His
birthplace
was Suessa, now Sessa, capital of the Aurunci, in
Campania; hence Juvenal (Sat.
Campania; hence Juvenal (Sat.
Satires
, 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. 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.
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. 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.
