erubuit +nempe haec+ ceu fastidita repulso
nec Stheneboea minus quam Cressa excanduit, et se
concussere ambae. mulier saeuissima tunc est
cum stimulos odio pudor admouet.
[310] Go to now, you that revel in your son’s beauty; think of the deadly perils that lie before him. He will become a promiscuous gallant, and have to fear all the vengeance due to outraged husbands; no luckier than Mars, he will not fail to fall into the net. And sometimes the husband’s wrath exacts greater penalties than any law allows: one lover is slain by the sword, another bleeds under the lash; some undergo the punishment of the mullet. Your dear Endymion will become the gallant of some matron whom he loves; but before long, when Servilia has taken him into her pay, he will serve one also whom he loves not, and will strip her of all her ornaments; for what can any woman, be she an Oppia or a Catulla, deny to the man who serves her passion? It is on her passion that a bad woman’s whole nature centres. “But how does beauty hurt the chaste?” you ask. Well, what availed Hippolytus or Bellerophon their firm resolve? The Cretan lady flared up as though repelled with scorn; no less furious was Stheneboea. Both dames lashed themselves into fury; for never is woman so savage as when her hatred is goaded on by shame.
elige quidnam
suadendum esse putes cui nubere Caesaris uxor 330
destinat. optimus hic et formonsissimus idem
gentis patriciae rapitur miser extinguendus
Messalinae oculis; dudum sedet illa parato
flammeolo Tyriusque palam genialis in hortis
sternitur et ritu decies centena dabuntur 335
antiquo, ueniet cum signatoribus auspex.
haec tu secreta et paucis commissa putabas?
non nisi legitime uolt nubere. quid placeat dic.
ni parere uelis, pereundum erit ante lucernas;
si scelus admittas, dabitur mora paruula, dum res 340
nota urbi et populo contingat principis aurem.
dedecus ille domus sciet ultimus. interea tu
obsequere imperio, si tanti uita dierum
paucorum. quidquid leuius meliusque putaris,
praebenda est gladio pulchra haec et candida ceruix. 345
[329] And now tell me what counsel you think should be given to him whom Caesar’s wife is minded to wed. Best and fairest of a patrician house, the unhappy youth is dragged to destruction by Messalina’s eyes. She has long been seated; her bridal veil is ready; the Tyrian nuptial couch is being spread openly in the gardens; a dowry of one million sesterces will be given after the ancient fashion, the soothsayer and the witnesses will be there. And you thought these things were secret, did you, known only to a few? But the lady will not wed save with all the due forms. Say what is your resolve: if you say nay to her, you will have to perish before the lighting of the lamps; if you perpetrate the crime, you will have a brief respite until the affair, known already to the city and the people, shall come to the Prince’s ears; he will be the last to know of the dishonour of his house. Meanwhile, if you value a few days of life so highly, obey your orders: whatever you may deem the easier and the better way, that fair white neck of yours will have to be offered to the sword.
nil ergo optabunt homines? si consilium uis,
permittes ipsis expendere numinibus quid
conueniat nobis rebusque sit utile nostris;
nam pro iucundis aptissima quaeque dabunt di.
carior est illis homo quam sibi. nos animorum 350
inpulsu et caeca magnaque cupidine ducti
coniugium petimus partumque uxoris, at illis
notum qui pueri qualisque futura sit uxor.
ut tamen et poscas aliquid uoueasque sacellis
exta et candiduli diuina tomacula porci, 355
orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.
fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem,
qui spatium uitae extremum inter munera ponat
naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores,
nesciat irasci, cupiat nihil et potiores 360
Herculis aerumnas credat saeuosque labores
et uenere et cenis et pluma Sardanapalli.
monstro quod ipse tibi possis dare; semita certe
tranquillae per uirtutem patet unica uitae.
nullum numen habes, si sit prudentia: nos te, 365
nos facimus, Fortuna, deam caeloque locamus.
