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But now the concord of serpents is greater: a similar
Beast spares his kindred spots. When, from a lion,
Did a stronger lion take away life? in what forest ever,
Did a boar expire by the teeth of a larger boar?
The Indian tyger observes a perpetual peace with a fierce
Tyger: there is agreement with savage bears among themselves.
But for man the deadly sword from the impious anvil 165
To have produced is little; whereas, being accustomed only
to heat

Rakes and spades, and tired with mattocks and the ploughshare,
The first smiths knew not how to beat out swords.

We see people, to whose anger it does not suffice

To have killed any one; but the breasts, the arms, the face, 170 They believed to be a kind of food. What therefore would he have said,

Or whither would he not have fled, if now Pythagoras could have seen

These monstrous things? who abstain'd from all animals, as from A man, and did not indulge every kind of pulse to his belly.

of souls; he would not allow himself to eat all sorts of vegetables, but abstained from beans, which he is supposed to have learnt from the Egyptian priests, when he was in that country, who abstained from beans, and thought it unlawful to sow or to look upon them. HEODOT. Euterpe.

What, says the poet, would Pythagoras have said, if he had seen these Egyptians, these Tentyrites, tearing and devouring human flesh? to what part of the earth would not he have flown, to have avoided such a sight? who, so far from holding it lawful to eat human flesh, would not eat the flesh of any animal any more than he would have eaten the flesh of a man, nor would he indulge his appetite with every kind of vegetable.

The reason of this strange piece of superstition, of abstinence from beans, is not known; many causes have been assigned for it, which are full as absurd as the thing itself. The reader may

find many of these collected in Holyday, note 14, on this Satire. See also ANT. Univ. Hist. vol. i. p. 53.

According to the story of his life, written by Jamblichus, we may suppose that neither Pythagoras, nor any of his followers, would ever reveal the cause of abstinence from beans.-It seems that Dionysius the tyrant, the younger, desiring to know the secret, caused two Pythagoreans to be brought before him, a man and his wife, who being asked, "why the Pythagoreans would not eat "beans?"" I will sooner die (said the "man) than reveal it."-This, though threatened with tortures, he persisted in, and was, with indignation, sent away. The wife was then called upon, and being asked the same question, and threatened also with tortures, she, rather than reveal it, bit out her tongue, and spit it in the tyrant's face. Of Pythagoras, see OviD, Met. lib. xv. 1. 60, et seq.

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SATIRA XVI.

ARGUMENT.

This Satire is supposed to have been written by Juvenal while he commanded in Egypt, (see sat. xv. 1. 45, note 2.); he sets forth, ironically, the advantages and privileges of the soldiery, and how happy they are beyond others whom he mentions. Many have thought that this Satire was not written by Juvenal; but I think that the weight of evidence seems against that

QUIS numerare queat felicis præmia, Galle,
Militia? nam si subeantur prospera castra,
Me pavidum excipiat tyronem porta secundo
Sidere plus etenim fati valet hora benigni,
Quam si nos Veneris commendet epistola Marti,
Et Samiâ genitrix quæ delectatur arenâ.

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Commoda tractemus primum communia, quorum Haud minimum illud erit, ne te pulsare Togatus

Line 1. Gallus. Who this was does not appear; some friend, doubtless, of Juvenal, to whom he addresses this Satire.

-Can number, &c.] i. e. Can reckon up the advantages and emoluments arising from a military life?

2. Now since.] The subject of the Satire is proposed, 1. 1, though not entered upon till 1.7. The intermediate lines, beginning at Nam si, &c. 1. 2, to the end of I. 6, are digressional, and humourously introduce the poet, now eighty years old, and forced into the service as a punishment, wishing to enter into the army with a lucky planet, as a soldier of fortune: the cheerfulness with which he seems to bear his misfortune must have afforded no small disappointment to his enemies.

5

I have rendered the Nam si, as marking the transition to the poet's wish for himself. See AINSW. Nam, No. 5, 6; and Si, No. 2.

-Prosperous camps, &c.] Where people make their fortunes.

