Satire XIV

There are very many things, Fuscinus,922 that both deserve a bad name, and fix a lasting spot on a fortune otherwise splendid, which parents themselves point the way to, and inculcate upon their children. If destructive gambling 923 delights the sire, the heir while yet a child plays 924 too; and shakes the selfsame weapons in his own little dice-box. Nor will that youth allow any of his kin to form better hopes of him who has learned to peel truffles,925 to season a mushroom,926 and drown beccaficas 927 swimming in the same sauce, his gourmand sire with his hoary gluttony 928 showing him the way. When his seventh 929 year has past over the boy’s head, and all his second teeth are not yet come, though you range a thousand bearded 930 philosophers on one side of him, and as many on the other, still he will be ever longing to dine in sumptuous style, and not degenerate from his sire’s luxurious kitchen.

Does Rutilus 931 inculcate a merciful disposition and a character indulgent to venial faults? does he hold that the souls and bodies of our slaves 932 are formed of matter like our own and of similar elements? or does he not teach cruelty, that Rutilus, who delights in the harsh clang of stripes, and thinks no Siren’s 933 song can equal the sound of whips; the Antiphates 934 and Polyphemus of his trembling household? Then is he happy indeed whenever the torturer 935 is summoned, and some poor wretch is branded with the glowing iron for stealing a couple of towels! What doctrine does he preach to his son that revels in the clank of chains, that feels a strange delight in branded slaves,936 and the country jail? Do you expect that Larga’s 937 daughter will not turn out an adulteress, who could not possibly repeat her mother’s lovers so quickly, or string them together with such rapidity, as not to take breath thirty times at least? While yet a little maid she was her mother’s confidante; now, at that mother’s dictation 938 she fills her own little tablets, and gives them to her mother’s agents to bear to lovers of her own.

Such is Nature’s law.939 The examples of vice that we witness at home 940 more surely and quickly corrupt us, when they insinuate themselves into our minds, under the sanction of those we revere. Perhaps just one or two young men may spurn these practices, whose hearts the Titan has formed with kindlier art, and moulded out of better clay.941

But their sire’s footsteps, that they ought to shun, lead on all the rest, and the routine 942 of inveterate depravity, that has been long before their eyes, attracts them on.

Therefore refrain 943 from all that merits reprobation. One powerful motive, at least, there is to this—lest our children copy our crimes. For we are all of us too quick at learning to imitate base and depraved examples; and you may find a Catiline in every people and under every sky; but nowhere a Brutus,944 or Brutus’ uncle!

Let nothing shocking to eyes or ears approach those doors that close upon your child. Away! far, far away,945 the pander’s wenches, and the songs of the parasite 946 that riots the livelong night! The greatest reverence 947 is due to a child! If you are contemplating a disgraceful act, despise not your child’s tender years, but let your infant son act as a check upon your purpose of sinning. For if, at some future time, he shall have done any thing to deserve the censor’s 948 wrath, and show himself like you, not in person only and in face, but also the true son of your morals, and one who, by following your footsteps, adds deeper guilt to your crimes—then, forsooth! you will reprove and chastise him with clamorous bitterness, and then set about altering your will. Yet how dare you assume the front severe,949 and license of a parent’s speech; you, who yourself, though old, do worse than this; and the exhausted cupping-glass 950 is long ago looking out for your brainless head?

If a friend is coming to pay you a visit, your whole household is in a bustle. “Sweep the floor, display the pillars in all their brilliancy, let the dry spider come down with all her web; let one clean 951 the silver, another polish the embossed 952 plate—” the master’s voice thunders out, as he stands over the work, and brandishes his whip.

You are alarmed then, wretched man, lest your entrance-hall, befouled by dogs, should offend the eye of your friend who is coming, or your corridor be spattered with mud; and yet one little slave could clean all this with half a bushel of saw-dust. And yet, will you not bestir yourself that your own son may see your house immaculate and free from foul spot or crime? It deserves our gratitude that you have presented a citizen to your country and people,953 if you take care that he prove useful to the state—of service to her lands; useful in transacting the affairs both of war and peace. For it will be a matter of the highest moment in what pursuits and moral discipline you train him.

The stork feeds her young on snakes 954 and lizards which she has discovered in the trackless fields. They too, when fledged, go in quest of the same animals. The vulture, quitting the cattle, and dogs, and gibbets, hastens to her callow brood, and bears to them a portion of the carcass. Therefore this is the food of the vulture too when grown up, and able to feed itself and build a nest in a tree of its own.

Whereas the ministers of Jove,955 and birds of noble blood, hunt in the forest for the hare 956 or kid. Hence is derived the quarry for their nest: hence too, when their progeny, now matured, have poised themselves on their own wings, when hunger pinches they swoop to that booty, which first they tasted when they broke the shell.

Centronius had a passion for building; and now on the embayed shore of Caieta,957 now on the highest peak of Tibur,958 or on Præneste’s 959 hills, he reared the tall roofs of his villas, of Grecian 960 and far-fetched marbles; surpassing the temple of Fortune 961 and of Hercules as much as Posides 962 the eunuch outvied our Capitol. While, therefore, he is thus magnificently lodged, Centronius lessened his estate and impaired his wealth. And yet the sum of the portion that he left was no mean one: but all this his senseless son ran through by raising new mansions of marble more costly than his sire’s.

Some whose lot it is to have a father that reveres sabbaths, worship nothing save clouds and the divinity of heaven; and think that flesh of swine, from which their sire abstained, differs in naught from that of man. Soon, too, they submit to circumcision. But, trained to look with scorn upon the laws of Rome, they study and observe and reverence all those Jewish statutes that Moses in his mystic volume handed down: never to show the road except to one that worships the same sacred rites—to conduct to the spring they are in quest of, the circumcised 963 alone. But their father is to blame for this; to whom each seventh 964 day was a day of sloth, and kept aloof from all share of life’s daily duties.

All other vices, however, young men copy of their own free choice. Avarice is the only one that even against their will they are constrained to put in practice. For this vice deceives men under the guise and semblance 965 of virtue. Since it is grave in bearing—austere in look and dress. And without doubt, the miser is praised “a frugal 966 character,” “a sparing man,” and one that knows how to guard his own,967 more securely than if the serpent of the Hesperides 968 or of Pontus had the keeping of them. Besides, the multitude considers the man of whom we are speaking, a splendid carver 969 of his own fortune. Since it is by such artificers as these that estates are increased. But still, increase they do by all means, fair or foul, and swell in bulk from the ceaseless anvil and ever-glowing forge.

The father, therefore, considers misers as men of happy minds,970 since he admires wealth, and thinks no instance can be found of a poor man that is also happy; and therefore exhorts his sons to follow the same track, and apply themselves earnestly to the doctrines of the same sect. There are certain first elements 971 of all vices. These he instills into them in regular order, and constrains them to become adepts in the most paltry lucre. Presently he inculcates an insatiable thirst for gain. While he is famishing himself, he pinches his servants’972 stomachs with the scantiest allowance.973 For he never endures to consume the whole of the blue fragments of mouldy 974 bread, but saves, even in the middle of September,975 the mince 976 of yesterday;977 and puts by till to-morrow’s dinner the summer bean,978 with a piece of stockfish and half a stinking shad:979 and, after he has counted them, locks up the shreds of chopped leek.980 A beggar from a bridge 981 would decline an invitation to such a meal as this! But to what end is money scraped together at the expense of such self-torture? Since it is undoubted madness,982 palpable insanity, to live a beggar’s life, simply that you may die rich.