[346] Is there nothing then for which men shall pray? If you ask my counsel, you will leave it to the gods themselves to provide what is good for us, and what will be serviceable for our state; for, in place of what is pleasing, they will give us what is best. Man is dearer to them than he is to himself. Impelled by strong and blind desire, we ask for wife and offspring; but the gods know ot what sort the sons, of what sort the wife, will be. Nevertheless that you may have something to pray for, and be able to offer to the shrines entrails and presaging sausages from a white porker, you should pray for a sound mind in a sound body; for a stout heart that has no fear of death, and deems length of days the least of Nature’s gifts; that can endure any kind of toil; that knows neither wrath nor desire, and thinks that the woes and hard labours of Hercules are better than the loves and the banquets and the down cushions of Sardanapalus. What I commend to you, you can give to yourself; for it is assuredly through virtue that lies the one and only road to a life of peace. Thou wouldst have no divinity, O Fortune, if we had but wisdom; it is we that make a goddess of thee, and place thee in the skies.
Satire 11. Extravagance and Simplicity of Living
Atticus eximie si cenat, lautus habetur,
si Rutilus, demens. quid enim maiore cachinno
excipitur uolgi quam pauper Apicius? omnis
conuictus, thermae, stationes, omne theatrum
de Rutilo. nam dum ualida ac iuuenalia membra 5
sufficiunt galeae dumque ardent sanguine, fertur
non cogente quidem sed nec prohibente tribuno
scripturus leges et regia uerba lanistae.
multos porro uides, quos saepe elusus ad ipsum
creditor introitum solet expectare macelli, 10
et quibus in solo uiuendi causa palato est.
egregius cenat meliusque miserrimus horum
et cito casurus iam perlucente ruina.
interea gustus elementa per omnia quaerunt
numquam animo pretiis obstantibus; interius si 15
attendas, magis illa iuuant quae pluris ementur.
ergo haut difficile est perituram arcessere summam
lancibus oppositis uel matris imagine fracta,
et quadringentis nummis condire gulosum
fictile; sic ueniunt ad miscellanea ludi. 20
refert ergo quis haec eadem paret; in Rutilo nam
luxuria est, in Ventidio laudabile nomen
sumit et a censu famam trahit.
[1] If Atticus dines sumptuously, he is thought a fine gentleman; if Rutilus does the same, people say he has lost his senses: for at what does the public laugh so loudly as at an Apicius reduced to poverty? Every dinner table, all the baths, lounging-places and theatres have their fling at Rutilus; for while still young, active, and warm-blooded, and fit to wear a helmet, he plunges on till he will have to enrol himself — not compelled indeed, but not forbidden by the Tribune — under the rules and royal mandates of a trainer of gladiators. You may see many of these gentry being waited for by an oft-eluded creditor at the entrance to the meat-market — men whose sole reason for living lies in their palate. The greater their straits — though the house is ready to fall, and the daylight begins to show between the cracks — the more luxuriously and daintily do they dine. Meanwhile they ransack all the elements for new relishes; no cost ever stands in their way; if you look closely into it, the greater the price, the greater the pleasure. So when they want to raise money to go after the rest, they think nothing of pawning their plate, or breaking up the image of their mother; and having thus seasoned their gluttonous delf at a cost of four hundred ses
terces, they come down at last to the hotch-potch of the gladiatorial school. It matters much therefore who provides the feast; what is extravagant in Rutilus, gets a fine name in Ventidius, and takes its character from his means.
illum ego iure
despiciam, qui scit quanto sublimior Atlas
omnibus in Libya sit montibus, hic tamen idem 25
ignorat quantum ferrata distet ab arca
sacculus. e caelo descendit gnyi seautn
figendum et memori tractandum pectore, siue
coniugium quaeras uel sacri in parte senatus
esse uelis; neque enim loricam poscit Achillis 30
Thersites, in qua se traducebat Vlixes;
ancipitem seu tu magno discrimine causam
protegere adfectas, te consule, dic tibi qui sis,
orator uehemens an Curtius et Matho buccae.
noscenda est mensura sui spectandaque rebus 35
in summis minimisque, etiam cum piscis emetur,
ne mullum cupias, cum sit tibi gobio tantum
in loculis. quis enim te deficiente crumina
et crescente gula manet exitus, aere paterno
ac rebus mersis in uentrem fenoris atque 40
argenti grauis et pecorum agrorumque capacem?
talibus a dominis post cuncta nouissimus exit
anulus, et digito mendicat Pollio nudo.
