[1527] Ingentes de puppe dei. The tutelary gods were placed at the stern as well as the stem of the ship. Cf. Æsch., S. Theb., 208. Virg., Æn., x., 170, "Aurato fulgebat Apolline puppis." Ov., Trist., I., x., l. Hor., i., Od. xiv., 10. Acts, xxviii., 11. Catull., I., iv., 36. Eurip., Hel., 1664.
[1528] Mergis. Cf. Hom., Od., v., 337. The Mergus (αἴθυια of the Greeks) is put for any large sea-bird. Hor., Epod. x., 21, "Opima quodsi præda curvo litore porrecta mergos juveris."
[1529] Pictus oberret. Cf. ad Juv., xiv., 302, "Pictâ se tempestate tuetur." xii., 27.
[1530] Sed. "But perhaps you will object," etc. He now ridicules the folly of those who deny themselves all the luxuries and even the necessaries of life, in order to leave behind a splendid inheritance to their heirs. "Quum sit manifesta phrenesis Ut locuples moriaris egenti vivere fato." Juv., xiv., 186. Cf. Hor., ii., Ep. ii., 191, "Utar, et ex modico quantum res poscet acervo Tollam, nec metuam quid de me judicet hæres Quod non plura datis invenerit." i., Ep. v., 13, "Parcus ob hæredis curam, nimiumque severus assidet insano." ii., Od. xiv., 25.
[1531] Bestius, from Hor., i., Ep. xv., 37, "Diceret urendos corrector Bestius." Probably both Horace and Persius borrowed from Lucilius. Weichert, P. L., p. 420.
[1532] Maris expers. Hor., ii., Sat. viii., 15, "Chium maris expers," which is generally interpreted to mean that Nasidienus set before his guests wine which he called Chian, but which in reality had never crossed the seas, being made at home. It may be put therefore for any thing "adulterated, not genuine." Another interpretation is, "effeminate, emasculate, void of manly vigor and energy," from the supposed enervating effect of Greek philosophy on the masculine character of the Romans of other days. A third explanation is, "that which has experienced the sea," from the active sense of expers, and therefore is simply equivalent to "foreign, or imported." Casaubon seems to incline to the latter view.
[1533] Sapere. So "Scire tuum," i., 27 and 9, "Nostrum illud vivere triste." In the indiscriminate hatred of all that was Greek, philosophy and literature were often included.
[1534] Laurus. After a victory, the Roman soldiers saluted their general as Imperator. His lictors then wreathed their fasces, and his soldiers their spears, with bays, and then he sent letters wreathed with bays (literæ laureatæ) to the senate, and demanded a triumph. If the senate approved, they decreed a thanksgiving (supplicatio) to the gods. The bays were worn by himself and his soldiers till the triumph was over. (Branches of bay were set up before the gate of Augustus, by a decree of the senate, as being the perpetual conqueror of his enemies. Cf. Ov., Trist., III., i., 39.) These letters were very rare under the emperors, vid. Tac., Agric., xviii., except those sent by the emperors themselves. Mart., vii., Ep. v., 3, "Invidet hosti Roma suo veniat laurea multa licet." Caligula's mock expedition into Germany (A.D. 40) is well known. The account given by Suetonius tallies exactly with the words of Persius. "Conversus hinc ad curam triumphi præter captivos ac transfugas barbaros, Galliarum quoque procerissimum quemque et ut ipse dicebat ἀξιοθριαμβευτον legit ac seposuit ad pompam; coegitque non tantum rutilare et submittere comam, sed et sermonem Germanicum addiscere et nomina barbarica ferre." Vid. Domit., c. xlvii. Cf. Tac., German., xxxvii. (Virg., Æn., vii., 183. Mart., viii., Ep. xxxiii., 20.)
[1535] Exossatus ager. Among the Romans it was esteemed a great disgrace for a legatee to refuse to administer to the estate of the testator. Persius says, "even though you refuse to act as my heir, I shall have no great difficulty in finding some one who will. Though I have spent large sums in largesses to the mob, and in honor of the emperor, I have still a field left near the city, which many would gladly take." Such is unquestionably the drift of the passage; but "exossatus" is variously explained. It literally means that from which the bones have been taken: vid. Plaut., Aul., II., ix., 2, "Murænam exdorsua, atque omnia exossata fac sient." Amph., I., i., 163. So Lucr., iv., 1267. Ter., Ad., III., iv., 14. As stones are "the bones of the earth" (Ov., Met., i., 393, "Lapides in corpore terræ ossa reor"), it may mean "thoroughly cleared from stones;" or, as Casaubon says, so thoroughly exhausted by constant cropping, that the land is reduced to its very bones (as Juv., viii., 90, "Ossa vides regum vacuis exhausta medullis"). "Yet even this field, bad as it is, some terræ filius may be found to take." Juxta is generally explained "near Rome," and therefore parted with last. D'Achaintre takes it with exossatus in the sense of "almost."
[1536] Bovillæ, a village on the Via Appia, no great distance from Rome; hence called Suburbanæ, by Ovid (Fast., iii., 667) and Propertius (IV., i., 33). Here Clodius was killed by Milo. Like Aricia, it was infested by beggars. (Cf. Juv., iv., 117, "Dignus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes.") Hence the proverb "Multi Manii Ariciæ."