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Who has erected fo many villas? What ancestor on feven

difhes

Has fupped in fecret? Now a fmall basket at the first 95
Threshold is fet, to be snatched by the gowned crowd.
But he first inspects the face, and trembles, left

Put in the place of another you come, and ask in a false name. Acknowledged you will receive. He commands to be called by the crier

The very defcendents of the Trojans: for even they molest the threshold

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Together with us: "Give to the Prætor-then give to the Tribune."

Perhaps, in better days, when the clients and dependents of great men were invited to partake of an entertainment withindoors, there was a fportula, or dole-basket, which was diftributed, at large, to the poor, at the doors of great men's houses. Now times were altered; no invitation of clients to feast within doors, and no diftribution of doles, to the poor at large, without-none now got any thing here, but the excluded clients, and what they got was diftributed with the utmost caution, 1. 97—8.

He commands to be called.] i. e. Summoned-called together. The poet is now about to inveigh against the meanness of many of the nobles, and magiftrates of Rome, who could fuffer themselves to be fummoned, by the common crier, in order to fhare in the diftribution of the dole-baskets.

100. The very defcendents of the Trojans.] Ipfos Trojugenas-from Troja-or Trojanus-and gigno.-The very people, fays he, who boast of their defcent from Æneas, and the antient Trojans, who firft came to fettle in Italy; even these are fo degenerate, as to come and scramble, as it were, among the poor, for a part of the sportula. The word ipfos makes the farcafm the stronger.

Moleft the threshold.] Crowd about it, and are very troublesome. So HOR. Lib. i. Sat. viii. 1. 18.-hunc vexare locum.

101. With us.] Avec nous autres-as the French fay.

- Give to the Prætor.] In Juvenal's time this was a title of a chief magiftrate, fomething like the lord-mayor of London-He was called Prætor Urbanus, and had power to judge matters of law between citizen and citizen. This feems

to

Sed libertinus prior eft: prior, inquit, ego adfum:
Cur timeam, dubitemve, locum defendere? quamvis
Natus ad Euphratem, molles quod in aure feneftræ
Arguerint, licèt ipfe negem: fed quinque taberna
Quadringenta parant: quid confert purpura majus
Optandum, fi Laurenti cuftodit in agro

Conductas Corvinus oves? Ego poffideo plus

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to be the officer here meant-but for a further account of the Prætor, fee AINSW.-Prætor.

101. The Tribune.] A chief officer in Rome.-The Tribunes, at their first inftitution, were two, afterwards came to be ten-they were keepers of the liberties of the people, againft the incroachments of the fenate. They were called Tribunes, because at first fet over the three tribes of the people. See AINSW. Tribunus-and Tribus.

Juvenal fatirically reprefents fome of the chief magiftrates and officers of the city, as bawling out to be first ferved out of the sportula.

102. The libertine.] An infranchised flave. There were many of these in Rome, who were very rich, and very infolent ; of one of thefe we have an example here.

Is first, &c.] "Hold (fays this upftart) a freedman, rich as I am, is before the Prætor; befides I came first, " and I'll be first ferved."

103. Why should I fear, &c.] i. e. I'm neither afraid nor afhamed to challenge the firft place. I'll not give it up to any body.

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103-4. Altho' born at the Euphrates.] He owns that he was born of fervile condition, and came from a part of the world from whence many were fold as flaves. The river Euphrates took its rife in Armenia, and ran through the city of Babylon, which it divided in the midft.

104. The foft boles, c.] The ears of all flaves in the East were bored, as a mark of their fervitude. They wore bits of gold by way of ear- -rings; which cuftom is ftill in the Eaft Indies, and in other parts, even for whole nations; who bore prodigious holes in their ears, and wear vaft weights at them. DRYDEN. PLIN. Lib. xi. c. 37.

The epithet molles may, perhaps, intimate, that this cuftom was looked upon at Rome (as among us) as a mark of effeminacy. Or the poet, by Hypallage, fays-Molles in aure feneftræ-for-feneftræ in molli aure.

105. Five boufes.] Taberna, here, may be understood to mean, fhops or warehouses, which were in the forum, or market

place,

But the libertine is first: I the firft, fays he, am here present.
Why should I fear, or doubt to defend my place? although
Born at the Euphrates, which the foft holes in my ear
Prove, though I fhould deny it: but five houfes
Procure 400 (feftertia), what does the purple confer more
To be wished for, if, in the field of Laurentum, Corvinus
Keeps hired sheep? I poffefs more

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place, and which, by reason of their fituation, were let to merchants and traders at a great rent.

106. Procure 400.] In reckoning by fefterces, the Romans had an art which may be understood by these three rules.

1. If a numeral noun agree in number, cafe, and gender, with feftertius, then it denotes fo many feftertii-as decem feftertii.

2. If a numeral noun of another cafe be joined with the genitive plural of feftertius, it denotes fo many thousand, as decem feftertium fignifies 10,000 feftertii.

