THE
SATIRES
OF
JUVENAL, PERSIUS,
SULPICIA, AND LUCILIUS,
Literally Translated into English Prose,
WITH NOTES, CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES, ARGUMENTS, &c.
BY
THE REV. LEWIS EVANS, M.A.,
LATE FELLOW OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD.
TO WHICH IS ADDED THE
METRICAL VERSION OF JUVENAL AND PERSIUS,
BY THE LATE
WILLIAM GIFFORD, ESQ.
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1881.
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PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR.
While the poetical versions of Juvenal deservedly hold a very high
place in the literature of this country, it is a curious fact that
there exists no single prose translation which can stand the test
of even ordinary criticism. Whether it be that the temptation to a
metrical version of a poetical writer is too great with some, or
whether the labor of faithfully representing the genius of confessedly
the most difficult writer in the Latin language has deterred others,
the fact is undeniable, that there is no prose version from which the
unclassical reader can form any adequate idea of the writings of the
greatest of Satirists.
Madan, though faithful, is utterly unintelligible to any one who has
not the Latin before him. Sheridan is far too free, in every sense of
the word, to be either a fair expositor of his original, or to suit the
taste of the present day; and without any disparagement of the labors
of Sterling, Nuttall, Smart, or Wallace, it was found impossible to
adopt any one of them even as the _basis_ of a version which should be
worthy of a place in the present series.
The accompanying translation, therefore, is entirely original; and
the translator is not aware of having copied a single line from any
previous version. How far he has succeeded in giving a faithful
transcript of the author, and in, at the same time, infusing some
spark of the fire and spirit of the original, must be for others to
determine; all that he dares venture to assert is, that he has brought
to the task an enthusiastic admiration of his author, and a careful
study of many years. The same remarks apply to the translation of
Persius.
The notes are to a considerable extent original, and the English,
perhaps even the classical, reader may not be displeased at the
occasional introduction of passages from metrical versions in which the
sense appeared to be the most forcibly given.
A Chronological Table has been added, which the labors of Mr. Clinton
have enabled the Translator to present in a far more correct form than
heretofore.
The poetical version by Gifford has been annexed, as having the
greatest hold on the public favor, and as being perhaps the best,
because the most equal; though, unquestionably, in all the Satires
which Dryden translated, he has immeasurably surpassed Gifford in fire
and spirit, as Hodgson has in elegance and poetic genius, and Badham in
taste, scholarship, and terse and vigorous rendering. But Gifford is
always equal, and generally faithful.
The remains of Sulpicia and Lucilius appear now for the first time
in English. Of the value of the latter, and of the propriety of
appending his Fragments to a translation of the great Roman Satirists,
no scholar-like reader of Juvenal and Horace can entertain a doubt.
The recent labors of foreign scholars have presented us with the text
in a purer form than almost any collection of Fragments of the older
Latin writers. In the Arguments prefixed to the several Books, and in
the notes, will be found the essence of the criticisms of Jan. Dousa,
Van Heusde, Corpet, Schoenbeck, Schmidt, Petermann, and especially of
Gerlach, whose readings have in general been preferred.
L. E.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
LIFE of Juvenal, by Gifford i
Essay on the Roman Satirists, by Gifford xii
Chronology of Juvenal, Persius, and Sulpicia xxxix
On the date of Juvenal's Satires xlix
Arguments of the Satires of Juvenal lvii
THE SATIRES OF JUVENAL 1
THE SATIRES OF PERSIUS 199
SULPICIA 269
FRAGMENTS OF LUCILIUS 280
Juvenal in verse, by Gifford 369
Persius in verse, by Gifford 488
THE LIFE OF JUVENAL,
BY WILLIAM GIFFORD, ESQ.
Decimus Junius Juvenalis,[1] the author of the following Satires,
was born at Aquinum, an inconsiderable town of the Volsci, about the
year of Christ 38.[2] He was either the son, or the foster-son, of a
wealthy freedman, who gave him a liberal education. From the period
of his birth, till he had attained the age of forty, nothing more is
known of him than that he continued to perfect himself in the study
of eloquence, by declaiming, according to the practice of those days;
yet more for his own amusement, than from any intention to prepare
himself either for the schools or the courts of law. About this time he
seems to have discovered his true bent, and betaken himself to poetry.
Domitian was now at the head of the government, and showed symptoms of
reviving that system of favoritism which had nearly ruined the empire
under Claudius, by his unbounded partiality for a young pantomime
dancer of the name of Paris. Against this minion, Juvenal seems to have
directed the first shafts of that satire which was destined to make
the most powerful vices tremble, and shake the masters of the world on
their thrones. He composed a few lines[3] on the influence of Paris,
with considerable success, which encouraged him to cultivate this kind
of poetry: he had the prudence, however, not to trust himself to an
auditory, in a reign which swarmed with informers; and his compositions
were, therefore, secretly handed about among his friends.[4] By
degrees he grew bolder; and, having made many large additions to his
first sketch, or perhaps re-cast it, produced what is now called
his Seventh Satire, which he recited to a numerous assemblage. The
consequences were such as he had probably anticipated: Paris, informed
of the part which he bore in it, was seriously offended, and complained
to the emperor, who, as the old account has it,[5] sent the author, by
an easy kind of punishment, into Egypt with a military command.
To remove such a man from his court must undoubtedly have been
desirable to Domitian; and, as he was spoken of with kindness in
the same Satire, which is entirely free from political allusions,
the "facetiousness" of the punishment (though Domitian's was not a
facetious reign) renders the fact not altogether improbable. Yet, when
we consider that these reflections on Paris could scarcely have been
published before LXXXIV., and that the favorite was disgraced and
put to death almost immediately after, we shall be inclined to doubt
whether his banishment actually took place; or, if it did, whether it
was of any long duration. That Juvenal was in Egypt is certain; but he
might have gone there from motives of personal safety, or, as Salmasius
has it, of curiosity. However this may be, it does not appear that
he was ever long absent from Rome, where a thousand internal marks
clearly show that all his Satires were written. But whatever punishment
might have followed the complaint of Paris,[6] it had no other effect
on our author, than that of increasing his hatred of tyranny, and
turning his indignation upon the emperor himself, whose hypocrisy,
cruelty, and licentiousness, became, from that period, the object of
his keenest reprobation. He profited, indeed, so far by his danger or
his punishment, as to recite no more in public; but he continued to
write during the remainder of Domitian's reign, in which he finished,
as I conceive, his second, third,[7] fifth, sixth,[8] and perhaps
thirteenth[9] Satires; the eighth[10] I have always looked upon as his
first.
In XCV., when Juvenal was in his 54th year, Domitian banished
the philosophers from Rome, and soon after from Italy, with many
circumstances of cruelty; an action, for which, I am sorry to observe,
he is covertly praised by Quintilian. Though Juvenal, strictly
speaking, did not come under the description of a philosopher, yet,
like the hare in the fable, he might not unreasonably entertain some
apprehensions for his safety, and, with many other persons eminent for
learning and virtue, judge it prudent to withdraw from the city. To
this period I have always inclined to fix his journey to Egypt. Two
years afterward the world was happily relieved from the tyranny of
Domitian; and Nerva, who succeeded him, recalled the exiles. From this
time there remains little doubt of Juvenal's being at Rome, where he
continued his studies in tranquillity.
His first Satire after the death of Domitian, seems to have been what
is now called the fourth. About this time, too, he probably thought
of revising and publishing those which he had already written; and
composed or completed that introductory piece,[11] which now stands
at the head of his works. As the order is every where broken in upon,
it is utterly impossible to arrange them chronologically; but I am
inclined to think that the eleventh Satire closed his poetical career.
All else is conjecture; but in this he speaks of himself as an old man,
"Nostra bibat vernum contracta cuticula solem;"
and indeed he had now passed his grand climacteric.
This is all that can be collected of the life of Juvenal; and how much
of this is built upon uncertainties! I hope, however, that it bears the
stamp of probability; which is all I contend for; and which, indeed, if
I do not deceive myself, is somewhat more than can be affirmed of what
has been hitherto delivered on the subject.
Little is known of Juvenal's circumstances; but, happily, that little
is authentic, as it comes from himself. He had a competence. The
dignity of poetry is never disgraced in him, as it is in some of his
contemporaries, by fretful complaints of poverty, or clamorous whinings
for meat and clothes: the little patrimony which his fosterfather left
him, he never diminished, and probably never increased. It seems to
have equaled all his wants, and, as far as appears, all his wishes.
Once only he regrets the narrowness of his fortune; but the occasion
does him honor; it is solely because he can not afford a more costly
sacrifice to express his pious gratitude for the preservation of his
friend: yet "two lambs and a youthful steer" bespeak the affluence of a
philosopher; which is not belied by the entertainment provided for his
friend Persicus, in that beautiful Satire which is here called the last
of his works. Farther it is useless to seek: from pride or modesty, he
has left no other notices of himself; or they have perished. Horace
and Persius, his immediate predecessors, are never weary of speaking
of themselves. The life of the former might be written, from his own
materials, with all the minuteness of a contemporary history: and the
latter, who attained to little more than a third of Juvenal's age, has
left nothing to be desired on the only topics which could interest
posterity--his parent, his preceptor, and his course of studies.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] "Junius Juvenalis liberti locupletis incertum filius an alumnus, ad
mediam ætatem declamavit, animi magis causa, quam quod scholæ aut foro
se præpararet." The learned reader knows that this is taken from the
brief account of Juvenal, commonly attributed to Suetonius; but which
is probably posterior to his time; as it bears very few marks of being
written by a contemporary author: it is, however, the earliest extant.
The old critics, struck with its deficiencies, have attempted to render
it more complete by variations, which take from its authenticity,
without adding to its probability.
[2] I have adopted Dodwell's chronology. "Sic autem (he says) se rem
illam totam habuisse censeo. Exul erat Juv. cum Satiram scriberet
xv. Hoc confirmat etiam in v. 27, scholiastes. 'De se Juv. dicit,
quia in Ægypto militem tenuit, et ea promittit se relaturum quæ ipse
vidit.'" Had not Dodwell been predisposed to believe this, he would
have seen that the scholium "confirmed" nothing: for Juvenal makes
no such promise. "Proinde rixæ illi ipse adfuit quam describit." So
error is built up! How does it appear that Juvenal was present at the
quarrel which he describes? He was in Egypt, we know; he had passed
through the Ombite nome, and he speaks of the face of the country
as falling under his own inspection: but this is all; and he might
have heard of the quarrel at Rome, or elsewhere. "Tempus autem ipse
designavit rixæ illius cum et 'nuper'[12] illam contigisse dicit, et
quidem 'Consule Junio.' Jun. duplicem habent fasti, alium Domit. in x.
Consulatu collegam App. Junium Sabinum A.D. lxxxiv.; alium Hadriani
in suo itidem consulatu III. collegam Q. Junium Rusticum. Quo minus
prior intelligi possit, obstant illa omnia quæ in his ipsis Satiris
occurrunt Domitiani temporibus recentiora." Yet, such is the capricious
nature of criticism! Dodwell's chief argument to prove the late period
at which Juvenal was banished, is a passage confessedly written under
Domitian, and foisted into a satire published, as he himself maintains,
many years after that emperor's death! "Posteriorem ergo intellexerit
oportet. Hoc ergo anno (CXIX.) erat in exilio. Sed vero Roma illum
ejicere non potuit Trajanus, qui ab anno usque CXII. Romæ ipse non
adfuit; nec etiam ante CXVIII. quo Romam venit imperator Hadrianus. Sic
ante anni CXVIII. finem, aut CXIX. initium, mitti vix potuit in exilium
Juvenalis: erat autem cum relegaretur, octogenarius. Proinde natus
fuerit vel anni XXXVIII. fine, vel XXXIX. initio." Annal. 157-159.
I have made this copious extract from Dodwell, because it contains
a summary of the chief arguments which induced Pithæus, Henninius,
Lipsius, Salmasius, etc., to attribute the banishment of the author to
Hadrian. To me they appear any thing but conclusive; for, to omit other
objections for the present, why may not the Junius of the fifteenth
Satire be the one who was Consul with Domitian in 84, when Juvenal, by
Dodwell's own calculation, was in his 47th instead of his 80th year.
[3] "Deinde paucorum versuum satira non absurde composita in Paridem
pantomimum, poetamque Claudii Neronis" (the writer seems, in this and
the following clause, to have referred to Juvenal's words; it is,
therefore probable that we should read Calvi Neronis, _i. e._ Domitian;
otherwise the phrase must be given up as an absurd interpolation),
"ejus semestribus militiolis tumentem: genus scripturæ industriose
excoluit." Suet.
[4] "Et tamen diu, ne modico quidem auditorio quicquam committere ausus
est." Suet. On this Dodwell observes: "Tam longe aberant illa a Paridis
ira concitanda, si vel superstite Paride fuissent scripta, eum irritare
non possent, cum nondum emanassent in publicum," 161. He then adds that
"Martial knew nothing of his poetical studies,[13] who boasted that
he was as familiar with Juvenal as Pylades with Orestes!" It appears,
indeed, that they were acquainted; but I suspect, notwithstanding the
vehemence of Martial's assertions, that there was no great cordiality
between minds so very dissimilar. Some one, it seems, had accused the
epigrammatist to the satirist, not improbably, of making too free
with his thoughts and expressions. He was seriously offended; and
Martial, instead of justifying himself (whatever the charge might be),
imprecates shame on his accuser in a strain of idle rant not much above
the level of a schoolboy. Lib. vii. 24.
But if he had been acquainted with his friend's poetry, he would
certainly have spoken of it. Not quite so certainly. These learned
critics seem to think that Juvenal, like the poets he ridicules, wrote
nothing but trite fooleries on the Argonauts and the Lapithæ. Were the
Satires of Juvenal to be mentioned with approbation? and, if they were,
was Martial the person to do it? Martial, the most devoted sycophant of
the age, who was always begging, and sometimes receiving, favors from
the man whose castigation was, in general, the express object of them.
Is it not more consonant to his character to suppose that he would
conceal his knowledge of them with the most scrupulous care?
But when Domitian was dead, and Martial removed from Rome, when, in
short, there was no danger of speaking out, he still appears, continue
they, to be ignorant of his friend's poetic talents. I am almost
ashamed to repeat what the critics so constantly forget--that Juvenal
was not only satirist, but a republican, who looked upon Trajan as a
usurper, no less than Domitian. And how was it "safe to speak out,"
when they all assert that he was driven into banishment by a milder
prince than Trajan, for a passage "suspected of being a figurative
allusion to the times?" What inconsistencies are these!
[5] "Mox magna frequentia, magnoque successu bis ac ter auditus est; ut
ea quoque quæ prima fecerat, inferciret novis scriptis,
'Quod non dant proceres dabit histrio,' etc.
Sat. vii., 90-92.
Erat tum in delitiis aulæ histrio, multique fautorum ejus quotidie
provehebantur. Venit ergo in suspicionem quasi tempora figurate
notasset; ac statim per honorem militiolæ, quanquam octogenarius, urbe
summotus, missusque ad præfecturam cohortis in extrema parte tendentis
Ægypti. Id supplicii genus placuit, ut levi atque joculari delicto
par esset. Verum intra brevissimum tempus angore et tædio periit."
Suet. Passing by the interpolations of the old grammarians, I shall,
as before, have recourse to Dodwell. "Recitavit, ni fallor, omnia,
emisitque in publicum CXVIII. (Juvenal was now fourscore!) postquam
Romam venissit Hadrianus quem ille principem à benevolo ejus in hæc
studia animo, in hac ipsa satira in qua occurrunt verba illa de Paride
commendat." 161. Salmasius supposed that the last of his Satires only
were published under Hadrian; Dodwell goes farther, and maintains that
the whole, with the exception of the 15th and 16th[14] ("si tamen
vere et illa Juvenalis fuerit"), were then first produced! "Illa in
Paridem dicteria histrionem, in suum (cujus nomen non prodidit auctor)
histrionem dicta interpretabatur Hadrianus. Inde exilii causa. Scripsit
ergo in exilio Sat. XV. Sed cum 'nuper Consulem Junium' fuisse dicat,
ante annum ad minimum CXX. scribere illam non potuit Juv. Nec vero
postea scripsisse, exinde colligimus, quod 'intra brevissimum tempus'
perierit." 164. Such is the manner in which Dodwell accommodates
Suetonius to his own ideas: which seem, also, to have been those of
a much higher name, Salmasius; and, while I am now writing, to be
sanctioned by the adoption of the learned Ruperti. I never affected
singularity; yet I find myself constrained to differ from them all:
but I will state my reasons. In his 7th Satire, after speaking of
Quintilian, Juvenal adds,
"Si fortuna volet, fies de rhetore consul:
Si volet hæc eadem fies de consule rhetor."
Which, taking it for a proverbial expression, I have loosely rendered,
Fortune can make kings of pedants and pedants of kings. Dodwell,
however, understands it literally. "Hæc sane cum Quintiliani causa
dicat, vix est quin Q. talem ostendant è rhetore nimirum 'nobilem,
senatorium, consularem,' et quidem illis divitiis instructum, quæ
essent etiam ad censum senatorium necessariæ." 152. Now, as Pliny, who
probably died before Trajan, observes that Quintilian was a man of
moderate fortune, it follows that he must have acquired the wealth and
honors of which Juvenal speaks at a later period. Dodwell fixes this to
the time when Hadrian entered Rome, CXVIII., which he states to be also
that of the author's banishment. It must be confessed that Juvenal lost
no time in exerting himself: he had remained silent fourscore years;
he now bursts forth at once, as Dodwell expresses it, recites all his
Satires without intermission ("unis continuisque recitationibus"),
celebrates Quintilian, attacks the emperor, and is immediately
dispatched to Egypt! 162. Here is a great deal of business crowded into
the compass of a few weeks, or perhaps days; but let us examine it a
little more closely. Rigaltius, with several of the commentators, sees
in the lines above quoted a sneer at Quintilian, and he accounts for
the rhetor's silence respecting our author, by the resentment which he
supposes him to have felt at it. As this militates strongly against
Dodwell's ideas, he will not allow that any thing severe was intended
by the passage in question; and adds that Quintilian could not mention
Juvenal as a satirist, because he had not then written any satires.
160. I believe that both are wrong. In speaking of the satirists,
Quintilian says that Persius had justly acquired no inconsiderable
degree of reputation by the little he had written. Lib. x., c. 1. He
then adds, "sunt clari hodieque, et qui olim nominabuntur." There are
yet some excellent ones, some who will be better known hereafter. It
always appeared to me, that this last phrase alluded to our author,
with whose extraordinary merits Quintilian was probably acquainted, but
whom he did not choose, or, perhaps, did not dare to mention in a work
composed under a prince whose crimes this unnamed satirist persecuted
with a severity as unmitigated as it was just. Quintilian had no
political courage. Either from a sense of kindness or fear, he flatters
Domitian almost as grossly as Martial does: but his life was a life of
innocence and integrity; I will therefore say no more on this subject;
but leave it to the reader to consider whether such a man was likely to
startle the "god of his idolatry" by celebrating the Satires of Juvenal.
Nor do I agree with the commentators whom Dodwell has followed, in
the literal interpretation of those famous lines. "Unde igitur tot,"
etc. Sat. vii., v. 188-194. Quintilian was rich, when the rest of
his profession were in the utmost want. Here then was an instance of
good fortune. He was lucky; and with luck a man may be any thing;
handsome, and witty, and wise, and noble, and high-born, and a member
of the senate. Who does not see in this a satirical exaggeration?
Wisdom, beauty, and high birth luck can not give: why then should the
remainder of this passage be so strictly interpreted, and referred to
the actual history of Quintilian? The lines, "Si fortuna volet," etc.,
are still more lax: a reflection thrown out at random, and expressing
the greatest possible extremes of fortune. Yet on these authorities
principally (for the passage of Ausonius,[15] written more than two
centuries later, is of no great weight) has Quintilian been advanced to
consular honors; while Dodwell, who, as we have seen, has taken immense
pains to prove that they could only be conferred on him by Hadrian, has
hence deduced his strongest arguments for the late date of our author's
Satires; which he thus brings down to the period of mental imbecility!
Hence, too, he accounts for the different ideas of Quintilian's wealth
in Juvenal and Pliny. When the latter wrote, he thinks Quintilian had
not acquired much property, he was "modicus facultatibus:" when the
former, "he had been enriched by the imperial bounty, and was capable
of senatorial honors." Yet Pliny might not think his old master rich
enough to give a fortune with his daughter adequate to the expectations
of a man of considerable rank (lib. vi., 32), though Juvenal, writing
at the same instant, might term him wealthy, in comparison of the
rhetoricians who were starving around him; and count him a peculiar
favorite of fortune. Let us bear in mind, too, that Juvenal is a
satirist, and a poet: in the latter capacity, the minute accuracy of an
annalist can not be expected at his hands; and in the former--as his
object was to show the general discouragement of literature, he could
not, consistently with his plan, attribute the solitary good fortune of
Quintilian to any thing but luck.
But why was Quintilian made consul? Because, replies Dodwell (164),
when Hadrian first entered Rome he was desirous of gaining the
affections of the people; which could be done no way so effectually as
by conciliating the esteem of the literati; and he therefore conferred
this extraordinary mark of favor on the rhetorician. How did it escape
this learned man, that he was likely to do himself more injury in their
opinion by the banishment of Juvenal at that same instant? an old
man of fourscore, who, by his own testimony, had spoken of him with
kindness, in a poem which did more honor to his reign than any thing
produced in it! and whose only crime was an allusion to the influence
of a favorite player! Indeed, the informers of Hadrian's reign must
have had more sagacious noses than those of Domitian's, to smell out
his fault. What Statius, in his time, was celebrated for the recitation
of a Thebaid, or what Paris, for the purchase of an untouched Agave?
And where, might we ask Dodwell, was the "jest" of sending a man on
the verge of the grave, in a military capacity, into Egypt? Could the
most supple of Hadrian's courtiers look on it as any thing but a wanton
exercise of cruelty? At eighty, the business of satirizing, either in
prose or verse, is nearly over: what had the emperor then to fear? And
to sum up all in a word, can any rational being seriously persuade
himself that the Satires of Juvenal were produced, for the first time,
by a man turned of fourscore?
[6] But why should he complain at all? Was he ashamed of being known to
possess an influence at the imperial court? Those were not very modest
times, nor is modesty, in general, the crying vice of the "quality."
He was more likely to have gloried in it. If Bareas, or Camerinus, or
any of the old nobility, had complained of the author, I should have
thought it more reasonable: but Domitian cared nearly as little for
them as Paris himself did.
[7] I hold, in opposition to the commentators, that Juvenal was known
in Domitian's time, not only as a poet, but as a keen and vigorous
satirist. He himself, though he did not choose to commit his safety
to a promiscuous audience, appears to make no great secret of his
peculiar talents. In this Satire, certainly prior to many of the
others, he tells us that he accompanied Umbritius, then on his way
to Cumæ, out of the gates of Rome. Umbritius predicted, as Tacitus
says, the death of Galba, at which time he was looked upon as the most
skillful aruspex of the age. He could not then be a young man; yet, at
quitting the capital, he still talks of himself as in the first stage
of old age, "nova canities, et prima et recta senectus." His voluntary
exile, therefore, could not possibly have taken place long after the
commencement of Domitian's reign; when he speaks of Juvenal as already
celebrated for his Satires, and modestly doubts whether the assistance
of so able a coadjutor as himself would be accepted.
This, at least, serves to prove in what light the author wished to
be considered: for the rest, there can, I think, exclusively of what
I have urged, be little doubt that this Satire was produced under
Domitian. It is known, from other authorities, that he revived the
law of Otho in all its severity, that he introduced a number of
low and vicious characters, "pinnirapi cultos juvenes, juvenesque
lanistæ," into the Equestrian Order, that he was immoderately attached
to building, etc., circumstances much dwelt on in this Satire, and
applicable to him alone.
[8] The following line, "Dacicus et scripto radiat Germanicus auro,"
seems to militate against the early date of this Satire. Catanæus and
Arntzenius say that Juvenal could not mean Domitian here, because "he
did not think well enough of him to do him such honor; whereas he was
fond of commending Trajan." I see no marks of this fondness; nor were
the titles, if meant of Domitian, intended to do him honor, but to
reprove his vanity.
Whether medals were ever struck with the inscription of Dacicus and
Germanicus in honor of Domitian, I am not qualified to determine.
Certain it is, however, that he assumed both these titles; the latter,
indeed, in common with his predecessors from the time of Germ. Cæsar;
and the former, in consequence of his pretended success in the Dacian
war, for which he is bitterly sneered at by Pliny, as well as Dio.
It is given to him, among others, by Martial, who dedicates his
eighth book, "Imper. Domit. Cæs. Augusto Germanico _Dacico_." Dodwell
appropriates (as I do) the line to Domitian--a little inconsistently,
it must be confessed; but that is his concern. If, however, it be
adjudged to Trajan, I should not for that bring down the date of
the Satire to a later period. Juvenal revised and enlarged all his
works, when he gave them to the public: this under consideration,
in particular, has all the marks of having received considerable
additions; and one of them might be the line in question.
[9] This satire has contributed as much perhaps as the seventh to
persuade Lipsius, Salmasius, and others, that Juvenal wrote his best
pieces when he was turned of fourscore.
"----Stupet hæc, qui jam post terga reliquit
Sexaginta annos, Fonteio Consule natus!"
There were four consuls of this name. The first is out of the question;
the second was consul A.D. 13, the third in 59, and the fourth in 68.
If we take the second, and add any intermediate number of years between
sixty and seventy, for Calvinus had passed his sixtieth year, it will
just bring us down to the early part of Domitian's reign, which I
suppose to be the true date of this Satire; for I can not believe, as
I have already observed, that this, or indeed any part of Juvenal's
works, was produced when he was trembling on the verge of ninety, as
must be the case if either of the latter periods be adopted. But he
observes, "Hæc quota pars scelerum quæ custos Gallicus urbis," etc.
Now Rutilius Gallicus was præfect of Rome from the end of 85 to 88
(Domitian succeeded his brother in 81), in which year he died. There
seems to be no necessity for mentioning a magistrate as sitting, who
was not then in existence; nor can any reason be assigned, if the
Satire was written under Hadrian, for the author's recurring to the
times of Domitian for a name, when that of the "custos urbis" of
the day would have better answered his purpose. It is probable that
Gallicus succeeded Pegasus, who was præfect when the ridiculous farce
of the turbot took place (Sat. iv.); this would fix it to 85, the year
before Fuscus, who was present at it, was sent into Dacia.
[10] This Satire is referred by the critics to the reign of Trajan,
because Marius, whose trial took place under that prince, is mentioned
in it. I have attributed it to an earlier period; principally moved by
the consideration that it presents a faithful copy of the state of Rome
and the conquered provinces under Nero, and which could scarcely have
been given in such vivid colors after the original had ceased to affect
the mind. What Rome was under Domitian, may be seen in the second
Satire, and the difference, which has not been sufficiently attended
to, is striking in the extreme. I would observe too, that Juvenal
speaks here of the _crimes_ of Marius--they might be, and probably
were, committed long before his condemnation; but under Domitian it was
scarcely safe to attempt bringing such gigantic peculators to justice.
Add to this, that the other culprits mentioned in it are all of them
prior to that prince; nay, one of them, Capito, was tried so early as
the beginning of Nero's reign. The insertion of Marius, however (which
might be an after-thought), forms a main argument with Dodwell for the
very late date of this Satire; he observes that it had escaped Lipsius
and Salmasius; and boasts of it as "longe certissimum," etc. 156.
[11] I have often wondered at the stress which Dodwell and others lay
on the concluding lines of this Satire: "Experiar quid concedatur,"
etc. They fancy that the engagement was seriously made, and religiously
observed. Nothing was ever farther from the mind of Juvenal. It is
merely a poetical, or, if you will, a satirical, flourish; since there
is not a single Satire, I am well persuaded, in which the names of many
who were alive at the time are not introduced. Had Dodwell forgotten
Quintilian? or, that he had allowed one of his Satires, at least, to be
prior to this?
[12] This "nuper" is a very convenient word. Here, we see, it signifies
lately; but when it is necessary to bring the works of our author down
to a late period, it means, as Britannicus explains it, "de longo
tempore," long ago.
[13] But how to this ascertained? Very easily; he calls him "fecundus
Juvenalis." Here the question is finally left; for none of the
commentators suppose it possible that the epithet can be applied to any
but a rhetorician. Yet it is applied by the same writer to a poet of no
ordinary kind;
"Accipe, _facundi_ Culicem, studiose. Maronis
Ne, nugis positis, arma virumque canas."
Lib. xiv., 185.
And, by the author himself, to one who had grown old in the art:
"--------tunc seque suamque
Terpsichoren odit _facunda_ et nuda senectus."
Let it be remembered, too, that Martial, as is evident from the
frequent allusions to Domitian's expedition against the Catti, wrote
this epigram (lib. vii., 91) in the commencement of that prince's
reign, when it is acknowledged that Juvenal had produced but one or two
of his Satires.
[14] The former of these, Dodwell says, was written in exile, after
the author was turned of eighty. Salmasius, more rationally, conceives
it to have been produced at Rome. Giving full credit, however, to
the story of his late banishment, he is driven into a very awkward
supposition. "An non alio tempore, atque alia de causa Ægyptum lustrare
juvenis potuit Juvenalis? animi nempe gratia, και της ἱστοριας χαριν,
ut urbes regionis illius, populorumque mores cognosceret?" Would it not
be more simple to attribute his exile at once to Domitian?
With respect to the 16th Satire, Dodwell, we see, hesitates to
attribute it to Juvenal; and, indeed, the old Scholiast says, that, in
his time, many thought it to be the work of a different hand. So it
always appeared to me. It is unworthy of the author's best days, and
seems but little suited to his worst. He was at least eighty-one, they
say, when he wrote it, yet it begins--
"----Nam si----
Me pavidum excipiet tyronem porta secundo
Sidere," etc.
Surely, at this age, the writer resembled Priam, the _tremulus miles_,
more than the timid tyro! Nor do I believe that Juvenal would have
been much inclined to amuse himself with the fancied advantages of
a profession to which he was so unworthily driven. But the Satire
must have been as ill-timed for the army as for himself, since it
was probably, at this period, in a better state of subjection than
it had been for many reigns. I suppose it to be written in professed
imitation of our author's manner, about the age of Commodus. It has
considerable merit, though the first and last paragraphs are feeble and
tautological; and the execution of the whole is much inferior to the
design.
[15] "Q. consularia per Clementem ornamenta sortitus, honestamenta
potius videtur quam insignia potestatis habuisse. In gratiar. act."
Quintilian, then, was not actually consul: but this is no great
matter--it is of more consequence to ascertain the Clemens by whom he
was so honored. In the preface to his fourth book, he says, "Cum vero
mihi Dom. Augustus sororis suæ nepotum delegavit curam," etc. Vespasian
had a daughter, Domitilla, who married, and died long before her
father: she left a daughter, who was given to Flavius Clemens, by whom
she had two sons. These were the grandchildren of Domitian's sister,
of whom Quintilian speaks; and to their father, Clemens, according
to Ausonius, he was indebted for the show, though not the reality,
of power. There is nothing incongruous in all this; yet so possessed
are Dodwell and his numerous followers (among whom I am sorry to rank
Dusaulx) of the late period at which it happened, that they will needs
have Hadrian to be meant by Domitianus Augustus, though the detestable
flattery which follows the words I have quoted most indisputably proves
it to be Domitian; and though Dodwell himself is forced to confess
that he can find no Clemens under Hadrian to whom the passage applies:
"Quis autem fuerit Clemens ille qui Q. ornamenta illa sub Hadriano
impetraverit, me sane fateor ignorare!" 165. Another circumstance
which has escaped all the commentators, and which is of considerable
importance in determining the question, remains to be noticed. At the
very period of which Dodwell treats, the boundaries of the empire were
politically contracted, while Juvenal, whenever he has occasion to
speak on the subject, invariably dwells on extending or securing them.
AN
ESSAY ON THE ROMAN SATIRISTS,
BY WILLIAM GIFFORD, ESQ.
It will now be expected from me, perhaps, to say something on the
nature and design of Satire; but in truth this has so frequently been
done, that it seems, at present, to have as little of novelty as of
utility to recommend it.
Dryden, who had diligently studied the French critics, drew up from
their remarks, assisted by a cursory perusal of what Casaubon,
Heinsius, Rigaltius, and Scaliger had written on the subject, an
account of the rise and progress of dramatic and satiric poetry among
the Romans; which he prefixed to his translation of Juvenal. What
Dryden knew, he told in a manner that renders every attempt to recount
it after him equally hopeless and vain; but his acquaintance with works
of literature was not very extensive, while his reliance on his own
powers sometimes betrayed him into inaccuracies, to which the influence
of his name gives a dangerous importance.
"The comparison of Horace with Juvenal and Persius," which makes a
principal part of his Essay, is not formed with much niceness of
discrimination, or accuracy of judgment. To speak my mind, I do not
think that he clearly perceived or fully understood the characters of
the first two: of Persius indeed he had an intimate knowledge; for,
though he certainly deemed too humbly of his poetry, he yet speaks of
his beauties and defects in a manner which evinces a more than common
acquaintance with both.
What Dryden left imperfect has been filled up in a great measure by
Dusaulx, in the preliminary discourse to his translation of Juvenal,
and by Ruperti, in his critical Essay "De diversa Satirarum Lucil.
Horat. Pers. et Juvenalis indole." With the assistance of the
former of these I shall endeavor to give a more extended view of the
characteristic excellencies and defects of the rival Satirists than
has yet appeared in our language; little solicitous for the praise of
originality, if I may be allowed to aspire to that of candor and truth.
Previously to this, however, it will be necessary to say something on
the supposed origin of Satire: and, as this is a very beaten subject, I
shall discuss it as briefly as possible.
It is probable that the first metrical compositions of the Romans, like
those of every other people, were pious effusions for favors received
or expected from the gods: of these, the earliest, according to Varro,
were the hymns to Mars, which, though used by the Salii in the Augustan
age, were no longer intelligible. To these succeeded the Fescennine
verses, which were sung, or rather recited, after the vintage and
harvest, and appear to have been little more than rude praises of the
tutelar divinities of the country, intermixed with clownish jeers
and sarcasms, extemporally poured out by the rustics in some kind of
measure, and indifferently directed at the audience, or at one another.
These, by degrees, assumed the form of a dialogue; of which, as nature
is every where the same, and the progress of refinement but little
varied, some resemblance may perhaps be found in the grosser eclogues
of Theocritus.
Thus improved (if the word may be allowed of such barbarous
amusements), they formed, for near three centuries, the delight of
that nation: popular favor, however, had a dangerous effect on the
performers, whose licentiousness degenerated at length into such wild
invective, that it was found necessary to restrain it by a positive
law: "Si qui populo occentassit, carmenve condisit, quod infamiam faxit
flagitiumve alteri, fuste ferito." From this time we hear no farther
complaints of the Fescennine verses, which continued to charm the
Romans; until, about a century afterward, and during the ravages of a
dreadful pestilence, the senate, as the historians say, in order to
propitiate the gods, called a troop of players from Tuscany, to assist
at the celebration of their ancient festivals. This was a wise and a
salutary measure: the plague had spread dejection through the city,
which was thus rendered more obnoxious to its fury; and it therefore
became necessary, by novel and extraordinary amusements, to divert the
attention of the people from the melancholy objects around them.
As the Romans were unacquainted with the language of Tuscany, the
players, Livy tells us, omitted the modulation and the words, and
confined themselves solely to gestures, which were accompanied by the
flute. This imperfect exhibition, however, was so superior to their
own, that the Romans eagerly strove to attain the art; and, as soon as
they could imitate what they admired, graced their rustic measures with
music and dancing. By degrees they dropped the Fescennine verses for
something of a more regular kind, which now took the name of SATIRE.[16]
These Satires (for as yet they had but little claim to the title of
dramas) continued, without much alteration, to the year 514, when
Livius Andronicus, a Greek by birth, and a freedman of L. Salinator,
who was undoubtedly acquainted with the old comedy of his country,
produced a regular play. That it pleased can not be doubted, for it
surpassed the Satires, even in their improved state; and, indeed,
banished them for some time from the scene. They had, however, taken
too strong a hold of the affections of the people to be easily
forgotten, and it was therefore found necessary to reproduce and join
them to the plays of Andronicus (the superiority of which could not be
contested), under the name of Exodia or After-pieces. These partook, in
a certain degree, of the general amelioration of the stage; something
like a story was now introduced into them, which, though frequently
indecent and always extravagant, created a greater degree of interest
than the reciprocation of gross humor and scurrility in unconnected
dialogues.
Whether any of the old people still regretted this sophistication of
their early amusements, it is not easy to say; but Ennius, who came to
Rome about twenty years after this period, and who was more than half
a Grecian, conceived that he should perform an acceptable service by
reviving the ancient Satires.[17] He did not pretend to restore them
to the stage, for which indeed the new pieces were infinitely better
calculated, but endeavored to adapt them to the closet, by refining
their grossness and softening their asperity. Success justified the
attempt. Satire, thus freed from action, and formed into a poem, became
a favorite pursuit, and was cultivated by several writers of eminence.
In imitation of his model, Ennius confined himself to no particular
species of verse, nor indeed of language, for he mingled Greek
expressions with his Latin at pleasure. It is solely with a reference
to this new attempt that Horace and Quintilian are to be understood,
when they claim for the Romans the invention[18] of this kind of
poetry; and certainly they had opportunities of judging which we have
not, for little of Ennius, and nothing of the old Satire, remains.
It is not necessary to pursue the history of Satire farther in this
place, or to speak of another species of it, the Varronian, or, as
Varro himself called it, the Menippean, which branched out from
the former, and was a medley of prose and verse; it will be a more
pleasing, as well as a more useful employ, to enter a little into
what Dryden, I know not for what reason, calls the most difficult
part of his undertaking--"a comparative view of the Satirists;" not
certainly with the design of depressing one at the expense of another
(for, though I have translated Juvenal, I have no quarrel with Horace
and Persius), but for the purpose of pointing out the characteristic
excellencies and defects of them all. To do this the more effectually,
it will be previously necessary to take a cursory view of the times in
which their respective works were produced.
LUCILIUS, to whom Horace, forgetting what he had said in another place,
attributes the invention of Satire, flourished in the interval between
the siege of Carthage and the defeat of the Cimbri and Teutons, by
Marius. He lived therefore in an age in which the struggle between
the old and new manners, though daily becoming more equal, or rather
inclining to the worse side, was still far from being decided. The
freedom of speaking and writing was yet unchecked by fear, or by any
law more precise than that which, as has been already mentioned, was
introduced to restrain the coarse ebullitions of rustic malignity.
Add to this, that Lucilius was of a most respectable family (he was
great-uncle to Pompey), and lived in habits of intimacy with the chiefs
of the republic, with Lælius, Scipio, and others, who were well able
to protect him from the Lupi and Mutii of the day, had they attempted,
which they probably did not, to silence or molest him. Hence that
boldness of satirizing the vicious by name, which startled Horace, and
on which Juvenal and Persius delight to felicitate him.
Too little remains of Lucilius, to enable us to judge of his manner:
his style seems, however, to bear fewer marks of delicacy than of
strength, and his strictures appear harsh and violent. With all this,
he must have been an extraordinary man; since Horace, who is evidently
hurt by his reputation, can say nothing worse of his compositions than
that they are careless and hasty, and that if he had lived at a more
refined period, he would have partaken of the general amelioration. I
do not remember to have heard it observed, but I suspect that there was
something of political spleen in the excessive popularity of Lucilius
under Augustus, and something of courtly complacency in the attempt of
Horace to counteract it. Augustus enlarged the law of the twelve tables
respecting libels; and the people, who found themselves thus abridged
of the liberty of satirizing the great by name, might not improbably
seek to avenge themselves by an overstrained attachment to the works of
a man who, living, as they would insinuate, in better times, practiced
without fear, what he enjoyed without restraint.
The space between Horace and his predecessor, was a dreadful interval
"filled up with horror all, and big with death." Luxury and a long
train of vices, which followed the immense wealth incessantly poured in
from the conquered provinces, sapped the foundations of the republic,
which were finally shaken to pieces by the civil wars, the perpetual
dictatorship of Cæsar, and the second triumvirate, which threw the
Roman world, without a hope of escape, into the power of an individual.
Augustus, whose sword was yet reeking with the best blood of the
state, now that submission left him no excuse for farther cruelty,
was desirous of enjoying in tranquillity the fruits of his guilt. He
displayed, therefore, a magnificence hitherto unknown; and his example,
which was followed by his ministers, quickly spread among the people,
who were not very unwilling to exchange the agitation and terror of
successive proscriptions, for the security and quiet of undisputed
despotism.
Tiberius had other views, and other methods of accomplishing them.
He did not indeed put an actual stop to the elegant institutions of
his predecessor, but he surveyed them with silent contempt, and they
rapidly degenerated. The race of informers multiplied with dreadful
celerity; and danger, which could only be averted by complying with a
caprice not always easy to discover, created an abject disposition,
fitted for the reception of the grossest vices, and eminently favorable
to the designs of the emperor; which were to procure, by universal
depravation, that submission which Augustus sought to obtain by the
blandishments of luxury and the arts.
From this gloomy and suspicious tyrant, the empire was transferred to
a profligate madman. It can scarcely be told without indignation, that
when the sword of Chærea had freed the earth from his disgraceful sway,
the senate had not sufficient virtue to resume the rights of which they
had been deprived; but, after a timid debate, delivered up the state to
a pedantic dotard, incapable of governing himself.
To the vices of his predecessors, Nero added a frivolity which rendered
his reign at once odious and contemptible. Depravity could reach no
farther, but misery might yet be extended. This was fully experienced
through the turbulent and murderous usurpations of Galba, Otho, and
Vitellius; when the accession of Vespasian and Titus gave the groaning
world a temporary respite.
To these succeeded Domitian, whose crimes form the subject of many a
melancholy page in the ensuing work, and need not therefore be dwelt
on here. Under him, every trace of ancient manners was obliterated;
liberty was unknown, law openly trampled upon, and, while the national
rites were either neglected or contemned, a base and blind superstition
took possession of the enfeebled and distempered mind.
Better times followed. Nerva, and Trajan, and Hadrian, and the
Antonines, restored the Romans to safety and tranquillity; but they
could do no more; liberty and virtue were gone forever; and after a
short period of comparative happiness, which they scarcely appear to
have deserved, and which brought with it no amelioration of mind, no
return of the ancient modesty and frugality, they were finally resigned
to destruction.
I now proceed to the "comparative view" of which I have already spoken:
as the subject has been so often treated, little of novelty can be
expected from it; to read, compare, and judge, is almost all that
remains.
HORACE, who was gay, and lively, and gentle, and affectionate, seems
fitted for the period in which he wrote. He had seen the worst times
of the republic, and might therefore, with no great suspicion of his
integrity, be allowed to acquiesce in the infant monarchy, which
brought with it stability, peace, and pleasure. How he reconciled
himself to his political tergiversation it is useless to inquire.[19]
What was so general, we may suppose, brought with it but little
obloquy; and it should be remembered, to his praise, that he took no
active part in the government which he had once opposed.[20]
If he celebrates the master of the world, it is not until he is asked
by him whether he is ashamed that posterity should know them to be
friends; and he declines a post, which few of his detractors have merit
to deserve, or virtue to refuse.
His choice of privacy, however, was in some measure constitutional;
for he had an easiness of temper which bordered on indolence; hence he
never rises to the dignity of a decided character. Zeno and Epicurus
share his homage and undergo his ridicule by turns: he passes without
difficulty from one school to another, and he thinks it a sufficient
excuse for his versatility, that he continues, amid every change, the
zealous defender of virtue. Virtue, however, abstractedly considered,
has few obligations to his zeal.
But though, as an ethical writer, Horace has not many claims to the
esteem of posterity; as a critic, he is entitled to all our veneration.
Such is the soundness of his judgment, the correctness of his taste,
and the extent and variety of his knowledge, that a body of criticism
might be selected from his works, more perfect in its kind than any
thing which antiquity has bequeathed us.
As he had little warmth of temper, he reproves his contemporaries
without harshness. He is content to "dwell in decencies," and, like
Pope's courtly dean, "never mentions hell to ears polite." Persius, who
was infinitely better acquainted with him than we can pretend to be,
describes him, I think, with great happiness:
"Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico
Tangit, et admissus circum præcordia ludit,
Callidus excusso populum suspendere naso."
"He, with a sly insinuating grace,
Laugh'd at his friend, and look'd him in the face:
Would raise a blush, where secret vice he found,
And tickle, while he gently probed the wound:
With seeming innocence the crowd beguiled;
But made the desperate passes when he smiled."
These beautiful lines have a defect under which Dryden's translations
frequently labor; they do not give the true sense of the original.
Horace "raised no blush" (at least Persius does not insinuate any such
thing), and certainly "made no desperate passes."[21] His aim rather
seems to be, to keep the objects of his satire in good humor with
himself, and with one another.
To raise a laugh at vice, however (supposing it feasible), is not
the legitimate office of Satire, which is to hold up the vicious, as
objects of reprobation and scorn, for the example of others, who may
be deterred by their sufferings. But it is time to be explicit. To
laugh even at fools is superfluous; if they understand you, they will
join in the merriment; but more commonly, they will sit with vacant
unconcern, and gaze at their own pictures: to laugh at the vicious,
is to encourage them; for there is in such men a willfulness of
disposition, which prompts them to bear up against shame, and to show
how little they regard slight reproof, by becoming more audacious in
guilt. Goodness, of which the characteristic is modesty, may, I fear,
be shamed; but vice, like folly, to be restrained, must be overawed.
Labeo, says Hall, with great energy and beauty--
"Labeo is whipt, and laughs me in the face;
Why? for I smite, and hide the galled place.
Gird but the Cynic's helmet on his head,
Cares he for Talus, or his flayle of lead?"
PERSIUS, who borrowed so much of Horace's language, has little of his
manner. The immediate object of his imitation seems to be Lucilius;
and if he lashes vice with less severity than his great prototype, the
cause must not be sought in any desire to spare what he so evidently
condemned. But he was thrown "on evil times;" he was, besides, of a
rank distinguished enough to make his freedom dangerous, and of an age
when life had yet lost little of its novelty; to write, therefore,
even as he has written, proves him to be a person of very singular
courage and virtue.
In the interval between Horace and Persius, despotism had changed its
nature: the chains which the policy of Augustus concealed in flowers,
were now displayed in all their hideousness. The arts were neglected,
literature of every kind discouraged or disgraced, and terror and
suspicion substituted in the place of the former ease and security.
Stoicism, which Cicero accuses of having infected poetry, even in his
days, and of which the professors, as Quintilian observes, always
disregarded the graces and elegancies of composition, spread with
amazing rapidity.[22] In this school Persius was educated, under the
care of one of its most learned and respectable masters.
Satire was not his first pursuit; indeed, he seems to have somewhat
mistaken his talents when he applied to it. The true end of this
species of writing, as Dusaulx justly says, is the improvement of
society; but for this, much knowledge of mankind ("quicquid agunt
homines") is previously necessary. Whoever is deficient in that, may be
an excellent moral and philosophical poet; but can not, with propriety,
lay claim to the honors of a satirist.
And Persius was moral and philosophical in a high degree: he was also
a poet of no mean order. But while he grew pale over the page of Zeno,
and Cleanthes, and Chrysippus; while he imbibed, with all the ardor
of a youthful mind, the paradoxes of those great masters, together
with their principles, the foundations of civil society were crumbling
around him, and soliciting his attention in vain. To judge from what
he has left us, it might almost be affirmed that he was a stranger
in his own country. The degradation of Rome was now complete; yet he
felt, at least he expresses, no indignation at the means by which it
was effected: a sanguinary buffoon was lording it over the prostrate
world; yet he continued to waste his most elaborate efforts on the
miserable pretensions of pedants in prose and verse! If this savor
of the impassibility of Stoicism, it is entitled to no great praise
on the score of outraged humanity, which has stronger claims on a
well-regulated mind, than criticism, or even philosophy.
Dryden gives that praise to the dogmas of Persius, which he denies to
his poetry. "His verse," he says, "is scabrous and hobbling, and his
measures beneath those of Horace." This is too severe; for Persius has
many exquisite passages, which nothing in Horace will be found to equal
or approach. The charge of obscurity has been urged against him with
more justice; though this, perhaps, is not so great as it is usually
represented. Casaubon could, without question, have defended him more
successfully than he has done; but he was overawed by the brutal
violence of the elder Scaliger; for I can scarcely persuade myself that
he really believed this obscurity to be owing to "the fear of Nero, or
the advice of Cornutus." The cause of it should be rather sought in his
natural disposition, and in his habits of thinking. Generally speaking,
however, it springs from a too frequent use of tropes, approaching in
almost every instance to a catachresis, an anxiety of compression,
and a quick and unexpected transition from one overstrained figure to
another. After all, with the exception of the sixth Satire, which, from
its abruptness, does not appear to have received the author's last
touches, I do not think there is much to confound an attentive reader:
some acquaintance, indeed, with the porch "braccatis illita Medis,"
is previously necessary. His life may be contemplated with unabated
pleasure: the virtue he recommends, he practiced in the fullest extent;
and at an age when few have acquired a determinate character, he left
behind him an established reputation for genius, learning, and worth.
JUVENAL wrote at a period still more detestable than that of Persius.
Domitian, who now governed the empire, seems to have inherited the bad
qualities of all his predecessors. Tiberius was not more hypocritical,
nor Caligula more bloody, nor Claudius more sottish, nor Nero more
mischievous, than this ferocious despot; who, as Theodorus Gadareus
indignantly declared of Tiberius, was truly πηλον αἱματι πεφυραμενον· a
lump of clay kneaded up with blood!
Juvenal, like Persius, professes to follow Lucilius; but what was
in one a simple attempt, is in the other a real imitation, of his
manner.[23] Fluent and witty as Horace, grave and sublime as Persius;
of a more decided character than the former, better acquainted with
mankind than the latter; he did not confine himself to the mode of
regulating an intercourse with the great, or to abstract disquisitions
on the nature of scholastic liberty; but, disregarding the claims of
a vain urbanity, and fixing all his soul on the eternal distinctions
of moral good and evil, he labored, with a magnificence of language
peculiar to himself, to set forth the loveliness of virtue, and the
deformity and horror of vice, in full and perfect display.
Dusaulx, who is somewhat prejudiced against Horace, does ample justice
to Juvenal. There is great force in what he says; and, as I do not know
that it ever appeared in English, I shall take the liberty of laying a
part of it before the reader, at the hazard of a few repetitions.
"The bloody revolution which smothered the last sighs of liberty,[24]
had not yet found time to debase the minds of a people, among whom the
traditionary remains of the old manners still subsisted. The cruel
but politic Octavius scattered flowers over the paths he was secretly
tracing toward despotism: the arts of Greece, transplanted to the
Capitol, flourished beneath his auspices; and the remembrance of so
many civil dissensions, succeeding each other with increasing rapidity,
excited a degree of reverence for the author of this unprecedented
tranquillity. The Romans felicitated themselves at not lying down, as
before, with an apprehension of finding themselves included, when they
awoke, in the list of proscription: and neglected, amid the amusements
of the circus and the theatre, those civil rights of which their
fathers had been so jealous.
"Profiting of these circumstances, Horace forgot that he had combated
on the side of liberty. A better courtier than a soldier, he clearly
saw how far the refinement, the graces, and the cultivated state of his
genius (qualities not much considered or regarded till his time[25]),
were capable of advancing him without any extraordinary effort.
"Indifferent to the future, and not daring to recall the past, he
thought of nothing but securing himself from all that could sadden the
mind, and disturb the system which he had skillfully arranged on the
credit of those then in power. It is on this account, that, of all his
contemporaries, he has celebrated none but the friends of his master,
or, at least, those whom he could praise without fear of compromising
his favor.
"In what I have said of Horace, my chief design has been to show that
this Proteus, who counted among his friends and admirers even those
whose conduct he censured, chose rather to capitulate than contend;
that he attached no great importance to his own rules, and adhered to
his principles no longer than they favored his views.
"JUVENAL began his satiric career where the other finished, that is
to say, he did that for morals and liberty, which Horace had done for
decorum and taste. Disdaining artifice of every kind, he boldly raised
his voice against the usurpation of power; and incessantly recalled the
memory of the glorious æra of independence to those degenerate Romans,
who had substituted suicide in the place of their ancient courage; and
from the days of Augustus to those of Domitian, only avenged their
slavery by an epigram or a bonmot.
"The characteristics of Juvenal were energy, passion, and indignation:
it is, nevertheless, easy to discover that he is sometimes more
afflicted than exasperated. His great aim was to alarm the vicious,
and, if possible, to exterminate vice, which had, as it were,
acquired a legal establishment. A noble enterprise! but he wrote in a
detestable age, when the laws of nature were publicly violated, and
the love of their country so completely eradicated from the breasts
of his fellow-citizens, that, brutified as they were by slavery and
voluptuousness, by luxury and avarice, they merited rather the severity
of the executioner than the censor.
"Meanwhile the empire, shaken to its foundations, was rapidly crumbling
to dust. Despotism was consecrated by the senate; liberty, of which
a few slaves were still sensible, was nothing but an unmeaning word
for the rest, which, unmeaning as it was, they did not dare to
pronounce in public. Men of rank were declared enemies to the state for
having praised their equals; historians were condemned to the cross,
philosophy was proscribed, and its professors banished. Individuals
felt only for their own danger, which they too often averted by
accusing others; and there were instances of children who denounced
their own parents, and appeared as witnesses against them! It was not
possible to weep for the proscribed, for tears themselves became the
object of proscription; and when the tyrant of the day had condemned
the accused to banishment or death, the senate decreed that he should
be thanked for it, as for an act of singular favor.
"Juvenal, who looked upon the alliance of the agreeable with the odious
as utterly incompatible, contemned the feeble weapon of ridicule,
so familiar to his predecessor: he therefore seized the sword of
Satire, or, to speak more properly, fabricated one for himself, and
rushing from the palace to the tavern, and from the gates of Rome to
the boundaries of the empire, struck, without distinction, whoever
deviated from the course of nature, or from the paths of honor. It is
no longer a poet like Horace, fickle, pliant, and fortified with that
indifference so falsely called philosophical, who amused himself with
bantering vice, or, at most, with upbraiding a few errors of little
consequence, in a style, which, scarcely raised above the language of
conversation, flowed as indolence and pleasure directed; but a stern
and incorruptible censor, an inflamed and impetuous poet, who sometimes
rises with his subject to the noblest heights of tragedy."
From this declamatory applause, which even La Harpe allows to be worthy
of the translator of Juvenal, the most rigid censor of our author can
not detract much; nor can much perhaps be added to it by his warmest
admirer. I could, indeed, have wished that he had not exalted him at
the expense of Horace; but something must be allowed for the partiality
of long acquaintance; and Casaubon, when he preferred Persius, with
whom he had taken great, and indeed successful pains, to Horace and
Juvenal, sufficiently exposed, while he tacitly accounted for, the
prejudices of commentators and translators. With respect to Horace, if
he falls beneath Juvenal (and who does not?) in eloquence, in energy,
and in a vivid and glowing imagination, he evidently surpasses him
in taste and critical judgment. I could pursue the parallel through
a thousand ramifications, but the reader who does me the honor to
peruse the following sheets, will see that I have incidentally touched
upon some of them in the notes: and, indeed, I preferred scattering
my observations through the work, as they arose from the subject, to
bringing them together in this place; where they must evidently have
lost something of their pertinency, without much certainty of gaining
in their effect.
Juvenal is accused of being too sparing of praise. But are his critics
well assured that praise from Juvenal could be accepted with safety?
I do not know that a private station was "the post of honor" in those
days; it was, however, that of security. Martial, Statius, V. Flaccus,
and other parasites of Domitian, might indeed venture to celebrate
their friends, who were also those of the emperor. Juvenal's, it is
probable, were of another kind; and he might have been influenced no
less by humanity than prudence, in the sacred silence which he has
observed respecting them. Let it not be forgotten, however, that this
intrepid champion of virtue, who, under the twelfth despot, persisted,
as Dusaulx observes, in recognizing no sovereign but the senate, while
he passes by those whose safety his applause might endanger, has
generously celebrated the ancient assertors of liberty, in strains that
Tyrtæus might have wished his own.
He is also charged with being too rhetorical in his language. The
critics have discovered that he practiced at the bar, and they
will therefore have it that his Satires smack of his profession,
"redolent declamatorem."[26] That he is luxuriant, or, if it must
be so, redundant, may be safely granted; but I doubt whether the
passages which are cited for proofs of this fault, were not reckoned
among his beauties by his contemporaries. The enumeration of deities
in the thirteenth Satire is well defended by Rigaltius, who admits,
at the same time, that if the author had inserted it any where but
in a Satire, he should have accounted him a babbler; "faterer Juv.
hic περιλαλον fuisse et verborum prodigum." He appears to me equally
successful, in justifying the list of oaths in the same Satire, which
Creech, it appears, had not the courage to translate.
The other passages adduced in support of this charge, are either
metaphorical exaggerations, or long traits of indirect Satire, of
which Juvenal was as great a master as Horace. I do not say that these
are interesting to us; but they were eminently so to those for whom
they were written; and by their pertinency at the time, should they,
by every rule of fair criticism, be estimated. The version of such
passages is one of the miseries of translation.
I have also heard it objected to Juvenal, that there is in many of
his Satires a want of arrangement; this is particularly observed of
the sixth and tenth. I scarcely know what to reply to this. Those
who are inclined to object, would not be better satisfied, perhaps,
if the form of both were changed; for I suspect that there is no
natural gradation in the innumerable passions which agitate the human
breast. Some must precede, and others follow; but the order of march
is not, nor ever was, invariable. While I acquit him of this, however,
I readily acknowledge a want of care in many places, unless it be
rather attributable to a want of taste. On some occasions, too, when
he changed or enlarged his first sketch, he forgot to strike out the
unnecessary verses: to this are owing the repetitions to be found in
his longer works, as well as the transpositions, which have so often
perplexed the critics and translators.
Now I am upon this subject, I must not pass over a slovenliness in some
of his lines, for which he has been justly reproached by Jortin and
others, as it would have cost him no great pains to improve them. Why
he should voluntarily debase his poetry, it is difficult to say: if he
thought that he was imitating Horace in his laxity, his judgment must
suffer considerably. The verses of Horace are indeed akin to prose; but
as he seldom rises, he has the art of making his low flights, in which
all his motions are easy and graceful, appear the effect of choice.
Juvenal was qualified to "sit where he dared not soar." His element was
that of the eagle, "descent and fall to him were adverse," and, indeed,
he never appears more awkward than when he flutters, or rather waddles,
along the ground.
I have observed in the course of the translation, that he embraced no
sect with warmth. In a man of such lively passions, the retention with
which he speaks of them all, is to be admired. From his attachment
to the writings of Seneca, I should incline to think that he leaned
toward Stoicism; his predilection for the school, however, was not
very strong: perhaps it is to be wished that he had entered a little
more deeply into it, as he seems not to have those distinct ideas
of the nature of virtue and vice, which were entertained by many of
the ancient philosophers, and indeed, by his immediate predecessor,
Persius. As a general champion for virtue, he is commonly successful,
but he sometimes misses his aim; and, in more than one instance,
confounds the nature of the several vices in his mode of attacking
them: he confounds too the very essence of virtue, which, in his
hands, has often "no local habitation and name," but varies with the
ever-varying passions and caprices of mankind. I know not whether it be
worth while to add, that he is accused of holding a different language
at different times respecting the gods, since in this he differs little
from the Greek and Roman poets in general; who, as often as they
introduce their divinities, state, as Juvenal does, the mythological
circumstances coupled with their names, without regard to the existing
system of physic or morals. When they speak from themselves, indeed,
they give us exalted sentiments of virtue and sound philosophy; when
they indulge in poetic recollections, they present us with the fables
of antiquity. Hence the gods are alternately, and as the subject
requires, venerable or contemptible; and this could not but happen
through the want of some acknowledged religious standard, to which all
might with confidence refer.
I come now to a more serious charge against Juvenal, that of indecency.
To hear the clamor raised against him, it might be supposed, by one
unacquainted with the times, that he was the only indelicate writer
of his age and country. Yet Horace and Persius wrote with equal
grossness: yet the rigid Stoicism of Seneca did not deter him from
the use of expressions, which Juvenal perhaps would have rejected:
yet the courtly Pliny poured out gratuitous indecencies in his frigid
hendecasyllables, which he attempts to justify by the example of a
writer to whose freedom the licentiousness of Juvenal is purity! It
seems as if there was something of pique in the singular severity with
which he is censured. His pure and sublime morality operates as a tacit
reproach on the generality of mankind, who seek to indemnify themselves
by questioning the sanctity which they can not but respect; and find a
secret pleasure in persuading one another that "this dreaded satirist"
was at heart no inveterate enemy to the licentiousness which he so
vehemently reprehends.
When we consider the unnatural vices at which Juvenal directs his
indignation, and reflect, at the same time, on the peculiar qualities
of his mind, we shall not find much cause, perhaps, for wonder at the
strength of his expressions. I should resign him in silence to the
hatred of mankind, if his aim, like that of too many others, whose
works are read with delight, had been to render vice amiable, to
fling his seducing colors over impurity, and inflame the passions by
meretricious hints at what is only innoxious when exposed in native
deformity: but when I find that his views are to render depravity
loathsome; that every thing which can alarm and disgust is directed at
her in his terrible page, I forget the grossness of the execution in
the excellence of the design; and pay my involuntary homage to that
integrity, which fearlessly calling in strong description to the aid
of virtue, attempts to purify the passions, at the hazard of wounding
delicacy and offending taste. This is due to Juvenal: in justice to
myself, let me add, that I could have been better pleased to have had
no occasion to speak at all on the subject.
Whether any considerations of this or a similar nature deterred our
literati from turning these Satires into English, I can not say; but,
though partial versions might be made, it was not until the beginning
of the seventeenth century that a complete translation was thought of;
when two men, of celebrity in their days, undertook it about the same
time; these were Barten Holyday and Sir Robert Stapylton. Who entered
first upon the task, can not well be told. There appears somewhat of
a querulousness on both sides; a jealousy that their versions had
been communicated in manuscript to each other: Stapylton's, however,
was first published, though that of Holyday seems to have been first
finished.
Of this ingenious man it is not easy to speak with too much
respect. His learning, industry, judgment, and taste are every
where conspicuous: nor is he without a very considerable portion of
shrewdness to season his observations. His poetry indeed, or rather
his ill-measured prose, is intolerable; no human patience can toil
through a single page of it;[27] but his notes will always be consulted
with pleasure. His work has been of considerable use to the subsequent
editors of Juvenal, both at home and abroad; and indeed, such is
its general accuracy, that little excuse remains for any notorious
deviation from the sense of the original.
Stapylton had equal industry, and more poetry; but he wanted his
learning, judgment, and ingenuity. His notes, though numerous, are
trite, and scarcely beyond the reach of a schoolboy. He is besides
scandalously indecent on many occasions, where his excellent rival was
innocently unfaithful, or silent.
With these translations, such as they were, the public was satisfied
until the end of the seventeenth century, when the necessity of
something more poetical becoming apparent, the booksellers, as Johnson
says, "proposed a new version to the poets of that time, which was
undertaken by Dryden, whose reputation was such, that no man was
unwilling to serve the Muses under him."
Dryden's account of this translation is given with such candor, in the
exquisite dedication which precedes it, that I shall lay it before the
reader in his own words.
"The common way which we have taken, is not a literal translation, but
a kind of paraphrase, or somewhat which is yet more loose, betwixt a
paraphrase and a translation. Thus much may be said for us, that if we
give not the whole sense of Juvenal, yet we give the most considerable
part of it: we give it, in general, so clearly, that few notes are
sufficient to make us intelligible: we make our author at least appear
in a poetic dress. We have actually made him more sounding, and more
elegant, than he was before in English: and have endeavored to make him
speak that kind of English, which he would have spoken had he lived in
England, and had written to this age. If sometimes any of us (and it
is but seldom) make him express the customs and manners of his native
country rather than of Rome, it is, either when there was some kind of
analogy betwixt their customs and ours, or when, to make him more easy
to vulgar understandings, we gave him those manners which are familiar
to us. But I defend not this innovation, it is enough if I can excuse
it. For to speak sincerely, the manners of nations and ages are not to
be confounded."[28]
This is, surely, sufficiently modest. Johnson's description of it is
somewhat more favorable: "The general character of this translation
will be given, when it is said to preserve the wit, but to want the
dignity, of the original." Is this correct? Dryden frequently degrades
the author into a jester; but Juvenal has few moments of levity. Wit,
indeed, he possesses in an eminent degree, but it is tinctured with his
peculiarities; "rarò jocos," as Lipsius well observes, "sæpius acerbos
sales miscet." Dignity is the predominant quality of his mind: he can,
and does, relax with grace, but he never forgets himself; he smiles,
indeed; but his smile is more terrible than his frown, for it is never
excited but when his indignation is mingled with contempt; "ridet
et odit!" Where his dignity, therefore, is wanting, his wit will be
imperfectly preserved.[29]
On the whole, there is nothing in this quotation to deter succeeding
writers from attempting, at least, to supply the deficiencies of Dryden
and his fellow-laborers; and, perhaps, I could point out several
circumstances which might make it laudable, if not necessary: but this
would be to trifle with the reader, who is already apprised that, as
far as relates to myself, no motives but those of obedience determined
me to the task for which I now solicit the indulgence of the public.
When I took up this author, I knew not of any other translator; nor
was it until the scheme of publishing him was started, that I began to
reflect seriously on the nature of what I had undertaken, to consider
by what exertions I could render that useful which was originally
meant to amuse, and justify, in some measure, the partiality of my
benefactors.
My first object was to become as familiar as possible with my author,
of whom I collected every edition that my own interest, or that of my
friends, could procure; together with such translations as I could
discover either here or abroad; from a careful examination of all
these, I formed the plan, to which, while I adapted my former labors, I
anxiously strove to accommodate my succeeding ones.
Dryden has said, "if we give not the whole, yet we give the most
considerable part of it." My determination was to give the whole, and
really make the work what it professed to be, a translation of Juvenal.
I had seen enough of castrated editions, to observe that little was
gained by them on the score of propriety; since, when the author was
reduced to half his bulk, at the expense of his spirit and design,
sufficient remained to alarm the delicacy for which the sacrifice had
been made. Chaucer observes with great naiveté,
"Whoso shall tell a tale after a man,
He moste reherse as neighe as ever he can
Everich word, if it be in his charge,
All speke he never so rudely and so large."
And indeed the age of Chaucer, like that of Juvenal, allowed of such
liberties. Other times, other manners. Many words were in common
use with our ancestors, which raised no improper ideas, though they
would not, and indeed could not, at this time be tolerated. With the
Greeks and Romans it was still worse: their dress, which left many
parts of the body exposed, gave a boldness to their language, which
was not perhaps lessened by the infrequency of women at those social
conversations, of which they now constitute the refinement and the
delight. Add to this that their mythology, and sacred rites, which took
their rise in very remote periods, abounded in the undisguised phrases
of a rude and simple age, and being religiously handed down from
generation to generation, gave a currency to many terms, which offered
no violence to modesty, though abstractedly considered by people of a
different language and manners, they appear pregnant with turpitude and
guilt.
When we observe this licentiousness (for I should wrong many of
the ancient writers to call it libertinism) in the pages of their
historians and philosophers, we may be pretty confident that it raised
no blush on the cheek of their readers. It was the language of the
times--"hæc illis natura est omnibus una:" and if it be considered
as venial in those, surely a little farther indulgence will not be
misapplied to the satirist, whose object is the exposure of what the
former have only to notice.
Thus much may suffice for Juvenal: but shame and sorrow on the head of
him who presumes to transfer his grossness into the vernacular tongues!
"Legimus aliqua ne legantur," was said of old, by one of a pure and
zealous mind. Without pretending to his high motives, I have felt the
influence of his example, and in his apology must therefore hope to
find my own. Though the poet be given entire, I have endeavored to make
him speak as he would probably have spoken if he had lived among us;
when, refined with the age, he would have fulminated against impurity
in terms, to which, though delicacy might disavow them, manly decency
might listen without offense.
I have said above, that "the whole of Juvenal" is here given; this,
however, must be understood with a few restrictions. Where vice, of
whatever nature, formed the immediate object of reprobation, it has
not been spared in the translation; but I have sometimes taken the
liberty of omitting an exceptionable line, when it had no apparent
connection with the subject of the Satire. Some acquaintance with the
original will be necessary to discover these lacunæ, which do not, in
all, amount to half a page: for the rest, I have no apologies to make.
Here are no allusions, covert or open, to the follies and vices of
modern times; nor has the dignity of the original been prostituted, in
a single instance, to the gratification of private spleen.
I have attempted to follow, as far as I judged it feasible, the style
of my author, which is more various than is usually supposed. It is not
necessary to descend to particulars; but my meaning will be understood
by those who carefully compare the original of the thirteenth and
fourteenth Satires with the translation. In the twelfth, and in that
alone, I have perhaps raised it a little; but it really appears so
contemptible a performance in the doggerel of Dryden's coadjutor,
that I thought somewhat more attention than ordinary was in justice
due to it. It is not a chef-d'œuvre by any means; but it is a pretty
and a pleasing little poem, deserving more notice than it has usually
received.
I could have been sagacious and obscure on many occasions, with very
little difficulty; but I strenuously combated every inclination to
find out more than my author meant. The general character of this
translation, if I do not deceive myself, will be found to be plainness;
and, indeed, the highest praise to which I aspire, is that of having
left the original more intelligible to the English reader than I found
it.
On numbering the lines, I find that my translation contains a few
less than Dryden's. Had it been otherwise, I should not have thought
an apology necessary, nor would it perhaps appear extraordinary,
when it is considered that I have introduced an infinite number of
circumstances from the text, which he thought himself justified in
omitting; and that, with the trifling exceptions already mentioned,
nothing has been passed; whereas he and his assistants overlooked whole
sections, and sometimes very considerable ones.[30] Every where, too, I
have endeavored to render the transitions less abrupt, and to obviate
or disguise the difficulties which a difference of manners, habits,
etc., necessarily creates: all this calls for an additional number of
lines; which the English reader, at least, will seldom have occasion to
regret.
Of the "borrowed learning of notes," which Dryden says he avoided as
much as possible, I have amply availed myself. During the long period
in which my thoughts were fixed on Juvenal, it was usual with me,
whenever I found a passage that related to him, to impress it on my
memory, or to note it down. These, on the revision of the work for
publication, were added to such reflections as arose in my own mind,
and arranged in the manner in which they now appear. I confess that
this was not an unpleasant task to me, and I will venture to hope,
that if my own suggestions fail to please, yet the frequent recurrence
of some of the most striking and beautiful passages of ancient and
modern poetry, history, etc., will render it neither unamusing nor
uninstructive to the general reader. The information insinuated into
the mind by miscellaneous collections of this nature, is much greater
than is usually imagined; and I have been frequently encouraged to
proceed by recollecting the benefits which I formerly derived from
casual notices scattered over the margin, or dropped at the bottom of a
page.
In this compilation, I proceeded on no regular plan, farther than
considering what, if I had been a mere English reader, I should wish
to have had explained: it is therefore extremely probable, as every
rule of this nature must be imperfect, that I have frequently erred;
have spoken where I should be silent and been prolix where I should
be brief: on the whole, however, I chose to offend on the safer side;
and to leave nothing unsaid, at the hazard of sometimes saying too
much. Tedious, perhaps, I may be; but, I trust, not dull; and with
this negative commendation I must be satisfied. The passages produced
are not always translated; but the English reader needs not for that
be discouraged in proceeding, as he will frequently find sufficient in
the context to give him a general idea of the meaning. In many places
I have copied the words, together with the sentiments of the writer;
for this, if it call for an apology, I shall take that of Macrobius,
who had somewhat more occasion for it than I shall be found to have:
"Nec mihi vitio vertas, si res quas ex lectione varia mutuabor, ipsis
sæpè verbis quibus ab ipsis auctoribus enarratæ sunt explicabo, quia
præsens opus non eloquentiæ ostentationem, sed noscendorum congeriem
pollicetur," etc. Saturn., lib. i., c. 1.
* * * * *
I have now said all that occurs to me on this subject: a more pleasing
one remains. I can not, indeed, like Dryden, boast of my poetical
coadjutors. No Congreves and Creeches have abridged, while they
adorned, my labors; yet have I not been without assistance, and of the
most valuable kind.
Whoever is acquainted with the habits of intimacy in which I have
lived from early youth with the Rev. Dr. Ireland,[31] will not want
to be informed of his share in the following pages. To those who are
not, it is proper to say, that besides the passages in which he is
introduced by name, every other part of the work has been submitted to
his inspection. Nor would his affectionate anxiety for the reputation
of his friend suffer any part of the translation to appear, without
undergoing the strictest revision. His uncommon accuracy, judgment, and
learning have been uniformly exerted on it, not less, I am confident,
to the advantage of the reader, than to my own satisfaction. It will be
seen that we sometimes differ in opinion; but as I usually distrust my
own judgment in those cases, the decision is submitted to the reader.
I have also to express my obligations to Abraham Moore, Esq., barrister
at law, a gentleman whose taste and learning are well known to be
only surpassed by his readiness to oblige: of which I have the most
convincing proofs; since the hours dedicated to the following sheets
(which I lament that he only saw in their progress through the press)
were snatched from avocations as urgent as they were important.
Nor must I overlook the friendly assistance of William Porden,
Esq.,[32] which, like that of the former gentleman, was given to me,
amid the distraction of more immediate concerns, with a readiness that
enhanced the worth of what was, in itself, highly valuable.
A paper was put into my hand by Mr. George Nicol, the promoter of
every literary work, from R. P. Knight, Esq., containing subjects for
engravings illustrative of Juvenal, and, with singular generosity,
offering me the use of his marbles, gems, etc. As these did not fall
within my plan, I can only here return him my thanks for a kindness
as extraordinary as it was unexpected. But I have other and greater
obligations to Mr. Nicol. In conjunction with his son, Mr. William
Nicol, he has watched the progress of this work through the press with
unwearied solicitude. During my occasional absences from town, the
correction of it (for which, indeed, the state of my eyes renders me
at all times rather unfit) rested almost solely on him; and it is but
justice to add, that his habitual accuracy in this ungrateful employ is
not the only quality to which I am bound to confess my obligations.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] The origin of this word is now acknowledged to be Roman. Scaliger
derived it from σατυρος (_satyrus_), but Casaubon, Dacier, and others,
more reasonably, from _satura_ (fem. of _satur_), rich, abounding, full
of variety. In this sense it was applied to the lanx or charger, in
which the various productions of the soil were offered up to the gods;
and thus came to be used for any miscellaneous collection in general.
_Satura olla_, a hotch-potch; _saturæ leges_, laws comprehending a
multitude of regulations, etc. This deduction of the name may serve
to explain, in some measure, the nature of the first Satires, which
treated of various subjects, and were full of various matters: but
enough on this trite topic.
[17] It should be observed, however, that the idea was obvious, and
the work itself highly necessary. The old Satire, amid much coarse
ribaldry, frequently attacked the follies and vices of the day. This
could not be done by the comedy which superseded it, and which, by
a strange perversity of taste, was never rendered national. Its
customs, manners, nay, its very plots, were Grecian; and scarcely more
applicable to the Romans than to us.
[18] To extend this to Lucilius, as is sometimes done, is absurd, since
he evidently had in view the old comedy of the Greeks, of which his
Satires, according to Horace, were rigid imitations:
"Eupolis atque Cratinus, Aristophanesque poëtæ
Atque alii, quorum comœdia prisca virorum est;
Si quia erat dignus describi, quod malus, aut fur,
Quod mœchus foret, aut sicarius, aut alioqui
Famosus, multa cum libertate notabant.
HINC omnis pendet Lucilius, hosce secutus,
Mutatis tantum pedibus, numerisque."
Here the matter would seem to be at once determined by a very competent
judge. Strip the old Greek comedy of its action, and change the metre
from Iambic to Heroic, and you have the Roman Satire! It is evident
from this, that, unless two things be granted, first, that the actors
in those ancient Satires were ignorant of the existence of the Greek
comedy; and, secondly, that Ennius, who knew it well, passed it by for
a ruder model; the Romans can have no pretensions to the honor they
claim.
And even if this be granted, the honor appears to be scarcely worth
the claiming; for the Greeks had not only Dramatic, but Lyric and
Heroic Satire. To pass by the Margites, what were the Iambics of
Archilochus, and the Scazons of Hipponax, but Satires? nay, what were
the Silli? Casaubon derives them απο του σιλλαινειν, to scoff, to treat
petulantly; and there is no doubt of the justness of his derivation.
These little pieces were made up of passages from various poems, which
by slight alterations were humorously or satirically applied at will.
The Satires of Ennius were probably little more; indeed, we have the
express authority of Diomedes the grammarian for it. After speaking of
Lucilius, whose writings he derives, with Horace, from the old comedy,
he adds, "et olim carmen, quod ex variis poematibus constabat, satira
vocabatur; quale scripserunt Pacuvius et Ennius." Modern critics agree
in understanding "ex variis poematibus," of various kinds of metre;
but I do not see why it may not mean, as I have rendered it, "of
various poems;" unless we choose to compliment the Romans, by supposing
that what was in the Greeks a mere cento, was in them an original
composition.
It would scarcely be doing justice, however, to Ennius, to suppose
that he did not surpass his models, for, to say the truth, the Greek
Silli appear to have been no very extraordinary performances. A few
short specimens of them may be seen in Diogenes Laertius, and a longer
one, which has escaped the writers on this subject, in Dio Chrysostom.
As this is, perhaps, the only Greek Satire extant, it may be regarded
as a curiosity; and as such, for as a literary effort it is worth
nothing, a short extract from it may not be uninteresting. Sneering at
the people of Alexandria, for their mad attachment to chariot-races,
etc., he says, this folly of theirs is not ill exposed by one of those
scurrilous writers of (Silli, or) parodies: ου κακως τις παρεποιησε των
σαπρων τουτων ποιητων·
Ἁρματα δ' αλλοτε μεν χθονι πιλνατο πουλυβοτειρῃ,
Αλλοτε δ' αεξασκε μετηορα· τοι δε θεαται
Θωκοις εν σφετεροις, ουθ' ἑστασαν, ουδ' εκαθηντο,
Χλωροι ὑπαι δειους πεφοβημενοι, ουδ' ὑπο νικες
Αλληλοισι τε κεκλομενοι, και πασι θεοισι
Χειρας ανισχοντες, μεγαλ' ευχετοωντο ἑκαστοι.
Ἡυτε περ κλαγγη γερανων πελει, ηε κολοιων,
Ἁι τ' επει ουν ζυθον τ' επιον, και αθεσπατον οινον,
Κλαγγῃ ται γε πετονται απο σταδιοιο κελευθου. κ. τ. λ.
_Ad Alexand. Orat._ xxxii.
[19] I doubt whether he was ever a good royalist at heart; he
frequently, perhaps unconsciously, betrays a lurking dissatisfaction;
but having, as Johnson says of a much greater man, "tasted the honey of
favor," he did not choose to return to hunger and philosophy. Indeed,
he was not happy; in the country he sighs for the town, in town for the
country; and he is always restless, and straining after something which
he never obtains. To float, like Aristippus, with the stream, is a bad
recipe for felicity; there must be some fixed principle, by which the
passions and desires may be regulated.
[20] He is careful to disclaim all participation in public affairs. He
accompanies Mæcenas in his carriage; but their chat, he wishes it to be
believed, is on the common topics of the day, the weather, amusements,
etc. Though this may not be strictly true, it is yet probable that
politics furnished but a small part of their conversation. That both
Augustus and his minister were warmly attached to him, can not be
denied; but then it was as to a plaything. In a word, Horace seems to
have been the "enfant gaté," of the palace, and was viewed, I believe,
with more tenderness than respect.
[21] Mr. Drummond has given this passage with equal elegance and truth:
"With greater art sly Horace gain'd his end,
But spared no failing of his smiling friend;
Sportive and pleasant round the heart he play'd,
And wrapt in jests the censure he convey'd;
With such address his willing victims seized,
That tickled fools were rallied, and were pleased."
[22] Dusaulx accounts for this by the general consternation. Most of
those, he says, distinguished for talents or rank, took refuge in the
school of Zeno; not so much to learn in it how to live, as how to die.
I think, on the contrary, that this would rather have driven them into
the arms of Epicurus. "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,"
will generally be found, I believe, to be the maxim of dangerous times.
It would not be difficult to show, if this were the place for it, that
the prevalency of Stoicism was due to the increase of profligacy, for
which it furnished a convenient cloak. This, however, does not apply to
Persius.
[23] I believe that Juvenal meant to describe himself in the following
spirited picture of Lucilius:
"Ense velut stricto quoties Lucilius ardens
Infremuit, rubet auditor, cui frigida mens est
Criminibus, tacita sudant præcordia culpa."
[24] This is an error which has been so often repeated, that it is
believed. What liberty was destroyed by the usurpation of Augustus? For
more than half a century, Rome had been a prey to ambitious chiefs,
while five or six civil wars, each more bloody than the other, had
successively delivered up the franchises of the empire to the conqueror
of the day. The Gracchi first opened the career to ambition, and wanted
nothing but the means of corruption, which the East afterward supplied,
to effect what Marius, Sylla, and the two triumvirates brought about
with sufficient ease.
[25] This is a very strange observation. It looks as if Dusaulx had
leaped from the times of old Metellus to those of Augustus, without
casting a glance at the interval. The chef d'œuvres of Roman literature
were in every hand, when he supposed them to be neglected: and, indeed,
if Horace had left us nothing, the qualities of which Dusaulx speaks
might still be found in many works produced before he was known.
[26] I have often wished that we had some of the pleadings of Juvenal.
It can not be affirmed, I think, that there is any natural connection
between prose and verse in the same mind, though it may be observed,
that most of our celebrated poets have written admirably "solutâ
oratione:" yet if Juvenal's oratory bore any resemblance to his poetry,
he yielded to few of the best ornaments of the bar. The "torrens
dicendi copia" was his, in an eminent degree; nay, so full, so rich,
so strong, and so magnificent is his eloquence, that I have heard one
well qualified to judge, frequently declare that Cicero himself, in his
estimation, could hardly be said to surpass him.
[27] With all my respect for the learning of the good old man, it is
impossible, now and then, to suppress a smile at his simplicity. In
apologizing for his translation, he says: "As for publishing poetry, it
needs no defense; there being, if my Lord of Verulam's judgment shall
be admitted, 'a _divine rapture_ in it!'"
[28] He evidently alludes to the versions of the second and eighth
Satires by Tate and Stepney, but principally to the latter, in which
Juvenal illustrates his argument by the practice of Smithfield and
Newmarket! Indeed, Dryden himself, though confessedly aware of its
impropriety, is not altogether free from "innovation;" he talks of the
Park, and the Mall, and the Opera, and of many other objects, familiar
to the translator, but which the original writer could only know by the
spirit of prophecy.
I am sensible how difficult it is to keep the manners of different
ages perfectly distinct in a work like this: I have never knowingly
confounded them, and, I trust, not often inadvertently; yet more
occasions perhaps of exercising the reader's candor will appear, after
all, than are desirable.
[29] Yet Johnson knew him well. The peculiarity of Juvenal, he says
(vol. ix., p. 424), "is a mixture of gayety and stateliness, of pointed
sentences, and declamatory grandeur." A good idea of it may be formed
from his own beautiful imitation of the third Satire. His imitation
of the tenth (still more beautiful as a poem) has scarcely a trait of
the author's manner--that is to say, of that "mixture of gayety and
stateliness," which, according to his own definition, constitutes the
"peculiarity of Juvenal." "The Vanity of Human Wishes" is uniformly
stately and severe, and without those light and popular strokes of
sarcasm which abound so much in his "London."
[30] In the fourteenth Satire, for example, there is an omission of
fifteen lines, and this, too, in a passage of singular importance.
[31] Sub-Dean and Prebendary of Westminster, and Vicar of Croydon, in
Surrey.
[32] The architect of Eton Hall, Cheshire, a structure which even now
stands pre-eminent among the works which embellish the nation, and
which future times will contemplate with equal wonder and delight.
CHRONOLOGY OF JUVENAL, PERSIUS, AND SULPICIA.
A.D. 14-138.
|OL.|A.D.|A.U.C.|X
| | | |
| | 14| 767|Death of Augustus, August 19th.
| | | |
| | | |Accession of Tiberius, anno ætat. 55.
| | | |
| | 16| 769|Rise of Sejanus. Cf. A.D. 31. Tac. Ann. vi. 8.
| | | |
| | 18| 771|Death of Ovid and Livy. Strabo still writing.
| | | |
| | 19| 772|Death of Germanicus. Jews banished from Italy (alluded
| | | |to, Sat. iii. 14; vi. 543).
| | | |
|200| 21| 774|Tiberius, on the plea of ill health, goes in the spring
| | | |into Campania.
| | | |
| | 23| 776|Influence of Sejanus. Cf. Tac. Ann. iv. 6.
| | | |
| | | |(Vid. Niebuhr's Lectures, vol. iii. p. 181.)
| | | |
| | 24| 777|Cassius Severus, an exile in Seriphos. Tac. Ann. iv. 21.
| | | |
| | | |«Cf. Sat. i. 73; vi. 563, 564; x. 170; xiii. 246.»
| | | |
| | | |C. Plinius Secundus, of Verona, born.
| | | |
| | 26| 779|Consulship of Cn. Lentulus Gætulicus. (Cf. ad viii. 26.)
| | | |
| | 27| 780|Tiberius retires to Capreæ. Tac. Ann. iv. 67. Sat. x.
| | | |90-95, and 72.
| | | |
| | 28| 781|Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus, married to Domitius.
| | | |«Nero is the issue of this marriage, born A.D. 37.»
| | | |Sat. viii. 228; vi. 615.
| | | |
|202| 29| 782|Death of Livia, mother of Tiberius.
| | | |
| | | |(Cf. Niebuhr's Lectures, vol. iii. p. 180.)
| | | |
| | 31| 784|Tiberius consul with Sejanus. Suet. Tib. 26, 65.
| | | |
| | | |Fall of Sejanus, Oct. 18. He had been in favor now 16
| | | |years. The day of his death was consecrated to Jove.
| | | |Sat. x. 56-107. Cf. Tac. Ann. vi. 25.
| | | |
| | 32| 785|Birth of Otho.
| | | |
| | 34| 787|A. Persius Flaccus, born at Volaterræ in Etruria.
| | | |
| | 36| 789|Death of Thrasyllus. Sat. vi. 576.
| | | |
| | | |«Cf. Fast. Hellen. iii. p. 277.»
| | | |
|204| 37| 790|Death of Tiberius, in March.
| | | |
| | | |Caligula succeeds, a. æt. 25.
| | | |
| | | |Birth of Nero in December. He and Caligula were both
| | | |born at Antium.
| | | |
| | 38| 791|Potion of Cæsonia? Sat. vi. 616, _seq._
| | | |
| | | |«Birth of Josephus, the historian.»
| | | |
| | 39| 792|Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, deposed and
| | | |banished by Caligula, and his dominions given to
| | | |Agrippa the father of Agrippa, Berenice, and Drusilla.
| | | |Sat. vi. 156.
| | | |
| | 40| 793|Caligula at Lyons, on his way to the ocean, institutes
| | | |the "Certamen Græcæ Latinæque facundiæ." Suet. Calig.
| | | |20. Sat. i. 44, "Aut Lugdunensem Rhetor dicturus ad
| | | |aram." Cf. xv. 111. Pers. Sat. vi. 43.
| | | |
| | | |«M. Annæus Lucanus brought to Rome in his eighth month.»
| | | |
|205| 41| 794|Caligula slain, Jan. 24. Claudius succeeds, a. æt. 50.
| | | |
| | | |Birth of Titus, Dec. 30. «Exile of Seneca.»
| | | |
| | | |Agrippa receives from Claudius Judæa and Samaria.
| | | |
| | 42| 795|Deaths of Pætus and Arria.
| | | |
| | 43| 796|First campaign of A. Plautius in Britain.
| | | |
| | | |Influence of Narcissus (Suet. Claud. 28; Dio, lx. p.
| | | |688. Sat. xiv. 329, "Divitiæ Narcissi Indulsit Cæsar
| | | |cui Claudius omnia"), and of Posides. Suet. _u. s._
| | | |Sat. xiv. 91. «Birth of Martial.»
| | | |
| | 44| 797|«Death of Agrippa, Cf. Acts xii. 21-23.»
| | | |
|206| 45| 798|«His son Agrippa at Rome intercedes for the Jews.»
| | | |
| | 46| 799|Excesses of Messalina. Sat. vi. 114-132.
| | | |
| | 48| 801|Death of Messalina (and C. Silius, whom she had openly
| | | |married), Tac. Ann. xi. 26; Suet. Claud. 26, 36, 39,
| | | |through the influence of Narcissus. Sat. xiv. 331; x.
| | | |329-345.
| | | |
| | | |Pallas the Arcadian, Claudius' freedman and secretary.
| | | |Sat. i. 109. Cf. an. 62.
| | | |
| | | |The younger Agrippa succeeds his uncle Herod.
| | | |
| | | |Remmius Palæmon, the grammarian, Quintilian's
| | | |master, flourishes. Suet. clar. Gram. 23. Sat. vi.
| | | |451, "Volvitque Palæmonis artem;" vii. 215, "docti
| | | |Palæmonis;" and l. 219.
| | | |
|207| 49| 802|Marriage of Claudius and Agrippina (widow of Domitius,
| | | |cf. an. 28). Seneca, through Agrippina's influence,
| | | |recalled from exile. (Cf. A.D. 41. Schol. ad Sat. v.
| | | |109.) Tac. Ann. xii. 8.
| | | |
| | | |Nero (a. æt. 11) placed under Seneca's care. Suet. Ner.
| | | |7.
| | | |
| | 50| 803|Eighth campaign in Britain under Ostorius. Caractacus
| | | |captured. «Persius places himself under Cornutus' care.
| | | |Pers. v. 36.»
| | | |
| | 51| 804|Birth of Domitian, while his father is consul suffectus.
| | | |
| | | |Nero receives the Toga Virilis.
| | | |
| | 52| 805|Felix, brother of Pallas, made procurator of Judæa.
| | | |
|208| 53| 806|Nero marries Octavia.
| | | |
| | | |Agrippa the younger appointed to Philip's tetrarchy,
| | | |and Trachonitis, and Abilene.
| | | |
| | 54| 807|Claudius poisoned by Agrippina's mushroom. Sat. v. 147,
| | | |"Boletum domino: sed qualem Claudius edit, Ante illum
| | | |uxoris post quem nil amplius edit." (Cf. Mart. Ep.
| | | |xiii. 48; I. xxi. 4.) Sat. vi. 620, "Minus ergo nocens
| | | |erit Agrippinæ Boletus." The poison was procured from
| | | |Locusta. Sat. i. 71, 72.
| | | |
| | | |Nero succeeds, Oct. 13, a. æt. 17.
| | | |
| | | |Domitius Corbulo appointed to Armenia. Sat. iii. 251,
| | | |"Corbulo vix ferret tot vasa ingentia." Cf. Tac. Ann.
| | | |xiii. 8.
| | | |
| | 55| 808|Death of Britannicus, who is poisoned by Nero, through
| | | |the agency of Locusta.
| | | |
| | 58| 811|Successful campaign of Corbulo in Armenia. Cf. Sat.
| | | |viii. Sabina Poppæa. Sat. vi. 462. Her husband Otho
| | | |sent into Lusitania, where he remains ten years. Cf.
| | | |Tac. Ann. xiii. 45.
| | | |
| | | |The Parthian war is perhaps alluded to in Persius, Sat.
| | | |v. 4. Vid. D'Achaintre in loc.
| | | |
| | 59| 812|Death of Agrippina (Tac. Ann. xiv. 4; Suet. Ner. 34),
| | | |during the Quinquatrus (xiv.-x. Kal. April). Sat. viii.
| | | |215.
| | | |
| | | |Consulship of L. Fonteius Capito. (Cf. an. 118.) Sat.
| | | |xiii. 17, "Fonteio Consule natus."
| | | |
| | 60| 813|Institution of the Neronia. "Certamen triplex
| | | |Quinquennale: Musicum, Gymnicum, Equestre."
| | | |
| | | |Corbulo's successful campaign in Syria.
| | | |
|210| 61| 814|Boadicea's victory. Victory of Suetonius Paulinus.
| | | |
| | | |Galba in Spain. «Birth of Pliny the younger, a few
| | | |years after Tacitus.»
| | | |
| | 62| 815|Death of Burrus.
| | | |
| | | |Sofonius Tigellinus succeeds as "Præfectus Cohortibus
| | | |Prætoriis." Cf. Tac. Ann. xiv. 57; xv. 37, 72. Sat. i.
| | | |155, "Pone Tigellinum," etc.
| | | |
| | | |Nero marries Poppæa. Death of Octavia. Tac. Ann. xiv.
| | | |60, 64.
| | | |
| | | |Pallas put to death for his money. Tac. Ann. xiv. 65.
| | | |Cf. A.D. 48.
| | | |
| | | |Death of Persius, in his 28th year.
| | | |
| | 64| 817|Nero in the theatre. Fires at Rome. Only four regions
| | | |remaining entire. Tac. Ann. xv. 40. Persecution of
| | | |Christians (c. 44), on whom the blame of the fire was
| | | |laid, and who were punished with the "Tunica Molesta."
| | | |Sat. i. 156; viii. 235. Suet. Ner. 16.
| | | |
|211| 65| 818|Piso's conspiracy. Death of Seneca. Tac. Ann. xv. 60.
| | | |Sat. viii. 211, "Libera si dentur populo suffragia,
| | | |quis tam Perditus ut dubitet Senecam præferre Neroni."
| | | |Sat. x. 15, "Temporibus diris igitur jussuque Neronis
| | | |Longinum, et magnos Senecæ prædivitis hortos clausit,"
| | | |_et seq._
| | | |
| | | |Death of Lucan, in his 26th year. Sat. vii. 79. Tac.
| | | |Ann. xv. 70. Suet. Ner. 35.
| | | |
| | | |Death of Poppæa. Tac. Ann. xvi. 6. Sat. viii. 218, "Sed
| | | |nec Electræ jugulo se polluit, aut Spartani Sanguine
| | | |conjugii."
| | | |
| | 66| 819|Death of Thrasea Pætus. Tac. Ann. xvi. 21-35.
| | | |
| | | |Martial comes to Rome, æt. 23.
| | | |
| | | |Nero sets out for Greece: meets Vatinius ("Sutrinæ
| | | |tabernæ alumnus," Tac. Ann. xv. 34) at Beneventum. Sat.
| | | |v. 47, "Tu Beneventani Sutoris nomen habentem Siccabis
| | | |calicem nasorum quatuor."
| | | |
| | | |Lubinus places the banishment of Annæus Cornutus in
| | | |this year. Cf. ad Pers. v. 5.
| | | |
| | 67| 820|Death of Corbulo.
| | | |
| | | |Nero in Greece, celebrates the 211th Olympiad (the
| | | |Olympiad having been deferred for him, Suet. Ner.
| | | |19-22), and adds a musical contest. Sat. viii. 225,
| | | |"Gaudentis fœdo peregrina ad pulpita cantu Prostitui,
| | | |Graiæque apium meruisse coronæ."
| | | |
| | | |«Jewish war committed by Nero to Vespasian.»
| | | |
| | 68| 821|Nero returns to Rome. Sat. viii. 230, "Et de marmoreo
| | | |citharam suspende Colosso."
| | | |
| | | |Vindex revolts and proclaims Galba. Ib. 221, "Quid enim
| | | |Verginius armis Debeat ulcisci magis aut cum Vindice
| | | |Galba."
| | | |
| | | |Galba accepts the empire in April.
| | | |
| | | |Death of Nero in June, in his 31st year.
| | | |
| | | |«Quintilian comes to Rome with Galba, and remains 20
| | | |years.»
| | | |
|212| 69| 822|Vitellius proclaimed, Jan. 2. Tac. Hist. i. 56, 57.
| | | |
| | | |Galba killed, Jan. 15, in his 73d year. Sat. vi. 559,
| | | |"Magnus civis obit et formidatus Othoni."
| | | |
| | | |Otho acknowledged. Battle of Bedriacum. Death of Otho
| | | |at Brixellum in April, in his 37th year. Sat. ii. 106,
| | | |"Bedriaci in campo spolium affectare Palati."
| | | |
| | | |Vitellius enters Rome in July, and is killed Dec. 21.
| | | |
| | | |Vespasian proclaimed July 1st, æt. 60.
| | | |
| | 70| 823|Vespasian enters Rome. Titus takes Jerusalem.
| | | |
| | 71| 824|Triumph of Titus and Vespasian. They passed through the
| | | |"Porta Idumæa." Sat. viii. 160.
| | | |
| | | |Temple of Peace begun. Sat. ix. 22; i. 115.
| | | |
| | | |Temple of Janus closed for the sixth time.
| | | |
| | 72| 825|Commagene reduced to a province. Sat. vi. 550,
| | | |"Commagenus Aruspex."
| | | |
| | 74| 827|Expulsion of Philosophers by Vespasian.
| | | |
| | 75| 828|Temple of Peace concluded. Suet. Vesp. 9.
| | | |
| | 76| 829|Birth of Hadrian. Cf. A.D. 138.
| | | |
| | 78| 831|Agricola in Britain. Tac. Agric. xviii. Sat. ii. 160.
| | | |
| | 79| 832|Death of Vespasian, June 23, in his 70th year.
| | | |
| | | |Titus succeeds. «Eruption of Vesuvius. Death of Pliny
| | | |the elder. Cf. Plin. vi. Epist. 16, 20.»
| | | |
| | 80| 833|Fire at Rome. Temple of Isis, and Capitol, burnt.
| | | |
|215| 81| 834|Death of Titus, Sept. 13.
| | | |
| | | |Domitian succeeds. Sat. iv. 37, "Flavius Ultimus, et
| | | |calvo serviret Roma Neroni."
| | | |
| | 82| 835|Domitian rebuilds the Capitol (Suet. Dom. 5), and
| | | |patronizes learning. Sat. vii. 1, "Et spes, et ratio
| | | |studiorum in Cæsare tantum."
| | | |
| | 83| 836|Domitian's expedition against the Catti and Sarmatæ.
| | | |
| | | |Three Vestal virgins punished. Sat. iv. 10, "Sanguine
| | | |adhuc vivo terram subitura Sacerdos."
| | | |
| | 84| 837|Domitian takes the name of "Germanicus." Receives the
| | | |censorship for life. Sat. iv. 12; ii. 121.
| | | |
| | | |Defeat of Galgacus in Britain. Sat. ii. 160, 161,
| | | |"Domitianus nobiles multos relegavit et optimates
| | | |occidit." Chron. Euseb. Cf. Sat. iv. 151, _seq._
| | | |
| | 86| 839|Domitian institutes the Capitoline Games. Suet. Dom.
| | | |4, "Certamen quinquennale triplex, Musicum, Equestre,
| | | |Gymnicum." «Cf. A.D. 60.» Sat. vi. 387, "An Capitolinam
| | | |deberet Pollio quercum Sperare et fidibus promittere."
| | | |Cf. ad Sulpic. 41.
| | | |
| | | |Dacian war. Sat. iv. 111, cum Schol.
| | | |
| | | |«Birth of Antoninus Pius.»
| | | |
|217| 89| 842|Quintilian teaches at Rome ("Publicam Scholam et
| | | |Salarium è fisco accepit," Hieron.), Domitian's
| | | |nephews, among others. Some think Juvenal attended his
| | | |lectures. Sat. vi. 75, 280; vii. 186, 189.
| | | |
| | 90| 843|Domitian expels the philosophers (cf. A.D. 74). Tac.
| | | |Agr. 2. (Sat. iii. may perhaps refer to this, "omni
| | | |bonâ arte in exsilium actâ," cf. l. 21.)
| | | |
| | | |Senecio put to death for writing a book in praise of
| | | |Helvidius Priscus. Cf. Sat. v. 36.
| | | |
| | | |Sulpicia's Satire. «Pliny prætor in his 29th year.»
| | | |
| | 91| 844|Domitian's triumphs over Dacians and Germans. «Sat. vi.
| | | |205, "Dacicus et scripto radiat Germanicus auro:" but
| | | |cf. A.D. 110.»
| | | |
| | | |Cornelia, a Vestal virgin, buried alive. (Vid. Suet.
| | | |Dom. 8. Plin. iv. Ep. 11. Cf. A.D. 83.) This happened
| | | |after the death of Julia. Sat. ii. 32.
| | | |
|218| 98| 846|Sarmatian war. (Sat. ii. 1.) Death of Agricola.
| | | |
| | | |Massa and Carus (i. 35, 36) referred by some to this
| | | |date.
| | | |
| | | |Influence of Paris. Sat. vi. 87, "Ludos Paridemque
| | | |reliquit." Sat. vii. 87, "Paridi nisi vendat Agaven;"
| | | |and 90, _seq._
| | | |
| | | |Palfurius Sura, Armillatus, Pegasus, Vibius Crispus
| | | |Placentinus, Acilius Glabrio, Fabricius Veiento,
| | | |Catullus Messalinus, Curtius Montanus, and Crispinus
| | | |flourish. Sat. iv. 50-150; vi. 82; i. 26; xi. 34.
| | | |
| | 94| 847|Lateranus consul. viii. 146, _seq._, "Prætor majorum
| | | |cineres atque ossa volucri Carpento rapitur pinguis
| | | |_Damasippus_, et ipse, Ipse rotam stringit multo
| | | |sufflamine consul;" where some read "Lateranus;" others
| | | |say Lateranus is intended by Damasippus.
| | | |
| | | |This is probably the date of the event recorded in Sat.
| | | |iv., "Illa tempora sævitiæ claras quibus abstulit Urbi
| | | |Illustresque animas impune et vindice nullo," l. 151.
| | | |Cf. Tac. Agric. 44, who says that after the death of
| | | |Agricola (A.D. 93) "Domitianus non jam per intervalla
| | | |ac spiramenta temporum sed continuo et velut uno ictu
| | | |Rempublicam exhausit," _et seq._
| | | |
| | 95| 848|Death of Clemens, the consul.
| | | |
| | | |«Persecution of Christians. St. John at Patmos.»
| | | |
| | | |Flavia Domitilla exiled to _Pontia_. «Cf. xiii. 246,
| | | |"Aut maris Ægæi rupem, scopulosque frequentes Exulibus
| | | |magnis."»
| | | |
| | | |The fourth book of the Sylvæ of Statius written.
| | | |
| | | |In the third book written A.D. 94, he mentions the
| | | |close of the Thebais. Cf. Sat. vii. 82, "Curritur ad
| | | |vocem jucundam et carmen amicæ Thebaidos, lætam fecit
| | | |quum Statius Urbem Promisitque diem."
| | | |
| | | |The Thebaid had employed twelve years.
| | | |
| | 96| 849|Domitian killed in September, in his 45th year. Sat.
| | | |iv. 153, "Sed periit postquam cerdonibus esse timendus
| | | |Cœperat, hoc nocuit Lamiarum cæde madenti."
| | | |
| | | |Nerva succeeds.
| | | |
|219| 97| 850|Nerva adopts Trajan. «Tacitus "Consul Suffectus."»
| | | |
| | 98| 851|Death of Nerva, Jan. 25th, in his 63d year.
| | | |
| | | |Trajan (then at Cologne) succeeds.
| | | |
| | | |«Plutarch flourishes. Pliny, Præf. Ærarii Saturni.»
| | | |
| | 99| 852|Trajan enters Rome.
| | | |
| | | |«Martial, 10th book, 2d edition. Silius Italicus still
| | | |living.»
| | | |
| | 100| 853|Consulship of M. Cornelius Fronto with Trajan. Sat. i.
| | | |12, "Frontonis platani, convulsaque marmora clamant
| | | |Semper et assiduo ruptæ lectore columnæ."
| | | |
| | | |Pliny and Tacitus impeach Marius Priscus, proconsul of
| | | |Africa. Fronto Catius defends him. Cf. Plin. ii. Epist.
| | | |xi. The case was tried before Trajan in person. Cf.
| | | |Sat. i. 47, "Et hic damnatus inani Judicio; quid enim
| | | |salvis infamia nummis? Exul ab octavâ Marius bibit, et
| | | |fruitur Diis iratis." And viii. 120, "Quum tenues nuper
| | | |Marius discinxerit Afros."
| | | |
| | | |Pliny's Panegyric, in his consulship.
| | | |
| | | |Death of S. John.
| | | |
| | | |«Martial returns to Bilbilis. Twelfth book of Epigrams.»
| | | |
|220| 101| 854|First Dacian war. "Trajanus primus aut solus etiam
| | | |vires Romanas trans _Istrum_ propagavit," Victor, p.
| | | |319; perhaps alluded to, Sat. viii. 169, "Syriæque
| | | |tuendis Amnibus et Rheno atque _Istro_."
| | | |
| | | |Isæus flourishes. "Magna Isæum fama præcesserat: major
| | | |inventus est. Summa est facultas, copia, ubertas."
| | | |Plin. ii. Epist. 3. Cf. Sat. iii. 73 (with the
| | | |Scholiasts), "Sermo promptus et Isæo torrentior."
| | | |
| | 103| 856|Victories in Dacia. Peace granted to Decebalus.
| | | |
| | | |Trajan triumphs, and takes the name of "Dacicus." (Cf.
| | | |110.) «Pliny arrives at Bithynia.»
| | | |
| | 104| 857|Second Dacian war. Trajan takes the command.
| | | |
| | | |Hadrian serves. "Primæ legioni Minerviæ præpositus."
| | | |Spartian. Hadr. 3.
| | | |
| | | |«Martial sends his 12th book to Rome. Vid. Ep. 18.
| | | |Pliny's letter about the Christians.»
| | | |
|221| 105| 858|Stone bridge over the Danube, by which Trajan conquers
| | | |the Dacians.
| | | |
| | 106| 859|Death of Decebalus. Dacia becomes a Roman province.
| | | |
| | | |Conquest of Arabia Petræa. 2d triumph of Trajan.
| | | |
| | 107| 860|Trajan's public works. Vid. Dio, lxviii. 15, τά τε
| | | |ἕλη τὰ Πόντινα ὡδοποίησε λίθῳ. κ. τ. λ. Cf. iii. 307,
| | | |"Armato quoties tutæ custode tenentur Et _Pomptina_
| | | |palus et Gallinaria pinus."
| | | |
| | 110| 863|This road is finished. «Plutarch's Lives.»
| | | |
| | | |The _coins_ of Trajan of this year bear the words,
| | | |"GERMANICUS, DACICUS." vi. 205, "_Dacicus_, et scripto
| | | |radiat _Germanicus_ auro."
| | | |
| | 112| 865|Hadrian Archon at Athens.
| | | |
|223| 113| 866|The column of Trajan erected (cf. Dio, lxviii. 16), to
| | | |which some think there is an allusion in the line, x.
| | | |136, "Summo tristis captivus in arcu."
| | | |
| | 114| 867|Trajan's expedition to the East, against the Armenians
| | | |and Parthians. He proceeds in the autumn through Athens
| | | |and Seleucia to Antioch.
| | | |
| | 115| 868|Earthquake at Antioch, in January or February, in which
| | | |the consul, M. Vergilianus Pedo, perished. Dio, lxviii.
| | | |24, 25.
| | | |
| | | |In the spring Trajan marches to Armenia. Sat. vi. 411,
| | | |"Nutare urbes, subsidere terram."
| | | |
| | | |«Martyrdom of S. Ignatius.»
| | | |
| | 116| 869|Trajan enters Ctesiphon, and takes the title of
| | | |"Parthicus." Sat. vi. 407, "Instantem regi Armenio
| | | |Parthoque."
| | | |
|224| 117| 870|Trajan reaches Selinus in Cilicia, and dies in August,
| | | |in his 63d year.
| | | |
| | | |Hadrian, at Antioch, succeeds, in consequence of a
| | | |fictitious adoption managed by Plotina. Cf. Gibbon,
| | | |vol. i. p. 130. To this there is supposed to be
| | | |an allusion in Sat. i. 40, "Optima summi Nunc via
| | | |processus vetulæ vesica beatæ."
| | | |
| | 118| 871|Hadrian comes to Rome.
| | | |
| | | |This is sixty years after the consulship of Fonteius.
| | | |Cf. A.D. 59. The thirteenth Satire was therefore
| | | |probably written this year. l. 17, "Stupet hæc qui jam
| | | |post terga reliquit Sexaginta annos, Fonteio consule
| | | |natus." The common story is, that Calvinus, to whom
| | | |this Satire is addressed, was _three years_ Juvenal's
| | | |senior.
| | | |
| | | |Probably the lines in Satire iii., from 60-113, are
| | | |an interpolation at a period subsequent to the first
| | | |composition of the Satire, and refer to this period.
| | | |Hadrian brought with him from _Antioch_ to Rome many
| | | |foreigners of all professions. Cf. iii. 62, "Jampridem
| | | |Syrus in Tiberim defluxit _Orontes_." Among these
| | | |he particularly favored Epictetus of Hierapolis in
| | | |Phrygia, Favorinus of Arelate in Gaul, and Dionysius
| | | |of Miletus. To one of these Juvenal may refer in
| | | |Sat. iii. 75, "Quemvis hominem secum attulit ad nos
| | | |Grammaticus, Rhetor, Geometres, Pictor, Aliptes, Augur,
| | | |Schœnobates, Medicus, Magus, omnia novit, Ad summum
| | | |non Maurus erat nec Sarmata nec Thrax," _et seq._
| | | |Cf. Spartian. Hadrian, c. 5, and especially c. 16,
| | | |where he says, "In summâ familiaritate Epictetum et
| | | |Heliodorum, philosophos, et _grammaticos, Rhetores_,
| | | |musicos, _Geometras, pictores_, astrologos habuit:
| | | |præ cæteris eminente Favorino," where the order is
| | | |rather remarkable. Dionysius of Miletus, moreover,
| | | |was a disciple of Isæus (cf. A.D. 101), l. 73,
| | | |"Ingenium velox audacia perdita, sermo Promptus et Isæo
| | | |torrentior."
| | | |
| | | |Hadrian, after a four months' consulship, proceeded to
| | | |Campania, and thence to Gaul, Germany, and Britain:
| | | |Juvenal therefore might safely publish this in the
| | | |emperor's absence.
| | | |
| | 119| 872|Hadrian consul with Junius Rusticus.
| | | |
| | | |This is most probably the Junius mentioned Sat. xv.
| | | |27, "Nuper Consule Junio gesta." Cf. Salmas., Plin.
| | | |Exercit. p. 320.
| | | |
| | 120| 873|Hadrian's progress through the provinces.
| | | |
| | | |He builds the wall in Britain: "Compositis in Britanniâ
| | | |rebus, transgressus in Galliam." Spartian. c. 10. This
| | | |may be alluded to, Sat. ii. 160, 161. Cf. Sat. xv. 111.
| | | |
| | | |«Plutarch, æt. 74.»
| | | |
|225| 121| 874|Birth of M. Aurelius.
| | | |
| | 122| 875|Hadrian at Athens.
| | | |
| | | |Artemidorus Capito, the physician, in great repute with
| | | |Hadrian. It is not impossible that he may be alluded to
| | | |under the name of "Heliodorus." Cf. Sat. vi. 373.
| | | |
| | 124| 877|The eleventh Satire may perhaps be assigned to about
| | | |this date. It was written when Juvenal was advanced in
| | | |years. l. 203, "Nostra bibat vernum contracta cuticula
| | | |solem."
| | | |
| | | |The excitement about the games in the circus (cf.
| | | |Gibbon, chap. xl.) was as great as in the days of
| | | |Domitian; and the "green" appears at this time to have
| | | |been a victorious color. Compare Sat. xi. 195, "Totam
| | | |hodie Romam circus capit, et fragor aurem Percutit,
| | | |eventum _viridis_ quo colligo _panni_;" with the
| | | |inscription in Gruter, quoted in Clinton (in ann.),
| | | |"Primum agitavit in factione _prasinâ_." «Cf. Mart.
| | | |xiv. Ep. cxxxi., written long after Domitian's time.»
| | | |
| | 126| 879|Birth of Pertinax.
| | | |
| | | |«Dionysius of Halicarnassus flourishes.»
| | | |
| | 128| 881|Hadrian takes the title of "Pater Patriæ."
| | | |
|227| 129| 882|Julius Fronto mentioned, as commanding the "Classis
| | | |Prætoria Misenensis." Cf. A.D. 100.
| | | |
| | 130| 883|In the autumn of this year Hadrian is in Egypt.
| | | |«Compare the Greek inscription quoted by Clinton from
| | | |Eckhel with Sat. xv. 5.»
| | | |
| | | |While on the Nile he lost his favorite Antinous, and
| | | |built a city to his memory, which he called after him.
| | | |It is very probable that the lines, Sat. i. 60, _seq._,
| | | |referring primarily to Nero and Sporus, may have a
| | | |secondary allusion to Hadrian and Antinous.
| | | |
| | | |«Appian flourished. Galen born.»
| | | |
| | 138| 891|Death of Hadrian in his 63d year.
| | | |
L. E.
APPENDIX, ON THE DATE OF JUVENAL'S SATIRES.
