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fixing the dates for such festivals as were movable, and interpreting portents and prodigies. The luxury of the pontifical banquets is alluded to by Horace, Od. ii. 14, 28.

proponere, to offer for sale.

47. multo delatore, with many an informer; conf. again "densissima lectica." For the delatores see note on Sat. iii. 116; x. 70.

48. algae inquisitores. These men poked about everywhere and looked into the veriest trifles to see if they could claim anything for their employers. Vergil has the expression "proiecta vilior alga," Ec. vii. 42.

protinus, without more ado.

49. agerent, would go to law with.

50. fugitivum, the proper word for a runaway slave. Conf. Sat. viii. 174. Only by such an excuse could they claim the fish, for Roman law made fishing in seas and rivers open to all.

51. vivaria Caesaris, the preserves of Caesar, i.e. his fishponds. Wealthy Romans commonly had well-stocked piscinae in their gardens. To Hortensius the orator, and Lucullus the commander against Mithridates, both famous for wealth and luxury, Cicero applies the term "Piscinarii," Epist. ad Att. ii. 1, 6.

53. Palfurio. Palfurius Sura was expelled from the senate by Vespasian, after which he joined the Stoics and became a successful informer under Domitian. Conf. Suet. Dom. 13. Armillatus was another informer, according to the Scholia, which cite Marius Maximus.

55. res fisci est. On the establishment of the empire, the provinces were divided between the senate and the imperator. The revenues, taxes, and other monies proceeding from the latter, went into the fiscus, or emperor's treasury, the rest into the public aerarium. Sometimes fiscus is used loosely, as here, for any property which the emperor could claim by his position. 56. ne pereat, lest it should be wasted.

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letifero autumno; conf. Hor. Ep. i. 7, 5-6, "dum ficus prima calorque designatorem decorat lictoribus atris," where designator means an undertaker.

57. iam quartanam sperantibus aegris. quartanam, sc. febrem; quartan ague was a milder form of the disease than tertian. Cicero tells Tiro that he hopes he will be stronger, cum in quartanam conversa vis est morbi," ad Fam. xvi. 11. Conf. also Mart. x. 77.

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59. velut urgeat Auster, the warm south wind, which would soon have spoilt the fish, was prevalent in autumn.

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Conf. Hor. Od. ii. 14, 15-16, "Frustra per autumnos nocentem corporibus metuemus austrum.”

60. utque lacus suberant, "and when the lakes were below them," i.e. the Lacus Albani, about fourteen miles from Rome. Domitian had a villa at Alba Longa, where he spent much of his time. See line 145.

quamquam diruta. quamquam, without a finite verb, is only found in the Silver Age. Alba Longa, with the exception of its temples, was destroyed by Tullus Hostilius, as Livy narrates, i. 29.

61. ignem Troianum, which Aeneas had brought from Troy, together with the Penates. Conf. Verg. Aen. ii. 296, "et manibus vittas Vestamque potentem, aeternumque adytis effert penetralibus ignem.'

Vestam

Vesta.
Albanae."

minorem, as compared with the Roman So we find in inscriptions, virgo Vestalis arcis

62. parumper

64. exclusi

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таûроν πер, a very little while.

Patres. Among other characteristics of despotic rule, the emperors were very inaccessible to their subjects. Pliny contrasts Domitian and Trajan in this respect, Paneg. 47.

65. ad Atriden, ironically, "the great king."

Picens. The fisherman; Ancona was in Picenum.

66. privatis maiora focis, "too great for a private hearth.” Conf. Procula minor,' "" omni crimine foedior.'

genialis, sacred to your genius. Each person had a genius, or protecting divinity, which was born with him (the root is gen.), and also died with him.

67. stomachum laxare saginis. Mr. Macleane translates this, "to distend your stomach with good things," referring saginis to the fish. I am afraid the real meaning is less savoury, but more characteristic of Roman gluttony, "to relieve your stomach of its last gorge." saginis, ablative of privation. Emetics were frequently taken for this purpose. It might be "to let out your stomach for a gorge."

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69. Quid apertius? What could be more barefaced flattery?

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et tamen illi surgebant cristae, "and yet his crest rose. illi refers to Domitian, who is pleased and gratified even with such transparent flattery. This is much better than to ascribe quid apertius to the fisherman, in reference to ipse capi voluit, and then to suppose that the fish's crest rose, as if indignantly to deny the truth of his words.

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Conf.

71. dis aequa potestas, dis deorum potestati. "Isaeo torrentior sermo," iii. 74; and Plin. Paneg. 4, "aequata dis immortalibus potestas." Martial speaks of "edictum domini deique nostri" in reference to Domitian, who always began his rescripts thus: "Dominus ac deus noster sic fieri iubet.

73. proceres. These were probably the "amici Caesaris," or unofficial advisers and favourites. Maecenas stood in this relation to Augustus. Conf. infra, "miserae magnaeque pallor amicitiae."

75. clamante Liburno, "on the proclamation of the Liburnian slave," who admitted visitors to the emperor, and made proclamations like the present. The Liburnians were of great stature (conf. Sat. iii. 240), and probably had loud voices.

76. rapta. . . abolla, see note on Sat. iii. 115.

77. Pegasus was said to have been the son of a trierarch, and to have received his name from the figure-head of his father's ship. The Digest says he was praefectus urbi under Vespasian. Juvenal charges him here with being too lenient.

attonitae positus modo vilicus urbi. The vilicus was usually a slave (see on Sat. iii. 195), and superintended other slaves; so Domitian treated Rome as his own property, and the citizens as his slaves, whence the praefectus urbi was in reality no better than a vilicus.

