Satire XIII
Every act that is perpetrated, that will furnish a precedent for crime, is loathsome817 even to the author himself. This is the punishment that first lights upon him, that by the verdict818 of his own breast no guilty man is acquitted; though the corrupt influence of the prætor may have made his cause prevail, by the urn819 being tampered with. What think you, Calvinus,820 is the opinion of all men touching the recent villainy, and the charge you bring of breach of trust? But it is your good fortune not to have so slender an income, that the weight of a trifling loss can plunge you into ruin; nor is what you are suffering from an unfrequent occurrence. This is a case well known to many—worn threadbare—drawn from the middle of fortune’s heap.821
Let us, then, lay aside all excessive complaints. A man’s grief ought not to blaze forth beyond the proper bounds, nor exceed the loss sustained. Whereas you can scarcely bear even the very least diminutive particle of misfortune, however trifling, boiling with rage in your very bowels because your friend does not restore to you the deposit he swore to return. Can he be amazed at this, that has left threescore years behind him, born when Fonteius was consul?822 Have you gained823 nothing by such long experience of the world? Noble indeed are the precepts which philosophy, that triumphs over fortune, lays down in her books of sacred wisdom. Yet we deem those happy too who, with daily life824 for their instructress, have learned to endure with patience the inconveniences of life, and not shake off the yoke.825
What day is there so holy that is not profaned by bringing to light theft, treachery, fraud—filthy lucre got by crime of every dye, and money won by stabbing or by poison?826 Since rare indeed are the good! their number is scarce so many as the gates of Thebes,827 or the mouths of fertilizing Nile. We are now passing through the ninth age of the world: an era far worse than the days of Iron; for whose villainy not even Nature herself can find a name, and has no metal828 base enough to call it by. Yet we call heaven and earth to witness, with a shout as loud as that with which the Sportula,829 that gives them tongues, makes his clients applaud Fæsidius as he pleads. Tell me, thou man of many years, and yet more fit to bear the boss830 of childhood, dost thou not know the charms that belong to another’s money? Knowest thou not what a laugh thy simplicity would raise in the common herd, for expecting that no man should forswear himself, but should believe some deity is831 really present in the temples and at the altars red with blood? In days of old the aborigines perhaps used to live after this fashion: before Saturn in his flight laid down his diadem, and adopted the rustic sickle: in the days when Juno was a little maid; and Jupiter as yet in a private832 station in the caves of Ida: no banquetings of the celestials above the clouds, no Trojan boy or beauteous wife of Hercules as cup-bearer; or Vulcan (but not till he had drained the nectar) wiping833 his arms begrimed with his forge in Lipara. Then each godship dined alone; nor was the crowd of deities so great834 as it is now-a-days: and the heavens, content with a few divinities, pressed on the wretched Atlas with less grievous weight. No one had as yet received as his share the gloomy empire of the deep: nor was there the grim835 Pluto with his Sicilian bride, nor Ixion’s wheel, nor the Furies, nor Sisyphus’ stone, nor the punishment of the black vulture,836 but the shades passed jocund days with no infernal king.
In that age villainy was a prodigy! They used to hold it as a heinous sin, that naught but death could expiate, if a young man had not risen up to pay honor to an old one,837 or a boy to one whose beard was grown; even though he himself gloated over more strawberries at home, or a bigger pile of acorns.838
So just a claim to deference had even four years’ priority; so much on a par with venerated old age was the first dawn of youth! Now, if a friend should not deny the deposit839 intrusted to him, if he should give back the old leathern purse with all its rusty840 coin untouched, it is a prodigy of honesty, equivalent to a miracle,841 fit to be entered among the marvels in the Tuscan records,842 and that ought to be expiated by a lamb crowned for sacrifice.843 If I see a man above the common herd, of real probity, I look upon him as a prodigy equal to a child born half man, half brute;844 or a shoal of fish turned up by the astonished845 plow; or a mule846 with foal! in trepidation as great as though the storm-cloud had rained stones;847 or a swarm of bees848 had settled in long cluster from some temple’s top; as though a river had flowed into the ocean with unnatural eddies,849 and rushing impetuous with a stream of milk.
