Quod facinus dignum tam longo admiserit ævo. 256. Peleus.] The father of Achilles, slain by Paris, who shot him in the heel in the temple of Apollo, the only part where he was vulnerable. His father Peleus had to lament his untimely death. 257. Another.] Laertes, a prince of Ithaca, father of Ulysses. He, during his son's absence, and wanderings over the seas, wearied himself with daily labour in husbandry, having no other attendant than an old maid-servant, who brought him food: during this period his constant petition to Jupiter was, that he might die. -Swimming Ithacus.] Ulysses was called Ithacus, from Ithaca, a country of Ionia where he reigned. After the destruction of Troy, he suffered many toils and hardships, for ten years together, before his return home. The word natantem perhaps alludes to his shipwreck near the island of Calypso, where he was forced to swim to save his life; or perhaps it may allude, in general, to the length of time he passed in sailing on the sea. 258. Troy being safe.] i. e. Had Troy stood, and remained in safety. -Priam.] The last king of Troy, who lived to see the city besieged by the Greeks for ten years together, and at length taken. 258, 9. Shades of Assaracus, &c.] Had joined his ancestors' ghosts, or shades, in the infernal regions; i. e. had died 255 260 265 270 in peace, and had been buried with the splendid funeral rites belonging to his rank, See VIRG. Æn. i. 288; and AINSw. Assaracus. 259. Hector carrying, &c.] Among the ancients, the corpse of the parent was carried forth to the funeral pile by the sons of the deceased. If Troy had remained in quiet, Priam's son Hector had not been slain by Achilles, but had survived his father, and have, as the custom been one of his bearers to the fu neral pile. was, 260. The rest of the shoulders, &c.] Reliquis cervicibus-for cervicibus reliquorum, &c. Hypallage. According to Homer, Priam had fifty sons and twelve daughters; the former of which would have assisted Hector in carrying their father's corpse. Pliny says, (lib. vii. c. 44.) Quintus Metellus Macedonicus, a quatuor filiis illatus est rogo. Priam was slain in the siege by Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, and most of his children were destroyed. See Æn. ii. 501-54. 261. As soon as, &c.] This was the signal for the funeral procession to move forward towards the pile. -Cassandra, &c.] She was the daughter of Priam and Hecuba. It was customary to hire women to mourn at burials, who went before the corpse to lament the dead; the chief of them who began the ceremony was called præfica, (a præficio, planctuum princeps. AINSW.) What crime he had committed worthy so long life. 255 The very same does Peleus, while he mourns Achilles snatch'd away, And another, to whom it was permitted to lament the swimming Ithacus. Troy being safe, Priam had come to the shades Of Assaracus with great solemnities, Hector carrying 259 The corpse, and the rest of the shoulders of his brethren, among What therefore did long life advantage him? he saw all things arms, And fell before the altar of high Jove, as an old ox, The part must here most naturally have been taken by Cassandra, Priam's daughter, who would, doubtless, have put herself at the head of the mourning women. See 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. After the taking of Troy, she fell to the share of Agamemnon. She was married to Chorobus, and debauched by Ajax Oileus, in the temple of Minerva. See En. i. 44. and ii. 1. 403-7. 262. Polyxena, &c.] The daughter also of Priam, who gave her in marriage to Achilles; but he, coming into the temple of Apollo to perform the nuptial rites, was there treacherously slain by Paris. She was afterwards sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles. See before, 1. 256, note. -Rent garment.] Rending the garments, in token of grief, was very ancient. 263. Being extinct.] i. e. If he had died. -At another time, &c.] i. e. Before Paris prepared to sail into Greece, in order to ravish Helen from her husband Menelaus. Had this been the case, Priam would have been borne to the grave by his sons, and his funeral solem nized by the public lamentations of his daughters. 