Tullia: the gens Tullia was an ancient patrician family.
Notae … Maurae = a famed fellatrix at 10.223–4, and hence the better known of the two.
309–13. The reason behind Tullia and Maura’s grimace becomes apparent: the women hold drunken lesbian orgies and urinate (micturiunt) on the statue of the goddess. Note how this behavior recalls that of the crowd at Tarentum toward the Roman ambassador (line 297). Longis siphonibus = “long sprays”; Juvenal’s knowledge of female anatomy is surprisingly limited.
Equitant = “they ride (one another).”
Moventur = “they reach orgasm” (Richlin 1986).
Calcas < calco, –are: “tread upon.”
Luce reversa = “the next morning.”
Magnos visurus amicos: on the way to the morning salutatio.
314–45. The passage concludes with another extended exemplum: the drunken debauchery that supposedly takes place at the female-only rites of the Bona Dea. They were held at the home of the Pontifex Maximus and presided over by his wife.
314–17. Maenades = the subject of all the plural verbs. The worshippers of the goddess are compared to Bacchants.
Cornu < cornu, –us: “horn, trumpet.”
Attonitae = “in ecstasy.”
Priapi = the ithyphallic god whose statues guarded gardens: genitive singular with maenades.
317–19. Concubitus = genitive singular.
Saltante = “pulsing.”
320–3. “There, aristocratic women challenge (provocat) prostitutes in provocative behavior.” Lenonum ancillas = periphrasis for “prostitutes.”
Saufeia: an aristocratic name, see 9.117.
Pendentis … coxae = “swinging hips.”
Medullinae = another aristocratic name.
Crisantis = “to shimmy.” See Lucilius 9.340, crisabit ut si frumentum clunibus vannat, and compare Lucilius 7.280.
323. A wonderfully condensed and paradoxical sententia. Understand est with both clauses. Inter dominas = shared by the ladies, i.e., Saufeia and Medullina.
Virtus = “excellence,” but in fact vice. Virtus is a masculine quality (derived from vir), here attributed to excellence in female vice and associated with aristocratic bloodline (natalibus). This is truly a world turned upside-down.
324–6. “These girls aren’t play-acting. They could raise the dead.” Frigidus aevo / Laomedontiades = “frigid old Priam.”
Nestoris hirnea = “Nestor’s busted balls.” He was proverbially old.
327–9. “When they get all worked up, they call to let the men in.” Prurigo = “an itch” you need to scratch.
Femina simplex = “woman on her own,” i.e., both in her pure state and without a suitable partner. Simplicitas, normally a virtue, is here transformed into a synonym for lust.
Antro = “grotto.”
Fas: normally used of religious sanction, here becomes synonymous with what is nefas, the admission of men to the rites of the Bona Dea.
329–34. “She’s ready to take on all comers.” Adulter = her normal paramour.
Cucullo: see 118.
Si nihil est = if he won’t come.
Incurritur = “there is an assault on,” both violent and sexual.
Spem servorum = both objective genitive, “what she hopes for from the slaves,” and subjective genitive, “the hope possessed by the slaves,” i.e., she will have used them up.
Conductus aquarius = “the hired water-carrier,” a menial from outside the domus.
Mora nulla: understand est.
Quo minus = quominus.
Asello < asellus, –i: “a young ass,” the ultimate degradation.
335–41. “Would that we could return to the good old days, before the transvestite guitar-player (psaltria) infiltrated the rites of the Bona Dea.” Clodius Pulcher snuck into the rites dressed as a woman when they were held at the home of Julius Caesar (62 BCE). The rumor was that Clodius was having an affair with Caesar’s wife, Pompeia. The episode led to their divorce and was made famous by Cicero in numerous attacks on Clodius [23].
Mauri atque Indi: i.e., the eastern and western extremes of the empire. The basic structure of the relative clause is psaltria penem … illuc … intulerit.
Anticatones = a two-roll attack published by Caesar against Cato the younger, one of his most vocal opponents. See Persius 3.44–51.