Do you complain of being defrauded of ten sestertia by impious fraud? What if another has lost in the same way two hundred, deposited without a witness!850 and a third a still larger sum than that, such as the corner of his capacious strong-box could hardly contain! So easy and so natural is it to despise the gods above,851 that witness all, if no mortal man attest the same! See with how bold a voice he denies it! What unshaken firmness in the face he puts on! He swears by the sun’s rays, by the thunderbolts of Tarpeian Jove, the glaive of Mars, the darts of the prophet-god of Cirrha,852 by the arrows and quiver of the Virgin Huntress, and by thy trident, O Neptune, father of the Ægæan! He adds the bow of Hercules, Minerva’s spear, and all the weapons that the arsenals of heaven hold.853 But if he be a father also, he says, “I am ready to eat my wretched son’s head boiled, swimming in vinegar from Pharos.”854
There are some who refer all things to the accidents of fortune,855 and believe the universe moves on with none to guide its course; while nature brings round the revolutions of days and years. And therefore, without a tremor, are ready to lay their hands856 on any altar. Another does indeed dread that punishment will follow crime; he thinks the gods do exist. Still he perjures himself, and reasons thus with himself: “Let Isis857 pass whatever sentence she pleases upon my body, and strike my eyes with her angry Sistrum, provided only that when blind I may retain the money I disown. Are consumption, or ulcerous sores, or a leg shriveled to half its bulk, such mighty matters? If Ladas858 be poor, let him not hesitate to wish for gout that waits on wealth, if he is not mad enough to require Anticyra859 or Archigenes.860 For what avails the honor of his nimble feet, or the hungry branch of Pisa’s olive? All-powerful though it be, that anger of the gods, yet surely it is slow-paced! If, therefore, they set themselves to punish all the guilty, when will they come to me? Besides, I may perchance discover that the deity may be appeased by prayers! “It is not unusual with him to pardon861 such perjuries as these. Many commit the same crimes with results widely different. One man receives crucifixion862 as the reward of his villainy; another, a regal crown!”
Thus they harden their minds, agitated by terror inspired by some heinous crime. Then, when you summon him to swear on the sacred shrine, he will go first!863 Nay, he is quite ready to drag you there himself, and worry you to put him to this test. For when a wicked cause is backed by impudence, it is believed by many to be the confidence864 of innocence. He acts as good a farce as the runaway slave, the buffoon in Catullus’865 Vision! You, poor wretch, cry out so as to exceed Stentor,866 or, rather, as loudly as Gradivus867 in Homer: “Hearest thou868 this, great Jove, and openest not thy lips, when thou oughtest surely to give vent to some word, even though formed of marble or of brass? Or, why then do we place on thy glowing altar the pious869 frankincense from the wrapper undone, and the liver of a calf cut up, and the white caul of a hog?870 As far as I see, there is no difference to be made between your image and the statue of Vagellius!”871
Now listen to what consolation on the other hand he can offer, who has neither studied the Cynics, nor the doctrines of the Stoics, that differ from the Cynics only by a tunic,872 and pays no veneration to Epicurus,873 that delighted in the plants of his diminutive garden. Let patients whose cases are desperate be tended by more skillful physicians; you may trust your vein even to Philippus’ apprentice. If you can show me no act so heinous in the whole wide world, then, I hold my tongue; nor forbid you to beat your breast with your fists, nor thump your face with open palm. For, since you really have sustained loss, your doors must be closed; and money is bewailed with louder lamentations from the household, and with greater tumult,874 than deaths. No one, in such a case, counterfeits sorrow; or is content with merely stripping875 down the top of his garment, and vexing his eyes for forced rheum.876 The loss of money is deplored with genuine tears.
