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Orcades, and the Britons content with very little night. But the things which now are done in the city of the conquering people,

Those whom we have conquered do not: and yet one

Armenian, Zelates, more soft than all our striplings, is said
To have yielded himself to a burning tribune.

See what commerce may do: he had come an hostage.
Here they become men: for if a longer stay indulges
The city to boys, never will a lover be wanting.
Trowsers, knives, bridles, whip, will be laid aside.
Thus they carry back prætextate manners to Artaxata.

and woman; and it is not improbable, but that Juvenal uses the word homines here, as intimating, that these youths were soon to be regarded as of either

sex.

167. If a longer stay, &c.] If they are permitted to stay a longer time at Rome, after their release as hostages, and are at large in the city, they will never want occasions of temptation to the worst of vices: at every turn they will meet with those who will spare no pains to corrupt them.

169. Trowsers.] Braccæ; a sort of trowsers or breeches, worn by the Armenians, Gauls, Persians, Medes, and others. Here by synec. put for the whole dress of the country from which they came.

-Knives.] Cultelli; little knives; dim. from culter. This should seem to mean some adjunct to the Armenian dress; not improbably the small daggers, or poignards, which the Easterns wore tucked in their girdles, or sashes, of their under vestments; such are seen in the East to this day.

-Bridles, whip.] With which they managed, and drove on their horses, in their warlike exercises, and in the chace.

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will all be laid aside; they will adopt the dress and manners, the effeminacy and debauchery of the Roman nobility, which they will carry home with them when they return to their own capital. See 1. 166, note.

170. Prætextute manners.] See sat. i. 78, note. Rome's noble crimes. Holyday. As we should express it, the fashionable vices of the great. The persons who wore the prætexta, were magistrates, priests, and noblemen's children till the age of seventeen.

-Artaxata.] The chief city of Armenia the Greater, (situate on the river Araxes,) built by Artaxias, whom the Armenians made their king. It was taken by Pompey, who spared both the city and the inhabitants: but, in Nero's reign, Corbulo, the commander in chief of the Roman forces in the East, having forced Tiridates, king of Armenia, to yield up Artaxata, levelled it with the ground. See Ant. Univ. Hist. vol. ix. 484.

This city is called Artaxata-orum, plur. or Artaxata-æ, sing. See AINSW.

It is probable that the poet mentions Artaxata, on account of the fact which is recorded, 1. 164, 5; but he may be understood, by this instance, to mean, that every country and people would become corrupt, as they had less or more to do with Rome,

SATIRA III.

ARGUMENT.

Juvenal introduces Umbritius, an old friend of his, taking his departure from Rome, and going to settle in a country retirement at Cuma. He accompanies Umbritius out of town; and, before they take leave of each other, Umbritius tells his friend Juvenal the reasons which had induced

QUAMVIS digressu veteris confusus amici,
Laudo tamen vacuis quod sedem figere Cumis
Destinet, atque unum civem donare Sibyllæ.
Janua Baiarum est, et gratum littus amœni
Secessûs. Ego vel Prochytam præpono Suburræ.
Nam quid tam miserum, tam solum vidimus, ut non
Deterius credas horrere incendia, lapsus
Tectorum assiduos, ac mille pericula sævæ
Urbis, et Augusto recitantes mense poëtas?
Sed dum tota domus rhedâ componitur unâ,

Line 2. Cuma.] An ancient city of Campania near the sea. Some think it had its name from xvuara, waves: the waves, in rough weather, dashing against the walls of it. Others think it was so called from its being built by the Cumai of Asia. PLIN. iii. 4. Juvenal calls it empty in comparison with the populousness of Rome: it was now, probably, much decayed, and but thinly inhabited: on this account it might be looked upon as a place of leisure, quiet, and retirement; all which may be understood by

the word vacuis.

3. The Sibyl.] Quasi σou Bovan, Dei consilium. AINSW. The Sibyls were women, supposed to be inspired with a spirit of prophecy. Authors are not agreed as to the number of them; but the most famous was the Cumæan, so called from having her residence at

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Cuma. Umbritius was now going to bestow, donare, one citizen on this abode of the Sibyl, by taking up his residence there. See Virg. Æn. vi. l. 10. et seq.

4. The gate of Baia.] Passengers from Rome to Baia were to pass through Cumæ; they went in on one side, and came out on the other, as through a gate.

-Baia.] A delightful city of Campania, of which HoR. lib. i. epist. i. 1.

83.

Nullus in orbe sinus Baiis prælucet amœ

nis.

