The Satires of Horace and Persius

by Horace

239. Silenus: The teacher and guardian of Bacchus, seen here as a dignified figure.

  253. trimeters: An iambic metron consisted of two feet; hence a trimeter had six.

  254. At a time in the past: Glosses over an unsolved crux.

  259. noble: Not in Horace’s judgment, but in that of Accius’ admirers. For Accius, see note on Satires I. 10. 53.

  270. Plautus: See note on Epistles II. 1. 58.

  275. Thespis: See note on Epistles II. 1. 163.

  278. Aeschylus: See note on Epistles II. 1. 163.

  281. Old Comedy: Its three main representatives are named in Satires I. 4. 1.

  292. Children of Numa: The Calpurnius Piso family claimed to trace its descent from King Numa.

  293. stilus: The blunt end of the stilus was used as an eraser.

  295. Democritus holds: Probably in his book on poetry.

  talent: Ingenium.

  296. technique: Ars.

  300. Licinus: Unknown.

  301. three Anticyras: Anticyra in Phocis on the Gulf of Corinth produced hellebore, which was used in the treatment of madness. Three Anticyras, therefore, meant something like ‘three times the output of Anticyra’.

  309. Moral sense: Sapere.

  310. Socrates’ school: A vague phrase denoting ‘writers on moral philosophy’.

  343. wholesome and sweet: Utile and dulce.

  349. [when you want… a treble]: This line is probably spurious. The fault it describes is not a minor one, and there is a difficulty over the word persaepe. See Brink’s note.

  357. Choerilus: See note on Epistles II. 1. 233.

  370. Messalla: See note on Satires I. 10. 28.

  371. Aulus Cascellius: Born c. 104 BC. He may not have been still alive, but his reputation survived.

  375. Sardinian honey: This was bitter.

  387. Tarpa: See note on Satires I. 10. 38.

  388. the ninth year: Probably an allusion to Cinna’s Zmyrna, which according to Catullus 95 finally saw the light in the ninth year.

  392. Orpheus: The moral progress brought about by Orpheus is ascribed to his poetry.

  394. Amphion: See note on Epistles I. 18. 42.

  401. Tyrtaeus: A Spartan elegiac poet of the seventh century BC.

  404. Pierian: The district of Pieria in Thessaly was associated with the Muses.

  405. a king’s favour: Simonides, Pindar, and Bacchylides sought the patron age of rulers in fifth-century Sicily.

  414–15. Delphi: There were musical competitions at the Pythian games.

  437. fox’s hidden malice: In Aesop’s fable the crow, congratulated on his singing by the cunning fox, drops the piece of cheese.

  438. Quintilius: Quintilius Varus of Cremona, the friend of Horace and Virgil, died in 24/23 BC. See Odes I. 24.

  454. lunar goddess: Diana; cf. ‘lunacy’.

  464–6. how Empedocles… the first time: Empedocles associated cold blood with dullness, which is apparently why Horace calls him frigidus, an adjective which could be used in a literary context. See also Epistles I. 12. 20n.

  472. a gruesome place: A place struck by lightning was fenced off and consecrated. Cf. Persius 2. 26.

  PERSIUS

  Prologue

  1. cart-horse spring: A deflationary translation of the Greek Hippocrene, the name given to the spring of the Muses on Mount Helicon. It was produced by a kick from Pegasus.

  2. dreamed: Hesiod (Theogony 22ff.) tells how the Muses appeared to him on Mount Helicon and inspired him to write poetry. In the third century BC the Alexandrian poet Callimachus told in his Aetia (Origins) how he had been transported in a dream to Mount Helicon where he too had been instructed by the Muses. Ennius (239–169 BC), the father of Roman poetry, related in the introduction to his Annals how he had gone to the mountain of the Muses. Falling asleep there he dreamed that Homer’s ghost expounded the doctrine of transmigration and told him that he now possessed Homer’s soul. In the late twenties Propertius says (III. 30) that he dreamed he was on Mount Helicon contemplating a poem on Roman history when Apollo appeared to him and advised him to sing about love. It is not clear why Persius mentions Parnassus instead of Helicon. Perhaps he found it in another Greek poet or perhaps he used it for metrical convenience. The alteration does not appear to provide any additional satirical effect. For discussion of these questions see J. H. Waszink, Mnemosyne 15 (1962), 113–32, O. Skutsch, Studia Enniana (London, 1968), 124–9, and Ennius’ Annals (Oxford 1986) 147–50.

  4. Pale Pirene: A spring at Corinth, sacred to the Muses, where Bellerophon succeeded in catching Pegasus. Persius implies that the pallor conventionally attributed to poets came from drinking the waters of Pirene.

