87.at hoc nunc] ‘Hoc,’ in the sense of ‘propter hoc,’ ἐπὶ τούτῳ, is commonly used by Horace. See in this Satire, vv. 41 and 52. It is also common in Cæsar.
89.Nil me poeniteat sanum] ‘I hope while I have my senses I may never be ashamed.’ Horace uses this mode of expression elsewhere, as in the last Satire, v. 44, and S. ii. 3. 322.
90.dolo] ‘Dolus’ is used like ‘fraus’ in C. i. 28. 30, for a fault generally: ‘dolo suo,’ ‘by his own fault.’
93.Et vox et ratio:] ‘My language and my judgment.’
94.A certis annis] ‘From any given period.’ He means that, at all times from his cradle upwards, his father had been to him all that a father could be. ‘Legere ad fastum,’ to choose with reference to ambition whatever parents each man might desire. We know nothing of Horace’s mother, whom he probably lost in very early life; but he here intimates his respect for her memory, as well as his father’s.
97.Fascibus et sellis] The ‘fasces’ were bundles of sticks, with or without an axe in the middle, which were carried before the consuls and prætors by lictors. The ‘sella curulis’ was a chair ornamented with ivory, the use of which during the republic was confined to the consuls, prætors, curule ædiles, and censors.
98.fortasse] The Greeks used ἴσως this way, where a certain and not a doubtful proposition is intended.
101.salutandi plures,] This means, that in order to preserve his position he must sell his independence, bowing to persons he would not otherwise notice, and paying visits of ceremony early in the morning,—a trouble that Horace would feel more than most men. He must also, he says, hire one or two persons to go about with him in the character of clients; he must buy a number of horses and slaves of the lower sort.
103.plures calones] ‘Calones’ were properly slaves who went with the army, carrying the heavier part of the soldier’s accoutrements. But the word was also applied to domestic slaves employed on menial work.
104.ducenda petorrita] The ‘petorritum’ was a four-wheeled carriage, said to have been introduced from Gaul beyond the Alps.
curto Ire licet mulo] It is impossible to do more than conjecture what Horace means by ‘curto.’ Probably a stout, short-bellied animal is intended, an ugly beast.
105.usque Tarentum,] Along the most frequented of all the roads, the Via Appia, and to the farthest part of Italy, carrying his portmanteau behind him. Public officers could not go beyond a certain distance from Rome, without the permission of the senate.
107.Tilli,] See v. 24. He appears to have been a parsimonious person, going into the country with no company of friends, but only five slaves to attend him (see note on S. i. 3. 11), carrying a jar of their master’s cheap wine. The Via Tiburtina left Rome by the Esquiline gate, and bore that name as far as Tibur, whence the Via Valeria completed the communication with Aternum on the Hadriatic.
111.Millibus atque aliis] See note on S. ii. 3. 197.
112.quanti olus ac far;] Horace means that he lounges in the market and talks freely to the market people, without fear of lowering his dignity, or being remarked.
113.Fallacem Circum] The Circus Maximus was said to have been built by Tarquinius Priscus for races and athletic exhibitions. Different writers mention that fortune tellers and other impostors resorted to the Circus, and gave it a bad name; but it was also frequented by prostitutes in vast numbers, who lined the vaults under the ‘cavea,’ and carried on their vile trade there, and was surrounded with shops established for the benefit of the spectators. The Circus Maximus was called Circus κατ᾽ ἐξοχήν. When there were no races or games going on, it was probably frequented as a lounge by all manner of people; but probably men of consequence did not care to be seen there among the vulgar, at such times. The Forum was not frequented in the evening by the richer class of people, who were then eating their dinner. Horace liked to stroll out at that hour, and take his light meal afterwards, and to stop and hear what the fortune-tellers had to say for themselves. Respecting these persons, see C. i. 11.
115.Ad porri et ciceris] This Pythagorean meal of leeks, pulse, and fritters, was partly perhaps matter of choice, and partly of necessity. Horace was poor at this time, and his health was indifferent. A vegetable diet was and is much more common in Italy than with us, and probably the most luxurious of the Romans, when by themselves, frequently abstained from meat. A dish of ‘cicer,’ ready boiled, was sold in the streets for an as, in the time of Martial (i. 104. 10). ‘Laganus’ is described by the Scholiasts as a flat, thin cake, fried and eaten with condiments. It was sometimes fried under roast meat or fowls, so as to get their dripping, and so would be like our Yorkshire pudding. Horace had no doubt the plainer sort.
116.pueris tribus,] This number was the lowest, probably, that at that time waited on any person who had any slaves at all. (See above, on v.107.) ‘Lapis albus’ was a small side-table of white marble. The wealthy Romans had a great variety of tables of the handsomest sort in their dining-rooms, for exhibiting their plate. (See below, S. 2. 4, n.; and above, S. 3. 13, n.) All the plate Horace had to show was two cups and a cyathus (C. iii. 19. 12), and these it is probable were usually empty. The ‘echinus’ is a vessel nowhere else mentioned by that name, and is variously interpreted as a salt-cellar (in the shape of an ‘echinus’ or sea-hedgehog), a glass bottle, a leather bottle, and a wooden bowl in which to wash the cups. ‘Paterae’ were broad, flat, saucer-shaped cups, and were much used in libations. ‘Guttus’ was a long, thin-necked bottle, from which wine or oil was poured very slowly, drop by drop. It was also used in libations, and these two vessels, as here joined, have reference to the practice of offering a libation at every meal to the Lares. See C. iv. 5. 34, n. These were of the commonest earthenware which came from Campania. See S. ii. 3. 144.
120.obeundus Marsya,] Horace says he goes to bed without the nervous feeling that he must be up early to go to the Forum, where a statue of Marsyas was erected near the Rostra. Marsyas was a fabulous person, who was said to have challenged Apollo to play the lyre against his flute. Apollo, having gained the victory, caused Marsyas to be flayed alive. Marsyas or Silenus was the symbol of a city having the Jus Italicum, one part of which was a free constitution of its own. It would therefore appear in the Forum as the symbol of free jurisdiction. The only representations of Marsyas that remain, exhibit him either in the agony of punishment, or in the suspense that preceded it. Wherefore “a Marsyas countenance” was synonymous with dejection and ill-humour; and Horace seems to indicate that his face was distorted, and ascribes it humorously to his detestation of the younger Novius, who is said to have been a usurer.
