a Roman knight connected by blood and marriage with persons of the highest rank, was born at
Volaterrae in Etruria on the 4th of December, during the consulship of L. Vitellius and Fabius
Persicus, Chron. Euscb.
an. 2050). His father Flaccus died six years afterwards; his mother, Fulvia Sisennia married
as her second husband a certain Fusius belonging to the equestrian order, and within a few
years again became a widow. Young Persius received the first rudiments of education in his
native town, remaining there until the age of twelve, and then removed to Rome, where he
studied grammnar under the celebrated Remmius Palaemon, rhetoric under Verginius Flavius. When
approaching the verge of manhood he became the pupil of Cornutus the Stoic, who opened tip to
him the first principles of mental science, and speedily impressed upon his plastic mind a
stamp which gave a character to his whole subsequent career. To this master, who proved in
very truth the guide, philosopher, and friend of his future life, he attached himself so
closely that he never quitted his side, and the warmest reciprocal attachment was clierished
to the last by the instructor and his disciple. While yet a youth he was on familiar terms
with Lutcan, with Caesius Bassus the lyric poet, and with several other persons of literary
eminence; in process of time he became acquainted with Seneca also, lint never entertained a
very warti admiration for his talents. By the highminded and virtuous Paetus Thrasea (
The extant works of Persius, who, we are told, wrote seldom and slowly, consist of six short satires, extending in all to 650 hexameter lines, and were left in an unfinished state. They were slightly corrected after his death by Cornuttus, while Caesius Bassus was permitted, at his own earnest request, to be the editor.
In boyhood he composed a comedy, a book of
Few productions have ever enjoyed more widely diffused and more enduring popularity than
the Satires. When read over to Lucan he could scarcely refrain from shouting with delight;
when first given to the world they were devoured with eager admiration (editurn librum continuo mirari
hiomines et diripere) ; and a long unbroken chain of testimonies, direct
or implied, to their merits, might be linked together, reaching from the period of their
publication through the darkest portion of the middle ages down to the revival of literature,
including the names of Quintilian, Martial, the emperors Septimius and Alexander Severus,
Ausonius, Prudentits, Sedulius, Sidonius, Liudprandus, Adam of Bremen, Bernard of Clugny,
Peter of Blois, and John of Salisbury, to say nothing of the scholiasts and grammarians by
whom they are perpetually cited. Nor ought we to omit the great fathers of the church,
Lactantius, Augtstin, and Jerome, of whom the two former frequently quote whole lines from
Persius, while the latter seems to have been so thoroughly imbued with his phraseology that
we encounter all the most striking expressions of the heathen moralist reproduced in the
epistles, controversial tracts and commentaries of the Christian ecclesiastic. How far this
reputation has been fairly earned, may admit of question. It would seem that Persius,
strangely enough, owes not a little of his fame and popularity to a cause which naturally
might and, perhaps, ought to have produced an effect directly the reverse, we mean the
multitude of strange terms, many of them derived, as case of Petronius, from the familiar
language of ordinary life, proverbial phrases, far-fetched harsh metaphors, and abrupt
transitions which every where embarrass our progress. The difficulty experienced in removing
these impediments, and the close attention required to follow the train of thought and the
numerous rapid changes of person, necessarily impress deeply both the words and the ideas
upon every one who has carefully studied his pages, and hence no author clings more closely
to our memory, or rises more frequently to our lips in a quotation. His delineations of men
dan manners are immeasurably inferior to those of Horace and Juvenal, nor can his cold
formalism and rough ungainly style stand for a moment in competition with the lively
practical good sense and easy grace of the one, or with the fiery indignation and sonorous
rhetoric of the other. His pictures, although skilfully drawn, grouped with dexterity and
often finished with patient minuteness, are deficient in reality; they are not sketched from
human beings actually living and moving in the business of the world, but are highly coloured
fancy pieces imagined by the student in his seclusion, created for the purpose of
illustrating some abtract general principle or subtle philosophic paradox. In fact, the tive
last satires may be regarded as so many scholasttic exercises, each being devoted to the
exposition of a doctrine propounded by the stoics, stated and developed according to their
discipline. We must not, at the same time, withhold from him the praise of great ingenuity in
moulding to his purpose the most refractory materials, of calling up a crowd of images by a
few skilful touch's, and concentrating a muitirude or thoaghts within the compass of a few
pregnant words. He is, unquestionably, the most dramatic of the ancient satirists, his
dialogues are in the highest degree spirited and effective, conveying a very distinct notion
of the element which formed the staple of the original Satura, and which was revived in the
Mimes of the Augustan age. The first Satire-which is devoted to strictures on the false taste
which prevailed in reference to poetry, and to an exposure of the follies and fopperies of
fashionable bards, interspersed with numerous parodies on the most popular pieces of the
day-is superior both in plan and execution to the rest; but we may remark, in passing, that
there are no good grounds for the belief, which has prevailed front a very early epoch, that
both here and elsewhere Nero is the mark against whom the most piercing sarcasms are aimed; a
belief which has beyond measure perplexed and tortured commentators, and has given rise to
inconceivable absurdity in the interpretation of obscure allusions. Those passages in the
fifth, where Persius describes the process by which his own moral and intellectual faculties
were first excited and gradually expanded, are remarkable for their grace and beauty.
Several MSS. of Persius contain a collection of scholia ascribed to Cornutus, which by many of the earlier critics were received without hesitation as authentic. But these annotations, as they now exist, are so full of mistakes, and display such palpable ignorance on common topics, that, although it is not impossible that they may contain observations which actually proceeded from the stoic, they must have assumed their present form in the in the hands of some obscure and illiterate grammarian. The ancient glosses published originally by Pithou (8vo. Heidelb. 1590) are merely extracts containing what is most valuable in the scholia of the Pseudo-Cornutus.
Editio Princeps of Persius is a 4to. volume without date,
but known to have been printed at Rome by Ulrich Hahn, about 1470; and in addition to this,
bibliographers have described upwards of twenty impressions, all published before the year
1500
Of the editions belonging to a more recent period, we may notice specially those of
The translations into different languages are, as might have been expected, very numerous.
There are at least fourteen into English, upwards of twenty into French, a still greater
number into German, and also several into Italian and various other European languages. Of
those into English, that of