Chapter IX: Appendix: , on the Date of Juvenal's Satires (6)

[497] _Ancilla natus._ Servius Tullius (Cf. vii., 199) was the sen of 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.

[498] _Natavit._

"And she who mock'd the javelins whistling round,
And swam the Tiber, then the empire's bound." Gifford.

[499] _Servus._ Livy calls him Vindicius; and derives from him the name 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.

[500] _Legum prima securis._ Tarquinius Priscus introduced the axe and 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_.

[501] _Thersites._ Hom., Il., ii., 212.

[502] _Asylo._ Cf. Liv., i., 8.

SATIRE IX.

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:

[503] _Nævolus_ is mentioned repeatedly by Martial, and seems to have 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.

[504] _Rhodope._ Some well-known courtesan named after Æsop's fellow-slave in the house of Iadmon the Samian, afterward so well known in Egypt. Herod., ii., 134. Cf. Ælian., V. H., xiii., 33.

[505] _Pollio._ Cf. xi., 43, "digito mendicat Pollio nudo."

[506] _Vernam equitem._ The slaves born in the house were generally spoiled by indulgence; and they frequently got the nickname of Equites, out of petulant familiarity or fondness.

[507] _Sylva._

"And every limb, once smooth'd with nicest care,
Rank with neglect, a shrubbery of hair." Gifford.

[508] _Deprendas._

"Sorrow nor joy can be disguised by art,
Our foreheads blab the secrets of our heart." Dryden.

[509] _Isis._ Cf. vi., 489, "Aut apud Isiacæ potius sacraria lenæ."

[510] _Pacis._ Vespasian built the splendid temple of Peace near the 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.

[511] _Advectæ Matris_, i. e., Cybele, called also Parens Idæa, and 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.

[512] _Venæque secundæ._ "Silver adulterated with brass below the standard; in short, base metal."

[513] _Mollis avarus._

"But oh! this wretch, this prodigy behold!
A slave at once to lechery and gold." Dryden.

[514] _Morbo._ Cf. Hor., i., Sat. vi., 30, "Ut si qui ægrotet quo morbo Barrus."

[515] _Succina._ Cf. ad vi., 573. The old Schol. explains this by "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."

[516] _Fœmineis Kalendis._ On the 1st of March were celebrated the 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."

[517] _Appula._ Cf. iv., 27. _Milvos._

"Regions which such a tract of land embrace,
That kites are tired within the unmeasured space." Gifford.

[518] _Trifolinus ager._ Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 114, "Non sum de primo 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.

[519] _Suspectumque jugum._ Either Mons Misenus (cf. Virg., Æn., vi., 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."

[520] _Plura._

"Though none drinks less, yet none more vessels fills!" Dryden.

[521] _Casulis._ Cf. xi., 153, "notos desiderat hædos."

"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.

[522] _Polyphemi._ For the loudness of his roar, vid. Virg., Æn., iii., 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!"

[523] _Decembri_, used here adjectively.

[524] _Durate._ A parody on Virg., Æn., i., 207, "Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis." Cf. Suet., Cal., 45.

"Cold! never mind! a month or two, and then
The grasshoppers, my lads, will come again!" Badham.

[525] _Ruperat._ Cf. Tac., Ann., xi., 30, "At is redderet uxorem, rumperetque tabulas nuptiales." There was an express clause in the marriage contract, "liberorum procreandorum gratiâ uxorem duci."

[526] _Libris actorum._ Cf. Tac., Ann., iii., 3. Sat. ii., 136, "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.

[527] _Suspende coronas._ This was customary on all festive occasions, 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."

[528] _Legatum omne._ One of the provisions of the Lex Papia Poppæa (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.

[529] _Caducum_, probably a legacy contingent upon the condition of having children.

[530] _Pumice._ Cf. viii., 16, "tenerum attritus Catanensi pumice lumbum."

[531] _Valvis._ Cf. xiii., 145, _seq._

[532] _Corydon._ Cf. Virg., Ecl., ii., 69, "Ah, Corydon, Corydon, quæ te dementia cepit!" and 56, "Rusticus es, Corydon!"

[533] _Claude fenestras._

"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.

[534] _Gallicinium_ was the technical name for the second military watch, Vid. Facc.

[535] _Carptores_, Grangæus explains by "Escuiers trenchants." Facc. by δαιτρός and structor.

[536] _Baltea._

"For countless scourgings will the rogues be slack
In slanderous villainies to pay thee back?" Badham.

[537] _Saufeia_, or Laufella, is supposed to be the "conjux Fusci," 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."

[538] _Faciens_; so _operatur_, xii., 92. Virg., Ecl., iii., 77, "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.

[539] _Liber._

"Yet worse than they, the man whose vicious deeds
Makes him still tremble at the rogues he feeds." Badham.

