SATIRE VIII.

When is Basilus allowed to produce in court a weeping mother? Who could endure Basilus, however well he were to plead? Let Gaul become your home, or better still that foster-nurse of pleaders, Africa, if you are determined to let your tongue for hire.

Do you teach declamation? Oh what a heart of steel must Vectius have, when his numerous class kills cruel tyrants! For all that the boy has just conned over at his seat, he will then stand up and spout—the same stale theme in the same sing-song. It is the reproduction of the cabbage[373]that wears out the master's life. What is the plea to be urged: what the character of the cause; where the main point of the case hinges; what shafts may issue from the opposing party;—this all are anxious to know; but not one is anxious to pay!"Paydo you ask for? why, what do I know?" The blame, forsooth, is laid at the teacher's door, because there is not a spark of energy in the breast of this scion of Arcadia,[374]who dins his awful Hannibal into my ears regularly every sixth day. Whatever the theme be that is to be the subject of his deliberation; whether he shall march at once from Cannæ on Rome; or whether, rendered circumspect after the storms and thunderbolts, he shall lead his cohorts, drenched with the tempest, by a circuitous route. Bargain[375]for any sum you please, and I will at once place it in your hands, on condition that his father should hear him his lesson as often as I have to do it! But six or more sophists are all giving tongue at once; and, debating in good earnest, have abandoned all fictitious declamations about the ravisher. No more is heard of the poison infused, or the vile ungrateful husband,[376]or the drugs that can restore the aged blind to youth. He therefore that quits the shadowy conflicts of rhetoric for the arena of real debate, will superannuate himself, if my advice has any weight with him, and enter on a different path of life; that he may not lose even the paltry sum that will purchase the miserable ticket[377]for corn. Since this is the most splendid reward you can expect. Just inquire what Chrysogonus receives, or Pollio, for teaching the sons of these fine gentlemen, and going into all the details[378]of Theodorus' treatise.

The baths will cost six hundred sestertia, and the colonnade still more, in which the great man rides whenever it rains. Is he to wait, forsooth, for fair weather? or bespatter his horses with fresh mud? Nay, far better here! for here the mule's hoof shines unsullied.[379]On the other side must rise a spacious dining-room, supported on stately columns of Numidian marble, and catch the cool[380]sun. However much the house may have cost, he will have besides an artiste who can arrange his table scientifically; another, who can season made-dishes. Yet amid all this lavish expenditure, two poor sestertia will be deemed an ample remuneration for Quintilian. Nothing will cost a father less than his son's education.

"Then where did Quintilian get the money to pay for so many estates?" Pass by the instances of good fortune that are but rare indeed. It is goodluckthat makes a man handsome and active; good luck that makes him wise, and noble, and well-bred, and attaches the crescent[381]of the senator to his black shoe. Good luck too that makes him the best of orators and debaters, and, though he has a vile cold, sing well! For it makes all the difference what planets welcome you when you first begin to utter your infant cry, and are still red fromyour mother. If fortune so wills it, you will become consul instead of rhetorician; or, if she will, instead of rhetorician, consul! What was Ventidius[382]or Tullius aught else than a lucky planet, and the strange potency of hidden fate? Fate, that gives kingdoms to slaves, and triumphs to captives. Yes! Quintilian was indeed lucky, but he is a greater rarity even than a white crow. But many a man has repented of this fruitless and barren employment, as the sad end of Thrasymachus[383]proves, and that of Secundus Carrinas.[384]And you, too, Athens, were witness to the poverty of him on whom you had the heart to bestow nothing save the hemlock that chilled[385]his life-blood!

Light be the earth, ye gods![386]and void of weight, that presses on our grandsires' shades, and round their urn bloom fragrant crocus and eternal spring, who maintained that a tutor should hold the place and honor of a revered parent. Achilles sang on his paternal hills, in terror of the lash, though now grown up; and yet in whom even then would not the tail of his master, the harper, provoke a smile? But now Rufus[387]and others are beaten each by their own pupils; Rufus! who so often called Cicero "the Allobrogian!" Who castsinto Enceladus'[388]lap, or that of the learned Palæmon,[389]as much as their grammarian labors have merited! And yet even from the wretched sum, however small (and it is smaller than the rhetorician's pay), Acænonoëtus, his pupil's pedagogue, first takes his slice; and then the steward who pays you deducts his fragment. Dispute it not, Palæmon! and suffer some abatement to be made, just as the peddler does that deals in winter rugs and snow-white sheetings.[390]Only let not all be lost,[391]for which you have sat from the midnight hour, when no smith would sit, nor even he that teaches how to draw out wool with the oblique iron. Lose not your whole reward for having smelled as many lamps as there were boys standing round you; while Horace was altogether discolored, and the foul smut clave to the well-thumbed Maro. Yet rare too is the pay that does not require enforcing by the Tribune's court.[392]

But do you, parents, impose severe exactions on him that is to teach your boys; that he be perfect in the rules of grammar for each word—read all histories[393]—know all authors as well as his own finger-ends; that if questioned at hazard, while on his way to the Thermæ or the baths of Phœbus, he should be able to tell the name of Anchises' nurse,[394]and the name and native land of the step-mother of Anchemolus—tell off-hand how many years Acestes lived—how many flagons of wine the Sicilian king gave to the Phrygians. Require of him that he mould their youthful morals as one models a face in wax. Require of him that he be the reverend father of the company, and check every approach to immorality.

It is no light task to keep watch over so many boyish hands, so many little twinkling eyes. "This," says the father, "be the object of your care!"—and when the year comes round again, Receive for your pay as much gold[395]as the people demand for the victorious Charioteer!