3. If the adverb numeral be joined, it denotes fo many 100,000: as decies feftertium fignifies ten hundred thousand feftertii. Or if the numeral adverb be put by itself, the fignification is the fame: decies or vigefies ftand for fo many 100,000 feftertii, or, as they fay, fo many hundred feftertia.

The feftertium contained a thousand seftertii, and amounted to about 71. 16s. 3 d. of our money. Kennett, Ant. 374-5. After 400-quadringenta-feftertia must be understood, according to the 3d rule above.

The freedman brags, that the rents of his houses brought him in 400 feftertia, which was a knight's eftate.

What does the purple, &c.] The robes of the nobility and magiftrates were decorated with purple. He means, that, though he can't deny that he was born a flave, and came to Rome as fuch (and if he were to deny it, the holes in his ears would prove it) yet, that he was now a free citizen of Rome, poffeffed of a larger private fortune than the Prætor or the Tribune. What can even a patrician wish for more? Indeed, "when I fee a nobleman reduced to keep fheep for his liveli"hood, I can't perceive any great advantage he derives from his nobility; what can it, at beft, confer, beyond what I "poffefs?"

107. Corvinus.] One of the noble family of the Corvini, but fo reduced, that he was obliged to keep theep, as an hired fhepherd, near Laurentum, in his own native country. Fentum is a city of Italy, now called Santo Lorenzo.

Lau

109. Pallas.]

778

Pallante, & Licinis: expectent ergo Tribuni.
Vincant divitiæ; facro nec cedat honori

Nuper in hanc urbem pedibus qui venerat albis:
Quandoquidem inter nos fanctiffima divitiarum
Majeftas: etfi, funesta Pecunia, templo
Nondum habitas, nullas nummorum ereximus aras,
Ut colitur Pax, atque Fides, Victoria, Virtus,
Quæque falutato crepitat Concordia nido.

110

115

Sed cum fummus honor finito computet anno,
Sportula quid referat, quantum rationibus addat :
Quid facient comites, quibus hinc toga, calceus hinc eft,
Et panis, fumufque domi? denfiffima centum

109. Pallas.] A freedman of Claudius.

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120

The Licini.] The name of feveral rich men, particularly of a freedman of Augustus; and of Licinius Craffus, whe was furnamed Dives.

110. Let riches prevail.] Vincant-overcome-defeat all other pretenfions.

Sacred honour.] Meaning the Tribunes, whofe office was held fo facred, that if any one hurt a Tribune, his life was devoted to Jupiter, and his family was to be fold at the temple of Ceres.

111. With white feet.] It was the custom, when foreign flaves were expofed to fale, to whiten over their naked feet with chalk. This was the token by which they were known.

112. The majesty of riches.] Intimating their great and univerfal fway among men, particularly at Rome, in its corrupt ftate, where every thing was venal, which made them reverenced, and almost adored. This intimates too, the command and dominion which the rich affumed over others, and the felfimportance which they affumed to themselves-a notable inftance of which appears in this impudent freedman.

113. Baleful money.] i. e. Destructive-the occafion of many cruel, and ruinous deeds.

114. Altars of money.] i. e. No temple dedicated, no altars called Aræ nummorum, as having facrifices offered on them to riches, as there were to peace, faith, concord, &c.

116. Which chatters, &c.] Crepito, here, fignifies to chatter like a bird. The temple of Concord, at Rome, was erected by Tiberius, at the request of his mother Livia. About this, birds, fuch as choughs, ftorks, and the like, used to build their

nefts.

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Than Pallas and the Licini: let the Tribunes, therefore, wait.
Let riches prevail: nor let him yieldt facred honour, 110
Who lately came into this city with white feet :
Since among us the majefty of riches is

Moft facred: altho' O baleful money! in a temple

As yet thou doft not dwell, we have erected no altars of money,

As Peace is worshipp'd, and Faith, Victory, Virtue, 115 And Concord, which chatters with a visited neft.

But when the highest honour can compute, the year being

finished,

What the sportula brings in, how much it adds to its accounts,

What will the attendants do, to whom from hence is a gown, from hence a fhoe,

And bread, and smoke of the houfe? A thick crowd of

litters

120

nefts. What the poet fays, alludes to the chattering noise made by these birds, particularly when the old ones revisited their nefts, after having been out to feek food for their young. See AINSW. Salutatus, No 2.

117. The highest honour, &c.] i. e. People of the first rank and dignity.

Can compute, &c.] i. e. Can be fo funk into the most fordid and meanest avarice, as to be reckoning, at the year's end, what they have gained out of these doles which were provided for the poor.

119. The attendants, &c.] The poor clients and followers, who, by thefe doles, are, or ought to be, fupplied with clothes, meat, and fire. What will these do, when the means of their fupport is thus taken from them by great people?

Ahoe.] Shoes to their feet-as we say.

From hence.] i. e. By what they receive from the dole-basket.

120. Smoke of the houfe.] Wood, or other fewel for firingor firing, as we fay. The effect, fmoke-for the caufe, fire. ΜΕΤΟΝ.

Crowd of litters.] The word denfiffima, here, denotes a very great number, a thick crowd of people carried in litters.

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