Satire XV
Who knows not, O Volusius1055 of Bithynia, the sort of monsters Egypt,1056 in her infatuation, worships? One part venerates the crocodile:1057 another trembles before an Ibis gorged with serpents. The image of a sacred monkey glitters in gold, where the magic chords sound from Memnon1058 broken in half, and ancient Thebes lies buried in ruins, with her hundred gates. In one place they venerate sea-fish, in another river-fish; there, whole towns worship a dog;1059 no one Diana. It is an impious act to violate or break with the teeth a leek or an onion.1060 O holy nations! whose gods grow for them in their gardens!1061 Every table abstains from animals that have wool: it is a crime there to kill a kid. But human flesh is lawful food.
Were Ulysses1062 to relate at supper such a deed as this to the amazed Alcinous, he would perhaps have excited the ridicule or anger of some, as a lying babbler.1063 “Does no one hurl this fellow into the sea, that deserves indeed a savage Charybdis and a real one1064 too, for inventing1065 his huge Læstrygones1066 and Cyclops. For I would far more readily believe in Scylla, or the Cyanean rocks that clash together,1067 and the skins filled with stormy winds; or that Elpenor, struck with the light touch of Circe’s wand, grunted in company with his messmates turned to hogs. Does he suppose the heads of the Phæacians so void1068 of brains?”
So might any one with reason have argued, who was not yet drunk,1069 and had taken but a scanty draught1070 of the potent wine from the Corcyræan1071 bowl; for the Ithacan1072 told his adventures alone, with none to attest his veracity. We are about to relate events, wondrous indeed, but achieved only lately, while Junius1073 was consul, above the walls of sultry Coptos.1074 We shall recount the crime of a whole people, deeds more atrocious than any tragedy could furnish. For from the days of Pyrrha,1075 though you turn over every tragic theme,1076 in none is a whole people1077 made the perpetrators of the guilt. Here, then, an instance which even in our own days ruthless barbarism1078 produced. There is an inveterate and long-standing grudge,1079 a deathless hatred and a rankling wound that knows no cure, burning fiercely still between Ombos1080 and Tentyra, two neighboring peoples. On both sides the principal rancor arises from the fact that each place hates its neighbor’s gods,1081 and believes those only ought to be held as deities which itself worships. But at a festive period of one of those peoples, the chiefs and leaders of their enemies determined that the opportunity must be seized, to prevent their enjoying their day of mirth and cheerfulness, and the delights of a grand dinner, when their tables were spread near the temples and cross-ways, and the couch that knows not sleep, since occasionally even the seventh day’s sun finds it still there, spread without intermission of either night or day.1082 Savage,1083 in truth, is Egypt! But in luxury, so far as I myself remarked, even the barbarous mob does not fall short of the infamous Canopus.1084
Besides, victory is easily gained over men reeking1085 with wine, stammering1086 and reeling. On one side there was a crew of fellows dancing to a black piper; perfumes, such as they were; and flowers, and garlands in plenty round their brows. On the other side was ranged fasting hate. But, with minds inflamed, they begin first of all to give vent to railings1087 in words.
This was the signal-blast1088 of the fray. Then with shouts from both sides, the conflict begins; and in lieu of weapons,1089 the unarmed hand rages.
Few cheeks were without a wound. Scarcely one, if any, had a whole nose out of the whole line of combatants. Now you might see, through all the hosts engaged, mutilated faces,1090 features not to be recognized, bones showing ghastly beneath the lacerated cheek, fists dripping with blood from their enemies’ eyes. But still the combatants themselves consider they are only in sport, and engaged in a childish1091 encounter, because they do not trample any corpses under foot. What, forsooth, is the object of so many thousands mixing in the fray, if no life is to be sacrificed? The attack, therefore, is more vigorous; and now with arms inclined along the ground they begin to hurl stones1092 they have picked up—Sedition’s1093 own peculiar weapons.
Yet not such stones as Ajax1094 or as Turnus1095 hurled; nor of the weight of that with which Tydides1096 hit Æneas’ thigh; but such as right hands far different to theirs, and produced in our age, have power to project. For even in Homer’s1097 lifetime men were beginning to degenerate. Earth now gives birth to weak and puny mortals.1098 Therefore every god that looks down on them sneers and hates them!
