Et nos ergo manum ferulæ subduximus: et nos 15. Therefore. i. e. In order to qualify myself as a writer and declaimer. His meaning seems to be, that as all, whether good or bad, wrote poems, why should not he, who had had an education in learning, write as well as they. -Have withdrawn my hand, &c.] The ferule was an instrument of punishment, as at this day, with which schoolmasters corrected their scholars, by striking them with it over the palm of the hand: the boy watched the stroke, and, if possible, withdrew his hand from it. Juvenal means to say, that he had been at school, to learn the art of poetry and oratory, and had made declamations, of one of which the subject was, "Whether Sylla should take the "dictatorship, or live in ease and "quiet as a private man ?" He maintained the latter proposition. 18. Paper that will perish.] i. e. That will be destroyed by others, who will write upon it if I do not; therefore there is no reason why I should forbear to make use of it. 19. In the very field.] A metaphor, taken from the chariot-races in the Campus Martius. 20. The great pupil of Aurunca,&c.] Lucilius, the first and most famous Roman satirist, born at Aurunca, an ancient city of Latium, in Italy. He means perhaps, you will ask, 15 20 25 30 "how is it that I can think of taking "the same ground as that great satir"ist Lucilius; and why I should ra"ther choose this way of writing, "when he so excelled in it, as to be "before all others not only in point of "time, but of ability in that kind "of writing ?" 21. Hearken to my reason.] Literally, the verb admitto signifies to admit : but it is sometimes used with auribus understood, and then it denotes at tending, or hearkening, to something: this I suppose to be the sense of it in this place, as it follows the si vacat. 22. The patricians.] The nobles of Rome. They were the desendants of such as were created censors in the time of Romulus. Of these there were, originally, only one hundredafterwards more were added to them. 23. Who clipping, &c.] The person here meant is supposed to be Licinius, the freeman and barber of Augustus, or perhaps Cinnamus. See sat. x. I. 215, 6. -Sounded.] Alluding to the sound of clipping the beard with scissars. Q. D. who with his scissars clipped my beard, when he was a young man, and first came under the barber's hands. 24. Part of the commonality of the Nile.] One of the lowest of the Egyptians who had come as slaves to Rome. -Canopus.] A city in Egypt, addicted to all kind of effeminacy and And I therefore have withdrawn my hand from the ferule: and I 15 Have given counsel to Sylla, that, a private man, soundly He should sleep. It is a foolish clemency, when every where so many 19 Poets you may meet, to spare paper, that will perish. When one can vie with all the patricians in riches, Who clipping my beard troublesome to me a youth sounded: Crispinus, his shoulder recalling the Tyrian cloaks, 25 It is difficult not to write satire. For who can so endure debauchery; famous for a temple of 25. Crispinus.] He, from a slave, -His shoulder recalling.] Revocante The Romans used to fasten their cloaks round the neck with a loop, but in hot weather, perhaps, usually went with them loose. As Juvenal is now speaking of the summer season, (as appears by the next line,) he describes the shoulder as recalling, or endeavouring to hoist up and replace the cloak, which, from not being fastened by a loop to the neck, was often slipping away, and sliding downwards from the shoulders. -Tyrian cloaks.] i. e. Dyed with Tyrian purple, which was very expensive. By this he marks the extravagance and luxury of these upstarts. 27. Ventilate the summer-gold, &c.] The Romans were arrived at such an height of luxury, that they had rings for the winter, and others for the sum 30 mer, which they wore according to the season. Ventilo signifies, to wave any thing to and fro in the air. Crispinus is described as wearing a summer-ring, and cooling it by, perhaps, taking it off, and by waving it to and fro in the air with his handwhich motion might likewise contribute to the slipping back of the cloak. 29. So insensible.] Ferreus literally signifies any thing made of iron, and is therefore used here, figuratively, to denote hardness or insensibility. 30. The new litter.] The lectica was a sort of sedan, with a bed or couch in it, wherein the grandees were carried by their servants: probably something like the palanquins in the East. This was a piece of luxury which the rich indulged in. -Lawyer Matho.] He had been an advocate, but had amassed a large fortune by turning informer. The emperor Domitian gave so much encouragement to such people, that many made their fortunes by secret informations; insomuch that nobody was safe, however innocent; even one informer was afraid of another. See below, 1. 