And Sylla's pupils, while they ape the deed, were brothers, nobly descended, and virtuously educated; but, unfortunately, too ambitious: Cæsars, in short, born near a century before their time. They proposed an Agrarian law, and to get it passed, struck at the root of that liberty of which they professed themselves the champions ;-conceiving, perhaps, with other hasty reformers, that the end justified the means. They were murdered with every circumstance of barbarity; Tiberius, in the midst of his followers, by Scipio Nasica; and Caius, some time after, by a mob more powerful and more profligate than his own. As Juvenal calls them seditious, we may be sure he thought them such; and the opinion of so decided a friend to the liberties of his country, must necessarily have great weight in determining the justice of their fall. But the mischief, unfortunately, did not end with them they had shown what might be effected by an unbridled multitude; and ambitious men, inferiour indeed to the Gracchi in ability, but greater adepts in the easy arts of corrupting and inflaming the passions of the ignorant, learnt from their example, to make a more effectual use of the tremendous engine which they first set in motion.† Elections were carried on by violence and outrage, and men of moderate and patriotick views driven from the service of the state. Then followed a dreadful scene-Ardebant cuncta, et fracta compage ruebant, Sylla, and Marius, and Cinna, appeared upon the stage in succession, and thinned the world by their bloody proscriptions. Others followed, equally sanguinary, till the people, weary of The difference of their characters is thus marked by Dio: εκείνο μεν (Tiberius) απ' αρετης ες φιλοτιμίαν, και εξ αυτης ες κακίαν εξωκειλεν, ὅτι δὲ ταραχώδης τε φύσει ην, και εκων επονηρεύετο, κ. τ. α. Frag. 90. Plutarch is of a different opinion. Cicero speaks in the highest terms of the abilities of Caius: T. Gracchum sequutus est C. Gracchus, quo ingenio! quanta gravitate dicendi ! ut dolerent boni omnes, non illa tanta ornamenta ad meliorem mentem voluntatemque esse conversa. De Arusp. Resp. xli. The aim of both seems to have been the obtaining and securing of power by whatever means. Here are some of the immediate effects of the conduct of the Gracchi: εθ' αἱ αρχαι τα νενομισμένα έπρασσον. Τα δε δικαστηρια επέπαυτο, και συμβολαίον ουδεν εγιγνετο· αλλ' ἡ τε ταραχη και η ακρισία πανταχε πολλη ην και ονομα απολεως έφερον, σρατοπεδε δε δεν απείχαν. Dio. Frag. 87. Yet have we seen,-O shame, for ever fled! being disturbed to no end, and fatigued without direction or object, threw themselves, almost without a struggle, into the arms of tyranny, as the only remaining refuge from anarchy and perpetual irritation. The reader will find some account of Verres, Clodius, Catiline, &c. in the subsequent pages. VER. 41. And Sylla's pupils, &c.] There were two Triumvirates, but Juvenal alludes to the last, which was the most bloody, and composed of Augustus, Antony, and Lepidus. Both, indeed, took Sylla for their master, and both might have said with Shylock, "The villainy you teach us, we will execute, and it shall go hard but we will better the instruction." VER. 45. A barbarous prince &c.] The old Scholiast will needs have Claudius to be meant here, but without reason: and, indeed, every circumstance marks out Domitian so strongly, that it is wonderful he should have overlooked it. Claudius neither revived the laws against adultery, nor caused his niece to procure abortions. Domitian did both. He did worse: stained with every enormity, he affected an outrageous zeal for the propagation of morality; and under this hypocritical mask indulged his savage disposition in the punishment of numbers, who probably thought themselves secure by his example. One curious instance of this I have already given from Dio; but I omitted to add what immediately follows: that during this fit of virtue, he put to death a woman convicted of unrobing herself before one of his statues ! The law mentioned in this line, was the Julian de Adulteriis, introduced by Augustus, and so called, not as some have supposed from his daughter, but from his great uncle, the Dictator, whose name at first he bore. It had fallen into disuse, but had lately been revived in all its force by Domitian; for which Martial and Statius pay him many pretty compliments. His unfortunate niece, Julia, soon after the circumstances here mentioned, followed her "abortive fruit" to the tomb; being killed by a potion stronger than ordinary. Pliny speaks with great indignation of Domitian's barbarous hypocrisy, in an allusion to this very circumstance: Nec minore scelere quam quod ulcisci What time his drugs were speeding to the tomb A reverend brother late, amidst the crowd, "O blest," she cried, "be these discerning times, "That made thee, friend, the censor of our crimes! "Blush, Rome, and from the sink of sin arise; "Lo! a THIRD CATO, sent us from the skies! "But come,-declare what secret shop supplied "The rare perfume, that, from your bristly hide, "Such fragrance breathes; nor let it, Cato, shame "Your Wisdom, to disclose the vender's name! "If ancient laws must reassume their course, "Before them all, give the Scantinian force; videbatur Dom. absentem, inauditamque (Corneliam) damnavit incesti, cum ipse fratris filiam, incesto non polluisset solum, verum etiam occidisset! Lib. Iv. 11. VER. 56. Laronia &c.] Britannicus supposes this advocate for the sex to be the Laronia mentioned by Martial; (Lib. 11. 