" The object
of this law was to give greater sanction to the provisions of the Lex
Fannia, a sumptuary law, which had become nearly obsolete.
of this law was to give greater sanction to the provisions of the Lex
Fannia, a sumptuary law, which had become nearly obsolete.
Satires
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. According
to Pighius (in Tabulis), he held the office of quæstor, B. C. 127, two
years after Scipio's death, and the prætorship, B. C. 117. Van Heusde
is also of opinion that he acted as publicanus; and from a passage
in Cicero (de Orat. , ii. , 70), some suppose he kept large flocks of
sheep on the Ager publicus. Besides Africanus and Lælius (with whose
father-in-law Crassus, however, he was not on very good terms, vid.
Cic. , de Or. , i. , 16) he is said to have enjoyed the friendship of the
following distinguished men, Sp. Albinus, L. Ælius Stilo, Q. Vectius,
Archelaus, P. Philocomus, Lælius Decimus, and Q. Granius Præco. He had
a violent quarrel with C. Cælius, for acquitting a man who had libeled
him. He is said to have lived under Velia, where the temple of Victory
afterward stood, in a house built at the public expense for the son
of king Antiochus when hostage at Rome. (Asc. Pedian. in Ciceron. ,
Orat. c. L. Pisonem, p. 13. ) He made a voyage to Sicily, but for what
cause, or at what period of his life, is not stated. His closing years
were spent at Naples, whither he retired to avoid, as some think, the
effects of the hatred of those whom his Satire had offended; and here
he died, B. C. 103, in his forty-sixth year, and was honored, according
to Eusebius, with a public funeral. He had a faithful slave named
Metrophanes, whose honesty and fidelity he rewarded by writing an
epitaph for his tomb, quoted by Martial as an instance of antique and
rugged style of writing, xi. Ep. , 90.
"Carmina nulla probas molli quæ limite currunt,
Sed quæ per salebras altaque saxa cadunt:
Et tibi Mæonio res carmine major habetur
Luceili Columella heic situ' Metrophanes. "
The name of his mistress is said to have been Collyra, to whom the
sixteenth book of his Satires was inscribed. He wrote thirty books of
Satires, of which the first twenty and the last are in Heroic metre.
The other nine in Iambics or Trochaics. He is not to be confounded
with a comic poet of the same name, mentioned by the Scholiast on
Horace and by Fulgentius.
Such is the traditional, and for a long time currently-believed,
story of Lucilius' life. The greater accuracy, or greater skepticism,
of modern scholars has called into question nearly every one of
these meagre facts. Even the method of spelling his name has been a
subject of fierce controversy. In the best manuscripts, especially
those of Horace, Cicero, and Nonius Marcellus, the name of Lucilius
is invariably spelt with one l. Yet in spite of this testimony,
in order to square with some preconceived notions of orthography,
the l was doubled by Hadrian Turnebe, Claude de Saumaise, Joseph
Scaliger, Lambinus, Jos. Mercer, and Cortius. The propriety, however,
of omitting the second l has been fully established by an appeal to
MSS. and inscriptions; and to Varges and Ellendt the credit is due
of successfully restoring the correct mode of spelling. (Cf. Rhenish
Philolog. Museum for 1835, and Ellendt on Cicero, de Orat, iii. , 43. )
Again, his prænomen is by some stated to be Lucius; whereas, not to
mention others, Cicero and Quintilian always speak of him as Caius.
But far more serious doubts, and with great probability, have been
cast upon the dates assigned by S. Hieronymus for his birth and death.
Bayle, in his Dictionary, was the first to suggest them; and they were
taken up and urged with great zeal and learning by Van Heusde (in his
Studia Critica in C. Lucilium Poetam, 1842), who accused Jerome of
negligence and incorrectness in the dates he assigns to many other
events: e. g. , the overthrow of Numantia, the deaths of Plautus,
Horace, Catullus, Lucretius, and Livius the tragedian, and the birth
of Messala Corvinus. The charge against the chronographer has been
repeated, and with some show of truth, by Ritschel in the Rhenish
Museum, 1843. Van Heusde's line of argument is simply this, that the
dates of Hieron. are inconsistent with what Horace and Velleius say of
Lucilius, and with what the poet says of himself--that it is absurd to
suppose that a lad of fifteen could have served as an eques; or that so
young a person would have been admitted to such intimate familiarity
with men like Scipio Africanus and Lælius; and that at the time of
Scipio's death, when, as it is said, Lucilius had already gained a
great reputation as a Satirist, he could have been barely over nineteen
years old; that if he had died at the age of forty-six, Horace would
not have applied to him the epithet "Senex"--that the year of his
birth must be therefore carried back at least six years, and his death
assigned to a much later period, as he mentions the Leges Liciniæ and
Calpurnia, passed some years after the time fixed by Hieron. for his
death at Naples. In this view Milman coincides: "Notwithstanding the
distinctness of this statement of S. Hieronymus, and the ingenuity
with which many writers have attempted to explain it, it appears to
me utterly irreconcilable with facts. " (Personæ Horatianæ, p. 178. )
Clinton also says[1594] (F. H. , ann. B. C. 103), "The expression of
Horace, Sat. , II. , i. , 34, by whom Lucilius is called 'Senex,' implies
that he lived to a later period. "
Such are the principal objections to the common accounts. Of those who
hold their accuracy, and endeavor to explain away the difficulties
attaching to them, the chief are Varges and Gerlach. The principal
points will be taken in the order in which they occur.
