"But let the slaves see, lest any should deny it, and drag into "Law their fearful master with shackled neck :" these were the Discourses then about Sejanus; these the secret murmurs of the vulgar. Will you be saluted as Sejanus? have As much-and give to one chief chairs of state Set another at the head of armies ? be accounted guardian 90 95 With a Chaldæan band? you certainly would have javelins, cohorts, so much Value, since to prosperity there may be an equal measure of evils? 100 lace on the rock at Caprex, (see note on 1. 71, 2, ad fin.) amidst a band of astrologers from Chaldæa, (who amused the prince with their pretended knowledge of the stars, and their government of human affairs,) governed all his affairs of state, and managed them, as a tutor or guardian manages the affairs of a youth under age. Thus high was Sejanus in the opinion and confidence of Tiberius-but do you envy him? 94. Javelins.] Pila were a kind of javelins with which the Roman foot were armed: therefore the poet is here to be understood as saying to the person with whom he is supposed to discourse-"You certainly wish to be an officer, and to have soldiers under your command.” Cohorts. A cohort was a tenth part of a legion. 95. Domestic tents, &c.] The castra domestica were composed of horse, who were the body-guards of the prince or pretor-hence called also prætoriani. These seem to have been something like our life-guards. Why should you not," &c.] What harm, say you, is there in such a desire?" I dont desire this for the sake of hurting or kill"ing any body."- "Aye, that may be-but still, to know that such a thing may be in your power, upon occasion, gives you no small idea of self-importance.” 97 What renowned, &c.] But, to consider coolly of the matter, what is there so valuable in dignity and prosperity, since, amid the enjoyment of them, they are attended with an equal measure of uneasiness, and when a fatal reverse, even in the securest and happiest moments, may be impending? the evil, therefore, may be said, at least, to counterbalance the good. 99. Of this man, &c.] Of Sejanus.-Had you rather be invested with his dignity? 100. The power.] The magistrate of come little town, like Fi. Et de mensurâ jus dicere, vasa minora Quid Crasaos, quid Pompeios evertit, et illum, 105 110 Eloquium ac famam Demosthenis, aut Ciceronis Incipit optare, et tois Quinquatribus optat, 115 denæ, or Gabii. See sat. vi. 1. 56, 7. Called in Italy-Podestà. Something like what we should call-a country justice. 102. A ragged Edile.] Pannosus signifies patched or ragged. The Ædile, in the burghs of Italy, was an officer who had jurisdiction over weights and measures, and if these were bad, he had authority to break them. He was an officer of low rank, and though, like all magistrates, he wore a gown, yet this having been delivered down from his predecessors, was old and ragged, very unlike the fine robe of Sejanus, and other chief magistrates at Rome. See PERS. sat. i. 1. 130, and note. Empty Ulubre.] A small town of Campania, in Italy, very thinly inhabited. Comp. sat. iii. 1. 2. 103. Therefore, &c.] In this, and the four following lines, the poet very finely applies what he has said, on the subject of Sejanus, to the main argument of this Satire; viz. that mortals are too shortsighted to see, and too ignorant to know, what is best for them, and therefore those things which are most coveted, often prove the most destructive; and the higher we rise in the gratification of our wishes, the higher may we be raising the precipice from which we may fall. 107. Enforced ruin.] Impulse ruine-into which he was driven, as it were, by the envy and malice of those enemies, which his greatness, power, and prosperity had created. Impulsæ--metaph. alluding to the violence with which a person is thrown, or pushed, from an high precipice. Immane dreadful--immense--huge great. 108. The Crassi.] M. Crassus making war upon the Parthians for the sake of plunder, Surena, general of the enemy, slew him, and cut off his head and his hand, which he carried into Armenia to his master. The Pompeys.] Pompey the Great, being routed' at the battle of Pharsalia, fled into Egypt, where he was perfidiously slain. And judge about a measure, and lesser vessels Therefore, what was to be wish'd for, you will confess Sejanus Why truly, the chief place, sought by every art, To the son-in-law of Ceres, without slaughter and wound, few 105 110 For the eloquence and fame of Demosthenes, or of Cicero, He begins to wish, and does wish during the whole Quinquatria, 115 Whoever reveres Minerva, hitherto gotten for three farthings, He left two sons, Cneius and Sextus; the first was defeated in a land battle in Spain, the other in a sea-fight on the coast of Sicily, We are not only to understand here Crassus and Pompey, but, by Crassos et Pompeios, plur. all such great men who have fallen by illfated ambition. 109. Brought down, &c.] i. e. Julius Cæsar, who, after he had obtained the sovereignty, partly by arms and violence, partly by art and intrigue, was publicly assassinated in the senate house, as a ty rant and enemy to the liberty of his country. His scourges-i. e. made them slaves, as it were, and subject to his will, liable to be treated in the most humiliating manner. 