"Sent from Bithynia's realms with
shoeless
feet.
Satires
_
"Alcestis, lo! in love's calm courage flies
To yonder tomb where, else, Admetus dies,
While those that view the scene, a lapdog's breath
Would cheaply purchase by a husband's death. " Badham.
[327] _Insulsam. _
"But here the difference lies--those bungling wives
With a blunt axe hack'd out their husbands' lives. " Gifford.
[328] _Ter victi_, by Sylla, Lucullus, and Pompey. Cf. xiv. , 452, "Eme
quod Mithridates Composuit si vis aliam decerpere ficum Atque alias
tractare rosas. "
SATIRE VII.
All our hope and inducement to study[329] rests on Cæsar[330] alone.
For he alone casts a favoring eye[331] on the Muses, who in our days
are in a forlorn state. When poets, now become famous and men of
renown, would fain try and hire a little bath at Gabii, or a public
oven at Rome. While others, again, would esteem it neither shocking
nor degrading to turn public criers: since Clio herself, if starving,
would quit the vales of Aganippe, and emigrate to courts. [332] For if
not a single farthing is offered you in the Pierian shades, be content
with the name and calling of Machæra:[333] and sooner sell what the
auction duly set[334] sells to those that stand around; wine-flagons,
trivets, book-cases, chests; the "Alcyone" of Paccius, or the "Thebes"
and "Tereus" of Faustus. This is preferable to asserting before the
judge that you are a witness of what you never did see. [335] Even
though Asiatic,[336] and Cappadocian, and Bithynian knights stoop
to this: fellows whom Gallo-Græcia transports hither with chalked
feet. [337] Hereafter, however, no one will be compelled to submit
to an employment derogatory to his studies, who unites loftiness
of expression to tuneful numbers, and has chewed the bay. [338] Set
vigorously to work then, young men! The kindness[339] of the emperor is
looking all around, and stimulates your exertions, while he is seeking
worthy objects of his patronage. If you think that from any other
quarter you may look for encouragement in your pursuits, and with that
view fill the parchment of your yellow[340] tablet; call with all speed
for a fagot, and make a present of all your compositions, Telesinus, to
Venus' husband:[341] or lock them up, and let the bookworm[342] bore
them through as they lie stowed away. Destroy your pens, poor wretch!
Blot out your battles that have lost you your nights' rest, you that
write sublime poetry in your narrow garret,[343] that you may come
forth worthy of an ivy-crown and meagre image. You have nothing farther
to hope for. The stingy patron of our days has learned only to admire
and praise the eloquent as boys do Juno's peacock. [344] But your prime
of life is ebbing away; that is able to bear the fatigue of the sea,
the helmet, or the spade. Then weariness creeps over the spirits: and
an old age, that is indeed learned but in rags,[345] curses itself and
the Muses that it courted. Now learn the devices of the great man
you pay court to, to avoid laying out any money upon you: quitting
the temple of the Muses, and Apollo, he composes verses himself, and
only yields the palm to Homer himself on the score of his priority by
a thousand years. But if inflamed by the charms of fame you recite
your poetry, he kindly lends you a dirty mansion, and places at your
service one that has been long barred up, whose front gate emulates
those of a city in a state of siege. He knows how to place his freedmen
in seats at the farther end of the audience, and how to arrange his
clients who are to cheer you lustily. [346] None of these great lords
will give you as much as would pay for the benches,[347] or the seats
that rise one above another on the platform you have to hire; or your
orchestra of chairs, which must be returned when your recitation is
over. Yet still we ply our tasks, and draw furrows in the profitless
dust, and keep turning up the sea-shore with sterile plow. For even if
you try to abandon the pursuit, the long habit[348] of indulging in
this vain-glorious trifling,[349] holds you fast in its fetters. An
inveterate itch of writing, now incurable, clings to many, and grows
old in their distempered body. But the poet that is above his fellows,
whose vein is not that of the common herd; that is wont to spin out
no stale or vulgar subject, and stamps no hackneyed verse from a die
that all may use; such an one as I can not embody in words, and can
only feel in my soul, is the offspring of a mind free from solicitude,
exempt from all that can embitter life, that courts the quiet of the
woods, and loves to drink the fountains of the Aonides. Nor can it be
that poverty should sing in the Pierian cave, or handle the thyrsus,
if forced to sobriety, and lacking that vile pelf the body needs both
day and night. Well plied with food and wine is Horace when _he_ shouts
out his Evoe! [350] What scope is there for fancy, save when our breasts
are harassed by no thoughts but verse alone; and are hurried along[351]
under the influence of the lords of Cirrha and Nysa, admitting of no
divided[352] solicitude. It is the privilege of an exalted soul, and
not of one bewildered how to get enough to buy a blanket, to gaze on
chariots and horses and the forms of divinities, and in what dread
shapes Erinnys[353] appalls the Rutulian. For had Virgil lacked a slave
and comfortable lodging, all the serpents would have vanished from
Alecto's hair: his trumpet, starved to silence, would have blazed no
note of terror. Is it fair to expect that Rubrenus Lappa should not
fall short of the buskin of the ancients, while his Atreus[354] forces
him to pawn his very sauceboats and his cloak?
Poor Numitor is so unfortunate as to have nothing he can afford to send
his protégé! Yet he can find something to give Quintilla--he managed
to pay for a tame lion, that must have pounds of flesh to feed him. No
doubt the huge beast is kept at far less expense; and a poet's stomach
is far more capacious! Let Lucan recline at his ease in his gardens
among his marble statues, satisfied with fame alone. But to poor
Serranus, and starving Saleius, of what avail will glory be, however
great, if it be glory only? All flock in crowds to hear his sweet
voice, and the tuneful strains of the Thebais, when Statius[355] has
gladdened the city, and fixed the day for reciting it. So great is the
charm with which he captivates their souls; such the eager delight with
which he is listened to by the multitude. But when the very benches
are broken down by the ecstasies with which his verses are applauded,
he may starve, unless he sells[356] his unpublished "Agave"[357]
to Paris. It is he that bestows on many the honors due to military
service, and encircles the fingers of poets with the ring that marks
their six months' command. [358] What nobles will not give, a player
will! And dost thou, then, still pay court to the Camerini and Bareæ,
and the spacious halls of nobles? It is "Pelopea" that makes prefects,
"Philomela" tribunes. Yet envy not the bard whom the stage maintains.
