The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
[1101] _Tentyra._ Cf. ad l. 35. Salmasius proposes to read here "Pampæ"
(the name of a small town) for _Palmæ_ on account of the difficulty
stated above; and supposes this to be Juvenal's way of distinguishing
Tentyra: but Pampa is a much _smaller_ place than Tentyra; and no one
would describe London, as Browne observes, as "London near Chelsea."
He imagines also that Juvenal is describing an affray that took place
between the people of Cynopolis and Oxyrynchis about this time,
mentioned by Plutarch (de Isid. et Osirid.), and that he has changed
the names for the sake of the metre. Heinrich leaves the difficulty
unsolved. Browne supposes _two_ places of the name of Tentyra.
[1102] _Labitur._ Gifford compares Hesiod., Herc. Scut., 251, Δῆριν
ἔχον περὶ πιπτόντων· πᾶσαι δ' ἄρ ἵεντο αἷμα μέλαν πιέειν· ὃν δὲ πρῶτον
μεμάποιεν κείμενον ἢ πίπτοντα νεούτατον, ἀμφὶ μὲν αὐτῷ βάλλ' ὄνυχας
μεγάλους.
[1103] _Longum._
"'T had been lost time to dress him; keen desire
Supplies the want of kettle, spit, and fire." Dryden.
[1104] _Prometheus._ Vid. Hesiod., Op. et Di., 49, _seq._ Theog., 564.
Æsch., P. Vinct., 109. Hor., i., Od. iii., 27. Cic., Tusc. Qu., II.,
x., 23. Mart., xiv., Ep. 80.
[1105] _Gratulor._ So Ov., Met., x., 305, "Gentibus Ismariis et nostro
gratulor orbi, gratulor huic terræ, quod abest regionibus illis, Quæ
tantum genuere nefas."
[1106] _Te exsultare._ Juvenal's friend Volusius is supposed to have
had a leaning toward the doctrine of the fire-worshipers. At least this
is the puerile way in which most of the commentators endeavor to escape
the difficulty.
[1107] _Libentius._
"But he who tasted first the human food,
Swore never flesh was so divinely good." Hodgson.
[1108] _Ultimus._
"And the last comer, of his dues bereft,
Sucks from the bloodstain'd soil some flavor left." Badham.
[1109] _Vascones._ Sil. Ital., x., 15. The Vascones lived in the
northeast of Spain, near the Pyrenees, in parts of Navarre, Aragon,
and old Castile. They and the Cantabri were the most warlike people
of Hispania Tarrocensis. Their southern boundary was the Iberus
(Ebro). Their chief cities were Calagurris Nassica (now Calahorra
in New Castile), on the right bank of the Iberus; and Pompelon (now
Pampeluna), at the foot of the Pyrenees, said to have been founded by
Cn. Pompeius Magnus, vid. Plin., III., iii., 4. It is doubtful which
of these two cities held out in the manner alluded to in the text.
Sertorius was assasinated B.C. 72, and the Vascones, whose faith was
pledged to him, sooner than submit to Pompey and Metellus, suffered the
most horrible extremities, even devouring their wives and children. Cf.
Liv., Epit. xciii. Flor., III., xxxii. Val. Max., VII., vi. Plut. in v.
Sert. The Vascones afterward crossed the Pyrenees into Aquitania, and
their name is still preserved in the province of Gascogne.
[1110] _Egestas._
"When frowning war against them stood array'd
With the dire famine of a long blockade." Hodgson.
[1111] _Miserabile._ ii., 18, "Horum simplicitas _miserabilis_."
[1112] _Post omnes herbas._
"For after every root and herb were gone,
And every aliment to hunger known;
When their lean frames and cheeks of sallow hue
Struck e'en the foe with pity at the view;
And all were ready their own flesh to tear,
They first adventured on this horrid fare." Gifford.
[1113] _Viribus._ The abstract used for the concrete. Another reading
is, _Urbibus_, referring to Calagurris and Saguntus. Valesius proposed
to read "Ventribus," which Orellius receives.
[1114] _Quædam pro vita._ Cf. Arist., Eth., iii., 1, Ἔνια δ' ἴσως οὐκ
ἔστιν ἀναγκασθῆναι ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἀποθνητέον, παθόντα τὰ δεινότατα. Plin.,
xxviii., 1, "Vitam quidem non adeo expetendam censemus ut quoquo modo
protrahenda sit." Sen., Ep. 72, "Non omni pretio vita emenda est."
