Note 21 — TRANSLATIONS FROM JUVENAL.
Reading edition
Horace, in the beginning of the Fourth Satire of his First Book, introduces Lucilius as imitating the ancient Greek comedians:
Hinc omnis pendet Lucilius, hosce secutus, Mutatis tantum pedibus numerisque; facetus, Emunctæ naris, durus componere versus. Nam fuit hoc vitiosus: in hora sæpe ducentos, Ut magnum, versus dictabat stans pede in uno. Cum flueret lutulentus, erat quod tollere velles; Garrulus, atque piger scribendi ferre laborem; Scribendi recte; nam ut multum, non moror.—
Towards the end of the Tenth Satire, the poet resumes the subject, and vindicates his character of Lucilius against those who had accused him of too much severity towards the ancient satirist; and again accuses him of carelessness, though he acknowledges his superiority to the more ancient models:
----fuerit Lucilius, inquam, Comis et urbanus; fuerit limatior idem, Quam rudis, et Græcis intacti carminis auctor, Quamque poetarum seniorum turba: Sed ille, Si foret hoc nostrum fato dilatus in ævum, Detereret sibi multa: recideret omne, quod ultra Perfectum traheretur: et in versu faciendo Sæpe caput scaberet, vivos et roderet ungues.