[540] _Flosculus._ For many exquisite parallel passages to this, see Gifford's note.

[541] _Dum bibimus._

"And while thou call'st for garlands, girls, and wine,
Comes stealthy age, and bids thee all resign." Badham.

[542] _Digito._ Effeminate wretches, who, as Holyday says, like women, 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.

[543] _Lares_, cf. xii., 87. Hor., iii., Od. xxiii., 15, "Parvos coronantem marino Rore Deos, fragilique myrto." Plin., xi., 2, "Numa instituit deos fruge colere, et mola salsa supplicare et far torrere."

[544] _Figam_, a metaphor from hunting.--_Tegete_, cf. v., 8, "Nusquam pons et tegetis pars."--_Baculo_, cf. Ter., Heaut., V., i., 58.

[545] C. Fabricius Luscinus, when censor, removed from the senate P. 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._

[546] _Duo fortes._ Persons of moderate fortune rode in their _sella 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.

[547] _Curvus._ So Lubinus interprets it. "Cum enim laborat se incur 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."

[548] _Pingit._ Others read _fingit_, and interpret it of "plaster 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."

[549] _Fortuna._

"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.

SATIRE X.

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:

[550] _Gadibus._ Gades, now Cadiz, and Ganges were the western and eastern boundaries of the then known world.

[551] _Nebulâ._ Cf. Plat., Alcib., ii., τῆς ψυχῆς ἀφελόντα τὴν ἀχλύν; 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.

[552] _Evertere._ These are almost Cicero's own words. "Cupiditates non 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."

[553] _Torrens._

"Some who the depths of eloquence have found,
In that unnavigable stream were drown'd." Dryden.

[554] _Viribus._ Roscommon, as Gifford says, tells his history in two 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."

[555] _Balæna Britannica._ Cf. Hor., iv., Od. xiv., 47, "Te _belluosus_ 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.

[556] _Tota cohors._ "Illo propinquâ vesperâ, tribunus venit, et villam _globus militum_ sepsit." Tac., Ann., xv., 60.

[557] _Longinum._ Cassius Longinus was charged with keeping among his Imagines one of Cassius, Cæsar's murderer; and allowed an hour to die in. Suet., Ner., 37.

[558] _Seneca._ Rufus and Tigellinus charged Seneca "tanquam ingentes 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._

[559] _Puri._ Cf. ix., 141.

[560] _Lateranorum._ Vid. Tac., Ann., xv., 60, for the death of Plautius Lateranus. His house was on the Cœlian Hill, on the site of the modern Lateran.

[561] _Motæ ad Lunam._ Cf. Hor., i., Od. xxiii., 3, "Non sine vano 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."

[562] _Vacuus._ Cf. Ov., Nux., 43, "Sic timet insidias qui scit se 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.

[563] _Divitiæ._ Vid. Cic., "Expetuntur Divitiæ ut utare; _Opes_ ut colaris: _Honores_ ut lauderis." De Amicit., vi.

[564] _Foro._ The public treasure was in the temple of Saturn. Private 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.

[565] _Gemmata._ Cf. v., 39, 41.--_Setinum_, v., 34.

"Fear the gemm'd goblet, and suspicious hold
The ruby juice that glows in cups of gold." Badham.

[566] _De Sapientibus._ Democritus of Abdera, and Heracleitus of Ephesus.

[567] _Ridebat._ Cf. Hor., ii., Ep. i., 194, "Si foret in terris _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.

[568]

"The marvel this, since all the world can sneer,
What fountains fed the ever-needed tear." Badham.

[569] _Trabeæ._ Cf. ad viii., 259.

[570] _Prætor._ Juvenal has mixed up together the procession of the 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.

[571] _Orbem._ Probably an allusion to Atlas.

[572] _Sufficit._

"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.

[573] _Crasso._ "Bœotum in _crasso_ jurares _ære_ natum." Hor., ii., 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."

[574] _Medium unguem._ Hence called "Infamis digitus." Pers., ii., 33. Cf. Mart., ii., Ep. xxviii., 2, "digitum porrigito medium." VI., Ep. lxx., 5, "Ostendit digitum impudicum."

[575] _Incerare._ They used to fasten their vows, written on wax 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.

[576] _Mergit._ Cf. Sil., viii., 285; or mergit may be used _actively_, as xiii., 8. Lucr., v., 1006. Virg., Æn., vi., 512.

[577] _Statuæ._ Cf. ad viii., 18. Tac., Ann., vi., 2. Plin., Pan., 52, "Juvabat illidere solo superbissimos vultus, instare ferro, _sævire securibus_, ut si singulos ictus sanguis dolorque sequeretur"--"instar ultionis videretur cernere imagines abjectas excoctasque flammis."

[578] _Immeritis._