Page:Juvenal and Persius by G. G. Ramsay.djvu/441

PERSIUS, SATIRE III

bed and smeared with greasy unguents,^[1] stretches out his heels cold and stark towards the door, and Quirites of yesterday's making, with caps of liberty^[2] on their heads, carry him out to burial.

¹⁰⁷"Feel my pulse, poor fool, and put your hand upon my heart; no fever there! Touch my hands and my feet; they are not cold!" No, but if you catch a glimpse of coin, or if the pretty girl next door smiles sweetly on you; will your heart beat steadily then? Or suppose you have a dish of tough cabbage served up to you on a cold plate with bread made of the coarsest flour, would we not discover a sore place in your throat, if we looked into it, which must not be scraped by plebeian beet? You shiver when pale fear sets your bristles up; anon, if a torch is applied to you, your blood boils, your eyes flash with rage, and you say things, and do things, which the mad Orestes himself would swear were the signs of madness!

1. The tuba, candelae, amomis (or amomum), all part of the paraphernalia of a funeral. See Juv. iv. 108.
2. The body is carried to the grave by slaves manumitted by their late master's will. As soon as the slave was manumitted he put on a conical cap (pileus) as a sign of liberty.

355