Note 1459 — PERSIUS.

Sambucam. "You might as well put a delicate instrument of music in the hands of a coarse clown, and expect him to make it 'discourse eloquent music,' as look for a nice discernment of the finer shades of moral duty in one wholly ignorant of the first principles of philosophy." Sambuca is from the Chaldaic Sabbecà. It was a kind of triangular harp with four strings, and according to the Greeks, was called from one Sambuces, who first used it. Others say the Sibyl was the first performer on it. Ibycus of Regium was its reputed inventor, as Anacreon of the Barbiton: but from its mention in the book of Daniel (iii., 5), it was probably of earlier date. A female performer on it was called Sambucistria. An instrument of war, consisting of a platform or drawbridge supported by ropes, to let down from a tower on the walls of a besieged town, was called, from the similarity of shape, by the same name. Cf. Athen., iv., 175; xiv., 633, 7. (Suidas, in voce, seems to derive it from ἴαμβος, quasi ἰαμβύκη, because Iambic verses were sung to it.)