The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
given three tablets: one inscribed with the letter A. for "absolvo,"
one with the letter C. for "condemno," and the third with the letters
N. L. for "non liquet," i. e., "not proven." After the case had been
heard and the judices had consulted together privately, they returned
into court, and each judex dropped one of these tablets into an urn
provided for the purpose, which was afterward brought to the prætor,
who counted the number and gave sentence according to the majority of
votes. In all these various steps, there was plenty of opportunity for
the "gratia" of a corrupt prætor to influence the "fallax urna."
[820] _Calvinus._ Martial mentions an indifferent poet of the name of
Calvinus Umber, vii., Ep. 90.
[821] _Acervo._
"One that from casual heaps without design
Fortune drew forth, and bade the lot be thine." Badh.
[822] _Fonteio consule._ Clinton (F. R., A.D. 118) considers that the
consulship meant is that of L. Fonteius Capito, A.D. 59, which would
bring the reference in this Satire to A.D. 119, the third year of
Hadrian. There was also a Fonteius Capito consul with Junius Rufus,
A.D. 67, and another, A.D. 11. «The Fonteius Capito mentioned Hor., i.,
Sat. v., 32, is of course far too early.»
[823] _Proficis._
"Say, hast thou naught imbibed, no maxims sage,
From the long use of profitable age?" Hodgson.
[824] _Vitæ._ So Milton.
"To know
That which before us lies _in daily life_,
Is the prime wisdom."
[825] _Jactare jugum._ A metaphor from restive oxen. Cf. vi., 208,
"Summitte caput cervice paratâ Ferre jugum." Æsch., Persæ, 190, _seq._
"And happy those whom life itself can train
To bear with dignity life's various pain." Badham.
[826] _Pyxide._ Properly a coffer or casket of "box-wood," πυξίς.
Cf. Sat. ii., 141, "Conditâ pyxide Lyde." Suet., Ner., 47, "Veneno a
Locustâ sumpto, et in auream pyxidem condito."
[827] _Thebarum._ Egyptian Thebes had one hundred gates; hence
ἑκατόμπυλοι. Cadmeian Thebes had seven. Vid. Hom., Il., Δ., 406. Æsch.,
S. Th., ἑπτάπυλος Θήβη. The latter is meant. The mouths of the Nile
being also seven, viz., Canopic, Bolbitine, Sebennytic, Phatnitic,
Mendesian, Tanitic, and Pelusiac. Hence Virg., Æn., vi., 801, "Septem
gemini trepida ostia Nili." Ov., Met., v., 187, "Septemplice Nilo."
xv., 753, "Perque papyriferi septemflua flumina Nili."
[828] _Metallo._
"That baffled Nature knows not how to frame
A metal base enough to give the age a name." Dryden.
[829] _Sportula._ Vid. ad i., 118. Cf. x., 46, "Defossa in loculis quos
sportula fecit amicos." Mart., vi., Ep. 48. Hor., i., Epist. xix., 37.
Plin., ii., Ep. 14, "Laudicæni sequuntur: In media Basilicâ sportulæ
dantur palam ut in triclinio: tanti constat ut sis disertissimus: hoc
pretio subsellia implentur, hoc infiniti clamores commoventur."
[830] _Bullâ._ Cf. v., 165, seq.; xiv., 5. Pers., v., 31, "Bullaque
succinctis Laribus donata pependit." Plut. in Quæst. Rom., γέρων τις
ἐπὶ χλευασμῷ προάγεται παιδικὸν ἐναψάμενος περιδέραιον ὃ καλοῦσι
βοῦλλαν.
"O man of many years, that still should'st wear
The trinket round the neck thy childhood bare!" Badham.
[831] _Esse._ Cf. ii., 149, seq., "Esse aliquos Manes et subterranea
regna, ... Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum ære lavantur." Cf. Ov.,
Amor., III., iii., 1.
[832] _Privatus._ This is commonly rendered by "concealed,
sequestered," alluding to Jupiter's being hidden by his mother Rhea to
save him from "Saturn's maw." But it surely means before he succeeded
his father as king, and this is the invariable sense of "privatus" in
Juvenal. Cf. i., 16, "Privatus ut altum dormiret." iv., 65, "Accipe
Privatis majora focis." vi., 114, "Quid privata domus, quid fecerit
Hippia, curas." xii., 107, "Cæsaris armentum, nulli servire paratum
Privato."
[833] _Tergens._ This appears to be the best and simplest
interpretation of this "much-vexed" passage, and is the sense in which
Lucian (frequently the best commentator on Juvenal) takes it. Vid.
Deor., Dial. v., 4.
