Tun' mare transsilias? tibi, tortâ cannabe fulto, Quid petis? ut nummi, quos hîc quincunce modesto Vive memor leti: fugit hora: hoc, quod loquor, inde est. 150 155 Nam et luctata canis nodum abripit: attamen illi, 160 Dave, citò, hoc credas jubeo, finire dolores 165 70 Supplicat, accedam? si totus et integer illinc Exieras, ne nunc.' Hic, hic, quem quærimus, hic est: Non in festucâ, lictor quam jactat ineptus. 175 Jus habet ille sui palpo, quem ducit hiantem Cretata ambitio? Vigila, et cicer ingere largè Rixanti populo, nostra ut Floralia possint Aprici meminisse senes. Quid pulchrius?—At quum 180 Dispositæ pinguem nebulam vomuêre lucernæ, Portantes violas, rubrumque amplexa catinum 185 Dixeris hæc inter varicosos centuriones: Continuò crassum ridet Vulfenius ingens, Et centum Græcos curto centusse licetur. SATIRA VI. AD CESIUM BASSUM. ADMOVIT jam bruma foco te, Basse, Sabino? 190 5 10 15 Curvus ob id minui senio, aut cœnare sine uncto Et signum in vapidâ naso tetigisse lagenâ. Discrepet his alius. Geminos, horoscope, varo Producis genio. Solis natalibus est qui Tingat olus siccum muriâ vafer in calice emptâ, 20 Ipse sacrum irrorans patinæ piper: hic bona dente Grandia magnanimus peragit puer. Utar ego, utar; Nec tenuem solers turdarum nôsse salivam. Messe tenus propriâ vive, et granaria, fas est, 25 Emole. Quid metuas? occa, et seges altera in herbâ est. Ast vocat officium: trabe ruptâ Bruttia saxa Prêndit amicus inops, remque omnem surdaque vota Condidit Ionio: jacet ipse in littore, et unâ 30 Ossa inodora dabit, seu spirent cinnama surdum, Tune bona incolumis minuas?' Et Bestius urget 35 40 45 50 Cum pipere et palmis venit vestrum hoc maris expers : 55 60 66 'Quid reliquum est ?' Reliquum? nunc nunc impensiùs unge, Unge, puer, caules. Mihi festâ luce coquatur Urtica, et fissâ fumosum sinciput aure? ***** 70 Vende animam lucro mercare, atque excute solers Omne latus mundi, ne sit præstantior alter Rem duplica. Feci: jam triplex, jam mihi quartò, Jam decies redit in rugam. Depunge, ubi sistam, 75 NOTES TO THE SATIRES OF JUVENAL DECIMUS JUNIUS JUVENAL was born at Aquinum, a town of the Volsci, about the thirty-eighth (or, more probably, the forty-second) year of the Christian era. It is uncertain whether he was the son or the foster-son of a rich freedman, who gave him a liberal education. From the time of his birth, until he had attained about the age of forty, nothing more is known of him than that his attention was devoted to the study of eloquence, and to declamation, more indeed for his own amusement and improvement, than from any intention to devote himself to a public life. About this time he applied himself to the study of poetry, and commenced satirizing the predominant vices of the day. Against Paris, a pantomime dancer, and favorite of the Emperor Domitian, Juvenal seems to have directed the first shafts of satire in consequence of this attack, he was banished into Egypt, having been ordered to repair thither, as commander of a company of troops, where, soon after, he died, in about the eightieth year of his age. SATIRE I. In the beginning of this Satire, the poet gives a humorous account of the reasons which induced him to commence writing :that, his patience having been entirely exhausted by the rehearsals of wretched poets, he could refrain no longer,but intended to repay them in kind. He afterwards informs us why he devotes himself to Satire in preference to any other kind of poetry, to which he declares he is driven by the vices of the age, of which he gives a summary and general view. Finally, after expressing his indignation, that the liberty of speech, employed by the ancient Satirists, was no longer enjoyed, he makes some bitter reflections on the danger of satirizing living villany, and professes to treat of the dead, personating, under their names, certain living charac ters. 1. Semper... tantùm: shall I be ever a hearer only ?—ego used emphatically. It was customary among the ancients to recite their works privately, among their particular friends; or publicly, either in the temple of Apollo, or in the spacious houses of some rich and great man.-Reponam: a metaphor taken from the repayment of money. 2. Rauci... Codri: with the Theseis of hoarse Codrus.'Theseïde i. e. recitatione Theseidis; a poem or tragedy which described the actions of Theseus, the author of which was Codrus, a poor and mean poet, who is here supposed to have made himself hoarse by frequently reading his poem. 3. Togatas: 'comedies; there were three different kinds of comedy, each denominated from the dress of the persons represented: Togata, so called from the toga, a gown worn by the common people, which exhibited the actions of the lower sort :-Prætextata, so called from the prætexta, a white robe, ornamented with purple, and worn by magistrates and nobles, which described the actions of this class:-Palliata, from the pallium, an upper garment, worn by the Greeks, and in which the actors were habited, when the manners and actions of the Greeks were represented. 4. Elegos: these were short poems on mournful subjects generally, written in hexameter and pentameter verses alternately. 5. Telephus: some tedious play on the subject of Telephus, son of Hercules and Auge, and king of Mysia, who was wounded by the spear of Achilles, but afterwards healed by its rust.-Aut.. Orestes: or shall the tragedy of Orestes, the margin of the whole book being already full, and written on the back too, but not yet finished, waste the whole day? 7. Lucus Martis: the grove of Mars; that is, as some understand it, the history of Romulus and Remus, whom Rhea Silvia bore in a grove sacred to Mars, near Alba:-this and the other subjects mentioned were so continually dinned into his ears, that the places were as familiar as his own house. 8. Eoliis... rupibus: to the north of Sicily are seven rocky islands, which were called the Æolian or Vulcanian (now the Lipari) islands. To Hiera, one of these, (now Vulcano,) Juvenal probably refers; and by antrum Vulcani et Cyclopum, Etna is meant. 9. Quid... columnæ: the construction is, Platani Frontonis, convulsaque marmora, et columnæ rupta assiduo lectore, semper clamant quid venti agant, &c.— Quid ... venti: this either alludes to some tedious poetical treatise on the nature of the winds, or to some play on the amours of Boreas and Orithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens. 10. Unde. pellicula: i. e. Jason, who, by the assistance of Medea, stole the golden fleece from Colchis. |