Tuesday, July 30, 2019
The Lowly and the Lofty
[Seneca,] Octavia 896-898 (tr. Frank Justus Miller):
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Oh, blessed poverty, content to hide beneath a lowly roof, while lofty homes the storm-blasts oft-times shatter, or fortune overthrows.Rolando Ferri, commentary ad loc.:
Bene paupertas humili tecto
contenta latet: 896b
quatiunt altas saepe procellae
aut evertit Fortuna domos.
The sentiment that the humble life of simple folk is less exposed to danger than the pride of kings is commonplace in tragedy, and is the traditional wisdom of the chorus. In Senecan tragedy this topos occurs in Hf. 197–201; Phae. 1123–40; Agam. 57–107; Oed. 882–910; H.O. 604–99. N-H, ad Hor. Carm. 2.10.9-11, saepius uentis agitatur ingens | pinus et celsae grauiore casu | decidunt turres, observe that saepe and similar adverbs are common in gnomic statements.
