The case, I believe, was this. The word facetum, which makes the difficulty, had acquired, in Quinctilian’s days, the sense of pleasant, witty, or facetious, in exclusion to every other idea, which had formerly belonged to it. It is true that, in the Augustan age, and still earlier, facetum was sometimes used in this sense. But its proper and original meaning was no more than exact, factitatum, benè factum. And in this strict sense, I believe, it is always used by Horace.
Malthinus tunicis demissis ambulat: est qui
Inguen ad obscoenum subductis usque facetus.
1 S. ii. 25.
i. e. tucked up, trim, expedite.
Mutatis tantùm pedibus numerisque facetus.
1 S. iv. 7.
i. e. he [Lucilius] adopted a stricter measure, than the writers of the old comedy; or, by changing the loose iambic to the Hexameter verse, he gave a proof of his art, skill, and improved judgment.
frater, pater, adde;
Ut cuique est aetas, ita quemque facetus adopta.
1. Ep. vi. 55.
i. e. nicely and accurately adapt your address to the age and condition of each.
I do not recollect any other place where facetus is used by Horace; and in all these it seems probable to me that the principal idea, conveyed by it, is that of care, art, skill, only differently modified according to the subject to which it is applied: a gown tucked up with care—a measure studiously affected—an address nicely accommodated—No thought of ridicule or pleasantry intended.
It is the same in the present instance—
MOLLE ATQUE FACETUM