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The Satires of Persius by Conington and Nettleship The Satires of A. Persius Flaccus, with a translation and commentary by John Conington, M.A. Third edition, edited by Prof. H. Nettleship.
J. S. Reid
The Classical Review / Volume 7 / Issue 08 / October 1893, pp 364 - 366 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00198579, Published online: 27 October 2009
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00198579
How to cite this article: J. S. Reid (1893). The Classical Review, 7, pp 364-366 doi:10.1017/S0009840X00198579
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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 138.251.14.35 on 03 May 2015 364 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. might be unfair; so, I will merely say that, tinence is censured not as a mistake only, while Mr. Peters appears to advantage in but as a vice, whether a vice of an absolute passages of great philosophical importance— or of some particular kind ' I think that passages in which the subtlety and manifold 17 anXwg ovcra. 77 Kara, TL //.epos goes with ij ramifications of the Aristotelian technique &Kpao-ia. (a 2), not with KaKia TIS (a 3). have to be carefully taken into account— P. 217, vii. 4, 1148 a 17. 'Hence we Mr. Welldon is at his best in passages of should call a person more licentious, if less technical and more general and descrip- without desire....' Here Mr. Welldon, tive character—as in passages which might together with some other scholars, seems to be pointed out in the fourth, eighth, and me to go wrong in taking the words paXKov ninth books, and elsewhere, e.g. in v. 8,1135 aKoXacrrov = aKoXao-Torepov. The writer is b 11—1136 a 5 (pp. 163—4 Welldon). distinguishing between the d(cdAatrros and A few separate points on which I venture, the a.Kpa.rri'i, and says, as I understand him, with all respect, to differ from Mr. Welldon that the term d/cdAao-Tos is applied to the may be mentioned in conclusion: — man who pursues excessive pleasures without P. 174, v. 11, 1138 a 14. 'Again, in the desire rather than to the man who does so sense in which a man is said to be unjust, if he from a violent desire-—the latter is dxparr/s. merely commits injustice and is not entirely P. 267, viii. 10, 1160 b 7. ' Tyrannyis the vicious [i.e. when his action, but not his moral opposite of kingship, as it pursues the good purpose, is unjust: footnote] it is impossible of the tyrant himself. It is clear that king- for him to act unjustly to himself.' The ship is the best form of polity: but it is distinction, I take it, here is between the still clearer that tyranny is the worst. The avuros and the Tra.pd.vofi.os. opposite of the best is always worst.' P. 212, vii. 3, 1147 a 5. ' Thus, the major The comparison in THE SATIRES OF PERSIUS BY CONINGTON AND NETTLESHIP. Tlia Satires of A. Persius Flaccus, with a The changes which this third edition translation and commentary by JOHN exhibits are more considerable than those CONINGTON, M.A. Third edition, edited which were introduced into the second. A by Prof. H. NETTLESHIP. good apparatus criticus, which was much needed, has been supplied, along with a THE duty of preparing a notice of this description of the evidence on which the work has been changed from a pleasure into text must rest. But the passages in which an occasion of sorrow by the death of readings have been altered are very few ; Professor Nettleship, which occurred while and in these cases the reasons are strong, I was reading the volume. This is hardly as in III. 100 (trientem for triental) and III. the place to dwell on those personal qualities 12 (querimur for queritur). Prof. Nettle- which will cause his memory to be warmly ship has treated Conington's work with true cherished by all who knew him. But I pietas; he has extended it and enriched it cannot pass by the opportunity for expres- everywhere, but has reconstructed it as sing my very strong feeling of the loss little as possible. The references and illus- which Latin scholarship has sustained by trations now added to the notes for the first his premature removal. In the last of time are numerous and valuable. Many many delightful conversations which I had bear evidence to much study of inscriptions, with him, he spoke to me at length about glosses, and other remote sources of in- the tasks in which he was already engaged, formation. The longer notes which have and about others which he hoped to accom- been inserted are for the most part of a plish. Much as he has done, the best and lexicographical character. Many notes of ripest results of his labours were still to be this class which had been introduced into gathered in. the second edition are now extended. THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. 