Note 5, 154 — A. PERSIUS FLACCUS (continued 4)
Reading edition
154. en quid agis? See 3, 5.—duplici hamo: ‘a couple of hooks.’ If hamo is a fish-hook, scinderis is a metaphor within a metaphor. ‘You are like a fish distracted by two hooks,’ not knowing which to bite at. Comp. Hor., Ep., 1, 7, 74: occultum visus decurrere piscis ad hamum, and for scinderis, Verg., Aen., 2, 39: scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus. The executioner’s hook, which others understand, is generally uncus; Juv., 10, 66: Seianus ducitur unco.