Apula < Apulus, –a, –um = “Apulian.”
Milvos = “kites.”
Lassas < lasso, –are: “exhaust.”
56–60. “Your vines are fertile but you give nothing to your client’s exhausted loins.” Trifolinus = a region near Naples known for its wine.
Suspectumque iugum Cumis = “the ridge that overhangs Cumae.”
Gaurus identified with Monte Barbaro, an extinct volcano and hence inanis.
Linit = “smears, daubs.”
Victuro = future participle of both vivo and vinco. The wine will “live,” and hence become an aged vintage, and it will “conquer” both its competitors and, perhaps, its consumers.
Dolia: see 6.430–2.
59–60. In punctuating these lines, I follow Courtney (1980; 1984), Labriolle and Villeneuve (1964), and Friedländer (1962). Erat: “The indicative in such cases, where English would say ‘would have been’, is regular” (Courtney 1980).
60–2. “Do you prefer to leave your young slave to your friend, the eunuch priest of Cybele?” The sequence of thought is difficult. Who is the priest of Cybele and why would he receive this legacy? He must serve as an image of the kind of depravity that would ensue if the already depraved patron did not make a bequest to his equally depraved client. There is also a crude joke: why should Virro leave his property to a priest lacking the very instrument whereby Naevolus earns his keep, and which would be necessary to enjoy the boy properly? The slave and his mother are, in turn, synecdoche for the property on which they live. I, with Courtney (1980) and Willis (1997), accept Housman’s conjecture melius nunc for the manuscripts’ nonsensical meliusne hic.
Casulis = diminutive of casa: the plural tells in favor of Courtney’s (1980) interpretation, “toy houses.”
Catello: see 6.652–4.
Cymbala pulsantis: a common attribute of a priest of Cybele.
63–5. The patron responds that Naevolus does not observe the proprieties. The fiction underlying patron–client relations is that they were spontaneous friendships founded on mutual good offices, not commodified relations of labor for hire, which Romans saw as little different from slavery (Bowditch 2001: 16–17). Patrons provided “gifts” for clients, and Naevolus, by having the temerity to ask, calls into question the fiction on which the institution rests. Pensio = “rent.”
Acies = “keenness, vision,” and in this context “eye.” If Polyphemus had had more than one eye, Ulysses would have never escaped. The epic comparison is highly incongruous for the context and makes Naevolus appear as absurd a character as his patron is mean. Having only one slave certainly placed Naevolus several steps down the social ladder, but hardly at the bottom.
66–7. “I have to buy another, because this one just won’t do, and then I’ll have to feed two!” Naevolus and his patron are an unlovely pair.
67–9. Scapulis = “the shoulders,” which need to be covered.
Cicadas = metonymy for “spring.”
70–2. “But you fail to recognize the costs if I had left your wife a virgin.” The lex Iulia (6.38–40) specified economic and social penalties for Romans of senatorial and equestrian status who did not marry and produce heirs. Virro needs to reward Naevolus for saving him from the social and financial disgrace of being unable to consummate his marriage. Ut = concessive.
Cetera = the shared object of both dissimules and mittas.
73–4. Ista = accusative of respect.
Modis: see 6.402–6. Virro is a voyeur.
Pollicitus: understand sis.
74–8. “As the creaking of your own bed testifies, while you listened outside, I saved your marriage.” Fugientem: was she fleeing Virro or Naevolus? The grammar is ambiguous.
Rapui = “seized,” but also “raped” (Adams 1982: 175).
Tabulas = “the marriage contract.” She had asked for a divorce.
Migrabat: Highet’s (1952) emendation of the vulgate signabat is widely adopted.
Te plorante foris: Virro ironically recalls the figure of the elegiac exclusus amator.
79–80. “Adultery saves marriages.” Dirimi < dirimo, –ere, –emi, –emptum: “to part, separate, sunder.”
81–3. “There’s no escaping it. You are only a father by my good offices.”
84–6. Libris actorum = acta diurna. See 6.481–5.
87–8. Legatum omne capis: the lex Iulia forbade the childless from receiving more than half of any legacy left them, the rest (caducum) went to another named in the will who happened to be a parent.
