Persius

Aulus Persius Flaccus (34–62) was a Roman satirical poet and moralist.

The Satires
Translations are taken from G. G. Ramsay's revised edition of Juvenal and Persius in the Loeb Classical Library (1940)


 * Magister artis ingenique largitor venter.
 * That master of arts, that dispenser of genius, the Belly.
 * Prologue, line 10.


 * Quis leget haec?
 * Who’ll read that sort of thing?
 * Satire I, line 2 (translated by W. S. Merwin).


 * Nec te quaesiveris extra.
 * Don’t consult anyone’s opinions but your own.
 * Satire I, line 7.


 * Usque adeone scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter?
 * Is all your knowledge to go so utterly for nothing unless other people know that you possess it?
 * Satire I, line 26.


 * At pulchrum est digito monstrari et dicier "hic est".
 * O but it is a fine thing to have a finger pointed at one, and to hear people say, "That's the man!"
 * Satire I, line 28.


 * Nec nocte paratum, plorabit qui me volet incurvasse querella.
 * The man who wishes to bend me with his tale of woe must shed true tears – not tears that have been got ready overnight.
 * Satire I, line 90.


 * Virtutem videant intabescantque relicta.
 * Let them recognize virtue and rot for having lost it.
 * Satire III, line 38.
 * Alternate translation (by William Gifford):— "In all her charms, set Virtue in their eye, And let them see their loss, despair, and—die!"


 * Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere! nemo! Sed praecedenti spectatur mantica tergo.
 * None, none descends into himself, to find The secret imperfections of his mind.
 * Satire IV, line 23 (translated by John Dryden).


 * Tecum habita: noris quam sit tibi curta supellex.
 * Live with yourself: get to know how poorly furnished you are.
 * Satire IV, line 52.


 * Cum lux altera venit, iam cras hesternum consumpsimus; ecce aliud cras egerit hos annos et semper paulum erit ultra.
 * But when to-morrow comes, yesterday's morrow will have been already spent: and lo! a fresh morrow will be for ever making away with our years, each just beyond our grasp.
 * Satire V, line 67.


 * Nostrum est quod vivis, cinis et manes et fabula fies. vive memor leti, fugit hora.
 * Our life is our own to-day, to-morrow you will be dust, a shade, and a tale that is told. Live mindful of death; the hour flies.
 * Satire V, line 151.