"So Peleus sigh'd to join his hero lost--
Laertes his on boundless billows toss'd.
Laertes his on boundless billows toss'd.
Satires
, 14.
[622] _Gyaris. _ Cf. i. , 73; vi. , 563.
[623] _Figulis. _ Cf. Herod. , i. , 78. Ov. , Met. , iv. , 27, "Ubi dicitur
altam Coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem. "
[624] _Sarcophago. _ A stone was found at Assos, near Troy, which was
said to possess the property of consuming the flesh of bodies inclosed
in it within the space of forty days, hence called σαρκοφάγος. Plin. ,
ii. , 96; xxxvi. , 17. Cf. Henry's speech to Hotspur's body:
"Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound:
But now, two paces of the vilest earth
Is room enough. "
So Hall:
"Fond fool! six feet shall serve for all thy store,
And he that cares for most shall find no more. "
And Shirley:
"How little room do we take up in death,
That, living, knew no bounds! "
And Webster's Duchess of Malfy:
"Much you had of land and rent;
Your length in clays's now competent. "
So K. Henry VI. :
"And of all my lands
Is nothing left me but my body's length. "
And Dryden's Antony:
"The place thou pressest on thy mother Earth
Is all thy empire now. "
Cf. Æsch. , S. Theb. , 731. Soph. , Œd. Col. , 789. Shakspeare's Richard
II. , Act iii. , sc. 2.
[625] _Epota. _ Herodotus mentions the Scamander, Onochnous, Apidanus,
and Echedorus.
"Rivers, whose depth no sharp beholder sees,
Drunk at an army's dinner to the lees! " Dryden.
[626] _Sostratus. _ Of this poet nothing is known. --_Madidis_, probably
in the same sense as in Sat. xv. , 47, "Facilis victoria de madidis. "
Sil. , xii. , 18, "Madefacta mero. "
[627] _Ennosigæum. _ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐνόθειν τὴν γαῖαν. Cf. Hom. , Il. , vii. ,
455. _Æolis_ is an allusion to Virgil, Æn. , i. , 51, "Vinclis ac carcere
frænat," etc.
[628] _Stigmate. _ Herod. , vii. , 35.
"That shackles o'er th' earth-shaking Neptune threw,
And thought it lenient not to brand him too. " Gifford.
[629] _Servire Deorum. _ As Apollo served Admetus; Neptune, Laomedon,
etc.
"Ye gods! obeyed ye such a fool as this? " Hodgson.
[630] _Tardâ. _ Perhaps alluding to Her. , viii. , 118.
"A single skiff to speed his flight remains,
Th' encumbered oar scarce leaves the dreaded coast
Through purple billows and a floating host! " Johnson.
[631] _Tabraca_, on the coast of Tunis, now Tabarca.
[632] _Simia. _ So Ennius, in Cic. , Nat. De. , i. , 35, "Simia, quam
similis turpissima bestia nobis! "
"A stick-fallen cheek! that hangs below the jaw,
Such wrinkles as a skillful hand would draw
For an old grandam ape, when, with a grace,
She sits at squat, and scrubs her leathern face. " Dryden.
[633] _Cum voce trementia membra. _ Compare Hamlet's speech to Polonius,
and As you like it, Act ii. , 7:
"His big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in its sound. "
"The self-same palsy both in limbs and tongue. " Dryden.
[634] _Palato. _ Compare Barzillai's speech to David, 2 Sam. , xix. , 35,
"I am this day fourscore years old; and can I discern between good or
evil? can thy servant taste what I eat and what I drink? can I hear any
more the voice of singing men and singing women? "
[635] _Vini. _
"Now pall the tasteless meats, and joyless wines,
And Luxury with sighs her slave resigns. " Johnson.
