his saltem; nam cum pro me Fortuna vocatur, adfixit ceras illa de nave petitas, quae Siculos cantus effugit remige surdo." 150 SATVRA X OMNIBUS in terris, quae sunt a Gadibus usque Auroram et Gangen, pauci dinoscere possunt vera bona atque illis multum diversa, remota erroris nebula. quid enim ratione timemus aut cupimus? quid tam dextro pede concipis, ut te 5 conatus non paeniteat votique peracti? evertere domos totas optantibus ipsis di faciles. nocitura toga, nocitura petuntur militia; torrens dicendi copia multis et sua mortifera eşt facundia, viribus ille confisus periit admirandisque lacertis, 10 15 1 Ulysses stuffed the ears of his followers with wax to prevent them hearing the voices of the Sirens (Od. xii. 39 foll.). for whenever Fortune is supplicated on my behalf, she plugs her ears with wax fetched from that selfsame ship which escaped from the Sicilian songstresses through the deafness of her crew."1 SATIRE X THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES IN all the lands that stretch from Gades to the Ganges and the Morn, there are but few who can distinguish true blessings from their opposites, putting aside the mists of error. For when does Reason direct our desires or our fears? What project do we form so auspiciously that we do not repent us of our effort and of the granted wish? Whole households have been destroyed by the compliant Gods in answer to the masters' prayers; in camp and city alike we ask for things that will be our ruin. Many a man has met death from the rushing flood of his own eloquence; others from the strength and wondrous thews in which they have trusted.. More still have been ruined by money too carefully amassed, and by fortunes that surpass all patrimonies by as much as the British whale exceeds the dolphin. It was for this that in the dire days Nero ordered Longinus 2 and the great gardens of the over-wealthy Seneca 3 to be put under siege; for this was it that the noble Palace of the Laterani 4 was beset by an entire cohort; it is but seldom that soldiers find their way into a garret! 2 A famous lawyer banished by Nero, 3 Forced by Nero to commit suicide. 4 Plautius Lateranus was put to death by Nero for joining in Piso's conspiracy, A.D. 63. pauca licet portes argenti vascula puri nocte iter ingressus, gladium contumque timebis et motae ad lunam trepidabis harundinis umbram : cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator. Prima fere vota et cunctis notissima templis da nunc et volucrem, sceptro quae surgit eburno, 1 Democritus of Abdera. 2 Heraclitus of Ephesus. 20 25 30 35 40 45 3 The tunica palmata, embroidered with palm, and the Though you carry but few silver vessels with you in a night journey, you will be afraid of the sword and cudgel of a freebooter, you will tremble at the shadow of a reed shaking in the moonlight; but the emptyhanded traveller will whistle in the robber's face. 2 23 The foremost of all petitions the one best known to every temple-is for riches and their increase, that our money-chest may be the biggest in the Forum. But you will drink no aconite out of an earthenware cup; you may dread it when a jewelled cup is offered you, or when Setine wine sparkles in a golden bowl. Then will you not commend the two wise men, one of whom 1 would laugh while the opposite sage would weep'every time he set a foot outside the door? To condemn by a cutting laugh comes readily to us all; the wonder is how the other sage's eyes were supplied with all that water. The sides of Democritus shook with unceasing laughter, although in the cities of his day there were no purple-bordered or purple-striped robes, no fasces, no palanquins, no tribunals. What if he had seen the Praetor uplifted in his lofty car amid the dust of the Circus, attired in the tunics of Jove, hitching an embroidered Tyrian toga on to his shoulders, and carrying a crown so big that no neck could bear the weight of it? For a public slave is sweating under the burden; and that the Consul may not fancy himself overmuch, the slave rides in the same chariot with his master. Add to all this the bird that is perched on his ivory staff; on this side the horn-blowers, on that the duteous clients preceding him in long array, with white-robed Roman citizens, whose friendship toga picta, with gold, were triumphal garments, described by Livy as Iovis optimi maximi ornatus (xx. 7). 195 defossa in loculos quos sportula fecit amicos. tunc quoque materiam risus invenit ad omnis occursus hominum, cuius prudentia monstrat summos posse viros et magna exempla daturos vervecum in patria crassoque sub aere nasci. ridebat curas nec non et gaudia vulgi, interdum et lacrimas, cum Fortunae ipse minacı mandaret laqueum mediumque ostenderet unguem. Ergo supervacua aut quae1 perniciosa petuntur propter quae fas est genua incerare deorum! quosdam praecipitat subiecta potentia magnae invidiae, mergit longa atque insignis honorum pagina. descendunt statuae restemque sequuntur, ipsas deinde rotas bigarum inpacta securis caedit et inmeritis franguntur crura caballis; iam strident ignes, iam follibus atque caminis ardet adoratum populo caput et crepat ingens Seianus, deinde ex facie toto orbe secunda fiunt urceoli pelves sartago matellae.2 pone domi laurus, duc in Capitolia magnum cretatumque bovem ! Seianus ducitur unco spectandus, gaudent omnes: "quae labra, quis illi vultus erat! numquam, si quid mihi credis, amavi hunc hominem. sed quo cecidit sub crimine ? quisnam 50 55 60 65 1 quae is a conj. by Büch. (1893), the space being blank in the MSS. aut ne perniciosa petantur Lach. Housm. has a mark of interrogation after petuntur. As the text stands, sunt must be understood after quae. Owen conj. prope. 2 matellae P: patellae 4. 1 In i. 95-6 foll. the sportula (properly a basket) is spoken of as a meal actually carried away by the clients. The |