122.Ad quartam jaceo;] The first hour he considers late enough for any man to sleep (Epp. i. 17. 6). Sometimes he got up early and went out to walk (S. 9); but as a general rule he remained in bed till the fourth hour, after which he got up and took a stroll, as he had done the evening before; or else, after reading and writing (or thinking, as he says S. 4. 133) by himself (‘tacitum’) and in bed, as much as he felt inclined, he anointed himself with oil, and went to the Campus Martius to get some exercise. The Romans rubbed oil on their limbs, either before swimming in the Tiber (C. iii. 12. 7, S. ii. 1. 8), or before their more violent exercises (C. i. 8. 8, sqq.). The parsimonious Natta, who robbed the lamps to oil himself, was probably a person of good family, that being the cognomen of the Pinaria gens, one of the oldest patrician families in Rome.
125.Ast ubi me fessum] When the sun began to get hot about noon, and Horace was tired with his game, he went to the public baths to bathe, which was usual after playing, and then took a light luncheon (see above S. 5. 25, n.), after which he lounged at home till evening, when he went out for his stroll perhaps, and came home again to his supper, as he told us before. ‘Lusum trigonem’ was a game of ball only mentioned elsewhere by Martial. The players, as the name implies, were three in number, and stood in a triangle. Their skill appears to have been shown in throwing and catching the ball with the left hand.
127.quantum interpellet] ‘As much as would prevent me from going all day on an empty stomach.’ The prose construction would be ‘interpellet quin,’ or ‘quominus,’ or ‘ne durem.’
131.Quaestor] The office of ‘quaestor,’ which was at one time a high magistracy, when the ‘quaestores’ had charge of the ‘aerarium’ or public treasury, was at this time one of little weight. Its functions were not clearly defined. Horace was a scribe in the quaestor’s office, which perhaps leads him to speak of a quaestor. The office was high enough for the occasion.
SATIRE VII.
Thesubject of this Satire is a dispute between Rupilius Rex, one of the officers on the staff of Brutus, and a merchant named Persius, of Clazomenæ (a town on the gulf of Smyrna), arising, it may be supposed, out of some money transactions. Horace treats the matter much in the same way as the dispute got up between the two parasites for the amusement of Mæcenas and his friends at Caudium (S. 5. 51, sqq.). He no doubt had some reason for disliking Rupilius, which the Scholiasts supply, whether with any sufficient authority it is impossible to say. They tell us that this man’s native place was Præneste (which may be gathered from v. 28); that he was banished from that town by his fellow-citizens; that he then served in Africa in the army of Attius Varus, proprætor of Cn. Pompeius; that he was received into favor by Julius Cæsar and made Prætor; that after Cæsar’s death he was proscribed by the Triumvirs, and joined the army of Brutus. Finally, that he was disgusted at Horace, a man of low birth, being made a military tribune, and continually insulted him, which indignities Horace retorted in this Satire. Persius, the Scholiasts say, was born of a Greek father and a Roman mother. Beyond this, which may or may not be true, we know nothing about him but what we gather from this Satire, that he was a wealthy man, and carried on a large business of some kind at Clazomenæ. The dispute arose when Brutus and his army were in Asia Minor, which was inB. C.43-44 (see note on v. 18). How soon afterwards the Satire was written, it is impossible to say; not long, probably. It may have been made on the spot, and shown to those who would find most amusement in it, in the camp.
1.Proscripti Regis Rupili] The Rupilia gens was a plebeian family of no great note in Rome. The only one of the name who was distinguished was P. Rupilius, consul inB. C.132, and the following year proconsul in Sicily. He was the intimate friend of Lælius and the Younger Scipio (Cic. de Amicit. 27). As to Rupilius Rex and Persius, see Introduction. By ‘proscripti’ it is perhaps intended to compare this Rex with the last of the Reges, Tarquinius. If so, the play upon the name is repeated in the last line. See note.
2.Hybrida quo pacto sit Persius ultus,] ‘Hybrida’ applies to all cross-bred animals, and was used for a man one of whose parents was a Roman and the other a foreigner.
3.Omnibus et lippis notum et tonsoribus] The apothecaries’ and barbers’ shops were constantly crowded with idlers, who had nothing to do but to gossip about the news of the hour. With the barbers it has been so in all ages and countries. The Romans were commonly afflicted with weakness of the eyes, and this caused the apothecary to be as much mixed up with idlers as the barber.
7.Confidens tumidusque,] See C. iii. 4. 50, n.
8.Sisennas Barros ut equis] Of Sisenna and Barrus nothing is known; but it may be conjectured, from this place, that their names were proverbial for foul-mouthed, abusive persons. The plural number is used here for the singular, according to a usage common to all languages. So Virg. Georg. ii. 169: “Haec Decios, Marios, magnosque Camillos, Scipiadas duros bello.” Cic. Cat. Maj. 6: “Fabricii Curii Coruncanii.” See also above, C. i. 12. 37, where Scauros is probably put for the best of that family, M. Æmilius. ‘Equis albis’ is equivalent to ‘fleet horses,’ according to that line of Virgil in which he describes the horses of Turnus, “Qui candore nives anteirent, cursibus auras” (Aen. xii. 84). The expression ‘equis praecurreret albis’ is proverbial, ‘he would soon outstrip them.’
9.Postquam nihil inter utrumque Convenit,] When they found they could not settle their quarrel privately, they went before the prætor (v. 18). The digression that intervenes is a comparison between such disputants and the warriors of the Iliad. When men fall out, says he, they fight after the fashion of two brave heroes engaged in a deadly feud, even as Hector and Achilles, who hated each other so mortally, and were so exceedingly brave, that they could not be separated when they came together in conflict till one or other was killed; or else they behave as when two cowards meet, and both are glad to give way; or as when the strong meets the weak, Diomed meets Glaucus, and the weak gives in, and humbles himself before his enemy.
11.inter Hectora — atque inter Achillem] This repetition of ‘inter’ is not uncommon. See Cic. Lael. c. 25: “Contio — judicare solet quid intersit inter popularem civem, et inter constantem, severum, et gravem.” See Epp. i. 2. 11. ‘Animosum’ belongs to ‘Achillem,’ ‘atque’ being often put by Horace after the first word of its clause. See Epod. xvii. 4. S. i. 5. 4; 6. 131.
15.vexet] The meeting between Glaucus and Diomed, in which the former loses heart and gives up his arms to his adversary, is related in Hom. Il. vi. 234, sqq. On ‘ultro,’ see C. iv. 4. 51, n.