[636] _Viribus. _ Shakspeare, King Henry IV. , Part ii. , Act ii. ,
sc. 4, "Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive
performance? "
[637] _Auratâ. _ Cic. ad Heren. , iv. , 47, "Uti citharædus cum prodierit
optimè vestitus, pallâ _inauratâ_ indutus, cum chlamyde purpureâ
coloribus variis intextâ, cum coronâ aureâ, magnis _fulgentibus_
gemmis illuminatâ. " Horace, A. P. , 215, "Luxuriem addidi arti Tibicen,
traxitque vagus per pulpita vestem. "
[638] _Nuntiet horas. _ Slaves were employed to watch the dials in the
houses of those who had them, and report the hour: those who had no
dial sent to the Forum. Cf. Mart. , viii. , 67. Suet. , Domit. , xvi. ,
"Sexta nuntiata est. "
[639] _Gelido. _ Virg. , Æn. , v. , 395, "Sed enim _gelidus_ tardante
senectâ _Sanguis_ hebet, _frigentque_ effœtæ in corpora vires. "
[640] _Themison_ of Laodicea in Syria, pupil of Asclepiades, was an
eminent physician of the time of Pompey the Great, and is said to have
been the founder of the "Methodic" school, as opposed to the "Empiric. "
Vid. Cels. , Præf. Plin. , N. H. , xxix. , 15. Others say he lived in
Augustus' time, and Hodgson thinks he may have lived even to Juvenal's
days. Cicero (de Orat. , i. , 14) mentions an Asclepiades; and the names
of at least _three_ others are mentioned in later times.
[641] _Quo tondente. _ Cf. i. , 35.
[642] _Hiat. _ Cf. Lucian, Tim. , ἐμὲ περιμένουσι κεχηνότες ὥσπερ τὴν
χελιδόνα προσπετομένην τετριγότες οἰ νεοσσοί. P. 72, E. , ed. Bened.
[643] _Jejuna_, from Hom. , Il. , ix. , 323, ὡς δ' ὄρνις ἀπτῆσι νεοσσοῖσι
προφέρῃσι μάστακ', ἐπεί κε λάβῃσι, κακῶς δέ τέ οἱ πέλει αὐτῇ.
[644] _Phialen. _
"Forgets the children he begot and bred,
And makes a strumpet heiress in their stead. " Gifford.
[645] _Nigrâ. _ "And liveries of black for length of years. " Dryden.
[646] _Pylius. _ Hom. , Il. , i. , 250, μετὰ δὲ τριτάτοισιν ἄνασσεν. So
Odyss. , iii. , 245, τρὶς γὰρ δή μίν φασιν ἀνάξασθαι γένε' ἀνδρῶν.
[647] _Cornice. _
"Next to the raven's age, the Pylian king
Was longest-lived of any two-legged thing. " Dryden.
[648] _Dextra. _ This the Greeks express by ἀναπεμπάζεσθαι. They counted
on the left hand as far as a hundred, then on the right up to two
hundred, and then again on the left for the third hundred. Holyday has
a most elaborate explanation of the method.
[649] _Antilochi. _ Cf. Hor. , II. , Od. ix. , 14.
[650] _Natantem. _ Cf. Hom. , Od. , v. , 388, 399.
"So Peleus sigh'd to join his hero lost--
Laertes his on boundless billows toss'd. " Hodgson.
[651] _Polyxena_, from Eurip. , Hec. , 556, λαβοῦσα πέπλους ἐξ ἄκρας
ἐπωμίδος ἔῤῥηξε.
[652] _Miles tremulus. _ Virg. , Æn. , ii. , 509, "Arma diu senior desueta
trementibus ævo circumdat," etc.
"A soldier half, and half a sacrifice. " Dryden.
[653] _Bos. _ Virg. , Æn. , v. , 481, "Sternitur, exanimisque tremens
procumbit humi bos. "
[654] _Fastiditus. _
"Disdain'd its labors, and forgotten now
All its old service at the thankless plow. " Hodgson.
[655] _Canino. _ See the close of Eurip. , Hecuba. The Greeks fabled that
Hecuba was metamorphosed into a bitch, from her constant railing at
them. Hence κυνὸς σῆμα. Cf. Plaut. , Menœchm. , v. i.
[656] _Crœsus. _ Cf. Herod. , i. , 32.
[657] _Spatia_, a metaphor from the "course. " So Virgil has metæ ævi,
metæ mortis.
