BOOK XXVI.

ARGUMENT.

Gerlach considers this book to contain the strongest evidences of

how much Horace was indebted to Lucilius, not only in the choice

of his subjects, but also in his illustration and method of

handling the subject when chosen. In the 105th of the Fragmenta

incerta, we find the words "Valeri sententia dia" (which Horace

imitates, i., Sat. ii., 32, "sententia dia Catonis"). By Valerius

he here supposes Q. Valerius Soranus to be intended; a man of

great learning and an intimate friend of Publius Scipio and

Lucilius. He was author of a treatise on grammar, entitled

ἐποπτίδων; which contained, according to Turnebe's conjecture, a

discussion on the mysteries of literature and learning (ἐπόπτης

being applied to one initiated into the mysteries). This is not

improbable; as he is said to have lost his life for divulging the

sacred and mysterious name of Rome. Vid. Plut., Qu. Rom., lxi.

«Two verses of his are quoted by Varro, L. L., vii., 3, and x.,

70. Cf. Plin., H. N., Præf., p. 6, Hard. A. Gell., ii., 10.»

With him, therefore, as a man of judgment and experience,

Lucilius, who had already acquired some ill-will from his

Satires, consults, as to the best method of avoiding all odium

for the future, and as to the subjects he shall select for

his compositions. This book then contains an account of this

interview between the poet and his adviser; and Gerlach most

ingeniously arranges the fragments in such an order as to

represent in some manner the topics of discussion in a methodical

sequence. These are, chiefly, the propriety of his continuing

to pursue the same style of writing, and the enunciation of

the opinions of both on matters relating to war, marriage, and

literary pursuits.

Van Heusde and Schoenbeck give no definite idea of the subject.

Petermann considers the subject matter to have been far more

diversified. The book begins, in his opinion, with a vivid

description of the miseries of conjugal life, introducing a very

graphic matrimonial quarrel; this is followed by so infinitely

diversified a farrago of sentiments that it is hopeless to

attempt to establish any systematic connection between them.

Corpet considers the whole to have been a philosophical discussion

of the miseries of human life, especially those attendant on the

married state, which the poet illustrated by the very forcible

example of Agamemnon and Clytæmnestra.

The whole of the book was composed in the Trochaic metre;

consisting of tetrameters catalectic and acatalectic. A few

Fragments consist of Iambic heptameters and octometers (Iambici

septenarii et octonarii), unless, as is not improbable, these

lines have been referred to this book, through the inadvertence

of grammarians or copyists. It might, however, have been

intentional, as in the succeeding books we find Iambic, Trochaic,

and Dactylic metres indiscriminately employed.

1 Men, by their own act, bring upon themselves this trouble and

annoyance; they marry wives, and bring up children, by which

they cause these.[1831]

2 For you say indeed, that what was secretly intrusted to you,

you would neither utter a single murmur, nor divulge your

mysteries abroad....[1832]

3 If she were to ask me for as much iron as she does gold, I

would not give it her. So again, if she were to sleep away from

me, she would not get what she asks.

4 ... but Syrus himself, the Tricorian, a freedman and thorough

scoundrel; with whom I become a shuffler, and change all

things.[1833]

5 ... covered with filth, in the extremity of dirt and

wretchedness, exciting neither envy in her enemies, nor desire

in her friends.

6 ... but that I should serve under Lucilius as collector of the

taxes on pasturage in Asia, no, that I would not![1834]

7 ... just as the Roman people has been conquered by superior

force, and beaten in many single battles; but in war never, on

which every thing depends.

8 Some woman hoping to pillage and rifle me, and filch from me my

ivory mirror.[1835]

9 In throwing up a mound, if there is any occasion for bringing

vineæ into play, their first care is to advance them.

10

11 Take charge of the sick man, pay his expenses, defraud his

genius.[1836]

12 ... But for whom? One whom a single fever, one attack of

indigestion, nay, a single draught of wine, could carry

off....[1837]

13 If they commiserate themselves, take care you do not assign

their case too high a place.[1838]

14 Now, in like manner ... we wish to captivate their mind ...

just to the people and to authors....[1839]

15 ... you do not collect that multitude of your friends which you

have entered on your list....[1840]

16 ... wherefore it is better for her to cherish this, than bestow

all her regard on that....

17 ... in the first place, all natural philosophers say, that man

is made up of soul and body.

18 ... to have returned and retraced his steps[1841]

19 ... and that which is greatly to your fancy is excessively

disagreeable to me....

