Note 95 — A. PERSIUS FLACCUS

sambucam: The ordinary translation, ‘dulcimer,’ is not strictly correct, though ‘dulcimer’ suggests the exotic refinement of the sambuca, a four-stringed instrument of Eastern origin, synonymous with cultivated luxury.—citius aptaveris: θᾶττον ἂν ἁρμόσειας; written out = citius aptaveris quam praetor det, but it is better not written out. Notice the Perf. Subj. ‘You would sooner succeed in making a dulcimer fit, sooner get a dulcimer to fit [the hand of] a gawky camp-porter.’—caloni: used in its original sense of a soldier’s hewer of wood and drawer of water. Persius, who has no admiration for soldiers themselves, would naturally select a soldier’s drudge as a type of awkwardness and stupidity. So, in effect, Conington.—alto: We combine ‘tall and gawky;’ ‘hulking’ (Conington). Comp. the sneer at the ingentis Titos, 1, 20, and Pulfennius ingens, 5, 190, and the ἀνὴρ τρισκαιδεκάπηχυς of Theocr., 15, 17.