[1482] Baro is no doubt the true reading, and not varo, which some derive from varum, "an unfashioned stake" (of which vallum is the diminutive), "a log;" and hence applied to a stupid person. Baro is, as the old Scholiast tells us rightly for once, the Gallic term for a soldier's slave, his Calo; and, like Calo, became a term of reproach and contumely. It afterward was used, like homo (whence homagium, "homage"), to mean the king's "man," or vassal; and hence its use in mediæval days as an heraldic title. Compare the Norman-French terms Escuyer, Valvasseur.
[1483] Œnophorum. Hor., i., Sat. vi., 109, "Pueri lasanum portantes œnophorumque." Pellis is probably a substitute for a leathern portmanteau or valise.
[1484] Cannabe.
"And while a broken plank supports your meat,
And a coil'd cable proves your softest seat,
Suck from squab jugs that pitchy scents exhale,
The seaman's beverage, sour at once and stale." Gifford.
[1485] Sessilis obba. Sessilis is properly applied to the broad back of a stout horse, affording a good seat ("tergum sessile," Ov., Met., xii., 401), then to any thing resting on a broad base. Obba is a word of Hebrew root, originally applied to a vase used for making libations to the dead. It is the ἄμβιξ of the Greeks (cf. Athen., iv., 152), a broad vessel tapering to the mouth, and answers to the "Caraffe" or "Barile" of the modern Italians.
[1486] Veientanum. The wine-grown at Veii. The Campagna di Roma is as notorious as ever for the mean quality of its wines. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 143, "Qui Veientanum festis potare diebus Campana solitus trullâ." Mart., i., Ep. civ., 9, "Et Veientani bibitur fax crassa rubelli." ii., Ep. 53. iii., Ep. 49.
[1487] Pice. See Hase's Ancient Greeks, chap. i., p. 16.
[1488] Indulge genio. Cf. ii., 8, "Funde merum Genio."
[1489] Dave. This episode is taken from a scene in the Eunuchus of Menander, from which Terence copied his play, but altered the names. In Terence, Chærestratus becomes Phædria, Davus Parmeno, and Chrysis Thais. There is a scene of very similar character in le Dépit Amoureux of Molière. Horace has also copied it, but not with the graphic effect of Persius. ii., Sat. iii., 260, "Amator exclusus qui distat, agit ubi secum, eat an non, Quo rediturus erat non arcessitus et hæret Invisis foribus? ne nunc, cum me vocat ultro Accedam? an potius mediter finire dolores?" et seq. Lucr., iv., 1173, seq.
[1490] Frangam. Literally, "make shipwreck of my reputation."