Mollior ardenti sese indulsisse tribuno. Aspice quid faciant commercia: venerat obses; not otherwise known. Ruperti supposes he may have been one of those obsides' with whom Caligula is said by Suetonius (c. 36) to have carried on an unnatural intercourse, and that he is meant by tribuno.' (See xi. 7.) It may be so. Armenia was at this time governed by its own kings of the race of the Arsacidae, but the Romans had frequently to interfere in its affairs, and its kings were under their protection. On two occasions Tacitus mentions hostages being given to the Romans by Vologeses, king of the Parthians, who claimed the crown of Armenia and expelled Rhadamistus, the king whom the Romans recognized. Cn. Domitius Corbulo was sent against him by Nero (A.D. 54), and he retired, and sent some of the noblest of his family as hostages to Rome (Ann. xiii. 9). These were not Armenians, but Parthians; but the difference might not be observed by Juvenal, or hostages may have been sent by others. Every new reign began in violence of some sort. This man, more soft than any of the Roman youth, is said to have given himself up to the passion of the tribunus. This is a regular construction with indulgere; it is repeated immediately below. Ephebus' is a term borrowed from the Greeks, with whom it signified a youth of eighteen to twenty. The Romans applied it to those who had attained the age of puberty: adolescentes' is the proper 165 170 Roman word, though that extends over a longer space of time. 167. Hic fiunt homines:] 'It is here that men are fashioned.' Some take the passage as if these words were opposed to venerat obses,' he had come a hostage, but here they become men. For this meaning 'viri' would be used. The stop should be at 'obses' (for which one MS. only has hospes'). 169. Mittentur braccae,] They will soon throw aside their trousers, their hunting knives, their reins, their whips, that is, all the manly sports of their boyhood, and carry home immodest manners learnt at Rome.' 'Artaxata,' which is plural here, was the capital of Armenia, situated on the Araxes (Aras). Praetextatus' is applied, by later writers, to language, in the sense of impure.' (See Forcellini.) It is nowhere else used in that sense with 'mores,' or any thing but language. The origin of this meaning is plainly contained in the word itself, which is only another form of 'praetexere,' and means to put a veil or covering over any thing. 'Braccae' (breeches) were worn by all the barbarians, that is, all but the Greeks and Romans, who in their better days despised them. They were looser than we wear them now, but not so loose among the European nations as in the East. During the empire they were partially worn by the Romans. SATIRA III. INTRODUCTION. THIS satire is perhaps better known than any of the others. English readers are familiar with Johnson's imitation of it who are not so familiar with the original, which has the advantage of having been written for the scene it describes, while the other is too close a copy to be always applicable to its subject. I think the merits of Johnson's poem have been exaggerated. Meaning to describe the vexations and inconveniences of a town life, Juvenal supposes his friend Umbricius leaving Rome in disgust to retire to Cumae; he accompanies him a little way out of the town; and while the carriage is being packed Umbricius breaks out and tells his reasons for leaving his native place. No honest man can thrive there, he says; the town is overrun with cunning foreigners and upstarts who have tricked themselves into riches and influence, making themselves necessary to families and getting their masters' secrets. The poor too have no chance, and poverty apes wealth; every thing has to be bought, and every thing is dear. There are fires and falling houses, and even these are only ruinous to the poor: the rich help one another, while the poor man starves. The noises at night are such that no one can sleep, at least no poor man in the lodginghouses. The rich man rides safely through the streets, while the poor is elbowed by the crowd, and has a good chance of being killed by great beams and stones, or by pots from the upper stories, and so forth, or by some drunken brawler who picks a quarrel with him, or by robbers who break into his house at night. There are some parts of the satire which remind the reader of Horace's style; particularly the quaint description of a poor man's encounter with a drunken bully, who, after beating his victim