90 Quod non dant proceres, dabit histrio. Tu Camerinos Et Bareas, tu nobilium magna atria curas? Præfectos Pelopea facit, Philomela tribunos. Haud tamen invideas vati, quem pulpita pascunt. Quis tibi Mæcenas? quis nunc erit aut Proculeius 95 Aut Fabius? quis Cotta iterum? quis Lentulus alter?

parison be not derogatory to the semestres militioli, as the author of Juvenal's life calls them.

:

I wish there were any authority for supposing the six-months' or halfmonth's gold' to be so called from its conferring a permanent appointment, but with only half the annual stipend so that the permission to wear it would give an honorary or brevet rank, (a real command, I am convinced, it never could,) which gave the possessor a claim to something like half-pay, without requiring actual service; or, at any rate, to certain privileges and immumes. This favour (whatever the precise nature of it might be) was bestowed by generals and prefects. Thus Pliny entreats Sossius, one of Trajan's lieutenants, to confer this honour on the nephew of his friend C. Nepos: C. Calvisium Nepotem valde diligo: hunc rogo semestri tribunatu splendidiorem et sibi et avunculo suo facias; Ep. iv. 4. and in another place, he transfers a tribuneship which he had obtained for Suetonius, at the historian's own request, to one of his relations: iii. 8. G.

90. Histrio is a Tuscan word. vii. 2. V. Max. ii. 4. PR.

Liv.

The Camerini viii. 38. R. were a family of the Sulpician clan. PR. P. Sulp. Camerinus was one of the triumvirs sent to Athens for Solon's laws.

91. The Barea were of the Marcian clan. Tac. A. xii. 53. R. iii. 116. PR. Atria; note on 7. R.

92. Pelopea was the daughter of Thyestes; Ægisthus was the offspring of their incestuous intercourse. LU. 73, note. PR. or so, the daughter of Pelias Apollod. I. ix. 10. (HY.) R. Facit gets the authors made.' cf. iii. 116, note.

Philomelu; vi. 644. note. LU.

It is said, that in consequence of this passage, Juvenal was banished from Rome; by whom, is a matter of dispute. Some say by Domitian, owing to a complaint by Paris. But why should he

complain at all? Was he ashamed of his influence at court? He was more likely to have gloried in it. Others say by Hadrian, when Juvenal was an old man of fourscore, merely because these lines were supposed to cast some reflection upon an actor who was a great favourite with the emperor. If so, this imperial patron of letters was guilty of a most arbitrary stretch of authority, and a most unprovoked piece of cruelty. G.

93. That lives by the stage.' Eschylus et modicis instravit pulpita tignis; Hor. A. P. 279. PR. iii. 174. M. cf. 87. xiv. 257. R.

94. Maecenas, by his generosity to Virgil and Horace, transmitted his name to future ages as an appellative for all munificent patrons of literature. LU. PR. Spenser has an allusion to these lines: "But ah! Mecænas is yclad in claye, And great Augustus long ygoe is dead, And all the worthies liggen wrapt in lead, That matter made for poets on to playe: For ever, who in derring-doe were dread, The loftie verse of hem was loved aye;" Shep. Cal. Ægl. x. G.

Proculeius another bountiful knight of the Augustan age. Hor. II Od. ii. 5. (MI.) Tac. A. iv. 40. (LI.) Quint. vi. 3. and Plin. vii. 45. (BU.)

95. Fabius Maximus was a noble patron, to whom Ovid addressed several of his epistles from Pontus; PR. M. I. ii. v. ix. II. iii. III. iii. viii. (H.) Quint. vi. 3. R.

Aurelius Cotta, as well as Fabius, joined to great liberality the rarer quality of fidelity in distress: G. Ov. Pont. II. viii. III. ii. v. PR. te tamen in turba non ausim, Cotta, silere, Pieridum lumen præsidiumque fori; ld. IV. xvi. 40 sq. (H.) R.

P. Lentulus Spinther, who was mainly instrumental to the recall of Cicero, and to whom the orator writes thus: magna est hominum opinio de te, magna commendatio liberalitatis; Ep. Fam. i. 7. Cic. ad Div. i. 1 sqq. M. R.

It may be wondered that Juvenal

Tunc par ingenio pretium: tunc utile multis,
Pallere et vinum toto nescire Decembri.

