The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
state, _Rumex_. It was used at banquets, on account of its purgative
qualities, together with the Coan wines, which possessed the same
properties. Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iv., 27. Pers., Sat. v., 135. _Gumia_
is a "glutton, epicure, belly-god." (Lurco, comedo, helluo, gulæ
mancipium.) The etymology is uncertain. Merula reads in all places
_gluvia_, whence _ingluvies_.
[1657] There are two fish known by the name of _squilla_; the one
apparently a small fish (perhaps a _river_ fish, as Martial mentions
their abounding in the Liris: lib. xiii., Ep. 83), used as a sauce or
garnish for larger fish. Vid. Hor., ii., Sat. viii., 42, "Affertur
_squillas_ inter muræna natantes," which Orell. explains as a conger
served up with crabs. The other is a large fish forming a dish of
itself. Cf. Juv., v., 80, "Quam _longo_ distendat _pectore_ lancem
quæ fertur domino _squilla_," etc. If it is represented by the Greek
κᾶρις, it is something of the lobster or prawn kind. It appears to have
been dressed sometimes with sorrel sauce. Cf. Athen., iii., 92, 66.
The _acipenser_ is probably _not_ the sturgeon: from its etymology it
is some sharp-headed fish. (Acies et penna, or pinna.) Salmas., Ex.
Plin., 1316: but what it _really was_ is not known. It was a _royal_
fish, like the sturgeon (Mart., xiii., Ep. 91), and when brought to
table was ushered in with great solemnities: the servant who bore it
had a chaplet round his head, and was preceded by another playing the
flute. Publius Gallonius, the præco, is said to have been the first
who introduced this luxury. Macrob., Sat. ii., 12. In Pliny's time,
however, he tells us, it had gone out of fashion. H. N., ix., 26.
_Decumanus_ is used here in the same sense as "Fluctus decumanus," i.
e., of extraordinary size (Ov., Trist., I., ii., 49), the Pythagorean
notion being that the tenth was always the largest; which notion they
extended even to eggs. (Compare the Greek τρικυμία, Æsch., P. V., 1015,
with Blomfield's gloss.)
[1658] This, according to Gerlach's view, is the answer of Lælius
to some petulant questionings of an epicure. The missing words are
_utimur_ and _cibo_, or something to that effect.
[1659] _Sumen_ was "the sow's udder, killed the day after farrowing."
Cf. ad Juv., xi., 138, 81. Pers., i., 53.
_Altilis_ is put for any thing fattened up--oxen, hares, geese, ducks,
hens, or even fish. Cf. Hor., i., Ep. vii., 35, "Satur altilium."
Juv., v., 168, "Minor altilis." Athen., ix., c. 32. Woodcocks, snipes,
thrushes, and even dormice, are mentioned among their fatlings.
_Catillo_ (either from _catullus_ or _catillus_, diminutive of catinus,
"a dish") is applied to "a dog that runs about licking the dishes."
It is then used as a term of contempt for "those who came late to the
sacrifices of Hercules, and had nothing left them but the dishes to
lick." It is here used for "the pike that battens on the rich products
of the Roman cloacæ." (Macrob., Sat. ii., 12.) The Roman epicures
distinguished between three different kinds of the Tiber pike (lupus
Tiberinus). The worst were those caught quite out at sea; the second
best, those caught at Ostia at the river's mouth; the finest of all
were those taken in the neighborhood of the embouchures of the sewers,
either between the Pons Senatorius and Pons Sublicius, where the cloaca
maxima empties itself, or between the Pons Sublicius and Fabricius.
Hor., ii., Sat. ii, 31, "_Lupus_ hic _Tiberinus_ an alto captus hiet,
_pontesne inter_ jactatus an amnis Ostia sub Tusci." Juv., v., 104,
"Tiberinus, et ipse vernula riparum pinguis torrente cloacâ."
