of the fable. Such a fable, attributed, in so many words, to Aesop, is found in Aristotle, Rhet. II 20, 6 f. (Halm, 36). Apropos of the use which the orator may make of the fable as a napádeιyμa or illustration, Aristotle quotes two as examples; first the famous fable which Stesichoros applied to Phalaris, and, second, the following:

"A popular leader at Samos was being tried for his life. Aesop, in the course of a speech to the people, said:

'Once on a time, a Fox, while fording a Stream, was swept away into a Gorge. Not being able to get out, she was for a long time in a sorry plight, and Dog-ticks in great numbers fastened upon her. Finally, a Hedgehog, while wandering about, saw her and, taking pity, asked whether he should not get the Ticks off. But she said "No," and being asked why, replied: "These are now full of me and draw but little blood. If you drive them off, Others will come, who are famished, and drink out of me what blood there is left." And so in your case, men of Samos, this man will do no further injury-he is rich-but if you put this one to death, others will come who are poor. They will steal what you have left.""

For our purpose, the literary milieu of this Aesopic fable is interesting and significant. If the fable of the Fox and Dog-ticks was established in the rhetorical tradition as early as Aristotle and sanctioned by so great an authority, we may be tolerably certain that it remained there, and was familiar to many generations of boys as a stock example. In fact, Plutarch, 790 C (An Seni gerenda etc.) does quote a portion of it, though, perhaps, directly from Aristotle. Certainly, the following passage from Josephus,

1It was undoubtedly from this passage that Vanbrugh drew the following scene (Aesop, act II, vol. I, p. 200, Ward). Two tradesmen of Samos are petitioning Aesop for a new governor :

"Aesop. Why, what's the matter with your old one?

2d Tra. What's the matter? Why, he grows rich; that's the matter; and he that's rich can't be innocent; that's all.

Aesop. Does he use any of you harshly? or punish you without a fault? 2d Tra. No, but he grows as rich as a miser; his purse is so crammed, it's ready to burst again.

Aesop. When 'tis full 'twill hold no more. A new governor will have an empty one.

2d Tra. 'Fore Gad, neighbour, the little gentleman's in the right on't!

Ist Tra. Why, truly I don't know but he may. For now it comes in my head, it cost me more money to fat my hog, than to keep him fat when he was so. Prithee, tell him we'll e'en keep our old governor."

Arch. 18, 6, 5, the reference to which I owe to Professor Warren, has every appearance of being a garbled version of it. The passage is one referring to the well-known provincial policy of Tiberius, which, in fact, was quite in line with the method recommended by Aesop. After telling why he never "turned the rascals out," the emperor, " by way of illustration, told this story: 'A certain man was lying sorely hurt and the flies gathered about his wounds in swarms. Somebody who happened upon him, pitying his evil case and thinking that he could not help himself, stood by and had nearly succeeded in scaring them off, when the man begged of him to stop. When asked why he was so indifferent about escaping from the pest he replied: 'Why, you would do me great harm by driving these flies away. They are already full of blood and no longer so eager to trouble me; indeed, they even hold up now and then. But the others are fresh and hungry-if they fastened on me, exhausted as I am already, they would soon make an end of me.

Unless we count our Lucilian fragment, I find no other trace of this fable in Latin. But this does not prove that there was none. In fact, it is not impossible that this very line is a fragment of the fable itself. We know that Lucilius, like Ennius and Horace, told fables, and that they were characteristic of satire. The principal objection to the theory that Lucilius was actually retelling the Aesopic fable, as related by Aristotle, or that his mutare pulices was drawn directly from it, is the fact that the Latin equivalent given for Aesop's dog-tick, kuvopaïσrýs, is ricinus, not pulex. But it is perhaps worth noting that in the Italian version of Aesop's fable, to which Dr. Shaw has called my attention, the word employed for κvvopaïσrýs, although ricino is still found in the lexicons, is the regular modern Italian pulci (pulices), and such may have been the popular usage even in Lucilius' time, just as in the ordinary speech of this country dogs have 'fleas.' 'Dogticks' infest only the Latin and Greek lexicons.

