The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
through nearly the same period, thirteen years. Both were notorious
for the same vices: love of self-indulgence, ambition of pre-eminence,
personal vanity, lawless insolence toward others, lavish expenditure,
and utter disregard of all principle. It would be very easy to carry
out the parallel into greater detail. Comp. Suet., Nero, c. 26, with
Grote's Greece, vol. vii., ch. 55.
[1387] _Barbatum._ Cf. Juv., xiv., 12, "Barbatos licet admoveas mille
inde magistros." Cic., Fin., iv., "Barba sylvosa et pulcrè alita
inter hominis eruditi insignia recensetur." Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 34,
"Tempore quo me solatus jussit sapientem pascere barbam."
[1388] _Cicutæ._ Cf. ad Juv., vii, 206.
[1389] _Pupille._ Alcibiades was left an orphan at the age of five
years, his father, Clinias, having been killed at the battle of
Coronea; when he was placed with his younger brother Clinias, under
the guardianship of Pericles and his brother Ariphron, to whom his
ungovernable passions, even in his boyhood, were a source of great
grief. Of this connection Alcibiades was very proud. Cf. Plat., Alc.,
c. 1. Nero lost his father when scarcely three years old; and at the
age of eleven, he was adopted by Claudius and placed under the care
of Annæus Seneca. It is curious that the first public act of both was
an act of liberality to the people. Compare the account of Nero's
proposing the Congiarium (Suet., Nero, c. 7), with the anecdote of
the quail of Alcibiades told by Plutarch (in Vit., c. 10). There is
probably also a bitter sarcasm in the word "pupille," as it was the
term of contempt applied to Nero by Poppæa, who was impatient to be
married to him, which the control of his mother Agrippina, and the
influence of Seneca and Burrhus, delayed. Cf. Tac., Ann., xiv., I,
"Quæ (Poppæa) aliquando per facetias incusaret Principem et _pupillum_
vocaret qui jussis alienis obnoxius non modo imperii sed libertatis
etiam indigeret." Some imagine _pericli_ to be intended as a pun, "One
that would prove _dangerous_ hereafter;" as Alcibiades was compared to
a lion's whelp, Arist., Ran., 1431, οὐ χρὴ λέοντος σκύμνον ἐν πόλει
τρέφειν ἤν δ' ἐκτρέφῃ τις, τοῖς τρόποις ὑπηρετεῖν.
[1390] _Majestate manûs._ Ov., Met., i., 205, "Quam fuit illa Jovi: qui
postquam voce, _manuque_ Murmura compressit, tenuere silentia cuncti."
So Lucan says of Cæsar, "Utque satis trepidum turbâ coeunte tumultum
Composuit vultu, _dextrâque_ silentia jussit." Cf. Acts, xiii. 16.
[1391] _Curva._ The Stoic notion that virtue is a straight line; vices,
curved: the virtues occasionally approaching nearer to one curve than
the other. Cf. Arist., Eth., II., vii. and viii.; and Sat., iii., 52,
"Haud tibi inexpertum _curvos_ deprendere mores, Quæque docet sapiens
braccatis illita Medis Porticus."
[1392] _Nigrum Theta._ The Θ, the first letter of θάνατος, was set
by the Judices against the names of those whom they adjuged worthy
of death, and was hence used by critics to obelize passages they
condemned or disapproved of; the contrary being marked with Χ, for
χρηστόν. Cf. Mart., vii., Ep. xxxvii., 1, "Nosti mortiferum quæstoris,
Castrice, signum, Est operæ pretium discere theta novum." Auson., Ep.
128, "Tuumque nomen theta sectilis signet." Sidon., Carm., ix., 335,
"Isti qui valet exarationi Districtum bonus applicare theta." (It was
also used on tomb-stones, and as a mark to tick off the dead on the
muster-roll of soldiers.)
[1393] _Summâ pella decorus._ The personal beauty of Alcibiades is
proverbial. Suetonius does not give a very unfavorable account of
Nero's exterior, "Staturâ fuit prope justâ, sufflavo capillo, vultu
pulchro magis quam venusto, oculis cæsiis." The rest of the picture
is not quite so flattering. It should be observed, by the way,
that Suetonius speaks in terms by no means disparaging of Nero's
verses, which, he says, flowed easily and naturally: he discards the
insinuation that they were mere translations, or plagiarisms, as he
says he had ocular proof to the contrary. Suet., Vit., c. 51, 2.
