Hic tamen et Cimbros, et summa pericula rerum 250 Atque ideo postquam ad Cimbros, stragemque volabant, Plebeia Deciorum animæ, plebeia fuerunt 255 260 247. He broke a knotty vine, &c.] The Roman centurions used to carry a piece of tough vine-branch in their hands, with which they cor rected the soldiers when they did amiss. Marius was once a private soldier, and had had the centurion's stick broke upon his head, for being lazy at his work, when set to chop with an axe the wood used in fortifying the camp against the enemy. See sat. v. 154, 5, 249. The Cimbri.] The Teutones and Cembri, neighbouring na tions, joined their forces, and marched towards Rome, by which they struck a terror throughout Italy: but C. Marius, with Q. Catullus the proconsul, marched out against them, sustained their attack, and totally defeated them. Dangers of affairs.] When the affairs of Italy, of Rome espe cially, seemed to be in the utmost danger from these powerful enemies, 250. And alone, &c.] Though Q. Catullus was with Marius in this victory, yet Marius was the commander in chief in the Cimbrian war, therefore the whole honour of the victory was ascribed to him,— Com. 1. 253. 251, After the crows, &c.] And other birds of prey, which, af. ter the battle, came to feed upon the slain. See Hoм. Il. i. 5. ii. 393, et. al.—q. d. After the battle was ended. See sat, iv. 1. 111, 252. Grealer carcases.] The Cimbri were, in general, men of large stature. 253. His noble colleague.] Q. Catullus, who had been second in command, and was of noble birth. --Is adorned with the second laurel.] Received only the second honours of the day. 254. The Decii, &c] These, though originally of low extraction, yet gained immortal honours, by sacrificing their lives for their country-the father in the Latin war, the son in the Hetruscan, and the grandson in the war against Pyrrhus. 255. Whole legions, &c.] The Romans had a superstition, that if After this he broke a knotty vine with his head, If, idle, he fortified the camp with a lazy axe. Yet he both the Cimbri, and the greatest dangers of affairs, 250 And so, after to the Cimbri, and to the slaughter, the crows His noble colleague is adorned with the second laurel. The souls of the Decii were plebeian, their names Plebeian: yet these, for whole legions, and for all 255 For the Decii were of more value than those who were saved by them. 260 their general would consent to be devoted to death, or sacrificed to Jupiter, Mars, the Earth, and the infernal Gods, all the misfortunes of his party would be transferred on their enemies. This opinion was confirmed by several successful instances, particularly two, in the persons of the Decii, father and son. The first being consul with Manlius in the wars against the Latins, and perceiving the left wing, which he commanded, give back, called out to Valerius the high priest to perform on him the ceremony of consecration, (LIVY, lib. viii.) and immediately spurred his horse into the thickest of the enemies, where he was killed, and the Romans gained the battle. His son afterwards died in the same manner in the war against the Gauls, with the like success. 257. Suffice.] i. e. To appease, and render them propitious to the Roman arms. 258. More value, &c.] Such men as these are to be more highly prized than all the army and people for whom they thus nobly sacrificed their lives. 259. Born from a servant maid.] Servius Tullius, born of the captive Oriculana. But Livy supposes her to have been wife to a prince of Corniculum, (a town of the Sabines in Italy,) who was killed at the taking of the town, and his wife carried away captive by Tarquinius Priscus, and presented as a slave to his wife Tanaquil, in whose service she was delivered of this Tullius. The robe, &c.] The ensigns of royalty are here put for the kingdom, or royalty itself so the fasces, for the highest offices in the state. See sat. iii. 128, note. Romulus.] Called Quirinus. See sat, iii. 1. 67, note on "O Quirinus." 260. Last of good kings.] Livy says that, with him, justa ac legitima regna ceciderunt. 261. Youths of the consul, &c.] The two sons of L Junius Brutus, Titus and Tiberius, who, after their father had driven Tarquin, and his whole race, out of Rome, and taken an oath of the Exulibus juvenes ipsius consulis, et quos 265 270 275 Romans never more to suffer a king, entered into a conspiracy to restore the Tarquins; the sum of which was, that the gates of the city should be left open in the night-time for the Tarquins to enter; to this purpose they sent letters, under their own hands, with promises to this effect. 