The opinion, worthy the man, prevailed: he had known
The old luxury of the empire, and the nights of Nero [lernan
Now half spent, and another hunger, when the lungs with Fa-
Burned: none had a greater experience in eating

In my time. Whether oysters were bred at Circæi, or

140

At the Lucrine rock, or sent forth from the Rutupian bottom,
He knew well to discover at the first bite;

And told the shore of a sea-urchin once looked at. [dismissed
They rise and the senators are commanded to depart from the
Council, whom the great general into the Alban tower 145
Had drawn astonished, and compelled to hasten,
As if something concerning the Catti, and the fierce Sicambri
He was about to say; as if from different parts of the world
An alarming epistle had come with hasty wing.
[150
And I wish that rather to these trifles he had given all those
Times of cruelty, in which he took from the city, renowned,
And illustrious lives, with impunity, and with no avenger.
But he perished, after that to be fear'd by cobblers

144. They rise.] Surgitur, imp. the council broke up. See 1. 65. itur.

145. The great general.] Domitian, who gave the word of com mand for them to depart, as before to assemble.

Into the Alban tower.] To the palace at Alba, where the emperor now was. The word traxerat is very expressive, as if they had been dragged thither sorely against their wills.

146. Astonished-compelled, &c.] Amazed at the sudden summons, but dared not to delay a moment's obedience to it. Comp.

1. 76.

147. Catti.] A people of Germany, now subject to the Landgrave of Hesse-Sicambri, inhabitants of Guelderland.-Both these people were formidable enemies.

149. An alarming epistle, &c.] Some sorrowful news had been dispatched post-haste from various parts of the empire.

Little could the senators imagine, that all was to end in a consultation upon a turbot.

The satire here is very fine, and represents Domitian as anxious about a matter of gluttony, as he could have been in affairs of the utmost importance to the Roman empire.

150. And I wish, &c.] i. e. It were to be wished that he had spent that time in such trifles as this, which he passed in acts of cruelty and murder, which he practised with impunity, on numbers of the greatest and best men in Rome, nobody daring to avenge their sufferings.

153. But he perished, &c.] Cerdo signifies any low mechanics, such as cobblers, and the like. Cerdonibus stands here for the rabble in general.

While Domitian only cut off, now and then, some of the nobles, the people were quiet, however amazed they might be, (comp. 1. 77.)

Cœperat: hoc nocuit Lamiarum cæde madenti.

but when he extended his cruelties to the plebeians, means were de vised to cut him off, which was done by a conspiracy formed against him. See ANT. Un. Hist. vol. xv. p. 87.

154. The Lamia.] The Lamian family was most noble. See HOR. lib. iii. ode xvii. Of this was Ælius Lama, whose wife, Do mitia Longina, Domitian took away, and afterwards put the hus band to death.

The Lamiæ, here, may stand for the nobles in general, (as before

:

He had begun this hurt him reeking with slaughter of the Lamiæ.

the cerdones for the rabble in general,) who had perished under the cruelty of Domitian, and with whose blood he might be said to be reeking, from the quantity of it which he had shed during his reign.

He died ninety-six years after Christ, aged forty-four years, ten months, and twenty-six days. He reigned fifteen years and five days, and was succeeded by Nerva; a man very unlike him, being a good man, a good statesman, and a good soldier.

END OF THE FOURTH SATIRE.

VOL. I.

M

SATIRA V.

ARGUMENT.

The Poet dissuades Trebius, a parasite, from frequenting the tables of the great, where he was certain to be treated with the utmost scorn and contempt. Juvenal then proceeds to stigmatize the

SI te propositi nondum pudet, atque eadem est mens,
Ut bona summa putes alienâ vivere quadrâ;
Si potes illa pati, quæ nec Sarmentus iniquas
Cæsaris ad mensas, nec vilis Galba tulisset,
Quamvis jurato metuam tibi credere testi.
Ventre nihil novi frugalius: hoc tamen ipsum
Defecisse puta, quod inani sufficit alvo,

Nulla crepido vacat? nusquam pons, et tegetis pars

5

Argument, line 1. Parasite.] From waga, to, and res, cornanciently signified an officer under the priests who had the care of the sacred corn, and who was invited as a guest to eat part of the sacrifice. Afterwards it came to signify a sort of flatterer, a buffoon, who was invited to great men's tables by way of sport, and who, by coaxing and flattery, often got into favour. See sat. i. 1. 139, and note.

1. Of your purpose.] Your determination to seek for admittance at the tables of the great, however ill you may be treated.

2. Highest happiness.] Summa bona.-Perhaps Juvenal here adverts to the various disputes among the philosophers about the summum bonum, or chief good of man. To inquire into this, was the design of Cicero in his celebrated five books De Finibus, wherein it is supposed all along, that man is capable of attaining the perfection of happiness in this life, and he is never directed to look beyond it: upon this principle, this parasite sought his chief happiness in the present gratification of his sensual appetite, at the tables of the rich and great.

Another's trencher.] Quadra signifies, literally, a square trencher, from its form: but here, aliena vivere quadra, is to be taken metonymically, to signify-living at another's table-or at another's expense.

3. Sarmentus.] A Roman knight, who, by his flattery and buf. foonery, insinuated himself into the favour of Augustus Cæsar, and

SATIRE V.

ARGUMENT.

insolence and luxury of the nobility, their treatment of their poor dependents, whom they almost suffer to starve, while they themselves fare deliciously.

IF

you are not yet ashamed of your purpose, and your mind is the same, [trencher; That you can think it the highest happiness to live from another's If you can suffer those things, which neither Sarmentus at the unequal

Tables of Cæsar, nor vile Galba could have borne,

I should be afraid to believe you as a witness, tho' upon oath. 5 I know nothing more frugal than the belly: yet suppose even that

To have failed, which suffices for an empty stomach,

Is there no hole vacant? no where a bridge? and part of a rug Embaus ment Urams: sidewalk)

often came to his table, where he bore all manner of scoffs and affronts. See HoR. lib. i. sat. v. l. 51, 2.

3-4. The unequal tables.] Those entertainments were called iniquæ mensæ, where the same food and wine were not provided for the guests as for the master. This was often the case, when great men invited parasites, and people of a lower kind; they sat before them a coarser sort of food, and wine of an inferior kind.

4. Galba.] Such another in the time of Tiberius.

5. Afraid to believe.] q. d. If you can submit to such treatment as this, for no other reason than because you love eating and drinking, I shall think you so void of all right and honest principle, that I would not believe what you say, though it were upon oath.

6. Nothing more frugal.] The mere demands of nature are easily supplied-hunger wants not delicacies.

Suppose even that, &c.] However, suppose that a man has not wherewithal to procure even the little that nature wants to satisfy his hunger.

8. Is there no hole, &c.] Crepido-a hole or place by the highway, where beggars sit.

A bridge.] The bridges on the highways were common stands for beggars. Sat. iv. 116.