365 There are but few new interpretations of should Persius pick out the name Titus as difficult passages. One of these is V. 61, et a typical name for a centurion ? Cicero, sibi iam seri vitam ingemuere relictam: Fin. I. § 8 preserves a Lucilian line, which ' that their true life has been left behind in Baehrens writes thus: municipem Ponti the race for enjoyment.' This explanation Titi et Anni, centurionum, where the MSS. (fortified by a quotation from Seneca) is give tiranii, tritanii, tritunii, etc. T. unquestionably correct. To the laborious Pontius is known as a famous centurion; minutiae of revision Prof. Nettleship has if there was also a T. Annius equally known attended with admirable patience and care. to fame and of the same town, Persius, Among other things, the mode of reference getting his cue from Lucilius, might well to many authors quoted in the notes has refer to the two as ' the mighty Titi.' The been changed and improved. An examina- line of Persius seems to confirm the con- tion of the index discloses verification and jecture of Baehrens. adaptation to changes in the body of the I. 26, pallor seniumque: cf. Lucil. 363 volume. Mint and rue have been tithed, and 794 (ed. Baehr.). but the weightier matters of the law have I. 62, postieus, used of a person, occurs in not been neglected. Lucil. 84. The introductory essay by Conington has I. 122, hoc ridere meum, tarn nil, nulla been left untouched, but for the addition of tibi vendo Iliade. In Cena Trimalchionis § a few footnotes. It is graceful and sugges- 52 (ed. Friedlander), the host says ' meum tive, like all Conington's work, but imper- intellegere nulla pecunia vendo.' Both fect, considered as an introduction to an passages are most likely imitated from edition of Persius. Had Prof. Nettleship Lucilius. Between the work of Persius and felt himself free to reconstruct, he would that of Petronius there seems to be no doubtless have modified it greatly. On a direct contact. subject which especially interests me, the III. 78, non ego euro esse quod Arcesilas debt of Persius to Lucilius, the essay gives aerumnosique Solones. The ignorant man a somewhat uncertain sound, at one time into whose mouth these words are put takes seeming to rate it highly, at another to Arcesilas and Solon as types of the specula- make little of it, and to overestimate the tive and thoughtful men whom he loathes. influence of Horace. A study of the Luci- The selection is curious, but the name of lian fragments side by side with the text Arcesilas at least was probably suggested of Persius must, I think, lead to the conclu- here to Persius by Lucilius. Nonius, s.v. sion that much which Persius has been excidere, quotes a line of Lucilius (Baehr. supposed to owe to Horace, was taken 529) : metuo ut fieri possit, ergo vivo, ab direct from the older satirist. This is Arciloco excido. Nonius explains excido as particularly the case with the ethical and equivalent to dissentio. The only Ardlocus philosophical passages. In style, Persius to whom Lucilius is at all likely to have certainly made his way back to Lucilius. referred is the satirist; but any reference Conington strangely speaks (p. xxiv.) of to him is here out of place. The ordinary as- ' the ambition with which the pupil was sumption, that a line of Archilocus: xprj/jidToiv constantly striving to improve upon his aeA.irrov ovSev icrnv ovo" airw/jioTov is here master's (Horace's) felicity of expression.' alluded to, is farfetched and improbable. I will conclude by giving a few notes on The name Arcesila should be substituted for passages in Persius which have a bearing on Arciloco. The sense is : ' I go in for enjoy- Lucilius. ment of life and give up laborious thinking'; I. 1, 2. It is not observed in the notes in other words : ' I cease to be an Academic on these lines that some of the MSS. of the and join the Epicurean school.' Excido is scholia indicate the first line as having been rather i/cTrim-ia than dissentio : ' I am cast borrowed from Lucilius, others the second. out by A.' In the twenty-seventh book of The probability is that the scholion refers the satires of Lucilius, to which the passage to the first line, but that the name of belongs, there are a good many allusions Lucilius has been substituted for that of to philosophy. The two fragments which Lucretius. As is well known, the same immediately precede this in the edition