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In Meroë crasso majorem infante mamillam?
Cærula quis stupuit Germani lumina, flavam
Cæsariem, et madido torquentem cornua cirro?
Nempe quod hæc illis natura est omnibus una.
Ad subitas Thracum volucres, nubemque sonoram
Pygmæus parvis currit bellator in armis :
Mox impar hosti, raptusque per aëra curvis
Unguibus a sævâ fertur grue: si videas hoc
Gentibus in nostris, risu quaterere: sed illic,
Quanquam eadem assidue spectentur prælia, ridet
Nemo, ubi tota cohors pede non est altior uno.
Nullane perjuri capitis, fraudisque nefandæ
Pœna erit? abreptum crede hunc graviore catenâ
Protinus, et nostro (quid plus velit ira ?) necari
Arbitrio manet illa tamen jactura, nec unquam
Depositum tibi sospes erit: sed corpore trunco
Invidiosa dabit minimus solatia sanguis :

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163. Meroe.] An island surrounded by the Nile. See sat. vi. 527. The women of this island are said to have breasts of an enormous size. Our poet is hardly to be understood literally.

164. Blue eyes, &c.] Tacit. de Mor. Germ. says, that the Germans have truces et cæruleos oculos, et comas rutilas fierce and blue eyes, and red hair.

165. Twisting his curls.] Cornu-lit. an horn; but is used in many senses to express things that bear a resemblance to an horn---as here, the Germans twisted their hair in such a manner, as that the curls stood up and looked like horns.

-A wet lock.] Cirrus signifies a curled lock of hair. The Germans used to wet their locks with ointment of some kind, perhaps that they might the more easily take, and remain in, the shape in which the fashion was to put them; something like our use of pomatum; or the ointment which they used might be some perfume. Comp. Hon. lib. ii. ode vii. 1. 7, 8.

166. Because, &c.] Nobody would be surprised at seeing a German as above mentioned, and for this reason, because all the Germans do the same, it is the one universal fashion among them. Natura sometimes signifies, a way or method.

167. Sudden birds, &c.] A flight of cranes coming unexpectedly from Stry

mon, a river of Thrace.
Strymonia grues.

See VIRG. G. i. 120;

En. x. 265. -Sonorous cloud.] The cranes are birds of passage, and fly in great numbers when they change their climate, which they were supposed to do when the winter set in in Thrace; they made a great noise when they flew. See En. x. 265, 6.

168. Pygmaan warrior, &c.] The Pygmies (from vyun, the fist, or a measure of space from the elbow to the hand, a cubit) were a race of people in Thrace, which were said to be only three inches high. AINSW. Juvenal says, a foot, 1. 173. They were said always to be at war with the cranes.

-Little arms.] His diminutive weapons.

169. The enemy.] The cranes.

171. In our nations, &c.] In our part of the world, if an instance of this sort were to happen, it would appear highly ridiculous; to see a little man fighting a crane, and then flown away with in the talons of the bird, would make you shake your sides with laughter, from the singularity of such a sight.

172. The same battles, &c.] In that part of the world, there being no singularity or novelty in the matter, though the same thing happens constantly, nobody

In Meroë at a breast bigger than a fat infant?

Who has been amazed at the blue eyes of a German, his yel

low

Hair, and twisting his curls with a wet lock?
Because indeed this one nature is to them all.

165

At the sudden birds of the Thracians, and the sonorous cloud, The Pygmæan warrior runs in his little arms,

Soon unequal to the enemy, and seized, thro' the air, with crooked

Talons, he is carried by a cruel crane: if you could see this 170 ·
In our nations, you would be shook with laughter: but there,
Tho' the same battles may be seen constantly, nobody
Laughs, when the whole cohort is not higher than one foot.
"Shall there be no punishment of a perjured head,

"And of wicked fraud?" "Suppose this man dragged away with "A weightier chain immediately, and to be killed (what would anger have more?)

"At our will: yet that loss remains, nor will ever

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"The deposit be safe to you:""but from his maimed body "The least blood will give an enviable consolation.

is seen to laugh, however ridiculous it may be to see an army of people, not one of which is above a foot high.

The poet means to infer from all this, that it is the singularity and novelty of events which make them wondered at : hence his friend Calvinus is so amazed and grieved that he should be defrauded, looking upon it as peculiar to him; whereas, if he would look at what is going forward in the world, particularly in courts of civil and criminal judicature, he would see nothing to be surprised at, with respect to his own case, any more than he would be surprised, if he went among the Germans, to see blue eyes, and red hair, or locks curled and wetted with some ointment, seeing they all appear alike. Or if he were to go among the Pygmies, he would see nobody laugh at their battles with the cranes, which are constantly happening, and at the diminutive size of the Pygmy warriors, which is alike in all.

174. "No punishment," &c.] Well, but, says Calvinus, though you observe that I am not to be surprised at what I have met with, because it is so frequent, is such a matter to be entirely unnoticed, and such an offender not to be punished?

