Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal Part 38

285. vii. 6-44.

286. iii. 399-425.

287. iii. 399.

288. Cp. Seneca, _Oed._ 530 sqq. The description of a grove was part of the poetic wardrobe. Cp. Pers. i. 70.

289. See p. 103.

290. iii. 509-762. For a still more grotesque fight, cp. vi. 169-262; also ii. 211-20; iv. 794, 5.

291. v. 610-53. Cp. also ix. 457-71.

292. Sir E. Ridley's trans.

293. Sir E. Ridley's trans.

294. ix. 619-838.

295. ix. 946, 7.

296. For examples of erudition, cp. ix. loc. cit., where the origin of serpents of Africa is given, involving the story of Perseus and Medea, iv. 622 sqq. The arrival of Curio in Africa is signalized by a long account of the slaying of Antaeus by Hercules.

297. i. 523-end.

298. ii. 67-220.

299. ii. 392-438. Cp. the geography of Thessaly, coupled with a description of its witches, vi. 333-506.

300. v. 71-236.

301. vi. 507-830. It is noteworthy, also, that incidents not necessarily irrelevant in themselves are treated with a monstrous lack of proportion, e.g. the siege of Ma.s.silia is not irrelevant; but it is given 390 lines (iii. 372-762), and Lucan forgets to mention that Caesar captured it.

302. e.g. iv. 799-end, vii. 385-459, 586-96, 617-46, 847-72, viii.

542-60, 793-end.

303. vii. 385-459.

304. There is nothing in these last seven books that can be regarded as in any way written to please Nero, save the description of the n.o.ble death of Domitius Ahen.o.barbus, Nero's great-great-grandfather (vii.

597-616). On the contrary there are many pa.s.sages which Lucan would hardly have written while he was enjoying court favour: e.g. iv. 821-3, v. 385-402, vi. 809, vii. 694-6, x. 25-8.

305. See p. 98.

306. e.g. the two speeches of Cato quoted above.

307. He is, moreover, very careless in his repet.i.tion of the same word, cp. i. 25, 27 urbibus, iii. 436, 441, 445 silva, &c.; cp. Haskins, ed.

lx.x.xi. (Heitland's introd.)

308. He is far less dactylic than Ovid. For the relation between the various writers of epic in respect of metre, see Drobisch, _Versuch ub.

die Formen des lat. Hex._ 140. The proportion of spondees in the first four feet of hexameters of Roman writers is there given as follows: Catullus 65.8%, Silius 60.6%, Ennius 59.5%, Lucretius 57.4%, Vergil 56%, Horace 55%, Lucan 54.3%, Statius 49.7%, Valerius 46.2%, Ovid 45.2%.

309. Tac. _Ann._ xvi. 18, 19 (Church and Brodribb's trans.).

310. c. 118 sq.

311. cc. 1-5.

312. The first reference in literature to the _Satyricon_ is in Macrobius, in _Somn. Scip._ i. 2, 8.

313. cc. 1-5.

314. MS. fortuna.

315. MS. dent.

316. c. 83

317. Cp. Juv. _Sat._ 7; Tac. _Dial._ 9.

318. c. 89. It has been suggested that this poem is a parody of Nero's _Troiae halosis_! But the poem shows _no_ signs of being a parody. It is obviously written in all seriousness.

319. MS. _minor_, I suggest _minans_ as a possible solution of the difficulty.

320. c. 93.

321. Cp. also 128 and the spirited epic fragment burlesquely used in 108.

322. See p. 36.

323. Baehrens, _P. L. M._ iv. 74-89.

324. Nos. 76 and 86. Cp. Fulg. _Mythol._ i. I, p. 31; Lactant. _ad Stat.

Theb._ iii. 661; Fulg. _Mythol._ iii. 9, p. 126.

325. Baehrens, _P.L.M._ iv. 90-100.

326. Poitiers, 1579 A.D.

327. Fulg. _Mythol._ i. 12, p. 44.

328. That the attribution to Petronius rests on the authority of the lost MS. is a clear inference from Binet's words, cp. Baehrens, _P.L.M._ iv. 101-8, 'sequebantur ista, sed sine Petronii t.i.tulo, at priores illi duo Phalaecii vix alius fuerint quam Petronii.'

329. Baehrens, _P.L.M._ iv. 101-8.

330. See note 4.

331. Petr. cc. 14, 83; Baehrens, _P.L.M._ iv. 120, 121.