[1115] _Gallia._ Cf. ad i., 44. Suet., Cal., xx., "Caligula instituit
in Gallia, Lugduni, certamen Græcæ Latinæque facundiæ." Quintil.,
x., 1. Sat., vii., 148, "Accipiat te Gallia, vel potius nutricula
causidicorum Africa, si placuit mercedem ponere linguæ."
[1116] _Britannos._ Tac., Agric., xxi, "Ingenia Britannorum studiis
Gallorum anteferre: ut qui modo linguam Romanam abnuebant, eloquentiam
concupiscerent."
[1117] _Thule._ Used generally for the northernmost region of the
earth. Its position shifted with the advance of their geographical
knowledge; hence it is used for Sweden, Norway, Shetland, or Iceland.
Virg., Georg., i., 30, "Tibi serviat ultima Thule."
[1118] _Saguntus_, now "Mur Viedro" in Valencia, is memorable for
its obstinate resistance to Hannibal, during a siege of eight months
(described Liv., xxi., 5-15). Their fidelity to Rome was as famous as
that of the Vascones to Sertorius; but their fate was more disastrous;
as Hannibal took Saguntus and razed it to the ground, after they had
endured the most horrible extremities, whereas the siege of Calagurris
was raised. Cf. ad v., 29.
[1119] _Taurica._ The Tauri, who lived in the peninsula called from
them Taurica Chersonesus (now Crimea), on the Palus Mæotis, used
to sacrifice shipwrecked strangers on the altar of Diana; of which
barbarous custom Thoas their king is said to have been the inventor.
Ov., Trist., IV., iv., 93; Ib., 386, "Thoanteæ Taurica sacra Deæ."
Pont., I., ii., 80: III., ii., 59. Plin., H. N., IV., xii., 26. On
this story is founded the Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides, and from
this was derived the custom of scourging boys at the altar of Artemis
Orthias in Sparta.
[1120] _Gravius cultro._
"There the pale victim only fears the knife,
But thy fell zeal asks something more than life." Hodgson.
[1121] _Invidiam facerent._ Cf. Ov., Art. Am., i., 647, "Dicitur
Ægyptos caruisse juvantibus arva Imbribus, atque annos sicca fuisse
novem. Cum Thracius Busirin adit, monstratque piari Hospitis effuso
sanguine posse Jovem. Illi Busiris, Fies Jovis hostia primus, Inquit
et Ægypto tu dabis hospes opem." It is to this story Juvenal probably
alludes. But _invidiam facere_ means also "to bring into odium and
unpopularity" (cf. Ov., Met., iv., 547), and so Gifford understands
it. "What more effectual means could these cannibals devise to incense
the god and provoke him to withhold his fertilizing waters, thereby
bringing him into unpopularity." Cf. Lucan, ii., 36, "Nullis defuit
aris Invidiam factura parens," with the note of Cortius.
[1122] _Fictilibus phaselis._ Evidently taken from Virg., Georg., iv.,
287, "Nam quâ Pellæi gens fortunata Canopi Accolit effuso stagnantem
flumine Nilum Et circum _pictis_ vehitur sua rura _phaselis_." The
deficiency of timber in Egypt forced the inhabitants to adopt any
expedient as a substitute. Strabo (lib. xvii.) mentions these vessels
of pottery-ware, varnished over to make them water-tight. Phaselus is
properly the long Egyptian kidney bean, from which the boats derived
their name, from their long and narrow form. From their speed they were
much used by pirates, and seem to have been of the same build as the
Myoparones mentioned by Cicero in Verrem, ii., 3. Cf. Catull., iv., 1,
"Phaselus ille quem videtis hospites Ait fuisse navium celerrimus."
Mart., x., Ep. xxx., 12, "Viva sed quies Ponti Pictam phaselon
adjuvante fert aurâ." Cf. Lucan, v., 518. Hor., iii., Od. ii., 29.
Virg., Georg., i., 277. Arist., Pax, 1144.
"Or through the tranquil water's easy swell,
Work the short paddles of their painted shell." Hodgson.
[1123] _Lacrymas._ So the Greek proverb, ἀγαθοὶ δ' ἀριδάκρυες ἄνδρες.
[1124] _Pupillum._ Cf. i., 45, "Quum populum gregibus comitum premit
hic spoliator Pupilli prostantis," x., 222, "Quot Basilus socios, quot
circumscripserit Hirrus pupillos."
[1125] _Incerta._ Hor., ii., Od. v., "Quem si puellarum insereres choro
Miré sagaces falleret hospites Discrimen obscurum solutis Crinibus
ambiguoque vultu."