[658] _Minturnarum_, a town of the Aurunci near the mouth of the Liris,
now Garigliano. In the marshes in the neighborhood Marius concealed
himself from the cavalry of Sylla.
[659] _Animam. _
"Had he exhaled amid the pomp of war,
A warrior's soul in that Teutonic car. " Badham.
[660] _Teutonico_, i. e. , after his triumph over the Cimbri and
Teutones. Cf. viii. , 251.
[661] _Campania. _ Cf. Cic. , Tus. Qu. , i. , 35, "Pompeius noster
familiaris, cum graviter ægrotaret Neapoli, utrum si tum esset
extinctus, à bonis rebus, an à malis discessisset? certè a miseriis,
si mortem tum obiisset, in amplissimis fortunis occidisset. " Achillas
and L. Septimius murdered Pompey and cut off his head; which ἐφύλασσον
Καίσαρι, ὡς ἐπὶ μεγίσταις ἀμοιβαῖς. Appian, B. C. , ii. , 86
[662] _P. Corn. Lentulus Sura_, was strangled in prison with Cethegus.
Catiline fell in battle, near Pistoria in Etruria.
[663] _Murmure. _ Venus was worshiped under the name of ἀφροδίτη
Ψίθυρος, because all prayers were to be offered in whispers.
[664] _Delicias. _ This is Heinrich's view. Grangæus explains it,
"Ut pro ipsis vota deliciarum plena concipiat. " Britannicus, "quasi
diceret, optat ut tam formosa sit, ut eam juvenes in suos amplexus
optent. "
[665] _Latona. _ Hom. , Od. vi. , 106, γέγηθε δέ τε φρένα Λήτω. Virg. ,
Æn. , i. , 502, Latonæ tacitum pertentant gaudia pectus.
[666] _Lucretia. _
"Yet Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring,
And Sedley cursed the form that pleased a king! " Johnson.
[667] _Concordia. _ Ov. , Heroid, xvi. , 288, "Lis est cum _forma_ magna
_pudicitiæ_. "
"Chaste--is no epithet to suit with fair. " Dryden.
[668] _Tradiderit. _
"Though through the rugged house, from sire to son,
A Sabine sanctity of manners run. " Gifford.
[669] _Pœnas metuet. _ The punishment of adulterers seems to have been
left to the discretion of the injured husband rather than to have been
defined by law.
[670] _Laqueos. _ Ov. , Met. , iv. , 176, "Extemplo graciles ex ære
catenas, Retiaque et laqueos quæ lumina fallere possint, elimat. " Art.
Am. , ii. , 561, _seq. _ Hom. , Odyss. , viii. , 266.
[671] _Servilia_; i. e. , some one as rich and debauched as Servilia,
sister of Cato and mother of Brutus, with whom Cæsar intrigued, and
lavished immense wealth on her. Vid. Suet, Jul. , 50. Her sister, the
wife of Lucullus, was equally depraved.
[672] _Mores. _
"In all things else, immoral, stingy, mean,
But in her lusts a conscionable quean. " Dryden.
[673] _Hæc_, sc. Phædra, daughter of Minos, king of Crete.
[674] _Stimulos. _
"A woman scorn'd is pitiless as fate,
For then the dread of shame adds stings to hate. " Gifford.
[675] _Cæsaris uxor. _ The story is told in Tacitus, Ann. , xi. , 12, seq.
"In Silium, juventutis Romanæ _pulcherrimum_ ita exarserat, ut Juniam
Silanam nobilem fœminam, matrimonio ejus exturbaret vacuoque adultero
potiretur. Neque Silius _flagitii_ aut _periculi_ nescius erat: _sed
certo si abnueret exitio_ et nonnullâ fallendi spe, simul magnis
præmiis, opperiri futura, et præsentibus frui, pro solatio habebat. "
This happened A. D. 48, in the autumn, while Claudius was at Ostia.
It was with great difficulty, after all, that Narcissus prevailed on
Claudius to order Messalina's execution, cf. xiv. , 331; Tac. , Ann. ,
xi. , 37; and she was put to death at last without his knowledge.