3. Let the door.] Let my first entrance be attended with the good omen of some favourable star. It was a great notion among the Romans, that their good or ill fortune depended on the situation of the stars, at certain times, and on certain occasions. Sat. vii. 1. 194, note.

-A fearful beginner.] Tyro signifies a fresh-water soldier, a young beginner, a novice; these are usually fearful at first, being unused to the fatigues and hazards of war.

SATIRE XVI.

ARGUMENT.

opinion, and that there are many passages so exactly in the style of Juvenal, as to afford the strongest internal evidence that it was written by him. It may be granted not to be a finished piece, like the rest; but if we only regard it as a draught or design of a larger work, it is a valuable hint on the oppression and inconveniences of a military government.

WHO, O Gallus, can number the advantages of the happy
Soldiery? now since prosperous camps may be gone into,
Let the door receive me, a fearful beginner, with a favourable
Star: for an hour of kind fate avails more,

Than if an epistle of Venus were to commend us to Mars, 5
And the mother who delights in the Samian sand.

Let us first treat common advantages; of which that will Hardly be the least, that a gownsman to strike you

It is to be remembered, that Juvenal, who had passed his life in the study of letters, and in writing, was sent away from Rome into Egypt, under pretence of giving him a military command, but indeed to exile him, for having satirized Paris the player, a minion of Domitian. See sat. vii. 1. 92, note. This was in a very advanced stage of our poet's life; therefore, though an old man, he might properly call himself a young soldier, unskilled and fearful.

4. An hour of kind fate, &c.] One lucky hour under the influence of some friendly planet. See HoR. lib. ii. ode xvii. 1. 17, et seq.

5. Epistle of Venus, &c.] Than if Venus, the mistress of the god of war, were to write him a recommendatory letter in my favour, and this to be seconded by

another from his mother Juno, here meant by genitrix. The poet, in this place, is again sneering at the mythology of his country. Comp. sat. xiii. I. 40-7.

6. Delights in the Samian sand.] Juno was worshipped at Samos, a sandy island in the Icarian sea, where she was educated and married to Jupiter; she was said to have a great delight in this island. See En. i. 1. 19, 20.

7. Let us first treat common advantages.] The poet now enters on his subject; and begins, first, with those privileges of the military, which are common to all of them, from the highest to the lowest.

8. A gownsman.] Any common Roman, called togatus from wearing a gown; as a soldier is called armatus, from wearing arms-l. 34, post.

Audeat imo etsi pulsetur, dissimulet, nec
Audeat excussos Prætori ostendere dentes,
Et nigram in facie tumidis livoribus offam,
Atque oculos medico nil promittente relictos.
Bardiacus Judex datur hæc punire volenti,
Calceus et grandes magna ad subsellia suræ,
Legibus antiquis castrorum, et more Camilli
Servato, miles ne vallum litiget extra,

Et procul a signis. Justissima Centurionum
Cognitio est igitur de milite; nec mihi deerit
Ultio, si justæ defertur causa querelæ :

Tota cohors tamen est inimica, omnesque manipli
Consensu magno officiunt.

Curabitis ut sit

Vindicta et gravior quam injuria. Dignum erit ergo
Declamatoris Mutinensis corde Vagelli,

9. May not dare.] No common man dare strike you if you are a soldier.

-Tho' he.] Though he should be ever so beaten by you.

-Let him dissemble.] Let him conceal it; let him counterfeit, and pretend, that he came by the marks, which the soldier's blows have left, some other way.

10. Nor dare to shew, &c.] Though the soldier has knocked the man's teeth out of his head, yet let not the man dare to complain to the superior officer, or shew his mangled mouth.

-Prætor.] The prætor militaris was the general, or commander in chief. See AINSW. Prætor.

11. Black bump, &c.] His face beat black and blue, as we say, and full of lumps and swellings.

12. And eyes left, &c.] His eyes left in such a ecndition, as to make it impossible for the surgeon to promise a recovery of them.

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13. A Bardiae judge.] Bardiacus, or Bardaicus, a military judge, something like our judge-advocate in the army, who had the sole cognizance of all military causes, and of such as arose within the camp so called from bardi, an ancient people of Gaul, who wore a particular sort of dress, that was adopted by the Romans, and used by the military. This judge, being of the army, wore this dress, and therefore is called Bardiacus, which signifies, of the country of Gaul, or dressed like Gauls. AINSW.

