Sic inde huc omnes tanquam ad vivaria currunt. Saecula, quae quondam sub regibus atque tribunis His alias poteram et plures subnectere causas : range of hills ending in the promontory of The Gallinaria Silva lay on the coast of Campania between the mouth of the Vulturnus and Liternum. It is still called Pineta di Castel Volturno, though the pine trees that formerly grew in it and gave it that name are no longer there. 308. Sic inde huc] 'Sic' means 'as we see.' 'Vivaria' are preserves of game. The robbers went to Rome as a gentleman goes to his preserves to shoot. Horace uses the word in the same sort of way about will-hunters: "Excipiantque senes quos in vivaria mittant." (Epp. i. 1. 79.) 311. marrae et sarcula] Mattocks and hoes.' He says so much iron is wanted for chains for these robbers that there is danger 310 315 lest enough be not left for tools. Marra' seems to have been an instrument like the 'sarculum,' but larger, and used for heavier work. 312. Felices proavorum atavos,] 'Proavus' was an ancestor in the third degree, a great-grandfather, and 'atavus' in the fifth, so that proavorum atavi' would be eight generations back. (See note on Hor. C. i. 1. 1: "Maecenas atavis edite regibus.") The expression here is general. Ruperti approves a blunder of some MSS. which he has not seen, 'pravorum atavos,' which he explains by "hominum nunc male viventium majores." 314. uno contentam carcere] This was the Carcer Mamertinus, which was said to have been built by Ancus Martius, and enlarged by Servius Tullius, under the Capitoline Hill. (Hor. Epod. vii. 8, n.) Appius Claudius the decemvir built a second just outside the city walls at the entrance of the ninth region. In this prison happened that case of filial piety recorded by Pliny (H.N. vii. 36; Pers. i. 49. n.), a daughter keeping her mother alive by food from her own breast; in memory of which a temple was erected to Pietas near the prison. As Appius Claudius was put to death in his own prison B.C. 449, Juvenal's golden age lay long way back. But he is speaking loosely. There were other prisons, but there is nothing particular recorded of them, the Carcer Mamertinus being always the principal one. It was sometimes called Lautumiae, from the prison at Syracuse, which, being formed in a stone quarry, bore that name. 'Sub regibus atque tribunis' means 'under the kings and the republic.' 'Tribuni plebis' existed under the empire, but their power, like that of all other magistrates of the republican period, was of no importance. 315. His alias poteram] There is some difference between poteram' and ' 'possem subnectere.' The latter would mean I could have added if I had had time' (Key's L. G. 1257): 'poteram' means 'I had many other reasons to add (or I had it in Sed jumenta vocant et sol inclinat; eundum est. Me quoque ad Helvinam Cererem vestramque Dianam 320 my power to add many other reasons), but I have not time.' 319. Roma tuo refici] Reddet refici' is not a prose construction, which would be 'reddet reficiendum' or 'ut reficiaris.' Aquinum, which from this verse is generally called Juvenal's birth-place, still keeps its name (Aquino). It was situated on the Via Latina in Latium, not far from the borders of Campania. Part of the walls still remains, and ruins of various buildings: among them are three temples, which may or may not be those of Ceres and Diana here mentioned. From coins of Aquinum still existing, which bear the head of Minerva, it would seem that the town was under her protection. Why Ceres is called here Helvina or Elvina, which name she bears nowhere else, is quite uncertain. The Scholiast's notion that the name is derived from the Helvii, a people of Gaul, is not worth any thing. The various derivations that have been surmised will be found in Forcellini. One of Henninius' MSS. had 'ad Eleusinam,' which Ruperti approves, but as it will not scan, he proposes putting ad' before 'Cererem.' The s would be a tempting addition to Eluinam,' and but for ad' no doubt more copyists would have put it in, and the e would soon follow. 321. ni pudet illas,] If they are not ashamed of me;' that is, if your satires will condescend to accept my help, I will put on my boots and come to you. The 'caligae' were thick hob-nailed shoes worn by soldiers. Here it appears the name was given to very thick shoes, such as a man would wear in the country. The notion of the commentators about his going to Juvenal dressed like a soldier, to help him to attack the follies of the age, is wonderful. According to Gifford, he says he will "Come well equipped to wage in angry rhymes Fierce war with you on follies and on crimes." "Here by a beautiful allusion a satirist is considered as a combatant against vice." (Owen.) "Multis symbolis instructus et quasi armatus," says Ruperti. "I will come to do service in the ranks in your great contest." (Mayor.) And nearly all ring the changes on the same idea from Britannicus downwards. Though Aquinum was on a plain below the Apennines, Umbricius speaks of its fields as cool. There was plenty of water in the neighbourhood, and the breezes from the mountains would make it cooler than some places. [Ribbeck quotes a Neapolitan inscription from Mommsen, in which one Junius Juvenalis dedicated something (sacrum vovit dedicavit) to a divinity, of whose name only the last two letters (RI) are preserved in the inscription. He concludes that the complete name is Cereri,' and that this Ceres is the Helvina Ceres of the Satirist. 