And, not to multiply examples which, whilst they show that Persius was an admirer of Horace, prove that what was pure, natural inspiration in the latter, required effort in the former. The idea of Horace—
Clamant periisse pudorem
Cuncti pene patres,[[1078]]
is exchanged by Persius for the forced metaphor——
Exclamet Melicerta perisse
Frontem de rebus.[[1079]]
Rhetorical affectation infected all the literature of this age; we can scarcely, therefore, be surprised to find that it is one of the characteristics of the Satires of Persius. The age of public recitation had already begun, of which Juvenal speaks some years later. When in one place he describes the ardour and enthusiasm which pervaded Rome, on the announcement of a new work by a popular author[[1080]]—
Curritur ad vocem jucundam et carmen amicæ
Thebaidos lætam fecit cum Statius urbem
Promisitque diem!