89–90. “You will gain additional privileges if I bring the family up to the full number, three.” The lex Papia Poppaea (9 CE) granted special privileges to senatorial and equestrian households that produced at least three children.
90–1. The satirist replies, “what does he say in response?”
92–101. “To him I am a completely disposable sexual beast of burden.” The ass was notorious for its lust.
93–5. “Please keep these complaints a secret.” Pumice levis = “depilated.”
96–7. The irony of Naevolus’s complaint completely escapes him.
97–9. “He would not hesitate to kill me if his secrets were revealed.” Ferrum = “sword.”
Fuste = “cudgel.”
Candelam adponere valvis: i.e., “to burn my house down.”
99–100. Annona = “price.”
101. Curia Martis = the Areopagus, an institution of Athenian political and judicial life whose constitutional function changed over time, but whose deliberations were secret.
102–23. The satirist replies: “A rich man has no secrets. The only real solution is living rightly.”
102. O Corydon, Corydon: a direct allusion to Vergil, Eclogue 2.69, O Corydon, Corydon, quae te dementia cepit. The refined, unrequited homoeroticism of Vergil’s pastoral contrasts markedly with the sordid reality of Naevolus’s life.
103. Ut = concessive.
104–10. “No matter the precautions you take, by cock’s crow the whole neighborhood will know.”
106. E medio fac eant omnes = “make everyone withdraw from your midst.”
Recumbat: see 3.8 and 6.434.
107. Galli … secundi: the cock was thought to crow three times.
108. Caupo: see Horace 1.5.1–6.
109. Libarius = “confectioner.”
Archimagiri = “chefs,” the only example of this Greek word in Latin.
110. Carptores = “carvers” at table.
110–12. Baltea = “belts or straps,” here used to beat the slaves.
112–13. “Drunks will inquire about you at street corners (compita).” Inebriet aurem: a vivid metaphor.
114–15. Quidquid = quod and refers to the request made at lines 92–4.
115–17. “They’d rather betray your secret than content themselves with drinking only as much as the infamous Saufeia.” Falerni: see 1.10.20–30.
Pro populo faciens = “performing a sacrifice for the people,” which would make her the wife of a consul or the praetor urbanus. As 6.320–3, where we first meet Saufeia, shows, this is a reference to the rites of the Bona Dea.
118–19. See the introductory note. This advice goes for Naevolus as well as Virro. The OCT’s daggers around tunc est are needless, as Friedländer shows (1962).
120–3. These lines are a mere repetition of what has come before and, written in a prosaic style, are unlikely to be Juvenal’s. They are unknown to the scholiast and generally printed in brackets.
124–9. Naevolus thanks the satirist for his advice but says it is of little practical value. “What am I to do when age has robbed me of my attractiveness?” The invocation of the carpe diem motif from amatory poetry is deeply ironic. Moreover, as Juvenal’s description of Naevolus in 1–26 indicates, it may already be too late. Velox flosculus = “the swift flower of youth.”
130–3. “Fear not,” the satirist responds, “as long as Rome stands, there will be need for your services.” Carpentis < carpentum, –i: “a two-wheeled carriage,�
� favored by women.
Qui digito scalpunt uno caput: a gesture considered effeminate.
134. Erucis: see Horace 2.8.51, an aphrodisiac.
135–50. Naevolus: “Homilies are fine for the fortunate, but I must earn my bread. I don’t ask for much, just the necessary luxuries.”
135–6. Clotho et Lachesis = “two of the Fates.”
137–40. “I pray to my Hearth Gods that my retirement will be secure.” Tegete: see 6.117–18.
Baculo < baculum, –i: “beggar’s staff.”
140–6. Naevolus’s list of necessities is extravagant. He expects an income (fenus) just below the equestrian census from his property, silver plate, litter-bearers to take him to the circus, an engraver and a painter. This is far more than is necessary to meet the needs of the venter (line 136). It would certainly seem quite extravagant for one who earned his living with his inguine (line 136) and hence was considered little different from a slave (Ste Croix 1981: 198; Joshel 1992: 67–8, 152). Ferguson’s notion (1979) that Naevolus hoped to use the slaves to become a small businessman and “go straight” is endearingly naïve.
