Ad casum tabulæ, posita sed luditur arca. during the Saturnalia,) the courage to appear so open and frequently as they do now? The sentence is elliptical, and must be supplied with habuit, or some other verb of the kind, to govern, hos animos. -They do not go, with purses, &c.] Gaming has now gotten to such an extravagant height, that gamesters are not content to play for what can be carried in their purses, but stake a whole chest of money at a time; this seems to be implied by the word posita. Pono sometimes signifies, laying a wager, putting down as a stake. See an example of this sense, from Plautus, AINSW. pono, No. 5. 91. How many bottles, &c.] i. e. How many attacks on one another at play. -The steward.] Dispensator signifies a dispenser, a steward, one that lays out money, a manager. 92. Armour-bearer.] The armigeri were servants who followed their masters with their shields, and other arms, when they went to fight. The poet still carries on the metaphor of prælia in the preceding line. There gaming is compared to fighting; here he humourously calls the steward the armour-bearer, as supplying his master with money, a necessary weapon at a gaming-table, to stake at play, instead of keeping and dispensing it, or laying it out for the usual and honest expenses of the family. -Simple madness, &c.] All this is a species of madness, but not without mixture of injury and mischief; and therefore may be reckoned something more than mere madness, where such immense sums are thrown away at a gaming-table, as that the servants of the family cannot be afforded common decent necessaries. The Romans had their sestertius and sestertium. The latter is here meant, and contains 1000 of the former, which was worth about 1d. See 1. 106. n. 93. And not give a coat, &c.] The poet here puts one instance, for many, of the ruinous consequences of gaming. Juvenal, by this, severely censures the gamesters, who had rather lose a large sum at the dice, than lay it out for the comfort, happiness, and decent maintenance of their families. 94. So many villas.] Houses of pleasure for the summer-season. These were usually built and furnished at a vast expence. The poet having inveighed against their squandering at the gamingtable, now attacks their luxury, and prodigality in other respects; and then, the excessive meanness into which they were sunk. 95. Supped in secret, &c.] The ancient Roman nobility, in order to shew their munificence and hospitality, used, at certain times, to make an handsome and splendid entertainment, to which they invited their clients and dependents. Now they shut out these, and provided a sumptuous entertainment for themselves only, which they sat down to in private. Which of our ancestors, says the poet, did this? -Now a little basket, &c.] Sportula, a little basket or pannier, made of a kind of broom called sportum. KENNET, Antiq. p. 375. In this were put victuals, and some small sums of money, to be distributed to the poor clients and dependents at the outward door of the house, who were no longer invited, as formerly, to the entertainment within. To the chance of the table, but a chest being put down is played for. How many battles will you see there, the steward Armour-bearer! is it simple madness an hundred sestertia To lose, and not give a coat to a ragged servant? 90 Who has erected so many villas? What ancestor on seven dishes Has supped in secret? Now a little basket at the first 95 Put in the place of another you come, and ask in a false name. Acknowledged you will receive. He commands to be called by the crier 100 The very descendants of the Trojans; for even they molest the threshold Together with us: "Give to the Prætor-then give to the “Tribune.” -And trembles.] At the apprehension of being severely reproved by his master, the great man, if he should make a mistake, by giving people who assume a false name, and pretend themselves to be clients, when they are not. 99. Acknowledged, &c.]Agnitus, owned, acknowledged, as one for whom the dole is provided. Perhaps, in better days, when the clients and dependents of great men were invited to partake of an entertainment within doors, there was a sportula, or dole-basket, which was distributed, at large, to the poor, at the doors of great men's houses. Now times were altered; no invitation of clients to feast within doors, and no distribution of doles, to the poor at large, without: none now got any thing here but the excluded clients, and what they got was distributed with the utmost caution, l. 97, 98. VOL. I. -He commands to be called.] i. e. Summoned, called together. The poet is now about to inveigh against the meanness of many of the nobles and magistrates of Rome, who could suffer themselves to be summoned by the common crier, in order to share in the distribution of the dole-baskets. 