Now hear of dishes furnished from no shambles: 65 There shall come, from my Tiburtine farm, the fattest And mountain Asparaguses, which my bailiff's wife gather'd, laying her spin dle aside. Great eggs besides, warm in the twisted hay, Are added, with the mothers themselves; and, kept for a 70 75 The autumn, dried by cold, and the dangers of a crude juice. A dirty digger, in a large fetter, despises, 80 Who remembers how the sow's womb of a cook's hot shop can relish. Therefore it was a high commendation of his apples, to say they rivalled those of Picenum. 74. Recent odour.] Smelling as fresh as if just gathered. 75. To be feared, &c.] You need not fear to eat them, since the cruder juices which they have in autumn are dried away, and now they are mellowed by the cold of winter, so that you are in no danger from the sour and unripened juice of them, as you might be if you ate them in autumn, soon after they are gathered. By autumnum (succum understood) is here meant the autumnal juice of the apple, which is crude, and apt to offend the stomach. See autumnus-a-um. AINSW. 77. A long time ago.] Jam olim-q. d. The senators of Kome would, in old times, not only have been content with such a supper as the above, but even have thought it luxury. 78. Curius.] Dentatus. When the ambassadors of the Samnites came to him, they found him boiling some pot herbs over the fire. See sat. ii. 1. 153, note. 80. A dirty digger, &c.] Slaves who had committed certain crimes, were put in irons, and made to dig in mines, or in the fields, or in stone-quarries. See sat. viii. 179, 80. 81. Who remembers, &c.] Who still retains the remembrance of his going into a cook's shop, and feasting on a sow's womb which was dressed there. The paps of a sow with pig, together with a part of the belly, cut off from the animal, and dressed with proper seasoning, was a favourite dish among the Romans. Another favourite dish was the womb of a sow with pig. If this were taken from her while pregnant, it was called ejectitia: if after she had farrowed, porcaria; the former was reckoned the most delicious. See HoR. lib. i. epist. xv. 1. 41. PLINY, lib. viii. c. 51, says this was forbidden by the cen sors. Such homely and frugal fare, as pleased that great man Curius, is now, such is the state of luxury among all ranks of people, contemned even by the lowest and most abject slaves, who, in their better days, remember to have tasted fashionable dainties. Sicci terga suis, rarâ pendentia crate, 85 Cum tremerent autem Fabios, durumque Catonem, 90 Et Scauros, et Fabricios, rigidique severos Nemo inter curas, et seria duxit habendum, 82. The back, &c.] What we call a flitch of bacon. -Wide rack.] Crates signifies a grate, whatever it be made of; if of wood, we call it a rack, which consists of a frame, in which are inserted bars of wood at distances from each other, and used in keeping bacon. The word rara intimates, that the bars were few, and at large distances from each other. 83. For festal days.] High days and holidays, as we say; as a great treat. 84. Bacon.] Lardum (quasi large aridum.) Sometimes this signifies bacon, sometimes the lard or fat of bacon. Here, perhaps, what we call a rasher, i. c. a slice of fat bacon broiled. -Birth day feast.] Natalitium signifies a gift, or present, sent to one on his birth-day, or an entertainment made for one's friends and relations on such an occasion. 85. Fresh meat acceding.] To this, perhaps, some new or fresh killed meat was added. -If the sacrifice, &c.] If they offered a sacrifice, and any flesh of the victim remained to spare, it was reckoned and prized as an accidental rarity. 86. Some one of the kindred.] i, e. Of the person's kinsmen who made the feast. Perhaps he alludes particularly here to Curius above mentioned, who was thrice consul, and a great general: he beat Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, and 95 drove him out of Italy; and was remarkable for his courage, honesty, and frugality. See AINSW. 87. The honour of dictator.] This was a chief magistrate, chosen on some urgent occasion, whose power was absolute, from whom lay no appeal: his office was limited to six months, when there was a new election, either continuing the same, or choosing a new one. The dictator differed in nothing from a king, but in his name, and in the duration of his power. 