Chapter XI: Appendix: , on the Date of Juvenal's Satires (8)

[770] _Cuticula._ Pers., iv., 18, "Assiduo curata cuticula sole." 33, "Et figas in cute solem." V., 179, "Aprici meminisse senes." Mart., x., Ep. xii., 7, "Totos avidâ cute combibe soles." I., Ep. 78, "Sole utitur Charinus." Plin., Ep. iii., 1, "Ubi hora balinei nuntiata est (cf. ad Sat. x., 216), est autem hieme nona, æstate octava, in sole, si caret vento, ambulat nudus." Cicero mentions "apricatio" as one of the solaces of old age. De Sen., c. xvi.

"While we, my friend, whose skin grows old and dry,
Court the warm sunbeam of an April sky." Badham.

[771] _Rarior usus._

"Our very sports by repetition tire,
But rare delight breeds ever new desire." Hodgson.

SATIRE XII.

This day, Corvinus, is a more joyful one to me than even my own birthday;[772] in which the festal altar of turf[773] awaits the animals promised to the gods.

To the queen of the gods we sacrifice a snow-white[774] lamb: a similar fleece shall be given to her that combated the Mauritanian Gorgon.[775] But the victim reserved for Tarpeian Jupiter, shakes, in his wantonness, his long-stretched[776] rope, and brandishes his forehead. Since he is a sturdy calf; ripe for the temple and the altar, and ready to be sprinkled with wine; ashamed any longer to drain his mother's[777] teats, and butts the oaks with his sprouting horn.[778] Had I an ample fortune, and equal to my wishes, a bull fatter than Hispulla,[779] and slow-paced from his very bulk, should be led to sacrifice, and one not fed in a neighboring pasture; but his blood should flow, giving evidence of the rich pastures of Clitumnus,[780] and with a neck that must be struck by a ministering priest of great strength, to do honor to the return of my friend who is still trembling, and has recently endured great horrors, and wonders to find himself safe.

For besides the dangers of the sea, and the stroke of the lightning which he escaped, thick darkness obscured the sky in one huge cloud, and a sudden thunder-bolt struck the yard-arms, while every one fancied he was struck by it, and at once, amazed, thought that no shipwreck could be compared in horror with a ship on fire.[781] For all things happen so, and with such horrors accompanying, when a storm arises in poetry.[782]

Now here follows another sort of danger. Hear, and pity him a second time; although the rest is all of the same description. Yet it is a very dreadful part, and one well known to many, as full many a temple testifies with its votive picture. (Who does not know that painters[783] are maintained by Isis?) A similar fortune befell our friend Catullus also: when the hold was half full of water, and when the waves heaved up each side alternately of the laboring ship, and the skill of the hoary pilot could render no service, he began to compound with the winds by throwing overboard, imitating the beaver who makes a eunuch[784] of himself, hoping to get off by the sacrifice of his testicles; so well does he know their medicinal properties. "Throw overboard all that belongs to me, the whole of it!" cried Catullus, eager to throw over even his most beautiful things--a robe of purple fit even for luxurious Mæcenases, and others whose very fleece the quality of the generous pasture has tinged, moreover the exquisite water with its hidden properties, and the atmosphere of Bætica[785] contributes to enhance its beauty. He did not hesitate to cast overboard even his plate, salvers the workmanship of Parthenius, a bowl[786] that would hold three gallons, and worthy of Pholus when thirsty, or even the wife of Fuscus.[787] Add to these bascaudæ,[788] and a thousand chargers, a quantity of embletic work, out of which the cunning purchaser of Olynthus[789] had drunk. But what other man in these days, or in what quarter of the globe, has the courage to prefer his life to his money, and his safety to his property? Some men do not make fortunes for the sake of living, but, blinded by avarice, live for the sake of money-getting. The greatest part even of necessaries is thrown overboard: but not even do these sacrifices relieve the ship--then, in the urgency of the peril, it came to such a pitch that he yielded his mast to the hatchet, and rights himself at last, though in a crippled state. Since this is the last resource in danger we apply, to make the ship lighter.

Go now, and commit your life to the mercy of the winds; trusting to a hewn plank, with but four digits[790] between you and death, or seven at most, if the deal is of the thickest. And then together with your provision-baskets and bread and wide-bellied flagon,[791] look well that you lay in hatchets,[792] to be brought into use in storms.

But when the sea subsided into calm, and the state of affairs was more propitious to the mariner, and his destiny prevailed over Eurus and the sea, when now the cheerful Parcæ draw kindlier tasks with benign hand, and spin white wool,[793] and what wind there is, is not much stronger than a moderate breeze, the wretched bark, with a poor make-shift, ran before it, with the sailors' clothes spread out, and with its only sail that remained: when now the south wind subsided, together with the sun hope of life returned. Then the tall peak beloved by Iulus, and preferred as a home by him to Lavinium,[794] his stepmother's seat, comes in sight; to which the white sow[795] gave its name--(an udder that excited the astonishment of the gladdened Phrygians)--illustrious from what had never been seen before, thirty paps. At length he enters the moles,[796] built through the waters inclosed within them, and the Pharos of Tuscany, and the arms extending back, which jut out into the middle of the sea, and leave Italy far behind. You would not bestow such admiration on the harbor which nature formed: but with damaged bark, the master steers for the inner smooth waters of the safe haven, which even a pinnace of Baiæ could cross; and there with shaven crowns[797] the sailors, now relieved from anxiety, delight to recount their perils that form the subject of their prating.

Go then, boys, favoring with tongues and minds,[798] and place garlands in the temples, and meal on the sacrificial knives, and decorate the soft hearths and green turf-altar. I will follow shortly, and the sacrifice which is most important[799] having been duly performed, I will then return home, where my little images, shining in frail wax, shall receive their slender chaplets. Here I will propitiate[800] my own Jove, and offer incense to my hereditary Lares,[801] and will display all colors of the violet. All things are gay; my gateway has set up long branches,[802] and celebrates the festivities[803] with lamps lighted in the morning.