With regard to the first, Varges shows, in opposition to Bayle, that
it was the custom for young Romans to serve long before the legal
age, either voluntarily, that they might apply themselves sooner to
civil matters, by getting over their period of military service; or
compulsorily, to supply the waste of soldiers caused by the incessant
wars in which Rome was engaged. Hence the necessity for the law of C.
Gracchus to prevent enlistment under the age of seventeen (νεώτερον
ἐτῶν ἑπτακαίδεκα μὴ καταλέγεσθαι στρατιώτην). Cf. Liv. , xxv. , 5. Duk.
ad Liv. , xxvi. , 25. As the equestrian service was the more honorable,
it was probably conceded to Lucilius on account of his gentle birth
and early promise. Gerlach thinks that Tibullus[1595] was only
thirteen when he accompanied M. Valerius Messala Corvinus in his
Aquitanian campaign. Now Tibullus was only of _equestrian_ family.
There is no difficulty, therefore, in supposing that Lucilius, who
was of _senatorian_ family, might have served as eques at the age of
fifteen. [1596]
As to the fact of Scipio and Lælius admitting him to their intimate
friendship at so early an age, a parallel may be found in the case of
Archias the poet. Besides, Scipio and Lælius were the most likely men
to discover and to foster the early talent of the young poet. For the
_fact_ of the intimacy we have the testimony of Horace, Sat. , II. , i. ,
71,
"Quin ubi se a vulgo et scena in secreta remorant
Virtus Scipiadæ et mitis sapientia Lælî
Nugari cum illo et discincti ludere, donec
Decoqueretur olus, soliti. "
On which the commentator says, "That the three were on such intimate
terms, that on one occasion Lælius was running round the sofas in the
Triclinium, while Lucilius was chasing him with a twisted towel to hit
him with. " This story agrees exactly with the description given by
Cicero[1597] (de Orat. , ii. , 6) of the conduct of Scipio and Lælius,
who speaks of their retiring together to the country-house of the
former, and to have descended, for the relaxation of their minds, to
the most childish amusements, such as gathering shells on the shore
of Caieta. Who would be more likely than such men as these to be
captivated by the precocious wit and pungent sarcasm of a sprightly lad?
Again, the character of Lucilius's compositions admits of eminence at
an earlier period of life than the other branches of poetry. And yet
Catullus and Propertius, not to mention many others, attained great
eminence as poets at a very early age; certainly long before their
twentieth year.
The Satiric poetry of Lucilius depending more on a keen perception
of the ludicrous, and shrewd observation of passing events and the
foibles of individuals, would more readily win approbation at an early
age, than compositions whose excellence would consist in the display
of judgment, knowledge of the world, and elaborate finish. There is,
therefore, no reason to suppose that his talent may not, like that of
Cicero, have been developed at an early age, and having come under the
notice, might have won the approbation, of men of such character in
private life as Scipio and Lælius are reported to have been.
But Horace calls him "senex," ii. Sat. , 28, _seq. _
"Ille (Lucilius) velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim
Credebat libris: neque si male cesserat, unquam
Decurrens alio, neque si bene, quo fit ut omnis
Votivâ pateat veluti descripta tabellâ
Vita Senis--"
To this it is answered: nothing can be more loose and vague than the
employment by Roman writers of terms relating to the different periods
of human life: e. g. , "puer, adolescentulus, adolescens, juvenis,
senex. " We have seen that Tibullus at the age of forty may be called
"juvenis. " Hannibal, at the age of forty-four (i. e. , two years younger
than Lucilius at his death), calls himself senex. (Cf. Liv. , xxx. , 30,
compared with c. 28, and Crevier's note. )[1598] So Persius (Sat. i. ,
124) calls Aristophanes "prægrandis senex," though, as Ranke shows in
his Life (p. xc. ), he was not of great age. We might add that Horace
himself uses the phrase, "poetarum _seniorum_ turba" (i. Sat. , x. , 67),
as equivalent to priorum.
In the fourth Fragment of the twentieth book, Lucilius mentions the
Calpurnian Law.