non praematuri cineres nec funus acerbum
luxuriae sed morte magis metuenda senectus. 45
[23] Rightly do I despise a man who knows how much higher Atlas is than all the other mountains of Africa, and yet knows not the difference between a purse and an iron-bound money-box. The maxim “Know thyself” comes down to us from the skies; it should be imprinted in the heart, and stored in the memory, whether you are looking for a wife, or wishing for a seat in the sacred Senate: even Thersites never asked for that breastplate of Achilles in which Ulysses cut such a sorry figure. If you are preparing to conduct a great and difficult cause, take counsel of yourself and tell yourself what you are — are you a great orator, or just a spouter like Curtius and Matho? Let a man take his own measure and have regard to it in things great or small, even in the buying of a fish, that he set not his heart upon a mullet, when he has only a gudgeon in his purse. For if your purse is getting empty while your maw is expanding, what will be your end when you have sunk your paternal fortune and all your belongings in a belly which can hold capital and solid silver as well as flocks and lands? With such owners the last thing to go is the ring; poor Pollio, his finger stripped, has to go a-begging! It is not an early death or an untimely grave that extravagance has to dread: old age is more terrible to it than death.
hi plerumque gradus: conducta pecunia Romae
et coram dominis consumitur; inde, ubi paulum
nescio quid superest et pallet fenoris auctor,
qui uertere solum, Baias et ad ostrea currunt.
cedere namque foro iam non est deterius quam 50
Esquilias a feruenti migrare Subura.
ille dolor solus patriam fugientibus, illa
maestitia est, caruisse anno circensibus uno.
sanguinis in facie non haeret gutta, morantur
pauci ridiculum et fugientem ex urbe pudorem. 55
[46] The regular stages are these: money is borrowed in Rome and squandered before the owner’s eyes; when some little of it is still left, and the lender’s face grows pale, these gentlemen give leg bail, and make off for Baiae and its oyster-beds — for in these days people think no more of absconding from the Forum than of flitting from the stuffy Subuva to the Esquiline. One pang, one sorrow only, afflicts these exiles, that they must, for one season, miss the Circensian games! No drop of blood lingers in their cheek: Shame is ridiculed as she flees from the city, and few would bid her stay.
experiere hodie numquid pulcherrima dictu,
Persice, non praestem uita et moribus et re,
si laudem siliquas occultus ganeo, pultes
coram aliis dictem puero sed in aure placentas.
nam cum sis conuiua mihi promissus, habebis 60
Euandrum, uenies Tirynthius aut minor illo
hospes, et ipse tamen contingens sanguine caelum,
alter aquis, alter flammis ad sidera missus.
fercula nunc audi nullis ornata macellis.
de Tiburtino ueniet pinguissimus agro 65
haedulus et toto grege mollior, inscius herbae
necdum ausus uirgas humilis mordere salicti,
qui plus lactis habet quam sanguinis, et montani
asparagi, posito quos legit uilica fuso.
grandia praeterea tortoque calentia feno 70
oua adsunt ipsis cum matribus, et seruatae
parte anni quales fuerant in uitibus uuae,
Signinum Syriumque pirum, de corbibus isdem
aemula Picenis et odoris mala recentis
nec metuenda tibi, siccatum frigore postquam 75
autumnum et crudi posuere pericula suci.
[56] To-day, friend Persicus, you will discover whether I make good, in deed and in my ways of life, the fair maxims which I preach, or whether, while commending beans, I am at heart a glutton: openly bidding my slave to bring me porridge, but whispering “cheese-cakes” in his ear. For now that you have promised to be my guest, you will find in me an Evander; you yourself will be the Tirynthian, or the guest less great than he, though he too came of blood divine — the one by water, the other borne by fire, to the stars. And now hear my feast, which no meat-market shall adorn. From my Tiburtine farm there will come a plump kid, tenderest of the flock, innocent of grass, that has never yet dared to nibble the twigs of the dwarf willow, and has more of milk in him than blood; some wild asparagus, gathered by the bailiff’s wife when done with her spindle, and some lordly eggs, warm in their wisps of hay, together with the hens that laid them. There will be crapes too, kept half the year, as fresh as when they hung upon the tree; pears from Signia and Syria, and in the same baskets fresh-smelling apples that rival those of Picenum, and of which you need not be afraid, seeing that winter’s cold has dried up their autumnal juice, and removed the perils of unripeness.
