: 30 Iron for the wickedness of which, nature itself has not think, that to any Temples there is some deity, and to the reddening altar? Nor Iliacan boy, nor handsome wife of Hercules. when a knave has other people's money in his power? 35. What a laugh, &c.] How the whole town will laugh at your simplicity. 35, 6. When you require, &c.] q. d. If you expect that people won't forswear themselves, when perjury is so common. 36. Should think.] i. e. And require that they should think, &c. 37. Some deity, &c.] Should believe that religion is not all a farce, but that really there is not any of the temples without some deity which notices the actions and behaviour of men, so as to punish perjury and breach of faith. -The reddening altar.] i. e. Red with the blood of the sacrifices, or with the fire upon it. q. d. How childish would you appear, and what a laughter would be raised against you, if you professed to expect either religion or morals in the present age? 38. Natives.] Indigenæ. The first natives and inhabitants of Italy, our homebred ancestors. —Lived in this manner.] Avoiding perjury and fraud, and believing the presence of the gods in their temples, and at their altars. 39. Saturn flying.] Saturn was expelled from Crete by his son Jupiter, and fled into Italy, where he hid himself, which from thence was called Latium, a latendo, and the people Latins. Sec VIRG. Æn. viii. 1. 319, 20. The poet 40 means the Golden Age, (comp. sat. vi. 1. 1, et seq. where Juvenal speaks of the simplicity of those times,) which the poets place during the reign of Saturn. -Rustic sickle.] Or scythe, which Saturn is said to have invented, and to have taught the people husbandry, after his expulsion from his kingdom; for during the Golden Age, the earth brought forth every thing without culture. See OVID, Met. lib. i. fab. iii. -His diadem, &c.] His kingdom being seized by his son Jupiter-and he being driven out of it. 40. When Juno, &c.] The daughter of Saturn, sister and wife to Jupiter--a little girl-i. e. before she was grown up, and marriageable. In sat. vi. l. 15, he speaks of Jupiter in a state of impuberty, in the time of the Golden Age. 41. Idaan caves.] Jupiter, when born, was carried to mount Ida, in Crete, where he was concealed, and bred up, lest his father Saturn should devour him. See AINSW. Saturnus. 42. No feasts, &c.] No carousing, as in after times there was supposed to be. Comp. 1. 45. 43. Iliacan boy.] Ganymede, the son of Tros, king of Troy, or Ilium, whom Jupiter, in the form of an eagle, snatched up from mount Ida, and, displacing Hebe, made cup-bearer at the feasts of the gods. -Wife of Hercules.] Hebe, the daughter of Juno, and cup-bearer to Jupiter; Ad cyathos et jam siccato nectare, tergens Brachia Vulcanus Liparæâ nigra tabernâ. Prandebat sibi quisque Deus, nec turba Deorum Talis, (ut est hodie,) contentaque sidera paucis Numinibus, miserum urgebant Atlanta minori Pondere. Nondum aliquis sortitus triste profundi Imperium, aut Siculâ torvus cum conjuge Pluto. Nec rota, nec Furiæ, nec saxum, aut vulturis atri Pœna sed infernis hilares sine regibus umbræ. Improbitas illo fuit admirabilis ævo. : Credebant hoc grande nefas, et morte piandum, she happened to make a slip at a banquet of the gods, so was turned out of her place, and Ganymede put into it: she was afterwards married to Hercules. 44. The nectar, &c.] Nectar, a pleasant liquor, feigned to be the drink of the gods. Siccato nectar, the nectar being all drunk up, the feast now over, (see sat. v. 1. 47, siccadis calicem,) Vulcan retired to his forge. All this happened after the Golden Age, but not during the continuance of it. 45. Wiping his arms.] From the soot and dirt contracted in his filthy shop. -Laparaan.] Near Sicily were several islands, called the Lipary Islands; in one of which, called Vulcania, Vulcan's forge was fabled to be. See VIRG. viii. 416, et seq. This was in the neighbourhood of mount Etna. See sat. i. 1. 8. 46. Every god dined by himself.] The poet here, and in the whole of this passage, seems to make very free with the theology of his country, and, indeed, to satirize the gods of Rome as freely as he does the people. -Crowd of gods.] The number of gods which the Romans worshipped might well be called turba deorum, for they amounted to above thirty thousand. 