[1660] Lucilius probably refers to some rich, strong, full-bodied wine,
which these epicures drank unmixed, contrary to the usual custom.
_Defusum_ seems to be the better reading, which implies "pouring from
a larger vessel, as the crater, into the cyathus or drinking-cup."
_Diffusum_ is applied "to racking the wine from the wine-vat or cask
into the amphora," when it was sealed down. Cf. Hor., i., Ep. v., 4,
Orell. Juv., v., 30. For the use of _snow_ in cooling wine, see note
to Juv., v., 50. This wine has lost none of its strength by mixing it
with snow, and none of its flavor from having been filtered through the
strainer. (Cf. Plin., H. N., xiv., 27. Hor., ii., Sat. iv., 51, _seq._)
A great difficulty with the ancients seems to have been to clear their
wine of the lees; some of the methods are mentioned in the passage of
Horace just quoted. Eggs were also used for the same purpose. Besides
this, the wine was poured through a _colum_ and _saccus vinarius_. The
former was a kind of metal sieve, of which numbers have been found at
Pompeii. The latter was a filter-bag of linen. (Hence "integrum perdunt
lino vitiata saporem." Hor., _u. s._) The usual plan was to fill both
the colum and saccus with snow, and then to pour the wine over it;
and with this view the snow was carefully preserved till summer, as
is still done at Naples. (Hence "æstivæ nives." Mart., v., Ep. lxiv.,
2.) Nero's invention of using water that had been boiled and afterward
frozen, as a substitute for snow, has been already alluded to. This
process also served to moderate the intoxicating power of the stronger
wines; hence the phrases "castrare, frangere, liquare, vina." (Cf.
Plin., H. N., xix., 4,19; xiv., 22; xxiv., 1, 1. Mart., xii., Ep. lx.,
9, "Turbida sollicito transmittere Cæcuba sacco." xiv., Ep. ciii. and
civ.; ix., Ep. xxiii, 8; xci., 5.)
[1661] The magistrate who exhibited the shows of gladiators was said
_edere munus_. The first _editores_ were the brothers Marcus and
Decimus Junius Brutus, A.U.C. 490, B.C. 264, who exhibited a munus
gladiatorium in the Forum Boarium, at their father's funeral. Val.
Max., II., iv., 7, Liv. Epit., xvi. The country of Samnium afterward
produced many of these gladiators, though probably the name Samnis was
also given to those who were armed after the old Samnite fashion (as
Threx, Gallus, etc. Hor., i., Ep. xviii., 36; ii., Ep. ii., 98. Livy
describes their equipment in detail, ix., 40, which tallies exactly
with the paintings discovered at Pompeii. Vid. Pompeii, vol. i., p.
308, _seq._). Æsernia, now Isernia, was a town in the district of the
Pentri in Samnium, to which the Romans sent a colony in the year above
mentioned. Æsernius was probably some famous gladiator who was a native
of this place, but his name and that of Pacideianus were afterward used
proverbially for any eminent men of that class. Cf. Cic., opt. gen.,
Or. vi. Tusc., iv., 21, ad Quint. Frat., iii., 4. Hor., ii., Sat. vii.,
97. Nonius explains "spurcus" to mean "savage, blood-thirsty."
[1662] The reading and interpretation of Gerlach is followed.
[1663] Cicero (de Orat., iii., 23) quotes these lines of Lucilius, when
speaking of a certain Velocius, who, when a youth, had applied himself
with great success to the gladiatorial art, so as in fact to be a match
for any one, but afterward never practiced it. The relative claims of
the readings _civis_ and _cuivis_ are discussed at great length in
Harles' note to the passage of Cicero (q. v., ed. Lips., 1816). The
_rudis_ was the wooden sword with which the gladiators practiced; the
_sica_ being used in the _ludus_. They also received a rudis as a token
of their release from service. Hence "rudem poscere," "rude donatus,"
etc. Ov., Am., II., ix., 22. Cic., Phil., ii., 29. Hor., i., Ep. i., 2.
