Juvenalis. English, 1892. Evans-Gille THE SATIRES OF JUVENAL, PERSIUS, SULPICIA, AND LUCILIUS, Literally Translated into English Prose, WITH NOTES, CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES, ARGUMENTS, &c. BY THE REV. LEWIS EVANS, M.A., LATE FELLOW OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD. TO WHICH IS ADDED THE METRICAL VERSION OF JUVENAL AND PERSIUS, BY THE LATE WILLIAM GIFFORD, ESQ. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS FRANKLIN SQUARE. HARPER & BROTHERS will send either of the above works by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States or Canada, on receipt of th price. PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR. WHILE the poetical versions of Juvenal deservedly hold a very high place in the literature of this country, it is a curious fact that there exists no single prose translation which can stand the test of even ordinary criticism. Whether it be that the temptation to a metrical version of a poetical writer is too great with some, or whether the labor of faithfully representing the genius of confessedly the most difficult writer in the Latin language has deterred others, the fact is undeniable, that there is no prose version from which the unclassical reader can form any adequate idea of the writings of the greatest of Satirists. Madan, though faithful, is utterly unintelligible to any one who has not the Latin before him. Sheridan is far too free, in every sense of the word, to be either a fair expositor of his original, or to suit the taste of the present day; and without any disparagement of the labors of Sterling, Nuttall, Smart, or Wallace, it was found impossible to adopt any one of them even as the basis of a version which should be worthy of a place in the present series. The accompanying translation, therefore, is entirely original; and the translator is not aware of having copied a single line from any previous version. How far he has succeeded in giving a faithful transcript of the author, and in, at the same time, infusing some spark of the fire and spirit of the original, must be for others to determine; all that he dares venture to assert is, that he has brought to the task an enthusiastic admiration of his author, and a careful study of many years. The same remarks apply to the translation of Persius. The notes are to a considerable extent original, and the English, perhaps even the classical, reader may not be displeased at the occasional introduction of passages from metrical versions in which the sense appeared to be the most forcibly given. A Chronological Table has been added, which the labors of Mr. Clinton have enabled the Translator to present in a far more correct form than heretofore. The poetical version by Gifford has been annexed, as having the greatest hold on the public favor, and as being perhaps the best, be- The remains of Sulpicia and Lucilius appear now for the first CONTENTS. LIFE of Juvenal, by Gifford... Essay on the Roman Satirists, by Gifford...... Chronology of Juvenal, Persius, and Sulpicia.. On the date of Juvenal's Satires...... Arguments of the Satires of Juvenal......... L. E. PAGE THE LIFE OF JUVENAL, BY WILLIAM GIFFORD, ESQ. DECIMUS JUNIUS JUVENALIS,' the author of the following Satires, was born at Aquinum, an inconsiderable town of the Volsci, about the year of Christ 38.2 He was either the son, "Junius Juvenalis liberti locupletis incertum filius an alumnus, ad mediam ætatem declamavit, animi magis causa, quam quod scholæ aut foro se præpararet." The learned reader knows that this is taken from the brief account of Juvenal, commonly attributed to Suetonius; but which is probably posterior to his time; as it bears very few marks of being written by a contemporary author: it is, however, the earliest extant. The old critics, struck with its deficiencies, have attempted to render it more complete by variations, which take from its authenticity, without adding to its probability. I have adopted Dodwell's chronology. "Sic autem (he says) se rem illam totam habuisse censeo. Exul erat Juv. cum Satiram scriberet XV. Hoc confirmat etiam in v. 27, scholiastes. 'De se Juv. dicit, quia in Ægypto militem tenuit, et ea promittit se relaturum quæ ipse vidit.'" Had not Dodwell been predisposed to believe this, he would have seen that the scholium "confirmed" nothing: for Juvenal makes no such promise. "Proinde rixæ illi ipse adfuit quam describit." So error is built up! How does it appear that Juvenal was present at the quarrel which he describes ? He was in Egypt, we know; he had passed through the Ombite nome, and he speaks of the face of the country as falling under his own inspection: but this is all; and he might have heard of the quarrel at Rome, or elsewhere. "Tempus autem ipse designavit rixæ illius cum et nuper'* illam contigisse dicit, et quidem 'Consule Junio.' Jun. duplicem habent fasti, alium Domit. in x. Consulatu collegam App. Junium Sabinum A.D. lxxxiv.; alium Hadriani in suo itidem consulatu III. collegam Q. Junium Rusticum. Quo minus prior intelligi possit, obstant illa omnia quæ in his ipsis Satiris occurrunt Do * This "nuper" is a very convenient word. Here, we see, it signifies lately; but when it is necessary to bring the works of our author down to a late period, it means, as Britannicus explains it, "de longo tempore," long ago. |