But whether Lucilius' expression in this line is a metaphor drawn from the simple observation of ordinary life, whether it is derived from an old fable, or whether it is actually a portion of that old fable, is not a question of vital importance, since in all those cases the point, so far as interpretation is concerned, is the same. It is the flea himself who tells us in no uncertain terms that pulices mutare is the equivalent of our popular phrase: "Out of the frying-pan into the fire."

KIRBY FLOWER SMITH.

V. THE PARENTAGE OF JUVENAL.

The ancient biography appended to the Montpellier manuscript of Juvenal contains in its opening sentence an interesting and, if worthy of belief, not unimportant reference to the poet's father: Iunius Iuvenalis, libertini locupletis incertum filius an alumnus, ad mediam fere aetatem declamavit animi magis causa quam quod scholae se aut foro praepararet.1 The statements here made, though ignored or rejected by some writers on Juvenal,' have been repeated again and again without qualification as unquestionable facts. In the biography of a later period, discov

1J. Dürr, Das Leben Juvenals, Ulm, 1888, S. 22, Vita I a.

Cf. I b: Iunius Iuvenalis, libertini locupletis incertum filius an alumnus, ex Aquinio Volscorum oppido oriundus temporibus Claudii Neronis, ad mediam fere aetatem declamavit animi magis causa quam quod scholae se aut foro praepararet;

II a: Iunius Iuvenalis Aquinas id est de Aquino oppido oriundus et natus, qui ad mediam fere aetatem satirice declamavit . . . ;

II c Iuvenalis fuit Aquinas id est de Aquino oppido. Incertum est, an fuerit filius liberti locupletis an alumnus;

III a, b: Prima aetate siluit, ad mediam fere aetatem declamavit ;

III c: Prima aetate tacuit, media vero declamavit temporibus Claudii Neronis imperatoris ;

IV: ... ad mediam fere aetatem declamavit;

V: M. Iunius Iuvenalis ex municipio Aquinati, ordinis ut fertur libertinorum, Romae literis operam dedit. Declamavit non mediocri fama, ut ipse scribit: "et nos consilium dedimus Syllae."

2 Weidner, D. Iunii Iuvenalis Saturae, 2. Aufl., Leipzig, 1889, S. x; Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Litteratur, 2. Theil, München, 1892, S. 337 ff.; Ribbeck, Geschichte der römischen Dichtung, Bd. III, Stuttgart, 1892, S. 294. 3 C. F. Hermann, D. Iunii Iuvenalis Satirarum Libri Quinque, Lipsiae, 1854 (Ed. Teub. 1883, p. viii); C. Synnerberg, De Temporibus Vitae Carminumque D. Iunii Iuvenalis Rite Constituendis, Helsingforsiae, 1866, p. 53 sq.; E. Strube, De Rhetorica Iuvenalis Disciplina, Brandenburg a. d. H., 1875, p. I; D. Naguiewski, De Iuvenalis Vita Observationes, Rigae, 1883, p. 65; Dürr, 1. c., S. 11 f.; H. Nettleship, Lectures and Essays, second series, Oxford, 1895, p. 139; E. Hübner, Wochenschrift für klassische Philologie, 1889, No. 49, Sp. 1342; H. J. de Dompierre de Chaufepié, De Titulo I. R. N. 4312 ad Iuvenalem Poetam Perperam Relato, Hagae Comitis, 1889, p. 15; R. Y. Tyrrell, Latin Poetry, Boston and New York, 1895, p. 237; L. Friedlaender, D. Iunii Iuve nalis Saturarum Libri V, Leipzig, 1895, Bd. I, S. 4.