But if you see all the courts filled with similar complaints, if, after the deeds have been read ten times over, and each time in a different quarter,877 though their own handwriting,878 and their principal signet-ring,879 that is kept so carefully in its ivory casket, convicts them, they call the signature a forgery and the deed not valid; do you think that you, my fine fellow, are to be placed without the common pale? What makes you the chick of a white hen, while we are a worthless brood, hatched from unlucky eggs? What you suffer is a trifle; a thing to be endured with moderate choler, if you but turn your eyes to crimes of blacker dye. Compare with it the hired assassin, fires that originate from the sulphur of incendiaries,880 when your outer gate is the first part that catches fire. Compare those who carry off the ancient temple’s massive cups,881 incrusted with venerable rust—the gifts of nations; or, crowns882 deposited there by some king of ancient days. If these are not to be had, there comes some sacrilegious wretch that strikes at meaner prey; who will scrape the thigh of Hercules incased in gold, and Neptune’s face itself, and strip off from Castor his leaf-gold. Will he, forsooth, hesitate, that is wont to melt down whole the Thunderer883 himself? Compare, too, the compounders and venders of poisons;884 or him that ought to be launched into the sea in an ox’s hide,885 with whom the ape,886 herself innocent, is shut up, through her unlucky stars. How small a portion is this of the crimes which Gallicus,887 the city’s guardian, listens to from break of day to the setting of the sun! Would you study the morals of the human race, one house is quite enough. Spend but a few days there, and when you come out thence, call yourself, if you dare, a miserable man!
Who is astonished at a goitred throat888 on the Alps? or who, in Meroë,889 at the mother’s breast bigger than her chubby infant? Who is amazed at the German’s890 fierce gray eyes, or his flaxen hair with moistened ringlets twisted into horns? Simply because, in these cases, one and all are alike by nature.
The pigmy891 warrior in his puny panoply charges the swooping birds of Thrace, and the cloud that resounds with the clang of cranes. Soon, no match for his foe, he is snatched away by the curved talons, and borne off through the sky by the fierce crane. If you were to see this in our country, you would be convulsed with laughter: but there, though battles of this kind are sights of every day, no one even smiles, where the whole regiment is not more than a foot high.
“And is there, then, to be no punishment at all for this perjured wretch and his atrocious villainy?”
Well, suppose him hurried away at once, loaded with double irons, and put to death in any way our wrath dictates (and what could revenge wish for more?) still your loss remains the same, your deposit will not be refunded! “But the least drop of blood from his mangled body will give me a consolation that might well be envied. Revenge is a blessing, sweeter than life itself!” Yes! so fools think, whose breasts you may see burning with anger for trivial causes, sometimes for none at all. How small soever the occasion be, it is matter enough for their wrath. Chrysippus892 will not hold the same language, nor the gentle spirit of Thales, or that old man that lived by sweet Hymettus’893 hill, who, even amid those cruel bonds, would not have given his accuser one drop of the hemlock894 he received at his hands!
Philosophy, blessed895 power! strips us by degrees of full many a vice and every error! She is the first to teach us what is right. Since revenge is ever the pleasure of a paltry spirit, a weak and abject mind! Draw this conclusion at once from the fact, that no one delights in revenge more than a woman!
Yet, why should you deem those to have escaped scot-free whom their mind,896 laden with a sense of guilt, keeps in constant terror, and lashes with a viewless thong! Conscience, as their tormentor, brandishing a scourge unseen by human eyes! Nay! awful indeed is their punishment, and far more terrible even than those which the sanguinary Cæditius897 invents, or Rhadamanthus! in bearing night and day in one’s own breast a witness against one’s self.
The Pythian priestess gave answer to a certain Spartan,898 that in time to come he should not go unpunished, because he hesitated as to retaining a deposit, and supporting his villainy by an oath. For he inquired what was the opinion of the deity, and whether Apollo counseled him to the act.
He did restore it therefore; but through fear,899 not from principle. And yet he proved that every word that issued from the shrine was worthy of the temple, and but too true: being exterminated together with all his progeny and house, and, though derived from a wide-spreading clan, with all his kin! Such is the penalty which the mere wish to sin incurs. For he that meditates within his breast a crime that finds not even vent in words,900 has all the guilt of the act!
What then if he has achieved his purpose? A respiteless anxiety is his: that ceases not, even at his hours of meals: while his jaws are parched as though with fever, and the food he loathes swells901 between his teeth. All wines902 the miserable wretch spits out; old Alban wine,903 of high-prized antiquity, disgusts him. Set better before him! and thickly-crowding wrinkles furrow his brow, as though called forth by sour904 Falernian. At night, if anxious care has granted him perchance a slumber however brief, and his limbs, that have been tossing905 over the whole bed, at length are at rest, immediately he sees in dreams the temple and the altar of the deity he has insulted; and, what weighs upon his soul with especial terrors,906 he sees thee! Thy awful907 form, of more908 than human bulk, confounds the trembling wretch, and wrings confession909 from him.