Meanwhile, though the sack swells, full to the very brim, the love of money grows 983 as fast as the money itself grows. And he that has the less, the less he covets. Therefore you are looking out for a second villa, since one estate is not enough for you, and it is your fancy to extend 984 your territories; and your neighbor’s corn-land seems to you more spacious and fertile than your own; therefore you treat for the purchase of this too, with all its woods and its hill that whitens with its dense olive-grove. But if their owner will not be prevailed upon to part with them at any price, then at night, your lean oxen and cattle with weary necks, half-starved, will be turned into his corn-fields while still green, and not quit it for their own homes before the whole crop 985 has found its way into their ruthless 986 stomachs—so closely cropped that you would fancy it had been mown. You could hardly tell how many have to complain of similar treatment, and how many estates wrongs like this have brought to the hammer. “But what says the world? What the trumpet of slanderous fame?—”

“What harm does this do me?”987 he says; “I had rather have a lupin’s pod, than that the whole village neighborhood 988 should praise me, if I am at the same time to reap the scanty crops of a diminutive estate.”

You will then, forsooth, be free from all disease 989 and all infirmity, and escape sorrow and care; and a lengthened span of life will hereafter be your lot with happier destiny, if you individually own as much arable land as the whole Roman people used to plow under king Tatius. And after that, to men broken down with years, that had seen the hard service of the Punic wars, and faced the fierce Pyrrhus and the Molossian swords, scarce two acres 990 a man were bestowed at length as compensation for countless wounds. Yet that reward for all their blood and toil never appeared to any less than their deserts—or did their country’s faith appear scant or thankless. Such a little glebe as this used to satisfy the father himself and all his cottage troop: where lay his pregnant wife, and four children played—one a little slave,991 the other three free-born. But for their grown-up brothers 992 when they returned from the trench or furrow, there was another and more copious supper prepared, and the big pots smoked with vegetables. Such a plot of ground in our days is not enough for a garden.

It is from this source commonly arise the motives to crime. Nor has any vice of the mind of man mingled more poisons or oftener dealt 993 the assassin’s knife, than the fierce lust for wealth unlimited. For he that covets to grow rich,994 would also grow rich speedily. But what respect for laws, what fear or shame is ever found in the breast of the miser hasting to be rich? “Live contented with these cottages, my lads, and these hills of ours!” So said, in days of yore, the Marsian and Hernican and Vestine sire—“Let us earn our bread, sufficient for our tables, with the plow. Of this the rustic deities 995 approve; by whose aid and intervention, since the boon of the kindly corn-blade, it is man’s fortune to loathe the oaks he fed upon before. Naught that is forbidden will he desire to do who is not ashamed of wearing the high country boots 996 in frosty weather, and keeps off the east winds by inverted skins. The foreign purple, unknown to us before, leads on to crime and impiety of every kind.”

Such were the precepts that these fine old fellows gave to their children! But now, after the close of autumn, even at midnight 997 the father with loud voice rouses his drowsy son:

“Come, boy, get your tablets and write! Come, wake up! Draw indictments! get up the rubricated statutes 998 of our fathers—or else draw up a petition for a centurion’s post. But be sure Lælius observe your hair untouched by a comb, and your nostrils well covered with hair,999 and your good brawny shoulders. Sack the Numidian’s hovels,1000 and the forts of the Brigantes,1001 that your sixtieth year may bestow on you the eagle that will make you rich. Or, if you shrink from enduring the long-protracted labors of the camp, and the sound of bugles and trumpets makes your heart faint, then buy something that you may dispose of for more than half as much again as it cost you; and never let disgust at any trade that must be banished beyond the other bank of Tiber, enter your head, nor think that any difference can be drawn between perfumes or leather. The smell of gain is good 1002 from any thing whatever! Let this sentiment of the poet 1003 be forever on your tongue—worthy of the gods, and even great Jove himself!—‘No one asks how you get it, but have it you must.’ This maxim old crones impress on boys before they can run alone. This all girls learn before their A B C.”

Any parent whatever inculcating such lessons as these I would thus address: Tell me, most empty-headed of men! who bids you be in such a hurry? I engage your pupil shall better your instruction. Don’t be alarmed! You will be outdone; just as Ajax outstripped Telamon, and Achilles excelled Peleus.1004 Spare their tender years!1005 The bane of vice matured has not yet filled the marrow of their bones! As soon as he begins to trim a beard, and apply the long razor’s edge, he will be a false witness—will sell his perjuries at a trifling sum, laying his hand 1006 on Ceres’ altar and foot. Look upon your daughter-in-law as already buried, if she has entered your family with a dowry that must entail death on her.1007 With what a gripe will she be strangled in her sleep! For all that you suppose must be gotten by sea and land, a shorter road 1008 will bestow on him! Atrocious crime involves no labor! “I never recommended this,” you will hereafter say, “nor counseled such an act.” Yet the cause and source of this depravity of heart rests at your doors; for he that inculcated a love for great wealth, and by his sinister lessons trained up his sons to avarice,1009 does give full license, and gives the free rein 1010 to the chariot’s course; then if you try to check it, it can not be restrained, but, laughing you to scorn, is hurried on, and leaves even the goal far behind. No one holds it enough to sin just so much as you allow him, but men grant themselves a more enlarged indulgence.

When you say to your son, “The man is a fool that gives any thing to his friend,1011 or relieves the burden 1012 of his neighbor’s poverty,” you are, in fact, teaching him to rob and cheat, and get riches by any crime, of which as great a love exists in you as was that of their country in the breast of the Decii;1013 as much, if Greece speaks truth, as Menæceus 1014 loved Thebes! in whose furrows 1015 legions with their bucklers spring from the serpent’s teeth, and at once engage in horrid war, as though a trumpeter had arisen along with them. Therefore you will see that fire 1016 of which you yourself supplied the sparks, raging far and wide, and spreading universal destruction. Nor will you yourself escape, poor wretch! but with loud roar the lion-pupil 1017 in his den will mangle his trembling master.

Your horoscope is well known to the astrologers.1018 Yes! but it is a tedious business to wait for the slow-spinning 1019 distaffs. You will be cut off long before your thread 1020 is spun out. You are long ago standing in his way, and are a drag upon his wishes. Long since your slow and stag-like 1021 age is irksome to the youth. Send for Archigenes 1022 at once! and buy what Mithridates 1023 compounded, if you would pluck another fig, or handle this year’s roses. You must possess yourself of that drug which every father, and every king, should swallow before every meal.

I now present to you an especial gratification, to which you can find no match on any stage, or on the platform of the sumptuous prætor. If you only become spectator at what risk to life the additions to fortune are procured, the ample store in the brass-bound 1024 chest, the gold to be deposited in watchful Castor’s 1025 temple; since Mars the avenger has lost helmet and all, and could not even protect his own property. You may give up, therefore, the games of Flora,1026 of Ceres,1027 and of Cybele,1028 such far superior sport is the real business of life!

Do bodies projected from the petaurum,1029 or they that come down the tight-rope, furnish better entertainment than you, who take up your constant abode in your Corycian 1030 bark, ever to be tossed up and down by Corus and by Auster? the desperate merchant of vile and stinking wares! You, who delight in importing the rich 1031 raisin from the shores of ancient Crete, and wine-flasks 1032—Jove’s own fellow-countrymen! Yet he that plants his foot with hazardous tread by that perilous barter earns his bread, and makes the rope ward off both cold and hunger. You run your desperate risk, for a thousand talents and a hundred villas. Behold the harbor! the sea swarming with tall ships! more than one half the world is now at sea. Wherever the hope of gain invites, a fleet will come; nor only bound over the Carpathian and Gætulian seas, but leaving Calpe 1033 far behind, hear Phœbus hissing in the Herculean main. A noble recompense indeed for all this toil! that you return home thence with well-stretched purse; and exulting in your swelled money-bags,1034 brag of having seen Ocean’s monsters,1035 and young mermen!

