_The wretch, who, sitting at his plenteous board, Looked up, and viewed on high the pointed sword._--P. 233. He alludes to the story of Damocles, a flatterer of one of those Sicilian tyrants, namely Dionysius. Damocles had infinitely extolled the happiness of kings: Dionysius, to convince him of the contrary, invited him to a feast, and clothed him in purple; but caused a sword, with the point downward, to be hung over his head by a silken twine; which, when he perceived, he could eat nothing of the delicates that were set before him. Note VII. _Thou in the Stoic-porch, severely bred._--P. 233. The Stoics taught their philosophy under a porticus, to secure their scholars from the weather. Zeno was the chief of that sect. Note VIII. _Where on the walls, by Polygnotus' hand, The conquered Medians in trunk-breeches stand._--P. 233. Polygnotus, a famous painter, who drew the pictures of the Medes and Persians, conquered by Miltiades, Themistocles, and other Athenian captains, on the walls of the portico, in their natural habits. Note IX. _And where the Samian Y directs thy steps to run To Virtue's narrow steep, and broad-way Vice to shun._ P. 234. Pythagoras, of Samos, made the allusion of the Y, or Greek _upsilon_, to Vice and Virtue. One side of the letter being broad, characters Vice, to which the ascent is wide and easy; the other side represents Virtue, to which the passage is strait and difficult; and perhaps our Saviour might also allude to this, in those noted words of the evangelist, "The way to heaven," &c. Note X. _Fat fees from the defended Umbrian draws._--P. 235. Casaubon here notes, that, among all the Romans, who were brought up to learning, few, besides the orators or lawyers, grew rich. Note XI. _His heels stretched out, and pointing to the gate._ P. 237. The Romans were buried without the city; for which reason, the poet says, that the dead man's heels were stretched out towards the gate. Note XII. ----_Mad Orestes._--P. 238. Orestes was son to Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Agamemnon, at his return from the Trojan wars, was slain by Ægysthus, the adulterer of Clytemnestra. Orestes, to revenge his father's death, slew both Ægysthus and his mother; for which he was punished with madness by the Eumenides, or Furies, who continually haunted him. THE FOURTH SATIRE OF PERSIUS. THE ARGUMENT.