[676] _Auspex. _ Suet. , Claud. "Cum comperisset «Valeriam Messalinam»
super cætera flagitia atque dedecora, C. Silio etiam nupsisse, _dote
inter auspices consignatâ_, supplicio affecit. " C. 26; cf. 36, 39.
[677] _Lucernas. _ "Before the evening lamps 'tis thine to die. " Badham.
[678] _Nota urbi et populo. _ Juvenal uses almost the very words of
Tacitus. "An discidium inquit (Narcissus) tuum nôsti? Nam matrimonium
Silii vidit populus et senatus et miles: ac ni properè agis tenet urbem
maritus. " Ann. , xi. , 30.
[679] _Prœbenda. _ Cf. Tac. , Ann. , xi. , 38.
"Inevitable death before thee lies,
But looks more kindly through a lady's eyes! " Dryden.
[680] _Tomacula_, "the liver and other parts cut out of the pig minced
up with the fat. " Mart. , i. , Ep. xlii. , 9, "Quod fumantia qui tomacla
raucus circumfert tepidus coquus popinis. " The other savory ingredients
are given by Facciolati; the Greeks called them τεμάχη or τεμάχια.
[681] _Munera. _
"A soul that can securely death defy,
And count it Nature's privilege to die. " Dryden.
[682] _Hercules. _ Alluding to the well-known "Choice of Hercules" from
Prodicus. Xen. , Mem.
[683] _Nullum numen. _ Repeated, xiv. , 315.
[684] "The reasonings in this Satire," Gibbon says, "would have been
clearer, had Juvenal distinguished between wishes the accomplishment
of which could not fail to make us miserable, and those whose
accomplishment might fail to make us happy. Absolute power is of the
first kind; long life of the second. "
SATIRE XI.
If Atticus[685] sups extravagantly, he is considered a splendid[686]
fellow: if Rutilus does so, he is thought mad. For what is received
with louder laughter on the part of the mob, than Apicius[687] reduced
to poverty?
Every club,[688] the baths, every knot of loungers, every theatre,[689]
is full of Rutilus. For while his sturdy and youthful limbs are fit to
bear arms,[690] and while he is hot in blood, he is driven[691] (not
indeed forced to it, but unchecked by the tribune) to copy out[692]
the instructions and imperial commands of the trainer of gladiators.
Moreover, you see many whom their creditor, often cheated of his money,
is wont to look out for at the very entrance of the market;[693] and
whose inducement to live exists in their palate alone. The greatest
wretch among these, one who must soon fail, since his ruin is already
as clear[694] as day, sups the more extravagantly and the more
splendidly. Meanwhile they ransack all the elements for dainties;[695]
the price never standing in the way of their gratification. If you
look more closely into it, those please the more which are bought for
more. Therefore they have no scruple[696] in borrowing a sum, soon
to be squandered, by pawning[697] their plate, or the broken[698]
image of their mother; and, with the 400[699] sesterces, seasoning an
earthen[700] dish to tickle their palate. Thus they are reduced to the
hotch-potch[701] of the gladiator.
It makes therefore all the difference who it is that procures these
same things. For in Rutilus it is luxurious extravagance. In Ventidius
it takes a praiseworthy name, and derives credit from his fortune.
I should with reason despise the man who knows how much more lofty
Atlas is than all the mountains in Libya, yet this very man knows
not how much a little purse differs from an iron-bound chest. [702]
"Know thyself," came down from heaven:[703] a proverb to be
implanted and cherished in the memory, whether you are about to
contract matrimony,[704] or wish to be in a part of the sacred[705]
senate:--(for not even Thersites[706] is a candidate for the
breast-plate of Achilles: in which Ulysses exhibited himself in a
doubtful character:[707])--or whether you take upon yourself to defend
a cause of great moment. Consult your own powers; tell yourself who
you are; whether you are a powerful orator, or like a Curtius, or a
Matho,[708] mere spouters.
One must know one's own measure, and keep it in view, in the greatest
and in most trifling matters; even when a fish is to be bought. Do not
long for a mullet,[709] when you have only a gudgeon in your purse.