savagely, summons him for an assault. Umbricius is any body. There was an 'haruspex' of that name, of whom Tacitus relates that he warned Galba of his fate. But there is no sense in supposing him to be the man. It was a common name. The satire may have been written about the same time as the last; but it is impossible to say. ARGUMENT. Though I am in despair at the loss of an old friend, I cannot but commend Umbricius' resolution to quit the town and go away to the pleasant shores of Cumae. There is no wilderness I would not myself prefer to the dangers and annoyances of this city. V. 10. While his family and goods were all being packed into one cart, we stopped in the valley of Aegeria, whose wood is let to beggarly Jews, and her native fountain disfigured by art. And thus my friend began: V. 21. "No room is here for virtue, no return for honest labour; and as I am getting poorer every day, I mean to take myself to Cumae while I have any vigour left. I bid my native place farewell; let rogues live there, and by their dirty trades get rich; till trumpeters shall rise to give the shows they once proclaimed, and get monopolies of every thing, raised high by fortune in her merry moods. What can I do at Rome? not lie, or praise poor books, or tell the stars, or search the insides of frogs. I am no pimp or thief. So all avoid me as a useless limb. None but accomplices are patronized, with horrid secrets burning in their bosoms. The thief loves him who can accuse him when he pleases. No gold will pay you for the wretched nights it costs you to be feared of your great friend. V. 58. "The town is overrun with Greeks; and worse, Syria has poured her refuse into Rome-her language, customs, harps, and drums, and harlots. Away all ye who love the turbaned strumpets! Thy hardy sons, Quirinus, put on Greek shoes, and grease their necks for the 'palaestra.' From every town they swarm and creep into rich houses-clever, abandoned, impudent, prompt, fluent. What should you say that man was? Any thing you please, all arts and sciences he knows; the starveling Greck will put on wings if you bid him-for Daedalus was a Greek, and born at Athens. V. 81. "What, must I not avoid their purple ? shall that man rank before me who came to us with the plums and figs? Have I not breathed from infancy the air of Rome, and is that nothing? These flatterers by trade know how to gain belief when they praise a block head's talents, and a plain man's face, long neck, and squeaking voice. If I should praise them, no one would believe me. Their acting is quite perfect; their whole tribe are players. You laugh, they laugh still louder; you weep, they weep but grieve not; call for a fire, they'll get their cloak; say you it's hot, they sweat. So we're no match; they have the best of it who never cease from acting. No woman in the house is safe from them, resolved to worm their master's secrets out and get him in their power. V. 114. "Speaking of Greeks, let's pass to the Gymnasia and to a crime of deeper dye. Think of that Stoic who killed Barea, betrayed his friend and pupil, the old wretch born at Tarsus. There is no room for Romans here, where slaves of Greece are kings, who keep their great friends to themselves and thrust me from their doors by poisonous lies peculiar to their tribe; so all my faithful services are gone. It matters nothing now to lose a client. V. 126. "What are a poor man's services, when praetors rush before them to do their homage to rich childless ladies? The freeman's son waits on a wealthy slave who spends a tribune's pay on one night's lust, while you would hesitate to hire a common prostitute. Bring up a witness honest as Nasica, pious as Numa or Metellus-first they must know his income, character comes last; for a man's credit is as his fortune may be. A poor man's oath is nought; men laugh at him, at the rent in his cloak or shoe, and nothing in the poor man's lot is harder than this ridicule. Fie! quit the equestrian bench, you're poor: the bawd's son must sit here, the gladiator's, or trainer's ;' so Otho has arranged it. What poor man gets a wife, or an inheritance, or humblest office? All Romans true should long ago have joined to fly their country. 