  Helicon’s Maids: The Muses.

  5–6. whose portraits are entwined… ivy: Established poets whose busts were to be seen in the public libraries.

  7. a semi-clansman: As a satirist Persius feels that he does not wholly belong to the company of poets. Cf. Horace, Satires I. 4. 39ff.

  bardic rites: The Latin is sacra. Cf. Ovid, Ex Ponto III. 4. 67 and IV. 8. 81. Writing poetry is seen as a celebration of the Muses.

  14. Pegasus’ nectar-flow: See n. 1above.

  Persius 1

  4–5. Are you worried… What the hell: The sense is: ‘the Roman reader will prefer Labeo to me, but it would be foolish to worry about such a thing.’ Attius Labeo was a contemporary who had produced a popular translation of Homer.

  ‘Polydamas and the Trojan ladies’: An allusion to the Iliad 22. 100 and 105, where Hector fears the reproach of Polydamas and the Trojan ladies. Here there is the further implication that the Roman aristocracy is effeminate – an idea developed in vv. 19ff.

  8. Is there anyone in Rome who hasn’t –: The sense is completed in v. 121, which says that every man Jack has an ass’s ears.

  19. The mighty sons of Rome: The Latin is ‘ingentis… Titos’. The Tities, along with the Ramnes and Luceres, made up the three tribes of early Rome. Their descendants get a perverted thrill from a recitation of sentimental poetry.

  22–3. You old fraud… ‘Whoa there!’: These are difficult lines. I take the ‘ears’ in v. 23 as standing for the audience. This audience will puff up the poet with praise until he is on the point of bursting. For a defence of this view see Classical Review 20 (1970) 282–5. Others accept Madvig’s conjecture, ‘articulis’ (joints) for the manuscripts’ ‘auriculis’ (ears), translating ‘are you, at your age, collecting titbits for other people’s ears – titbits to which you will have to say “no” wrecked as you are in your joints and flesh’ – i.e. disabled by gout and dropsy.

  24. frothy yeast… fig-tree: The yeast and fig-tree represent the feelings which burst out of the poet’s heart. Actually Persius speaks of the liver (iecur), which was often regarded as the seat of strong emotion.

  34. phyllis: A Thracian princess who hanged herself after being desertedby Demophon the son of Theseus. See Ovid, Heroide s 2 and the notes on p. 28 9of Palmer’s edition.

  Hypsipyle: A princess of Lemnos who saved her father when all the other men on the island were killed. She bore Jason two sons, was captured by pirates, and sold into slavery. She figured in tragedy (Euripides) and romantic epic (Apollonius, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus). See also Ovid, Heroides 6.

  42. cedar oil: This was used to preserve books.

  43. mackerel… incense: Pages from unwanted books were used for cooking fish and wrapping incense. See Catullus 95. 8 and Horace, Epistles II. 2. 269.

  50. Attius’ Iliad: See note on vv. 4–5 above.

  51. hellebore: According to Pliny hellebore was taken not only as a cure for madness but also to clear the heads of students.

  53. citrus: An African tree with fragrant wood; used for high quality furniture.

  56. airy doodler: The rich man produces trifles of no weight, in spite of his corpulence.

  58–60. Janus… Apulia: The god Janus had two faces and could therefore see behind him. The stork’s bill was imitated by bringing the fingers into sharp contact
with the thumb. It was a rude gesture, like the ass’s ears and the protruding tongue. The dog-star Sirius rises at the end of July. Apulia, a district in southern Italy, is mentioned here because of Horace, Epodes 3. 15–16: ‘nor was so great a heat ever cast by the stars on thirsty Apulia.’

  65. the critical nail: The fingernail was used to test the tightness and smoothness of a carpenter’s joint.

  66. a cord: To mark a straight line the workman would rub chalk on a cord, stretch it along the required line, pull it away from the surface and then let it snap back.

  68. the royal way of life… dinners: The Latin is ‘in mores, in luxum, in prandia regum/dicere’. This could mean ‘to attack the behaviour, the luxury, and the dinners of grandees’, and it is often taken in that way. Yet it hardly seems in character for the poetaster to denounce vice, whereas feasts like those of Thyestes and Tereus were a common theme, suited to impassioned rhetoric. Cf. 5. 8.

  72. Pales’ holiday: The rustic festival of Pales, reputedly the anniversary of Rome’s foundation, took place on 21 April. One feature of the purificatory ritual was jumping through the flames of a bonfire. See J. G. Frazer on Ovid, Fasti 4. 785.