[622] _Gyaris. _ Cf. i. , 73; vi. , 563.
[623] _Figulis. _ Cf. Herod. , i. , 78. Ov. , Met. , iv. , 27, "Ubi dicitur
altam Coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem. "
[624] _Sarcophago. _ A stone was found at Assos, near Troy, which was
said to possess the property of consuming the flesh of bodies inclosed
in it within the space of forty days, hence called σαρκοφάγος. Plin. ,
ii. , 96; xxxvi. , 17. Cf. Henry's speech to Hotspur's body:
"Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound:
But now, two paces of the vilest earth
Is room enough. "
So Hall:
"Fond fool! six feet shall serve for all thy store,
And he that cares for most shall find no more. "
And Shirley:
"How little room do we take up in death,
That, living, knew no bounds! "
And Webster's Duchess of Malfy:
"Much you had of land and rent;
Your length in clays's now competent. "
So K. Henry VI. :
"And of all my lands
Is nothing left me but my body's length. "
And Dryden's Antony:
"The place thou pressest on thy mother Earth
Is all thy empire now. "
Cf. Æsch. , S. Theb. , 731. Soph. , Œd. Col. , 789. Shakspeare's Richard
II. , Act iii. , sc. 2.
[625] _Epota. _ Herodotus mentions the Scamander, Onochnous, Apidanus,
and Echedorus.
"Rivers, whose depth no sharp beholder sees,
Drunk at an army's dinner to the lees! " Dryden.
[626] _Sostratus. _ Of this poet nothing is known. --_Madidis_, probably
in the same sense as in Sat. xv. , 47, "Facilis victoria de madidis. "
Sil. , xii. , 18, "Madefacta mero. "
[627] _Ennosigæum. _ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐνόθειν τὴν γαῖαν. Cf. Hom. , Il. , vii. ,
455. _Æolis_ is an allusion to Virgil, Æn. , i. , 51, "Vinclis ac carcere
frænat," etc.
[628] _Stigmate. _ Herod. , vii. , 35.
"That shackles o'er th' earth-shaking Neptune threw,
And thought it lenient not to brand him too. " Gifford.
[629] _Servire Deorum. _ As Apollo served Admetus; Neptune, Laomedon,
etc.
"Ye gods! obeyed ye such a fool as this? " Hodgson.
[630] _Tardâ. _ Perhaps alluding to Her. , viii. , 118.
"A single skiff to speed his flight remains,
Th' encumbered oar scarce leaves the dreaded coast
Through purple billows and a floating host! " Johnson.
[631] _Tabraca_, on the coast of Tunis, now Tabarca.
[632] _Simia. _ So Ennius, in Cic. , Nat. De. , i. , 35, "Simia, quam
similis turpissima bestia nobis! "
"A stick-fallen cheek! that hangs below the jaw,
Such wrinkles as a skillful hand would draw
For an old grandam ape, when, with a grace,
She sits at squat, and scrubs her leathern face. " Dryden.
[633] _Cum voce trementia membra. _ Compare Hamlet's speech to Polonius,
and As you like it, Act ii. , 7:
"His big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in its sound. "
"The self-same palsy both in limbs and tongue. " Dryden.
[634] _Palato. _ Compare Barzillai's speech to David, 2 Sam. , xix. , 35,
"I am this day fourscore years old; and can I discern between good or
evil? can thy servant taste what I eat and what I drink? can I hear any
more the voice of singing men and singing women? "
[635] _Vini. _
"Now pall the tasteless meats, and joyless wines,
And Luxury with sighs her slave resigns. " Johnson.
