trafficker in stinking wares, finding your joy in importing sweet wine from the shores of ancient Crete, or flagons that were fellow-citizens of Jove?1 Yet the man who plants his steps with balanced foot gains his livelihood thereby; that rope keeps him from cold and hunger; while you run the risk for the sake of a thousand talents or a hundred mansions. Look at our ports, our seas, crowded with big ships! The men at sea now outnumber those on shore. Whithersoever hope of gain shall call, thither fleets will come; not content with bounding over the Carpathian and Gaetulian seas, they will leave Calpe far behind, and hear the sun hissing in the Herculean main. It is well worth while, no doubt, to have beheld the monsters of the deep and the young mermen of the Ocean that you may return home with tight-stuffed purse, and exult in your swollen money-bags! 284 Not all men are possessed with one form of madness. One madman in his sister's arms is terrified by the faces and fire of the Furies; another,1 when he strikes down an ox, believes that it is Agamemnon or the Ithacan ' that is bellowing. The man who loads his ship up to the gunwale with goods, with only a plank between him and the deep, is in need of a keeper, though he keep his hands off his shirt and his cloak, seeing that he endures all that misery and all that danger for the sake of bits of silver cut up into little images and inscriptions! Should clouds and thunder threaten, "Let go!" cries the merchant who has bought up corn or pepper, "that black sky, this dark wrack, are nought-it is 4 i.e. Ajax, who went mad, slaughtering a flock of sheep in the belief that he was slaying Agamemnon and Ulysses. 5 Ulysses. aestivum tonat." infelix hac forsitan ipsa 295 nocte cadet fractis trabibus fluctuque premetur Tantis parta malis cura maiore metuque servantur: misera est magni custodia census. dispositis praedives amis vigilare cohortem. servorum noctu Licinus iubet, attonitus pro electro signisque suis Phrygiaque columna atque ebore et lata testudine. dolia nudi non ardent cynici; si fregeris, altera fiet cras domus, atque eadem plumbo commissa mane 300 305 bit. 310 sensit Alexander, testa cum vidit in illa magnum habitatorem, quanto felicior hic qui nil cuperet quam qui totum sibi posceret orbem 315 Mensura tamen quae sufficiat census, siquis me consulat, edam : 320 1 The sentence nullum-deam is repeated from x. 365, quite irrelevantly. 1 The gold-bearing river of Lydia. 2 Diogenes. but summer lightning." Poor wretch! on this very night perchance he will be cast out amid broken timbers and engulfed by the waves, clutching his purse with his left hand or his teeth. The man for whose desires yesterday not all the gold which Tagus and the ruddy Pactolus1 rolls along would have sufficed, must now content himself with a rag to cover his cold and nakedness, and a poor morsel of food, while he begs for pennies as a shipwrecked mariner, and supports himself by a painted storm! 303 Wealth gotten with such woes is preserved by fears and troubles that are greater still; it is misery to have the guardianship of a great fortune. The millionaire Licinus orders a troop of slaves to be on the watch all night with fire buckets in their places, being anxious for his amber, his statues and Phrygian marbles, his ivory and plaques of tortoise-shell. The nude Cynic 2 fears no fire for his tub; if broken, he will make himself a new house to-morrow, or repair it with clamps of lead. When Alexander beheld in that tub its mighty occupant, he felt how much happier was the man who had no desires than he who claimed for himself the entire world, with perils before him as great as his achievements. Had we but wisdom, thou wouldst have no Divinity, O Fortune it is we that make thee into a Goddess! 816 Yet if any should ask of me what measure of fortune is enough, I will tell him: as much as thirst, cold and hunger demand; as much as sufficed you, Epicurus, in your little garden; as much as in earlier days was to be found in the house of Socrates. Never does Nature say one thing and Wisdom another. Do the limits within which I confine you seem too severe ? Then throw in something from our own manners; bis septem ordinibus quam lex dignatur Othonis. haec quoque si rugam trahit extenditque label lum, sume duos equites, fac tertia quadringenta 325 si nondum inplevi gremium, si panditur ultra, nec Croesi fortuna umquam nec Persica regna 330 SATVRA XV QUIS nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens Aegyptos portenta colat? crocodilon adorat pars haec, illa pavet saturam serpentibus ibin; effigies sacri nitet aurea cercopitheci, dimidio magicae resonant ubi Memnone chordae atque vetus Thebe centum iacet obruta portis. illic aeluros,1 hic piscem fluminis, illic 5 oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam. porrum et caepe nefas violare et frangere morsu ; o sanctas gentes quibus haec nascuntur in hortis 10 numina lanatis animalibus abstinet omnis mensa, nefas illic fetum iugulare capellae : carnibus humanis vesci licet. attonito cum 1 aeluros Brod.: illic caeruleos v. 1 See note on iii. 155. 2 The most powerful and wealthiest of Claudius' freedmen. 3 For the part played by Narcissus in securing the punish. ment of Messalina, see Tac. Ann. xi. 33-37. make up a sum as big as that which Otho's law 1 deems worthy of the fourteen rows. If that also knits your brow, and makes you thrust out your lip, take a couple of knights, or make up thrice four hundred thousand sesterces! If your lap is not yet full, if it is still opening for more, then neither the wealth of Croesus, nor that of the Persian Monarchs, will suffice you, nor yet that of Narcissus,2 on whom Claudius Caesar lavished everything, and whose orders he obeyed when bidden to slay his wife.3 SATIRE XV AN EGYPTIAN ATROCITY 4 WHO knows not, O Bithynian Volusius, what monsters demented Egypt worships? One district adores the crocodile, another venerates the Ibis that gorges itself with snakes. In the place where magic chords are sounded by the truncated Memnon, and ancient hundred-gated Thebes lies in ruins, men worship the glittering golden image of the long-tailed ape. In one part cats are worshipped, in another a river fish, in another whole townships venerate a dog; none adore Diana, but it is an impious outrage to crunch leeks and onions with the teeth. What a holy race to have such divinities springing up in their gardens! No animal that grows wool may appear upon the dinner-table; it is forbidden there to slay the young of the goat; but it is lawful to feed on the flesh of man! When 4 The famous statue of Memnon at Thebes, which emitted musical sounds at daybreak. |