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

Laboranti. The ancients believed that eclipses of the moon were caused by magic, and that loud noises broke the charm.

      "Strike not your brazen kettles! She alone

       Can break th' enchantment of the spell-bound moon." Hodgson.

[285] "Sylvano mulieres non licet sacrificare." Vet. Schol. Women sacrificed to Ceres and Juno. Vid. Dennis' Etruria, ii., 65–68. Cf. Hor., ii., Ep. i., 143.—Quadrans. Philosophers used to go to the commonest baths, either from modesty or poverty. Seneca calls the bath "Res Quadrantaria." Cf. Hor., i., Sat. iii., 147. Cic. pro Cœl. "Quadrantaria permutatio."

[286] Torqueat. Cf. vii., 156, "Quæ venient diversæ forte sagittæ," Quint., vi., 3, "Jaculatio verborum." So Plato uses the term δεινὸς ἀκοντιστής, of a Spartan orator.

[287] Palæmon. Cf. vii., 215," Docti Palæmonis." "Insignis Grammaticus." Hieron. "Remmius Palæmon," Vicentinus, owed his first acquaintance with literature to taking his mistress' son to school as his "custos angustæ vernula capsæ" (x., 117). Manumitted afterward, he taught at Rome in the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius, and "principem locum inter grammaticos tenuit." Vid. Suet., Gram. Illust., 23, who says he kept a very profitable school, and gives many curious instances of his vanity and luxuriousness. He was Quintilian's master. Cf. Vet. Schol., and Clinton, Fasti Rom. in anno, A.D. 48.

[288] Opicæ. Cf. iii., 207, "Opici mures." Opizein Græci dicunt de iis qui imperitè loquuntur. Vet. Schol.

[289] Poppæana. "Cosmetics used or invented by Poppæa Sabina," of whom Tacitus says, "Huic mulieri cuncta alia fuere præter honestum animum," Ann., xiii., 45. She was of surpassing beauty and insatiable ambition: married first to Rufus Crispinus, a knight whom she quitted for Otho. Nero became enamored of her, and sent Otho into Lusitania, where he remained ten years. (Cf. Suet., Otho, 3. Clinton, F. R., a. 58.) Four years after he put away Octavia, banished her to Pandataria, and forced her to make away with herself, and her head was brought to Rome to be gazed upon by Poppæa, whom he had now married, A.D. 62. Cf. Tac., Ann., xiv., 64. Poppæa bore him a child next year, whom he called Augusta, but she died before she was four months old, to his excessive grief. Cf. xv., 23. Three years after, "Poppæa mortem obiit, fortuitâ mariti iracundiâ, à quo gravida ictu calcis adflicta est." Nero, it is remarkable, died on the same day of the month as the unfortunate Octavia.

[290] Lacte. The old Schol. says Poppæa was banished, and took with her fifty she-asses to furnish milk for her bath. The story of her exile is very problematical, as Heinrich shows, and is probably only an ordinary hyperbole. Pliny says (xxviii., 12; xi., 41) that asses' milk is supposed to make the face tender, and delicately white, and to prevent wrinkles. "Unde Poppæa uxor Neronis, quocunque ire contigisset secum sexcentas asellas ducebat." ὄνους πεντακοσίας ἀρτιτόκους. Xiph., lxii., 28.

[291] Facies.

      "Can it be call'd a face, so poulticed o'er?

       By heavens, an ulcer it resembles more!" Hodgson.

       "But tell me yet, this thing thus daub'd and oil'd,

       Thus poulticed, plaster'd, baked by turns and boil'd;

       Thus with pomatums, ointments, lackered o'er,

       Is it a face, Ursidius, or a sore?" Gifford.

[292] Frangit. Cf. viii., 247, "Nodosam post hæc frangebat vertice vitem." The climax here is not correctly observed, according to Horace. "Ne scuticâ dignum horribili sectere flagello: Nam, ut ferula cædas meritum majora subire Verbera non vereor." I., Sat. iii., 119. The scutica was probably like the "taurea:" the "cowskin" of the American slave States.

[293] Diurnum. "The diary of the household expenses." Relegit marks the deliberate cruelty of the lady.

      "Beats while she paints her face, surveys her gown,

       Casts up the day's accounts, and still beats on." Dryden.

[294] Isiacæ. Cf. ix., 22, "Fanum Isidis. … Notior Aufidio mœchus celebrare solebas."

[295] Emerita. From the soldier who has served his time and become "emeritus."

[296] Ædificat.

      "So high she builds her head, she seems to be,

       View her in front, a tall Andromache;

       But walk all round her, and you'll quickly find

       She's not so great a personage behind!" Hodgson.

[297] Pygmæâ.

      "Yet not a pigmy—were she, she'd be right

       To wear the buskin and increase her height;

       To gain from art what nature's stint denies,

       Nor lightly to the kiss on tip-toes rise." Hodgson.

[298] Vicina.

      "And save that daily she insults his friends,

       Provokes his servants, and his fortune spends,

       As a mere neighbor she might pass through life,

       And ne'er be once mistaken for his wife." Badham.

[299] Xerampelinas. The Schol. describes this color as "inter coccinum et muricem medius," from ξηρὸς, siccus, ἄμπελος, vitis, "the color of vine leaves in autumn;" the "morte feuille" of French dyers.

[300] Superbi. The Campus Martius, as having belonged originally to Tarquinius Superbus.

[301] Ovile, more commonly ovilia or septa, stood in the Campus Martius, where the elections were held.

[302] Animam, "the moral," mentem, "the intellectual part" of the soul. Cf. Virg., Æn., vi., 11, "Cui mentem animamque Delius inspirat Vates." When opposed to animus, anima is simply "the principle of vitality." "Anima, quâ vivimus; mens qua cogitamus." Lactant. So Sat., xv., 148, "Indulsit communis conditor illis tantum animas nobis animum quoque."

      "Doubtless such kindred minds th' immortals seek,

       And such the souls with whom by night they speak." Badham.

[303] Linigero. Cf. Mart., xii., Ep. xxix., 19, "Linigeri fugiunt calvi sistrataque turba." Isis is said to have been a queen of Egypt, and to have taught her subjects the use of linen, for