of confusion exists elsewhere. Baehrens (527 and 528) probably bore on I. 20, ingentis trepidare Titos. The the same theme. Fragments 429, 430, 573, context shows that these ' Titi ' are ' de 581 (Baehr.) all in like manner relate to a gente hircosa centurionum ' (III. 77), like change of philosophic opinions. The word ' Pulfennius ingens,' who is one of the cedere, which is applied to such a change in 'varicosi centuriones' (v. 189). But why 573, is employed exactly in the same way 366 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. by Cicero Acad. II. 63. I may note that VI. 79, iam deciens redit in rugam. No in 581 the reading of Baehrens, persta nee real parallel has been produced for the use for persuade et of MSS., is nearer the mark of ruga as ' a purse.' Why it should ever than L. Mueller's pervade. It is quite have been supposed (see Conington) that possible that Ribbeck may be right in Juvenal XIV. 325, rugam trahit, is an imita- proposing Arcesilae for the corrupt narcesibai tion of this passage, is hard to understand. in 362 : in numero quorum nunc primus Rugam seems to me to be an error of the Trebellius multost Lucius narcesibai senium MSS. for bulgam, which means ' purse ' in vomitum pus. The words may have been Lucil. 185 and in a fragment of Varro's put into the mouth of a muscular centurion, Menippean Satires. In these Satires Varro who objected to Trebellius as a vile product of course frequently imitated Lucilius. of the philosophical schools. J. S. REID. MOELLER'S HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. History of the Christian Church, A.v. 1—600, is a strange one, which turns back from by the late Dr. WILHELM MOELLEK, Diocletian to Irenaeus, and from Benedict Professor Ordinarius of Church History of Nursia to Arianism. Style there is none, in the University of Kiel. Translated even in the original; and in the translation from the German by ANDREW RUTHERFOED, things are not at all improved. Tacts are B.D. London : Swan Sonnenschein and crowded together without much indication of Co. 1892. 15s. their relative importance beyond occasional Clarendon type. Above all, the view taken THIS is a Church History of the first rank, is entirely an outside one, and singularly and in some ways perhaps the best we have. lifeless. Dr. Moeller is much more inter- Whoso wants a repertory of the facts of ested, for example, in giving a catalogue of Church History accurately given, well Tortullian's works than in clearly stating brought up to date, and provided with his relation to heathenism or Montanism. ample references to the recent literature of As a book of reference, the work is admir- the subject, he will be thoroughly satisfied able ; but even the original can only be read with Dr. Moeller's labours. continuously by those who have the diges- These merits are of the highest; but the tion of an ostrich. drawbacks are serious. The arrangement H. M. GWATKIN. Flaton, Ph€don, par PAUL CotrVREUR. Paris, Other statements to which exception could be taken Hachette et Cie. 16mo. pp. li. 344. are less misleading for young readers. The latter part of this section is much better : the editor warns THIS is a school edition of the Pliaedo with intro- his scholars that they mint distinguish' between duction and brief explanatory notes. In the ' substantial immortality,' which alone can be introduction, after a short account of Plato's life, deduced from Plato's reasoning, and ' personal the editor proceeds to deal with the Pliaedo first as a immortality,' in which, as our editor holds, Plato philosophical treatise, next as a work of art. believed, although he knew it to be undemonstrable. Writing for boys, he wisely refrains from entering The section which follows, on the literary side of the unon the abstruser questions of Platonic philosophy, Phaedo, is excellent. Next comes a very concise raised directly or indirectly by the dialogue ; just as analysis of the dialogue. The introductory portion in his commentary he passes lightly over the meta- includes also a critical appendix and a note on physical difficulties with which the later part of the orthography. dialogue abounds. At the same time this part of The notes are extremely concise and for the most the introduction can hardly be considered quite part sound and scholarly : though a few instances satisfactory. M. Couvreur is very sceptical about may be found of obscurity or error. For instance the possibility of a chronological arrangement of the what are we to make of the note on 59 E 're\evri)(rti: dialogues; and yet he boldly affirms that the en style direct, Te\ewr^