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SATIRE 4
(In the second, one notes the figurative vulgarisms and the use of terminology
from the Georgics to describe homosexual depilation.) The satire as a whole,
however, is rather weak. The ridicule of the demagogue Alcibiades has little
bearing on imperial Rome. The sequence of thought is sometimes confusing.
For example, after comparing malicious talk to a battle (42f.), Persius .mentions
someone with a secret wound. We assume it has been inflicted by a fellowcitizen,
but in fact it is a moral defect which the man is concealing from his
neighbours. Finally, some apparent links between the Greek/political background
of the first half and the Roman/social background of the second prove
illusory — or rather they connect things which don't belong together. Thus the
sunbather is abused by a stranger for showing his posterior to the public (36).
Clearly we are meant to condemn this foul attack, yet the insulting words recall
what Socrates has previously said to Alcibiades: ' Your highest aim is to pamper
your skin with sunshine' (i7f.) and 'stop wagging your tail at the admiring
public' (i5f.)- These blemishes cannot be explained away.
Satire 5
After a discussion of style, in which tragedy (pompous, artificial, insincere) is
contrasted with satire (plain, down-to-earth, genuine), Persius goes on to speak
of his friendship with the Stoic Cornutus, who held that only the truly free
man could live a virtuous life. > About sixty lines explore the distinction between
legal and moral freedom, and then another sixty demonstrate that greed, sex,
ambition, and superstition are all forms of slavery. In an ironical coda Pulfenius,
a massive centurion, sweeps all this Greek nonsense away with a coarse
guffaw.
In this, the longest and most elaborate of the satires, several forms are
employed, including dialogue, autobiographical narrative, monologue, diatribe
(with hypothetical protests), and a dramatic scene based on Menander's
Eunuch. Of many excellent passages the following is perhaps the most lively:
mane piger stertis. 'surge' inquit Auaritia, 'eia
surge.' negas. instat. 'surge' inquit. 'non queo.' 'surge.'
'et quid agam?' 'rogat! en saperdas aduehe Ponto,
castoreum, stuppas, hebenum, tus, lubrica Coa.
tolle recens primus piper et siticnte camelo.
uerte aliquid; iura.' 'sed Iuppiter audiet.' 'eheu,
baro, regustatum digito terebrare salinum
contentus perages, si uiuere cum Ioue tendis.'
It's daylight and you re lying snoring. 'Get up' says Lady Greed,
'Hey, get up!' You wont. She persists, 'Up/'
1
For the idea that * Only the wise man is free' see Cicero, Paradoxa Stoicorum 5 and Horace,
Sat. 2.7.
5O7
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