Inque vicem illorum patiar delicta libenter,
Privatusque magis vivam te rege beatus.

SATIRA IV.

EUPOLIS atque Cratinus Aristophanesque poëtæ
Atque alii quorum comœdia prisca virorum est,
Si quis erat dignus describi, quod malus ac fur,
Quod mœchus foret aut sicarius aut alioqui
Famosus, multa cum libertate notabant.
Hinc omnis pendet Lucilius, hosce secutus
Mutatis tantum pedibus numerisque, facetus,
Emunctæ naris, durus componere versus.
Nam fuit hoc vitiosus: in hora sæpe ducentos,

comœdia prisca. Cp. Ars Poet. 281. The rise of Comedy was later by a generation than that of Tragedy. There were three divisions of it, marked by the refinements successively introduced by taste or by public opinion: the Old Comedy, which, in its unrestricted license, dealt with real persons and facts; the Middle Comedy, in which the facts were real but the names fictitious; the New Comedy, in which both facts and names were fictitious.

The distinction of Old and New is marked by Aristotle, Eth. N. iv.

5

Magnus Auruncæ alumnus." Juv. i. 20. For the severity of his satire, cp. Ibid., v. 165., and Pers. i. 114. "C. Lucilius.. et doctus et perurbanus."-Cic. De Or. i. 16. (72.). Quintilian (x. i. 94.) objects to Horace's epithet for him, lutulentus.

6

8. emunctæ naris, of nice (i. e. keen) judgment.' Comp. Sat. 1. iii. 30, where acutis naribus' implies a quick sense of the ridiculous.' It may mean the same here, or, more generally, a ready perception of character.'

Ut magnum, versus dictabat stans pede in uno.
Cum flueret lutulentus, erat quod tollere velles ;
Garrulus atque piger scribendi ferre laborem,
Scribendi recte: nam ut multum, nil moror. Ecce,
Crispinus minimo me provocat: Accipe, si vis,
Accipiam tabulas; detur nobis locus, hora,
Custodes; videamus uter plus scribere possit.
Di bene fecerunt, inopis me quodque pusilli
Finxerunt animi, raro et perpauca loquentis.
At tu conclusas hircinis follibus auras,
Usque laborantes, dum ferrum molliat ignis,
Ut mavis, imitare. Beatus Fannius ultro
Delatis capsis et imagine, cum mea nemo
Scripta legat vulgo recitare timentis ob hanc rem
Quod sunt quos genus hoc minime juvat, utpote plures
Culpari dignos. Quemvis media erue turba,

Aut ob avaritiam aut misera ambitione laborat.

10

15

20

25

10. Ut magnum. i. e. 'pluming | Tu neque anhelanti, coquitur dum himself upon his facility."

11. Cum, since.'

lutulentus. So Call. H. Apoll. 108., comparing a poem to a river:

τὰ πολλὰ

massa camino, Folle premis ventos;

i. e. you are no spouter; and in Juv. vii. 111. (of a vehement advocate).

21. Fannius, like Crispinus, one of Horace's "Dunciad."

ultro Delatis, happy in the desks and bust presented to him by his admirers; or, 'happy in his vanity, delighted at having sent his works, with his bust, to the public library (of which see Ep. 11. i. 216., 11. ii. 94.). Orelli adopts (from Franke) the former interpretation.

mea timentis. So, "nostros filentis ocellos."-Ov. Her. v. 45. 24. i. e. 'Men are sensitive because they are in the wrong.' 26. ob avaritiam... ambitione. Mentioned again together, Sat. 11. iii. 78. The change of construction is worth noting as an elegance. (Two

Hic nuptarum insanit amoribus, hic puerorum ;
Hunc capit argenti splendor; stupet Albius ære;
Hic mutat merces surgente a sole ad eum quo
Vespertina tepet regio: quin per mala præceps
Fertur uti pulvis collectus turbine, ne quid
Summa deperdat metuens aut ampliet ut rem.
Omnes hi metuunt versus, odere poëtas.

Fonum habet in cornu, longe fuge: dummodo risum
Excutiat sibi, non hic cuiquam parcet amico,
Et quodcunque semel chartis illeverit, omnes
Gestiet a furno redeuntes scire lacuque

Et pueros et anus. Agedum, pauca accipe contra.
Primum ego me illorum, dederim quibus esse poëtas,
Excerpam numero: neque enim concludere versum
Dixeris esse satis; neque si quis scribat uti nos
Sermoni propiora, putes hunc esse poëtam.
Ingenium cui sit, cui mens divinior atque os
Magna sonaturum, des nominis hujus honorem.
Idcirco quidam comœdia necne poëma
Esset quæsivere: quod acer spiritus ac vis
Nec verbis nec rebus inest, nisi quod pede certo
Differt sermoni, sermo merus.

2.

28. argenti. sc. 'plate."

At pater ardens

in ædilitate suâ (B.C. 33).

30

35

40

45

lacus

ære, bronzes,' as in Car. IV. viii. septingentos fecit."-Plin. N. H.

29. Cp. Pers. v. 54.

32. ut as well as ne is to be taken as dep. on metuens. metuens ne = fearing he may; metuens ut fearing he may not.

34. Fænum habet. He is dangerous,' (they cry.) (The horns of vicious cattle were bound with hay.) See the anecdote in Plutarch's Life of M. Crassus, ch. vii.

36. illeverit, a term for hasty scribbling.'

the

and the

37. a furno lacuque. i. e. lowest;' pueros et anus, silliest people.'

lacus, the reservoirs."

xxxvi. 15. (24.)