A different madness distracts different minds. One, while in his sister’s arms, is terrified at the features and torches of the Eumenides.1036 Another, when he lashes the bull 1037, believes it is Agamemnon or Ulysses roars. What though he spare his tunic or his cloak, that man requires a keeper,1038 who loads his ship with a cargo up to the very bulwarks, and has but a plank 1039 between himself and the wave. While the motive cause to all this hardship and this fearful risk, is silver cut up into petty legends and minute portraits. Clouds and lightning oppose his voyage. “All hands unmoor!” exclaims the owner of the corn and pepper he has bought up. “This lowering sky, that bank of sable clouds portends no ill! It is but summer lightning!”

Unhappy wretch! perchance that selfsame night he will be borne down, overwhelmed with shivering timbers and the surge, and clutch his purse with his left hand and his teeth. And he, to whose covetous desires 1040 but lately not all the gold sufficed which Tagus 1041 or Pactolus 1042 rolls down in its ruddy sand, must now be content with a few rags to cover his nakedness, and a scanty morsel, while as a “poor shipwrecked mariner” he begs for pence, and maintains himself by his painting of the storm.1043

Yet, what is earned by hardships great as these, involves still greater care and fear to keep. Wretched, indeed, is the guardianship 1044 of a large fortune.

Licinus,1045 rolling in wealth, bids his whole regiment of slaves mount guard with leathern buckets 1046 all in rows; in dread alarm for his amber, and his statues, and his Phrygian marble,1047 and his ivory, and massive tortoise-shell.

The tub of the naked Cynic 1048 does not catch fire! If you smash it, another home will be built by to-morrow, or else the same will stand, if soldered with a little lead. Alexander felt, when he saw in that tub its great inhabitant, how much more really happy was he who coveted nothing, than he who aimed at gaining to himself the whole world; doomed to suffer perils equivalent to the exploits he achieved.

Had we but foresight, thou, Fortune, wouldst have no divinity.1049 It is we that make thee a goddess! Yet if any one were to consult me what proportion of income is sufficient, I will tell you. Just as much as thirst and hunger 1050 and cold require; as much as satisfied you, Epicurus,1051 in your little garden! as much as the home of Socrates contained before. Nature never gives one lesson, and philosophy another. Do I seem to bind you down to too strict examples? Then throw in something to suit our present manners. Make up the sum 1052 which Otho’s law thinks worthy of the Fourteen Rows.

If this make you contract your brows, and put out your lip, then take two knights’ estate, make it the three Four-hundred!1053 If I have not yet filled your lap, but still it gapes for more, then neither Crœsus’ wealth nor the realms of Persia will ever satisfy you. No! nor even Narcissus’1054 wealth! on whom Claudius Cæsar lavished all, and whose behest he obeyed, when bidden even to kill his wife.

Footnotes

922 Fuscinus. Nothing is known of him.

“Fuscinus, those ill deeds that sully fame,
And lay such blots upon an honest name,
In blood once tainted, like a current run
From the lewd father to the lewder son.” Dryden.

923 Alea, i., 89. Cf. Propert., IV., viii., 45, “Me quoque per talos Venerem quærente secundos, Semper damnosi subsiluere Canes.” The Romans used four dice in throwing, which were thrown on a table with a rim (alveolus or abacus), out of a dice-box made of horn, box-wood, or ivory. This fritillus was a kind of cup, narrower at the top than below. When made in the form of a tower, with graduated intervals, it was called pyrgus, turricula, or phimus.

924 Ludit.

“Repeats in miniature the darling vice;
Shakes the low box, and cogs the little dice.” Gifford.

925 Tubera. Cf. v., 116, seq. Mart., Ep. xiii., 50.

926 Boletum. Cf. v., 147. Mart., Ep. xiii., 48.

927 Ficedulas. Mr. Metcalfe translates “snipes.” Cf. Mart., Ep. xiii., 49, “Cum me ficus alat, cum pascar dulcibus uvis, Cur potius nomen non dedit uva mihi?”

928 Gula, i., 140.

929 Septimus. Plin., vii., 16, “Editis infantibus primores dentes septimo gignuntur mense: iidem anno septimo decidunt, aliique sufficiuntur.”

930 Barbatos. Pers., iv., 1, “Barbatum hoc crede magistrum dicere sorbitio tollit quem dira cicutæ.” Cic., Fin., iv., “Barba sylvosa et pulchre alita, quamvis res ipsa sit exterior et fortuita, inter hominis eruditi insignia recensetur.”

931 Rutilus. Used probably indefinitely, as in Sat. xi., 2, “Si Rutilus, demens.” Rutilus was a surname of the Marcian, Virginian, and Nantian clans.

932 Servorum. Gifford quotes an apposite passage from Macrobius, i., 2, “Tibi autem unde in servos tantum et tam immane fastidium? Quasi non ex iisdem tibi constent et alantur elementis, eumdemque spiritum ab eodem principe carpant!”

933 Sirena. Cf. ix., 150.

934 Antiphates, king of the cannibal Læstrygones. Hom., Odys., x., 114, seq. Ovid, Met., xiv., 233, seq.

935 Tortore. vi., 480, “Sunt quæ tortoribus annua præstent.”

“Knows no delight, save when the torturer’s hand
Stamps for low theft the agonizing brand.” Gifford.

936 Ergastula. Cf. ad viii., 180. Put here, as in vi., 151, for the slaves themselves. As 15 freemen were said to constitute a state, and 15 slaves a familia, so “quindecim vincti” form one Ergastulum. It properly means the Bridewell, where they were set to “travaux forcis.” Liv., ii., 23; vii., 4. The country prisons were generally under-ground dungeons. Branding on the forehead was a common punishment. Thieves had the word “Fur” burnt in; hence called “literati homines,” “homines trium literarum.” Plaut., Aul., II., iv., 46. Cicero calls one “compunctum notis, stigmatiam,” Off., ii., 7. So “Inscripti vultus,” Plin., xviii., 3. “Inscripti,” Martial, Ep. viii, 79. Cf. Plin., Paneg., 35. Sat. x., 183. Plaut., Cas., II., vi., 49.

937 Largæ. Cf. vi., 239, “Scilicet expectas ut tradat mater honestos atque alios mores quam quos habet?” x., 220, “Promptius expediam quot amaverit Hippia mæchos.”

938 Dictante. vi., 223, “Illa docet missis a corruptore tabellis, nil rude, nil simplex rescribere.”

939 Exempla. From Cic, Ep., iv., 3, “Quod exemplo fit, id etiam jure fieri putant.”

940 Exempla domestica.

“Thus Nature bids our home’s examples win
The passive mind to imitative sin,
And vice, unquestion’d, makes its easy way,
Sanction’d by those our earliest thoughts obey.” Badham.

941 Luto. Callim., fr. 133, εἴ σε Προμηθεὺς ἔπλασε καὶ πηλοῦ μὴ ‘ξ ἑτέρου γέγονας. Ovid, Met, i., 80, “Sive recens tellus seductaque nuper ab alto æthere cognati retinebat semina cœli; Quam satus Iapeto mixtam fluvialibus undis finxit in effigiem moderantûm cuncta Deorum.” Cf. Sat. vi., 13, “Compositive luto nullos habuere parentes.”