18.Bruto praetore tenente] Brutus was ‘praetor urbanus’ in the yearB. C.44, when Cæsar was killed; and in the course of the same year he left Rome for the purpose of taking possession, as proprætor, of the two provinces of Macedonia and Bithynia, which had been assigned him by the senate, who revoked his appointment before he had reached his province, and assigned it to M. Antonius, and he made it over to his brother Caius. Brutus, however, in defiance of the senate, took possession of the province of Macedonia, and retained it after the formation of the coalition between Augustus and M. Antonius. Being then at war with the senate, he led his troops into Asia Minor as into a foreign country, and overran Lycia, and dealt with Asia as his own province. Proceeding through the country he probably held ‘conventus’ (see below, v. 22) at particular places, for the purpose of hearing disputes as proprætor; and it was at such a gathering at Clazomenæ that this cause of Persius and Rex was heard. Horace calls Brutus ‘praetor,’ though he was not entitled strictly to the name, particularly in respect to the province of Asia, which had never been assigned him. He called himself at this time ‘imperator,’ as appears from coins still existing.
20.Compositum melius cum Bitho Bacchius] ‘Compositum’ agrees with ‘par’ understood, that word being used as a substantive for ‘a pair,’ both in the singular, as here, and the plural, as Cic. Lael. c. 4: “Ex omnibus seculis vix tria aut quattuor nominantur paria amicorum.” Bithus and Bacchius are said to have been gladiators of great repute, who, after having in their time killed many antagonists, finally killed each other. As to ‘in jus,’ see S. 9. 77.
22.ridetur ab omni Conventu;] ‘Ridetur’ is used impersonally. ‘Conventus’ was a meeting, at fixed times and places, of the inhabitants of a province before the prætor or governor, for the purpose of settling disputes and transacting business. The name was also applied to certain districts out of which such meetings were composed.
23.laudatque cohortem:] The official staff of a provincial governor was called his ‘cohors’ and ‘comites.’ See Epp. i. 3. 6; 8. 2, 14. The lower officials, who did not belong to the ‘cohors,’ but were a good deal about the person of the governor, Cicero speaks of as those “qui quasi ex cohorte praetoris appellari solent” (Ad Qu. Fr. 1. i. Ep. 1. c. 4, where see Long’s note). ‘Comes’ was retained as a title of honor during the empire, and has survived to the present day in the word ‘count.’
25.canem] The ‘dog-star,’ as opposed to the ‘stellae salubres.’ ‘ExceptoRege’ shows that Rupilius belonged to the ‘cohors,’ and therefore held a post of trust about Brutus.
27.fertur quo rara securis.] Between precipitous banks covered with trees, where the axe seldom comes, from their inaccessible position.
28.Tum Praenestinus] See Introduction. ‘Salso multoque fluenti’ means, as he went on with his bitterness, pouring on like a full stream. His abuse is salt, the other man’s vinegar.
29.Expressa arbusto] ‘Drawn from the vineyard.’ The illustration Horace chooses for the abuse which the enraged Rupilius hurls back (‘regerit’) upon his antagonist, is that which the vine-dresser retorts upon the passenger, who provokes him, in the first instance, by calling to him “Cuckoo!” but who is fain to retreat before the storm of foul language the vine-dresser returns him, still however calling as he retires, “Cuckoo, cuckoo!” He was considered a tardy person who had not got his vines trimmed by the arrival of the cuckoo, and the joke consists in the passenger telling the vine-dresser that the cuckoo was coming, and would find his trees unpruned, which was as much as to call him a lazy fellow. The Greeks had a proverb to the same effect, and modern travellers observe similar practices among the Neapolitan peasantry now. In ‘vindemiator’ the third syllable coalesces with the fourth. See C. iii. 4. 41, and add S. i. 8. 43; 5. 67; ii. 2. 21; 3. 245. Epp. ii. 2. 120. ‘Invictus’ means one who could not be beaten with his own weapons of abuse.
32.Italo perfusus aceto,] ‘Pus,’ ‘venenum,’ ‘sal,’ ‘acetum,’ are all words well chosen for describing the poisonous character of these men’s malice.
34.qui reges consueris tollere,] The man plays upon the name of Brutus, alluding to him whom the prætor claimed for his ancestor, L. Junius Brutus, who helped to expel the last of the kings. See note on v. 1.
SATIRE VIII.
Onthe outside of the city walls, in front of Mons Esquilinus, lay the Campus Esquilinus, in which was a public burial-ground for the poorest of the people, and the Sestertium or place of execution for slaves and others of the lower sort, whose bodies were left unburied, for the dogs and vultures to prey upon (see Epod. v. 100). This place, which must always have been a public nuisance and a source of malaria, was given (as some say) by a decree of the senate to Mæcenas, or else purchased by him, cleared, drained, and laid out in gardens, in which he afterwards built a handsome house. (See C. iii. 29. Epod. ix. 3. S. ii. 3. 309.) His example was afterwards followed by a member of the house of Lamia, in whose gardens Caligula was buried. (Suet. Calig. c. 59.) The following Satire was suggested by a figure of Priapus set up in Mæcenas’s garden. The god is represented as contrasting the present state of the ground with what it once was, by which a compliment is conveyed to Mæcenas for his public spirit in ridding the city of such a nuisance. Priapus is also made to complain of the trouble he has, in keeping the ground clear of trespassers, but more particularly of the witches, who, having formerly carried on their practices among the tombs and bones of the dead, continued to haunt the scene of their iniquity. This is introduced for the purpose of dragging in the woman whom Horace satirized under the name of Canidia (v. 23, sqq.). The description is in some parts very like that of the fifth Epode, and the two may have been written about the same time.
1.inutile lignum,] The uselessness of the wood of the fig-tree was proverbial.Hence σύκινοι ἄνδρες meant men fit for nothing. Priapus was a rural divinity, borrowed by the Romans from the later mythology of the Greeks. He was the protector of flocks, fields, and gardens, and symbolized the fertility of nature generally. His images were made in a rough fashion, and the ancients had but little respect for him, unless it were those of the lowest sort; though Horace, who treats him so contemptuously here, speaks of him elsewhere (Epod. ii.), in conjunction with Silvanus, as receiving the sacrifice due to him. No one could better have appreciated than a Roman of Horace’s way of thinking, whether, in respect to this deity or any other, the ironical description of the prophet Isaiah (xliv. 9-20), which may be referred to with advantage. There is no smoke in the whole of that description more severe than Horace’s “incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum Maluit esse deum.” The figures of Priapus were generally busts, but sometimes they were full length, of the kind Horace describes. Usually they held a sickle or a club in their right hand, by way of frightening thieves, and a wisp of straw, or something of that sort, to frighten the birds.
6.importunas volucres] Virgil applies the same epithet to destructive birds “Obscoenaeque canes importunaeque volucres” (Georg. i. 470). The word is used with a variety of meanings, to reduce which to one character we must know more than we do of its etymology.
