The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius
[1972] _Summatim._ Cic, Att., v., 16. Suet., Tib., 61, "Commentario
quem summatim breviterque composuit."
[1973] _Calvus_, probably either L. Cæcilius Metellus Calvus, consul
with Q. Fabius Maximus Servilianus, B.C. 142, or his son L. Cæcilius
Metellus Calvus Dalmaticus, consul with L. Aurelius Cotta, B.C. 119,
who repaired out of his spoils the temple of Castor and Pollux. From
the form of the word _Palatina_, Dusa and Gerlach suppose it to imply
the name of a tribe; though Gerlach says we have no evidence of the
existence of a tribe called from the hill «but cf. Cic., Verr., II.,
ii., 43». Cf. ad Pers., v., 73, "Publius Velina."
[1974] _Hilum_ is the primitive from which nihilum is formed (i. e.,
ne-hilum). Cf. Poet. ap. Cic., Tusc., I., vi., "Sisyphus versat saxum
sudans nitendo neque proficit hilum." Lucret., iii., 221, "nec defit
ponderis hilum."
[1975] _Nænum_, probably "ne unum," written also _nenum_, _nena_ the
Archaic form of Non. Cf. Varro, Epist. ad Fusium, ap. Non. "Si hodie
nænum venis, cras quidem." Lucret., iii., 20, "Nenu potest."
[1976] _Pallor_, "negligentia, vetustas." Non.
[1977] _Plautus_, an Umbrian word implying "flat-footed." From this
peculiarity the poet derived his name, "Plotos appellant Umbri pedibus
planis natos." Fest. The end of the line is hopeless. Turnebe reads
"mens elephanti," and says it refers to "the horrors of matrimony, and
the bodily defects of wives." Gerlach reads "mensa Libonis," and says,
"Lucilius compares women to the tables of the money-changers." Cf.
Hor., Sat., II., vi., 35. Cf. ad Pers., Sat., iv., 49.
[1978] Cic., de Div., ii., 37, mentions a people of Galatia, called
Trogini. The name does not occur elsewhere.
[1979] The Archaic _Simitû_ for _simul_ occurs repeatedly in Plautus.
[1980] _Privæ._ Cf. i., Fr. 13. Privum, "proprium uniuscujusque." Non.
_Centonibus._ Cf. xxviii., Fr. 33. _Culcitulæ_, "small cushions or
pillows," from _calco_. Fest. Cf. Plaut., Most., IV., i., 49.
[1981] _Invadere_, i. e., "appetenter incipere." _Cæli._ Cicero tells
us (Auct. ad Her., ii., 13, 19) that Cælius was the name of the judge
who acquitted the man on the charge of defamation, who had libeled
Lucilius on the stage.
[1982] _Publica._ Fruter conjectures _Publicià_; but the Publician law
is not mentioned.
[1983] _Operatum._ So ῥέζειν. Cf. Virg., Georg., i., 339, "Sacra refer
Cereri lætis operatus in herbis." Liv., i., 81. Propert., ii., 24, 1.
Nonius explains it "Deos religiose et cum summâ veneratione sacrificiis
litare."
[1984] _Lustris._ Plaut., Asin., V., ii., 17, "Is liberis lustris
studet." Casin., II., iii., 28, "Ubi in lustra jacuisti?" Cic.,
Phil., xiii., 11. Probest., "Aliquis emersus ex tenebris lustrorum ac
stuprorum." The Fragment probably forms part of a speech of a jealous
wife upbraiding her husband, as Cleostrata, in the Casina of Plautus,
quoted above.
[1985] _Præservit._ Cf. Plaut., Amph., Prol., 126, "Ut præservire
amanti meo possem patri." _Delicere_, "to allure from the right path."
Titinius ap. Non. in voc., "parasitus habeat qui illum sciat delicere,
et noctem facere possit de die." _Delenit._ Cf. xxviii., Fr. 1, "to
inthrall the senses by the passion of love." So Titinius, "Dotibus
deleniti ultro etiam uxoribus ancillantur."
