For prostitution !-infamously bold,

And trusting to the almighty power of gold:

While youths, in shape and air less form'd to please,
No tyrants mutilate, no Neros seize.

Go now, and triumph in your beauteous boy,
Your Ganymede! whom other ills annoy,
And other dangers wait: his graces known,
He stands profess'd the favourite of the town;
And dreads, incessant dreads, on every hand,
The fierce revenge a husband's wrongs demand:
For sure detection follows soon or late,
Born under Mars, he cannot 'scape his fate.
Oft on the adulterer, too, the furious spouse
Inflicts worse evils than the law allows:

By blows, stripes, gashes, some are robb'd of breath,
And others by the mullet rack'd to death.

"But my Endymion will more lucky prove,
And serve a beauteous mistress, all for love."
No; he will soon to ugliness be sold,
And serve a toothless grandam, all for gold.
Servilia will not lose him; jewels, clothes,
All, all she sells, and all on him bestows;
For women nought to the dear youth deny,
Or think his labours can be bought too high:
When love's the word, the naked sex appear,
And every niggard is a spendthrift here.

"But if my boy with virtue be endued,

What harm will beauty do him?" Nay, what good?
Say, what avail'd, of old, to Theseus' son,
The stern resolve? what, to Bellerophon? (325)
Oh, then did Phædra redden, then her pride
Took fire, to be so steadfastly denied!
Then, too, did Sthenoboa glow with shame,
And both burst forth with unexampled flame!

325. The adventures of Hippolitus and Bellerophon are well known. They were accused of incontinence by the women whose inordinate passions they had refused to gratify, and sacrificed to the fatal credulity of their husbands.

A woman scorn'd is pitiless as fate,

For then the dread of shame adds stings to hate.
But Silius comes;-now be thy judgment tried:
Shall he accept, or not, the proffer'd bride,
And marry Cæsar's wife? hard point, in truth:
Lo, this most noble, this most beauteous youth (331)
Is hurried off, a helpless sacrifice,

To the lewd glance of Messalina's eyes!
-Now bring the victim: In the nuptial vest
Already see the impatient Empress drest,
The genial couch prepared, the accustom❜d sum
Told out, the augurs and the notaries come.

"But why all these?" You think, perhaps, the rite Were better known to few, and kept from sight: Not so the lady; she abhors a flaw,

And wisely calls for every form of law.
But what shall Silius do? refuse to wed?
A moment sees him number'd with the dead.
Consent? he lives but till the story, clear
To town and country, reach the Emperor's ear,
Still sure the last his house's shame to hear.
Then let him, if a day's precarious life
Be worth his study, make the dame his wife;
For wed or not, poor youth, 'tis still the same,
And still the axe must mangle that fair frame !
Say then, shall man, deprived all power of choice,
Ne'er raise to Heaven the supplicating voice?
Not so: but to the gods his fortunes trust:
Their thoughts are wise, their dispensations just.
What best may profit or delight they know,
And real good for fancied bliss bestow:

331-345. This was Caius Silius, a youth of consular dignity, the graces of whose form and manners were highly celebrated. That Messalina, says Tacitus, might enjoy her favourite without a rival, she obliged him to repudiate his wife Junia Silana, a lady of noble birth. Silius was neither blind to the magnitude of the crime of marrying the empress, nor to the danger of not complying. On the whole, however, he resolved to hazard the future consequences, and enjoy the present

With eyes of pity they our frailties scan,
More dear to them, than to himself, is man.
By blind desire, by headlong passion driven,
For wife and heirs we daily weary Heaven;
Yet still 'tis Heaven's prerogative to know,
If heirs, or wife, will bring us weal or woe.

But, that thou mayst (for still 'tis good to prove
Our humble hope) ask something from above;
Thy pious offerings to the temple bear,

And, while the altars blaze, be this thy prayer:
O THOU, who know'st the wants of human kind,
Vouchsafe me health of body, health of mind;
A soul prepared to meet the frowns of fate,
And look undaunted on a future state;
That reckons death a blessing, yet can bear
Existence nobly, with its weight of care;
That anger and desire alike restrains,
And counts Alcides' toils and cruel pains
Superior far to banquets, wanton nights,
And all Sardanapalus' soft delights!

