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D. JUNII JUVENALIS

SATIRARUM

LIBER PRIMUS.

SATIRA I.

INTRODUCTION.

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THIS satire, for reasons stated in v. 47, could not have been written before A.D. 100 and was probably not written long after that date. Heinrich, whose judgment I have a great respect for, says it is not so much a satire as a preface or introduction to a volume of satires. It is certainly a satire as severe as any in the book. Juvenal had probably written others before it, but I do not see enough in this poem to entitle it to be called a preface. He says all the passions of men from the flood downwards are the hodge-podge of his book-" nostri farrago libelli " (v. 86)—and he has touched upon a good many of them in this satire, which may be the libellus' he means. If not, he must have been intending to publish a collection; for libellus' must mean something definite, either one poem or a collection. He begins with supposing himself persuaded by some person not to write, as Horace pretends with Trebatius (S. ii. 1). But the times are such, he says, that he cannot help it; and while there are so many indifferent poets spouting their lines every where, he may as well write as others. He then goes into a detail of some of the vile features of society; among which are the voluntary degradation of women; their lewdness; the preferment of slaves and informers; the impunity of robbers, and forgers, and murderers; men selling the honour of their wives; women poisoning their husbands; incest and adultery undisguised; avarice, gambling, extravagance, gluttony; the contempt and neglect of the poor by the rich; magistrates degraded into beggars. The burst about the poets and their recitations is only a way of introducing humorously the graver matters that follow. A good deal of what was recited was no doubt bad enough; but Juvenal's quarrel was not with his literary brethren, whose cause he takes up, as well as their recitations, in the seventh satire. They have in reality nothing to do with the satire as such, though Juvenal pretends they have. The arguments prefixed to the MSS. treat this satire as a preface to the rest. Ruperti, on the other hand, thinks it was written before all the others, and Dryden that it is "the natural groundwork of all the rest;" for "herein he confines himself to no one subject, but strikes indifferently at all men in his way; in every following satire he has chosen some particular moral which he would inculcate, and lashes some particular vice or folly." I see no proofs one way or the other. It might have been written first or last for any evidence I can find in the poem itself, irrespective of the sign of the date noticed above, which puts it later perhaps than

some.

ARGUMENT.

Am I always to be a listener, and shall I never pay these poets back in their own coin? I know all their subjects by heart; all of them, bad and good, handle the same, till the

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very marble is split with their noise. I too have been to school; I too have learnt to declaim; and if paper must be wasted, why should not I write too?

V. 19. My reason for following in Horace's steps is this-when eunuchs are marrying wives, and women are exhibiting in the arena, when a barber is challenging with his wealth all the nobility, and slaves are clad in purple and affecting their summer rings, it is impossible to abstain from satire. Who can restrain himself when fat Matho comes by in his litter, and the great informer after him, the terror of all little informers; when you are thrust from your rights by wretches who get your inheritance by satisfying an old woman's lewdness? Is it not enough to make one's blood boil to see the robber treading on people's heels with his crowd of sycophants, while his ward is left to prostitution? and Marius going off into exile to enjoy himself with the spoils of his province? What does he care for infamy if he keeps his plunder? Are these not fit themes for the muse of Venusia ? What have I to do with the old hackneyed topics when wretches are found to wink at their wives' intrigues, and take the property of the adulterer which the law will not give to the woman; when a spendthrift expects to be promoted to high places for the skill with which he handles the reins while the great man lounges with his minion behind? Does not one feel inclined to take out one's tablets in the very street when the forger comes lounging along in his open litter, and the great lady meets him who has drugged her husband's wine and has taught her young neighbours shamelessly to do the same? You must be a bold miscreant if you want to be somebody. Honesty is praised and left to starve. To crime men owe all their fine gardens, and houses, and furniture. Who can sleep for the incest and adultery that is going on? If nature refuses, indignation draws the pen, though it be but such as mine or Cluvienus'.

V. 80. All the passions of men from the deluge to this day are the motley subjects of my book. When was the harvest of vice more abundant? when did avarice so fill its bags? When had the die such spirit as now when men play not for the contents of their purse but of their chest? Look at the hotness of the encounter! A hundred sestertia lost and the poor shivering slave without a tunic; is not this something more than madness? Which of our ancestors ever built such villas, or dined by himself off seven courses? Now-a-days the poor client has to scramble for a paltry dole grudgingly and cautiously given, and from this he is elbowed by some great pauper who must have his share first; or else some well-to-do freedman cries, "I came first, and must be first served; I am rich too, and riches are better than rank." And of course the claim must be allowed; the rich slave before the poor magistrate, for though money has not yet had a temple and altars, her majesty is above all others sacred. But if our high officers are not above reckoning upon the sportula, what will their followers do who get all they have from this source? Crowds of litters come up for the dole, and all kind of fraud goes on.