[636] _Viribus. _ Shakspeare, King Henry IV. , Part ii. , Act ii. ,
sc. 4, "Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive
performance? "
[637] _Auratâ. _ Cic. ad Heren. , iv. , 47, "Uti citharædus cum prodierit
optimè vestitus, pallâ _inauratâ_ indutus, cum chlamyde purpureâ
coloribus variis intextâ, cum coronâ aureâ, magnis _fulgentibus_
gemmis illuminatâ. " Horace, A. P. , 215, "Luxuriem addidi arti Tibicen,
traxitque vagus per pulpita vestem. "
[638] _Nuntiet horas. _ Slaves were employed to watch the dials in the
houses of those who had them, and report the hour: those who had no
dial sent to the Forum. Cf. Mart. , viii. , 67. Suet. , Domit. , xvi. ,
"Sexta nuntiata est. "
[639] _Gelido. _ Virg. , Æn. , v. , 395, "Sed enim _gelidus_ tardante
senectâ _Sanguis_ hebet, _frigentque_ effœtæ in corpora vires. "
[640] _Themison_ of Laodicea in Syria, pupil of Asclepiades, was an
eminent physician of the time of Pompey the Great, and is said to have
been the founder of the "Methodic" school, as opposed to the "Empiric. "
Vid. Cels. , Præf. Plin. , N. H. , xxix. , 15. Others say he lived in
Augustus' time, and Hodgson thinks he may have lived even to Juvenal's
days. Cicero (de Orat. , i. , 14) mentions an Asclepiades; and the names
of at least _three_ others are mentioned in later times.
[641] _Quo tondente. _ Cf. i. , 35.
[642] _Hiat. _ Cf. Lucian, Tim. , ἐμὲ περιμένουσι κεχηνότες ὥσπερ τὴν
χελιδόνα προσπετομένην τετριγότες οἰ νεοσσοί. P. 72, E. , ed. Bened.
[643] _Jejuna_, from Hom. , Il. , ix. , 323, ὡς δ' ὄρνις ἀπτῆσι νεοσσοῖσι
προφέρῃσι μάστακ', ἐπεί κε λάβῃσι, κακῶς δέ τέ οἱ πέλει αὐτῇ.
[644] _Phialen. _
"Forgets the children he begot and bred,
And makes a strumpet heiress in their stead. " Gifford.
[645] _Nigrâ. _ "And liveries of black for length of years. " Dryden.
[646] _Pylius. _ Hom. , Il. , i. , 250, μετὰ δὲ τριτάτοισιν ἄνασσεν. So
Odyss. , iii. , 245, τρὶς γὰρ δή μίν φασιν ἀνάξασθαι γένε' ἀνδρῶν.
[647] _Cornice. _
"Next to the raven's age, the Pylian king
Was longest-lived of any two-legged thing. " Dryden.
[648] _Dextra. _ This the Greeks express by ἀναπεμπάζεσθαι. They counted
on the left hand as far as a hundred, then on the right up to two
hundred, and then again on the left for the third hundred. Holyday has
a most elaborate explanation of the method.
[649] _Antilochi. _ Cf. Hor. , II. , Od. ix. , 14.
[650] _Natantem. _ Cf. Hom. , Od. , v. , 388, 399.
"So Peleus sigh'd to join his hero lost--
Laertes his on boundless billows toss'd. " Hodgson.
[651] _Polyxena_, from Eurip. , Hec. , 556, λαβοῦσα πέπλους ἐξ ἄκρας
ἐπωμίδος ἔῤῥηξε.
[652] _Miles tremulus. _ Virg. , Æn. , ii. , 509, "Arma diu senior desueta
trementibus ævo circumdat," etc.
"A soldier half, and half a sacrifice. " Dryden.
[653] _Bos. _ Virg. , Æn. , v. , 481, "Sternitur, exanimisque tremens
procumbit humi bos. "
[654] _Fastiditus. _
"Disdain'd its labors, and forgotten now
All its old service at the thankless plow. " Hodgson.
[655] _Canino. _ See the close of Eurip. , Hecuba. The Greeks fabled that
Hecuba was metamorphosed into a bitch, from her constant railing at
them. Hence κυνὸς σῆμα. Cf. Plaut. , Menœchm. , v. i.
[656] _Crœsus. _ Cf. Herod. , i. , 32.
[657] _Spatia_, a metaphor from the "course. " So Virgil has metæ ævi,
metæ mortis.
