Satire XII
This day, Corvinus, is a more joyful one to me than even my own birthday;772 in which the festal altar of turf773 awaits the animals promised to the gods.
To the queen of the gods we sacrifice a snow-white774 lamb: a similar fleece shall be given to her that combated the Mauritanian Gorgon.775 But the victim reserved for Tarpeian Jupiter, shakes, in his wantonness, his long-stretched776 rope, and brandishes his forehead. Since he is a sturdy calf; ripe for the temple and the altar, and ready to be sprinkled with wine; ashamed any longer to drain his mother’s777 teats, and butts the oaks with his sprouting horn.778 Had I an ample fortune, and equal to my wishes, a bull fatter than Hispulla,779 and slow-paced from his very bulk, should be led to sacrifice, and one not fed in a neighboring pasture; but his blood should flow, giving evidence of the rich pastures of Clitumnus,780 and with a neck that must be struck by a ministering priest of great strength, to do honor to the return of my friend who is still trembling, and has recently endured great horrors, and wonders to find himself safe.
For besides the dangers of the sea, and the stroke of the lightning which he escaped, thick darkness obscured the sky in one huge cloud, and a sudden thunder-bolt struck the yard-arms, while every one fancied he was struck by it, and at once, amazed, thought that no shipwreck could be compared in horror with a ship on fire.781 For all things happen so, and with such horrors accompanying, when a storm arises in poetry.782
Now here follows another sort of danger. Hear, and pity him a second time; although the rest is all of the same description. Yet it is a very dreadful part, and one well known to many, as full many a temple testifies with its votive picture. (Who does not know that painters783 are maintained by Isis?) A similar fortune befell our friend Catullus also: when the hold was half full of water, and when the waves heaved up each side alternately of the laboring ship, and the skill of the hoary pilot could render no service, he began to compound with the winds by throwing overboard, imitating the beaver who makes a eunuch784 of himself, hoping to get off by the sacrifice of his testicles; so well does he know their medicinal properties. “Throw overboard all that belongs to me, the whole of it!” cried Catullus, eager to throw over even his most beautiful things—a robe of purple fit even for luxurious Mæcenases, and others whose very fleece the quality of the generous pasture has tinged, moreover the exquisite water with its hidden properties, and the atmosphere of Bætica785 contributes to enhance its beauty. He did not hesitate to cast overboard even his plate, salvers the workmanship of Parthenius, a bowl786 that would hold three gallons, and worthy of Pholus when thirsty, or even the wife of Fuscus.787 Add to these bascaudæ,788 and a thousand chargers, a quantity of embletic work, out of which the cunning purchaser of Olynthus789 had drunk. But what other man in these days, or in what quarter of the globe, has the courage to prefer his life to his money, and his safety to his property? Some men do not make fortunes for the sake of living, but, blinded by avarice, live for the sake of money-getting. The greatest part even of necessaries is thrown overboard: but not even do these sacrifices relieve the ship—then, in the urgency of the peril, it came to such a pitch that he yielded his mast to the hatchet, and rights himself at last, though in a crippled state. Since this is the last resource in danger we apply, to make the ship lighter.
Go now, and commit your life to the mercy of the winds; trusting to a hewn plank, with but four digits790 between you and death, or seven at most, if the deal is of the thickest. And then together with your provision-baskets and bread and wide-bellied flagon,791 look well that you lay in hatchets,792 to be brought into use in storms.
But when the sea subsided into calm, and the state of affairs was more propitious to the mariner, and his destiny prevailed over Eurus and the sea, when now the cheerful Parcæ draw kindlier tasks with benign hand, and spin white wool,793 and what wind there is, is not much stronger than a moderate breeze, the wretched bark, with a poor make-shift, ran before it, with the sailors’ clothes spread out, and with its only sail that remained: when now the south wind subsided, together with the sun hope of life returned. Then the tall peak beloved by Iulus, and preferred as a home by him to Lavinium,794 his stepmother’s seat, comes in sight; to which the white sow795 gave its name—(an udder that excited the astonishment of the gladdened Phrygians)—illustrious from what had never been seen before, thirty paps. At length he enters the moles,796 built through the waters inclosed within them, and the Pharos of Tuscany, and the arms extending back, which jut out into the middle of the sea, and leave Italy far behind. You would not bestow such admiration on the harbor which nature formed: but with damaged bark, the master steers for the inner smooth waters of the safe haven, which even a pinnace of Baiæ could cross; and there with shaven crowns797 the sailors, now relieved from anxiety, delight to recount their perils that form the subject of their prating.