Suet., Cal., 32.
[1664] "Even though women may not have sufficient bodily strength to
endure the rougher and more laborious duties of human life, still they
may so far take care of their bodies as to be enabled to discharge the
womanly office of suckling children." Gerlach: who reads _succosa_ for
_succussa_, and explains _uberior_ by "largior, digitis non contractis,
vola manus," "the open palm." Cf. lib. xxviii., Fr. 47.
[1665] An utterly hopeless Fragment: for the second word, _titene_,
there are eleven various readings. Gerlach's emendation is followed,
who thinks it refers to the torments of love.
[1666] This Fragment also Gerlach considers descriptive of the
impetuosity of unbridled lust. Van Heusde sees an allusion to the
episode of the hawk and the nightingale in Hesiod. Op. et Di., 201,
_seq._
[1667] _Pessulus_ was the peg or bolt by which the fastening of the
door was secured on the inside. It probably refers to a lover effecting
a forcible entrance into his mistress's house. Cf. Hor., i., Od. xxv.,
1; iii., Od. xxvi., 7, where Horace enumerates _vectes_ among the
weapons of a lover's warfare. Cf. Lucil., xxix., Fr. 47, "Vecte atque
ancipiti ferre effringam cardines."
[1668] Cf. Cels., ii., 15.
BOOK V.
ARGUMENT.
The person to whom this book is addressed, is supposed by Scaliger
to have been a professor of the art of rhetoric. Lucilius
complains that this friend, though he knew he had been ill,
had never come to see him; and at the same time he ridicules
the affected and pedantic style of language then in vogue in
the schools of the rhetoricians. He then glances slightly at
the fickleness and inconstancy of his friend's attachment,
contrasting the present state of his feelings with his stanch
friendship in former days; at the same time assuring him that his
own heart remains unchanged. He admits, however, that there is
some ground for excuse for this disappointment of his hopes, as
even the good Tiresias of yore was occasionally found tripping.
(Fr. 10.) The causes which lead to breach of friendship are then
discussed, the chief of which is avarice, that lust of gold, that
nothing can satiate; while, meantime the people are lacking the
common necessaries of life. With avarice, ambition springs up; as
sure a divider of faithful hearts as avarice itself. Yet Lælius,
that true-hearted and single-minded man, could hold the highest
offices of state without losing his integrity of heart, or
sacrificing the simplicity of his rugged virtues. This treachery,
however, is gradual in its growth. (Fr. 3.) At first a large
bribe alone has power to sever the bonds of friendship; yet
soon they give way before the most paltry inducement. Yet such
is the infatuation and gross folly of men, that they even aim at
deceiving the gods themselves by an affectation of piety. With
this depraved state of morals he contrasts the frugal simplicity
of ancient days, describing by the way the plain and homely
elements that composed their forefathers' rustic meal. There
is supposed to be an allusion in this book to one Q. Metellus
Caprarius; a man who proved the worthlessness of his character,
both during his administration as prætor, and afterward when
serving in the camp before Numantia. (Fr. 11, 23, 20, 21, 22,
Gerl.) Horace had perhaps part of this Satire in view, when he
wrote his first Satire of the first book; especially where he
mentions avarice as one of the causes which make men discontented
with their lot in life. Very similar sentiments to those
expressed in this book may be found in Sallust also. (Bell. Cat.,
c. xii., init.)
1 Though you do not inquire how I find myself, I shall
nevertheless let you know. Since you have remained in that
class in which the greatest portion of mankind is now, that
you wish that man to perish whom you _would_ not come to see,
though you _should_ have done so. If you do not like this
"would" and "should," because it is inartificial, Isocratean,
and altogether turgid, and at the same time thoroughly
childish, I will not waste my labor. If you....
2 For if what is _really_ enough for man could have satisfied
him, this had been enough. Now since this is not so, how can we