120 Ingeno: i. e. of Cicero, that man of distinguished tal ents. 122. O fortunatam... Romam: a verse of Cicero, notorious for its vanity and ill-sounding numbers. Dryden, in his translation, has made it exceedingly ridiculous, "Fortune foretuned the dying notes of Rome, 123. Potuit: for potuisset. 125. Philippica... proxima: Cicero wrote fourteen orations against Antony, (called Philippics, as imitating Demosthenes in freedom of language,) of these the second is the most elaborate and abounds in the severest invectives. 126. Volveris: the books of the ancients were rolled up in volumes of paper or parchment; this famous Philippic stood second in the volume.-Illum: Demosthenes, who poisoned himself to avoid falling into the hands of Antipater. 130. Pater: the father of Demosthenes is said to have been a cutler at Athens. 132. Luteo: dirty with soot and smoke.-Others explain it by flavo, as denoting the color of the fire; but luteus, in this sense, has the first syllable long, and luteo must then be considered as contracted by synæresis into two syllables. 133. Exuvia... tropæis: all spoils, taken from a conquered enemy, were called exuvia. The trophy was a monument erected in memory of victory: the custom came from the Greeks, who, when they had routed an enemy, suspended the spoils of armor and other ensigns of victory from the trunk of a tree, called tropæum, (from Toл, to turn,) a monument of their having turned the enemy to flight. 136. Captivus... arcu : on the top of the triumphal arch, which was built upon these occasions, they made some wretched captive place himself, bemoaning his wretched fate, while the conquerors were exulting in their victory. 145. Sterilis ... ficus: the wild fig-tree, springing up spontaneously near walls and monuments, and shooting its roots and branches between the joinings of the stones, totally overturns them in course of time. 147. Expende Hannibalem: put Hannibal in the scales, weigh his ashes and see how light they are: i. e. place him in the scales of human greatness. 149. Nilo... tepenti: bordering on the Nile, which is called tepid, as being near the torrid zone. 150. Rursus .. populos: then extending to the country of the Ethiopians. 152. Alpem poetic sing. for plural Alpes. 153. Diducit... aceto: around such rocks, as obstructed his passage, he piled large trees, and, setting them on fire, poured vinegar on the rocks, as they became red; and thus the rocks were split and calcined, and he was enabled to remove or cut a passage through them. Pliny says, that the hardest rocks may be split with fire and vinegar. This story, however, is rejected as fabulous. 156. Suburâ: one of the principal streets of Rome, put here for the city itself. 157. Quali digna tabellâ : ' what a ridiculous picture he would have made;'-'how worthy of being caricatured.' 158. Gatula...luscum: when he was entering Tuscany, the Anio was overflown with incessant rains, and the country was so flooded, that he was three days and nights marching through the wet, in which situation he lost many of his army, and all his ele phants but one: here, by damp and fatigue, he lost the use of one of his eyes. 161. Cliens. tyranno: a dependant on Prusias, king of Bithynia; he visited him every morning to salute him as his patron, and was obliged to sit and wait at the door of his palace, till the king saw fit to admit him. 165. Vindex... annulus: at Cannæ, he is said to have taken above three bushels of rings from the dead bodies of the Romans. One ring containing poison, he always carried with him, and by means of which he finally perished. 168. Pellæo juveni: Alexander the Great was born at Pella, a city of Macedon, and died of a fever at Babylon, occasioned by excessive drinking. 170. Gyara... Seripho: two of the Cyclades, islands in the Egean sea, to which criminals were banished. 171. Figulis... urbem: Babylon was sorrounded by a wall of brick, of an immense height and thickness. 174. Velificatus Athos: Athos is a mountain in Macedon, running like a peninsula into the Ægean sea. Xerxes is said to have digged through a part of it to make a passage for his fleet. ... 175. Constratum . . . mare: Xerxes is said to have had 12,000 ships with him in his expedition, and with them to have formed a bridge from Sestos to Abydos, over which the army, chariots, horses, &c. passed, as if the sea had been solid under them. 177. Defecisse... prandente: it is said, that the army of Xerxes was so numerous, as to drink up a river at once, wherever it stopped.-Medo: the army of Xerxes consisted of Medes and Persians. 178. Madidis.., Sostratus: the fancy of a poet is compared to wings, with which he soars into the region of invention. The fancy of Sostratus (a poet, who described the Persian expedition), to produce such improbabilities, is supposed to be moistened with wine. 179. Ille ... relictâ: Xerxes, after the defeat of his naval forces, near Salamis, by Themistocles, immediately fled in a poor fishing-boat. 180. Corum... Ennosigaum: when Xerxes found his bridge of boats shattered by a tempest, he ordered the Hellespont to be scourged with three hundred lashes, and fetters to be cast into the sea. Herodotus also relates the story, but says nothing of the winds being scourged.-Ennosigæum: 'the earth-shaking Neptune.' 183. Stigmate stigma signifies a brand or mark impressed upon the foreheads of fugitive slaves. 184. Huic such a mad and cruel master. : 185. Cruentis: by the slaughter of such vast numbers of the Persians by the Athenian commander. 188. Da spatium: the poet now satirizes the folly of wishing for long life. 189. Recto vultu et pallidus: with a joyful countenance and with a sad one-or in health and in sickness. 192. Deformem pro cute pellem: instead of a smooth skin, an unsightly hide.' 194. Quales... Tabraca... bucca: Tabraca, now Tunis, a city in the maritime part of Lybia, near which was a thick wood, abounding in apes. 200. Inermi: 'toothless.' ... 205. Citharœdus: this word denotes that species of musician, who sang and played the harp at the same time.