Nor let these things be suspected by you, Corvinus. Catullus, for whose safe return I erect so many altars, has three little heirs. You may wait long enough for a man that would expend even a sick hen at the point of death for so unprofitable a friend. But even this is too great an outlay. Not even a quail will ever be sacrificed in behalf of one who is a father. If rich Gallita[804] and Paccius, who have no children, begin to feel the approach of fever, every temple-porch is covered with votive tablets,[805] affixed according to due custom. There are some who would even promise a hecatomb[806] of oxen. Since elephants are not to be bought here or in Latium, nor is there any where in our climate such a large beast generated; but, fetched from the dusky nation, they are fed in the Rutulian forests, and the field of Turnus, as the herd of Cæsar, prepared to serve no private individual, since their ancestors used to obey Tyrian Hannibal, and our own generals,[807] and the Molossian king, and to bear on their backs cohorts--no mean portion of the war--and a tower that went into battle. It is no fault, consequently, of Novius, or of Ister Pacuvius,[808] that that ivory is not led to the altars, and falls a sacred victim before the Lares of Gallita, worthy of such great gods, and those that court their favor! One of these two fellows, if you would give him license to perform the sacrifice, would vow the tallest or all the most beautiful persons among his flock of slaves, or place sacrificial fillets on his boys and the brows of his female slaves. And if he has any Iphigenia[809] at home of marriageable age, he will offer her at the altars, though he can not hope for the furtive substitution of the hind of the tragic poets. I commend my fellow-citizen, and do not compare a thousand[810] ships to a will; for if the sick man shall escape Libitina,[811] he will cancel his former will, entangled in the meshes of the act,[812] after a service so truly wonderful: and perhaps in one short line will give his all to Pacuvius as sole[813] heir. Proudly will he strut over his defeated rivals. You see, therefore, what a great recompense the slaughtered Mycenian maid earns.

Long live Pacuvius, I pray, even to the full age of Nestor.[814] Let him own as much as ever Nero plundered,[815] let him pile his gold mountains high, and let him love no one,[816] and be loved by none.

FOOTNOTES:

[772] _Natali._ The birthday was sacred to the "Genius" to whom they offered wine, incense, and flowers: abstaining from "bloody" sacrifices, "ne die quâ ipsi lucem accepissent aliis demerent," Hor., ii., Ep. 144. "Floribus et vino Genium memorem brevis avi," Pers., ii., 3. "Funde merum Genio," Censorin., de D. N., 3. Virg., Ecl. iii., 76. Compare Hor., Od., IV., xi., where he celebrates the birthday of Mæcenas as "sanctior pœne _natali proprio_." Cf. Dennis's Etruria, vol. ii., p. 65.

[773] _Cæspes._ Hor., Od., III., viii., 3, "Positusque carbo in cæspite vivo." Tac., Ann., i. 18.

[774] _Niveam._ A white victim was offered to the Dii Superi: a black one to the Inferi. Cf. Virg., Æn., iv., 60," _Junoni_ ante omnes, Ipsa tenens dextrâ pateram pulcherrima Dido _Candentis_ vaccæ media inter cornua fundit." Tibull., I., ii., 61, "Concidit ad magicos hostia _pulla_ deos." Hor., i., Sat. viii., 27," Pullam divellere mordicus agnam."

[775] _Gorgone._ Cf. Vir., Æn., viii., 435, _seq._; ii., 616.

[776] _Extensum._ It was esteemed a very bad omen if the victim did not go willingly to the sacrifice. It was always led, therefore, with a long slack rope.

[777] _Matris._ Cf. Hor., iv., Od. ii., 54, "Me tener solvet vitulus, relicta matre."

[778] _Nascenti._ Hor., iii., Od. xiii., 4, "Cui frons turgida cornibus Primis et Venerem, et prælia destinat."

"He flies his mother's teat with playful scorn,
And butts the oak-trees with his growing horn." Hodgson.

[779] _Hispulla._ Cf. vi., 74, "Hispulla tragædo gaudet." (This was the name of the aunt of Pliny the Younger's wife, iv., Ep. 19; viii., 11.)

"Huge as Hispulla: scarcely to be slain
But by the stoutest servant of the train." Badham.

[780] _Clitumnus_ was a small river in Umbria flowing into the Tinia, now "Topino," near Mevania, now "Timia." The Tinia discharges itself into the Tiber near Perusia. Pliny (viii., Ep. 8) gives a beautiful description of its source, now called "La Vene," in a letter which is, as Gifford says, a model of elegance and taste. Its waters were supposed to give a milk-white color to the cattle who drank of them. Virg., Georg., ii., 146, "Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus victima." Propert., II., xix., 25, "Quà formosa suo Clitumnus flumina luco Integit et niveos abluit unda boves." Sil., iv., 547, "Clitumnus in arvis Candentes gelido perfundit flumine tauros." Claudian., vi., Cons. Hon., 506.

[781] _Ignis._ Grangæus interprets this of the meteoric fires seen in the Mediterranean, which, when seen single, were supposed to be fatal. Plin., ii., 37, "Graves cum solitarii venerunt mergentesque navigia, et si in carinæ ima deciderint, exurentes." These fires, when _double_, were hailed as a happy omen, as the stars of Castor and Pollux. "Fratres Helenæ lucida sidera," Hor., I., Od. iii., 2; cf. xii., 27. The French call it "Le feu St. Elme," said to be a corruption of "Helena." The Italian sailors call them "St. Peter and St. Nicholas." But these only appear at the _close_ of a storm. Cf. Hor., ii., _seq._, and Blunt's Vestiges, p. 37.

[782] _Poetica tempestas._

"So loud the thunder, such the whirlwind's sweep,
As when the poet lashes up the deep." Hodgson.

[783] _Pictores._ So Hor., i., Od. v., 13, "Me tabulâ sacer votivâ paries indicat noida suspendisse potenti vestimenta maris Deo." It seems to have been the custom for persons in peril of shipwreck not only to vow pictures of their perilous condition to some deity in case they escaped, but also to have a painting of it made to carry about with them to excite commiseration as they begged. Cf. xiv., 302, "Naufragus assem dum rogat et pictâ se tempestate tuetur." Pers., i., 89, "Quum fractâ te in trabe pictum ex humero portes." VI., 32, "Largire inopi, ne pictus oberret cæruleâ in tabulâ." Hor., A. P., 20, "Fractis enatat exspes navibus, ære dato qui pingitur." Phæd., IV., xxi., 24. Some think that _this_ picture was _afterward_ dedicated, but this is an error.

[784] _Castora._ Ov., Nux., 165, "Sic ubi detracta est a te tibi causa pericli Quod superest tutum, Pontice Castor, habes!" This story of the beaver is told Plin., viii., 30; xxxvii., 6, and is repeated by Silius, in a passage copied from Ovid and Juvenal. "Fluminei veluti deprensus gurgitis undis, Avulsâ parte _inguinibus causâque pericli_, Enatat intento prædæ fiber avius hoste," xv., 485. But it is an error. The sebaceous matter called castoreum (Pers., v., 135), is secreted by two glands near the root of the tail. (Vid. Martyn's Georgics, i., 59, "Virosaque Pontus Castorea," and Browne's Vulgar Errors, lib. iii., 4.) Pliny, viii., 3, tells a similar story of the elephant, "Circumventi a venantibus dentes impactos arbori frangunt, _prædâque se redimunt_."

[785] _Bæticus._ The province of Bætica (Andalusia) takes its name from the Bætis, or "Guadalquivir," the waters of which were said to give a ruddy golden tinge to the fleeces of the sheep that drank it. Martial alludes to it repeatedly. "Non est lana mihi mendax, nec mutor aëno. Si placeant Tyriæ me mea tinxit ovis," xiv., Ep. 133. Cf. v., 37; viii., 28. "Vellera nativo pallent ubi flava metallo," ix., 62. "Aurea qui nitidis vellera tingis aquis," xii., 99.