"So soft his tresses, filled with trickling pearl,
You'd doubt his sex, and take him for a girl." Dryden.
[1126] _Minor igne rogi._ Infants under forty days old were not burned,
but buried; and the place was called "Suggrundarium." Vid. Facc. in
voc. Cf. Plin., H. N., vii., 16.
[1127] _Arcana._ Hor., iii., Od. ii., 26, "Vetabo qui _Cereris_ sacrum
vulgârit _arcanæ_, sub îsdem sit trabibus fragilemve mecum solvat
phaselon." Cf. Sat. vi., 50, "Paucæ adeo Cereris vittas contingere
dignæ." None were admitted to initiation in the greater mysteries
without a strict inquiry into their moral character; as none but the
chastest matrons were allowed to be priestesses of Ceres. For the
origin of the use of the torch in the sacred processions of Ceres, see
Ovid, Fast., iv., 493, _seq._
[1128] _Aliena._ From Ter., Heaut., I., i., 25, "Homo sum; humani nihil
à me alienum puto." Cf. Cic., Off., i., 9.
[1129] _Sortiti ingenium._ Cf. Cic., Nat. Deor., ii., 56, "Sunt
enim homines non ut incolæ atque habitatores, sed quasi spectatores
superarum rerum atque cœlestium, quarum spectaculum ad nullum aliud
genus animantium pertinet."
[1130] _Cœlesti._ Virg., Æn., vi., 730, "Igneus est ollis vigor et
cœlestis origo." Hor., ii., Sat. ii., 79, "Divinæ particulam auræ."
[1131] _Prona._ Ov., Met., i., 84, "Pronaque cum spectent animalia
cætera terram, Os homini sublime dedit, cœlumque tueri jussit et
erectos ad sidera tollere vultus." Sall., Bell. Cat., init., "Omnes
homines qui sese student præstare cæteris animalibus quæ Natura prona
et ventri obedientia finxit."
[1132] _Animam._ i., 83. Cf. ad vi., 531.
"To brutes our Maker, when the globe was new,
Lent only life: to men, a spirit too.
That mutual kindness in our hearts might burn,
The good which others did us, to return:
That scattered thousands might together come,
Leave their old woods, and seek a general home." Hodgson.
[1133] _Dispersos._ Cic., Tusc. Qu., v., 2, "Tu dissipatos homines in
societatem vitæ convocâsti; tu eos inter se primo domiciliis, deinde
conjugiis, tum literarum et vocum communione junxisti." Hor., i., Sat.
iii., 104, "Dehinc absistere bello: oppida cœperunt munire et ponere
leges." Ar. Poet., 391, "Sylvestres homines sacer interpresque deorum
Cædibus et victu fœdo deterruit Orpheus."
[1134] _Sylvas._ Ov., Met., i., 121, "Tum primum subiere domos. Domus
antra fuerunt, et densi frutices, et vinctæ cortice virgæ." Lucr., v.,
953, "Sed nemora atque cavos montes sylvasque colebant, Et frutices
inter condebant squalida membra."
[1135] _Collata fiducia._
"Thus more securely through the night to rest,
And add new courage to our neighbor's breast." Hodgson.
[1136] _Civem._ Hence the proud inscription on the civic crown, OB.
CIVES. SERVATOS.
[1137] _Concordia._ Plin., H. N., vii., in., "Cætera animantia in suo
genere probè degunt; congregari videmus, et stare contra dissimilia:
Leonum feritas inter se non dimicat: serpentum morsus non petit
serpentes; nec maris quidem belluæ nisi in diversa genera sæviunt. At
Hercule, homini plurima ex homine sunt mala." Hor., Epod., vii., 11,
"Neque hic lupis mos nec fuit leonibus, nunquam nisi in dispar feris."
"Homo homini lupus." Prov. Rom.
[1138] _Cognatis._
"His kindred spots the very pard will spare." Badham.
[1139] _Dentibus apri._
"Nor from his larger tusks the forest boar
Commission takes his brother swine to gore." Dryd.
[1140] _Indica tigris._ Plin., H. N., vin., 18, "Tigris Indica fera
velocitatis tremendæ est, quæ vacuum reperiens cubile fertur præceps
odore vestigans," _et seq._
"In league of Friendship tigers roam the plain,
And bears with bears perpetual peace maintain." Gifford.
[1141] _Ast homini._
"But man, fell man, is not content to make
The deadly sword for murder's impious sake,
Though ancient smiths knew only to produce