The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
believe that any riches whatever could satisfy desire?
3 ... just as when the dealer has produced his first fresh figs,
and in the early season gives only a few for an exorbitant
price.[1669]
4 For one and the same pain and distress is.... by all--
5 ... if his body remained as strong.... as the sentiments of the
writer's heart continue true....
6 Say when force compels you to penetrate gradually through the
seams of the crannies, in the darkness of night.[1670]
7 Since you alone, in my great sorrow and distress, and in my
extremity of difficulty, proved yourself a haven of safety to
me--[1671]
8 He was, I think, the only one who watched over me; and when he
seemed to me to be doing that, he laid snares for me![1672]
9 ...
10 Still it is allowed that one of the ancients, an old man of the
same years, Tiresias, fell.
11 Look not to the rostrum and feet of the prætor elect.[1673]
12 Lælius says, that though poor, he discharges important
offices.[1674]
13 The onion-man, become blear-eyed by constantly eating acrid
tear-bringing onions.[1675]
14 The Endive besides, stretching out with feet like horses--[1676]
15 The tear-producing onion also, with its lacryimose shells in
due succession--[1677]
16 ... a pitcher and a long bowl with two handles--[1678]
17 Go on and prosper with your virtue, say I, and with these
verses.
18 Too genial Ceres fails; nor do the people set bread.
19 ... bade the flat-nosed herd (of Nereus) frolic.[1679]
20 when he determined to lead out the guard from the camp.[1680]
21 he was the elder: we can not do all things--[1681]
22 ... the guard of the fleet, catapultas, darts, spears.[1682]
23 ... whether you may be able to get off, or the day must be
further postponed.[1683]
24 ... meanwhile his breast is thick with bristles
25 ... and spreads legs beneath legs[1684]
26 ... porridge dressed with fat.[1685]
27 ... the basket with its treacherous heap.
28 ... dashed a wooden trencher on his head--[1686]
FOOTNOTES:
[1669] Read perhaps _primus_ for _primas_. "He who is the first
to bring his figs into the market," and therefore, as it were,
_forestalls_ others, which "propola" seems to imply.
[1670] _Rimarum._ Cf. Juv., iii., 97. Plaut., Cas., V., ii., 23.
[1671] The whole passage is corrupt. Gerlach's emendation is followed,
with the exception of reading _sanè_ for _sanus_.
_Creperus_ is equivalent to anceps, dubius. Cf. Lucr., v., 1296,
"creperi certamina belli." Pacuv., Dulorest, Fr. 19, "Non vetet animum
ægritudine in _re creperâ_ confici."
[1672] _Retia._ Cf. Propert., El. III., viii., 37, "qui nostro nexisti
retia lecto."
[1673] See argument.
[1674] Cf. book iv., Fr. 1-6. Cic., de Off., ii., 17.
[1675] _Cæparius_ implies "one very fond of onions," as well as the
dealer in that article.
[1676] Probably alluding to the wide-spreading fibres of the Intyba.
"Amaris intyba fibris." Virg., Georg., i., 120; iv., 20; where Martyn
explains it as Succory in the former passage, Endive in the latter.
[1677] _Tallæ_ are the several successive hulls or shells of the onion,
κρομμύου λέπυρον. Cf. Theoc., v., 95.
[1678] _Mixtarius._ Any vessel in which wine and water were mixed for
drinking. κρατήρ.
[1679] No doubt "dolphins" are meant; and with almost equal certainty
we may assert that Lucilius is parodying a line of Pacuvius quoted by
Quintilian (i., c. 5), "Nerei repandirostrum incurvicervicum pecus."
But the reading of the line is very doubtful. Corpet, after Balth.
Venator, reads, _nasi_ rostrique. D'Achaintre follows the old reading,
_jussit_. Gerlach reads nisi, but suggests _simum_ (but without quoting
Pliny, which would confirm his conjecture, vid. H. N., IX., viii., 7,
"dorsum repandum, rostrum _simum_"). Lucil., vii., Fr. 9, "Simat nares
delphinus ut olim." May not _nisi_, after all, be a corruption of
_Nerei_? Cf. Hor., Od., I., ii., 7. Virg., Georg., iv., 395, "_Lascivum
Nerei simum pecus_." Liv. Andron., Fr. 3, ed. Bothe, Lips., 1834.