Who is your Mæcenas now, or Proculeius, or Fabius? Who will act Cotta's
part again, or be a second Lentulus? In those days talent had its meet
reward: then it was profitable to many to become pale, and abstain from
wine[359] the whole of December.
Your toil, forsooth, ye writers of histories! is more profitable, it
requires more time and more oil. For regardless of all limit, it rises
to the thousandth page; and grows in bulk, expensive from the mass
of paper used. This the vast press of matter requires, and the laws
of composition. Yet what is the crop that springs from it? what the
profit from the soil upturned? Who will give an historian as much as
he would a notary? [360] "But they are an idle race, that delight in
sofas and the cool shade. " Well, tell me then, what do the services
rendered their fellow-citizens, and their briefs they carry about with
them in a big bundle, bring in to the lawyers? Even of themselves they
talk grandly enough, but especially when their creditor is one of
their hearers; or if one still more pressing nudges their side, that
comes with his great account-book to sue for a doubtful debt. Then the
hollow bellows of their lungs breathe forth amazing lies; they foam at
the mouth till their breast is covered. But if you like to calculate
the actual harvest they reap, set in one scale the estate of a hundred
lawyers, and you may balance it on the other side with the single
fortune of Lacerna, the charioteer of the Red. [361]
The chiefs have taken their seats! [362] You, like Ajax, rise with
pallid cheek, and plead in behalf of liberty that has been called in
question, before a neat-herd[363] for a juryman! Burst your strained
lungs, poor wretch! that, when exhausted, the green palm-branches[364]
may be affixed to crown your staircase with honor! Yet what is the
reward of your eloquence? A rusty ham, or a dish of sprats; or some
shriveled onions, the monthly provender of the Africans;[365] or wine
brought down the Tiber. Five bottles[366] for pleading four times!
If you have been lucky enough to get a single gold piece,[367] even
from that you must deduct the stipulated shares of the attorneys. [368]
Æmilius will get as much as the law allows;[369] although we pleaded
better than he. For he has in his court-yard a chariot of bronze with
four tall horses[370] yoked to it; and he himself, seated on his fierce
charger, brandishes aloft his bending spear, and meditates battles
with his one eye closed. So it is that Pedo gets involved, Matho
fails. This is the end of Tongillus, who usually bathes with a huge
rhinoceros' horn of oil, and annoys the baths with his draggled train;
and weighs heavily in his ponderous sedan on his sturdy Median slaves,
as he presses through the forum to bid for[371] slaves, and plate,
and myrrhine vases, and villas. For it is his foreign[372] purple with
its Tyrian tissue that gets him credit. And yet this answers their
purpose. It is the purple robe that gets the lawyer custom--his violet
cloaks that attract clients. It suits their interest to live with all
the bustle and outward show of an income greater then they really have.
But prodigal Rome observes no bounds to her extravagance. If the old
orators were to come to life again, no one now would give even Cicero
himself two hundred sesterces, unless a huge ring sparkled on his
finger. This is the first point he that goes to law looks to--whether
you have eight slaves, ten attendants, a sedan to follow you, and
friends in toga to go before. Paulus, consequently, used to plead in a
sardonyx, hired for the occasion: and hence it was that Cossus' fees
were higher than those of Basilus. Eloquence is a rare quality in a
threadbare coat!
When is Basilus allowed to produce in court a weeping mother? Who could
endure Basilus, however well he were to plead? Let Gaul become your
home, or better still that foster-nurse of pleaders, Africa, if you are
determined to let your tongue for hire.
Do you teach declamation? Oh what a heart of steel must Vectius have,
when his numerous class kills cruel tyrants! For all that the boy has
just conned over at his seat, he will then stand up and spout--the
same stale theme in the same sing-song. It is the reproduction of the
cabbage[373] that wears out the master's life. What is the plea to be
urged: what the character of the cause; where the main point of the
case hinges; what shafts may issue from the opposing party;--this all
are anxious to know; but not one is anxious to pay! "_Pay_ do you
ask for? why, what do I know? " The blame, forsooth, is laid at the
teacher's door, because there is not a spark of energy in the breast
of this scion of Arcadia,[374] who dins his awful Hannibal into my
ears regularly every sixth day. Whatever the theme be that is to be
the subject of his deliberation; whether he shall march at once from
Cannæ on Rome; or whether, rendered circumspect after the storms and
thunderbolts, he shall lead his cohorts, drenched with the tempest, by
a circuitous route. Bargain[375] for any sum you please, and I will at
once place it in your hands, on condition that his father should hear
him his lesson as often as I have to do it! But six or more sophists
are all giving tongue at once; and, debating in good earnest, have
abandoned all fictitious declamations about the ravisher. No more is
heard of the poison infused, or the vile ungrateful husband,[376] or
the drugs that can restore the aged blind to youth. He therefore that
quits the shadowy conflicts of rhetoric for the arena of real debate,
will superannuate himself, if my advice has any weight with him, and
enter on a different path of life; that he may not lose even the paltry
sum that will purchase the miserable ticket[377] for corn. Since
this is the most splendid reward you can expect. Just inquire what
Chrysogonus receives, or Pollio, for teaching the sons of these fine
gentlemen, and going into all the details[378] of Theodorus' treatise.
The baths will cost six hundred sestertia, and the colonnade still
more, in which the great man rides whenever it rains. Is he to wait,
forsooth, for fair weather? or bespatter his horses with fresh mud?
Nay, far better here! for here the mule's hoof shines unsullied. [379]
On the other side must rise a spacious dining-room, supported on
stately columns of Numidian marble, and catch the cool[380] sun.
However much the house may have cost, he will have besides an artiste
who can arrange his table scientifically; another, who can season
made-dishes. Yet amid all this lavish expenditure, two poor sestertia
will be deemed an ample remuneration for Quintilian. Nothing will cost
a father less than his son's education.
