Ut cessit, facili patuerunt cardine valvæ: 65 70 75 63. As it gave way.] i. e. As the crowd, having satisfied their curiosity, retired, and gave way for him to pass forward. -The gates, &c.] Valvæ, the large folding doors of the palace are thrown open, and afford a ready and welcome entrance to one who brought such a delicious and acceptable present. Comp. HOR. lib. i. od. xxv. 1. 5, 6. 64. The excluded fathers.] Patres-i.e. patres conscripti, the senators, whom Domitian had commanded to attend him at Alba, either out of state, or in order to form his privy-council on state affairs. There is an antithesis here between the admissa opsonia and the exclusi patres, intimating, that the senators were shut out of the palace, when the doors were thrown open to the fisherman and his turbot: these venerable personages had only the privilege of looking at it as it was carried through the crowd. Many copies read expectant-q. d. The senators are to wait, while the business of the turbot is settled, before they can be admitted: lit. they await the admitted victuals. See expectant used in this sense. VIRG. Æn. iv. 1. 134. Casaubon reads spectant, which seems to give the most natural and easy sense. 64. Dainties.] Opsonium-ii, signifies any victuals eaten with bread, especially fish. AINSW, Gr. 4ov, proprie, piscis. Hed. So likewise in S. S. John vi. 9. duo ofagia, two little fishes. Here Juvenal uses opsonia for the rhombus. 65: Atrides.] So the poet here humourously calls Domitian, in allusion to Agamemnon, the son of Atreus, whose pride prompted him to be styled the commander over all the Grecian generals. Thus Domitian affected the titles of Dux ducum, Princeps principum, and even Deus. -The Picenian.] i. e. The fisherman, who was an inhabitant of Picenum. -Accept.] Thus begins the fisherman's abject and fulsome address to the emperor, on presenting the turbot. 66. What is too great.] Lit. greater than private fires. Focus is properly a fire-hearth, by met. fire. Focis, here, means the fires by which victuals are dressed, kitchen fires; and so, by met. kitchens. q. d. The turbot which he presented to the emperor was too great and valuable to be dressed in any private kitchen. 67. As a festival.] The adj. genialis signifies cheerful, merry, festival; so, genialis dies, a day of festivity, a festival; such as was observed on marriage or on birth-days: on these latter, they held a yearly feast in honour of their genius, or tutelar deity, which was supposed to attend their birth, and to live and die with them. See PERS. sat. ii, 1. 3. and note. Probably the poet here means much the same as Horace, lib. iii. ode xvii. by genium curabis, you shall indulge yourself, make merry. -Hasten to release, &c.] The poet here lashes Domitian's gluttony, by making the fisherman advise him to unload, and set his stomach at liberty from the dainties which it contained, (which was usually done by vomits,) in order to whet it, and to make room for this turbot. Sa As it gave way, the gates opened with an easy hinge: The excluded fathers behold the admitted dainties. He comes to Atrides: then the Picenian said, "Accept "What is too great for private kitchens: let this day be passed "As a festival; hasten to release your stomach from its cram 65 66 mings, "And consume a turbot reserved for your age: "Itself it would be taken."-What could be plainer ? and yet His crest arose there is nothing which of itself it may not 70 Believe, when a power equal to the gods is praised. But there was wanting a size of pot for the fish: therefore The nobles are called into council, whom he hated: In the face of whom was sitting the paleness of a miserable And great friendship.-First, (a Liburnian crying out- 75 gina lit. means any meat wherewith things are crammed or fatted, and is well applied here to express the emperor's stuffing and cramming himself, by his dainty gluttony, like a beast or a fowl that is put up to be fattened. 68. Reserved for your age.] As if Providence had purposely formed and preserved this fish for the time of Domitian. 69. Itself it would be taken.] The very fish itself was ambitious to be caught for the entertainment and gratification of your Majesty. -What could be plainer?] What flattery could be more open, more palpable than this? says Juvenal. 