The first Satire appears, from internal evidence, to have been written
subsequently to at least the larger portion of the other Satires. But
in this, as probably in many others, lines were interpolated here and
there, at a period long after the original composition of the main body
of the Satire; the cycle of events reproducing such a combination of
circumstances, that the Satirist could make his shafts come home with
two-fold pungency. For instance, the lines 60 _et seq._, which probably
were in the first edition of the Satire directed against Nero and his
favorite Sporus, would tell with equal effect against Hadrian and
Antinous.
It is impossible, therefore, from any one given passage, to assign a
date to any of the Satires of Juvenal. All that can be done, is to
point out the allusion probably intended in the particular passages,
and by that means fix a date prior to which we may reasonably conclude
that portion could not have been written.
In those Satires whose subject is less complicated and extensive, a
nearer approximation may be obtained to the date of the composition; as
e. g. in the case of the second and eleventh Satires, and we may add
the thirteenth and fifteenth.
But in the first Satire, the allusions extend over so wide a period,
that unless we may suppose, as in the case just cited, that other
persons are intended under the names known to history, to whom his
readers would apply immediately the covert sarcasm, we can hardly
imagine that they could _all_ at any one given time serve to give point
to the shaft of the Satirist. Thus Crispinus, mentioned l. 27, was made
a senator by Nero, and lived probably under Domitian also. The barber
alluded to in l. 25 (if, as the commentators suppose, Cinnamus is the
person), must have lost all his wealth, and been reduced to poverty,
somewhere about A.D. 93, the date of Martial's seventh book of Epigrams
(who mentions the fact, and advises him to recur to his old trade, Ep.
VII. lxiv.). Massa and Carus (l. 35, 36) are mentioned by Martial as
apparently flourishing when he wrote his twelfth book, which was sent
to Rome A.D. 104. Again, line 49 seems to refer to the condemnation of
Marius as a recent event; but this took place in A.D. 100. And in that
same year M. Cornelius Fronto was consul with Trajan; and may have been
the proprietor of the plane-groves, mentioned l. 12. But then, again,
we hear of Julius Fronto in A.D. 129, and Hadrian's conduct toward
Antinous in that and the following year, might well have given occasion
to the 60th and following lines; and if we are right in applying line
40 to Plotina's manœuvring to secure the succession to Hadrian, it will
furnish an additional argument for supposing these passages to have
been added some time after. We may therefore offer the conjecture, that
the first Satire was written shortly after the year A.D. 100, as a
preface or introduction to the book, and that a few additions were made
to it, even so late as thirty years subsequently.
The second Satire was, in all probability, the first written. The
allusion in the first line to the Sarmatæ, may perhaps be connected
with the Sarmatian war, which took place A.D. 93, and in which
Domitian engaged in person. And this date will correspond with the
other references in the Satire by which an approximation to the time
of its composition may be obtained. In A.D. 84 Domitian received the
censorship for life (l. 121), at the same time that he was carrying on
an incestuous intercourse with his own niece Julia. This connection
was continued for some years. Shortly after the death of Julia, the
Vestal virgin Cornelia was buried alive, A.D. 91. These are alluded
to as _recent_ events (l. 29, "nuper"). Agricola, too, the conqueror
of Britain, died A.D. 93 (cf. l. 160), whose campaigns are spoken of
as recent occurrences, "modo captas Orcadas." The mention of Gracchus
also connects this with the eighth Satire, part of which at least was
probably written soon after the consulship of Lateranus in A.D. 94. We
may therefore conjecture that the Satire was composed between the years
A.D. 93 and 95.
The third Satire may perhaps have been written in the reign of
Domitian, and may refer to the general departure of men of worth from
Rome, when Domitian expelled the philosophers, A.D. 90. Umbritius,
who predicted the murder of Galba, A.D. 69, might have been alive at
that time; and, from his political views, would have been a friend of
Juvenal, who was a bitter enemy of Otho. The nightly deeds of violence
perpetrated by Nero would have been still fresh in men's memories (l.
278, _seq._; cf. Pers., Sat., iv., 49); as would the judicial murder of
Barea Soranus, and the arrogance of Fabricius Veiento (l. 116, 185).
Still there are other parts of the Satire that seem to bear evidence of
a later date. The name of Isæus would hardly have been so familiar in
Rome till ten years after this date, l. 74. It was not till A.D. 107
that Trajan undertook the draining of the Pontine marshes; to which
there is most probably an allusion in l. 32 and 307; to which nothing
of importance had been done since the days of Augustus. The great
influx of foreigners into Rome, in the train of Hadrian, at a still
later date, A.D. 118, probably gave rise to the spirited episode from
l. 58-125. (See Chronology.) We may therefore consider it probable that
the main body of the Satire was written toward the close of the reign
of Domitian, and received additions in the commencement of the reign of
Hadrian.
The fourth Satire in all probability describes a real event; and would
have possessed but little interest after any great lapse of time,
subsequent to the fact described. We may therefore fairly assign it
to the early part of Nerva's reign, very shortly after the death of
Domitian, which is mentioned at the close of the Satire.
The fifth Satire contains nothing by which we can determine the date.
From Juvenal's hatred of Domitian, we may suppose that l. 36 was
suggested by the condemnation of Senecio, who was put to death for
writing a panegyric on Helvidius Priscus, A.D. 90. If the Aurelia
(l. 98) be the lady mentioned by Pliny (Epist., ii., 20), this would
strengthen the conjecture, as Pliny's second book of Epistles was
probably written very shortly before that date.
There is little doubt that considerable portions of the sixth Satire
were written in the reign of Trajan. 1. The lines 407-411 describe
exactly the events which took place at Antioch, in A.D. 115, when
Trajan was entering on his Armenian and Parthian campaigns. 2. The
coins of Trajan of the year A.D. 110, have the legend Dacicus and
Germanicus, cf. l. 205; and although Domitian triumphed over the
Dacians and Germans, none of his extant coins bear that inscription;
the general title being Augustus Germanicus simply. 3. Again, l.
502 describes a kind of headdress, very common on the coins of the
reigns of Trajan and Hadrian, representing Plotina the wife of Trajan,
Marciana his sister, and Sabina the wife of Hadrian, and others: and
this fashion was a very short-lived one. Beginning with the court, it
probably soon descended to the ladies of inferior rank; but like its
unnatural antitype, the towering, powdered, and plastered rolls of our
own countrywomen, in the degraded days of the two first Georges, it was
too unnatural and disfiguring to remain long in vogue with that sex,
to whom "tanta est quærendi cura decoris tanquam famæ discrimen agatur
aut animæ." 4. The subject itself also affords an additional reason
for supposing that the Satire was composed when the poet was advanced
in life. The vices of women are hardly a topic for a young writer to
select; but the vigorous manner in which he handles the lash, rather
marks the state of mind of the man who has outgrown the passions of
early manhood, and from "the high heaven of his philosophy" looks down
with cold austerity on the desires, and with bitter indignation at the
vices, of those whose feelings he has long since ceased to share.
Juvenal was, as Hodgson says, "an impenetrable bachelor," and if, as
he conjectures, he was jilted in his early youth, this fact would give
additional bitterness to the rancor which in old age he would feel
toward the sex by whom his personal happiness had been embittered, as
well as the ruin of his native country precipitated. 5. If we are right
in supposing that by Heliodorus, Juvenal meant Artemidorus Capito (and
the change in the name is both simple and readily suggested), this
would also bring down the date of this Satire to Juvenal's later years,
as about A.D. 122 was the time when this court-physician of Hadrian had
attained his greatest reputation. 6. In line 320, Saufeia is spoken of
in similar terms to those employed in the eleventh Satire, which was
confessedly the work of his later years. 7. Compare also the mention
of Archigenes (l. 236) with the 98th line of the thirteenth Satire,
written A.D. 118. 8. The allusions to the importation of foreigners,
with their exotic vices, would also refer to the same date. See Chron.,
A.D. 118.
The date of the seventh Satire will depend mainly on the question, Whom
does Juvenal intend to panegyrize in his 1st line?
"Et spes et ratio studiorum in Cæsare tantum."
Gifford pronounces unhesitatingly in favor of Domitian, and his
argument is very plausible. "The Satire," he says, "would appear to
have been written in the early part of Domitian's reign; and Juvenal,
by giving the emperor '_one honest line_' of praise, probably meant to
stimulate him to extend his patronage. He did not think very ill of him
at the time, and augured happily for the future." Juvenal's subsequent
hatred of Domitian was caused, he thinks, by his bitter mortification
at finding, in a few years, this "sole patron of literature" changed
into a ferocious and bloody persecutor of all the arts. This opinion
he supports by some references to contemporary writers, and by the
evidence of coins of Domitian existing with a head of Pallas on the
reverse, to symbolize his royal patronage of poetry and literary
pursuits. But in almost every instance Gifford errs in assigning too
early a date to the Satires; and one or two points in this clearly
show that we must bring it down to a much later period. Domitian
succeeded to the throne A.D. 81, and it could only have been in the
_earlier_ years of his reign that even his most servile flatterers
could have complimented him upon his patronage of learning. Now,
1. It was not till about ten years after this that the actor Paris
acquired his influence and his wealth; and even allowing the very
problematical story of the banishment of Juvenal having been caused by
the offense given to the favorite by the famous lines (85-92) to be
true, this would bring it down to a time subsequent to the banishment
of philosophers from Rome; after which act Juvenal, certainly, would
not have written the first line on Domitian. 2. Again, in A.D. 90,
Quintilian was teaching in a public school at Rome, and receiving a
salary from the imperial treasury; it could hardly therefore be so
early as this date that he had acquired the fortune and estates alluded
to in l. 189. 3. In l. 82, the Thebaid of Statius is mentioned. This
poem was finished A.D. 94; and though it is true that Statius might,
most probably, have publicly recited portions of it _during its
progress_, it would have hardly earned the great reputation implied in
Juvenal's lines, at a sufficiently early date to allow us to assign it
to the first two or three years of Domitian's reign.
I should, therefore, rather suppose that by Cæsar we are to understand
Nerva. The praise of Domitian is incompatible with Juvenal's universal
hatred and execration of him. The opening of the reign of the mild and
excellent Nerva might well inspire hopes of the revival of a taste for
literature and the arts; and I would conjecture the close of A.D. 96 as
the date of the Satire. Before the end of the year Statius was dead;
but Juvenal's words seem to imply that he was still living. Again,
Matho the lawyer has failed, and is in great poverty (l. 129), to which
Martial alludes in lib. xi., Ep., part of which book was evidently
written shortly before A.D. 97. But if we are right in supposing the
first Satire to have been written about A.D. 100, the intervening
years will have given Matho ample time to retrieve his fortune by his
infamous trade of informing, and reappear as the luxurious character
described Sat., i., 32.
Of the eighth Satire, if "Lateranus" be the true reading (l. 147), or
if he be intended by "Damasippus," as I believe, we may assume the year
A.D. 101 or 102 as the probable date: Lateranus had been consul A.D.
94, and in the year A.D. 101 Trajan for the first time extended the
arms of Rome beyond the Danube. Cf. l. 169.
The plunder of his province of Africa, by Marius Priscus, was a recent
event (l. 120 "nuper"); but, as we have said above, he was impeached by
Pliny and Tacitus in the year A.D. 100. Ponticus, to whom the Satire
is addressed, may be the person to whom Martial refers in his twelfth
book, which was written A.D. 104.
There are two allusions by which we may form a conjecture as to the
date of the ninth Satire. Crepereius Pollio is mentioned as nearly in
the same circumstances of profligate poverty (l. 6, 7) as is described
in the eleventh Satire (l. 43), which was undoubtedly written in
Juvenal's later years; and he alludes (l. 117) to Saufeia, in very much
the same terms in which he speaks of her in the sixth Satire (l. 320),
which we suppose to have been written in his old age.
The internal evidence, supplied by the sustained majesty and dignified
flow of language of the tenth (as well as of the fourteenth) Satire,
without taking into consideration the philosophical nature of the
subject of both, is quite sufficient to prove that they must have been
the finished productions of a late period of a thoughtful life. We are
therefore quite prepared to admit the conjecture that the allusion in
line 136 is to the column of Trajan, erected in the year A.D. 113. The
repetition of the line (226) also connects this with the first Satire,
which it probably preceded only by a short interval.
The 203d line of the eleventh Satire fixes its date to the later
years of Juvenal's life. It breathes, besides, throughout the spirit
of a calm and philosophic enjoyment of the blessings of life, that
tells of declining age; cheered by a chastened appreciation of the
comforts by which it is surrounded, but far removed from all extraneous
or meretricious excitement, and utterly abhorrent of all noisy or
exuberant hilarity. An additional argument is mentioned in the
Chronology for referring it to the date A.D. 124.
The twelfth Satire contains nothing by which we can fix its date with
any certainty. If, however, as the commentators suppose, the wife of
Fuscus, in the 45th line, be Saufeia, it will be connected with the
sixth, ninth, and eleventh Satires, and may probably be considered the
work of his advanced age.
The thirteenth Satire is fixed by line 17 to the year A.D. 118, the
60th after the consulship of L. Fonteius Capito. This is the only
Satire to which Mr. Clinton has assigned a date.
The argument applied to the tenth Satire will apply with nearly equal
force to the fourteenth. We are therefore prepared to admit the
plausibility of the conjecture, that l. 196 refers to the progress of
Hadrian through Britain, which would fix the date to A.D. 120; a very
short time previous to the composition of the following Satire.
The event recorded in the fifteenth Satire occurred shortly after the
consulship of Junius, l. 27, "nuper consule Junio gesta." This was, in
all probability, Junius Rusticus, who was consul with Hadrian A.D. 119.
The 110th line also probably refers to the influx of Greeks and other
foreigners into Rome, in the train of Hadrian (to which we have alluded
in discussing the date of the third Satire), which took place in the
preceding year.
The sixteenth Satire may have either been the draft of a longer poem,
commenced in early life (as l. 3 _may_ imply), which the poet never
cared to finish; or an outline for a more perfect composition, which he
never lived to elaborate. The mention of Fucus may connect it with the
twelfth Satire. But though there is quite enough remaining to warrant
us in unhesitatingly ascribing the authorship to Juvenal, there is too
little left to enable us to form even a probable conjecture as to the
date of its composition.
It is hardly necessary to add, that, after a careful examination
of the foregoing Chronology, it must be evident to every novice in
scholarship, that the whole life of Juvenal, as usually given, is
a mere myth, to which one can not even apply, as in many legendary
biographies, the epithet of poetical.
L. E.
ARGUMENTS OF THE SATIRES OF JUVENAL.
SATIRE I.
This Satire seems, from several incidental circumstances to have been
produced subsequently to most of them; and was probably drawn up after
the author had determined to collect and publish his works, as a kind
of Introduction.
He abruptly breaks silence with an impassioned complaint of the
importunity of bad writers, and a resolution of retaliating upon them;
and after ridiculing their frivolous taste in the choice of their
subjects, declares his own intention to devote himself to Satire. After
exposing the corruption of men, the profligacy of women, the luxury of
courtiers, the baseness of informers and fortune-hunters, the treachery
of guardians, and the peculation of officers of state, he censures the
general passion for gambling, the servile rapacity of the patricians,
the avarice and gluttony of the rich, and the miserable poverty and
subjection of their dependents; and after some bitter reflections on
the danger of satirizing living villainy, concludes with a resolution
to attack it under the mask of departed names.
SATIRE II.
This Satire contains an animated attack upon the hypocrisy of the
philosophers and reformers of the day, whose ignorance, profligacy, and
impiety it exposes with just severity.
Domitian is here the object; his vices are alluded to under every
different name; and it gives us a high opinion of the intrepid spirit
of the man who could venture to circulate, even in private, so faithful
a representation of that blood-thirsty tyrant.
SATIRE III.
Umbritius, an Aruspex and friend of the author, disgusted at the
prevalence of vice and the disregard of unassuming virtue, is on the
point of quitting Rome; and when a little way from the city stops
short to acquaint the poet, who has accompanied him, with the causes
of his retirement. These may be arranged under the following heads:
That Flattery and Vice are the only thriving arts at Rome; in these,
especially the first, foreigners have a manifest superiority over
the natives, and consequently engross all favor--that the poor are
universally exposed to scorn and insult--that the general habits of
extravagance render it difficult for them to subsist--that the want
of a well-regulated police subjects them to numberless miseries and
inconveniences, aggravated by the crowded state of the capital, from
all which a country life is happily free: on the tranquillity and
security of which he dilates with great beauty.
SATIRE IV.
In this Satire Juvenal indulges his honest spleen against Crispinus,
already noticed, and Domitian, the constant object of his scorn
and abhorrence. The introduction of the tyrant is excellent; the
mock solemnity with which the anecdote of the Turbot is introduced,
the procession of the affrighted counselors to the palace, and the
ridiculous debate which terminates in as ridiculous a decision, show a
masterly hand. The whole concludes with an indignant and high-spirited
apostrophe.
SATIRE V.
Under pretense of advising one Trebius to abstain from the table of
Virro, a man of rank and fortune, Juvenal takes occasion to give a
spirited detail of the insults and mortifications to which the poor
were subjected by the rich, at those entertainments to which, on
account of the political connection subsisting between patrons and
clients, it was sometimes thought necessary to invite them.
SATIRE VI.
The whole of this Satire, not only the longest, but the most complete
of the author's works, is directed against the female sex. It may
be distributed under the following heads: Lust variously modified,
imperiousness of disposition, fickleness, gallantry, attachment to
improper pursuits, litigiousness, drunkenness, unnatural passions,
fondness for singers, dancers, etc.; gossiping, cruelty, ill manners;
outrageous pretensions to criticism, grammar, and philosophy;
superstitious and unbounded credulity in diviners and fortune-tellers;
introducing supposititious children; poisoning their step-sons to
possess their fortunes; and, lastly, murdering their husbands.
SATIRE VII.
This Satire contains an animated account of the general discouragement
under which literature labored at Rome. Beginning with poetry, it
proceeds through the various departments of history, law, oratory,
rhetoric, and grammar; interspersing many curious anecdotes, and
enlivening each different head with such satirical, humorous, and
sentimental remarks as naturally flow from the subject.
SATIRE VIII.
Juvenal demonstrates, in this Satire, that distinction is merely
personal; that though we may derive rank and titles from our ancestors,
yet if we degenerate from the virtues by which they obtained them,
we can not be considered truly noble. This is the main object of the
Satire; which, however, branches out into many collateral topics--the
profligacy of the young nobility; the miserable state of the provinces,
which they plundered and harassed without mercy; the contrast between
the state of debasement to which the descendants of the best families
had sunk, and the opposite virtues to be found in persons of the lowest
station and humblest descent.
SATIRE IX.
The Satire consists of a dialogue between the poet and one Nævolus, a
dependent of some wealthy debauchee, who, after making him subservient
to his unnatural passions, in return starved, insulted, hated, and
discarded him. The whole object seems to be, to inculcate the grand
moral lesson, that, under any circumstances, a life of sin is a life of
slavery.
SATIRE X.
The subject of this inimitable Satire is the vanity of human wishes.
From the principal events of the lives of the most illustrious
characters of all ages, the poet shows how little happiness is promoted
by the attainment of what our indistinct and limited views represent as
the greatest of earthly blessings. Of these he instances wealth, power,
eloquence, military glory, longevity, and personal accomplishments;
all of which, he shows, have proved dangerous or destructive to their
respective possessors. Hence he argues the wisdom of acquiescing in
the dispensations of Heaven; and concludes with a form of prayer, in
which he points out with great force and beauty the objects for which a
rational being may presume to approach the Almighty.
SATIRE XI.
Under the form of an invitation to his friend Persicus, Juvenal takes
occasion to enunciate many admirable maxims for the due regulation
of life. After ridiculing the miserable state to which a profligate
patrician had reduced himself by his extravagance, he introduces the
picture of his own domestic economy, which he follows by a pleasing
view of the simplicity of ancient manners, artfully contrasted with
the extravagance and luxury of the current times. After describing
with great beauty the entertainment he proposes to give his friend, he
concludes with an earnest recommendation to him to enjoy the present
with content, and await the future with calmness and moderation.
SATIRE XII.
Catullus, a valued friend of the poet, had narrowly escaped shipwreck.
In a letter of rejoicing to their common friend, Corvinus, Juvenal
describes the danger that his friend had incurred, and his own hearty
and disinterested delight at his preservation, contrasting his own
sacrifices of thanksgiving at the event, with those offered by the
designing legacy-hunters, by which the rich and childless were
attempted to be insnared.
SATIRE XIII.
Calvinus had left a sum of money in the hands of a confidential
person, who, when he came to re-demand it, forswore the deposit. The
indignation and fury expressed by Calvinus at this breach of trust,
reached the ears of his friend Juvenal, who endeavors to soothe and
comfort him under his loss. The different topics of consolation follow
one another naturally and forcibly, and the horrors of a troubled
conscience were perhaps never depicted with such impressive solemnity
as in this Satire.
SATIRE XIV.
The whole of this Satire is directed to the one great end of
self-improvement. By showing the dreadful facility with which children
copy the vices of their parents, the poet points out the necessity as
well as the sacred duty of giving them examples of domestic purity
and virtue. After briefly enumerating the several vices, gluttony,
cruelty, debauchery, etc., which youth imperceptibly imbibe from their
seniors, he enters more at large into that of avarice; of which he
shows the fatal and inevitable consequences. Nothing can surpass the
exquisiteness of this division of the Satire, in which he traces the
progress of that passion in the youthful mind from the paltry tricks
of saving a broken meal to the daring violation of every principle,
human and divine. Having placed the absurdity as well as the danger of
immoderate desires in every point of view, he concludes with a solemn
admonition to rest satisfied with those comforts and conveniences which
nature and wisdom require, and which a decent competence is easily
calculated to supply.
SATIRE XV.
After enumerating with great humor the animal and vegetable gods of the
Egyptians, the author directs his powerful ridicule at their sottish
and ferocious bigotry; of which he gives an atrocious and loathsome
example. The conclusion of the Satire, which is a just and beautiful
description of the origin of civil society (infinitely superior to any
thing that Lucretius or Horace has delivered on the subject), founded
not on natural instinct, but on principles of mutual benevolence
implanted by God in the breast of man, and of man alone, does honor to
the genius, good sense, and enlightened morality of the author.
SATIRE XVI.
Under a pretense of pointing out to his friend Gallus the advantages of
a military life, Juvenal attacks with considerable spirit the exclusive
privileges which the army had acquired or usurped, to the manifest
injury of the civil part of the community.
JUVENAL'S SATIRES.
SATIRE I.
Must I always be a hearer only? Shall I never retaliate,[33] though
plagued so often with the Theseid of Codrus,[34] hoarse _with reciting
it_? Shall one man, then, recite[35] to me his Comedies, and another
his Elegies, with impunity? Shall huge "Telephus" waste a whole day for
me, or "Orestes," with the margin of the manuscript full to the very
edge, and written on the back too,[36] and yet not finished, _and I not
retort_?
No one knows his own house better than I do the grove of Mars, and
Vulcan's cave close to the Æolian rocks. The agency of the winds,[37]
what ghosts Æacus is torturing, whence another bears off the gold[38]
of the stolen fleece, what huge mountain-ashes Monychus hurls, _all
this_ the plane-groves of Fronto,[39] and the statues shaken and the
columns split by the eternal reciter, are for ever re-echoing. You may
look for the same themes from the greatest poet and the least.
And yet I too have shirked my hand away from the rod.[40] I too
have given advice to Sylla, that he should enjoy a sound sleep by
returning to a private station.[41] When at every turn you meet so
many poetasters, it were a foolish clemency to spare paper that is
sure to be wasted. Yet why I rather choose to trace my course over
that plain through which the great foster-son of Aurunca[42] urged his
steeds, I will, if you are at leisure, and with favorable ear listen to
reason, tell you. When a soft eunuch[43] marries a wife; when Mævia[44]
transfixes the Tuscan boar, and, with breasts exposed, grasps the
hunting-spears; when one man singly vies in wealth with the whole body
of patricians, under whose razor my beard, grown exuberant, sounded
while I was in my prime;[45] when Crispinus, one of the dregs of the
mob of the Nile, a born-slave of Canopus, (while his shoulder hitches
up his Tyrian cloak,)[46] airs his summer ring from his sweating
fingers, and can not support the weight of his heavier gem;--it is
difficult not to write satire. For who can be so tolerant of this
iniquitous city, who so case-hardened,[47] as to contain himself! When
there comes up the bran-new litter of Matho[48] the lawyer, filled with
himself; and after him, he that informed upon his powerful friend; and
will soon plunder the nobility, already close-shorn, of the little
that remains to them; one whom even Massa fears, whom Carus soothes
with a bribe; or a Thymele suborned by some trembling Latinus.[49]
When fellows supplant you, who earn their legacies by night-work,
lifted up to heaven[50] by what is now the surest road to the highest
advancement, the lust of some ancient harridan. Proculeius gets one
poor twelfth; but Gillo has eleven twelfths. Each gets the share
proportioned to his powers. Well! let him take the purchase-money of
his blood, and be as pale as one that has trodden on a snake with naked
heel, or a rhetorician about to declaim at the altar at Lyons.[51]
Why need I tell with what indignation my parched liver boils, when
here, the plunderer of his ward (reduced by him to the vilest gains)
presses on the people with his crowds of menials, and there, he that
was condemned by a powerless sentence. (For what cares he for infamy
while he retains the plunder?) Marius,[52] though an exile, drinks
from the eighth hour, and laughs at the angry gods, while thou, O
Province, victorious in the suit, art in tears! Shall I not deem these
themes worthy of the lamp of Venusium?[53] Shall I not lash these?
Why rather sing tales of Hercules or Diomede, or the bellowing of
the Labyrinth, and the sea struck by the boy Icarus, and the winged
artificer?[54] When the pander inherits the wealth of the adulterer
(since the wife has lost the right of receiving it),[55] taught
to gaze at the ceiling, and snore over his cups with well-feigned
sleep. When he considers himself privileged to expect the command of
a cohort, who has squandered his money on his stables, and has run
through all his ancestors' estate, while he flies with rapid wheel
along the Flaminian road;[56] for while yet a youth, like Automedon,
he held the reins, while the great man showed himself off to his
"mistress-in-his-cloak."[57] Do you not long to fill your capacious
tablets, even in the middle of the cross-ways, when there comes borne
on the shoulders of six slaves, exposed to view on either side, with
palanquin almost uncurtained, and aping the luxurious Mæcenas, the
forger, who made himself a man of splendor and wealth by a few short
lines, and a moistened seal?[58] Next comes the powerful matron, who
when her husband thirsts, mingles the toad's-poison in the mellow
wine of Cales which she is herself about to hand him, and with skill
superior even to Locusta,[59] initiates her neighbors, too simple
before, in the art of burying their husbands, livid from the poison, in
despite of infamy and the public gaze.[60]
Dare some deed to merit scanty Gyarus[61] and the jail, if you wish to
be somebody. Honesty is commended, and starves. It is to their crimes
they are indebted for their gardens, their palaces, their tables, their
fine old plate, and the goat standing in high relief from the cup.
Whom does the seducer of his own daughter-in-law, greedy for gold,
suffer to sleep? Or the unnatural brides, or the adulterer not out of
his teens?[62] If nature denies the power, indignation would give birth
to verses, such as it could produce, like mine and Cluvienus'.
From the time that Deucalion ascended the mountain in his boat, while
the storm upheaved the sea,[63] and consulted the oracle, and the
softening stones by degrees grew warm with life, and Pyrrha displayed
to the males the virgins unrobed; all that men are engaged in, their
wishes, fears, anger, pleasures, joys, and varied pursuits, form the
hotch-potch of my book.
And when was the crop of vices more abundant? When were the sails of
avarice more widely spread? When had gambling its present spirits? For
now men go to the hazard of the gaming-table not simply with their
purses, but play with their whole chest[64] staked. What fierce battles
will you see there, while the steward supplies the weapons for the
contest! Is it then mere common madness to lose a hundred sestertia,
and not leave enough for a tunic for your shivering slave![65] Which
of our grandsires erected so many villas? Which of them ever dined by
himself[66] on seven courses? In our days the diminished sportula is
set outside the threshold, ready to be seized upon by the toga-clad
crowd.[67] Yet he (that dispenses it), before giving, scans your
features, and dreads lest you should come with counterfeit pretense
and under a false name. When recognized you will receive your dole.
He bids the crier summon the very Trojugenæ themselves. For even they
assail the door with us. "Give the prætor his! Then to the tribune."
But the freedman must first be served! "I was before him!" he says.
"Why should I fear or hesitate to stand up for my turn, though I was
born on the banks of Euphrates, which the soft windows[68] in my ears
would attest, though I myself were to deny the fact. But my five
shops bring me in four hundred sestertia. What does the Laticlave[69]
bestow that's worth a wish, since Corvinus keeps sheep for hire in the
Laurentine fields? I own more than Pallas[70] and the Licini. Let the
tribunes wait then!" Let Riches carry the day, and let not him give
place even to the sacrosanct magistrate, who came but the other day
to this city with chalked feet.[71] Since with us the most revered
majesty is that of riches; even though as yet, pernicious money, thou
dwellest in no temple, nor have we as yet reared altars to coin, as we
worship Peace and Faith, Victory and Virtue, and Concord, whose temple
resounds with the noise of storks returning to their nests.[72] But
when a magistrate of the highest rank reckons up at the end of the
year, what the sportula brings him in, how much it adds to his revenue,
what shall the poor retainers do, who look to this for their toga, for
their shoes, their bread and fire at home? A closely-wedged crowd of
litters is clamorous for the hundred quadrantes, and his wife, though
sick or pregnant, accompanies and goes the rounds with her husband.
One practicing a crafty trick now worn threadbare, asks for his wife
though really absent, displaying in her stead an empty and closed
palanquin: "My Galla is inside," he says, "dispatch us with all speed.
Why hesitate?" "Put out your head, Galla!" "O don't disturb her! she's
asleep!"
The day is portioned out with a fine routine of engagements. First
the sportula; then the Forum,[73] and Apollo[74] learned in the law;
and the triumphal statues, among which some unknown Egyptian or
Arabarch has dared set up his titles, whose image, as though sacred,
one dare not venture to defile.[75] At length, the old and wearied-out
clients quit the vestibule and give up all their hopes;[76] although
their expectation of a dinner has been full-long protracted: the poor
wretches must buy their cabbage and fire. Meanwhile their patron-lord
will devour the best that the forest and ocean can supply, and will
recline in solitary state with none but himself on his couches. For
out of so many fair, and broad, and such ancient dishes, they gorge
whole patrimonies at a single course. In our days there will not be
even a parasite! Yet who could tolerate such sordid luxury! How gross
must that appetite be, which sets before itself whole boars, an animal
created to feast a whole company! Yet thy punishment is hard at hand,
when distended with food thou layest aside thy garments, and bearest
to the bath the peacock undigested! Hence sudden death, and old age
without a will. The news[77] travels to all the dinner-tables, but
calls forth no grief, and thy funeral procession advances, exulted
over by disgusted friends![78] There is nothing farther that future
times can add to our immorality. Our posterity must have the same
desires, perpetrate the same acts. Every vice has reached its climax.
Then set sail! spread all your canvas! Yet here perchance you may
object, whence can talent be elicited able to cope with the subject?
Whence that blunt freedom of our ancestors, whose very name I dare not
utter, of writing whatever was dictated by their kindling soul. What
matter, whether Mucius forgive the libel, or not? But take Tigellinus
for your theme, and you will shine in that tunic, in which they blaze
standing,[79] who smoke with throat transfixed, and you will draw
a broad furrow in the middle of the sand. "Must he then, who has
given[80] aconite to his three uncles, be borne on down cushions,
suspended aloft, and from thence look down on us?" Yes! when he meets
you press your finger to your lip! There will be some informer standing
by to whisper in his ear, That's he! Without fear for the consequences
you may match[81] Æneas and the fierce Rutulian. The death of Achilles
breeds ill-will in no one; or the tale of the long-sought Hylas, who
followed his pitcher. But whensoever Lucilius, fired with rage, has
brandished as it were his drawn sword, his hearer, whose conscience
chills with the remembrance of crime, grows red. His heart sweats with
the pressure of guilt concealed. Then bursts forth rage and tears!
Ponder well, therefore, these things in your mind, before you sound the
signal blast. The soldier when helmeted repents too late of the fight.
I will try then what I may be allowed to vent on those whose ashes are
covered by the Flaminian[82] or Latin road.
FOOTNOTES:
[33] _Reponam_, "repay in kind." A metaphor taken from the payment of
debts.
[34] _Codrus_; a poor poet in every sense, if, as some think, he is the
same as the Codrus mentioned iii., 203.
[35] _Recitaverit._ For the custom of Roman writers to recite their
compositions in public, cf. Sat. vii., 40, 83; iii., 9. Plin., 1,
Ep. xiii., "queritur se diem perdidisse." _Togata_ is a comedy on a
Roman subject; _Prætexta_, a tragedy on the same; _Elegi_, trifling
love-songs.
[36] _In tergo._ The ancients usually wrote only on one side of the
parchment: when otherwise, the works were called "Opisthographi," and
said to be written "aversa charta."
[37] _Venti_; cf. xii., 23, where he uses "Poëtica tempestas" as a
proverbial expression.
[38] _Aurum_; probably a hit at Valerius Flaccus, his contemporary.
[39] _Julius Fronto_ was a munificent patron of literature, thrice
consul, and once colleague of Trajan, A.D. 97. Cassiod.
[40] "Jam a grammaticis eruditi recessimus." Brit.; and so Dryden.
[41] "That to sleep soundly, he must cease to rule." Badham.
[42] Lucilius was born at _Aurunca_, anciently called Suessa.
[43] _Spado_, for the reason, vid. Sat. vi., 365.
[44] _Mævia._ The passion of the Roman women for fighting with wild
beasts in the amphitheatre was encouraged by Domitian, but afterward
restrained by an edict of Severus.
[45] "Who reap'd my manly chin's resounding field." Hodgson. Either
Licinus, the freedman of Augustus, is referred to (Hor., A. P., 301),
or more probably Cinnamus. Cf. Sat. x., 225. Mart., vii., Ep. 64.
[46] This is the most probable meaning, and adopted by Madan and
Browne; but there are various other interpretations: e. g., "Cumbered
with his purple vest." Badham. "With cloak of Tyrian dye, Changed oft a
day for needless luxury." Dryden. "While he gathers now, now flings his
purple open." Gifford. "O'er his back displays." Hodgson.
[47] _Ferreus_, "so steel'd."
[48] "Fat Matho plunged in cushions at his ease." Badham.
[49] Cf. Mart., i., v., 5, "Quâ Thymelen spectas derisoremque Latinum."
[50] _Cœlum._ There is probably a covert allusion here to Adrian, who
gained the empire through the partiality of Plotina, in spite of the
will of her dying husband Trajan.
[51] _Lugdunensem._ There was a temple erected in honor of Augustus
at Lyons, A.U.C. 744, and from the very first games were celebrated
there, but the contest here alluded to was instituted by Caligula. Cf.
Suet., Calig., xx. It was a "certamen Græcæ Latinæque facundiæ," in
which the vanquished were compelled to give prizes to the victors, and
to write their praises. While those who "maximè displicuissent" had
to obliterate their own compositions with a sponge or their tongues,
unless they preferred being beaten with ferules, or ducked in the
nearest river. Caligula was at Lyons, A.D. 40, on his way to the ocean.
[52] _Marius Priscus_, proconsul of Africa, was condemned for
extortion, A.D. 100. Vid. Clinton in a. Pliny the Younger was his
accuser, 2 Ep., xi. (Cf. Sat. viii., 120, "Cum tenues nuper Marius
discinxerit Afros.") Though condemned, he saved his money; and was,
as Gifford renders it, "by a juggling sentence damn'd in vain." The
ninth hour (three o'clock) was the earliest hour at which the temperate
dined. Cf. Mart., iv., Ep. 8, "Imperat exstructos frangere nona toros."
Cf. Hor., i., Od. i., 20.
[53] _Venusium_, or Venusia, the birthplace of Horace.
[54] "Vitreo daturus nomina Ponto." Hor., iv., Od. ii., 3.
[55] _Jus nullum uxori._ Cf. Suet., Dom., viii. "Probrosis fœminis
ademit jus capiendi legata hæreditatesque."
[56] The Flaminian road ran the whole length of the Campus Martius, and
was therefore the most conspicuous thoroughfare in Rome. It is now the
Corso.
[57] _Lacernatæ._ The Lacerna was a male garment: the allusion is
probably to Nero and his "eunuch-love" Sporus. Vid. Suet., Nero, 28.
[58] "Signator-falso," sc. testamento. Cf. Sat. xii., 125, and Bekker's
Charicles. "Fram'd a short will and gave himself the whole." Hodgson.
"A few short lines authentic made,
By a forged seal the inheritance convey'd." Badham.
[59] _Locusta._ Vid. Tac., Ann., xii., 66, 67. She was employed by
Agrippina to poison Claudius, and by Nero to destroy Germanicus. On the
accession of Galba she was executed. Cf. Suet., Nero, 33.
[60]
"Reckless of whispering mobs that hover near." Badham.
"Nor heed the curse of the indignant throng." Gifford.
[61] _Gyarus_, a barren island in the Ægean. Vid. Tac., Ann., iii, 68,
69. "Insulam Gyarum immitem et sine cultu hominum esse." Cf. Sat. x.,
170; vi., 563.
[62] "The raw noble in his boyish gown." Hodgson. "Stripling
debauchee." Gifford. The sons of the nobility wore the toga prætexta
till the age of seventeen.
[63] "While whelming torrents swell'd the floods below." Badham.
[64] _Arcâ._ Cf. Sat. x., 24.
[65] _Reddere._ Probably "to pay what has been _long_ due."
[66] _Secreto_, "without their clients," opposed to the "in propatulo"
of Val. Max., ii., 5. ἔῤῥ' ἐς κόρακας μονόφαγε. Alex.
[67] In former days the Romans entertained their clients, after the
day's officium was over, at supper, which was called "cœna recta." In
later times, the clients, instead of this, received their portion of
the supper, which they carried away in a small basket, "sportula," or
a kind of portable kitchen. Cf. iii., 249. This was again changed, and
an equivalent in money (centum quadrantes, about twenty pence English)
given instead. Domitian restored the "cœna recta." Cf. Suet., Dom.,
vii.; Nero, xvi.
[68] _Fenestræ._ Cf. Xen., Anab., III., i., 31. Exod., xxi., 6.
[69]
"Shall I then yield, though born perchance a slave,
To the proud beggar in his laticlave?" Hodgson.
[70] _Pallas_, the freedman of Claudius, was enormously rich. The
wealth and splendor of Licinus is again alluded to, Sat. xiv., 305.
[71] _Pedibus albis._ The feet of imported slaves were marked with
chalk. Cf. Sat. vii., 16. Plin., H. N., xxxv., 17.
[72] _Salutato crepitat._ It refers either to the chattering of the
young birds, when the old birds who have been in quest of food return
to their nests (the whole _temple_ being deserted by men, serves, as
the Schol. says, for a _nidus_ to birds); or, to the noise made by the
old birds striking their beaks to announce their return. Cf. Ov., Met.,
vi., 97.
[73] _Ordine rerum._ Cf. Mart., iv., Ep. 8. The _Forum_ is the old
Forum Romanum.
[74] _Apollo_, i. e., the Forum Augusti on the Palatine Hill. In the
court where pleas were held stood an ivory statue of Apollo. Cf. Hor.,
i., Sat. ix., 78.
[75] "And none must venture to pollute the place." Hodgson. Tantum, i.
e., tantummodo. Cf. Pers., i. Sat., 114, Sacer est locus, ite profani,
Extra meiete!
[76] To all these places the client attends his patron; then, on his
return, the rich man's door is closed, and he is at liberty to return
home, without any invitation to remain to dinner.
"The day's attendance closed, and evening come,
The uninvited client hies him home." Badham.
[77] _Nova._ "By witty spleen increased." Gifford.
[78]
"Friends, unenrich'd, shall revel o'er your bier,
Tell the sad news, nor grace it with a tear." Hodgson.
[79] _Tædâ._ Cf. viii., 235, "Ausi quod libeat tunica punire molestâ."
Tac., Ann., xv., 44, "Aut crucibus adfixi, aut flammandi, atque ubi
defecisset dies, in usum nocturni luminis urerentur." Sen., de Ira,
iii., 3, "Circumdati defixis corporibus ignes."
[80] _Qui dedit_, i. e., Tigellinus.
[81] _Committas_, a metaphor from pairing or matching gladiators in the
arena.
"Achilles may in epic verse be slain,
And none of all his myrmidons complain;
Hylas may drop his pitcher, none will cry,
Not if he drown himself for company." Dryden.
[82] _Flaminiâ._ The laws of the xii. tables forbade all burials within
the city. The road-sides, therefore, were lined with tombs. Hence the
common beginning of epitaphs, "Siste gradum viator." The peculiar
propriety of the selection of these two roads is the fact that Domitian
was buried by the Flaminian, and Paris, the mime, Juvenal's personal
enemy, by the Latin road.
SATIRE II.
I long to escape from hence beyond the Sarmatians, and the frozen
sea, whenever those fellows who pretend to be Curii and live like
Bacchanals presume to read a lecture on morality. First of all, they
are utterly unlearned, though you may find all their quarters full of
busts of Chrysippus. For the most finished scholar among them is he
that has bought an image of Aristotle or Pittacus, or bids his shelves
retain originals of Cleanthes. There is no trusting to the outside!
For what street is there that does not overflow with debauchees of
demure exterior? Dost thou reprove abominations, that art thyself the
most notorious sink among catamites who pretend to follow Socrates?
Thy rough limbs indeed, and the stiff bristles on thy arms, seem to
promise a vigorous mind within; but on thy smooth behind, the surgeon
with a smile lances the swelling piles. These fellows affect a paucity
of words, and a wonderful taciturnity, and the fashion of cutting their
hair shorter than their eyebrows. There is therefore more frankness and
sincerity in Peribomius; the man that by his very look and gait makes
no secret of his depravity, I look upon as the victim of destiny. The
plain-dealing of the latter class excites our pity; their very madness
pleads for our forgiveness. Far worse are they who in Hercules' vein
practice similar atrocities, and preaching up virtue, perpetrate the
foulest vice. "Shall I feel any dread for thee, Sextus, unnatural
thyself?" says the infamous Varillus. "How am I worse than thou? Let
the straight-limbed, if you please, mock the bandy-legged; the fair
European sneer at the Ethiop. But who could tolerate the Gracchi if
they railed at sedition? Who would not confound heaven with earth, and
sea with sky,[83] if a thief were odious to Verres, or a murderer to
Milo? If Clodius were to impeach adulterers, or Catiline Cethegus? If
Sylla's three pupils were to declaim against Sylla's proscriptions?
Such was the case of the adulterer recently[84] defiled by incest, such
as might be found in Greek tragedy, who then set himself to revive
those bitter laws which all might tremble at, ay, even Venus and Mars,
at the same time that Julia was relieving her fruitful womb by so
many abortives,[85] and gave birth to shapeless masses, the image of
her uncle! Might not then, with all reason and justice, even the very
worst of vices look with contempt on these counterfeit Scauri, and if
censured turn and bite again?"
Lauronia could not endure some fierce reformer of this class so often
exclaiming, "Where is now the Julian law? is it slumbering?" and thus
silenced him with a sneer: "Blest days indeed! that set thee up as a
censor of morals! Rome now must needs retrieve her honor! A third Cato
has dropped from the clouds. But tell me, pray, where do you buy these
perfumes that exhale from your neck, all hairy though it be! Do not be
ashamed to tell the shopman's name. But if old laws and statutes are to
be raked up,[86] before all others the Scatinian ought to be revived.
First scrutinize and look into the conduct of the men. They commit
the greater atrocities; but it is their number protects them, and
their phalanxes close serried with their shields. There is a wonderful
unanimity among these effeminates. You will not find one single
instance of such execrable conduct in our sex.[87] Tædia does not
caress Cluvia, nor Flora Catulla. Hispo acts both sex's parts, and is
pale with two-handed lust. Do _we_ ever plead causes? Do we study civil
law? or disturb your courts with any clamor of our tongues? A few of
us perhaps may wrestle, or diet themselves on the trainer's food; but
only a few. You men, you spin wool, and carry home in women's baskets
your finished tasks. You men twist the spindle big with its fine-drawn
thread more deftly than Penelope, more nimbly than Arachne; work, such
as the dirty drab does that sits crouching on her log. Every one
knows why Hister at his death made his freedman his sole heir, while,
when alive, he gave his maiden wife[88] so many presents. She will be
rich without a doubt, who will submit to lie third in the wide bed.
Get married then, and hold your tongue, and earrings[89] will be the
guerdon of your silence! And after all this, forsooth, a heavy sentence
is to be passed on us women! Censure acquits the raven, but falls foul
of the dove!"
From this rebuke so true and undeniable, the counterfeit Stoics
recoiled in confusion, For what grain of untruth was there in
Lauronia's words? Yet, what will not others do, when thou, Creticus,
adoptest muslin robes, and to the amazement of the people, inveighest
in such a dress against Procula or Pollinea?
Fabulla, thou sayest, is an adulteress. Then let her be condemned, if
you will have it so, and Carfinia also. Yet though condemned, she would
not put on such a dress as that. "But it is July, it is raging hot, I
am on fire!" Then plead stark naked![90] To be thought mad would be a
less disgrace! Is that a dress to propound laws and statutes in, in
the ears of the people when flushed with victory, with their wounds
yet green, or that noble race, fresh from their plows? What an outcry
would you make, if you saw such a dress on the person of a Judex! I
ask, would such a robe be suitable even in a witness? Creticus! the
implacable, the indomitable, the champion of liberty, is transparent!
Contagion has caused this plague-spot, and will extend it to many more,
just as a whole flock perishes, in the fields from the scab of one
sheep, or pigs from mange, and the grape contracts the taint from the
grape it comes in contact with. Ere long you will venture on something
more disgraceful even than this dress. No one ever reached the climax
of vice at one step. You will by degrees enter the band of those who
wear at home long fillets round their brows, and cover their necks with
jewels, and propitiate Bona Dea with the belly of a young sow and a
huge bowl of wine; but by an inversion of the old custom _women_, kept
far aloof, dare not cross the threshold. The altar of the goddess
is accessible to males alone. "Withdraw, profane females!" is the
cry. No minstrel here may make her cornet sound! Such were the orgies
by the secret torch-light which the Baptæ celebrated, who used to
weary out even the Athenian Cotytto.[91] One with needle held oblique
adds length to his eyebrows touched with moistened soot, and raising
the lids paints his quivering eyes. Another drains a Priapus-shaped
glass, and confines his long thick hair with a caul of gold thread,
clothed in sky-blue checks, or close-piled yellow stuffs; while his
attendant also swears by Juno, the patron deity of his master. Another
holds a mirror, the weapon wielded by the pathic Otho, "the spoil of
Auruncan Actor,"[92] in which he surveyed himself when fully armed,
before he gave the signal to engage--a thing worthy to be recorded in
the latest annals and history of the day. A mirror! fit baggage for
a civil war! O yes, forsooth! to kill old Galba shows the consummate
general, to pamper one's complexion is the consistent occupation of
the first citizen of Rome; to aspire to the empire as the prize on
Bebriacum's[93] plains, and then spread over his face a poultice
applied with his fingers! Such an act as neither the quivered Semiramis
perpetrated in the Assyrian realms, or Cleopatra flying dejected in her
Actian galley. Among this crew there is neither decency of language,
nor respect for the proprieties of the table. Here is the foul license
that Cybele enjoins, the lisping speech, the aged priest with hoary
hair, like one possessed, a prodigy of boundless appetite, open to
hire. Yet why do they delay? since long ago they ought after the
Phrygian custom to have removed with their knives the superfluous flesh.
Gracchus[94] gave four hundred sestertia as his dowry, with himself,
to a bugler, or else one that blew the straight trumpet. The marriage
deeds were duly signed, the blessing invoked, a great dinner provided,
the he-bride lay in the bridegroom's arms. O nobles! is it a censor
we need, or an aruspex? You would without doubt be horrified, and deem
it a prodigy of portentous import, if a woman gave birth to a calf, or
a cow to a lamb. The same Gracchus puts on flounces, the long robe and
flame-colored[95] veil, who, when bearing the sacred shields swinging
with mysterious thong, sweated beneath the Ancilia! Oh! father of
our city! whence came such heinous guilt to the shepherds of Latium?
Whence, O Gradivus, came this unnatural lust that has tainted thy race?
See! a man illustrious in birth and rank is made over to a man! Dost
thou neither shake thy helmet, nor smite the earth with thy lance? Dost
thou not even appeal to thy father Jove? Begone then! and quit the
acres of the Campus once so severe, which thou ceasest to care for!
"I have some duty-work to perform to-morrow at break of day in the
Quirinal valley." "What is the occasion?" "Why ask? my friend is going
to be married; only a few are invited!" If we only live to see it,
these things will be done in the broad light of day, and claim to be
registered in the public acts. Meanwhile, there is one grievous source
of pain that clings to these male-brides, that they are incapable
of bearing, and retaining their lords' affections by bringing them
children. No! better is it that nature in this case gives their minds
no power over their bodies! They must die barren! Vain, in their case,
is fat Lyde with her medicated box; vain the holding out their hands to
the nimble Luperci.
Yet even this prodigy of crime is surpassed by the trident of Gracchus
in his gladiator's tunic,[96] when in full flight he traverses the
middle of the arena. Gracchus! more nobly born than the Manlii, and
Marcelli, and Catulus' and Paulus' race, and the Fabii, and all the
spectators in the front row. Ay, even though you add to these the very
man himself, at whose expense he cast his net as Retiarius.
That there are departed spirits, and realms beneath the earth--that
Charon's pole exists, and the foul frogs in the Stygian whirlpool--and
that so many thousand souls cross its waters in a single bark, not
even boys believe, save those as yet too young to be charged for their
bath.[97] But do thou believe them true! What does Curius feel, and
the two Scipios, what Fabricius and the shades of Camillus, what the
legion cut off at Cremera, and the flower of Roman youth slaughtered
at Cannæ--so many martial spirits--what do they feel when such a shade
as this passes from us to them? They would long to be cleansed from
the pollution of the contact, could any sulphur and pine-torches be
supplied to them, or could there be a bay-tree to sprinkle them with
water.
To such a pitch of degradation are we come![98] We have, indeed,
advanced our arms beyond Juverna's shore, and the Orcades[99] recently
subdued, and the Britons content with night contracted to its briefest
span. But those abominations which are committed in the victorious
people's city are unknown to those barbarians whom we have conquered.
"Yet there _is_ a story told of one, an Armenian Zalates, who, more
effeminate than the rest of his young countrymen, is reported to have
yielded to the tribune's lust." See the result of intercourse with
Rome! He came a hostage! Here they learn to be _men_! For if a longer
tarry in the city be granted to these youths, they will never lack a
lover. Their plaids, and knives, and bits, and whips, will soon be
discarded. Thus it is the vices of our young nobles are aped even at
Artaxata.[100]
FOOTNOTES:
[83] Alluding to the comic exclamation, "O Cœlum, O Terra, O Maria
Neptuni." Vid. Ter., Adelph., v., i., 4. Cf. Sat. vi., 283.
[84] _Nuper._ The allusion is to Domitian and his niece Julia, who died
from the use of abortives (cf. Plin., iv., Epist. xi.: "Vidua abortu
periit"), cir. A.D. 91. This, therefore, fixes the date of the Satire,
which was probably one of Juvenal's earliest, and written when he was
about thirty. Cf. Sat. xiii., 17.
[85] Cf. vi., 368.
[86] _Vexantur._ E somno excitantur, alluding to "Lex Julia Dormis?"
Cf. i., 126.
[87] The whole of this ironical defense contains the bitterest satire
upon the women of Rome, as all these crimes he proves in the 6th Satire
to be of every-day occurrence.
[88] _Puellæ._ Cf. Sat. ix., 70, _seq._
[89] _Cylindros_, called, vi., 459, "Elenchos." Cf. Arist., Fr., 300,
ἑλικτῆρες.
[90] _Nudus_, i. e., in the Roman sense, without the toga.
[91] _Cotytto_ herself, the goddess of licentiousness, was wearied with
their impurities.
[92] _Actoris._ Æn., xii., 94.
[93] _Bebriacum_, between Verona and Cremona, where the deciding battle
was fought between Otho and Vitellius.
[94] _Gracchus._ In the same manner Nero was married to one Pythagoras,
"in modum solennium conjugiorum denupsisset." Tac., Ann., xv., 37. He
repeated the same act with Sporus.
[95] _Flammea._ Vid. Tac., u. s. "Inditum imperatori flammeum, visi
auspices, dos, et genialis torus et faces nuptiales: cuncta denique
spectata, quæ etiam in feminâ nox operit."
[96] _Tunicati._ Vid. Sat. vi., 256; viii., 203. Movet ecce tridentem.
Credamus tunicæ, etc.
[97] _Nondum ære lavantur._ The fee was a quadrans: vi., 447.
[98] _Traducimur._ Cf. viii., 17. Squalentes traducit avos.
[99] _Modo captas Orcadas._ A.D. 78, Clinton, F. R. "Insulas quas
Orcadas vocant, invenit domuitque." Tac., Agric., c. x.; cf. c.
xii. "Dierum spatia ultra nostri orbis mensuram: _nox_ clara, et
extremâ Britanniæ parte _brevis_, ut finem atque initium lucis exiguo
discrimine internoscas."
[100] _Referunt._ Cf. i., 41. "Multum _referens_ de Mæcenate supino."
The fashion is not only _carried_ back to Armenia, but _copied_ there.
_Prætextatus._ Cf. i., 78. _Artaxata_, the capital of Armenia, was
taken by Corbulo, A.D. 58.
SATIRE III.
Although troubled at the departure of my old friend, yet I can not but
commend his intention of fixing his abode at Cumæ, now desolate, and
giving the Sibyl one citizen at least. It is the high road to Baiæ, and
has a pleasant shore; a delightful retreat. I prefer even Prochyta[101]
to the Suburra. For what have we ever looked on so wretched or so
lonely, that you would not deem it worse to be in constant dread of
fires, the perpetual falling-in of houses, and the thousand dangers of
the cruel city,[102] and poets spouting in the month of August.[103]
But while his whole household is being stowed in a single wagon, my
friend Umbritius halted at the ancient triumphal arches[104] and the
moist Capena. Here, where Numa used to make assignations with his
nocturnal mistress, the grove of the once-hallowed fountain and the
temples are in our days let out to Jews, whose whole furniture is a
basket and bundle of hay.[105] For every single tree is bid to pay a
rent to the people, and the Camenæ having been ejected, the wood is
one mass of beggars. We descended into the valley of Egeria and the
grottoes, so altered from what nature made them. How much more should
we feel the influence of the presiding genius of the spring,[106]
if turf inclosed the waters with its margin of green, and no marble
profaned the native tufo. Here then Umbritius began:[107]
"Since at Rome there is no place for honest pursuits, no profit to be
got by honest toil--my fortune is less to-day than it was yesterday,
and to-morrow must again make that little less--we purpose emigrating
to the spot where Dædalus put off his wearied wings, while my gray
hairs are still but few, my old age green and erect; while something
yet remains for Lachesis to spin, and I can bear myself on my own legs,
without a staff to support my right hand. Let us leave our native land.
There let Arturius and Catulus live. Let those continue in it who turn
black to white; for whom it is an easy matter to get contracts for
building temples, clearing rivers, constructing harbors,[108] cleansing
the sewers, the furnishing a funeral,[109] and under the mistress-spear
set up the slave to sale."[110]
These fellows, who in former days were horn-blowers, and constant
attendants on the municipal amphitheatres, and whose puffed cheeks were
well known through all the towns, now themselves exhibit gladiatorial
shows, and when the thumbs of the rabble are turned up, let any man be
killed to court the mob. Returned from thence, they farm the public
jakes.
And why not every thing? Since these are the men whom Fortune, whenever
she is in a sportive mood, raises from the dust to the highest pinnacle
of greatness.[111]
What shall _I_ do at Rome? I can not lie; if a book is bad, I can
not praise it and beg a copy. I know not the motions of the stars. I
neither will nor can promise a man to secure his father's death. I
never inspected the entrails of a toad.[112]
Let others understand how to bear to a bride the messages and presents
of the adulterer; no one shall be a thief by my co-operation; and
therefore I go forth, a companion to no man,[113] as though I were
crippled, and a trunk useless from its right hand being disabled.[114]
Who, now-a-days, is beloved except the confidant of crime, and he whose
raging mind[115] is boiling with things concealed, and that must never
be divulged? He that has made you the partaker of an honest secret,
thinks that he owes you nothing, and nothing will he ever pay. He will
be Verres' dear friend, who can accuse Verres at any time he pleases.
Yet set not thou so high a price on all the sands of shady Tagus,[116]
and the gold rolled down to the sea, as to lose your sleep, and to your
sorrow take bribes that ought to be spurned,[117] and be always dreaded
by your powerful friend.
What class of men is now most welcome to our rich men, and whom I would
especially shun, I will soon tell you; nor shall shame prevent me.[118]
It is that the city is become Greek, Quirites, that I can not tolerate;
and yet how small the proportion even of the dregs of Greece! Syrian
Orontes has long since flowed into the Tiber, and brought with it its
language, morals, and the crooked harps with the flute-player, and its
national tambourines, and girls made to stand for hire at the Circus.
Go thither, ye who fancy a barbarian harlot with embroidered turban.
That rustic of thine, Quirinus, takes his Greek supper-cloak, and wears
Greek prizes on his neck besmeared with Ceroma.[119] One forsaking
steep Sicyon, another Amydon, a third from Andros, another from Samos,
another again from Tralles, or Alabanda,[120] swarm to Esquiliæ, and
the hill called from its osiers, destined to be the very vitals, and
future lords of great houses.[121] These have a quick wit, desperate
impudence, a ready speech, more rapidly fluent even than Isæus.[122]
Tell me what you fancy he is? He has brought with him whatever
character you wish--grammarian, rhetorician, geometer, painter,
trainer,[123] soothsayer, rope-dancer, physician, wizard--he knows
every thing. Bid the hungry Greekling go to heaven! He'll go.[124] In
short, it was neither Moor, nor Sarmatian, nor Thracian, that took
wings, but one born in the heart of Athens.[125] Shall I not shun these
men's purple robes? Shall this fellow take precedence of me in signing
his name, and recline pillowed on a more honorable couch than I, though
imported to Rome by the same wind that brought the plums and figs?[126]
Does it then go so utterly for nothing, that my infancy inhaled the
air of Aventine, nourished on the Sabine berry? Why add that this
nation, most deeply versed in flattery, praises the conversation of
an ignorant, the face of a hideously ugly friend, and compares some
weak fellow's crane-like neck to the brawny shoulders of Hercules,
holding Antæus far from his mother Earth: and is in raptures at the
squeaking voice,[127] not a whit superior in sound to that of the
cock as he bites the hen. We may, it is true, praise the same things,
if we choose. But _they_ are believed. Can he be reckoned a better
actor,[128] when he takes the part of Thais, or acts the wife in the
play, or Doris[129] without her robe. It is surely a woman in reality
that seems to speak, and not a man personifying one. You would swear
it was a woman, perfect in all respects. In their country, neither
Antiochus, nor Stratocles, or Demetrius and the effeminate Hæmus, would
call forth admiration. For there every man's an actor. Do you smile? He
is convulsed with a laugh far more hearty. If he spies a tear in his
friend's eye, he bursts into a flood of weeping; though in reality he
feels no grief. If at the winter solstice you ask for a little fire, he
calls for his thick coat. If you say, I am hot! he breaks into a sweat.
Therefore we are not fairly matched; he has the best of it, who can at
any time, either by night or day, assume a fictitious face; kiss his
hands in ecstasy, quite ready, to praise his patron's grossest acts; if
the golden cup has emitted a sound, when its bottom is inverted.
Besides, there is nothing that is held sacred by these fellows, or
that is safe from their lust. Neither the mistress of the house, nor
your virgin daughter, nor her suitor, unbearded as yet, nor your son,
heretofore chaste. If none of these are to be found, he assails his
friend's grandmother. They aim at learning the secrets of the house,
and from that knowledge be feared.
And since we have begun to make mention of the Greeks, pass on to their
schools of philosophy, and hear the foul crime of the more dignified
cloak.[130] It was a Stoic that killed Bareas--the informer, his
personal friend--the old man, his own pupil--bred on that shore[131]
on which the pinion of the Gorgonean horse lighted. There is no room
for any Roman here, where some Protogenes, or Diphilus, or Erimanthus
reigns supreme; who, with the common vice of his race, never shares
a friend, but engrosses him entirely to himself. For when he has
infused into his patron's too ready ear one little drop of the venom
of his nature and his country, I am ejected from the door; all my
long-protracted service goes for naught. Nowhere is the loss of a
client of less account. Besides (not to flatter ourselves) what service
can the _poor man_ render, what merit can _he_ plead, even though he be
zealous enough to hasten in his toga[132] before break of day, when the
very _prætor_ himself urges on his lictor, and bids him hurry on with
headlong speed, since the childless matrons have been long awake, lest
his colleague[133] be beforehand with him in paying his respects to
Albina and Modia. Here, by the side of a slave, if only rich, walks the
son of the free-born;[134] for the other gives to Calvina, or Catiena
(that he may enjoy her once or twice), as much as the tribunes in the
legion receive;[135] whereas you, when the face of a well-dressed
harlot takes your fancy, hesitate to hand Chione from her exalted seat.
Produce me at Rome a witness of as blameless integrity as the host
of the Idæan deity;[136] let Numa stand forth, or he that rescued
Minerva when in jeopardy from her temple all in flames: the question
first put would be as to his income, that about his moral character
would come last of all. "How many slaves does he keep? How many acres
of public land does he occupy?[137] With how many and what expensive
dishes is his table spread?" In exact proportion to the sum of money
a man keeps in his chest, is the credit given to his oath. Though
you were to swear by all the altars of the Samothracian and our own
gods, the poor man is believed to despise the thunderbolts and the
gods, even with the sanction of the gods themselves. Why add that this
same poor man furnishes material and grounds for ridicule to all, if
his cloak is dirty and torn, if his toga is a little soiled, and one
shoe gapes with its upper leather burst; or if more than one patch
displays the coarse fresh darning thread, where a rent has been sewn
up. Poverty, bitter though it be, has no sharper pang than this, that
it makes men ridiculous. "Let him retire, if he has any shame left,
and quit the cushions of the knights, that has not the income required
by the law, and let these seats be taken by"--the sons of pimps,
in whatever brothel born![138] Here let the son of the sleek crier
applaud among the spruce youths of the gladiator, and the scions of
the fencing-school. Such is the will of the vain Otho, who made the
distinction between us.
Who was ever allowed at Rome to become a son-in-law if his estate was
inferior, and not a match for the portion of the young lady?[139]
What _poor_ man's name appears in any will? When is he summoned to
a consultation even by an ædile? All Quirites that are poor, ought
long ago to have emigrated in a body.[140] Difficult indeed is it for
those to emerge from obscurity whose noble qualities are cramped by
narrow means at home; but at Rome, for men like these, the attempt is
still more hopeless; it is only at an exorbitant price they can get
a wretched lodging, keep for their servants, and a frugal meal.[141]
A man is ashamed here to dine off pottery ware,[142] which, were
he suddenly transported to the Marsi and a Sabine board, contented
there with a coarse bowl of blue earthenware, he would no longer
deem discreditable. There is a large portion of Italy (if we allow
the fact), where no one puts on the toga, except the dead.[143] Even
when the very majesty of festival days is celebrated in a theatre
reared of turf,[144] and the well-known farce at length returns to the
stage,[145] when the rustic infant on its mother's lap is terrified at
the wide mouth of the ghastly mask, _there_ you will see all costumes
equal and alike, both orchestra and common people. White tunics are
quite sufficient as the robe of distinction for the highest personages
there, even the very ædiles. Here, in Rome, the splendor of dress is
carried beyond men's means; here, something more than is enough, is
taken occasionally from another's chest. In this fault all participate.
Here we all live with a poverty that apes our betters. Why should I
detain you? Every thing at Rome is coupled with high price. What have
you to give, that you may occasionally pay your respects to Cossus?
that Veiento may give you a passing glance, though without deigning to
open his mouth? One shaves the beard, another deposits the hair of a
favorite; the house is full of venal cakes.[146] Now learn this fact,
and keep it to work within your breast. We clients are forced to pay
tribute and increase the private income of these pampered slaves.
Who dreads, or ever did dread, the falling of a house at cool
Præneste, or at Volsinii seated among the well-wooded hills, or simple
Gabii,[147] or the heights of sloping Tibur. We, in Rome, inhabit a
city propped in great measure on a slender shore.[148] For so the
steward props up the falling walls,[149] and when he has plastered over
the old and gaping crack, bids us sleep without sense of danger while
ruin hangs over our heads![150] I must live in a place, where there are
no fires, no nightly alarms. Already is Ucalegon shouting for water,
already is he removing his chattels: the third story in the house you
live in is already in a blaze. You are unconscious! For if the alarm
begin from the bottom of the stairs, he will be the last to be burned
whom a single tile protects from the rain, where the tame pigeons lay
their eggs. Codrus had a bed too small for his Procula, six little jugs
the ornament of his sideboard, and a little can besides beneath it, and
a Chiron reclining under the same marble; and a chest now grown old in
the service contained his Greek books, and opic[151] mice-gnawed poems
of divine inspiration. Codrus possessed nothing at all; who denies the
fact? and yet all that little nothing that he had, he lost. But the
climax that crowns his misery is the fact, that though he is stark
naked and begging for a few scraps, no one will lend a hand to help him
to bed and board. But, if the great mansion of Asturius has fallen,
the matrons appear in weeds,[152] the senators in mourning robes, the
prætor adjourns the courts. Then it is we groan for the accidents of
the city; then we loathe the very name of fire. The fire is still
raging, and already there runs up to him one who offers to present
him with marble, and contribute toward the rebuilding. Another will
present him with naked statues of Parian marble,[153] another with a
chef-d'œuvre of Euphranor or Polycletus.[154] Some lady will contribute
some ancient ornaments of gods taken in our Asiatic victories; another,
books and cases[155] and a bust of Minerva; another, a whole bushel of
silver. Persicus, the most splendid of childless men, replaces all
he has lost by things more numerous and more valuable, and might with
reason be suspected of having himself set his own house on fire.[156]
If you can tear yourself away from the games in the circus,[157] you
can buy a capital house at Sora, or Fabrateria, or Frusino, for the
price at which you are now hiring your dark hole for one year. There
you will have your little garden, a well so shallow as to require no
rope and bucket, whence with easy draught you may water your sprouting
plants. Live there, enamored of the pitchfork, and the dresser of your
trim garden,[158] from which you could supply a feast to a hundred
Pythagoreans. It is something to be able in any spot, in any retreat
whatever, to have made one's self proprietor even of a single lizard.
Here full many a patient dies from want of sleep; but that exhaustion
is produced by the undigested food that loads the fevered stomach. For
what lodging-houses allow of sleep? None but the very wealthy can sleep
at Rome.[159] Hence is the source of the disease. The passing of wagons
in the narrow curves of the streets, and the mutual revilings of the
teamdrivers[160] brought to a stand-still, would banish sleep even from
Drusus and sea-calves.[161]
If duty calls him,[162] the rich man will be borne through the yielding
crowd, and pass rapidly over their heads on the shoulders of his tall
Liburnian, and, as he goes, will read or write, or even sleep inside
his litter,[163] for his sedan with windows closed entices sleep. And
still he will arrive before us. In front of us, as we hurry on, a tide
of human beings stops the way; the mass that follows behind presses on
our loins in dense concourse; one man pokes me with his elbow, another
with a hard pole;[164] one knocks a beam against my head, another a
ten-gallon cask. My legs are coated thick with mud; then, anon, I am
trampled upon by great heels all round me, and the hob-nail of the
soldier's caliga remains imprinted on my toe.
Do you not see with what a smoke the sportula is frequented? A
hundred guests! and each followed by his portable kitchen.[165] Even
Corbulo[166] himself could scarcely carry such a number of huge
vessels, so many things piled upon his head, which, without bending his
neck, the wretched little slave supports, and keeps fanning his fire as
he runs along.[167]
Tunics that have been patched together are torn asunder again.
Presently, as the tug approaches, the long fir-tree quivers, other
wagons are conveying pine-trees; they totter from their height, and
threaten ruin to the crowd. For if that wain, that is transporting
blocks of Ligustican stone, is upset, and pours its mountain-load upon
the masses below, what is there left of their bodies? Who can find
their limbs or bones? Every single carcass of the mob is crushed to
minute atoms as impalpable as their souls. While, all this while, the
family at home, in happy ignorance of their master's fate, are washing
up the dishes, and blowing up the fire with their mouths, and making
a clatter with the well-oiled strigils, and arranging the bathing
towels with the full oilflask. Such are the various occupations of the
bustling slaves. But the master himself is at this moment seated[168]
on the banks of Styx, and, being a novice, is horrified at the grim
ferry-man, and dares not hope for the boat to cross the murky stream;
nor has he, poor wretch, the obol in his mouth to hand to Charon.
Now revert to other perils of the night distinct from these. What a
height it is from the lofty roofs, from which a potsherd tumbles on
your brains. How often cracked and chipped earthenware falls from the
windows! with what a weight they dint and damage the flint pavement
where they strike it! You may well be accounted remiss and improvident
against unforeseen accident, if you go out to supper without having
made your will. It is clear that there are just so many chances of
death, as there are open windows where the inmates are awake inside, as
you pass by. Pray, therefore, and bear about with you this miserable
wish, that they may be contented with throwing down only what the broad
basins have held. One that is drunk, and quarrelsome in his cups, if
he has chanced to give no one a beating, suffers the penalty by loss
of sleep; he passes such a night as Achilles bewailing the loss, of
his friend;[169] lies now on his face, then again on his back. Under
other circumstances, he can not sleep. In some persons, sleep is the
result of quarrels; but though daring from his years, and flushed
with unmixed wine, he cautiously avoids him whom a scarlet cloak,
and a very long train of attendants, with plenty of flambeaux and a
bronzed candelabrum, warns him to steer clear of. As for me, whose
only attendant home[170] is the moon, or the glimmering light of a
rushlight, whose wick I husband and eke out--he utterly despises me!
Mark the prelude of this wretched fray, if fray it can be called, where
he does all the beating, and I am only beaten.[171] He stands right
in front of you, and bids you stand! Obey you must. For what can you
do, when he that gives the command is mad with drink, and at the same
time stronger than you. "Where do you come from?" he thunders out:
"With whose vinegar and beans are you blown out? What cobbler has been
feasting on chopped leek[172] or boiled sheep's head with you? Don't
you answer? Speak, or be kicked! Say where do you hang out? In what
Jew's begging-stand shall I look for you?" Whether you attempt to say a
word or retire in silence, is all one; they beat you just the same, and
then, in a passion, force you to give bail to answer for the assault.
This is a poor man's liberty! When thrashed he humbly begs, and
pummeled with fisticuffs supplicates, to be allowed to quit the spot
with a few teeth left in his head. Nor is this yet all that you have to
fear, for there will not be wanting one to rob you, when all the houses
are shut up, and all the fastenings of the shops chained, are fixed and
silent.
Sometimes too a footpad does your business with his knife, whenever
the Pontine marshes and the Gallinarian wood are kept safe by an
armed guard. Consequently they all flock thence to Rome as to a great
preserve.
What forge or anvil is not weighed down with chains? The greatest
amount of iron used is employed in forging fetters; so that you may
well fear that enough may not be left for plowshares, and that mattocks
and hoes may run short. Well may you call our great-grandsires[173]
happy, and the ages blest in which they lived, which, under kings and
tribunes long ago, saw Rome contented with a single jail.[174]
To these I could subjoin other reasons for leaving Rome, and more
numerous than these; but my cattle summon me to be moving, and the
sun is getting low. I must go. For long ago the muleteer gave me
a hint by shaking his whip. Farewell then, and forget me not! and
whenever Rome shall restore you to your native Aquinum, eager to
refresh your strength, then you may tear me away too from Cumæ to
Helvine Ceres,[175] and your patron deity Diana. Then, equipped with
my caligæ,[176] I will visit your chilly regions, to help you in your
satires--unless they scorn my poor assistance.
FOOTNOTES:
[101] _Prochyta._ An island in the Bay of Naples, now called Procida.
[102] _Sævæ_, "from the ceaseless alarms it causes." "Sævus est qui
_terret_." Donat. in Ter., Adelp., v. s. iv.
[103] _Augusto._ Cf. Plin., 1, Epist. xiii. "Magnum proventum poëtarum
annus hic attulit; toto mense Aprili nullus ferè dies quo non recitaret
aliquis."
[104] Either those of Romulus, or the aqueduct; and "moist Capena,"
either from the constant dripping of the aqueduct (hence arcus
stillans), or from the springs near it, hence called Fontinalis; now
St. Sebastian's gate. It opens on the Via Appia.
[105] Cf. vi., 542.
[106]
"O how much more devoutly should we cling
To thoughts that hover round the sacred spring!" Badham.
Read præsentius: cf. Plin., Ep. viii., 8, the description of the
Clitumnus, and Ov., Met., iii., 155, _seq._
[107] Umbritius (aruspicum in nostro ævo peritissimus, Plin., x., c.
iii.) is said to have predicted Galba's death, and probably therefore,
with Juvenal, cordially hated Otho.
[108] _Portus_ may mean, "constructing" or "repairing" harbors; or
"farming the harbor-dues," portoria.
[109] Scipio's was performed by contract. Plin., H. N., xxxi., 3.
[110] The spear was set up in the forum to show that an auction was
going on there. Hence things so sold were said to be sold _sub hastâ_.
_Domina_, implies "the right of disposal" of all things and persons
there put up. This may mean, therefore, to buy a drove of slaves
on speculation, and sell them again by auction; or, when they have
squandered their all, put themselves up to sale. So Britann. Dryden,
"For gain they sell their very head." "Salable as slaves." Hodgson. So
Browne, who reads "præbere caput domino."
[111] "From abject meanness lifts to wealth and power." Badham. Cf.
vi., 608.
[112] "Though a soothsayer, I am no astrologer." "I never examined the
entrails of _a toad_."
[113] "Therefore (because I will lend myself to no peculation) no
great man will take me in his suite when he goes to his province." Cf.
Sat. viii., 127, "Si tibi sancta cohors comitum." This is better than,
"Therefore I leave Rome alone!" Markland proposes, extinctâ dextrâ.
[114]
"Like a dead member from the body rent,
Maim'd and unuseful to the government." Dryden.
"No man's confederate, here alone I stand,
Like the maim'd owner of a palsied hand." Badham.
"Lopp'd from the trunk, a dead, unuseful hand." Hodgson.
[115] Isa., lvii., 20.
[116] _Opaci_, Lubin. interprets as equivalent to turbulenti, "turbid
with gold." On this Grangæus remarks, "Apage Germani haud germanam
interpretationem! _opaci_ enim est umbris arborum obscuri." Cf.
Mart., i., Ep. 50, "Æstus serenos aureo franges Tago _obscurus umbris
arborum_."
[117]
"Grasp thou no boon with sadness on thy brow,
Spurn the base bribe that binds a guilty vow." Badham.
[118]
"Shame for Rome that harbors such a crew."
[119] The Roman hind, once so renowned for rough and manly virtues,
now wears the costume of effeminate Greeks: or all these Greek terms,
used to show the poet's supreme contempt, may refer to the games: the
Trechedipna, not the thin supper-robe, but the same as the Endromis.
The Ceroma, an ointment made of oil, wax, and clay, with which they
bedaubed themselves.
[120] Amydon in Pœonia, Tralles in Lydia, Alabanda in Caria.
[121]
"Work themselves inward, and their patrons out." Dryden.
"Deep in their patron's heart, and fix'd as fate,
The future lords of all his vast estate." Hodgson.
[122]
"Torrents of words that might Isæus drown." Badham.
[123] Aliptes, one who anoints (ἀλείφει), and therefore trains,
athletes.
[124] So Johnson.
"All sciences the hungry Monsieur knows,
And bid him go to hell--to hell he goes!"
[125] Some think there is an allusion here to a man who attempted to
repeat Icarus' experiment before Nero. Vid. Suet., Nero, 13.
[126] _Cottana_, "ficorum genus." Plin., xiii., 5.
[127] "As if squeezed in the passage by the narrowness of the throat."
[128] His powers of flattery show his ability of assuming a fictitious
character as much as his skill in acting.
[129] Or the "Dorian maid." They were scantily dressed. Hence the
φαινομηρίδες of Ibycus.
[130] _Major abolla_, seems to be a proverbial expression; it may
either be the "Stoic's cloak," which was more _ample_ than the scanty
robe of the Cynic; or "the _philosopher's_ cloak," which has therefore
more dignity and weight with it than the soldier's or civilian's. The
allusion is to P. Egnatius Celer, the Stoic, who was bribed to give the
false testimony on which Bareas Soranus was convicted. V. Tac., Ann.,
xvi., 21, seq., and 32.
[131] _Ripa._ Commentators are divided between Tarsus, Thebes, and
Corinth.
[132] _Togatus._ Gifford quotes Martial, x., Ep. 10.
"Quid faciet pauper cui non licet esse clienti?
Dimisit nostras purpura vestra togas."
[133] _Collega_; alluding to the two prætors, "Urbanus" and
"Peregrinus."
[134] _Claudit latus._ This is the order Britannicus takes. "Claudere
latus" means not only to accompany, as a mark of respect, but to give
the inner place; to become his "comes exterior." Horace, ii., Sat. v.,
18. So Gifford, "And if they walk beside him yield the wall."
[135]
"For one cold kiss a tribune's yearly pay." Hodgson.
i. e., forty-eight pieces of gold. Cf. Suet., Vesp., xxiii.
[136] P. Scipio Nasica (vid. Liv., xxix., 10) and L. Cæcilius Metellus.
Cf. Ov., Fasti, vi., 437.
[137] Possidet. Vid. Niebuhr.
[138] Cf. Mart., v., Ep. 8 and 25, who speaks of one Lectius as an
officious keeper of the seats.
[139] Sat. x., 323.
[140]
"Long, long ago, in one despairing band,
The poor, self-exiled, should have left the land." Hodgson.
[141]
"A menial board and parsimonious fare." Hodgson.
[142] "Negavit." Some commentators imagine Curius Dentatus to be here
alluded to. It seems better to take it as a _general_ remark. Read
"culullo," not "cucullo," with Browne.
[143] Cf. Mart., ix., 588.
[144] _Herboso_, the first permanent theatre even in Rome itself, was
built by Pompey. Cf. In gradibus sedit populus de cæspite factis. Ov.,
Art. Am., i., 107. Cf. Virg., Æn., v., 286.
[145]
"In the state show repeated now for years." Hodgson.
[146] _Libis._ So many of these "complimentary cakes" are sent in honor
of this event, that they are actually "sold" to get rid of them.
"Good client, quickly to the mansion send
Cakes bought by thee for rascal slaves to vend." Badham.
[147] _Gabii_, renowned for the ease with which Sex. Tarquin duped the
inhabitants.
[148] _Pronum_, i. e., supinum. Hor., iii., Od. iv., 23, on a steep
acclivity.
[149]
"And 'tis the village mason's daily calling,
To keep the world's metropolis from falling." Dryden.
[150]
"Then bid the tenant sleep secure from dread,
While the loose pile hangs trembling o'er his head." Gifford.
[151] _Opici._ Cf. vi., 455. Opicæ castigat amicæ verba; i. e.,
barbarous, rude, unlearned, "the Goths of mice;" from the Opici
or Osci, an Ausonian tribe on the Liris, from whom many barbarous
innovations were introduced into Roman manners and language. "Divina"
may either refer to Homer's poems, or to Codrus' own, which in his own
estimation were "divine." Cf. Sat. i., 2, "rauci Theseide _Codri_."
[152] _Horrida._ In all public misfortunes, the Roman matrons took
their part in the common mourning, by appearing without ornaments, in
weeds, and with disheveled hair. Cf. viii., 267. Liv., ii., 7. Luc.,
Phars., ii., 28, _seq._
[153] _Candida._ Cf. Plin., xxxiv., 5. The Parian marble was the
whitest, hence Virg., Æn., iii., 126, "Niveamque Paron."
[154] _Polycletus._ Cf. viii., 103. His master-piece was the Persian
body-guard (cf. Ælian., V. H., xiv., 8), called the "Canon." Vid.
Müller's Archæol. of Art, § 120. Euphranor the painter belonged, like
Polycletus, to the Sicyonic school.
[155] _Foruli_ or _plutei_, cases for holding MSS. Cf. ii., 7. Suet.,
Aug., xxxi.
[156] Cf. Mart., iii., Ep. 52.
[157] _Circus._ Cf. x., 81, duas tantum res anxius optat Panem et
Circenses.
[158] Cf. Milton.
"And add to these retired leisure,
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure."
[159] i. e., "Only the very rich can afford to buy 'Insulæ,' in the
quiet part of the city, where their rest will not be broken by the
noise of their neighbors, or the street."
[160] _Mandra_; properly "a pen for pigs or cattle," then "a team or
drove of cattle, mules," etc.; as Martial, v., Ep. xxii., 7, "Mulorum
vincere mandras." Here "the drovers" themselves are meant.
[161] _Drusum._ Cf. Suet., Claud., v., "super veterem segnitiæ notam."
Seals are proverbially sluggish. Cf. Plin., ix., 13. Virg., Georg.,
iv., 432.
[162] _Officium_; attendance on the levees of the great.
[163] Cf. i., 64; v., 83; vi., 477, 351. Plin., Pan., 24.
[164] i. e., of a litter. Cf. vii., 132.
[165] _Culina_, "a double-celled chafing-dish, with a fire below, to
keep the 'dole' warm." The custom is still retained in Italy.
[166] Domitius Corbulo, a man of uncommon strength, appointed by Nero
to command in Armenia. Vid. Tac., Ann., xiii., 8.
[167] "The pace creates the draught."
[168] _Sedet_; because, being unburied, he must wait a hundred years.
Cf. Virg., Æn., vi., 313-330.
[169] Hom., Il., xxiv., 12, "ἄλλοτε δ' αὖτε ὕπτιος ἄλλοτε δὲ πρηνής."
[170] _Deducere_; "the technical word for the clients' attendance on
their patrons;" so "forum attingere; in forum deduci."
[171]
"He only cudgels, and I only bear." Dryden.
[172] _Sectile_, or the inferior kind of leek; the better sort being
called "capitatum." Plin., xx., 6. Cf. Sat. xiv., 133, sectivi porri.
[173] The order is "Pater, avus, proavus, abavus, atavas, tritavus." He
means, therefore, eight generations back at least.
[174] Ancus Martius built the prison. Liv., i., 33. The dungeon was
added by Servius Tullius, and called from him Tullianum. The next was
built by Ap. Claudius the decemvir.
[175] _Ceres_ was worshiped under this epithet at Aquinum. Its origin
is variously given.
[176] _Caligatus_ may mean, "with rustic boots," so that you may not be
reminded of Rome; or "with soldier's boots," as armed for our campaign
against the vices of the city.
SATIRE IV.
Once more behold Crispinus![177] and often shall I have to call him
on the stage. A monster! without one virtue to redeem his vices--of
feeble powers, save only in his lust. It is only a widow's charms this
adulterer scorns.
What matters it then in what large porticoes he wearies out his
steeds--through what vast shady groves his rides extend[178]--how many
acres close to the forum, or what palaces he has bought? No bad man is
ever happy. Least of all he that has added incest to his adultery, and
lately seduced the filleted priestess,[179] that with her life-blood
still warm must descend into the earth.
But now we have to deal with more venial acts. Yet if any other man
had committed the same, he would have come under the sentence of our
imperial censor.[180] For what would be infamous in men of worth, a
Titius or Seius, was becoming to Crispinus. What can you do when no
crime can be so foul and loathsome as the perpetrator himself? He gave
six sestertia for a mullet.[181] A thousand sesterces, forsooth! for
every pound of weight, as they allege, who exaggerate stories already
beyond belief. I should commend the act as a master-stroke of policy,
if by so noble a present he had got himself named chief heir[182]
in the will of some childless old man. A better plea still would be
that he had sent it to some mistress of rank, that rides in her close
chair with its wide glasses. Nothing of the sort! He bought it for
himself! We see many things which even Apicius[183] (mean and thrifty
compared with him) never was guilty of. Did you do this in days of
yore, Crispinus, when girt about with your native papyrus?[184] What!
pay this price for fish-scales? Perchance you might have bought the
fisherman cheaper than the fish! You might have bought a whole estate
for the money in some of our provinces. In Apulia, a still larger
one.[185] What kind of luxuries, then, may we suppose were gorged by
the emperor himself, when so many sestertia, that furnished forth but
a small portion, a mere side-dish of a very ordinary dinner, were
devoured by this court buffoon, now clothed in purple. Chief of the
equestrian order now is he who was wont to hawk about the streets shads
from the same borough[186] with himself.
Begin, Calliope! here may we take our seats! This is no poetic fiction;
we are dealing with _facts_! Relate it, Pierian maids! and grant me
grace for having called you _maids_.
When the last of the Flavii was mangling the world, lying at its last
gasp, and Rome was enslaved by a Nero,[187] ay, and a _bald_ one too,
an Adriatic turbot of wonderful size fell into the net, and filled its
ample folds, off the temple of Venus which Doric Ancona[188] sustains.
No less in bulk was it than those which the ice of the Mæotis incloses,
and when melted at length by the sun's rays, discharges at the outlets
of the sluggish Euxine, unwieldly from their long sloth, and fattened
by the long-protracted cold.
This prodigy of a fish the owner of the boat and nets designs for the
chief pontiff. For who would dare to put up such a fish to sale, or to
buy it? Since the shores too would be crowded with informers; these
inspectors of sea-weed, prowling in every nook, would straightway
contest the point[189] with the naked fisherman, and would not scruple
to allege that the fish was a "stray," and that having made its escape
from the emperor's ponds, where it had long reveled in plenty, ought
of course to revert to its ancient lord. If we place any faith in
Palfurius or Armillatus, whatever is pre-eminently fine in the whole
sea, is the property of the exchequer, wherever it swims. So, that
it may not be utterly lost, it will be made a present of, though now
sickly autumn was giving place to winter, and sick men were already
expecting[190] their fits of ague, though the rude tempest whistled
and kept the fish fresh, yet the fisherman hurries on as though a
mild south wind were blowing. And when the lakes were near at hand,
where, though in ruins, Alba[191] still preserves the Trojan fire, and
her Lesser Vesta,[192] the wondering crowd for a short space impeded
his entrance; as they made way for him, the folding-doors flew open
on ready-turning hinge. The senators, shut out themselves, watch the
dainty admitted. He stands in the royal presence. Then he of Picenum
begins, "Deign to accept what is too great for any private kitchen: let
this day be celebrated as the festival of your genius, haste to relieve
your stomach of its burden, and devour a turbot reserved to honor your
reign.[193] It insisted on being caught." What could be more fulsome?
and yet the great man's crest rose. What flattery is there that it is
not prepared to believe, when power is praised as equal to the gods.
But there was no dish of sufficient size for the fish. Therefore the
senators are summoned to a council--men whom he hated! men on whose
faces sat the paleness engendered by the wretched friendship with the
great! At the loud summons of the Liburnian slave, "Run! the emperor
is already seated!" the first to snatch up his cloak and hurry to the
place was Pegasus, lately set as bailiff over the amazed city;[194]
for what else were the præfects of Rome in those days? of whom he was
the best and most conscientious dispenser of the laws, though in
those days of terror he thought all things ought to be administered by
justice unarmed. Crispus[195] came too, that facetious old man, with
high character equal to his eloquence and mild disposition. Who could
have been a more serviceable minister to one that ruled seas, and
lands, and peoples, if, under that bane and pest of mankind, he had
been allowed to reprobate his savage nature and give honest advice?
But what is more ticklish than a tyrant's ear, with whom the life even
of a favorite was at stake, though he might be talking of showers
or heat, or a rainy spring? He, therefore, never attempted to swim
against the stream, nor was he a citizen who dared give vent to the
free sentiments of his soul, and devote his life to the cause of truth:
and so it was that he saw many winters and eighty summers; safe, by
such weapons, even in a court like that. Next to him hurried Acilius,
a man of the same time of life; with a youth[196] that ill deserved
so cruel a death as that which awaited him, so prematurely inflicted
by the tyrant's swords; but nobility coupled with old age, has long
since been a miracle. Consequently, for myself, I should prefer being
a younger brother of the giants.[197] It was of no avail therefore to
the wretched man, that as a naked huntsman in the amphitheatre of Alba,
he fought hand to hand with Numidian bears. For who, in our days, is
not up to the artifices of the patricians? Who would now admire that
primitive cunning of thine, Brutus? It is an easy thing to impose on a
king that wears a beard![198]. Then came Rubrius not a whit less pale,
though he was no noble, one accused of an ancient and nameless crime,
and yet more lost to shame than the pathic satirist.[199] There too
is to be seen Montanus' paunch, unwieldy from its size, and Crispus
reeking with unguent though so early in the day, more than enough to
furnish forth two funerals; and Pompeius, still more ruthless even
than he at cutting men's throats by his insinuating whisper; and he
that kept his entrails only to fatten the Dacian vultures, Fuscus,
that studied the art of war in his marble palace; and the shrewd
Veiento with the deadly Catullus,[200] who raged with lust for a girl
he could not see, a monster and prodigy of guilt even in our days,
the blind flatterer, a common bridge-beggar[201] invested with this
hateful power, whose worthiest fate would be to run begging by the
carriages on the road to Aricia, and blow his fawning kisses to the
chariot as it descends the hill. No one showed more astonishment at the
turbot, for he was profuse in his wonder, turning toward the left, but
unfortunately the fish lay on the other side. This was just the way
he used to praise the combat and fencing of the Cilician gladiator,
and the stage machinery, and the boys caught up by it to the awning.
Veiento is not to be outdone by him; but, like one inspired by the
maddening influence of Bellona, begins to divine. "A mighty omen this
you have received of some great and noble triumph. Some captive king
you'll take, or Arviragus will be hurled from his British car. For the
monster is a foreign one. Do you see the sharp fins bristling on his
back like spears?" In one point only Fabricius was at fault, he could
not tell the turbot's country or age. "What then is your opinion? Is
it to be cut up?" "Heaven forefend so great dishonor to the noble
fish!" says Montanus. "Let a deep dish be provided, whose thin sides
may inclose its huge circumference. Some cunning Prometheus to act on
this sudden emergency is required. Quick with the clay and potter's
wheel! But henceforth, Cæsar, let potters always attend your armies!"
This opinion, worthy of the author, carried the day. He was well versed
in the old luxury of the imperial court, and Nero's nights,[202] and a
second appetite when the stomach was fired with the Falernian.[203] No
one in my day was a greater connoisseur in good eating; he could detect
at the first bite whether the oysters were natives from Circeii, or
the Lucrine rocks, or whether they came from the Rutupian beds, and
told the shore an Echinus came from at the first glance.
They rise; and the cabinet being dismissed, the great chief bids the
nobles depart whom he had dragged to the Alban height, amazed and
forced to hurry, as though he were about to announce some tidings of
the Catti and fierce Sicambri; as though from diverse parts of the
world some alarming express had arrived on hurried wing. And would
that he had devoted to such trifles as these those days of horror
and cruelty, in which he removed from the city those glorious and
illustrious spirits, with none to punish or avenge the deed! But he
perished as soon as he began to be an object of alarm to cobblers. This
was what proved fatal to one that was reeking with the blood of the
Lamiæ!
FOOTNOTES:
[177] _Iterum._ Cf. i., 27, "Pars Niliacæ plebis, verna Canopi,
Crispinus."
[178] Cf. vii., 179.
[179] The vestal escaped her punishment, through Crispinus' interest
with Domitian.
[180] Cf. Sat. ii., 29. Suet., Domit., c. 8. Plin., iv., Epist xi.
[181] _Sex millibus_, about £44 7_s._ 6_d._ of English money. The value
of the sestertium was reduced after the reign of Augustus. A mullet
even of three pounds' weight was esteemed a great rarity. Vid. Hor.,
Sat., II., ii., 33, "Mullum laudas trilibrem."
[182] The chief heir was named in the second line of the first table.
Cf. Horace, ii., Sat. v., 53. Suet., Cæs., 83; Nero, 17.
[183] Cf. Sat. xi., 3.
[184] _Papyrus._ Garments were made of papyrus even in Anacreon's days.
iv., Od. 4. It is still used for the same purpose.
[185] Land would be probably cheap in Apulia, from its barrenness, and
bad air, and the prevalence of the wind Atabulus. Cf. Hor., i., Sat.
v., Montes Apulia notos quos torret Atabulus.
[186] i. e., Alexandria. Of the various readings of this line, "pactâ
mercede" seems to be the best. Even the fish Crispinus sold were not
his own, he was only hired to sell them for others.
[187] _Nero_, i. e., Domitian, who was as much disgusted at his own
baldness as Cæsar.
[188] Founded by a colony of Syracusans, who fled from the tyranny of
Dionysius.
[189] _Agerunt cum_; perhaps, "be ready to go to law with."
[190] _Sperare_ sometimes means to _fear_. Cf. Virg., Æn., iv., 419.
[191] Alba was Domitian's favorite residence. Vid. Suet., Dom.,
iv., 19. Plin., iv., Ep. xi., "Non in regiam sed in Albanam villam
convocavit."
[192] The "Lesser" Vesta, compared with the splendor of her "Cultus" at
Rome, which had been established by Numa. The temples were spared at
the time of the destruction of Alba by Tullus Hostilius. Vid. Liv., i.
[193] "Sæculum" is repeatedly used in this sense by Pliny, and other
writers of this age.
[194] As though Rome had now so far lost her privileges and her
liberty, as to be no better than a country vicus, to be governed by a
bailiff.
[195] Vibius Crispus Placentinus, the author of the witticism about
"Domitian and the flies." Vid. Suet., Dom., 3.
[196] _Juvene._ Probably a son of this M. Acilius Glabrio, who was
murdered by Domitian out of envy at the applause he received when
fighting in the arena at the emperor's own command.
[197] i. e., "Terræ filius," Pers., vi., 57, one of the meanest origin.
[198] It was 444 years before barbers were introduced into the city
from Sicily.
[199] Alluding to Nero's satire on Quintianus. Vid. Tac., Ann., xv.,
49. Quintianus mollitie corporis infamis, et a Nerone probroso carmine
diffamatus.
[200] _Catullus Messalinus._ Vid. Plin., Ep., iv., 22. Fabricius
Veiento wrote some satirical pieces, for which Nero banished him,
and ordered his books to be burnt. Vid. Tac., Ann., xiv., 50. He was
probably the husband of Hippia, mentioned in the 6th Satire, l. 82.
[201] "Pons." Cf. Sat. v., 8; xiv., 134.
[202] Cf. Suet., Nero, 27.
[203] Cf. vi., 430.
SATIRE V.
If you are not yet ashamed of your course of life,[204] and your
feeling is still the same, that you consider living at another man's
table to be the chief good; if you can put up with such things as not
even Sarmentus or Galba, contemptible as he was, would have submitted
to even at the unequal[205] board of Cæsar himself; I should be afraid
to believe your evidence though you were on oath. I know nothing
more easily satisfied than the cravings of nature. Yet even suppose
this little that is needed to be wanting, is there no quay vacant?
is there no where a bridge, and a piece of mat, somewhat less than
half, to beg upon? Is the loss of a supper so great a matter? is your
craving so fierce? when, in faith, it were much more reputable[206]
to shiver there, and munch mouldy fragments of dog-biscuit. In the
first place, bear in mind, that when invited to dinner, you receive
payment in full of your long-standing account of service. The sole
result of your friendship with the great man is--a meal! This your
patron sets down to your account, and, rare though it be, still takes
it into the calculation. Therefore, if after the lapse of two months
he deigns to send for his long-neglected client, only that the third
place may not be unoccupied in one couch of his triclinium[207]--"Let
us sup together," he says; the very summit of your wishes! What more
can you desire? Trebius has that for which he ought to break his rest,
and hurry away with latchet all untied, in his alarm lest the whole
crowd at his patron's levee shall have already gone their round of
compliments, when the stars are fading, or at the hour when the chill
wain of sluggish Bootes wheels slowly round.[208]
But what sort of a supper is it after all? Wine, such as wool just
shorn would not imbibe.[209] You will see the guests become frantic
as the priests of Cybele. Wranglings are the prelude of the fray: but
soon you begin to hurl cups as well in retaliation; and wipe your
wounds with your napkin stained with blood; as often as a pitched
battle, begun with pitchers of Saguntine ware, rages between you and
the regiment of freedmen. The great man himself drinks wine racked from
the wood under some consul with long hair,[210] and sips[211] the juice
of the grape pressed in the Social war; never likely, however, to send
even a small glass to a friend, though sick at heart. To-morrow, he
will drink the produce of the mountains of Alba or Setia,[212] whose
country and date age has obliterated by the accumulated mould on the
ancient amphora; such wine as, with chaplets on their heads, Thrasea
and Helvidius used to drink on the birthdays of the Bruti and Cassius.
Virro himself holds capacious cups formed of the tears of the
Heliades[213] and phialæ incrusted with beryl. You are not trusted
with gold: or even if it is ever handed to you, a servant is set as
a guard over you at the same time, to count the gems and watch your
sharp nails. Forgive the precaution: the jasper so much admired there
is indeed a noble one: for, like many others, Virro transfers to his
cups the gems from off his fingers, which the youth, preferred to the
jealous Hiarbas,[214] used to set on the front of his scabbard. You
will drain a cup with four noses, that bears the name of the cobbler of
Beneventum,[215] already cracked, and fit to be exchanged, as broken
glass, for brimstone.[216]
If your patron's stomach is overheated with wine and food, he calls for
water cooled by being boiled and then iced in Scythian snow.[217] Did
I complain just now that the wine set before you was not the same as
Virro's? Why, the very water you drink is different. Your cups will be
handed you by a running footman from Gætulia, or the bony hand of some
Moor, so black that you would rather not meet him at midnight, while
riding through the tombs on the steep Latin way. Before Virro himself
stands the flower of Asia, purchased at a greater sum than formed the
whole revenue of the warlike Tullus, or Ancus--and, not to detain you,
the whole fortunes[218] of all the kings of Rome. And so, when you
are thirsty, look behind you for your black Ganymede that comes from
Africa. A boy that costs so many thousands deigns not to mix wine for
the poor. Nay, his very beauty and bloom of youth justify his sneer.
When does he come near you? When would he come, even if you called him,
to serve you with hot or cold water? He scorns, forsooth, the idea of
obeying an old client, and that _you_ should call for any thing from
his hand; and that you should recline at table, while he has to stand.
Every great house is proportionably full of saucy menials.
See, too, with what grumbling another of these rascals hands you bread
that can scarce be broken; the mouldy fragments of impenetrable crust,
which would make your jaws ache, and give you no chance of a bite.
But delicate bread, as white as snow, made of the finest flower, is
reserved for the great man. Mind you keep your hands off! Maintain the
respect due to the cutter of the bread![219] Imagine, however, that you
have been rather too forward; there stands over you one ready to make
you put it down. "Be so good, audacious guest, as to help yourself from
the bread-basket you have been used to, and know the color of your own
particular bread." "So then![220] it was for this, forsooth, that I so
often quitted my wife, and hurried up the steep ascent of the bleak
Esquiline, when the vernal sky rattled with the pelting of the pitiless
hail, and my great coat dripped whole showers of rain!"
See! with how vast a body the lobster which is served to your patron
fills the dish, and with what fine asparagus it is garnished all round;
with what a tail he seems to look down in scorn on the assembled
guests, when he comes in raised on high by the hands of the tall slave.
But to you is served a common crab, scantily hedged in[221] with half
an egg sliced, a meal fit only for the dead,[222] and in a dish too
small to hold it. Virro himself drowns his fish in oil from Venafrum;
but the pale cabbage set before you, poor wretch, will stink of the
lamp. For in the sauceboats you are allowed, there is served oil such
as the canoe of the Micipsæ has imported in its sharp prow; for which
reason no one at Rome would bathe in the same bath with Bocchor; which
makes the blackamoors safe even from the attacks of serpents.
Your patron will have a barbel furnished by Corsica, or the rocks of
Tauromenium, when all our own waters have been ransacked and failed;
while gluttony is raging, and the market is plying its unwearied nets
in the neighboring seas, and we do not allow the Tyrrhene fish to
reach their full growth. The provinces, therefore, have to supply our
kitchen; and thence we are furnished with what Lenas the legacy-hunter
may buy, and Aurelia sell again.[223] Virro is presented with a lamprey
of the largest size from the Sicilian whirlpool. For while Auster keeps
himself close, while he seats himself and dries his wet pinions in
prison, the nets,[224] grown venturesome, despise the dangers even of
the middle of Charybdis. An eel awaits you--first-cousin to the long
snake--or a coarse pike[225] from the Tiber, spotted from the winter's
ice, a native of the bank-side, fattened on the filth of the rushing
sewer, and used to penetrate the drain even of the middle of Suburra.
"I should like to have a word with Virro, if he would lend an attentive
ear. No one now expects from you such presents as used to be sent
by Seneca to his friends of humble station, or the munificent gifts
which the bountiful Piso or Cotta used to dispense; for in days of
old the glory of giving was esteemed a higher honor than fasces
or inscriptions. All we ask is that you would treat us at supper
like fellow-citizens. Do this, and then, if you please, be, as many
now-a-days are, luxurious when alone, parsimonious to your guests."
Before Virro himself is the liver of a huge goose; a fat capon, as big
as a goose; and a wild boar, worthy of the spear of the yellow-haired
Meleager, smokes. Then will be served up truffles, if it happen to
be spring, and the thunder, devoutly wished for by the epicure,
shall augment the supper. "Keep your corn, O Libya," says Alledius,
"unyoke your oxen; provided only you send us truffles!" Meanwhile,
that no single source of vexation may be wanting, you will see the
carver[226] capering and gesticulating with nimble knife, till he has
gone through all the directions of his instructor in the art. Nor is
it in truth a matter of trifling import with what an air a leveret or
a hen is carved. You would be dragged by the heels, like Cacus[227]
when conquered by Hercules, and turned out of doors, if you were ever
to attempt to open your mouth, as though you had three names.[228]
When does Virro pass the cup to you, or take one that your lips have
contaminated? Which of you would be so rash, so lost to all sense of
shame, as to say, "Drink, sir!" to your patron lord? There are very
many things which men with coats worn threadbare dare not say. If any
god, or godlike hero, kinder to you than the fates have been, were to
give you a knight's estate, what a great man would you, small mortal,
become all at once from nothing at all! What a dear friend of Virro's!
"Give this to Trebius![229] Set this before Trebius! My dear brother,
will you take some of this sweet-bread?"
O money! it is to thee he pays this honor! it is _thou_ and he are
the brothers! But if you wish to be my lord, and my lord's lord, let
no little Æneas sport in your hall,[230] or a daughter more endearing
than he. It is the barrenness of the wife that makes a friend really
agreeable and beloved. But even suppose your Mycale should be confined,
though she should even present you three boys at a birth, he will be
the very one to be delighted with the twittering nest; will order his
green stomacher[231] to be brought, and the filberts,[232] and the
begged-for penny, whenever the infant parasite shall come to dine with
him.
Before his friends whom he holds so vile will be set some
very questionable toadstools--before the great man himself, a
mushroom[233]--but such an one as Claudius ate, _before_ that furnished
by his wife, _after_ which he ate nothing more. Virro will order to be
served to himself and his brother Virros such noble apples, on whose
fragrance alone you are allowed to revel; such as the eternal autumn
of the Phæacians produced; or such as you might fancy purloined from
the African sisters. You feast upon some shriveled windfall, such as is
munched at the ramparts by him that is armed with buckler and helmet:
and, in dread of the lash, learns to hurl his javelin from the shaggy
goat's[234] back.
You may imagine, perhaps, that Virro does all this from stinginess. No!
his very object is to vex you. For what play, what mime is better than
disappointed gluttony? All this, therefore, is done, if you don't know
it, that you may be forced to give vent to your bile by your tears, and
gnash long your compressed teeth. You fancy yourself a freeman--the
great man's welcome guest! He looks upon you as one caught by the savor
of his kitchen. Nor does he conjecture amiss. For who is so utterly
destitute as twice to bear with his insolence, if it has been his good
fortune, when a boy, to wear the Tuscan gold,[235] or even the boss,
the badge of leather, that emblem of poverty.
The hope of a good dinner deludes you. "See! sure he'll send us now a
half-eaten hare, or a slice of that wild-boar haunch.[236] Now we shall
get that capon, as he has helped himself!" Consequently you all sit in
silent expectation, with bread in hand, untouched and ready for action.
And he that uses you thus shows his wisdom--if you _can_ submit to all
these things, then you _ought_ to bear them. Some day or other, you
will present your head with shaven crown, to be beaten: nor hesitate
to submit to the harsh lash--well worthy of such a banquet and such a
friend as this!
FOOTNOTES:
[204] _Propositi._ So ix., 20, flexisse videris propositum.
[205] _Iniquas._ From the marked difference in the treatment of the
different guests.
[206] _Quum Pol sit honestius._ Rupertis' conjecture.
[207] Trebius is put in the lowest place in the triclinium, the third
culcitra, or cushion, on the lowest (tertia) bed, and only because
there was no one else to occupy it.
[208] "What is the night? Almost at odds with morning, which is which."
Macbeth, Act iii., 4. Cf. Anacreon, iii., 1; Theocr., xxiv., 11. i. e.,
a little after midnight.
[209] "Tonsursæ tempus inter æquinoctium vernum et solstitium, quum
sudare inceperunt oves: a quo sudore recens lana tonsa sucida appellata
est. Tonsus recentes eodem die perungunt vino et oleo." Varro, R. R.,
II., xi., 6.
[210] Cf. iv., 103.
[211] "Tenet," or "keeps to himself," or "holds up to the light."
[212] _Setine_ was the favorite wine of Augustus. _Alban._ Cf. Hor.,
ii., Sat. viii., 16.
[213] Amber was fabled to be produced by the tears of the sisters of
Phaeton, the daughters of the Sun, shed for his loss, on the banks of
the Eridanus, where they were metamorphosed into poplars or alders.
[214] Cf. Virg., Æn., iv., 261.
[215] Nero, on his way to Greece, fell in at Beneventum with one
Vatinius, "Sutrinæ tabernæ alumnus," whom he took first as his buffoon,
and afterward as his confidant. Tac., Ann., xv., 34. Cf. Martial, xiv.,
Ep. 96.
[216] _Sulphura._ Cf. Mart., i., Ep. 43, Qui pallentia sulphurata
fractis permutat vitreis. Vid. x., 3, Quæ sulphurata nolit empta
ramento Vatiniorum proxeneta fractorum. Compare the "Bellarmines" of
mediæval pottery and the Flemish "Graybeards."
[217] _Pruinis._ "Neronis principis inventum est decoquere aquam,
vitroque demissam in nives refrigerare." Plin., xxxi., 3.
[218] _Frivola_; properly "goods and chattels." Cf. iii., 198.
[219] _Artocopi._ Cf. Xen., An., IV., iv., 21. Some read Artoptæ.
[220] This is the indignant exclamation of Trebius.
[221] _Constrictus_, or, "shrunk from having been so long out of the
sea."
[222] _Cœna_; the Silicernium; served on the ninth day to appease the
dead. Cf. Plaut., Pseud., III., ii., 7; Aul., II., iv., 45.
[223] _Vendat._ Cf. iii., 187. Aurelia. See Plin., ii., Ep. 20.
[224] _Lina._ Cf. Virg., Georg., i., 142.
[225] The pike (Lupus Tiberinus) was esteemed in exact proportion to
the distance it was caught from the common sewers of Rome. Hor., ii.,
Sat. ii., 31.
[226] _Structor._ Cf. xi., 136.
[227] _Cacus._ Virg., Æn., viii., 264.
[228] Free Roman citizens had three names, prænomen, nomen, and
cognomen. Slaves had no prænomen. Cf. Pers., Sat. v., 76-82. He means
to imply that, by turning parasite, Trebius had virtually forfeited the
privileges of a free Roman.
[229] _Da Trebio._ Cf. Suet., Dom., xi., "partibus de cœnâ dignatus
est." Xen., Anab., I., ix., 26.
[230] Virg., Æn., iv., 327.
[231] _Viridem thoraca._ Heinrich supposes this to be a mimic piece of
armor, to be worn by children playing at soldiers.
[232] _Nuces_, "walnuts;" minimas nuces, _nuts_.
[233] Cf. Tac., Ann., xii., 66, 7, "Infusum cibo boletorum venenum;" it
was prepared by Locusta. Cf. Sat. i., 71. Martial, Ep., I., xxi., 4,
"Boletum qualem Claudius edit, edas." Cf. Suet., Nero, 33.
[234] Probably alluding to a monkey exhibited riding on a goat, and
equipped as a soldier, to amuse the Prætorian guards at their barrack
gate; or, as some think, the "recruit" himself is intended, and then
Capella is taken as a proper name.
[235] The golden bulla, hollow, and in the shape of a heart, was
borrowed from the Etruscans, and at first confined to the children of
nobles. It was afterward borne, like the "tria nomina," by all who were
free-born, till they were fifteen. The poorer citizens had it made of
leather, or some cheap material. Cf. xiv., 5, hæres bullatus.
[236] Cf. Xen., Anab., I., ix., 26.
SATIRE VI.
I believe that while Saturn still was king, chastity lingered upon
earth, and was long seen there: when a chill cavern furnished a scanty
dwelling, and inclosed in one common shade the fire and household gods,
the cattle, and their owners. When a wife, bred on the mountains,
prepared a rustic bed with leaves and straw and the skins of the wild
beasts their neighbors; not like thee, Cynthia[237]--or thee whose
beaming eyes the death of a sparrow dimmed with tears--but bearing
breasts from which her huge infants might drink, not suck, and often
more uncivilized even than her acorn-belching husband. Since men lived
very differently then, when the world was new, and the sky but freshly
created, who, born out of the riven oak, or moulded out of clay, had no
parents.
Many traces of primæval chastity, perhaps, or some few at least, may
have existed, even under Jove; but then it was before Jove's beard was
grown; before the Greeks were yet ready to swear by another's head;
when no one feared a thief for his cabbages or apples, but lived with
garden uninclosed. Then by degrees Astræa retired to the realms above,
with chastity for her companion, and the two sisters fled together.
To violate the marriage-bed, and laugh to scorn the genius that
presides over the nuptial couch, is an ancient and a hackneyed vice,
Postumus. Every other species of iniquity the age of iron soon
produced. The silver age witnessed the first adulterers.
