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Unus vivorum, Fundani; Pollio regum

Facta canit pede ter percusso; forte epos acer
Ut nemo Varius ducit; molle atque facetum
Virgilio annuerunt gaudentes rure Camenæ.
Hoc erat, experto frustra Varrone Atacino

Atque quibusdam aliis, melius quod scribere possem,
Inventore minor; neque ego illi detrahere ausim
Hærentem capiti cum multa laude coronam.
At dixi fluere hunc lutulentum, sæpe ferentem
Plura quidem tollenda relinquendis. Age, quæso,
Tu nihil in magno doctus reprehendis Homero?
Nil comis tragici mutat Lucilius Acci?
Non ridet versus Enni gravitate minores,
Cum de se loquitur non ut majore reprensis?
Quid vetat et nosmet Lucili scripta legentes
Quærere, num illius, num rerum dura negarit

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conscribendis fabulis."-Orell. The suited to me, though I confess my general sense is, you are the most inferiority to Lucilius (inventore pleasing writer of witty dialogue.' minor), esp. as the inventor of the Dillenburger points out the choice of style." verbs here, garrire comœdiam, canere tragoediam, ducere epica carmina,' expressing respectively the light and lively dialogue; the dignified or solemn tone of tragedy; the historical and sustained character of epic composition.

42. Fundanî. Caius Fundanius, the popular comic poet of the day. Pollio. Carm. 11. i. 1. 43. pede ter percusso Ars P. 252.

trimetris,

Varrone. Publ. Terentius Varro Atacinus (from Atax, a river in his native Gallia Narbonensis, country) composed in several styles His satires may be inof poetry. ferred from this passage to have been failures. He must not be confounded with the learned Varro Reatinus. He was born B. c. 82.

53. i. e. Does your favourite Lucilius find nothing to alter in Accius ?'

comis was evidently (see v. 65.) the popular epithet in the mouth of the admirers of Lucilius.

Accî. Epist. II. i. 56. ; Ars P. 258. 54. Ennî. Epist. II. i. 50. gravitate minores. i. e. 'undigni

forte epos, Epic poetry.' 44. molle, facetum, epithets descriptive of the Eclogues and Georgics, the Eneid being yet unpublished. Quintilian, referring to this passage, explains facetum as a term (appellationem) "decoris et ex-fied.' · Or. cultæ cujusdam elegantiæ.". Inst. vI. iii. 19.

46. Hoc erat, this (viz. satiric poetry) (was left for and) was better

55. non ut majore, 'not as if he were superior to those whom he blames' (though he can see their defects).

Versiculos natura magis factos et euntes

Mollius ac si quis pedibus quid claudere senis,
Hoc tantum contentus, amet scripsisse ducentos
Ante cibum versus, totidem conatus; Etrusci
Quale fuit Cassi rapido ferventius amni
Ingenium, capsis quem fama est esse librisque
Ambustum propriis. Fuerit Lucilius, inquam,
Comis et urbanus, fuerit limatior idem
Quam rudis et Græcis intacti carminis auctor,
Quamque poëtarum seniorum turba; sed ille,
Si foret hoc'nostrum fato dilatus in ævum,
Detereret sibi multa, recideret omne quod ultra
Perfectum traheretur, et in versu faciendo
Sæpe caput scaberet, vivos et roderet ungues.
Sæpe stilum vertas iterum quæ digna legi sint

uévos, Arist. Ran. 902.

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58. magis factos. i. e. 'more 20. ; cp. Ars P. 291. So кαтEррIVηfinished. Cp. facta quodammodo oratio, Cic. Ad Brut. viii. 30.; De Orat. iii. 48. (184.)

59. pedibus quid claudere. i. e. 6 to make verses that would scan.' Sat. II. i. 28., 1. iv. 40.

61. Etrusci Cassî, a bad poet, not to be confounded with the Cassius of Epist. I. iv. 3.

62. ferventius amni. So Carm. iv. ii. 5.: velut amnis . . . fervet,-of the impetuosity of genius.

66. Quam. auctor. i. e 'grant that he has elegance and ease, and even more smoothness than you could expect from the author of a new and untried style of poetry.' Lucilius is termed auctor, as in v. 48. inventor (cp. below, Sat. II. i. 63.); and such he was, both as to the form and the subject matter of his Satires. Those of Ennius had been composed in every kind of metre, and were wholly irregular; and in their subject they were principally a delineation of daily life. But Lucilius ambustum, prop. 'burnt round,' wrote only in hexameter verse, and i. e. 'set on fire, scorched." "Ridicule apparently (like Horace and Juvenal) pro combustum."-Baxt. "Consulto dealt with peculiarities of character, mitius verbum elegit ne nimis rem ex- with vices, and with persons. (Some aggeraret, non combustum."-Orell. editors have interpreted auctor of (Can the story be a jest developed Ennius; but there are great objecout of the double sense of the adj. tions to this. ferventius?)

63. i. e. he wrote books enough, with their cases, to serve for his funeral pile.'

71. vivos ungues, to the quick.' Cp. Pers. i. 106.

65. limatior. The metaphor of "a fayre filed tongue" is in Spenser, F. 72. stilum vertas, you must 11. i. 3. Cp. Ov. Ex Pont. I. v. 16-alter,' &c. The stilus was blunted

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Q. HORATII FLACCI SATIRARUM

LIB. I. 10.

