PERSIUS AC LUS PERSIUS FLACCUS) . One of the most famous Roman satirists. Ile was born at Volaterra. (now Volterra), in Etruria, A.D. 34. Ile was of a distinguished equestrian family, was educated under the care of the Stoic philos opher Corith's. lived OD terms of intimacy with the most distinguished personages of his time in Ronne, and died November 24, A.D. 62, in the twenty-eighth year of his age. The principal au thority for the life of Persil's is an abridgment of a 'commentary'' by one Probes Valerius. _Modest and gentle in his manner. virtuous and pure in his whole conduct and relations, he stands out conspicuously from the mass of corrupt and profligate persons who formed the Roman 'so ciety' of his age, and vindicated for himself the right to be severe by leading a blameless and exemplary life. His six satires were greatly admired, not only in Persius's own day, but all through the Niddle Ages; lint. the estimate which modern critics have formed of his writings from a literary point of view is not so high. Ile is
remarkable for the sternness with which he cen sures the corruption of morals then prevalent at Rome. contrasting it with the old Roman aus terity and with the Stoic ideal of virtue. The language is terse, homely, and sometimes ob scure. from the nature of the allusions and the expressions used. but the dialogues are the most dramatic in the Latin tongue. The (Via° prin ceps appeared at Rome in 1470; later editions are those of Isaac Casaubon (Paris, 1605) ; Passow 1809) ; Jahn (Leipzig. 1843) ; Hermann (Leipzig, 1881) ; Conington (with an English translation and commentary, revised by Ncttleship, Oxford, 1893) ; and Biicheler (Berlin, 1893). Persil's has been frequently translated; the two best English translations are those by Dryden and Conington. There is a complete bibli ography of Persius by Morgan (Cambridge, Nass., 1S93).