Juvenal — The Satires

Must I always be a hearer only? Shall I never retaliate,[33] though

plagued so often with the Theseid of Codrus,[34] hoarse _with reciting

it_? Shall one man, then, recite[35] to me his Comedies, and another

his Elegies, with impunity? Shall huge "Telephus" waste a whole day for

me, or "Orestes," with the margin of the manuscript full to the very

edge, and written on the back too,[36] and yet not finished, _and I not

retort_?

No one knows his own house better than I do the grove of Mars, and

Vulcan's cave close to the Æolian rocks. The agency of the winds,[37]

what ghosts Æacus is torturing, whence another bears off the gold[38]

of the stolen fleece, what huge mountain-ashes Monychus hurls, _all

this_ the plane-groves of Fronto,[39] and the statues shaken and the

columns split by the eternal reciter, are for ever re-echoing. You may

look for the same themes from the greatest poet and the least.

And yet I too have shirked my hand away from the rod.[40] I too

have given advice to Sylla, that he should enjoy a sound sleep by

returning to a private station.[41] When at every turn you meet so

many poetasters, it were a foolish clemency to spare paper that is

sure to be wasted. Yet why I rather choose to trace my course over

that plain through which the great foster-son of Aurunca[42] urged his

steeds, I will, if you are at leisure, and with favorable ear listen to

reason, tell you. When a soft eunuch[43] marries a wife; when Mævia[44]

transfixes the Tuscan boar, and, with breasts exposed, grasps the

hunting-spears; when one man singly vies in wealth with the whole body

of patricians, under whose razor my beard, grown exuberant, sounded

while I was in my prime;[45] when Crispinus, one of the dregs of the

mob of the Nile, a born-slave of Canopus, (while his shoulder hitches

up his Tyrian cloak,)[46] airs his summer ring from his sweating

fingers, and can not support the weight of his heavier gem;--it is

difficult not to write satire. For who can be so tolerant of this

iniquitous city, who so case-hardened,[47] as to contain himself! When

there comes up the bran-new litter of Matho[48] the lawyer, filled with

himself; and after him, he that informed upon his powerful friend; and

will soon plunder the nobility, already close-shorn, of the little

that remains to them; one whom even Massa fears, whom Carus soothes

with a bribe; or a Thymele suborned by some trembling Latinus.[49]

When fellows supplant you, who earn their legacies by night-work,

lifted up to heaven[50] by what is now the surest road to the highest

advancement, the lust of some ancient harridan. Proculeius gets one

poor twelfth; but Gillo has eleven twelfths. Each gets the share

proportioned to his powers. Well! let him take the purchase-money of

his blood, and be as pale as one that has trodden on a snake with naked

heel, or a rhetorician about to declaim at the altar at Lyons.[51]

Why need I tell with what indignation my parched liver boils, when

here, the plunderer of his ward (reduced by him to the vilest gains)

presses on the people with his crowds of menials, and there, he that

was condemned by a powerless sentence. (For what cares he for infamy

while he retains the plunder?) Marius,[52] though an exile, drinks

from the eighth hour, and laughs at the angry gods, while thou, O

Province, victorious in the suit, art in tears! Shall I not deem these

themes worthy of the lamp of Venusium?[53] Shall I not lash these?

Why rather sing tales of Hercules or Diomede, or the bellowing of

the Labyrinth, and the sea struck by the boy Icarus, and the winged

artificer?[54] When the pander inherits the wealth of the adulterer

(since the wife has lost the right of receiving it),[55] taught

to gaze at the ceiling, and snore over his cups with well-feigned

sleep. When he considers himself privileged to expect the command of

a cohort, who has squandered his money on his stables, and has run

through all his ancestors' estate, while he flies with rapid wheel

along the Flaminian road;[56] for while yet a youth, like Automedon,

he held the reins, while the great man showed himself off to his

"mistress-in-his-cloak."[57] Do you not long to fill your capacious

tablets, even in the middle of the cross-ways, when there comes borne

on the shoulders of six slaves, exposed to view on either side, with

palanquin almost uncurtained, and aping the luxurious Mæcenas, the

forger, who made himself a man of splendor and wealth by a few short

lines, and a moistened seal?[58] Next comes the powerful matron, who

when her husband thirsts, mingles the toad's-poison in the mellow

wine of Cales which she is herself about to hand him, and with skill

superior even to Locusta,[59] initiates her neighbors, too simple

before, in the art of burying their husbands, livid from the poison, in

despite of infamy and the public gaze.[60]

Dare some deed to merit scanty Gyarus[61] and the jail, if you wish to

be somebody. Honesty is commended, and starves. It is to their crimes

they are indebted for their gardens, their palaces, their tables, their

fine old plate, and the goat standing in high relief from the cup.

Whom does the seducer of his own daughter-in-law, greedy for gold,

suffer to sleep? Or the unnatural brides, or the adulterer not out of

his teens?[62] If nature denies the power, indignation would give birth

to verses, such as it could produce, like mine and Cluvienus'.

From the time that Deucalion ascended the mountain in his boat, while

the storm upheaved the sea,[63] and consulted the oracle, and the

softening stones by degrees grew warm with life, and Pyrrha displayed

to the males the virgins unrobed; all that men are engaged in, their

wishes, fears, anger, pleasures, joys, and varied pursuits, form the

hotch-potch of my book.

And when was the crop of vices more abundant? When were the sails of

avarice more widely spread? When had gambling its present spirits? For

now men go to the hazard of the gaming-table not simply with their

purses, but play with their whole chest[64] staked. What fierce battles

will you see there, while the steward supplies the weapons for the

contest! Is it then mere common madness to lose a hundred sestertia,

and not leave enough for a tunic for your shivering slave![65] Which

of our grandsires erected so many villas? Which of them ever dined by

himself[66] on seven courses? In our days the diminished sportula is

set outside the threshold, ready to be seized upon by the toga-clad

crowd.[67] Yet he (that dispenses it), before giving, scans your

features, and dreads lest you should come with counterfeit pretense

and under a false name. When recognized you will receive your dole.

He bids the crier summon the very Trojugenæ themselves. For even they

assail the door with us. "Give the prætor his! Then to the tribune."

But the freedman must first be served! "I was before him!" he says.

"Why should I fear or hesitate to stand up for my turn, though I was

born on the banks of Euphrates, which the soft windows[68] in my ears

would attest, though I myself were to deny the fact. But my five

shops bring me in four hundred sestertia. What does the Laticlave[69]

bestow that's worth a wish, since Corvinus keeps sheep for hire in the

Laurentine fields? I own more than Pallas[70] and the Licini. Let the

tribunes wait then!" Let Riches carry the day, and let not him give

place even to the sacrosanct magistrate, who came but the other day

to this city with chalked feet.[71] Since with us the most revered

majesty is that of riches; even though as yet, pernicious money, thou

dwellest in no temple, nor have we as yet reared altars to coin, as we

worship Peace and Faith, Victory and Virtue, and Concord, whose temple

resounds with the noise of storks returning to their nests.[72] But

when a magistrate of the highest rank reckons up at the end of the

year, what the sportula brings him in, how much it adds to his revenue,

what shall the poor retainers do, who look to this for their toga, for

their shoes, their bread and fire at home? A closely-wedged crowd of

litters is clamorous for the hundred quadrantes, and his wife, though

sick or pregnant, accompanies and goes the rounds with her husband.

One practicing a crafty trick now worn threadbare, asks for his wife

though really absent, displaying in her stead an empty and closed

palanquin: "My Galla is inside," he says, "dispatch us with all speed.

Why hesitate?" "Put out your head, Galla!" "O don't disturb her! she's

asleep!"

The day is portioned out with a fine routine of engagements. First

the sportula; then the Forum,[73] and Apollo[74] learned in the law;

and the triumphal statues, among which some unknown Egyptian or

Arabarch has dared set up his titles, whose image, as though sacred,

one dare not venture to defile.[75] At length, the old and wearied-out

clients quit the vestibule and give up all their hopes;[76] although

their expectation of a dinner has been full-long protracted: the poor

wretches must buy their cabbage and fire. Meanwhile their patron-lord

will devour the best that the forest and ocean can supply, and will

recline in solitary state with none but himself on his couches. For

out of so many fair, and broad, and such ancient dishes, they gorge

whole patrimonies at a single course. In our days there will not be

even a parasite! Yet who could tolerate such sordid luxury! How gross

must that appetite be, which sets before itself whole boars, an animal

created to feast a whole company! Yet thy punishment is hard at hand,

when distended with food thou layest aside thy garments, and bearest

to the bath the peacock undigested! Hence sudden death, and old age

without a will. The news[77] travels to all the dinner-tables, but

calls forth no grief, and thy funeral procession advances, exulted

over by disgusted friends![78] There is nothing farther that future

times can add to our immorality. Our posterity must have the same

desires, perpetrate the same acts. Every vice has reached its climax.

Then set sail! spread all your canvas! Yet here perchance you may

object, whence can talent be elicited able to cope with the subject?

Whence that blunt freedom of our ancestors, whose very name I dare not

utter, of writing whatever was dictated by their kindling soul. What

matter, whether Mucius forgive the libel, or not? But take Tigellinus

for your theme, and you will shine in that tunic, in which they blaze

standing,[79] who smoke with throat transfixed, and you will draw

a broad furrow in the middle of the sand. "Must he then, who has

given[80] aconite to his three uncles, be borne on down cushions,

suspended aloft, and from thence look down on us?" Yes! when he meets

you press your finger to your lip! There will be some informer standing

by to whisper in his ear, That's he! Without fear for the consequences

you may match[81] Æneas and the fierce Rutulian. The death of Achilles

breeds ill-will in no one; or the tale of the long-sought Hylas, who

followed his pitcher. But whensoever Lucilius, fired with rage, has

brandished as it were his drawn sword, his hearer, whose conscience

chills with the remembrance of crime, grows red. His heart sweats with

the pressure of guilt concealed. Then bursts forth rage and tears!

Ponder well, therefore, these things in your mind, before you sound the

signal blast. The soldier when helmeted repents too late of the fight.

I will try then what I may be allowed to vent on those whose ashes are

covered by the Flaminian[82] or Latin road.

FOOTNOTES:

debts.

same as the Codrus mentioned iii., 203.

compositions in public, cf. Sat. vii., 40, 83; iii., 9. Plin., 1,

Ep. xiii., "queritur se diem perdidisse." _Togata_ is a comedy on a

Roman subject; _Prætexta_, a tragedy on the same; _Elegi_, trifling

love-songs.

parchment: when otherwise, the works were called "Opisthographi," and

said to be written "aversa charta."

proverbial expression.

consul, and once colleague of Trajan, A.D. 97. Cassiod.

beasts in the amphitheatre was encouraged by Domitian, but afterward

restrained by an edict of Severus.

Licinus, the freedman of Augustus, is referred to (Hor., A. P., 301),

or more probably Cinnamus. Cf. Sat. x., 225. Mart., vii., Ep. 64.

Browne; but there are various other interpretations: e. g., "Cumbered

with his purple vest." Badham. "With cloak of Tyrian dye, Changed oft a

day for needless luxury." Dryden. "While he gathers now, now flings his

purple open." Gifford. "O'er his back displays." Hodgson.

gained the empire through the partiality of Plotina, in spite of the

will of her dying husband Trajan.

at Lyons, A.U.C. 744, and from the very first games were celebrated

there, but the contest here alluded to was instituted by Caligula. Cf.

Suet., Calig., xx. It was a "certamen Græcæ Latinæque facundiæ," in

which the vanquished were compelled to give prizes to the victors, and

to write their praises. While those who "maximè displicuissent" had

to obliterate their own compositions with a sponge or their tongues,

unless they preferred being beaten with ferules, or ducked in the

nearest river. Caligula was at Lyons, A.D. 40, on his way to the ocean.

extortion, A.D. 100. Vid. Clinton in a. Pliny the Younger was his

accuser, 2 Ep., xi. (Cf. Sat. viii., 120, "Cum tenues nuper Marius

discinxerit Afros.") Though condemned, he saved his money; and was,

as Gifford renders it, "by a juggling sentence damn'd in vain." The

ninth hour (three o'clock) was the earliest hour at which the temperate

dined. Cf. Mart., iv., Ep. 8, "Imperat exstructos frangere nona toros."

Cf. Hor., i., Od. i., 20.

ademit jus capiendi legata hæreditatesque."

was therefore the most conspicuous thoroughfare in Rome. It is now the

Corso.

probably to Nero and his "eunuch-love" Sporus. Vid. Suet., Nero, 28.

Charicles. "Fram'd a short will and gave himself the whole." Hodgson.

"A few short lines authentic made,

By a forged seal the inheritance convey'd." Badham.

Agrippina to poison Claudius, and by Nero to destroy Germanicus. On the

accession of Galba she was executed. Cf. Suet., Nero, 33.

"Reckless of whispering mobs that hover near." Badham.

"Nor heed the curse of the indignant throng." Gifford.

69. "Insulam Gyarum immitem et sine cultu hominum esse." Cf. Sat. x.,

170; vi., 563.

debauchee." Gifford. The sons of the nobility wore the toga prætexta

till the age of seventeen.

of Val. Max., ii., 5. ἔῤῥ' ἐς κόρακας μονόφαγε. Alex.

day's officium was over, at supper, which was called "cœna recta." In

later times, the clients, instead of this, received their portion of

the supper, which they carried away in a small basket, "sportula," or

a kind of portable kitchen. Cf. iii., 249. This was again changed, and

an equivalent in money (centum quadrantes, about twenty pence English)

given instead. Domitian restored the "cœna recta." Cf. Suet., Dom.,

vii.; Nero, xvi.

"Shall I then yield, though born perchance a slave,

To the proud beggar in his laticlave?" Hodgson.

wealth and splendor of Licinus is again alluded to, Sat. xiv., 305.

chalk. Cf. Sat. vii., 16. Plin., H. N., xxxv., 17.

young birds, when the old birds who have been in quest of food return

to their nests (the whole _temple_ being deserted by men, serves, as

the Schol. says, for a _nidus_ to birds); or, to the noise made by the

old birds striking their beaks to announce their return. Cf. Ov., Met.,

vi., 97.

Forum Romanum.

court where pleas were held stood an ivory statue of Apollo. Cf. Hor.,

i., Sat. ix., 78.

e., tantummodo. Cf. Pers., i. Sat., 114, Sacer est locus, ite profani,

Extra meiete!

return, the rich man's door is closed, and he is at liberty to return

home, without any invitation to remain to dinner.

"The day's attendance closed, and evening come,

The uninvited client hies him home." Badham.

"Friends, unenrich'd, shall revel o'er your bier,

Tell the sad news, nor grace it with a tear." Hodgson.

Tac., Ann., xv., 44, "Aut crucibus adfixi, aut flammandi, atque ubi

defecisset dies, in usum nocturni luminis urerentur." Sen., de Ira,

iii., 3, "Circumdati defixis corporibus ignes."

arena.

"Achilles may in epic verse be slain,

And none of all his myrmidons complain;

Hylas may drop his pitcher, none will cry,

Not if he drown himself for company." Dryden.

the city. The road-sides, therefore, were lined with tombs. Hence the

common beginning of epitaphs, "Siste gradum viator." The peculiar

propriety of the selection of these two roads is the fact that Domitian

was buried by the Flaminian, and Paris, the mime, Juvenal's personal

enemy, by the Latin road.

I long to escape from hence beyond the Sarmatians, and the frozen

sea, whenever those fellows who pretend to be Curii and live like

Bacchanals presume to read a lecture on morality. First of all, they

are utterly unlearned, though you may find all their quarters full of

busts of Chrysippus. For the most finished scholar among them is he

that has bought an image of Aristotle or Pittacus, or bids his shelves

retain originals of Cleanthes. There is no trusting to the outside!

For what street is there that does not overflow with debauchees of

demure exterior? Dost thou reprove abominations, that art thyself the

most notorious sink among catamites who pretend to follow Socrates?

Thy rough limbs indeed, and the stiff bristles on thy arms, seem to

promise a vigorous mind within; but on thy smooth behind, the surgeon

with a smile lances the swelling piles. These fellows affect a paucity

of words, and a wonderful taciturnity, and the fashion of cutting their

hair shorter than their eyebrows. There is therefore more frankness and

sincerity in Peribomius; the man that by his very look and gait makes

no secret of his depravity, I look upon as the victim of destiny. The

plain-dealing of the latter class excites our pity; their very madness

pleads for our forgiveness. Far worse are they who in Hercules' vein

practice similar atrocities, and preaching up virtue, perpetrate the

foulest vice. "Shall I feel any dread for thee, Sextus, unnatural

thyself?" says the infamous Varillus. "How am I worse than thou? Let

the straight-limbed, if you please, mock the bandy-legged; the fair

European sneer at the Ethiop. But who could tolerate the Gracchi if

they railed at sedition? Who would not confound heaven with earth, and

sea with sky,[83] if a thief were odious to Verres, or a murderer to

Milo? If Clodius were to impeach adulterers, or Catiline Cethegus? If

Sylla's three pupils were to declaim against Sylla's proscriptions?

Such was the case of the adulterer recently[84] defiled by incest, such

as might be found in Greek tragedy, who then set himself to revive

those bitter laws which all might tremble at, ay, even Venus and Mars,

at the same time that Julia was relieving her fruitful womb by so

many abortives,[85] and gave birth to shapeless masses, the image of

her uncle! Might not then, with all reason and justice, even the very

worst of vices look with contempt on these counterfeit Scauri, and if

censured turn and bite again?"

Lauronia could not endure some fierce reformer of this class so often

exclaiming, "Where is now the Julian law? is it slumbering?" and thus

silenced him with a sneer: "Blest days indeed! that set thee up as a

censor of morals! Rome now must needs retrieve her honor! A third Cato

has dropped from the clouds. But tell me, pray, where do you buy these

perfumes that exhale from your neck, all hairy though it be! Do not be

ashamed to tell the shopman's name. But if old laws and statutes are to

be raked up,[86] before all others the Scatinian ought to be revived.

First scrutinize and look into the conduct of the men. They commit

the greater atrocities; but it is their number protects them, and

their phalanxes close serried with their shields. There is a wonderful

unanimity among these effeminates. You will not find one single

instance of such execrable conduct in our sex.[87] Tædia does not

caress Cluvia, nor Flora Catulla. Hispo acts both sex's parts, and is

pale with two-handed lust. Do _we_ ever plead causes? Do we study civil

law? or disturb your courts with any clamor of our tongues? A few of

us perhaps may wrestle, or diet themselves on the trainer's food; but

only a few. You men, you spin wool, and carry home in women's baskets

your finished tasks. You men twist the spindle big with its fine-drawn

thread more deftly than Penelope, more nimbly than Arachne; work, such

as the dirty drab does that sits crouching on her log. Every one

knows why Hister at his death made his freedman his sole heir, while,

when alive, he gave his maiden wife[88] so many presents. She will be

rich without a doubt, who will submit to lie third in the wide bed.

Get married then, and hold your tongue, and earrings[89] will be the

guerdon of your silence! And after all this, forsooth, a heavy sentence

is to be passed on us women! Censure acquits the raven, but falls foul

of the dove!"

From this rebuke so true and undeniable, the counterfeit Stoics

recoiled in confusion, For what grain of untruth was there in

Lauronia's words? Yet, what will not others do, when thou, Creticus,

adoptest muslin robes, and to the amazement of the people, inveighest

in such a dress against Procula or Pollinea?

Fabulla, thou sayest, is an adulteress. Then let her be condemned, if

you will have it so, and Carfinia also. Yet though condemned, she would

not put on such a dress as that. "But it is July, it is raging hot, I

am on fire!" Then plead stark naked![90] To be thought mad would be a

less disgrace! Is that a dress to propound laws and statutes in, in

the ears of the people when flushed with victory, with their wounds

yet green, or that noble race, fresh from their plows? What an outcry

would you make, if you saw such a dress on the person of a Judex! I

ask, would such a robe be suitable even in a witness? Creticus! the

implacable, the indomitable, the champion of liberty, is transparent!

Contagion has caused this plague-spot, and will extend it to many more,

just as a whole flock perishes, in the fields from the scab of one

sheep, or pigs from mange, and the grape contracts the taint from the

grape it comes in contact with. Ere long you will venture on something

more disgraceful even than this dress. No one ever reached the climax

of vice at one step. You will by degrees enter the band of those who

wear at home long fillets round their brows, and cover their necks with

jewels, and propitiate Bona Dea with the belly of a young sow and a

huge bowl of wine; but by an inversion of the old custom _women_, kept

far aloof, dare not cross the threshold. The altar of the goddess

is accessible to males alone. "Withdraw, profane females!" is the

cry. No minstrel here may make her cornet sound! Such were the orgies

by the secret torch-light which the Baptæ celebrated, who used to

weary out even the Athenian Cotytto.[91] One with needle held oblique

adds length to his eyebrows touched with moistened soot, and raising

the lids paints his quivering eyes. Another drains a Priapus-shaped

glass, and confines his long thick hair with a caul of gold thread,

clothed in sky-blue checks, or close-piled yellow stuffs; while his

attendant also swears by Juno, the patron deity of his master. Another

holds a mirror, the weapon wielded by the pathic Otho, "the spoil of

Auruncan Actor,"[92] in which he surveyed himself when fully armed,

before he gave the signal to engage--a thing worthy to be recorded in

the latest annals and history of the day. A mirror! fit baggage for

a civil war! O yes, forsooth! to kill old Galba shows the consummate

general, to pamper one's complexion is the consistent occupation of

the first citizen of Rome; to aspire to the empire as the prize on

Bebriacum's[93] plains, and then spread over his face a poultice

applied with his fingers! Such an act as neither the quivered Semiramis

perpetrated in the Assyrian realms, or Cleopatra flying dejected in her

Actian galley. Among this crew there is neither decency of language,

nor respect for the proprieties of the table. Here is the foul license

that Cybele enjoins, the lisping speech, the aged priest with hoary

hair, like one possessed, a prodigy of boundless appetite, open to

hire. Yet why do they delay? since long ago they ought after the

Phrygian custom to have removed with their knives the superfluous flesh.

Gracchus[94] gave four hundred sestertia as his dowry, with himself,

to a bugler, or else one that blew the straight trumpet. The marriage

deeds were duly signed, the blessing invoked, a great dinner provided,

the he-bride lay in the bridegroom's arms. O nobles! is it a censor

we need, or an aruspex? You would without doubt be horrified, and deem

it a prodigy of portentous import, if a woman gave birth to a calf, or

a cow to a lamb. The same Gracchus puts on flounces, the long robe and

flame-colored[95] veil, who, when bearing the sacred shields swinging

with mysterious thong, sweated beneath the Ancilia! Oh! father of

our city! whence came such heinous guilt to the shepherds of Latium?

Whence, O Gradivus, came this unnatural lust that has tainted thy race?

See! a man illustrious in birth and rank is made over to a man! Dost

thou neither shake thy helmet, nor smite the earth with thy lance? Dost

thou not even appeal to thy father Jove? Begone then! and quit the

acres of the Campus once so severe, which thou ceasest to care for!

"I have some duty-work to perform to-morrow at break of day in the

Quirinal valley." "What is the occasion?" "Why ask? my friend is going

to be married; only a few are invited!" If we only live to see it,

these things will be done in the broad light of day, and claim to be

registered in the public acts. Meanwhile, there is one grievous source

of pain that clings to these male-brides, that they are incapable

of bearing, and retaining their lords' affections by bringing them

children. No! better is it that nature in this case gives their minds

no power over their bodies! They must die barren! Vain, in their case,

is fat Lyde with her medicated box; vain the holding out their hands to

the nimble Luperci.

Yet even this prodigy of crime is surpassed by the trident of Gracchus

in his gladiator's tunic,[96] when in full flight he traverses the

middle of the arena. Gracchus! more nobly born than the Manlii, and

Marcelli, and Catulus' and Paulus' race, and the Fabii, and all the

spectators in the front row. Ay, even though you add to these the very

man himself, at whose expense he cast his net as Retiarius.

That there are departed spirits, and realms beneath the earth--that

Charon's pole exists, and the foul frogs in the Stygian whirlpool--and

that so many thousand souls cross its waters in a single bark, not

even boys believe, save those as yet too young to be charged for their

bath.[97] But do thou believe them true! What does Curius feel, and

the two Scipios, what Fabricius and the shades of Camillus, what the

legion cut off at Cremera, and the flower of Roman youth slaughtered

at Cannæ--so many martial spirits--what do they feel when such a shade

as this passes from us to them? They would long to be cleansed from

the pollution of the contact, could any sulphur and pine-torches be

supplied to them, or could there be a bay-tree to sprinkle them with

water.

To such a pitch of degradation are we come![98] We have, indeed,

advanced our arms beyond Juverna's shore, and the Orcades[99] recently

subdued, and the Britons content with night contracted to its briefest

span. But those abominations which are committed in the victorious

people's city are unknown to those barbarians whom we have conquered.

"Yet there _is_ a story told of one, an Armenian Zalates, who, more

effeminate than the rest of his young countrymen, is reported to have

yielded to the tribune's lust." See the result of intercourse with

Rome! He came a hostage! Here they learn to be _men_! For if a longer

tarry in the city be granted to these youths, they will never lack a

lover. Their plaids, and knives, and bits, and whips, will soon be

discarded. Thus it is the vices of our young nobles are aped even at

Artaxata.[100]

FOOTNOTES:

Neptuni." Vid. Ter., Adelph., v., i., 4. Cf. Sat. vi., 283.

from the use of abortives (cf. Plin., iv., Epist. xi.: "Vidua abortu

periit"), cir. A.D. 91. This, therefore, fixes the date of the Satire,

which was probably one of Juvenal's earliest, and written when he was

about thirty. Cf. Sat. xiii., 17.

Cf. i., 126.

upon the women of Rome, as all these crimes he proves in the 6th Satire

to be of every-day occurrence.

ἑλικτῆρες.

their impurities.

was fought between Otho and Vitellius.

"in modum solennium conjugiorum denupsisset." Tac., Ann., xv., 37. He

repeated the same act with Sporus.

auspices, dos, et genialis torus et faces nuptiales: cuncta denique

spectata, quæ etiam in feminâ nox operit."

Credamus tunicæ, etc.

Orcadas vocant, invenit domuitque." Tac., Agric., c. x.; cf. c.

xii. "Dierum spatia ultra nostri orbis mensuram: _nox_ clara, et

extremâ Britanniæ parte _brevis_, ut finem atque initium lucis exiguo

discrimine internoscas."

The fashion is not only _carried_ back to Armenia, but _copied_ there.

_Prætextatus._ Cf. i., 78. _Artaxata_, the capital of Armenia, was

taken by Corbulo, A.D. 58.

Although troubled at the departure of my old friend, yet I can not but

commend his intention of fixing his abode at Cumæ, now desolate, and

giving the Sibyl one citizen at least. It is the high road to Baiæ, and

has a pleasant shore; a delightful retreat. I prefer even Prochyta[101]

to the Suburra. For what have we ever looked on so wretched or so

lonely, that you would not deem it worse to be in constant dread of

fires, the perpetual falling-in of houses, and the thousand dangers of

the cruel city,[102] and poets spouting in the month of August.[103]

But while his whole household is being stowed in a single wagon, my

friend Umbritius halted at the ancient triumphal arches[104] and the

moist Capena. Here, where Numa used to make assignations with his

nocturnal mistress, the grove of the once-hallowed fountain and the

temples are in our days let out to Jews, whose whole furniture is a

basket and bundle of hay.[105] For every single tree is bid to pay a

rent to the people, and the Camenæ having been ejected, the wood is

one mass of beggars. We descended into the valley of Egeria and the

grottoes, so altered from what nature made them. How much more should

we feel the influence of the presiding genius of the spring,[106]

if turf inclosed the waters with its margin of green, and no marble

profaned the native tufo. Here then Umbritius began:[107]

"Since at Rome there is no place for honest pursuits, no profit to be

got by honest toil--my fortune is less to-day than it was yesterday,

and to-morrow must again make that little less--we purpose emigrating

to the spot where Dædalus put off his wearied wings, while my gray

hairs are still but few, my old age green and erect; while something

yet remains for Lachesis to spin, and I can bear myself on my own legs,

without a staff to support my right hand. Let us leave our native land.

There let Arturius and Catulus live. Let those continue in it who turn

black to white; for whom it is an easy matter to get contracts for

building temples, clearing rivers, constructing harbors,[108] cleansing

the sewers, the furnishing a funeral,[109] and under the mistress-spear

set up the slave to sale."[110]

These fellows, who in former days were horn-blowers, and constant

attendants on the municipal amphitheatres, and whose puffed cheeks were

well known through all the towns, now themselves exhibit gladiatorial

shows, and when the thumbs of the rabble are turned up, let any man be

killed to court the mob. Returned from thence, they farm the public

jakes.

And why not every thing? Since these are the men whom Fortune, whenever

she is in a sportive mood, raises from the dust to the highest pinnacle

of greatness.[111]

What shall _I_ do at Rome? I can not lie; if a book is bad, I can

not praise it and beg a copy. I know not the motions of the stars. I

neither will nor can promise a man to secure his father's death. I

never inspected the entrails of a toad.[112]

Let others understand how to bear to a bride the messages and presents

of the adulterer; no one shall be a thief by my co-operation; and

therefore I go forth, a companion to no man,[113] as though I were

crippled, and a trunk useless from its right hand being disabled.[114]

Who, now-a-days, is beloved except the confidant of crime, and he whose

raging mind[115] is boiling with things concealed, and that must never

be divulged? He that has made you the partaker of an honest secret,

thinks that he owes you nothing, and nothing will he ever pay. He will

be Verres' dear friend, who can accuse Verres at any time he pleases.

Yet set not thou so high a price on all the sands of shady Tagus,[116]

and the gold rolled down to the sea, as to lose your sleep, and to your

sorrow take bribes that ought to be spurned,[117] and be always dreaded

by your powerful friend.

What class of men is now most welcome to our rich men, and whom I would

especially shun, I will soon tell you; nor shall shame prevent me.[118]

It is that the city is become Greek, Quirites, that I can not tolerate;

and yet how small the proportion even of the dregs of Greece! Syrian

Orontes has long since flowed into the Tiber, and brought with it its

language, morals, and the crooked harps with the flute-player, and its

national tambourines, and girls made to stand for hire at the Circus.

Go thither, ye who fancy a barbarian harlot with embroidered turban.

That rustic of thine, Quirinus, takes his Greek supper-cloak, and wears

Greek prizes on his neck besmeared with Ceroma.[119] One forsaking

steep Sicyon, another Amydon, a third from Andros, another from Samos,

another again from Tralles, or Alabanda,[120] swarm to Esquiliæ, and

the hill called from its osiers, destined to be the very vitals, and

future lords of great houses.[121] These have a quick wit, desperate

impudence, a ready speech, more rapidly fluent even than Isæus.[122]

Tell me what you fancy he is? He has brought with him whatever

character you wish--grammarian, rhetorician, geometer, painter,

trainer,[123] soothsayer, rope-dancer, physician, wizard--he knows

every thing. Bid the hungry Greekling go to heaven! He'll go.[124] In

short, it was neither Moor, nor Sarmatian, nor Thracian, that took

wings, but one born in the heart of Athens.[125] Shall I not shun these

men's purple robes? Shall this fellow take precedence of me in signing

his name, and recline pillowed on a more honorable couch than I, though

imported to Rome by the same wind that brought the plums and figs?[126]

Does it then go so utterly for nothing, that my infancy inhaled the

air of Aventine, nourished on the Sabine berry? Why add that this

nation, most deeply versed in flattery, praises the conversation of

an ignorant, the face of a hideously ugly friend, and compares some

weak fellow's crane-like neck to the brawny shoulders of Hercules,

holding Antæus far from his mother Earth: and is in raptures at the

squeaking voice,[127] not a whit superior in sound to that of the

cock as he bites the hen. We may, it is true, praise the same things,

if we choose. But _they_ are believed. Can he be reckoned a better

actor,[128] when he takes the part of Thais, or acts the wife in the

play, or Doris[129] without her robe. It is surely a woman in reality

that seems to speak, and not a man personifying one. You would swear

it was a woman, perfect in all respects. In their country, neither

Antiochus, nor Stratocles, or Demetrius and the effeminate Hæmus, would

call forth admiration. For there every man's an actor. Do you smile? He

is convulsed with a laugh far more hearty. If he spies a tear in his

friend's eye, he bursts into a flood of weeping; though in reality he

feels no grief. If at the winter solstice you ask for a little fire, he

calls for his thick coat. If you say, I am hot! he breaks into a sweat.

Therefore we are not fairly matched; he has the best of it, who can at

any time, either by night or day, assume a fictitious face; kiss his

hands in ecstasy, quite ready, to praise his patron's grossest acts; if

the golden cup has emitted a sound, when its bottom is inverted.

Besides, there is nothing that is held sacred by these fellows, or

that is safe from their lust. Neither the mistress of the house, nor

your virgin daughter, nor her suitor, unbearded as yet, nor your son,

heretofore chaste. If none of these are to be found, he assails his

friend's grandmother. They aim at learning the secrets of the house,

and from that knowledge be feared.

