The first: for who of death so much in dread,
As not to tremble more, the stage to tread;
Squat on his hams, in some blind nook to sit,
And watch his mistress, in a jealous fit!-
But 'tis not wondrous, when the Emperor tunes
A paltry harp, the lords should turn buffoons;
The wonder is, they turn not fencers too,
Secutors, Retiarians,-AND THEY DO! (200)
Gracchus steps forth :-No sword his thigh invests,
No shield, nor helm,-such armour he detests,
Detests and spurns, and impudently stands
With the poised net and trident in his hands,
To wait the foe: and now a cast he tries,
But misses, and, in wild confusion, fliesst
Around the Cirque; and, anxious to be known, as
Lifts his bare face, with many a piteous moan.
""Tis he! 'tis he! I know the Salian vest,
With golden fringes, pendent from the breast;
The Salian bonnet, from whose pointed crown
The glittering ribands float redundant down.
O spare him, spare!"-The brave Secutor heard,
And, blushing, stopp'd the chase; for he preferr'd
Wounds, death itself, to the contemptuous smile,
Of conquering one so noble, and-so vile!

Who, Nero, so depraved, if choice were free,
To hesitate 'twixt Seneca and thee?

Whose crimes, so much have they all crimes outdone,
Deserve more serpents, apes, and sacks, than one.
"Orestes slew his mother." True; but know,
The same effects from different causes flow:
He slew her, to avenge his father's death,
(High in the festal hour deprived of breath,)

200. Of the two combatants who entered the lists, one was called Retiarius, and the other Mirmillo, or Secutor: the former was lightly dressed in a tunic, and furnished with a three-forked spear and a net The latter was armed with a helmet, shield, and short scimitar. The ob ject of the Retiarius was to throw his net over the head of his antagonist and entangle him. If he failed in this attempt, he had no resource bu flight, as in the case of Gracchus.

At heaven's command :—but, in his wildest mood,
Poison'd no kindred, shed no consort's blood, (218)
Buried no poniard in a sister's throat,

Sung on no public stage, NO TROICS WROTE.
THIS topp'd his frantic crimes! THIS roused mankind!
For what could Galba or Virginius find,

In the dire annals of his bloody reign,
That call'd for vengeance in a louder strain ?
Lo! here the arts, the studies that engage
The world's great lord! on every foreign stage
To prostitute his voice for base renown,
And ravish from the Greeks a parsley crown!
Oh, place the trophies of a song so sweet,
On the Domitii's brows! before their feet,
The mask and pall of old Thyestes lay,
And Menalippé! while, in proud display,
From the colossal marble of thy sire,

Depends, the boast of Rome, thy conquering lyre!
Cethegus! Catiline! whose ancestors

Were nobler born, or higher rank'd, than yours?
Yet ye conspired, with more than Gallic hate,
To wrap in midnight flames this hapless state:
On men and gods your barbarous rage to pour,
And deluge Rome with her own children's gore:
Horrors, that call'd, indeed, for vengeance dire,
For the pitch'd coat and stake, and smouldering fire! (235)
But Tully watch'd—your league in silence broke,
And crush'd your impious arms, without a stroke.
Yes he, poor Arpine, of no name at home,
And scarcely rank'd among the knights at Rome,
Secured the trembling town, placed a firm guard
In every street, and toil'd in every ward :-

218. In the comparison here instituted between the insane Orestes and Nero, the advantage is infinitely on the side of the former. Orestes, mad as he was, did not poison his relations, as Nero poisoned Domitia and Britannicus; nor kill his sister, as Nero killed Antonia; nor murder his wife, as Nero murdered Octavia.

235. The pitched coat and stake was the punishment of incendiaries.

And thus, within the walls, the GOWN obtain'd
More fame for Tully, than Octavius gain'd,
At Actium and Philippi, from a SWORD

Drench'd in the eternal stream by patriots pour'd!
For Rome, free Rome, hail'd him, with loud acclaim,
THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY-glorious name! (244)
Another Arpine, hired the ground to till, (245)
Sick of the plough, forsook his native hill,

And join'd the camp; there, if his axe was slow,
The vine-twig whelk'd his back with many a blow:
And yet, when the fierce Cimbri threaten'd Rome
With swift and scarcely evitable doom,

This man, in the dread hour, to save her, rose,
And turn'd the impending ruin on her foes!
For which, while ravening birds devour'd the slain,
And their huge bones lay whitening on the plain,
His high-born colleague to his worth gave way,
And took, well pleased, the secondary bay. (253)
The Decii were plebeians; mean their name,
And mean the parent stock from which they came:
Yet they devoted, in the trying hour,

Their heads to Earth, and each infernal Power;
And, by that solemn act, redeem'd from fate

Auxiliars, legions-all the Latian state,

More prized than those they saved, in heaven's just estimate!

And him, who graced the purple which he wore,
The last good king of Rome, a bondmaid bore.

The Consul's sons, while storms yet shook the state, And Tarquin thunder'd vengeance at the gate,

244. The honourable title of "Founder and Father of his Country," was conferred on Cicero, after his detection and defeat of Catiline's conspiracy. The title of Pater Patria was given to Augustus, and afterwards to several of his successors: but Cicero was the first, and indeed the last, to whom it was given by FREE Rome.

245. This was Marius Caius, who was seven times Consul of Rome.Arpinum, his birth-place, was a little town of the Volsci, situated in the north of what is now called the Campagna Felice; and still retaining its ancient name.

253. This was Q. Catulus, a man of extraordinary merit, and one of the

(Who should, to crown the labours of their sire,
Have dared what Cocles, Mutius, might admire,
And she, who mock'd the javelins whistling round,
And swam the Tiber, then the empire's bound,) (265)
Had at the tyrant's feet the city laid,

But that a slave their dark designs betray'd.
For HIM their tears the grateful matrons shed,
While the stern father, on each filial head

Pour'd Rome's just vengeance,-forfeit to the laws,
And the first sacrifice to freedom's cause!

For me, who nought but innate worth admire,
I'd rather vile Thersites were thy sire,
So thou wert like Achilles, and couldst wield
Vulcanian arms, the terror of the field,
Than that Achilles should thy father be,
And, in his offspring, vile Thersites see.
And yet, how high soe'er thy pride may trace
The long-forgotten founders of thy race,
Still must the search with that asylum end,
From whose polluted source we all descend.
Haste then, the inquiry haste; secure to find
Thy sire some vagrant slave, some bankrupt hind,
Some but I mark the kindling glow of shame,
And will not shock thee with a baser name.

speakers in Cicero's Dial. de Orat. He does not appear to have gained much by his complacency to Marius; being afterwards barbarously put to death by the ferocious old man. Some acquaintance with the earlier part of the Roman history is necessary to the understanding of the remainder of this Satire; of this the reader is presumed to be in possession. 265. This was Clelia, one of the hostages that made her escape to Rome.