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Destinat. Optimus hic et formosissimus idem
Gentis patriciae rapitur miser exstinguendus
Messalinae oculis: dudum sedet illa parato
Flammeolo, Tyriusque palam genialis in hortis
Sternitur, et ritu decies centena dabuntur

:

Antiquo veniet cum signatoribus auspex.
Haec tu secreta et paucis commissa putabas?
Non nisi legitime vult nubere. Quid placeat, dic:
Ni parere velis, pereundum erit ante lucernas :

335

Si scelus admittas, dabitur mora parvula, dum res

340

Nota urbi et populo contingat principis aures.
Dedecus ille domus sciet ultimus: interea tu
Obsequere imperio: sit tanti vita dierum.
Paucorum. Quidquid melius leviusque putaris,
Praebenda est gladio pulcra haec et candida cervix.
"Nil ergo optabunt homines?" Si consilium vis,
Permittes ipsis expendere numinibus, quid
Conveniat nobis, rebusque sit utile nostris.
Nam pro jucundis aptissima quaeque dabunt Dî.
Carior est illis homo quam sibi. Nos animorum

phecy of evil to Messalina's hus-
band, and himself assisted at her
marriage. According to Merivale,
we have fragmentary accounts of an
intelligible transaction, instead of
complete accounts of an unintelli-
gible.

331 Optimus] Not sanctissimus. 332 patriciae] Simply noble.

333 dudum] Notice her impatience; she is ready first, at most weddings it would be necessary to I wait for the bride.

336 veniet cum signatoribus auspex] Cf. Cic. Div. i. § 28: "Nuptiarum auspices qui re omissa nomen tantum tenent." The Romans never thought indignation misplaced at the profanation of an understood conventionality.

337] Did you think the matter

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350

was to be a secret? of course she will only marry in proper style.

339] ante lucernas] Tepi λúxvwv ápás (Herod. vii. 215).

350, sq.] Nos-uxor] A common sophistry, as if no one ever had sense to pray for a happy marriage; it is stated with more refinement and effect in Mrs. Browning's "Nun with the brown rosarie." It may be doubted whether earthly happiness is valuable; but we do not prove that it is not, by pointing to individuals or classes who act as if it were identical with some of its external conditions. In vv. 356-366 the thought becomes distinctly Stoical; vv. 346-353 are simply Socratic. It is likely however that Juvenal only knew the Socratic tradition through the Stoics, though such

Impulsu et caeca magnaque cupidine ducti
Conjugium petimus partumque uxoris: at illis
Notum, qui pueri qualisque futura sit uxor.
Ut tamen et poscas aliquid, voveasque sacellis
Exta, et candiduli divina tomacula porci:
Orandum est, ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.
Fortem posce animum, mortis terrore carentem,
Qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat
Naturae, qui ferre queat quoscunque labores,
Nesciat irasci, cupiat nihil et potiores
Herculis aerumnas credat saevosque labores
Et Venere et coenis et pluma Sardanapali.
Monstro quod ipse tibi possis dare: semita certe
Tranquillae per virtutem patet unica vitae.
Nullum numen abest, si sit Prudentia: nos te,
Nos facimus, Fortuna, Deam coeloque locamus.

a phrase as carior est illis homo quam sibi is hardly in harmony with the spirit of Stoicism; the characteristic Stoical view of disappointed wishes is rather that the parts must consent to be sacrificed to the order of the whole.

351 caeca magnaque] Blind and therefore great. Of course impulsu corresponds to ducti and is not governed by it.

354 et poscas] Go on to petition. Sacellis not templis; the man is addicted to exotic or highly localised devotions.

355 divina] Of course ironical: "a dish for gods.'

361 aerumnas] A harsh and obsolescent word.

362 pluma] "Tam vigilabit [Maecenas] in pluma quam ille [Regulus] in cruce" (Sen. Prov. iii. $9).-Sardanapali. Chaerilus, from

355

360

365

[blocks in formation]

SATIRA XI.

ATTICUS eximie si coenat, lautus habetur:
Si Rutilus, demens. Quid enim majore cachinno
Excipitur vulgi, quam pauper Apicius? Omnis
Convictus, thermae, stationes, omne theatrum

De Rutilo. Nam dum valida ac juvenilia membra
Sufficiunt galeae, dumque ardens sanguine, fertur,
(Non cogente quidem, sed nec prohibente tribuno,)
Scripturus leges et regia verba lanistae.

Multos porro vides, quos saepe elusus ad ipsum
Creditor introitum solet exspectare macelli,
Et quibus in solo vivendi causa palato est.
Egregius coenat meliusque miserrimus horum,
Et cito casurus jam perlucente ruina.
Interea gustus elementa per omnia quaerunt,

4 Omnis convictus, &c.] Every place where people spend their time together, the baths, where they lounge, the corners, where they stand and talk, &c. Every lounge, the baths, the corners.

6 fertur] He has not put down his litter.

7 tribuno] Macleane refers this to the tribunitian power of the emperors; and for him it is a very plausible guess. If not, we must take a weaker sense of cogente, "compelling him indirectly, by assigning his estate to his creditors."

