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Sed libertinus prior est: prior, inquit, ego adsum:
Cur timeam, dubitemve, locum defendere? quamvis
Natus ad Euphratem, molles quod in aure fenestræ
Arguerint, licet ipse negem: sed quinque tabernæ
Quadringenta parant: quid confert purpura majus
Optandum, si Laurenti custodit in agro
Conductas Corvinus oves? Ego possideo plus
Pallante, et Licinis: expectent ergo Tribuni.
Vincant divitiæ; sacro nec cedat honori
Nuper in hanc urbem pedibus qui venerat albis :
Quandoquidem inter nos sanctissima divitiarum
Majestas: etsi, funesta Pecunia, templo
Nondum habitas, nullas nummorum ereximus aras,
Ut colitur Pax, atque Fides, Victoria, Virtus,
Quæque salutato crepitat Concordia nido.

stitution, were two, afterwards came to be ten; they were keepers of the liberties of the people, against the encroachments of the senate. They were called tribunes, because at first set over the three tribes of the people. See AINSW. Tribunus and Tribus.

Juvenal satirically represents some of the chief magistrates and officers of the city as bawling out to be first served out of the sportula.

102. The libertine.] An enfranchised slave. There were many of these in Rome, who were very rich, and very insolent; of one of these we have an example here.

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-Is first, &c.] "Hold," says this upstart, a freedman, rich as I am, is "before the prætor; besides, I came "first, and I'll be first served."

103. Why should I fear, &c.] i. e. I am neither afraid nor ashamed to challenge the first place. I will not give it up to any body.

103, 4. Although born at the Euphrates.] He owns that he was born of servile condition, and came from a part of the world from whence many were sold as slaves. The river Euphrates took its rise in Armenia, and ran through the city of Babylon, which it divided in the midst.

104. The soft holes, &c.] The ears of all slaves in the East were bored, as a mark of their servitude. They wore bits of gold by way of ear-rings; which custom is still in the East Indies, and in

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other parts, even for whole nations; who bore prodigious holes in their ears, and wear vast weights at them. DRYDEN. PLIN. lib. xi. c. 37.

The epithet molles may, perhaps, intimate, that this custom was looked upon at Rome (as among us) as a mark of effeminacy. Or the poet, by Hypallage, says, Molles in aure fenestræ, for, fenestræ in molli aure.

105. Five houses.] Tabernæ here may be understood to mean shops or warehouses, which were in the forum, or market-place, and which, by reason of their situation, were let to merchants and traders at a great rent.

106. Procure 400.] In reckoning by sesterces, the Romans had an art which may be understood by these three rules:

First: If a numeral noun agree in number, case, and gender, with sestertius, then it denotes so many sestertii; as decem sestertii.

Secondly If a numeral noun of another case be joined with the genitive plural of sestertius, it denotes so many thousand, as decem sestertiûm signifies 10,000 sestertii.

Thirdly If the adverb numeral be joined, denotes so many 100,000 as decies sestertium signifies ten hundred thousand sestertii. Or if the numeral adverb be put by itself, the signification is the same: decies or vigesies stand for so many 100,000 sestertii, or, as they say, so many hundred sestertia.

The sestertium contained a thousand

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But the libertine is first: I the first, says he, am here present.
Why should I fear, or doubt to defend my place? altho'
Born at the Euphrates, which the soft holes in my ear
Prove, though I should deny it but five houses
Procure 400 (sestertia), what does the purple confer more
To be wished for, if, in the field of Laurentum, Corvinus
Keeps hired sheep? I possess more

Than Pallas and the Licini: let the Tribunes, therefore, wait.
Let riches prevail: nor let him yield to the sacred honour, 110
Who lately came into this city with white feet:

Since among us the majesty of riches is

Most sacred: altho', O baleful money! in a temple

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As yet thou dost not dwell, we have erected no altars of money,
As Peace is worshipp'd, and Faith, Victory, Virtue,
And Concord, which chatters with a visited nest.

sestertii, and amounted to about 17/. 16s. 3d. of our money. KENNET, Ant. 374, 5.

After 400, quadringenta, sestertia must be understood, according to the third rule above.

The freedman brags, that the rents of his houses brought him in 400 sestertia, which was a knight's estate.

-What does the purple, &c.] The robes of the nobility and magistrates were decorated with purple. He means, that, though he cannot deny that he was born a slave, and came to Rome as such, (and if he were to deny it, the holes in his ears would prove it,) yet he was now a free citizen of Rome, possessed of a larger private fortune than the prætor or the tribune. What can even a patrician wish for more? Indeed, "when I see a nobleman reduced to keep sheep for his livelihood, I cannot perceive any great advantage he de"rives from his nobility; what can it, "at best, confer, beyond what I pos"sess?"

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107. Corvinus.] One of the noble family of the Corvini, but so reduced, that he was obliged to keep sheep, as an hired shepherd, near Laurentum, in his own native country. Laurentum is a city of Italy, now called Santo Lorenzo.

109. Pallas.] A freedman of Claudius.

-The Licini.] The name of several rich men, particularly of a freedman of Augustus; and of Licinius Crassus, who was surnamed Dives.