After this digression1099 let us resume our story. When they had been re-enforced by subsidies, one of the parties is emboldened to draw the sword, and renew the battle with deadly-aiming1100 arrows. Then they who inhabit Tentyra,1101 bordering on the shady palms, press upon their foes, who all in rapid flight leave their backs exposed. Here one of them, in excess of terror urging his headlong course, falls1102 and is caught. Forthwith the victorious crowd having cut him up into numberless bits and fragments, in order that one dead man might furnish a morsel for many, eat him completely up, having gnawed his very bones. They neither cooked him in a seething caldron, nor on a spit. So wearisome1103 and tedious did they think it to wait for a fire, that they were even content with the carcass raw. Yet at this we should rejoice, that they profaned not the deity of fire which Prometheus1104 stole from highest heaven and gave to earth. I congratulate1105 the element! and you too, I ween, are glad.1106 But he that could bear to chew a human corpse, never tasted a sweeter1107 morsel than this flesh. For in a deed of such horrid atrocity, pause not to inquire or doubt whether it was the first maw alone that felt the horrid delight! Nay! he that came up last,1108 when the whole body was now devoured, by drawing his fingers along the ground, got a taste of the blood!
The Vascones,1109 as report says, protracted their lives by the use of such nutriment as this. But the case is very different. There we have the bitter hate of fortune! the last extremity of war, the very climax of despair, the awful destitution1110 of a long-protracted siege. For the instance of such food of which we are now speaking, ought to call forth our pity.1111 Since it was only after they had exhausted herbs of all kinds,1112 and every animal to which the gnawings of an empty stomach drove them, and while their enemies themselves commiserated their pale and emaciated features and wasted limbs, they in their ravenous famine tore in pieces others’ limbs, ready to devour even their own! What man, or what god even, would refuse his pardon to brave men1113 suffering such fierce extremities? men, whom the very spirits of those whose bodies they fed on, could have forgiven! The precepts of Zeno teach us a better lesson. For he thinks that some things only, and not all, ought to be done to preserve life.1114 But whence could a Cantabrian learn the Stoics’ doctrines? especially in the days of old Metellus. Now the whole world has the Grecian and our Athens.
Eloquent Gaul1115 has taught the Britons1116 to become pleaders; and even Thule1117 talks of hiring a rhetorician.
Yet that noble people whom we have mentioned, and their equal in courage and fidelity, their more than equal in calamity, Saguntum,1118 has some excuse to plead for such a deed as this! Whereas Egypt is more barbarous even than the altar of Mæotis. Since that Tauric1119 inventress of the impious rite (if you hold as worthy of credit all that poets sing) only sacrifices men; the victim has nothing further or worse to fear than the sacrificial knife. But what calamity was it drove these to crime? What extremity of hunger, or hostile arms that bristled round their ramparts, that forced these to dare a prodigy of guilt so execrable? What greater enormity1120 than this could they commit, when the land of Memphis was parched with drought to provoke the wrath1121 of Nile when unwilling to rise?
Neither the formidable Cimbri, nor Britons, nor fierce Sarmatians or savage Agathyrsi, ever raged with such frantic brutality, as did this weak and worthless rabble, that wont to spread their puny sails in pinnaces of earthenware,1122 and ply the scanty paddles of their painted pottery-canoe. You could not invent a punishment adequate to the guilt, or a torture bad enough for a people in whose breasts “anger” and “hunger” are convertible terms.
Nature confesses that she has bestowed on the human race hearts of softest mould, in that she has given us tears.1123 Of all our feeling this is the noblest part. She bids us therefore bewail the misfortunes of a friend in distress, and the squalid appearance of one accused, or an orphan1124 summoning to justice the guardian who has defrauded him. Whose girl-like hair throws doubt1125 upon the sex of those cheeks bedewed with tears!
It is at nature’s dictate that we mourn when we meet the funeral of a virgin of marriageable years, or see an infant1126 laid in the ground, too young for the funeral pyre. For what good man, who that is worthy of the mystic torch,1127 such an one as Ceres’ priest would have him be, ever deems the ills of others1128 matter that concerns not himself?
This it is that distinguishes us from the brute herd. And therefore we alone, endued with that venerable distinction of reason1129 and a capacity for divine things, with an aptitude for the practice as well as the reception of all arts and sciences, have received, transmitted to us from heaven’s high citadel,1130 a moral sense, which brutes prone1131 and stooping toward earth, are lacking in. In the beginning of the world, the common Creator of all vouchsafed to them only the principle of vitality; to us he gave souls1132 also, that an instinct of affection reciprocally shared, might urge us to seek for, and to give, assistance; to unite in one people, those before widely-scattered;1133 to emerge from the ancient wood, and abandon the forests1134 where our fathers dwelt; to build houses, to join another’s dwelling to our own homes, that the confidence mutually engendered by a neighbor’s threshold might add security1135 to our slumbers; to cover with our arms a fellow-citizen1136 when fallen or staggering from a ghastly wound; to sound the battle-signal from a common clarion; to be defended by the same ramparts, and closed in by the key of a common portal.