"Then where did Quintilian get the money to pay for so many estates? "
Pass by the instances of good fortune that are but rare indeed. It is
good _luck_ that makes a man handsome and active; good luck that makes
him wise, and noble, and well-bred, and attaches the crescent[381] of
the senator to his black shoe. Good luck too that makes him the best of
orators and debaters, and, though he has a vile cold, sing well! For
it makes all the difference what planets welcome you when you first
begin to utter your infant cry, and are still red from your mother. If
fortune so wills it, you will become consul instead of rhetorician; or,
if she will, instead of rhetorician, consul! What was Ventidius[382]
or Tullius aught else than a lucky planet, and the strange potency
of hidden fate? Fate, that gives kingdoms to slaves, and triumphs to
captives. Yes! Quintilian was indeed lucky, but he is a greater rarity
even than a white crow. But many a man has repented of this fruitless
and barren employment, as the sad end of Thrasymachus[383] proves, and
that of Secundus Carrinas. [384] And you, too, Athens, were witness to
the poverty of him on whom you had the heart to bestow nothing save the
hemlock that chilled[385] his life-blood!
Light be the earth, ye gods! [386] and void of weight, that presses
on our grandsires' shades, and round their urn bloom fragrant crocus
and eternal spring, who maintained that a tutor should hold the place
and honor of a revered parent. Achilles sang on his paternal hills,
in terror of the lash, though now grown up; and yet in whom even
then would not the tail of his master, the harper, provoke a smile?
But now Rufus[387] and others are beaten each by their own pupils;
Rufus! who so often called Cicero "the Allobrogian! " Who casts into
Enceladus'[388] lap, or that of the learned Palæmon,[389] as much as
their grammarian labors have merited! And yet even from the wretched
sum, however small (and it is smaller than the rhetorician's pay),
Acænonoëtus, his pupil's pedagogue, first takes his slice; and then the
steward who pays you deducts his fragment. Dispute it not, Palæmon!
and suffer some abatement to be made, just as the peddler does that
deals in winter rugs and snow-white sheetings. [390] Only let not all
be lost,[391] for which you have sat from the midnight hour, when no
smith would sit, nor even he that teaches how to draw out wool with
the oblique iron. Lose not your whole reward for having smelled as
many lamps as there were boys standing round you; while Horace was
altogether discolored, and the foul smut clave to the well-thumbed
Maro. Yet rare too is the pay that does not require enforcing by the
Tribune's court. [392]
But do you, parents, impose severe exactions on him that is to teach
your boys; that he be perfect in the rules of grammar for each
word--read all histories[393]--know all authors as well as his own
finger-ends; that if questioned at hazard, while on his way to the
Thermæ or the baths of Phœbus, he should be able to tell the name of
Anchises' nurse,[394] and the name and native land of the step-mother
of Anchemolus--tell off-hand how many years Acestes lived--how many
flagons of wine the Sicilian king gave to the Phrygians. Require of
him that he mould their youthful morals as one models a face in wax.
Require of him that he be the reverend father of the company, and check
every approach to immorality.
It is no light task to keep watch over so many boyish hands, so many
little twinkling eyes. "This," says the father, "be the object of your
care! "--and when the year comes round again, Receive for your pay as
much gold[395] as the people demand for the victorious Charioteer!
FOOTNOTES:
[329] _Ratio studiorum. _ Cf. Tac. , Ann. , xi. , 7, "Sublatis studiorum
pretiis etiam studia peritura. "
[330] _Cæsare. _ Which Cæsar is intended is a matter of discussion among
the commentators; whether Nero, Titus, Trajan, Hadrian, Nerva, or
Domitian. Probably the last is meant: as in the beginning of his reign
he affected the character of a patron of literature.
[331] _Respexit. _ "To view with favor or pity," as a deity: so Virg. ,
Ecl. , i. , 28, "Libertas, quæ sera tamen respexit inertem. "
[332] _Atria. _ Either "the antechambers of rich patrons," or to "the
Licinian and other courts," near the forum, where auctions were held;
the _atria auctionaria_ of Cicero: cf. pro Quint. , 12, 25, i. in Rull. ,
7.
[333] _Machæra_, a famous _Præco_ of his time. Lubin.
[334] _Commissa. _ Either from the goods being "intrusted" to the
auctioneer by the owner or the magistrate; or from the parties that
bid being as it were "pitted," _commissi_, against each other, like
gladiators.
[335] _Vidi. _ So xvi. , 29, "Audeat ille Nescio quis, pugnos qui vidit,
dicere vidi. "
[336] _Asiani. _ "Jam equites, olim servi Asiatici. " Lub. The next line
is in all probability interpolated, being only a gloss. Heinrich.
[337] _Nudo talo. _ Vid. ad i. , 111. Or, it may be "barefooted" simply.
Galatia in Asia Minor, so called from the colony of Gauls who settled
there, A. D. 278, at the invitation of Nicomedes. Liv. , xxxviii. , 16.
Cf. Paus. , Phoc. , xxiii. Cramer's Asia Minor, ii. , 79. Clinton, Fast.
Hell. in an.
"Sent from Bithynia's realms with shoeless feet. " Badham.
[338] _Laurumque momordit. _ So δαφνηφάγοι. The chewing of the bay, as
being sacred to Apollo, was supposed to convey divine inspiration.
Grang. Cf. Lycoph. , 6.
[339]
_Indulgentia. _ "Lo! the imperial eye
Looks round attentive on each rising bard,
For worth to praise, for genius to reward. " Gifford.
[340] _Croceæ. _ Because parchment is always yellow on the side where
the hair grew. Others think the parchment itself was dyed yellow. Cf.
Pers. , iii. , 10.
[341] _Veneris marito_, a burlesque phrase for "the fire. "
[342] _Tinea. _ Cf. Hor. , Ep. , I. , xx. , 12, "Tineas pasces taciturnus
inertes. "
[343] _Cellâ. _ So Ben Jonson:
"I that spend half my nights and half my days
Here in a cell, to get a dark pale face,
To come forth worth the ivy or the bays,
And in this age can hope no other grace. "
[344] _Junonis avem. _
"To praise and _only_ praise the high-wrought strain.
As boys the bird of Juno's glittering train. " Gifford.
[345] _Facunda et unda. _
"Till gray-haired, helpless, humbled genius see
Its fault too late, and curse Terpsichore. " Badham.