Viginti milia: the expected income off the equestrian census of 400,000 sesterces was 24,000 per annum at the accustomed 6% annual rate. It must be remembered that in spite of their being slightly less well off than the senatorial class, the equestrians were anything but middle class. They represented the second order of the aristocratic élite in Roman society and were in the top 1% of the population (Ste Croix 1981: 41–2; Joshel 1992: 71–2).
Puri = “plain, unembossed.”
Fabricius: C. Fabricius Luscinus, censor in 275 BCE, removed P Cornelius Rufinus from the senate for possessing 10 lbs of silver plate. On notet, see Horace 1.4.1–5.
Moesorum: a Balkan tribe favored as litter-bearers.
Locatum: Courtney’s arguments for Heinrich’s conjecture are persuasive (1980).
Curvus caelator = “a stooped engraver,” from bending over his work.
Sufficiunt haec: the bucolic diaeresis highlights this pretence to modesty [51].
147–50. “When will I be at least moderately poor?” Paupertas does not designate poverty, but not being wealthy. Nonetheless, Naevolus wants far more than that.
Nec … saltem = “nor even.”
149–50. Fortuna, like Odysseus fleeing the song of the Sirens, stuffs wax (ceras) in her ears when Naevolus prays. Sicily (Siculos) was the accepted location of the Sirens.
10
A classic example of Juvenal’s later style [78], this poem was the model for Johnson’s “The Vanity of Human Wishes.” The argument is simple: men pray for power, eloquence, military success, longevity, and good looks, but none of these brings happiness. Its power lies in its vividly sketched vignettes of Sejanus, Cicero, Hannibal, Priam, and others. It ends with the now commonplace formula that all we should pray for is mens sana in corpore sano (line 356).
This satire seems to promise philosophical repose. The world is to be laughed at with pity, not raked with the lash. As such, the poem is filled with the chestnuts of ancient moral philosophy. The good sense of these truisms has guaranteed the poem a large and receptive audience through the ages, where the misogyny of poems like 6 and the obscenity of 9 have at times led to their neglect.
Yet before we settle into smug self-satisfaction, it should be noted that the vignettes offer more than enough material to feed the sadistic pleasure associated with satire’s lacerating attacks (see the introductory note to Horace 1.2). Few will forget the image of Sejanus’s dead body being dragged by the hook, nor the scathing descriptions of impotent old age, and aristocratic nymphomaniacs. The joys of vicariously participating in the grotesque degradation of others have not been banished, but provided a more philosophical frame [33, 78].
1–53. Juvenal announces a program of Democritean satire that laughs rather than weeps at the follies of men.
1–4. Few are able to recognize the truly good. Gadibus = Gades, modern Cadiz, a settlement beyond the straits of Gibraltar.
5–6. Dextro pede: “auspiciously,” or as we still say, “on the right foot.”
8–14. “The very things we wish for—money, power, and eloquence—do us harm.” Toga = metonymy for political power.
Torrens dicendi copia: an exemplification of the facundia in question.
Viribus is taken with both confisus and periit.
Ille = Milo of Croton a sixth-century BCE athlete who, in a demonstration of strength pulled apart an oak with his bare hands causing them to be trapped inside. Wolves subsequently devoured him.
Ballaena = “whale.”
15–18. “Great houses arouse imperial envy.” The examples all come from the conspiracy of Piso against Nero (65 CE). Longinum = Longini domum. C. Cassius Longinus was a leading legal authority and former consul. He was exiled to Sardinia, but recalled by Vespasian.
Senecae = the philosopher and tutor of Nero. His wealth was legendary. His nephew, the poet Lucan, was involved in the conspiracy. Both were forced to commit suicide.
Lateranorum: Plautius Lateranus, another conspirator, he owned a magnificent home on the Mons Caelius which later became the site for the basilica of St John Lateran. He was executed.
“The change of tense from clausit to obsidet gives a picture. The soldiers have closed Seneca’s house, and are now proceeding to beset Lateranus” (Pearson and Strong 1892).
Cenacula = “garret.”
19–22. “Even modest (pauca) wealth leads to fear.” Argenti vascula puri = a direct quotation of 9.141.
Contum = “a pike.”
