Libis < libum, –i: “a birthday cake offered to the gods.”
Venalibus < venalis, –e: “on sale, to be sold.” No expense was spared, and clients were expected to pay for cakes and participate in ceremonies in which their own status as inferior to that of their patronus’s slaves was ratified.
Accipe et istud fermentum tibi habe: “take the money and keep the cake for your self,” the client’s angry words. Fermentum = literally “yeast” and, by metonymy, that in which it is used.
Peculia: the savings accumulated by many slaves and sometimes used to purchase their own freedom. Such nest-eggs were not legally recognized, but the practice was common.
190–231. City dwellers have to live in constant fear of collapsing buildings and fire. Yet, even in disaster, the poor man is treated worse than the rich. The country costs less and you can grow your own vegetables.
190–2. Praeneste (modern Palestrina) a town outside Rome, perched high on a hillside, hence gelida.
Ruinam = “the collapse of a building.”
Volsiniis < Volsinii: a town in Etruria, 130 kilometers northwest of Rome.
Gabiis < Gabii: a town twelve miles east of Rome.
Proni Tiburis arce = “on the citadel of downward-facing Tivoli.”
193–6. Rome is a city of towering buildings supported by the thinnest of pillars. Tibicine < tibicen, –inis: “a flute, pillar, or prop.”
Vilicus = the “landlord’s agent,” i.e., the superintendent.
Rimae < rima, –ae: “crack, fissure.”
Securos … iubet dormire: a more ironic phrase would be hard to imagine. Securos = “without a care.”
Pendente … ruina = “with a collapse hanging over our heads.”
197. illic: i.e., outside Rome.
198–202. Fire was a constant danger in Rome’s crowded tenements. This is a very rich passage. The first thing to note is the spatial contrast evoked by imus and ultimus, and the corresponding inversion of fortunes they represent. This inversion of expected hierarchies is a common rhetorical strategy in Juvenal. Yet, it is a legitimate question to ask whether this detail should be read as topographically significant, or as a piece of simple realism since, as Ferguson observes, the poor were regularly housed at the top of Roman tenements (1979). Juvenal however, uses this detail for purposes that exceed simple mimesis. Consider the passage’s final line: molles ubi reddunt ova columbae. Note the marked contrast between the delicacy of the phrase molles columbae and the projected interlocutor’s fate. Observe also how the predominance of vowels and liquids in line 202, echoing the cooing of the doves, underlines this contrast, particularly when compared with the harshness of Ucalegon, tabulata tibi iam tertia fumant (Ferguson 1979). Moreover, as Odyssey 12.62–5 reveals, doves were created by Zeus, and carry him ambrosia. Thus, the poor man, who by virtue of being at the bottom of the income ladder lives at the top of the tenement, ironically enjoys the company of the very companions of the gods. By the same token, when fire comes, he has the furthest to fall. The total image, then, includes an implicit final scene of our poor wretch jumping from the tenement’s top floor as the flames approach, while the doves ascend to heaven.
Poscit aquam = “shouts fire.”
Frivola = “meager furnishings.”
Ucalegon: the name indicates epic parody. At Aeneid 2.311, during the sack of Troy, we find the same name surrounded by the same vocabulary of fire and ruina. iam Deiphobi dedit ampla ruinam / Vulcano superante domus; iam proximus ardet / Ucalegon. Ucalegon first appears in Iliad 3.148 where it is the name of one of Priam’s counselors. It is derived from the Greek meaning “not to care.” In Homer’s context, it would be an aristocratic name denoting ease. In Vergil’s, it would be primarily a Homeric citation, though the meaning of the name would provide an added pathos. In Juvenal, the name serves both to point the contrast between Rome’s past epic grandeur and its contemporary squalor and to provide, through its original meaning, an example of Juvenalian irony.
Tabulata … tertia = “the third story.” The unnamed interlocutor addressed in tibi lives higher still and so is unaware (tu nescis) of the danger below him
Trepidatur = “the alarm is raised,” impersonal passive.
Tegula = “roof tile.”
203–7. The poor man loses all his meager belongings. Compare Horace 1.6.114–18. Cordo: presumably the poet of 1.2. Martial mentions a poor Cordus in 3.15.
Procula = ablative of comparison with minor: although unknown, one imagines a preternaturally petit paramour.
