One fourth The first hour of the day among the Romans answered to our sixth. Martial says the courts
were open at nine o'clock, "exercet raucos tertia causidicos;"
it
was, therefore, more than an hour after their opening, that
"If you love me," said he, "step in here a little."
"May I die! if I be either able to stand it out,Aut valeo stare.
"I am in doubt what I shall do," said he; "whether desert you or my cause."
"Me, I beg of you."
"I will not do it," said he; and began to take the lead of me. I (as it is difficult to contend with one's master) follow him.
"How stands it with Maecenas and you?" Thus he begins his prate again. "He is one of few
intimates, Our impertinent therefore promises Paucorum hominum.
"hic homo est perpaucorum hominum."
Ferre secundas
"We do not live there in the manner you imagine; there is not a house that is freer or more remote from evils of this nature. It is never of any disservice to me, that any particular person is wealthier or a better scholar than I am: every individual has his proper place."
"You tell me a marvelous thing, scarcely credible."
"But it is even so."
"You the more inflame my desires to be near his person."
"You need only be inclined to it: such is your merit, you will accomplish it: and he is
capable of being won; The poet says Maecenas was naturally easy to be gained, but that a sense of his own
weakness obligred him to guard himself against the first addresses of a stranger. eo tibi videtur foedus, quia
vestem illam non habet.
"I will not be wanting to myself; I will corrupt his servants with presents; if I am excluded to-day, I will not desist; I will seek opportunities; I will meet him in the public streets; I will wait upon him home. Life allows nothing to mortals without great labor."
While he was running on at this rate, lo! Fuscus Aristius comes up, a dear friend of mine, and one who knows the fellow well. We make a stop.
"Whence come you? whither are you going?" he asks and answers. I began to twitch him [by the elbow], and to take hold of his arms [that were affectedly] passive, nodding and distorting my eyes, that he might rescue me. Cruelly arch he laughs, and pretends not to take the hint: anger galled my liver.
"Certainly," [said I, "Fuscus,] you said that you wanted to communicate something to me in private."
"I remember it very well; but will tell it you at a better opportunity: to-day is the
thirtieth sabbath. The Jews began their year the first of September, and celebrated their paschal festival
the fifteenth of April, in the thirtieth week, from whence tricesima sabbata.
I reply, "I have no scruple [on that account]."
"But I have: I am something weaker, one of the multitude. You must forgive me: I will speak with you on another occasion." And has this sun arisen so disastrous upon me! The wicked rogue runs away, and leaves me under the knife.
But by luck his adversary met him: and, "Whither are you going, you infamous fellow?" roars
he with a loud voice: and, "Do you witness the arrest?" When a man had given bail in a court of justice, if he neglected the time of appearance,
he might be taken by force before the praetor. But the person who would arrest him was
obliged, before he used him with violence, to have a witness of his capture, nonne antestaris?
I assent.Oppono auriculam.
iuris peritus.
τὸν δ' ἐξήρπαξεν Ἀπόλλω
To be sure I did say, that the verses of Lucilius Lucilius had his numerous admirers in Cf.
But [Lucilius, say they,] did a great thing, when he intermixed Greek words with Latin. O
late-learned dunces! What! do you think that arduous and admirable, which was done by Pitholeo
the Rhodian? But [still they cry] the style elegantly composed of both tongues is the more
pleasant, as if Falernian wine is mixed with Chian. When you make verses, I ask you this
question; were you to undertake the difficult cause of the accused Petillius, would you (for
instance), forgetful of your country and your father, while Pedius, Pedius. This is, without doubt, the son of that Q. Pedius whom Julius Caesar made heir to
the fourth part of his estate, and who was chosen consul with Octavius, in room of Hirtius
and Pansa. Corvinus. V. Messala Corvinus, no less distinguished by his eloquence than by his noble
birth. He was descended from the famed Valerius PoplicolaTyriosque bilingues.
While bombastical Alpinus Alpinus. The most probable conjectures induce us to believe, that Horace means Furius
Bibaculus, a poet of some reputation, and not without merit. He describes him in another
Satire Fundanius. He is known only by this elogium of Horace. This passage refers to the pingui tentus omaso
"Jupiter hibernas cana nive conspuit Alpes."
Iugulat dum Memnona
Quae nec in Aede sonent.
Pede ter percusso.