And yet are you preparing your marriage covenant, and the
settlement,[238] and betrothal, in our days, and are already under
the hands of the master barber, and perhaps have already given the
pledge for her finger! Well! you _used_ to be sane, at all events! You,
Postumus, going to marry! Say, what Tisiphone, what snakes are driving
you mad? Can you submit to be the slave of any woman, while so many
halters are to be had? so long as high and dizzy windows are open for
you, and the Æmilian bridge presents itself so near at hand? Or if, out
of so many ways of quitting life, none pleases you, do you not think
your present plan better, of having a stripling to sleep with you, who
lying there, reads you no curtain lectures, exacts no little presents
from you, and never complains that you are too sparing in your efforts
to please him?
But Ursidius is delighted with the Julian law[239]--he thinks of
bringing up a darling heir, nor cares to lose the fine turtledove and
bearded mullets,[240] and all the baits for legacies in the dainties of
the market. What will you believe to be impossible, if Ursidius takes a
wife? If he, of yore the most notorious of adulterers, whom the chest
of Latinus in peril of his life has so often concealed, is now going to
insert his idiot head in the nuptial halter; nay, and more than this,
is looking out for a wife possessed of the virtues of ancient days!
Haste, physicians, bore through the middle vein! What a nice man! Fall
prostrate at the threshold of Tarpeian Jove, and sacrifice to Juno a
heifer with gilded horns, if you have the rare good fortune to find a
matron with unsullied chastity. So few are there worthy to handle the
fillets of Ceres; so few, whose kisses their own fathers might not
dread. Wreathe chaplets for the door-posts, stretch thick clusters of
ivy over the threshold. Is one husband enough for Iberina? Sooner will
you prevail on her to be content with one eye. "Yet there is a great
talk of a certain damsel, living at her father's country-house!" Let
her live at Gabii as she lived in the country, or even at Fidenæ, and
I grant what you say of the influence of the paternal country-seat.
Yet who will dare assert that nothing has been achieved on mountains
or in caves? Are Jupiter and Mars grown so old. In all the public
walks can a woman be pointed out to you, that is worthy of your wish.
On all their benches do the public shows hold one that you could love
without misgivings; or one you could pick out from the rest? While
the effeminate Bathyllus is acting Leda in the ballet, Tuccia can not
contain herself, Appula whines as in the feat of love, Thymele is all
attention to the quick, the gentler, and the slow; and so Thymele,
rustic as she was before, becomes a proficient in the art. But others,
whenever the stage ornaments, packed away, get a respite, and the
courts alone are vocal (since the theatres are closed and empty, and
the Megalesian games come a long time after the plebeian), in their
melancholy handle the mask and thyrsus and drawers of Accius. Urbicus
provokes a laugh by his personification of Autonoe in the Atellan
farce. Ælia, being poor, is in love with him. For others, the fibula
of the comic actor is unbuckled for a large sum. Some women prevent
Chrysogonus from having voice to sing. Hispulla delights in a tragic
actor. Do you expect then that the worthy Quintilianus will be the
object of their love? You take a wife by whom Echion the harper, or
Glaphyrus, or Ambrosius the choral flute-player, will become a father.
Let us erect long lines of scaffolding along the narrow streets. Let
the door-posts and the gate be decorated with a huge bay, that beneath
the canopy inlaid with tortoise-shell,[241] thy infant, Lentulus,
supposed to be sprung from a noble sire, may be the counterpart of the
Mirmillo Euryalus.
Hippia, though wife to a senator, accompanied a gladiator to Pharos
and the Nile, and the infamous walls of Lagos.[242] Even Canopus
itself reprobated the immorality of the imperial city. She, forgetful
of her home, her husband, and her sister, showed no concern for her
native land, or, vile wretch as she was, her weeping children, and,
to amaze you even more, quitted the shows and Paris. But though when
a babe she had been pillowed in great luxury, in the down of her
father's mansion, and a cradle of richest workmanship, she despised
the perils of the sea. Her good name she had long before despised--the
loss of which, among the soft cushions of ladies, is very cheaply
held. Therefore with undaunted breast she faced the Tuscan waves and
wide-resounding Ionian Sea, though the sea was so often to be changed.
If the cause of the peril be reasonable and creditable, then they are
alarmed--their coward hearts are chilled with icy fear--they can not
support themselves on their trembling feet. They show a dauntless
spirit in those things which they basely dare. If it is their husband
that bids them, it is a great hardship to go on board ship. Then the
bilgewater is insufferable! the skies spin round them! She that follows
her adulterer has no qualms. The one is sick all over her husband. The
other dines among the sailors and walks the quarter-deck, and delights
in handling the hard ropes. And yet what was the beauty that inflamed,
what the prime of life that captivated Hippia? What was it she saw in
him to compensate her for being nicknamed the fencer's whore? For the
darling Sergius had now begun to shave his throat; and badly wounded
in the arm to anticipate his discharge. Besides, he had many things to
disfigure his face, as for instance--he was galled with his helmet, and
had a huge wen between his nostrils, and acrid rheum forever trickling
from his eye. But then he was a gladiator! It is this that makes them
beautiful as Hyacinthus! It was this she preferred to her children and
her native land, her sister and her husband. It is the steel they are
enamored of. This very same Sergius, if discharged from the arena,
would begin to be Veiento in her eyes.
Do you feel an interest in a private house, in a Hippia's acts? Turn
your eyes to the rivals of the gods! Hear what Claudius had to endure.
As soon as his wife perceived he was asleep, this imperial harlot, that
dared prefer a coarse mattress to the royal bed, took her hood she
wore by nights, quitted the palace with but a single attendant, but
with a yellow tire concealing her black hair; entered the brothel warm
with the old patchwork quilt, and the cell vacant and appropriated to
herself. Then took her stand with naked breasts and gilded nipples,
assuming the name of Lycisca, and displayed the person of the mother of
the princely Britannicus, received all comers with caresses and asked
her compliment, and submitted to often-repeated embraces. Then when the
owner dismissed his denizens, sadly she took her leave, and (all she
could do) lingered to the last before she closed her cell; and still
raging with unsatisfied desire, tired with the toil but yet unsated,
she retired with sullied cheeks defiled, and, foul from the smoke of
lamps, bore back the odor of the stews to the pillow of the emperor.
Shall I speak of the love-philters, the incantations, the poison
mingled with the food and given to the step-son? The acts which they
commit, to which they are impelled by the imperative suggestions of
their sex,[243] are still more atrocious: those they commit through
lust are the least of their crimes. "Then, how can it be that even
by her husband's showing Cesennia is the best of wives?" She brought
him a thousand sestertia! that is the price at which he calls her
chaste. It is not with Venus' quiver that he grows thin, or with her
torch he burns; it is from that his fires are fed; from her dowry that
the arrows emanate. She has purchased her liberty: therefore, even
in her husband's presence, she may exchange signals, and answer her
love-letters. A rich wife, with a covetous husband, has all a widow's
privileges. "Why then does Sertorius burn with passion for Bibula?"
If you sift the truth, it is not the wife he is in love with, but the
face. Let a wrinkle or two make their appearance, and the shriveled
skin grow flaccid, her teeth get black, or her eyes smaller--"Pack
up your baggage," the freedman will say, "and march. You are become
offensive. You blow your nose too frequently. March! and be quick about
it! Another is coming whose nose is not so moist." Meanwhile she is
hot and imperious, and demands of her husband shepherds and sheep from
Canusium, and elms[244] from Falernum. What a trifle is this? Then
every boy she fancies, whole droves of slaves, and whatever she has not
in her house, and her neighbor has, must be bought.
Nay, in the mid-winter month, when now the merchant Jason is shut up,
and the cottage[245] white with hoar frost detains the sailors all
equipped for their voyage, she takes huge crystalline vases,[246] and
then again myrrhine of immense size; then an adamant whose history is
well known, and whose value is enhanced by having been on Berenice's
finger. This in days of yore a barbarian king gave his incestuous
love--Agrippa to his own sister! where barefoot kings observe festal
sabbaths, and a long-established clemency grants long life to pigs.
"Is there not one, then, out of such large herds of women, that seems
to you a worthy match?" Let her be beautiful, graceful, rich, fruitful;
marshal along her porticoes her rows of ancestral statues; let her be
more chaste than any single Sabine that, with hair disheveled, brought
the war to a close; be a very phœnix upon earth, rare as a black swan;
who could tolerate a wife in whom all excellencies are concentrated! I
would rather, far rather, have a country maiden from Venusia, than you,
O Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, if along with your exalted virtues
you bring as portion of your dower a haughty and disdainful brow, and
reckon as part of your fortune the triumphs of your house! Away, I beg,
with your Hannibal and Syphax conquered in his camp, and tramp with all
your Carthage!
"Spare, I pray thee, Pæan! and thou, O goddess, lay down thine arrows!
The children are innocent. Transfix the mother herself!" So prays
Amphion. Yet Pæan bends his bow. Therefore she had to bury her herds
of children, together with their sire, while Niobe seems to herself to
be more noble than Latona's race, and moreover more fruitful even than
the white sow. What dignity of deportment, what beauty, can compensate
for your wife's always throwing her own worth in your teeth? For all
the satisfaction of this rare and chief good is destroyed, if, entirely
spoilt by haughtiness of soul, it entails more bitter than sweet. But
who is so devotedly uxorious, as not to feel a dread of her whom he
praises to the skies, and hate her seven hours out of every twelve?
There are some things, trifling indeed, and yet such as no husband can
tolerate. For what can be more sickening than the fact that no one
woman considers herself beautiful, unless instead of Tuscan she has
become a little Greek--metamorphosed from a maid of Sulmo to a "maid of
Athens." Every thing is in Greek. (While surely it is more disgraceful
for our countrywomen not to know their mother tongue.) In this language
they give vent to their fears, their anger, their joys and cares,
and all the inmost workings of their soul. Nay more, they kiss à la
Grecque! This in young girls you may excuse. But must thou, forsooth,
speak Greek, that hast had the wear and tear of six and eighty years?
In an old woman this language becomes immodest, when interspersed with
the wanton Ζωὴ καὶ ψυχή. You are employing in public, expressions one
might think you had just used under the counterpane. For whose passion
would not be excited by these enticing and wanton words? It has all
the force of actual touching. Yet though you pronounce them all in
more insinuating tones than even Hæmus or Carpophorus, your face, the
tell-tale of your years, makes all the feathers droop.
If you are _not_ likely to love her that is contracted and united to
you in lawful wedlock, there seems no single reason why you should
marry, nor why you should waste the wedding dinner and bride cakes[247]
which you must dispense, when their complimentary attendance is over,
to your bridal guests already well crammed; nor the present given for
the first nuptial night, when, in the well-stored dish, Dacicus[248]
and Germanicus glitters with its golden legend. If you are possessed
of such simplicity of character as to be enamored of your wife, and
your whole soul is devoted to her alone, then bow your head with
neck prepared to bear the yoke. You will find none that will spare a
man that loves her. Though she be enamored herself, she delights in
tormenting and fleecing her lover. Consequently a wife is far more
disastrous to him that is likely to prove a kind and eligible husband.
You will never be allowed to make a present without your wife's
consent. If she opposes it, you must not sell a single thing, or buy
one, against her will. She will give away your affections. That good
old friend of many long years will be shut out from that gate that saw
his first sprouting beard.[249] While pimps and trainers have free
liberty to make their own wills, and even gladiators enjoy the same
amount of privilege, you will have your will dictated to you, and find
more than one rival named as your heirs.
"Crucify that slave." "What is the charge, to call for such a
punishment? What witness can you produce? Who gave the information?
Listen! Where man's life is at stake no deliberation can be too long."
"Idiot! so a slave is a man then! Granted he has done nothing. I _will_
it, I _insist_ on it! Let my will stand instead of reason!"
Therefore she lords it over her husband:--but soon she quits these
realms, and seeks new empires and wears out her bridal veil. Then she
flies back, and seeks again the traces of the bed she scorned.[250] She
leaves the doors so recently adorned, the tapestry still hanging on the
house, and the branches still green upon the threshold. Thus the number
grows: thus she has her eight[251] husbands in five years. A notable
fact to record upon her tomb!
All chance of domestic happiness is hopeless while your wife's mother
is alive. She bids her exult in despoiling her husband to the utmost.
She teaches her how to write back nothing savoring of discourtesy or
inexperience to the missives of the seducer. She either balks or bribes
your spies; then, though your daughter is in rude health, calls in
Archigenes, and tosses off the bedclothes as too oppressive. Meanwhile
the adulterer, concealed apart, stands trembling with impatient
expectation. Do you expect, forsooth, that the mother will inculcate
virtuous principles, or other than she cherishes herself? It is right
profitable too for a depraved old hag to train her daughter to the same
depravity.
There is scarcely a single cause in which a woman is not engaged
in some way in fomenting the suit. If Manilia is not defendant,
she will be plaintiff. They draw up and frame bills of indictment
unassisted,[252] quite prepared to dictate even to Celsus[253] the
exordium and topics he should use.
The Tyrian Endromides[254] and the Ceroma for women who is ignorant
of? Or who has not seen the wounds of the Plastron,[255] which she
dints with unwearied foil, and attacks with her shield, and goes with
precision through her exercise? A matron most pre-eminently worthy
of the trumpet of the Floralia. Unless indeed in that breast of hers
she is plotting something deeper, and training in real earnest for
the amphitheatre.[256] What modesty can a woman show that wears a
helmet, and eschews her sex, and delights in feats of strength? And
yet, in spite of all, this virago would not wish to become a man. For
how small is our pleasure compared to theirs! Yet what a goodly array
would there be, if there were an auction of your wife's goods: belt
and gauntlets[257] and crest, and the half-armor for the left leg! Or
if she shall engage in a different way of fighting,[258] you will be
lucky indeed when your young wife sells her greaves. Yet these very
same women perspire even in their muslin; whose delicate frames even
a slip of sarcenet oppresses. See! with what a noise she makes the
home-thrusts taught her by the trainer, and what a weight of helmet
bows her down, how firmly she plants herself on her haunches, in what
a thick mass is the roll of clothes. Then smile when, laying aside
her arms, she takes her oblong vessel. Tell me, ye granddaughters of
Lepidus or blind Metellus, or Fabius Gurges, what actress ever wore a
dress like this? When would Asylus' wife cry Hah! at the Plastron?
The bed in which a wife lies is the constant scene of quarrels and
mutual recriminations. There is little chance of sleep there. Then
is she indeed bitter toward her husband, fiercer than tigress robbed
of her whelps; when, conscious of her secret guilt, she counterfeits
groans, or hates the servants, or upbraids you with some rival of her
own creation, with tears ever fruitful, ever ready at their post, and
only waiting her command in what way to flow. You believe it genuine
love. You, poor hedge-sparrow, plume yourself, and kiss off the tears!
Ah! what amorous lays, what letters would you read, if you were but to
examine the writing-case of that adulteress that counterfeits jealousy
so well!
But suppose her actually caught in the arms of a slave or knight. "Pray
suggest in this case some colorable excuse, Quintilian!" "We are at
fault! Let the lady herself speak!" "It was formerly agreed," she says,
"that you should do what you pleased, and that I also might have full
power to gratify myself. In spite of your outcry and confounding heaven
and sea, I am mortal." Nothing is more audacious than these women when
detected. They affect resentment, and borrow courage from their very
guilt itself.
Yet should you ask whence are these unnatural prodigies, or from what
source they spring; it was their humble fortune that made the Latin
women chaste in days of yore, nor did hard toil and short nights' rest,
and hands galled and hardened[259] with the Tuscan fleece, and Hannibal
close to the city, and their husbands mounting guard at the Colline
tower, suffer their lowly roofs to be contaminated by vice. Now we are
suffering all the evils of long-continued peace. Luxury, more ruthless
than war, broods over Rome, and exacts vengeance for a conquered
world. No guilt or deed of lust is wanting, since Roman poverty has
disappeared. This was the source whence Sybaris flowed to these seven
hills, and Rhodes too, and Miletus, and Tarentum crowned with garlands,
insolent and flushed with wine!
Money, the nurse of debauchery, was the first that introduced foreign
manners, and enervating riches sapped the sinews of the age with foul
luxury. For what cares Venus in her cups? All difference of head
or tail is alike to her who at very midnight devours huge oysters,
when unguents mixed with neat Falernian foam, when she drains the
conch,[260] when from her dizziness the roof seems to reel, and the
table to rise up with the lights doubled in number.[261] Go then, and
knowing all this, doubt, if you can, with what a snort of scorn Tullia
snuffs up the air when she passes the ancient altar of Chastity; or
what Collatia says to her accomplice Maura. Here they set down their
litters at night, and bedew the very image of the goddess with copious
irrigations, while the chaste moon witnesses their abominations,[262]
over which, when morn returns, you pass on your way to visit your great
friends.
The secrets of Bona Dea are well known. When the pipe excites them, and
inflamed alike with the horn and wine, these Mænads of Priapus rush
wildly round, and whirl their locks and howl! Then, as their passions
rise, how burning is their lust, how frantic their words, when all
power of restraining their desires is lost! A prize is proposed, and
Saufeia[263] challenges the vilest of her sex, and bears off the prize.
In these games nothing is counterfeit, all is acted to the life; so
that even the aged Priam, effete from years, or Nestor himself, might
be inflamed at the sight. Then their lust admits of no delay. Then the
woman appears in all her native depravity; and by all alike is the
shout re-echoed from the whole den--"Now is the proper time. Let in
the men!" But the adulterer still sleeps; so she bids the youth put on
a female hood, and speed to the spot. If none can be found, they have
recourse to slaves. If there is no hope of slaves, they will hire some
water-carrier to come. If this fails too, and no men can be found, she
would not hesitate to descend still lower in the scale of creation.
Oh, would that our ancient rites and public worship could at least be
celebrated, uncontaminated by such pollutions as these! But even the
Moors and Indians know what singing wench produced his wares equal
in bulk to Cæsar's two Anticatos, in a place whence even a mouse,
conscious of his sex, would flee, and every picture is veiled over that
represents the other sex. Yet, even in those days, what man despised
the deity? or who had dared to ridicule Numa's earthen bowl and black
dish, and the brittle vessels from Mount Vatican. But now what altars
are there that a Clodius does not assail?
I hear the advice that my good friends of ancient days would give--"Put
on a lock! keep her in confinement!" But who is to guard the guards
themselves? Your wife is as cunning as you, and begins with them. And,
in our days, the highest and the lowest are fired with the same lust.
Nor is she that wears out the black pavement with her feet, better than
she who is borne on the shoulders of her tall Syrian slaves.
Ogulnia, in order that she may go in due state to the games, hires a
dress, and attendants, and a sedan, and pillow, and female friends;
and a nurse, and yellow-haired girl[264] to whom she may issue her
commands. Yet all that remains of her family plate, and even the very
last remnants of it,[265] she gives to well-oiled Athletes. Many women
are in straitened circumstances at home; yet none of them has the
modest selfrestraint that should accompany poverty, or limits herself
within that measure which her poverty has allotted and assigned to her.
Yet _men_ do sometimes look forward to what may be to their interest
hereafter, and, with the ant for their instructress, some have at last
felt a dread of cold and hunger. Yet woman, in her prodigality,
perceives not that her fortune is fast coming to naught; and as though
money, with vegetative power, would bloom afresh[266] from the drained
chest, and the heap from which she takes would be ever full, she never
reflects how great a sum her pleasures cost her. Some women ever take
delight in unwarlike eunuchs, and soft kisses, and the loss of all hope
of beard, that precludes the necessity of abortives. Yet the summit
of their pleasure is when this operation has been performed in the
heat and prime of manhood, and the only loss sustained is that the
surgeon Heliodorus cheats the barber of his fees. Such is his mistress'
will: and, conspicuous from afar, and attracting the eyes of all, he
enters the baths, and vies even with the god that guards our vines and
gardens. Let him sleep with his mistress! But, Postumus, suffer not the
youthful Bromius to enter the lists with him.
If she takes delight in singing, the fibula of none of these fellows
that sells his voice to the prætor holds out: the instruments are
forever in her hands; the whole lyre sparkles with the jewels thickly
set. She runs over the strings with the vibrating quill,[267] with
which the soft Hedymeles performed: this she holds in her hands;
with this she consoles herself, and lavishes kisses on the plectrum,
dear for its owner's sake. One of the clan of the Lamiæ,[268] a lady
of lofty rank, inquired with meal-cake and wine of Janus and Vesta,
whether Pollio might venture to hope for the oaken crown at the
Capitoline games,[269] and promise it to his lyre. What more could
she do were her husband sick? What, if the physicians had despaired
of her infant son? She stood before the altar, and thought no shame
to veil her head for a harper: and went through in due form the words
prescribed,[270] and grew pale as the lamb was opened. Tell me now, I
pray, tell me, thou ancientest of gods, father Janus! dost thou return
answer to these? Great must be indeed the leisure[271] of heaven! There
can be no business there, as far as I see, stirring among you. One
woman consults you about comic actors; another would fain commend a
tragedian to your notice: the soothsayer will become varicose.[272]
But let her rather be musical than fly through the whole city, with
bold bearing; and encounter the assemblies of men, and in her husband's
presence herself converse with generals in their scarlet cloaks,[273]
with unabashed face and breasts exposed. She too knows all that is
going on in the whole world--what the Seres[274] or Thracians are
engaged in--the secrets of the step-mother and her son--what adulterer
is in love, or is in great request. She will tell you who made the
widow pregnant--in what month it was--in what language and manner
each act of love takes place. She is the first[275] to see the comet
that menaces the Armenian and Parthian king; and she intercepts[276]
at the gates the reports and freshest news. Some she invents as well.
That Niphates[277] has overwhelmed whole nations, and that the whole
country is there laid under water by a great deluge; that cities are
tottering, the earth sinking down--this she tells in every place of
resort to every one she meets.
And yet that vice is not more intolerable, than that, though earnestly
entreated,[278] she will seize upon her poor neighbors, and have them
cut in two with lashes. For if her sound slumbers are disturbed by
the barking of a dog, "Bring the clubs[279] here at once!" she cries:
and orders the owner first to be beaten with them, and then the dog.
Terrible to encounter, most awful in visage, she enters the baths by
night--by night she orders her bathing vessels and camp to be set in
motion. She delights in perspiring with great tumult; when her arms
have sunk down wearied with the heavy dumb-bells; and the sly anointer
has omitted to rub down no part of her body. Her poor wretches of
guests meanwhile are overcome with drowsiness and hunger. At last the
lady comes; flushed, and thirsty enough for a whole flagon,[280] which
is placed at her feet and filled from a huge pitcher: of which a second
pint is drained before she tastes food, to make her appetite[281]
quite ravenous. Then having rinsed out her stomach, the wine returns
in a cascade on the floor--rivers gush over the marble pavement,[282]
or the broad vessel reeks of Falernian--for thus, just as when a long
snake has glided into a deep cask, she drinks and vomits. Therefore her
husband turns sick; and with eyes closed smothers his rising bile.
And yet that woman is more offensive still, who, as soon as she has
taken her place at table, praises Virgil, and excuses the suicide
of Dido: matches and compares poets together: in one scale weighs
Maro in the balance, and Homer in the other. The grammarians yield;
rhetoricians are confuted; the whole company is silenced; neither
lawyer nor crier[283] can put in a word, nor even another woman. Such
a torrent of words pours forth, you would say so many basins or bells
were all being struck at once. Henceforth let no one trouble trumpets
or brazen vessels; she will be able singly to relieve the moon when
suffering[284] an eclipse. The philosopher sets a limit even to those
things which are good in themselves. For she that desires to appear
too learned and eloquent, ought to wear a tunic reaching only to the
middle of the leg, to sacrifice a pig to Sylvanus,[285] and bathe for
a quadrans. Let not the matron that shares your marriage-bed possess a
set style of eloquence, or hurl in well-rounded sentence the enthymeme
curtailed[286] of its premiss; nor be acquainted with all histories.
But let there be some things in books which she does not understand.
I hate her who is forever poring over and studying Palæmon's[287]
treatise; who never violates the rules and principles of grammar; and
skilled in antiquarian lore, quotes verses I never knew; and corrects
the phrases of her friend as old-fashioned,[288] which men would never
heed. A husband should have the privilege of committing a solecism.
There is nothing a woman will not allow herself, nothing she holds
disgraceful, when she has encircled her neck with emeralds, and
inserted earrings of great size in her ears, stretched with their
weight. Nothing is more unbearable than a rich woman!
Meanwhile her face, shocking to look at, or ridiculous from the large
poultice, is all swollen; or is redolent of rich Poppæan unguents,[289]
with which the lips of her wretched husband are glued up. She will
present herself to her adulterer with skin washed clean. When does
she choose to appear beautiful at home? It is for the adulterers her
perfumes are prepared. It is for these she purchases all that the
slender Indians send us. At length she uncases her face and removes
the first layer. She begins to be herself again; and bathes in that
milk,[290] for which she carries in her train she-asses, even if
sent an exile to Hyperborean climes. But that which is overlaid and
fomented with so many and oft-changed cosmetics, and receives poultices
of boiled and damp flour, shall we call it a face,[291] or a sore?
It is worth while to find out exactly what their occupations and
pursuits are through the livelong day. If her husband has gone to
sleep with his back toward her, the housekeeper is half killed--the
tire-women are stripped to be whipped--the Liburnian slave is accused
of having come behind his time, and is forced to pay the penalty of
another's sleep; one has rods broken[292] about him, another bleeds
from the whips, a third from the cowhide. Some women pay a regular
salary to their torturers. While he lashes she is employed in enameling
her face. She listens to her friend's chat, or examines the broad gold
of an embroidered robe. Still he lashes. She pores over the items
in her long diary.[293] Still he lashes. Until at length, when the
torturers are exhausted, "Begone!" she thunders out in awful voice, the
inquisition being now complete.
The government of her house is no more merciful than the court of a
Sicilian tyrant. For if she has made an assignation, and is anxious to
be dressed out more becomingly than usual, and is in a hurry, and has
been some time already waited for in the gardens, or rather near the
chapels of the Isiac[294] procuress; poor Psecas arranges her hair,
herself with disheveled locks and naked shoulders and naked breasts.
"Why is this curl too high?" Instantly the cowhide avenges the heinous
crime of the misplacing of a hair. What has poor Psecas done? What
crime is it of the poor girl's if your own nose has displeased you?
Another, on the left hand, draws out and combs her curls and rolls
them into a band. The aged matron assists at the council, who, having
served her due period[295] at the needle, now presides over weighing
out the tasks of wool. Her opinion will be first taken. Then those who
are her inferiors in years and skill will vote in order, as though
their mistress's good name or life were at stake. So great is the
anxiety of getting beauty! Into so many tiers she forms her curls, so
many stages high she builds[296] her head; in front you will look upon
an Andromache, behind she is a dwarf--you would imagine her another
person. Excuse her, pray, if nature has assigned her but a short back,
and if, without the aid of high-heeled buskins, she looks shorter than
a Pigmy[297] maiden; and must spring lightly up on tip-toe for a kiss.
No thought meanwhile about her husband! not a word of her ruinous
expenditure! She lives as though she were merely a neighbor[298] of her
husband's, and in this respect alone is nearer to him--that she hates
her husband's friends and slaves, and makes grievous inroads on his
purse.
But see! the chorus of the maddened Bellona and the mother of the
gods enters the house! and the huge eunuch (a face to be revered by
his obscene inferior) who long ago emasculated himself with a broken
shell; to whom his hoarse troop and the plebeian drummers give
place, and whose cheek is covered with his Phrygian tiara. With voice
grandiloquent he bids her dread the approach of September and the
autumn blasts, unless she purifies herself with a hecatomb of eggs, and
makes a present to him of her cast-off murrey-colored[299] robes: that
whatever unforeseen or mighty peril may be impending over her may pass
into the tunics, and at once expiate the whole year. She will break
the ice and plunge into the river in the depth of winter, or dip three
times in Tiber at early dawn, and bathe her timid head in its very
eddies, and thence emerging will crawl on bleeding knees, naked and
shivering, over the whole field of the haughty king.[300] If white Io
command, she will go to the extremity of Egypt, and bring back water
fetched from scorching Meroë, to sprinkle on the temple of Isis, that
rears itself hard by the ancient sheepfold.[301] For she believes that
the warning is given her by the voice of the goddess herself. And this,
forsooth, is a fit soul and mind[302] for the gods to hold converse
with by night! He therefore gains the chief and highest honor, who,
surrounded by his linen-robed flock,[303] and a bald-headed throng of
people uttering lamentations, runs to and fro personating the grinning
Anubis. He it is that supplicates for pardon whenever the wife does
not refrain from nuptial joys on days to be observed as sacred, and a
heavy penalty is incurred from the violation of the snowy sheeting.
And the silver serpent was seen to nod his head! His are the tears,
and his the studied mumblings, that prevail on Osiris not to withhold
pardon for her fault, when bribed by a fat goose and a thin cake. When
he has withdrawn, some trembling Jewess, having quitted her basket and
hay, begs in her secret ear, the interpretess of the laws of Solyma,
the potent priestess of the tree--the trusty go-between from highest
heaven![304] And she crosses her hand with money, but sparingly enough:
for Jews will sell you any dreams you please for the minutest coin. The
soothsayer of Armenia or Commagene,[305] handling the liver of the dove
still reeking, engages that her lover shall be devoted, or promises
the rich inheritance of some childless rich man; he pries into the
breasts of chickens and the entrails of a puppy; sometimes too even of
a child--he does acts of which he will himself turn informer![306]
But their confidence in Chaldæans will be greater still: whatever the
astrologer tells them, they will believe reported straight from the
fountain of Ammon; since at Delphi the oracles are dumb, and darkness
as to the future is the punishment of the human race. However, of
these he is in the highest repute who has been often banished; by whose
friendship and venal[307] tablets it came to pass that a citizen of
high rank[308] died, and one dreaded by Otho. Hence arises confidence
in his art, if both his hands have clanked with chains, and he has been
long an inmate of the camp-prison. No astrologer that has never been
condemned will have any reputation for genius; but he that has hardly
escaped with his life, and scarcely had good fortune enough to be sent
to one of the Cyclades,[309] and at length to be set free from the
confined Seriphos, he it is whom your Tanaquil[310] consults about the
death of her jaundiced mother, for which she has been long impatient;
but first, about yourself! when she may hope to follow to the grave her
sister and her uncles; whether her adulterer will survive her, for what
greater boon than this have the gods in their power to bestow?
And yet she is ignorant what the ill-omened planet of Saturn forebodes;
with what star Venus presents herself in fortunate conjunction; what is
the month for ill-luck; what seasons are assigned to profit.
Remember to shun even a casual meeting with her in whose hands you see,
like the unctuous amber,[311] their calendars well thumbed; who instead
of consulting others is now herself consulted; who when her husband is
going to join his camp or revisit his home, will refuse to accompany
him if restrained by the calculations of Thrasyllus.[312] When it is
her fancy to ride as far as the first mile-stone, the lucky hour is
taken from her book; if the corner of her eye itches when she rubs it,
she calls for ointment after a due inspection of her horoscope: though
she lies sick in bed no hour appears suited to taking food, save that
which Petosiris[313] has directed. If she be of moderate means, she
will traverse the space on both sides of the pillars of the circus, and
draw lots, and present her forehead and her hand to the fortune-teller
that asks for the frequent palming. The rich will obtain answers from
some soothsayer of Phrygia or India hired for the purpose, from some
one skilled in the stars and heavens, or one advanced in years who
expiates the public places which the lightning[314] has struck. The
destiny of the plebeians is learnt in the circus, and at Tarquin's
rampart.[315] She that has no long necklace of gold to display,
inquires in front of the obelisks and the dolphin-columns,[316] whether
she shall jilt the tapster and marry the old-clothes man.
Yet these, when circumstances so require, are ready to encounter the
perils of childbirth, and endure all the irksome toils of nursing. But
rarely does a gilded bed contain a woman lying-in: so potent are the
arts and drugs of her that can insure barrenness, and for bribes kill
men while yet unborn. Yet grieve not at this, poor wretch! and with
thine own hand give thy wife the potion, whatever it be: for did she
choose to bear her leaping children in her womb, thou wouldst perchance
become the sire of an Æthiop; a blackamoor would soon be your sole
heir, one whom you would not see of a morning.[317]
I say nothing of supposititious children, and all a husband's joys and
fond hopes baffled at the dirty pools;[318] and the Pontifices and
Salii selected thence, who are to bear in their counterfeit persons the
noble name of Scauri. Fortune, that delights in mischief, takes her
stand by night and smiles upon the naked babes. All these she cherishes
and fosters in her bosom: then proffers them to the houses of the
great, and prepares in secret a rich sport for herself. These she dotes
on:[319] on these she forces her favors; and smiling, leads them on to
advancement as her own foster-children.
One fellow offers a wife magical incantations. Another sells her love
potions from Thessaly, to give her power to disturb her husband's
intellects, and punish him with the indignity of the slipper. To these
it is owing that you are reduced to dotage: hence comes that dizziness
of brain, that strange forgetfulness of things that you have but just
now done. Yet even this is endurable, if you do not go raving mad as
well, like that uncle of Nero for whom his Cæsonia infused the whole
forehead of a foal new dropped. Who will not follow where the empress
leads? All things were wrapped in flames and with joints disruptured
were tottering to their fall, exactly as if Juno had driven her spouse
to madness. Therefore the mushroom[320] of Agrippina had far less of
guilt: since that stopped the breath but of a single old man, and bade
his trembling head descend to heaven,[321] and his lips that slavered
with dribbling saliva. Whereas this potion of Cæsonia[322] calls aloud
for fire and sword and tortures, and mangles in one bloody mass both
senators and knights. So potent is a mare's offspring! Such mighty ruin
can one sorceress work!
Women hate their husbands' spurious issue. No one would object to
or forbid that. But now it is thought allowable to kill even their
husbands' sons by a former marriage.
Take my warning, ye that are under age and have a large estate, keep
watch over your lives! trust not a single dish! The rich meats steam,
livid with poison of your mother's mixing. Let some one take a bite
before you of whatever she that bore you hands you; let your pedagogue,
in terror of his life, be taster of your cups.
All this is our invention! and Satire is borrowing the tragic buskin,
forsooth; and transgressing the limits prescribed by those who trod
the path before us, we are wildly declaiming in the deep-mouthed tones
of Sophocles[323] a strain of awful grandeur, unknown to the Rutulian
hills and Latin sky. Would that it were but fable! But Pontia[324] with
loud voice exclaims, "I did the deed. I avow it! and prepared for my
own children the aconite, which bears palpable evidence against me.
Still[325] the act was mine!" "What, cruelest of vipers! didst thou
kill two at one meal! Two, didst thou slay?" "Ay, seven, had there
haply been seven!"
Then let us believe to be true all that tragedians say of the
fierce Colchian or of Progne. I attempt not to gainsay it. Yet they
perpetrated atrocities that were monstrous even in their days--but not
for the sake of money. Less amazement is excited even by the greatest
enormities, whenever rage incites this sex to crime, and with fury
burning up their very liver, they are carried away headlong; like rocks
torn away from cliffs, from which the mountain-height is reft away, and
the side recedes from the impending mass.
I can not endure the woman that makes her calculations, and in cold
blood perpetrates a heinous crime. They sit and see Alcestis[326]
on the stage encountering death for her husband, and were a similar
exchange allowed to them, would gladly purchase a lapdog's life by the
sacrifice of their husband's! You will meet any morning with Danaides
and Eriphylæ in plenty; not a street but will possess its Clytæmnestra.
This is the only difference, that that famed daughter of Tyndarus
grasped in both hands a bungling, senseless axe.[327] But now the
business is dispatched with the insinuating venom of a toad. But yet
with the steel too; if her Atrides has been cautious enough to fortify
himself with the Pontic antidotes of the thrice-conquered[328] king.
FOOTNOTES:
[237] _Cynthia_ is Propertius' mistress; the other is Lesbia, the
mistress of Catullus. V. Catull., Carm. iii. "Lugete O Veneres," etc.
[238] _Conventum._ Three law terms. Conventum, "the first overture."
Pactum, "the contract." Sponsalia, "the betrothing." Hence virgins were
said to be speratæ; pactæ; sponsæ.
[239] _Lex Julia_, against adultery, recently revived by Domitian.
[240] _Jubis._ Mullets being a bearded fish. Plin., ix., 17.
[241] _Testudineo._ Cf. xi., 94. The allusion is to the story told
by Pliny, vii., 12, of the consuls Lentulus and Metellus, who were
observed by all present to be wonderfully like two gladiators then
exhibiting before them. Cf. Val. Max., ix., 14.
[242] _Lagi._ Alexandria, the royal city of Ptolemy, son of Lagos, and
his successors.
[243] _Imperio Sexûs._ Cf. xv., 138, Naturæ imperio.
[244] _Ulmos._ Elms, to which the vines were to be "wedded," therefore
put for the vines themselves. Cf. Virg., Georg., i., 2, "Ulmisque
adjungere vites." Cf. Sat. viii., 78, Stratus humi palmes viduas
desiderat ulmos. Hence Platanus Cælebs evincet ulmos. Cf. Hor., Epod.,
i., 9.
[245] _Casa._ There is another fanciful interpretation of this passage.
The _casa candida_ is said to mean the "white booths" so erected as to
hide the picture of the "Argonautic" expedition, at the time of the
Sigillaria, a kind of fair following the Saturnalia, when gems, etc.,
were exposed for sale. Cf. Suet., Nero, 28.
[246] _Crystallina_ are most probably vessels of _pure white glass_,
which from the ignorance of the use of metallic oxydes were very rare
among the Romans, though they possessed the art of coloring glass with
many varieties of hue.
[247] _Mustacea_ (the Greek σησαμῆ, Arist., Pax., 869), a mixture of
meal and anise, moistened with new wine.
[248] Dacicus, i. e., gold coins of Domitian--the first from his
Dacian, the second from his German wars. It was customary to present a
plate full of these to the bride on the wedding night. Domitian assumed
the title of Germanicus A.D. 84, and of Dacicus, A.D. 91.
[249]
"She tells thee where to love and where to hate,
Shuts out the ancient friend, whose beard thy gate
Knew from its downy to its hoary state." Gifford.
[250] Cf. Æsch., Ag., 411, ἰὼ λέχος καὶ στίβοι φιλάνορες.
[251] _Octo._ Eight divorces were allowed by law.
[252]
"They meet in private and prepare the bill,
Draw up the instructions with a lawyer's skill." Gifford.
"And teach the toothless lawyer how to bite." Dryden.
[253] _Celsus._ There were two famous lawyers of this name; A.
Cornelius Celsus, the well-known physician in Tiberius' reign, who
wrote seven books of Institutes, and P. Juventius Celsus, who lived
under Trajan and Hadrian, and wrote Digests and Commentaries.
[254] _Endromis._ Cf. iii., 103. "A thick shaggy coat," to prevent cold
after the violent exertions in the arena. _Ceroma._ Cf. iii., 68. The
gladiator's ointment, made of oil, wax, and clay. "Nec injecto ceromate
brachia tendis." Mart., vii., Ep. xxxii., 9.
[255] _Palus_; a wooden post or figure on which young recruits used to
practice their sword exercise, armed with shields and wooden swords
double the regulation weight.
[256] _Veræ._ Cf. ad i., 22.
[257] _Manicæ._ If the proper reading is not "_tunicæ_" (as tunicati
fuscina Gracchi, ii., 117. Cedamus tunicæ, viii., 207), the manicæ are
probably "the sleeves of the tunic." Cf. Liv., ix., 40.
[258] _Diversa._ i. e., as a Retiarius instead of a Mirmillo.
[259] _Duræ._ "Pallade placata lanam mollite puellæ!" The process of
softening the wool hardened the hands. Ov., Fast., iii., 817.
[260] _Concha_, a large drinking-cup, shaped like a shell; or, not
improbably, some large shell mounted in gold for a cup, like the
Nautilus of Middle Ages.
[261] Compare the well-known epigram on Pitt and Henry Dundas:
"I can't see the Speaker, Hal, can you?"
"Not see the Speaker? I see two!"
[262] Cf. Shaksp., Othello, Act iii., sc. iii. "In Venice they do let
heaven see the pranks they dare not show their husbands!"
[263] Cf. ix., 117.
[264] _Amicas._ Lubinus explains it, "Quas tanquam dives habeat loco
clientarum." In Greece and Italy blonde hair was as much prized
as dark hair was among northern nations. Hence Helen, Achilles,
Menelaus, Meleager, etc., are all ξανθοὶ. The ladies, therefore,
prided themselves as much as the men on the personal beauty of their
attendants. Cf. v., 56, "Flos Asiæ ante ipsum," etc. The _nutrix_ is
the intriguing confidante who manages the amours. The _flava puella_,
the messenger.
"A trim girl with golden hair to slip her billets." Gifford.
[265] _Novissima._ Cf. xi., 42, "Post cuncta novissimus exit annulus."
"She who before had mortgaged her estate,
And pawn'd the last remaining piece of plate." Dryden.
[266] _Pullulet._
"As if the source of this exhausted store
Would reproduce its everlasting ore." Hodgson.
[267] _Crispo_, actively, "Crispante chordas." The pecten was made of
ivory. Vid. Virg., Æn., vi., 646, _seq._
"Obloquitur _numeris_ septem discrimina vocum,
Jamque eadem digitis jam _pectine_ pulsat _eburno_."
"Decks it with gems, and plays the lessons o'er,
Her loved Hedymeles has play'd before." Hodgson.
[268] _Lamiarum._ Cf. iv., 154.
[269] _Capitolinum._ This festival was instituted by Domitian (Suet.,
Domit., 4), and was celebrated every fifth year in honor of Jove.
[270] _Dictata._ The repeating the exact formula of words (carmen)
after the officiating priest was a most important part of the sacrifice.
[271] _Otia._
"Is your attention to such suppliants given?
If so, there is not much to do in heaven." Gifford.
[272] _Varicosus._ His legs will swell (like Cicero's and Marius's)
from standing so long praying.
"The poor Aruspex that stands there to tell
All woman asks, must find his ankles swell." Badham.
[273] _Paludatis._ Cf. Cic., Sext., 33.
[274] _Seres._ What country these inhabited is uncertain, probably
Bocharia. It was the country from which the "Sericæ vestes" or
"multitia" (ii., 66) came.
[275] _Instantem._ Cf. Hor., iii., Od. iii., 3, "vultus instantis
tyranni." Trajan made an expedition against the Armenians and Parthians
A.D. 106; and about the same time there was an earthquake in the
neighborhood of Antioch (A.D. 115), when mountains subsided and
rivers burst forth. Dio Cass., lxviii., 24. Trajan himself narrowly
escaped perishing in it. The consul, M. Verginianus Pedo, was killed.
Trajan was passing the winter there, and set out in the spring for
Armenia.--_Cometem._ Cf. Suet., Ner., 36, "Stella crinita quæ summis
potestatibus exitium portendere vulgo putatur."
[276] _Excipit._
"Hear at the city's gate the recent tale,
Or coin a lie herself when rumors fail." Hodgson.
[277] _Niphates._ Properly a mountain in Armenia, from which Tigris
takes its rise, and which, in the earlier part of its course, may have
borne the name of Niphates. Lucan, iii., 245, and Sil. Ital., xiii.,
765, also speak of it as a river. Gifford thinks it is a sly hit at the
lady, who converts a mountain into a river.
[278] _Exorata_ implies that their prayers _were_ heard, otherwise
their punishment would have been still more cruel.
[279] _Fastes._
"Ho whips! she cries; and flay that cur accurst,
But flay the rascal there that owns him first!" Gifford.
[280] _Œnophorum._ A vessel of any size. The _Urna_ is a determinate
measure, holding 24 sextarii, or about 3 gallons, i. e., half the
amphora. Cf. xii., 45, "Urnæ cratera capacem, et dignum sitiente Pholo,
vel conjuge Fusci."
[281] _Orexim_; cf. iv., 67, 138. This draught was called the "Trope."
Mart., xii., Ep. 83. Cf. Cic. pro Deiotaro, 7, "Vomunt ut edant: edunt
ut vomant."
[282] _Marmoribus._ Cf. xi., 173, "Lacedæmonium pytismate lubricat
orbem." Hor., ii., Od. xxiv., 26, "Mero tinguet pavimentum superbum."
[283] _Præco._
"Dumfounders e'en the crier, and, most strange!
No other woman can a word exchange." Hodgson.
[284] _Laboranti._ The ancients believed that eclipses of the moon were
caused by magic, and that loud noises broke the charm.
"Strike not your brazen kettles! She alone
Can break th' enchantment of the spell-bound moon." Hodgson.
[285] "_Sylvano_ mulieres non licet sacrificare." Vet. Schol. Women
sacrificed to Ceres and Juno. Vid. Dennis' Etruria, ii., 65-68. Cf.
Hor., ii., Ep. i., 143.--_Quadrans._ Philosophers used to go to the
commonest baths, either from modesty or poverty. Seneca calls the
bath "Res Quadrantaria." Cf. Hor., i., Sat. iii., 147. Cic. pro Cœl.
"Quadrantaria permutatio."
[286] _Torqueat._ Cf. vii., 156, "Quæ venient diversæ forte sagittæ,"
Quint., vi., 3, "Jaculatio verborum." So Plato uses the term δεινὸς
ἀκοντιστής, of a Spartan orator.
[287] _Palæmon._ Cf. vii., 215," Docti Palæmonis." "Insignis
Grammaticus." Hieron. "Remmius Palæmon," Vicentinus, owed his first
acquaintance with literature to taking his mistress' son to school as
his "custos angustæ vernula capsæ" (x., 117). Manumitted afterward, he
taught at Rome in the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius, and "principem
locum inter grammaticos tenuit." Vid. Suet., Gram. Illust., 23, who
says he kept a very profitable school, and gives many curious instances
of his vanity and luxuriousness. He was Quintilian's master. Cf. Vet.
Schol., and Clinton, Fasti Rom. in anno, A.D. 48.
[288] _Opicæ._ Cf. iii., 207, "Opici mures." Opizein Græci dicunt de
iis qui imperitè loquuntur. Vet. Schol.
[289] _Poppæana._ "Cosmetics used or invented by Poppæa Sabina," of
whom Tacitus says, "Huic mulieri cuncta alia fuere præter honestum
animum," Ann., xiii., 45. She was of surpassing beauty and insatiable
ambition: married first to Rufus Crispinus, a knight whom she quitted
for Otho. Nero became enamored of her, and sent Otho into Lusitania,
where he remained ten years. (Cf. Suet., Otho, 3. Clinton, F. R., a.
58.) Four years after he put away Octavia, banished her to Pandataria,
and forced her to make away with herself, and her head was brought to
Rome to be gazed upon by Poppæa, whom he had now married, A.D. 62. Cf.
Tac., Ann., xiv., 64. Poppæa bore him a child next year, whom he called
Augusta, but she died before she was four months old, to his excessive
grief. Cf. xv., 23. Three years after, "Poppæa mortem obiit, fortuitâ
mariti iracundiâ, à quo gravida ictu calcis adflicta est." Nero, it
is remarkable, died on the same day of the month as the unfortunate
Octavia.
[290] _Lacte._ The old Schol. says _Poppæa_ was banished, and took with
her fifty she-asses to furnish milk for her bath. The story of her
exile is very problematical, as Heinrich shows, and is probably only
an ordinary hyperbole. Pliny says (xxviii., 12; xi., 41) that asses'
milk is supposed to make the face tender, and delicately white, and to
prevent wrinkles. "Unde Poppæa uxor Neronis, quocunque ire contigisset
secum sexcentas asellas ducebat." ὄνους πεντακοσίας ἀρτιτόκους. Xiph.,
lxii., 28.
[291] _Facies._
"Can it be call'd a face, so poulticed o'er?
By heavens, an ulcer it resembles more!" Hodgson.
"But tell me yet, this thing thus daub'd and oil'd,
Thus poulticed, plaster'd, baked by turns and boil'd;
Thus with pomatums, ointments, lackered o'er,
Is it a face, Ursidius, or a sore?" Gifford.
[292] _Frangit._ Cf. viii., 247, "Nodosam post hæc frangebat vertice
vitem." The climax here is not correctly observed, according to Horace.
"Ne scuticâ dignum horribili sectere flagello: Nam, ut ferula cædas
meritum majora subire Verbera non vereor." I., Sat. iii., 119. The
_scutica_ was probably like the "taurea:" the "cowskin" of the American
slave States.
[293] _Diurnum._ "The diary of the household expenses." _Relegit_ marks
the deliberate cruelty of the lady.
"Beats while she paints her face, surveys her gown,
Casts up the day's accounts, and still beats on." Dryden.
[294] _Isiacæ._ Cf. ix., 22, "Fanum Isidis.... Notior Aufidio mœchus
celebrare solebas."
[295] _Emerita._ From the soldier who has served his time and become
"emeritus."
[296] _Ædificat._
"So high she builds her head, she seems to be,
View her in front, a tall Andromache;
But walk all round her, and you'll quickly find
She's not so great a personage behind!" Hodgson.
[297] _Pygmæâ._
"Yet not a pigmy--were she, she'd be right
To wear the buskin and increase her height;
To gain from art what nature's stint denies,
Nor lightly to the kiss on tip-toes rise." Hodgson.
[298] _Vicina._
"And save that daily she insults his friends,
Provokes his servants, and his fortune spends,
As a mere neighbor she might pass through life,
And ne'er be once mistaken for his wife." Badham.
[299] _Xerampelinas._ The Schol. describes this color as "inter
coccinum et muricem medius," from ξηρὸς, siccus, ἄμπελος, vitis, "the
color of vine leaves in autumn;" the "morte feuille" of French dyers.
[300] _Superbi._ The Campus Martius, as having belonged originally to
Tarquinius Superbus.
[301] _Ovile_, more commonly _ovilia_ or _septa_, stood in the Campus
Martius, where the elections were held.
[302] _Animam_, "the moral," _mentem_, "the intellectual part" of the
soul. Cf. Virg., Æn., vi., 11, "Cui mentem animamque Delius inspirat
Vates." When opposed to _animus_, anima is simply "the principle of
vitality." "Anima, quâ vivimus; mens qua cogitamus." Lactant. So Sat.,
xv., 148, "Indulsit communis conditor illis tantum animas nobis animum
quoque."
"Doubtless such kindred minds th' immortals seek,
And such the souls with whom by night they speak." Badham.
[303] _Linigero._ Cf. Mart., xii., Ep. xxix., 19, "Linigeri fugiunt
calvi sistrataque turba." Isis is said to have been a queen of Egypt,
and to have taught her subjects the use of linen, for which reason
the inferior priests were all clothed in it. All who were about to
celebrate her sacred rites had their heads shaved. Isis married Osiris,
who was killed by his brother Typhon, and his body thrown into a well,
where Isis and her son Anubis, by the assistance of dogs, found it.
Osiris was thenceforth deified under the form of an ox, and called
Apis: Anubis, under the form of a dog. (Hence Virg., Æn., viii., 698,
"Latrator Anubis.") An ox, therefore, with particular marks (vid.
Strab., xvii.; Herod., iii., 28), was kept in great state, which Osiris
was supposed to animate; but when it had reached a certain age (non est
fas eum certos vitæ excedere annos, Plin., viii., 46), it was drowned
in a well (mersum in sacerdotum fonte enecant) with much ceremonious
sorrow, and the priests, attended by an immense concourse of people,
dispersed themselves over the country, wailing and lamenting, in quest
of another with the prescribed marks (quæsituri luctu alium quem
substituant; et donec invenerint mærent, derasis etiam capitibus.
Plin., ii., 3). When they had found one, their lamentations were
exchanged for songs of joy and shouts of εὑρήκαμεν (cf. viii., 29,
Exclamare libet populus quod clamat Osiri invento), and the ox was
led back to the shrine of his predecessor. These gloomy processions
lasted some days; and generally during these (or nine days at least)
women abstained from intercourse with their husbands. These rites were
introduced at Rome, the chief priest personating Anubis, and wearing a
dog's head. Hence _derisor_. Cf. xv., 8, "Oppida tota canem venerantur."
[304]
"Her internuntial office none deny,
Between us peccant mortals and the sky." Badham.
[305] _Commagene_ was reduced to a province A.D. 72.
[306] _Deferat._
"Or bid, at times, the human victim bleed,
And then inform against you for the deed." Hodgson.
[307] _Conducenda._
"By whose hired tablet and concurring spell,
The noble Roman, Otho's terror, fell." Hodgson.
[308] _Magnus civis._ Cf. Suet., Otho, 4, "Spem majorem cepit ex
affirmatione Seleuci _Mathematici_, qui cum eum olim superstitem Neroni
fore spopondisset, tunc ultro inopinatus advenerat, imperaturum quoque
brevi repromittens." Cf. Tac., Hist., i., 22, who says one Ptolemæus
promised Otho the same when with him in Spain. Ptolemy helped to
fulfill his own predictions, "Nec deerat Ptolemæus, jam et sceleris
instinctor, ad quod facillimè ab ejusmodi voto transitur."
[309] _Cyclada._ Cf. i., 73, "Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris et carcere
dignum." x., 170, "Ut Gyaræ clausus scopulis parvaque Seripho."
[310] _Tanaquil._ Cf. Liv., i, 34, "perita cœlestium prodigiorum
mulier."
"To him thy Tanaquil applies, in doubt
How long her jaundiced mother may hold out." Gifford.
[311] _Pinguia sucina._ The Roman women used to hold or rub amber in
their hands for its scent. Mart., iii., Ep. lxv., 5, "redolent quod
sucina trita." xi., Ep. viii., 6, "spirant, succina virgineâ quod
regelata manu." Cf. v., Ep. xxxviii., II. (Cf. ix., 50.)
"By whom a greasy almanac is borne,
With often handling, like chafed amber worn." Dryden.
[312] _Thrasyllus_ was the astrologer under whom Tiberius studied the
"Chaldean art" at Rhodes (Tac., Ann., vi., 20), and accompanied his
patron to Rome. (Cf. Suet., Aug., 98.) Cf. Suet., Tib., 14, 62, and
Calig., 19, for a curious prediction belied by Caligula.
[313] _Petosiris_, another famous astrologer and physician. Plin., ii.,
23; vii., 49.
[314] _Fulgura._ When a place was struck by lightning, a priest was
sent for to purify it, a two-year-old sheep was then sacrificed, and
the ground, hence called bidental, fenced in.
[315] _Agger._ The mound to the east of Rome, thrown up by Tarquinius
Superbus. Cf. viii., 43, "ventoso conducta sub aggere texit." Hor., i.,
Sat. viii., 15, "Aggere in aprico spatiari."
[316] _Phalas._ The Circensian games were originally consecrated to
Neptunus Equestris, or Consus. Hence the dolphins on the columns in
the Circus Maximus. The circus was divided along the middle by the
Spina, at each extremity of which stood three pillars (metæ) round
which the chariots turned: along this spine were seven movable towers
or obelisks, called from their oval form ova, or phalæ; one was taken
down at the end of each course. There were four factions in the
circus, Blue, Green (xi., 196). White, and Red, xii., 114; to which
Domitian added the Golden and the Purple. Suet., Domit., 7. The egg
was the badge of the Green faction (which was the general favorite),
the dolphin of the Blue or sea party. For the form of these, see
the Florentine gem in Milman's Horace, p. 3. Böttiger has a curious
theory, that the four colors symbolize the four elements, the green
being the earth. The circus was the resort of prostitutes (iii., 65)
and itinerant fortune-tellers. (Hence "_fallax_," Hor., i., Sat., vi.,
113.) Cf. Suet., Jul., 39, and Claud., 21.
[317] _Mane._ "The first thing seen" in the morning was a most
important omen of the good or bad luck of the whole day. This is well
turned by Hodgson:
"The sooty embryo, had he sprung to light,
Had heir'd thy will and petrified thy sight;
Each morn with horror hadst thou turn'd away,
Lest the dark omen should o'ercloud the day."
[318] _Spurcos lacus._ Infants were exposed by the Milk-pillar in
the Herb-market: the low ground on which this stood, at the base of
Aventine, Palatine, and Capitoline, was often flooded and covered with
stagnant pools. "Hoc ubi nunc fora sunt udæ tenuere paludes," Ov.,
Fast., vi., 401. The "Velabri regio" of Tibull., ii., v., 33.
"The beggars' bantlings spawn'd in open air,
And left by some pond-side to perish there;
From hence your Flamens, hence your Salii come,
Your Scauri chiefs and magistrates of Rome." Gifford.
[319] _Mimum._ Cf. iii., 40, "Quoties voluit Fortuna jocari."
[320] _Boletus._ Cf. v., 147. Nero used to call mushrooms "the food of
the gods" after this. Cf. Suet., Nero, 33. Tac., Ann., xii., 66, 7.
Mart., i., Ep. xxi.
[321]
"That only closed the driveling dotard's eyes,
And sent his godhead downward to the skies." Dryden.
[322] _Cæsonia._ Cf. Suet., Calig., 50, "Creditur potionatus a Cæsonia
uxore, amatorio quidem medicamento, sed quod in furorem verterit."
[323] _Grande Sophocleo._
"Are these then fictions? and would satire's rage
Sweep in Iambic pomp the tragic stage
With stately Sophocles, and sing of deeds
Strange to Rutulian skies and Latian meads?" Badham.
[324] _Pontia_, daughter of Titus Pontius, and wife of Drymis, poisoned
her two children, and afterward committed suicide. The fact was duly
inscribed on her tomb. Cf. Mart., vi., Ep. 75.
[325] _Tamen._ Heinrich proposes to read "tantum."
[326] _Alcestim._
"Alcestis, lo! in love's calm courage flies
To yonder tomb where, else, Admetus dies,
While those that view the scene, a lapdog's breath
Would cheaply purchase by a husband's death." Badham.
[327] _Insulsam._
"But here the difference lies--those bungling wives
With a blunt axe hack'd out their husbands' lives." Gifford.
[328] _Ter victi_, by Sylla, Lucullus, and Pompey. Cf. xiv., 452, "Eme
quod Mithridates Composuit si vis aliam decerpere ficum Atque alias
tractare rosas."
SATIRE VII.
All our hope and inducement to study[329] rests on Cæsar[330] alone.
For he alone casts a favoring eye[331] on the Muses, who in our days
are in a forlorn state. When poets, now become famous and men of
renown, would fain try and hire a little bath at Gabii, or a public
oven at Rome. While others, again, would esteem it neither shocking
nor degrading to turn public criers: since Clio herself, if starving,
would quit the vales of Aganippe, and emigrate to courts.[332] For if
not a single farthing is offered you in the Pierian shades, be content
with the name and calling of Machæra:[333] and sooner sell what the
auction duly set[334] sells to those that stand around; wine-flagons,
trivets, book-cases, chests; the "Alcyone" of Paccius, or the "Thebes"
and "Tereus" of Faustus. This is preferable to asserting before the
judge that you are a witness of what you never did see.[335] Even
though Asiatic,[336] and Cappadocian, and Bithynian knights stoop
to this: fellows whom Gallo-Græcia transports hither with chalked
feet.[337] Hereafter, however, no one will be compelled to submit
to an employment derogatory to his studies, who unites loftiness
of expression to tuneful numbers, and has chewed the bay.[338] Set
vigorously to work then, young men! The kindness[339] of the emperor is
looking all around, and stimulates your exertions, while he is seeking
worthy objects of his patronage. If you think that from any other
quarter you may look for encouragement in your pursuits, and with that
view fill the parchment of your yellow[340] tablet; call with all speed
for a fagot, and make a present of all your compositions, Telesinus, to
Venus' husband:[341] or lock them up, and let the bookworm[342] bore
them through as they lie stowed away. Destroy your pens, poor wretch!
Blot out your battles that have lost you your nights' rest, you that
write sublime poetry in your narrow garret,[343] that you may come
forth worthy of an ivy-crown and meagre image. You have nothing farther
to hope for. The stingy patron of our days has learned only to admire
and praise the eloquent as boys do Juno's peacock.[344] But your prime
of life is ebbing away; that is able to bear the fatigue of the sea,
the helmet, or the spade. Then weariness creeps over the spirits: and
an old age, that is indeed learned but in rags,[345] curses itself and
the Muses that it courted. Now learn the devices of the great man
you pay court to, to avoid laying out any money upon you: quitting
the temple of the Muses, and Apollo, he composes verses himself, and
only yields the palm to Homer himself on the score of his priority by
a thousand years. But if inflamed by the charms of fame you recite
your poetry, he kindly lends you a dirty mansion, and places at your
service one that has been long barred up, whose front gate emulates
those of a city in a state of siege. He knows how to place his freedmen
in seats at the farther end of the audience, and how to arrange his
clients who are to cheer you lustily.[346] None of these great lords
will give you as much as would pay for the benches,[347] or the seats
that rise one above another on the platform you have to hire; or your
orchestra of chairs, which must be returned when your recitation is
over. Yet still we ply our tasks, and draw furrows in the profitless
dust, and keep turning up the sea-shore with sterile plow. For even if
you try to abandon the pursuit, the long habit[348] of indulging in
this vain-glorious trifling,[349] holds you fast in its fetters. An
inveterate itch of writing, now incurable, clings to many, and grows
old in their distempered body. But the poet that is above his fellows,
whose vein is not that of the common herd; that is wont to spin out
no stale or vulgar subject, and stamps no hackneyed verse from a die
that all may use; such an one as I can not embody in words, and can
only feel in my soul, is the offspring of a mind free from solicitude,
exempt from all that can embitter life, that courts the quiet of the
woods, and loves to drink the fountains of the Aonides. Nor can it be
that poverty should sing in the Pierian cave, or handle the thyrsus,
if forced to sobriety, and lacking that vile pelf the body needs both
day and night. Well plied with food and wine is Horace when _he_ shouts
out his Evoe![350] What scope is there for fancy, save when our breasts
are harassed by no thoughts but verse alone; and are hurried along[351]
under the influence of the lords of Cirrha and Nysa, admitting of no
divided[352] solicitude. It is the privilege of an exalted soul, and
not of one bewildered how to get enough to buy a blanket, to gaze on
chariots and horses and the forms of divinities, and in what dread
shapes Erinnys[353] appalls the Rutulian. For had Virgil lacked a slave
and comfortable lodging, all the serpents would have vanished from
Alecto's hair: his trumpet, starved to silence, would have blazed no
note of terror. Is it fair to expect that Rubrenus Lappa should not
fall short of the buskin of the ancients, while his Atreus[354] forces
him to pawn his very sauceboats and his cloak?
Poor Numitor is so unfortunate as to have nothing he can afford to send
his protégé! Yet he can find something to give Quintilla--he managed
to pay for a tame lion, that must have pounds of flesh to feed him. No
doubt the huge beast is kept at far less expense; and a poet's stomach
is far more capacious! Let Lucan recline at his ease in his gardens
among his marble statues, satisfied with fame alone. But to poor
Serranus, and starving Saleius, of what avail will glory be, however
great, if it be glory only? All flock in crowds to hear his sweet
voice, and the tuneful strains of the Thebais, when Statius[355] has
gladdened the city, and fixed the day for reciting it. So great is the
charm with which he captivates their souls; such the eager delight with
which he is listened to by the multitude. But when the very benches
are broken down by the ecstasies with which his verses are applauded,
he may starve, unless he sells[356] his unpublished "Agave"[357]
to Paris. It is he that bestows on many the honors due to military
service, and encircles the fingers of poets with the ring that marks
their six months' command.[358] What nobles will not give, a player
will! And dost thou, then, still pay court to the Camerini and Bareæ,
and the spacious halls of nobles? It is "Pelopea" that makes prefects,
"Philomela" tribunes. Yet envy not the bard whom the stage maintains.
Who is your Mæcenas now, or Proculeius, or Fabius? Who will act Cotta's
part again, or be a second Lentulus? In those days talent had its meet
reward: then it was profitable to many to become pale, and abstain from
wine[359] the whole of December.
Your toil, forsooth, ye writers of histories! is more profitable, it
requires more time and more oil. For regardless of all limit, it rises
to the thousandth page; and grows in bulk, expensive from the mass
of paper used. This the vast press of matter requires, and the laws
of composition. Yet what is the crop that springs from it? what the
profit from the soil upturned? Who will give an historian as much as
he would a notary?[360] "But they are an idle race, that delight in
sofas and the cool shade." Well, tell me then, what do the services
rendered their fellow-citizens, and their briefs they carry about with
them in a big bundle, bring in to the lawyers? Even of themselves they
talk grandly enough, but especially when their creditor is one of
their hearers; or if one still more pressing nudges their side, that
comes with his great account-book to sue for a doubtful debt. Then the
hollow bellows of their lungs breathe forth amazing lies; they foam at
the mouth till their breast is covered. But if you like to calculate
the actual harvest they reap, set in one scale the estate of a hundred
lawyers, and you may balance it on the other side with the single
fortune of Lacerna, the charioteer of the Red.[361]
The chiefs have taken their seats![362] You, like Ajax, rise with
pallid cheek, and plead in behalf of liberty that has been called in
question, before a neat-herd[363] for a juryman! Burst your strained
lungs, poor wretch! that, when exhausted, the green palm-branches[364]
may be affixed to crown your staircase with honor! Yet what is the
reward of your eloquence? A rusty ham, or a dish of sprats; or some
shriveled onions, the monthly provender of the Africans;[365] or wine
brought down the Tiber. Five bottles[366] for pleading four times!
If you have been lucky enough to get a single gold piece,[367] even
from that you must deduct the stipulated shares of the attorneys.[368]
Æmilius will get as much as the law allows;[369] although we pleaded
better than he. For he has in his court-yard a chariot of bronze with
four tall horses[370] yoked to it; and he himself, seated on his fierce
charger, brandishes aloft his bending spear, and meditates battles
with his one eye closed. So it is that Pedo gets involved, Matho
fails. This is the end of Tongillus, who usually bathes with a huge
rhinoceros' horn of oil, and annoys the baths with his draggled train;
and weighs heavily in his ponderous sedan on his sturdy Median slaves,
as he presses through the forum to bid for[371] slaves, and plate,
and myrrhine vases, and villas. For it is his foreign[372] purple with
its Tyrian tissue that gets him credit. And yet this answers their
purpose. It is the purple robe that gets the lawyer custom--his violet
cloaks that attract clients. It suits their interest to live with all
the bustle and outward show of an income greater then they really have.
But prodigal Rome observes no bounds to her extravagance. If the old
orators were to come to life again, no one now would give even Cicero
himself two hundred sesterces, unless a huge ring sparkled on his
finger. This is the first point he that goes to law looks to--whether
you have eight slaves, ten attendants, a sedan to follow you, and
friends in toga to go before. Paulus, consequently, used to plead in a
sardonyx, hired for the occasion: and hence it was that Cossus' fees
were higher than those of Basilus. Eloquence is a rare quality in a
threadbare coat!
When is Basilus allowed to produce in court a weeping mother? Who could
endure Basilus, however well he were to plead? Let Gaul become your
home, or better still that foster-nurse of pleaders, Africa, if you are
determined to let your tongue for hire.
Do you teach declamation? Oh what a heart of steel must Vectius have,
when his numerous class kills cruel tyrants! For all that the boy has
just conned over at his seat, he will then stand up and spout--the
same stale theme in the same sing-song. It is the reproduction of the
cabbage[373] that wears out the master's life. What is the plea to be
urged: what the character of the cause; where the main point of the
case hinges; what shafts may issue from the opposing party;--this all
are anxious to know; but not one is anxious to pay! "_Pay_ do you
ask for? why, what do I know?" The blame, forsooth, is laid at the
teacher's door, because there is not a spark of energy in the breast
of this scion of Arcadia,[374] who dins his awful Hannibal into my
ears regularly every sixth day. Whatever the theme be that is to be
the subject of his deliberation; whether he shall march at once from
Cannæ on Rome; or whether, rendered circumspect after the storms and
thunderbolts, he shall lead his cohorts, drenched with the tempest, by
a circuitous route. Bargain[375] for any sum you please, and I will at
once place it in your hands, on condition that his father should hear
him his lesson as often as I have to do it! But six or more sophists
are all giving tongue at once; and, debating in good earnest, have
abandoned all fictitious declamations about the ravisher. No more is
heard of the poison infused, or the vile ungrateful husband,[376] or
the drugs that can restore the aged blind to youth. He therefore that
quits the shadowy conflicts of rhetoric for the arena of real debate,
will superannuate himself, if my advice has any weight with him, and
enter on a different path of life; that he may not lose even the paltry
sum that will purchase the miserable ticket[377] for corn. Since
this is the most splendid reward you can expect. Just inquire what
Chrysogonus receives, or Pollio, for teaching the sons of these fine
gentlemen, and going into all the details[378] of Theodorus' treatise.
The baths will cost six hundred sestertia, and the colonnade still
more, in which the great man rides whenever it rains. Is he to wait,
forsooth, for fair weather? or bespatter his horses with fresh mud?
Nay, far better here! for here the mule's hoof shines unsullied.[379]
On the other side must rise a spacious dining-room, supported on
stately columns of Numidian marble, and catch the cool[380] sun.
However much the house may have cost, he will have besides an artiste
who can arrange his table scientifically; another, who can season
made-dishes. Yet amid all this lavish expenditure, two poor sestertia
will be deemed an ample remuneration for Quintilian. Nothing will cost
a father less than his son's education.
"Then where did Quintilian get the money to pay for so many estates?"
Pass by the instances of good fortune that are but rare indeed. It is
good _luck_ that makes a man handsome and active; good luck that makes
him wise, and noble, and well-bred, and attaches the crescent[381] of
the senator to his black shoe. Good luck too that makes him the best of
orators and debaters, and, though he has a vile cold, sing well! For
it makes all the difference what planets welcome you when you first
begin to utter your infant cry, and are still red from your mother. If
fortune so wills it, you will become consul instead of rhetorician; or,
if she will, instead of rhetorician, consul! What was Ventidius[382]
or Tullius aught else than a lucky planet, and the strange potency
of hidden fate? Fate, that gives kingdoms to slaves, and triumphs to
captives. Yes! Quintilian was indeed lucky, but he is a greater rarity
even than a white crow. But many a man has repented of this fruitless
and barren employment, as the sad end of Thrasymachus[383] proves, and
that of Secundus Carrinas.[384] And you, too, Athens, were witness to
the poverty of him on whom you had the heart to bestow nothing save the
hemlock that chilled[385] his life-blood!
Light be the earth, ye gods![386] and void of weight, that presses
on our grandsires' shades, and round their urn bloom fragrant crocus
and eternal spring, who maintained that a tutor should hold the place
and honor of a revered parent. Achilles sang on his paternal hills,
in terror of the lash, though now grown up; and yet in whom even
then would not the tail of his master, the harper, provoke a smile?
But now Rufus[387] and others are beaten each by their own pupils;
Rufus! who so often called Cicero "the Allobrogian!" Who casts into
Enceladus'[388] lap, or that of the learned Palæmon,[389] as much as
their grammarian labors have merited! And yet even from the wretched
sum, however small (and it is smaller than the rhetorician's pay),
Acænonoëtus, his pupil's pedagogue, first takes his slice; and then the
steward who pays you deducts his fragment. Dispute it not, Palæmon!
and suffer some abatement to be made, just as the peddler does that
deals in winter rugs and snow-white sheetings.[390] Only let not all
be lost,[391] for which you have sat from the midnight hour, when no
smith would sit, nor even he that teaches how to draw out wool with
the oblique iron. Lose not your whole reward for having smelled as
many lamps as there were boys standing round you; while Horace was
altogether discolored, and the foul smut clave to the well-thumbed
Maro. Yet rare too is the pay that does not require enforcing by the
Tribune's court.[392]
But do you, parents, impose severe exactions on him that is to teach
your boys; that he be perfect in the rules of grammar for each
word--read all histories[393]--know all authors as well as his own
finger-ends; that if questioned at hazard, while on his way to the
Thermæ or the baths of Phœbus, he should be able to tell the name of
Anchises' nurse,[394] and the name and native land of the step-mother
of Anchemolus--tell off-hand how many years Acestes lived--how many
flagons of wine the Sicilian king gave to the Phrygians. Require of
him that he mould their youthful morals as one models a face in wax.
Require of him that he be the reverend father of the company, and check
every approach to immorality.
It is no light task to keep watch over so many boyish hands, so many
little twinkling eyes. "This," says the father, "be the object of your
care!"--and when the year comes round again, Receive for your pay as
much gold[395] as the people demand for the victorious Charioteer!
FOOTNOTES:
[329] _Ratio studiorum._ Cf. Tac., Ann., xi., 7, "Sublatis studiorum
pretiis etiam studia peritura."
[330] _Cæsare._ Which Cæsar is intended is a matter of discussion among
the commentators; whether Nero, Titus, Trajan, Hadrian, Nerva, or
Domitian. Probably the last is meant: as in the beginning of his reign
he affected the character of a patron of literature.
[331] _Respexit._ "To view with favor or pity," as a deity: so Virg.,
Ecl., i., 28, "Libertas, quæ sera tamen respexit inertem."
[332] _Atria._ Either "the antechambers of rich patrons," or to "the
Licinian and other courts," near the forum, where auctions were held;
the _atria auctionaria_ of Cicero: cf. pro Quint., 12, 25, i. in Rull.,
7.
[333] _Machæra_, a famous _Præco_ of his time. Lubin.
[334] _Commissa._ Either from the goods being "intrusted" to the
auctioneer by the owner or the magistrate; or from the parties that
bid being as it were "pitted," _commissi_, against each other, like
gladiators.
[335] _Vidi._ So xvi., 29, "Audeat ille Nescio quis, pugnos qui vidit,
dicere vidi."
[336] _Asiani._ "Jam equites, olim servi Asiatici." Lub. The next line
is in all probability interpolated, being only a gloss. Heinrich.
[337] _Nudo talo._ Vid. ad i., 111. Or, it may be "barefooted" simply.
Galatia in Asia Minor, so called from the colony of Gauls who settled
there, A.D. 278, at the invitation of Nicomedes. Liv., xxxviii., 16.
Cf. Paus., Phoc., xxiii. Cramer's Asia Minor, ii., 79. Clinton, Fast.
Hell. in an.
"Sent from Bithynia's realms with shoeless feet." Badham.
[338] _Laurumque momordit._ So δαφνηφάγοι. The chewing of the bay, as
being sacred to Apollo, was supposed to convey divine inspiration.
Grang. Cf. Lycoph., 6.
[339]
_Indulgentia._ "Lo! the imperial eye
Looks round attentive on each rising bard,
For worth to praise, for genius to reward." Gifford.
[340] _Croceæ._ Because parchment is always yellow on the side where
the hair grew. Others think the parchment itself was dyed yellow. Cf.
Pers., iii., 10.
[341] _Veneris marito_, a burlesque phrase for "the fire."
[342] _Tinea._ Cf. Hor., Ep., I., xx., 12, "Tineas pasces taciturnus
inertes."
[343] _Cellâ._ So Ben Jonson:
"I that spend half my nights and half my days
Here in a cell, to get a dark pale face,
To come forth worth the ivy or the bays,
And in this age can hope no other grace."
[344] _Junonis avem._
"To praise and _only_ praise the high-wrought strain.
As boys the bird of Juno's glittering train." Gifford.
[345] _Facunda et unda._
"Till gray-haired, helpless, humbled genius see
Its fault too late, and curse Terpsichore." Badham.
[346] _Comitum voces._ Cf. xiii., 32, "Vocalis sportula."
[347] _Anabathra_, the seats rising one above another in the form of a
theatre. _Subsellia_, those in the body of the room. _Orchestra_, the
hired chairs in front of all, for his knightly guests. Holyday quaintly
says no patron cared
"What the orchestra cost raised for chief friends,
And chairs recarried when the reading ends."
[348] _Laqueo._
"And would we quit at length th' ambitious ill,
The noose of habit implicates us still." Badham.
[349] _Vatem egregium._ Cf. Hor., i., Sat. iv., 43, "Ingenium cui
sit, cui mens divinior, atque os magna sonaturum, des nominis hujus
honorem." How immeasurably finer of the two is Juvenal's description of
a poet!
"But he, the bard of every age and clime,
Of genius fruitful, and of soul sublime,
Who from the glowing mint of fancy pours
No spurious metal, fused from common ores,
But gold to matchless purity refined,
And stamp'd with all the godhead in his mind:
He whom I feel, but want the power to paint,
Must boast a soul impatient of restraint,
And free from every care--a soul that loves
The Muses' haunts, clear springs and shady groves." Gifford.
Of this passage, Hodgson says, Gifford has drawn the prize in the
lottery of translation, all others must be blanks after it.
[350] _Evoe!_ Vid. Hor., ii., Od. xix., 5. Cf. Milman's Life.
[351] _Feruntur._
"Be hurried with resistless force along
By the two kindred powers of wine and song." Gifford.
[352] _Duas._
"Nor wrestlings with the world will Genius own,
Destined to strive with song, and song alone." Badham.
[353] _Erinnys._ The splendid passage in the seventh Æneid, 445,
_seq._, "Talibus Alecto dictis exarsit in iras. At juveni oranti
subitus tremor occupat artus: Deriguere oculi: tot Erinnys sibilat
hydris, Tantaque se facies aperit." Cf. Æn., ii., 602, _seq._; xii.,
326.
[354] _Atreus._ Some take Atreus to be the person who lends the money.
Grangæus interprets it, "Qui dum componit tragædiam de Atreo, ut vitam
sustentare possit pignori opponit alveolos."
"Who writes his Atreus, as his friends allege,
With half his household goods and cloak in pledge." Badham.
[355] _Statius_ employed twelve years upon his Thebais. (Cf. xii.,
811.) It was not completed till _after_ the Dacian war, but was written
_before_ the 1st book of the Silvæ, the date of the 4th book of which
is known to be A.D. 95. We may therefore assume the date of the Thebais
to be about 94.
[356] _Vendat._ Holyday quotes from Brodæus the price given to Terence
for his Eunuchus, viz., eight sestertia, about sixty-five pounds.
[357] _Agave._ Probably a pantomimic ballet on a tragic subject; for,
as Heinrich says, what had Paris, the mime, to do with a _new tragedy_?
These and the following lines are said to have been the cause of
Juvenal's banishment.
[358] _Semestri_ is said to refer to an honorary military commission,
conferred on favorites, even though not in the army, and called
"Semestris tribunatus militum." It lasted for six months only, but
conferred the privilege of wearing the equestrian ring, with perhaps
others. It is alluded to in Pliny, iv., Epist. 4, who begs of Sossius
the consul in behalf of a friend, "Hunc rogo semestri tribunatu
splendidiorem facias." There are divers other interpretations, but
this appears the simplest and most probable. To confound it with the
"æstivum aurum" (i., 28), is a palpable absurdity.
[359] _Vinum nescire._ Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 5, "At ipsis
Saturnalibus huc fugisti Sobrius." Stat., Sylv., I., vi., 4, "Saturnus
mihi compede exsolutâ, et multo gravidus mero December."
"Then all December's revelries refuse,
And give the festive moments to the Muse." Gifford.
[360] _Acta legenti._ Either the "notary public," or "keeper of the
public records," or the historian's reader, who collected facts for the
author, or "any one who read aloud the history itself."
[361] _Russati._ Cf. ad vi., 589. So the charioteer of "the white" was
called Albatus. Lacerna, or Lacerta, was a charioteer in the reign of
Domitian, some say of Domitian himself. One commentator takes Lacerna
to be "any soldier wearing a red cloak;" as Paludatus is "one wearing
the general's cloak." Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 78, "Prasinus Porphyrion."
[362] _Consedere._ Cf. Ov., Met., xiii., 1, "Consedere duces; et, vulgi
stante corona, Surgit ad hos clypei dominus septemplicis Ajax." Cf. ad
xi., 30.
[363] _Bubulco._" Before some clod-pate judge thy vitals strain."
Badham.
[364] _Palmæ._ Cf. ad ix., 85.
"So shall the verdant palm be duly tied
To the dark staircase where such powers reside." Badham.
[365] _Afrorum Epimenia._ Most probably alluding to the "monthly
rations of onions" allowed to African slaves, who were accustomed to
plenty of them in their own country (cf. Herod., ii., 125. Numb., xi.,
5), where they grew in great abundance. Martial, ix., Ep. xlvi., 11,
enumerates "bulbi" among the presents sent at the Saturnalia to the
causidicus Sabellus.
[366] _Lagenæ._ Mart., _u. s._ "Five jars of meagre down-the-Tiber
wine." Badham.
[367] _Aureus._ About sixteen shillings English at this time.
[368] _Pragmaticorum._ Cicero describes their occupation, de Orat., i.,
45, "Ut apud Græcos infimi homines, mercedula adducti, ministros se
præbent judiciis oratoribus ii qui apud illos πραγματικοὶ vocantur."
Cf. c. 59. Quintil., iii., 6; xii., 3. Mart., xii., Ep. 72. They appear
afterward to have been introduced at Rome, and are sometimes called
"Tabelliones."
[369] _Licet._ The Lex Cincia de Muneribus, as amended by Augustus,
forbade the receipt of any fees. A law of Nero fixed the fee at 100
aurei at most. Vid. Tac., Ann., xi., 5 (Ruperti's note). Suet., Ner.,
17. Plin., v., Ep. iv., 21.
[370] _Quadrijuges._ It appears to have been an extraordinary fancy
with lawyers of this age to be represented in this manner; cf. Mart.,
ix., Ep. lxix., 5, _seq._; but the details of the picture have puzzled
the commentators. "Curvatum" is supposed to mean that "the spear
actually seems quivering in his hand," or that it is "bent with age,"
or that the _arm_ is "bent back," as if in the act of throwing. Cf.
Xen., Anab., V., ii., 12, διηγκυλωμένους. "_Luscâ_" may imply that the
statue imitated to the life the personal defect of Æmilius; or simply
the absence of the pupil (ὀμμάτων ἀχηνία), inseparable from statuary;
or that Æmilius is represented as closing one eye to take better aim.
"Lifts his poised javelin o'er the crowd below,
And from his blinking statue threats the blow." Hodgson.
[371] Cf. Mart., ix., Ep. 60.
[372] _Stlataria._ _Stlata_ is said to be an old form of _lata_, as
_stlis_ for _lis_, _stlocus_ for _locus_. Therefore Stlataria is the
same as the "Latus Clavus," according to some commentators; or a
"broad-beamed" merchant ship; and therefore means simply "imported."
Others say it is a "piratical ship," such as the Illyrians used, and
the word is then taken to imply "deceitful." Facciolati explains, it by
"peregrina et pretiosa: longè navi advecta."
[373] _Crambe._ The old Schol. quotes a proverb--δὶς κράμβε θάνατος,
Grangæus another, which forcibly expresses a schoolmaster's
drudgery--οἰ αὐτοὶ περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν τοῖς αὐτοῖς τὰ ἀυτά.
"Till, like hash'd cabbage, served for each repast,
The repetition kills the wretch at last." Gifford.
[374] Arcadia was celebrated for its breed of asses. Cf. Pers., Sat.
iii., 9, "Arcadiæ pecuaria rudere credas." Auson., Epigr. 76, "Asinos
quoque rudere dicas, cum vis Arcadium fingere, Marce, pecus."
[375] _Stipulare._
"Get me his father but to hear his task
For one short week, I'll give you all you ask." Bad.
[376] _Maritus._
"The faithless husband and abandon'd wife,
And Æson coddled to new light and life." Gifford.
[377] _Tessera._ The poorer Romans received every month tickets,
which appear to have been transferable, entitling them to a certain
quantity of corn from the public granaries. These tesseræ or symbola
were made, Lubinus says, of wood or lead, and distributed by the
"Frumentorum Curatores." In the latter days, bread thus distributed was
called "Panis Gradilis," quia gradibus distribuebatur. The Congiarium
consisted of wine, or oil only. The Donativum was only given to
soldiers. Several of these tickets of wood and lead are preserved in
the museum at Portici.
[378] _Scindens._ "Præcepta ejus artis minutatim dividens." Lubin.
On the principle, perhaps, that "Qui benè dividit benè docet."
Britannicus, whom Heinrich follows, explains it by "deridet." Theodorus
of Gadara was a professor of rhetoric in the reigns of Augustus and
Tiberius. Vid. Suet., Tib., 57. It was he who so well described
the character of the latter; calling him πήλον αἵματι πεφύρμενον.
Chrysogonus, in vi., 74, is a singer, and Pollio, vi., 387, a musician
(cf. Mart., iv., Ep. lxi., 9); but, as Lubinus says, the persons
mentioned here are professors of rhetoric, and probably therefore not
the same.
[379] _Mundæ._
"He splash his fav'rite mule in filthy roads!
With ample space at his command, to tire
The well-groom'd beast, with hoof unstain'd by mire." Badham.
[380] _Algentem._ They had dining-rooms facing different quarters,
according to the season of the year, with a southern aspect for the
winter, and an eastern for the summer. Cf. Plin., ii., Ep. 17. _Rapiat_
rather seems to imply the former case. So Badham--
"Courts the brief radiance of the winter's noon."
"Algentem" favors the other view--
"Front the cool east, when now the averted sun
Through the mid ardors of his course has run." Hodgson.
[381] _Lunam._ Senators wore _black_ shoes of tanned leather: they
were a kind of short boot reaching to the middle of the leg (hence,
"Nigris medium impediit crus pellibus," Hor., I., Sat. vi., 27), with
a crescent or the letter C in front, because the original number of
senators was a hundred.--_Aluta_, "steeped in alum," to soften the skin.
[382] _Ventidius Bassus_, son of a slave; first a carman, then a
muleteer; afterward made in one year prætor and consul. Being appointed
to command against the Parthians, he was allowed a triumph; having been
himself, in his youth, led as a captive in the triumphal procession of
Pompey's father. Cf. Val. Max., vi., 10.
[383] _Thrasymachus_ of Chalcedon, the pupil of Plato and Isocrates,
wrote a treatise on Rhetoric, and set up as a teacher of it at Athens;
but, meeting with no encouragement, shut up his school and hanged
himself.
[384] _Secundus Carrinas_ is said to have been driven by poverty from
Athens to Rome; and was banished by Caligula for a declamation against
tyrants. He is mentioned, Tac., Ann., xv., 45.
[385] _Gelidas._ "Cicutæ refrigeratoria vis: quos enecat incipiunt
algere ab extremitatibus corporis." Plin., xxv., 13. Plat., Phædo, fin.
Pers., iv., 1.
[386] _Dii Majorum_, etc.
"Shades of our sires! O sacred be your rest,
And lightly lie the turf upon your breast;
Flowers round your urns breathe sweets beyond compare,
And spring eternal bloom and flourish there!
Your honor'd tutors, now a slighted race,
And gave them all a parent's power and place!" Gifford.
[387] _Rufus_, according to the old Schol., was a native of Gaul.
Grangæus calls him Q. Curtius Rufus, and says nothing more is known of
him than that he was an eminent rhetorician. He is here represented as
charging Cicero with barbarisms or provincialisms, such as a Savoyard
would use.
[388] _Enceladus._ Nothing is known of him.
[389] _Palæmon._ Vid. ad vi., 451.
[390] _Cadurci._ Cf. vi., 537.
[391] _Non pereat._
"Yes, suffer this! while something's left to pay
Your rising, hours before the dawn of day;
When e'en the lab'ring poor their slumbers take,
And not a weaver, not a smith's awake." Gifford.
[392] _Cognitione Tribuni._ Not a tribune of the people, but one of the
Tribuni Ærarii, to whom the cognizance of such complaints belonged.
[393] _Historias._ Tiberius was exceedingly fond of propounding to
grammarians, a class of men whom he particularly affected (quod genus
hominum præcipuè appetebat), questions of this nature, to sound their
"notitia historiæ usque ad ineptias atque derisum." Cf. Suet., Tib.,
70, 57.
[394] _Nutricem._ The names of these two persons are said to have been
Casperia and Tisiphone.
[395] _Aurum._ i. e., 5 aurei, the highest reward allowed to be given.
The aureus, which varied in value, was at this time worth 25 denarii; a
little more than 16 shillings English. Cf. Mart., x., Ep. lxxiv., 5.
SATIRE VIII.
What is the use of pedigrees?[396] What boots it, Ponticus, to be
accounted of an ancient line, and to display the painted faces[397]
of your ancestors, and the Æmiliani standing in their cars, and the
Curii diminished to one half their bulk, and Corvinus deficient of a
shoulder, and Galba that has lost his ears and nose[4]--what profit
is it to vaunt in your capacious genealogy of Corvinus, and in many
a collateral line[398] to trace dictators and masters of the horse
begrimed with smoke, if before the very faces of the Lepidi you lead an
evil life! To what purpose are the images of so many warriors, if the
dice-box rattles all night long in the presence of the Numantini:[399]
if you retire to rest at the rising of that star[400] at whose dawning
those generals set their standards and camps in motion? Why does
Fabius[401] plume himself on the Allobrogici and the "Great Altar," as
one born in Hercules' own household, if he is covetous, empty-headed,
and ever so much more effeminate than the soft lamb of Euganea.[402] If
with tender limbs made sleek by the pumice[403] of Catana he shames his
rugged sires, and, a purchaser of poison, disgraces his dishonored race
by his image that ought to be broken up.[404]
Though your long line of ancient statues adorn your ample halls
on every side, the sole and only real nobility is virtue. Be a
Paulus,[405] or Cossus, or Drusus, in moral character. Set _that_
before the images of your ancestors. Let that, when you are consul,
take precedence of the fasces themselves. What I claim from you first
is the noble qualities of the mind. If you deserve indeed to be
accounted a man of blameless integrity, and stanch love of justice,
both in word and deed, then I recognize the real nobleman. All hail,
Gætulicus![406] or thou, Silanus,[407] or from whatever other blood
descended, a rare and illustrious citizen, thou fallest to the lot of
thy rejoicing country. Then we may exultingly shout out what the people
exclaim when Osiris is found.[408]
For who would call him noble that is unworthy of his race, and
distinguished only for his illustrious name? We call some one's
dwarf,[409] Atlas; a negro, swan; a diminutive and deformed wench,
Europa. Lazy curs scabbed[410] with inveterate mange, that lick the
edges of the lamp now dry, will get the name of Leopard, Tiger, Lion,
or whatever other beast there is on earth that roars with fiercer
throat. Therefore you will take care and begin to fear lest it is upon
the same principle you are a Creticus[411] or Camerinus.
Whom have I admonished in these words? To you my words are addressed,
Rubellius[412] Plautus! You are puffed up with your descent from the
Drusi, just as though you had yourself achieved something to deserve
being ennobled; and she that gave you birth should be of the brilliant
blood of Iulus, and not the drudge that weaves for hire beneath the
shelter of the windy rampart.[413] "You are the lower orders!" he says;
"the very dregs of our populace! Not a man of you could tell where
his father was born! But I am a Cecropid!" Long may you live![414]
and long revel in the joys of such a descent! Yet from the lowest of
this common herd you will find one that is indeed an eloquent Roman.
It is he that usually pleads the cause of the ignorant noble.[415]
From the toga'd crowd will come one that can solve the knotty points
of law, and the enigmas of the statutes. He it is that in his prime
carves out his fortune with his sword, and goes to Euphrates, and
the legions that keep guard over the conquered Batavi. While you are
nothing but a Cecropid, and most like the shapeless pillar crowned
with Hermes' head. Since in no other point of difference have you the
advantage save in this--that his head is of marble,[416] and your image
is endowed with life! Tell me, descendant of the Teucri, who considers
dumb animals highly bred, unless strong and courageous? Surely it is on
this score we praise the fleet horse--to grace whose speed full many
a palm glows,[417] and Victory, in the circus hoarse with shouting,
stands exulting by. He is the steed of fame, from whatever pasture he
comes, whose speed is brilliantly before the others, and whose dust
is first on the plain. But the brood of Corytha, and Hirpinus' stock,
are put up for sale if victory sit but seldom on their yoke. In their
case no regard is had to their pedigree--their dead sires win them no
favor--they are forced to change their owners for paltry prices, and
draw wagons with galled withers, if slow of foot, and only fit to turn
Nepos'[418] mill. Therefore that we may admire _you_, and not _yours_,
first achieve some noble act[419] that I may inscribe on your statue's
base, besides those honors that we pay, and ever shall pay, to those to
whom you are indebted for all.
Enough has been said to the youth whom common report represents to us
as haughty and puffed up from his relationship to Nero.[420] For in
that rank of life the courtesies[421] of good breeding are commonly
rare enough. But you, Ponticus, I would not have _you_ valued for your
ancestors' renown; so as to contribute nothing yourself to deserve the
praise of posterity. It is wretched work building on another's fame;
lest the whole pile crumble into ruins when the pillars that held it up
are withdrawn. The vine that trails along the ground,[422] sighs for
its widowed elms in vain.
Prove yourself a good soldier, a faithful guardian, an incorruptible
judge. If ever you shall be summoned as a witness in a doubtful and
uncertain cause, though Phalaris himself command you to turn liar, and
dictate the perjuries with his bull placed before your eyes, deem it to
be the summit of impiety[423] to prefer existence to honor,[424] and
for the sake of life to sacrifice life's only end! He that deserves to
die _is_ dead; though he still sup on a hundred Gauran[425] oysters,
and plunge in a whole bath of the perfumes of Cosmus.[426]
When your long-expected province shall at length receive you for its
ruler, set a bound to your passion, put a curb on your avarice. Have
pity on our allies whom we have brought to poverty. You see the very
marrow drained from the empty bones of kings. Have respect to what
the laws prescribe, the senate enjoins. Remember what great rewards
await the good, with how just a stroke ruin lighted on Capito[427] and
Numitor, those pirates of the Cilicians, when the senate fulminated its
decrees against them. But what avails their condemnation, when Pansa
plunders you of all that Natta left? Look out for an auctioneer to sell
your tattered clothes, Chærippus, and then hold your tongue! It is
sheer madness to lose, when all is gone, even Charon's fee.[428]
There were not the same lamentations of yore, nor was the wound
inflicted on our allies by pillage as great as it is now, while they
were still flourishing, and but recently conquered.[429] Then every
house was full, and a huge pile of money stood heaped up, cloaks from
Sparta, purple robes from Cos, and along with pictures by Parrhasius,
and statues by Myro, the ivory of Phidias seemed instinct with
life;[430] and many a work from Polycletus' hand in every house;
few were the tables that could not show a cup of Mentor's chasing.
Then came Dolabella,[431] and then Antony, then the sacrilegious
Verres;[432] they brought home in their tall[433] ships the spoils they
dared not show, and more[434] triumphs from peace than were ever won
from war. Now our allies have but few yokes of oxen, a small stock of
brood-mares, and the patriarch[435] of the herd will be harried from
the pasture they have already taken possession of. Then the very Lares
themselves, if there is any statue worth looking at, if any little
shrine still holds its single god. For this, since it is the best they
have, is the highest prize they can seize upon.
You may perhaps despise the Rhodians unfit for war, and essenced
Corinth: and well you may! How can a resin-smeared[436] youth, and the
depilated legs of a whole nation, retaliate upon you. You must keep
clear of rugged Spain, the Gallic car,[437] and the Illyrian coast.
Spare too those reapers[438] that overstock the city, and give it
leisure for the circus[439] and the stage. Yet what rewards to repay so
atrocious a crime could you carry off from thence, since Marius[440]
has so lately plundered the impoverished Africans even of their very
girdles?[441]
You must be especially cautious lest a deep injury be inflicted on
those who are bold as well as wretched. Though you may strip them of
all the gold and silver they possess, you will yet leave them shield
and sword, and javelin and helm. Plundered of all, they yet have _arms_
to spare!
What I have just set forth is no opinion of my own. Believe that I
am reciting to you a leaf of the sibyl, that can not lie. If your
retinue are men of spotless life, if no favorite youth[442] barters
your judgments for gold, if your wife[443] is clear from all stain of
guilt, and does not prepare to go through the district courts,[444] and
all the towns of your province, ready, like a Celæno[445] with her
crooked talons, to swoop upon the gold--then you may, if you please,
reckon your descent from Picus; and if high-sounding names are your
fancy, place the whole army of Titans among your ancestors, or even
Prometheus[446] himself. Adopt a founder of your line from any book you
please. But if ambition and lust hurry you away headlong, if you break
your rods[447] on the bloody backs of the allies, if your delight is in
axes blunted by the victor worn out with using them--then the nobility
of your sires themselves begins to rise[448] in judgment against
you, and hold forth a torch to blaze upon your shameful deeds.[449]
Every act of moral turpitude incurs more glaring reprobation in exact
proportion to the rank of him that commits it. Why vaunt your pedigree
to me? you, that are wont to put your name to forged deeds in the very
temples[450] which your grandsire built, before your very fathers'
triumphal statues! or, an adulterer that dares not face the day, you
veil your brows concealed beneath a Santon[451] cowl. The bloated
Damasippus is whirled in his rapid car past the ashes and bones of
his ancestors--and with his own hands, yes! though consul! with his
own hands locks his wheel with the frequent drag-chain.[452] It is,
indeed, at night. But still the moon sees him! The stars strain on
him their attesting eyes.[453] When the period of his magistracy is
closed, Damasippus[454] will take whip in hand in the broad glare of
day, and never dread meeting his friend now grown old, and will be the
first to give him the coachman's salute, and untie the trusses and
pour the barley[455] before his weary steeds himself. Meantime, even
while according to Numa's ancient rites he sacrifices the woolly victim
and the stalwart bull before Jove's altar, he swears by Epona[456]
alone, and the faces daubed over the stinking stalls. But when he is
pleased to repeat his visits to the taverns open all night long, the
Syrophœnician, reeking with his assiduous perfume,[457] runs to meet
him (the Syrophœnician that dwells at the Idumæan[458] gate), with
all the studied courtesy of a host, he salutes him as "lord"[459] and
"king;" and Cyane, with gown tucked up, with her bottle for sale. One
who wishes to palliate his crimes will say to me, "Well; we did so too
when we were young!" Granted. But surely you left off, and did not
indulge in your folly beyond that period. Let what you basely dare be
ever brief! There are some faults that should be shorn away with our
first beard. Make all reasonable allowance for boys. But Damasippus
frequents those debauches of the bagnios, and the painted signs,[460]
when of ripe age for war, for guarding Armenia[461] and Syria's rivers,
and the Rhine or Danube. His time of life qualifies him to guard the
emperor's person. Send then to Ostia![462] Cæsar--send! But look
for your general in some great tavern. You will find him reclining
with some common cut-throat; in a medley of sailors, and thieves,
and runaway slaves; among executioners and cheap coffin-makers,[463]
and the now silent drums of the priest of Cybele, lying drunk on his
back.[464] There there is equal liberty for all--cups in common--nor
different couch for any, or table set aloof from the herd. What
would you do, Ponticus, were it your lot to have a slave of such a
character? Why surely you would dispatch him to the Lucanian or Tuscan
bridewells.[465] But you, ye Trojugenæ! find excuses for yourselves,
and what would disgrace a cobbler[466] will be becoming in a Volesus
or Brutus!
What if we never produce examples so foul and shameful, that worse do
not yet remain behind! When all your wealth was squandered, Damasippus,
you let your voice for hire[467] to the stage,[468] to act the noisy
Phasma[469] of Catullus. Velox Lentulas acted Laureolus, and creditably
too. In my judgment he deserved crucifying in earnest. Nor yet can
you acquit the people themselves from blame. The brows of the people
are too hardened that sit[470] spectators of the buffooneries of the
patricians, listen to the Fabii with naked feet, and laugh at the
slaps on the faces of the Mamerci. What matters it at what price they
sell their lives: they sell them at no tyrant's compulsion,[471] «nor
hesitate[472] to do it even at the games of the prætor seated on
high.» Yet imagine the gladiator's sword[473] on one side, the stage
on the other. Which is the better alternative? Has any one so slavish
a dread of death as to become the jealous lover of Thymele,[474] the
colleague of the heavy Corinthus? Yet it is nothing to be wondered
at, if the emperor turn harper, that the nobleman should turn actor.
To crown all this, what is left but the amphitheatre?[475] And this
disgrace of the city you have as well--Gracchus[476] not fighting
equipped as a Mirmillo, with buckler or falchion (for he condemns--yes,
condemns and hates such an equipment). Nor does he conceal his face
beneath a helmet. See! he wields a trident. When he has cast without
effect the nets suspended from his poised right hand, he boldly lifts
his uncovered face to the spectators, and, easily to be recognized,
flees across the whole arena. We can not mistake the tunic,[477] since
the ribbon of gold reaches from his neck, and flutters in the breeze
from his high-peaked cap. Therefore the disgrace, which the Secutor
had to submit to, in being forced to fight with Gracchus, was worse
than any wound. Were the people allowed the uncontrolled exercise of
their votes, who could be found so abandoned as to hesitate to prefer
Seneca[478] to Nero? For whose punishment there should have been
prepared not a single ape[479] only, or one snake or sack.[480] "His
crime is matched by that of Orestes!"[481] But it is the motive cause
that gives the quality to the act. Since he, at the instigation of the
gods themselves, was the avenger of his father butchered in his cups.
But he neither imbrued his hands in Electra's blood, or that of his
Spartan wife; he mixed no aconite for his relations. Orestes never sang
on the stage; he never wrote "Troïcs." What, blacker crime was there
for Virginius'[482] arms to avenge, or Galba leagued with Vindex? In
all his tyranny, cruel and bloody as it was, what exploit did Nero[483]
achieve? These are the works, these the accomplishments of a high-born
prince--delighting to prostitute[484] his rank by disgraceful dancing
on a foreign stage, and earn the parsley of the Grecian crown. Array
the statues of your ancestors in the trophies of your voice. At
Domitius'[485] feet lay the long train of Thyestes, or Antigone, or
Menalippe's mask, and hang your harp[486] on the colossus of marble.
What could any one find more noble than thy birth, Catiline, or
thine, Cethegus! Yet ye prepared arms to be used by night, and flames
for our houses and temples, as though ye had been the sons of the
Braccati,[487] or descendants of the Senones. Attempting what one would
be justified in punishing by the pitched shirt.[488] But the consul is
on the watch[489] and restrains your bands. He whom you sneer at as
a novus[490] homo from Arpinum, of humble birth, and but lately made
a municipal knight at Rome, disposes every where his armed guards to
protect the terrified people, and exerts himself in every quarter.
Therefore the peaceful toga, within the walls, bestowed on him such
honors and renown as not even Octavius bore away from Leucas[491]
or the plains of Thessaly, with sword reeking with unintermitted
slaughter. But Rome owned him for a parent. Rome, when unfettered,[492]
hailed Cicero as father of his father-land.
Another native of Arpinum was wont to ask for his wages when wearied
with another's plow on the Volscian hills. After that, he had the
knotted vine-stick[493] broken about his head, if he lazily fortified
the camp with sluggard axe. Yet _he_ braved the Cimbri, and the
greatest perils of the state, and alone protected the city in her
alarm. And therefore when the ravens, that had never lighted on bigger
carcasses,[494] flocked to the slaughtered heaps of Cimbrians slain,
his nobly-born colleague is honored with a laurel inferior to his.[495]
The souls of the Decii were plebeian, their very names plebeian. Yet
these are deemed by the infernal deities and mother Earth a fair
equivalent for the whole legions, and all the forces of the allies, and
all the flower of Latium. For the Decii[496] were more highly valued by
_them_ than all they died to save!
It was one born from a slave[497] that won the robe and diadem and
fasces of Quirinus, that last of good kings! They that were for
loosening the bolts of the gates betrayed to the exiled tyrants, were
the sons of the consul himself! men from whom we might have looked for
some glorious achievement in behalf of liberty when in peril; some act
that Mucius' self, or Cocles, might admire; and the maiden that swam
across[498] the Tiber, then the limit of our empire. He that divulged
to the fathers the secret treachery was a slave,[499] afterward to
be mourned for by all the Roman matrons: while they suffer the
well-earned punishment of the scourge, and the axe,[500] then first
used by Rome since she became republican.
I had rather that Thersites[501] were your sire, provided you resembled
Æacides and could wield the arms of Vulcan, than that Achilles should
beget you to be a match to Thersites.
And yet, however far you go back, however far you trace your name, you
do but derive your descent from the infamous sanctuary.[502] That first
of your ancestors, whoever he was, was either a shepherd, or else--what
I would rather not mention!
FOOTNOTES:
[396] _Stemmata._ "The lines connecting the descents in a pedigree,"
from the garlands of flowers round the Imagines set up in the halls
(v., 19) and porticoes (vi., 163) of the nobiles; which were joined to
one another by festoons, so that the descent from father to son could
be readily traced. Cf. Pers., iii., 28. "Stemmate quod Tusco ramum
millesime ducis." Of Ponticus nothing is known.
[397] _Vultus._ Because these Imagines were simply busts made of wax,
colored.
[398] _Virgâ._
"What boots it on the lineal tree to trace
Through many a branch the founders of our race." Gifford.
[399] _Numantinos._ Scipio Africanus the Younger got the name of
Numantinus from Numantia, which he destroyed as well as Carthage.
[400] _Ortu._
"Just at the hour when those whose name you boast
Broke up the camp, and march'd th' embattled host." Hodgson.
[401] _Fabius_, the founder of the Fabian gens, was said to have been
a son of Hercules by Vinduna, daughter of Evander, and by virtue of
this descent the Fabii claimed the exclusive right of ministering at
the altar consecrated by Evander to Hercules. It stood in the Forum
Boarium, near the Circus Flaminius, and was called Ara Maxima. Cf.
Ovid, Fast., i., 581, "Constituitque sibi quæ Maxima dicitur, Aram,
Hic ubi pars urbis de bove nomen habet." Cf. Virg., Æn., viii., 271,
"Hanc aram luco statuit quæ Maxima semper dicetur nobis, et erit quæ
Maxima semper." Quintus Fabius Maximus Æmilianus, the consul in the
year B.C. 121, defeated the Allobroges at the junction of the Isère
and the Rhone, and killed 130,000: for which he received the name of
Allobrogicus. Cf. Liv., Ep. 61. Vell., ii., 16.
[402] _Euganea_, a district of Northern Italy, on the confines of the
Venetian territory.
[403] _Pumice._ The pumice found at Catana, now Catania, at the foot of
Mount Ætna, was used to rub the body with to make it smooth (cf. ix.,
95, "Inimicus pumice lævis." Plin., xxxvi., 21. Ovid, A. Am., i., 506,
"Nec tua mordaci pumice crura teras"), after the hairs had been got rid
of by the resin. Vid. inf. 114.--_Traducit._ Vid. ad xi., 31.
[404] _Frangendâ._ The busts of great criminals were broken by
the common executioner. Cf. x., 58, "Descendunt statuæ restemque
sequuntur." Tac., Ann., vi., 2, "Atroces sententiæ dicebantur in
effigies." Cf. Ruperti, ad Tac., Ann., ii., 32. Suet., Domit., 23.
"He blast his wretched kindred with a bust,
For public justice to reduce to dust." Gifford.
[405] _Paulus._ He mentions (Sat. vii., 143) two lawyers, bearing the
names of Paulus and Cossus, who were apparently no honor to their great
names. (For Cossus, cf. inf. _Gætulice_.)
[406] _Gætulice._ Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Cossus received the name of
Gætulicus from his victory over the Gætuli, "Auspice Augusto," in his
consulship with L. Calpurnius Piso Augur. B.C. 1. Vid. Clinton, F. H.,
in an. Flor., iv., 12.
[407] _Silanus._ The son-in-law of the Emperor Claudius, who, as
Tacitus says (Ann., xvi., 7), "Claritudine generis, and modestâ juventâ
præcellebat." Cf. Ann., xii. Suet., Claud., 27.
"Hail from whatever stock you draw your birth,
The son of Cossus, or the son of earth." Gifford.
[408] _Osiri invento._ Vid. ad vi., 533.
[409] _Nanum cujusdam._ There is probably an allusion here to
Domitian's fondness for these deformities. Cf. Domit., iv., "Per
omne spectaculum ante pedes ei stabat puerulus coccinatus, _parvo
portentosoque capite_, cum quo plurimum fabulabatur." Cf. Stat., Sylv.,
i.; vi., 57, _seq._
[410] _Scabie._
"That mangy larcenist of casual spoil,
From lamps extinct that licks the fetid oil." Badham.
[411] _Creticus._ Q. Metellus had this surname from his conquest of
Crete, B.C. 67. Vell. Pat., ii., 34. Flor., iii., 7. Cf. ii., 78,
"Cretice pelluces." P. Sulpicius Camerinus was one of the triumvirs
sent to Athens for Solon's laws. Cf. vii., 90. Liv., iii., 33.
Camerinus was a name of the Sulpician gens, and seems to have been
derived from the conquest of Cameria in Latium. (Cf. Facciol.) Liv.,
i., 38. The name of Creticus was actually given in derision to M.
Antonius, father of the triumvir, for his disastrous failure in Crete.
Vid. Plut. in Ant.
[412] _Rubellius_ Blandus was the father, Plautus the son. Both
readings are found here. Of the latter Tacitus says (Ann., xiv., 22),
"Omnium ore Rubellius Plautus celebrabatur, _cui nobilitas per matrem
ex Julia familiâ_." His mother Julia was daughter of Drusus, the son of
Livia, wife of Augustus. Germanicus, his mother's brother, was father
of Agrippina, mother of Nero: hence, inf. 72, "inflatum plenumque
Nerone propinquo." Cf. Virg., Æn., i., 288, "Julius a magno demissum
nomen Julo."
[413] _Aggere._ Cf. ad vi., 588.
[414] _Vivas._
"Long may'st thou taste the secret sweets that spring
In breasts affined to so remote a king." Gifford.
[415] _Nobilis indocti._
"Who help the well-born dolt in many a strait,
And plead the cause of the unletter'd great." Badham.
[416] _Marmoreum._
"For 'tis no bar to kindred, that thy block
Is form'd of flesh and blood, and theirs of rock." Gifford.
[417] _Fervet._ "Frequenter celebratur." Lubin. Some commentators
interpret it of the eager clapping of the hands of the spectators:
others, of the prize of victory.
"The palm of oft-repeated victories." Hodgson.
"Whom many a well-earned palm and trophy grace." Gifford.
"Whose easy triumph and transcendent speed,
Palm after palm proclaim." Badham.
[418] _Nepos_, the name of a noted miller at Rome.
[419] _Aliquid._ "Sometimes great." So i., 74, "Si vis esse _aliquis_."
Hall imitates this beautifully:
"Brag of thy father's faults, they are thine own;
Brag of his lands, if they are not foregone:
Brag of thine own good deeds; for they are thine,
More than his life, or lands, or golden line."
[420] _Nerone._ Cf. ad l. 39.
[421] _Sensus communis._ There are few phrases in Juvenal on which the
commentators are more divided. Some interpret it exactly in the sense
of the English words "common sense." Others, "fellow-feeling, sympathy
with mankind at large." Browne takes it to be "tact." Cf. Hor., i.,
Sat. iii., 66; Phædr., i., Fab. vii., 4. There is a long and excellent
note in Gifford, who translates it himself by "a sense of modesty,"
but allows that in Cicero it means "a polite intercourse between man
and man;" in Horace, "suavity of manners;" in Seneca, "a proper regard
for the decencies of life:" by others it is used for all these, which
together constitute what we call "courteousness, or good breeding." So
Quintilian, I., ii., 20. Hodgson turns it,
"For plain good sense, first blessing of the sky,
Is rarely met with in a state so high."
Badham,
"In that high estate
Plain common sense is far from common fate."
[422] _Stratus humi._
"Stretch'd on the ground, the vine's weak tendrils try
To clasp the elm they dropped from, fail, and die." Gifford.
[423] _Summum crede nefas._ See some beautiful remarks in Coleridge's
Introduction to the Greek Poets, p. 24, 25.
[424] _Pudori._
"At honor's cost a feverish span extend,
And sacrifice for life, life's only end!
Life! I profane the word: can those be said
To live, who merit death? No! they are dead." Gifford.
[425] _Gaurana._ Gaurus (cf. ix., 57), a mountain of Campania, near
Baiæ and the Lucrine Lake, which was famous for oysters (cf. iv., 141,
"Lucrinum ad saxum Rutupinove edita fundo Ostrea," Plin., iii., 5.
Martial, v., Ep. xxxvii., 3, "Concha Lucrini delicatior stagni"), now
called "Gierro."
[426] _Cosmus_, a celebrated perfumer, mentioned repeatedly by Martial.