Urceoli = diminutive < urceus, –i: “jug or pitcher,” in apposition to ornamentum. Compare 10.64.
Abaci = a table-top, generally made of marble (marmore), often used for the display of silver. Cordus, however, can only afford diminutive crockery.
Parvulus … cantharus = “a tiny tankard,” a deliberate oxymoron. A cantharus is normally a drinking cup of some size.
Chiron: a statue of the recumbent centaur formed the support of the table.
Vetus: an adjective in one termination.
Cista = a wicker hamper for keeping clothes. Cordus cannot afford a proper capsa or bookshelf.
Opici = a Greek version of Osci or “Oscan,” used pejoratively of Romans as uncultured barbarians. Thus Courtney (1980) observes, “the juxtaposition of divina opici … is particularly pointed, as if the mice would have had more respect for the divina carmina if they had known Greek.”
208–9. Cordus lost the little bit of nothing he had.
209–11. Nobody, however will help him when he is naked and begging. Understand est in the main clause.
212–13. When the rich man’s home collapses, it is all very different. Asturici … domus: Asturicus is the name of a previous owner. He is otherwise unknown, but the name suggests a noble with a military connection to the province of Asturia in Spain. The current owner’s name is Persicus (line 221).
Horrida = “disheveled,” a sign of mourning. Understand est.
Pullati = “dressed in black.” On proceres, see Persius 1.51. Understand sunt.
Differt vadimonia praetor = “the praetor postpones court proceedings,” i.e., for an official day of mourning.
215–20. People come running to offer gifts of great expense to replace what has been lost while the fire still burns (adhuc).
Marmora is one of the inpensas or “things bought” for reconstruction.
Nuda et candida signa = hendiadys or the rhetorical figure of saying “one thing through two”: “beautiful nude statues.” Note the ironic contrast with nudum in line 210.
Euphranoris et Polycliti: noted artists of the fourth and fifth centuries BCE.
218–20. The manuscript is much disputed here. Courtney (1980), Braund (1996), Willis (1997) and all accept Housman’s proposed emendation of aera for haec. The main argument seems to be that “the feminine haec is surprising” (Courtney 1980). As Friedländer (1962) had pointed out, however, this is precisely what makes it typically Juvenalian.
Asianorum vetera ornamenta deorum = works of art looted from temples in Asia Minor.
Forulos < forulus, –i: “a tiered book case.”
Mediam = “to stand in the middle.”
Minervam = goddess of wisdom and learning.
Modium < modius, –i: “a peck.” There was so much money that it was measured rather than counted.
220–2. Persicus made out so well he is now suspected of having set fire to his own house. A Persicus who was consul in 34 CE might be a relative. Orborum: Persicus is childless, which is why he is the object of such lavish generosity.
223–5. “If you could tear yourself away (avelli) from the distractions of the city, you would find how much cheaper it is to live in the country.” Sora, Fabrateria and Frusino were all small towns in Latium.
Tenebras < tenebrae, –arum: “darkness” and hence “a dark place or room,” but it also means “death,” which is what a dark room in a tenement will procure for you on both the literal and the metaphorical levels.
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Conducis < conduco, –ere, –duxi, –ductum: “to rent.”
226–9. An idealized image of farming life whose atmosphere owes much to Tibullus. Puteus = “a well.” Reste < restis, –is: “a rope.” Movendus: modifies puteus; the well is so shallow there is no need for a rope. Diffunditur: subject = puteus standing by metonymy for its contents.
Facili … haustu presents a mild paradox. Compare Tibullus 1.1.7–8, ipse seram teneras maturo tempore vites / rusticus et facili grandia poma manu. Amans recalls that the Tibullan rusticus is also a lover. Haustu < haustus, –us: “a drawing of water.”
Bidentis < bidens, –dentis: a type of hoe. See Tibullus 1.1.29, nec tamen interdum pudeat tenuisse bidentem.
Vilicus = “bailiff, manager.”
Pythagoreis: the Pythagoreans were vegetarians and hence with a well-watered garden you could easily offer them a hundred banquets (epulum … centum).