70. His crest arose.] This flattery, which one would have thought too gross to be received, yet pleased Domitian, he grew proud of it-surgebant crista. Metaph. taken from the appearance of a cock when he is pleased, and struts and sets up his comb. -There is nothing, &c.] i. e. When a prince can believe himself equal in power to the gods, (which was the case with Domitian,) no flattery can be too gross, fulsome, or palpable to be received; he will believe every thing that can be said in his praise, and grow still the vainer for it. Mr. Dryden, in his ode called Alexander's Feast, has finely imagined an instance of this, where Alexander is almost mad with pride, at hearing himself celebrated as the son of Jupiter by Olympia. With ravish'd ears The monarch hears; Assumes the god, Affects to nod, And seems to shake the spheres. 72. But a size, &c.] They had no pot capacious enough, in its dimensions, to contain this large turbot, so as to dress it whole. Patina is a pot of earth or metal, in which things were boiled, and brought to table in their broth. AINSW. 73. The nobles.] Proceres-the senators-called patres, 1. 64. -Are called into council.] To deliberate on what was to be done in this momentous business. -Whom he hated.] From a consciousness of his being dreaded and hated by them. 74. The paleness.] We have here a striking representation of a tyrant, who, conscious that he must be hated by all about him, hates them, and they, knowing his capricious cruelty, never approach him without horror and dread, lest they should say or do something, however undesignedly, which may cost them their lives. Comp. 1. 86-88. 75. A Liburnian.] Some have observed that the Romans made criers of the Liburnians, a remarkable lusty and stout race of men, (see sat. iii. 240.) because their voices were very loud and strong. Others take Liburnus here for the proper name of some particular man who had the office of crier. Currite, jam sedit, raptâ properabat abolla Pegasus, attonitæ positus modo villicus urbi: 76. Run, &c.]" Make haste, lose no "time; the emperor has already taken "his seat at the council-table-don't "make him wait." -With a snatched-up gown.] Abolla here signifies a senator's robe. In sat. iii. 115. it signifies a philosopher's gown. On hearing the summons, he caught up his robe in a violent hurry, and huddled it on, and away he went. This Pegasus was an eminent lawyer, who had been appointed præfect or governor of the city of Rome. Juvenal calls him villicus, or bailiff, as if Rome, by Domitian's tyranny, had so far lost its liberty and privileges, that it was now no better than an insignificant village, and its officers had no more power or dignity than a country bailiff; a little paltry officer over a small district. The præfectus urbis (says KENNETT, Ant. lib. iii. part ii. c. 13.) was a sort of mayor of the city, created by Augustus, by the advice of his favourite Mæcenas, upon whom at first he conferred the new honour. He was to precede all other city magistrates, having power to receive appeals from the inferior courts, and to decide almost all causes within the limits of Rome, or one hundred miles round. Before this, there was sometimes a præfectus urbis created, when the kings, or 80 85 90 the greater officers, were absent from the city, to administer justice in their room. But there was an end of all this, their hands were now tied up, their power and consequence were no more; Domitian had taken every thing into his own hands, and no officer of the city could act farther than the emperor deigned to permit, who kept the whole city in the utmost terror and astonishment at his cruelty and oppression. 78. Of whom, &c.] This Pegasus was an excellent magistrate, the best of any that had filled that office; most conscientious and faithful in his administration of justice; never straining the laws to oppress the people, but expounding them fairly and honestly. 80, 1. With unarmed justice.] Such was the cruelty and tyranny of Domitian, that even Pegasus, that good and upright magistrate, was deterred from the exact and punctual administration of justice, every thing being now governed as the emperor pleased; so that the laws had not their force; nor dared the judges execute them, but according to the will of the emperor; justice was disarmed of its powers. 81. Crispus.] Vibius Crispus, who, when one asked him if any body was with Cæsar? answered, "Not even a "Run-he is already seated,") with a snatched-up gown, hastened Pegasus, lately appointed bailiff to the astonished city— "Were the Præfects then any thing else?-of whom [he was] the best, and Most upright interpreter of laws; tho' all things, 81 In direful times, he thought were to be managed with unarmed Disposition to one governing seas, and lands, and people, Who a more useful companion, if, under that slaughter and pestilence, It were permitted to condemn cruelty, and to give honest 85 Counsel? But what is more violent than the ear of a tyrant, With whom the fate of a friend, who should speak of showers, Or heats, or of a rainy spring, depended? He therefore never directed his arms against The torrent: nor was he a citizen, who could utter 90 The free words of his mind, and spend his life for the truth. "fly." Domitian, at the beginning of converse with him, even on the most indifferent subjects, such as the weather, and the like: the least word misunderA stood, or taken ill, might cost a man his life, though to that moment he had been regarded as a friend. 