The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
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