230–1. “It is something to say that you are the owner of even just one lizard (unius … laceratae).” Samuel Johnson famously interpreted this to mean the amount of land on which one could find a lizard. Lizards being very common in Italy, this would be small indeed. At the same time, there is a clear deflation of Umbricius’s claims in the image of asserting one’s mastery over a lizard.
232–314. Juvenal takes us through an expanded version of his recounting of a typical day at 1.127–34 (compare Horace 1.6.111–31) from one sleepless night to the next evening’s mugging. Besides the sheer expansion, there are two major innovations in this example of the satiric topos: 1) the emphasis on the contrasting conditions of rich and poor, thus continuing the theme of the previous section; and 2) the vivid description of the dangers of life on the streets in Rome.
232–6. The poor man who is ill perishes from want of sleep in Rome. Aeger = substantive.
Peperit < pario, –ere, peperi, partum: “to bring forth, bear, produce.”
Inperfectus is universally glossed as “undigested,” even as it is admitted that the usage is rare. Only one parallel can be cited: Celsus 4.23.1. It does not, however, refer to a failure to digest one’s food so that it remains in the stomach (haerens ardenti stomacho), but to food that has passed through the bowel before the process of digestion is complete as a consequence of advanced dysentery. The parallel is not exact. More precisely, the problem is that it is not undigested food that makes you sick, as the commentators suggest, but the sickness that causes you not to digest your food. That the poor would eat bad food that would make them sick is not only a reasonable assumption, but it is also the only interpretation that fits with the structure of the passage, which depends on a contrast between rich and poor. Therefore, it should be the cibus itself that is bad and the cause of the illness (see Spencer 1935 in his note on Celsus 4.22.1). Inperfectus, thus, should be translated as “defective.” Labriolle and Villeneuve (1964) recognize the problem when they add to the standard translation (“insuffisament digérée”) that the food not only remains in the stomach undigested but “y fermente” [“ferments there”], thus acknowledging the need for a gloss to explain the causal relation between cibus inperfectus and aeger.
Meritoria = “lodgings let out for rent, often in another home” (Digest 7.1.13.8).
Dormitur = impersonal passive.
Caput morbi: a striking phrase.
236–8. “The noise of the traffic and livestock moving through the narrow lanes of the neighborhood at night will raise even the soundest sleeper.” Wheeled traffic was banned in Rome during the day, except for wagons carrying construction materials, thus allowing business to be transacted in a relatively unobstructed manner. The nights were consequently quite noisy. Raedarum: see Horace 1.5.86.
Stantis convicia mandrae: mandra is a Greek term referring to animal pens. Convicia means “insults or reproaches.” So this passage has been understood three different ways: 1) the noise coming from the animals whose way is blocked by traffic in the street (mandrae = subjective genitive); 2) the cursing coming from the herdsmen presumed to accompany them (mandrae = subjective genitive); 3) the cursing coming from the neighbors at the lowing beasts who disturb their rest (mandrae = objective genitive). While the first two have generally been favored, there is no reason not to assume that Juvenal was a sufficiently competent poet to have allowed for all three.
Druso = the emperor Claudius, famed for his ability to sleep through entire law cases.
Vitulisque marinis = “seals.” The Elder Pliny says no animal sleeps more deeply (Historia Naturalis 9.15).
239–42. “The rich man, however, passes through the traffic easily and sleeps even on the run.” Ingenti … Liburna = a large warship in the fashion of those used by the Liburni, a people from the Eastern Adriatic. The conceit of the wealthy man’s litter sailing over a sea of upturned faces (ora) is striking and original.
Obiter = “in passing.”
243–6. “The wave (unda) he sails over blocks our passage” Ante tamen veniet = he will beat us even in his sleep.
Cubito < cubitus, –i: “elbow.”
Assere < asser, –eris: “a pole for a litter.”
Tignum = “a beam of wood.”
Metretam < metreta, –ae: “a small barrel.”
247–8. I am covered with filth and constantly trod upon (calcor). Pinguia crura lutro: understand sunt.
Planta … magna: a humorous evocation of the many feet treading upon poor Umbricius.
Digito = “toe.”
Clavus = “nail,” here synecdoche for the soldier’s (militis) hobnail boots.
