Note v. 4 — A. PERSIUS FLACCUS (continued 3)

4. ne mihi praetulerint: an elliptical sentence, such as we often find in final relations (A., 70, 3, f), in English as well as in Latin (G., 688, R.). The sequence is not common in the classic period, but see G., 512, R. Comp. Plaut., Aul., 2, 3, 11; Liv., 44, 22, and Weissenborn in loc. The Greek would be: μὴ προτιμήσωσι.—Polydamas: Some write Pulydamas, corresponding with the Homeric form, Πουλυδάμας; but Pōlydamas (Πωλυδάμας) is the Sicilian Doric, like pōlypus (πωλύπος). The allusion is to a familiar passage in Hom., Il., 22, 100. 104. 5: Πουλυδάμας μοι πρῶτος ἐλεγχείην ἀναθήσει—νῦν δ᾽ ἐπεὶ ὤλεσα λαὸν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ἐμῇσιν | αίδέομαι Τρῶας καὶ Τρῳάδας ἑλκεσιπέπλους. These are the words of Hector, as he steels his great heart to meet Achilles. Polydamas is the counsellor who had urged him (18, 254) to withdraw the Trojans into Troy, and Hector is ashamed to turn back and encounter the rebuke of Polydamas and the reproaches of his people. Persius uses Polydamas as the type of the Roman critic, and by a familiar satiric stroke leaves out the Trojan men, as if they were no men in Rome. Others understand ‘Nero and his effeminate court.’ The Homeric passage had been well worn by Aristotle and Cicero (Att., 2, 5, 1; 7, 1, 4; 8, 16, 2) before it came to Persius. There is perhaps a side-thrust at the pride of the old Roman families in their Trojan descent. Comp. Juv., 1, 100: iubet a praecone vocari | ipsos Troiugenas; also 8, 181. See Friedländer, Sittengesch., 1, 230.—Labeonem: the Attius (Labeo) of v. 50, an unfortunate translator of Homer, who stuck close to the letter. The scholiast has preserved a line. Ὠμὸν βεβρώθοις Πρίαμον Πριάμοιό τε παῖδας (Il., 4, 35) is rendered thus: crudum manduces Priamum Priamique pisinnos. ‘Raw you’d munch both Priam himself and Priam’s papooses.’