Delphi Complete Works of Persius (Illustrated) by Aulus Persius Flaccus

Author:Aulus Persius Flaccus [Flaccus, Aulus Persius]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ancient & Classical, Ancient, poetry, Ancient Classics, history, Rome
ISBN: 9781801700290
Google: p91BEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Delphi Classics
Published: 2021-09-08T23:26:38.034110+00:00

ENDNOTES.

1 Polydamas is from Homer (Il. xxii. 104-5). Polydamas and the high-born Roman ladies are supposed to represent the opinions of the respectable Mrs. Grundys of the day. Attius Labeo was a poor poet of the time, said to have translated Homer.

2 The secret is that every one is an ass, see 1. 121. For the passage 8-12 I follow the punctuation and explanation given by Professor Housman (C.Q. Jan. 1913). Cachinno is a verb, “I laugh”; it has been commonly taken as a substantive (“a laugher”) but there is no authority.

3 Titos for Titienses, one of the three original Roman tribes, ironically applied to those who prided themselves on their ancient Roman descent. Similarly used are Troiades in 1. 4, Romulidae, 1. 31, and Rhamnes in Hor. A. P. 342.

4 The ferment of poetic inspiration longing for a vent is compared to the sturdy shoot of the wild fig-tree, which finds its way through masonry and dislodges even solid stones (Juv. x. 143).

5 These words refer to the canities, etc., ridiculed in 1. 9 which the Friend accounts for by the hard work of the poet! Some give these words to Persius, with an ironical meaning.

6 i.e. some sentimental ditty taken from heroic times; there may be an allusion to the Heroides of Ovid.

7 Referring to the simple prayer often inscribed over the ashes of the dead, sit tibi terra levis (S.T.T.L.).

8 A clear imitation of Cat. xcv. 7, and Hor. Epp. II. i. 269, alluding to the uses of waste paper.

9 No doubt the Attius Labeo of 1. 4.

10 These lines, again, are closely imitated from Hor. Epp. I. xix. 37.

11 Janus, having two faces (bifrons), could not be ridiculed from behind.

12 A metaphor from the art of the sculptor, who passes his nail along the surface to make sure that there is no inequality.

13 The Palilia or Parilia were celebrated on the 21st of April, the supposed birthday of Rome. Part of the ceremony or sport of the day was to jump over burning heaps of hay.

14 L. Quintus Cincinnatus. Alluding to the well-known story of his being saluted as Dictator on coming home from the plough.

15 Brisaeus is an epithet of Bacchus, used here (like venosus and verrucosus) to indicate the poet’s style. Line 78 is apparently a parody of a line in the Antiope of Pacuvius, in which he is said to have imitated Euripides.

16 Jump up to: 16.0 16.1 These were the greatest of the early poets of home, after Ennius. Both wrote tragedies. Pacuvius was born about B.C. 220, Accius (or Attius) in B.C. 170. Horace speaks of them with more respect than Persius: aufert=Pacuvius docti famam senis, Accius alti (Epp. n. i. 56).

17 The name “Pedius,” as that of an advocate, seems taken from Hor. Sat. I. x. 28, but there seems to be no reference to the cause in which Pedius is there concerned.

18 These lines (93-5), admiringly quoted by the Friend, seem to be invented or quoted to show the absurdities of modern poetic diction.

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