Then plain and open was the frugal feast, Now for the scanty dole aloof they wait, Nay, scramble for it at the outward gate. VER. 162. And every client was a bidden guest; &c.] The old Republicans used to admit the clients, who attended them from the forum, to supper. Under the Emperors, this laudable custom was done away, and a little basket of meat given to each of them to carry home. Nero (Suet. xvi.) ordered a small sum of money to be distributed instead of meat, and Domitian brought back the former practice. Whether any changes were subsequently introduced, is not certainly known, but we here find, that money was again distributed perhaps, the choice was in the patron. The sum was a hundred quadrants, pieces something less than a farthing, and making, in all, about fifteen-pence of our money. As this is the first place in which the names of patron and client occur, it may not be amiss to say a few words on the relative situations of two classes of men, which comprehended nearly all the citizens of Rome. A patron then, was a man of rank and fortune, under whose care the meaner people voluntarily put themselves, and, in consequence of it, were denominated his clients. The pa tron assisted his client with his influence and advice, and the client, in return, gave his vote to his patron, when he sought any office for himself, or his friends. The client owed his patron respect, the patron owed his client protection. The institution of this state of mutual dependance, which commenced with the monarchy, was attended with the happiest effects; and, for the space of six centu ries, we find no dissentions or jealousies between the two parties. But as riches and pride increased, new duties were imposed on the clients; they were harassed with constant attendance, and mortified by neglect: in a word, they were little better than slaves. They had yet other causes of complaint; and Juvenal, who appears, from an epigram addressed to him from Spain, by his friend Martial (see Sat. x1.), to have deeply felt the degradation he describes, sometimes speaks of it with pa thos, and sometimes with indignation. But of this, elsewhere. Lest, strangers to the patronage you claim, poor ! Dispatch the Prætor first," the steward cries, "And next the Tribune." No, not so," replies The freedman, bustling through—" first come, you know, "First served; and I may claim my right, I trow "Though born a slave (for why should I deny "What my bored ears evince to every eye), VER. 170. And now he bids the sons of Troy draw near, &c.] The old nobility of Rome affected to derive their origin from the great families of Troy. The satire here is very poignant: vain of their rank, they were careless of their actions, and swelling with the dignity of their ancient blood, were mean enough to be found scrambling amongst the poor, for a few paltry halfpence. VER. 177. Though born a slave, &c.] The original is "though born near the Euphrates," i. e. in Armenia, or rather in Cappadocia, from whence the Romans were chiefly supplied with domestics. From the freedman's appeal to the holes, or as Juvenal contemptuously calls them, the windows in his ear, it would seem as if the meaner Asiatics all wore ear-rings at that time (as, indeed, they still do)—and this explains one of Cicero's best jokes. His rival, Octavius, said to him rather rudely one day as he was pleading, "I can't hear what you say;""and yet," replied the orator, "you were wont to have your ears well bored!" A bitter retort; for the family of Octavius, though then ennobled, was supposed to have come originally from beyond sea, in a mean condition. "The rent of five good mansions now I touch ; TO SACRED HONOUR, who with whiten'd feet, VER. 183. Tut! I can buy 'em all; &c.] In the original, the freedman boasts that he can buy Pallas and the Licinii; this is going a little too far, for Pallas, in particular, was immeasurably rich. He was the freedman of Claudius, a weak prince, who lavished unbounded wealth upon his favourites, and impoverished himself. When he complained of the emptiness of his treasury, somebody observed, and not badly, as Tacitus remarks, that it would be full enough, if his two freedmen (Pallas and Narcissus) would condescend to take him into their firm. Pallas outlived Claudius, and was for some time in high favour with Nero, but was involved in the disgrace of Agrippina, and dismissed the court. He was now grown old, but as the strength of his constitution still threatened to disappoint the eager avarice of the Emperor, he broke through all restraint, and put him to death for the very wealth to which he trusted for safety! The reader will observe, that the satire of Juvenal is incessant: the freedman is made to select for his examples, either an old patrician grown poor, or new men (novi bomines) got into power from nothing. Such as to Victory, Virtue, Faith, are rear'd, And Concord, where the clamorous stork is heard, Yet is thy full divinity confess'd, And thy shrine fix'd in every human breast. But while, with anxious eyes, the great explore How much the dole augments their annual store, What misery must the poor dependants dread, Whom this small pittance clothed, and lodged, and fed? Wedged in thick ranks before the donor's gates, A phalanx firm, of chairs and litters, waits : Thither one husband, at the risk of life, Hurries his teeming, or his bed-rid wife; Another, practised in the well-known art, With greater cunning tops the beggar's part, Plants at his side a close and empty chair; 66 My Galla, master....... give me Galla's share." "Galla!" the porter cries; "let her look out ;" "Sir, she's asleep: nay, give me...can you doubt!" What rare employments waste the clients' day! First to the great man's door they speed their way; VER. 209. What rare employments waste the clients' day, &c.] The day is distinguished by nearly the same employments in Martial: "Prima Salutantes atque altera continet hora, "Exercet raucos tertia causidicos, "In quintam varios extendit Roma labores, "Sexta quies lassis, septima finis erit." Thence to the forum, to support his cause, And the triumphal statues; where some Jew, VER. 211. Thence to the forum, &c.] Here, i. e. in the forum xal' oxx, (for there were several others scattered about the city,) the public business was chiefly carried on. Apollo, who is mentioned in the next line, stood in the forum of Augustus, and acquired the legal knowledge, for which he is so handsomely complimented, from the lawyers, who frequented the courts of justice established there. The "triumphal statues" stood also in this forum; they were those of the most eminent persons who had appeared in the state from the earliest ages. VER. 213. where some Jew, c.] The indignation of the poet has involved him in obscurity. It is not easy to say who is meant here; and the commentators have taken advantage of the uncertainty to display a world of curious research. Holyday, who recapitulates their conjectures, concludes, with every appearance of reason, that it was one Tiberius Alexander, a renegado Jew, who embraced the Religion of Rome, and was made præfect of Egypt. He was the first to declare for Vespasian, (Tacit. Hist. x1. 79,) to whose party he brought a vast accession of strength, and was therefore, probably, honoured with a statue. Alexander's partiality to this prince, however, did him no great credit with our author; whose hatred of Domitian was such, that he seems to have looked with abhorrence -on all unfortunate souls "That traced him in his line." |