_ Wernsdorf adopts this reading; but it
is perhaps the only instance of the _active_ form of palare: and
_dicuntur_ is very weak.
is perhaps the only instance of the _active_ form of palare: and
_dicuntur_ is very weak.
Satires
Cf.
Mart.
, i.
, Ep.
97, for some good specimens, and Catull.
,
xxxix. Another form of Choliambic verse is the substitution of an
Antibacchius for the final Iamb. : e. g. , "Remitte pallium mihi quod
involasti. " Catull. , xxv. Two of Hipponax's verses may be seen, Strabo,
lib. xiv. , c. 1.
[1559] _Cætera. _ From the high compliment paid to her chastity and
poetical powers by Martial, it is probable that Sulpicia had composed
many poems before the present Satire. From the metre Martial chooses
for his complimentary effusion, and from the testimony of the old
Scholiast, it is probable these verses were in Hendecasyllabics; or at
all events in some lyrical metre. There was a poetess named Cornificia
in the time of Augustus, who wrote some good Epigrams. She was the
sister of Cornificius, the reputed enemy of Virgil (vid. Clinton, F.
H. , in ann. B. C. 41), but as she was not a _lyrical_ poetess, Sulpicia
claims the palm to herself.
[1560] _Constanter. _ The subject is too serious and solemn for lyrical
poetry; she therefore employs the dignity of Heroic verse. So Juvenal,
iv. , 34, "Incipe Calliope--non est _cantandum_, res vera agitur,
narrate puellæ Pierides. "
[1561] _Descende. _ Cf. Hor. , iii. , Od. iv. , 1, "_Descende_ cœlo et
_dic_ age tibiâ Regina longum _Calliope_ melos. " Calliope, as the Muse
of _Heroic_ poetry, holds the chief place. (Cf. Auson. , Id. xx. , 7,
"Carmina Calliope libris Heroïca mandat. ") Hence "Princeps. " So Hesiod,
Theog. , 79, Καλλιόπη θ' ἣ δὲ προφερεστάτη ἐστὶν ἁπασέων. Dionys. , Hymn,
i. , 6, Μουσῶν προκαθηγέτι τερπνῶν. The poets assign different provinces
to the different Muses. According to some, Calliope is the Muse of
Amatory poetry.
[1562] _Ille. _ So Virg. , Æn. , ii. , 779, "Aut _ille_ sinit regnator
Olympi. "
[1563] _Patria Sæcula. _ The age of Saturn, when men lived in primæval
barbarism, and all cultivation and refinement was unknown. Compare the
first twelve lines of Juvenal's sixth Satire. Ov. , Met. , i. , 113.
[1564] _Procumbere. _ Cf. ad Prol. Pers. , i.
[1565] _Glandibus. _ Ov. , Met. , i. , 106, "Et quæ deciderant patula Jovis
arbore glandes. " Lucret. , v. , 937, "Glandiferas inter curabant corpora
quercus. " Virg. , Georg. , i. , 8, 148. Ov. , Am. , III. , x. , 9. Juv. , vi. ,
10. Sulpicia had probably in view the passage in Horace, i. , Sat. iii. ,
99," Cum _prorepserunt primis_ animalia _terris, Mutum_ et turpe pecus
_glandem_ atque cubilia propter," etc.
[1566] _Exturbat. _ A technical phrase, "eject. " Cf. Cic. pro Rosc. , 8,
"Nudum ejicit domo atque focis patriis, Diisque penatibus præcipitem
_exturbat_. " Plaut. , Trin. , IV. , iii. , 77. Ov. , Met. , xv. , 175. Tac. ,
Ann. , xi. , 12.
[1567] _Remuli_: the other readings are Remi, and Romi. Cf. Juv. , x. ,
73, "Turba Remi. " Alumnus is properly a "foundling. " Cf. Plin. , x.
Epist. , 71, 72.