And since we have begun to make mention of the Greeks, pass on to their

schools of philosophy, and hear the foul crime of the more dignified

cloak.[130] It was a Stoic that killed Bareas--the informer, his

personal friend--the old man, his own pupil--bred on that shore[131]

on which the pinion of the Gorgonean horse lighted. There is no room

for any Roman here, where some Protogenes, or Diphilus, or Erimanthus

reigns supreme; who, with the common vice of his race, never shares

a friend, but engrosses him entirely to himself. For when he has

infused into his patron's too ready ear one little drop of the venom

of his nature and his country, I am ejected from the door; all my

long-protracted service goes for naught. Nowhere is the loss of a

client of less account. Besides (not to flatter ourselves) what service

can the _poor man_ render, what merit can _he_ plead, even though he be

zealous enough to hasten in his toga[132] before break of day, when the

very _prætor_ himself urges on his lictor, and bids him hurry on with

headlong speed, since the childless matrons have been long awake, lest

his colleague[133] be beforehand with him in paying his respects to

Albina and Modia. Here, by the side of a slave, if only rich, walks the

son of the free-born;[134] for the other gives to Calvina, or Catiena

(that he may enjoy her once or twice), as much as the tribunes in the

legion receive;[135] whereas you, when the face of a well-dressed

harlot takes your fancy, hesitate to hand Chione from her exalted seat.

Produce me at Rome a witness of as blameless integrity as the host

of the Idæan deity;[136] let Numa stand forth, or he that rescued

Minerva when in jeopardy from her temple all in flames: the question

first put would be as to his income, that about his moral character

would come last of all. "How many slaves does he keep? How many acres

of public land does he occupy?[137] With how many and what expensive

dishes is his table spread?" In exact proportion to the sum of money

a man keeps in his chest, is the credit given to his oath. Though

you were to swear by all the altars of the Samothracian and our own

gods, the poor man is believed to despise the thunderbolts and the

gods, even with the sanction of the gods themselves. Why add that this

same poor man furnishes material and grounds for ridicule to all, if

his cloak is dirty and torn, if his toga is a little soiled, and one

shoe gapes with its upper leather burst; or if more than one patch

displays the coarse fresh darning thread, where a rent has been sewn

up. Poverty, bitter though it be, has no sharper pang than this, that

it makes men ridiculous. "Let him retire, if he has any shame left,

and quit the cushions of the knights, that has not the income required

by the law, and let these seats be taken by"--the sons of pimps,

in whatever brothel born![138] Here let the son of the sleek crier

applaud among the spruce youths of the gladiator, and the scions of

the fencing-school. Such is the will of the vain Otho, who made the

distinction between us.

Who was ever allowed at Rome to become a son-in-law if his estate was

inferior, and not a match for the portion of the young lady?[139]

What _poor_ man's name appears in any will? When is he summoned to

a consultation even by an ædile? All Quirites that are poor, ought

long ago to have emigrated in a body.[140] Difficult indeed is it for

those to emerge from obscurity whose noble qualities are cramped by

narrow means at home; but at Rome, for men like these, the attempt is

still more hopeless; it is only at an exorbitant price they can get

a wretched lodging, keep for their servants, and a frugal meal.[141]

A man is ashamed here to dine off pottery ware,[142] which, were

he suddenly transported to the Marsi and a Sabine board, contented

there with a coarse bowl of blue earthenware, he would no longer

deem discreditable. There is a large portion of Italy (if we allow

the fact), where no one puts on the toga, except the dead.[143] Even

when the very majesty of festival days is celebrated in a theatre

reared of turf,[144] and the well-known farce at length returns to the

stage,[145] when the rustic infant on its mother's lap is terrified at

the wide mouth of the ghastly mask, _there_ you will see all costumes

equal and alike, both orchestra and common people. White tunics are

quite sufficient as the robe of distinction for the highest personages

there, even the very ædiles. Here, in Rome, the splendor of dress is

carried beyond men's means; here, something more than is enough, is

taken occasionally from another's chest. In this fault all participate.

Here we all live with a poverty that apes our betters. Why should I

detain you? Every thing at Rome is coupled with high price. What have

you to give, that you may occasionally pay your respects to Cossus?

that Veiento may give you a passing glance, though without deigning to

open his mouth? One shaves the beard, another deposits the hair of a

favorite; the house is full of venal cakes.[146] Now learn this fact,

and keep it to work within your breast. We clients are forced to pay

tribute and increase the private income of these pampered slaves.

Who dreads, or ever did dread, the falling of a house at cool

Præneste, or at Volsinii seated among the well-wooded hills, or simple

Gabii,[147] or the heights of sloping Tibur. We, in Rome, inhabit a

city propped in great measure on a slender shore.[148] For so the

steward props up the falling walls,[149] and when he has plastered over

the old and gaping crack, bids us sleep without sense of danger while

ruin hangs over our heads![150] I must live in a place, where there are

no fires, no nightly alarms. Already is Ucalegon shouting for water,

already is he removing his chattels: the third story in the house you

live in is already in a blaze. You are unconscious! For if the alarm

begin from the bottom of the stairs, he will be the last to be burned

whom a single tile protects from the rain, where the tame pigeons lay

their eggs. Codrus had a bed too small for his Procula, six little jugs

the ornament of his sideboard, and a little can besides beneath it, and

a Chiron reclining under the same marble; and a chest now grown old in

the service contained his Greek books, and opic[151] mice-gnawed poems

of divine inspiration. Codrus possessed nothing at all; who denies the

fact? and yet all that little nothing that he had, he lost. But the

climax that crowns his misery is the fact, that though he is stark

naked and begging for a few scraps, no one will lend a hand to help him

to bed and board. But, if the great mansion of Asturius has fallen,

the matrons appear in weeds,[152] the senators in mourning robes, the

prætor adjourns the courts. Then it is we groan for the accidents of

the city; then we loathe the very name of fire. The fire is still

raging, and already there runs up to him one who offers to present

him with marble, and contribute toward the rebuilding. Another will

present him with naked statues of Parian marble,[153] another with a

chef-d'œuvre of Euphranor or Polycletus.[154] Some lady will contribute

some ancient ornaments of gods taken in our Asiatic victories; another,

books and cases[155] and a bust of Minerva; another, a whole bushel of

silver. Persicus, the most splendid of childless men, replaces all

he has lost by things more numerous and more valuable, and might with

reason be suspected of having himself set his own house on fire.[156]

If you can tear yourself away from the games in the circus,[157] you

can buy a capital house at Sora, or Fabrateria, or Frusino, for the

price at which you are now hiring your dark hole for one year. There

you will have your little garden, a well so shallow as to require no

rope and bucket, whence with easy draught you may water your sprouting

plants. Live there, enamored of the pitchfork, and the dresser of your

trim garden,[158] from which you could supply a feast to a hundred

Pythagoreans. It is something to be able in any spot, in any retreat

whatever, to have made one's self proprietor even of a single lizard.

Here full many a patient dies from want of sleep; but that exhaustion

is produced by the undigested food that loads the fevered stomach. For

what lodging-houses allow of sleep? None but the very wealthy can sleep

at Rome.[159] Hence is the source of the disease. The passing of wagons

in the narrow curves of the streets, and the mutual revilings of the

teamdrivers[160] brought to a stand-still, would banish sleep even from

Drusus and sea-calves.[161]

If duty calls him,[162] the rich man will be borne through the yielding

crowd, and pass rapidly over their heads on the shoulders of his tall

Liburnian, and, as he goes, will read or write, or even sleep inside

his litter,[163] for his sedan with windows closed entices sleep. And

still he will arrive before us. In front of us, as we hurry on, a tide

of human beings stops the way; the mass that follows behind presses on

our loins in dense concourse; one man pokes me with his elbow, another

with a hard pole;[164] one knocks a beam against my head, another a

ten-gallon cask. My legs are coated thick with mud; then, anon, I am

trampled upon by great heels all round me, and the hob-nail of the

soldier's caliga remains imprinted on my toe.

Do you not see with what a smoke the sportula is frequented? A

hundred guests! and each followed by his portable kitchen.[165] Even

Corbulo[166] himself could scarcely carry such a number of huge

vessels, so many things piled upon his head, which, without bending his

neck, the wretched little slave supports, and keeps fanning his fire as

he runs along.[167]

Tunics that have been patched together are torn asunder again.

Presently, as the tug approaches, the long fir-tree quivers, other

wagons are conveying pine-trees; they totter from their height, and

threaten ruin to the crowd. For if that wain, that is transporting

blocks of Ligustican stone, is upset, and pours its mountain-load upon

the masses below, what is there left of their bodies? Who can find

their limbs or bones? Every single carcass of the mob is crushed to

minute atoms as impalpable as their souls. While, all this while, the

family at home, in happy ignorance of their master's fate, are washing

up the dishes, and blowing up the fire with their mouths, and making

a clatter with the well-oiled strigils, and arranging the bathing

towels with the full oilflask. Such are the various occupations of the

bustling slaves. But the master himself is at this moment seated[168]

on the banks of Styx, and, being a novice, is horrified at the grim

ferry-man, and dares not hope for the boat to cross the murky stream;

nor has he, poor wretch, the obol in his mouth to hand to Charon.

Now revert to other perils of the night distinct from these. What a

height it is from the lofty roofs, from which a potsherd tumbles on

your brains. How often cracked and chipped earthenware falls from the

windows! with what a weight they dint and damage the flint pavement

where they strike it! You may well be accounted remiss and improvident

against unforeseen accident, if you go out to supper without having

made your will. It is clear that there are just so many chances of

death, as there are open windows where the inmates are awake inside, as

you pass by. Pray, therefore, and bear about with you this miserable

wish, that they may be contented with throwing down only what the broad

basins have held. One that is drunk, and quarrelsome in his cups, if

he has chanced to give no one a beating, suffers the penalty by loss

of sleep; he passes such a night as Achilles bewailing the loss, of

his friend;[169] lies now on his face, then again on his back. Under

other circumstances, he can not sleep. In some persons, sleep is the

result of quarrels; but though daring from his years, and flushed

with unmixed wine, he cautiously avoids him whom a scarlet cloak,

and a very long train of attendants, with plenty of flambeaux and a

bronzed candelabrum, warns him to steer clear of. As for me, whose

only attendant home[170] is the moon, or the glimmering light of a

rushlight, whose wick I husband and eke out--he utterly despises me!

Mark the prelude of this wretched fray, if fray it can be called, where

he does all the beating, and I am only beaten.[171] He stands right

in front of you, and bids you stand! Obey you must. For what can you

do, when he that gives the command is mad with drink, and at the same

time stronger than you. "Where do you come from?" he thunders out:

"With whose vinegar and beans are you blown out? What cobbler has been

feasting on chopped leek[172] or boiled sheep's head with you? Don't

you answer? Speak, or be kicked! Say where do you hang out? In what

Jew's begging-stand shall I look for you?" Whether you attempt to say a

word or retire in silence, is all one; they beat you just the same, and

then, in a passion, force you to give bail to answer for the assault.

This is a poor man's liberty! When thrashed he humbly begs, and

pummeled with fisticuffs supplicates, to be allowed to quit the spot

with a few teeth left in his head. Nor is this yet all that you have to

fear, for there will not be wanting one to rob you, when all the houses

are shut up, and all the fastenings of the shops chained, are fixed and

silent.

Sometimes too a footpad does your business with his knife, whenever

the Pontine marshes and the Gallinarian wood are kept safe by an

armed guard. Consequently they all flock thence to Rome as to a great

preserve.

What forge or anvil is not weighed down with chains? The greatest

amount of iron used is employed in forging fetters; so that you may

well fear that enough may not be left for plowshares, and that mattocks

and hoes may run short. Well may you call our great-grandsires[173]

happy, and the ages blest in which they lived, which, under kings and

tribunes long ago, saw Rome contented with a single jail.[174]

To these I could subjoin other reasons for leaving Rome, and more

numerous than these; but my cattle summon me to be moving, and the

sun is getting low. I must go. For long ago the muleteer gave me

a hint by shaking his whip. Farewell then, and forget me not! and

whenever Rome shall restore you to your native Aquinum, eager to

refresh your strength, then you may tear me away too from Cumæ to

Helvine Ceres,[175] and your patron deity Diana. Then, equipped with

my caligæ,[176] I will visit your chilly regions, to help you in your

satires--unless they scorn my poor assistance.

FOOTNOTES:

_terret_." Donat. in Ter., Adelp., v. s. iv.

annus hic attulit; toto mense Aprili nullus ferè dies quo non recitaret

aliquis."

either from the constant dripping of the aqueduct (hence arcus

stillans), or from the springs near it, hence called Fontinalis; now

St. Sebastian's gate. It opens on the Via Appia.

"O how much more devoutly should we cling

To thoughts that hover round the sacred spring!" Badham.

Read præsentius: cf. Plin., Ep. viii., 8, the description of the

Clitumnus, and Ov., Met., iii., 155, _seq._

iii.) is said to have predicted Galba's death, and probably therefore,

with Juvenal, cordially hated Otho.

"farming the harbor-dues," portoria.

going on there. Hence things so sold were said to be sold _sub hastâ_.

_Domina_, implies "the right of disposal" of all things and persons

there put up. This may mean, therefore, to buy a drove of slaves

on speculation, and sell them again by auction; or, when they have

squandered their all, put themselves up to sale. So Britann. Dryden,

"For gain they sell their very head." "Salable as slaves." Hodgson. So

Browne, who reads "præbere caput domino."

vi., 608.

entrails of _a toad_."

great man will take me in his suite when he goes to his province." Cf.

Sat. viii., 127, "Si tibi sancta cohors comitum." This is better than,

"Therefore I leave Rome alone!" Markland proposes, extinctâ dextrâ.

"Like a dead member from the body rent,

Maim'd and unuseful to the government." Dryden.

"No man's confederate, here alone I stand,

Like the maim'd owner of a palsied hand." Badham.

"Lopp'd from the trunk, a dead, unuseful hand." Hodgson.

with gold." On this Grangæus remarks, "Apage Germani haud germanam

interpretationem! _opaci_ enim est umbris arborum obscuri." Cf.

Mart., i., Ep. 50, "Æstus serenos aureo franges Tago _obscurus umbris

arborum_."

"Grasp thou no boon with sadness on thy brow,

Spurn the base bribe that binds a guilty vow." Badham.

"Shame for Rome that harbors such a crew."

now wears the costume of effeminate Greeks: or all these Greek terms,

used to show the poet's supreme contempt, may refer to the games: the

Trechedipna, not the thin supper-robe, but the same as the Endromis.

The Ceroma, an ointment made of oil, wax, and clay, with which they

bedaubed themselves.

"Work themselves inward, and their patrons out." Dryden.

"Deep in their patron's heart, and fix'd as fate,

The future lords of all his vast estate." Hodgson.

"Torrents of words that might Isæus drown." Badham.

athletes.

"All sciences the hungry Monsieur knows,

And bid him go to hell--to hell he goes!"

repeat Icarus' experiment before Nero. Vid. Suet., Nero, 13.

character as much as his skill in acting.

φαινομηρίδες of Ibycus.

either be the "Stoic's cloak," which was more _ample_ than the scanty

robe of the Cynic; or "the _philosopher's_ cloak," which has therefore

more dignity and weight with it than the soldier's or civilian's. The

allusion is to P. Egnatius Celer, the Stoic, who was bribed to give the

false testimony on which Bareas Soranus was convicted. V. Tac., Ann.,

xvi., 21, seq., and 32.

Corinth.

"Quid faciet pauper cui non licet esse clienti?

Dimisit nostras purpura vestra togas."

"Peregrinus."

latus" means not only to accompany, as a mark of respect, but to give

the inner place; to become his "comes exterior." Horace, ii., Sat. v.,

18. So Gifford, "And if they walk beside him yield the wall."

"For one cold kiss a tribune's yearly pay." Hodgson.

i. e., forty-eight pieces of gold. Cf. Suet., Vesp., xxiii.

Cf. Ov., Fasti, vi., 437.

officious keeper of the seats.

"Long, long ago, in one despairing band,

The poor, self-exiled, should have left the land." Hodgson.

"A menial board and parsimonious fare." Hodgson.

alluded to. It seems better to take it as a _general_ remark. Read

"culullo," not "cucullo," with Browne.

built by Pompey. Cf. In gradibus sedit populus de cæspite factis. Ov.,

Art. Am., i., 107. Cf. Virg., Æn., v., 286.

"In the state show repeated now for years." Hodgson.

of this event, that they are actually "sold" to get rid of them.

"Good client, quickly to the mansion send

Cakes bought by thee for rascal slaves to vend." Badham.

inhabitants.

acclivity.

"And 'tis the village mason's daily calling,

To keep the world's metropolis from falling." Dryden.

"Then bid the tenant sleep secure from dread,

While the loose pile hangs trembling o'er his head." Gifford.

barbarous, rude, unlearned, "the Goths of mice;" from the Opici

or Osci, an Ausonian tribe on the Liris, from whom many barbarous

innovations were introduced into Roman manners and language. "Divina"

may either refer to Homer's poems, or to Codrus' own, which in his own

estimation were "divine." Cf. Sat. i., 2, "rauci Theseide _Codri_."

their part in the common mourning, by appearing without ornaments, in

weeds, and with disheveled hair. Cf. viii., 267. Liv., ii., 7. Luc.,

Phars., ii., 28, _seq._

whitest, hence Virg., Æn., iii., 126, "Niveamque Paron."

body-guard (cf. Ælian., V. H., xiv., 8), called the "Canon." Vid.

Müller's Archæol. of Art, § 120. Euphranor the painter belonged, like

Polycletus, to the Sicyonic school.

Aug., xxxi.

Circenses.

"And add to these retired leisure,

That in trim gardens takes his pleasure."

quiet part of the city, where their rest will not be broken by the

noise of their neighbors, or the street."

drove of cattle, mules," etc.; as Martial, v., Ep. xxii., 7, "Mulorum

vincere mandras." Here "the drovers" themselves are meant.

Seals are proverbially sluggish. Cf. Plin., ix., 13. Virg., Georg.,

iv., 432.

keep the 'dole' warm." The custom is still retained in Italy.

to command in Armenia. Vid. Tac., Ann., xiii., 8.

Cf. Virg., Æn., vi., 313-330.

their patrons;" so "forum attingere; in forum deduci."

"He only cudgels, and I only bear." Dryden.

called "capitatum." Plin., xx., 6. Cf. Sat. xiv., 133, sectivi porri.

means, therefore, eight generations back at least.

added by Servius Tullius, and called from him Tullianum. The next was

built by Ap. Claudius the decemvir.

is variously given.

reminded of Rome; or "with soldier's boots," as armed for our campaign

against the vices of the city.

Once more behold Crispinus![177] and often shall I have to call him

on the stage. A monster! without one virtue to redeem his vices--of

feeble powers, save only in his lust. It is only a widow's charms this

adulterer scorns.

What matters it then in what large porticoes he wearies out his

steeds--through what vast shady groves his rides extend[178]--how many

acres close to the forum, or what palaces he has bought? No bad man is

ever happy. Least of all he that has added incest to his adultery, and

lately seduced the filleted priestess,[179] that with her life-blood

still warm must descend into the earth.

But now we have to deal with more venial acts. Yet if any other man

had committed the same, he would have come under the sentence of our

imperial censor.[180] For what would be infamous in men of worth, a

Titius or Seius, was becoming to Crispinus. What can you do when no

crime can be so foul and loathsome as the perpetrator himself? He gave

six sestertia for a mullet.[181] A thousand sesterces, forsooth! for

every pound of weight, as they allege, who exaggerate stories already

beyond belief. I should commend the act as a master-stroke of policy,

if by so noble a present he had got himself named chief heir[182]

in the will of some childless old man. A better plea still would be

that he had sent it to some mistress of rank, that rides in her close

chair with its wide glasses. Nothing of the sort! He bought it for

himself! We see many things which even Apicius[183] (mean and thrifty

compared with him) never was guilty of. Did you do this in days of

yore, Crispinus, when girt about with your native papyrus?[184] What!

pay this price for fish-scales? Perchance you might have bought the

fisherman cheaper than the fish! You might have bought a whole estate

for the money in some of our provinces. In Apulia, a still larger

one.[185] What kind of luxuries, then, may we suppose were gorged by

the emperor himself, when so many sestertia, that furnished forth but

a small portion, a mere side-dish of a very ordinary dinner, were

devoured by this court buffoon, now clothed in purple. Chief of the

equestrian order now is he who was wont to hawk about the streets shads

from the same borough[186] with himself.

Begin, Calliope! here may we take our seats! This is no poetic fiction;

we are dealing with _facts_! Relate it, Pierian maids! and grant me

grace for having called you _maids_.

When the last of the Flavii was mangling the world, lying at its last

gasp, and Rome was enslaved by a Nero,[187] ay, and a _bald_ one too,

an Adriatic turbot of wonderful size fell into the net, and filled its

ample folds, off the temple of Venus which Doric Ancona[188] sustains.

No less in bulk was it than those which the ice of the Mæotis incloses,

and when melted at length by the sun's rays, discharges at the outlets

of the sluggish Euxine, unwieldly from their long sloth, and fattened

by the long-protracted cold.

This prodigy of a fish the owner of the boat and nets designs for the

chief pontiff. For who would dare to put up such a fish to sale, or to

buy it? Since the shores too would be crowded with informers; these

inspectors of sea-weed, prowling in every nook, would straightway

contest the point[189] with the naked fisherman, and would not scruple

to allege that the fish was a "stray," and that having made its escape

from the emperor's ponds, where it had long reveled in plenty, ought

of course to revert to its ancient lord. If we place any faith in

Palfurius or Armillatus, whatever is pre-eminently fine in the whole

sea, is the property of the exchequer, wherever it swims. So, that

it may not be utterly lost, it will be made a present of, though now

sickly autumn was giving place to winter, and sick men were already

expecting[190] their fits of ague, though the rude tempest whistled

and kept the fish fresh, yet the fisherman hurries on as though a

mild south wind were blowing. And when the lakes were near at hand,

where, though in ruins, Alba[191] still preserves the Trojan fire, and

her Lesser Vesta,[192] the wondering crowd for a short space impeded

his entrance; as they made way for him, the folding-doors flew open

on ready-turning hinge. The senators, shut out themselves, watch the

dainty admitted. He stands in the royal presence. Then he of Picenum

begins, "Deign to accept what is too great for any private kitchen: let

this day be celebrated as the festival of your genius, haste to relieve

your stomach of its burden, and devour a turbot reserved to honor your

reign.[193] It insisted on being caught." What could be more fulsome?

and yet the great man's crest rose. What flattery is there that it is

not prepared to believe, when power is praised as equal to the gods.

But there was no dish of sufficient size for the fish. Therefore the

senators are summoned to a council--men whom he hated! men on whose

faces sat the paleness engendered by the wretched friendship with the

great! At the loud summons of the Liburnian slave, "Run! the emperor

is already seated!" the first to snatch up his cloak and hurry to the

place was Pegasus, lately set as bailiff over the amazed city;[194]

for what else were the præfects of Rome in those days? of whom he was

the best and most conscientious dispenser of the laws, though in

those days of terror he thought all things ought to be administered by

justice unarmed. Crispus[195] came too, that facetious old man, with

high character equal to his eloquence and mild disposition. Who could

have been a more serviceable minister to one that ruled seas, and

lands, and peoples, if, under that bane and pest of mankind, he had

been allowed to reprobate his savage nature and give honest advice?

But what is more ticklish than a tyrant's ear, with whom the life even

of a favorite was at stake, though he might be talking of showers

or heat, or a rainy spring? He, therefore, never attempted to swim

against the stream, nor was he a citizen who dared give vent to the

free sentiments of his soul, and devote his life to the cause of truth:

and so it was that he saw many winters and eighty summers; safe, by

such weapons, even in a court like that. Next to him hurried Acilius,

a man of the same time of life; with a youth[196] that ill deserved

so cruel a death as that which awaited him, so prematurely inflicted

by the tyrant's swords; but nobility coupled with old age, has long

since been a miracle. Consequently, for myself, I should prefer being

a younger brother of the giants.[197] It was of no avail therefore to

the wretched man, that as a naked huntsman in the amphitheatre of Alba,

he fought hand to hand with Numidian bears. For who, in our days, is

not up to the artifices of the patricians? Who would now admire that

primitive cunning of thine, Brutus? It is an easy thing to impose on a

king that wears a beard![198]. Then came Rubrius not a whit less pale,

though he was no noble, one accused of an ancient and nameless crime,

and yet more lost to shame than the pathic satirist.[199] There too

is to be seen Montanus' paunch, unwieldy from its size, and Crispus

reeking with unguent though so early in the day, more than enough to

furnish forth two funerals; and Pompeius, still more ruthless even

than he at cutting men's throats by his insinuating whisper; and he

that kept his entrails only to fatten the Dacian vultures, Fuscus,

that studied the art of war in his marble palace; and the shrewd

Veiento with the deadly Catullus,[200] who raged with lust for a girl

he could not see, a monster and prodigy of guilt even in our days,

the blind flatterer, a common bridge-beggar[201] invested with this

hateful power, whose worthiest fate would be to run begging by the

carriages on the road to Aricia, and blow his fawning kisses to the

chariot as it descends the hill. No one showed more astonishment at the

turbot, for he was profuse in his wonder, turning toward the left, but

unfortunately the fish lay on the other side. This was just the way

he used to praise the combat and fencing of the Cilician gladiator,

and the stage machinery, and the boys caught up by it to the awning.

Veiento is not to be outdone by him; but, like one inspired by the

maddening influence of Bellona, begins to divine. "A mighty omen this

you have received of some great and noble triumph. Some captive king

you'll take, or Arviragus will be hurled from his British car. For the

monster is a foreign one. Do you see the sharp fins bristling on his

back like spears?" In one point only Fabricius was at fault, he could

not tell the turbot's country or age. "What then is your opinion? Is

it to be cut up?" "Heaven forefend so great dishonor to the noble

fish!" says Montanus. "Let a deep dish be provided, whose thin sides

may inclose its huge circumference. Some cunning Prometheus to act on

this sudden emergency is required. Quick with the clay and potter's

wheel! But henceforth, Cæsar, let potters always attend your armies!"

This opinion, worthy of the author, carried the day. He was well versed

in the old luxury of the imperial court, and Nero's nights,[202] and a

second appetite when the stomach was fired with the Falernian.[203] No

one in my day was a greater connoisseur in good eating; he could detect

at the first bite whether the oysters were natives from Circeii, or

the Lucrine rocks, or whether they came from the Rutupian beds, and

told the shore an Echinus came from at the first glance.

They rise; and the cabinet being dismissed, the great chief bids the

nobles depart whom he had dragged to the Alban height, amazed and

forced to hurry, as though he were about to announce some tidings of

the Catti and fierce Sicambri; as though from diverse parts of the

world some alarming express had arrived on hurried wing. And would

that he had devoted to such trifles as these those days of horror

and cruelty, in which he removed from the city those glorious and

illustrious spirits, with none to punish or avenge the deed! But he

perished as soon as he began to be an object of alarm to cobblers. This

was what proved fatal to one that was reeking with the blood of the

Lamiæ!

FOOTNOTES:

Crispinus."

with Domitian.

of the sestertium was reduced after the reign of Augustus. A mullet

even of three pounds' weight was esteemed a great rarity. Vid. Hor.,

Sat., II., ii., 33, "Mullum laudas trilibrem."

Cf. Horace, ii., Sat. v., 53. Suet., Cæs., 83; Nero, 17.

iv., Od. 4. It is still used for the same purpose.

bad air, and the prevalence of the wind Atabulus. Cf. Hor., i., Sat.

v., Montes Apulia notos quos torret Atabulus.

mercede" seems to be the best. Even the fish Crispinus sold were not

his own, he was only hired to sell them for others.

baldness as Cæsar.

Dionysius.

iv., 19. Plin., iv., Ep. xi., "Non in regiam sed in Albanam villam

convocavit."

Rome, which had been established by Numa. The temples were spared at

the time of the destruction of Alba by Tullus Hostilius. Vid. Liv., i.

writers of this age.

liberty, as to be no better than a country vicus, to be governed by a

bailiff.

"Domitian and the flies." Vid. Suet., Dom., 3.

murdered by Domitian out of envy at the applause he received when

fighting in the arena at the emperor's own command.

from Sicily.

49. Quintianus mollitie corporis infamis, et a Nerone probroso carmine

diffamatus.

Veiento wrote some satirical pieces, for which Nero banished him,

and ordered his books to be burnt. Vid. Tac., Ann., xiv., 50. He was

probably the husband of Hippia, mentioned in the 6th Satire, l. 82.

If you are not yet ashamed of your course of life,[204] and your

feeling is still the same, that you consider living at another man's

table to be the chief good; if you can put up with such things as not

even Sarmentus or Galba, contemptible as he was, would have submitted

to even at the unequal[205] board of Cæsar himself; I should be afraid

to believe your evidence though you were on oath. I know nothing

more easily satisfied than the cravings of nature. Yet even suppose

this little that is needed to be wanting, is there no quay vacant?

is there no where a bridge, and a piece of mat, somewhat less than

half, to beg upon? Is the loss of a supper so great a matter? is your

craving so fierce? when, in faith, it were much more reputable[206]

to shiver there, and munch mouldy fragments of dog-biscuit. In the

first place, bear in mind, that when invited to dinner, you receive

payment in full of your long-standing account of service. The sole

result of your friendship with the great man is--a meal! This your

patron sets down to your account, and, rare though it be, still takes

it into the calculation. Therefore, if after the lapse of two months

he deigns to send for his long-neglected client, only that the third

place may not be unoccupied in one couch of his triclinium[207]--"Let

us sup together," he says; the very summit of your wishes! What more

can you desire? Trebius has that for which he ought to break his rest,

and hurry away with latchet all untied, in his alarm lest the whole

crowd at his patron's levee shall have already gone their round of

compliments, when the stars are fading, or at the hour when the chill

wain of sluggish Bootes wheels slowly round.[208]

But what sort of a supper is it after all? Wine, such as wool just

shorn would not imbibe.[209] You will see the guests become frantic

as the priests of Cybele. Wranglings are the prelude of the fray: but

soon you begin to hurl cups as well in retaliation; and wipe your

wounds with your napkin stained with blood; as often as a pitched

battle, begun with pitchers of Saguntine ware, rages between you and

the regiment of freedmen. The great man himself drinks wine racked from

the wood under some consul with long hair,[210] and sips[211] the juice

of the grape pressed in the Social war; never likely, however, to send

even a small glass to a friend, though sick at heart. To-morrow, he

will drink the produce of the mountains of Alba or Setia,[212] whose

country and date age has obliterated by the accumulated mould on the

ancient amphora; such wine as, with chaplets on their heads, Thrasea

and Helvidius used to drink on the birthdays of the Bruti and Cassius.

Virro himself holds capacious cups formed of the tears of the

Heliades[213] and phialæ incrusted with beryl. You are not trusted

with gold: or even if it is ever handed to you, a servant is set as

a guard over you at the same time, to count the gems and watch your

sharp nails. Forgive the precaution: the jasper so much admired there

is indeed a noble one: for, like many others, Virro transfers to his

cups the gems from off his fingers, which the youth, preferred to the

jealous Hiarbas,[214] used to set on the front of his scabbard. You

will drain a cup with four noses, that bears the name of the cobbler of

Beneventum,[215] already cracked, and fit to be exchanged, as broken

glass, for brimstone.[216]

If your patron's stomach is overheated with wine and food, he calls for

water cooled by being boiled and then iced in Scythian snow.[217] Did

I complain just now that the wine set before you was not the same as

Virro's? Why, the very water you drink is different. Your cups will be

handed you by a running footman from Gætulia, or the bony hand of some

Moor, so black that you would rather not meet him at midnight, while

riding through the tombs on the steep Latin way. Before Virro himself

stands the flower of Asia, purchased at a greater sum than formed the

whole revenue of the warlike Tullus, or Ancus--and, not to detain you,

the whole fortunes[218] of all the kings of Rome. And so, when you

are thirsty, look behind you for your black Ganymede that comes from

Africa. A boy that costs so many thousands deigns not to mix wine for

the poor. Nay, his very beauty and bloom of youth justify his sneer.

When does he come near you? When would he come, even if you called him,

to serve you with hot or cold water? He scorns, forsooth, the idea of

obeying an old client, and that _you_ should call for any thing from

his hand; and that you should recline at table, while he has to stand.

Every great house is proportionably full of saucy menials.

See, too, with what grumbling another of these rascals hands you bread

that can scarce be broken; the mouldy fragments of impenetrable crust,

which would make your jaws ache, and give you no chance of a bite.

But delicate bread, as white as snow, made of the finest flower, is

reserved for the great man. Mind you keep your hands off! Maintain the

respect due to the cutter of the bread![219] Imagine, however, that you

have been rather too forward; there stands over you one ready to make

you put it down. "Be so good, audacious guest, as to help yourself from

the bread-basket you have been used to, and know the color of your own

particular bread." "So then![220] it was for this, forsooth, that I so

often quitted my wife, and hurried up the steep ascent of the bleak

Esquiline, when the vernal sky rattled with the pelting of the pitiless

hail, and my great coat dripped whole showers of rain!"

See! with how vast a body the lobster which is served to your patron

fills the dish, and with what fine asparagus it is garnished all round;

with what a tail he seems to look down in scorn on the assembled

guests, when he comes in raised on high by the hands of the tall slave.

But to you is served a common crab, scantily hedged in[221] with half

an egg sliced, a meal fit only for the dead,[222] and in a dish too

small to hold it. Virro himself drowns his fish in oil from Venafrum;

but the pale cabbage set before you, poor wretch, will stink of the

lamp. For in the sauceboats you are allowed, there is served oil such

as the canoe of the Micipsæ has imported in its sharp prow; for which

reason no one at Rome would bathe in the same bath with Bocchor; which

makes the blackamoors safe even from the attacks of serpents.

