PERSIUS, SATIRE V
free? If somebody sharply bids you take Crispinus' scrapers to the bath, and then abuses you as a lazy scoundrel, no strict bond of slavery, certainly, bids you stir, no force from without comes in to move your muscles; but if masters grow up within, in that sickly bosom of yours, how do you get oft scot-free any more than the man who was sent off to fetch the scrapers by the terror of his master's whip?
132You are snoring lazily in the morning; "Up you get," says Avarice; "come, up with you!"—You do not budge; "Up, up with you!" she cries again.—"O, I can't!" you say.—"Rise, rise, I tell you!"—"O dear, what for?"—"What for? Why, to fetch salt fish from Pontus, beaver oil, tow, ebony, frankincense and glossy Coan fabrics; be the first to take the fresh pepper off the camel's back before he has had his drink; do some bartering,[1] and then forswear yourself."—"O, but Jupiter will hear!"—"Whew! if you mean to live on terms with Jupiter, you must just go on as you are, content to be a simpleton scraping and scraping away with your thumb at the salt-cellar which you have so often tasted."[2]
140And now you are all ready, piling packing-cases and wine-jars on to your slaves. "Quick aboard!" you cry; there's nothing now to stop you from scudding over the Aegean in a big ship, were it not that crafty Luxury takes you aside for a word of remonstrance; "Where are you off to now, you madman? What do you want? What masterful
- ↑ The word verte is usually explained as = the phrase versuram facere, "to borrow "; properly to borrow from one man in order to pay another. But the word may denote mere bargaining or exchange: "exchange something," i.e. " enter into trade and then help yourself by perjury."
- ↑ The phrase ἁλίαν τρυπᾶν is said of those who have come to the end of their resources through poverty.