[427] _Capito._ Cossutianus Capito, son-in-law of Tigellinus (cf. i.,
155. Tac., Ann., xiv., 48; xvi., 17), was accused by the Cilicians
of peculation and cruelty ("maculosum fœdumque, et idem jus audaciæ
in provincia ratum quod in urbe exercuerat"), and condemned "lege
repetundarum." Tac., Ann., xiii., 33. Thrasea Pætus was the advocate
of the Cilicians, and in revenge for this, when Capito was restored
to his honors by the influence of Tigellinus, he procured the death
of Thrasea. Ann., xvi., 21, 28, 33. Of Numitor nothing is known save
that he plundered these Cilicians, themselves once the most notorious
of pirates. Cf. Plat. in Pomp. Some read Tutor; a Julius Tutor is
mentioned repeatedly in the fourth book of Tac. Hist., but with no
allusion to his plundering propensities.
[428] _Naulum._
"Nor, though your earthly goods be sunk and lost,
Lose the poor waftage of the wandering ghost." Hodgson.
Cf. iii., 267, "Nec habet quem porrigat ore trientem." Holyday
and Ruperti interpret it, "Do not waste your little remnant in an
unprofitable journey to Rome to accuse your plunderer." Gifford says it
is merely the old proverb, and renders it, "And though you've lost the
hatchet, save the haft."
[429] _Modo victis._ Browne explains this by _tantummodo victis_, i.
e., only subdued, not plundered; and so Ruperti.
[430] _Vivebat._ "And ivory taught by Phidias' skill to live." Gifford.
[431] _Dolabella._ There were three "pirates" of this name, all accused
of extortion; of whom Cicero's son-in-law, the governor of Syria, seems
to have been the worst.
[432] _Verres_ retired from Rome and lived in luxurious and happy
retirement twenty-six years.
[433] _Altis_, or "deep-laden."
[434] _Plures._
"More treasures from our friends in peace obtain'd,
Than from our foes in war were ever gain'd." Gifford.
[435] _Pater._
"They drive the father of the herd away,
Making both stallion and his pasture prey." Dryden.
[436] _Resinata._ Resin dissolved in oil was used to clear the skin of
superfluous hairs. Cf. Plin., xiv., 20, "pudet confiteri maximum jam
honorem (resinæ) esse in evellendis ab virorum corporibus pilis."
[437] _Gallicus axis._ Cf. Cæs., B. G., i., 51. "The war chariot;"
or the "climate of Gaul," as colder than that of Rome, and breeding
fiercer men. Cf. vi., 470. "Hyperboreum axem," xiv., 42.
[438] _Messoribus._ These reapers are the _Africans_, from whom Rome
derived her principal supply of corn. Cf. v., 119. Plin., v., 4.
[439] _Circo._ Cf. x., 80, "duas tantum res anxius optat, Panem et
Circenses." Tac., Hist., i., 4, "Plebs sordida ac Circo et Theatris
sueta."
"From those thy gripes restrain,
Who with their sweat Rome's luxury maintain,
And send us plenty, while our wanton day
Is lavish'd at the circus or the play." Dryden.
[440] _Marius._ Vid. ad i., 47.
[441] _Discinxerit._ Cf. Virg., Æn., viii., 724, "Hic Nomadum genus et
discinctos Mulciber Afros." Sil. Ital., ii., 56, "Discinctos Libyas."
Money was carried in girdles (xiv., 296), and the Africans wore but
little other clothing. For the amount of his plunder, see Plin., ii.,
Ep. xi., "Cornutus, censuit septingenta millia quæ acceperat Marius
ærario inferenda."
[442] _Acersecomes._ Some "puer intonsus" with flowing locks like
Bacchus or Apollo. Φοῖβος ἀκερσεκόμης. Hom., Il., xx., 39. Pind.,
Pyth., iii., 26.
[443] _Conjuge._ Cf. the discussion in the senate recorded Tac., Ann.,
iii., 33, _seq._
[444] _Conventus._ "Loca constituta in provinciis juri dicundo." The
different towns in the provinces where the Roman governors held their
courts and heard appeals. The _courts_ as well as the _towns_ were
called by this name. They were also called Fora and Jurisdictiones.
Vid. Plin., III., i., 3; V., xxix., 29. Cic. in Verr., II., v., 11.
Cæs., B. G., i., 54; vi., 44.
[445] _Celæno._ Cf. Virg., Æn., iii., 211, "dira Celæno Harpyiæque
aliæ."
[446] _Promethea._
"E'en from Prometheus' self thy lineage trace,
And ransack history to adorn thy race." Hodgson.
[447] _Frangis virgas._
"Rods broke on our associates' bleeding backs,
And headsmen laboring till they blunt their axe." Dryden.
[448] _Incipit ipsorum._
"The lofty pride of every honor'd name
Shall rise to vindicate insulted fame,
And hold the torch to blazon forth thy shame." Hodgson.
[449] _Contra te stare._
"Will to his blood oppose your daring claim,
And fire a torch to blaze upon your shame." Gifford.
[450] _Temples._ The sealing of wills was usually performed in temples;
in the morning, and fasting, as the canon law afterward directed.
[451] _Santonico._ The Santones were a people of Aquitania, between the
Loire and Garonne. Cf. Mart., xiv., Ep. 128, "Gallia Santonico vestit
te bardocucullo."
[452] _Sufflamine._ "The introduction of the drag-chain has a local
propriety: Rome, with its seven hills, had just so many necessities for
the frequent use of the sufflamen. This necessity, from the change of
the soil, exists no longer." Badham.
[453] _Testes._ Cf. vi., 311, Lunà teste.
[454] _Damasippus_ (cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 16) was a name of the
Licinian gens. "Damasippus was sick," says Holyday, "of that disease
which the Spartans call horse-feeding."
[455] _Hordea._ Horses in Italy are fed on barley, not on oats.
[456] _Eponam_ (cf. Aristoph., Nub., 84), the patroness of grooms.
Some read "Hipponam," which Gifford prefers, from the tameness of the
epithet "solam." Cf. Blunt's Vestiges, p. 29.
"On some rank deity, whose filthy face
We suitably o'er stinking stables place." Dryden.
[457] _Amomo_, an Assyrian shrub. Cf. iv., 108.
[458] _Idumeæ._ The gate at Rome near the Arch of Titus, through which
Vespasian and Titus entered the city in triumph after their victories
in Palestine.
[459] _Dominum._ Cf. Mart., i., Ep. 113, "Cum te non nossem dominum
regemque vocabam." Cf. iv., Ep. 84, 5.
[460] _Inscripta lintea._ Perhaps "curtains, having painted on them
what was for sale within." Others say it means "embroidered with
needlework;" or "towels," according to Calderinus, who compares
Catull., xxv., 7.
[461] _Armeniæ._ The allusion is to Corbulo's exploits in Parthia and
Armenia in Nero's reign, A.D. 60. Cf. ad iii., 251. There were great
disturbances in the same quarters in Trajan's reign, which caused his
expedition, in A.D. 114, against the Armenians and Parthians. In A.D.
100, Marius Priscus was accused by Pliny and Tacitus. Vid. Plin.,
ii., Ep. xi. Probably half way between these two dates we may fix the
writing of this Satire.
[462] _Mitte Ostia._ So most of the commentators interpret it. "Send
your Legatus to take the command of the troops for foreign service,
waiting for embarkation at Ostia." But if so, "ad" should be expressed,
and either Tiberina added, or Ostia made of the 1st declension.
Britann., therefore, and Heinrich explain it, "Pass by his own doors;"
omitte quærere illic, "he is far away."
[463] _Sandapila._ The bier or open coffin, on which the poor, or those
killed in the amphitheatre, were carried to burial; hence "sandapila
popularis." Suet., Domit., 17. Stepney (in Dryden's version) thus
enumerates these worthies:
"Quacks, coffin-makers, fugitives, and sailors,
Rooks, common soldiers, hangmen, thieves, and tailors."
[464] _Resupinantis._ In Holyday's quaint version,
"Among great Cybel's silent drums, which lack
Their Phrygian priest, who lies drunk on his back."
[465] _Ergastula._ Private prisons attached to Roman farms, in which
the slaves worked in chains. The Tuscan were peculiarly severe. Vid.
Dennis's Etruria, vol. i., p. xlviii.
[466] _Turpia cerdoni._ Cf. iv., 13," Nam quod turpe bonis Titio
Seioque decebat Crispinum." Pers., iv., 51, "Tollat sua munera cerdo."
"And crimes that tinge with shame the cobbler's face,
Become the lords of Brutus' honor'd race." Hodgson.
[467] _Locasti._
"Lets out his voice (his sole remaining boast),
And rants the nonsense of a clam'rous ghost." Hodgson.
[468] _Sipario._ The curtain or drop-scene in _comedy_, as _Aulæum_ was
in _tragedy_. Donat.
[469] _Phasma._ Probably a translation from the Greek. Ter., Eun.,
pr. 9, "Idem Menandri phasma nunc nuper dedit." Catullus is not to
be confounded with C. Valerius Catullus of Verona (the old Schol.
says Q. Lutatius Catullus is meant, and quotes xiii., 11, whom
Lubinus, ad loc., calls "Urbanus Catullus") as far as the Phasma is
concerned.--_Laureolus_ was the chief character in a play or ballet by
Val. Catullus, or Laberius, or Nævius: and was crucified on the stage,
and then torn to pieces by wild beasts. Martial (de Spect., Ep. vii.)
says this was acted _to the life_ in the Roman amphitheatre, the part
of the bandit being performed by a real malefactor, who was crucified
and torn to pieces in the arena, "Non falsâ pendens in cruce Laureolus."
"And Lentulus _acts_ hanging with such art,
Were I a judge, he should not _feign_ the part." Dryden.
[470] _Sedet._
"Sit with unblushing front, and calmly see
The hired patrician's low buffoonery;
Smile at the Fabii's tricks, and grin to hear
The cuffs resound from the Mamerci's ear." Gifford.
[471] _Cogente Nerone._ Cf. Tac., Ann., xiv., 14, who abstains from
mentioning the _names_ of the nobles thus disgraced, out of respect for
their ancestors. Cf. Dio., lxi. Suetonius says (Nero, cap. xii.) that
400 senators and 600 knights were thus dishonored (but Lipsius says 40
and 60 are the true numbers).
[472] _Nec dubitant._ No doubt a spurious line.
[473] _Gladios._ This is the usual interpretation. Perhaps it would be
better to take "gladios" for the _death_ that awaits you if you refuse
to comply: as iv., 96; x., 345. So Badham:
"Place here the tyrant's sword, and there the scene;
Gods! can a Roman hesitate between!"
[474] _Thymele._ Cf. i., 36.
[475] _Ludus._ Properly, "school of gladiators."
[476] _Gracchus._ Cf. ii., 143.
[477] _Tunicæ._ Cf. ii., 143, tunicati fuscina Gracchi. Suet., Cal.,
30. The Retiarii wore a tunic only. The gold spira was the band that
tied the tall conical cap of the Salii; who wore also a gold fringe
round the tunic.
[478] _Seneca._ There is said to be an allusion here to the plot of
Subrius Flavius to murder Nero and make Seneca emperor. It was believed
that Seneca was privy to it. Tac., Ann., xv., 65.
[479] _Simia._ Cf. xiii., 155, "Et deducendum corio bovis in mare
cum quo clauditur adversis innoxia simia fatis." The punishment of
parricides was to be scourged, then sewn up in a bull's hide with a
serpent, an ape, a cock, and a dog, and to be thrown into the sea. The
first person thus punished was P. Malleolus, who murdered his mother.
Liv., Epit. lxviii.
[480] _Culeus._ Cf. Suet., Aug., 33. Nero murdered his mother
Agrippina, his aunt Domitia, both his wives, Octavia and Poppæa, his
brother Britannicus, and several other relations.
[481] _Agamemnonidæ._ Grangæus quotes the Greek verse current in Nero's
time, Νέρων, Ὀρέστης, Ἀλκμαίων μητροκτόνοι. Cf. Suet., Nero, 39.
[482] _Virginius_ Rufus, who was legatus in Lower Germany, Julius
Vindex, proprætor of Gaul, and Sergius Galba, præfect of Hispania
Tarraconensis, afterward emperor, were the chiefs of the last
conspiracy against Nero. In August, A.D. 67, Nero was playing the fool
in Greece; in March, 68, he heard with terror and dismay of the revolt
of Vindex, who proclaimed Galba. Dio., lxiii., 22.
[483] _Quid Nero._
"What but such acts did Rome indignant see
Perform'd in Nero's savage tyranny?" Hodgson.
[484] _Prostitui._
"To prostitute his voice for base renown,
And ravish from the Greeks a parsley crown." Gifford.
Nero was in Greece A.D. 67, into which year (though not an Olympiad)
he crowded all the games of Greece, "Certamina omnia et quæ
diversissimorum temporum sunt cogi in unum annum jussit." Suet.,
Ner., 23. "Romam introiit coronam capite gerens Olympiam dextrâ manu
Pythiam," c. 25.
[485] _Domitius_ was the name both of the father and grandfather of
Nero. His father was Domitius Ahenobarbus, governor of Transalpine
Gaul. Suetonius (Nero, 6) tells us that the two pædagogi to whom his
childhood _was_ intrusted _were_ a _saltator_ and a _tonsor_. To this
perhaps his subsequent tastes may be traced.
[486] _Citharam._ Cf. Suet., Ner., 12, "_Citharæ_ a judicibus ad se
delatam, adoravit ferrique ad Augusti _statuam_ jussit."
"And on the proud Colossus of your sire,
Suspend the splendid trophy of--a lyre!" Hodgson.
"Sacras coronas in cubiculis circum lectos posuit: item statuas suas
Citharædico habitu: quâ notâ etiam nummum percussit." Suet., Ner., 25.
[487] _Braccatorum._ Gallia Narbonensis was called Braccata from the
Braccæ, probably "plaid," which the inhabitants wore. Plin., iii., 4.
Diod., v., 30. The Senones were a people of Gallia Lugdunensis, who
sacked Rome under Brennus; hence _Minores_, i. e., "as though you had
been the hereditary enemies of Rome."
[488] _Tunicâ molestâ._ Cf. ad i., 155, "a dress smeared with pitch and
other combustibles," and then lighted. Cf. Mart., x., Ep. xxv., 5. In
some cases Nero buried his victims up to the waist, and then set fire
to their upper parts.
[489] _Vigilat_ refers to Cicero's own words, "Jam intelliges multo me
_vigilare_ acrius ad salutem, quam te ad pernicem reipublicæ."
[490] _Novus._ Cicero was the first of the Tullia gens that held
a curule magistracy. Arpinum, his birthplace, now Arpino, was a
small town of the Volsci. The Municipia had their three grades, of
patricians, knights, and plebeians, as Rome had; they lived under their
own laws, but their citizens were eligible to all offices at Rome.
[491] _Leucas_, i. e., "Actium." _Thessaliæ_, "Philippi." The words
following probably refer to the brutal cruelty of Augustus after the
battle.
[492] _Libera._ "When Rome could utter her free unfettered sentiments"
(as sup., "Libera si dentur populo suffragia"). Not in the spirit
of servile adulation, with which she bestowed the same title on her
emperors.
[493] _Vitem._ The centurion's baton of office as well as instrument of
punishment. Cf. xiv., 193; Mart., x., Ep. xxvi., 1. See the story of
Lucilius, nicknamed Cedo alteram, in Tac., Ann., i., 23.
[494] _Majora cadavera._ Besides their fierce gray eyes (xiii., 164),
the Germans were conspicuous for their stature and red hair. "Truces
et cærulei oculi, rutilæ comæ, magnum corpora et tantum ad impetum
valida." Tac., Germ., iv. "Cimbri præ Italis ingentes." Flor., iii.,3.
[495] _Lauro secundâ._ A double triumph was decreed to Marius; he gave
up the second to Q. Lutatius Catulus, his noble colleague, to satisfy
his soldiers, who knew, better than Juvenal, that the _nobleman's_
services did _not_ fall short of those of the plebeian. Marius
afterward barbarously murdered him.
[496] _Deciorum._ Alluding to the three immolations of the Decii,
father, son, and grandson, in the wars with the Latins, Gauls, and
Pyrrhus. All three bore the name of Publius Decius Mus. Juvenal comes
very near the formula of self-devotion given in Liv., viii., 6, _seq._
"Exercitum Diis Manibus matrique terræ deberi."
[497] _Ancilla natus._ Servius Tullius (Cf. vii., 199) was the sen of
Ocrisia, or Ocriculana, a captive from Corniculum. Liv., i., 39. The
_Trabea_ was a white robe with a border and _broad stripes_ (trabes) of
purple, worn afterward by consuls and augurs: cf. x., 35; the _diadema_
of the ancient kings was a _fillet_ or ribbon, not a crown.
"And he who graced the purple which he wore,
The last good king of Rome, a bondmaid bore." Gifford.
[498] _Natavit._
"And she who mock'd the javelins whistling round,
And swam the Tiber, then the empire's bound." Gifford.
[499] _Servus._ Livy calls him Vindicius; and derives from him the name
of the Vindicta, "the rod of manumission." Liv., ii., 7. He was mourned
for at his death by the Roman matrons publicly, as Brutus had been.
[500] _Legum prima securis._ Tarquinius Priscus introduced the axe and
fasces with the other regalia. The axe therefore had often fallen for
the _tyrants_; now it is used for the first time in defense of a legal
constitution and a _free republic_.
[501] _Thersites._ Hom., Il., ii., 212.
[502] _Asylo._ Cf. Liv., i., 8.
SATIRE IX.
I should like to know, Nævolus,[503] why you so often meet me with
clouded brow forlorn, like Marsyas after his defeat. What have you to
do with such a face as Ravola had when detected with his Rhodope?[504]
We give a slave a box on the ear, if he licks the pastry. Why!
Crepereius Pollio[505] had not a more woe-begone face than yours;
he that went about ready to pay three times the ordinary interest,
and could find none fools enough to trust him. Where do so many
wrinkles come from all of a sudden? Why, surely before, contented with
little, you used to live like a gentleman's gentleman[506]--a witty
boon-companion with your biting jest, and sharp at repartees that savor
of town-life!
Now all is the reverse; your looks are dejected; your tangled hair
bristles like a thicket;[507] there is none of that sleekness over your
whole skin, such as the Bruttian plaster of hot pitch used to give you;
but your legs are neglected and rank with a shrubbery of hair. What
means this emaciated form, like that of some old invalid parched this
many a day with quartan ague and fever that has made his limbs its
home? You may detect[508] the anguish of the mind that lurks in the
sickly body--and discover its joys also. For the face, the index of
the mind, takes its complexion from each. You seem, therefore, to have
changed your course of life, and to run counter to your former habits.
For, but lately, as I well remember, you used to haunt the temple of
Isis,[509] and the statue of Ganymede in the temple of Peace,[510]
and the secret palaces of the imported mother[511] of the gods; ay,
and Ceres too (for what temple is there in which you may not find a
woman)--a more notorious adulterer even than Aufidius, and under the
rose, not confining your attentions to the wives!
"Yes: even this way of life is profitable to many. But I never made
it worth my while: we do occasionally get greasy cloaks, that serve
to save our toga, of coarse texture and indifferent dye, the clumsy
workmanship of some French weaver's lay; or a small piece of silver of
inferior metal.[512] The Fates control the destinies of men: nay, there
is fate even in those very parts which the lap of the toga conceals
from view. For if the stars are unpropitious, your manly powers,
remaining unknown, will profit you nothing, even though the liquorish
Virro has seen you stripped, and seductive billets-doux, closely
following each other, are forever assailing you: for such a fellow as
he even entices others to sin. Yet, what monster can be worse, than
one miserly as well as effeminate?"[513] "I gave you so much, then so
much, and then soon after you had more!" He reckons up and still acts
the wanton. "Let us settle our accounts! Send for the slaves with my
account-book! Reckon up five thousand sesterces in all! Then count up
your services!" Are then my duties so light, and so little against the
grain? Far less wretched will be the poor slave that digs the great
man's land! But you, forsooth, thought yourself delicate, and young,
and beautiful! fit to be a cup-bearer in heaven!
Will you ever bestow favors on a humble dependent, or be generous to
one that pays you court, when you grudge even the money you spend on
your unnatural[514] gratifications? See the fellow! to whom you are
to send a present of a green parasol and large amber[515] bowls, as
often as his birthday comes round, or rainy spring begins; or pillowed
on his cushioned sofa, he fingers presents set apart for the female
Kalends![516]
Tell me, you sparrow, for whom it is you are keeping so many hills, so
many Apulian[517] farms, so many kites wearied in flying across your
pastures? Your Trifoline estate[518] enriches you with its fruitful
vines; and the hill that looks down[519] on Cumæ, and caverned Gaurus.
Who seals up more[520] casks of wine that will bear long keeping? How
great a matter would it be to present the loins of your client, worn
out in your service, with a few acres? Would yon rustic child, with
his mother, and her hovel,[521] and his playmate cur, more justly
become the inheritance of your cymbal-beating friend? "You are a most
importunate beggar!" he says: But _Rent_ cries out to me "Beg!" My only
slave calls on me to beg! loudly as Polyphemus[522] with his one broad
eye, by which the crafty Ulysses made his escape. I shall be compelled
to buy a second, for this one is not enough for me; both must be fed.
What shall I do in mid-winter? When the chill north wind whistles in
December,[523] what shall I say, pray, to my poor slaves' naked feet
and shoulders? "Courage,[524] my boys! and wait for the grasshoppers?"
But however you may dissemble and pass by all other matters, at how
much do you estimate it, that had I not been your devoted client your
wife would still remain a maid? At all events, you know all about those
services, how hard you begged, how much you promised! Often when your
young wife was eloping, I caught her in my embrace. She had actually
torn[525] the marriage contract, and was on the point of signing a new
one. It was with difficulty that I set this matter right by a whole
night's work, while you stood whimpering outside the door. I appeal to
the bed as my witness! nay, to yourself, who heard the noise, and the
lady's cries! In many a house, when the marriage bonds were growing
feeble and beginning to give way, and were almost severed, an adulterer
has set all matters right. However you may shift your ground, whatever
services you may reckon first or last, is it indeed no obligation,
ungrateful and perfidious man! is it none, that you have an infant son
or daughter born to you through me? For you bring them up as yours! and
plume yourself on inserting at intervals in the public registers[526]
these evidences of your virility! Hang garlands[527] on your doors!
You are now a father! I have given you what you may cast in slander's
teeth! You have a father's privileges; through me you may inherit
a legacy, yes, the whole sum[528] left to you, not to mention some
pleasant windfall![529] Besides, many other advantages will be added to
these windfalls, if I make the number complete and add a third!"
"Your ground of complaint is just indeed, Nævolus; what does he allege
in answer?"
"He casts me off, and looks out for some other two-legged ass to serve
his turn! But remember that these secrets are intrusted to you alone;
keep them to yourself, therefore, buried in the silence of your own
breast; for one of these pumice-smoothed[530] fellows is a deadly thing
if he becomes your enemy. He that intrusted his secret to me but the
other day, now is furious, and detests me just as though I had divulged
all I know. He does not hesitate to use his dagger, to break my skull
with a bludgeon, or place a firebrand at my doors:[531] and deem it
no light or contemptible matter that to men of his wealth the price
of poison is never too costly. Therefore you must keep my secrets as
religiously as the court of Mars at Athens."
"Oh! Corydon,[532] poor simple Corydon! Do you think aught that a
rich man does can be secret? Even though his slaves should hold their
tongues, his cattle will tell the tale; and his dogs, and door-posts,
and marble statues! Close the shutters, cover all the chinks with
tapestry, fasten the doors, remove every light from the chamber,[533]
let each one keep his counsel, let not a soul lie near. Yet what he
does at the second cock-crow,[534] the next tavern-keeper will know
before dawn of day; and will hear as well all the fabrications of his
steward, cooks, and carvers.[535] For what charge do they scruple to
concoct against their masters, as often as they revenge themselves for
their strappings[536] by the lies they forge? Nor will there be wanting
one to hunt you out against your will in the public thoroughfares,
and pour his drunken tale into your miserable ears. Therefore ask
them what you just now begged of me! They hold their tongues! Why
they would rather blaze abroad a secret than drink as much Falernian
(all the sweeter because stolen) as Saufeia[537] used to drink, when
sacrificing[538] for the people!
"One should lead an upright life for very many reasons; but especially
for this--that you may be able to despise your servants' tongues. For
bad as your slave may be, his tongue is the worst part about him.
Yet far worse still is he that places himself in the power of those
whose body and soul he keeps together with his own bread and his own
money.[539]
"Well, the advice you have just given me to enable me to laugh to
scorn my servants' tongues is very good, but too general. Now, what
do you advise in my particular case, after the loss of my time and
the disappointment of my hopes? For the short-lived bloom[540] and
contracted span of a brief and wretched life is fast fleeting away!
While we are drinking,[541] and calling for garlands, and perfumes, and
women, old age steals on us unperceived! Do not be alarmed! So long
as these seven hills stand fast you will never lack a pathic friend.
Those effeminates, who scratch their heads with one finger,[542] will
flock from all quarters to these hills, in carriages and ships. You
have still another and a better hope in store. All you have to do is
to chew eringo vigorously." "Tell this to luckier wights! My Clotho
and Lachesis are well content, if I can earn a subsistence by my vile
labors. Oh! ye small Lares,[543] that call me master, whom I supplicate
with a fragment of frankincense, or meal, and a poor garland, when
shall I secure[544] a sum that may insure my old age against the
beggar's mat and crutch? Twenty thousand sesterces as interest, with
good security for the principal; some small vessels of silver not
enchased, but such as Fabricius,[545] if censor, would condemn; and
two sturdy Mœsian slaves,[546] who, bearing me on their shoulders,
might bid me stand without inconvenience in the noisy circus! Let me
have besides an engraver stooping[547] over his work, and another who
may with all speed paint[548] me a row of portraits. This is quite
enough--since poor I ever shall be. A poor, wretched wish indeed! and
yet I have no hope even of this! For when dame Fortune[549] is invoked
for me, she stops her ears with wax fetched from that ship which
escaped the Sirens' songs with its deaf rower."
FOOTNOTES:
[503] _Nævolus_ is mentioned repeatedly by Martial, and seems to have
been a lawyer, i., Ep. 98; iii., Ep. 71 and 95; iv., Ep. 84: hence
perhaps the allusion to Marsyas, whose statue stood in the Forum,
opposite the Rostra, as a warning to the litigious. Cf. Hor., i., Sat.
vi., 120. Xen., Anab., I., ii., 8.
[504] _Rhodope._ Some well-known courtesan named after Æsop's
fellow-slave in the house of Iadmon the Samian, afterward so well known
in Egypt. Herod., ii., 134. Cf. Ælian., V. H., xiii., 33.
[505] _Pollio._ Cf. xi., 43, "digito mendicat Pollio nudo."
[506] _Vernam equitem._ The slaves born in the house were generally
spoiled by indulgence; and they frequently got the nickname of Equites,
out of petulant familiarity or fondness.
[507] _Sylva._
"And every limb, once smooth'd with nicest care,
Rank with neglect, a shrubbery of hair." Gifford.
[508] _Deprendas._
"Sorrow nor joy can be disguised by art,
Our foreheads blab the secrets of our heart." Dryden.
[509] _Isis._ Cf. vi., 489, "Aut apud Isiacæ potius sacraria lenæ."
[510] _Pacis._ Vespasian built the splendid temple of Peace near the
Forum, A.D. 76. Dio., lxvi., 15. Suet., Vesp. 9. In it, or near it,
stood the statue of Ganymede. Others think that Ganymedes is put for
the temple of Jupiter.
[511] _Advectæ Matris_, i. e., Cybele, called also Parens Idæa, and
Numen Idæum, because her worship was introduced into Rome from Phrygia,
A.U.C. 548, after the Sibylline books had been consulted as to the
means of averting certain prodigies. The rude and shapeless mass which
represented the goddess was lodged in the house of P. Corn. Scipio
Nasica, as the most virtuous man in Rome. Cf. Sat. iii., 137. Liv.,
xxix., 10. A temple was afterward erected for her on the Palatine Hill:
hence _palatia_. _Secreta_ alludes to the abominable orgies performed
in her honor.
[512] _Venæque secundæ._ "Silver adulterated with brass below the
standard; in short, base metal."
[513] _Mollis avarus._
"But oh! this wretch, this prodigy behold!
A slave at once to lechery and gold." Dryden.
[514] _Morbo._ Cf. Hor., i., Sat. vi., 30, "Ut si qui ægrotet quo morbo
Barrus."
[515] _Succina._ Cf. ad vi., 573. The old Schol. explains this by
"Gemmata Dextrocheria." Grangæus thinks that it means "presents of
amber," which the Roman ladies used to rub in their hands. So Badham:
"For whom the cup of amber must be found,
Oft as the birth or festal day comes round."
[516] _Fœmineis Kalendis._ On the 1st of March were celebrated the
Matronalia in honor of the women who put an end to the Sabine war
(bellum dirimente Sabina, vi., 154). Cf. Ov., Fast., iii., 229. On this
festival, as well as their birthdays, the Roman ladies sat up in state
to receive presents from their husbands, lovers, and acquaintances
(vid. Suet., Vesp., 19), in return for what they had given to the men
on the Saturnalia. Cf. Mart., v., Ep. lxxxiv., 10, "Scis certè puto
vestra jam venire Saturnalia Martias Kalendas." Hor., iii., Od. viii.,
1, "Martiis cælebs quid agam Kalendis."
[517] _Appula._ Cf. iv., 27. _Milvos._
"Regions which such a tract of land embrace,
That kites are tired within the unmeasured space." Gifford.
[518] _Trifolinus ager._ Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 114, "Non sum de primo
fateor, Trifolina, Lyæo; inter vina tamen septima vitis ero." Trifoline
wines were so called from being fit to drink at the third appearance of
the leaf, "quæ tertio anno ad bibendum tempestiva forent." Plin., xiv.,
6. Facc. takes it from Trifolium, a mountain in Campania, perhaps near
Capua. Plin., iv., 6.
[519] _Suspectumque jugum._ Either Mons Misenus (cf. Virg., Æn., vi.,
234), only three miles from Cumæ, or Vesuvius, which was famous for its
wines. Mart., iv., Ep. 44. Virg., Georg., ii., 224. Gaurus, now Monte
Barbaro, is full of volcanic caverns. It is also called "Gierro."
[520] _Plura._
"Though none drinks less, yet none more vessels fills!" Dryden.
[521] _Casulis._ Cf. xi., 153, "notos desiderat hædos."
"Sure yonder female with the child she bred,
The dog their playmate, and their little shed,
Had with more justice been conferr'd on me,
Than on a cymbal-beating debauchee." Gifford.
[522] _Polyphemi._ For the loudness of his roar, vid. Virg., Æn., iii.,
672. The meaning seems to be, "I am as badly off with but one slave as
Polyphemus was with only one eye: had he had _two_ Ulysses would not
have escaped him." Badham takes it of the slave calling for food.
"My hungry rascal must at home be fed,
Or else, like Polypheme, he'll roar for bread!"
[523] _Decembri_, used here adjectively.
[524] _Durate._ A parody on Virg., Æn., i., 207, "Durate, et vosmet
rebus servate secundis." Cf. Suet., Cal., 45.
"Cold! never mind! a month or two, and then
The grasshoppers, my lads, will come again!" Badham.
[525] _Ruperat._ Cf. Tac., Ann., xi., 30, "At is redderet uxorem,
rumperetque tabulas nuptiales." There was an express clause in the
marriage contract, "liberorum procreandorum gratiâ uxorem duci."
[526] _Libris actorum._ Cf. Tac., Ann., iii., 3. Sat. ii., 136,
"cupient et in acta referri." These acta were public registers, in
which parents were obliged to insert the names of their children a few
days after their birth. They contained, besides, records of marriages,
divorces, deaths, and other occurrences of the year, and were therefore
of great service to historians, who as some think employed persons to
read them up for them. (Cf. acta legenti vii., 104.) Servius Tullius
instituted this custom. The records were kept in the temple of Saturn.
[527] _Suspende coronas._ This was customary on all festive occasions,
as here, on the birth of a child; at marriages (vi., 51, "Necte coronam
postibus, et densos per limina tende corymbos"), the return of friends
(cf. xii., 91, "Longos erexit janua ramos"), or any public rejoicing
(as x., 65, on the death of Sejanus, "Pone domi lauros"). So, when
advocates gained a cause, their clients adorned the entrance of their
houses with palm branches. Cf. vii., 118, "virides scalarum gloria
palmæ." Mart., vii., Ep. xxviii., 6, "excolat et geminas plurima palma
fores."
[528] _Legatum omne._ One of the provisions of the Lex Papia Poppæa
(introduced, at the desire of Augustus, to extend the Lex Julia de
maritandis ordinibus) was, that if a married person had no child, a
tenth, and in some cases a larger proportion, of what was bequeathed
him, should fall to the exchequer. Cf. vi., 38. It conferred also
certain privileges and immunities on those who in Rome had three
children (hence jus trium liberorum) born in wedlock. Cf. Ruperti and
Lips. ad Tac., Ann., iii., 25. Cf. Ann., xv., 19. Mart., ii., Ep. xci.,
6; ix., lxvii.
[529] _Caducum_, probably a legacy contingent upon the condition of
having children.
[530] _Pumice._ Cf. viii., 16, "tenerum attritus Catanensi pumice
lumbum."
[531] _Valvis._ Cf. xiii., 145, _seq._
[532] _Corydon._ Cf. Virg., Ecl., ii., 69, "Ah, Corydon, Corydon, quæ
te dementia cepit!" and 56, "Rusticus es, Corydon!"
[533] _Claude fenestras._
"Bolt every door, stop every cranny tight,
Close every window, put out every light;
Let not a whisper reach the listening ear,
No noise, no motion--let no soul be near." Gifford.
[534] _Gallicinium_ was the technical name for the second military
watch, Vid. Facc.
[535] _Carptores_, Grangæus explains by "Escuiers trenchants." Facc. by
δαιτρός and structor.
[536] _Baltea._
"For countless scourgings will the rogues be slack
In slanderous villainies to pay thee back?" Badham.
[537] _Saufeia_, or Laufella, is supposed to be the "conjux Fusci,"
mentioned xii., 45, and Mart., iii., Ep. 72; and whose other
debaucheries are mentioned vi., 320. Cicero, knowing the propensity of
his countrywomen to wine-bibbing, would exclude them from officiating
at any sacred rites (at which wine was always used) after nightfall.
The festival of the Bona Dea is the only exception he would make.
"Nocturna mulierum sacrificia ne sunto, præter olla quæ pro populo rite
fiant."
[538] _Faciens_; so _operatur_, xii., 92. Virg., Ecl., iii., 77,
"Cum _faciam_ vitulâ pro fugibus ipse venito." So Georg., i., 339,
"Sacra refer Cereri lætis operatus in herbis." So in Greek, ῥέζειν is
constantly used absolutely.
"For more stolen wine than late Saufeia boused,
When, for the people's welfare, she caroused!" Gifford.
[539] _Liber._
"Yet worse than they, the man whose vicious deeds
Makes him still tremble at the rogues he feeds." Badham.
[540] _Flosculus._ For many exquisite parallel passages to this, see
Gifford's note.
[541] _Dum bibimus._
"And while thou call'st for garlands, girls, and wine,
Comes stealthy age, and bids thee all resign." Badham.
[542] _Digito._ Effeminate wretches, who, as Holyday says, like women,
are afraid of touching their heads with more than a finger, for fear of
discomposing their curls. Pompey had this charge brought against him by
one Calvus; and cf. Plut. in Vit., 48. Amm. Marcell., XVII., xi.
[543] _Lares_, cf. xii., 87. Hor., iii., Od. xxiii., 15, "Parvos
coronantem marino Rore Deos, fragilique myrto." Plin., xi., 2, "Numa
instituit deos fruge colere, et mola salsa supplicare et far torrere."
[544] _Figam_, a metaphor from hunting.--_Tegete_, cf. v., 8, "Nusquam
pons et tegetis pars."--_Baculo_, cf. Ter., Heaut., V., i., 58.
[545] C. Fabricius Luscinus, when censor, removed from the senate P.
Cornelius Rufinus, who had been twice consul and once dictator, for
having in his possession more than ten pounds' weight of plate. Liv.,
Epit., xiv. He was censor A.U.C. 478. Cf. xi., 90, _seq._
[546] _Duo fortes._ Persons of moderate fortune rode in their _sella
gestatoria_, a sedan borne by two persons. The rich had litters or
palanquins, called hexaphori, or octophori, according to the number of
the lecticarii. Cf. i., 64. Mœsia, now Bulgaria and Servia, is said to
have been famous for producing these brawny chairmen.
[547] _Curvus._ So Lubinus interprets it. "Cum enim laborat se incur
vat." Cf. Virg., Eccl., iii., 42, "curvus arator;" so Art. Am., ii.,
670, "Curva senectus." Or from his assiduity, "qui assiduus in opere
est." Madan says, "Curvus means crooked, that hath turnings and
windings; and this latter, in a mental sense, denotes cunning, which
is often used for _skillful_." Cf. Exod., xxxviii., 23. The old Schol.
explains it by Anaglyptarius, "a carver in low relief."
[548] _Pingit._ Others read _fingit_, and interpret it of "plaster
casts." It probably refers to the "line of painted busts" to deck his
corridor, perhaps of fictitious ancestors. Cf. viii., 2, "Pictosque
ostendere vultus majorum."
[549] _Fortuna._
"For when to Fortune I prefer my prayers,
The obdurate goddess stops at once her ears;
Stops with that wax which saved Ulysses' crew,
When by the Syrens' rocks and songs they flew." Gifford.
SATIRE X.
In all the regions which extend from Gades[550] even to the farthest
east and Ganges, there are but few that can discriminate between real
blessings and those that are widely different, all the mist[551] of
error being removed. For what is there that we either fear or wish for,
as reason would direct? What is there that you enter on under such
favorable auspices, that you do not repent of your undertaking, and the
accomplishment of your wish? The too easy gods have overthrown[552]
whole families by granting their owners' prayers. Our prayers are put
up for what will injure us in peace and injure us in war. To many the
copious fluency[553] of speech, and their very eloquence, is fatal. It
was owing to his strength[554] and wondrous muscle, in which he placed
his trust, that the Athlete met his death. But money heaped up with
overwhelming care, and a revenue surpassing all common patrimonies as
much as the whale of Britain[555] exceeds dolphins, causes more to
be strangled. Therefore it was, that in that reign of Terror, and at
Nero's bidding, a whole cohort[556] blockaded Longinus[557] and the
spacious gardens of the over-wealthy Seneca,[558] and laid siege to the
splendid[559] mansion of the Laterani.[560] It is but rarely that the
soldier pays his visit to a garret. Though you are conveying ever so
few vessels of unembossed silver, entering on your journey by night,
you will dread the bandit's knife and bludgeon, and tremble at the
shadow of a reed as it quivers in the moonshine.[561] The traveler with
empty[562] pockets will sing even in the robber's face.
The prayers that are generally the first put up and best known in all
the temples are, that riches,[563] that wealth may increase; that our
chest may be the largest in the whole forum.[564] But no aconite is
drunk from earthenware. It is time to dread it when you quaff jeweled
cups,[565] and the ruddy Setine blazes in the broad gold. And do you
not, then, now commend the fact, that of the two sages,[566] one
used to laugh[567] whenever he had advanced a single step from his
threshold; the other, with sentiments directly contrary, used to weep.
But easy enough to any one is the stern censure of a sneering laugh:
the wonder is how the other's eyes could ever have a sufficient supply
of tears.[568] Democritus used to shake his sides with perpetual
laughter, though in the cities of those regions there were no prætextæ,
no trabeæ,[569] no fasces, no litter, no tribunal! What, had he seen
the prætor[570] standing pre-eminent in his lofty car, and raised on
high in the mid dust of the circus, dressed in the tunic of Jove, and
wearing on his shoulders the Tyrian hangings of the embroidered toga;
and the circlet of a ponderous crown,[571] so heavy that no single
neck could endure the weight:[572] since the official, all in a sweat,
supports it, and, that the consul may not be too elated, the slave
rides in the same car. Then, add the bird that rises from his ivory
sceptre: on one side the trumpeters; on the other, the long train of
attendant clients, that march before him, and the Quirites, all in
white togas, walking by his horses' heads; men whose friendship he has
won by the sportula buried deep in his chest. Even in those days _he_
found subject for ridicule in every place where human beings meet,
whose wisdom proves that men of the highest intellect, men that will
furnish noble examples, may be born in the country of wether-sheep,
and in a foggy[573] atmosphere. He used to laugh at the cares and
also the joys of the common herd; sometimes even at their tears:
while he himself would bid Fortune, when she frowned, "Go hang!" and
point at her his finger[574] in scorn! Superfluous therefore, or else
destructive, are all those objects of our prayers, for which we think
it right to cover the knees of the gods with waxen tablets.[575]
Power, exposed to great envy, hurls some headlong down to ruin. The
long and splendid list of their titles and honors sinks[576] into the
dust. Down come their statues,[577] and are dragged along with ropes:
then the very wheels of the chariot are smashed by the vigorous stroke
of the axe, and the legs of the innocent[578] horses are demolished.
Now the fires roar! Now that head, once worshiped[579] by the mob,
glows with the bellows and the furnace! Great Sejanus crackles! Then
from that head, second only in the whole wide world, are made pitchers,
basins, frying-pans,[580] and platters! "Crown your doors with
bays![581] Lead to Jove's Capitol a huge and milk-white ox! Sejanus
is being dragged along by the hook! a glorious sight!" Every body is
delighted. "What lips he had! and what a face! If you believe me, I
never could endure this man!" "But what was the charge under which he
fell! Who was the accuser? what the information laid? By whose witness
did he prove it?" "Nothing of the sort! a wordy and lengthy epistle
came from Capreæ." "That's enough! I ask no farther. But how does the
mob of Remus behave!" "Why, follow Fortune,[582] as mobs always do,
and hate him that is condemned?" That self-same people, had Tuscan
Nurscia[583] smiled propitious on her countryman--had the old age of
the emperor been crushed while he thought all secure--would in that
very hour have saluted Sejanus as Augustus. Long ago they have thrown
overboard all anxiety. For that sovereign people that once gave away
military command, consulships, legions, and every thing, now bridles
its desires, and limits its anxious longings to two things only--bread,
and the games of the circus! "I hear that many are involved in his
fall." "No doubt: the little furnace[584] is a capacious one; I met
my friend Brutidius[585] at the altar of Mars looking a little pale!"
"But I greatly fear that Ajax, being baffled,[586] will wreak fearful
vengeance, as having been inadequately defended. Let us rush headlong;
and, while he still lies on the river-bank, trample on Cæsar's foe?
But take care that our slaves witness the act! lest any of them should
deny it, and drag his master to trial with a halter round his neck!"
Such were the conversations then about Sejanus; such the smothered
whispers of the populace? Would _you_ then have the same court paid to
you that Sejanus had? possess as much, bestow on one the highest curule
honors, give another the command of armies,[587] be esteemed the lawful
guardian[588] of the prince that lounged away[589] his days with his
herd of Chaldæan astrologers, in the rock of Capreæ that he made his
palace?[590] Would you have centuries and cohorts, and a picked body
of cavalry,[591] and prætorian bands at your beck? Why should you not
covet these? Even those who have not the _will_ to kill a man would
gladly have the _power_. But what brilliant or prosperous fortune is of
sufficient worth that your measure of evils should balance your good
luck? Would you rather put on the prætexta of him that is being dragged
along, or be the magistrate of Fidenæ or Gabii, and give sentence about
false weights,[592] and break up scanty measures as the ragged ædile of
the deserted Ulubræ?[593]
You acknowledge, therefore, that Sejanus did not know what ought to
have been the object of his wishes. For he that coveted excessive
honors, and prayed for excessive wealth, was but rearing up the
multiplied stories of a tower raised on high, only that the fall might
be the deeper,[594] and horrible the headlong descent of his ruin[595]
once accelerated!
What overthrew the Crassi?[596] and Pompey and his sons?[597] and
him that brought Rome's haughty citizens quailing[598] beneath his
lash? Surely it was the post of highest advancement, reached by every
possible device, and prayers for greatness heard by gods who showed
their malignity in granting them! Few kings go down without slaughter
and wounds to Ceres' son-in-law. Few tyrants die a bloodless death!
He that as yet pays court to[599] Minerva, purchased by a single
_as_, that is followed by his little slave[600] to take charge of
his diminutive satchel, begins to long, and longs through all his
quinquatrian[601] holidays, for the eloquence and the renown of
Demosthenes or Cicero. But it was through their eloquence that both of
these orators perished: the copious and overflowing fount of talent
gave over each to destruction; by talent, was his hand and head cut
off! Nor did the Rostra[602] ever reek with the blood of a contemptible
pleader.
"O fortunate Rome, whose natal day may date from me as consul!" He
might have scorned the swords of Antony,[603] had all he uttered
been such trash as this. I had rather write poems that excite only
ridicule, than thee, divine Philippic of distinguished fame! that art
unrolled next to the first! Cruel was the end that carried him off
also whom Athens used to admire as his words flowed from his lips in a
torrent[604] of eloquence, and he swayed at will the passions of the
crowded theatre. With adverse gods and inauspicious fate was he born,
whom his father, blear-eyed with the grime of the glowing mass, sent
from the coal, and pincers,[605] and the sword-forging anvil, and sooty
Vulcan,[606] to the rhetorician's school!
The spoils of war, the cuirass fastened to the truncated[607] trophy,
the cheek-piece hanging from the battered helm, the car shorn of its
pole, the streamer of the captured galley,[608] and the sad captive on
the triumphal arch-top,[609] are held to be goods exceeding all human
blessings. For these each general, Roman, or Greek, or Barbarian,
strains as his prize! Full compensation for his dangers and his toils
he sees in these! So much greater is the thirst after fame than virtue.
For who would embrace[610] virtue herself, if you took away the rewards
of virtue? And yet, ere now, the glory of a few has been the ruin of
their native land; that longing for renown, and those inscriptions that
are to live on the marble that guards their ashes; and yet to burst
asunder this, the mischievous strength of the barren fig-tree has power
enough. Since even to sepulchres[611] themselves are fates assigned.
Weigh[612] the remains of Hannibal! How many pounds will you find in
that most consummate general! This is the man whom not even Africa,
lashed by the Mauritanian ocean, and stretching even to the steaming
Nile, and then again to the races of the Æthiopes and their tall[613]
elephants, can contain! Spain is annexed to Carthage's domain. He
bounds across the Pyrenees. Nature opposed in vain the Alps with
all their snows; he cleaves the rocks and rives the mountains with
vinegar.[614] Now he is lord of Italy! Yet still he presses on. "Naught
is achieved,"[615] he says, "unless we burst through the gates of Rome
with the soldiery of Carthage, and I plant my standard in the heart
of the Suburra!" Oh what a face![616] and worthy what a picture! when
the huge Gætulian beast bore on his back the one-eyed[617] general!
What then was the issue? Oh glory! This self-made man is conquered,
and flees with headlong haste to exile, and there, a great and
much-to-be-admired client, sits at the palace of the king, until his
Bithynian majesty[618] be pleased to wake! To that soul, that once
shook the very world's base, it is not sword, nor stone, nor javelin,
that shall give the final stroke; but, that which atoned for Cannæ, and
avenged such mighty carnage,[619] a ring! Go then, madman, and hurry
over the rugged Alps, that you may be the delight of boys, and furnish
subjects for declamations![620]
One[621] world is not enough for the youth of Pella! He chafes within
the narrow limits of the universe, poor soul, as though confined in
Gyarus'[622] small rock, or scanty Seriphös. Yet when he shall have
entered the city that the brickmakers[623] fortified, he will be
content with a sarcophagus![624] Death alone discloses how very small
are the puny bodies of men! Men do believe that Athos was sailed
through of yore; and all the bold assertions that lying Greeks hazard
in history--that the sea was bridged over by the same fleets, and
formed into a solid pavement for the transit of wheels. We believe that
deep rivers failed, and streams were drunk dry[625] when the Persian
dined; and all the flights of Sostratus'[626] song, when his wings are
moistened by the god of wine. And yet, in what guise did _he_ return
after quitting Salamis, who, like a true barbarian as he was, used to
vent his rage in scourges on Corus and Eurus, that had never suffered
in this sort in Æolus' prison; and bound in gyves Ennosigæus[627]
himself. It was, in fact, an act of clemency that he did not think he
deserved branding[628] also. Would any of the gods choose to serve[629]
such a man as this? But how did he return? Why, in a single ship;
through waves dyed with blood, and with his galley retarded[630] by the
shoals of corpses. Such was the penalty that glory, for which he had so
often prayed, exacted.
"Grant length of life, great Jove, and many years!" This is your only
prayer in health and sickness. But with what unremitting and grievous
ills is old age crowded! First of all, its face is hideous, loathsome,
and altered from its former self; instead of skin a hideous hide and
flaccid cheeks; and see! such wrinkles, as, where Tabraca[631] extends
her shady dells, the antiquated ape[632] scratches on her wizened
jowl! There are many points of difference in the young: this youth is
handsomer than that; and he again than a third: one is far sturdier
than another. Old mens faces are all alike--limbs tottering and
voice feeble,[633] a smooth bald pate, and the second childhood of a
driveling nose; the poor wretch must mumble his bread with toothless
gums; so loathsome to his wife, his children, and even to himself,
that he would excite the disgust even of the legacy-hunter Cossus! His
palate[634] is grown dull; his relish for his food and wine[635] no
more the same; the joys of love are long ago forgotten; and in spite
of all efforts to reinvigorate them, all manly energies are hopelessly
extinct. Has this depraved and hoary lechery aught else to hope? Do we
not look with just suspicion on the lust that covets the sin but lacks
the power?[636]
Now turn your eyes to the loss of another sense. For what pleasure
has he in a singer, however eminent a harper it may be; nay, even
Seleucus himself; or those whose habit it is to glitter in a cloak
of gold?[637] What matters it in what part of the wide theatre he
sits, who can scarcely hear the horn-blowers, and the general clang
of trumpets? You must bawl out loud before his ear can distinguish
who it is his slave says has called, or tells him what o'clock it
is.[638] Besides, the scanty blood that flows in his chill[639] body
is warmed by fever only. Diseases of every kind dance round him in
full choir. If you were to ask their names, I could sooner tell you
how many lovers Hippia had; how many patients Themison[640] killed in
one autumn; how many allies Basilus plundered; how many wards Hirrus
defrauded; how many lovers long Maura received in the day; how many
pupils Hamillus corrupts. I could sooner run through the list of villas
owned by him now, beneath whose razor[641] my stiff beard resounded
when I was in my prime. One is weak in the shoulder; another in the
loins; another in the hip. Another has lost both eyes, and envies the
one-eyed. Another's bloodless lips receive their food from others'
fingers. He that was wont to relax his features to a smile at the sight
of his dinner, now only gapes[642] like the young swallow to whom the
parent bird, herself fasting,[643] flies with full beak. But worse
than all debility of limb is that idiocy which recollects neither the
names of his slaves nor the face of the friend with whom he supped the
evening before; not even those whom he begot and brought up! For by a
heartless will he disinherits them; and all his property is made over
to Phiale:[644]--such power has the breath of her artificial mouth,
that stood for hire so many years in the brothel's dungeon.
Even though the powers of intellect retain their vigor, yet he must
lead forth the funerals of his children; must gaze upon the pyre of
a beloved wife, and the urns filled with all that remains of his
brother and sisters. This is the penalty imposed on the long-lived,
that they must grow old with the death-blow in their house forever
falling fresh--in oft-recurring sorrow--in unremitting mourning, and
a suit of black.[645] The king of Pylos,[646] if you put any faith
in great Homer, was an instance of life inferior in duration only
to the crow's.[647] Happy, no doubt! was he who for so many years
put off his hour of death; and now begins to count his years on his
right hand,[648] and has drunk so often of the new-made wine. I pray
you, lend me your ear a little space; and hear how sadly he himself
complains of the decrees of fate, and too great powers of life, when
he watches the blazing beard of Antilochus[649] in his bloom, and
asks of every friend that stands near, why it is he lingers on to
this day; what crime he has committed to deserve so long a life!
Such, too, is Peleus' strain, when he mourns for Achilles prematurely
snatched from him: and that other, whose lot it was to grieve for the
shipwrecked[650] Ithacensian.
Priam would have joined the shade of Assaracus with Troy still
standing, with high solemnities, with Hector and his brothers
supporting his bier on their shoulders, amid the weeping Troades, so
that Cassandra would lead off the wail, and Polyxena[651] with mantle
rent, had he but died at any time but that, after that Paris had begun
to build his audacious ships. What then did length of days confer on
him? He saw his all o'erthrown: Asia laid low by flame and sword. Then
the poor tottering warrior[652] laid down his diadem and donned his
arms, and fell before the altar of supreme Jove; like some old ox[653]
that yields his attenuated and miserable neck to his owner's knife,
long ago scorned[654] by the ungrateful plow.
That was at all events the death of a human being: but his wife who
survived him barked fiercely from the jaws of a bitch.[655]
I hasten on to our own countrymen, and pass by the king of Pontus, and
Crœsus,[656] whom the eloquent voice of the right-judging Solon bade
look at the closing scene[657] of a life however long. Banishment,
and the jail, and the marshes of Minturnæ,[658] and his bread begged
in conquered Carthage, took their rise from this. What could all
nature, what could Rome, have produced more blessed in the wide world
than that citizen, had he breathed forth his soul[659] glutted with
spoils, while the captive train followed around his chariot, in all
the pomp and circumstance of war, when he was about to alight from his
Teutonic[660] car! Campania,[661] in her foresight for Pompey, had
given him a fever he should have prayed for. But the many cities and
their public prayers prevailed. Therefore his own malignant fortune
and that of Rome preserved him only that conquered he should lose
his head. Lentulus[662] escaped this torment; Cethegus paid not this
penalty, but fell unmutilated; and Catiline lay with corpse entire.
The anxious mother, when she visits Venus' temple, prays for beauty
for her boys with subdued whisper;[663] with louder voice for her
girls, carrying her fond wishes[664] even to the verge of trifling.
"But why should you chide me?" she says; "Latona[665] delights in the
beauty of Diana." But, Lucretia[666] forbids a face like hers to be the
subject of your prayers: Virginia would gladly give hers to Rutila,
and receive her wen in exchange. But, a son possessed of exquisite
person keeps his parents in a constant state of misery and alarm. So
rare is the union[667] of beauty with chastity. Though the house,
austere in virtue, and emulating the Sabines of old, may have handed
down,[668] like an inheritance, purity of morals, and bounteous Nature
with benignant hand may give, besides, a chaste mind and a face glowing
with modest blood (for what greater boon can Nature bestow on a youth?
Nature, more powerful than any guardian, or any watchful care!), still
they are not allowed to attain to manhood. For the villainy of the
corrupter, prodigal in its guilt, dares to assail with tempting offers
the parents themselves. So great is their confidence in the success of
bribes! No tyrant in his cruel palace ever castrated a youth that was
deformed; nor did even Nero carry off a stripling if club-footed, or
disfigured by wens, pot-bellied, and humpbacked! Go then, and exult in
the beauty of your darling boy! Yet for whom are there greater perils
in store? He will become the adulterer of the city, and dread all the
punishments[669] that angry husbands inflict. Nor will he be more
lucky than the star of Mars, even though he never fall like Mars into
the net.[670] But sometimes that bitter wrath exacts even more than
any law permits, to satisfy the husband's rage. One dispatches the
adulterer with the sword; another cuts him in two with bloody lashes;
some have the punishment of the mullet. But your Endymion, forsooth,
will of course become the lover of some lady of his affections! But
soon, when Servilia[671] has bribed him, he will serve her whom he
loves not, and will despoil her of all her ornaments. For what will any
woman refuse, to get her passions gratified? whether she be an Oppia,
or a Catulla. A depraved woman has all her morality[672] concentred
there. "But what harm does beauty do one that is chaste?" Nay, what
did his virtuous resolve avail Hippolytus, or what Bellerophon? Surely
she[673] fired at the rejection of her suit, as though treated with
indignity. Nor did Sthenobæa burn less fiercely than the Cretan; and
both lashed themselves into fury. A woman is then most ruthless, when
shame sets sharper spurs[674] to her hate. Choose what course you
think should be recommended him to whom Cæsar's wife[675] purposes to
marry herself. This most noble and most beautiful of the patrician
race is hurried off, poor wretched man, a sacrifice to the lewd eyes
of Messalina. She is long since seated with her bridal veil all ready:
the nuptial bed with Tyrian hangings is openly prepared in the gardens,
and, according to the antique rites, a dowry of a million sesterces
will be given; the soothsayer[676] and the witnesses to the settlement
will be there! Do you suppose these acts are kept secret; intrusted
only to a few? She will not be married otherwise than with all legal
forms. Tell me which alternative you choose. If you refuse to comply,
you must die before nightfall.[677] If you _do_ commit the crime, some
brief delay will be afforded you, until the thing, known to the city
and the people,[678] shall reach the prince's ears. He will be the last
to learn the disgrace of his house! Do you meanwhile obey her behests,
if you set so high a value on a few days' existence. Whichever you hold
the better and the safer course, that white and beauteous neck must be
presented[679] to the sword!
Is there then nothing for which men shall pray? If you will take
advice, you will allow the deities themselves to determine what may
be expedient for us, and suitable to our condition. For instead of
pleasant things, the gods will give us all that is most fitting. Man
is dearer to them than to himself. We, led on by the impulse of our
minds, by blind and headstrong passions, pray for wedlock, and issue
by our wives; but it is known to them what our children will prove;
of what character our wife will be! Still, that you may have somewhat
to pray for, and vow to their shrines the entrails and consecrated
mincemeat[680] of the white porker, your prayer must be that you may
have a sound mind in a sound body. Pray for a bold spirit, free from
all dread of death; that reckons the closing scene of life among
Nature's kindly boons;[681] that can endure labor, whatever it be; that
deems the gnawing cares of Hercules,[682] and all his cruel toils, far
preferable to the joys of Venus, rich banquets, and the downy couch of
Sardanapalus. I show thee what thou canst confer upon thyself. The only
path that surely leads to a life of peace lies through virtue. If _we_
have wise foresight, _thou_, Fortune, hast no divinity.[683] It is we
that make thee a deity, and place thy throne in heaven![684]
FOOTNOTES:
[550] _Gadibus._ Gades, now Cadiz, and Ganges were the western and
eastern boundaries of the then known world.
[551] _Nebulâ._ Cf. Plat., Alcib., ii., τῆς ψυχῆς ἀφελόντα τὴν ἀχλύν;
from which many ideas in this Satire, particularly toward the close,
are borrowed.
"As treacherous phantoms in the mist delude,
Shuns fancied ills, or chases, airy good." Johnson's imitation.
[552] _Evertere._ These are almost Cicero's own words. "Cupiditates non
modo singulos homines sed _universas familias evertunt_," de Fin., i.
Cf. Shakspeare:
"We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good: so find we profit
By losing of our prayers."
[553] _Torrens._
"Some who the depths of eloquence have found,
In that unnavigable stream were drown'd." Dryden.
[554] _Viribus._ Roscommon, as Gifford says, tells his history in two
lines:
"Remember Milo's end,
Wedged in the timber which he strove to rend."
Cf. Ovid, Ib., 609, "Utque Milon robur diducere fissile tentes, nec
possis captas inde referre manus."
[555] _Balæna Britannica._ Cf. Hor., iv., Od. xiv., 47, "Te _belluosus_
qui remotis obstrepit Oceanus Britannis." There is probably an allusion
here to the large sums which Seneca had out at interest in Britain,
where his rigor in exacting his demands occasioned a rebellion.
[556] _Tota cohors._ "Illo propinquâ vesperâ, tribunus venit, et villam
_globus militum_ sepsit." Tac., Ann., xv., 60.
[557] _Longinum._ Cassius Longinus was charged with keeping among his
Imagines one of Cassius, Cæsar's murderer; and allowed an hour to die
in. Suet., Ner., 37.
[558] _Seneca._ Rufus and Tigellinus charged Seneca "tanquam ingentes
et privatum suprà modum evectas opes adhuc augeret--hortorum quoque
amænitate et villarum magnificentiâ quasi Principem supergrederetur;"
and Seneca himself, in his speech to Nero, says, "Tantum honorum atque
opûm in me cumulâsti, ut nihil felicitati meæ desit." Tacit., Ann.,
xiv., 52, _seq._
[559] _Puri._ Cf. ix., 141.
[560] _Lateranorum._ Vid. Tac., Ann., xv., 60, for the death of
Plautius Lateranus. His house was on the Cœlian Hill, on the site of
the modern Lateran.
[561] _Motæ ad Lunam._ Cf. Hor., i., Od. xxiii., 3, "Non sine vano
aurarum et siluæ metu." Stat., Theb., vi., 158," Impulsæque noto
frondes cassusque valeret exanimare timor." Claud., Eutrop., ii., 452,
"Ecce levis frondes a tergo concutit aura: credit tela Leo: valuit pro
vulnere terror."
[562] _Vacuus._ Cf. Ov., Nux., 43, "Sic timet insidias qui scit se
ferre viator cur timeat, tutum carpit inanis iter." Sen., Lucil.,
"Nudum Latro transmittit."
"While void of care the beggar trips along,
And, in the spoiler's presence, trolls his song." Gifford.
[563] _Divitiæ._ Vid. Cic., "Expetuntur Divitiæ ut utare; _Opes_ ut
colaris: _Honores_ ut lauderis." De Amicit., vi.
[564] _Foro._ The public treasure was in the temple of Saturn. Private
individuals had their money in strong boxes deposited in the Forum
Trajani, or Forum Augusti; in the temple of Mars "Ultor" originally;
afterward in the temple of Castor and others, probably of Pax. Cf.
xiv., 259, "Æratâ multus in arcâ fiscus, et ad vigilem ponendi Cartora
nummi." Cf. Suet., Jul., x. Pliny the Younger was once præfectus ærarii
Saturni.
[565] _Gemmata._ Cf. v., 39, 41.--_Setinum_, v., 34.
"Fear the gemm'd goblet, and suspicious hold
The ruby juice that glows in cups of gold." Badham.
[566] _De Sapientibus._ Democritus of Abdera, and Heracleitus of
Ephesus.
[567] _Ridebat._ Cf. Hor., ii., Ep. i., 194, "Si foret in terris
_rideret_ Democritus." δεῖσθαι μοι δοκεῖ Ἡρακλείτου ἤ Δημοκρίτου, τοῦ
μὲν γελασομένου τὴν ἄνοιαν αὐτῶν, τοῦ δὲ τὴν ἄγνοιαν ὀδυρομένου. Luc.,
βι. πρ., 13, τὸν γελῶντα, τὸν Ἀβδηρόθεν καὶ τὸν κλαίοντα τὸν ἐξ Ἐφέσου.
[568]
"The marvel this, since all the world can sneer,
What fountains fed the ever-needed tear." Badham.
[569] _Trabeæ._ Cf. ad viii., 259.
[570] _Prætor._ Juvenal has mixed up together the procession of the
prætor to open the Circensian games, and a triumphal procession. The
latter proceeded through the principal streets _to_ the Capitol. The
former, _from_ the Capitol to the _centre_ of the circus. The triumphal
car was in the shape of a turret, gilded, and drawn by four white
horses: it often occurs on coins. The tunica palmata, worn by generals
in their triumph, was kept in the temple of Jupiter. The toga picta was
purple, and so heavily embroidered that it may well be compared to a
brocaded curtain. Tyre was anciently called Sarra, which may be traced
in its modern name Sur.
"His robe a ponderous curtain of brocade,
Inwrought and stiff by Tyrian needles' aid." Badham.
[571] _Orbem._ Probably an allusion to Atlas.
[572] _Sufficit._
"And would have crush'd it with the massy freight,
But that a sweating slave sustain'd the weight." Dryden.
Probably the crown was _not_ worn, but merely _held_ by the slave at
his side.
"The menial destined in his car to ride,
And cool the swelling consul's feverish pride." Hodgson.
[573] _Crasso._ "Bœotum in _crasso_ jurares _ære_ natum." Hor., ii.,
Ep. i., 244. Bœotia was called the land of hogs, which so much annoyed
Pindar. Vid. Ol., vi., 152. Abdera seems to have had as bad a name. Cf.
Mart., x., Ep. xxv., 3, "Abderitanæ pectora plebis habes."
[574] _Medium unguem._ Hence called "Infamis digitus." Pers., ii., 33.
Cf. Mart., ii., Ep. xxviii., 2, "digitum porrigito medium." VI., Ep.
lxx., 5, "Ostendit digitum impudicum."
[575] _Incerare._ They used to fasten their vows, written on wax
tablets, to the knees or thighs of the gods. When their wishes were
granted, these were replaced by the offerings they had vowed. Cf. Hom.,
Il., p., 514, θεῶν ἐν γούνασι κεῖται.
[576] _Mergit._ Cf. Sil., viii., 285; or mergit may be used _actively_,
as xiii., 8. Lucr., v., 1006. Virg., Æn., vi., 512.
[577] _Statuæ._ Cf. ad viii., 18. Tac., Ann., vi., 2. Plin., Pan., 52,
"Juvabat illidere solo superbissimos vultus, instare ferro, _sævire
securibus_, ut si singulos ictus sanguis dolorque sequeretur"--"instar
ultionis videretur cernere imagines abjectas excoctasque flammis."
[578] _Immeritis._
"The driven axe destroys the conquering car,
And unoffending steeds the ruin share." Hodgson.
[579] _Adoratum._ Cf. Tac., Ann., iii., 72; iv., 2, "Coli per theatra
et fora effigies ejus sineret." Vid. Suet., Tib., lv., 48, "Solæ nullam
Sejani imaginem inter signa coluissent." 65, "Sejani imagines aureas
coli passim videret."
[580] _Sartago._
"And from the stride of those colossal legs
You buy the useful pan that fries your eggs." Badham.
Dryden reads "matellæ."
[581] _Pone domi lauros._ Cf. ad ix., 85.
[582] _Sequitur Fortunam._
"When the king's _trump_, the mob are for the king." Dryden.
[583] _Nurscia_, Nyrtia, Nortia, or Nurtia, the Etruscan goddess of
Fortune, nearly identical with Atropos, and cognate with Minerva. The
old Schol. says, "Fortuna apud Nyrtiam colitur _unde fuit Sejanus_."
But Tacitus tells us (Ann., iv., l; vi., 8) that Sejanus was a native
of Volsinii, now Bolsena. Outside the Florence gate of Bolsena stands
the ruin of a temple still called Tempio di Norzia. Cf. Liv., vii., 3;
Tertull., Apoll., 24, ad Nat., ii., 8; Müller's Etrusker, IV., vii., 6;
Dennis's Etruria, i., p. 258, 509.
[584] _Fornacula._ "A fire so fierce for one was scarcely made."
Gifford.
[585] _Brutidius._ Tacitus speaks thus of him: "Brutidium artibus
honestis copiosum et, si rectum iter pergeret, ad clarissima quæque
iturum festinatio exstimulabat, dum æquales, dein superiores, postremo
suasmet ipse spes anteire parat." Ann., iii., 66. He had been one of
the accusers of Silanus, and was involved in Sejanus' fall. "Magna est
fornacula" is well borne out by Tacitus' account. "Cunctos qui carcere
attinebantur, accusati societatis cum Sejano, necari jubet. _Jacuit
immensa strages_; omnis sexus omnis ætas: inlustres ignobiles--corpora
adsectabantur dum in Tiberim traherentur." Ann., vi., 19.
[586] _Victus._ Fierce as Ajax, when worsted in the contest for the
arms of Achilles.
[587] _Exercitibus præponere._ Vid. Tac., Ann., iv., 2, "Centuriones ac
Tribunos ipse deligere: neque senatorio ambitu abstinebat clientes suos
honoribus aut provinciis ornando, facili Tiberio atque ita prono ut
socium laborum celebraret."
[588] _Tutor._
"Arraign
Thy feeble sovereign in a guardian's strain,
Who sits amid his foul Chaldæan herd
In that august domain to Rome preferr'd." Badham.
[589] _Sedentis._ Cf. Suet., Tib., 43; Tac., Ann., vi., 1. Grangæus
supposes this word to have reference to the Sellaria there described.
It probably only refers to his luxury and indolence. Tiberius was with
Augustus when he visited Capreæ shortly before his death: "remisissimo
ad otium et ad omnem comitatem animo. Vicinam Capreis insulam
ἀπραγοπόλιν appellabat à desidiâ secedentium illuc e comitatu suo." Cf.
c. 40. Tac., Ann., iv., 67.
[590] _Augusta._ The old reading was angustâ. The alteration of a
single letter converts a forceless expletive into an epithet full of
picturesque and historic truth.
[591] _Egregios equites._ The flower of the Roman army, the prætorian
troops, of which Sejanus was præfect.
[592] _Vasa minora._
"To pound false weights and scanty measures break." Dryden.
[593] _Ulubris._ Cf. Hor., i., Ep. xi., 30, "Est Ulubris, animus si non
tibi deficit æquus." Another joke at the expense of the plebeian ædiles
(cf. iii., 162), who had the charge of inspecting weights and measures,
markets and provisions, roads, theatres, etc. These functionaries still
exist (as Gifford says), "as ragged and consequential" as ever, in the
Italian villages, retaining their old name of Podestà.
"Deal out the law, and curb with high decree
The tricks of trade at empty Ulubræ." Hodgson.
[594] _Altior._ The idea is probably borrowed from Menander, ἐπαίρεται
γὰρ μεῖζον, ἵνα μεῖζον πέσῃ. So hence Horace, ii., Od. x., 10, "Celsæ
graviore casu decidunt turres." So Claudian in Rufin., i., 22,
"Tolluntur in altum ut lapsu graviore ruant;" and Shakspeare, "Raised
up on high to be hurl'd down below."
[595] _Ruinæ._ So Milton.
"With hideous _ruin_ and combustion down." C. Badham.
[596] _Crassos._ M. Licinius Crassus and his son Publius; both killed
in the Parthian war.
[597] _Pompeios._ Cn. Pompeius Magnus, and his two sons, Cnæus and
Sextus.
[598] _Domitos._
"The stubborn pride of Roman nobles broke,
And bent their haughty necks beneath his yoke." Dryd.
[599] _Colit._ Ov., Fast., iii., 816, "Qui benè placârit Pallada doctus
erit."
[600] _Vernula._ This slave was called Capsarius. Suet., Ner., 36. Cf.
ad vi., 451.
[601] _Quinquatribus._ Cf. Hor., ii., Ep. ii., 197, "Puer ut festis
quinquatribus olim." This festival originally lasted only _one_ day;
and was celebrated xiv. Kal. April. It was so called "quia _post diem
quintum_ Idus Martias ageretur." So "post diem sextum" was called
Sexatrus; and "post diem septimum," Septimatrus. Varro, L. L., v.,
3. It was afterward _extended_ to five days; hence the "vulgus"
supposed that to have been the origin of the name; and so Ovid takes
it, "Nominaque a junctis quinque diebus habet," Fast., iii., 809; who
says it was kept in honor of Minerva's natal day, "Causa quod est
illâ nata Minerva die," l. 812. (Others say, because on that day her
temple on Mount Aventine was consecrated.) Domitian kept the festival
in great state at his Alban villa. Suet., Domit., iv. Cicero has a
punning allusion to it. Vid. Fam., xii., 25. These five days were the
schoolmasters' holidays; and on the first they received their pay, or
entrance fee, διδακτρὰ, hence called Minerval; though Horace seems to
imply they were paid every month, "Octonis referentes Idibus æra." I.,
Sat. vi., 75. The lesser Quinquatrus were on the Ides of June. Ov.,
Fast., vi., 651, "Quinquatrus jubeor narrare minores," called also
Quinquatrus Minusculæ.
[602] _Rostra._ Popilius Lenas, who cut off Cicero's head and hands,
carried them to Antony, who rewarded him with a civic crown and a large
sum of money, and ordered the head to be fixed between the hands to the
Rostra. (For the _name_, vid. Liv., viii., 14.)
[603] _Antonî gladios._ Quoting Cicero's own words, "Contempsi Catilinæ
gladios, non pertimescam tuos." Phil., ii., 46.
"For me, the sorriest rhymes I'd rather claim,
Than bear the brunt of that Philippic's fame,
The second! the divine!" Badham.
[604] _Torrentem._ So i., 9, "Torrens dicendi copia;" iii., 74, "Isæo
torrentior." At the approach of Antipater, Demosthenes fled from
Athens, and took refuge in the temple of Poseidon at Calaureia, near
Argolis; and fearing to fall into the hands of Archias, took poison,
which he carried about with him in a reed, or, as Pliny says, in a
ring, xxxiii., 1.
[605] _Forcipibus._ Cf. Virg., Æn., viii., 453, "Versantque tenaci
forcipe massam." Juvenal seems to have had the whole passage in his eye.
[606] _Vulcano._ Demosthenes' father was a μαχαιροποιός: in which
capacity he employed a large number of slaves, ἐργαστήριον ἔχων μέγα
καὶ δούλους τεχνίτας. But as he could not afford to place his son under
the costly Isocrates, he sent him to Isæus.
[607] _Truncis._ Virg., Æn., xi., 5.
Ingentem quercum decisis undique ramis
Constituit tumulo, fulgentiaque induit arma,
Mezenti ducis _exuvias_, tibi magne _tropæum_
Bellipotens: aptat rorantes sanguine cristas
Telaque _trunca_ viri.
[608] _Aplustre_, the ἄφλαστον of the Greeks was the high peak of the
galley, from which rose the ensign.
[609] _Arcu._ Cf. Suet., Domit., 13, "Janos arcusque cum quadrigis et
insignibus triumphorum per regiones urbis tantos et tot exstruxit, ut
cuidam Græcè inscriptum sit, ἀρκεῖ—." Some think there is an allusion
here to the column of Trajan, erected in honor of his Dacian victories.
This would bring down the date of this Satire to after A.D. 113.
[610] _Amplectitur._
"That none confess fair Virtue's genuine power,
Or woo her to their breast without a dower." Gifford.
[611] _Sepulchris_; from Propertius, III., ii., 19, _seq._ So Ausonius,
"Mors etiam saxis, nominibusque venit."
"For fate hath foreordain'd its day of doom,
Not to the tenant only, but the tomb." Badham.
[612] _Expende._
"How are the mighty changed to dust! how small
The urn that holds what once was Hannibal!" Hodgson.
[613] _Altos_; others read _alios_; referring to the elephants of
_Africa_ as well as _Asia_. "Elephantos fert Africa, ferunt Æthiopes et
Troglodytæ: sed maximos India." Plin., viii., 11.
[614] _Aceto._ Vid. Liv., xxi., 37. Polybius omits the story as
fabulous. There appears, now, no reason to doubt the fact.
[615] Actum. "Nil actum referens si quid superesset agendum."
"Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain;
'Think nothing gain'd,' he cries, 'till naught remain;
On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly,
And all be mine beneath the Polar sky.'" Johnson.
[616] _Facies._
"Oh! for some master-hand, the lines to trace!" Gifford.
[617] _Luscum._ Hannibal lost one eye, while crossing the marshes, in
making his way to Etruria: "quia medendi nec locus nec tempus erat
altero oculo capitur;" he rode, Livy tells us, on his sole surviving
elephant, xxii., 2.
[618] _Bithyno._ When accused by the Romans at Carthage, Hannibal
fled to Antiochus, king of Syria, and thence to the court of Prusias,
king of Bithynia, for whom he carried on successfully the war against
Eumenes. But when Flaminius was sent to demand his surrender, he
destroyed himself with poison, which he always carried in a ring.
[619] _Sanguinis._ Forty-five thousand dead were left on the field of
Cannæ, with the Consul Æmilius Paulus, eighty senators, and very many
others of high rank.
[620] _Declamatio._ Cf. vii., 167, "Sexta quâque die miserum dirus
caput Hannibal implet." So I. 150, and i., 15.
"Go, climb the rugged Alps, ambitious fool!
To please the boys, and be a theme at school." Dryden.
[621] _Unus._ "Heu me miserum! quod ne uno quidem adhuc potitus sum!"
is the exclamation put into Alexander's mouth by Val. Max., viii., 14.
[622] _Gyaris._ Cf. i., 73; vi., 563.
[623] _Figulis._ Cf. Herod., i., 78. Ov., Met., iv., 27, "Ubi dicitur
altam Coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem."
[624] _Sarcophago._ A stone was found at Assos, near Troy, which was
said to possess the property of consuming the flesh of bodies inclosed
in it within the space of forty days, hence called σαρκοφάγος. Plin.,
ii., 96; xxxvi., 17. Cf. Henry's speech to Hotspur's body:
"Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound:
But now, two paces of the vilest earth
Is room enough."
So Hall:
"Fond fool! six feet shall serve for all thy store,
And he that cares for most shall find no more."
And Shirley:
"How little room do we take up in death,
That, living, knew no bounds!"
And Webster's Duchess of Malfy:
"Much you had of land and rent;
Your length in clays's now competent."
So K. Henry VI.:
"And of all my lands
Is nothing left me but my body's length."
And Dryden's Antony:
"The place thou pressest on thy mother Earth
Is all thy empire now."
Cf. Æsch., S. Theb., 731. Soph., Œd. Col., 789. Shakspeare's Richard
II., Act iii., sc. 2.
[625] _Epota._ Herodotus mentions the Scamander, Onochnous, Apidanus,
and Echedorus.
"Rivers, whose depth no sharp beholder sees,
Drunk at an army's dinner to the lees!" Dryden.
[626] _Sostratus._ Of this poet nothing is known.--_Madidis_, probably
in the same sense as in Sat. xv., 47, "Facilis victoria de madidis."
Sil., xii., 18, "Madefacta mero."
[627] _Ennosigæum._ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐνόθειν τὴν γαῖαν. Cf. Hom., Il., vii.,
455. _Æolis_ is an allusion to Virgil, Æn., i., 51, "Vinclis ac carcere
frænat," etc.
[628] _Stigmate._ Herod., vii., 35.
"That shackles o'er th' earth-shaking Neptune threw,
And thought it lenient not to brand him too." Gifford.
[629] _Servire Deorum._ As Apollo served Admetus; Neptune, Laomedon,
etc.
"Ye gods! obeyed ye such a fool as this?" Hodgson.
[630] _Tardâ._ Perhaps alluding to Her., viii., 118.
"A single skiff to speed his flight remains,
Th' encumbered oar scarce leaves the dreaded coast
Through purple billows and a floating host!" Johnson.
[631] _Tabraca_, on the coast of Tunis, now Tabarca.
[632] _Simia._ So Ennius, in Cic., Nat. De., i., 35, "Simia, quam
similis turpissima bestia nobis!"
"A stick-fallen cheek! that hangs below the jaw,
Such wrinkles as a skillful hand would draw
For an old grandam ape, when, with a grace,
She sits at squat, and scrubs her leathern face." Dryden.
[633] _Cum voce trementia membra._ Compare Hamlet's speech to Polonius,
and As you like it, Act ii., 7:
"His big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in its sound."
"The self-same palsy both in limbs and tongue." Dryden.
[634] _Palato._ Compare Barzillai's speech to David, 2 Sam., xix., 35,
"I am this day fourscore years old; and can I discern between good or
evil? can thy servant taste what I eat and what I drink? can I hear any
more the voice of singing men and singing women?"
[635] _Vini._
"Now pall the tasteless meats, and joyless wines,
And Luxury with sighs her slave resigns." Johnson.
[636] _Viribus._ Shakspeare, King Henry IV., Part ii., Act ii.,
sc. 4, "Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive
performance?"
[637] _Auratâ._ Cic. ad Heren., iv., 47, "Uti citharædus cum prodierit
optimè vestitus, pallâ _inauratâ_ indutus, cum chlamyde purpureâ
coloribus variis intextâ, cum coronâ aureâ, magnis _fulgentibus_
gemmis illuminatâ." Horace, A. P., 215, "Luxuriem addidi arti Tibicen,
traxitque vagus per pulpita vestem."
[638] _Nuntiet horas._ Slaves were employed to watch the dials in the
houses of those who had them, and report the hour: those who had no
dial sent to the Forum. Cf. Mart., viii., 67. Suet., Domit., xvi.,
"Sexta nuntiata est."
[639] _Gelido._ Virg., Æn., v., 395, "Sed enim _gelidus_ tardante
senectâ _Sanguis_ hebet, _frigentque_ effœtæ in corpora vires."
[640] _Themison_ of Laodicea in Syria, pupil of Asclepiades, was an
eminent physician of the time of Pompey the Great, and is said to have
been the founder of the "Methodic" school, as opposed to the "Empiric."
Vid. Cels., Præf. Plin., N. H., xxix., 15. Others say he lived in
Augustus' time, and Hodgson thinks he may have lived even to Juvenal's
days. Cicero (de Orat., i., 14) mentions an Asclepiades; and the names
of at least _three_ others are mentioned in later times.
[641] _Quo tondente._ Cf. i., 35.
[642] _Hiat._ Cf. Lucian, Tim., ἐμὲ περιμένουσι κεχηνότες ὥσπερ τὴν
χελιδόνα προσπετομένην τετριγότες οἰ νεοσσοί. P. 72, E., ed. Bened.
[643] _Jejuna_, from Hom., Il., ix., 323, ὡς δ' ὄρνις ἀπτῆσι νεοσσοῖσι
προφέρῃσι μάστακ', ἐπεί κε λάβῃσι, κακῶς δέ τέ οἱ πέλει αὐτῇ.
[644] _Phialen._
"Forgets the children he begot and bred,
And makes a strumpet heiress in their stead." Gifford.
[645] _Nigrâ._ "And liveries of black for length of years." Dryden.
[646] _Pylius._ Hom., Il., i., 250, μετὰ δὲ τριτάτοισιν ἄνασσεν. So
Odyss., iii., 245, τρὶς γὰρ δή μίν φασιν ἀνάξασθαι γένε' ἀνδρῶν.
[647] _Cornice._
"Next to the raven's age, the Pylian king
Was longest-lived of any two-legged thing." Dryden.
[648] _Dextra._ This the Greeks express by ἀναπεμπάζεσθαι. They counted
on the left hand as far as a hundred, then on the right up to two
hundred, and then again on the left for the third hundred. Holyday has
a most elaborate explanation of the method.
[649] _Antilochi._ Cf. Hor., II., Od. ix., 14.
[650] _Natantem._ Cf. Hom., Od., v., 388, 399.
"So Peleus sigh'd to join his hero lost--
Laertes his on boundless billows toss'd." Hodgson.
[651] _Polyxena_, from Eurip., Hec., 556, λαβοῦσα πέπλους ἐξ ἄκρας
ἐπωμίδος ἔῤῥηξε.
[652] _Miles tremulus._ Virg., Æn., ii., 509, "Arma diu senior desueta
trementibus ævo circumdat," etc.
"A soldier half, and half a sacrifice." Dryden.
[653] _Bos._ Virg., Æn., v., 481, "Sternitur, exanimisque tremens
procumbit humi bos."
[654] _Fastiditus._
"Disdain'd its labors, and forgotten now
All its old service at the thankless plow." Hodgson.
[655] _Canino._ See the close of Eurip., Hecuba. The Greeks fabled that
Hecuba was metamorphosed into a bitch, from her constant railing at
them. Hence κυνὸς σῆμα. Cf. Plaut., Menœchm., v. i.
[656] _Crœsus._ Cf. Herod., i., 32.
[657] _Spatia_, a metaphor from the "course." So Virgil has metæ ævi,
metæ mortis.
[658] _Minturnarum_, a town of the Aurunci near the mouth of the Liris,
now Garigliano. In the marshes in the neighborhood Marius concealed
himself from the cavalry of Sylla.
[659] _Animam._
"Had he exhaled amid the pomp of war,
A warrior's soul in that Teutonic car." Badham.
[660] _Teutonico_, i. e., after his triumph over the Cimbri and
Teutones. Cf. viii., 251.
[661] _Campania._ Cf. Cic., Tus. Qu., i., 35, "Pompeius noster
familiaris, cum graviter ægrotaret Neapoli, utrum si tum esset
extinctus, à bonis rebus, an à malis discessisset? certè a miseriis,
si mortem tum obiisset, in amplissimis fortunis occidisset." Achillas
and L. Septimius murdered Pompey and cut off his head; which ἐφύλασσον
Καίσαρι, ὡς ἐπὶ μεγίσταις ἀμοιβαῖς. Appian, B.C., ii., 86
[662] _P. Corn. Lentulus Sura_, was strangled in prison with Cethegus.
Catiline fell in battle, near Pistoria in Etruria.
[663] _Murmure._ Venus was worshiped under the name of ἀφροδίτη
Ψίθυρος, because all prayers were to be offered in whispers.
[664] _Delicias._ This is Heinrich's view. Grangæus explains it,
"Ut pro ipsis vota deliciarum plena concipiat." Britannicus, "quasi
diceret, optat ut tam formosa sit, ut eam juvenes in suos amplexus
optent."
[665] _Latona._ Hom., Od. vi., 106, γέγηθε δέ τε φρένα Λήτω. Virg.,
Æn., i., 502, Latonæ tacitum pertentant gaudia pectus.
[666] _Lucretia._
"Yet Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring,
And Sedley cursed the form that pleased a king!" Johnson.
[667] _Concordia._ Ov., Heroid, xvi., 288, "Lis est cum _forma_ magna
_pudicitiæ_."
"Chaste--is no epithet to suit with fair." Dryden.
[668] _Tradiderit._
"Though through the rugged house, from sire to son,
A Sabine sanctity of manners run." Gifford.
[669] _Pœnas metuet._ The punishment of adulterers seems to have been
left to the discretion of the injured husband rather than to have been
defined by law.
[670] _Laqueos._ Ov., Met., iv., 176, "Extemplo graciles ex ære
catenas, Retiaque et laqueos quæ lumina fallere possint, elimat." Art.
Am., ii., 561, _seq._ Hom., Odyss., viii., 266.
[671] _Servilia_; i. e., some one as rich and debauched as Servilia,
sister of Cato and mother of Brutus, with whom Cæsar intrigued, and
lavished immense wealth on her. Vid. Suet, Jul., 50. Her sister, the
wife of Lucullus, was equally depraved.
[672] _Mores._
"In all things else, immoral, stingy, mean,
But in her lusts a conscionable quean." Dryden.
[673] _Hæc_, sc. Phædra, daughter of Minos, king of Crete.
[674] _Stimulos._
"A woman scorn'd is pitiless as fate,
For then the dread of shame adds stings to hate." Gifford.
[675] _Cæsaris uxor._ The story is told in Tacitus, Ann., xi., 12, seq.
"In Silium, juventutis Romanæ _pulcherrimum_ ita exarserat, ut Juniam
Silanam nobilem fœminam, matrimonio ejus exturbaret vacuoque adultero
potiretur. Neque Silius _flagitii_ aut _periculi_ nescius erat: _sed
certo si abnueret exitio_ et nonnullâ fallendi spe, simul magnis
præmiis, opperiri futura, et præsentibus frui, pro solatio habebat."
This happened A.D. 48, in the autumn, while Claudius was at Ostia.
It was with great difficulty, after all, that Narcissus prevailed on
Claudius to order Messalina's execution, cf. xiv., 331; Tac., Ann.,
xi., 37; and she was put to death at last without his knowledge.
[676] _Auspex._ Suet., Claud. "Cum comperisset «Valeriam Messalinam»
super cætera flagitia atque dedecora, C. Silio etiam nupsisse, _dote
inter auspices consignatâ_, supplicio affecit." C. 26; cf. 36, 39.
[677] _Lucernas._ "Before the evening lamps 'tis thine to die." Badham.
[678] _Nota urbi et populo._ Juvenal uses almost the very words of
Tacitus. "An discidium inquit (Narcissus) tuum nôsti? Nam matrimonium
Silii vidit populus et senatus et miles: ac ni properè agis tenet urbem
maritus." Ann., xi., 30.
[679] _Prœbenda._ Cf. Tac., Ann., xi., 38.
"Inevitable death before thee lies,
But looks more kindly through a lady's eyes!" Dryden.
[680] _Tomacula_, "the liver and other parts cut out of the pig minced
up with the fat." Mart., i., Ep. xlii., 9, "Quod fumantia qui tomacla
raucus circumfert tepidus coquus popinis." The other savory ingredients
are given by Facciolati; the Greeks called them τεμάχη or τεμάχια.
[681] _Munera._
"A soul that can securely death defy,
And count it Nature's privilege to die." Dryden.
[682] _Hercules._ Alluding to the well-known "Choice of Hercules" from
Prodicus. Xen., Mem.
[683] _Nullum numen._ Repeated, xiv., 315.
[684] "The reasonings in this Satire," Gibbon says, "would have been
clearer, had Juvenal distinguished between wishes the accomplishment
of which could not fail to make us miserable, and those whose
accomplishment might fail to make us happy. Absolute power is of the
first kind; long life of the second."
SATIRE XI.
If Atticus[685] sups extravagantly, he is considered a splendid[686]
fellow: if Rutilus does so, he is thought mad. For what is received
with louder laughter on the part of the mob, than Apicius[687] reduced
to poverty?
Every club,[688] the baths, every knot of loungers, every theatre,[689]
is full of Rutilus. For while his sturdy and youthful limbs are fit to
bear arms,[690] and while he is hot in blood, he is driven[691] (not
indeed forced to it, but unchecked by the tribune) to copy out[692]
the instructions and imperial commands of the trainer of gladiators.
Moreover, you see many whom their creditor, often cheated of his money,
is wont to look out for at the very entrance of the market;[693] and
whose inducement to live exists in their palate alone. The greatest
wretch among these, one who must soon fail, since his ruin is already
as clear[694] as day, sups the more extravagantly and the more
splendidly. Meanwhile they ransack all the elements for dainties;[695]
the price never standing in the way of their gratification. If you
look more closely into it, those please the more which are bought for
more. Therefore they have no scruple[696] in borrowing a sum, soon
to be squandered, by pawning[697] their plate, or the broken[698]
image of their mother; and, with the 400[699] sesterces, seasoning an
earthen[700] dish to tickle their palate. Thus they are reduced to the
hotch-potch[701] of the gladiator.
It makes therefore all the difference who it is that procures these
same things. For in Rutilus it is luxurious extravagance. In Ventidius
it takes a praiseworthy name, and derives credit from his fortune.
I should with reason despise the man who knows how much more lofty
Atlas is than all the mountains in Libya, yet this very man knows
not how much a little purse differs from an iron-bound chest.[702]
"Know thyself," came down from heaven:[703] a proverb to be
implanted and cherished in the memory, whether you are about to
contract matrimony,[704] or wish to be in a part of the sacred[705]
senate:--(for not even Thersites[706] is a candidate for the
breast-plate of Achilles: in which Ulysses exhibited himself in a
doubtful character:[707])--or whether you take upon yourself to defend
a cause of great moment. Consult your own powers; tell yourself who
you are; whether you are a powerful orator, or like a Curtius, or a
Matho,[708] mere spouters.
One must know one's own measure, and keep it in view, in the greatest
and in most trifling matters; even when a fish is to be bought. Do not
long for a mullet,[709] when you have only a gudgeon in your purse.
For what end awaits you, as your purse[710] fails and your gluttony
increases: when your patrimony and whole fortune is squandered[711]
upon your belly, what can hold your money out at interest, your solid
plate, your flocks, and lands?
By such proprietors as these, last of all[712] the ring is parted with,
and Pollio[713] begs with his finger bare. It is not the premature
funeral pile, or the grave, that is luxury's horror, but old age,[714]
more to be dreaded than death itself. These are most commonly the
steps: money, borrowed at Rome, is spent before the very owners' faces;
then when some trifling residue is left, and the lender of the money is
growing pale, they give leg-bail[715] and run to Baiæ and Ostia. For
now-a-days to quit the forum[716] is not more discreditable to you than
to remove to Esquiline from hot[717] Suburra. This is the only pain
that they who flee their country feel, this their only sorrow, to have
lost the Circensian games[718] for one[719] year. Not a drop of blood
remains in their face; few attempt to detain modesty, now become an
object of ridicule and fleeing from the city.
You shall prove to-day by your own experience, Persicus, whether
all these things, which are very fine to talk about, I do not
practice in my life, in my moral conduct, and in reality: but praise
vegetables,[720] while in secret I am a glutton: in others' hearing
bid my slave bring me water-gruel,[721] but whisper "cheese-cakes" in
his ear. For since you are my promised guest, you shall find me an
Evander:[722] you shall come as the Tirynthian, or the guest, inferior
indeed to him, and yet himself akin by blood to heaven: the one sent to
the skies by water,[723] the other by fire.
Now hear your bill of fare,[724] furnished by no public market.[725]
From my farm at Tibur there shall come a little kid, the fattest and
tenderest of the whole flock, ignorant of the taste of grass, that has
never yet ventured to browse even on the low twigs of the willow-bed,
and that has more milk than blood in his veins: and asparagus[726] from
the mountains, which my bailiff's wife, having laid down her spindle,
gathered. Some huge eggs besides, and still warm in their twisted hay,
shall be served up together with the hens themselves: and grapes kept a
portion of the year, just as they were when fresh upon the vines: pears
from Signia[727] and Syria: and, from the same basket, apples rivaling
those of Picenum,[728] and smelling quite fresh; that you need not be
afraid of, since they have lost their autumnal moisture, which has
been dried up by cold, and the dangers to be feared from their juice
if crude. This would in times gone by have been a luxurious supper
for our senate. Curius[729] with his own hands used to cook over his
little fire pot-herbs which he had gathered in his little garden: such
herbs as now the foul digger in his heavy chain rejects with scorn,
who remembers the flavor of the vile dainties[730] of the reeking
cook-shop. It was the custom formerly to keep against festival days
the flitches of the smoked swine, hanging from the wide-barred rack,
and to set bacon as a birthday treat before one's relations, with the
addition of some fresh meat, if a sacrificial victim furnished any.
Some one of the kin, with the title of "Thrice consul," that had held
command in camps, and discharged the dignity of dictator, used to go
earlier[731] than his wont to such a feast as this, bearing his spade
over his shoulder from the mountain he had been digging on. But when
men trembled at the Fabii,[732] and the stern Cato, and the Scauri and
Fabricii;[733] and when, in fine, even his colleague stood in dread
of the severe character of the strict Censor; no one thought it was
a matter of anxiety or serious concern what kind of tortoise[734]
floated in the wave of ocean, destined to form a splendid and noble
couch for the Trojugenæ. But with side devoid of ornament, and sofas
of diminutive size, the brazen front displayed the mean head of an ass
wearing a chaplet,[735] at which the country lads laughed in wantonness.
The food then was in keeping with the master of the house and the
furniture. Then the soldier, uncivilized, and too ignorant[736] to
admire the arts of Greece, used to break up the drinking-cups, the
work of some renowned artists, which he found in his share of the
booty when cities were overthrown, that his horse might exult in
trappings,[737] and his embossed helmet might display to his enemy
on the point of perishing, likenesses of the Romulean wild beast
bidden to grow tame by the destiny of the empire, and the twin Quirini
beneath the rock, and the naked image of the god coming down[738] with
buckler and spear, and impending over him. Whatever silver he possessed
glittered on his arms[739] alone. In those days, then, they used to
serve all their furmety in a dish of Tuscan earthenware: which you may
envy, if you are at all that way inclined.[740]
The majesty of temples also was more evidently near[741] to men, and a
voice[742] heard about midnight and through the midst of the city, when
the Gauls were coming from the shore of ocean, and the gods discharged
the functions of a prophet, warned us of these.
This was the care which Jupiter used to show for the affairs of
Latium, when made of earthenware,[743] and as yet profaned by no
gold. Those days saw tables made of wood grown at home and from our
native trees.[744] To these uses was the timber applied, if the east
wind had chanced to lay prostrate some old walnut-tree. But now the
rich have no satisfaction in their dinner, the turbot and the venison
lose their flavor, perfumes and roses seem to lose their smell, unless
the broad circumference of the table is supported by a huge mass of
ivory, and a tall leopard with wide-gaping jaws, made of those tusks,
which the gate of Syene[745] transmits, and the active Moors, and the
Indian of duskier hue than the Moor;[746] and which the huge beast
has deposited in some Nabathæan[747] glen, as now grown too weighty
and burdensome to his head: by this their appetite[748] is whetted:
hence their stomach acquires its vigor. For a leg of a table made
only of silver is to them what an iron ring on their finger would
be: I therefore cautiously avoid a proud guest, who compares me with
himself, and looks with scorn on my paltry estate. Consequently I do
not possess a single ounce of ivory: neither my chess-board[749] nor
my men are of this material; nay, the very handles of my knives are of
bone. Yet my viands never become rank in flavor by these, nor does my
pullet cut up the worse on that account. Nor yet will you see a carver,
to whom the whole carving-school[750] ought to yield the palm, some
pupil of the professor Trypherus, at whose house the hare, with the
large sow's udders,[751] and the wild boar, and the roebuck,[752] and
pheasants,[753] and the huge flamingo,[754] and the wild goat[755] of
Gætulia, all forming a most splendid supper, though made of elm, are
carved with the blunted knife, and resounds through the whole Suburra.
My little fellow, who is a novice, and uneducated all his days, does
not know how to take dexterously off a slice of roe, or the wing of a
Guinea-hen;[756] only versed in the mysteries of carving the fragments
of a small collop.[757]
My slave, who is not gayly dressed, and only clad so as to protect him
from cold, will hand you plebeian cups[758] bought for a few pence. He
is no Phrygian or Lycian, or one purchased from the slave-dealer[759]
and at great price. When you ask for any thing, ask in Latin. They have
all the same style of dress; their hair close-cropped and straight, and
only combed to-day on account of company. One is the son of a hardy
shepherd, another of a neat-herd: he sighs after his mother, whom he
has not seen for a long time, and pines for his hovel[760] and his
playmate kids. A lad of ingenuous face, and ingenuous modesty; such as
_those_ ought to be who are clothed in brilliant purple. He shall hand
you wine[761] made on those very hills from which he himself comes, and
under whose summit he has played; for the country of the wine and the
attendant is one and the same.
Gambling is disgraceful, and so is adultery, in men of moderate means.
Yet when rich men commit all those abominations, they are called
jovial, splendid fellows. Our banquet to-day will furnish far different
amusements. The author of the Iliad[762] shall be recited, and the
verses of high-sounding Mars, that render the palm doubtful. What
matter is it with what voice such noble verses are read?[763] But now
having put off all your cares, lay aside business, and allow yourself
a pleasing respite, since you will have it in your power to be idle
all day long. Let there be no mention of money out at interest. Nor if
your wife is accustomed to go out at break of day and return at night,
let her stir up your bile,[764] though you hold your tongue. Divest
yourself at once of all that annoys you, at my threshold. Banish all
thoughts of home and servants, and all that is broken and wasted[765]
by them--especially forget ungrateful friends! Meantime, the spectacles
of the Megalesian towel[766] grace the Idæan solemnity: and, like one
in a triumph, the prey of horses, the prætor, sits: and, if I may say
so without offense to the immense and overgrown crowd, the circus
to-day incloses the whole of Rome;[767] and a din reaches my ears,
from which I infer the success of the green faction.[768] For should
it not win, you would see this city in mourning and amazement, as when
the consuls were conquered in the dust[769] of Cannæ. Let young men be
spectators of these, in whom shouting and bold betting, and sitting
by a trim damsel is becoming. Let our skin,[770] which is wrinkled
with age, imbibe the vernal sun and avoid the toga'd crowd. Even now,
though it wants a whole hour to the sixth, you may go to the bath
with unblushing brow. You could not do this for five successive days;
because even of such a life as this there would be great weariness. It
is a more moderate use[771] that enhances pleasures.
FOOTNOTES:
[685] _Atticus._ Put for any man of wealth and rank. So _Rutilus_ for
the reverse. Cf. xiv., 18.
[686] _Lautus._ Cf. Mart., xii., Ep. xlviii., 5.
[687] _Apicius_ (cf. iv., 23), having spent "millies sestertium,"
upward of eight hundred thousand pounds, in luxury, destroyed himself
through fear of want, though it appeared he had above eighty thousand
pounds left.
[688] _Convictus._ Properly, like convivium, "a dinner party." Cf. i.,
145, "It nova nec tristis per cunctas fabula cœnas." Tac., Ann., xiv.,
4; xiii., 14.
[689] _Stationes_, "locus ubi otiosi in urbe degunt, et variis
sermonibus tempus terunt." Plin., Ep. i., 13; ii, 9.
[690] _Sufficiunt galeæ._ Cf. vii., 32, "Defluit ætas et pelagi patiens
et cassidis atque ligonis."
[691] _Cogente._ Cf. viii., 167, "Quanti sua funera vendunt Quid
refert? vendunt nullo _cogente Nerone_. Nec dubitant celsi prætoris
vendere ludis."
[692] _Scripturus._ Suet., Jul., 26. Gladiators had to write out the
rules and words of command of their trainers, "dictata," in order to
learn them by heart. Lubinus gives us some of these: "attolle, declina,
percute, urge, cæde."
[693] _Macelli._ So called from μάκελλον, "an inclosure," because the
markets, before dispersed in the Forum boarium, olitorium, piscarium,
cupedinis, etc., were collected into one building; or, from one
Romanius Macellus, whose house stood there, and was "propter latrocinia
ejus publicè diruta." Vid. Donat. ad Ter., Eunuch., ii., sc. ii.,
24, where he gives a list of the cupediarii, "cetarii, lanii, coqui,
fartores, piscatores;" or á mactando; as the French "Abattoir." Cf.
Sat., v., 95. Suet., Jul., 26. Plaut., Aul., II., viii., 3. Hor., i.,
Ep. xv., 31.
[694] _Perlucente ruinâ._ Cf. x., 107, "impulsæ præceps immane ruinæ."
A metaphor from a building on the point of falling, with the daylight
streaming through its cracks and fissures.
"Then with their prize to ruin'd walls repair,
And eat the dainty scrap on earthenware." Badham.
[695] _Gustus._ III., 93, "Quando omne peractum est, et jam defecit
nostrum mare, dum gula sævit, retibus assiduis penitus scrutante
macello proxima." The idea is probably from Seneca. "Quidquid avium
volitat, quidquid piscium natat, quidquid ferarum discurrit, nostris
sepelitur ventribus." Contr. V. pr. The Cœna consisted of three parts.
1. Gustus (Gustatio), or Promulsis. 2. Fercula: different courses. 3.
Mensæ Secundæ. The gustus contained dishes designed more to excite than
to satisfy hunger: vegetables, as the lactuca (Mart., xiii., 14), shell
and other fish, with piquant sauces: mulsum (Hor., ii., Sat. iv., 24.
Plin., i., Ep. 15). Cf. Bekker's Gallus, p. 466, 493. Vide ad Sat. vi.,
428.
[696] _Difficile_, i. e., "non dubitant." Vid. Schol. Not that they
"have _no difficulty_" in raising the money, as Crepereius Pollio
found. Cf. ix., 5.
[697] _Oppositis._ "Ager oppositus est pignori ob decem minas." Ter.,
Phorm., IV., iii., 56.
[698] _Fractâ._ "Broken, that the features may not be recognized:"
alluding probably to some well-known transaction of the time.
[699] _Quadringentis._ Cf. Suet., Vit., 13, "Nec cuiquam minus singuli
apparatus quadringentis millibus nummûm constiterunt."
[700] _Fictile._ III., 168, "Fictilibus cœnare pudet."
[701] _Miscellanea._ "A special diet-bread to advantage the combatants
at once in breath and strength." _Holyday._ It is said to have been a
mixture of cheese and flour; probably a kind of macaroni. "Gladiatoria
sagina." Tac., Hist., ii., 88. Prop., IV., viii., 25.
[702] _Ferratû._ XIV., 259, "Æratâ multus in arcâ fiscus." X., 25.
Hor., i., Sat. i., 67.
[703] _E cœlo._ This precept has been assigned to Socrates, Chilo,
Thales, Cleobulus, Bias, Pythagoras. It was inscribed in gold letters
over the portico of the temple of Delphi. Hence, perhaps, the notion
afterward, that it was derived immediately from heaven.
[704] _Conjugium._ Cf. Æsch., Pr. V., 890. Ov., Her., ix., 32, "Si qua
voles aptè nuberè nube pari."
[705] _Sacri._ "The undaunted spirit," says Gifford, "which could thus
designate the senate in those days of tyranny and suspicion, deserves
at least to be pointed out."
[706] _Thersites._ Cf. vii., 115: x., 84; viii., 269. Juvenal is very
fond of referring to this contest.
[707] _Traducebat._ II., 159, "Illuc heu miseri traducimur." VIII., 17,
"Squalentes traducit avos." It means literally "to expose to public
derision," a metaphor taken from leading malefactors through the forum
with their name and offense suspended from their neck. Cf. Suet., Tit.,
8. Mart., i., Ep. liv., 3, "Quæ tua traducit manifesto carmina furto."
VI., lxxvii., 5, "Rideris multoque magis traduceris afer Quam nudus
medio si spatiere foro." Grang. explains it "se risui exponebat: nec
enim arma Achillis Ulyssem decebant." Browne, "in which Ulysses cut a
doubtful figure." Others refer ancipitem to _loricam_; or place the
stop after _Ulysses_, and take ancip. with _causam_. Gifford omits the
passage altogether, as a tasteless interpolation of some Scholiast.
Dryden turns it,
"When scarce Ulysses had a good pretense,
With all th' advantage of his eloquence."
Badham:
"Which, at the peril of a soldier's fame,
The brave Ulysses scarcely dared to claim."
Hodgson:
"Thersites never could that armor bear,
Which e'en Ulysses hesitates to wear."
Britann. suggests that it may mean "his enemies doubted if he were
really Achilles or no." Facciol.: "in a doubtful frame of mind as to
whether they would become him or not."
[708] _Matho._ Cf. i., 39; vii., 129. Mart., iv., Ep. 80, 81. For
Curtius Montanus, see Tac., Ann., xvi., 48. Hist., iv., 42.
[709] _Mullum._ Gifford always renders this by "sur-mullet" «"mugilis"
being properly the mullet, of which Holyday gives a drawing, ad x.,
317»; Mr. Metcalfe, by "the sea-barbel." Cf. ad iv., 15.
"Nor doubt thy throat of mullets to amerce,
While scarce a gudgeon lingers in thy purse." Badham.
[710] _Crumenâ._ Properly "a bag or reticule to hang on the arm;" a
satchel to be hung over a boy's shoulder: then a purse suspended from
the girdle, like the "gypciére" of the Middle Ages:
"If thy throat widen as thy pockets shrink." Gifford.
[711] _Mersis._
"That deep abyss which every kind can hold,
Land, cattle, contract, houses, silver, gold." Badham.
[712] _Novissimus._ VI., 356, "Levibus athletis vasa novissima donat."
[713] _Pollio._ Probably the Crepereius Pollio mentioned Sat. ix.,
6, who could get no one to lend him money, though "triplicem usuram
præstare paratus."
[714] _Senectus_; exemplified in the story of Apicius above.
"Decrepit age far more than death they fear;
Nor thirst nor hunger haunt the silent bier." Hodgson.
[715] _Qui vertere solum._ Cic. pro Cæc., 34, "Qui volunt pœnam aliquam
subterfugere aut calamitatem, _solum vertunt_, hoc est sedem ac locum
mutant." Browne conjectures the meaning to be, "They who have parted
with their property by mortgage, and so _changed_ its owner."
[716] _Cedere foro_ is evidently explained, "to give one's creditors
the slip"--"to run away from justice"--"to abscond from 'Change"--"to
become bankrupt."
[717] _Ferventi._
"Lest Rome should grow too _warm_, from Rome they run." Dryden.
[718] _Circensibus._ Cf. iii., 223, "Si potes avelli Circensibus." vi.,
87, "utque magis stupeas ludos Paridemque reliquit." viii., 118, "Circo
scenæque vacantem." x., 80, "duas tantum res anxius optat Panem et
Circenses." All these passages show the infatuation of the Romans for
these games. Cf. Plin., Ep. ix., 6. Tac., Hist., i., 4; Ann., i., 2.
[719] _Uno._ It is not implied that they had the privilege of returning
at the end of a year, by a sort of statute of limitations, but only
that the loss of the games even for that short period was a greater
affliction than the forfeiture of all other privileges.
[720] _Siliquas_, from Hor. ii., Ep. i., 123, "Vivit siliquis et pane
secundo."
[721] _Pultes._ A mixture of coarse meal and water, seasoned with salt
and cheese; sometimes with an egg or honey added. It was long the food
of the primitive Romans, according to Pliny, xviii., 8, _seq._ It
probably resembled the macaroni, or "polenta," of the poor Italians
of the present day. Cf. Pers., iii., 55, "Juventus siliquis et grandi
pasta polentâ."
[722] _Evandrum._ The allusion is to Virg., Æn., viii., 100, _seq._;
228, 359, _seq._
"Come; and while fancy brings past times to view,
I'll think myself the king--the hero, you!" Gifford.
[723] _Alter aquis._ Æneas, drowned in the Numicius. Hercules, burned
on Mount Œta.
[724] _Fercula._ Cf. ad 14.
[725] _Macellis._ Virg., Georg., iv., 133, "Dapibus mensas onerabat
inemptis." Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. ii., 150, _seq._ The next 16 lines are
imitated from Mart., x., Ep. 48. Gifford says, "Martial has imitated
this bill of fare in Lib. x., 48." But his 10th Book was written
A.D. 99; and from line 203, it is evident this Satire was written in
Juvenal's old age, and therefore, in all probability, twenty years
later.
[726] _Asparagi_, called "corruda," Cato, de R. R., 6. The wild
asparagus is still very common on the Italian hills. Cf. Mart., Ep.
xiii., 21, "Inculti asparagi." See Sir William Hooker's note on
Badham's version.
[727] _Signia_, now "Segni" in Latium. Cf. Plin., xv., 15.--_Syrium._
The "Bergamot" pears are said to have been imported from Syria. Cf.
Mart., v., Ep. lxxviii., 13, "Et nomen pyra quæ ferunt Syrorum." Virg.,
Georg., ii., 88, "Crustumiis Syriisque pyris." Columella (lib. v., c.
10) calls them "Tarentina," because brought from Syria to Tarentum.
Others say they are the same as the Falernian.
[728] _Picenis._ Hor., ii., Sat. iv., 70, "Picenis cedunt pomis
Tiburtia succo, Nam facie præstant." And iii., 272, "Picenis excerpens
semina pomis." These apples were to be also from his Tiburtine farm:
the banks of the Anio being famous for its orchards. Hor., i., Od.
vii., 14, "Præceps Anio ac Tiburni lucus et uda mobilibus pomaria
vivis." Propert., IV., vii., 81, "Pomosis Anio quà spumifer incubat
arvis." Apples formed a very prominent part of the mensæ secundæ: hence
the proverb, "Ab ovo usque ad mala." Cf. Mart., x., 48, fin., "Saturis
mitia poma dabo." Cf. Sat. v., 150, _seq._, where apples "qualia
perpetuus Phæacum Autumnus habebat" form the conclusion of Virro's
dinner. Cf. Mart., iii., Ep. 50.
[729] _Curius_ was found by the Samnite embassadors preparing his dish
of turnips over the fire with his own hands. Cic., de Sen., xvi.
"Senates more rich than Rome's first senates were,
In days of yore desired no better fare." Badham.
[730] _Vulvâ._ "Nul vulvâ pulchrius amplâ." Hor., i., Ep. xv., 41. For
a description of this loathsome dainty, vid. Plin., xi., 37, 84. Cf.
Mart., Ep. xiii., 56.
[731] _Maturius._
"For feasts like these would quit the mountain's soil,
And snatch an hour from customary toil." Badham.
[732] _Fabios._ Q. Fabius Maximus Rullianus, censor A.U.C. 449, obliged
his colleague, P. Decius, to allow him to administer his office with
all its pristine severity.
[733] _Fabricios._ Cf. ad ix., 142.
[734] _Testudo._ Cf. vi., 80, "Testudineo conopeo;" xiv., 308, "ebore
et lata testudine."
"Which future times were destined to employ,
To build rare couches for the sons of Troy." Badham.
