Dissimile hoc illi est; quia non, ut forsit honorem Sed, quod eram, narro. Respondes, ut tuus est mos, 6 50 55 60 65 70 only young men of rank were raised.-49. Forsit, a poetical form of forsitan.-51. Cautum assumere dignos, who art careful to take only worthy persons as thy friends.'-53. Sortitus. Supply sim, not sum. This is merely what his enemies say, not the truth.-57. Infans, given as an adjective to pudor, which checks eloquence.' 58. Circum belongs to vectari, from which it is separated by tmesis. Satureianus caballus is a Tarentine steed,' Saturion being the ancient name of a district near Tarentum, from which a fine breed of carriage-horses came. —69. Purus et insons belongs to the clause with si in the next line. -71. Pauper; that is, etsi pauper erat.-73. Centurionibus, answering pretty nearly to our sergeants,' who occupy a somewhat important position in a regiment, though generally men of humble birth and little education; in a provincial town, however, they are men of consequence, whence they are here called magni. 74. Suspensi loculos, etc. See Gram. $259, 1. Suspensi is construed in the same way as accincti often is. Loculi et tabula are the satchel and reckoning-table, the materials for counting, which was the elementary branch of instruction. The ancients, not being acquainted with the decimal system of notation necessarily had a different mode of counting from us. They used a reckoning-table, with lines for the units, tens, hundreds, &c. and counters or reckoning-stones (calculi.) These Ibant octonis referentes idibus aera; Sed puerum est ausus Romam portare docendum 75 80 85 Mercedes sequerer: neque ego essem questus; at hoc nunc Nil me poeniteat sanum patris hujus; eoque Atque alios legere ad fastum quoscumque parentes, 95 35 Nollem onus haud unquam solitus portare molestum. 100 = = calculi were carried in the loculi. -75. Referentes aera, 'paying their school-fees.' Aera Idibus = singulos asses singulis Idibus, for we know that the children at elementary schools paid an as monthly, and always on the ides. In the higher schools payment was made for the session. The ides are called octonae; because there were eight days between the nones and them.-77. Doceat = docendos curet.-78. Semet prognatos filios suos. - -79. Ut in magno populo, as is necessary in a large city.' He thus excuses his father's apparent extravagance. -82. Connect (pudicum purum) ab omni-facto. -85. Olim, as frequently, aliquando, referring to the future.86. A praeco and a coactor, as to which latter compare the introduction, had mean trades, which incapacitated them for holding any office, even in the smaller towns of Italy. -87. Connect hoc with major, 'the greater.' -89. Poeniteat me here, as often, 'I am discontented with.'-90. Dolo suo, a judicial expression for sua culpa.93. Ratio, opinion.' -95. Ad fastum, according to, or to satisfy, his pride.' 96. Connect honestos ( honoratos) fascibus et sellis (curulibus.)-98. Tuo judicio, Maecenas himself having a great disinclination to take office. -100. Res, 'property.' 101. Salutandi. This refers to the well-known Roman custom of paying a visit (salutatio) to great min regularly in the morning. A person striving Et comes alter, uti ne solus rusve peregreve Exirem; plures calones atque caballi Pascendi, ducenda petorrita. Nunc mihi curto Ire licet mulo, vel si libet usque Tarentum, 105 Mantica cui lumbos onere ulceret atque eques armos; Objiciet nemo sordes mihi, quas tibi, Tilli, Quum Tiburte via praetorem quinque sequuntur 110 115 120. after office had to comply with this custom. 104. Curto, here 'lean,' for there is no trace in antiquity of the modern custom of cutting horses' tails.-107. Sordes, 'miserliness.' Tilli. See line 24. -109. The slaves carried these articles with them, that the praetor might not need to go into an inn.-111. Milibus atque aliis; that is, atque aliis milibus, = atque milibus aliorum hominum. Observe the poetical variation of the construction with the comparative, first quam tu, then the ablative. - 113. The Circus Maximus is called fallax, because it contained the booths of the fortune-tellers, astrologers, in short, of all those who in the next line are called divini. Vespertinum forum is forum vespere, the adjective for the adverb, as afterwards, in line 128, domesticus otior. Zumpt, § 682. — 116. Lapis albus, a common marble table with three feet, mensa marmorea.