[1568] _Agitata. _ As though the wars carried on within the peninsula of
Italy had served only to train the Romans in that military discipline
by which they were to subjugate the world. This universal dominion
having been attained, Rome rested from her labors, like the conqueror
left alone in his glory, in the Grecian games; and having no more
enemies against whom she could turn her arms, had sheathed her sword
and applied herself to the arts of Peace. This seems the most probable
interpretation. Dusa proposes to read Cætera _quæ_, for Cætera_que_,
and to place the line as a parenthesis after _socialibus armis_: but
with the sense given in the text, the substitution is unnecessary.
He supposes also Victor to apply to a _horse_ that has grown old in
the contests of the circus; the allusion would surely be more simple
to a conqueror in the Pentathlon. The reading _exiit_ is followed in
preference to _exilit_ or _exigit_.
[1569] _Graia inventa. _ So Livy dates the first introduction of a
fondness for the products of Greek art from the taking of Syracuse by
Marcellus: lib. xxv. , 48, "Inde primum initium mirandi Græcarum artium
opera. " Cf. xxxiv. , 4. Hor. , ii. , Epist. i. , 156, "Græcia capta ferum
victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio. "
[1570] _Molli ratione. _ Virg. , Æn. , vi. , 852, "Hæ tibi erunt artes:
pacisque imponere morem, Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos. "
[1571] _Aut frustra. _ An anacoluthon, as the old Scholiast remarks;
stabat evidently referring to Roma. Cf. 1. 50, "An magis adversis
_staret_. "
[1572] _Diespiter_, i. e. , Diei pater. Macrob. , Sat. , i. , 15. Hor. ,
iii. , Od. ii. , 29.
[1573] _Imperium. _ Virg. , Æn. , i. , 279. It is in Jupiter's speech to
_Venus_, not to Juno, that the line occurs.
[1574] _Res Romanas imperat inter. _ A line untranslatable as it
stands. Various remedies have been proposed--rex for res, temperat for
imperat, impar for inter, Romanos for Romanas. Rex being, like dominus,
generally used in a _bad_ sense by the Romans, rex Romanos imperat
inter would imply the excessive oppression of Domitian's tyranny. Dusa
suggests _rex Romanis temperat inter_ (taking interrex as one word
divided by tmesis), and supposes Sulpicia meant to assert, that as his
reign was to be so briefly brought to a close, he could only be looked
upon in the light of an Interrex.
[1575] _Hominum. _ As though the Greeks alone deserved the name of men,
and the praise of humanity and refinement.
[1576] _Galli. _ Alluding to the old legend of Brennus casting his
sword into the scale, with the words "Væ victis! " in answer to the
remonstrance of the tribune Q. Sulpicius. Liv. , v. , 48, 9. "Ensibus"
is preferred to the old reading, "Lancibus. " Capitolinus was properly
the agnomen of M. Manlius. Camillus is probably so called here from his
appointing the collegium to celebrate the Ludi Capitolini, in honor of
Jupiter for his preserving the Capitol. Vid. Liv. , v. , 50. May there
not be a bitter sarcasm in the epithet? It was only four years before
he expelled the philosophers, that Domitian instituted the Capitoline
games. Suet. , Vit. , 4. (Vid. Chronology. )
[1577] _Palare dicuntur.
_ Wernsdorf adopts this reading; but it
is perhaps the only instance of the _active_ form of palare: and
_dicuntur_ is very weak.
[1578] _Rhodio. _ The old readings were "Rhoido," which is
unintelligible, and that of the old Scholiast, "Rudio," who refers it
to Ennius, born at Rudiæ in Calabria. (Cf. ad Pers. , vi. , 10. ) The
_Rhodian_ is Panætius; he was sprung from distinguished ancestors, many
of whom had served the office of general. He studied under Crates,
Diogenes, and Antipater of Tarsus. The date of his birth and death are
unknown. He was probably introduced by Diogenes to Scipio, who sent for
him from Athens to accompany him in his embassy to Egypt, B. C. 143. His
famous treatise De Officiis was the groundwork of Cicero's book; who
says that he was in every way worthy of the intimate friendship with
which he was honored by Scipio and Lælius. Cic. , de Fin. , iv. , 9; Or. ,
i. , 11; De Off. , pass. Hor. , i. , Od. xxix. , 14. The title of his book
is περὶ τοῦ καθήκοντος. He also wrote De Providentia, De Magistratibus.