[346] _Comitum voces. _ Cf. xiii. , 32, "Vocalis sportula. "
[347] _Anabathra_, the seats rising one above another in the form of a
theatre. _Subsellia_, those in the body of the room. _Orchestra_, the
hired chairs in front of all, for his knightly guests. Holyday quaintly
says no patron cared
"What the orchestra cost raised for chief friends,
And chairs recarried when the reading ends. "
[348] _Laqueo. _
"And would we quit at length th' ambitious ill,
The noose of habit implicates us still. " Badham.
[349] _Vatem egregium. _ Cf. Hor. , i. , Sat. iv. , 43, "Ingenium cui
sit, cui mens divinior, atque os magna sonaturum, des nominis hujus
honorem. " How immeasurably finer of the two is Juvenal's description of
a poet!
"But he, the bard of every age and clime,
Of genius fruitful, and of soul sublime,
Who from the glowing mint of fancy pours
No spurious metal, fused from common ores,
But gold to matchless purity refined,
And stamp'd with all the godhead in his mind:
He whom I feel, but want the power to paint,
Must boast a soul impatient of restraint,
And free from every care--a soul that loves
The Muses' haunts, clear springs and shady groves. " Gifford.
Of this passage, Hodgson says, Gifford has drawn the prize in the
lottery of translation, all others must be blanks after it.
[350] _Evoe! _ Vid. Hor. , ii. , Od. xix. , 5. Cf. Milman's Life.
[351] _Feruntur. _
"Be hurried with resistless force along
By the two kindred powers of wine and song. " Gifford.
[352] _Duas. _
"Nor wrestlings with the world will Genius own,
Destined to strive with song, and song alone. " Badham.
[353] _Erinnys. _ The splendid passage in the seventh Æneid, 445,
_seq. _, "Talibus Alecto dictis exarsit in iras. At juveni oranti
subitus tremor occupat artus: Deriguere oculi: tot Erinnys sibilat
hydris, Tantaque se facies aperit. " Cf. Æn. , ii. , 602, _seq. _; xii. ,
326.
[354] _Atreus. _ Some take Atreus to be the person who lends the money.
Grangæus interprets it, "Qui dum componit tragædiam de Atreo, ut vitam
sustentare possit pignori opponit alveolos. "
"Who writes his Atreus, as his friends allege,
With half his household goods and cloak in pledge. " Badham.
[355] _Statius_ employed twelve years upon his Thebais. (Cf. xii. ,
811. ) It was not completed till _after_ the Dacian war, but was written
_before_ the 1st book of the Silvæ, the date of the 4th book of which
is known to be A. D. 95. We may therefore assume the date of the Thebais
to be about 94.
[356] _Vendat. _ Holyday quotes from Brodæus the price given to Terence
for his Eunuchus, viz. , eight sestertia, about sixty-five pounds.
[357] _Agave. _ Probably a pantomimic ballet on a tragic subject; for,
as Heinrich says, what had Paris, the mime, to do with a _new tragedy_?
These and the following lines are said to have been the cause of
Juvenal's banishment.
[358] _Semestri_ is said to refer to an honorary military commission,
conferred on favorites, even though not in the army, and called
"Semestris tribunatus militum. " It lasted for six months only, but
conferred the privilege of wearing the equestrian ring, with perhaps
others. It is alluded to in Pliny, iv. , Epist. 4, who begs of Sossius
the consul in behalf of a friend, "Hunc rogo semestri tribunatu
splendidiorem facias. " There are divers other interpretations, but
this appears the simplest and most probable. To confound it with the
"æstivum aurum" (i. , 28), is a palpable absurdity.
[359] _Vinum nescire. _ Cf. Hor. , ii. , Sat. iii. , 5, "At ipsis
Saturnalibus huc fugisti Sobrius. " Stat. , Sylv. , I. , vi. , 4, "Saturnus
mihi compede exsolutâ, et multo gravidus mero December. "
"Then all December's revelries refuse,
And give the festive moments to the Muse. " Gifford.
[360] _Acta legenti. _ Either the "notary public," or "keeper of the
public records," or the historian's reader, who collected facts for the
author, or "any one who read aloud the history itself. "
[361] _Russati. _ Cf. ad vi. , 589. So the charioteer of "the white" was
called Albatus. Lacerna, or Lacerta, was a charioteer in the reign of
Domitian, some say of Domitian himself. One commentator takes Lacerna
to be "any soldier wearing a red cloak;" as Paludatus is "one wearing
the general's cloak. " Cf. Mart. , xiii. , Ep. 78, "Prasinus Porphyrion. "
[362] _Consedere. _ Cf. Ov. , Met. , xiii. , 1, "Consedere duces; et, vulgi
stante corona, Surgit ad hos clypei dominus septemplicis Ajax. " Cf. ad
xi. , 30.
[363] _Bubulco. _" Before some clod-pate judge thy vitals strain. "
Badham.
[364] _Palmæ. _ Cf. ad ix. , 85.
"So shall the verdant palm be duly tied
To the dark staircase where such powers reside. " Badham.
[365] _Afrorum Epimenia. _ Most probably alluding to the "monthly
rations of onions" allowed to African slaves, who were accustomed to
plenty of them in their own country (cf. Herod. , ii. , 125. Numb. , xi. ,
5), where they grew in great abundance. Martial, ix. , Ep. xlvi. , 11,
enumerates "bulbi" among the presents sent at the Saturnalia to the
causidicus Sabellus.
[366] _Lagenæ. _ Mart. , _u. s. _ "Five jars of meagre down-the-Tiber
wine. " Badham.
[367] _Aureus. _ About sixteen shillings English at this time.
[368] _Pragmaticorum. _ Cicero describes their occupation, de Orat. , i. ,
45, "Ut apud Græcos infimi homines, mercedula adducti, ministros se
præbent judiciis oratoribus ii qui apud illos πραγματικοὶ vocantur. "
Cf. c. 59. Quintil. , iii. , 6; xii. , 3. Mart. , xii. , Ep. 72. They appear
afterward to have been introduced at Rome, and are sometimes called
"Tabelliones. "
[369] _Licet. _ The Lex Cincia de Muneribus, as amended by Augustus,
forbade the receipt of any fees. A law of Nero fixed the fee at 100
aurei at most. Vid. Tac. , Ann. , xi. , 5 (Ruperti's note).