47. This day.] The Roman polytheism and idolatry went hand in hand with the wickedness of the times; they had a god for every vice, both natural and unnatural. The awful origin of all this, as well as its consequences, is set down by St. Paul, Rom. i. ver. 21–32. -The stars.] The heavens, per metonym. 48. Urged miserable Atlas.] A high hill in Mauritania, feigned by the poets to bear up the heavens. See sat. viii. 32, note. 49. Shared the same empire, &c.] The world as yet was not divided by lot among the three sons of Saturn, by which Neptune shared the dominion of the sea-Jupiter heaven-and Pluto the infernal regions. 50. His Sicilian wife.] Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, whom Pluto ravished out of Sicily, and made her his wife. 51. A wheel.] Alluding to the story of Ixion, the father of the Centaurs; Jupiter took him up into heaven, where he would have ravished Juno, but Jupiter formed a cloud in her shape, on which he begat the Centaurs. He was cast down to Hell, for boasting that he had lain with Juno, where he was tied to a wheel, and surrounded with serpents. -Furies.] Of which there were three, Alecto, Megæra, Tisiphone. These were sisters, the daughters of Acheron and Nox; they are described with torches up, Vulcan At the cups; and now the nectar being drunk Weight. Nobody as yet shared the sad empire 45 50 Nor a wheel, nor furies, nor a stone, or the punishment of the black : Vulture but the shades happy without infernal kings. They believed this a great crime, and to be punish'd by death, A boy to any who had a beard: tho' he might sce At home more strawberries, and greater heaps of acorn. So venerable was it to precede by four years, If he should restore an old purse with all the rust; in their hands, and snakes, instead of hair, on their heads. 51. A stone.] Alluding to Sisyphus, the son of Eolus; he greatly infested Attica with his robberies, but being slain by Theseus, he was sent to hell, and condemned to roll a great stone up an hill, which stone, when he had got it to the top, rolled back again, so that his labour was to be constantly renewed. 51, 2. Black vulture.] Prometheus was chained to mount Caucasus for stealing fire from heaven, where a black vulture was continually preying on his liver, which grew as fast as it was devoured. 52. But the shades.] The ghosts of the departed-were -Happy without infernal kings.] For there being, at that time, no crimes, there wanted no laws nor kings to enforce them; of course no punishments. 53. Improbity, &c.] Villainy of all kinds was scarcely known; any crime would have been a wonder. 55. If a youth, &c.] In those days of purity and innocence, the highest subordination was maintained. It was a capital crime for a young man even to have sitten down in the presence of an old one, or if sitting, not to have risen up on his approach. Comp. Job xxix. 8. So for a boy not to have done the 55 60 same in the presence of a youth, now arrived at the age of puberty, which was indicated by having a beard. 56. Tho' he might scc, &c.] Strawberries, acorns, and such-like, are here supposed to be the first food of mankind in the Golden Age. The poet's meaning here is, that superiority in age always challenged the respect above mentioned, from the younger to the elder, though the former might be richer, in the possessions of those days, than the latter. 58. So venerable, &c.] So observant were they of the difference paid to age, that even a difference of four years was to create respect, insomuch that the first appearance of down upon the chin was to be venerated by younger persons, as the venerable beard of old age was by those grown to manhood; so there was an equal and proportionate subordination throughout. 60. Now.] In our day. -Should not deny.] Either deny that he received it, or should not refuse to deliver it. -A deposit.] Something committed to his trust. 61. With all the rust.] i. e. The coin, which has lain by so long as to have contracted a rust, not having been used. Meton. Prodigiosa fides, et Thuscis digna libellis : 65 Culmine delubri, tanquam in mare fluxerit amnis 70 Sacrilega? quid si bis centum perdidit alter Hoc arcana modo? majorem tertius illâ Summam, quam patulæ vix ceperat angulus arcæ ? 