The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
They were supposed to extend even to cattle. "Nescio quis teneros
oculus mihi fascinat agnos." Virg., Ecl., iii., 103. To avert this,
they anointed the child with saliva, and suspended amulets of various
kinds from its neck.
[1312] _Infami digito._ The middle finger was so called because used
to point in scorn and derision. Cf. Juv., x., 53, "Mandaret laqueum
mediumque ostenderet unguem."
[1313] _Manibus quatit._ So Homer (lib. vi.) represents Hector as
tossing his child in his arms, and then offering up a prayer for him.
[1314] _Licinus._ Probably the Licinus mentioned in Juv., Sat. i., 109;
xiv., 306; the barber and freedman of Augustus, an epigram on whom
is quoted by Varro. "Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet: at Cato parvo.
Pompeius nullo. Quis putet esse deos?" Casaubon supposes the Licinius
Stolo mentioned by Livy (vii., 16) to be intended.
[1315] _Crassi._ Cf. Juv., x., 108.
[1316] _Nutrici._ Seneca has the same sentiment, Ep. ix., "Etiamnum
optas quæ tibi optavit nutrix, aut pædagogus, aut mater? Nondum
intelligis quantum mali optaverint."
[1317] _Albata._ Those who presided over or attended at sacrifices
always dressed in white.
[1318] _Poscis opem nervis._ Persius now goes on to ridicule those who
by their own folly render the fulfillment of their prayers impossible;
who pray for health, which they destroy by vicious indulgence; for
wealth, which they idly squander on the costly sacrifices they offer
to render their prayers propitious, and the sumptuous banquets which
always followed those sacrifices.
[1319] _Ferto_, a kind of cake or rich pudding, made of flour, wine,
honey, etc.
[1320] _Si tibi._ He now proceeds to investigate the cause of these
misdirected prayers, and shows that it results from a belief that the
deity is influenced by the same motives, and to be won over by the same
means, as mortal men. Hence the costly nature of the offerings made and
the vessels employed in the service of the temple.
[1321] _Incusa._ Cf. Sen., Ep. v., "Non habemus argentum in quod solidi
auri cœlatura descendit." An incrustation or enchasing of gold was
impressed upon vessels of silver. This the Greeks called ἐμπαιστικὴ
τέχνη.
[1322] _Lævo._ This is the usual interpretation. It may mean, "in your
breast, blinded by avarice and covetousness," as Virg., Æn., xi., "Si
mens non læva fuisset."
[1323] _Subiit._ Sen., Ep. 115, "Admirationem nobis parentes auri
argentique fecerunt: et teneris infusa cupiditas altiùs sedit crevitque
nobiscum. Deinde totus populus, in alio discors, in hoc convenit: hoc
suspiciunt, hoc suis optant, hoc diis velut rerum humanarum maximum cum
grati videri velint, consecrant."
[1324] _Auro ovato._ It was the custom for generals at a triumph to
offer a certain portion of their manubiæ to Capitoline Jove and other
deities.
[1325] _Fratres ahenos._ It is said that there were in the temple porch
of the Palatine Apollo figures of the fifty Danaides, and opposite
them equestrian statues of the fifty sons of Ægyptus; and that some of
these statues gave oracles by means of dreams. Others refer these lines
to Castor and Pollux: but the words "præcipui sunto" seem to imply a
greater number. The passage is very obscure. Casaubon adopts the former
interpretation.
[1326] _Numæ._ Numa directed that all vessels used for sacred purposes
should be of pottery-ware. Cf. ad Juv., xi., 116.
[1327] _Saturnia._ Alluding to the Ærarium in the temple of Saturn.
[1328] _Pulpa_ is properly the soft, pulpy part of the fruit between
the skin and the kernel: then it is applied to the soft and flaccid
flesh of young animals, and hence applied to the flesh of men. It is
used here in exactly the scriptural sense, "the flesh."