8.Huc prius angustis] See Introduction. The poor people were buried in ill-dug graves, which had the name ‘puticuli,’ probably a form of ‘putei.’ The manner of their funeral is here stated with painful satire. The poor wretch is neglected by his master; and a fellow-slave, out of his ‘peculium,’ goes to the expense of hiring (‘locabat’) ‘vespillones’ (common corpse-bearers, νεκροφόρους) to carry him out on a bier to the public burial ground, where his corpse was tossed naked into a pit into which other corpses had been tossed before. This scene could not have occurred in all its particulars very often, since every master was bound by law to bury his slave, and if any one did it for him, he was entitled to recover the cost of the funeral from the master of the slave. The ‘vilis arca’ was called ‘sandapila,’ a bier of narrow dimensions.
11.Pantolabo scurrae Nomentanoque nepoti:] As to these persons, see note on S. 1. 101. In consequence of their extravagance, Priapus foretells they will come to a pauper’s funeral.
12.Mille pedes in fronte,] This public burial ground was 1,000 feet in breadth and 300 in depth. ‘In fronte’ means facing the public road, the Via Tiburtina (6. 108), or the Via Praenestina, one of which, or both, must have passed very close to it. (See Cæsar, B. G. ii. 8, and Mr. Long’s note.) It was usual to engrave on monuments the following letters,H. M. H. N. S., which stand for “Hoc monumentum heredes non sequitur”, orH. M. AD H. N. TRANS.The words were sometimes given at full length. SometimesEX T.(ex testamento) were inserted betweenH.andN.Such sepulchres were called ‘sepulcra familiaria’; those that were built for a man and his heirs were called ‘hereditaria.’ Horace writes as if there were a stone (‘cippus’) which defined (‘dabat’) the extent of this burial ground and bore the inscription usual on private monuments,H. M. H. N. S., which is obviously only a satire. The words could only apply to a private place of burial. All he really means is, that a space of ground of the extent he mentions was marked off for the burial of these poor people.
14.Nunc licet Esquiliis] The whole of the Esquiline or fifth region of Rome was called Esquiliæ. This, from having been an eye-sore and a plague-spot, became a healthy and pleasant residence. Suetonius tells us that Augustus, when he was ill, went to Mæcenas’s house in the Esquiliæ, to recruit (Octav. c. 72). The ‘agger’ here referred to was a raised terrace, commenced by Servius Tullius, and continued by Tarquinius Priscus, beingin all about twelve stadia in length, and about fifty feet in breadth. Here the Romans walked in cold weather to get the sun, and had a full view of the pestilent plain which Mæcenas converted into a paradise. Juvenal calls it ‘ventosus’ (S. viii. 43). ‘Quo’ is used in the sense of ‘ex quo.’
17.Cum mihi non tantum] ‘Cum’ is thus connected with what goes before. Priapus says the locality is now made healthy, and the citizens may take their walk without being sickened with the sight of bones bleaching upon the plain, whereas his vexations still remain,—the driving away of thieves and wild animals, which still frequented the spot, and, yet worse, the punishment and scaring away of the witches, who there continued to carry on their abominable practices. We may suppose that, though the place was cleared, the witches still continued, from habit, to haunt the scene of their iniquities, and that the ‘fures’ and ‘ferae’ are the depredators that came to rob the gardens which were the god’s particular care. There is no other instance of ‘suetus’ being used as a trisyllable. Lucretius so uses ‘suevit’ (vi. 854): “Qui ferri quoque vim penetrare suevit.”
23.Vidi egomet nigra] The god proceeds to relate a scene that happened before the tombs were cleared away (v. 36), in which the characters introduced are the notorious Canidia, of whom we have seen enough in the Epodes, and Sagana, who is associated with her in Epod. v. 25, sqq. Their appearance and behavior are much the same as there.
nigra succinctam vadere palla] The ‘palla’ was the upper garment worn by women out of doors, as the men wore the toga. (See S. 2. 29, n.) Here ‘succinctam’ signifies ‘expeditam,’ ‘swift in her movements,’ as in Epod. v. 25. It is equivalent to ‘praecinctis’ in S. 5. 6, where see note. It occurs again, S. ii. 6. 107.
25.Cum Sagana majore] ‘Majore’ probably signifies that Sagana was older than Canidia.
27.pullam] Æneas offers a black lamb to Nox and Terra (Aen. vi. 249): “Ipse atri velleris agnam Aeneas matri Eumenidum magnaeque sorori Ense ferit.” Tibullus uses the same word as Horace (i. 2. 61):—
“Et me lustravit taedis et nocte serenaConcidit ad magicos hostia pulla deos.”
28.confusus] ‘Poured and stirred.’ Compare Tibull. (i. 2. 45):—
“Haec cantu finditque solum, Manesque sepulcrisElicit, et tepido devocat ossa rogo.”
29.Manes] See Epp. ii. 1. 138, n.
30.Lanea et effigies erat, altera cerea:] The meaning of the woollen image, which was to punish the waxen one, is not very clear. The wax was to melt, and, as it melted, so was the lover to consume in the fires of love.
32.servilibus — modis.] There was scarcely any imaginable form of cruelty to which slaves were not liable, through the caprice of their owners, and this of roasting or half roasting alive may have happened to more than one poor wretch of this class.
34.serpentes — Infernas errare canes,] Snakes in her hair, round her waist, and in her hand for a whip, are insignia always to be found in the representations of Tisiphone. Virgil mentions the infernal hounds as howling at the approach of Hecate (Aen. vi. 257): ‘Visaeque canes ululare per umbram, Adventante Dea.” She was worshipped under three forms, as Luna in heaven; as Artemis (by the Greeks) or Diana (by the Romans) upon earth; and as Proserpina in Tartarus. In the first and last of these forms she was invoked by witches. Here it is in her infernal character.
36.sepulcra.] These were great barrows formed by the burial of a number of corpses in one pit (v. 8, n.).
39.Julius et fragilis Pediatia] The connection between these persons, Julius and Pediatius, is stated to have been of a kind not mentionable.Julius may have been a freedman of the dictator, C. Julius Cæsar, and the other person is said to have been a Roman eques. The feminine termination is affixed to his name to indicate that he was addicted to the vilest practices. Of Voranus nothing is known; but he was some notorious thief.
41.resonarent triste et acutum,] This corresponds with Virgil’s description (Aen. vi. 492), “pars tollere vocem Exiguam.”
43.cerea] The last two syllables coalesce. See S. 7. 30, n.
45.Furarium] Horace calls the two witches Furies, by a way of speaking common to all times since the decline of the reverential feeling which made the Greeks shrink from mentioning the name of these σεμναὶ θεαί. Before Euripides, no writer would have made so free with the name of the Erinnyes. He applies it to Helen (Orest. 1390, περγάμων Ἀπολλωνίων Ἐρινύν), and to Medea (Med. 1260, ἔξελ᾽ οἴκων τάλαιναν φονίαν τ᾽ Ἐρινὺν ὑπ᾽ ἀλαστόρων).