But now the unanimity1137 of serpents is greater than ours. The wild beast of similar genus spares his kindred1138 spots. When did ever lion, though stronger, deprive his fellow-lion of life? In what wood did ever boar perish by the tusks of a boar1139 larger than himself? The tigress of India1140 maintains unbroken harmony with each tigress that ravens. Bears, savage to others, are yet at peace among themselves. But for man!1141 he is not content with forging on the ruthless anvil the death-dealing steel! While his progenitors, those primæval smiths, that wont to hammer out naught save rakes and hoes, and wearied out with mattocks and plowshares, knew not the art of manufacturing swords.1142 Here we behold a people whose brutal passion is not glutted with simple murder, but deem1143 their fellows’ breasts and arms and faces a kind of natural food.
What then would Pythagoras1144 exclaim; whither would he not flee, could he be witness in our days to such atrocities as these! He that abstained from all that was endued with life as from man himself; and did not even indulge his appetite with every kind of pulse.
Footnotes
1055 Volusius is unknown. Some suppose him to be the same person as the Bithynicus to whom Plutarch wrote a treatise on Friendship.
1056 Ægyptus. So Cicero, “Ægyptiorum morem quis ignorat? Quorum imbutæ mentes pravitatis erroribus, quamvis carnificinam prius subierint quam ibin aut aspidem aut felem aut canem aut crocodilum violent; quorum etiam imprudentes si quidquam fecerint, pœnam nullam recusent.” Tusc. Qu., v., 27. Cf. Athen., vol. ii., p. 650, Dind.
1057 Crocodilon. Vid. Herod., ii., 69.—Ibin. Cic., de Nat. Deor., i., 36.
1058 Memnone. His statue stood in the temple of Serapis at Thebes. Plin., xxvi., 7. Strabo, xvii., c. 1, τὰ ἄνω μέρη τὰ ἀπο τῆς καθέδρας πέπτωκε σεισμοῦ γεννηθέντος. He says the ψόφος comes from “the lower part remaining on the base.” Cf. 1. 56, “Vultus dimidios.” Sat. viii., 4, “Et Curios jam dimidios.” iii., 219, “Mediamque Minervam.” Cf. Clinton, Fasti Romani, in A.D. 130.
1059 Canem. Cf. Lucan, viii., 832, “Semideosque canes.” The allusion is to the worship of Anubis, cf. vi., 533.
1060 Porrum.
“And it is dangerous here to violate an onion, or to stain
The sanctity of leeks with teeth profane.” Gifford.
1061 Hortis.
“Ye pious nations, in whose gardens rise
A constant crop of earth-sprung deities!” Badham.
1062 Ulyxes. Vid. Hom., Odyss., ix., 106, seq.; x., 80, seq.
1063 Aretalogus. “Parasitus, et circulator philosophus.” A discourser on virtue who frequented feasts; hence, one who tells pleasing tales, a romancer. The philosopher at last degenerated into the buffoon. Cicero uses “Ethologus” in nearly the same sense, cf. de Orat., ii., 59, cum not. Harles. Suet., Aug., 74, “Acroamata et histriones, aut etiam triviales ex Circo ludios, interponebat, ac frequentius aretalogos.” Salmas., ad Flav. Vopisc., 42. Lucian, de Ver. Hist., i., 709, B. Shaksp., Othello, Act i., sc. 3.
1064 Verâ. Cf. viii., 188, “Judice me dignus verâ cruce.”
1065 Fingentem, i. e., “that they fed on human victims.”
1066 Læstrygones. Their fabulous seat was Formiæ, now “Mola,” whither they were led from Sicily by Lamus, their leader. Hor., iii., Od. xvii., 1; xvi., 34. Horn., Odyss., x., 81.
1067 Concurrentia saxa. These rocks were at the northern entrance of the Thracian Bosphorus, now the Channel of Constantinople; and were fabled to have floated and crushed all vessels that passed the straits, till Minerva guided the ship Argo through in safety and fixed them forever. They were hence called συμπληγάδες, συνδρομάδες, πλαγκταὶ, and κυάνεαι, from the deep blue of the surrounding water. Homer places them near Sicily. Odyss., xii., 61; xxiii., 327. Pind., Pyth., iv., 370. Cf. Herod., iv., 85. Eur., Med., 2; Androm., 794. Theoc., Idyll., xiii., 22. Ov., Her., xii., 121. “Compressos utinam Symplegades elisissent,” Trist., I., x., 34. They are now called “Pavorane.”
1068 Vacui. Cf. xiv., 57, “Vacuumque cerebro jampridem caput.” Cf. Virg., Æn., i., 567, “Non obtusa adeo gestamus pectora Pœni.”
“But men to eat men human faith surpasses,
This traveler takes us islanders for asses.” Dryden.
1069 Nondum ebrius.
“So might some sober hearer well have said,
Ere Corcyræan stingo turned his head.” Hodgson.
1070 Temetum, an old word of doubtful etymology: from it is derived “temulentus” and “abstemius” (cf. Hor., ii., Ep. 163), and the phrase “Temeti timor” for a parasite.