FOOTNOTES:[329]Ratio studiorum.Cf. Tac., Ann., xi., 7, "Sublatis studiorum pretiis etiam studia peritura."[330]Cæsare.Which Cæsar is intended is a matter of discussion among the commentators; whether Nero, Titus, Trajan, Hadrian, Nerva, or Domitian. Probably the last is meant: as in the beginning of his reign he affected the character of a patron of literature.[331]Respexit."To view with favor or pity," as a deity: so Virg., Ecl., i., 28, "Libertas, quæ sera tamen respexit inertem."[332]Atria.Either "the antechambers of rich patrons," or to "the Licinian and other courts," near the forum, where auctions were held; theatria auctionariaof Cicero: cf. pro Quint., 12, 25, i. in Rull., 7.[333]Machæra, a famousPræcoof his time. Lubin.[334]Commissa.Either from the goods being "intrusted" to the auctioneer by the owner or the magistrate; or from the parties that bid being as it were "pitted,"commissi, against each other, like gladiators.[335]Vidi.So xvi., 29, "Audeat ille Nescio quis, pugnos qui vidit, dicere vidi."[336]Asiani."Jam equites, olim servi Asiatici." Lub. The next line is in all probability interpolated, being only a gloss. Heinrich.[337]Nudo talo.Vid. ad i., 111. Or, it may be "barefooted" simply. Galatia in Asia Minor, so called from the colony of Gauls who settled there,A.D.278, at the invitation of Nicomedes. Liv., xxxviii., 16. Cf. Paus., Phoc., xxiii. Cramer's Asia Minor, ii., 79. Clinton, Fast. Hell. in an."Sent from Bithynia's realms with shoeless feet." Badham.[338]Laurumque momordit.So δαφνηφάγοι. The chewing of the bay, as being sacred to Apollo, was supposed to convey divine inspiration. Grang. Cf. Lycoph., 6.[339]Indulgentia."Lo! the imperial eyeLooks round attentive on each rising bard,For worth to praise, for genius to reward." Gifford.[340]Croceæ.Because parchment is always yellow on the side where the hair grew. Others think the parchment itself was dyed yellow. Cf. Pers., iii., 10.[341]Veneris marito, a burlesque phrase for "the fire."[342]Tinea.Cf. Hor., Ep., I., xx., 12, "Tineas pasces taciturnus inertes."[343]Cellâ.So Ben Jonson:"I that spend half my nights and half my daysHere in a cell, to get a dark pale face,To come forth worth the ivy or the bays,And in this age can hope no other grace."[344]Junonis avem."To praise andonlypraise the high-wrought strain.As boys the bird of Juno's glittering train." Gifford.[345]Facunda et unda."Till gray-haired, helpless, humbled genius seeIts fault too late, and curse Terpsichore." Badham.[346]Comitum voces.Cf. xiii., 32, "Vocalis sportula."[347]Anabathra, the seats rising one above another in the form of a theatre.Subsellia, those in the body of the room.Orchestra, the hired chairs in front of all, for his knightly guests. Holyday quaintly says no patron cared"What the orchestra cost raised for chief friends,And chairs recarried when the reading ends."[348]Laqueo."And would we quit at length th' ambitious ill,The noose of habit implicates us still." Badham.[349]Vatem egregium.Cf. Hor., i., Sat. iv., 43, "Ingenium cui sit, cui mens divinior, atque os magna sonaturum, des nominis hujus honorem." How immeasurably finer of the two is Juvenal's description of a poet!"But he, the bard of every age and clime,Of genius fruitful, and of soul sublime,Who from the glowing mint of fancy poursNo spurious metal, fused from common ores,But gold to matchless purity refined,And stamp'd with all the godhead in his mind:He whom I feel, but want the power to paint,Must boast a soul impatient of restraint,And free from every care—a soul that lovesThe Muses' haunts, clear springs and shady groves." Gifford.Of this passage, Hodgson says, Gifford has drawn the prize in the lottery of translation, all others must be blanks after it.[350]Evoe!Vid. Hor., ii., Od. xix., 5. Cf. Milman's Life.[351]Feruntur."Be hurried with resistless force alongBy the two kindred powers of wine and song." Gifford.[352]Duas."Nor wrestlings with the world will Genius own,Destined to strive with song, and song alone." Badham.[353]Erinnys.The splendid passage in the seventh Æneid, 445,seq., "Talibus Alecto dictis exarsit in iras. At juveni oranti subitus tremor occupat artus: Deriguere oculi: tot Erinnys sibilat hydris, Tantaque se facies aperit." Cf. Æn., ii., 602,seq.; xii., 326.[354]Atreus.Some take Atreus to be the person who lends the money. Grangæus interprets it, "Qui dum componit tragædiam de Atreo, ut vitam sustentare possit pignori opponit alveolos.""Who writes his Atreus, as his friends allege,With half his household goods and cloak in pledge." Badham.[355]Statiusemployed twelve years upon his Thebais. (Cf. xii., 811.) It was not completed tillafterthe Dacian war, but was writtenbeforethe 1st book of the Silvæ, the date of the 4th book of which is known to beA.D.95. We may therefore assume the date of the Thebais to be about 94.[356]Vendat.Holyday quotes from Brodæus the price given to Terence for his Eunuchus, viz., eight sestertia, about sixty-five pounds.[357]Agave.Probably a pantomimic ballet on a tragic subject; for, as Heinrich says, what had Paris, the mime, to do with anew tragedy? These and the following lines are said to have been the cause of Juvenal's banishment.[358]Semestriis said to refer to an honorary military commission, conferred on favorites, even though not in the army, and called "Semestris tribunatus militum." It lasted for six months only, but conferred the privilege of wearing the equestrian ring, with perhaps others. It is alluded to in Pliny, iv., Epist. 4, who begs of Sossius the consul in behalf of a friend, "Hunc rogo semestri tribunatu splendidiorem facias." There are divers other interpretations, but this appears the simplest and most probable. To confound it with the "æstivum aurum" (i., 28), is a palpable absurdity.[359]Vinum nescire.Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 5, "At ipsis Saturnalibus huc fugisti Sobrius." Stat., Sylv., I., vi., 4, "Saturnus mihi compede exsolutâ, et multo gravidus mero December.""Then all December's revelries refuse,And give the festive moments to the Muse." Gifford.[360]Acta legenti.Either the "notary public," or "keeper of the public records," or the historian's reader, who collected facts for the author, or "any one who read aloud the history itself."[361]Russati.Cf. ad vi., 589. So the charioteer of "the white" was called Albatus. Lacerna, or Lacerta, was a charioteer in the reign of Domitian, some say of Domitian himself. One commentator takes Lacerna to be "any soldier wearing a red cloak;" as Paludatus is "one wearing the general's cloak." Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 78, "Prasinus Porphyrion."[362]Consedere.Cf. Ov., Met., xiii., 1, "Consedere duces; et, vulgi stante corona, Surgit ad hos clypei dominus septemplicis Ajax." Cf. ad xi., 30.[363]Bubulco." Before some clod-pate judge thy vitals strain." Badham.[364]Palmæ.Cf. ad ix., 85."So shall the verdant palm be duly tiedTo the dark staircase where such powers reside." Badham.[365]Afrorum Epimenia.Most probably alluding to the "monthly rations of onions" allowed to African slaves, who were accustomed to plenty of them in their own country (cf. Herod., ii., 125. Numb., xi., 5), where they grew in great abundance. Martial, ix., Ep. xlvi., 11, enumerates "bulbi" among the presents sent at the Saturnalia to the causidicus Sabellus.