Omnia cùm faciant, hilares nitidique vocantur. Sed nunc dilatis averte negotia curis, 170 175 180 172. Conditor Iliados cantabitur] Auctor Iliados (sc. Homerus) recitabitur.- Maronis] Virgilii. 173. Dubiam facientia palmam] i. e. Virgilii versus faciunt ut quis meritò dubitet, utri palma sit attribuenda, Homero an Virgilio. L. 174. Quid refert, &c.] Not to be too strictly understood, as if good poetry could never be spoilt by bad reading. Juvenal merely means to apologize for the rusticity of his little Anagnostes. See on Sat. vii. 104. 175. Dilatis] Dimissis. 177. Fanoris] Of money-matters. M. 179, Tacito] As not daring to express his anger, or his suspicions.- Contrahat] Excitet, commoveat. 180. Dolet] Vexat te. R. 181. Pone Abjice animo, obliviscere. P. 182. Perit] A word well chosen to signify any mysterious disappearance of articles, or unaccountable consumption in the household.-Sodales] Amicos. 183. Megalesiaca mappa] At the Megalesian games, they hung out a towel to show that the sports were going to begin. Nero introduced this custom; for hearing, as he sat at dinner, how impatiently the people expected his coming, he threw out at the window the towel with which he wiped his hands, to give the people notice that he had dined, and would soon be at the circus. -The Megalesian games were in honor of Cybele, the mother of the gods. She was called μeyaλŋ MŋTMnp, magna Mater, and from thence these games Megalesia, or ludi Megalenses; they began on the fourth of April, and lasted six days. M. 184. Idæum solenne] The worship of Cybele was imported from Prædo caballorum, Prætor sedet: ac, mihi pace Totam hodiè Romam Circus capit; et fragor aurem 185 190 Mount Ida in Phrygia. See on Sat. iii. 119.-Colunt] Celebrant. P. Similisque triumpho] Similis triumphanti. Vide Sat. x. 36. 185. Prado caballorum] The Prætor is so called, either because he collected horses for the public games by forcible means, or selected the finest horses in the circus for his own use, compelling the owners to resign them at a trifling price; or because, by his unfair decisions, he sometimes defrauded the winning horses of the prize. Others read Prada caballorum, i. e. one who wastes his substance on horses.-Pace] By the leave: i. e. without offence at my lashing them now and then, for their extravagant attachment to the games :—or, if the immense and overgrown extent of our population will allow such an hyperbole, as to say that the circus (vast as it is) contains them all. 187. Totam Romam] Gibbon (as quoted by Mr. Gifford) supplies the following animated picture, illustrative of the passage before us: "The impatient crowd rushed at the dawn of day to secure their places; and there were many who passed a sleepless and anxious night in the adjoining porticos. From the morning to the evening, careless of the sun or of the rain, the spectators (who sometimes amounted to the number of 100,000) remained in eager attention, their eyes fixed on the charioteers, their minds agitated with hope and fear for the success of the colour which they favoured and the happiness of Rome appeared to hang on the event of a race."-Fragor] Acclamatio et plausus spectantium. R. 188. Eventum] Successum, victoriam. P.-Viridis panni] The colour of the favourite charioteer. See on Sat. vii. 114. : 189. Si deficeret] Si vinceretur. R. 193. Contracta] Rugosa._ P. 194. Effugiatque togam] Exuat et deponat togam. B.-See on Sat. iii. 154.-Salvá Fronte] i. e. without blushing. The Romans considered it discreditable to bathe before the afternoon; but as all Rome was now engaged in the circus, and the streets were clear, Juvenal and his friend might venture to indulge themselves in the luxury of an early bath. See on Sat. i. 41. and iv. 106. 195 Fronte, licet vadas, quanquam solida hora supersit 195. Solida hora] Hora integra. P. 198. Voluptates commendat rarior usus] How beautifully is this thought illustrated by Shakspeare! All violent delights have violent ends, And in their triumphs die; the sweetest honey And in the taste, confounds the appetite. G. SATIRA XII. ARGUMENT. This satire may be divided into four parts.-I. Juvenal acquaints Corvinus with the sacrifice which he is about to offer up as a thanksgiving for the safety of their mutual friend Catullus. -II. He describes the danger and escape of Catullus. III. He briefly resumes the description of the sacrifice.-IV. He concludes by professing his disinterestedness on the occasion; and takes this opportunity of lashing Legacy-hunters, and exposing the servile court which they paid to the rich and childless. This satire (as Owen observes) has little merit, except in its spirited conclusion. The warmest admirer of the author must allow that he either was very lazy, or had no talent for the descriptive or pathetic parts of poetry. AD CORVINUM. I. NATALI, Corvine, die mihi dulcior hæc lux, 1. Hæc lux] Hic dies. 2. Cespes] Ara è cespite. 3. Regina] Junoni, reginæ cœli. 5 4. Par vellus] Similis agna nivea. L-Pugnanti Gorgone Maura] i. e. Minerva, fighting with her agis, which bears the head of the Gorgon, a monster which the poets feign to have inhabited some part of Africa, and to have been killed either by Perseus or by Minerva herself. 5. Funem] Quo ad aram ducitur. 6. Tarpeio Jovi] Whose temple was in the Capitol, on the Tarpeian rock. Spargendusque mero, quem jam pudet ubera matris Si res ampla domi, similisque affectibus esset, Il. Nam, præter pelagi casus, et fulguris ictum 10 15 20 8. Spargendusque mero] Wine was always poured on the heads of the victims. 10. Res domi] Res familiaris, ut in Sat. iii. 147.—Similisque affectibus] Equal to my affection for Catullus. 11. Hispullá] Some woman of remarkable corpulence in the poet's time. 13. Clitumni] A river of Umbria, the pastures on whose banks are celebrated by Virgil: Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus Victima, sæpe tuo perfusi flumine sacro, Romanos ad templa Deûm duxere triumphos. Georg. ii. 146. 14. Iret] Manaret, efflueret.-His blood should flow, showing (by its richness) the luxuriance of the pasture.-Grandi ministro] The sturdy priest or sacrificer.-From the awkwardness and inaccuracy of expression in the passage, Ruperti would expunge this line as spurious; and then, in the preceding line, instead of sanguis, would read sacri. 17. Et] Also, moreover. 18. Evasit] This reading is of Ms. authority, and is approved by Pithæus, Owen, and Ruperti.-The common reading, evasi, is from a supposed passive participle, evasus; for which no classic authority has been produced. O. 19. Ignis] A flash of lightning.-Those who retain the common reading in the preceding line, explain ignis of that milder form of the electric fluid, which sometimes plays on the masts and sail-yards, called by the sailors Castor and Pollux, and by the French le feu St. Elme. 21. Conferri] Comparari; h. e. incendium multo terribilius 'esse naufragio. R. |