-117. Duo pocula. Each guest received two cups, that with the little cyathus he might prepare for himself a stronger or weaker mixture of wine. The echinus (properly hedge-hog') was probably an instrument with pegs, for hanging up the cyathus or the lamps.— 118. Cum patera guttus, both vessels used in sacrifice. The guttus had a long, narrow neck, from which the wine or oil fell in drops. Campana supellex; that is, of clay, the finest kind of which was found in the neighbourhood of Nola in Campania. 120. Marsya. In the Roman Forum there was a statue of Marsyas, with the one hand elevated. From the punishment which was inflicted on him by Apollo, he was an emblem of judgment. Hence Marsya=forum. -121. Noviorum minoris, an usurer, as the scholiasts tell us.123. Ungor olivo, for some gymnastic game on the Campus Martius, especially for ball, as is indicated in line 126 by lusum trigonem, Non quo fraudatis immundus Natta Incernis. 125 130 which is lusum trigonis. 124. Natta, a man often mentioned as notorious for his avarice. He used the same oil for anointing as for burning in his lamps: hence Horace says that he stole it from the lamps. 127. Quantum interpellet inani ventre diem durare, ‘as much as keeps me from passing the whole day with an empty stomach.' Prandium must be distinguished from the coena mentioned in line 116. The former is breakfast. SATIRA VII. A TALE, composed by Horace for the amusement of Maecenas and his friends. P. Rupilius Rex, a native of Praeneste, and a Roman eques, was in 52 B.C., director of the publicani in Bithynia; in 43 B. C. he became praetor; but in the same year, at the instigation of Octavianus, he was proscribed, and fled into Greece to M. Brutus, who received him as his companion (comes). Persius was a native of Clazomenae in Asia Minor: his father was an Asiatic, und his mother a Roman, for which reason he is called Hybrida, a half-breed.' The affair is said to have taken place in the camp of M. Brutus. PROSCRIPTI Regis Rupili pus atque venenum Clazomenis, etiam lites cum Rege molestas, 5 1. Regis Rupili. In Horace's time it was not uncommon to put the cognomen before the nomen. The poet, moreover, has a particular reason for the transposition here, the point resting in the sense of the word rex.-3. Lippis et tonsoribus. The tabernae medicorum, shops of apothecaries and empirics, as well as those of barbers, are still centres for gossip.-6. Odium here is an active quality, ill temper, bitter hostility.' 8. Sisenna here seems to be merely some Ad Regem redeo. Postquam nihil inter utrumque 10 15 20 25 man notorious for his vituperative language. As to Barrus, compare i. 6, 30. Equis praecurrere albis is a proverbial expression for to surpass by far,' white horses being considered in antiquity the fleetest.-10. Construe thus: Omnes molesti sunt hoc jure quo fortes; that is, all litigants (for these are strictly molesti) stand to each other in the same relation (hoc jure) as men who wage war with one another.-13. Ut ultima divideret mors, 'so that death alone at last separated them;' namely, when Achilles slew Hector.-15. Inertes, men uninfluenced by the desire of glory.-16. Disparibus, men unequal in valour,' as were Diomedes the Greek and Glaucus the Lycian (Il. vi. 119).-18. Praetore, a general expression for governor,' since Brutus was properly proconsul of Macedonia.-19. Construe thus: uti Bacchius cum Bitho, non melius compositum (par.) Bithus and Bacchius were two gladiators, who at last killed each other.-23. Conventus here is the judicial assembly, formed of the Roman citizens settled in the place, and the companions of Brutus (cohors), by whom the quarrel between Persius and Rupilius was to be decided.-25. Canem. Horace, keeping to the figure of the stars, has here a good pun, in the double sense of canis, 'a. low dog (scoundrel),' and 'the dogstar,' Sirius.-27. Fertur quo rara securis, to which an axe seldom comes.'-28. Salso multoque fluenti. As we can say in poetry salsus et multus fluit, so here participially.29. The regular custom among vine-dressers was to prune the vines before the cuckoo was heard that is, before the spring equinox. When a traveller observed a vine-dresser engaged in pruning operations at a later period of the year, he called out derisively Cuckoo;' which, consequently, became a slang word for 'vinedresser.' Arbustum, properly a shrubbery,' but here a vineyard.' |