1071 Corcyræâ. The Phæacians were luxurious fellows, as Horace implies: “Pinguis ut inde domum possim Phæaxque reverti.” i., Ep., xv., 24.
1072 Ithacus. So x., 257; xiv., 287.
1073 Junio. Salmasius supposes this Junius to be Q. Junius Rusticus, or Rusticius, consul with Hadrian, A.U.C. 872, A.D. 119. (Plin., Exerc., p. 320.) Others refer it to an Appius Junius Sabinus, consul with Domitian, A.U.C. 835, A.D. 82. But the name of Domitian’s colleague was Titus Flavius; and no person of the name of Junius appears in the lists of consuls till Rusticus. Some read Junco, or Vinco, to avoid the synizesis; but neither of these names occur. See Life.
1074 Copti, now Kypt or Koft, about twelve miles from Tentyra, thirty from Thebes, and one hundred and twenty from Syene, where Juvenal was stationed. Ptolemy Philadelphus connected it by a road with Berenice.
1075 Pyrrha. Cf. i., 84.
1076 Syrmata. Properly the “long sweeping train of tragedy.” Vid. Hor., A. P., 278, “Personæ pallæque repertor honestæ.” Sat., viii., 229, “Longum tu pone Thyestæ Syrma vel Antigones vel personam Menalippes.” So Milton, Il Pens., “Sometimes let gorgeous tragedy in sceptred pall come sweeping by.” Cf. Mart., xii., Ep. xcv., 3, 4; iv., Ep. xlix., 8.
1077 Populus. i. e., “Tragedy only relates the atrocious crimes of individuals: from the days of the Deluge, you can find no instance of wickedness extending to a whole nation.”
1078 Feritas. Aristotle enumerates as one of the characteristics of θηριότης, τὸ χαίρειν κρέασιν ἀνθρώπων.
1079 Simultas is properly “the jealousy or rivalry of two persons candidates for the same office,” from simulo, synom. with æmulari; or from simul. Vid. Doederlein, iii., 72.
1080 Ombos, now “Koum-Ombou,” lies on the right bank of the Nile, not far from Syene, and consequently a hundred miles at least from Tentyra. To avoid the difficulty, therefore, in the word “finitimos,” Salmasius would read “Coptos,” this place being only twelve miles distant; but all the best editions have Ombos. Tentyra, now “Denderah,” lies on the left bank of the river, and is well known from the famous discoveries in its Temple by Napoleon’s savans. The Tentyrites, as Strabo tells us (xvii., p. 460; cf. Plin., H. N., viii., 25), differed from the rest of their countrymen in their hatred and persecution of the crocodile, πάντα τρόπον ἀνιχνεύουσι καὶ διαφθείρουσιν αὐτούς, being the only Egyptians who dared attack or face them; and hence when some crocodiles were conveyed to Rome for exhibition, some Tentyrite keepers accompanied them, and displayed some curious feats of courage and dexterity. Aphrodite was their patron deity. The men of Coptos, Ombos, and Arsinoë, on the other hand, paid the crocodile the highest reverence; considering it an honor to have their children devoured by them; and crucified kites out of spite to the Tentyrites, who adored them. These religious differences are said by Diodorus (ii., 4) to have been fostered by the policy of the ancient kings, to prevent the conspiracies which might have resulted from the cordial union and coalition of the various nomes.
1081 Alterius populi, i. e., the Tentyrites. Cf. l. 73, seq.
1082 Pervigili. Cf. viii., 158, “Sed quum pervigiles placet instaurare popinas.”
“The board, where oft their wakeful revels last
Till seven returning days and nights are past.” Hodgson.
1083 Horrida. So viii., 116, “Horrida vitanda est Hispania.” ix., 12, “Horrida siccæ sylva comæ.” vi., 10, “Et sæpe horridior glandem ructante marito.”
“For savage as the country is, it vies
In luxury, if I may trust my eyes,
With dissolute Canopus.” Gifford.
1084 Canopus. Cf. i., 26. Said to have been built by Menelaus, and named after his pilot. It lies on the Bay of Aboukir, not far from Alexandria, and was notorious for its luxury and debauchery, carried on principally in the temple of Serapis. Cf. vi., 84, “Prodigia et mores Urbis damnante Canopo.” Sen., Epist. 51. Propert., iii., El. xi., 39. These lines prove that Juvenal was, at some time of his life, in Egypt; but whether he traveled thither in early life to gratify his curiosity, or, as the common story goes, was banished there in his old age to appease the wrath of Paris, is doubtful. The latter story is inconsistent with chronology, history, and probability.
