On which the commentator says, "That the three were on such intimate terms, that on one occasion Lælius was running round the sofas in the Triclinium, while Lucilius was chasing him with a twisted towel to hit him with." This story agrees exactly with the description given by Cicero[1597] (de Orat., ii., 6) of the conduct of Scipio and Lælius, who speaks of their retiring together to the country-house of the former, and to have descended, for the relaxation of their minds, to the most childish amusements, such as gathering shells on the shore of Caieta. Who would be more likely than such men as these to be captivated by the precocious wit and pungent sarcasm of a sprightly lad?
Again, the character of Lucilius's compositions admits of eminence at an earlier period of life than the other branches of poetry. And yet Catullus and Propertius, not to mention many others, attained great eminence as poets at a very early age; certainly long before their twentieth year.
The Satiric poetry of Lucilius depending more on a keen perception of the ludicrous, and shrewd observation of passing events and the foibles of individuals, would more readily win approbation at an early age, than compositions whose excellence would consist in the display of judgment, knowledge of the world, and elaborate finish. There is, therefore, no reason to suppose that his talent may not, like that of Cicero, have been developed at an early age, and having come under the notice, might have won the approbation, of men of such character in private life as Scipio and Lælius are reported to have been.
But Horace calls him "senex," ii. Sat., 28, seq.
"Ille (Lucilius) velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim
Credebat libris: neque si male cesserat, unquam
Decurrens alio, neque si bene, quo fit ut omnis
Votivâ pateat veluti descripta tabellâ
Vita Senis—"
To this it is answered: nothing can be more loose and vague than the employment by Roman writers of terms relating to the different periods of human life: e. g., "puer, adolescentulus, adolescens, juvenis, senex." We have seen that Tibullus at the age of forty may be called "juvenis." Hannibal, at the age of forty-four (i. e., two years younger than Lucilius at his death), calls himself senex. (Cf. Liv., xxx., 30, compared with c. 28, and Crevier's note.)[1598] So Persius (Sat. i., 124) calls Aristophanes "prægrandis senex," though, as Ranke shows in his Life (p. xc.), he was not of great age. We might add that Horace himself uses the phrase, "poetarum seniorum turba" (i. Sat., x., 67), as equivalent to priorum.
In the fourth Fragment of the twentieth book, Lucilius mentions the Calpurnian Law.
"Calpurnî sævam legem Pisoni' reprendi
Eduxique animam in primoribu' naribus."
This Van Heusde holds to be the Lex Calpurnia, de ambitu, passed by C. Calpurnius Piso, when consul, A.U.C. 687, B.C. 67, at which time Lucilius would have been eighty-one years old. But there was another Lex Calpurnia, de pecuniis repetundis, passed by L. Calpurnius Piso, tribune, in A.U.C. 604, B.C. 150. Van Heusde says the former must be meant, because Lucilius applies to it the epithet sæva, and Cicero (pro Muræna, c. 46) also styles it "severissime scriptam." He explains the second line of the Fragment to mean, that Lucilius "all but paid the penalty of death for his animadversions of the law," but these words more correctly imply the "fierce snorting of an angry man." So Pers., Sat., v., 91, "Ira cadat naso." Varro, R. R., ii., 3, 5, "Spiritum naribus ducere." Mart., vi. Ep., 64, "Rabido nec perditus ore fumantem nasum vivi tentaveris ursi." And any law whatever would be naturally termed "sæva" by him who came under the influence of it.