48.caliendrum] This is variously stated to be a wig, or a cap, or some ornament for the head. The etymology is uncertain.
50.Vincula] These may mean love-knots, or long grass woven into chains for refractory and faithless lovers.
SATIRE IX.
ThisSatire, which is justly popular for its humor and great dramatic power, has an historical value as showing, undesignedly, but more clearly than almost any description could do, the character of Horace. It puts the man before us as in a picture.
He represents himself as sauntering alone and early on the Sacra Via, when a person he knew no more than by name, a forward coxcomb, comes up familiarly and falls into conversation with him, to his great annoyance, for he wanted to be alone, and knew the fellow’s character, which was probably notorious. Horace does his best to shake him off, but he is too amiable to cope with the effrontery of his companion, whose object is to get, through Horace, an introduction to Mæcenas. The man’s vulgarity and want of tact are conspicuous throughout the scene, while Horace exhibits in every part good breeding and an amiable temper, and though he is tried to the utmost by reflections on his patron and his friends, he is incapable of saying a rude word, is taken off his guard continually, and is amusingly conscious of his inferiority to the man of insolence on his own ground. The effect of this picture is heightened by the introduction, towards the end of the scene, of Fuscus Aristius, an old friend of the poet, and a man of the world, who, like Horace understood character, but had that sort of moral courage and promptitude which his friend wanted. The readiness with which he takes up the joke and enters into Horace’s absurd position, and the despair to which his desertion reduces the poet, are highly ludicrous. After various ineffectual attempts to get rid of the man, Horace is at last delivered by one who seizes upon the intruder and carries him off to appeal before the prætor on some suit he has against him.
1.Ibam forte via Sacra,] Horace does not mean that it was his custom to stroll on the Sacra Via, especially at that hour in the morning, about eight o’clock (v. 35); but that, when he walked, his mind generally diverted itself with trifles, being of an easy turn, and having few anxieties to trouble it. On the Via Sacra, see Epod. iv. 7, n., vii. 8, n.
4.Quid agis,] See Epp. i. 3. 15.
5.Suaviter ut nunc est,] ‘Pretty well as times go’; by which he means nothing at all, not caring what he answers, but annoyed at the forwardnessof his assailant. ‘Cupio omnia quae vis’ is a common formula of politeness.
6.Num quid vis? occupo.] ‘Num quid vis quin abeam?’ ‘Is there any thing else I can do for you before I go?’ Professor Key (L. G. 1183) quotes this phrase from Terence (Ad. ii. 2. 39), and adds in a note, “This or a shorter form, ‘numquid vis’? was a civil mode of saying good-by.” ‘Occupo’ means ‘I anticipate him before he has time to speak.’
10.Dicere nescio quid puero,] When the Romans walked abroad even for a stroll on the most ordinary occasions, they had one or more slaves with them. They were a particular class in the ‘familia,’ and called, from their occupation, ‘pedisequi.’
11.O te, Bolane, cerebri Felicem!] The meaning of ‘cerebri’ is seen in the adjective ‘cerebrosus’ noticed above (5. 21). Horace, remembering an acquaintance of quick, strong temper, envies him that quality, for he is too mild to shake off his companion. Who Bolanus was, is unknown. It was a cognomen of one at least of the families at Rome, and derived from Bola, a town of the Æqui.
18.Trans Tiberim — cubat is] ‘Cubat’ means that his friend is lying sick. (See Sat. ii. 3. 289, and Epp. ii. 2. 68.) Julius Cæsar had some pleasure-grounds, which he bequeathed to the Roman people, on the right bank of the Tiber, a long way from the Sacra Via.
22.non Viscum pluris amicum,] Who Viscus was it is impossible to say with certainty. The name occurs in S. 10. 83, where there are two; and in S. ii. 8. 20, where mention is made of Viscus of Thurii. The name is always associated with Varius, concerning whom see S. 5. 40, n.
25.Hermogenes] See S. 3. 129, n.
28.Felices! nunc ego resto.] This and what follows must be supposed to have been uttered inwardly. He wishes himself dead. The witch’s prophecy is only an absurd notion suggested by his present position. ‘Confice’ means ‘despatch me,’ ‘finish me.’ It is a technical word for the transaction and completion of business. As to the Sabine witches, see Epod. xvii. 28, and on ‘urna,’ see C. ii. 3. 25, n. As Fate, so the witch shakes her urn, and the lot or name of this or that person falls out, on which she pronounces her prophecies. All the three words, ‘divina,’ ‘mota,’ ‘urna,’ are in the ablative. ‘Quandocunque’ has sometimes, but rarely, the sense of ‘aliquando,’ ‘some time or other,’ which is its meaning here.
35.Ventum erat ad Vestae,] They had now had an hour’s walk, and, having passed through the Forum, were approaching the Tiber, not far from which, and to the west of Mons Palatinus, stood the temple of Vesta, with the Atrium Numæ and Lucus Vestæ attached (C. i. 2. 16, n.). The temple of Vesta was near one of the courts of law where the man had to make his appearance, or forfeit his ‘vadimonium.’ It was now past the third hour, when the business of the courts commenced.
36.casu tunc respondere vadato] The expression ‘vadari aliquem’ means to require ‘vades,’ ‘sureties,’ of a party. The corresponding term is ‘vadimonium promittere,’ which is said of him who gives ‘vades.’ The ‘vadatus’ therefore was the plaintiff in an action, in which the hero of this Satire was defendant. He had entered into an engagement (‘vadimonium’) to appear on a certain day to answer to the action, and if he failed he would lose his cause, forfeit the amount of his ‘vadimonium,’ and be liable to be arrested in satisfaction of the remainder of the debt, if that were not covered by the ‘poena desertionis’ deposited when the ‘vadimonium’ was entered into. The amount of this was sometimes equal to the sum in dispute, sometimes only one half. ‘Litem’ means the amount claimed by the plaintiff, as in a criminal action it was the amount of damages assessed under a ‘litis aestimatio.’
38.Si me amas, — hic ades.] “‘Adesse’ is a word of technical use to accompany a person to court, there to give him your aid and advice.” (Long on Cicero in Verr. ii. 2. 29.) ‘Hic’ shows they were within sight of the court to which the speaker points.
39.Aut valeo stare] ‘Stare’ here means ‘to stop.’
40.quo scis.] See v. 18.
41.Tene relinquam an rem.] On the use of ‘ne — an,’ see Key’s L. G. § 1423, b. ‘Res’ is technically used here and elsewhere (in legal formulæ) as an equivalent for ‘lis.’