[366]Lagenæ.Mart.,u. s."Five jars of meagre down-the-Tiber wine." Badham.[367]Aureus.About sixteen shillings English at this time.[368]Pragmaticorum.Cicero describes their occupation, de Orat., i., 45, "Ut apud Græcos infimi homines, mercedula adducti, ministros se præbent judiciis oratoribus ii qui apud illos πραγματικοὶ vocantur." Cf. c. 59. Quintil., iii., 6; xii., 3. Mart., xii., Ep. 72. They appear afterward to have been introduced at Rome, and are sometimes called "Tabelliones."[369]Licet.The Lex Cincia de Muneribus, as amended by Augustus, forbade the receipt of any fees. A law of Nero fixed the fee at100aurei at most. Vid. Tac., Ann., xi., 5 (Ruperti's note). Suet., Ner., 17. Plin., v., Ep. iv., 21.[370]Quadrijuges.It appears to have been an extraordinary fancy with lawyers of this age to be represented in this manner; cf. Mart., ix., Ep. lxix., 5,seq.; but the details of the picture have puzzled the commentators. "Curvatum" is supposed to mean that "the spear actually seems quivering in his hand," or that it is "bent with age," or that thearmis "bent back," as if in the act of throwing. Cf. Xen., Anab., V., ii., 12, διηγκυλωμένους. "Luscâ" may imply that the statue imitated to the life the personal defect of Æmilius; or simply the absence of the pupil (ὀμμάτων ἀχηνία), inseparable from statuary; or that Æmilius is represented as closing one eye to take better aim."Lifts his poised javelin o'er the crowd below,And from his blinking statue threats the blow." Hodgson.[371]Cf. Mart., ix., Ep. 60.[372]Stlataria.Stlatais said to be an old form oflata, asstlisforlis,stlocusforlocus. Therefore Stlataria is the same as the "Latus Clavus," according to some commentators; or a "broad-beamed" merchant ship; and therefore means simply "imported." Others say it is a "piratical ship," such as the Illyrians used, and the word is then taken to imply "deceitful." Facciolati explains, it by "peregrina et pretiosa: longè navi advecta."[373]Crambe.The old Schol. quotes a proverb—δὶς κράμβε θάνατος, Grangæus another, which forcibly expresses a schoolmaster's drudgery—οἰ αὐτοὶ περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν τοῖς αὐτοῖς τὰ ἀυτά."Till, like hash'd cabbage, served for each repast,The repetition kills the wretch at last." Gifford.[374]Arcadia was celebrated for its breed of asses. Cf. Pers., Sat. iii., 9, "Arcadiæ pecuaria rudere credas." Auson., Epigr. 76, "Asinos quoque rudere dicas, cum vis Arcadium fingere, Marce, pecus."[375]Stipulare."Get me his father but to hear his taskFor one short week, I'll give you all you ask." Bad.[376]Maritus."The faithless husband and abandon'd wife,And Æson coddled to new light and life." Gifford.[377]Tessera.The poorer Romans received every month tickets, which appear to have been transferable, entitling them to a certain quantity of corn from the public granaries. These tesseræ or symbola were made, Lubinus says, of wood or lead, and distributed by the "Frumentorum Curatores." In the latter days, bread thus distributed was called "Panis Gradilis," quia gradibus distribuebatur. The Congiarium consisted of wine, or oil only. The Donativum was only given to soldiers. Several of these tickets of wood and lead are preserved in the museum at Portici.[378]Scindens."Præcepta ejus artis minutatim dividens." Lubin. On the principle, perhaps, that "Qui benè dividit benè docet." Britannicus, whom Heinrich follows, explains it by "deridet." Theodorus of Gadara was a professor of rhetoric in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. Vid. Suet., Tib., 57. It was he who so well described the character of the latter; calling him πήλον αἵματι πεφύρμενον. Chrysogonus, in vi., 74, is a singer, and Pollio, vi., 387, a musician (cf. Mart., iv., Ep. lxi., 9); but, as Lubinus says, the persons mentioned here are professors of rhetoric, and probably therefore not the same.[379]Mundæ."He splash his fav'rite mule in filthy roads!With ample space at his command, to tireThe well-groom'd beast, with hoof unstain'd by mire." Badham.[380]Algentem.They had dining-rooms facing different quarters, according to the season of the year, with a southern aspect for the winter, and an eastern for the summer. Cf. Plin., ii., Ep. 17.Rapiatrather seems to imply the former case. So Badham—"Courts the brief radiance of the winter's noon.""Algentem" favors the other view—"Front the cool east, when now the averted sunThrough the mid ardors of his course has run." Hodgson.[381]Lunam.Senators woreblackshoes of tanned leather: they were a kind of short boot reaching to the middle of the leg (hence, "Nigris medium impediit crus pellibus," Hor., I., Sat. vi., 27), with a crescent or the letter C in front, because the original number of senators was a hundred.—Aluta, "steeped in alum," to soften the skin.[382]Ventidius Bassus, son of a slave; first a carman, then a muleteer; afterward made in one year prætor and consul. Being appointed to command against the Parthians, he was allowed a triumph; having been himself, in his youth, led as a captive in the triumphal procession of Pompey's father. Cf. Val. Max., vi., 10.[383]Thrasymachusof Chalcedon, the pupil of Plato and Isocrates, wrote a treatise on Rhetoric, and set up as a teacher of it at Athens; but, meeting with no encouragement, shut up his school and hanged himself.[384]Secundus Carrinasis said to have been driven by poverty from Athens to Rome; and was banished by Caligula for a declamation against tyrants. He is mentioned, Tac., Ann., xv., 45.[385]Gelidas."Cicutæ refrigeratoria vis: quos enecat incipiunt algere ab extremitatibus corporis." Plin., xxv., 13. Plat., Phædo, fin. Pers., iv., 1.[386]Dii Majorum, etc."Shades of our sires! O sacred be your rest,And lightly lie the turf upon your breast;Flowers round your urns breathe sweets beyond compare,And spring eternal bloom and flourish there!Your honor'd tutors, now a slighted race,And gave them all a parent's power and place!" Gifford.[387]Rufus, according to the old Schol., was a native of Gaul. Grangæus calls him Q. Curtius Rufus, and says nothing more is known of him than that he was an eminent rhetorician. He is here represented as charging Cicero with barbarisms or provincialisms, such as a Savoyard would use.[388]Enceladus.Nothing is known of him.[389]Palæmon.Vid. ad vi., 451.[390]Cadurci.Cf. vi., 537.[391]Non pereat."Yes, suffer this! while something's left to payYour rising, hours before the dawn of day;When e'en the lab'ring poor their slumbers take,And not a weaver, not a smith's awake." Gifford.[392]Cognitione Tribuni.Not a tribune of the people, but one of the Tribuni Ærarii, to whom the cognizance of such complaints belonged.[393]Historias.Tiberius was exceedingly fond of propounding to grammarians, a class of men whom he particularly affected (quod genus hominum præcipuè appetebat), questions of this nature, to sound their "notitia historiæ usque ad ineptias atque derisum." Cf. Suet., Tib., 70, 57.[394]Nutricem.The names of these two persons are said to have been Casperia and Tisiphone.[395]Aurum.i. e., 5 aurei, the highest reward allowed to be given. The aureus, which varied in value, was at this time worth 25 denarii; a little more than 16 shillings English. Cf. Mart., x., Ep. lxxiv., 5.

