If nature denies, indignation makes verse, 80 85 From the time that Deucalion (the showers lifting up the sea) 90 Hence Juvenal says-mollia saxa. It is most likely that the whole account of the deluge, given by Ovid, is a corruption of the Mosaical history of that event.Plutarch mentions the dove sent out of the ark. 86. The composition, &c.] Farrago signifies a mixture, an hodgepodge as we say, of various things mixed together. The poet means, that the various pursuits, inclinations, actions, and passions of men, and all those human follies and vices, which have existed, and have been increasing, ever since the flood, are the subjects of his satires. 88. Bosom of avarice.] A metaphorical allusion to the sail of a ship when expanded to the wind-the centre whereof is called sinus -the bosom. The larger the sail, and the more open and spread it is, the greater the capacity of the bosom for receiving the wind, and the more powerfully is the ship driven on through the sea. Thus avarice spreads itself far and wide; it catches the inclinations of men, as the sail the wind, and thus it drives them on in a full course-when more than at present? says the poet. The die.] A chief instrument of gaming-put here for gaming itself. METON. 89. These spirits.] Animus signifies spirit or courage; and in this sense we are to understand it here. As if the poet said, when was gaming so encouraged? or when had games of hazard, which were forbidden by the law, (except only during the Saturnalia,) the courage to appear so open and frequently as they do now? The sentence is elliptical, and must be supplied with habuit, or some other verb of the kind, to govern-hos animos. They do not go, with purses, &c.] Gaming has now gotten to such an extravagant height, that gamesters are not content to play for what can be carried in their purses, but stake a whole chest of money at a time-this seems to be implied by the word posita. Pono sometimes signifies-laying a wager-putting down as a stake. See an example of this sense, from Plautus, AINSW. pono, No. 5. Prælia quanta illic dispensatore videbis 95 100 91. How many battles, &c.] i. e. How many attacks on one another at play. -The steward.] Dispensator signifies a dispenser, a steward, one that lays out money, a manager. 92. Armour-bearer.] The armigeri were servants who followed their masters with their shields, and other arms, when they went to fight. The poet still carries on the metaphor of prælia in the pre ceding line. There gaming is compared to fighting; here he humourously calls the steward the armour-bearer, as supplying his master with money, a necessary weapon at a gaming-table, to stake at play, instead of keeping and dispensing it, or laying it out for the usual and honest expenses of the family. -Simple madness, &c.] All this is a species of madness, but not without mixture of injury and mischief; and therefore may be reckoned something more than mere madness, where such immense sums are thrown away at a gaming-table, as that the servants of the family can't be afforded common decent necessaries. The Romans had their sestertius and sestertium. The latter is here meant, and contains 1000 of the former, which was worth about 1d. See 1. 106, n. 93. And not give a coat, &c.] The poet here puts one instance, for many, of the ruinous consequences of gaming. Juvenal, by this, severely censures the gamesters, who had rather lose a large sum at the dice, than lay it out for the comfort, happiness, and decent maintenance of their families. 94. So many villas.] Houses of pleasure for the summer-season. These were usually built and furnished at a vast expense. The poet having inveighed against their squandering at the gaming-table, now attacks their luxury, and prodigality in other respects; and then, the excessive meanness into which they were sunk. 95. Supped in secret, &c.] The ancient Roman nobility, in order to shew their munificence and hospitality, used, at certain times, to make an handsome and splendid entertainment, to which they invited their clients and dependents. Now they shut out these, and provided a sumptuous entertainment for themselves only, which they sat down to in private. Which of our ancestors, says the poet, did this? -Now a little basket, &c.] Sportula-a little basket or pan How many battles will you, see there, the steward Armour-bearer! is it simple madness an hundred sestertia 95 Who has erected so many villas? What ancestor on seven dishes Put in the place of another you come, and ask in a false name. Acknowledged you will receive. He commands to be called by the crier The very descendents of the Trojans: for even they molest the threshold 100 nier, made of a kind of broom called sportum. KENNET, Antiq. p. 375. In this were put victuals, and some small sums of money, to be distributed to the poor clients and dependents at the outward door of the house, who where no longer invited, as formerly, to the entertainment within. 96. To be snatched, &c.] i. e. Eagerly received by the hungry poor clients, who crowded about the door. The gowned crowd.] The common sort of people were called turba togata, from the gowns they wore, by which they were distinguished from the higher sort. See note before on 1. 3. 97. But he.] i. e. The person who distributes the dole. -First inspects the face.] That he may be certain of the person he gives to. -And trembles.] At the apprehension of being severely reproved by his master, the great man, if he should make a mistake, by giving people who assume a false name, and pretend themselves to be clients when they are not. 99. Acknowledged, &c.] Agnitus-owned-acknowledged, as one for whom the dole is provided. Perhaps, in better days, when the clients and dependents of great men were invited to partake of an entertainment within doors, there was a sportula, or dole-basket, which was distributed, at large, to the poor, at the doors of great men's houses.