loc.)—Quum fas esse putet, &c. The allusion here is probably to the Præfectura cohortis sociorum, for which some ruined spendthrift is asking, the son, in all likelihood, of a senator, who, as a proof of his shamelessness, expects to be excused from one of the requirements of the service, namely, the having been previously a centurion. (Madvig, ad loc.) Some commentators, however, rejecting this general view, make the poet refer to Cornelius Fuscus, a youth of illustrious origin, who had officiated as charioteer to Nero, and had ruined himself by his extravagance in horses and stables. At a subsequent period he was made captain of the body-guard by Domitian, and fell in the Dacian war. Compare Sat. iv., 111.—Præsepibus. "On stables."-Dum pervolat, &c. Observe the peculiar employment of dum with the present, in the dependent clause, after a past tense in the principal one. He lost all his hereditary estate whilst he drove, and by driving, &c. -Flaminiam. Supply viam. The Flaminian Way was the Great North Road, and led from Rome to Ariminum. The portion here meant is that which skirted the whole length of the Campus Martius, and consequently formed the most conspicuous thoroughfare in Rome. It is now the Corso.Puer Automedon, &c. "For, while yet a boy, he held the reins like Automedon of old." Automedon was the youthful charioteer of Achilles. The Achilles of Homer and the Roman Nero are here brought into amusing juxtaposition.

51-56. Nonne libet. "Does not one feel inclined ?"- Medio quadrivio. "In the very middle of the crossways," i. e., in the open and crowded streets; such is the effrontery of the times. Quadrivium is a place where four ways meet, and where there would always be more or less of a crowd.-Ceras. Used here for ceratas tabellas, "tablets." These tablets were thin pieces of wood, covered over on the inner side with wax, on which the ancients wrote with a sharp instrument called stylus. They were fastened together at the back by means of wires, which answered the purpose of hinges, so that they opened and shut like our books. To prevent the wax of one tablet rubbing against that of the other, there was a raised margin around each.-Sexta cervice. "On a sixth neck," i. e., on the shoulders of six slaves. The litter-pole rested on the shoulder of the slave, leaning somewhat against the neck. The rich and fashionable had six litter-carriers, sometimes even eight. When six were employed, they were called hexaphori (¿§úpopoɩ, from 85, "six,” and pépw, “to carry"); when eight, octophori (ókтópopol).— Patens. "Conspicuous to the view." The litter was commonly shut in by curtains. On the present occasion, however, the curtains

F

are drawn aside, and the unblushing occupant within is fully exposed to the view.-Ac nuda pæne cathedra. "And almost in an

uncurtained female chair." The cathedra here meant was a kind of easy-chair in which women were accustomed to be carried abroad instead of the lectica. In the present case, therefore, the open litter of the individual alluded to may almost, according to the satirist, be compared to an uncurtained female seat. So that we have here a union of impudence and effeminacy.

Et multum referens, &c. "And aping much (that is told us) of the effeminate Mæcenas." Literally, "bringing back to mind,” or "recalling." Heinrich and others are wrong in making de with the ablative here a mere circumlocution for the genitive. The reference is rather to a matter of tradition respecting by-gone times. Mæcenas, though an able statesman, was remarkable for his luxurious and effeminate mode of life.-Signator falso. "Some forger of wills." Literally, 66 some sealer with a false seal," signo being understood after falso, as is implied by signator. A valid will would require, of course, the seals of witnesses to be appended. In the present case, however, a false will is substituted with false seals. Compare Cic. pro Cluent., c. 14: "Testamentum, in alias tabulas transscriptum, signis adulterinis obsignavit." Ruperti and others prefer placing a comma after signator, and connecting falso (which will then mean "by forgery") with what follows, but this makes an awkward juxtaposition with exiguis tabulis.-Lautum atque beatum. "A man of splendour and wealth." Beatum poetically for divitem.— Exiguis tabulis. "By means of brief tablets," i. e., by means of a few brief words. It would be enough to say, “Titius hæres meus esto." Compare Gaius, ii., § 117.-Gemma uda. The signet was moistened before sealing, to prevent the wax from adhering to it.