[658] _Minturnarum_, a town of the Aurunci near the mouth of the Liris,
now Garigliano. In the marshes in the neighborhood Marius concealed
himself from the cavalry of Sylla.
[659] _Animam. _
"Had he exhaled amid the pomp of war,
A warrior's soul in that Teutonic car. " Badham.
[660] _Teutonico_, i. e. , after his triumph over the Cimbri and
Teutones. Cf. viii. , 251.
[661] _Campania. _ Cf. Cic. , Tus. Qu. , i. , 35, "Pompeius noster
familiaris, cum graviter ægrotaret Neapoli, utrum si tum esset
extinctus, à bonis rebus, an à malis discessisset? certè a miseriis,
si mortem tum obiisset, in amplissimis fortunis occidisset. " Achillas
and L. Septimius murdered Pompey and cut off his head; which ἐφύλασσον
Καίσαρι, ὡς ἐπὶ μεγίσταις ἀμοιβαῖς. Appian, B. C. , ii. , 86
[662] _P. Corn. Lentulus Sura_, was strangled in prison with Cethegus.
Catiline fell in battle, near Pistoria in Etruria.
[663] _Murmure. _ Venus was worshiped under the name of ἀφροδίτη
Ψίθυρος, because all prayers were to be offered in whispers.
[664] _Delicias. _ This is Heinrich's view. Grangæus explains it,
"Ut pro ipsis vota deliciarum plena concipiat. " Britannicus, "quasi
diceret, optat ut tam formosa sit, ut eam juvenes in suos amplexus
optent. "
[665] _Latona. _ Hom. , Od. vi. , 106, γέγηθε δέ τε φρένα Λήτω. Virg. ,
Æn. , i. , 502, Latonæ tacitum pertentant gaudia pectus.
[666] _Lucretia. _
"Yet Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring,
And Sedley cursed the form that pleased a king! " Johnson.
[667] _Concordia. _ Ov. , Heroid, xvi. , 288, "Lis est cum _forma_ magna
_pudicitiæ_. "
"Chaste--is no epithet to suit with fair. " Dryden.
[668] _Tradiderit. _
"Though through the rugged house, from sire to son,
A Sabine sanctity of manners run. " Gifford.
[669] _Pœnas metuet. _ The punishment of adulterers seems to have been
left to the discretion of the injured husband rather than to have been
defined by law.
[670] _Laqueos. _ Ov. , Met. , iv. , 176, "Extemplo graciles ex ære
catenas, Retiaque et laqueos quæ lumina fallere possint, elimat. " Art.
Am. , ii. , 561, _seq. _ Hom. , Odyss. , viii. , 266.
[671] _Servilia_; i. e. , some one as rich and debauched as Servilia,
sister of Cato and mother of Brutus, with whom Cæsar intrigued, and
lavished immense wealth on her. Vid. Suet, Jul. , 50. Her sister, the
wife of Lucullus, was equally depraved.
[672] _Mores. _
"In all things else, immoral, stingy, mean,
But in her lusts a conscionable quean. " Dryden.
[673] _Hæc_, sc. Phædra, daughter of Minos, king of Crete.
[674] _Stimulos. _
"A woman scorn'd is pitiless as fate,
For then the dread of shame adds stings to hate. " Gifford.
[675] _Cæsaris uxor. _ The story is told in Tacitus, Ann. , xi. , 12, seq.
"In Silium, juventutis Romanæ _pulcherrimum_ ita exarserat, ut Juniam
Silanam nobilem fœminam, matrimonio ejus exturbaret vacuoque adultero
potiretur. Neque Silius _flagitii_ aut _periculi_ nescius erat: _sed
certo si abnueret exitio_ et nonnullâ fallendi spe, simul magnis
præmiis, opperiri futura, et præsentibus frui, pro solatio habebat. "
This happened A. D. 48, in the autumn, while Claudius was at Ostia.
It was with great difficulty, after all, that Narcissus prevailed on
Claudius to order Messalina's execution, cf. xiv. , 331; Tac. , Ann. ,
xi. , 37; and she was put to death at last without his knowledge.
