The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
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