942 Orbita, from orbis; “the track of a wheel.” So by the same metaphor the “routine,” or course of life.

943 Abstineas.

“O cease from sin! should other reasons fail
Lest our own frailties make our children frail.” Badham.

944 Brutus was the son of Servilia, the sister of Cato of Utica (cf. x., 319). So Sen., Ep. 97, “Omne tempus Clodios, non omne Catones fert.”

945 Procul hinc. The formula at religious solemnities. Cf. ii., 89. Ov., Met., vii., 255, “Hinc procul Æsonidem, procul hinc jubet ire ministros, et monet arcanis oculos removere profanos.”

946 Parasiti. Cf. i., 139.

947 Reverentia.

“His child’s unsullied purity demands
The deepest reverence at a parent’s hands.” Badham.

948 Censoris. Henninius’ reading and punctuation is followed here.

“Oh yet reflect! For should he e’er provoke,
In riper age, the Law’s avenging stroke
(Since not alone in person and in face,
But morals, he will prove your son, and trace,
Nay pass your vicious footsteps), you will rail,
And name another heir, should threatening fail!” Gifford.

949 Cerebro. Plin., ix., 37, “Cerebrum est velut arx sensuum: hic mentis est regimen.”

950 Cucurbita. Properly a kind of gourd, κολοκύνθη thence from its shape, and perhaps too from its use, applied to a cupping-glass. These were made of horn, brass, and afterward of glass. The Greeks, from the same cause, called it σικύα, or κύαθος (cf. Schol. ad Arist., Lys., 444). It is called ventosa from the rarefication of the air in the operation, and was applied to relieve the head. Hence cucurbitæ caput is used for a fool. Cf. Appul., Met., I, “Nos cucurbitæ caput non habemus, ut pro te moriamur!”

951 Lavet. Browne says, “Who washes silver plate?” and prefers the reading “leve.” “But might not his patellæ be of silver?” iii., 261, “Domus intereà secura patellas jam lavat.”

952 Aspera. Cf. i., 76, “Argentum vetus et stantem extrà pocula caprum.” v., 38, “Inæquales beryllo phialas.” Virg., Æn., ix., 266, “Argento perfecta atque aspera signis pocula.” Ovid., Met., v., 81, “Altis exstantem signis cratera.” xii., 235, “Signis exstantibus asper Antiquus crater.” xiii., 700, “Hactenus antiquo signis fulgentibus ære, Summus inaurato crater erat asper acantho.”

“‘Sweep the dry cobwebs down!’ the master cries,
Whips in his hand, and fury in his eyes:
‘Let not a spot the clouded columns stain,
Scour you the figured silver; you the plain!’” Gifford.

953 Patriæ populoque, an ancient formula. Cf. Liv., v., 41. So Horace joins them, “Hoc fonte derivata clades in patriam populumque fluxit,” iii., Od. vi., 20 (vid. Orell. in loc.). Ovid, Met., xv., 572, “Seu lætum est, patriæ lætum, populoque Quirini.”

“Thy grateful land shall say ’tis nobly done,
If thou bring’st up to public use thy son;
Fit for the various tasks allotted men,
A warlike chief, a prudent citizen.” Hodgson.

954 Serpente. Pliny (H. N., x., 23) alludes to the same circumstance with regard to storks. “Illis in Thessaliâ tantus honos serpentum exitio habitus est, ut ciconiam occidere capitale sit, eadem legibus pœna, quâ in homicidas.”

“Her progeny the stork with serpents feeds,
And finds them lizards in the devious meads:
The little storklings, when their wings are grown,
Look out for snakes and lizards of their own.” Badham.

955 Famulæ Jovis. Æsch., Prom. V., 1057, Διὸς πτηνὸς κύων, δαφοινὸς ἀετός. Hor., iv., Od. iv., 1, “Qualem ministrum fulminis alitem,” etc.

956 Leporem. Virg., Æn., ix., 563, seq., “Qualis ubi aut leporem aut candenti corpora cycnum Sustulit alta petens pedibus Jovis armiger uncis.”

“While Jove’s own eagle, bird of noble blood,
Scours the wide champaign for untainted food,
Bears the swift hare, or swifter fawn away,
And feeds her nestlings with the generous prey.” Gifford.

957 Caietæ, now “Mola di Gaeta,” called from Æneas’s nurse. Virg., Æn., vii., 1, “Tu quoque littoribus nostris, Æneia nutrix, Æternam moriens famam Caieta dedisti. Et nunc servat honos sedem tuus.”

958 Tibur, now “Tivoli,” on the Anio, built on a steep acclivity. Hence “supinum,” Hor., iii., Od. iv., 23. Cf. iii., 192, “aut proni Tiburis arce.”

959 Præneste, now “Palestrina,” said to have been founded by Cæculus, son of Vulcan. Vid. Virg., Æn., vii., 678.

960 Græcis. Cf. Stat. Sylv., III., i., 5, “Sed nitidos postes Graiisque effulta metallis culmina.” The green marble of Tænarus was very highly prized. Vid. Plin., H. N. xxxvi., 7. Prop., III., ii., 9, “Quod non Tænariis domus est mihi fulta columnis.” Tibull., III., iii., 13, “Quidve domus prodest Phrygiis innixa columnis, Tænare sive tuis, sive Caryste tuis.” Among other foreign marbles, Pliny mentions the Egyptian, Naxian, Armenian, Parian, Chian, Sicyonian, Synnadic, Numidian. Augustus introduced the use of marble in public buildings, and many edifices of his time were constructed of solid marble. All the columns of the temple of Mars Ultor are of marble. (Vid. Niebuhr’s Lectures, vol. iii., p. 299. Sat. xi., 182, “Longis Numidarum fulta columnis.” Hor., ii., Od. xviii., 4, “Columnas ultimâ recisas Africâ.” Lucian, Hipp., p. 507, ed. Bened.) But the more general use of it did not begin till the reign of Nero, when Greek architecture became prevalent.

961 Fortunæ. The temple of Fortune at Præneste was erected by Augustus. Hence she was called Dea Prænestina, and the oracles delivered there “Sortes Prænestinæ.” Suet., Tib., 63. Propert., II., xxxii., 3. Cf. Ov., Fast., vi., 62. (From Stat. Sylv., I., iii., 80, “Quod ni templa darent alias Tirynthia sortes, et Prænestinæ poterant migrare Sorores,” it appears that at Præneste, as at Antium, there were two Fortunes worshiped as sister-goddesses. Cf. Suet., Calig., 57. Mart., v., Ep. i., 3. Orell. ad Hor., i., Od. xxxv., 1.) The temple of Hercules at Tibur was built by Marcius Philippus, step-father of Augustus. Cf. Suet., Aug., 29. Prop., II., xxxii., 5.

962 Posides. Vid. Suet., Claud., 28, “Libertorum præcipuè suspexit Posiden spadonem quem etiam, Britannico triumpho, inter militares viros hastâ purâ donavit.” Like Claudius’ other freedmen, he amassed immense wealth.

