"Nec jurare time. Veneris perjuria venti
Irrita per terras et freta summa ferunt.
Perque suas impune sinit Dictynna sagittas
Affirmes, crines perque Minerva suos."
[854] Phario. The vinegar of Egypt was more celebrated than its wine. Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 122. Ath., ii., 26.
[855] Fortunæ. See this idea beautifully carried out in Claudian's invective against Rufinus, lib. i., 1-24. Such was Horace's religion. "Credat Judæus Apella, Non ego: namque deos didici securum agere ævum; nec si quid miri faciat Natura deos id tristes ex alto cœli demittere tecto." I., Sat. v., 100. Not so Cicero. "Intelligamus nihil horum esse fortuitum." De Nat. Deor., ii., 128.
[856] Tangunt. Cf. xiv., 218, "Vendet perjuria summâ exiguâ et Cereris tangens aramq. pedemq."
[857] Isis. Cf. vi., 526. Lucan., viii., 831, "Nos in templa tuam Romana accepimus Isim Semideosque canes, et sistra jubentia luctus et quem tu plangens hominem testaris Osirin." Blindness, the most common of Egyptian diseases, was supposed to be the peculiar infliction of Isis. Cf. Ovid, ex Pont., i., 51, "Vidi ego linigeræ numen violasse fatentem Isidis Isiacos ante sedere focos. Alter ob huic similem privatus lumine culpam, clamabat mediâ se meruisse viâ." Pers., v., 186, "Tunc grandes Galli et cum sistro lusca sacerdos." Sistrum a σείω.
[858] Ladas. A famous runner at Olympia, in the days of Alexander the Great. Cf. Mart., x., Ep. 100, "Habeas licebit alterum pedem Ladæ, Inepte, frustrà crure ligneo curres;" and ii., 86. Catull., iv., 24, "Non si Pegaseo ferar volatu, Non Ladas si ego, pennipesve Perseus."
[859] Anticyrcâ, in Phocis, famous for hellebore, supposed to be of great efficacy in cases of insanity: hence Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 83, "Nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem." 166, "naviget Anticyram." Pers., iv., 16, "Anticyras melior sorbere meracas." Its Greek name is Ἀντίκιῤῥα. Strabo, ix., 3. The quantity therefore in Latin follows the Greek accent. The Phocian Anticyra produced the best hellebore; but it was also found at Anticyra on the Maliac Gulf, near Œta. Some think there was a third town of the same name. Hence "Tribus Anticyris caput insanabile," Hor., A. P., 300.
[860] Archigene. Cf. vi., 236; xiv., 252.
[861] Ignoscere. "Contemnere pauper creditur atque deos diis ignoscentibus ipsis," iii., 145. So Plautus:
"Atque hoc scelesti illi in animum inducunt suum.
Jovem se placare posse donis hostiis,
Et operam et sumptum perdunt: ideo fit, quia
Nihil ei acceptum est a perjuris supplicii."