Chapter XXXIX: Book XIX: Argument

The same may be said of this book as of the eighteenth. The few
Fragments that remain being insufficient to furnish any data
for a positive opinion as to its subject. From the 2d and 3d
Fragments, Mercer supposes that the same question was discussed
which Cicero refers to in the Offices (lib. ii., c. 20), "Whether
a worthy man, without wealth, was to be preferred to a very rich
man who had but an indifferent reputation." The second Fragment
clearly contains a precept respecting the laying up a store which
may be made available in time of distress; which Horace had
perhaps in his eye in book i., Sat. i., l. 33, _seq_. It contains
likewise a criticism on a verse of Ennius, as being little more
than empty sound, devoid of true poetic sentiment; which probably
was the basis of Cicero's censure in the Tusculan disputations.
The study of dramatic composition is also discouraged, from the
fact that the most elaborate passages are frequently spoiled by
the want of skill in the Tragic actor. In the 9th Fragment, Dacke
supposes there is an allusion to the Dulorestes of Pacuvius. The
7th Fragment may also probably refer to Ennius, as the principal
word in it is employed by him in the eleventh book of his Annals.
There is probably also a hit at those poets who adopt a style of
diction quite unintelligible to ordinary readers.

1 Wrinkled and shriveled old men are in quest of all the same
things.[1809]

2 So do thou seek for those fruits, which hereafter in ungenial
winter thou mayest enjoy; with this delight thyself at
home.[1810]

3 Will you have the gold, or the man? Why, have the man! What
boots the gold? Wherefore, as we say, I see nothing here which
I should greatly covet....[1811]

4 And infant children make a woman honest....

5 So each one of us is severally affected....

6 Choose that particular day which to you seems best.

7 ... but do not criticise the lappet[1812]

8 ... hanging from the side, sprinkling the rocks with clotted
gore and black blood....[1813]

9 The tragic poet who spoils his verses through Orestes about to
grow hoarse.[1814]

10 ... twenty thousand gravers and pincers[1815]

11 ... and to pluck out teeth with crooked pincers.

12 ... desire may be eradicated from a man, but never covetousness
from a fool.[1816]

FOOTNOTES:

[1809] _Passus_ is properly applied to a dried grape; either "quod solem diutius passa est," or more probably from _pando_.

[1810] Cf. Hor., i., Sat. i., 32, "Sicut parvula nam exemplo est magni formica laboris ore trahit quodcunque potest atque addit acervo quem struit, haud ignara et non incanta futuri. Quæ simul inversum contristat Aquarius annum non usquam prorepit et illis utitur ante quæsitis sapiens."

[1811] The passage in Cicero stands thus, "Si res in contentionem veniet, nimirum Themistocles est auctor adhibendus; qui cum consuleretur utrum bono viro pauperi, an minùs probato diviti, filiam collocaret: Ego vero, inquit, malo virum, qui pecuniâ egeat, quam pecuniam, quæ viro." De Off., ii., 20.

[1812] _Peniculamentum_ is a portion of the dress hanging down like a tail; perhaps like the "liripipes" of our ancestors. "Pendent peniculamenta unum ad quodque pedule." Ennius, Annal., lib. xi., ap. Nonium.

[1813] Cicero (Tusc. Qu., i., 44) quotes the passage from the Thyestes of Ennius: it is part of his imprecation against Atreus, "Ipse summis saxis fixus asperis evisceratus," etc. Vid. Enn., Frag. Bothe, p. 66, 11. Gerlach considers them to be the very words of Ennius, inserted in his Satire by Lucilius. Cicero's criticism is probably borrowed from Lucilius: it is in no measured terms: "Illa inania; non ipsa saxa magis sensu omni vacabant quam ille 'latere pendens' cui se hic cruciatum censet optare: quæ essent dura si sentiret; nulla sine sensu sunt."

[1814] Cf. Juv., i., 2, "_Rauci_ Theseide Codri ... necdum finitus Orestes."

[1815] Gerlach supposes that Lucilius ridicules the folly of those poets who either write what is unintelligible, or whose effusions are spoiled by the indifference of the actors who personate their characters, in the same way as Horace, ii., Sat. iii., 106, "Si scalpra et formas non sutor emat."

[1816] Nonius explains _cupiditas_ to be a milder form of _cupído_.