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Plena ipso: et post hunc magni delator amici,
Et cito rapturus de nobilitate comesâ

Quod superest: quem Massa timet: quem munere palpat 35
Carus; et a trepido Thymele summissa Latino:
Cum te summoveant qui testamenta merentur
Noctibus, in cœlum quos evehit optima summi
Nunc via processûs, vetulæ vesica beatæ.
Unciolam Proculeius habet, sed Gillo deuncem :
Partes quisque suas, ad mensuram inguinis hæres ;
Accipiat sane mercedem sanguinis, et sic
Palleat, ut nudis pressit qui calcibus anguem,
Aut Lugdunensem rhetor dicturus ad aram.

Quid referam? quantâ siccum jecur ardeat irâ,
Cum populum gregibus comitum premat hic spoliator
Pupilli prostantis? et hic damnatus inani
Judicio (quid enim salvis infamia nummis ?)

Lawyer Matho.] He had been an advocate, but had amassed a large fortune by turning informer. The emperor Domitian gave so much encouragement to such people, that many made their fortunes by secret informations; insomuch that nobody was safe, however innocent; even one informer was afraid of another. See below, 1. 35, 6, and

notes.

33. Full of himself.] Now grown bulky and fat. By this expression, the poet may hint at the self-importance of this upstart fellow.

-The secret accuser of a great friend.] This was probably Marcus Regulus, (mentioned by Pliny in his Epistles,) a most infamous informer, who occasioned, by his secret informations, the deaths of many of the nobility in the time of Domitian.

Some think that the great friend here mentioned was some great man, an intimate of Domitian's; for this emperor spared not even his greatest and most intimate friends, on receiving secret informations against them.

But, by the poet's manner of expression, it should rather seem, that the person meant was some great man, who had been a friend to Regulus, and whom Regulus had basely betrayed.

34. From the devoured nobility.] i. e. Destroyed through secret accusations, or pillaged by informers for hush-mo'ney.

35. Whom Massa fears.] Babius Mas

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sa, an eminent informer; but so much more eminent was M. Regulus, above mentioned, in this way, that he was dreaded even by Massa, lest he should inform against him.

36. Carus sooths.] This was another of the same infamous profession, who bribed Regulus, to avoid some secret accusation.

-Thymele.] The wife of Latinus the famous mimic; she was sent privately by her husband and prostituted to Regulus, in order to avoid some information which Latinus dreaded, and trembled under the apprehension of.

37. Can remove you.] i. e. Set you aside, supplant you in the good graces of testators.

Who earn last wills, &c.] Who procure wills to be made in their favour. The poet here satirizes the lewd and indecent practices of certain rich old women at Rome, who kept men for their criminal pleasures, and then, at their death, left them their heirs, in preference to all others.

39. The best way, &c.] By this the poet means to expose and condemn these monstrous indecencies.

Into heaven.] i. e. Into the highest state of affluence. 40. Proculeius-Gillo.] Two noted paramours of these old ladies.

-A small pittance-a large share.] Unciola, literally signifies a little ounce, one part in twelve. Deunx, a pound lacking an ounce, eleven ounces, eleven

Full of himself: and after him the secret accuser of a great

friend,

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And who is soon about to seize from the devoured nobility
What remains: whom Massa fears: whom with a gift
Carus sooths, and Thymele sent privately from trembling
Latinus.

When they can remove you, who earn last wills

By night, and whom the lust of some rich old woman (The best way of the highest success now-a-days) lift up into

heaven.

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Proculeius has a small pittance, Gillo has a large share: Every one takes his portion, as heir, according to the favour he procures :

Well let him receive the reward of his blood, and become as Pale, as one who hath pressed with his naked heels a snake, Or as a rhetorician, who is about to declaim at the altar of

Lyons.

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What shall I say?—With how great anger my dry liver burns, When here a spoiler of his pupil exposed to hire presses on

the people

With flocks of attendants? and here condemned by a frivolous Judgment, (for what is infamy when money is safe?)

parts of any other thing divided into twelve.