963 Verpos. Some of the commentators waste a great amount of zeal, and no little knowledge, to show us that these lines prove Juvenal to have been in utter ignorance of the Mosaic law. I presume Juvenal means to tell us what the Jews did, not what the Jewish law taught; which had they followed, they would not have been in Rome for Juvenal to write about. These lines, in fact, instead of contradicting Josephus, confirm his account of the state of his countrymen, and are another valuable testimony to prove that they “had made the word of God of none effect through their traditions.” What should we say of Messrs. Johnson, Malone, and Steevens, were they to gravely demonstrate that Shakspeare wrote in ignorance of the tenets of Judaism when he introduces Shylock coveting Signor Antonio’s “pound of flesh?”

964 Septima. Cf. Tac., His., v., 4, “Septimo die otium placuisse ferunt; quia is finem laborum tulerit; dein blandiente inertiâ, septimum quoque annum ignaviæ datum.”

965 Specie. Hor., A. P., 25, “Decipimur specie recti.” Pers., v., 105, “Et veri speciem dignoscere calles.”

“For this grave vice, assuming Virtue’s guise,
Seems Virtue’s self to superficial eyes.” Gifford.

966 Frugi. Hor., i., Sat. iii., 49, “Parcius hic vivit, frugi dicatur.”

967 Tutela. Hor., A. P., 169, “Vel quod Quærit, et inventis miser abstinet ac timet uti,” and l. 325-333.

968 Hesperidum. Vid. Ov., Met., iv., 627, seq. Virg., Æn., iv., 480, seq. Athen., iii., p. 82, ed. Dindorf.

969 Artificem.

“And reasoning from the fortune he has made,
Hail him a perfect master of his trade.” Gifford.

970 Animi. Hor., i., Ep. xv., 45, “Vos sapere et solos aio bene vivere quorum Conspicitur nitidis fundata pecunia villis.”

971 Elementa.

“Vice boasts its elements, like other arts:
These he inculcates first; anon imparts
The petty tricks of saving: last inspires
Of endless wealth th’ insatiable desires.” Gifford.

972 Servorum. Juvenal had evidently Theophrastus’ αἰσχροκερδὴς in his eye: τὰ δὲ καταλειπόμενα ἀπὸ τῆς τραπέζης ἡμίση τῶν ῥαφανίδων ἀπογράφεσθαι, ἵνα οἱ διακονοῦντες παῖδες μὴ λάβωσι.

973 Modio iniquo. Cf. Theophr., Char., 80 (π. αίσχροκερδ.), φειδωνίῳ μέτρῳ τὸν πύνδακα ἐγκεκρουσμένῳ μετρεῖν αὐτὸς τοῖς ἔνδον τὰ ἐπιτήδεια σφόδρα ἀποψῶν.

974 Mucida. v., 68, “Solidæ jam mucida frusta farinæ.”

975 Septembri. The hottest and most unhealthy month in Rome. Cf. vi., 517. Hor., i., Ep. xvi., 16.

976 Minutal. The μυττωτὸς and περίκομμα of Aristophanes. Martial describes one, lib. xi., Ep. xxxi. Cf. Apic, iv., 3.

977 Hesternum. So Θοίνην ἕωλον. Athen., vii., 2. Mart., i., Ep. civ., 7, “Deque decem plures semper servantur olivæ, explicat et cœnas unica mensa duas.”

978 Conchem. iii., 293, “Cujus conche tumes.”

979 Lacerti. Mart., x., Ep. 48, “Secta coronabunt rutatos ova lacertos.” xii., Ep. 19. Celsus, ii., 18, mentions the Lacertus among the fish “ex quibus salsamenta fiunt, et quorum cibus gravissimus est.” The Silurus was a common and coarse Egyptian fish, sent over salted to Rome. Cf. iv., 33.

980 Porri. iii., 294, “Quis tecum sectile porrum.” Cf. Plin., H.N., xix., 6.

981 Ponte. Cf. iv., 116, “Cæcus adulator dirusque a ponte satelles.” v., 8, “Nulla crepido vacat? nusquam pons et tegetis pars dimidia brevior?” Mart., x., Ep. v., 3, “Erret per urbem pontis exsul et clivi, interque raucos ultimus rogatores oret caninas panis improbi buccas.” Ovid, Ibis, 420, “Quique tenent pontem.”

982 Phrenesis. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 82, “Danda est Hellebori multo pars maxima avaris: Nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem.” So Cicero, de Senec., 65, “Avaritia vero senilis quid sibi velit, non intelligo: potest enim esse quidquam absurdius, quam quo minus viæ restat eò plus viatici quærere?”

983 Crescit. So Ovid, Fast., i., 211, “Creverunt et opes, et opum furiosa cupido et cum possideant plurima plura volunt. Quærere ut absumant, absumta requirere certant: atque ipsæ vitiis sunt alimenta vices.”

984 Proferre. Liv., i., 33. Virg., Æn., vi., 796. Hor., ii., Od. xviii., 17. ii., Sat. vi., 8, “O si angulus ille proximus accedat qui nunc denormat agellum.”

985 Novalia. Put here for the crops on any good land. Plin., H. N., xviii., 19, “Novale est quod alternis annis seritur.” Cf. Virg., Georg., i., 71, “Alternis idem tonsas cessare novales et segnem patiere situ durescere campum,” with Martyn’s note. Varro, de L. L., iv., 4, “Ager restibilis, qui restituitur ac reseritur quotquot annis; Contrà qui intermittitur, à novando novalis est ager.” It means properly land recently cleared. “Ager novus cui nunc primum immissum est aratrum (virgin soil), cum antea aut sylva esset, aut terra nunquam proscissa et culta in segetem.” Facc. Then it is used for any cultivated land. Virg., Ecl., i., 71. Stat., Theb., iii., 644, 5.

986 Sævos. So Hor., ii., Sat. vii., 5, “Quæ prima iratum ventrem placaverit esca.”

“Turn in by night thy cattle, starved and lean,
Amid his growing crops of waving green;
Nor lead them forth till all the field be bare,
As if a thousand sickles had been there.” Badham.

987 Quid nocet hoc? Cf. i., 48, “Quid enim salvis infamia nummis!” Hor., i., Sat. i., 63, “Ut quidam memoratur Athenis, Sordidus ac dives populi contemnere voces sic solitus: Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo Ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arcâ.”

988 Vicinia. Hor., ii., Sat. v., 106, “Egregiè factum laudet vicinia.”

989 Morbis. Cf. Hor., i., Sat. i., 80, “At si condoluit tentatum frigore corpus, aut alius casus lecto te affixit; habes qui assideat, fomenta paret, medicum roget ut te suscitet ac reddat natis carisque propinquis.”

“What! canst thou thus bid mortal sickness cease?
Thus from life’s lightest cares compel release?
Though twenty plowshares turn thy vast domain,
Shalt thou live longer unchastised by pain?” Badham.

990 Jugera bina. Liv., vi., 16, “Satricum coloniam deduci jussit; bina jugera et semisses agri assignati.” c., 36, “Auderentne postulare, ut quum bina jugera agri plebi dividerentur, ipsis plus quingenta jugera habere liceret?” The colonists sent to occupy the conquered country received, as their allotment of the land taken from the enemy, two acres apiece. The jugerum was nearly five eighths of an English acre, i. e., 2 roods, 19 perches, and a fraction. The semissis is the same as the actus quadratus. Cf. Varro, R. R., i., 10. Plin., H. N., xviii., 2.