[676] _Auspex. _ Suet. , Claud. "Cum comperisset «Valeriam Messalinam»
super cætera flagitia atque dedecora, C. Silio etiam nupsisse, _dote
inter auspices consignatâ_, supplicio affecit. " C. 26; cf. 36, 39.
[677] _Lucernas. _ "Before the evening lamps 'tis thine to die. " Badham.
[678] _Nota urbi et populo. _ Juvenal uses almost the very words of
Tacitus. "An discidium inquit (Narcissus) tuum nôsti? Nam matrimonium
Silii vidit populus et senatus et miles: ac ni properè agis tenet urbem
maritus. " Ann. , xi. , 30.
[679] _Prœbenda. _ Cf. Tac. , Ann. , xi. , 38.
"Inevitable death before thee lies,
But looks more kindly through a lady's eyes! " Dryden.
[680] _Tomacula_, "the liver and other parts cut out of the pig minced
up with the fat. " Mart. , i. , Ep. xlii. , 9, "Quod fumantia qui tomacla
raucus circumfert tepidus coquus popinis. " The other savory ingredients
are given by Facciolati; the Greeks called them τεμάχη or τεμάχια.
[681] _Munera. _
"A soul that can securely death defy,
And count it Nature's privilege to die. " Dryden.
[682] _Hercules. _ Alluding to the well-known "Choice of Hercules" from
Prodicus. Xen. , Mem.
[683] _Nullum numen. _ Repeated, xiv. , 315.
[684] "The reasonings in this Satire," Gibbon says, "would have been
clearer, had Juvenal distinguished between wishes the accomplishment
of which could not fail to make us miserable, and those whose
accomplishment might fail to make us happy. Absolute power is of the
first kind; long life of the second. "
SATIRE XI.
If Atticus[685] sups extravagantly, he is considered a splendid[686]
fellow: if Rutilus does so, he is thought mad. For what is received
with louder laughter on the part of the mob, than Apicius[687] reduced
to poverty?
Every club,[688] the baths, every knot of loungers, every theatre,[689]
is full of Rutilus. For while his sturdy and youthful limbs are fit to
bear arms,[690] and while he is hot in blood, he is driven[691] (not
indeed forced to it, but unchecked by the tribune) to copy out[692]
the instructions and imperial commands of the trainer of gladiators.
Moreover, you see many whom their creditor, often cheated of his money,
is wont to look out for at the very entrance of the market;[693] and
whose inducement to live exists in their palate alone. The greatest
wretch among these, one who must soon fail, since his ruin is already
as clear[694] as day, sups the more extravagantly and the more
splendidly. Meanwhile they ransack all the elements for dainties;[695]
the price never standing in the way of their gratification. If you
look more closely into it, those please the more which are bought for
more. Therefore they have no scruple[696] in borrowing a sum, soon
to be squandered, by pawning[697] their plate, or the broken[698]
image of their mother; and, with the 400[699] sesterces, seasoning an
earthen[700] dish to tickle their palate. Thus they are reduced to the
hotch-potch[701] of the gladiator.
It makes therefore all the difference who it is that procures these
same things. For in Rutilus it is luxurious extravagance. In Ventidius
it takes a praiseworthy name, and derives credit from his fortune.
I should with reason despise the man who knows how much more lofty
Atlas is than all the mountains in Libya, yet this very man knows
not how much a little purse differs from an iron-bound chest. [702]
"Know thyself," came down from heaven:[703] a proverb to be
implanted and cherished in the memory, whether you are about to
contract matrimony,[704] or wish to be in a part of the sacred[705]
senate:--(for not even Thersites[706] is a candidate for the
breast-plate of Achilles: in which Ulysses exhibited himself in a
doubtful character:[707])--or whether you take upon yourself to defend
a cause of great moment. Consult your own powers; tell yourself who
you are; whether you are a powerful orator, or like a Curtius, or a
Matho,[708] mere spouters.
One must know one's own measure, and keep it in view, in the greatest
and in most trifling matters; even when a fish is to be bought. Do not
long for a mullet,[709] when you have only a gudgeon in your purse.