249–53. Umbricius describes an outdoor party or picnic held in the street. This was more than likely a food distribution by a guild or collegium. Sportula here does not refer to a gift of food or money from a patron to a client, as it does elsewhere in Juvenal, but to the actual basket in which the food was given and from which the institution gets its name. Sportula is thus metonymy for “picnic.”
Culina = “a portable stove.”
Corbulo = Cn. Domitius Corbulo, a general under Claudius and Nero, known for his size.
Quas recto vertice portat / servulus infelix et cursu ventilat ignem: a hilarious and pathetic picture of the diminutive slave, head piled high, fanning the flame that warms his master’s picnic dinner as he runs behind him.
254–61. The streets are crowded and dangerous with wagons hauling marble and lumber. The juxtaposition of the freshly mended tunics (tunicae sartae modo) with the massive wagons is particularly effective. Coruscat = “shakes.”
Serraco < serracum, –i: a wagon used for hauling heavy goods.
Abies = “fir.”
Nutant = “sway.”
257–61. “In the event of an accident, you’d be crushed beyond recognition.” Axis = the antecedent of qui and subject of procubuit: “an axle,” and hence by metonymy a “wagon.”
Saxa Ligustica = marble from Luna in Etruria, formerly part of Liguria: the best quality Italian marble.
Obtritum = “crushed.”
More animae: just as the soul slips from the body at the time of death, so the body of the poor man slips away without notice.
261–3. “Meanwhile at home, all goes forward in anticipation of the master’s bath and dinner.” A scene of great pathos. Patellas = “plates.”
Striglibus = syncope for strigilibus < strigilis -is: “a scraper used in the bath.” The slaves prepare the bath to be taken before dinner.
Guto < gut[t]us, –i: “a small, narrow-necked jar” to be filled (pleno) with oil. An oil massage preceded the bath.
264–5. “But he shivers on the shore of the Styx.” Novicius: “a new slave.” “We have just seen his old slaves. He, recently free, is now the slave of death” (Ferguson 1979).
Porthmea = Greek masculine accusative: “ferryman.”
Caenosi < caenosus, –a, –um: “muddy.”
Alnum < alnus, –i: “the alder tree”: metonymy for Charon’s boat and the wood from which it was made.
Quem = aliquem qui.
&nb
sp; Trientem < triens -entis: “the third part of an as,” a small coin. Traditionally a coin was placed in the mouth of the dead to pay their passage to the underworld.
268–72. “Think of the other perils of the night!” Quod spatium tectis sublimibus = “what a height there is to the lofty roofs” (Braund 1996a).
Testa = “tile.”
Rimosa < rimosus, –a, –um: “cracked.”
Silicem < silex, silicis: “pavement.”
272–5. The ways of death are legion; only a fool (ignavus) goes to dinner with his will unmade (intestatus). Vigiles: “The windows seems to be watching for him to pass” (Ferguson 1979).
276–7. “You hope and pray that they are content to pour out the contents of their open basins (patulas … pelves).” Better garbage and excrement on your head than the basin itself.
278–82. If you survive the falling crockery, the mugger waits in ambush. Qui nullum forte cecidit: a true psychopath, the thug is agitated because he has not yet killed anyone that night.
Noctem patitur lugentis amicum / Pelidae: the comparison of the thug’s discomfort at not having killed anyone to Achilles’s grief for the death of Patroclus is almost absurdly ironic. Pelidae = “of the son of Peleus,” i.e., Achilles.
281. I have deleted this patently spurious line following Ferguson (1979), Courtney (1980) and Braund (1996a).
282. Somnum rixa facit = “a brawl makes for a good night’s sleep.”
282–5. Although young (inprobus annis) and (mero fervens) drunk, the mugger has the good sense to avoid the rich man and his sizeable retinue. Coccina laena = “scarlet cloak,” a sign of wealth.
Lampas = Greek, nominative feminine singular: “lamp, torch.”
286–9. “I, however, am fair game.” Filum = “wick.”
Prohaemia = an elevated Greek word: “prelude.”
Vapulo = “I am beaten.”
290–2. You have no choice but to submit to the humiliation. Stari = Impersonal passive: “to halt.”
292–6. “Whose cheap wine have you been drinking? Whose peasant cuisine have you been eating? What synagogue do you frequent?” the thug demands. Aceto < acetum, –i: “sour wine or vinegar.”
Latin Verse Satire Page 36