20 ... strive with the highest powers of your nature: whereas I,

on the other hand ... that I may be different[1842]

21 ... whether he should hang himself, or fall on his sword, that

he may not look upon the sky....[1843]

22 ... study the matter, and give your attention to my words, I

beg.

23 ... in order that I may escape from that which I perceive it is

the summit of your desires to attain to.[1844]

24 On the other hand, it is a disgrace not to know how to conquer

in war the sturdy barbarian Hannibal.[1845]

25 ... but if they see this, they think that a wise man always

aims at what is good....

26 ... delighted with your pursuit, you write an ancient history

to your favorites....[1846]

27 ... who I am, and with what husk I am now enveloped, I can

not....[1847]

28 ... then to oppose to my mind a body worn out with pains.

29 ... nor before he had handled a man's veins and heart....

30 Let us appear kind and courteous to our friends--[1848]

31 Why should not you too call me unlettered and uneducated?[1849]

32 ... call together the assembly, with hoarse sound and crooked

horns.[1850]

33 They will of their own accord fight it out for you, and die,

and will offer themselves voluntarily.

34 When I bring forth any verse from my heart--[1851]

35 He is not on that account exalted as the giver of life or of

joy....[1852]

36 As each one of us has been brought forth into light from his

mother's womb[1853]

37 ... if you wish to have your mind refreshed through your

ears[1854]

38 ... they who drag on life for six months, vow the seventh to

Orcus.

39 ... we are easily laughed at; we know that it is highly

dangerous to be angry--[1855]

40 Part is blown asunder by the wind, part grows stiff with

cold--[1856]

41 ... if he tastes nothing between two market days.[1857]

42 ... let it be glued with warm glue spread over it....

43 ... wherefore I quit the straight line, and gladly discharge

the office of rubbish--[1858]

44 ... if I had hit upon any obsolete or questionable word

45 ... your youth, tired and tested to the highest degree by

me.[1859]

46 ... when I had invigorated my body with a double stadium on the

exercise-ground, and with ball....[1860]

47 ... those who will take food from a clean table must needs wash.

48 Now obscurity is to these a strange and monstrous thing--[1861]

49 ... what you would think you should beware of and chiefly

avoid....

50 ... enter on that toil which will bring you both fame and

profit--

51 ... what he understood, I showed that not a few could:

52 ... how disgusting and poor a thing it is to live «with

loathing for food».[1862]

53 ... for my part, I am not persuaded publicly to change mine.

54 ... then my tithes, which treat me so ill, and turn out so badly

55 ... we see that he who is ill in mind gives evidence of it in

his body.

56 ... make the battle of Popilius resound[1863]

57 ... Sylvanus, the driver away of wolves ... and trees struck by

lightning.[1864]

58 ... that you transport yourself from the fierce storms of life

into quiet.

59 Moreover, it is a friend's duty to advise well, watch over,

admonish--

60 Since I found it out from great crowds of boon

companions--[1865]

61 ... a faithless wife, a sluggish household, a dirty home--[1866]

62 ... nor is peace obtained ... because he dragged Cassandra from

the statue[1867]

63 ... Eager to return home, we almost infringed our king's

command[1868]

64 ... Let something, at all events, which I have attempted, turn

out, some way....

65 ... Thither our eyes of themselves entice us, and hope hurries

our mind to the spot.

66 ... he thinks by clothes to ward off cold and shivering.

67 ... unless you write of monsters and snakes with wings and

feathers.[1869]

68 ... for I grow contemptuous and am weary of Agamemnon--

69 ... he is tormented with hunger, cold, dirt, unbathed

filthiness, neglect.

70 ... a sieve, a colander, a lantern ... a thread for the

web.[1870]

71 May the gods suggest better things, and avert madness from you

72 ... a dry, wretched, miserable stock he calls an elder--

73 ... be more learned than the rest; abandon, or change to some

other direction, those faults which have become sacred with you.

74 It were better to get gold from the fire or food out of the mud

with our teeth.

75 Let him chop wood, perform his task-work, sweep the house, be

beaten.

76 He alone warded off Vulcan's violence from the fleet....

77 Therefore, they think all will escape sickness....

78 I therefore dispose, for money, of that which costs me dearer.

FOOTNOTES:

[1831] _Producunt_, i. e., "instituunt," Nonius: vel "gignunt," Plaut.,

Rud., IV., iv., 129. Pers., vi., 18, "Geminos Horoscope varo producis

genio." Juv., viii., 271, "Quam te Thersitæ similem producat Achilles."

Plaut., As., III., i., 40. Ter., Ad., III., ii., 16. Juv., xiv., 228.