[1579] _Bello secundo_, i. e. , the Second Punic War (from B. C.
218-201), a period pre-eminently rich in great men. Not to mention
their great generals, Marcellus, Scipio, etc. , this age saw M. Porcius
Cato; the historians Fabius Pictor and Cincius Alimentus; the poets
Livius Andronicus, Ennius, Nævius, Pacuvius, Plautus, etc. ; and among
the Greeks, Archimedes, Chrysippus, Eratosthenes, Carneades, and the
historians Zeno and Antisthenes.
[1580] _Sententia dia. _ Hor. , i. , Sat. ii. , 31, "Macte Virtute esto,
inquit _sententia dia_. "
[1581] _Prisci Catonis. _ Priscus is, as Dusa shows on the authority
of Plutarch, not the _epithet_, but the _name_ of Cato, by which he
was distinguished. So Horace, iii. Od. , xxi. , 11, "Narratur et Prisci
Catonis sæpe mero caluisse virtus. " (But cf. Hor. , ii. , Ep. ii. , 117. )
[1582] _Catonis. _ Both Horace and Sulpicia have imitated Lucilius,
"Valerî sententia dia. " Fr. incert. , 105.
[1583] _Staret. _ Nasica, as Sallust tells us, in spite of Cato's
"Delenda est Carthago," was always in favor of the preservation of
Carthage; as the existence of the rival republic was the noblest spur
to Roman emulation.
[1584] _Defendere. _ Livy shows throughout, that the only periods of
respite from intestine discord were under the immediate pressure of war
from without. The particular allusion here is probably to the time of
Hannibal. So Juv. , vi. , 286, _seq. _, "Proximus Urbi Hannibal et stantes
Collinâ in turre mariti. " Liv. , xxvi. , 10. Sil. Ital. , xii. , 541,
_seq. _ Sallust has the same sentiment, "Metus hostilis in bonis artibus
civitatem retinebat. " Bell. Jug. , 41.
[1585] _Convenit. _ The next four lines are hopelessly corrupt. The
following emendations have been adopted: _domus arxque movetur_ for
_Arce Monetæ_: _pax secura_ for _apes secura_: _laborum_ for _favorum_:
_patres_que for _mater_, or the still older reading, _frater_; of which
last Dusa says, "Neque istud verbum emissim titivillitio. "
[1586] _Exitium pax. _ Juv. , vi. , 292, "Sævior armis Luxuria incubuit
victumque ulciscitur orbem. " Compare the beautiful passage in Claudian
(de Bell. Gild. , 96), "Ille diu miles populus qui præfuit orbi," etc.
[1587] _Romulidarum. _ Cf. ad Pers. , i. , 31.
[1588] _Smyrna peribat. _ Smyrna was attacked by Gyges, king of Lydia,
but resisted him with success. It was compelled, however, to yield to
his descendant, Alyattes, and in consequence of this event, it sunk
into decay and became deserted for the space of four hundred years.
Alexander formed the project of rebuilding the town in consequence of
a vision. His design was executed by Antigonus and Lysimachus. Vid.
Herod. , i. , 14-16. Paus. , Bœot. , 29. Strabo, xiv. , p. 646. (An allusion
to Phocæa or Teos would have been more intelligible. Cf. Herod. , i. ,
165, 168. Hor. , Epod. xvi. , 17. ) The next three lines are corrupt:
the reading followed is, "Vel denique quid vis: Te, Dea, quæso illud
tantum. "
[1589] _Caleno. _ Calenus, the husband of Sulpicia, probably derived
his name from Cales in Campania, now Calvi. (Hor. , i. , Od. xx. , 9.
