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

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EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK I., SATIRE HI. 433
It is this : " TigeUius modo utebatw ea voce, qua summa chorda Tetira
chordit rp imdry, resonate h. e., gramssima ; modo ea ^ts ima chorda^ t§
v^r^i eademgue acutissima, resonat. Non jungendum aomma voce sed
snmma chorda." The explanation which we have adopted appears far
more natoral.—9. Nil aquale kominifuit illi. " There was nothing uniform
in that man." Sape vdut ifui currebat, ice. The constraction is
seepe currebift vdutqui hostemfagiens (soil, curreret).—10. Persape velut
gui JitnoniSt Sec, We most not nuderstand currebai here with persape,
hot lento gradu incedebat, or something equivalent, as is plainly required
by the context. From this passage, and from a remark of the scholiast,
it wonld appear that on the festivals of Juno processions were castomaiy,
in which Ganephori, or maidens bearing baskets containing sacred and
mysterioas offerings, had a part to bear. Their gait was always dignified
and slow. Tigellins is compared here to one of these^ and qui is employed,
not qua, because the poet is speaking of a man.
12-21. 12. Tetrarckas. "Tetrarchs." Tetrarcha originaUy denoted
one who ruled over ihefowrth part of a country or kingdom (&om Terpd;
and ipxv)- Afterward, however, the term merely came to signify a minor
or inferior potentate, without any reference to the extent of territory governed.—13.
Loquens. "Talking of." This term here carries with it the
idsa of a boastful and pompous demeanor. Mensa tripes. The tables of
the poorer class among the Romans commonly had but three feet. Such
tables were ctdled Delphica, because resembling the sacred tripod at
Delphi.—14. Concha salis puri. " A shell of clean salt." A shell formed
in general the salt-cellar of the poor. A silver saUman, on the con-
trary, was employed by the more wealthy. Compare Ode ii., 16, 13.
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15. Dedes centena dedisses. " Hadst thou given a million of sesterces to
this frugal being, this man who could live happily on so little, in five days
there was nothing in his cofiers." The use of the indicative erat, in place
of the subjunctive, serves to give more liveliness to the representation.
As regards the expression Decies centenoj it must be recollected that there
is an ellipsis of millia sestertium. {Zampt, § 873.) The sum here meant
wonld amount to more than $38,000. Leculis. The loculi were little boxes
of wood or ivory, in which the Bomans carried their money, trinkets.
Sec.—17. Nodes vigilabat ad ipsum mane, ice. " He would sit up all night
xmtil the very morning, he vronld snore away the entire day. Never was
there any thing so inconsistent with itself." NU is much stronger here
than nemo would have been.—20. Imo alia, etfortasse minora. " Yes, I
have faults of another Mnd, and perhaps less disagreeable," i. e., and I
hope less disagreeable. Fortasse is here the language of Roman urbanity.
Some editors read hand in place dei, others at, but they are refuted
• by OrelU and Hand. The last-mentioned critic remarks, " Immo alia significat,
immo habeo vttia, sed alia."—21. Mtsnius. Horace, after acknowledging
that he was not without faults, here resumes the discourse. I am
for, says the poet, from being like Msenins, who defames his friend, and at
the same time winks at much greater failings in himself. On the contrary,
Iconsider him every way deserving of the severest censure. The
individual here alluded to is, in all probability, the same with the Meenins
mentioned in the first Satire. There he appears as a worthless and prof
ligate man, here as a slanderer.
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