These are the men that tremble and grow pale at every lightning-flash; and, when it thunders,910 are half dead with terror at the very first rumbling911 of heaven; as though not by mere chance, or by the raging violence of winds, but in wrath and vengeance the fire-bolt lights912 upon the earth!913 That last storm wrought no ill! Therefore the next is feared with heavier presage, as though but deferred by the brief respite of this calm.
Moreover, if they begin to suffer pain in the side, with wakeful fever, they believe the disease is sent to their bodies from the deity, in vengeance. These they hold to be the stones and javelins of the gods!
They dare not vow the bleating sheep to the shrine, or promise even a cock’s914 comb to their Lares. For what hope is vouchsafed to the guilty sick?915 or what victim is not more worthy of life? The character of bad men is for the most part fickle and variable.916 While they are engaged in the guilty act they have resolution enough, and to spare. When their foul deeds are perpetrated, then at length they begin to feel what is right and wrong.
Yet Nature917 ever reverts to her depraved courses, fixed and immutable. For who ever prescribed to himself a limit to his sins? or ever recovered the blush918 of ingenuous shame once banished from his brow now hardened? What mortal man is there whom you ever saw contented with a single crime? This false friend of ours will get his foot entangled in the noose, and endure the hook of the gloomy dungeon; or some crag919 in the Ægean Sea, or the rocks that swarm with exiles of rank. You will exult in the bitter punishment of the hated name; and at length with joy confess920 that no one of the gods is either deaf or a Tiresias.921
Footnotes
817 Displicet.
“To none their crime the wished-for pleasure yields:
’Tis the first scourge that angry justice wields.” Badham.
818 Ultio.
“Avenging conscience first the sword shall draw,
And self-conviction baffle quibbling law.” Hodgson.
819 Urna. From the “Judices Selecti” (a kind of jurymen chosen annually for the purpose), the Prætor Urbanus, who sat as chief judge, chose by lot about fifty to act as his assessors. To each of these were given three tablets: one inscribed with the letter A. for “absolvo,” one with the letter C. for “condemno,” and the third with the letters N. L. for “non liquet,” i. e., “not proven.” After the case had been heard and the judices had consulted together privately, they returned into court, and each judex dropped one of these tablets into an urn provided for the purpose, which was afterward brought to the prætor, who counted the number and gave sentence according to the majority of votes. In all these various steps, there was plenty of opportunity for the “gratia” of a corrupt prætor to influence the “fallax urna.”
820 Calvinus. Martial mentions an indifferent poet of the name of Calvinus Umber, vii., Ep. 90.
821 Acervo.
“One that from casual heaps without design
Fortune drew forth, and bade the lot be thine.” Badh.
822 Fonteio consule. Clinton (F. R., A.D. 118) considers that the consulship meant is that of L. Fonteius Capito, A.D. 59, which would bring the reference in this Satire to A.D. 119, the third year of Hadrian. There was also a Fonteius Capito consul with Junius Rufus, A.D. 67, and another, A.D. 11. [The Fonteius Capito mentioned Hor., i., Sat. v., 32, is of course far too early.]
823 Proficis.
“Say, hast thou naught imbibed, no maxims sage,
From the long use of profitable age?” Hodgson.
824 Vitæ. So Milton.
“To know
That which before us lies in daily life,
Is the prime wisdom.”
825 Jactare jugum. A metaphor from restive oxen. Cf. vi., 208, “Summitte caput cervice paratâ Ferre jugum.” Æsch., Persæ, 190, seq.
“And happy those whom life itself can train
To bear with dignity life’s various pain.” Badham.
826 Pyxide. Properly a coffer or casket of “box-wood,” πυξίς. Cf. Sat. ii., 141, “Conditâ pyxide Lyde.” Suet., Ner., 47, “Veneno a Locustâ sumpto, et in auream pyxidem condito.”