Go then, boys, favoring with tongues and minds,798 and place garlands in the temples, and meal on the sacrificial knives, and decorate the soft hearths and green turf-altar. I will follow shortly, and the sacrifice which is most important799 having been duly performed, I will then return home, where my little images, shining in frail wax, shall receive their slender chaplets. Here I will propitiate800 my own Jove, and offer incense to my hereditary Lares,801 and will display all colors of the violet. All things are gay; my gateway has set up long branches,802 and celebrates the festivities803 with lamps lighted in the morning.
Nor let these things be suspected by you, Corvinus. Catullus, for whose safe return I erect so many altars, has three little heirs. You may wait long enough for a man that would expend even a sick hen at the point of death for so unprofitable a friend. But even this is too great an outlay. Not even a quail will ever be sacrificed in behalf of one who is a father. If rich Gallita804 and Paccius, who have no children, begin to feel the approach of fever, every temple-porch is covered with votive tablets,805 affixed according to due custom. There are some who would even promise a hecatomb806 of oxen. Since elephants are not to be bought here or in Latium, nor is there any where in our climate such a large beast generated; but, fetched from the dusky nation, they are fed in the Rutulian forests, and the field of Turnus, as the herd of Cæsar, prepared to serve no private individual, since their ancestors used to obey Tyrian Hannibal, and our own generals,807 and the Molossian king, and to bear on their backs cohorts—no mean portion of the war—and a tower that went into battle. It is no fault, consequently, of Novius, or of Ister Pacuvius,808 that that ivory is not led to the altars, and falls a sacred victim before the Lares of Gallita, worthy of such great gods, and those that court their favor! One of these two fellows, if you would give him license to perform the sacrifice, would vow the tallest or all the most beautiful persons among his flock of slaves, or place sacrificial fillets on his boys and the brows of his female slaves. And if he has any Iphigenia809 at home of marriageable age, he will offer her at the altars, though he can not hope for the furtive substitution of the hind of the tragic poets. I commend my fellow-citizen, and do not compare a thousand810 ships to a will; for if the sick man shall escape Libitina,811 he will cancel his former will, entangled in the meshes of the act,812 after a service so truly wonderful: and perhaps in one short line will give his all to Pacuvius as sole813 heir. Proudly will he strut over his defeated rivals. You see, therefore, what a great recompense the slaughtered Mycenian maid earns.
Long live Pacuvius, I pray, even to the full age of Nestor.814 Let him own as much as ever Nero plundered,815 let him pile his gold mountains high, and let him love no one,816 and be loved by none.
Footnotes
772 Natali. The birthday was sacred to the “Genius” to whom they offered wine, incense, and flowers: abstaining from “bloody” sacrifices, “ne die quâ ipsi lucem accepissent aliis demerent,” Hor., ii., Ep. 144. “Floribus et vino Genium memorem brevis avi,” Pers., ii., 3. “Funde merum Genio,” Censorin., de D. N., 3. Virg., Ecl. iii., 76. Compare Hor., Od., IV., xi., where he celebrates the birthday of Mæcenas as “sanctior pœne natali proprio.” Cf. Dennis’s Etruria, vol. ii., p. 65.
773 Cæspes. Hor., Od., III., viii., 3, “Positusque carbo in cæspite vivo.” Tac., Ann., i. 18.
774 Niveam. A white victim was offered to the Dii Superi: a black one to the Inferi. Cf. Virg., Æn., iv., 60,” Junoni ante omnes, Ipsa tenens dextrâ pateram pulcherrima Dido Candentis vaccæ media inter cornua fundit.” Tibull., I., ii., 61, “Concidit ad magicos hostia pulla deos.” Hor., i., Sat. viii., 27,” Pullam divellere mordicus agnam.”
775 Gorgone. Cf. Vir., Æn., viii., 435, seq.; ii., 616.
776 Extensum. It was esteemed a very bad omen if the victim did not go willingly to the sacrifice. It was always led, therefore, with a long slack rope.
777 Matris. Cf. Hor., iv., Od. ii., 54, “Me tener solvet vitulus, relicta matre.”
778 Nascenti. Hor., iii., Od. xiii., 4, “Cui frons turgida cornibus Primis et Venerem, et prælia destinat.”
“He flies his mother’s teat with playful scorn,
And butts the oak-trees with his growing horn.” Hodgson.