Juv. , i. , 69. ) It was the cognomen of Q. Fufius, consul, B. C. 47. The
readings in the next line vary: _pariter ne obverte_; _pariterque
averte_; _pariterque adverte_. Dusa's explanation is followed in
the text. Sulpicia prays that her husband may not be induced by
the allurements of inglorious ease to remain longer in Rome or its
neighborhood, now that all that is really good and estimable has been
driven from it by the tyranny of the emperor. In line 66, read _ecce_
for _hæc_: _in ore_ for _honore_. If "dignum laude virum Musa vetat
mori," Hor. , iv. , Od. viii. , 28, so he may be said "Doubly dying to go
down to the vile dust from whence he sprung," who lives only in the
sarcasm of the satirist.
[1590] _Laureta Numæ. _ Cf. ad Juv. , iii. , 12, _seq. _, the description
of Umbritius' departure from Rome.
[1591] _Comite Ægeria. _ It is not impossible there may have been
some allusion to Numa and Egeria in Sulpicia's lost work on conjugal
affection; and hence Mart. , x. , Ep. xxxv. , 13, "Tales Egeriæ jocos
fuisse Udo crediderim Numæ sub antro. "
[1592] _Apollo. _ Hor. , i. , Ep. iii. , 17, "Scripta Palatinus quæcunque
recepit Apollo. " Juv. , vii. , 37.
FRAGMENTS OF LUCILIUS. [1593]
INTRODUCTION.
If but little is known of the personal character and life of the
other Satirists of Rome, it is unfortunately still more the case with
Lucilius. Although the research and industry of modern scholars have
collected nearly a hundred passages from ancient writers where his
name is mentioned, the information that can be gleaned from them with
respect to the events of his life is very scanty indeed; and even of
these meagre statements, there is scarcely one that has not been called
in question by one or more critics of later days. It will be therefore,
perhaps, the most satisfactory course to present in a continuous
form the few facts we can gather respecting his personal history;
and to mention afterward the doubts that have been thrown on these
statements, and the attempts of recent editors to reconcile them with
the accredited facts of history.
Caius Lucilius, then, was born, according to the testimony of S.
Hieronymus (in Euseb. , Chron. ), B. C. 148, in the first year of the
158th Olympiad, and the 606th of the founding of the city (Varronian
Computation), in the consulship of Spurius Posthumius Albinus and
Lucius Calpurnius Piso. There was a plebeian Lucilian gens, as well
as a patrician, but it was to the latter that the family of the poet
undoubtedly belonged. Horace says of himself (ii. Sat, i. , 74),
"Quidquid sum ego, quamvis infrà Lucili censum ingeniumque tamen me
cum magnis vixisse invita fatebitur usque Invidia. " Porphyrion, in his
commentary on the passage, says Lucilius was the great uncle of Pompey
the Great; Pompey's grandmother being the poet's sister. But Acron says
he was Pompey's grandfather. Velleius Paterculus (ii. , 29), on the
other hand, says that Lucilia, the mother of Pompey, was daughter of
the brother of Lucilius and of senatorian family.
His birthplace was Suessa, now Sessa, capital of the Aurunci, in
Campania; hence Juvenal (Sat. i. , 19) says, "Cur tamen hoc potius
libeat decurrere campo, per quem magnus equos Auruncæ flexit alumnus,
Si vacat et placidi rationem admittitis edam;" and Ausonius (Ep. xv. ),
"Rudes Camænas qui Suessæ prævenis. " At the age of fifteen, B. C. 134,
he accompanied his patron, L. Scipio Africanus Æmilianus, to the
Numantine war, where he is said to have served as eques. Vell. Pat. ,
ii. , 9, 4. Here he met with Marius, now about in his twenty-third year,
and the young Jugurtha; who were also serving under Africanus, and
learning, as Velleius says, "that art of war, which they were afterward
to employ against each other. " In the following year Numantia was taken
and razed to the ground, and Lucilius returned with his patron to
Rome, shortly after the sedition and death of Tiberius Gracchus; and
lived on terms of the most familiar friendship with him and C. Lælius,
until the death of Scipio, B. C. 129; and even at that early age had
already acquired the reputation of a distinguished Satirist.
xxxix. Another form of Choliambic verse is the substitution of an
Antibacchius for the final Iamb. : e. g. , "Remitte pallium mihi quod
involasti. " Catull. , xxv. Two of Hipponax's verses may be seen, Strabo,
lib. xiv. , c. 1.
