Rank without greatness. Nec clypeo Gracchum pugnantem, aut falce supina, (Damnat enim tales habitus; et damnat et odit; Nec galea frontem abscondit:) movet ecce tridentem, Postquam vibrata pendentia retia dextra 206 Nequidquam effudit. Nudum ad spectacula vultum Simia, nec serpens unus, nec culeus unus? 205, 206. nequidquam effudit-fugit] See last note. 207, 208.] "We may trust that tunic (i. e. be sure who wears it) when the gold band stands off from the throat, and is tossed by the drooping false hair." I. e. even were his face not visible, he would be betrayed by the patrician ornament of his retiarius's tunic. See note on 1. 200-208 above. The ornament was a gold band round the neck, with long ends like a riband. For "galerus," see vi. 120. 209. ignominiam] In the strict sense of the term; the result of the "nota censoria." This was inflicted, among other offences, for appearing on a public stage. See note on Sat. iv. 12. The meaning is therefore, the real "ignominia" fell. not on Gracchus, to whom it would attach by law, but on the gladiator of mean extraction who had to fight with one so degraded. 210. secutor] See note on 1. 200 -208 above. up in a sack ("culeus") with an ape, snake, dog, and cock, and thrown into the sea. By the 'Lex Pompeia de Parricidiis' (which extended the term to the murder of other relatives besides parents) Nero had committed three parricidia.' He murdered not only his mother Agrippina, but his aunt Domitia and brother (by adoptation) Britannicus. Hence "non una;" i. e. plures.' In strictness, indeed, although these two latter murders constituted, under the law above referred to, the crime of 'parricidium,' they were not liable to its specific punishment, the sewing in the sack. This was still confined to murderers of parents and grandparents. 215. Agamemnonidae] Orestes. 216-221.] "For Orestes ("ille,” 1. 216), although he slew his mother, had a divine sanction for it. Moreover he did not, like Nero, murder his other relations, nor did he appear on the stage, nor write bad poetry." Nero had done all this. See note on 1. 198, 213, 214, above. The Towinά was a composition of Nero's, which he recited while Rome was burning. Tac. Ann. xv. 39. Patris erat, caesi media inter pocula; sed nec 225 230 Quid, Catilina, tuis natalibus atque Cethegi Inveniet quisquam sublimius? Arma tamen vos Nocturna et flammas domibus templisque parastis, The "in scena--scripsit" are of course an ἀπροσδόκητον. 218, 219. Spartani-conjugii (for Spartanae conjugis ')] Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus. 221, 222.] Rufus Verginius was governor of Upper Germany, Julius Vindex of Celtica, and Galba (afterwards the emperor) of Hispania Tarraconensis. They simultaneously revolted from Nero A.D. 68. Verginius was opposed to the pretensions of Vindex and Galba. On finding that the former was aspiring to the empire, Verginius marched against him, and defeated him in a pitched battle near Vesontio (Besançon). Vindex fell in this engagement, and the issue of the revolt seemed still uncertain. Meanwhile, however, a conspiracy had been organized in Rome itself against Nero, and Galba proclaimed there. Nero was wholly without defence, and to escape falling into the hands of the conspirators committed suicide at the house of his freedman Phaon near Rome. 222. magis] i. e. more than this public degradation of himself;-to explain 1. 220, 221. "Bad as his 223. quid] sub. " pejus." 225, 226. peregrina-Graiaeque] See note on 1. 198 above. 226. apium] This was the victor's crown at the Nemean and Isthmian games. 227. majorum effigies] See note on Sat. v. 110; also the opening lines of this satire. 228. Domiti] i. e. the founder of your family. Nero belonged to the Ahenobarbi, a plebeian family in the Domitia gens. He was adopted by Claudius. ib. tu] scil. Nero. 228, 229. Thyestae-AntigoneMenalippes] The characters you have acted. Thyestes and Antigone are well known. Melanippe was a daughter of Aeolus, and the subject of two plays of Euripides, of which only some fragments remain. 230. marmoreo colosso] See 1. 227 and reference. 232, 233. arma-parastis] The famous conspiracy of Catiline, Lentulus, and Cethegus, defeated by Cicero B.C. 63, 7 Ut Braccatorum pueri Senonumque minores, Great ness with 235 240 Praesidium adtonitis, et in omni gente laborat. · 234.] i. e. as if you had been descendants of the Gauls who sacked Rome. Properly Gallia Braccata was identical with Narbonensis, the south-east district of Gaul. The term therefore is not strictly accurate here, as the tribes who migrated into Italy came from the centre and north-east of Gaul. See Arnold's Hist. Rome, i. 516. But the term is loosely used here for Gallorum' in general, so as to include 'Senonum.' "Children of the Gaul, descendants of the Senones themselves." The latter were probably the tribe who actually took Rome, the other tribes who had immigrated with them remaining in Northern Italy. 235. tunica-molesta] i. e. as incendiaries. See note on Sat. i. 155— 157. Cf. Mart. Ep. x. 25. 5, dicatur tunica praesente molesta Ure manum. "cum 236. Consul] i. e. Cicero. See note on 1. 232, 233. 237. Arpinas] Cicero was born at Arpinum, a town of the Volsci. ib. novus ignobilis] Because he was the first of the family who filled a curule office. Those whose ancestors had done this were the "nobiles;" those who first filled it themselves were "novi homines." Cf. notes on Sat. i. 100; v. 110. ib. et-Eques] Cicero's family was of the equestrian order at Arpinum, and therefore, as Arpinum had acquired the complete Roman 'civitas,' at Rome also. His status, however, in the latter would of course ib. in omni gente] See Cic. Cat. 2. 