6 It appears that the inscription is after the time of Vespasian, for the dedicator describes himself as Flamen Divi Vespasiani.' This mutilated inscription also designates the dedicator as in some way conDELMATARVM, nected with COH ... in the capacity of tribune or praefect as Ribbeck assumes. The inference is that he who made the dedication had served in the army, which must be admitted; and the further inference is made that he was the Satirist Juvenal, which is by no means certain. No person, observes Ribbeck, is described as 'caligatus' except 'miles inferiorum equestri militia ordinum.' He also says, 'etiam adjutorem velut tribuni militare munus esse docent inscriptiones.' Accordingly, he concludes, satis festive tribuno vel praefecto cohortis quasi adjutor, equiti caligatus ad scribendas satiras officium profiteri fingitur Umbricius.' If this argument proves that Juvenal was a military officer, it proves also that Umbricius was a common soldier, a conclusion which does not appear consistent with the general tenour of the satire.] SATIRA IV. INTRODUCTION. THE man Crispinus mentioned in the first satire (v. 26) as a coxcomb who had been imported a slave, and had risen to consequence by the favour of Domitian, is here introduced again. A piece of extravagance of his is made the handle for introducing the story of a fish of immense size which was once caught in the Adriatic, and presented by the fisherman to Domitian at his country palace on the Alban lake. The tyrant, by way of showing his contempt for the senate, summoned them suddenly, as if on matters of state, to attend him from Rome, for the purpose of giving their opinions upon the fish and the manner of dressing it. The satire turns upon this point, the degradation of the senators, some of them honourable men, whom, as well as others who were not so, he mentions by The poem was written after the death of Domitian, which is referred to in the last two lines. It is difficult to say how soon after, but Crispinus still retained the wealth he had acquired under Domitian, and we may believe it did not stay with him long under the next reigns. The sketches of the different senators are very good. They are evidently drawn from life; and no better scene was wanted or could be invented to represent the abject condition of the principal men of Rome under this insolent tyrant. name. ARGUMENT. Crispinus here again—and he must often play his part-monster, without a virtue to redeem him. What use is all his wealth to him? The bad are never happy, much less the adulterer and the incestuous. But now of smaller matters; though in another this were bad enough. But what is to be done where men are worse than all that can be said of them? V. 15. He bought a mullet of six pounds for as many sestertia: not as a present for some rich old man or for his mistress; no, he bought it for himself. He, the Egyptian slave! a fish cost more than the man that caught it, nay, more than an estate in the provinces. What shall we think that emperors eat when such a side-dish gorges the parasite of the court, now first of equites, who used to cry stale fish in his native place? V. 34. Let's sit, Calliope; tell a true tale, ye Muses chaste and young and since I call you so give me your favour. V. 37. When our last Flavius was torturing the world, it happened a huge fish was taken at Ancona, not less than they which after winter's ice float from Maeotis to the Euxine. The monster straight is marked for the high-priest, for who would dare to sell it with the coast full of informers, ready to swear the fish was reared in the imperial ponds, and must go back to its lord? They tell us all that's good in the sea belongs to the privy purse, so it's sent as a present in fear of confiscation. V. 56. The winter had set in; the man in haste, as if 'twas summer and the fish would spoil, makes for the palace. And when he gets to the lakes where Vesta dwells, a crowd admiring stops him; when it parts the doors fly open; the senate waits without. He's brought to the great man. "Accept (says he) an offering too big for private tables: make merry, eat, this fish was kept for Caesar's days. Itself was anxious to be caught." The flattery is too gross, and yet his feathers rise; greatness But now there is no dish to hold the monster. So he calls a hates, and on whose faces sit the terrors of a great man's will swallow any thing. council of the men he friendship. V. 75. The word is given; Pegasus first snatches up his cloak, the new-made bailiff of the city, for what else then were praefects? an excellent judge, but much too merciful for the times he lived in. Pleasant old Crispus next, whose heart was like his speech, a man of gentle temper: an excellent companion for the world's master if he might speak his honest mind. But who dare speak to such a tyrant, when on every trivial sentence hung one's life? Crispus was not the man to swim against the stream, and risk his life for truth. And so he lived in safety eighty years. Then came Acilius with his poor son, unworthy of that savage death. But greatness and great age have long been strangers. Let me be humble brother of the giants. In vain he pierced the bear in the Alban circus. Who does not see through such patrician tricks? Brutus might cheat your king with a long beard. Rubrius comes next, not less dejected though less noble; convicted of an old and foul offence, but shameless as the filthy satirist. Montanus next with his big belly comes. Crispinus with his morning scents: Pompeius too, whose softest whisper was a dagger: Fuscus, who dreamt of wars in his marble villa, and kept his bowels for the Dacian vultures. Crafty Veiento then, and blind Catullus who lusted for a maid he could not see; a special monster even for