32;) but this is little, if at all probable. Who the person may be, however, is immaterial; and I only mention her for the sake of observing, that the fable of the Lion and the Painter is admirably illustrated by her attack :—which not only does away, in advance, several of the heaviest charges brought against the women in the Sixth Satire, but retorts them with good effect on the men. VER. 66. give the Scantinian &c.] This was a law against unnatural lust. It took its name from C. Scantinius, "Let men be first examined: they outdo "Our crimes in baseness, and in number too! "Yet, unappall'd, their guilty phalanx stands, "Safe in its numerous, and united bands. "We know your monstrous leagues; but can you find "One proof in us, of this detested kind? "Even Flora, though a wanton's life she led, "Yet not unchastely shared Catulla's bed; "While Hippo's brutal itch both sexes tried,[bride! "And proved, by turns, the bridegroom and the "We ne'er, with mis-spent zeal, explore the laws, "We throng no forum, and we plead no cause; "Some few, perhaps, may wrestle, some be fed, "To aid their breath, with strong athletick bread: "Ye fling the shuttle with unmanly grace, "And spin more subtly than Arachne's race, "Cower'd o'er your labour, like the squalid jade, "That plies the distaff, to a block belay'd. tribune of the people, who, in the 707th year of Rome, was convicted by C. Marcellus of an assault upon his son. The punishment at this time was a fine, but under the Christian Emperours the offence was made capital. Some, however, contend that the law was so called from Scantinius Aricinus, who procured it to be passed; it not being usual (as they say) for laws to receive their titles from those who are the objects of them, but from those who introduce them. It may be so; though this is not always the case :-but the matter is of no great consequence. Ruperti, I observe, inclines to the latter opinion. VER. 70. Safe in its numerous, &c.] Thus Lucan, ipsa metus exolverat audax "Turba suos. Quicquid multis peccatur, inultum est." VER. 80. with strong athletick bread:] See Sat. XI. VER. 83. Cower'd o'er your labour, like the squalid jade, &c.] "Mistresses of families," says the old Scholiast, "if they suspected "Why Hister's freedman heir'd his wealth,and why "His spouse, while yet he lived, was bribed so high, "I spare to tell; the wife, who, sway'd by gain, “Can make a third in bed, and ne'er complain, "Still thrives on secrets gold and jewels wait, "Then wed, my girls; be silent, and-be great! "Yet these are they who, loud in Virtue's cause, "Consign our venial errours to the laws, "And, while with partial aim their censure moves, Acquit the vultures, and condemn the doves." Laronia paused; guilt flush'd the zealots' face; They felt her just reproof, and fled the place. But how shall vice be shamed, when, loosely drest In the light texture of a cobweb vest, You, Creticus, amid the wondering crowd, their female slaves of too great familiarity with their masters, used, by way of punishment, to fasten them to a large log of wood before the door, and keep them to incessant labour by dint of blows." Their usual employment, it appears, was spinning. To "belay," is to fasten, to secure, &c. I mention this, because Johnson has mistaken its meaning. When will the booksellers do justice to their country and themselves, by engaging some judicious scholar to revise the labours of this great man, instead of printing edition after edition with acknowledged and increasing imperfections! VER. 99. You, Creticus, &c.] Some will have this to be a fictitious name formed from Crete, (the judges of that island being deservedly famous for the integrity of their decisions,) and ironically given to some magistrate then in office: others, with more reason, suppose it to be a real name; and apply it to a descendant of the great Metellus, who took the addition from his conquests. The Scholiast says, there was a learned pleader of this name under the Cæsars; another Creticus, but of what profession I know not, is mentioned by Martial, who addresses an epigram to him: and this, perhaps, is the person so indignantly apostrophised. What I have rendered a "cobweb vest," is in the original, |