  73–5. Quintius: I.e. Quintius Cincinnatus. Livy 3. 26 tells how in 458 BC the Roman Senate appointed Cincinnatus Dictator to save the city from the Sabines. The official messengers found him at the plough. After his wife had fetched his toga from their cottage, the officials hailed him as Dictator and summoned him to take charge of the army. The lictor was a magistrate’s attendant with various police duties; hence I have translated the word by ‘sergeant’.

  76–8. Nowadays one man… by woe: Some scholars print vv. 76 and 78 as questions and give them to Persius’ adversary. This would imply that Persius was lamenting the neglect of Accius and Pacuvius. But Roman tragedy is satirized by Lucilius and Horace, and by Persius elsewhere (see 5. 7ff.). And so it would be odd if he were defending it here. See Introduction, p. xxviii.

  Accius: (170–c. 85 BC) A writer who adapted numerous Greek tragedies to the Roman stage. He is called ‘the old Bacchanal’ because tragedy arose in connection with the worship of Bacchus.

  Pacuvius: Another early tragedian (220–c. 130 BC), nephew of Ennius. One of his plays concerned Antiopa, a Boeotian princess who was made pregnant by Jupiter. She escaped from her angry father but was caught and thrown into a dungeon by her uncle. Persius is apparently quoting from the play. See Remains of Old Latin, vol. 2, pp. 158–71.

  85. Pedius: Pedius Blaesus was prosecuted for corruption in AD 59 (Tacitus, Annals 14. 18). Persius probably chose his name rather than that of another criminal because of Horace I. 10. 28, where Pedius Publicola is mentioned as speaking in court. Admittedly Publicola is a defence counsel, not a defendant. But Persius’ reminiscences are often imprecise. The point about Pedius’ style is also probably due to the Horatian passage, for there Horace is recommending the use of direct simple Latin unmixed with Greek. Therefore we are not entitled to infer that Pedius Blaesus defended himself in the manner satirized by Persius.

  87. is Romulus wagging his tail?: I.e. is Rome guilty of perversion?

  93–5. ‘Berecyntian Attis… arms and the man’: These passages illustrate certain objectionable features of contemporary poetry, but we cannot always be sure of what they are.

  Berecyntian Attis: According to Ovid’s version of the myth (Fasti 4. 221–44) Attis, a Phrygian boy, was loved by the goddess Cybele. She imposed a vow of chastity on him which he broke by making love to a nymph. Cybele killed the nymph, and Attis castrated himself in a frenzy of grief and remorse. The tale itself was morbid, romantic, and unRoman. The adjective Berecyntius, referring to Mount Berecyntus in Phrygia which was sacred to Cybele, was a pedantic flourish. It contained the Greek y, which sounded sweet and exotic to Roman ears. (It was pronounced like the French u.) Finally a five-syllable word of that metrical pattern in that position in the line was in Persius’ view an affectation. The only other example in his work is the sarcastic ‘hyacinthina’ (another Greek word) in 1. 32. He would not have approved of Ovid’s ‘Cybeleius Attis’(Metamorphoses 10. 104) or his ‘Berecyntius heros’ (ibid. 11. 106).

  The dolphin: The word is delphin, a later form of the Greek nominative delphis.

  Nereus: A sea-god, here used for the sea – a device found in elegy (Tibullus) and silver epic (Valerius Flaccus). The metonymy, itself rather ‘poetic’, becomes grotesque when Nereus is sliced by a dolphin.

  Apennines: Persius objects to the practice, which was popular among the neoterics, of ending the hexameter with a word of four long syllables like ‘Appennino’. Quintilian, who cites this very example, calls the practice ‘over-effeminate’ (praemolle) – see his Institutio Oratoria IX. 4. 65. The affectation, however, is hardly confined to the last word. If the context was similar to that of Ovid, Heroides 16. 107–12, where a ship is built with timber taken from the mountains of the Troad, and if the long range of the Apennines is thought of as a dorsum or spine as in Suetonius, Julius Caesar 44 (‘per Appennini dorsum’), then the conceit of stealing a rib would be sufficiently silly. I should make it clear that this is only a hypothesis and that Persius simply says ‘the long Apennines’. But one has to have some working hypothesis about the line’s context.

  96. ‘Arms and the man’: The opening words of the Aeneid.

  98. limp-held wrist: A drooping posture was also an effeminate affectation. Cf. Quintilian I. 11. 9.

  99–102. ‘They filled their frightening horns… restorative Echo’: A description of the female devotees of Bacchus. The scene is outlandish and emotional; the sound self-consciously musical; the vocabulary markedly Greek in colouring (Mimalloneis – ‘Bacchanalian’, bombis – ‘boomings’, Bassaris – ‘Bassarid’, lyncem – ‘lynx’, Maenas – ‘Maenad’, corymbis – ‘ivy’, euhion – ‘euhoe!’, echo – ‘echo’).

