deterior tamen hic qui liber non erit illis, quorum animas et farre suo custodit et aere. "Utile consilium modo, sed commune, dedisti. nunc mihi quid suades post damnum temporis et spes deceptas? festinat enim decurrere velox flosculus angustae miseraeque brevissima vitae portio; dum bibimus, dum serta unguenta puellas poscimus, obrepit non intellecta senectus.' 125 Ne trepida, numquam pathicus tibi derit amicus 130 stantibus et salvis his collibus: undique ad illos convenient et carpentis et navibus omnes qui digito scalpunt uno caput. altera maior spes superest; tu tantum erucis inprime dentem.1 [gratus eris; tu tantum erucis inprime dentem.] 134A "Haec exempla para felicibus. at mea Clotho 135 et Lachesis gaudent, si pascitur inguine venter. o parvi nostrique Lares, quos ture minuto aut farre et tenui soleo exorare corona, 140 quando ego figam aliquid, quo sit mihi tuta senectus a tegete et baculo? viginti milia faenus pigneribus positis, argenti vascula puri, sed quae Fabricius censor notet, et duo fortes de grege Moesorum, qui me cervice locata securum iubeant clamoso insistere circo; sit mihi praeterea curvus caelator, et alter qui multas facies pingit cito; sufficiunt haec, quando ego pauper ero; votum miserabile, nec spes 145 1 After line 134 P has the line bracketed above, being mainly a repetition of that line. Housman conjectures an omission of five words, and reads the lines thus: altera maior spes superest; turbae, properat quae crescere, molli is the worst part of a bad slave; and yet worse still is the plight of a man who cannot escape from the talk of those whom he supports with his own bread and money. 124 Your advice is excellent, but it is vague. What do you advise me to do now, after all my lost time and disappointed hopes? for the short span of our poor unhappy life is hurrying swiftly on, like a flower, to its close: while we drink, and call for chaplets, for unguents, and for maidens, old age is creeping on us unperceived." 130 Be not afraid; so long as these seven hills of ours stand fast, pathic friends will never fail you: from every quarter, in carriages and in ships, those gentry who scratch their heads with one finger will flock in. And you have always a further and better ground of hope-if you fit your diet to your trade. 135 Such maxims are for the fortunate; my Clotho and Lachesis are well pleased if I can fill my belly with my labours. O my own little Lares, whom I am wont to supplicate with a pinch of frankincense or corn, or with a tiny garland, when can I assure myself of what will keep my old days from the beggar's staff and mat? Twenty thousand sesterces, well secured; some vessels of plain silver-yet such as Censor Fabricius would have condemned-and a couple of stout Moesian porters on whose hired necks I may be taken comfortably to my place in the bawling circus. Let me have besides a stooping engraver, and a painter who will quickly dash off any number of likenesses. Enough this for a poor man like me. It is a pitiful prayer, and I have little hope even of that; his saltem; nam cum pro me Fortuna vocatur, adfixit ceras illa de nave petitas, quae Siculos cantus effugit remige surdo." 150 SATVRA X OMNIBUS in terris, quae sunt a Gadibus usque Auroram et Gangen, pauci dinoscere possunt vera bona atque illis multum diversa, remota erroris nebula. quid enim ratione timemus aut cupimus? quid tam dextro pede concipis, ut te 5 conatus non paeniteat votique peracti? evertere domos totas optantibus ipsis di faciles. nocitura toga, nocitura petuntur militia; torrens dicendi copia multis et sua mortifera est facundia, viribus ille 10 15 1 Ulysses stuffed the ears of his followers with wax to prevent them hearing the voices of the Sirens (Od. xii. 39 foll.). for whenever Fortune is supplicated on my behalf, she plugs her ears with wax fetched from that selfsame ship which escaped from the Sicilian songstresses through the deafness of her crew."1 SATIRE X THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES IN all the lands that stretch from Gades to the Ganges and the Morn, there are but few who can distinguish true blessings from their opposites, putting aside the mists of error. For when does Reason direct our desires or our fears? What project do we form so auspiciously that we do not repent us of our effort and of the granted wish? Whole households have been destroyed by the compliant Gods in answer to the masters' prayers; in camp and city alike we ask for things that will be our ruin. Many a man has met death from the rushing flood of his own eloquence; others from the strength and wondrous thews in which they have trusted. More still have been ruined by money too carefully amassed, and by fortunes that surpass all patrimonies by as much as the British whale exceeds the dolphin. It was for this that in the dire days Nero ordered Longinus 2 and the great gardens of the over-wealthy Seneca 3 to be put under siege; for this was it that the noble Palace of the Laterani 4 was beset by an entire cohort; it is but seldom that soldiers find their way into a garret! 2 A famous lawyer banished by Nero, 3 Forced by Nero to commit suicide. 3 4 Plautius Lateranus was put to death by Nero for joining in Piso's conspiracy, A.D. 63. pauca licet portes argenti vascula puri nocte iter ingressus, gladium contumque timebis 20 et motae ad lunam trepidabis harundinis umbram: cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator. Prima fere vota et cunctis notissima templis da nunc et volucrem, sceptro quae surgit eburno, 25 30 35 40 45 1 Democritus of Abdera. 2 Heraclitus of Ephesus. 3 The tunica palmata, embroidered with palm, and the |