"Calpurnî sævam legem Pisoni' reprendi
Eduxique animam in primoribu' naribus. "
This Van Heusde holds to be the Lex Calpurnia, de ambitu, passed by
C. Calpurnius Piso, when consul, A. U. C. 687, B. C. 67, at which time
Lucilius would have been eighty-one years old. But there was another
Lex Calpurnia, de pecuniis repetundis, passed by L. Calpurnius Piso,
tribune, in A. U. C. 604, B. C. 150. Van Heusde says the former _must_ be
meant, because Lucilius applies to it the epithet _sæva_, and Cicero
(pro Muræna, c. 46) also styles it "severissime scriptam. " He explains
the second line of the Fragment to mean, that Lucilius "all but paid
the penalty of death for his animadversions of the law," but these
words more correctly imply the "fierce snorting of an angry man. "
So Pers. , Sat. , v. , 91, "Ira cadat naso. " Varro, R. R. , ii. , 3, 5,
"Spiritum _naribus ducere_. " Mart. , vi. Ep. , 64, "Rabido nec perditus
ore fumantem nasum vivi tentaveris ursi. " And any law whatever would be
naturally termed "sæva" by him who came under the influence of it.
In the 132d of the Fragmenta Incerta, we have (quoted from A. Gell. ,
Noct. Att. , ii. , 24) these words, "Legem vitemus Licini.
" The object
of this law was to give greater sanction to the provisions of the Lex
Fannia, a sumptuary law, which had become nearly obsolete. If passed
by P. Licinius Crassus Dives Lusitanicus, when _consul_, it must be
referred to the year A. U. C. 657, B. C. 97, six years after the supposed
date of Lucilius's death. But there is no reason why this law should
not have been passed by Licinius when _tribune_ or _prætor_, as well
as when _consul_; probably during his prætorship, as nearer the
consulship, though Pighius (Annal. , iii. , 122), though without giving
any authority, assigns it to his tribuneship.
The Orchian Law was passed by C. Orchius when _tribune_. The Fannian
and many other sumptuary laws were passed by _prætors_ or _tribunes_.
The argument therefore derived from the law having been passed by
Licinius, when _consul_, falls to the ground.
Allowing, however, that Lucilius was alive during the consulship
of Licinius, we have the incidental, and therefore more valuable,
testimony of Cicero, that he must have died very shortly after. In
his "De Oratore," he introduces the speakers in the Dialogue quoting
Lucilius, as one evidently not very recently dead. Now this imaginary
Dialogue is supposed to have taken place B. C. 91.
FOOTNOTES:
[1593] In the Translation, the text and arrangement of Gerlach have
been principally followed. The few Fragments that have not been
translated are omitted, either from their hopelessly corrupt state,
their obscenity, or from their consisting of _single_, and those
unimportant, words.
[1594] Clinton, in his new Epitome of Chronology (Oxford, 1851), says,
Lucilius was about twenty years of age when serving at Numantia, B. C.
134.
[1595] But Clinton thinks that the war for which Messala triumphed
was carried on B. C. 28, and that Tibullus was then about thirty. The
war against the Salassi had been carried on B. C. 34. Heyne assigns
his birth to B. C. 49. Voss, Passow, and Dissen, to B. C. 59. Lachman
and Paldanus, to B. C. 54. He is called a "juvenis" at his death, B. C.
18. But Clinton says there is "no difficulty in this term, which may
express forty years of age. "
[1596] Cf. Niebuhr's Lectures, vol. i. , p. 316. "Slow and gradual
advancement, and a provision for officers in their old age, were
things unknown to the Romans. No one could by law have a permanent
appointment: every one had to give evidence of his ability. It was,
moreover, not necessary to pass through a long series of subordinate
offices. _A young Roman noble served as eques_, and the consul had
in his cohort the most distinguished to act as his staff: there they
learned enough, and in a few years, a young man, in the full vigor of
life, became a tribune of the soldiers. "
[1597] "Sæpe ex socero meo audivi, quum is diceret, socerum suum Lælium
semper ferè cum Scipione solitum rusticari eosque incredibiliter
_repuerascere_ esse solitos quum rus ex urbe tanquam è vinculis
evolavissent. . . . Solet narrare Scævola conchas eos et umbilicos ad
Caietam et ad Laurentum legere consuêsse et ad omnem animi remissionem
ludumque descendere. " Cf. Val. Max. , viii. , 8, 1.
[1598] These additional authorities have been collected by Gerlach and
Varges. Barth. ad Stat. Sylv. , I. , ii. 253. Markl. ad Stat. Sylv. , 110.
Drakenborch, ad Sil. Ital. , i. , 634. Eustath. , p. 107, 14, on the word
γέρων. Heyne's Homer, vol. iv. , pp. 270, 606, 620.
