1. The poet begins with a general charge, but the emphatic position of omnibus shows that the stricture is supposed to be intended for some particular person to be mentioned later.
3. iniussi, unbidden, uninvited. Sardus: the word may well be supposed to have a disparaging tone, as the Sardinians were not much esteemed at Rome.
4. Tigellius: the same person who is mentioned in the second satire. Caesar: Augustus. posset, etc.: these subjunctives are not in the contrary-to-fact construction, but stand for present tenses transferred to past time. If we imagine them used of a case in the present, their true character is easily seen. posset, in any case, comes under the characteristic class.
5. patris, i.e. Julius Caesar, his adoptive father. non quicquam proficeret, he would not have the least effect.
6. si collibuisset, if he took a fancy. ab ovo usque ad mala: i.e. from the beginning to the end, since the promulsis or antepast consisted of eggs and the like, and the dessert came last, as with us. If we substitute oysters for eggs, and dessert for apples, the translation will be tolerably near.
7. citaret, would shout. Bacche: the e is used as long, as standing in the original at the end of a metrical phrase. summa: as the lyre was held, the deepest note was above and the highest below. Hence we must invert the words in English, referring them to pitch and not position.
8. resonat, accords. chordis: dative.
9. aequale, uniform, regular, consistent. homini illi, about the man. qui: sc. curreret.
10. persaepe: sc. incedebat. Notice the economy of words, where curreret is suggested by currebat, and its form by ferret. Again, some word of walking is indicated by the manner of proceeding described, but its form is determined by currebat.
11. habebat: i.e. in his train as he appeared abroad.
12. decem: a small number for the princely style of the Romans. Cf. I.6.116. reges, princes, rich men, i.e. of his intercourse with them, and of matters in which they were concerned, indicating a life at courts.
13. magna, on a grand scale. modo, now saying. tripes, three-legged, as opposed to the finer tables with one support in the centre (orbis). concha salis puri: suggesting simplicity with cleanliness and decency. There was a kind of sanctity about the saltcellar (salinum), which was in a manner dedicated to the household gods.
15. deciens centena: sc. milia sestertium, a million. dedisses, suppose that you had given or gave, a hortatory subjunctive transferred to past time.
16. paucis, a little.
17. erat, there would be. The construction is similar to the general condition. In present time it would be, "Give him a million; in ten days there is nothing," etc., as a general character of the man. noctis vigilabat, he would watch the night through.
18. nil, no one. The use of the neuter in this way is very common to make the statement more universal.
19. impar, inconsistent. nunc aliquis, etc.: here the poet turns to the proper subject of the satire, representing some person who hears him as becoming indignant at this abuse of Tigellius, and asking if he himself is free from faults, that he is thus severe upon another. He thus shows that his abuse is an example of what he satirizes. quid tu: sc. agis; but the expression has become idiomatic, and the verb is lost sight of. Translation. How about yourself?
20. immo alia, oh, no (I do not say that), but different ones. et fortasse minora: best assigned with the two preceeding words to Horace, though by some they are given to the interlocutor.
21. Maenius, etc.: Horace, as usual, illustrates his meaning by an example. heus tu, look here, my friend.
22. quidam, one, some one, a man. Cf. aliquis, v. 19. The difference is that in the former no definite person is conceived of, while here a particular person is meant, though not described or identified. ut ignotum (sc. te), as a stranger to us, or as if we didn't know you, i.e. "Is it ignorance of your own character, or the hope of deceiving us, that leads you to attack another man's faults, when you have so many of your own?" dare verba, deceive, impose upon, a common colloquial expression.
23. egomet, etc.: the naïve answer of Maenius shows the disposition which Horace is attacking, and serves as a text for the following. improbus, conscienceless.
24. amor, self-love. notari, to be censured. The construction is poetic or colloquial, for which Ciceronian prose would require ut or qui with the subjunctive. The meaning of the word comes from the mark (nota) which the censor in making up the rolls affixed to the name of any person whom he wished to remove from his position for misconduct.
