Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookridicule that you are unconsciously exciting." [1238] _Occurrite._ So iii., 64, "Venienti occurrite morbo." [1239] _Sannæ._ Juv., vi., 306, "Quâ sorbeat aera sannâ." [1240] _Junctura._ A metaphor from statuaries or furniture-makers, who passed the nail over the marble or polished wood, to detect any flaw or unevenness. So Lucilius compares the artificial arrangement of words to the putting together a tesselated pavement. Frag. incert. 4, "Quam lepide lexeis compostæ? ut tesserulæ omnes Arte pavimento atque emblemate vermiculato." Cf. Hor., A. P., 292, "Carmen reprehendite quod non multa dies et multa litura coercuit atque perfectum decies non castigavit ad unguem." i., Sat. v., 32," Ad unguem factus homo." ii., Sat. vii., 87. Appul., Fl., 23, "Lapis ad unguem coæquatus." Sidon. Apoll., ix., Ep. 7, "Veluti cum crystallinas crustas aut onychitinas non impacto digitus ungue perlabitur: quippe si nihil eum rimosis obicibus exceptum tenax fractura remoretur." This operation the Greeks expressed by ἐξονυχίζειν. Polycletus used to say, χαλεπώτατον εἶναι τὸ ἔργον ὅταν ἐν ὄνυχι ὁ πηλὸς γίγνηται. "The most difficult part of the work is when the nail comes to be applied to the clay." [1241] _Oculo uno._ From carpenters or masons, who shut one eye to draw a straight line. θατέρῳ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἄμεινον πρὸς τοὺς κανόνας ἀπευθύνοντας τὰ ξύλα. Luc., Icarom., ii. [1242] _Poetæ._ Probably another hit at Nero. [1243] _Heroas._ Those who till lately have confined themselves to trifling effusions in Greek, now aspire to the dignity of Tragic poets. [1244] _Corbes, etc._ The usual common-places of poets singing in praise of a country life. The Palilia was a festival in honor of the goddess Pales, celebrated on the 21st of April, the anniversary of the foundation of Rome. During this festival the rustics lighted fires of hay and stubble, over which they leaped by way of purifying themselves. Cf. Varro, L. L., v., 3, "Palilia tam privata quam publica sunt apud rusticos: ut congestis cum fæno stipulis, ignem magnum transsiliant, his Palilibus se expiari credentes." Prop. iv., El. i., 19, "Annuaque accenso celebrare Palilia fæna." [1245] _Quintius._ Cincinnatus. Cf. Liv., iii., 26. [1246] _Accius_ is here called Brisæus, an epithet of Bacchus, because he wrote a tragedy on the same subject as the Bacchæ of Euripides. [1247] _Venosus_ is probably applied to the hard knotted veins that stand out on the faces and brows of old men. The allusion, therefore, is to the taste of the Romans of Persius' days, for the rugged, uncouth, and antiquated writing of their earlier poets. Nearly the same idea is expressed by the word _verrucosa_, "full of warts, hard, knotty, horny." Cicero mentions this play: "Quis Ennii Medeam, et Pacuvii Antiopam contemnat et rejiciat," de Fin., i., 2. The remainder of the line is a quotation from Pacuvius. The word _ærumna_ was obsolete when Quintilian wrote. [1248] _Sartago._ Juv., x., 64. Properly "a frying-pan," then used for the miscellaneous ingredients put into it; or, as others think, for the sputtering noise made in frying, to which Persius compared these "sesquipedalia verba." Casaubon quotes a fragment of the comic poet Eubulus, speaking of the same thing, Λοπὰς παφλάζει βαρβάρῳ λαλήματι, Πηδῶσι δ' ἰχθῦς ἐν μέσοισι τηγάνοις. "The dish splutters, with barbarous prattle, and the fish leap in the middle of the frying-pan." The word is said to be of Syriac origin. [1249] _Dedecus._ The disgrace of corrupting the purity and simplicity of the Latin language, by the mixture of this jargon of obsolete words and phrases. [1250] _Trossulus_ was a name applied to the Roman knights, from the fact of their having taken the town of Trossulum in Etruria without the assistance of the infantry. It was afterward used as a term of reproach to effeminate and dissolute persons. The _Subsellia_ are the benches on which these persons sit to hear the recitations. _Exultat_ expresses the rapturous applause of the hearers. Hor., A. P., 430, "Tundet pede terram." [1251] _Nilne pudet?_ He now attacks those who, even while pleading in defense of a friend whose life is at stake, would aim at the applause won by pretty conceits and nicely-balanced sentences. Niebuhr, Lect., vol. iii., p. 191, _seq._ [1252] _Decenter_ is a more lukewarm expression of approbation than euge or belle, pulchre or benè. [1253] _Pedius_ Blæsus was accused of sacrilege and peculation by the Cyrenians: he undertook his own defense, and the result was, he was found guilty and expelled from the senate. Tac., Ann., xiv., 18. [1254] _Bellum hoc_ is the indignant repetition by Persius of the words of applause. [1255] _Ceves._ "Does the descendant of the vigorous and warlike Romulus stoop to winning favor by such fawning as this?" _Cevere_ is said of a dog. Shakspeare, K. Henry VIII., act v., sc. 2, "You play the spaniel, and think with wagging of your tongue to win me." [1256] _Pictum._ Cf. ad Juv., xiv., 301, "Mersâ rate naufragus assem dum rogat et pictâ se tempestate tuetur." [1257] _Verum._ His tale must not smack of previous preparation, but must bear evidence of being genuine, natural, and spontaneous. So Hor., A. P., 102, "Si vis me flere dolendum est primum ipsi tibi: tunc tua me infortunia lædent." [1258] _Atyn._ These are probably quotations from Nero, as Dio says (lxi., 21), ἐκιθαρώδησεν Ἀττῖνα. The critics are divided as to the defects in these lines; whether Persius intends to ridicule their bombastic affectation, or the unartificial and unnecessary introduction of the Dispondæus, and the rhyming of the terminations, like the Leonine or monkish verses. [1259] _Arma virum._ The first words are put for the whole Æneid. The critic objects, "Are not Virgil's lines inflated and frothy equally with those you ridicule." Persius answers in the objector's metaphor, "They resemble a noble old tree with well-seasoned bark, not the crude and sapless pith I have just quoted." [1260] _Laxa cervice._ Alluding to the affected position of the head on one side, of those who recited these effeminate strains. [1261] _Mimalloneis._ The four lines following are said to be Nero's, taken from a poem called Bacchæ: the subject of which was the same as the play of Euripides of that name, and many of the ideas evidently borrowed from it. Its affected and turgid style is very clear from this fragment. The epithets are all far-fetched, and the images preposterous. The Bacchantes were called Mimallones from Mimas, a mountain in Ionia. Bassareus was an epithet of Bacchus, from the fox's skin in which he was represented: and the feminine form is here applied to Agave: by the _vitulus_, Pentheus is intended: the Mænad guides the car of Bacchus, drawn by spotted lynxes, not with reins, but |