Your patron will have a barbel furnished by Corsica, or the rocks of

Tauromenium, when all our own waters have been ransacked and failed;

while gluttony is raging, and the market is plying its unwearied nets

in the neighboring seas, and we do not allow the Tyrrhene fish to

reach their full growth. The provinces, therefore, have to supply our

kitchen; and thence we are furnished with what Lenas the legacy-hunter

may buy, and Aurelia sell again.[223] Virro is presented with a lamprey

of the largest size from the Sicilian whirlpool. For while Auster keeps

himself close, while he seats himself and dries his wet pinions in

prison, the nets,[224] grown venturesome, despise the dangers even of

the middle of Charybdis. An eel awaits you--first-cousin to the long

snake--or a coarse pike[225] from the Tiber, spotted from the winter's

ice, a native of the bank-side, fattened on the filth of the rushing

sewer, and used to penetrate the drain even of the middle of Suburra.

"I should like to have a word with Virro, if he would lend an attentive

ear. No one now expects from you such presents as used to be sent

by Seneca to his friends of humble station, or the munificent gifts

which the bountiful Piso or Cotta used to dispense; for in days of

old the glory of giving was esteemed a higher honor than fasces

or inscriptions. All we ask is that you would treat us at supper

like fellow-citizens. Do this, and then, if you please, be, as many

now-a-days are, luxurious when alone, parsimonious to your guests."

Before Virro himself is the liver of a huge goose; a fat capon, as big

as a goose; and a wild boar, worthy of the spear of the yellow-haired

Meleager, smokes. Then will be served up truffles, if it happen to

be spring, and the thunder, devoutly wished for by the epicure,

shall augment the supper. "Keep your corn, O Libya," says Alledius,

"unyoke your oxen; provided only you send us truffles!" Meanwhile,

that no single source of vexation may be wanting, you will see the

carver[226] capering and gesticulating with nimble knife, till he has

gone through all the directions of his instructor in the art. Nor is

it in truth a matter of trifling import with what an air a leveret or

a hen is carved. You would be dragged by the heels, like Cacus[227]

when conquered by Hercules, and turned out of doors, if you were ever

to attempt to open your mouth, as though you had three names.[228]

When does Virro pass the cup to you, or take one that your lips have

contaminated? Which of you would be so rash, so lost to all sense of

shame, as to say, "Drink, sir!" to your patron lord? There are very

many things which men with coats worn threadbare dare not say. If any

god, or godlike hero, kinder to you than the fates have been, were to

give you a knight's estate, what a great man would you, small mortal,

become all at once from nothing at all! What a dear friend of Virro's!

"Give this to Trebius![229] Set this before Trebius! My dear brother,

will you take some of this sweet-bread?"

O money! it is to thee he pays this honor! it is _thou_ and he are

the brothers! But if you wish to be my lord, and my lord's lord, let

no little Æneas sport in your hall,[230] or a daughter more endearing

than he. It is the barrenness of the wife that makes a friend really

agreeable and beloved. But even suppose your Mycale should be confined,

though she should even present you three boys at a birth, he will be

the very one to be delighted with the twittering nest; will order his

green stomacher[231] to be brought, and the filberts,[232] and the

begged-for penny, whenever the infant parasite shall come to dine with

him.

Before his friends whom he holds so vile will be set some

very questionable toadstools--before the great man himself, a

mushroom[233]--but such an one as Claudius ate, _before_ that furnished

by his wife, _after_ which he ate nothing more. Virro will order to be

served to himself and his brother Virros such noble apples, on whose

fragrance alone you are allowed to revel; such as the eternal autumn

of the Phæacians produced; or such as you might fancy purloined from

the African sisters. You feast upon some shriveled windfall, such as is

munched at the ramparts by him that is armed with buckler and helmet:

and, in dread of the lash, learns to hurl his javelin from the shaggy

goat's[234] back.

You may imagine, perhaps, that Virro does all this from stinginess. No!

his very object is to vex you. For what play, what mime is better than

disappointed gluttony? All this, therefore, is done, if you don't know

it, that you may be forced to give vent to your bile by your tears, and

gnash long your compressed teeth. You fancy yourself a freeman--the

great man's welcome guest! He looks upon you as one caught by the savor

of his kitchen. Nor does he conjecture amiss. For who is so utterly

destitute as twice to bear with his insolence, if it has been his good

fortune, when a boy, to wear the Tuscan gold,[235] or even the boss,

the badge of leather, that emblem of poverty.

The hope of a good dinner deludes you. "See! sure he'll send us now a

half-eaten hare, or a slice of that wild-boar haunch.[236] Now we shall

get that capon, as he has helped himself!" Consequently you all sit in

silent expectation, with bread in hand, untouched and ready for action.

And he that uses you thus shows his wisdom--if you _can_ submit to all

these things, then you _ought_ to bear them. Some day or other, you

will present your head with shaven crown, to be beaten: nor hesitate

to submit to the harsh lash--well worthy of such a banquet and such a

friend as this!

FOOTNOTES:

different guests.

culcitra, or cushion, on the lowest (tertia) bed, and only because

there was no one else to occupy it.

Macbeth, Act iii., 4. Cf. Anacreon, iii., 1; Theocr., xxiv., 11. i. e.,

a little after midnight.

sudare inceperunt oves: a quo sudore recens lana tonsa sucida appellata

est. Tonsus recentes eodem die perungunt vino et oleo." Varro, R. R.,

II., xi., 6.

ii., Sat. viii., 16.

Phaeton, the daughters of the Sun, shed for his loss, on the banks of

the Eridanus, where they were metamorphosed into poplars or alders.

Vatinius, "Sutrinæ tabernæ alumnus," whom he took first as his buffoon,

and afterward as his confidant. Tac., Ann., xv., 34. Cf. Martial, xiv.,

Ep. 96.

fractis permutat vitreis. Vid. x., 3, Quæ sulphurata nolit empta

ramento Vatiniorum proxeneta fractorum. Compare the "Bellarmines" of

mediæval pottery and the Flemish "Graybeards."

vitroque demissam in nives refrigerare." Plin., xxxi., 3.

sea."

dead. Cf. Plaut., Pseud., III., ii., 7; Aul., II., iv., 45.

the distance it was caught from the common sewers of Rome. Hor., ii.,

Sat. ii., 31.

cognomen. Slaves had no prænomen. Cf. Pers., Sat. v., 76-82. He means

to imply that, by turning parasite, Trebius had virtually forfeited the

privileges of a free Roman.

est." Xen., Anab., I., ix., 26.

armor, to be worn by children playing at soldiers.

was prepared by Locusta. Cf. Sat. i., 71. Martial, Ep., I., xxi., 4,

"Boletum qualem Claudius edit, edas." Cf. Suet., Nero, 33.

equipped as a soldier, to amuse the Prætorian guards at their barrack

gate; or, as some think, the "recruit" himself is intended, and then

Capella is taken as a proper name.

borrowed from the Etruscans, and at first confined to the children of

nobles. It was afterward borne, like the "tria nomina," by all who were

free-born, till they were fifteen. The poorer citizens had it made of

leather, or some cheap material. Cf. xiv., 5, hæres bullatus.

I believe that while Saturn still was king, chastity lingered upon

earth, and was long seen there: when a chill cavern furnished a scanty

dwelling, and inclosed in one common shade the fire and household gods,

the cattle, and their owners. When a wife, bred on the mountains,

prepared a rustic bed with leaves and straw and the skins of the wild

beasts their neighbors; not like thee, Cynthia[237]--or thee whose

beaming eyes the death of a sparrow dimmed with tears--but bearing

breasts from which her huge infants might drink, not suck, and often

more uncivilized even than her acorn-belching husband. Since men lived

very differently then, when the world was new, and the sky but freshly

created, who, born out of the riven oak, or moulded out of clay, had no

parents.

Many traces of primæval chastity, perhaps, or some few at least, may

have existed, even under Jove; but then it was before Jove's beard was

grown; before the Greeks were yet ready to swear by another's head;

when no one feared a thief for his cabbages or apples, but lived with

garden uninclosed. Then by degrees Astræa retired to the realms above,

with chastity for her companion, and the two sisters fled together.

To violate the marriage-bed, and laugh to scorn the genius that

presides over the nuptial couch, is an ancient and a hackneyed vice,

Postumus. Every other species of iniquity the age of iron soon

produced. The silver age witnessed the first adulterers.

And yet are you preparing your marriage covenant, and the

settlement,[238] and betrothal, in our days, and are already under

the hands of the master barber, and perhaps have already given the

pledge for her finger! Well! you _used_ to be sane, at all events! You,

Postumus, going to marry! Say, what Tisiphone, what snakes are driving

you mad? Can you submit to be the slave of any woman, while so many

halters are to be had? so long as high and dizzy windows are open for

you, and the Æmilian bridge presents itself so near at hand? Or if, out

of so many ways of quitting life, none pleases you, do you not think

your present plan better, of having a stripling to sleep with you, who

lying there, reads you no curtain lectures, exacts no little presents

from you, and never complains that you are too sparing in your efforts

to please him?

But Ursidius is delighted with the Julian law[239]--he thinks of

bringing up a darling heir, nor cares to lose the fine turtledove and

bearded mullets,[240] and all the baits for legacies in the dainties of

the market. What will you believe to be impossible, if Ursidius takes a

wife? If he, of yore the most notorious of adulterers, whom the chest

of Latinus in peril of his life has so often concealed, is now going to

insert his idiot head in the nuptial halter; nay, and more than this,

is looking out for a wife possessed of the virtues of ancient days!

Haste, physicians, bore through the middle vein! What a nice man! Fall

prostrate at the threshold of Tarpeian Jove, and sacrifice to Juno a

heifer with gilded horns, if you have the rare good fortune to find a

matron with unsullied chastity. So few are there worthy to handle the

fillets of Ceres; so few, whose kisses their own fathers might not

dread. Wreathe chaplets for the door-posts, stretch thick clusters of

ivy over the threshold. Is one husband enough for Iberina? Sooner will

you prevail on her to be content with one eye. "Yet there is a great

talk of a certain damsel, living at her father's country-house!" Let

her live at Gabii as she lived in the country, or even at Fidenæ, and

I grant what you say of the influence of the paternal country-seat.

Yet who will dare assert that nothing has been achieved on mountains

or in caves? Are Jupiter and Mars grown so old. In all the public

walks can a woman be pointed out to you, that is worthy of your wish.

On all their benches do the public shows hold one that you could love

without misgivings; or one you could pick out from the rest? While

the effeminate Bathyllus is acting Leda in the ballet, Tuccia can not

contain herself, Appula whines as in the feat of love, Thymele is all

attention to the quick, the gentler, and the slow; and so Thymele,

rustic as she was before, becomes a proficient in the art. But others,

whenever the stage ornaments, packed away, get a respite, and the

courts alone are vocal (since the theatres are closed and empty, and

the Megalesian games come a long time after the plebeian), in their

melancholy handle the mask and thyrsus and drawers of Accius. Urbicus

provokes a laugh by his personification of Autonoe in the Atellan

farce. Ælia, being poor, is in love with him. For others, the fibula

of the comic actor is unbuckled for a large sum. Some women prevent

Chrysogonus from having voice to sing. Hispulla delights in a tragic

actor. Do you expect then that the worthy Quintilianus will be the

object of their love? You take a wife by whom Echion the harper, or

Glaphyrus, or Ambrosius the choral flute-player, will become a father.

Let us erect long lines of scaffolding along the narrow streets. Let

the door-posts and the gate be decorated with a huge bay, that beneath

the canopy inlaid with tortoise-shell,[241] thy infant, Lentulus,

supposed to be sprung from a noble sire, may be the counterpart of the

Mirmillo Euryalus.

Hippia, though wife to a senator, accompanied a gladiator to Pharos

and the Nile, and the infamous walls of Lagos.[242] Even Canopus

itself reprobated the immorality of the imperial city. She, forgetful

of her home, her husband, and her sister, showed no concern for her

native land, or, vile wretch as she was, her weeping children, and,

to amaze you even more, quitted the shows and Paris. But though when

a babe she had been pillowed in great luxury, in the down of her

father's mansion, and a cradle of richest workmanship, she despised

the perils of the sea. Her good name she had long before despised--the

loss of which, among the soft cushions of ladies, is very cheaply

held. Therefore with undaunted breast she faced the Tuscan waves and

wide-resounding Ionian Sea, though the sea was so often to be changed.

If the cause of the peril be reasonable and creditable, then they are

alarmed--their coward hearts are chilled with icy fear--they can not

support themselves on their trembling feet. They show a dauntless

spirit in those things which they basely dare. If it is their husband

that bids them, it is a great hardship to go on board ship. Then the

bilgewater is insufferable! the skies spin round them! She that follows

her adulterer has no qualms. The one is sick all over her husband. The

other dines among the sailors and walks the quarter-deck, and delights

in handling the hard ropes. And yet what was the beauty that inflamed,

what the prime of life that captivated Hippia? What was it she saw in

him to compensate her for being nicknamed the fencer's whore? For the

darling Sergius had now begun to shave his throat; and badly wounded

in the arm to anticipate his discharge. Besides, he had many things to

disfigure his face, as for instance--he was galled with his helmet, and

had a huge wen between his nostrils, and acrid rheum forever trickling

from his eye. But then he was a gladiator! It is this that makes them

beautiful as Hyacinthus! It was this she preferred to her children and

her native land, her sister and her husband. It is the steel they are

enamored of. This very same Sergius, if discharged from the arena,

would begin to be Veiento in her eyes.

Do you feel an interest in a private house, in a Hippia's acts? Turn

your eyes to the rivals of the gods! Hear what Claudius had to endure.

As soon as his wife perceived he was asleep, this imperial harlot, that

dared prefer a coarse mattress to the royal bed, took her hood she

wore by nights, quitted the palace with but a single attendant, but

with a yellow tire concealing her black hair; entered the brothel warm

with the old patchwork quilt, and the cell vacant and appropriated to

herself. Then took her stand with naked breasts and gilded nipples,

assuming the name of Lycisca, and displayed the person of the mother of

the princely Britannicus, received all comers with caresses and asked

her compliment, and submitted to often-repeated embraces. Then when the

owner dismissed his denizens, sadly she took her leave, and (all she

could do) lingered to the last before she closed her cell; and still

raging with unsatisfied desire, tired with the toil but yet unsated,

she retired with sullied cheeks defiled, and, foul from the smoke of

lamps, bore back the odor of the stews to the pillow of the emperor.

Shall I speak of the love-philters, the incantations, the poison

mingled with the food and given to the step-son? The acts which they

commit, to which they are impelled by the imperative suggestions of

their sex,[243] are still more atrocious: those they commit through

lust are the least of their crimes. "Then, how can it be that even

by her husband's showing Cesennia is the best of wives?" She brought

him a thousand sestertia! that is the price at which he calls her

chaste. It is not with Venus' quiver that he grows thin, or with her

torch he burns; it is from that his fires are fed; from her dowry that

the arrows emanate. She has purchased her liberty: therefore, even

in her husband's presence, she may exchange signals, and answer her

love-letters. A rich wife, with a covetous husband, has all a widow's

privileges. "Why then does Sertorius burn with passion for Bibula?"

If you sift the truth, it is not the wife he is in love with, but the

face. Let a wrinkle or two make their appearance, and the shriveled

skin grow flaccid, her teeth get black, or her eyes smaller--"Pack

up your baggage," the freedman will say, "and march. You are become

offensive. You blow your nose too frequently. March! and be quick about

it! Another is coming whose nose is not so moist." Meanwhile she is

hot and imperious, and demands of her husband shepherds and sheep from

Canusium, and elms[244] from Falernum. What a trifle is this? Then

every boy she fancies, whole droves of slaves, and whatever she has not

in her house, and her neighbor has, must be bought.

Nay, in the mid-winter month, when now the merchant Jason is shut up,

and the cottage[245] white with hoar frost detains the sailors all

equipped for their voyage, she takes huge crystalline vases,[246] and

then again myrrhine of immense size; then an adamant whose history is

well known, and whose value is enhanced by having been on Berenice's

finger. This in days of yore a barbarian king gave his incestuous

love--Agrippa to his own sister! where barefoot kings observe festal

sabbaths, and a long-established clemency grants long life to pigs.

"Is there not one, then, out of such large herds of women, that seems

to you a worthy match?" Let her be beautiful, graceful, rich, fruitful;

marshal along her porticoes her rows of ancestral statues; let her be

more chaste than any single Sabine that, with hair disheveled, brought

the war to a close; be a very phœnix upon earth, rare as a black swan;

who could tolerate a wife in whom all excellencies are concentrated! I

would rather, far rather, have a country maiden from Venusia, than you,

O Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, if along with your exalted virtues

you bring as portion of your dower a haughty and disdainful brow, and

reckon as part of your fortune the triumphs of your house! Away, I beg,

with your Hannibal and Syphax conquered in his camp, and tramp with all

your Carthage!

"Spare, I pray thee, Pæan! and thou, O goddess, lay down thine arrows!

The children are innocent. Transfix the mother herself!" So prays

Amphion. Yet Pæan bends his bow. Therefore she had to bury her herds

of children, together with their sire, while Niobe seems to herself to

be more noble than Latona's race, and moreover more fruitful even than

the white sow. What dignity of deportment, what beauty, can compensate

for your wife's always throwing her own worth in your teeth? For all

the satisfaction of this rare and chief good is destroyed, if, entirely

spoilt by haughtiness of soul, it entails more bitter than sweet. But

who is so devotedly uxorious, as not to feel a dread of her whom he

praises to the skies, and hate her seven hours out of every twelve?

There are some things, trifling indeed, and yet such as no husband can

tolerate. For what can be more sickening than the fact that no one

woman considers herself beautiful, unless instead of Tuscan she has

become a little Greek--metamorphosed from a maid of Sulmo to a "maid of

Athens." Every thing is in Greek. (While surely it is more disgraceful

for our countrywomen not to know their mother tongue.) In this language

they give vent to their fears, their anger, their joys and cares,

and all the inmost workings of their soul. Nay more, they kiss à la

Grecque! This in young girls you may excuse. But must thou, forsooth,

speak Greek, that hast had the wear and tear of six and eighty years?

In an old woman this language becomes immodest, when interspersed with

the wanton Ζωὴ καὶ ψυχή. You are employing in public, expressions one

might think you had just used under the counterpane. For whose passion

would not be excited by these enticing and wanton words? It has all

the force of actual touching. Yet though you pronounce them all in

more insinuating tones than even Hæmus or Carpophorus, your face, the

tell-tale of your years, makes all the feathers droop.

If you are _not_ likely to love her that is contracted and united to

you in lawful wedlock, there seems no single reason why you should

marry, nor why you should waste the wedding dinner and bride cakes[247]

which you must dispense, when their complimentary attendance is over,

to your bridal guests already well crammed; nor the present given for

the first nuptial night, when, in the well-stored dish, Dacicus[248]

and Germanicus glitters with its golden legend. If you are possessed

of such simplicity of character as to be enamored of your wife, and

your whole soul is devoted to her alone, then bow your head with

neck prepared to bear the yoke. You will find none that will spare a

man that loves her. Though she be enamored herself, she delights in

tormenting and fleecing her lover. Consequently a wife is far more

disastrous to him that is likely to prove a kind and eligible husband.

You will never be allowed to make a present without your wife's

consent. If she opposes it, you must not sell a single thing, or buy

one, against her will. She will give away your affections. That good

old friend of many long years will be shut out from that gate that saw

his first sprouting beard.[249] While pimps and trainers have free

liberty to make their own wills, and even gladiators enjoy the same

amount of privilege, you will have your will dictated to you, and find

more than one rival named as your heirs.

"Crucify that slave." "What is the charge, to call for such a

punishment? What witness can you produce? Who gave the information?

Listen! Where man's life is at stake no deliberation can be too long."

"Idiot! so a slave is a man then! Granted he has done nothing. I _will_

it, I _insist_ on it! Let my will stand instead of reason!"

Therefore she lords it over her husband:--but soon she quits these

realms, and seeks new empires and wears out her bridal veil. Then she

flies back, and seeks again the traces of the bed she scorned.[250] She

leaves the doors so recently adorned, the tapestry still hanging on the

house, and the branches still green upon the threshold. Thus the number

grows: thus she has her eight[251] husbands in five years. A notable

fact to record upon her tomb!

All chance of domestic happiness is hopeless while your wife's mother

is alive. She bids her exult in despoiling her husband to the utmost.

She teaches her how to write back nothing savoring of discourtesy or

inexperience to the missives of the seducer. She either balks or bribes

your spies; then, though your daughter is in rude health, calls in

Archigenes, and tosses off the bedclothes as too oppressive. Meanwhile

the adulterer, concealed apart, stands trembling with impatient

expectation. Do you expect, forsooth, that the mother will inculcate

virtuous principles, or other than she cherishes herself? It is right

profitable too for a depraved old hag to train her daughter to the same

depravity.

There is scarcely a single cause in which a woman is not engaged

in some way in fomenting the suit. If Manilia is not defendant,

she will be plaintiff. They draw up and frame bills of indictment

unassisted,[252] quite prepared to dictate even to Celsus[253] the

exordium and topics he should use.

The Tyrian Endromides[254] and the Ceroma for women who is ignorant

of? Or who has not seen the wounds of the Plastron,[255] which she

dints with unwearied foil, and attacks with her shield, and goes with

precision through her exercise? A matron most pre-eminently worthy

of the trumpet of the Floralia. Unless indeed in that breast of hers

she is plotting something deeper, and training in real earnest for

the amphitheatre.[256] What modesty can a woman show that wears a

helmet, and eschews her sex, and delights in feats of strength? And

yet, in spite of all, this virago would not wish to become a man. For

how small is our pleasure compared to theirs! Yet what a goodly array

would there be, if there were an auction of your wife's goods: belt

and gauntlets[257] and crest, and the half-armor for the left leg! Or

if she shall engage in a different way of fighting,[258] you will be

lucky indeed when your young wife sells her greaves. Yet these very

same women perspire even in their muslin; whose delicate frames even

a slip of sarcenet oppresses. See! with what a noise she makes the

home-thrusts taught her by the trainer, and what a weight of helmet

bows her down, how firmly she plants herself on her haunches, in what

a thick mass is the roll of clothes. Then smile when, laying aside

her arms, she takes her oblong vessel. Tell me, ye granddaughters of

Lepidus or blind Metellus, or Fabius Gurges, what actress ever wore a

dress like this? When would Asylus' wife cry Hah! at the Plastron?

The bed in which a wife lies is the constant scene of quarrels and

mutual recriminations. There is little chance of sleep there. Then

is she indeed bitter toward her husband, fiercer than tigress robbed

of her whelps; when, conscious of her secret guilt, she counterfeits

groans, or hates the servants, or upbraids you with some rival of her

own creation, with tears ever fruitful, ever ready at their post, and

only waiting her command in what way to flow. You believe it genuine

love. You, poor hedge-sparrow, plume yourself, and kiss off the tears!

Ah! what amorous lays, what letters would you read, if you were but to

examine the writing-case of that adulteress that counterfeits jealousy

so well!

But suppose her actually caught in the arms of a slave or knight. "Pray

suggest in this case some colorable excuse, Quintilian!" "We are at

fault! Let the lady herself speak!" "It was formerly agreed," she says,

"that you should do what you pleased, and that I also might have full

power to gratify myself. In spite of your outcry and confounding heaven

and sea, I am mortal." Nothing is more audacious than these women when

detected. They affect resentment, and borrow courage from their very

guilt itself.

Yet should you ask whence are these unnatural prodigies, or from what

source they spring; it was their humble fortune that made the Latin

women chaste in days of yore, nor did hard toil and short nights' rest,

and hands galled and hardened[259] with the Tuscan fleece, and Hannibal

close to the city, and their husbands mounting guard at the Colline

tower, suffer their lowly roofs to be contaminated by vice. Now we are

suffering all the evils of long-continued peace. Luxury, more ruthless

than war, broods over Rome, and exacts vengeance for a conquered

world. No guilt or deed of lust is wanting, since Roman poverty has

disappeared. This was the source whence Sybaris flowed to these seven

hills, and Rhodes too, and Miletus, and Tarentum crowned with garlands,

insolent and flushed with wine!

Money, the nurse of debauchery, was the first that introduced foreign

manners, and enervating riches sapped the sinews of the age with foul

luxury. For what cares Venus in her cups? All difference of head

or tail is alike to her who at very midnight devours huge oysters,

when unguents mixed with neat Falernian foam, when she drains the

conch,[260] when from her dizziness the roof seems to reel, and the

table to rise up with the lights doubled in number.[261] Go then, and

knowing all this, doubt, if you can, with what a snort of scorn Tullia

snuffs up the air when she passes the ancient altar of Chastity; or

what Collatia says to her accomplice Maura. Here they set down their

litters at night, and bedew the very image of the goddess with copious

irrigations, while the chaste moon witnesses their abominations,[262]

over which, when morn returns, you pass on your way to visit your great

friends.

The secrets of Bona Dea are well known. When the pipe excites them, and

inflamed alike with the horn and wine, these Mænads of Priapus rush

wildly round, and whirl their locks and howl! Then, as their passions

rise, how burning is their lust, how frantic their words, when all

power of restraining their desires is lost! A prize is proposed, and

Saufeia[263] challenges the vilest of her sex, and bears off the prize.

In these games nothing is counterfeit, all is acted to the life; so

that even the aged Priam, effete from years, or Nestor himself, might

be inflamed at the sight. Then their lust admits of no delay. Then the

woman appears in all her native depravity; and by all alike is the

shout re-echoed from the whole den--"Now is the proper time. Let in

the men!" But the adulterer still sleeps; so she bids the youth put on

a female hood, and speed to the spot. If none can be found, they have

recourse to slaves. If there is no hope of slaves, they will hire some

water-carrier to come. If this fails too, and no men can be found, she

would not hesitate to descend still lower in the scale of creation.

Oh, would that our ancient rites and public worship could at least be

celebrated, uncontaminated by such pollutions as these! But even the

Moors and Indians know what singing wench produced his wares equal

in bulk to Cæsar's two Anticatos, in a place whence even a mouse,

conscious of his sex, would flee, and every picture is veiled over that

represents the other sex. Yet, even in those days, what man despised

the deity? or who had dared to ridicule Numa's earthen bowl and black

dish, and the brittle vessels from Mount Vatican. But now what altars

are there that a Clodius does not assail?

I hear the advice that my good friends of ancient days would give--"Put

on a lock! keep her in confinement!" But who is to guard the guards

themselves? Your wife is as cunning as you, and begins with them. And,

in our days, the highest and the lowest are fired with the same lust.

Nor is she that wears out the black pavement with her feet, better than

she who is borne on the shoulders of her tall Syrian slaves.

Ogulnia, in order that she may go in due state to the games, hires a

dress, and attendants, and a sedan, and pillow, and female friends;

and a nurse, and yellow-haired girl[264] to whom she may issue her

commands. Yet all that remains of her family plate, and even the very

last remnants of it,[265] she gives to well-oiled Athletes. Many women

are in straitened circumstances at home; yet none of them has the

modest selfrestraint that should accompany poverty, or limits herself

within that measure which her poverty has allotted and assigned to her.

Yet _men_ do sometimes look forward to what may be to their interest

hereafter, and, with the ant for their instructress, some have at last

felt a dread of cold and hunger. Yet woman, in her prodigality,

perceives not that her fortune is fast coming to naught; and as though

money, with vegetative power, would bloom afresh[266] from the drained

chest, and the heap from which she takes would be ever full, she never

reflects how great a sum her pleasures cost her. Some women ever take

delight in unwarlike eunuchs, and soft kisses, and the loss of all hope

of beard, that precludes the necessity of abortives. Yet the summit

of their pleasure is when this operation has been performed in the

heat and prime of manhood, and the only loss sustained is that the

surgeon Heliodorus cheats the barber of his fees. Such is his mistress'

will: and, conspicuous from afar, and attracting the eyes of all, he

enters the baths, and vies even with the god that guards our vines and

gardens. Let him sleep with his mistress! But, Postumus, suffer not the

youthful Bromius to enter the lists with him.

If she takes delight in singing, the fibula of none of these fellows

that sells his voice to the prætor holds out: the instruments are

forever in her hands; the whole lyre sparkles with the jewels thickly

set. She runs over the strings with the vibrating quill,[267] with

which the soft Hedymeles performed: this she holds in her hands;

with this she consoles herself, and lavishes kisses on the plectrum,

dear for its owner's sake. One of the clan of the Lamiæ,[268] a lady

of lofty rank, inquired with meal-cake and wine of Janus and Vesta,

whether Pollio might venture to hope for the oaken crown at the

Capitoline games,[269] and promise it to his lyre. What more could

she do were her husband sick? What, if the physicians had despaired

of her infant son? She stood before the altar, and thought no shame

to veil her head for a harper: and went through in due form the words

prescribed,[270] and grew pale as the lamb was opened. Tell me now, I

pray, tell me, thou ancientest of gods, father Janus! dost thou return

answer to these? Great must be indeed the leisure[271] of heaven! There

can be no business there, as far as I see, stirring among you. One

woman consults you about comic actors; another would fain commend a

tragedian to your notice: the soothsayer will become varicose.[272]

But let her rather be musical than fly through the whole city, with

bold bearing; and encounter the assemblies of men, and in her husband's

presence herself converse with generals in their scarlet cloaks,[273]

with unabashed face and breasts exposed. She too knows all that is

going on in the whole world--what the Seres[274] or Thracians are

engaged in--the secrets of the step-mother and her son--what adulterer

is in love, or is in great request. She will tell you who made the

widow pregnant--in what month it was--in what language and manner

each act of love takes place. She is the first[275] to see the comet

that menaces the Armenian and Parthian king; and she intercepts[276]

at the gates the reports and freshest news. Some she invents as well.

That Niphates[277] has overwhelmed whole nations, and that the whole

country is there laid under water by a great deluge; that cities are

tottering, the earth sinking down--this she tells in every place of

resort to every one she meets.

And yet that vice is not more intolerable, than that, though earnestly

entreated,[278] she will seize upon her poor neighbors, and have them

cut in two with lashes. For if her sound slumbers are disturbed by

the barking of a dog, "Bring the clubs[279] here at once!" she cries:

and orders the owner first to be beaten with them, and then the dog.

Terrible to encounter, most awful in visage, she enters the baths by

night--by night she orders her bathing vessels and camp to be set in

motion. She delights in perspiring with great tumult; when her arms

have sunk down wearied with the heavy dumb-bells; and the sly anointer

has omitted to rub down no part of her body. Her poor wretches of

guests meanwhile are overcome with drowsiness and hunger. At last the

lady comes; flushed, and thirsty enough for a whole flagon,[280] which

is placed at her feet and filled from a huge pitcher: of which a second

pint is drained before she tastes food, to make her appetite[281]

quite ravenous. Then having rinsed out her stomach, the wine returns

in a cascade on the floor--rivers gush over the marble pavement,[282]

or the broad vessel reeks of Falernian--for thus, just as when a long

snake has glided into a deep cask, she drinks and vomits. Therefore her

husband turns sick; and with eyes closed smothers his rising bile.

And yet that woman is more offensive still, who, as soon as she has

taken her place at table, praises Virgil, and excuses the suicide

of Dido: matches and compares poets together: in one scale weighs

Maro in the balance, and Homer in the other. The grammarians yield;

rhetoricians are confuted; the whole company is silenced; neither

lawyer nor crier[283] can put in a word, nor even another woman. Such

a torrent of words pours forth, you would say so many basins or bells

were all being struck at once. Henceforth let no one trouble trumpets

or brazen vessels; she will be able singly to relieve the moon when

suffering[284] an eclipse. The philosopher sets a limit even to those

things which are good in themselves. For she that desires to appear

too learned and eloquent, ought to wear a tunic reaching only to the

middle of the leg, to sacrifice a pig to Sylvanus,[285] and bathe for

a quadrans. Let not the matron that shares your marriage-bed possess a

set style of eloquence, or hurl in well-rounded sentence the enthymeme

curtailed[286] of its premiss; nor be acquainted with all histories.

But let there be some things in books which she does not understand.

I hate her who is forever poring over and studying Palæmon's[287]

treatise; who never violates the rules and principles of grammar; and

skilled in antiquarian lore, quotes verses I never knew; and corrects

the phrases of her friend as old-fashioned,[288] which men would never

heed. A husband should have the privilege of committing a solecism.

There is nothing a woman will not allow herself, nothing she holds

disgraceful, when she has encircled her neck with emeralds, and

inserted earrings of great size in her ears, stretched with their

weight. Nothing is more unbearable than a rich woman!

Meanwhile her face, shocking to look at, or ridiculous from the large

poultice, is all swollen; or is redolent of rich Poppæan unguents,[289]

with which the lips of her wretched husband are glued up. She will

present herself to her adulterer with skin washed clean. When does

she choose to appear beautiful at home? It is for the adulterers her

perfumes are prepared. It is for these she purchases all that the

slender Indians send us. At length she uncases her face and removes

the first layer. She begins to be herself again; and bathes in that

milk,[290] for which she carries in her train she-asses, even if

sent an exile to Hyperborean climes. But that which is overlaid and

fomented with so many and oft-changed cosmetics, and receives poultices

of boiled and damp flour, shall we call it a face,[291] or a sore?

It is worth while to find out exactly what their occupations and

pursuits are through the livelong day. If her husband has gone to

sleep with his back toward her, the housekeeper is half killed--the

tire-women are stripped to be whipped--the Liburnian slave is accused

of having come behind his time, and is forced to pay the penalty of

another's sleep; one has rods broken[292] about him, another bleeds

from the whips, a third from the cowhide. Some women pay a regular

salary to their torturers. While he lashes she is employed in enameling

her face. She listens to her friend's chat, or examines the broad gold

of an embroidered robe. Still he lashes. She pores over the items

in her long diary.[293] Still he lashes. Until at length, when the

torturers are exhausted, "Begone!" she thunders out in awful voice, the

inquisition being now complete.

