Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookrward made in one year prætor and consul. Being appointed to command against the Parthians, he was allowed a triumph; having been himself, in his youth, led as a captive in the triumphal procession of Pompey's father. Cf. Val. Max., vi., 10. [383] _Thrasymachus_ of Chalcedon, the pupil of Plato and Isocrates, wrote a treatise on Rhetoric, and set up as a teacher of it at Athens; but, meeting with no encouragement, shut up his school and hanged himself. [384] _Secundus Carrinas_ is said to have been driven by poverty from Athens to Rome; and was banished by Caligula for a declamation against tyrants. He is mentioned, Tac., Ann., xv., 45. [385] _Gelidas._ "Cicutæ refrigeratoria vis: quos enecat incipiunt algere ab extremitatibus corporis." Plin., xxv., 13. Plat., Phædo, fin. Pers., iv., 1. [386] _Dii Majorum_, etc. "Shades of our sires! O sacred be your rest, And lightly lie the turf upon your breast; Flowers round your urns breathe sweets beyond compare, And spring eternal bloom and flourish there! Your honor'd tutors, now a slighted race, And gave them all a parent's power and place!" Gifford. [387] _Rufus_, according to the old Schol., was a native of Gaul. Grangæus calls him Q. Curtius Rufus, and says nothing more is known of him than that he was an eminent rhetorician. He is here represented as charging Cicero with barbarisms or provincialisms, such as a Savoyard would use. [388] _Enceladus._ Nothing is known of him. [389] _Palæmon._ Vid. ad vi., 451. [390] _Cadurci._ Cf. vi., 537. [391] _Non pereat._ "Yes, suffer this! while something's left to pay Your rising, hours before the dawn of day; When e'en the lab'ring poor their slumbers take, And not a weaver, not a smith's awake." Gifford. [392] _Cognitione Tribuni._ Not a tribune of the people, but one of the Tribuni Ærarii, to whom the cognizance of such complaints belonged. [393] _Historias._ Tiberius was exceedingly fond of propounding to grammarians, a class of men whom he particularly affected (quod genus hominum præcipuè appetebat), questions of this nature, to sound their "notitia historiæ usque ad ineptias atque derisum." Cf. Suet., Tib., 70, 57. [394] _Nutricem._ The names of these two persons are said to have been Casperia and Tisiphone. [395] _Aurum._ i. e., 5 aurei, the highest reward allowed to be given. The aureus, which varied in value, was at this time worth 25 denarii; a little more than 16 shillings English. Cf. Mart., x., Ep. lxxiv., 5. SATIRE VIII. What is the use of pedigrees?[396] What boots it, Ponticus, to be accounted of an ancient line, and to display the painted faces[397] of your ancestors, and the Æmiliani standing in their cars, and the Curii diminished to one half their bulk, and Corvinus deficient of a shoulder, and Galba that has lost his ears and nose[4]--what profit is it to vaunt in your capacious genealogy of Corvinus, and in many a collateral line[398] to trace dictators and masters of the horse begrimed with smoke, if before the very faces of the Lepidi you lead an evil life! To what purpose are the images of so many warriors, if the dice-box rattles all night long in the presence of the Numantini:[399] if you retire to rest at the rising of that star[400] at whose dawning those generals set their standards and camps in motion? Why does Fabius[401] plume himself on the Allobrogici and the "Great Altar," as one born in Hercules' own household, if he is covetous, empty-headed, and ever so much more effeminate than the soft lamb of Euganea.[402] If with tender limbs made sleek by the pumice[403] of Catana he shames his rugged sires, and, a purchaser of poison, disgraces his dishonored race by his image that ought to be broken up.[404] Though your long line of ancient statues adorn your ample halls on every side, the sole and only real nobility is virtue. Be a Paulus,[405] or Cossus, or Drusus, in moral character. Set _that_ before the images of your ancestors. Let that, when you are consul, take precedence of the fasces themselves. What I claim from you first is the noble qualities of the mind. If you deserve indeed to be accounted a man of blameless integrity, and stanch love of justice, both in word and deed, then I recognize the real nobleman. All hail, Gætulicus![406] or thou, Silanus,[407] or from whatever other blood descended, a rare and illustrious citizen, thou fallest to the lot of thy rejoicing country. Then we may exultingly shout out what the people exclaim when Osiris is found.[408] For who would call him noble that is unworthy of his race, and distinguished only for his illustrious name? We call some one's dwarf,[409] Atlas; a negro, swan; a diminutive and deformed wench, Europa. Lazy curs scabbed[410] with inveterate mange, that lick the edges of the lamp now dry, will get the name of Leopard, Tiger, Lion, or whatever other beast there is on earth that roars with fiercer throat. Therefore you will take care and begin to fear lest it is upon the same principle you are a Creticus[411] or Camerinus. Whom have I admonished in these words? To you my words are addressed, Rubellius[412] Plautus! You are puffed up with your descent from the Drusi, just as though you had yourself achieved something to deserve being ennobled; and she that gave you birth should be of the brilliant blood of Iulus, and not the drudge that weaves for hire beneath the shelter of the windy rampart.[413] "You are the lower orders!" he says; "the very dregs of our populace! Not a man of you could tell where his father was born! But I am a Cecropid!" Long may you live![414] and long revel in the joys of such a descent! Yet from the lowest of this common herd you will find one that is indeed an eloquent Roman. It is he that usually pleads the cause of the ignorant noble.[415] From the toga'd crowd will come one that can solve the knotty points of law, and the enigmas of the statutes. He it is that in his prime carves out his fortune with his sword, and goes to Euphrates, and the legions that keep guard over the conquered Batavi. While you are nothing but a Cecropid, and most like the shapeless pillar crowned with Hermes' head. Since in no other point of difference have you the advantage save in this--that his head is of marble,[416] and your image is endowed with life! Tell me, descendant of the Teucri, who considers dumb animals highly bred, unless strong and courageous? Surely it is on this score we praise the fleet horse--to grace whose speed full many a palm glows,[417] and Victory, in the circus hoarse with shouting, stands exulting by. He is the steed of fame, from whatever pasture he comes, whose speed is brilliantly before the others, and whose dust is first on the plain. But the brood of Corytha, and Hirpinus' stock, are put up for sale if victory sit but seldom on their yoke. In their case no regard is had to their pedigree--their dead sires win them no favor--they are forced to change their owners for paltry prices, and draw wagons with galled wither |