[834] _Talis._ More properly, "composed of _such_ divinities." The
allusion being in all probability to the now frequent apotheosis of the
most worthless and despicable of the emperors.
[835] _Torvus._ The Homeric ἀμείλιχος. Cf. Hom., Il., i., 158, Ἀΐδης
ἀμείλιχος, ἠδ' ἀδάμαστος Τοὔνεκα καὶ τε βροτοῖσι θεῶν ἔχθιστος ἁπάντων.
[836] _Vulturis atri._ Cf. Æschylus, Pr. V., 1020. Virg., Æn., vi.,
595, "Rostroque immanis vultur obunco, Immortale jecur tondens,
fœcundaque pœnis viscera, rimaturque epulis habitatque sub alto
pectore, nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis."
"Wheels, furies, vultures, quite unheard of things,
And the gay ghosts were strangers yet to kings!" Badham.
[837] _Vetulo._ Cf. Ov., Fast., v., 57, _seq._, which passage Juvenal
seems to have had in his mind.
[838] _Glandis._ Cf. Sat. vi., init.
[839] _Depositum._ Terent., Phorm., I., ii., 5, "Præsertim ut nunc sunt
mores: adeo res redit; Si quis quid reddit, magna habenda 'st gratia."
[840] _Ærugo_, the rust of _brass_; robigo, of _iron_; but, l. 148,
used for the oxydizing of gold or silver. _Follis_, cf. xiv., 281.
[841] _Prodigiosa_, ii., 103.
[842] _Tuscis libellis._ Vid. Dennis' Etruria, vol. i., p. lvii.
The marvelous events of the year were registered by the Etruscan
soothsayers in their records, that, if they portended the displeasure
of the gods, they might be duly expiated. Various names are given by
ancient writers to these sacred or ritual books: Libri Etrusci; Chartæ
Etruscæ; Scripta Etrusca; Etruscæ disciplinæ libri; libri fatales,
rituales, haruspicini, fulgurales; libri Tagetici; sacra Tagetica;
sacra Acherontica; libri Acherontici. The author of these works on
Etruscan discipline was supposed to be Tages; and the names of some
writers on the same subject are given, probably commentators on Tages,
e. g., Tarquitius, Cæcina, Aquila, Labeo, Begoë. _Umbricius._ Cf. Cic.,
de Div., i., 12, 13, 44; ii., 23. Liv., v., 15. Macrob., Saturn., iii.,
7; v., 19. Serv. ad Virg., Æn., i., 42; iii., 537; viii., 398. Plin.,
ii., 85. Festus, _s. v._ Rituales.
[843] _Sanctum._ Cf. iii., 137; viii., 24.
[844] _Bimembri_, or "with double limbs." All these prodigies are
common enough in Livy.
[845] _Miranti_ is quite Juvenalian, and better than the common reading
"Mirandis," or the suggestion "liranti."
[846] _Mulæ._ Cf. Cic., de Div., ii., 28, "Si quod rarò fit, id
portentum putandum est sapientem esse portentum est; sæpius enim _mulam
peperisse_ arbitror, quam sapientem fuisse."
[847] _Lapides._ Cf. Liv., xxxix., 37. This prodigy was one of the
causes of consulting the sacred books, which led to the introduction
of the worship of Bona Dea to Rome. Cf. ad ix., 37. Liv., xxii., 1,
"Præneste ardentes lapides cœlo cecidisse."
[848] _Apium._ Cf. Liv., xxiv., 10. Tac., Ann., xii., 64, "Fastigio
Capitolii examen apium insedit: biformes hominem partus." Plin., xi.,
17.
[849] _Gurgitibus._ Liv., xix., 44, "Flumen Amiterni cruentum
fluxisse." Virg., Georg., i., 485, "Aut puteis manare cruor cessavit."
[850] _Arcana._ "Fidei alterius tacitè commissa sine ullis testibus."
Lubin. Another interpretation is, "that, having lost it, he held his
tongue, and complained to no one."
[851] _Superos._
"Those conscious powers we can with ease contemn,
If, hid from men, we trust our crimes with them." Dryden.
[852] _Cirrhæi_, from Cirrha in Phocis, near the foot of Mount
Parnassus, the port of Delphi. Cf. vii., 64, "Dominis Cirrhæ Nysæque
feruntur Pectora."
[853] _Spicula_; probably from Tibull., I., iv., 21.
"Nec jurare time. Veneris perjuria venti
Irrita per terras et freta summa ferunt.
Perque suas impune sinit Dictynna sagittas
Affirmes, crines perque Minerva suos."
[854] _Phario._ The vinegar of Egypt was more celebrated than its wine.
Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 122. Ath., ii., 26.
