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Et strepitu, et facie majoris vivere census.
Sed finem impensæ non servat prodiga Roma.
Ut redeant veteres, Ciceroni nemo ducentos

Nunc dederit nummos, nisi fulserit annulus ingens.
Respicit hoc primum qui litigat, an tibi servi
Octo, decem comites, an post te sella, togati
Ante pedes. Ideo conductâ Paulus agebat
Sardonyche, atque ideo pluris, quam Cossus agebat,
Quam Basilus. Rara in tenui facundia panno.
Quando licet flentem Basilo producere matrem ?
Quis bene dicentem Basilum ferat ? accipiat te
Gallia, vel potius nutricula causidicorum
Africa, si placuit mercedem imponere linguæ.

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precious stone of a violet-colour. This colour also the gentry among the Romans were fond of wearing; and this, therefore, also recom mended the lawyers to observation, and sometimes to employment.

137. With the bustle, &c.] They find it suitable to their views of recommending themselves, to live above their fortunes, and, of course, to be surrounded with numbers of attendants, &c.—and, from this, and the appearance of their dress, to seem richer than they were: this, as the next line imports, because nobody was looked upon that was not supposed able to afford to be extravagant; such was the monstrous prodigality of the times, that the expenses of people were boundless.

139. Nobody would give Cicero, &c.] Such is the importance of fashionable and expensive appearance, that even Tully himself, (if he could return from the dead,) though the greatest orator that Rome ever saw, as well as the ablest advocate, nobody would give him a fee, though ever so small, unless he appeared with a ring of great value glittering upon his finger-ducentos nummos.-The nummus argenti was a sesterce, the fourth part of a denarius, but seven farthings of our money.

141. He that litigates, &c.] He that wants to employ counsel, instead of first inquiring into the abilities of the man whom he employs, first asks how many servants he keeps, and in what style he lives.

141-2. Eight servants.] i. e. Slaves to carry your litter.-The litters were more or less respectable, as to their appearance, from the number of bearers which carried them—some had six. See sat. i. 1. 64, and note. These were called hexaphori, from Gr. i, six-and Pigw, to bear.

Laxior hexaphoris tua sit lectica licebit.

Quum tibi non essent sex millia, Cæciliane,
Ingenti late vectus es hexaphoro.

MART. lib. ii. ep. 81.

MART. lib. iv. ep. 50.

Tranquillus writes, that Caligula was carried in a litter borne by

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To live with the bustle and appearance of a greater income.
But prodigal Rome observes no bounds to expense.
Tho' the ancients should return, nobody would give Cicero
Now-a-days two hundred sesterces, unless a great ring shone.
He that litigates regards this first, whether you have eight
Servants, ten attendants, whether a chair is after you,
Gownsmen before your steps. Therefore Paulus pleaded with an hired
Sardonyx, and therefore pleaded at a higher fee than

Cossus or than Basilus. Eloquence is rare in a mean clothing.

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When can Basilus produce a weeping mother?

Who will bear Basilus (tho') speaking well? let Gallia

Receive you, or rather, that nurse of lawyers,

Africa, if it has pleased you to set a reward upon your tongue.

eight-octophoro. This piece of state might afterwards be affected by those who wished to make a great and splendid appearance.

142. Ten attendants.] Comites-attendants upon him. It was the custom, says Grangius, not only for princes, but for others, who were carried in litters, to have a number of people attending them,

who were called comites.

Whether a chair, &c.] Whether, though you may walk on foot, you have a litter carried after you, that you may get into it when you please.

Gownsmen, &c.] Poor clients, called togati, from the gowns which they wore. See sat. i. 1. 3, and note: and sat. iii. 1. 127, Numbers of these were seen walking before the great, on whom they were dependent.

note.

Therefore Paulus, &c.] Some poor lawyer, who, though he could not afford to buy a ring set with a sardonyx, yet hired one to make his appearance with at the bar; and by this mean got greater fees than those who appeared without some such ornament.