264. Daring ships.] So called from the daring design they were employed VOL. II. 270 in; the execution of which occasioned the Trojan war, and the destruction of the country by the Greeks. 265. What therefore, &c.] The poet here applies this instance of old king Priam to his main argument against wishing to live to old age, seeing with how many sorrows it may be accompanied. 266. Asia falling.] See VIRG. En. iii. 1. 1. By Asia is here meant the Lesser Asia, containing the Greater and Lesser Phrygia, the kingdom of Priam. 267. Trembling soldier.] Priam, now trembling, and almost worn out by age. -Diadem being laid aside.] Having laid aside all ensigns of royalty. -Bore arms.] In defence of his country. See En. ii. 507-558. where these parts of Priam's history are described. 268. Fell before the altar.] Of Jupiter Herceus, erected by Priam in an open court belonging to the palace: hither he fled for succour and protection, but was slain by Pyrrhus. Æn. ii. 501, 2. 270. Ungrateful plough.] Prosopopeia. The plough is here represented as ungrateful, as forgetting the labours of the old worn-out ox, and despising him as now useless. Some understand aratro for agricola-meton. F Exitus ille utcumque hominis: sed torva canino Hinc causas habuêre. Quid illo cive tulisset Formam optat modico pueris, majore puellis 275 280 285 The king of Pontus.] Mithridates, who maintained a long war with the Romans, but was at last routed by Pompey. He would have shortened his days by poison, but had so fortified himself by an antidote, invented by him, and which still bears his name, that none would operate upon him. See sat. vi. 1. 660, and note. 274. Cræsus, whom, &c.] Croesus was the last king of Lydia, so rich, that Cræsi divitiæ was a proverbial saying. He asked Solon (one of the wise men of Greece, and lawgiver of the Athenians) who was the happiest man? The philosopher told him, "no man could be said "to be happy before death." This, afterwards, Croesus found to be true; for, being taken prisoner by Cyrus, and ordered to be burned, he cried out, " So "lon! Solon! Solon!" Cyrus asked the reason of this, and was told what Solon had said; whereupon, considering it might be his own case, he spared his life, and treated him with much respect. Respicere-to consider-mind-regard. 276. Marshes of Minturnæ, &c.] Caius Marius being overcome in the civil war by Sylla, was forced to skulk in the marshes of Minturnæ, a city by the river Liris, where he was found, taken, and imprisoned; he then escaped into Africa, where he lived in exile, and begged his bread in the streets of Carthage, which had been conquered by the Ro mans. 278. Hence had their causes.] All these misfortunes were owing to Marius's living so long; he died in the sixty-eighth year of his age. -Than that citizen.] i. e. Than Ma rius. 280-2. If when, &c.] If when, in his triumph after conquering the Cimbri, he had numbers of captives led around his triumphal car, and amidst all the pomp and glory of victory, he had breathed out his mighty soul, as he descended, after the triumph was over, from his chariot, he had been the happiest man in nature, or that Rome ever However, that was the exit of a man: but his fierce wife, I hasten to our own, and pass by the king of Pontus, 275 280 Hence had their causes-what, than that citizen, had city, 285 Took off his preserved head from him conquer'd: this torment, This punishment Lentulus was free from; and Cethegus fell Entire, and Catiline lay with his whole carcase. With moderate murmur, the anxious mother desires beauty bred, and have escaped the miseries which afterwards befel him. 282. Teutonic chariot.] The Teutones were a people bordering on the Cimbri, conquered by Marius; the chariot in which Marius rode in his triumph over these people is therefore called Teutonic, as used on that occasion. 283. Provident Campania.] When first Pompey engaged in the civil war against Cæsar, he had a violent fever at Naples, and another at Capua, of which he was like to have died: these seem to have been provided against the miseries which afterwards befel him. 284. To be wished for.] In order to take him out of life, while he was great and happy. 