The government of her house is no more merciful than the court of a

Sicilian tyrant. For if she has made an assignation, and is anxious to

be dressed out more becomingly than usual, and is in a hurry, and has

been some time already waited for in the gardens, or rather near the

chapels of the Isiac[294] procuress; poor Psecas arranges her hair,

herself with disheveled locks and naked shoulders and naked breasts.

"Why is this curl too high?" Instantly the cowhide avenges the heinous

crime of the misplacing of a hair. What has poor Psecas done? What

crime is it of the poor girl's if your own nose has displeased you?

Another, on the left hand, draws out and combs her curls and rolls

them into a band. The aged matron assists at the council, who, having

served her due period[295] at the needle, now presides over weighing

out the tasks of wool. Her opinion will be first taken. Then those who

are her inferiors in years and skill will vote in order, as though

their mistress's good name or life were at stake. So great is the

anxiety of getting beauty! Into so many tiers she forms her curls, so

many stages high she builds[296] her head; in front you will look upon

an Andromache, behind she is a dwarf--you would imagine her another

person. Excuse her, pray, if nature has assigned her but a short back,

and if, without the aid of high-heeled buskins, she looks shorter than

a Pigmy[297] maiden; and must spring lightly up on tip-toe for a kiss.

No thought meanwhile about her husband! not a word of her ruinous

expenditure! She lives as though she were merely a neighbor[298] of her

husband's, and in this respect alone is nearer to him--that she hates

her husband's friends and slaves, and makes grievous inroads on his

purse.

But see! the chorus of the maddened Bellona and the mother of the

gods enters the house! and the huge eunuch (a face to be revered by

his obscene inferior) who long ago emasculated himself with a broken

shell; to whom his hoarse troop and the plebeian drummers give

place, and whose cheek is covered with his Phrygian tiara. With voice

grandiloquent he bids her dread the approach of September and the

autumn blasts, unless she purifies herself with a hecatomb of eggs, and

makes a present to him of her cast-off murrey-colored[299] robes: that

whatever unforeseen or mighty peril may be impending over her may pass

into the tunics, and at once expiate the whole year. She will break

the ice and plunge into the river in the depth of winter, or dip three

times in Tiber at early dawn, and bathe her timid head in its very

eddies, and thence emerging will crawl on bleeding knees, naked and

shivering, over the whole field of the haughty king.[300] If white Io

command, she will go to the extremity of Egypt, and bring back water

fetched from scorching Meroë, to sprinkle on the temple of Isis, that

rears itself hard by the ancient sheepfold.[301] For she believes that

the warning is given her by the voice of the goddess herself. And this,

forsooth, is a fit soul and mind[302] for the gods to hold converse

with by night! He therefore gains the chief and highest honor, who,

surrounded by his linen-robed flock,[303] and a bald-headed throng of

people uttering lamentations, runs to and fro personating the grinning

Anubis. He it is that supplicates for pardon whenever the wife does

not refrain from nuptial joys on days to be observed as sacred, and a

heavy penalty is incurred from the violation of the snowy sheeting.

And the silver serpent was seen to nod his head! His are the tears,

and his the studied mumblings, that prevail on Osiris not to withhold

pardon for her fault, when bribed by a fat goose and a thin cake. When

he has withdrawn, some trembling Jewess, having quitted her basket and

hay, begs in her secret ear, the interpretess of the laws of Solyma,

the potent priestess of the tree--the trusty go-between from highest

heaven![304] And she crosses her hand with money, but sparingly enough:

for Jews will sell you any dreams you please for the minutest coin. The

soothsayer of Armenia or Commagene,[305] handling the liver of the dove

still reeking, engages that her lover shall be devoted, or promises

the rich inheritance of some childless rich man; he pries into the

breasts of chickens and the entrails of a puppy; sometimes too even of

a child--he does acts of which he will himself turn informer![306]

But their confidence in Chaldæans will be greater still: whatever the

astrologer tells them, they will believe reported straight from the

fountain of Ammon; since at Delphi the oracles are dumb, and darkness

as to the future is the punishment of the human race. However, of

these he is in the highest repute who has been often banished; by whose

friendship and venal[307] tablets it came to pass that a citizen of

high rank[308] died, and one dreaded by Otho. Hence arises confidence

in his art, if both his hands have clanked with chains, and he has been

long an inmate of the camp-prison. No astrologer that has never been

condemned will have any reputation for genius; but he that has hardly

escaped with his life, and scarcely had good fortune enough to be sent

to one of the Cyclades,[309] and at length to be set free from the

confined Seriphos, he it is whom your Tanaquil[310] consults about the

death of her jaundiced mother, for which she has been long impatient;

but first, about yourself! when she may hope to follow to the grave her

sister and her uncles; whether her adulterer will survive her, for what

greater boon than this have the gods in their power to bestow?

And yet she is ignorant what the ill-omened planet of Saturn forebodes;

with what star Venus presents herself in fortunate conjunction; what is

the month for ill-luck; what seasons are assigned to profit.

Remember to shun even a casual meeting with her in whose hands you see,

like the unctuous amber,[311] their calendars well thumbed; who instead

of consulting others is now herself consulted; who when her husband is

going to join his camp or revisit his home, will refuse to accompany

him if restrained by the calculations of Thrasyllus.[312] When it is

her fancy to ride as far as the first mile-stone, the lucky hour is

taken from her book; if the corner of her eye itches when she rubs it,

she calls for ointment after a due inspection of her horoscope: though

she lies sick in bed no hour appears suited to taking food, save that

which Petosiris[313] has directed. If she be of moderate means, she

will traverse the space on both sides of the pillars of the circus, and

draw lots, and present her forehead and her hand to the fortune-teller

that asks for the frequent palming. The rich will obtain answers from

some soothsayer of Phrygia or India hired for the purpose, from some

one skilled in the stars and heavens, or one advanced in years who

expiates the public places which the lightning[314] has struck. The

destiny of the plebeians is learnt in the circus, and at Tarquin's

rampart.[315] She that has no long necklace of gold to display,

inquires in front of the obelisks and the dolphin-columns,[316] whether

she shall jilt the tapster and marry the old-clothes man.

Yet these, when circumstances so require, are ready to encounter the

perils of childbirth, and endure all the irksome toils of nursing. But

rarely does a gilded bed contain a woman lying-in: so potent are the

arts and drugs of her that can insure barrenness, and for bribes kill

men while yet unborn. Yet grieve not at this, poor wretch! and with

thine own hand give thy wife the potion, whatever it be: for did she

choose to bear her leaping children in her womb, thou wouldst perchance

become the sire of an Æthiop; a blackamoor would soon be your sole

heir, one whom you would not see of a morning.[317]

I say nothing of supposititious children, and all a husband's joys and

fond hopes baffled at the dirty pools;[318] and the Pontifices and

Salii selected thence, who are to bear in their counterfeit persons the

noble name of Scauri. Fortune, that delights in mischief, takes her

stand by night and smiles upon the naked babes. All these she cherishes

and fosters in her bosom: then proffers them to the houses of the

great, and prepares in secret a rich sport for herself. These she dotes

on:[319] on these she forces her favors; and smiling, leads them on to

advancement as her own foster-children.

One fellow offers a wife magical incantations. Another sells her love

potions from Thessaly, to give her power to disturb her husband's

intellects, and punish him with the indignity of the slipper. To these

it is owing that you are reduced to dotage: hence comes that dizziness

of brain, that strange forgetfulness of things that you have but just

now done. Yet even this is endurable, if you do not go raving mad as

well, like that uncle of Nero for whom his Cæsonia infused the whole

forehead of a foal new dropped. Who will not follow where the empress

leads? All things were wrapped in flames and with joints disruptured

were tottering to their fall, exactly as if Juno had driven her spouse

to madness. Therefore the mushroom[320] of Agrippina had far less of

guilt: since that stopped the breath but of a single old man, and bade

his trembling head descend to heaven,[321] and his lips that slavered

with dribbling saliva. Whereas this potion of Cæsonia[322] calls aloud

for fire and sword and tortures, and mangles in one bloody mass both

senators and knights. So potent is a mare's offspring! Such mighty ruin

can one sorceress work!

Women hate their husbands' spurious issue. No one would object to

or forbid that. But now it is thought allowable to kill even their

husbands' sons by a former marriage.

Take my warning, ye that are under age and have a large estate, keep

watch over your lives! trust not a single dish! The rich meats steam,

livid with poison of your mother's mixing. Let some one take a bite

before you of whatever she that bore you hands you; let your pedagogue,

in terror of his life, be taster of your cups.

All this is our invention! and Satire is borrowing the tragic buskin,

forsooth; and transgressing the limits prescribed by those who trod

the path before us, we are wildly declaiming in the deep-mouthed tones

of Sophocles[323] a strain of awful grandeur, unknown to the Rutulian

hills and Latin sky. Would that it were but fable! But Pontia[324] with

loud voice exclaims, "I did the deed. I avow it! and prepared for my

own children the aconite, which bears palpable evidence against me.

Still[325] the act was mine!" "What, cruelest of vipers! didst thou

kill two at one meal! Two, didst thou slay?" "Ay, seven, had there

haply been seven!"

Then let us believe to be true all that tragedians say of the

fierce Colchian or of Progne. I attempt not to gainsay it. Yet they

perpetrated atrocities that were monstrous even in their days--but not

for the sake of money. Less amazement is excited even by the greatest

enormities, whenever rage incites this sex to crime, and with fury

burning up their very liver, they are carried away headlong; like rocks

torn away from cliffs, from which the mountain-height is reft away, and

the side recedes from the impending mass.

I can not endure the woman that makes her calculations, and in cold

blood perpetrates a heinous crime. They sit and see Alcestis[326]

on the stage encountering death for her husband, and were a similar

exchange allowed to them, would gladly purchase a lapdog's life by the

sacrifice of their husband's! You will meet any morning with Danaides

and Eriphylæ in plenty; not a street but will possess its Clytæmnestra.

This is the only difference, that that famed daughter of Tyndarus

grasped in both hands a bungling, senseless axe.[327] But now the

business is dispatched with the insinuating venom of a toad. But yet

with the steel too; if her Atrides has been cautious enough to fortify

himself with the Pontic antidotes of the thrice-conquered[328] king.

FOOTNOTES:

mistress of Catullus. V. Catull., Carm. iii. "Lugete O Veneres," etc.

Pactum, "the contract." Sponsalia, "the betrothing." Hence virgins were

said to be speratæ; pactæ; sponsæ.

by Pliny, vii., 12, of the consuls Lentulus and Metellus, who were

observed by all present to be wonderfully like two gladiators then

exhibiting before them. Cf. Val. Max., ix., 14.

his successors.

put for the vines themselves. Cf. Virg., Georg., i., 2, "Ulmisque

adjungere vites." Cf. Sat. viii., 78, Stratus humi palmes viduas

desiderat ulmos. Hence Platanus Cælebs evincet ulmos. Cf. Hor., Epod.,

i., 9.

The _casa candida_ is said to mean the "white booths" so erected as to

hide the picture of the "Argonautic" expedition, at the time of the

Sigillaria, a kind of fair following the Saturnalia, when gems, etc.,

were exposed for sale. Cf. Suet., Nero, 28.

which from the ignorance of the use of metallic oxydes were very rare

among the Romans, though they possessed the art of coloring glass with

many varieties of hue.

meal and anise, moistened with new wine.

Dacian, the second from his German wars. It was customary to present a

plate full of these to the bride on the wedding night. Domitian assumed

the title of Germanicus A.D. 84, and of Dacicus, A.D. 91.

"She tells thee where to love and where to hate,

Shuts out the ancient friend, whose beard thy gate

Knew from its downy to its hoary state." Gifford.

"They meet in private and prepare the bill,

Draw up the instructions with a lawyer's skill." Gifford.

"And teach the toothless lawyer how to bite." Dryden.

Cornelius Celsus, the well-known physician in Tiberius' reign, who

wrote seven books of Institutes, and P. Juventius Celsus, who lived

under Trajan and Hadrian, and wrote Digests and Commentaries.

after the violent exertions in the arena. _Ceroma._ Cf. iii., 68. The

gladiator's ointment, made of oil, wax, and clay. "Nec injecto ceromate

brachia tendis." Mart., vii., Ep. xxxii., 9.

practice their sword exercise, armed with shields and wooden swords

double the regulation weight.

fuscina Gracchi, ii., 117. Cedamus tunicæ, viii., 207), the manicæ are

probably "the sleeves of the tunic." Cf. Liv., ix., 40.

softening the wool hardened the hands. Ov., Fast., iii., 817.

improbably, some large shell mounted in gold for a cup, like the

Nautilus of Middle Ages.

"I can't see the Speaker, Hal, can you?"

"Not see the Speaker? I see two!"

heaven see the pranks they dare not show their husbands!"

clientarum." In Greece and Italy blonde hair was as much prized

as dark hair was among northern nations. Hence Helen, Achilles,

Menelaus, Meleager, etc., are all ξανθοὶ. The ladies, therefore,

prided themselves as much as the men on the personal beauty of their

attendants. Cf. v., 56, "Flos Asiæ ante ipsum," etc. The _nutrix_ is

the intriguing confidante who manages the amours. The _flava puella_,

the messenger.

"A trim girl with golden hair to slip her billets." Gifford.

"She who before had mortgaged her estate,

And pawn'd the last remaining piece of plate." Dryden.

"As if the source of this exhausted store

Would reproduce its everlasting ore." Hodgson.

ivory. Vid. Virg., Æn., vi., 646, _seq._

"Obloquitur _numeris_ septem discrimina vocum,

Jamque eadem digitis jam _pectine_ pulsat _eburno_."

"Decks it with gems, and plays the lessons o'er,

Her loved Hedymeles has play'd before." Hodgson.

Domit., 4), and was celebrated every fifth year in honor of Jove.

after the officiating priest was a most important part of the sacrifice.

"Is your attention to such suppliants given?

If so, there is not much to do in heaven." Gifford.

from standing so long praying.

"The poor Aruspex that stands there to tell

All woman asks, must find his ankles swell." Badham.

Bocharia. It was the country from which the "Sericæ vestes" or

"multitia" (ii., 66) came.

tyranni." Trajan made an expedition against the Armenians and Parthians

A.D. 106; and about the same time there was an earthquake in the

neighborhood of Antioch (A.D. 115), when mountains subsided and

rivers burst forth. Dio Cass., lxviii., 24. Trajan himself narrowly

escaped perishing in it. The consul, M. Verginianus Pedo, was killed.

Trajan was passing the winter there, and set out in the spring for

Armenia.--_Cometem._ Cf. Suet., Ner., 36, "Stella crinita quæ summis

potestatibus exitium portendere vulgo putatur."

"Hear at the city's gate the recent tale,

Or coin a lie herself when rumors fail." Hodgson.

takes its rise, and which, in the earlier part of its course, may have

borne the name of Niphates. Lucan, iii., 245, and Sil. Ital., xiii.,

765, also speak of it as a river. Gifford thinks it is a sly hit at the

lady, who converts a mountain into a river.

their punishment would have been still more cruel.

"Ho whips! she cries; and flay that cur accurst,

But flay the rascal there that owns him first!" Gifford.

measure, holding 24 sextarii, or about 3 gallons, i. e., half the

amphora. Cf. xii., 45, "Urnæ cratera capacem, et dignum sitiente Pholo,

vel conjuge Fusci."

Mart., xii., Ep. 83. Cf. Cic. pro Deiotaro, 7, "Vomunt ut edant: edunt

ut vomant."

orbem." Hor., ii., Od. xxiv., 26, "Mero tinguet pavimentum superbum."

"Dumfounders e'en the crier, and, most strange!

No other woman can a word exchange." Hodgson.

caused by magic, and that loud noises broke the charm.

"Strike not your brazen kettles! She alone

Can break th' enchantment of the spell-bound moon." Hodgson.

sacrificed to Ceres and Juno. Vid. Dennis' Etruria, ii., 65-68. Cf.

Hor., ii., Ep. i., 143.--_Quadrans._ Philosophers used to go to the

commonest baths, either from modesty or poverty. Seneca calls the

bath "Res Quadrantaria." Cf. Hor., i., Sat. iii., 147. Cic. pro Cœl.

"Quadrantaria permutatio."

Quint., vi., 3, "Jaculatio verborum." So Plato uses the term δεινὸς

ἀκοντιστής, of a Spartan orator.

Grammaticus." Hieron. "Remmius Palæmon," Vicentinus, owed his first

acquaintance with literature to taking his mistress' son to school as

his "custos angustæ vernula capsæ" (x., 117). Manumitted afterward, he

taught at Rome in the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius, and "principem

locum inter grammaticos tenuit." Vid. Suet., Gram. Illust., 23, who

says he kept a very profitable school, and gives many curious instances

of his vanity and luxuriousness. He was Quintilian's master. Cf. Vet.

Schol., and Clinton, Fasti Rom. in anno, A.D. 48.

iis qui imperitè loquuntur. Vet. Schol.

whom Tacitus says, "Huic mulieri cuncta alia fuere præter honestum

animum," Ann., xiii., 45. She was of surpassing beauty and insatiable

ambition: married first to Rufus Crispinus, a knight whom she quitted

for Otho. Nero became enamored of her, and sent Otho into Lusitania,

where he remained ten years. (Cf. Suet., Otho, 3. Clinton, F. R., a.

58.) Four years after he put away Octavia, banished her to Pandataria,

and forced her to make away with herself, and her head was brought to

Rome to be gazed upon by Poppæa, whom he had now married, A.D. 62. Cf.

Tac., Ann., xiv., 64. Poppæa bore him a child next year, whom he called

Augusta, but she died before she was four months old, to his excessive

grief. Cf. xv., 23. Three years after, "Poppæa mortem obiit, fortuitâ

mariti iracundiâ, à quo gravida ictu calcis adflicta est." Nero, it

is remarkable, died on the same day of the month as the unfortunate

Octavia.

her fifty she-asses to furnish milk for her bath. The story of her

exile is very problematical, as Heinrich shows, and is probably only

an ordinary hyperbole. Pliny says (xxviii., 12; xi., 41) that asses'

milk is supposed to make the face tender, and delicately white, and to

prevent wrinkles. "Unde Poppæa uxor Neronis, quocunque ire contigisset

secum sexcentas asellas ducebat." ὄνους πεντακοσίας ἀρτιτόκους. Xiph.,

lxii., 28.

"Can it be call'd a face, so poulticed o'er?

By heavens, an ulcer it resembles more!" Hodgson.

"But tell me yet, this thing thus daub'd and oil'd,

Thus poulticed, plaster'd, baked by turns and boil'd;

Thus with pomatums, ointments, lackered o'er,

Is it a face, Ursidius, or a sore?" Gifford.

vitem." The climax here is not correctly observed, according to Horace.

"Ne scuticâ dignum horribili sectere flagello: Nam, ut ferula cædas

meritum majora subire Verbera non vereor." I., Sat. iii., 119. The

_scutica_ was probably like the "taurea:" the "cowskin" of the American

slave States.

the deliberate cruelty of the lady.

"Beats while she paints her face, surveys her gown,

Casts up the day's accounts, and still beats on." Dryden.

celebrare solebas."

"emeritus."

"So high she builds her head, she seems to be,

View her in front, a tall Andromache;

But walk all round her, and you'll quickly find

She's not so great a personage behind!" Hodgson.

"Yet not a pigmy--were she, she'd be right

To wear the buskin and increase her height;

To gain from art what nature's stint denies,

Nor lightly to the kiss on tip-toes rise." Hodgson.

"And save that daily she insults his friends,

Provokes his servants, and his fortune spends,

As a mere neighbor she might pass through life,

And ne'er be once mistaken for his wife." Badham.

coccinum et muricem medius," from ξηρὸς, siccus, ἄμπελος, vitis, "the

color of vine leaves in autumn;" the "morte feuille" of French dyers.

Tarquinius Superbus.

Martius, where the elections were held.

soul. Cf. Virg., Æn., vi., 11, "Cui mentem animamque Delius inspirat

Vates." When opposed to _animus_, anima is simply "the principle of

vitality." "Anima, quâ vivimus; mens qua cogitamus." Lactant. So Sat.,

xv., 148, "Indulsit communis conditor illis tantum animas nobis animum

quoque."

"Doubtless such kindred minds th' immortals seek,

And such the souls with whom by night they speak." Badham.

calvi sistrataque turba." Isis is said to have been a queen of Egypt,

and to have taught her subjects the use of linen, for which reason

the inferior priests were all clothed in it. All who were about to

celebrate her sacred rites had their heads shaved. Isis married Osiris,

who was killed by his brother Typhon, and his body thrown into a well,

where Isis and her son Anubis, by the assistance of dogs, found it.

Osiris was thenceforth deified under the form of an ox, and called

Apis: Anubis, under the form of a dog. (Hence Virg., Æn., viii., 698,

"Latrator Anubis.") An ox, therefore, with particular marks (vid.

Strab., xvii.; Herod., iii., 28), was kept in great state, which Osiris

was supposed to animate; but when it had reached a certain age (non est

fas eum certos vitæ excedere annos, Plin., viii., 46), it was drowned

in a well (mersum in sacerdotum fonte enecant) with much ceremonious

sorrow, and the priests, attended by an immense concourse of people,

dispersed themselves over the country, wailing and lamenting, in quest

of another with the prescribed marks (quæsituri luctu alium quem

substituant; et donec invenerint mærent, derasis etiam capitibus.

Plin., ii., 3). When they had found one, their lamentations were

exchanged for songs of joy and shouts of εὑρήκαμεν (cf. viii., 29,

Exclamare libet populus quod clamat Osiri invento), and the ox was

led back to the shrine of his predecessor. These gloomy processions

lasted some days; and generally during these (or nine days at least)

women abstained from intercourse with their husbands. These rites were

introduced at Rome, the chief priest personating Anubis, and wearing a

dog's head. Hence _derisor_. Cf. xv., 8, "Oppida tota canem venerantur."

"Her internuntial office none deny,

Between us peccant mortals and the sky." Badham.

"Or bid, at times, the human victim bleed,

And then inform against you for the deed." Hodgson.

"By whose hired tablet and concurring spell,

The noble Roman, Otho's terror, fell." Hodgson.

affirmatione Seleuci _Mathematici_, qui cum eum olim superstitem Neroni

fore spopondisset, tunc ultro inopinatus advenerat, imperaturum quoque

brevi repromittens." Cf. Tac., Hist., i., 22, who says one Ptolemæus

promised Otho the same when with him in Spain. Ptolemy helped to

fulfill his own predictions, "Nec deerat Ptolemæus, jam et sceleris

instinctor, ad quod facillimè ab ejusmodi voto transitur."

dignum." x., 170, "Ut Gyaræ clausus scopulis parvaque Seripho."

mulier."

"To him thy Tanaquil applies, in doubt

How long her jaundiced mother may hold out." Gifford.

their hands for its scent. Mart., iii., Ep. lxv., 5, "redolent quod

sucina trita." xi., Ep. viii., 6, "spirant, succina virgineâ quod

regelata manu." Cf. v., Ep. xxxviii., II. (Cf. ix., 50.)

"By whom a greasy almanac is borne,

With often handling, like chafed amber worn." Dryden.

"Chaldean art" at Rhodes (Tac., Ann., vi., 20), and accompanied his

patron to Rome. (Cf. Suet., Aug., 98.) Cf. Suet., Tib., 14, 62, and

Calig., 19, for a curious prediction belied by Caligula.

23; vii., 49.

sent for to purify it, a two-year-old sheep was then sacrificed, and

the ground, hence called bidental, fenced in.

Superbus. Cf. viii., 43, "ventoso conducta sub aggere texit." Hor., i.,

Sat. viii., 15, "Aggere in aprico spatiari."

Neptunus Equestris, or Consus. Hence the dolphins on the columns in

the Circus Maximus. The circus was divided along the middle by the

Spina, at each extremity of which stood three pillars (metæ) round

which the chariots turned: along this spine were seven movable towers

or obelisks, called from their oval form ova, or phalæ; one was taken

down at the end of each course. There were four factions in the

circus, Blue, Green (xi., 196). White, and Red, xii., 114; to which

Domitian added the Golden and the Purple. Suet., Domit., 7. The egg

was the badge of the Green faction (which was the general favorite),

the dolphin of the Blue or sea party. For the form of these, see

the Florentine gem in Milman's Horace, p. 3. Böttiger has a curious

theory, that the four colors symbolize the four elements, the green

being the earth. The circus was the resort of prostitutes (iii., 65)

and itinerant fortune-tellers. (Hence "_fallax_," Hor., i., Sat., vi.,

113.) Cf. Suet., Jul., 39, and Claud., 21.

important omen of the good or bad luck of the whole day. This is well

turned by Hodgson:

"The sooty embryo, had he sprung to light,

Had heir'd thy will and petrified thy sight;

Each morn with horror hadst thou turn'd away,

Lest the dark omen should o'ercloud the day."

the Herb-market: the low ground on which this stood, at the base of

Aventine, Palatine, and Capitoline, was often flooded and covered with

stagnant pools. "Hoc ubi nunc fora sunt udæ tenuere paludes," Ov.,

Fast., vi., 401. The "Velabri regio" of Tibull., ii., v., 33.

"The beggars' bantlings spawn'd in open air,

And left by some pond-side to perish there;

From hence your Flamens, hence your Salii come,

Your Scauri chiefs and magistrates of Rome." Gifford.

the gods" after this. Cf. Suet., Nero, 33. Tac., Ann., xii., 66, 7.

Mart., i., Ep. xxi.

"That only closed the driveling dotard's eyes,

And sent his godhead downward to the skies." Dryden.

uxore, amatorio quidem medicamento, sed quod in furorem verterit."

"Are these then fictions? and would satire's rage

Sweep in Iambic pomp the tragic stage

With stately Sophocles, and sing of deeds

Strange to Rutulian skies and Latian meads?" Badham.

her two children, and afterward committed suicide. The fact was duly

inscribed on her tomb. Cf. Mart., vi., Ep. 75.

"Alcestis, lo! in love's calm courage flies

To yonder tomb where, else, Admetus dies,

While those that view the scene, a lapdog's breath

Would cheaply purchase by a husband's death." Badham.

"But here the difference lies--those bungling wives

With a blunt axe hack'd out their husbands' lives." Gifford.

quod Mithridates Composuit si vis aliam decerpere ficum Atque alias

tractare rosas."

All our hope and inducement to study[329] rests on Cæsar[330] alone.

For he alone casts a favoring eye[331] on the Muses, who in our days

are in a forlorn state. When poets, now become famous and men of

renown, would fain try and hire a little bath at Gabii, or a public

oven at Rome. While others, again, would esteem it neither shocking

nor degrading to turn public criers: since Clio herself, if starving,

would quit the vales of Aganippe, and emigrate to courts.[332] For if

not a single farthing is offered you in the Pierian shades, be content

with the name and calling of Machæra:[333] and sooner sell what the

auction duly set[334] sells to those that stand around; wine-flagons,

trivets, book-cases, chests; the "Alcyone" of Paccius, or the "Thebes"

and "Tereus" of Faustus. This is preferable to asserting before the

judge that you are a witness of what you never did see.[335] Even

though Asiatic,[336] and Cappadocian, and Bithynian knights stoop

to this: fellows whom Gallo-Græcia transports hither with chalked

feet.[337] Hereafter, however, no one will be compelled to submit

to an employment derogatory to his studies, who unites loftiness

of expression to tuneful numbers, and has chewed the bay.[338] Set

vigorously to work then, young men! The kindness[339] of the emperor is

looking all around, and stimulates your exertions, while he is seeking

worthy objects of his patronage. If you think that from any other

quarter you may look for encouragement in your pursuits, and with that

view fill the parchment of your yellow[340] tablet; call with all speed

for a fagot, and make a present of all your compositions, Telesinus, to

Venus' husband:[341] or lock them up, and let the bookworm[342] bore

them through as they lie stowed away. Destroy your pens, poor wretch!

Blot out your battles that have lost you your nights' rest, you that

write sublime poetry in your narrow garret,[343] that you may come

forth worthy of an ivy-crown and meagre image. You have nothing farther

to hope for. The stingy patron of our days has learned only to admire

and praise the eloquent as boys do Juno's peacock.[344] But your prime

of life is ebbing away; that is able to bear the fatigue of the sea,

the helmet, or the spade. Then weariness creeps over the spirits: and

an old age, that is indeed learned but in rags,[345] curses itself and

the Muses that it courted. Now learn the devices of the great man

you pay court to, to avoid laying out any money upon you: quitting

the temple of the Muses, and Apollo, he composes verses himself, and

only yields the palm to Homer himself on the score of his priority by

a thousand years. But if inflamed by the charms of fame you recite

your poetry, he kindly lends you a dirty mansion, and places at your

service one that has been long barred up, whose front gate emulates

those of a city in a state of siege. He knows how to place his freedmen

in seats at the farther end of the audience, and how to arrange his

clients who are to cheer you lustily.[346] None of these great lords

will give you as much as would pay for the benches,[347] or the seats

that rise one above another on the platform you have to hire; or your

orchestra of chairs, which must be returned when your recitation is

over. Yet still we ply our tasks, and draw furrows in the profitless

dust, and keep turning up the sea-shore with sterile plow. For even if

you try to abandon the pursuit, the long habit[348] of indulging in

this vain-glorious trifling,[349] holds you fast in its fetters. An

inveterate itch of writing, now incurable, clings to many, and grows

old in their distempered body. But the poet that is above his fellows,

whose vein is not that of the common herd; that is wont to spin out

no stale or vulgar subject, and stamps no hackneyed verse from a die

that all may use; such an one as I can not embody in words, and can

only feel in my soul, is the offspring of a mind free from solicitude,

exempt from all that can embitter life, that courts the quiet of the

woods, and loves to drink the fountains of the Aonides. Nor can it be

that poverty should sing in the Pierian cave, or handle the thyrsus,

if forced to sobriety, and lacking that vile pelf the body needs both

day and night. Well plied with food and wine is Horace when _he_ shouts

out his Evoe![350] What scope is there for fancy, save when our breasts

are harassed by no thoughts but verse alone; and are hurried along[351]

under the influence of the lords of Cirrha and Nysa, admitting of no

divided[352] solicitude. It is the privilege of an exalted soul, and

not of one bewildered how to get enough to buy a blanket, to gaze on

chariots and horses and the forms of divinities, and in what dread

shapes Erinnys[353] appalls the Rutulian. For had Virgil lacked a slave

and comfortable lodging, all the serpents would have vanished from

Alecto's hair: his trumpet, starved to silence, would have blazed no

note of terror. Is it fair to expect that Rubrenus Lappa should not

fall short of the buskin of the ancients, while his Atreus[354] forces

him to pawn his very sauceboats and his cloak?

Poor Numitor is so unfortunate as to have nothing he can afford to send

his protégé! Yet he can find something to give Quintilla--he managed

to pay for a tame lion, that must have pounds of flesh to feed him. No

doubt the huge beast is kept at far less expense; and a poet's stomach

is far more capacious! Let Lucan recline at his ease in his gardens

among his marble statues, satisfied with fame alone. But to poor

Serranus, and starving Saleius, of what avail will glory be, however

great, if it be glory only? All flock in crowds to hear his sweet

voice, and the tuneful strains of the Thebais, when Statius[355] has

gladdened the city, and fixed the day for reciting it. So great is the

charm with which he captivates their souls; such the eager delight with

which he is listened to by the multitude. But when the very benches

are broken down by the ecstasies with which his verses are applauded,

he may starve, unless he sells[356] his unpublished "Agave"[357]

to Paris. It is he that bestows on many the honors due to military

service, and encircles the fingers of poets with the ring that marks

their six months' command.[358] What nobles will not give, a player

will! And dost thou, then, still pay court to the Camerini and Bareæ,

and the spacious halls of nobles? It is "Pelopea" that makes prefects,

"Philomela" tribunes. Yet envy not the bard whom the stage maintains.

Who is your Mæcenas now, or Proculeius, or Fabius? Who will act Cotta's

part again, or be a second Lentulus? In those days talent had its meet

reward: then it was profitable to many to become pale, and abstain from

wine[359] the whole of December.

Your toil, forsooth, ye writers of histories! is more profitable, it

requires more time and more oil. For regardless of all limit, it rises

to the thousandth page; and grows in bulk, expensive from the mass

of paper used. This the vast press of matter requires, and the laws

of composition. Yet what is the crop that springs from it? what the

profit from the soil upturned? Who will give an historian as much as

he would a notary?[360] "But they are an idle race, that delight in

sofas and the cool shade." Well, tell me then, what do the services

rendered their fellow-citizens, and their briefs they carry about with

them in a big bundle, bring in to the lawyers? Even of themselves they

talk grandly enough, but especially when their creditor is one of

their hearers; or if one still more pressing nudges their side, that

comes with his great account-book to sue for a doubtful debt. Then the

hollow bellows of their lungs breathe forth amazing lies; they foam at

the mouth till their breast is covered. But if you like to calculate

the actual harvest they reap, set in one scale the estate of a hundred

lawyers, and you may balance it on the other side with the single

fortune of Lacerna, the charioteer of the Red.[361]

The chiefs have taken their seats![362] You, like Ajax, rise with

pallid cheek, and plead in behalf of liberty that has been called in

question, before a neat-herd[363] for a juryman! Burst your strained

lungs, poor wretch! that, when exhausted, the green palm-branches[364]

may be affixed to crown your staircase with honor! Yet what is the

reward of your eloquence? A rusty ham, or a dish of sprats; or some

shriveled onions, the monthly provender of the Africans;[365] or wine

brought down the Tiber. Five bottles[366] for pleading four times!