991 Vernula. Cf. x., 117, “Quem sequitur custos angustæ vernula capsæ.” The verna (οἰκοτραφὴς) was so called, “qui in villis vere natus, quod tempus duce natura feturæ est.” Fest. Others say that it became a term of reproach from having been first given to those who were born in the Ver Sacrum. Cf. Fest, s. v. Mamertini. Strabo, v., p. 404. Liv., xxxiv., 44. Just., xxiv., 4. These home-born slaves, though more despised from having been born in a state of servitude, were treated with great fondness and indulgence. Sen., Prov., i., f., “Cogita filiorum nos modestia delèctari, vernularum licentia: illos tristiori disciplinâ contineri; horum ali audaciam.”

992 Domini. Cf. Plaut., Capt. Pr., 18, “Licet non hæredes sint, domini sunt.”

993 Grassatur. iii., 305, “Interdum et ferro subitus grassator agit rem.”

994 Cito vult fieri. Cf. Menand., οὐδεὶς ἐπλούτησε ταχέως δίκαιος ὤν. Prov., xxviii., 20, “He that maketh haste to be rich, shall not be innocent.”

“What law restrains, what scruples shall prevent
The desperate man on swift possessions bent?” Badham.

995 Numina ruris. Cf. Virg., Georg., i., 7, “Liber et alma Ceres vestro si munere tellus Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit aristâ.” So Fast., i., 671, “Placentur matres frugum Tellusque Ceresque Farre suo gravidæ, visceribusque suis. Consortes operum, per quas correcta vetustas, Quernaque glans victa est utiliore cibo.” iv., 399, “Postmodo glans nata est bene erat jam glande reperta, duraque magnificas quercus habebat opes. Prima Ceres homini ad meliora alimenta vocato mutavit glandes utiliore cibo.” So Sat., vi., 10, “Et sæpe horridior glandem ructante marito.” Sulp., 16, “Non aliter primo quàm cum surreximus ævo, Glandibus et puræ rursus procumbere lymphæ.”

996 Perone. Virg., Æn., vii., 690, “Crudus tegit altera pero.” The pero was a rustic boot, reaching to the middle of the leg, made of untanned leather. Cf. Pers., v., 102, “Navem si poscat sibi peronatus arator Luciferi rudis.”

“No guilty wish the simple plowman knows,
High-booted tramping through his country snows;
Clad in his shaggy cloak against the wind,
Rough his attire and undebauch’d his mind:
The foreign purple, better still unknown,
Makes all the sins of all the world our own.” Hodgson.

997 Media de nocte. Cf. Arist., Nub., 8, seq.

998 Rubras. Cf. Pers., v., 90, “Excepto si quid Masuri rubrica vetavit.” Ov., Trist., I., i., 7, “Nec titulus minio nec cedro charta notetur.” Mart., iii., Ep. ii., “Et te purpura delicata velet, et cocco rubeat superbus index.” In ordinary books, the titles and headings of the chapters were written in red letters. But in law-books the text was in red letter, and the commentaries and glosses in black.

999 Pilosas. ii., 11, “Hispida membra quidem et duræ per brachia setæ promittunt atrocem animum.” Combs were usually made of box-wood. Ov., Fast., vi., 229, “Non mihi detonsos crines depectere buxo.” Mart., xiv., Ep. xxv., 2, “Quid faciet nullos hic inventura capillos, multifido buxus quæ tibi dente datur.”

1000 Attegias, a word of Arabic origin. The Magalia of Virgil, Æn., i., 425; iv., 259, and Mapalia of Silius Italicus, ii., 437, seq., xvii., 88. Virg., Georg., iii., 340. Low round hovels, sometimes on wheels like the huts of the Scythian nomadæ, called from their shape “Cohortes rotundæ,” “hen-coops.” Cat. ap. Fest. They are described by Sallust (Bell. Jug., 20) as “Ædificia Numidarum agrestium, oblonga, incurvis lateribus tecta, quasi navium carinæ;” and by Hieron. as “furnorum similes.” Probably when fixed they were called Magalia; whence the name of the ancient part of Carthage, from the Punic “Mager.” When locomotive, Mapalia. Livy says that when Masinissa fled before Syphax to Mount Balbus, “familiæ aliquot cum mapalibus pecoribusque suis persecuti sunt regem.”

1001 The Brigantes were the most ancient and most powerful of the British nations, extending from sea to sea over the counties of York, Durham, Lancaster, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. Tac., Agric., 17. The famous Cartismandua was their queen, with whom Caractacus took refuge. Tac., Ann., xii., 32, 6. Hist., iii., 45. Hadrian was in Britain, A.D. 121, when his Foss was constructed.

1002 Lucri bonus est odor. Alluding to Vespasian’s answer to Titus. Vid. Suet., Vesp., 23, “Reprehendenti filio Tito, quod etiam urinæ vectigal commentus esset, pecuniam ex primâ pensione admovit ad nares, sciscitans, num odore offenderetur; et illo negante, atqui, inquit ex lotio est.” Martial alludes to the fact of offensive trades being banished to the other side of the Tiber. VI., xciii., 4, “Non detracta cani Transtiberina cutis.” I., Ep. xlii., 3; cix., 2.

1003 Poetæ. Ennius is said to have taken this sentiment from the Bellerophon of Euripides. Horace has also imitated it; i., Ep. i., 65, “Rem facias; rem si possis rectè, si non quôcumque modo rem.” Cf. Seneca, Epist. 115, “Non quare et unde; quid habeas tantum rogant.” (No sentiment of the kind is to be found in the fragments of either.)

“No! though compell’d beyond the Tiber’s flood
To move your tan-yard, swear the smell is good,
Myrrh, cassia, frankincense; and wisely think
That what is lucrative can never stink.” Hodgson.

1004 Peleus. Thetis was given in marriage to Peleus, because it had been foretold that she should give birth to a son who should be greater than his father; and therefore Jupiter was obliged to forego his passion for her. Vid. Æsch., Prom. Vinct., 886, seq. Pind., Isthm., viii., 67. Nonnus, Dionys., xxxiii., 356.

1005 Parcendum teneris. Parodied from Virg., Georg., ii., 363, “Ac dum prima novis adolescit frondibus ætas, parcendum teneris.”

1006 Tangens. In swearing, the Romans laid their hands on the altars consecrated to the gods to whose deity they appealed. Vid. Virg., Æn., pass. Hor., ii., Ep. i., 16. Cf. Sat. xiii., 89, “Atque ideo intrepide quæcunque altaria tangunt.” Sil, iii., 82, “Tangat Elissæas palmas puerilibus aras.” Liv., xxi., 1, “Annibalem annorum ferme novem, altaribus admotum tactis sacris jurejurando adactum, se quum primum posset, hostem fore populo Romano.”

1007 Mortiferâ. Cf. Pers., ii., 13, “Acri bile tumet. Nerio jam tertia conditur uxor.”

“If Fate should help him to a dowried wife,
Her doom is fix’d, and brief her span of life:
Sound in her sleep, while murderous fingers grasp
Her slender throat, hark to the victim’s gasp!” Badham.

1008 Brevior via. So Tacitus (Ann., iii., 66), speaking of Brutidius (cf. Sat. x., 83), says, “Festinatio exstimulabat, dum æquales, dein superiores, postremò suasmet ipse spes anteire parat: quod multos etiam bonos pessum dedit qui, spretis quæ tarda cum securitate, præmatura vel cum exitio properarent.”

1009 The line “Et qui per fraudes patrimonia conduplicare” is now generally allowed to be an interpolation.

1010 Effundit habenas. So Virg., Georg., i., 512, “Ut cum carceribus sese effudere quadrigæ addunt in spatia, et frustra retinacula tendens Fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas.” Æn., v., 818; xii., 499. Ov., Am., III., iv., 15. Cf. Shaksp., King Henry V., Act iii., sc. 3, “What rein can hold licentious wickedness, when down the hill he holds his fierce career?”