57-58. Occurrat matrona potens. "When some powerful matron meets the view." Supply cum from the preceding clause. The subjunctive is the true reading here, and the interrogation with which the passage began (nonne libet, &c.) is continued on to maritos. The common text has occurrit, changing the construction, and places a full stop after maritos. The meaning will then be, "Next some powerful matron meets the view," &c. This, however, is much less spirited. Calenum. Supply vinum. The wine of Cales, in Campania, was very celebrated. The territory which produced it was adjacent to the Falernian district.-Viro sitiente. "Her husband thirsting." Ablative absolute. Some, less correctly, make sitiente an old form of the dative for sitienti. The poet means that the husband is too thirsty to examine the contents of the cup.-Rubetam.

"The venom of the toad." Rubeta is the animal itself put for the venom which it was supposed to produce. There is great doubt, however, whether the toad is actually meant here. Some suppose the reference to be made to the rana rubeta, a species of frog found in brushwood (rubus), much used in magic and in poisons. Its blood, according to Ælian (N. A., xvii., 12), when mixed with wine, often produced instant death. Others, however, make the rubeta to be the same with the Bufo cornutus, a horned frog. The Greek term is opuvos. (Adams, s. v.)

59-60. Melior Lucusta. "A more skilful Lucusta (even than she of former days)." Lucusta was a female in the time of Nero, famed for her skill in concocting poisons. Through her means, Agrippina poisoned off the Emperor Claudius, and Nero dispatched Britannicus. The true form of the name is Lucusta, with the antepenult long. The common reading, Locusta, ought to have the antepenult short, from the analogy of locusta, "the locust."-Rudes. Hitherto "inexperienced" in the art of poisoning.-Per famam et populum,

&c. "To carry forth for interment their livid husbands amid busy rumours and the crowding populace." The people would crowd around to observe the discoloration occasioned by the poison. Observe that efferre is here in reality equivalent to efferendos curare. Heinrich makes per famam et populum a hendiadys for per famam populi, but this is less spirited.

61-66. Aude aliquid, &c. The leading idea is this: If you wish to come into notice at Rome, commit some act of great rascality, which ought to consign you to banishment or a prison, but which at Rome will prove the most effectual means of making you wealthy and powerful. The poet has principally in view the profligate favourites of bad emperors, who were wont to enrich and advance themselves by acts which ought to have subjected them to the severest punishment.-Brevibus Gyaris dignum. "Worthy of narrow Gyarus," i. e., that ought to send you thither into exile. Gyarus was a small island, forming one of the group of the Cyclades, and to the southwest of Andros. It was inhabited by a few poor fishermen, and was little better than a barren rock. Hence it was one of the most dreaded places of exile in the whole Roman empire. There are two forms of the name, Gyarus (-i) and Gyara (-orum).—Si vis esse aliquis. "If you wish to be somebody." Compare the Greek eivai Tis-Alget. "Starves." There should be a dash before this in the editions, the sense being suspended for a moment, in order that the closing word may come in with more emphasis, and, as it were, unexpectedly.

Prætoria. "Their palaces." Prætorium, when denoting an abode, properly means the official residence of the governor of a province, and then any splendid structure in general.—Mensas. For the dwellings of the opulent, tables were made of the most beautiful and costly kinds of wood.—Argentum vetus. "Their old plate," i. e., silver vessels, the work of early and celebrated artificers. Et stantem extra pocula caprum. "And the goat standing forth in relief from the cup," i. e., a drinking-cup adorned with rich work in high relief. The goat, as peculiarly destructive of the vine, was sacrificed to Bacchus, and hence formed an appropriate device on drinking-cups.-Si natura negat. "If nature denies the vein, i. e., the poetic vein requisite for the proper handling of such themes.-Cluvienus. A fictitious name for some stupid contemporary of the satirist's. Juvenal names him here along with himself, in order to satirize him the more by the very comparison.

