Odit uterque locus; cum solos credat habendos religion, which is always the most implacable of all others. The Ombites worshipped the crocodile, which the Tentyrites destroyed; these worshipped the hawk. 38. In a festival time.] The custom of feasting seven days for the happy overflowing of the Nile was annually observed by the Ombites. 39. All the chiefs, &c.] The chiefs of the other people, that is, of the Tentyrites, thought this a fine opportunity, which should not be lost, to spoil their sport at their festival. 40, 1. Lest a glad, &c.] They determined to prevent their festive mirth, and to embitter the joy of their feasts. 42. The tables being placed, &c.] In the crocodile's temple. -And streets.] Compita-places where several ways met. in which the country people came together to their wakes,, and to perform their sacrifices, when they had made an end of their husbandry. The Ombites are here said to do the same at their festival in the city of Coptus. 43. The wakeful bed.] The ancients, as has been before observed, lay on beds, or couches, at their meals. The poet calls it the wakeful bed, from the length of time the beds were occupied by the feasting guests, who sat up night and day for many days together, as the next line informs us. 40 45 50 44. Sometimes the seventh sun found.] The Egyptians held the number seven sacred, and more especially believed, that during their festival of seven days the crocodiles lost their natural cruelty. Hence the poet means, that the sun, at his rising, found them lying on the festal couches for seven days together. 45. But in luxury, &c.] q. d. The people of Egypt are rude and uncultivated; but in the article of luxury, the rabble, barbarous as they are, equal the Canopians themselves, at least in that part of the country where I have been. See sat. i. 1. 26, note on Canopus. As far as I have remarked.] It is to be observed, that Juvenal, having inserted into his writings some sharp lines against Paris a player, a favourite of Domitian, was banished into Egypt, under a pretence of sending him with a military command; so that, during his abode there, he had a full opportunity to observe the manners of the people, and to make his remarks upon them. 47. Add too.] q. d. It is moreover to be observed. -Victory, &c.] It is a very easy matter to get the better of people, when they are so drunk as hardly to be able to speak, or stand upon their legs, and, Each place hates, since it can believe them only to be accounted Gods, which itself worships: but, in a festival time, There seem'd, to all the chiefs and leaders of the other people, An opportunity to be seized, lest A glad and cheerful day, lest the joys of a great feast 40 They should be sensible of, the tables being placed at the temples and streets, And the wakeful bed, which, lying night and day, Sometimes the seventh sun found. Rude indeed is Egypt, but in luxury, as far as I have remarked, 45 The barbarous rabble does not yield to infamous Canopus. Add too, that the victory is easy over the drunken and stammering, And reeling with wine: There, a dancing Of the men, with a black piper; ointments such As they were, and flowers, and many chaplets on the forehead; Here, fasting hatred: but their first brawlings they begin 51 To sound, their minds burning: these the trumpet of the quarrel. Then they engage with equal clamour, and instead of a weapon of course, very unable to defend themselves. See 1 Sam. xxx. 16, 17. 1 Kings xvi. 9. 48. There.] i. e. On the part of the Ombites. 49. Of the men, &c.] The men diverted themselves with dancing. -A black piper.] A black Ethiopian playing on his pipe, as the music to their dances. -Ointments such, &c.] It was customary at feasts to anoint the head with sweet-smelling ointments; but these vulgar Egyptians were not very nice in this matter, but made use of any grease that came to hand. 50. And flowers.] It was also usual to make chaplets of flowers, which they put on their heads. See sat. xi. 121, 2, and notes. -On the forehead.] The crowns, or chaplets of flowers, surrounded the heads of those that wore them, on these occasions, but were most conspicuous about the forehead and temples. 51. Here.] i. e. Among the other party, the Tentyrites. The hinc in this line answers to the inde, 1. 48. -Fasting hatred.] The Tentyrites, on the contrary, were fasting, and their hatred, like their hunger, was fierce and insatiable. Their hatred was like an 52. To sound.] To utter forth as loud as they could. Metaph. from the sounding a trumpet for battle. -Minds burning.] i. e. Their minds on fire, as it were, with anger, malice, and revenge, against the Ombites. -These.] The reproaches and abuse which they uttered. -The trumpet, &c.] Alluding to the custom of giving the signa! for battle by the sound of a trumpet, when two armies met. This was supplied by the foul and provoking abuse which the Tentyrites gave the Ombites. See sat. xiv. 1. 199. 53. With equal clamour.] This roused the Ombites, and both sides were equally clamorous and noisy in their abuse of each other-this brought them to blows. -Instead of a weapon, &c.] Having no darts, swords, or other weapons, they went to fighting with their fists. Sævit nuda manus: paucæ sine vulnere malæ : Si vivunt omnes? ergo acrior impetus, et jam 55 60 Tela; nec hos lapides, quales et Turnus, et Ajax, 65 Vel quo Tydides percussit pondere coxam Nam genus hoc vivo jam decrescebat Homero. 56. All the bands.] Agmen, properly, signifies an army, a company of soldiers, chiefly infantry. The poet here humourously applies the word agmina to these fist-warriors. 56, 7. Half countenances.] Some having an eye beat out, others their teeth, and the like. 57. Other faces.] So mauled, as to be disfigured in such a manner, that they could hardly be known to be the same persons. -Bones gaping, &c.] Their jaw-bones fractured, and appearing through the wounds in their cheeks. 