The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius

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?