[329]Ratio studiorum.Cf. Tac., Ann., xi., 7, "Sublatis studiorum pretiis etiam studia peritura."

[330]Cæsare.Which Cæsar is intended is a matter of discussion among the commentators; whether Nero, Titus, Trajan, Hadrian, Nerva, or Domitian. Probably the last is meant: as in the beginning of his reign he affected the character of a patron of literature.

[331]Respexit."To view with favor or pity," as a deity: so Virg., Ecl., i., 28, "Libertas, quæ sera tamen respexit inertem."

[332]Atria.Either "the antechambers of rich patrons," or to "the Licinian and other courts," near the forum, where auctions were held; theatria auctionariaof Cicero: cf. pro Quint., 12, 25, i. in Rull., 7.

[333]Machæra, a famousPræcoof his time. Lubin.

[334]Commissa.Either from the goods being "intrusted" to the auctioneer by the owner or the magistrate; or from the parties that bid being as it were "pitted,"commissi, against each other, like gladiators.

[335]Vidi.So xvi., 29, "Audeat ille Nescio quis, pugnos qui vidit, dicere vidi."

[336]Asiani."Jam equites, olim servi Asiatici." Lub. The next line is in all probability interpolated, being only a gloss. Heinrich.

[337]Nudo talo.Vid. ad i., 111. Or, it may be "barefooted" simply. Galatia in Asia Minor, so called from the colony of Gauls who settled there,A.D.278, at the invitation of Nicomedes. Liv., xxxviii., 16. Cf. Paus., Phoc., xxiii. Cramer's Asia Minor, ii., 79. Clinton, Fast. Hell. in an."Sent from Bithynia's realms with shoeless feet." Badham.

"Sent from Bithynia's realms with shoeless feet." Badham.

[338]Laurumque momordit.So δαφνηφάγοι. The chewing of the bay, as being sacred to Apollo, was supposed to convey divine inspiration. Grang. Cf. Lycoph., 6.

[339]Indulgentia."Lo! the imperial eyeLooks round attentive on each rising bard,For worth to praise, for genius to reward." Gifford.

[339]

Indulgentia."Lo! the imperial eyeLooks round attentive on each rising bard,For worth to praise, for genius to reward." Gifford.

[340]Croceæ.Because parchment is always yellow on the side where the hair grew. Others think the parchment itself was dyed yellow. Cf. Pers., iii., 10.

[341]Veneris marito, a burlesque phrase for "the fire."

[342]Tinea.Cf. Hor., Ep., I., xx., 12, "Tineas pasces taciturnus inertes."

[343]Cellâ.So Ben Jonson:"I that spend half my nights and half my daysHere in a cell, to get a dark pale face,To come forth worth the ivy or the bays,And in this age can hope no other grace."

[343]Cellâ.So Ben Jonson:

"I that spend half my nights and half my daysHere in a cell, to get a dark pale face,To come forth worth the ivy or the bays,And in this age can hope no other grace."

[344]Junonis avem."To praise andonlypraise the high-wrought strain.As boys the bird of Juno's glittering train." Gifford.

[344]Junonis avem.

"To praise andonlypraise the high-wrought strain.As boys the bird of Juno's glittering train." Gifford.

[345]Facunda et unda."Till gray-haired, helpless, humbled genius seeIts fault too late, and curse Terpsichore." Badham.

[345]Facunda et unda.

"Till gray-haired, helpless, humbled genius seeIts fault too late, and curse Terpsichore." Badham.

[346]Comitum voces.Cf. xiii., 32, "Vocalis sportula."

[347]Anabathra, the seats rising one above another in the form of a theatre.Subsellia, those in the body of the room.Orchestra, the hired chairs in front of all, for his knightly guests. Holyday quaintly says no patron cared"What the orchestra cost raised for chief friends,And chairs recarried when the reading ends."

"What the orchestra cost raised for chief friends,And chairs recarried when the reading ends."

[348]Laqueo."And would we quit at length th' ambitious ill,The noose of habit implicates us still." Badham.

[348]Laqueo.

"And would we quit at length th' ambitious ill,The noose of habit implicates us still." Badham.

[349]Vatem egregium.Cf. Hor., i., Sat. iv., 43, "Ingenium cui sit, cui mens divinior, atque os magna sonaturum, des nominis hujus honorem." How immeasurably finer of the two is Juvenal's description of a poet!"But he, the bard of every age and clime,Of genius fruitful, and of soul sublime,Who from the glowing mint of fancy poursNo spurious metal, fused from common ores,But gold to matchless purity refined,And stamp'd with all the godhead in his mind:He whom I feel, but want the power to paint,Must boast a soul impatient of restraint,And free from every care—a soul that lovesThe Muses' haunts, clear springs and shady groves." Gifford.Of this passage, Hodgson says, Gifford has drawn the prize in the lottery of translation, all others must be blanks after it.

"But he, the bard of every age and clime,Of genius fruitful, and of soul sublime,Who from the glowing mint of fancy poursNo spurious metal, fused from common ores,But gold to matchless purity refined,And stamp'd with all the godhead in his mind:He whom I feel, but want the power to paint,Must boast a soul impatient of restraint,And free from every care—a soul that lovesThe Muses' haunts, clear springs and shady groves." Gifford.

Of this passage, Hodgson says, Gifford has drawn the prize in the lottery of translation, all others must be blanks after it.

[350]Evoe!Vid. Hor., ii., Od. xix., 5. Cf. Milman's Life.

[351]Feruntur."Be hurried with resistless force alongBy the two kindred powers of wine and song." Gifford.

[351]Feruntur.

"Be hurried with resistless force alongBy the two kindred powers of wine and song." Gifford.

[352]Duas."Nor wrestlings with the world will Genius own,Destined to strive with song, and song alone." Badham.

[352]Duas.

"Nor wrestlings with the world will Genius own,Destined to strive with song, and song alone." Badham.

[353]Erinnys.The splendid passage in the seventh Æneid, 445,seq., "Talibus Alecto dictis exarsit in iras. At juveni oranti subitus tremor occupat artus: Deriguere oculi: tot Erinnys sibilat hydris, Tantaque se facies aperit." Cf. Æn., ii., 602,seq.; xii., 326.

[354]Atreus.Some take Atreus to be the person who lends the money. Grangæus interprets it, "Qui dum componit tragædiam de Atreo, ut vitam sustentare possit pignori opponit alveolos.""Who writes his Atreus, as his friends allege,With half his household goods and cloak in pledge." Badham.

[354]Atreus.Some take Atreus to be the person who lends the money. Grangæus interprets it, "Qui dum componit tragædiam de Atreo, ut vitam sustentare possit pignori opponit alveolos."

"Who writes his Atreus, as his friends allege,With half his household goods and cloak in pledge." Badham.

[355]Statiusemployed twelve years upon his Thebais. (Cf. xii., 811.) It was not completed tillafterthe Dacian war, but was writtenbeforethe 1st book of the Silvæ, the date of the 4th book of which is known to beA.D.95. We may therefore assume the date of the Thebais to be about 94.