V. 127. The first event of this day is this sportula: then they sally forth to the forum, with its statues of heroes, among whom some paltry Arabarch has got himself set up. In the afternoon they come home; and at the porch the hungry clients take leave of their patron and their long-cherished hope of a dinner, and retire to buy their bit of cabbage, while the great man sits down to the fat of the land and the sea, and eats up a whole fortune off a single table. Who can endure this beastly selfishness? What a belly that sits down to a whole boar by itself! But the penalty follows quick when you go down to bathe with your meat crude upon your stomach—sudden death and intestacy, the gossip of every dinner-table, and the delight of your angry friends. V. 147. Our sons can add nothing to our vices, which have climbed to the highest point; so set your sails, my Muse, and bear down upon the enemy. "But where is your talent for such great themes? where are you to get your liberty of speech? Mucius may have pardoned his satirist, but mark down a Tigellinus and you will share the

Christians' fate." "Is the murderer then to ride on high and to look down upon us ?" Aye, when he meets you shut your lips, or the informer's finger will be upon you. You may write of Aeneas, and Achilles, and Hylas as much as you please. When Lucilius draws his weapon and rushes on to the attack, every hearer with sore conscience blushes, and this is why they are angry; so you had better think of this before you put on your armour, for after that it will be too late." "Well then I must try what I can do with those who are sleeping by the Flaminian and the Latin roads."

SEMPER ego auditor tantum ? nunquamne reponam
Vexatus toties rauci Theseide Codri?

Impune ergo mihi recitaverit ille togatas,

Hic elegos? impune diem consumpserit ingens
Telephus, aut summi plena jam margine libri
Scriptus et in tergo, nec dum finitus, Orestes?

1. Semper ego auditor tantum?] See Introduction. In the time of Augustus it had become common for all sorts of writers, but particularly poets, to recite their productions in public places, baths, colonnades, and so forth; or to get their friends and acquaintance together to hear them in private houses or rooms hired for the purpose. The practice was adopted by literary men of character as well as the inferior sort; the example having been first set, as is said, by Asinius Pollio, the friend and patron of Horace and others. Horace refers to it familiarly, and many of the authorities are quoted on S. i. 4. 73. It was considered a nuisance in his day; and the last of his poems ends with a stroke at these reciters:

“Indoctum doctumque fugat recitator acerbus;

Quem veroarripuit tenet occiditque legendo, Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo." (A. P. fin.) Pliny the younger, writing about the time of this satire, speaks with a good deal of indulgence of the practice, and regrets that the reciters are not encouraged by larger audiences. He says he attended them all and made friends with them (Epp. i. 13).

2. Theseide Codri?] The Scholiast writes Cordi, and P.has the same. Servius on Virg. xi. 458, as well as all the other MSS., has Codri. Cordus is a Roman name. Codrus is used below, S. iii. 203. 208, and is so written in the same MS., except that a later hand has introduced Cordus. Codrus is used by Martial, ii. 57; v. 26, and by Virgil, Ecl. v.113; vii. 26. It is in every case, as here, a fictitious name; though Servius on the latter place says, "Codrus poëta ejusdem temporis fait ut Valgius in Elegis suis refert." Cordus is said to have been the Roman name

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of Horace's Larbitas (Epp. i. 19. 15). The story of Theseus furnished subjects for epic poems and tragedies, and this may have been either, probably an epic, as comedy, elegy, and tragedy come after.

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3. Impune ergo mihi] 'Impune' reminds us of Horace's "Obturem patulas impune legentibus aures" (Epp. ii. 2. 105), and "nobilium scriptorum auditor et ultor" (Epp. i. 19. 39). He paid his friends in their own coin. This is expressed in 'reponam,' which means 'to repay.' Pliny, in the epistle quoted above, has a good-humoured sentence which illustrates this: Possum jam repetere secessum et scribere aliquid quod non recitem, ne videar quorum recitationibus affui non auditor fuisse sed creditor. Nam ut ceteris in rebus ita in audiendi officio perit gratia si reposcatur." "Togatae' were comedies with Roman plots and characters, as opposed to 'palliatae,' which were Grecian. See Hor. Epp. ii. 1. 57, n.; and as to 'elegos' see A. P.75, n. Heinrich adopts from one MS. ‘cantaverit' for 'recitaverit,' which appears in every other MS. and edition. Juvenal uses 'cantat' below, x. 178, and might have used it here.

4. ingens Telephus,] Telephus, king of Mysia, was a son of Hercules, and a fertile subject for tragedy. (See Hor. A. P. 96, n.) His strength is said to have approached that of his father, and no doubt was magnified by the poets Juvenal refers to. Ingens' Ruperti, Heinrich, and others correctly refer to the length of the poem; others to the prowess of the man.