1085 Madidis. So vi., 207, “Atque coronatum et petulans madidumque Tarentum.” βεβρεγμένος, ὑπομεθύων. Hesych., Sil., xii., 18, “Molli luxu madefacta meroque Illecebris somni torpentia membra fluebant.” Cf. Plaut., Truc., IV., iv., 2, “Si alia membra vino madeant.” Most., I., iv., 7, “Ecquid tibi videor madere?” Tibull., II., i., 29, “Non festâ luce madere est rubor, errantes et male ferre pedes:” and II., ii., 8.
1086 Blæsis. Cf. Mart., x., Ep. 65. So Virgil (Georg., ii., 94) speaks of the vine as “Tentatura pedes olim vincturaque linguam.” Propert., II., xxxiv., 22. Sen., Epist., 83.
1087 Jurgia. So v., 26, “Jurgia proludunt.” iii., 288, “Miseræ cognosce proœmia rixæ.” Tac., Hist., i., 64, “Jurgia primum: mox rixa inter Batavos et legionarios.”
1088 Tuba. Cf. i., 169, and Virg., Æn., xi., 424. The whole of the following passage may be compared with Virg., Æn., vii., 505-527.
1089 Vice teli. Ov., Met., xii., 381, “Sævique vicem præstantia teli.”
1090 Vultus dimidios. viii., 4, “Curios jam dimidios, humeroque minorem Corvinum et Galbam auriculis nasoque carentem.”
“Then might you see, amid the desperate fray,
Features disfigured, noses torn away;
Hands, where the gore of mangled eyes yet reeks,
And jaw-bones starting through the cloven cheeks.” Gifford.
1091 Pueriles. Virg., Æn., v., 584-602.
“But hitherto both parties think the fray
But mockery of war, mere children’s play!
And scandal think it t’ have none slain outright,
Between two hosts that for religion fight.” Dryden.
1092 Saxa.
“Stones, the base rabble’s home-artillery.” Hodgson.
1093 Seditioni. Henninius’ correction for seditione. For “domestica” in this sense, cf. Sat. ix., 17. So Virg., Æn., i., 150, “Jamque faces et saxa volant, furor arma ministrat.” vii., 507, “Quod cuique repertum rimanti telum ira facit.”
1094 Ajax. Hom., Il., vii., 268, δεύτερος αὖτ’ Αἴας πολὺ μείζονα λᾶαν ἀείρας ἦκ’ ἐπιδινήσας ἐπέρεισε δὲ ἶν’ ἀπέλεθρον.
1095 Turnus. Virg., Æn., xii., 896, “Saxum circumspicit ingens: saxum antiquum ingens, campo quod forte jacebat Limes agro positus, litem ut discerneret arvis. Vix illud lecti bis sex cervice subirent, Qualia nunc hominûm producit corpora tellus.” Cf. Hom., Il., xxi., 405.
1096 Tydides. Il., v., 802, ὁ δὲ χερμάδιον λάβε χειρὶ Τυδείδης μέγα ἔργον ὃ οὐ δύο γ’ ἄνδρε φέροιεν οἷοι νῦν βροτοί εἰσ’ ὁ δέ μιν ῥέα πάλλε καὶ οἶος.
1097 Homero. Il., i., 271, κείνοισι δ’ ἂν οὔτις τῶν οἵ νῦν βροτοί εἰσιν ἐπιχθόνιοι μαχέοιτο.
1098 Malos homines. Cf. Herod., i., 68. Plin., vii., 16. Lucretius, ii., 1149, “Jamque adeo fracta est ætas, effœtaque tellus Vix animalia parva creat, quæ cuncta creavit sæcla.” Sen., de Ben., I., c. x., “Hoc majores nostri questi sunt, hoc nos querimur, hoc posteri nostri querentur, eversos esse mores, regnare nequitiam, in deterius res humanas labi.” Hor., iii., Od. vi., 46, “Ætas parentum, pejor avis, tulit nos nequiores, mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem.”
1099 Diverticulo. Properly “a cross-road,” then “a place to which we turn aside from the high road; halting or refreshing place.” Cf. Liv., ix., 17.
1100 Infestis. So Virg., Æn., v., 582, “Convertêre vias, infestaque tela tulere.” 691, “Vel tu quod superest infesto fulmine morti, Si mereor dimitte.” x., 877, “Infestâ subit obvius hastâ.” Liv., ii., 19, “Tarquinius Superbus quanquam jam ætate et viribus gravior, equum infestus admisit.”
1101 Tentyra. Cf. ad l. 35. Salmasius proposes to read here “Pampæ” (the name of a small town) for Palmæ on account of the difficulty stated above; and supposes this to be Juvenal’s way of distinguishing Tentyra: but Pampa is a much smaller place than Tentyra; and no one would describe London, as Browne observes, as “London near Chelsea.” He imagines also that Juvenal is describing an affray that took place between the people of Cynopolis and Oxyrynchis about this time, mentioned by Plutarch (de Isid. et Osirid.), and that he has changed the names for the sake of the metre. Heinrich leaves the difficulty unsolved. Browne supposes two places of the name of Tentyra.
