sed iacet aurato vix ulla puerpera lecto. 600 tantum artes huius, tantum medicamina possunt, 595 quae steriles facit atque homines in ventre necandos conducit. gaude, infelix, atque ipse bibendum porrige quidquid erit; nam si distendere vellet et vexare uterum pueris salientibus, esses Aethiopis fortasse pater, mox decolor heres impleret tabulas numquam tibi mane videndus. Transeo suppositos et gaudia votaque saepe ad spurcos decepta lacus, atque inde petitos pontifices, salios Scaurorum nomina falso corpore laturos. stat Fortuna inproba noctu adridens nudis infantibus; hos fovet omnes 1 involvitque sinu, domibus tunc porrigit altis secretumque sibi mimum parat; hos amat, his se ingerit utque suos semper producit alumnos. 605 Hic magicos adfert cantus, hic Thessala vendit 610 philtra, quibus valeat mentem vexare mariti et solea pulsare natis: quod desipis, inde est, inde animi caligo et magna oblivio rerum quas modo gessisti. tamen hoc tolerabile, si non 1 omnes 2 Some MSS. here insert three MS. places them after 601). and also in C. R. vol. xv. 265 sqq. omni PT and most edd. 2 615 lines not given above (one See Housm. on this passage, See also Owen's note. 1 These were pools or reservoirs in which infants were exposed. Fortune delights in spiriting these foundlings into the houses of the great. 2 The priests of Mars, recruited from noble families. Thessaly was famous for witches and the magic art. The husband here is made mad by a love-potion. ་ does a gilded bed contain a woman that is lying in? So great is the skill, so powerful the drugs, of the abortionist, paid to murder mankind within the womb. Rejoice, poor wretch; give her the stuff to drink whatever it be, with your own hand: for were she willing to get big and trouble her womb with bouncing babes, you might perhaps find yourself the father of an Ethiopian; and some day a coloured heir, whom you would rather not meet by daylight, would fill all the places in your will. 1 602 I say nothing of supposititious children, of the hopes and prayers so often cheated at those filthy pools from which are supplied Priests and Salii,2 with bodies that will falsely bear the name of Scauri. There Fortune shamelessly takes her stand by night, smiling on the naked babes; she fondles them all and folds them in her bosom, and then, to provide herself with a secret comedy, she sends them forth to the houses of the great. These are the children that she loves, on these she lavishes herself, and with a laugh brings them always forward as her own. 610 One man supplies magical spells; another sells Thessalian charms by which a wife may upset her husband's mind, and lather his buttocks with a slipper; thence come loss of reason, and darkness of soul, and blank forgetfulness of all that you did but yesterday. Yet even that can be endured, if only you become not raving mad like that uncle of Nero's into whose drink Caesonia poured the whole brow of a weakly foal 5; and what The emperor Caligula. His wife Caesonia was said to have made him mad by a love-philtre. Alluding to the hippomanes, an excrescence on the head of a young foal, which was used in love-potions. 620 infudit. quae non faciet quod principis uxor ? ardebant cuncta et fracta conpage ruebant, non aliter quam si fecisset Iuno maritum insanum. minus ergo nocens erit Agrippinae boletus, siquidem unius praecordia pressit ille senis tremulumque caput descendere iussit in caelum et longa manantia labra saliva; haec poscit ferrum atque ignes, haec potio torquet, haec lacerat mixtos equitum cum sanguine patres. 625 tanti partus equae, tanti una venefica constat. Oderunt natos de paelice: nemo repugnet, nemo vetet, iam iam privignum occidere fas est. vos ego, pupilli, moneo, quibus amplior est res, custodite animas et nulli credite mensae : 630 livida materno fervent adipata veneno. mordeat ante aliquis quidquid porrexerit illa quae peperit, timidus praegustet pocula papas. 635 Fingimus haec altum satura sumente cothurnum scilicet, et finem egressi legemque priorum grande Sophocleo carmen bacchamur hiatu, montibus ignotum Rutulis caeloque Latino? nos utinam vani. set clamat Pontia "feci, confiteor, puerisque meis aconita paravi, quae deprensa patent; facinus tamen ipsa peregi." 640 tune duos una, saevissima vipera, cena? tune duos? "septem, si septem forte fuissent!" 1 Agrippina the younger murdered her husband, the Emperor Claudius, by a dish of mushrooms (Tac. Ann. xii. 57, Suet. 44). See v. 147. woman will not follow when an Empress leads the way? The whole world was ablaze then and falling down in ruin just as if Juno had made her husband mad. Less guilty therefore will Agrippina's mushroom 1 be deemed, seeing that it only stopped the breath of one old man, and sent down his palsied head and slobbering lips to heaven, whereas the other potion demanded fire and sword and torture, mingling Knights and Fathers in one mangled bleeding heap. Such was the cost of one mare's offspring and of one she-poisoner. 627 A wife hates the children of a concubine; let none demur or forbid, seeing that it has long been deemed right and proper to slay a stepson. But I warn you wards—you that have a good estate-keep watch over your lives; trust not a single dish: those hot cakes are black with poison of a mother's baking. Whatever is offered you by the mother, let someone taste it first; let your trembling tutor take the first taste of every cup. 634 Now think you that all this is a fancy tale, and that our Satire is taking to herself the high heels of tragedy? Think you that I have out-stepped the limits and the laws of those before me, and am mouthing in Sophoclean tones a grand theme unknown to the Rutulian hills and the skies of Latium ? Would indeed that my words were idle! But here is Pontia proclaiming "I did the deed; I gave aconite, I confess it, to my own children; the crime was detected, and is known to all; yes, with my own hands I did it." "What, you most savage of vipers? you killed two, did you, two, at a single meal? 66 Aye, and seven too, had there chanced to be seven to kill!" 645 Credamus tragicis quidquid de Colchide torva dicitur et Progne; nil contra conor. et illae grandia monstra suis audebant temporibus, sed non propter nummos; minor admiratio summis debetur monstris, quotiens facit ira nocentes hunc sexum et rabie iecur incendente feruntur praecipites, ut saxa iugis abrupta, quibus mons subtrahitur clivoque latus pendente recedit : illam ego non tulerim, quae conputat et scelus ingens sana facit. spectant subeuntem fata mariti Alcestim, et similis si permutatio detur, SATVRA VII Er spes et ratio studiorum in Caesare tantum ; solus enim tristes hac tempestate Camenas 650 655 660 1 praegustabit PSG: praegustaret : praegustarit Markl. and Housm. 1 Medea. 2 Procne, daughter of Pandion, king of Athens, revenged herself on her husband, Tereus, by serving up to him the flesh of his son Itys. She was turned into a swallow. |