Aulus Persius Flaccus (; 4 December 3424 November 62 AD) was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

satirist This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires. Early satirical authors *Aes ...

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *Etruscan civilization (1st millennium BC) and related things: **Etruscan language ** Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities **Etruscan coins **Etruscan history **Etruscan myt ...

origin. In his works, poems and

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

, he shows a

Stoic Stoic may refer to: * An adherent of Stoicism Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics believed that the universe operated according to reason, ''i.e.'' by a God which is immersed i ...

wisdom and a strong criticism for what he considered to be the stylistic abuses of his poetic contemporaries. His works, which became very popular in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, were published after his death by his friend and mentor, the Stoic philosopher

Lucius Annaeus Cornutus Lucius Annaeus Cornutus () was a Stoic philosopher who flourished in the reign of Nero (c. 60 AD), when his house in Rome was a school of philosophy. Life Cornutus was a native of Leptis Magna in Libya, but resided for the most part in Rome. He ...

Life

According to the ''Life'' contained in the manuscripts, Persius was born into an equestrian family at

Volterra Volterra (; Latin: ''Volaterrae'') is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th century BC and it has substantial structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval periods. History ...

(Volaterrae, in Latin), a small Etruscan city in the province of

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

, of good stock on both parents' side. When he was six years old he lost his father; his stepfather died a few years later. At the age of twelve Persius came to Rome, where he was taught by

Remmius Palaemon Quintus Remmius Palaemon or Quintus Rhemnius Fannius Palaemon. was a Roman grammarian and a native of Vicentia. He lived during the reigns of Emperors Tiberius and Claudius. Life From Suetonius, we learn that he was originally a slave who obt ...

and the

rhetor Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse (trivium) along with grammar and logic/dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or writ ...

Verginius Flavus. During the next four years he developed friendships with the

, the lyric poet Caesius Bassus and the poet

Lucan Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (3 November AD 39 – 30 April AD 65), better known in English as Lucan (), was a Roman poet, born in Corduba, Hispania Baetica (present-day Córdoba, Spain). He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imper ...

. Lucan would become a generous admirer of all Persius wrote. He also became close friends with Thrasea Paetus, the husband of

Arria Arria (also Arria Major) was a woman in ancient Rome. Her husband, Caecina Paetus, was ordered by the emperor Claudius to commit suicide for his part in a rebellion but was not capable of forcing himself to do so. Arria wrenched the dagger from ...

, a relative of Persius's; over the next ten years Persius and Thrasea Paetus shared many travels together. Later, he met Seneca, but was not impressed by his genius. In his boyhood, Persius wrote a

tragedy A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsi ...

dealing with an episode in

Roman history The history of Rome includes the history of the Rome, city of Rome as well as the Ancient Rome, civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman la ...

, and another work, probably on travel (although this would have been before the travels with Thrasea Paetus). Reading the satires of

Lucilius The gens Lucilia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. The most famous member of this gens was the poet Gaius Lucilius, who flourished during the latter part of the second century BC.''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', vo ...

made Persius want to write like him, and he set to work on a book of his own satires. But he wrote seldom and slowly; a premature death (''uitio stomachi'') prevented him from completing the book. He has been described as having "a gentle disposition, girlish modesty and personal beauty", and is said to have lived a life of exemplary devotion towards his mother Fulvia Sisennia, his sister and his aunt. To his mother and sister he left his considerable fortune. Cornutus suppressed all his work except the satires, to which he made some slight alterations before handing it over to Bassus for editing. It proved an immediate success.

Doubts over his biography

The ''scholia'' add a few details—on what authority is, as generally with such sources, very doubtful. The ''Life'' itself, though not free from the suspicion of interpolation and undoubtedly corrupt and disordered in places, is probably trustworthy. The manuscripts say it came from the commentary of Valerius Probus, no doubt a learned edition of Persius like those of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

and

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

by this same famous "grammarian" of

Berytus Berytus (; ; ; ; ), briefly known as Laodicea in Phoenicia (; ) or Laodicea in Canaan from the 2nd century to 64 BCE, was the ancient city of Beirut (in modern-day Lebanon) from the Roman Republic through the Roman Empire and late antiquity, Ear ...