Here bound, at length, thy wishes: I but teach
What blessing man by his own powers may reach.
THE PATH TO PEACE IS VIRTUE.
We should see,

If wise, O Fortune, nought divine in thee:
But we have deified a name alone,
And fix'd in heaven thy visionary throne!

moment. The folly and enormity of the transaction seem to have struck
Suetonius, and yet more Tacitus, with astonishment. "That a Consul
elect, and the wife of an emperor, on a day appointed, should dare to affront
the public eye, and sign a contract with express provision for the issue
of an unlawful marriage, will hardly gain credit with posterity: still less,
that the empress should hear the ceremony pronounced by the augurs,
and in her turn repeat the words; that she should join in a sacrifice to
the gods, take her place at the nuptial banquet, exchange caresses, &c.
But the facts here related are well attested by writers at that period, and
by grave and elderly men, who lived at the time, and were informed of
every circumstance."-Tacit. Ann. xi. 27. So sottishly stupid was
Claudius, that he was with great difficulty persuaded to credit the report
of Messalina's infamy, after it had been long notorious to all the world;
and, with greater still, induced to issue the final orders for her punishment.

TO PERSICUS, ON THE LUXURY OF ROME.

IF Atticus in sumptuous fare delight,
'Tis taste; if Rutilus, 'tis madness quite :
And what diverts the sneering rabble more
Than an Apicius miserably poor? (3)
In every company, go where you will,
Bath, forum, theatre, the talk is still

Of Rutilus: for, while he now might wield,
With firm and vigorous arm, the spear and shield,
While his full veins beat high with youthful blood,
Forced by no tribune-yet by none withstood,
He cultivates the gladiator's trade,

And learns the imperious language of the blade.
What swarms we see of this degenerate kind!
Spendthrifts, whom when their creditors would find,
To shambles and to fish-stalls they repair,

Sure, though deceived at home, to meet them there.
These live but for their palate; and of these,
The most distress'd, while ruin hastes to seize
The crumbling mansion, and wide-yawning wall,
Spread richer feasts, and riot as they fall!
Meanwhile, ere yet the last supply be spent,
They search for dainties every element,
Awed by no price; nay, making this their boast,
And still preferring those which cost them most.
With hearts at ease, thus reckless of their fate,
To raise a desperate sum, they pledge their plate,
Or mother's fractured statue; to prepare
Yet one treat more, though but in earthen ware!

VER. 3. Apicius was so exquisite a glutton, that he wrote a book of cookery; and so rich, that he made all his experiments at his own cost. He ultimately poisoned himself, while he had yet fourscore thousand pounds left, for fear of wanting a meal!

Then to the fencer's mess they come, of course,
And mount the scaffold, as a last resource.
I hate not sumptuous boards; I only scan,
When such are spread, the motive, and the man :
Here, the profusion damns the beggar's name,
There, gives the noble just and lasting fame;
Here, seems the effect of gluttony, and there,
Of liberal taste and hospitable care.

Whip me the fool, who marks how Atlas soars
O'er every hill on Mauritania's shores,

Yet sees no difference 'twixt the coffer's hoards,
And the poor pittance a small purse affords!
From heaven came 6 KNOW THYSELF!'-Be that
imprest (27)

In lasting characters upon thy breast,

And still revolved; whether a wife thou choose,
Or to the SACRED SENATE point thy views.-
Or seek'st thou rather, in some doubtful cause,
To vindicate thy country's injured laws;
Knock at thy bosom, play the censor's part,
And note with caution, what and who thou art,
An orator of force, of skill profound,

Or a mere Matho, emptiness and sound! (34)
Yes, KNOW THYSELF: in great concerns, in small,
Be this thy care, for this, my friend, is all :
Nor, when thy purse will scarce a gudgeon buy,
Let thy intemperate taste for turbots sigh!
Oh think what end awaits thee, timely think,
If thy throat widen as thy pockets shrink,-
Thy throat, of all thy father's thrift could save,
Flocks, herds, and fields, the insatiable grave!

27. This sacred maxim, гvooi σeavrov, has been attributed to several of the ancients; to Pythagoras, to Thales, and to Chilo. It was deemed of such importance as to be inscribed in gold letters over the portico of the temple at Delphi.

34. For Matho, see Sat. i. and vii. The character Juvenal gives of Matho is confirmed by Martial, who speaks of him (lib. iv. 80) as so pertinacious a bawler, that one almost wonders how he failed.