This, and the 3d, 4th, and 5th Fragments refer to the miseries of

married life.

[1832] _Mutires_, "to grumble, mutter." Plaut., Amph., I., i., 228,

"Etiam muttis? jam tacebo."

[1833] The Tricorii were a people of Gallia Narbonensis, on the

banks of the Druentia, now Durance, near Briançon, bordering

on the Allobroges and Vocontii. Hannibal marched through their

territory, after leaving the Arar. Cf. Plin., ii., 4. Liv., xxi., 31.

_Versipellis._ Cf. Plaut., Amph., Prol., 123, "Ita versipellem se facit

quando lubet."

[1834] Van Heusde's interpretation is followed, which seems the most

obvious one. Gerlach takes the contrary view, and says, these very

words prove that Lucilius could not have been a scriptuarius or

decumanus. Lucilius means, "he would not change his present condition

and pursuits, even for a very lucrative post in Asia."

[1835] _Depeculassere_ and _deargentassere_, are examples of the

old form of a future infinitive ending in _assere_. Cf. Plaut.,

Amphit., I., i., 56, "Sese igitur summâ vi virisque eorum oppidum

_expugnassere_." _Decalauticare_, "to deprive of one's hood," from

calautica, "a covering for the head, used by women, and falling over

the shoulders." It seems that Cicero charged Clodius with wearing one,

when he was detected in Cæsar's house. "Tunc cum vincirentur pedes

fasceis, cum calauticam capiti accommodares." Cic. in Clod. ap. Non.,

in voc. _Decalicasse_, is another reading.

[1836] _Defrudet._ Cf. Plaut., Asin., I., i., 77, "Me defrudato.

Defrudem te ego? Age, sis, tu sine pennis vola!"

[1837] Cf. Shaksp., Measure for Measure, act iii., sc. 1, "Reason thus

with life," etc.

[1838] Read "causam ... collocaveris."

[1839] Hopelessly corrupt. Gerlach says very justly, "fortasse rectius

ejusmodi loca intacta relinquuntur."

[1840] _Conficere_, i. e., "Colligere." Nonius, in voc.

[1841] _Repedasse._ Cf. Lucret., vi., 1279, "Perturbatus enim totus

repedabat." Pacuv. ap. Fest., in voc., "Paulum repeda gnate à vestibulo

gradum."

[1842] 19 and 20. Cf. Hor., i., Epist. xiv., 18, "Non eadem miramur:

eô disconvenit inter meque et te: nam quæ deserta et inhospita tesqua

Credis, amœna vocat mecum qui sentit, et odit quæ tu pulchra putas."

Cf. 23.

[1843] Describes the alternatives which the man worn out by conjugal

miseries proposes to himself.

[1844] Hor., i., Epist. xiv., 11,. "Cui placet alterius sua nimirum est

odio sors. Stultus uterque locum immeritum causatur iniquè. In culpâ

est animus qui se non _effugit_ unquam."

[1845] Gerlach's emendation is followed. Nonius explains "viriatum" by

"magnarum virium." Freund explains it, "adorned with bracelets," from

an old word, "viriæ," a kind of armlet or bracelet.

[1846] This refers, according to Gerlach, to Aulus Postumius Albinus,

consul B.C. 151, who wrote a Roman history in Greek. Cic., Brut., 21.

Fr. inc. 1.

[1847] _Folliculus_, properly the "pod, shell, or follicle" of a grain

or seed, is here put for the human flesh or body, which serves as the

husk to enshrine the principle of vitality.

[1848] _Munifici._ Plaut., Amph., II., ii., 222, "Tibi morigera, atque

ut munifica sim bonis, prosim probis."

[1849] _Idiota._ Cf. Cic., Ver., ii., 4; Sest., 51. Gerlach considers

these words to have been addressed either to Valerius Soranus, or

more probably to Ælius Stilo, whose judgment in literary matters was

so highly thought of that even Q. Servilius Cæpio, C. Aurelius Cotta,

and Q. Pompeius Rufus used his assistance in the composition of their

speeches. Cf. ad lib. i., Fr. 16.

[1850] Lipsius supposes this Fragment to refer to the Roman custom of

sounding a trumpet in the most frequented parts of the city, when the

day of trial of any citizen, on a capital charge, was proclaimed.

[1851] This Fragment, as well as 37 and 44, Gerlach supposes to have

been addressed to Ælius Stilo.

[1852] _Vel vitæ vel gaudî dator._ Gerlach's last conjecture.

[1853] _Bulga._ Cf. lib. ii., Fr. 16; vi., Fr. i.