, the poet's contemporary. The only case in which it seems to conflict with the ''Satires'' () themselves is in its statement as to the death of Persius's father. The declaiming of a ''suasoria'' in his presence (Sat. 3.4 sqq.) implies a more mature age than that of six in the performer. But ''pater'' might here mean "stepfather," or Persius may have forgotten his own autobiography, may be simply reproducing one of his models. The mere fact that the ''Life'' and the ''Satires'' agree so closely does not of course prove the authenticity of the former. One of the points of harmony is, however, too subtle for us to believe that a forger evolved it from the works of Persius: the ''Life'' gives the impression of a "bookish" youth, who never strayed far from home and family. This is also the picture drawn by the ''Satires''; many of the characters that Persius creates have the same names as characters found in Horace. A keen observer of what occurs within his narrow horizon, Persius did not shy away from describing the seamy side of life (cf. e.g. such hints as ''Sat.'' iii.110), especially the relationship between excesses of consumption and moral failure; he shows little of Horace's easy-going acceptance of human weaknesses. Perhaps the sensitive, homebred nature of Persius can also be glimpsed in his frequent references to ridicule, whether of great men by street gamins or of the cultured by

philistines Philistines (; LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philistines origi ...

Montaigne Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne ( ; ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), commonly known as Michel de Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularising the essay as ...

mentions Persius several times.

Work

1693 gravestone in the old kirkyard of St Fergus - geograph

The chief interest of Persius's work lies in its relation to Roman satire in its interpretation of Roman

Stoicism Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics believed that the universe operated according to reason, ''i.e.'' by a God which is immersed in nature itself. Of all the schools of ancient ...

, and in its use of the Latin tongue. The influence of Horace on Persius can, in spite of the silence of the ''Life,'' hardly have been less than that of Lucilius. Not only characters, as noted above, but whole phrases, thoughts and situations come directly from him. The resemblance only emphasizes the difference between the caricaturist of Stoicism and its preacher. Persius strikes the highest note that Roman satire reached; in earnestness and moral purpose he rises far superior to the political rancour or good-natured persiflage of his predecessors and the rhetorical indignation of

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ; 55–128), was a Roman poet. He is the author of the '' Satires'', a collection of satirical poems. The details of Juvenal's life are unclear, but references in his works to people f ...

. From him we learn how that philosophy could work on minds that still preserved the depth and purity of the old Roman ''gravitas.'' Some of the parallel passages in the works of Persius and Seneca are very close, and cannot be explained by assuming the use of a common source. Like Seneca, Persius censures the style of the day, and imitates it. Indeed, in some of its worst failings, straining of expression, excess of detail, exaggeration, he outbids Seneca, whilst the obscurity, which makes his little book of not seven hundred lines so difficult to read and is in no way due to great depth of thought, compares poorly with the terse clearness of the ''Epistolae morales''. A curious contrast to this tendency is presented by his free use of "popular" words. As of

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

, so of Persius, we hear that he emulated

Sophron Sophron of Syracuse (, ''fl.'' 430 BC), Magna Graecia, was a writer of mimes (μῖμος, a kind of prose drama). Sophron was the author of prose dialogues in the Doric dialect, containing both male and female characters, some serious, others h ...

; the authority is a late one (the Byzantine

Lydus Lydus (Ancient Greek: Λυδός), a son of Atys and Callithea, grandson of Manes, and brother of Tyrrhenus or Torybus, is a legendary figure of the 2nd millennium BC who is attested by Herodotus to have been an early king of Lydia, then prob ...

, ''De mag.'' I.41), but we can at least recognize in the scene that opens ''Sat.'' 3 kinship with such work as

Theocritus Theocritus (; , ''Theokritos''; ; born 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily, Magna Graecia, and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry. Life Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from his writings ...

' ''Adoniazusae'' and the ''Mimes'' of

Herodas The first column of the Herodas papyrus, showing ''Mimiamb'' 1. 1–15. Herodas, or Herondas ( or – the name is spelt differently in the few places where he is mentioned), was a Greek poet and the author of short humorous dramatic scenes ...

. Persius's satires are composed in

hexameter Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek as well as in Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of s ...

s, except for the scazons of the short prologue above referred to. The first satire censures the literary tastes of the day as a reflection of the decadence of the national morals. The theme of Seneca's 114th letter is similar. The description of the recitator and the literary twaddlers after dinner is vividly natural, but an interesting passage which cites specimens of smooth versification and the languishing style is greatly spoiled by the difficulty of appreciating the points involved and indeed of distributing the dialogue (a not uncommon crux in Persius). The remaining satires handle in order (2) the question as to what we may justly ask of the gods (cf. ''

Second Alcibiades The ''Second Alcibiades'' or ''Alcibiades II'' () is a dialogue traditionally ascribed to Plato. In it, Socrates attempts to persuade Alcibiades that it is unsafe for him to pray to the gods if he does not know whether what he prays for is actuall ...

