SULPICIA.

INTRODUCTION.

THE occasion of the following Satire is generally known as "the expulsion of the philosophers from Rome by Domitian." As the same thing took place under Vespasian also, it becomes worth while to inquire who are the persons intended to be included under this designation; and in what manner the fears of the two emperors could be so worked upon, as to pass a sweeping sentence of banishment against persons apparently so helpless and so little formidable as the peaceful cultivators of philosophy. It seems not improbable then that the fears both of Vespasian and Domitian were of a personal as well as of a political nature. We find that in both cases the "Mathematici are coupled with the "Philosophi." Now these persons were no more nor less than pretenders to the science of judicial astrology [cf. Juv. iii. 43; vi. 562; xiv. 248; Suet. Cal. 57; Tit. 9; Otho, 4; Gell. i. 9]; and to what an extent those who were believed to possess this knowledge were dreaded in those days of gross superstition, may be easily inferred by merely looking into Juvenal's sixth and Persius' fifth Satire. Besides the baleful effects of incantations, which were sources of terror even in Horace's days, the mere possession by another of the nativity of a person whose death might be an object of desire to the bearer, was supposed, at the time of which we are now speaking, to be a sufficient ground of serious alarm. We are not surprised therefore to find it recorded as an instance of great generosity on the part of Vespasian, that on one occasion he pardoned one Metius Pomposianus, although he was informed that he had in his possession a "Genesis Imperatoria ;" or that the possession of a similar document with regard to Domitian cost the owner his life. (Cf. Suet. Vesp. 14; Domit. 10.)

With regard to the philosophers, it appears that the followers of the Stoic school were those against whom the edict was especially directed. Not only did the tenets of this school inculcate that independence of thought and manners most directly at variance with the servility and submissiveness inseparable from a state of thraldom under a despot; but the cultivation of this branch of philosophy was held to be nothing more than a specious cover for an attachment to the freedom of speech and action enjoyed under the republican form of government; and philosophy was accounted only another name for revolution and rebellion.'

The story told of Demetrius the Cynic, in Dio, (lxvi. 13,) and confirmed by Suetonius, (Vesp. c. 13,) illustrates this view of the subject. (Cf. Tac. Hist. iv. 40.) It appears to have been at the suggestion of Mucianus, that all philosophers, but especially the Stoics, were banished from Rome; and that the celebrated Musonius Rufus was the only one who was suffered to remain. This took place A. D. 74. Sixteen years after this we find a decree of the senate passed to a similar effect. Now, as philosophy may be studied equally well any where, there seems no reason why, if it were not in some way connected with their political creed, all these votaries of Stoicism should in the interim have taken up their abode at Rome. And though, no doubt, the unoffending may have suffered with the guilty, the history of the edict seems pretty plainly to show what particular doctrines of their philosophy were so obnoxious to Domitian. Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dio all agree in the cause assigned for the sentence: viz. that Junius Arulenus Rusticus and Herennius Senecio had been enthusiastic in their praises of Thrasea Pætus and Helvidius Priscus; and that therefore “all philosophers were removed from Rome." ("Cujus criminis occasione philosophos omnes Urbe Italiâque submovit." Suet. Domit. 10. Cf. Tac. Agric. 2. Dio, lxvii. 13.) But it was for their undisguised hatred of tyrants, and for no dogma of the schools, that the former of these was put to death by Nero, and the latter by Vespasian. Both of them, as we know, celebrated with no ordinary festivities the birth-days of the Bruti (Juv. v. 36); and Helvidius, even while

1 Vid. Niebuhr's Lectures, iii. p. 212.

2 Licinius Mucianus, the governor of Syria. He belonged to the noble family of the Licinii, and was connected with the Mucii. For his character, sce Niebuhr's Lectures, vol. iii. p. 206.

prætor, went so far as to omit all titles of honour or distinction before the name of Vespasian. (Suet. Vesp. 15.) We must not therefore fall into the common error of supposing this "banishment of philosophers" to have been a mere act of wanton, senseless tyranny, or of brutal ignorance. Even by his enemies' showing, the opening scenes of Domitian's life' are at direct variance with such an idea. (Cf. ad Juv. vii. 1.) And though we regret to find that men like Epictetus and Dio of Prusa were included in the disastrous sentence, it is some relief to learn that Pliny the younger, though living at the time in the house of the philosopher Artemidorus, and the intimate friend of Senecio and six or seven others of the banished, to whom he supplied money, (a fact which, as he himself hints, could not but have been known to the emperor, as Pliny was prætor at the time,) yet escaped unscathed. (Cf. Plin, iii. Ep. XI. vii. 19. Gell. xv. 11.)

How far Sulpicia was connected with this movement, or whether she was involved in the same sentence which overwhelmed the others, we have now no means of ascertaining. It is quite clear that all her sympathies were with the Greeks; and the passage concerning Scipio and Cato (1. 45-50) leaves little doubt that her philosophical opinions were those of the Stoics. She rivals Juvenal in her thorough hatred of Domitian; which may, perhaps, be partly also attributed to family reasons. For we must remember that she belonged to the gens which produced Servius Sulpicius Galba; and, as we have noticed on many occasions with regard to Juvenal, an attachment to that emperor seems to go hand in hand with hatred of Otho and Domitian. From the conclusion of the Satire, it is probable that her husband was not implicated.

