Note 1, 99 — A. PERSIUS FLACCUS (continued 4)

99. Torva mimalloneis: Persius can not wait for a specimen, and gives one himself. This is much more dramatic than the arrangement, which makes the respondent cite the verses. The verses are attributed to Nero by the scholiast, and in fact Nero is said to have composed a poem on the Bacchae, Dio., 61, 20. The theme is so common that no conclusion is to be drawn from that statement. Mr. Pretor, who understands by iunctura ‘a resetting of old verses,’ regards 99-102 as a weak réchauffé of Catull., 64, 257 seqq., and compares Tac., Ann., 14, 16.—Torva: ‘grim.’ So torvumque repente | clamat, Verg., Aen., 7, 399 (of Bacchanalian madness).—mimalloneis: from Mimas, on the coast opposite Chios. With the whole verse comp. multis raucisonos efflabant cornua bombos, Catull., 64, 264, and Lucr., 4, 544.