"Away went garments of that innate stain
That wool imbibes on Guadalquiver's plain,
From native herbs and babbling fountains nigh,
To aid the powers of Andalusia's sky." Badham.

[786] _Urnæ._ Vid. ad vi., 426. Pholus was one of the Centaurs. Virg., Georg., ii., 455. Cf. Stat., Thebaid., ii., 564, _seq._, "Qualis in adversos Lapithas erexit inanem Magnanimus cratera Pholus," etc.

[787] _Conjuge Fusci._ Vid. ad ix., 117.

[788] _Bascaudas._ The Celtic word "Basgawd" is said to be the root of the English word "basket." Vid. Latham's English language, p. 98. These were probably vessels surrounded with basket or rush work. Mart., xiv., Ep. 99. "Barbara de pictis veni bascauda Britannis; sed me jam mavolt dicere Roma suam."

[789] _Olynthi._ Philip of Macedon bribed Lasthenes and Eurycrates to betray Olynthus to him. Pliny (xxxiii., 5) says he used to sleep with a gold cup under his pillow. Once, when told that the route to a castle he was going to attack was impracticable, he asked whether "an ass laden with gold could not possibly reach it." Plut., Apophth., ii., p. 178.

"A store
Of precious cups, high chased in golden ore;
Cups that adorn'd the crafty Philip's state,
And bought his entrance at th' Olynthian gate." Hodgson.

[790] _Digitis._ Cf. xiv, 289, "Tabulâ distinguitur undâ." Ovid. Amor. ii. xi. 25, "Navita sollicitus qua ventos horret iniquos; Et prope tam letum quam prope cernit aquam."

"Trust to a little plank 'twixt death and thee,
And by four inches 'scape eternity." Hodgson.

[791] _Ventre-lagenæ._ "A gorbellied flagon." Shakspeare.

[792] _Secures._

"His biscuit and his bread the sailor brings
On board: 'tis well. But hatchets are the things." Badh.

[793] _Staminis albi._ The "white" or "black" threads of the Parcæ were supposed to symbolize the good or bad fortune of the mortal whose yarn Clotho was spinning. Mart. iv. Ep. 73, "Ultima volventes oraba pensa sorores, Ut traherent parva stamina pulla morâ." VI. Ep. 58, "Si mihi lanificæ ducunt non pulla sorores Stamina." Hor. ii. Od. iii. 16, "Sororum fila trium patiuntur atra."

[794] _Prælata Lavino._ Virg. Æn. i. 267, seq. Liv. i. 1, 3. Tibull. II. v. 49.

[795] _Scrofa._ Virg. Æn. iii. 390, "Littoreis ingens inventa sub ilicibus sus, Triginta capitum fœtus enixa jacebit, Alba solo recubans, albi circum ubera nati. Is locus urbis erit, requies ea certa laborum,"--and viii., 43.

[796] _Moles._ This massive work was designed and begun by Julius Cæsar, executed by Claudius, and repaired by Trajan. It is said to have employed thirty thousand men for eleven years. Suetonius thus describes it (Claud., c. 20): "Portum Ostiæ exstruxit circumducto dextrâ sinistrâque brachis, et ad introitum profundo jam solo mole objectâ, quam quò stabilius fundaret, navem ante demersit, quâ magnus obeliscus, ex Ægypto fuerat advectus; congestisque pilis superposuit altissimam turrim in exemplum Alexandrini Phari, ut ad nocturnos ignes cursum navigia dirigerent." (Cf. vi., 83. The Pharos of Alexandria was built by Sostratus, and accounted one of the seven wonders of the world.)

"Enter the moles, that running out so wide
Clasp in their giant arms the billowy tide,
That leave afar diminishing the land,
More wondrous than the works of nature's hand." Hodgson.

[797] _Vertice raso._ It was the custom in storms at sea to vow the hair to some god, generally Neptune: and hence slaves, when manumitted, shaved their heads, "quod tempestatem servitutis videbantur effugere, ut naufragis liberati solent." Cf. Pers., iii., 106, "Hesterni capite inducto subiere Quirites." Hodgson has an excellent note on the "mystical attributes" of hair.

[798] _Linguis animisque faventes._ Cic., de Div., i., 102, "Omnibus rebus agendis, Quod bonum, faustum, felix, fortunatumque esset, præfabantur: rebusque divinis, quæ publicè fierent, ut faverent linguis imperabant: inque feriis imperandis ut litibus et jurgiis se abstinerent." Cf. Hor., iii., Od. i., 2, "Favete linguis." Virg., Æn., v., 71, "Ore favete omnes." Hor., Od., III., xiv., 11; Tibull., II., ii., 2, "Quisquis ades linguâ, vir, mulierque fave." So εὐφημεῖν; cf. Eurip., Hec., 528, _seq._

[799] _Sacro quod præstat_; i. e., the sacrifices mentioned in the beginning of the Satire, viz., to Juno, Pallas, and Tarpeian Jove, and therefore more important than those to the Lares.

[800] _Placabo._ Cf. Hor., i., Od. 36, 1. Orell.

[801] _Nostrum_, i. e., his own Lar familiaris. Cf. ix., 137, "O Parvi nostrique Lares." For the worship of these Lares, Junones, and Genius, see Dennis's Etruria, vol. i., p. lv.

[802] _Erexit janua ramos._ Cf. ad ix., 85.

[803] _Operatur festa._ Perhaps read with Lipsius, "operitur festa," "in festive-guise is covered with." Virgil, however, uses "operatus" similarly. Georg., i., 339, "Sacra refer Cereri lætis operatus in herbis." Cf. ad ix., 117.

"All savors here of joy: luxuriant bay
O'ershades my portal, while the taper's ray
Anticipates the feast and chides the tardy day." Gifford.

[804] _Gallita._ Tacitus (Hist., i., 73) speaks of a Gallita Crispilina, or, as some read, Calvia Crispinilla, as a "magistra libidinum Neronis," and as "potens _pecuniâ et orbitate_, quæ bonis malisque temporibus juxtà valent." Paccius Africanus is mentioned also Hist., iv., 41.

[805] _Tabellis._ Cf. ad x., 55, "Propter quæ fas est genua incerare deorum."

[806] _Hecatomben._ The hecatomb properly consisted of oxen, 100 being sacrificed simultaneously on 100 different altars. But sheep or other victims were also offered. The poor sometimes vowed an ὠῶν ἑκατόμβη. Emperors are said to have sacrificed 100 lions or eagles. Suetonius says, that above 160,000 victims were slaughtered in honor of Caligula's entering the city. Calig., c. 14.