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15

20

-Willing to punish, &c.] If a man will venture to complain, he will be referred to the tribunal of the military judge.

14. A shoe, &c.] Calceus signifies any shoe, but probably means here a parti cular shoe worn by soldiers, which, like those of our rustics, was filled with nails at the bottom. See sat. iii. 247, 8. note.

-Large buskins.] These seem to have been the upper parts of the caliga, as the lower were the calcei, or shoes; for the caliga, being a sort of harness for the foot and leg, the lower part, or calceus, covered the foot, the upper part, or sura, reached up to the calf of the leg: they were like our half boots, and in the front had the figure of a lion, or some fierce beast.

14. At the great benches.] The benches on which the superior magistrates sat were called tribunalia, those on which the lower magistrates sat were called subsellia; so that the epithet magna, here, is probably ironical.

The poet means, that the complainant is referred to a military judge, who takes his seat on the bench in his military habit.

15. Laws of camps.] These complaints were not tried by the civil laws and institutions, but by the old military laws.

-The custom of Camillus.] L. Furius Camillus, during the ten years' siege of Veii, a city of Tuscany, famous for the slaughter of the Fabii there, made a law,

May not dare. Even tho' he may be stricken, let him dis

semble,

Nor dare to shew his teeth beat out to the prætor,

And a black bump in his face with swelled bluenesses,
And eyes left, the physician promising nothing.

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A Bardiac judge is given to one willing to punish these things, A shoe, and large buskins at the great benches,

The ancient laws of camps, and the custom of Camillus 15 Being observed, that a soldier should not litigate without the trench,

20

And far from the standards. Most just is therefore the trial
Of centurions concerning a soldier; nor will revenge
Be wanting to me, if a cause of just complaint be brought :
Yet the whole cohort is inimical, and all the companies
Obstruct with great consent. You will take care, that there be
Vengeance, heavier than the injury. It will, therefore, be worthy
The heart of the declaimer Vagellius of Mutina,

that no soldier should be impleaded without the camp, or at a distance from the standard, that he might always be on the spot in case of an engagement: so that if a man received an injury, as in the case above put, from a soldier, he could prosecute him no where but before the military judge, and that by the martial law.

17. Most just is therefore, &c.] The igitur, here, relates to what the poet mentions in the preceding lines, concerning the trial of a soldier, which was ordained to be before a military tribunal; no other had cognizance of the cause where a soldier was a party. Now as this was ordained by law, and to prevent the military from being absent at a distance from the camp, in case of a sudden at tack from an enemy, and, for this reason, must be for the public good and safety, it must be deemed highly proper and just.

18. Nor will revenge, &c.] q. d. Though a centurion be judge, yet were I, supposing myself a common person, who prosecute a soldier on good and reason able grounds, really to make out my cause to be true and just, I shall have sentence in my favour, and, as far as the judge is concerned, I shall be avenged of my adversary: but notwithstanding

this

20. The whole cohort.] The whole regiment, as it were, will be against the

man who complains against a soldier.

20. All the companies.] Manipli, for manipuli, of which there were ten in a regiment, and answer to our companies of foot. Here may be meant all the common soldiers.

Manipulus was a small band of soldiers, which, in the days of Romulus, when the Roman army was but in a poor condition, tied an handful of hay or grass to the top of a spear, and carried it by way of ensign. We have adopted this term, and often call a small detachment of soldiers an handful of

men.

21. Obstruct.] i. e. The course of justice.

-With great consent.] With the most hearty and earnest united opposition; so that, if you should have the centurion, who tries the cause, on your side, his sentence can't be carried into execution for fear of a mutiny, the soldiers banding together as one man to oppose it.

-You will take care, &c.] You soldiers (tota cohors-omnesque manipli) will take care, that vengeance, even heavier than the injury complained of, shall await the plaintiff, and that he shall find the remedy worse than the disease. Comp. 1. 24, and note.

23. The heart of Vagellius, &c.] Therefore the man who could affront a soldier, or sue him for an injury, and attempt to

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