[1394] _Caudam jactare_, a metaphor either from "a dog fawning," or "a
peacock displaying its tail." Hor., ii., Sat. ii., 26, "Rara avis et
pictâ pandat spectacula caudâ."
[1395] _Anticyras._ Cf. ad Juv., xiii., 97. Hor., ii., Ep. ii., 137,
"Expulit helleboro morbum bilemque meraco." Lucian, ἐν Πλοίῳ, 45, καὶ
ὁ ἑλλέβορος ἱκανὸς ποιῆσαι ζωρότερος ποθείς. _Meracus_ is properly
applied to unmixed _wine_; _merus_, to any _other_ liquid.
[1396] _Curata cuticula sole._ Cf. ad Juv., xi., 203, "Nostra bibat
vernum contracta cuticula solem." Alluding to the _apricatio_, or
"sunning themselves," of which old men are so fond. Line 33. Sat. v.,
179. Cic., de Senect., xvi. Mart., x., Ep. xii., 7, "I precor et totos
avida cute combibe soles, Quam formosus eris, dum peregrinus eris."
Plin., Ep. iii., 1. "Ubi hora balinei nuntiata est, in sole, si caret
vento, ambulat nudus." iv., Ep. 5, "Post cibum sæpe æstate si quod
otii, jacebat in sole." Cic., Att., vii., 11. Mart., i., Ep. lxxviii.,
4. Juv., ii., 105, "Et curare cutem summi constantia civis." Hor.,
i., Ep. iv., 29, "In cute curandâ plus æquo operata juventus." iv.,
15, "Me pinguem et nitidum bene curatâ cute vises." Cf. Sat. ii., 37,
"Pelliculam curare jube."
[1397] _Dinomaches._ Vid. line 1. Plut., Alc., 1. It appears from
Plat., Alc., cxviii., that it was a name Alcibiades delighted in.
[1398] _Ocima._ Properly the herb "Basil," _ocimum Basilicum_, either
from ὠκὺς, from its "rapid growth," or from ὄζειν, from its "fragrance."
[1399] _Mantica._ From Phædrus, lib. iv., Fab. x., "Peras imposuit
Jupiter nobis duas: propriis repletam vitiis post tergum dedit: Alienis
ante pectus suspendit gravem. Hâc re videre nostra mala non possumus:
alii simul delinquunt, censores sumus." So Petr., Frag. Traj., 57, "In
alio peduclum vides: in te ricinum non vides." Cat., xxii., 20, "Suus
quoique attributus est error: Sed non videmus manticæ quod in tergo
est."
[1400] _Quantum non milvus._ Cf. Juv., ix., 55, "Tot milvos intra tua
pascua lassos."
[1401] _Pertusa ad compita._ "Compita" are places where three or more
roads meet, from the old verb bito or beto. At these places altars,
or little chapels, were erected with as many sides as there were ways
meeting. (Jani bifrontes.) Cf. v., 35, "Ramosa in compita." Hence they
are called "pertusa," i. e., _pervia_, "open in all directions." At
these chapels it was the custom for the rustics to suspend the worn-out
implements of husbandry. Though some think this was more especially
done at the Compitalia. This festival was one of those which the Romans
called Feriæ Conceptivæ, being fixed annually by the Prætor. They
generally followed close upon the Saturnalia, and were held sometimes
three days before the kalends of January, sometimes on the kalends
themselves. Vid. Cic., Pis., iv. Auson., Ecl. de Fev., "Et nunquam
certis redeuntia festa diebus, Compita per vicos quum sua quisque
colit." According to Servius, they are described, though not by name,
by Virgil, Æn., viii., 717. Like the Quinquatrus, they lasted only
one day, and on that occasion additional wooden chapels were erected,
the sacrificial cakes were provided by different houses, and slaves,
not freedmen, presided at the sacrifices. Vid. Plin., XXXVI., xxvii.,
70. The gods whom they worshiped are said to have been the Lares
Compitales, of whom various legends are current. But this is doubtful.
Augustus appointed certain rites in their honor, twice in the year.
Suet., Vit., c. xxxi., "Compitales Lares ornari bis anno instituit
vernis floribus et æstivis." It seems to have been a season of rustic
revelry and feasting, and of license for slaves, like the Saturnalia.