78. praefecti. Various prefects were established by Augustus to perform the various departments of state business. The chief were the praefectus urbi, praefectus annonae, praefectus praetorio (see note on Sat. iv. 32), praefectus vigilum. The praefectus urbi was the most important of these, and had an extended authority both in police matters and judicial proceedings. Conf. "interpres legum." On the history of the praefectura urbi, see Tac. Ann. vi. 11.

79. interpres legum. sianum called after him.

60.

There was a senatus consultum Pega

quamquam goes with temporibus diris; conf. note on line

81. Crispi iucunda senectus. Vibius Crispus is ranked by Tacitus "inter claros magis quam inter bonos." Quintilian, x. 1, § 119, speaks highly of his eloquence, and calls him "compositus et iucundus." His wealth, made by public pleading, was proverbial. Martial, iv. 54, 7, speaks of a man as Crispo." He had 200,000,000 sesterces. See the story told of him by Suetonius, Dom. 3.

divitior

82. cuius erant mores, qualis facundia tales qualis erat, "whose manners were like his eloquence"; and then, in explanatory apposition to the whole, comes mite ingenium, character made up of mildness."

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84. quis comes utilior.

It is noticeable that Domitian's officers and advisers were, as a rule, efficient, well chosen, and well looked after.

88. pendebat, hung in the balance, i.e. a single ill-timed word on the most trivial subject might be his ruin.

90. nec civis erat, qui . . . posset, "nor was he such a citizen as could"; note the consecutive force of qui, which requires a subjunctive.

93. his armis, i.e. by his complaisance and readiness to go with the times.

94. eiusdem . . . aevi, genitive of quality.

The son,

66

Acilius. Of the father not much is known. Acilius Glabrio, had been consul with Trajan in 91 A.D., and was, according to Suetonius, executed by Domitian, as molitor novarum rerum. Juvenal implies here (99-103) that Acilius fought in the arena as a way of feigning imbecility or madness, and so escaping the malignity of the emperor. Dio Cassius (67, 12) says that Domitian killed him through jealousy, owing to his success in the arena, and because he was inclined towards Jewish rites. Many have thought that he was a Christian.

95. indigno, quem mors maneret, who did not deserve that so cruel a death should await him. dignus or indignus, followed by the consecutive use of qui, is the ordinary construction. Conf. Verg. Aen. vii. 653-4, "dignusque pater

cui non Mezentius esset.

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97. prodigio par est, etc. The Annals of Tacitus are a gloomy commentary on this line. Conf. also the expression de nobilitate comesa," i. 34.

98. fraterculus esse Gigantis, to be a mere insignificant son of earth, i.e. a nobody. The Gigantes were sons of Terra. Persius has the expression "progenies Terrae," vi. 17, for an unknown person.

100. Albana

arena. Domitian had an amphitheatre

fitted up at his Alban villa, on which see above, line 60.

101. venator. Wild beasts were first exhibited and killed in the amphitheatre in 186 B.C. There were three classes of men who fought with the animals—(1) Condemned criminals; these were usually called bestiarii. (2) Professional venatores, who were trained and kept like gladiators in venatoriae familiae. (3) Amateurs, like Glabrio here, who, either from taste, servility, or cunning, appeared in public as venatores. We hear that nobles and senators often did so. The name venationes

was common to all exhibitions of the kind. These exhibitions of wild beasts, in which they were made to fight either with one another or with men, were always assuming wider and wider proportions. Originating in the facilities for getting wild beasts from Africa opened out by the conquest of Carthage, they led to a systematic capture of animals of every kind in every new province acquired by Rome. The various provincial governors, as we learn from Cicero's letters, were expected by their friends at home to send them animals for exhibition. Both the number and the varieties of the animals brought to Rome are almost incredible. We hear of elephants, hippopotami, crocodiles, giraffes, lions, tigers, bears, panthers, besides innumerable others. It was no uncommon thing for 300 or 400 lions, 400 or 500 bears, 20 or 30 elephants, and smaller animals in proportion, to be exhibited and killed at a single festival, though it must be remembered that, as the number of holidays kept continually increasing, these festivals lasted sometimes for weeks or even months together. Trajan celebrated his Dacian triumph by a four-months' holiday, during which 11,000 animals were killed. It need hardly be said that the capture and management and transport of these animals must have given employment to an immense number of persons. The exhibitions sometimes consisted of various performances, which the animals were trained to go through; more often, however, in combats between the animals themselves, as when an elephant was pitted against a rhinoceros, or between the venatores, often accompanied by trained dogs, and the various animals. Nero, on one occasion, made his praetorian guard enter the arena against 400 bears and 300 lions. Even more horrible were the occasions when unarmed criminals were driven into the arena to defend their forfeited lives for as long as possible against the hungry beasts. "Christianos ad leones was a cry which was sure to be taken up with emphasis by a Roman mob. After the time of Vespasian, those venationes took place in the Colosseum, which was said to contain 87,000 spectators.

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102. priscum illud... acumen, Brute, tuum. L. Iunius, nephew of Tarquinius Superbus, on the murder of his brother by the king, feigned madness, and hence received the cognomen of Brutus, in order, as Livy says, that his intellect, lying hid under that name, might wait its opportunity to become the liberator of the Roman people, Liv. i. 56.

103. barbato. regi. Barbers are said to have been first introduced from Sicily about 300 B.C. barbato here means "ancient," and so "simple." Conf. "intonsi Catonis," Hor. Od. ii. 15, 11. Conf. also Sat. v. 30, "capillato consule"; and

xvi. 34.

104. Nec melior vultu, quamvis ignobilis, "no brighter

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