No More Learning

[103] _Augusto. _ Cf. Plin. , 1, Epist. xiii. "Magnum proventum poëtarum
annus hic attulit; toto mense Aprili nullus ferè dies quo non recitaret
aliquis. "

[104] Either those of Romulus, or the aqueduct; and "moist Capena,"
either from the constant dripping of the aqueduct (hence arcus
stillans), or from the springs near it, hence called Fontinalis; now
St. Sebastian's gate. It opens on the Via Appia.

[105] Cf. vi. , 542.

[106]

"O how much more devoutly should we cling
To thoughts that hover round the sacred spring! " Badham.

Read præsentius: cf. Plin. , Ep. viii. , 8, the description of the
Clitumnus, and Ov. , Met. , iii. , 155, _seq. _

[107] Umbritius (aruspicum in nostro ævo peritissimus, Plin. , x. , c.
iii. ) is said to have predicted Galba's death, and probably therefore,
with Juvenal, cordially hated Otho.

[108] _Portus_ may mean, "constructing" or "repairing" harbors; or
"farming the harbor-dues," portoria.

[109] Scipio's was performed by contract. Plin. , H. N. , xxxi. , 3.

[110] The spear was set up in the forum to show that an auction was
going on there. Hence things so sold were said to be sold _sub hastâ_.
_Domina_, implies "the right of disposal" of all things and persons
there put up. This may mean, therefore, to buy a drove of slaves
on speculation, and sell them again by auction; or, when they have
squandered their all, put themselves up to sale. So Britann. Dryden,
"For gain they sell their very head. " "Salable as slaves. " Hodgson. So
Browne, who reads "præbere caput domino. "

[111] "From abject meanness lifts to wealth and power. " Badham. Cf.
vi. , 608.

[112] "Though a soothsayer, I am no astrologer. " "I never examined the
entrails of _a toad_. "

[113] "Therefore (because I will lend myself to no peculation) no
great man will take me in his suite when he goes to his province. " Cf.
Sat. viii. , 127, "Si tibi sancta cohors comitum. " This is better than,
"Therefore I leave Rome alone! " Markland proposes, extinctâ dextrâ.

[114]

"Like a dead member from the body rent,
Maim'd and unuseful to the government. " Dryden.

"No man's confederate, here alone I stand,
Like the maim'd owner of a palsied hand. " Badham.

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

[115] Isa. , lvii. , 20.

[116] _Opaci_, Lubin. interprets as equivalent to turbulenti, "turbid
with gold. " On this Grangæus remarks, "Apage Germani haud germanam
interpretationem! _opaci_ enim est umbris arborum obscuri. " Cf.
Mart. , i. , Ep. 50, "Æstus serenos aureo franges Tago _obscurus umbris
arborum_. "

[117]

"Grasp thou no boon with sadness on thy brow,
Spurn the base bribe that binds a guilty vow. " Badham.

[118]

"Shame for Rome that harbors such a crew. "

[119] The Roman hind, once so renowned for rough and manly virtues,
now wears the costume of effeminate Greeks: or all these Greek terms,
used to show the poet's supreme contempt, may refer to the games: the
Trechedipna, not the thin supper-robe, but the same as the Endromis.
The Ceroma, an ointment made of oil, wax, and clay, with which they
bedaubed themselves.

[120] Amydon in Pœonia, Tralles in Lydia, Alabanda in Caria.

[121]

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

"Deep in their patron's heart, and fix'd as fate,
The future lords of all his vast estate. " Hodgson.

[122]

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

[123] Aliptes, one who anoints (ἀλείφει), and therefore trains,
athletes.

[124] So Johnson.

"All sciences the hungry Monsieur knows,
And bid him go to hell--to hell he goes! "

[125] Some think there is an allusion here to a man who attempted to
repeat Icarus' experiment before Nero. Vid. Suet. , Nero, 13.

[126] _Cottana_, "ficorum genus. " Plin. , xiii. , 5.

[127] "As if squeezed in the passage by the narrowness of the throat. "

[128] His powers of flattery show his ability of assuming a fictitious
character as much as his skill in acting.

[129] Or the "Dorian maid. " They were scantily dressed. Hence the
φαινομηρίδες of Ibycus.

[130] _Major abolla_, seems to be a proverbial expression; it may
either be the "Stoic's cloak," which was more _ample_ than the scanty
robe of the Cynic; or "the _philosopher's_ cloak," which has therefore
more dignity and weight with it than the soldier's or civilian's. The
allusion is to P. Egnatius Celer, the Stoic, who was bribed to give the
false testimony on which Bareas Soranus was convicted. V. Tac. , Ann. ,
xvi. , 21, seq. , and 32.

[131] _Ripa. _ Commentators are divided between Tarsus, Thebes, and
Corinth.

[132] _Togatus. _ Gifford quotes Martial, x. , Ep. 10.