12 ad init., "Coloni omnes municipesque vestri, certiores a me facti de hac nocturna excursione Catilinae, facile urbes suas finesque defendent." 240. muros intra toga (see on xvi. 8)]. The conspiracy of Catiline was a tumultus' only, not a 'bellum.' Perhaps too the muros intra" refers specially to the decree of the senate that Cicero should remain to guard the city while Antonius pursued the conspirators. 241. tituli]"monumental inscriptions." Cf. Sat. vi. 230; x. 143, 144. Or perhaps it is the inscription on the imagines,' as in Sat. i. 130; v. 110. See note on the latter. ib. Leucade] i. e. at Actium. The island Leucas, on the Acarnanian coast, is used for the Acarnanian promontory Actium, off which the battle between Antony and Augustus was fought. The latter lay to the north-east of Leucas, at the entrance of the Ambracius Sinus. 242. Thessaliae campis] The battle of Philippi is meant. Philippi really is in Thrace. K 66 Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit. 245 Hic tamen et Cimbros et summa pericula rerum Qui numquam adtigerant majora cadavera, corvi, 244. Roma-dixit] This was soon after the destruction of Catiline. Me Q. Catulus, princeps hujus ordinis et auctor publici consilii, frequentissimo senatu, parentem patriae nominavit," Cic. Pis. 3, init. 244. libera] Because the same title was afterwards applied to the emperors by way of adulation. 245. Arpinas alius] C. Marius, the well-known rival of Sulla. Like Cicero he was a native of Arpinum, or rather of Cereatae, a village near it. The great success in the life of Marius was his campaign against the Cimbri. See 1. 249-253. They had destroyed the consular armies three years previously, and were descending on Italy through the Tyrol, while their allies, the Teutones, endeavoured to force a passage on the other side of the Alps by Nice and Genoa. Marius first defeated the Teutones, B.C. 102, at Aix (Aquae Sextiae). In the following year he marched against the Cimbri, who had succeeded in reaching Vercellae in the neighbourhood of Milan. Here Marius joined his army to that of the proconsul Catulus, and totally defeated the Cimbri at the Raudii Campi. The two tribes were annihilated by these defeats. The civil war between Sulla and Marius broke out B.c. 88, but the army of the latter refused to act under him, and he was compelled to 247, 248.] i. e. served as a common soldier. 247. vitem] sub. "centurionis." This was the centurion's badge of office, as well as a handy implement for enforcing discipline. Hence Marius, "frange bat vertice vitem:"would have it broken on his head. Vitis' is often used for the office itself. See Sat. xiv. 193. 253. collega] Catulus. See note on 1. 245. 254. plebeiae] The Decii, although an ancient family, originally belonged to the plebs.' Cf. Hor. Sat. i. 6. 19, 20: "populus Laevino mallet honorem Quam Decio mandare novo. "Nomina" in 1. 255 is perhaps an allusion to the family cognomen 'Mus.' 255. hi] i. e. P. Decius Mus, the Omnibus auxiliis atque omni pube Latina Et fasces meruit, regum ultimus ille bonorum. 260 father, and his son of the same name. The former devoted himself to death in the Latin war, B.C. 340. A vision was seen by himself, and his colleague T. Manlius Torquatus, which announced that on one side the general was doomed, on the other the army. Decius accordingly determined to secure the victory to his country by his own death, and rushed into the thickest of the fight, where he was slain. The son performed a similar act of heroism in a battle against an allied force of Etruscans, Gauls, and others, B.C. 295. Decius saw that his troops were overmatched by the Gauls, to whom his division was opposed, and determined on imitating the self-sacrifice of his father. He accordingly, in a solemn form of prayer, devoted the enemy to the avenging manes of the dead, and then threw himself upon their swords. 255, 256. legionibus] The Roman army. "Auxiliis," the contingent of the allied states of Italy. See note on Sat. v. 31. "Pube Latina," the Latin portion of this contingent. See the same note. 259. Ancilla natus] The king Servius Tullius. His mother was Ocrisia, the wife of a noble in the Latin town of Corniculum. She was enceinte when the town was captured by Tarquinius Priscus, and was brought to Rome as his slave, where she gave birth to Servius Tullius. He gradually rose at court, as well as in popular estimation. On the assassination of Tarquin by the sons of Ancns, Tanaquil concealed her husband's death, and invested Servius with the functions of interrex.' Eventually he succeeded to the throne, and founded the first popular institution of Rome, the 66 comitia centuriata,' by which the 'plebs' were admitted to a share of power. Hence he is here called regum ultimus ille bonorum." The second Tarquin abolished the Servian constitution shortly after his accession. ib. trabeam] This was part of the royal costume, a white toga with purple stripes. So king Latinus is "Quirinali trabea Insignis." Virg. Aen. vii. 612. After the expulsion of the kings, its use was continued by the consuls, and also by the equites, at some public solemnities. It was again assumed by the emperors, who however wore it entirely of purple; hence the common phrase, the imperial purple.” 260. fusers] See note on Sat. v. 110. 261-268.] The story is well known from Livy, 2. 4, 5. The sons of Brutus took the lead in a conspiracy to restore the Tarquins. The plot was discovered by a slave (1. 264) who informed the consuls, and Brutus ordered his sons to be beheaded. 261. laxabant] The proper imperfect force. Were opening ;" i. e. endeavoured to do so. 263. magnum aliquid] sub. "ausos esse.' 264, 265.] The stories of Hora |