And, lest amid the way the flames expire, VER. 379. Huge pans, which Corbulo, &c.] Corbulo, says the old scholiast, was a famous wrestler;-but he was something better: he was a great and successful commander under Nero, by whom, when his services grew too great for reward, he was basely decoyed to Cenchreæ, (a small town near Corinth,) and condemned unheard. He is called a faithful and wary chief, by Amm. Marcellinus, a judge of military merit and Tacitus, who relates his actions, speaks of him with great respect. He terms him one of the most illustrious men of that age, not deficient surely in such characters; and describes him of a gigantic stature, and of inconceivable strength. He fell on his sword, like a Roman. VER. 385. Hark! groaning on, th' unwieldy waggon spreads, &c.] This seems to be an oblique attack on the frenzy of the emperors for building; as it was chiefly for their use, that these immense beams, masses of stone, &c. were brought to Rome. Juvenal, however, lived to see the evil, in some degree, lessened, at least, if we may credit Pliny, who celebrates Trajan (Paneg. c. li.) for his moderation in this respect. Here is the passage, and it is a very pertinent one. He first commends him for being tam parcus in ædificando quam diligens in tuendo; and he immediately adds, Itaque non ut ante immanium transvectione saxorum urbis tecta quatiuntur: stant securæ domus nec jam templa nutantia. Lipsius says, the allusion here is to Domitian. Of this there can be no doubt; and this, if there were no other circumstance, would serve to determine under whose reign this Satire was written. Baudius too, quotes a good passage from the life of Poplicola: it is an apostrophe to Domitian. Ουκ ευσεβης ετε φιλοτιμο συγ' εσσι, νόσον έχεις, χαίρεις κατοικοδομων, ὥσπερ ο Μίδας ; the last thought is not a bad one. Projecting elm or pine, that nods on high, Heavens! should the axle break which bears a weight Of huge Ligurian stone, and pour the freight On the pale crowd beneath; what would remain, Meanwhile, unconscious of their fellow's fate, At Charon's threatening voice, and scowling mien; VER. 397. Arrange the strigils, &c.] The strigil was an instrument with which the Romans scraped the sweat from their bodies after bathing. Britannicus says, it was made of iron; this, I suppose, was usually the case, but we read of brass, silver, and even of gold strigils. Holiday has given a print of one from Fortunatus Scacchus, from which it appears to be an orbicular rim of metal, fixed to a long tapering handle. There are some who will have the strigil to be a coarse shaggy napkin; and others again, an artificial sponge: probably the rich had them of all these different kinds. Whatever it was, the application of it must have been peculiarly grateful to the Romans, since we find that several of them, and Augustus among the rest, injured their skin by too constant an application of it. Nor hopes a passage, thus abruptly hurl'd, Pass we these fearful dangers, and survey Το sup from home before you make your Will; VER. 404. Without his farthing, &c.] The ancients believed, that the souls of the deceased could not cross the Styx, without paying a trifling fare to Charon, for their passage; this they were careful to put in the mouths of their dead friends, previous to their being carried out for interment. This idle notion, the Romans borrowed, together with other fooleries, from the Greeks: it does not, indeed, appear to have been general; but the vulgar, who every where adopted it, adhered to the custom with the most scrupulous pertinacity, and feared nothing so much, as being consigned to the grave, without their farthing. Lucian frequently sneers at this fancy: and our author who, amidst his belief of a future state, had sense enough to mark the folly of the prevailing system, evidently points his ridicule at the monstrous absurdity of the practice. VER. 405. Pass we these fearful dangers, &c.] Having gone through the difficulties and dangers w h attended the poor in their morning and evening walks through the city, Umbritius completes his design by a description of the further evils which awaited them at night. There is every reason, from the testimony of contemporary writers, to believe that the picture is as faithful as it is animated; it is nearly that, in short, of every overgrown and vicious capital, which is not protected by a night-watch, or a vigilant police. For know, as many deaths your steps belay, The drunken bully, ere his man be slain, Like Peleus' son when, quell'd by Hector's hand, His lov'd Patroclus prest the Phrygian strand. There are, who murder as an opiate take, And only when no brawls await them, wake: VER. 422. From side to side, in restless anguish, turns ;] This is literally from Homer: Αλλοτ' επι πλευρας κατακειμεν, αλλοτε δ' αυτε Il. n. l. 10. a passage, by the way, for which he is censured by Plato, who thinks the son of a goddess should have been made to bear his affliction with more dignity. From the terms of the comparison, it would seem that Juvenal thought the same. I believe that the old bard knew more of these matters than either of them. VER. 425. There are, who murder as an opiate take, &c.] There is a surprizing similarity between this passage, and one in the Proverbs of Solomon. "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men: for they sleep not except they have done mischief, and their rest is taken away unless they cause some to fall." Chap. iv. 14 Yet e'en these heroes, flush'd with youth and wine, All contest with the purple robe decline; Securely give the lengthen'd train to pass, The sun-bright flambeaux, and the lamps of brass. The description which follows; the humorous, but strong and indignant, picture of the miseries to which the poor were exposed by the brutal insolence of midnight debauchees, roaming in quest of objects on whom to exercise their cruelty, is no exaggeration of our author's: grave historians have delivered the same accounts. Thus Tacitus, in the life of Nero; who, by the way, appears to have been one of the first disturbers of the public peace. "In the garb of a slave, he roved through the streets, attended by a band of rioters, who offered violence to all that fell in their way. In these mad frolics he was sometimes wounded;" not with impunity, however, for it appears that Julius Montanus was put to death, for repelling his insults. Tacitus does not tell us to whom they were offered, but Dio, who has the same story, says it was to his wife, αγανακτησας ύπες της γυναικα προσέπεσε τε αυτῷ, κ. τ. α.; “ but from the moment it was known that the emperor was become a night brawler, the mischief grew truly alarming. Men of rank were insulted, and women of condition suffered gross indignities: private persons took the opportunity to annoy the public; every quarter was filled with tumult and disorder, and Rome at night resembled a city taken by storm!" It seems from Suetonius, that the evil continued to increase. Otho and others, he tells us, constantly sallied forth at night for the princely purpose of beating such as they met, and tossing them in the sagum (a coarse garment worn by the soldiery); and we learn from the Augustan history, that the joke was repeated with improvements, by those outcasts of human nature, Commodus, Heliogabalus, Verus, &c. It was little discouraged, probably, by any of the succeeding emperors, until the introduction of Christianity inspired humaner sentiments, and shewed the necessity of establishing something like a regular system of protection. |