BOOK III.
ARGUMENT.
We have not only much more ample and satisfactory information
respecting the subject of this Satire from ancient writers, but
the Fragments which have come down to us give sufficient evidence
that their statements are correct. It is the description of a
journey which Lucilius took from Rome to Capua, and thence to the
Straits of Messina; with an account of some of the halting-places
on his route, and incidents of travel. Besides this, which was
the main subject, he indulged by the way in a little pleasing
raillery against some of his contemporaries, Ennius, Pacuvius,
Cæcilius, and Terence, according to the old Scholiast. This
Satire formed the model from which Horace copied his Journey to
Brundusium, i, Sat., v. The special points of imitation will be
seen in the notes; from which it will appear that the particular
incidents mentioned by Horace, are probably fictitious. As to
the journey itself, Varges and Gerlach are both of opinion
that it was a _real_ one, and undertaken solely for purposes
of pleasure; as it was not unusual for the wealthier Romans of
that day to travel into Campania, or even to Lucania, and as far
as the district of the Bruttii. (Cf. Hor., i., Sat. vi., 102,
_seq._) These journeys were occasionally performed on foot: as we
hear of Cato traveling on foot through the different cities of
Italy, bearing his own arms, and attended only by a single slave,
who carried his baggage and libation-cup for sacrificing. But
Lucilius probably on this occasion had his hackney (canterius),
like Horace, which carried not only his master's saddle-bags, but
himself also. (Cf. Fr. 9. Hor., i., Sat. vi., 104.)
It is not quite clear whether the scene described at Capua was a
gladiatorial exhibition, or merely a drunken brawl that took
place in the streets, from which one of the parties came very
badly off.
Several of the "uncertain Fragments" may be fairly referred to this
book; evidently Fr. inc. 27. Cf. Hor., i., Sat. v., 85. Probably
Fr. inc. 77, 95, 53, 11, 10, 14, 36.
1 ... you will find twice five and eighty full miles; from Capua
too, two hundred and fifty--[1632]
2 ... from the gate to the harbor, a mile; thence to
Salernum.[1633]
3 ... thence to the people of the Dicæarcheans and Delos the
less.[1634]
4 Campanian Capua--
5 ... three miles in length.[1635]
6 ... But there, all these things were mere play--and no odds.
They were no odds, I say, all mere play--and a joke. The
real hard work was, when we came near the Setine country;
goat-clambered mountains; Ætnas all of them, rugged
Athosès.[1636]
7 Besides, the whole of this way is toilsome and muddy--[1637]
8 Moreover, the scoundrel, like a rascally muleteer, knocked
against all the stones--[1638]
9 My portmanteau galled my hackney's ribs by its weight.[1639]
10 We pass the promontory of Minerva with oars--[1640]
11 ... four from this to the river Silarus, and the Alburnian
harbor.[1641]
12 Hence, I arrive at midnight, by rowing, at Palinurus--[1642]
13 And you shall see, what you have often before wished, the
Straits of Messina, and the walls of Rhegium; then Lipara, and
the temple of Diana Phacelitis--[1643]
14 ... here the third passes the truck on the top of the
mast:[1644]
15 And you will square out the way, as the camp-measurer
does....[1645]
16 ... and we will take a decent time for refreshing our
bodies.[1646]
17 There was not a single oyster, or a burret, or peloris:[1647]
18 no asparagus.
19 Waking out of sleep, therefore, with the first dawn I call for
the boys--
20 Bending forward at once he covers his[1648]
21 The rabbit-mouthed butcher triumphs; he with the front tooth
projecting, like the Ethiopian rhinoceros--[1649]
22 ... the other, successful, returns in safety with seven
feathers, and gets clear off--[1650]
23 ... the forum of old decorated with lanterns, at the Roman
games.
24 ... besides, the neat-herd Symmachus, already given over, was
heaving with panting lungs his last expiring breath.[1651]
25 ... like the thick sparks, as in the mass of glowing iron.[1652]
26 she did not give birth to....
27 ... whoever attacks, can confuse the mind--
28 Tantalus, who pays the penalty for his atrocious acts--
29 ... our senses are turned topsy-turvy by the wine-flagons.[1653]
30 ... when it came to extremity and utter destruction--[1654]
31 then you exhale sour belchings from your breast--
32 we raise our jaws, and indulge in a grin
33 here however is one landlady, a Syrian[1655]
34 The little old woman's flight was rough and premature
35 ... they are studying; look to the wood....