779 Hispulla. Cf. vi., 74, “Hispulla tragædo gaudet.” (This was the name of the aunt of Pliny the Younger’s wife, iv., Ep. 19; viii., 11.)
“Huge as Hispulla: scarcely to be slain
But by the stoutest servant of the train.” Badham.
780 Clitumnus was a small river in Umbria flowing into the Tinia, now “Topino,” near Mevania, now “Timia.” The Tinia discharges itself into the Tiber near Perusia. Pliny (viii., Ep. 8) gives a beautiful description of its source, now called “La Vene,” in a letter which is, as Gifford says, a model of elegance and taste. Its waters were supposed to give a milk-white color to the cattle who drank of them. Virg., Georg., ii., 146, “Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus victima.” Propert., II., xix., 25, “Quà formosa suo Clitumnus flumina luco Integit et niveos abluit unda boves.” Sil., iv., 547, “Clitumnus in arvis Candentes gelido perfundit flumine tauros.” Claudian., vi., Cons. Hon., 506.
781 Ignis. Grangæus interprets this of the meteoric fires seen in the Mediterranean, which, when seen single, were supposed to be fatal. Plin., ii., 37, “Graves cum solitarii venerunt mergentesque navigia, et si in carinæ ima deciderint, exurentes.” These fires, when double, were hailed as a happy omen, as the stars of Castor and Pollux. “Fratres Helenæ lucida sidera,” Hor., I., Od. iii., 2; cf. xii., 27. The French call it “Le feu St. Elme,” said to be a corruption of “Helena.” The Italian sailors call them “St. Peter and St. Nicholas.” But these only appear at the close of a storm. Cf. Hor., ii., seq., and Blunt’s Vestiges, p. 37.
782 Poetica tempestas.
“So loud the thunder, such the whirlwind’s sweep,
As when the poet lashes up the deep.” Hodgson.
783 Pictores. So Hor., i., Od. v., 13, “Me tabulâ sacer votivâ paries indicat noida suspendisse potenti vestimenta maris Deo.” It seems to have been the custom for persons in peril of shipwreck not only to vow pictures of their perilous condition to some deity in case they escaped, but also to have a painting of it made to carry about with them to excite commiseration as they begged. Cf. xiv., 302, “Naufragus assem dum rogat et pictâ se tempestate tuetur.” Pers., i., 89, “Quum fractâ te in trabe pictum ex humero portes.” VI., 32, “Largire inopi, ne pictus oberret cæruleâ in tabulâ.” Hor., A. P., 20, “Fractis enatat exspes navibus, ære dato qui pingitur.” Phæd., IV., xxi., 24. Some think that this picture was afterward dedicated, but this is an error.
784 Castora. Ov., Nux., 165, “Sic ubi detracta est a te tibi causa pericli Quod superest tutum, Pontice Castor, habes!” This story of the beaver is told Plin., viii., 30; xxxvii., 6, and is repeated by Silius, in a passage copied from Ovid and Juvenal. “Fluminei veluti deprensus gurgitis undis, Avulsâ parte inguinibus causâque pericli, Enatat intento prædæ fiber avius hoste,” xv., 485. But it is an error. The sebaceous matter called castoreum (Pers., v., 135), is secreted by two glands near the root of the tail. (Vid. Martyn’s Georgics, i., 59, “Virosaque Pontus Castorea,” and Browne’s Vulgar Errors, lib. iii., 4.) Pliny, viii., 3, tells a similar story of the elephant, “Circumventi a venantibus dentes impactos arbori frangunt, prædâque se redimunt.”
785 Bæticus. The province of Bætica (Andalusia) takes its name from the Bætis, or “Guadalquivir,” the waters of which were said to give a ruddy golden tinge to the fleeces of the sheep that drank it. Martial alludes to it repeatedly. “Non est lana mihi mendax, nec mutor aëno. Si placeant Tyriæ me mea tinxit ovis,” xiv., Ep. 133. Cf. v., 37; viii., 28. “Vellera nativo pallent ubi flava metallo,” ix., 62. “Aurea qui nitidis vellera tingis aquis,” xii., 99.
“Away went garments of that innate stain
That wool imbibes on Guadalquiver’s plain,
From native herbs and babbling fountains nigh,
To aid the powers of Andalusia’s sky.” Badham.
786 Urnæ. Vid. ad vi., 426. Pholus was one of the Centaurs. Virg., Georg., ii., 455. Cf. Stat., Thebaid., ii., 564, seq., “Qualis in adversos Lapithas erexit inanem Magnanimus cratera Pholus,” etc.