43.Maecenas quomodo tecum?] He asks abruptly, “How do you and Mæcenas get on together? a shrewd man, and does n’t make himself common. No man ever made a better use of his opportunities. Could you not introduce me to him? I should be very happy to play into your hands, and, if I am not very much mistaken, we should soon push aside your rivals.” ‘Paucorum hominum’ means a man of few acquaintances, as in Terence (Eun. iii. 1. 18):—
“Immo sic homo estPerpaucorum hominum.Gn.Immo multorum arbitrorSi tecum vivit.”
46.Magnum adjutorem] ‘Ferre secundas’ and ‘adjutor’ are scenic terms, and are said, the first of the δευτεραγωνιστής (see Epp. i. 18. 14), the other of all the subordinate players. ‘Hunc hominem’ is the Greek τόνδ᾽ ἄνδρα. ‘Tradere’ is a conventional term for introductions, and ‘submovere’ for the duty of the lictor in clearing the way (see C. ii. 16. 10).
48.Non isto vivimus] Horace indignantly declares that these are not the terms on which they live with Mæcenas, intriguing and jostling one another to get the first place in his favor.
53.Sic habet.] This is a literal adaptation of oὕτως ἔχει.
54.Velis tantummodo: quae tua virtus,] This is said ironically. ‘You have only to desire it, and of course, such is your virtue, you will be sure to gain your point and Mæcenas is a man who may be won, and for this reason (because he likes to be won) he is difficult of access at first.’ On the construction ‘quae tua virtus,’ see Key’s L. G. 1131.
56.Haud mihi deero:] The man professes to suppose Horace is serious, and takes him at his word.
59.deducam.] “Haec enim ipsa sunt honorabilia quae videntur levia atque communia, salutari, appeti, decedi, assurgi, deduci, reduci, consuli” (Cic. de Senect. c. 18). To attend upon a person when he leaves home is ‘deducere’; ‘reducere’ to accompany him on his return. Great men, when they went out of doors, were usually accompanied by friends, while numbers of parasites and expectants followed their steps, and were eager to be seen by them and to be known to have been in their company.
61.Fuscus Aristius] See Introduction, and C. i. 22.
62.Unde venis? et Quo tendis?] This was a common mode of salutation. See S. ii. 4. 1, “Unde et quo Catius?”; Virg. Ecl. ix. 1, “Quo te, Moeri, pedes? an, quo via ducit, in urbem?”
64.lentissima brachia,] ‘Arms that had no feeling.’ Fuscus pretends not to perceive his friend’s hints, pulling his toga, pressing his arm, nodding and looking askance at him.
65.Male salsus] ‘The wicked wag,’ as we should say.
69.tricesima sabbata:] It is probable that Aristius Fuscus knew very little about the Jews, and invented the thirtieth Sabbath on the spot. I do not find that it is made out on any authority that the Jews had any Sabbath that they called the thirtieth. The plural σάββατα is commonly used by the writers of the New Testament for the Sabbath day. But among many superstitions prevalent, especially among women and persons of nervous habit and of thelower orders (see S. ii. 3. 291, n.), curses denounced upon the transgressors of the Sabbath, which the Jews, who were zealous in making proselytes, propagated among them, were objects of terror to many.
72.Huncine solem Tam nigrum surrexe] ‘Huncine’ is compounded of the pronoun, the demonstrative enclitic ‘ce’ (for ‘ecce,’ ‘behold’), and the interrogative enclitic ‘ne’ (Key’s L. G. 293). As to ‘surrexe,’ see S. i. 5. 79; and Terence (Ad. iv. 2. 22), “Non tu eum rus hinc modo Produxe aiebas?”
76.Licet antestari?] This word signifies the calling a by-stander to witness that there was nothing illegal in the conduct of the plaintiff in such a case as the above, and that the defendant had resisted, and that force was necessary. The process was by touching the ear of the person whose testimony was asked, who could not be compelled to be a witness; but after he had consented, he was bound to appear and give evidence if required. Horace was only too glad to help in the forcible removal of his persecutor, and gave his ear with all readiness. The parties begin to wrangle: a crowd of idlers of course forms round them, and Horace makes his escape. By ‘vero’ he means ‘in good earnest.’
77.Rapit in jus;] ‘In jus vocare’ is a technical expression having reference to the first step in a civil action when both parties appeared before the prætor or other magistrates having ‘jurisdictio,’ with the view of fixing a day for the commencement of the trial. On this occasion the ‘vadimonium’ above described was entered into. ‘In jus vocare,’ therefore, being the first step, could not follow upon the neglect of the ‘vadimonium’ by Horace’s companion; and the ‘adversarius’ in this case cannot be the plaintiff in the other (v. 36), unless Horace is speaking loosely.
SATIRE X.
Theline of self-defence Horace took in the fourth Satire (see Introduction, and v. 6, n.) led him into a criticism of Lucilius, which gave a fresh handle to his adversaries, who professed an admiration for that poet, but admired him for his worst faults of taste, and especially for his combination of Greek words with his mother tongue,—a practice the affectation of which no one would more instinctively feel and condemn than Horace. Horace adheres to his criticism, and says, if Lucilius had lived, he would have been the first to find faults in his own style, and to correct it.
1.Nempe incomposito] See Introduction.
3.At idem] “‘At’ denotes rather addition than opposition. It is commonly employed after a concession” (Key’s L. G. 1445). The concession here is in ‘nempe.’ ‘You say, and I admit it, still in the same Satire I praised him.’
4.defricuit] This word is nowhere else used in this sense. It means ‘to give a hard rub,’ as we say. There are other vulgarisms in our own language akin to this expression.
6.Et Laberi mimos] Laberius was the most distinguished writer of this particular kind of play that we know of. He died the year before the battle of Philippi,A. U. C.711, and therefore before this Satire was written. The Roman mimes were, in the time of Laberius, represented in the theatres with the regular drama. They were a combination of grotesque dumb-show, of dances by men and women, of farcical representations in verse-dialogue, of incidents in low and profligate life, and of grave sentiments and satirical allusions interspersed with the dialogue. Augustus was a great patron of these licentious representations. See Tac. Ann. i. 54.
9.Est brevitate opus,] The want of this quality in Lucilius he condemns in S. 4. 9, sqq.
11.modo tristi] ‘Tristi’ signifies ‘serious.’
12.Defendente vicem] ‘Supporting the part,’ like “fungar vice cotis” (A. P. 304), and “Actoris partes chorus officiumque virile Defendat” (v. 193). On ‘modo,’ see S. 3. 12. The combination Horace commends is that of the orator sternly or gravely rebuking vice, of the humorous satirist (‘poëtae’) broadly ridiculing it, and of the polished wit, who, instead of throwing himself with all his strength upon his victim, substitutes sarcasm for invective, and lets his power be rather felt than seen. Of these three, the gravity of stern reproof Horace estimates lowest, saying that ridicule generally settles questions, of however grave importance, better and more decisively than severity.
