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

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(K'b EXPLANATOKY NOTES. BOOK I., EPISTLE XX.
process of preparing worts for sale consisted in smoothing the parcllmenl
with pumice-stone, in order to remove all excrescences from the surface.
This operation was performed by the bookseller, who combined in himself
the two emplo3rments of vender and bookbinder, if the latter term be here
allowed us. {donsult note on Epode xiv., 8.) The Sosii were a plebeian
family, well known iu Rome, two brothers of which distinguished themselves
as booksellers by the correctness of tbeir publications, and the
beauty of wlmt we would term the binding.—3. Odisti claves, et grata sigilla
pudico. Most interpreters of the bard sappose that the allusion here
is to the Roman custom of not merely locking, but also of sealing, the
doors of the apartments in which their children were kept, that no persons
who might be suspected of corrupting their innocence shonlct be allowed
to enter. This interpretation is certainly favored by the words Non ita
nutritus in the fifth line; where Horace addresses his literary offspring as
a father would a child. For a different explanation, consult Orelli, ad
loc.—4. Communia. " Public places," i. e., the public shops, or places of
sale, where many would see and handle it.—5. Non ita nutritus. "Thou
wast not reared with this view." Fuge quo deseendere gcstis. The allu-
sion is to the going down into the Roman Forum, which was situate between
the Gapitoline and Palatine Hills. Hence the phrase in Forum
deseendere is one of frequent occurrence in Cicero and Seneca.
6-15. 6. Miser. Referring to the consequences of its own rashness.
7. Quis. For aliquis.—8. In breve te cogi. "That thou art getting
squeezed into a small compass," i. e., art getting rolled up close, to be laid
by. The poet threatens his book that it shall be rolled up, as if condemued
never to be read again. The books of the ancients were written on
skins of parchment, which they were obliged to unfold and extend when
they designed to read them. Plenus quum languet amator. " When thy
cloyed admirer gi'ows languid." ^mo^or here signifies a passionate read-
er, who seizes a book with rapture, runs over it in haste ;
—
his curiosity be-
gins to be satisfied ; his appetite is cloyed ; he throws it away, and never
opens it again.—9. Quod si non odio peccantis desipit augur. "But if
the augur, who now addresses thee, is not deprived of his betterjudgment
by indignation at thy folly," i. e., if the anger which I now feel at thy rash
and foolish conduct does/not so influence my mind as to disqudify me
from foreseeing and predicting the truth.— 10. Donee te deseral eetas.
" Until the season of youth shall have left thee," i. c, as long as thou re-
tainest the charms of novelty. 1% Tacitu/rnus. Elegantly applied to a
book, which, having no reader with whom, as it were, to converse, is com-
pelled to remain silent.— ^13. Autfugles Uticam, aut vinctus mitteris Ilerdam.
" Or shalt flee to Utica, or be sent tied up in a parcel to Herda."
Manuscripts, remarks Sanadon, must have been of such value, that peopU
of moderate fortune could not purchase them when they were first pub-
lished, and when they came into their hands they had grown, generally
speaking, far less valuable. They were then sent by the booksellers into
the colonies for a better sale. Horace, therefore, tells his book that, when
it has lost the charms of novelty and youth, it shall either feed moths at
Rome, or willingly take its flight to Africa, or be sent by force to Spain,
(Jtica and Herda are here put for the distant quarters in general. The
former was situate in the vicinity of the spot where ancient Oarthage'had
stood ; the latter was a city of Spain, the capital of the Hergetes, near the
foot of the Pyrenees, and in the northeastern section of the country. It is