[807] _Nostris ducibus._ Curius Dentatus was the first to lead elephants in triumph. Metellus, after his victory over Asdrubal, exhibited two hundred and four. Plin., viii., 6. L. Scipio, father-in-law to Pompey, employed thirty in battle against Cæsar. The Romans first saw elephants in the Tarentine war, against Pyrrhus; and as they were first encountered in Lucania, they gave the elephant the name of "Bos Lucas." So Hannibal. See x., 158, "Gætula ducem portaret bellua luscum."

[808] _Ister Pacuvius._ Cf. ii., 58.

[809] _Iphigenia._ Cf. Æsch., Ag., 39, seq., and the exquisite lines in Lucretius, i., 85-102; but Juvenal seems to have had Ovid's lines in his head, Met., xii., 28, _seq._, "Postquam pietatem publica causa, Rexque patrem vicit, castumque datura cruorem Flentibus ante aram stetit Iphigenia ministris: Victa dea est, nubemque oculis objecit, et inter Officium turbamque sacri, vocesque precantum, Supposita fertur mutâsse _Mycenida cervâ_."

[810] _Mille._ στόλον Ἀργείων χιλιοναύτην. Æsch., Ag., 44.

[811] _Libitinam._ Properly an epithet of Venus (the goddess who presides over _deaths_ as well as births), in whose temple all things belonging to funerals were sold. Cf. Plut., Qu. Rom., 23. Servius Tullius enacted that a sestertius should be deposited in the temple of Venus Libitina for every person that died, in order to ascertain the number of deaths. Dion. Halic., iv., 79. Cf. Liv., xl., 19; xli., 21. Suet., Ner., 39, "triginta funerum millia in rationem Libitinæ venerunt." Hor., iii., Od. xxx., 6; ii., Sat. vi., 19.

[812] _Nassa_ is properly an "osier weel," κύρτη for catching fish. Plin., xxi., 18, 59.

[813] _Solo._ Cf. i., 68, "Exiguis tabulis;" ii., 58, "Solo tabulas impleverit Hister Liberto;" vi., 601, "Impleret tabulas."

"What are a thousand vessels to a will!
Yes! every blank Pacuvius' name shall fill." Hodgson.

[814] _Nestora._ Cf. Hom., Il., i., 250; Od., iii., 245. Mart., vi., Ep. lxx., 12, "Ætatem Priami Nestorisque." X., xxiv., 11. Cf. ad x., 246.

[815] _Rapuit Nero._ Vid. Tac., Ann., xv., 42, Brotier's note. Suetonius (Nero, c. 32), after many instances of his rapacity, subjoins the following: "Nulli delegavit officium ut non adjiceret Scis quid mihi opus sit:" et "Hoc agamus ne quis quidquam habeat." "Ultimot emplis compluribus dona detraxit."

[816] _Nec amet._

"Nor ever be, nor ever find, a friend!" Dryden.

SATIRE XIII.

Every act that is perpetrated, that will furnish a precedent for crime, is loathsome[817] even to the author himself. This is the punishment that first lights upon him, that by the verdict[818] of his own breast no guilty man is acquitted; though the corrupt influence of the prætor may have made his cause prevail, by the urn[819] being tampered with. What think you, Calvinus,[820] is the opinion of all men touching the recent villainy, and the charge you bring of breach of trust? But it is your good fortune not to have so slender an income, that the weight of a trifling loss can plunge you into ruin; nor is what you are suffering from an unfrequent occurrence. This is a case well known to many--worn threadbare--drawn from the middle of fortune's heap.[821]

Let us, then, lay aside all excessive complaints. A _man's_ grief ought not to blaze forth beyond the proper bounds, nor exceed the loss sustained. Whereas _you_ can scarcely bear even the very least diminutive particle of misfortune, however trifling, boiling with rage in your very bowels because your friend does not restore to you the deposit he swore to return. Can _he_ be amazed at this, that has left threescore years behind him, born when Fonteius was consul?[822] Have you gained[823] nothing by such long experience of the world? Noble indeed are the precepts which philosophy, that triumphs over fortune, lays down in her books of sacred wisdom. Yet we deem those happy too who, with daily life[824] for their instructress, have learned to endure with patience the inconveniences of life, and not shake off the yoke.[825]

What day is there so holy that is not profaned by bringing to light theft, treachery, fraud--filthy lucre got by crime of every dye, and money won by stabbing or by poison?[826] Since rare indeed are the good! their number is scarce so many as the gates of Thebes,[827] or the mouths of fertilizing Nile. We are now passing through the ninth age of the world: an era far worse than the days of Iron; for whose villainy not even Nature herself can find a name, and has no metal[828] base enough to call it by. Yet we call heaven and earth to witness, with a shout as loud as that with which the Sportula,[829] that gives them tongues, makes his clients applaud Fæsidius as he pleads. Tell me, thou man of many years, and yet more fit to bear the boss[830] of childhood, dost thou not know the charms that belong to another's money? Knowest thou not what a laugh thy simplicity would raise in the common herd, for expecting that no man should forswear himself, but should believe some deity is[831] really present in the temples and at the altars red with blood? In days of old the aborigines perhaps used to live after this fashion: before Saturn in his flight laid down his diadem, and adopted the rustic sickle: in the days when Juno was a little maid; and Jupiter as yet in a private[832] station in the caves of Ida: no banquetings of the celestials above the clouds, no Trojan boy or beauteous wife of Hercules as cup-bearer; or Vulcan (but not till he had drained the nectar) wiping[833] his arms begrimed with his forge in Lipara. Then each godship dined alone; nor was the crowd of deities so great[834] as it is now-a-days: and the heavens, content with a few divinities, pressed on the wretched Atlas with less grievous weight. No one had as yet received as his share the gloomy empire of the deep: nor was there the grim[835] Pluto with his Sicilian bride, nor Ixion's wheel, nor the Furies, nor Sisyphus' stone, nor the punishment of the black vulture,[836] but the shades passed jocund days with no infernal king.

In that age villainy was a prodigy! They used to hold it as a heinous sin, that naught but death could expiate, if a young man had not risen up to pay honor to an old one,[837] or a boy to one whose beard was grown; even though he himself gloated over more strawberries at home, or a bigger pile of acorns.[838]

So just a claim to deference had even four years' priority; so much on a par with venerated old age was the first dawn of youth! Now, if a friend should not deny the deposit[839] intrusted to him, if he should give back the old leathern purse with all its rusty[840] coin untouched, it is a prodigy of honesty, equivalent to a miracle,[841] fit to be entered among the marvels in the Tuscan records,[842] and that ought to be expiated by a lamb crowned for sacrifice.[843] If I see a man above the common herd, of real probity, I look upon him as a prodigy equal to a child born half man, half brute;[844] or a shoal of fish turned up by the astonished[845] plow; or a mule[846] with foal! in trepidation as great as though the storm-cloud had rained stones;[847] or a swarm of bees[848] had settled in long cluster from some temple's top; as though a river had flowed into the ocean with unnatural eddies,[849] and rushing impetuous with a stream of milk.

