The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
me who my great-great-grandfather was! I could tell you certainly, but
not very readily. Go yet a step farther back, and one more; you will
find _he_ is a son of earth! and on this principle of genealogy Manius
turns out to be my great uncle. You, who are before me, why do you ask
of me the torch[1538] in the race? I am your Mercury! I come to you
as the god, in the guise in which he is painted. Do you reject the
offer? Will you not be content with what is left? But there is some
deficiency in the sum total! Well, I spent it on myself! But the whole
of what is left is yours, whatever it is. Attempt not to inquire what
is become of what Tadius once left me; nor din into my ears precepts
such as fathers give.[1539] "Get interest for your principal, and live
upon that."--What is the residue? "The residue!" Here, slave, at once
pour oil more bountifully over my cabbage. Am I to have a nettle, or a
smoky pig's cheek with a split ear, cooked for me on a festival day,
that that spendthrift grandson[1540] of yours may one day stuff himself
with goose-giblets, and when his froward humor urge him on, indulge in
a patrician mistress? Am I to live a threadbare skeleton,[1541] that
his fat paunch[1542] may sway from side to side?
Barter your soul for gain. Traffic; and with keen craft sift every
quarter of the globe. Let none exceed you in the art of puffing
off[1543] your sleek Cappadocian slaves, on their close-confining
platform.[1544] Double[1545] your property. "I have done so"--already
it returns three-fold, four-fold, ten-fold to my scrip. Mark where I am
to stop. Could I do so, he were found, Chrysippus,[1546] that could put
the finish to thy heap!
FOOTNOTES:
[1511] _Bruma._ The learned Romans, who divided their time between
business and study, used to begin their lucubrations about the time of
the Vulcanalia, which were held on the 23d of August (x. Kal. Sept.),
and for this purpose usually returned from Rome to their country
houses. Pliny, describing the studious habits of his uncle, says
(iii., Ep. 5), "Sed erat acre ingenium, incredibile studium, summa
vigilantia. Lucubrare a Vulcanalibus incipiebat, non auspicandi causâ
sed studendi, statim a nocte." So Horace, i., Ep. vii., 10, "Quod si
_bruma_ nives Albanis illinet agris, Ad mare descendet vates tuus et
sibi parcet Contractusque leget." He gives the reason, ii., Ep. ii.,
77, "Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus et fugit urbem." Cf. Juv.,
vii., 58. Plin., i., Ep. 9.
[1512] _Basse._ Cæsius Bassus, a lyric poet, said to have approached
most nearly to Horace. Cf. Quint., Inst., X., i., 96. Prop., I., iv.,
1. He was destroyed with his country house by the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius, in which Pliny the elder perished. Vid. Plin., vi., Ep. 16.
[1513] _Vivunt_, Casaubon explains by the Greek ἐνεργεῖν "to be in
active operation."
[1514] _Tetrico_ is spelt in some editions with a capital letter.
The sense is the same, as the rough, hardy, masculine virtues of the
ancient Romans were attributed to Sabine training and institutions.
Tetricus, or Tetrica, was a hill in the Sabine district. Virg., Æen.,
vii., 712, "Qui Tetricæ horrentis rupes, montemque severum Casperiamque
colunt." Liv., i., 18, "Suopte igitur ingenio temperatum animum
virtutibus fuisse opinor magis; instructumque non tam peregrinis
artibus quam disciplina _tetricâ_ ac tristi veterum Sabinorum: quo
genere nullum quondam incorruptius fuit." Ov., Am., III., viii., 61,
"Exæquet _tetricas_ licet illa Sabinas." Hor., iii., Od. vi., 38. Cic.
pro Ligar., xi.
[1515] _Vocum._ Another reading is "rerum," which Casaubon adopts, and
supposes Bassus to have been the author of a Theogony or Cosmogony. He
is said, on the authority of Terentianus Maurus and Priscian, to have
written a book on Metres, dedicated to Nero. Those who read "vocum,"
suppose that Persius meant to imply that he successfully transferred to
his Odes the nervous words of the older dialects of his country.
[1516] _Ligus ora._ Fulvia Sisennia, the mother of Persius, is said to
have been married, after her husband's death, to a native of Liguria,
or of Luna. It was to her house that Persius retired in the winter.
