Chapter VII
[1] Satira tota nostra est.—Quint. x. i.
[2] Aen. vi. 847, sqq. G. ii. 190; ib. 461, sqq.
[3] On this subject the reader may be referred to Merivale’s excellent remarks in the last chapter of his History of the Romans under the Empire.
[4] It is probable that there were two kinds of Greek drama satyrikon; the tragic, of which we have an example in the Cyclops of Euripides, which represented the gods in a ludicrous light, and was abundantly furnished with Sileni, Satyrs, &c.; and the comic, which was cultivated at Alexandria, and certainly represented the follies and vices of contemporary life under the dramatic guise of heroic incident. But it is the non-dramatic character of Roman Satire that at once distinguishes it from these forms.
[5] See Hor. S. i. iv. 1-6.
[6] These were of a somewhat different type, and will not be further discussed here. See p. 144. Cf. Quint, x. 1, 95.
[7] Not invariably, however, by Lucilius himself. He now and then employed the trochaic or iambic metres.
[8] Sat. i. iv. 39, and more to the same effect in the later part of the satire.
[9] “In hora saepe ducentos ut multum versus dictabat stans pede in uno.” Sat. 1, iv. 9.
[10] Posthumous Works, vol. ii. on the Study of Latin.
[11] iii. p. 481, P. (Teuffel).
[12] 201 B.C.
[13] As, e.g. the Precepts of Ofella, S. ii. 2, and the Unde et quo Catius? S. ii. 4.
[14] The words are, (1) “Hic est ille situs, cui nemo civis neque hostis Quivit pro factis reddere operae pretium,” where “operae” must be pro nounced “op’rae;” (2) “A sole exoriente supra Mucotis paludes Nemo est qui factis me acquiparare queat. Si fas eudo plagas caelestum ascendere cuiquam est, Mi soli caeli maxima porta patet.”
[15] Infra Lucili censum, Sat. ii. 1, 75.
[16] L. Corn. Lentulus Lupus.
[17] Pers. i. 115.
[18] “Primores populi arripuit populumque tributim,
Scilicet uni aequus virtuti atque eius amicis.”
—Hor. Sat. ii. 1, 69.
[19] Ense velut stricto quoties Lucilius ardens Infremuit, rubet auditor cui frigida mens est Criminibus, tacita sudant praecordia culpa.—Juv. i. 165.
[20] X. i. 93.
[21] Plin. N. H. Praef.
[22] De Fin. i. 3, 7.
[23] “Lucilianae humilitatis.”—Petronius.
[24] Sat. i. x.
[25] Primus condidit stili nasum, N. H. Praef.
[26] As instances we may take “Has res ad te scriptas Luci misimus Aeli:” again, “Si minus delectat, quod atechnon et Eisocratiumst, Laerodesque simul totum ac sum meirakiodes …” or worse still, “Villa Lucani mox potieris aca” for “Lucaniaca,” quoted by Ausonius, who adds “Lucili vati sic imitator eris.”
[27] From which Hor. borrowed his Iter ad Brundisium.
[28] Hor. S. i. x.
[29] Cic. de Fin. i. 3, 7.