Do you complain of being defrauded of _ten_ sestertia by impious fraud? What if another has lost in the same way two hundred, deposited without a witness![850] and a third a still larger sum than that, such as the corner of his capacious strong-box could hardly contain! So easy and so natural is it to despise the gods above,[851] that witness all, if no mortal man attest the same! See with how bold a voice he denies it! What unshaken firmness in the face he puts on! He swears by the sun's rays, by the thunderbolts of Tarpeian Jove, the glaive of Mars, the darts of the prophet-god of Cirrha,[852] by the arrows and quiver of the Virgin Huntress, and by thy trident, O Neptune, father of the Ægæan! He adds the bow of Hercules, Minerva's spear, and all the weapons that the arsenals of heaven hold.[853] But if he be a father also, he says, "I am ready to eat my wretched son's head boiled, swimming in vinegar from Pharos."[854]

There are some who refer all things to the accidents of fortune,[855] and believe the universe moves on with none to guide its course; while nature brings round the revolutions of days and years. And therefore, without a tremor, are ready to lay their hands[856] on any altar. Another does indeed dread that punishment will follow crime; he thinks the gods _do_ exist. Still he perjures himself, and reasons thus with himself: "Let Isis[857] pass whatever sentence she pleases upon my body, and strike my eyes with her angry Sistrum, provided only that when blind I may retain the money I disown. Are consumption, or ulcerous sores, or a leg shriveled to half its bulk, such mighty matters? If Ladas[858] be poor, let him not hesitate to wish for gout that waits on wealth, if he is not mad enough to require Anticyra[859] or Archigenes.[860] For what avails the honor of his nimble feet, or the hungry branch of Pisa's olive? All-powerful though it be, that anger of the gods, yet surely it is slow-paced! If, therefore, they set themselves to punish all the guilty, when will they come to me? Besides, I may perchance discover that the deity may be appeased by prayers! "It is not unusual with him to pardon[861] such perjuries as these. Many commit the same crimes with results widely different. One man receives crucifixion[862] as the reward of his villainy; another, a regal crown!"

Thus they harden their minds, agitated by terror inspired by some heinous crime. Then, when you summon him to swear on the sacred shrine, he will go first![863] Nay, he is quite ready to drag you there himself, and worry you to put him to this test. For when a wicked cause is backed by impudence, it is believed by many to be the confidence[864] of innocence. He acts as good a farce as the runaway slave, the buffoon in Catullus'[865] Vision! You, poor wretch, cry out so as to exceed Stentor,[866] or, rather, as loudly as Gradivus[867] in Homer: "Hearest thou[868] this, great Jove, and openest not thy lips, when thou oughtest surely to give vent to some word, even though formed of marble or of brass? Or, why then do we place on thy glowing altar the pious[869] frankincense from the wrapper undone, and the liver of a calf cut up, and the white caul of a hog?[870] As far as I see, there is no difference to be made between your image and the statue of Vagellius!"[871]

Now listen to what consolation on the other hand he can offer, who has neither studied the Cynics, nor the doctrines of the Stoics, that differ from the Cynics only by a tunic,[872] and pays no veneration to Epicurus,[873] that delighted in the plants of his diminutive garden. Let patients whose cases are desperate be tended by more skillful physicians; you may trust _your_ vein even to Philippus' apprentice. If you can show me no act so heinous in the whole wide world, then, I hold my tongue; nor forbid you to beat your breast with your fists, nor thump your face with open palm. For, since you really _have_ sustained loss, your doors must be closed; and money is bewailed with louder lamentations from the household, and with greater tumult,[874] than deaths. No one, in such a case, counterfeits sorrow; or is content with merely stripping[875] down the top of his garment, and vexing his eyes for forced rheum.[876] The loss of money is deplored with genuine tears.

But if you see all the courts filled with similar complaints, if, after the deeds have been read ten times over, and each time in a different quarter,[877] though their own handwriting,[878] and their principal signet-ring,[879] that is kept so carefully in its ivory casket, convicts them, they call the signature a forgery and the deed not valid; do you think that you, my fine fellow, are to be placed without the common pale? What makes _you_ the chick of a white hen, while we are a worthless brood, hatched from unlucky eggs? What you suffer is a trifle; a thing to be endured with moderate choler, if you but turn your eyes to crimes of blacker dye. Compare with it the hired assassin, fires that originate from the sulphur of incendiaries,[880] when your _outer_ gate is the first part that catches fire. Compare those who carry off the ancient temple's massive cups,[881] incrusted with venerable rust--the gifts of nations; or, crowns[882] deposited there by some king of ancient days. If these are not to be had, there comes some sacrilegious wretch that strikes at meaner prey; who will scrape the thigh of Hercules incased in gold, and Neptune's face itself, and strip off from Castor his leaf-gold. Will he, forsooth, hesitate, that is wont to melt down whole the Thunderer[883] himself? Compare, too, the compounders and venders of poisons;[884] or him that ought to be launched into the sea in an ox's hide,[885] with whom the ape,[886] herself innocent, is shut up, through her unlucky stars. How small a portion is this of the crimes which Gallicus,[887] the city's guardian, listens to from break of day to the setting of the sun! Would you study the morals of the human race, one house is quite enough. Spend but a few days there, and when you come out thence, call yourself, if you dare, a miserable man!

Who is astonished at a goitred throat[888] on the Alps? or who, in Meroë,[889] at the mother's breast bigger than her chubby infant? Who is amazed at the German's[890] fierce gray eyes, or his flaxen hair with moistened ringlets twisted into horns? Simply because, in these cases, one and all are alike by nature.

The pigmy[891] warrior in his puny panoply charges the swooping birds of Thrace, and the cloud that resounds with the clang of cranes. Soon, no match for his foe, he is snatched away by the curved talons, and borne off through the sky by the fierce crane. If you were to see this in our country, you would be convulsed with laughter: but there, though battles of this kind are sights of every day, no one even smiles, where the whole regiment is not more than a foot high.

"And is there, then, to be no punishment at all for this perjured wretch and his atrocious villainy?"

Well, suppose him hurried away at once, loaded with double irons, and put to death in any way our wrath dictates (and what could revenge wish for more?) still your loss remains the same, your deposit will not be refunded! "But the least drop of blood from his mangled body will give me a consolation that might well be envied. Revenge is a blessing, sweeter than life itself!" Yes! so fools think, whose breasts you may see burning with anger for trivial causes, sometimes for none at all. How small soever the occasion be, it is matter enough for their wrath. Chrysippus[892] will not hold the same language, nor the gentle spirit of Thales, or that old man that lived by sweet Hymettus'[893] hill, who, even amid those cruel bonds, would not have given his accuser one drop of the hemlock[894] he received at his hands!