110. Let riches prevail.] Vincant, overcome, defeat all other pretensions.

-Sacred honour.] Meaning the tribunes, whose office was held so sacred, that if any one hurt a tribune, his life was devoted to Jupiter, and his family was to be sold at the temple of Ceres.

111. With white feet.] It was the custom, when foreign slaves were exposed to sale, to whiten over their naked feet with chalk. This was the token by which they were known.

112. The majesty of riches.] Intimating their great and universal sway among men, particularly at Rome, in its corrupt state, where every thing was venal, which made them reverenced, and almost adored. This intimates too the command and dominion which the rich assumed over others, and the self-importance which they assumed to themselves; a notable instance of which appears in this impudent freedman.

113. Baleful money.] i. e. Destructive, the occasion of many cruel and ruinous deeds.

114. Alturs of money.] i. e. No temple dedicated, no altars called aræ nummorum, as having sacrifices offered on them to riches, as there were to peace, faith, concord, &c.

116. Which chatters, &c.] Crepito here signifies to chatter like a bird. The temple of Concord, at Rome, was erected by 'Tiberius, at the request of his mother Livia. About this birds, such choughs, storks, and the like, used to build their nests. What the poet says

as

Sed cum summus honor finito computet anno,

Sportula quid referat, quantum rationibus addat:
Quid facient comites, quibus hinc toga, calceus hinc est,
Et panis, fumusque domi? densissima centum
Quadrantes lectica petit, sequiturque maritum
Languida, vel prægnans, et circumducitur uxor.
Hic petit absenti, notâ jam callidus arte,

Ostendens vacuam, et clausam pro conjuge sellam :
Galla mea est, inquit; citius dimitte: moraris ?
Profer, Galla, caput. Noli vexare, quiescit.
Ipse dies pulchro distinguitur ordine rerum ;
Sportula, deinde forum, jurisque peritus Apollo,
Atque triumphales, inter quas ausus habere
Nescio quis titulos Ægyptius, atque Arabarches;
Cujus ad effigiem non tantum mejere fas est.

alludes to the chattering noise made by these birds, particularly when the old ones revisited their nests, after having been out to seek food for their young. See AINSW. Salutatus, No. 2.

117. The highest honour, &c.] i. e. People of the first rank and dignity.

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were carried in litters) seek in so eager a manner, as that they crowded the very door up, to get at the sportula.

122. Is led about.] The husband lugs about his sick or breeding wife in a litter, and claims her dole.

123. This asks for the absent.] Another brings an empty litter, pretending his wife is in it.

-Can compute, &c.] i. e. Can be so sunk into the most sordid and meanest avarice, as to be reckoning, at the year's Cunning in a known art.] i. e. He end, what they have gained out of these had often practised this trick with sucdoles which were provided for the poor.

119. The attendants, &c.] The poor clients and followers, who, by these doles, are, or ought to be, supplied with clothes, meat, and fire. What will these do, when the means of their support is thus taken from them by great people?

From hence.] i. e. By what they receive from the dole-basket.

we say.

-A shoe.] Shoes to their feet, as

120. Smoke of the house.] Wood, or other fuel for firing; or firing, as we say. The effect, smoke; for the cause, fire. METON.

-Crowd of litters.] The word densissima here denotes a very great number, a thick crowd of people carried in

litters.

121. An hundred farthings.] The quadrans was a Roman coin, the fourth part of an as, in value not quite an halfpenny of our money. An hundred of these were put into the sportula, or dolebasket: and for a share in this paltry sum, did the people of fashion (for such

cess.

125. It is my Galla.] The supposed name of his wife.

126. Put out your head.] i. e. Out of the litter, that I may see you are there, says the dispenser of the dole.

126. Don't vex her.] "Don't disturb "her," replies the husband; "don't "disquiet her, she is not very well, and "is taking a nap." By these methods he imposes on the dispenser, and gets a dole for his absent wife: though, usually, none was given but to those who came in person; and in order to this, the greatest caution was commonly used. See 1. 97, 8.

The violent burry which this impostor appears to be in (1. 125.) was, no doubt, occasioned by his fear of a discovery, if he stayed too long.

Thus doth our poet satirize not only the meanness of the rich in coming to the sportula, but the tricks and shifts which they made use of to get at the contents of it.

127. The day itself, &c.] The poet having satirized the mean avarice of the

But when the highest honour can compute, the year being finished,

What the sportula brings in, how much it adds to its accounts, What will the attendants do, to whom from hence is a gown,

from hence a shoe,

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And bread, and smoke of the house? A thick crowd of litters An hundred farthings seek; and the wife follows the husband, And, sick or pregnant, is led about.

This asks for the absent, cunning in a known art,

Shewing the empty and shut-up sedan instead of the wife. 124 "It is my Galla," says he, "dismiss her quickly: do you delay?” "Galla, put out your head"-" don't vex her she is asleep." The day itself is distinguished by a beautiful order of things: The sportula, then the forum, and Apollo learned in the law,

And the triumphals: among which, an Egyptian, I know not who,

Has dared to have titles: and an Arabian prefect;
At whose image it is not right so much as to make water.

higher sort, now proceeds to ridicule their idle manner of spending time.