67-71. Ex quo, &c. Juvenal means by this that his satire will take for its field of operations the whole range of human life, with all the varied feelings and motives that have been accustomed to sway it from the earliest ages.-Tollentibus. Supply in altum.— Montem. Parnassus, in Phocis.-Sortesque poposcit. "And asked for an oracle." According to the legend, Deucalion consulted the sanctuary of Themis, on Mount Parnassus, for the purpose of ascertaining in what way the race of man might be restored. Sortes is here used in its general sense of an oracular response. The primitive import of the term, however, refers to the practice, so frequent in the Italian nations, of endeavouring to ascertain the future by the drawing of lots, a practice that prevailed even in many of the ancient Italian temples.-Paulatimque anima, &c. "And the softening stones grew gradually warm with life.” The stones were "the bones of their mother," which the oracle directed Deucalion and Pyrrha to throw behind them.-Votum. "Their every wish."Discursus. "Their every pursuit.” Literally, "their running to and fro."-Nostri est farrago libelli. "From the motley subject of my little work." Farrago literally means "mixed fodder" for cattle. Here, however, it is figuratively employed to indicate "a medley," "an olio.”

72-75. Quando major avaritiæ, &c. "When did a deeper gulf of avarice open on the view?" Literally, "a more ample bosom." A metaphor borrowed from the Roman dress. The sinus was a part of the toga, hanging down in front, over the bosom, like a sling, and thus forming a kind of receptacle in which various things could be carried. It answered, therefore, the same purpose as a modern

pocket. Some commentators, however, make sinus mean here the bosom of a sail, and consider the idea to be, "when were the sails of avarice more widely spread ?" The explanation which we have adopted appears the more natural and forcible.-Alea quando hæc animos. "When did gambling like this of ours sway the minds of men?" We have given hæc, the ingenious conjecture of Heinecke. The common reading is hos, "When had gambling its present spirits?" or, making hos equivalent to tot, "When did gambling influence so many minds?" With animos, whether we read hæc or hos, supply cepit.-Loculis comitantibus. "Caskets accompanying them." They do not go to the gaming-table, as we would say, with purses, but the steward brings a whole money-chest, which is staked and played for at once. Loculus means a small casket, divided into compartments, and made of ivory or wood.—Luditur. Taken impersonally.

76-81. Dispensatore armigero. "The steward being the armourbearer." The steward supplies the gold, the weapons of gambling warfare.-Simplex. "Common" or "ordinary."-Sestertia centum. "A hundred thousand sesterces." About $3900.-Reddere. 66 To give (what is merely his due)." Reddo here carries with it the idea of bestowing something that is due for services performed.-Quis totidem, &c. With quis supply avus from the succeeding clause.— Secreto. "By himself," i. e., without his clients.-Sportula parva, &c. "A little basket has its seat," i. e., is placed. Parva, incorrectly rendered here by some "diminished," is purposely employed to mark the contrast between the size of the basket and the rich patron's supper of seven fercula. The Romans, in the days of freedom, entertained their clients, after the latter had attended them in public, at a supper, which was called cœna recta. But, after the extinction of liberty, when the clients had lost all political influence, instead of being regularly entertained, they merely received a portion of food in a small basket called sportula, which they carried to their own homes. For the sake of convenience, it soon became customary to give an equivalent in money, the sum established by general usage being 100 quadrantes (about 24 cents). The donation in money, however, did not entirely supersede the sportula in kind, as may be seen from Juvenal himself (Sat. iii., 230, seqq.).—Primo limine. The sportula were placed in the vestibule of the mansion. -Turba togata. Said contemptuously of the Romans thronging to receive the sportula. The toga was always worn by clients when attending on their patrons.

82-85. Ille. The steward, or dispenser of the dole; not, as some