Lucretius 4.897

(Lucretius 4.8927) So most modern editors print line 897, with the old correction corpus for the corporis of the MSS.1 The sense is, to quote from the 1992 Loeb, Here then by two things acting in two ways it comes about that the body is carried along, as a ship by sails and wind. The meaning of the expression appears to be that, since this impoverished individuals fortunes are now so strained, there is a lien on even the hair of his head.1 This idiom is unparalleled in Latin literature, although Martin Smith in his commentary on the Cena Trimalchionis draws attention to a Greek adage cited by Donatus, X * 1 +.2 As the comparision suggests, it is likely that Petronius freedman here is citing a proverb of some sort, as many of the characters in the Cena are wont to do.3 While this particular Latin proverb appears to be lost, a version of it may survive in an expression used in modern Italy of spendthrifts, Egli ha dissipato fino a capelli. Whether this contemporary Italian proverb has an ancient pedigree is, of course, impossible to determine: because of its colloquial nature, one might search for any proverbs origin with as much hope as one looking for a needle in a haystack.