[1854] _Irrigarier._ Cf. Plaut., Pœn., III., iii., 86, "Vetustate vino

edentulo ætatem irriges." Virg., Æn., iii., 511, "Fessos sopor irrigat

artus."

[1855] _Capital._ Cf. Plaut., Trin., IV., iii., 81, "Capitali

periculo." Rud., II., iii., 19. Mostell., II., ii., 44, "Capitalis ædes

facta est."

[1856] _Difflo._ "Flatu disturbo." Non. Cf. Plaut. Mil. Gl., I., i.,

17, "Quoius tu legiones difflavisti spiritu, quasi ventus folia aut

paniculam tectoriam." Gerlach thinks this refers to some description

of the return of the Greeks from the Trojan war, and is quoted by

Lucilius to show how entirely his style of composition differs from

such subjects.

[1857] _Nundinæ._ The market days were every ninth day, when the

country people came into Rome to sell their goods. These days

were _nefasti_. "Ne si liceret cum populo agi, interpellarentur

nundinatores." Fest.

[1858] _Lira_ is properly "the ridge thrown up between two furrows."

Hence _lirare_, "to plow or harrow in the seed." [In Juv., Sat. xiii.,

65, some read "_liranti_ sub aratro."] _Delirare_, therefore, is "to go

out of the right furrow." Hence, "to deviate from the straight course,

to go wrong, or deranged." Hor., i., Ep. xii., 20, "Quidquid delirant

reges plectuntur Achivi."

[1859] _Spectatam._ Ov., Trist., I., v., 25, "Ut fulvum spectatur in

ignibus aurum tempore sic duro est inspicienda fides." Cic., Off., ii.,

11, "Qui pecuniâ non movetur hunc igni spectatum arbitrantur."

[1860] _Siccare_, is properly applied "to healing up a running sore."

Then generally for hardening and making healthy the skin or body.

[1861] _Ignobilitas._ Cic., Tusc., v., 36, "Num igitur _ignobilitas_

aut humilitas ... sapientem beatum esse prohibebit?"

[1862] _Vescum._ Ovid explains the word. Fast., iii., 445, "Vegrandia

farra coloni. Quæ male creverunt, vescaque parva vocant." Cf. Virg.,

Georg., iii., 175, "Et vescas salicum frondes." Lucret., i., 327,

"Vesco sale saxa peresa." Nonius explains it by "minutus, obscurus."

Gerlach omits the last words of the Fragment.

[1863] Gerlach supposes Popilius Lænas to be meant, who incurred great

odium from the manner in which he conducted the inquiry into the death

of Tiberius Gracchus.

[1864] Cf. Plaut., Trin., II. iv., 138, "Nam fulguritæ sunt hic alternæ

arbores."

[1865] _Combibo._ "A pot companion." Cic., Fam., ix., 25, "In

controversiis quas habeo cum tuis combibonibus Epicureis."

[1866] For the old reading _flaci tam_, Dusa reads _flaccidam_;

Gerlach, _fædatam_.

[1867] Nonius explains _prosferari_ by _impetrari_, which is very

doubtful. Scaliger proposes "Nec mihi oilei proferatur Ajax." Gerlach,

"Agamemnoni præferatur Ajax," which would connect this Fragment with

Fr. 68 and 40, and the following.

[1868] _Domuitio_ (i. e., Domum itio, formed like circuitio). This,

probably, also refers to the return of the Greeks from Troy. _Imperium

imminuimus._ Cf. Plaut., Asin., III., i., 6, "Hoccine est pietatem

colere _imperium_ matris _minuere_?"

[1869] This is also an allusion to tragic poets, whose subjects are

quite foreign to his taste. Cf. Fr. 40. The allusion is of course to

such plays as the Medea of Euripides (the Amphitryo of Plautus, etc.).

[1870] It is not impossible that the reference may be to the custom

prescribed by the laws of the xii. tables to persons searching for

stolen goods. The person so searching either wore himself (or was

accompanied by a servus publicus wearing) a small girdle round the

abdomen, called Licium; this was done to prevent any suspicion of

himself introducing into the house that which he alleged to have been

stolen from him; and that it might not be abused into a privilege of

entering the women's apartments for the purposes of intrigue, he was

obliged to carry before his face a Lanx perforated with small holes

(hence incerniculum), that he might not be recognized by the women,

whose apartments the law allowed him to search. This process was

called, in law, per lancem et licium furta concipere. It is alluded to

by Aristoph., Nub., 485. Cf. Schol. in loc. Fest. in voc. Lanx. Plato,

Leg., xii., calls licium χιτωνίσκον.