[735] _Vile coronati._ Henninius suggests _vite_. The ass, by browsing
on the vine, and thereby rendering it more luxuriant, is said to have
first given men the idea of pruning the tendrils. Cf. Paus., ii., 38.
Hyg., F., 274. The ass is always found, too, in connection with Silenus.
[736] _Nescius._
"Till at the soldier's foot her treasures lay,
Who knew not half the riches of his prey." Hodgson.
[737] _Phaleris_: xvi., 60. Florus says Phaleræ were introduced from
Etruria together with curule chairs, trabeæ, prætextæ, etc. Vid. Liv.,
xxxix., 31. Plin., vii., 28, 9, says Siccius Dentatus had 25 phaleræ
and 83 torques. Sil., xv., 254. Cf. Virg., Æn., ix., 359. Suet., Aug.,
25; Ner., 33.
[738] _Venientis._ Supposed to be a representation of Mars hovering in
the air, and just about to alight by the sleeping Rhea Sylvia. The god
is _armed_, because the conventional manner of representing him was by
the distinction of his "framea" and "clypeus." See Addison's note in
Gifford.
[739] _In armis._
"Then all their wealth was on their armor spent,
And war engross'd the pride of ornament." Hodgson.
[740] _Lividulus._
"Yet justly worth your envy, were your breast
But with one spark of noble spleen possess'd." Gifford.
[741] _Præsentior._ Cf. iii., 18, "Quanto _præsentius_ esset Numen
aquæ." Virg., Ec., i., 42, "Nec tam præsentes alibi cognoscere Divos."
Georg., i., 10, "Præsentia Numina Fauni." Hor., iii., Od. v., 2,
"Præsens Divus habebitur Augustus."
[742] _Vox._ "M. Cædicius de plebe nunciavit tribunis, se in Novâ Viâ,
ubi nunc sacellum est, suprà sedem Vestæ vocem noctis silentio audîsse
clariorem humanâ quæ magistratibus dici juberet 'Gallos adventare.'"
"Invisitato atque inaudito hoste ab oceano terrarumque ultimis oris
bellum ciente." Liv., v., 32, 3, 7, 50. Cic., de Div., ii., "At
paullo post audita _vox est monentis_ ut providerent ne a Gallis Roma
caperetur: ex eo Aio loquenti aram in novâ viâ consecratam." Cf. Plut.
in Vit. Camill.
[743] _Fictilis._ Cf. Sen., Ep. 31, "Cogita illos quum propitii essent
fictiles fuisse."
[744] _Arbore._ Cf. Mart., xiv., Ep. xc., "Non sum crispa quidem nec
sylvæ filia Mauræ, sed nôrunt lautas et mea ligna dapes." Cf. Sat.
i., 75, 137; iv., 132. The extravagance of the Romans on their tables
is almost incredible. Pliny says that Cicero himself, who accuses
Verres of stealing a Citrea mensa from Diodorus (in Verr., iv., 17),
gave a million of sesterces for one which was in existence in his
time. A "Senatoris Census" was a price given. These tables were not
provided with several feet, but rested on an ivory column (sometimes
carved into the figure of animals), hence called monopodia. They were
called "Orbes," not from being _round_, but because they were massive
plates of wood cut off the stem in its whole diameter. The wood of the
_citrus_ was most preferred. This is not the _citron_-tree, which never
attains to this bulk, but a tree found in Mauritania, called the thyæ
cypressides. Plin., xiii., 16. Those cut near the root were most valued
from the wood being variegated: hence "Tigrinæ, pantherinæ, pavonum
caudæ oculos imitantes." The mensæ were formerly square, but were
afterward round to suit the new fashion of the Sigma couch. The Romans
also understood the art of veneering tables and other furniture with
the citrus wood and tortoise-shell.
[745] _Porta Syenes._ Syene, now "Assouan," is situated near the
rapids, just on the confines of Ethiopia. It was a station for a Roman
garrison, and the place to which Juvenal is said to have been banished.
Some think the island Elephantine is here meant. Cf. ad x., 150,
"aliosque Elephantos."
[746] _Mauro._ Ab ἀμαυρός, vel μαυρός, "obscurus." Cf. Lucan., iv.,
678, "Concolor Indo Maurus."
[747] _Nabathæo._ The Nabathæi, in Arabia Petræa, took their name from
"Nebaioth, first-born of Ishmael," Gen., xxv., 13. Elephants are said
to shed their tusks every two years.
[748] _Orexis._ VI., 428. _Vires._ Henninius' suggestion. Cf. ad l. 14.
[749] _Tessellæ._ Holyday explains this by "chess-board," from the
resemblance of the squares to the tesselated pavements. But it is a
die, properly; of which shape the separate tesseræ were. Mart., xiv.,
17, "Hic mihi bis seno numeratur tessera puncto: Calculus hic gemino
discolor hoste perit." Cf. Ep. 14. Cicero considers this game to be one
of the legitimate amusements of old age. "Nobis senibus, ex lusionibus
multis, talos relinquant et _tesseras_," de Sen., xvi. "Old Mucius
Scævola, the lawyer, was a great proficient at it. It was called Ludus
duodecim scriptorum, from the lines dividing the alveolus. On these
the two armies, white and black, each consisting of fifteen men, or
calculi, were placed; and alternately moved, according to the chances
of the dice, _tesseræ_." Vid. Gibbon, chap. xxxi.
[750] _Pergula._ Literally "the stall outside a shop where articles are
displayed for sale." Here used for the teachers of the art of carving
who exhibited at these stalls. Suet., Aug., 94, speaks of a "pergula
Mathematici." Pergula, "à perga, quia extrà parietem pergit." Facc.
[751] _Sumine._ Cf. Mart., Ep. xiii., 44, "vivo lacte papilla tumet."
[752] _Pygargus._ "Capræ sylvestris genus, ab albis clunium pilis."
Facc. Cf. Plin., viii., 53, 79, "Damæ et pygargi et Strepsicerotes."
The "spring-bok" of the Cape.
[753] _Scythicæ._ The pheasant (ὄρνις φασιανὸς or φασιανικός, Arist.,
Av., 68) takes its name from the Phasis, a river in Colchis, on the
confines of Scythia, at the mouth of which these birds congregate in
large flocks. Vid. Athen., ix., 37, _seq._
[754] _Phœnicopterus._ Arist., Av., 273. Cf. Mart., xiii., 71, "Dat
mihi penna rubens nomen." Cf. iii., Ep. lviii., 14. Suetonius mentions
"linguas phœnicopterûm" among the delicacies of the "Cœna adventicia"
given by his brother to Vitellius, in Vit., c. 13.
[755] _Capreæ._ Cf. Mart., Ep. xiii., 99.
[756] _Afra avis._ Hor., Epod., ii., 53, "Non Afra avis descendat in
ventrem meum non attagen Ionicus." The μελεαγρίς of the Greeks. Varro,
R. R., III., ix., 18.
[757] _Offelæ_, the diminutive of Offa. "A cutlet or chop," generally
applied to the coarser kind of meat. Cf. Mart., xii., 48, "Me meus
ad subitas invitet amicus ofellas: Hæc mihi quam possum reddere cœna
placet." Some read _furtis_ for _frustis_: which imputation against the
character of the little slave Gifford indignantly rejects.
[758] _Plebeios calices_, cf. ad vi., 155; v., 46, made of glass,
which was now very common at Rome. Vid. Mart., Ep. xii., 74; xiv., 94,
_seq._, and especially the Epigram on Mamurra, ix., 60. Strabo speaks
of them as sold commonly in Rome in his own time for a χαλκοῦς each
(not quite a farthing), lib. xvi., p. 368, T. Cf. Bekker's Gallus, p.
303.
[759] _Mango_, cf. Pers., vi., 76, _seq._, from _manu ago_, because
they made up their goods for sale, or from μάγγανον, "a trick." Cf.
Aristoph., Plut., 310. Bekker's Gallus, the Excursus on "the Slaves."
[760] _Casulam._ Cf. ix., 59, "Rusticus infans, cum matre et casulis et
conlusore catello."
"Sighs for his little cottage, and would fain
Meet his old playfellows the goats again." Gifford.
[761] _Vina._ Cf. vii., 96, "Vinum Tiberi devectum." Mart., x., 48, 19,
"De Nomentana vinum sine fæce lagenâ."
[762] _Iliados._
"The tale of Ilium, or that rival lay
Which holds in deep suspense the dubious bay." Bad.
[763] _Legantur._ Cf. Corn. Nep., vit. Attici, "Nemo in convivio ejus
aliud acroama audivit quam Anagnosten: quod nos quidem jucundissimum
arbitramur. Neque unquam sine aliquâ lectione apud eum cœnatum est, ut
non minus animo quam ventre convivæ delectarentur," c. xvi. Cf. Mart.,
iii., Ep. 50, who complains of Ligurinus inviting him to have his own
productions read to him.
[764] _Bilem._
"Let no dire images to-day be brought
To wake the hell of matrimonial thought." Hodgson.
[765] _Perit._ Cf. Hor., ii., Ep. i., 121, "Detrimenta, fugas servorum,
incendia ridet."
[766] _Mappæ._ Holyday gives the following account of the origin of
this custom. "Nero on a time, sitting alone at dinner, when the shows
were eagerly expected, caused his towel with which he had wiped his
hands to be presently cast out at the window, for a sign of his speedy
coming. Whereupon it was in after times the usual sign at the beginning
of these shows." For the mappa see Bekker's Gallus, p. 476.--_Præda_,
because "ruined by the expense;" or _Prædo_, from his "unjust
decisions;" or _Perda_, from the "number of horses damaged."
[767] _Totam Romam._ See Gibbon, chap. xxxi., for the eagerness with
which all ranks flocked to these games.
[768] _Viridis panni._ Cf. ad vi., 590. Plin., Ep. ix., 6, "Si aut
velocitate equorum, aut hominum arte traherentur, esset ratio nonnulla.
Nunc favent _panno_: _pannum_ amant," _et seq._ Mart., x., Ep. xlviii.,
23, "De Prasino conviva meus, venetoque loquatur." XIV., 131, "Si
veneto Prasinove faves quid coccina sumis?"
[769] _Pulvere_ is not without its force. Hannibal is said to have
plowed up the land near Cannæ, that the wind which daily rose and blew
in that direction might carry the dust into the eyes of the Romans.
"Ventus (_Vulturnum_ incolæ regionis vocant) adversus Romanis coortus,
_multo pulvere_ in ipsa ora volvendo, prospectum ademit." Liv., xxii.,
46 and 43. Cf. Sat, ii., 155; x., 165.
[770] _Cuticula._ Pers., iv., 18, "Assiduo curata cuticula sole." 33,
"Et figas in cute solem." V., 179, "Aprici meminisse senes." Mart.,
x., Ep. xii., 7, "Totos avidâ cute combibe soles." I., Ep. 78, "Sole
utitur Charinus." Plin., Ep. iii., 1, "Ubi hora balinei nuntiata est
(cf. ad Sat. x., 216), est autem hieme nona, æstate octava, in sole, si
caret vento, ambulat nudus." Cicero mentions "apricatio" as one of the
solaces of old age. De Sen., c. xvi.
"While we, my friend, whose skin grows old and dry,
Court the warm sunbeam of an April sky." Badham.
[771] _Rarior usus._
"Our very sports by repetition tire,
But rare delight breeds ever new desire." Hodgson.
SATIRE XII.
This day, Corvinus, is a more joyful one to me than even my own
birthday;[772] in which the festal altar of turf[773] awaits the
animals promised to the gods.
To the queen of the gods we sacrifice a snow-white[774] lamb: a
similar fleece shall be given to her that combated the Mauritanian
Gorgon.[775] But the victim reserved for Tarpeian Jupiter, shakes,
in his wantonness, his long-stretched[776] rope, and brandishes his
forehead. Since he is a sturdy calf; ripe for the temple and the altar,
and ready to be sprinkled with wine; ashamed any longer to drain his
mother's[777] teats, and butts the oaks with his sprouting horn.[778]
Had I an ample fortune, and equal to my wishes, a bull fatter than
Hispulla,[779] and slow-paced from his very bulk, should be led to
sacrifice, and one not fed in a neighboring pasture; but his blood
should flow, giving evidence of the rich pastures of Clitumnus,[780]
and with a neck that must be struck by a ministering priest of
great strength, to do honor to the return of my friend who is still
trembling, and has recently endured great horrors, and wonders to find
himself safe.
For besides the dangers of the sea, and the stroke of the lightning
which he escaped, thick darkness obscured the sky in one huge cloud,
and a sudden thunder-bolt struck the yard-arms, while every one fancied
he was struck by it, and at once, amazed, thought that no shipwreck
could be compared in horror with a ship on fire.[781] For all things
happen so, and with such horrors accompanying, when a storm arises in
poetry.[782]
Now here follows another sort of danger. Hear, and pity him a second
time; although the rest is all of the same description. Yet it is
a very dreadful part, and one well known to many, as full many a
temple testifies with its votive picture. (Who does not know that
painters[783] are maintained by Isis?) A similar fortune befell our
friend Catullus also: when the hold was half full of water, and when
the waves heaved up each side alternately of the laboring ship, and
the skill of the hoary pilot could render no service, he began to
compound with the winds by throwing overboard, imitating the beaver
who makes a eunuch[784] of himself, hoping to get off by the sacrifice
of his testicles; so well does he know their medicinal properties.
"Throw overboard all that belongs to me, the whole of it!" cried
Catullus, eager to throw over even his most beautiful things--a robe
of purple fit even for luxurious Mæcenases, and others whose very
fleece the quality of the generous pasture has tinged, moreover the
exquisite water with its hidden properties, and the atmosphere of
Bætica[785] contributes to enhance its beauty. He did not hesitate to
cast overboard even his plate, salvers the workmanship of Parthenius,
a bowl[786] that would hold three gallons, and worthy of Pholus when
thirsty, or even the wife of Fuscus.[787] Add to these bascaudæ,[788]
and a thousand chargers, a quantity of embletic work, out of which the
cunning purchaser of Olynthus[789] had drunk. But what other man in
these days, or in what quarter of the globe, has the courage to prefer
his life to his money, and his safety to his property? Some men do not
make fortunes for the sake of living, but, blinded by avarice, live
for the sake of money-getting. The greatest part even of necessaries
is thrown overboard: but not even do these sacrifices relieve the
ship--then, in the urgency of the peril, it came to such a pitch that
he yielded his mast to the hatchet, and rights himself at last, though
in a crippled state. Since this is the last resource in danger we
apply, to make the ship lighter.
Go now, and commit your life to the mercy of the winds; trusting to a
hewn plank, with but four digits[790] between you and death, or seven
at most, if the deal is of the thickest. And then together with your
provision-baskets and bread and wide-bellied flagon,[791] look well
that you lay in hatchets,[792] to be brought into use in storms.
But when the sea subsided into calm, and the state of affairs was more
propitious to the mariner, and his destiny prevailed over Eurus and the
sea, when now the cheerful Parcæ draw kindlier tasks with benign hand,
and spin white wool,[793] and what wind there is, is not much stronger
than a moderate breeze, the wretched bark, with a poor make-shift, ran
before it, with the sailors' clothes spread out, and with its only sail
that remained: when now the south wind subsided, together with the
sun hope of life returned. Then the tall peak beloved by Iulus, and
preferred as a home by him to Lavinium,[794] his stepmother's seat,
comes in sight; to which the white sow[795] gave its name--(an udder
that excited the astonishment of the gladdened Phrygians)--illustrious
from what had never been seen before, thirty paps. At length he enters
the moles,[796] built through the waters inclosed within them, and
the Pharos of Tuscany, and the arms extending back, which jut out
into the middle of the sea, and leave Italy far behind. You would not
bestow such admiration on the harbor which nature formed: but with
damaged bark, the master steers for the inner smooth waters of the safe
haven, which even a pinnace of Baiæ could cross; and there with shaven
crowns[797] the sailors, now relieved from anxiety, delight to recount
their perils that form the subject of their prating.
Go then, boys, favoring with tongues and minds,[798] and place garlands
in the temples, and meal on the sacrificial knives, and decorate the
soft hearths and green turf-altar. I will follow shortly, and the
sacrifice which is most important[799] having been duly performed, I
will then return home, where my little images, shining in frail wax,
shall receive their slender chaplets. Here I will propitiate[800] my
own Jove, and offer incense to my hereditary Lares,[801] and will
display all colors of the violet. All things are gay; my gateway has
set up long branches,[802] and celebrates the festivities[803] with
lamps lighted in the morning.
Nor let these things be suspected by you, Corvinus. Catullus, for
whose safe return I erect so many altars, has three little heirs. You
may wait long enough for a man that would expend even a sick hen at
the point of death for so unprofitable a friend. But even this is too
great an outlay. Not even a quail will ever be sacrificed in behalf
of one who is a father. If rich Gallita[804] and Paccius, who have no
children, begin to feel the approach of fever, every temple-porch is
covered with votive tablets,[805] affixed according to due custom.
There are some who would even promise a hecatomb[806] of oxen. Since
elephants are not to be bought here or in Latium, nor is there any
where in our climate such a large beast generated; but, fetched from
the dusky nation, they are fed in the Rutulian forests, and the
field of Turnus, as the herd of Cæsar, prepared to serve no private
individual, since their ancestors used to obey Tyrian Hannibal, and our
own generals,[807] and the Molossian king, and to bear on their backs
cohorts--no mean portion of the war--and a tower that went into battle.
It is no fault, consequently, of Novius, or of Ister Pacuvius,[808]
that that ivory is not led to the altars, and falls a sacred victim
before the Lares of Gallita, worthy of such great gods, and those that
court their favor! One of these two fellows, if you would give him
license to perform the sacrifice, would vow the tallest or all the
most beautiful persons among his flock of slaves, or place sacrificial
fillets on his boys and the brows of his female slaves. And if he has
any Iphigenia[809] at home of marriageable age, he will offer her at
the altars, though he can not hope for the furtive substitution of
the hind of the tragic poets. I commend my fellow-citizen, and do not
compare a thousand[810] ships to a will; for if the sick man shall
escape Libitina,[811] he will cancel his former will, entangled in the
meshes of the act,[812] after a service so truly wonderful: and perhaps
in one short line will give his all to Pacuvius as sole[813] heir.
Proudly will he strut over his defeated rivals. You see, therefore,
what a great recompense the slaughtered Mycenian maid earns.
Long live Pacuvius, I pray, even to the full age of Nestor.[814] Let
him own as much as ever Nero plundered,[815] let him pile his gold
mountains high, and let him love no one,[816] and be loved by none.
FOOTNOTES:
[772] _Natali._ The birthday was sacred to the "Genius" to whom
they offered wine, incense, and flowers: abstaining from "bloody"
sacrifices, "ne die quâ ipsi lucem accepissent aliis demerent," Hor.,
ii., Ep. 144. "Floribus et vino Genium memorem brevis avi," Pers.,
ii., 3. "Funde merum Genio," Censorin., de D. N., 3. Virg., Ecl. iii.,
76. Compare Hor., Od., IV., xi., where he celebrates the birthday of
Mæcenas as "sanctior pœne _natali proprio_." Cf. Dennis's Etruria, vol.
ii., p. 65.
[773] _Cæspes._ Hor., Od., III., viii., 3, "Positusque carbo in cæspite
vivo." Tac., Ann., i. 18.
[774] _Niveam._ A white victim was offered to the Dii Superi: a black
one to the Inferi. Cf. Virg., Æn., iv., 60," _Junoni_ ante omnes, Ipsa
tenens dextrâ pateram pulcherrima Dido _Candentis_ vaccæ media inter
cornua fundit." Tibull., I., ii., 61, "Concidit ad magicos hostia
_pulla_ deos." Hor., i., Sat. viii., 27," Pullam divellere mordicus
agnam."
[775] _Gorgone._ Cf. Vir., Æn., viii., 435, _seq._; ii., 616.
[776] _Extensum._ It was esteemed a very bad omen if the victim did not
go willingly to the sacrifice. It was always led, therefore, with a
long slack rope.
[777] _Matris._ Cf. Hor., iv., Od. ii., 54, "Me tener solvet vitulus,
relicta matre."
[778] _Nascenti._ Hor., iii., Od. xiii., 4, "Cui frons turgida cornibus
Primis et Venerem, et prælia destinat."
"He flies his mother's teat with playful scorn,
And butts the oak-trees with his growing horn." Hodgson.
[779] _Hispulla._ Cf. vi., 74, "Hispulla tragædo gaudet." (This was the
name of the aunt of Pliny the Younger's wife, iv., Ep. 19; viii., 11.)
"Huge as Hispulla: scarcely to be slain
But by the stoutest servant of the train." Badham.
[780] _Clitumnus_ was a small river in Umbria flowing into the Tinia,
now "Topino," near Mevania, now "Timia." The Tinia discharges itself
into the Tiber near Perusia. Pliny (viii., Ep. 8) gives a beautiful
description of its source, now called "La Vene," in a letter which
is, as Gifford says, a model of elegance and taste. Its waters were
supposed to give a milk-white color to the cattle who drank of them.
Virg., Georg., ii., 146, "Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus
victima." Propert., II., xix., 25, "Quà formosa suo Clitumnus flumina
luco Integit et niveos abluit unda boves." Sil., iv., 547, "Clitumnus
in arvis Candentes gelido perfundit flumine tauros." Claudian., vi.,
Cons. Hon., 506.
[781] _Ignis._ Grangæus interprets this of the meteoric fires seen in
the Mediterranean, which, when seen single, were supposed to be fatal.
Plin., ii., 37, "Graves cum solitarii venerunt mergentesque navigia, et
si in carinæ ima deciderint, exurentes." These fires, when _double_,
were hailed as a happy omen, as the stars of Castor and Pollux.
"Fratres Helenæ lucida sidera," Hor., I., Od. iii., 2; cf. xii., 27.
The French call it "Le feu St. Elme," said to be a corruption of
"Helena." The Italian sailors call them "St. Peter and St. Nicholas."
But these only appear at the _close_ of a storm. Cf. Hor., ii., _seq._,
and Blunt's Vestiges, p. 37.
[782] _Poetica tempestas._
"So loud the thunder, such the whirlwind's sweep,
As when the poet lashes up the deep." Hodgson.
[783] _Pictores._ So Hor., i., Od. v., 13, "Me tabulâ sacer votivâ
paries indicat noida suspendisse potenti vestimenta maris Deo." It
seems to have been the custom for persons in peril of shipwreck not
only to vow pictures of their perilous condition to some deity in
case they escaped, but also to have a painting of it made to carry
about with them to excite commiseration as they begged. Cf. xiv., 302,
"Naufragus assem dum rogat et pictâ se tempestate tuetur." Pers.,
i., 89, "Quum fractâ te in trabe pictum ex humero portes." VI., 32,
"Largire inopi, ne pictus oberret cæruleâ in tabulâ." Hor., A. P., 20,
"Fractis enatat exspes navibus, ære dato qui pingitur." Phæd., IV.,
xxi., 24. Some think that _this_ picture was _afterward_ dedicated, but
this is an error.
[784] _Castora._ Ov., Nux., 165, "Sic ubi detracta est a te tibi causa
pericli Quod superest tutum, Pontice Castor, habes!" This story of
the beaver is told Plin., viii., 30; xxxvii., 6, and is repeated by
Silius, in a passage copied from Ovid and Juvenal. "Fluminei veluti
deprensus gurgitis undis, Avulsâ parte _inguinibus causâque pericli_,
Enatat intento prædæ fiber avius hoste," xv., 485. But it is an error.
The sebaceous matter called castoreum (Pers., v., 135), is secreted by
two glands near the root of the tail. (Vid. Martyn's Georgics, i., 59,
"Virosaque Pontus Castorea," and Browne's Vulgar Errors, lib. iii., 4.)
Pliny, viii., 3, tells a similar story of the elephant, "Circumventi a
venantibus dentes impactos arbori frangunt, _prædâque se redimunt_."
[785] _Bæticus._ The province of Bætica (Andalusia) takes its name from
the Bætis, or "Guadalquivir," the waters of which were said to give a
ruddy golden tinge to the fleeces of the sheep that drank it. Martial
alludes to it repeatedly. "Non est lana mihi mendax, nec mutor aëno. Si
placeant Tyriæ me mea tinxit ovis," xiv., Ep. 133. Cf. v., 37; viii.,
28. "Vellera nativo pallent ubi flava metallo," ix., 62. "Aurea qui
nitidis vellera tingis aquis," xii., 99.
"Away went garments of that innate stain
That wool imbibes on Guadalquiver's plain,
From native herbs and babbling fountains nigh,
To aid the powers of Andalusia's sky." Badham.
[786] _Urnæ._ Vid. ad vi., 426. Pholus was one of the Centaurs. Virg.,
Georg., ii., 455. Cf. Stat., Thebaid., ii., 564, _seq._, "Qualis in
adversos Lapithas erexit inanem Magnanimus cratera Pholus," etc.
[787] _Conjuge Fusci._ Vid. ad ix., 117.
[788] _Bascaudas._ The Celtic word "Basgawd" is said to be the root of
the English word "basket." Vid. Latham's English language, p. 98. These
were probably vessels surrounded with basket or rush work. Mart., xiv.,
Ep. 99. "Barbara de pictis veni bascauda Britannis; sed me jam mavolt
dicere Roma suam."
[789] _Olynthi._ Philip of Macedon bribed Lasthenes and Eurycrates to
betray Olynthus to him. Pliny (xxxiii., 5) says he used to sleep with a
gold cup under his pillow. Once, when told that the route to a castle
he was going to attack was impracticable, he asked whether "an ass
laden with gold could not possibly reach it." Plut., Apophth., ii., p.
178.
"A store
Of precious cups, high chased in golden ore;
Cups that adorn'd the crafty Philip's state,
And bought his entrance at th' Olynthian gate." Hodgson.
[790] _Digitis._ Cf. xiv, 289, "Tabulâ distinguitur undâ." Ovid. Amor.
ii. xi. 25, "Navita sollicitus qua ventos horret iniquos; Et prope tam
letum quam prope cernit aquam."
"Trust to a little plank 'twixt death and thee,
And by four inches 'scape eternity." Hodgson.
[791] _Ventre-lagenæ._ "A gorbellied flagon." Shakspeare.
[792] _Secures._
"His biscuit and his bread the sailor brings
On board: 'tis well. But hatchets are the things." Badh.
[793] _Staminis albi._ The "white" or "black" threads of the Parcæ
were supposed to symbolize the good or bad fortune of the mortal whose
yarn Clotho was spinning. Mart. iv. Ep. 73, "Ultima volventes oraba
pensa sorores, Ut traherent parva stamina pulla morâ." VI. Ep. 58, "Si
mihi lanificæ ducunt non pulla sorores Stamina." Hor. ii. Od. iii. 16,
"Sororum fila trium patiuntur atra."
[794] _Prælata Lavino._ Virg. Æn. i. 267, seq. Liv. i. 1, 3. Tibull.
II. v. 49.
[795] _Scrofa._ Virg. Æn. iii. 390, "Littoreis ingens inventa sub
ilicibus sus, Triginta capitum fœtus enixa jacebit, Alba solo recubans,
albi circum ubera nati. Is locus urbis erit, requies ea certa
laborum,"--and viii., 43.
[796] _Moles._ This massive work was designed and begun by Julius
Cæsar, executed by Claudius, and repaired by Trajan. It is said to have
employed thirty thousand men for eleven years. Suetonius thus describes
it (Claud., c. 20): "Portum Ostiæ exstruxit circumducto dextrâ
sinistrâque brachis, et ad introitum profundo jam solo mole objectâ,
quam quò stabilius fundaret, navem ante demersit, quâ magnus obeliscus,
ex Ægypto fuerat advectus; congestisque pilis superposuit altissimam
turrim in exemplum Alexandrini Phari, ut ad nocturnos ignes cursum
navigia dirigerent." (Cf. vi., 83. The Pharos of Alexandria was built
by Sostratus, and accounted one of the seven wonders of the world.)
"Enter the moles, that running out so wide
Clasp in their giant arms the billowy tide,
That leave afar diminishing the land,
More wondrous than the works of nature's hand." Hodgson.
[797] _Vertice raso._ It was the custom in storms at sea to vow the
hair to some god, generally Neptune: and hence slaves, when manumitted,
shaved their heads, "quod tempestatem servitutis videbantur effugere,
ut naufragis liberati solent." Cf. Pers., iii., 106, "Hesterni capite
inducto subiere Quirites." Hodgson has an excellent note on the
"mystical attributes" of hair.
[798] _Linguis animisque faventes._ Cic., de Div., i., 102, "Omnibus
rebus agendis, Quod bonum, faustum, felix, fortunatumque esset,
præfabantur: rebusque divinis, quæ publicè fierent, ut faverent
linguis imperabant: inque feriis imperandis ut litibus et jurgiis se
abstinerent." Cf. Hor., iii., Od. i., 2, "Favete linguis." Virg., Æn.,
v., 71, "Ore favete omnes." Hor., Od., III., xiv., 11; Tibull., II.,
ii., 2, "Quisquis ades linguâ, vir, mulierque fave." So εὐφημεῖν; cf.
Eurip., Hec., 528, _seq._
[799] _Sacro quod præstat_; i. e., the sacrifices mentioned in the
beginning of the Satire, viz., to Juno, Pallas, and Tarpeian Jove, and
therefore more important than those to the Lares.
[800] _Placabo._ Cf. Hor., i., Od. 36, 1. Orell.
[801] _Nostrum_, i. e., his own Lar familiaris. Cf. ix., 137, "O Parvi
nostrique Lares." For the worship of these Lares, Junones, and Genius,
see Dennis's Etruria, vol. i., p. lv.
[802] _Erexit janua ramos._ Cf. ad ix., 85.
[803] _Operatur festa._ Perhaps read with Lipsius, "operitur festa,"
"in festive-guise is covered with." Virgil, however, uses "operatus"
similarly. Georg., i., 339, "Sacra refer Cereri lætis operatus in
herbis." Cf. ad ix., 117.
"All savors here of joy: luxuriant bay
O'ershades my portal, while the taper's ray
Anticipates the feast and chides the tardy day." Gifford.
[804] _Gallita._ Tacitus (Hist., i., 73) speaks of a Gallita
Crispilina, or, as some read, Calvia Crispinilla, as a "magistra
libidinum Neronis," and as "potens _pecuniâ et orbitate_, quæ bonis
malisque temporibus juxtà valent." Paccius Africanus is mentioned also
Hist., iv., 41.
[805] _Tabellis._ Cf. ad x., 55, "Propter quæ fas est genua incerare
deorum."
[806] _Hecatomben._ The hecatomb properly consisted of oxen, 100
being sacrificed simultaneously on 100 different altars. But sheep
or other victims were also offered. The poor sometimes vowed an ὠῶν
ἑκατόμβη. Emperors are said to have sacrificed 100 lions or eagles.
Suetonius says, that above 160,000 victims were slaughtered in honor of
Caligula's entering the city. Calig., c. 14.
[807] _Nostris ducibus._ Curius Dentatus was the first to lead
elephants in triumph. Metellus, after his victory over Asdrubal,
exhibited two hundred and four. Plin., viii., 6. L. Scipio,
father-in-law to Pompey, employed thirty in battle against Cæsar. The
Romans first saw elephants in the Tarentine war, against Pyrrhus; and
as they were first encountered in Lucania, they gave the elephant the
name of "Bos Lucas." So Hannibal. See x., 158, "Gætula ducem portaret
bellua luscum."
[808] _Ister Pacuvius._ Cf. ii., 58.
[809] _Iphigenia._ Cf. Æsch., Ag., 39, seq., and the exquisite lines
in Lucretius, i., 85-102; but Juvenal seems to have had Ovid's lines
in his head, Met., xii., 28, _seq._, "Postquam pietatem publica causa,
Rexque patrem vicit, castumque datura cruorem Flentibus ante aram
stetit Iphigenia ministris: Victa dea est, nubemque oculis objecit, et
inter Officium turbamque sacri, vocesque precantum, Supposita fertur
mutâsse _Mycenida cervâ_."
[810] _Mille._ στόλον Ἀργείων χιλιοναύτην. Æsch., Ag., 44.
[811] _Libitinam._ Properly an epithet of Venus (the goddess who
presides over _deaths_ as well as births), in whose temple all things
belonging to funerals were sold. Cf. Plut., Qu. Rom., 23. Servius
Tullius enacted that a sestertius should be deposited in the temple
of Venus Libitina for every person that died, in order to ascertain
the number of deaths. Dion. Halic., iv., 79. Cf. Liv., xl., 19; xli.,
21. Suet., Ner., 39, "triginta funerum millia in rationem Libitinæ
venerunt." Hor., iii., Od. xxx., 6; ii., Sat. vi., 19.
[812] _Nassa_ is properly an "osier weel," κύρτη for catching fish.
Plin., xxi., 18, 59.
[813] _Solo._ Cf. i., 68, "Exiguis tabulis;" ii., 58, "Solo tabulas
impleverit Hister Liberto;" vi., 601, "Impleret tabulas."
"What are a thousand vessels to a will!
Yes! every blank Pacuvius' name shall fill." Hodgson.
[814] _Nestora._ Cf. Hom., Il., i., 250; Od., iii., 245. Mart., vi.,
Ep. lxx., 12, "Ætatem Priami Nestorisque." X., xxiv., 11. Cf. ad x.,
246.
[815] _Rapuit Nero._ Vid. Tac., Ann., xv., 42, Brotier's note.
Suetonius (Nero, c. 32), after many instances of his rapacity, subjoins
the following: "Nulli delegavit officium ut non adjiceret Scis quid
mihi opus sit:" et "Hoc agamus ne quis quidquam habeat." "Ultimot
emplis compluribus dona detraxit."
[816] _Nec amet._
"Nor ever be, nor ever find, a friend!" Dryden.
SATIRE XIII.
Every act that is perpetrated, that will furnish a precedent for crime,
is loathsome[817] even to the author himself. This is the punishment
that first lights upon him, that by the verdict[818] of his own breast
no guilty man is acquitted; though the corrupt influence of the prætor
may have made his cause prevail, by the urn[819] being tampered with.
What think you, Calvinus,[820] is the opinion of all men touching the
recent villainy, and the charge you bring of breach of trust? But it is
your good fortune not to have so slender an income, that the weight of
a trifling loss can plunge you into ruin; nor is what you are suffering
from an unfrequent occurrence. This is a case well known to many--worn
threadbare--drawn from the middle of fortune's heap.[821]
Let us, then, lay aside all excessive complaints. A _man's_ grief
ought not to blaze forth beyond the proper bounds, nor exceed the
loss sustained. Whereas _you_ can scarcely bear even the very least
diminutive particle of misfortune, however trifling, boiling with rage
in your very bowels because your friend does not restore to you the
deposit he swore to return. Can _he_ be amazed at this, that has left
threescore years behind him, born when Fonteius was consul?[822] Have
you gained[823] nothing by such long experience of the world? Noble
indeed are the precepts which philosophy, that triumphs over fortune,
lays down in her books of sacred wisdom. Yet we deem those happy too
who, with daily life[824] for their instructress, have learned to
endure with patience the inconveniences of life, and not shake off the
yoke.[825]
What day is there so holy that is not profaned by bringing to light
theft, treachery, fraud--filthy lucre got by crime of every dye, and
money won by stabbing or by poison?[826] Since rare indeed are the
good! their number is scarce so many as the gates of Thebes,[827] or
the mouths of fertilizing Nile. We are now passing through the ninth
age of the world: an era far worse than the days of Iron; for whose
villainy not even Nature herself can find a name, and has no metal[828]
base enough to call it by. Yet we call heaven and earth to witness,
with a shout as loud as that with which the Sportula,[829] that gives
them tongues, makes his clients applaud Fæsidius as he pleads. Tell
me, thou man of many years, and yet more fit to bear the boss[830]
of childhood, dost thou not know the charms that belong to another's
money? Knowest thou not what a laugh thy simplicity would raise in the
common herd, for expecting that no man should forswear himself, but
should believe some deity is[831] really present in the temples and
at the altars red with blood? In days of old the aborigines perhaps
used to live after this fashion: before Saturn in his flight laid
down his diadem, and adopted the rustic sickle: in the days when Juno
was a little maid; and Jupiter as yet in a private[832] station in
the caves of Ida: no banquetings of the celestials above the clouds,
no Trojan boy or beauteous wife of Hercules as cup-bearer; or Vulcan
(but not till he had drained the nectar) wiping[833] his arms begrimed
with his forge in Lipara. Then each godship dined alone; nor was the
crowd of deities so great[834] as it is now-a-days: and the heavens,
content with a few divinities, pressed on the wretched Atlas with less
grievous weight. No one had as yet received as his share the gloomy
empire of the deep: nor was there the grim[835] Pluto with his Sicilian
bride, nor Ixion's wheel, nor the Furies, nor Sisyphus' stone, nor the
punishment of the black vulture,[836] but the shades passed jocund days
with no infernal king.
In that age villainy was a prodigy! They used to hold it as a heinous
sin, that naught but death could expiate, if a young man had not risen
up to pay honor to an old one,[837] or a boy to one whose beard was
grown; even though he himself gloated over more strawberries at home,
or a bigger pile of acorns.[838]
So just a claim to deference had even four years' priority; so much
on a par with venerated old age was the first dawn of youth! Now, if
a friend should not deny the deposit[839] intrusted to him, if he
should give back the old leathern purse with all its rusty[840] coin
untouched, it is a prodigy of honesty, equivalent to a miracle,[841]
fit to be entered among the marvels in the Tuscan records,[842] and
that ought to be expiated by a lamb crowned for sacrifice.[843] If I
see a man above the common herd, of real probity, I look upon him as
a prodigy equal to a child born half man, half brute;[844] or a shoal
of fish turned up by the astonished[845] plow; or a mule[846] with
foal! in trepidation as great as though the storm-cloud had rained
stones;[847] or a swarm of bees[848] had settled in long cluster from
some temple's top; as though a river had flowed into the ocean with
unnatural eddies,[849] and rushing impetuous with a stream of milk.
Do you complain of being defrauded of _ten_ sestertia by impious
fraud? What if another has lost in the same way two hundred, deposited
without a witness![850] and a third a still larger sum than that, such
as the corner of his capacious strong-box could hardly contain! So
easy and so natural is it to despise the gods above,[851] that witness
all, if no mortal man attest the same! See with how bold a voice he
denies it! What unshaken firmness in the face he puts on! He swears by
the sun's rays, by the thunderbolts of Tarpeian Jove, the glaive of
Mars, the darts of the prophet-god of Cirrha,[852] by the arrows and
quiver of the Virgin Huntress, and by thy trident, O Neptune, father
of the Ægæan! He adds the bow of Hercules, Minerva's spear, and all
the weapons that the arsenals of heaven hold.[853] But if he be a
father also, he says, "I am ready to eat my wretched son's head boiled,
swimming in vinegar from Pharos."[854]
There are some who refer all things to the accidents of fortune,[855]
and believe the universe moves on with none to guide its course;
while nature brings round the revolutions of days and years. And
therefore, without a tremor, are ready to lay their hands[856] on any
altar. Another does indeed dread that punishment will follow crime;
he thinks the gods _do_ exist. Still he perjures himself, and reasons
thus with himself: "Let Isis[857] pass whatever sentence she pleases
upon my body, and strike my eyes with her angry Sistrum, provided only
that when blind I may retain the money I disown. Are consumption,
or ulcerous sores, or a leg shriveled to half its bulk, such mighty
matters? If Ladas[858] be poor, let him not hesitate to wish for gout
that waits on wealth, if he is not mad enough to require Anticyra[859]
or Archigenes.[860] For what avails the honor of his nimble feet, or
the hungry branch of Pisa's olive? All-powerful though it be, that
anger of the gods, yet surely it is slow-paced! If, therefore, they
set themselves to punish all the guilty, when will they come to me?
Besides, I may perchance discover that the deity may be appeased by
prayers! "It is not unusual with him to pardon[861] such perjuries as
these. Many commit the same crimes with results widely different. One
man receives crucifixion[862] as the reward of his villainy; another, a
regal crown!"
Thus they harden their minds, agitated by terror inspired by some
heinous crime. Then, when you summon him to swear on the sacred
shrine, he will go first![863] Nay, he is quite ready to drag you
there himself, and worry you to put him to this test. For when a
wicked cause is backed by impudence, it is believed by many to be the
confidence[864] of innocence. He acts as good a farce as the runaway
slave, the buffoon in Catullus'[865] Vision! You, poor wretch, cry out
so as to exceed Stentor,[866] or, rather, as loudly as Gradivus[867]
in Homer: "Hearest thou[868] this, great Jove, and openest not thy
lips, when thou oughtest surely to give vent to some word, even though
formed of marble or of brass? Or, why then do we place on thy glowing
altar the pious[869] frankincense from the wrapper undone, and the
liver of a calf cut up, and the white caul of a hog?[870] As far as
I see, there is no difference to be made between your image and the
statue of Vagellius!"[871]
Now listen to what consolation on the other hand he can offer, who
has neither studied the Cynics, nor the doctrines of the Stoics, that
differ from the Cynics only by a tunic,[872] and pays no veneration to
Epicurus,[873] that delighted in the plants of his diminutive garden.
Let patients whose cases are desperate be tended by more skillful
physicians; you may trust _your_ vein even to Philippus' apprentice.
If you can show me no act so heinous in the whole wide world, then, I
hold my tongue; nor forbid you to beat your breast with your fists, nor
thump your face with open palm. For, since you really _have_ sustained
loss, your doors must be closed; and money is bewailed with louder
lamentations from the household, and with greater tumult,[874] than
deaths. No one, in such a case, counterfeits sorrow; or is content with
merely stripping[875] down the top of his garment, and vexing his eyes
for forced rheum.[876] The loss of money is deplored with genuine tears.
But if you see all the courts filled with similar complaints, if, after
the deeds have been read ten times over, and each time in a different
quarter,[877] though their own handwriting,[878] and their principal
signet-ring,[879] that is kept so carefully in its ivory casket,
convicts them, they call the signature a forgery and the deed not
valid; do you think that you, my fine fellow, are to be placed without
the common pale? What makes _you_ the chick of a white hen, while we
are a worthless brood, hatched from unlucky eggs? What you suffer is
a trifle; a thing to be endured with moderate choler, if you but turn
your eyes to crimes of blacker dye. Compare with it the hired assassin,
fires that originate from the sulphur of incendiaries,[880] when
your _outer_ gate is the first part that catches fire. Compare those
who carry off the ancient temple's massive cups,[881] incrusted with
venerable rust--the gifts of nations; or, crowns[882] deposited there
by some king of ancient days. If these are not to be had, there comes
some sacrilegious wretch that strikes at meaner prey; who will scrape
the thigh of Hercules incased in gold, and Neptune's face itself, and
strip off from Castor his leaf-gold. Will he, forsooth, hesitate, that
is wont to melt down whole the Thunderer[883] himself? Compare, too,
the compounders and venders of poisons;[884] or him that ought to be
launched into the sea in an ox's hide,[885] with whom the ape,[886]
herself innocent, is shut up, through her unlucky stars. How small a
portion is this of the crimes which Gallicus,[887] the city's guardian,
listens to from break of day to the setting of the sun! Would you study
the morals of the human race, one house is quite enough. Spend but a
few days there, and when you come out thence, call yourself, if you
dare, a miserable man!
Who is astonished at a goitred throat[888] on the Alps? or who, in
Meroë,[889] at the mother's breast bigger than her chubby infant? Who
is amazed at the German's[890] fierce gray eyes, or his flaxen hair
with moistened ringlets twisted into horns? Simply because, in these
cases, one and all are alike by nature.
The pigmy[891] warrior in his puny panoply charges the swooping birds
of Thrace, and the cloud that resounds with the clang of cranes. Soon,
no match for his foe, he is snatched away by the curved talons, and
borne off through the sky by the fierce crane. If you were to see this
in our country, you would be convulsed with laughter: but there, though
battles of this kind are sights of every day, no one even smiles, where
the whole regiment is not more than a foot high.
"And is there, then, to be no punishment at all for this perjured
wretch and his atrocious villainy?"
Well, suppose him hurried away at once, loaded with double irons, and
put to death in any way our wrath dictates (and what could revenge wish
for more?) still your loss remains the same, your deposit will not be
refunded! "But the least drop of blood from his mangled body will give
me a consolation that might well be envied. Revenge is a blessing,
sweeter than life itself!" Yes! so fools think, whose breasts you may
see burning with anger for trivial causes, sometimes for none at all.
How small soever the occasion be, it is matter enough for their wrath.
Chrysippus[892] will not hold the same language, nor the gentle spirit
of Thales, or that old man that lived by sweet Hymettus'[893] hill,
who, even amid those cruel bonds, would not have given his accuser one
drop of the hemlock[894] he received at his hands!
Philosophy, blessed[895] power! strips us by degrees of full many a
vice and every error! She is the first to teach us what is right.
Since revenge is ever the pleasure of a paltry spirit, a weak and
abject mind! Draw this conclusion _at once_ from the fact, that no one
delights in revenge more than a woman!
Yet, why should you deem those to have escaped scot-free whom their
mind,[896] laden with a sense of guilt, keeps in constant terror,
and lashes with a viewless thong! Conscience, as their tormentor,
brandishing a scourge unseen by human eyes! Nay! awful indeed is their
punishment, and far more terrible even than those which the sanguinary
Cæditius[897] invents, or Rhadamanthus! in bearing night and day in
one's own breast a witness against one's self.
The Pythian priestess gave answer to a certain Spartan,[898] that
in time to come he should not go unpunished, because he hesitated as
to retaining a deposit, and supporting his villainy by an oath. For
he inquired what was the opinion of the deity, and whether Apollo
counseled him to the act.
He did restore it therefore; but through fear,[899] not from
principle. And yet he proved that every word that issued from the
shrine was worthy of the temple, and but too true: being exterminated
together with all his progeny and house, and, though derived from a
wide-spreading clan, with all his kin! Such is the penalty which the
mere wish to sin incurs. For he that meditates within his breast a
crime that finds not even vent in words,[900] has all the guilt of the
act!
What then if he has achieved his purpose? A respiteless anxiety is his:
that ceases not, even at his hours of meals: while his jaws are parched
as though with fever, and the food he loathes swells[901] between
his teeth. All wines[902] the miserable wretch spits out; old Alban
wine,[903] of high-prized antiquity, disgusts him. Set better before
him! and thickly-crowding wrinkles furrow his brow, as though called
forth by sour[904] Falernian. At night, if anxious care has granted
him perchance a slumber however brief, and his limbs, that have been
tossing[905] over the whole bed, at length are at rest, immediately he
sees in dreams the temple and the altar of the deity he has insulted;
and, what weighs upon his soul with especial terrors,[906] he sees
thee! Thy awful[907] form, of more[908] than human bulk, confounds the
trembling wretch, and wrings confession[909] from him.
These are the men that tremble and grow pale at every lightning-flash;
and, when it thunders,[910] are half dead with terror at the very first
rumbling[911] of heaven; as though not by mere chance, or by the raging
violence of winds, but in wrath and vengeance the fire-bolt lights[912]
upon the earth![913] That last storm wrought no ill! Therefore the next
is feared with heavier presage, as though but deferred by the brief
respite of this calm.
Moreover, if they begin to suffer pain in the side, with wakeful
fever, they believe the disease is sent to their bodies from the deity,
in vengeance. These they hold to be the stones and javelins of the gods!
They dare not vow the bleating sheep to the shrine, or promise even
a cock's[914] comb to their Lares. For what hope is vouchsafed to
the guilty sick?[915] or what victim is not more worthy of life? The
character of bad men is for the most part fickle and variable.[916]
While they are engaged in the guilty act they have resolution enough,
and to spare. When their foul deeds are perpetrated, then at length
they begin to feel what is right and wrong.
Yet Nature[917] ever reverts to her depraved courses, fixed and
immutable. For who ever prescribed to himself a limit to his sins? or
ever recovered the blush[918] of ingenuous shame once banished from his
brow now hardened? What mortal man is there whom you ever saw contented
with a single crime? This false friend of ours will get his foot
entangled in the noose, and endure the hook of the gloomy dungeon; or
some crag[919] in the Ægean Sea, or the rocks that swarm with exiles of
rank. You will exult in the bitter punishment of the hated name; and at
length with joy confess[920] that no one of the gods is either deaf or
a Tiresias.[921]
FOOTNOTES:
[817] _Displicet._
"To none their crime the wished-for pleasure yields:
'Tis the first scourge that angry justice wields." Badham.
[818] _Ultio._
"Avenging conscience first the sword shall draw,
And self-conviction baffle quibbling law." Hodgson.
[819] _Urna._ From the "Judices Selecti" (a kind of jurymen chosen
annually for the purpose), the Prætor Urbanus, who sat as chief judge,
chose by lot about fifty to act as his assessors. To each of these were
given three tablets: one inscribed with the letter A. for "absolvo,"
one with the letter C. for "condemno," and the third with the letters
N. L. for "non liquet," i. e., "not proven." After the case had been
heard and the judices had consulted together privately, they returned
into court, and each judex dropped one of these tablets into an urn
provided for the purpose, which was afterward brought to the prætor,
who counted the number and gave sentence according to the majority of
votes. In all these various steps, there was plenty of opportunity for
the "gratia" of a corrupt prætor to influence the "fallax urna."
[820] _Calvinus._ Martial mentions an indifferent poet of the name of
Calvinus Umber, vii., Ep. 90.
[821] _Acervo._
"One that from casual heaps without design
Fortune drew forth, and bade the lot be thine." Badh.
[822] _Fonteio consule._ Clinton (F. R., A.D. 118) considers that the
consulship meant is that of L. Fonteius Capito, A.D. 59, which would
bring the reference in this Satire to A.D. 119, the third year of
Hadrian. There was also a Fonteius Capito consul with Junius Rufus,
A.D. 67, and another, A.D. 11. «The Fonteius Capito mentioned Hor., i.,
Sat. v., 32, is of course far too early.»
[823] _Proficis._
"Say, hast thou naught imbibed, no maxims sage,
From the long use of profitable age?" Hodgson.
[824] _Vitæ._ So Milton.
"To know
That which before us lies _in daily life_,
Is the prime wisdom."
[825] _Jactare jugum._ A metaphor from restive oxen. Cf. vi., 208,
"Summitte caput cervice paratâ Ferre jugum." Æsch., Persæ, 190, _seq._
"And happy those whom life itself can train
To bear with dignity life's various pain." Badham.
[826] _Pyxide._ Properly a coffer or casket of "box-wood," πυξίς.
Cf. Sat. ii., 141, "Conditâ pyxide Lyde." Suet., Ner., 47, "Veneno a
Locustâ sumpto, et in auream pyxidem condito."
[827] _Thebarum._ Egyptian Thebes had one hundred gates; hence
ἑκατόμπυλοι. Cadmeian Thebes had seven. Vid. Hom., Il., Δ., 406. Æsch.,
S. Th., ἑπτάπυλος Θήβη. The latter is meant. The mouths of the Nile
being also seven, viz., Canopic, Bolbitine, Sebennytic, Phatnitic,
Mendesian, Tanitic, and Pelusiac. Hence Virg., Æn., vi., 801, "Septem
gemini trepida ostia Nili." Ov., Met., v., 187, "Septemplice Nilo."
xv., 753, "Perque papyriferi septemflua flumina Nili."
[828] _Metallo._
"That baffled Nature knows not how to frame
A metal base enough to give the age a name." Dryden.
[829] _Sportula._ Vid. ad i., 118. Cf. x., 46, "Defossa in loculis quos
sportula fecit amicos." Mart., vi., Ep. 48. Hor., i., Epist. xix., 37.
Plin., ii., Ep. 14, "Laudicæni sequuntur: In media Basilicâ sportulæ
dantur palam ut in triclinio: tanti constat ut sis disertissimus: hoc
pretio subsellia implentur, hoc infiniti clamores commoventur."
[830] _Bullâ._ Cf. v., 165, seq.; xiv., 5. Pers., v., 31, "Bullaque
succinctis Laribus donata pependit." Plut. in Quæst. Rom., γέρων τις
ἐπὶ χλευασμῷ προάγεται παιδικὸν ἐναψάμενος περιδέραιον ὃ καλοῦσι
βοῦλλαν.
"O man of many years, that still should'st wear
The trinket round the neck thy childhood bare!" Badham.
[831] _Esse._ Cf. ii., 149, seq., "Esse aliquos Manes et subterranea
regna, ... Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum ære lavantur." Cf. Ov.,
Amor., III., iii., 1.
[832] _Privatus._ This is commonly rendered by "concealed,
sequestered," alluding to Jupiter's being hidden by his mother Rhea to
save him from "Saturn's maw." But it surely means before he succeeded
his father as king, and this is the invariable sense of "privatus" in
Juvenal. Cf. i., 16, "Privatus ut altum dormiret." iv., 65, "Accipe
Privatis majora focis." vi., 114, "Quid privata domus, quid fecerit
Hippia, curas." xii., 107, "Cæsaris armentum, nulli servire paratum
Privato."
[833] _Tergens._ This appears to be the best and simplest
interpretation of this "much-vexed" passage, and is the sense in which
Lucian (frequently the best commentator on Juvenal) takes it. Vid.
Deor., Dial. v., 4.
[834] _Talis._ More properly, "composed of _such_ divinities." The
allusion being in all probability to the now frequent apotheosis of the
most worthless and despicable of the emperors.
[835] _Torvus._ The Homeric ἀμείλιχος. Cf. Hom., Il., i., 158, Ἀΐδης
ἀμείλιχος, ἠδ' ἀδάμαστος Τοὔνεκα καὶ τε βροτοῖσι θεῶν ἔχθιστος ἁπάντων.
[836] _Vulturis atri._ Cf. Æschylus, Pr. V., 1020. Virg., Æn., vi.,
595, "Rostroque immanis vultur obunco, Immortale jecur tondens,
fœcundaque pœnis viscera, rimaturque epulis habitatque sub alto
pectore, nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis."
"Wheels, furies, vultures, quite unheard of things,
And the gay ghosts were strangers yet to kings!" Badham.
[837] _Vetulo._ Cf. Ov., Fast., v., 57, _seq._, which passage Juvenal
seems to have had in his mind.
[838] _Glandis._ Cf. Sat. vi., init.
[839] _Depositum._ Terent., Phorm., I., ii., 5, "Præsertim ut nunc sunt
mores: adeo res redit; Si quis quid reddit, magna habenda 'st gratia."
[840] _Ærugo_, the rust of _brass_; robigo, of _iron_; but, l. 148,
used for the oxydizing of gold or silver. _Follis_, cf. xiv., 281.
[841] _Prodigiosa_, ii., 103.
[842] _Tuscis libellis._ Vid. Dennis' Etruria, vol. i., p. lvii.
The marvelous events of the year were registered by the Etruscan
soothsayers in their records, that, if they portended the displeasure
of the gods, they might be duly expiated. Various names are given by
ancient writers to these sacred or ritual books: Libri Etrusci; Chartæ
Etruscæ; Scripta Etrusca; Etruscæ disciplinæ libri; libri fatales,
rituales, haruspicini, fulgurales; libri Tagetici; sacra Tagetica;
sacra Acherontica; libri Acherontici. The author of these works on
Etruscan discipline was supposed to be Tages; and the names of some
writers on the same subject are given, probably commentators on Tages,
e. g., Tarquitius, Cæcina, Aquila, Labeo, Begoë. _Umbricius._ Cf. Cic.,
de Div., i., 12, 13, 44; ii., 23. Liv., v., 15. Macrob., Saturn., iii.,
7; v., 19. Serv. ad Virg., Æn., i., 42; iii., 537; viii., 398. Plin.,
ii., 85. Festus, _s. v._ Rituales.
[843] _Sanctum._ Cf. iii., 137; viii., 24.
[844] _Bimembri_, or "with double limbs." All these prodigies are
common enough in Livy.
[845] _Miranti_ is quite Juvenalian, and better than the common reading
"Mirandis," or the suggestion "liranti."
[846] _Mulæ._ Cf. Cic., de Div., ii., 28, "Si quod rarò fit, id
portentum putandum est sapientem esse portentum est; sæpius enim _mulam
peperisse_ arbitror, quam sapientem fuisse."
[847] _Lapides._ Cf. Liv., xxxix., 37. This prodigy was one of the
causes of consulting the sacred books, which led to the introduction
of the worship of Bona Dea to Rome. Cf. ad ix., 37. Liv., xxii., 1,
"Præneste ardentes lapides cœlo cecidisse."
[848] _Apium._ Cf. Liv., xxiv., 10. Tac., Ann., xii., 64, "Fastigio
Capitolii examen apium insedit: biformes hominem partus." Plin., xi.,
17.
[849] _Gurgitibus._ Liv., xix., 44, "Flumen Amiterni cruentum
fluxisse." Virg., Georg., i., 485, "Aut puteis manare cruor cessavit."
[850] _Arcana._ "Fidei alterius tacitè commissa sine ullis testibus."
Lubin. Another interpretation is, "that, having lost it, he held his
tongue, and complained to no one."
[851] _Superos._
"Those conscious powers we can with ease contemn,
If, hid from men, we trust our crimes with them." Dryden.
[852] _Cirrhæi_, from Cirrha in Phocis, near the foot of Mount
Parnassus, the port of Delphi. Cf. vii., 64, "Dominis Cirrhæ Nysæque
feruntur Pectora."
[853] _Spicula_; probably from Tibull., I., iv., 21.
"Nec jurare time. Veneris perjuria venti
Irrita per terras et freta summa ferunt.
Perque suas impune sinit Dictynna sagittas
Affirmes, crines perque Minerva suos."
[854] _Phario._ The vinegar of Egypt was more celebrated than its wine.
Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 122. Ath., ii., 26.
[855] _Fortunæ._ See this idea beautifully carried out in Claudian's
invective against Rufinus, lib. i., 1-24. Such was Horace's religion.
"Credat Judæus Apella, Non ego: namque deos didici securum agere ævum;
nec si quid miri faciat Natura deos id tristes ex alto cœli demittere
tecto." I., Sat. v., 100. Not so Cicero. "Intelligamus _nihil_ horum
_esse fortuitum_." De Nat. Deor., ii., 128.
[856] _Tangunt._ Cf. xiv., 218, "Vendet perjuria summâ exiguâ et
Cereris tangens aramq. pedemq."
[857] _Isis._ Cf. vi., 526. Lucan., viii., 831, "Nos in templa tuam
Romana accepimus Isim Semideosque canes, et sistra jubentia luctus et
quem tu plangens hominem testaris Osirin." Blindness, the most common
of Egyptian diseases, was supposed to be the peculiar infliction of
Isis. Cf. Ovid, ex Pont., i., 51, "Vidi ego linigeræ numen violasse
fatentem Isidis Isiacos ante sedere focos. Alter ob huic similem
privatus lumine culpam, clamabat mediâ se meruisse viâ." Pers., v.,
186, "Tunc grandes Galli et cum sistro lusca sacerdos." Sistrum a σείω.
[858] _Ladas._ A famous runner at Olympia, in the days of Alexander
the Great. Cf. Mart., x., Ep. 100, "Habeas licebit alterum pedem Ladæ,
Inepte, frustrà crure ligneo curres;" and ii., 86. Catull., iv., 24,
"Non si Pegaseo ferar volatu, Non Ladas si ego, pennipesve Perseus."
[859] _Anticyrcâ_, in Phocis, famous for hellebore, supposed to be
of great efficacy in cases of insanity: hence Hor., ii., Sat. iii.,
83, "Nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem." 166, "naviget
Anticyram." Pers., iv., 16, "Anticyras melior sorbere meracas." Its
Greek name is Ἀντίκιῤῥα. Strabo, ix., 3. The quantity therefore in
Latin follows the Greek accent. The Phocian Anticyra produced the best
hellebore; but it was also found at Anticyra on the Maliac Gulf, near
Œta. Some think there was a third town of the same name. Hence "Tribus
Anticyris caput insanabile," Hor., A. P., 300.
[860] _Archigene._ Cf. vi., 236; xiv., 252.
[861] _Ignoscere._ "Contemnere pauper creditur atque deos diis
ignoscentibus ipsis," iii., 145. So Plautus:
"Atque hoc scelesti illi in animum inducunt suum.
Jovem se placare posse donis hostiis,
Et operam et sumptum perdunt: ideo fit, quia
Nihil ei acceptum est a perjuris supplicii."
[862] _Crucem._ Badham quotes an Italian epigram, which says that "the
successful adventurer gets _crosses hung on him_, the unsuccessful gets
_hung on the cross_."
"Some made by villainy, and some undone,
And this ascend a scaffold, that a throne." Gifford.
[863] _Præcedit._
"Dare him to swear, he with a cheerful face
Flies to the shrine, and bids thee mend thy pace:
He urges, goes before thee, shows the way,
Nay, pulls thee on, and chides thy dull delay." Dryden.
[864] _Fiducia._
"For desperate boldness is the rogue's defense,
And sways the court like honest confidence." Hodgson.
[865] _Catulli._ Cf. ad viii., 186. Urbani some take as a proper name.
Others in the same sense as Sat. vii., 11. Catull., xxii., 2, 9.
[866] _Stentora._ Hom., Il., v., 785, Στέντορα χαλκεόφωνον, ὃς τόσον
αὐδήσασχ' ὅσον ἄλλοι πεντήκοντα.
[867] _Gradivus._ ii., 128. Hom., Il., v., 859, ὅσσον τ' ἐννεάχιλοι
ἐπίαχον ἢ δεκάχιλοι ἀνέρες--ἔβραχε.
[868] _Audis._ Cf. ii., 130, "Nec galeam quassas nec terram cuspide
pulsas, nec quereris patri?" Virg., Æn., iv., 206, "Jupiter Omnipotens!
Adspicis hæc? an te, genitor, quum fulmina torques, nequicquam
horremus? cæcique in nubibus ignes terrificant animos et inania murmura
miscent?" Both passages are ludicrously parodied in the beginning of
Lucian's Timon.
[869] _Thura._ So Mart., iii., Ep. ii., 5, "Thuris piperisque
cucullus." Ovid, Heroid., xi., 4. Virgil applies the epithet _pia_ to
the "Vitta," Æn., iv., 637, and to "Far," v., 745.
[870] _Porci._ Cf. x., 355, "Exta, et candiduli divina tomacula porci."
[871] _Vagellius._ Perhaps the "desperate ass" mentioned xvi., 23. Some
read Bathylli.
[872] _Tunicâ._ The Stoics wore tunics under their gowns, the Cynics
waistcoats only, or a kind of pallium, doubled when necessary. Hor.,
i., Ep. xvii., 25, "Contra, quem duplici panno patientia ve at."
Diogenes pro pallio et tunicâ contentus erat unâ abollâ ex vili panno
confectâ, quâ dupliciter amiciebatur. Cynicorum hunc habitum ideo
vocabant διπλοΐδα. Hi igitur ἀχίτωνες quidem sed διπλοείματοι. Orell.,
ad loc. Cf. Diog. Laert, VI., ii., iii., 22, τρίβωνα διπλώσας πρῶτος.
[873] _Epicurum._ Cf. xiv., 319, "Quantum Epicure tibi parvis suffecit
in hostis." Pliny says, xix., 4, he was the first who introduced the
custom of having a garden to his town house. Prop., III., xxi., 26,
"Hortis docte Epicure, tuis." Stat. Sylv., I., iii., 94. "The garden
of Epicurus," says Gifford, "was a school of temperance; and would
have afforded little gratification, and still less sanction, to those
sensualists of our day, who, in turning hogs, flatter themselves that
they are becoming Epicureans."
[874] _Tumultu._
"And louder sobs and hoarser tumults spread
For ravish'd pence, than friends or kinsmen dead." Hodgson.
[875] _Deducere._ Ov., Met., vi., 403, "Dicitur unus flesse Pelops
humerumque suas ad pectora postquam _deduxit vestes_, ostendisse."
[876] _Humore coacto._ Ter., Eun., I., i., 21, "Hæc verba una mehercle
falsa lacrymula Quam oculos terendo miserè vix vi expresserit
Restinguet." Virg., Æn., ii., 196, "captique dolis lacrymisque coactis."
[877] _Diversâ parte._ Others interpret it as being "read by the
opposite party;" as vii., 156, "quæ veniant diversa parte sagittæ."
[878] _Vana supervacui_, repeated xvi., 41.
[879] _Sardonychus._ Pliny says the sardonyx was the principal gem
employed for seals, "quoniam sola prope gemmarum scalpta ceram non
aufert." xxxvii., 6.
"If rogues deny their bend (though ten times o'er
Perused by careful witnesses before),
Whose well-known hand proclaims the glaring lie,
Whose master-signet proves the perjury." Hodgson.
[880] _Incendia._ Cf. ix., 98, "Sumere ferrum, Fuste aperire caput,
candelam apponere valvis, non dubitat."
[881] _Grandia pocula._ Alluding perhaps to some of Nero's sacrilegious
spoliations. Suet., Ner., 32, 38. It was customary for kings and
nations allied with Rome to send crowns and other valuable offerings to
the temple of Capitoline Jove and others.
[882] _Coronas._
"Gifts of great nations, crowns of pious kings!
Goblets, to which undated tarnish clings!" Badham.
[883] _Touantem._ Vid. Dennis's Etruria, vol. i., p. li. Cf. Suet.,
Nero, 32, fin. Milman's Horace, p. 66.
"Is much respect for Castor to be felt
By those whose crucibles whole Thunderers melt?" Badh.
[884] _Mercatoremque veneni._ Shakspeare, Rom. and Jul.,
"And if a man did need a poison now,
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him."
[885] _Corio._ Browne seems to understand this of "a leathern canoe or
coracle," but?
[886] _Simia._ Cf. ad viii., 214, "Cujus supplicio non debeat una
parari simia nec serpens unus nec culeus unus."
[887] _Gallicus._ Statius has a poem (Sylv., I., iv.), "Soteria pro
Rutilio Gallico." "Quem penes intrepidæ mitis custodia Romæ." This
book was probably written, cir. A.D. 94, after the Thebaïs. This Rut.
Gallicus Valens was præfectus urbis and chief magistrate of police for
Domitian; probably succeeding Pegasus (Sat. iv., 77), who was appointed
by Vespasian. For the _office_, see Tac., Ann., vi., 10, _seq._ It was
in existence even under Romulus, and continued through the republic.
Augustus, by Mæcenas' advice, greatly increased its authority and
importance. Its jurisdiction was now extended to a circuit of one
hundred miles outside the city walls. The præfectus decided in all
causes between masters and slaves, patrons and clients, guardians and
wards; had the inspection of the mint, the regulation of the markets,
and the superintendence of public amusements.
[888] _Guttur._ This affection has been attributed, ever since the days
of Vitruvius, to the drinking the mountain water. "Æquicolis in Alpibus
est genus aquæ quam qui bibunt afficiuntur _tumidis gutturibus_,"
viii., 3.
[889] _Meroë_, vi., 528, in Ethiopia, is the largest island formed by
the Nile, with a city of the same name, which was the capital of a
kingdom. Strab., i., 75. Herod., ii., 29. It is now "Atbar," and forms
part of Sennaar and Abyssinia.
[890] _Germani._ Cf. ad viii., 252.--_Flavam._ Galen says the Germans
should be called πυῤῥοὶ rather than ξανθοί. So Mart., xiv., Ep. 176,
Sil. iii. 608, "Auricomus Batavus."--_Torquentem._ Cf. Tac. Germ.
38, "Insigne gentis obliquare crinem nodoque substringere: horrentem
capillum retro sequuntur ac sæpe in solo vertice religant: in
altitudinem quandam et terrorem adituri bella compti, ut hostium oculis
ornantur." Mart. Spe. iii., "Crinibus in nodum tortis venere Sigambri."
They moistened their hair with a kind of soft soap. Plin. xxviii. 12.
Mart. xiv. 26, "Caustica Teutonicos accendit spuma capillos." VIII.
xxxiii. 20, "Fortior et tortos servat vesica capillos, et mutat Latias
spuma Batava comas."
[891] _Pygmæus._ Cf. Stat. Sylv. I. vi., 57, from which it appears that
Domitian exhibited a spectacle of pigmy gladiators. "Hic audax subit
ordo pumilonum--edunt vulnera conseruntque dextras et mortem sibi (qua
manu!) minantur. Ridet Mars pater et cruenta virtus. Casuræque vagis
grues rapinis mirantur pumilos ferociores."
"When clouds of Thracian birds obscure the sky,
To arms! To arms! the desperate Pigmies cry:
But soon defeated in th' unequal fray,
Disordered flee: while pouncing on their prey
The victor cranes descend, and clamoring, bear
The wriggling mannikins aloft in air." Gifford.
[892] _Chrysippus_ the Stoic, disciple of Cleanthes and Zeno, a native
of Tarsus or Soli, ἀνὴρ εὐφυὴς ἐν παντὶ μέρει. Vid. Diog. Laert. in
Vit., who says he "was so renowned a logician, that had the gods used
logic they would have used that of Chrysippus." VII., vii., 2.
[893] _Hymetto._ As though the hill sympathized with the sweetness
of Socrates' mind. Cf. Plato in Phæd. and Apol. Hor., ii., Od. vi.,
14, "Ubi non Hymetto mella decedunt," "And still its honey'd fruits
Hymettus yields." Byron.
[894] _Cicutæ._ Cf. vii., 206. Pers., iv., 2.
[895] _Felix._
"Divine Philosophy! by whose pure light
We first distinguish, then pursue the right,
Thy power the breast from every error frees,
And weeds out all its vices by degrees:
Illumined by thy beam, Revenge we find
The abject pleasure of an abject mind,
And hence so dear to poor, weak womankind!" Gifford.
[896] _Conscia mens._ Cf. Sen., Ep. 97, "Prima et maxima peccantium
pœna est peccâsse; Secundæ vero pœnæ sunt timere semper et expavescere
et securitati diffidere et fatendum est mala facinora conscientia
flagellari et plurimum illic tormentorum esse," etc. Cf. Æsch., Eumen.,
150, ὑπὸ φρένας, ὐπὸ λοβὸν πάρεστι μαστίκτορος δαΐου δαμίου βαρύ, κ. τ.
λ.
[897] _Cæditius._ An agent of Nero's cruelty, according to some; a
sanguinary judge of Vitellius' days, according to Lubinus. Probably a
different person from the Cæditius mentioned xvi., 46. _Rhadamanthus._
Cf. Virg., Æn., vi., 566, "Gnossius hæc Rhadamanthus habet durissima
regna, castigatque auditque dolos, subigitque fateri," etc.
[898] _Spartano._ The story is told Herod., vi., 86. A Milesian
intrusted a sum of money to Glaucus a Spartan, who, when the Milesian's
sons claimed it, denied all knowledge of it, and went to Delphi to
learn whether he could safely retain it; but, terrified at the answer
of the oracle, he sent for the Milesians and restored the money.
Leotychides relates the story to the Athenians, and leaves them to draw
the inference from the fact he subjoins: Γλαύκου νῦν οὔτε τι ἀπόγονόν
ἐστιν οὐδὲν, οὔτ' ἱστίη οὐδεμίη νομιζομένη εἶναι Γλαύκου· ἐκτέτριπταί
τε πρόῤῥιζος ἐκ Σπάρτης.
[899] _Metu._
"Scared at this warning, he who sought to try
If haply heaven might wink at perjury,
Alive to fear, though still to virtue dead,
Gave back the treasure to preserve his head." Hodgson.
[900] _Tacitum._ Cf. King John, Act iv.,
"The deed which both our tongues held vile to name!"
Cf. i., 167, "_tacitâ_ sudant præcordia culpâ."
"Thus, but intended mischief, stay'd in time,
Had all the moral guilt of finished crime." Badham.
[901] _Crescente._ Ov., Heroid., xvi., 226, "_Crescit_ et invito lentus
in ore _cibus_."
[902] _Sed vina._ Read perhaps "Setina," as v., 33.
[903] _Albani._ Cf. v., 33, "Cras bibet Albanis aliquid de montibus."
Hor., iv., Od. xi., 1, "Est mihi nonum superantis annum plenus Albani
cadus." Mart., xiii., 109, "Hoc de Cæsareis Mitis Vindemia cellis misit
Iuleo quæ sibi monte placet."
[904] _Velut acri._ Or perhaps, "as though the rich Falernian were
_sour_ instead of _mellow_."
"The rich Falernian changes into gall." Hodgson.
[905] _Versata._ Cf. iii., 279. Hom., Il., xxiv., 10, _seq._ Sen.,
de Tranq. An., 2, "versant se et hoc atque illo modo componunt donec
quietem lassitudine inveniant." "Propert.," I., xiv., 21, "Et miserum
toto juvenem versare cubili."
[906] _Sudoribus._ Cf. i., 167, "_Sudant_ præcordia culpâ." Cf. Ov.,
Her., vii., 65.
[907] _Major._ Virg., Æn., ii., 773, "Notâ major imago." Suet., Claud.,
i., species mulieris _humanâ_ amplior.
[908] _Amplior._ Tac., Ann., xi., 21, "oblata ei species muliebris
ultra modum humanum." Suet., Aug., 94.
[909] _Cogitque fateri._ The idea is probably from Lucret., v., 1157,
"Quippe ubi se multei per somnia sæpe loquenteis, Aut morbo deliranteis
protraxe ferantur Et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse."
[910] _Quum tonat._ Suet., Calig., 51, "Nam qui deos tantopere
contemneret, ad minima tonitrua et fulgura connivere, caput obvolvere;
ad vero majora proripere se e strato, sub lectumque condere, solebat."
[911] _Murmure._ Lucret., v., 1218, "Cui non conrepunt membra pavore
Fulminis horribili cum plaga torrida tellus Contremit et magnum
percurrunt murmura cœlum? Non populei gentesque tremunt."
[912] _Cadai._ "Quæque cadent in te fulmina missa putes." Ov., Her.,
vii., 72. Pind., Nem., vi., 90, ζάκοτον ἔγχος. Hor., i., Od. iii., 40,
"Iracunda Jovem ponere fulmina."
"Where'er the lightning strikes, the flash is thought
Judicial fire, with heaven's high vengeance fraught." Badham.
[913] _Vindicet._
"Oh! 'tis not chance, they cry; this hideous crash
Is not the war of winds, nor this dread flash
The encounter of dark clouds, but blasting fire,
Charged with the wrath of heaven's insulted sire!" Gifford.
[914] _Galli._ Cf. xii., 89, 96. Plin., x., 21, 56. Plat., Phæd., 66.
[915] _Ægris._
"Can pardoning heaven on guilty sickness smile?
Or is there victim than itself more vile?" Badham.
[916] _Mobilis._ Sen., Ep. 47, "Hoc habent inter cætera boni mores,
placent sibi ac permanent: levis est malitia, sæpe mutatur, non in
melius, sed in aliud."
[917] _Natura._ Hor., i., Ep. x., 24, "Naturam expellas furca tamen
usque recurret."
[918] _Ruborem._ Mart., xi., Ep. xxvii., 7, "Aut cum perfricuit frontem
posuitque pudorem."
"Vice once indulged, what rogue could e'er restrain?
Or what bronzed cheek has learn'd to blush again?" Hodgson.
[919] _Rupem._ Cf. i., 73, "aliquid brevibus Gyaris et carcere dignum."
vi., 563.
"Or hurried off to join the wretched train
Of exiled great ones in the Ægean main." Gifford.
[920] _Fatebere._ Cf. Psalm lviii., 9, 10.
[921] _Tiresiam._ Soph., Œd. T. Ovid, Met., iii., 322, _seq._
SATIRE XIV.
There are very many things, Fuscinus,[922] that both deserve a bad
name, and fix a lasting spot on a fortune otherwise splendid, which
parents themselves point the way to, and inculcate upon their children.
If destructive gambling[923] delights the sire, the heir while yet
a child plays[924] too; and shakes the selfsame weapons in his own
little dice-box. Nor will that youth allow any of his kin to form
better hopes of him who has learned to peel truffles,[925] to season a
mushroom,[926] and drown beccaficas[927] swimming in the same sauce,
his gourmand sire with his hoary gluttony[928] showing him the way.
When his seventh[929] year has past over the boy's head, and all his
second teeth are not yet come, though you range a thousand bearded[930]
philosophers on one side of him, and as many on the other, still he
will be ever longing to dine in sumptuous style, and not degenerate
from his sire's luxurious kitchen.
Does Rutilus[931] inculcate a merciful disposition and a character
indulgent to venial faults? does he hold that the souls and bodies
of our slaves[932] are formed of matter like our own and of similar
elements? or does he not teach cruelty, that Rutilus, who delights
in the harsh clang of stripes, and thinks no Siren's[933] song can
equal the sound of whips; the Antiphates[934] and Polyphemus of his
trembling household? Then is he happy indeed whenever the torturer[935]
is summoned, and some poor wretch is branded with the glowing iron
for stealing a couple of towels! What doctrine does he preach to his
son that revels in the clank of chains, that feels a strange delight
in branded slaves,[936] and the country jail? Do you expect that
Larga's[937] daughter will not turn out an adulteress, who could not
possibly repeat her mother's lovers so quickly, or string them together
with such rapidity, as not to take breath thirty times at least?
While yet a little maid she was her mother's confidante; now, at that
mother's dictation[938] she fills her own little tablets, and gives
them to her mother's agents to bear to lovers of her own.
Such is Nature's law.[939] The examples of vice that we witness at
home[940] more surely and quickly corrupt us, when they insinuate
themselves into our minds, under the sanction of those we revere.
Perhaps just one or two young men may spurn these practices, whose
hearts the Titan has formed with kindlier art, and moulded out of
better clay.[941]
But their sire's footsteps, that they ought to shun, lead on all the
rest, and the routine[942] of inveterate depravity, that has been long
before their eyes, attracts them on.
Therefore refrain[943] from all that merits reprobation. _One_ powerful
motive, at least, there is to this--lest our children copy our crimes.
For we are all of us too quick at learning to imitate base and depraved
examples; and you may find a Catiline in every people and under every
sky; but nowhere a Brutus,[944] or Brutus' uncle!
Let nothing shocking to eyes or ears approach those doors that close
upon your child. Away! far, far away,[945] the pander's wenches, and
the songs of the parasite[946] that riots the livelong night! The
greatest reverence[947] is due to a child! If you are contemplating a
disgraceful act, despise not your child's tender years, but let your
infant son act as a check upon your purpose of sinning. For if, at some
future time, he shall have done any thing to deserve the censor's[948]
wrath, and show himself like you, not in person only and in face,
but also the true son of your morals, and one who, by following your
footsteps, adds deeper guilt to your crimes--then, forsooth! you will
reprove and chastise him with clamorous bitterness, and then set about
altering your will. Yet how dare you assume the front severe,[949] and
license of a parent's speech; you, who yourself, though old, do worse
than this; and the exhausted cupping-glass[950] is long ago looking out
for your brainless head?
If a friend is coming to pay you a visit, your whole household is in a
bustle. "Sweep the floor, display the pillars in all their brilliancy,
let the dry spider come down with all her web; let one clean[951] the
silver, another polish the embossed[952] plate--" the master's voice
thunders out, as he stands over the work, and brandishes his whip.
You are alarmed then, wretched man, lest your entrance-hall, befouled
by dogs, should offend the eye of your friend who is coming, or your
corridor be spattered with mud; and yet one little slave could clean
all this with half a bushel of saw-dust. And yet, will you not bestir
yourself that your own son may see your house immaculate and free from
foul spot or crime? It deserves our gratitude that you have presented a
citizen to your country and people,[953] if you take care that he prove
useful to the state--of service to her lands; useful in transacting the
affairs both of war and peace. For it will be a matter of the highest
moment in what pursuits and moral discipline you train him.
The stork feeds her young on snakes[954] and lizards which she has
discovered in the trackless fields. They too, when fledged, go in quest
of the same animals. The vulture, quitting the cattle, and dogs, and
gibbets, hastens to her callow brood, and bears to them a portion of
the carcass. Therefore this is the food of the vulture too when grown
up, and able to feed itself and build a nest in a tree of its own.
Whereas the ministers of Jove,[955] and birds of noble blood, hunt in
the forest for the hare[956] or kid. Hence is derived the quarry for
their nest: hence too, when their progeny, now matured, have poised
themselves on their own wings, when hunger pinches they swoop to that
booty, which first they tasted when they broke the shell.
Centronius had a passion for building; and now on the embayed
shore of Caieta,[957] now on the highest peak of Tibur,[958] or
on Præneste's[959] hills, he reared the tall roofs of his villas,
of Grecian[960] and far-fetched marbles; surpassing the temple of
Fortune[961] and of Hercules as much as Posides[962] the eunuch
outvied our Capitol. While, therefore, he is thus magnificently lodged,
Centronius lessened his estate and impaired his wealth. And yet the sum
of the portion that he left was no mean one: but all this his senseless
son ran through by raising new mansions of marble more costly than his
sire's.
Some whose lot it is to have a father that reveres sabbaths, worship
nothing save clouds and the divinity of heaven; and think that flesh
of swine, from which their sire abstained, differs in naught from
that of man. Soon, too, they submit to circumcision. But, trained to
look with scorn upon the laws of Rome, they study and observe and
reverence all those Jewish statutes that Moses in his mystic volume
handed down: never to show the road except to one that worships the
same sacred rites--to conduct to the spring they are in quest of, the
circumcised[963] alone. But their father is to blame for this; to whom
each seventh[964] day was a day of sloth, and kept aloof from all share
of life's daily duties.
All other vices, however, young men copy of their own free choice.
Avarice is the only one that even against their will they are
constrained to put in practice. For this vice deceives men under
the guise and semblance[965] of virtue. Since it is grave in
bearing--austere in look and dress. And without doubt, the miser is
praised "a frugal[966] character," "a sparing man," and one that
knows how to guard his own,[967] more securely than if the serpent of
the Hesperides[968] or of Pontus had the keeping of them. Besides,
the multitude considers the man of whom we are speaking, a splendid
carver[969] of his own fortune. Since it is by such artificers as
these that estates are increased. But still, increase they do by all
means, fair or foul, and swell in bulk from the ceaseless anvil and
ever-glowing forge.
The father, therefore, considers misers as men of happy minds,[970]
since he admires wealth, and thinks no instance can be found of a
_poor_ man that is also _happy_; and therefore exhorts his sons to
follow the same track, and apply themselves earnestly to the doctrines
of the same sect. There are certain first elements[971] of all vices.
These he instills into them in regular order, and constrains them to
become adepts in the most paltry lucre. Presently he inculcates an
insatiable thirst for gain. While he is famishing himself, he pinches
his servants'[972] stomachs with the scantiest allowance.[973] For
he never endures to consume the whole of the blue fragments of
mouldy[974] bread, but saves, even in the middle of September,[975]
the mince[976] of yesterday;[977] and puts by till to-morrow's dinner
the summer bean,[978] with a piece of stockfish and half a stinking
shad:[979] and, after he has counted them, locks up the shreds of
chopped leek.[980] A beggar from a bridge[981] would decline an
invitation to such a meal as this! But to what end is money scraped
together at the expense of such self-torture? Since it is undoubted
madness,[982] palpable insanity, to _live_ a beggar's life, simply that
you may _die_ rich.
Meanwhile, though the sack swells, full to the very brim, the love of
money grows[983] as fast as the money itself grows. And he that has the
less, the less he covets. Therefore you are looking out for a second
villa, since one estate is not enough for you, and it is your fancy to
extend[984] your territories; and your neighbor's corn-land seems to
you more spacious and fertile than your own; therefore you treat for
the purchase of this too, with all its woods and its hill that whitens
with its dense olive-grove. But if their owner will not be prevailed
upon to part with them at any price, then at night, your lean oxen
and cattle with weary necks, half-starved, will be turned into his
corn-fields while still green, and not quit it for their own homes
before the whole crop[985] has found its way into their ruthless[986]
stomachs--so closely cropped that you would fancy it had been mown. You
could hardly tell how many have to complain of similar treatment, and
how many estates wrongs like this have brought to the hammer. "But what
says the world? What the trumpet of slanderous fame?--"
"What harm does this do me?"[987] he says; "I had rather have a lupin's
pod, than that the whole village neighborhood[988] should praise me, if
I am at the same time to reap the scanty crops of a diminutive estate."
You will then, forsooth, be free from all disease[989] and all
infirmity, and escape sorrow and care; and a lengthened span of life
will hereafter be your lot with happier destiny, if you individually
own as much arable land as the whole Roman people used to plow under
king Tatius. And after that, to men broken down with years, that had
seen the hard service of the Punic wars, and faced the fierce Pyrrhus
and the Molossian swords, scarce two acres[990] a man were bestowed at
length as compensation for countless wounds. Yet that reward for all
their blood and toil never appeared to any less than their deserts--or
did their country's faith appear scant or thankless. Such a little
glebe as this used to satisfy the father himself and all his cottage
troop: where lay his pregnant wife, and four children played--one a
little slave,[991] the other three free-born. But for their grown-up
brothers[992] when they returned from the trench or furrow, there was
another and more copious supper prepared, and the big pots smoked with
vegetables. Such a plot of ground in our days is not enough for a
garden.
It is from this source commonly arise the motives to crime. Nor has any
vice of the mind of man mingled more poisons or oftener dealt[993] the
assassin's knife, than the fierce lust for wealth unlimited. For he
that covets to grow rich,[994] would also grow rich speedily. But what
respect for laws, what fear or shame is ever found in the breast of
the miser hasting to be rich? "Live contented with these cottages, my
lads, and these hills of ours!" So said, in days of yore, the Marsian
and Hernican and Vestine sire--"Let us earn our bread, sufficient for
our tables, with the plow. Of this the rustic deities[995] approve; by
whose aid and intervention, since the boon of the kindly corn-blade, it
is man's fortune to loathe the oaks he fed upon before. Naught that is
forbidden will he desire to do who is not ashamed of wearing the high
country boots[996] in frosty weather, and keeps off the east winds by
inverted skins. The foreign purple, unknown to us before, leads on to
crime and impiety of every kind."
Such were the precepts that these fine old fellows gave to their
children! But now, after the close of autumn, even at midnight[997] the
father with loud voice rouses his drowsy son:
"Come, boy, get your tablets and write! Come, wake up! Draw
indictments! get up the rubricated statutes[998] of our fathers--or
else draw up a petition for a centurion's post. But be sure Lælius
observe your hair untouched by a comb, and your nostrils well covered
with hair,[999] and your good brawny shoulders. Sack the Numidian's
hovels,[1000] and the forts of the Brigantes,[1001] that your sixtieth
year may bestow on you the eagle that will make you rich. Or, if you
shrink from enduring the long-protracted labors of the camp, and
the sound of bugles and trumpets makes your heart faint, then buy
something that you may dispose of for more than half as much again as
it cost you; and never let disgust at any trade that must be banished
beyond the other bank of Tiber, enter your head, nor think that any
difference can be drawn between perfumes or leather. The smell of gain
is good[1002] from any thing whatever! Let this sentiment of the
poet[1003] be forever on your tongue--worthy of the gods, and even
great Jove himself!--'No one asks how you _get_ it, but _have_ it you
must.' This maxim old crones impress on boys before they can run alone.
This all girls learn before their A B C."
Any parent whatever inculcating such lessons as these I would thus
address: Tell me, most empty-headed of men! who bids you be in such
a hurry? I engage your pupil shall better your instruction. Don't be
alarmed! You will be outdone; just as Ajax outstripped Telamon, and
Achilles excelled Peleus.[1004] Spare their tender years![1005] The
bane of vice matured has not yet filled the marrow of their bones! As
soon as he begins to trim a beard, and apply the long razor's edge,
he will be a false witness--will sell his perjuries at a trifling
sum, laying his hand[1006] on Ceres' altar and foot. Look upon your
daughter-in-law as already buried, if she has entered your family with
a dowry that must entail death on her.[1007] With what a gripe will
she be strangled in her sleep! For all that you suppose must be gotten
by sea and land, a shorter road[1008] will bestow on him! Atrocious
crime involves no labor! "I never recommended this," you will hereafter
say, "nor counseled such an act." Yet the cause and source of this
depravity of heart rests at your doors; for he that inculcated a love
for great wealth, and by his sinister lessons trained up his sons to
avarice,[1009] _does_ give full license, and gives the free rein[1010]
to the chariot's course; then if you try to check it, it can not be
restrained, but, laughing you to scorn, is hurried on, and leaves even
the goal far behind. No one holds it enough to sin just so much as you
allow him, but men grant themselves a more enlarged indulgence.
When you say to your son, "The man is a fool that gives any thing
to his friend,[1011] or relieves the burden[1012] of his neighbor's
poverty," you are, in fact, teaching him to rob and cheat, and get
riches by any crime, of which as great a love exists in you as was that
of their country in the breast of the Decii;[1013] as much, if Greece
speaks truth, as Menæceus[1014] loved Thebes! in whose furrows[1015]
legions with their bucklers spring from the serpent's teeth, and at
once engage in horrid war, as though a trumpeter had arisen along with
them. Therefore you will see that fire[1016] of which you yourself
supplied the sparks, raging far and wide, and spreading universal
destruction. Nor will you yourself escape, poor wretch! but with loud
roar the lion-pupil[1017] in his den will mangle his trembling master.
Your horoscope is well known to the astrologers.[1018] Yes! but it is
a tedious business to wait for the slow-spinning[1019] distaffs. You
will be cut off long before your thread[1020] is spun out. You are long
ago standing in his way, and are a drag upon his wishes. Long since
your slow and stag-like[1021] age is irksome to the youth. Send for
Archigenes[1022] at once! and buy what Mithridates[1023] compounded,
if you would pluck another fig, or handle this year's roses. You must
possess yourself of that drug which every father, and every king,
should swallow before every meal.
I now present to you an especial gratification, to which you can find
no match on any stage, or on the platform of the sumptuous prætor.
If you only become spectator at what risk to life the additions to
fortune are procured, the ample store in the brass-bound[1024] chest,
the gold to be deposited in watchful Castor's[1025] temple; since Mars
the avenger has lost helmet and all, and could not even protect his
own property. You may give up, therefore, the games of Flora,[1026] of
Ceres,[1027] and of Cybele,[1028] such far superior sport is the real
business of life!
Do bodies projected from the petaurum,[1029] or they that come down
the tight-rope, furnish better entertainment than you, who take up
your constant abode in your Corycian[1030] bark, ever to be tossed up
and down by Corus and by Auster? the desperate merchant of vile and
stinking wares! You, who delight in importing the rich[1031] raisin
from the shores of ancient Crete, and wine-flasks[1032]--Jove's own
fellow-countrymen! Yet he that plants his foot with hazardous tread
by that perilous barter earns his bread, and makes the rope ward off
both cold and hunger. _You_ run _your_ desperate risk, for a thousand
talents and a hundred villas. Behold the harbor! the sea swarming
with tall ships! more than one half the world is now at sea. Wherever
the hope of gain invites, a fleet will come; nor only bound over the
Carpathian and Gætulian seas, but leaving Calpe[1033] far behind, hear
Phœbus hissing in the Herculean main. A noble recompense indeed for
all this toil! that you return home thence with well-stretched purse;
and exulting in your swelled money-bags,[1034] brag of having seen
Ocean's monsters,[1035] and young mermen!
A different madness distracts different minds. One, while in his
sister's arms, is terrified at the features and torches of the
Eumenides.[1036] Another, when he lashes the bull[1037], believes
it is Agamemnon or Ulysses roars. What though he spare his tunic or
his cloak, that man requires a keeper,[1038] who loads his ship with
a cargo up to the very bulwarks, and has but a plank[1039] between
himself and the wave. While the motive cause to all this hardship and
this fearful risk, is silver cut up into petty legends and minute
portraits. Clouds and lightning oppose his voyage. "All hands unmoor!"
exclaims the owner of the corn and pepper he has bought up. "This
lowering sky, that bank of sable clouds portends no ill! It is but
summer lightning!"
Unhappy wretch! perchance that selfsame night he will be borne down,
overwhelmed with shivering timbers and the surge, and clutch his
purse with his left hand and his teeth. And he, to whose covetous
desires[1040] but lately not all the gold sufficed which Tagus[1041] or
Pactolus[1042] rolls down in its ruddy sand, must now be content with a
few rags to cover his nakedness, and a scanty morsel, while as a "poor
shipwrecked mariner" he begs for pence, and maintains himself by his
painting of the storm.[1043]
Yet, what is earned by hardships great as these, involves still greater
care and fear to keep. Wretched, indeed, is the guardianship[1044] of a
large fortune.
Licinus,[1045] rolling in wealth, bids his whole regiment of slaves
mount guard with leathern buckets[1046] all in rows; in dread alarm
for his amber, and his statues, and his Phrygian marble,[1047] and his
ivory, and massive tortoise-shell.
The tub of the naked Cynic[1048] does not catch fire! If you smash it,
another home will be built by to-morrow, or else the same will stand,
if soldered with a little lead. Alexander felt, when he saw in that tub
its great inhabitant, how much more really happy was he who coveted
nothing, than he who aimed at gaining to himself the whole world;
doomed to suffer perils equivalent to the exploits he achieved.
Had we but foresight, thou, Fortune, wouldst have no divinity.[1049]
It is _we_ that make thee a goddess! Yet if any one were to consult me
what proportion of income is sufficient, I will tell you. Just as much
as thirst and hunger[1050] and cold require; as much as satisfied you,
Epicurus,[1051] in your little garden! as much as the home of Socrates
contained before. Nature never gives one lesson, and philosophy
another. Do I seem to bind you down to too strict examples? Then throw
in something to suit our present manners. Make up the sum[1052] which
Otho's law thinks worthy of the Fourteen Rows.
If this make you contract your brows, and put out your lip, then take
two knights' estate, make it the three Four-hundred![1053] If I have
not yet filled your lap, but still it gapes for more, then neither
Crœsus' wealth nor the realms of Persia will ever satisfy you. No! nor
even Narcissus'[1054] wealth! on whom Claudius Cæsar lavished all, and
whose behest he obeyed, when bidden even to kill his wife.
FOOTNOTES:
[922] _Fuscinus._ Nothing is known of him.
"Fuscinus, those ill deeds that sully fame,
And lay such blots upon an honest name,
In blood once tainted, like a current run
From the lewd father to the lewder son." Dryden.
[923] _Alea_, i., 89. Cf. Propert., IV., viii., 45, "Me quoque per
talos Venerem quærente secundos, Semper _damnosi_ subsiluere Canes."
The Romans used four dice in throwing, which were thrown on a table
with a rim (alveolus or abacus), out of a dice-box made of horn,
box-wood, or ivory. This fritillus was a kind of _cup_, narrower at
the top than below. When made in the form of a tower, with graduated
intervals, it was called pyrgus, turricula, or phimus.
[924] _Ludit._
"Repeats in miniature the darling vice;
Shakes the low box, and cogs the little dice." Gifford.
[925] _Tubera._ Cf. v., 116, _seq._ Mart., Ep. xiii., 50.
[926] _Boletum._ Cf. v., 147. Mart., Ep. xiii., 48.
[927] _Ficedulas._ Mr. Metcalfe translates "snipes." Cf. Mart., Ep.
xiii., 49, "Cum me ficus alat, cum pascar dulcibus uvis, Cur potius
nomen non dedit uva mihi?"
[928] _Gula_, i., 140.
[929] _Septimus._ Plin., vii., 16, "Editis infantibus primores
dentes septimo gignuntur mense: iidem anno septimo decidunt, aliique
sufficiuntur."
[930] _Barbatos._ Pers., iv., 1, "Barbatum hoc crede magistrum dicere
sorbitio tollit quem dira cicutæ." Cic., Fin., iv., "Barba sylvosa et
pulchre alita, quamvis res ipsa sit exterior et fortuita, inter hominis
eruditi insignia recensetur."
[931] _Rutilus._ Used probably indefinitely, as in Sat. xi., 2, "Si
Rutilus, demens." Rutilus was a surname of the Marcian, Virginian, and
Nantian clans.
[932] _Servorum._ Gifford quotes an apposite passage from Macrobius,
i., 2, "Tibi autem unde in servos tantum et tam immane fastidium? Quasi
non ex iisdem tibi constent et alantur elementis, eumdemque spiritum ab
eodem principe carpant!"
[933] _Sirena._ Cf. ix., 150.
[934] _Antiphates_, king of the cannibal Læstrygones. Hom., Odys., x.,
114, _seq._ Ovid, Met., xiv., 233, _seq._
[935] _Tortore._ vi., 480, "Sunt quæ tortoribus annua præstent."
"Knows no delight, save when the torturer's hand
Stamps for low theft the agonizing brand." Gifford.
[936] _Ergastula._ Cf. ad viii., 180. Put here, as in vi., 151, for the
slaves themselves. As 15 freemen were said to constitute a _state_, and
15 slaves a _familia_, so "_quindecim vincti_" form one Ergastulum. It
properly means the Bridewell, where they were set to "travaux forcis."
Liv., ii., 23; vii., 4. The country prisons were generally under-ground
dungeons. Branding on the forehead was a common punishment. Thieves
had the word "Fur" burnt in; hence called "literati homines," "homines
trium literarum." Plaut., Aul., II., iv., 46. Cicero calls one
"compunctum notis, stigmatiam," Off., ii., 7. So "Inscripti vultus,"
Plin., xviii., 3. "Inscripti," Martial, Ep. viii, 79. Cf. Plin.,
Paneg., 35. Sat. x., 183. Plaut., Cas., II., vi., 49.
[937] _Largæ._ Cf. vi., 239, "Scilicet expectas ut tradat mater
honestos atque alios mores quam quos habet?" x., 220, "Promptius
expediam quot amaverit Hippia mæchos."
[938] _Dictante._ vi., 223, "Illa docet missis a corruptore tabellis,
nil rude, nil simplex rescribere."
[939] _Exempla._ From Cic, Ep., iv., 3, "Quod exemplo fit, id etiam
jure fieri putant."
[940] _Exempla domestica._
"Thus Nature bids our home's examples win
The passive mind to imitative sin,
And vice, unquestion'd, makes its easy way,
Sanction'd by those our earliest thoughts obey." Badham.
[941] _Luto._ Callim., fr. 133, εἴ σε Προμηθεὺς ἔπλασε καὶ πηλοῦ μὴ 'ξ
ἑτέρου γέγονας. Ovid, Met, i., 80, "Sive recens tellus seductaque nuper
ab alto æthere cognati retinebat semina cœli; Quam satus Iapeto mixtam
fluvialibus undis finxit in effigiem moderantûm cuncta Deorum." Cf.
Sat. vi., 13, "Compositive luto nullos habuere parentes."
[942] _Orbita_, from orbis; "the track of a wheel." So by the same
metaphor the "_routine_," or course of life.
[943] _Abstineas._
"O cease from sin! should other reasons fail
Lest our own frailties make our children frail." Badham.
[944] _Brutus_ was the son of Servilia, the sister of Cato of Utica
(cf. x., 319). So Sen., Ep. 97, "Omne tempus Clodios, non omne Catones
fert."
[945] _Procul hinc._ The formula at religious solemnities. Cf. ii.,
89. Ov., Met., vii., 255, "Hinc procul Æsonidem, procul hinc jubet ire
ministros, et monet arcanis oculos removere profanos."
[946] _Parasiti._ Cf. i., 139.
[947] _Reverentia._
"His child's unsullied purity demands
The deepest reverence at a parent's hands." Badham.
[948] _Censoris._ Henninius' reading and punctuation is followed here.
"Oh yet reflect! For should he e'er provoke,
In riper age, the Law's avenging stroke
(Since not alone in person and in face,
But morals, he will prove your son, and trace,
Nay pass your vicious footsteps), you will rail,
And name another heir, should threatening fail!" Gifford.
[949] _Cerebro._ Plin., ix., 37, "Cerebrum est velut arx sensuum: hic
mentis est regimen."
[950] _Cucurbita._ Properly a kind of gourd, κολοκύνθη thence from its
shape, and perhaps too from its _use_, applied to a cupping-glass.
These were made of horn, brass, and afterward of glass. The Greeks,
from the same cause, called it σικύα, or κύαθος (cf. Schol. ad Arist.,
Lys., 444). It is called _ventosa_ from the rarefication of the air in
the operation, and was applied to relieve the head. Hence _cucurbitæ
caput_ is used for a fool. Cf. Appul., Met., I, "Nos cucurbitæ caput
non habemus, ut pro te moriamur!"
[951] _Lavet._ Browne says, "Who washes silver plate?" and prefers the
reading "leve." "But might not his _patellæ_ be of silver?" iii., 261,
"Domus intereà secura _patellas_ jam _lavat_."
[952] _Aspera._ Cf. i., 76, "Argentum vetus et stantem extrà pocula
caprum." v., 38, "Inæquales beryllo phialas." Virg., Æn., ix., 266,
"Argento perfecta atque _aspera_ signis pocula." Ovid., Met., v.,
81, "Altis exstantem signis cratera." xii., 235, "Signis exstantibus
_asper_ Antiquus crater." xiii., 700, "Hactenus antiquo signis
fulgentibus ære, Summus inaurato crater erat asper acantho."
"'Sweep the dry cobwebs down!' the master cries,
Whips in his hand, and fury in his eyes:
'Let not a spot the clouded columns stain,
Scour you the figured silver; you the plain!'" Gifford.
[953] _Patriæ populoque_, an ancient formula. Cf. Liv., v., 41. So
Horace joins them, "Hoc fonte derivata clades in patriam populumque
fluxit," iii., Od. vi., 20 (vid. Orell. in loc.). Ovid, Met., xv., 572,
"Seu lætum est, patriæ lætum, populoque Quirini."
"Thy grateful land shall say 'tis nobly done,
If thou bring'st up to public use thy son;
Fit for the various tasks allotted men,
A warlike chief, a prudent citizen." Hodgson.
[954] _Serpente._ Pliny (H. N., x., 23) alludes to the same
circumstance with regard to storks. "Illis in Thessaliâ tantus honos
serpentum exitio habitus est, ut ciconiam occidere capitale sit, eadem
legibus pœna, quâ in homicidas."
"Her progeny the stork with serpents feeds,
And finds them lizards in the devious meads:
The little storklings, when their wings are grown,
Look out for snakes and lizards of their own." Badham.
[955] _Famulæ Jovis._ Æsch., Prom. V., 1057, Διὸς πτηνὸς κύων, δαφοινὸς
ἀετός. Hor., iv., Od. iv., 1, "Qualem ministrum fulminis alitem," etc.
[956] _Leporem._ Virg., Æn., ix., 563, _seq._, "Qualis ubi aut leporem
aut candenti corpora cycnum Sustulit alta petens pedibus Jovis armiger
uncis."
"While Jove's own eagle, bird of noble blood,
Scours the wide champaign for untainted food,
Bears the swift hare, or swifter fawn away,
And feeds her nestlings with the generous prey." Gifford.
[957] _Caietæ_, now "Mola di Gaeta," called from Æneas's nurse. Virg.,
Æn., vii., 1, "Tu quoque littoribus nostris, Æneia nutrix, Æternam
moriens famam Caieta dedisti. Et nunc servat honos sedem tuus."
[958] _Tibur_, now "Tivoli," on the Anio, built on a steep acclivity.
Hence "supinum," Hor., iii., Od. iv., 23. Cf. iii., 192, "aut proni
Tiburis arce."
[959] _Præneste_, now "Palestrina," said to have been founded by
Cæculus, son of Vulcan. Vid. Virg., Æn., vii., 678.
[960] _Græcis._ Cf. Stat. Sylv., III., i., 5, "Sed nitidos postes
Graiisque effulta metallis culmina." The _green_ marble of Tænarus was
very highly prized. Vid. Plin., H. N. xxxvi., 7. Prop., III., ii.,
9, "Quod non Tænariis domus est mihi fulta columnis." Tibull., III.,
iii., 13, "Quidve domus prodest Phrygiis innixa columnis, Tænare sive
tuis, sive Caryste tuis." Among other foreign marbles, Pliny mentions
the Egyptian, Naxian, Armenian, Parian, Chian, Sicyonian, Synnadic,
Numidian. Augustus introduced the use of marble in public buildings,
and many edifices of his time were constructed of solid marble. All
the columns of the temple of Mars Ultor are of marble. (Vid. Niebuhr's
Lectures, vol. iii., p. 299. Sat. xi., 182, "Longis Numidarum fulta
columnis." Hor., ii., Od. xviii., 4, "Columnas ultimâ recisas Africâ."
Lucian, Hipp., p. 507, ed. Bened.) But the more general use of it
did not begin till the reign of Nero, when Greek architecture became
prevalent.
[961] _Fortunæ._ The temple of Fortune at Præneste was erected by
Augustus. Hence she was called Dea Prænestina, and the oracles
delivered there "Sortes Prænestinæ." Suet., Tib., 63. Propert., II.,
xxxii., 3. Cf. Ov., Fast., vi., 62. (From Stat. Sylv., I., iii., 80,
"Quod ni templa darent alias Tirynthia sortes, et Prænestinæ poterant
migrare Sorores," it appears that at Præneste, as at Antium, there were
two Fortunes worshiped as sister-goddesses. Cf. Suet., Calig., 57.
Mart., v., Ep. i., 3. Orell. ad Hor., i., Od. xxxv., 1.) The temple
of Hercules at Tibur was built by Marcius Philippus, step-father of
Augustus. Cf. Suet., Aug., 29. Prop., II., xxxii., 5.
[962] _Posides._ Vid. Suet., Claud., 28, "Libertorum præcipuè suspexit
Posiden spadonem quem etiam, Britannico triumpho, inter militares viros
hastâ purâ donavit." Like Claudius' other freedmen, he amassed immense
wealth.
[963] _Verpos._ Some of the commentators waste a great amount of zeal,
and no little knowledge, to show us that these lines prove Juvenal to
have been in utter ignorance of the Mosaic law. I presume Juvenal means
to tell us _what the Jews did_, not what the Jewish law _taught_; which
had they followed, they would not have been in Rome for Juvenal to
write about. These lines, in fact, instead of contradicting Josephus,
_confirm_ his account of the state of his countrymen, and are another
valuable testimony to prove that they "_had_ made the word of God of
none effect through their traditions." What should we say of Messrs.
Johnson, Malone, and Steevens, were they to gravely demonstrate that
Shakspeare wrote in _ignorance of the tenets of Judaism_ when he
introduces Shylock coveting Signor Antonio's "pound of flesh?"
[964] _Septima._ Cf. Tac., His., v., 4, "Septimo die otium placuisse
ferunt; quia is finem laborum tulerit; dein blandiente inertiâ,
septimum quoque annum ignaviæ datum."
[965] _Specie._ Hor., A. P., 25, "Decipimur specie recti." Pers., v.,
105, "Et veri speciem dignoscere calles."
"For this grave vice, assuming Virtue's guise,
Seems Virtue's self to superficial eyes." Gifford.
[966] _Frugi._ Hor., i., Sat. iii., 49, "Parcius hic vivit, frugi
dicatur."
[967] _Tutela._ Hor., A. P., 169, "Vel quod Quærit, et inventis miser
abstinet ac timet uti," and l. 325-333.
[968] _Hesperidum._ Vid. Ov., Met., iv., 627, _seq._ Virg., Æn., iv.,
480, _seq._ Athen., iii., p. 82, ed. Dindorf.
[969] _Artificem._
"And reasoning from the fortune he has made,
Hail him a perfect master of his trade." Gifford.
[970] _Animi._ Hor., i., Ep. xv., 45, "Vos sapere et solos aio bene
vivere quorum Conspicitur nitidis fundata pecunia villis."
[971] _Elementa._
"Vice boasts its elements, like other arts:
These he inculcates first; anon imparts
The petty tricks of saving: last inspires
Of endless wealth th' insatiable desires." Gifford.
[972] _Servorum._ Juvenal had evidently Theophrastus' αἰσχροκερδὴς
in his eye: τὰ δὲ καταλειπόμενα ἀπὸ τῆς τραπέζης ἡμίση τῶν ῥαφανίδων
ἀπογράφεσθαι, ἵνα οἱ διακονοῦντες παῖδες μὴ λάβωσι.
[973] _Modio iniquo._ Cf. Theophr., Char., 80 (π. αίσχροκερδ.),
φειδωνίῳ μέτρῳ τὸν πύνδακα ἐγκεκρουσμένῳ μετρεῖν αὐτὸς τοῖς ἔνδον τὰ
ἐπιτήδεια σφόδρα ἀποψῶν.
[974] _Mucida._ v., 68, "Solidæ jam mucida frusta farinæ."
[975] _Septembri._ The hottest and most unhealthy month in Rome. Cf.
vi., 517. Hor., i., Ep. xvi., 16.
[976] _Minutal._ The μυττωτὸς and περίκομμα of Aristophanes. Martial
describes one, lib. xi., Ep. xxxi. Cf. Apic, iv., 3.
[977] _Hesternum._ So Θοίνην ἕωλον. Athen., vii., 2. Mart., i., Ep.
civ., 7, "Deque decem plures semper servantur olivæ, explicat et cœnas
unica mensa duas."
[978] _Conchem._ iii., 293, "Cujus conche tumes."
[979] _Lacerti._ Mart., x., Ep. 48, "Secta coronabunt rutatos ova
lacertos." xii., Ep. 19. Celsus, ii., 18, mentions the Lacertus among
the fish "ex quibus salsamenta fiunt, et quorum cibus gravissimus est."
The _Silurus_ was a common and coarse Egyptian fish, sent over salted
to Rome. Cf. iv., 33.
[980] _Porri._ iii., 294, "Quis tecum sectile porrum." Cf. Plin., H.N.,
xix., 6.
[981] _Ponte._ Cf. iv., 116, "Cæcus adulator dirusque a ponte
satelles." v., 8, "Nulla crepido vacat? nusquam pons et tegetis pars
dimidia brevior?" Mart., x., Ep. v., 3, "Erret per urbem pontis exsul
et clivi, interque raucos ultimus rogatores oret caninas panis improbi
buccas." Ovid, Ibis, 420, "Quique tenent pontem."
[982] _Phrenesis._ Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 82, "Danda est Hellebori multo
pars maxima avaris: Nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem."
So Cicero, de Senec., 65, "Avaritia vero senilis quid sibi velit, non
intelligo: potest enim esse quidquam absurdius, quam quo minus viæ
restat eò plus viatici quærere?"
[983] _Crescit._ So Ovid, Fast., i., 211, "Creverunt et opes, et opum
furiosa cupido et cum possideant plurima plura volunt. Quærere ut
absumant, absumta requirere certant: atque ipsæ vitiis sunt alimenta
vices."
[984] _Proferre._ Liv., i., 33. Virg., Æn., vi., 796. Hor., ii., Od.
xviii., 17. ii., Sat. vi., 8, "O si angulus ille proximus accedat qui
nunc denormat agellum."
[985] _Novalia._ Put here for the crops on any good land. Plin., H.
N., xviii., 19, "Novale est quod alternis annis seritur." Cf. Virg.,
Georg., i., 71, "Alternis idem tonsas cessare novales et segnem patiere
situ durescere campum," with Martyn's note. Varro, de L. L., iv., 4,
"Ager restibilis, qui restituitur ac reseritur quotquot annis; Contrà
qui intermittitur, à novando novalis est ager." It means properly land
recently cleared. "Ager novus cui nunc primum immissum est aratrum
(_virgin soil_), cum antea aut sylva esset, aut terra nunquam proscissa
et culta in segetem." Facc. Then it is used for any cultivated land.
Virg., Ecl., i., 71. Stat., Theb., iii., 644, 5.
[986] _Sævos._ So Hor., ii., Sat. vii., 5, "Quæ prima _iratum ventrem_
placaverit esca."
"Turn in by night thy cattle, starved and lean,
Amid his growing crops of waving green;
Nor lead them forth till all the field be bare,
As if a thousand sickles had been there." Badham.
[987] _Quid nocet hoc?_ Cf. i., 48, "Quid enim salvis infamia nummis!"
Hor., i., Sat. i., 63, "Ut quidam memoratur Athenis, Sordidus ac dives
populi contemnere voces sic solitus: Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo
Ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arcâ."
[988] _Vicinia._ Hor., ii., Sat. v., 106, "Egregiè factum laudet
vicinia."
[989] _Morbis._ Cf. Hor., i., Sat. i., 80, "At si condoluit tentatum
frigore corpus, aut alius casus lecto te affixit; habes qui assideat,
fomenta paret, medicum roget ut te suscitet ac reddat natis carisque
propinquis."
