very marble is split with their noise. I too have been to school; I too have learnt to declaim; and if paper must be wasted, why should not I write too? V. 19. My reason for following in Horace's steps is this-when eunuchs are marrying wives, and women are exhibiting in the arena, when a barber is challenging with his wealth all the nobility, and slaves are clad in purple and affecting their summer rings, it is impossible to abstain from satire. Who can restrain himself when fat Matho comes by in his litter, and the great informer after him, the terror of all little informers; when you are thrust from your rights by wretches who get your inheritance by satisfying an old woman's lewdness? Is it not enough to make one's blood boil to see the robber treading on people's heels with his crowd of sycophants, while his ward is left to prostitution? and Marius going off into exile to enjoy himself with the spoils of his province? What does he care for infamy if he keeps his plunder? Are these not fit themes for the Muse of Venusia? What have I to do with the old hackneyed topics when wretches are found to wink at their wives' intrigues, and take the property of the adulterer which the law will not give to the woman: when a spendthrift expects to be promoted to high places for the skill with which he handles the reins while the great man lounges with his minion behind? Does not one feel inclined to take out one's tablets in the very street when the forger comes lounging along in his open litter, and the great lady meets him who has drugged her husband's wine and has taught her young neighbours shamelessly to do the same? You must be a bold miscreant if you want to be somebody. Honesty is praised and left to starve. To crime men owe all their fine gardens, and houses, and furniture. Who can sleep for the incest and adultery that is going on? If nature refuses, indignation draws the pen, though it be but such as mine or Cluvienus'. V. 80. All the passions of men from the deluge to this day are the motley subjects of my book. When was the harvest of vice more abundant? when did avarice so fill its bags? When had the die such spirit, as now when men play not for the contents of their purse but of their chest? Look at the hotness of the encounter! A hundred sestertia lost and the poor shivering slave without a tunic, is not this something more than madness? Which of our ancestors ever built such villas, or dined by himself off seven courses? Now-a-days the poor client has to scramble for a paltry dole grudgingly and cautiously given, and from this he is elbowed by some great pauper who must have his share first: or else some well-to-do freedman cries, "I came first, and must be first served; I am rich too, and riches are better than rank." And of course the claim must be allowed; the rich slave before the poor magistrate; for though money has not yet had a temple and altars, her majesty is above all others sacred. But if our high officers are not above reckoning upon the sportula, what will their followers do who get all they have from this source? Crowds of litters come up for the dole, and all kind of fraud goes on. V. 127. The first event of this day is this sportula: then they sally forth to the forum, with its statues of heroes, among whom some paltry Arabarch has got himself set up. In the afternoon they come home; and at the porch the hungry clients take leave of their patron and their long-cherished hope of a dinner, and retire to buy their bit of cabbage, while the great man sits down to the fat of the land and the sea, and eats up a whole fortune off a single table. Who can endure this beastly selfishness? What a belly that sits down to a whole boar by itself! But the penalty follows quick when you go down to bathe with your meat crude upon your stomach-sudden death and intestacy, the gossip of every dinner-table, and the delight of your angry friends. V. 147. Our sons can add nothing to our vices, which have climbed to the highest point, so set your sails, my Muse, and bear down upon the enemy. "But where is your talent for such great themes? where are you to get your liberty of speech? Mucius may have pardoned his satirist, but mark down a Tigellinus and you will share the Christians' fate." "Is the murderer then to ride on high and