Pacuv., Dulorest., Fr. 26.
[1680] For _cernere_ used for _decernere_, see Plaut., Cist., I., i.;
1. Varro, L. L., vi., 5. Cic, Leg., iii., 3. Catull., lxiv., 150.
Senec, Ep., lviii., 2. Virg., Æn., xii., 709. See Argument.
[1681] Cf. Virg., Ecl., viii., 63.
[1682] Read _Catapultas, tela_. The difference between the Catapulta
and the Ballista seems to have been, that the former was used for
shooting bolts or short spears, the latter for projecting large stones.
The _Sarissa_ was a very long spear. (Liv., ix., 19: xxxviii., 7.
Polyæn., Str., iv., 11.) It was the peculiar weapon of the Macedonians.
Ov., Met., xii., 466. Lucan, viii., 298: x., 47.
[1683] _Elabi_ is elegantly applied to those who, though really guilty,
get off by some artifice or by bribery. Cic, Act., i., Verr., 11. Ver.,
i., 34; ii., 58.
_Diem prodere._ Ter., And., II., i., 13, "Impetrabo ut aliquot saltem
nuptiis prodat dies." Liv., xxv., 13, "alia prodita dies."
[1684] Hor., i., Sat. ii., 126.
[1685] _Puls_ is a mixture of coarse meal and water seasoned with salt
and cheese, or with eggs and honey; the modern _polenta_ or macaroni.
Vid. Juv., vii., 185; xi., 58. Persius complains that the haymakers
were grown so luxurious as to spoil it by mixing thick unguents with
it: vi., 40. _Adipatus._ "Adipe conditus." Balbi Gloss. Cf. Juv., vi.,
631, "Livida materno fervent adipata veneno."
[1686] _Scutella_, dimin. of _Scutra_. Any broad flat vessel for
holding _puls_ or vegetables, probably often _square_, like our
trenchers. Hence the checked dresses in Juvenal are called "scutulata,"
ii., 97.
BOOK VI.
ARGUMENT.
Schoenbeck considers the subject of this book to have been an
attack upon the crafty and dishonest tricks of pleaders in the
forum. Gerlach sees in it little more than Lucilius' favorite
theme, the exposure of vile and sordid avarice. The miser's
anxious alarm for the safety of his money-bags (Hor., i., Sat.
i., 70, "Congestis undique saccis indormis inhians"), which he
can not bear out of his sight, and from which no earthly power
can tear him away (Fr. 1, 2), the miserable appliances of his
scanty furniture, and the absence of any thing approaching to
luxury, or even comfort, form the first portion of the Satire.
The remaining Fragments seem rather to apply to the manners of
the nobles. Their insolent disregard of the feelings of others
(Fr. 4), their unbridled licentiousness, their arrogance of look
and bearing, and haughty contempt of all union with plebeians,
are depicted in very bold language. Yet these same men are
described as condescending to the most servile and fulsome
flattery in courting the favor of these same plebeians, when
such condescension is necessary to advance their own ambitious
schemes. The extravagant gesture and overstrained language
of some bad orator is then described (Fr. 3), which Gerlach
considers to apply to one of these patricians when pleading
his own cause. Van Heusde refers to no one in particular, but
Corpet supposes there is an allusion to Caius Gracchus, who is
mentioned by Plutarch as having been "the first of the Romans who
used violent gesticulation in speaking, walking up and down the
rostrum, and pulling his toga from his shoulder." What connection
the Fragment in which Crassus and Mucius are mentioned has with
the main subject, as also the allusion in Fr. 5 to some immodest
female, is not known.
1 ... who has neither hackney nor slave, nor a single attendant.
His bag, and all the money that he has, he carries with him.
