BOOK XI.

ARGUMENT.

Schoenbeck supposes this book to have been written in memory of the

Iberian war; because it not only touches on military affairs, but

contains also some bitter sarcasms on the morals of certain young

men who served in that campaign. Petermann coincides in the same

opinion. Corpet supposes that the principal object of the book

was an elaborate defense of the character of Scipio Africanus;

especially with regard to the salutary and strict discipline

which he restored to the Roman army during the Numantine war.

Gerlach admits the probability of these conjectures, though he

scarcely thinks that the Fragments which have come down to us

of this book are of sufficient length to enable us to pronounce

definitively on the question. It is quite clear that the mention

of Opimius the father, or of the elder Lucius Cotta, can bear

no relation to the Numantine war, since they both lived before

it began; still it is possible that their names might have

been introduced, to render the morals of their sons still more

conspicuous. How the Fragment (2) respecting the plebeian Caius

Cassius Cephalo was connected with the main subject is not

clear, unless he was introduced for the purpose of incidentally

mentioning the bribery of the unjust judge, Tullius.

The fourth and ninth Fragments may clearly refer to the Numantine

war; as may perhaps the seventh; as we learn from Cicero, that

while Scipio Africanus was before Numantia, he received some

munificent presents, which were sent to him from Asia by King

Attalus, and which he accepted in the presence of his army. (Cic.

pro Dei., 7.) This happened probably only a few months before the

death of Attalus; and Lucilius was most likely an eye-witness

of the fact. The thirteenth Fragment also may refer to the same

campaign; though Duentzer supposes it to be an allusion to the

miserable penuriousness of Ælius Tubero. The fifth and sixth

Fragments apparently refer rather to civil than military matters.

1 Quintus Opimius, the famous father of this Jugurthinus, was

both a handsome man and an infamous, both in his early youth;

latterly he conducted himself more uprightly.[1746]

2 This Caius Cassius, a laborer, whom we call Cefalo--a cut-purse

and thief--him, one Tullius, a judge, made his heir; while all

the rest were disinherited.[1747]

3 Lucius Cotta the elder, the father of this Crassus, "the

all-blazing," was a close-fisted fellow in money-matters; very

slow in paying any body--[1748]

4

5 Asellus cast it in the teeth of the great Scipio, that during

his censorship, the lustrum had been unfortunate and

inauspicious.[1749]

6 ... and now I wished to throw into verse a saying of Granius,

the præco.[1750]

7 ... a noble meeting; there glittered the drawers, the cloaks,

the twisted chains of the great Datis.[1751]

8 ... and a road must be made, and a rampart thrown up here, and

that kind of groundwork--[1752]

9 ... he is a wanderer now these many years; he is now a soldier

in winter quarters, serving with us

10 ... thence, while still of tender age and a mere boy, comes to

Rome.

11 Nor have I need of him as a lover, nor a mean fellow to bail

me--

12 ... he is a jibber, a shuffler, a hard-mouthed, obstinate

brute.[1753]

13 When they had taken their seats here, and the skins were

extended in due order....[1754]

14 ... who in the wash-house and the pool....

FOOTNOTES:

[1746] _Jugurthinus_ is properly the proud title of Marius. (Ov.,

Pont., IV., iii., 45, "Ille Jugurthino clarus Cimbroque triumpho.")

It is here applied ironically to Lucius Opimius, who so notoriously

received bribes from Jugurtha, when he went over, as chief of the ten

commissioners, to arrange the division of the kingdom between Jugurtha

and Adherbal, B.C. 117. (Sall., Bell. Jug., xvi.) He had been before

honorably distinguished by the taking of Fregellæ, when in rebellion

against Rome, while he was prætor. The safety of the Roman state had

also been committed to him when consul (B.C. 121) during the riots of

Caius Gracchus, which by his prompt measures he was the main instrument

in quelling. (Hence Cicero styles him "civis præstantissimus."