128. The sportula.] See before, 1. 95. The day began with attending on this.

The forum.] The common place where courts of justice were kept, and matters of judgment pleaded. Hither they next resorted to entertain themselves with hearing the causes which were there debated.

—Apollo learned in the law.] Augustus built and dedicated a temple and library to Apollo, in his palace on mount Palatine; in which were large collections of law-books, as well as the works of all the famous authors in Rome.

HOR. lib. i. epist. iii. 1. 16, 17. mentions this;

Et tangere vitat

Scripta Palatinus quæcunque recepit Apollo. But I should rather think, that the poet means here the forum which Augustus built, where, it is said, there was an ivory statue of Apollo, which Juvenal represents as learned in the law, from the constant pleadings of the lawyers in that place. Here idle people used to lounge away their time.

129. The triumphals.] The statues of heroes, and kings, and other great men who had triumphed over the enemies of

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the state. These were placed in great numbers in the forum of Augustus, and in other public parts of the city.

-An Egyptian, &c.] Some obscure low wretch, who for no desert, but only on account of his wealth, had his statue placed there.

130. An Arabian prefect.] Arabarches. So Pompey is called by Cic. Epist. ad Attic. 1.2. epist. xvii. because he conquered a great part of Arabia, and made it tributary to Rome. But Juvenal means here some infamous character, who had probably been prefect, or viceroy, over that country, and had, by rapine and extortion, returned to Rome with great riches, and thus got a statue erected to him, like the Egyptian above mentioned, whom some suppose to have been in a like occupation in Egypt, and therefore called Ægyptius. Arabarches from Agat or Agabios and agxn.

131. To make water.] There was a very severe law on those who did this at or near the images of great men. This our poet turns into a jest on the statues above mentioned. Some are for giving the line another turn, as if Juvenal meant, that it was right, or lawful, not only to do this, non tantum mejere, but something worse. But I take the first interpretation to be the sense of

Vestibulis abeunt veteres, lassique clientes,
Votaque deponunt, quanquam longissima cœnæ
Spes homini: caules miseris, atque ignis emendus.
Optima sylvarum interea, pelagique vorabit
Rex horum, vacuisque toris tantum ipse jacebit :
Nam de tot pulchris, et latis orbibus, et tam
Antiquis, unâ comedunt patrimonia mensâ.
Nullus jam parasitus erit: sed quis feret istas
Luxuriæ sordes? quanta est gula, quæ
Ponit apros, animal propter convivia natum ?
Pœna tamen præsens, cum tu deponis amictus
Turgidus, et crudum pavonem in balnea portas :
Hinc subitæ mortes, atque intestata senectus.

the author, by which he would intimate, that the statues of such vile people were not only erected among those of great men, but were actually prevented, like them, from all marks of indignity. So PERS. sat. i. 1. 113. Sacer est locus, ite prophani, extra mejite.

132. The old and tired clients.] The clients were retainers, or dependents, on great men, who became their patrons: to these the clients paid all reverence, honour, and observance. The patrons, on their part, afforded them their interest, protection, and defence. They also, in better times, made entertainments, to which they invited their clients. See before, note on 1. 95. Here the poor clients are represented as wearied out with waiting, in long expectation of a supper, and going away in despair, under their disappointment. Cliens is derived from Greek xλu, celebro, celebrem reddo; for it was no small part of their business to flatter and praise their patrons.

-Vestibules.] The porches, or entries of great men's houses. Vestibulum ante ipsum, primoque in li

mine.

VIRG. En. ii. 1. 469.

134. Pot-herbs.] Caulis properly denotes the stalk or stem of an herb, and, by synecdoche, any kind of pot-herb, especially coleworts, or cabbage. See AINSW. Caulis, No. 2.

-To be bought.] The hungry wretches go from the patron's door, in order to lay out the poor pittance which they may have received from the sportula in

sibi totos

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some kind of pot-herbs, and in buying a little fire-wood, in order to dress them for a scanty meal.

The poet seems to mention this by way of contrast to what follows.

135. Their lord.] i. e. The patron of these clients. Rex not only signifies a king, but any great or rich man so a patron. See Juv. sat. v. 1. 14. This from the power aud dominion which he exercised over his clients. Hence, as well as from his protection and care over them, he was called patronus, from the Greek wargav, wvos, from xarng, a father.

-Meanwhile.] i. e. While the poor clients are forced to take up with a few boiled coleworts.

-The best things of the woods, &c.] The woods are to be ransacked for the choicest game, and the sea for the finest sorts of fish, to satisfy the patron's gluttony: these he will devour, without asking any body to partake with him.

136. On the empty beds.] The Romans lay along on beds, or couches, at their meals. Several of these beds are here

supposed to be round the table which were formerly occupied by his friends and clients, but they are now vacant— not a single guest is invited to occupy them, or to partake of the entertainment with this selfish glutton.

137. Dishes.] Which were round, in an orbicular shape; hence called orbes.

Beautiful.] Of a beautiful pattern -ancient-valuable for their antiquity; made, probably, by some artists of old time.

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