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

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504 EXPLANATOKTT NOTES. BOOK II., SATIRE III.
fices of sedile and praetor T?eing the principal avenues to higher prefer
ment, and those who were defeated in suing for them finding- it difficult,
in consequence, to attain any office of magislaracy for the time to come, it
was a necessary result that canvassing for the respective dignities of
iBdile and prastor should open a door to largesses and heavy expenditure,
for the purpose of conciliating the good-will of the voters.—181. IntestahUis
et saeer. " Infamous and accursed." The epithet intestahilis, which
both here and in general is equivalent simply to infamise denotes^ in its
proper and special sense, an individual who is neither allowed to give
evidence in a court of justice, to make a will, he a witness to one, nor receive
any thing by testamentary bequest.—182. In cicere atquefaboy &c.
Alluding to largesses bestowed on the populace. Horace here puts for
largesses in generalthose of a particular kind, though of an earlier -date.
—183. Lotus. " Puffed up with, importance." Et a&neas ut stes. " Ajid
that thou mayest stand in bronze," i. e., mayest have a bronze statue
raised to thy honor, and as a memorial of thy liberolil^.—184. Nud/us
agris, nudus nummis, &c. Alluding to tiie rainous effects of largesses
on the private resources of the individual who bestows them.—165. Scilimt.
Ironical. Agrippa. M. Yipsanius Agrippa, the Illustrious Roman,
having been elected sedile A.U.C. 721^ displayed so much magnificence io
the celebration of the Circensian games* and in the other jipect^les which
he exhibited, and also evinced such munificent liberality in the public
buildings with which he caused the city to be adorned, as to be every
where greeted with the loudest acclamations by the popnlaee.-^186. As
iuta vulpes. Supply vdutif or soi&e equivalent particle. "Xike a conuing
fox having imitated a noble lion."
187-191. 187. Ne quis humasse velitt &c. Stertinins now brings forward
a new instance of insanity, that of no less a personage than the royal
Agamemnon himself, in offering up his own daughter as a victim to Diana.
The transition at first view appears abrupt, but wlien we call to nund
that this new example is aimed directly at the criminal excesses to which
ambition and a love of glory lead, the connection between it and the
concluding part of the previous narrative becomes immediately-apparent.
A man of lower rank is here introduced, who inquires of Agamemnon
why the corpse of Ajax is denied the rites of burial. The monarch
answers that there is a jost cause of anger in his breast against the son
of Telamon, because the latter, while nnderthe influence of phrensy, slew
a flock of sheep, calling out at the same time that he wa^ consigning to
death Ulysses, Menelaus, and Agamemnon. The interrogator then proceeds
to snow, in reply to this defence on the part of the Grecian king,
that the latter was far more insane himselfwhen hd gave up his daughter
Iphigenia to the knife, of the sacrificer.—188. Rex sum. " I am a king/'
i. e.f I do this of my own royal pleasure, and no one has a right to inqmra
into the motives Of my conduct. Et cequam rem imperito. The humilily
of his opponent, in seeming to allow his royal manner of deciding the
question, now extorts a second and more condeBcen^ng reply finm the
monarch.—189. InuUo. " With impunity,"—191. Pi tihi denty&c. Compare
Homert //., i., 18.
132-207. 192. Consulere. " To ask questions." Both consulo and re-
jsj^ondco, as used in the present passage, are terms boixowed from the
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