The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
Thinkest thou he has forgiven thee,[1304] because, when he thunders,
the holm-oak[1305] is rather riven with his sacred bolt than thou
and all thy house?[1306] Or because thou dost not, at the bidding of
the entrails of the sheep,[1307] and Ergenna, lie in the sacred grove
a dread bidental to be shunned of all, that therefore he gives thee
his insensate beard to pluck?[1308] Or what is the bribe by which
thou wouldst win over the ears of the gods? With lungs, and greasy
chitterlings? See[1309] some grandam or superstitious[1310] aunt
takes the infant from his cradle, and skilled in warding off the evil
eye,[1311] effascinates his brow and driveling lips with middle[1312]
finger and with lustral spittle, first. Then dandles[1313] him in her
arms, and with suppliant prayer transports him either to the broad
lands of Licinus[1314] or the palaces of Crassus.[1315] "Him may some
king and queen covet as a son-in-law! May maidens long to ravish him!
Whatever he treads on may it turn to roses!" But I do not trust prayers
to a nurse.[1316] Refuse her these requests, great Jove, even though
she make them clothed in white![1317]
You ask vigor for your sinews,[1318] and a frame that will insure old
age. Well, so be it. But rich dishes and fat sausages prevent the gods
from assenting to these prayers, and baffle Jove himself.
You are eager to amass a fortune, by sacrificing a bull; and court
Mercury's favor by his entrails. "Grant that my household gods may make
me lucky! Grant me cattle, and increase to my flocks!" How can that be,
poor wretch, while so many cauls of thy heifers melt in the flames?
Yet still he strives to gain his point by means of entrails and rich
cakes.[1319] "Now my land, and now my sheepfold teems. Now, surely
now, it will be granted!" Until, baffled and hopeless, his sestertius
at the very bottom of his money-chest sighs in vain.
Were I to offer you[1320] goblets of silver and presents embossed with
rich gold,[1321] you would perspire with delight, and your heart,
palpitating with joy in your left breast,[1322] would force even the
tear-drops from your eyes. And hence it is the idea enters[1323]
your mind of covering the sacred faces of the gods with triumphal
gold.[1324] For among the Brazen brothers,[1325] let those be chief,
and let their beards be of gold, who send dreams purged from gross
humors. Gold hath expelled the vases of Numa[1326] and Saturnian[1327]
brass, and the vestal urns and the pottery of Tuscany.
Oh! souls bowed down to earth! and void of aught celestial! Of what
avail is it to introduce into the temples of the gods these our modes
of feeling, and estimate what is acceptable to them by referring to our
own accursed flesh.[1328] This it is that has dissolved Cassia[1329]
in the oil it pollutes. This has dyed the fleece of Calabria[1330]
with the vitiated purple. To scrape the pearl from its shell, and from
the crude ore to smelt out the veins of the glowing mass; this carnal
nature bids. She sins in truth. She sins. Still from her vice gains
some emolument.
* * * * *
Say ye, ye priests! of what avail is gold in sacrifice? As much,
forsooth, as the dolls which the maiden bestows on Venus! Why do we not
offer that to the gods which the blear-eyed progeny of great Messala
can not give even from his high-heaped charger. Justice to god and man
enshrined[1331] within the heart; the inner chambers[1332] of the soul
free from pollution; the breast imbued[1333] with generous honor. Give
me these to present at the temples, and I will make my successful
offering[1334] with a little meal.[1335]
FOOTNOTES:
[1287] _Macrine._ Nothing is known of this friend of Persius, but from
the old Scholiast, who tells us that his name was Plotius Macrinus;
that he was a man of great learning, and of a fatherly regard for
Persius, and that he had studied in the house of Servilius. Britannicus
calls him Minutius Macrinus, and says he was of equestrian rank, and a
native of Brixia, now "Brescia."
[1288] _Meliore lapillo._ The Thracians were said to put a _white_
stone into a box to mark every happy day they spent, and a _black_
stone for every unhappy day, and to reckon up at the end of their
lives how many happy days they had passed. Plin., H. N., vii., 40.
