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

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EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK I., SATIRE X. 477
ally, and in a better maoner, than severity of satire." This serves as an
explanatory comment on what precedes, viz., " parcentis viribui," &c.
24-27. ^i. Illi, scripta quibus, &,c. The construction is /ZZi viri, JMbus
viris prisca Comcedia scripta est. "The writers of the old comedy."
Consult note on Sat. i., 4, 2.—25. Hoc stabant. " Depended on this for
success," ». e., owed their success to this preference of the jocose to the
serious style. Sto is a dramatic term, expressing the success of a piece.
—PnlcTier Hermogenes. "The smooth-faced Hermogenes." This appears
aimed at the eSeminate habits of the man. The Hermogenes here alluded
to is the same with the singer whose death is mentioned in the commencement
of the second satire. We must hear in mind that these productions
of -Horace are not arranged in the order of time.—26. Simitis.
" That little ape." The poet means, by this contemptuous appellation,
to designate either some performer of the day, who made himself ridicu-
lous by his ape-like imitation of Hermogenes, and who is generally supposed
to be the Demetrius of verses 87 and 98, or else some individual of
a dwarfish and deformed person.— 27, ' JVi? prater Calvnm, Sec. " Who is
skilled in nothing but singing the compositions of Galvus and Catullus."
Calvum. The allusion is to C. Licinius Calvus, who was equally distinguished
as an orator and a poet. He is classed by Ovid among the licentious
writers, and it is to this character of his writings that Horace here
seems to allude.—Cra