[855] _Fortunæ._ See this idea beautifully carried out in Claudian's
invective against Rufinus, lib. i., 1-24. Such was Horace's religion.
"Credat Judæus Apella, Non ego: namque deos didici securum agere ævum;
nec si quid miri faciat Natura deos id tristes ex alto cœli demittere
tecto." I., Sat. v., 100. Not so Cicero. "Intelligamus _nihil_ horum
_esse fortuitum_." De Nat. Deor., ii., 128.
[856] _Tangunt._ Cf. xiv., 218, "Vendet perjuria summâ exiguâ et
Cereris tangens aramq. pedemq."
[857] _Isis._ Cf. vi., 526. Lucan., viii., 831, "Nos in templa tuam
Romana accepimus Isim Semideosque canes, et sistra jubentia luctus et
quem tu plangens hominem testaris Osirin." Blindness, the most common
of Egyptian diseases, was supposed to be the peculiar infliction of
Isis. Cf. Ovid, ex Pont., i., 51, "Vidi ego linigeræ numen violasse
fatentem Isidis Isiacos ante sedere focos. Alter ob huic similem
privatus lumine culpam, clamabat mediâ se meruisse viâ." Pers., v.,
186, "Tunc grandes Galli et cum sistro lusca sacerdos." Sistrum a σείω.
[858] _Ladas._ A famous runner at Olympia, in the days of Alexander
the Great. Cf. Mart., x., Ep. 100, "Habeas licebit alterum pedem Ladæ,
Inepte, frustrà crure ligneo curres;" and ii., 86. Catull., iv., 24,
"Non si Pegaseo ferar volatu, Non Ladas si ego, pennipesve Perseus."
[859] _Anticyrcâ_, in Phocis, famous for hellebore, supposed to be
of great efficacy in cases of insanity: hence Hor., ii., Sat. iii.,
83, "Nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem." 166, "naviget
Anticyram." Pers., iv., 16, "Anticyras melior sorbere meracas." Its
Greek name is Ἀντίκιῤῥα. Strabo, ix., 3. The quantity therefore in
Latin follows the Greek accent. The Phocian Anticyra produced the best
hellebore; but it was also found at Anticyra on the Maliac Gulf, near
Œta. Some think there was a third town of the same name. Hence "Tribus
Anticyris caput insanabile," Hor., A. P., 300.
[860] _Archigene._ Cf. vi., 236; xiv., 252.
[861] _Ignoscere._ "Contemnere pauper creditur atque deos diis
ignoscentibus ipsis," iii., 145. So Plautus:
"Atque hoc scelesti illi in animum inducunt suum.
Jovem se placare posse donis hostiis,
Et operam et sumptum perdunt: ideo fit, quia
Nihil ei acceptum est a perjuris supplicii."
[862] _Crucem._ Badham quotes an Italian epigram, which says that "the
successful adventurer gets _crosses hung on him_, the unsuccessful gets
_hung on the cross_."
"Some made by villainy, and some undone,
And this ascend a scaffold, that a throne." Gifford.
[863] _Præcedit._
"Dare him to swear, he with a cheerful face
Flies to the shrine, and bids thee mend thy pace:
He urges, goes before thee, shows the way,
Nay, pulls thee on, and chides thy dull delay." Dryden.
[864] _Fiducia._
"For desperate boldness is the rogue's defense,
And sways the court like honest confidence." Hodgson.
[865] _Catulli._ Cf. ad viii., 186. Urbani some take as a proper name.
Others in the same sense as Sat. vii., 11. Catull., xxii., 2, 9.
[866] _Stentora._ Hom., Il., v., 785, Στέντορα χαλκεόφωνον, ὃς τόσον
αὐδήσασχ' ὅσον ἄλλοι πεντήκοντα.
[867] _Gradivus._ ii., 128. Hom., Il., v., 859, ὅσσον τ' ἐννεάχιλοι
ἐπίαχον ἢ δεκάχιλοι ἀνέρες--ἔβραχε.
[868] _Audis._ Cf. ii., 130, "Nec galeam quassas nec terram cuspide
pulsas, nec quereris patri?" Virg., Æn., iv., 206, "Jupiter Omnipotens!
Adspicis hæc? an te, genitor, quum fulmina torques, nequicquam
horremus? cæcique in nubibus ignes terrificant animos et inania murmura
miscent?" Both passages are ludicrously parodied in the beginning of
Lucian's Timon.
[869] _Thura._ So Mart., iii., Ep. ii., 5, "Thuris piperisque
cucullus." Ovid, Heroid., xi., 4. Virgil applies the epithet _pia_ to
the "Vitta," Æn., iv., 637, and to "Far," v., 745.