The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
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."