5. summi plena jam margine libri] This is meant to show the length of the poem. The back of the papyrus, or parchment (membrana), was not usually written upon, but stained; whence Juvenal speaks below of "croceae membrana tabellae” (vii. 23).

Nota magis nulli domus est sua quam mihi lucus
Martis, et Aeoliis vicinum rupibus antrum.
Vulcani. Quid agant venti, quas torqueat umbras
Aeacus, unde alius furtivae devehat aurum
Pelliculae, quantas jaculetur Monychus ornos,
Frontonis platani convulsaque marmora clamant
Semper et assiduo ruptae lectore columnae.
Exspectes eadem a summo minimoque poeta.

Martial has this epigram on one Picens, a
bad poet :

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Scribit in aversa Picens epigrammata charta,

Et dolet averso quod facit illa deo."(viii. 62.) Such writings were called 'Opisthographi.' 'Liber' properly belongs only to books of papyrus ('chartae'); but it was not confined to those (see Dict. Ant. 'Liber'). It was usual to have a wide margin; and the larger the book the wider the margin. Priscian (vi. 3. 16, p. 684) quotes this passage to show that 'margo' is sometimes of the feminine gender. The Scholiast makes the same remark, and quotes Ov. Met. i. 13 for the masculine. [It is difficult to give a satisfactory meaning to summi libri,' unless it can mean a very large 'liber.']

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7. lucus Martis,] These are such subjects as Horace speaks of, A. P. 16.sq. : "lucus et ara Dianae, Et properantis aquae per amoenos ambitus agros," &c. The Scholiast refers to a grove of Mars on the Appian Way, to another in which Ilia brought forth Romulus and Remus, and that in Colchis where the golden fleece was kept. Any grove of Mars will do, and there were many. Of the group of islands north of Sicily called Aeoliae, Vulcaniae, or Liparacae Insulae, the most southerly is that now called Volcano, by the Romans Hiera or Vulcani Insula, and by the Greeks 'Iepà Hoaíorov. Virgil describes it in language which leaves little doubt that this is the place Juvenal refers to (Aen. viii. 416-422). Ruperti thinks Aetna must be meant, because the cave is said to be 'near' the Aeolian rocks, whereas Hiera is one of them; which is not worth considering. This island was in early times a very active volcano (See Smith's Dict. Geog., 'Aeoliae Ins.'). Heinrich says that in lucus Martis,' and the cave of Vulcan, and 'Quid agant venti,' Juvenal had his eye upon Valerius Flaccus, whose Argonautica were written about this time. See lib. i. 573, sqq.; v. 252, sq.

9. Quid agant venti,]What the winds are about.' The winds follow naturally the

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mention of the Aeoliae Insulae, one of which is said to have been the abode of the governor of the winds. Strabo says it was Strongyle (Stromboli), ἐνταῦθα δὲ τὸν Αἴολον oikĥoaí paσi (vi. p. 276). See Pliny, H. N. iii. 9; Heyn. Exc. i. on Aen. i.

10. unde alius] Jason from Colchis. Horace uses the form 'pellicula' (S. ii. 5. 38); and Persius (v. 116). It has no diminutive force, and is only used for convenience.

11. jaculetur Monychus ornos,] In Ovid (Met. xii. 510, sqq.) Nestor relates how Monychus and the other centaurs tore up the trees from Othrys and Pelion, and hurled them upon Caeneus at the marriage of his friend Peirithous.

12. Frontonis platani] The gardens and corridors of private persons were lent, it appears, for this purpose. Fronto is a name which occurs often under the empire. The most distinguished was M. Cornelius Fronto the orator, who was one of the tutors of M. Aurelius Antoninus. The man in the text may be any body. The exagge ration of the speaker's powers, and the applause of his friends, are amusing, and the verses very forcible. In the peristylia of large houses trees of considerable size were grown. "Inter varias nutritur silva columnas" (Hor. Epp. i. 10. 22). The plane tree was much cultivated by the Romans. Compare Hor. C. ii. 15. 4: "platanusque caelebs Evincet ulmos." "Convulsa' and 'ruptae' Grangaeus says are medical words, as if the pillars were in a state of convulsion and bursting blood-vessels: "Rupticonvulsique dicuntur qui nervorum affectione et spasmo laborant; sed et eadem ratione sic apellantur qui nimio clamore venis tumescentes offenderunt." As to the construction 'ruptae lectore,' see Hor. i. 6. 2, n. Servius quotes this verse on Virgil: "Et cantu querulae rumpent arbusta cicadae” (Georg. iii. 328).

14. Exspectes eadem] "You may look for the same stuff from all sorts of poets, from the greatest to the least: I then (ergo) must write, for I too have been to school and been whipped and declaimed; and since paper

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