33, 4, and notes. Plena ipso? et post hune magni delator amici, Quod superest: quem Massa timet: quem munere palpat Cum populum gregibus comitum premat hic spoliator 35 Pupilli plorantis? et hic damnatus inani Judicio (quid enim salvis infamia nummis ?) Exul ab octavâ Marius bibit, et fruitur Dîs Hæc ego non credam Venusinâ digna lucernâ? 31. Full of himself.] Now grown bulky and fat. By this expression, the poet may hint at the self-importance of this upstart fellow. -The secret accuser of a great friend.] This was probably Marcus Regulus, (mentioned by Pliny in his Epistles,) a most infamous informer, who occasioned, by his secret informations, the deaths of many of the nobility in the time of Domitian. Some think that the great friend here mentioned was some great man, an intimate of Domitian's; for this emperor spared not even his greatest and most intimate friends, on receiving secret informations against them, But, by the poet's manner of expression, it should rather seem, that the person meant was some great man, who had had been a friend to Regulus, and whom Regulus had basely betrayed. 32. From the devoured nobility.] i. c. Destroyed through secret accusations, or pillaged by informers for hushmoney. 33. Whom Massa fears.] Babius Massa, an eminent informer; but so much more eminent was M. Regulus, above mentioned, in this way, that he was dreaded even by Massa, lest he should inform against him. 34. Carus sooths.] This was another of the same infamous profession, who bribed Regulus, to avoid some secret accusation. -Thymele.] The wife of Latinus the famous mimic; she was sent pri 40 vately by her husband and prostituted to Regulus, in order to avoid some information which Latinus dreaded, and trembled under the apprehension of. 35. What shall I say?] Q. D. How shall I find words to express the indignation which I feel? -My dry liver burns.] The ancients considered the liver as the seat of the irascible affections. So HoR. lib. i. Od. xiii. 1. 4. says, Difficili bile tumet jecur-to express his resentment and jealousy, at hearing his mistress commend a rival. Again, lib. iv. od. i. 1. 12. Si torrere jecur quæris idoneum-by which he means, kindling the passion of love within the breast. Our poet here means to express the workings of anger and resentment within him, at seeing so many examples of vice and folly around him, and particularly in those instances which he is now going to mention. 36. A spoiler of his pupil, &c.] The tutelage of young men, who had lost their parents, was committed to guardians, who were to take care of their estates and education. Here one is represented as a spoliator-a spoileri. e a plunderer or pillager of his ward as to his affairs. -Presses on the people.] Grown rich by the spoils of his ward, he is supposed to be carried, in a litter, along the streets, with such a crowd of attendants, as to incommode other passengers. Full of himself? and after him the secret accuser of a great friend, And who is soon about to seize from the devoured nobility What remains: whom Massa fears: whom with a gift Carus sooths, and Thymele sent privately from trembling Latinus. 34 What shall I say ?-With how great anger my dry liver burns, When here a spoiler of his pupil lamenting presses on the people With flocks of attendants? and here condemned by a frivolous Judgment, (for what is infamy when money is safe?) The exile Marius drinks from the eighth hour, and enjoys the Angry gods? but thou vanquishing province, lamentest! 40 Shall I not believe these things worthy the Venusinian lamp? Shall I not agitate these (subjects?)-but why rather Heracleans, Or Diomedeans, or the lowing of the labyrinth, 37-8. By a frivolous judgment.] Inani judicio-because, though inflicted on Marius, it was of no service to the injured province; for, instead of restoring to it the treasures of which it had been plundered, part of these, to a vast amount, were put into the public treasury. As for Marius himself, he lived in as much festivity as as if nothing had happened, as the next two verses inform us. 39. The exile Marius.] Marius Priscus, proconsul of Africa, who, for pillaging the province of vast sums of money, was condemned to be banished. -From the eighth hour.] Began his carousals from two o'clock in the afternoon, which was reckoned an instance of dissoluteness and luxury, it being an hour sooner than it was customary to sit down to meals. See note on sat. xi. 1. 204. and on Persius, sat. iii.1.4. 