Sufficiat census, si quis me consulat, edam. In quantum sitis atque fames et frigora poscunt: NUNQUAM ALIUD NATURA, ALIUD SAPIENTIA DICIT. 320 325 318. As much, &c.] That which will suffice-as much as is re quired for food and raiment. So St. Paul, 1 Tim. vi. 8. HoR. sat. i. 1. 73—5. Nescis quo valeat nummus; quam præbeat usum ? So POPE, in his use of riches, Eth. ep. iii. 1. 81, 2. "What riches give us let us first inquire, "Meat, fire, and clothes-what more? meat, clothes, and fire." FRANCIS. 319. Little garden.] See sat. xiii. 122, 3. hortis, plur. per synec. pro horto, sing. 320. Socratic Penates, &c.] i. e. As much as Socrates required and took for the maintenance of his household. Here, by meton. called Penates, from the household gods which were in his house. Before.] i. e. In earlier times, before Epicurus. Socrates died four hundred years before Christ; Epicurus two hundred and seventy-one. 321. Nature never says, &c.] i. e. Nature and wisdom always agree in teaching the same lesson. By nature, here, we must understand that simple principle which leads only to the desire of the necessary comforts of life." If we go farther, the term nature may extend to the appetite and passions, which, in their desires and pursuits, suit but ill with the dictates of wisdom. Mr. POPE, Eth. epist. iii. 1. 25, 6. "What nature wants" (a phrase I must distrust) "Extends to luxury, extends to lust," &c. 322. I seem to confine, &c.] By saying this, I may seem, perhaps, too severe, and to circumscribe your desires in too narrow a compass, by mentioning such rigid examples of persons, of what you may think sour dispositions. 323. Qur manners.] That I may not be thought too scanty in Which may suffice, if any should consult me, I will declare. As much, Epicurus, as sufficed thee in thy little garden; 320 325 Take two knights, make the third four hundreḍ. If as yet I have not filled your bosom, if it be opened farther, my allowance, I will permit you to mingle something of our more modern way of thinking and living. 323. Make the sum, &c.] Suppose you make up, together with what I have mentioned as sufficient, a sum equal to a knight's estate, which, by a law of Roscius Otho the tribune, called the Roscian law, was to amount to four hundred sestertia revenue per annum, about 3,1257. of our money. 324. Twice seven ranks, &c.] Fourteen ranks or rows of seats in the theatre were assigned to the equestrian order. See HoR. ep. iv. 1. 15, 16; and Juv. sat. iii. 1. 155, 6, and notes. 325. If this also draws, &c.] If this contracts your brow into a frown, and makes you pout out your lips, as in disdain or displeasure as we say, hang the lip-i. e. if this, as well as the examples before mentioned, of Socrates and Epicurus, displeases you- 326. Take two knights.] Possess an estate sufficient for two of the equestrian order. See above, 1. 323, note 2. Make the third four hundred.] E'en add a third knight's estate, have three times four hundred sestertia. 327. Filled your bosom, &c.] A metaphor alluding to the garments of the ancients, which were loose, and which they held open before to receive what was given to them. Comp. Is. Ixv. 6, 7. Luke vi. 38. The poet means-If I have not yet satisfied your desires by what I allow you: if I have not thrown enough into your lap, as we say. See sat. vii. 215, and note. Opened farther.] The metaphor is still continued-q. d. If your desires are still extended beyond this. 328. Fortune of Crasus.] The rich king of Lydia. See sat. x. 274. Persian kingdoms.] The kings of Persia, particularly Darius and Xerxes, were famed for their magnificence and riches. 329. Suffice your mind.] Will be sufficient to gratify your desires. Riches of Narcissus.] A freedman and favourite of Claudius Cæsar, who had such an ascendency over the emperor, as to Nec Crosi fortuna unquam, nec Persica regna 330 prevail on him to put Messalina to death, after her paramour Silius. See sat. x. 1. 330-345. Claudius would have pardoned her adultery, but, at the instigation of Narcissus, he had her killed in the Neither the fortune of Croesus, nor the Persian kingdoms, 330 gardens of Lucullus. By the favour of the emperor, Narcissus was possessed of immense wealth. SATIRA XV. ARGUMENT. The Poet in this Satire, which he is supposed to have written when he was under his banishment into Egypt, relates the mortal and irreconcileable hatred, which sprung from a religious quarrel between the Ombites and Tentyrites, inhabitants of two neighbouring cities of Egypt-and describes, in very lively colours, a bloody fray which happened between them. He seems to lay this as a ground for those fine reflections, with which he finishes the Satire, on the nature, use, and intention of civil society. In reading this Satire, it is difficult not to advert to the monstrous cruelties which superstition and bigotry have brought on mankind, while those who have disgraced the Christian name by bearing it, have, with relentless fury, inflicted tortures and death on thousands of innocent Qu UIS nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens Dimidio magicæ resonant ubi Memnone chordæ, 5 Line 1. Bithynian Volusius.] Who this Volusius was does not appear; all that we know is, that he came from Bithynia, a country' of the Lesser Asia, and was undoubtedly a friend of Juvenal, who addresses this Satire to him. 2. Mad Egypt.] Demens not only means mad, i. e. one that has lost his senses, but also silly, foolish; which perhaps is meant here, in allusion to the silly superstition which possessed the minds of the Ægyptians in religious matters. This part.] One part of Egypt. Adores a crocodile.] That part of Egypt which lies near the river Nile worships the crocodile'; a dreadful amphibious animal, shaped something like a lizard, and, from an egg little bigger than that of a goose, grows to be thirty feet long. The Egyptians know how high the river will rise that year, by the place where the crocodiles lay their eggs. The crocodile was worshipped with divine ho nours, because these animals were supposed to have destroyed the Libyan and Arabian robbers, who swam over the river and killed many of the inhabitants. |