SATIRE IV. V. 18. AGAIN Crispinus comes! and yet again, And oft, shall he be summon'd to sustain He tires his mules? through what extensive glades VER. 1. Again Crispinus comes ! &c.] Crispinus has been already noticed in the notes to the first Satire. All that need be added of him here is, that he continued in great favour during the whole reign of Domitian, and amassed immense riches; which he squandered in the gratification of the most vicious passions. I am by no means satisfied with the usual explanations of the sixth line: " Ostendit illum jucundiora tantum sectari adulteria, nam qui viduas sequebantur, id lucri gratia faciebant." I rather think the author means to insinuate that Crispinus would not indulge his lust, unless he could add to it a crime of some peculiar heinousness. To corrupt virgin innocence, to invade the sanctity of the marriage bed, was his delight: intrigues with widows, therefore, had too little turpitude in them to gratify his singular de pravity. His chair is born? what vast estates he buys, His, who deflower'd a Vestal; whom, dire fate, The VER. 9. -what vast estates &c.] The situation of this property (" near the Forum") is not mentioned without reason. Forum of Augustus, which is here meant, was the most frequented part of Rome; (Sat. I. 192;) a vast estate therefore in the vicinity, must have cost a prodigious sum, and its purchase is well calculated to show the overgrown wealth of this odious upstart. Indeed, it is not improbable (for Juvenal's satire frequently extends beyond the apparent point) that we have here a covert allusion to the presumption of Crispinus, in following the example of the Cæsars, whose palace and gardens, which also consisted of many acres, (tot jugera,) were in the neighbourhood of the Forum. VER. 13. His, who deflower'd a Vestal; &c.] If a Vestal violated her vow of chastity, she was interred alive. The solemnity is thus described by Plutarch. At the Colline Gate, within the city, in a subterraneous cavern, there were first placed a bed, a lamp, a pitcher of water, and a loaf. The offender was then bound alive upon a bier, and carried through the Forum with great silence and horrour. When they reached the place of interment, the bier was set down, and the poor wretch unbound; a ladder was then brought, by which she descended into the excavation, when, upon a signal given, the ladder was suddenly withdrawn, and the mouth of the opening completely filled up with stones, earth, &c. It is doubtful, whether the Vestal debauched by Crispinus really underwent this punishment. Juvenal's words do not necessarily imply so much; the participle involving the moral fitness of the future event, and not exclusively the certainty of its accomplishment: terram subitura, i. e. who ought to be buried alive. For the rest, the severity exercised by Domitian against the Vestals was so dreadful, (whether their guilt was proved or not,). that one of the Pontifices, Elvius Agrippa, is related to have expired through the terrour of it. The word incest used by Juvenal, is applied to the same act by Suetonius and Piiny; and is, say the criticks, the appropriate term for cohabitation with a Vestal. This, however, is a mistake, Turn we to slighter vices :-yet had these, In others, Seius, Titius, whom you please, The Censor roused; for what the good would shame, But, when the actor's person far exceeds, it is an improper term: but such was the respect for religion, that they transferred to it a word which was only appropriate in other acceptations; and the violator of a Vestal virgin was placed upon a par, in criminality, with the violator of all natural decorum. VER. 16. Seius, Titius,] "It does not appear," says Madan, "who these were; but probably they were some valuable men who had been persecuted by the Emperour for a supposed crime.' These "valuable men" had, indeed, been persecuted for many a supposed crime; but, to give every one is due, not by the Emperour. It is surprising the translator should not know that they were men of straw, £ctitious personages, like our John Doe and, Richard Roe, and, like thein, inserted into all law-processes. Thus Plutarch, to quote no other, τοις δε ονομασι τετοις άλλως κεχρηνται κοινοίς εσιν, ὥσπερ οι νομικος Γαϊον, Σγιον, και Τίτιον. Rom. 30. Quæst. VER. 23. For a sur-mullet! as they tell, &c.] There is some awkwardness here. It is of importance to the subject, that the extravagance of Crispinus should be as strongly marked as possible: all doubts, therefore, respecting the authenticity of the fact, are equally impertinent and injudicious. Facit indignatio versus should have been the motto of this satire: for this passion, while it invigorates the fancy, corrupts the judgment, and there are more instances of defective taste to be found in it, than in many of the longer pieces. Mullus is rendered sur-mullet, and I believe properly. Barbel, the common translation, is a coarse fish, and could never be worth any thing. Mullet is still more incorrect: the proper word for that, being mugilis. There is something extremely whimsical in the conduct of the Romans respecting their tables; sar-mullets, his Had this expense been meant, with well-timed as it appears from the elder Pliny, were exceedingly plentiful, and consequently cheap; but then, they seldom weighed above two pounds. In proportion as they exceeded this, they grew valuable, till at last they reached the sum mentioned in the text, (about £50.) and even went beyond it. One would think that nature had fallen in with the caprice of the Romans, for the fish seems to have grown larger in the decline of the empire, as if to humour the extravagance of this degenerate people. Horace thought he had pretty well stigmatized the frantick folly of his glutton, by a mullus of three pounds weight, (Lib. ii. Sat. 2.) the next reign furnished one of four and a half;* here we have one of six pounds, and we read elsewhere of others larger still! How long the passion for these enormous fish continued, I do not know; but Macrobius, speaking with indignation of one that was purchased under Claudius, by Asinius Celer, for a greater sum than any we have mentioned, (£56. 10s.) adds, that in his time such mad prices were happily unknown: pretia hæc insana nescimus. VER. 28. — a close and well-glass'd chair;]—clauso latis specularibus antro: A close chair with wide windows is a singular expression; it is one of those, however, in which Juvenal delights. His meaning is not very obvious: perhaps, (for I can think of nothing better,) he might intend to satirize the affected modesty * The story is in Seneca ; it is curious, and as it seems to illus trate a passage in our author, I think it worth subjoining. Some one had presented Tiberius with a mullus (why should I not mention its weight, to make our gluttons' mouths water?) of four pounds and a half! The Emperour ordered it to be carried to mar ket, observing, at the same time, to his friends, that he should not be much surprised if it were bought either by P. Octavius or Apicius. His expectations were more than fulfilled, for these two gluttons bade one upon another for it. The victory fell at length to Octavius, who aequired a prodigious reputation among his acquaintance, for giving £40. for a fish which the Emperour sold, and which Apicius could not afford to buy! To this last circumstance Juvenal probably alludes, in v. 32. |