The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
2 The cook cares not that the tail be very large, provided it be
fat. So friends look to a man's mind; parasites, to his riches.
3 He acts in the same way as those who secretly convey away from
the harbor an article not entered, that they may not have to
pay custom-dues.[1872]
4 Lucilius greets the people in such elaborate verses as he can;
and all this too zealously and assiduously.[1873]
5 ... do you think Lucilius will be content, when I have wearied
myself out, and used all my best endeavors....
6 ... for such a return as this indeed they foreboded, and to
offend in no other thing.
7 ... those, too, who have approached the door they throw out of
the windows on their head--
8 ... that I envy no one, nor often cast a jealous eye on their
luxuries[1874]
9 ... he on the other hand ... all things imperceptibly and
gradually ... out of doors, that he might hurt no one
10 nor, like the Greeks, at whatever question you ask, do we
inquire, where are the Socratic writings?[1875]
11 This is little better than moderate; this, as being as bad as
possible, is less so.
12 Let your order, therefore, now bring forward the crimes he has
committed....
13 ... rather than an indifferent harvest, and a poor vintage
14 ... but if you will watch and carefully observe these for a
little time.
15 ... but whatever may happen, or not, I bear patiently and
courageously.
16 But if you watch the man who rejoices....
17 What dutiful affection? Five mere shadows of men call....[1876]
18 When I beg for peace, when I soothe her, accost her, and call
her "my own!"
19 Yet elsewhere a wart or a scar, a mole or pimples, differ.[1877]
20 ... to which he has once made up his mind, and as he thinks
altogether....
21 ... when my little slaves, come to me ... should not I salute
my mistress--
22 ... they call mad, whom they see called a sap or a woman.[1878]
23 ... nor if I ... usury a little less; and helped a long time.
24 ... now up, now down, like a mountebank's neck.[1879]
25 ... his country's adviser, and hereditary legislator--
26 What they lend one another, is safe without fear of loss
27 ... if face surpass face, and figure figure--
28 let them rather spare him, whom they can, and in whom they
think credit can be placed.[1880]
29 ... since I know that nothing in life is given to man as his
own.
30 We were nimble ... thinking that would be ours forever.[1881]
31 Yet if this has not come back to you, you will lack this
advantage.
32 I fear it can not be; and I differ from Archilochus.[1882]
33 ... than that he should not alone swallow up and squander all.
34
35 ... especially, if, as I hope, you lend me this....[1883]
36 ... first, with what courage he prevented slavery....
37
38 ... but you fear, moreover, lest you should be captivated by
the sight, and her beauty....
39 ... in prosperity to be elated, in adversity to be depressed....
40 ... I will send one to plunder the property; I will look out
for a wretched beggar....
41 ... for even from boyhood ... to extricate myself from love....
42 ... whether you maintain at home twenty or thirty or a hundred
bread-wasters.[1884]
43 I would have you, as is fair, place faith in hymns.[1885]
44 ... bids you God speed, and salutes you most heartily and
warmly.[1886]
FOOTNOTES:
[1871] _Propitius_ is sometimes applied to human beings as well as
to deities. Cf. Ter., Adelph., I., i., 6, "Uxor quæ in animo cogitat
irata, quam illa quæ parentes propitii." Cic., Att., viii., 16, "hunc
propitium sperant, illum iratum putant." The last line is very corrupt.
Gerlach proposes to read "soliditas propositi," which is scarcely
tenable.
[1872] _Inscriptum_, any thing contraband, not entered or marked at the
custom-house, portitorium. Varr., R. R., II., i., 16.
[1873] Gerlach reads _factis_ instead of _fictis_, which Nonius must
have followed. Cf. Hor., i., Sat. x., 58, "Num rerum dura negarit
Versiculos natura magis _factos_ et euntes mollius." Cic., de
Orat., iii., 48, "Oratio polita et facta quodammodo." So in Greek,
κατειργασμένος· πεποιημένος. Longin., viii.
[1874] _Strabo._ Cf. Hor., i., Epist. xiv., 37, "Non istic _obliquo
oculo_ mea commoda quisquam limat." To this Varro opposes "integris
oculis."
[1875] Cf. Hor., A. P., 310, "Rem tibi Socraticæ poterunt ostendere
chartæ."
[1876] _Monogrammi._ Cf. lib. ii., Fr. 17.
[1877] _Papulæ._ Cf. Sen., Vit. Beat., 27, "Papulas observatis alienas,
obsiti plurimis ulceribus." Virg., Georg., iii., 564.
[1878] _Maltha_ is properly a thick unctuous excretion; fossil tar or
petroleum; thence used, like our English "sap," for an effeminate fool:
perhaps from the Greek μαλακός.
[1879] _Cernuus._ Cf. iii., Fr. 20. Properly "one who falls on his
face;" then applied to a mountebank or tumbler, throwing somersaults;
a πεταυριστὴς· κυβιστητήρ. Cf. "jactata petauro corpora," Juv., xiv.,
265, with the note. Lucil., Fr. inc. 40. _Collus_ is the older form of
_collum_.
[1880] Very corrupt: the reading followed is adopted by Dusa and
Gerlach.
[1881] _Pernicis._ Cf. Hor., Epod. ii., 42, "Pernicis uxor Appuli."
[1882] _Excidere_ Nonius explains by _dissentire_.
[1883] Cf. Plaut., Curc., I., i., 47, "Ego cum illâ facere nolo mutuum."
[1884] _Cibicidas_, i. e., "slaves," a humorous word, "consumers of
food."
[1885] Cf. ad xxviii., 44.
