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

[166] Domitius Corbulo, a man of uncommon strength, appointed by Nero to command in Armenia. Vid. Tac., Ann., xiii., 8.

[167] "The pace creates the draught."

[168] Sedet; because, being unburied, he must wait a hundred years. Cf. Virg., Æn., vi., 313–330.

[169] Hom., Il., xxiv., 12, "ἄλλοτε δ' αὖτε ὕπτιος ἄλλοτε δὲ πρηνής."

[170] Deducere; "the technical word for the clients' attendance on their patrons;" so "forum attingere; in forum deduci."

[171]

      "He only cudgels, and I only bear." Dryden.

[172] Sectile, or the inferior kind of leek; the better sort being called "capitatum." Plin., xx., 6. Cf. Sat. xiv., 133, sectivi porri.

[173] The order is "Pater, avus, proavus, abavus, atavas, tritavus." He means, therefore, eight generations back at least.

[174] Ancus Martius built the prison. Liv., i., 33. The dungeon was added by Servius Tullius, and called from him Tullianum. The next was built by Ap. Claudius the decemvir.

[175] Ceres was worshiped under this epithet at Aquinum. Its origin is variously given.

[176] Caligatus may mean, "with rustic boots," so that you may not be reminded of Rome; or "with soldier's boots," as armed for our campaign against the vices of the city.

SATIRE IV.

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      Once more behold Crispinus![177] and often shall I have to call him on the stage. A monster! without one virtue to redeem his vices—of feeble powers, save only in his lust. It is only a widow's charms this adulterer scorns.

What matters it then in what large porticoes he wearies out his steeds—through what vast shady groves his rides extend[178]—how many acres close to the forum, or what palaces he has bought? No bad man is ever happy. Least of all he that has added incest to his adultery, and lately seduced the filleted priestess,[179] that with her life-blood still warm must descend into the earth.

But now we have to deal with more venial acts. Yet if any other man had committed the same, he would have come under the sentence of our imperial censor.[180] For what would be infamous in men of worth, a Titius or Seius, was becoming to Crispinus. What can you do when no crime can be so foul and loathsome as the perpetrator himself? He gave six sestertia for a mullet.[181] A thousand sesterces, forsooth! for every pound of weight, as they allege, who exaggerate stories already beyond belief. I should commend the act as a master-stroke of policy, if by so noble a present he had got himself named chief heir[182] in the will of some childless old man. A better plea still would be that he had sent it to some mistress of rank, that rides in her close chair with its wide glasses. Nothing of the sort! He bought it for himself! We see many things which even Apicius[183] (mean and thrifty compared with him) never was guilty of. Did you do this in days of yore, Crispinus, when girt about with your native papyrus?[184] What! pay this price for fish-scales? Perchance you might have bought the fisherman cheaper than the fish! You might have bought a whole estate for the money in some of our provinces. In Apulia, a still larger one.[185] What kind of luxuries, then, may we suppose were gorged by the emperor himself, when so many sestertia, that furnished forth but a small portion, a mere side-dish of a very ordinary dinner, were devoured by this court buffoon, now clothed in purple. Chief of the equestrian order now is he who was wont to hawk about the streets shads from the same borough[186] with himself.

      Begin, Calliope! here may we take our seats! This is no poetic fiction; we are dealing with facts! Relate it, Pierian maids! and grant me grace for having called you maids.

When the last of the Flavii was mangling the world, lying at its last gasp, and Rome was enslaved by a Nero,[187] ay, and a bald one too, an Adriatic turbot of wonderful size fell into the net, and filled its ample folds, off the temple of Venus which Doric Ancona[188] sustains. No less in bulk was it than those which the ice of the Mæotis incloses, and when melted at length by the sun's rays, discharges at the outlets of the sluggish Euxine, unwieldly from their long sloth, and fattened by the long-protracted cold.

This prodigy of a fish the owner of the boat and nets designs for the chief pontiff. For who would dare to put up such a fish to sale, or to buy it? Since the shores too would be crowded with informers; these inspectors of sea-weed, prowling in every nook, would straightway contest the point[189] with the naked fisherman, and would not scruple to allege that the fish was a "stray," and that having made its escape from the emperor's ponds, where it had long reveled in plenty, ought of course to revert to its ancient lord. If we place any faith in Palfurius or Armillatus, whatever is pre-eminently fine in the whole sea, is the property of the exchequer, wherever it swims. So, that it may not be utterly lost, it will be made a present of, though now sickly autumn was giving place to winter, and sick men were already expecting[190] their fits of ague, though the rude tempest whistled and kept the fish fresh, yet the fisherman hurries on as though a mild south wind were blowing. And when the lakes were near at hand, where, though in ruins, Alba[191] still preserves the Trojan fire, and her Lesser Vesta,[192] the wondering crowd for a short space impeded his entrance; as they made way for him, the folding-doors flew open on ready-turning hinge. The senators, shut out themselves, watch the dainty admitted. He stands in the royal presence. Then he of Picenum begins, "Deign to accept what is too great for any private kitchen: let this day be celebrated as the festival of your genius, haste to relieve your stomach of its burden, and devour a turbot reserved to honor your reign.[193] It insisted on being caught." What could be more fulsome? and yet the great man's crest rose. What flattery is there that it is not prepared to believe, when power is praised as equal to the gods. But there was no dish of sufficient size for the fish. Therefore the senators