[24] Anthologia Latina, ed. Alexander Riese, 412.17, Leipzig, 1894, I, 1, p.319. The epigram, from which this phrase is quoted, was ascribed to Seneca by Pithoeus.
[25] Epig.... ad ... Neville, 2.126, op. cit., p. 38. Harvey, p. 36, translates: "Lo, not an hair thine heads bald Crown doth crown: / Thy Faithless Front hath not one hair thine own: / Before, Behind thine hair's blown off with Blast, / What's left thee to be lost? thine Head at last."
[26] In the preface, Delectus, Paris, 1659, ch. 2. The problem was whether to print a large collection of epigrams, rejecting merely the obscene ones, or to choose only the best. A middle way was taken for these reasons: 1) there are so few first-class epigrams that a reader who had his own opinions might think the selection too choosy; 2) the best shines out only in comparison with what is not so good, and examples of vice are as useful as examples of virtue, since judgement in large measure consists in knowing what to avoid; 3) finally and principally, the curiosity of young men would not be sufficiently satisfied by the selection if they knew that a good many witty and polished epigrams were to be found elsewhere. Since it was especially necessary to keep youth from the unspeakable filth of Catullus and Martial, who are at the same time the best writers, everything of theirs is included except the cheapest odds and ends and filthiest obscenities. For the writers after Martial stricter standards were applied, for the book would have grown beyond bounds if everything tolerable had been admitted.
[27] Martial 5.37, 1, 4-6, 9, 12-14. The lines that Nicole cuts contain only more of the same.
[28] Martial 1.76
[29] Epig. libri tres ad Henricum ... ded. 1.67, op. cit., p. 131.
[30] Unidentified. The text reads: "In nive nocte vagans nuceo cado stipite nectus, / Sic mihi nix, nox, nux, nex fuit ante diem."
[31] 1.8. 5-6.
[32] The conclusion of an epigram of ten lines, ascribed to Seneca in Delectus, pp. 326-7. Lines 1-8 correspond to Anth. Lat., op. cit., 407. 5-12. The younger Scaliger had begun a new epigram with line 5, as also with lines 9 and 11 (ed., Vergil, Appendix, cum supplemento ..., Lyons, 1572, pp. 196-7.) The concluding sententia, however, which Nicole quotes here and praises later in the notes to the anthology, is from the conclusion of the next epigram, Anth. Lat., 408. 7-8, which is a response to the preceding one. But the first two-thirds of the couplet has been rewritten with the aid of something like a Gradus ad Parnassum. The ms reads, "nunc et reges tantum fuge! vivere doctus / uni vive tibi nam moriare tibi." Nicole reads, "Mitte superba pati fastidia, spemque caducam / Despice: vive tibi, nam moriere tibi." superba pati fastidia corresponds to Vergil, Ecl. 2.15; spem ... caducam to Ovid, Epist. 15 (sive 16, "Paris Helenae"). 169 (sive 171).
The epigram as it stands in the anthology, then, is a result of Scaliger's disintegration of Anth. Lat. 407, which suggested beginning with line 5 and adding 408. 7-8 from the responsory poem. But this couplet is subjected to improvement to adjust it to the sense, to sustain the level of feeling, and to enhance the sententious point. Thus, with the aid of phrases from Vergil and Ovid, using mitte and despice as fillers and helpers, the epigram is concluded "with a noble, exalted and true thought," as the editor says in the notes.