Si vis esse aliquis: PROBITAS Laudatur, et alget. 74. If you would be somebody.] i. e. If you would make yourself taken notice of, as a person of consequence, at Rome. A severe reflection on certain favourites of the emperor, who, by being informers, and by other scandalous actions, had enriched themselves. -Probity is praised, &c.] This seems a proverbial saying, and applies to what goes before, as well as to what follows, wherein the poet is shewing, that vice was, in those days, the only way to riches and honours. Honesty and innocence will be commended, but those who possess them be left to starve. 75. Gardens.] i. e. Pleasant and beautiful retreats, where they had gardens of great taste and expence. -Palaces.] The word prætoria denotes noblemen's seats in the country, as well as the palaces of great men in the city. Tables.] Made of ivory, marble, and other expensive materials. 76. Old silver.] Ancient plate-very valuable on account of the workmanship. -A goat standing, &c.] The figure of a goat in curious bas relief-which animal, as sacred to Bacchus, was very usually expressed on drinking cups. 77. Whom.] i. e. Which of the poets, or writers of satire, can be at rest from writing, or withhold his satiric rage? -The corrupter.] i. e. The father, who takes advantage of the love of money in his son's wife, to debauch her. 75 80 85 78. Base spouses.] Lewd and adulterous wives. -The noble young adulterer.] Præ. textatus, i. e. the youth, not having laid aside the prætextata, or gown worn by boys, sons of the nobility, till seventeen years of age-yet, in this early period of life, initiated into the practice of adultery. 79. Indignation makes verse.] Forces one to write, however naturally without talents for it. 80. Such as I, or Cluvienus.] i. e. Make or write. The poet names himself with Cluvienus, (some bad poet of his time,) that he might the more freely satirize him, which he at the same time does, the more severely, by the compari If you would be somebody. PROBITY IS PRAISED AND STARVES WITH COLD. To crimes they owe gardens, palaces, tables, 75 Old silver, and a goat standing on the outside of cups. Whom base spouses, and the noble young adulterer? Such as it can: such as I, or Cluvienus. 80 85 From the time that Deucalion (the showers lifting up the sea) calion, and his wife Pyrrha, resolving to go to the temple of the goddess Themis, to inquire in what manner mankind should be restored. - placuit cæleste præcari Numen, et auxilium per sacras quærere sortes. And 1. 381. Mota Dea est, sortemque dedit. Again, 1. 389. Verba datæ sortis. To this Juvenal alludes in this line; wherein sortes may be rendered, oracular answers, 83. The soft stones, &c.] When Deucalion and Pyrrha, having consulted the oracle how mankind might be repaired, were answered, that this would be done by their casting the bones of their great mother behind their backs, they picked stones from off the earth, and cast them behind their backs, and they became men and women. Jussos lapides sua post vestigia mittunt : Ponere duritiem capere, suumque rigo rem, Mollirique mora, mollitaque ducere for- Hence Juvenal says, mollia saxa. sent out of the ark. 86. The composition, &c.] Farrago signifies a mixture, an hodge-podge, 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 Ad casum tabulæ, positâ sed luditur arcâ. 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 some times signifies, laying a wager, putting down as a stake. See an example of this sense, from Plautus, ArNsw. pono, No. 5. 91. How many battles, &c.] i. c. How many attacks on one another at play. The steward.] Dispensator signi. fies 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 preceding line. There gaming is compared to fighting; here he humourously calls the steward the armour-bearer, as supplying his master with money, a necessary wea pon at a gaming-table, to stake at play, instead of keeping and dispensing it, or laying it out for the usual and honest expences 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 90 95 100 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 l. 106. n. 93. And not give a cont, &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 expence. The poet having inveighed against their squandering at the gamingtable, 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 certaintimes, to make an handsome and splen. did 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 pannier, made of a kind of broom called sportum. KEN. NET, Antiq. p. 875. 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 were no longer invited, as formerly, to the entertainment within. To the chance of the table, but a chest being put down is played for. How many battles will you see there, the steward 90 Who has erected so many villas? What ancestor on seven dishes Has supped in secret? Now a little basket at the first 95 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 descendants of the Trojans: for even they molest the threshold 100 Together with us: "Give to the Prætor-then give to the "Tribune." -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. VOL. 1. -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 descendants of the Trojans.] Ipsos Trojugenas; from Troja, or Trojanus, and gigno. The very peo. ple, 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 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 Hon. lib. i. sat. viii. I. 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 rere 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 in Sed libertinus prior est: prior, inquit, ego adsum: stitution, 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 in solent; 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 am neither afraid nor ashamed to challenge the first place. I will not give it up to any body. 103 4. Although born at the Euphratcs.] 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 105 110 115 other parts, even for whole nations; who bore prodigious holes in their ears, 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 the poet, by Hypallage, says, Molles in aure fenestræ, for, fene. stræ in molli aure. 105. Five houses.] Taberuæ 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, 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 sestertiûm signifies 10,000 sestertii. Thirdly: If the adverb numeral be joined, it denotes so many 100,000: as decies sestertium 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 |