Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookas there were boys standing round you; while Horace was altogether discolored, and the foul smut clave to the well-thumbed Maro. Yet rare too is the pay that does not require enforcing by the Tribune's court.[392] But do you, parents, impose severe exactions on him that is to teach your boys; that he be perfect in the rules of grammar for each word--read all histories[393]--know all authors as well as his own finger-ends; that if questioned at hazard, while on his way to the Thermæ or the baths of Phœbus, he should be able to tell the name of Anchises' nurse,[394] and the name and native land of the step-mother of Anchemolus--tell off-hand how many years Acestes lived--how many flagons of wine the Sicilian king gave to the Phrygians. Require of him that he mould their youthful morals as one models a face in wax. Require of him that he be the reverend father of the company, and check every approach to immorality. It is no light task to keep watch over so many boyish hands, so many little twinkling eyes. "This," says the father, "be the object of your care!"--and when the year comes round again, Receive for your pay as much gold[395] as the people demand for the victorious Charioteer! FOOTNOTES: [329] _Ratio studiorum._ Cf. Tac., Ann., xi., 7, "Sublatis studiorum pretiis etiam studia peritura." [330] _Cæsare._ Which Cæsar is intended is a matter of discussion among the commentators; whether Nero, Titus, Trajan, Hadrian, Nerva, or Domitian. Probably the last is meant: as in the beginning of his reign he affected the character of a patron of literature. [331] _Respexit._ "To view with favor or pity," as a deity: so Virg., Ecl., i., 28, "Libertas, quæ sera tamen respexit inertem." [332] _Atria._ Either "the antechambers of rich patrons," or to "the Licinian and other courts," near the forum, where auctions were held; the _atria auctionaria_ of Cicero: cf. pro Quint., 12, 25, i. in Rull., 7. [333] _Machæra_, a famous _Præco_ of his time. Lubin. [334] _Commissa._ Either from the goods being "intrusted" to the auctioneer by the owner or the magistrate; or from the parties that bid being as it were "pitted," _commissi_, against each other, like gladiators. [335] _Vidi._ So xvi., 29, "Audeat ille Nescio quis, pugnos qui vidit, dicere vidi." [336] _Asiani._ "Jam equites, olim servi Asiatici." Lub. The next line is in all probability interpolated, being only a gloss. Heinrich. [337] _Nudo talo._ Vid. ad i., 111. Or, it may be "barefooted" simply. Galatia in Asia Minor, so called from the colony of Gauls who settled there, A.D. 278, at the invitation of Nicomedes. Liv., xxxviii., 16. Cf. Paus., Phoc., xxiii. Cramer's Asia Minor, ii., 79. Clinton, Fast. Hell. in an. "Sent from Bithynia's realms with shoeless feet." Badham. [338] _Laurumque momordit._ So δαφνηφάγοι. The chewing of the bay, as being sacred to Apollo, was supposed to convey divine inspiration. Grang. Cf. Lycoph., 6. [339] _Indulgentia._ "Lo! the imperial eye Looks round attentive on each rising bard, For worth to praise, for genius to reward." Gifford. [340] _Croceæ._ Because parchment is always yellow on the side where the hair grew. Others think the parchment itself was dyed yellow. Cf. Pers., iii., 10. [341] _Veneris marito_, a burlesque phrase for "the fire." [342] _Tinea._ Cf. Hor., Ep., I., xx., 12, "Tineas pasces taciturnus inertes." [343] _Cellâ._ So Ben Jonson: "I that spend half my nights and half my days Here in a cell, to get a dark pale face, To come forth worth the ivy or the bays, And in this age can hope no other grace." [344] _Junonis avem._ "To praise and _only_ praise the high-wrought strain. As boys the bird of Juno's glittering train." Gifford. [345] _Facunda et unda._ "Till gray-haired, helpless, humbled genius see Its fault too late, and curse Terpsichore." Badham. [346] _Comitum voces._ Cf. xiii., 32, "Vocalis sportula." [347] _Anabathra_, the seats rising one above another in the form of a theatre. _Subsellia_, those in the body of the room. _Orchestra_, the hired chairs in front of all, for his knightly guests. Holyday quaintly says no patron cared "What the orchestra cost raised for chief friends, And chairs recarried when the reading ends." [348] _Laqueo._ "And would we quit at length th' ambitious ill, The noose of habit implicates us still." Badham. [349] _Vatem egregium._ Cf. Hor., i., Sat. iv., 43, "Ingenium cui sit, cui mens divinior, atque os magna sonaturum, des nominis hujus honorem." How immeasurably finer of the two is Juvenal's description of a poet! "But he, the bard of every age and clime, Of genius fruitful, and of soul sublime, Who from the glowing mint of fancy pours No spurious metal, fused from common ores, But gold to matchless purity refined, And stamp'd with all the godhead in his mind: He whom I feel, but want the power to paint, Must boast a soul impatient of restraint, And free from every care--a soul that loves The Muses' haunts, clear springs and shady groves." Gifford. Of this passage, Hodgson says, Gifford has drawn the prize in the lottery of translation, all others must be blanks after it. [350] _Evoe!_ Vid. Hor., ii., Od. xix., 5. Cf. Milman's Life. [351] _Feruntur._ "Be hurried with resistless force along By the two kindred powers of wine and song." Gifford. [352] _Duas._ "Nor wrestlings with the world will Genius own, Destined to strive with song, and song alone." Badham. [353] _Erinnys._ The splendid passage in the seventh Æneid, 445, _seq._, "Talibus Alecto dictis exarsit in iras. At juveni oranti subitus tremor occupat artus: Deriguere oculi: tot Erinnys sibilat hydris, Tantaque se facies aperit." Cf. Æn., ii., 602, _seq._; xii., 326. [354] _Atreus._ Some take Atreus to be the person who lends the money. Grangæus interprets it, "Qui dum componit tragædiam de Atreo, ut vitam sustentare possit pignori opponit alveolos." "Who writes his Atreus, as his friends allege, With half his household goods and cloak in pledge." Badham. [355] _Statius_ employed twelve years upon his Thebais. (Cf. xii., 811.) It was not completed till _after_ the Dacian war, but was written _before_ the 1st book of the Silvæ, the date of the 4th book of which is known to be A.D. 95. We may therefore assume the date of the Thebais to be about 94. [356] _Vendat._ Holyday quotes from Brodæus the price given to Terence for his Eunuchus, viz., eight sestertia, about sixty-five pounds. [357] _Agave._ Probably a pantomimic ballet on a tragic subject; for, as Heinrich says, what had Paris, the mime, to do with a _new tragedy_? These and the following lines are said to have been the cause of Juvenal's banishment. [358] _Semestri_ is said to refer to an honorary military commission, conferred on favorites, even though not in the army, and called "Semestris tribunatus militum." It lasted for six months only, but conferred the privilege of wearing the equestrian ring, with perhaps others. It is all |