The avarice of the miser, therefore, on such an occasion, is the more
conspicuous. His vessel is but a small one (seriola), and its contents
woolly (pannosam) with age (veterem); yet he grudges scraping off the
clay (limum) with which they used to stop their vessels, in order to
pour a libation of his sour wine.
[1402] _Balanatum gausape._ The Balanus, or "Arabian Balsam," was
considered one of the most expensive perfumes. πρὸς τὰ πολυτελῆ μύρα
ἀντ' ἐλαίου ἔχρωντο. Dioscor., iv., 160. Cf. Hor., iii., Od. xxix., 4,
"Pressa tuis _balanus_ capillis Jamdudum apud me est." The gausape is
properly a thick shaggy kind of stuff. Hence Sen., Ep. 53, "Frigidæ
cultor mitto me in mare quomodo psychrolutam decet, gausapatus."
Lucil., xx., Fr. 9, "Purpureo tersit tunc latas gausape mensas." From
whom Horace copies, ii., Sat. viii., 10, "Puer alte cinctus acernam
gausape purpureo mensam pertersit." It is here used for "a very thick,
bushy beard."
[1403] _Cædimus._ A metaphor from gladiators, which is continued
through the next three lines. "While we are intent on wounding our
adversaries, we leave our own weak points unguarded;" i. e., while
satirizing others, we are quite forgetful of and blind to our own
defects. There is here also a covert allusion to Nero, who, though so
open to sarcasm, yet took upon him to satirize others. Cf. ad Juv.,
iv., 106, "Et tamen improbior satiram scribente cinædo."
[1404] _Non credam._ Sen., Ep. lix., 11, "Cito nobis placemus: si
invenimus qui nos bonos viros dicat, qui prudentes, qui sanctos,
agnoscimus. Nec sumus modicâ laudatione contenti: quidquid in nos
adulatio sine pudore congessit, tanquam debitum prendimus: optimos nos
esse sapientissimos affirmantibus assentimur."
[1405] _Puteal flagellas._ "This line," Casaubon says, "was purposely
intended to be obscure; that while all would apply it in one sense
to Nero, Persius, if accused, might maintain that he intended only
the other sense, which the words at first sight bear." Puteal is
put for the forum itself by synecdoche. It is properly the "puteal
Libonis," a place which L. Scribonius Libo caused to be inclosed
(perhaps cir. A.U.C. 604). It had been perhaps a bidental (cf. ad Sat.
ii., 27), or, as others say, the place where the razor of the augur
Nævius was deposited. Near it was the prætor's chair, and the benches
frequented by persons who had private suits, among whom the class of
usurers would be most conspicuous. (Hence Hor., i., Epist. xix., 8,
"Forum putealque Libonis Mandabo siccis." ii., Sat. vi., 35.) _Puteal
flagellare_, therefore, is taken in its primitive sense to mean, "to
frequent the forum for the purpose of enforcing rigorous payment from
those to whom you _have_ lent money; or the benches of the usurers, in
quest of persons to whom you _may_ lend it on exorbitant interest."
Cf. Ov., Remed., Am., 561, "Qui _puteal_ Janumque timet, celeresque
Kalendas." Cic., Sext., 8. In its secondary sense, it may apply to the
nightly atrocities of Nero, who used to frequent the forum, violently
assaulting those he met, and outrageously insulting females, not
unfrequently committing robberies and even murder; but having been
soundly beaten one night by a nobleman whose wife he had outraged, he
went ever after attended by gladiators, as a security for his personal
safety; who kept aloof until their services were required. Nero might
well, therefore, be called the "scourge of the Forum," and be said
to leave scars and wales behind him in the scenes of his enormities.
Juvenal (Sat. iii., 278, _seq._) alludes to the same practices. A
description of them at full length may be found in Tacitus (Ann.,
xiii., 26) and Suetonius (Vit. Neron., c. 26).
[1406] _Bibulas._ "Those ears which are as prone to drink in the
flattery of the mob as a sponge to imbibe water."
[1407] _Cerdo_, Put here for the lower orders generally, whose applause
Nero always especially courted. So Juv., iv., 153, "Sed periit postquam
cerdonibus esse timendus cœperat." viii., 182, "Et quæ turpia cerdoni
volesos Brutosque decebunt." "Give back the rabble their tribute of