[356]Vendat.Holyday quotes from Brodæus the price given to Terence for his Eunuchus, viz., eight sestertia, about sixty-five pounds.

[357]Agave.Probably a pantomimic ballet on a tragic subject; for, as Heinrich says, what had Paris, the mime, to do with anew tragedy? These and the following lines are said to have been the cause of Juvenal's banishment.

[358]Semestriis said to refer to an honorary military commission, conferred on favorites, even though not in the army, and called "Semestris tribunatus militum." It lasted for six months only, but conferred the privilege of wearing the equestrian ring, with perhaps others. It is alluded to in Pliny, iv., Epist. 4, who begs of Sossius the consul in behalf of a friend, "Hunc rogo semestri tribunatu splendidiorem facias." There are divers other interpretations, but this appears the simplest and most probable. To confound it with the "æstivum aurum" (i., 28), is a palpable absurdity.

[359]Vinum nescire.Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 5, "At ipsis Saturnalibus huc fugisti Sobrius." Stat., Sylv., I., vi., 4, "Saturnus mihi compede exsolutâ, et multo gravidus mero December.""Then all December's revelries refuse,And give the festive moments to the Muse." Gifford.

[359]Vinum nescire.Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 5, "At ipsis Saturnalibus huc fugisti Sobrius." Stat., Sylv., I., vi., 4, "Saturnus mihi compede exsolutâ, et multo gravidus mero December."

"Then all December's revelries refuse,And give the festive moments to the Muse." Gifford.

[360]Acta legenti.Either the "notary public," or "keeper of the public records," or the historian's reader, who collected facts for the author, or "any one who read aloud the history itself."

[361]Russati.Cf. ad vi., 589. So the charioteer of "the white" was called Albatus. Lacerna, or Lacerta, was a charioteer in the reign of Domitian, some say of Domitian himself. One commentator takes Lacerna to be "any soldier wearing a red cloak;" as Paludatus is "one wearing the general's cloak." Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 78, "Prasinus Porphyrion."

[362]Consedere.Cf. Ov., Met., xiii., 1, "Consedere duces; et, vulgi stante corona, Surgit ad hos clypei dominus septemplicis Ajax." Cf. ad xi., 30.

[363]Bubulco." Before some clod-pate judge thy vitals strain." Badham.

[364]Palmæ.Cf. ad ix., 85."So shall the verdant palm be duly tiedTo the dark staircase where such powers reside." Badham.

[364]Palmæ.Cf. ad ix., 85.

"So shall the verdant palm be duly tiedTo the dark staircase where such powers reside." Badham.

[365]Afrorum Epimenia.Most probably alluding to the "monthly rations of onions" allowed to African slaves, who were accustomed to plenty of them in their own country (cf. Herod., ii., 125. Numb., xi., 5), where they grew in great abundance. Martial, ix., Ep. xlvi., 11, enumerates "bulbi" among the presents sent at the Saturnalia to the causidicus Sabellus.

[366]Lagenæ.Mart.,u. s."Five jars of meagre down-the-Tiber wine." Badham.

[367]Aureus.About sixteen shillings English at this time.

[368]Pragmaticorum.Cicero describes their occupation, de Orat., i., 45, "Ut apud Græcos infimi homines, mercedula adducti, ministros se præbent judiciis oratoribus ii qui apud illos πραγματικοὶ vocantur." Cf. c. 59. Quintil., iii., 6; xii., 3. Mart., xii., Ep. 72. They appear afterward to have been introduced at Rome, and are sometimes called "Tabelliones."

[369]Licet.The Lex Cincia de Muneribus, as amended by Augustus, forbade the receipt of any fees. A law of Nero fixed the fee at100aurei at most. Vid. Tac., Ann., xi., 5 (Ruperti's note). Suet., Ner., 17. Plin., v., Ep. iv., 21.

[370]Quadrijuges.It appears to have been an extraordinary fancy with lawyers of this age to be represented in this manner; cf. Mart., ix., Ep. lxix., 5,seq.; but the details of the picture have puzzled the commentators. "Curvatum" is supposed to mean that "the spear actually seems quivering in his hand," or that it is "bent with age," or that thearmis "bent back," as if in the act of throwing. Cf. Xen., Anab., V., ii., 12, διηγκυλωμένους. "Luscâ" may imply that the statue imitated to the life the personal defect of Æmilius; or simply the absence of the pupil (ὀμμάτων ἀχηνία), inseparable from statuary; or that Æmilius is represented as closing one eye to take better aim."Lifts his poised javelin o'er the crowd below,And from his blinking statue threats the blow." Hodgson.

"Lifts his poised javelin o'er the crowd below,And from his blinking statue threats the blow." Hodgson.

[371]Cf. Mart., ix., Ep. 60.

[372]Stlataria.Stlatais said to be an old form oflata, asstlisforlis,stlocusforlocus. Therefore Stlataria is the same as the "Latus Clavus," according to some commentators; or a "broad-beamed" merchant ship; and therefore means simply "imported." Others say it is a "piratical ship," such as the Illyrians used, and the word is then taken to imply "deceitful." Facciolati explains, it by "peregrina et pretiosa: longè navi advecta."

[373]Crambe.The old Schol. quotes a proverb—δὶς κράμβε θάνατος, Grangæus another, which forcibly expresses a schoolmaster's drudgery—οἰ αὐτοὶ περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν τοῖς αὐτοῖς τὰ ἀυτά."Till, like hash'd cabbage, served for each repast,The repetition kills the wretch at last." Gifford.

"Till, like hash'd cabbage, served for each repast,The repetition kills the wretch at last." Gifford.

[374]Arcadia was celebrated for its breed of asses. Cf. Pers., Sat. iii., 9, "Arcadiæ pecuaria rudere credas." Auson., Epigr. 76, "Asinos quoque rudere dicas, cum vis Arcadium fingere, Marce, pecus."

[375]Stipulare."Get me his father but to hear his taskFor one short week, I'll give you all you ask." Bad.

[375]Stipulare.

"Get me his father but to hear his taskFor one short week, I'll give you all you ask." Bad.

[376]Maritus."The faithless husband and abandon'd wife,And Æson coddled to new light and life." Gifford.

[376]Maritus.

"The faithless husband and abandon'd wife,And Æson coddled to new light and life." Gifford.

[377]Tessera.The poorer Romans received every month tickets, which appear to have been transferable, entitling them to a certain quantity of corn from the public granaries. These tesseræ or symbola were made, Lubinus says, of wood or lead, and distributed by the "Frumentorum Curatores." In the latter days, bread thus distributed was called "Panis Gradilis," quia gradibus distribuebatur. The Congiarium consisted of wine, or oil only. The Donativum was only given to soldiers. Several of these tickets of wood and lead are preserved in the museum at Portici.