25. lippus inunctis, with your blear eyes daubed with eye-salve. One is tempted to make in negative in inunctis, as if the man had weak eyes and did not care to put on the usual remedy. But there seems to be no authority for this.
27. Epidaurius: the serpent was a special symbol of the worship of Æsculapius, and was often identified with the god himself. It was in this form that the god was supposed to have come from Epidaurius to Rome, where a temple was built to him on the island in the Tiber. The serpent was famous for keen vision (c.f. the name drakon), and was supposed to possess prophetic powers. The connection here is probably only from Horace's favorite way of giving an individual instead of a class, and there is no special reference to this particular Æsculapius serpent.
28. rursus et illi, they too in turn, i.e. those you criticise.
29. iracundior, quick-tempered, an example of a case where injustice is done by this criticism, inasmuch as the subject of it cannot, like most men, disregard it, but is angered by it. minus aptus: i.e. he has a quick temper impatient of criticism. acutis naribus, the keen criticism, the figure derived from the natural turning up of the nose in fastidious disgust. (Cf. I.4.8, and I.6.5).
30. horum, of our day, when this fault is so common.
31. rusticius tonso: with his hair in rustic style. toga: the Romans paid the utmost attention to the set of the toga, plaiting it in folds which were secured in a fixed position. This requirement of fashion the man neglects, letting his toga fall loosely and awry. male laxus, loose and ill-fitting.
32. at est bonus, etc.: i.e. he has all these good qualities, which are lost sight of in this over-fastidious criticism.
34. denique, etc.: i.e. in short, learn tolerance of such minor faults by self-examination, through which you will very likely find that you have some as well.
35. concute: the figure derived from shaking out the loose garments of the ancients for purposes of search. We should say your pockets or the like. olim, at any time. inseverit: by changing the voice the order of words and ideas may be kept in English.
36. namque: introducing the reason for saying consuetudo as well as natura. Even if one is free from bad habits by nature, it may happen that they have grown up unawares, like weeds in neglected ground.
37. urenda, to be burned with fire.
38. illuc, to this point, referring, as often in Latin, to what follows. praevertamur, let us turn, in preference to any other subject.
39. decipiunt, escape the notice of. Cf. fallo.
40. Balbinum: nothing is known of this case, but it explains itself.
41. vellem: notice that the wish is contrary to the actual fact.
42. virtus: i.e. philosophers in their discussions on virtue. The Stoics are particularly referred to, whose high ideal of virtue and tendency to puritanism apparently made them especially inclined to censoriousness, and against whom Horace never loses an opportunity to break a lance. Cf. v. 96 et seq. honestum: the Stoic made "the becoming" (tó prépon), i.e. what was in accordance with the nature of man and the universe, the criterion of virtue. Of this expression honestum is the Latin translation, and the word is here used with reference to this technical sense. Hence it means virtuous, but as virtus is best translated virtue, we may translate honorable. At any rate, the whole means that Ethics had reckoned this among the virtures, which of course in the Stoic school it could not do.
43. gnati, with his son, changing the construction to keep the emphasis and the order of the words.
44. fastidire, be too critical. strabonem: the point of the passage lies in the fact that the descriptive words, most of which are real Roman names, are of two classes, the first denoting an excessive degree of the quality referred to, and the second a slight degree, with which latter class the fond father nicknames his son. strabonem, his "cock-eyed" son. All the names should be given in Latin with the translation.
45. appellat: cf. Lucr. IV.1160. paetum, Blinky. pullum, Chicky. male, wretchedly.
47. Sisyphus: a famous dwarf, kept by Mark Antony. Such persons were very common in the suites of the Roman nobles, acting as jesters. varum, little Bandy-legs.
48. balbutit, calls in childish accents. scaurum, little Stumpy, properly with misshapen ankles. male, sadly (with pravis).