"Quid faciet pauper cui non licet esse clienti?
Dimisit nostras purpura vestra togas. "

[133] _Collega_; alluding to the two prætors, "Urbanus" and
"Peregrinus. "

[134] _Claudit latus. _ This is the order Britannicus takes. "Claudere
latus" means not only to accompany, as a mark of respect, but to give
the inner place; to become his "comes exterior. " Horace, ii. , Sat. v. ,
18. So Gifford, "And if they walk beside him yield the wall. "

[135]

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

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

[136] P. Scipio Nasica (vid. Liv. , xxix. , 10) and L. Cæcilius Metellus.
Cf. Ov. , Fasti, vi. , 437.

[137] Possidet. Vid. Niebuhr.

[138] Cf. Mart. , v. , Ep. 8 and 25, who speaks of one Lectius as an
officious keeper of the seats.

[139] Sat. x. , 323.

[140]

"Long, long ago, in one despairing band,
The poor, self-exiled, should have left the land. " Hodgson.

[141]

"A menial board and parsimonious fare. " Hodgson.

[142] "Negavit. " Some commentators imagine Curius Dentatus to be here
alluded to. It seems better to take it as a _general_ remark. Read
"culullo," not "cucullo," with Browne.

[143] Cf. Mart. , ix. , 588.

[144] _Herboso_, the first permanent theatre even in Rome itself, was
built by Pompey. Cf. In gradibus sedit populus de cæspite factis. Ov. ,
Art. Am. , i. , 107. Cf. Virg. , Æn. , v. , 286.

[145]

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

[146] _Libis. _ So many of these "complimentary cakes" are sent in honor
of this event, that they are actually "sold" to get rid of them.

"Good client, quickly to the mansion send
Cakes bought by thee for rascal slaves to vend. " Badham.

[147] _Gabii_, renowned for the ease with which Sex. Tarquin duped the
inhabitants.

[148] _Pronum_, i. e. , supinum. Hor. , iii. , Od. iv. , 23, on a steep
acclivity.
[149]

"And 'tis the village mason's daily calling,
To keep the world's metropolis from falling. " Dryden.

[150]

"Then bid the tenant sleep secure from dread,
While the loose pile hangs trembling o'er his head. " Gifford.

[151] _Opici. _ Cf. vi. , 455. Opicæ castigat amicæ verba; i. e. ,
barbarous, rude, unlearned, "the Goths of mice;" from the Opici
or Osci, an Ausonian tribe on the Liris, from whom many barbarous
innovations were introduced into Roman manners and language. "Divina"
may either refer to Homer's poems, or to Codrus' own, which in his own
estimation were "divine. " Cf. Sat. i. , 2, "rauci Theseide _Codri_. "

[152] _Horrida. _ In all public misfortunes, the Roman matrons took
their part in the common mourning, by appearing without ornaments, in
weeds, and with disheveled hair. Cf. viii. , 267. Liv. , ii. , 7. Luc. ,
Phars. , ii. , 28, _seq. _

[153] _Candida. _ Cf. Plin. , xxxiv. , 5. The Parian marble was the
whitest, hence Virg. , Æn. , iii. , 126, "Niveamque Paron. "

[154] _Polycletus. _ Cf. viii. , 103. His master-piece was the Persian
body-guard (cf. Ælian. , V. H. , xiv. , 8), called the "Canon. " Vid.
Müller's Archæol. of Art, § 120. Euphranor the painter belonged, like
Polycletus, to the Sicyonic school.

[155] _Foruli_ or _plutei_, cases for holding MSS. Cf. ii. , 7. Suet. ,
Aug. , xxxi.

[156] Cf. Mart. , iii. , Ep. 52.

[157] _Circus. _ Cf. x. , 81, duas tantum res anxius optat Panem et
Circenses.

[158] Cf. Milton.

"And add to these retired leisure,
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure. "

[159] i. e. , "Only the very rich can afford to buy 'Insulæ,' in the
quiet part of the city, where their rest will not be broken by the
noise of their neighbors, or the street. "

[160] _Mandra_; properly "a pen for pigs or cattle," then "a team or
drove of cattle, mules," etc. ; as Martial, v. , Ep. xxii. , 7, "Mulorum
vincere mandras. " Here "the drovers" themselves are meant.

[161] _Drusum. _ Cf. Suet. , Claud. , v. , "super veterem segnitiæ notam. "
Seals are proverbially sluggish. Cf. Plin. , ix. , 13. Virg. , Georg. ,
iv. , 432.

[162] _Officium_; attendance on the levees of the great.

[163] Cf. i. , 64; v. , 83; vi. , 477, 351. Plin. , Pan. , 24.

[164] i. e. , of a litter. Cf. vii. , 132.

[165] _Culina_, "a double-celled chafing-dish, with a fire below, to
keep the 'dole' warm. " The custom is still retained in Italy.

[166] Domitius Corbulo, a man of uncommon strength, appointed by Nero
to command in Armenia. Vid. Tac. , Ann. , xiii. , 8.

[167] "The pace creates the draught. "

[168] _Sedet_; because, being unburied, he must wait a hundred years.
Cf. Virg. , Æn. , vi. , 313-330.