827 Thebarum. Egyptian Thebes had one hundred gates; hence ἑκατόμπυλοι. Cadmeian Thebes had seven. Vid. Hom., Il., Δ., 406. Æsch., S. Th., ἑπτάπυλος Θήβη. The latter is meant. The mouths of the Nile being also seven, viz., Canopic, Bolbitine, Sebennytic, Phatnitic, Mendesian, Tanitic, and Pelusiac. Hence Virg., Æn., vi., 801, “Septem gemini trepida ostia Nili.” Ov., Met., v., 187, “Septemplice Nilo.” xv., 753, “Perque papyriferi septemflua flumina Nili.”
828 Metallo.
“That baffled Nature knows not how to frame
A metal base enough to give the age a name.” Dryden.
829 Sportula. Vid. ad i., 118. Cf. x., 46, “Defossa in loculis quos sportula fecit amicos.” Mart., vi., Ep. 48. Hor., i., Epist. xix., 37. Plin., ii., Ep. 14, “Laudicæni sequuntur: In media Basilicâ sportulæ dantur palam ut in triclinio: tanti constat ut sis disertissimus: hoc pretio subsellia implentur, hoc infiniti clamores commoventur.”
830 Bullâ. Cf. v., 165, seq.; xiv., 5. Pers., v., 31, “Bullaque succinctis Laribus donata pependit.” Plut. in Quæst. Rom., γέρων τις ἐπὶ χλευασμῷ προάγεται παιδικὸν ἐναψάμενος περιδέραιον ὃ καλοῦσι βοῦλλαν.
“O man of many years, that still should’st wear
The trinket round the neck thy childhood bare!” Badham.
831 Esse. Cf. ii., 149, seq., “Esse aliquos Manes et subterranea regna,... Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum ære lavantur.” Cf. Ov., Amor., III., iii., 1.
832 Privatus. This is commonly rendered by “concealed, sequestered,” alluding to Jupiter’s being hidden by his mother Rhea to save him from “Saturn’s maw.” But it surely means before he succeeded his father as king, and this is the invariable sense of “privatus” in Juvenal. Cf. i., 16, “Privatus ut altum dormiret.” iv., 65, “Accipe Privatis majora focis.” vi., 114, “Quid privata domus, quid fecerit Hippia, curas.” xii., 107, “Cæsaris armentum, nulli servire paratum Privato.”
833 Tergens. This appears to be the best and simplest interpretation of this “much-vexed” passage, and is the sense in which Lucian (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., 11. Catull., xxii., 2, 9.
866 Stentora. Hom., Il., v., 785, Στέντορα χαλκεόφωνον, ὃς τόσον αὐδήσασχ’ ὅσον ἄλλοι πεντήκοντα.
867 Gradivus. ii., 128. Hom., Il., v., 859, ὅσσον τ’ ἐννεάχιλοι ἐπίαχον ἢ δεκάχιλοι ἀνέρες—ἔβραχε.
868 Audis. Cf. ii., 130, “Nec galeam quassas nec terram cuspide pulsas, nec quereris patri?” Virg., Æn., iv., 206, “Jupiter Omnipotens! Adspicis hæc? an te, genitor, quum fulmina torques, nequicquam horremus? cæcique in nubibus ignes terrificant animos et inania murmura miscent?” Both passages are ludicrously parodied in the beginning of Lucian’s Timon.
869 Thura. So Mart., iii., Ep. ii., 5, “Thuris piperisque cucullus.” Ovid, Heroid., xi., 4. Virgil applies the epithet pia to the “Vitta,” Æn., iv., 637, and to “Far,” v., 745.
870 Porci. Cf. x., 355, “Exta, et candiduli divina tomacula porci.”
871 Vagellius. Perhaps the “desperate ass” mentioned xvi., 23. Some read Bathylli.
872 Tunicâ. The Stoics wore tunics under their gowns, the Cynics waistcoats only, or a kind of pallium, doubled when necessary. Hor., i., Ep. xvii., 25, “Contra, quem duplici panno patientia ve at.” Diogenes pro pallio et tunicâ contentus erat unâ abollâ ex vili panno confectâ, quâ dupliciter amiciebatur. Cynicorum hunc habitum ideo vocabant διπλοΐδα. Hi igitur ἀχίτωνες quidem sed διπλοείματοι. Orell., ad loc. Cf. Diog. Laert, VI., ii., iii., 22, τρίβωνα διπλώσας πρῶτος.
