'A descendant of the Gracchi.' cf. 24. PR. Of this horrible transaction no contemporary writer speaks: Nero, however, had set the example; (Tac. An. xv. 38.) and royalty is never at a loss for imitators. vi. 616. G.

118. To a horn-blower, or else to a trumpeter.' Tuba directi aris, cornua flexi; Ov. M. i. 98. The Romans used only wind-instruments in their army. M. The clarion' lituus belonged to the cavalry. Hor. II Od. i. 17 sq. Schol. on I Od. i. 23.

119. The marriage-writings are signed and sealed. "We wish you joy!" is the general exclamation.' Understand cedant hæ nuptiæ. PR. Felix hoc; alium desine velle virum. LU. Suet. Dom. 13. 120. A sumptuous banquet is set out.' i. 96. Ov. Tr. ii. 481. HỎ. M. or An immense supper-party sits down to table.' BRI. cf. 34. v. 82. R.

The bride' i. e. Gracchus ; the bridegroom' i. e. the trumpeter. LU. cf. Tac. An. xi. 27. Ov. Am. I. iv. 5. R.

121. Proceres; see Pers. i. 52. PR. There is a bitter sarcasm in this appeal to the patricians,' who were themselves deeply implicated in many of these disgusting proceedings. GR.

'Do we need a censor to correct such enormities? or rather a soothsayer to expiate such portentous prodigies?' VS. vi. 549 sqq. PR. There were two censors, who had the power to degrade citizens from their several ranks and to expel senators from the house. They were formerly so strict as to be formidable even to their colleagues. M. See 2. HR.

It was the office of the soothsayer, when any prodigy occurred, to ascertain and prescribe the expiation which the gods required. M.

the course of nature.' see F. 143. iv. 2. 45. 115. vi. 286. 645. &c. R.

123. Such prodigies occur constantly in Livy.

124. Fringes' or 'flounces.' V. Max. v. 2. FA. Ov. A. A. iii. 169. PR. cf. vi. 89. R.

The matrons wore a long flowing gown' stola, with a train' syrma. M. R. G.

Virgins on their wedding-day wore a light flame-coloured hood, that the spectators might confound the glow shed over the cheek by the tint of the veil, with the suffusion of modesty: G. Mart. XI. lxxviii. 3. PR. vi. 225. x. 334. timidum nuptæ leviter tectura pudorem lutea demissos velarunt flamea vultus; Luc. ii. 360 sq. From the bride's being enveloped in this veil, she was said nubere viro. R. See notes on 134 and 137.

125. Ov. F. iii. 259 sqq. PR. Most of the Commentators by sacra understand ancilia. The epithet arcano may then refer either to ignorance as to the genuine shield, or to the strap on the inside by which the shields were suspended; and nutantia to the swinging of the shields to and fro, as the priests leaped and danced. FA. It would seem more natural to understand simulacra with sacra, supposing twelve of the Salii to have borne the ancilia, and the other twelve priests to have carried images of the gods, which, by means of a concealed thong, were made to nod their heads in answer to the acclamations and plaudits of the surrounding multitude. Thus the image of Venus, which was borne in procession at the Circensian games, annuit et motu signa secunda dedit; Ov. Am. III. ii. 58. M. A similar trick is said to have been played off some few years ago by the priests in Portugal, with an image of the Virgin, to confirm Don Miguel's right

135. There will be but a small party to witness the ceremony:' because the Scatinian law was still in being. LU. Pontice, si qua facis, sine teste facis, sine turba; non adhibes multos: Pontice, cautus homo es; Mart. VII. c. 3 sq. GRE. If it please the gods to spare our lives.' PR.

136. The repetition of the word fent adds force to the prediction. Instances of this kind occur constantly in the Greek

orators.

Salvian, who wrote in the fifth century, speaking of this dedecoris scelerisque consortium, as he calls it, says that it spread all over the city, and though the act itself was not common to all, yet the approbation of it was. M.

Acta the public registers.' FA. cf. ix. 84. R. LI. on Tac. An, v. 4.