Scripturus, neque te ut miretur turba labores,
Contentus paucis lectoribus. An tua demens
Vilibus in ludis dictari carmina malis?

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Non ego nam satis est equitem mihi plaudere, ut audax
Contemptis aliis explosa Arbuscula dixit.

Men' moveat cimex Pantilius, aut cruciet quod
Vellicet absentem Demetrius, aut quod ineptus
Fannius Hermogenis lædat conviva Tigelli?
Plotius et Varius, Maecenas Virgiliusque,
Valgius et probet hæc Octavius, optimus atque
Fuscus et hæc utinam Viscorum laudet uterque.
Ambitione relegata te dicere possum,
Pollio, te, Messalla, tuo cum fratre simulque

Vos, Bibule et Servi, simul his te, candide Furni,
Complures alios, doctos ego quos et amicos
Prudens prætereo; quibus hæc, sunt qualiacunque,
Arridere velim, doliturus si placeant spe
Deterius nostra. Demetri, teque, Tigelli,
Discipularum inter jubeo plorare cathedras.
I, puer, atque meo citus hæc subscribe libello.

at the one end so as to obliterate the writing on the waxen tablet when needed.

75. This would be the fate. of a popular poet. Cp. Epist. 1. xx. 17., and Pers. i. 29.

77. Arbuscula, a female mime or reciter (see on v. 18.), extolled by Cic. Ad Att. IV. xv. 6.

78. Pantilius, one of Horace's Dunciad. So Fannius, Sat. I. iv. 21. cimex, 'a bug.'

81. Plotius. Sat. I. v. 40.

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85

90

82. Valgius. Carm. 11. ix.
Octavius, historian and poet.
83. Viscorum uterque, the two
sons of Vibius Viscus, a wealthy
eques.

84. Ambitione relegatâ. i. e.
without flattery.'
86. Bibule, Servi.

Unknown. Furni. Caius Furnius, an historian. candide. Ep. 1. iv. 1.

91. jubeo plorare. Gr. oiuágelD KEλeuw, equivalent to 'abite in malam rem.'

Q. HORATII FLACCI SATIRARUM

LIBER SECUNDUS.

SATIRA I.

SUNT quibus in satira videor nimis acer et ultra
Legem tendere opus; sine nervis altera quidquid
Composui pars esse putat similesque meorum
Mille die versus deduci posse. Trebati,

Quid faciam præscribe. Quiescas. Ne faciam, inquis,
Omnino versus? Aio. Peream male, si non
Optimum erat; verum nequeo dormire. Ter uncti
Transnanto Tiberim, somno quibus est opus alto,
Irriguumque mero sub noctem corpus babento.

SAT. I.

2. sine nervis, tame, spiritless.' Cp. nervi deficiunt, A. Poet. 26. 4. deduci. Cp. Ep. II. i. 225. Pope has preserved the metaphor: "Lord Fanny spins a thousand such

a day."

Trebati. C. Trebatius Testa, well known through his intimacy with Cicero. See the Ep. Ad Fam. VII. v., and indeed the whole book.

5. præscribe, a word used technically of juridical rules. (Orelli quotes Cic. Orat. 41. (141.), reading præ

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scriptionum for the common persecutionum).

, Gr.

7. Optimum erat, 'it were best ; ' 'it would be the best way: KρеîтTOV V (as in Arist. Nub. 1215.). Cp. Livy, xxx. 29.: optimum quidem fuerat, etc.

8. Ter transnanto... habento. These terminations are proper to a formal legal style of injunction; and in the rule itself is a sly allusion to the old lawyer's love of the water, and of good living:. for which traits see Cic. Ad Fam. VII. X. 2., studiosissimus homo natandi ; and VII. xxii., inter scyphos, etc.

Aut, si tantus amor scribendi te rapit, aude
Cæsaris invicti res dicere, multa laborum

Præmia laturus. Cupidum, pater optime, vires
Deficiunt: neque enim quivis horrentia pilis
Agmina nec fracta pereuntes cuspide Gallos
Aut labentis equo describit vulnera Parthi.
Attamen et justum poteras et scribere fortem,
Scipiadam ut sapiens Lucilius. Haud mihi deero,
Cum res ipsa feret: nisi dextro tempore, Flacci
Verba per attentam non ibunt Cæsaris aurem ;
Cui male si palpere, recalcitrat undique tutus.
Quanto rectius hoc quam tristi lædere versu
Pantolabum scurram Nomentanumque nepotem,
Cum sibi quisque timet, quamquam est intactus, et odit.
Quid faciam? Saltat Milonius, ut semel icto
Accessit fervor capiti numerusque lucernis;
Castor gaudet equis, ovo prognatus eodem
Pugnis; quot capitum vivunt, totidem studiorum
Millia: me pedibus delectat claudere verba

Cp. Ov. Fast. i.

13. Deficiunt. 123. : "Deficit ingenium, majoraque viribus urgent."

14. fractâ cuspide. This is said by the Schol. to be an allusion to the device adopted by Marius against the Cimbri. See Plutarch's Life of C. Marius, 25.

16. poteras scribere. Lit., 'you were able to describe, you might have described.' But, as expressing a suggestion or supposition, cp. Ars P. 328. poteras dixisse, 'supposе you say, or have said.'

justum, fortem. i. e. in his civil capacity as a just and vigorous ruler. 18. dextro tempore. Cp. the opposite phrase in Sat. II. iv. 4. 22. A verse quoted from Sat. 1. viii.

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