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

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600 EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK I., EPISTLE XVIU.
accnstomed to celebrate the victory at Actiam by a mock conflict ou a
lake in his paternal groanda.—56. Per puenros, «3y slaves." The mock
forces on both sides are composed of slaves. Bfif&rtwr. "Is represented."
57. Locus Had/ria. " A lake serves for the Adriatic."—58, Fronde.
Alluding to the bay.—59. Consentire suis studiis qyki crediderit te, &c.
" He who shall believe that thon dost come into his particolar taste, will
as an applauder praise thine own without the least scruple." Literally,
" with both his thumbs." The allusion in iitrqquepoUice is borrowed from
the gladiatorial sports. When a gladiator lowered his arms as a sign of
being vanquished, his fate depended on the pleasure of the people, who,
if they wished him to be saved, pressed down their thumbs {pollices premebant)t
and if to be slain, turned them up (pollices vertebant). Hence
pollices premere, " to favor," " to approve," &c. : the populace only extended
this indulgence to such gladiators as had conducted themselves bravely.
61-72. 61. Protinus ut moneam, " To proceed still further in my ad
monitions."—66. Etiam atque etiam adspke. " Consider again and again."
—67. AUena peccata. " Another's faults," i. e., the failings of the persoD
recommended.—68. QuoTidam. "Sometimes." Tradimus. "We recommend."—69.
Sua culpa. "His own misconduct." Tueri. Supply
eum.— ^70. At penitus Tiotum, &c. Bentley's conjectural emendation, At^
is decidedly preferable to the common reading Ut. The advice given by
the poet is as follows : Do not, after being once deceived, defend one who
Buffers by his own bad conduct; bat, on the other band, shield from nnjast
reproach him whom thou knowest thoroughly, and protect an innocent
man who puts all his confidence in thee : for if he be assailed with impunity
by the tooth of slander, hast thou not reason to dread lest this may
next be thy fate ?
Si tentent crimina. " If false accusations assail him."
—72. Dente Theonino. In place of saying "with the tooth of calumny,"
Horace uses the expression "with the tooth of Theon." This individual
appears to have been noted for his slanderous propensities, whether he
was a ireedman, as the scholiast informs ns, or, as is much more probable,
some oliscure poet of the day.
76-85. 76. Dulds itiexpertis cultura potenUs amid. " To cultivate the
friendship of the great seems delightful to those who have never made
the trial." The pomp and splendor by which great men are surrounded
makes us apt to think their friendship valuable, but a little experience
soon convinces us that it is a most rigorous slavery.—77. Dum tua navis
in alto est. " While thy vessel is on the deep," e". c, while thou art enjoying
the favor and friendship of the great.—-78. Hoc age^ ne mutata retrorsum.
Sec. "Look to this, lest the breeze may change, and bear thee
back again," i. e., lest the favor of the great may be withdrawn.—79. Oder
runt hilarem tristes, &c. The idea intended to be conveyed is this : Men
of unlike tempers and characters never harmonize ; do thou, therefore,
accommodate thyself to thy patron's mode of thinking and acting, study
well his character, and do all in thy power to please.—80. Sedatum, cele-
res. " Men of active minds hate him that is of a dilatory temper."—81-
Potores hihuli, &c. "Well-soaked drinkers of Falernian at midnight,"
&C. There is nothing pleonastic, as Bentley thinks, in the expression
potores bibuli. Fea well explains hihuli by bibuli ut spongics, and compares
with it the Italian spongkini, an epithet applied to bard drinkers*
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