If you have been lucky enough to get a single gold piece,[367] even

from that you must deduct the stipulated shares of the attorneys.[368]

Æmilius will get as much as the law allows;[369] although we pleaded

better than he. For he has in his court-yard a chariot of bronze with

four tall horses[370] yoked to it; and he himself, seated on his fierce

charger, brandishes aloft his bending spear, and meditates battles

with his one eye closed. So it is that Pedo gets involved, Matho

fails. This is the end of Tongillus, who usually bathes with a huge

rhinoceros' horn of oil, and annoys the baths with his draggled train;

and weighs heavily in his ponderous sedan on his sturdy Median slaves,

as he presses through the forum to bid for[371] slaves, and plate,

and myrrhine vases, and villas. For it is his foreign[372] purple with

its Tyrian tissue that gets him credit. And yet this answers their

purpose. It is the purple robe that gets the lawyer custom--his violet

cloaks that attract clients. It suits their interest to live with all

the bustle and outward show of an income greater then they really have.

But prodigal Rome observes no bounds to her extravagance. If the old

orators were to come to life again, no one now would give even Cicero

himself two hundred sesterces, unless a huge ring sparkled on his

finger. This is the first point he that goes to law looks to--whether

you have eight slaves, ten attendants, a sedan to follow you, and

friends in toga to go before. Paulus, consequently, used to plead in a

sardonyx, hired for the occasion: and hence it was that Cossus' fees

were higher than those of Basilus. Eloquence is a rare quality in a

threadbare coat!

When is Basilus allowed to produce in court a weeping mother? Who could

endure Basilus, however well he were to plead? Let Gaul become your

home, or better still that foster-nurse of pleaders, Africa, if you are

determined to let your tongue for hire.

Do you teach declamation? Oh what a heart of steel must Vectius have,

when his numerous class kills cruel tyrants! For all that the boy has

just conned over at his seat, he will then stand up and spout--the

same stale theme in the same sing-song. It is the reproduction of the

cabbage[373] that wears out the master's life. What is the plea to be

urged: what the character of the cause; where the main point of the

case hinges; what shafts may issue from the opposing party;--this all

are anxious to know; but not one is anxious to pay! "_Pay_ do you

ask for? why, what do I know?" The blame, forsooth, is laid at the

teacher's door, because there is not a spark of energy in the breast

of this scion of Arcadia,[374] who dins his awful Hannibal into my

ears regularly every sixth day. Whatever the theme be that is to be

the subject of his deliberation; whether he shall march at once from

Cannæ on Rome; or whether, rendered circumspect after the storms and

thunderbolts, he shall lead his cohorts, drenched with the tempest, by

a circuitous route. Bargain[375] for any sum you please, and I will at

once place it in your hands, on condition that his father should hear

him his lesson as often as I have to do it! But six or more sophists

are all giving tongue at once; and, debating in good earnest, have

abandoned all fictitious declamations about the ravisher. No more is

heard of the poison infused, or the vile ungrateful husband,[376] or

the drugs that can restore the aged blind to youth. He therefore that

quits the shadowy conflicts of rhetoric for the arena of real debate,

will superannuate himself, if my advice has any weight with him, and

enter on a different path of life; that he may not lose even the paltry

sum that will purchase the miserable ticket[377] for corn. Since

this is the most splendid reward you can expect. Just inquire what

Chrysogonus receives, or Pollio, for teaching the sons of these fine

gentlemen, and going into all the details[378] of Theodorus' treatise.

The baths will cost six hundred sestertia, and the colonnade still

more, in which the great man rides whenever it rains. Is he to wait,

forsooth, for fair weather? or bespatter his horses with fresh mud?

Nay, far better here! for here the mule's hoof shines unsullied.[379]

On the other side must rise a spacious dining-room, supported on

stately columns of Numidian marble, and catch the cool[380] sun.

However much the house may have cost, he will have besides an artiste

who can arrange his table scientifically; another, who can season

made-dishes. Yet amid all this lavish expenditure, two poor sestertia

will be deemed an ample remuneration for Quintilian. Nothing will cost

a father less than his son's education.

"Then where did Quintilian get the money to pay for so many estates?"

Pass by the instances of good fortune that are but rare indeed. It is

good _luck_ that makes a man handsome and active; good luck that makes

him wise, and noble, and well-bred, and attaches the crescent[381] of

the senator to his black shoe. Good luck too that makes him the best of

orators and debaters, and, though he has a vile cold, sing well! For

it makes all the difference what planets welcome you when you first

begin to utter your infant cry, and are still red from your mother. If

fortune so wills it, you will become consul instead of rhetorician; or,

if she will, instead of rhetorician, consul! What was Ventidius[382]

or Tullius aught else than a lucky planet, and the strange potency

of hidden fate? Fate, that gives kingdoms to slaves, and triumphs to

captives. Yes! Quintilian was indeed lucky, but he is a greater rarity

even than a white crow. But many a man has repented of this fruitless

and barren employment, as the sad end of Thrasymachus[383] proves, and

that of Secundus Carrinas.[384] And you, too, Athens, were witness to

the poverty of him on whom you had the heart to bestow nothing save the

hemlock that chilled[385] his life-blood!

Light be the earth, ye gods![386] and void of weight, that presses

on our grandsires' shades, and round their urn bloom fragrant crocus

and eternal spring, who maintained that a tutor should hold the place

and honor of a revered parent. Achilles sang on his paternal hills,

in terror of the lash, though now grown up; and yet in whom even

then would not the tail of his master, the harper, provoke a smile?

But now Rufus[387] and others are beaten each by their own pupils;

Rufus! who so often called Cicero "the Allobrogian!" Who casts into

Enceladus'[388] lap, or that of the learned Palæmon,[389] as much as

their grammarian labors have merited! And yet even from the wretched

sum, however small (and it is smaller than the rhetorician's pay),

Acænonoëtus, his pupil's pedagogue, first takes his slice; and then the

steward who pays you deducts his fragment. Dispute it not, Palæmon!

and suffer some abatement to be made, just as the peddler does that

deals in winter rugs and snow-white sheetings.[390] Only let not all

be lost,[391] for which you have sat from the midnight hour, when no

smith would sit, nor even he that teaches how to draw out wool with

the oblique iron. Lose not your whole reward for having smelled as

many lamps as there were boys standing round you; while Horace was

altogether discolored, and the foul smut clave to the well-thumbed

Maro. Yet rare too is the pay that does not require enforcing by the

Tribune's court.[392]

But do you, parents, impose severe exactions on him that is to teach

your boys; that he be perfect in the rules of grammar for each

word--read all histories[393]--know all authors as well as his own

finger-ends; that if questioned at hazard, while on his way to the

Thermæ or the baths of Phœbus, he should be able to tell the name of

Anchises' nurse,[394] and the name and native land of the step-mother

of Anchemolus--tell off-hand how many years Acestes lived--how many

flagons of wine the Sicilian king gave to the Phrygians. Require of

him that he mould their youthful morals as one models a face in wax.

Require of him that he be the reverend father of the company, and check

every approach to immorality.

It is no light task to keep watch over so many boyish hands, so many

little twinkling eyes. "This," says the father, "be the object of your

care!"--and when the year comes round again, Receive for your pay as

much gold[395] as the people demand for the victorious Charioteer!

FOOTNOTES:

pretiis etiam studia peritura."

the commentators; whether Nero, Titus, Trajan, Hadrian, Nerva, or

Domitian. Probably the last is meant: as in the beginning of his reign

he affected the character of a patron of literature.

Ecl., i., 28, "Libertas, quæ sera tamen respexit inertem."

Licinian and other courts," near the forum, where auctions were held;

the _atria auctionaria_ of Cicero: cf. pro Quint., 12, 25, i. in Rull.,

7.

auctioneer by the owner or the magistrate; or from the parties that

bid being as it were "pitted," _commissi_, against each other, like

gladiators.

dicere vidi."

is in all probability interpolated, being only a gloss. Heinrich.

Galatia in Asia Minor, so called from the colony of Gauls who settled

there, A.D. 278, at the invitation of Nicomedes. Liv., xxxviii., 16.

Cf. Paus., Phoc., xxiii. Cramer's Asia Minor, ii., 79. Clinton, Fast.

Hell. in an.

"Sent from Bithynia's realms with shoeless feet." Badham.

being sacred to Apollo, was supposed to convey divine inspiration.

Grang. Cf. Lycoph., 6.

_Indulgentia._ "Lo! the imperial eye

Looks round attentive on each rising bard,

For worth to praise, for genius to reward." Gifford.

the hair grew. Others think the parchment itself was dyed yellow. Cf.

Pers., iii., 10.

inertes."

"I that spend half my nights and half my days

Here in a cell, to get a dark pale face,

To come forth worth the ivy or the bays,

And in this age can hope no other grace."

"To praise and _only_ praise the high-wrought strain.

As boys the bird of Juno's glittering train." Gifford.

"Till gray-haired, helpless, humbled genius see

Its fault too late, and curse Terpsichore." Badham.

theatre. _Subsellia_, those in the body of the room. _Orchestra_, the

hired chairs in front of all, for his knightly guests. Holyday quaintly

says no patron cared

"What the orchestra cost raised for chief friends,

And chairs recarried when the reading ends."

"And would we quit at length th' ambitious ill,

The noose of habit implicates us still." Badham.

sit, cui mens divinior, atque os magna sonaturum, des nominis hujus

honorem." How immeasurably finer of the two is Juvenal's description of

a poet!

"But he, the bard of every age and clime,

Of genius fruitful, and of soul sublime,

Who from the glowing mint of fancy pours

No spurious metal, fused from common ores,

But gold to matchless purity refined,

And stamp'd with all the godhead in his mind:

He whom I feel, but want the power to paint,

Must boast a soul impatient of restraint,

And free from every care--a soul that loves

The Muses' haunts, clear springs and shady groves." Gifford.

Of this passage, Hodgson says, Gifford has drawn the prize in the

lottery of translation, all others must be blanks after it.

"Be hurried with resistless force along

By the two kindred powers of wine and song." Gifford.

"Nor wrestlings with the world will Genius own,

Destined to strive with song, and song alone." Badham.

_seq._, "Talibus Alecto dictis exarsit in iras. At juveni oranti

subitus tremor occupat artus: Deriguere oculi: tot Erinnys sibilat

hydris, Tantaque se facies aperit." Cf. Æn., ii., 602, _seq._; xii.,

326.

Grangæus interprets it, "Qui dum componit tragædiam de Atreo, ut vitam

sustentare possit pignori opponit alveolos."

"Who writes his Atreus, as his friends allege,

With half his household goods and cloak in pledge." Badham.

811.) It was not completed till _after_ the Dacian war, but was written

_before_ the 1st book of the Silvæ, the date of the 4th book of which

is known to be A.D. 95. We may therefore assume the date of the Thebais

to be about 94.

for his Eunuchus, viz., eight sestertia, about sixty-five pounds.

as Heinrich says, what had Paris, the mime, to do with a _new tragedy_?

These and the following lines are said to have been the cause of

Juvenal's banishment.

conferred on favorites, even though not in the army, and called

"Semestris tribunatus militum." It lasted for six months only, but

conferred the privilege of wearing the equestrian ring, with perhaps

others. It is alluded to in Pliny, iv., Epist. 4, who begs of Sossius

the consul in behalf of a friend, "Hunc rogo semestri tribunatu

splendidiorem facias." There are divers other interpretations, but

this appears the simplest and most probable. To confound it with the

"æstivum aurum" (i., 28), is a palpable absurdity.

Saturnalibus huc fugisti Sobrius." Stat., Sylv., I., vi., 4, "Saturnus

mihi compede exsolutâ, et multo gravidus mero December."

"Then all December's revelries refuse,

And give the festive moments to the Muse." Gifford.

public records," or the historian's reader, who collected facts for the

author, or "any one who read aloud the history itself."

called Albatus. Lacerna, or Lacerta, was a charioteer in the reign of

Domitian, some say of Domitian himself. One commentator takes Lacerna

to be "any soldier wearing a red cloak;" as Paludatus is "one wearing

the general's cloak." Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 78, "Prasinus Porphyrion."

stante corona, Surgit ad hos clypei dominus septemplicis Ajax." Cf. ad

xi., 30.

Badham.

"So shall the verdant palm be duly tied

To the dark staircase where such powers reside." Badham.

rations of onions" allowed to African slaves, who were accustomed to

plenty of them in their own country (cf. Herod., ii., 125. Numb., xi.,

5), where they grew in great abundance. Martial, ix., Ep. xlvi., 11,

enumerates "bulbi" among the presents sent at the Saturnalia to the

causidicus Sabellus.

wine." Badham.

45, "Ut apud Græcos infimi homines, mercedula adducti, ministros se

præbent judiciis oratoribus ii qui apud illos πραγματικοὶ vocantur."

Cf. c. 59. Quintil., iii., 6; xii., 3. Mart., xii., Ep. 72. They appear

afterward to have been introduced at Rome, and are sometimes called

"Tabelliones."

forbade the receipt of any fees. A law of Nero fixed the fee at 100

aurei at most. Vid. Tac., Ann., xi., 5 (Ruperti's note). Suet., Ner.,

17. Plin., v., Ep. iv., 21.

with lawyers of this age to be represented in this manner; cf. Mart.,

ix., Ep. lxix., 5, _seq._; but the details of the picture have puzzled

the commentators. "Curvatum" is supposed to mean that "the spear

actually seems quivering in his hand," or that it is "bent with age,"

or that the _arm_ is "bent back," as if in the act of throwing. Cf.

Xen., Anab., V., ii., 12, διηγκυλωμένους. "_Luscâ_" may imply that the

statue imitated to the life the personal defect of Æmilius; or simply

the absence of the pupil (ὀμμάτων ἀχηνία), inseparable from statuary;

or that Æmilius is represented as closing one eye to take better aim.

"Lifts his poised javelin o'er the crowd below,

And from his blinking statue threats the blow." Hodgson.

_stlis_ for _lis_, _stlocus_ for _locus_. Therefore Stlataria is the

same as the "Latus Clavus," according to some commentators; or a

"broad-beamed" merchant ship; and therefore means simply "imported."

Others say it is a "piratical ship," such as the Illyrians used, and

the word is then taken to imply "deceitful." Facciolati explains, it by

"peregrina et pretiosa: longè navi advecta."

Grangæus another, which forcibly expresses a schoolmaster's

drudgery--οἰ αὐτοὶ περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν τοῖς αὐτοῖς τὰ ἀυτά.

"Till, like hash'd cabbage, served for each repast,

The repetition kills the wretch at last." Gifford.

iii., 9, "Arcadiæ pecuaria rudere credas." Auson., Epigr. 76, "Asinos

quoque rudere dicas, cum vis Arcadium fingere, Marce, pecus."

"Get me his father but to hear his task

For one short week, I'll give you all you ask." Bad.

"The faithless husband and abandon'd wife,

And Æson coddled to new light and life." Gifford.

which appear to have been transferable, entitling them to a certain

quantity of corn from the public granaries. These tesseræ or symbola

were made, Lubinus says, of wood or lead, and distributed by the

"Frumentorum Curatores." In the latter days, bread thus distributed was

called "Panis Gradilis," quia gradibus distribuebatur. The Congiarium

consisted of wine, or oil only. The Donativum was only given to

soldiers. Several of these tickets of wood and lead are preserved in

the museum at Portici.

On the principle, perhaps, that "Qui benè dividit benè docet."

Britannicus, whom Heinrich follows, explains it by "deridet." Theodorus

of Gadara was a professor of rhetoric in the reigns of Augustus and

Tiberius. Vid. Suet., Tib., 57. It was he who so well described

the character of the latter; calling him πήλον αἵματι πεφύρμενον.

Chrysogonus, in vi., 74, is a singer, and Pollio, vi., 387, a musician

(cf. Mart., iv., Ep. lxi., 9); but, as Lubinus says, the persons

mentioned here are professors of rhetoric, and probably therefore not

the same.

"He splash his fav'rite mule in filthy roads!

With ample space at his command, to tire

The well-groom'd beast, with hoof unstain'd by mire." Badham.

according to the season of the year, with a southern aspect for the

winter, and an eastern for the summer. Cf. Plin., ii., Ep. 17. _Rapiat_

rather seems to imply the former case. So Badham--

"Courts the brief radiance of the winter's noon."

"Algentem" favors the other view--

"Front the cool east, when now the averted sun

Through the mid ardors of his course has run." Hodgson.

were a kind of short boot reaching to the middle of the leg (hence,

"Nigris medium impediit crus pellibus," Hor., I., Sat. vi., 27), with

a crescent or the letter C in front, because the original number of

senators was a hundred.--_Aluta_, "steeped in alum," to soften the skin.

muleteer; afterward made in one year prætor and consul. Being appointed

to command against the Parthians, he was allowed a triumph; having been

himself, in his youth, led as a captive in the triumphal procession of

Pompey's father. Cf. Val. Max., vi., 10.

wrote a treatise on Rhetoric, and set up as a teacher of it at Athens;

but, meeting with no encouragement, shut up his school and hanged

himself.

Athens to Rome; and was banished by Caligula for a declamation against

tyrants. He is mentioned, Tac., Ann., xv., 45.

algere ab extremitatibus corporis." Plin., xxv., 13. Plat., Phædo, fin.

Pers., iv., 1.

"Shades of our sires! O sacred be your rest,

And lightly lie the turf upon your breast;

Flowers round your urns breathe sweets beyond compare,

And spring eternal bloom and flourish there!

Your honor'd tutors, now a slighted race,

And gave them all a parent's power and place!" Gifford.

Grangæus calls him Q. Curtius Rufus, and says nothing more is known of

him than that he was an eminent rhetorician. He is here represented as

charging Cicero with barbarisms or provincialisms, such as a Savoyard

would use.

"Yes, suffer this! while something's left to pay

Your rising, hours before the dawn of day;

When e'en the lab'ring poor their slumbers take,

And not a weaver, not a smith's awake." Gifford.

Tribuni Ærarii, to whom the cognizance of such complaints belonged.

grammarians, a class of men whom he particularly affected (quod genus

hominum præcipuè appetebat), questions of this nature, to sound their

"notitia historiæ usque ad ineptias atque derisum." Cf. Suet., Tib.,

70, 57.

Casperia and Tisiphone.

The aureus, which varied in value, was at this time worth 25 denarii; a

little more than 16 shillings English. Cf. Mart., x., Ep. lxxiv., 5.

What is the use of pedigrees?[396] What boots it, Ponticus, to be

accounted of an ancient line, and to display the painted faces[397]

of your ancestors, and the Æmiliani standing in their cars, and the

Curii diminished to one half their bulk, and Corvinus deficient of a

shoulder, and Galba that has lost his ears and nose[4]--what profit

is it to vaunt in your capacious genealogy of Corvinus, and in many

a collateral line[398] to trace dictators and masters of the horse

begrimed with smoke, if before the very faces of the Lepidi you lead an

evil life! To what purpose are the images of so many warriors, if the

dice-box rattles all night long in the presence of the Numantini:[399]

if you retire to rest at the rising of that star[400] at whose dawning

those generals set their standards and camps in motion? Why does

Fabius[401] plume himself on the Allobrogici and the "Great Altar," as

one born in Hercules' own household, if he is covetous, empty-headed,

and ever so much more effeminate than the soft lamb of Euganea.[402] If

with tender limbs made sleek by the pumice[403] of Catana he shames his

rugged sires, and, a purchaser of poison, disgraces his dishonored race

by his image that ought to be broken up.[404]

Though your long line of ancient statues adorn your ample halls

on every side, the sole and only real nobility is virtue. Be a

Paulus,[405] or Cossus, or Drusus, in moral character. Set _that_

before the images of your ancestors. Let that, when you are consul,

take precedence of the fasces themselves. What I claim from you first

is the noble qualities of the mind. If you deserve indeed to be

accounted a man of blameless integrity, and stanch love of justice,

both in word and deed, then I recognize the real nobleman. All hail,

Gætulicus![406] or thou, Silanus,[407] or from whatever other blood

descended, a rare and illustrious citizen, thou fallest to the lot of

thy rejoicing country. Then we may exultingly shout out what the people

exclaim when Osiris is found.[408]

For who would call him noble that is unworthy of his race, and

distinguished only for his illustrious name? We call some one's

dwarf,[409] Atlas; a negro, swan; a diminutive and deformed wench,

Europa. Lazy curs scabbed[410] with inveterate mange, that lick the

edges of the lamp now dry, will get the name of Leopard, Tiger, Lion,

or whatever other beast there is on earth that roars with fiercer

throat. Therefore you will take care and begin to fear lest it is upon

the same principle you are a Creticus[411] or Camerinus.

Whom have I admonished in these words? To you my words are addressed,

Rubellius[412] Plautus! You are puffed up with your descent from the

Drusi, just as though you had yourself achieved something to deserve

being ennobled; and she that gave you birth should be of the brilliant

blood of Iulus, and not the drudge that weaves for hire beneath the

shelter of the windy rampart.[413] "You are the lower orders!" he says;

"the very dregs of our populace! Not a man of you could tell where

his father was born! But I am a Cecropid!" Long may you live![414]

and long revel in the joys of such a descent! Yet from the lowest of

this common herd you will find one that is indeed an eloquent Roman.

It is he that usually pleads the cause of the ignorant noble.[415]

From the toga'd crowd will come one that can solve the knotty points

of law, and the enigmas of the statutes. He it is that in his prime

carves out his fortune with his sword, and goes to Euphrates, and

the legions that keep guard over the conquered Batavi. While you are

nothing but a Cecropid, and most like the shapeless pillar crowned

with Hermes' head. Since in no other point of difference have you the

advantage save in this--that his head is of marble,[416] and your image

is endowed with life! Tell me, descendant of the Teucri, who considers

dumb animals highly bred, unless strong and courageous? Surely it is on

this score we praise the fleet horse--to grace whose speed full many

a palm glows,[417] and Victory, in the circus hoarse with shouting,

stands exulting by. He is the steed of fame, from whatever pasture he

comes, whose speed is brilliantly before the others, and whose dust

is first on the plain. But the brood of Corytha, and Hirpinus' stock,

are put up for sale if victory sit but seldom on their yoke. In their

case no regard is had to their pedigree--their dead sires win them no

favor--they are forced to change their owners for paltry prices, and

draw wagons with galled withers, if slow of foot, and only fit to turn

Nepos'[418] mill. Therefore that we may admire _you_, and not _yours_,

first achieve some noble act[419] that I may inscribe on your statue's

base, besides those honors that we pay, and ever shall pay, to those to

whom you are indebted for all.

Enough has been said to the youth whom common report represents to us

as haughty and puffed up from his relationship to Nero.[420] For in

that rank of life the courtesies[421] of good breeding are commonly

rare enough. But you, Ponticus, I would not have _you_ valued for your

ancestors' renown; so as to contribute nothing yourself to deserve the

praise of posterity. It is wretched work building on another's fame;

lest the whole pile crumble into ruins when the pillars that held it up

are withdrawn. The vine that trails along the ground,[422] sighs for

its widowed elms in vain.

Prove yourself a good soldier, a faithful guardian, an incorruptible

judge. If ever you shall be summoned as a witness in a doubtful and

uncertain cause, though Phalaris himself command you to turn liar, and

dictate the perjuries with his bull placed before your eyes, deem it to

be the summit of impiety[423] to prefer existence to honor,[424] and

for the sake of life to sacrifice life's only end! He that deserves to

die _is_ dead; though he still sup on a hundred Gauran[425] oysters,

and plunge in a whole bath of the perfumes of Cosmus.[426]

When your long-expected province shall at length receive you for its

ruler, set a bound to your passion, put a curb on your avarice. Have

pity on our allies whom we have brought to poverty. You see the very

marrow drained from the empty bones of kings. Have respect to what

the laws prescribe, the senate enjoins. Remember what great rewards

await the good, with how just a stroke ruin lighted on Capito[427] and

Numitor, those pirates of the Cilicians, when the senate fulminated its

decrees against them. But what avails their condemnation, when Pansa

plunders you of all that Natta left? Look out for an auctioneer to sell

your tattered clothes, Chærippus, and then hold your tongue! It is

sheer madness to lose, when all is gone, even Charon's fee.[428]

There were not the same lamentations of yore, nor was the wound

inflicted on our allies by pillage as great as it is now, while they

were still flourishing, and but recently conquered.[429] Then every

house was full, and a huge pile of money stood heaped up, cloaks from

Sparta, purple robes from Cos, and along with pictures by Parrhasius,

and statues by Myro, the ivory of Phidias seemed instinct with

life;[430] and many a work from Polycletus' hand in every house;

few were the tables that could not show a cup of Mentor's chasing.

Then came Dolabella,[431] and then Antony, then the sacrilegious

Verres;[432] they brought home in their tall[433] ships the spoils they

dared not show, and more[434] triumphs from peace than were ever won

from war. Now our allies have but few yokes of oxen, a small stock of

brood-mares, and the patriarch[435] of the herd will be harried from

the pasture they have already taken possession of. Then the very Lares

themselves, if there is any statue worth looking at, if any little

shrine still holds its single god. For this, since it is the best they

have, is the highest prize they can seize upon.

You may perhaps despise the Rhodians unfit for war, and essenced

Corinth: and well you may! How can a resin-smeared[436] youth, and the

depilated legs of a whole nation, retaliate upon you. You must keep

clear of rugged Spain, the Gallic car,[437] and the Illyrian coast.

Spare too those reapers[438] that overstock the city, and give it

leisure for the circus[439] and the stage. Yet what rewards to repay so

atrocious a crime could you carry off from thence, since Marius[440]

has so lately plundered the impoverished Africans even of their very

girdles?[441]

You must be especially cautious lest a deep injury be inflicted on

those who are bold as well as wretched. Though you may strip them of

all the gold and silver they possess, you will yet leave them shield

and sword, and javelin and helm. Plundered of all, they yet have _arms_

to spare!

What I have just set forth is no opinion of my own. Believe that I

am reciting to you a leaf of the sibyl, that can not lie. If your

retinue are men of spotless life, if no favorite youth[442] barters

your judgments for gold, if your wife[443] is clear from all stain of

guilt, and does not prepare to go through the district courts,[444] and

all the towns of your province, ready, like a Celæno[445] with her

crooked talons, to swoop upon the gold--then you may, if you please,

reckon your descent from Picus; and if high-sounding names are your

fancy, place the whole army of Titans among your ancestors, or even

Prometheus[446] himself. Adopt a founder of your line from any book you

please. But if ambition and lust hurry you away headlong, if you break

your rods[447] on the bloody backs of the allies, if your delight is in

axes blunted by the victor worn out with using them--then the nobility

of your sires themselves begins to rise[448] in judgment against

you, and hold forth a torch to blaze upon your shameful deeds.[449]

Every act of moral turpitude incurs more glaring reprobation in exact

proportion to the rank of him that commits it. Why vaunt your pedigree

to me? you, that are wont to put your name to forged deeds in the very

temples[450] which your grandsire built, before your very fathers'

triumphal statues! or, an adulterer that dares not face the day, you

veil your brows concealed beneath a Santon[451] cowl. The bloated

Damasippus is whirled in his rapid car past the ashes and bones of

his ancestors--and with his own hands, yes! though consul! with his

own hands locks his wheel with the frequent drag-chain.[452] It is,

indeed, at night. But still the moon sees him! The stars strain on

him their attesting eyes.[453] When the period of his magistracy is

closed, Damasippus[454] will take whip in hand in the broad glare of

day, and never dread meeting his friend now grown old, and will be the

first to give him the coachman's salute, and untie the trusses and

pour the barley[455] before his weary steeds himself. Meantime, even

while according to Numa's ancient rites he sacrifices the woolly victim

and the stalwart bull before Jove's altar, he swears by Epona[456]

alone, and the faces daubed over the stinking stalls. But when he is

pleased to repeat his visits to the taverns open all night long, the

Syrophœnician, reeking with his assiduous perfume,[457] runs to meet

him (the Syrophœnician that dwells at the Idumæan[458] gate), with

all the studied courtesy of a host, he salutes him as "lord"[459] and

"king;" and Cyane, with gown tucked up, with her bottle for sale. One

who wishes to palliate his crimes will say to me, "Well; we did so too

when we were young!" Granted. But surely you left off, and did not

indulge in your folly beyond that period. Let what you basely dare be

ever brief! There are some faults that should be shorn away with our

first beard. Make all reasonable allowance for boys. But Damasippus

frequents those debauches of the bagnios, and the painted signs,[460]

when of ripe age for war, for guarding Armenia[461] and Syria's rivers,

and the Rhine or Danube. His time of life qualifies him to guard the

emperor's person. Send then to Ostia![462] Cæsar--send! But look

for your general in some great tavern. You will find him reclining

with some common cut-throat; in a medley of sailors, and thieves,

and runaway slaves; among executioners and cheap coffin-makers,[463]

and the now silent drums of the priest of Cybele, lying drunk on his

back.[464] There there is equal liberty for all--cups in common--nor

different couch for any, or table set aloof from the herd. What

would you do, Ponticus, were it your lot to have a slave of such a

character? Why surely you would dispatch him to the Lucanian or Tuscan

bridewells.[465] But you, ye Trojugenæ! find excuses for yourselves,

and what would disgrace a cobbler[466] will be becoming in a Volesus

or Brutus!

What if we never produce examples so foul and shameful, that worse do

not yet remain behind! When all your wealth was squandered, Damasippus,

you let your voice for hire[467] to the stage,[468] to act the noisy

Phasma[469] of Catullus. Velox Lentulas acted Laureolus, and creditably

too. In my judgment he deserved crucifying in earnest. Nor yet can

you acquit the people themselves from blame. The brows of the people

are too hardened that sit[470] spectators of the buffooneries of the

patricians, listen to the Fabii with naked feet, and laugh at the

slaps on the faces of the Mamerci. What matters it at what price they

sell their lives: they sell them at no tyrant's compulsion,[471] «nor

hesitate[472] to do it even at the games of the prætor seated on

high.» Yet imagine the gladiator's sword[473] on one side, the stage

on the other. Which is the better alternative? Has any one so slavish

a dread of death as to become the jealous lover of Thymele,[474] the

colleague of the heavy Corinthus? Yet it is nothing to be wondered

at, if the emperor turn harper, that the nobleman should turn actor.

To crown all this, what is left but the amphitheatre?[475] And this

disgrace of the city you have as well--Gracchus[476] not fighting

equipped as a Mirmillo, with buckler or falchion (for he condemns--yes,

condemns and hates such an equipment). Nor does he conceal his face

beneath a helmet. See! he wields a trident. When he has cast without

effect the nets suspended from his poised right hand, he boldly lifts

his uncovered face to the spectators, and, easily to be recognized,

flees across the whole arena. We can not mistake the tunic,[477] since

the ribbon of gold reaches from his neck, and flutters in the breeze

from his high-peaked cap. Therefore the disgrace, which the Secutor

had to submit to, in being forced to fight with Gracchus, was worse

than any wound. Were the people allowed the uncontrolled exercise of

their votes, who could be found so abandoned as to hesitate to prefer

Seneca[478] to Nero? For whose punishment there should have been

prepared not a single ape[479] only, or one snake or sack.[480] "His

crime is matched by that of Orestes!"[481] But it is the motive cause

that gives the quality to the act. Since he, at the instigation of the

gods themselves, was the avenger of his father butchered in his cups.

But he neither imbrued his hands in Electra's blood, or that of his

Spartan wife; he mixed no aconite for his relations. Orestes never sang

on the stage; he never wrote "Troïcs." What, blacker crime was there

for Virginius'[482] arms to avenge, or Galba leagued with Vindex? In

all his tyranny, cruel and bloody as it was, what exploit did Nero[483]

achieve? These are the works, these the accomplishments of a high-born

prince--delighting to prostitute[484] his rank by disgraceful dancing

on a foreign stage, and earn the parsley of the Grecian crown. Array

the statues of your ancestors in the trophies of your voice. At

Domitius'[485] feet lay the long train of Thyestes, or Antigone, or

Menalippe's mask, and hang your harp[486] on the colossus of marble.

What could any one find more noble than thy birth, Catiline, or

thine, Cethegus! Yet ye prepared arms to be used by night, and flames

for our houses and temples, as though ye had been the sons of the

Braccati,[487] or descendants of the Senones. Attempting what one would

be justified in punishing by the pitched shirt.[488] But the consul is

on the watch[489] and restrains your bands. He whom you sneer at as

a novus[490] homo from Arpinum, of humble birth, and but lately made

a municipal knight at Rome, disposes every where his armed guards to

protect the terrified people, and exerts himself in every quarter.

Therefore the peaceful toga, within the walls, bestowed on him such

honors and renown as not even Octavius bore away from Leucas[491]

or the plains of Thessaly, with sword reeking with unintermitted

slaughter. But Rome owned him for a parent. Rome, when unfettered,[492]

hailed Cicero as father of his father-land.

Another native of Arpinum was wont to ask for his wages when wearied

with another's plow on the Volscian hills. After that, he had the

knotted vine-stick[493] broken about his head, if he lazily fortified

the camp with sluggard axe. Yet _he_ braved the Cimbri, and the

greatest perils of the state, and alone protected the city in her

alarm. And therefore when the ravens, that had never lighted on bigger

carcasses,[494] flocked to the slaughtered heaps of Cimbrians slain,

his nobly-born colleague is honored with a laurel inferior to his.[495]

The souls of the Decii were plebeian, their very names plebeian. Yet

these are deemed by the infernal deities and mother Earth a fair

equivalent for the whole legions, and all the forces of the allies, and

all the flower of Latium. For the Decii[496] were more highly valued by

_them_ than all they died to save!