"What! canst thou thus bid mortal sickness cease?
Thus from life's lightest cares compel release?
Though twenty plowshares turn thy vast domain,
Shalt thou live longer unchastised by pain?" Badham.
[990] _Jugera bina._ Liv., vi., 16, "Satricum coloniam deduci jussit;
bina jugera et semisses agri assignati." c., 36, "Auderentne postulare,
ut quum bina jugera agri plebi dividerentur, ipsis plus quingenta
jugera habere liceret?" The colonists sent to occupy the conquered
country received, as their allotment of the land taken from the enemy,
two acres apiece. The jugerum was nearly five eighths of an English
acre, i. e., 2 roods, 19 perches, and a fraction. The semissis is the
same as the actus quadratus. Cf. Varro, R. R., i., 10. Plin., H. N.,
xviii., 2.
[991] _Vernula._ Cf. x., 117, "Quem sequitur custos angustæ vernula
capsæ." The verna (οἰκοτραφὴς) was so called, "qui in villis _vere
natus_, quod tempus duce natura feturæ est." Fest. Others say that it
became a term of reproach from having been first given to those who
were born in the Ver Sacrum. Cf. Fest, _s. v._ Mamertini. Strabo, v.,
p. 404. Liv., xxxiv., 44. Just., xxiv., 4. These home-born slaves,
though more despised from having been born in a state of servitude,
were treated with great fondness and indulgence. Sen., Prov., i., f.,
"Cogita filiorum nos modestia delèctari, vernularum licentia: illos
tristiori disciplinâ contineri; horum ali audaciam."
[992] _Domini._ Cf. Plaut., Capt. Pr., 18, "Licet non hæredes sint,
domini sunt."
[993] _Grassatur._ iii., 305, "Interdum et ferro subitus grassator agit
rem."
[994] _Cito vult fieri._ Cf. Menand., οὐδεὶς ἐπλούτησε ταχέως δίκαιος
ὤν. Prov., xxviii., 20, "He that maketh haste to be rich, shall not be
innocent."
"What law restrains, what scruples shall prevent
The desperate man on swift possessions bent?" Badham.
[995] _Numina ruris._ Cf. Virg., Georg., i., 7, "Liber et alma Ceres
vestro si munere tellus Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit aristâ." So
Fast., i., 671, "Placentur matres frugum Tellusque Ceresque Farre
suo gravidæ, visceribusque suis. Consortes operum, per quas correcta
vetustas, Quernaque glans victa est utiliore cibo." iv., 399, "Postmodo
glans nata est bene erat jam glande reperta, duraque magnificas quercus
habebat opes. Prima Ceres homini ad meliora alimenta vocato mutavit
glandes utiliore cibo." So Sat., vi., 10, "Et sæpe horridior glandem
ructante marito." Sulp., 16, "Non aliter primo quàm cum surreximus ævo,
Glandibus et puræ rursus procumbere lymphæ."
[996] _Perone._ Virg., Æn., vii., 690, "Crudus tegit altera pero." The
pero was a rustic boot, reaching to the middle of the leg, made of
untanned leather. Cf. Pers., v., 102, "Navem si poscat sibi peronatus
arator Luciferi rudis."
"No guilty wish the simple plowman knows,
High-booted tramping through his country snows;
Clad in his shaggy cloak against the wind,
Rough his attire and undebauch'd his mind:
The foreign purple, better still unknown,
Makes all the sins of all the world our own." Hodgson.
[997] _Media de nocte._ Cf. Arist., Nub., 8, _seq._
[998] _Rubras._ Cf. Pers., v., 90, "Excepto si quid Masuri rubrica
vetavit." Ov., Trist., I., i., 7, "Nec titulus minio nec cedro charta
notetur." Mart., iii., Ep. ii., "Et te purpura delicata velet, et cocco
rubeat superbus index." In ordinary books, the titles and headings of
the chapters were written in red letters. But in law-books the text was
in _red_ letter, and the commentaries and glosses in _black_.
[999] _Pilosas._ ii., 11, "Hispida membra quidem et duræ per brachia
setæ promittunt atrocem animum." Combs were usually made of box-wood.
Ov., Fast., vi., 229, "Non mihi detonsos crines depectere buxo."
Mart., xiv., Ep. xxv., 2, "Quid faciet nullos hic inventura capillos,
multifido buxus quæ tibi dente datur."
[1000] _Attegias_, a word of Arabic origin. The Magalia of Virgil, Æn.,
i., 425; iv., 259, and Mapalia of Silius Italicus, ii., 437, _seq._,
xvii., 88. Virg., Georg., iii., 340. Low round hovels, sometimes on
wheels like the huts of the Scythian nomadæ, called from their shape
"Cohortes rotundæ," "hen-coops." Cat. ap. Fest. They are described by
Sallust (Bell. Jug., 20) as "Ædificia Numidarum agrestium, oblonga,
incurvis lateribus tecta, quasi navium carinæ;" and by Hieron. as
"furnorum similes." Probably when _fixed_ they were called Magalia;
whence the name of the ancient part of Carthage, from the Punic
"Mager." When _locomotive_, Mapalia. Livy says that when Masinissa
fled before Syphax to Mount Balbus, "familiæ aliquot cum mapalibus
pecoribusque suis persecuti sunt regem."
[1001] The _Brigantes_ were the most ancient and most powerful of the
British nations, extending from sea to sea over the counties of York,
Durham, Lancaster, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. Tac., Agric., 17. The
famous Cartismandua was their queen, with whom Caractacus took refuge.
Tac., Ann., xii., 32, 6. Hist., iii., 45. Hadrian was in Britain, A.D.
121, when his Foss was constructed.
[1002] _Lucri bonus est odor._ Alluding to Vespasian's answer to Titus.
Vid. Suet., Vesp., 23, "Reprehendenti filio Tito, quod etiam urinæ
vectigal commentus esset, pecuniam ex primâ pensione admovit ad nares,
sciscitans, num odore offenderetur; et illo negante, atqui, inquit
ex lotio est." Martial alludes to the fact of offensive trades being
banished to the other side of the Tiber. VI., xciii., 4, "Non detracta
cani Transtiberina cutis." I., Ep. xlii., 3; cix., 2.
[1003] _Poetæ._ Ennius is said to have taken this sentiment from the
Bellerophon of Euripides. Horace has also imitated it; i., Ep. i.,
65, "Rem facias; rem si possis rectè, si non quôcumque modo rem." Cf.
Seneca, Epist. 115, "Non quare et unde; quid habeas tantum rogant." (No
sentiment of the kind is to be found in the fragments of either.)
"No! though compell'd beyond the Tiber's flood
To move your tan-yard, swear the smell is good,
Myrrh, cassia, frankincense; and wisely think
That what is lucrative can never stink." Hodgson.
[1004] _Peleus._ Thetis was given in marriage to Peleus, because it had
been foretold that she should give birth to a son who should be greater
than his father; and therefore Jupiter was obliged to forego his
passion for her. Vid. Æsch., Prom. Vinct., 886, _seq._ Pind., Isthm.,
viii., 67. Nonnus, Dionys., xxxiii., 356.
[1005] _Parcendum teneris._ Parodied from Virg., Georg., ii., 363, "Ac
dum prima novis adolescit frondibus ætas, parcendum teneris."
[1006] _Tangens._ In swearing, the Romans laid their hands on the
altars consecrated to the gods to whose deity they appealed. Vid.
Virg., Æn., pass. Hor., ii., Ep. i., 16. Cf. Sat. xiii., 89, "Atque
ideo intrepide quæcunque altaria tangunt." Sil, iii., 82, "Tangat
Elissæas palmas puerilibus aras." Liv., xxi., 1, "Annibalem annorum
ferme novem, altaribus admotum tactis sacris jurejurando adactum, se
quum primum posset, hostem fore populo Romano."
[1007] _Mortiferâ._ Cf. Pers., ii., 13, "Acri bile tumet. Nerio jam
tertia conditur uxor."
"If Fate should help him to a dowried wife,
Her doom is fix'd, and brief her span of life:
Sound in her sleep, while murderous fingers grasp
Her slender throat, hark to the victim's gasp!" Badham.
[1008] _Brevior via._ So Tacitus (Ann., iii., 66), speaking of
Brutidius (cf. Sat. x., 83), says, "Festinatio exstimulabat, dum
æquales, dein superiores, postremò suasmet ipse spes anteire parat:
quod multos etiam bonos pessum dedit qui, _spretis quæ tarda cum
securitate_, præmatura vel cum exitio _properarent_."
[1009] The line "Et qui per fraudes patrimonia conduplicare" is now
generally allowed to be an interpolation.
[1010] _Effundit habenas._ So Virg., Georg., i., 512, "Ut cum
carceribus sese effudere quadrigæ addunt in spatia, et frustra
retinacula tendens Fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas."
Æn., v., 818; xii., 499. Ov., Am., III., iv., 15. Cf. Shaksp., King
Henry V., Act iii., sc. 3, "What rein can hold licentious wickedness,
when down the hill he holds his fierce career?"
"With base advice to poison youthful hearts,
And teach them sordid, money-getting arts,
Is to release the horses from the rein,
And let them whirl the chariot o'er the plain:
Forward they gallop from the lessening goal,
Deaf to the voice of impotent control." Hodgson.
[1011] _Donet amico._ Hor., i., Sat. ii., 4, "Contra hic, ne prodigus
esse Dicatur metuens, inopi dare nolit amico."
[1012] _Levet._ Cf. Isa., lviii., 6, "To loose the bands of wickedness,
to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that
ye break every yoke." Gal., vi., 2.
[1013] _Deciorum._ Cf. ad viii., 254. _Græcia vera._ Cf. x., 174,
"Quidquid Græcia mendax audet."
[1014] _Menæceus._ So called because he chose rather to "remain
at home," and save his country from the Argive besiegers by
self-sacrifice, than to escape, as his father urged, to Dodona. See the
end of the Phœnissæ of Euripides, and the story of the pomegranates
that grew on his grave, in Pausanias, ix., cap. xxv., 1. Cf. Cic., T.
Qu., i., 48, and the end of the tenth book of Statius' Thebais.
[1015] _Sulcis._ Ov., Met., iii., 1-130. Virg., Georg., ii., 141,
"Satis immanis dentibus hydri, nec galeis densisque virum seges horruit
hastis."
[1016] _Ignem._ Pind., Pyth., iii., 66, πολλὰν τ' ὄρει πῦρ ἐξ ἑνὸς
σπέρματος ἐνθορὸν ἀΐστωσεν ὕλαν.
[1017] _Leo alumnus._ There is said to be an allusion to a real
incident which occurred under Domitian. Cf. Mart., Ep., de Spect., x.,
"Læserat ingrato leo perfidus ore magistrum ausus tam notas contemerare
manus: sed dignas tanto persolvit crimine pœnas; et qui non tulerat
verbera tela tulit." Æsch., Ag., 717, 34.
[1018] _Mathematicis._ Suet., Calig., 57; Otho, 4. Cf. Sat. iii., 43;
vi., 553, 562. Among these famous astrologers the names of Thrasyllus,
Sulla, Theogenes, Scribonius, and Seleucus are preserved. The
calculations necessary for casting these nativities are called "numeri
Thrasylli," "Chaldaicæ rationes," "numeri Babylonii." Hor., i., Od.
xi., 2. Cic., de Div., ii., 47. Ov., Ibis, 209, _seq._
[1019] _Grave._ Cf. Strat., Ep. lxxii., 4, φεῦ μοίρης τε κακῆς καὶ
πατρὸς ἀθανάτου.
[1020] _Stamine._ Cf. iii., 27, "Dum superest Lachesi quod torqueat."
x., 251, "De legibus ipse queratur Fatorum et nimio de stamine."
[1021] _Cervina._ Cf. x., 247, "Exemplum vitæ fuit a cornice secundæ."
The crow is said to live for nine generations of men. The old Scholiast
says the stag lives for nine hundred years. Vid. Anthol. Gr., ii., 9,
ἡ φάος ἀθρήσασ' ἐλάφου πλέον ἡ χερὶ λαιᾷ γῆρας ἀριθμεῖσθαι δεύτερον
ἀρξαμένη. In the caldron prepared by Medea to renovate Æson, we find,
"vivacisque jecur cervi quibus insuper addit ora caputque novem
cornicis sæcula passæ." Auson., Idyll., xviii., 3, "Hos novies superat
vivendo garrula cornix, et quater egreditur cornicis sæcula cervus."
[1022] _Archigenem._ vi., 236; xiii., 98.
[1023] _Mithridates._ vi., 660, "Sed tamen et ferro si prægustarit
Atrides Pontica ter victi cautus medicamina regis." x., 273, "Regem
transeo Ponti." Cf. Plin., xxiii., 24; xxv., 11. Mart., v., Ep. 76,
"Profecit poto Mithridates sæpe veneno, Toxica ne possent sæva nocere
sibi." This composition (Synthesis) is described by Serenus Sammonicus,
the physician, and consists of ludicrously simple ingredients. xxx.,
578. Cf. Plin., xxiii., 8.
[1024] _Ærata._ Cf. xi., 26, "Quantum ferratâ distet ab arcâ Sacculus."
[1025] _Vigilem Castora._ So called, Grangæus says, "quod ante Castoris
templum erant militum excubiæ." The temple of Mars Ultor, with its
columns of marble, was built by Augustus. Suet., Aug., 29. To which
Ovid alludes, Fast., v., 549, "Fallor an arma sonant? non fallimur,
arma sonabant: Mars venit, et veniens bellica signa dedit. Ultor ad
ipse suos cœlo descendit honores, Templaque in Augusto conspicienda
foro."
[1026] _Floræ._ Cf. vi., 250. Ov., Fast., v., 183-330. The Floralia
were first sanctioned by the government A.U.C. 514, in the consulship
of Centho and Tuditanus, the year Livius began to exhibit. They were
celebrated on the last day of April and the first and second of May.
The lowest courtesans appeared on the stage and performed obscene
dances. Cf. Lactant., i., 20. Pers., v., 178.
[1027] _Cereris._ The Ludi Circenses in honor of Ceres (vid. Tac.,
Ann., xv., 53, 74, Ruperti's note) consisted of horse-racing, and were
celebrated the day before the ides of April. Ov., Fast., iv., 389,
_seq._ They were instituted by C. Memmius when Curule Ædile, and were a
patrician festival. Gell., ii., 24.
[1028] _Cybeles._ Cf. vi., 69; xi., 191.
[1029] _Petauro._ The exact nature of this feat of agility is not
determined by the commentators. The word is derived from αὖρα and
πέτομαι, and therefore seems to imply some machine for propelling
persons through the air, which a line in Lucilius seems to confirm,
"Sicuti mechanici cum alto exsiluere petauro." Fr. incert. xli. So
Manilius, v., 434, "Corpora quæ valido saliunt excussa petauro,
alternosque cient motus: elatus et ille nunc jacet atque hujus casu
suspenditur ille, membraque per flammas orbesque emissa flagrantes."
Mart., ii., Ep. 86, "Quid si per graciles vias petauri Invitum jubeas
subire Ladam." XI., xxi., 3, "Quam rota transmisso toties intacta
petauro." Holiday gives a drawing in which it resembles an oscillum or
swing. Facciolati describes it as "genus ludi, quo homines per aërem
rotarum pulsu jactantur."
[1030] _Corycus_ was the northwestern headland of Crete, with an island
of the same name lying off it. «There were two other towns of the same
name, in Lydia and Cilicia, both infested with pirates; the latter gave
its name to the famous Corycian cave. Pind., Pyth., i. Æsch., P. V.,
350.»
[1031] _Municipes._ The Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται boasted, says Callimachus,
that Crete was not only the birthplace, but also the burial-place of
Jove. Cf. iv., 33, "Jam princeps equitum magnâ qui voce solebat vendere
municipes pacta mercede siluros." So Martial calls Cumæan pottery-ware,
"testa municeps Sibyllæ," xiv., Ep. cxiv., and Tyrian cloaks, "Cadmi
municipes lacernas." Cf. Aristoph., Ach., 333, where Dicæopolis
producing his coal-basket says, ὁ λάρκος δημότης ὁδ' ἐστ' ἐμός. Crete
was famous for this "passum," a kind of rich raisin wine, which it
appears from Athenæus the Roman ladies were allowed to drink. Lib. x.,
p. 440, e. Grangæus calls it "Malvoisie."
[1032] _Lagenas._ Cf. vii., 121.
[1033] _Calpe_, now Gibraltar. It is said to have been Epicurus'
notion, that the sun, when setting in the ocean, hissed like red-hot
iron plunged in water. Cf. Stat. Sylv., II., vii., 27, "Felix hen nimis
et beata tellus, quæ pronos Hyperionis meatus summis oceani vides in
undis stridoremque rotæ cadentis audis."
[1034] _Aluta._ Cf. vii., 192, "Appositam nigræ lunam subtexit alutæ,"
where it is used for the shoe-leather, as Mart., xii., Ep. 25, and ii.,
29. Ov., A. A., iii., 271. It is a leathern _apron_ in Mart., vii.,
Ep. 25, and a leathern sail in Cæs., B. Gall., III., xiii. Here it is
a leathern money-bag. It takes its name from the alumen used in the
process of tanning.
[1035] _Oceani monstra._ So Tacitus, Ann., ii., 24, "Ut quis ex
longinquo revenerat, miracula narrabant, vim turbinum et inauditas
volucres, monstra maris, ambiguas hominum et belluarum formas; visa
sive ex metu credita."
[1036] _Eumenidum._ Eurip., Orest., 254, _seq._ Æsch., Eumen. Hor.,
ii., Sat. iii., 132, _seq._
[1037] _Bove percusso._ Soph., Aj. Cf. ad vii., 115; x., 84.
[1038] _Curatoris._ The Laws of the xii. tables directed that "Si
furiosus essit, agnatorum gentiliumque in eo pecuniâque ejus potestas
esto." Tab., v., 7. Cf. Hor., i., Ep. i., 102, "Nec medici credis nec
_curatoris egere_ à prætore dati." ii., Sat. iii., 217, "Interdicto
huic omne adimat jus prætor."
[1039] _Tabulâ._ Cf. xii., 57, "Dolato confisus ligno, digitis a morte
remotus quatuor aut septem, si sit latissima tæda."
"Who loads his bark till it can scarcely swim,
And leaves thin planks betwixt the waves and him!
A little legend and a figure small
Stamp'd on a scrap of gold, the cause of all!" Badham.
[1040] _Cujus votis._
"Lo! where that wretched man half naked stands,
To whom of rich Pactolus all the sands
Were naught but yesterday! his nature fed
On painted storms that earn compassion's bread." Badham.
[1041] _Tagus._ Cf. iii., 55, "Omnis arena Tagi quodque in mare
volvitur aurum." Mart., i., Ep. l., 15; x., Ep. xcvi., "Auriferumque
Tagum sitiam." Ov., Met., ii., 251, "Quodque suo Tagus amne vehit fluit
ignibus aurum."
[1042] The _Pactolus_ flows into the Hermus a little above Magnesia ad
Sepylum. Its sands were said to have been changed into gold by Midas'
bathing in its waters, hence called εὔχρυσος by Sophocles. Philoct.,
391. It flows under the walls of Sardis, and is closely connected by
the poets with the name and wealth of Crœsus. The real fact being, that
the gold ore was washed down from Mount Tmolus; which Strabo says had
ceased to be the case in his time: lib. xiii., c. 4. Cf. Virg., Æn.,
x., 141, "Ubi pinguia culta exercentque vivi Pactolusque irrigat auro."
Senec., Phœn., 604, "Et quà trahens opulenta Pactolus vada inundat auro
rura." Athen., v. It is still called Bagouli.
[1043] _Picta tempestate._ Cf. ad xii., 27.
"Poor shipwreck'd sailor! tell thy tale and show
The sign-post daubing of thy watery woe." Hodgson.
[1044] _Custodia._
"First got with guile, and then preserved with dread." Spenser.
[1045] _Licinus._ Cf. ad i., 109, "Ego possideo plus Pallante et
Licinis."
[1046] _Hamis._ Hama, "a leathern bucket," from the ἅμη of Plutarch.
Augustus instituted seven Cohortes Vigilum, who paraded the city at
night under the command of their Præfectus, equipped with "hamæ" and
"dolabræ" to prevent fires. Cf. Plin., x., Ep. 42, who, giving Trajan
an account of a great fire at Nicomedia in his province, says, "Nullus
in publico sipho, nulla hama, nullum denique instrumentum ad incendia
compescenda." Tac., Ann., xv., 43, "Jam aqua privatorum licentia
intercepta, quo largior, et pluribus locis in publicum flueret,
custodes, et subsidia reprimendis ignibus in propatulo quisque haberet:
nec communione parietum, sed propriis quæque muris ambirentur." (Ubi
vid. Ruperti's note.) These custodes were called "Castellarii." Gruter.
Cf. Sat. iii., 197, _seq._
[1047] _Phrygiaque columnâ._ Cf. ad lin. 89.
[1048] _Dolia nudi Cynici._ Cf. ad xiii., 122. The story is told by
Plutarch, Vit. Alex. Cf. Diog. Laert., VI., ii., 6. It is said that
Diogenes died at Corinth, the same day Alexander died at Babylon. Cf.
x., 171.
"The naked cynic mocks such anxious cares,
His earthen tub no conflagration fears:
If crack'd or broken, he procures a new;
Or, coarsely soldering, makes the old one do." Gifford.
[1049] _Nullum numen._ Cf. x., 365.
"Where prudence dwells, there Fortune is unknown,
By man a goddess made, by man alone." Badham.
[1050] _Sitis atque fames._ Hor., i., Sat. i., 73, "Nescis quo valeat
nummus quem præbeat usum? Panis ematur, olus, vini Sextarius; adde
Queis humana sibi doleat natura negatis."
[1051] _Epicure._ Cf. xiii., 122, "Non Epicurum suspicit exigui lætum
plantaribus horti."
"As much as made wise Epicurus blest,
Who in small gardens spacious realms possess'd:
This is what nature's wants may well suffice;
He that would more is covetous, not wise." Dryden.
[1052] _Summam._ Cf. iii., 154, "De pulvino surgat equestri Cujus res
legi non sufficit." Plin., xxxii., 2, "Tiberio imperante constitutem
ne quis in equestri ordine censeretur, nisi cui ingenuo ipsi, patri,
avoque paterno sestertia quadringenta census fuisset." Cf. i., 105;
iii., 159, "Sic libitum vano qui nos distinxit Othoni."
[1053] _Tertia Quadringenta._ Suet., Aug., 41, "Senatorum Censum
ampliavit, ac pro Octingentorum millium summâ, duodecies sestertio
taxavit, supplevitque non habentibus."
[1054] _Narcissi._ Of his wealth Dio says (lx., p. 688), μέγιστον τῶν
τότε ἀνθρώπων ἐδυνήθη μυριάδας τε γὰρ πλείους μυρίων εἷχε. Narcissus
and his other freedmen, Posides, Felix, Polybius, etc., exercised
unlimited control over the idiotic Claudius, but Pallas and Narcissus
were his chief favorites, "Quos decreto quoque senatus, non præmiis
modo ingentibus, sed et quæstoriis prætoriisque ornamentis ornari
libenter passus est:" and so much did they abuse his kindness, that
when he was once complaining of the low state of his exchequer, it was
said, "abundaturum si à duobus libertis in consortium reciperetur."
Claudius would have certainly pardoned Messalina, had it not been
for Narcissus. "Nec enim Claudius Messalinam interfecisset, nisi
properâsset index, delator adulterii, et quodammodo imperator cædis
Narcissus." See the whole account, Tac., Ann., xi., 26-38. Suet.,
Claud., 26, _seq._ On the accession of Nero, Narcissus was compelled by
Agrippina to commit suicide. Cf. ad x., 330.
"No! nor his heaps, whom doting Claudius gave
Power over all, and made himself a slave;
From whom the dictates of command he drew,
And, urged to slay his wife, obedient slew." Hodgson.
SATIRE XV.
Who knows not, O Volusius[1055] of Bithynia, the sort of monsters
Egypt,[1056] in her infatuation, worships? One part venerates the
crocodile:[1057] another trembles before an Ibis gorged with serpents.
The image of a sacred monkey glitters in gold, where the magic chords
sound from Memnon[1058] broken in half, and ancient Thebes lies buried
in ruins, with her hundred gates. In one place they venerate sea-fish,
in another river-fish; there, whole towns worship a dog;[1059] no one
Diana. It is an impious act to violate or break with the teeth a leek
or an onion.[1060] O holy nations! whose gods grow for them in their
gardens![1061] Every table abstains from animals that have wool: it is
a crime there to kill a kid. But human flesh is lawful food.
Were Ulysses[1062] to relate at supper such a deed as this to the
amazed Alcinous, he would perhaps have excited the ridicule or anger
of some, as a lying babbler.[1063] "Does no one hurl this fellow into
the sea, that deserves indeed a savage Charybdis and a real one[1064]
too, for inventing[1065] his huge Læstrygones[1066] and Cyclops. For
I would far more readily believe in Scylla, or the Cyanean rocks
that clash together,[1067] and the skins filled with stormy winds; or
that Elpenor, struck with the light touch of Circe's wand, grunted in
company with his messmates turned to hogs. Does he suppose the heads of
the Phæacians so void[1068] of brains?"
So might any one with reason have argued, who was not yet drunk,[1069]
and had taken but a scanty draught[1070] of the potent wine from the
Corcyræan[1071] bowl; for the Ithacan[1072] told his adventures alone,
with none to attest his veracity. We are about to relate events,
wondrous indeed, but achieved only lately, while Junius[1073] was
consul, above the walls of sultry Coptos.[1074] We shall recount the
crime of a whole people, deeds more atrocious than any tragedy could
furnish. For from the days of Pyrrha,[1075] though you turn over
every tragic theme,[1076] in none is a whole people[1077] made the
perpetrators of the guilt. Here, then, an instance which even in our
own days ruthless barbarism[1078] produced. There is an inveterate and
long-standing grudge,[1079] a deathless hatred and a rankling wound
that knows no cure, burning fiercely still between Ombos[1080] and
Tentyra, two neighboring peoples. On both sides the principal rancor
arises from the fact that each place hates its neighbor's gods,[1081]
and believes those only ought to be held as deities which itself
worships. But at a festive period of one of those peoples, the chiefs
and leaders of their enemies determined that the opportunity must be
seized, to prevent their enjoying their day of mirth and cheerfulness,
and the delights of a grand dinner, when their tables were spread near
the temples and cross-ways, and the couch that knows not sleep, since
occasionally even the seventh day's sun finds it still there, spread
without intermission of either night or day.[1082] Savage,[1083] in
truth, is Egypt! But in luxury, so far as I myself remarked, even the
barbarous mob does not fall short of the infamous Canopus.[1084]
Besides, victory is easily gained over men reeking[1085] with wine,
stammering[1086] and reeling. On one side there was a crew of fellows
dancing to a black piper; perfumes, such as they were; and flowers,
and garlands in plenty round their brows. On the other side was ranged
fasting hate. But, with minds inflamed, they begin first of all to
give vent to railings[1087] in words.
This was the signal-blast[1088] of the fray. Then with shouts from both
sides, the conflict begins; and in lieu of weapons,[1089] the unarmed
hand rages.
Few cheeks were without a wound. Scarcely one, if any, had a whole nose
out of the whole line of combatants. Now you might see, through all the
hosts engaged, mutilated faces,[1090] features not to be recognized,
bones showing ghastly beneath the lacerated cheek, fists dripping with
blood from their enemies' eyes. But still the combatants themselves
consider they are only in sport, and engaged in a childish[1091]
encounter, because they do not trample any corpses under foot. What,
forsooth, is the object of so many thousands mixing in the fray, if no
life is to be sacrificed? The attack, therefore, is more vigorous; and
now with arms inclined along the ground they begin to hurl stones[1092]
they have picked up--Sedition's[1093] own peculiar weapons.
Yet not such stones as Ajax[1094] or as Turnus[1095] hurled; nor of
the weight of that with which Tydides[1096] hit Æneas' thigh; but such
as right hands far different to theirs, and produced in our age, have
power to project. For even in Homer's[1097] lifetime men were beginning
to degenerate. Earth now gives birth to weak and puny mortals.[1098]
Therefore every god that looks down on them sneers and hates them!
After this digression[1099] let us resume our story. When they had
been re-enforced by subsidies, one of the parties is emboldened to
draw the sword, and renew the battle with deadly-aiming[1100] arrows.
Then they who inhabit Tentyra,[1101] bordering on the shady palms,
press upon their foes, who all in rapid flight leave their backs
exposed. Here one of them, in excess of terror urging his headlong
course, falls[1102] and is caught. Forthwith the victorious crowd
having cut him up into numberless bits and fragments, in order that
one dead man might furnish a morsel for many, eat him completely up,
having gnawed his very bones. They neither cooked him in a seething
caldron, nor on a spit. So wearisome[1103] and tedious did they think
it to wait for a fire, that they were even content with the carcass
raw. Yet at this we should rejoice, that they profaned not the deity
of fire which Prometheus[1104] stole from highest heaven and gave to
earth. I congratulate[1105] the element! and you too, I ween, are
glad.[1106] But he that could bear to chew a human corpse, never tasted
a sweeter[1107] morsel than this flesh. For in a deed of such horrid
atrocity, pause not to inquire or doubt whether it was the first maw
alone that felt the horrid delight! Nay! he that came up last,[1108]
when the whole body was now devoured, by drawing his fingers along the
ground, got a taste of the blood!
The Vascones,[1109] as report says, protracted their lives by the use
of such nutriment as this. But the case is very different. There we
have the bitter hate of fortune! the last extremity of war, the very
climax of despair, the awful destitution[1110] of a long-protracted
siege. For the instance of such food of which we are now speaking,
ought to call forth our pity.[1111] Since it was only after they had
exhausted herbs of all kinds,[1112] and every animal to which the
gnawings of an empty stomach drove them, and while their enemies
themselves commiserated their pale and emaciated features and wasted
limbs, they in their ravenous famine tore in pieces others' limbs,
ready to devour even their own! What man, or what god even, would
refuse his pardon to brave men[1113] suffering such fierce extremities?
men, whom the very spirits of those whose bodies they fed on, could
have forgiven! The precepts of Zeno teach us a better lesson. For he
thinks that _some_ things only, and not _all_, ought to be done to
preserve life.[1114] But whence could a Cantabrian learn the Stoics'
doctrines? especially in the days of old Metellus. Now the whole world
has the Grecian and our Athens.
Eloquent Gaul[1115] has taught the Britons[1116] to become pleaders;
and even Thule[1117] talks of hiring a rhetorician.
Yet that noble people whom we have mentioned, and their equal
in courage and fidelity, their more than equal in calamity,
Saguntum,[1118] _has_ some excuse to plead for such a deed as this!
Whereas Egypt is more barbarous even than the altar of Mæotis. Since
that Tauric[1119] inventress of the impious rite (if you hold as worthy
of credit all that poets sing) only sacrifices men; the victim has
nothing further or worse to fear than the sacrificial knife. But what
calamity was it drove _these_ to crime? What extremity of hunger, or
hostile arms that bristled round their ramparts, that forced these
to dare a prodigy of guilt so execrable? What greater enormity[1120]
than this could they commit, when the land of Memphis was parched with
drought to provoke the wrath[1121] of Nile when unwilling to rise?
Neither the formidable Cimbri, nor Britons, nor fierce Sarmatians
or savage Agathyrsi, ever raged with such frantic brutality, as did
this weak and worthless rabble, that wont to spread their puny sails
in pinnaces of earthenware,[1122] and ply the scanty paddles of their
painted pottery-canoe. You could not invent a punishment adequate
to the guilt, or a torture bad enough for a people in whose breasts
"anger" and "hunger" are convertible terms.
Nature confesses that she has bestowed on the human race hearts of
softest mould, in that she has given us tears.[1123] Of all our feeling
this is the noblest part. She bids us therefore bewail the misfortunes
of a friend in distress, and the squalid appearance of one accused, or
an orphan[1124] summoning to justice the guardian who has defrauded
him. Whose girl-like hair throws doubt[1125] upon the sex of those
cheeks bedewed with tears!
It is at nature's dictate that we mourn when we meet the funeral of
a virgin of marriageable years, or see an infant[1126] laid in the
ground, too young for the funeral pyre. For what good man, who that is
worthy of the mystic torch,[1127] such an one as Ceres' priest would
have him be, ever deems the ills of others[1128] matter that concerns
not himself?
This it is that distinguishes us from the brute herd. And therefore
we alone, endued with that venerable distinction of reason[1129]
and a capacity for divine things, with an aptitude for the practice
as well as the reception of all arts and sciences, have received,
transmitted to us from heaven's high citadel,[1130] a moral sense,
which brutes prone[1131] and stooping toward earth, are lacking in. In
the beginning of the world, the common Creator of all vouchsafed to
them only the principle of vitality; to us he gave souls[1132] also,
that an instinct of affection reciprocally shared, might urge us to
seek for, and to give, assistance; to unite in one people, those before
widely-scattered;[1133] to emerge from the ancient wood, and abandon
the forests[1134] where our fathers dwelt; to build houses, to join
another's dwelling to our own homes, that the confidence mutually
engendered by a neighbor's threshold might add security[1135] to our
slumbers; to cover with our arms a fellow-citizen[1136] when fallen
or staggering from a ghastly wound; to sound the battle-signal from a
common clarion; to be defended by the same ramparts, and closed in by
the key of a common portal.
But now the unanimity[1137] of serpents is greater than ours. The
wild beast of similar genus spares his kindred[1138] spots. When did
ever lion, though stronger, deprive his fellow-lion of life? In what
wood did ever boar perish by the tusks of a boar[1139] larger than
himself? The tigress of India[1140] maintains unbroken harmony with
each tigress that ravens. Bears, savage to others, are yet at peace
among themselves. But for man![1141] he is not content with forging
on the ruthless anvil the death-dealing steel! While his progenitors,
those primæval smiths, that wont to hammer out naught save rakes and
hoes, and wearied out with mattocks and plowshares, knew not the art
of manufacturing swords.[1142] Here we behold a people whose brutal
passion is not glutted with simple murder, but deem[1143] their
fellows' breasts and arms and faces a kind of natural food.
What then would Pythagoras[1144] exclaim; whither would he not flee,
could he be witness in our days to such atrocities as these! He that
abstained from all that was endued with life as from man himself; and
did not even indulge his appetite with every kind of pulse.
FOOTNOTES:
[1055] _Volusius_ is unknown. Some suppose him to be the same person as
the Bithynicus to whom Plutarch wrote a treatise on Friendship.
[1056] _Ægyptus._ So Cicero, "Ægyptiorum morem quis ignorat? Quorum
imbutæ mentes pravitatis erroribus, quamvis carnificinam prius
subierint quam ibin aut aspidem aut felem aut canem aut crocodilum
violent; quorum etiam imprudentes si quidquam fecerint, pœnam nullam
recusent." Tusc. Qu., v., 27. Cf. Athen., vol. ii., p. 650, Dind.
[1057] _Crocodilon._ Vid. Herod., ii., 69.--_Ibin._ Cic., de Nat.
Deor., i., 36.
[1058] _Memnone._ His statue stood in the temple of Serapis at Thebes.
Plin., xxvi., 7. Strabo, xvii., c. 1, τὰ ἄνω μέρη τὰ ἀπο τῆς καθέδρας
πέπτωκε σεισμοῦ γεννηθέντος. He says the ψόφος comes from "the lower
part remaining on the base." Cf. 1. 56, "Vultus dimidios." Sat. viii.,
4, "Et Curios jam dimidios." iii., 219, "Mediamque Minervam." Cf.
Clinton, Fasti Romani, in A.D. 130.
[1059] _Canem._ Cf. Lucan, viii., 832, "Semideosque canes." The
allusion is to the worship of Anubis, cf. vi., 533.
[1060] _Porrum._
"And it is dangerous here to violate an onion, or to stain
The sanctity of leeks with teeth profane." Gifford.
[1061] _Hortis._
"Ye pious nations, in whose gardens rise
A constant crop of earth-sprung deities!" Badham.
[1062] _Ulyxes._ Vid. Hom., Odyss., ix., 106, _seq._; x., 80, _seq._
[1063] _Aretalogus._ "Parasitus, et circulator philosophus." A
discourser on _virtue_ who frequented feasts; hence, one who tells
pleasing tales, a romancer. The philosopher at last degenerated into
the buffoon. Cicero uses "Ethologus" in nearly the same sense, cf.
de Orat., ii., 59, cum not. Harles. Suet., Aug., 74, "Acroamata et
histriones, aut etiam triviales ex Circo ludios, interponebat, ac
frequentius aretalogos." Salmas., ad Flav. Vopisc., 42. Lucian, de Ver.
Hist., i., 709, B. Shaksp., Othello, Act i., sc. 3.
[1064] _Verâ._ Cf. viii., 188, "Judice me dignus _verâ_ cruce."
[1065] _Fingentem_, i. e., "that they fed on _human_ victims."
[1066] _Læstrygones._ Their fabulous seat was Formiæ, now "Mola,"
whither they were led from Sicily by Lamus, their leader. Hor., iii.,
Od. xvii., 1; xvi., 34. Horn., Odyss., x., 81.
[1067] _Concurrentia saxa._ These rocks were at the northern entrance
of the Thracian Bosphorus, now the Channel of Constantinople; and were
fabled to have floated and crushed all vessels that passed the straits,
till Minerva guided the ship Argo through in safety and fixed them
forever. They were hence called συμπληγάδες, συνδρομάδες, πλαγκταὶ, and
κυάνεαι, from the deep blue of the surrounding water. Homer places them
near Sicily. Odyss., xii., 61; xxiii., 327. Pind., Pyth., iv., 370. Cf.
Herod., iv., 85. Eur., Med., 2; Androm., 794. Theoc., Idyll., xiii.,
22. Ov., Her., xii., 121. "Compressos utinam Symplegades elisissent,"
Trist., I., x., 34. They are now called "Pavorane."
[1068] _Vacui._ Cf. xiv., 57, "Vacuumque cerebro jampridem caput." Cf.
Virg., Æn., i., 567, "Non obtusa adeo gestamus pectora Pœni."
"But men to eat men human faith surpasses,
This traveler takes us islanders for asses." Dryden.
[1069] _Nondum ebrius._
"So might some sober hearer well have said,
Ere Corcyræan stingo turned his head." Hodgson.
[1070] _Temetum_, an old word of doubtful etymology: from it is derived
"temulentus" and "abstemius" (cf. Hor., ii., Ep. 163), and the phrase
"Temeti timor" for a parasite.
[1071] _Corcyræâ._ The Phæacians were luxurious fellows, as Horace
implies: "Pinguis ut inde domum possim Phæaxque reverti." i., Ep., xv.,
24.
[1072] _Ithacus._ So x., 257; xiv., 287.
[1073] _Junio._ Salmasius supposes this Junius to be Q. Junius
Rusticus, or Rusticius, consul with Hadrian, A.U.C. 872, A.D. 119.
(Plin., Exerc., p. 320.) Others refer it to an Appius Junius Sabinus,
consul with Domitian, A.U.C. 835, A.D. 82. But the name of Domitian's
colleague was _Titus Flavius_; and no person of the name of Junius
appears in the lists of consuls till Rusticus. Some read Junco, or
Vinco, to avoid the synizesis; but neither of these names occur. See
Life.
[1074] _Copti_, now Kypt or Koft, about twelve miles from Tentyra,
thirty from Thebes, and one hundred and twenty from Syene, where
Juvenal was stationed. Ptolemy Philadelphus connected it by a road with
Berenice.
[1075] _Pyrrha._ Cf. i., 84.
[1076] _Syrmata._ Properly the "long sweeping train of tragedy."
Vid. Hor., A. P., 278, "Personæ pallæque repertor honestæ." Sat.,
viii., 229, "Longum tu pone Thyestæ Syrma vel Antigones vel personam
Menalippes." So Milton, Il Pens., "Sometimes let gorgeous tragedy in
sceptred pall come sweeping by." Cf. Mart., xii., Ep. xcv., 3, 4; iv.,
Ep. xlix., 8.
[1077] _Populus._ i. e., "Tragedy only relates the atrocious crimes of
_individuals_: from the days of the Deluge, you can find no instance of
wickedness extending to _a whole nation_."
[1078] _Feritas._ Aristotle enumerates as one of the characteristics of
θηριότης, τὸ χαίρειν κρέασιν ἀνθρώπων.
[1079] _Simultas_ is properly "the jealousy or rivalry of two persons
candidates for the same office," from _simulo_, synom. with æmulari; or
from _simul_. Vid. Doederlein, iii., 72.
[1080] _Ombos_, now "Koum-Ombou," lies on the right bank of the Nile,
not far from Syene, and consequently a hundred miles at least from
Tentyra. To avoid the difficulty, therefore, in the word "finitimos,"
Salmasius would read "Coptos," this place being only twelve miles
distant; but all the best editions have Ombos. Tentyra, now "Denderah,"
lies on the left bank of the river, and is well known from the famous
discoveries in its Temple by Napoleon's savans. The Tentyrites, as
Strabo tells us (xvii., p. 460; cf. Plin., H. N., viii., 25), differed
from the rest of their countrymen in their hatred and persecution of
the crocodile, πάντα τρόπον ἀνιχνεύουσι καὶ διαφθείρουσιν αὐτούς,
being the only Egyptians who dared attack or face them; and hence when
some crocodiles were conveyed to Rome for exhibition, some Tentyrite
keepers accompanied them, and displayed some curious feats of courage
and dexterity. Aphrodite was their patron deity. The men of Coptos,
Ombos, and Arsinoë, on the other hand, paid the crocodile the highest
reverence; considering it an honor to have their children devoured by
them; and crucified kites out of spite to the Tentyrites, who adored
them. These religious differences are said by Diodorus (ii., 4) to
have been fostered by the policy of the ancient kings, to prevent the
conspiracies which might have resulted from the cordial union and
coalition of the various nomes.
[1081] _Alterius populi_, i. e., the Tentyrites. Cf. l. 73, _seq._
[1082] _Pervigili._ Cf. viii., 158, "Sed quum pervigiles placet
instaurare popinas."
"The board, where oft their wakeful revels last
Till seven returning days and nights are past." Hodgson.
[1083] _Horrida._ So viii., 116, "Horrida vitanda est Hispania." ix.,
12, "Horrida siccæ sylva comæ." vi., 10, "Et sæpe horridior glandem
ructante marito."
"For savage as the country is, it vies
In luxury, if I may trust my eyes,
With dissolute Canopus." Gifford.
[1084] _Canopus._ Cf. i., 26. Said to have been built by Menelaus, and
named after his pilot. It lies on the Bay of Aboukir, not far from
Alexandria, and was notorious for its luxury and debauchery, carried on
principally in the temple of Serapis. Cf. vi., 84, "Prodigia et mores
Urbis damnante Canopo." Sen., Epist. 51. Propert., iii., El. xi., 39.
These lines prove that Juvenal was, _at some time of his life_, in
Egypt; but whether he traveled thither in early life to gratify his
curiosity, or, as the common story goes, was banished there in his old
age to appease the wrath of Paris, is doubtful. The latter story is
inconsistent with chronology, history, and probability.
[1085] _Madidis._ So vi., 207, "Atque coronatum et petulans madidumque
Tarentum." βεβρεγμένος, ὑπομεθύων. Hesych., Sil., xii., 18, "Molli luxu
madefacta meroque Illecebris somni torpentia membra fluebant." Cf.
Plaut., Truc., IV., iv., 2, "Si alia membra vino madeant." Most., I.,
iv., 7, "Ecquid tibi videor madere?" Tibull., II., i., 29, "Non festâ
luce madere est rubor, errantes et male ferre pedes:" and II., ii., 8.
[1086] _Blæsis._ Cf. Mart., x., Ep. 65. So Virgil (Georg., ii., 94)
speaks of the vine as "Tentatura pedes olim vincturaque linguam."
Propert., II., xxxiv., 22. Sen., Epist., 83.
[1087] _Jurgia._ So v., 26, "Jurgia proludunt." iii., 288, "Miseræ
cognosce proœmia rixæ." Tac., Hist., i., 64, "Jurgia primum: mox rixa
inter Batavos et legionarios."
[1088] _Tuba._ Cf. i., 169, and Virg., Æn., xi., 424. The whole of the
following passage may be compared with Virg., Æn., vii., 505-527.
[1089] _Vice teli._ Ov., Met., xii., 381, "Sævique _vicem_ præstantia
_teli_."
[1090] _Vultus dimidios._ viii., 4, "Curios jam dimidios, humeroque
minorem Corvinum et Galbam auriculis nasoque carentem."
"Then might you see, amid the desperate fray,
Features disfigured, noses torn away;
Hands, where the gore of mangled eyes yet reeks,
And jaw-bones starting through the cloven cheeks." Gifford.
[1091] _Pueriles._ Virg., Æn., v., 584-602.
"But hitherto both parties think the fray
But mockery of war, mere children's play!
And scandal think it t' have none slain outright,
Between two hosts that for religion fight." Dryden.
[1092] _Saxa._
"Stones, the base rabble's home-artillery." Hodgson.
[1093] _Seditioni._ Henninius' correction for _seditione_. For
"domestica" in this sense, cf. Sat. ix., 17. So Virg., Æn., i., 150,
"Jamque faces et saxa volant, furor arma ministrat." vii., 507, "Quod
cuique repertum rimanti telum ira facit."
[1094] _Ajax._ Hom., Il., vii., 268, δεύτερος αὖτ' Αἴας πολὺ μείζονα
λᾶαν ἀείρας ἦκ' ἐπιδινήσας ἐπέρεισε δὲ ἶν' ἀπέλεθρον.
[1095] _Turnus._ Virg., Æn., xii., 896, "Saxum circumspicit ingens:
saxum antiquum ingens, campo quod forte jacebat Limes agro positus,
litem ut discerneret arvis. Vix illud lecti bis sex cervice subirent,
Qualia nunc hominûm producit corpora tellus." Cf. Hom., Il., xxi., 405.
[1096] _Tydides._ Il., v., 802, ὁ δὲ χερμάδιον λάβε χειρὶ Τυδείδης μέγα
ἔργον ὃ οὐ δύο γ' ἄνδρε φέροιεν οἷοι νῦν βροτοί εἰσ' ὁ δέ μιν ῥέα πάλλε
καὶ οἶος.
[1097] _Homero._ Il., i., 271, κείνοισι δ' ἂν οὔτις τῶν οἵ νῦν βροτοί
εἰσιν ἐπιχθόνιοι μαχέοιτο.
[1098] _Malos homines._ Cf. Herod., i., 68. Plin., vii., 16. Lucretius,
ii., 1149, "Jamque adeo fracta est ætas, effœtaque tellus Vix animalia
parva creat, quæ cuncta creavit sæcla." Sen., de Ben., I., c. x.,
"Hoc majores nostri questi sunt, hoc nos querimur, hoc posteri nostri
querentur, eversos esse mores, regnare nequitiam, in deterius res
humanas labi." Hor., iii., Od. vi., 46, "Ætas parentum, pejor avis,
tulit nos nequiores, mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem."
[1099] _Diverticulo._ Properly "a cross-road," then "a place to which
we turn aside from the high road; halting or refreshing place." Cf.
Liv., ix., 17.
[1100] _Infestis._ So Virg., Æn., v., 582, "Convertêre vias,
_infesta_que tela tulere." 691, "Vel tu quod superest _infesto_ fulmine
morti, Si mereor dimitte." x., 877, "_Infestâ_ subit obvius hastâ."
Liv., ii., 19, "Tarquinius Superbus quanquam jam ætate et viribus
gravior, equum _infestus_ admisit."
[1101] _Tentyra._ Cf. ad l. 35. Salmasius proposes to read here "Pampæ"
(the name of a small town) for _Palmæ_ on account of the difficulty
stated above; and supposes this to be Juvenal's way of distinguishing
Tentyra: but Pampa is a much _smaller_ place than Tentyra; and no one
would describe London, as Browne observes, as "London near Chelsea."
He imagines also that Juvenal is describing an affray that took place
between the people of Cynopolis and Oxyrynchis about this time,
mentioned by Plutarch (de Isid. et Osirid.), and that he has changed
the names for the sake of the metre. Heinrich leaves the difficulty
unsolved. Browne supposes _two_ places of the name of Tentyra.
[1102] _Labitur._ Gifford compares Hesiod., Herc. Scut., 251, Δῆριν
ἔχον περὶ πιπτόντων· πᾶσαι δ' ἄρ ἵεντο αἷμα μέλαν πιέειν· ὃν δὲ πρῶτον
μεμάποιεν κείμενον ἢ πίπτοντα νεούτατον, ἀμφὶ μὲν αὐτῷ βάλλ' ὄνυχας
μεγάλους.
[1103] _Longum._
"'T had been lost time to dress him; keen desire
Supplies the want of kettle, spit, and fire." Dryden.
[1104] _Prometheus._ Vid. Hesiod., Op. et Di., 49, _seq._ Theog., 564.
Æsch., P. Vinct., 109. Hor., i., Od. iii., 27. Cic., Tusc. Qu., II.,
x., 23. Mart., xiv., Ep. 80.
[1105] _Gratulor._ So Ov., Met., x., 305, "Gentibus Ismariis et nostro
gratulor orbi, gratulor huic terræ, quod abest regionibus illis, Quæ
tantum genuere nefas."
[1106] _Te exsultare._ Juvenal's friend Volusius is supposed to have
had a leaning toward the doctrine of the fire-worshipers. At least this
is the puerile way in which most of the commentators endeavor to escape
the difficulty.
[1107] _Libentius._
"But he who tasted first the human food,
Swore never flesh was so divinely good." Hodgson.
[1108] _Ultimus._
"And the last comer, of his dues bereft,
Sucks from the bloodstain'd soil some flavor left." Badham.
[1109] _Vascones._ Sil. Ital., x., 15. The Vascones lived in the
northeast of Spain, near the Pyrenees, in parts of Navarre, Aragon,
and old Castile. They and the Cantabri were the most warlike people
of Hispania Tarrocensis. Their southern boundary was the Iberus
(Ebro). Their chief cities were Calagurris Nassica (now Calahorra
in New Castile), on the right bank of the Iberus; and Pompelon (now
Pampeluna), at the foot of the Pyrenees, said to have been founded by
Cn. Pompeius Magnus, vid. Plin., III., iii., 4. It is doubtful which
of these two cities held out in the manner alluded to in the text.
Sertorius was assasinated B.C. 72, and the Vascones, whose faith was
pledged to him, sooner than submit to Pompey and Metellus, suffered the
most horrible extremities, even devouring their wives and children. Cf.
Liv., Epit. xciii. Flor., III., xxxii. Val. Max., VII., vi. Plut. in v.
Sert. The Vascones afterward crossed the Pyrenees into Aquitania, and
their name is still preserved in the province of Gascogne.
[1110] _Egestas._
"When frowning war against them stood array'd
With the dire famine of a long blockade." Hodgson.
[1111] _Miserabile._ ii., 18, "Horum simplicitas _miserabilis_."
[1112] _Post omnes herbas._
"For after every root and herb were gone,
And every aliment to hunger known;
When their lean frames and cheeks of sallow hue
Struck e'en the foe with pity at the view;
And all were ready their own flesh to tear,
They first adventured on this horrid fare." Gifford.
[1113] _Viribus._ The abstract used for the concrete. Another reading
is, _Urbibus_, referring to Calagurris and Saguntus. Valesius proposed
to read "Ventribus," which Orellius receives.
[1114] _Quædam pro vita._ Cf. Arist., Eth., iii., 1, Ἔνια δ' ἴσως οὐκ
ἔστιν ἀναγκασθῆναι ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἀποθνητέον, παθόντα τὰ δεινότατα. Plin.,
xxviii., 1, "Vitam quidem non adeo expetendam censemus ut quoquo modo
protrahenda sit." Sen., Ep. 72, "Non omni pretio vita emenda est."
[1115] _Gallia._ Cf. ad i., 44. Suet., Cal., xx., "Caligula instituit
in Gallia, Lugduni, certamen Græcæ Latinæque facundiæ." Quintil.,
x., 1. Sat., vii., 148, "Accipiat te Gallia, vel potius nutricula
causidicorum Africa, si placuit mercedem ponere linguæ."
[1116] _Britannos._ Tac., Agric., xxi, "Ingenia Britannorum studiis
Gallorum anteferre: ut qui modo linguam Romanam abnuebant, eloquentiam
concupiscerent."
[1117] _Thule._ Used generally for the northernmost region of the
earth. Its position shifted with the advance of their geographical
knowledge; hence it is used for Sweden, Norway, Shetland, or Iceland.
Virg., Georg., i., 30, "Tibi serviat ultima Thule."
[1118] _Saguntus_, now "Mur Viedro" in Valencia, is memorable for
its obstinate resistance to Hannibal, during a siege of eight months
(described Liv., xxi., 5-15). Their fidelity to Rome was as famous as
that of the Vascones to Sertorius; but their fate was more disastrous;
as Hannibal took Saguntus and razed it to the ground, after they had
endured the most horrible extremities, whereas the siege of Calagurris
was raised. Cf. ad v., 29.
[1119] _Taurica._ The Tauri, who lived in the peninsula called from
them Taurica Chersonesus (now Crimea), on the Palus Mæotis, used
to sacrifice shipwrecked strangers on the altar of Diana; of which
barbarous custom Thoas their king is said to have been the inventor.
Ov., Trist., IV., iv., 93; Ib., 386, "Thoanteæ Taurica sacra Deæ."
Pont., I., ii., 80: III., ii., 59. Plin., H. N., IV., xii., 26. On
this story is founded the Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides, and from
this was derived the custom of scourging boys at the altar of Artemis
Orthias in Sparta.
[1120] _Gravius cultro._
"There the pale victim only fears the knife,
But thy fell zeal asks something more than life." Hodgson.
[1121] _Invidiam facerent._ Cf. Ov., Art. Am., i., 647, "Dicitur
Ægyptos caruisse juvantibus arva Imbribus, atque annos sicca fuisse
novem. Cum Thracius Busirin adit, monstratque piari Hospitis effuso
sanguine posse Jovem. Illi Busiris, Fies Jovis hostia primus, Inquit
et Ægypto tu dabis hospes opem." It is to this story Juvenal probably
alludes. But _invidiam facere_ means also "to bring into odium and
unpopularity" (cf. Ov., Met., iv., 547), and so Gifford understands
it. "What more effectual means could these cannibals devise to incense
the god and provoke him to withhold his fertilizing waters, thereby
bringing him into unpopularity." Cf. Lucan, ii., 36, "Nullis defuit
aris Invidiam factura parens," with the note of Cortius.
[1122] _Fictilibus phaselis._ Evidently taken from Virg., Georg., iv.,
287, "Nam quâ Pellæi gens fortunata Canopi Accolit effuso stagnantem
flumine Nilum Et circum _pictis_ vehitur sua rura _phaselis_." The
deficiency of timber in Egypt forced the inhabitants to adopt any
expedient as a substitute. Strabo (lib. xvii.) mentions these vessels
of pottery-ware, varnished over to make them water-tight. Phaselus is
properly the long Egyptian kidney bean, from which the boats derived
their name, from their long and narrow form. From their speed they were
much used by pirates, and seem to have been of the same build as the
Myoparones mentioned by Cicero in Verrem, ii., 3. Cf. Catull., iv., 1,
"Phaselus ille quem videtis hospites Ait fuisse navium celerrimus."
Mart., x., Ep. xxx., 12, "Viva sed quies Ponti Pictam phaselon
adjuvante fert aurâ." Cf. Lucan, v., 518. Hor., iii., Od. ii., 29.
Virg., Georg., i., 277. Arist., Pax, 1144.
"Or through the tranquil water's easy swell,
Work the short paddles of their painted shell." Hodgson.
[1123] _Lacrymas._ So the Greek proverb, ἀγαθοὶ δ' ἀριδάκρυες ἄνδρες.
[1124] _Pupillum._ Cf. i., 45, "Quum populum gregibus comitum premit
hic spoliator Pupilli prostantis," x., 222, "Quot Basilus socios, quot
circumscripserit Hirrus pupillos."
[1125] _Incerta._ Hor., ii., Od. v., "Quem si puellarum insereres choro
Miré sagaces falleret hospites Discrimen obscurum solutis Crinibus
ambiguoque vultu."
"So soft his tresses, filled with trickling pearl,
You'd doubt his sex, and take him for a girl." Dryden.
[1126] _Minor igne rogi._ Infants under forty days old were not burned,
but buried; and the place was called "Suggrundarium." Vid. Facc. in
voc. Cf. Plin., H. N., vii., 16.
[1127] _Arcana._ Hor., iii., Od. ii., 26, "Vetabo qui _Cereris_ sacrum
vulgârit _arcanæ_, sub îsdem sit trabibus fragilemve mecum solvat
phaselon." Cf. Sat. vi., 50, "Paucæ adeo Cereris vittas contingere
dignæ." None were admitted to initiation in the greater mysteries
without a strict inquiry into their moral character; as none but the
chastest matrons were allowed to be priestesses of Ceres. For the
origin of the use of the torch in the sacred processions of Ceres, see
Ovid, Fast., iv., 493, _seq._
[1128] _Aliena._ From Ter., Heaut., I., i., 25, "Homo sum; humani nihil
à me alienum puto." Cf. Cic., Off., i., 9.
[1129] _Sortiti ingenium._ Cf. Cic., Nat. Deor., ii., 56, "Sunt
enim homines non ut incolæ atque habitatores, sed quasi spectatores
superarum rerum atque cœlestium, quarum spectaculum ad nullum aliud
genus animantium pertinet."
[1130] _Cœlesti._ Virg., Æn., vi., 730, "Igneus est ollis vigor et
cœlestis origo." Hor., ii., Sat. ii., 79, "Divinæ particulam auræ."
[1131] _Prona._ Ov., Met., i., 84, "Pronaque cum spectent animalia
cætera terram, Os homini sublime dedit, cœlumque tueri jussit et
erectos ad sidera tollere vultus." Sall., Bell. Cat., init., "Omnes
homines qui sese student præstare cæteris animalibus quæ Natura prona
et ventri obedientia finxit."
[1132] _Animam._ i., 83. Cf. ad vi., 531.
"To brutes our Maker, when the globe was new,
Lent only life: to men, a spirit too.
That mutual kindness in our hearts might burn,
The good which others did us, to return:
That scattered thousands might together come,
Leave their old woods, and seek a general home." Hodgson.
[1133] _Dispersos._ Cic., Tusc. Qu., v., 2, "Tu dissipatos homines in
societatem vitæ convocâsti; tu eos inter se primo domiciliis, deinde
conjugiis, tum literarum et vocum communione junxisti." Hor., i., Sat.
iii., 104, "Dehinc absistere bello: oppida cœperunt munire et ponere
leges." Ar. Poet., 391, "Sylvestres homines sacer interpresque deorum
Cædibus et victu fœdo deterruit Orpheus."
[1134] _Sylvas._ Ov., Met., i., 121, "Tum primum subiere domos. Domus
antra fuerunt, et densi frutices, et vinctæ cortice virgæ." Lucr., v.,
953, "Sed nemora atque cavos montes sylvasque colebant, Et frutices
inter condebant squalida membra."
[1135] _Collata fiducia._
"Thus more securely through the night to rest,
And add new courage to our neighbor's breast." Hodgson.
[1136] _Civem._ Hence the proud inscription on the civic crown, OB.
CIVES. SERVATOS.
[1137] _Concordia._ Plin., H. N., vii., in., "Cætera animantia in suo
genere probè degunt; congregari videmus, et stare contra dissimilia:
Leonum feritas inter se non dimicat: serpentum morsus non petit
serpentes; nec maris quidem belluæ nisi in diversa genera sæviunt. At
Hercule, homini plurima ex homine sunt mala." Hor., Epod., vii., 11,
"Neque hic lupis mos nec fuit leonibus, nunquam nisi in dispar feris."
"Homo homini lupus." Prov. Rom.
[1138] _Cognatis._
"His kindred spots the very pard will spare." Badham.
[1139] _Dentibus apri._
"Nor from his larger tusks the forest boar
Commission takes his brother swine to gore." Dryd.
[1140] _Indica tigris._ Plin., H. N., vin., 18, "Tigris Indica fera
velocitatis tremendæ est, quæ vacuum reperiens cubile fertur præceps
odore vestigans," _et seq._
"In league of Friendship tigers roam the plain,
And bears with bears perpetual peace maintain." Gifford.
[1141] _Ast homini._
"But man, fell man, is not content to make
The deadly sword for murder's impious sake,
Though ancient smiths knew only to produce
Spades, rakes, and mattocks for the rustic's use;
And guiltless anvils in those ancient times
Were not subservient to the soldier's crimes." Hodgson.
[1142] _Gladios._ Virg., Georg., ii., 538.
"Aureus hanc vitam in terris Saturnus agebat.
Necdum etiam audierant inflari classica, necdum
Impositos duris crepitare incudibus enses."
[1143]
"Ev'n this is trifling. We have seen a rage
Too fierce for murder only to assuage;
Seen a whole state their victim piecemeal tear,
And count each quivering limb delicious fare!" Gifford.
[1144] _Pythagoras._ iii., 228, "Culti villicus horti unde epulum
possis centum dare Pythagoreis." Holding the doctrine of the
Metempsychosis, Pythagoras was averse to shedding the blood of any
animal. Various reasons are assigned for his abstaining from beans;
from their shape--from their turning to blood if exposed to moonshine,
etc. Diog. Laert. says (lib. viii. cap. i.), τῶν δὲ κυάμων ἀπηγόρευεν
ἔχεσθαι διὰ τὸ πνευματώδεις ὄντας μᾶλλον μετέχειν τοῦ ψυχικοῦ--καὶ τὰς
καθύπνους φαντασίας λείας καὶ ἀταράχους ἀποτελεῖν. In which view Cicero
seems to concur: De Div., ii., 119, "Pythagoras et Plato, quo in somnis
certiora videamus, præparatos quodam cultu atque victu proficisci ad
dormiendum jubent: Faba quidem Pythagorei utique abstinuere, quasi
vero eo cibo mens non venter infletur." Cf. Ov., Met., xv., 60, _seq._
See Browne's Vulgar Errors, book i., chap. iv. (Bohn's Antiquarian
Library): "When (Pythagoras) enjoined his disciples an abstinence
from _beans_, ... he had no other intention than to dissuade men from
magistracy, or undertaking the public offices of the state; for by
beans was the magistrate elected in some parts of Greece; and after his
days, we read in Thucydides of the Council of the Bean in Athens. It
hath been thought by some an injunction only of continency."
SATIRE XVI.
Who could possibly enumerate, Gallus,[1145] all the advantages that
attend military service when fortunate? For if I could but enter the
camp with lucky omen, then may its gate welcome me, a timid and raw
recruit, under the influence of some auspicious planet. For one hour of
benignant Fate is of more avail than even if Venus'[1146] self should
give me a letter of recommendation to Mars, or his mother Juno, that
delights in Samos' sandy shore.[1147]
Let us treat, in the first place, of advantages in which all share; of
which not the least important is this, that no civilian[1148] must dare
to strike you. Nay, even though he be himself the party beaten,[1149]
he must dissemble his wrath, and not dare to show the prætor[1150]
the teeth he has had knocked out, and the black bruises on his face
with its livid swellings, and all that is left of his eye, which the
physician can give him no hopes of saving. If he wish to get redress
for this, a Bardiac[1151] judge is assigned him--the soldier's boot,
and stalwart calves that throng the capacious benches of the camp, the
old martial law and the precedent of Camillus[1152] being strictly
observed, "that no soldier shall be sued outside the trenches, or at a
distance from the standards."
Of course, where a _soldier_ is concerned, the decision of the
centurion will needs be most equitable;[1153] nor shall I lack my just
revenge, provided only the ground of the complaint I lay be just and
fair.
Yet the whole cohort is your sworn enemy; and all the maniples, with
wonderful unanimity, obstruct the course of justice. Full well will
they take care that the redress you get shall be more grievous than
the injury itself. It will be an act, therefore, worthy of even the
long-tongued Vagellius' mulish heart,[1154] while you have still a
pair of legs to provoke the ire of so many buskins, so many thousand
hob-nails![1155]
For who can go so far from Rome? Besides, who will be such a
Pylades[1156] as to venture beyond the rampart of the camp? So let us
dry up our tears forthwith, and not trouble our friends, who will be
sure to excuse themselves. When the judge calls on you, "Produce your
witness,"[1157] let the man, whoever he may be, that saw the cuffs,
have the courage to stand forth and say, "I saw[1158] the act," and I
will hold him worthy of the beard,[1159] and worthy of the long hair
of our ancestors. You could with greater ease suborn a _false_ witness
against a civilian,[1160] than one who would speak the truth against
the fortune and the dignity of the man-at-arms.
Now let us observe other prizes and other solid advantages of the
military life. If some rascally neighbor has defrauded me of a portion
of the valley of my paternal fields, or encroached on my land, and
removed the consecrated stone from the boundary that separates our
estates, that stone which my pulse has yearly[1161] honored with
the meal-cake derived from ancient days, or if my debtor persists in
refusing repayment of the sum I lent him, asserting that the deed is
invalid and the signature a forgery: I shall have to wait a whole year
occupied with the causes of the whole nation, before my case comes on.
But even then I must put up with a thousand tedious delays, a thousand
difficulties. So many times the benches only are prepared; then, when
the eloquent Cæditius[1162] is laying aside his cloak, and Fuscus
must retire for a little, though all prepared, we must break up; and
battle in the tediously-protracted arena of the court. But in the case
of those who wear armor, and buckle on the belt, whatever time suits
_them_ is fixed for the hearing of their cause, nor is their fortune
frittered away by the slow drag-chain[1163] of the law.
Besides, it is only to soldiers that the privilege is granted, of
making their wills while their fathers are still alive.[1164] For it
has been determined that all that has been earned by the hard toil of
military service should not be incorporated with that sum of which the
father holds the entire disposal. And so it is, that while Coranus
follows the standards and earns his daily pay, his father, though
tottering on the edge of the grave, pays court to his son that he may
make him his heir.
His duties regularly discharged procure the soldier advancement; and
yield to every honest exertion[1165] its justly merited guerdon.[1166]
For doubtless it appears to be the interest of the general himself,
that he that proves himself _brave_ should also be most distinguished
for good fortune, that all may glory in their trappings,[1167] all in
their golden chains.
FOOTNOTES:
[1145] _Gallus._ Of this friend of Juvenal, as of Volusius in the last
Satire, nothing is known. He is perhaps the same person whose name
occurs so frequently in Martial.
[1146] _Veneris._ For her influence over Mars, vid. Lucret., i., 32.
[1147] _Samia arenâ._ Cf. Virg., Æn., i., 15, "Quam Juno fertur terris
magis omnibus unam Posthabitâ coluisse Samo." Herod., ii., 148; iii.,
60. Paus., VII., iv., 4. Athen., xiv., 655; xv., 672. The famous
temple of Juno was said to have been built by the Leleges, the first
inhabitants of the island: her statue, which was of wood, was the
workmanship of Smilis, a contemporary of Dædalus. Juno is said to have
here given birth to Mars, alone. Ov., Fast., v., 229. Samos was the
native country of the peacock, hence sacred to Juno. Cf. vii., 32.
[1148] _Togatus._ The toga, the robe of peace, as the Sagum is that of
war. (So 33, "paganum.") Cf. Juv., viii., 240; x., 8, "Nocitura toga
nocitura petuntur Militia." So "Cedant arma togæ."
[1149] _Pulsetur._ Cf. iii., 300.
[1150] _Prætori._
"Tremble before the Prætor's seat to show
His livid features, swoll'n with many a blow:
His eyes closed up, no sight remaining there,
Left by the honest doctor in despair." Hodgson.
[1151] _Bardiacus._ On the _sense_ of this passage all the commentators
are agreed, though they arrive at it by different routes--"Your judge
will be some coarse, brutal, uncivilized soldier; who cares nothing for
the feelings of the toga'd citizen, or for the principles of justice."
Marius is said to have had a body-guard of slaves, who flocked to
him, chiefly Illyrian; whom he called his "Bardiæi." Pliny calls
them "Vardæi," and Strabo ἀρδιαῖοι. (Cf. Plut., in vit. Mar. Plin.,
iii., 32. Strabo, vii., 5.) Bardiacus (or Bardaicus) may therefore
be taken absolutely, or with judex, or with calceus. If taken alone,
then _cucullus_ is said to be understood, as Mart., xiv., 128, "Gallia
Santonico vestit te Bardocucullo." i., Ep. liv., 5; xiv., 139; IV.,
iv., 5. This "cowl" was made of goats' hair. If taken with calceus, it
would imply some such kind of shoe as the "Udo" in Ep. xiv., 140.
[1152] _Camillo._ This law was passed by Camillus, while dictator,
during the siege of Veii; to prevent his soldiers absenting themselves
from the camp, on the plea of civil business. It led, of course, in
time to the grossest abuses.
[1153] _Justissima._
"Oh! righteous court, where generals preside,
And regimental rogues are justly tried!" Hodgson.
[1154] _Mulino._ Perhaps Stapylton's is the best translation of this
epithet of the declaimer in a hopeless cause. He calls him "a desperate
ass." Others read "Mutinensi."
[1155] _Caligas._ iii., 247, "Plantâ mox undique magnâ calcor, et in
digito clavus mihi militis hæret" (and 322, "Adjutor gelidos veniam
caligatus in agros"). This was one of the _tender_ recollections
Umbritius had when leaving Rome. The caliga, being a thick sole with no
upper leather, bound to the foot with thongs, and studded underneath
with iron nails, would be a fearful thing to encounter on one's shins
or toes. (Justin says, "Antiochus' soldiers were shod with gold;
treading that under foot for which men fight with iron.")
[1156] _Pylades._
"And where's the Pylades, the faithful friend,
That shall thy journey to the camp attend?
Be wise in time! See those tremendous shoes!
Nor ask a service which e'en fools refuse." Badham.
[1157] _Da testem._ Cf. iii., 137.
[1158] _Vidi._ Cf. vii., 13, "Quam si dicas sub judice Vidi, quod non
vidisti."
[1159] _Barba._ Cf. ad iv., 103. Barbers were introduced from Sicily to
Rome by P. Ticinius Mæna, A.U.C. 454. Scipio Africanus is said to have
been the first Roman who shaved daily. Cf. Plin., vii., 95. Hor., i.,
Od. xii., 41, "Incomptis Curium capillis." ii., Od. xv., 11, "Intonsi
Catonis," Tib., II., i., 84, "Intonsis avis."
[1160] _Paganum._ Cf. ad I., 8. It appears that under the emperors
husbandmen were exempt from military service, in order that the land
might not fall out of cultivation. The "paganus," therefore, is opposed
to the "armatus" here, and by Pliny, Epist. x., 18, "Et milites et
pagani." Epist. vii., 25, "Ut in castris, sic etiam in literis nostris
(sunt), plures culto pagano quos cinctos et armatos, diligentius
scrutatus invenies." Pagus is derived from the Doric παγά, because
villages were originally formed round springs of water. Cf. Hooker's
Eccl. Pol., lib. v., c. 80.
"With much more ease false witnesses you'll find
To swear away the life of some poor hind,
Than get the true ones all they know to own
Against a soldier's fortune and renown." Hodgson.
[1161] _Puls annua._ Cf. Dionys. Hal., ii., 9, θεούς τε γὰρ ἡγοῦνται
τοὺς τέρμονας, καὶ θύουσιν αὐτοῖς ἔτι τῶν μὲν ἐμψύχων οὐδὲν· οὐ γὰρ
ὅσιον αἰμάττειν τοὺς λίθους· πελάνους δὲ Δήμητρος, καὶ ἄλλας τινὰς
καρπῶν ἀπαρχάς. "For they hold the boundary stones to be gods; and
sacrifice to them nothing that has life, because it would be impious
to stain the stones with blood; but they offer wheaten cakes, and
other first-fruits of their crops." The divisions of land were
maintained by investing the stones which served as landmarks with a
religious character: the removal of these, therefore, added the crime
of sacrilege to that of dishonesty, and brought down on the heathen
the curse invoked in the purer system of theology, "Cursed be he that
removeth his neighbor's landmark." Deut., xxvii., 17. To these rude
stones, afterward sculptured (like the Hermæ) into the form of the
god Terminus above, the rustics went in solemn procession annually,
and offered the produce of the soil; flowers and fruits, and the
never-failing wine, and "mola salsa." Numa is said by Plutarch to have
introduced the custom into Italy, and one of his anathemas is still
preserved: "Qui terminum exarasit, ipsus et boves sacrei sunto." Cf.
Blunt's Vestiges, p. 204. Hom., Il., xxi., 405. Virg., Æn., xii., 896.
[1162] _Cæditio._ xiii., 197, "Pœna sævior illis quas et Cæditius
gravis invenit et Rhadamanthus." But it is very doubtful whether the
same person is intended here, as also whether Fuscus is the same whose
wife's drinking propensities are hinted at, xii., 45, "dignum sitiente
Pholo, vel conjuge Fusci." (Pliny has an Epistle to Corn. Fuscus, vii.,
9.) He is probably the Aurelius Fuscus to whom Martial wrote, vii., Ep.
28.
[1163] _Sufflamine._
"Nor are their wealth and patience worn away
By the slow drag-chain of the law's delay." Gifford.
[1164] _Testandi vivo patre._ Under ordinary circumstances the power
of a father over his son was absolute, extending even to life and
death, and terminating only at the decease of one of the parties. Hence
"peculium" is put for the sum of money that a father allows a son, or a
master a slave, to have at his own disposal. But even this permission
was revocable. A soldier, who was sui juris, was allowed to name an
heir in the presence of three or four witnesses, and if he fell, this
"nuda voluntas testatoris" was valid. This privilege was extended by
Julius Cæsar to those who were "in potestate patris." "Liberam testandi
factionem concessit, D. Julius Cæsar: sed ea concessio temporalis
erat: postea vero D. Titus dedit: post hoc Domitianus: postea Divis
Nerva plenissimam indulgentiam in milites contulit: eamque et Trajanus
secutus est." "Julius Cæsar granted them the free power of making a
will; but this was only a temporary privilege. It was renewed by Titus
and Domitian. Nerva afterward bestowed on them full powers, which were
continued to them by Trajan." Vid. Ulpian, 23, § 10. The old Schol.,
however, says this privilege was confined to the "peculium Castrense;"
but he is probably mistaken.
[1165] _Labor._ Ruperti suggests "favor," to avoid the harshness of the
phrase "_labor_ reddit sua dona _labori_." Browne reads _reddi_.
[1166] _Dona._ Cf. Sil., xv., 254, "Tum merita æquantur _donis_ et
præmia Virtus sanguine parta capit: Phaleris hic pectora fulget: Hic
torque aurato circumdat bellica colla."
[1167] _Phaleris._ Cf. ad xi., 103, "Ut phaleris gauderet equus."
Siccius Dentatus is said to have had 25 phaleræ, 83 torques, 18 hastæ
puræ, 160 bracelets, 14 civic, 8 golden, 3 mural, and 1 obsidional
crown. Plin., VII., xxviii., 9; xxxiii., 2.
Here the Satire terminates abruptly. The conclusion is too tame to
be such as Juvenal would have left it, even were the whole subject
thoroughly worked up. It is probably an unfinished draught. The
commentators are nearly equally balanced as to its being the work of
Juvenal or not; but one or two of the touches are too masterly to be by
any other hand.
PERSIUS.
PROLOGUE.
I have neither steeped[1168] my lips in the fountain of
the Horse;[1169] nor do I remember to have dreamt on the
double-peaked[1170] Parnassus, that so I might on a sudden come forth a
poet. The nymphs of Helicon, and pale Pirene,[1171] I resign to those
around whose statues[1172] the clinging ivy twines.[1173] I myself,
half a clown,[1174] bring[1175] my verses as a contribution to the
inspired effusions of the poets.
Who made[1176] the parrot[1177] so ready with his salutation, and
taught magpies to emulate our words?--That which is the master of all
art,[1178] the bounteous giver of genius--the belly: that artist that
trains them to copy sounds that nature has denied[1179] them. But if
the hope of deceitful money shall have shone forth, you may believe
that ravens turned poets, and magpies poetesses, give vent to strains
of Pegaseian nectar.[1180]
FOOTNOTES:
[1168] _Prolui._ Proluere, "to dip the lips," properly applied to
cattle. So "procumbere," Sulp., 17. Cf. Stat. Sylv., V., iii., 121,
"Risere sorores Aonides, pueroque chelyn submisit et ora imbuit amne
sacro jam tum tibi blandus Apollo."
[1169] _Fonte Caballino._ Caballus is a term of contempt for a horse,
implying "a gelding, drudge, or beast of burden," nearly equivalent
to Cantherius. Cf. Lucil., ii., fr. xi. (x.), "Succussatoris tetri
tardique Caballi." Hor., i., Sat. vi., 59, "Me Satureiano vectari rura
caballo." Sen., Ep., 87, "Catonem uno caballo esse contentum." So Juv.,
x., 60, "Immeritis franguntur crura caballis." Juvenal also applies
the term to Pegasus: "Ad quam Gorgonei delapsa est pinna caballi,"
iii., 118. Pegasus sprang from the blood of Medusa when beheaded by
Perseus. Ov., Met, iv., 785, "Eripuisse caput collo: pennisque fugacem
Pegason et fratrem matris de sanguine natos." The fountain Hippocrene,
ἱππουκρήνη, sprang up from the stroke of his hoof when he lighted on
Mount Helicon. Ov., Fast., iii., 456, "Cum levis Aonias ungula fodit
aquas." Hes., Theog., 2-6. Hesych., v. ἱππουκρήνη. Paus., Bœot., 31.
Near it was the fountain of Aganippe, and these two springs supplied
the rivers Olmius and Permissus, the favorite haunts of the Muses.
Hesiod, _u. s._ Hence those who drank of these were fabled to become
poets forthwith. Mosch., Id., iii., 77, ἀμφότεροι παγαῖς πεφιλαμένοι· ὃς
μεν ἔπινε Παγασίδος κράνας ὁ δὲ πῶμ' ἔχε τᾶς Ἀρεθοίσας.
[1170] _Bicipiti._ Parnassus is connected toward the southeast with
Helicon and the Bœotian ridges. It is the highest mountain in Central
Greece, and is covered with snow during the greater portion of the
year. The Castalian spring is fed by these perpetual snows, and pours
down the chasm between the two summits. These are two lofty rocks
rising perpendicularly from Delphi, and obtained for the mountain the
epithet δικόρυφον. Eur., Phœn., 234. They were anciently known by the
names of Hyampeia and Naupleia, Herod., viii., 39, but sometimes the
name Phædriades was applied to them in common. The name of Tithorea
was also applied to one of them, as well as to the town of Neon in its
neighborhood. Herod., viii., 32. These heights were sacred to Bacchus
and the Muses, and those who slept in their neighborhood were supposed
to receive inspiration from them. Cf. Propert., III., ii., 1, "Visus
eram molli recubans Heliconis in umbrâ, Bellerophontei quà fluit humor
equi; Reges, Alba, tuos et regum facta tuorum tantum operis nervis
hiscere posse meis." Cf. Virg., Æn., vii., 86. Ov., Heroid., xv., 156,
_seq._
[1171] _Pirenen._ The fountain of Pirene was in the middle of the forum
of Corinth. Ov., Met., ii., 240, "Ephyre Pirenidas undas." It took its
name from the nymph so called, who dissolved into tears at the death of
her daughter Cenchrea, accidentally killed by Diana. The water was said
to have the property of tempering the Corinthian brass, when plunged
red-hot into the stream. Paus., ii., 3. Near the source Bellerophon
is said to have seized Pegasus, hence called the Pirenæan steed by
Euripides. Electr., 475. Cf. Pind., Olymp., xiii., 85, 120. Stat.
Theb., iv., 60, "Cenchreæque manus, vatûm qui conscius amnis Gorgoneo
percussus equo." Ov., Pont., I., iii., 75. The _Latin_ poets alone make
this spring sacred to the Muses. "Pallidam" may refer either to the
legend of its origin, or to the wan faces of the votaries of the Muses.
[1172] _Imagines._ Cf. Juv., vii., 29, "Qui facis in parvâ sublimia
carmina cellâ ut dignus venias hederis et imagine macrâ." Poets were
crowned with _ivy_ as well as _bay_. "Doctarum hederæ præmia frontium."
Hor., i., Od. i., 29. The Muses being the companions of Bacchus as
well as of Apollo. Ov., A. Am., iii., 411. Mart., viii., Ep. 82. The
busts of poets and other eminent literary men were used to adorn public
libraries, especially the one in the temple of Palatine Apollo.
[1173] _Lambunt_, properly said of a dog's tongue, then of flame. Cf.
Virg., Æn., ii., 684, "Tractuque innoxia molli Lambere flamma comas, et
circum tempora pasci." So the ivy, climbing and clinging, seems to lick
with its forked tongue the objects whose form it closely follows.
[1174] _Semipaganus._ Paganus is opposed to miles. Juv., xvi., 33.
Plin., x., Ep. xviii. Here it means, "not wholly undisciplined in the
warfare of letters." So Plin., vii., Ep. 25, "Sunt enim ut in castris,
sic etiam in litteris nostris plures cultu pagano, quos cinctos et
armatos, et quidem, ardentissimo ingenio, diligentius scrutatus
invenies."
[1175] _Affero._ εἰς μέσον φέρω. Casaubon.
[1176] _Quis expedivit._ To preserve his incognito, Persius in this 2d
part of the Prologue represents himself as driven by poverty, though
but unprepared, to write for his bread. So Horace, ii., Ep. xi., 50,
"Decisis humilem pennis inopemque paterni et Laris et fundi paupertas
impulit audax ut versus facerem."
[1177] _Psittaco._ Cf. Stat. Sylv., II., iv., 1, 2, "Psittace, dux
volucrûm, domini facunda voluptas, Humanæ solers imitator, Psittace
linguæ!" Mart., xiv., Ep. lxxiii., 76. χαῖρε was one of the common
words taught to parrots. So εὗ πράττε, Ζεὺς ἵλεως, Cæsar ave. Vid.
Mart., _u. s._
[1178] _Magister artis._ So the Greek proverb, Λιμὸς δὲ πολλῶν γίγνεται
διδάσκαλος. Theoc., xxi., Id. 1, Ἁ Πενιὰ, Διοφαντε, μόνα τὰς τέχνας
ἐγείρει. Plaut. Stich., "Paupertas fecit ridiculus forem. Nam illa
omnes artes perdocet." Cf. Arist., Plut., 467-594. So Ben Jonson, in
the Poetaster, "And between whiles spit out a better poem than e'er the
master of arts, or giver of wit, their belly, made."
[1179] _Negatas._ So Manilius, lib. v., "Quinetiam linguas hominum
sensusque docebit Aerias volucres, novaque in commercia ducet, Verbaque
præcipiet naturæ sorte negatas."
[1180] _Nectar_ is found in two MSS.; all the others have "melos,"
which has been rejected as not making a scazontic line. But Homer, in
his Hymn to Mercury, makes the first syllable long; and also Antipater,
in an Epigram on Anacreon, ἀκμὴν οἳ λυρόεν μελίζεται ἀμφι βαθύλλῳ. Cf.
Theoc., Id., vii., 82, οὕνεκά οι γλυκὺ Μοῖσα στόματος χέε νέκταρ.
SATIRE I.
ARGUMENT.
Under the color of declaring his purpose of writing Satire and
the plan he intends to adopt, and of defending himself against
the idle criticism of an imaginary and nameless adversary,
Persius lashes the miserable poets of his own day, and in no
very obscure terms, their Coryphæus himself, Nero. The subject
of the Satire is not very unlike the first of the second book
of Horace's Satires, and comes very near in some points to the
first Satire of Juvenal. But the manner of treatment is distinct
in each, and quite characteristic of the three great Satirists.
Horace's is more full of personality, one might say, of egotism,
and his own dislike and contempt of the authors of his time,
more lively and brilliant, more pungent and witty, than either
of the others; more pregnant with jokes, and yet rising to a
higher tone than the Satire of Persius. That of Juvenal is in a
more majestic strain, as befits the stern censor of the depraved
morals of his day; full of commanding dignity and grave rebuke,
of fiery indignation and fierce invective; and is therefore more
declamatory and oratorical in its style, more elevated in its
sentiment, more refined in its diction. While in that of Persius
we trace the workings of a young and ardent mind, devoted to
literature and intellectual pleasures, of a philosophical turn,
and a chastened though somewhat fastidious taste. We see the
student and devotee of literature quite as much as the censor of
morals, and can see that he grieves over the corruption of the
public _taste_ almost as deeply as over the general depravity of
public _morals_. Still there breathes through the whole a tone of
high and right feeling, of just and stringent criticism, of keen
and pungent sarcasm, which deservedly places this Satire very
high in the rank of intellectual productions.
The Satire opens with a dialogue between the poet himself and some
one who breaks in upon his meditations. This person is usually
described as his "Monitor;" some well-meaning acquaintance,
who endeavors to dissuade the poet from his purpose of
writing Satire. But D'Achaintre's notion, that he is rather
an ill-natured critic than a good-natured adviser, seems the
more tenable one, and the divisions of the first few lines have
been ingeniously made to support that view. After expressing
supreme contempt for the poet's opening line, he advises him,
if he must needs give vent to verse, to write something more
suited to the taste and spirit of the age he lives in. Persius
acknowledges that this would be the more likely way to gain
applause, but maintains that such approbation is not the end at
which a true poet ought to aim. And this leads him to expose
the miserable and corrupt taste of the poetasters of his day,
and to express supreme contempt for the mania for recitation
then prevalent, which had already provoked the sneers of Horace,
and afterward drew down the more majestic condemnation of
Juvenal. He draws a vivid picture of these depraved poets, who
pander to the gross lusts of their hearers by their lascivious
strains. Their affectation of speech and manner, their costly
and effeminate dress, the vanity of their exalted seat, and
the degraded character of their compositions; and on the other
hand, the excessive and counterfeited applause of their hearers,
expressed by extravagance of language and lasciviousness of
gesture corresponding to the nature of the compositions, are
touched with a masterly hand. He then ridicules the pretensions
of these courtly votaries of the Muses, whose vanity is fostered
by the interested praise of dependents and sycophants, who are
the first to ridicule them behind their backs. He then makes a
digression to the bar; and shows that the manly and vigorous
eloquence of Cicero and Hortensius and Cato, as well as the
masculine energy and dignity of Virgil, is frittered away, and
diluted by the introduction of redundant and misplaced metaphor,
labored antitheses, trifling conceits, accumulated epithets, and
bombastic and obsolete words, and a substitution of rhetorical
subtleties for that energetic simplicity which speaks _from_ and
_to_ the heart. Returning to the poets, he brings in a passage
of Nero's own composition as a most glaring example of these
defects. This excites his friend's alarm, and elicits some
cautious advice respecting the risk he encounters; which serves
to draw forth a more daring avowal of his bold purpose, and an
animated description of the persons whom he would wish to have
for his readers.
PERSIUS. "Oh the cares of men![1181] Oh how much vanity is there in
human affairs!"--
ADVERSARIUS.[1182] Who will read this?[1183]
P. Is it to me you say this?
A. Nobody, by Hercules!
P. Nobody! Say two perhaps, or--
A. Nobody. It is mean and pitiful stuff!
P. Wherefore? No doubt "Polydamas[1184] and Trojan dames" will prefer
Labeo to me--
A. It is all stuff!
P. Whatever turbid Rome[1185] may disparage, do not thou join their
number; nor by that scale of theirs seek to correct thy own false
balance, nor seek[1186] thyself out of thyself. For who is there
at Rome that is not[1187]--Ah! if I might but speak![1188] But I
may,[1189] when I look at our gray hairs,[1190] and our severe way
of life, and all that we commit since we abandoned our childhood's
nuts.[1191] When we savor of uncles,[1192] then--then forgive!
A. I will not!
P. What must I do?[1193] For I am a hearty laugher with a saucy spleen.
We write, having shut ourselves in,[1194] one man verses, another free
from the trammels of metre, something grandiloquent, which the lungs
widely distended with breath may give vent to.
And this, of course, some day, with your hair combed and a new
toga,[1195] all in white with your birthday Sardonyx,[1196] you
will read out from your lofty seat,[1197] to the people, when you
have rinsed[1198] your throat, made flexible by the liquid gargle;
languidly leering with lascivious eye! Here you may see the tall
Titi[1199] in trembling excitement, with lewdness of manner and
agitation of voice, when the verses enter their loins,[1200] and their
inmost parts are titillated with the lascivious strain.
P. And dost thou, in thy old age,[1201] collect dainty bits for the
ears of others? Ears to which even thou, bursting[1202] with vanity,
wouldst say, "Hold, enough!"
A. To what purpose is your learning, unless this leaven, and this wild
fig-tree[1203] which has once taken life within, shall burst through
your liver and shoot forth?
P. See that pallor and premature old age![1204] Oh Morals![1205] Is
then your knowledge so absolutely naught, unless another know you have
that knowledge?[1206]
A. But it is a fine thing to be pointed at with the finger,[1207]
and that it should be said, "That's he!" Do you value it at
nothing, that your works should form the studies[1208] of a hundred
curly-headed[1209] youths?
P. See![1210] over their cups,[1211] the well-filled Romans[1212]
inquire of what the divine poems tell. Here some one, who has
a hyacinthine robe round his shoulders, snuffling through his
nose[1213] some stale ditty, distills and from his dainty palate
lisps trippingly[1214] his Phyllises,[1215] Hypsipyles, and all the
deplorable strains of the poets. The heroes hum assent![1216] Now are
not the ashes[1217] of the poet blest? Does not a tomb-stone press
with lighter weight[1218] upon his bones? The guests applaud. Now
from those Manes of his, now from his tomb and favored ashes, will not
violets spring?[1219]
A. You are mocking and indulging in too scornful a sneer.[1220] Lives
there the man who would disown the wish to deserve the people's
praise,[1221] and having uttered words worthy of the cedar,[1222]
to leave behind him verses that dread neither herrings[1223] nor
frankincense?
P. Whoever thou art that hast just spoken, and that hast a fair
right[1224] to plead on the opposite side, I, for my part, when I
write, if any thing perchance comes forth[1225] aptly expressed (though
this is, I own, a rare bird[1226]), yet if any thing does come forth,
I would not shrink from being praised: for indeed my heart is not of
horn. But I deny that that "excellently!" and "beautifully!"[1227] of
yours is the end and object of what is right. For sift thoroughly
all this "beautifully!" and what does it not comprise within it! Is
there not to be found in it the Iliad of Accius,[1228] intoxicated
with hellebore? are there not all the paltry sonnets our crude[1229]
nobles have dictated? in fine, is there not all that is composed on
couches of citron?[1230] You know how to set before your guests the hot
paunch;[1231] and how to make a present of your threadbare cloak to
your companion shivering with cold,[1232] and then you say, "I do love
the truth![1233] tell me the truth about myself!" How is that possible?
Would you like me to tell it you? Thou drivelest,[1234] Bald-pate,
while thy bloated paunch projects a good foot and a half hanging in
front! O Janus! whom no stork[1235] pecks at from behind, no hand that
with rapid motion imitates the white ass's ears, no tongue mocks,
projecting as far as that of the thirsting hound of Apulia! Ye, O
patrician blood![1236] whose privilege[1237] it is to live with no eyes
at the back of your head, prevent[1238] the scoffs[1239] that are made
behind your back!
What is the people's verdict? What should it be, but that now at length
verses flow in harmonious numbers, and the skillful joining[1240]
allows the critical nails to glide over its polished surface: he
knows how to carry on his verse as if he were drawing a ruddle line
with one eye[1241] closed. Whether he has occasion to write against
public morals, against luxury, or the banquets of the great, the Muses
vouchsafe to our Poet[1242] the saying brilliant things. And see! now
we see those introducing heroic[1243] sentiments, that were wont to
trifle in Greek: that have not even skill enough to describe a grove.
Nor praise the bountiful country, where are baskets,[1244] and the
hearth, and porkers, and the smoky palilia with the hay: whence Remus
sprung, and thou, O Quintius,[1245] wearing away the plow-boards in
the furrow, when thy wife with trembling haste invested thee with
the dictatorship in front of thy team, and the lictor bore thy plow
home--Bravo, poet!
Some even now delight in the turgid book of Brisæan Accius,[1246] and
in Pacuvius, and warty[1247] Antiopa, "her dolorific heart propped up
with woe." When you see purblind sires instilling these precepts into
their sons, do you inquire whence came this gallimaufry[1248] of speech
into our language? Whence that disgrace,[1249] in which the effeminate
Trossulus[1250] leaps up in ecstasy at you, from his bench.
Are you not ashamed[1251] that you can not ward off danger from a
hoary head, without longing to hear the lukewarm "Decently[1252] said!"
"You are a thief!" says the accuser to Pedius. What says Pedius?[1253]
He balances the charge in polished antitheses. He gets the praise of
introducing learned figures. "That is fine!" Fine, is it?[1254] O
Romulus, dost thou wag thy tail?[1255] Were the shipwrecked man to
sing, would he move my pity, forsooth, or should I bring forth my
penny? Do you sing, while you are carrying about a picture[1256] of
yourself on a fragment of wood, hanging from your shoulders. He that
aims at bowing me down by his piteous complaint, must whine out what is
real,[1257] and not studied and got up of a night.
A. But the numbers have grace, and crude as you call them, there is a
judicious combination.
P. He has learned thus to close his line. "Berecynthean Atys;"[1258]
and, "The Dolphin that clave the azure Nereus." So again, "We filched
away a chine from long-extending Apennine."
A. "Arms and the man."[1259] Is not this frothy, with a pithless rind?
P. Like a huge branch, well seasoned, with gigantic bark!
A. What then is a tender strain, and that should be read with neck
relaxed?[1260]
P. "With Mimallonean[1261] hums they filled their savage horns; and
Bassaris, from the proud steer about to rive the ravished head, and
Mænas, that would guide the lynx with ivy-clusters, re-echoes Evion;
and reproductive Echo reverberates the sound!" Could such verses be
written, did one spark of our fathers' vigor still exist in us? This
nerveless stuff dribbles on the lips, on the topmost spittle. In drivel
vests this Mænas and Attis. It neither beats the desk,[1262] nor savors
of bitten nails.
A. But what need is there to grate on delicate ears with biting truth?
Take care, I pray, lest haply the thresholds of the great[1263] grow
cold to you. Here the dog's letter[1264] sounds from the nostril. For
me[1265] then, henceforth, let all be white. I'll not oppose it. Bravo!
For you shall all be very wonderful productions! Does that please you?
"Here, you say, I forbid any one's committing a nuisance." Then paint
up two snakes. Boys, go farther away: the place is sacred! I go away.
P. Yet Lucilius lashed[1266] the city, and thee, O Lupus,[1267]
and thee too, Mucius,[1268] and broke his jaw-bone[1269] on them.
Sly Flaccus touches every failing of his smiling friend, and, once
admitted, sports around his heart; well skilled in sneering[1270] at
the people with well-dissembled[1271] sarcasm. And is it then a crime
for me to mutter, secretly, or in a hole?
A. You must do it nowhere.
P. Yet here I will bury it! I saw, I saw with my own[1272] eyes, my
little book! Who has not asses' ears?[1273] This my buried secret, this
my sneer, so valueless, I would not sell you for any Iliad.[1274]
Whoever thou art, that art inspired[1275] by the bold Cratinus, and
growest pale over the wrathful Eupolis and the old man sublime, turn
thine eyes on these verses also, if haply thou hearest any thing more
refined.[1276] Let my reader glow with ears warmed by their strains.
Not he that delights, like a mean fellow as he is, in ridiculing the
sandals of the Greeks, and can say to a blind man, Ho! you blind
fellow! Fancying himself to be somebody, because vain[1277] of his
rustic honors, as Ædile[1278] of Arretium,[1279] he breaks up the
false measures[1280] there. Nor again, one who has just wit enough to
sneer at the arithmetic boards,[1281] and the lines in the divided
dust; quite ready to be highly delighted, if a saucy wench[1282]
plucks[1283] a Cynic's[1284] beard. To such as these I recommend[1285]
the prætor's edict[1286] in the morning, and after dinner--Callirhoe.
FOOTNOTES:
[1181] _Oh curas!_ These are the opening lines of his Satire, which
Persius is reading aloud, and is interrupted by his "Adversarius." He
represents himself as having meditated on all mundane things, and,
like Solomon, having discovered their emptiness, "Vanitas vanitatum!"
Cf. Juv., Sat. i., 85, "Quidquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira,
voluptas, Gaudia, discursus; nostri est farrago libelli." It is an
adaptation of the old Greek proverb, ὅσον τὸ κένον.
[1182] _Adversarius._ "Interpretes plerique hunc Persii amicum seu
monitorem volunt: ego vero et morosum adversarium, et ridiculum senem
intelligo." D'Achaintre.
[1183] _Quis legit hæc?_ The old Gloss. says this line is taken from
the first book of Lucilius.
[1184] _Næ mihi Polydamas._ Taken from Hector's speech, where he dreads
the reproaches of his brother-in-law Polydamas, and the Trojan men
and women, if he were to retire within the walls of Troy. Il., x.,
105, 108, Πουλυδάμας μοι πρῶτος ἐλεγχείην ἀναθήσει--αἰδέομαι Τρῶας καὶ
Τρωάδας ἑλκεσιπέπλους. Cicero has introduced the same lines in his
Epistle to Atticus: "Aliter sensero? αἰδέομαι non Pompeium modo, sed
Τρῶας καὶ Τρωάδας· Πουλυδάμας μοι πρῶτος ἐλεγχείην ἀναθήσει: Quis? Tu
ipse scilicet; laudator et scriptorum et factorum meorum," vii., 1. By
Polydamas, he intends Nero; by Troïades, the effeminate Romans, who
prided themselves on their Trojan descent. Cf. Juv., i., 100, "Jubet a
præcone vocari ipsos Trojugenas." viii., 181, "At vos Trojugenæ vobis
ignoscitis, et quæ turpia cerdoni Volesos Brutosque decebunt." Attius
Labeo was a miserable court-poet, a favorite of Nero, who applied
himself to translate Homer word for word. Casaubon gives the following
specimen of his poetry: "Crudum manduces Priamum, Priamique pisinnos."
[1185] _Turbida Roma._ "Muddy, not clear in its judgment." A metaphor
from thick, troubled waters. Persius now addresses himself, and uses
the second person. "Though Rome in its perverted judgment should
disparage my writings, I will not subscribe to its verdict, or seek
beyond my own breast for rules to guide my course of action." _Elevet_,
_examen_, _trutina_, are all metaphors from a steelyard or balance.
Trutina is the aperture in the iron that supports the balance, in which
the examen, i. e., the tongue (hasta, lingula), plays. Elevare is
said of that which causes the lanx of the balance to "kick the beam."
Castigare is to set the balance in motion with the finger, until,
perfect equilibrium being obtained, it settles down to a state of rest.
Public taste being distorted, to attempt to correct it would be as
idle as to try to rectify a false balance by merely setting the beam
vibrating.
[1186] _Quæsiveris._ Alluding to the Stoic notion of αὐταρκεῖα: "Each
man's own taste and judgment is to him the best test of right and
wrong."
[1187] _Quis non?_ An ἀποσιώπησις: Whom can you find at Rome that is
not laboring under this perversion of taste and want of self-dependence?
[1188] _Ah, si fas dicere._ Cf. Juv., Sat i., 153, "Unde illa priorum
Scribendi quodcunque animo flagrante liberet Simplicitas, cujus non
audeo dicere nomen." Lucil., Fr. incert. 165.
[1189] _Sed fas._ "When I look at all the childish follies, the empty
pursuits, the ill-directed ambition that, in spite of an affectation
of outward gravity and severity of manners, disgraces even men of
advanced years; the senseless pursuits of men who ought to have given
up all the trifling amusements of childhood, and who yet assume the
grave privilege of censuring younger men; it is difficult not to write
satire."
[1190] _Canities._ See the old proverb, πολιὰ χρόνου μήνυσις οὐ
φρονήσεως. "Hoary hairs are the evidence of time, not of wisdom."
[1191] _Nuces._ Put generally for the playthings of children. Cf.
Suet., Aug., 83. Phædr., Fab. xiv., 2. Mart., v., 84, "Jam tristis
nucibus puer relictis Clamoso revocatur à magistro."
[1192] _Sapimus patruos._ Cf. Hor., iii., Od. xii., 3, "Exanimari
metuentes patruæ verbera linguæ." ii., Sat. iii., 87, "Sive ego pravè
seu rectè hoc volui, ne sis patruus mihi." Parents, being themselves
too indulgent, frequently intrusted their children to the guardianship
of uncles, whose reproofs were more sharp, and their correction more
severe, as they possessed all the authority without the tenderness and
affection of a parent.
[1193] _Quid faciam?_ "How shall I check the outburst of natural
feeling? For my character, implanted by nature, is that of a hearty
laugher." Cachinno is a word used only by Persius. Cf. Juv., iii., 100,
"Rides? majore cachinno concutitur." The ancients held the spleen to
be the seat of laughter, as the gall of anger, the liver of love, the
forehead of bashfulness.
[1194] _Scribimus inclusi._ So Hor., ii., Ep. i., 117, "Scribimus
indocti doctique poemata passim." Inclusi, "avoiding all noise and
interruption, we shut ourselves in our studies." Hor., Ep., II., ii.,
77," Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus et fugit urbes." Juv., Sat.
vii., 58.
[1195] _Togâ._ The indignation of Persius is excited by the declaimer
assuming all the paraphernalia and ornament of the day kept most sacred
by the Romans, viz., their birthday (cf. ad Juv., Sat. xii., 1),
simply for the purpose of reciting his own verses. For this custom of
reciting, cf. ad Juv., vii., 38.
[1196] _Sardonyche._ Cf. Juv., vii., 144, "Ideo conductâ Paulus agebat
Sardonyche." It was the custom for friends and clients to send valuable
presents to their patrons on their birthdays. Cf. ad Juv., iii., 187.
Plaut., Curcul., V., ii., 56, "Hic est annulus quem ego tibi misi
natali die." Juv., Sat. xi., 84.
[1197] _Sede._ The Romans always stood while pleading, and sat down
while reciting. Vid. Plin., vi., Ep. vi., "Dicenti mihi solicitè
assistit; assidet recitanti." These seats were called cathedræ and
pulpita. Vid. Juv., vii., 47, 93. An attendant stood by the person who
was reciting, with some emollient liquid to rinse the throat with.
This preparation of the throat was called πλάσις, and a harsh, dry,
unflexible voice was termed ἀπλαστός.
[1198] _Collueris._ D'Achaintre's reading is preferred here, "Sede
leges celsâ liquido com plasmate guttur Collueris:" for _legens_ and
_colluerit_. _Patranti ocello_ seems to convey the same idea as the
"oculi putres" of Hor., i., Od. xxxvi., 17, and the "oculos in fine
trementes" of Juv., Sat. vii., 241 (cf. ii., 94), "oculos udos et
marcidos," of Apul., Met., iii. Cf. Pers., v., 51, and the epithet
ὑγρὸς, as applied to the eyes of Aphrodite.
[1199] _Titi_, are put here (as Romulidæ in v. 31) for the Romans
generally, among whom, especially the higher orders, Titus was a
favorite prænomen; or Titi may be put for Titienses, as Rhamnes for
Rhamnenses; in either case the meaning is the same. But the other
parts may be differently interpreted. _Hic_ may be equivalent to "cum
operibus tuis;" _trepidare_ mean "the eager applause of the hearers;"
_more probo_ "the approved and usual mode of showing it by simultaneous
shouts" _voce serena_. Cf. Hor., A. P., 430.
[1200] _Lumbum._ Cf. iv., 35. Juv., Sat. vi., 314, "Quum tibia lumbos
incitat."
[1201] _Vetule._ Cf. Juv., xiii., 33, "Die Senior bullâ dignissime."
[1202] _Cute perditus._ "Bloated, swollen, as with dropsy." So
Lucilius, xxviii., Frag. 37, "Quasi aquam in animo habere intercutem."
"Pandering to the lusts of these itching ears, you receive such
overwhelming applause, that though swelling with vanity, even you
yourself are nauseated at the fulsome repetition."--_Ohe._ Cf. Hor.,
ii., Sat. v., 96, "Importunus amat laudari? donec ohe jam ad cœlum
manibus sublatis dixerit urge et crescentem tumidis infla sermonibus
utrem." So i., Sat. v., 12, "Ohe! jam satis est." There may be, as
Madan says, an allusion to the fable of the proud frog who swelled till
she burst. Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 314.
[1203] _Caprificus._ Cf. Juv., x., 143, "Laudis titulique cupido hæsuri
saxis cinerum custodibus, ad quæ discutienda valent sterilis mala
robora ficus. Quandoquidem data sunt ipsis quoque fata sepulcris."
Mart., Ep., X., ii., 9, "Marmora Messalæ findit caprificus."
[1204] _En pallor seniumque!_ "Is then the fruit of all thy study, that
has caused all thy pallor and premature debility, no better than this?
that thou canst imagine no higher and nobler use of learning than for
the purpose of vain display!" Lucilius uses senium for the tedium and
weariness produced by long application.
[1205] _Oh Mores!_ So Cicero in his Oration against Catiline (in Cat.,
i., 1), "O Tempora, O Mores!" Cf. Mart., vi., Ep. ii., 6.
[1206] _Scire tuum._ So l. 9, "Nostrum istud _vivere_ triste." So
Lucilius, "Id me nolo scire mihi cujus sum conscius solus: ne damnum
faciam, scire est nescire nisi id me scire alius scierit."
[1207] _Digito monstrariar._ So Hor., iv., Od. iii., 22, "Quod monstror
digito prætereuntium Romanæ fidicen lyræ." Plin., ix., Epist. xxiii.,
"Et ille 'Plinius est' inquit. Verum fatebor, capio magnum laboris mei
fructum. An, si Demosthenes jure lætatus est quod ilium anus Attica ita
noscitavit οὗτος ἐστι Δημοσθένης ego celebritate nominis mei gaudere
non debeo?" Cic., Tus. Qu., v., 36.
[1208] _Dictata._ The allusion is to Nero, who ordered that his verses
should be taught to the boys in the schools of Rome. The works of
eminent contemporary poets were sometimes the subjects of study in
schools, as well as the standard writings of Virgil and Horace. Cf.
Juv., vii., 226, "Totidem olfecisse lucernas Quot stabant pueri quum
totus decolor esset Flaccus et hæreret nigro fuligo Maroni."
[1209] _Cirratorum._ "Boys of high rank with well-curled hair." Cf.
Mart., i., Ep. xxxv., "Cirrata caterva magistri."
[1210] _Ecce!_ "See," answers Persius, "the noblest result, after all
you can hope to attain, is only to have your poems lisped through by
men surcharged with food and wine!"
[1211] _Inter pocula._ Cf. Juv., vi., 434; xi., 178.
[1212] _Romulidæ_, the degenerate self-styled descendants of Romulus.
With equal bitterness Juvenal calls them "Quirites," iii., 60;
"Trojugenæ," viii., 181; xi., 95; "Turba Remi," x., 73.
[1213] _Balba de nare._ Balbutire is properly a defect of the _tongue_,
not of the nose.
[1214] _Eliquare_ is properly used of the melting down of metals. It is
here put for effeminate affectation of speech.
[1215] _Phyllidas._ Not alluding probably to the Heroics of Ovid on
these two subjects, but to some wretched trash of his own day.
[1216] _Assensere._ From Ov., Met., ix., 259, "Assensere Dei." So xiv.,
592.
[1217] _Cinis._ Cf. Ov., Trist., III., iii., 76. Amor., III., ix., 67,
"Ossa quieta precor tuta requiescite in urnâ, Et sit humus cineri non
onerosa tuo." Propert., I., xvii., 24, "Ut mihi non ullo pondere terra
foret." Juv., vii., 207, "Dii Majorum umbris tenuem et sine pondere
terram Spirantesque crocos et in urnâ. perpetuum ver."
[1218] _Levior cippus._ Virg., Ecl., x., 33, "Oh mihi tum quam molliter
ossa quiescant." Alluding to the usual inscription on the sepulchral
cippi, "Sit tibi terra levis." It is strange, says D'Achaintre, that
the Romans should wish the earth to press lightly on the bones of their
friends, whom they honored with ponderous grave-stones and pillars;
while they prayed that "earth would lie heavy" on their enemies, to
whom they accorded no such honors.
[1219] _Nascentur violæ._ Cf. Hamlet, Act v., sc. 1, "And from her fair
and unpolluted flesh shall violets spring."
[1220] _Uncis naribus._ Hor., i., Sat. vi., 5, "Ut plerique solent naso
suspendis adunco Ignotos." ii., Sat. viii., 64, "Balatro suspendens
omnia naso." Mart., i., Ep. iv., 6, "Nasum Rhinocerotis habent." The
Greek μυκτηρίζειν.
[1221] _Os populi_, as the Greeks say, τὸ διὰ τοῦ στόματος εἶναι: and
Ennius, "Volito vivus' per ora virûm."
[1222] _Cedro._ From the antiseptic properties of this wood, it was
used for presses for books, which were also dressed with the oil
expressed from the tree. Plin., H. N., xiii., 5; xvi., 88. Cf. Hor., A.
P., 331, "Speramus carmina fingi posse linenda cedro et levi servanda
cupresso." Mart., v., Ep. vi., 14, "Quæ cedro decorata purpurâque
nigris pagina crevit umbilicis." Dioscorides calls the cedar τῶν νεκρῶν
ζωήν. i., 89.
[1223] _Scombros._ Hor., ii., Ep. i., 266, "Cum scriptore meo capsâ
porrectus apertâ deferar in vicum vendentem thus et odores et piper
et quidquid chartis amicitur ineptis." Mart., vi., Ep. lx., 7, "Quam
multi tineas pascunt blattasque diserti, Et redimunt soli carmina docta
coci," i. e., verses so bad as to be only fit for wrapping up cheap
fish and spices.
[1224] _Fas est._ D'Achaintre's reading and interpretation is adopted,
instead of the old and meaningless _feci_.
[1225] _Exit._ A metaphor from the potter's wheel. Hor., A. P., 21,
"Amphora cœpit institui currente rotâ cur urceus _exit_?"
[1226] _Rara avis._ "An event as rare as the appearance of the Phœnix."
Cf. Juv., Sat. vi., 165, "Rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima
cygno." vii., 202, "Corvo quoque rarior albo." Hor., ii., Sat. ii., 26.
[1227] _Euge! Belle!_ The exclamations of one praising the recitations.
"Though a Stoic, and therefore holding that virtue is its own reward, I
am not so stony-hearted as to shrink from all praise. Yet I deny that
this idle, worthless praise can form the legitimate end and object of a
wise man's aim."
[1228] _Ilias Acci._ Cf. ad v., 4. The effusion not of true genius,
but of the besotting influence of drugs. "The poet," as Casaubon says,
"has not reached the inspiring heights of Hippocrene, but muddled
himself with the hellebore that grows on the way thither." The ancients
were not unacquainted with the use of this artificial stimulant to
genius. Cf. Plin., xxv., 5, "Quondam terribile, postea tam promiscuum,
ut plerique studiorum gratia ad providenda acrius quæ commentabantur
sumpsitaverint."
[1229] _Crudi_; i. e., "over their banquets." «Literally "undigested,"
as Juv., Sat. i., 143, "Crudum pavonem in balnea portas." Hor., i., Ep.
vi., 6, "Crudi tumidique lavemur."» ii., Ep. i., 109, "Pueri patresque
severi fronde comas vincti cœnant et carmina dictant." Cf. Pers., iii.,
98.
[1230] _Citreis._ Cf. ad Juv., xi., 95.
[1231] _Sumen._ Juv., xi., 81; xii., 73. Lucil., v., fr. 5. "You
purchase their applause by the good dinners you give them." Cf. Hor.,
i., Epist. xix., 37, "Non ego ventosæ plebis suffragia venor Impensis
cœnarum et tritæ munere vestis."
[1232] _Horridulum._ Juv., i., Sat. 93, "Horrenti tunicam non reddere
servo." Ov., A. Am., ii., 213.