873 Epicurum. Cf. xiv., 319, “Quantum Epicure tibi parvis suffecit in hostis.” Pliny says, xix., 4, he was the first who introduced the custom of having a garden to his town house. Prop., III., xxi., 26, “Hortis docte Epicure, tuis.” Stat. Sylv., I., iii., 94. “The garden of Epicurus,” says Gifford, “was a school of temperance; and would have afforded little gratification, and still less sanction, to those sensualists of our day, who, in turning hogs, flatter themselves that they are becoming Epicureans.”
874 Tumultu.
“And louder sobs and hoarser tumults spread
For ravish’d pence, than friends or kinsmen dead.” Hodgson.
875 Deducere. Ov., Met., vi., 403, “Dicitur unus flesse Pelops humerumque suas ad pectora postquam deduxit vestes, ostendisse.”
876 Humore coacto. Ter., Eun., I., i., 21, “Hæc verba una mehercle falsa lacrymula Quam oculos terendo miserè vix vi expresserit Restinguet.” Virg., Æn., ii., 196, “captique dolis lacrymisque coactis.”
877 Diversâ parte. Others interpret it as being “read by the opposite party;” as vii., 156, “quæ veniant diversa parte sagittæ.”
878 Vana supervacui, repeated xvi., 41.
879 Sardonychus. Pliny says the sardonyx was the principal gem employed for seals, “quoniam sola prope gemmarum scalpta ceram non aufert.” xxxvii., 6.
“If rogues deny their bend (though ten times o’er
Perused by careful witnesses before),
Whose well-known hand proclaims the glaring lie,
Whose master-signet proves the perjury.” Hodgson.
880 Incendia. Cf. ix., 98, “Sumere ferrum, Fuste aperire caput, candelam apponere valvis, non dubitat.”
881 Grandia pocula. Alluding perhaps to some of Nero’s sacrilegious spoliations. Suet., Ner., 32, 38. It was customary for kings and nations allied with Rome to send crowns and other valuable offerings to the temple of Capitoline Jove and others.
882 Coronas.
“Gifts of great nations, crowns of pious kings!
Goblets, to which undated tarnish clings!” Badham.
883 Touantem. Vid. Dennis’s Etruria, vol. i., p. li. Cf. Suet., Nero, 32, fin. Milman’s Horace, p. 66.
“Is much respect for Castor to be felt
By those whose crucibles whole Thunderers melt?” Badh.
884 Mercatoremque veneni. Shakspeare, Rom. and Jul.,
“And if a man did need a poison now,
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.”
885 Corio. Browne seems to understand this of “a leathern canoe or coracle,” but?
886 Simia. Cf. ad viii., 214, “Cujus supplicio non debeat una parari simia nec serpens unus nec culeus unus.”
887 Gallicus. Statius has a poem (Sylv., I., iv.), “Soteria pro Rutilio Gallico.” “Quem penes intrepidæ mitis custodia Romæ.” This book was probably written, cir. A.D. 94, after the Thebaïs. This Rut. Gallicus Valens was præfectus urbis and chief magistrate of police for Domitian; probably succeeding Pegasus (Sat. iv., 77), who was appointed by Vespasian. For the office, see Tac., Ann., vi., 10, seq. It was in existence even under Romulus, and continued through the republic. Augustus, by Mæcenas’ advice, greatly increased its authority and importance. Its jurisdiction was now extended to a circuit of one hundred miles outside the city walls. The præfectus decided in all causes between masters and slaves, patrons and clients, guardians and wards; had the inspection of the mint, the regulation of the markets, and the superintendence of public amusements.
888 Guttur. This affection has been attributed, ever since the days of Vitruvius, to the drinking the mountain water. “Æquicolis in Alpibus est genus aquæ quam qui bibunt afficiuntur tumidis gutturibus,” viii., 3.
889 Meroë, vi., 528, in Ethiopia, is the largest island formed by the Nile, with a city of the same name, which was the capital of a kingdom. Strab., i., 75. Herod., ii., 29. It is now “Atbar,” and forms part of Sennaar and Abyssinia.