It was one born from a slave[497] that won the robe and diadem and

fasces of Quirinus, that last of good kings! They that were for

loosening the bolts of the gates betrayed to the exiled tyrants, were

the sons of the consul himself! men from whom we might have looked for

some glorious achievement in behalf of liberty when in peril; some act

that Mucius' self, or Cocles, might admire; and the maiden that swam

across[498] the Tiber, then the limit of our empire. He that divulged

to the fathers the secret treachery was a slave,[499] afterward to

be mourned for by all the Roman matrons: while they suffer the

well-earned punishment of the scourge, and the axe,[500] then first

used by Rome since she became republican.

I had rather that Thersites[501] were your sire, provided you resembled

Æacides and could wield the arms of Vulcan, than that Achilles should

beget you to be a match to Thersites.

And yet, however far you go back, however far you trace your name, you

do but derive your descent from the infamous sanctuary.[502] That first

of your ancestors, whoever he was, was either a shepherd, or else--what

I would rather not mention!

FOOTNOTES:

from the garlands of flowers round the Imagines set up in the halls

(v., 19) and porticoes (vi., 163) of the nobiles; which were joined to

one another by festoons, so that the descent from father to son could

be readily traced. Cf. Pers., iii., 28. "Stemmate quod Tusco ramum

millesime ducis." Of Ponticus nothing is known.

colored.

"What boots it on the lineal tree to trace

Through many a branch the founders of our race." Gifford.

Numantinus from Numantia, which he destroyed as well as Carthage.

"Just at the hour when those whose name you boast

Broke up the camp, and march'd th' embattled host." Hodgson.

a son of Hercules by Vinduna, daughter of Evander, and by virtue of

this descent the Fabii claimed the exclusive right of ministering at

the altar consecrated by Evander to Hercules. It stood in the Forum

Boarium, near the Circus Flaminius, and was called Ara Maxima. Cf.

Ovid, Fast., i., 581, "Constituitque sibi quæ Maxima dicitur, Aram,

Hic ubi pars urbis de bove nomen habet." Cf. Virg., Æn., viii., 271,

"Hanc aram luco statuit quæ Maxima semper dicetur nobis, et erit quæ

Maxima semper." Quintus Fabius Maximus Æmilianus, the consul in the

year B.C. 121, defeated the Allobroges at the junction of the Isère

and the Rhone, and killed 130,000: for which he received the name of

Allobrogicus. Cf. Liv., Ep. 61. Vell., ii., 16.

Venetian territory.

Mount Ætna, was used to rub the body with to make it smooth (cf. ix.,

95, "Inimicus pumice lævis." Plin., xxxvi., 21. Ovid, A. Am., i., 506,

"Nec tua mordaci pumice crura teras"), after the hairs had been got rid

of by the resin. Vid. inf. 114.--_Traducit._ Vid. ad xi., 31.

the common executioner. Cf. x., 58, "Descendunt statuæ restemque

sequuntur." Tac., Ann., vi., 2, "Atroces sententiæ dicebantur in

effigies." Cf. Ruperti, ad Tac., Ann., ii., 32. Suet., Domit., 23.

"He blast his wretched kindred with a bust,

For public justice to reduce to dust." Gifford.

names of Paulus and Cossus, who were apparently no honor to their great

names. (For Cossus, cf. inf. _Gætulice_.)

Gætulicus from his victory over the Gætuli, "Auspice Augusto," in his

consulship with L. Calpurnius Piso Augur. B.C. 1. Vid. Clinton, F. H.,

in an. Flor., iv., 12.

Tacitus says (Ann., xvi., 7), "Claritudine generis, and modestâ juventâ

præcellebat." Cf. Ann., xii. Suet., Claud., 27.

"Hail from whatever stock you draw your birth,

The son of Cossus, or the son of earth." Gifford.

Domitian's fondness for these deformities. Cf. Domit., iv., "Per

omne spectaculum ante pedes ei stabat puerulus coccinatus, _parvo

portentosoque capite_, cum quo plurimum fabulabatur." Cf. Stat., Sylv.,

i.; vi., 57, _seq._

"That mangy larcenist of casual spoil,

From lamps extinct that licks the fetid oil." Badham.

Crete, B.C. 67. Vell. Pat., ii., 34. Flor., iii., 7. Cf. ii., 78,

"Cretice pelluces." P. Sulpicius Camerinus was one of the triumvirs

sent to Athens for Solon's laws. Cf. vii., 90. Liv., iii., 33.

Camerinus was a name of the Sulpician gens, and seems to have been

derived from the conquest of Cameria in Latium. (Cf. Facciol.) Liv.,

i., 38. The name of Creticus was actually given in derision to M.

Antonius, father of the triumvir, for his disastrous failure in Crete.

Vid. Plut. in Ant.

readings are found here. Of the latter Tacitus says (Ann., xiv., 22),

"Omnium ore Rubellius Plautus celebrabatur, _cui nobilitas per matrem

ex Julia familiâ_." His mother Julia was daughter of Drusus, the son of

Livia, wife of Augustus. Germanicus, his mother's brother, was father

of Agrippina, mother of Nero: hence, inf. 72, "inflatum plenumque

Nerone propinquo." Cf. Virg., Æn., i., 288, "Julius a magno demissum

nomen Julo."

"Long may'st thou taste the secret sweets that spring

In breasts affined to so remote a king." Gifford.

"Who help the well-born dolt in many a strait,

And plead the cause of the unletter'd great." Badham.

"For 'tis no bar to kindred, that thy block

Is form'd of flesh and blood, and theirs of rock." Gifford.

interpret it of the eager clapping of the hands of the spectators:

others, of the prize of victory.

"The palm of oft-repeated victories." Hodgson.

"Whom many a well-earned palm and trophy grace." Gifford.

"Whose easy triumph and transcendent speed,

Palm after palm proclaim." Badham.

Hall imitates this beautifully:

"Brag of thy father's faults, they are thine own;

Brag of his lands, if they are not foregone:

Brag of thine own good deeds; for they are thine,

More than his life, or lands, or golden line."

commentators are more divided. Some interpret it exactly in the sense

of the English words "common sense." Others, "fellow-feeling, sympathy

with mankind at large." Browne takes it to be "tact." Cf. Hor., i.,

Sat. iii., 66; Phædr., i., Fab. vii., 4. There is a long and excellent

note in Gifford, who translates it himself by "a sense of modesty,"

but allows that in Cicero it means "a polite intercourse between man

and man;" in Horace, "suavity of manners;" in Seneca, "a proper regard

for the decencies of life:" by others it is used for all these, which

together constitute what we call "courteousness, or good breeding." So

Quintilian, I., ii., 20. Hodgson turns it,

"For plain good sense, first blessing of the sky,

Is rarely met with in a state so high."

Badham,

"In that high estate

Plain common sense is far from common fate."

"Stretch'd on the ground, the vine's weak tendrils try

To clasp the elm they dropped from, fail, and die." Gifford.

Introduction to the Greek Poets, p. 24, 25.

"At honor's cost a feverish span extend,

And sacrifice for life, life's only end!

Life! I profane the word: can those be said

To live, who merit death? No! they are dead." Gifford.

Baiæ and the Lucrine Lake, which was famous for oysters (cf. iv., 141,

"Lucrinum ad saxum Rutupinove edita fundo Ostrea," Plin., iii., 5.

Martial, v., Ep. xxxvii., 3, "Concha Lucrini delicatior stagni"), now

called "Gierro."

155. Tac., Ann., xiv., 48; xvi., 17), was accused by the Cilicians

of peculation and cruelty ("maculosum fœdumque, et idem jus audaciæ

in provincia ratum quod in urbe exercuerat"), and condemned "lege

repetundarum." Tac., Ann., xiii., 33. Thrasea Pætus was the advocate

of the Cilicians, and in revenge for this, when Capito was restored

to his honors by the influence of Tigellinus, he procured the death

of Thrasea. Ann., xvi., 21, 28, 33. Of Numitor nothing is known save

that he plundered these Cilicians, themselves once the most notorious

of pirates. Cf. Plat. in Pomp. Some read Tutor; a Julius Tutor is

mentioned repeatedly in the fourth book of Tac. Hist., but with no

allusion to his plundering propensities.

"Nor, though your earthly goods be sunk and lost,

Lose the poor waftage of the wandering ghost." Hodgson.

Cf. iii., 267, "Nec habet quem porrigat ore trientem." Holyday

and Ruperti interpret it, "Do not waste your little remnant in an

unprofitable journey to Rome to accuse your plunderer." Gifford says it

is merely the old proverb, and renders it, "And though you've lost the

hatchet, save the haft."

e., only subdued, not plundered; and so Ruperti.

of extortion; of whom Cicero's son-in-law, the governor of Syria, seems

to have been the worst.

retirement twenty-six years.

"More treasures from our friends in peace obtain'd,

Than from our foes in war were ever gain'd." Gifford.

"They drive the father of the herd away,

Making both stallion and his pasture prey." Dryden.

superfluous hairs. Cf. Plin., xiv., 20, "pudet confiteri maximum jam

honorem (resinæ) esse in evellendis ab virorum corporibus pilis."

or the "climate of Gaul," as colder than that of Rome, and breeding

fiercer men. Cf. vi., 470. "Hyperboreum axem," xiv., 42.

derived her principal supply of corn. Cf. v., 119. Plin., v., 4.

Circenses." Tac., Hist., i., 4, "Plebs sordida ac Circo et Theatris

sueta."

"From those thy gripes restrain,

Who with their sweat Rome's luxury maintain,

And send us plenty, while our wanton day

Is lavish'd at the circus or the play." Dryden.

discinctos Mulciber Afros." Sil. Ital., ii., 56, "Discinctos Libyas."

Money was carried in girdles (xiv., 296), and the Africans wore but

little other clothing. For the amount of his plunder, see Plin., ii.,

Ep. xi., "Cornutus, censuit septingenta millia quæ acceperat Marius

ærario inferenda."

Bacchus or Apollo. Φοῖβος ἀκερσεκόμης. Hom., Il., xx., 39. Pind.,

Pyth., iii., 26.

iii., 33, _seq._

different towns in the provinces where the Roman governors held their

courts and heard appeals. The _courts_ as well as the _towns_ were

called by this name. They were also called Fora and Jurisdictiones.

Vid. Plin., III., i., 3; V., xxix., 29. Cic. in Verr., II., v., 11.

Cæs., B. G., i., 54; vi., 44.

aliæ."

"E'en from Prometheus' self thy lineage trace,

And ransack history to adorn thy race." Hodgson.

"Rods broke on our associates' bleeding backs,

And headsmen laboring till they blunt their axe." Dryden.

"The lofty pride of every honor'd name

Shall rise to vindicate insulted fame,

And hold the torch to blazon forth thy shame." Hodgson.

"Will to his blood oppose your daring claim,

And fire a torch to blaze upon your shame." Gifford.

in the morning, and fasting, as the canon law afterward directed.

Loire and Garonne. Cf. Mart., xiv., Ep. 128, "Gallia Santonico vestit

te bardocucullo."

propriety: Rome, with its seven hills, had just so many necessities for

the frequent use of the sufflamen. This necessity, from the change of

the soil, exists no longer." Badham.

Licinian gens. "Damasippus was sick," says Holyday, "of that disease

which the Spartans call horse-feeding."

Some read "Hipponam," which Gifford prefers, from the tameness of the

epithet "solam." Cf. Blunt's Vestiges, p. 29.

"On some rank deity, whose filthy face

We suitably o'er stinking stables place." Dryden.

Vespasian and Titus entered the city in triumph after their victories

in Palestine.

regemque vocabam." Cf. iv., Ep. 84, 5.

what was for sale within." Others say it means "embroidered with

needlework;" or "towels," according to Calderinus, who compares

Catull., xxv., 7.

Armenia in Nero's reign, A.D. 60. Cf. ad iii., 251. There were great

disturbances in the same quarters in Trajan's reign, which caused his

expedition, in A.D. 114, against the Armenians and Parthians. In A.D.

100, Marius Priscus was accused by Pliny and Tacitus. Vid. Plin.,

ii., Ep. xi. Probably half way between these two dates we may fix the

writing of this Satire.

your Legatus to take the command of the troops for foreign service,

waiting for embarkation at Ostia." But if so, "ad" should be expressed,

and either Tiberina added, or Ostia made of the 1st declension.

Britann., therefore, and Heinrich explain it, "Pass by his own doors;"

omitte quærere illic, "he is far away."

killed in the amphitheatre, were carried to burial; hence "sandapila

popularis." Suet., Domit., 17. Stepney (in Dryden's version) thus

enumerates these worthies:

"Quacks, coffin-makers, fugitives, and sailors,

Rooks, common soldiers, hangmen, thieves, and tailors."

"Among great Cybel's silent drums, which lack

Their Phrygian priest, who lies drunk on his back."

the slaves worked in chains. The Tuscan were peculiarly severe. Vid.

Dennis's Etruria, vol. i., p. xlviii.

Seioque decebat Crispinum." Pers., iv., 51, "Tollat sua munera cerdo."

"And crimes that tinge with shame the cobbler's face,

Become the lords of Brutus' honor'd race." Hodgson.

"Lets out his voice (his sole remaining boast),

And rants the nonsense of a clam'rous ghost." Hodgson.

in _tragedy_. Donat.

pr. 9, "Idem Menandri phasma nunc nuper dedit." Catullus is not to

be confounded with C. Valerius Catullus of Verona (the old Schol.

says Q. Lutatius Catullus is meant, and quotes xiii., 11, whom

Lubinus, ad loc., calls "Urbanus Catullus") as far as the Phasma is

concerned.--_Laureolus_ was the chief character in a play or ballet by

Val. Catullus, or Laberius, or Nævius: and was crucified on the stage,

and then torn to pieces by wild beasts. Martial (de Spect., Ep. vii.)

says this was acted _to the life_ in the Roman amphitheatre, the part

of the bandit being performed by a real malefactor, who was crucified

and torn to pieces in the arena, "Non falsâ pendens in cruce Laureolus."

"And Lentulus _acts_ hanging with such art,

Were I a judge, he should not _feign_ the part." Dryden.

"Sit with unblushing front, and calmly see

The hired patrician's low buffoonery;

Smile at the Fabii's tricks, and grin to hear

The cuffs resound from the Mamerci's ear." Gifford.

mentioning the _names_ of the nobles thus disgraced, out of respect for

their ancestors. Cf. Dio., lxi. Suetonius says (Nero, cap. xii.) that

400 senators and 600 knights were thus dishonored (but Lipsius says 40

and 60 are the true numbers).

better to take "gladios" for the _death_ that awaits you if you refuse

to comply: as iv., 96; x., 345. So Badham:

"Place here the tyrant's sword, and there the scene;

Gods! can a Roman hesitate between!"

30. The Retiarii wore a tunic only. The gold spira was the band that

tied the tall conical cap of the Salii; who wore also a gold fringe

round the tunic.

Subrius Flavius to murder Nero and make Seneca emperor. It was believed

that Seneca was privy to it. Tac., Ann., xv., 65.

cum quo clauditur adversis innoxia simia fatis." The punishment of

parricides was to be scourged, then sewn up in a bull's hide with a

serpent, an ape, a cock, and a dog, and to be thrown into the sea. The

first person thus punished was P. Malleolus, who murdered his mother.

Liv., Epit. lxviii.

Agrippina, his aunt Domitia, both his wives, Octavia and Poppæa, his

brother Britannicus, and several other relations.

time, Νέρων, Ὀρέστης, Ἀλκμαίων μητροκτόνοι. Cf. Suet., Nero, 39.

Vindex, proprætor of Gaul, and Sergius Galba, præfect of Hispania

Tarraconensis, afterward emperor, were the chiefs of the last

conspiracy against Nero. In August, A.D. 67, Nero was playing the fool

in Greece; in March, 68, he heard with terror and dismay of the revolt

of Vindex, who proclaimed Galba. Dio., lxiii., 22.

"What but such acts did Rome indignant see

Perform'd in Nero's savage tyranny?" Hodgson.

"To prostitute his voice for base renown,

And ravish from the Greeks a parsley crown." Gifford.

Nero was in Greece A.D. 67, into which year (though not an Olympiad)

he crowded all the games of Greece, "Certamina omnia et quæ

diversissimorum temporum sunt cogi in unum annum jussit." Suet.,

Ner., 23. "Romam introiit coronam capite gerens Olympiam dextrâ manu

Pythiam," c. 25.

Nero. His father was Domitius Ahenobarbus, governor of Transalpine

Gaul. Suetonius (Nero, 6) tells us that the two pædagogi to whom his

childhood _was_ intrusted _were_ a _saltator_ and a _tonsor_. To this

perhaps his subsequent tastes may be traced.

delatam, adoravit ferrique ad Augusti _statuam_ jussit."

"And on the proud Colossus of your sire,

Suspend the splendid trophy of--a lyre!" Hodgson.

"Sacras coronas in cubiculis circum lectos posuit: item statuas suas

Citharædico habitu: quâ notâ etiam nummum percussit." Suet., Ner., 25.

Braccæ, probably "plaid," which the inhabitants wore. Plin., iii., 4.

Diod., v., 30. The Senones were a people of Gallia Lugdunensis, who

sacked Rome under Brennus; hence _Minores_, i. e., "as though you had

been the hereditary enemies of Rome."

other combustibles," and then lighted. Cf. Mart., x., Ep. xxv., 5. In

some cases Nero buried his victims up to the waist, and then set fire

to their upper parts.

_vigilare_ acrius ad salutem, quam te ad pernicem reipublicæ."

a curule magistracy. Arpinum, his birthplace, now Arpino, was a

small town of the Volsci. The Municipia had their three grades, of

patricians, knights, and plebeians, as Rome had; they lived under their

own laws, but their citizens were eligible to all offices at Rome.

following probably refer to the brutal cruelty of Augustus after the

battle.

(as sup., "Libera si dentur populo suffragia"). Not in the spirit

of servile adulation, with which she bestowed the same title on her

emperors.

punishment. Cf. xiv., 193; Mart., x., Ep. xxvi., 1. See the story of

Lucilius, nicknamed Cedo alteram, in Tac., Ann., i., 23.

the Germans were conspicuous for their stature and red hair. "Truces

et cærulei oculi, rutilæ comæ, magnum corpora et tantum ad impetum

valida." Tac., Germ., iv. "Cimbri præ Italis ingentes." Flor., iii.,3.

up the second to Q. Lutatius Catulus, his noble colleague, to satisfy

his soldiers, who knew, better than Juvenal, that the _nobleman's_

services did _not_ fall short of those of the plebeian. Marius

afterward barbarously murdered him.

father, son, and grandson, in the wars with the Latins, Gauls, and

Pyrrhus. All three bore the name of Publius Decius Mus. Juvenal comes

very near the formula of self-devotion given in Liv., viii., 6, _seq._

"Exercitum Diis Manibus matrique terræ deberi."

Ocrisia, or Ocriculana, a captive from Corniculum. Liv., i., 39. The

_Trabea_ was a white robe with a border and _broad stripes_ (trabes) of

purple, worn afterward by consuls and augurs: cf. x., 35; the _diadema_

of the ancient kings was a _fillet_ or ribbon, not a crown.

"And he who graced the purple which he wore,

The last good king of Rome, a bondmaid bore." Gifford.

"And she who mock'd the javelins whistling round,

And swam the Tiber, then the empire's bound." Gifford.

of the Vindicta, "the rod of manumission." Liv., ii., 7. He was mourned

for at his death by the Roman matrons publicly, as Brutus had been.

fasces with the other regalia. The axe therefore had often fallen for

the _tyrants_; now it is used for the first time in defense of a legal

constitution and a _free republic_.

I should like to know, Nævolus,[503] why you so often meet me with

clouded brow forlorn, like Marsyas after his defeat. What have you to

do with such a face as Ravola had when detected with his Rhodope?[504]

We give a slave a box on the ear, if he licks the pastry. Why!

Crepereius Pollio[505] had not a more woe-begone face than yours;

he that went about ready to pay three times the ordinary interest,

and could find none fools enough to trust him. Where do so many

wrinkles come from all of a sudden? Why, surely before, contented with

little, you used to live like a gentleman's gentleman[506]--a witty

boon-companion with your biting jest, and sharp at repartees that savor

of town-life!

Now all is the reverse; your looks are dejected; your tangled hair

bristles like a thicket;[507] there is none of that sleekness over your

whole skin, such as the Bruttian plaster of hot pitch used to give you;

but your legs are neglected and rank with a shrubbery of hair. What

means this emaciated form, like that of some old invalid parched this

many a day with quartan ague and fever that has made his limbs its

home? You may detect[508] the anguish of the mind that lurks in the

sickly body--and discover its joys also. For the face, the index of

the mind, takes its complexion from each. You seem, therefore, to have

changed your course of life, and to run counter to your former habits.

For, but lately, as I well remember, you used to haunt the temple of

Isis,[509] and the statue of Ganymede in the temple of Peace,[510]

and the secret palaces of the imported mother[511] of the gods; ay,

and Ceres too (for what temple is there in which you may not find a

woman)--a more notorious adulterer even than Aufidius, and under the

rose, not confining your attentions to the wives!

"Yes: even this way of life is profitable to many. But I never made

it worth my while: we do occasionally get greasy cloaks, that serve

to save our toga, of coarse texture and indifferent dye, the clumsy

workmanship of some French weaver's lay; or a small piece of silver of

inferior metal.[512] The Fates control the destinies of men: nay, there

is fate even in those very parts which the lap of the toga conceals

from view. For if the stars are unpropitious, your manly powers,

remaining unknown, will profit you nothing, even though the liquorish

Virro has seen you stripped, and seductive billets-doux, closely

following each other, are forever assailing you: for such a fellow as

he even entices others to sin. Yet, what monster can be worse, than

one miserly as well as effeminate?"[513] "I gave you so much, then so

much, and then soon after you had more!" He reckons up and still acts

the wanton. "Let us settle our accounts! Send for the slaves with my

account-book! Reckon up five thousand sesterces in all! Then count up

your services!" Are then my duties so light, and so little against the

grain? Far less wretched will be the poor slave that digs the great

man's land! But you, forsooth, thought yourself delicate, and young,

and beautiful! fit to be a cup-bearer in heaven!

Will you ever bestow favors on a humble dependent, or be generous to

one that pays you court, when you grudge even the money you spend on

your unnatural[514] gratifications? See the fellow! to whom you are

to send a present of a green parasol and large amber[515] bowls, as

often as his birthday comes round, or rainy spring begins; or pillowed

on his cushioned sofa, he fingers presents set apart for the female

Kalends![516]

Tell me, you sparrow, for whom it is you are keeping so many hills, so

many Apulian[517] farms, so many kites wearied in flying across your

pastures? Your Trifoline estate[518] enriches you with its fruitful

vines; and the hill that looks down[519] on Cumæ, and caverned Gaurus.

Who seals up more[520] casks of wine that will bear long keeping? How

great a matter would it be to present the loins of your client, worn

out in your service, with a few acres? Would yon rustic child, with

his mother, and her hovel,[521] and his playmate cur, more justly

become the inheritance of your cymbal-beating friend? "You are a most

importunate beggar!" he says: But _Rent_ cries out to me "Beg!" My only

slave calls on me to beg! loudly as Polyphemus[522] with his one broad

eye, by which the crafty Ulysses made his escape. I shall be compelled

to buy a second, for this one is not enough for me; both must be fed.

What shall I do in mid-winter? When the chill north wind whistles in

December,[523] what shall I say, pray, to my poor slaves' naked feet

and shoulders? "Courage,[524] my boys! and wait for the grasshoppers?"

But however you may dissemble and pass by all other matters, at how

much do you estimate it, that had I not been your devoted client your

wife would still remain a maid? At all events, you know all about those

services, how hard you begged, how much you promised! Often when your

young wife was eloping, I caught her in my embrace. She had actually

torn[525] the marriage contract, and was on the point of signing a new

one. It was with difficulty that I set this matter right by a whole

night's work, while you stood whimpering outside the door. I appeal to

the bed as my witness! nay, to yourself, who heard the noise, and the

lady's cries! In many a house, when the marriage bonds were growing

feeble and beginning to give way, and were almost severed, an adulterer

has set all matters right. However you may shift your ground, whatever

services you may reckon first or last, is it indeed no obligation,

ungrateful and perfidious man! is it none, that you have an infant son

or daughter born to you through me? For you bring them up as yours! and

plume yourself on inserting at intervals in the public registers[526]

these evidences of your virility! Hang garlands[527] on your doors!

You are now a father! I have given you what you may cast in slander's

teeth! You have a father's privileges; through me you may inherit

a legacy, yes, the whole sum[528] left to you, not to mention some

pleasant windfall![529] Besides, many other advantages will be added to

these windfalls, if I make the number complete and add a third!"

"Your ground of complaint is just indeed, Nævolus; what does he allege

in answer?"

"He casts me off, and looks out for some other two-legged ass to serve

his turn! But remember that these secrets are intrusted to you alone;

keep them to yourself, therefore, buried in the silence of your own

breast; for one of these pumice-smoothed[530] fellows is a deadly thing

if he becomes your enemy. He that intrusted his secret to me but the

other day, now is furious, and detests me just as though I had divulged

all I know. He does not hesitate to use his dagger, to break my skull

with a bludgeon, or place a firebrand at my doors:[531] and deem it

no light or contemptible matter that to men of his wealth the price

of poison is never too costly. Therefore you must keep my secrets as

religiously as the court of Mars at Athens."

"Oh! Corydon,[532] poor simple Corydon! Do you think aught that a

rich man does can be secret? Even though his slaves should hold their

tongues, his cattle will tell the tale; and his dogs, and door-posts,

and marble statues! Close the shutters, cover all the chinks with

tapestry, fasten the doors, remove every light from the chamber,[533]

let each one keep his counsel, let not a soul lie near. Yet what he

does at the second cock-crow,[534] the next tavern-keeper will know

before dawn of day; and will hear as well all the fabrications of his

steward, cooks, and carvers.[535] For what charge do they scruple to

concoct against their masters, as often as they revenge themselves for

their strappings[536] by the lies they forge? Nor will there be wanting

one to hunt you out against your will in the public thoroughfares,

and pour his drunken tale into your miserable ears. Therefore ask

them what you just now begged of me! They hold their tongues! Why

they would rather blaze abroad a secret than drink as much Falernian

(all the sweeter because stolen) as Saufeia[537] used to drink, when

sacrificing[538] for the people!

"One should lead an upright life for very many reasons; but especially

for this--that you may be able to despise your servants' tongues. For

bad as your slave may be, his tongue is the worst part about him.

Yet far worse still is he that places himself in the power of those

whose body and soul he keeps together with his own bread and his own

money.[539]

"Well, the advice you have just given me to enable me to laugh to

scorn my servants' tongues is very good, but too general. Now, what

do you advise in my particular case, after the loss of my time and

the disappointment of my hopes? For the short-lived bloom[540] and

contracted span of a brief and wretched life is fast fleeting away!

While we are drinking,[541] and calling for garlands, and perfumes, and

women, old age steals on us unperceived! Do not be alarmed! So long

as these seven hills stand fast you will never lack a pathic friend.

Those effeminates, who scratch their heads with one finger,[542] will

flock from all quarters to these hills, in carriages and ships. You

have still another and a better hope in store. All you have to do is

to chew eringo vigorously." "Tell this to luckier wights! My Clotho

and Lachesis are well content, if I can earn a subsistence by my vile

labors. Oh! ye small Lares,[543] that call me master, whom I supplicate

with a fragment of frankincense, or meal, and a poor garland, when

shall I secure[544] a sum that may insure my old age against the

beggar's mat and crutch? Twenty thousand sesterces as interest, with

good security for the principal; some small vessels of silver not

enchased, but such as Fabricius,[545] if censor, would condemn; and

two sturdy Mœsian slaves,[546] who, bearing me on their shoulders,

might bid me stand without inconvenience in the noisy circus! Let me

have besides an engraver stooping[547] over his work, and another who

may with all speed paint[548] me a row of portraits. This is quite

enough--since poor I ever shall be. A poor, wretched wish indeed! and

yet I have no hope even of this! For when dame Fortune[549] is invoked

for me, she stops her ears with wax fetched from that ship which

escaped the Sirens' songs with its deaf rower."

FOOTNOTES:

been a lawyer, i., Ep. 98; iii., Ep. 71 and 95; iv., Ep. 84: hence

perhaps the allusion to Marsyas, whose statue stood in the Forum,

opposite the Rostra, as a warning to the litigious. Cf. Hor., i., Sat.

vi., 120. Xen., Anab., I., ii., 8.

fellow-slave in the house of Iadmon the Samian, afterward so well known

in Egypt. Herod., ii., 134. Cf. Ælian., V. H., xiii., 33.

spoiled by indulgence; and they frequently got the nickname of Equites,

out of petulant familiarity or fondness.

"And every limb, once smooth'd with nicest care,

Rank with neglect, a shrubbery of hair." Gifford.

"Sorrow nor joy can be disguised by art,

Our foreheads blab the secrets of our heart." Dryden.

Forum, A.D. 76. Dio., lxvi., 15. Suet., Vesp. 9. In it, or near it,

stood the statue of Ganymede. Others think that Ganymedes is put for

the temple of Jupiter.

Numen Idæum, because her worship was introduced into Rome from Phrygia,

A.U.C. 548, after the Sibylline books had been consulted as to the

means of averting certain prodigies. The rude and shapeless mass which

represented the goddess was lodged in the house of P. Corn. Scipio

Nasica, as the most virtuous man in Rome. Cf. Sat. iii., 137. Liv.,

xxix., 10. A temple was afterward erected for her on the Palatine Hill:

hence _palatia_. _Secreta_ alludes to the abominable orgies performed

in her honor.

standard; in short, base metal."

"But oh! this wretch, this prodigy behold!

A slave at once to lechery and gold." Dryden.

Barrus."

"Gemmata Dextrocheria." Grangæus thinks that it means "presents of

amber," which the Roman ladies used to rub in their hands. So Badham:

"For whom the cup of amber must be found,

Oft as the birth or festal day comes round."

Matronalia in honor of the women who put an end to the Sabine war

(bellum dirimente Sabina, vi., 154). Cf. Ov., Fast., iii., 229. On this

festival, as well as their birthdays, the Roman ladies sat up in state

to receive presents from their husbands, lovers, and acquaintances

(vid. Suet., Vesp., 19), in return for what they had given to the men

on the Saturnalia. Cf. Mart., v., Ep. lxxxiv., 10, "Scis certè puto

vestra jam venire Saturnalia Martias Kalendas." Hor., iii., Od. viii.,

1, "Martiis cælebs quid agam Kalendis."

"Regions which such a tract of land embrace,

That kites are tired within the unmeasured space." Gifford.

fateor, Trifolina, Lyæo; inter vina tamen septima vitis ero." Trifoline

wines were so called from being fit to drink at the third appearance of

the leaf, "quæ tertio anno ad bibendum tempestiva forent." Plin., xiv.,

6. Facc. takes it from Trifolium, a mountain in Campania, perhaps near

Capua. Plin., iv., 6.

234), only three miles from Cumæ, or Vesuvius, which was famous for its

wines. Mart., iv., Ep. 44. Virg., Georg., ii., 224. Gaurus, now Monte

Barbaro, is full of volcanic caverns. It is also called "Gierro."

"Though none drinks less, yet none more vessels fills!" Dryden.

"Sure yonder female with the child she bred,

The dog their playmate, and their little shed,

Had with more justice been conferr'd on me,

Than on a cymbal-beating debauchee." Gifford.

672. The meaning seems to be, "I am as badly off with but one slave as

Polyphemus was with only one eye: had he had _two_ Ulysses would not

have escaped him." Badham takes it of the slave calling for food.

"My hungry rascal must at home be fed,

Or else, like Polypheme, he'll roar for bread!"

rebus servate secundis." Cf. Suet., Cal., 45.

"Cold! never mind! a month or two, and then

The grasshoppers, my lads, will come again!" Badham.

rumperetque tabulas nuptiales." There was an express clause in the

marriage contract, "liberorum procreandorum gratiâ uxorem duci."

"cupient et in acta referri." These acta were public registers, in

which parents were obliged to insert the names of their children a few

days after their birth. They contained, besides, records of marriages,

divorces, deaths, and other occurrences of the year, and were therefore

of great service to historians, who as some think employed persons to

read them up for them. (Cf. acta legenti vii., 104.) Servius Tullius

instituted this custom. The records were kept in the temple of Saturn.

as here, on the birth of a child; at marriages (vi., 51, "Necte coronam

postibus, et densos per limina tende corymbos"), the return of friends

(cf. xii., 91, "Longos erexit janua ramos"), or any public rejoicing

(as x., 65, on the death of Sejanus, "Pone domi lauros"). So, when

advocates gained a cause, their clients adorned the entrance of their

houses with palm branches. Cf. vii., 118, "virides scalarum gloria

palmæ." Mart., vii., Ep. xxviii., 6, "excolat et geminas plurima palma

fores."

(introduced, at the desire of Augustus, to extend the Lex Julia de

maritandis ordinibus) was, that if a married person had no child, a

tenth, and in some cases a larger proportion, of what was bequeathed

him, should fall to the exchequer. Cf. vi., 38. It conferred also

certain privileges and immunities on those who in Rome had three

children (hence jus trium liberorum) born in wedlock. Cf. Ruperti and

Lips. ad Tac., Ann., iii., 25. Cf. Ann., xv., 19. Mart., ii., Ep. xci.,

6; ix., lxvii.

having children.

lumbum."

te dementia cepit!" and 56, "Rusticus es, Corydon!"

