Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookand demanded a triumph. If the senate approved, they decreed a thanksgiving (supplicatio) to the gods. The bays were worn by himself and his soldiers till the triumph was over. (Branches of bay were set up before the gate of Augustus, by a decree of the senate, as being the perpetual conqueror of his enemies. Cf. Ov., Trist., III., i., 39.) These letters were very rare under the emperors, vid. Tac., Agric., xviii., except those sent by the emperors themselves. Mart., vii., Ep. v., 3, "Invidet hosti Roma suo veniat laurea multa licet." Caligula's mock expedition into Germany (A.D. 40) is well known. The account given by Suetonius tallies exactly with the words of Persius. "Conversus hinc ad curam triumphi præter captivos ac transfugas barbaros, _Galliarum_ quoque _procerissimum quemque_ et ut ipse dicebat ἀξιοθριαμβευτον legit ac seposuit ad pompam; coegitque non tantum _rutilare et submittere comam_, sed et sermonem Germanicum addiscere et nomina barbarica ferre." Vid. Domit., c. xlvii. Cf. Tac., German., xxxvii. (Virg., Æn., vii., 183. Mart., viii., Ep. xxxiii., 20.) [1535] _Exossatus ager._ Among the Romans it was esteemed a great disgrace for a legatee to refuse to administer to the estate of the testator. Persius says, "even though you refuse to act as my heir, I shall have no great difficulty in finding some one who will. Though I have spent large sums in largesses to the mob, and in honor of the emperor, I have still a field left near the city, which many would gladly take." Such is unquestionably the drift of the passage; but "exossatus" is variously explained. It literally means that from which the bones have been taken: vid. Plaut., Aul., II., ix., 2, "Murænam exdorsua, atque omnia exossata fac sient." Amph., I., i., 163. So Lucr., iv., 1267. Ter., Ad., III., iv., 14. As stones are "the bones of the earth" (Ov., Met., i., 393, "Lapides in corpore terræ ossa reor"), it may mean "thoroughly cleared from stones;" or, as Casaubon says, so thoroughly exhausted by constant cropping, that the land is reduced to its very bones (as Juv., viii., 90, "Ossa vides regum vacuis exhausta medullis"). "Yet even this field, bad as it is, some terræ filius may be found to take." _Juxta_ is generally explained "near Rome," and therefore parted with _last_. D'Achaintre takes it with exossatus in the sense of "almost." [1536] _Bovillæ_, a village on the Via Appia, no great distance from Rome; hence called _Suburbanæ_, by Ovid (Fast., iii., 667) and Propertius (IV., i., 33). Here Clodius was killed by Milo. Like Aricia, it was infested by beggars. (Cf. Juv., iv., 117, "Dignus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes.") Hence the proverb "Multi Manii Ariciæ." [1537] _Virbii clivum_, a hill near Aricia, by the wood sacred to Diana Nemorensis. It took its name from Hippolytus, son of Theseus, who was worshiped here under the name of Virbius (bis vir) as having been restored by Æsculapius to life. Cf. Ov., Met., xv., 543. Virg., Æn., vii., 760-782. There was also a hill within the walls of Rome called by this name (cf. Liv., i., 48, where, however, Gronovius reads Orbii), near the Vicus Sceleratus. [1538] _Lampada._ The allusion is to the Torch-race λαμπαδηφόρια at Athens. There were three festivals of this kind, according to Suidas, the Panathenæan, Hephæstian, and Promethean. In the latter they ran from the altar of Prometheus through the Ceramicus to the city. The object of the runners in these races was to carry a lighted torch to the end of their courses. But the manner of the running is a disputed point among the commentators. Some say three competitors started together, and he that carried his torch unextinguished to the goal was victorious. Others say the runners were stationed at different intervals, and the first who started gave up his torch at the first station to another, who took up the running, and in turn delivering it to a third; and to this the words of Lucretius seem to refer, ii., 77, "Inque brevi spatio mutantur sæcla animantúm Et quasi cursores vitaï lampada tradunt." Others again think that several competitors started, but one only bore a torch, which, when wearied, he delivered to some better-winded rival; which view is supported by Varro, R. R., iii., 16, "In palæstra qui tædas ardentes accipit, celerior est in cursu continuo quam ille qui tradit: propterea quod defatigatus cursor dat integro facem." Cic., Heren., 4. The explanations of this line consequently are almost as various. Prate, the Delphin editor, supposes that Persius' heir was a man farther advanced in years than Persius himself. Gifford explains it, "You are in full health, and have every prospect of outstripping me in the career of life; do not then prematurely take from me the chance of extending my days a little. Do not call for the torch before I have given up the race:" and sees in it a pathetic conviction of Persius' own mind, that his health was fast failing, and that a fatal termination of the contest was inevitable and not far remote. D'Achaintre thinks, with Casaubon, that "qui prior es" means, "You are my nearer heir than the imaginary Manius, why therefore do you disturb yourself? Receive my inheritance, as all legacies should be received, i. e., as unexpected gifts of fortune; as treasures found on the road, of which Mercurius is the supposed giver. I am then your Mercury. Imagine me to be your god of luck, coming, as he is painted, with a purse in my hand." Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 68. [1539] _Dicta paterna._ Not "the precepts of my father," because Persius' father was dead; but such as fathers give, inculcating lessons of thrift and money-getting; as Hor., i., Ep. i., 53, "Virtus post nummos--hæc recinunt juvenes dictata senesque." Cf. Juv., xiv., 122. [1540] _Vago._ Cf. Varr. ap. Non., i., 223, "Spatale eviravit omnes Venerivaga pueros." [1541] _Trama_ is the "warp," according to some interpretations, the "woof," according to others. The metaphor is simply from the fact, that when the nap is worn off the cloth turns threadbare; and implies here one so worn down that his bones almost show through his skin. [1542] _Popa venter._ With paunch so fat that he looks like a "popa," "the sacrificing priest," who had good opportunities of growing fat from the number of victims he got a share of; and therefore, like our butchers, grew gross and corpulent. Popa is also put for the female who _sold_ victims for sacrifice, and probably had as many chances of growing fat. The idea of the passage is borrowed from Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 122. [1543] _Plausisse_, either in the sense of jactâsse, "to praise their good qualities," or, "to clap them with the hand, to show what good condition they are in." Cf. Ov., Met., ii., 866, "Modo pectora præbet virgineâ plaudenda manu." Others read "pavisse," "clausisse," and "pausasse." (Cf. Sen., Epist. lxxx., 9.) [1544] _Catasta_, from κατάστασις, "a wooden platform on which slaves were exposed to sal |