42. Of his blood.] i. e. Of the ruin of his health and constitution, by these abominable practices.

43. Pressed a snake.] By treading on it. See VIRG. Æn. ii. 1. 379, 80.

44. The altar of Lyons.] The emperor Caligula instituted, at this place, games, wherein orators and rhetoricians were to contend for a prize. Those, whose performances were not approved, were to wipe them out with a spunge, or to lick them out with their tongue: or else to be punished with ferules, or thrown into the sea.

45. What shall I say?] Q. D. How shall I find words to express the indignation which I feel?

My dry liver burns.] The ancients considered the liver as the seat of the irascible and concupiscible affections. So HOR. lib. i. od. xiii. 1. 4. says,

Difficili bile tumet jecur-to express his resentment and jealousy, at hearing his mistress commend a rival.

Again, lib. iv. od. i. 1. 12. Si torrere jecur quæris idoneum-by which he means, kindling the passion of love

VOL. I.

within the breast.

Our poet here means to express the workings of anger and resentment within him, at seeing so many examples of vice and folly around him, and particularly in those instances which he is now going to mention.

46. A spoiler of his pupil, &c.] The tutelage of young men, who had lost their parents, was committed to guardians, who were to take care of their estates and education. Here one is represented as spoliator-a spoiler-i. e. a plunderer or pillager of his ward as to his affairs, and then making money of his person, by hiring him out for the vilest purposes, Hence he says, Prostantis pupilli.

-Presses on the people.] Grown rich by the spoils of his ward, he is supposed to be carried, in a litter, along the streets, with such a crowd of attendants, as to incommode other passengers.

47, 8. By a frivolous judgment] Inania judicio-because, though inflicted on Marius, it was of no service to the injured province; for, instead of restoring to it the treasures of which it had been plundered, part of these, to a vast

D

Exul ab octava Marius bibit, et fruitur. Dîs
Iratis at tu victrix provincia ploras!
Hæc ego non credam Venusinâ digna lucernâ?
Hæc ego non agitem? sed quid magis Heracleas,
Aut Diomedeas, aut mugitum labyrinthi,

Et mare percussum puero, fabrumque volantem ?
Cum leno accipiat mochi bona, si capiendi
Jus nullum uxori, doctus spectare lacunar,
Doctus et ad calicem vigilanti stertere naso:
Cum fas esse putet curam sperare cohortis,
Qui bona donavit præsepibus, et caret omni
Majorum censu, dum pervolat axa citato

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amount, were put into the public trea- beasts-hunting-chasing. So inveighsury. As for Marius himself, he lived ing against by satire, driving such vices in as much festivity as if nothing had as he mentions out of their lurking happened, as the next two verses inform places, and hunting them down, as it were, in order to destroy them.

us.

49. The exile Marius.] Marius Priscus, proconsul of Africa, who, for pillaging the province of vast sums of money, was condemned to be banished.

From the eighth hour.] Began his carousals from two o'clock in the afternoon, which was reckoned an instance of dissoluteness and luxury, it being an hour sooner than it was customary to sit down to meals. See note on sat. xi. 1. 204. and on Persius, sat. iii. 1. 4.

49, 50. He enjoys the angry gods.] Though Marius had incurred the anger of the gods by his crimes, yet, regardless of this, he enjoyed himself in a state of the highest jollity and festivity.

-Vanquishing province, &c.] Victrix was used as a forensic term, to denote one who had got the better in a law-suit. The province of Africa had sued Marius, and had carried the cause against him, but had still reason to deplore her losses: for though Marius was sentenced to pay an immense fine, which came out of what he had pillaged, yet this was put into the public treasury, and no part of it given to the Africans; and, besides this, Marius had reserved sufficient to maintain himself in a luxurious manner. See above, note on i. 47, 8.

51. Worthy the Venusinian lamp?] i. e. The pen of Horace himself? This charming writer was born at Venusium, a city of Apulia. When the poets wrote by night, they made use of a lamp.