to look down upon us?" "Aye, when he meets you shut your lips, or the informer's finger will be upon you. You may write of Aeneas, and Achilles, and Hylas as much as you please. When Lucilius draws his weapon and rushes on to the attack every hearer with sore conscience blushes, and this is why they are angry; so you had better think of this before you put on your armour, for after that it will be too late." "Well then I must try what I can do with those who are sleeping by the Flaminian and the Latin roads." SEMPER ego auditor tantum? nunquamne reponam, Impune ergo mihi recitaverit ille togatas, 1. Semper ego auditor tantum ?] See Introduction. In the time of Augustus it had become common for all sorts of writers, but particularly poets, to recite their productions in public places, baths, colonnades, and so forth; or to get their friends and acquaintance together to hear them in private houses or rooms hired for the purpose. The practice was adopted by literary men of character as well as the inferior sort; the example having been first set, as is said, by Asinius Pollio, the friend and patron of Horace and others. Horace refers to it familiarly, and many of the authorities are quoted on S. i. 4. 73. It was considered a nuisance in his day; and the last of his poems ends with a stroke at these reciters: "Indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acer bus; rudo." Quem vero arripuit tenet occiditque legendo, Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hi(A. P. fin.) Pliny the younger, writing about the time of this satire, speaks with a good deal of indulgence of the practice, and regrets that the reciters are not encouraged by larger audiences. He says he attended them all and made friends with them (Epp. i. 13). 5 of Horace's Iarbitas (Epp. i. 19. 15). The 3. Impune ergo mihi] 'Impune' reminds 4. ingens Telephus,] Telephus, king of 2. Theseide Codri?] The Scholiast writes Cordi, and P. has the same. Servius on Virg. xi. 458, as well as all the other MSS., has Codri. Cordus is a Roman name. Codrus is used below, S. iii. 203. 208, and is so written in the same MS., except that a later hand has introduced Cordus. Codrus is used by Martial, ii. 57; v. 26, and by Virgil, Ecl. 5. summi plena jam margine libri] This v. 113; vii. 26. It is in every case, as here, a is meant to show the length of the poem. fictitious name; though Servius on the latter The back of the papyrus, or parchment place says, "Codrus poëta ejusdem temporis (membrana), was not usually written upon, fuit ut Valgius in Elegis suis refert." Cor- but stained; whence Juvenal speaks below dus is said to have been the Roman name of "croceae membrana tabellae" (vii. 23). Nota magis nulli domus est sua quam mihi lucus Martial has this epigram on one Picens, a charta, Et dolet averso quod facit illa deo."(viii. 62.) Such writings were called 'Opisthographi.' 'Liber' properly belongs only to books of papyrus (chartae'); but it was not confined to those (see Dict. Ant. Liber'). It was usual to have a wide margin; and the larger the book the wider the margin. Priscian (vi. 3. 16, p. 684) quotes this passage to show that 'margo' is sometimes of the feminine gender. The Scholiast makes the same remark, and quotes Ov. Met. i. 13 for the masculine. 7. lucus Martis,] These are such subjects as Horace speaks of, A. P. 16. sq.: "lucus et ara Dianae, Et properantis aquae per amoenos ambitus agros," &c. TheScholiast refers to a grove of Mars on the Appian Way,to another in which Ilia brought forth Romulus and Remus, and that in Colchis where the golden fleece was kept. Any grove of Mars will do, and there were many. Of the group of islands north of Sicily called Aeoliae, Vulcaniae, or Liparaeae Insulae, the most southerly is that now called Volcano, by the Romans Hiera or Vulcani Insula, and by the Greeks Ἱερὰ Ηφαίστου. Virgil describes it in language which leaves little doubt that this is the place Juvenal refers to (Aen. viii. 416-422). Ruperti thinks Aetna must be meant, because the cave is said to be 'near' the Aeolian rocks, whereas Hiera is one of them; which is not worth considering. This island was in early times a very active volcano (see Smith's Dict. Geog., 'Aeoliae Ins."). Heinrich says that in 'lucus Martis,' and the cave of Vulcan, and Quid agant Venti,' Juvenal had his eye upon Valerius Flaccus, whose Argonautica were written about this time. See lib. i. 573, sqq.; v. 252, sq. 9. Quid agant Venti,] What the winds are about.' The winds follow naturally the mention of the Aeoliae Insulae, one of which is said to have been the abode of the gover 10 nor of the winds. Strabo says it was Strongyle (Stromboli), ἐνταῦθα δὲ τὸν Αἴολον H. N. iii. 9; Heyn. Exc. i. on Aen. i. οἰκῆσαί φασι (vi. p. 424, B.). See Pliny, 10. unde alius] Jason from Colchis. Horace uses the form 'pellicula' (S. ii. 5. 