And are you afraid of this beyond the grave? But you, my heir, whoever you are to be, come apart a little from the crowd, and hear.—"Don't you know, my good friend, that a laureate[1534] letter has been sent by Cæsar on account of his glorious defeat of the flower of the German youth; and now the ashes are being swept from the altars, where they have lain cold; already Cæsonia is hiring arms for the door-posts, mantles for kings, yellow wigs for captives, and chariots, and tall Rhinelanders. Consequently I intend to contribute a hundred pair of gladiators to the gods and the emperor's Genius, in honor of his splendid exploits.—Who shall prevent me? Do you, if you dare! Woe betide you, unless you consent.—I mean to make a largess to the people of oil and meat-pies. Do you forbid it? Speak out plainly!" "Not so," you say. I have a well-cleared field[1535] close by. Well, then! If I have not a single aunt left, or a cousin, nor a single niece's daughter; if my mother's sister is barren, and none of my grandmother's stock survives—I will go to Bovillæ,[1536] and Virbius' hill.[1537] There is Manius already as my heir. "What that son of earth!" Well, ask me who my great-great-grandfather was! I could tell you certainly, but not very readily. Go yet a step farther back, and one more; you will find he is a son of earth! and on this principle of genealogy Manius turns out to be my great uncle. You, who are before me, why do you ask of me the torch[1538] in the race? I am your Mercury! I come to you as the god, in the guise in which he is painted. Do you reject the offer? Will you not be content with what is left? But there is some deficiency in the sum total! Well, I spent it on myself! But the whole of what is left is yours, whatever it is. Attempt not to inquire what is become of what Tadius once left me; nor din into my ears precepts such as fathers give.[1539] "Get interest for your principal, and live upon that."—What is the residue? "The residue!" Here, slave, at once pour oil more bountifully over my cabbage. Am I to have a nettle, or a smoky pig's cheek with a split ear, cooked for me on a festival day, that that spendthrift grandson[1540] of yours may one day stuff himself with goose-giblets, and when his froward humor urge him on, indulge in a patrician mistress? Am I to live a threadbare skeleton,[1541] that his fat paunch[1542] may sway from side to side?
Barter your soul for gain. Traffic; and with keen craft sift every quarter of the globe. Let none exceed you in the art of puffing off[1543] your sleek Cappadocian slaves, on their close-confining platform.[1544] Double[1545] your property. "I have done so"—already it returns three-fold, four-fold, ten-fold to my scrip. Mark where I am to stop. Could I do so, he were found, Chrysippus,[1546] that could put the finish to thy heap!
FOOTNOTES:
[1511] Bruma. The learned Romans, who divided their time between business and study, used to begin their lucubrations about the time of the Vulcanalia, which were held on the 23d of August (x. Kal. Sept.), and for this purpose usually returned from Rome to their country houses. Pliny, describing the studious habits of his uncle, says (iii., Ep. 5), "Sed erat acre ingenium, incredibile studium, summa vigilantia. Lucubrare a Vulcanalibus incipiebat, non auspicandi causâ sed studendi, statim a nocte." So Horace, i., Ep. vii., 10, "Quod si bruma nives Albanis illinet agris, Ad mare descendet vates tuus et sibi parcet Contractusque leget." He gives the reason, ii., Ep. ii., 77, "Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus et fugit urbem." Cf. Juv., vii., 58. Plin., i., Ep. 9.
[1512] Basse. Cæsius Bassus, a lyric poet, said to have approached most nearly to Horace. Cf. Quint., Inst., X., i., 96. Prop., I., iv., 1. He was destroyed with his country house by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in which Pliny the elder perished. Vid. Plin., vi., Ep. 16.
[1513] Vivunt, Casaubon explains by the Greek ἐνεργεῖν "to be in active operation."
[1514] Tetrico is spelt in some editions with a capital letter. The sense is the same, as the rough, hardy, masculine virtues of the ancient Romans were attributed to Sabine training and institutions. Tetricus, or Tetrica, was a hill in the Sabine district. Virg., Æen., vii., 712, "Qui Tetricæ horrentis rupes, montemque severum Casperiamque colunt." Liv., i., 18, "Suopte igitur ingenio temperatum animum virtutibus fuisse opinor magis; instructumque non tam peregrinis artibus quam disciplina tetricâ ac tristi veterum Sabinorum: quo genere nullum quondam incorruptius fuit." Ov., Am., III., viii., 61, "Exæquet tetricas licet illa Sabinas." Hor., iii., Od. vi., 38. Cic. pro Ligar., xi.
[1515] Vocum. Another reading is "rerum," which Casaubon adopts, and supposes Bassus to have been the author of a Theogony or Cosmogony. He is said, on the authority of Terentianus Maurus and Priscian, to have written a book on Metres, dedicated to Nero. Those who read "vocum," suppose that Persius meant to imply that he successfully transferred to his Odes the nervous words of the older dialects of his country.
[1516] Ligus ora. Fulvia Sisennia, the mother of Persius, is said to have been married, after her husband's death, to a native of Liguria, or of Luna. It was to her house that Persius retired in the winter.