15.secat res.] ‘Secare’ is used in the sense of ‘decidere’ in Epp. i. 16. 42. Cicero (De Or. ii. 58) says, “Est plane oratoris movere risum, — maxime quod tristitiam ac severum mitigat et relaxat odiosasque res saepe quas argumentis dilui non facile est joco risuque dissolvit.”
16.Illi scripta quibus] See S. 4. 2, n. ‘Hoc stabant,’ ‘stood on this ground,’ as ‘hinc pendet,’ S. 4. 6.
18.Hermogenes] See S. 3. 129, n. ‘Simius iste’ probably means Demetrius, whom we meet with below (v. 79) as an abuser of Horace and (v. 90) as a trainer of ‘mimae,’ like Hermogenes, with whom he is associated. We know nothing more of him. His only skill was to sing the love-songs of Calvus and Catullus, who were favorite poets of the last generation, and great friends.
20.quod verbis Graeca Latinis] This is a new fault in the style of Lucilius, not before mentioned. See the note on S. 4. 6.
21.Seri studiorum!] This phrase represents the Greek ὀψιμαθεῖς. In ‘quine putetis’ the interrogative enclitic is somewhat redundant, but not more than in many other instances, as S. ii. 2. 107, and 3. 295, 317.
22.Rhodio quod Pitholeonti] This person is unknown. His name probably was Pitholaus; if so, Horace changed that termination in conformity with the Greek usage, as Τιμόλαος and Τιμόλεων, Μενέλαος and Μενέλεως, &c., are different forms of the same word.
24.ut Chio nota si] On ‘nota’ see C. ii. 3. 8. Here the Chian, a sweet wine, would represent the Greek, as the rougher wine of Campania would stand for the less polished Latin.
26.causa Petilli?] See S. 4. 94, n.
27.Scilicet oblitus] The sense of the passage from v. 25 to 30 is this: “You say that the language is more elegant if it be set off with Greek. But I ask you yourself, is it only when you are writing poetry, or when you have on hand a difficult cause, such as that of Petillius? Would you then likewise, forgetting your country and your birth, while our great orators Pedius and Messalla are elaborating their speeches in their pure mother tongue (‘Latine’),—would you, I say, prefer mixing up a foreign jargon with your native language, like a double-tongued man of Canusium?” He puts the composition of verses on such themes as Lucilius chose, on a level with the gravity of forensic speaking, and asks why, if the man would not apply the rule to the latter, he should do so to the former.
28.Cum Pedius causas] Who Pedius was, is quite uncertain; but he must have been well known as an orator. It is also uncertain whether Poplicola belongs to Pedius or Corvinus, about whom see C. iii. 21. Quintilian describes him (x. 1. 113) as “orator nitidus et candidus et quodammodo prae se ferens in dicendo nobilitatem suam.” And Horace speaks again of his eloquence, A. P. 370. His intimacy with Horace began in the army of Brutus, and continued unbroken till Horace’s death.
30.Canusini more bilinguis?] As to Canusium, see S. 5. 91. It was one of those Greek towns whichretainedlongest and most purely the language of its founders, as we may suppose from the text.
36.Turgidus Alpinus] This is supposed to be a bad poet named M. Furius Bibaculus, born at CremonaB. C.102. ‘Turgidus’ refers to his person. Horace describes him elsewhere as “pingui tentus omaso” (S. ii. 5. 40), where a bombastic verse of his is quoted, which may account for his being called familiarly, by his contemporaries, Alpinus. Horace speaks of his murdering Memnon, and it is generally supposed that this refers to a translation he made of the Aethiopis of Arctinus, one of the Cyclic poets, in which Memnon was one of the principal heroes.
37.Defingit Rheni luteum caput,] Horace says that Furius, like some rude artist, had made a figure of Rhenus (the Rhine) with a head of clay, referring to the statues by which the different river-gods were represented, and to some description this poet had given of the Rhine, perhaps in a poem he is said to have written on the Gallic war. ‘Defingo’ is ‘to fashion out,’ and differs little from ‘fingo.’
38.Quae neque in aede sonent] Sp. Mæcius Tarpa was the officer who licensed plays before they were acted. He is mentioned again in the Ars Poëtica (v. 387). His duties had previously formed part of the functions of the ædiles, and it was not till political allusions became common, and the position of affairs too critical to bear them, that this special censorship was created. ‘Aedes’ in the singular signifies ‘a temple.’ Temples of Apollo and the Muses are referred to by Juvenal (S. vii. 37) as the resort of poets, and other temples besides (see Ovid. Trist. iii. 1. 69) had buildings attached where men of letters assembled. In one of these, therefore, or some building especially consecrated to the Muses, poets who had plays they wished to get represented recited them, probably in the presence of Tarpa.
42.Unus vivorum, Fundani;] Of this Fundanius, who Horace says was the only man of the day who could write a comedy in the style of Menander and that school, nothing whatever is known. He is the narrator of the scene in S. ii. 8, the supper of Nasidienus. Probably Horace exaggerated his merits, as well as Pollio’s, out of affection for the men. As to Pollio, see C. ii. 1, Int., and v. 10, n. ‘Regum,’ such as the “sacra Pelopis domus” (C. i. 6. 8, n.). ‘Pede ter percusso’ refers to the trimeter iambic, the common measure of tragedy.
44.Ut nemo Varius ducit;] As to Varius, see the Ode last mentioned, vv. 8, 11, and S. 5. 40. The derived significations of ‘ducere’ are various. As applied to a poem, it is probably taken from the process of spinning. See Epp. ii. 1. 225: “tenui deducta poëmata filo.” See also S. ii. 1. 4.
45.Virgilio] Whether Virgil had at this time published his Georgics or not is quite uncertain, from the doubt that hangs over both the date of this Satire and the publication of those poems. But, at any rate, Virgil had them in hand, and his friends had probably heard a great part of them recited in private. The Bucolics had been published some time, and they seem to have been thought well of, though until the Aeneid had made some progress we have no reason to suppose that Virgil was classed by his contemporaries with poets of the first rank. ‘Facetum’ signifies ‘elegant,’ as in a coxcomb it would be called ‘fine,’ S. 2. 26.
46.Hoc erat,] Horace says, ‘Fundanius may write comedy better than any man living, Pollio tragedy, Varius epics, Virgil pastorals: this (satire) was what, after Varro and some others had tried it in vain, I was able to write better than they, though not equal to its inventor’ (Lucilius). Who he means by ‘some others,’ it is impossible to say.
