luteae violae mihi lacteumque papaver, 15 20 14 pampinea] Garrod proposes faginea or populea. 15 sanguine haec... arma Voss: sanguine hanc . . . aram Muretus: sanguinea. . . arma . 17 omnia (omnibus M): munera Riese: munia Maehly: mutua Baehrens. nunc Bücheler: huic Ribbeck: hoc a: haec the tender stalk, with yellow violets and milky poppy, pale melons and sweet-smelling apples, and blushing grape-clusters, reared beneath the vine-leaves' shade. These weapons, too, of mine-but you will be silent! —a little bearded goat and his horn-footed sister besmear with blood. For these offerings Priapus must now make full return, and guard the owner's vineyard and little garden. 19 Therefore, away! boys, refrain from wicked plundering. Near by is a wealthy neighbour, and his Priapus is careless. Take from him; this path of itself will lead you from the place. It. Priapo est B: Priape (est omitted) Z. Garrod would read the line thus: pro quis, quicquid honoris est, hoc necesse Priapo. 20 Priapi Heinsius. 1 semita It.: semitam 2. CATALEPTON* I DE qua saepe tibi venit; sed, Tucca, videre non licet: occulitur limine clausa viri. de qua saepe tibi, non venit adhuc mihi; namque si occulitur, longe est, tangere quod nequeas. venerit, audivi. sed iam mihi nuntius iste quid prodest? illi dicite, cui rediit. II CORINTHIORUM amator iste verborum, iste iste rhetor, namque quatenus totus I. De qua] Delia Scaliger. 3 de qua] Delia Scaliger. dicite MSS. dicito Scaliger. cui Heyne: qui B: qu(a)e other MSS. II. Not included in the citation by Quintilian, VIII. iii., 28, and rejected by Ribbeck and Baehrens. *See note at the opening of the Priapea. In B the title Catalepton is nowhere given. On this title, see vol. i. p. vii. The metres of the Catalepton are varied. The elegiac couplet prevails, being used in I, III, IV, VII, VIII, IX, XI, XIIIA, XIV, and XV; but the rest of the poems are composed in some form of iambic measure. Thus the pure iambic trimeter is used in VI, X, and XII, the choliambus (or scazon) in II and V, and the iambic strophe (consisting of a trimeter coupled with a dimeter) in XIII. Before 1 This epigram has provoked much discussion. Birt, commentators adopted Scaliger's conjecture Delia in lines 1 and 3, and regarded the poem as a dialogue between Tucca and the poet, who are rivals for the love of Delia. But Birt revives the de qua of MSS., and explains the epi 5 CATALEPTON I 1 SHE, of whom I have often told you, has come; but, Tucca, one may not see her. She's kept in hiding, barred within her husband's threshold. She, of whom I have often told you, has not yet come to me, for if she's kept in hiding, what one can't touch is far away. Suppose she has come; I have heard it. But now what good is that news to me? Tell it to him, for whom she has come back. II 2 It's Corinthian words the fellow adores, that sorry rhetorician! For, perfect Thucydides that he is, he gram as a piece of conversation or fragment of a letter, all of it the utterance of the poet. The verb of saying is omitted in lines 1 and 3, as often in the epistolary style. The lady referred to is not named. In the last two lines the poet turns away from Tucca to address those who have brought him news of the lady's return. This, he implies, is a matter of perfect indifference to him. This epigram is discussed by the translator in the Transactions of the American Philological Association, vol. xlvii., 1916, pp. 43 ff. The person assailed is T. Annius Cimber, a rhetorician who is said to have murdered his brother. In his rhetoric he was an Atticist, following Thucydides, who in his History has given so vivid a description of the Attic plague (11. 47-54). The writer uses verba in a double sense, "words" and "spells," and Corinthiorum implies "archaic" or "obsolete," involving an allusion to old bronzes as well as to Medea's poisons. In Gallicum there is an implied reference to the name Cimber, and tau suggests some peculiarity of pronunciation. Cimber, who wrote in Greek, evidently used the Ionic ulv and the tragic opiv. As, then, for his pupils he mingled these uncouth sounds, so for his brother he concocted deadly spells. Thucydides, tyrannus Atticae febris : tau Gallicum, min et sphin ut male illisit, ita omnia ista verba miscuit fratri. III ASPICE, quem valido subnixum Gloria regno altius et caeli sedibus extulerat : terrarum hic bello magnum concusserat orbem, hic reges Asiae fregerat, hic populos; hic grave servitium tibi iam, tibi, Roma, ferebat (cetera namque viri cuspide conciderant): cum subito in medio rerum certamine praeceps corruit, e patria pulsus in exilium. tale deae numen, tali mortalia nutu fallax momento temporis hora dedit. IV QUOCUMQUE ire ferunt variae nos tempora vitae, II. 3 tyrannus] bri(t)tan(n)us MSS. of Quintilian. 5 10 min et spin et Baehrens: enim et spin(e) et MSS. of Quintilian: mi et psin et B: min et psin et H. illi sit R: et "male illi sit" Ellis. 5 ita or ista MSS.: ita MSS. of Quintilian. III. 5 tibi (second) omitted B, hence Romane (Bücheler). nutu : ritu Haupt: motu Baehrens. 10 dedit : adedit Sabbadini: ferit Baehrens: premit Ruhnken: terit Ellis. IV. 4 quis u qui other MSS. 1 It is generally supposed that the portrait upon which this poem is based was one of Alexander the Great. But line 8 makes this interpretation improbable, for though |