BOOK I. [1599]
ARGUMENT.
To the first book there is said to have been annexed an Epistle
to L. Ælius Stilo, the friend of the poet, to whom in all
probability this book was dedicated. (Fr. 16. ) We know from a
note of Servius on the tenth book of the Æneid (l. 104), that
the subject was a council of gods held to deliberate on the
fortune of the Roman state; the result of the conference being
that nothing but the death of certain obnoxious individuals
could possibly rescue the city from plunging headlong to ruin.
It is a kind of parody on the council of Celestials held in
the first book of the Odyssey, to discuss the propriety of the
return of Ulysses to Greece: and as Homer represents Neptune, the
great enemy of Ulysses, to have been absent from the meeting,
so here (Fr. 2) we find an allusion to some previous council,
at which Jupiter, by the machinations of Juno (Fr. 15), was
not present. Virgil, as Servius says, borrowed the idea of his
discussion between Venus, Juno, and Jupiter from this book; only
he translated the language of Lucilius into a type more suited
to the dignity of Heroic verse. Lucilius's council begin with
discussing the affairs of mankind at large, and then proceed to
consider the best method of prolonging the Roman state (Fr. 5),
which has no greater enemies than its own corrupt and licentious
morals, and the wide-spreading evils of avarice and luxury. But
amid the growing vices which undermined the state must especially
be reckoned the study of a spurious kind of philosophy, of
rhetoric, and logic, which not only was the cause of universal
indolence and neglect of all serious duties, but also led men
to lay snares to entrap their neighbors. (Fr. inc. 2. ) A fair
instance of these sophistical absurdities is given (Fr. inc.
12); and the doctrine of the Stoics, to which Horace alludes
(i. Sat. , iii. , 124), is also ridiculed. (Fr. inc. 23. ) The
pernicious effects of gold are then described, as destructive of
all honesty, good faith, and every religious principle (Fr. inc.
39-47); the result of which is, that the state is fast sinking
into helpless ruin. (Fr. inc. 50. ) Nor are the evils of luxury
less baleful. (Fr. 19-21. )
All this discussion, in the previous conference, had been nugatory
on account of the absence of Jupiter, and the divisions that had
arisen among the gods themselves. In this debate Neptune had
taken a very considerable part, since we hear that, discussing
some very abstruse and difficult point, he said it could not be
cleared up, even though Orcus were to permit Carneades himself
to revisit earth. (Fr. 8. ) Apollo also was probably one of the
speakers, and expressed a particular dislike to his cognomen of
"the Beautiful. " (Fr. inc. 145. ) Perhaps all the gods but Jove
(Fr. 3) had been present; but as they could not agree, the whole
matter was referred to Jupiter; who, expressing his vexation that
he was not present at the first meeting, blames some and praises
others. (Fr. 55, inc. )
The cause of his absence was probably the same as that described
(Iliad, xiv. , 307-327) by Homer: which passage Lucilius probably
meant to ridicule. (Fr. 15. ) The result of the deliberation is a
determination on the part of the gods that the only way to save
the Roman state is by requiring the expiatory sacrifice of the
most flagitious and impious among the citizens: and the three
fixed upon are P. Cornelius Lentulus Lupus, L. Papirius Carbo,
and C. Hostilius Tubulus.
(To this book may perhaps also be referred Fr. inc. 2, 46, 61, 63. )
This book must have been published subsequently to the death of
Carneades, which took place the same year as that of Scipio, B. C.
129, twenty-six years after his embassy to Rome.
1 . . . held counsel about the affairs of men--
2 I could have wished, could it so have happened. . . . I could have
wished, at that council of yours before which you mention, I
could have wished, Celestials, to have been present at your
previous council!
3 . . . that there is none of us, but without exception is styled
"Best Father of Gods," as Father Neptune, Liber, Saturn, Father
Mars, Janus, Father Quirinus. [1600]
4 Had Tubulus, Lucius, Lupus, or Carbo, that son of Neptune,
believed that there were gods, would he have been so perjured
and impious? [1601]
5 . . . in what way it might be possible to preserve longer the
people and city of Rome.
6 . . . though many months and days . . . yet wicked men would not
admire this age and time.
7 When he had spoken these words he paused--
8 Not even though Orcus should send back Carneades
himself. . . . [1602]
9 . . . made ædile by a Satura; who from law may loose. . . . [1603]
10 . . . against whom, should the whole people conspire, they would
be scarce a match for him--
11 . . . they might, however, discharge their duty and defend the
walls.
12 . . . might put it off, if not longer, at least to this one
lustrum. [1604]
13 I will bring them to supper; and first of all will give each
of them, as they arrive, the bellies of thunny and heads of
acharne. [1605]
14 . . .
