дне Orcadas, ac minimâ contentos nocte Britannos. den, that the Romans did not conquer Ireland; this passage of Juvenal seems to imply the contrary. The poet might speak here at large, as a stranger to these parts, but according to the report of the triumphing Romans, who sometimes took discoveries for conquests, and thought those overcome, who were neighbours to those whom they overcame. 161. Orcades.] A number of small islands in the north of Scotland, added to the Roman empire by the emperor Claudius. Hod. the Orkneys. -The Britons content, &c.] At the summer solstice the nights are very short; there is scarce any in the most northern parts of Britain. 162. The things which, &c.] The abominations which are committed in Rome, are not to be found among the conquered people, at least not till they learn them by coming to Rome; instances, indeed, may be found of this, as may appear by what follows. 164. Zelates.] An Armenian youth, sent as an hostage from Armenia. -More soft, &c.] More effeminate; made so, by being corrupted at an earlier period of life than was usual among the Roman youths. Ephebus signifies a youth or lad from about fourteen to seventeen. Then they put on the toga virilis, and were reckoned men. The word is compounded of ɩ, at, and ¤, puberty. 165. To have yielded himself.] For the 165 170 horrid purpose of unnatural lust. -A burning tribune.] VIRG. ecl. ii. 1. has used the verb ardeo in the same horrid sense. The tribune is not named, but some think the emperor Caligula to be hinted at, who, as Suetonius relates, used some who came as hostages, from far countries, in this detestable manner. 166. See what commerce may do.] Commercia here signifies intercourse, correspondence, converse together. Mark the effects of bad intercourse. The poet seems to mean what St. Paul expresses, 1 Cor. xv. 33. "Evil communications "corrupt good manners." -He had come an hostage.] Obsesquia quasi pignus obsidetur, i. e. because kept, guarded, as a pledge. An hostage was given as a security or pledge, for the performance of something by one people to another, either in war or peace, and was peculiarly under the protection and care of those who received him. This youth had been sent to Rome from Artaxata, the capital of Armenia, a country of Asia, and was debauched by the tribune who had the custody of him. This breach of trust aggravates the crime. 167. Here they become men.] Here, at Rome, they soon lose their simplicity and innocence of manners, and though young in years, are soon old in wickedness, from the corruptions which they meet with. The word homo is of the common gender, and signifies both man. Orcades, and the Britons content with very little night. But the things which now are done in the city of the conquering people, Those whom we have conquered do not: and yet one Armenian, Zelates, more soft than all our striplings, is said See what commerce may do: he had come an hostage. and woman; and it is not improbable, but that Juvenal uses the word homines here, as intimating, that these youths were soon to be regarded as of either sex. 167. If a longer stay, &c.] If they are permitted to stay a longer time at Rome, after their release as hostages, and are at large in the city, they will never want occasions of temptation to the worst of vices at every turn they will meet with those who will spare no pains to corrupt them. 169. Trowsers.] Braccæ; a sort of trowsers or breeches, worn by the Armenians, Gauls, Persians, Medes, and others. Here by synec. put for the whole dress of the country from which they came. -Knives.] Cultelli; little knives; dim. from culter. This should seem to mean some adjunct to the Armenian dress; not improbably the small daggers, or poignards, which the Easterns wore tucked in their girdles, or sashes, of their under vestments; such are seen in the East to this day. -Bridles, whip.] With which they managed, and drove on their horses, in their warlike exercises, and in the chace. 165 170 will all be laid aside; they will adopt the dress and manners, the effeminacy and debauchery of the Roman nobility, which they will carry home with them when they return to their own capital. See 1. 166, note. 170. Prætextate manners.] See sat. i. 78, note. Rome's noble crimes. Holyday. As we should express it, the fashionable vices of the great. The persons who wore the prætexta, were magistrates, priests, and noblemen's children till the age of seventeen. -Artaxata.] The chief city of Armenia the Greater, (situate on the river Araxes,) built by Artaxias, whom the Armenians made their king. It was taken by Pompey, who spared both the city and the inhabitants: but, in Nero's reign, Corbulo, the commander in chief of the Roman forces in the East, having forced Tiridates, king of Armenia, to yield up Artaxata, levelled it with the ground. See Ant. Univ. Hist. vol. ix. 484. This city is called Artaxata-orum, plur. or Artaxata-æ, sing. See AINSW. It is probable that the poet mentions Artaxata, on account of the fact which is recorded, 1. 164, 5; but he may be understood, by this instance, to mean, that every country and people would become corrupt, as they had less or more to do with Rome, SATIRA III. ARGUMENT. Juvenal introduces Umbritius, an old friend of his, taking his departure from Rome, and going to settle in a country retirement at Cuma. He accompanies Umbritius out of town; and, before they take leave of each other, Umbritius tells his friend Juvenal the reasons which had induced QUAMVIS digressu veteris confusus amici, Secessûs. Ego vel Prochytam præpono Suburræ. Line 2. Cuma.] An ancient city of Campania near the sea. Some think it had its name from xvuara, waves: the waves, in rough weather, dashing against the walls of it. Others think it was so called from its being built by the Cumai of Asia. PLIN. iii. 4. Juvenal calls it empty in comparison with the populousness of Rome: it was now, probably, much decayed, and but thinly inhabited: on this account it might be looked upon as a place of leisure, quiet, and retirement; all which may be understood by the word vacuis. 