[169] Hom. , Il. , xxiv. , 12, "ἄλλοτε δ' αὖτε ὕπτιος ἄλλοτε δὲ πρηνής. "

[170] _Deducere_; "the technical word for the clients' attendance on
their patrons;" so "forum attingere; in forum deduci. "

[171]

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

[172] _Sectile_, or the inferior kind of leek; the better sort being
called "capitatum. " Plin. , xx. , 6. Cf. Sat. xiv. , 133, sectivi porri.

[173] The order is "Pater, avus, proavus, abavus, atavas, tritavus. " He
means, therefore, eight generations back at least.

[174] Ancus Martius built the prison. Liv. , i. , 33. The dungeon was
added by Servius Tullius, and called from him Tullianum. The next was
built by Ap. Claudius the decemvir.

[175] _Ceres_ was worshiped under this epithet at Aquinum. Its origin
is variously given.

[176] _Caligatus_ may mean, "with rustic boots," so that you may not be
reminded of Rome; or "with soldier's boots," as armed for our campaign
against the vices of the city.


SATIRE IV.

Once more behold Crispinus! [177] and often shall I have to call him
on the stage. A monster! without one virtue to redeem his vices--of
feeble powers, save only in his lust. It is only a widow's charms this
adulterer scorns.

What matters it then in what large porticoes he wearies out his
steeds--through what vast shady groves his rides extend[178]--how many
acres close to the forum, or what palaces he has bought? No bad man is
ever happy. Least of all he that has added incest to his adultery, and
lately seduced the filleted priestess,[179] that with her life-blood
still warm must descend into the earth.

But now we have to deal with more venial acts. Yet if any other man
had committed the same, he would have come under the sentence of our
imperial censor. [180] For what would be infamous in men of worth, a
Titius or Seius, was becoming to Crispinus. What can you do when no
crime can be so foul and loathsome as the perpetrator himself? He gave
six sestertia for a mullet. [181] A thousand sesterces, forsooth! for
every pound of weight, as they allege, who exaggerate stories already
beyond belief. I should commend the act as a master-stroke of policy,
if by so noble a present he had got himself named chief heir[182]
in the will of some childless old man. A better plea still would be
that he had sent it to some mistress of rank, that rides in her close
chair with its wide glasses. Nothing of the sort! He bought it for
himself! We see many things which even Apicius[183] (mean and thrifty
compared with him) never was guilty of. Did you do this in days of
yore, Crispinus, when girt about with your native papyrus? [184] What!
pay this price for fish-scales? Perchance you might have bought the
fisherman cheaper than the fish! You might have bought a whole estate
for the money in some of our provinces. In Apulia, a still larger
one. [185] What kind of luxuries, then, may we suppose were gorged by
the emperor himself, when so many sestertia, that furnished forth but
a small portion, a mere side-dish of a very ordinary dinner, were
devoured by this court buffoon, now clothed in purple. Chief of the
equestrian order now is he who was wont to hawk about the streets shads
from the same borough[186] with himself.

Begin, Calliope! here may we take our seats! This is no poetic fiction;
we are dealing with _facts_! Relate it, Pierian maids! and grant me
grace for having called you _maids_.

When the last of the Flavii was mangling the world, lying at its last
gasp, and Rome was enslaved by a Nero,[187] ay, and a _bald_ one too,
an Adriatic turbot of wonderful size fell into the net, and filled its
ample folds, off the temple of Venus which Doric Ancona[188] sustains.
No less in bulk was it than those which the ice of the Mæotis incloses,
and when melted at length by the sun's rays, discharges at the outlets
of the sluggish Euxine, unwieldly from their long sloth, and fattened
by the long-protracted cold.

This prodigy of a fish the owner of the boat and nets designs for the
chief pontiff. For who would dare to put up such a fish to sale, or to
buy it? Since the shores too would be crowded with informers; these
inspectors of sea-weed, prowling in every nook, would straightway
contest the point[189] with the naked fisherman, and would not scruple
to allege that the fish was a "stray," and that having made its escape
from the emperor's ponds, where it had long reveled in plenty, ought
of course to revert to its ancient lord. If we place any faith in
Palfurius or Armillatus, whatever is pre-eminently fine in the whole
sea, is the property of the exchequer, wherever it swims. So, that
it may not be utterly lost, it will be made a present of, though now
sickly autumn was giving place to winter, and sick men were already
expecting[190] their fits of ague, though the rude tempest whistled
and kept the fish fresh, yet the fisherman hurries on as though a
mild south wind were blowing. And when the lakes were near at hand,
where, though in ruins, Alba[191] still preserves the Trojan fire, and
her Lesser Vesta,[192] the wondering crowd for a short space impeded
his entrance; as they made way for him, the folding-doors flew open
on ready-turning hinge. The senators, shut out themselves, watch the
dainty admitted. He stands in the royal presence. Then he of Picenum
begins, "Deign to accept what is too great for any private kitchen: let
this day be celebrated as the festival of your genius, haste to relieve
your stomach of its burden, and devour a turbot reserved to honor your
reign. [193] It insisted on being caught. " What could be more fulsome?
and yet the great man's crest rose. What flattery is there that it is
not prepared to believe, when power is praised as equal to the gods.
But there was no dish of sufficient size for the fish.