[378]Scindens."Præcepta ejus artis minutatim dividens." Lubin. On the principle, perhaps, that "Qui benè dividit benè docet." Britannicus, whom Heinrich follows, explains it by "deridet." Theodorus of Gadara was a professor of rhetoric in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. Vid. Suet., Tib., 57. It was he who so well described the character of the latter; calling him πήλον αἵματι πεφύρμενον. Chrysogonus, in vi., 74, is a singer, and Pollio, vi., 387, a musician (cf. Mart., iv., Ep. lxi., 9); but, as Lubinus says, the persons mentioned here are professors of rhetoric, and probably therefore not the same.

[379]Mundæ."He splash his fav'rite mule in filthy roads!With ample space at his command, to tireThe well-groom'd beast, with hoof unstain'd by mire." Badham.

[379]Mundæ.

"He splash his fav'rite mule in filthy roads!With ample space at his command, to tireThe well-groom'd beast, with hoof unstain'd by mire." Badham.

[380]Algentem.They had dining-rooms facing different quarters, according to the season of the year, with a southern aspect for the winter, and an eastern for the summer. Cf. Plin., ii., Ep. 17.Rapiatrather seems to imply the former case. So Badham—"Courts the brief radiance of the winter's noon.""Algentem" favors the other view—"Front the cool east, when now the averted sunThrough the mid ardors of his course has run." Hodgson.

"Courts the brief radiance of the winter's noon."

"Algentem" favors the other view—

"Front the cool east, when now the averted sunThrough the mid ardors of his course has run." Hodgson.

[381]Lunam.Senators woreblackshoes of tanned leather: they were a kind of short boot reaching to the middle of the leg (hence, "Nigris medium impediit crus pellibus," Hor., I., Sat. vi., 27), with a crescent or the letter C in front, because the original number of senators was a hundred.—Aluta, "steeped in alum," to soften the skin.

[382]Ventidius Bassus, son of a slave; first a carman, then a muleteer; afterward made in one year prætor and consul. Being appointed to command against the Parthians, he was allowed a triumph; having been himself, in his youth, led as a captive in the triumphal procession of Pompey's father. Cf. Val. Max., vi., 10.

[383]Thrasymachusof Chalcedon, the pupil of Plato and Isocrates, wrote a treatise on Rhetoric, and set up as a teacher of it at Athens; but, meeting with no encouragement, shut up his school and hanged himself.

[384]Secundus Carrinasis said to have been driven by poverty from Athens to Rome; and was banished by Caligula for a declamation against tyrants. He is mentioned, Tac., Ann., xv., 45.

[385]Gelidas."Cicutæ refrigeratoria vis: quos enecat incipiunt algere ab extremitatibus corporis." Plin., xxv., 13. Plat., Phædo, fin. Pers., iv., 1.

[386]Dii Majorum, etc."Shades of our sires! O sacred be your rest,And lightly lie the turf upon your breast;Flowers round your urns breathe sweets beyond compare,And spring eternal bloom and flourish there!Your honor'd tutors, now a slighted race,And gave them all a parent's power and place!" Gifford.

[386]Dii Majorum, etc.

"Shades of our sires! O sacred be your rest,And lightly lie the turf upon your breast;Flowers round your urns breathe sweets beyond compare,And spring eternal bloom and flourish there!Your honor'd tutors, now a slighted race,And gave them all a parent's power and place!" Gifford.

[387]Rufus, according to the old Schol., was a native of Gaul. Grangæus calls him Q. Curtius Rufus, and says nothing more is known of him than that he was an eminent rhetorician. He is here represented as charging Cicero with barbarisms or provincialisms, such as a Savoyard would use.

[388]Enceladus.Nothing is known of him.

[389]Palæmon.Vid. ad vi., 451.

[390]Cadurci.Cf. vi., 537.

[391]Non pereat."Yes, suffer this! while something's left to payYour rising, hours before the dawn of day;When e'en the lab'ring poor their slumbers take,And not a weaver, not a smith's awake." Gifford.

[391]Non pereat.

"Yes, suffer this! while something's left to payYour rising, hours before the dawn of day;When e'en the lab'ring poor their slumbers take,And not a weaver, not a smith's awake." Gifford.

[392]Cognitione Tribuni.Not a tribune of the people, but one of the Tribuni Ærarii, to whom the cognizance of such complaints belonged.

[393]Historias.Tiberius was exceedingly fond of propounding to grammarians, a class of men whom he particularly affected (quod genus hominum præcipuè appetebat), questions of this nature, to sound their "notitia historiæ usque ad ineptias atque derisum." Cf. Suet., Tib., 70, 57.

[394]Nutricem.The names of these two persons are said to have been Casperia and Tisiphone.

[395]Aurum.i. e., 5 aurei, the highest reward allowed to be given. The aureus, which varied in value, was at this time worth 25 denarii; a little more than 16 shillings English. Cf. Mart., x., Ep. lxxiv., 5.

What is the use of pedigrees?[396]What boots it, Ponticus, to be accounted of an ancient line, and to display the painted faces[397]of your ancestors, and the Æmiliani standing in their cars, and the Curii diminished to one half their bulk, and Corvinus deficient of a shoulder, and Galba that has lost his ears and nose[4]—what profit is it to vaunt in your capacious genealogy of Corvinus, and in many a collateral line[398]to trace dictators and masters of the horse begrimed with smoke, if before the very faces of the Lepidi you lead an evil life! To what purpose are the images of so many warriors, if the dice-box rattles all night long in the presence of the Numantini:[399]if you retire to rest at the rising of that star[400]at whose dawningthose generals set their standards and camps in motion? Why does Fabius[401]plume himself on the Allobrogici and the "Great Altar," as one born in Hercules' own household, if he is covetous, empty-headed, and ever so much more effeminate than the soft lamb of Euganea.[402]If with tender limbs made sleek by the pumice[403]of Catana he shames his rugged sires, and, a purchaser of poison, disgraces his dishonored race by his image that ought to be broken up.[404]

Though your long line of ancient statues adorn your ample halls on every side, the sole and only real nobility is virtue. Be a Paulus,[405]or Cossus, or Drusus, in moral character. Setthatbefore the images of your ancestors. Let that, when you are consul, take precedence of the fasces themselves. What I claim from you first is the noble qualities of the mind. If you deserve indeed to be accounted a man of blameless integrity, and stanch love of justice, both in word and deed, then I recognize the real nobleman. All hail, Gætulicus![406]orthou, Silanus,[407]or from whatever other blood descended, a rare and illustrious citizen, thou fallest to the lot of thy rejoicing country. Then we may exultingly shout out what the people exclaim when Osiris is found.[408]

For who would call him noble that is unworthy of his race, and distinguished only for his illustrious name? We call some one's dwarf,[409]Atlas; a negro, swan; a diminutive and deformed wench, Europa. Lazy curs scabbed[410]with inveterate mange, that lick the edges of the lamp now dry, will get the name of Leopard, Tiger, Lion, or whatever other beast there is on earth that roars with fiercer throat. Therefore you will take care and begin to fear lest it is upon the same principle you are a Creticus[411]or Camerinus.

