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SATIRA VIII.

ARGUMENT.

In this Satire the Poet proves, that true nobility does not consist in statues and pedigrees, but in honourable and good actions. And, in opposition to persons nobly born, who are a disgrace

STEMMATA quid faciunt? quid prodest, Pontice, longo
Sanguine censeri, pictosque ostendere vultus
Majorum, et stantes in curribus Emilianos,
Et Curios jam dimidios, humeroque minorem
Corvinum, et Galbam auriculis nasoque carentem?
Quis fructus generis tabulâ jactare capaci
Corvinum, et post hunc multâ deducere virgâ
Fumosos equitum cum Dictatore Magistros,
Si coram Lepidis male vivitur? effigies quo
Tot bellatorum, si luditur alea pernox
Ante Numantinos? si dormire incipis ortu
Luciferi, quo signa Duces et castra movebant?
Cur Allobrogicis, et magnâ gaudeat arâ,

Line 1. What do pedigrees?] i. e. Of what use or service are they, merely considered in themselves?

-Ponticus.] There was a famous heroic poet of this name, much acquainted with Propertius and Ovid: but the person here mentioned, to whom this Satire is addressed, was probably some man of quality, highly elevated by family pride, but whose manners disgraced his birth. 2. By a long descent.] Longo sanguine, a descent through a long train of ances tors of noble blood.

-Painted countenance, &c.] It was customary among the Romans to have their houses furnished with family pictures, images, &c. and it was no small part of the pride of the nobility.

3, 4, 5. The Emilii-Curii-Cor

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SATIRE VIII.

ARGUMENT.

to their family, he displays the worth of many who were meanly born, as Cicero, Marius, Serv. Tullius, and the Decii.

WHAT do pedigrees? what avails it, Ponticus, to be valued
By a long descent, and to shew the painted countenances
Of ancestors, and Æmilii standing in chariots,

And Curii now half, and less by a shoulder
Corvinus, and Galba wanting ears and nose?

What fruit to boast of Corvinus in the capacious table
Of kindred, and after him to deduce, by many a branch,
Smoky masters of the knights, with a Dictator,

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If before the Lepidi you live ill? whither (tend) the effigies
Of so many warriors, if the nightly die be played with
Before the Numantii? if you begin to sleep at the rising of
Lucifer, at which those generals were moving their standards
and camps?

Why should Fabius, born in a Herculean family, rejoice

7. By many a branch.] The genealogical tables were described in the form of trees the first founder of the family was the root, his immediate descendants the stem, and all the collaterals from them were the branches. So among us.

8. Smoky masters of the knights.] Images of those who had been magistri equitum, masters or chiefs of the order of knights, now tarnished, and grown black, by the smoke of the city.

-With a dictator.] An image of some of the family who had filled that office. He was chief magistrate among the Romans, vested with absolute power, and from whom lay no appeal. Twenty-four axes were carried before him. He was never chosen but in some great danger or trouble of the state; and commonly

at the end of six months was to resign his office.

9. If before the Lepidi, &c.] i. e. If before the images of those great men you exhibit scenes of vileness and infamy?

10. The nightly die, &c.] Pernox signifies that which lasts through the night. What avails it, that your room is furnished with busts, pictures, &c. of your noble ancestors, if, in that very room, before their faces, as it were, you are gambling and playing all night at dice?

11. If you begin to sleep, &c.] If you, after a night's debauch, are going to bed at day-break, the very time when those great generals were setting forth on their march to attack an enemy.

13. Fabius, &c.] Why should Fabius,

Natus in Herculeo Fabius lare, si cupidus, si
Vanus, et Euganeâ quantumvis mollior agnâ?
Si tenerum attritus Catinensi pumice lumbum
Squallentes traducit avos: emptorque veneni
Frangendâ miseram funestat imagine gentem ?
Tota licet veteres exornent undique ceræ
Atria, NOBILITAS SOLA EST ATQUE UNICA VIRTUS.
Paulus, vel Cossus, vel Drusus moribus esto:
Hos ante effigies majorum pone tuorum:
Præcedant ipsas illi, te consule, virgas.
Prima mihi debes animi bona. Sanctus haberi,
Justitiæque tenax factis dictisque mereris?
Agnosco procerem: salve, Getulice, seu tu
Silanus, quocunque alio de sanguine rarus
Civis, et egregius patriæ contingis ovanti.
Exclamare libet, populus quod clamat Osiri
Invento: quis enim generosum dixerit hunc, qui
Indignus genere, et præclaro nomine tantum
Insignis? nanum cujusdam Atlanta vocamus:

the son of Qu. Fab. Maximus, who overcame the Allobroges, boast in his father's achievements, and in the origin of his family's descent from Hercules, the care of whose altar was hereditary in that family, if he be covetous and vain, and unworthy of the honour which he claims.

