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PREFACE.

THE Editions from which the notes have been principally' selected are those following:

1. The VARIORUM Edition of 1684.

2. The DELPHIN Edition.

3. MADAN'S Translation.

4. KENIG'S Persius, Gotting. 1803.

5. RUPERTI'S Juvenal, second edition, Lips. 1819.

6. GIFFORD'S Translations-of Juvenal, second edition, Lond. 1806.-of Persius, Lond. 1821.

7. DUEBNER'S Persius, Lips. 1833.

8. ORELLIUS'S Ecloga Poetarum Latinorum, second edition, Turic. 1833.

And, besides these printed editions,

9. A translation of Persius, with notes, by SAMUEL Dennis, D.D. some time President of St. John's College.

The text of JUVENAL is that of RUPERTI: where it differs from the text of his second edition, it will be found to accord with the maturer opinion of that editor, elsewhere expressed. The text of PERSIUS is that of ORELLIUS. The punctuation of neither has been servilely followed: and, for uniformity's sake, the orthography, previously adopted in Juvenal, has been adhered to in Persius.

a For other authorities see the Index at the end of the Preface. One of the best editions, containing the whole of Casaubon's notes.

e Containing selections from Juvenal, and the whole of Persius.

d This Manuscript was kindly communicated to the Editor by his friend

Dr. WYNTER, the present President of the College.

The reprint of Ruperti's Juvenal (with Koenig's Persius) Oxon. 1835, does not contain that editor's last corrections.

b

In extracting from the mass of Annotations whatever appeared necessary or useful, the Editor kept before his eyes Hearne's motto "SUUM CUIQUE:" and when, as would often be the case, his own opinions or illustrations were anticipated, he chose to relinquish them in silence rather than risk the imputation of plagiarism. Hence the earlier commentators will fill a more conspicuous place here than in the generality of modern editions: since, from Calderinus and Britannicus downwards, the annotators have been free in borrowing from their predecessors and sparing in acknowledgements. All observations to the prejudice of his fellowlabourers in the same field, it has been his wish to avoid : for the aid of each among them, however slight, he has felt grateful; and their occasional errors, from which none can be exempt, have (as far as rested with himself) been willingly consigned to oblivion. The initials denote the authorities from whom the substance of the notes is taken; (though in the Variorum edition the actual annotator could not always be ascertained:) for such alone as are unappropriated, is the present Editor responsible. In verifying the references of his predecessors, or in supplying them when altogether omitted, much pains have been bestowed.

The following brief memoir of our two Satirists is taken principally from Gifford. According to other authorities, Juvenal wrote many of his Satires after the age of eighty', at which advanced time of life he was banished, and that by Trajan, whom he had complimented in the opening of the very Satire which formed the alleged grievance. The short time which the Editor had for the completion of the work, amidst other professional engagements, afforded little opportunity of consulting his friends, where he required advice: any suggestions, therefore, which may supply the defects

f Yet "Newton was, in his eighty-fifth year, improving his Chronology, a few days before his death; and Waller appears not, in my opinion, to have lost, at eighty-two, any part of his poetical power." Young, too, published his "Resignation" on the other side of fourscore: yet there is no" proof of decaying faculties. There is Young in every stanza, such as he often was in his highest vigour." Johnson's Lives of the Poets.

of this edition and increase its utility if reprinted, by explaining what is difficult and elucidating what is obscure, as well as by rectifying its errors, will be received with gratitude".

DECIMUS JUNIUS JUVENALIS was born in the reign of Caligula, about the year of our Lord 38, at Aquinum a town of the Volsci; which in the thirteenth century, gave a name to another illustrious native, Thomas Aquinas, distinguished among the schoolmen by the title of "the Angelic Doctor." Of Juvenal's life but little can be collected; and, of this little, much is built upon uncertainties. From pride or modesty, he has left but few notices of himself. As to his circumstances indeed, he gives us to understand that he had a competence: the little patrimony, which his father (or foster-father) left him, he never diminished, and, probably, never increased: it seems to have equalled all his wants. The earliest account extant of him (which is commonly, and by Salmasius amongst others, attributed to Suetonius) has few marks of being written by a contemporary, and is very concise and meagre. He is said to have been either the son, or the foster-son, of a wealthy freedman; who gave him a liberal education. Till the age of forty, (about 78 A. D.) he continued to prosecute the study of eloquence, by declaiming according to the practice of those days: yet more for amusement, than from any intention to prepare himself either for the schools or for the courts of law.

That system of favouritism, which under Claudius had nearly ruined the empire, Domitian, in the early part of his reign, showed symptoms of reviving by his unbounded partiality towards a young pantomimic dancer of the name of Paris. Against this minion Juvenal seems to have directed almost the first shafts of that Satire, which was destined, in

* [The Editor has, since, to acknowledge the favour of a letter from his friend and former master, the Reverend THOMAS KIDD, M.A. (of Trinity College, Cambridge;) the valuable contents of which will not be neglected.] We must except, perhaps, Satires ii and viii: see the Arguments.

after years, to make the most powerful vices tremble. He composed a few lines, on the influence of Paris, with considerable success, which encouraged him to cultivate this kind of poetry: he had, however, the prudence not to commit himself to an auditory, in a reign which swarmed with informers, and only circulated his compositions privately among his friends. By degrees he grew bolder; and, having made many large additions to his first sketch, if not recast it, produced what is now called Satire vii', which he recited to a numerous assemblage, about 83 A. D. The consequences were such as he might have anticipated. Paris is said to have been informed of his own introduction into the piece, and to have taken such umbrage, as to lay a formal complaint of it before the emperor*. If, owing to this representation, Juvenal was banished from Rome, under the pretence of an appointment to a military command in Upper Egypt, his exile would be of no long duration; as the favourite was, almost immediately after, disgraced and put to death. That our author was in Egypt is certain'; but he might have gone thither from motives of personal safety: for in 94 A. D. Domitian banished the philosophers from Rome, and soon after from Italy, with many circumstances of cruelty. Now, though Juvenal, strictly speaking, did not come under the description of a philosopher, yet, like the hare in the fable, he might not unreasonably entertain some apprehensions for his safety, and, with many other persons eminent for learning and virtue, might deem it prudent to withdraw from the city. We may therefore refer his journey into Egypt to this period: but it does not appear that he was ever long absent from Rome, where there is strong internal evidence to show that all his Satires were written.

Whether his Egyptian voyage was matter of necessity or prudence, we find henceforth in our author the most intense hatred of tyranny; and his indignation is chiefly directed

i See the Argument, and note on v. 1.

k See notes on vii. 92, and viii. 244. 1 Satire xv. 45.

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