Sermonem indocti, faciem deformis amici, 90 95 ledge in the art of flattery. They compliment an illiterate friend on his eloquence, applaud the mien of the deformed, and compare the long neck of a weak and drooping mortal to the vigorous figure of Hercules, when he holds up the giant Antæus from the earth, and presses him to death between his arms. We may, it is true, bestow similar praise, but they are believed. Their acting is inimitable; the stage supplies nothing superior to it. You shall not see Thais, or the wife, or Doris, or any other of the most studied characters, better represented in the theatres. They surpass our most applauded artists: Antiochus, Stratocles, Demetrius, Hæmus, sink into nothing in comparison. Every Greek is by nature a comedian ; does he see you laugh? he holds both his sides: do you weep? he melts into tears, and is any thing but afflicted: if he hears you call for a fire in the beginning of winter, he puts on his furred coat: do you say, it is warm? he sweats, he dies with heat. This is a talent we do not possess: it is in vain to strive: he must ever be su 89. Antaus was a giant, son of Earth. He engaged Hercules in wrestling, and was destroyed by that hero, who, to prevent his receiving new accessions of strength by touching the earth, was under the necessity of crushing him to death in his arms. 91. An melior, &c. The contruction is: An comadus est melior Græco, cum comœdus sustinet Thaida, aut cum agit uxorem, vel cum solers agit Dorida. Ib. Thais, the name of a courtezan. 92. Doris, a sea-nymph, daughter of Oceanus, and Tethys, wife of Nereus. 98. Endromis, from poμos race, a coarse, heavy garment, Nocte dieque potest alienum sumere vultum. Et quoniam cœpit Græcorum mentio, transi 100 105 110 perior, who can at all times, day and night, put on another man's looks. If adulation he not the commodity in demand, they have recourse to other arts. They ransack the house of their patron, and maintain their influence by terror. And as we are upon the subject of the Greeks, let us pass over what may be considered their school-boy feats, and observe what is to be expected from the gravity of a longer gown. You shall hear the exploit of a veteran. It was Egnatius who denounced Barea : the unhappy youth was brought to the scaffold by his friend, the pupil by his master. Egnatius is an old man, born on the very banks of the fountain Hippocrene, and, what is more, a Stoic philosopher! No! a Roman must not show himself where a Protogenes, a Diphilus, or an Erymanthus bears sway. It is the vice of the nation that they cannot share a friend; if he be rich and powerful, the Greek must possess him entirely. He breathes into his docile ear some of the malignant poison natural to those of his country, and I am driven from the threshold; all my long services are forgotten. used after the exercises in the stadium by runners, &c. 105. Barea Soranus held some office under Nero, to whom he was accused by Egnatius of a want of zeal in unravelling the conspiracy of Piso. 106. Ripa. Hippocrene was a fountain of Boeotia, near mount Helicon, sacred to the muses. It was so called (ίππου κρηνη,) horse's fountain, having been produced by the horse Pegasus striking the ground with his hoof. Pegasus sprung from the blood of the gorgon Medusa, when Ꭰ Servitii: nusquam minor est jactura clientis. Quod porro officium (ne nobis blandiar) aut quod 115 120 Da testem Romæ tam sanctum, quàm fuit hospes Numinis Idæi; procedat vel Numa, vel qui There is not a city in the world in which less embarrassment is felt in abandoning an ancient client. Yet (not to assume more than is our due) what, after all, are the services which we render to our patrons, or what is the merit of a poor man in running in his best clothes to salute them at break of day? Do we not at the same hour witness the precipitate haste of the prætor to pay the same compliment to some old woman, who happens to be rich and without children? Under the apprehension that Albina or Modia is already awake, he drops the magisterial gravity, and urges the lictors to breathless speed, lest his colleague should be before him with his salutations. What merit has a client in any public attendance upon his patron, when the sons of the nobility may be seen performing the same office to some wealthy slave, who is able to squander upon a courtezan more than the pay of a legionary tribune. Should you bring forward at Rome a witness irreproachable as Scipio Nasica; could you even summon Numa from his grave, or killed by Perseus. Those 120. Claudit latus. were said claudere latus alicujus, who attended him through the city, giving him the place of honour and protecting him from any inconveniences which might occur. 