15. Softer than an Euganean lamb.] The sheep bred upon the Euganean downs had the finest and softest fleeces in all Italy. To have a very soft and delicate skin was a mark of great effeminacy; but more especially if, as the following line supposes, it was made so by art.

16. Catinensian pumice.] The best pumice stones were gathered in Sicily, at the foot of Mount Etna; with these the effeminate Italians used to smooth their skins. Catina (now Catania) was a city near Mount Etna, almost ruined by an earthquake, 1693. Here were the finest pumice stones.

17. He shames, &c.] He dishonours the old and venerable pictures, or images, of his rough and hardy ancestors, now dirty with the rust of time, and thus disgraces the memory of those great men. Traduco signifies to expose to public shame. AINSW. No. 5.

18. An image to be broken.]

If he

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should cast a sadness over the whole family, as it were, by having his own image placed among those of his ancestors, when he does such things as to deserve to have his image broken. If any one who had an image of himself, was convicted of a grievous crime, his image was to be broken to pieces, and his name erased from the calendar, either by the sentence of the judge, or by the fury of the people. Comp. sat. x. 1. 58. Such must, most likely, be the case of a man who dealt in poisons to destroy people.

19. Old waxen figures.] Images and likenesses of ancestors, made in wax, and set up as ornaments and memorials of the great persons from which they were taken.

20. Virtue, &c.] All the ensigns of grandeur and nobility are nothing without this-it is this alone which stamps a real greatness upon all who possess it.

21. Paulus.] Æmilius, who conquered Perses king of Macedonia, and led him and his children in triumph: he was a man of great frugality and modesty.

-Cossus.] He conquered the Getulians, under Augustus Cæsar; hence was called Getulicus. See 1. 26.

-Drusus.] There were three of this name, all of which deserved well of the republic.

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In the Allobroges, and the great altar, if covetous, if
Vain, and never so much softer than an Euganean lamb?
If, having rubb'd his tender loins with a Catinensian pumice,
He shames his dirty ancestors-and, a buyer of poison,
He saddens the miserable family with an image to be broken?
Tho' the old waxen figures should adorn the courts on all sides,
VIRTUE IS THE ONLY AND SINGLE NOBILITY.

Be thou in morals Paulus, or Cossus, or Drusus;
Put these before the effigies of your ancestors:

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Let them, you being consul, precede the fasces themselves.
You owe me first the virtues of the mind-do you deserve
To be accounted honest, and tenacious of justice, in word and
deed?

I acknowledge the nobleman :-Hail, Getulian !—or thou,
Silanus, from whatever other blood, a rare, and
Choice citizen, thou befallest thy triumphing country.
We may exclaim, what the people call out to Osiris
When found.-But who would call him noble, who is
Unworthy his race, and for an illustrious name only
Remarkable? We call the dwarf of some one, Atlas:

22. Put these before, &c.] Prefer the examples of those good men before the statues of your family.

23. Let them, &c.] If ever you should be consul, esteem them before the fasces, and all the ensigns of your high office.

24. You owe me, &c.] The ornamentsbona, the good qualities of the mind, are what I first insist upon; these I expect to find in you, before I allow you to be indeed noble.

25. Honest.] Sanctus is an extensive word, and here may include piety to the gods, as well as justice, honesty, and truth towards men. See sat. iii. 137.

26. I acknowledge, &c.] I then acknowledge you as a man of quality.

-Hail, Getulian!] I salute you as if you were Cossus, the conqueror of Getulia-hence called Getulicus, 1. 21,

note.