787 Conjuge Fusci. Vid. ad ix., 117.
788 Bascaudas. The Celtic word “Basgawd” is said to be the root of the English word “basket.” Vid. Latham’s English language, p. 98. These were probably vessels surrounded with basket or rush work. Mart., xiv., Ep. 99. “Barbara de pictis veni bascauda Britannis; sed me jam mavolt dicere Roma suam.”
789 Olynthi. Philip of Macedon bribed Lasthenes and Eurycrates to betray Olynthus to him. Pliny (xxxiii., 5) says he used to sleep with a gold cup under his pillow. Once, when told that the route to a castle he was going to attack was impracticable, he asked whether “an ass laden with gold could not possibly reach it.” Plut., Apophth., ii., p. 178.
“A store
Of precious cups, high chased in golden ore;
Cups that adorn’d the crafty Philip’s state,
And bought his entrance at th’ Olynthian gate.” Hodgson.
790 Digitis. Cf. xiv, 289, “Tabulâ distinguitur undâ.” Ovid. Amor. ii. xi. 25, “Navita sollicitus qua ventos horret iniquos; Et prope tam letum quam prope cernit aquam.”
“Trust to a little plank ’twixt death and thee,
And by four inches ’scape eternity.” Hodgson.
791 Ventre-lagenæ. “A gorbellied flagon.” Shakspeare.
792 Secures.
“His biscuit and his bread the sailor brings
On board: ’tis well. But hatchets are the things.” Badh.
793 Staminis albi. The “white” or “black” threads of the Parcæ were supposed to symbolize the good or bad fortune of the mortal whose yarn Clotho was spinning. Mart. iv. Ep. 73, “Ultima volventes oraba pensa sorores, Ut traherent parva stamina pulla morâ.” VI. Ep. 58, “Si mihi lanificæ ducunt non pulla sorores Stamina.” Hor. ii. Od. iii. 16, “Sororum fila trium patiuntur atra.”
794 Prælata Lavino. Virg. Æn. i. 267, seq. Liv. i. 1, 3. Tibull. II. v. 49.
795 Scrofa. Virg. Æn. iii. 390, “Littoreis ingens inventa sub ilicibus sus, Triginta capitum fœtus enixa jacebit, Alba solo recubans, albi circum ubera nati. Is locus urbis erit, requies ea certa laborum,”—and viii., 43.
796 Moles. This massive work was designed and begun by Julius Cæsar, executed by Claudius, and repaired by Trajan. It is said to have employed thirty thousand men for eleven years. Suetonius thus describes it (Claud., c. 20): “Portum Ostiæ exstruxit circumducto dextrâ sinistrâque brachis, et ad introitum profundo jam solo mole objectâ, quam quò stabilius fundaret, navem ante demersit, quâ magnus obeliscus, ex Ægypto fuerat advectus; congestisque pilis superposuit altissimam turrim in exemplum Alexandrini Phari, ut ad nocturnos ignes cursum navigia dirigerent.” (Cf. vi., 83. The Pharos of Alexandria was built by Sostratus, and accounted one of the seven wonders of the world.)
“Enter the moles, that running out so wide
Clasp in their giant arms the billowy tide,
That leave afar diminishing the land,
More wondrous than the works of nature’s hand.” Hodgson.
797 Vertice raso. It was the custom in storms at sea to vow the hair to some god, generally Neptune: and hence slaves, when manumitted, shaved their heads, “quod tempestatem servitutis videbantur effugere, ut naufragis liberati solent.” Cf. Pers., iii., 106, “Hesterni capite inducto subiere Quirites.” Hodgson has an excellent note on the “mystical attributes” of hair.
798 Linguis animisque faventes. Cic., de Div., i., 102, “Omnibus rebus agendis, Quod bonum, faustum, felix, fortunatumque esset, præfabantur: rebusque divinis, quæ publicè fierent, ut faverent linguis imperabant: inque feriis imperandis ut litibus et jurgiis se abstinerent.” Cf. Hor., iii., Od. i., 2, “Favete linguis.” Virg., Æn., v., 71, “Ore favete omnes.” Hor., Od., III., xiv., 11; Tibull., II., ii., 2, “Quisquis ades linguâ, vir, mulierque fave.” So εὐφημεῖν; cf. Eurip., Hec., 528, seq.
799 Sacro quod præstat; i. e., the sacrifices mentioned in the beginning of the Satire, viz., to Juno, Pallas, and Tarpeian Jove, and therefore more important than those to the Lares.
