Note 187 — FIRST SECTION.

Seneca, Controv., I. 2., Stetisti cum meretricibus, stetisti sic ornata ut populo placere posses, ea veste quam leno dederat, (You stood with the harlots, you stood decked out so as to please the public, wearing the dress that the leno had given you). The dress of the public women was always gay-coloured and very bold; they had to wear the male toga (gown). Cicero, Philipp. II., Sompsisti virilem togam, quam statim muliebrem reddidisti. Primo vulgare scortum: certa flagitii merces, nec ea parva. (You assumed the man’s toga, which straightway you made a woman’s. First a common strumpet; sure was the profit of your shame, and not small either.)—Tibullus, IV. 10. Martial, II. 30. Hence public women were also called togatae (wearing the toga or man’s gown). Martial, VI. 64. Horace, Sat I. 2. 63., Quid interest in matrona, ancilla, peccesque togata? (What difference does it make whether it is with a married woman, or a serving-maid, or a toga’d harlot (togata), that you offend?) Ibidem 80-83.,

(Nor amidst all her showy gems and green jewels is her thigh more soft (though it is your belief, Cerinthus, that it is) or her leg straighter; nay! very often that of the toga’d harlot is the better limb).

It is well-known what trouble Bentley gave himself to explain this locus implicatissimus (most intricate passage), as he calls it, because he supposed the common reading to be corrupt and accordingly altered the text, all to bring out a comparison of Cerinthus’ thigh—a comparison that never was in Horace’s mind at all. Several years ago in our Work, “De Sexuali Organismorum Fabrica,” (On the Sexual Fabric of Organisms), Spec. I., Halle 1832. large 8vo., p. 61., we disentangled the matter and showed exactly how it stood, proving that the “Sit licet hoc, Cerinthe, tuum” (Though this be your (opinion), Cerinthus) must be taken as a parenthesis, consequently that the usual reading is the right one. But as the book would seem to have come into few hands, and least of all into those of Philologists, we may be allowed to take this opportunity of once more developing our view. The comparison is between the matron and the “togata”, and it is maintained that the matron, i. e. the noble Roman lady, possesses for all her jewelry neither a softer thigh nor a straighter leg than the “togata”, the girl of common stamp; that the latter in fact can often make a better show of both, even though her leg is as crooked as the matron’s is,—a peculiarity that every female leg has, because in a woman the knee projects more forwards. Aristotle, Hist. Anim., IV. 11. 6., even in his time notes this fact: τὸ θῆλυ τῶν ἀῤῥένων καὶ γονυκροτώτερον. (the female is more knock-kneed also than the male). Comp. same author’s Physiognom., 3. 5. 6. Adamant., Physiognom., II. 107. ed. Sylb. Polemo, Physiognom., p. 179. Anatomical investigation moreover proves this most clearly. But as Cerinthus seems to be ignorant of it, in spite of its being a well known Act, he lets himself be deluded by the outward magnificence of attire and distinguished birth, and believes the matron to be the better built, and it is for this mistake the poet taunts him. Horace in this passage is merely giving a commentary on v. 63 above. Now compare what Plautus, Mostell., I. 3. 13, makes Scopha say to Philemation, Non vestem amatores mulieris amant, sed vestis fartum (’Tis not the dress of a woman that lovers love, but the lining of the dress); also Martial, III. Epigr. 33.; and the folly of Cerinthus is made quite obvious. The phrase—Sit licet hoc tuum (Though this be yours) in the sense, “though you look at it this way, take the dazzle of jewels as the criterion of a woman’s beauty”, surely needs no further confirmation.