Whom have I admonished in these words? To you my words are addressed, Rubellius[412]Plautus! You are puffed up withyour descent from the Drusi, just as though you had yourself achieved something to deserve being ennobled; and she that gave you birth should be of the brilliant blood of Iulus, and not the drudge that weaves for hire beneath the shelter of the windy rampart.[413]"You are the lower orders!" he says; "the very dregs of our populace! Not a man of you could tell where his father was born! But I am a Cecropid!" Long may you live![414]and long revel in the joys of such a descent! Yet from the lowest of this common herd you will find one that is indeed an eloquent Roman. It is he that usually pleads the cause of the ignorant noble.[415]From the toga'd crowd will come one that can solve the knotty points of law, and the enigmas of the statutes. He it is that in his prime carves out his fortune with his sword, and goes to Euphrates, and the legions that keep guard over the conquered Batavi. While you are nothing but a Cecropid, and most like the shapeless pillar crowned with Hermes' head. Since in no other point of difference have you the advantage save in this—that his head is of marble,[416]and your image is endowed with life! Tell me, descendant of the Teucri, who considers dumb animals highly bred, unless strong and courageous? Surely it is on this score we praise the fleet horse—to grace whose speed full many a palm glows,[417]and Victory, in the circus hoarse with shouting, stands exulting by. He is the steed of fame, from whatever pasture he comes, whose speed is brilliantly before the others, and whose dust is first on the plain. But the brood of Corytha, and Hirpinus' stock, are put up for saleif victory sit but seldom on their yoke. In their case no regard is had to their pedigree—their dead sires win them no favor—they are forced to change their owners for paltry prices, and draw wagons with galled withers, if slow of foot, and only fit to turn Nepos'[418]mill. Therefore that we may admireyou, and notyours, first achieve some noble act[419]that I may inscribe on your statue's base, besides those honors that we pay, and ever shall pay, to those to whom you are indebted for all.

Enough has been said to the youth whom common report represents to us as haughty and puffed up from his relationship to Nero.[420]For in that rank of life the courtesies[421]of good breeding are commonly rare enough. But you, Ponticus, I would not haveyouvalued for your ancestors' renown; so as to contribute nothing yourself to deserve the praise of posterity. It is wretched work building on another's fame; lest the whole pile crumble into ruins when the pillars that held it up are withdrawn. The vine that trails along the ground,[422]sighs for its widowed elms in vain.

Prove yourself a good soldier, a faithful guardian, an incorruptible judge. If ever you shall be summoned as a witness in a doubtful and uncertain cause, though Phalaris himself command you to turn liar, and dictate the perjuries with his bull placed before your eyes, deem it to be the summit of impiety[423]to prefer existence to honor,[424]and for the sake of life to sacrifice life's only end! He that deserves to dieisdead; though he still sup on a hundred Gauran[425]oysters, and plunge in a whole bath of the perfumes of Cosmus.[426]

When your long-expected province shall at length receive you for its ruler, set a bound to your passion, put a curb on your avarice. Have pity on our allies whom we have brought to poverty. You see the very marrow drained from the empty bones of kings. Have respect to what the laws prescribe, the senate enjoins. Remember what great rewards await the good, with how just a stroke ruin lighted on Capito[427]and Numitor, those pirates of the Cilicians, when the senate fulminated its decrees against them. But what avails their condemnation, when Pansa plunders you of all that Natta left? Look out for an auctioneer to sell your tattered clothes,Chærippus, and then hold your tongue! It is sheer madness to lose, when all is gone, even Charon's fee.[428]

There were not the same lamentations of yore, nor was the wound inflicted on our allies by pillage as great as it is now, while they were still flourishing, and but recently conquered.[429]Then every house was full, and a huge pile of money stood heaped up, cloaks from Sparta, purple robes from Cos, and along with pictures by Parrhasius, and statues by Myro, the ivory of Phidias seemed instinct with life;[430]and many a work from Polycletus' hand in every house; few were the tables that could not show a cup of Mentor's chasing. Then came Dolabella,[431]and then Antony, then the sacrilegious Verres;[432]they brought home in their tall[433]ships the spoils they dared not show, and more[434]triumphs from peace than were ever won from war. Now our allies have but few yokes of oxen, a small stock of brood-mares, and the patriarch[435]of the herd will be harried from the pasture they have already taken possession of. Then the very Lares themselves, if there is any statue worth looking at, if any little shrine still holds its single god. For this, since it is the best they have, is the highest prize they can seize upon.

You may perhaps despise the Rhodians unfit for war, andessenced Corinth: and well you may! How can a resin-smeared[436]youth, and the depilated legs of a whole nation, retaliate upon you. You must keep clear of rugged Spain, the Gallic car,[437]and the Illyrian coast. Spare too those reapers[438]that overstock the city, and give it leisure for the circus[439]and the stage. Yet what rewards to repay so atrocious a crime could you carry off from thence, since Marius[440]has so lately plundered the impoverished Africans even of their very girdles?[441]

You must be especially cautious lest a deep injury be inflicted on those who are bold as well as wretched. Though you may strip them of all the gold and silver they possess, you will yet leave them shield and sword, and javelin and helm. Plundered of all, they yet havearmsto spare!

What I have just set forth is no opinion of my own. Believe that I am reciting to you a leaf of the sibyl, that can not lie. If your retinue are men of spotless life, if no favorite youth[442]barters your judgments for gold, if your wife[443]is clear from all stain of guilt, and does not prepare to go through the district courts,[444]and all the towns of your province, ready, likea Celæno[445]with her crooked talons, to swoop upon the gold—then you may, if you please, reckon your descent from Picus; and if high-sounding names are your fancy, place the whole army of Titans among your ancestors, or even Prometheus[446]himself. Adopt a founder of your line from any book you please. But if ambition and lust hurry you away headlong, if you break your rods[447]on the bloody backs of the allies, if your delight is in axes blunted by the victor worn out with using them—then the nobility of your sires themselves begins to rise[448]in judgment against you, and hold forth a torch to blaze upon your shameful deeds.[449]Every act of moral turpitude incurs more glaring reprobation in exact proportion to the rank of him that commits it. Why vaunt your pedigree to me? you, that are wont to put your name to forged deeds in the very temples[450]which your grandsire built, before your very fathers' triumphal statues! or, an adulterer that dares not face the day, you veil your brows concealed beneath a Santon[451]cowl. The bloated Damasippus is whirled in his rapid car past the ashes and bones of his ancestors—and with his own hands, yes! though consul! with his own hands lockshis wheel with the frequent drag-chain.[452]It is, indeed, at night. But still the moon sees him! The stars strain on him their attesting eyes.[453]When the period of his magistracy is closed, Damasippus[454]will take whip in hand in the broad glare of day, and never dread meeting his friend now grown old, and will be the first to give him the coachman's salute, and untie the trusses and pour the barley[455]before his weary steeds himself. Meantime, even while according to Numa's ancient rites he sacrifices the woolly victim and the stalwart bull before Jove's altar, he swears by Epona[456]alone, and the faces daubed over the stinking stalls. But when he is pleased to repeat his visits to the taverns open all night long, the Syrophœnician, reeking with his assiduous perfume,[457]runs to meet him (the Syrophœnician that dwells at the Idumæan[458]gate), with all the studied courtesy of a host, he salutes him as "lord"[459]and "king;" and Cyane, with gown tucked up, with her bottle for sale. One who wishes to palliate his crimes will say to me, "Well; we did so too when we were young!" Granted. But surely you left off, and did not indulge in your folly beyond that period. Let what you basely dare be ever brief! There are some faults that should be shorn away with our first beard. Make all reasonable allowance for boys. But Damasippus frequents those debauches of the bagnios, andthe painted signs,[460]when of ripe age for war, for guarding Armenia[461]and Syria's rivers, and the Rhine or Danube. His time of life qualifies him to guard the emperor's person. Send then to Ostia![462]Cæsar—send! But look for your general in some great tavern. You will find him reclining with some common cut-throat; in a medley of sailors, and thieves, and runaway slaves; among executioners and cheap coffin-makers,[463]and the now silent drums of the priest of Cybele, lying drunk on his back.[464]There there is equal liberty for all—cups in common—nor different couch for any, or table set aloof from the herd. What would you do, Ponticus, were it your lot to have a slave of such a character? Why surely you would dispatch him to the Lucanian or Tuscan bridewells.[465]But you, ye Trojugenæ! find excuses for yourselves, andwhat would disgrace a cobbler[466]will be becoming in a Volesus or Brutus!

