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