Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookten with ferules, or ducked in the nearest river. Caligula was at Lyons, A.D. 40, on his way to the ocean. [52] _Marius Priscus_, proconsul of Africa, was condemned for extortion, A.D. 100. Vid. Clinton in a. Pliny the Younger was his accuser, 2 Ep., xi. (Cf. Sat. viii., 120, "Cum tenues nuper Marius discinxerit Afros.") Though condemned, he saved his money; and was, as Gifford renders it, "by a juggling sentence damn'd in vain." The ninth hour (three o'clock) was the earliest hour at which the temperate dined. Cf. Mart., iv., Ep. 8, "Imperat exstructos frangere nona toros." Cf. Hor., i., Od. i., 20. [53] _Venusium_, or Venusia, the birthplace of Horace. [54] "Vitreo daturus nomina Ponto." Hor., iv., Od. ii., 3. [55] _Jus nullum uxori._ Cf. Suet., Dom., viii. "Probrosis fœminis ademit jus capiendi legata hæreditatesque." [56] The Flaminian road ran the whole length of the Campus Martius, and was therefore the most conspicuous thoroughfare in Rome. It is now the Corso. [57] _Lacernatæ._ The Lacerna was a male garment: the allusion is probably to Nero and his "eunuch-love" Sporus. Vid. Suet., Nero, 28. [58] "Signator-falso," sc. testamento. Cf. Sat. xii., 125, and Bekker's Charicles. "Fram'd a short will and gave himself the whole." Hodgson. "A few short lines authentic made, By a forged seal the inheritance convey'd." Badham. [59] _Locusta._ Vid. Tac., Ann., xii., 66, 67. She was employed by Agrippina to poison Claudius, and by Nero to destroy Germanicus. On the accession of Galba she was executed. Cf. Suet., Nero, 33. [60] "Reckless of whispering mobs that hover near." Badham. "Nor heed the curse of the indignant throng." Gifford. [61] _Gyarus_, a barren island in the Ægean. Vid. Tac., Ann., iii, 68, 69. "Insulam Gyarum immitem et sine cultu hominum esse." Cf. Sat. x., 170; vi., 563. [62] "The raw noble in his boyish gown." Hodgson. "Stripling debauchee." Gifford. The sons of the nobility wore the toga prætexta till the age of seventeen. [63] "While whelming torrents swell'd the floods below." Badham. [64] _Arcâ._ Cf. Sat. x., 24. [65] _Reddere._ Probably "to pay what has been _long_ due." [66] _Secreto_, "without their clients," opposed to the "in propatulo" of Val. Max., ii., 5. ἔῤῥ' ἐς κόρακας μονόφαγε. Alex. [67] In former days the Romans entertained their clients, after the day's officium was over, at supper, which was called "cœna recta." In later times, the clients, instead of this, received their portion of the supper, which they carried away in a small basket, "sportula," or a kind of portable kitchen. Cf. iii., 249. This was again changed, and an equivalent in money (centum quadrantes, about twenty pence English) given instead. Domitian restored the "cœna recta." Cf. Suet., Dom., vii.; Nero, xvi. [68] _Fenestræ._ Cf. Xen., Anab., III., i., 31. Exod., xxi., 6. [69] "Shall I then yield, though born perchance a slave, To the proud beggar in his laticlave?" Hodgson. [70] _Pallas_, the freedman of Claudius, was enormously rich. The wealth and splendor of Licinus is again alluded to, Sat. xiv., 305. [71] _Pedibus albis._ The feet of imported slaves were marked with chalk. Cf. Sat. vii., 16. Plin., H. N., xxxv., 17. [72] _Salutato crepitat._ It refers either to the chattering of the young birds, when the old birds who have been in quest of food return to their nests (the whole _temple_ being deserted by men, serves, as the Schol. says, for a _nidus_ to birds); or, to the noise made by the old birds striking their beaks to announce their return. Cf. Ov., Met., vi., 97. [73] _Ordine rerum._ Cf. Mart., iv., Ep. 8. The _Forum_ is the old Forum Romanum. [74] _Apollo_, i. e., the Forum Augusti on the Palatine Hill. In the court where pleas were held stood an ivory statue of Apollo. Cf. Hor., i., Sat. ix., 78. [75] "And none must venture to pollute the place." Hodgson. Tantum, i. e., tantummodo. Cf. Pers., i. Sat., 114, Sacer est locus, ite profani, Extra meiete! [76] To all these places the client attends his patron; then, on his return, the rich man's door is closed, and he is at liberty to return home, without any invitation to remain to dinner. "The day's attendance closed, and evening come, The uninvited client hies him home." Badham. [77] _Nova._ "By witty spleen increased." Gifford. [78] "Friends, unenrich'd, shall revel o'er your bier, Tell the sad news, nor grace it with a tear." Hodgson. [79] _Tædâ._ Cf. viii., 235, "Ausi quod libeat tunica punire molestâ." Tac., Ann., xv., 44, "Aut crucibus adfixi, aut flammandi, atque ubi defecisset dies, in usum nocturni luminis urerentur." Sen., de Ira, iii., 3, "Circumdati defixis corporibus ignes." [80] _Qui dedit_, i. e., Tigellinus. [81] _Committas_, a metaphor from pairing or matching gladiators in the arena. "Achilles may in epic verse be slain, And none of all his myrmidons complain; Hylas may drop his pitcher, none will cry, Not if he drown himself for company." Dryden. [82] _Flaminiâ._ The laws of the xii. tables forbade all burials within the city. The road-sides, therefore, were lined with tombs. Hence the common beginning of epitaphs, "Siste gradum viator." The peculiar propriety of the selection of these two roads is the fact that Domitian was buried by the Flaminian, and Paris, the mime, Juvenal's personal enemy, by the Latin road. SATIRE II. I long to escape from hence beyond the Sarmatians, and the frozen sea, whenever those fellows who pretend to be Curii and live like Bacchanals presume to read a lecture on morality. First of all, they are utterly unlearned, though you may find all their quarters full of busts of Chrysippus. For the most finished scholar among them is he that has bought an image of Aristotle or Pittacus, or bids his shelves retain originals of Cleanthes. There is no trusting to the outside! For what street is there that does not overflow with debauchees of demure exterior? Dost thou reprove abominations, that art thyself the most notorious sink among catamites who pretend to follow Socrates? Thy rough limbs indeed, and the stiff bristles on thy arms, seem to promise a vigorous mind within; but on thy smooth behind, the surgeon with a smile lances the swelling piles. These fellows affect a paucity of words, and a wonderful taciturnity, and the fashion of cutting their hair shorter than their eyebrows. There is therefore more frankness and sincerity in Peribomius; the man that by his very look and gait makes no secret of his depravity, I look upon as the victim of destiny. The plain-dealing of the latter class excites our pity; their very madness pleads for our forgiveness. Far worse are they who in Hercules' vein practice similar atrocities, and preaching up virtue, perpetrate the foulest vice. "Shall I feel any dread for thee, Sextus, unnatural thyself?" says the infamous Varillus. "How am I worse than thou? Let the straight-limbed, if you please, mock the bandy-legged; the fair European sneer at the |