But I said that he flowed muddily, frequently indeed bearing along more things which ought
to be taken away than left. Be it so; do you, who are a scholar, find no fault with any thing
in mighty Homer, I pray? Does the facetious Lucilius make no alterations in the tragedies of
Accius? Does not he ridicule many of Ennius' verses, which are too light for the gravity [of
the subject]? When he speaks of himself by no means as superior to what he blames. What should
hinder me likewise, when I am reading the works of Lucilius, from inquiring whether it be his
[genius], or the difficult nature of his subject, that will not suffer his verses to be more
finished, and to run more smoothly than if some one, thinking it sufficient to conclude a
something of six feet, be fond of writing two hundred verses before he eats, and as many after
supper? Such was the genius of the Tuscan Cassius, more impetuous than a rapid river; who, as
it is reported, was burned [at the funeral pile] with his own books The funeral piles on which dead bodies were burned were made of wood. Cassius had written
so much, that There is a great variation in the interpretation of this passage. They may be found
collected in MCCAUL's notes.
You that intend to write what is worthy to be read more than once, blot frequently: and take
no pains to make the multitude admire you, content with a few [judicious] readers. What, would
you be such a fool as to be ambitious that your verses should be taught in petty schools? That
is not my case. It is enough for me, that the knight [Maecenas] applauds: as the courageous
actress, Arbuscula, expressed herself, in contempt of the rest of the audience, when she was
hissed [by the populace]. What, shall that grubworm Pantilius Pantilius. A buffoon, and a great enemy of Horace, whom he calls Cimex, an insect, out of
contempt. Fannius is the same of whom he speaks in Octavius. An excellent poet and historian. The Visci were two brothers, and both senators.
Bibulus was the son of him that had been consul in 695, and Servius the son of Servius
Sulpicius, who corresponded with
Go, boy, and instantly annex this Satire to the end of my book.
THERE are some persons to whom I seem too severe in [the writing of] satire, and to carry it
beyond proper bounds: Trebatius. This is C. Trebatius Testa, the most celebrated lawyer of that age, as is
evident from the letters which Ultra legem.
Desirous I am, my good father, [to do this,] but my strength fails me, nor can any one
describe the troops bristled with spears, nor the Gauls The Gauls of Aquitain having rebelled 726, Octavius sent Messala, with the title of
governor of the province, to reduce them to his obedience. He conquered them in the year
following, and had the honor of a triumph the 25th of September. When the Romans mentioned a man of great reputation, and whose example had a sort of
authority, their usual expression in conversation. was, Who is far better, and more valuable
than you or me.
Cervius, A criminal was acquitted or condemned by the number of votes, which the judges threw into
a judiciary urn. Virgil tells us this custom was observed among the dead, quaesitor Minos urnam movet.
quo valet, suspectos terret
ne longum faciam
, he will
write.Mirum
, etc. Ironically said, for it is not mirum ut neque calce lupus quemquam neque dente petat bos
dente lupus, cornu taurus petit
Mirum vero, impudentur mulier si facit meretrix.
That I may not be tedious, whether a placid old age awaits me, or whether death now hovers
about me with his sable wings; rich or poor, at i. e. "lest some one of your powerful friends conceive a coldness toward you, and deprive
you of his friendship." So The great men, and people of whatever tribe. It is plain from what remains to us of
Lucilius, that he did not spare the great. Besides Metellus and In allusion to the fable of the serpent and the file.Detrahere pellem.
Si mala condiderit.
WHAT and how great is the virtue to live on a little (this is no doctrine of mine, but what
Ofellus the peasant, a philosopher without rules Quintus Hortensius was the first who gave the Romans a taste for peacocks, and it soon
became so fashionable a dish, that all the people of fortune had it at their tables.
Abnormis.
Crasso filo
Diluta.
Cui tu lacte favos et miti dilue Baccho.
aceto | Diluit insignem baccam.
Lagois.
Bis patriae cecidere manus: quin protenus omnia.
Sed vide audaciam, etiam Hirtio coenam dedi sine pavone.