Varrone Atacino] P. Terentius Varro was a poet of the day some years older than Horace. He was called Atacinus from the Atax, a river of GalliaNarbonensis, to distinguish him from M. Terentius Varro, who is sometimes called Reatinus. Different works are attributed to him. His attempts at satire—in which Horace says, most probably with justice, that he had failed—are nowhere noticed but here.
53.Nil comis tragici mutat Lucilius Acci?] See below, v. 65. Accius was bornB. C.170, and was a writer of tragedies, chiefly from the Greek. Cicero and Quintilian speak very highly of him, and the popular judgment was in his favor. See Epp. ii. 1. 56, and A. P. 259.
55.non ut majore reprensis?] ‘Not as if he were superior to those he finds fault with.’
59.Quid vetat et nosmet] Horace says he is at liberty to inquire whether it is not a natural consequence of Lucilius’s temperament, and the character of his subjects, that he wrote verses not more polished and smooth than might be expected of a man who was content with giving his lines the proper number of feet, and took delight in stringing together a vast number of them in the shortest possible time. ‘Pedibus quid claudere senis’ explains ‘hoc,’ ‘contented merely with this,’ that is to say, comprising something (that he calls a verse, for there is contempt in ‘quid’) in six feet.
61.Etrusci Quale fuit Cassi] Of this Cassius we know nothing, and what Horace says of him is no more than a jocular invention that his writings were so numerous and worthless that his funeral pile was made of them and the boxes that contained them.
63.capsis] See S. 4. 22, n.
64.Fuerit] See S. i. 1. 45.
65.Comis et urbanus] ‘Agreeable and refined.’
66.Quam rudis et Graecis] ‘Allow that he is more polished than the inventor of a rude style of poetry unknown to the Greeks might be expected to be, and than the mass of the older poets certainly were; still, if he had lived to this our time, he would have corrected much that he had written.’
71.vivos et roderet ungues] ‘And would bite his nails to the quick,’ as men sometimes do when they are thinking very nervously.
72.Saepe stilum vertas] ‘Stilum vertere’ means to erase what had been written, one end of the iron pen (‘stilus’) being broad like the end of a chisel, for the purpose of obliterating the letters made upon the wax tablet by the sharp end, which they called ‘acumen.’
75.Vilibus in ludis] Such schools as Flavius’s, perhaps, if poetry was ever taught there, or in those cheap schools in the back streets mentioned in Epp. i. 20. 18. The word ‘dictari’ refers to the practice of the teacher reading out a passage for the pupil to repeat after him, one of the earliest steps in education being accurate pronunciation. The words ‘canere,’ ‘cantare,’ which are frequently applied to the recitation of the pupil, show that the modulation of the voice was a primary consideration in teaching. To help this most probably was one principal purpose of the master’s reciting to his scholars, which was done quite at the beginning, and probably before the boys could write; whence Horace says (Epp. ii. 1. 126), “Os tenerum pueri balbumque poëta figurat.” It was a good preparation for their subsequent training under the teacher of rhetoric. It is a practice which might be more generally revived, for nothing can be worse than the way in which boys usually read or repeat their lessons in our schools.
77.explosa Arbuscula] This was a celebrated actress in Cicero’s time. As she, when she was hissed off the stage, said she cared nothing for the rest of the spectators, and was satisfied if she pleased the front benches (the Equites), so Horace says he only wants to be read in the better sort of schools, where that class of people sent their sons.
78.cimex Pantilius,] This person, if it be a real name, is quite unknown. A more contemptible animal could not have been chosen to liken the man to,whether for its odor, its skulking, or its sting. So that δήγματα κορέων, λαθρόδακναι κόρεες, seem to have been proverbial expressions for calumny.
79.Demetrius,] See above on v. 18; and as to Fannius, see S. 4. 21, n. On Plotius, see S. 5. 40; and on Valgius, C. ii. 9, Int. He was consul inB. C.13. Who Octavius was, we cannot tell. Horace does not mean Augustus, for, after the death of the dictator, Octavius became C. Julius Cæsar Octavianus, and could not at this time be called Octavius. On Fuscus (to whom the epithet ‘optimus’ belongs), see C. i. 22, Int., and S. 9. 61, and Epp. i. 10.
83.Viscorum laudet uterque!] If Viscus be the correct reading in S. 9. 22, and S. ii. 8. 20, the persons there mentioned may be one or other or both of these brothers.
84.Ambitione relegata] ‘Dismissing flattery.’
85.tuo cum fratre,] This may have been Gellius Poplicola, Messalla’s brother by adoption. He was with Brutus and Cassius in Asia Minor; but left them before the battle of Philippi, and joined M. Antonius, and commanded the right wing of his army at Actium. If therefore this be the person Horace alludes to, his acquaintance with him began in Brutus’s camp. He was consul in the yearB. C.36.
86.Vos, Bibule et Servi,] This Bibulus was probably the youngest son of M. Calpurnius Bibulus, who was consul inB. C.59, and of his wife Porcia, who afterwards married M. Brutus. He wrote an account of his stepfather’s life, which Plutarch made use of. He must have been still quite young.
Servius Sulpicius Rufus was a distinguished lawyer and friend of Cicero, and he left a son named Servius. This son is perhaps the person Horace refers to. Cicero was very fond of him, to judge by his letters to his father. He must have been older than Horace, and very much older than Bibulus.
Furnius was also the son of a friend and correspondent of Cicero, and was a favorite with Augustus. The epithet ‘candidus’ applied to him by Horace shows that he deserved esteem. Shortly after the battle of Actium he got Augustus to take his father, who had followed M. Antonius, into favor.
88.Prudens] ‘Designedly,’ ‘on purpose.’
91.Discipularum inter jubeo plorare cathedras.] Their pupils were chiefly ‘mimae,’ actresses, but some ladies of birth at this time learnt singing of professors, and it was not counted much to their praise. ‘Jubeo plorare’ corresponds to the Greek οἰμώζειν κελεύω, but ‘plorare’ represents, not only the above proverbial expression, but the drawling of the singing-master teaching his pupils sentimental or melancholy songs. ‘Cathedra’ was an easy-chair used chiefly by women.
92.I, puer,] Authors did not write themselves, but had slaves, called ‘pueri a studiis,’ or generally ‘librarii,’ to whom they dictated. See S. 4. 10. Epp. i. 10. 49; ii. 1. 110. We are to suppose that Horace extemporized this anathema against Demetrius and Tigellius, and then told his amanuensis to go before he forgot it and add it to the Satire as his ‘subscriptio’; which in letters was the word ‘vale,’ or something civil of that sort.