our times, fit but to beg by the road side. He matches all in admiration, looking to the left while the brute lay on his right; just as he did in the theatre, praising the fighters and machinery. Veiento like a madman prophesies. Here is an omen of huge triumph; some king shall be your prisoner; don't you see the brute's a foreigner?" Fabricius could all but tell the animal's country and its age. V. 130. "Well now, what think ye, is it to be cut ?" "Nay," says Montanus, "far be such disgrace. Let's get a noble dish to put it in; Prometheus too to make it; haste, clay and wheel; henceforth, O Caesar, potters must wait upon your court!" His motion was adopted, worthy of a man who knew the ways of Nero's court, no one has beat him in my time for knowledge of the table. He'd tell you at a taste where an oyster came from, and told at sight the echinus' native coast. V. 144. The council rise and are discharged; summoned in haste, as if some terrible news had come from far. Would that in trifles such as these had passed the savage days in which he robbed the city of her noblest spirits, without a hand to avenge them. But his time came when the mean began to fear him. "Twas this that ruined him, though his hand reeked with noble blood. ECCE iterum Crispinus, et est mihi saepe vocandus 1. Ecce iterum Crispinus,] See i. 26, n. 'Aeger' means that he was feeble, 'fortis,' resolute. (See Hor. C. S. 23, n.) "Fortis ut quem nullus potest a consuetis vitiis deterrere." Schol. He is said to have had no taste for intriguing with single women, and was only satisfied with corrupting those who were married. The Scholiast says he was "in minore debilis scelere." Vidua’ applies to women without husbands, whether they ever had one or not. Livy (i. 46) opposes it to 'coelebs.' In v. 3, P. has 66 aegrae solaque libidine fortes Deliciae, viduas." And the Scholiast, according to the common reading of his text, has the following note: "Aeg. solaque lib. for. Quid refert igitur quantis jumenta fatiget Figura. Quid est Crispinus? Aegrae solaque libidine fortes Deliciae.-—fortes, ut quem nullus potest etiam a consuetis vitiis deterrere." There is plainly some confusion in this note, which Heinrich has mended; and the reading of the above MS. (which has been corrected by a later hand) has no other authority. Yet Jahn has adopted it [and Ribbeck], and Mr. Mayor says it is the reading of the best MSS. 'Spernatur' has the same authority, with the addition of some of the Parisian MSS., and is adopted by Jahn. It is not a word found in any other author, and the common reading is aspernatur.' [Ribbeck places all this introduction, vv. 1-36, Ecce iterum Crispinus' to 'dixisse puellas' at the bottom of his page, as spurious.] 5. quantis jumenta fatiget Porticibus,] He asks what does it matter ('refert' is rem fert,' see Key's L. G. 910; Hor. S. i. 1. 49, n.) how rich he is, how big are his colonnades, up and down which he drives for his amusement, what woods or shrubberies he has in which he is carried about in his lectica or sella, that he had whole acres of ground near the Forum, and owned many houses. The gardens of some private persons, such for instance as Maecenas and Sallust, were very large. The immediate neighbourhood of the Forum was covered with houses and public buildings, but between Mons Capitolinus and the Campus Martius there was space for large gardens such as Agrippa had there. They must be very costly in such a neighbourhood, which is what Juvenal means. There were private as well as public covered walks and drives (porticus) about the city. Fatigat' is a poetical word in this connexion. Virgil uses it (Aen. i. 316), "vel qualis equos Threissa fatigat Harpalyce." · 9. Incestus,] Incestum' was what we understand it, intercourse whether with or without the pretence of marriage (which 5 10 was no marriage) between those who were too near of kin to have connubium:' but it went beyond this, and being an act against religion, it embraced likewise intercourse with a vestal virgin. In such cases the woman was buried and left to starve in a cell in the Campus Sceleratus in the Sixth Region of the city. The man was put to death by scourging. Domitian, as stated before (S. ii. 29, n.), revived the law about vestals, but Juvenal says his favourite, Crispinus, could break it with impunity, and had lately done so, though the woman underwent the usual punishment. Nuper,' however, does not limit the act to a very short time before, though it was probably not long. One of the first acts after a vestal was convicted was to strip her of her vitta, which all the virgins wore when on duty. For 'vittata' Jahn reads 'vitiata,' with no authority. 12. caderet sub judice morum.] This the Scholiast explains rightly, 'damnaretur a censore.' So Claudian (iv. Cons. Hon. 88) says, "non hostes victore cadunt sed judice sontes." 'Cadere' has the same meaning as in x. 69: "sed quo cecidit sub crimine?" The 'judex morum' was the censor, and here means Domitian, who took that office for his life, as mentioned in S. ii. 29. The proceeding that Juvenal is going to relate should have brought the man under the censor as the corrector of extravagance, a part of his duty being to enforce such sumptuary laws as were in existence from time to time. After Augustus they fell into disuse. 13. Titio Seioque] These names were commonly used in legal proceedings, and mean no persons in particular here. He calls them bonis,' the Scholiast says, derisively, and by comparison. To 'decebat' Heinrich prefers 'decebit,' that is, 'facile decet;' and the passage is so quoted by John of Salisbury (Nugae, &c., i. 4). |