-"A perjured head."] A perjured person. Capitis, per synec. stands here, for the whole man.

So HoR. lib. i. ode xxiv. 1. 2.
Tam chari capitis.

175."Wicked fraud."] In taking my money to keep for me, and then denying that he ever had it.

-"Suppose," &c.] Juvenal answers, Suppose the man who has injured you hurried instantly away to prison, and loaded with fetters heavier than ordinary-graviore catena.

176. "Be kill'd," &c.] Be put to death by all the tortures we could invent-(and the most bitter anger could desire no more)—what then?

177." That loss."] i. e. Which you complain of.

-"Remains."] Is still the same.

178. "The deposit," &c.] The money which you deposited in his hands would not be the safer-i. e. at all the more

secure.

179. "The least blood," &c.] True, replies Calvinus, but I should enjoy my revenge; the least drop of blood from his mangled body would give me such comfort as to be enviable; for revenge affords a pleasure sweeter than life itself.

At vindicta bonum vitâ jucundius ipsâ.
Nempe hoc indocti, quorum præcordia nullis
Interdum, aut levibus videas flagrantia causis :
Quantulacunque adeo est occasio, sufficit iræ.
Chrysippus non dicet idem, nec mite Thaletis
Ingenium, dulcique senex vicinus Hymetto,
Qui partem acceptæ sæva inter vinc'la cicutæ
Accusatori nollet dare. Plurima felix
Paulatim vitia, atque errores exuit omnes,

- Prima docens rectum Sapientia: quippe MINUTI

SEMPER ET INFIRMI EST ANIMI EXIGUIQUE VOLUPTAS ULTIO. Continuo sic collige, quod vindictâ

Nemo magis gaudet, quam fœmina. Cur tamen hos tu

180

185

190

Evasisse putes, quos diri conscia facti

Mens habet attonitos, et surdo verbere cædit,

Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum?
Pœna autem vehemens, ac multo sævior illis,
Quas et Cæditius gravis invenit aut Rhadamanthus,
Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem.
Spartano cuidam respondit Pythia vates,

181. Truly this, &c.] Truly, says Juvenal, ignorant and foolish people think so. q. d. This is the sentiment of one who is void of all knowledge of true philosophy-indocti.

-Whose breasts, &c.] Præcordia signifies, literally, the parts about the heart, which is supposed to be the seat of the passions and affections; here it may stand for the passions themselves, which, says the poet, are set on fire, sometimes for no cause at all, sometimes from the most trivial causes, in silly people.

183. However small, &c.] Any trifling thing is sufficient to put them into a passion-but it is not so with the wise.

184. Chrysippus will not say, &c.] A famous Stoic philosopher, scholar to Zeno, who taught the government of the passions to be a chief good.

185. Thales.] A Milesian, one of the seven wise men of Greece. He held that injuries were to be contemned, and was not himself easily provoked to anger.

-The old man.] Socrates.

-Neighbour to sweet Hymettus.] Hymettus, a mountain in Attica, famous for

195

excellent honey, hence called dulcis Hymettus. See HoR. lib. ii. ode vi. 1. 14, 15. This mountain was not far from Athens, where Socrates lived, and where he was put to death.

186. Who would not, &c.] It was a maxim of Socrates, that he who did an injury was more to be pitied than he who suffered it. He was accused of contemning the gods of Athens, and, for this, was condemned to die, by drinking the juice of hemlock; which he did with circumstances of calmness and fortitude, as well as of forgiveness of his accusers, that brought tears from all that were present with him in the prison during the sad scene.

An old scholiast has observed on this passage, as indeed some others have done, that one of his accusers, Melitus, was cast into prison with him; and asking Socrates to give him some of the poison, that he might drink it, Socrates refused it.

187. Received hemlock.] Which he had received from the executioner, and then held in his hand. For an account of his death, see ANT. Univ. Hist. vol. vi. p. 407, note z. translated from Plato.

-Happy wisdom.] The poet here

180

"But revenge is a good more pleasant than life itself."
Truly this is of the unlearned, whose breasts you may see
Burning, sometimes from none, or from slight causes:
However small the occasion may be, it is sufficient for anger.
Chrysippus will not say the same, nor the mild disposition
Of Thales, and the old man neighbour to sweet Hymettus, 185
Who would not, amidst cruel chains, give a part of
The received hemlock to his accuser. Happy wisdom,
By degrees puts off most vices, and all errors,
First teaching what is right; for REVENGE

IS ALWAYS THE pleasure of A MINUTE, WEAK, AND LITTLE
MIND. Immediately thus conclude, because in revenge 191
Nobody rejoices more than a woman. But why should you
Think these to have escaped, whose mind, conscious of a dire
Fact, keeps them astonished, and smites with a dumb stripe,
Their conscience the tormentor shaking a secret whip? 195
But it is a vehement punishment, and much more cruel, than
those

Which either severe Cæditius invented, or Rhadamanthus, Night and day to carry their own witness in their breast. The Pythian prophetess answer'd a certain Spartan,

means the teachings of the moral philosophers, some of which held, that, even in torments, a wise man was happy.