"Alcestis, lo! in love's calm courage flies
To yonder tomb where, else, Admetus dies,
While those that view the scene, a lapdog's breath
Would cheaply purchase by a husband's death. " Badham.
[327] _Insulsam. _
"But here the difference lies--those bungling wives
With a blunt axe hack'd out their husbands' lives. " Gifford.
[328] _Ter victi_, by Sylla, Lucullus, and Pompey. Cf. xiv. , 452, "Eme
quod Mithridates Composuit si vis aliam decerpere ficum Atque alias
tractare rosas. "
SATIRE VII.
All our hope and inducement to study[329] rests on Cæsar[330] alone.
For he alone casts a favoring eye[331] on the Muses, who in our days
are in a forlorn state. When poets, now become famous and men of
renown, would fain try and hire a little bath at Gabii, or a public
oven at Rome. While others, again, would esteem it neither shocking
nor degrading to turn public criers: since Clio herself, if starving,
would quit the vales of Aganippe, and emigrate to courts. [332] For if
not a single farthing is offered you in the Pierian shades, be content
with the name and calling of Machæra:[333] and sooner sell what the
auction duly set[334] sells to those that stand around; wine-flagons,
trivets, book-cases, chests; the "Alcyone" of Paccius, or the "Thebes"
and "Tereus" of Faustus. This is preferable to asserting before the
judge that you are a witness of what you never did see. [335] Even
though Asiatic,[336] and Cappadocian, and Bithynian knights stoop
to this: fellows whom Gallo-Græcia transports hither with chalked
feet. [337] Hereafter, however, no one will be compelled to submit
to an employment derogatory to his studies, who unites loftiness
of expression to tuneful numbers, and has chewed the bay. [338] Set
vigorously to work then, young men! The kindness[339] of the emperor is
looking all around, and stimulates your exertions, while he is seeking
worthy objects of his patronage. If you think that from any other
quarter you may look for encouragement in your pursuits, and with that
view fill the parchment of your yellow[340] tablet; call with all speed
for a fagot, and make a present of all your compositions, Telesinus, to
Venus' husband:[341] or lock them up, and let the bookworm[342] bore
them through as they lie stowed away. Destroy your pens, poor wretch!
Blot out your battles that have lost you your nights' rest, you that
write sublime poetry in your narrow garret,[343] that you may come
forth worthy of an ivy-crown and meagre image. You have nothing farther
to hope for. The stingy patron of our days has learned only to admire
and praise the eloquent as boys do Juno's peacock. [344] But your prime
of life is ebbing away; that is able to bear the fatigue of the sea,
the helmet, or the spade. Then weariness creeps over the spirits: and
an old age, that is indeed learned but in rags,[345] curses itself and
the Muses that it courted. Now learn the devices of the great man
you pay court to, to avoid laying out any money upon you: quitting
the temple of the Muses, and Apollo, he composes verses himself, and
only yields the palm to Homer himself on the score of his priority by
a thousand years. But if inflamed by the charms of fame you recite
your poetry, he kindly lends you a dirty mansion, and places at your
service one that has been long barred up, whose front gate emulates
those of a city in a state of siege. He knows how to place his freedmen
in seats at the farther end of the audience, and how to arrange his
clients who are to cheer you lustily. [346] None of these great lords
will give you as much as would pay for the benches,[347] or the seats
that rise one above another on the platform you have to hire; or your
orchestra of chairs, which must be returned when your recitation is
over. Yet still we ply our tasks, and draw furrows in the profitless
dust, and keep turning up the sea-shore with sterile plow. For even if
you try to abandon the pursuit, the long habit[348] of indulging in
this vain-glorious trifling,[349] holds you fast in its fetters. An
inveterate itch of writing, now incurable, clings to many, and grows
old in their distempered body. But the poet that is above his fellows,
whose vein is not that of the common herd; that is wont to spin out
no stale or vulgar subject, and stamps no hackneyed verse from a die
that all may use; such an one as I can not embody in words, and can
only feel in my soul, is the offspring of a mind free from solicitude,
exempt from all that can embitter life, that courts the quiet of the
woods, and loves to drink the fountains of the Aonides. Nor can it be
that poverty should sing in the Pierian cave, or handle the thyrsus,
if forced to sobriety, and lacking that vile pelf the body needs both
day and night. Well plied with food and wine is Horace when _he_ shouts
out his Evoe! [350] What scope is there for fancy, save when our breasts
are harassed by no thoughts but verse alone; and are hurried along[351]
under the influence of the lords of Cirrha and Nysa, admitting of no
divided[352] solicitude. It is the privilege of an exalted soul, and
not of one bewildered how to get enough to buy a blanket, to gaze on
chariots and horses and the forms of divinities, and in what dread
shapes Erinnys[353] appalls the Rutulian. For had Virgil lacked a slave
and comfortable lodging, all the serpents would have vanished from
Alecto's hair: his trumpet, starved to silence, would have blazed no
note of terror. Is it fair to expect that Rubrenus Lappa should not
fall short of the buskin of the ancients, while his Atreus[354] forces
him to pawn his very sauceboats and his cloak?
Poor Numitor is so unfortunate as to have nothing he can afford to send
his protégé! Yet he can find something to give Quintilla--he managed
to pay for a tame lion, that must have pounds of flesh to feed him. No
doubt the huge beast is kept at far less expense; and a poet's stomach
is far more capacious! Let Lucan recline at his ease in his gardens
among his marble statues, satisfied with fame alone. But to poor
Serranus, and starving Saleius, of what avail will glory be, however
great, if it be glory only? All flock in crowds to hear his sweet
voice, and the tuneful strains of the Thebais, when Statius[355] has
gladdened the city, and fixed the day for reciting it. So great is the
charm with which he captivates their souls; such the eager delight with
which he is listened to by the multitude. But when the very benches
are broken down by the ecstasies with which his verses are applauded,
he may starve, unless he sells[356] his unpublished "Agave"[357]
to Paris. It is he that bestows on many the honors due to military
service, and encircles the fingers of poets with the ring that marks
their six months' command. [358] What nobles will not give, a player
will! And dost thou, then, still pay court to the Camerini and Bareæ,
and the spacious halls of nobles? It is "Pelopea" that makes prefects,
"Philomela" tribunes. Yet envy not the bard whom the stage maintains.