Vester porro labor fecundior, historiarum Scriptores petit hic plus temporis atque olei plus ; 100 Namque oblita modi millesima pagina surgit Omnibus et multa crescit damnosa papyro.

Sic ingens rerum numerus jubet atque operum lex. Quæ tamen inde seges? terræ quis fructus apertæ ? Quis dabit historico, quantum daret acta legenti? 105 Sed genus ignavum, quod lecto gaudet et umbra.

should never mention Pliny, who was certainly generous, and in some cases munificent. He had here an opportunity of doing so but perhaps it struck him that there was more of vanity than of genuine kindness in the favours Pliny conferred. In one of his letters he mentions his kindness to Martial; but in a way that shows he was thinking more of himself than of the poet. The whole account is degrading. It was not thus that Lentulus and Cotta showed their love of genius. G.

96. Fuit moris antiqui eos qui vel singulorum laudes vel urbium scripserant, aut honoribus aut pecunia ornare: nostris vero temporibus, ut alia speciosa et egregia, ita hoc imprimis exolevit: nam postquam destitimus laudanda facere, laudari quoque ineptum putamus; Plin. Ep. iii. ult. PR. cura ducum fuerunt olim regumque poeta, præmiaque antiqui magna tulere chori: sanctaque majestas et erat venerabile nomen vatibus et large sæpe dabantur opes; Ov. A. A. iii. 405 sqq.

:

97. Pallere; Pers. v. 62. PR. Id. i. 26. 124. Hor. I Ep. iii. 10. M. Paleness was a characteristic of students as well as of lovers: pallet; aut amat, aut studet; cf. Quint. VII. x. 14. I. ii. 18. Ov. A. A. i. 729 sq. SPA.

To be a stranger to wine,' lest it should impede one's studies: quid? quod ne mente quidem recte uti possumus multo cibo et potione completi; Cic. T. Q. v. 100. Horace, on the contrary, who was himself a bon vivant, prescribes wine for poets, on the authority of Cratinus, and instances Homer and Ennius as examples of its good effects: I Ep. xix. 1 sqq. PR.

'December' was the month of the Saturnalia, when it was the custom to indulge

:

more freely Macr. i. 7. 10. Sen. Ep.
18. 47. Ath. xiv. 10. Suet. Claud. 5.
Cal. 17. PR. Lucian. Sat. R. age liber-
tate Decembri utere; Hor. II S. vii. 4
sq.
LU.

99. Midnight oil.' G. i. 51. M.
100. Passing all bounds.' M.

Cum bene surrexit versu nova pagina primo; Ov. Am. I. i. 17. see note on 23. R.

101. A ruinous undertaking, which never pays for the paper.' LU.

In palmarum foliis primum scriptitatum: deinde quarumdam arborum libris: postea publica monumenta plumbeis voluminibus, mox et privata linteis confici cœpta, aut ceriş: postea promiscue patuit usus rei qua constat immortalitas hominum: papyrus ergo nascitur in palustribus Egypti: præparantur ex ea charta divisæ acu in prætenues sed quam latissimas fibras; Plin. xiii. 12. and 11. PR. 102. Rerum' of facts.' G.

The rules to be observed in composing history' are given by Cic. de Or. ii. 15. PR.

103. The metaphor is taken from agriculture : aperta broken up by the plough;' T. thus also messem deprendere; 112. R. cf. Rom. vi. 21.

104. To a notary public;' ACH. or it may be the reader, who was engaged to read aloud the exploits recorded in history, was much better paid than the author, who had been at all the pains of investigating and narrating the facts.' R.

105. But the excuse of these penurious nobles is, that historians are an indolent race of animals.' R. They formed much the same enlightened judgment as a man who complained to one of his old masters of the sad alteration that had

Dic igitur, quid causidicis civilia præstent
Officia et magno comites in fasce libelli?