[1517] _Lunai portum._ A line from the beginning of the Annals of
Ennius. The town of Luna, now Luni, is in Etruria, but only separated
by the river Macra (now Magra) from Liguria. The Lunai Portus, now
Golfo di Spezzia, is in Liguria, and was the harbor from which the
Romans usually took shipping for Corsica and Sardinia. Ennius therefore
must have known it well, from often sailing thence with the elder Cato.
[1518] _Cor Ennii._ "Cor" is frequently used for sense. It is here a
periphrasis for "Ennius in his senses." Quintus Ennius was born B.C.
239, at Rudiæ, now Rugge, in Calabria, near Brundusium, and was brought
to Rome from Sardinia by Cato when quæstor there B.C. 204. He lived in
a very humble way on Mount Aventine, and died B.C. 169, of gout (morbus
articularis), and was buried in Scipio's tomb on the Via Appia. He
held the Pythagorean doctrine of Metempsychosis, and says himself, in
the beginning of his Annals, that Homer appeared to him in a dream,
and told him that he had once been a peacock, and that his soul was
transferred to him. The fragment describing this is extant. "Transnavit
cita per teneras Caliginis auras (anima Homeri) visus Homerus adesse
poeta. Tum memini fieri me pavum." «Cf. Hor., ii., Ep. i., 50.
"Ennius et sapiens et fortis et _alter Homerus_, Ut critici dicunt,
leviter curare videtur Quo promissa cadant et somnia Pythagorea."
Tertull., de An., 24, "Pavum se meminit Homerus, Ennio Somniante."»
The interpretation in the text seems the most reasonable. Others take
_quintus_ as a numeral adjective, and explain the meaning to be, that
the soul of a peacock transmigrated first into Euphorbus, then into
Homer, then into Pythagoras, and then into Ennius, who was consequently
fifth from the peacock.
[1519] _Auster_, the Sirocco of the modern Italians, was reckoned
peculiarly unwholesome to cattle. Cf. Virg., Georg., i., 443, "Urget
ab alto Arboribusque satisque Notus pecorique sinister." 462, "Quid
cogitet humidus Auster." Ecl., ii., 58. Tibul., I., i., 41. Hor.,
ii., Sat. vi., 18, "Nec mala me ambitio perdit nec plumbeus Auster,
Auctumnusque gravis, Libitinæ quæstus acerbæ." ii., Od. xiv., 15. Some
derive the name from "Ardeo," others from αὐὼ, "to parch or burn up:"
so Austerus, from αὐστηρός.
[1520] _Angulus._ Hor., ii., Sat. vi., 8, "Oh! si angulus ille proximus
accedat qui nunc denormat agellum."
[1521] _Senio._ "The premature old age brought on by pining at
another's welfare." So Plautus, "Præ mærore adeo miser æquè ægritudine
consenui." Cf. Capt., I., ii., 20. Truc., ii., 5, 13.
[1522] _Naso tetigisse._ "I will not become such a miser as to seal
up vapid wine, and then closely examine the seal when it is again
produced, to see whether it is untouched." Cf. Theophr. π. αἰσχροκερδ.
So Cicero says, "Lagenas etiam inanes obsignare." Fam., xiv., 26.
[1523] _Horoscope._ Properly, "the star that is in the ascendant at the
moment of a person's birth, from which the nativity is calculated."
Persius has just ridiculed the Pythagoreans, he now laughs at the
Astrologers. Whatever they may say, twins born under exactly the same
horoscope, have widely different characters and pursuits. "Castor
gaudet equis--ovo prognatus eodem Pugnis." Hor., ii., Sat. i., 26. Cf.
Diog. Laert., II., i., 3.
[1524] _Muria._ Either a brine made of salt and water, or a kind of
fishsauce made of the liquor of the thunny. Every word is a picture.
"He buys his sauce _in a cup_; instead of _pouring_ it over his
salad, he _dips_ the salad in it, and then scarcely moistens it: he
will not trust his servant to season it, so he does it himself; but
only sprinkles the pepper like _dew_, not in a good shower, and as
sparingly as if it were some _holy_ thing." Cf. Theophr., π. μικρολογ,
καὶ ἀπαγορεῦσαι τῇ γυναικὶ, μήτε ἅλας χρωννύειν μήτε ἐλλύχνιον, μήτε
κύμινον, μήτε ὀρίγανον, μήτε οὐλὰς, μήτε στεμματα, μήτε θυηλήματα·
ἀλλὰ λέγειν, ὅτι τὰ μικρὰ ταῦτα πολλά ἐστι τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ. Hor., i.,
Sat. i., 71, "Tanquam parcere _sacris_ cogeris." ii., Sat. iii., 110,
"Metuensque velut contingere sacrum."