890 Germani. Cf. ad viii., 252.—Flavam. Galen says the Germans should be called πυῤῥοὶ rather than ξανθοί. So Mart., xiv., Ep. 176, Sil. iii. 608, “Auricomus Batavus.”—Torquentem. Cf. Tac. Germ. 38, “Insigne gentis obliquare crinem nodoque substringere: horrentem capillum retro sequuntur ac sæpe in solo vertice religant: in altitudinem quandam et terrorem adituri bella compti, ut hostium oculis ornantur.” Mart. Spe. iii., “Crinibus in nodum tortis venere Sigambri.” They moistened their hair with a kind of soft soap. Plin. xxviii. 12. Mart. xiv. 26, “Caustica Teutonicos accendit spuma capillos.” VIII. xxxiii. 20, “Fortior et tortos servat vesica capillos, et mutat Latias spuma Batava comas.”
891 Pygmæus. Cf. Stat. Sylv. I. vi., 57, from which it appears that Domitian exhibited a spectacle of pigmy gladiators. “Hic audax subit ordo pumilonum—edunt vulnera conseruntque dextras et mortem sibi (qua manu!) minantur. Ridet Mars pater et cruenta virtus. Casuræque vagis grues rapinis mirantur pumilos ferociores.”
“When clouds of Thracian birds obscure the sky,
To arms! To arms! the desperate Pigmies cry:
But soon defeated in th’ unequal fray,
Disordered flee: while pouncing on their prey
The victor cranes descend, and clamoring, bear
The wriggling mannikins aloft in air.” Gifford.
892 Chrysippus the Stoic, disciple of Cleanthes and Zeno, a native of Tarsus or Soli, ἀνὴρ εὐφυὴς ἐν παντὶ μέρει. Vid. Diog. Laert. in Vit., who says he “was so renowned a logician, that had the gods used logic they would have used that of Chrysippus.” VII., vii., 2.
893 Hymetto. As though the hill sympathized with the sweetness of Socrates’ mind. Cf. Plato in Phæd. and Apol. Hor., ii., Od. vi., 14, “Ubi non Hymetto mella decedunt,” “And still its honey’d fruits Hymettus yields.” Byron.
894 Cicutæ. Cf. vii., 206. Pers., iv., 2.
895 Felix.
“Divine Philosophy! by whose pure light
We first distinguish, then pursue the right,
Thy power the breast from every error frees,
And weeds out all its vices by degrees:
Illumined by thy beam, Revenge we find
The abject pleasure of an abject mind,
And hence so dear to poor, weak womankind!” Gifford.
896 Conscia mens. Cf. Sen., Ep. 97, “Prima et maxima peccantium pœna est peccâsse; Secundæ vero pœnæ sunt timere semper et expavescere et securitati diffidere et fatendum est mala facinora conscientia flagellari et plurimum illic tormentorum esse,” etc. Cf. Æsch., Eumen., 150, ὑπὸ φρένας, ὐπὸ λοβὸν πάρεστι μαστίκτορος δαΐου δαμίου βαρύ, κ. τ. λ.
897 Cæditius. An agent of Nero’s cruelty, according to some; a sanguinary judge of Vitellius’ days, according to Lubinus. Probably a different person from the Cæditius mentioned xvi., 46. Rhadamanthus. Cf. Virg., Æn., vi., 566, “Gnossius hæc Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna, castigatque auditque dolos, subigitque fateri,” etc.
898 Spartano. The story is told Herod., vi., 86. A Milesian intrusted a sum of money to Glaucus a Spartan, who, when the Milesian’s sons claimed it, denied all knowledge of it, and went to Delphi to learn whether he could safely retain it; but, terrified at the answer of the oracle, he sent for the Milesians and restored the money. Leotychides relates the story to the Athenians, and leaves them to draw the inference from the fact he subjoins: Γλαύκου νῦν οὔτε τι ἀπόγονόν ἐστιν οὐδὲν, οὔτ’ ἱστίη οὐδεμίη νομιζομένη εἶναι Γλαύκου· ἐκτέτριπταί τε πρόῤῥιζος ἐκ Σπάρτης.