'Tis hard to rise where virtue is kept down by poverty, but hardest here at Rome, where food and lodging are so dear. V. 168. "Here is a man ashamed to dine off earthenware. Not so when he goes from Rome to the hills and Sabine fare. In many parts of Italy no one puts on the 'toga' till he's dead. At the country plays you'll see in the grassy theatre both great and small dressed all alike in their white tunics. Here men dress beyond their means and borrow money; 'tis a common vice, ambitious poverty. Here all things must be bought. How much will you give to call on Cossus, or for a glance from Veiento? If a slave's hair is cut or his beard shaved, cakes are poured in upon him, which he sells ; and here's more stuff to stir your bile; we must pay toll, and swell the savings of the favourite slave. V. 190. "And in the country who fears falling houses? Rome is shored up with buttresses; and when he has patched our houses thus, the villicus bids us sleep secure. I'd rather live where there are no fires or midnight terrors. The lower room's on fireyour garret smokes and you're asleep-you get no notice till the flames are on you. Codrus has little for the fire to take, but loses all that little, and goes forth to beg a home and bread, and each man turns him from his door. If rich Asturicus' house is burnt to the ground, the town goes into mourning, business is suspended, all sorts of costly presents are poured in; and you might swear the man had burnt his house himself, for he is richer by the fire than ever. V. 223. "If you can quit the circus, you may buy at Sora or such places a house for what a garret's rent is here—aye, and a little garden and a well; there you may hoe the ground, and grow a feast for a hundred Pythagoreans. 'Tis something, wheresoe'er you are, to own the run of a lizard. V. 232. “Here sick men die of watching (and their sickness is all from undigested food and heated stomach), for who can sleep in lodgings? Sleep is dear at Rome: the rolling cart and shouting of the drivers in the narrow streets shall keep a sea-calf waking. V. 239. The rich man rides at his ease, while the poor must push his way through crowds that crush his loins, or break his head, or tread upon his toes. See there the crowd returning with their dole: slaves with the kitchens on their heads: their poor patched tunics torn: the long beam nodding on the passing waggon and threatening death to all what if that stone should fall, where would they be? all gone like a breath. The slaves at home are busy with their master's bath and supper, while he, poor wretch, is shivering by the Styx without a farthing for the ferryman. V. 268. "The night has other dangers-such as pots from the lofty windows; count yourself happy if you get no more than their contents. A wise man makes his will before he walks abroad at night. you V. 278. "A drunken rioter meets you, who sleeps not till he kills his man. But, drunken though he be, he knows how to avoid the rich man's train and torches; while I'm his victim, who go forth by the light of a candle or the moon. This is the way he picks a quarrel (if that be quarrel where one gives, the other does but take the blows) — he plants himself before you; 'Stop!' says he, and you perforce obey. 'Where are you from? whose vinegar and beans have filled your belly? what cobbler were you supping with to-night? What, not a word? Speak out, or I shall kick you. Where do stand, and where is your proseucha?" Whether you speak or not it's all the same. He knocks you down, then drags you into court. This is the poor man's licence when he's beaten, to pray he may be suffered to carry home a few teeth in his head. V. 302. "Then when your doors are closed and barred the robber breaks into your house and robs or murders you. For thieves come to the town as their preserve. Their fetters soon will leave no iron for our tools. Happy our ancestors, who with one prison were content! V. 315. "But I must go; the horses and the driver are impatient, and the sun is setting. Farewell, remember me; and when you go to Aquinum send for me, and I'll come help you write another satire." QUAMVIS digressu veteris confusus amici, Laudo tamen vacuis quod sedem figere Cumis 2. sedem figere Cumis] The town of Cumae was not so much frequented by the Romans as Baiae and the towns that lay within the Sinus Cumanus (the bay of Naples). Juvenal calls it 'vacuis.' Horace speaks of vacuum Tibur' (Epp. i. 7. 45), and 'vacuas Athenas' (Epp. ii. 2. 