PERSIUS, SATIRE VI
is not sufficiently cleared of stones."[1] Well then, if none of my paternal aunts survives, if I have no cousin on my father's side, if my paternal uncle has left no great-grand-daughters, if my maternal aunt has died without issue, and there is no living descendant of my grandmother, I go off to Bovillae and the hill of Virbius,[2] and there I find in Manius an heir ready to my hand! "What? the son of a clod?" you say. Well, just ask of me who is my great-great-grandfather; I could tell you that, though perhaps not in a moment; add one step more, and then again another, and by that time you come to a son of earth, so that by strict lineal ascent this Manius turns out to be a kind of great-great-uncle. Why do you, who are before me, ask for my torch while I am still running?[3] I am for you a Mercury, I come to you just as that God is represented in pictures. Do you reject the gift? Won't you take what I leave you and be thankful?—"There is a shortage in the amount," you say. Yes; I lessened it for my own use; but what remains, whatever it is, is all for you. Don't
- ↑ This obscure phrase has been variously explained. Exossatus means "cleared of bones." Some interpret "cleared of stones," i.e. good land prepared for a crop; others "land from which the bones, the strength and marrow of the soil, have been taken," and so "poor land." In line 51 Persius challenges his heir to reply. Conington takes adeo as a verb; "I decline the inheritance," says the heir; to which Persius replies, "Here is a field, now, cleared for ploughing," for which I can easily find an heir. Professor Housman follows an interpretation given by Hermann; Persius says to his heir, "Do you forbid my extravagance? Tell me plainly." "I would rather not," says the heir; "that field close by is far too full of stones"; i.e. he is afraid that the populace will stone him if he lifts his voice against the proposed entertainment (l.c. p. 29). "Very well," says Persius, "I can find another heir elsewhere."
- ↑ i.e. the clivus Aricinus, near Bovillae, which was a great resort for beggars. Virbius, another name for Hippolytus, was worshipped at Aricia along with Diana.
- ↑ This line is evidently based on Lucretius, ii. 77; Inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum, Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt. The idea is that of passing on a blazing torch from one hand to another; but it is not easy to reconcile the words qui prior es with the accounts given of the Athenian λαμπαδηφορία. See Dict. Ant. It is not impossible that Persius, whose phrases are taken from books rather than life, copied the phrase of Lucretius without quite realising its meaning.