What if we never produce examples so foul and shameful, that worse do not yet remain behind! When all your wealth was squandered, Damasippus, you let your voice for hire[467]to the stage,[468]to act the noisy Phasma[469]of Catullus. Velox Lentulas acted Laureolus, and creditably too. In my judgment he deserved crucifying in earnest. Nor yet can you acquit the people themselves from blame. The brows of the people are too hardened that sit[470]spectators of the buffooneries of the patricians, listen to the Fabii with naked feet, and laugh at the slaps on the faces of the Mamerci. What matters it at what price they sell their lives: they sell them at no tyrant's compulsion,[471][nor hesitate[472]to do it even at the games of theprætor seated on high.] Yet imagine the gladiator's sword[473]on one side, the stage on the other. Which is the better alternative? Has any one so slavish a dread of death as to become the jealous lover of Thymele,[474]the colleague of the heavy Corinthus? Yet it is nothing to be wondered at, if the emperor turn harper, that the nobleman should turn actor. To crown all this, what is left but the amphitheatre?[475]And this disgrace of the city you have as well—Gracchus[476]not fighting equipped as a Mirmillo, with buckler or falchion (for he condemns—yes, condemns and hates such an equipment). Nor does he conceal his face beneath a helmet. See! he wields a trident. When he has cast without effect the nets suspended from his poised right hand, he boldly lifts his uncovered face to the spectators, and, easily to be recognized, flees across the whole arena. We can not mistake the tunic,[477]since the ribbon of gold reaches from his neck, and flutters in the breeze from his high-peaked cap. Therefore the disgrace, which the Secutor had to submit to, in being forced to fight with Gracchus, was worse than any wound. Were the people allowed the uncontrolled exercise of their votes, who could be found so abandoned as to hesitate to prefer Seneca[478]to Nero? For whose punishment there should have been prepared not a single ape[479]only, or one snake or sack.[480]"Hiscrime is matched by that of Orestes!"[481]But it is the motive cause that gives the quality to the act. Since he, at the instigation of the gods themselves, was the avenger of his father butchered in his cups. But he neither imbrued his hands in Electra's blood, or that of his Spartan wife; he mixed no aconite for his relations. Orestes never sang on the stage; he never wrote "Troïcs." What, blacker crime was there for Virginius'[482]arms to avenge, or Galba leagued with Vindex? In all his tyranny, cruel and bloody as it was, what exploit did Nero[483]achieve? These are the works, these the accomplishments of a high-born prince—delighting to prostitute[484]his rank by disgraceful dancing on a foreign stage, and earn the parsley of the Grecian crown. Array the statues of your ancestors in the trophies of your voice. At Domitius'[485]feet lay the long train of Thyestes, or Antigone, or Menalippe's mask, and hang your harp[486]on the colossus of marble.

What could any one find more noble than thy birth, Catiline, or thine, Cethegus! Yet ye prepared arms to be used by night, and flames for our houses and temples, as though ye had been the sons of the Braccati,[487]or descendants of the Senones. Attempting what one would be justified in punishing by the pitched shirt.[488]But the consul is on the watch[489]and restrains your bands. He whom you sneer at as a novus[490]homo from Arpinum, of humble birth, and but lately made a municipal knight at Rome, disposes every where his armed guards to protect the terrified people, and exerts himself in every quarter. Therefore the peaceful toga, within the walls, bestowed on him such honors and renown as not even Octavius bore away from Leucas[491]or the plains of Thessaly, with sword reeking with unintermitted slaughter. But Rome owned him for a parent. Rome, when unfettered,[492]hailed Cicero as father of his father-land.

Another native of Arpinum was wont to ask for his wages when wearied with another's plow on the Volscian hills. After that, he had the knotted vine-stick[493]broken about his head, if he lazily fortified the camp with sluggard axe. Yethebraved the Cimbri, and the greatest perils of the state, andalone protected the city in her alarm. And therefore when the ravens, that had never lighted on bigger carcasses,[494]flocked to the slaughtered heaps of Cimbrians slain, his nobly-born colleague is honored with a laurel inferior to his.[495]

The souls of the Decii were plebeian, their very names plebeian. Yet these are deemed by the infernal deities and mother Earth a fair equivalent for the whole legions, and all the forces of the allies, and all the flower of Latium. For the Decii[496]were more highly valued bythemthan all they died to save!

It was one born from a slave[497]that won the robe and diadem and fasces of Quirinus, that last of good kings! They that were for loosening the bolts of the gates betrayed to the exiled tyrants, were the sons of the consul himself! men from whom we might have looked for some glorious achievement in behalf of liberty when in peril; some act that Mucius' self, or Cocles, might admire; and the maiden that swam across[498]the Tiber, then the limit of our empire. He that divulged to the fathers the secret treachery was a slave,[499]afterward to be mourned for by all the Roman matrons: while they sufferthe well-earned punishment of the scourge, and the axe,[500]then first used by Rome since she became republican.

I had rather that Thersites[501]were your sire, provided you resembled Æacides and could wield the arms of Vulcan, than that Achilles should beget you to be a match to Thersites.

And yet, however far you go back, however far you trace your name, you do but derive your descent from the infamous sanctuary.[502]That first of your ancestors, whoever he was, was either a shepherd, or else—what I would rather not mention!

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