By what gift are you able to distinguish, whether this lupus, that now opens its jaws before
us, was taken in the Olives, intended for the table, were gathered when they began to ripen and turn black. The fanciful, fashionable taste is but of short continuance; that of nature is
unalterable. You are now as fond of turbot as Gallonius was of sturgeon. But were there no
turbots in his time ? Certainly there were; but no coxcomb had made them fashionable, and
the praetor decided in favor of sturgeon. Another glutton brought turbots and storks into
vogue, and perhaps we only wait for a third man of taste to assure us, that a roasted
cormorant is infinitely more delicious than sturgeons, turbots, or storks. The storks built their nests in safety until the time of Augustus, when your praetor
taught you to eat them. Asinius Sempronius, or, according to others, Rutilius Rufus, when
candidate for the praetorship, entertained the people with a dish of storks. But the people,
according to an ancient epigram, revenged the death of the poor birds by refusing the
praetorship to their murderer. From this refusal the poet pleasantly calls him praetor.
In the judgment of Ofellus, a sordid way of living will differ widely from frugal
simplicity. For it is to no purpose for you to shun that vice [of luxury]; if you perversely
fly to the contrary extreme. Avidienus, to whom the nickname of Dog is applied with propriety,
eats olives of five years old, and wild cornels, and can not bear to rack off his wine unless
it be turned sour, and the smell of his oil you can not endure: which (though clothed in white
he celebrates the wedding festival,Repotia
alios dierum festos
, for Albatus
,
white, was usually the color of the Roman robe even at funeral feasts. Ipse
is a circumstance that strongly marks the avarice of Avidienus. Afraid that
his guests or his servants should be too profuse of his oil, he pours it himself. The poet
tells us, his bottle was of two pounds weight, as if it were his whole store, although he
was extremely rich; and the vessel was of horn, that it might last a long time. All these
particulars are in character.
What manner of living therefore shall the wise man put in practice, and which of these examples shall he copy? On one side the wolf presses on, and the dog on the other, as the saying is. A person will be accounted decent, if he offends not by sordidness, and is not despicable through either extreme of conduct. Such a man will not, after the example of old Albutius, be savage while he assigns to his servants their respective offices; nor, like simple Naevius, will he offer greasy water to his company: for this too is a great fault.
Now learn what and how great benefits a temperate diet will bring along with it. In the
first place, you will enjoy good health; for you may believe how detrimental a diversity of
things is to any man, when you recollect that sort of food, which by its simplicity sat so
well upon your stomach some time ago. But, when you have once mixed boiled and roast together,
thrushes and shell-fish; the sweet juices will turn to bile, and the thick phlegm will bring a
jarring upon the stomach. Do not you see, how pale each guest rises from a perplexing variety
of dishes at an entertainment. Beside this, the body, overloaded with the debauch of
yesterday, depresses the mind along with it, and dashes to the earth that portion of the
divine spirit.Divinae particulam aurae.
Our ancestors praised a boar when it was stale: not because they had no noses; but with this view, I suppose, that a visitor coming later than ordinary [might partake of it], though a little musty, rather than the voracious master should devour it all himself while sweet. I wish that the primitive earth had produced me among such heroes as these.
Have you any regard for reputation, which affects the human ear more agreeably than music? Great turbots and dishes bring great disgrace along with them, together with expense. Add to this, that your relations and neighbors will be exasperated at you, while you will be at enmity with yourself and desirous of death in vain, since you will not in your poverty have three farthings left to purchase a rope withal. Trausius, you say, may with justice be called to account in such language as this; but I possess an ample revenue, and wealth sufficient for three potentates. Why then have you no better method of expending your superfluities? Why is any man, undeserving [of distressed circumstances], in want, while you abound? How comes it to pass, that the ancient temples of the gods are falling to ruin? Why do not you, wretch that you are, bestow something on your dear country, out of so vast a hoard? What, will matters always go well with you alone? 0 thou, that hereafter shalt be the great derision of thine enemies! which of the two shall depend upon himself in exigences with most certainty? He who has used his mind and high-swollen body to redundancies; or he who, contented with a little and provident for the future, like a wise man in time of peace, shall make the necessary preparations for war?
That you may the more readily give credit to these things: I myself, when a little boy, took
notice that this Ofellus did not use his unencumbered estate more profusely, than he does now
it is reduced. You may see the sturdy husbandman laboring for hire in the land [once his own,
but now] assigned [to others], It was customary with the Romans to appoint some person Metato in agello.
mercede colonum
. As each soldier had a certain number of acres, the land was
measured, metato agello
, before it was divided.Duplice
Subinde ficus, sicut est divisa, vertatur, ut ficorum coria siccentur et
pulpae tunc duplicate in cistellis serventur aut loculis.