Who is your Mæcenas now, or Proculeius, or Fabius? Who will act Cotta's
part again, or be a second Lentulus? In those days talent had its meet
reward: then it was profitable to many to become pale, and abstain from
wine[359] the whole of December.
Your toil, forsooth, ye writers of histories! is more profitable, it
requires more time and more oil. For regardless of all limit, it rises
to the thousandth page; and grows in bulk, expensive from the mass
of paper used. This the vast press of matter requires, and the laws
of composition. Yet what is the crop that springs from it? what the
profit from the soil upturned? Who will give an historian as much as
he would a notary? [360] "But they are an idle race, that delight in
sofas and the cool shade. " Well, tell me then, what do the services
rendered their fellow-citizens, and their briefs they carry about with
them in a big bundle, bring in to the lawyers? Even of themselves they
talk grandly enough, but especially when their creditor is one of
their hearers; or if one still more pressing nudges their side, that
comes with his great account-book to sue for a doubtful debt. Then the
hollow bellows of their lungs breathe forth amazing lies; they foam at
the mouth till their breast is covered. But if you like to calculate
the actual harvest they reap, set in one scale the estate of a hundred
lawyers, and you may balance it on the other side with the single
fortune of Lacerna, the charioteer of the Red. [361]
The chiefs have taken their seats! [362] You, like Ajax, rise with
pallid cheek, and plead in behalf of liberty that has been called in
question, before a neat-herd[363] for a juryman! Burst your strained
lungs, poor wretch! that, when exhausted, the green palm-branches[364]
may be affixed to crown your staircase with honor! Yet what is the
reward of your eloquence? A rusty ham, or a dish of sprats; or some
shriveled onions, the monthly provender of the Africans;[365] or wine
brought down the Tiber. Five bottles[366] for pleading four times!
If you have been lucky enough to get a single gold piece,[367] even
from that you must deduct the stipulated shares of the attorneys. [368]
Æmilius will get as much as the law allows;[369] although we pleaded
better than he. For he has in his court-yard a chariot of bronze with
four tall horses[370] yoked to it; and he himself, seated on his fierce
charger, brandishes aloft his bending spear, and meditates battles
with his one eye closed. So it is that Pedo gets involved, Matho
fails. This is the end of Tongillus, who usually bathes with a huge
rhinoceros' horn of oil, and annoys the baths with his draggled train;
and weighs heavily in his ponderous sedan on his sturdy Median slaves,
as he presses through the forum to bid for[371] slaves, and plate,
and myrrhine vases, and villas. For it is his foreign[372] purple with
its Tyrian tissue that gets him credit. And yet this answers their
purpose. It is the purple robe that gets the lawyer custom--his violet
cloaks that attract clients. It suits their interest to live with all
the bustle and outward show of an income greater then they really have.
But prodigal Rome observes no bounds to her extravagance. If the old
orators were to come to life again, no one now would give even Cicero
himself two hundred sesterces, unless a huge ring sparkled on his
finger. This is the first point he that goes to law looks to--whether
you have eight slaves, ten attendants, a sedan to follow you, and
friends in toga to go before. Paulus, consequently, used to plead in a
sardonyx, hired for the occasion: and hence it was that Cossus' fees
were higher than those of Basilus. Eloquence is a rare quality in a
threadbare coat!
When is Basilus allowed to produce in court a weeping mother? Who could
endure Basilus, however well he were to plead? Let Gaul become your
home, or better still that foster-nurse of pleaders, Africa, if you are
determined to let your tongue for hire.
Do you teach declamation? Oh what a heart of steel must Vectius have,
when his numerous class kills cruel tyrants! For all that the boy has
just conned over at his seat, he will then stand up and spout--the
same stale theme in the same sing-song. It is the reproduction of the
cabbage[373] that wears out the master's life. What is the plea to be
urged: what the character of the cause; where the main point of the
case hinges; what shafts may issue from the opposing party;--this all
are anxious to know; but not one is anxious to pay! "_Pay_ do you
ask for? why, what do I know? " The blame, forsooth, is laid at the
teacher's door, because there is not a spark of energy in the breast
of this scion of Arcadia,[374] who dins his awful Hannibal into my
ears regularly every sixth day. Whatever the theme be that is to be
the subject of his deliberation; whether he shall march at once from
Cannæ on Rome; or whether, rendered circumspect after the storms and
thunderbolts, he shall lead his cohorts, drenched with the tempest, by
a circuitous route. Bargain[375] for any sum you please, and I will at
once place it in your hands, on condition that his father should hear
him his lesson as often as I have to do it! But six or more sophists
are all giving tongue at once; and, debating in good earnest, have
abandoned all fictitious declamations about the ravisher. No more is
heard of the poison infused, or the vile ungrateful husband,[376] or
the drugs that can restore the aged blind to youth. He therefore that
quits the shadowy conflicts of rhetoric for the arena of real debate,
will superannuate himself, if my advice has any weight with him, and
enter on a different path of life; that he may not lose even the paltry
sum that will purchase the miserable ticket[377] for corn. Since
this is the most splendid reward you can expect. Just inquire what
Chrysogonus receives, or Pollio, for teaching the sons of these fine
gentlemen, and going into all the details[378] of Theodorus' treatise.
The baths will cost six hundred sestertia, and the colonnade still
more, in which the great man rides whenever it rains. Is he to wait,
forsooth, for fair weather? or bespatter his horses with fresh mud?
Nay, far better here! for here the mule's hoof shines unsullied. [379]
On the other side must rise a spacious dining-room, supported on
stately columns of Numidian marble, and catch the cool[380] sun.
However much the house may have cost, he will have besides an artiste
who can arrange his table scientifically; another, who can season
made-dishes. Yet amid all this lavish expenditure, two poor sestertia
will be deemed an ample remuneration for Quintilian. Nothing will cost
a father less than his son's education.