15 . . . so that I could compare «the embraces» of Leda daughter of
Thestius, and the spouse of Ixion.
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. According
to Pighius (in Tabulis), he held the office of quæstor, B. C. 127, two
years after Scipio's death, and the prætorship, B. C. 117. Van Heusde
is also of opinion that he acted as publicanus; and from a passage
in Cicero (de Orat. , ii. , 70), some suppose he kept large flocks of
sheep on the Ager publicus. Besides Africanus and Lælius (with whose
father-in-law Crassus, however, he was not on very good terms, vid.
Cic. , de Or. , i. , 16) he is said to have enjoyed the friendship of the
following distinguished men, Sp. Albinus, L. Ælius Stilo, Q. Vectius,
Archelaus, P. Philocomus, Lælius Decimus, and Q. Granius Præco. He had
a violent quarrel with C. Cælius, for acquitting a man who had libeled
him. He is said to have lived under Velia, where the temple of Victory
afterward stood, in a house built at the public expense for the son
of king Antiochus when hostage at Rome. (Asc. Pedian. in Ciceron. ,
Orat. c. L. Pisonem, p. 13. ) He made a voyage to Sicily, but for what
cause, or at what period of his life, is not stated. His closing years
were spent at Naples, whither he retired to avoid, as some think, the
effects of the hatred of those whom his Satire had offended; and here
he died, B. C. 103, in his forty-sixth year, and was honored, according
to Eusebius, with a public funeral. He had a faithful slave named
Metrophanes, whose honesty and fidelity he rewarded by writing an
epitaph for his tomb, quoted by Martial as an instance of antique and
rugged style of writing, xi. Ep. , 90.
"Carmina nulla probas molli quæ limite currunt,
Sed quæ per salebras altaque saxa cadunt:
Et tibi Mæonio res carmine major habetur
Luceili Columella heic situ' Metrophanes. "
The name of his mistress is said to have been Collyra, to whom the
sixteenth book of his Satires was inscribed. He wrote thirty books of
Satires, of which the first twenty and the last are in Heroic metre.
The other nine in Iambics or Trochaics. He is not to be confounded
with a comic poet of the same name, mentioned by the Scholiast on
Horace and by Fulgentius.
Such is the traditional, and for a long time currently-believed,
story of Lucilius' life. The greater accuracy, or greater skepticism,
of modern scholars has called into question nearly every one of
these meagre facts. Even the method of spelling his name has been a
subject of fierce controversy. In the best manuscripts, especially
those of Horace, Cicero, and Nonius Marcellus, the name of Lucilius
is invariably spelt with one l. Yet in spite of this testimony,
in order to square with some preconceived notions of orthography,
the l was doubled by Hadrian Turnebe, Claude de Saumaise, Joseph
Scaliger, Lambinus, Jos. Mercer, and Cortius. The propriety, however,
of omitting the second l has been fully established by an appeal to
MSS. and inscriptions; and to Varges and Ellendt the credit is due
of successfully restoring the correct mode of spelling. (Cf. Rhenish
Philolog. Museum for 1835, and Ellendt on Cicero, de Orat, iii. , 43. )
Again, his prænomen is by some stated to be Lucius; whereas, not to
mention others, Cicero and Quintilian always speak of him as Caius.
But far more serious doubts, and with great probability, have been
cast upon the dates assigned by S. Hieronymus for his birth and death.
Bayle, in his Dictionary, was the first to suggest them; and they were
taken up and urged with great zeal and learning by Van Heusde (in his
Studia Critica in C. Lucilium Poetam, 1842), who accused Jerome of
negligence and incorrectness in the dates he assigns to many other
events: e. g. , the overthrow of Numantia, the deaths of Plautus,
Horace, Catullus, Lucretius, and Livius the tragedian, and the birth
of Messala Corvinus. The charge against the chronographer has been
repeated, and with some show of truth, by Ritschel in the Rhenish
Museum, 1843. Van Heusde's line of argument is simply this, that the
dates of Hieron. are inconsistent with what Horace and Velleius say of
Lucilius, and with what the poet says of himself--that it is absurd to
suppose that a lad of fifteen could have served as an eques; or that so
young a person would have been admitted to such intimate familiarity
with men like Scipio Africanus and Lælius; and that at the time of
Scipio's death, when, as it is said, Lucilius had already gained a
great reputation as a Satirist, he could have been barely over nineteen
years old; that if he had died at the age of forty-six, Horace would
not have applied to him the epithet "Senex"--that the year of his
birth must be therefore carried back at least six years, and his death
assigned to a much later period, as he mentions the Leges Liciniæ and
Calpurnia, passed some years after the time fixed by Hieron. for his
death at Naples. In this view Milman coincides: "Notwithstanding the
distinctness of this statement of S. Hieronymus, and the ingenuity
with which many writers have attempted to explain it, it appears to
me utterly irreconcilable with facts. " (Personæ Horatianæ, p. 178. )
Clinton also says[1594] (F. H. , ann. B. C. 103), "The expression of
Horace, Sat. , II. , i. , 34, by whom Lucilius is called 'Senex,' implies
that he lived to a later period. "
Such are the principal objections to the common accounts. Of those who
hold their accuracy, and endeavor to explain away the difficulties
attaching to them, the chief are Varges and Gerlach. The principal
points will be taken in the order in which they occur.