1102 Labitur. Gifford compares Hesiod., Herc. Scut., 251, Δῆριν ἔχον περὶ πιπτόντων· πᾶσαι δ’ ἄρ ἵεντο αἷμα μέλαν πιέειν· ὃν δὲ πρῶτον μεμάποιεν κείμενον ἢ πίπτοντα νεούτατον, ἀμφὶ μὲν αὐτῷ βάλλ’ ὄνυχας μεγάλους.
1103 Longum.
“‘T had been lost time to dress him; keen desire
Supplies the want of kettle, spit, and fire.” Dryden.
1104 Prometheus. Vid. Hesiod., Op. et Di., 49, seq. Theog., 564. Æsch., P. Vinct., 109. Hor., i., Od. iii., 27. Cic., Tusc. Qu., II., x., 23. Mart., xiv., Ep. 80.
1105 Gratulor. So Ov., Met., x., 305, “Gentibus Ismariis et nostro gratulor orbi, gratulor huic terræ, quod abest regionibus illis, Quæ tantum genuere nefas.”
1106 Te exsultare. Juvenal’s friend Volusius is supposed to have had a leaning toward the doctrine of the fire-worshipers. At least this is the puerile way in which most of the commentators endeavor to escape the difficulty.
1107 Libentius.
“But he who tasted first the human food,
Swore never flesh was so divinely good.” Hodgson.
1108 Ultimus.
“And the last comer, of his dues bereft,
Sucks from the bloodstain’d soil some flavor left.” Badham.
1109 Vascones. Sil. Ital., x., 15. The Vascones lived in the northeast of Spain, near the Pyrenees, in parts of Navarre, Aragon, and old Castile. They and the Cantabri were the most warlike people of Hispania Tarrocensis. Their southern boundary was the Iberus (Ebro). Their chief cities were Calagurris Nassica (now Calahorra in New Castile), on the right bank of the Iberus; and Pompelon (now Pampeluna), at the foot of the Pyrenees, said to have been founded by Cn. Pompeius Magnus, vid. Plin., III., iii., 4. It is doubtful which of these two cities held out in the manner alluded to in the text. Sertorius was assasinated B.C. 72, and the Vascones, whose faith was pledged to him, sooner than submit to Pompey and Metellus, suffered the most horrible extremities, even devouring their wives and children. Cf. Liv., Epit. xciii. Flor., III., xxxii. Val. Max., VII., vi. Plut. in v. Sert. The Vascones afterward crossed the Pyrenees into Aquitania, and their name is still preserved in the province of Gascogne.
1110 Egestas.
“When frowning war against them stood array’d
With the dire famine of a long blockade.” Hodgson.
1111 Miserabile. ii., 18, “Horum simplicitas miserabilis.”
1112 Post omnes herbas.
“For after every root and herb were gone,
And every aliment to hunger known;
When their lean frames and cheeks of sallow hue
Struck e’en the foe with pity at the view;
And all were ready their own flesh to tear,
They first adventured on this horrid fare.” Gifford.
1113 Viribus. The abstract used for the concrete. Another reading is, Urbibus, referring to Calagurris and Saguntus. Valesius proposed to read “Ventribus,” which Orellius receives.
1114 Quædam pro vita. Cf. Arist., Eth., iii., 1, Ἔνια δ’ ἴσως οὐκ ἔστιν ἀναγκασθῆναι ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἀποθνητέον, παθόντα τὰ δεινότατα. Plin., xxviii., 1, “Vitam quidem non adeo expetendam censemus ut quoquo modo protrahenda sit.” Sen., Ep. 72, “Non omni pretio vita emenda est.”
1115 Gallia. Cf. ad i., 44. Suet., Cal., xx., “Caligula instituit in Gallia, Lugduni, certamen Græcæ Latinæque facundiæ.” Quintil., x., 1. Sat., vii., 148, “Accipiat te Gallia, vel potius nutricula causidicorum Africa, si placuit mercedem ponere linguæ.”
1116 Britannos. Tac., Agric., xxi, “Ingenia Britannorum studiis Gallorum anteferre: ut qui modo linguam Romanam abnuebant, eloquentiam concupiscerent.”
1117 Thule. Used generally for the northernmost region of the earth. Its position shifted with the advance of their geographical knowledge; hence it is used for Sweden, Norway, Shetland, or Iceland. Virg., Georg., i., 30, “Tibi serviat ultima Thule.”
1118 Saguntus, now “Mur Viedro” in Valencia, is memorable for its obstinate resistance to Hannibal, during a siege of eight months (described Liv., xxi., 5-15). Their fidelity to Rome was as famous as that of the Vascones to Sertorius; but their fate was more disastrous; as Hannibal took Saguntus and razed it to the ground, after they had endured the most horrible extremities, whereas the siege of Calagurris was raised. Cf. ad v., 29.