"Bolt every door, stop every cranny tight,

Close every window, put out every light;

Let not a whisper reach the listening ear,

No noise, no motion--let no soul be near." Gifford.

watch, Vid. Facc.

δαιτρός and structor.

"For countless scourgings will the rogues be slack

In slanderous villainies to pay thee back?" Badham.

mentioned xii., 45, and Mart., iii., Ep. 72; and whose other

debaucheries are mentioned vi., 320. Cicero, knowing the propensity of

his countrywomen to wine-bibbing, would exclude them from officiating

at any sacred rites (at which wine was always used) after nightfall.

The festival of the Bona Dea is the only exception he would make.

"Nocturna mulierum sacrificia ne sunto, præter olla quæ pro populo rite

fiant."

"Cum _faciam_ vitulâ pro fugibus ipse venito." So Georg., i., 339,

"Sacra refer Cereri lætis operatus in herbis." So in Greek, ῥέζειν is

constantly used absolutely.

"For more stolen wine than late Saufeia boused,

When, for the people's welfare, she caroused!" Gifford.

"Yet worse than they, the man whose vicious deeds

Makes him still tremble at the rogues he feeds." Badham.

Gifford's note.

"And while thou call'st for garlands, girls, and wine,

Comes stealthy age, and bids thee all resign." Badham.

are afraid of touching their heads with more than a finger, for fear of

discomposing their curls. Pompey had this charge brought against him by

one Calvus; and cf. Plut. in Vit., 48. Amm. Marcell., XVII., xi.

coronantem marino Rore Deos, fragilique myrto." Plin., xi., 2, "Numa

instituit deos fruge colere, et mola salsa supplicare et far torrere."

pons et tegetis pars."--_Baculo_, cf. Ter., Heaut., V., i., 58.

Cornelius Rufinus, who had been twice consul and once dictator, for

having in his possession more than ten pounds' weight of plate. Liv.,

Epit., xiv. He was censor A.U.C. 478. Cf. xi., 90, _seq._

gestatoria_, a sedan borne by two persons. The rich had litters or

palanquins, called hexaphori, or octophori, according to the number of

the lecticarii. Cf. i., 64. Mœsia, now Bulgaria and Servia, is said to

have been famous for producing these brawny chairmen.

vat." Cf. Virg., Eccl., iii., 42, "curvus arator;" so Art. Am., ii.,

670, "Curva senectus." Or from his assiduity, "qui assiduus in opere

est." Madan says, "Curvus means crooked, that hath turnings and

windings; and this latter, in a mental sense, denotes cunning, which

is often used for _skillful_." Cf. Exod., xxxviii., 23. The old Schol.

explains it by Anaglyptarius, "a carver in low relief."

casts." It probably refers to the "line of painted busts" to deck his

corridor, perhaps of fictitious ancestors. Cf. viii., 2, "Pictosque

ostendere vultus majorum."

"For when to Fortune I prefer my prayers,

The obdurate goddess stops at once her ears;

Stops with that wax which saved Ulysses' crew,

When by the Syrens' rocks and songs they flew." Gifford.

In all the regions which extend from Gades[550] even to the farthest

east and Ganges, there are but few that can discriminate between real

blessings and those that are widely different, all the mist[551] of

error being removed. For what is there that we either fear or wish for,

as reason would direct? What is there that you enter on under such

favorable auspices, that you do not repent of your undertaking, and the

accomplishment of your wish? The too easy gods have overthrown[552]

whole families by granting their owners' prayers. Our prayers are put

up for what will injure us in peace and injure us in war. To many the

copious fluency[553] of speech, and their very eloquence, is fatal. It

was owing to his strength[554] and wondrous muscle, in which he placed

his trust, that the Athlete met his death. But money heaped up with

overwhelming care, and a revenue surpassing all common patrimonies as

much as the whale of Britain[555] exceeds dolphins, causes more to

be strangled. Therefore it was, that in that reign of Terror, and at

Nero's bidding, a whole cohort[556] blockaded Longinus[557] and the

spacious gardens of the over-wealthy Seneca,[558] and laid siege to the

splendid[559] mansion of the Laterani.[560] It is but rarely that the

soldier pays his visit to a garret. Though you are conveying ever so

few vessels of unembossed silver, entering on your journey by night,

you will dread the bandit's knife and bludgeon, and tremble at the

shadow of a reed as it quivers in the moonshine.[561] The traveler with

empty[562] pockets will sing even in the robber's face.

The prayers that are generally the first put up and best known in all

the temples are, that riches,[563] that wealth may increase; that our

chest may be the largest in the whole forum.[564] But no aconite is

drunk from earthenware. It is time to dread it when you quaff jeweled

cups,[565] and the ruddy Setine blazes in the broad gold. And do you

not, then, now commend the fact, that of the two sages,[566] one

used to laugh[567] whenever he had advanced a single step from his

threshold; the other, with sentiments directly contrary, used to weep.

But easy enough to any one is the stern censure of a sneering laugh:

the wonder is how the other's eyes could ever have a sufficient supply

of tears.[568] Democritus used to shake his sides with perpetual

laughter, though in the cities of those regions there were no prætextæ,

no trabeæ,[569] no fasces, no litter, no tribunal! What, had he seen

the prætor[570] standing pre-eminent in his lofty car, and raised on

high in the mid dust of the circus, dressed in the tunic of Jove, and

wearing on his shoulders the Tyrian hangings of the embroidered toga;

and the circlet of a ponderous crown,[571] so heavy that no single

neck could endure the weight:[572] since the official, all in a sweat,

supports it, and, that the consul may not be too elated, the slave

rides in the same car. Then, add the bird that rises from his ivory

sceptre: on one side the trumpeters; on the other, the long train of

attendant clients, that march before him, and the Quirites, all in

white togas, walking by his horses' heads; men whose friendship he has

won by the sportula buried deep in his chest. Even in those days _he_

found subject for ridicule in every place where human beings meet,

whose wisdom proves that men of the highest intellect, men that will

furnish noble examples, may be born in the country of wether-sheep,

and in a foggy[573] atmosphere. He used to laugh at the cares and

also the joys of the common herd; sometimes even at their tears:

while he himself would bid Fortune, when she frowned, "Go hang!" and

point at her his finger[574] in scorn! Superfluous therefore, or else

destructive, are all those objects of our prayers, for which we think

it right to cover the knees of the gods with waxen tablets.[575]

Power, exposed to great envy, hurls some headlong down to ruin. The

long and splendid list of their titles and honors sinks[576] into the

dust. Down come their statues,[577] and are dragged along with ropes:

then the very wheels of the chariot are smashed by the vigorous stroke

of the axe, and the legs of the innocent[578] horses are demolished.

Now the fires roar! Now that head, once worshiped[579] by the mob,

glows with the bellows and the furnace! Great Sejanus crackles! Then

from that head, second only in the whole wide world, are made pitchers,

basins, frying-pans,[580] and platters! "Crown your doors with

bays![581] Lead to Jove's Capitol a huge and milk-white ox! Sejanus

is being dragged along by the hook! a glorious sight!" Every body is

delighted. "What lips he had! and what a face! If you believe me, I

never could endure this man!" "But what was the charge under which he

fell! Who was the accuser? what the information laid? By whose witness

did he prove it?" "Nothing of the sort! a wordy and lengthy epistle

came from Capreæ." "That's enough! I ask no farther. But how does the

mob of Remus behave!" "Why, follow Fortune,[582] as mobs always do,

and hate him that is condemned?" That self-same people, had Tuscan

Nurscia[583] smiled propitious on her countryman--had the old age of

the emperor been crushed while he thought all secure--would in that

very hour have saluted Sejanus as Augustus. Long ago they have thrown

overboard all anxiety. For that sovereign people that once gave away

military command, consulships, legions, and every thing, now bridles

its desires, and limits its anxious longings to two things only--bread,

and the games of the circus! "I hear that many are involved in his

fall." "No doubt: the little furnace[584] is a capacious one; I met

my friend Brutidius[585] at the altar of Mars looking a little pale!"

"But I greatly fear that Ajax, being baffled,[586] will wreak fearful

vengeance, as having been inadequately defended. Let us rush headlong;

and, while he still lies on the river-bank, trample on Cæsar's foe?

But take care that our slaves witness the act! lest any of them should

deny it, and drag his master to trial with a halter round his neck!"

Such were the conversations then about Sejanus; such the smothered

whispers of the populace? Would _you_ then have the same court paid to

you that Sejanus had? possess as much, bestow on one the highest curule

honors, give another the command of armies,[587] be esteemed the lawful

guardian[588] of the prince that lounged away[589] his days with his

herd of Chaldæan astrologers, in the rock of Capreæ that he made his

palace?[590] Would you have centuries and cohorts, and a picked body

of cavalry,[591] and prætorian bands at your beck? Why should you not

covet these? Even those who have not the _will_ to kill a man would

gladly have the _power_. But what brilliant or prosperous fortune is of

sufficient worth that your measure of evils should balance your good

luck? Would you rather put on the prætexta of him that is being dragged

along, or be the magistrate of Fidenæ or Gabii, and give sentence about

false weights,[592] and break up scanty measures as the ragged ædile of

the deserted Ulubræ?[593]

You acknowledge, therefore, that Sejanus did not know what ought to

have been the object of his wishes. For he that coveted excessive

honors, and prayed for excessive wealth, was but rearing up the

multiplied stories of a tower raised on high, only that the fall might

be the deeper,[594] and horrible the headlong descent of his ruin[595]

once accelerated!

What overthrew the Crassi?[596] and Pompey and his sons?[597] and

him that brought Rome's haughty citizens quailing[598] beneath his

lash? Surely it was the post of highest advancement, reached by every

possible device, and prayers for greatness heard by gods who showed

their malignity in granting them! Few kings go down without slaughter

and wounds to Ceres' son-in-law. Few tyrants die a bloodless death!

He that as yet pays court to[599] Minerva, purchased by a single

_as_, that is followed by his little slave[600] to take charge of

his diminutive satchel, begins to long, and longs through all his

quinquatrian[601] holidays, for the eloquence and the renown of

Demosthenes or Cicero. But it was through their eloquence that both of

these orators perished: the copious and overflowing fount of talent

gave over each to destruction; by talent, was his hand and head cut

off! Nor did the Rostra[602] ever reek with the blood of a contemptible

pleader.

"O fortunate Rome, whose natal day may date from me as consul!" He

might have scorned the swords of Antony,[603] had all he uttered

been such trash as this. I had rather write poems that excite only

ridicule, than thee, divine Philippic of distinguished fame! that art

unrolled next to the first! Cruel was the end that carried him off

also whom Athens used to admire as his words flowed from his lips in a

torrent[604] of eloquence, and he swayed at will the passions of the

crowded theatre. With adverse gods and inauspicious fate was he born,

whom his father, blear-eyed with the grime of the glowing mass, sent

from the coal, and pincers,[605] and the sword-forging anvil, and sooty

Vulcan,[606] to the rhetorician's school!

The spoils of war, the cuirass fastened to the truncated[607] trophy,

the cheek-piece hanging from the battered helm, the car shorn of its

pole, the streamer of the captured galley,[608] and the sad captive on

the triumphal arch-top,[609] are held to be goods exceeding all human

blessings. For these each general, Roman, or Greek, or Barbarian,

strains as his prize! Full compensation for his dangers and his toils

he sees in these! So much greater is the thirst after fame than virtue.

For who would embrace[610] virtue herself, if you took away the rewards

of virtue? And yet, ere now, the glory of a few has been the ruin of

their native land; that longing for renown, and those inscriptions that

are to live on the marble that guards their ashes; and yet to burst

asunder this, the mischievous strength of the barren fig-tree has power

enough. Since even to sepulchres[611] themselves are fates assigned.

Weigh[612] the remains of Hannibal! How many pounds will you find in

that most consummate general! This is the man whom not even Africa,

lashed by the Mauritanian ocean, and stretching even to the steaming

Nile, and then again to the races of the Æthiopes and their tall[613]

elephants, can contain! Spain is annexed to Carthage's domain. He

bounds across the Pyrenees. Nature opposed in vain the Alps with

all their snows; he cleaves the rocks and rives the mountains with

vinegar.[614] Now he is lord of Italy! Yet still he presses on. "Naught

is achieved,"[615] he says, "unless we burst through the gates of Rome

with the soldiery of Carthage, and I plant my standard in the heart

of the Suburra!" Oh what a face![616] and worthy what a picture! when

the huge Gætulian beast bore on his back the one-eyed[617] general!

What then was the issue? Oh glory! This self-made man is conquered,

and flees with headlong haste to exile, and there, a great and

much-to-be-admired client, sits at the palace of the king, until his

Bithynian majesty[618] be pleased to wake! To that soul, that once

shook the very world's base, it is not sword, nor stone, nor javelin,

that shall give the final stroke; but, that which atoned for Cannæ, and

avenged such mighty carnage,[619] a ring! Go then, madman, and hurry

over the rugged Alps, that you may be the delight of boys, and furnish

subjects for declamations![620]

One[621] world is not enough for the youth of Pella! He chafes within

the narrow limits of the universe, poor soul, as though confined in

Gyarus'[622] small rock, or scanty Seriphös. Yet when he shall have

entered the city that the brickmakers[623] fortified, he will be

content with a sarcophagus![624] Death alone discloses how very small

are the puny bodies of men! Men do believe that Athos was sailed

through of yore; and all the bold assertions that lying Greeks hazard

in history--that the sea was bridged over by the same fleets, and

formed into a solid pavement for the transit of wheels. We believe that

deep rivers failed, and streams were drunk dry[625] when the Persian

dined; and all the flights of Sostratus'[626] song, when his wings are

moistened by the god of wine. And yet, in what guise did _he_ return

after quitting Salamis, who, like a true barbarian as he was, used to

vent his rage in scourges on Corus and Eurus, that had never suffered

in this sort in Æolus' prison; and bound in gyves Ennosigæus[627]

himself. It was, in fact, an act of clemency that he did not think he

deserved branding[628] also. Would any of the gods choose to serve[629]

such a man as this? But how did he return? Why, in a single ship;

through waves dyed with blood, and with his galley retarded[630] by the

shoals of corpses. Such was the penalty that glory, for which he had so

often prayed, exacted.

"Grant length of life, great Jove, and many years!" This is your only

prayer in health and sickness. But with what unremitting and grievous

ills is old age crowded! First of all, its face is hideous, loathsome,

and altered from its former self; instead of skin a hideous hide and

flaccid cheeks; and see! such wrinkles, as, where Tabraca[631] extends

her shady dells, the antiquated ape[632] scratches on her wizened

jowl! There are many points of difference in the young: this youth is

handsomer than that; and he again than a third: one is far sturdier

than another. Old mens faces are all alike--limbs tottering and

voice feeble,[633] a smooth bald pate, and the second childhood of a

driveling nose; the poor wretch must mumble his bread with toothless

gums; so loathsome to his wife, his children, and even to himself,

that he would excite the disgust even of the legacy-hunter Cossus! His

palate[634] is grown dull; his relish for his food and wine[635] no

more the same; the joys of love are long ago forgotten; and in spite

of all efforts to reinvigorate them, all manly energies are hopelessly

extinct. Has this depraved and hoary lechery aught else to hope? Do we

not look with just suspicion on the lust that covets the sin but lacks

the power?[636]

Now turn your eyes to the loss of another sense. For what pleasure

has he in a singer, however eminent a harper it may be; nay, even

Seleucus himself; or those whose habit it is to glitter in a cloak

of gold?[637] What matters it in what part of the wide theatre he

sits, who can scarcely hear the horn-blowers, and the general clang

of trumpets? You must bawl out loud before his ear can distinguish

who it is his slave says has called, or tells him what o'clock it

is.[638] Besides, the scanty blood that flows in his chill[639] body

is warmed by fever only. Diseases of every kind dance round him in

full choir. If you were to ask their names, I could sooner tell you

how many lovers Hippia had; how many patients Themison[640] killed in

one autumn; how many allies Basilus plundered; how many wards Hirrus

defrauded; how many lovers long Maura received in the day; how many

pupils Hamillus corrupts. I could sooner run through the list of villas

owned by him now, beneath whose razor[641] my stiff beard resounded

when I was in my prime. One is weak in the shoulder; another in the

loins; another in the hip. Another has lost both eyes, and envies the

one-eyed. Another's bloodless lips receive their food from others'

fingers. He that was wont to relax his features to a smile at the sight

of his dinner, now only gapes[642] like the young swallow to whom the

parent bird, herself fasting,[643] flies with full beak. But worse

than all debility of limb is that idiocy which recollects neither the

names of his slaves nor the face of the friend with whom he supped the

evening before; not even those whom he begot and brought up! For by a

heartless will he disinherits them; and all his property is made over

to Phiale:[644]--such power has the breath of her artificial mouth,

that stood for hire so many years in the brothel's dungeon.

Even though the powers of intellect retain their vigor, yet he must

lead forth the funerals of his children; must gaze upon the pyre of

a beloved wife, and the urns filled with all that remains of his

brother and sisters. This is the penalty imposed on the long-lived,

that they must grow old with the death-blow in their house forever

falling fresh--in oft-recurring sorrow--in unremitting mourning, and

a suit of black.[645] The king of Pylos,[646] if you put any faith

in great Homer, was an instance of life inferior in duration only

to the crow's.[647] Happy, no doubt! was he who for so many years

put off his hour of death; and now begins to count his years on his

right hand,[648] and has drunk so often of the new-made wine. I pray

you, lend me your ear a little space; and hear how sadly he himself

complains of the decrees of fate, and too great powers of life, when

he watches the blazing beard of Antilochus[649] in his bloom, and

asks of every friend that stands near, why it is he lingers on to

this day; what crime he has committed to deserve so long a life!

Such, too, is Peleus' strain, when he mourns for Achilles prematurely

snatched from him: and that other, whose lot it was to grieve for the

shipwrecked[650] Ithacensian.

Priam would have joined the shade of Assaracus with Troy still

standing, with high solemnities, with Hector and his brothers

supporting his bier on their shoulders, amid the weeping Troades, so

that Cassandra would lead off the wail, and Polyxena[651] with mantle

rent, had he but died at any time but that, after that Paris had begun

to build his audacious ships. What then did length of days confer on

him? He saw his all o'erthrown: Asia laid low by flame and sword. Then

the poor tottering warrior[652] laid down his diadem and donned his

arms, and fell before the altar of supreme Jove; like some old ox[653]

that yields his attenuated and miserable neck to his owner's knife,

long ago scorned[654] by the ungrateful plow.

That was at all events the death of a human being: but his wife who

survived him barked fiercely from the jaws of a bitch.[655]

I hasten on to our own countrymen, and pass by the king of Pontus, and

Crœsus,[656] whom the eloquent voice of the right-judging Solon bade

look at the closing scene[657] of a life however long. Banishment,

and the jail, and the marshes of Minturnæ,[658] and his bread begged

in conquered Carthage, took their rise from this. What could all

nature, what could Rome, have produced more blessed in the wide world

than that citizen, had he breathed forth his soul[659] glutted with

spoils, while the captive train followed around his chariot, in all

the pomp and circumstance of war, when he was about to alight from his

Teutonic[660] car! Campania,[661] in her foresight for Pompey, had

given him a fever he should have prayed for. But the many cities and

their public prayers prevailed. Therefore his own malignant fortune

and that of Rome preserved him only that conquered he should lose

his head. Lentulus[662] escaped this torment; Cethegus paid not this

penalty, but fell unmutilated; and Catiline lay with corpse entire.

The anxious mother, when she visits Venus' temple, prays for beauty

for her boys with subdued whisper;[663] with louder voice for her

girls, carrying her fond wishes[664] even to the verge of trifling.

"But why should you chide me?" she says; "Latona[665] delights in the

beauty of Diana." But, Lucretia[666] forbids a face like hers to be the

subject of your prayers: Virginia would gladly give hers to Rutila,

and receive her wen in exchange. But, a son possessed of exquisite

person keeps his parents in a constant state of misery and alarm. So

rare is the union[667] of beauty with chastity. Though the house,

austere in virtue, and emulating the Sabines of old, may have handed

down,[668] like an inheritance, purity of morals, and bounteous Nature

with benignant hand may give, besides, a chaste mind and a face glowing

with modest blood (for what greater boon can Nature bestow on a youth?

Nature, more powerful than any guardian, or any watchful care!), still

they are not allowed to attain to manhood. For the villainy of the

corrupter, prodigal in its guilt, dares to assail with tempting offers

the parents themselves. So great is their confidence in the success of

bribes! No tyrant in his cruel palace ever castrated a youth that was

deformed; nor did even Nero carry off a stripling if club-footed, or

disfigured by wens, pot-bellied, and humpbacked! Go then, and exult in

the beauty of your darling boy! Yet for whom are there greater perils

in store? He will become the adulterer of the city, and dread all the

punishments[669] that angry husbands inflict. Nor will he be more

lucky than the star of Mars, even though he never fall like Mars into

the net.[670] But sometimes that bitter wrath exacts even more than

any law permits, to satisfy the husband's rage. One dispatches the

adulterer with the sword; another cuts him in two with bloody lashes;

some have the punishment of the mullet. But your Endymion, forsooth,

will of course become the lover of some lady of his affections! But

soon, when Servilia[671] has bribed him, he will serve her whom he

loves not, and will despoil her of all her ornaments. For what will any

woman refuse, to get her passions gratified? whether she be an Oppia,

or a Catulla. A depraved woman has all her morality[672] concentred

there. "But what harm does beauty do one that is chaste?" Nay, what

did his virtuous resolve avail Hippolytus, or what Bellerophon? Surely

she[673] fired at the rejection of her suit, as though treated with

indignity. Nor did Sthenobæa burn less fiercely than the Cretan; and

both lashed themselves into fury. A woman is then most ruthless, when

shame sets sharper spurs[674] to her hate. Choose what course you

think should be recommended him to whom Cæsar's wife[675] purposes to

marry herself. This most noble and most beautiful of the patrician

race is hurried off, poor wretched man, a sacrifice to the lewd eyes

of Messalina. She is long since seated with her bridal veil all ready:

the nuptial bed with Tyrian hangings is openly prepared in the gardens,

and, according to the antique rites, a dowry of a million sesterces

will be given; the soothsayer[676] and the witnesses to the settlement

will be there! Do you suppose these acts are kept secret; intrusted

only to a few? She will not be married otherwise than with all legal

forms. Tell me which alternative you choose. If you refuse to comply,

you must die before nightfall.[677] If you _do_ commit the crime, some

brief delay will be afforded you, until the thing, known to the city

and the people,[678] shall reach the prince's ears. He will be the last

to learn the disgrace of his house! Do you meanwhile obey her behests,

if you set so high a value on a few days' existence. Whichever you hold

the better and the safer course, that white and beauteous neck must be

presented[679] to the sword!

Is there then nothing for which men shall pray? If you will take

advice, you will allow the deities themselves to determine what may

be expedient for us, and suitable to our condition. For instead of

pleasant things, the gods will give us all that is most fitting. Man

is dearer to them than to himself. We, led on by the impulse of our

minds, by blind and headstrong passions, pray for wedlock, and issue

by our wives; but it is known to them what our children will prove;

of what character our wife will be! Still, that you may have somewhat

to pray for, and vow to their shrines the entrails and consecrated

mincemeat[680] of the white porker, your prayer must be that you may

have a sound mind in a sound body. Pray for a bold spirit, free from

all dread of death; that reckons the closing scene of life among

Nature's kindly boons;[681] that can endure labor, whatever it be; that

deems the gnawing cares of Hercules,[682] and all his cruel toils, far

preferable to the joys of Venus, rich banquets, and the downy couch of

Sardanapalus. I show thee what thou canst confer upon thyself. The only

path that surely leads to a life of peace lies through virtue. If _we_

have wise foresight, _thou_, Fortune, hast no divinity.[683] It is we

that make thee a deity, and place thy throne in heaven![684]

FOOTNOTES:

eastern boundaries of the then known world.

from which many ideas in this Satire, particularly toward the close,

are borrowed.

"As treacherous phantoms in the mist delude,

Shuns fancied ills, or chases, airy good." Johnson's imitation.

modo singulos homines sed _universas familias evertunt_," de Fin., i.

Cf. Shakspeare:

"We, ignorant of ourselves,

Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers

Deny us for our good: so find we profit

By losing of our prayers."

"Some who the depths of eloquence have found,

In that unnavigable stream were drown'd." Dryden.

lines:

"Remember Milo's end,

Wedged in the timber which he strove to rend."

Cf. Ovid, Ib., 609, "Utque Milon robur diducere fissile tentes, nec

possis captas inde referre manus."

qui remotis obstrepit Oceanus Britannis." There is probably an allusion

here to the large sums which Seneca had out at interest in Britain,

where his rigor in exacting his demands occasioned a rebellion.

_globus militum_ sepsit." Tac., Ann., xv., 60.

Imagines one of Cassius, Cæsar's murderer; and allowed an hour to die

in. Suet., Ner., 37.

et privatum suprà modum evectas opes adhuc augeret--hortorum quoque

amænitate et villarum magnificentiâ quasi Principem supergrederetur;"

and Seneca himself, in his speech to Nero, says, "Tantum honorum atque

opûm in me cumulâsti, ut nihil felicitati meæ desit." Tacit., Ann.,

xiv., 52, _seq._

Plautius Lateranus. His house was on the Cœlian Hill, on the site of

the modern Lateran.

aurarum et siluæ metu." Stat., Theb., vi., 158," Impulsæque noto

frondes cassusque valeret exanimare timor." Claud., Eutrop., ii., 452,

"Ecce levis frondes a tergo concutit aura: credit tela Leo: valuit pro

vulnere terror."

ferre viator cur timeat, tutum carpit inanis iter." Sen., Lucil.,

"Nudum Latro transmittit."

"While void of care the beggar trips along,

And, in the spoiler's presence, trolls his song." Gifford.

colaris: _Honores_ ut lauderis." De Amicit., vi.

individuals had their money in strong boxes deposited in the Forum

Trajani, or Forum Augusti; in the temple of Mars "Ultor" originally;

afterward in the temple of Castor and others, probably of Pax. Cf.

xiv., 259, "Æratâ multus in arcâ fiscus, et ad vigilem ponendi Cartora

nummi." Cf. Suet., Jul., x. Pliny the Younger was once præfectus ærarii

Saturni.

"Fear the gemm'd goblet, and suspicious hold

The ruby juice that glows in cups of gold." Badham.

Ephesus.

_rideret_ Democritus." δεῖσθαι μοι δοκεῖ Ἡρακλείτου ἤ Δημοκρίτου, τοῦ

μὲν γελασομένου τὴν ἄνοιαν αὐτῶν, τοῦ δὲ τὴν ἄγνοιαν ὀδυρομένου. Luc.,

βι. πρ., 13, τὸν γελῶντα, τὸν Ἀβδηρόθεν καὶ τὸν κλαίοντα τὸν ἐξ Ἐφέσου.

"The marvel this, since all the world can sneer,

What fountains fed the ever-needed tear." Badham.

prætor to open the Circensian games, and a triumphal procession. The

latter proceeded through the principal streets _to_ the Capitol. The

former, _from_ the Capitol to the _centre_ of the circus. The triumphal

car was in the shape of a turret, gilded, and drawn by four white

horses: it often occurs on coins. The tunica palmata, worn by generals

in their triumph, was kept in the temple of Jupiter. The toga picta was

purple, and so heavily embroidered that it may well be compared to a

brocaded curtain. Tyre was anciently called Sarra, which may be traced

in its modern name Sur.

"His robe a ponderous curtain of brocade,

Inwrought and stiff by Tyrian needles' aid." Badham.

"And would have crush'd it with the massy freight,

But that a sweating slave sustain'd the weight." Dryden.

Probably the crown was _not_ worn, but merely _held_ by the slave at

his side.

"The menial destined in his car to ride,

And cool the swelling consul's feverish pride." Hodgson.

Ep. i., 244. Bœotia was called the land of hogs, which so much annoyed

Pindar. Vid. Ol., vi., 152. Abdera seems to have had as bad a name. Cf.

Mart., x., Ep. xxv., 3, "Abderitanæ pectora plebis habes."

Cf. Mart., ii., Ep. xxviii., 2, "digitum porrigito medium." VI., Ep.

lxx., 5, "Ostendit digitum impudicum."

tablets, to the knees or thighs of the gods. When their wishes were

granted, these were replaced by the offerings they had vowed. Cf. Hom.,

Il., p., 514, θεῶν ἐν γούνασι κεῖται.

as xiii., 8. Lucr., v., 1006. Virg., Æn., vi., 512.

"Juvabat illidere solo superbissimos vultus, instare ferro, _sævire

securibus_, ut si singulos ictus sanguis dolorque sequeretur"--"instar

ultionis videretur cernere imagines abjectas excoctasque flammis."

"The driven axe destroys the conquering car,

And unoffending steeds the ruin share." Hodgson.

et fora effigies ejus sineret." Vid. Suet., Tib., lv., 48, "Solæ nullam

Sejani imaginem inter signa coluissent." 65, "Sejani imagines aureas

coli passim videret."

"And from the stride of those colossal legs

You buy the useful pan that fries your eggs." Badham.

Dryden reads "matellæ."

"When the king's _trump_, the mob are for the king." Dryden.

Fortune, nearly identical with Atropos, and cognate with Minerva. The

old Schol. says, "Fortuna apud Nyrtiam colitur _unde fuit Sejanus_."

But Tacitus tells us (Ann., iv., l; vi., 8) that Sejanus was a native

of Volsinii, now Bolsena. Outside the Florence gate of Bolsena stands

the ruin of a temple still called Tempio di Norzia. Cf. Liv., vii., 3;

Tertull., Apoll., 24, ad Nat., ii., 8; Müller's Etrusker, IV., vii., 6;

Dennis's Etruria, i., p. 258, 509.

Gifford.

honestis copiosum et, si rectum iter pergeret, ad clarissima quæque

iturum festinatio exstimulabat, dum æquales, dein superiores, postremo

suasmet ipse spes anteire parat." Ann., iii., 66. He had been one of

the accusers of Silanus, and was involved in Sejanus' fall. "Magna est

fornacula" is well borne out by Tacitus' account. "Cunctos qui carcere

attinebantur, accusati societatis cum Sejano, necari jubet. _Jacuit

immensa strages_; omnis sexus omnis ætas: inlustres ignobiles--corpora

adsectabantur dum in Tiberim traherentur." Ann., vi., 19.

arms of Achilles.

Tribunos ipse deligere: neque senatorio ambitu abstinebat clientes suos

honoribus aut provinciis ornando, facili Tiberio atque ita prono ut

socium laborum celebraret."

"Arraign

Thy feeble sovereign in a guardian's strain,

Who sits amid his foul Chaldæan herd

In that august domain to Rome preferr'd." Badham.

supposes this word to have reference to the Sellaria there described.

It probably only refers to his luxury and indolence. Tiberius was with

Augustus when he visited Capreæ shortly before his death: "remisissimo

ad otium et ad omnem comitatem animo. Vicinam Capreis insulam

ἀπραγοπόλιν appellabat à desidiâ secedentium illuc e comitatu suo." Cf.

c. 40. Tac., Ann., iv., 67.

single letter converts a forceless expletive into an epithet full of

picturesque and historic truth.

troops, of which Sejanus was præfect.

"To pound false weights and scanty measures break." Dryden.

tibi deficit æquus." Another joke at the expense of the plebeian ædiles

(cf. iii., 162), who had the charge of inspecting weights and measures,

markets and provisions, roads, theatres, etc. These functionaries still

exist (as Gifford says), "as ragged and consequential" as ever, in the

Italian villages, retaining their old name of Podestà.

"Deal out the law, and curb with high decree

The tricks of trade at empty Ulubræ." Hodgson.

γὰρ μεῖζον, ἵνα μεῖζον πέσῃ. So hence Horace, ii., Od. x., 10, "Celsæ

graviore casu decidunt turres." So Claudian in Rufin., i., 22,

"Tolluntur in altum ut lapsu graviore ruant;" and Shakspeare, "Raised

up on high to be hurl'd down below."

"With hideous _ruin_ and combustion down." C. Badham.

in the Parthian war.

Sextus.

"The stubborn pride of Roman nobles broke,

And bent their haughty necks beneath his yoke." Dryd.

erit."

ad vi., 451.

quinquatribus olim." This festival originally lasted only _one_ day;

and was celebrated xiv. Kal. April. It was so called "quia _post diem

quintum_ Idus Martias ageretur." So "post diem sextum" was called

Sexatrus; and "post diem septimum," Septimatrus. Varro, L. L., v.,

3. It was afterward _extended_ to five days; hence the "vulgus"

supposed that to have been the origin of the name; and so Ovid takes

it, "Nominaque a junctis quinque diebus habet," Fast., iii., 809; who

says it was kept in honor of Minerva's natal day, "Causa quod est

illâ nata Minerva die," l. 812. (Others say, because on that day her

temple on Mount Aventine was consecrated.) Domitian kept the festival

in great state at his Alban villa. Suet., Domit., iv. Cicero has a

punning allusion to it. Vid. Fam., xii., 25. These five days were the

schoolmasters' holidays; and on the first they received their pay, or

entrance fee, διδακτρὰ, hence called Minerval; though Horace seems to

imply they were paid every month, "Octonis referentes Idibus æra." I.,

Sat. vi., 75. The lesser Quinquatrus were on the Ides of June. Ov.,

Fast., vi., 651, "Quinquatrus jubeor narrare minores," called also

Quinquatrus Minusculæ.

carried them to Antony, who rewarded him with a civic crown and a large

sum of money, and ordered the head to be fixed between the hands to the

Rostra. (For the _name_, vid. Liv., viii., 14.)

gladios, non pertimescam tuos." Phil., ii., 46.