137. Nubentibus these male brides.' 138. Such was the complaint of Eutropius: generis pro sors durissima nostri! fæmina cum senuit, retinet connubia partu, uxorisque decus matris reverentia pensat: nos Lucina fugit, nec pignore nitimur ullo; Claud. in Eut. i. 71 sqq. FA. Children constitute a bond of love: and sterility was a frequent cause of divorce. PR. vi. 142 sqq. R.

139. It is just as well that nature prohibits the fulfilment of such extravagant wishes.' BRI.

141. Lyde was some woman who compounded, and sold in small boxes, (ugis from being originally made of box wood,' BO.) a specific against barrenness. T. The epithet may either imply her own corpulence, as being an old woman, BE. or the effects of her nostrum. GR.

142. The festival of the Lupercalia was instituted in honour of Pan (ovium custos; Virg. G. i, 17.) because lupos

arcet. A goat, the emblem of fecundity, being sacrificed, those who officiated put on the skin of the victim and ran about with either a thong of the skin or a wand in their hands, with which they struck the palms of the women who threw themselves in their way to have the benefit of the charm. Excipe fecundæ patienter verbera dextræ; Ov. F. ii. 427 &c. LU. lle caprum mactat: jussæ sua terga maritæ pellibus exsectis percutienda dabant; 445 sq.

Shakspeare alludes to it:

Forget not in your speed To touch Calphurnia; for our elders say, The barren touched in this holy chase, Shake off their sterile curse;" J. Cæs. I. ii. M. This superstitious practice was one of the last Pagan ceremonies that was abandoned, and excited the indignation of many Christian writers. It was finally abolished by Gelasius; in whose time nobiles ipsi currebant; et matronæ nudato corpore vapulabant. G. The festival, which took place in February, was probably introduced into Italy by Evander : cf. Virg. Æn. viii. 343 sq. The grove there described, which was also the spot where Romulus and Remus were afterwards found, was fixed upon by the Romans for the site of Pan's temple. PR.

143. See the notes on viii. 192 sqq. and 199 sqq. R. Has outdone.' This may be an instance of that spirit of aggravation which so much distinguishes Juvenal. Whatever be the vice which he lashes, he bestows the whole of his fury upon it; and in many places the climax of moral reprehension is strangely perverted. I. All the writers of Roman history, however, viewed the gladiatorship of the nobility with the utmost horror. G.

144. Cf. viii. 208. Traversed in flight.' M.

SAT. II.

The centre of the amphitheatre was strewed with sand,' to hide the blood which was spilt. PR.

115. (1) M. Manlius surnamed Capitolinus from his defence of the capitol (2) M. Claudius against the Gauls. Marcellus the captor of Syracuse. (3) Q. Lutatius Catulus who gained the naval victory off the gates. (4) L. Æmilius Paullus the conqueror of Macedonia. (5) Q. Fabius Maximus surnamed Cunctator, who kept Hannibal in constant check by his cautious moves. LU.

'More noble;' vi. 124. vii. 191. viii. 30. 224. R.

146. Minores; i. 148. R. Perhaps the two sons of Paullus, one of whom was adopted into the family of the Scipios, the other into that of the Fabii Maximi.

147. The front' or lowest row of seats was reserved for senators: Suet. Aug. 44. LU. The podium was the projecting part of the partition which divided the seats from the arena. Between this, and the first row on which the senators sat, there was probably just space enough left for the chairs of the curule magis. trates, &c. LI.

A narrow slip.' G. Today Herod. viii. 31.

Φησὶ γοῦν ὁ

151. Cf. Virg. ll. cc. πορθμοὺς μὴ διαρκέσαι αὐτοῖς τότε τὸ τοὺς πολλοὺς αὐτῶν διαπλεῦσαι Luc. σκάφος, ἀλλὰ σχεδίας διαπηξαμένους Dial. Mort. xii. 5. R.

