to a council—men whom he hated! men on whose faces sat the paleness engendered by the wretched friendship with the great! At the loud summons of the Liburnian slave, "Run! the emperor is already seated!" the first to snatch up his cloak and hurry to the place was Pegasus, lately set as bailiff over the amazed city;
[194] for what else were the præfects of Rome in those days? of whom he was the best and most conscientious dispenser of the laws, though in those days of terror he thought all things ought to be administered by justice unarmed. Crispus
[195] came too, that facetious old man, with high character equal to his eloquence and mild disposition. Who could have been a more serviceable minister to one that ruled seas, and lands, and peoples, if, under that bane and pest of mankind, he had been allowed to reprobate his savage nature and give honest advice? But what is more ticklish than a tyrant's ear, with whom the life even of a favorite was at stake, though he might be talking of showers or heat, or a rainy spring? He, therefore, never attempted to swim against the stream, nor was he a citizen who dared give vent to the free sentiments of his soul, and devote his life to the cause of truth: and so it was that he saw many winters and eighty summers; safe, by such weapons, even in a court like that. Next to him hurried Acilius, a man of the same time of life; with a youth
[196] that ill deserved so cruel a death as that which awaited him, so prematurely inflicted by the tyrant's swords; but nobility coupled with old age, has long since been a miracle. Consequently, for myself, I should prefer being a younger brother of the giants.
[197] It was of no avail therefore to the wretched man, that as a naked huntsman in the amphitheatre of Alba, he fought hand to hand with Numidian bears. For who, in our days, is not up to the artifices of the patricians? Who would now admire that primitive cunning of thine, Brutus? It is an easy thing to impose on a king that wears a beard!
[198]. Then came Rubrius not a whit less pale, though he was no noble, one accused of an ancient and nameless crime, and yet more lost to shame than the pathic satirist.
[199] There too is to be seen Montanus' paunch, unwieldy from its size, and Crispus reeking with unguent though so early in the day, more than enough to furnish forth two funerals; and Pompeius, still more ruthless even than he at cutting men's throats by his insinuating whisper; and he that kept his entrails only to fatten the Dacian vultures, Fuscus, that studied the art of war in his marble palace; and the shrewd Veiento with the deadly Catullus,
[200] who raged with lust for a girl he could not see, a monster and prodigy of guilt even in our days, the blind flatterer, a common bridge-beggar
[201] invested with this hateful power, whose worthiest fate would be to run begging by the carriages on the road to Aricia, and blow his fawning kisses to the chariot as it descends the hill. No one showed more astonishment at the turbot, for he was profuse in his wonder, turning toward the left, but unfortunately the fish lay on the other side. This was just the way he used to praise the combat and fencing of the Cilician gladiator, and the stage machinery, and the boys caught up by it to the awning. Veiento is not to be outdone by him; but, like one inspired by the maddening influence of Bellona, begins to divine. "A mighty omen this you have received of some great and noble triumph. Some captive king you'll take, or Arviragus will be hurled from his British car. For the monster is a foreign one. Do you see the sharp fins bristling on his back like spears?" In one point only Fabricius was at fault, he could not tell the turbot's country or age. "What then is your opinion? Is it to be cut up?" "Heaven forefend so great dishonor to the noble fish!" says Montanus. "Let a deep dish be provided, whose thin sides may inclose its huge circumference. Some cunning Prometheus to act on this sudden emergency is required. Quick with the clay and potter's wheel! But henceforth, Cæsar, let potters always attend your armies!" This opinion, worthy of the author, carried the day. He was well versed in the old luxury of the imperial court, and Nero's nights,
[202] and a second appetite when the stomach was fired with the Falernian.
[203] No one in my day was a greater connoisseur in good eating; he could detect at the first bite whether the oysters were natives from Circeii, or the Lucrine rocks, or whether they came from the Rutupian beds, and told the shore an Echinus came from at the first glance.
They rise; and the cabinet being dismissed, the great chief bids the nobles depart whom he had dragged to the Alban height, amazed and forced to hurry, as though he were about to announce some tidings of the Catti and fierce Sicambri; as though from diverse parts of the world some alarming express had arrived on hurried wing. And would that he had devoted to such trifles as these those days of horror and cruelty, in which he removed from the city those glorious and illustrious spirits, with none to punish or avenge the deed! But he perished as soon as he began to be an object of alarm to cobblers. This was what proved fatal to one that was reeking with the blood of the Lamiæ!
FOOTNOTES:
[177] Iterum. Cf. i., 27, "Pars Niliacæ plebis, verna Canopi, Crispinus."
[178] Cf. vii., 179.
[179] The vestal escaped her punishment, through Crispinus' interest with Domitian.
[180] Cf. Sat. ii., 29. Suet., Domit., c. 8. Plin., iv., Epist xi.
[181] Sex millibus, about £44 7s. 6d. of English money. The value of the sestertium was reduced after the reign of Augustus. A mullet even of three pounds' weight was esteemed a great rarity. Vid. Hor., Sat., II., ii., 33, "Mullum laudas trilibrem."
[182] The chief heir was named in the second line of the first table. Cf. Horace, ii., Sat. v., 53. Suet., Cæs., 83; Nero, 17.
[183] Cf. Sat. xi., 3.
[184] Papyrus. Garments were made of papyrus even in Anacreon's days. iv., Od. 4. It is still used for the same purpose.
[185] Land would be probably cheap in Apulia, from its barrenness, and bad air, and the prevalence of the wind Atabulus. Cf. Hor., i., Sat. v., Montes Apulia notos quos torret Atabulus.
[186] i.e., Alexandria. Of the various readings of this line, "pactâ mercede" seems to be the best. Even the fish Crispinus sold were not his own, he was only hired to sell them for others.
[187] Nero, i.e., Domitian, who was as much disgusted at his own baldness as Cæsar.
[188] Founded by a colony of Syracusans, who fled from the tyranny of Dionysius.
[189] Agerunt cum; perhaps, "be ready to go to law with."
[190] Sperare sometimes means to fear. Cf. Virg., Æn., iv., 419.