Philosophy, blessed[895] power! strips us by degrees of full many a vice and every error! She is the first to teach us what is right. Since revenge is ever the pleasure of a paltry spirit, a weak and abject mind! Draw this conclusion _at once_ from the fact, that no one delights in revenge more than a woman!

Yet, why should you deem those to have escaped scot-free whom their mind,[896] laden with a sense of guilt, keeps in constant terror, and lashes with a viewless thong! Conscience, as their tormentor, brandishing a scourge unseen by human eyes! Nay! awful indeed is their punishment, and far more terrible even than those which the sanguinary Cæditius[897] invents, or Rhadamanthus! in bearing night and day in one's own breast a witness against one's self.

The Pythian priestess gave answer to a certain Spartan,[898] that in time to come he should not go unpunished, because he hesitated as to retaining a deposit, and supporting his villainy by an oath. For he inquired what was the opinion of the deity, and whether Apollo counseled him to the act.

He did restore it therefore; but through fear,[899] not from principle. And yet he proved that every word that issued from the shrine was worthy of the temple, and but too true: being exterminated together with all his progeny and house, and, though derived from a wide-spreading clan, with all his kin! Such is the penalty which the mere wish to sin incurs. For he that meditates within his breast a crime that finds not even vent in words,[900] has all the guilt of the act!

What then if he has achieved his purpose? A respiteless anxiety is his: that ceases not, even at his hours of meals: while his jaws are parched as though with fever, and the food he loathes swells[901] between his teeth. All wines[902] the miserable wretch spits out; old Alban wine,[903] of high-prized antiquity, disgusts him. Set better before him! and thickly-crowding wrinkles furrow his brow, as though called forth by sour[904] Falernian. At night, if anxious care has granted him perchance a slumber however brief, and his limbs, that have been tossing[905] over the whole bed, at length are at rest, immediately he sees in dreams the temple and the altar of the deity he has insulted; and, what weighs upon his soul with especial terrors,[906] he sees thee! Thy awful[907] form, of more[908] than human bulk, confounds the trembling wretch, and wrings confession[909] from him.

These are the men that tremble and grow pale at every lightning-flash; and, when it thunders,[910] are half dead with terror at the very first rumbling[911] of heaven; as though not by mere chance, or by the raging violence of winds, but in wrath and vengeance the fire-bolt lights[912] upon the earth![913] That last storm wrought no ill! Therefore the next is feared with heavier presage, as though but deferred by the brief respite of this calm.

Moreover, if they begin to suffer pain in the side, with wakeful fever, they believe the disease is sent to their bodies from the deity, in vengeance. These they hold to be the stones and javelins of the gods!

They dare not vow the bleating sheep to the shrine, or promise even a cock's[914] comb to their Lares. For what hope is vouchsafed to the guilty sick?[915] or what victim is not more worthy of life? The character of bad men is for the most part fickle and variable.[916] While they are engaged in the guilty act they have resolution enough, and to spare. When their foul deeds are perpetrated, then at length they begin to feel what is right and wrong.

Yet Nature[917] ever reverts to her depraved courses, fixed and immutable. For who ever prescribed to himself a limit to his sins? or ever recovered the blush[918] of ingenuous shame once banished from his brow now hardened? What mortal man is there whom you ever saw contented with a single crime? This false friend of ours will get his foot entangled in the noose, and endure the hook of the gloomy dungeon; or some crag[919] in the Ægean Sea, or the rocks that swarm with exiles of rank. You will exult in the bitter punishment of the hated name; and at length with joy confess[920] that no one of the gods is either deaf or a Tiresias.[921]

FOOTNOTES:

[817] _Displicet._

"To none their crime the wished-for pleasure yields:
'Tis the first scourge that angry justice wields." Badham.

[818] _Ultio._

"Avenging conscience first the sword shall draw,
And self-conviction baffle quibbling law." Hodgson.

[819] _Urna._ From the "Judices Selecti" (a kind of jurymen chosen annually for the purpose), the Prætor Urbanus, who sat as chief judge, chose by lot about fifty to act as his assessors. To each of these were given three tablets: one inscribed with the letter A. for "absolvo," one with the letter C. for "condemno," and the third with the letters N. L. for "non liquet," i. e., "not proven." After the case had been heard and the judices had consulted together privately, they returned into court, and each judex dropped one of these tablets into an urn provided for the purpose, which was afterward brought to the prætor, who counted the number and gave sentence according to the majority of votes. In all these various steps, there was plenty of opportunity for the "gratia" of a corrupt prætor to influence the "fallax urna."

[820] _Calvinus._ Martial mentions an indifferent poet of the name of Calvinus Umber, vii., Ep. 90.

[821] _Acervo._

"One that from casual heaps without design
Fortune drew forth, and bade the lot be thine." Badh.

[822] _Fonteio consule._ Clinton (F. R., A.D. 118) considers that the consulship meant is that of L. Fonteius Capito, A.D. 59, which would bring the reference in this Satire to A.D. 119, the third year of Hadrian. There was also a Fonteius Capito consul with Junius Rufus, A.D. 67, and another, A.D. 11. «The Fonteius Capito mentioned Hor., i., Sat. v., 32, is of course far too early.»

[823] _Proficis._

"Say, hast thou naught imbibed, no maxims sage,
From the long use of profitable age?" Hodgson.

[824] _Vitæ._ So Milton.

"To know
That which before us lies _in daily life_,
Is the prime wisdom."

[825] _Jactare jugum._ A metaphor from restive oxen. Cf. vi., 208, "Summitte caput cervice paratâ Ferre jugum." Æsch., Persæ, 190, _seq._

"And happy those whom life itself can train
To bear with dignity life's various pain." Badham.

[826] _Pyxide._ Properly a coffer or casket of "box-wood," πυξίς. Cf. Sat. ii., 141, "Conditâ pyxide Lyde." Suet., Ner., 47, "Veneno a Locustâ sumpto, et in auream pyxidem condito."

[827] _Thebarum._ Egyptian Thebes had one hundred gates; hence ἑκατόμπυλοι. Cadmeian Thebes had seven. Vid. Hom., Il., Δ., 406. Æsch., S. Th., ἑπτάπυλος Θήβη. The latter is meant. The mouths of the Nile being also seven, viz., Canopic, Bolbitine, Sebennytic, Phatnitic, Mendesian, Tanitic, and Pelusiac. Hence Virg., Æn., vi., 801, "Septem gemini trepida ostia Nili." Ov., Met., v., 187, "Septemplice Nilo." xv., 753, "Perque papyriferi septemflua flumina Nili."

[828] _Metallo._

"That baffled Nature knows not how to frame
A metal base enough to give the age a name." Dryden.