36 propped up on a cushion.
37 seeing that
38 You should receive a share of the glory; you should have
partaken with me in the pleasure.
FOOTNOTES:
[1632] It is not known what the places are from which Lucilius meant to
mark these distances. Nonius explains _commodum_ by _integrum_, totum,
"complete."
[1633] Gronovius supposes the harbor intended to be the Portus
Alburnus. Varges says it is Pompeii, which was a little distance from
the sea. Gerlach takes it to be Salernum itself: "and there you are at
Salernum!"
[1634] This high-sounding line is supposed to be a parody of some of
the "sesquipedalia verba" of Ennius. The place meant is Puteoli, now
Pozzuoli, so called either from the mephitic smell of the water, or
from the quantity of wells there. It became the great emporium of
commerce, as Delos had been before, and hence was called Delos Minor.
It was a Greek colony, and was called Dicæarcheia, from the strict
justice with which its government was administered, or from the name of
its founder. Plin., III., v., 9. Stat. Sylv., II., ii., 96, 110. Sil.
Ital., viii., 534; xiii., 385.
[1635] _Longe_ pro _logitudine_. Cf. Hor., i., Sat. v., 25, "_Millia_
tum pransi _tria repimus_." What Horace says of his slow journey to
Terracina, Lucilius had said of his tedious ascent to Setia. See next
Fr.
[1636] _Susque deque_ is properly applied to a thing "about which you
are so indifferent that you do not care whether it is _up or down_."
Cic., Att., xiv., 6, "de Octavio susque deque." Compare the Greek
ἀδιαφορεῖ. A. Gell., xvi., 9. So "susque deque ferre," i. e., æquo
animo, "to bear patiently."
_Illud opus._ Virg., Æn., vi., 129, "Hoc opus hic labor est," _Setia_,
now Sezza, near the Pomptine marshes, on the Campanian hills. From its
high position, Martial gives it the epithet "pendula:" xiii., Ep. 112,
"Pendula Pomptinos quæ spectat Setia campos." The country round was a
famous wine district. Cf. Plin., iii., 5, 5; xiv., 6, 8. Mart., vi.,
86. Juv., v., 34; x., 27; xiii., 213. αἰγίλιποι. The Schol. on Hom.,
Il., ix., 15, explains this as "a cliff so high that even goats forsake
it." Cf., Æsch., Supp., 794. But it more probably comes from λίπτομαι,
than λείπομαι, therefore "eagerly sought by goats." Cf. Mart., xiii.,
Ep. 99.
[1637] _Labosum_ for laboriosum.
[1638] _Quartarius_, "quia partem _quartam_ questûs capiebant." "The
mule-drivers were so called, because they received one fourth of the
hire." Of course, as the animals were not their own, they were not very
careful how they drove them; and hence might run foul of the cippi,
which were either tomb-stones by the side of the road, or stones set
to mark the boundaries of land. Cf. Juv., Sat. i., 171. Pers., i., 37.
Hor., i., Sat. viii., 12.
[1639] Hor., i., Sat. vi., 105, "Mantica cui lumbos onere ulceret atque
eques armos." _Canterius_ (more correctly Cantherius), "a gelding."
[1640] The Promontory of Minerva, now P. di Campanella, is the
southernmost extremity of the Bay of Naples, a short distance from the
island of Capri.
[1641] The _Portus Alburnus_ is the mouth of the river Silarus (now
Selo), which separates Lucania from the district of the Picentini.
The Mons Alburnus (now Alburno), from which it takes its name, stands
near the junction of the Tanager (now Negro) with the Silarus. Virgil
mentions this district as abounding in the gad-fly. Georg., iii., 146.
[1642] _Palinurum_ (still called Capo Palinuro) is in Lucania, not far
from the town of Velia, at the north of the Laus sinus, or Golfo di
Policastra.
[1643] _Messana_, the ancient Zancle, still gives its name to the
strait between it and Rhegium. The geological fact from which the
latter derives its name (Rhegium, or ῥήγνυμι), is described, Virg.,
Æn., iii., 414, _seq._ _Lipara_ (now Lipari) is the principal of the
Æolian or Vulcanian Islands.