339. Even a male with much smaller equipment knows to stay clear of the rites of the Bona Dea.
340–1. Pictures of males had to be covered. Sexus = genitive.
342–5. “In the good old days, no one would have dared do such a thing.” To what period is Juvenal referring? His Golden Age, depicted at the beginning of the poem, is singularly unappealing and the late republic is the era of Clodius himself. Logical consistency is not the hallmark of either indignatio or its skillful portrayal [76]. Simpuvium and catinum = a “pouring bowl” and a “dish” used in religious rites.
Numae: see 1.12–18.
Vaticano … de monte patellas = “saucers from the Vatican hill,” where cheap pottery was sold.
366–78. Some women prefer eunuchs.
366–8. There is no need for abortifacients. Inbelles = “unwarlike.”
368–70. The best ones are not castrated until after puberty. Pectine nigro = “pubic hair.”
371–3. “If you wait till the testicles are mature, only the barber loses.” Such eunuchs do not grow a beard. Bilibres = “two pounders.”
Damno = ablative of price.
Heliodorus = a surgeon.
374–6. “You can spot the eunuch made for his mistress’s pleasure a mile away.” Custodem vitis et horti = Priapus.
Provocat = “challenges.”
376–8. “It’s one thing to let a eunuch sleep with your mistress, quite another to let him sleep with your boy!” Tondendum = “in need of a haircut.” Pretty slave boys had their locks cut after they had fully reached puberty, at which time it was believed they were past their erotic prime. The idea seems to be that such a well-endowed eunuch might be pleasing to the woman, but could injure the boy.
398–456. Women who act like men.
398–412. After a brief invective against women who love music [cantet] and musicians, Juvenal starts to inveigh against those who dare to present themselves as knowledgeable of current affairs, both personal and political, and thus as potential rivals in expertise to men.
398–401. Coetus = accusative plural: an outrageous sexual pun implies she has not only multiple conversational (loqui) but also multiple sexual partners. Of course, from the perspective of satirist, why else would she talk to men?
Paludatis ducibus = generals wearing their official cloaks (paludamenta). Although paludamentum is derived from the same root as pallium, “cloak,” it looks and scans like the many adjectives derived from palus, –udos, “swamp,” such as paludosus. One also cannot help but notice that cumque paludatis ducibus is in a chiastic relationship with siccisque mamillis in the next line. Thus, her dry breasts, because she has no children, are contrasted by an implicit figura etymologica with the general who is dressed for hard campaigning in the field and exposure to the elements. Wet and dry are thus inverted as markers of masculinity and femininity (see Miller 1998).
402–6. Seres = “Chinese.”
Diripiatur = “torn apart,” presumably when getting caught in the act. See Horace 1.2.
Modis quot = “in how many positions,” another descending climax.
407–12. She has all the news on political and military developments overseas as well as natural disasters. Instantem … cometen = “the comet that is of great moment.”
Regi Amenio Parthoque: Armenia was perpetually shifting between Roman and Parthian hegemony.
Quosdam facit = “some she just makes up.” The asyndeton is harsh.
409–12. A list of the rumores she recounts (narrat). Niphaten = Greek accusative: a river in Armenia. For more, see Courtney (1980).
Nutare urbes, subsidere terras: presumably the earthqua
ke that struck Antioch in 115 CE.
413–33. Worse is the hypermasculine woman who is aggressive to her neighbors, works out at the baths, and drinks too much.
413–15. Loris: see Horace 1.10 [5].
Experrecta = “roused”: this emendation, found in the scholia, was first proposed and best defended by Duff (1970). It has been adopted by Ferguson (1979) and Willis (1997). The text as transmitted, exortata or exorata, is universally printed with daggers when not emended.
415–18. Latratibus < latratus, –us: “barking.”
Fustes = “cudgels.” Note the clipped, military diction.
Illis = ablative of means, referring back to fustes.
418–23. “A terror to meet, she heads to the baths for a workout and a lower-body massage.” Occursu < occurro, –currere, –curri, –cursum: “to run into, to oppose”: supine.