1 "Domitian was a man of a cultivated mind and decided talent, and is of considerable importance in the history of Roman literature. The Paraphrase of Aratus, which is usually ascribed to Germanicus, is the work of Domitian. The subject of the poem is poor, but it is executed in a very respectable manner. Domitian's taste for Roman literature produced its beneficial effects. He instituted the great pension for rhetoricians, which Quintilian, for example, enjoyed, and the Capitoline contests, in which the prize poems were crowned. During this period, Roman literature received a great impulse, to which Domitian himself must have contributed. From his poem we see that he was opposed to the false taste of the time." Niebuhr's Lectures, iii. p. 216, 7.

The Sulpician gens produced many distinguished men; of whom we may mention the commissioner sent to Greece, and the conquerors of the Samnites, of Sardinia, and of Pyrrhus, besides the notorious friend of Marius. Of this illustrious stock she was no unworthy scion. Martial' bears the strongest testimony to the purity of her morals and the chastity of her life, as well as to her devoted conjugal affection; which latter virtue she illustrated in a poem replete with the most lively, delicate, and virtuous sentiments; and which, had not the licentiousness of the age been beyond such a cure, might have produced a deep moral effect on the peculiar vices which especially disgraced the era of the Cæsars. Her busband's name was Calenus, who not improbably belonged to the Fufian gens, and with him she enjoyed fifteen years of the purest domestic felicity, as we learn from the Epigram addressed to him by Martial, in which, not without a tinge of envy, he congratulates Calenus on the possession of so inestimable a treasure. Both Epigrams are exceedingly beautiful, and every reader of Martial will be only too ready to say, "O si sic omnia." Of her other works we unfortunately do not possess a single fragment; and even the solitary Satire which bears her name, was at one time, as Scaliger tells us, falsely attributed to Ausonius.

Very much of the Satire is corrupt. Wernsdorf's seems, on the whole, the best approximation to a true reading; and the Commentary of Dousa is, as far as it goes, satisfactory.

1 Lib. x. Epig. 35 and 38. There is nothing in these two Epigrams to imply that Sulpicia and Calenus were not both living peacefully and happily at Rome, at the time Martial wrote his tenth book of Epigrams. Now he says himself, that he scarcely produced one book in a year, (x. 70,) and lib. ix. was written A. D. 94 or 95. The second edition of his tenth book came out A. D. 99. The Epigrams to Calenus and Sulpitia were probably therefore written at least six years after the Edict of Domitian, i. e. between A. D. 90 and 99.

2 Vid. not. ad 1. 62.

3 With the exception of a doubtful fragment quoted by the old Scholiast on Juvenal, Sat. vi. 538.

SULPICIA.

ARGUMENT.

The Satire opens with an Invocation of Calliope, the Muse of Heroic poetry. The dignity of the subject, which is in fact the undeserved sufferings of the good and great men whom Domitian's edict was ejecting from their homes, deserves a higher strain than is compatible with the more commonplace, and therefore less powerful, invectives of Iambic metre. The effect produced by such a measure is described as nothing less than forcing the civilized world to retrograde to a state of primæval barbarism. The cause which has led to such a perversion of taste and degradation of intellect is then examined; which are shown to be the result of a long-protracted peace. The old Roman valour which had raised the city to the proud position promised by the father of gods and men, had become gradually enervated and enfeebled, as it ceased to have an object on which to exercise itself.The stern and rigid virtue of the best period of the city's history, which had led her greatest men, even in the fierce struggles for existence against the rival republic, to appreciate and patronize the philosophy of Greece, the love of country and the ties of brotherhood which had been fostered by that "rugged nurse Adversity," were now all buried in the corpse-like lethargy induced by the enervating influence of a lengthened peace.-The Satire concludes with a bitter denunciation of coming vengeance against the tyrant; and a prophetic anticipation of the lasting fame to be enjoyed by the poem.

GRANT me, O Muse,' to tell my little tale in a few words, in those numbers in which thou art wont to celebrate2 heroes and arms! For to thee I have retired; with thee revising 3 my secret plan. For which reason, I neither trip on in the

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1 Musa. Although about to indite a Satire, Sulpicia declares her intention of not imitating the Hendecasyllabics of Phalæcus, the Iambics of Archilochus, or the Scazontics of Hipponax, but of writing in the good old Heroic metre. She therefore invokes the aid of Calliope.

2 Frequentas. "Celebrare is often used in the sense of "crowding in large numbers to a place;" so here, conversely, frequentare is used in the sense of "frequently celebrating."

3 Detexere is properly to "finish off one's weaving." Vid. Hyg. Fab. 126, "Cum telam detexuero nubam." Plaut. Ps. I. iv. 7, "Neque ad detexundam telam certos terminos habes.

4 Penetrale is applied to the inmost and most sacred recesses; hence the "Penetrales Dii." Cic. Nat. D. ii. 27. Senec. Edip. 265. So "penetrale sacrificium."-Retractans, in the sense of going over again with

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