-Or thou, &c.] Silanus was a noble Roman, who conquered Magon the Carthaginian general, took Hannon, another commander, prisoner, and did other great services to his country.

q. d. If besides your personal private virtues, (1. 24, 5.) you shew yourself a rare and choice citizen, eminently serviceable and useful to your country,

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like Silanus of old, from whatever blood you may derive your pedigree, however mean it may be, yet your country will rejoice that such a man has fallen to its lot-and exclaim, as the Egyptians did, when they found Osiris.

This

29. Osiris, &c.] The chief deity of Egypt, which the Egyptians worshipped under the form of a bull, or ox. said bull was supposed to be inhabited by Osiris: but they used, once in a few years, to put this bull to death, and then go, with their priests, howling, and making lamentations, in search of another Osiris, or Apis, with the same exact marks as the former had; which, when they had found, they shouted for joy, and with loud acclamations, called out, Eignnaμev! Eignxaμey! we have found him! we have found him! Zvyxaigwμsv! let us rejoice together!

31. An illustrious name.] Or title, derived from some great and illustrious

ancestor.

32. The dwarf of some one.] The people of quality used to keep dwarfs for their amusement.

-Atlas.] A high hill in Mauritania, so high that the poets make a person of it, and feign that he was the brother

Æthiopem cygnum: parvam extortamque puellam,
Europen canibus pigris, scabieque vetustâ
Lævibus, et siccæ lambentibus ora lucernæ,
Nomen erit pardus, tigris, leo; si quid adhuc est,
Quod fremat in terris violentius. Ergo cavebis,
Et metues, ne tu sic Creticus, aut Camerinus.

His ego quem monui? tecum est mihi sermo, Rubelli Plaute: tumes alto Drusorum sanguine, tanquam Feceris ipse aliquid, propter quod nobilis esses; Ut te conciperet, quæ sanguine fulget Iüli, Non quæ ventoso conducta sub aggere texit. Vos humiles, inquis, vulgi pars ultima nostri, Quorum nemo queat patriam monstrare parentis: Ast ego Cecropides. Vivas, et originis hujus Gaudia longa feras: tamen imâ ex plebe Quiritem Facundum invenies: solet hic defendere causas Nobilis indocti: veniet de plebe togatâ, Qui juris nodos, et legum ænigmata, solvat. Hic petit Euphraten juvenis, domitique Batavi

of Prometheus, and turned into this mountain by Perseus, at the sight of the gorgon's head. From its height it was fabled to support the celestial globe. See VIRG. Æn. iv. l. 481, 2.

33. An Ethiopian—a swan.] i. e. Black white.

34. Europa.] The beautiful daughter of Agenor, king of the Phoenicians, whom Jupiter in the form of a bull carried into Crete. From her the quarter of the globe, called Europe, is said to take its name. See HoR. lib. iii. od. xxvii. 1. 75, 6.

Slow dogs.] Slow hounds that are unfit for the chace.

35. Smooth.] Having all their hair eaten off by the mange.

-Licking the mouths, &c.] So hungry and starved as to lick the stinking oil off the edges of lamps. Giving the titles of nobility, and calling those noble who are, by their evil manners, and bad actions, a disgrace to their families, is calling a dwarf, a giant; a blackmoor, a fine white swan; a crooked deformed wench, Europa: we may as well call a pack of mangy, worthless hounds, tigers, leopards, and lions; or by the name of nobler beasts, if nobler can be found.

37. Beware, &c.] Cavebis-metues

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lit. you will be cautious, and will fear, lest the world flatter you with the mock titles of Creticus and Camerinus in the same way. See sat. ii. 1. 67.

Publ. Sulpitius Camerinus was an illustrious and virtuous Roman, who was sent by the senate, with Posthumius and Manlius, to Athens, to copy the laws of Solon, as well as those of other cities.

39. By these things.] By what I have been saying.

40. Rubellius Plautus.] Some read Plancus, others Blandus; but Plautus seems to be right. Rubellius Blandus was his father, who married Julia the daughter of Drusus, son of Livia, wife of Augustus.

Of the Drusi.] You are very proud of your descent on your mother's side. Compare the preceding note.

41. Done something, &c.] As if you yourself had done something to make you illustrious, and deserving the honour of a mother of the Julian line.

43. Not she, &c.] Instead of being the son of some poor creature who knitted stockings for her bread under the townwall. The agger, here mentioned, is the mount raised by Tarquin, for the defence of the city, a place much resorted to by low people. See sat. vi.

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