123. Hospes numinis. When the statue of Cybele was brought to Rome from Phrygia, the augurs directed that it should be committed to the care of the most virtuous citizen, until a temple should be built to receive it. This honour was awarded by the senate to Scipio Nasīca, the son of Cn. Scipio, who with his brother Publius perished in Spain. 124. Vel qui. L. Metellus, the Pontifex Maximus, who when the temple of Vesta was on fire, rescued the Palladium from the flames, and lost his sight in the achievement. Servavit trepidam flagranti ex æde Minervam, 125 Quæstio; quot pascit servos, quot possidet agri Si toga sordidula est, et ruptâ calceus alter 135 Quàm quòd ridiculos homines facit. Exeat, inquit, the great Metellus, who, at the risk of his life, saved the Palladium from the burning temple; the first question will be, Is he a man of substance? How many slaves has he? What estate? Does he keep a good and splendid table? As to his character for probity, it is the last thing about which the court will trouble itself. The degree of credit to be attached to a man's testimony is in exact proportion to the weight of his purse. You may call all the gods of Samothrace and Rome to witness your good faith and the truth of your words; the judges are convinced that, being poor, you contemn the gods and their thunder; and that they pardon your contempt in consideration of your misery. Besides, the poor man is the universal butt for mirth and raillery: sometimes the jest is his dirty and torn shirt; sometimes his shabby coat; if one of his shoes be broken and gaping, it is a capital joke; but if the scars betray his efforts to staunch the wound, what peals of merriment ! Unhappy poverty has nothing more afflicting than thus to render men ridiculous. If a knight whose fortune does not satisfy the law, has 130. Samothracum. Samothrace was an island in the Ægean, adjacent to Thrace. It was from thence Dardanus transported into Phrygia the Dii Pe nates, which were afterwards brought to Italy by Æneas. 131. Nostrorum. Mars and Quirinus were the tutelary divinities of Rome. Si pudor est, et de pulvino surgat equestri, Quis gener hic placuit censu minor, atque puellæ Sarcinulis impar? quis pauper scribitur hæres ? Quando in consilio est ædilibus? agmine facto Debuerant olim tenues migrâsse Quirites. 140 145 Haud facilè emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat 150 Res angusta domi: sed Romæ durior illis Conatus magno hospitium miserabile, magno the hardihood to take his place in the theatre among those of his own rank, the official corrects his mistake in no ambiguous terms. For shame, he cries, turn out that man; this place of honour is for the sons of pimps, no matter in what brothel born; he is not sufficiently respectable to give his applause with the son of a neat public crier, or the well-dressed children of a gladiator. For such arrangements we are indebted to the vanity of Otho; he it was who made distinctions among us. A man is excluded even from the chance of improving his fortune. Whom do we ever see bestowing his daughter upon a person of merit, whose purse is lighter than the girl's? Do we ever see a rich man making him his heir? Even the petty edile scorns to appoint him a member of his council. If my countrymen had any spirit, they would long since have emigrated in a body. They whose virtues are obstructed by a narrow patrimony find it any where no easy matter to emerge from poverty; at Rome the difficulty is almost insurmountable. What a charge for a misera 144. Pinnirapus, called also Retiarius, signified a gladiator of the lowest class, whose business it was to catch in a net his adversary's helmet, which was adorned with feathers; hence the name, from penna, a feather, and rapere, to snatch. 145. Othoni. L. Roscius Otho was a tribune of the people, who, about the year 70 B. c. had a law passed assigning distinct places in the theatre to the several or ders of citizens. |