"Then where did Quintilian get the money to pay for so many estates? "
Pass by the instances of good fortune that are but rare indeed. It is
good _luck_ that makes a man handsome and active; good luck that makes
him wise, and noble, and well-bred, and attaches the crescent[381] of
the senator to his black shoe. Good luck too that makes him the best of
orators and debaters, and, though he has a vile cold, sing well! For
it makes all the difference what planets welcome you when you first
begin to utter your infant cry, and are still red from your mother. If
fortune so wills it, you will become consul instead of rhetorician; or,
if she will, instead of rhetorician, consul! What was Ventidius[382]
or Tullius aught else than a lucky planet, and the strange potency
of hidden fate? Fate, that gives kingdoms to slaves, and triumphs to
captives. Yes! Quintilian was indeed lucky, but he is a greater rarity
even than a white crow. But many a man has repented of this fruitless
and barren employment, as the sad end of Thrasymachus[383] proves, and
that of Secundus Carrinas. [384] And you, too, Athens, were witness to
the poverty of him on whom you had the heart to bestow nothing save the
hemlock that chilled[385] his life-blood!
Light be the earth, ye gods! [386] and void of weight, that presses
on our grandsires' shades, and round their urn bloom fragrant crocus
and eternal spring, who maintained that a tutor should hold the place
and honor of a revered parent. Achilles sang on his paternal hills,
in terror of the lash, though now grown up; and yet in whom even
then would not the tail of his master, the harper, provoke a smile?
But now Rufus[387] and others are beaten each by their own pupils;
Rufus! who so often called Cicero "the Allobrogian! " Who casts into
Enceladus'[388] lap, or that of the learned Palæmon,[389] as much as
their grammarian labors have merited! And yet even from the wretched
sum, however small (and it is smaller than the rhetorician's pay),
Acænonoëtus, his pupil's pedagogue, first takes his slice; and then the
steward who pays you deducts his fragment. Dispute it not, Palæmon!
and suffer some abatement to be made, just as the peddler does that
deals in winter rugs and snow-white sheetings. [390] Only let not all
be lost,[391] for which you have sat from the midnight hour, when no
smith would sit, nor even he that teaches how to draw out wool with
the oblique iron. Lose not your whole reward for having smelled as
many lamps as there were boys standing round you; while Horace was
altogether discolored, and the foul smut clave to the well-thumbed
Maro. Yet rare too is the pay that does not require enforcing by the
Tribune's court. [392]
But do you, parents, impose severe exactions on him that is to teach
your boys; that he be perfect in the rules of grammar for each
word--read all histories[393]--know all authors as well as his own
finger-ends; that if questioned at hazard, while on his way to the
Thermæ or the baths of Phœbus, he should be able to tell the name of
Anchises' nurse,[394] and the name and native land of the step-mother
of Anchemolus--tell off-hand how many years Acestes lived--how many
flagons of wine the Sicilian king gave to the Phrygians. Require of
him that he mould their youthful morals as one models a face in wax.
Require of him that he be the reverend father of the company, and check
every approach to immorality.
It is no light task to keep watch over so many boyish hands, so many
little twinkling eyes. "This," says the father, "be the object of your
care! "--and when the year comes round again, Receive for your pay as
much gold[395] as the people demand for the victorious Charioteer!
FOOTNOTES:
[329] _Ratio studiorum. _ Cf. Tac. , Ann. , xi. , 7, "Sublatis studiorum
pretiis etiam studia peritura. "
[330] _Cæsare. _ Which Cæsar is intended is a matter of discussion among
the commentators; whether Nero, Titus, Trajan, Hadrian, Nerva, or
Domitian. Probably the last is meant: as in the beginning of his reign
he affected the character of a patron of literature.
[331] _Respexit. _ "To view with favor or pity," as a deity: so Virg. ,
Ecl. , i. , 28, "Libertas, quæ sera tamen respexit inertem. "
[332] _Atria. _ Either "the antechambers of rich patrons," or to "the
Licinian and other courts," near the forum, where auctions were held;
the _atria auctionaria_ of Cicero: cf. pro Quint. , 12, 25, i. in Rull. ,
7.
[333] _Machæra_, a famous _Præco_ of his time. Lubin.
[334] _Commissa. _ Either from the goods being "intrusted" to the
auctioneer by the owner or the magistrate; or from the parties that
bid being as it were "pitted," _commissi_, against each other, like
gladiators.
[335] _Vidi. _ So xvi. , 29, "Audeat ille Nescio quis, pugnos qui vidit,
dicere vidi. "
[336] _Asiani. _ "Jam equites, olim servi Asiatici. " Lub. The next line
is in all probability interpolated, being only a gloss. Heinrich.
[337] _Nudo talo. _ Vid. ad i. , 111. Or, it may be "barefooted" simply.
Galatia in Asia Minor, so called from the colony of Gauls who settled
there, A. D. 278, at the invitation of Nicomedes. Liv. , xxxviii. , 16.
Cf. Paus. , Phoc. , xxiii. Cramer's Asia Minor, ii. , 79. Clinton, Fast.
Hell. in an.
"Sent from Bithynia's realms with shoeless feet. " Badham.
[338] _Laurumque momordit. _ So δαφνηφάγοι. The chewing of the bay, as
being sacred to Apollo, was supposed to convey divine inspiration.
Grang. Cf. Lycoph. , 6.
[339]
_Indulgentia. _ "Lo! the imperial eye
Looks round attentive on each rising bard,
For worth to praise, for genius to reward. " Gifford.
[340] _Croceæ. _ Because parchment is always yellow on the side where
the hair grew. Others think the parchment itself was dyed yellow. Cf.
Pers. , iii. , 10.
[341] _Veneris marito_, a burlesque phrase for "the fire. "
[342] _Tinea. _ Cf. Hor. , Ep. , I. , xx. , 12, "Tineas pasces taciturnus
inertes. "
[343] _Cellâ. _ So Ben Jonson:
"I that spend half my nights and half my days
Here in a cell, to get a dark pale face,
To come forth worth the ivy or the bays,
And in this age can hope no other grace. "
[344] _Junonis avem. _
"To praise and _only_ praise the high-wrought strain.
As boys the bird of Juno's glittering train. " Gifford.
[345] _Facunda et unda. _
"Till gray-haired, helpless, humbled genius see
Its fault too late, and curse Terpsichore. " Badham.