88. Went to these feasts.] Homely as they were as to a sumptuous treat. -Sooner than usual.] Leaving their work before the usual hour. 89. His erect spade.] Raised high by being carried on his shoulder. -Subdued mountain.] Where he had been at work, digging the soil, and subduing its stubbornness, rendering it fit for the purposes of agriculture. OVID, Met. xi. 31. uses the word subigere in this sense : Boves presso subigebant vomere terram. VIRG. G. ii. 1. 114. uses the word domitum to denote the cultivation of land: Aspice et extremis domitum cultoribus orbem. 90. Trembled, &c.] In old time, when the people stood in awe of great and good men. -Fabii, &c.] These names stand here 85 The back of a dry swine, hanging on a wide rack, rious concerns, 90 What sort of tortoise might swim in the waves of the sea, About to make a famous and noble couch for the Trojugenæ : But with a naked side, and on small beds, a brazen front 96 Shewed the vile head of an ass wearing a garland, not only as personally referring to the great men mentioned, but referring also to all the grave and virtuous magistrates of old times, who, like them, reproved and censured vice. Fabius was the name of a noble family in Rome, many of which had borne great offices with the highest credit. They are often mentioned by our poet. -Severe Cato.] Cato, called Censorius, is here meant, who was so called for his gravity and strictness in his censorship. 91. The Scauri.] See sat. ii. 1. 35, note. -Fabricii.] The name of a family, of which was C. Fabricius Luscinus, a famous consul, who conquered Pyrrhus king of Epirus. One of this name was also censor. Sec sat. ix. 142. 92. His colleague feared.] Alluding to Fabius Maximus, who found fault with his colleague P. Decius, for being too remiss in his office of censor. See sat. ii. 1. 121, note 2. 93. Nobody, &c.] No one thought it worth their care, or a matter of serious concern. 94. What sort of tortoise, &c.] Whether small or great. But in the days of the poet, when luxury was risen to a great height, people of fashion were very anxious to inlay their furniture, and particularly the couches which they VOL. II. lay upon at their entertainments, with the largest and finest pieces of tortoiseshell, to get at which, they spared no pains or expence. See sat. vi. 1. 380, and note. 95. Couch, &c.] Fulcrum literally signifies a stay or prop; but, by synec. is used for the couch or bed itself, (see sat. vi. I. 22.) which was inlaid and adorned in the most expensive and splendid manner. The Trojugenæ.] The nobles, whom the poet here, and elsewhere, satirically calls Trojugenæ, because they boasted their descent from the ancient Trojans, the first founders of the Roman empire after the siege of Troy. See sat. i. 1. 100, note. 96. Naked side.] Their couches had plain and ordinary sides, or sides which had no backs rising from them, to lean upon for their ease. -Small beds.] They were frugal even in the size of their couches. A brazen front, &c.] Having no other ornament than a plain piece of brass in front, with an ass's head, crowned with a garland, fixed, or, perhaps, carved upon it. This, from a superstition which prevailed in Tuscany, that it operated as a charm to protect their lands from damage, and made them fruitful, used ordinarily to be hung up in their fields and gardens. I Ad quod lascivi ludebant ruris alumni. 98. Which.] The ass's head, when hung out in the fields, &c. Boys of the country, &c.] Was laughed at by the rustic children, who made sport at his awkward appearance. It may be doubted, whether the ornament of the ass's head crowned with a garland, perhaps of vine leaves, and put, or carved it may be, on the ancient festal couches, had not some reference to Bacchus and his foster-father Silenus, the former of which was the supposed inventor of wine, and represented with a thyrsus, and garlands of vine leaves; the other, as a drunken old man, riding upon an ass. 99. Such was their food, &c.] i. e. They were all of a piece, as we say. 100. Then rude.] The soldier in those days was rough and hardy, and unskilled in the refinements of luxury. -Unknowing, &c.] The Romans copied their luxury from the Greeks, the imitation of whom was, among them, as fashionable as of the French among us. See sat. iii. 1. 