1119 Taurica. The Tauri, who lived in the peninsula called from them Taurica Chersonesus (now Crimea), on the Palus Mæotis, used to sacrifice shipwrecked strangers on the altar of Diana; of which barbarous custom Thoas their king is said to have been the inventor. Ov., Trist., IV., iv., 93; Ib., 386, “Thoanteæ Taurica sacra Deæ.” Pont., I., ii., 80: III., ii., 59. Plin., H. N., IV., xii., 26. On this story is founded the Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides, and from this was derived the custom of scourging boys at the altar of Artemis Orthias in Sparta.
1120 Gravius cultro.
“There the pale victim only fears the knife,
But thy fell zeal asks something more than life.” Hodgson.
1121 Invidiam facerent. Cf. Ov., Art. Am., i., 647, “Dicitur Ægyptos caruisse juvantibus arva Imbribus, atque annos sicca fuisse novem. Cum Thracius Busirin adit, monstratque piari Hospitis effuso sanguine posse Jovem. Illi Busiris, Fies Jovis hostia primus, Inquit et Ægypto tu dabis hospes opem.” It is to this story Juvenal probably alludes. But invidiam facere means also “to bring into odium and unpopularity” (cf. Ov., Met., iv., 547), and so Gifford understands it. “What more effectual means could these cannibals devise to incense the god and provoke him to withhold his fertilizing waters, thereby bringing him into unpopularity.” Cf. Lucan, ii., 36, “Nullis defuit aris Invidiam factura parens,” with the note of Cortius.
1122 Fictilibus phaselis. Evidently taken from Virg., Georg., iv., 287, “Nam quâ Pellæi gens fortunata Canopi Accolit effuso stagnantem flumine Nilum Et circum pictis vehitur sua rura phaselis.” The deficiency of timber in Egypt forced the inhabitants to adopt any expedient as a substitute. Strabo (lib. xvii.) mentions these vessels of pottery-ware, varnished over to make them water-tight. Phaselus is properly the long Egyptian kidney bean, from which the boats derived their name, from their long and narrow form. From their speed they were much used by pirates, and seem to have been of the same build as the Myoparones mentioned by Cicero in Verrem, ii., 3. Cf. Catull., iv., 1, “Phaselus ille quem videtis hospites Ait fuisse navium celerrimus.” Mart., x., Ep. xxx., 12, “Viva sed quies Ponti Pictam phaselon adjuvante fert aurâ.” Cf. Lucan, v., 518. Hor., iii., Od. ii., 29. Virg., Georg., i., 277. Arist., Pax, 1144.
“Or through the tranquil water’s easy swell,
Work the short paddles of their painted shell.” Hodgson.
1123 Lacrymas. So the Greek proverb, ἀγαθοὶ δ’ ἀριδάκρυες ἄνδρες.
1124 Pupillum. Cf. i., 45, “Quum populum gregibus comitum premit hic spoliator Pupilli prostantis,” x., 222, “Quot Basilus socios, quot circumscripserit Hirrus pupillos.”
1125 Incerta. Hor., ii., Od. v., “Quem si puellarum insereres choro Miré sagaces falleret hospites Discrimen obscurum solutis Crinibus ambiguoque vultu.”
“So soft his tresses, filled with trickling pearl,
You’d doubt his sex, and take him for a girl.” Dryden.
1126 Minor igne rogi. Infants under forty days old were not burned, but buried; and the place was called “Suggrundarium.” Vid. Facc. in voc. Cf. Plin., H. N., vii., 16.
1127 Arcana. Hor., iii., Od. ii., 26, “Vetabo qui Cereris sacrum vulgârit arcanæ, sub îsdem sit trabibus fragilemve mecum solvat phaselon.” Cf. Sat. vi., 50, “Paucæ adeo Cereris vittas contingere dignæ.” None were admitted to initiation in the greater mysteries without a strict inquiry into their moral character; as none but the chastest matrons were allowed to be priestesses of Ceres. For the origin of the use of the torch in the sacred processions of Ceres, see Ovid, Fast., iv., 493, seq.
1128 Aliena. From Ter., Heaut., I., i., 25, “Homo sum; humani nihil à me alienum puto.” Cf. Cic., Off., i., 9.
1129 Sortiti ingenium. Cf. Cic., Nat. Deor., ii., 56, “Sunt enim homines non ut incolæ atque habitatores, sed quasi spectatores superarum rerum atque cœlestium, quarum spectaculum ad nullum aliud genus animantium pertinet.”
1130 Cœlesti. Virg., Æn., vi., 730, “Igneus est ollis vigor et cœlestis origo.” Hor., ii., Sat. ii., 79, “Divinæ particulam auræ.”