"For me, the sorriest rhymes I'd rather claim,

Than bear the brunt of that Philippic's fame,

The second! the divine!" Badham.

torrentior." At the approach of Antipater, Demosthenes fled from

Athens, and took refuge in the temple of Poseidon at Calaureia, near

Argolis; and fearing to fall into the hands of Archias, took poison,

which he carried about with him in a reed, or, as Pliny says, in a

ring, xxxiii., 1.

forcipe massam." Juvenal seems to have had the whole passage in his eye.

capacity he employed a large number of slaves, ἐργαστήριον ἔχων μέγα

καὶ δούλους τεχνίτας. But as he could not afford to place his son under

the costly Isocrates, he sent him to Isæus.

Ingentem quercum decisis undique ramis

Constituit tumulo, fulgentiaque induit arma,

Mezenti ducis _exuvias_, tibi magne _tropæum_

Bellipotens: aptat rorantes sanguine cristas

Telaque _trunca_ viri.

galley, from which rose the ensign.

insignibus triumphorum per regiones urbis tantos et tot exstruxit, ut

cuidam Græcè inscriptum sit, ἀρκεῖ—." Some think there is an allusion

here to the column of Trajan, erected in honor of his Dacian victories.

This would bring down the date of this Satire to after A.D. 113.

"That none confess fair Virtue's genuine power,

Or woo her to their breast without a dower." Gifford.

"Mors etiam saxis, nominibusque venit."

"For fate hath foreordain'd its day of doom,

Not to the tenant only, but the tomb." Badham.

"How are the mighty changed to dust! how small

The urn that holds what once was Hannibal!" Hodgson.

_Africa_ as well as _Asia_. "Elephantos fert Africa, ferunt Æthiopes et

Troglodytæ: sed maximos India." Plin., viii., 11.

fabulous. There appears, now, no reason to doubt the fact.

"Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain;

'Think nothing gain'd,' he cries, 'till naught remain;

On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly,

And all be mine beneath the Polar sky.'" Johnson.

"Oh! for some master-hand, the lines to trace!" Gifford.

making his way to Etruria: "quia medendi nec locus nec tempus erat

altero oculo capitur;" he rode, Livy tells us, on his sole surviving

elephant, xxii., 2.

fled to Antiochus, king of Syria, and thence to the court of Prusias,

king of Bithynia, for whom he carried on successfully the war against

Eumenes. But when Flaminius was sent to demand his surrender, he

destroyed himself with poison, which he always carried in a ring.

Cannæ, with the Consul Æmilius Paulus, eighty senators, and very many

others of high rank.

caput Hannibal implet." So I. 150, and i., 15.

"Go, climb the rugged Alps, ambitious fool!

To please the boys, and be a theme at school." Dryden.

is the exclamation put into Alexander's mouth by Val. Max., viii., 14.

altam Coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem."

said to possess the property of consuming the flesh of bodies inclosed

in it within the space of forty days, hence called σαρκοφάγος. Plin.,

ii., 96; xxxvi., 17. Cf. Henry's speech to Hotspur's body:

"Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!

When that this body did contain a spirit,

A kingdom for it was too small a bound:

But now, two paces of the vilest earth

Is room enough."

So Hall:

"Fond fool! six feet shall serve for all thy store,

And he that cares for most shall find no more."

And Shirley:

"How little room do we take up in death,

That, living, knew no bounds!"

And Webster's Duchess of Malfy:

"Much you had of land and rent;

Your length in clays's now competent."

So K. Henry VI.:

"And of all my lands

Is nothing left me but my body's length."

And Dryden's Antony:

"The place thou pressest on thy mother Earth

Is all thy empire now."

Cf. Æsch., S. Theb., 731. Soph., Œd. Col., 789. Shakspeare's Richard

II., Act iii., sc. 2.

and Echedorus.

"Rivers, whose depth no sharp beholder sees,

Drunk at an army's dinner to the lees!" Dryden.

in the same sense as in Sat. xv., 47, "Facilis victoria de madidis."

Sil., xii., 18, "Madefacta mero."

455. _Æolis_ is an allusion to Virgil, Æn., i., 51, "Vinclis ac carcere

frænat," etc.

"That shackles o'er th' earth-shaking Neptune threw,

And thought it lenient not to brand him too." Gifford.

etc.

"Ye gods! obeyed ye such a fool as this?" Hodgson.

"A single skiff to speed his flight remains,

Th' encumbered oar scarce leaves the dreaded coast

Through purple billows and a floating host!" Johnson.

similis turpissima bestia nobis!"

"A stick-fallen cheek! that hangs below the jaw,

Such wrinkles as a skillful hand would draw

For an old grandam ape, when, with a grace,

She sits at squat, and scrubs her leathern face." Dryden.

and As you like it, Act ii., 7:

"His big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in its sound."

"The self-same palsy both in limbs and tongue." Dryden.

"I am this day fourscore years old; and can I discern between good or

evil? can thy servant taste what I eat and what I drink? can I hear any

more the voice of singing men and singing women?"

"Now pall the tasteless meats, and joyless wines,

And Luxury with sighs her slave resigns." Johnson.

sc. 4, "Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive

performance?"

optimè vestitus, pallâ _inauratâ_ indutus, cum chlamyde purpureâ

coloribus variis intextâ, cum coronâ aureâ, magnis _fulgentibus_

gemmis illuminatâ." Horace, A. P., 215, "Luxuriem addidi arti Tibicen,

traxitque vagus per pulpita vestem."

houses of those who had them, and report the hour: those who had no

dial sent to the Forum. Cf. Mart., viii., 67. Suet., Domit., xvi.,

"Sexta nuntiata est."

senectâ _Sanguis_ hebet, _frigentque_ effœtæ in corpora vires."

eminent physician of the time of Pompey the Great, and is said to have

been the founder of the "Methodic" school, as opposed to the "Empiric."

Vid. Cels., Præf. Plin., N. H., xxix., 15. Others say he lived in

Augustus' time, and Hodgson thinks he may have lived even to Juvenal's

days. Cicero (de Orat., i., 14) mentions an Asclepiades; and the names

of at least _three_ others are mentioned in later times.

χελιδόνα προσπετομένην τετριγότες οἰ νεοσσοί. P. 72, E., ed. Bened.

προφέρῃσι μάστακ', ἐπεί κε λάβῃσι, κακῶς δέ τέ οἱ πέλει αὐτῇ.

"Forgets the children he begot and bred,

And makes a strumpet heiress in their stead." Gifford.

Odyss., iii., 245, τρὶς γὰρ δή μίν φασιν ἀνάξασθαι γένε' ἀνδρῶν.

"Next to the raven's age, the Pylian king

Was longest-lived of any two-legged thing." Dryden.

on the left hand as far as a hundred, then on the right up to two

hundred, and then again on the left for the third hundred. Holyday has

a most elaborate explanation of the method.

"So Peleus sigh'd to join his hero lost--

Laertes his on boundless billows toss'd." Hodgson.

ἐπωμίδος ἔῤῥηξε.

trementibus ævo circumdat," etc.

"A soldier half, and half a sacrifice." Dryden.

procumbit humi bos."

"Disdain'd its labors, and forgotten now

All its old service at the thankless plow." Hodgson.

Hecuba was metamorphosed into a bitch, from her constant railing at

them. Hence κυνὸς σῆμα. Cf. Plaut., Menœchm., v. i.

metæ mortis.

now Garigliano. In the marshes in the neighborhood Marius concealed

himself from the cavalry of Sylla.

"Had he exhaled amid the pomp of war,

A warrior's soul in that Teutonic car." Badham.

Teutones. Cf. viii., 251.

familiaris, cum graviter ægrotaret Neapoli, utrum si tum esset

extinctus, à bonis rebus, an à malis discessisset? certè a miseriis,

si mortem tum obiisset, in amplissimis fortunis occidisset." Achillas

and L. Septimius murdered Pompey and cut off his head; which ἐφύλασσον

Καίσαρι, ὡς ἐπὶ μεγίσταις ἀμοιβαῖς. Appian, B.C., ii., 86

Catiline fell in battle, near Pistoria in Etruria.

Ψίθυρος, because all prayers were to be offered in whispers.

"Ut pro ipsis vota deliciarum plena concipiat." Britannicus, "quasi

diceret, optat ut tam formosa sit, ut eam juvenes in suos amplexus

optent."

Æn., i., 502, Latonæ tacitum pertentant gaudia pectus.

"Yet Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring,

And Sedley cursed the form that pleased a king!" Johnson.

_pudicitiæ_."

"Chaste--is no epithet to suit with fair." Dryden.

"Though through the rugged house, from sire to son,

A Sabine sanctity of manners run." Gifford.

left to the discretion of the injured husband rather than to have been

defined by law.

catenas, Retiaque et laqueos quæ lumina fallere possint, elimat." Art.

Am., ii., 561, _seq._ Hom., Odyss., viii., 266.

sister of Cato and mother of Brutus, with whom Cæsar intrigued, and

lavished immense wealth on her. Vid. Suet, Jul., 50. Her sister, the

wife of Lucullus, was equally depraved.

"In all things else, immoral, stingy, mean,

But in her lusts a conscionable quean." Dryden.

"A woman scorn'd is pitiless as fate,

For then the dread of shame adds stings to hate." Gifford.

"In Silium, juventutis Romanæ _pulcherrimum_ ita exarserat, ut Juniam

Silanam nobilem fœminam, matrimonio ejus exturbaret vacuoque adultero

potiretur. Neque Silius _flagitii_ aut _periculi_ nescius erat: _sed

certo si abnueret exitio_ et nonnullâ fallendi spe, simul magnis

præmiis, opperiri futura, et præsentibus frui, pro solatio habebat."

This happened A.D. 48, in the autumn, while Claudius was at Ostia.

It was with great difficulty, after all, that Narcissus prevailed on

Claudius to order Messalina's execution, cf. xiv., 331; Tac., Ann.,

xi., 37; and she was put to death at last without his knowledge.

super cætera flagitia atque dedecora, C. Silio etiam nupsisse, _dote

inter auspices consignatâ_, supplicio affecit." C. 26; cf. 36, 39.

Tacitus. "An discidium inquit (Narcissus) tuum nôsti? Nam matrimonium

Silii vidit populus et senatus et miles: ac ni properè agis tenet urbem

maritus." Ann., xi., 30.

"Inevitable death before thee lies,

But looks more kindly through a lady's eyes!" Dryden.

up with the fat." Mart., i., Ep. xlii., 9, "Quod fumantia qui tomacla

raucus circumfert tepidus coquus popinis." The other savory ingredients

are given by Facciolati; the Greeks called them τεμάχη or τεμάχια.

"A soul that can securely death defy,

And count it Nature's privilege to die." Dryden.

Prodicus. Xen., Mem.

clearer, had Juvenal distinguished between wishes the accomplishment

of which could not fail to make us miserable, and those whose

accomplishment might fail to make us happy. Absolute power is of the

first kind; long life of the second."

If Atticus[685] sups extravagantly, he is considered a splendid[686]

fellow: if Rutilus does so, he is thought mad. For what is received

with louder laughter on the part of the mob, than Apicius[687] reduced

to poverty?

Every club,[688] the baths, every knot of loungers, every theatre,[689]

is full of Rutilus. For while his sturdy and youthful limbs are fit to

bear arms,[690] and while he is hot in blood, he is driven[691] (not

indeed forced to it, but unchecked by the tribune) to copy out[692]

the instructions and imperial commands of the trainer of gladiators.

Moreover, you see many whom their creditor, often cheated of his money,

is wont to look out for at the very entrance of the market;[693] and

whose inducement to live exists in their palate alone. The greatest

wretch among these, one who must soon fail, since his ruin is already

as clear[694] as day, sups the more extravagantly and the more

splendidly. Meanwhile they ransack all the elements for dainties;[695]

the price never standing in the way of their gratification. If you

look more closely into it, those please the more which are bought for

more. Therefore they have no scruple[696] in borrowing a sum, soon

to be squandered, by pawning[697] their plate, or the broken[698]

image of their mother; and, with the 400[699] sesterces, seasoning an

earthen[700] dish to tickle their palate. Thus they are reduced to the

hotch-potch[701] of the gladiator.

It makes therefore all the difference who it is that procures these

same things. For in Rutilus it is luxurious extravagance. In Ventidius

it takes a praiseworthy name, and derives credit from his fortune.

I should with reason despise the man who knows how much more lofty

Atlas is than all the mountains in Libya, yet this very man knows

not how much a little purse differs from an iron-bound chest.[702]

"Know thyself," came down from heaven:[703] a proverb to be

implanted and cherished in the memory, whether you are about to

contract matrimony,[704] or wish to be in a part of the sacred[705]

senate:--(for not even Thersites[706] is a candidate for the

breast-plate of Achilles: in which Ulysses exhibited himself in a

doubtful character:[707])--or whether you take upon yourself to defend

a cause of great moment. Consult your own powers; tell yourself who

you are; whether you are a powerful orator, or like a Curtius, or a

Matho,[708] mere spouters.

One must know one's own measure, and keep it in view, in the greatest

and in most trifling matters; even when a fish is to be bought. Do not

long for a mullet,[709] when you have only a gudgeon in your purse.

For what end awaits you, as your purse[710] fails and your gluttony

increases: when your patrimony and whole fortune is squandered[711]

upon your belly, what can hold your money out at interest, your solid

plate, your flocks, and lands?

By such proprietors as these, last of all[712] the ring is parted with,

and Pollio[713] begs with his finger bare. It is not the premature

funeral pile, or the grave, that is luxury's horror, but old age,[714]

more to be dreaded than death itself. These are most commonly the

steps: money, borrowed at Rome, is spent before the very owners' faces;

then when some trifling residue is left, and the lender of the money is

growing pale, they give leg-bail[715] and run to Baiæ and Ostia. For

now-a-days to quit the forum[716] is not more discreditable to you than

to remove to Esquiline from hot[717] Suburra. This is the only pain

that they who flee their country feel, this their only sorrow, to have

lost the Circensian games[718] for one[719] year. Not a drop of blood

remains in their face; few attempt to detain modesty, now become an

object of ridicule and fleeing from the city.

You shall prove to-day by your own experience, Persicus, whether

all these things, which are very fine to talk about, I do not

practice in my life, in my moral conduct, and in reality: but praise

vegetables,[720] while in secret I am a glutton: in others' hearing

bid my slave bring me water-gruel,[721] but whisper "cheese-cakes" in

his ear. For since you are my promised guest, you shall find me an

Evander:[722] you shall come as the Tirynthian, or the guest, inferior

indeed to him, and yet himself akin by blood to heaven: the one sent to

the skies by water,[723] the other by fire.

Now hear your bill of fare,[724] furnished by no public market.[725]

From my farm at Tibur there shall come a little kid, the fattest and

tenderest of the whole flock, ignorant of the taste of grass, that has

never yet ventured to browse even on the low twigs of the willow-bed,

and that has more milk than blood in his veins: and asparagus[726] from

the mountains, which my bailiff's wife, having laid down her spindle,

gathered. Some huge eggs besides, and still warm in their twisted hay,

shall be served up together with the hens themselves: and grapes kept a

portion of the year, just as they were when fresh upon the vines: pears

from Signia[727] and Syria: and, from the same basket, apples rivaling

those of Picenum,[728] and smelling quite fresh; that you need not be

afraid of, since they have lost their autumnal moisture, which has

been dried up by cold, and the dangers to be feared from their juice

if crude. This would in times gone by have been a luxurious supper

for our senate. Curius[729] with his own hands used to cook over his

little fire pot-herbs which he had gathered in his little garden: such

herbs as now the foul digger in his heavy chain rejects with scorn,

who remembers the flavor of the vile dainties[730] of the reeking

cook-shop. It was the custom formerly to keep against festival days

the flitches of the smoked swine, hanging from the wide-barred rack,

and to set bacon as a birthday treat before one's relations, with the

addition of some fresh meat, if a sacrificial victim furnished any.

Some one of the kin, with the title of "Thrice consul," that had held

command in camps, and discharged the dignity of dictator, used to go

earlier[731] than his wont to such a feast as this, bearing his spade

over his shoulder from the mountain he had been digging on. But when

men trembled at the Fabii,[732] and the stern Cato, and the Scauri and

Fabricii;[733] and when, in fine, even his colleague stood in dread

of the severe character of the strict Censor; no one thought it was

a matter of anxiety or serious concern what kind of tortoise[734]

floated in the wave of ocean, destined to form a splendid and noble

couch for the Trojugenæ. But with side devoid of ornament, and sofas

of diminutive size, the brazen front displayed the mean head of an ass

wearing a chaplet,[735] at which the country lads laughed in wantonness.

The food then was in keeping with the master of the house and the

furniture. Then the soldier, uncivilized, and too ignorant[736] to

admire the arts of Greece, used to break up the drinking-cups, the

work of some renowned artists, which he found in his share of the

booty when cities were overthrown, that his horse might exult in

trappings,[737] and his embossed helmet might display to his enemy

on the point of perishing, likenesses of the Romulean wild beast

bidden to grow tame by the destiny of the empire, and the twin Quirini

beneath the rock, and the naked image of the god coming down[738] with

buckler and spear, and impending over him. Whatever silver he possessed

glittered on his arms[739] alone. In those days, then, they used to

serve all their furmety in a dish of Tuscan earthenware: which you may

envy, if you are at all that way inclined.[740]

The majesty of temples also was more evidently near[741] to men, and a

voice[742] heard about midnight and through the midst of the city, when

the Gauls were coming from the shore of ocean, and the gods discharged

the functions of a prophet, warned us of these.

This was the care which Jupiter used to show for the affairs of

Latium, when made of earthenware,[743] and as yet profaned by no

gold. Those days saw tables made of wood grown at home and from our

native trees.[744] To these uses was the timber applied, if the east

wind had chanced to lay prostrate some old walnut-tree. But now the

rich have no satisfaction in their dinner, the turbot and the venison

lose their flavor, perfumes and roses seem to lose their smell, unless

the broad circumference of the table is supported by a huge mass of

ivory, and a tall leopard with wide-gaping jaws, made of those tusks,

which the gate of Syene[745] transmits, and the active Moors, and the

Indian of duskier hue than the Moor;[746] and which the huge beast

has deposited in some Nabathæan[747] glen, as now grown too weighty

and burdensome to his head: by this their appetite[748] is whetted:

hence their stomach acquires its vigor. For a leg of a table made

only of silver is to them what an iron ring on their finger would

be: I therefore cautiously avoid a proud guest, who compares me with

himself, and looks with scorn on my paltry estate. Consequently I do

not possess a single ounce of ivory: neither my chess-board[749] nor

my men are of this material; nay, the very handles of my knives are of

bone. Yet my viands never become rank in flavor by these, nor does my

pullet cut up the worse on that account. Nor yet will you see a carver,

to whom the whole carving-school[750] ought to yield the palm, some

pupil of the professor Trypherus, at whose house the hare, with the

large sow's udders,[751] and the wild boar, and the roebuck,[752] and

pheasants,[753] and the huge flamingo,[754] and the wild goat[755] of

Gætulia, all forming a most splendid supper, though made of elm, are

carved with the blunted knife, and resounds through the whole Suburra.

My little fellow, who is a novice, and uneducated all his days, does

not know how to take dexterously off a slice of roe, or the wing of a

Guinea-hen;[756] only versed in the mysteries of carving the fragments

of a small collop.[757]

My slave, who is not gayly dressed, and only clad so as to protect him

from cold, will hand you plebeian cups[758] bought for a few pence. He

is no Phrygian or Lycian, or one purchased from the slave-dealer[759]

and at great price. When you ask for any thing, ask in Latin. They have

all the same style of dress; their hair close-cropped and straight, and

only combed to-day on account of company. One is the son of a hardy

shepherd, another of a neat-herd: he sighs after his mother, whom he

has not seen for a long time, and pines for his hovel[760] and his

playmate kids. A lad of ingenuous face, and ingenuous modesty; such as

_those_ ought to be who are clothed in brilliant purple. He shall hand

you wine[761] made on those very hills from which he himself comes, and

under whose summit he has played; for the country of the wine and the

attendant is one and the same.

Gambling is disgraceful, and so is adultery, in men of moderate means.

Yet when rich men commit all those abominations, they are called

jovial, splendid fellows. Our banquet to-day will furnish far different

amusements. The author of the Iliad[762] shall be recited, and the

verses of high-sounding Mars, that render the palm doubtful. What

matter is it with what voice such noble verses are read?[763] But now

having put off all your cares, lay aside business, and allow yourself

a pleasing respite, since you will have it in your power to be idle

all day long. Let there be no mention of money out at interest. Nor if

your wife is accustomed to go out at break of day and return at night,

let her stir up your bile,[764] though you hold your tongue. Divest

yourself at once of all that annoys you, at my threshold. Banish all

thoughts of home and servants, and all that is broken and wasted[765]

by them--especially forget ungrateful friends! Meantime, the spectacles

of the Megalesian towel[766] grace the Idæan solemnity: and, like one

in a triumph, the prey of horses, the prætor, sits: and, if I may say

so without offense to the immense and overgrown crowd, the circus

to-day incloses the whole of Rome;[767] and a din reaches my ears,

from which I infer the success of the green faction.[768] For should

it not win, you would see this city in mourning and amazement, as when

the consuls were conquered in the dust[769] of Cannæ. Let young men be

spectators of these, in whom shouting and bold betting, and sitting

by a trim damsel is becoming. Let our skin,[770] which is wrinkled

with age, imbibe the vernal sun and avoid the toga'd crowd. Even now,

though it wants a whole hour to the sixth, you may go to the bath

with unblushing brow. You could not do this for five successive days;

because even of such a life as this there would be great weariness. It

is a more moderate use[771] that enhances pleasures.

FOOTNOTES:

the reverse. Cf. xiv., 18.

upward of eight hundred thousand pounds, in luxury, destroyed himself

through fear of want, though it appeared he had above eighty thousand

pounds left.

145, "It nova nec tristis per cunctas fabula cœnas." Tac., Ann., xiv.,

4; xiii., 14.

sermonibus tempus terunt." Plin., Ep. i., 13; ii, 9.

et cassidis atque ligonis."

refert? vendunt nullo _cogente Nerone_. Nec dubitant celsi prætoris

vendere ludis."

rules and words of command of their trainers, "dictata," in order to

learn them by heart. Lubinus gives us some of these: "attolle, declina,

percute, urge, cæde."

markets, before dispersed in the Forum boarium, olitorium, piscarium,

cupedinis, etc., were collected into one building; or, from one

Romanius Macellus, whose house stood there, and was "propter latrocinia

ejus publicè diruta." Vid. Donat. ad Ter., Eunuch., ii., sc. ii.,

24, where he gives a list of the cupediarii, "cetarii, lanii, coqui,

fartores, piscatores;" or á mactando; as the French "Abattoir." Cf.

Sat., v., 95. Suet., Jul., 26. Plaut., Aul., II., viii., 3. Hor., i.,

Ep. xv., 31.

A metaphor from a building on the point of falling, with the daylight

streaming through its cracks and fissures.

"Then with their prize to ruin'd walls repair,

And eat the dainty scrap on earthenware." Badham.

nostrum mare, dum gula sævit, retibus assiduis penitus scrutante

macello proxima." The idea is probably from Seneca. "Quidquid avium

volitat, quidquid piscium natat, quidquid ferarum discurrit, nostris

sepelitur ventribus." Contr. V. pr. The Cœna consisted of three parts.

1. Gustus (Gustatio), or Promulsis. 2. Fercula: different courses. 3.

Mensæ Secundæ. The gustus contained dishes designed more to excite than

to satisfy hunger: vegetables, as the lactuca (Mart., xiii., 14), shell

and other fish, with piquant sauces: mulsum (Hor., ii., Sat. iv., 24.

Plin., i., Ep. 15). Cf. Bekker's Gallus, p. 466, 493. Vide ad Sat. vi.,

428.

"have _no difficulty_" in raising the money, as Crepereius Pollio

found. Cf. ix., 5.

Phorm., IV., iii., 56.

alluding probably to some well-known transaction of the time.

apparatus quadringentis millibus nummûm constiterunt."

at once in breath and strength." _Holyday._ It is said to have been a

mixture of cheese and flour; probably a kind of macaroni. "Gladiatoria

sagina." Tac., Hist., ii., 88. Prop., IV., viii., 25.

Hor., i., Sat. i., 67.

Thales, Cleobulus, Bias, Pythagoras. It was inscribed in gold letters

over the portico of the temple of Delphi. Hence, perhaps, the notion

afterward, that it was derived immediately from heaven.

voles aptè nuberè nube pari."

designate the senate in those days of tyranny and suspicion, deserves

at least to be pointed out."

fond of referring to this contest.

"Squalentes traducit avos." It means literally "to expose to public

derision," a metaphor taken from leading malefactors through the forum

with their name and offense suspended from their neck. Cf. Suet., Tit.,

8. Mart., i., Ep. liv., 3, "Quæ tua traducit manifesto carmina furto."

VI., lxxvii., 5, "Rideris multoque magis traduceris afer Quam nudus

medio si spatiere foro." Grang. explains it "se risui exponebat: nec

enim arma Achillis Ulyssem decebant." Browne, "in which Ulysses cut a

doubtful figure." Others refer ancipitem to _loricam_; or place the

stop after _Ulysses_, and take ancip. with _causam_. Gifford omits the

passage altogether, as a tasteless interpolation of some Scholiast.

Dryden turns it,

"When scarce Ulysses had a good pretense,

With all th' advantage of his eloquence."

Badham:

"Which, at the peril of a soldier's fame,

The brave Ulysses scarcely dared to claim."

Hodgson:

"Thersites never could that armor bear,

Which e'en Ulysses hesitates to wear."

Britann. suggests that it may mean "his enemies doubted if he were

really Achilles or no." Facciol.: "in a doubtful frame of mind as to

whether they would become him or not."

Curtius Montanus, see Tac., Ann., xvi., 48. Hist., iv., 42.

being properly the mullet, of which Holyday gives a drawing, ad x.,

317»; Mr. Metcalfe, by "the sea-barbel." Cf. ad iv., 15.

"Nor doubt thy throat of mullets to amerce,

While scarce a gudgeon lingers in thy purse." Badham.

satchel to be hung over a boy's shoulder: then a purse suspended from

the girdle, like the "gypciére" of the Middle Ages:

"If thy throat widen as thy pockets shrink." Gifford.

"That deep abyss which every kind can hold,

Land, cattle, contract, houses, silver, gold." Badham.

6, who could get no one to lend him money, though "triplicem usuram

præstare paratus."

"Decrepit age far more than death they fear;

Nor thirst nor hunger haunt the silent bier." Hodgson.

subterfugere aut calamitatem, _solum vertunt_, hoc est sedem ac locum

mutant." Browne conjectures the meaning to be, "They who have parted

with their property by mortgage, and so _changed_ its owner."

the slip"--"to run away from justice"--"to abscond from 'Change"--"to

become bankrupt."

"Lest Rome should grow too _warm_, from Rome they run." Dryden.

87, "utque magis stupeas ludos Paridemque reliquit." viii., 118, "Circo

scenæque vacantem." x., 80, "duas tantum res anxius optat Panem et

Circenses." All these passages show the infatuation of the Romans for

these games. Cf. Plin., Ep. ix., 6. Tac., Hist., i., 4; Ann., i., 2.

at the end of a year, by a sort of statute of limitations, but only

that the loss of the games even for that short period was a greater

affliction than the forfeiture of all other privileges.

secundo."

and cheese; sometimes with an egg or honey added. It was long the food

of the primitive Romans, according to Pliny, xviii., 8, _seq._ It

probably resembled the macaroni, or "polenta," of the poor Italians

of the present day. Cf. Pers., iii., 55, "Juventus siliquis et grandi

pasta polentâ."

228, 359, _seq._

"Come; and while fancy brings past times to view,

I'll think myself the king--the hero, you!" Gifford.

on Mount Œta.

inemptis." Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. ii., 150, _seq._ The next 16 lines are

imitated from Mart., x., Ep. 48. Gifford says, "Martial has imitated

this bill of fare in Lib. x., 48." But his 10th Book was written

A.D. 99; and from line 203, it is evident this Satire was written in

Juvenal's old age, and therefore, in all probability, twenty years

later.

asparagus is still very common on the Italian hills. Cf. Mart., Ep.

xiii., 21, "Inculti asparagi." See Sir William Hooker's note on

Badham's version.

The "Bergamot" pears are said to have been imported from Syria. Cf.

Mart., v., Ep. lxxviii., 13, "Et nomen pyra quæ ferunt Syrorum." Virg.,

Georg., ii., 88, "Crustumiis Syriisque pyris." Columella (lib. v., c.

10) calls them "Tarentina," because brought from Syria to Tarentum.

Others say they are the same as the Falernian.

Tiburtia succo, Nam facie præstant." And iii., 272, "Picenis excerpens

semina pomis." These apples were to be also from his Tiburtine farm:

the banks of the Anio being famous for its orchards. Hor., i., Od.

vii., 14, "Præceps Anio ac Tiburni lucus et uda mobilibus pomaria

vivis." Propert., IV., vii., 81, "Pomosis Anio quà spumifer incubat

arvis." Apples formed a very prominent part of the mensæ secundæ: hence

the proverb, "Ab ovo usque ad mala." Cf. Mart., x., 48, fin., "Saturis

mitia poma dabo." Cf. Sat. v., 150, _seq._, where apples "qualia

perpetuus Phæacum Autumnus habebat" form the conclusion of Virro's

dinner. Cf. Mart., iii., Ep. 50.

of turnips over the fire with his own hands. Cic., de Sen., xvi.

"Senates more rich than Rome's first senates were,

In days of yore desired no better fare." Badham.

a description of this loathsome dainty, vid. Plin., xi., 37, 84. Cf.

Mart., Ep. xiii., 56.

"For feasts like these would quit the mountain's soil,

And snatch an hour from customary toil." Badham.

his colleague, P. Decius, to allow him to administer his office with

all its pristine severity.

et lata testudine."

"Which future times were destined to employ,

To build rare couches for the sons of Troy." Badham.

on the vine, and thereby rendering it more luxuriant, is said to have

first given men the idea of pruning the tendrils. Cf. Paus., ii., 38.

Hyg., F., 274. The ass is always found, too, in connection with Silenus.

"Till at the soldier's foot her treasures lay,

Who knew not half the riches of his prey." Hodgson.

Etruria together with curule chairs, trabeæ, prætextæ, etc. Vid. Liv.,

xxxix., 31. Plin., vii., 28, 9, says Siccius Dentatus had 25 phaleræ

and 83 torques. Sil., xv., 254. Cf. Virg., Æn., ix., 359. Suet., Aug.,

25; Ner., 33.

the air, and just about to alight by the sleeping Rhea Sylvia. The god

is _armed_, because the conventional manner of representing him was by

the distinction of his "framea" and "clypeus." See Addison's note in

Gifford.

"Then all their wealth was on their armor spent,

And war engross'd the pride of ornament." Hodgson.

"Yet justly worth your envy, were your breast

But with one spark of noble spleen possess'd." Gifford.

aquæ." Virg., Ec., i., 42, "Nec tam præsentes alibi cognoscere Divos."

Georg., i., 10, "Præsentia Numina Fauni." Hor., iii., Od. v., 2,

"Præsens Divus habebitur Augustus."

ubi nunc sacellum est, suprà sedem Vestæ vocem noctis silentio audîsse

clariorem humanâ quæ magistratibus dici juberet 'Gallos adventare.'"

"Invisitato atque inaudito hoste ab oceano terrarumque ultimis oris

bellum ciente." Liv., v., 32, 3, 7, 50. Cic., de Div., ii., "At

paullo post audita _vox est monentis_ ut providerent ne a Gallis Roma

caperetur: ex eo Aio loquenti aram in novâ viâ consecratam." Cf. Plut.

in Vit. Camill.

fictiles fuisse."

sylvæ filia Mauræ, sed nôrunt lautas et mea ligna dapes." Cf. Sat.

i., 75, 137; iv., 132. The extravagance of the Romans on their tables

is almost incredible. Pliny says that Cicero himself, who accuses

Verres of stealing a Citrea mensa from Diodorus (in Verr., iv., 17),

gave a million of sesterces for one which was in existence in his

time. A "Senatoris Census" was a price given. These tables were not

provided with several feet, but rested on an ivory column (sometimes

carved into the figure of animals), hence called monopodia. They were

called "Orbes," not from being _round_, but because they were massive

plates of wood cut off the stem in its whole diameter. The wood of the

_citrus_ was most preferred. This is not the _citron_-tree, which never

attains to this bulk, but a tree found in Mauritania, called the thyæ

cypressides. Plin., xiii., 16. Those cut near the root were most valued

from the wood being variegated: hence "Tigrinæ, pantherinæ, pavonum

caudæ oculos imitantes." The mensæ were formerly square, but were

afterward round to suit the new fashion of the Sigma couch. The Romans

also understood the art of veneering tables and other furniture with

the citrus wood and tortoise-shell.

rapids, just on the confines of Ethiopia. It was a station for a Roman

garrison, and the place to which Juvenal is said to have been banished.

Some think the island Elephantine is here meant. Cf. ad x., 150,

"aliosque Elephantos."

678, "Concolor Indo Maurus."

"Nebaioth, first-born of Ishmael," Gen., xxv., 13. Elephants are said

to shed their tusks every two years.