Ipsi magna sonant, sed tunc, quum creditor audít,
Præcipue, vel si tetigit latus acrior illo,

110 Qui venit ad dubium grandi cum codice nomen.
Tunc immensa cavi spirant mendacia folles
Conspuiturque sinus. Veram deprendere messem
Si libet; hinc centum patrimonia causidicorum,

Parte alia solum russati pone Lacernæ. 115 Consedere duces: surgis tu pallidus Ajax · Dicturus dubia pro libertate, bubulco

Judice. Rumpe miser tensum jecur, ut tibi lasso Figantur virides, scalarum gloria, palmæ.. Quod vocis pretium? Siccus petasunculus et vas 120 Pelamydum aut veteres, Afrorum epimenia, bulbi

Aut vinum Tiberi devectum, quinque lagenæ.
Si quater egisti, si contigit aureus unus,

Inde cadunt partes ex fœdere pragmaticorum. assistants,

"Emilio dabitur, quantum licet, et melius nos 125 Egimus: hujus enim stat currus aëneus, alti Quadrijuges in vestibulis, atque ipse feroci Bellatore sedens curvatum hastile minatur Eminus et statua meditatur prælia lusca.” Sic Pedo conturbat, Matho deficit: exitus hic est becomes involent.

Whatever might have been the practice as to other slaves, it is not unlikely that the Africans had a certain ration of onions allowed them, according to the practice in their own country. cf. Herod. ii. 125. Numb. xi. 5.

121. Home-made wine, (VS.) and that of the worst sort, Veientan, (Hor. II S. iii. 143.) or Tuscan, (LU.) and not Campanian.' PR.

122. If you are so lucky as to touch gold for a fee, you cannot pocket any thing till you have satisfied the stipulated claims of the attorneys.' LU.

'The gold piece varied in value; it was at this time worth twenty-five denarii. Plin. xxxiii. 3. xxxv. 10. (HA.) Lampr. Alex. 39. (CAS.) R. M. The highest fee, as settled by a law of Nero, was one hundred pieces of gold. Plin. Ep. v. 4. 21. Suet. 17. (ER.) Tac. A. xi. 7. Ulp. D. i. § 12. The sum is here represented as absurdly small, for contrast's sake. GRO. 123. In Cicero's days these 'solicitors' were confined to Greece. Or. i. 45. 59. The Roman advocates were then in the habit (if ignorant of a point of law) of referring to learned men of rank, such as the Scævolæ, &c. Under the successors of Augustus, there was not the same encouragement for these great men to study that science; therefore the orators were obliged to adopt the Grecian method: neque ego sum nostri moris ignarus, oblitusve eorum qui velut ad arculas sedent et tela agentibus subministrant; neque idem Græcos quoque nescio factitare, unde nomen his pragmaticorum datum est; Quint. xii. 3. 9. G. PR. Id. iii. 6. R.

<

wall. Eyed

was passed in the reign of Claudius
(A. U. 800.), by which pecuniis ob causas
orandas capiendis positus modus usque ad
dena sestertia, quem egressi repetun-
darum tenerentur; Tac. A. xi. 5 sqq.
(LI.) See 122, note. R.

Nos we poor lawyers.' LU.

125. "There stand Before his gate, conspicuous from afar, Four stately steeds yoked to a brazen car." G. Indicative of the triumphs gained by his ancestors. LU. cf. viii. 3. PR.

126. This vagary of Æmilius (in choos-) ing, though a man of peace, to be repre sented on a war-horse) seems to have taken mightily at Rome, most probably from its absurdity, and to have had a number of imitators. I Martial, in an attack upon an unfortunate pedagogue for interrupting his sleep, (note on 222.) compares the noise of his school to that of the hammers and anvils of smiths forging war-horses for the lawyers: tam grave percussis incudibus æra resultant, causidicum medio cum faber aptat equo; IX. lxix. 5 sq. This trick succeeded but ill with Æmilius's imitators, cf. 129 sqq. as it seldom happens that any but the author of a joke profits by it. G. PR. see 143,

note.

127. Aims the bending spear.' So exquisitely is the statue wrought that the spear seems to tremble as it is poised. PR.

128. Meditatus prælia; iv. 112. R. Wall-eyed because the pupil of the eye was not marked in statues. R. 129. Of Pedo the lawyer nothing is known. R.

124. The only lawyers who are hand- Conturbat (i.e. rationes) is a legal somely remunerated, are those, who term: FA. becomes insolvent,' T. either are rich or are believed to be 'gets more involved.' fac me multis so.' LU. R. debere et in his Plancio: utrum igitur me Quantum licet. A decree of the senate conturbare oportet; an hoc nomen, quod