Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/221

Rh to have been regarded by him as the heir to his throne, and became the partner of his captivity. (Liv. xlii. 52, xlv. 6, 39 ; Plut. Aemil. 33, 37; Zonar. ix. 24.) [E.H.B.]

PERSEUS, a painter, the disciple of Apelles, who addressed to him a work upon painting. At least so we understand the somewhat ambiguous passage of Pliny (H.N. xxxv. 10. s. 36. § 23), "Apellis discipulus Perseus, ad quern de hoc arte scripsit,'' which is generally understood to mean the converse, namely, that Perseus wrote upon painting to Apelles. The former interpretation is, we think, more strictly grammatical; also, it was more natural and usual for a great master to write a work for the instruction of a favourite pupil, than for a pupil to inscribe a work to his master ; and, above all, the name of Perseus does not occur as a writer on painting, either in Pliny's lists of his authorities, or elsewhere, whereas it is well known that Apelles wrote upon his art. Perseus must have flourished about 01. 118, 308. [P. S.]

PE'RSICUS, PAULUS FA'BIUS, consul 34 with L. Vitellius. (Dion Cass. lviii. 24 ; Tac. Ann. vi. 28 ; Frontin. Aquaed. 102.) This Fabius Persicus was notorious for his licentious- ness. (Senec. de Benef. iv. 31.)

PE'RSIUS. 1. C. Persius, an officer in the Roman army in the second Punic war, distin- guished himself in a sally from the citadel of Ta- rentum, b. c. 210. (Liv. xxvi. 39.) 2. C. Persius, a contemporary of the Gracchi, had the reputation of being one of the most learned men of his time ; and Lucilius therefore said that he did not wisii Persius to read his works. The speech, which the consul C. Fannius Strabo deli- vered against Gracchus in b. c. 122, and which was much admired by Cicero, was said by some to have been written by Persius. (Cic. de Fin. i. 3, de Orat. ii. 6, Brut. 26.) 3. Persius, of Clazomenae, whose lawsuit with Rupilius Rex is described by Horace in one of his Satires (i. 7).

PE'RSIUS, is the third in order of the four great Roman satirists, being younger than Lucilius and Horace, older than Juvenal. The Eusebian chronicle supplies the date of his birth and of his death, but, with this exception, the whole of the knowledge we possess regarding his origin and personal history is derived exclusively from an ancient biography which in the greater number of the codices now extant is prefixed to his works. By several modem scholars it has been ascribed, without a shadow of evidence or probability, to Suetonius, merely, it would seem, because he is the reputed author of the lives of Terence, Horace, Lucan, and Juvenal ; in MSS. of a recent date it frequently bears the name of Annaeus Cornutus, but in the oldest and most valuable it is uniformly entitled Vita Auli Persii Flacci de Commentario Probi Valerii sublata. Who this Probus may have been, whether M. Valerius Probus of Berytus, who flourished under Nero, or some other indi- vidual among the various Latin grammarians who bore that appellation [Probus], it is impossible to determine ; but the information contained in the memoir is of such a minute and precise de- scription, that we can scarcely doubt that the ma- terials were derived from some pure source, and collected at a period not very remote from that to which they refer. The words de Commentario Probi Valerii sublata indicate, apparently, that it must be regarded as an extract from some longer piece, but what that piece may have been, and how or by whom the extract was made, are ques- tions which do not now admit of solution. A slight degree of confusion is perceptible in the arrangement of some of the details, which must, doubtless, be ascribed to the carelessness or inter- polations of transcribers, and the concluding por- tion especially, from the words " Sed mox a schola " to the end, is evidently out of its proper place, or, rather, ought to be regarded as an addi- tion by a later hand. Following, therefore, this sketch as our guide, we learn that

AuLus Persius Flaccus, a Roman knight con- nected by blood and marriage with persons of the highest rank, was born at Volaterrae in Etruria on the 4th of December, during the consulship of L. Vitellius and Fabius Persicus, 34 (comp. Hieron, Chron. Euseb.  2050). His father Flaccus died six years afterwards ; his mother, Fulvia Sisennia married as her second husband a certain Fusius belonging to the equestrian order, and within a few years again became a widow. Young Persius received the first rudiments of education in his native town, remaining there until the age of twelve, and then removed to Rome, where he studied grammar under the celebrated Remmius Palaemon, rhetoric under Verginius Flavins. When approaching the verge of manhood he became the pupil of Cornutus the Stoic, who opened up to him the first principles of mental science, and speedily impressed upon his plastic mind a stamp which gave a character to his whole subsequent career. To this master, who proved in very truth the guide, philosopher, and friend of his future life, he attached himself so closely that he never quitted his side, and the warmest reciprocal attachment was cherished to the last by the instructor and his disciple. While yet a youth he Avas on familiar terms with Lucan, with Caesius Bassus the lyric poet, and with several other persons of literary eminence ; in process of time he became acquainted with Seneca also, but never entertained a very warm admiration for his talents. By the high-minded and virtuous Paetus Thrasea (Tac. Ann. xvi. 21, 34), the husband of his kinswoman the younger Arria, Persius was tenderly beloved, and seems to have been well worthy of such affection, for he is described as a youth of pleasing aspect, of most gentle manners, of maiden modesty, pure and upright, exemplary in his conduct as a son, a brother, and a nephew. He died of a disease of the stomach, at an estate near the eighth milestone on the Appian way, on the 24th of November in the consulship of P. Marius and L. Asinius Gallus, 62, before he had completed his twenty-eighth year.

The extant works of Persius, who, we are told, wrote seldom and slowly, consist of six short satires, extending in all to 650 hexameter lines, and were left in an unfinished state. They were slightly corrected after his death by Cornutus, while Caesius Bassus was permitted, at his own earnest request, to be the editor. In boyhood he composed a comedy, a book of. (the subject is a matter of conjecture), and a few verses upon Arria, the mother-in-law of Thrasea, that Arria whose death has been rendered so celebrated by the narratives of Pliny and Dion Cassius (Plin. Ep. iii. 16 ; Dion Cass. Ix. 16 ; comp. Martial, i,