Satire 16. The Immunities of the Military
Quis numerare queat felicis praemia, Galli,
militiae? nam si subeuntur prospera castra
* * * 2a
me pauidum excipiat tironem porta secundo
sidere. plus etenim fati ualet hora benigni
quam si nos Veneris commendet epistula Marti 5
et Samia genetrix quae delectatur harena.
[1] Who can count up, Gallius, all the prizes of prosperous soldiering? I would myself pray to be a trembling recruit if I could but enter a favoured camp under a lucky star: for one moment of benignant fate is of more avail than a letter of commendation to Mars from Venus, or from his mother, who delights in the sandy shore of Samos.
commoda tractemus primum communia, quorum
haut minimum illud erit, ne te pulsare togatus
audeat, immo, etsi pulsetur, dissimulet nec
audeat excussos praetori ostendere dentes 10
et nigram in facie tumidis liuoribus offam
atque oculum medico nil promittente relictum.
Bardaicus iudex datur haec punire uolenti
calceus et grandes magna ad subsellia surae
legibus antiquis castrorum et more Camilli 15
seruato, miles ne uallum litiget extra
et procul a signis. ‘iustissima centurionum
cognitio est +igitur+ de milite, nec mihi derit
ultio, si iustae defertur causa querellae.’
tota cohors tamen est inimica, omnesque manipli 20
consensu magno efficiunt curabilis ut sit
uindicta et grauior quam iniuria. dignum erit ergo
declamatoris mulino corde Vagelli,
cum duo crura habeas, offendere tot caligas, tot
milia clauorum. quis tam procul adsit ab urbe 25
praeterea, quis tam Pylades, molem aggeris ultra
ut ueniat? lacrimae siccentur protinus, et se
excusaturos non sollicitemus amicos.
‘da testem’ iudex cum dixerit, audeat ille
nescio quis, pugnos qui uidit, dicere ‘uidi,’ 30
et credam dignum barba dignumque capillis
maiorum. citius falsum producere testem
contra paganum possis quam uera loquentem
contra fortunam armati contraque pudorem.
[7] Let us first consider the benefits common to all soldiers, of which not the least is this, that no civilian will dare to thrash you; if thrashed himself, he must hold his tongue, and not venture to exhibit to the Praetor the teeth that have been knocked out, or the black and blue lumps upon his face, or the one eye left which the doctor holds out no hope of saving. If he seek redress, he has appointed for him as judge a hob-nailed centurion with a row of jurors with brawny calves sitting before a big bench. For the old camp law and the rule of Camillus still holds good which forbids a soldier to attend court outside the camp, and at a distance from the standards. “Most right and proper it is,” you say, “that a centurion should pass sentence on a soldier; nor shall I fail of satisfaction if I make good my case.” But then the whole cohort will be your enemies; all the maniples will agree as one man in applying a cure to the redress you have received by giving you a thrashing which shall be worse than the first. So, as you possess a pair of legs, you must have a mulish brain worthy of the eloquent Vagellius to provoke so many jack-boots, and all those thousands of hobnails. And besides who would venture so far from the city? Who would be such a Pylades as to go inside the rampart? Better dry your eyes at once, and not importune friends who will but make excuses. When the judge has called for witnesses, let the man, whoever he be, who saw the assault dare to say, “I saw it,” and I will deem him worthy of the beard and long hair of our forefathers. Sooner will you find a false witness against a civilian than one who will tell the truth against the interest and the honour of a soldier.
praemia nunc alia atque alia emolumenta notemus 35
sacramentorum. conuallem ruris auiti
improbus aut campum mihi si uicinus ademit
et sacrum effodit medio de limite saxum,
quod mea cum patulo coluit puls annua libo,
debitor aut sumptos pergit non reddere nummos 40
uana superuacui dicens chirographa ligni,
expectandus erit qui lites incohet annus
totius populi. sed tum quoque mille ferenda
taedia, mille morae; totiens subsellia tantum
sternuntur, iam facundo ponente lacernas 45
Caedicio et Fusco iam micturiente parati
digredimur, lentaque fori pugnamus harena.