[1986] _Nutricari_ for "nutrire." Cf. Cic., de Nat. Deor., ii., 34,
"Educator et altor est mundus omniaque sicut membra et partis suas
nutricatur et continet."
[1987] _Discerniculum_, "the bodkin in a woman's headdress for parting
the hair."
[1988] _Ficedulæ._ Cf. ad Juv., xiv., 9. _Turdi._ Cf. ad Pers., vi.,
24. Read perhaps "curatique cocis."
[1989] Cf. Juv., ii., 79, "Dedit hanc contagio labem et dabit in
plures: sicut grex totus in agris unius _scabie_ cadit et _porrigine_
porci."
[1990] _Rumpit_, "defatigat." Non.
[1991] _Pertundet._ So Ennius, "latus pertudit hasta." Juv., vi., 46,
"Mediam pertundite venam." vii., 26, "Aut claude et positos tineâ
pertunde libellos." _Deliciet_ Gerlach explains by "Juvare, voluptatem
creare:" and reads "_Utere vi atque videbis._"
[1992] _Fortis_ etiam "dives." Non.
[1993] Gerlach retains _Musconis_. _Tagax_, from the old form tago.
"Furunculus a tangendo." Fest, "light-fingered." _Perscribere_ may mean
(like conscribellare in Catullus) "to mark letters upon," i. e., brand
him with the word Fur on the hand: hence trium literarum homo.
[1994] _Habendo._ Cf. Virg., Georg., iii., 159, "Et quos aut pecori
malint summittere habendo."
[1995] _Involem._ Ter., Eun., V., ii., 20, "Vix me contineo quin
involem in capillum." So "Castra involare." Tac., Hist., iv., 33.
[1996] _Angina_, "genus morbi; eo quod angat." Non. Cf. Plaut., Trin.,
II., iv., 139, "Sues moriuntur anginâ." Most., I., iii., 61, "In
anginam ego nunc me velim vorti, ut veneficæ illi fauces prehendam."
[1997] _Consternere_ is applied "to preparing a couch." Cf. Catul.,
lxiv., 163, "Purpureâve tuum consternens veste cubile." This seems to
be the meaning here; as there seems to be a vibration of the reading
between consternitur, nobis lectus, and vetus, for Restes. Cf. ad lib.
vi., Fr. 13.
[1998] Dusa's conjecture is followed. Scaliger supposes temnere to be
an old form of the perfect "tempsere."
[1999] _Præstringere_ "non valdè stringere et claudere." Non.
THE SATIRES
OF
DECIMUS JUNIUS JUVENALIS,
AND OF
AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS.
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE,
BY WILLIAM GIFFORD, ESQ.
SATIRE I.
Oh! heavens--while THUS hoarse Codrus perseveres
To force his Theseid on my tortured ears,
Shall I not ONCE attempt "to quit the score,"
ALWAYS an auditor, and nothing more!
Forever at my side, shall this rehearse 5
His elegiac, that his comic verse,
Unpunished? shall huge Telephus, at will,
The livelong day consume, or, huger still,
Orestes, closely written, written, too,
Down the broad marge, and yet--no end in view! 10
Away, away!--None knows his home so well
As I the grove of Mars, and Vulcan's cell,
Fast by the Æolian rocks!--How the Winds roar,
How ghosts are tortured on the Stygian shore,
How Jason stole the golden fleece, and how 15
The Centaurs fought on Othrys' shaggy brow;
The walks of Fronto echo round and round--
The columns trembling with the eternal sound,
While high and low, as the mad fit invades,
Bellow the same trite nonsense through the shades. 20
I, TOO, CAN WRITE--and, at a pedant's frown,
ONCE poured my fustian rhetoric on the town:
And idly proved that Sylla, far from power,
Had passed, unknown to fear, the tranquil hour:--
Now I resume my pen; for, since we meet 25
Such swarms of desperate bards in every street,
'Tis vicious clemency to spare the oil,
And hapless paper they are sure to spoil.