—Seleucus . . . lacerná: Seleucus was a noted musician, who, like all his profession, wore a rich embroidered garment, when he exhibited on the stage. 215. Hippia: a woman noted for her debaucheries. 216. Themison: the name of some physician. 217. Basilu:: some prætor, probably, who shamefully plundered (socios) the people of his province.- Hirrus: the name of some fraudulent guardian. 219. Possideat sonabat: Cinnamus, the freed-man and barber of Augustus. 230. Eduxit: i. e. educavit. 233. Carcere fornicis: the prison of a brothel,'—' in the confined cells of a brothel.' 240. Rex Pylius: Nestor, king of Pylos. 241. Vita... secunde: the crow is fabled to live nine times the age of a man. Nestor, says the poet, stands second to this long-lived bird. 243. Dextrâ computat: the ancients counted by their fingers; the numbers under a hundred on the fingers of the left hand; from one to two hundred, on those of the right; and so on, alternately. 244. Quique... bibit: i. e. who has lived so many autumns and tasted the produce of so many vintages. 246. Nimio de stamine: i. e. the thread of life was spun out to too great a length. 247. Ardentem: upon the funeral pile. 251. Alius: Laertes, king of Ithaca, the father of Ulysses. 252. Ad umbras Assaraci: 'to the sepulchre of his ancestors.' See Assaracus, Class. Dict. 255. Edere planctus: it was customary to hire women to mourn at funerals, who went before the corpse, to lament the dead. 256. Scissâ... palla: rending the garments, in token of grief, was very ancient. 257. Diverso... carinas: i. e. before Paris had made preparations for sailing to Greece. 260. Asiam: Asia Minor, subject to the empire of Priam. 261. Tremulus: Priam, now trembling and almost worn out with old age. 262. Ruit... Jovis: see Virg. Æn. II, 509. 265. Torva. ... uxor: Hecuba, the wife of Priam, is said to have been changed into a bitch. 267. Ad nostros: to examples among our own people.-Regem Ponti: Mithridates. ... 268. Cræsum... vitæ: Cræsus was the last king of Lydia and proverbially rich. He asked Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, who was the happiest man? The philosopher told him, "no man could be called happy before death." This afterwards Croesus found to be true; for being taken by Cyrus and ordered to be burned, he cried out, "Solon! Solon! Solon!" Cyrus asked the reason of this and was told what Solon had remarked: whereupon, considering, it might be his own case, he spared his life and treated him with much respect. 270. Exsilium... habuere: the long life of C. Marius was attended with innumerable miseries. Being conquered by Sylla, he fled to the marshes of Minturnæ, a town of old Latium, where he was taken and thrown into prison: but, escaping thence into Africa, he was obliged to beg his bread through the streets of Carthage. He afterwards returned to Rome, on the departure of Sylla to the Mithridatic war, and becoming consul, then for the seventh time, died in a few months, having amply revenged himself upon his enemies. 274. Si... curru: i. e. if Marius had died immediately after his triumph over the Teutones and Cimbri. 275. Pompâ: the a in pompâ, in this line, is preserved from elision. 277. Provida... Campania: before the civil war between Pompey and Cæsar, the former labored under two violent fevers, one at Naples and the other at Campania. Campania is therefore called provida, because, if the fever had killed Pompey, it would have provided against all his after misfortunes, and the dire consequences of a civil war. 283. Formam optat: the poet now satirizes the folly of parents, who wish so anxiously for beauty in their children. 288. Rutila: Rutila was an ugly hump-backed old woman, in Juvenal's days, upwards of seventy-seven years of age, as Pliny says 289. Suam: sc. faciem. 292. Sanctos... Sabinos: i. e. though a family, simple and honest, may have furnished him with the purest morals, such as those, for which the ancient Sabines were distinguished. 298. Non... viris: i. e. it is impossible for them to be men, if they are handsome, since those endowed with beauty are generally effeminate. 302. Hæc: Phædra, the step-mother of Hippolytus, was the daughter of Minos, king of Crete. 303. Sthenebaa: in Greek 29erfora. See Bellerophon and Sthenoba, Class. Dict. 306. Cui... destinat: Messalina, the wife of the emperor Claudius, so doated upon Silius, a noble Roman, that she obliged him to put away his wife, Julia Syllana, and resolved to be married to him herself, in the absence of the emperor, who had gone no farther than to Ostia, a city near the mouth of the Tiber. 311. Ritu... antiquo: at marriages, a portion was given by the wife to the husband, in consideration of the burden of matrimony. 312. Signatoribus auspex: on all such occasions, a soothsayer used to attend, and nothing of importance, either public or private, was anciently undertaken, without his advice. The signatores were a kind of public notaries, who drew up, signed, sealed, and attested wills, deeds, marriage settlements, and the like. 316. Scelus... admittas: of marrying another man's wife. 317. Principis: the emperor Claudius. 333. Divina: all things, belonging to the gods or appertaining to sacrifices, were called divine. 334. Spatium... extremum: spatium ultimum or extremum, in chariot and horse racing, sigrifies the space between the last bound and the goal, where the race ended. Hence, metaphorically, it denotes the latter part of life. 338. Pluma Sardanapali: 'the downy bed, or effeminacy of Sardanapalus;' he was the last king of Assyria, whose life was such a scene of luxury and effeminacy, that his subjects held him in the utmost contempt, and at last revolted: having been overcome, he erected a pile, and burned himself together with all his valuable effects. 342. Fortuna Deam: the Greeks had many temples erected to Fortune. Ancus Martius and Servius Tullius were the first among the Romans, who built temples to this goddess. This Satire has been imitated by Dr. Johnson, in his poem, entitled, "The Vanity of Human Wishes." |