[1559] _Cætera. _ From the high compliment paid to her chastity and
poetical powers by Martial, it is probable that Sulpicia had composed
many poems before the present Satire. From the metre Martial chooses
for his complimentary effusion, and from the testimony of the old
Scholiast, it is probable these verses were in Hendecasyllabics; or at
all events in some lyrical metre. There was a poetess named Cornificia
in the time of Augustus, who wrote some good Epigrams. She was the
sister of Cornificius, the reputed enemy of Virgil (vid. Clinton, F.
H. , in ann. B. C. 41), but as she was not a _lyrical_ poetess, Sulpicia
claims the palm to herself.
[1560] _Constanter. _ The subject is too serious and solemn for lyrical
poetry; she therefore employs the dignity of Heroic verse. So Juvenal,
iv. , 34, "Incipe Calliope--non est _cantandum_, res vera agitur,
narrate puellæ Pierides. "
[1561] _Descende. _ Cf. Hor. , iii. , Od. iv. , 1, "_Descende_ cœlo et
_dic_ age tibiâ Regina longum _Calliope_ melos. " Calliope, as the Muse
of _Heroic_ poetry, holds the chief place. (Cf. Auson. , Id. xx. , 7,
"Carmina Calliope libris Heroïca mandat. ") Hence "Princeps. " So Hesiod,
Theog. , 79, Καλλιόπη θ' ἣ δὲ προφερεστάτη ἐστὶν ἁπασέων. Dionys. , Hymn,
i. , 6, Μουσῶν προκαθηγέτι τερπνῶν. The poets assign different provinces
to the different Muses. According to some, Calliope is the Muse of
Amatory poetry.
[1562] _Ille. _ So Virg. , Æn. , ii. , 779, "Aut _ille_ sinit regnator
Olympi. "
[1563] _Patria Sæcula. _ The age of Saturn, when men lived in primæval
barbarism, and all cultivation and refinement was unknown. Compare the
first twelve lines of Juvenal's sixth Satire. Ov. , Met. , i. , 113.
[1564] _Procumbere. _ Cf. ad Prol. Pers. , i.
[1565] _Glandibus. _ Ov. , Met. , i. , 106, "Et quæ deciderant patula Jovis
arbore glandes. " Lucret. , v. , 937, "Glandiferas inter curabant corpora
quercus. " Virg. , Georg. , i. , 8, 148. Ov. , Am. , III. , x. , 9. Juv. , vi. ,
10. Sulpicia had probably in view the passage in Horace, i. , Sat. iii. ,
99," Cum _prorepserunt primis_ animalia _terris, Mutum_ et turpe pecus
_glandem_ atque cubilia propter," etc.
[1566] _Exturbat. _ A technical phrase, "eject. " Cf. Cic. pro Rosc. , 8,
"Nudum ejicit domo atque focis patriis, Diisque penatibus præcipitem
_exturbat_. " Plaut. , Trin. , IV. , iii. , 77. Ov. , Met. , xv. , 175. Tac. ,
Ann. , xi. , 12.
[1567] _Remuli_: the other readings are Remi, and Romi. Cf. Juv. , x. ,
73, "Turba Remi. " Alumnus is properly a "foundling. " Cf. Plin. , x.
Epist. , 71, 72.
