[1772] Cercurum. Cf. ad viii., 4.
[1773] Prosecta, the same as prosiciæ (from prosecando, as insiciæ from insecando). The gloss in Festus explains it by αἱ τῶν θυμάτων ἀπαρχαί. Cf. Arnob. adv. Gent., vii., "Quod si omnes has partes quas prosicias dicitis, accipere Dii amant, suntque illis gratæ." Scaliger reads prosiciem.
[1774] Cf. iv., Fr. 12, and Pomponius Pappo ap. Fest. in v., "Nescio quis ellam urget, quasi asinus, uxorem tuam: ita opertis oculis simul manducatur ac molet:" which is perhaps the sense here.
[1775] Gradarius is said of a horse "trained to an easy, ambling pace," like that expressed by the word tolutim, cf. ix., Fr. 6 (exactly the contrary to succussator, ii., Fr. 10), xv., Fr. 2. Hence "pugna gradaria," where the advance to the charge is made at a slow pace. So Seneca (Epist., xl.) applies the term to Cicero's style of oratory, "lentè procedens, interpungens, intermittens actionem."
[1776] Puncto. So στιγμὴ χρόνου. Cf. Terent., Phorm., act. I., iv., 7, "Tum temporis mihi punctum ad hanc rem est."
[1777] Allium olet; instead of the old reading, "allia molliet."
[1778] Macros. So Horace, "Sedulus hospes pæne macros arsit dum turdos versat in igni." i., Sat. v., 72.
BOOK XV.
ARGUMENT.
None of the commentators on Lucilius have ventured to give a decisive opinion on the subject of this book, with the exception of Duentzer; who says that the poet intended it as a defense of true tranquillity of mind, in opposition to the precepts and dogmas of the Stoics. In the sixth Fragment we certainly have mention made of a philosopher; but it is only to assert that many common and homely articles in daily and constant use are of more real value than any philosopher of any sect. This, however, may be supposed to be the opinion of some vulgar and ignorant plebeian, or of a woman. In the fifth Fragment we have the character of a wife portrayed, such as Juvenal describes so graphically in his sixth Satire. Indolent and slatternly in her husband's presence, she reserves all her graces of manner and elegance of ornament for the presence of strangers. We have besides a notice of the wonders in Homer's narratives, the praises of a good horse, a picture of a usurer, an account of a soldier who has seen service in Spain, a eulogy of frugality and other matters; how all these can possibly be arranged under one head, is, as Gerlach says, a matter of the greatest obscurity.