With regard to the first, Varges shows, in opposition to Bayle, that
it was the custom for young Romans to serve long before the legal
age, either voluntarily, that they might apply themselves sooner to
civil matters, by getting over their period of military service; or
compulsorily, to supply the waste of soldiers caused by the incessant
wars in which Rome was engaged. Hence the necessity for the law of C.
Gracchus to prevent enlistment under the age of seventeen (νεώτερον
ἐτῶν ἑπτακαίδεκα μὴ καταλέγεσθαι στρατιώτην). Cf. Liv. , xxv. , 5. Duk.
ad Liv. , xxvi. , 25. As the equestrian service was the more honorable,
it was probably conceded to Lucilius on account of his gentle birth
and early promise. Gerlach thinks that Tibullus[1595] was only
thirteen when he accompanied M. Valerius Messala Corvinus in his
Aquitanian campaign. Now Tibullus was only of _equestrian_ family.
There is no difficulty, therefore, in supposing that Lucilius, who
was of _senatorian_ family, might have served as eques at the age of
fifteen. [1596]
As to the fact of Scipio and Lælius admitting him to their intimate
friendship at so early an age, a parallel may be found in the case of
Archias the poet. Besides, Scipio and Lælius were the most likely men
to discover and to foster the early talent of the young poet. For the
_fact_ of the intimacy we have the testimony of Horace, Sat. , II. , i. ,
71,
"Quin ubi se a vulgo et scena in secreta remorant
Virtus Scipiadæ et mitis sapientia Lælî
Nugari cum illo et discincti ludere, donec
Decoqueretur olus, soliti. "
On which the commentator says, "That the three were on such intimate
terms, that on one occasion Lælius was running round the sofas in the
Triclinium, while Lucilius was chasing him with a twisted towel to hit
him with. " This story agrees exactly with the description given by
Cicero[1597] (de Orat. , ii. , 6) of the conduct of Scipio and Lælius,
who speaks of their retiring together to the country-house of the
former, and to have descended, for the relaxation of their minds, to
the most childish amusements, such as gathering shells on the shore
of Caieta. Who would be more likely than such men as these to be
captivated by the precocious wit and pungent sarcasm of a sprightly lad?
Again, the character of Lucilius's compositions admits of eminence at
an earlier period of life than the other branches of poetry. And yet
Catullus and Propertius, not to mention many others, attained great
eminence as poets at a very early age; certainly long before their
twentieth year.
The Satiric poetry of Lucilius depending more on a keen perception
of the ludicrous, and shrewd observation of passing events and the
foibles of individuals, would more readily win approbation at an early
age, than compositions whose excellence would consist in the display
of judgment, knowledge of the world, and elaborate finish. There is,
therefore, no reason to suppose that his talent may not, like that of
Cicero, have been developed at an early age, and having come under the
notice, might have won the approbation, of men of such character in
private life as Scipio and Lælius are reported to have been.
But Horace calls him "senex," ii. Sat. , 28, _seq. _
"Ille (Lucilius) velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim
Credebat libris: neque si male cesserat, unquam
Decurrens alio, neque si bene, quo fit ut omnis
Votivâ pateat veluti descripta tabellâ
Vita Senis--"
To this it is answered: nothing can be more loose and vague than the
employment by Roman writers of terms relating to the different periods
of human life: e. g. , "puer, adolescentulus, adolescens, juvenis,
senex. " We have seen that Tibullus at the age of forty may be called
"juvenis. " Hannibal, at the age of forty-four (i. e. , two years younger
than Lucilius at his death), calls himself senex. (Cf. Liv. , xxx. , 30,
compared with c. 28, and Crevier's note. )[1598] So Persius (Sat. i. ,
124) calls Aristophanes "prægrandis senex," though, as Ranke shows in
his Life (p. xc. ), he was not of great age. We might add that Horace
himself uses the phrase, "poetarum _seniorum_ turba" (i. Sat. , x. , 67),
as equivalent to priorum.
In the fourth Fragment of the twentieth book, Lucilius mentions the
Calpurnian Law.