100. The very descendants of the Trojans.] Ipsos Trojugenas; from Troja, or Trojanus, and gigno, The very people, says he, who boast of their descent from Æneas, and the ancient Trojans, who first came to settle in Italy; even these are so degenerate, as to come and scramble, as it were, among the poor, for a part of the sportula. The word ipsos makes the sarcasm the stronger. -Molest the threshold.] Crowd about it, and are very troublesome. So HOR. lib. i. sat. viii. 1. 18.—hunc vexare locum. 101. With us.] Avec nous autres, as the French say. -Give to the Prætor.] In Juvenal's time this was a title of a chief magistrate, something like the lord-mayor of London; he was called Prætor Urbanus, and had power to judge matters of law between citizen and citizen. This seems to be the officer here meant: but for a further account of the Prætor, see AINSW. Prætor. 101. The Tribune.] A chief officer in Rome. The tribunes, at their first insti C Sed libertinus prior est: prior, inquit, ego adsum : tution, were two, afterwards came to be ten; they were keepers of the liberties of the people, against the encroachments of the senate. They were called tribunes, because at first set over the three tribes of the people. See AINSW. Tribunus and Tribus. Juvenal satirically represents some of the chief magistrates and officers of the city as bawling out to be first served out of the sportula. 102. The libertine.] An enfranchised slave. There were many of these in Rome, who were very rich, and very insolent; of one of these we have an example here. 66 -Is first, &c.]" Hold," says this upstart, a freedman, rich as I am, is "before the prætor; besides, I came "first, and I'll be first served." 103. Why should I fear, &c.] i. e. I am neither afraid nor ashamed to challenge the first place. I will not give it up to any body. 103, 4. Although born at the Euphrates.] He owns that he was born of servile condition, and came from a part of the world from whence many were sold as slaves. The river Euphrates took its rise in Armenia, and ran through the city of Babylon, which it divided in the midst. 104. The soft holes, &c.] The ears of all slaves in the East were bored, as a mark of their servitude. They wore bits of gold by way of ear-rings; which custom is still in the East Indies, and 105 110 115 in other parts, even for whole nations; who bore prodigious holes in their ears, and wear vast weights at them. DRYDEN. PLIN. lib. xi. c. 37. The epithet molles may, perhaps, intimate, that this custom was looked upon at Rome (as among us) as a mark of effeminacy. Or the poet, by Hypallage, says, Molles in aure fenestræ, for, fenestræ in molli aure. 105. Five houses.] Tabernæ here may be understood to mean shops or warehouses, which were in the forum, or market-place, and which, by reason of their situation, were let to merchants and traders at a great rent. 106. Procure 400.] In reckoning by sesterces, the Romans had an art which may be understood by these three rules: First if a numeral noun agree in number, case, and gender with sestertius, then it denotes so many sestertii; as decem sestertii. But the libertine is first: I the first, says he, am here present. 105 Than Pallas and the Licini: let the Tribunes, therefore, wait. Most sacred: altho', O baleful money! in a temple As yet thou dost not dwell, we have erected no altars of money, sestertii, and amounted to about 177. 16s. 3d. of our money. Kennet, Ant. 374, 5. After 400, quadringenta, sestertia must be understood, according to the third rule above. The freedman brags, that the rents of his houses brought him in 400 sestertia, which was a knight's estate. -What does the purple, &c.] The robes of the nobility and magistrates were decorated with purple. He means, that, though he cannot deny that he was born a slave, and came to Rome as such, (and if he were to deny it, the holes in his ears would prove it,) yet he was now a free citizen of Rome, possessed of a larger private fortune than the prætor or the tribune. What can even a patrician wish for more? Indeed, "when I see a nobleman reduced to 66 keep sheep for his livelihood, I cannot perceive any great advantage he de"rives from his nobility; what can it, at best, confer, beyond what I possess ?" 