[1568] _Agitata. _ As though the wars carried on within the peninsula of
Italy had served only to train the Romans in that military discipline
by which they were to subjugate the world. This universal dominion
having been attained, Rome rested from her labors, like the conqueror
left alone in his glory, in the Grecian games; and having no more
enemies against whom she could turn her arms, had sheathed her sword
and applied herself to the arts of Peace. This seems the most probable
interpretation. Dusa proposes to read Cætera _quæ_, for Cætera_que_,
and to place the line as a parenthesis after _socialibus armis_: but
with the sense given in the text, the substitution is unnecessary.
He supposes also Victor to apply to a _horse_ that has grown old in
the contests of the circus; the allusion would surely be more simple
to a conqueror in the Pentathlon. The reading _exiit_ is followed in
preference to _exilit_ or _exigit_.
[1569] _Graia inventa. _ So Livy dates the first introduction of a
fondness for the products of Greek art from the taking of Syracuse by
Marcellus: lib. xxv. , 48, "Inde primum initium mirandi Græcarum artium
opera. " Cf. xxxiv. , 4. Hor. , ii. , Epist. i. , 156, "Græcia capta ferum
victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio. "
[1570] _Molli ratione. _ Virg. , Æn. , vi. , 852, "Hæ tibi erunt artes:
pacisque imponere morem, Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos. "
[1571] _Aut frustra. _ An anacoluthon, as the old Scholiast remarks;
stabat evidently referring to Roma. Cf. 1. 50, "An magis adversis
_staret_. "
[1572] _Diespiter_, i. e. , Diei pater. Macrob. , Sat. , i. , 15. Hor. ,
iii. , Od. ii. , 29.
[1573] _Imperium. _ Virg. , Æn. , i. , 279. It is in Jupiter's speech to
_Venus_, not to Juno, that the line occurs.
[1574] _Res Romanas imperat inter. _ A line untranslatable as it
stands. Various remedies have been proposed--rex for res, temperat for
imperat, impar for inter, Romanos for Romanas. Rex being, like dominus,
generally used in a _bad_ sense by the Romans, rex Romanos imperat
inter would imply the excessive oppression of Domitian's tyranny. Dusa
suggests _rex Romanis temperat inter_ (taking interrex as one word
divided by tmesis), and supposes Sulpicia meant to assert, that as his
reign was to be so briefly brought to a close, he could only be looked
upon in the light of an Interrex.
[1575] _Hominum. _ As though the Greeks alone deserved the name of men,
and the praise of humanity and refinement.
[1576] _Galli. _ Alluding to the old legend of Brennus casting his
sword into the scale, with the words "Væ victis! " in answer to the
remonstrance of the tribune Q. Sulpicius. Liv. , v. , 48, 9. "Ensibus"
is preferred to the old reading, "Lancibus. " Capitolinus was properly
the agnomen of M. Manlius. Camillus is probably so called here from his
appointing the collegium to celebrate the Ludi Capitolini, in honor of
Jupiter for his preserving the Capitol. Vid. Liv. , v. , 50. May there
not be a bitter sarcasm in the epithet? It was only four years before
he expelled the philosophers, that Domitian instituted the Capitoline
games. Suet. , Vit. , 4. (Vid. Chronology. )
[1577] _Palare dicuntur.
_ Wernsdorf adopts this reading; but it
is perhaps the only instance of the _active_ form of palare: and
_dicuntur_ is very weak.
[1578] _Rhodio. _ The old readings were "Rhoido," which is
unintelligible, and that of the old Scholiast, "Rudio," who refers it
to Ennius, born at Rudiæ in Calabria. (Cf. ad Pers. , vi. , 10. ) The
_Rhodian_ is Panætius; he was sprung from distinguished ancestors, many
of whom had served the office of general. He studied under Crates,
Diogenes, and Antipater of Tarsus. The date of his birth and death are
unknown. He was probably introduced by Diogenes to Scipio, who sent for
him from Athens to accompany him in his embassy to Egypt, B. C. 143. His
famous treatise De Officiis was the groundwork of Cicero's book; who
says that he was in every way worthy of the intimate friendship with
which he was honored by Scipio and Lælius. Cic. , de Fin. , iv. , 9; Or. ,
i. , 11; De Off. , pass. Hor. , i. , Od. xxix. , 14. The title of his book
is περὶ τοῦ καθήκοντος. He also wrote De Providentia, De Magistratibus.