"Calpurnî sævam legem Pisoni' reprendi
Eduxique animam in primoribu' naribus. "
This Van Heusde holds to be the Lex Calpurnia, de ambitu, passed by
C. Calpurnius Piso, when consul, A. U. C. 687, B. C. 67, at which time
Lucilius would have been eighty-one years old. But there was another
Lex Calpurnia, de pecuniis repetundis, passed by L. Calpurnius Piso,
tribune, in A. U. C. 604, B. C. 150. Van Heusde says the former _must_ be
meant, because Lucilius applies to it the epithet _sæva_, and Cicero
(pro Muræna, c. 46) also styles it "severissime scriptam. " He explains
the second line of the Fragment to mean, that Lucilius "all but paid
the penalty of death for his animadversions of the law," but these
words more correctly imply the "fierce snorting of an angry man. "
So Pers. , Sat. , v. , 91, "Ira cadat naso. " Varro, R. R. , ii. , 3, 5,
"Spiritum _naribus ducere_. " Mart. , vi. Ep. , 64, "Rabido nec perditus
ore fumantem nasum vivi tentaveris ursi. " And any law whatever would be
naturally termed "sæva" by him who came under the influence of it.
In the 132d of the Fragmenta Incerta, we have (quoted from A. Gell. ,
Noct. Att. , ii. , 24) these words, "Legem vitemus Licini.
" The object
of this law was to give greater sanction to the provisions of the Lex
Fannia, a sumptuary law, which had become nearly obsolete. If passed
by P. Licinius Crassus Dives Lusitanicus, when _consul_, it must be
referred to the year A. U. C. 657, B. C. 97, six years after the supposed
date of Lucilius's death. But there is no reason why this law should
not have been passed by Licinius when _tribune_ or _prætor_, as well
as when _consul_; probably during his prætorship, as nearer the
consulship, though Pighius (Annal. , iii. , 122), though without giving
any authority, assigns it to his tribuneship.
The Orchian Law was passed by C. Orchius when _tribune_. The Fannian
and many other sumptuary laws were passed by _prætors_ or _tribunes_.
The argument therefore derived from the law having been passed by
Licinius, when _consul_, falls to the ground.
Allowing, however, that Lucilius was alive during the consulship
of Licinius, we have the incidental, and therefore more valuable,
testimony of Cicero, that he must have died very shortly after. In
his "De Oratore," he introduces the speakers in the Dialogue quoting
Lucilius, as one evidently not very recently dead. Now this imaginary
Dialogue is supposed to have taken place B. C. 91.
FOOTNOTES:
[1593] In the Translation, the text and arrangement of Gerlach have
been principally followed. The few Fragments that have not been
translated are omitted, either from their hopelessly corrupt state,
their obscenity, or from their consisting of _single_, and those
unimportant, words.
[1594] Clinton, in his new Epitome of Chronology (Oxford, 1851), says,
Lucilius was about twenty years of age when serving at Numantia, B. C.
134.
[1595] But Clinton thinks that the war for which Messala triumphed
was carried on B. C. 28, and that Tibullus was then about thirty. The
war against the Salassi had been carried on B. C. 34. Heyne assigns
his birth to B. C. 49. Voss, Passow, and Dissen, to B. C. 59. Lachman
and Paldanus, to B. C. 54. He is called a "juvenis" at his death, B. C.
18. But Clinton says there is "no difficulty in this term, which may
express forty years of age. "
[1596] Cf. Niebuhr's Lectures, vol. i. , p. 316. "Slow and gradual
advancement, and a provision for officers in their old age, were
things unknown to the Romans. No one could by law have a permanent
appointment: every one had to give evidence of his ability. It was,
moreover, not necessary to pass through a long series of subordinate
offices. _A young Roman noble served as eques_, and the consul had
in his cohort the most distinguished to act as his staff: there they
learned enough, and in a few years, a young man, in the full vigor of
life, became a tribune of the soldiers. "
[1597] "Sæpe ex socero meo audivi, quum is diceret, socerum suum Lælium
semper ferè cum Scipione solitum rusticari eosque incredibiliter
_repuerascere_ esse solitos quum rus ex urbe tanquam è vinculis
evolavissent. . . . Solet narrare Scævola conchas eos et umbilicos ad
Caietam et ad Laurentum legere consuêsse et ad omnem animi remissionem
ludumque descendere. " Cf. Val. Max. , viii. , 8, 1.
[1598] These additional authorities have been collected by Gerlach and
Varges. Barth. ad Stat. Sylv. , I. , ii. 253. Markl. ad Stat. Sylv. , 110.
Drakenborch, ad Sil. Ital. , i. , 634. Eustath. , p. 107, 14, on the word
γέρων. Heyne's Homer, vol. iv. , pp. 270, 606, 620.
BOOK I. [1599]
ARGUMENT.
