TO WM. HAWKESWORTH, ESQ., PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT LANGUAGES IN CHARLESTON COLLEGE, S. C. MY DEAR PROFESSOR, Allow me to dedicate this volume to you as a memorial not only of long-standing friendship, but also of sincere admiration for the noblest personal qualities, as well as for sound and unostentatious scholarship. You know very well that I would never have undertaken the work had it not been for your repeated solicitations; and if the result of my labours should now, in any way, disappoint your expectation, you will have only yourself to blame. I have endeavoured, as I promised you, to make a useful Variorum edition, and have, with that view, selected my materials from the best commentators, laying under contribution each and every one of them, whenever I found any thing that might tend to elucidate your vourite satirist. The only merit to which I can fairly lay claim, on my own account, is that of selection and arrangement, as well as an occasional balancing of authorities. In the text I have generally taken Jahn for my guide, and have also unsparingly removed whatever might tend to make Juvenal less readable in a lecture-room. On this point some may, perhaps, think that I have gone too far. But my own experience as an instructor is entirely in favour of the plan which I have adopted, and I am very fa sure that your opinion will coincide in this respect with my own. Among the sources from which excellent materials have been obtained for the commentary, I may particularly mention the edition of Mayor, published in 1853, and also the German one of Heinrich. The English version by Evans has likewise been of great service, and even old Madan, though it is the fashion to decry him, has been found by me, on many occasions, a very useful companion, especially in his explanatory remarks. The American student has already been made acquainted with the notes of Madan by means of Leverett's Juvenal, to which edition they are appended in an abridged form. I have used them, however, much more sparingly than Leverett, and have never adopted any unless supported by other authorities. With regard to Persius, you may remember that I intended to edit his Satires along with those of Juvenal until you dissuaded me from the attempt. I have therefore contented myself with merely giving the Latin text, unaccompanied by a single word of comment. This part of the volume, I am very sure, will meet with the undivided approbation of those critical friends of mine, who have uniformly condemned my commentaries as exuberant, if not useless, and over whose fairness and acumen you and I have had many a pleasant chat. It only remains for me to subscribe myself, my dear Professor, your old and sincere friend, COL. COLLEGE, March 30th, 1857. C. A. LIFE OF JUVENAL. (From Smith's Dictionary of Biography.) DECIMUS JUNIUS JUVENALIS, according to his ancient biographers, was either the son or the "alumnus" of a rich freedman. These same authorities relate that he was born at the Volscian town of Aquinum; that he occupied himself, until he had nearly reached the term of middle age, in declaiming; that, having subsequently composed some clever lines upon Paris, the pantomime, he was induced to cultivate assiduously satirical composition; and that, in consequence of his attacks upon Paris becoming known to the court, the poet, although now an old man of eighty, was appointed to the command of a body of troops in a remote district of Egypt, where he died shortly afterward. It is supposed by some that the Paris who, according to these old biographers, was attacked by Juvenal, was the contemporary of Domitian, and that the poet was accordingly banished by this emperor. But this opinion is clearly untenable: 1. We know that Paris was killed in A.D. 83, upon suspicion of an intrigue with the Empress Domitia. 2. The Fourth Satire, as appears from the concluding lines, was written after the death of Domitian-that is, not earlier than A.D. 96. 3. The First Satire, as we learn from the forty-ninth line, was written after the condemnation of Marius Priscus-that is, not earlier than A.D. 100. These positions admit of no doubt, and hence it is established that Juvenal was alive at least seventeen years after the death of Paris, and that some of his Satires were composed after the death of Domitian. The only facts with regard to Juvenal upon which we can implicitly rely are, that he flourished toward the close of the first century; that Aquinum, if not the place of his nativity, was at least his chosen residence; and that he is, in all probability, the friend whom Martial addresses in three epigrams. There is perhaps another circumstance which we may admit. We are told that he declaimed for many years of his life, and every page in his writings bears evidence to the accuracy of this assertion. Every piece is a finished rhetorical essay, energetic, glowing, and sonorous. He denounces vice in the most indignant terms; but the obvious tone of exaggeration which pervades all his invectives leaves us in doubt how far this sustained passion is real, and how far assumed for mere show. The extant works of Juvenal consist of sixteen Satires, the last being a fragment of doubtful authenticity, all composed in heroic hexameters. D. JUNII JUVENALIS SATIRARUM LIBER PRIMUS. 10 SATIRA I. SEMPER ego auditor tantum? nunquamne reponam, Impune ergo mihi cantaverit ille togatas, Nota magis nulli domus est sua, quam mihi lucus Cur tamen hoc potius libeat decurrere campo, |