40. concludere. i. q. "pedibus claudere."-Sat. I. x. 59., II. i. 28. Cp. below, v. 54.: "versum perscribere"

43. mens divinior. Gesn. compares "afflatu divino," from Cic. N. D. ii. 66.

os magna sonaturum. i. e. a lofty style.' Cp. ore rotundo, Ars Poet. 323.; magno nunc ore sonandum, Virg. Geor. iii. 294.

45. necne poema, etc. Cp. Cic. Orat. 20. (67.)

48. At. But (you will say), etc. pater. scil. in the play' (perso

"Agrippa natus, v. 56.).

Sævit, quod meretrice nepos insanus amica
Filius uxorem grandi cum dote recuset,
Ebrius et, magnum quod dedecus, ambulet ante
Noctem cum facibus. Numquid Pomponius istis
Audiret leviora, pater si viveret? Ergo

Non satis est puris versum perscribere verbis,
Quem si dissolvas, quivis stomachetur eodem
Quo personatus pacto pater. His, ego quæ nunc,
Olim quæ scripsit Lucilius, eripias si

Tempora certa modosque et quod prius ordine verbum est

Posterius facias præponens ultima primis,

Non, ut si solvas "Postquam Discordia tetra
Belli ferratos postes portasque refregit,"
Invenias etiam disjecti membra poëtæ.
Hactenus hæc alias justum sit necne poëma.
Nunc illud tantum quæram, meritone tibi sit
Suspectum genus hoc scribendi. Sulcius acer
Ambulat et Caprius, rauci male cumque libellis,
Magnus uterque timor latronibus; at bene si quis
Et vivat puris manibus, contemnat utrumque.
Ut sis tu similis Cœli Birrique latronum,
Non ego sim Capri neque Sulci: cur metuas me?
Nulla taberna meos habeat neque pila libellos,
Quis manus insudet vulgi Hermogenisque Tigelli;
Nec recito cuiquam nisi amicis, idque coactus,
Non ubivis coramve quibuslibet. In medio qui
Scripta foro recitent sunt multi quique lavantes;
Suave locus voci resonat conclusus. Inanes
Hoc juvat, haud illud quærentes, num sine sensu,

52. cum facibus. Cp. Carm. III. xxvi. 7.

60

65

70

75

65. Sulcius, Caprius, 'delatores et causidici;' v. Schol.

libellis, 'writs of indictment.' See art. LIBELLUS, in the Dict. of Antiqq. 71. habeat, used in an optative

60. Non. Connect with invenias sense. (v. 62.).

60, 61, Verses taken from Ennius; imitated, Virg. Æn. vii. 622.

77. sine sensu. Cp. Sat. 1. iii. 66. i.e.without observing whether the audience like or listen to them.'

Tempore num faciant alieno.

Lædere gaudes,

Inquit, et hoc studio pravus facis. Unde petitum
Hoc in me jacis? est auctor quis denique eorum,
Vixi cum quibus? Absentem qui rodit amicum,
Qui non defendit alio culpante, solutos

Qui captat risus hominum famamque dicacis,
Fingere qui non visa potest, commissa tacere

80

Qui nequit ; hic niger est, hunc tu, Romane, caveto. 85 Sæpe tribus lectis videas cœnare quaternos,

E quibus unus amet quavis adspergere cunctos

90

Præter eum qui præbet aquam; post hunc quoque potus,
Condita cum verax aperit præcordia Liber.
Hic tibi comis et urbanus liberque videtur,
Infesto nigris; ego si risi, quod ineptus
Pastillos Rufillus olet, Gargonius hircum,
Lividus et mordax videor tibi? Mentio si qua
De Capitolini furtis injecta Petilli

Te coram fuerit, defendas, ut tuus est mos :
Me Capitolinus convictore usus amicoque

95

78. Tempore alieno. Martial, dus, etc. Now I will give you an

iii. 44.

6

79. Lædere gaudes, inquit. You are malicious,' says one, and do this (i.e. affect this concealment) with an evil purpose;' sc. ut absentes rodas. 81-83. Cp. Eurip. Hippol. 1000.: οὐκ ἐγγελάστης τῶν ὁμιλούντων, πάτερ,

ἀλλ ̓ αὑτὸς οὐ παροῦσι κἀγγὺς ὢν φίλοις.

and Cicero, Epist. Fam. iii. 8.: Si ista quæ alios loqui dicis ipse sentis tua summa culpa est; sin autem alii tecum hæc loquuntur tua tamen, quod audis, culpa nonnulla est.

instance which really deserves those epithets'..

....

87. amet soleat, as Sat. 1. x. 60., II. iii. 214. avet is a common reading here, but less suitably as to sense and mood. (See Bentley's note, quoted by Orelli.)

aspergere cunctos. Cp. dicteria dicis in omnes.-Mart. vi. 44.

88. qui præbet aquam. i. e. 'the entertainer.' Cp. Sat. II. ii. 69.; also Carm. III. xix. 6.

92. A quotation from Sat. 1. ii. 27. 94. Petillî. Cp. Sat. 1. x. 26. He was said to have stolen the crown 86-100. The sense is: You from the statue of Jupiter in the often see at a party one invited Capitol, and to have been acquitted whose whole occupation (or profes- only through the influence of Ausion) is to banter the rest. You gustus. Hence the name Capitolicall him a free-spoken agreeable nus. This was, however, a regular Yet you call me niger, livi- surname of the gens Petillia.

man.