49. parcius: in the same way the moral qualities are expressed by two sets of epithets, one exaggerating, the other extenuating, the fault. frugi, thrifty. ineptus, an ass; strictly, wanting in the sense of propriety, and so putting himself forward in the manner which we speak of as "making an ass of one's self." (Cf. Cic. de Or. II.4.17).
50. iactantior, forward. concinnus, agreeable, i.e. making an effort to be prominent in amusing one's friends.
52. liber, free-spoken. simplex, frank. fortis, fearless, not afraid to speak his mind.
53. acris, high-spirited. opinor, I fancy, I take it, with its cognates used of a mere notion not thoroughly thought out or well-founded, though of course it may be true.
55. invertimus, distort; lit. tip them upside down so as to make vices of them.
56. sincerum, etc.: the figure is derived from the tartar which forms on the inside of a wine-har. cupimus, we are eager, always a stronger word than volo, etc. probus quis, some good honest, etc., as an honorable epithet, but with a suggestion of want of spirit. Cf. silly (originally good), bonhomme, good-natured, and New-England clever, as well as the translation suggested.
57. multum, modifying demissus, a colloquial use. Cf. Pl. Aulul. II.1.5. demissus, modest and unassuming.
58. tardo, pingui, stupid and dull. The text authority for illi, and the parallelism of the following clauses, indicate that this is the true meaning, in spite of many objections that can be made.
59. nulli malo, to no man's hostile thrust. malo, masculine.
60. cum genus, etc.: giving the reason and excuse for the caution.
61. vigent, are rife. sano, a level-headed man.
63. simplicior, thoughtless, outspoken. et, again.
65. tacitum, in silent thought. quovis sermone: taken with impellat. Probably molestus also belong in the same clause, but it makes very good sense with the following, the bore, he is absolutely, etc.
66. communi sensu: the universal feeling belonging to mankind of the fitness of things, sense of propriety.
67. temere, thoughtlessly. sancimus, set up. iniquam, harsh and unkind.
70. cum mea, etc.: set off my good qualities against, etc.
71. amari si volet, if he wishes me to love him.
72. hac lege, on this condition, these terms. in trutina, etc., weighted in the same balance.
73. tuberibus, verrucis, warts (properly wens), pimples, reducing the scale somewhat, but keeping the proportion. The Romans seem to have been very subject to wens and similar excrescences of larger size to which we are not liable.
75. poscentem, for one asking. reddere (sc. veniam) rursus, to render the like again.
76. quatenus: cf. I.1.64. irae: perhaps this fault is chosen because it is regarded as not necessarily a vice, but possibly a virtue, by the Peripatetics.
77. stultis: here in its technical meaning, as opposed to sapiens, the ideal (and, as Horace would intimate, impossible) Stoic sage.
78. ponderibus, etc.: here first crops out plainly the opposition to the Stoic school, of which Horace is thinking doubtless throughout, though he has not till now clearly referred to it. Cf. v. 96.
79. coercet suppliciis, visit with punishment.
81. ligurrierit, gobble up, a very common offence of slaves everywhere.
82. in cruce, the common way of punishing slaves with death. Labeone: it is not known what Labeo is referred to, but it is enough to guess that either his was a well-known case of insanity, or that Horace, as often, gives him a thrust in passing in regard to some conduct which would bear the appearance of a craze.
85. acerbus, embittered, along with insuavis after habeare.
86. ut Rusonem, etc., as the man that owes him money does Ruso, evidently a usurer who had unsuccessful literary aspirations in the line of history. This is another of Horace's side thrusts.
87. Kalendae: the first of the month was the most common day for payment.
88. mercedem, the interest. nummos, the money, i.e. the principal. extricat, scrapes together. amaras, dreary.
89. porrecto, etc.: the position for execution, as of a prisoner of war awaiting his doom, a situation which Horace no doubt has in his mind in his description of the poor man bored to death. It is, however, only a kind of passing though of his, and not to be insisted on too strongly.
