The Satires of Persius: Introduction, Text, Translation and Commentary

by Guy Lee, William Barr

Aulus Persius Flaccus (A.D. 34-62) wrote in racy conversational Latin six satires countering contemporary vice with Stoic morality; he died young. This is not easy poetry, with its sudden shifts of tone, switches of speaker and situation, vivid evocation of the everyday roman background, and confident handling of philosophical positions. But it is still a good read. This edition prints the Latin text faced with a brilliant verse translation by Guy Lee. The introduction and commentary provided by William Barr make it a suitable class text.

177 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1987

About the author

Guy Lee was a leading British Latinist of his generation.

Reviews

[Unknown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The date of the first edition (Rome, 1470) put the Satires among the earliest printed works. In the last five hundred years they have been read in sixty translations, and their influence has been out of all proportion to their size . . . There are only six poems and a prologue, containing in all less than seven hundred lines.

All this would not prove that Persius lived a quiet life, but that is certainly the impression given in his biography. We hear of no military exploits, no perils by sea, no commercial or erotic adventures. On the contrary, we are told that the poet had a very gentle disposition and a young girl's modesty. He was handsome, good, clean-living, and devoted to his female relatives. Much of his time seems to have been spent in talking and thinking about philosophy. On his death he left Cornutus (Persius' mentor; a freedman from the household of Seneca) seven hundred volumes in Stoicism.

(Introduction, Niall Rudd)
_____
Ah, the obsessions of men! Ah, what an empty world!
'Who will read this?'
Are you asking me? Why, no one.
'No one?'

Well, perhaps one or two.
'Disgraceful! Pathetic!'

(Satire I)

__________
I became aware of Persius through two quotes* via Montaigne and Robert Burton:

"The ground shall become roses under his feet"

"Is knowledge nothing to you, unless others know of your knowledge?"

If you've enjoyed the satirical works by Horace, Juvenal, and Petronius, I would also recommend Persius. His work is relatively short (~22 pp.), and, as noted by the translator, he uses some very idiosyncratic language which makes for some interesting turns of phrase.

I read the translation by Niall Rudd in the Penguin Classics collection of Horace and Persius which read very well.

I plan to read Guy Lee's translation in the future, about which Niall Rudd has this to say:

In 1987 a new version of Persius, with the genuine taste of 'bitten nails' (I. 106), was published by Guy Lee . . . he tends, perhaps rightly, to favour strangeness over accessibility. William Barr's commentary is an added bonus.

__________
"If cash sends out a tempting ray of hope,
then raven poets and magpie poetesses
you'd swear were singing Pegasus' nectar-flow." (Prologue)

"So said Ennius the wise, on snoring off the dream
of being Quintus Homer descended from Pythagoras' peacock." (6)

"Live with death in mind; time flies — my words reduce it. " (5)

"May a King and Queen choose him as a husband for their daughter;
may girls scramble to get him; may roses appear wherever he treads!" (2)
__________
* For those who enjoy tracing quotes, see below.

Quicquid calcaverit hic rosa fiat
—Satire II, 38

Quoted by Montaigne:

On the ground he treads upon, may roses spring
—Book I, Essay 42; Ives tr.

and Robert Burton in The Anatomy of Melancholy , who quotes the original latin [Pt. 1. Sec. 2. Mem. 4. Subs. 6], but misremembers fiat for fiet.
_____
And similarly the second:

scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter?
—Satire I, 23

in Montaigne:

Is knowledge nothing to you, unless others know of your knowledge?
—Book I, Essay 39; Ives tr.

and in Burton's Anatomy [Democritus to the Reader; ~10pp. in], again, quoting the original latin.

[Ulrike · Rating 5 out of 5]

my supervisor was like Look out girl Persius has some weird Latin and good god was she right.... but also once you get used to the infinitives and realise you can just sort of fudge it it basically all works out and I reckon Persius is absolutely a new favourite for me in terms of Roman poets :) the Guy Lee translation is pretty great - I definitely think he shines more with Persius than he did with Catullus, and the commentary is pretty helpful. I've also been reading Braund's and Jenkinson's translations to help with this essay I haven't actually technically started writing yet.