So Mart., ix., Ep. 53, "Natales, Ovidi, tuos Apriles Ut nostras amo
Martias Kalendas; Felix utraque lux diesque nobis Signandi melioribus
lapillis." Hor., i., Od. xxxvi., 10, "Cressâ ne careat pulchra dies
notâ." Plin., Ep. vi., 11, "O Diem lætum notandum mihi candidissimo
calculo." Cat., lxviii., 148, "Quem lapide illa diem candidiore notet."
[1289] _Apponit._ A technical word in calculating; as in Greek,
τιθέναι, and προστιθέναι. So "Appone lucro." Hor., i., Od. ix., 14.
[1290] _Annos._ For the respect paid by the Romans to their birthdays,
see Juv., xi., 83; xii., 1; Pers., vi., 19; and Censorinus, de Die
Natali, pass.
[1291] _Genio._ Genius, "a genendo." The deity who presides over each
man from his birth, as some held, being coeval with the man himself.
The birthday was sacred to him; the offerings consisted of wine,
flowers, and incense. "Manum a sanguine abstinebant: ne die quâ ipsi
lucem accepissent, aliis demerent." Censor, a Varrone. Cf. Serv. ad
Virg., Geor., i., 302. Hor., ii., Ep. ii., 187, "Scit Genius natale
comes qui temperat astrum, naturæ deus humanæ, mortalis in unumquodque
caput;" and ii., Ep. i., 143, "Sylvanum lacte piabant, Floribus et vino
Genium memorem brevis ævi." Cf. Orell., in loc. On other days, they
offered bloody victims also to the Genius. "Cras Genium mero Curabis et
porco bimestri." Hor., iii., Od. xvii., 14.
[1292] _Aperto voto._ "To offer no prayer that you would fear to
divulge," according to the maxim of Pythagoras, μετὰ φωνῆς εὔχεο,
and that of Seneca, "Sic vive cum hominibus tanquam deus videat: sic
loquere cum deo tanquam homines audiant."
[1293] _Mens bona._ Juv., x., 356, "Orandum est ut sit mens sana in
corpore sano."
[1294] _Ebullit._ "Boil away."
[1295] _Hercule._ Hercules was considered the guardian of hidden
treasure, and as Mercury presided over open gains and profits by
merchandise, so Hercules was supposed to be the giver of all sudden and
unexpected good fortune; hence called πλουτοδότης. Cf. Hor., ii., Sat.
vi., 10, "O si urnam argenti fors quæ mihi monstret ut illi Thesauro
invento qui mercenarius agrum illum ipsum mercatus aravit, dives amico
Hercule."
[1296] _Seria_, "a tall, narrow, long-necked vessel, frequently used
for holding money."
[1297] _Expungam_, a metaphor from the military roll-calls, from which
the names of all soldiers dead or discharged were expunged.
[1298] _Ducitur._ Casaubon reads "conditur." Cf. Mart., x., Ep. xliii.,
"Septima jam Phileros tibi conditur uxor in agro: Plus nulli, Phileros,
quam tibi reddit ager."
[1299] _Mane._ Cf. Tibull., III., iv., 9, "At natum in curas hominum
genus omina noctis farre pio placant et saliente sale." Propert., III.,
x., 13, "Ac primum purâ somnum tibi discute lymphâ." The ancients
believed that night itself, independently of any extraneous pollution,
occasioned a certain amount of defilement which must be washed away
in pure water at daybreak. Cf. Virg., Æn., viii., 69, "Nox Ænean
somnusque reliquit. Surgit et ætherii spectans orientia Solis Lumina
rite cavis undam de flumine palmis Sustulit." Cf. Theophrast., περὶ
δεισιδαιμονιὰς, fin.
[1300] _Tiberino in gurgite._ Cf. Juv., vi., 522, "Hibernum fractâ
glacie descendet in amnem, ter matutino Tiberi mergetur et ipsis
Vorticibus timidum caput abluet." Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 290, "Illo mane
die quo tu indicis jejunia nudus in Tiberi stabit." Virg., Æn., ii,
719, "Me attrectare nefas donec me flumine vivo abluero." Ov., Fast.,
iv., 655, "Bis caput intonsum fontanâ spargitur undâ." 315, "Ter caput
irrorat, ter tollit in æthera palmas."
[1301] _De Jove._ Read, with Casaubon, "Est ne ut præponere cures Hunc
cuiquam? cuinam?"