145. Cossus or Basilus.] Two poor, but, probably, learned lawyers of the time.

Eloquence is rare, &c.] Nobody will give a man credit for being eloquent, if he appears in rags, at least very rarely.

146. When can Basilus produce, &c.] When will Basilus, or any man with a mean appearance, be employed in a cause of great consequence, as Cicero for Fonteius, where a mother was produced in court, weeping, and supplicating for the life of her son.

147. Who will bear Basilus, &c] i. e. Let a lawyer be ever so able, or speak ever so well, nobody will pay him the least attention, if his appearance be poor and shabby.

Let Gallia, &c.] France and Africa were remarkable, at that time, for encouraging eloquence, and had great lawyers, who got large fees. See Mr. C. Dryden's note.

Comp. sat. xv. 1. 111. Ainsw. explains nutricula-a breeder, a bringer-up.

149. If it has pleased you, c.] i. e. If you make a point of getting money by your eloquence at the bar.

Declamare doces? ô ferrea pectora Vectî!

Cum perimit sævos classis numerosa tyrannos:

Nam quæcunque sedens modo legerat, hæc eadem stans
Proferet, atque eadem cantabit versibus îsdem.
Occidit miseros crambe repetita magistros.

Quis color, et quod sit causæ genus, atque ubi summa
Quæstio, quæ veniant diversâ parte sagittæ,
Scire volunt omnes, mercedem solvere nemo.
Mercedem appellas? quid enim scio? culpa docentis
Scilicet arguitur, quod lævâ in parte mamillæ

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155

150. Do you teach, &c.] Having shewn how badly the lawyers were off, in this dearth of encouragement given to liberal sciences, and of rewarding real merit and abilities, he now proceeds to shew, that the teachers of rhetoric, who opened schools for the laborious employment of instructing youth in the knowledge and art of declamation, were, if possible, still worse off.

O the iron heart, &c.] q. d. O the patience of Vectius? One would think that his mind was insensible of fatigue, quite steeled, as it were, against the assaults of impatience or weariness. See sat. i. I. 31. Vectius.] The name of some teacher of rhetoric, or perhaps put here for any person of that profession.

151. When a numerous class, &c.] Classis here signifies a number of boys in the same form, or class, every one of which was to repeat over a long declamation to the master, on some particular subject which was given out to them as a thesis.

Destroyed cruel tyrants.] Alluding to the subject of the declamation, as" Whether tyrants should not be destroyed by their subjects?"-The declaimers are supposed to hold the affirmative. Comp. sat. i. 15-17, and note on 1. 15,

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Some refer this to Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, who, after he was deposed, went to Corinth and set up a school, where Juvenal humourously supposes him to be killed by the fatigue of his employment; but the first sense, which is given above, seems to be the most natural.

152. For whatever, sitting, &c.] It is probable, that the rhetoricians first taught their scholars the manner of pronunciation and utterance, which they might do, when their scholars read over their declamations sitting; but when they instructed them in gesture and action, then they were made to stand up, still repeating the same things over and over again, and the master exerting himself, to shew them the best method of speaking and action.

153. Rehearse over, &c.] Canto-lit. signifies to sing or chant. Perhaps the ancients, in their declamation, used a kind of singing, or chanting, to mark the cadences of their periods. Canto also signifies to repeat the same thing over and over again, in the same letters and syllables-nothing more than this seems to be meant here. Versus, as well as a verse, signifies a line, even in prose. AINSW. Versus,

No. 5.

Do you teach to declaim? O the iron heart of Vectius !
When a numerous class hath destroy'd cruel tyrants:

For whatever, sitting it has just read, these same things standing,

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It will utter, and rehearse the same, over and over, in the same verses. The cabbage repeated kills the miserable masters.

What the colour, and what the kind of cause, and where

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The chief question, what arrows may come from the contrary party, All would know, nobody pay the reward.

Do

you
call for your reward ?-what, forsooth, do I know? The fault
of the teacher

You may be sure is blamed, because in the left part of the breast

The

154. The cabbage, &c.] Crambe-a kind of colewort, or cabbage. poet means (in allusion to the Greek saying-As ngaμbn Davatos) that the hearing the same things for ever (like cabbage warmed up, and served at table many times to the same persons) must be nauseous and surfeiting, enough to tire and wear the masters to death.