800 Placabo. Cf. Hor., i., Od. 36, 1. Orell.
801 Nostrum, i. e., his own Lar familiaris. Cf. ix., 137, “O Parvi nostrique Lares.” For the worship of these Lares, Junones, and Genius, see Dennis’s Etruria, vol. i., p. lv.
802 Erexit janua ramos. Cf. ad ix., 85.
803 Operatur festa. Perhaps read with Lipsius, “operitur festa,” “in festive-guise is covered with.” Virgil, however, uses “operatus” similarly. Georg., i., 339, “Sacra refer Cereri lætis operatus in herbis.” Cf. ad ix., 117.
“All savors here of joy: luxuriant bay
O’ershades my portal, while the taper’s ray
Anticipates the feast and chides the tardy day.” Gifford.
804 Gallita. Tacitus (Hist., i., 73) speaks of a Gallita Crispilina, or, as some read, Calvia Crispinilla, as a “magistra libidinum Neronis,” and as “potens pecuniâ et orbitate, quæ bonis malisque temporibus juxtà valent.” Paccius Africanus is mentioned also Hist., iv., 41.
805 Tabellis. Cf. ad x., 55, “Propter quæ fas est genua incerare deorum.”
806 Hecatomben. The hecatomb properly consisted of oxen, 100 being sacrificed simultaneously on 100 different altars. But sheep or other victims were also offered. The poor sometimes vowed an ὠῶν ἑκατόμβη. Emperors are said to have sacrificed 100 lions or eagles. Suetonius says, that above 160,000 victims were slaughtered in honor of Caligula’s entering the city. Calig., c. 14.
807 Nostris ducibus. Curius Dentatus was the first to lead elephants in triumph. Metellus, after his victory over Asdrubal, exhibited two hundred and four. Plin., viii., 6. L. Scipio, father-in-law to Pompey, employed thirty in battle against Cæsar. The Romans first saw elephants in the Tarentine war, against Pyrrhus; and as they were first encountered in Lucania, they gave the elephant the name of “Bos Lucas.” So Hannibal. See x., 158, “Gætula ducem portaret bellua luscum.”
808 Ister Pacuvius. Cf. ii., 58.
809 Iphigenia. Cf. Æsch., Ag., 39, seq., and the exquisite lines in Lucretius, i., 85-102; but Juvenal seems to have had Ovid’s lines in his head, Met., xii., 28, seq., “Postquam pietatem publica causa, Rexque patrem vicit, castumque datura cruorem Flentibus ante aram stetit Iphigenia ministris: Victa dea est, nubemque oculis objecit, et inter Officium turbamque sacri, vocesque precantum, Supposita fertur mutâsse Mycenida cervâ.”
810 Mille. στόλον Ἀργείων χιλιοναύτην. Æsch., Ag., 44.
811 Libitinam. Properly an epithet of Venus (the goddess who presides over deaths as well as births), in whose temple all things belonging to funerals were sold. Cf. Plut., Qu. Rom., 23. Servius Tullius enacted that a sestertius should be deposited in the temple of Venus Libitina for every person that died, in order to ascertain the number of deaths. Dion. Halic., iv., 79. Cf. Liv., xl., 19; xli., 21. Suet., Ner., 39, “triginta funerum millia in rationem Libitinæ venerunt.” Hor., iii., Od. xxx., 6; ii., Sat. vi., 19.
812 Nassa is properly an “osier weel,” κύρτη for catching fish. Plin., xxi., 18, 59.
813 Solo. Cf. i., 68, “Exiguis tabulis;” ii., 58, “Solo tabulas impleverit Hister Liberto;” vi., 601, “Impleret tabulas.”
“What are a thousand vessels to a will!
Yes! every blank Pacuvius’ name shall fill.” Hodgson.
814 Nestora. Cf. Hom., Il., i., 250; Od., iii., 245. Mart., vi., Ep. lxx., 12, “Ætatem Priami Nestorisque.” X., xxiv., 11. Cf. ad x., 246.
815 Rapuit Nero. Vid. Tac., Ann., xv., 42, Brotier’s note. Suetonius (Nero, c. 32), after many instances of his rapacity, subjoins the following: “Nulli delegavit officium ut non adjiceret Scis quid mihi opus sit:” et “Hoc agamus ne quis quidquam habeat.” “Ultimot emplis compluribus dona detraxit.”
816 Nec amet.
“Nor ever be, nor ever find, a friend!” Dryden.