, one of the three great Roman satirists, was born at Volterra, in
, one of the three great Roman satirists, was born at Volterra, in Tuscany, in the 22d
year of Tiberius’s reign, or A. D. 34. At the age of 12 he
was removed to Rome, where he pursued his studies under
Palaemon the grammarian, and Virginius Flaccus the rhetorician. He afterwards, at sixteen, applied himself to
philosophy under Cornutus, a Stoic, who entertained so
great a love for him, that there was ever after a most intimate friendship between them. Persius has immortalized
that friendship in his fifth satire, and his gratitude for the
good offices of his friend. This he shewed still farther by
his will, in which he left him his library, and a great deal
of money: but Cornutus, like a true philosopher, who
knew how to practise what he taught, accepted only the
books, and gave the money to the heirs of the testator. We
have nothing deserving the name of a life of Persius, but
his character appears to have been excellent. He had a
strong sense of virtue, and lived in an age when such a
sense would naturally produce a great abhorrence of the
reigning vices. His moral and religious sentiments were
formed on the best systems which the philosophy of his age
afforded and so valuable is his matter, that Mr. Harris, of
Salisbury, justly said, “he was the only difficult Latin
author that would reward the reader for the pains which he
must take to understand him.
”