52. Shall I not agitute, &c.] Agitem implies pursuing, as hunters do wild

But why rather Heracleans?] Juvenal here anticipates the supposed objections of some, who might, perhaps, advise him to employ his talents on some fabulous and more poetical subjectssuch as the labours of Hercules, &c.

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Why should I prefer these (as if he 'had said) when so many subjects in "real life occur, to exercise my pen in "a more useful way?"

53. Or Diomedeans.] i. e. Verses on the exploits of Diomed, a king of Thrace, who fed his horses with man's flesh. Hercules slew him, and threw him to be devoured by his own horses.

The lowing of the labyrinth.] The story of the Minotaur, the monster kept in the labyrinth of Crete, who was half a bull, and slain by Theseus. See AINSW. Minotaurus.

54. The sea stricken by a boy.] The story of Icarus, who, flying too near the sun, melted the wax by which his wings were fastened together, and fell into the sea; from him called Icarian. See HoR. lib. iv. od. ii. 1. 2-4.

-The flying artificer.] Dædalus, who invented and made wings for himself and his son Icarus, with which they fled from Crete. See AINSW. Dædalus.

55. The bawd.] The husband, who turns bawd by prostituting his wife for gain, and thus receives the goods of the adulterer as the price of her chastity.

56. There is no right to the wife.] Domitian made a law to forbid the use of

The exile Marius drinks from the eighth hour, and enjoys the Angry gods? but thou, vanquishing province, lamentest! 50 Shall I not believe these things worthy the Venusinian lamp? Shall I not agitate these (subjects?)-but why rather Heracleans,

Or Diomedeans, or the lowing of the labyrinth,

And the sea stricken by a boy, and the flying artificer? When the bawd can take the goods of the adulterer, (if of taking

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There is no right to the wife,) taught to look upon the ceiling, Taught also at a cup to snore with a vigilant nose.

When he can think it right to hope for the charge of a cohort,

Who hath given his estate to stables, and lacks all

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The income of his ancestors, while he flies, with swift axle, over

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litters (see note, 1. 32.) to adulterous wives, and to deprive them of taking legacies or inheritances by will. This was evaded, by making their husbands panders to their lewdness, and so causing the legacies to be given to them.

Taught to look upon the ceiling.] As inobservant of his wife's infamy then transacting before him-this he was well skilled in. See HoR. lib. iii. od. vi. l. 25-32.

57. At a cup, &c.] Another device was to set a large cup on the table, which the husband was to be supposed to have emptied of the liquor which it had contained, and to be nodding over it, as if in a drunken sleep.

-To snore with a vigilant nose.] Snoring is an evidence that a man is fast asleep; therefore the husband knew well how to exhibit this proof, by snoring aloud, which is a peculiar symptom of a drunken sleep. The poet uses the epithet vigilanti here very humourously, to denote, that though the man seemed to be fast asleep by his snoring, yet his nose seemed to be awake by the noise it made. So PLAUT. in Milite.

An dormit Sceledrus intus? Non naso
quidem,

Nam eo magno magnum clamat.
Is Sceledrus asleep within?
Why, truly, not with his nose; for with
that large instrument he makes noise
enough.

Our Farquhar, in the description which he makes Mrs. Sullen give of her

drunken husband, represents her as mentioning a like particular :

My whole night's comfort is the "tunable serenade of that wakeful nightingale-his nose."

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58. A cohort.] A company of foot in a regiment, or legion, which consisted of ten cohorts.

59. Hath given his estate to stables.] i. e. Has squandered away all his patrimony in breeding and keeping horses. Præsepe sometimes means, a cell, stews, or brothel. Perhaps this may be the sense here, and the poet may mean, that this spendthrift had lavished his fortune on the stews, in lewdness and debauchery.

59, 60. Lacks all the income, &c.] Has spent the family estate.

