The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius. Sulpicia

xiii. "Magnum proventum poëtarum annus hic attulit; toto mense Aprili nullus ferè dies quo non recitaret aliquis."

[104] Either those of Romulus, or the aqueduct; and "moist Capena," either from the constant dripping of the aqueduct (hence arcus stillans), or from the springs near it, hence called Fontinalis; now St. Sebastian's gate. It opens on the Via Appia.

[105] Cf. vi., 542.

[106]

      "O how much more devoutly should we cling

       To thoughts that hover round the sacred spring!" Badham.

      Read præsentius: cf. Plin., Ep. viii., 8, the description of the Clitumnus, and Ov., Met., iii., 155, seq.

[107] Umbritius (aruspicum in nostro ævo peritissimus, Plin., x., c. iii.) is said to have predicted Galba's death, and probably therefore, with Juvenal, cordially hated Otho.

[108] Portus may mean, "constructing" or "repairing" harbors; or "farming the harbor-dues," portoria.

[109] Scipio's was performed by contract. Plin., H. N., xxxi., 3.

[110] The spear was set up in the forum to show that an auction was going on there. Hence things so sold were said to be sold sub hastâ. Domina, implies "the right of disposal" of all things and persons there put up. This may mean, therefore, to buy a drove of slaves on speculation, and sell them again by auction; or, when they have squandered their all, put themselves up to sale. So Britann. Dryden, "For gain they sell their very head." "Salable as slaves." Hodgson. So Browne, who reads "præbere caput domino."

[111] "From abject meanness lifts to wealth and power." Badham. Cf. vi., 608.

[112] "Though a soothsayer, I am no astrologer." "I never examined the entrails of a toad."

[113] "Therefore (because I will lend myself to no peculation) no great man will take me in his suite when he goes to his province." Cf. Sat. viii., 127, "Si tibi sancta cohors comitum." This is better than, "Therefore I leave Rome alone!" Markland proposes, extinctâ dextrâ.

[114]

      "Like a dead member from the body rent,

       Maim'd and unuseful to the government." Dryden.

      "No man's confederate, here alone I stand,

       Like the maim'd owner of a palsied hand." Badham.

      "Lopp'd from the trunk, a dead, unuseful hand." Hodgson.

[115] Isa., lvii., 20.

[116] Opaci, Lubin. interprets as equivalent to turbulenti, "turbid with gold." On this Grangæus remarks, "Apage Germani haud germanam interpretationem! opaci enim est umbris arborum obscuri." Cf. Mart., i., Ep. 50, "Æstus serenos aureo franges Tago obscurus umbris arborum."

[117]

      "Grasp thou no boon with sadness on thy brow,

       Spurn the base bribe that binds a guilty vow." Badham.

[118]

      "Shame for Rome that harbors such a crew."

[119] The Roman hind, once so renowned for rough and manly virtues, now wears the costume of effeminate Greeks: or all these Greek terms, used to show the poet's supreme contempt, may refer to the games: the Trechedipna, not the thin supper-robe, but the same as the Endromis. The Ceroma, an ointment made of oil, wax, and clay, with which they bedaubed themselves.

[120] Amydon in Pœonia, Tralles in Lydia, Alabanda in Caria.

[121]

      "Work themselves inward, and their patrons out." Dryden.

      "Deep in their patron's heart, and fix'd as fate,

       The future lords of all his vast estate." Hodgson.

[122]

      "Torrents of words that might Isæus drown." Badham.

[123] Aliptes, one who anoints (ἀλείφει), and therefore trains, athletes.

[124] So Johnson.

      "All sciences the hungry Monsieur knows,

       And bid him go to hell—to hell he goes!"

[125] Some think there is an allusion here to a man who attempted to repeat Icarus' experiment before Nero. Vid. Suet., Nero, 13.

[126] Cottana, "ficorum genus." Plin., xiii., 5.

[127] "As if squeezed in the passage by the narrowness of the throat."

[128] His powers of flattery show his ability of assuming a fictitious character as much as his skill in acting.

[129] Or the "Dorian maid." They were scantily dressed. Hence the φαινομηρίδες of Ibycus.

[130] Major abolla, seems to be a proverbial expression; it may either be the "Stoic's cloak," which was more ample than the scanty robe of the Cynic; or "the philosopher's cloak," which has therefore more dignity and weight with it than the soldier's or civilian's. The allusion is to P. Egnatius Celer, the Stoic, who was bribed to give the false testimony on which Bareas Soranus was convicted. V. Tac., Ann., xvi., 21, seq., and 32.

[131] Ripa. Commentators are divided between Tarsus, Thebes, and Corinth.

[132] Togatus. Gifford quotes Martial, x., Ep. 10.

      "Quid faciet pauper cui non licet esse clienti?