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INTRODUCTION Aules Persius Flaccus Was Born Into a Middle

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INTRODUCTION Aules Persius Flaccus Was Born Into a Middle INTRODUCTION Stoic Satire Aules Persius Flaccus was born into a middle-class family on 4th December, A.D. 34, at Volaterrae in Etruria. At the age of twelve, he moved to Rome to further his education and four years later joined the circle of the Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Cornutus. It was the beginning of a lifelong association for Persius, who acknowledges his debt to Cornutus' teachings in Satire 5. Other Stoics befriended by Persius included the poet Lucan and the leader of the 'Stoic opposition' to Nero in the Senate, Thrasea Paetus. He also met Seneca. Persius shunned a public career, apparently preferring a more sheltered way oflife. He died on 24th November, A.D. 62. 1 In contrast to Lucilius, Horace and Juvenal, who adopt Stoic ethics only occasionally and display a generally lukewarm attitude towards them, Persius is a wholehearted subscriber. Stoicism is most noticeable in Satires 3 and 5, but it runs through all his other poems with the exception of Satire 6. The depth and sincerity of Persius' commitment to Stoicism is indicated by, inter alia, his passionate condemnation of materialism in contemporary religion (2.61-75), the forceful Stoic sermon directed against himself (3.15-62), his flattering tribute to Cornutus (5.21-51) and the relentless and uncompromising diatribe on libertas (5.83-123). The element of positive moral exhortation is far more marked in Persius' poetry than in that of Horace and Juvenal. The latter tend to criticise failings and vices in a negative manner, censuring and ridiculing without specifying an alternative way of life. Persius also censures and ridicules, but his satires are essentially summonses to accept the ethical values of Stoicism: thus Satire 3 deals not with any clear-cut vice but with antipathy towards Stoicism; the exposure of a politician's inadequacy in Satire 4 is not primarily an attack on politicians' shortcomings but serves to exemplify the need for self­ knowledge; avarice and luxury are not criticised directly in Satire 5 1 For full biographical details, see M. Coffey, Roman Satire (London, 1976), 99-101. 2 INTRODUCTION but rather presented as an illustration of moral enslavement from which only the Stoic sage is free. Persius' intense preoccupation with Stoicism leaves little scope for the amusing treatment of themes found, for example, in Horace. To be sure, humour is present in the pictures of the dis­ appointed nummus (2.50-1), the boorish centurion (3. 78-85) and the miserly Vettidius (4.29-32); and there are jocular touches in Persius' metaphors and bizarre collocations. But the poet's main concern is the urgent development of serious moral arguments. The style of Persius (i) Diction Persius' satire, like Horace's, presents a mixed vocabulary of colloquialisms, poeticisms, archaisms, Graecisms and coinages: examples are noted in the Commentary below. However, Persius uses some colloquial and vulgar diction avoided by Horace, e.g. euge (1.49, 75, 111), cedo (2.75), pappare (3.17), papae (5.79), obba (5.148). Moreover, certain of Persius' Graecisms are unprecedented in Latin, e.g. plasmate (1.17), artocreas (6.50), and there is an air of audacity about the onomatopoeic coinages lallare (3.18) and scloppo (5.13) and the barbarisms tucceta (2.42) and canthum (5. 71). (ii) lunctura acris Prompted by Horace's iunctura callida (A.P. 47-8) but going considerably beyond it, Persius cultivates the iunc­ tura acris, the surprising or illogical collocation that creates an effect of incongruity or abrasiveness, e.g. cantare ... nectar (Pro/. 14), intus lpalleat (3.42-3), salivam Mercurialem (5.112). The feature is dis­ cussed in the note on 5. 14. (iii) Extended use of synonyms Persius favours the use of words in uniquely extended senses, a mannerism stemming from a view of partial synonyms as total synonyms, e.g. nescire (6.36) is used to mean 'overlook' after the analogy of the partially synonymous ignorare. A full list of such instances is given in the note on 1.48. (iv) Rare linguistic usages As well as the linguistic mannerisms noted in (ii) and (iii), Persius often employs grammar and syntax that seem daring or at least unusual. Instances are regularly noted in the Commentary, e.g. nocte paratum as an interior accusative (1.90), mane as the subject of transitive verbs (3.1-2), the co-ordination of an infinitive and a ne-clause (3.49-51), the ellipse of natum with dis iratis (4.27), the unique form centusse (5.191) and quarto used to mean quater (6. 78). .
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