58. Blood of their eyes.] Which had been torn, or knocked out of their heads. 59. Nevertheless, &c.] Notwithstanding all this mischief, nobody had been killed; they therefore had not the satisfaction of treading any of their enemies' dead bodies under their feet; therefore they reckoned all that had hitherto happened no more than mere sport-no better than children's play, as we say. 61. What purpose, &c.] What signifies, say they, such a number of fighting peo ple, if no lives be lost? 70 75 62. The attack is sharper.] This whets their appetite for mischief, and they fall to with still more acrimony than be fore. 63. Stones, &c.] They picked up the stones, wherever they could find them, on the ground where they fought. -Arms reclined.] They stooped, directing their arms downwards to the ground, to gather stones, which they began to throw. 64. Domestic weapons, &c.] Domestica tela-the commonly usual, familiar weapons, in such quarrels as these, among a rabble, who fall together by the ears. Seditio means a mutinous rising-also quarrel, strife-among people of the same neighbourhood. 65. Turnus.] Who took up a stone, and threw it at Æneas. This stone is said to have been so large, as hardly to be lifted by twice six men of moderate strength and stature. See Æn. xii. 1. 896-901. -Ajax.] See II. n. 1. 264–70. where Hector and Ajax are throwing stones at each other; when Ajax takes up a mill The naked hand rages: few cheeks without a wound: Nevertheless they believed themselves to play, and to exercise Puerile battles, because they can tread on no corpses: 60 And indeed, for what purpose are so many thousands of a fighting Multitude, if all live? therefore the attack is sharper, and now Stones, gotten throughout the ground with arms reclined, They begin to throw, the domestic weapons Of sedition; nor these stones such as both Turnus and Ajax, Or with the weight with which Tydides struck the thigh 66 Of Eneas: but those that right hands unlike to them Could send forth, and born in our time: For this race was decreasing, Homer being yet alive. 70 Therefore whatever god hath beheld them, he laughs and hates. stone, and throws it at Hector, which Turnus threw at Æneas, Æn. xii. 899, broke his shield. 900. The poet applies these silly stories, one should suppose, rather to laugh at them, than any thing else. 67. But those, &c.] The stones with which the Ombites and Tentyrites attacked each other were not such as were wielded and thrown by Turnus, &c. but such as could be managed by the hands of the present race of men, who are greatly inferior, in size and strength, to those Homerican heroes. 69. For this race, &c.] This race had degenerated even in the days of Homer; for speaking of the stone which Diomede threw at Æneas, Homer says, -μεγα έργον, ὁ ου δυο γ' ανδρι φεροιεy Οίοι νυν βροτοι εισιν. A vast weight, which two men, such as three are now, could not carry. I... 1. 303, 4. So Virgil, speaking of the stone which Vix illud lecti bis sex cervice subirent, Qualia nunc hominum producit corpora tellus. 70. The earth now brings forth, &c.] The present race of men are bad as to their morals, and small as to their size, if compared with those of old time; thus has the human race degenerated. 71. Whatever god, &c.] No superior being can behold them, without laughing at the ridiculous contentions of such diminutive creatures, and hating the abominable principles which produce them. 72. Let the story, &c.] q. d. But to return to the story, from my digression about Ajax, &c. 73. Increased with succours, &c.] Were augmented by some auxiliaries. -One party.] The Tentyrites. Comp. sat. xii. 115, note. -Dares to draw, &c.] Ventures to draw the swords with which their auxiliaries had furnished them. Comp. 1. 53, 4. 75. Urge their enemies.] i. e. The Om Qui vicina colunt umbrosæ Tentyra palmæ. Victrix turba: nec ardenti decoxit aheno, Aut verubus longum usque adeo, tardumque putavit Hinc gaudere libet, quod non violaverit ignem, 77. Here.] Just at this juncture. -One, &c.] One of the flying Ombites, in his over fear and haste, fell down, and was taken prisoner by the Tentyrites. 79. One dead man, &c.] They cut this poor creature into as many pieces as they could, that every one might have a bit of him, sufficient for a taste. 80. The victorious rabble, &c.] Or multitude of the Tentyrites, entirely devoured him. 80, 81. Bones being gnawed.] They gnawed and picked his bones.. 81. Nor did they boil him.] Decoxit is singular, but agrees with turba (1. 81.), which being a noun of multitude, the singular verb is best translated here in the plural number. So putavit in the next line. 80 85 90 95 82. Or with spits.] Or roast the pieces of him on spits. -So very long, &c.] Their impatience was too great for them to wait the kindling and burning of fire, and the tedious process of boiling or roasting. 83. Content with the raw carcase.] They were perfectly contented with eating his dead body quite raw. Contenta here relates to the victrix turba. 84. Hence we may rejoice, &c.] The poet addresses his friend Volusius: and, I do suppose, with an intent here, as elsewhere, when he can find occasion, to sneer at the superstitious notions of his countrymen, relative to their mythology, particularly with regard to the fable of Prometheus. See sat. iv. 1. 133, note. We may on this occasion, says he, be glad that these Tentyrites offered no pollution to the sacred element of fire, by dressing human flesh with it. 85. Which Prometheus, &c.] See sat. iv. 1. 133, note. -From the highest part of heaven.] From Jupiter himself, and brought it down to earth. 86. I congratulate the element.] I wish it joy of its escape from pollution. And thee, &c.] As for thee, Volusius, |