1131 Prona. Ov., Met., i., 84, “Pronaque cum spectent animalia cætera terram, Os homini sublime dedit, cœlumque tueri jussit et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.” Sall., Bell. Cat., init., “Omnes homines qui sese student præstare cæteris animalibus quæ Natura prona et ventri obedientia finxit.”
1132 Animam. i., 83. Cf. ad vi., 531.
“To brutes our Maker, when the globe was new,
Lent only life: to men, a spirit too.
That mutual kindness in our hearts might burn,
The good which others did us, to return:
That scattered thousands might together come,
Leave their old woods, and seek a general home.” Hodgson.
1133 Dispersos. Cic., Tusc. Qu., v., 2, “Tu dissipatos homines in societatem vitæ convocâsti; tu eos inter se primo domiciliis, deinde conjugiis, tum literarum et vocum communione junxisti.” Hor., i., Sat. iii., 104, “Dehinc absistere bello: oppida cœperunt munire et ponere leges.” Ar. Poet., 391, “Sylvestres homines sacer interpresque deorum Cædibus et victu fœdo deterruit Orpheus.”
1134 Sylvas. Ov., Met., i., 121, “Tum primum subiere domos. Domus antra fuerunt, et densi frutices, et vinctæ cortice virgæ.” Lucr., v., 953, “Sed nemora atque cavos montes sylvasque colebant, Et frutices inter condebant squalida membra.”
1135 Collata fiducia.
“Thus more securely through the night to rest,
And add new courage to our neighbor’s breast.” Hodgson.
1136 Civem. Hence the proud inscription on the civic crown, OB. CIVES. SERVATOS.
1137 Concordia. Plin., H. N., vii., in., “Cætera animantia in suo genere probè degunt; congregari videmus, et stare contra dissimilia: Leonum feritas inter se non dimicat: serpentum morsus non petit serpentes; nec maris quidem belluæ nisi in diversa genera sæviunt. At Hercule, homini plurima ex homine sunt mala.” Hor., Epod., vii., 11, “Neque hic lupis mos nec fuit leonibus, nunquam nisi in dispar feris.” “Homo homini lupus.” Prov. Rom.
1138 Cognatis.
“His kindred spots the very pard will spare.” Badham.
1139 Dentibus apri.
“Nor from his larger tusks the forest boar
Commission takes his brother swine to gore.” Dryd.
1140 Indica tigris. Plin., H. N., vin., 18, “Tigris Indica fera velocitatis tremendæ est, quæ vacuum reperiens cubile fertur præceps odore vestigans,” et seq.
“In league of Friendship tigers roam the plain,
And bears with bears perpetual peace maintain.” Gifford.
1141 Ast homini.
“But man, fell man, is not content to make
The deadly sword for murder’s impious sake,
Though ancient smiths knew only to produce
Spades, rakes, and mattocks for the rustic’s use;
And guiltless anvils in those ancient times
Were not subservient to the soldier’s crimes.” Hodgson.
1142 Gladios. Virg., Georg., ii., 538.
“Aureus hanc vitam in terris Saturnus agebat.
Necdum etiam audierant inflari classica, necdum
Impositos duris crepitare incudibus enses.”
1143 “Ev’n this is trifling. We have seen a rage
Too fierce for murder only to assuage;
Seen a whole state their victim piecemeal tear,
And count each quivering limb delicious fare!” Gifford.
1144 Pythagoras. iii., 228, “Culti villicus horti unde epulum possis centum dare Pythagoreis.” Holding the doctrine of the Metempsychosis, Pythagoras was averse to shedding the blood of any animal. Various reasons are assigned for his abstaining from beans; from their shape—from their turning to blood if exposed to moonshine, etc. Diog. Laert. says (lib. viii. cap. i.), τῶν δὲ κυάμων ἀπηγόρευεν ἔχεσθαι διὰ τὸ πνευματώδεις ὄντας μᾶλλον μετέχειν τοῦ ψυχικοῦ—καὶ τὰς καθύπνους φαντασίας λείας καὶ ἀταράχους ἀποτελεῖν. In which view Cicero seems to concur: De Div., ii., 119, “Pythagoras et Plato, quo in somnis certiora videamus, præparatos quodam cultu atque victu proficisci ad dormiendum jubent: Faba quidem Pythagorei utique abstinuere, quasi vero eo cibo mens non venter infletur.” Cf. Ov., Met., xv., 60, seq. See Browne’s Vulgar Errors, book i., chap. iv. (Bohn’s Antiquarian Library): “When (Pythagoras) enjoined his disciples an abstinence from beans,... he had no other intention than to dissuade men from magistracy, or undertaking the public offices of the state; for by beans was the magistrate elected in some parts of Greece; and after his days, we read in Thucydides of the Council of the Bean in Athens. It hath been thought by some an injunction only of continency.”