[346] _Comitum voces. _ Cf. xiii. , 32, "Vocalis sportula. "
[347] _Anabathra_, the seats rising one above another in the form of a
theatre. _Subsellia_, those in the body of the room. _Orchestra_, the
hired chairs in front of all, for his knightly guests. Holyday quaintly
says no patron cared
"What the orchestra cost raised for chief friends,
And chairs recarried when the reading ends. "
[348] _Laqueo. _
"And would we quit at length th' ambitious ill,
The noose of habit implicates us still. " Badham.
[349] _Vatem egregium. _ Cf. Hor. , i. , Sat. iv. , 43, "Ingenium cui
sit, cui mens divinior, atque os magna sonaturum, des nominis hujus
honorem. " How immeasurably finer of the two is Juvenal's description of
a poet!
"But he, the bard of every age and clime,
Of genius fruitful, and of soul sublime,
Who from the glowing mint of fancy pours
No spurious metal, fused from common ores,
But gold to matchless purity refined,
And stamp'd with all the godhead in his mind:
He whom I feel, but want the power to paint,
Must boast a soul impatient of restraint,
And free from every care--a soul that loves
The Muses' haunts, clear springs and shady groves. " Gifford.
Of this passage, Hodgson says, Gifford has drawn the prize in the
lottery of translation, all others must be blanks after it.
[350] _Evoe! _ Vid. Hor. , ii. , Od. xix. , 5. Cf. Milman's Life.
[351] _Feruntur. _
"Be hurried with resistless force along
By the two kindred powers of wine and song. " Gifford.
[352] _Duas. _
"Nor wrestlings with the world will Genius own,
Destined to strive with song, and song alone. " Badham.
[353] _Erinnys. _ The splendid passage in the seventh Æneid, 445,
_seq. _, "Talibus Alecto dictis exarsit in iras. At juveni oranti
subitus tremor occupat artus: Deriguere oculi: tot Erinnys sibilat
hydris, Tantaque se facies aperit. " Cf. Æn. , ii. , 602, _seq. _; xii. ,
326.
[354] _Atreus. _ Some take Atreus to be the person who lends the money.
Grangæus interprets it, "Qui dum componit tragædiam de Atreo, ut vitam
sustentare possit pignori opponit alveolos. "
"Who writes his Atreus, as his friends allege,
With half his household goods and cloak in pledge. " Badham.
[355] _Statius_ employed twelve years upon his Thebais. (Cf. xii. ,
811. ) It was not completed till _after_ the Dacian war, but was written
_before_ the 1st book of the Silvæ, the date of the 4th book of which
is known to be A. D. 95. We may therefore assume the date of the Thebais
to be about 94.
[356] _Vendat. _ Holyday quotes from Brodæus the price given to Terence
for his Eunuchus, viz. , eight sestertia, about sixty-five pounds.
[357] _Agave. _ Probably a pantomimic ballet on a tragic subject; for,
as Heinrich says, what had Paris, the mime, to do with a _new tragedy_?
These and the following lines are said to have been the cause of
Juvenal's banishment.
[358] _Semestri_ is said to refer to an honorary military commission,
conferred on favorites, even though not in the army, and called
"Semestris tribunatus militum. " It lasted for six months only, but
conferred the privilege of wearing the equestrian ring, with perhaps
others. It is alluded to in Pliny, iv. , Epist. 4, who begs of Sossius
the consul in behalf of a friend, "Hunc rogo semestri tribunatu
splendidiorem facias. " There are divers other interpretations, but
this appears the simplest and most probable. To confound it with the
"æstivum aurum" (i. , 28), is a palpable absurdity.
[359] _Vinum nescire. _ Cf. Hor. , ii. , Sat. iii. , 5, "At ipsis
Saturnalibus huc fugisti Sobrius. " Stat. , Sylv. , I. , vi. , 4, "Saturnus
mihi compede exsolutâ, et multo gravidus mero December. "
"Then all December's revelries refuse,
And give the festive moments to the Muse. " Gifford.
[360] _Acta legenti. _ Either the "notary public," or "keeper of the
public records," or the historian's reader, who collected facts for the
author, or "any one who read aloud the history itself. "
[361] _Russati. _ Cf. ad vi. , 589. So the charioteer of "the white" was
called Albatus. Lacerna, or Lacerta, was a charioteer in the reign of
Domitian, some say of Domitian himself. One commentator takes Lacerna
to be "any soldier wearing a red cloak;" as Paludatus is "one wearing
the general's cloak. " Cf. Mart. , xiii. , Ep. 78, "Prasinus Porphyrion. "
[362] _Consedere. _ Cf. Ov. , Met. , xiii. , 1, "Consedere duces; et, vulgi
stante corona, Surgit ad hos clypei dominus septemplicis Ajax. " Cf. ad
xi. , 30.
[363] _Bubulco. _" Before some clod-pate judge thy vitals strain. "
Badham.
[364] _Palmæ. _ Cf. ad ix. , 85.
"So shall the verdant palm be duly tied
To the dark staircase where such powers reside. " Badham.
[365] _Afrorum Epimenia. _ Most probably alluding to the "monthly
rations of onions" allowed to African slaves, who were accustomed to
plenty of them in their own country (cf. Herod. , ii. , 125. Numb. , xi. ,
5), where they grew in great abundance. Martial, ix. , Ep. xlvi. , 11,
enumerates "bulbi" among the presents sent at the Saturnalia to the
causidicus Sabellus.
[366] _Lagenæ. _ Mart. , _u. s. _ "Five jars of meagre down-the-Tiber
wine. " Badham.
[367] _Aureus. _ About sixteen shillings English at this time.
[368] _Pragmaticorum. _ Cicero describes their occupation, de Orat. , i. ,
45, "Ut apud Græcos infimi homines, mercedula adducti, ministros se
præbent judiciis oratoribus ii qui apud illos πραγματικοὶ vocantur. "
Cf. c. 59. Quintil. , iii. , 6; xii. , 3. Mart. , xii. , Ep. 72. They appear
afterward to have been introduced at Rome, and are sometimes called
"Tabelliones. "
[369] _Licet. _ The Lex Cincia de Muneribus, as amended by Augustus,
forbade the receipt of any fees. A law of Nero fixed the fee at 100
aurei at most. Vid. Tac. , Ann. , xi. , 5 (Ruperti's note).
