Chapter XXXVIII: Book XVIII: Argument

From the small portion of this book that has come down to us, it is
but mere idle conjecture to attempt to decide upon its subject.
Petermann says it treated "of fools and misers." There are some
lines in the first Satire of Horace's first book, which bear
so close a resemblance to some lines in this book that Gerlach
considers it was the model which Horace had before his eyes. The
passages are quoted in the notes.

1 Take twelve hundred bushels of corn, and a thousand casks of
wine....[1806]

2 In short, as a fool never has enough, even though he has
everything....

3 ... for even in those districts, there will be drunk a cup
tainted with rue and sea-onion....[1807]

4 ... I enjoy equally with you--[1808]

5 ... in the transaction of the ridiculous affair itself, he
boasts that he was present.

FOOTNOTES:

[1806] Cf. Hor., i., Sat. i., 45, "Millia frumenti tua triverit area centum."

[1807] _Incrustatus._ Hor., i., Sat. iii., 56, "Sincerum cupimus vas incrustare." Where Porphyrion explains the word, "_incrustari_ vas dicitur cum aliquo vitioso succo illinitur atque inquinatur." It is sometimes applied to covering any thing, as a cup, with gold or silver (cf. Juv., v., 88, "Heliadum crustas"), or a wall with roughcast or plaster. For the _vinum rutatum_, see Pliny, H. N., xix., 45. _Scilla_ is probably the sort of onion to which Juvenal refers, Sat. vii., 120, "Afrorum Epimenia, bulbi."

[1808] _Fruniscor_, an old form of fruor. Cf. Hor., i., Sat. i., 47, "Non tuns hoc capiet venter plus quam mens."