haec olim nostri iam luxuriosa senatus
cena fuit. Curius paruo quae legerat horto
ipse focis breuibus ponebat holuscula, quae nunc
squalidus in magna fastidit conpede fossor, 80
qui meminit calidae sapiat quid uolua popinae.
sicci terga suis rara pendentia crate
moris erat quondam festis seruare diebus
et natalicium cognatis ponere lardum
accedente noua, si quam dabat hostia, carne. 85
cognatorum aliquis titulo ter consulis atque
castrorum imperiis et dictatoris honore
functus ad has epulas solito maturius ibat
erectum domito referens a monte ligonem.
cum tremerent autem Fabios durumque Catonem 90
et Scauros et Fabricium, rigidique seueros
censoris mores etiam collega timeret,
nemo inter curas et seria duxit habendum
qualis in Oceani fluctu testudo nataret,
clarum Troiugenis factura et nobile fulcrum; 95
sed nudo latere et paruis frons aerea lectis
uile coronati caput ostendebat aselli,
ad quod lasciui ludebant ruris alumni.
[tales ergo cibi qualis domus atque supellex.]
[77] Such were the banquets of our Senate in days of old, when already grown luxurious; when Curius, with his own hands, would lay upon his modest hearth the simple herbs he had gathered in his little garden — herbs scoffed at nowadays by the dirty ditcher who works in chains, and remembers the savour of tripe in the reeking cookshop. For feast days, in olden times, they would keep a side of dried pork, hanging from an open rack, or put before the relations a flitch of birthday bacon, with the addition of some fresh meat, if there happened to be a sacrifice to supply it. A kinsman who had thrice been hailed as Consul, who had commanded
armies, and filled the office of Dictator, would come home earlier than was his wont for such a feast, shouldering the spade with which he had been subduing the hillside. For when men quailed before a Fabius or a stern Cato, before a Scaurus or a Fabricius — when even a Censor might dread the severe verdict of his colleague — no one deemed it a matter of grave and serious concern what kind of tortoise-shell was swimming in the waves of Ocean to form a head-rest for our Troy-born grandees. Couches in those days were small, their sides unadorned: a simple headpiece of bronze would display the head of a be-garlanded ass, beside which would romp in play the children of the village. Thus house and furniture were all in keeping with the fare.
tunc rudis et Graias mirari nescius artes 100
urbibus euersis praedarum in parte reperta
magnorum artificum frangebat pocula miles,
ut phaleris gauderet ecus caelataque cassis
Romuleae simulacra ferae mansuescere iussae
imperii fato, geminos sub rupe Quirinos 105
ac nudam effigiem in clipeo uenientis et hasta
pendentisque dei perituro ostenderet hosti.
ponebant igitur Tusco farrata catino:
argenti quod erat solis fulgebat in armis.
omnia tunc quibus inuideas, si liuidulus sis. 110
templorum quoque maiestas praesentior, et uox
nocte fere media mediamque audita per urbem
litore ab Oceani Gallis uenientibus et dis
officium uatis peragentibus. his monuit nos,
hanc rebus Latiis curam praestare solebat 115
fictilis et nullo uiolatus Iuppiter auro.
[100] The rude soldier of those days had no taste for, or knowledge of, Greek art; if allotted cups made by great artists as his share in the booty of a captured city, he would break them up to provide gay trappings for his horse, or to chase a helmet that should display to the dying foe an image of the Romulean beast bidden by Rome’s destiny to grow tame, with the twin Quirini beneath a rock, and the nude effigy of the God swooping down with spear and shield. Their messes of spelt were then served on platters of earthenware; such silver as there was glittered only on their arms — all which things you may envy if you are at all inclined that way. The majesty of the temples also was more near to help us; it was then that was heard through the entire city that midnight voice telling how the Gauls were advancing from the shores of Ocean, the Gods taking on them the part of prophecy. Such were the warnings of Jupiter, such the cave which he bestowed on the concerns of Latium when he was made of clay, and undefiled by gold.
Delphi Complete Works of Juvena Page 42