He sups with his bag, sleeps with it, bathes with it. The
man's whole hope centres in his bag alone. All the rest of his
existence is bound up in this bag![1687]
2 ... whom not even bulls bred in the Lucanian mountains, could
draw away with their sturdy necks, in one long pull.[1688]
3 ... this, I say, he will bray and bawl out from the Rostra,
running about like a courier, and loudly calling for help.[1689]
4 ... they think they can offend with impunity, and by their
nobility easily keep aloof those who are not their equals.[1690]
5
6 If he has spattered his garments with mud, at that he foolishly
sets up a loud and hearty laugh--
7
8 ... what you would wish him to do--
9 Lewdness fills their faces; impudence and prodigality--
10 if you know him, he is not a big man, but a big-nosed, lean
fellow--
11 That alone withstood adverse fortune and circumstances.
12
13 Three beds stretched on ropes, by Deucalion.[1691]
14 ... down and velvet, or any other luxury.[1692]
15 The hair-dresser sports round the impluvium, in a circle.[1693]
16 ... this he believes some one begg'd from your bath[1694]
17 ... he makes a good bargain, who sells a cross-bred horse.[1695]
18 ... they think one of their own should enter and pass
over.[1696]
19 ... they do not prevent your going farther--[1697]
20 ... to bid "All hail!" is to wish health to a friend.[1698]
21 Give round the drink, beginning from the top--[1699]
22 The Sardinian land
23 ... both the things we abound in, and those we lack.
FOOTNOTES:
[1687] _Bulgam_ (cf. ii., Fr. 16), from the Greek μολγός, "a hide or
skin" «cf. Arist., Frag. 157; Schol. ad Equit., 959», is a leathern
bag suspended from the arm or girdle, and seems to have answered the
purpose either of a traveling valise or purse. Compare the gypciére of
the middle ages. Hor., Ep., II., ii., 40. Juv., viii., 120; xiv., 297.
Suet., Vitell., xvi. It was a Tarentine word, as we learn from Pollux,
x., 187. From bulga comes the Spanish _bolsa_, the French _bourse_, and
our _purse_.
_Dormit._ Hor., i., Sat. i., 70. Virg., Geor., ii., 507, "Condit opes
alius, defossoque incubat auro."
[1688] _Protelo._ The ablative of the old protelum, which is
interpreted as "the continuous, unintermitting pull of oxen applied to
a dead weight." Nothing could more forcibly express the hopeless task
of attempting to detach the miser from his gains. Cf. xii., Fr. 2.
Plin., IX., xv., 17. Lucret., ii., 532; iv., 192.
[1689] _Concursans._ iv., Fr. 17.
_Ancarius._ The ἄγγαρος, "a mounted courier of the Persians," such
as were kept in readiness at regular stages for carrying the royal
dispatches. (Cf. Herod., viii., 98; iii., 126. Xen., Cyr., VIII.,
vi., 17. Æsch., Agam., 282. Marco Polo describes the same institution
as existing among the Mongol Tartars. Heeren, Ideen, i., p. 497. Cf.
Welcker's Æschyl., Trilog., p. 121.) The name was then applied to any
porter, or carrier of burdens, and hence specially to "an ass," which,
Forcellini says, is its meaning here. Hence _rudet_, cf. Pers., Sat.
iii., 9.
_Quiritare_, is to appeal to the citizens for help, by calling out
"Cursum," etc. Cic. ad Div., x., 32. It was the _city_ cry. Countrymen
were said "Jubilare." Varro, L. L., v. 7. Cf. Liv., xxxix., 8. Plin.,
Pan., xxix. Quinctil., iii., 8, "Rogatus sententiam, si modo est sanus,
non quiritet."
[1690] _Facul_, i. e., facilè. "Haud facul fœmina invenietur bona."
Pacuv. ap. Non., ii., 331. "Difficul" is used in the same manner.
[1691] Descriptive probably of the meanness and antiquity of the
miser's furniture. Grabatum, from the Macedonian word κράβατος, is used
for the coarsest kind of bed. Cf. Cic., Div., ii., 63. Mart., vi.,
Ep. xxxix., 4; xii., Ep. xxxii., 12, "Ibat tripes grabatus et tripes
mensa;" where Martial is describing a somewhat similarly luxurious