[1525] _Turdarum._ So the best MSS. and the Scholiasts read, and
Casaubon follows. Varro, L. L., viii., 38, says the _feminine_ form is
not Latin. The "turdus" (Greek κίχλη), probably like our "field-fare,"
was esteemed the greatest delicacy by the Greeks and Romans. In the
Nubes of Aristophanes, the λόγος δίκαιος says, "In former days young
men were not allowed οὐδ' ὀψοφαγεῖν, οὐδὲ κιχλίζειν." (Ubi vid. Schol.;
but cf. Theoc., Id., xi., 78, cum Schol.) To be able to distinguish the
sex of so small a bird by the flavor would be the acme of Epicurism.
Hor., i., Ep. xv., 41, "Cum sit obeso nil melius turdo." Mart., xiii.,
Ep. 92, "Inter aves turdus, si quis me judice certet, Inter quadrupedes
mattya prima lepus." Cf. Athen., ii., 68, D.
[1526] _Prendit amicus._ From Hom., Od., v., 425, τόφρα δέ μιν μέγα
κῦμα φέρε τρηχεῖαν ἐπ' ἀκτήν· ἔνθα κ' ἀπὸ ῥινοὺς δρύφθη, σὺν δ' ὀστέ'
ἀράχθη, and 435. Virg., Æn., vi., 360. Cf. Palimirus," Prensantemque
uncis manibus capita ardua montis."
[1527] _Ingentes de puppe dei._ The tutelary gods were placed at the
stern as well as the stem of the ship. Cf. Æsch., S. Theb., 208. Virg.,
Æn., x., 170, "Aurato fulgebat Apolline puppis." Ov., Trist., I., x.,
l. Hor., i., Od. xiv., 10. Acts, xxviii., 11. Catull., I., iv., 36.
Eurip., Hel., 1664.
[1528] _Mergis._ Cf. Hom., Od., v., 337. The Mergus (αἴθυια of the
Greeks) is put for any large sea-bird. Hor., Epod. x., 21, "Opima
quodsi præda curvo litore porrecta mergos juveris."
[1529] _Pictus oberret._ Cf. ad Juv., xiv., 302, "Pictâ se tempestate
tuetur." xii., 27.
[1530] _Sed._ "But perhaps you will object," etc. He now ridicules
the folly of those who deny themselves all the luxuries and even the
necessaries of life, in order to leave behind a splendid inheritance to
their heirs. "Quum sit manifesta phrenesis Ut locuples moriaris egenti
vivere fato." Juv., xiv., 186. Cf. Hor., ii., Ep. ii., 191, "Utar,
et ex modico quantum res poscet acervo Tollam, nec metuam quid de me
judicet hæres Quod non plura datis invenerit." i., Ep. v., 13, "Parcus
ob hæredis curam, nimiumque severus assidet insano." ii., Od. xiv., 25.
[1531] _Bestius_, from Hor., i., Ep. xv., 37, "Diceret urendos
corrector Bestius." Probably both Horace and Persius borrowed from
Lucilius. Weichert, P. L., p. 420.
[1532] _Maris expers._ Hor., ii., Sat. viii., 15, "Chium maris
expers," which is generally interpreted to mean that Nasidienus set
before his guests wine which he called Chian, but which in reality had
never crossed the seas, being made at home. It may be put therefore
for any thing "adulterated, not genuine." Another interpretation
is, "effeminate, emasculate, void of manly vigor and energy," from
the supposed enervating effect of Greek philosophy on the masculine
character of the Romans of other days. A third explanation is, "that
which has experienced the sea," from the _active_ sense of expers, and
therefore is simply equivalent to "foreign, or imported." Casaubon
seems to incline to the latter view.
[1533] _Sapere._ So "Scire tuum," i., 27 and 9, "Nostrum illud vivere
triste." In the indiscriminate hatred of all that was Greek, philosophy
and literature were often included.
[1534] _Laurus._ After a victory, the Roman soldiers saluted their
general as Imperator. His lictors then wreathed their fasces, and his
soldiers their spears, with bays, and then he sent letters wreathed
with bays (literæ laureatæ) to the senate, and demanded a triumph. If
the senate approved, they decreed a thanksgiving (supplicatio) to the