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Nec Cræsi fortuna unquam, nec Persica regna

Sufficient animo, nec divitiæ Narcissi,

Indulsit Cæsar cui Claudius omnia, cujus
Paruit imperiis, uxorem occidere jussus.

330

prevail on him to put Messalina to death, after her paramour Silius. See sat. x. l. 330-345. Claudius would have pardoned her adultery, but, at the instigation of Narcissus, he had her killed in the

Neither the fortune of Croesus, nor the Persian kingdoms,
Will ever suffice your mind, nor the riches of Narcissus,
To whom Claudius Cæsar indulged every thing, whose
Commands he obey'd, being ordered to kill his wife.

330

gardens of Lucullus. By the favour of the emperor, Narcissus was possessed of immense wealth.

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END OF THE FOURTEENTH SATIRE.

SATIRA XV.

ARGUMENT.

The Poet in this Satire, which he is supposed to have written when he was under his banishment into Egypt, relates the mortal and irreconcileable hatred, which sprung from a religious quarrel between the Ombites and Tentyrites, inhabitants of two neighbouring cities of Egypt-and describes, in very lively colours, a bloody fray which happened between them. He seems to lay this as a ground for those fine reflections, with which he finishes the Satire, on the nature, use, and intention of civil society.

In reading this Satire, it is difficult not to advert to the monstrous cruelties which superstition and bigotry have brought on mankind, while those who have disgraced the Christian name by bearing it, have, with relentless fury, inflicted tortures and death on thousands of innocent

Q

UIS nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens Ægyptus portenta colat? Crocodilon adorat

:

Pars hæc illa pavet saturam serpentibus Ibin.
Effigies sacri nitet aurea cercopitheci.

Dimidio magicæ resonant ubi Memnone chorda,

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Line 1. Bithynian Volusius.] Who this Volusius was does not appear; all that we know is, that he came from Bithynia, a country of the Lesser Asia, and was undoubtedly a friend of Juvenal, who addresses this Satire to him.

2. Mad Egypt.] Demens not only means mad, i. e. one that has lost his senses, but also silly, foolish; which perhaps is meant here, în allusion to the silly superstition which possessed the minds of the Egyptians in religious matters.

This part.] One part of Egypt.

Adores a crocodile.] That part of Egypt which lies near the river Nile worships the crocodile; a dreadful amphibious animal, shaped something like a lizard, and, from an egg little bigger than that of a goose, grows to be thirty feet long. The Ægyptians know how high the river will rise that year, by the place where the crocodiles lay their eggs. The crocodile was worshipped with divine honours, because these animals were supposed to have destroyed the Libyan and Arabian robbers, who swam over the river and killed many of the inhabitants.

SATIRE XV.

ARGUMENT.

people, for no other crime than a difference of opinion in religious

matters.

MARSHALL, in his note on line 36, thus expresses himself—“ Hinc si"multas et odium utrique populo oriebantur, nempe ex diversitate re«ligionum, qua in mundo etiam Christiano, Di bani! quantas stra 86 ges excitavit !"

The attentive reader of this Satire will find a lively exhibition of those principles which actuate bigots of all religions, zealots of all persuasions; and which, as far as they are permitted, will always act uniformly against the peace and happiness of mankind. He may amuse himself with allegorizing the Ombites and Tentyrites into emblems of blind zeal and party rage, which no other bounds than want of power have kept from desolating the earth.

WHO knows not, Bithynian Volusius, what monstrous things
Mad Ægypt can worship? this part adores a crocodile ;
That fears an Ibis saturated with serpents.

A golden image of a sacred monkey shines,

Where the magie chords resound from the half Memnon,

3. An Ibis.] A certain bird, which is a great destroyer of serpents. See AINSW.

4. A golden image, &c.] In another part of Egypt, viz. at Thebes, they worship the image of a monkey made of gold. Cereopithecus is derived from the Gr. xigos, a tail, and axes, an ape.The difference between the ape and the monkey is, that the ape has the monkey has, and usually a very long one.

no

tail;

5. Magic chards, &c.] At Thebes, in Egypt, there was a colossal statue of Memnon, a king of Ethiopia, who was slain by Achilles at the siege of Troy: this statue was made of hard marble, and with such art, that a lute, which was in its hand, would itself give a musical sound when the beams of the sun came upon it.

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Cambyses, king of Persia, ruined the city, and caused the statue to be broken about the middle, imagining the sound to proceed from some contrivance within, but nothing was found. From this time the music was thought to be magical. Strabo says, that he and others heard the music about one in the afternoon, but confesses he could not understand the cause.

Atque vetus Thebe centum jacet obruta portis.
Illic cœruleos, hic piscem fluminis, illic
Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam.
Porrum et cæpe nefas violare, aut frangere morsu.
O sanctas gentes, quibus hæc nascuntur in hortis
Numina! lanatis animalibus abstinet omnis
Mensa: nefas illic fœtum jugulare capella;
Carnibus humanis vesci licet. Attonito cum
Tale super cœnam facinus narraret Ulysses
Alcinöo, bilem aut risum fortasse quibusdam
Moverat, ut mendax arctalogus in mare nemo
Hunc abicit, sævâ dignum verâque Charybdi,
Fingentem immanes Læstrygonas atque Cyclopas?
Nam citius Scyllam, vel concurrentia saxa

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6. Hundred gates.] At Thebes, in Egypt, there was an hundred gates; the city from thence was called Hecatompolis. This city was destroyed by Cambyses, who conquered Egypt. It was originally built by Busiris, the fabled son of Neptune. See sat. xiii. 1, 27, and note.

7. Sea-fish.] Coeruleos-because taken out of the sea, which by reflecting the blue sky, appears of an azure or sky-blue colour. So VIRG. En. iii. 208.

Adnixi torquent spumas, et cœrula verrunt-i. e. æquora.

8. Worship a dog.] They worship their good Anubis under this form. See sat. vi. 533, note.

Nobody Diana.] They worship the hound, but not the huntress. Juvenal seems to mistake here, for Herodotus observes that Diana was worshipped in that country under the name of Bubastis; which adoration, under another name, might occasion this mistake. But see AINSw. Bubastis.

9, A sin to violate a leek, c.] "Perhaps our poet here goes a little beyond the strict truth, to heighten the ridicule, though there might be possibly some foundation for such an opinion, from the scrupulous abstinence of some of that nation from particular veget ables, as lentils, beans and onions, the latter of which the priests abominated, as some pretend, because Dictys, who had been brought up by Isis, was drowned in seeking after them; or rather, because onions alone, of all plants, thrive when the moon is in the wane.' Sec. ANT. Univ. Hist. vol. i, p. 484. For the religion of Ægypt, see also ib p. 467, et seq.; and Abr. of Hutchinson, p. 122.

10. O holy nations, &c.] Meaning the various parts of Egypt, whose worship of leeks and onions he has just mentioned. This sarcasm is very natural after what he has said.

11. Every table, &c.] i. e. They never eat sheep, or lambs. 12. Offspring of a she-goat.] i. e. A kid.

The hatred of the Egyptians to the Israelites, both as shepherds and as Hebrews, is supposed to have arisen from the latter killing and sacrificing these beasts, which were held sacred and worshipped

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