Note 4, 49 — A. PERSIUS FLACCUS (continued 4)

49. si puteal: A versus conclamatus (Jahn). The old explanation makes this passage refer to exorbitant usury. The puteal here meant is supposed to be the one mentioned by Hor., Sat., 2, 6, 13—the puteal Libonis, situated near the praetor’s tribunal, and on that account a favorite haunt of usurers, who would naturally have frequent occasion to appear in court. Comp. the poplar-tree, which was the rendezvous of a certain ‘ring’ of contractors in Athens, Andoc., 1, 133. Local allusions of this kind are the despair of commentators; the puteal is, after all, as mysterious as a ‘corner’ to the uninitiated, and we can only gather that puteal flagellare is slang for some recondite swindling process, which required a certain amount of knowingness (hence cautus). Conington renders, ‘flog the exchange with many a stripe.’ We may Americanize by ‘clean out, thrash out Wall Street.’ The Neronians, Casaubon at their head, understand the passage as referring to Nero’s habit of going out at night in disguise and maltreating people in the street—see Tac., Ann., 13, 25; Suet., Nero, 26—and cautus is supposed to allude to the measures which he took for his personal safety.