Thus our tale comes to a close. Henceforth, kind Muse, without whom life is no pleasure to me, I pray thee warn them that, like the Lydian of yore, when Smyrna fell,[1588] so now also they may be ready to emigrate; or else, in line, whatever thou wishest. This only I beseech thee, goddess! Present not in a pleasing light to Calenus[1589] the walls of Rome and the Sabines.
Thus much I spake. Then the goddess deigns to reply in few words, and begins:
"Lay aside thy just fears, my votary. See, the extremity of hate is menacing him, and by our mouth shall he perish! For we haunt the laurel groves of Numa,[1590] and the self-same springs, and, with Egeria for our companion,[1591] deride all vain essays. Live on! Farewell! Its destined fame awaits the grief that does thee honor. Such is the promise of the Muses' choir, and of Apollo[1592] that presides over Rome."
FOOTNOTES:
[1553] Musa. Although about to indite a Satire, Sulpicia declares her intention of not imitating the Hendecasyllabics of Phalæcus, the Iambics of Archilochus, or the Scazontics of Hipponax, but of writing in the good old Heroic metre. She therefore invokes the aid of Calliope.
[1554] Frequentas. "Celebrare" is often used in the sense of "crowding in large numbers to a place;" so here, conversely, frequentare is used in the sense of "frequently celebrating."
[1555] Detexere is properly to "finish off one's weaving." Vid. Hyg., Fab., 126, "Cum telam detexuero nubam." Plaut., Ps. I., iv., 7, "Neque ad detexundam telam certos terminos habes."
[1556] Penetrale is applied to the inmost and most sacred recesses; hence the "Penetrales Dii." Cic., Nat. D., ii., 27. Senec., Œdip., 265. So "penetrale sacrificium."—Retractans, in the sense of going over again with a view to corrections and additions. So Plin., v. Ep., 8, "Egi graves causas; has destino retractare." Senec., Ep., 46, "De libro tuo plura scribam cum illum retractavero."
[1557] Phalæco. Phalæcus is said by Diomedes (iii., 509) and Terentianus (p. 2440) to have been the inventor of the Hendecasyllabic metre, which consists of five feet; the first a Spondee or Iamb., the second a Dactyl, and the three last Trochees. Many of Catullus's pieces are in this metre. E. g. "Lugete O Veneres, Cupidinesque." Vid. Hermann, Elem. Doctr. Metr., p. 264.
[1558] Iambo. The Iambic metre was peculiarly adapted to Satire. Hence its probable etymology from ἰάπτω, jacio; and hence the epithet criminosi applied to these verses by Horace (i., Od. xvi., 2), and truces by Catullus (xxxvi., 5). Archilochus, the Parian, who flourished in the eighth century B.C. (Cic., Tusc. Q., i., 1; Bähr, ad Herod., i., 12), is said to have been the inventor of the metre, and to have employed it against Lycambes, who had promised him his daughter Neobule, but afterward retracted. Cf. Hor., A. P., 79, "Archilochum proprio rabies armavit Iambo." i., Ep. xix., 23, "Parios ego primus Iambos Ostendi Latio numeros animosque secutus Archilochi non res et agentia verba Lycamben." The allusion in the next line is to Hipponax, who flourished cir. B.C. 540; Ol. lx. He was a native of Ephesus; but being expelled from his native country by the tyrant Athenagoras, he settled at Clazomenæ, now the Isle of St. John. The common story is, that he was so hideously ugly, that the sculptors Bupalus and Athenis caricatured him. And to avenge this insult, Hipponax altered the Iambic of Archilochus into a more bitter form by making the last foot a spondee, which gave the verse a kind of halting rhythm, and was hence called Scazontic, from σκάζω· or Choliambic, from χῶλος, "lame." Diomed., iii., 503. [A specimen may be seen in Martial's bitter epigram against Cato. i., Ep. I, "Cur in Theatrum Cato severe venisti?">[ In this metre he so bitterly satirized them that they hanged themselves, as Lycambes had done, in consequence of the ridicule of Archilochus. Hence Horace, vi., Epod. 13, "Qualis Lycambæ spretus infido gener Aut acer hostis Bupalo." Pliny (H. N., xxxvi., 5) treats the whole story as mythical. Cf. Mart., i., Ep. 97, for some good specimens, and Catull., xxxix. Another form of Choliambic verse is the substitution of an Antibacchius for the final Iamb.: e. g., "Remitte pallium mihi quod involasti." Catull., xxv. Two of Hipponax's verses may be seen, Strabo, lib. xiv., c. 1.