[829] _Sportula._ Vid. ad i., 118. Cf. x., 46, "Defossa in loculis quos sportula fecit amicos." Mart., vi., Ep. 48. Hor., i., Epist. xix., 37. Plin., ii., Ep. 14, "Laudicæni sequuntur: In media Basilicâ sportulæ dantur palam ut in triclinio: tanti constat ut sis disertissimus: hoc pretio subsellia implentur, hoc infiniti clamores commoventur."

[830] _Bullâ._ Cf. v., 165, seq.; xiv., 5. Pers., v., 31, "Bullaque succinctis Laribus donata pependit." Plut. in Quæst. Rom., γέρων τις ἐπὶ χλευασμῷ προάγεται παιδικὸν ἐναψάμενος περιδέραιον ὃ καλοῦσι βοῦλλαν.

"O man of many years, that still should'st wear
The trinket round the neck thy childhood bare!" Badham.

[831] _Esse._ Cf. ii., 149, seq., "Esse aliquos Manes et subterranea regna, ... Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum ære lavantur." Cf. Ov., Amor., III., iii., 1.

[832] _Privatus._ This is commonly rendered by "concealed, sequestered," alluding to Jupiter's being hidden by his mother Rhea to save him from "Saturn's maw." But it surely means before he succeeded his father as king, and this is the invariable sense of "privatus" in Juvenal. Cf. i., 16, "Privatus ut altum dormiret." iv., 65, "Accipe Privatis majora focis." vi., 114, "Quid privata domus, quid fecerit Hippia, curas." xii., 107, "Cæsaris armentum, nulli servire paratum Privato."

[833] _Tergens._ This appears to be the best and simplest interpretation of this "much-vexed" passage, and is the sense in which Lucian (frequently the best commentator on Juvenal) takes it. Vid. Deor., Dial. v., 4.

[834] _Talis._ More properly, "composed of _such_ divinities." The allusion being in all probability to the now frequent apotheosis of the most worthless and despicable of the emperors.

[835] _Torvus._ The Homeric ἀμείλιχος. Cf. Hom., Il., i., 158, Ἀΐδης ἀμείλιχος, ἠδ' ἀδάμαστος Τοὔνεκα καὶ τε βροτοῖσι θεῶν ἔχθιστος ἁπάντων.

[836] _Vulturis atri._ Cf. Æschylus, Pr. V., 1020. Virg., Æn., vi., 595, "Rostroque immanis vultur obunco, Immortale jecur tondens, fœcundaque pœnis viscera, rimaturque epulis habitatque sub alto pectore, nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis."

"Wheels, furies, vultures, quite unheard of things,
And the gay ghosts were strangers yet to kings!" Badham.

[837] _Vetulo._ Cf. Ov., Fast., v., 57, _seq._, which passage Juvenal seems to have had in his mind.

[838] _Glandis._ Cf. Sat. vi., init.

[839] _Depositum._ Terent., Phorm., I., ii., 5, "Præsertim ut nunc sunt mores: adeo res redit; Si quis quid reddit, magna habenda 'st gratia."

[840] _Ærugo_, the rust of _brass_; robigo, of _iron_; but, l. 148, used for the oxydizing of gold or silver. _Follis_, cf. xiv., 281.

[841] _Prodigiosa_, ii., 103.

[842] _Tuscis libellis._ Vid. Dennis' Etruria, vol. i., p. lvii. The marvelous events of the year were registered by the Etruscan soothsayers in their records, that, if they portended the displeasure of the gods, they might be duly expiated. Various names are given by ancient writers to these sacred or ritual books: Libri Etrusci; Chartæ Etruscæ; Scripta Etrusca; Etruscæ disciplinæ libri; libri fatales, rituales, haruspicini, fulgurales; libri Tagetici; sacra Tagetica; sacra Acherontica; libri Acherontici. The author of these works on Etruscan discipline was supposed to be Tages; and the names of some writers on the same subject are given, probably commentators on Tages, e. g., Tarquitius, Cæcina, Aquila, Labeo, Begoë. _Umbricius._ Cf. Cic., de Div., i., 12, 13, 44; ii., 23. Liv., v., 15. Macrob., Saturn., iii., 7; v., 19. Serv. ad Virg., Æn., i., 42; iii., 537; viii., 398. Plin., ii., 85. Festus, _s. v._ Rituales.

[843] _Sanctum._ Cf. iii., 137; viii., 24.

[844] _Bimembri_, or "with double limbs." All these prodigies are common enough in Livy.

[845] _Miranti_ is quite Juvenalian, and better than the common reading "Mirandis," or the suggestion "liranti."

[846] _Mulæ._ Cf. Cic., de Div., ii., 28, "Si quod rarò fit, id portentum putandum est sapientem esse portentum est; sæpius enim _mulam peperisse_ arbitror, quam sapientem fuisse."

[847] _Lapides._ Cf. Liv., xxxix., 37. This prodigy was one of the causes of consulting the sacred books, which led to the introduction of the worship of Bona Dea to Rome. Cf. ad ix., 37. Liv., xxii., 1, "Præneste ardentes lapides cœlo cecidisse."

[848] _Apium._ Cf. Liv., xxiv., 10. Tac., Ann., xii., 64, "Fastigio Capitolii examen apium insedit: biformes hominem partus." Plin., xi., 17.

[849] _Gurgitibus._ Liv., xix., 44, "Flumen Amiterni cruentum fluxisse." Virg., Georg., i., 485, "Aut puteis manare cruor cessavit."

[850] _Arcana._ "Fidei alterius tacitè commissa sine ullis testibus." Lubin. Another interpretation is, "that, having lost it, he held his tongue, and complained to no one."

[851] _Superos._

"Those conscious powers we can with ease contemn,
If, hid from men, we trust our crimes with them." Dryden.

[852] _Cirrhæi_, from Cirrha in Phocis, near the foot of Mount Parnassus, the port of Delphi. Cf. vii., 64, "Dominis Cirrhæ Nysæque feruntur Pectora."

[853] _Spicula_; probably from Tibull., I., iv., 21.

"Nec jurare time. Veneris perjuria venti
Irrita per terras et freta summa ferunt.
Perque suas impune sinit Dictynna sagittas
Affirmes, crines perque Minerva suos."

[854] _Phario._ The vinegar of Egypt was more celebrated than its wine. Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 122. Ath., ii., 26.

[855] _Fortunæ._ See this idea beautifully carried out in Claudian's invective against Rufinus, lib. i., 1-24. Such was Horace's religion. "Credat Judæus Apella, Non ego: namque deos didici securum agere ævum; nec si quid miri faciat Natura deos id tristes ex alto cœli demittere tecto." I., Sat. v., 100. Not so Cicero. "Intelligamus _nihil_ horum _esse fortuitum_." De Nat. Deor., ii., 128.

[856] _Tangunt._ Cf. xiv., 218, "Vendet perjuria summâ exiguâ et Cereris tangens aramq. pedemq."

