A commentary on Persius' fifth satire

Abstract

Persius is not a particularly favoured poet today, and the standard commentaries on his fifth satire are obsolescent and generally inadequate. The present thesis is intended as an exhaustive study of the poem's language and subject-matter. The colloquial, prosaic and poetical elements in Persius' diction and syntax are determined, together with his neologisms, ellipses and abuses of regular Latin practice. Persius' reliance on Horatian syntax and phraseology, and his tendency to modify what he borrows are noted. Interpretations are advanced on his extensive use of pregnant or deliberately ambiguous Latin and on his strikingly harsh verbal collocations. The textual problems of the poem are examined. The sources and precedents for Persius' numerous metaphors are cited, and detailed treatment is accorded those instances of figurative language which are lengthily sustained or more than usually complex and allusive. The essentially orthodox nature of Persius' Stoicism is demonstrated by references to Stoic sources, and his more conventional type of moralising related to the broad-based ethical instruction found in other Latin writers. Many points of obscurity in Persius' subject-matter are investigated.