“With base advice to poison youthful hearts,
And teach them sordid, money-getting arts,
Is to release the horses from the rein,
And let them whirl the chariot o’er the plain:
Forward they gallop from the lessening goal,
Deaf to the voice of impotent control.” Hodgson.

1011 Donet amico. Hor., i., Sat. ii., 4, “Contra hic, ne prodigus esse Dicatur metuens, inopi dare nolit amico.”

1012 Levet. Cf. Isa., lviii., 6, “To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke.” Gal., vi., 2.

1013 Deciorum. Cf. ad viii., 254. Græcia vera. Cf. x., 174, “Quidquid Græcia mendax audet.”

1014 Menæceus. So called because he chose rather to “remain at home,” and save his country from the Argive besiegers by self-sacrifice, than to escape, as his father urged, to Dodona. See the end of the Phœnissæ of Euripides, and the story of the pomegranates that grew on his grave, in Pausanias, ix., cap. xxv., 1. Cf. Cic., T. Qu., i., 48, and the end of the tenth book of Statius’ Thebais.

1015 Sulcis. Ov., Met., iii., 1-130. Virg., Georg., ii., 141, “Satis immanis dentibus hydri, nec galeis densisque virum seges horruit hastis.”

1016 Ignem. Pind., Pyth., iii., 66, πολλὰν τ’ ὄρει πῦρ ἐξ ἑνὸς σπέρματος ἐνθορὸν ἀΐστωσεν ὕλαν.

1017 Leo alumnus. There is said to be an allusion to a real incident which occurred under Domitian. Cf. Mart., Ep., de Spect., x., “Læserat ingrato leo perfidus ore magistrum ausus tam notas contemerare manus: sed dignas tanto persolvit crimine pœnas; et qui non tulerat verbera tela tulit.” Æsch., Ag., 717, 34.

1018 Mathematicis. Suet., Calig., 57; Otho, 4. Cf. Sat. iii., 43; vi., 553, 562. Among these famous astrologers the names of Thrasyllus, Sulla, Theogenes, Scribonius, and Seleucus are preserved. The calculations necessary for casting these nativities are called “numeri Thrasylli,” “Chaldaicæ rationes,” “numeri Babylonii.” Hor., i., Od. xi., 2. Cic., de Div., ii., 47. Ov., Ibis, 209, seq.

1019 Grave. Cf. Strat., Ep. lxxii., 4, φεῦ μοίρης τε κακῆς καὶ πατρὸς ἀθανάτου.

1020 Stamine. Cf. iii., 27, “Dum superest Lachesi quod torqueat.” x., 251, “De legibus ipse queratur Fatorum et nimio de stamine.”

1021 Cervina. Cf. x., 247, “Exemplum vitæ fuit a cornice secundæ.” The crow is said to live for nine generations of men. The old Scholiast says the stag lives for nine hundred years. Vid. Anthol. Gr., ii., 9, ἡ φάος ἀθρήσασ’ ἐλάφου πλέον ἡ χερὶ λαιᾷ γῆρας ἀριθμεῖσθαι δεύτερον ἀρξαμένη. In the caldron prepared by Medea to renovate Æson, we find, “vivacisque jecur cervi quibus insuper addit ora caputque novem cornicis sæcula passæ.” Auson., Idyll., xviii., 3, “Hos novies superat vivendo garrula cornix, et quater egreditur cornicis sæcula cervus.”

1022 Archigenem. vi., 236; xiii., 98.

1023 Mithridates. vi., 660, “Sed tamen et ferro si prægustarit Atrides Pontica ter victi cautus medicamina regis.” x., 273, “Regem transeo Ponti.” Cf. Plin., xxiii., 24; xxv., 11. Mart., v., Ep. 76, “Profecit poto Mithridates sæpe veneno, Toxica ne possent sæva nocere sibi.” This composition (Synthesis) is described by Serenus Sammonicus, the physician, and consists of ludicrously simple ingredients. xxx., 578. Cf. Plin., xxiii., 8.

1024 Ærata. Cf. xi., 26, “Quantum ferratâ distet ab arcâ Sacculus.”

1025 Vigilem Castora. So called, Grangæus says, “quod ante Castoris templum erant militum excubiæ.” The temple of Mars Ultor, with its columns of marble, was built by Augustus. Suet., Aug., 29. To which Ovid alludes, Fast., v., 549, “Fallor an arma sonant? non fallimur, arma sonabant: Mars venit, et veniens bellica signa dedit. Ultor ad ipse suos cœlo descendit honores, Templaque in Augusto conspicienda foro.”

1026 Floræ. Cf. vi., 250. Ov., Fast., v., 183-330. The Floralia were first sanctioned by the government A.U.C. 514, in the consulship of Centho and Tuditanus, the year Livius began to exhibit. They were celebrated on the last day of April and the first and second of May. The lowest courtesans appeared on the stage and performed obscene dances. Cf. Lactant., i., 20. Pers., v., 178.

1027 Cereris. The Ludi Circenses in honor of Ceres (vid. Tac., Ann., xv., 53, 74, Ruperti’s note) consisted of horse-racing, and were celebrated the day before the ides of April. Ov., Fast., iv., 389, seq. They were instituted by C. Memmius when Curule Ædile, and were a patrician festival. Gell., ii., 24.

1028 Cybeles. Cf. vi., 69; xi., 191.

1029 Petauro. The exact nature of this feat of agility is not determined by the commentators. The word is derived from αὖρα and πέτομαι, and therefore seems to imply some machine for propelling persons through the air, which a line in Lucilius seems to confirm, “Sicuti mechanici cum alto exsiluere petauro.” Fr. incert. xli. So Manilius, v., 434, “Corpora quæ valido saliunt excussa petauro, alternosque cient motus: elatus et ille nunc jacet atque hujus casu suspenditur ille, membraque per flammas orbesque emissa flagrantes.” Mart., ii., Ep. 86, “Quid si per graciles vias petauri Invitum jubeas subire Ladam.” XI., xxi., 3, “Quam rota transmisso toties intacta petauro.” Holiday gives a drawing in which it resembles an oscillum or swing. Facciolati describes it as “genus ludi, quo homines per aërem rotarum pulsu jactantur.”

1030 Corycus was the northwestern headland of Crete, with an island of the same name lying off it. [There were two other towns of the same name, in Lydia and Cilicia, both infested with pirates; the latter gave its name to the famous Corycian cave. Pind., Pyth., i. Æsch., P. V., 350.]

1031 Municipes. The Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται boasted, says Callimachus, that Crete was not only the birthplace, but also the burial-place of Jove. Cf. iv., 33, “Jam princeps equitum magnâ qui voce solebat vendere municipes pacta mercede siluros.” So Martial calls Cumæan pottery-ware, “testa municeps Sibyllæ,” xiv., Ep. cxiv., and Tyrian cloaks, “Cadmi municipes lacernas.” Cf. Aristoph., Ach., 333, where Dicæopolis producing his coal-basket says, ὁ λάρκος δημότης ὁδ’ ἐστ’ ἐμός. Crete was famous for this “passum,” a kind of rich raisin wine, which it appears from Athenæus the Roman ladies were allowed to drink. Lib. x., p. 440, e. Grangæus calls it “Malvoisie.”

