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PERSIUS
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PERSIUS , in full AuLUS PERSIUS See also:FLACCUS (A.D. 34-62), See also:Roman poet and satirist. According to the See also:Life contained in the See also:MSS., Persius was a native of Volaterrae, of See also:good stock on both parents' See also:side. When six years old he lost his See also:father, and his step-father died in a few years. At the See also:age of twelve Persius came to See also:Rome, where he was taught by Remmius See also:Palaemon and the rhetor Verginius Flavus. Four years later began a See also:close intimacy with the Stoic See also:Cornutus. In this philosopher's See also:pupil See also:Lucan, Persius found a generous admirer of all he wrote. Still in See also:early youth he became the friend of the lyric poet Caesius See also:Bassus, whilst with Thrasea Paetus (whose wife See also:Arria was a relative) he had a close friendship of ten years' duration and shared some travels. See also:Seneca he met later, and was not attracted by his See also:genius. In his boyhood Persius wrote a tragedy dealing with an See also:episode of Roman See also:history, and a See also:work, the See also:title of which is rendered uncertain by corruption in our MSS. See also:Pithou's generally accepted See also:reading makes the subject that of travel; the excursions with Thrasea however must have taken See also:place after boyhood. 'the perusal of See also:Lucilius revealed to Persius hisvocation, and he set to work upon a See also:book of satires. But he wrote seldom and slowly; a premature See also:death (uitio stomachi) prevented the completion of his task. He is described as possessed of a See also:gentle disposition, girlish modesty and See also:personal beauty, and living a life of exemplary devotion towards his See also:mother Fulvia Sisenna, his See also:sister and his aunt. To his mother and sister he See also:left a considerable See also:fortune. Cornutus suppressed all his work except the See also:hook of satires in which he made some slight alterations and then handed it over to Bassus for editing. It proved an immediate success. The scholia add a few details—on what authority is, as generally with such See also:sources, very doubtful. The Life itself, though not See also:free from the suspicion of See also:interpolation and undoubtedly corrupt and disordered in places, is probably trustworthy. The MSS. say it came from the commentary of See also:Valerius See also:Probus, no doubt a learned edition of Persius like those of See also:Virgil and See also:Horace by this same famous " grammarian " of Berytus, the poet's contemporary. The only See also:case in which it seems to conflict with the Satires themselves is in its statement as to the death of Persius's father. The declaiming of a suasoria in his presence (Sat. 3. 4 sqq.) implies a more mature age than that of six in the performer. But See also:pater might here mean " step-father," or Persius may have forgotten his own auto-See also:biography, may be simply reproducing one of his See also:models. The See also:mere fact that the Life and the Satires agree so closely does not of course prove the authenticity of the former. One of the points of See also:harmony is, however, too subtle for us to believe that a forger evolved it from the See also:works of Persius. It requires indeed a thoughtful reading of the Life before we realize how distinct is the impression it gives of a " bookish " youth, who has never strayed far, at least in spirit, from the domestic See also:hearth and his See also:women-folk. And of course this is notoriously the picture See also:drawn by the Satires. So much better does Persius know his books than the See also:world that he draws the names of his characters from Horace. A keen observer of what occurs within his narrow See also:horizon, he cannot but discern the seamy side of life (cf. e.g. such hints as Sat. iii. o); he shows, however, none of See also:Juvenal's undue stress on unsavoury detail or Horace's easy-going See also:acceptance of human weaknesses. The sensitive, See also:home-bred nature of Persius shows itself perhaps also in his frequent references to ridicule, whether of See also:great men by See also:street gamins or of the cultured by See also:Philistines. The See also:chief See also:interest of.Persius's work lies in its relation to Roman See also:satire, in its See also:interpretation of Roman Stoicism, and in its use of the Roman See also:tongue. The See also:influence of Horace on Persius can, in spite of the silence of the Life, hardly have been less than that of Lucilius. Not only characters, as noted above, but whole phrases, thoughts and situations come See also:direct from him. The resemblance only emphasizes the difference between the caricaturist of Stoicism and its preacher. Persius strikes the highest See also:note that Roman satire reached; in earnestness and moral purpose rising far See also:superior to the See also:political rancour or good natured persiflage of his predecessors and the rhetorical indignation of Juvenal, he seems a forerunner of the great See also:Christian Apologists. From him we learn a See also:lesson Seneca never taught, how that wonderful See