Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

Pythagoras? cunctis animalibus abstinuit qui

Tanquam homine, et ventri indulsit non omne legumen.

who being asked, "why the Pythagoreans would not eat beans?" "I will sooner die (said the man) than reveal it."-This, though threatened with tortures, he persisted in, and was, with indignation, sent away. The wife was then called upon, and being asked the

These monstrous things? who abstain'd from all animals, as from A man, and did not indulge every kind of pulse to his belly.

same question, and threatened also with tortures, she, rather than reveal it, bit out her tongue, and spit it in the tyrant's face. Of Pythagoras, see OVID, MET. lib. xv. l. 60, et seq.

END OF THE FIFTEENTH SATIRE.

SATIRA XVI.

ARGUMENT.

This Satire is supposed to have been written by Juvenal while he commanded in Egypt, (see sat. xv. 1. 45, note 2.); he sets forth, ironically, the advantages and privileges of the soldiery, and how happy they are beyond others whom he mentions.

Many have thought that this Satire was not written by Juvenal; but I think that the weight of evidence seems against that opi

Q

UIS numerare queat felicis præmia, Galle,
Militiæ nam si subeantur prospera castra,
Me pavidum excipiat tyronem porta secundo
Sidere plus etenim fati valet hora benigni,
Quam si nos Veneris commendet epistola Marti,
Et Samiâ genitrix quæ delectatur arenâ.

Commoda tractemus primum communia, quorum

Line 1. Gallus.] Who this was does not appear; some friend, doubtless, of Juvenal, to whom he addresses this Satire.

Can number, &c.] i. e. Can reckon up the advantages and emoluments arising from a military life?

2. Now since.] The subject of the Satire is proposed, 1. 1, though not entered upon till 1. 7. The intermediate lines, beginning at Nam si, &c. I. 2, to the end of 1. 6, are digressional, and humourously introduce the poet, now eighty years old, and forced into the service as a punishment, wishing to enter into the army with a lucky planet, as a soldier of fortune: the cheerfulness with which he seems to bear his misfortune, must have afforded no small disappointment to his enemies.-I have rendered the Nam si, as marking the transition to the poet's wish for himself. See AINSW. Nam, No. 5, 6; and Si, No. 2.

·Prosperous camps, &c.] Where people make their fortunes. 3. Let the door.] Let my first entrance be attended with the good omen of some favourable star. It was a great notion among the Romans, that their good or ill fortune depended on the situation of the stars, at certain times, and on certain occasions. Sat. vii. 1. 194,

note.

A fearful beginner.] Tyro signifies a fresh-water soldier, a young beginner, a novice; these are usually fearful at first, being unused to the fatigues and hazards of war.

SATIRE XVI.

ARGUMENT.

nion, and that there are many passages so exactly in the style of Juvenal, as to afford the strongest internal evidence that it was written by him. It may be granted not to be a finished piece, like the rest; but if we only regard it as a draught or design of a larger work, it is a valuable hint on the oppression and inconveniences of a military government.

WHO, O Gallus, can number the advantages of the happy

Soldiery? now since prosperous camps may be gone into,

Let the door receive me, a fearful beginner, with a favourable
Star: for an hour of kind fate avails more,

Than if an epistle of Venus were to commend us to Mars,
And the mother who delights in the Samian sand.

Let us first treat common advantages; of which that will

5

It is to be remembered, that Juvenal, who had passed his life in the study of letters, and in writing, was sent away from Rome into Egypt, under pretence of giving him a military command, but indeed to exile him, for having satirized Paris the player, a minion of Domitian. See sat. vii. 1. 92, note. This was in a very advanced stage of our poet's life; therefore, though an old man, he might properly call himself a young soldier, unskilled and fearful.

4. An hour of kind fate, &c.] One lucky hour under the influ ence of some friendly planet. See HoR. lib. ii. ode xvii. I. 17,

et seq.

5. Epistle of Venus, &c.] Than if Venus, the mistress of the god of war, were to write him a recommendatory letter in my favour, and this to be seconded by another from his mother Juno, here meant by genitrix. The poet, in this place, is again sneering at the mythology of his country. Comp. sat. xiii. 1. 40—7.

6. Delights in the Samian sand.] Juno was worshipped at Samos, a sandy island in the Icarian sea, where she was educated and married to Jupiter,; she was said to have a great delight in this island: See En. i. 1. 19, 20.

7. Let us first treat common advantages.] The poet now enters on his subject; and begins, first, with those privileges of the military, which are common to all of them, from the highest to the lowest.

VOL. II.

F F

1

Haud minimum illud erit, ne te pulsare Togatus
Audeat imo etsi pulsetur, dissimulet, nec
Audeat excuseos Prætori ostendere dentes,
Et nigram in facie tumidis livoribus offam,
Atque oculos medico nil promittente relictos.
Bardiacus Judex datur hæc punire volenti,
Calceus et grandes magna ad subsellia sura,
Legibus antiquis castrorum, et more Camilli
Servato, miles ne vallum litiget extra,
Et procul a signis. Justissima Centurionum
Cognitio est igitur de milite; nec mihi deerit
Ultio, si justæ defertur causa querela :

Tota cohors tamen est inimica, omnesque manipli

10

15

20

8. A Gownsman.] Any common Roman, called togatus from wearing a gown; as a soldier is called armatus, from wearing arms— 1. 34, post.

9. May not dare.] No common man dare strike you if you are a

soldier.

Tho' he.] Though he should be ever so beaten by you.

Let him dissemble.] Let him conceal it; let him counterfeit, and pretend, that he came by the marks, which the soldier's blows have left, some other way.

10. Nor dare to shew, &c. Though the soldier has knocked the man's teeth out of his head, yet let not the man dare to complain to the superior officer, or shew his mangled mouth.

[ocr errors]

Pretor.] The prætor militaris was the general, or commander in chief. See AINSW. Prætor.

11. Black Bump, &c.] His face beat black and blue, as we say, and full of lumps and swellings.

12. And eyes left, &c.] His eyes left in such a condition, as to make it impossible for the Surgeon to promise a recovery of them.

13. A Bardiac Judge.] Bardiacus, or Bardaicus, a military judge, something like our judge advocate in the army, who had the sole cognizance of all military causes, and of such as arose within the camp: 30 called from bardi, an ancient people of Gaul, who wore a parti cular sort of dress, that was adopted by the Romans, and used by the military. This judge, being of the army, wore this dress, and therefore is called Bardiacus, which signifies, of the country of Gaul, or dressed like Gauls. AINSW.

Willing to punish, &c.] If a man will venture to complain, he will be referred to the tribunal of the military judge.

14. A shoe, &c.] Calcets signifies any shoe, but probably means here a particular shoe worn by soldiers, which, like those of our rustics was filled with nails at the bottom. See sat. iii. 247, 8,

note.

Large buskins.] These seem to have been the upper parts of the calige, as the lower were the calcei, or shoes; for the caliga, being a sort of harness for the foot and leg, the lower part, or cal

« PredošláPokračovať »