Note v. 9 — A. PERSIUS FLACCUS (continued 2)

9. cum—aspexi: Cum is equivalent to postquam here. G., 567; A., 62, 3, e.—canitiem: ‘premature old age,’ ‘loss of youthful freshness.’ All through this satire the poet lashes old age, as commentators have observed. So here, and 22. 26. 56. 79. The ‘hoary head’ is not a ‘crown of glory,’ but a sign of debauchery; the ‘fair, round belly,’ which is not uncomely in the elderly justice, is nothing but a swagging paunch; the bald pate is not a mirror of honor, but a mirror of dishonor; in short, ‘no fool like an old fool.’ Especially severe is Persius on the ‘used-up’ man; and the affected moralizing of young men, who had outlived their youth before they had had time to forget the games of boyhood, drove him to satire. On the Neronian hypothesis, Persius is endeavoring to masquerade as an old man.—nostrum istud vivere triste: ‘sour way of life.’ This is a so-called figura Graeca, which out-Greeks the Greeks. Good authors are very cautious in adding an attribute to the infinitive, and do not go beyond ipsum, hoc ipsum. Scire tuum, v. 27; ridere meum, v. 122; velle suum, 5, 53; sapere nostrum, 6, 38, can not be rendered literally into the language from which they are supposed to be imitated. Nursery infinitives (3, 17) belong to a different category.