90. potus, in his cups.
91. Evandri: there are two possible explanations of this name, either as a famous potter, in which case the dish is valuable for its intrinsic excellence; or as the ancient king, in which case there is a humorous indication of its age. The second seems the better. Cf. II.3.21.
92. mea in parte catini: there is no indication that the Romans used plates as we do. They no doubt ate with their fingers from small dishes on the table which stood in the centre of the triclinium.
93. esuriens, in his hunger. minus hoc iucundus, etc.: i.e. "Shall I renounce his friendship?"
94. furtum fecerit, the technical phrase.
95. commissa fide (dat.), a trust. The two classes of offences are of course made as different in enormity as possible, to bring out more fully the absurdity of the Stoic paradox in v. 96.
96. quis: the constant use of this old form in the satires is an indication of their colloquial character. The connection of thought is: Such offences are recognized as of different magnitude by everyone, and though the Stoic may preach in theory the paradox paria, etc., as an answer to Horace's view, yet when we come to real life (ad verum), he gets into trouble.
97. sensus, our feelings, our sense of right and wrong, almost equal to "instincts" or "conscience." mores, habits, our customary mode of life. repugnant, rebel, or protest.
98. utilitas, utility (as a technical philosophical term), or selfish advantage, i.e. the selfish interests of mankind, from which, he goes on to say, the ideas of right and wrong have risen through the making of laws to protect these interests.
99. cum prorepserunt, etc.: the doctrine of the development of society, in accordance generally with the notions of the ancients as to the origin of man, but especially of the Epicurean school.Cf. Lucretius, V.780 seq. The chief point is, that the law of the strongest alone obtained at the outset, though the Stoic would perhaps not admit that right did not exist because the inhabitants of the earth were not able or inclined to practise it. The argument is, however, not the mere setting of one dogma against another, but an explanation of utilitas iusti mater in accordance with what was in the main the generally received opinion.
100. mutum, dumb, speechless, and so unable to defend his rights in any other way than by fighting. turpe, shapeless, unsightly, in accord with the Epicurean notion of development from lower animals. glandem atque cubilia; i.e. for food and lodging, to supply their natural wants from Nature's store in which there was as yet no individual property.
101. unguibus, etc.: not having learned to make better weapons. fustibus: one step in advance, at least an acquired, not a natural, weapon. atque ita porro, etc.: and so they went on, till experience taught them the manufacture of arms. But still there could be no society and no rights until they invented language, which made association possible.
103. verba nominaque, words (to express ideas) and names (to assign to things). voces sensusque, almost equal to ideas and sensations, i.e. predications and conceptions.
104. dehinc, etc.: i.e. as soon as language made association possible, they exchanged a state of war for mutual rights and individual property, in order peaceably to satisfy their primal appetites, and protect themselves in the possession of the means for this satisfaction.
107. nam fuit, etc.: explanatory of neu quis adulter. For lust must have caused war long before the famous case of Helen, but as marriages were not established, no rights were violated, and the wars were never celebrated in song.
109. venerem incertam rapientis, satisfying by violence unregulated passion.
110. editior, the superior. caedebat, fell at the hands of, or were slain by.
111. iniusti: neuter, cf. iusto, vv. 113 and 98.
112. tempora, history (in its chronological development). fastos, records (in chronological order).
113. natura, i.e. the natural instincts, distinguishing by means of the senses.
114. bona diversis, good things from their opposites, speaking in reference to the natural instincts which are supposed to teach living creatures through the senses what is good for them. fugienda petendis, things to be shunned from objects of desire, used in the same sense as the preceding, but more technical.
115. vincet, will maintain, with hoc as a cognate accusative. tantundem et idem, in the same degree and kind.
117. legerit, steals, an old sense preserved in legal phrase, and also in sacrilegus.
