Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookmer was a kind of metal sieve, of which numbers have been found at Pompeii. The latter was a filter-bag of linen. (Hence "integrum perdunt lino vitiata saporem." Hor., _u. s._) The usual plan was to fill both the colum and saccus with snow, and then to pour the wine over it; and with this view the snow was carefully preserved till summer, as is still done at Naples. (Hence "æstivæ nives." Mart., v., Ep. lxiv., 2.) Nero's invention of using water that had been boiled and afterward frozen, as a substitute for snow, has been already alluded to. This process also served to moderate the intoxicating power of the stronger wines; hence the phrases "castrare, frangere, liquare, vina." (Cf. Plin., H. N., xix., 4,19; xiv., 22; xxiv., 1, 1. Mart., xii., Ep. lx., 9, "Turbida sollicito transmittere Cæcuba sacco." xiv., Ep. ciii. and civ.; ix., Ep. xxiii, 8; xci., 5.) [1661] The magistrate who exhibited the shows of gladiators was said _edere munus_. The first _editores_ were the brothers Marcus and Decimus Junius Brutus, A.U.C. 490, B.C. 264, who exhibited a munus gladiatorium in the Forum Boarium, at their father's funeral. Val. Max., II., iv., 7, Liv. Epit., xvi. The country of Samnium afterward produced many of these gladiators, though probably the name Samnis was also given to those who were armed after the old Samnite fashion (as Threx, Gallus, etc. Hor., i., Ep. xviii., 36; ii., Ep. ii., 98. Livy describes their equipment in detail, ix., 40, which tallies exactly with the paintings discovered at Pompeii. Vid. Pompeii, vol. i., p. 308, _seq._). Æsernia, now Isernia, was a town in the district of the Pentri in Samnium, to which the Romans sent a colony in the year above mentioned. Æsernius was probably some famous gladiator who was a native of this place, but his name and that of Pacideianus were afterward used proverbially for any eminent men of that class. Cf. Cic., opt. gen., Or. vi. Tusc., iv., 21, ad Quint. Frat., iii., 4. Hor., ii., Sat. vii., 97. Nonius explains "spurcus" to mean "savage, blood-thirsty." [1662] The reading and interpretation of Gerlach is followed. [1663] Cicero (de Orat., iii., 23) quotes these lines of Lucilius, when speaking of a certain Velocius, who, when a youth, had applied himself with great success to the gladiatorial art, so as in fact to be a match for any one, but afterward never practiced it. The relative claims of the readings _civis_ and _cuivis_ are discussed at great length in Harles' note to the passage of Cicero (q. v., ed. Lips., 1816). The _rudis_ was the wooden sword with which the gladiators practiced; the _sica_ being used in the _ludus_. They also received a rudis as a token of their release from service. Hence "rudem poscere," "rude donatus," etc. Ov., Am., II., ix., 22. Cic., Phil., ii., 29. Hor., i., Ep. i., 2. Suet., Cal., 32. [1664] "Even though women may not have sufficient bodily strength to endure the rougher and more laborious duties of human life, still they may so far take care of their bodies as to be enabled to discharge the womanly office of suckling children." Gerlach: who reads _succosa_ for _succussa_, and explains _uberior_ by "largior, digitis non contractis, vola manus," "the open palm." Cf. lib. xxviii., Fr. 47. [1665] An utterly hopeless Fragment: for the second word, _titene_, there are eleven various readings. Gerlach's emendation is followed, who thinks it refers to the torments of love. [1666] This Fragment also Gerlach considers descriptive of the impetuosity of unbridled lust. Van Heusde sees an allusion to the episode of the hawk and the nightingale in Hesiod. Op. et Di., 201, _seq._ [1667] _Pessulus_ was the peg or bolt by which the fastening of the door was secured on the inside. It probably refers to a lover effecting a forcible entrance into his mistress's house. Cf. Hor., i., Od. xxv., 1; iii., Od. xxvi., 7, where Horace enumerates _vectes_ among the weapons of a lover's warfare. Cf. Lucil., xxix., Fr. 47, "Vecte atque ancipiti ferre effringam cardines." [1668] Cf. Cels., ii., 15. BOOK V. ARGUMENT. The person to whom this book is addressed, is supposed by Scaliger to have been a professor of the art of rhetoric. Lucilius complains that this friend, though he knew he had been ill, had never come to see him; and at the same time he ridicules the affected and pedantic style of language then in vogue in the schools of the rhetoricians. He then glances slightly at the fickleness and inconstancy of his friend's attachment, contrasting the present state of his feelings with his stanch friendship in former days; at the same time assuring him that his own heart remains unchanged. He admits, however, that there is some ground for excuse for this disappointment of his hopes, as even the good Tiresias of yore was occasionally found tripping. (Fr. 10.) The causes which lead to breach of friendship are then discussed, the chief of which is avarice, that lust of gold, that nothing can satiate; while, meantime the people are lacking the common necessaries of life. With avarice, ambition springs up; as sure a divider of faithful hearts as avarice itself. Yet Lælius, that true-hearted and single-minded man, could hold the highest offices of state without losing his integrity of heart, or sacrificing the simplicity of his rugged virtues. This treachery, however, is gradual in its growth. (Fr. 3.) At first a large bribe alone has power to sever the bonds of friendship; yet soon they give way before the most paltry inducement. Yet such is the infatuation and gross folly of men, that they even aim at deceiving the gods themselves by an affectation of piety. With this depraved state of morals he contrasts the frugal simplicity of ancient days, describing by the way the plain and homely elements that composed their forefathers' rustic meal. There is supposed to be an allusion in this book to one Q. Metellus Caprarius; a man who proved the worthlessness of his character, both during his administration as prætor, and afterward when serving in the camp before Numantia. (Fr. 11, 23, 20, 21, 22, Gerl.) Horace had perhaps part of this Satire in view, when he wrote his first Satire of the first book; especially where he mentions avarice as one of the causes which make men discontented with their lot in life. Very similar sentiments to those expressed in this book may be found in Sallust also. (Bell. Cat., c. xii., init.) 1 Though you do not inquire how I find myself, I shall nevertheless let you know. Since you have remained in that class in which the greatest portion of mankind is now, that you wish that man to perish whom you _would_ not come to see, though you _should_ have done so. If you do not like this "would" and "should," because it is inartificial, Isocratean, and altogether turgid, and at the same time thoroughly childish, I will not waste my labor. If you.... 2 For if what is _really_ enough for man could have satisfied him, this had been enough. |