Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Book(frequently the best commentator on Juvenal) takes it. Vid. Deor., Dial. v., 4. [834] _Talis._ More properly, "composed of _such_ divinities." The allusion being in all probability to the now frequent apotheosis of the most worthless and despicable of the emperors. [835] _Torvus._ The Homeric ἀμείλιχος. Cf. Hom., Il., i., 158, Ἀΐδης ἀμείλιχος, ἠδ' ἀδάμαστος Τοὔνεκα καὶ τε βροτοῖσι θεῶν ἔχθιστος ἁπάντων. [836] _Vulturis atri._ Cf. Æschylus, Pr. V., 1020. Virg., Æn., vi., 595, "Rostroque immanis vultur obunco, Immortale jecur tondens, fœcundaque pœnis viscera, rimaturque epulis habitatque sub alto pectore, nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis." "Wheels, furies, vultures, quite unheard of things, And the gay ghosts were strangers yet to kings!" Badham. [837] _Vetulo._ Cf. Ov., Fast., v., 57, _seq._, which passage Juvenal seems to have had in his mind. [838] _Glandis._ Cf. Sat. vi., init. [839] _Depositum._ Terent., Phorm., I., ii., 5, "Præsertim ut nunc sunt mores: adeo res redit; Si quis quid reddit, magna habenda 'st gratia." [840] _Ærugo_, the rust of _brass_; robigo, of _iron_; but, l. 148, used for the oxydizing of gold or silver. _Follis_, cf. xiv., 281. [841] _Prodigiosa_, ii., 103. [842] _Tuscis libellis._ Vid. Dennis' Etruria, vol. i., p. lvii. The marvelous events of the year were registered by the Etruscan soothsayers in their records, that, if they portended the displeasure of the gods, they might be duly expiated. Various names are given by ancient writers to these sacred or ritual books: Libri Etrusci; Chartæ Etruscæ; Scripta Etrusca; Etruscæ disciplinæ libri; libri fatales, rituales, haruspicini, fulgurales; libri Tagetici; sacra Tagetica; sacra Acherontica; libri Acherontici. The author of these works on Etruscan discipline was supposed to be Tages; and the names of some writers on the same subject are given, probably commentators on Tages, e. g., Tarquitius, Cæcina, Aquila, Labeo, Begoë. _Umbricius._ Cf. Cic., de Div., i., 12, 13, 44; ii., 23. Liv., v., 15. Macrob., Saturn., iii., 7; v., 19. Serv. ad Virg., Æn., i., 42; iii., 537; viii., 398. Plin., ii., 85. Festus, _s. v._ Rituales. [843] _Sanctum._ Cf. iii., 137; viii., 24. [844] _Bimembri_, or "with double limbs." All these prodigies are common enough in Livy. [845] _Miranti_ is quite Juvenalian, and better than the common reading "Mirandis," or the suggestion "liranti." [846] _Mulæ._ Cf. Cic., de Div., ii., 28, "Si quod rarò fit, id portentum putandum est sapientem esse portentum est; sæpius enim _mulam peperisse_ arbitror, quam sapientem fuisse." [847] _Lapides._ Cf. Liv., xxxix., 37. This prodigy was one of the causes of consulting the sacred books, which led to the introduction of the worship of Bona Dea to Rome. Cf. ad ix., 37. Liv., xxii., 1, "Præneste ardentes lapides cœlo cecidisse." [848] _Apium._ Cf. Liv., xxiv., 10. Tac., Ann., xii., 64, "Fastigio Capitolii examen apium insedit: biformes hominem partus." Plin., xi., 17. [849] _Gurgitibus._ Liv., xix., 44, "Flumen Amiterni cruentum fluxisse." Virg., Georg., i., 485, "Aut puteis manare cruor cessavit." [850] _Arcana._ "Fidei alterius tacitè commissa sine ullis testibus." Lubin. Another interpretation is, "that, having lost it, he held his tongue, and complained to no one." [851] _Superos._ "Those conscious powers we can with ease contemn, If, hid from men, we trust our crimes with them." Dryden. [852] _Cirrhæi_, from Cirrha in Phocis, near the foot of Mount Parnassus, the port of Delphi. Cf. vii., 64, "Dominis Cirrhæ Nysæque feruntur Pectora." [853] _Spicula_; probably from Tibull., I., iv., 21. "Nec jurare time. Veneris perjuria venti Irrita per terras et freta summa ferunt. Perque suas impune sinit Dictynna sagittas Affirmes, crines perque Minerva suos." [854] _Phario._ The vinegar of Egypt was more celebrated than its wine. Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 122. Ath., ii., 26. [855] _Fortunæ._ See this idea beautifully carried out in Claudian's invective against Rufinus, lib. i., 1-24. Such was Horace's religion. "Credat Judæus Apella, Non ego: namque deos didici securum agere ævum; nec si quid miri faciat Natura deos id tristes ex alto cœli demittere tecto." I., Sat. v., 100. Not so Cicero. "Intelligamus _nihil_ horum _esse fortuitum_." De Nat. Deor., ii., 128. [856] _Tangunt._ Cf. xiv., 218, "Vendet perjuria summâ exiguâ et Cereris tangens aramq. pedemq." [857] _Isis._ Cf. vi., 526. Lucan., viii., 831, "Nos in templa tuam Romana accepimus Isim Semideosque canes, et sistra jubentia luctus et quem tu plangens hominem testaris Osirin." Blindness, the most common of Egyptian diseases, was supposed to be the peculiar infliction of Isis. Cf. Ovid, ex Pont., i., 51, "Vidi ego linigeræ numen violasse fatentem Isidis Isiacos ante sedere focos. Alter ob huic similem privatus lumine culpam, clamabat mediâ se meruisse viâ." Pers., v., 186, "Tunc grandes Galli et cum sistro lusca sacerdos." Sistrum a σείω. [858] _Ladas._ A famous runner at Olympia, in the days of Alexander the Great. Cf. Mart., x., Ep. 100, "Habeas licebit alterum pedem Ladæ, Inepte, frustrà crure ligneo curres;" and ii., 86. Catull., iv., 24, "Non si Pegaseo ferar volatu, Non Ladas si ego, pennipesve Perseus." [859] _Anticyrcâ_, in Phocis, famous for hellebore, supposed to be of great efficacy in cases of insanity: hence Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 83, "Nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem." 166, "naviget Anticyram." Pers., iv., 16, "Anticyras melior sorbere meracas." Its Greek name is Ἀντίκιῤῥα. Strabo, ix., 3. The quantity therefore in Latin follows the Greek accent. The Phocian Anticyra produced the best hellebore; but it was also found at Anticyra on the Maliac Gulf, near Œta. Some think there was a third town of the same name. Hence "Tribus Anticyris caput insanabile," Hor., A. P., 300. [860] _Archigene._ Cf. vi., 236; xiv., 252. [861] _Ignoscere._ "Contemnere pauper creditur atque deos diis ignoscentibus ipsis," iii., 145. So Plautus: "Atque hoc scelesti illi in animum inducunt suum. Jovem se placare posse donis hostiis, Et operam et sumptum perdunt: ideo fit, quia Nihil ei acceptum est a perjuris supplicii." [862] _Crucem._ Badham quotes an Italian epigram, which says that "the successful adventurer gets _crosses hung on him_, the unsuccessful gets _hung on the cross_." "Some made by villainy, and some undone, And this ascend a scaffold, that a throne." Gifford. [863] _Præcedit._ "Dare him to swear, he with a cheerful face Flies to the shrine, and bids thee mend thy pace: He urges, goes before thee, shows the way, Nay, pulls thee on, and chides thy dull delay." Dryden. [864] _Fiducia._ "For desperate boldness is the rogue's defense, And sways the court like honest confidence." Hodgson. [865] _Catulli._ Cf. ad viii., 186. Urbani some take as a proper name. Others in the same sense as Sat. vii |