Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookhe brings out her ribbons, her robe, her fillets--[1782] 6 A good cloak, if you ask me, or a hackney, a slave, or a litter-mat, is of more service to me than a philosopher--[1783] 7 ... besides, that accursed usurer, and Syrophœnician, what used he to do?[1784] 8 ... not a single slave ... that, just as though he were a slave, no one can speak his mind freely.[1785] 9 ... since he has served as a soldier in the Iberian land, for about eighteen years of his life--....[1786] 10 ... that in the first place, with them, you are a mad, crack-brained fellow.[1787] 11 ... he knows what a tunic and toga are.... 12 a huge bowl, like a muzzle, hangs from his nostrils.[1788] 13 ... a bell and twig-baskets of pot-herbs.[1789] 14 ... he sets him low, and behind....[1790] 15 ... or who with grim face, pounces upon money.[1791] 16 ... there is no flummery-maker inferior to you--[1792] 17 ... their heads are bound; and their forelocks float, high, and covering their foreheads, as their custom was.[1793] 18 ... which compelled ... to drink gall, and wrinkle the belly by coarse bread, and inferior oil, and a loaf from Cumæ.[1794] FOOTNOTES: [1779] _Polyphemus._ Hom., Odyss., ix., 319, Κύκλωπος γὰρ ἔκειτο μέγα ῥόπαλον παρὰ σηκῷ . . ὅσσον θ' ἱστὸν νηὸς ἐεικοσόροιο μελαίνης, φορτίδος εὐρείης. _Corbita_, "navis oneraria," so called, according to Festus, because a basket (corbis) was suspended from the top of the mast. Cf. Plaut., Pæn., III., i., 4. The smaller swift-sailing vessels were called Celoces (a κέλης), hence "Obsecro operam celocem hanc mihi ne corbitam date." Cf. Plant., Pseud., V., ii., 12. [1780] _Sonipes._ Cf. Virg., Æn., xi., 599, "Fremit æquore toto insultans sonipes, et pressis pugnat habenis." Catull., lxiii., 41, "Sol pepulit noctis umbras vegetis sonipedibus." _Succussor._ Cf. ii., Fr. 10. _Milli_ is apparently an old ablative of the singular form. [1781] The whole Fragment is so corrupt as to be hopeless. Gerlach's interpolations are scarcely tenable. _Senium_, we learn from Nonius, is equivalent to tædium. So Persius, "En pallor seniumque." i., 26. _Vomitus_ seems to be applicable to a _person_, "an unclear, offensive fellow." So Plaut., Mostell., III., i., 119, "Absolve hunc, quæso, vomitum, ne hic nos enecet." [1782] Cf. Juv., vi., 461, "Ad mœchum lotâ veniunt cute: quando videri vult formosa domi? mœchis foliata parantur. Interea fœda aspectu ridendaque multo pane tumet facies ... tandem aperit vultum et tectoria prima reponit, incipit agnosci." _Spiram._ Cf. Juv., viii., 208. _Redimicula._ Juv., ii., 84. Virg., Æn., ix., 614. [1783] _Pænula._ Cf. Juv., v., 79. _Canterius._ Cf. ad lib. iii., Fr. 9. _Segestre_, a kind of straw mat (from seges) used in litters. [1784] Gerlach's reading is followed. τοκογλύφος is one who calculates his interest to a farthing; a sordid usurer. _Syrophœnix._ Cf. iii., Fr. 33. [1785] _Ergastulum_ is put sometimes for the slave himself, sometimes for the under-ground dungeon where, as a punishment, he was set to work. Cf. Juv., vi., 151, "Ergastula tota." viii., 180, "Nempe in Lucanos aut Tusca ergastula mittas." xiv., 24, "Quem mire afficiunt inscripta ergastula." Nonius says that the masculine form, ergastulus, is used for the "keeper of the bridewell," custos pœnalis loci. [1786] The war in Spain may be dated from the refusal of the Segedans to comply with the directions of the senate, and to pay their usual tribute. The failure of M. Fulvius Nobilior in Celtiberia took place B.C. 153, exactly twenty years before the fall of Numantia. [1787] _Cerebrosus._ "Qui cerebro ita laborat ut facile irascatur." Plaut., Most., IV., ii., 36, "Senex hic cerebrosus est certe." Hor., i., Sat. v., 21, "Donec cerebrosus prosilit unus, ac mulæ nautæque caput lumbosque saligno fuste dolat." [1788] _Postomis_ (ab ἐπιστομίς), or, as some read, prostomis, is a sort of muzzle or "twitch" put upon the nose of a refractory horse. To this Lucilius compares the drinking-cup applied for so long a time to the lips of the toper, that it looks as though it were suspended from his nose. Cf. Turneb., Adversar., 17, c. ult. _Trulla._ Cf. Juv., iii., 107. [1789] _Sirpicula_ is a basket made of twigs or rushes, for carrying flowers or vegetables. By _tintinnabulum_ Scaliger understands "genus vehiculi." But sirpiculæ (a sirpando) are also "the twigs with which bundles of fagots, etc., are bound together," which were also used in administering punishment; and the allusion may be to this, as those who were led to punishment sometimes carried bells. Vid. Turneb., Advers., xi., 21. Hence Tintinnaculus. Plaut., Truc., IV., iii., 8. [1790] The MSS. vary between suffectus and sufferctus. The latter would come from suffercio. Cf. Suet., Ner., 20. [1791] _Inuncare_ is applied by Apuleius to "an eagle bearing away a lamb in its talons." [1792] _Alica_ (anciently halica) is a kind of grain, somewhat like spelt. The ζέα or χόνδρος of the Greeks. Of this they prepared a kind of porridge or furmety, of which the Italians were very fond; as of the polenta, and the maccaroni of the present day. Cf. ad Pers., iii., 55. [1793] _Aptari_ Nonius explains by nexum, illigatum. _Capronæ_ (quasi a capite pronæ) is properly "that part of the mane which falls between the horse's ears in front." Then, like antiæ, applied to the forelocks of women. Vid. Fest. in v. [1794] _Galla_ is properly the gall-nut, or oak-apple, used, from its astringent qualities, in tanning and dyeing; and hence applied to any harsh, rough, inferior wine. _Acerosum_ (cf. ad ix., Fr. 15) is applied to meal not properly cleared from the husk or bran; the αὐτόπυρος of the Greeks. _Decumanus_ (cf. ad iv., Fr. 2) is often applied to any thing of uncommon size: here it is used for the worst kind of oil (quasi ex decimâ quâque mensurâ rejecto et projecto), or more probably "such oil as the husbandman would select in order to furnish his _decimæ_," i. e., the very worst. Festus says the whole fragment is an admonition to the exercise of frugality and self-denial. BOOK XVI. ARGUMENT. We have in the old grammarians two conflicting accounts of the subject of this book. Censorinus (de Die Natali, iii.) says that it contained a discussion on the "double genius" which the Socratic Euclides assigned to all the human race. On the other hand, Porphyrion (in a note of the twenty-second ode of Horace's first book) tells us that Horace here imitated Lucilius, who inscribed his sixteenth book to his mistress Collyra; hence this book was called Collyra, as the ninth was styled Fornix (in which also we may observe that it was stated that the double genius of Euclides was discussed). Priscian again seems to imply (III., i., 8) that it was inscribed to Fundius; and that Horace copied from it his fourteenth Epistle of th |