75 62. Prodigious faithfulness !] Such a thing would be looked upon, in these times, as a prodigy of honesty. A like sentiment occurs in TER. Phorm. act i. sc. ii. where Davus returns to Geta some money which he had borrowed. DAV. Accepe, hem; Lectum est,conveniet numerus; quantum debui. GET. Anno te, et non neglerisse habeo gratiam. DAV. Præsertim ut nunc sunt mores: adeo res redit, Si quis quid reddit, magna habenda est gratia. 62. Worthy the Tuscan books !] To be recorded there among other prodigies. It is said, that the art of soothsaying first came from the Tuscans, which consisted in foretelling future events from prodigies; these were recorded in books, and were consulted on occasion of any thing happening of the marvellous kind, as authorities for the determinations of the auspices, or soothsayers, thereupon. 63. Expiated, &c.] When any prodigy happened, the custom of the Tuscans was to make an expiation by sacrifice, in order to avert the consequences of ill omens, which were gathered from prodigies. This the Romans followed. -A crowned she-lamb.] They put garlands of flowers, or ribbands, on the 65. A boy of two parts.] A monstrous birth, as prodigious as a child born with parts of two different species: hence the Centaurs were called bimembres. -Wonderful fishes, &c.] A wondrous shoal of fish unexpectedly turned up in plowing the ground. 66. A mule with foal.] Which was never known to happen. Though Appian, lib. i. says, that before the coming of Sylla, a mule brought forth in the city. This must be looked on as fabulous. 67. Anxious.] Solicitous for the event. -As if a shower, &c.] As if the clouds rained showers of stones. 68. A swarm, &c.] It was accounted ominous if a swarm of bees settled on an house, or on a temple. -Long bunch.] When bees swarm and settle any where, they all cling to one another, and hang down, a considerable length, in the form of a bunch of grapes. Hence VIRG. Georg. iv. 557, 8. -Jamque arbore summâ Confluere,et lentis uvam demittere ramis. Prodigious faithfulness! and worthy the Tuscan books! And a swarm of bees had settled, in a long bunch, On the top of a temple, as if a river had flow'd into the sea A voice he denies it, what steadiness there is of feigned coun tenance. By the rays of the sun, and the Tarpeian thunderbolts he swears; 69. A river, &c.] All rivers run into the sea, and many with great violence; therefore the poet cannot mean that there is any wonder in this; but in flowing with unusual and portentous appearances, such as being mixed with blood, which Livy speaks of, lib. xxiv. c. 10. or the like. 70. Rushing.] Torrens-violent, headlong, running in full stream, like the rushing of a land-flood, with dreadful violence, eddying in whirlpools of milk. When we consider what has been said in the last seven lines, what an idea does it give us of the state of morals at Rome in the time of Juvenal! 71. Ten sestertiums.] About 80%. 14s. 7d. of our money. -Intercepted.] i. e. Prevented from coming to your hands. 72. What if another, &c.] The poet endeavours to comfort his friend under his loss, and to keep him from indulging too great a concern about it, by wishing him to consider that he is not so great a sufferer as many others perhaps might be by a like fraud. -Secret, &c.] Arcana-q. d. bis centum sestertia arcana-i. e. delivered or lent secretly, when no witnesses were by, as had been the case of Juvenal's friend Calvinus. 74. Which the corner, &c.] Another, says he, may have lost so large a sum of money, as even to be greater than could be easily contained in a large chest, though stuffed at every corner, in which he had stowed it. 75. So easy and ready, &c.] So prone are men to despise the gods, who are witnesses to all their actions, that if they can but hide them from the eyes of men, they make themselves quite easy under the commission of the greatest frauds. 76. Behold with how great, &c.] This contempt of the gods is carried so far, that men will not only defraud, but, with a loud unfaltering voice, and the most unembarrassed countenance, deny every thing that's laid to their charge; and this by the grossest perjury. 77. Feigned countenance.] Putting on, in his looks, a semblance of truth and honesty. 78. By the rays of the sun.] This was an usual oath. See En. iii. 599, 600, and note. Delph. edit. -Turpeian thunderbolts.] i. c. The thunder of Jupiter, who had a temple of the Tarpeian rock. See sat. vi. 1. 47, note. |