38); and Persius (v. 116). It has no diminutive force, and is only used for convenience. 11. jaculetur Monychus ornos,] In Ovid (Met. xii. 510, sqq.) Nestor relates how Monychus and the other centaurs tore up the trees from Othrys and Pelion, and hurled them upon Caeneus at the marriage of his friend Peirithous. 12. Frontonis platani] The gardens and corridors of private persons were lent, it appears, for this purpose. Fronto is a name which occurs often under the empire. The most distinguished was M. Cornelius the orator, who was tutor to M. Aurelius. The man in the text may be anybody. The exaggeration of the speaker's powers and the applause of his friends are amusing, and the verses very forcible. In the peristylia of large houses trees of considerable size were grown. "Inter varias nutritur silva columnas " (Hor. Epp. i. 10. 22). The plane tree was much cultivated by the Romans. Compare Hor. C. ii. 15. 4: "platanusque caelebs Evincet ulmos." Convulsa' and ruptae' Grangaeus says are medical words, as if the pillars were in a state of convulsion and bursting blood-vessels: "Rupti convulsique dicuntur qui nervorum affectione et spasmo laborant; sed et eadem ratione sic appellantur qui nimio clamore venis tumescentes offenderunt." As to the construction ruptae lectore,' see Hor. i. 6. 2, n. Servius quotes this verse on Virgil: "Et cantu querulae rumpent arbusta cicadae" (Georg. iii. 328). 14. Exspectes eadem] "You may look for the same stuff from all sorts of poets, from the greatest to the least; I then (ergo) must write, for I too have been to school and been whipped and declaimed; and since paper must be spoilt, mercy would be thrown away: I may as well spoil it as others." Schoolboys will not want to be told what 'manum feru Et nos ergo manum ferulae subduximus, et nos Cur tamen hoc potius libeat decurrere campo lae subducere' means; but it appears the 16. Consilium dedimus Sullae] Jahn on the authority of many of the MSS. writes 'Syllae;' but all inscriptions where the name occurs have 'Sula' or 'Sulla.' The Greek form is Zúλaç. The theme on which he professes to have declaimed belongs to the order called "suasoriae orationes," of which a book was written by the elder Seneca. It appears to have been a favourite subject. Quintilian says (Inst. iii. 8), ": neque enim ignoro plerumque exercitationis gratia poni et poëticas et historicas, ut Priami verba apud Achillem, aut Sullae dictaturam deponentis in contione." The advice is, that Sulla should purchase sleep by laying down his power. He did so A.U.c. 675, and died next year in retirement and sensuality. 'Suasoriae' were distinguished from controversiae,' and belonged rather to boys' schools. See note on Pers. iii. 45. 20. Auruncae flexit alumnus,] Suessa, in Campania, the late capital of the Aurunci, whose original town Aurunca (five miles from Suessa) was destroyed by the Sidicini (Livy viii. 15), was called Suessa Aurunca, to distinguish it from Suessa Pometia, an Alban colony in Latium, from which the Pomtine marshes were named. Suessa Aurunca was the birth-place of Lucilius. 21. Si vacat et] On the authority of P. which has si placat ac,' Jahn has adopted ac. All other MSS. and editions have 'et.' 22. Maevia Tuscum Figat aprum] This refers to the 'venationes,' or fights with wild beasts at the circus and amphitheatres. The beasts fought with each other, or with men trained for the purpose and called 'bestiarii.' 