[1579] _Bello secundo_, i. e. , the Second Punic War (from B. C.
218-201), a period pre-eminently rich in great men. Not to mention
their great generals, Marcellus, Scipio, etc. , this age saw M. Porcius
Cato; the historians Fabius Pictor and Cincius Alimentus; the poets
Livius Andronicus, Ennius, Nævius, Pacuvius, Plautus, etc. ; and among
the Greeks, Archimedes, Chrysippus, Eratosthenes, Carneades, and the
historians Zeno and Antisthenes.
[1580] _Sententia dia. _ Hor. , i. , Sat. ii. , 31, "Macte Virtute esto,
inquit _sententia dia_. "
[1581] _Prisci Catonis. _ Priscus is, as Dusa shows on the authority
of Plutarch, not the _epithet_, but the _name_ of Cato, by which he
was distinguished. So Horace, iii. Od. , xxi. , 11, "Narratur et Prisci
Catonis sæpe mero caluisse virtus. " (But cf. Hor. , ii. , Ep. ii. , 117. )
[1582] _Catonis. _ Both Horace and Sulpicia have imitated Lucilius,
"Valerî sententia dia. " Fr. incert. , 105.
[1583] _Staret. _ Nasica, as Sallust tells us, in spite of Cato's
"Delenda est Carthago," was always in favor of the preservation of
Carthage; as the existence of the rival republic was the noblest spur
to Roman emulation.
[1584] _Defendere. _ Livy shows throughout, that the only periods of
respite from intestine discord were under the immediate pressure of war
from without. The particular allusion here is probably to the time of
Hannibal. So Juv. , vi. , 286, _seq. _, "Proximus Urbi Hannibal et stantes
Collinâ in turre mariti. " Liv. , xxvi. , 10. Sil. Ital. , xii. , 541,
_seq. _ Sallust has the same sentiment, "Metus hostilis in bonis artibus
civitatem retinebat. " Bell. Jug. , 41.
[1585] _Convenit. _ The next four lines are hopelessly corrupt. The
following emendations have been adopted: _domus arxque movetur_ for
_Arce Monetæ_: _pax secura_ for _apes secura_: _laborum_ for _favorum_:
_patres_que for _mater_, or the still older reading, _frater_; of which
last Dusa says, "Neque istud verbum emissim titivillitio. "
[1586] _Exitium pax. _ Juv. , vi. , 292, "Sævior armis Luxuria incubuit
victumque ulciscitur orbem. " Compare the beautiful passage in Claudian
(de Bell. Gild. , 96), "Ille diu miles populus qui præfuit orbi," etc.
[1587] _Romulidarum. _ Cf. ad Pers. , i. , 31.
[1588] _Smyrna peribat. _ Smyrna was attacked by Gyges, king of Lydia,
but resisted him with success. It was compelled, however, to yield to
his descendant, Alyattes, and in consequence of this event, it sunk
into decay and became deserted for the space of four hundred years.
Alexander formed the project of rebuilding the town in consequence of
a vision. His design was executed by Antigonus and Lysimachus. Vid.
Herod. , i. , 14-16. Paus. , Bœot. , 29. Strabo, xiv. , p. 646. (An allusion
to Phocæa or Teos would have been more intelligible. Cf. Herod. , i. ,
165, 168. Hor. , Epod. xvi. , 17. ) The next three lines are corrupt:
the reading followed is, "Vel denique quid vis: Te, Dea, quæso illud
tantum. "
[1589] _Caleno. _ Calenus, the husband of Sulpicia, probably derived
his name from Cales in Campania, now Calvi. (Hor. , i. , Od. xx. , 9.
