Category Archives: Persius

Two Problems in Persius 2.61-68

Today’s paper is another (quadrisyllabic) Persïanum. The PDF is here.

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A Second Double Entendre in Persius 4.5

After working on three different notes on Martial, I decided to finish one of my (quadrisyllabic) Persïana for today’s paper. Though allusively written, this one is not appropriate for younger readers, and may be found here in PDF form.

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Bibliographic Byways I: The Cambridge Greek and Latin Book Club

Among the Persïana on my shelves, one of the least often consulted contained an interesting document when it arrived from an on-line bookseller. The book is . . . well, it will be quicker to provide a picture of the … Continue reading

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Three Small Problems in Persius, Prologus 14

1. I find Harvey’s argument for a question mark at the end of the poem compelling and do not understand why subsequent editors have not followed him. I’m tempted to quote his entire long paragraph (9), but these bits should … Continue reading

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POTIS Comment Policy

A Public On-Line Textual-Interpretative Seminar (POTIS) is a new thing for me and – as far as I know – the classical world, though the APA has announced plans for something similar. No doubt it will take some time to … Continue reading

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Index and Database

Before I put together my Adversaria database (here), I made a simple Index file for Persius (here). Should I try to combine the two, or keep them separate? Does anyone have any advice on that? (Please note: your first comment … Continue reading

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Categories of Adversaria

As mentioned in my previous post, I plan to assign categories to my various notes so users can filter them to see only what they want to see. This will become more important as their number increases. Here are my … Continue reading

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Vaut le Detour? Adversaria as Database

Apologies for the long delay in my Persius project. As soon as I uploaded my first few Persius Adversaria, I realized that I needed to rethink the whole web-publication process, since blog posts with links to printable PDF versions would … Continue reading

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Persius 1.53: An Udderly Hypocritical Patron

A rich patron fishes for compliments (1.53-55):                         calidum scis ponere sumen, scis comitem horridulum trita donare lacerna, et ‘verum’ inquis ‘amo, verum mihi dicite de me.’        55 The two gifts offered as bait are oddly assorted. A worn cloak shows a … Continue reading

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Persius 1.4: Machinical Error?

A minor question of orthography: ne mihi Polydamas et Troiades Labeonem The name of the Trojan hero Πολυδάμας does not scan in hexameters: the first three syllables are short. Homer therefore lengthened the first syllable to make Πουλυδάμας. How that … Continue reading

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Persius 5.159: When Two Ets Are Two Too Many

A concise animal allegory illustrates the difficulty of achieving true freedom (5.157-60): nec tu, cum obstiteris semel instantique negaris parere imperio, ‘rupi iam uincula’ dicas; nam et luctata canis nodum abripit, et tamen illi, cum fugit, a collo trahitur pars … Continue reading

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Persius, Prologus 10-11: a Bit of Nachleben

An amusing bit of Nachleben seems worth mentioning here. In his Südelbucher, G. C. Lichtenberg wrote (L 315): Ein Stoß auf den Magen beraubt alles Bewußtseins nicht den Magen sondern den Kopf selbst. Überhaupt wird immer von Kopf und Herz … Continue reading

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Persius, Prologus 6: semipaganus

I suspect that more pages have been written on semipaganus than on any other single word in Persius. Not only is the meaning of paganus obscure – fellow-townsman? rustic? civilian? – it is far from obvious what the implied other … Continue reading

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At Last: Notes on Persius

This has been taking a lot longer than expected, but I will post my first note on Persius’ Prologus in a few minutes, and at least a couple more later tonight. I still hope to finish the whole thing by … Continue reading

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Why Start with Persius?

Briefly, I have three reasons for starting with Persius’ Satires: it’s a short text (one book, seven poems, 664 lines), a very difficult text that offers interesting textual and exegetical problems on every page, and (not least) I have a … Continue reading

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More on My Plans for an On-Line Edition of Persius

Two days ago, I announced that I will be publishing an on-line text of Persius with apparatus criticus and accompanying adversaria over the next month, with comments open for suggestions from anyone who is interested. This is only the first … Continue reading

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Announcement: A New Edition of Persius

Over the next month, I will be editing the text of Persius’ Satires for this site, with a select apparatus criticus containing a few of my own conjectures and an original selection of older readings. These will be expounded, along … Continue reading

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