[1233] _Verum amo._ Plaut., Mostill., I., iii., 24, "Ego verum amo:
verum volo mihi dici: mendacem odi." Hor., A. P., 424, "Mirabor si
sciet internoscere mendacem verumque beatus amicum. Tu seu donaris
seu quid donare voles cui, nolito ad versus tibi factos ducere plenum
lætitiæ; clamabit enim pulchre! bene! recte!"
[1234] _Nugaris._
"Dotard! this thriftless trade no more pursue.
Your lines are bald, and dropsical like you!" Gifford.
[1235] _Ciconia: manus: lingua._ These are three methods employed even
to the present day in Italy of ridiculing a person behind his back.
Placing the fingers so as to imitate a stork pecking; moving the hands
up and down by the side of the temples like an ass's ears flapping; and
thrusting the tongue out of the mouth or into the side of the cheek.
[1236] _Patricius sanguis._ Hor., A. P., 291, "Vos O Pompilius sanguis!"
[1237] _Jus est._ "Ye, whose position places you above the necessity of
writing verses for gain, by refraining from writing your paltry trash,
avoid the ridicule that you are unconsciously exciting."
[1238] _Occurrite._ So iii., 64, "Venienti occurrite morbo."
[1239] _Sannæ._ Juv., vi., 306, "Quâ sorbeat aera sannâ."
[1240] _Junctura._ A metaphor from statuaries or furniture-makers,
who passed the nail over the marble or polished wood, to detect any
flaw or unevenness. So Lucilius compares the artificial arrangement of
words to the putting together a tesselated pavement. Frag. incert. 4,
"Quam lepide lexeis compostæ? ut tesserulæ omnes Arte pavimento atque
emblemate vermiculato." Cf. Hor., A. P., 292, "Carmen reprehendite quod
non multa dies et multa litura coercuit atque perfectum decies non
castigavit ad unguem." i., Sat. v., 32," Ad unguem factus homo." ii.,
Sat. vii., 87. Appul., Fl., 23, "Lapis ad unguem coæquatus." Sidon.
Apoll., ix., Ep. 7, "Veluti cum crystallinas crustas aut onychitinas
non impacto digitus ungue perlabitur: quippe si nihil eum rimosis
obicibus exceptum tenax fractura remoretur." This operation the Greeks
expressed by ἐξονυχίζειν. Polycletus used to say, χαλεπώτατον εἶναι τὸ
ἔργον ὅταν ἐν ὄνυχι ὁ πηλὸς γίγνηται. "The most difficult part of the
work is when the nail comes to be applied to the clay."
[1241] _Oculo uno._ From carpenters or masons, who shut one eye to
draw a straight line. θατέρῳ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἄμεινον πρὸς τοὺς κανόνας
ἀπευθύνοντας τὰ ξύλα. Luc., Icarom., ii.
[1242] _Poetæ._ Probably another hit at Nero.
[1243] _Heroas._ Those who till lately have confined themselves to
trifling effusions in Greek, now aspire to the dignity of Tragic poets.
[1244] _Corbes, etc._ The usual common-places of poets singing in
praise of a country life. The Palilia was a festival in honor of the
goddess Pales, celebrated on the 21st of April, the anniversary of the
foundation of Rome. During this festival the rustics lighted fires of
hay and stubble, over which they leaped by way of purifying themselves.
Cf. Varro, L. L., v., 3, "Palilia tam privata quam publica sunt apud
rusticos: ut congestis cum fæno stipulis, ignem magnum transsiliant,
his Palilibus se expiari credentes." Prop. iv., El. i., 19, "Annuaque
accenso celebrare Palilia fæna."
[1245] _Quintius._ Cincinnatus. Cf. Liv., iii., 26.
[1246] _Accius_ is here called Brisæus, an epithet of Bacchus, because
he wrote a tragedy on the same subject as the Bacchæ of Euripides.
[1247] _Venosus_ is probably applied to the hard knotted veins that
stand out on the faces and brows of old men. The allusion, therefore,
is to the taste of the Romans of Persius' days, for the rugged,
uncouth, and antiquated writing of their earlier poets. Nearly the
same idea is expressed by the word _verrucosa_, "full of warts, hard,
knotty, horny." Cicero mentions this play: "Quis Ennii Medeam, et
Pacuvii Antiopam contemnat et rejiciat," de Fin., i., 2. The remainder
of the line is a quotation from Pacuvius. The word _ærumna_ was
obsolete when Quintilian wrote.
[1248] _Sartago._ Juv., x., 64. Properly "a frying-pan," then used for
the miscellaneous ingredients put into it; or, as others think, for
the sputtering noise made in frying, to which Persius compared these
"sesquipedalia verba." Casaubon quotes a fragment of the comic poet
Eubulus, speaking of the same thing, Λοπὰς παφλάζει βαρβάρῳ λαλήματι,
Πηδῶσι δ' ἰχθῦς ἐν μέσοισι τηγάνοις. "The dish splutters, with
barbarous prattle, and the fish leap in the middle of the frying-pan."
The word is said to be of Syriac origin.
[1249] _Dedecus._ The disgrace of corrupting the purity and simplicity
of the Latin language, by the mixture of this jargon of obsolete words
and phrases.
[1250] _Trossulus_ was a name applied to the Roman knights, from the
fact of their having taken the town of Trossulum in Etruria without the
assistance of the infantry. It was afterward used as a term of reproach
to effeminate and dissolute persons. The _Subsellia_ are the benches on
which these persons sit to hear the recitations. _Exultat_ expresses
the rapturous applause of the hearers. Hor., A. P., 430, "Tundet pede
terram."
[1251] _Nilne pudet?_ He now attacks those who, even while pleading in
defense of a friend whose life is at stake, would aim at the applause
won by pretty conceits and nicely-balanced sentences. Niebuhr, Lect.,
vol. iii., p. 191, _seq._
[1252] _Decenter_ is a more lukewarm expression of approbation than
euge or belle, pulchre or benè.
[1253] _Pedius_ Blæsus was accused of sacrilege and peculation by the
Cyrenians: he undertook his own defense, and the result was, he was
found guilty and expelled from the senate. Tac., Ann., xiv., 18.
[1254] _Bellum hoc_ is the indignant repetition by Persius of the words
of applause.
[1255] _Ceves._ "Does the descendant of the vigorous and warlike
Romulus stoop to winning favor by such fawning as this?" _Cevere_ is
said of a dog. Shakspeare, K. Henry VIII., act v., sc. 2, "You play the
spaniel, and think with wagging of your tongue to win me."
[1256] _Pictum._ Cf. ad Juv., xiv., 301, "Mersâ rate naufragus assem
dum rogat et pictâ se tempestate tuetur."
[1257] _Verum._ His tale must not smack of previous preparation, but
must bear evidence of being genuine, natural, and spontaneous. So Hor.,
A. P., 102, "Si vis me flere dolendum est primum ipsi tibi: tunc tua me
infortunia lædent."
[1258] _Atyn._ These are probably quotations from Nero, as Dio says
(lxi., 21), ἐκιθαρώδησεν Ἀττῖνα. The critics are divided as to the
defects in these lines; whether Persius intends to ridicule their
bombastic affectation, or the unartificial and unnecessary introduction
of the Dispondæus, and the rhyming of the terminations, like the
Leonine or monkish verses.
[1259] _Arma virum._ The first words are put for the whole Æneid. The
critic objects, "Are not Virgil's lines inflated and frothy equally
with those you ridicule." Persius answers in the objector's metaphor,
"They resemble a noble old tree with well-seasoned bark, not the crude
and sapless pith I have just quoted."
[1260] _Laxa cervice._ Alluding to the affected position of the head on
one side, of those who recited these effeminate strains.
[1261] _Mimalloneis._ The four lines following are said to be Nero's,
taken from a poem called Bacchæ: the subject of which was the same as
the play of Euripides of that name, and many of the ideas evidently
borrowed from it. Its affected and turgid style is very clear from
this fragment. The epithets are all far-fetched, and the images
preposterous. The Bacchantes were called Mimallones from Mimas, a
mountain in Ionia. Bassareus was an epithet of Bacchus, from the
fox's skin in which he was represented: and the feminine form is here
applied to Agave: by the _vitulus_, Pentheus is intended: the Mænad
guides the car of Bacchus, drawn by spotted lynxes, not with reins, but
with clusters of ivy. "Could such verses be tolerated," Persius asks
indignantly, "did one spark of the homely, manly, vigorous spirit of
our sires still thrill in our veins? Verses which show no evidence of
anxious thought and careful labor, but flow as lightly from the lips as
the spittle that drivels from them."
[1262] _Pluteum._ Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 7, "Culpantur frustra
calami, immeritusque laborat Iratis natus paries Diis atque poëtis."
i., Sat. x., 70, "Et in versu faciendo sæpe caput scaberet vivos et
roderet ungues."
[1263] _Majorum._ Hor., ii., Sat. i., 60, "O puer ut sis Vitalis metuo,
et majorum ne quis amicus frigore te feriat."
[1264] _Canina litera._ All the commentators are agreed that this
is the letter R, because the "burr" of the tongue in pronouncing it
resembles the snarl of a dog (cf. Lucil., lib. i., fr. 22, "Irritata
canis quod homo quam planius dicat"), but to _whom_ the growl refers is
a great question. It may be the surly answer of the great man's porter
who has orders not to admit you, or the growl of the dog chained at his
master's gate, who shares his master's antipathy to you; or again it
may be taken, as by Gifford,
"This currish humor you extend too far,
While every word growls with that hateful gnarr.
Lubinus explains it, "Great men are always irritable; and therefore in
their houses this sound is often heard."
[1265] _Per me._ "I will take your advice then: but let me know whose
verses I am to spare: just as sacred places have inscriptions warning
us to avoid all defilement of them."
[1266] _Secuit Lucilius._ So Juv., i., 165, "Ense velut stricto quoties
Lucilius ardens infremuit."
[1267] _Lupe._ Lucilius in his first book introduces the gods sitting
in council and deliberating what punishment shall be inflicted on the
perjured and impious Lupus. This Lupus is generally considered to be P.
Rutilius Lupus, consul A.U.C. 664. But Orellius shows that it is more
probably L. Corn. Lentulus Lupus, consul in A.U.C. 597. The fragment is
to be found in Cic., de Nat. Deor., i., 23, 65. Cf. Lucil., Fr., lib.
i., 4. Hor., ii., Sat. i., 68.
[1268] _Muti._ T. Mucius Albutius, whom Lucilius ridicules for his
affected fondness for Greek customs. Cf. Lucil., Fr. incert. 3. Juv.,
Sat. i., 154, "Quid refert dictis ignoscat Mucius an non?" Cic., de
Fin., i., 3, 8. Varro, de R. R., iii., 2, 17.
[1269] _Genuinum._ Hor., ii., Sat. i., 77, "Et fragili quærens illidere
dentem, offendet solido?" "dens genuinus, qui a genis dependet: sic non
leo morsu illos pupugit." Cas., Juv. v., 69, "Quæ genuinum agitent non
admittentia morsum."
[1270] _Suspendere._ Cf. ad i., 40.
[1271] _Excusso_ may be also explained "without a wrinkle," or,
as D'Achaintre takes it, of the shaking of the head of a person,
ridiculing as he reads.
[1272] _Cum Scrobe._ Alluding to the well-known story of the barber who
discovered the ass's ears of King Midas, which he had given him for
his bad taste in passing judgment on Apollo's skill in music; and who,
not daring to divulge the secret to any living soul, dug a hole in the
ground and whispered it, and then closed the aperture. But the wind
that shook the reeds made them murmur forth his secret. Cf. Ov., Met.,
xi., 180-193.
[1273] _Auriculas._ Persius is said to have written at first "Mida rex
habet," but was persuaded by Cornutus to change the line, as bearing
too evident an allusion to Nero.
[1274] _Iliade_, such as that of Accius, mentioned above.
[1275] _Afflate._ Persius now describes the class of persons he would
wish to have for his readers. Men thoroughly imbued with the bold
spirit of the old comedians, Cratinus, Eupolis, and Aristophanes: not
those who have sufficient βαναυσία and bad taste to think that true
Satire would condescend to ridicule either national peculiarities, or
bodily defects; which should excite our pity rather than our scorn.
[1276] _Decoctius._ A metaphor from the boiling down of fruits, wine,
or other liquids, and increasing the strength by diminishing the
quantity. As Virgil is said to have written fifty lines or more in the
morning, and to have cut them down by the evening to ten or twelve.
[1277] _Supinus_ implies either "indolence," "effeminacy," or "pride."
Probably the last is intended here, as Casaubon says, "proud men walk
so erectly that they see the sky as well as if they lay on their
backs." Quintilian couples together "otiosi et supini," x., 2. Cf.
Juv., i., 190, "Et multum referens de Mæcenate supino." Mart., ii., Ep.
6, "Deliciæ supiniores." Mart., v., Ep. 8, also uses it in the sense
of _proud_. "Hæc et talia cum refert supinus." It also bears, together
with its cognate substantive, the sense of "stupidity."
[1278] _Ædilis._ Juv., x., 101, "Et de mensurâ jus dicere, vasa minora
Frangere pannosus vacuis Ædilis Ulubris."
[1279] _Arreti_, a town of Etruria, now "Arezzo." Cf. Mart., xiv., Ep.
98.
[1280] _Heminas_, from ἥμισο. Half the Sextarius, called also Cotyla.
[1281] _Abaco._ The frame with movable counters or balls for the
purpose of calculation. _Pulvere_ is the sand-board used in the schools
of the geometers for drawing diagrams.
[1282] _Nonaria._ Women of loose character were not permitted to show
themselves in the streets till after the ninth hour. Such at least is
the interpretation of the old Scholiast, adopted by Casaubon. The word
does not occur elsewhere.
[1283] _Vellet._ Hor., i., Sat. iii., 133, "Vellunt tibi barbam Lascivi
pueri." Dio Chrys., Or. lxxii., p. 382, φιλόσοφον ἀχίτωνα ἐρεθίζουσι
καὶ ἤτοι κατεγέλασαν ἢ ἐλοιδόρησαν ἢ ἐνίοτε ἕλκουσιν ἐπιλαβόμενοι.
[1284] _Cynico._ There is probably an allusion to the story of Lais and
Diogenes, Athen., lib. xiii.
[1285] _Do._ So Hor., i., Epist. xix., 8, "Forum putealque Libonis
mandabo siccis."
[1286] _Edictum_, i. e., Ludorum, or muneris gladiatorii; the programme
affixed to the walls of the forum, announcing the shows that were to
come. The reading of these would form a favorite amusement of idlers
and loungers. Callirhoe is probably some well-known nonaria of the
day. Persius advises hearers of this class to spend their mornings in
reading the prætor's edicts, and their evenings in sensual pleasures,
as the only occupations they were fit for. Marcilius says that it
refers to an edict of Nero's, who ordered the people to attend on
a certain day to hear him recite his poem of Callirhoe, which, as
D'Achaintre says, would be an admirable interpretation, were not the
whole story of the edict a mere fiction.
SATIRE II.
ARGUMENT.
This Satire, as well as the tenth Satire of Juvenal, is based upon
the Second Alcibiades of Plato, which it closely resembles in
arrangement as well as sentiment.
The object is the same in all three; to set before as the real
opinion which all good and worthy men entertained, even in the
days of Pagan blindness, of the manner and spirit in which the
deity is to be approached by prayer and sacrifice, and holds up
to reprobation and ridicule the groveling and low-minded notions
which the vulgar herd, besotted by ignorance and blinded by
self-interest, hold on the subject. While we admire the logical
subtlety with which Plato leads us to a necessary acknowledgment
of the justice of his view, and the thoroughly practical
philosophy by which Juvenal would divert men from indulging in
prayers dictated by mere self-interest, we must allow Persius
the high praise of having compressed the whole subject with a
masterly hand into a few vivid and comprehensive sentences.
The Satire consists of three parts. The first is merely an
introduction to the subject. Taking advantage of the custom
prevalent among the Romans of offering prayers and victims,
and receiving presents and congratulatory addresses from their
friends, on their birthday, Persius sends a poetical present to
his friend Plotius Macrinus, with some hints on the true nature
of prayer. He at the same time compliments him on his superiority
to the mass of mankind, and especially to those of his own rank,
in the view he took of the subject.
In the second part he exposes the vulgar errors and prejudices
respecting prayer and sacrifice, and shows that prayers usually
offered are wrong, 1st, as to their _matter_, and 2dly, as to
their _manner_: that they originate in low and sordid views of
self-interest and avarice, in ignorant superstition, or the
cravings of an inordinate vanity. At the same time he holds
up to scorn the folly of those who offer up costly prayers,
the fulfillment of which they themselves render impossible, by
indulging in vicious and depraved habits, utterly incompatible
with the requests they prefer. Lastly, he explains the origin of
these sordid and worse than useless prayers. They arise from the
impious and mistaken notions formed by men who, vainly imagining
that the Deity is even such a one as themselves, endeavor to
propitiate his favor in the same groveling spirit, and with the
same unworthy offerings with which they would bribe the goodwill
of one weak and depraved as themselves; as though, in Plato's
words, an ἐμπορικὴ τέχνη had been established between themselves
and heaven. The whole concludes with a sublime passage,
describing in language almost approaching the dignity of inspired
wisdom, the state of heart and moral feeling necessary to insure
a favorable answer to prayers preferred at the throne of heaven.
"Mark this day, Macrinus,[1287] with a whiter stone,[1288] which, with
auspicious omen, augments[1289] thy fleeting years.[1290] Pour out
the wine to thy Genius![1291] Thou at least dost not with mercenary
prayer ask for what thou couldst not intrust to the gods unless taken
aside. But a great proportion of our nobles will make libations
with a silent censer. It is not easy for every one to remove from
the temples his murmur and low whispers, and live with undisguised
prayers.[1292] A sound mind,[1293] a good name, integrity"--for
these he prays aloud, and so that his neighbor may hear. But in his
inmost breast, and beneath his breath, he murmurs thus, "Oh that my
uncle would evaporate![1294] what a splendid funeral! and oh that by
Hercules'[1295] good favor a jar[1296] of silver would ring beneath
my rake! or, would that I could wipe out[1297] my ward, whose heels
I tread on as next heir! For he is scrofulous, and swollen with
acrid bile. This is the third wife that Nerius is now taking[1298]
home!"--That you may pray for these things with due holiness, you
plunge your head twice or thrice of a morning[1299] in Tiber's
eddies,[1300] and purge away the defilements of night in the running
stream.
Come now! answer me! It is but a little trifle that I wish to know!
What think you of Jupiter?[1301] Would you care to prefer him to some
man! To whom? Well, say to Staius.[1302] Are you at a loss indeed?
Which were the better judge, or better suited to the charge of orphan
children! Come then, say to Staius that wherewith you would attempt to
influence the ear of Jupiter. "O Jupiter!"[1303] he would exclaim, "O
good Jupiter!" But would not Jove himself call out, "O Jove!"
Thinkest thou he has forgiven thee,[1304] because, when he thunders,
the holm-oak[1305] is rather riven with his sacred bolt than thou
and all thy house?[1306] Or because thou dost not, at the bidding of
the entrails of the sheep,[1307] and Ergenna, lie in the sacred grove
a dread bidental to be shunned of all, that therefore he gives thee
his insensate beard to pluck?[1308] Or what is the bribe by which
thou wouldst win over the ears of the gods? With lungs, and greasy
chitterlings? See[1309] some grandam or superstitious[1310] aunt
takes the infant from his cradle, and skilled in warding off the evil
eye,[1311] effascinates his brow and driveling lips with middle[1312]
finger and with lustral spittle, first. Then dandles[1313] him in her
arms, and with suppliant prayer transports him either to the broad
lands of Licinus[1314] or the palaces of Crassus.[1315] "Him may some
king and queen covet as a son-in-law! May maidens long to ravish him!
Whatever he treads on may it turn to roses!" But I do not trust prayers
to a nurse.[1316] Refuse her these requests, great Jove, even though
she make them clothed in white![1317]
You ask vigor for your sinews,[1318] and a frame that will insure old
age. Well, so be it. But rich dishes and fat sausages prevent the gods
from assenting to these prayers, and baffle Jove himself.
You are eager to amass a fortune, by sacrificing a bull; and court
Mercury's favor by his entrails. "Grant that my household gods may make
me lucky! Grant me cattle, and increase to my flocks!" How can that be,
poor wretch, while so many cauls of thy heifers melt in the flames?
Yet still he strives to gain his point by means of entrails and rich
cakes.[1319] "Now my land, and now my sheepfold teems. Now, surely
now, it will be granted!" Until, baffled and hopeless, his sestertius
at the very bottom of his money-chest sighs in vain.
Were I to offer you[1320] goblets of silver and presents embossed with
rich gold,[1321] you would perspire with delight, and your heart,
palpitating with joy in your left breast,[1322] would force even the
tear-drops from your eyes. And hence it is the idea enters[1323]
your mind of covering the sacred faces of the gods with triumphal
gold.[1324] For among the Brazen brothers,[1325] let those be chief,
and let their beards be of gold, who send dreams purged from gross
humors. Gold hath expelled the vases of Numa[1326] and Saturnian[1327]
brass, and the vestal urns and the pottery of Tuscany.
Oh! souls bowed down to earth! and void of aught celestial! Of what
avail is it to introduce into the temples of the gods these our modes
of feeling, and estimate what is acceptable to them by referring to our
own accursed flesh.[1328] This it is that has dissolved Cassia[1329]
in the oil it pollutes. This has dyed the fleece of Calabria[1330]
with the vitiated purple. To scrape the pearl from its shell, and from
the crude ore to smelt out the veins of the glowing mass; this carnal
nature bids. She sins in truth. She sins. Still from her vice gains
some emolument.
* * * * *
Say ye, ye priests! of what avail is gold in sacrifice? As much,
forsooth, as the dolls which the maiden bestows on Venus! Why do we not
offer that to the gods which the blear-eyed progeny of great Messala
can not give even from his high-heaped charger. Justice to god and man
enshrined[1331] within the heart; the inner chambers[1332] of the soul
free from pollution; the breast imbued[1333] with generous honor. Give
me these to present at the temples, and I will make my successful
offering[1334] with a little meal.[1335]
FOOTNOTES:
[1287] _Macrine._ Nothing is known of this friend of Persius, but from
the old Scholiast, who tells us that his name was Plotius Macrinus;
that he was a man of great learning, and of a fatherly regard for
Persius, and that he had studied in the house of Servilius. Britannicus
calls him Minutius Macrinus, and says he was of equestrian rank, and a
native of Brixia, now "Brescia."
[1288] _Meliore lapillo._ The Thracians were said to put a _white_
stone into a box to mark every happy day they spent, and a _black_
stone for every unhappy day, and to reckon up at the end of their
lives how many happy days they had passed. Plin., H. N., vii., 40.
So Mart., ix., Ep. 53, "Natales, Ovidi, tuos Apriles Ut nostras amo
Martias Kalendas; Felix utraque lux diesque nobis Signandi melioribus
lapillis." Hor., i., Od. xxxvi., 10, "Cressâ ne careat pulchra dies
notâ." Plin., Ep. vi., 11, "O Diem lætum notandum mihi candidissimo
calculo." Cat., lxviii., 148, "Quem lapide illa diem candidiore notet."
[1289] _Apponit._ A technical word in calculating; as in Greek,
τιθέναι, and προστιθέναι. So "Appone lucro." Hor., i., Od. ix., 14.
[1290] _Annos._ For the respect paid by the Romans to their birthdays,
see Juv., xi., 83; xii., 1; Pers., vi., 19; and Censorinus, de Die
Natali, pass.
[1291] _Genio._ Genius, "a genendo." The deity who presides over each
man from his birth, as some held, being coeval with the man himself.
The birthday was sacred to him; the offerings consisted of wine,
flowers, and incense. "Manum a sanguine abstinebant: ne die quâ ipsi
lucem accepissent, aliis demerent." Censor, a Varrone. Cf. Serv. ad
Virg., Geor., i., 302. Hor., ii., Ep. ii., 187, "Scit Genius natale
comes qui temperat astrum, naturæ deus humanæ, mortalis in unumquodque
caput;" and ii., Ep. i., 143, "Sylvanum lacte piabant, Floribus et vino
Genium memorem brevis ævi." Cf. Orell., in loc. On other days, they
offered bloody victims also to the Genius. "Cras Genium mero Curabis et
porco bimestri." Hor., iii., Od. xvii., 14.
[1292] _Aperto voto._ "To offer no prayer that you would fear to
divulge," according to the maxim of Pythagoras, μετὰ φωνῆς εὔχεο,
and that of Seneca, "Sic vive cum hominibus tanquam deus videat: sic
loquere cum deo tanquam homines audiant."
[1293] _Mens bona._ Juv., x., 356, "Orandum est ut sit mens sana in
corpore sano."
[1294] _Ebullit._ "Boil away."
[1295] _Hercule._ Hercules was considered the guardian of hidden
treasure, and as Mercury presided over open gains and profits by
merchandise, so Hercules was supposed to be the giver of all sudden and
unexpected good fortune; hence called πλουτοδότης. Cf. Hor., ii., Sat.
vi., 10, "O si urnam argenti fors quæ mihi monstret ut illi Thesauro
invento qui mercenarius agrum illum ipsum mercatus aravit, dives amico
Hercule."
[1296] _Seria_, "a tall, narrow, long-necked vessel, frequently used
for holding money."
[1297] _Expungam_, a metaphor from the military roll-calls, from which
the names of all soldiers dead or discharged were expunged.
[1298] _Ducitur._ Casaubon reads "conditur." Cf. Mart., x., Ep. xliii.,
"Septima jam Phileros tibi conditur uxor in agro: Plus nulli, Phileros,
quam tibi reddit ager."
[1299] _Mane._ Cf. Tibull., III., iv., 9, "At natum in curas hominum
genus omina noctis farre pio placant et saliente sale." Propert., III.,
x., 13, "Ac primum purâ somnum tibi discute lymphâ." The ancients
believed that night itself, independently of any extraneous pollution,
occasioned a certain amount of defilement which must be washed away
in pure water at daybreak. Cf. Virg., Æn., viii., 69, "Nox Ænean
somnusque reliquit. Surgit et ætherii spectans orientia Solis Lumina
rite cavis undam de flumine palmis Sustulit." Cf. Theophrast., περὶ
δεισιδαιμονιὰς, fin.
[1300] _Tiberino in gurgite._ Cf. Juv., vi., 522, "Hibernum fractâ
glacie descendet in amnem, ter matutino Tiberi mergetur et ipsis
Vorticibus timidum caput abluet." Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 290, "Illo mane
die quo tu indicis jejunia nudus in Tiberi stabit." Virg., Æn., ii,
719, "Me attrectare nefas donec me flumine vivo abluero." Ov., Fast.,
iv., 655, "Bis caput intonsum fontanâ spargitur undâ." 315, "Ter caput
irrorat, ter tollit in æthera palmas."
[1301] _De Jove._ Read, with Casaubon, "Est ne ut præponere cures Hunc
cuiquam? cuinam?"
[1302] _Staio._ The allusion is probably to Staienus, whom Cicero often
mentions as a most corrupt judge. Pro Cluent., vii., 24; in Verr.,
ii., 32. He is said to have murdered his own wife, his brother, and
his brother's wife. Yet even to such a wretch as this, says Persius,
you would not venture to name the wishes you prefer to Jove. Cf.
Sen., Ep. x., "Nunc quanta dementia est hominum! Turpissima vota Diis
insusurrant, si quis admoverit aurem, conticescent; et quod scire
hominem nolunt, deo narrant."
[1303] _Jupiter._ Cf. Hor., i., Sat. ii., 17, "Maxime, quis non,
Jupiter! exclamat simul atque audivit."
[1304] _Ignovisse._ Cf. Eccles., viii., 11, "Because sentence against
an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the
sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Tib., I., ii., 8; ix.,
4. Claudian. ad Hadr., 38, _seq._ Juv., xiii, 10, "Ut sit magna tamen
certè lenta ira deorum est."
[1305] _Ilex._ The idea is taken probably from the well-known lines
of Lucretius, vi., 387, "Quod si Jupiter atque alii fulgentia Divei
Terrifico quatiunt sonitu cœlestia templa, Et jaciunt ignem quo quoique
est quomque voluntas: Quur quibus incautum scelus aversabile quomque
est non faciunt, ictei flammas ut fulguris halent Pectore perfixo
documen mortalibus acre? Et potius nulla sibi turpi conscius in re
volvitur in flammeis innoxius, inque peditur Turbine cœlesti subito
correptus et igni." Lucian parodies it also, τὶ δήποτε τοὺς ἱεροσύλους
καὶ λῃστὰς ἀφέντες καὶ τοσούτους ὑβριστὰς καὶ βιαίους καὶ ἐπιόρκους,
δρῦν τινὰ πολλάκις κεραυνοῦτε ἢ λίθον ἢ νεὼς ἱστὸν οὐδὲν ἀδικούσης;
Jup. Conf., ii., 638.
[1306] _Tuque domusque._ Probably taken from Homer, εἴπερ γάρ τε καὶ
αὐτίκ' Ὀλύμπιος οὐκ ἐτέλεσσεν, Ἔκ γε καὶ ὀψὲ τελεῖ· σύν τε μεγάλω
ἀπέτισαν, Σὺν σφῇσι κεφαλῇσι γύναιξί τε καὶ τεκέεσσιν.
[1307] _Fibris._ When any person was struck dead by lightning, the
priest was immediately called in to bury the body: every thing that
had been scorched by it was carefully collected and buried with it.
A two-year old sheep was then sacrificed, and an altar erected over
the place and the ground slightly inclosed round. Lucan., viii., 864,
"Inclusum Tusco venerantur cæspite fulmen." Hor., A. P., 471, "An
triste bidental moverit incestus." Juv., vi., 587, "Atque aliquis
senior qui publica fulgura condit." Ergenna, or Ergennas, is the name
of some Tuscan soothsayer, who gives his directions after inspecting
the entrails; the termination being Tuscan, as Porsenna, Sisenna,
Perpenna, etc. Bidental is applied indifferently to the place,
the sacrifice, and the person. Bidens is properly a sheep fit for
sacrifice, which was so considered when two years old. Hence bidens may
be a corruption of biennis; or from bis and dens, because at the age of
two years the sheep has eight teeth, two of which project far beyond
the rest, and are the criterion of the animal's age.
[1308] _Vellere barbam._ Alluding to the well-known story of Dionysius
of Syracuse. Cf. Sat. i., 133.
[1309] _Ecce._ He now passes on to prayers that result from
superstitious ignorance, or over-fondness, and which, as far as the
_matter_ is concerned, are equally erroneous with the previous class,
though not of the same malicious character. On the fifth day after the
birth of an infant, sacrifices and prayers were offered for the child
to the deities Pilumnus and Picumnus. Purificatory offerings were
made on the eighth day for girls, and on the ninth for boys. The day
therefore was called dies lustricus, and nominalis, because the name
was given. The Greeks called it ὀνομάτων ἑορτή.
[1310] _Metuens Divûm_, i. e., δεισιδαίμων. "Matetera, quasi Mater
altera."
[1311] _Urentes._ Literally, "blasting, withering." The belief in the
effects of the "evil eye" is as prevalent as ever in Southern Europe.
They were supposed to extend even to cattle. "Nescio quis teneros
oculus mihi fascinat agnos." Virg., Ecl., iii., 103. To avert this,
they anointed the child with saliva, and suspended amulets of various
kinds from its neck.
[1312] _Infami digito._ The middle finger was so called because used
to point in scorn and derision. Cf. Juv., x., 53, "Mandaret laqueum
mediumque ostenderet unguem."
[1313] _Manibus quatit._ So Homer (lib. vi.) represents Hector as
tossing his child in his arms, and then offering up a prayer for him.
[1314] _Licinus._ Probably the Licinus mentioned in Juv., Sat. i., 109;
xiv., 306; the barber and freedman of Augustus, an epigram on whom
is quoted by Varro. "Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet: at Cato parvo.
Pompeius nullo. Quis putet esse deos?" Casaubon supposes the Licinius
Stolo mentioned by Livy (vii., 16) to be intended.
[1315] _Crassi._ Cf. Juv., x., 108.
[1316] _Nutrici._ Seneca has the same sentiment, Ep. ix., "Etiamnum
optas quæ tibi optavit nutrix, aut pædagogus, aut mater? Nondum
intelligis quantum mali optaverint."
[1317] _Albata._ Those who presided over or attended at sacrifices
always dressed in white.
[1318] _Poscis opem nervis._ Persius now goes on to ridicule those who
by their own folly render the fulfillment of their prayers impossible;
who pray for health, which they destroy by vicious indulgence; for
wealth, which they idly squander on the costly sacrifices they offer
to render their prayers propitious, and the sumptuous banquets which
always followed those sacrifices.
[1319] _Ferto_, a kind of cake or rich pudding, made of flour, wine,
honey, etc.
[1320] _Si tibi._ He now proceeds to investigate the cause of these
misdirected prayers, and shows that it results from a belief that the
deity is influenced by the same motives, and to be won over by the same
means, as mortal men. Hence the costly nature of the offerings made and
the vessels employed in the service of the temple.
[1321] _Incusa._ Cf. Sen., Ep. v., "Non habemus argentum in quod solidi
auri cœlatura descendit." An incrustation or enchasing of gold was
impressed upon vessels of silver. This the Greeks called ἐμπαιστικὴ
τέχνη.
[1322] _Lævo._ This is the usual interpretation. It may mean, "in your
breast, blinded by avarice and covetousness," as Virg., Æn., xi., "Si
mens non læva fuisset."
[1323] _Subiit._ Sen., Ep. 115, "Admirationem nobis parentes auri
argentique fecerunt: et teneris infusa cupiditas altiùs sedit crevitque
nobiscum. Deinde totus populus, in alio discors, in hoc convenit: hoc
suspiciunt, hoc suis optant, hoc diis velut rerum humanarum maximum cum
grati videri velint, consecrant."
[1324] _Auro ovato._ It was the custom for generals at a triumph to
offer a certain portion of their manubiæ to Capitoline Jove and other
deities.
[1325] _Fratres ahenos._ It is said that there were in the temple porch
of the Palatine Apollo figures of the fifty Danaides, and opposite
them equestrian statues of the fifty sons of Ægyptus; and that some of
these statues gave oracles by means of dreams. Others refer these lines
to Castor and Pollux: but the words "præcipui sunto" seem to imply a
greater number. The passage is very obscure. Casaubon adopts the former
interpretation.
[1326] _Numæ._ Numa directed that all vessels used for sacred purposes
should be of pottery-ware. Cf. ad Juv., xi., 116.
[1327] _Saturnia._ Alluding to the Ærarium in the temple of Saturn.
[1328] _Pulpa_ is properly the soft, pulpy part of the fruit between
the skin and the kernel: then it is applied to the soft and flaccid
flesh of young animals, and hence applied to the flesh of men. It is
used here in exactly the scriptural sense, "the flesh."
[1329] _Casiam._ Vid. Plin., xiii., 3. Persius seems to have had in
his eye the lines in the second Georgic, "Nec varios inhiant pulchra
testudine postes Illusasque auro vestes, Ephyreiaque æra; Alba neque
Assyrio fucatur lana veneno nec _Casiâ_, liquidi _corrumpitur_ usus
_olivi_." Both the epic poet and the satirist, as Gifford remarks, use
the language of the old republic. They consider the oil of the country
to be vitiated, instead of improved, by the luxurious admixture of
foreign spices.
[1330] _Calabrum._ The finest wool came from Tarentum in Calabria. Vid.
Plin., H. N., viii., 48; ix., 61; Colum., vii., 2; and from the banks
of the Galesus in its neighborhood. Hor., Od., II., vi., 10, "Dulce
pellitis ovibus Galesi flumen." Virg., G., iv., 126. Mart., xii., Ep.
64, "Albi quæ superas oves Galesi."
[1331] _Compositum._ These lines, as Gifford says, are not only the
quintessence of sanctity, but of language. Closeness would cramp and
paraphrase would enfeeble their sense, which may be felt, but can not
be expressed. Casaubon explains compositum, "animum bene comparatum ad
omnia divina humanaque jura." τὸ εὔτακτον τῆς ψυχῆς πρὸς τὰ θεῖά τε καὶ
ἀνθρώπινα δίκαια. It may also imply the "harmonious blending of the
two."
[1332] _Recessus._ So the Greeks used the phrases μυχοὺς διανοίας,
ἄδυτα ταμιεῖα διανοίας. Cf. Rom., xi., 16, τὰ κρυπτὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.
[1333] _Incoctum_ a metaphor from a fleece double-dyed. So Seneca,
"Quemadmodum lana quosdam colores semel ducit, quosdam nisi sæpius
macerata et recocta non perbibit: sic alias disciplines ingenia cum
accepere, protinus præstant: hæc nisi altè descendit, et diù sedit,
animum non coloravit, sed infecit, nihil ex his quæ promiserat
præstat." Ep. 71. Cf. Virg., Georg., iii., 307, "Quamvis Milesia magno
vellera mutentur Tyrios _incocta_ rubores."
[1334] _Litabo._ Cf. v., 120, "Soli probi _litare_ dicuntur proprie:
_sacrificare_ quilibet etiam improbi." Litare therefore is to _obtain_
that for which the sacrifice is offered. Vid. Liv., xxxviii., 20,
"Postero die sacrificio facto cum primis hostiis litasset." Plaut.,
Pœnul., ii., 41, "Tum Jupiter faciat ut semper _sacrificem_ nec unquam
_litem_." Cf. Lact. ad Stat. Theb., x., 610. Suet., Cæs., 81. Even the
heathen could see that the deity regarded the purity of the heart,
not the costliness of the offering of the sacrificer. So Laberius,
"_Puras_ deus non _plenas_ aspicit manus." τὸ δαιμονίον μᾶλλον πρὸς τὸ
τῶν θυόντων ἠθος ἢ πρὸς τὸ τῶν θυομένων πλῆθος βλέπει. Cf. Plat., Alc.,
II., xii., fin., "Est litabilis hostia bonus animus et pura mens et
sincera sententia." Min., Fel., 32.
[1335] _Farre._ The idea is probably taken from Seneca. Ep. 95, "Nec
in victimis, licet opimæ sint, auroque præfulgeant, deorum est honos:
sed pia et recta voluntate venerantium: itaque boni etiam _farre_
ac fictili religiosi." Hor., iii., Od. xxiii., 17, "Immunis aram si
tetigit manus non sumptuosa blandior hostia mollivit aversos Penates
_farre_ pio et saliente mica." Cf. Eurip., Fr. Orion εὖ ἴσθ' ὅταν τις
εὐσεβῶν θύῃ θεοῖς· κἂν μικρὰ θύῃ τυγχάνει σωτηρίας.
SATIRE III.
ARGUMENT.
In this Satire, perhaps more than in any other, we detect Persius'
predilection for the doctrines of the Stoics. With them the
summum bonum was "the sound mind in the sound body." To attain
which, man must apply himself to the cultivation of virtue, that
is, to the study of philosophy. He that does not can aspire to
neither. Though unknown to himself, he is laboring under a mortal
disease, and though he fancies he possesses a healthy intellect,
he is the victim of as deep-seated and dangerous a delusion as
the recognized maniac. The object of the Satire is to reclaim the
idle and profligate young nobles of his day from their enervating
and pernicious habits, by the illustration of these principles.
The opening scene of the Satire presents us with the bedchamber
where one of these young noblemen, accompanied by some other
youths probably of inferior birth and station, is indulging
in sleep many hours after the sun has risen upon the earth.
The entrance of the tutor, who is a professor of the Stoical
philosophy, disturbs their slumbers, and the confusion consequent
upon his rebuke, and the thin disguise of their ill-assumed
zeal, is graphically described. After a passionate outburst
of contempt at their paltry excuses, the tutor points out the
irretrievable evils that will result from their allowing the
golden hours of youth to pass by unimproved: overthrows all
objections which are raised as to their position in life,
and competency of means rendering such vigorous application
superfluous; and in a passage of solemn warning full of majesty
and power, describes the unavailing remorse which will assuredly
hereafter visit those who have so far quitted the rugged path
that leads to virtue's heights, that all return is hopeless. He
then proceeds to describe the defects of his own education; and
the vices he fell into in consequence of these defects--vices
however which were venial in himself, as those principles which
would have taught him their folly were never inculcated in him.
Whereas those whom he addresses, from the greater care that
has been bestowed on their early training, are without apology
for their neglect of these palpable duties. Then with great
force and vigor, he briefly describes the proper pursuits of
well-regulated minds; and looks down with contemptuous scorn on
the sneers with which vulgar ignorance would deride these truths,
too transcendent for their gross comprehension to appreciate.
The Satire concludes very happily with the lively apologue of
a glutton; who, in despite of all warning and friendly advice,
perseveres even when his health is failing, in such vicious and
unrestrained indulgence, that he falls at length a victim to
his intemperance. The application of the moral is simple. The
mind that is destitute of philosophical culture is hopelessly
diseased, and the precepts of philosophy can alone effect a cure.
He that despises these, in vain pronounces himself to be of sound
mind. On the approach of any thing that can kindle the spark, his
passions burst into flame; and in spite of his boasted sanity,
urge him on to acts that would call forth the reprobation even of
the maniac himself. The whole Satire and its moral, as Gifford
says, may be fitly summed up in the solemn injunction of a wiser
man than the schools ever produced: "Wisdom is the principal
thing: therefore get Wisdom."
What! always thus![1336] Already the bright morning is entering the
windows,[1337] and extending[1338] the narrow chinks with light. We
are snoring[1339] as much as would suffice to work off the potent
Falernian,[1340] while the index[1341] is touched by the fifth shadow
of the gnomon. See! What are you about? The raging Dog-star[1342] is
long since ripening the parched harvest, and all the flock is under
the wide-spreading elm. One of the fellow-students[1343] says, "Is
it really so? Come hither, some one, quickly. Is nobody coming!" His
vitreous bile[1344] is swelling. He is bursting with rage: so that you
would fancy whole herds of Arcadia[1345] were braying. Now his book,
and the two-colored[1346] parchment cleared of the hair, and paper,
and the knotty reed is taken in hand. Then he complains that the ink,
grown thick, clogs in his pen; then that the black sepia[1347] vanishes
altogether, if water is poured into it; then that the reed makes blots
with the drops being diluted. O wretch! and every day still more a
wretch! Are we come to such a pitch? Why do you not rather, like the
tender ring-dove,[1348] or the sons of kings, call for minced pap, and
fractiously refuse your nurse's lullaby!--Can I work with such a pen as
this, then?
Whom are you deceiving? Why reiterate these paltry shifts? The stake
is your own! You are leaking away,[1349] idiot! You will become an
object of contempt. The ill-baked jar of half-prepared clay betrays
by its ring its defect, and gives back a cracked sound. You are now
clay, moist and pliant:[1350] even now you ought to be hastily moulded
and fashioned unintermittingly by the rapid wheel.[1351] But, you will
say, you have a fair competence from your hereditary estate; a pure
and stainless salt-cellar.[1352] Why should you fear? And you have a
paten free from care, since it worships your household deities.[1353]
And is this enough? Is it then fitting you should puff out your lungs
to bursting because you trace the thousandth in descent from a Tuscan
stock;[1354] or because robed in your trabea you salute the Censor,
your own kinsman? Thy trappings to the people! I know thee intimately,
inside and out! Are you not ashamed to live after the manner of the
dissolute Natta?[1355]
But he is besotted by vicious indulgence; the gross fat[1356] is
incrusted round his heart: he is free from moral guilt; for he knows
not what he is losing; and sunk in the very depth of vice, will never
rise again to the surface of the wave.
O mighty father of the gods! when once fell lust, imbued with raging
venom, has fired their spirits, vouchsafe to punish fierce tyrants
in no other way than this. Let them see Virtue,[1357] and pine away
at[1358] having forsaken her! Did the brass of the Sicilian[1359]
bull give a deeper groan, or the sword[1360] suspended from the gilded
ceiling over the purple-clad neck strike deeper terror, than if one
should say to himself, "We are sinking, sinking headlong down," and
in his inmost soul, poor wretch, grow pale at what even the wife of
his bosom must not know? I remember when I was young I often used to
touch[1361] my eyes with oil, if I was unwilling to learn the noble
words of the dying Cato;[1362] that would win great applause from my
senseless master, and which my father, sweating with anxiety, would
listen to with the friends he had brought to hear me. And naturally
enough. For the summit of my wishes was to know what the lucky sice
would gain; how much the ruinous ace[1363] would sweep off; not to miss
the neck of the narrow jar;[1364] and that none more skillfully than I
should lash the top[1365] with a whip.
Whereas you are not inexperienced in detecting the obliquity of moral
deflections, and all that the philosophic porch,[1366] painted over
with trowsered Medes, teaches; over which the sleepless and close-shorn
youth lucubrates, fed on husks and fattening polenta. To thee, besides,
the letter that divides the Samian branches,[1367] has pointed out the
path that rises steeply on the right-hand track.
And are you snoring still? and does your drooping head, with muscles
all relaxed, and jaws ready to split with gaping, nod off your
yesterday's debauch? Is there indeed an object at which you aim, at
which you bend your bow? Or are you following the crows, with potsherd
and mud, careless whither your steps lead you, and living only for the
moment?
When once the diseased skin begins to swell, you will see men asking
in vain for hellebore. Meet the disease on its way to attack you.
Of what avail is it to promise mountains of gold to Craterus?[1368]
Learn, wretched men, and investigate the causes of things; what we
are--what course of life we are born to run--what rank is assigned
to us--how delicate the turning round[1369] the goal, and whence the
starting-point--what limit must be set to money--what it is right
to wish for--what uses the rough coin[1370] possesses--how much you
ought to bestow on your country and dear relations--what man the Deity
destined you to be, and in what portion of the human commonwealth your
station is assigned.
Learn: and be not envious because full many a jar grows rancid in his
well-stored larder, for defending the fat Umbrians,[1371] and pepper,
and hams, the remembrances of his Marsian client; or because the
pilchard has not yet failed from the first jar.[1372]
Here some one of the rank brood of centurions may say, "I have
philosophy enough to satisfy me. I care not to be what Arcesilas[1373]
was, and woe-begone Solons, with head awry[1374] and eyes fastened
on the ground, while they mumble suppressed mutterings, or idiotic
silence, or balance words on their lip pouting out, pondering over the
dreams of some palsied dotard, 'that nothing can be generated from
nothing; nothing can return to nothing.'--Is it this over which you
grow pale? Is it this for which one should go without his dinner?" At
this the people laugh, and with wrinkling nose the brawny[1375] youth
loudly re-echo the hearty peals of laughter.
"Examine me! My breast palpitates unusually; and my breath heaves
oppressedly from my fevered jaws: examine me, pray!" He that speaks
thus to his physician, being ordered to keep quiet, when the third
night has seen his veins flow with steady pulse, begs from some
wealthier mansion some mellow Surrentine,[1376] in a flagon of moderate
capacity, as he is about to bathe. "Ho! my good fellow, you look pale!"
"It is nothing!" "But have an eye to it, whatever it is! Your sallow
skin is insensibly rising." "Well, you look pale too! worse than I!
Don't play the guardian to me! I buried him long ago--you remain." "Go
on! I will hold my peace!" So, bloated with feasting and with livid
stomach he takes his bath, while his throat slowly exhales sulphureous
malaria. But shivering[1377] comes on over his cups, and shakes the
steaming beaker[1378] from his hands; his teeth, grinning, rattle in
his head; then the rich dainties dribble from his flaccid lips.
Next follow the trumpets and funeral-torches; and at last this votary
of pleasure, laid out on a lofty bier, and plastered over with thick
unguents,[1379] stretches out his rigid heels[1380] to the door. Then,
with head covered, the Quirites of yesterday[1381] support his bier.
"Feel my pulse, you wretch! put your hand on my breast. There is no
heat here! touch the extremities of my feet and hands. They are not
cold!"
If money has haply met your eye,[1382] or the fair maiden of your
neighbor has smiled sweetly on you, does your heart beat steadily? If
hard cabbage has been served up to you in a cold dish, or flour shaken
through the people's sieve,[1383] let me examine your jaws. A putrid
ulcer lurks in your tender mouth, which it would not be right to grate
against with vulgar beet.[1384] You grow cold, when pallid fear has
roused the bristles on your limbs. Now, when a torch is placed beneath,
your blood begins to boil, and your eyes sparkle with anger; and you
say and do what even Orestes[1385] himself, in his hour of madness,
would swear to be proofs of madness.
FOOTNOTES:
[1336] _Nempe hæc._ A passage in Gellius exactly describes the opening
scene of this Satire. "Nunc videre est philosophos ultrò currere ut
doceant, ad foras juvenum divitûm, eosque ibi sedere atque operiri
prope ad meridiem, donec discipuli nocturnum omne vinum edormiant." x.,
6.
[1337] _Fenestras._ So Virg., Æn., iii., 151, "Multo manifesti lumine,
quà se plena per insertas fundebat luna fenestras." Prop., I., iii.,
31, "Donec divisas percurrens luna fenestras."
[1338] _Extendit_, an hypallage. The light transmitted through the
narrow chinks in the lattices, diverges into broader rays.
[1339] _Stertimus_, for _stertis_. The first person is employed to
avoid giving offense.
[1340] _Falernum._ The Falernian was a fiery, full-bodied wine of
Campania: hence its epithets, "Severum," Hor., i., Od. xxvii., 9;
"Ardens," ii., Od. xi., 19; Mart., ix., Ep. lxxiv., 5; "Forte," ii.,
Sat. iv., 24 (cf. Luc., x., 163, "Indomitum Meroë cogens spumare
Falernum"); "Acre," Juv., xiii., 216. To soften its austerity it
was mixed with Chian wine. Tibull., II., i., 28, "Nunc mihi fumosos
veteris proferte Falernos Consulis, et Chio solvite vincla cado."
Hor., i., Sat. x., 24, "Suavior ut Chio nota si commista Falerni est."
_Despumare_ is, properly, "to take off the foam or scum;" "Et foliis
undam trepidi despumat aheni;" then, met., "to digest."
[1341] _Linea._ "It wants but an hour of noon by the sun-dial." The
Romans divided their day into twelve hours; the _first_ beginning with
the dawn; consequently, at the time of the equinoxes, their hours
nearly corresponded with ours. According to Pliny, H. N., ii., 76,
Anaximenes was the inventor of the sun-dial; whereas Diog. Laertius
(II., i., 3) and Vitruvius attribute the discovery to Anaximander. They
were, however, known in much earlier times in the East. Cf. 2 Kings,
xx. Sun-dials were introduced at Rome in the time of the second Punic
war; the use of Clepsydræ, "water-clocks," by Scipio Nasica.
[1342] _Canicula._ Hor., iii., Od. xiii., 9, "Te flagrantis atrox hora
Caniculæ nescit tangere." III., xxix., 19, "Stella vesani Leonis."
[1343] _Comitum._ One of the young men of inferior fortune, whom the
wealthy father has taken into his house, to be his son's companion.
[1344] _Vitrea bilis._ Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 141, "Jussit quod
splendida bilis;" ubi v. Orell. It is called, by medical writers,
ὑαλώδης χολή.
[1345] _Arcadiæ._ Juv., vii., 160, "Nil salit Arcadico juveni." Arcadia
was famous for its broods of asses.
[1346] _Bicolor._ The outer side of the parchment on which the hair
has been is always of a much yellower color than the inner side of
the skin; hence "croceæ membrana tabellæ," Juv., vii., 23; though
some think that the color was produced by the oil of citron or cedar.
(Plin., xiii., 5. Cf. ad Sat. i., 43.) Leaves and the bark of trees
were first used for writing on; hence _folia_ and _liber_: occasionally
linen, or plates of metal or stone; then paper was manufactured from
the Cyperus papyrus, or Egyptian flag. Plin., xii., 23; xiii., 11.
When the Ptolemies stopped the exportation of paper from Egypt, to
prevent the library of Eumenes, king of Pergamus, from rivaling that
of Alexandria, parchment (Pergamenum) was invented to serve as a
substitute. Plin., x., 11, 21. Hieron., Ep. vii., 2. Hor., Sat., II.,
iii., 2. The manufacturer of it was termed Membranarius. The parchment
was rendered smooth by rubbing with pumice, and flattened with lead,
and was capable of being made so thin, that we read that the whole
Iliad written on parchment was inclosed within a walnut-shell. Plin.,
VII., xxi., 21. Quintilian says, "that wax tablets were best suited for
writing, as erasures could be so readily made; but that for persons
of weak sight parchment was much better; but that the rapid flow of
thought was checked by the constant necessity for dipping the pen in
the ink." Quint., x., 3. Cf. Catull., xxii., 6. Tibull., III., i., 9.
They used reeds (calamus, fistula, arundo) for writing on this, as is
done to the present day in the East. The best came from Egypt. "Dat
chartis habiles calamos Memphitica tellus." Mart., xiv., Ep. 38. Hor.,
A. P., 447.
[1347] _Sepia_, put here for the ink. The popular delusion was, that
this fish, when pursued, discharged a black liquid (atramentum), which
rendered the water turbid, and enabled it to make its escape. (Hence it
is still called by the Germans "Tinten-fisch," Ink-fish.) Vid. Cic.,
Nat. Deor., ii., 50. Plin., ix., 29, 45. The old Schol. says that this
liquid was used by the Africans; but that a preparation of lamp-black
was ordinarily used.
[1348] _Palumbo._ The ring-dove is said to be fed by the undigested
food from the crop of its mother. _Pappare_ is said of children either
calling for food or eating pap (papparium). Hence the male-nurse is
called Pappas. Juv., iv., 632, "timidus prægustet pocula Pappas."
Plaut., Epid., v., 2, 62. It is here put by enallage for the pap
itself; as _lallare_, in the next line, for the "lullaby" of the nurse,
which Ausonius calls _lallum_. Epist. xvi., 90, "Nutricis inter lemmata
lallique somniferos modos." Cf. Hieron., Epist. xiv., 8, "Antiquum
referens mammæ lallare." Shakspeare, Midsummer Night's Dream, Act ii.,
sc. 3.
[1349] _Effluis_ is said of a leaky vessel, and refers to his
illustration of the ill-baked pottery in the following line--_sonat
vitium_. Cf. v. 25, "Quid solidum crepet."
[1350] _Udum et molle lutum._ Hor., ii., Ep. ii., 7, "Idoneus arti
cuilibet; argillâ quidvis imitaberis udâ." A. P., 163, "Cereus in
vitium flecti." Plat., de Legg., i., p. 633, θωπεῖαι κολακικαὶ αἳ τινὰς
κηρίνους ποιοῦσι πρὸς ταῦτα ξύμπαντα.
[1351] _Rotâ._ So Hor., A. P., 21, "Currente rotâ cur urceus uxit."
Plaut., Epid., III., ii., 35, "Vorsutior es quam rota figularis."
[1352] _Salinum._ The reverence for salt has been derived from the
remotest antiquity. From its being universally used to season food,
and from its antiseptic properties, it has been always associated with
notions of moral purity, and, from forming a part of all sacrifices,
acquired a certain degree of sanctity; so that the mere placing salt on
the table was supposed, in a certain degree, to consecrate what was set
on it. (Arnob., ii., 91, "Sacras facitis mensas salinorum appositu.")
Hence the salt-cellar became an heir-loom, and descended from father
to son. (Hor., ii., Od. xvi., 13, "Vivitur parvo bene cui paternum
splendet in mensâ tenui salinum.") Even in the most frugal times, it
formed part, sometimes the only piece, of family-plate. Pliny says that
the "salinum and patella were the only vessels of silver Fabricius
would allow," xxxiii., 12, 54; and in the greatest emergencies, as e.
g., A.U.C. 542, when all were called upon to sacrifice their plate for
the public service, the salt-cellar and paten were still allowed to be
retained. Liv., xxvi., 36, "Ut senatores salinum, patellamque deorum
causâ habere possint." Cf. Val. Max., IV., iv., 3, "In C. Fabricii et
Q. Æmilii Papi domibus argentum fuisse confiteor; uterque enim patellam
deorum et salinum habuit." Cf. Sat. v., 138.
[1353] _Cultrix foci._ A portion of the meat was cut off before they
began to eat, and offered to the Lares in the patella, and then burnt
on the hearth; and this offering was supposed to secure both house and
inmates from harm.
[1354] _Stemmate._ Vid. Juv., viii., 1. The Romans were exceedingly
proud of a Tuscan descent. Cf. Hor., i., Od. i., 1; iii., Od. xxix.,
1; i., Sat. vi., 1. The vocatives "millesime," "trabeate," are put by
antiptosis for nominatives. For the trabea, see note on Juv., viii.,
259, "trabeam et diadema Quirini." It was properly the robe of kings,
consuls, and augurs, but was worn by the equites on solemn processions.
These were of two kinds, the transvectio and the censio. The former is
referred to here. It took place annually on the 15th of July (Idibus
Quinctilibus), when all the knights _rode_ from the temple of Mars, or
of Honor, to the Capitol, dressed in the trabea and crowned with olive
wreaths, and saluted as they passed the censors, who were seated in
front of the temple of Castor in the forum. This custom was introduced
by Q. Fabius, when censor, A.U.C. 303. (Liv., ix., 46, fin. Aur. Vict.,
Vir. Illustr., 32.) It afterward fell into disuse, but was revived by
Augustus. (Suet., Vit., 38.) In the _censio_, which took place every
five years only, the equites _walked_ in procession before the censors,
leading their horses; all whom the censors approved of were ordered
to lead along their horses (equos traducere); those who had disgraced
themselves, either by immorality, or by diminishing their fortune, or
neglecting to take care of their horses, were degraded from the rank of
equites by being ordered to sell their horses.
[1355] _Natta._ We find a Pinarius Natta mentioned, Tac., Ann., iv.,
34, as one of the clients of Sejanus. Cicero also speaks of the Pinarii
Nattæ as patricians and nobles. De Divin., ii., xxi. (Cf. pro Mur.,
xxxv. Att., iv., 8.) Horace uses the name for a gross person. "Ungor
olivo non quo fraudatis immundus Natta lucernis," i., Sat. vi., 124;
and Juvenal for a public robber, "Quum Pansa eripiat quidquid tibi
Natta reliquit," Sat. viii., 95. He is here put for one so sunk in
profligacy, with heart so hardened, and moral sense so obscured by
habitual vice, as to be unable even to perceive the abyss in which
he is plunged. Cf. Arist., Eth., ii., 5, 8. "Reason and revelation
alike teach us the awful truth, that sin exercises a deadening effect
on the moral perception of right and wrong. Ignorance may be pleaded
as an excuse, but not that ignorance of which man himself is the
cause. Such ignorance is the result of willful sin. This corrupts the
moral sense, hardens the heart, destroys the power of conscience, and
afflicts us with judicial blindness, so that we actually lose at last
the power of seeing the things which belong unto our peace." P. 67 of
Browne's translation of the Ethics, in Bohn's Classical Library. (For
discinctus, vid. Orell. ad Hor., Epod. i., 34.)
[1356] _Pingue._ Cf. Psalm cxix., 70, "Their heart is as fat as brawn."
[1357] _Virtutem videant._ This passage is beautifully paraphrased by
Wyat.
"None other payne pray I for them to be,
But, when the rage doth lead them from the right,
That, looking backward, Vertue they may see
E'en as she is, so goodly faire and bright!
And while they claspe their lustes in arms acrosse,
Graunt them, good Lord, as thou maist of thy might,
To fret inwarde for losing such a losse!" Ep. to Poynes.
"Virtue," says Plato, "is so beautiful, that if men could but be
blessed with a vision of its loveliness, they would fall down and
worship." ὄψις γὰρ ὑμῖν ὀξυτάτη τῶν διὰ τοῦ σώματος ἔρχεται αἰσθήσεων,
ᾗ φρόνησις οὐχ ὁρᾶται δεινοὺς γὰρ ἂν παρεῖχεν ἔρωτας εἴ τι τοιρῦτον
ἑαυτῆς ἐναργὲς εἴδωλον παρείχετο εἰς ὄψιν ἰόν καὶ τἆλλα ὅσα ἐραστά.
Phædr., c. 65, fin. The sentiment has been frequently repeated.
Cic., de Fin., ii., 16, "Quam illa ardentes amores excitaret sui si
videretur." De Off., i., 5, "Si oculis cerneretur mirabiles amores,
ut ait Plato, excitaret sui." Senec., Epist. 59, 1, "Profecto
omnes mortales in admirationem sui raperet, relictis his quæ nunc
magna, magnorum ignorantia credimus." So Epist. 115. Shaftesbury's
Characteristics. The Moralists. Part iii., § 2.
[1358] _Intabescant._ Hor., Epod. v., 40. Ov., Met., ii., 780; iii.,
Od. xxiv., 31, "Virtutem incolumem odimus, Sublatam ex oculis quærimus
invidi." Pers., Sat. v., 61, "Et sibi jam seri vitam ingemuero
relictam."
[1359] _Siculi._ Alluding to the bull of Phalaris, made for him by
Perillus. Cf. ad Juv., viii., 81, "Admoto dictet perjuria tauro."
Plin., xxxiv., 8. Cic., Off., ii., 7. Ov., Ib., 439, "Ære Perillæo
veros imitere juvencos, ad formam tauri conveniente sono." A. Am., i.,
653, "Et Phalaris tauro violenti membra Perilli Torruit infelix imbuit
auctor opus." Ov., Trist., III., xi., 40-52. Claud., B. Gild., 186.
Phalaris and Perillus were both burnt in it themselves.
[1360] _Ensis_ refers to the entertainment of Damocles by Dionysius
of Syracuse. Vid. Cic., Tusc. Qu., v., 21. Plat, de Rep., iii., p.
404. Hor., iii., Od. i., 17, "Destrictus ensis cui super impia Cervice
pendet non Siculæ dapes Dulcem elaborabunt vaporem."
[1361] _Tangebam._ Cf. Ov., A. Am., i., 662, "Put oil on my eyes to
make my master believe they were sore."
[1362] _Catonis._ Either some high-flown speech put into Cato's mouth,
like that of Addison, or a declamation on the subject written by the
boy himself. Cf. Juv., i., 16; vii., 151.
[1363] _Damnosa Canicula._ Cf. Propert., IV., viii., 45, "Me quoque per
talos Venerem quærente secundos, semper _damnosi_ subsiluere _Canes_."
Juv., xiv., 4, "_Damnosa_ senem juvat alea," The talus had four flat
sides, the two ends being rounded. The numbers marked on the sides
were the ace, "canis" or "unio" (Isid., Or. xviii., 65, only in later
writers), the trey, "ternio," the quater, "quaternio," and the sice,
"senio," opposite the ace. They played with four _tali_, and the best
throw was when each die presented a different face (μηδενὸς ἀστραγάλου
πεσόντος ἴσῳ σχήματι, Lucian, Am. Mart., xiv., Ep. 14, "Cum steterit
nullus tibi vultu talus eôdem"), i. e., when one was canis, another
ternio, another quaternio, and the fourth senio. This throw was called
Venus, or jactus Venereus, because Venus was supposed to preside over
it. The worst throw was when all came out aces; and there appears
to have been something in the make of the dice to render this the
most common throw. This was called Canis, or Canicula; as Voss says,
because "like a dog it ate up the unfortunate gambler who threw it."
Ovid, A. Am., ii., 205, "Seu jacies talos, victam ne pœna sequatur,
Damnosi facito stent tibi sæpe Canes." One way of playing is described
(in Suet., Vit. August, c. 71) is letter of Augustus to Tiberius.
Each player put a denarius into the pool for every single ace or sice
he threw, and he who threw Venus swept away the whole. There were
probably many other modes of playing. Cf. Cic., de Div., i., 13. The
_tesseræ_ were like our dice with six sides, numbered from one to six,
so that the numbers on the two opposite sides always equaled seven. Cf.
Bekker's Gallus, p. 499. Lucil., i., fr. 27.
[1364] _Orcæ._ This refers to a game played by Roman boys, which
consisted in throwing nuts into a narrow-necked jar. This game was
called τρόπα by the Greeks; who used dates, acorns, and dibs for the
same purpose. Poll., Onom., IX., vii., 203. Ovid refers to it in his
"Nux." "Vas quoque sæpe cavum, spatio distante, locatur In quod missa
levi nux cadat una manu." Orca (the Greek ὕρχα Arist., Vesp., 676) was
an earthen vessel used for holding wine, figs, and salted fish. Cf.
1. 73, "Mænaque quod primâ nondum defecerit orcâ." Hor., ii., Sat.
iv., 66, "Quod pingui miscere mero muriâque decebit non alià quam quâ
Byzantia putruit orca." Colum., xii., 15. Plin., xv., 19. Varro, R.
R., i., 13. The dibs used for playing were called taxilli, Pompon. in
Prisc., iii., 615.
[1365] _Buxum._ "Volubile buxum." Cf. Virg., Æn., vii., 378-384.
Tibull., I., v. 3.
[1366] _Porticus._ ἡ ποικίλη Στοά. The Pœcile, or "Painted Hall,"
at Athens. It was covered with frescoes representing the battle of
Marathon, executed gratuitously by Polygnotus the Thasian and Mycon.
Plin., xxxv., 9. Corn. Nep., Milt., vi. This "porch" was the favorite
resort of Zeno and his disciples, who were hence called Stoics. Diog.
Laert., VII., i., 6.
[1367] _Samios diduxit litera ramos._ The letter Y was taken by
Pythagoras as the symbol of human life. The stem of the letter
symbolizes the early part of life, when the character is unformed, and
the choice of good or evil as yet undetermined. The right-hand branch,
which is the narrower one, represents the "steep and thorny path"
of virtue. The left-hand branch is the broad and easy road to vice.
Compare the beautiful Episode of Prodicus in Xenophon's Memorabilia.
Servius ad Virg., Æn., vi., 540, "Huic literæ dicebat Pythagoras
humanæ vitæ cursum esse similem, quia unusquisque hominum, cum primum
adolescentiæ limen attigerit, et in eum locum venerit 'partes ubi se
via findit in ambas,' hæreat nutabandus, et nesciat in quam se partem
potius inclinet." Auson., Idyll., xii., 9, "Pythagoræ bivium ramis
pateo ambiguis Y." Shakspeare, Hamlet, Act i., sc. 3. Cic., de Off.,
i., 32. Hesiod, Op. et Di., 288, μακρὸς δὲ καὶ ὄρθιος οἶμος. Pers.,
Sat., v., 35.
[1368] _Cratero_, a famous physician in Cicero's time. Cic. ad Att.,
xii., 13, 14. He is also mentioned by Horace, Sat., II., iii., 161,
"Non est cardiacus, Craterum dixisse putato."
[1369] _Flexus._ "There are many periods of life as critical as the
end of the stadium in the chariot-race, where the nicest judgment
is required in turning the corner." Adrian Turnebe. The reading of
D'Achaintre is followed.
[1370] _Asper Numus._ Cf. ad Juv., xiv., 62.
[1371] _Defensis pinguibus Umbris._ For the presents which lawyers
received from their clients, cf. Juv., vii., 119, "Vas pelamidum."
[1372] _Orca._ Cf. sup., 1. 50. The _Mœna_ was a common coarse kind of
fish (Cic., Fin., ii., 28), commonly used for salting.
[1373] _Arcesilas_ was a native of Pitane, in Æolis. After studying
at Sardis under Autolycus, the mathematician, he came to Athens, and
became a disciple of Theophrastus, and afterward of Crantor. He was the
founder of the Middle Academy. Diog. Laert., Proœm., x., 14. Liv., iv.,
c. vi. He maintained that "nothing can be known," and is hence called
"Ignorantiæ Magister." Lactant., III., v., 6. His doctrine is stated,
Cic., de Orat., iii, 18. Acad., i, 12.
[1374] _Obstipo capite_ implies "the head rigidly fixed in one
position." Sometimes in an erect one, as in an arrogant and haughty
person. (Suet., Tib., 68, "Cervix rigida et obstipa.") Sometimes bent
forward, which is the characteristic of a slavish and cringing person.
(δουλοπρέπες. Cf. Orell. ad Hor., ii., Sat. v., 92, "Davus sis Comicus
atque Stes capite obstipo multum similis metuenti.") Sometimes in the
attitude of a meditative person in deep reflection, "with leaden eye
that loves the ground."
[1375] _Torosa._ Applied properly to the broad muscles in the breast of
a bull. Ov., Met., vii., 428, "Feriuntque secures Colla torosa boüm."
[1376] _Surrentina._ Surrentum, now "Sorrento," on the coast of
Campania, was famous for its wines. Ov., Met., xv., 710, "Et Surrentino
generosos palmite colles." Pliny assigns it the third place in wines,
ranking it immediately after the Setine and Falernian. He says it was
peculiarly adapted to persons recovering from sickness. XIV., vi., 8;
XXIII., i., 20. Surrentum was also famous for its drinking-cups of
pottery-ware. XIV., ii, 4. Mart., xiv., Ep. 102; xiii., 110.
[1377] _Tremor._ So Hor., i, Epist. xvi., 22, "Occultam febrem sub
tempus edendi dissimules, donec manibus tremor incidat unctis."
[1378] _Trientem_, or _triental_, a cup containing the third part of
the sextarius (which is within a fraction of a pint), equal to four
cyathi Cf. Mart., vi., Ep. 86, "Setinum, dominæque nives, densique
trientes, Quando ego vos medico non prohibente bibam?"
[1379] _Amomis._ Juv., iv., 108, "Et matutino sudans Crispinus _amomo_,
Quantum vix redolent duo funera." The _amomum_ was an Assyrian shrub
with a white flower, from which a very costly perfume was made. Plin.,
xiii., 1.
[1380] _Rigidos calces._ Vid. Plin., vii., 8. The dead body was always
carried out with the feet foremost.
[1381] _Hesterni Quirites._ Slaves, when manumitted, shaved their
heads, to show that, like shipwrecked mariners (Juv., xii., 81), they
had escaped the storms of slavery, and then received a pileus (v., 82)
in the temple of Feronia. Cf. Plaut., Amph., I., i., 306. The temple,
according to one legend, was founded by some Lacedæmonians who quitted
Sparta to escape from the severity of Lycurgus' laws. Many persons
freed all their slaves at their death, out of vanity, that they might
have a numerous body of freedmen to attend their funeral.
[1382] _Visa est._ So iv., 47, "Viso si palles improbe numo."
[1383] _Cribro._ The coarse sieve of the common people would let
through much of the bran. The Romans were very particular about the
quality of their bread. Cf. Juv., v., 67, _seq._
[1384] _Beta._ Martial calls them _fatuæ_, from their insipid flavor
without some condiment, and "fabrorum prandia." xiii., Ep. xiii.
[1385] _Orestes._ Cf. Juv., xiv., 285.
SATIRE IV.
ARGUMENT.
Had Persius lived _after_ instead of before Juvenal we might have
imagined that he had taken for the theme the noble lines in his
eighth Satire,
"Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se
Crimen habet quanto Major qui peccat habetur." viii., 140.
"For still more public scandal Vice extends,
As he is great and noble who offends."--Dryden.
Or had he drawn from the fountains of inspired wisdom, that he
had had in his eye a passage of still more solemn import: "A
sharp judgment shall be to them that be in high places. For mercy
will soon pardon the meanest; but mighty men shall be mightily
tormented." Wisdom, vi., 5. Either of these passages might fairly
serve as the argument of this Satire. What, however, Persius
really took as his model is the First Alcibiades of Plato, and
the imitation of it is nearly as close as is that of the Second
Alcibiades in the Second Satire. And the subject of his criticism
is no less a personage than Nero himself. The close analogy between
Nero and Alcibiades will be further alluded to in the notes. We
must remember that Nero was but seventeen years old when he was
called to take the reins of government, and was but three years
younger than Persius himself. The Satire was probably written
before Nero had entirely thrown off the mask; at all events, before
he had given the full evidence which he afterward did of the savage
ferocity and gross licentiousness of his true nature. There was
enough indeed for the stern Satirist to censure; but still a spark
of something noble remaining, to kindle the hope that the reproof
might work improvement. In his First Satire he had ridiculed his
pretensions to the name of Poet; in this he exposes his inability
as a Politician. The Satire naturally and readily divides itself
into three parts. In the first he ridicules the misplaced ambition
of those who covet exalted station, and aspire to take the lead in
state affairs, without possessing those qualifications of talent,
education, and experience, which alone could fit them to take the
helm of government; and who hold that the adventitious privileges
of high birth and ancient lineage can countervail the enervating
effects of luxurious indolence and vicious self-indulgence. The
second division of the subject turns on the much-neglected duty of
self-examination; and enforces the duty of uprightness and purity
of conduct from the consideration, that while it is hopeless in
all to escape the keen scrutiny that all men exercise in their
neighbor's failings, while they are at the same time utterly
blind to their own defects, yet that men of high rank and station
must necessarily provoke the more searching criticism, in exact
proportion to the elevation of their position. He points out also
the policy of checking all tendency to satirize the weakness of
others, to which Nero was greatly prone, and in fact had already
aspired to the dignity of a writer of Satire; as such sarcasm only
draws down severer recrimination on ourselves. In the third part
he reverts to the original subject; and urges upon the profligate
nobles of the day the duty of rigid self-scrutiny, by reminding
them of the true character of that worthless rabble, on whose
sordid judgment and mercenary applause they ground their claims to
approbation. This love of the "aura popularis" was Nero's besetting
vice; and none could doubt for whom the advice was meant. Yet
the allusions to Nero throughout the Satire, transparent as they
must have been to his contemporaries, are so dexterously covered
that Persius might easily have secured himself from all charge
of personally attacking the emperor under the plea that his sole
object was a declamatory exercise in imitation of the Dialogue cf
Plato.
"Dost thou wield the affairs of the state?"[1386]--(Imagine the
bearded[1387] master, whom the fell draught of hemlock[1388] took off,
to be saying this:)--Relying on what? Speak, thou ward[1389] of great
Pericles. Has talent, forsooth, and precocious knowledge of the world,
come before thy beard? Knowest thou what must be spoken, and what
kept back? And, therefore, when the populace is boiling with excited
passion, does your spirit move you to impose silence on the crowd by
the majesty of your hand?[1390] and what will you say then? "I think,
Quirites, this is not just! That is bad! This is the properer course?"
For you know how to weigh the justice of the case in the double scale
of the doubtful balance. You can discern the straight line when it lies
between curves,[1391] or when the rule misleads by its distorted foot;
and you are competent to affix the Theta[1392] of condemnation to a
defect.
Why do you not then (adorned in vain with outer skin[1393]) cease to
display your tail[1394] before the day to the fawning rabble, more fit
to swallow down undiluted Anticyras?[1395]
What is your chief good? to have lived always on rich dishes; and a
skin made delicate by constant basking in the sun?[1396] Stay: this
old woman would scarce give a different answer--"Go now! I am son of
Dinomache!"[1397] Puff yourself up!--"I am beautiful." Granted! Still
Baucis, though in tatters, has no worse philosophy, when she has cried
her herbs[1398] to good purpose to some slovenly slave.
How is it that not a man tries to descend into himself? Not a man! But
our gaze is fixed on the wallet[1399] on the back in front of us! You
may ask, "Do you know Vectidius' farms!" Whose? The rich fellow that
cultivates more land at Cures than a kite[1400] can fly over! Him do
you mean? Him, born under the wrath of Heaven, and an inauspicious
Genius, who whenever he fixes his yoke at the beaten cross ways,[1401]
fearing to scrape off the clay incrusted on the diminutive vessel,
groans out, "May this be well!" and munching an onion in its hull, with
some salt, and a dish of frumety (his slaves applauding the while),
sups up the mothery dregs of vapid vinegar.
But if, well essenced, you lounge away your time and bask in the sun,
there stands by you one, unkenned, to touch you with his elbow, and
spit out his bitter detestation on your morals--on _you_, who by vile
arts make your body delicate! While you comb the perfumed hair[1402] on
your cheeks, why are you closely shorn elsewhere? when, though five
wrestlers pluck out the weeds, the rank fern will yield to no amount of
toil.
"We strike;[1403] and in our turn expose our limbs to the arrows. It is
thus we live. Thus we know it to be. You have a secret wound, though
the baldric hides it with its broad gold. As you please! Impose upon
your own powers; deceive _them_ if you can!"
"While the whole neighborhood pronounces me to be super-excellent,
shall I not credit[1404] them?"
If you grow pale, vile wretch, at the sight of money; if you execute
all that suggests itself to your lust; if you cautiously lash the forum
with many a stroke,[1405] in vain you present to the rabble your
thirsty[1406] ears. Cast off from you that which you are not. Let the
cobbler[1407] bear off his presents. Dwell with yourself,[1408] and you
will know how short your household stuff is.
FOOTNOTES:
[1386] _Rem populi tractas?_ from the Greek περὶ τῶν τοῦ δήμου
πραγμάτων βουλεύεσθαι. The imitations of the First Alcibiades are very
close throughout the Satire. Even in our own day, in looking back upon
ancient history, it would be difficult to find two persons so nearly
counterparts of each other as Nero and Alcibiades; not only in their
personal character but in the adventitious circumstances of their life.
Both came into public life at a very early age. Nero was emperor before
he was seventeen years old, and Alcibiades was barely twenty at the
siege of Potidæa. Seneca was to Nero what Socrates was to Alcibiades.
Both derived their claims to pre-eminence from the _mother's_ side:
Nero through Agrippina, from the Julian gens; Alcibiades through
Dinomache, from the Alemæonidæ. The public influence of both extended
through nearly the same period, thirteen years. Both were notorious
for the same vices: love of self-indulgence, ambition of pre-eminence,
personal vanity, lawless insolence toward others, lavish expenditure,
and utter disregard of all principle. It would be very easy to carry
out the parallel into greater detail. Comp. Suet., Nero, c. 26, with
Grote's Greece, vol. vii., ch. 55.
[1387] _Barbatum._ Cf. Juv., xiv., 12, "Barbatos licet admoveas mille
inde magistros." Cic., Fin., iv., "Barba sylvosa et pulcrè alita
inter hominis eruditi insignia recensetur." Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 34,
"Tempore quo me solatus jussit sapientem pascere barbam."
[1388] _Cicutæ._ Cf. ad Juv., vii, 206.
[1389] _Pupille._ Alcibiades was left an orphan at the age of five
years, his father, Clinias, having been killed at the battle of
Coronea; when he was placed with his younger brother Clinias, under
the guardianship of Pericles and his brother Ariphron, to whom his
ungovernable passions, even in his boyhood, were a source of great
grief. Of this connection Alcibiades was very proud. Cf. Plat., Alc.,
c. 1. Nero lost his father when scarcely three years old; and at the
age of eleven, he was adopted by Claudius and placed under the care
of Annæus Seneca. It is curious that the first public act of both was
an act of liberality to the people. Compare the account of Nero's
proposing the Congiarium (Suet., Nero, c. 7), with the anecdote of
the quail of Alcibiades told by Plutarch (in Vit., c. 10). There is
probably also a bitter sarcasm in the word "pupille," as it was the
term of contempt applied to Nero by Poppæa, who was impatient to be
married to him, which the control of his mother Agrippina, and the
influence of Seneca and Burrhus, delayed. Cf. Tac., Ann., xiv., I,
"Quæ (Poppæa) aliquando per facetias incusaret Principem et _pupillum_
vocaret qui jussis alienis obnoxius non modo imperii sed libertatis
etiam indigeret." Some imagine _pericli_ to be intended as a pun, "One
that would prove _dangerous_ hereafter;" as Alcibiades was compared to
a lion's whelp, Arist., Ran., 1431, οὐ χρὴ λέοντος σκύμνον ἐν πόλει
τρέφειν ἤν δ' ἐκτρέφῃ τις, τοῖς τρόποις ὑπηρετεῖν.
[1390] _Majestate manûs._ Ov., Met., i., 205, "Quam fuit illa Jovi: qui
postquam voce, _manuque_ Murmura compressit, tenuere silentia cuncti."
So Lucan says of Cæsar, "Utque satis trepidum turbâ coeunte tumultum
Composuit vultu, _dextrâque_ silentia jussit." Cf. Acts, xiii. 16.
[1391] _Curva._ The Stoic notion that virtue is a straight line; vices,
curved: the virtues occasionally approaching nearer to one curve than
the other. Cf. Arist., Eth., II., vii. and viii.; and Sat., iii., 52,
"Haud tibi inexpertum _curvos_ deprendere mores, Quæque docet sapiens
braccatis illita Medis Porticus."
[1392] _Nigrum Theta._ The Θ, the first letter of θάνατος, was set
by the Judices against the names of those whom they adjuged worthy
of death, and was hence used by critics to obelize passages they
condemned or disapproved of; the contrary being marked with Χ, for
χρηστόν. Cf. Mart., vii., Ep. xxxvii., 1, "Nosti mortiferum quæstoris,
Castrice, signum, Est operæ pretium discere theta novum." Auson., Ep.
128, "Tuumque nomen theta sectilis signet." Sidon., Carm., ix., 335,
"Isti qui valet exarationi Districtum bonus applicare theta." (It was
also used on tomb-stones, and as a mark to tick off the dead on the
muster-roll of soldiers.)
[1393] _Summâ pella decorus._ The personal beauty of Alcibiades is
proverbial. Suetonius does not give a very unfavorable account of
Nero's exterior, "Staturâ fuit prope justâ, sufflavo capillo, vultu
pulchro magis quam venusto, oculis cæsiis." The rest of the picture
is not quite so flattering. It should be observed, by the way,
that Suetonius speaks in terms by no means disparaging of Nero's
verses, which, he says, flowed easily and naturally: he discards the
insinuation that they were mere translations, or plagiarisms, as he
says he had ocular proof to the contrary. Suet., Vit., c. 51, 2.
[1394] _Caudam jactare_, a metaphor either from "a dog fawning," or "a
peacock displaying its tail." Hor., ii., Sat. ii., 26, "Rara avis et
pictâ pandat spectacula caudâ."
[1395] _Anticyras._ Cf. ad Juv., xiii., 97. Hor., ii., Ep. ii., 137,
"Expulit helleboro morbum bilemque meraco." Lucian, ἐν Πλοίῳ, 45, καὶ
ὁ ἑλλέβορος ἱκανὸς ποιῆσαι ζωρότερος ποθείς. _Meracus_ is properly
applied to unmixed _wine_; _merus_, to any _other_ liquid.
[1396] _Curata cuticula sole._ Cf. ad Juv., xi., 203, "Nostra bibat
vernum contracta cuticula solem." Alluding to the _apricatio_, or
"sunning themselves," of which old men are so fond. Line 33. Sat. v.,
179. Cic., de Senect., xvi. Mart., x., Ep. xii., 7, "I precor et totos
avida cute combibe soles, Quam formosus eris, dum peregrinus eris."
Plin., Ep. iii., 1. "Ubi hora balinei nuntiata est, in sole, si caret
vento, ambulat nudus." iv., Ep. 5, "Post cibum sæpe æstate si quod
otii, jacebat in sole." Cic., Att., vii., 11. Mart., i., Ep. lxxviii.,
4. Juv., ii., 105, "Et curare cutem summi constantia civis." Hor.,
i., Ep. iv., 29, "In cute curandâ plus æquo operata juventus." iv.,
15, "Me pinguem et nitidum bene curatâ cute vises." Cf. Sat. ii., 37,
"Pelliculam curare jube."
[1397] _Dinomaches._ Vid. line 1. Plut., Alc., 1. It appears from
Plat., Alc., cxviii., that it was a name Alcibiades delighted in.
[1398] _Ocima._ Properly the herb "Basil," _ocimum Basilicum_, either
from ὠκὺς, from its "rapid growth," or from ὄζειν, from its "fragrance."
[1399] _Mantica._ From Phædrus, lib. iv., Fab. x., "Peras imposuit
Jupiter nobis duas: propriis repletam vitiis post tergum dedit: Alienis
ante pectus suspendit gravem. Hâc re videre nostra mala non possumus:
alii simul delinquunt, censores sumus." So Petr., Frag. Traj., 57, "In
alio peduclum vides: in te ricinum non vides." Cat., xxii., 20, "Suus
quoique attributus est error: Sed non videmus manticæ quod in tergo
est."
[1400] _Quantum non milvus._ Cf. Juv., ix., 55, "Tot milvos intra tua
pascua lassos."
[1401] _Pertusa ad compita._ "Compita" are places where three or more
roads meet, from the old verb bito or beto. At these places altars,
or little chapels, were erected with as many sides as there were ways
meeting. (Jani bifrontes.) Cf. v., 35, "Ramosa in compita." Hence they
are called "pertusa," i. e., _pervia_, "open in all directions." At
these chapels it was the custom for the rustics to suspend the worn-out
implements of husbandry. Though some think this was more especially
done at the Compitalia. This festival was one of those which the Romans
called Feriæ Conceptivæ, being fixed annually by the Prætor. They
generally followed close upon the Saturnalia, and were held sometimes
three days before the kalends of January, sometimes on the kalends
themselves. Vid. Cic., Pis., iv. Auson., Ecl. de Fev., "Et nunquam
certis redeuntia festa diebus, Compita per vicos quum sua quisque
colit." According to Servius, they are described, though not by name,
by Virgil, Æn., viii., 717. Like the Quinquatrus, they lasted only
one day, and on that occasion additional wooden chapels were erected,
the sacrificial cakes were provided by different houses, and slaves,
not freedmen, presided at the sacrifices. Vid. Plin., XXXVI., xxvii.,
70. The gods whom they worshiped are said to have been the Lares
Compitales, of whom various legends are current. But this is doubtful.
Augustus appointed certain rites in their honor, twice in the year.
Suet., Vit., c. xxxi., "Compitales Lares ornari bis anno instituit
vernis floribus et æstivis." It seems to have been a season of rustic
revelry and feasting, and of license for slaves, like the Saturnalia.
The avarice of the miser, therefore, on such an occasion, is the more
conspicuous. His vessel is but a small one (seriola), and its contents
woolly (pannosam) with age (veterem); yet he grudges scraping off the
clay (limum) with which they used to stop their vessels, in order to
pour a libation of his sour wine.
[1402] _Balanatum gausape._ The Balanus, or "Arabian Balsam," was
considered one of the most expensive perfumes. πρὸς τὰ πολυτελῆ μύρα
ἀντ' ἐλαίου ἔχρωντο. Dioscor., iv., 160. Cf. Hor., iii., Od. xxix., 4,
"Pressa tuis _balanus_ capillis Jamdudum apud me est." The gausape is
properly a thick shaggy kind of stuff. Hence Sen., Ep. 53, "Frigidæ
cultor mitto me in mare quomodo psychrolutam decet, gausapatus."
Lucil., xx., Fr. 9, "Purpureo tersit tunc latas gausape mensas." From
whom Horace copies, ii., Sat. viii., 10, "Puer alte cinctus acernam
gausape purpureo mensam pertersit." It is here used for "a very thick,
bushy beard."
[1403] _Cædimus._ A metaphor from gladiators, which is continued
through the next three lines. "While we are intent on wounding our
adversaries, we leave our own weak points unguarded;" i. e., while
satirizing others, we are quite forgetful of and blind to our own
defects. There is here also a covert allusion to Nero, who, though so
open to sarcasm, yet took upon him to satirize others. Cf. ad Juv.,
iv., 106, "Et tamen improbior satiram scribente cinædo."
[1404] _Non credam._ Sen., Ep. lix., 11, "Cito nobis placemus: si
invenimus qui nos bonos viros dicat, qui prudentes, qui sanctos,
agnoscimus. Nec sumus modicâ laudatione contenti: quidquid in nos
adulatio sine pudore congessit, tanquam debitum prendimus: optimos nos
esse sapientissimos affirmantibus assentimur."
[1405] _Puteal flagellas._ "This line," Casaubon says, "was purposely
intended to be obscure; that while all would apply it in one sense
to Nero, Persius, if accused, might maintain that he intended only
the other sense, which the words at first sight bear." Puteal is
put for the forum itself by synecdoche. It is properly the "puteal
Libonis," a place which L. Scribonius Libo caused to be inclosed
(perhaps cir. A.U.C. 604). It had been perhaps a bidental (cf. ad Sat.
ii., 27), or, as others say, the place where the razor of the augur
Nævius was deposited. Near it was the prætor's chair, and the benches
frequented by persons who had private suits, among whom the class of
usurers would be most conspicuous. (Hence Hor., i., Epist. xix., 8,
"Forum putealque Libonis Mandabo siccis." ii., Sat. vi., 35.) _Puteal
flagellare_, therefore, is taken in its primitive sense to mean, "to
frequent the forum for the purpose of enforcing rigorous payment from
those to whom you _have_ lent money; or the benches of the usurers, in
quest of persons to whom you _may_ lend it on exorbitant interest."
Cf. Ov., Remed., Am., 561, "Qui _puteal_ Janumque timet, celeresque
Kalendas." Cic., Sext., 8. In its secondary sense, it may apply to the
nightly atrocities of Nero, who used to frequent the forum, violently
assaulting those he met, and outrageously insulting females, not
unfrequently committing robberies and even murder; but having been
soundly beaten one night by a nobleman whose wife he had outraged, he
went ever after attended by gladiators, as a security for his personal
safety; who kept aloof until their services were required. Nero might
well, therefore, be called the "scourge of the Forum," and be said
to leave scars and wales behind him in the scenes of his enormities.
Juvenal (Sat. iii., 278, _seq._) alludes to the same practices. A
description of them at full length may be found in Tacitus (Ann.,
xiii., 26) and Suetonius (Vit. Neron., c. 26).
[1406] _Bibulas._ "Those ears which are as prone to drink in the
flattery of the mob as a sponge to imbibe water."
[1407] _Cerdo_, Put here for the lower orders generally, whose applause
Nero always especially courted. So Juv., iv., 153, "Sed periit postquam
cerdonibus esse timendus cœperat." viii., 182, "Et quæ turpia cerdoni
volesos Brutosque decebunt." "Give back the rabble their tribute of
applause. Let them bear their vile presents elsewhere!"
[1408] _Tecum habita._ "Retire into yourself; examine yourself
thoroughly; your abilities and powers of governing: and you will find
how little fitted you are for the arduous task you have undertaken."
Compare the end of the Alcibiades. Juv., xi., 33, "Te consule, die tibi
qui sis." Hor., i., Sat. iii., 34, "Te ipsum concute." Sen., Ep. 80,
_fin._, "Si perpendere te voles, sepone pecuniam, domum, dignitatem:
intus te ipse considera. Nunc qualis sis, aliis credis."
SATIRE V.
ARGUMENT.
On this Satire, which is the longest and the best of all, Persius
may be said to rest his claims to be considered a Philosopher
and a Poet. It may be compared with advantage with the Third
Satire of the second book of Horace. As the object in that is to
defend what is called the Stoical paradox, "that none but the
Philosopher is of _sound mind_,"
"Quem mala stultitia et quemcunque inscitia veri
Cæecum agit, insanum Chrysippi porticus et grex
Autumat:" i., 43-45,
so here, Persius maintains that other dogma of the Stoics, "that
none but the Philosopher is truly a _free_ man." Horace argues
(in the person of a Stoic) that there can be but _one_ path that
leads in the right direction; all others must lead the traveler
only farther astray. "Unus utrique error sed variis illudit
partibus" (ἐσθλοὶ μὲν γὰρ ἁπλῶς, παντοδαπῶς δὲ κακοί. Arist.,
Eth., II., vi., 4). So Persius argues, whatever are the varied
pursuits of different minds, he that is under the influence of some
overwhelming passion, can offer no claim to be accounted a free
agent. "Mille hominum species, et rerum discolor usus." (52.) In
fact, if we substitute "freedom" for "wisdom," the whole argument
of the last part of the Satire may be expressed in the two lines of
Horace:
"Quisquis
_Ambitione_ malâ aut _argenti_ pallet amore
Quisquis _Luxuria_ tristive _Superstitione_
Aut alio mentis morbo calet:"
that man can neither be pronounced free or of sound mind.
The Satire consists of two parts; the first serving as a Proëm to
the other. It is, in fact, the earnest expression of unbounded
affection for his tutor and early friend Annæus Cornutus, from
whom he had imbibed those principles of philosophy, which it is
the object of the latter part of the Satire to elucidate. After a
few lines of ridicule at the hackneyed prologues of the day, he
puts into the mouth of Cornutus that just criticism of poetical
composition which there is very little doubt Persius had in reality
derived from his master; and in answer to this, he takes occasion
to profess his sincere and deep-seated love and gratitude toward
the preceptor, whose kind care had rescued him from the vicious
courses to which a young and ardent temperament was leading him;
and whose sound judgment and dexterous management had weaned him
from the temptations that assail the young, by making him his own
companion in those studies which expanded his intellect while
they rectified the _obliquity_ (to use the Stoics' phrase) of his
moral character. Such mutual affection, he urges, could only exist
between two persons whom something more than mere adventitious
circumstances drew together; and he therefore concludes that the
same natal star must have presided over the horoscope of both.
He then proceeds to the main subject of the Satire, viz., that all
men should aim at attaining that freedom which can only result from
that perfect "soundness of mind" which we have shown to be the
summum bonum of the Stoics. This real freedom no mere external or
adventitious circumstances can bestow. Dama, though freed at his
master's behest, if he be the slave of passion, is as much a slave
as if he had never felt the prætor's rod. Until he have really cast
off, like the snake, the slough of his former vices, and become
changed in heart and principles as he is in political standing,
he is so far from being really free from bondage that he can not
rightly perform even the most trivial act of daily life. True
freedom consists in virtue alone; but "Virtus est vitium fugere:"
and he who eradicates all other passions, but cherishes still one
darling vice, has but changed his master. The dictates of the
passions that sway his breast are more imperious than those of the
severest task-master. Whether it be avarice, or luxury, or love,
or ambition, or superstition, that is the dominant principle, so
long as he can not shake himself free from the control of these, he
is as much, as real a slave as the drudge that bears his master's
strigil to the bath, or the dog that fancies he has burst his bonds
while the long fragment of his broken chain still dangles from his
neck. The last few lines contain a dignified rebuke of the sneers
which such pure sentiments as these would provoke in the coarse
minds of some into whose hands these lines might fall; perhaps,
too, they may be meant as a gentle reproof of the sly irony in
which the Epicurean Horace indulged, while professing to enunciate
the Stoic doctrine, that none but the true Philosopher can be said
to be of sound mind.
It is the custom of poets to pray for a hundred voices,[1409] and to
wish for a hundred mouths and a hundred tongues for their verses;[1410]
whether the subject proposed be one to be mouthed[1411] by a
grim-visaged[1412] Tragœdian, or the wounds[1413] of a Parthian drawing
his weapon from his groin.[1414]
CORNUTUS.[1415] What is the object of this? or what masses[1416]
of robust song are you heaping up, so as to require the support
of a hundred throats? Let those who are about to speak on grand
subjects collect mists on Helicon;[1417] all those for whom the pot
of Procne[1418] or Thyestes shall boil, to be often supped on by the
insipid Glycon.[1419] You neither press forth the air from the panting
bellows, while the mass is smelting in the furnace; nor, hoarse with
pent-up murmur, foolishly croak out something ponderous, nor strive to
burst your swollen cheeks with puffing.[1420] You adopt the language of
the Toga,[1421] skillful at judicious combination, with moderate style,
well rounded,[1422] clever at lashing depraved morals,[1423] and with
well-bred sportiveness to affix the mark of censure. Draw from this
source what you have to say; and leave at Mycenæ the tables, with the
head[1424] and feet, and study plebeian dinners.
PERSIUS. For my part, I do not aim at this, that my page may be
inflated with air-blown trifles, fit only to give weight[1425]
to smoke. We are talking apart from the crowd. I am now, at the
instigation of the Muse, giving you my heart to sift;[1426] and delight
in showing you, beloved friend, how large a portion of my soul is
yours, Cornutus! Knock then, since thou knowest well how to detect what
rings sound,[1427] and the glozings of a varnished[1428] tongue. For
this I would dare to pray for a hundred voices, that with guileless
voice I may unfold how deeply I have fixed thee in my inmost breast;
and that my words may unseal for thee all that lies buried, too deep
for words, in my secret heart.
When first the guardian purple left me, its timid charge,[1429] and my
boss[1430] was hung up, an offering to the short-girt[1431]
Lares; when my companions were kind, and the white centre-fold[1432]
gave my eyes license to rove with impunity over the whole Suburra; at
the time when the path is doubtful, and error, ignorant of the purpose
of life, makes anxious minds hesitate between the branching cross-ways,
I placed myself under you. You, Cornutus, cherished my tender years
in your Socratic bosom. Then your rule, dexterous in insinuating
itself,[1433] being applied to me, straightened my perverse morals; my
mind was convinced by your reasoning, and strove to yield subjection;
and formed features skillfully moulded by your plastic thumb. For I
remember that many long nights I spent with you; and with you robbed
our feasts of the first hours of night. Our work was one. We both alike
arranged our hours of rest, and relaxed our serious studies with a
frugal meal.
Doubt not, at least, this fact; that both our days harmonize by some
definite compact,[1434] and are derived from the selfsame planet.
Either the Fate, tenacious of truth,[1435] suspended our natal hour in
the equally poised balance, or else the Hour that presides over the
faithful divides between the twins the harmonious destiny[1436] of us
two; and we alike correct the influence of malignant Saturn[1437] by
Jupiter, auspicious to both. At all events, there is some star, I know
not what, that blends my destiny with thine.
There are a thousand species of men; and equally diversified is the
pursuit of objects. Each has his own desire; nor do men live with one
single wish. One barters beneath an orient sun,[1438] wares of Italy
for a wrinkled pepper[1439] and grains of pale cumin.[1440] Another
prefers, well-gorged, to heave in dewy[1441] sleep. Another indulges
in the Campus Martius. Another is beggared by gambling. Another riots
in sensual[1442] pleasures. But when the stony[1443] gout has crippled
his joints, like the branches of an ancient beech--then too late they
mourn that their days have passed in gross licentiousness, their light
has been the fitful marsh-fog; and look back upon the life they have
abandoned.[1444] But your delight is to grow pale over the midnight
papers; for, as a trainer of youths, you plant in their well-purged
ears[1445] the corn of Cleanthes.[1446] From this source seek, ye young
and old, a definite object for your mind, and a provision against
miserable gray hairs.
"It shall be done to-morrow."[1447] "To-morrow, the case will be just
the same!" What, do you grant me one day as so great a matter? "But
when that other day has dawned, we have already spent yesterday's
to-morrow. For see, another to-morrow wears away our years, and will be
always a little beyond you. For though it is so near you, and under the
selfsame perch, you will in vain endeavor to overtake the felloe[1448]
that revolves before you, since you are the hinder wheel, and on the
second axle."
It is liberty, of which we stand in need! not such as that which,
when every Publius Velina[1449] has earned, he claims as his due the
mouldy corn, on the production of his tally. Ah! minds barren of all
truth! for whom a single twirl makes a Roman.[1450] Here is Dama,[1451]
a groom,[1452] not worth three farthings![1453] good for nothing and
blear-eyed; one that would lie for a feed of beans. Let his master give
him but a twirl, and in the spinning of a top, out he comes Marcus
Dama! Ye gods! when Marcus is security, do you hesitate to trust your
money? When Marcus is judge, do you grow pale? Marcus said it: it must
be so. Marcus, put your name to this deed? This is literal liberty.
This it is the cap of liberty[1454] bestows on us.
"Is any one else, then, a freeman, but he that may live as he pleases?
I may live as I please; am not I then a freer man than Brutus?"[1455]
On this the Stoic (his ear well purged[1456] with biting vinegar) says,
"Your inference is faulty; the rest I admit, but cancel '_I may_,' and
'_as I please_.'"
"Since I left the prætor's presence, made my own master by his
rod,[1457] why _may_ I not do whatever my inclination dictates, save
only what the rubric of Masurius[1458] interdicts?"
Learn then! But let anger subside from your nose, and the wrinkling
sneer; while I pluck out those old wives' fables from your breast. It
was not in the prætor's power to commit to fools the delicate duties
of life, or transmit that experience that will guide them through the
rapid course of life. Sooner would you make the dulcimer[1459] suit a
tall porter.[1460]
Reason stands opposed to you, and whispers in your secret ear, not
to allow any one to do that which he will spoil in the doing. The
public law of men--nay, Nature herself contains this principle--that
feeble ignorance should hold all acts as forbidden. Dost thou dilute
hellebore, that knowest not how to confine the balance-tongue[1461] to
a definite point? The very essence of medicine[1462] forbids this. If a
high-shoed[1463] plowman, that knows not even the morning star, should
ask for a ship, Melicerta[1464] would cry out that all modesty had
vanished from the earth.[1465]
Has Philosophy granted to you to walk uprightly? and do you know how
to discern the semblance of truth; lest it give a counterfeit tinkle,
though merely gold laid over brass? And those things which ought to be
pursued, or in turn avoided, have you first marked the one with chalk,
and then the other with charcoal? Are you moderate in your desires?
frugal in your household? kind to your friends? Can you at one time
strictly close, at another unlock your granaries? And can you pass by
the coin fixed in the mud,[1466] nor swallow down with your gullet the
Mercurial saliva?
When you can say with truth, "These are my principles, this I hold;"
then be free and wise too, under the auspices of the prætor and of
Jove himself. But if, since you were but lately one of our batch, you
preserve your old skin, and though polished on the surface,[1467]
retain the cunning fox[1468] beneath your vapid breast; then I recall
all that I just now granted, and draw back the rope.[1469]
Philosophy has given you nothing; nay, put forth your finger[1470]--and
what act is there so trivial?--and you do wrong. But there is no
incense by which you can gain from the gods this boon,[1471] that
one short half-ounce of Right can be inherent in fools. To mix these
things together is an impossibility; nor can you, since you are in all
these things else a mere ditcher, move but three measures of the satyr
Bathyllus.[1472]
"_I am_ free." Whence do you take this as granted, you that are in
subjection to so many things?[1473] Do you recognize no master, save
him from whom the prætor's rod sets you free? If he has thundered out,
"Go, boy, and carry my strigils to the baths of Crispinus![1474] Do
you loiter, lazy scoundrel?" This bitter slavery affects not thee;
nor does any thing _from without_ enter which can set thy strings in
motion.[1475] But if _within_, and in thy morbid breast, there spring
up masters, how dost thou come forth with less impunity than those whom
the lash[1476] and the terror of their master drives to the strigils?
Do you snore lazily in the morning? "Rise!" says Avarice. "Come!
rise!" Do you refuse? She is urgent. "Arise!" she says. "I can not."
"Rise!" "And what am I to do?" "Do you ask? Import fish[1477] from
Pontus, Castoreum,[1478] tow, ebony,[1479] frankincense, purgative Coan
wines.[1480]
"Be the first to unload from the thirsty camel[1481] his fresh
pepper--turn a penny, swear!"
"But Jupiter will hear!" "Oh fool! If you aim at living on good terms
with Jove, you must go on contented to bore your oft-tasted salt-cellar
with your finger!"
Now, with girded loins, you fit the skin and wine flagon to your
slaves.[1482]--"Quick, to the ship!" Nothing prevents your sweeping
over the Ægæan in your big ship, unless cunning luxury should first
draw you aside, and hint, "Whither, madman, are you rushing? Whither!
what do you want? The manly bile has fermented in your hot breast,
which not even a pitcher[1483] of hemlock could quench. Would _you_
bound over the sea? Would _you_ have your dinner on a thwart, seated
on a coil of hemp?[1484] while the broad-bottomed jug[1485] exhales
the red Veientane[1486] spoiled by the damaged pitch![1487] Why do you
covet that the money you had here put out to interest at a modest five
per cent., should go on to sweat a greedy eleven per cent.? Indulge
your Genius![1488] Let us crop the sweets of life! That you really
_live_ is my boon! You will become ashes, a ghost, a gossip's tale!
Live, remembering you must die.--The hour flies! This very word I speak
is subtracted from it!"
What course, now, do you take? You are torn in different directions by
a two-fold hook. Do you follow this master or that? You must needs by
turns, with doubtful obedience, submit to one, by turns wander forth
free. Nor, even though you may have _once_ resisted, or once refused to
obey the stern behest, can you say with truth, "I have burst my bonds!"
For the dog too by his struggles breaks through his leash, yet even as
he flies a long portion of the chain hangs dragging from his neck.
"Davus![1489] I intend at once--and I order you to believe me too!--to
put an end to my past griefs. (So says Chærestratus, biting his nails
to the quick.) Shall I continue to be a disgrace to my sober relations?
Shall I make shipwreck[1490] of my patrimony, and lose my good name,
before these shameless[1491] doors, while drunk, and with my torch
extinguished, I sing[1492] before the reeking doors of Chrysis?"
"Well done, my boy, be wise! sacrifice a lamb to the gods who
ward off[1493] evil!" "But do you think, Davus, she will weep at
being forsaken?" Nonsense! boy, you will be beaten with her red
slipper,[1494] for fear you should be inclined to plunge, and gnaw
through your close-confining toils,[1495] now fierce and violent. But
if she should call you, you would say at once, "What then shall I
do?[1496] Shall I not now, when I am invited, and when of her own act
she entreats me, go to her?" Had you come away from her heart-whole,
you would not, even now. This, this is the man of whom we are in
search. It rests not on the wand[1497] which the foolish Lictor
brandishes.
Is that flatterer[1498] his own master, whom white-robed Ambition[1499]
leads gaping with open mouth? "Be on the watch, and heap vetches[1500]
bountifully upon the squabbling mob, that old men,[1501] as they sun
themselves, may remember our Floralia.--What could be more splendid?"
But when Herod's[1502] day is come, and the lamps arranged on the
greasy window-sill have disgorged their unctuous smoke, bearing
violets, and the thunny's tail floats, hugging the red dish,[1503]
and the white pitcher foams with wine: then in silent prayer you move
your lips, and grow pale at the sabbaths of the circumcised. Then are
the black goblins![1504] and the perils arising from breaking an
egg.[1505] Then the huge Galli,[1506] and the one-eyed priestess with
her sistrum,[1507] threaten you with the gods inflating your body,
unless, you have eaten the prescribed head of garlic[1508] three times
of a morning.
Were you to say all this among the brawny centurions, huge
Pulfenius[1509] would immediately raise his coarse laugh, and hold a
hundred Greek philosophers dear at a clipped centussis.[1510]
FOOTNOTES:
[1409] _Centum voces._ Homer is content with ten. Il., ii., 484, Οὐδ εἴ
μοι δέκα μὲν γλῶσσαι δέκα δέ στόματ εἶεν. Virgil squares the number.
Georg., ii., 43, "Non mihi si _linguæ centum_ sint, _oraque centum_,
Ferrea vox." Æn., vi., 625. Sil., iv., 527, "Non mihi Mæoniæ redeat
si gloria linguæ, _Centenas_que pater det Phœbus fundere _voces_, Tot
cædes proferre queam." Ov., Met., viii., 532, "Non mihi si _centum_
Deus _ora_ sonantia _linguis_." Fast., ii., 119.
[1410] _In carmina._ "That their style and language may be amplified
and extended adequately to the greatness and variety of their subjects."
[1411] _Hianda._ Juv., vi., 636, "Grande Sophocleo carmen bacchamur
hiatu;" alluding to the wide mouths of the tragic masks (οἱ ὑποκριταὶ
μέγα κεχηνότες, Luc., Nigrin., i., p. 28, Ben.), or to the "ampullæ et
sesquipedalia verba" of the tragedy itself. Hor., A. P., 96.
[1412] _Mæsto._ Hor., A. P., 105, "Tristia mæstum vultum verba decent."
[1413] _Vulnera_, i. e., "Or whether it be an epic poem on the Parthian
war," which was carried on under Nero. The genitive Parthi may be
either subjective or objective, probably the former, in spite of Hor.,
ii., Sat. i., 15, "Aut labentis equo describat vulnera Parthi."
[1414] _Ab inguine._ This may either mean, "drawing out the weapon from
the wound he has received from the Roman," or may describe the manner
in which the Parthian ("versis animosus equis," Hor., i., Od. xix., 11)
draws his bow in his retrograde course. ("Miles sagittas et celerem
fugam Parthi timet," ii., Od. iii., 17.) Casaubon describes, from
Eustathius, three other ways of drawing the bow, παρὰ μαζον, παρ' ὦμον,
and παρὰ τὸ δεξιὸν ὠτίον, "from the ear," like our English archers.
So Propertius, lib. iv., says of the Gauls, "Virgatis jaculantis ab
inguine braccis." El., x., 43.
[1415] _Cornutus._ Annæus Cornutus (of the same gens as Mela, Lucan,
and Seneca) was distinguished as a tragic poet as well as a Stoic
philosopher. He was a native of Leptis, in Africa, and came to Rome
in the reign of Nero, where he applied himself with success to the
education of young men. He wrote on Philosophy, Rhetoric, and a
treatise entitled ἡ ἑλληνικὴ θεολογία. Persius, at the age of sixteen
(A.D. 50), placed himself under his charge, and was introduced by him
to Lucan; and at his death left him one hundred sestertia and his
library. Cornutus kept the books, to the number of seven hundred, but
gave back the money to Persius' sisters. Nero, intending to write an
epic poem on Roman History, consulted Cornutus among others; but when
the rest advised Nero to extend it to four hundred books, Cornutus
said, "No one would read them." For this speech Nero was going to put
him to death; but contented himself with banishing him. This took
place, according to Lubinus, four years after Persius' death; more
probably in A.D. 65, when so many of the Annæan gens suffered. (Cf.
Clinton in Ann.) Vid. Suid., p. 2161. Dio., lxii., 29. Eus., Chron., A.
2080. Suet. in Vit. Pers.
[1416] _Offas._ "Huge goblets of robustious song." Gifford.
[1417] _Helicone._ Cf. Prol., 1. 4. Hor., A. P., 230, "Nubes et inania
captet."
[1418] _Procnes olla._ The "pot of Procne, or Thyestes," is said
to _boil_ for them who compose tragedies on the subjects of the
unnatural banquets prepared by Procne for Tereus, and by Atreus for
Thyestes. Cf., Ov., Met., vi., 424-676. Senec., Thyest. Hor., A. P.,
91.--_Cænanda_ implies that these atrocities were to be actually
represented on the stage, which the good taste even of Augustus' days
would have rejected with horror. Hor., A. P., 182-188.
[1419] _Glycon_ was a tragic actor, of whom one Virgilius was part
owner. Nero admired him so much that he gave Virgilius three hundred
thousand sesterces for his share of him, and set him free.
[1420] _Stloppo._ "The noise made by inflating the cheeks, and then
forcibly expelling the wind by a sudden blow with the hands." It not
improbably comes from λόπος in the sense of an inflated skin; as stlis
for lis, stlocus for locus; stlataria from latus. Cf. ad Juv., vii.,
134.
[1421] _Verba togæ._ Having pointed out the ordinary defects of poets
of the day as to choice of subjects, style, and language, Cornutus
proceeds to compliment Persius for the exactly contrary merits. First,
for the use of words not removed from ordinary use, but such as were in
use in the most elegant and polished society of Rome, as distinguished
from the rude archaisms then in vogue, or the too familiar vulgarisms
of the tunicatus popellus in the provinces, where none assumed the toga
till he was carried out to burial. (Juv., Sat. iii, 172.) But then,
according to Horace's precept ("Dixeris egregiè si notum callida verbum
reddiderit junctura novum," A. P., 47), grace and dignity was added to
these by the novelty of effect produced by judicious combination. Cf.
Cic., de Orat., iii., 43. There is an allusion to the same metaphor as
in Sat. i., 65, "Per leve severos effundat junctura ungues."
[1422] _Ore teres modico._ The second merit, "a natural and easy mode
of reciting, suited to compositions in a familiar style." Cicero uses
_teres_ in the same sense. De Orat., iii., c. 52, "Plena quædam, sed
tamen teres, et tenuis, non sine nervis ac viribus." Horace, A. P.,
323, "Graiis dedit ore rotundo Musa loqui."
[1423] _Pallentes radere mores._ The next merit is in the choice of
a subject. Not the unnatural horrors selected to gratify the most
depraved taste, but the gentlemanly, and at the same time searching,
exposure of the profligate morals of the time.
[1424] _Cum capite._ Cf. Senec., Thyest., Act iv., 1. 763, "Denudat
artus dirus atque ossa amputat: tantum _ora_ servat et datas fidei
_manus_."