Brut., 34.) For this he was accused by the democratic party, but was

acquitted; his defense being conducted by the same Papirius Carbo who

had assailed Scipio Africanus after the death of Tiberius Gracchus

("aliâ tum mente Rempublicam capessens." Cic., de Or., ii., 25). The

partisans of Gracchus, however, afterward crushed him by means of the

Mamilian law, along with many other excellent men. Cic., Brut., _u.

s._ Sall., Bell. Jug., 40. He was consul with Q. Fabius Maximus, who

that year overthrew the Allobroges and Arverni. His consulship was

long remembered as having been a splendid year for wine, hence called

Opimianum. Cic., Brut., 83. Of his father Quintus, Cicero speaks in

nearly the same terms as Lucilius does here: "Q. Opimius, consularis,

qui adolescentulus malè audisset." De Orat., ii., 68.

[1747] _Cephalo_, like Capito, was probably a nickname from the

size of his head. _Sector_ is used by Plautus exactly in the sense

of the English "cut-purse." Sector Zonarius, i. e., Crumeniseca,

βαλαντιοτόμος. Trinum., IV., ii., 20. It is applied by Cicero to a mean

fellow, who buys at auction the confiscated goods of proscribed persons

to retail again. Cic., Rosc. Am., 29. Ascon. in Verr., II., i., 20. Cf.

Nonius, _s. v._ Secare. _Damnare_, i. e., "exhæredare." Non.

[1748] παναίθου (cf. Horn., Il. xiv., 372) is an epithet applied to a

helmet. Why it was given to this Cotta is not known. Gerlach supposes

him to be the L. Cotta mentioned by Cicero (de Orat., iii., 11) as

affecting a coarse and rustic style of speaking, "gaudere videtur

gravitate linguæ, sonoque vocis agresti," and that this name was given

him by way of irony. He would be most justly entitled to the epithet of

Crassus, "the coarse," which was probably given for the same reason.

(Crassus not being the regular cognomen of the Aurelian gens, to which

Cotta belonged, but of the Licinian.) Valerius Maximus gives a story of

the sordid avarice of the father, which illustrates what Lucilius says,

that when tribune of the Plebs he took advantage of the "sacrosanct"

character of his office to refuse paying his creditors their just

claims, but was compelled to do so by his colleagues. (Pighius assigns

this event to B.C. 155.) He was afterward accused by P. Corn. Scipio

Africanus minor; but being defended by Q. Metellus Macedonicus,

was acquitted. Cf. Cic., Brut., 21, where he gives him the epithet

"veterator." He was one of the partisans of the Gracchi.

[1749] _Asellus_ is probably the same whom Cicero mentions (de Orat.,

ii., 64), about whom Scipio made the pun, which is, of course, as

Cicero says, untranslatable: "Cum Asellus omnes provincias stipendia

merentem se peragrâsse gloriaretur, '_Agas Asellum_,'" etc.

[1750] _Granius_, a præco, though a great favorite with the plebeians,

who used to retail his witticisms with great zest, was on terms of

intimate friendship with Crassus, Catulus, T. Tinca Placentinus, and

other men of high rank, whom he used to criticise with the greatest

severity and freedom, and hold, especially with the latter, contests in

sharp repartee. (Vid. Cic., Brut., 43, 46: de Orat., ii., 60, 70, where

some of his witticisms are quoted.)

[1751] Gerlach refers this Fragment to the presents sent by Attalus.

"Datis" he takes to mean any common name, but would suggest "ducis."

[1752] _Rudus_ is applied to a mixture of stones, gravel, and rubble,

cemented together with lime, used by the Romans as a substratum for a

path or pavement. Cat., R. R., 18. Plin., xxxvi., 25. Cf. Liv., xli.,

27, "Vias sternendas silice in Urbe glareâ extra Urbem locaverunt."

Tibull., I., viii., 59.

[1753] This Fragment is most probably connected with Fr. 3, as both

strigosus and bovinator are applied to beasts who refuse to move; and

hence to persons who use all kinds of artifices to avoid the payment of

their just debts.

[1754] Cf. vi., 13; x., 4.