81), where he means idle.' Juvenal has " 'pannosus vacuis aedilis Ulubris" (x. 102). He says Umbricius is gone to give one Roman citizen to the Sibyl, which shows the town was but little frequented. The supposed residence of the Sibyl at Cumae was a large artificial cave which existed till the middle of the sixth century, when it was destroyed by Narses, the Roman general who expelled the Goths from Italy. Virgil describes it as 'antrum immane' (Aen. vi. 11), and the rock out of the face of which it was hewn 'Euboïca rupes,' the Chalcidians of Euboea and the Cymaeans of Aeolis being the reputed founders of Cumae. Ovid mentions it as 'vivacis antra Sibyllae.' There are some remains of such a cavern still, and it is supposed to have been the Sibyl's. 3. unum civem] Plautus (Persa iv. 3. 5) has a like passage: 5 "Sumne probus, sum lepidus civis, qui 4. Janua Baiarum] Cumae was about four miles north-west of Baiae, and six from the headland of Misenum. It was not situated on the pleasant bay ('amoeni secessus') that bore its name, but the Via Domitiana, which had lately been constructed, and which was a branch of the Via Appia from Sinuessa, led to Cumae, from whence there was an older road that led to the principal towns on the bay, round which it passed to Surrentum, on the opposite promontory. Hence it is called 'janua Baiarum.' See note on Hor. Epp. i. 15. 11, "non mihi Cumas est iter aut Baias." Misenum, Bauli, Baiae, Puteoli, Neapolis, were all favourite resorts of the wealthy Romans lying on this gratum littus,' which was so thickly studded with houses that, according to Strabo, they looked like one town (v. 247). 5. Ego vel Prochytam] This is a small island (now called Procida) of volcanic for Nam quid tam miserum, tam solum vidimus, ut non Sed dum tota domus rheda componitur una, mation, lying between the island Aenaria 9. Augusto recitantes mense poetas?] See S. i. init. It was bad enough at any time; but in August, the hottest month of the year, it might be reckoned, in a jocular way, among "the thousand dangers of the barbarous town." 10. rheda componitur una,] The ‘rheda' was a four-wheeled travelling carriage, such as Horace travelled in part of the way to Brundisium (S. i. 5. 86. See note on S. ii. 6. 42). 11. veteres arcus madidamque Capenam.] The porta Capena' was that from which the Via Appia began, in the southern quarter of the city. It led to Capua, from which it probably got its name. The Aqua Appia, the earliest aqueduct at Rome, constructed by the Censor Appius who made the road, was conducted on arches over the Porta Capena, which is therefore called 'madida,' as the Scholiast says, and he adds that they called the gate in his time arcum stillantem,' the dripping arch. Martial has an epigram (iii. 47) beginning “Capena grandi porta qua pluit gutta." The arches which Juvenal calls 'veteres' were about 400 years old at that time, having been built A.U.C. 442. 10 15 12. Hic, ubi nocturnae] This and the four following verses Jahn puts after v. 20, against all the MSS. [Ribbeck does the same.] 'Constituo' is used absolutely for making an appointment as we say, either with a dative of the person or an ablative with 'cum.' See Forcellini for examples. The nature of the appointment is usually expressed. Here it is easily understood. The grove where Numa is said to have met his mistress and teacher Aegeria was close to the Porta Capena (Plutarch, Num. c. 13). It had a fountain in it (Livy i. 21). Numa was said to have built a shrine there, and to have dedicated the whole to the Camenae, of whom Aegeria was one. The wood and fountain of Aegeria, in the valley of Aricia, about fifteen miles from Rome, are connected with a different legend, and must not be confounded with those under the walls of Rome. It appears that the Jews on payment of a certain rent were allowed to inhabit this place when they were forbidden the city, as they were during the reign of Domitian. They were so poor that he says their whole furniture consisted in a basket and a bed of hay. They were not allowed to trade, and were driven it appears to beg (see vi. 542, sq.). 15. Omnis enim populo] These two lines Ruperti puts in a parenthesis, with a comma after 'supellex,' joining In vallem Aegeriac descendimus' with 'hic' in v. 12. The editors have given themselves unnecessary trouble about the arrangement. It does very well as it stands in the text. They got the utmost rent from the poor wretches. Merces' is the proper word for rent (Horace, S. ii. 2. 115, "fortem mercede colonum," and the passage from the Digest quoted in the note). Suetonius says Domitian was very severe in collecting the taxes from the Jews. "Judaicus fiscus acerbissime actus est" (c. 12). A poll-tax of two drachmae was levied from all Jews and Christians throughout the empire. |