[1425] _Pondus._ So Horace, i., Epist. xix., 42, "Nugis addere pondus."
[1426] _Excutienda._ Seneca, Ep. lxxii., 1, "Explicandus est animus, et
quæcunque apud illum deposita sunt, subinde _excuti_ debent."
[1427] _Solidum crepet._ Cf. iii., 21, "Sonet vitium percussa."
[1428] _Sinuoso._ Cf. Hamlet, "Give me that man that is not passion's
slave, and I will wear him in my heart's core; ay, in my heart of
heart, as I do thee, Horatio!" Act iii., sc. 2.
[1429] _Custos._ The Prætexta was intended, as the robes of the
priests, to serve as a protection to the youths that wore it. The
purple with which the toga was bordered was to remind them of the
modesty which was becoming to their early years. It was laid aside by
boys at the age of seventeen, and by girls when they were married. The
assumption of the toga virilis took place with great solemnities before
the images of the Lares, sometimes in the Capitol. It not unfrequently
happened that the changing of the toga at the same time formed a bond
of union between young men, which lasted unbroken for many years. Hor.,
i., Od. xxxvi., 9, "Memor Actæ non alio rege puertiæ Mutatæque simul
togæ. "The Liberalia, on the 16th before the Kalends of April (i. e.,
March 17th), were the usual festival for this ceremony. Vid. Cic. ad
Att., VI., i., 12. Ovid explains the reasons for the selection. Fast.,
iii., 771, _seq._
[1430] _Bulla._ Vid. Juv., v., 164.
[1431] _Succinctis._ So Horace, A. P., 50, "Fingere cinctutis non
exaudita Cethegis." The Lares, being the original household deities,
were regarded with singular affection, and were probably usually
represented in the homely dress of the early ages of the republic.
Perhaps, too, some superstitious feeling might tend to prevent any
innovation in their costume. This method of wearing the toga, which
consisted in twisting it over the left shoulder, so as to leave the
right arm bare and free, was called the "Cinctus Gabinus" (cf. Ov.,
Fast., v., 101, 129), from the fact of its having been adopted at the
sudden attack at Gabii, when they had not time to put on the sagum, but
were forced to fight in the toga. Hence, in proclaiming war, the consul
always appeared in this costume (Virg., Æn., vii., 612, "Ipse Quirinali
trabeâ cinctuque Gabino Insignis reserat stridentia limina Consul"),
and it was that in which Decius devoted himself. Liv., viii., 9; v., 46.
[1432] _Umbo_ was the centre where all the folds of the toga met on the
left shoulder; from this boss the lappet fell down and was tucked into
the girdle, so as to form the _sinus_ or fold which served as a pocket.
[1433] _Fallere solers._ "You showed so much skill and address in your
endeavors to restore me to the right path, that I was, as it were,
gradually and insensibly cheated into a reformation of my life."
[1434] _Fœdere certo._ Hor., ii., Ep. ii., 187, "Scit Genius, natale
comes qui temperat astrum." ii., Od. xvii., 16, "Placitumque _Parcis_,
Seu _Libra_ seu me Scorpius adspicit formidolosus, pars violentior
_Natalis horæ_ seu tyrannus Hesperiæ Capricornus undæ Utrumque nostrum
incredibili modo _consentit astrum_." Manil., iv., 549, "Felix _æquato_
genitus sub pondere _Libræ_."
[1435] _Tenax veri._ "Because the decrees pronounced by Destiny at
each man's birth have their inevitable issue." So Horace, "Parca non
mendax," ii., Od. xvi., 39.
[1436] _Concordia._ This συναστρία, as the Greeks called the being born
under one Horoscopus (vi., 18), was considered to be one of the causes
of the most familiar and intimate friendship.
[1437] _Saturnum._ Hor., ii., Od. xvii., 22, "Te _Jovis impio_ tutela
_Saturno_ refulgens Eripuit." Both _gravis_ and _impius_ are probably
meant to express the Κρόνος βλαβερὸς of Manetho, i., 110. Propert.,
iv., El. i., 105, "Felicesque Jovis stellæ Martisque rapacis, Et grave
Saturni sidus in omne caput." Juv., vi., 570, "Quid sidus triste
minetur Saturni." Virg., Georg., i., 336, "Frigida Saturni stella."
[1438] _Sole recenti._ "In the extreme east;" from Hor., i., Sat. iv.,
29, "Hic mutat merces surgente à Sole ad eum quo Vespertina tepet
regio."
[1439] _Rugosum piper._ Plin., H. N., xii., 7.
[1440] _Pallentis cumini._ The cumin was used as a cheap substitute for
pepper, which was very expensive at Rome. It produced great paleness
in those who ate much of it; and consequently many who wished to have
a pallid look, as though from deep study, used to take it in large
quantities. Pliny (xx., 14, "Omne cuminum pallorem bibentibus gignit")
says that the imitators of Porcius Latro used to take it in order to
resemble him even in his natural peculiarities. Horace alludes to
this, i., Epist. xix., 17, "Quod si pallerem casu biberent _exsangue
cuminum_." (Latro died A.U.C. 752.) Cf. Plin., xix., 6, 32.
[1441] _Irriguo._ Virg., Æn., i., 691," Placidam per membra quietem
_irrigat_." iii., 511, "Fessos sopor irrigat artus."--_Turgescere._
Sulp., 56, "Somno moriuntur obeso."
[1442] _Putris._ Hor., i., Od. xxxvi., 17, "Omnes in Damalin _putres_
deponunt oculos."
[1443] _Lapidosa._ "That fills his joints with chalk-stones."
Hor., ii., Sat. vii., 16, "Postquam illi justa _cheragra Contudit
articulos_." i., Ep. i., 81, "_Nodosâ_ corpus nolis prohibere
_cheragrâ_."
[1444] _Vitam relictam._ Cf. iii., 38, "Virtutem videant intabescantque
relictâ."
[1445] _Purgatas aures._ Cf. l. 86, "Stoicus hic aurem mordaci lotus
aceto." One of the remedies of deafness was holding the ear over the
vapor of heated vinegar. The metaphor was very applicable to the
Stoics, who were famous for their acuteness in detecting fallacies, and
their keenness in debating. Cf. Plaut., Mil. Gl., III., i., 176, "Ambo
perpurgatis tibi operam damus auribus." Hor., i., Epist. i., 7, "Est
mihi purgatam crebrò qui personet aurem."
[1446] _Cleantheâ._ Vid. Juv., ii., 7. Cleanthes was a native of Assos,
and began life as a pugilist. He came to Athens with only four drachmæ,
and became a pupil of Zeno. He used to work at night at drawing water
in the gardens, in order to raise money to attend Zeno's lectures by
day; and hence acquired the nickname of φρεάντλης. He succeeded Zeno in
his school, and according to some, Chrysippus became his pupil. Diog.
Laërt., VII., v., 1, 2; vii., 1.
[1447] _Cras hoc fiet._ Cf. Mart., v., Ep. lviii., 7, "Cras vives!
hodie jam vivere Postume serum est, Ille sapit, quisquis, Postume,
vixit heri." Macbeth, Act v., sc. 5,
"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time:
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death."
"Our yesterday's to-morrow now is gone,
And still a new to-morrow does come on.
We by to-morrows draw out all our store,
Till the exhausted well can yield no more." Cowley.
[1448] _Canthum._ "The tire of the wheel." Quintilian (i., 5) says,
"The word is of Spanish or African origin. Though Persius employs it as
a word in common use." But Casaubon quotes Suidas, Eustathius, and the
Etym. Mag., to prove it is a pure Greek word; κανθὸς, "the corner of
the eye." Hence put for the orb of the eye.
[1449] _Velinâ Publius._ When a slave was made perfectly free he was
enrolled in one of the tribes, in order that he might enjoy the full
privileges of a Roman citizen: one of the chief of these was the
frumentatio, i. e., the right of receiving a ticket which entitled him
to his share at the distribution of the public corn, which took place
on the nones of each month. This ticket or tally was of wood or lead,
and was transferable. Sometimes a small sum was paid with it. Cf.
Juv., vii., 174, "Summula ne pereat quâ vilis tessera venit frumenti."
The slave generally adopted the prænomen of the person who manumitted
him, and the name of the tribe to which he was admitted was added.
This prænomen was the distinguishing mark of a freeman, and they were
proportionally proud of it. (Hor., ii., Sat. v., 32, "Quinte, puta,
aut Publi--gaudent prænomine molles auriculæ." Juv., v., 127, "Si quid
tentaveris unquam hiscere tanquam habeas tria nomina.") The tribe
"Velina" was one of the country tribes, in the Sabine district, and
called from the Lake Velinus. It was the last tribe added, with the
Quirina, A.U.C. 512, to make up the thirty-five tribes, by the censors
C. Aurelius Cotta and M. Fabius Buteo. Vid. Liv., Epit., xix. Cic.,
Att., iv., 15. The name of the tribe was always added in the ablative
case, as Oppius Veientinâ, Anxius Tomentinâ.
[1450] _Quiritem._ Cf. Sen., Nat., iii., "Hæc res efficit non è jure
Quiritium liberum, sed è jure Naturæ." There were three ways of making
a slave free: 1, per Censum; 2, per Vindictam; 3, per Testamentum.
The second is alluded to here. The master took the slave before the
prætor or consul and said, "Hunc hominem liberum esse volo jure
Quiritium." Then the prætor, laying the rod (Vindicta) on the slave's
head, pronounced him free; whereupon his owner or the lictor turned him
round, gave him a blow on the cheek (alapa), and let him go, with the
words, "Liber esto atque ito quo voles." (Plaut., Men., V., vii., 40.)
[1451] _Dama_ was a common name for slaves (Hor., ii., Sat. vii., 54,
"Prodis ex judice Dama turpis;" and v., 18, "Utne tegam spurco Damæ
latus"), principally for Syrians. It is said to be a corruption of
Demetrius or Demodorus. So Manes, from Menodorus, was a common name of
Phrygian slaves.
[1452] _Agaso._ Properly, "a slave who looks after beasts of burden"
(_qui agit asinos_, Schell.), then put as a mark of contempt for any
drudge. Hor., ii., Sat. viii., 73, "Si patinam pede lapsus frangat
agaso."
[1453] _Tressis._ Literally, "three asses." So Sexis, Septussis, etc.
[1454] _Pilea._ Cf. ad iii., 106, "Hesterni capite induto subiere
Quirites."
[1455] _Bruto._ From the _three_ Bruti, who were looked upon by the
vulgar as the champions of liberty. Lucius Junius Brutus, who expelled
the Tarquins; Marcus, who murdered Cæsar; and Decimus, who opposed
Antony.
[1456] _Aurem lotus._ Cf. ad l. 63.
[1457] _Vindicta._ Cf. Ov., A. A., iii., 615, "Modo quam Vindicta
redemit."
[1458] _Masurius_, or Massurius Sabinus, a famous lawyer in the
reign of Tiberius, admitted by him when at an advanced age into the
Equestrian order. He is frequently mentioned by Aulus Gellius (Noctes
xiv.). He wrote three books on Civil Law, five on the Edictum Prætoris
Urbani, besides Commentaries and other works, quoted in the Digests.
[1459] _Sambucam._ "You might as well put a delicate instrument of
music in the hands of a coarse clown, and expect him to make it
'discourse eloquent music,' as look for a nice discernment of the finer
shades of moral duty in one wholly ignorant of the first principles of
philosophy." Sambuca is from the Chaldaic Sabbecà. It was a kind of
triangular harp with four strings, and according to the Greeks, was
called from one Sambuces, who first used it. Others say the Sibyl was
the first performer on it. Ibycus of Regium was its reputed inventor,
as Anacreon of the Barbiton: but from its mention in the book of Daniel
(iii., 5), it was probably of earlier date. A female performer on it
was called Sambucistria. An instrument of war, consisting of a platform
or drawbridge supported by ropes, to let down from a tower on the walls
of a besieged town, was called, from the similarity of shape, by the
same name. Cf. Athen., iv., 175; xiv., 633, 7. (Suidas, in voce, seems
to derive it from ἴαμβος, quasi ἰαμβύκη, because Iambic verses were
sung to it.)
[1460] _Caloni._ The slaves attached to the army were so called, from
κᾶλα "logs," either because they carried clubs, or because they were
the hewers of wood and drawers of water for the soldiers. From their
being always in the camp they acquired some military knowledge, and
hence we find them occasionally used in great emergencies. They are
sometimes confounded with Lixæ; but the latter were _not_ slaves. The
name is then applied to any coarse and common drudge. Cf. Hor., i.,
Ep. xiv., 41, "Invidet usum Lignorum tibi calo." Cf. i., Sat. ii.,
44; vi., 103. Tac., Hist., i., 49.--_Alto_ refers to the old Greek
proverb, ἄνοος ὁ μακρὸς, "Every tall man is a fool;" which Aristotle
(in Physiogn.) confirms.
[1461] _Examen._ See note on Sat. i., 6.
[1462] _Natura medendi._ Horace has the same idea, ii., Ep. i., 114,
"Navem agere ignarus navis timet; abrotonum ægro non audet nisi qui
didicit dare; quod medicorum est promittunt medici."
[1463] _Peronatus._ Cf. Juv., xiv., 186.
[1464] _Melicerta_ was the son of Ino, who leaped with him into the
sea, to save him from her husband Athamas. Neptune, at the request
of Venus, changed them into sea-deities, giving to Ino the name of
Leucothea, and to Palæmon that of Melicerta, or, according to others,
Portunus (à portu, as Neptunus, à nando). Vid. Ov., Met., iv., 523,
_seq._ Fast., vi., 545. Milton's Lycidas,
"By Leucothea's golden bands,
And her son that rules the sands."
[1465] _Frontem._ See note on Sat. i., 12. Hor., ii., Ep. i., 80,
"Clament periisse pudorem cuncti."
[1466] _In luto fixum._ From Hor., i., Ep. xvi., 63, "Quî melior servo
qui liberior sit avarus. _In triviis fixum_ cum se demittat ob assem."
The boys at Rome used to fix an as tied to a piece of string in the
mud, which they jerked away, with jeers and cries of "Etiam!" as soon
as any sordid fellow attempted to pick it up. Mercury being the god of
luck (see note on ii., 44; Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 25), Persius uses the
term "Mercurial saliva" for the miser's mouth watering at the sight of
the prize (vi., 62).--_Glutto_ expresses the gurgling sound made in the
throat at the swallowing of liquids.
[1467] _Fronte politus._ Hor., i., Ep. xvi., 45, "Introrsus turpem,
speciosum pelle decorâ."
[1468] _Vulpem._ Hor., A. P., 437, "Nunquam te fallant animi sub vulpe
latentes." Lysander's saying is well known, "Where the lion's skin does
not fit, we must don the fox's."
[1469] _Funemque reduco._ Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. sc. 1.
"I would have thee gone,
And yet no farther than a wanton's bird,
Who lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a silk thread plucks it back again."
[1470] _Digitum exsere._ The Stoics held that none but a philosopher
could perform even the most trivial act, such as putting out the
finger, correctly; there being no middle point between absolute wisdom
and absolute folly: consequently it was beyond even the power of the
gods to bestow upon a fool the power of acting rightly.
[1471] _Litabis._ See note on Sat. ii., 75.
[1472] _Bathylli_, i. e., "Like the graceful Bathyllus, when acting the
part of the satyr." Juv., Sat. vi., 63. Gifford's note.
[1473] _Tot subdite rebus._ "None but the philosopher can be free,
because all men else are the slaves of _something_; of avarice, luxury,
love, ambition, or superstition." Cf. Epict., Man., xiv., 2, ὅστις
οὖν ἐλεύθερος εἶναι βούλεται, μήτε θελέτω τι, μήτε φευγέτω τι τῶν ἐπ'
ἄλλοις· εἰ δὲ μὴ, δουλεύειν ἀνάγκη. So taught the Stoics; and inspired
wisdom reads the same lesson. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?"
Rom., vi., 16.
[1474] _Crispinus._ This "Verna Canopi," whom Juvenal mentions so often
with bitter hatred and contempt, rose from the lowest position to
eminence under Nero, who found him a ready instrument of his lusts and
cruelties. His connection with Nero commended him to Domitian also. One
of his phases may probably have been the keeping a bath. Juv., i., 27;
iv., 1, 14, etc.
[1475] _Nervos agitat._ "A slave is no better than a puppet in the
hands of his master, who pulls the strings that set his limbs in
motion." The allusion is to the ἀγάλματα νευρόσπαστα, "images worked by
strings." Herod., ii., 48. Xen., Sympos., iv. Lucian., de Deâ Syriâ,
xvi.
[1476] _Scutica._ Vid. ad Juv., vi., 480.
[1477] _Saperdam._ From the Greek σαπέρδης (Aristot., Fr. 546), a poor
insipid kind of fish caught in the Black Sea, called κορακῖνος until it
was salted. Archestratus in Athenæus (iii., p. 117) calls it a φαῦλον
ἀκιδνὸν ἕδεσμα.
[1478] _Castoreum._ Cf. Juv., xii., 34.
[1479] _Ebenum._ Virg., Georg., ii., 115, "Sola India nigrum fert
_ebenum_: solis est _thurea_ virga Sabæis."
[1480] _Lubrica Coa._ The grape of Cos was very sweet and luscious:
a large quantity of sea-water was added to the lighter kind, called
Leuco-Coum, which gave it a very purgative quality; which, in fact,
most of the lighter wines of the ancients possessed. Vid. Cels., i.,
1. Plin., H. N., xiv., 10. Horace alludes to this property of the Coan
wine, ii., Sat. iv., 27, "Si dura morabitur aloes, Mytilus et viles
pellent obstanti aconchæ Et lapathi brevis herba, sed _albo_ non sine
_Coo_." (May not "_lubrica_ conchylia" in the next line be interpreted
in the same way, instead of its recorded meaning, "slimy?") Casaubon
explains it by λεαντικός.
[1481] _Camelo._ "Thirsty from its journey over the desert to
Alexandria from India." Vid. Plin., H. N., xii., 7, 14, 15. Jahn's
Biblical Antiquities, p. 31.
[1482] _Baro_ is no doubt the true reading, and not _varo_, which some
derive from _varum_, "an unfashioned stake" (of which _vallum_ is the
diminutive), "a log;" and hence applied to a stupid person. Baro is,
as the old Scholiast tells us rightly for once, the Gallic term for a
soldier's slave, his Calo; and, like Calo, became a term of reproach
and contumely. It afterward was used, like homo (whence _homagium_,
"homage"), to mean the king's "man," or vassal; and hence its use in
mediæval days as an heraldic title. Compare the Norman-French terms
Escuyer, Valvasseur.
[1483] _Œnophorum._ Hor., i., Sat. vi., 109, "Pueri lasanum portantes
œnophorumque." Pellis is probably a substitute for a leathern
portmanteau or valise.
[1484] _Cannabe._
"And while a broken plank supports your meat,
And a coil'd cable proves your softest seat,
Suck from squab jugs that pitchy scents exhale,
The seaman's beverage, sour at once and stale." Gifford.
[1485] _Sessilis obba._ Sessilis is properly applied to the broad back
of a stout horse, affording a good seat ("tergum sessile," Ov., Met.,
xii., 401), then to any thing resting on a broad base. Obba is a word
of Hebrew root, originally applied to a vase used for making libations
to the dead. It is the ἄμβιξ of the Greeks (cf. Athen., iv., 152), a
broad vessel tapering to the mouth, and answers to the "Caraffe" or
"Barile" of the modern Italians.
[1486] _Veientanum._ The wine-grown at Veii. The Campagna di Roma is
as notorious as ever for the mean quality of its wines. Hor., ii.,
Sat. iii., 143, "Qui Veientanum festis potare diebus Campana solitus
trullâ." Mart., i., Ep. civ., 9, "Et Veientani bibitur fax crassa
_rubelli_." ii., Ep. 53. iii., Ep. 49.
[1487] _Pice._ See Hase's Ancient Greeks, chap. i., p. 16.
[1488] _Indulge genio._ Cf. ii., 8, "Funde merum Genio."
[1489] _Dave._ This episode is taken from a scene in the Eunuchus of
Menander, from which Terence copied his play, but altered the names.
In Terence, Chærestratus becomes Phædria, Davus Parmeno, and Chrysis
Thais. There is a scene of very similar character in le Dépit Amoureux
of Molière. Horace has also copied it, but not with the graphic effect
of Persius. ii., Sat. iii., 260, "Amator exclusus qui distat, agit ubi
secum, eat an non, Quo rediturus erat non arcessitus et hæret Invisis
foribus? ne nunc, cum me vocat ultro Accedam? an potius mediter finire
dolores?" _et seq._ Lucr., iv., 1173, _seq._
[1490] _Frangam._ Literally, "make shipwreck of my reputation."
[1491] _Udas_ is variously interpreted. "Dissipated and luxurious," as
opposed to _siccis_ (Hor., i., Od. xviii., 3; iv., Od. v., 38), just
before, in the sense of "sober." So Mart., v., Ep. lxxxiv., 5, "Udus
aleator." (Juvenal uses _madidus_ in the same sense. See note on Sat.
xv., 47.) For the drunken scenes enacted at these houses, see the last
scene of the Curculio of Plautus. Or it may mean, "wet with the lover's
tears." Vid. Mart, x., Ep. lxxviii., 8. Or simply "reeking with the
wine and unguents poured over them." Cf. Lucr., iv., 1175, "Postesque
superbos _unguit_ amaracina." Cf. Ov., Fast., v. 339.
[1492] _Cum face canto._ The torch was _extinguished_ to prevent the
serenader being recognized by the passers-by. The song which lovers
sang before their mistresses' doors was called παρακλαυσίθυρον.
«Examples may be seen, Aristoph., Eccl., 960, _seq._ Plaut., Curc., sc.
ult. Theoc., iii., 23. Propert., i., El. xvi., 17, _seq._» Cf. Hor.,
iii., Od. x., and i., Od. xxv. This serenading was technically called
"occentare ostium." Plaut., Curc., I., ii., 57. Pers., IV., iv., 20.
[1493] _Depellentibus._ The ἀποτροπαῖος and ἀλεξίκακος of the Greeks.
So ἀπόλλων· quasi ἀπέλλων the Averruncus of Varro, L. L., v., 5.
[1494] _Soleâ._ Cf. ad Juv., vi., 612, "Et soleâ pulsare nates." Ter.,
Eun., Act V., vii., 4.
[1495] _Casses._ From Prop., ii., El. iii., 47.
[1496] _Quidnam igitur faciam._ These are almost the words of Terence,
"Quid igitur faciam non eam ne nunc quidem cum arcessor ultro?" etc.
Eun. I., i.
[1497] _Festuca_ is properly "light stubble," or straws such as
birds build their nests with. Colum., viii., 15. It is here used
contemptuously for the prætor's Vindicta; as in Plautus, "Quid? ea
ingenua an festuca facta è servâ libera est?" Mil., IV., i., 15; from
whom it is probably taken.
[1498] _Palpo_ is either the _nominative_ case, "a wheedler,
flatterer," πόλαξ τοῦ δήμου, or the _ablative_ from palpum, "a bait,
or lure." Plautus uses the neuter substantive twice. Amph., I., iii.,
28, "Timidam palpo percutit." Pseud., IV., i., 35, "Mihi obtrudere non
potes palpum," in the sense of the English saying, "Old birds are not
to be caught with chaff."
[1499] _Cretata ambitio._ Those who aspired to any office wore a toga
whose whiteness was artificially increased by rubbing with chalk. Hence
the word Candidatus. _Ambitio_ refers here to its primitive meaning:
the going round, _ambire_ et _prensare_, to canvass the suffrages of
the voters. This was a laborious process, and required early rising to
get through it Hence _vigila_.
[1500] _Cicer._ At the Floralia (cf. ad Juv., vi., 250), which were
exhibited by the Ædiles, it was customary for the candidates for
popularity to throw among the people tesserulæ or tallies, which
entitled the bearer to a largess of corn, pulse, etc., for these there
would be, of course, a great scramble.
[1501] _Aprici senes._ Cf. ad Juv., xi., 203.
[1502] _Herodis dies._ Persius now describes the tyranny of
superstition; and of all forms of it, there was none which both
Juvenal and Persius regarded with greater contempt and abhorrence
than that of the Jews: and next to this they ranked the Egyptian.
From the favor shown to the Herods by the Roman emperors, from Julius
Cæsar downward, it is not wonderful that the partisans of Herod, or
Herodians, should form a large body at Rome as well as in Judæa; and
that consequently the birthday of Herod should be kept as "a convenient
day" for displaying that regard (compare Acts, xii., 21 with Matt.,
xiv., 6, and Mark, vi., 21), and be celebrated with all the solemnities
of a sabbath. It was the custom (as we have seen, Juv., xii., 92),
on occasions of great rejoicing, to cover the door-posts and fronts
of the houses with branches and flowers, among which violets were
very conspicuous (Juv., _u. s._), and to suspend lighted lamps even
at a very early hour from the windows, and trees near the house.
(So Tertull., Apol., "Lucernis diem infringere." Lactant., vi., 2,
"Accendunt lumina velut in tenebris agenti.") The sordid poverty of the
Jews is as much the satirist's butt as their superstition. The lamps
are greasy, the fish of the coarsest kind, and of that only the worst
part, the tail, serves for their banquet, which is also served in the
commonest earthenware.
[1503] _Fidelia._ Cf. iii., 22, 73.
[1504] _Lemures._ After his murder by Romulus, the shade of his
brother Remus was said to have appeared to Faustulus and his wife Acca
Larentia, and to have desired that a propitiatory festival to his Manes
should be instituted. This was therefore done, and three days were kept
in May (the 7th, 5th, and 3d before the Ides) under the name of Remuria
or Lemuria. They were kept at night, during which time they went with
bare feet, washed their hands thrice, and threw black beans nine times
behind their backs, which ceremonies were supposed to deliver them from
the terrors of the Lemures. During these days all the temples of the
gods were kept strictly closed, and all marriages contracted in the
month of May were held inauspicious. Ov., Fast., v., 421-92. Hor., ii,
Ep. ii., 208, "Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas, nocturnos
Lemures portentaque Thessala rides." The Lemures seem from Apuleius to
have been identical with the Larvæ, which is a cognate form to Lax.
(For a good Roman ghost story, see Plin., vii., Epist. 27.)
[1505] _Ovo._ Eggs were much used in lustral sacrifices, probably from
being the purest of all food (cf. Ov., A. Am., ii., 329, "Et veniat
quæ purget anus lectumque locumque Præferat et tremulâ sulphur et ova
manu." Juv., vi., 518, "Nisi se centum lustraverit ovis"); and hence
in incantations and fortune-telling. Hor., Epod. v., 19. If the egg
broke when placed on the fire, or was found to have been perforated,
it was supposed to portend mischief to the person or property of the
individual who tried the charm.
[1506] _Galli._ Vid. Juv., viii., 176, and vi., 512, "Ingens semivir."
[1507] _Sistro lusca sacerdos._ For the sistrum, see Juv., xiii., 93.
"Women who have no chance of being married," as the old Scholiast
says, "make a virtue of necessity, and consecrate themselves to a life
of devotion." Prate suggests this one-eyed lady probably turned her
deformity to good account, as she would represent it as the act of the
offended goddess, and argue that if her favored votaries were thus
exposed to her vengeance, what had the impious herd of common mortals
to expect. Cf. Ov., Pont., i., 51. The last lines may be compared with
the passage in Juvenal, Sat. vi., 511-591.
[1508] _Alli._ Garlic was worshiped as a deity in Egypt. Plin., xix.,
6. Cf. Juv., xv., 9. A head of garlic eaten fasting was used as a charm
against magical influence.
[1509] _Pulfenius._ Another reading is Vulpennius. These centurions
considered that bodily strength was the only necessary qualification
for a soldier, and that consequently all cultivation, both of mind and
body, was worse than superfluous. Cf. Juv., xiv., 193. Hor., i., Sat
vi., 73. Pers., iii., 77, "Aliquis de gente hircosâ Centurionum."
[1510] _Curio centusse._ From the Greek ούκ ἂν πριαίμην τετρημένου
χαλκοῦ. Plut. adv. Col. So Synesius, πολλοῦ μέν τ' ἂν εἶεν τρεῖς τοῦ
ὀβολοῦ. "They would be dear at three for a halfpenny!"--_Liceri_ is
properly "to bid at an auction," which was done by holding up the
finger. Vid. Cic. in Ver., II., iii., 11. Hence "Licitator." Cic., de
Off., iii, 15.
SATIRE VI.
ARGUMENT.
There are few points on which men _practically_ differ more than
on the question, What is the right use of riches? On this head
there was as much diversity of opinion among the philosophers
of old as in the present day. Some maintaining that not only a
virtuous, but also a happy life consisted in the absence of all
those external aids that wealth can bestow; others as zealously
arguing that a competency of means was absolutely necessary to
the due performance of the higher social virtues. The source of
error in most men lies in their mistaking the means for the end;
and the object of this Satire, which is the most original, and
perhaps the most pleasing of the whole, is to point out how a
proper employment of the fortune that falls to our lot may be
made to forward the best interests of man. Persius begins with
a warm encomium on the genius and learning of his friend Cæsius
Bassus, the lyric poet; especially complimenting him on his
antiquarian knowledge, and versatility of talent: and he then
proceeds to show, by setting forth his own line of conduct, how
true happiness may be attained by avoiding the extremes of sordid
meanness on the one hand, and ostentatious prodigality on the
other; by disregarding the suggestions of envy and the dictates
of ambition. A prompt and liberal regard to the necessities and
distresses of others is then inculcated; for this, coupled with
the maintenance of such an establishment as our fortune warrants
us in keeping up, is, to use the words of the poet, "to _use_
wealth, not to abuse it." He then proceeds with great severity
and bitter sarcasm to expose the shallow artifices of those who
attempt to disguise their sordid selfishness under the specious
pretense of a proper prudence, a reverence for the ancient
simplicity and frugality of manners, and a proper regard for
the interests of those who are to succeed to our inheritance.
The Satire concludes with a lively and graphic conversation
between Persius and his imaginary heir, in which he exposes the
cupidity of those who are waiting for the deaths of men whom
they expect to succeed; and shows that the anxiety of these for
the death of their friends, furnishes the strongest motive for a
due indulgence in the good things of this life; which it would
be folly to hoard up merely to be squandered by the spendthrift,
or feed the insatiable avarice of one whom even boundless wealth
could never satisfy. This Satire was probably written, as
Gifford says, "while the poet was still in the flower of youth,
possessed of an independent fortune, of estimable friends, dear
connections, and of a cultivated mind, under the consciousness
of irrecoverable disease; a situation in itself sufficiently
affecting, and which is rendered still more so by the placid and
even cheerful spirit which pervades every part of the poem."
Has the winter[1511] already made thee retire, Bassus,[1512] to thy
Sabine hearth? Does thy harp, and its strings, now wake to life[1513]
for thee with its manly[1514] quill? Of wondrous skill in adapting to
minstrelsy the early forms of ancient words,[1515] and the masculine
sound of the Latin lute--and then again give vent to youthful
merriment; or, with dignified touch, sing of distinguished old men.
For me the Ligurian[1516] shore now grows warm, and my sea wears its
wintry aspect, where the cliffs present a broad side, and the shore
retires with a capacious bay. "It is worth while, citizens, to become
acquainted with the Port of Luna!"[1517] Such is the best of Ennius in
his senses,[1518] when he ceased to dream he was Homer and sprung from
a Pythagorean peacock, and woke up plain "Quintus."
Here I live, careless of the vulgar herd--careless too of the evil
which malignant Auster[1519] is plotting against my flock--or that
that corner[1520] of my neighbor's farm is more fruitful than my own.
Nay, even though all who spring from a worse stock than mine, should
grow ever so rich, I would still refuse to be bowed down double by old
age[1521] on that account, or dine without good cheer, or touch with my
nose[1522] the seal on some vapid flagon.
Another man may act differently from this. The star that presides
over the natal hour[1523] produces even twins with widely-differing
disposition. One, a cunning dog, would, only on his birthday, dip his
dry cabbage in pickle[1524] which he has bought in a cup, sprinkling
over it with his own hands the pepper, as if it were sacred; the
other, a fine-spirited lad, runs through his large estate to please
his palate. I, for my part, will use--not abuse--my property; neither
sumptuous enough to serve up turbots before my freedmen, nor epicure
enough to discern the delicate flavor of female thrushes.[1525]
Live up to your income, and exhaust your granaries. You have a right to
do it! What should you fear? Harrow, and lo! another crop is already in
the blade!
"But duty calls! My friend,[1526] reduced to beggary, with shipwrecked
bark, is clutching at the Bruttian rocks, and has buried all his
property, and his prayers unheard by heaven, in the Ionian sea.
He himself lies on the shore, and by him the tall gods from the
stern;[1527] and the ribs of his shattered vessel are a station for
cormorants."[1528] Now therefore detach a fragment from the live turf;
and bestow it upon him in his need, that he may not have to roam about
with a painting of himself[1529] on a sea-green picture. But[1530] your
heir, enraged that you have curtailed your estate, will neglect your
funeral supper, he will commit your bones unperfumed to their urn,
quite prepared to be careless whether the cinnamon has a scentless
flavor, or the cassia be adulterated with cherry-gum. Should you then
in your lifetime impair your estate?
But Bestius[1531] rails against the Grecian philosophers: "So it
is--ever since this counterfeit[1532] philosophy[1533] came into the
city, along with pepper and dates, the very haymakers spoil their
pottage with gross unguents."
And are you afraid of this beyond the grave? But you, my heir, whoever
you are to be, come apart a little from the crowd, and hear.--"Don't
you know, my good friend, that a laureate[1534] letter has been sent
by Cæsar on account of his glorious defeat of the flower of the German
youth; and now the ashes are being swept from the altars, where they
have lain cold; already Cæsonia is hiring arms for the door-posts,
mantles for kings, yellow wigs for captives, and chariots, and tall
Rhinelanders. Consequently I intend to contribute a hundred pair of
gladiators to the gods and the emperor's Genius, in honor of his
splendid exploits.--Who shall prevent me? Do you, if you dare! Woe
betide you, unless you consent.--I mean to make a largess to the people
of oil and meat-pies. Do you forbid it? Speak out plainly!" "Not so,"
you say. I have a well-cleared field[1535] close by. Well, then! If
I have not a single aunt left, or a cousin, nor a single niece's
daughter; if my mother's sister is barren, and none of my grandmother's
stock survives--I will go to Bovillæ,[1536] and Virbius' hill.[1537]
There is Manius already as my heir. "What that son of earth!" Well, ask
me who my great-great-grandfather was! I could tell you certainly, but
not very readily. Go yet a step farther back, and one more; you will
find _he_ is a son of earth! and on this principle of genealogy Manius
turns out to be my great uncle. You, who are before me, why do you ask
of me the torch[1538] in the race? I am your Mercury! I come to you
as the god, in the guise in which he is painted. Do you reject the
offer? Will you not be content with what is left? But there is some
deficiency in the sum total! Well, I spent it on myself! But the whole
of what is left is yours, whatever it is. Attempt not to inquire what
is become of what Tadius once left me; nor din into my ears precepts
such as fathers give.[1539] "Get interest for your principal, and live
upon that."--What is the residue? "The residue!" Here, slave, at once
pour oil more bountifully over my cabbage. Am I to have a nettle, or a
smoky pig's cheek with a split ear, cooked for me on a festival day,
that that spendthrift grandson[1540] of yours may one day stuff himself
with goose-giblets, and when his froward humor urge him on, indulge in
a patrician mistress? Am I to live a threadbare skeleton,[1541] that
his fat paunch[1542] may sway from side to side?
Barter your soul for gain. Traffic; and with keen craft sift every
quarter of the globe. Let none exceed you in the art of puffing
off[1543] your sleek Cappadocian slaves, on their close-confining
platform.[1544] Double[1545] your property. "I have done so"--already
it returns three-fold, four-fold, ten-fold to my scrip. Mark where I am
to stop. Could I do so, he were found, Chrysippus,[1546] that could put
the finish to thy heap!
FOOTNOTES:
[1511] _Bruma._ The learned Romans, who divided their time between
business and study, used to begin their lucubrations about the time of
the Vulcanalia, which were held on the 23d of August (x. Kal. Sept.),
and for this purpose usually returned from Rome to their country
houses. Pliny, describing the studious habits of his uncle, says
(iii., Ep. 5), "Sed erat acre ingenium, incredibile studium, summa
vigilantia. Lucubrare a Vulcanalibus incipiebat, non auspicandi causâ
sed studendi, statim a nocte." So Horace, i., Ep. vii., 10, "Quod si
_bruma_ nives Albanis illinet agris, Ad mare descendet vates tuus et
sibi parcet Contractusque leget." He gives the reason, ii., Ep. ii.,
77, "Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus et fugit urbem." Cf. Juv.,
vii., 58. Plin., i., Ep. 9.
[1512] _Basse._ Cæsius Bassus, a lyric poet, said to have approached
most nearly to Horace. Cf. Quint., Inst., X., i., 96. Prop., I., iv.,
1. He was destroyed with his country house by the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius, in which Pliny the elder perished. Vid. Plin., vi., Ep. 16.
[1513] _Vivunt_, Casaubon explains by the Greek ἐνεργεῖν "to be in
active operation."
[1514] _Tetrico_ is spelt in some editions with a capital letter.
The sense is the same, as the rough, hardy, masculine virtues of the
ancient Romans were attributed to Sabine training and institutions.
Tetricus, or Tetrica, was a hill in the Sabine district. Virg., Æen.,
vii., 712, "Qui Tetricæ horrentis rupes, montemque severum Casperiamque
colunt." Liv., i., 18, "Suopte igitur ingenio temperatum animum
virtutibus fuisse opinor magis; instructumque non tam peregrinis
artibus quam disciplina _tetricâ_ ac tristi veterum Sabinorum: quo
genere nullum quondam incorruptius fuit." Ov., Am., III., viii., 61,
"Exæquet _tetricas_ licet illa Sabinas." Hor., iii., Od. vi., 38. Cic.
pro Ligar., xi.
[1515] _Vocum._ Another reading is "rerum," which Casaubon adopts, and
supposes Bassus to have been the author of a Theogony or Cosmogony. He
is said, on the authority of Terentianus Maurus and Priscian, to have
written a book on Metres, dedicated to Nero. Those who read "vocum,"
suppose that Persius meant to imply that he successfully transferred to
his Odes the nervous words of the older dialects of his country.
[1516] _Ligus ora._ Fulvia Sisennia, the mother of Persius, is said to
have been married, after her husband's death, to a native of Liguria,
or of Luna. It was to her house that Persius retired in the winter.
[1517] _Lunai portum._ A line from the beginning of the Annals of
Ennius. The town of Luna, now Luni, is in Etruria, but only separated
by the river Macra (now Magra) from Liguria. The Lunai Portus, now
Golfo di Spezzia, is in Liguria, and was the harbor from which the
Romans usually took shipping for Corsica and Sardinia. Ennius therefore
must have known it well, from often sailing thence with the elder Cato.
[1518] _Cor Ennii._ "Cor" is frequently used for sense. It is here a
periphrasis for "Ennius in his senses." Quintus Ennius was born B.C.
239, at Rudiæ, now Rugge, in Calabria, near Brundusium, and was brought
to Rome from Sardinia by Cato when quæstor there B.C. 204. He lived in
a very humble way on Mount Aventine, and died B.C. 169, of gout (morbus
articularis), and was buried in Scipio's tomb on the Via Appia. He
held the Pythagorean doctrine of Metempsychosis, and says himself, in
the beginning of his Annals, that Homer appeared to him in a dream,
and told him that he had once been a peacock, and that his soul was
transferred to him. The fragment describing this is extant. "Transnavit
cita per teneras Caliginis auras (anima Homeri) visus Homerus adesse
poeta. Tum memini fieri me pavum." «Cf. Hor., ii., Ep. i., 50.
"Ennius et sapiens et fortis et _alter Homerus_, Ut critici dicunt,
leviter curare videtur Quo promissa cadant et somnia Pythagorea."
Tertull., de An., 24, "Pavum se meminit Homerus, Ennio Somniante."»
The interpretation in the text seems the most reasonable. Others take
_quintus_ as a numeral adjective, and explain the meaning to be, that
the soul of a peacock transmigrated first into Euphorbus, then into
Homer, then into Pythagoras, and then into Ennius, who was consequently
fifth from the peacock.
[1519] _Auster_, the Sirocco of the modern Italians, was reckoned
peculiarly unwholesome to cattle. Cf. Virg., Georg., i., 443, "Urget
ab alto Arboribusque satisque Notus pecorique sinister." 462, "Quid
cogitet humidus Auster." Ecl., ii., 58. Tibul., I., i., 41. Hor.,
ii., Sat. vi., 18, "Nec mala me ambitio perdit nec plumbeus Auster,
Auctumnusque gravis, Libitinæ quæstus acerbæ." ii., Od. xiv., 15. Some
derive the name from "Ardeo," others from αὐὼ, "to parch or burn up:"
so Austerus, from αὐστηρός.
[1520] _Angulus._ Hor., ii., Sat. vi., 8, "Oh! si angulus ille proximus
accedat qui nunc denormat agellum."
[1521] _Senio._ "The premature old age brought on by pining at
another's welfare." So Plautus, "Præ mærore adeo miser æquè ægritudine
consenui." Cf. Capt., I., ii., 20. Truc., ii., 5, 13.
[1522] _Naso tetigisse._ "I will not become such a miser as to seal
up vapid wine, and then closely examine the seal when it is again
produced, to see whether it is untouched." Cf. Theophr. π. αἰσχροκερδ.
So Cicero says, "Lagenas etiam inanes obsignare." Fam., xiv., 26.
[1523] _Horoscope._ Properly, "the star that is in the ascendant at the
moment of a person's birth, from which the nativity is calculated."
Persius has just ridiculed the Pythagoreans, he now laughs at the
Astrologers. Whatever they may say, twins born under exactly the same
horoscope, have widely different characters and pursuits. "Castor
gaudet equis--ovo prognatus eodem Pugnis." Hor., ii., Sat. i., 26. Cf.
Diog. Laert., II., i., 3.
[1524] _Muria._ Either a brine made of salt and water, or a kind of
fishsauce made of the liquor of the thunny. Every word is a picture.
"He buys his sauce _in a cup_; instead of _pouring_ it over his
salad, he _dips_ the salad in it, and then scarcely moistens it: he
will not trust his servant to season it, so he does it himself; but
only sprinkles the pepper like _dew_, not in a good shower, and as
sparingly as if it were some _holy_ thing." Cf. Theophr., π. μικρολογ,
καὶ ἀπαγορεῦσαι τῇ γυναικὶ, μήτε ἅλας χρωννύειν μήτε ἐλλύχνιον, μήτε
κύμινον, μήτε ὀρίγανον, μήτε οὐλὰς, μήτε στεμματα, μήτε θυηλήματα·
ἀλλὰ λέγειν, ὅτι τὰ μικρὰ ταῦτα πολλά ἐστι τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ. Hor., i.,
Sat. i., 71, "Tanquam parcere _sacris_ cogeris." ii., Sat. iii., 110,
"Metuensque velut contingere sacrum."
[1525] _Turdarum._ So the best MSS. and the Scholiasts read, and
Casaubon follows. Varro, L. L., viii., 38, says the _feminine_ form is
not Latin. The "turdus" (Greek κίχλη), probably like our "field-fare,"
was esteemed the greatest delicacy by the Greeks and Romans. In the
Nubes of Aristophanes, the λόγος δίκαιος says, "In former days young
men were not allowed οὐδ' ὀψοφαγεῖν, οὐδὲ κιχλίζειν." (Ubi vid. Schol.;
but cf. Theoc., Id., xi., 78, cum Schol.) To be able to distinguish the
sex of so small a bird by the flavor would be the acme of Epicurism.
Hor., i., Ep. xv., 41, "Cum sit obeso nil melius turdo." Mart., xiii.,
Ep. 92, "Inter aves turdus, si quis me judice certet, Inter quadrupedes
mattya prima lepus." Cf. Athen., ii., 68, D.
[1526] _Prendit amicus._ From Hom., Od., v., 425, τόφρα δέ μιν μέγα
κῦμα φέρε τρηχεῖαν ἐπ' ἀκτήν· ἔνθα κ' ἀπὸ ῥινοὺς δρύφθη, σὺν δ' ὀστέ'
ἀράχθη, and 435. Virg., Æn., vi., 360. Cf. Palimirus," Prensantemque
uncis manibus capita ardua montis."
[1527] _Ingentes de puppe dei._ The tutelary gods were placed at the
stern as well as the stem of the ship. Cf. Æsch., S. Theb., 208. Virg.,
Æn., x., 170, "Aurato fulgebat Apolline puppis." Ov., Trist., I., x.,
l. Hor., i., Od. xiv., 10. Acts, xxviii., 11. Catull., I., iv., 36.
Eurip., Hel., 1664.
[1528] _Mergis._ Cf. Hom., Od., v., 337. The Mergus (αἴθυια of the
Greeks) is put for any large sea-bird. Hor., Epod. x., 21, "Opima
quodsi præda curvo litore porrecta mergos juveris."
[1529] _Pictus oberret._ Cf. ad Juv., xiv., 302, "Pictâ se tempestate
tuetur." xii., 27.
[1530] _Sed._ "But perhaps you will object," etc. He now ridicules
the folly of those who deny themselves all the luxuries and even the
necessaries of life, in order to leave behind a splendid inheritance to
their heirs. "Quum sit manifesta phrenesis Ut locuples moriaris egenti
vivere fato." Juv., xiv., 186. Cf. Hor., ii., Ep. ii., 191, "Utar,
et ex modico quantum res poscet acervo Tollam, nec metuam quid de me
judicet hæres Quod non plura datis invenerit." i., Ep. v., 13, "Parcus
ob hæredis curam, nimiumque severus assidet insano." ii., Od. xiv., 25.
[1531] _Bestius_, from Hor., i., Ep. xv., 37, "Diceret urendos
corrector Bestius." Probably both Horace and Persius borrowed from
Lucilius. Weichert, P. L., p. 420.
[1532] _Maris expers._ Hor., ii., Sat. viii., 15, "Chium maris
expers," which is generally interpreted to mean that Nasidienus set
before his guests wine which he called Chian, but which in reality had
never crossed the seas, being made at home. It may be put therefore
for any thing "adulterated, not genuine." Another interpretation
is, "effeminate, emasculate, void of manly vigor and energy," from
the supposed enervating effect of Greek philosophy on the masculine
character of the Romans of other days. A third explanation is, "that
which has experienced the sea," from the _active_ sense of expers, and
therefore is simply equivalent to "foreign, or imported." Casaubon
seems to incline to the latter view.
[1533] _Sapere._ So "Scire tuum," i., 27 and 9, "Nostrum illud vivere
triste." In the indiscriminate hatred of all that was Greek, philosophy
and literature were often included.
[1534] _Laurus._ After a victory, the Roman soldiers saluted their
general as Imperator. His lictors then wreathed their fasces, and his
soldiers their spears, with bays, and then he sent letters wreathed
with bays (literæ laureatæ) to the senate, and demanded a triumph. If
the senate approved, they decreed a thanksgiving (supplicatio) to the
gods. The bays were worn by himself and his soldiers till the triumph
was over. (Branches of bay were set up before the gate of Augustus,
by a decree of the senate, as being the perpetual conqueror of his
enemies. Cf. Ov., Trist., III., i., 39.) These letters were very rare
under the emperors, vid. Tac., Agric., xviii., except those sent by the
emperors themselves. Mart., vii., Ep. v., 3, "Invidet hosti Roma suo
veniat laurea multa licet." Caligula's mock expedition into Germany
(A.D. 40) is well known. The account given by Suetonius tallies exactly
with the words of Persius. "Conversus hinc ad curam triumphi præter
captivos ac transfugas barbaros, _Galliarum_ quoque _procerissimum
quemque_ et ut ipse dicebat ἀξιοθριαμβευτον legit ac seposuit ad
pompam; coegitque non tantum _rutilare et submittere comam_, sed et
sermonem Germanicum addiscere et nomina barbarica ferre." Vid. Domit.,
c. xlvii. Cf. Tac., German., xxxvii. (Virg., Æn., vii., 183. Mart.,
viii., Ep. xxxiii., 20.)
[1535] _Exossatus ager._ Among the Romans it was esteemed a great
disgrace for a legatee to refuse to administer to the estate of the
testator. Persius says, "even though you refuse to act as my heir, I
shall have no great difficulty in finding some one who will. Though
I have spent large sums in largesses to the mob, and in honor of the
emperor, I have still a field left near the city, which many would
gladly take." Such is unquestionably the drift of the passage; but
"exossatus" is variously explained. It literally means that from which
the bones have been taken: vid. Plaut., Aul., II., ix., 2, "Murænam
exdorsua, atque omnia exossata fac sient." Amph., I., i., 163. So
Lucr., iv., 1267. Ter., Ad., III., iv., 14. As stones are "the bones of
the earth" (Ov., Met., i., 393, "Lapides in corpore terræ ossa reor"),
it may mean "thoroughly cleared from stones;" or, as Casaubon says, so
thoroughly exhausted by constant cropping, that the land is reduced to
its very bones (as Juv., viii., 90, "Ossa vides regum vacuis exhausta
medullis"). "Yet even this field, bad as it is, some terræ filius may
be found to take." _Juxta_ is generally explained "near Rome," and
therefore parted with _last_. D'Achaintre takes it with exossatus in
the sense of "almost."
[1536] _Bovillæ_, a village on the Via Appia, no great distance
from Rome; hence called _Suburbanæ_, by Ovid (Fast., iii., 667) and
Propertius (IV., i., 33). Here Clodius was killed by Milo. Like Aricia,
it was infested by beggars. (Cf. Juv., iv., 117, "Dignus Aricinos qui
mendicaret ad axes.") Hence the proverb "Multi Manii Ariciæ."
[1537] _Virbii clivum_, a hill near Aricia, by the wood sacred to Diana
Nemorensis. It took its name from Hippolytus, son of Theseus, who was
worshiped here under the name of Virbius (bis vir) as having been
restored by Æsculapius to life. Cf. Ov., Met., xv., 543. Virg., Æn.,
vii., 760-782. There was also a hill within the walls of Rome called by
this name (cf. Liv., i., 48, where, however, Gronovius reads Orbii),
near the Vicus Sceleratus.
[1538] _Lampada._ The allusion is to the Torch-race λαμπαδηφόρια at
Athens. There were three festivals of this kind, according to Suidas,
the Panathenæan, Hephæstian, and Promethean. In the latter they ran
from the altar of Prometheus through the Ceramicus to the city. The
object of the runners in these races was to carry a lighted torch to
the end of their courses. But the manner of the running is a disputed
point among the commentators. Some say three competitors started
together, and he that carried his torch unextinguished to the goal
was victorious. Others say the runners were stationed at different
intervals, and the first who started gave up his torch at the first
station to another, who took up the running, and in turn delivering
it to a third; and to this the words of Lucretius seem to refer, ii.,
77, "Inque brevi spatio mutantur sæcla animantúm Et quasi cursores
vitaï lampada tradunt." Others again think that several competitors
started, but one only bore a torch, which, when wearied, he delivered
to some better-winded rival; which view is supported by Varro, R.
R., iii., 16, "In palæstra qui tædas ardentes accipit, celerior est
in cursu continuo quam ille qui tradit: propterea quod defatigatus
cursor dat integro facem." Cic., Heren., 4. The explanations of this
line consequently are almost as various. Prate, the Delphin editor,
supposes that Persius' heir was a man farther advanced in years than
Persius himself. Gifford explains it, "You are in full health, and have
every prospect of outstripping me in the career of life; do not then
prematurely take from me the chance of extending my days a little. Do
not call for the torch before I have given up the race:" and sees in it
a pathetic conviction of Persius' own mind, that his health was fast
failing, and that a fatal termination of the contest was inevitable and
not far remote. D'Achaintre thinks, with Casaubon, that "qui prior es"
means, "You are my nearer heir than the imaginary Manius, why therefore
do you disturb yourself? Receive my inheritance, as all legacies should
be received, i. e., as unexpected gifts of fortune; as treasures found
on the road, of which Mercurius is the supposed giver. I am then your
Mercury. Imagine me to be your god of luck, coming, as he is painted,
with a purse in my hand." Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 68.
[1539] _Dicta paterna._ Not "the precepts of my father," because
Persius' father was dead; but such as fathers give, inculcating lessons
of thrift and money-getting; as Hor., i., Ep. i., 53, "Virtus post
nummos--hæc recinunt juvenes dictata senesque." Cf. Juv., xiv., 122.
[1540] _Vago._ Cf. Varr. ap. Non., i., 223, "Spatale eviravit omnes
Venerivaga pueros."
[1541] _Trama_ is the "warp," according to some interpretations, the
"woof," according to others. The metaphor is simply from the fact, that
when the nap is worn off the cloth turns threadbare; and implies here
one so worn down that his bones almost show through his skin.
[1542] _Popa venter._ With paunch so fat that he looks like a "popa,"
"the sacrificing priest," who had good opportunities of growing fat
from the number of victims he got a share of; and therefore, like our
butchers, grew gross and corpulent. Popa is also put for the female
who _sold_ victims for sacrifice, and probably had as many chances of
growing fat. The idea of the passage is borrowed from Hor., ii., Sat.
iii., 122.
[1543] _Plausisse_, either in the sense of jactâsse, "to praise their
good qualities," or, "to clap them with the hand, to show what good
condition they are in." Cf. Ov., Met., ii., 866, "Modo pectora præbet
virgineâ plaudenda manu." Others read "pavisse," "clausisse," and
"pausasse." (Cf. Sen., Epist. lxxx., 9.)
[1544] _Catasta_, from κατάστασις, "a wooden platform on which slaves
were exposed to sale," in order that purchasers might have full
opportunity of inspecting and examining them. These were sometimes in
the forum, sometimes in the houses of the Mangones. Cf. Mart., ix.,
Ep. lx., 5, "Sed quos arcanæ servant tabulata Catastæ." Plin., H. N.,
xxxv., 17. Tib., II., iii., 59, "Regnum ipse tenet quem sæpe coëgit
Barbara gypsatos ferre catasta pedes." Persius recommends his miserly
friend to condescend to any low trade, even that of a slave-dealer,
to get money. Cappadocia was a great emporium for slaves. Cic., Post.
Red., "Cappadocem modo abreptum de grege venalium diceres." Hor.,
i., Ep. vi., 39, "Mancipiis locuples eget æris Cappadocum rex." The
royal property, consisting chiefly in slaves, was kept in different
fortresses throughout the country. The whole nation might be said to be
addicted to servitude; for when they were offered a free constitution
by the Romans, they declined the favor, and preferred receiving a
master from the hand of their allies. Strabo, xii., p. 540. After the
conquest of Pontus, Rome and Italy were filled with Cappadocian slaves,
many of whom were excellent bakers and confectioners. Vid. Plutarch v.
Lucullus. Athen., i, p. 20; iii., 112, 3. Cramer, Asia Minor, ii., p.
121. Mart., vi., Ep. lxvii., 4.
[1545] _Depunge._ A metaphor from the graduated arm of the steelyard.
Cf. v., 100, "Certo compescere puncto nescius examen." The end of the
fourteenth Satire of Juvenal, and of the fifteenth Epistle of Seneca,
may be compared with the conclusion of this Satire. "Congeratur in te
quidquid multi locupletes possederunt: Ultra privatum pecuniæ modum
fortuna te provehat, auro tegat, purpurâ vestiat, ... majora cupere
ab his disces. Naturalia desideria finita sunt: ex falsâ opinione
nascentia ubi desinant non habent. Nullus enim terminus falso est."
Sen., Ep. xvi., 7, 8; xxxix., 5; ii., 5.
[1546] _Chrysippi._ This refers to the σωρειτικὴ ἀπορία of the Stoics,
of which Chrysippus, the disciple of Zeno or Cleanthes, was said to
have been the inventor. The Sorites consisted of an indefinite number
of syllogisms, according to Chrysippus; to attempt to limit which,
or to bound the insatiable desires of the miser, would be equally
impossible. It takes its name from σῶρος, acerbus, "a heap:" "he that
could assign this limit, could also affirm with precision how many
grains of corn just make a _heap_; so that were but one grain taken
away, the remainder would be _no heap_." Cf. Cic., Ac. Qu., II.,
xxviii. Diog. Laert., VII., vii. Hor., i., Ep. ii., 4. Juv., ii., 5;
xiii., 184. Of the seven hundred and fifty books said to have been
written by Chrysippus, and enumerated by Diogenes Laertius, not one
fragment remains. His logic was so highly thought of, that it was
said "that, had the gods used logic, they would have used that of
Chrysippus."
SULPICIA.
INTRODUCTION.
The occasion of the following Satire is generally known as "the
expulsion of the philosophers from Rome by Domitian." As the same thing
took place under Vespasian also, it becomes worth while to inquire who
are the persons intended to be included under this designation; and in
what manner the fears of the two emperors could be so worked upon as
to pass a sweeping sentence of banishment against persons apparently
so helpless and so little formidable as the peaceful cultivators
of philosophy. It seems not improbable then that the fears both of
Vespasian and Domitian were of a _personal_ as well as of a political
nature. We find that in both cases the "Mathematici" are coupled
with the "Philosophi." Now these persons were no more nor less than
pretenders to the science of judicial astrology «cf. Juv., iii., 43;
vi., 562; xiv., 248; Suet., Cal., 57; Tit., 9; Otho, 4; Gell., i.,
9»; and to what an extent those who were believed to possess this
knowledge were dreaded in those days of gross superstition, may be
easily inferred by merely looking into Juvenal's sixth and Persius'
fifth Satire. Besides the baleful effects of incantations, which were
sources of terror even in Horace's days, the mere possession by another
of the nativity of a person whose death might be an object of desire to
the bearer, was supposed, at the time of which we are now speaking, to
be a sufficient ground of serious alarm. We are not surprised therefore
to find it recorded as an instance of great generosity on the part of
Vespasian, that on one occasion he pardoned one Metius Pomposianus,
although he was informed that he had in his possession a "Genesis
Imperatoria;" or that the possession of a similar document with regard
to Domitian cost the owner his life. (Cf. Suet., Vesp., 14; Domit.,
10.) With regard to the philosophers, it appears that the followers
of the Stoic school were those against whom the edict was especially
directed. Not only did the tenets of this school inculcate that
independence of thought and manners most directly at variance with the
servility and submissiveness inseparable from a state of thraldom under
a despot; but the cultivation of this branch of philosophy was held to
be nothing more than a specious cover for an attachment to the freedom
of speech and action enjoyed under the republican form of government:
and philosophy was accounted only another name for revolution and
rebellion.[1547]
The story told of Demetrius the Cynic, in Dio (lxvi., 13), and
confirmed by Suetonius (Vesp., c. 13), illustrates this view of the
subject. (Cf. Tac., Hist., iv., 40.) It appears to have been at the
suggestion of Mucianus,[1548] that all philosophers, but especially
the Stoics, were banished from Rome; and that the celebrated Musonius
Rufus was the only one who was suffered to remain. This took place A.D.
74. Sixteen years after this we find a decree of the senate passed to
a similar effect. Now, as philosophy may be studied equally well any
where, there seems no reason why, if it were not in some way connected
with their _political_ creed, all these votaries of Stoicism should in
the interim have taken up their abode at Rome. And though, no doubt,
the unoffending may have suffered with the guilty, the history of the
edict seems pretty plainly to show what _particular doctrines_ of their
philosophy were so obnoxious to Domitian. Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dio
all agree in the cause assigned for the sentence: viz., that Julius
Arulenus Rusticus and Herennius Senecio had been enthusiastic in their
praises of Thrasea Pætus and Helvidius Priscus; and that _therefore_
"all philosophers were removed from Rome." ("Cujus criminis occasione
philosophos omnes Urbe Italiâque submovit." Suet., Domit., 10. Cf.
Tac., Agric, 2; Dio, lxvii., 13.) But it was for their undisguised
hatred of tyrants, and for no dogma of the schools, that the former of
these was put to death by Nero, and the latter by Vespasian. Both of
them, as we know, celebrated with no ordinary festivities the birthdays
of the Bruti (Juv., v., 36); and Helvidius, even while prætor, went
so far as to omit all titles of honor or distinction before the name
of Vespasian. (Suet., Vesp., 15.) We must not therefore fall into the
common error of supposing this "banishment of philosophers" to have
been a mere act of wanton, senseless tyranny, or of brutal ignorance.
Even by his enemies' showing, the opening scenes of Domitian's
life[1549] are at direct variance with such an idea. (Cf. ad Juv.,
vii., 1.) And though we regret to find that men like Epictetus and Dio
of Prusa were included in the disastrous sentence, it is some relief to
learn that Pliny the younger, though living at the time in the house
of the philosopher Artemidorus, and the intimate friend of Senecio
and six or seven others of the banished, to whom he supplied money (a
fact which, as he himself hints, could not but have been known to the
emperor, as Pliny was prætor at the time), yet escaped unscathed. (Cf.
Plin., iii., Ep. XI., vii., 19; Gell., xv., 11.)
How far Sulpicia was connected with this movement, or whether she was
involved in the same sentence which overwhelmed the others, we have now
no means of ascertaining. It is quite clear that all her sympathies
were with the Greeks; and the passage concerning Scipio and Cato (1.
45-50) leaves little doubt that her philosophical opinions were those
of the Stoics. She rivals Juvenal in her thorough hatred of Domitian;
which may, perhaps, be partly also attributed to family reasons. For
we must remember that she belonged to the gens which produced Servius
Sulpicius Galba; and, as we have noticed on many occasions with regard
to Juvenal, an attachment to that emperor seems to go hand in hand with
hatred of Otho and Domitian. From the conclusion of the Satire, it is
probable that her husband was not implicated.
The Sulpician gens produced many distinguished men; of whom we may
mention the commissioner sent to Greece, and the conquerors of the
Samnites, of Sardinia, and of Pyrrhus, besides the notorious friend
of Marius. Of this illustrious stock she was no unworthy scion.
Martial[1550] bears the strongest testimony to the purity of her morals
and the chastity of her life, as well as to her devoted conjugal
affection; which latter virtue she illustrated in a poem replete with
the most lively, delicate, and virtuous sentiments; and which, had
not the licentiousness of the age been beyond such a cure, might have
produced a deep moral effect on the peculiar vices which especially
disgraced the era of the Cæsars. Her husband's name was Calenus, who
not improbably belonged to the Fufian gens,[1551] and with him she
enjoyed fifteen years of the purest domestic felicity, as we learn from
the Epigram addressed to him by Martial, in which, not without a tinge
of envy, he congratulates Calenus on the possession of so inestimable a
treasure. Both Epigrams are exceedingly beautiful, and every reader of
Martial will be only too ready to say, "O si sic omnia." Of her other
works we unfortunately do not possess a single fragment;[1552] and even
the solitary Satire which bears her name, was at one time, as Scaliger
tells us, falsely attributed to Ausonius.
Very much of the Satire is corrupt. Wernsdorf's seems, on the whole,
the best _approximation_ to a true reading; and the Commentary of Dousa
is, as far as it goes, satisfactory.
FOOTNOTES:
[1547] Vid. Niebuhr's Lectures, iii., p. 212.
[1548] _Licinius Mucianus_, the governor of Syria. He belonged to the
noble family of the Licinii, and was connected with the Mucii. For his
character, see Niebuhr's Lectures, vol. iii., p. 206.
[1549] "Domitian was a man of a cultivated mind and decided talent, and
is of considerable importance in the history of Roman literature. The
Paraphrase of Aratus, which is usually ascribed to Germanicus, is the
work of Domitian. The subject of the poem is poor, but it is executed
in a very respectable manner. Domitian's taste for Roman literature
produced its beneficial effects. He instituted the great pension
for rhetoricians, which Quintilian, for example, enjoyed, and the
Capitoline contests, in which the prize poems were crowned. During this
period, Roman literature received a great impulse, to which Domitian
himself must have contributed. From his poem we see that he was opposed
to the false taste of the time." Niebuhr's Lectures, iii., p. 216, 7.
[1550] Lib. x., Epig. 35 and 38. There is nothing in these two Epigrams
to imply that Sulpicia and Calenus were not both living peacefully and
happily at Rome, at the time Martial wrote his tenth book of Epigrams.
Now he says himself that he scarcely produced one book in a year, (x.,
70), and lib. ix. was written A.D. 94 or 95. The second edition of
his tenth book came out A.D. 99. The Epigrams to Calenus and Sulpicia
were probably therefore written at least six years after the Edict of
Domitian, i. e., between A.D. 90 and 99.
[1551] Vid. not. ad l. 62.
[1552] With the exception of a doubtful fragment quoted by the old
Scholiast on Juvenal, Sat. vi., 538.
SULPICIA.
ARGUMENT.
The Satire opens with an Invocation of Calliope, the Muse of
Heroic poetry. The dignity of the subject, which is in fact the
undeserved sufferings of the good and great men whom Domitian's
edict was ejecting from their homes, deserves a higher strain
than is compatible with the more commonplace, and therefore less
powerful, invectives of Iambic metre. The effect produced by such
a measure is described as nothing less than forcing the civilized
world to retrograde to a state of primæval barbarism. The cause
which has led to such a perversion of taste and degradation of
intellect is then examined; which are shown to be the result of
a long-protracted peace. The old Roman valor which had raised
the city to the proud position promised by the father of gods
and men, had become gradually enervated and enfeebled, as it
ceased to have an object on which to exercise itself. The stern
and rigid virtue of the best period of the city's history,
which had led her greatest men, even in the fierce struggles
for existence against the rival republic, to appreciate and
patronize the philosophy of Greece, the love of country and the
ties of brotherhood which had been fostered by that "rugged nurse
Adversity," were now all buried in the corpse-like lethargy
induced by the enervating influence of a lengthened peace. The
Satire concludes with a bitter denunciation of coming vengeance
against the tyrant; and a prophetic anticipation of the lasting
fame to be enjoyed by the poem.
Grant me, O Muse,[1553] to tell my little tale in a few words, in those
numbers in which thou art wont to celebrate[1554] heroes and arms! For
to thee I have retired; with thee revising[1555] my secret plan.[1556]
For which reason, I neither trip on in the measure of Phalæcus,[1557]
nor in Iambic[1558] trimeter; nor in that metre which, halting with
the same foot, learned under its Clazomenæan guide boldly to give vent
to its wrath. All other things[1559] moreover, in short, my thousand
sportive effusions; and how I was the first that taught our Roman
matrons to rival the Greeks, and to diversify their subject with wit
untried before, consistently[1560] with my purpose, I pass by; and thee
I invoke, in those points in which thou art chief of all, and, supreme
in eloquence, art best skilled. Descend[1561] at thy votary's prayer
and hear!
Tell me, O Calliope, what is it the great[1562] father of the gods
purposes to do? Does he revert to earth, and his father's age; and
wrest from us in death the arts that once he gave; and bid us, in
silence, nay, bereft of reason, too, just as when we arose in the
primæval age,[1563] stoop again[1564] to acorns,[1565] and the pure
stream? Or does he guard with friendly care all other lands and cities,
but thrusts away[1566] the race of Ausonia, and the nurslings of
Remus?[1567]
For, what must we suppose? There are two ways by which Rome reared
aloft her mighty head. Valor in war, and wisdom in peace. But valor,
practiced[1568] at home and by civil warfare, passed over to the seas
of Sicily and the citadels of Carthage, and swept away also all other
empires and the whole world.
Then, as the victor, who, left alone in the Grecian stadium, droops,
and though with valor undaunted, feels his heart sink within him--just
so the Roman race, when it had ceased from its struggles, and had
bridled peace in lasting trammels; then, revising at home the laws
and discoveries of the Greeks,[1569] ruled with policy and gentle
influence[1570] all that had been won by sea and land as the prizes of
war.
By this Rome stood--nor could she indeed have maintained her ground
without these. Else with vain words[1571] and lying lips would
Jupiter[1572] have been proved to have said to his queen, "I have given
them empire[1573] without limit!"
Therefore, now, he who sways the Roman state[1574] has commanded all
studies, and the philosophic name and race of men to depart out of
doors and quit the city.
What are we to do? We left the Greeks and the cities of men,[1575] that
the Roman youth might be better instructed in these.
Now, just as the Gauls,[1576] abandoning their swords and scales, fled
when Capitoline Camillus thrust them forth; so our aged men are said
to be wandering forth,[1577] and like some deadly burden, themselves
eradicating their own books. Therefore the hero of Numantia and of
Libya, Scipio, erred in that point, who grew wise under the training
of his Rhodian[1578] master; and that other band, fruitful in talent,
in the second war;[1579] among whom the divine apophthegm[1580] of
Priscus[1581] Cato[1582] held it of such deep import to determine
whether the Roman stock would better be upheld[1583] by prosperity
or adversity. By adversity, doubtless; for when the love of country
urges them to defend[1584] themselves by arms, and their wife held
prisoner together with their household gods, they combine[1585] just
like wasps (a bristling band, with weapons all unsheathed along their
yellow bodies), when their home and citadel is assailed. But when
care-dispelling peace has returned, forgetful of labor, commons and
fathers together lie buried in lethargic sleep. A long-protracted and
destructive peace[1586] has therefore been the ruin of the sons of
Romulus.[1587]
Thus our tale comes to a close. Henceforth, kind Muse, without whom
life is no pleasure to me, I pray thee warn them that, like the Lydian
of yore, when Smyrna fell,[1588] so now also they may be ready to
emigrate; or else, in line, whatever thou wishest. This only I beseech
thee, goddess! Present not in a pleasing light to Calenus[1589] the
walls of Rome and the Sabines.
Thus much I spake. Then the goddess deigns to reply in few words, and
begins:
"Lay aside thy just fears, my votary. See, the extremity of hate is
menacing him, and by our mouth shall he perish! For we haunt the laurel
groves of Numa,[1590] and the self-same springs, and, with Egeria
for our companion,[1591] deride all vain essays. Live on! Farewell!
Its destined fame awaits the grief that does thee honor. Such is the
promise of the Muses' choir, and of Apollo[1592] that presides over
Rome."
FOOTNOTES:
[1553] _Musa._ Although about to indite a Satire, Sulpicia declares
her intention of not imitating the Hendecasyllabics of Phalæcus, the
Iambics of Archilochus, or the Scazontics of Hipponax, but of writing
in the good old Heroic metre. She therefore invokes the aid of Calliope.
[1554] _Frequentas._ "Celebrare" is often used in the sense of
"crowding in large numbers to a place;" so here, conversely,
frequentare is used in the sense of "frequently celebrating."
[1555] _Detexere_ is properly to "finish off one's weaving." Vid. Hyg.,
Fab., 126, "Cum telam detexuero nubam." Plaut., Ps. I., iv., 7, "Neque
ad detexundam telam certos terminos habes."
[1556] _Penetrale_ is applied to the inmost and most sacred recesses;
hence the "Penetrales Dii." Cic., Nat. D., ii., 27. Senec., Œdip., 265.
So "penetrale sacrificium."--_Retractans_, in the sense of going over
again with a view to corrections and additions. So Plin., v. Ep., 8,
"Egi graves causas; has destino retractare." Senec., Ep., 46, "De libro
tuo plura scribam cum illum retractavero."
[1557] _Phalæco._ Phalæcus is said by Diomedes (iii., 509) and
Terentianus (p. 2440) to have been the inventor of the Hendecasyllabic
metre, which consists of five feet; the first a Spondee or Iamb.,
the second a Dactyl, and the three last Trochees. Many of Catullus's
pieces are in this metre. E. g. "Lugete O Veneres, Cupidinesque." Vid.
Hermann, Elem. Doctr. Metr., p. 264.
[1558] _Iambo._ The Iambic metre was peculiarly adapted to Satire.
Hence its probable etymology from ἰάπτω, jacio; and hence the epithet
_criminosi_ applied to these verses by Horace (i., Od. xvi., 2),
and _truces_ by Catullus (xxxvi., 5). Archilochus, the Parian, who
flourished in the eighth century B.C. (Cic., Tusc. Q., i., 1; Bähr, ad
Herod., i., 12), is said to have been the inventor of the metre, and to
have employed it against Lycambes, who had promised him his daughter
Neobule, but afterward retracted. Cf. Hor., A. P., 79, "Archilochum
proprio rabies armavit Iambo." i., Ep. xix., 23, "Parios ego primus
Iambos Ostendi Latio numeros animosque secutus Archilochi non res et
agentia verba Lycamben." The allusion in the next line is to Hipponax,
who flourished cir. B.C. 540; Ol. lx. He was a native of Ephesus; but
being expelled from his native country by the tyrant Athenagoras,
he settled at Clazomenæ, now the Isle of St. John. The common story
is, that he was so hideously ugly, that the sculptors Bupalus and
Athenis caricatured him. And to avenge this insult, Hipponax altered
the Iambic of Archilochus into a more bitter form by making the last
foot a spondee, which gave the verse a kind of halting rhythm, and was
hence called Scazontic, from σκάζω· or Choliambic, from χῶλος, "lame."
Diomed., iii., 503. «A specimen may be seen in Martial's bitter epigram
against Cato. i., Ep. I, "Cur in Theatrum Cato severe venisti?"» In
this metre he so bitterly satirized them that they hanged themselves,
as Lycambes had done, in consequence of the ridicule of Archilochus.
Hence Horace, vi., Epod. 13, "Qualis Lycambæ spretus infido gener Aut
acer hostis Bupalo." Pliny (H. N., xxxvi., 5) treats the whole story as
mythical. Cf. Mart., i., Ep. 97, for some good specimens, and Catull.,
xxxix. Another form of Choliambic verse is the substitution of an
Antibacchius for the final Iamb.: e. g., "Remitte pallium mihi quod
involasti." Catull., xxv. Two of Hipponax's verses may be seen, Strabo,
lib. xiv., c. 1.
[1559] _Cætera._ From the high compliment paid to her chastity and
poetical powers by Martial, it is probable that Sulpicia had composed
many poems before the present Satire. From the metre Martial chooses
for his complimentary effusion, and from the testimony of the old
Scholiast, it is probable these verses were in Hendecasyllabics; or at
all events in some lyrical metre. There was a poetess named Cornificia
in the time of Augustus, who wrote some good Epigrams. She was the
sister of Cornificius, the reputed enemy of Virgil (vid. Clinton, F.
H., in ann. B.C. 41), but as she was not a _lyrical_ poetess, Sulpicia
claims the palm to herself.
[1560] _Constanter._ The subject is too serious and solemn for lyrical
poetry; she therefore employs the dignity of Heroic verse. So Juvenal,
iv., 34, "Incipe Calliope--non est _cantandum_, res vera agitur,
narrate puellæ Pierides."
[1561] _Descende._ Cf. Hor., iii., Od. iv., 1, "_Descende_ cœlo et
_dic_ age tibiâ Regina longum _Calliope_ melos." Calliope, as the Muse
of _Heroic_ poetry, holds the chief place. (Cf. Auson., Id. xx., 7,
"Carmina Calliope libris Heroïca mandat.") Hence "Princeps." So Hesiod,
Theog., 79, Καλλιόπη θ' ἣ δὲ προφερεστάτη ἐστὶν ἁπασέων. Dionys., Hymn,
i., 6, Μουσῶν προκαθηγέτι τερπνῶν. The poets assign different provinces
to the different Muses. According to some, Calliope is the Muse of
Amatory poetry.
[1562] _Ille._ So Virg., Æn., ii., 779, "Aut _ille_ sinit regnator
Olympi."
[1563] _Patria Sæcula._ The age of Saturn, when men lived in primæval
barbarism, and all cultivation and refinement was unknown. Compare the
first twelve lines of Juvenal's sixth Satire. Ov., Met., i., 113.
[1564] _Procumbere._ Cf. ad Prol. Pers., i.
[1565] _Glandibus._ Ov., Met., i., 106, "Et quæ deciderant patula Jovis
arbore glandes." Lucret., v., 937, "Glandiferas inter curabant corpora
quercus." Virg., Georg., i., 8, 148. Ov., Am., III., x., 9. Juv., vi.,
10. Sulpicia had probably in view the passage in Horace, i., Sat. iii.,
99," Cum _prorepserunt primis_ animalia _terris, Mutum_ et turpe pecus
_glandem_ atque cubilia propter," etc.
[1566] _Exturbat._ A technical phrase, "eject." Cf. Cic. pro Rosc., 8,
"Nudum ejicit domo atque focis patriis, Diisque penatibus præcipitem
_exturbat_." Plaut., Trin., IV., iii., 77. Ov., Met., xv., 175. Tac.,
Ann., xi., 12.
[1567] _Remuli_: the other readings are Remi, and Romi. Cf. Juv., x.,
73, "Turba Remi." Alumnus is properly a "foundling." Cf. Plin., x.
Epist., 71, 72.
[1568] _Agitata._ As though the wars carried on within the peninsula of
Italy had served only to train the Romans in that military discipline
by which they were to subjugate the world. This universal dominion
having been attained, Rome rested from her labors, like the conqueror
left alone in his glory, in the Grecian games; and having no more
enemies against whom she could turn her arms, had sheathed her sword
and applied herself to the arts of Peace. This seems the most probable
interpretation. Dusa proposes to read Cætera _quæ_, for Cætera_que_,
and to place the line as a parenthesis after _socialibus armis_: but
with the sense given in the text, the substitution is unnecessary.
He supposes also Victor to apply to a _horse_ that has grown old in
the contests of the circus; the allusion would surely be more simple
to a conqueror in the Pentathlon. The reading _exiit_ is followed in
preference to _exilit_ or _exigit_.
[1569] _Graia inventa._ So Livy dates the first introduction of a
fondness for the products of Greek art from the taking of Syracuse by
Marcellus: lib. xxv., 48, "Inde primum initium mirandi Græcarum artium
opera." Cf. xxxiv., 4. Hor., ii., Epist. i., 156, "Græcia capta ferum
victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio."
[1570] _Molli ratione._ Virg., Æn., vi., 852, "Hæ tibi erunt artes:
pacisque imponere morem, Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos."
[1571] _Aut frustra._ An anacoluthon, as the old Scholiast remarks;
stabat evidently referring to Roma. Cf. 1. 50, "An magis adversis
_staret_."
[1572] _Diespiter_, i. e., Diei pater. Macrob., Sat., i., 15. Hor.,
iii., Od. ii., 29.
[1573] _Imperium._ Virg., Æn., i., 279. It is in Jupiter's speech to
_Venus_, not to Juno, that the line occurs.
[1574] _Res Romanas imperat inter._ A line untranslatable as it
stands. Various remedies have been proposed--rex for res, temperat for
imperat, impar for inter, Romanos for Romanas. Rex being, like dominus,
generally used in a _bad_ sense by the Romans, rex Romanos imperat
inter would imply the excessive oppression of Domitian's tyranny. Dusa
suggests _rex Romanis temperat inter_ (taking interrex as one word
divided by tmesis), and supposes Sulpicia meant to assert, that as his
reign was to be so briefly brought to a close, he could only be looked
upon in the light of an Interrex.
[1575] _Hominum._ As though the Greeks alone deserved the name of men,
and the praise of humanity and refinement.
[1576] _Galli._ Alluding to the old legend of Brennus casting his
sword into the scale, with the words "Væ victis!" in answer to the
remonstrance of the tribune Q. Sulpicius. Liv., v., 48, 9. "Ensibus"
is preferred to the old reading, "Lancibus." Capitolinus was properly
the agnomen of M. Manlius. Camillus is probably so called here from his
appointing the collegium to celebrate the Ludi Capitolini, in honor of
Jupiter for his preserving the Capitol. Vid. Liv., v., 50. May there
not be a bitter sarcasm in the epithet? It was only four years before
he expelled the philosophers, that Domitian instituted the Capitoline
games. Suet., Vit., 4. (Vid. Chronology.)
[1577] _Palare dicuntur._ Wernsdorf adopts this reading; but it
is perhaps the only instance of the _active_ form of palare: and
_dicuntur_ is very weak.
[1578] _Rhodio._ The old readings were "Rhoido," which is
unintelligible, and that of the old Scholiast, "Rudio," who refers it
to Ennius, born at Rudiæ in Calabria. (Cf. ad Pers., vi., 10.) The
_Rhodian_ is Panætius; he was sprung from distinguished ancestors, many
of whom had served the office of general. He studied under Crates,
Diogenes, and Antipater of Tarsus. The date of his birth and death are
unknown. He was probably introduced by Diogenes to Scipio, who sent for
him from Athens to accompany him in his embassy to Egypt, B.C. 143. His
famous treatise De Officiis was the groundwork of Cicero's book; who
says that he was in every way worthy of the intimate friendship with
which he was honored by Scipio and Lælius. Cic., de Fin., iv., 9; Or.,
i., 11; De Off., pass. Hor., i., Od. xxix., 14. The title of his book
is περὶ τοῦ καθήκοντος. He also wrote De Providentia, De Magistratibus.
[1579] _Bello secundo_, i. e., the Second Punic War (from B.C.
218-201), a period pre-eminently rich in great men. Not to mention
their great generals, Marcellus, Scipio, etc., this age saw M. Porcius
Cato; the historians Fabius Pictor and Cincius Alimentus; the poets
Livius Andronicus, Ennius, Nævius, Pacuvius, Plautus, etc.; and among
the Greeks, Archimedes, Chrysippus, Eratosthenes, Carneades, and the
historians Zeno and Antisthenes.
[1580] _Sententia dia._ Hor., i., Sat. ii., 31, "Macte Virtute esto,
inquit _sententia dia_."
[1581] _Prisci Catonis._ Priscus is, as Dusa shows on the authority
of Plutarch, not the _epithet_, but the _name_ of Cato, by which he
was distinguished. So Horace, iii. Od., xxi., 11, "Narratur et Prisci
Catonis sæpe mero caluisse virtus." (But cf. Hor., ii., Ep. ii., 117.)
[1582] _Catonis._ Both Horace and Sulpicia have imitated Lucilius,
"Valerî sententia dia." Fr. incert., 105.
[1583] _Staret._ Nasica, as Sallust tells us, in spite of Cato's
"Delenda est Carthago," was always in favor of the preservation of
Carthage; as the existence of the rival republic was the noblest spur
to Roman emulation.
[1584] _Defendere._ Livy shows throughout, that the only periods of
respite from intestine discord were under the immediate pressure of war
from without. The particular allusion here is probably to the time of
Hannibal. So Juv., vi., 286, _seq._, "Proximus Urbi Hannibal et stantes
Collinâ in turre mariti." Liv., xxvi., 10. Sil. Ital., xii., 541,
_seq._ Sallust has the same sentiment, "Metus hostilis in bonis artibus
civitatem retinebat." Bell. Jug., 41.
[1585] _Convenit._ The next four lines are hopelessly corrupt. The
following emendations have been adopted: _domus arxque movetur_ for
_Arce Monetæ_: _pax secura_ for _apes secura_: _laborum_ for _favorum_:
_patres_que for _mater_, or the still older reading, _frater_; of which
last Dusa says, "Neque istud verbum emissim titivillitio."
[1586] _Exitium pax._ Juv., vi., 292, "Sævior armis Luxuria incubuit
victumque ulciscitur orbem." Compare the beautiful passage in Claudian
(de Bell. Gild., 96), "Ille diu miles populus qui præfuit orbi," etc.
[1587] _Romulidarum._ Cf. ad Pers., i., 31.
[1588] _Smyrna peribat._ Smyrna was attacked by Gyges, king of Lydia,
but resisted him with success. It was compelled, however, to yield to
his descendant, Alyattes, and in consequence of this event, it sunk
into decay and became deserted for the space of four hundred years.
Alexander formed the project of rebuilding the town in consequence of
a vision. His design was executed by Antigonus and Lysimachus. Vid.
Herod., i., 14-16. Paus., Bœot., 29. Strabo, xiv., p. 646. (An allusion
to Phocæa or Teos would have been more intelligible. Cf. Herod., i.,
165, 168. Hor., Epod. xvi., 17.) The next three lines are corrupt:
the reading followed is, "Vel denique quid vis: Te, Dea, quæso illud
tantum."
[1589] _Caleno._ Calenus, the husband of Sulpicia, probably derived
his name from Cales in Campania, now Calvi. (Hor., i., Od. xx., 9.
Juv., i., 69.) It was the cognomen of Q. Fufius, consul, B.C. 47. The
readings in the next line vary: _pariter ne obverte_; _pariterque
averte_; _pariterque adverte_. Dusa's explanation is followed in
the text. Sulpicia prays that her husband may not be induced by
the allurements of inglorious ease to remain longer in Rome or its
neighborhood, now that all that is really good and estimable has been
driven from it by the tyranny of the emperor. In line 66, read _ecce_
for _hæc_: _in ore_ for _honore_. If "dignum laude virum Musa vetat
mori," Hor., iv., Od. viii., 28, so he may be said "Doubly dying to go
down to the vile dust from whence he sprung," who lives only in the
sarcasm of the satirist.
[1590] _Laureta Numæ._ Cf. ad Juv., iii., 12, _seq._, the description
of Umbritius' departure from Rome.
[1591] _Comite Ægeria._ It is not impossible there may have been
some allusion to Numa and Egeria in Sulpicia's lost work on conjugal
affection; and hence Mart., x., Ep. xxxv., 13, "Tales Egeriæ jocos
fuisse Udo crediderim Numæ sub antro."
[1592] _Apollo._ Hor., i., Ep. iii., 17, "Scripta Palatinus quæcunque
recepit Apollo." Juv., vii., 37.
FRAGMENTS OF LUCILIUS.[1593]
INTRODUCTION.
If but little is known of the personal character and life of the
other Satirists of Rome, it is unfortunately still more the case with
Lucilius. Although the research and industry of modern scholars have
collected nearly a hundred passages from ancient writers where his
name is mentioned, the information that can be gleaned from them with
respect to the events of his life is very scanty indeed; and even of
these meagre statements, there is scarcely one that has not been called
in question by one or more critics of later days. It will be therefore,
perhaps, the most satisfactory course to present in a continuous
form the few facts we can gather respecting his personal history;
and to mention afterward the doubts that have been thrown on these
statements, and the attempts of recent editors to reconcile them with
the accredited facts of history.
Caius Lucilius, then, was born, according to the testimony of S.
Hieronymus (in Euseb., Chron.), B.C. 148, in the first year of the
158th Olympiad, and the 606th of the founding of the city (Varronian
Computation), in the consulship of Spurius Posthumius Albinus and
Lucius Calpurnius Piso. There was a plebeian Lucilian gens, as well
as a patrician, but it was to the latter that the family of the poet
undoubtedly belonged. Horace says of himself (ii. Sat, i., 74),
"Quidquid sum ego, quamvis infrà Lucili censum ingeniumque tamen me
cum magnis vixisse invita fatebitur usque Invidia." Porphyrion, in his
commentary on the passage, says Lucilius was the great uncle of Pompey
the Great; Pompey's grandmother being the poet's sister. But Acron says
he was Pompey's grandfather. Velleius Paterculus (ii., 29), on the
other hand, says that Lucilia, the mother of Pompey, was daughter of
the brother of Lucilius and of senatorian family.
His birthplace was Suessa, now Sessa, capital of the Aurunci, in
Campania; hence Juvenal (Sat. i., 19) says, "Cur tamen hoc potius
libeat decurrere campo, per quem magnus equos Auruncæ flexit alumnus,
Si vacat et placidi rationem admittitis edam;" and Ausonius (Ep. xv.),
"Rudes Camænas qui Suessæ prævenis." At the age of fifteen, B.C. 134,
he accompanied his patron, L. Scipio Africanus Æmilianus, to the
Numantine war, where he is said to have served as eques. Vell. Pat.,
ii., 9, 4. Here he met with Marius, now about in his twenty-third year,
and the young Jugurtha; who were also serving under Africanus, and
learning, as Velleius says, "that art of war, which they were afterward
to employ against each other." In the following year Numantia was taken
and razed to the ground, and Lucilius returned with his patron to
Rome, shortly after the sedition and death of Tiberius Gracchus; and
lived on terms of the most familiar friendship with him and C. Lælius,
until the death of Scipio, B.C. 129; and even at that early age had
already acquired the reputation of a distinguished Satirist. According
to Pighius (in Tabulis), he held the office of quæstor, B.C. 127, two
years after Scipio's death, and the prætorship, B.C. 117. Van Heusde
is also of opinion that he acted as publicanus; and from a passage
in Cicero (de Orat., ii., 70), some suppose he kept large flocks of
sheep on the Ager publicus. Besides Africanus and Lælius (with whose
father-in-law Crassus, however, he was not on very good terms, vid.
Cic., de Or., i., 16) he is said to have enjoyed the friendship of the
following distinguished men, Sp. Albinus, L. Ælius Stilo, Q. Vectius,
Archelaus, P. Philocomus, Lælius Decimus, and Q. Granius Præco. He had
a violent quarrel with C. Cælius, for acquitting a man who had libeled
him. He is said to have lived under Velia, where the temple of Victory
afterward stood, in a house built at the public expense for the son
of king Antiochus when hostage at Rome. (Asc. Pedian. in Ciceron.,
Orat. c. L. Pisonem, p. 13.) He made a voyage to Sicily, but for what
cause, or at what period of his life, is not stated. His closing years
were spent at Naples, whither he retired to avoid, as some think, the
effects of the hatred of those whom his Satire had offended; and here
he died, B.C. 103, in his forty-sixth year, and was honored, according
to Eusebius, with a public funeral. He had a faithful slave named
Metrophanes, whose honesty and fidelity he rewarded by writing an
epitaph for his tomb, quoted by Martial as an instance of antique and
rugged style of writing, xi. Ep., 90.
"Carmina nulla probas molli quæ limite currunt,
Sed quæ per salebras altaque saxa cadunt:
Et tibi Mæonio res carmine major habetur
Luceili Columella heic situ' Metrophanes."
The name of his mistress is said to have been Collyra, to whom the
sixteenth book of his Satires was inscribed. He wrote thirty books of
Satires, of which the first twenty and the last are in Heroic metre.
The other nine in Iambics or Trochaics. He is not to be confounded
with a comic poet of the same name, mentioned by the Scholiast on
Horace and by Fulgentius.
Such is the traditional, and for a long time currently-believed,
story of Lucilius' life. The greater accuracy, or greater skepticism,
of modern scholars has called into question nearly every one of
these meagre facts. Even the method of spelling his name has been a
subject of fierce controversy. In the best manuscripts, especially
those of Horace, Cicero, and Nonius Marcellus, the name of Lucilius
is invariably spelt with one l. Yet in spite of this testimony,
in order to square with some preconceived notions of orthography,
the l was doubled by Hadrian Turnebe, Claude de Saumaise, Joseph
Scaliger, Lambinus, Jos. Mercer, and Cortius. The propriety, however,
of omitting the second l has been fully established by an appeal to
MSS. and inscriptions; and to Varges and Ellendt the credit is due
of successfully restoring the correct mode of spelling. (Cf. Rhenish
Philolog. Museum for 1835, and Ellendt on Cicero, de Orat, iii., 43.)
Again, his prænomen is by some stated to be Lucius; whereas, not to
mention others, Cicero and Quintilian always speak of him as Caius.
But far more serious doubts, and with great probability, have been
cast upon the dates assigned by S. Hieronymus for his birth and death.
Bayle, in his Dictionary, was the first to suggest them; and they were
taken up and urged with great zeal and learning by Van Heusde (in his
Studia Critica in C. Lucilium Poetam, 1842), who accused Jerome of
negligence and incorrectness in the dates he assigns to many other
events: e. g., the overthrow of Numantia, the deaths of Plautus,
Horace, Catullus, Lucretius, and Livius the tragedian, and the birth
of Messala Corvinus. The charge against the chronographer has been
repeated, and with some show of truth, by Ritschel in the Rhenish
Museum, 1843. Van Heusde's line of argument is simply this, that the
dates of Hieron. are inconsistent with what Horace and Velleius say of
Lucilius, and with what the poet says of himself--that it is absurd to
suppose that a lad of fifteen could have served as an eques; or that so
young a person would have been admitted to such intimate familiarity
with men like Scipio Africanus and Lælius; and that at the time of
Scipio's death, when, as it is said, Lucilius had already gained a
great reputation as a Satirist, he could have been barely over nineteen
years old; that if he had died at the age of forty-six, Horace would
not have applied to him the epithet "Senex"--that the year of his
birth must be therefore carried back at least six years, and his death
assigned to a much later period, as he mentions the Leges Liciniæ and
Calpurnia, passed some years after the time fixed by Hieron. for his
death at Naples. In this view Milman coincides: "Notwithstanding the
distinctness of this statement of S. Hieronymus, and the ingenuity
with which many writers have attempted to explain it, it appears to
me utterly irreconcilable with facts." (Personæ Horatianæ, p. 178.)
Clinton also says[1594] (F. H., ann. B.C. 103), "The expression of
Horace, Sat., II., i., 34, by whom Lucilius is called 'Senex,' implies
that he lived to a later period."
Such are the principal objections to the common accounts. Of those who
hold their accuracy, and endeavor to explain away the difficulties
attaching to them, the chief are Varges and Gerlach. The principal
points will be taken in the order in which they occur.
With regard to the first, Varges shows, in opposition to Bayle, that
it was the custom for young Romans to serve long before the legal
age, either voluntarily, that they might apply themselves sooner to
civil matters, by getting over their period of military service; or
compulsorily, to supply the waste of soldiers caused by the incessant
wars in which Rome was engaged. Hence the necessity for the law of C.
Gracchus to prevent enlistment under the age of seventeen (νεώτερον
ἐτῶν ἑπτακαίδεκα μὴ καταλέγεσθαι στρατιώτην). Cf. Liv., xxv., 5. Duk.
ad Liv., xxvi., 25. As the equestrian service was the more honorable,
it was probably conceded to Lucilius on account of his gentle birth
and early promise. Gerlach thinks that Tibullus[1595] was only
thirteen when he accompanied M. Valerius Messala Corvinus in his
Aquitanian campaign. Now Tibullus was only of _equestrian_ family.
There is no difficulty, therefore, in supposing that Lucilius, who
was of _senatorian_ family, might have served as eques at the age of
fifteen.[1596]
As to the fact of Scipio and Lælius admitting him to their intimate
friendship at so early an age, a parallel may be found in the case of
Archias the poet. Besides, Scipio and Lælius were the most likely men
to discover and to foster the early talent of the young poet. For the
_fact_ of the intimacy we have the testimony of Horace, Sat., II., i.,
71,
"Quin ubi se a vulgo et scena in secreta remorant
Virtus Scipiadæ et mitis sapientia Lælî
Nugari cum illo et discincti ludere, donec
Decoqueretur olus, soliti."
On which the commentator says, "That the three were on such intimate
terms, that on one occasion Lælius was running round the sofas in the
Triclinium, while Lucilius was chasing him with a twisted towel to hit
him with." This story agrees exactly with the description given by
Cicero[1597] (de Orat., ii., 6) of the conduct of Scipio and Lælius,
who speaks of their retiring together to the country-house of the
former, and to have descended, for the relaxation of their minds, to
the most childish amusements, such as gathering shells on the shore
of Caieta. Who would be more likely than such men as these to be
captivated by the precocious wit and pungent sarcasm of a sprightly lad?
Again, the character of Lucilius's compositions admits of eminence at
an earlier period of life than the other branches of poetry. And yet
Catullus and Propertius, not to mention many others, attained great
eminence as poets at a very early age; certainly long before their
twentieth year.
The Satiric poetry of Lucilius depending more on a keen perception
of the ludicrous, and shrewd observation of passing events and the
foibles of individuals, would more readily win approbation at an early
age, than compositions whose excellence would consist in the display
of judgment, knowledge of the world, and elaborate finish. There is,
therefore, no reason to suppose that his talent may not, like that of
Cicero, have been developed at an early age, and having come under the
notice, might have won the approbation, of men of such character in
private life as Scipio and Lælius are reported to have been.
But Horace calls him "senex," ii. Sat., 28, _seq._
"Ille (Lucilius) velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim
Credebat libris: neque si male cesserat, unquam
Decurrens alio, neque si bene, quo fit ut omnis
Votivâ pateat veluti descripta tabellâ
Vita Senis--"
To this it is answered: nothing can be more loose and vague than the
employment by Roman writers of terms relating to the different periods
of human life: e. g., "puer, adolescentulus, adolescens, juvenis,
senex." We have seen that Tibullus at the age of forty may be called
"juvenis." Hannibal, at the age of forty-four (i. e., two years younger
than Lucilius at his death), calls himself senex. (Cf. Liv., xxx., 30,
compared with c. 28, and Crevier's note.)[1598] So Persius (Sat. i.,
124) calls Aristophanes "prægrandis senex," though, as Ranke shows in
his Life (p. xc.), he was not of great age. We might add that Horace
himself uses the phrase, "poetarum _seniorum_ turba" (i. Sat., x., 67),
as equivalent to priorum.
In the fourth Fragment of the twentieth book, Lucilius mentions the
Calpurnian Law.
"Calpurnî sævam legem Pisoni' reprendi
Eduxique animam in primoribu' naribus."
This Van Heusde holds to be the Lex Calpurnia, de ambitu, passed by
C. Calpurnius Piso, when consul, A.U.C. 687, B.C. 67, at which time
Lucilius would have been eighty-one years old. But there was another
Lex Calpurnia, de pecuniis repetundis, passed by L. Calpurnius Piso,
tribune, in A.U.C. 604, B.C. 150. Van Heusde says the former _must_ be
meant, because Lucilius applies to it the epithet _sæva_, and Cicero
(pro Muræna, c. 46) also styles it "severissime scriptam." He explains
the second line of the Fragment to mean, that Lucilius "all but paid
the penalty of death for his animadversions of the law," but these
words more correctly imply the "fierce snorting of an angry man."
So Pers., Sat., v., 91, "Ira cadat naso." Varro, R. R., ii., 3, 5,
"Spiritum _naribus ducere_." Mart., vi. Ep., 64, "Rabido nec perditus
ore fumantem nasum vivi tentaveris ursi." And any law whatever would be
naturally termed "sæva" by him who came under the influence of it.
In the 132d of the Fragmenta Incerta, we have (quoted from A. Gell.,
Noct. Att., ii., 24) these words, "Legem vitemus Licini." The object
of this law was to give greater sanction to the provisions of the Lex
Fannia, a sumptuary law, which had become nearly obsolete. If passed
by P. Licinius Crassus Dives Lusitanicus, when _consul_, it must be
referred to the year A.U.C. 657, B.C. 97, six years after the supposed
date of Lucilius's death. But there is no reason why this law should
not have been passed by Licinius when _tribune_ or _prætor_, as well
as when _consul_; probably during his prætorship, as nearer the
consulship, though Pighius (Annal., iii., 122), though without giving
any authority, assigns it to his tribuneship.
The Orchian Law was passed by C. Orchius when _tribune_. The Fannian
and many other sumptuary laws were passed by _prætors_ or _tribunes_.
The argument therefore derived from the law having been passed by
Licinius, when _consul_, falls to the ground.
Allowing, however, that Lucilius was alive during the consulship
of Licinius, we have the incidental, and therefore more valuable,
testimony of Cicero, that he must have died very shortly after. In
his "De Oratore," he introduces the speakers in the Dialogue quoting
Lucilius, as one evidently not very recently dead. Now this imaginary
Dialogue is supposed to have taken place B.C. 91.
FOOTNOTES:
[1593] In the Translation, the text and arrangement of Gerlach have
been principally followed. The few Fragments that have not been
translated are omitted, either from their hopelessly corrupt state,
their obscenity, or from their consisting of _single_, and those
unimportant, words.
[1594] Clinton, in his new Epitome of Chronology (Oxford, 1851), says,
Lucilius was about twenty years of age when serving at Numantia, B.C.
134.
[1595] But Clinton thinks that the war for which Messala triumphed
was carried on B.C. 28, and that Tibullus was then about thirty. The
war against the Salassi had been carried on B.C. 34. Heyne assigns
his birth to B.C. 49. Voss, Passow, and Dissen, to B.C. 59. Lachman
and Paldanus, to B.C. 54. He is called a "juvenis" at his death, B.C.
18. But Clinton says there is "no difficulty in this term, which may
express forty years of age."
[1596] Cf. Niebuhr's Lectures, vol. i., p. 316. "Slow and gradual
advancement, and a provision for officers in their old age, were
things unknown to the Romans. No one could by law have a permanent
appointment: every one had to give evidence of his ability. It was,
moreover, not necessary to pass through a long series of subordinate
offices. _A young Roman noble served as eques_, and the consul had
in his cohort the most distinguished to act as his staff: there they
learned enough, and in a few years, a young man, in the full vigor of
life, became a tribune of the soldiers."
[1597] "Sæpe ex socero meo audivi, quum is diceret, socerum suum Lælium
semper ferè cum Scipione solitum rusticari eosque incredibiliter
_repuerascere_ esse solitos quum rus ex urbe tanquam è vinculis
evolavissent.... Solet narrare Scævola conchas eos et umbilicos ad
Caietam et ad Laurentum legere consuêsse et ad omnem animi remissionem
ludumque descendere." Cf. Val. Max., viii., 8, 1.
[1598] These additional authorities have been collected by Gerlach and
Varges. Barth. ad Stat. Sylv., I., ii. 253. Markl. ad Stat. Sylv., 110.
Drakenborch, ad Sil. Ital., i., 634. Eustath., p. 107, 14, on the word
γέρων. Heyne's Homer, vol. iv., pp. 270, 606, 620.
BOOK I.[1599]
ARGUMENT.
To the first book there is said to have been annexed an Epistle
to L. Ælius Stilo, the friend of the poet, to whom in all
probability this book was dedicated. (Fr. 16.) We know from a
note of Servius on the tenth book of the Æneid (l. 104), that
the subject was a council of gods held to deliberate on the
fortune of the Roman state; the result of the conference being
that nothing but the death of certain obnoxious individuals
could possibly rescue the city from plunging headlong to ruin.
It is a kind of parody on the council of Celestials held in
the first book of the Odyssey, to discuss the propriety of the
return of Ulysses to Greece: and as Homer represents Neptune, the
great enemy of Ulysses, to have been absent from the meeting,
so here (Fr. 2) we find an allusion to some previous council,
at which Jupiter, by the machinations of Juno (Fr. 15), was
not present. Virgil, as Servius says, borrowed the idea of his
discussion between Venus, Juno, and Jupiter from this book; only
he translated the language of Lucilius into a type more suited
to the dignity of Heroic verse. Lucilius's council begin with
discussing the affairs of mankind at large, and then proceed to
consider the best method of prolonging the Roman state (Fr. 5),
which has no greater enemies than its own corrupt and licentious
morals, and the wide-spreading evils of avarice and luxury. But
amid the growing vices which undermined the state must especially
be reckoned the study of a spurious kind of philosophy, of
rhetoric, and logic, which not only was the cause of universal
indolence and neglect of all serious duties, but also led men
to lay snares to entrap their neighbors. (Fr. inc. 2.) A fair
instance of these sophistical absurdities is given (Fr. inc.
12); and the doctrine of the Stoics, to which Horace alludes
(i. Sat., iii., 124), is also ridiculed. (Fr. inc. 23.) The
pernicious effects of gold are then described, as destructive of
all honesty, good faith, and every religious principle (Fr. inc.
39-47); the result of which is, that the state is fast sinking
into helpless ruin. (Fr. inc. 50.) Nor are the evils of luxury
less baleful. (Fr. 19-21.)
All this discussion, in the previous conference, had been nugatory
on account of the absence of Jupiter, and the divisions that had
arisen among the gods themselves. In this debate Neptune had
taken a very considerable part, since we hear that, discussing
some very abstruse and difficult point, he said it could not be
cleared up, even though Orcus were to permit Carneades himself
to revisit earth. (Fr. 8.) Apollo also was probably one of the
speakers, and expressed a particular dislike to his cognomen of
"the Beautiful." (Fr. inc. 145.) Perhaps all the gods but Jove
(Fr. 3) had been present; but as they could not agree, the whole
matter was referred to Jupiter; who, expressing his vexation that
he was not present at the first meeting, blames some and praises
others. (Fr. 55, inc.)
The cause of his absence was probably the same as that described
(Iliad, xiv., 307-327) by Homer: which passage Lucilius probably
meant to ridicule. (Fr. 15.) The result of the deliberation is a
determination on the part of the gods that the only way to save
the Roman state is by requiring the expiatory sacrifice of the
most flagitious and impious among the citizens: and the three
fixed upon are P. Cornelius Lentulus Lupus, L. Papirius Carbo,
and C. Hostilius Tubulus.
(To this book may perhaps also be referred Fr. inc. 2, 46, 61, 63.)
This book must have been published subsequently to the death of
Carneades, which took place the same year as that of Scipio, B.C.
129, twenty-six years after his embassy to Rome.
1 ... held counsel about the affairs of men--
2 I could have wished, could it so have happened.... I could have
wished, at that council of yours before which you mention, I
could have wished, Celestials, to have been present at your
previous council!
3 ... that there is none of us, but without exception is styled
"Best Father of Gods," as Father Neptune, Liber, Saturn, Father
Mars, Janus, Father Quirinus.[1600]
4 Had Tubulus, Lucius, Lupus, or Carbo, that son of Neptune,
believed that there were gods, would he have been so perjured
and impious?[1601]
5 ... in what way it might be possible to preserve longer the
people and city of Rome.
6 ... though many months and days ... yet wicked men would not
admire this age and time.
7 When he had spoken these words he paused--
8 Not even though Orcus should send back Carneades
himself....[1602]
9 ... made ædile by a Satura; who from law may loose....[1603]
10 ... against whom, should the whole people conspire, they would
be scarce a match for him--
11 ... they might, however, discharge their duty and defend the
walls.
12 ... might put it off, if not longer, at least to this one
lustrum.[1604]
13 I will bring them to supper; and first of all will give each
of them, as they arrive, the bellies of thunny and heads of
acharne.[1605]
14 ...
15 ... so that I could compare «the embraces» of Leda daughter of
Thestius, and the spouse of Ixion.[1606]
16 These things we have sent, written to thee, Lucius Ælius![1607]
17 ... to creep on, as an evil gangrene, or ulcer, might.
18 A countenance too, like.... death, jaundice, poison.
19 ... to hate the infamous, vile, and disgraceful cook's
shop.[1608]
20 prætextæ and tunics, and all that foul handiwork of the
Lydians.[1609]
21 Velvets and double piles, soft with their thick naps.[1610]
22 ... that, like an angry cur, speaks plainer than a man.
23 ... the common herd stupidly look for a knot in a bulrush.[1611]
24 ... and legions serve for pay.
25 ... quote prodigies, elephants.
26 ... ladles and ewers.[1612]
27 Vulture.[1613]
28 ... like a fool, you came to dance among the Pathics.
29 Oh the cares of men! Oh how much vanity is there in human
affairs![1614]
FOOTNOTES:
[1599] Book I. Some of the commentators suppose that the thirty Satires
of Lucilius were divided into two books, and that the first of these
_books_, and not the first Satire only, was dedicated to Ælius Stilo.
[1600] _Fr._ 3. "Every god that is worshiped by man must needs in all
solemn rites and invocations be styled 'Father;' not only for honor's,
but also for reason's sake. Since he is both more ancient than man,
and provides man with life and health and food, as a father doth."
Lactant., Inst. Div., iv., 3.
[1601] _Tubulus._ C. Hostilius Tubulus was elected prætor B.C. 210
(Liv., xxvii., 6), and was prætor peregrinus next year. (Cf. Fr. inc.
97.) He became infamous from his openly receiving bribes, so that the
next year, on the motion of the tribune P. Scævola, he was impeached
by Cnæus Servilius Cæpio the consul, B.C. 203. P. Cornelius Lentulus
_Lupus_ first appears as one of the persons sent to Rome, to announce
the victory over Perseus. (Liv., xliv., 45.) He afterward served the
offices of curule ædile (Fr. 9), and censor (Fr. 12). He was consul
B.C. 156. Carbo is L. Papirius Carbo, the friend of C. Gracchus. We
learn from Aulus Gellius (xv., 21), that "Son of Neptune" was applied
to men of the fiercest and most blood-thirsty dispositions, who seemed
to have so little _humanity_ about them, that they might have been
sprung from the _sea_.
[1602] _Carneades_ (cf. Diog. Laert., IV., ix.) of Cyrene, disciple
of Chrysippus, and founder of the new Academy, was celebrated for his
great acuteness of intellect, which he displayed to great advantage
when he came as embassador from Athens to Rome, B.C. 155.
[1603] _Ædilem_ refers to Lupus, who was made curule ædile with L.
Valerius Flaccus, A.U.C. 591 (B.C. 163), and exhibited the Ludi
Megalenses the year Terence's Heauton Timorumenos was produced. A law
was called Satura which contained several enactments under one bill;
hence, according to Diomedes, Satire derives its name from the variety
of its subjects.
A person was said to be _legibus solutus_ who was freed from the
obligation of any _one_ law; afterward the emperors were so styled,
as being above _all_ laws; but at first there was some reservation,
as we find Augustus praying to be freed from the obligation of the
Voconian law. (In the year B.C. 199, C. Valerius Flaccus was created
curule ædile together with C. Cornelius Cethegus. Being flamen dialis,
and therefore not allowed to take an oath, he prayed, "ut legibus
solveretur." The consuls, by a decree of the senate, got the tribunes
to obtain a plebis-scitum, that his brother Lucius, the prætor elect,
might be allowed to take the oath for him. Liv., xxxi., 50.)
[1604] Fr. 12 refers also to Lupus, for he was censor A.U.C. 607, with
L. Marcius Censorinus.
[1605] _Priva._ Cf. Liv., xxx., 43, "Ut privos lapides silices,
privasque verbenas secum ferrent." The acharne was a fish known to the
Greeks, the best being caught off Ænos in Thrace. Athenæus mentions the
ἄχαρνος together with θύννου κεφάλαιον, "thunny-heads" (vii., p. 620,
D), in a passage from the Cyclopes of Callias. Ennius also (ap. Apul.
Apolog.) has "calvaria pinguia acharnæ."
[1606] Mercer suggests "coitum" as the missing word, which Gerlach
adopts. Cf. Hom., Il., xiv., 317, οὐδ' ὁπότ' ἠρασάμην Ἰξιονίης ἀλόχοιο.
The lady's name was Dia, daughter of Deioneus. _Contendere_, "to
compare." Cf. vii., Fr. 6.
[1607] L. Ælius Stilo (vid. arg.) was a Roman knight, a native of
Lanuvium, and was called Stilo, "quod orationes nobilissimo cuique
scribere solebat." He had also the nickname of Præconinus, because
his father had exercised the office of præco. He was a distinguished
grammarian, and a friend of the learned and great; and, it is said,
accompanied Q. Metellus Numidicus into banishment. Vid. Suet., de Gram.
Ill., II., iii. Ernest Clav. Cic.
[1608] Cf. Juv., viii., 172, "Mitte sed in magnâ legatum quære popina;"
and 1. 158; xi., 81, "Qui meminit calidæ sapiat quid vulva popinæ."
[1609] _Prætextæ._ Cf. Pers., v., 30, "custos purpura."
[1610] _Psilœ_, from ψιλὸς, "rasus," with its nap shorn like our modern
velvet (villus, hence vélours). _Amphitapæ_, from ἀμφί and τάπης, a
thick brocaded dress, like a rich carpet, soft on both sides.
[1611] _Nodum in scirpo facere_, or _quærere_, "to make a difficulty
where there is none." Cf. Ter., And., v., 4, 38. Enn. ap. Fest.,
"Quæritur in scirpo soliti quod dicere nodus." Plaut., Men., II., i.,
22. The modern Italian is equally expressive, "_Cercar l'osso nel
fico_."
[1612] ἀρύταινα, from ἀρύτω, "any vessel for drawing up water."
[1613] _Vulturius_ is the _older_ Latin form for _vultur_, which
is found in the days of Virgil. (In Plaut., Curc., II., iii., 77,
"Vulturios quatuor" is a bad throw at dice, like the "damnosa Canicula"
of Persius, iii., 49, and is said to be called so for the same reason,
because vultures devour, i. e., ruin men.)
[1614] Cf. Pers., i., 1.