[1886] _Sospitat_, a religious phrase, properly "to preserve, protect."
Plaut., Amph., III., viii., 501, Hild., "Dii plus plusque istuc
sospitent." So Ennius, "regnum sospitent superstitentque." _Impertit._
Cf. Cic., Att., ii., 12, "Terentia impertit tibi multam salutem."
BOOK XXVIII.
ARGUMENT.
Van Heusde considers that this book contained some severe
strictures on the part of a morose old man, or stern uncle,
on the over-indulgence of a fond and foolish father. Yet a
considerable portion of the Satire seems to contain a defense
of the poet himself against the assaults of some invidious
maligners, and in order to do this, he enters, generally,
into a discussion of the habits and manners of young men of
the age. Their licentiousness, he is prepared to admit, has
been in great measure produced by the want of restraint in
early youth. This petulance develops itself in an uncontrolled
license of speech, regardless of all annoyance to the feelings
of others--in avarice--in haughtiness, the peculiar vice of
men of rank--ambition, luxury, and love of sensual pleasure.
These charges he illustrates by a passage quoted from Cæcilius.
Even those who do show some taste for better things, and apply
themselves to the cultivation of philosophy, do not, like
Polemon, adopt the severe maxims of a self-denying system, but
attach themselves to the school of Epicurus or Aristippus. To
such as these, all good advice, all endeavors to reclaim them to
the rugged paths of a stricter morality, are utterly hopeless and
unavailing.
1 Let him grant the man what he wishes; cajole him, corrupt him
altogether, and enfeeble all his nerves.[1887]
2 You can shorten your speech, while your hide is still
sound.[1888]
3 He both loved Polemo, and bequeathed his "school" to him after
his death; as they call it.[1889]
4 ... wherefore I am resolved to act against him; to prosecute
him, and give up his name....
5 ... she will steal every thing with bird-limed hands; will take
every thing, believe me, and violently sweep off all--[1890]
6 ... that ancient race, of which is Maximus Quintus, the
knock-kneed, the splay-footed....[1891]
7 ... what they say Aristippus the Socratic sent of old to the
tyrant....[1892]
8 ... to concede that one point, and yield in that in which he is
overcome....[1893]
9 ... or if by chance needs be, elsewhere; if you depart hence
for any place--
10 ... though the old woman returns to her wine-pot.[1894]
11 ... to threaten openly to name the day for his trial.
12 ... unhonored, unlamented, unburied--[1895]
13 ... substitute others, if you think whom you can.
14 ... lest he do this, and you escape from this sorrow.
15 ... what will become of me? since you do not wish to associate
with the bad.[1896]
16 ... he never bestirs himself, nor acts so as to bring ruin on
himself.
17 Here then was the meeting: arms and an ambuscade were
placed.[1897]
18 I made away with a large quantity of fish and fatlings; that I
deny....[1898]
19 ... add, moreover, a grave and stern philosopher.
20 ... rap at the door, Gnatho: keep it up! they stand firm! We
are undone!
21 Come, come, you thieves; prate away your lies![1899]
22 But flight is prepared; greatly excited, he steps with timid
foot.[1900]
23 Why do you thus use engines throwing stones of a hundred
pounds' weight?[1901]
24 ... in the first place, gold is superabundant, and the
treasures are open--
25 ... persuade ... and pass: or tell me why you should pass.
26 † he besides orders our ... who are entering....[1902]
27 ... to your own mischief, you destroyers of hinges[1903]
28 If Lucilius has provoked him in his love.
29 Whether you have kept aloof from your husband, a year, or this
year--
30 besides this, some extra work, whenever you please[1904]
31 to whom I intrusted implicitly my life and fortunes.[1905]
32 ... on whom I have often inflicted a thousand stripes a day
33 ... that he is a capital botcher: sews up patchwork
excellently.[1906]
34 ... by such great power they will elate their minds to
heaven[1907]
35 But what are you doing? tell me that I may know--
36 ... Youth must provide now against old age.
37 As though you had dropsy in your mind.
38 ... as to face and stature....[1908]
39 ... and what is filthy in look and smell--
40 ... to forge supports of gold and brass--[1909]
41 Nor challenges at any price--
42 Go in, and be of good cheer.
43 Care nothing about teaching letters to a clod.[1910]
44 I have made up my mind, Hymnis, that you are taking from a
madman[1911]
45 You know the whole affair. I am afraid I shall be blamed
46 Chremes had gone to the middle. Demænetus to the top.
47 Here you will find firm flesh, and the breasts standing forth
from a chest like marble--[1912]
48 I will surpass the forms and atoms of Epicurus--
49 † Now you come toward us....[1913]
50 ... I come to the pimp ... that he intends to buy her outright
for three thousand sesterces.[1914]
FOOTNOTES:
[1887] Nonius explains _eligere_ by _defatigare_. It is used by Varro
and Columella in the sense of "plucking up, weeding out," eridicare;
and metaphorically by Cicero in the same sense. (Tusc., iii., 34.)
Gerlach maintains that _nervos eligere_ is not Latin, and reads _nervos
elidat_ «which is confirmed by a passage in the same treatise of
Cicero, "Nervos omnes virtutis elidunt." Tusc., ii., 11».
[1888] _Compendi facere._ Plaut., Most., I., i., 57, "Orationis operam
compendiface." Pseud., IV., vii., 44, "Quisquis es adolescens operam
fac compendi quærere." Asin., II., ii., 41, "Verbivelitationem fieri
compendi volo." Capt., V., ii., 12. Bacch., I., ii, 51; II., ii., 6.
_Terginum_ is a scourge made of hide (the "cowskin" of the Americans).