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

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EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK I., SATIRE IX. 473
they were all well mixed they were thrown out, and, from the arrangement
thus hrooght ahout by chanee, the witch formed her answers respect
jng the future fortunes of the person that consulted her.—31. HuJic. Referring
to the boy Horace. Nee hoslicus avferet ensis. The poet escaped
from the battle-field. {Ode ii., 7, lOi)—32, Lateram dolor. "Pleurisy."
—33. -Quando consumet cungue. A. tmesis lor quandocunque consumet,
" Shall one day or other make away with,"—35. Ventum erat ad Vesta.
Understand templuTti, This temple would seem to have~ stood between
the Via Nova and that continuation or branch of the Via Sacra which issued
from the western angle of the Forum.—36. Et casu tunc respondere,
vadaio debehat^ " And it so happened that he had to answer in court to
a person who had held him to bail." Vadari aliquem is to compel any
one to give bail for his appearance in court on a certain day. Heiice
vadatus, thd- participle of this deponent, becomes equivalent, as in the
present case, to petitor or plaintiff. With regard to the time of djty men
tionedby the poet [quarta jam parte diei pralerita), it may be remarked,
that, as the Koman day was divided into twelve hoi^s, the fourth part of
the day would correspond to the third hour, or nine o'clock in the morning
with us. At this hour the courts of law opened, according to Martial
(" exercet raucos tertia causidieos." Epig.t iv., 8), and the companion ol
Horace, thereibre, when he reached the temple of Vesta, was after the
time when he ought to have been present in court.—37. Quod rdfecisset,
perdere liUm. "Andifhedidnotdothis, he wouldlose his cause." Perdere
is governed l)y ddiebat understood. According to the rule of4he Homan
law, if the defendant was not in court when the case came on, he
was said deserere vadimonium, and the prsetor put the plaintiff in possession
of his effects. The present case, however, would seem to have been
one in which the defendant had bound bimself to pay a certain sum, equal
to the amount in controversy, if he forfeited his recognizance. As he did
not appear at the time sl;ipnlated, judgment went against him by default,
and hence a new action arises on the recognizance. To compel his attendance
at this new suit, the plaintiff goes in quest of him, and, on find-
ing, drags him to court. Compare note on verse 76.
38-44. 38. Si me amas. This must not be read si in'amas, but si mi
amas; in other words, the long vowel in me parts with one of its short
component vowels before the initial vowel of amas, and retains the other.
—Pallium hie odes, "Help me here a little." Adease, m the legal
phraseology of the Bomans, was equivalent to patrocinari. It is here
used in this sense.—39. Stare. This term, like adease in the preceding
line, is used here in a legal sense, and is equivalent ,
to advocati partes
sustinere. Hence the reply made by Horace is.as follows : "May I die
if I am either able to.act the part of an advocate, or have auy acquaintance
whatever with the laws of the state." Iv,teream is here equivalent to oui
colloquial English phrase, " !" Hang me Novi. The peculiar propriety
of this term on the present occasion is worthy ofnotice. Noscere is to b«
acquainted with any thing as an object of perception, and the poet there
fore wishes to convey the idea that he is so great stranger to the laws a>
not to know even their very form and language,—41. Mem- " My suit."
—Me, sades. " Me, I beg." Sodes is said to be contracted for si audes.
~i2. Ut. lathe Benae olsiquidem or quandoguidem. "Since." iS.Mie
ceuas quomodo tecum. " How is MaDcenas with thee V i. e„ on what foot
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