60, 1. where the poet speaks of this with the highest indignation. 101. Cities being overturned.] When besieged towns were taken, and plundered. -A found part, &c.] i. e. În some part of a heap of spoils which the soldier met with in his plundering the place. 102. Brake the cups, &c.] When the 100 105 110 rude and unpolished soldier possessed himself of vessels, curiously embossed or engraved by the hands of some of the chief Grecian artists, so far from prizing them, he brake them to pieces, in order to adorn his horse, as with pompous trappings. 103. Embossed helmet.] The soldier having found some fine large pieces of plate, with the designs under mentioned wrought upon it, brake out the figures, and fastened them to his helmet, that he might exhibit them to the eyes of a vanquished enemy, whom he was going to put to the sword, as ensigns of triumph. 104. Likenesses, &c.] Of the wolf which suckled Romulus and Remus-of Romulus and Remus, and of the god Mars. -Commanded to grow tame.] So as not only not to hurt the two children, but to nourish them with her milk. 105. Fate of the empire.] That destiny, which had appointed Romulus to be the founder of the city and commonwealth of Rome, ordered also the means of his preservation when an infant, by ordaining that a savage beast should grow tame. -Under a rock.] The figures of the two brothers were described as lying under a rock, and sucking the she-wolf. -Twin Quirini, &c.] Romulus and Remus are here understood, though the name of Quirinus was given to Romulus only, after his consecration. The Ro At which the wanton boys of the country made a jest. Therefore such was their food, as was their house, and the furniture; Then rude, and unknowing to admire the Grecian arts, 100 That his horse might rejoice in trappings, and that the embossed helmet Likenesses of the Romulean wild-beasts, commanded to grow tame 104 By the fate of the empire, and under a rock the twin Quirini, Therefore, they then put all their food of corn in a Tuscan The Gauls coming from the shore of the ocean, and the gods, man people were also called Quirites. See sat. iii. 1. 60, note. 106. A naked image, &c.] The image of Mars, the father and founder of the Roman name. 107. Impending.] Pendentias-hanging or hovering over the children as their protector, with his glittering shield and sword. -Might shew, &c.] g. d. That the embossed helmet might exhibit to the foe about to die, the likenesses, &c. 108. What was of silver, &c.] All the silver gotten in war was only made use of to adorn their military accoutrements. 109. Food of corn.] Farrata signifies all sorts of food made of corn, and here stands for the coarse and homely food of the ancient Romans, before luxury got in among them. 109, 10. Tuscan dish.] i, e. Earthen ware, which was made at Aretum, a city of Tuscany; vessels made of it were called, therefore, vasa Aretina. Aretina nimis ne spernas vasa monemus, Lautus erat Tuscis Porsena fictilibus. MART. lib. xiv. ep. 98. 110. Would envy, &c.] Though the luxury of our present times has taught us to despise such things, yet if we had lived then, we should have been ready to envy their plain but wholesome fare, and the happiness which our ancestors derived from their plain, frugal, and homely way of living. -A little envious.] Lividulus. q. d. If you had had a spark of envy in your disposition, it would have been excited. Ill. The majesty, &c.] i. e. The ma. jesty of the gods in the temples. Metonym. -More present.] More propitious, more ready to help. -A voice, &c.] Alluding to the histor of M. Caditius, a plebeian, who acquainted the tribunes, that, as he was going along by the temple of Vesta, at midnight, he heard a voice, louder than human, say, “the Gauls are coming," and commanded him to tell the magistrates of this, that they might be warned of the danger. 113. Shore of the occan.] i. e. From the sea-shore, after having made a descent upon Italy, under Brennus, who was the commander of the Galli Senones, they routed the Romans at the river Allia, marched to Rome, and took it: but they were afterwards defeated, and driven out of Italy by Camillus, who was called from exile, and made dictator. |