66 66 66 107. Corvinus.] One of the noble family of the Corvini, but so reduced that he was obliged to keep sheep, as an hired shepherd, near Laurentum, in his own native country. Laurentum is a city of Italy, now called Santo Lorenzo. 109. Pallas.] A freedman of Claudius. -The Licini.] The name of several rich men, particularly of a freedman of Augustus; and of Licinius Crassus, who was surnamed Dives. 115 110. Let riches prevail.] Vincant, overcome, defeat all other pretensions. -Sacred honour.] Meaning the tribunes, whose office was held so sacred, that if any one hurt a tribune, his life was devoted to Jupiter, and his family was to be sold at the temple of Ceres. 111. With white feet.] It was the custom, when foreign slaves were exposed to sale, to whiten over their naked feet with chalk. This was the token by which they were known. 112. The majesty of riches.] Intimating their great and universal sway among men, particularly at Rome, in its corrupt state, where every thing was venal, which made them reverenced, and almost adored. This intimates too the command and dominion which the rich assumed over others, and the self-importance which they assumed to themselves; a notable instance of which appears in this impudent freedman. 113. Baleful money.] i. e. Destructive, the occasion of many cruel and ruinous deeds. 114. Altars of money.] i. e. No temple dedicated, no altars called aræ nummorum, as having sacrifices offered on them to riches, as there were to peace, faith, concord, &c. 116. Which chatters, &c.] Crepito here signifies to chatter like a bird. The temple of Concord, at Rome, was erected by Tiberius, at the request of his mother Livia. About this, birds, such as choughs, storks, and the like, used to build their nests. What the poet says Sed cum summus honor finito computet anno, Ostendens vacuam, et clausam pro conjuge sellam : alludes to the chattering noise made by these birds, particularly when the old ones revisited their nests, after having been out to seek food for their young. See AINSW. Salutatus, No. 2. 117. The highest honour, &c.] i. e. People of the first rank and dignity. -Can compute, &c.] i. e. Can be so sunk into the most sordid and mean avarice, as to be reckoning, at the year's end, what they have gained out of these doles which were provided for the poor. 119 The attendants, &c.] The poor clients and followers, who, by these doles, are, or ought to be, supplied with clothes, meat, and fire. What will these do, when the means of their support is thus taken from them by great people? -From hence.] i. e. By what they receive from the dole-basket. we say. -A shoe.] Shoes to their feet, as 120. Smoke of the house.] Wood, or other fuel for firing; or firing, as we say. The effect, smoke; for the cause, fire. METON. -Crowd of litters.] The word densissima here denotes a very great number, a thick crowd of people carried in litters. 121. An hundred farthings.] The quadrans was a Roman coin, the fourth part of an as, in value not quite an halfpenny of our money. An hundred of these were put into the sportula, or dolebasket and for a share in this paltry sum, did the people of fashion (for such : 120 125 130 were carried in litters) seek in so eager a manner, as that they crowded the very door up, to get at the sportula. 122. Is led about.] The husband lugs about his sick or breeding wife in a litter, and claims her dole. 123. This asks for the absent.] Another brings an empty litter, pretending his wife is in it. -Cunning in a known art.] i. e. He had often practised this trick with suc cess. 125. It is my Galla.] The supposed name of his wife. 126. Put out your head.] i. e. Out of the litter, that I may see you are there, says the dispenser of the dole. 126. Don't vex her.] "Don't disturb "her," replies the husband; "don't 66 disquiet her, she is not very well, and "is taking a nap." By these methods he imposes on the dispenser, and gets a dole for his absent wife: though, usually, none was given but to those who came in person; and in order to this, the greatest caution was commonly used. See 1. 97, 8. The violent hurry which this impostor appears to be in (1. 125.) was, no doubt, occasioned by his fear of a discovery, if he stayed too long. Thus doth our poet satirize not only the meanness of the rich in coming to the sportula, but the tricks and shifts which they made use of to get at the contents of it. 127. The day itself, &c.] The poet having satirized the mean avarice of the |