To the first book there is said to have been annexed an Epistle
to L. Ælius Stilo, the friend of the poet, to whom in all
probability this book was dedicated. (Fr. 16. ) We know from a
note of Servius on the tenth book of the Æneid (l. 104), that
the subject was a council of gods held to deliberate on the
fortune of the Roman state; the result of the conference being
that nothing but the death of certain obnoxious individuals
could possibly rescue the city from plunging headlong to ruin.
It is a kind of parody on the council of Celestials held in
the first book of the Odyssey, to discuss the propriety of the
return of Ulysses to Greece: and as Homer represents Neptune, the
great enemy of Ulysses, to have been absent from the meeting,
so here (Fr. 2) we find an allusion to some previous council,
at which Jupiter, by the machinations of Juno (Fr. 15), was
not present. Virgil, as Servius says, borrowed the idea of his
discussion between Venus, Juno, and Jupiter from this book; only
he translated the language of Lucilius into a type more suited
to the dignity of Heroic verse. Lucilius's council begin with
discussing the affairs of mankind at large, and then proceed to
consider the best method of prolonging the Roman state (Fr. 5),
which has no greater enemies than its own corrupt and licentious
morals, and the wide-spreading evils of avarice and luxury. But
amid the growing vices which undermined the state must especially
be reckoned the study of a spurious kind of philosophy, of
rhetoric, and logic, which not only was the cause of universal
indolence and neglect of all serious duties, but also led men
to lay snares to entrap their neighbors. (Fr. inc. 2. ) A fair
instance of these sophistical absurdities is given (Fr. inc.
12); and the doctrine of the Stoics, to which Horace alludes
(i. Sat. , iii. , 124), is also ridiculed. (Fr. inc. 23. ) The
pernicious effects of gold are then described, as destructive of
all honesty, good faith, and every religious principle (Fr. inc.
39-47); the result of which is, that the state is fast sinking
into helpless ruin. (Fr. inc. 50. ) Nor are the evils of luxury
less baleful. (Fr. 19-21. )
All this discussion, in the previous conference, had been nugatory
on account of the absence of Jupiter, and the divisions that had
arisen among the gods themselves. In this debate Neptune had
taken a very considerable part, since we hear that, discussing
some very abstruse and difficult point, he said it could not be
cleared up, even though Orcus were to permit Carneades himself
to revisit earth. (Fr. 8. ) Apollo also was probably one of the
speakers, and expressed a particular dislike to his cognomen of
"the Beautiful. " (Fr. inc. 145. ) Perhaps all the gods but Jove
(Fr. 3) had been present; but as they could not agree, the whole
matter was referred to Jupiter; who, expressing his vexation that
he was not present at the first meeting, blames some and praises
others. (Fr. 55, inc. )
The cause of his absence was probably the same as that described
(Iliad, xiv. , 307-327) by Homer: which passage Lucilius probably
meant to ridicule. (Fr. 15. ) The result of the deliberation is a
determination on the part of the gods that the only way to save
the Roman state is by requiring the expiatory sacrifice of the
most flagitious and impious among the citizens: and the three
fixed upon are P. Cornelius Lentulus Lupus, L. Papirius Carbo,
and C. Hostilius Tubulus.
(To this book may perhaps also be referred Fr. inc. 2, 46, 61, 63. )
This book must have been published subsequently to the death of
Carneades, which took place the same year as that of Scipio, B. C.
129, twenty-six years after his embassy to Rome.
1 . . . held counsel about the affairs of men--
2 I could have wished, could it so have happened. . . . I could have
wished, at that council of yours before which you mention, I
could have wished, Celestials, to have been present at your
previous council!
3 . . . that there is none of us, but without exception is styled
"Best Father of Gods," as Father Neptune, Liber, Saturn, Father
Mars, Janus, Father Quirinus. [1600]
4 Had Tubulus, Lucius, Lupus, or Carbo, that son of Neptune,
believed that there were gods, would he have been so perjured
and impious? [1601]
5 . . . in what way it might be possible to preserve longer the
people and city of Rome.
6 . . . though many months and days . . . yet wicked men would not
admire this age and time.
7 When he had spoken these words he paused--
8 Not even though Orcus should send back Carneades
himself. . . . [1602]
9 . . . made ædile by a Satura; who from law may loose. . . . [1603]
10 . . . against whom, should the whole people conspire, they would
be scarce a match for him--
11 . . . they might, however, discharge their duty and defend the
walls.
12 . . . might put it off, if not longer, at least to this one
lustrum. [1604]
13 I will bring them to supper; and first of all will give each
of them, as they arrive, the bellies of thunny and heads of
acharne. [1605]
14 . . .
15 . . . so that I could compare «the embraces» of Leda daughter of
Thestius, and the spouse of Ixion.
