Of those who at Thermopylae were slain,
Glorious the doom, and beautiful the lot;
Their tomb an altar: men from tears refrain
To honor them; and praise, but mourn them not.
Such sepulchre nor drear decay
Nor all-destroying time shall waste; this right have they.
Within their grave the home-bred glory
Of Greece was laid; this witness gives
Leonidas, the Spartan, in whose story
A wreath of famous virtue ever lives.
5. pyctae: a word borrowed directly from the Greek. 8. poetae more: poets who wrote odes in honor of victories at the games usually inserted some legend containing an account of a similar victory won by a god or a hero. 9. gemma Ledae pignera: Castor and Pollux, the latter famous as a boxer. pignera: see Lex. II, B, 1. 10. auctoritatem…gloriae: citing the authority of a like glory. 11, 12. tertiam partem: only a third. 13. duae: sc. partes, two-thirds. 24. humanam supra formani: the gods and heroes were 'divinely tall.' The diminutive servulo is in strong contrast. 31. Ut…rei: When the incident was told just as it occurred.
Another story of divine interposition on the part of Castor and Pollux is vividly told by Macaulay in The Battle of Lake Regillus.
6. Compare with Vergil's account of the oracle given by the Sibyl to Aeneas, Aeneid, 6. 9 ff. Some of the more obvious resemblances in diction and thought are Aeneid, 6. 12, 29, 35, 44, 45, 46 ff., 50, 95, 98, 99, 100.
1. Utilius: equalling a superlative, of highest value. 2. qui ff.: Delphi was a city in north central Greece and Parnassus a mountain near it. 4. tripodes: this probably means the golden seat above the cleft in the ground in the adytum of Apollo's temple at Delphi. On this the priestess (vates, 1. 3; virgo, 1. 16) sat to breathe the rising vapors which induced the prophetic ecstasy. The tripus is named from being supported on three legs. adytis: from [Greek: aduton], 'not to be entered.' The adyta, or innermost parts of temples, were accessible only to priests. 5. lauri: the laurel was sacred to Apollo. 6. Pytho: the former name for Delphi. Pytho is poetically said to speak when the Pythian priestess speaks. 7. Delii: Delos, an island of the Aegean, nearly at the centre of the Cyclades, was sacred to Apollo, and was his birthplace. 12. ite obviam: oppose.
7. Plutarch, Symposiacon Problematon, V. 1 (Moralia, 674 B, C), tells essentially this same story. Parmeno, he says, was famous for his imitation of the grunting of a pig. Even when one came upon the stage having a real pig concealed under his cloak, the audience cried, 'This is nothing to compare with the sow of Parmeno.' Then he who had the pig threw it in the midst of them, 'to show that they judged according to opinion and not truth.'
1. Pravo favore: prejudice. labi: the metaphor is in evident contrast to that in stant of 1. 2. 2. pro iudicio…erroris: in defence of their mistaken judgment. 3. rebus manifestis: the disclosure of the truth. 4. Facturus ludos: who was about to give an entertainment. 8. scurra: a city wit. urbano sale: clever jesting, merry cleverness. The Romans sharply contrasted city manners with those of the country to the disadvantage of the latter. 12. loca: seats. 18. verum: sc. porcellum. pallio: mantle or toga. 19. simul: equals simul ac. 21. prosequuntur: honor. 27. degrunnit: grunts his best. 30. scilicet: to be sure. 32. vero: sc. porcello. 35. imitatum: sc. esse.
VI. SENECA.
3 B.C.-65 A.D.
Seneca the Younger, or 'the Philosopher,' was born in Spain at Corduba; was educated at Rome; was banished in 41 A.D. to Corsica by Claudius; was recalled in 49; became Nero's tutor; largely deserves the credit for the good government of the early part of that emperor's reign; was consul in 57, but lost influence with Nero, and was compelled by him to commit suicide on a charge of participation in the conspiracy of Piso.