[954] Persius was one of the few men of rank and affluence among the
Romans, who acquired distinction as writers; the greater part of them
having been freedmen, as appears not only from these lives of the poets,
but from our author's notices of the grammarians and rhetoricians. A
Caius Persius is mentioned with distinction by Livy in the second Punic
war, Hist. xxvi. 39; and another of the same name by Cicero, de Orat. ii.
6, and by Pliny; but whether the poet was descended from either of them,
we have no means of ascertaining.

[955] Persius addressed his fifth satire to Annaeus Cornutus. He was a
native of Leptis, in Africa, and lived at Rome in the time of Nero, by
whom he was banished.

[956] Caesius Bassus, a lyric poet, flourished during the reigns of Nero
and Galba. Persius dedicated his sixth Satire to him.

[957] "Numanus." It should be Servilius Nonianus, who is mentioned by
Pliny, xxviii. 2, and xxxvii. 6.

[958] Commentators are not agreed about these sums, the text varying
both in the manuscripts and editions.

[959] See Dr. Thomson's remarks on Persius, before, p. 398.

[960] There is no appearance of any want of finish in the sixth Satire of
Persius, as it has come down to us; but it has been conjectured that it
was followed by another, which was left imperfect.

[961] There were two Arrias, mother and daughter, Tacit. Annal. xvi.