Here were fine warm springs and baths, both pleasant and healthful: on which account it was much resorted to by the nobility and gentry of Rome, many of whom had villas there for their summer residence. It forms part of the bay of Naples.

SATIRE III.

ARGUMENT.

him to retire from Rome: each of which is replete with the keenest satire on its vicious inhabitants. Thus the Poet carries on his design of inveighing against the vices and disorders which reigned in that city.

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THO troubled at the departure of an old friend,
I yet approve that to fix his abode at empty Cumæ
He purposes, and to give one citizen to the Sibyl.
It is the gate of Baix, and a grateful shore of pleasant
Retirement. I prefer even Prochyta to Suburra :
For what so wretched, so solitary do we see, that you
Would not think it worse to dread fires, the continual
Falling of houses, and a thousand perils of the fell
City, and poets reciting in the month of August?
But while his whole house is put together in one vehicle, 10

4. A grateful shore.] Gratum: grateful, here, must be understood in the sense of agreeable, pleasant. The whole shore, from Cumæ to Baia, was delightfully pleasant, and calculated for the most agreeable retirement. See the latter part of the last note.

5. Prochytu.] A small rugged island in the Tyrrhenian sea, desert and barren. -Suburra.] A street in Rome, much frequented, but chiefly by the vulgar, and by women of ill fame. Hence MART. vi. 66.

Fuma non nimium bonæ puella, Quales in mediâ sedent Suburrâ. 6. For what so wretched, &c.] Solitary and miserable as any place may be, yet it is better to be there than at Rome, where you have so many dangers and inconveniences to apprehend.

7. Fires.] House-burnings, to which populous cities, from many various causes, are continually liable.

little care taken of old and ruinous buildings. Propertius speaks of the two foregoing dangers.

Præterea domibus flammam, domibusque ruinam.

8, 9. The fell city.] That habitation of daily cruelty and mischief.

9. And poets reciting.] Juvenal very humourously introduces this circumstance among the calamities and inconveniences of living at Rome, that even in the month of August, the hottest season of the year, when most people had retired into the country, so that one might hope to enjoy some little quiet, even then you were to be teazed to death, by the constant din of the scribbling poets reciting their wretched compositions, and forcing you to hear them. Comp. sat. i. 1. 1-14. where our poet expresses his peculiar aversion to this.

10. His whole house, &c.] While all his household furniture and goods were

8. Falling of houses.] Owing to the packing up together in one waggon, (as

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Substitit ad veteres arcus, madidamque Capenam :
Hic, ubi nocturnæ Numa constituebat amicæ,
Nunc sacri fontis nemus, et delubra locantur
Judæis quorum cophinus, foenumque supellex.
Omnis enim populo mercedem pendere jussa est
Arbor, et ejectis mendicat sylva Camœnis.
In vallem Ægeriæ descendimus, et speluncas
Dissimiles veris: quanto præstantius esset
Numen aquæ, viridi si margine clauderet undas

theda may here signify.) Umbritius was moving all his bag and baggage, (as we say,) and, by its taking up no more room, it should seem to have been very moderate in quantity.

11. He stood still.] He may be supposed to have walked on out of the city, attended by his friend Juvenal, expecting the vehicle with the goods to overtake him, when loaded: he now stood still to wait for its coming up; and in this situation he was, when he began to tell his friend his various reasons for leaving Rome, which are just so many strokes of the keenest satire upon the vices and follies of its inhabitants.

-At the old arches.] The ancient triumphal arches of Romulus, and of the Horatii, which were in that part. Or perhaps the old arches of the aqueducts might here be meant.

-Wet Capena.] One of the gates of Rome, which led towards Capua: it was sometimes called Triumphalis, because those who rode in triumph passed through it; it was also called Fontinalis, from the great number of springs that were near it, which occasioned building the aqueducts, by which the water was carried by pipes into the city hence Juvenal calls it madidam Capenam. Here is the spot where Numa used to meet the goddess Egeria.

12. Numa.] Pompilius, successor to Romulus.

-Nocturnal mistress.] The more strongly to recommend his laws, and the better to instil into the Romans a reverence for religion, he persuaded them, that, every night, he conversed with a goddess, or nymph, called Ægeria, from whose mouth he received his whole form of government, both civil and religious; that their place of meeting was in a grove without the gate Capena, dedicated to the Muses, wherein was a tem

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ple consecrated to them and to the goddess Egeria, whose fountain waters the grove; for she is fabled to have wept herself into a fountain, for the death of Numa. This fountain, grove, and temple, were let out to the Jews, at a yearly rent, for habitation; they having been driven out of the city by Domitian, and compelled to lodge in these places, heretofore sacred to the Muses. Delubra is a general term for places of worship. See AINSW. By the phrase nocturnæ amicæ constituebat, Juvenal speaks as if he were describing an intrigue, where a man meets his mistress by appointment at a particular place: from this we can be at no loss to judge of our poet's very slight opinion of the reality of the transaction.