60. While he flies, &c.] The person here meant is far from certain. Commentators differ much in their conjecture on the subject. Britannicus gives the mat"This passage," says he, "is "one of those concerning which we are yet to seek."

ter up.

"

But whether Cornelius Fuscus be meant, who when a boy was charioteer to Nero, as Automedon was to Achilles, and who, after wasting his substance in riotous living, was made commander of a regiment; or Tigillinus, an infamous favourite of Nero's, be here designed, swered to the description here given is whose character is supposed to have annot certain; one or other seems to be meant. The poet is mentioning various subjects as highly proper for satire;

Flaminiam puer Automedon nam lora tenebat, Ipse lacernatæ cum se jactaret amicæ.

Nonne libet medio ceras implere capaces Quadrivio cum jam sextâ cervice feratur (Hinc atque inde patens, ac nudâ pene cathedrâ, Et multum referens de Mæcenate supino) Signator falso, qui se lautum, atque beatum Exiguis tabulis, et gemmâ fecerat udâ? Occurrit matrona potens, quæ molle Calenum Porrectura viro miscet sitiente rubetam, Instituitque rudes melior Locusta propinquas, Per famam et populum, nigros efferre maritos. Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris, et carcere dignum,

and, among others, some favourite at court, who, after spending all his paternal estate in riot, extravagance, and debauchery, was made a commander in the army, and exhibited his chariot, driving full speed over the Flaminian way, which led to the emperor's villa; and all this, because, when a boy, he had been Nero's charioteer, or, as the poet humourously calls him, his Automedon, and used to drive out Nero and his minion Sporus, whom Nero castrated, to make him, as much as he could, resemble a woman, and whom he used as a mistress, and afterwards took as a wife, and appeared publicly in his chariot with him, openly caressing, and making love, as he passed along.

The poet humourously speaks of Sporus in the feminine gender. As the lacerna was principally a man's garment, by lacernatæ amica, the poet may be understood as if he had called Sporus, Nero's male-mistress, being habited like a man, and caressed as a woman.

The above appears to me a probable explanation of this obscure and difficult passage. Holiday gives it a different turn, as may be seen by his annotation on this place. I do not presume to be positive, but will say with Britannicus, "Sed quum in ambiguo sit, de quo poeta potissimum intelligat, unusquisque, si neutrum horum probabile visum "fuerit, quod ad loci explanationem faciat, excogitet."

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61. The Flaminian way.] A road made by Caius Flaminius, colleague of Lepidus, from Rome to Ariminum,

62. When he boasted himself.] Jactare se alicui signifies to recommend, to in

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sinuate one's self into the favour or good graces of another; as when a man is courting his mistress. By ipse, according to the above interpretation of this passage, we must understand the emperor Nero.

63. Capacious waxen tablets.] These are here called ceras; sometimes they are called ceratæ tabellæ, because they were thin pieces of wood, covered over with wax, on which the ancients wrote with the point of a sharp instrument, called stylus, (see HoR. lib. i. sat. x. 1. 72.) it had a blunt end to rub out with. They made up pocket-books with these.

64. Cross-way.] Juvenal means, that a man might please himself by filling a large book with the objects of satire which he meets in passing along the street. Quadrivium properly means a place where four ways meet, and where there are usually most people passinga proper stand for observation.

-On a sixth neck.] i. e. In a litter carried by six slaves, who bare the poles on the shoulder, and leaning against the side of the neck. These were called hexaphori, from Gr. i, six, and øsgw, to bear or carry. See Sat. vii. 1. 141. n.

65. Exposed, &c.] Carried openly to and fro, here and there, through the public streets, having no shame for what he had done to enrich himself.

66. The supine Macenas.] By this it appears, that Maecenas was given to laziness and effeminacy. See Sat. xii. 1. 39.

Horace calls him Malthinus, from μabanos, which denotes softness and effeminacy. See Hox. lib. i. sat. ii. 1. 25.

67. A signer, &c.] Signator signifies a sealer or signer of contracts or wills,

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