82, 3. A gentle disposition.] He was as remarkable for sweetness of temper, as for his eloquence, pleasantry, and good nature. Comp. HOR. lib. ii. sat. i. l. 72. Mitis sapientia Læli. 84. Who a more useful companion.] The meaning is, who could have been a more salutary friend and companion, as well as counsellor, to the emperor, if he had dared to have spoken his mind, to have reprobated the cruelty of the emperor's proceedings, and to have given his advice to a man, who, like sword and pestilence, destroyed all that he took a dislike to. 86. What is more violent, &c.] More rebellious against the dictates of honest truth-more impatient of advice-more apt to imbibe the most fatal prejudices. 87. Speak of showers, &c.] Such was the capriciousness and cruelty of Domitian, that it was unsafe for his friends to 89. Never directed, &c.] Never attempted to swim against the stream, as He knew the emperor too well ever to venture an opposition to his will and pleasure. we say. 91. Spend his life, &c.] Crispus was not one of those citizens who dared to say what he thought; or to hazard his life in the cause of truth, by speaking his mind. 92, 3. Eightieth solstices.] Eighty solstices of winter and summer; i. e. he was now eighty years of age. 93. With these arms, &c.] Thus armed with prudence and caution, he had lived to a good old age, even in the court of Domitian, where the least offence or prejudice would long since have taken him off. 94. Acilius.] Glabrio, a senator of singular prudence and fidelity. Cum juvene indigno, quem mors tam sæva maneret, Unde fit, ut malim fraterculus esse gigantum. 95. With a youth, &c.] Domitius, the son of Acilins, came with his father; but both of them were soon after charged with designs against the emperor, and were condemned to death. The father's sentence was changed into banishment, the more to grieve him with the remembrance of his son's death. -Unworthy.] Not deserving that so cruel a death should await him. This unhappy young man, to save his life, affected madness, and fought naked with wild beasts in the amphitheatre at Alba, where Domitian every year celebrated games in honour of Minerva: but he was not to be deceived, and he put Domitius to death in a cruel manner. See 1. 99, 100. 96. The swords.] Gladiis, in the plur. either by syn. for gladio, sing. or perhaps to signify the various methods of torture and death used by this emperor. 96. Of the tyrant.] Domini, lit. of the lord, i. e. the emperor Domitian, who thus lorded it over the lives of his subjects. 97. Old age in nobility.] q. d. From the days of Nero, till this hour, it has been the practice to cut off the nobility, when the emperor's jealousy, fear, or hatred, inclined him so to do; insomuch that to see a nobleman live to old age, is something like a prodigy; and indeed this has long been the case. 98. Of the giants.] These fabulous beings were supposed to be the sons of Titan and Tellus. These sons of Earth 95 100 105 were of a gigantic size, and said to rebel and fight against Jupiter. See Ov. Met. lib. i. fab. vi. q. d. Since to be born noble is so very dangerous, I had much rather, like these Terræ filii, claim no higher kindred than my parent Earth, and, though not in size, yet as to origin, be a brother of theirs, than be descended from the highest families among our nobility. 101. Who cannot now, &c.] Who is ignorant of the arts of the nobility, either to win the emperor's favour, or to avoid his dislike, or to escape the effects of his displeasure? these are known to every body, therefore it can hardly be supposed that they are unknown to the emperor; hence poor Domitius miscarried in his stratagem. See note on 1. 95. Domitian could perceive, yet could swallow down the grossest flattery, and thus far deceive himself, (comp. 1. 70.) yet no shift, or trick, to avoid his destructive purposes could ever deceive him. 102. Who can wonder, &c.] Lucius Junius Brutus saved his life by affecting to play the fool in the court of Tarquin the Proud, when many of the nobility were destroyed, and, among the rest, the brother of Brutus. Hence he took the surname of Brutus, which signifies senseless, void of reason. q. d. This old piece of policy would not be surprising now; it would be looked upon but as a shallow device: there |