But why I choose, adventurous, to retrace
The Auruncan's route, and, in the arduous race, 30
Follow his burning wheels, attentive hear,
If leisure serve, and truth be worth your ear.
When the soft eunuch weds, and the bold fair
Tilts at the Tuscan boar, with bosom bare;
When one that oft, since manhood first appeared, 35
Has trimmed the exuberance of this sounding beard,
In wealth outvies the senate; when a vile,
A slave-born, slave-bred, vagabond of Nile,
Crispinus, while he gathers now, now flings
His purple open, fans his summer rings; 40
And, as his fingers sweat beneath the freight,
Cries, "Save me--from a gem of greater weight!"
'Tis hard a less adventurous course to choose,
While folly plagues, and vice inflames the Muse.
For who so slow of heart, so dull of brain, 45
So patient of the town, as to contain
His bursting spleen, when, full before his eye,
Swings the new chair of lawyer Matho by,
Crammed with himself! then, with no less parade,
That caitiff's, who his noble friend betrayed, 50
Who now, in fancy, prostrate greatness tears,
And preys on what the imperial vulture spares!
Whom Massa dreads, Latinus, trembling, plies
With a fair wife, and anxious Carus buys!
When those supplant thee in thy dearest rights, 55
Who earn rich legacies by active nights;
Those, whom (the shortest, surest way to rise)
The widow's itch advances to the skies!--
Not that an equal rank her minions hold;
Just to their various powers, she metes her gold, 60
And Proculeius mourns his scanty share,
While Gillo triumphs, hers and nature's heir!
And let him triumph! 'tis the price of blood:
While, thus defrauded of the generous flood.
The color flies his cheek, as though he prest, 65
With unsuspecting foot, a serpent's crest;
Or stood engaged at Lyons to declaim,
Where the least peril is the loss of fame.
Ye gods!--what rage, what phrensy fires my brain,
When that false guardian, with his splendid train, 70
Crowds the long street, and leaves his orphan charge
To prostitution, and the world at large!
When, by a juggling sentence damned in vain,
(For who, that holds the plunder, heeds the pain?)
Marius to wine devotes his morning hours, 75
And laughs, in exile, at the offended Powers:
While, sighing o'er the victory she won,
The Province finds herself but more undone!
And shall I feel, that crimes like these require
The avenging strains of the Venusian lyre, 80
And not pursue them? I shall I still repeat
The legendary tales of Troy and Crete;
The toils of Hercules, the horses fed
On human flesh by savage Diomed,
The lowing labyrinth, the builder's flight, 85
And the rash boy, hurl'd from his airy height?
When, what the law forbids the wife to heir,
The adulterer's Will may to the wittol bear,
Who gave, with wand'ring eye and vacant face,
A tacit sanction to his own disgrace; 90
And, while at every turn a look he stole,
Snored, unsuspected, o'er the treacherous bowl!
When he presumes to ask a troop's command,
Who spent on horses all his father's land,
While, proud the experienced driver to display, 95
His glowing wheels smoked o'er the Appian way:--
For there our young Automedon first tried
His powers, there loved the rapid car to guide;
While great Pelides sought superior bliss,
And toyed and wantoned with his master-miss. 100
Who would not, reckless of the swarm he meets,
Fill his wide tablets, in the public streets,
With angry verse? when, through the midday glare,
Borne by six slaves, and in an open chair,
The forger comes, who owes this blaze of state 105
To a wet seal and a fictitious date;
Comes, like the soft Mæcenas, lolling by,
And impudently braves the public eye!
Or the rich dame, who stanched her husband's thirst
With generous wine, but--drugged it deeply first! 110
And now, more dext'rous than Locusta, shows
Her country friends the beverage to compose,
And, midst the curses of the indignant throng,
Bear, in broad day, the spotted corpse along.
Dare nobly, man! if greatness be thy aim, 115