also:philosophy could work on minds that still preserved the See also:depth and purity of the old Roman gravitas. When the Life speaks of Seneca's genius as not attracting Persius, it presumably refers to Seneca the philosopher. Some of the parallel passages in the works of the two are very close, and hardly admit of explanation by assuming the use of a See also:common source. With Seneca, Persius censures the See also:style of the See also:day, and imitates it. Indeed in some of its worst failings, straining of expression, excess of detail, exaggeration, he outbids Seneca, whilst the obscurity, which makes his little book of not seven See also:hundred lines so difficult to read and is in no way due to great depth of thought, compares very See also:ill with the terse clearness of the Epistolae morales. A curious contrast to this tendency is presented by his free use of " popular " words. As of See also:Plato, so of Persius we hear that he emulated See also:Sophron; the authority is a See also:late one (See also:Lydus, De mag. 1. 41), but we can at least recognize in the See also:scene that opens Sat. 3. kinship with such work as See also:Theocritus' Adoniazusae and the Mimes of See also:Herodas. Persius's satires are composed in hexameters, except for the scazcns of the See also:short See also:prologue above referred to, in which he See also:half ironically asserts that he writes to See also:earn his See also:bread, not because he is inspired. The first satire censures the See also:literary tastes of the day as a reflection of the decadence of the See also:national morals. The theme of Seneca's 114th See also:letter is similar. The description of the recitator and the literary twaddlers after See also:dinner is vividly natural, but an interesting passage which cites specimens of smooth versification and the languishing style is greatly spoiled by the difficulty of appreciating the points involved and indeed of distributing the See also:dialogue (a not uncommon crux in Persius). The remaining satires handle in See also:order (2) the question as to what we may justly ask of the gods (cf. Plato's second See also:Alcibiades), (3) the importance of having a definite aim in life, (4) the See also:necessity of self-knowledge for public men (cf. Plato's first Alcibiades), (5) the Stoic See also:doctrine of See also:liberty (introduced by generous allusions to Cornutus' teaching), and (6) the proper use of See also:money. The Life tells us that the Satires were not left See also:complete; some lines were taken (presumably by Cornutus or Bassus) from the end of the work so that it might be quasi finitus. This perhaps means that a See also:sentence in which Persius had left a See also:line imperfect, or a See also:paragraph which he had not completed, had to be omitted. The same authority says that Cornutus definitely blacked out an offensive allusion to the See also:emperor's literary See also:taste, and that we owe to him the reading of the MSS. in Sat. i. 121, —" auriculas asini quis non [for Mida rex] habet !" Traces of lack of revision are, however, still visible; cf. e.g. v. 176 (sudden transition from ambition to superstition) and vi. 37 (where See also:criticism of See also:Greek doctores has nothing to do with the context). The See also:parallels to passages of Horace and Seneca are recorded in the commentaries: in view of what the Life says about Lucan, the verbal resemblance of Sat. iii. 3 to Phars. x. 163 is interesting. Examples of bold See also:language or See also:metaphor: i. 25, rupto iecore exierit caprificus, 6o, linguae quantum sitiat canis; iii. 42, intus palleat, 81, silentia rodunt; v. 92, ueteres auiae de pulmone reuello. Passages like iii. 87, too sqq. show elaboration carried beyond the rules of good taste. " Popular " words: See also:barn, See also:ado, ebullire, gluto, lallare, mamma, muttire, obba, palpo, stloppus. See also:Fine lines, &c., in i. 116 sqq., ii. 6 sqq., 61 sqq., 73 sqq., in. 39 sqq. The important See also:editions are: (t) with explanatory notes: See also:Casaubon (See also:Paris, 16o5, enlarged edition by Diibner, See also:Leipzig, 1833) ; O. See also:Jahn (with the scholia and valuable prolegomena, Leipzig, 1843) ; Coning-ton (with See also:translation ; 3rd ed., See also:Oxford, 1893) ; B. L. See also:Gildersleeve (New See also:York, 1875) ; G. Nemethy (Buda-Pesth, 1903) ; (2) with See also:critical notes: Jahn-Bllcheler (3rd ed., See also:Berlin, 1893); S. G. See also:Owen (with Juvenal, Oxford, 1902). See also:Translations into See also:English by See also:Dryden (1693) ; See also:Conington (loc. cit.) and Hemphill (See also:Dublin, 1901). Criticism, &c., in Martha, See also:Les Moralistes sous l'See also:empire romain (5th ed., Paris, 1886) ; See also:Nisard, Poetes latins de la decadence (Paris, 1834) ; Hirzel, Der Dialog (Leipzig, 1895); See also:Saintsbury, History of Criticism, i. 248; See also:Henderson, Life and Principate of the Emperor See also:Nero (See also:London, 1903) ; and the histories of Roman literature (especially Schanz, §§ 382 sqq.). A Bibliography of Persius, by M. H. See also:Morgan (See also:Cam-See also:bridge, U.S.A., 1893). (W. C. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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