118. regula, a sliding scale, properly a straight-edge. inroget, inflict, the use of the word being derived from punishment inflicted by the vote of the people, to whom, by early Roman custom, was submitted (rogare) the bill for the punishment of offenders.
119. scutica, the whip, an instrument of whipping more severe than the rod (ferula), and less so than the scourge (flagellum), which last had pieces of metal attached to its lashes.
120. ut caedas: the regular grammar requires ne (as the clause must be affirmative), and no explanation of the irregularity is satisfactory. Perhaps Horace allows himself a popular construction, i.e. a mistake in grammar. The mean of course is, "I say the rule is needed to prevent too great severity, for there is no fear that the Stoic principle will lead to too great indulgence." A similar use of ut occurs in Livy, 28.22, where, as here, the ut clause precedes.
122. furta, without violence. latrociniis, accompanied by force. The same distinction exists between theft and robbery. magnis, with simili (cf. "hair like the Graces").
123. falce, etc.: i.e. punishment, regarded as a pruning away of the vices of the State. tibi: i.e. the Stoic, against whom the whole argument is aimed, and against whose follies and unfitness for social life the remainder of the satire is directed. The transition is afforded by the words which Horace quotes, as it were from the Stoic: "I would prune away, etc., if men would make me king," implying a wish to be so (hence optas, v. 126). Horace then replies, "According to your doctrine, you are a king already." To which the Stoic replies, "The Stoic doctrine is not that a sapiens is an actual king, but only a king in posse." Thus the Stoic shows the inapplicability of his own doctrines to actual life, which is the effect Horace wishes to produce, in order to nullify the excuse which the Stoic views give for censoriousness and harshness.
124. si dives, etc.: the Stoic paradox is, óti mónos o sophos plousios, solum sapientem esse divitem. See Cic. Paradox, VI.
125. sutor: alluding to the perfection of the sapiens in all directions, but containing in itself a reductio ad absurdum. formosus: of course the perfect man must possess perfect physical beauty among his other perfections. rex: according to the Stoic doctrine, the sapiens is king, and all others are slaves. (Cf. Ep. I.1.106).
126. pater, the venerable.
127. Chrysippus: the second great expounder of the Stoic views, so famous that it was said, eì me gàr èn Chrúsippos, oùk àn èn Stoá. sapiens, etc: the Stoic is represented as explaining the doctrine of the existence in perfection of all qualities in the sapiens by a ridiculous example, thus, of course, belittling the argument.
129. Hermogenes, the same person referred to in 2.3
130. Alfenus: no doubt a side hit at a rich usurer, probably, who had once been a cobbler, said to be from Cremona, now dead.
133. vellunt, etc.: the meaning is "Well, enjoy your imaginary royalty (i.e. your Stoic doctrine which makes you a king), and reject the elegances of social life; appear as a philosopher in the streets to be the butt of the street-boys, and howl at the vices of mankind till you burst. Meanwhile I, adopting a more accomodating doctrine, will enjoy the pleasures of social intercourse, indulging my friends with charity, and being indulged in return." barbam: the long beard, no doubt from adherence to an old fashion, but perhaps also as indicating want of care of the person, was generally characteristic of philosophers, especially of the Cynics and Stoics.
134. fuste: the philosopher regularly carried a staff, probably following the old fashion.
135. urgeris: to the stately Roman nothing could be more insulting than to be hustled in the crowd, and the picture is intended to show the degrading contrast between his royalty and his actual life.
136. rumperis, you burst with rage. latras, howl, i.e. at the crowd. There is a special reference to the Cynics, so called from kuon(Gr. for dog).
137. quadrante, a farthing; i.e. you go to the common bath instead of enjoying the luxires of the rich.
138. stipator, companion, the regular word for a person belong to an escort or suite, either as a friend or as a satellite. ineptum: with Crispinum.
139. Crispinum: cf. I.120. et, correlative with -que, v. 141. dulces, kindly.
141. patiar, put up with.
142. te: in prose quam tu.