8 leges] It seems simpler to take leges et regia verba as the terms of the contract; but cf. "Vitandi atque

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IO

inferendi ictus subtiliorem rationem legibus ingeneravit" (Val. Max. ii. 3), where legibus is of course the rules of the art of fencing. Regia verba, because the lanista is the king in whose service he enlists.

12 Egregius] Cf. Prisc. Lex. iii. 2. 6, for this old comparative. The sense is, "quo quisque est inter miserrimos miserior eo melius coenat."

13 jam perlucente ruina] As the ruin begins to let light through, i. e. as his desperate condition comes to be known.

14 gustus] Either simply a taste of food, and so luncheon, or as here something to give a taste, whet the

Nunquam animo pretiis obstantibus: interius si
Attendas, magis illa juvant, quae pluris emuntur.
Ergo haud difficile est perituram arcessere summam,
Lancibus oppositis vel matris imagine fracta,
Et quadringentis nummis condire gulosum
Fictile. Sic veniunt ad miscellanea ludi.

Refert ergo, quis haec eadem paret: in Rutilo nam
Luxuria est, in Ventidio laudabile nomen
Sumit et a censu famam trahit. Illum ego jure
Despiciam, qui scit, quanto sublimior Atlas
Omnibus in Libya sit montibus, hic tamen idem
Ignoret, quantum ferrata distet ab arca
Sacculus. Ε coelo descendit γνώθι σεαυτόν,
Figendum et memori tractandum pectore, sive
Conjugium quaeras vel sacri in parte Senatus
Esse velis, (nec enim loricam poscit Achillis
Thersites, in qua se traducebat Ulixes
Ancipitem); seu tu magno discrimine causam
Protegere affectas, te consule, dic tibi, quis sis,

appetite, and so a technical name for the first course.

18] "Pawning their plate, or breaking up their mother's bust for old silver." Cf.:

"Furi villula nostra non ad
Austri

Flatus opposita est neque ad
Favoni;

Verum ad millia quindecim et

ducentos.

O ventum horribilem atque pestilentum." (Cat. xxvi.)

20 Fictile] For the plate is gone. -Ad miscellanea ludi, to the gladiator's mess, where all ingredients and guests are confounded.

21 Rutilo] A poor man, as Rutilae (sup. x. 294) is a poor woman. 22 laudabile nomen] e. g. elegantia.

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20

25

30

25] Hic and idem emphasize tamen, and leave qui as nom. to ignoret; hence the change of mood. The first relative clause is adjectival, the second causal.

28-34] The construction is less symmetrical than is usual in Latin, each branch of the protasis has a separate apodosis, sive...velis in Figendum... pectore, seu...affectas in te...buccae. As figendum, &c. is a secondary predicate, its protasis is in the subjunctive.

31 Thersites] Juvenal ought to have remembered that Achilles, and all the poets after Arctinus, except Sophocles, had killed Thersites, to avenge an insult to the memory of Penthesilea.- Traducebat-ancipitem, "exhibited himself with doubtful effect."

Orator vehemens, an Curtius et Matho buccae.
Noscenda est mensura sui spectandaque rebus
In summis minimisque, etiam quum piscis emetur,
Ne mullum cupias, quum sit tibi gobio tantum
In loculis. Quis enim te, deficiente crumena,
Et crescente gula, manet exitus, aere paterno
Ac rebus mersis in ventrem, fenoris atque
Argenti gravis et pecorum agrorumque capacem?
Talibus a dominis post cuncta novissimus exit
Annulus, et digito mendicat Pollio nudo.
Non praematuri cineres, nec funus acerbum
Luxuriae, sed morte magis metuenda senectus.
Hi plerumque gradus: conducta pecunia Romae
Et coram dominis consumitur : inde ubi paullum
Nescio quid superest et pallet fenoris auctor,
Qui vertere solum, Baias et ad ostrea currunt.
Cedere namque foro jam non est deterius, quam
Esquilias a ferventi migrare Suburra.

Ille dolor solus patriam fugientibus, illa

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34 Matho] Cf. vii. 129.-Buccae,

mere wind-bags."

37 Ne cupias] depends on "noscenda est, &c."- Gobio, a gudgeon, i. e. the price of one.

38 crumena] Two MSS. have culina;

and P. seems to have had it.

40, 41 fenoris...capacem] First he calls in his spare cash that was lying at interest and spends it, then he sells his plate [it was old fashioned]. Cf." Argentum grave rustici patris, sine ullo opere et nomine artificis" (Sen. de Tranq. An. i. § 4). Then his cattle go, and then his land.

42, 43] These lines are the answer to the question, "quis te manet exitus." People like you have to pawn their rings and take to begging. The last thing to go is the ring, which proves he has been a gentle

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40

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man, and would have helped him to beg with a grace.

44 acerbum] "Untimely;" a metaphor from unripe fruit. A spendthrift need not be afraid of dying before his time; he has to fear old age more than death.

48 auctor] i. e. the lender.

49] "People who have really decided on bankruptcy, tell you they are off to Baiae.

51] The Esquiliae were cool (v. 77) and healthy (Hor. Sat. I. viii. 14); the Suburra crowded and busy, which is implied in 'ferventi,' more than physical heat.

52 Ille-illa] In English both would be in the neuter. In Latin they take the gender of the predicate; and the same rule holds in Greek. It would not surprise us if the predicate took the gender of

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