lips' =a quo: cf. 1. 6. 12; 2. 6. 21. sapientem pascere barbam, 'to cultivate a philosophic beard'; cf. 1. 3. 133. sapientem is to be joined to barbam, as sapiens to porticus in Pers. 3. 53 quaeque docet sapiens braccatis illita Medis | porticus. ἐκ πώγωνος σοφός was a Greek proverb. pascere, as τρέφειν (cf. the late Greek πωγωνοτροφεῖν), is used of letting the hair grow long; Virg. Aen. 7. 391 sacrum tibi pascere crinem. 36. The Fabrician bridge still connects the island in the Tiber with the left bank. It was called from Fabricius, by whom, when curator viarum in 62 в.с., it was built of stone. On one of the still remaining arches we read L.FABRICIVS CF CVR VIAR FACIVNDUM COERAVIT IDEMQVE PROBAVIT. 35. 37. male re gesta, 'after my failure.' cum vellem, 'when I was about to'; vellem is often used as an auxiliary verb in this sense. operto capite: it was customary with those about to destroy themselves, or to devote themselves to death, to shroud their head. So Plat. Phaed. 118 A of ... Socrates; Xen. Cyrop. 8. 7. 28 of Cyrus; Suet. Caes. 82 of Caesar; Livy 8. 9 of Decius; Livy 4. 12 multi ex plebe capitibus obvolutis se in Tiberim praecipitaverunt. 38. dexter, 'on the right,' and so with propitious omen. cavě: and so Ep. 1. 13. 19, but cavē Epod. 6. 11; Ep. 1. 6. 32: cf. vidě sis Pers. 1. 108 and pută 2.5. 32; Pers. 4. 9. These shortenings are a relic of the old freedom of the dramatists, who allowed a long syllable to be shortened by the influence of the tone on another. The pronunciation cau is not on the whole so probable though supported by the story in Cic. de Div. 2. 40. 84 where cauneas is made=cave ne eas. faxis: Roby S. G. 291. 3. 39. pudor malus, 'false shame.' angit, a very strong word : ἄγχει, ἀπάγχει are so used. 43. cumque belongs to the first quem, as well as to the second. Observe mală before st, 1. 10. 72. 44. Chrysippus: 1. 3. 127. porticus : the στοὰ ποικίλη at Athens, where Zeno lectured, whence the name Stoic. grex: the flock, i.e. the school. In Ep. 1.4.16 Horace calls himself Epicuri de grege porcum: cf. Cic. Fin. 1. 20.65; de Orat. 1. 10. 42. 45. autumat, 'names': an archaic word common in Plautus: once in Terence; not used by Cicero. formula (ὅρος, κανών), 'definition.' 51. variis partibus: a pregnant instrumental ablative, 'by leading them in different directions,' lit. 'by different directions.' 53. caudam trahat: Porph. is probably right in saying that this is derived from the custom of children tying a tail (a dish-clout?) to those they wished to make fun of. 54. nihilum metuenda: nihilum here used adverbially. timentis: the simplest way is to take this as masc., 'of the man who fears'; so ruentis in 57, and we thus get a personal nom. to queratur and audierit (60), or we may say that Horace passes imperceptibly from the general idea of 'folly that fears' to the 'fool who complains,' etc. 55. campo, 'a plain,' not the Campus Martius here. 56. varum, 'differing from'; the dat. is like meretrici dispar Ep. 1. 18. 3; so differt sermoni 1.4. 48. varus, prop. of men with the legs bent out from the knees, 'knock-kneed,' opp. vatius and valgus: hence 'distorted, crooked, diverging.' 57. amica mater, 'his loving mother,' φίλη μήτηρ. amica is used with emphasis as the first word, to point out that the madman might well listen to the voice of those who naturally must have friendly feelings towards him. The punctuation of some editors amica, mater ('his mistress,' 'his mother') shows little taste and destroys the balance of the sentence. 58. honesta, 'honoured,' 'virtuous.' 59. serva, 'take heed!' 'look out!' φυλάττου, a common exclamation in Plautus and Terence. 60. Fufius, an actor. 61. cum Ilionam edormit, 'while sleeping through the part of Iliona.' edormit, pres., the usual tense with dum in sense of 'while,' after past tenses, and sometimes, see line 277, with cum in that sense. Iliona was the eldest daughter of Priam, married to Polymestor, king of Thrace, by whom she had a son Deiphilus or Deipylus. Her young brother Polydorus was committed to her charge, and she changed him and her son Deiphilus, representing Polydorus to be her son. When Polymestor was bribed to slay Polydorus, he accordingly slew his own son Deiphilus. Pacuvius, the tragedian, made this the subject of his tragedy 'Iliona,' in which the murdered Deiphilus appeared to his sleeping mother Iliona, and addressed her in these words: mater, te adpello, tu, quae curam somno suspensum levas, | neque te mei miseret, surge et sepeli gnatum tuum priusquam ferae Iliona should have sprung from sleep, and replied age, adsta, mane, audi! iteradum eadem istaec mihi ! ... |