14. A basket and hay, &c.] These were all the furniture which these poor creatures had--the sum total of their goods and chattels.

This line has been looked upon as very difficult to expound. Some commentators have left it without any attempt to explain it. Others have rather added to, than diminished from, whatever its difficulty may be. They tell us, that these were the marks not of their poverty, but, by an ancient custom, of their servitude in Egypt, where, in baskets, they carried hay, straw, and such things, for the making of brick, and in such like labours. See Exod. v. 7-18. This comment, with the reasons given to support it, we can only say, is very far fetched, and is not warranted by any account we have of the Jewish customs.

Others say, that the hay was to feed their cattle. But how could these poor Jews be able to purchase, or to maintain, cattle, who were forced to beg in order to maintain themselves? Others, that the hay was for their bed on which

He stood still at the old arches, and wet Capena;
Here, where Numa appointed his nocturnal mistress,

Now the grove of the sacred fountain, and the shrines are hired
To the Jews: of whom a basket and hay are the household stuff.
For every tree is commanded to pay a rent to the people: 15
And the wood begs, the muses being ejected.

We descend into the vale of Egeria, and into caves
Unlike the true: how much better might have been

The deity of the water, if, with a green margin, the grass inclosed

they lay; but neither is this likely; for the poet, sat. vi. 541. describes a mendicant Jewess as coming into the city, and leaving her basket and hay behind her; which implies, that the basket and hay were usually carried about with them when they went a begging elsewhere. Now it is not to be supposed that they should carry about so large a quantity of hay, as served them to lie upon when at home in the grove.

It is clear that the basket and hay are mentioned together here, and in the other place of sat. vi. from whence I infer, that they had little wicker baskets in which they put the money, provisions, or other small alms which they received of the passers by, and, in order to stow them the better, and to prevent their dropping through the interstices of the wicker, put wisps of hay, or dried grass, in the inside of the baskets. These Jew beggars were as well known by baskets with hay in them, as our beggars are by their wallets, or our soldiers by their knapsacks. Hence the Jewess, sat. vi. left her basket and hay behind her when she came into the city, for fear they should betray her, and subject her to punishment for infringing the emperor's order against the Jews coming into the city. Her manner of begging too, by a whisper in the ear, seems to confirm this supposition. The Latin cophinus is the same as Gr. xoQvos, which is used several times in the New Testament to denote a provision-basket, made use of among the Jews. See Matt. xiv. 20. Matt. xvi. 9, 10. Mark vi. 43. Mark viii. 19, 20. Luke ix. 17. Joh. vi.

13.

15. To pay a rent.] The grove being let out to the Jews, every tree, as it were, might be said to bring in a rent to the people at Rome. The poet seems to mention this as a proof of the public

avarice, created by the public extravagance, which led them to hire out these sacred places for what they could get, by letting them to the poor Jews, who could only pay for them out of what they got by begging.

16. The wood begs, &c.] i. e. The Jews, who were now the inhabitants of the wood, (meton.) were all beggars; nothing else was to be seen in those once sacred abodes of the Muses, who were now banished.

17. We descend, &c.] Umbritius and Juvenal sauntered on, till they came to that part of the grove which was called the vale of Ageria, so called, probably, from the fountain, into which she was changed, running there.

17, 18. And into caves unlike the true.] These caves, in their primitive state, were as nature formed them, but had been profaned with artificial ornaments, which had destroyed their native beauty and simplicity.

18. How much better.] How much more suitably situated.

19. The deity of the water.] Each fountain was supposed to have a nymph, or naiad, belonging to it, who presided over it as the goddess of the water; Egeria may be supposed to be here meant.

-If, with a green margin, &c.] If, instead of ornamenting the banks with artificial borders made of marble, they had been left in their natural state, simple and unadorned by human art, having no other margin but the native turf, and the rude stone (tophum) which was the genuine produce of the soil. These were once consecrated in honour of the fountain-nymph, but had now been vio. lated and destroyed, in order to make way for artificial ornaments of marble, which Roman luxury and extravagance had put in their place.

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