Nocte = “nightfall or dusk.” Romans bathed before dinner and dined between 2 and 3 pm. She, however, is excessive in everything she does.
Conchas = “bath tubs” here, see Friedländer (1962) and Courtney (1980).
Castra moveri: the metaphor is that of the general ordering his troops to decamp. She must have a substantial retinue.
Sudare: i.e., in the sauna amidst the hubbub of the clients and personnel (magno … tumultu). This is no retiring violet.
Massa = “weight”; she has been pumping iron. Normally, only men exercised before bathing.
Cristae = “clitoris” (Adams 1982: 98).
Aliptes = “masseur.”
Summum dominae femur exclamare = transfer of epithet. The woman, and not her upper thigh, exclaims.
424–5. “Meanwhile, her guests wilt with hunger.”
425–9. “She comes home red-faced (rubicundula) and drinks till she pukes.” Plena … urna = “with a full three gallons.”
Sextarius = “a pint.”
Orexim < orexis, –is: “hunger.”
Redit: the subject is the wine, i.e., she throws up.
Loto < lavo, –are, lavi, lautum or lotum: “wash.”
430–2. Pelvis = “basin.”
Olet = “smells of.”
Dolia = “a large wine jar.”
Serpens: snakes in ancient lore were proverbially fond of wine. See Courtney (1980) for sources.
432–3. “It’s all her husband can do to keep from throwing up himself.” Substringit = “holds down.”
434–56. In a typically Juvenalian anticlimax, the worst example of women who act like men are those who practice literary criticism.
434–7. Discumbere = “to recline” at the dinner table. We are to imagine a symposiastic discussion.
Periturae … Elissae: Dido’s suicide at the end of the Book 4 of the Aeneid.
Comittit = “sets against each other.”
Maronem: i.e., Publius Vergilius Maro.
Trutina = “scale.”
438–440. “She silences everyone.” Causidicus: see 1.30–9.
Praeco: see 1.99–101.
440–2. Tintinnabula = “bells.”
442–3. “Juvenal refers to the custom of beating on pots and pans and blowing horns to frighten away an eclipse of the moon” (Richlin 1986).
444–7. “She respects no limits and should simply dress as a man.” Tenus = a preposition, “down to.” Men’s tunics were belted-up to mid-calf. Women’s extended to their feet.
Silvano: a god of the forest. He received sacrifice only from men,
Quadrante = “a penny,” what men were charged at the baths. Women generally paid more.
448–51. “Women should not know too much, and what they do, they shouldn’t understand.” As usual, the kicker is in the end and is so absurd as to rob the speaker of credibility. While far from absolving Juvenal of misogyny, in many places this satire is as much a parody of Roman misogynist discourse as an example of it.
Dicendi genus: referring to the three recognized styles of speaking Attic, Asiatic, and mixed or Rhodian.
Curvum … enthymema = “a rounded-off enthymeme.” An enthymeme is a truncated syllogism used as a rhetorical argument. This and the previous clause indicate a woman who has received formal rhetorical training.
Sed quaedam ex libris = “but certain things from books.”
451–5. “I despise the woman who knows more than I.” Palaemonis = Remmius Palaemon, a famed teacher of literarture and rhetoric (first century CE).
Antiquaria = “an enthusiast for archaic literature.”
455–6. “She won’t even allow her husband a grammar error.”
Opicae: see 3.203–7.
474–507. A day in the life of an average woman: she governs her household like a tyrannical magistrate. Her pretensions are like her hair: piled high in front, it makes her look like Andromache, but from behind it reveals her to be a pygmy.
474–5. Pretium curae = “worthwhile.”
Penitus = “through and through.”
475–80. “If hubby’s not in the mood, the whole household will pay.” Libraria = the slave who weighed out the wool for the others to spin.
Ponunt … tunicas: for a whipping.
Cosmetae = the slaves charged with their mistress’s toilette.
Liburnus = a slave from Dalmatia. They were favored as litter-bearers.
Poenas … pendere = “to pay the penalty.”