3. The Sibyl.] Quasi ou Bovan, Dei consilium. AINSW. The Sibyls were women, supposed to be inspired with a spirit of prophecy. Authors are not agreed as to the number of them; but the most famous was the Cumæan, so called from having her residence at 5 10 Cuma. Umbritius was now going to bestow, donare, one citizen on this abode of the Sibyl, by taking up his residence there. See Virg. Æn. vi. 1. 10. et seq. 4. The gate of Baia.] Passengers from Rome to Baia were to pass through Cumæ; they went in on one side, and came out on the other, as through a gate. -Baia.] A delightful city of Campania, of which HOR. lib. i. epist. i. 1. 83. Nullus in orbe sinus Buiis prælucet amœnis. Here were fine warm springs and baths, both pleasant and healthful: on which account it was much resorted to by the nobility and gentry of Rome, many of whom had villas there for their summer residence. It forms part of the bay of Naples. 2 SATIRE III. ARGUMENT. him to retire from Rome: each of which is replete with the keenest satire on its vicious inhabitants. Thus the Poet carries on his design of inveighing against the vices and disorders which reigned in that city. 5 THO' troubled at the departure of an old friend, 4. A grateful shore.] Gratum: grateful, here, must be understood in the sense of agreeable, pleasant. The whole shore, from Cuma to Baiæ, was delightfully pleasant, and calculated for the most agreeable retirement. See the latter part of the last note. 5. Prochytu.] A small rugged island in the Tyrrhenian sea, desert and barren. -Suburra.] A street in Rome, much frequented, but chiefly by the vulgar, and by women of ill fame. Hence MART. Vi. 66. Famæ non nimium bonæ puella, Quales in media sedent Suburrâ. 6. For what so wretched, &c.] Solitary and miserable as any place may be, yet it is better to be there than at Rome, where you have so many dangers and inconveniences to apprehend. 7. Fires.] House-burnings, to which populous cities, from many various causes, are continually liable. 8. Falling of houses.] Owing to the VOL. I. little care taken of old and ruinous buildings. Propertius speaks of the two foregoing dangers. Præterea domibus flammam, domibusque ruinam. 8, 9. The fell city.] That habitation of daily cruelty and mischief. 9. And poets reciting.] Juvenal very humourously introduces this circumstance among the calamities and inconveniences of living at Rome, that even in the month of August, the hottest season of the year, when most people had retired into the country, so that one might hope to enjoy some little quiet, even then you were to be teazed to death, by the constant din of the scribbling poets reciting their wretched compositions, and forcing you to hear them. Comp. sat. i. 1. 1-14. where our poet expresses his peculiar aversion to this. 10. His whole house, &c.] While all his household furniture and goods were packing up together in one waggon, (as K Substitit ad veteres arcus, madidamque Capenam: theda may here signify.) Umbritius was moving all his bag and baggage, (as we say,) and, by its taking up no more room, it should seem to have been very moderate in quantity. 11. He stood still.] He may be supposed to have walked on out of the city, attended by his friend Juvenal, expecting the vehicle with the goods to overtake him, when loaded: he now stood still to wait for its coming up; and in this situation he was, when he began to tell his friend his various reasons for leaving Rome, which are just so many strokes of the keenest satire upon the vices and follies of its inhabitants. -At the old arches.] The ancient triumphal arches of Romulus, and of the Horatii, which were in that part. Or perhaps the old arches of the aqueducts might here be meant. -Wet Capena.] One of the gates of Rome, which led towards Capua: it was sometimes called Triumphalis, because those who rode in triumph passed through it; it was also called Fontinalis, from the great number of springs that were near it, which occasioned building the aqueducts, by which the water was carried by pipes into the city hence Juvenal calls it madidam Capenam. Here is the spot where Numa used to meet the goddess Egeria. : 12. Numa.] Pompilius, successor to Romulus. -Nocturnal mistress.] The more strongly to recommend his laws, and the better to instil into the Romans a reverence for religion, he persuaded them, that, every night, he conversed with a goddess, or nymph, called Egeria, from whose mouth he received his whole form of government, both civil and religious; that their place of meeting was in a grove without the gate Capena, dedicated to the Muses, wherein was a tem 15 ple consecrated to them and to the goddess Egeria, whose fountain waters the grove; for she is fabled to have wept herself into a fountain, for the death of Numa. This fountain, grove, and temple, were let out to the Jews, at a yearly rent, for habitation; they having been driven out of the city by Domitian, and compelled to lodge in these places, heretofore sacred to the Muses. Delubra is a general term for places of worship. See AINSW. By the phrase nocturnæ amicæ constituebat, Juvenal speaks as if he were describing an intrigue, where a man meets his mistress by appointment at a particular place: from this we can be at no loss to judge of our poet's very slight opinion of the reality of the transaction. 14. A basket and hay, &c.] These were all the furniture which these poor creatures had-the sum total of their goods and chattels. This line has been looked upon as very difficult to expound. Some commentators have left it without any attempt to explain it. Others have rather added to, than diminished from, whatever its difficulty may be. They tell us, that these were the marks not of their poverty, but, by an ancient custom, of their servitude in Egypt, where, in baskets, they carried hay, straw, and such things, for the making of brick, and in such like labours. See Exod. v. 7-18. This comment, with the reasons given to support it, we can only say, is very far fetched, and is not warranted by any account we have of the Jewish customs. Others say, that the hay was to feed their cattle. But how could these poor Jews be able to purchase, or to maintain, cattle, who were forced to beg in order to maintain themselves? Others, that the hay was for their bed on which |