ast illis quos arma tegunt et balteus ambit
quod placitum est ipsis praestatur tempus agendi,
nec res atteritur longo sufflamine litis. 50
[35] And now let us note other profits and perquisites of the service. If some rascally neighbour have filched from me a dell or a field of my ancestral estate, and have dug up, from the mid point of my boundary, the hallowed stone which I have honoured every year with an offering of flat cake and porridge; or if a debtor refuses to repay the money that he has borrowed, declaring that the signatures are false, and the document null and void: I shall have to wait for the time of year when the whole world begin their suits, and even then there will be a thousand wearisome delays. So often does it happen that when only the benches have been set out — when the eloquent Caecilius is taking off his cloak, and Fuscus has gone out for a moment — though everything is ready, we disperse, and fight our battle after the dilatory fashion of the courts. But the gentlemen who are armed and belted have their cases set down for whatever time they please; nor is their substance worn away by the slow drag-chain of the law.
solis praeterea testandi militibus ius
uiuo patre datur. nam quae sunt parta labore
militiae placuit non esse in corpore census,
omne tenet cuius regimen pater. ergo Coranum
signorum comitem castrorumque aera merentem 55
quamuis iam tremulus captat pater; hunc fauor aequus
prouehit et pulchro reddit sua dona labori.
ipsius certe ducis hoc referre uidetur
ut, qui fortis erit, sit felicissimus idem,
ut laeti phaleris omnes et torquibus, omnes 60
[51] Soldiers alone, again, have the right to make their wills during their fathers’ lifetime; for the law ordains that money earned in military service is not to be included in the property which is in the father’s sole control. This is why Coranus, who follows the standards and earns soldier’s pay, is courted by his own father, though now tottering from old age. The son receives the advancement that is his due, and reaps the recompense for his own good services. And indeed it is the interest of the General that the most brave should also be the most fortunate, and that all should have medals and necklets to be proud of.
The Satire breaks off here.
The Biography
The Pantheon in Rome was rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian in c. 126 AD. In Satire VII Juvenal pronounces a prophecy that bright days are in store for literature, referring to Hadrian’s succession of Trajan in the year AD. 117. To Juvenal, Hadrian was an important ruler, who, being a poet himself, liked to surround himself with literary and artistic persons of various kinds.
THE LIFE OF JUVENAL by G. G. Ramsay
THE only certain evidence as to the facts of Juvenal’s life is to be found in casual allusions in his own Satires; such external authorities as there are possess only an uncertain value, and do not even give us the dates of his birth and death. The following passages give us what certain landmarks we possess: —
(1) Sat iv. 153 refers to the murder of the Emperor Domitian, which took place upon the 18th of September, A.D. 96. Sat ii. 29-33 contains a gross attack upon Domitian.
(2) Sat i. 49, 50 mentions the recent condemnation of Marius Priscus for extortion in the province of Africa. That trial, made famous by the fact that the younger Pliny was the chief prosecutor, took place in January, A.D. 100.
(3) The allusion to a comet and an earthquake in connection with Armenian and Parthian affairs in Sat vi. 407 has been held, with some probability, to refer to events in the year 115.
(4) Sat vii begins with a prophecy that bright days are in store for literature, since it has now been assured of the patronage of Caesar. The probability is that the Caesar thus referred to is Hadrian, who succeeded Trajan in the year A.D. 117. The attempts to prove that Trajan was the emperor intended have not been successful. Trajan was by no means a literary emperor, whereas Hadrian was himself a poet and surrounded himself with literary and artistic persons of various kinds.
(5) In Sat xiii. 17 Juvenal describes Calvinus, the friend to whom the Satire is addressed, as one
qui iam post terga reliquit
Sexamnta annos Fonteio consule natus.
There were consuls of the name of Fonteius Capito in three different years, A.D. 12, 59, and 67. The first date is obviously too early; the year referred to is probably A.D. 67, since in that year, and not in the other two, the name of Fonteius stands first in the Fasti. This would fix Sat xiii to the year A.D. 127.
(6) Lastly, in Sat xv. 27: —
Nos miranda qiddem sed nuper consule Iunco
Gesta super calidae referemus moenia Copti,
the reading Iunco, now satisfactorily established for Iunio, refers to Aemilius Iuncus, who was consul in the year 127. Sat xv must therefore have been written in the year A.D. 127, or shortly after it (nuper).