189. First teaching what is right, &c.] To know what is right is first necessary, in order to do it-this, therefore, is the foundation of moral philosophy, in order to strip the mind of error, and the life of vicious actions.

Vitæ philosophia dux, virtutis indagatrix, expultrixque vitiorum. Cic. Tusc. v. ii.

66

Philosophy is the guide of life, the "searcher-out of virtue, the expeller of "vice."

191. Thus conclude.] i. e. Conclude, without any farther reasoning, that the above observation, viz. that revenge is the pleasure of weak minds, is true, because it is so often found to be so in the weaker sex.

Persius uses the verb colligo in the sense of conclude, or infer-mendose colligis, you conclude falsely. Sat. v. 1. 85.

193. To have escaped, &c.] Though no outward punishment should await these evil-doers, and you may suppose them to have escaped quite free, yet their very VOL. II.

souls, conscious of dreadful erimes, are all astonishment--their guilty conscience smiting them with silent, but severe, reproof.

195. The conscience.] i. e. Their conscience the executioner, shaking its secret scourge with terror over them.

A metaphor, taken from the whipping of criminals, whose terrors are excited at seeing the executioner's scourge lifted up and shaken over them.

Public whipping was a common punishment among the Romans for the lower sort of people. See HoR. epod. iv. 1. 11.

196. Vehement punishment, &c.] The poet here means, that the torments of a wounded conscience are less tolerable than those of bodily punishment. Comp. Prov. xviii. 14.

197. Severe Caditius.] A very cruel judge in the days of Vitellius; or, according to some, in the days of Nero.

-Rhadamanthus.] One of the judges of hell. See sat. i. 1. 10, note.

198. Their own witness, &c.] Continually bearing about with them the testimony of an evil conscience.

199. Pythian prophetess.] The priestess

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Haud impunitum quondam fore, quod dubitaret
Depositum retinere, et fraudem jure tueri
Jurando: quærebat enim quæ numinis esset
Mens; et an hoc illi facinus suaderet Apollo.

Reddidit ergo metu, non moribus; et tamen omnem
Vocem adyti dignam templo, veramque probavit,
Extinctus totâ pariter cum prole domoque,

200

205

Et quamvis longâ deductis gente propinquis.

Has patitur pœnas peccandi sola voluntas.

Nam SCELUS INTRA SE TACITUM QUI COGITAT ULLUM,

FACTI CRIMEN HABET: cedo, si conata peregit?

210

Perpetua anxietas: nec mensæ tempore cessat;
Faucibus ut morbo siccis, interque molares
Difficili crescente cibo. Sed vina misellus
Exspuit: Albani veteris pretiosa senectus
Displicet ostendas melius, densissima ruga

of Apollo, (called Pythius, from his slaying the serpent Python,) by whom Apollo gave answers at his oracle of Delphos.

The story alluded to is told by Herodotus, of one Glaucus, a Spartan, with whom a Milesian, in confidence of his honesty, had left a sum of money in trust. Glaucus afterwards denied having received the money, when it was demanded by the sons of the Milesian, and sent them away without it: yet he was not quite satisfied in himself, and went to the oracle, to know whether he should persist in denying it, or not. He was answered, that if he forswore the money, he might escape for a time; but for his vile intention, he and all his family should be destroyed. Upon this, Glaucus sent for the Milesians, and paid the whole sum. But what the oracle foretold came to pass, for he and all his kindred were afterwards extirpated.

200. Time to come.] Though he might escape from the present, yet, at a future time, he should not go without punish

ment.

-Because he doubted.] Could suffer himself even to entertain a doubt in such a case as this.

201. A deposit.] Of money committed

to his trust.

-By swearing.] By perjury-jure jurando. Tmesis.

202. He asked, &c.] In hopes that he might get such an answer as would quiet

215

his mind, and determine him to keep the money.

203. Would advise, &c.] Would persuade him to the fact-i. e. to retain the deposit, &c.

204. From fear, not, &c.] More from a principle of fear of the consequences of keeping it, than an honest desire of doing right.

205. The voice of the shrine.] Adytum signifies the most secret and sacred place of the temple, from whence the oracles were supposed to be delivered.

-Worthy the temple, &c.] It was reckoned highly for the reputation of the temple, when the things there foretold came to pass on account of which, these oracles were usually delivered in equivocal terms, so that they might be supposed to tell truth, on whichever side the event turned out.

207. Deduced from a long race.] Longa gente, from a long train of ancestorsall that were related to him, however distantly, were cut off.

208. These punishments, &c.] Thus was the mere intention of doing ill most justly punished.

210. Hath the guilt, &c.] Is as really guilty as if he had accomplished it. In this, and in many other passages, one would almost think Juvenal was acquainted with something above heathenism. Comp. Prov. xxiv.8, 9; and Matt. v. 28.

-"Tell me," &c.] A question asked

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