Juv. , i. , 69. ) It was the cognomen of Q. Fufius, consul, B. C. 47. The
readings in the next line vary: _pariter ne obverte_; _pariterque
averte_; _pariterque adverte_. Dusa's explanation is followed in
the text. Sulpicia prays that her husband may not be induced by
the allurements of inglorious ease to remain longer in Rome or its
neighborhood, now that all that is really good and estimable has been
driven from it by the tyranny of the emperor. In line 66, read _ecce_
for _hæc_: _in ore_ for _honore_. If "dignum laude virum Musa vetat
mori," Hor. , iv. , Od. viii. , 28, so he may be said "Doubly dying to go
down to the vile dust from whence he sprung," who lives only in the
sarcasm of the satirist.
[1590] _Laureta Numæ. _ Cf. ad Juv. , iii. , 12, _seq. _, the description
of Umbritius' departure from Rome.
[1591] _Comite Ægeria. _ It is not impossible there may have been
some allusion to Numa and Egeria in Sulpicia's lost work on conjugal
affection; and hence Mart. , x. , Ep. xxxv. , 13, "Tales Egeriæ jocos
fuisse Udo crediderim Numæ sub antro. "
[1592] _Apollo. _ Hor. , i. , Ep. iii. , 17, "Scripta Palatinus quæcunque
recepit Apollo. " Juv. , vii. , 37.
FRAGMENTS OF LUCILIUS. [1593]
INTRODUCTION.
If but little is known of the personal character and life of the
other Satirists of Rome, it is unfortunately still more the case with
Lucilius. Although the research and industry of modern scholars have
collected nearly a hundred passages from ancient writers where his
name is mentioned, the information that can be gleaned from them with
respect to the events of his life is very scanty indeed; and even of
these meagre statements, there is scarcely one that has not been called
in question by one or more critics of later days. It will be therefore,
perhaps, the most satisfactory course to present in a continuous
form the few facts we can gather respecting his personal history;
and to mention afterward the doubts that have been thrown on these
statements, and the attempts of recent editors to reconcile them with
the accredited facts of history.
Caius Lucilius, then, was born, according to the testimony of S.
Hieronymus (in Euseb. , Chron. ), B. C. 148, in the first year of the
158th Olympiad, and the 606th of the founding of the city (Varronian
Computation), in the consulship of Spurius Posthumius Albinus and
Lucius Calpurnius Piso. There was a plebeian Lucilian gens, as well
as a patrician, but it was to the latter that the family of the poet
undoubtedly belonged. Horace says of himself (ii. Sat, i. , 74),
"Quidquid sum ego, quamvis infrà Lucili censum ingeniumque tamen me
cum magnis vixisse invita fatebitur usque Invidia. " Porphyrion, in his
commentary on the passage, says Lucilius was the great uncle of Pompey
the Great; Pompey's grandmother being the poet's sister. But Acron says
he was Pompey's grandfather. Velleius Paterculus (ii. , 29), on the
other hand, says that Lucilia, the mother of Pompey, was daughter of
the brother of Lucilius and of senatorian family.
His birthplace was Suessa, now Sessa, capital of the Aurunci, in
Campania; hence Juvenal (Sat. i. , 19) says, "Cur tamen hoc potius
libeat decurrere campo, per quem magnus equos Auruncæ flexit alumnus,
Si vacat et placidi rationem admittitis edam;" and Ausonius (Ep. xv. ),
"Rudes Camænas qui Suessæ prævenis. " At the age of fifteen, B. C. 134,
he accompanied his patron, L. Scipio Africanus Æmilianus, to the
Numantine war, where he is said to have served as eques. Vell. Pat. ,
ii. , 9, 4. Here he met with Marius, now about in his twenty-third year,
and the young Jugurtha; who were also serving under Africanus, and
learning, as Velleius says, "that art of war, which they were afterward
to employ against each other. " In the following year Numantia was taken
and razed to the ground, and Lucilius returned with his patron to
Rome, shortly after the sedition and death of Tiberius Gracchus; and
lived on terms of the most familiar friendship with him and C. Lælius,
until the death of Scipio, B. C. 129; and even at that early age had
already acquired the reputation of a distinguished Satirist.
