"Within whose slender rim, the fish, dread Sire! May spread its vast circumference entire. "Bring, bring the temper'd clay, and let it feel "The quick gyrations of the plastic wheel; "But Cæsar, thus fore-warn'd, have special care, "And bid your potters follow you to war." He spoke a murmur through the assembly ran, Applausive of the speech, so worthy of the man. Vers'd in the old court-luxury, he knew The feats of Nero, and his midnight crew; And how, when potent draughts had fir'd the brain, The jaded taste was spurr'd to gorge again. case for one of an adequate size; but none could be found: nor would the potters undertake to make such a one. In this distress, the emperor applied to the silver-smiths, who succeeded to his wishes. In honour of the achievement, the dish was afterwards preserved as a sacred deposit, ώσπερ τι αναθημα! Adrian had the good sense to melt it down. VER. 201. Vers'd in the old court-luxury, &c.] This is well explained by Suetonius in his life of Nero. (§. 27.) Paulatim vero invalescentibus vitiis, nullaque dissimulandi cura, ad majora palam erupit. Epulas a medio die ad mediam noctem protrahebat; refotus sæpius calidis piscinis, ac tempore æstivo nivatis. This accounts very naturally for the unwieldy paunch of Montanus, and for the part he has just taken in the debate which, as Juvenal properly observes, was so worthy of him. Holyday justly remarks, on the following lines, that the "wanton luxury of the Romans may be discerned by the variety of their oysters, which were brought from every sea." Those from Rutupia (or the coast of Kent) were highly valued at Rome for their sweetness (dulcitudo); but there are several others mentioned in our author, Circæan, Gauran, Lucrine, &c. all distinguished for their peculiar excellencies. And, in our days, none understood so well And from a crab, or lobster's colour, name Or the fierce Catti threaten'd new alarms; VER. 217. As if ill news, by flying posts, &c.] Flying posts,-in the original præcipiti pennâ; which has been variously interpreted. Britannicus thinks it alludes to the ancient custom of sending intelligence by pigeons, of which there are numerous instances in history. This is not very probable. Holyday understands the words metaphorically, for a "letter of ill news, which is usually swift-winged." The scholiast explains them literally. Antea si quid nuntiabant Consules in urbe, per epistolas nuntiabant. Si victoria nuntiabatur, laurus in epistolâ figebatur; si aliquid adversi, penna. The former observation is certainly just; if the latter be so, which I doubt, we need look no farther for the mean. ing of Juvenal: at any rate, the translation is sufficiently correct. In which he daily drain'd, by none withstood, They seized the murderer, wet with Lamian gore, VER. 225. They seized the murderer, wet with Lamian gore,] The Lamian family, says Holyday, was most noble, being sprung from kings which, by the testimony of Homer, reigned at Cajeta. Of this family was Ælius Lamia, whose wife Domitian took away, and afterwards put Lamia himself to death. Beaumont and Fletcher have imitated, or rather translated, the concluding lines thus, "Princes may pick their suffering nobles out, The indignant sarcasm on the tameness of the nobility, who suffered themselves to be butchered by this detestable tyrant, without resistance, does honour to the invincible spirit of our author. He himself was one of the herd, the cerdones, and I have not a doubt, but that the exultation with which he mentions their prompt and decisive vengeance, was intended to convey a salutary, but an awful lesson to both parties-to the oppressors, and the oppressed. SATIRE V. Argument. IN this excellent Satire, Juvenal takes occasion, under pretence of advising one Trebius to abstain from the table of Virro, a man of rank and fortune, to give a spirited detail of the mortifications to which the poor were subjected by the rich, at those entertainments to which, on account of the political connection subsisting between patrons and clients, it was sometimes thought necessary to invite them. A strain of manly indignation pervades the whole :-nor has it so much exaggeration as some of the commentators have perceived in it since there is scarcely a single trait of insult and indignity here mentioned, which is not to be found animadverted upon, with more or less severity, in the writers of that age. One of Pliny's letters (lib. ii. 6.) is expressly on this subject; and as a better illustration of the Satire before us, cannot possibly be desired, I subjoin a pretty long extract from it, "Longum est altius repetere, &c. I supped lately with a person with whom I am by no means intimate, who in his own opinion treated us with much splendid frugality; but according to mine, in a sordid, yet expensive manner. Some very elegant dishes were served up to himself and a few more of us; while those which were placed before the rest of the company, were extremely cheap and mean. There were in small bottles, three different sorts of wine; not that the guests might take their choice, but that they might not have an option in their power. The best was for himself and his friends of the first rank; the next for those of a lower order; and the third for his own and his guests' freed-men. One who sat near me took notice of this circumstance, and asked me how I approved of it? Not at all I replied. Pray then, said he, what is your method on such occasions? When I make an invitation, I replied, all are served alike: I invite them with a design to entertain, not to affront them; and those I think worthy of a place at my table, I certainly think worthy of every thing it affords." |