_Phacelitis_, from φάκελος, "a fagot." When Orestes made his escape
with Pylades and Iphigenia from Taurica, he carried away with him the
image of Artemis, inclosed for the purpose of concealment in a bundle
of sticks. Hence her name, Phacelitis, or, according to the Latin form,
Facelitis. This image he carried, according to one legend, to Aricia,
near which was the grove of Diana Nemorensis; or, as others say, to
Syracuse, where he built a temple and established her Cultus. Cf. Sil.
Ital., xiv., 260.
[1644] _Carchesium_ is, according to some, "the upper part of the
Levantine sail," or "the lower part of the mast." Others explain it as
"the cross-trees or _tops_ of the mast, to which the sailors ascended
to look out." Or it is "the hollow bowl-shaped top or truck of the
mast, through which the halyards work." Hence its use as applied to a
drinking-cup. (Virg., Georg., iv., 380. Athen., xi., c. 49. Müller's
Archæol. of Art, § 299.) Catull., Pel. et Thet., 236. Liv., Andron. Fr.
incert, 1, "Florem antlabant Liberi ex carchesiis."
[1645] _Degrumor._ Properly, "to mark out two lines crossing each
other exactly at right angles." There was a point in the camp near the
Prætorium, called Groma, at which four lines converged, which divided
the camp into four equal portions.
[1646] Hor., i, Epist. ii, 29.
[1647] _Purpura_ is properly the shell-fish from which the famous dye
came. (_Ostrum_, cognate with _ostrea_.) The _Peloris_ was a common
kind of shell-fish, caught probably off Cape Pelorum, whence its name.
Cf. Plin., xxxii, 9, 31. Hor., ii., Sat. iv., 32, "Muria Baiano melior
Lucrina peloris." Mart., vi., Ep. xi., 5, "Tu Lucrina voras: me pascit
aquosa Peloris." x., Ep. xxxvii., 9.
[1648] _Cernuus_ is applied to one "who falls on his face." "In eam
partem quâ _cernimus_." Virg., Æn., x., 894.
[1649] _Brocchus ovat Lanius._ The reading of Junius (cf. Virg.,
Æn., x., 500), probably part of the description of the street brawl.
_Brocchus_ is applied to one "with projecting mouth and teeth, like the
jowl of a bull-dog."
[1650] _Abundans._ Ter., Phorm., I., iii., 11, "Amore abundas Antipho."
This line either refers to an actual exhibition of gladiators, in
Campania perhaps, or Lucilius applies the language of the arena to the
street-fight. The Scholiast on Juvenal (iii., 158, ed. Jahn) says,
the helmets of the gladiators were adorned with peacocks' _feathers_;
others think the upper part of the _helmet_ was so called, which the
Samnis wore, and hence his opponent was denominated Pinnirapus.
[1651] _Depôstus_, "despaired of." So Virg., Æn., xii., 395, "Ille ut
depositi proferret fata parentis."
[1652] _Strictura_ is either "the mass of iron, generally in a glowing
state, ready to be forged," or "the sparks that fly from the iron
while it is being hammered." The line probably refers to Lipara, or
one of the Vulcanian isles, where the Cyclops had their workshop. (Cf.
Fr. 13.) Virgil uses the word also in describing the Cyclops, viii.,
420, "Striduntque cavernis _Stricturæ_ Chalybum et fornacibus ignis
anhelat." Pers., ii., 66, "_Stringere_ venas _ferventis massæ_."
[1653] _Fundus_ seems to be here used almost like _funditus_; or it may
mean "our firm solid basis."
[1654] _Ad incita_, from "in" and "cieo." A metaphor from chess,
or some game resembling it (latrunculi or calculi), when one party
has lost so many men that he has none more to move; or only in such
a position that by the laws of the game they _can not be moved_
(checkmated). The usual phrase is _ad incitas_. Lucilius is the only
writer who uses the form _ad incita_.
[1655] Syrus was a common name for a slave, from his country, as Davus,
"the Dacian," Geta, "the Goth," etc. Cf. Juv., viii., 159, "Obvius
assiduo Syrophœnix udus amomo currit Idumeæ Syrophœnix incola portæ."