-Now times were altered; no invitation of clients to feast within doors, and no distribution of doles, to the poor at large, without-none now got any thing here, but the excluded clients, and what they got was distributed with the utmost caution, l. 97, 8. He commands to be called.] i. e. Summoned-called together. The poet is now about to inveigh against the meanness of many of the nobles and magistrates of Rome, who could suffer themselves to be summoned, by the common crier, in order to share in the distribution of the dole-baskets. 100. The very descendents of the Trojans.] Ipsos Trojugenas→→→→ from Troja-or Trojanus-and gigno.-The very people, says he, who boast of their descent from Æneas, and the ancient Trojans, who first came to settle in Italy; even these are so degenerate, as to Nobiscum: da Prætori, da deinde Tribuno. Conductas Corvinus oves? Ego possideo plus 105 come and scramble, as it were, among the poor, for a part of the sportula. The word ipsos makes the sarcasm the stronger. 100. Molest the threshold.] Crowd about it, and are very troublesome. So HOR. lib. i. sat. viii. l. 18.-hunc vexare locum. 101. With us.] Avec nous autres-as the French say. ? Give to the Prætor,] In Juvenal's time this was a title of a chief magistrate, something like the lord-mayor of London-He was called Prætor Urbanus, and had power to judge matters of law between citizen and citizen. This seems to be the officer here meant -but for a further account of the Prætor, see AINSW.-Prætor. 101. The Tribune.] A chief officer in Rome.-The tribunes, at their first institution, were two, afterwards came to be ten-they were keepers of the liberties of the people, against the encroachments of the senate. They were called tribunes, because at first set over the three tribes of the people. See AINSW.-Tribunus— and Tribus. Juvenal satirically represents some of the chief magistrates and officers of the city, as bawling out to be first served out of the sportula. 102. The libertine.] An enfranchised slave. There were many of these in Rome, who were very rich, and very insolent; of one of these we have an example here. Is first, &c.]" Hold," says this upstart, "a freedman, rich as "I am, is before the prætor; besides I came first, and I'll be first "served." 103. Why should I fear, &c.] i. e. I'm neither afraid nor ashamed to challenge the first place.-I'll not give it up to any body. 103-4. Altho' born at the Euphrates.] He owns that he was born of servile condition, and came from a part of the world from whence many were sold as slaves. The river Euphrates took its rise in Armenia, and ran through the city of Babylon, which it divided in the midst. 104. The soft holes, &c.] The ears of all slaves in the East were bored, as a mark of their servitude. They wore bits of gold by way of ear-rings; which custom is still in the East Indies, and in other parts, even for whole nations; who bore prodigious holes in their cars, and wear vast weights at them. DRYDEN. PLIN. lib. xi. c. 37. The epithet molles may, perhaps, intimate, that this custom was looked upon at Rome (as among us) as a mark of effeminacy. Or Together with us: "Give to the Prætor-then give to the "Tribune," But the libertine is first: I the first, says he, am here present. Procure 400 (sestertia), what does the purple confer more 105 Than Pallas and the Licini: let the Tribunes, therefore, wait. the poet, by Hypallage, says-Molles in aure fenestræ-for-fenestræ in molli aure. 105. Five houses.] Tabernæ here may be understood to mean shops or warehouses, which were in the forum, or market place, and which, by reason of their situation, were let to merchants and traders at a great rent. 106. Procure 400.] In reckoning by sesterces, the Romans had an art which may be understood by these three rules: First: If a numeral noun agree in number, case, and gender, TF with sestertius, then it denotes so many sestertii-as decem sestertii. Secondly: If a numeral noun of another case be joined with the genitive plural of sestertius it denotes so many thousand, as decem sestertium signifies 10,000 sestertii. Thirdly: If the adverb numeral be joined, it denotes so many 100,000: as decies sestertiûm signifies ten hundred thousand sestertii. Or if the numeral adverb be put by itself, the signification is the same: decies or vigesies stand for so many 100,000 sestertii, or, as they say, so many hundred sestertia. The sestertium contained a thousand sestertii, and amounted to about 177. 16s. 3d, of onr money. KENNETT, Ant. 374, 5. After 400-quadringenta-sestertia must be understood, according to the third rule above. The freedman brags, that the rents of his houses brought him in 400 sestertia, which was a knight's estate. What does the purple, &c.] The robes of the nobility and magistrates were decorated with purple. He means, that, though he can't deny that he was born a slave, and came to Rome as such, (and if he were to deny it, the holes in his ears would prove it,) yet, he was now a free citizen of Rome, possessed of a larger private fortune than the prætor or the tribune.-What can even a patrician wish for more? Indeed, "when I see a nobleman reduced to keep sheep for his livelihood, I can't perceive any great "advantage he derives from his nobility; what can it, at best, con"fer, beyond what I possess?" 107. Corvinus.] One of the noble family of the Corvini, but so reduced, that he was obliged to keep sheep, as an hired shepherd, near Laurentum, in his own native country. Laurentum is a city of Italy, now called Santo Lorenzo. 109. Pallas.] A freedman of Claudius. |