Literally Translated. BY THE REV. M. MADAN. Ardet....Instat....Aperte jugulat. SCAL. in JUV. IN ONE VOLUME. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. PREFACE. DECIMUS JUNIUS JUVENAL was born at Aquinum; a town of the Volsci, a people of Latium: hence, from the place of his birth, he was called Aquinas. It is not certain whether he was the son, or foster-child, of a rich freedman. He had a learned education, and, in the time of Claudius Nero, pleaded causes with great reputation. About his middle age he applied himself to the study of Poetry; and, as he saw a daily increase of vice and folly, he addicted himself to writing Satire: but, having said something (Sat. vii. 1. 88-92) which was deemed a reflection on Paris the actor, a minion of Domitian's, he was banished into Egypt, at* eighty years of age, under pretense of sending him as captain of a company of soldiers. This was looked upon as a sort of humorous punishment for what he had said, in making Paris the bestower of posts in the army. However, Domitian dying soon after, Juvenal returned to Rome, and is said to have lived there to the times† of Nerva and Trajan. At last, worn out with old age, he expired in a fit of coughing. He was a man of excellent morals, of an elegant taste and judgment, a fast friend to virtue, and an irreconcilable enemy to vice in every shape. As a writer, his style is unrivaled, in point of elegance and beauty, by any Satirist that we are acquainted with, Horace not excepted. The plainness of his expressions are derived from the honesty and integrity of his own mind: his great aim was, "to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure." He meant not, therefore, to corrupt the mind, by openly describing the lewd practices of his countrymen, but to remove every veil, even of language itself, * Quanquam Octogenarius. MARSHALL, in Vit. Juv. + Ibique ad Nervæ et Trajani tempora supervixisse dicitur. MARSHALL, ib. 278472 |