1032 Lagenas. Cf. vii., 121.

1033 Calpe, now Gibraltar. It is said to have been Epicurus’ notion, that the sun, when setting in the ocean, hissed like red-hot iron plunged in water. Cf. Stat. Sylv., II., vii., 27, “Felix hen nimis et beata tellus, quæ pronos Hyperionis meatus summis oceani vides in undis stridoremque rotæ cadentis audis.”

1034 Aluta. Cf. vii., 192, “Appositam nigræ lunam subtexit alutæ,” where it is used for the shoe-leather, as Mart., xii., Ep. 25, and ii., 29. Ov., A. A., iii., 271. It is a leathern apron in Mart., vii., Ep. 25, and a leathern sail in Cæs., B. Gall., III., xiii. Here it is a leathern money-bag. It takes its name from the alumen used in the process of tanning.

1035 Oceani monstra. So Tacitus, Ann., ii., 24, “Ut quis ex longinquo revenerat, miracula narrabant, vim turbinum et inauditas volucres, monstra maris, ambiguas hominum et belluarum formas; visa sive ex metu credita.”

1036 Eumenidum. Eurip., Orest., 254, seq. Æsch., Eumen. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 132, seq.

1037 Bove percusso. Soph., Aj. Cf. ad vii., 115; x., 84.

1038 Curatoris. The Laws of the xii. tables directed that “Si furiosus essit, agnatorum gentiliumque in eo pecuniâque ejus potestas esto.” Tab., v., 7. Cf. Hor., i., Ep. i., 102, “Nec medici credis nec curatoris egere à prætore dati.” ii., Sat. iii., 217, “Interdicto huic omne adimat jus prætor.”

1039 Tabulâ. Cf. xii., 57, “Dolato confisus ligno, digitis a morte remotus quatuor aut septem, si sit latissima tæda.”

“Who loads his bark till it can scarcely swim,
And leaves thin planks betwixt the waves and him!
A little legend and a figure small
Stamp’d on a scrap of gold, the cause of all!” Badham.

1040 Cujus votis.

“Lo! where that wretched man half naked stands,
To whom of rich Pactolus all the sands
Were naught but yesterday! his nature fed
On painted storms that earn compassion’s bread.” Badham.

1041 Tagus. Cf. iii., 55, “Omnis arena Tagi quodque in mare volvitur aurum.” Mart., i., Ep. l., 15; x., Ep. xcvi., “Auriferumque Tagum sitiam.” Ov., Met., ii., 251, “Quodque suo Tagus amne vehit fluit ignibus aurum.”

1042 The Pactolus flows into the Hermus a little above Magnesia ad Sepylum. Its sands were said to have been changed into gold by Midas’ bathing in its waters, hence called εὔχρυσος by Sophocles. Philoct., 391. It flows under the walls of Sardis, and is closely connected by the poets with the name and wealth of Crœsus. The real fact being, that the gold ore was washed down from Mount Tmolus; which Strabo says had ceased to be the case in his time: lib. xiii., c. 4. Cf. Virg., Æn., x., 141, “Ubi pinguia culta exercentque vivi Pactolusque irrigat auro.” Senec., Phœn., 604, “Et quà trahens opulenta Pactolus vada inundat auro rura.” Athen., v. It is still called Bagouli.

1043 Picta tempestate. Cf. ad xii., 27.

“Poor shipwreck’d sailor! tell thy tale and show
The sign-post daubing of thy watery woe.” Hodgson.

1044 Custodia.

“First got with guile, and then preserved with dread.” Spenser.

1045 Licinus. Cf. ad i., 109, “Ego possideo plus Pallante et Licinis.”

1046 Hamis. Hama, “a leathern bucket,” from the ἅμη of Plutarch. Augustus instituted seven Cohortes Vigilum, who paraded the city at night under the command of their Præfectus, equipped with “hamæ” and “dolabræ” to prevent fires. Cf. Plin., x., Ep. 42, who, giving Trajan an account of a great fire at Nicomedia in his province, says, “Nullus in publico sipho, nulla hama, nullum denique instrumentum ad incendia compescenda.” Tac., Ann., xv., 43, “Jam aqua privatorum licentia intercepta, quo largior, et pluribus locis in publicum flueret, custodes, et subsidia reprimendis ignibus in propatulo quisque haberet: nec communione parietum, sed propriis quæque muris ambirentur.” (Ubi vid. Ruperti’s note.) These custodes were called “Castellarii.” Gruter. Cf. Sat. iii., 197, seq.

1047 Phrygiaque columnâ. Cf. ad lin. 89.

1048 Dolia nudi Cynici. Cf. ad xiii., 122. The story is told by Plutarch, Vit. Alex. Cf. Diog. Laert., VI., ii., 6. It is said that Diogenes died at Corinth, the same day Alexander died at Babylon. Cf. x., 171.

“The naked cynic mocks such anxious cares,
His earthen tub no conflagration fears:
If crack’d or broken, he procures a new;
Or, coarsely soldering, makes the old one do.” Gifford.

1049 Nullum numen. Cf. x., 365.

“Where prudence dwells, there Fortune is unknown,
By man a goddess made, by man alone.” Badham.

1050 Sitis atque fames. Hor., i., Sat. i., 73, “Nescis quo valeat nummus quem præbeat usum? Panis ematur, olus, vini Sextarius; adde Queis humana sibi doleat natura negatis.”

1051 Epicure. Cf. xiii., 122, “Non Epicurum suspicit exigui lætum plantaribus horti.”

“As much as made wise Epicurus blest,
Who in small gardens spacious realms possess’d:
This is what nature’s wants may well suffice;
He that would more is covetous, not wise.” Dryden.

1052 Summam. Cf. iii., 154, “De pulvino surgat equestri Cujus res legi non sufficit.” Plin., xxxii., 2, “Tiberio imperante constitutem ne quis in equestri ordine censeretur, nisi cui ingenuo ipsi, patri, avoque paterno sestertia quadringenta census fuisset.” Cf. i., 105; iii., 159, “Sic libitum vano qui nos distinxit Othoni.”

1053 Tertia Quadringenta. Suet., Aug., 41, “Senatorum Censum ampliavit, ac pro Octingentorum millium summâ, duodecies sestertio taxavit, supplevitque non habentibus.”

1054 Narcissi. Of his wealth Dio says (lx., p. 688), μέγιστον τῶν τότε ἀνθρώπων ἐδυνήθη μυριάδας τε γάρ πλείους μυρίων εἷχε. Narcissus and his other freedmen, Posides, Felix, Polybius, etc., exercised unlimited control over the idiotic Claudius, but Pallas and Narcissus were his chief favorites, “Quos decreto quoque senatus, non præmiis modo ingentibus, sed et quæstoriis prætoriisque ornamentis ornari libenter passus est:” and so much did they abuse his kindness, that when he was once complaining of the low state of his exchequer, it was said, “abundaturum si à duobus libertis in consortium reciperetur.” Claudius would have certainly pardoned Messalina, had it not been for Narcissus. “Nec enim Claudius Messalinam interfecisset, nisi properâsset index, delator adulterii, et quodammodo imperator cædis Narcissus.” See the whole account, Tac., Ann., xi., 26-38. Suet., Claud., 26, seq. On the accession of Nero, Narcissus was compelled by Agrippina to commit suicide. Cf. ad x., 330.

“No! nor his heaps, whom doting Claudius gave
Power over all, and made himself a slave;
From whom the dictates of command he drew,
And, urged to slay his wife, obedient slew.” Hodgson.

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