[1302] _Staio._ The allusion is probably to Staienus, whom Cicero often
mentions as a most corrupt judge. Pro Cluent., vii., 24; in Verr.,
ii., 32. He is said to have murdered his own wife, his brother, and
his brother's wife. Yet even to such a wretch as this, says Persius,
you would not venture to name the wishes you prefer to Jove. Cf.
Sen., Ep. x., "Nunc quanta dementia est hominum! Turpissima vota Diis
insusurrant, si quis admoverit aurem, conticescent; et quod scire
hominem nolunt, deo narrant."
[1303] _Jupiter._ Cf. Hor., i., Sat. ii., 17, "Maxime, quis non,
Jupiter! exclamat simul atque audivit."
[1304] _Ignovisse._ Cf. Eccles., viii., 11, "Because sentence against
an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the
sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Tib., I., ii., 8; ix.,
4. Claudian. ad Hadr., 38, _seq._ Juv., xiii, 10, "Ut sit magna tamen
certè lenta ira deorum est."
[1305] _Ilex._ The idea is taken probably from the well-known lines
of Lucretius, vi., 387, "Quod si Jupiter atque alii fulgentia Divei
Terrifico quatiunt sonitu cœlestia templa, Et jaciunt ignem quo quoique
est quomque voluntas: Quur quibus incautum scelus aversabile quomque
est non faciunt, ictei flammas ut fulguris halent Pectore perfixo
documen mortalibus acre? Et potius nulla sibi turpi conscius in re
volvitur in flammeis innoxius, inque peditur Turbine cœlesti subito
correptus et igni." Lucian parodies it also, τὶ δήποτε τοὺς ἱεροσύλους
καὶ λῃστὰς ἀφέντες καὶ τοσούτους ὑβριστὰς καὶ βιαίους καὶ ἐπιόρκους,
δρῦν τινὰ πολλάκις κεραυνοῦτε ἢ λίθον ἢ νεὼς ἱστὸν οὐδὲν ἀδικούσης;
Jup. Conf., ii., 638.
[1306] _Tuque domusque._ Probably taken from Homer, εἴπερ γάρ τε καὶ
αὐτίκ' Ὀλύμπιος οὐκ ἐτέλεσσεν, Ἔκ γε καὶ ὀψὲ τελεῖ· σύν τε μεγάλω
ἀπέτισαν, Σὺν σφῇσι κεφαλῇσι γύναιξί τε καὶ τεκέεσσιν.
[1307] _Fibris._ When any person was struck dead by lightning, the
priest was immediately called in to bury the body: every thing that
had been scorched by it was carefully collected and buried with it.
A two-year old sheep was then sacrificed, and an altar erected over
the place and the ground slightly inclosed round. Lucan., viii., 864,
"Inclusum Tusco venerantur cæspite fulmen." Hor., A. P., 471, "An
triste bidental moverit incestus." Juv., vi., 587, "Atque aliquis
senior qui publica fulgura condit." Ergenna, or Ergennas, is the name
of some Tuscan soothsayer, who gives his directions after inspecting
the entrails; the termination being Tuscan, as Porsenna, Sisenna,
Perpenna, etc. Bidental is applied indifferently to the place,
the sacrifice, and the person. Bidens is properly a sheep fit for
sacrifice, which was so considered when two years old. Hence bidens may
be a corruption of biennis; or from bis and dens, because at the age of
two years the sheep has eight teeth, two of which project far beyond
the rest, and are the criterion of the animal's age.
[1308] _Vellere barbam._ Alluding to the well-known story of Dionysius
of Syracuse. Cf. Sat. i., 133.
[1309] _Ecce._ He now passes on to prayers that result from
superstitious ignorance, or over-fondness, and which, as far as the
_matter_ is concerned, are equally erroneous with the previous class,
though not of the same malicious character. On the fifth day after the
birth of an infant, sacrifices and prayers were offered for the child
to the deities Pilumnus and Picumnus. Purificatory offerings were
made on the eighth day for girls, and on the ninth for boys. The day
therefore was called dies lustricus, and nominalis, because the name
was given. The Greeks called it ὀνομάτων ἑορτή.
[1310] _Metuens Divûm_, i. e., δεισιδαίμων. "Matetera, quasi Mater
altera."
[1311] _Urentes._ Literally, "blasting, withering." The belief in the
effects of the "evil eye" is as prevalent as ever in Southern Europe.