39-40. He enjoys the angry Gods.] Though Marius had incurred the anger of the gods by his crimes, yet, regardless of this, he enjoyed himself in a state of the highest jollity and festivity. -Vanquishing province, &c.] Victrix was used as a forensic term, to denote one who had got the better in a law-suit. The province of Africa had sued Marius, and had carried the cause against him, but had still reason to deplore her losses: for though C Marius was sentenced to pay an im mense fine, which came out of what he had pillaged, yet this was put into the public treasury, and no part of it given to the Africans; and, besides this, Marius had reserved sufficient to maintain himself in a luxurious manner. See above, note on 1. 39, 40. 41. Worthy the Venusinian lamp.] i. c. The pen of Horace himself? This charming writer was born at Venusium, a city of Apulia. When the poets wrote by night, they made use of a lamp. 42. Shall I not agitate, &c.] Agitem implies pursuing, as hunters do wild beasts-hunting-chasing. So inveighing against by satire, driving such vices as he mentions out of their lurking places,and hunting them down, as it were, in order to destroy them. -But why rather Heracleans?] Juvenal here anticipates the supposed objections of some, who might perhaps advise him to employ his talents on some fabulous and more poetical subjects--such as the labours of Hercules, &c. " Why should I prefer these (as "if he had said) when so many sub'jects in real life occur, to exercise my pen in a more useful way?" 66 66 43. Or Diomedeans.] i. c. Verses on the exploits of Diomede, a king of Thrace, who fed his horses with man's flesh. Hercules slew hin, and threw Et mare percussum puero, fabrumque volantem ? Nonne libet medio ceras implere capaces him to be devoured by his own horses. 43. The lowing of the labyrinth.]The story of the Minotaur, the monster kept in the labyrinth of Crete, who was half a bull, and slain by Theseus. See AINSW. Minotaurus. 44. The sea stricken by a boy.] The story of Icarus, who, flying too near the sun, melted the wax by which his wings were fastened together, and fell into the sea; from him called Icarian. See HOR. lib. iv. od. ii. 1. 2-4. -The flying artificer.] Dædalus, who invented and made wings for himself and his son Icarus, with which they fled from Crete. See AINSW. Dædalus. 45. A cohort.] A company of foot in a regiment, or legion, which consisted of ten cohorts. 46. Hath given his estate to stables.] i. c. Ilas squandered away all his patrimony in breeding and keeping horses. Præsepe sometimes means, a cell, stew, or brothel. Perhaps this may be the sense here, and the poet may mean, that this spendthrift had lavished his fortune on the stews, in lewdness and debauchery. 46-7. Lacks all the income, &c.] Has spent the family estate. 47. While he flics, &c.] The person here meant is far from certain. Commentators differ much in their conjectures on the subject. Britannicus gives the matter up. "This passage," says he," is one of those concerning which "we are yet to seek." But whether Cornelius Fuscus be meant, who when a boy was charioteer to Nero, as Automedon was to Achilles, 45 50 55 and who, after wasting his substance in riotous living, was made commander of a regiment; or Tigellinus, an infamous favourite of Nero's, be here designed, whose character is supposed to have answered to the description here given, is not certain; one or other seems to be meant. The poet is men. tioning various subjects as highly proper for satire; and among others, some favourite at court, who, after spending all his paternal estate in riot, extravagance, and debauchery, was made a commander in the army, and exhibited his chariot, driving full speed over the Flaminian way, which led to the emperor's villa; and all this, because when a boy, he had been Nero's charioteer, or, as the poet humourously calls him, his Automedon, and used to drive out Nero and his minion Sporus, whom Nero castrated, to make him, as much as he could, resemble a woman, and whom he used as a mis. tress, and afterwards took as a wife, and appeared publicly in his chariot with him, openly caressing, and making love, as he passed along. The poet humourously speaks of Sporus in the feminine gender. As the lacerna was principally a man's garment, by lacernatæ amicæ, the poet may be understood as if he had called Sporus, Nero's male-mistress, being habited like a man, and caressed as a woman. The above appears to me a probable explanation of this obscure and difficult passage. Holiday gives it a different turn, as may be seen by his annotation on this place. I do not pre |