Vacuus = “empty-handed” and “carefree.” Note the alliterative pattern: c… v … c … v.
23–5. “Indeed everyone prays for riches.”
25–7. “No poison is drunk from simple earthenware.” Aconita: see 1.158–9 and 6.638–40.
Setinum: understand vinum. The wine from Setia was considered fine.
Ardebit: “a beautifully chosen word: ‘glows’, especially suitable to red wine, but also of the burning, consuming effect of poison” (Ferguson 1979).
28–30. This wonderful epigram, which introduces the programmatic portion of the introduction, is almost a direct quotation of Seneca’s De Ira 2.10. There it becomes clear that the two auctores are Democritus and Heraclitus respectively. The rhetorical structure of Juvenal’s sentence is elaborate. Alter assumes auctor and sapientibus refers specifically to “philosophers.” The adverbial clause, quotiens a limine moverat unum / protuleratque pedem, goes with ridebat and flebat, connecting the two main clauses by asyndeton.
Democritus of Abdera, the grandfather of Epicureanism, was an atomistic philosopher of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE.
Heraclitus was the Pre-Socratic philosopher (circa 542–480 BCE) who said the world was a flux and was structured by a tension between opposites (hence contrarius).
31. Facilis: understand est.
Rigidi … cachinni = a striking oxymoron, “a stern cackle.”
32. We have to laugh; there are not enough tears in the world.
33–5. “Democritus laughed, though his world was less absurd than ours.” Praetextae, trabeae, fasces, lectica, tribunal = respectively, the purple-fringed togas worn by magistrates, equestrian ceremonial dress, the symbols of official power, the litters of the wealthy, and the platform on which curule chairs were set: all signs of ambition.
36–42. Juvenal describes the procession that preceded the games at the circus, led by a praetor or consul in a chariot. He was costumed as a triumphing general in the tunic and gold-embroidered (pictae) toga taken from the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. Sarrana = “Tyrian,” hence “purple.”
Aulaea = “curtains,” hyperbole for the toga’s vast folds.
Coronae = a gem-encrusted crown of gold oak leaves held above a triumphing general’s head, and hence above the head of the magistrate presiding over the games, by a public slave. It was too heavy to wear (cervix non sufficit ulla).
Sibi … ne placeat: ano
ther purpose of the slave in the chariot was to remind the triumphing general that he was a man, and hence not actually able to wear such a crown.
43–6. “But that’s only the half of it!” Da nunc = “consider in addition.”
Volucrem = the eagle on the ivory scepter held by the triumphing general.
Cornicines = “trumpeters.”
44–6. The procession of Roman citizens (Quirites) in their freshly laundered togas (niveos) is transformed into the ritualized exchange of services (officia) that constituted the essence of the patron-client relationship (amicitia). Praecedentia refers to the anteambulationes or the “forerunners” who cleared the way.
Quos: antecedent = Quirites.
Sportula: see 1.95–126.
Defossa < defodio, –ere, –fodi, –fossum: “to dig, to bury” and hence “conceal.”
Loculos = “cash-boxes.”
47–50. “Then too he found no shortage of fools to laugh at.” Invenit = perfect. Its subject is Democritus.
Occursus < occursus, –us: “meeting.”
Et = also Vervecum < vervex, –vervecis: “dolt,” see 3.293–6.
Crassoque sub aere nasci: Abdera, in spite of producing several notable intellectuals, had a reputation for giving birth to dolts, sometimes attributed to Boeotia’s “thick” air.
51–3. “He laughed at the joys, cares, and tears of the common man and gave Fortuna the finger.” Mandaret laqueum = “ordered a noose for.”
54–5. This is the transitional couplet between the introduction and the satire’s main body. Lines 56–345 take up what is perniciosa, while only 346–66 concern what is fas. Incerare = “to smear with wax,” from placing wax-tablet petitions on the knees (genua) of cult statues, a striking comic image to revitalize a commonplace.
56–113. “Do not pray for power. Remember the example of Sejanus.”
56–8. “Power subjected to envy casts down the mighty.” Pagina = a bronze tablet affixed to a statue-base listing offices held.
58–60. “The statues are pulled down and hauled away.” Restem = “rope.”
Latin Verse Satire Page 41