[857] _Isis._ Cf. vi., 526. Lucan., viii., 831, "Nos in templa tuam Romana accepimus Isim Semideosque canes, et sistra jubentia luctus et quem tu plangens hominem testaris Osirin." Blindness, the most common of Egyptian diseases, was supposed to be the peculiar infliction of Isis. Cf. Ovid, ex Pont., i., 51, "Vidi ego linigeræ numen violasse fatentem Isidis Isiacos ante sedere focos. Alter ob huic similem privatus lumine culpam, clamabat mediâ se meruisse viâ." Pers., v., 186, "Tunc grandes Galli et cum sistro lusca sacerdos." Sistrum a σείω.

[858] _Ladas._ A famous runner at Olympia, in the days of Alexander the Great. Cf. Mart., x., Ep. 100, "Habeas licebit alterum pedem Ladæ, Inepte, frustrà crure ligneo curres;" and ii., 86. Catull., iv., 24, "Non si Pegaseo ferar volatu, Non Ladas si ego, pennipesve Perseus."

[859] _Anticyrcâ_, in Phocis, famous for hellebore, supposed to be of great efficacy in cases of insanity: hence Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 83, "Nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem." 166, "naviget Anticyram." Pers., iv., 16, "Anticyras melior sorbere meracas." Its Greek name is Ἀντίκιῤῥα. Strabo, ix., 3. The quantity therefore in Latin follows the Greek accent. The Phocian Anticyra produced the best hellebore; but it was also found at Anticyra on the Maliac Gulf, near Œta. Some think there was a third town of the same name. Hence "Tribus Anticyris caput insanabile," Hor., A. P., 300.

[860] _Archigene._ Cf. vi., 236; xiv., 252.

[861] _Ignoscere._ "Contemnere pauper creditur atque deos diis ignoscentibus ipsis," iii., 145. So Plautus:

"Atque hoc scelesti illi in animum inducunt suum.
Jovem se placare posse donis hostiis,
Et operam et sumptum perdunt: ideo fit, quia
Nihil ei acceptum est a perjuris supplicii."

[862] _Crucem._ Badham quotes an Italian epigram, which says that "the successful adventurer gets _crosses hung on him_, the unsuccessful gets _hung on the cross_."

"Some made by villainy, and some undone,
And this ascend a scaffold, that a throne." Gifford.

[863] _Præcedit._

"Dare him to swear, he with a cheerful face
Flies to the shrine, and bids thee mend thy pace:
He urges, goes before thee, shows the way,
Nay, pulls thee on, and chides thy dull delay." Dryden.

[864] _Fiducia._

"For desperate boldness is the rogue's defense,
And sways the court like honest confidence." Hodgson.

[865] _Catulli._ Cf. ad viii., 186. Urbani some take as a proper name. Others in the same sense as Sat. vii., 11. Catull., xxii., 2, 9.

[866] _Stentora._ Hom., Il., v., 785, Στέντορα χαλκεόφωνον, ὃς τόσον αὐδήσασχ' ὅσον ἄλλοι πεντήκοντα.

[867] _Gradivus._ ii., 128. Hom., Il., v., 859, ὅσσον τ' ἐννεάχιλοι ἐπίαχον ἢ δεκάχιλοι ἀνέρες--ἔβραχε.

[868] _Audis._ Cf. ii., 130, "Nec galeam quassas nec terram cuspide pulsas, nec quereris patri?" Virg., Æn., iv., 206, "Jupiter Omnipotens! Adspicis hæc? an te, genitor, quum fulmina torques, nequicquam horremus? cæcique in nubibus ignes terrificant animos et inania murmura miscent?" Both passages are ludicrously parodied in the beginning of Lucian's Timon.

[869] _Thura._ So Mart., iii., Ep. ii., 5, "Thuris piperisque cucullus." Ovid, Heroid., xi., 4. Virgil applies the epithet _pia_ to the "Vitta," Æn., iv., 637, and to "Far," v., 745.

[870] _Porci._ Cf. x., 355, "Exta, et candiduli divina tomacula porci."

[871] _Vagellius._ Perhaps the "desperate ass" mentioned xvi., 23. Some read Bathylli.

[872] _Tunicâ._ The Stoics wore tunics under their gowns, the Cynics waistcoats only, or a kind of pallium, doubled when necessary. Hor., i., Ep. xvii., 25, "Contra, quem duplici panno patientia ve at." Diogenes pro pallio et tunicâ contentus erat unâ abollâ ex vili panno confectâ, quâ dupliciter amiciebatur. Cynicorum hunc habitum ideo vocabant διπλοΐδα. Hi igitur ἀχίτωνες quidem sed διπλοείματοι. Orell., ad loc. Cf. Diog. Laert, VI., ii., iii., 22, τρίβωνα διπλώσας πρῶτος.

[873] _Epicurum._ Cf. xiv., 319, "Quantum Epicure tibi parvis suffecit in hostis." Pliny says, xix., 4, he was the first who introduced the custom of having a garden to his town house. Prop., III., xxi., 26, "Hortis docte Epicure, tuis." Stat. Sylv., I., iii., 94. "The garden of Epicurus," says Gifford, "was a school of temperance; and would have afforded little gratification, and still less sanction, to those sensualists of our day, who, in turning hogs, flatter themselves that they are becoming Epicureans."

[874] _Tumultu._

"And louder sobs and hoarser tumults spread
For ravish'd pence, than friends or kinsmen dead." Hodgson.

[875] _Deducere._ Ov., Met., vi., 403, "Dicitur unus flesse Pelops humerumque suas ad pectora postquam _deduxit vestes_, ostendisse."

[876] _Humore coacto._ Ter., Eun., I., i., 21, "Hæc verba una mehercle falsa lacrymula Quam oculos terendo miserè vix vi expresserit Restinguet." Virg., Æn., ii., 196, "captique dolis lacrymisque coactis."

[877] _Diversâ parte._ Others interpret it as being "read by the opposite party;" as vii., 156, "quæ veniant diversa parte sagittæ."

[878] _Vana supervacui_, repeated xvi., 41.

[879] _Sardonychus._ Pliny says the sardonyx was the principal gem employed for seals, "quoniam sola prope gemmarum scalpta ceram non aufert." xxxvii., 6.

"If rogues deny their bend (though ten times o'er
Perused by careful witnesses before),
Whose well-known hand proclaims the glaring lie,
Whose master-signet proves the perjury." Hodgson.

[880] _Incendia._ Cf. ix., 98, "Sumere ferrum, Fuste aperire caput, candelam apponere valvis, non dubitat."

[881] _Grandia pocula._ Alluding perhaps to some of Nero's sacrilegious spoliations. Suet., Ner., 32, 38. It was customary for kings and nations allied with Rome to send crowns and other valuable offerings to the temple of Capitoline Jove and others.

[882] _Coronas._