The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

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432 EXPLANATOEY NOTES. BOOK I., SATIRE III.
he lends the money, and thus in twenty months he doubles his principal.
—15. Quanto perditiort &c. "The more of a spendthrift he perceives
one to be, the more he rises in his demands."—16. Nimiina sectatur^ modo
sumta veste virili, &c. " He is at great pains in getting young heirs into
bis debt, who have just ta)cen the manly gown, and who live under the
control of close and frugal fathers," i. e., he is anxious to get their names
on his books. Among the Romans, it was a customary formality, in borrowing
moneyr to write down the sum and subscribe the person's name in
the banker's hooks. Hence nomen is put for a debt, for the cause of a debt,
for an article of account, Ac. Modo sumta veste vvrili. The toga virUis,
or manly gown, was assumed at the completion of the seventeenth year.
— ^18. At in se pro qutesiu, &c. " But, thou wilt say, his expenses are in
proportion to his gaias/'— 19. Qwim sibi non sit amicus. " How little he
is his own friend," t. e., how he pinches himself.— ^20. Terentifabula quern
miserum, &c. "Whom the play of Terence represents to have led a
wretched life, after he bad driven his son from his roo£" The allusion is to
Menedemus, in the play of " The Self-tormentor" {Heautontim^jrumenos),
who blames himself for having, by his unkind treatment, induced his oidy
son to forsake him amd -go abroad into the army, and resolves, by way of
self-punishment, to lead a miserable and penurious life.
Satire HE. This Satire is directed against the inclination which many
persons feel to put a bad construction on the actions of others, and to exaggerate
the faults which they may perceive in their character or dispo-
sition. This failing, which perhaps had not been very prevalent in republican
Rome, when the citizens lived openly in each other's view, hod
increased under a monarchical government, in which secrecy produced
mistrust and saspicion. The satirist concludes with refixting the absurd
principle of the portico, that all faults and vices have the same degree
of enormity. [Dunlop's Roman lAteratu^e, voL iii., p. 348.)
3-10. 3. Sardus habebat, &c. "That Tigellius of Sardinia had this
failing." Hie is here strongly emphatic, and indicative, at the same time,
of contempt, and is the same as saying, "that Tigellius of Sardinia wliom
eoery body knows." As regards Tigellius, consult note on Satire i., % 3.
—4. Ctssar* Alluding to Augustus.—S. Patris. Alluding to Julius Cssar,
whose adopted son Augustus was.—6. Si collibuisset. "If he himself felt
in the humor."
Ab ovo usque ad mala, Sec. "He would Bvng 16 Sacche!
over again and again, from the beginning to the end of the entertainment."
These words lo Baccke I formed the commencement of the drinking catch
which Tigellius incessantly repeated, and hence, in accordance with a
custom prevalent also in our own times, they serve to indicate the song .
or catch itself. The final vowel in Baccke is made long by being in the
arsis. As regards the expression ab ovo usque ad mala^ it may be observed,
that the Romans began their entertainments with eggs and ended
with fruits.—7. Modo summa voce, &c. "At one time in the highest
key, at another time in that which corresponds with the base of the tetrachord."
Literally, "which sounds gravest among the four strings of
the tetrachord." The order of construction is as follows : " moda summa
voce, 'modo hac voce quee resonat {i. e., est) in quatuor ekordi* im>a" Gea-
«r's interpretation, which is usually followed, appeals extremely harslk