110. Chief place.] The ambition of reigning absolutely. The poet here shews the fatal source of misery to the aspiring and ambitious; namely, a restless desire after greatness, so as to leave no stone unturned to come at it-nulla non arte, &c. 111. Great vows. .] i. e. Wishes and prayers for greatness, ho nours, riches, &c. By malignant gods-] Who, provoked by the unreasonable and foolish wishes of mortals, punish them, with accepting their vows, and with granting their desires. Comp. 1. 7, 8. 112. Son-in-law of Ceres.] Pluto, the fabled god, and king of the infernal regions: he stole Proserpina, the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, and carried her to his subterranean dominions. The poet means here to say, that few of the great and successful ambitious die, without some violence committed upon them. 113. A dry death.] Without bloodshed. 115. The whole, &c.] Minerva was the goddess of learning and eloquence; her festival was celebrated for five days, hence called Quinquatria-during this the school-boys had holidays. 116. Whoever reveres, &c.] The poor school-boy, who has gat Quem sequitur custos angustæ vernula capsæ : Sævus et illum 120 2 125 130 as much learning as has cost him about three farthings; i. e. the merest young beginner at the lower end of the school. 117. A little slave, &c.] This is a natural image of little master going to shool, with a servant-boy to carry his satchel of books after him, and heightens the ridiculous idea of his coveting the eloquence of the great orators. 118. Each orator, &c.] See note on 1. 9.-i. e. Both Demosthenes and Cicero. Demosthenes, to avoid the cruelty of Antipater, poisoned himself. 120. Hand and neck, &c.] Of Cicero, which were cut off by the emissaries of Antony, when they attacked and murdered him in his litter on the road. They, i. e. Tully's head and hand, were afterwards fixed up at the rostra, from whence he had spoken his Philippics, by order of Antony. Cut off by genius.] i. e. His capacity and powers of eloquence, which he used against Antony, brought this upon him. 121. Rostra.] A place in the forum, where lawyers and orators harangued. See AINSW. Rostra, No. 2.-No weak lawyer, or pleader, could ever make himself of consequence enough to be in danger of any design against his life, by what he was capable of saying in public. 122. O fortunatam, &c.] Mr. Dryden renders this line; Fortune fore-tun'd the dying notes of Rome, Till 1, thy consul sole, consol'd thy doom. And observes, that, "the Latin of this couplet is a verse of Tully's, (in which he sets out the happiness of his own consulship) famous for the vanity and ill poetry of it." It is bad enough; but Mr. Dryden has made it still worse, by adding more jingles to it. However, to attempt translating it is ridicu lous, because it disappoints the purpose of the passage, which is to give a sample of Tully's bad poetry in his own words. 123. If thus, &c.] q. d. If Tully had never written or spoken Whom a little slave follows, the keeper of his narrow satchel : A large and overflowing fountain of genius consigned to death. 120 He might have contemn'd the swords of Antony, if thus 125 Who art roll'd up next from the first. Him also a cruel Rapid, and moderating the reins of the full theatre. He was begotten, the gods adverse, and fate unpropitious, Whom his father, blear-eyed with the reek of a burning mass, 130 better than this, he needed not to have dreaded any mischief to himself; he might have defied the swords which Antony employed against him. 124. Laughable poems.] Ridenda-ridiculous-that are only fit to be laughed at. 125. Divine Philippic.] Meaning Cicero's second Philippic, which, of all the fourteen orations which he made against Antony, was the most cutting and severe, and this probably cost him his life. He called these orations Philippics, as he tells Atticus, because in the freedom and manner of his speech he imitated the Philippics (PiλITTIXOi doyoi,) of Demosthenes, whose orations against Philip were so called. 126. Roll'd up, &c.] Volveris.-The books of the ancients were rolled up in volumes of paper or parchment-this famous Philippic stood second in the volume. See sat. xiv. 1. 102. 127. Athens admired.] Demosthenes. See note on 1. 9. 128. Rapid.] Torrentem--his eloquence rapid and flowing, like the torrent of a river. Moderating-] Or governing the full assembly of his hearers as he pleased, as a horse is governed and managed by a rein; so Demosthenes regulated and governed the minds of his auditory. 129. Gods adverse, &c.] It was a current notion among the ancients, that where people were unfortunate in their lives, the gods were displeased at their birth, and always took a part against them. 130. His father.] Demosthenes is said to have been the son of a blacksmith at Athens. Of a burning mass. ss.] Large masses of iron, when red-hot out of the forge, are very hurtful to the eyes of the workmen, from their great heat. 131. Coal and pincers, &c.] His father at first thought of bringing up his son Demosthenes to his own trade; but he took him from this, and put him to a rhetorician to be taught eloquence. |