Others read Cambre, a town near mount Gaurus, in Campania, where a battle had been fought between the Campanians and the people of Cuma. This had been made the subject of a declamation, which the scholars repeated so often in the schools, for their exercises, as to tire their masters almost to death.

155. What the colour.] That which the ancients called the colour, was that part of the declamation which was introduced by way of cause, or reason, for the thing supposed to be done, and by way of plea or excuse for the action. As Orestes, when he confessed killing his mother," I did it," says he, " because she killed my father.”

-What the kind of cause.] Deliberative, demonstrative, or ju dicial- -or whether defensible or not.

156. The chief question.] That on which the whole cause must turn. What arrows, &c.] What arguments may come from the other side. Metaph. from shooting arrows at a mark.

157. All would know, &c.] Every body is willing enough to be taught these things, but very few choose to pay the master for his pains in teaching them.

158. Do you call for your reward?] i. e. What do you mean by asking for payment? (says the scholar.)-What do I know more than before? This is supposed to be the language of the scholar, when the master demands payment for his trouble. The dull and inapprehensive scholar, who gets no benefit from the pains of the master, lays his ignorance upon the master, and not upon his own inattention or stupidity; and therefore is supposed to blame the master, and to think that he deserves nothing for all the pains he has taken.

159. In the left part of the breast, &c.] The heart is supposed to

Nil salit Arcadico juveni, cujus mihi sextâ

Quâque die miserum dirus caput Hannibal implet.
Quicquid id est, de quo deliberat; an petat urbem
A Cannis; an post nimbos et fulmina cautus
Circumagat madidas a tempestate cohortes,

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Quantum vis stipulare, et protinus accipe quod do,

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Ut toties illum pater audiat. Ast alii sex
Et plures uno conclamant ore sophistæ
Et veras agitant lites, raptore relicto :

Fusa venena silent, malus ingratusque maritus,
Et quæ jam veteres sanant mortaria cæcos.
Ergo sibi dabit ipse rudem, si nostra movebunt
Consilia, et vitæ diversum iter ingredietur,

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be in the left part of the breast, and to be the seat of understanding and wisdom; in both which the youth, here spoken of, seems to be as deficient, as if his heart were almost without motion, without that lively palpitation which is found in others. Lit. nothing leaps to the Arcadian youth in the left part of the breast.

160. Arcadian youth.] Arcadia was famous for its breed of asses, to which, by the appellation Arcadico, this young man is compared, whose dulness had prevented his profiting under the pains which his master took with him. See PERS. sat. iii. 1. 9.

Whose dire Hannibal, &c.] No theme was more common, in the Roman schools, than the adventures of Hannibal. Every week, says the master, does the story of Hannibal torment my poor head upon a declaiming day.

162. Go to the city.] March directly to Rome, after the battle of Cannæ.

164. Wheel about his troops wet, &c.] Hannibal, when within about three miles from Rome, was assaulted by a dreadful tempest. Maherbal, his general of horse, persuaded him to go on, and promised him that he should, that night, sup in the capitol: but Hannibal deliberated, whether he should not lead his troops back into Apulia, as they were so assaulted and dismayed by the violence of the tempest.

These circumstances are supposed to be the constant subjects of declamations in the schools.

165. Bargain for, &c.] Ask what you please, I will give it you, if you can get this stupid boy's father to hear him as often as I do: then I think he would be persuaded of his son's dulness, and think also that I deserve to be handsomely paid for what I have gone through in hearing him. See AINSW. Stipulor.

166-7. Six other sophists, &c.] Sophista meant at first learned men (from Gr. copos, wise); afterwards it meant pretenders to learning, prating cavillers. It also signifies orators: in this last sense it seems used here, where the poet means to say, that many of these teachers of rhetoric had left the schools, where fictitious matters were only declaimed upon, for the bar, where real causes were agitated.

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