Alieni: i.e., the husband.
Frangit ferulas = “breaks canes” by being beaten with them.
Flagello < flagellum, –i: “a whip of knotted cords.”
Scutica = “a strap.”
Tortoribus = “floggers,” public slaves normally paid by the job. She pays them an annual salary.
481–5. “She has them beaten as she blithely goes about her business.” Obiter = “meanwhile.” Note how the enjambment [47] and repetition of et caedit in the same metrical sedes rhythmically enacts the repetitive beating.
Faciem linit = “puts on her make-up.”
Pictae = “embroidered.”
Longi … transversa diurni = a single papyrus in which the writing went straight across, rather than being divided into columns or sheets joined together, as was done in ancient books. Many official documents were written in the transverse style. There are two schools of thought concerning the content of the present document. Some (Duff 1970; Ferguson 1979) believe it refers to the acta diurna, a daily gazette instituted by Julius Caesar and referred to elsewhere by Juvenal. But the scholiast says it is an account book and Courtney (1980) argues that diurnum is nowhere else used as a singular substantive to stand for the acta. This view is persuasive.
Exi = the imperative. It is the object of intonet and modified by horrendum.
Cognitione = “an inquest,” as if she were a magistrate. The term is technical.
486. “Sicilian tyrants show more mercy.” Praefectura = “the governance.”
Aula = “a palace,” and by metonymy the seat of princely power. The fifthand fourth-century BCE Greek tyrants who ruled Sicily compiled a remarkable record of cruelty. See Persius 3.39–43.
487–91. “If she has a date and is in a rush, her hairdresser comes in already stripped for her beating.” Constituit = “has a date,” see 3.12.
Solitoque decentius = “more becomingly than usual.”
Isiacae … lenae = “of Isis the bawd.” The temple of Isis was a popular place for assignations. See 9.22.
490. Note the ironic placement of crinem and ipsa to emphasize that Psecas fixes her mistress’s hair after her own locks have been torn out.
491. Umeros = Greek accusative of respect. This line, with its emphasis on Psecas’s naked shoulders and nipples, is simultaneously titillating and sadistic even as it condemns the mistress’s cruelty in the service of her own transgressive liaison.
492–3. Altior = “too high.”
Cincinnus = “curl.”
Taurea = “bull whip.”
Continuo = “immediately.”
494–5. “Is it Psecas’s fault you don’t like your nose?”
497–501. “Indeed there is a whole privy counsel to ensure that all matters of beauty are properly overseen.” The analogy of the mistress of the house to a tyrant, begun with the cognitio (485) and continued with the discussion of her praefectura (486), is here extended with this parody of a governing cabinet. Materna: “one of her mother’s servants, as some amici principis served more than one emperor” (Ferguson 1979).
Admotaque lanis: “now charged with measuring out the wool” for the other slaves to spin, she has retired her hairpin (emerita … acu).
Prima sententia: the retired hairdresser is the elder stateswoman of the group and called upon to give her opinion first, just as the princeps senatus.
Censebunt = a technical term used for giving opinions in the senate.
Tamquam famae discrimen agatur / aut animae = “as though it were a decision concerning her reputation or her life.”
502–4. “Her curls are piled so high that from the front you’ll see Andromache, but from the rear another.” Ordinibus = “rows of curls.”
Conpagibus < conpages, –is: “joints, seams.” The hair was piled in rows of curls on top of their heads and held in place by a wire frame (Ferguson 1979). “Roman women in Juvenal’s youth, as statuary attests, did wear elaborately piled-up hairstyles, high in front and low behind. The style continued in less extreme form at least through the reign of Trajan, when this poem was probably published; Trajan’s wife Plotina looks on her coins as if a seam divides the jutting front of her head from the back” Richlin (1986).
504–7. “Tell us your counsel if she’s shorter than a pygmy and has to stand on tip-toe to receive a kiss.” Cedo has a short e and is a colloquial imperative (ce + do) meaning “give here, tell us.”
Sortita est < sortior, –iri, –titum: “to have fall one’s lot.”
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