261. The fastenings, &c.] The bars of the city gates, which were to be betrayed to the Tarquins. 262. Exiled tyrants.] The Tarquins. 263. Some great thing, &c.] It would have been becoming these sons of the patriot Brutus to have stricken some great stroke, that might have tended to secure the public liberty; which, under the new government, after the expulsion of the kings, must have been in a doubtful and uncertain state-not as yet established. 264. Mutius.] Scævola, who, when Porsenna, king of Tuscany, had entered into an alliance with the Tarquins, to restore them by force, went into the enemy's camp with a resolution to kill their king Porsenna, but, instead of him, killed one of his guards; and, being brought before the king, and finding his error, burnt off his right hand, as a penalty for his mistake. Cocles.] Horatius, being to guard a bridge, which he perceived the enemy would soon be master of, he stood and resolutely opposed part of their army, while his own party repassed the bridge, and broke it down after them. He then threw himself, armed as he was, into the Tiber, and escaped to the city. 265. Who swam, &c.] Clelia, a Roman virgin, who was given to king Porsenna as an hostage, made her escape from the guards, and swam over the Tiber. King Porsenna was so stricken with these three instances of Roman bravery, that he withdrew his army, and courted their friendship. 266. A slave.] Vindicius, a slave who waited at table, overhearing part of the discourse among the conspirators, went strait to the consuls, and informed them of what he had heard. The ambassadors from the Tarquins were apprehended and searched; the letters above mentioned were found upon them, and the criminals seized. Of the gates, betrayed to the exiled tyrants, and whom 265 A slave, to be bewailed by matrons, produced their hidden crimes I had rather thy father were Thersites, so thou art 270 Either he was a shepherd, or that which I am unwilling to say. 275 266. Bewailed by matrons, &c.] By the mothers of such of the conspirators as were put to death, as the sad cause of their destruction, by accusing them to the senate. Produced.] Produxit--brought out-discovered. 267. But stripes, &c.] The proof being evident against them, they suffered the punishment (which was newly introduced) of being tied naked to a stake, where they were first whipped by the lictors, then beheaded: and Brutus, by virtue of his office, was unhappily obliged to see this rigorous sentence executed on his own children. See En. vi. 817-23. 268. First axe of the laws.] i. e. The first time this sentence had been executed since the making of the law. 269. Thersites.] An ugly buffoon in the Grecian army before Troy. See Hoм. Il. 6. I. 216--22. M. 270. Achilles.] acides-æ, or -is, so called from his grandfather Eacus, who was the father of Peleus, the father of Achilles. The Vulcanian arms.] Or armour, that was made by Vulcan, at the request of Thetis, the mother of Achilles, which could be pierced by no human force. 271. Than that Achilles, &c.] The poet here still maintains his argument, viz. that a virtuous person, of low and mean birth, may be great and respectable: whereas a vicious and profligate person, though of the noblest extraction, is detestable and contemptible. 272. However far, &c.] Juvenal here strikes at the root of all family pride among the Romans, by carrying them up to their original.--Revolve, roll or trace back, for however many generations. 273. An infamous asylum.] Romulus, in order to promote the peopling of the city, in its first infancy, established an asylum, or sanctuary, where all outlaws, vagabonds, and criminals of all kinds, who could make their escape thither, were sure to be safe. 275. Either he was a shepherd.] As were Romulus and Remus, and, their bringer up, Faustulus. Unwilling to say.] As the poet does not speak his own meaning, it may not be very easy to determine it: but it is likely that he would insinuate, that none of the Romans had much to brag of in point of family grandeur, and that none of them could tell but that they might have come from some robber, or cut-throat, among the first fugitives to Rome, or even from something worse than that, if worse could be: and indeed Romulus himself, their founder, was a parricide, for he is said to have killed his brother Remus. |