ered and published within recent years by Dürr from a manuscript in the library of the Palazzo Barberini at Rome, while no allusion is made, as in the other memoirs, to the social condition of Juvenal's father, both parents as well as a sister are mentioned by name, Aquinum being designated as their native place: Iunius Iuvenalis Aquinas Iunio Iuvenale patre, matre vero Septumeleia ex Aquinati municipio Claudio Nerone et L. Antistio consulibus natus est. Sororem habuit Septumeleiam, quae Fuscino nupsit.1 The judgment of Dürr, who accepts these explicit details as a remnant of genuine old tradition, has met with approval' and with dissent on the part of eminent Juvenalian scholars. In no case, however, has the parentage of the satirist been made the subject of thorough investigation. A reexamination, accordingly, of the sources of our information concerning the poet's origin recommends itself as having an important bearing not only on our attitude toward the numerous biographies of Juvenal, the real character of which, in spite of the discussions of a century, is still in question, but also to some extent on our estimate of the poet himself.

3

The age and authorship of the first twelve biographies of Dürr's collection (the younger biography will be considered separately) have not been and perhaps never can be definitely determined. But whether the original life was composed at the same time as the oldest of the scholia and by the same author, or was an earlier or later production than that commentary; whether one of the lives is the basis of all the rest or was derived, together with the others or a part of them, from a still more ancient life which has not been preserved; what relation exists between these sketches and the supposed allusion of Sidonius Apollinaris to the banishment of Juvenal, and other similar questions, it is not necessary for our present purpose to decide. It can be shown more satisfactorily in other ways how much trustworthiness the memoirs have.

If at the outset we undertake to remove from them what could easily be inferred from the Satires, what is in conflict with known. facts of history, what is made incredible by mutual contradiction, and what must be condemned on the ground of inherent improbability, even conservative criticism will permit the retention of but

1 Dürr, S. 28.

2 Hübner, 1. c., Sp. 1341; Schanz, l. c., S. 339.

Friedlaender, S. 15.

a fragment. Thus the various and conflicting accounts of the place to which the poet was banished destroy each other; the circumstance assigned as the cause of his banishment has been shown to be a myth,' so that no foundation is left for belief in the banishment at all; what is said of the manner in which he made his first appearance as a satirist is an inseparable part of the same legend; and the statement regarding his age is a possible inference from his own words."

And yet it is a commonly cherished belief that imbedded in this rubbish is a nucleus of truth handed down from the time of Juvenal independently of his poems. The rejection, however, of manifestly worthless elements brings into view as the only tangible support of such a belief the statements concerning Juvenal's parentage and practice of declamation. With these statements the theory of the kernel of truth must stand or fall.

A criterion for dealing with the residue in question is not difficult to find. The demonstrated character of all other matter in the biographies obviously demands that we accept no part as derived from reliable tradition unless it is something intrinsically probable which could not have been suggested by what Juvenal himself says and for the arbitrary fabrication of which no reason can be seen. This, however, is not enough. We are bound to reject, not perhaps everything that lacks express corroboration in the Satires, but, at all events, whatever is not in complete harmony with the evidence which they contain.

Junius Juvenal, as the memoir runs, the son or foster son, it is uncertain which, of a rich freedman, declaimed till middle life for pleasure rather than because he was preparing himself for school or forum. The two thoughts of the sentence are logically as well as grammatically connected. It was his father's wealth that enabled him to devote so much time to rhetorical study merely to satisfy his bent. His circumstances were such that he was not obliged to look forward to the serious business of teaching or practising law. The implied relation between the two statements is intimate, and our confidence in the first will be confirmed or shaken by our judgment of the second.

1J. Vahlen, 'Juvenal und Paris,' Sitzungsberichte der Berl. Akademie, 1883, S. 1175 ff.

2 Hübner, 1. c., No. 50, Sp. 1374 ff.; Schanz, S. 339 f

3 Vahlen, l. c., S. 1190.

* Schanz, S. 339; Friedlaender, S. 4.

f.