899 Metu.
“Scared at this warning, he who sought to try
If haply heaven might wink at perjury,
Alive to fear, though still to virtue dead,
Gave back the treasure to preserve his head.” Hodgson.
900 Tacitum. Cf. King John, Act iv.,
“The deed which both our tongues held vile to name!”
Cf. i., 167, “tacitâ sudant præcordia culpâ.”
“Thus, but intended mischief, stay’d in time,
Had all the moral guilt of finished crime.” Badham.
901 Crescente. Ov., Heroid., xvi., 226, “Crescit et invito lentus in ore cibus.”
902 Sed vina. Read perhaps “Setina,” as v., 33.
903 Albani. Cf. v., 33, “Cras bibet Albanis aliquid de montibus.” Hor., iv., Od. xi., 1, “Est mihi nonum superantis annum plenus Albani cadus.” Mart., xiii., 109, “Hoc de Cæsareis Mitis Vindemia cellis misit Iuleo quæ sibi monte placet.”
904 Velut acri. Or perhaps, “as though the rich Falernian were sour instead of mellow.”
“The rich Falernian changes into gall.” Hodgson.
905 Versata. Cf. iii., 279. Hom., Il., xxiv., 10, seq. Sen., de Tranq. An., 2, “versant se et hoc atque illo modo componunt donec quietem lassitudine inveniant.” “Propert.,” I., xiv., 21, “Et miserum toto juvenem versare cubili.”
906 Sudoribus. Cf. i., 167, “Sudant præcordia culpâ.” Cf. Ov., Her., vii., 65.
907 Major. Virg., Æn., ii., 773, “Notâ major imago.” Suet., Claud., i., species mulieris humanâ amplior.
908 Amplior. Tac., Ann., xi., 21, “oblata ei species muliebris ultra modum humanum.” Suet., Aug., 94.
909 Cogitque fateri. The idea is probably from Lucret., v., 1157, “Quippe ubi se multei per somnia sæpe loquenteis, Aut morbo deliranteis protraxe ferantur Et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse.”
910 Quum tonat. Suet., Calig., 51, “Nam qui deos tantopere contemneret, ad minima tonitrua et fulgura connivere, caput obvolvere; ad vero majora proripere se e strato, sub lectumque condere, solebat.”
911 Murmure. Lucret., v., 1218, “Cui non conrepunt membra pavore Fulminis horribili cum plaga torrida tellus Contremit et magnum percurrunt murmura cœlum? Non populei gentesque tremunt.”
912 Cadai. “Quæque cadent in te fulmina missa putes.” Ov., Her., vii., 72. Pind., Nem., vi., 90, ζάκοτον ἔγχος. Hor., i., Od. iii., 40, “Iracunda Jovem ponere fulmina.”
“Where’er the lightning strikes, the flash is thought
Judicial fire, with heaven’s high vengeance fraught.” Badham.
913 Vindicet.
“Oh! ’tis not chance, they cry; this hideous crash
Is not the war of winds, nor this dread flash
The encounter of dark clouds, but blasting fire,
Charged with the wrath of heaven’s insulted sire!” Gifford.
914 Galli. Cf. xii., 89, 96. Plin., x., 21, 56. Plat., Phæd., 66.
915 Ægris.
“Can pardoning heaven on guilty sickness smile?
Or is there victim than itself more vile?” Badham.
916 Mobilis. Sen., Ep. 47, “Hoc habent inter cætera boni mores, placent sibi ac permanent: levis est malitia, sæpe mutatur, non in melius, sed in aliud.”
917 Natura. Hor., i., Ep. x., 24, “Naturam expellas furca tamen usque recurret.”
918 Ruborem. Mart., xi., Ep. xxvii., 7, “Aut cum perfricuit frontem posuitque pudorem.”
“Vice once indulged, what rogue could e’er restrain?
Or what bronzed cheek has learn’d to blush again?” Hodgson.
919 Rupem. Cf. i., 73, “aliquid brevibus Gyaris et carcere dignum.” vi., 563.
“Or hurried off to join the wretched train
Of exiled great ones in the Ægean main.” Gifford.
920 Fatebere. Cf. Psalm lviii., 9, 10.
921 Tiresiam. Soph., Œd. T. Ovid, Met., iii., 322, seq.