It will be noted that these dates, supported by various other considerations, suggest that the Satires are numbered in the order of their publication. This view is confirmed by the fact recorded that the Satires were originally published in five separate books; the first book consisting of Sat i. to v inclusive, the second of Sat vi., the third of Sat vii to ix., the fourth of Sat x. to xii inclusive, and the fifth of the remaining Satires. In the case of Sat i., however, it seems probable that this Satire, being in the nature of a preface, was written after the rest of Book i.
Such are the only certain indications as to date which can be discovered in Juvenal’s own words. They suggest that the literary period of his life (apart from his earlier recitations) was embraced within the reigns of the emperors Trajan (A.D. 98-117) and Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), probably not extending to the end of the latter’s reign. And as in Sat xi. 203 he seems to speak of himself as an old man, we may perhaps, with some certainty, put his birth between the years A.D. 60 and 70.
Other indications of a personal kind are few and insignificant. When Umbricius, on leaving Rome, bids good-bye to his old friend Juvenal, he speaks of the chance of seeing him from time to time when he comes, for the sake of his health, “to his own Aquinum”; from which we may fairly infer that the Volscian town of Aquinum was the poet’s native place.
This inference is confirmed by an inscription on a marble stone, now lost, which was found at Aquinum. The stone formed part of an altar to Ceres; and the inscription records the fact that the altar had been dedicated to Ceres at his own cost by one D. Junius Juvenalis, who is described as a Tribune in a Dalmatian cohort, as a duumvir quinquennalis, and a flamen of the deified emperor Vespasian (Corp. Inscr. Lat x. 5382). It should be added that the praenomen of the donor (D.) was not legible on the inscription, and that only the two first letters of the nomen Junius could be deciphered.
It is not at all certain that this inscription refers to the poet Juvenal. Apart from a very doubtful statement in a Biography which has yet to be mentioned, there is no evidence that Juvenal ever served in the army; indeed, his comments on the army in Sat xvi., which express a contempt for soldiers very similar in kind to that expressed by Persius, almost forbid the supposition. His writings suggest that he habitually lived in Rome, and make it improbable that he could at any time of his life have lived long enough in Aquinum to enable him to gain and fill the important positions mentioned in the inscription. The most we can infer is that he belonged to a family of repute in his native town, and was himself therefore fairly representative of the higher circles of provincial life.
In Sat xi we find Juvenal in Rome, offering to his friend Persicus a frugal banquet to which his Tiburtine farm was to contribute a fat kid, with other farm produce, pears, grapes, and apples, together with asparagus gathered in the intervals of her spinning by his bailiff’s wife. (The idea that Juvenal possessed a paternal estate, distinct from the farm at Tibur, seems to rest upon a misconception of the meaning of vi. 57.)
A passage in xv. 45 records the fact that Juvenal had visited Egypt: —
luxuria, quantum ipse notavi,
Barbara famoso non cedit turba Canopo;
a positive statement which cannot be put aside because in his fifteenth Satire the poet makes a geographical mistake as to the proximity of Ombi to Tentyra, nor yet made too much of in connection with the statement in the Biography falsely attributed to Suetonius, to the effect that Juvenal had been sent into Egypt in his old age as a form of banishment.
That Juvenal had received the best education of his time and had been trained in the moral principles of the Stoics is apparent from the whole tenour of his teaching. The statement in xiii. 121-123 that he had not studied the doctrines of the Cynics, Epicureans, or Stoics seems only to refer to the more philosophical parts of those systems.
There are three passages in the poet Martial (Epp vii xxiv and xci and Epp xii xviii.) in which Juvenal is named — if we presume, as seems certain, that the Satirist is the person there mentioned. These epigrams show that the two poets lived on terms of friendship and familiarity with one another, but they throw no light upon Juvenal’s personal history and career. In the epigram vii, xci written in A.D. 93, Juvenal is styled facundus, an epithet which implies that by that time Juvenal’s reputation, either as a declaimer or as an author, was established; while in xii xviii. Martial contrasts his own peaceful and happy life in a rural district of Spain with the noisy, restless life led by Juvenal in the Suburra. As Martial’s twelfth book was written and collected between the years 102 and 104, that date would correspond pretty closely with that estimated above for the beginning of Juvenal’s literary activity. As Mr. Duff puts it, “the facts go to prove that Martial ceased to write about the time that Juvenal began.”