Juvenal describes the world of spirits as peopled by the figments of the poets; the circumstances he has not invented, because he believed in a future state, he but selected; and it does not follow, that, We may attribute the sketch he has given therefore gave credit to such absurdities. to his satirical turn, which he could not forbear indulging to the disparagement of his argument. Virgil, to whom our author is here plainly alluding, does not give a very dignified narrative of his hero's passage over the Styx: E. vi. 411-416. Such puerilities excite our pity; especially when we think how inthe state of reprobation, in Holy Writ, as comparably sublime is the description of where the worm dieth not and a place

"

the fire is not quenched:" St Mark ix. 43 sq. while of the state of blessedness the Apostle says, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 1 Cor. ii. 9. G.

152. The common people, when they went to a bath, paid the bath-keeper a brass coin, in value about a halfpenny. vi. 446. Hor. I S. iii. 137. M. Children, under four years old, were either not taken to the baths, or, if they were, paid nothing. VS. Mart. III. xxx. 4. XIV. clxiii. Seneca calls the bath quadrantaria res; Ep. 86 m. One ms. has nec senes credunt, nec qui &c. R.

153. But be thou persuaded that these things are true.' The language is too emphatic for a mere supposition. G. See R. on 149.

Curius see 3.

154. For Scipioniada, LU. and that for Scipiones. Sil. vii. 107. As Memmiades for Memmius; Lucr. i. 27. R. geminos, duo fulmina belli, Scipiadas, cladem Libya; Virg. Æ. vi. 843 sq. PR. Africanus Major, who conquered Hannibal, and Africanus Minor, who rased Numantia and Carthage. M.

C. Luscinius Fabricius, the conqueror of Pyrrhus. V. Max. iv. 3, 6. PR. Virg. Æ. vi. 845.

M. Furius Camillus, five times dictator, saved the city from the Gauls, and was styled a second Romulus.' PR. He was the first citizen, who was honoured with an equestrian statue in the forum. M.

155. The Fabii, who had taken the Veian war upon themselves, were cut off by the enemy at the Cremera, in Tuscany, to the number of three hundred and six. The clan would thereby have become extinct, but for one boy who was left at home. Liv. ii. 48 sqq. Ov. F. ii. 193 sqq. PR. Virg. Æ. vi. 846. M. Dionys, ix. 22. Sil. vii. 40 sqq. R.

'Legion;' see iii. 132.

At Canna in Apulia, Hannibal gained his fourth and greatest victory, defeating two consular armies, and slaying 40,000 of the Romans, including Æmilius Paullus one of the consuls, and so many of the equestrian order, that three bushels of gold rings were sent to Carthage in token of the victory. PR.

156. Illustres bellis animæ ; Lucan, Phars. VS. bellorum for bellicæ, as animæ servientium; Tac. H. iv. 32. for serviles. cf. woλaas ¡plíμous Tuxàs ngwav Hom. II. ▲ 3. R. Virg. Æ. vi. 660. Juvenal adduces these patriots, both as instances of the belief in a future state, the greatest safeguard of integrity and incentive to valour; and as examples of the unfading happiness in store for those who faithfully discharge their duties as men and citizens. M.

157. To be purified from the contamination of its very presence, if they could get the requisite articles.' PR. M.

158. The fumes of sulphur thrown on a lighted torch of the unctuous pine.' M. Plin. H. N. xxxv. 15. PR. lustralem sic rite facem, cui lumen odorum sulphure cæruleo nigroque bitumine fumat, circum membra rotat doctus purganda sacerdos, rore pio spargens et dira fugantibus herbis numina, purificumque Jovem Triviamque precatus, trans caput aversis manibus jaculatur in austrum secum rapturas cantata piacula tædas; Claud. VI. Cons. Hon. 324 sqq. Ov. M. vii. 261. F. iv. 739 sq. A. A. ii. 329 sq. Tib. I. v. 11. ii. 61. Prop. IV. viii. 83 sqq. Hom. Od. x 481. GR. 8 μáyos δάδα καιομένην ἔχων περιήγνισέ με, ἵνα μὴ βλαπτοίμην ὑπὸ τῶν φαντασμάτων Luc. Nec. 9 & 7. R.

A branch of bay dipped in water' was also used to sprinkle the parties who were to be purified. Plin. H. N. xv. 30. PR.

Lauro sparguntur ab uda; Ov. F.

v. 677, R.