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

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EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK II., SATIRE IV. 511
to ns of ^Bop's, yet there is every probability that it ia one ofhis. PhasdruB,
however, recoants the fable in a different manner. He tells us that
a frog, seeing a bull in the meadow, became jealous of his bulk, and began
to blow herself up that she might rival him. Horace's manner is by far
the more lively.—314. Malri denarrat. " He tells his mother all the particulars."
The verb ienarro is happily ohoseu.-^315. Cognatos. " His
brothers." Equivalent here to una secum natos,—316. Num fantum.
Supply ingens.—320. Oleum adde camino. A proverbial form of espres-
sion, and equivalent here to insania nova alimenta prtcbe. Horace, according
to Damasippns, is mad enough already; if, in addition to this, he
goes on writing verses, the increase of madness will be so violent, that it
may fitly be compared to the flame which fiercely arises when oil is throvm
upon the fire.—321. Qute si quia sanus fecit, sarmsfaeis et tu. The idea
intended to be conveyed is, that all poets are unsound in mind. The ancients
would seem to have believed, indeed, that no one could either be a
genuine poet, or great in any department of exertion, unless he left the
beaten track, and was influenced by some sort of-feeling bordering on madness
or melancholy.—322. Non dico horrendam rabiem. " I say nothing of
thy dreadfully vindictive spirit." Cultum majorem censu. " Thy style of
living, too expensive for thy fortune."—324. Tencas, Damasippe, tuia te.
"Damasippus, do mind thy own afiairs." Keep thyself to the things
which concern thee, my good friend.—325. O major tandem parcas, A:c.
" O greater madman of the two, spare at length one who is in this thy
inferior."
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Satike rV. A person called Catius repeats to Horace the lesson he had
received from an eminent gastronome, who, with the most important air,
and in the most solemn language, had delivered a variety of culinary precepts.
The satire is written with the view of ridiculing those who made
a large portion of human felicity consist in the pleasures of the table.
This abuse of the genuine doctrines of Epicurus, the poet, himself a
staunch adherent of the more refined forms of that philosophy, undertakes,
for the honor of his master, to expose and deride. Doring supposes
that Horace, having frequently heard the secrets of the culinary art
made a topic of conversation by some of the guests at the table of Mscenas,
seizes the present opportunity of retaliating upon them, and that, under
the fictitious name of Catius, he alludes to an entire class of persons
of this stamp. According to Manso (Schriften und Abhandlungen, p. 59),
Catius appears to have bad for bis prototype one Matius, a Boman knight,
&med for bis acquaintance with the precepts of the culinary art.
1-7. 1. Unde et quo Catius ? A familiar mode of salutation. The sub-
stitution of the third for the second person shows the intimacy of the par-
taes. Por a literal translation, supply the ellipsis as follows : utide venit
et quo tendit Catius ? Non est mihi tempus. Understand eonfabulandi.
—3. Ponere signa novis preeeeptis. " To commit to writing some new
precepts." An elegant form of expression, for litteris mandate nova proecepta.—Novis.
This epithet implies that the precepts in question are
such as have never before been made known.—3. Anyiique ream. "And
him who was accused by Anytus," i. e., Socrates, in the number of whose
accusers was Anytus. This individual was a leather-dresser, and a pow