125 And the machine, and the boys snatched up to the coverings. Veiento does not yield: but as a fanatic stung with thy gad-fly, O Bellona, divines, and says, " A great omen "You have, of a great and illustrious triumph : "You will take some king, or from a British chariot. "Arviragus will fall: the fish is foreign; do you perceive "The spears erect on his back?" This one thing was wanting To Fabricius, that he should tell the country of the turbot, and its age. ["be 130 "What thinkest thou then?-Must it be cut?" "Far from it "This disgrace," says Montanus; "let a deep pot be prepared, "Which, with its thin wall, may collect the spacious orb. "A great and sudden Prometheus is due to the dish: "Hasten quickly the clay, and the wheel: but now, from this "Time, Cæsar, let potters follow your camps." like so many spears, and portend and signify shall stick in the backs of vanquished foes. the spears 135 which you 129. Fabricius.] i. e. Fabricius Veiento. He was so diffuse in his harangue, that, in short, there wanted nothing but his telling where it was bred, and how old it was, to complete and establish his prophetic history of the fish. 130. What thinkest thou then? &c.] The words of Domitian, who puts the original question for which he assembled these senators, l. 72, viz. as no pot could be got large enough to dress the turbot in, that they should advise what was to be done; this they had said nothing about-therefore Domitian asks, if it should be cut in piéces. 131. Montanus.] The glutton-See 1. 107. He concludes the debate, with expressing a dislike of disfiguring this noble fish, by dividing it, and, at the same time, by flattering the emperor, and raising his vanity. Let a deep pot.] Testa-signifies a pot, or pan, made of clay. He advises that such a one be immediately made, deep and wide enough to hold the fish within its thin circumference, (tenui muro :) by this means the fish will be preserved entire, as in such a pot it might be dressed whole. 133. Prometheus, &c.] The poets feigned him to have formed men of clay, and to have put life into them by fire stolen from heaven. Juvenal humourously represents Montanus as calling for Prometheus himself, as it were, instantly to fashion a pot on so great an occasion, when so noble a fish was to be dressed, and that for so great a prince. 134. Hasten.] That the fish may not be spoiled before it can be dressed. The clay, and the wheel.] Clay is the material, and a wheel, which is solid, and turns horizontally, the engine on which the potter makes his ware. This was very ancient. Jer. xviii. 3. 135. Let potters follow, &c.] This is a most ludicrous idea, and Vicit digna viro sententia: noverat ille Luxuriam imperii veterem, noctesque Neronis Jam medias, aliamque famem, cum pulmo Falerno Tempestate meâ. Circeis nata forent, an Surgitur, et misso proceres exire jubentur Atque utinam his potius nugis tota illa dedisset 140 145 150 seems to carry with it a very sharp irony on Domitian, for having called his council together on such a subject as this-but, however it might be meant, the known gluttony of Montanus, which is described, l. 136-43, made it pass for serious advice, and as such Domitian understood it, as the next words may inform us. 136. The opinion, &c.] What Montanus had said about dressing the fish whole, was thoroughly worthy his character; just what might have been expected from him, and as such prevailed. He had known, &c.] He was an old court glutton, and was well acquainted with the luxury of former emperors, here meant by -luxuriam imperii. No man understood eating, both in theory and practice, better than he did, that has lived in my time, says Juvenal. 137. Nero.] As Suetonius observes, used to protract his feasts from mid-day to mid-night. 138. Another hunger, &c.] i. e. What could raise a new and fresh appetite, after a drunken debauch. 140. Circai.] -orum. A town of Campania, in Italy, at the foot of mount Circello on the sea coast. 141. The Lucrine rock.] The Lucrine rocks were in the bay of Lucrinum, in Campania. All these places were famous for different sorts of oysters. -Rutupian bottom.] Rutupa-arum, Richburrow in KentRutupina littora, the Foreland of Kent. The luxury of the Romans must be very great, to send for oysters at such a distance, when so many places on the shores of Italy afforded them. 143. Sea-urchin.] Echinus, a sort of crab with prickles on its shell, reckoned a great dainty. q. d. So skilled in eating was Montanus, that at the first bite of an oyster, or at the first sight of a crab, he could tell where they were taken. The opinion, worthy the man, prevailed: he had known In my time. Whether oysters were bred at Circæi, or 140 At the Lucrine rock, or sent forth from the Rutupian bottom, He knew well to discover at the first bite; And told the shore of a sea-urchin once looked at. [dismissed 145 They rise and the senators are commanded to depart from the Council, whom the great general into the Alban tower Had drawn astonished, and compelled to hasten, As if something concerning the Catti, and the fierce Sicambri He was about to say; as if from different parts of the world An alarming epistle had come with hasty wing. [150 And I wish that rather to these trifles he had given all those Times of cruelty, in which he took from the city, renowned, And illustrious lives, with impunity, and with no avenger. But he perished, after that to be fear'd by cobblers 144. They rise.] Surgitur, imp. the council broke up. See 1. 65. itur. 145. The great general.] Domitian, who gave the word of command for them to depart, as before to assemble. Into the Alban tower.] To the palace at Alba, where the emperor now was. The word traxerat is very expressive, as if they had been dragged thither sorely against their wills. 146. Astonished-compelled, &c.] Amazed at the sudden summons, but dared not to delay a moment's obedience to it. Comp. 1. 76. 147. Catti.] A people of Germany, now subject to the Landgrave of Hesse-Sicambri, inhabitants of Guelderland. Both these people were formidable enemies. 149. An alarming epistle, &c.] Some sorrowful news had been dispatched post-haste from various parts of the empire. Little could the senators imagine, that all was to end in a consultation upon a turbot. The satire here is very fine, and represents Domitian as anxious about a matter of gluttony, as he could have been in affairs of the utmost importance to the Roman empire. 150. And I wish, &c.] i. e. It were to be wished that he had spent that time in such trifles as this, which he passed in acts of cruelty and murder, which he practised with impunity, on numbers of the greatest and best men in Rome, nobody daring to avenge their sufferings. 153. But he perished, &c.] Cerdo signifies any low mechanics, such as cobblers, and the like. Cerdonibus stands here for the rabble in general. While Domitian only cut off, now and then, some of the nobles, the people were quiet, however amazed they might be, (comp. 1. 77.) Cœperat: hoc nocuit Lamiarum cæde madenti. but when he extended his cruelties to the plebeians, means were devised to cut him off, which was done by a conspiracy formed against him. See ANT. Un. Hist. vol. xv. p. 87. 154. The Lamia.] The Lamian family was most noble. See HOR. lib. iii. ode xvii. Of this was Ælius Lama, whose wife, Domitia Longina, Domitian took away, and afterwards put the husband to death. The Lamiæ, here, may stand for the nobles in general, (as before He had begun this hurt him reeking with slaughter of the Lamiæ. the cerdones for the rabble in general,) who had perished under the cruelty of Domitian, and with whose blood he might be said to be reeking, from the quantity of it which he had shed during his reign. He died ninety-six years after Christ, aged forty-four years, ten months, and twenty-six days. He reigned fifteen years and five days, and was succeeded by Nerva; a man very unlike him, being a good man, a good statesman, and a good soldier. END OF THE FOURTH SATIRE. VOL. I. M |