Palaemon; suffer some diminution of your wage, like the hawker who sells rags and white Gallic blankets for winter wear, if only it do not go for nothing that you have sat from early dawn in a hole which no blacksmith would put up with, no workman who teaches how to card wool with slanting tool: that it do not go for nothing to have snuffed up the odour of as many lamps as you had scholars in your class thumbing a discoloured Horace or a begrimed Virgil. 228 But it is seldom that the fee can be recovered without a judgment of the Court. And yet be sure, ye parents, to impose the strictest laws upon the teacher: he must never be at fault in his grammar; he must know all history, and have all the authorities at his finger-tips. If asked a chance question on his way to the baths, or to the establishment of Phoebus,1 he must at once tell you who was the nurse of Anchises, what was the name and birth-place of Anchemolus' 2 step-mother, to what age Acestes lived, how many flagons of Sicilian wine he presented to the Trojans. Require of him that he shall mould the young minds as a man moulds a face out of wax with his thumb; insist that he shall be a father to the whole brood, so that they shall play no nasty game, and do no nasty trick-no easy matter to watch the hands and sparkling eyes of so many youngsters! "See to all this," you say, "and then, when the year comes round, receive the golden piece which the mob demands for a winning jockey." 1 Probably a private bathing establishment. 2 A warrior slain by Pallas. Virg. Aen. x. 389. SATVRA VIII STEMMATA quid faciunt? quid prodest, Pontice, longo sanguine censeri, pictos ostendere vultus 10 maiorum et stantis in curribus Aemilianos et Curios iam dimidios umerosque minorem Corvinum et Galbam auriculis nasoque carentem? 5 quis fructus generis tabula iactare capaci Corvinum,1 posthac multa contingere virga fumosos equitum cum dictatore magistros, si coram Lepidis male vivitur? effigies quo tot bellatorum, si luditur alea pernox ante Numantinos, si dormire incipis ortu Luciferi, quo signa duces et castra movebant? cur Allobrogicis et magna gaudeat ara natus in Herculeo Fabius lare, si cupidus, si vanus et Euganea quantumvis mollior agna, si tenerum attritus Catinensi pumice lumbum squalentis traducit avos, emptorque veneni frangenda miseram funestat imagine gentem? tota licet veteres exornent undique cerae atria, nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus. 1 Corvinum P etc.: Housm. conj. pontifices. 15 20 1 Alluding to the younger Scipio, son of L. Aemilius Paulus, who according to rule took the name of Aemilianus after his adoption by P. Cornelius Scipio (son of Scipio Africanus major). 2 Scipio the younger was called Numantinus after the capture of Numantia, B. c. 134. SATIRE VIII STEMMATA QUID FACIUNT? WHAT avail your pedigrees ? What boots it, Ponticus, to be valued for one's ancient blood, and to display the painted visages of one's forefathers-an Aemilianus1 standing in his car; a half-crumbled Curius; a Corvinus who has lost a shoulder, or a Galba that has neither ear nor nose? Of what profit is it to boast a Fabius on your ample family chart, and thereafter to trace kinship through many a branch with grimy Dictators and Masters of the Horse, if in presence of the Lepidi you live an evil life? What signify all these effigies of warriors if you gamble all night long before your Numantine' ancestors, and begin your sleep with the rise of Lucifer, at an hour when our Generals of old would be moving their standards and their camps? Why should a Fabius, born in the home of Hercules, take pride in the title Allobrogicus, and in the Great Altar,5 if he be covetous and empty-headed and more effeminate than a Euganean lambkin; if his loins, rubbed smooth by Catanian7 pumice, throw shame on his shaggy-haired grandfathers; or if, as a trafficker in poison, he dishonour his unhappy race by a statue that will have to be broken in pieces? Though you deck your hall from end to end with ancient waxen images, Virtue is the one and only true nobility. Be 6 4 3 The Fabii pretended to be descended from Hercules. Alluding to Q. Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus (B.C. 121). 5 The ara maxima of Hercules, near the Circus. Fine pasture land in Venetia, where dwelt the Euganei. 7 From Catana near Mount Aetna. sanctus haberi Paulus vel Cossus vel Drusus moribus esto, invento. quis enim generosum dixerit hunc qui 30 indignus genere et praeclaro nomine tantum insignis? nanum cuiusdam Atlanta vocamus, Aethiopem Cycnum, pravam extortamque puellam Europen; canibus pigris scabieque vetusta levibus et siccae lambentibus ora lucernae nomen erit pardus tigris leo, si quid adhuc est quod fremat in terris violentius; ergo cavebis et metues ne tu sic1 Creticus aut Camerinus. 35 His ego quem monui? tecum est mihi sermo, Rubelli. Blande. tumes alto Drusorum stemmate, tam quam feceris ipse aliquid propter quod nobilis esses, ut te conciperet quae sanguine fulget Iuli, 40 quorum nemo queat patriam monstrare parentis; 45 ast ego Cecropides." vivas et originis huius gaudia longa feras. tamen ima plebe Quiritem 1 sic H. Junius: si P: sis 4. 1 When a new Apis was born, the people shouted evρhкaμev, συγχαίρομεν. Apis was supposed to be an incarnation of Osiris. a Paulus, or a Cossus, or a Drusus in character; rank them before the statues of your ancestors; let them precede the fasces themselves when you are Consul. You owe me, first of all things, the virtues of the soul; prove yourself stainless in life, one who holds fast to the right both in word and deed, and I acknowledge you as a lord; all hail to you, Gaetulicus, or you, Silanus, or from whatever stock you come, if you have proved yourself to a rejoicing country a rare and illustrious citizen, we would fain cry what Egypt shouts when Osiris has been found.1 For who can be called "noble" who is unworthy of his race, and distinguished in nothing but his name? We call some one's dwarf an "Atlas," his blackamoor "a swan"; an ill-favoured, misshapen girl we call "Europa"; lazy hounds that are bald with chronic mange, and who lick the edges of a dry lamp, will bear the names of "Pard," "Tiger," Lion," or of any other animal in the world that roars more fiercely take you care that it be not on that principle that you are a Creticus or a Camerinus! 39 Who is it whom I admonish thus? It is to you, Rubellius Blandus,2 that I speak. You are puffed up with the lofty pedigree of the Drusi, as though you had done something to make you noble, and to be conceived by one glorying in the blood of Iulus, rather than by one who weaves for hire under the windy rampart. "You others are dirt," you say; "the very scum of our populace; not one of you can point to his father's birthplace; but I am one of the Cecropidae!" Long life to you! May you long enjoy the glories of your birth! And yet among the 2 Rubellius Blandus was married to Julia, grand-daughter of Tiberius. One of his descendants must be meant here. M |