  106. pummel the back-rest… bitten nails: Pummelling the back of one’s couch and biting one’s nails are signs that writing poetry is hard and exasperating work.

  109–10. the rolling r… dog: R was called the dog letter because it sounded like a growl. See Lucilius 3–4 (Warmington). Some scholars (most recently W. S. Anderson in Classical Quarterly 52, 1958) take the view that the growl is attributed to satire, not to the baronial porches.

  112–14. You erect a notice… else to piss: Persius compares the objects of his satire to monuments which one is forbidden to deface. The snakes are the guardian spirits of the place. Several inscriptions similar to the notice described by Persius are cited by Villeneuve in his edition. One, from the Golden House of Nero, also contains two snakes.

  115. Lupus: L. Cornelius Lentulus Lupus, Consul in 156 BC, Censor in 147, and Leader of the Senate from 130.

  Mucius: Q. Mucius Scaevola, Consul 117 BC. Both these men were opponents of Scipio Aemilianus. See the index of A. E. Astin, Scipio Aemilianus, Oxford, 1967.

  116–18. While his friend… well-blown nose: Horace rarely goes in for playful banter at the expense of his friends. Persius seems to mean that Horace’s satirical strokes make his friends laugh, and then too late they realize that they themselves have the faults in question.

  119–21. Am I forbidden… AN ASS’S EARS: King Midas, a legendary king of Phrygia, judged that Pan was superior to Apollo in a music contest; so Apollo gave him ass’s ears. He managed to conceal these from everyone except his barber. The latter, bursting with the secret, whispered it into a hole in the ground, but the reeds heard it and repeated it when the wind blew. For this, and for the story of the golden touch, see Ovid, Metamorphoses 11. 90ff. See also Introduction, p. xxix.

  123–4. Cratinus… Eupolis, and the Grand Old Man: (I.e. Aristophanes) The chief representatives of fifth-century Athenian comedy. Cf. Horace, Satires I. 4. 1.

  127. Greek-style sandals: The idea that Greek sandals are something which calls for comment is found in Cicero, Rab. Post. 27, Livy 29. 19. 12, and Suetonius, Tiberius 13. Here the man who scoffs at Greek sandals represents a provincial mentality. />
  128. ‘Hey one-eye!’: The man who shouts this insult is geographically as well as intellectually provincial – he is an Aedile of Arretium. But even as he framed the description Persius was thinking of the man’s Horatian counterpart, whose name was Aufidius Luscus – Mr One-eye, (Satires I. 5. 34–6). Therefore the choice of this particular insult appears to be due to an association of ideas.

  132. abacus: Here an object like a tray covered with sand.

  Nones-girl: Plutarch (Camillus 33) tells how on the Nones of July (7 July) serving-girls, elaborately decked out, would go around chaffing and joking with the men they met. This was part of a festival known as the Nonae Caprotinae, i.e. ‘the Nones of the wild fig-tree’. For a brief account of this fertility rite see H. J. Rose, Religion in Greece and Rome, Harper Torchbooks, 1959, pp. 217–18. An exhaustive treatment is given by S. Weinstock (under Nonae Caprotinae) in Pauly-Wissowa XVII. 1. 849–59. This explanation of nonaria was first given, I believe, by F. Morice in Classical Review 4 (1890) 230. It seems more convincing than the scholiast’s view, which is that nonaria is a prostitute who plies her trade from the ninth hour.

  134. Calliroë: The heroine of some popular work, possibly one like Chariton’s novel but more likely something in Latin in view of the character’s hostility to things Greek.

  Persius 2

  1. Macrinus: An older contemporary who studied in the house of Servilius Nonianus. See O. Jahn’s commentary (1843) xxxvii–viii.

  14. ‘That’s his third wife… burying’: I.e. ‘some people have all the luck.’ The husband would expect a legacy, and so wishes for the death of his wife.

  17–23. Well now… ‘Good God!’: The sense is ‘If a dubious character like Staius is indignant at the prayer, surely Jupiter himself must be scandalized by it.’ Therefore v. 20 must be ironical, and Persius must be joking in v. 19when he says ‘Or perhaps you balk at that?’

  26–8. You don’t lie buried… abhorrence: If a man was struck by lightning in a grove he was buried where he fell. The spot was then railed off and regarded as sacred. The crone is Tuscan because most of the ancient religious rituals were Etruscan in origin. Cf. v. 60.