[1329] _Casiam._ Vid. Plin., xiii., 3. Persius seems to have had in
his eye the lines in the second Georgic, "Nec varios inhiant pulchra
testudine postes Illusasque auro vestes, Ephyreiaque æra; Alba neque
Assyrio fucatur lana veneno nec _Casiâ_, liquidi _corrumpitur_ usus
_olivi_." Both the epic poet and the satirist, as Gifford remarks, use
the language of the old republic. They consider the oil of the country
to be vitiated, instead of improved, by the luxurious admixture of
foreign spices.
[1330] _Calabrum._ The finest wool came from Tarentum in Calabria. Vid.
Plin., H. N., viii., 48; ix., 61; Colum., vii., 2; and from the banks
of the Galesus in its neighborhood. Hor., Od., II., vi., 10, "Dulce
pellitis ovibus Galesi flumen." Virg., G., iv., 126. Mart., xii., Ep.
64, "Albi quæ superas oves Galesi."
[1331] _Compositum._ These lines, as Gifford says, are not only the
quintessence of sanctity, but of language. Closeness would cramp and
paraphrase would enfeeble their sense, which may be felt, but can not
be expressed. Casaubon explains compositum, "animum bene comparatum ad
omnia divina humanaque jura." τὸ εὔτακτον τῆς ψυχῆς πρὸς τὰ θεῖά τε καὶ
ἀνθρώπινα δίκαια. It may also imply the "harmonious blending of the
two."
[1332] _Recessus._ So the Greeks used the phrases μυχοὺς διανοίας,
ἄδυτα ταμιεῖα διανοίας. Cf. Rom., xi., 16, τὰ κρυπτὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.
[1333] _Incoctum_ a metaphor from a fleece double-dyed. So Seneca,
"Quemadmodum lana quosdam colores semel ducit, quosdam nisi sæpius
macerata et recocta non perbibit: sic alias disciplines ingenia cum
accepere, protinus præstant: hæc nisi altè descendit, et diù sedit,
animum non coloravit, sed infecit, nihil ex his quæ promiserat
præstat." Ep. 71. Cf. Virg., Georg., iii., 307, "Quamvis Milesia magno
vellera mutentur Tyrios _incocta_ rubores."
[1334] _Litabo._ Cf. v., 120, "Soli probi _litare_ dicuntur proprie:
_sacrificare_ quilibet etiam improbi." Litare therefore is to _obtain_
that for which the sacrifice is offered. Vid. Liv., xxxviii., 20,
"Postero die sacrificio facto cum primis hostiis litasset." Plaut.,
Pœnul., ii., 41, "Tum Jupiter faciat ut semper _sacrificem_ nec unquam
_litem_." Cf. Lact. ad Stat. Theb., x., 610. Suet., Cæs., 81. Even the
heathen could see that the deity regarded the purity of the heart,
not the costliness of the offering of the sacrificer. So Laberius,
"_Puras_ deus non _plenas_ aspicit manus." τὸ δαιμονίον μᾶλλον πρὸς τὸ
τῶν θυόντων ἠθος ἢ πρὸς τὸ τῶν θυομένων πλῆθος βλέπει. Cf. Plat., Alc.,
II., xii., fin., "Est litabilis hostia bonus animus et pura mens et
sincera sententia." Min., Fel., 32.
[1335] _Farre._ The idea is probably taken from Seneca. Ep. 95, "Nec
in victimis, licet opimæ sint, auroque præfulgeant, deorum est honos:
sed pia et recta voluntate venerantium: itaque boni etiam _farre_
ac fictili religiosi." Hor., iii., Od. xxiii., 17, "Immunis aram si
tetigit manus non sumptuosa blandior hostia mollivit aversos Penates
_farre_ pio et saliente mica." Cf. Eurip., Fr. Orion εὖ ἴσθ' ὅταν τις
εὐσεβῶν θύῃ θεοῖς· κἂν μικρὰ θύῃ τυγχάνει σωτηρίας.
SATIRE III.
ARGUMENT.