''), (3) the importance of having a definite aim in life, (4) the necessity of self-knowledge for public men (cf. Plato's ''

First Alcibiades The ''First Alcibiades'', also referred to as ''Alcibiades Major'' and abbreviated as ''Alcibiades I'' (), is a dialogue ascribed to Plato, depicting Socrates in conversation with Alcibiades. Content In the preface Alcibiades is described as ...

''), (5) the Stoic doctrine of liberty (introduced by generous allusions to Cornutus' teaching), and (6) the proper use of money. The ''Life'' tells us that the ''Satires'' were not left complete; some lines were taken (presumably by Cornutus or Bassus) from the end of the work so that it might be ''quasi finitus.'' This perhaps means that a sentence in which Persius had left a line imperfect, or a paragraph which he had not completed, had to be omitted. The same authority says that Cornutus definitely blacked out an offensive allusion to the emperor's literary taste, and that we owe to him the reading of the manuscripts in Sat. i.121,—"''auriculas asini ''quis non'' (for ''Mida rex'') habet!''" Traces of lack of revision are, however, still visible; cf. e.g. v.176 (sudden transition from ambition to superstition) and vi.37 (where criticism of Greek ''doctores'' has nothing to do with the context). The parallels to passages of Horace and Seneca are recorded in the commentaries: in view of what the ''Life'' says about

, the verbal resemblance of ''Sat.'' iii.3 to '' Phars.'' x.163 is interesting. Examples of bold language or metaphor: i.25, ''rupto iecore exierit caprificus,'' 60, ''linguae quantum sitiat canis''; iii.42, ''intus palleat,'' 81, ''silentia rodunt''; v.92, ''ueteres auiae de pulmone reuello.'' Passages like iii.87, 100 sqq. show elaboration carried beyond the rules of good taste. "Popular" words: ''baro'', ''cerdo'', ''ebullire'', ''glutto'', ''lallare'', ''mamma'', ''muttire'', ''obba'', ''palpo'', ''scloppus''. Fine lines, etc., in i.116 sqq., ii.6 sqq., 61 sqq., 73 sqq., iii.39 sqq.

Authorities

The manuscripts of Persius fall into two groups, one represented by two of the best of them, the other by that of Petrus Pithoeus, so important for the text of

. Since the publication of J. Bieger's ''de Persii cod. pith. recte aestimando'' (Berlin, 1890) the tendency has been to prefer the tradition of the latter. The first important editions were: (1) with explanatory notes:

Isaac Casaubon Isaac Casaubon (; ; 18 February 1559 – 1 July 1614) was a classical scholar and philologist, first in France and then later in England. His son Méric Casaubon was also a classical scholar. Life Early life He was born in Geneva to two F ...

(Paris, 1605, enlarged edition by Johann Friedrich Dübner, Leipzig, 1833);

Otto Jahn Otto Jahn (; 16 June 1813, in Kiel – 9 September 1869, in Göttingen), was a German archaeologist, philologist, and writer on art and music. Biography After the completion of his university studies at Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel, ...

(with the ''

scholia Scholia (: scholium or scholion, from , "comment", "interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of the manuscript of ancient a ...

'' and valuable ''prolegomena,'' Leipzig, 1843);

John Conington John Conington (10 August 1825 – 23 October 1869) was an English classical scholar. In 1866 he published his best-known work, the translation of the ''Aeneid'' of Virgil into the octosyllabic metre of Walter Scott. He was Corpus Christi Pro ...

(with translation; 3rd ed., Oxford, 1893), etc.; but there are several modern editions.

Editions

* Hemphill, Samuel (1901) ''The Satires of Persius''. Hodges, Figgis & Co., Ltd. * Braund, Susanna M. (2004) ''Juvenal and Persius''. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press.

Notes

References

* Bartsch, Shadi. ''Persius: A Study in Food, Philosophy, and the Figural.'' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015). * Hooley, D. M. ''The Knotted Thong: Structures of Mimesis in Persius'' (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997). * Reckford, Kenneth J. ''Recognizing Persius'' (Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2009) (Martin Classical Lectures).

External links

* * * * * *
Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
High resolution images of works by Persius in .jpg and .tiff format. *
Auli Persii Flacci satirarum liber, cum scholiis antiquis
',

(ed.), Lipsiae, typis et impensis Breitropfii er Baertelii, 1843. *
The Life of Aulus Persius Flaccus
' from

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...

's ''De Viris Illustribus'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Persius Flaccus, Aulus 34 births 62 deaths 1st-century Romans 1st-century Roman poets Ancient Roman satirists Silver Age Latin writers Etruscans Persii