Amid the scanty external evidence as to the life of Juvenal, it is necessary to pay some attention to the statements made in the old Biographies which are attached to many of the ancient manuscripts of Juvenal. Early scholars were inclined to attribute these Biographies, or at least the oldest of them, from which the others were copied, either to Suetonius, the author of the Lives of the first Twelve Caesars, or to Valerius Probus, a distinguished grammarian of the second century. It is now generally admitted that there is no ground for these attributions, and that in all probability the earliest of them, from which the others were evidently copied with some difference of detail, are not older than the fourth century A.D. For all that, they seem to represent, more or less, an ancient tradition, and it is worth while considering how far some of their statements seem probable in themselves, and fit in with our other sources of information, or present improbabilities which cannot be accepted.
The oldest and best form of the Biography is as follows: —
VITA D. JUNII JUVENALIS. — Iunius Invenalis, libertini locupletis incertum est filius an alumnus, ad medium fere aetatem declamavit animi magis causa quam quod se scholar, aut foro praepararel. Deinde paucorum versuum satyra non absurde composita in Paridem pantomimum poetamque [eius] semenstribus mililiolis (The allusion is to honorary appointments to the military tribunate (imaçjinario e mititiae genus, Suet. Claud. 25), a system instituted by Claudius in order that the holder might obtain equestrian rank. The word militiola means “a trumpery period of military service.”) tumentem [hoc?] genus scripturae industriose excoluit. Et tamen diu ne modico quidem auditorio quicquam committere est ausus. Mox magna frequentia magnoque successu his ac ter auditus est, at ea quoque quae prima fecerat inferciret no vis scriptis:
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quod nox dant proceres, dabit histrio. Tu Camerinos Et Bareas, tu nobilium magna atria curas?
Praefectos Pelopea facit, Philomela tribunos. (vii. 90-92.)
Erat tum in deliciis aulae histrio multique fautorum eius cottidie provehebantur. Venit ergo Iuvenalis in suspicionem, quasi tempora figurate notasset, ac statim per honorent militiae quaniquam octogenarius urbe summotus est missusque ad praefecluram cohortis in extrema parte tendentis Aegypti. Id supplicii genus placuit, ut levi atque ioculari delicto par esset. Verum intra brevissimum tempus angore et taedio pertit.
The first sentence of this Life contains no information that we are not prepared to accept. Nothing is more probable than that Juvenal had long practised himself in the art of declamation, and only embarked on publication when his reputation was established, and he felt confident of success. His recitations would at first be delivered to select coteries of congenial friends, in whose company he would forge out and perfect his biting epigrams, just as Tacitus is supposed to have done with his famous sententiae. It is quite probable, therefore, that such a passage as that quoted from Sat vii may originally have formed part of a private recitation, and have afterwards been incorporated in the more finished edition of the Satire when published. But in explaining the rest of the Life the early commentators were sadly at fault.
The person satirised in the passage quoted in the Life was a dancer of the name of Paris, who had just been mentioned in connection with the poet Statius. “A monstrous thing,” says Juvenal, “that after charming the town with his beautiful voice, Statius would have to starve if he did not sell to Paris his unpublished Agave”: Esurit, intactam Pariidi nisi vendit Agaven (vii. 87).
Now there were two famous dancers of the name of Paris, to cither of whom the passage in Sat vii might apply. The one flourished, and was put to death, in the reign of Nero; while the other met a similar fate under Domitian. The early commentators on the Biography took it for granted, naturally enough, that the Paris mentioned in the Biography was the same Paris that is mentioned by Juvenal himself in Sat vii. But the dates given above for the life of Juvenal prove conclusively that neither of the artists who bore the name of Paris could possibly have brought about the banishment of Juvenal in the manner stated. The later of the two was put to death in the reign of Domitian; and it has been shown above that the period of Juvenal’s literary activity did not begin, and that Sat vii was not published, till some years after the death of that Emperor. All attempts to bring the banishment within the period of Domitian’s reign have broken down.
Delphi Complete Works of Juvena Page 49