In this Satire, perhaps more than in any other, we detect Persius'
predilection for the doctrines of the Stoics. With them the
summum bonum was "the sound mind in the sound body." To attain
which, man must apply himself to the cultivation of virtue, that
is, to the study of philosophy. He that does not can aspire to
neither. Though unknown to himself, he is laboring under a mortal
disease, and though he fancies he possesses a healthy intellect,
he is the victim of as deep-seated and dangerous a delusion as
the recognized maniac. The object of the Satire is to reclaim the
idle and profligate young nobles of his day from their enervating
and pernicious habits, by the illustration of these principles.
The opening scene of the Satire presents us with the bedchamber
where one of these young noblemen, accompanied by some other
youths probably of inferior birth and station, is indulging
in sleep many hours after the sun has risen upon the earth.
The entrance of the tutor, who is a professor of the Stoical
philosophy, disturbs their slumbers, and the confusion consequent
upon his rebuke, and the thin disguise of their ill-assumed
zeal, is graphically described. After a passionate outburst
of contempt at their paltry excuses, the tutor points out the
irretrievable evils that will result from their allowing the
golden hours of youth to pass by unimproved: overthrows all
objections which are raised as to their position in life,
and competency of means rendering such vigorous application
superfluous; and in a passage of solemn warning full of majesty
and power, describes the unavailing remorse which will assuredly
hereafter visit those who have so far quitted the rugged path
that leads to virtue's heights, that all return is hopeless. He
then proceeds to describe the defects of his own education; and
the vices he fell into in consequence of these defects--vices
however which were venial in himself, as those principles which
would have taught him their folly were never inculcated in him.
Whereas those whom he addresses, from the greater care that
has been bestowed on their early training, are without apology
for their neglect of these palpable duties. Then with great
force and vigor, he briefly describes the proper pursuits of
well-regulated minds; and looks down with contemptuous scorn on
the sneers with which vulgar ignorance would deride these truths,
too transcendent for their gross comprehension to appreciate.
The Satire concludes very happily with the lively apologue of
a glutton; who, in despite of all warning and friendly advice,
perseveres even when his health is failing, in such vicious and
unrestrained indulgence, that he falls at length a victim to
his intemperance. The application of the moral is simple. The
mind that is destitute of philosophical culture is hopelessly
diseased, and the precepts of philosophy can alone effect a cure.
He that despises these, in vain pronounces himself to be of sound
mind. On the approach of any thing that can kindle the spark, his
passions burst into flame; and in spite of his boasted sanity,
urge him on to acts that would call forth the reprobation even of
the maniac himself. The whole Satire and its moral, as Gifford
says, may be fitly summed up in the solemn injunction of a wiser
man than the schools ever produced: "Wisdom is the principal
thing: therefore get Wisdom."
What! always thus![1336] Already the bright morning is entering the
windows,[1337] and extending[1338] the narrow chinks with light. We
are snoring[1339] as much as would suffice to work off the potent
Falernian,[1340] while the index[1341] is touched by the fifth shadow
of the gnomon. See! What are you about? The raging Dog-star[1342] is
long since ripening the parched harvest, and all the flock is under
the wide-spreading elm. One of the fellow-students[1343] says, "Is
it really so? Come hither, some one, quickly. Is nobody coming!" His
vitreous bile[1344] is swelling. He is bursting with rage: so that you
would fancy whole herds of Arcadia[1345] were braying. Now his book,
and the two-colored[1346] parchment cleared of the hair, and paper,
and the knotty reed is taken in hand. Then he complains that the ink,
grown thick, clogs in his pen; then that the black sepia[1347] vanishes
altogether, if water is poured into it; then that the reed makes blots
with the drops being diluted. O wretch! and every day still more a
wretch! Are we come to such a pitch? Why do you not rather, like the
tender ring-dove,[1348] or the sons of kings, call for minced pap, and
fractiously refuse your nurse's lullaby!--Can I work with such a pen as
this, then?
Whom are you deceiving? Why reiterate these paltry shifts? The stake