285. Overcame them.] The united wishes and prayers of so many cities and people, for his recovery, prevailed against the effects of his sickness, and saved his life. -His own fortune.] Which reserved him to be slain in his flight to Egypt, after his defeat by Cæsar. -That of the city.] Doomed to fall under the dominion of Pompey's enemy, after suffering so much by a civil war. 286. Took off, &c.] That life which had been preserved in a dangerous sick ness (see note on 1. 285.) was destroyed after his defeat, and his head severed from his body by Achillas and Salvius, sent for that purpose from Ptolemy, who intended it as a present to Cæsar. Of Pompey's death, see ANT. Univ. Hist. vol. xiii. p. 217. 287. Lentulus-Cethegus.] These were in the conspiracy with Catiline, and being put into prison, by order of Cicero, then consul, were strangled, so that their bodies were not dismembered. 288. Catiline, &c.] The famous conspirator, whose designs were detected and frustrated by Cicero, died in battle, without the loss of any part of his body. See SALLUST. All these died young men, and thus were taken away from the miseries which those meet with who live to old age. 289. Moderate murmur.] The word murmur here implies that sort of mut tering which they used at their prayers to the gods; this was louder, and more distinct, on some occasions than on others, according to the degree of fervency in the suppliant. Comp. PERS. sat. ii. 6-8. -Anxious mother, &c.] The poet here represents another popular folly, in supposing a mother anxious for having raptine Murmure, cum Veneris fanum videt anxia mater, Semper habet. RARA EST ADEO CONCORDIA FORMÆ 290 295 Corporis egregii miseros trepidosque parentes ATQUE PUDICITIE! sanctos licet horrida mores Tradiderit domus, ac veteres imitata Sabinas. Præterea, castum ingenium, vultumque modesto 300 Sanguine ferventem tribuat natura benignâ Larga manu: (quid enim puero conferre potest plus Custode, et curâ Natura potentior omni?) Non licet esse viros: nam prodiga corruptoris Improbitas ipsos audet tentare parentes : 305 Tanti in muneribus fiducia. Nullus ephebum I nunc, et juvenis specie lætare tui, quem 310 Strumosum, atque utero pariter, gibboque tumentem. Majora expectant discrimina. Fiet adulter handsome children, and praying for this at the shrine of Venus, the fabled goddess of beauty. 291. Even to the delight, &c.] So that the highest and fondest of them might be gratified, and the delight of their accomplishment be equal to that which she felt in making them. 292. Blume me?] A question supposed from the mother to the poet, on his finding fault with her for what she did. -Latona rejoices, &c.] She defends what she does by quoting an example. Latona, daughter of Cous, one of the Titans, bore, to Jupiter, Apollo and Diana at the same birth. 293. Lucretia forbids, &c.] The poet answers the example brought for asking beautiful children, by the instance of Lucretia, whose beauty proved her undoing. She was a beautiful Roman lady, the daughter of Lucretius, prefect of the city, and wife of Tarquinius Collatinus, ravished by Sextus Tarquinius, son of Tarquinius Superbus, which she so resented, that she sent for her father and husband, and stabbed herself before them. The people of Rome, on this, rose in arms, expelled the Tarquins, and changed the monarchy to a commonwealth. 294. Virginia.] A Roman virgin exceedingly beautiful, whom her own father, to prevent her being exposed to the lust of Appius, one of the Decemviri, stabbed in the middle of the forum. 294, 5. Rutila.] An ugly deformed old woman, above seventy-seven years old, as Pliny says, was in no danger of such a death, and therefore happier in her deformity than Virginia in her beauty; so that the latter might have gladly changed her person for that of Rutila. 295. But a son, &c.] i. e. A son with an accomplished and beautiful person makes his parents unhappy, and keeps them in perpetual fear, so very rarely do beauty and modesty meet together. 296. Person.] The word corporis, which literally signifies the body, is here used for the whole person of the man, per synec. 298. Homely house, &c.] i. e. Though the plain family, rough and honest, should have furnished him with the best |