15 20 25 Of these many were free men and volun- "Stat sexus rudis insciusque ferri, The practice was put down more than a 25. Quo tondente] There was a barber, Licinus, mentioned by Horace (A. P. 301), of whom the Scholiast there says that he was made a senator by Julius Caesar. There appears to have been some such story connected with a low man of this name, for it passed into a proverb. It may or may not have been the man spoken of below, S. i. 109; xiv. 306; Persius ii. 36. See my note on the above passage of Horace. The verse is repeated below, x. 226. With the preceding it is wanting in some MSS. Quum pars Niliacae plebis, quum verna Canopi 26. verna Canopi Crispinus,] Canopus, or Canobus, which gave its name to one of the branches of the Nile, was about fifteen miles from Alexandria, and a town of dissolute morals, as seaports are wont to be. It is for this reason that Juvenal makes his upstart Crispinus a native of Canopus. How he commended himself to Domitian, and rose to be an eques, does not appear. One of the Scholiasts says he was a paper-seller of Alexandria. Juvenal attacks him again, in the fourth Satire, in the vilest terms. 'Verna' was a slave born in his master's house: this man was therefore a 'libertinus.' 27. Tyrias humero revocante lacernas,] The 'lacerna' was a loose cloak, worn over the 'toga.' It was usually of costly dye and material, being worn chiefly by the rich. Stapylton translates the words 'humero revocante' which falling off his shoulders still revoke;' and some commentators take it in this way. Gifford has "Crispinus, while he gathers now, now flings His purple open, fans his summer rings." He means that the man is showing off the fine texture of his cloak; and he quotes Ammianus Marcellinus: "Alii summum decus in ambitioso vestium cultu ponentes sudant sub ponderibus lacernarum, quas collis insertas cingulis ipsis adnectunt, nimia subteminum tenuitate perflabiles, expectantes crebris agitationibus, maximeque sinistra, ut longiores fimbriae tunicaeque perspicere luceant." The words describe the way in which the cloak was worn, hitched up on the left shoulder by a brooch or something of that sort, and floating in the wind, so that the shoulder seems to pull it back. Graevius takes 'lacernas' with ventilet,' and conjectures 'aestivo auro.' This man appears to have had light rings for summer, and heavier for winter. That he wore a gold ring does not prove that he was an eques, for by the emperors after Tiberius the privilege was given to the lowest of the people (see Hor. S. ii. 7. 9, n.). 30. iniquae Tam patiens Urbis,] So tolerant of the town's iniquities.' 32. lectica Mathonis] This man is mentioned below (vii. 129) as a bankrupt, and (xi. 34) as a blustering fellow. Martial mentions him repeatedly as a profligate (vii. 10), a beggar (viii. 42; xi. 68), a ranter (iv. 81), a coxcombical speaker (x. 46). He was so fat as to fill his litter, which was new as his fortunes were, and short-lived. As to the 'lectica,' or palankeen, see Becker's Gallus, Exc. on the Carriages, and Dict. Ant. Also Hor. S. ii. 3. 214, n.; and Cic. in Verr. ii. 5. 11, Long. See also the note on ver. 65 below. Causidicus' is a title that Cicero only uses with more or less contempt. The proper words for what we call an advocate, or counsel, are orator' and 'patronus;' a 'causidicus' was one of these of a lower sort. So Juvenal says below: nec causidicus nec praeco loquatur" (vi. 438), “nec unquam Sanguine causidici maduerunt rostra pusilli " (x. 120), "nutricula causidicorum Africa" (vii. 148). Forcellini quotes Cic. de Orat. i. 46: "Non enim causidicum nescio quem neque proclamatorem aut rabulam hoc sermone nostro conquirimus." Also Quintilian xii. 1. 33. magni delator amici,] This may be any low informer who betrayed his patron. The informer's trade, of which two members, Sulcius and Caprius, are mentioned by Horace (S. i. 4. 66), reached its height under Tiberius, and throve under his successors. A famous one of the reign of Domitian was M. Aquilius Regulus, who under Nero got promotion and hatred by informing against M. Crassus (Tac. Hist. iv. 42). Baebius Massa was another of the same tribe, a freedman probably of some person of the Baebia gens. Tacitus says he betrayed Piso, and was universally hated then (Hist. iv. 50). This was in the reign of Vespasian, A. D. 70. He was then "e procuratoribus Africae." He became governor of the province of Baetica, and for his oppression of that province was brought to trial, under Domitian, A. D. 93 (Tac. Agr. 45); and though condemned contrived to escape, and lived to become one of the most notorious |