BOOK VI.
ARGUMENT.
Schoenbeck considers the subject of this book to have been an
attack upon the crafty and dishonest tricks of pleaders in the
forum. Gerlach sees in it little more than Lucilius' favorite
theme, the exposure of vile and sordid avarice. The miser's
anxious alarm for the safety of his money-bags (Hor., i., Sat.
i., 70, "Congestis undique saccis indormis inhians"), which he
can not bear out of his sight, and from which no earthly power
can tear him away (Fr. 1, 2), the miserable appliances of his
scanty furniture, and the absence of any thing approaching to
luxury, or even comfort, form the first portion of the Satire.
The remaining Fragments seem rather to apply to the manners of
the nobles. Their insolent disregard of the feelings of others
(Fr. 4), their unbridled licentiousness, their arrogance of look
and bearing, and haughty contempt of all union with plebeians,
are depicted in very bold language. Yet these same men are
described as condescending to the most servile and fulsome
flattery in courting the favor of these same plebeians, when
such condescension is necessary to advance their own ambitious
schemes. The extravagant gesture and overstrained language
of some bad orator is then described (Fr. 3), which Gerlach
considers to apply to one of these patricians when pleading
his own cause. Van Heusde refers to no one in particular, but
Corpet supposes there is an allusion to Caius Gracchus, who is
mentioned by Plutarch as having been "the first of the Romans who
used violent gesticulation in speaking, walking up and down the
rostrum, and pulling his toga from his shoulder." What connection
the Fragment in which Crassus and Mucius are mentioned has with
the main subject, as also the allusion in Fr. 5 to some immodest
female, is not known.
1 ... who has neither hackney nor slave, nor a single attendant.
His bag, and all the money that he has, he carries with him.
He sups with his bag, sleeps with it, bathes with it. The
man's whole hope centres in his bag alone. All the rest of his
existence is bound up in this bag![1687]
2 ... whom not even bulls bred in the Lucanian mountains, could
draw away with their sturdy necks, in one long pull.[1688]
3 ... this, I say, he will bray and bawl out from the Rostra,
running about like a courier, and loudly calling for help.[1689]
4 ... they think they can offend with impunity, and by their
nobility easily keep aloof those who are not their equals.[1690]
5
6 If he has spattered his garments with mud, at that he foolishly
sets up a loud and hearty laugh--
7
8 ... what you would wish him to do--
9 Lewdness fills their faces; impudence and prodigality--
10 if you know him, he is not a big man, but a big-nosed, lean
fellow--
11 That alone withstood adverse fortune and circumstances.
12
13 Three beds stretched on ropes, by Deucalion.[1691]
14 ... down and velvet, or any other luxury.[1692]
15 The hair-dresser sports round the impluvium, in a circle.[1693]
16 ... this he believes some one begg'd from your bath[1694]
17 ... he makes a good bargain, who sells a cross-bred horse.[1695]
18 ... they think one of their own should enter and pass
over.[1696]
19 ... they do not prevent your going farther--[1697]
20 ... to bid "All hail!" is to wish health to a friend.[1698]
21 Give round the drink, beginning from the top--[1699]
22 The Sardinian land
23 ... both the things we abound in, and those we lack.
FOOTNOTES:
[1687] _Bulgam_ (cf. ii., Fr. 16), from the Greek μολγός, "a hide or
skin" «cf. Arist., Frag. 157; Schol. ad Equit., 959», is a leathern
bag suspended from the arm or girdle, and seems to have answered the
purpose either of a traveling valise or purse. Compare the gypciére of
the middle ages. Hor., Ep., II., ii., 40. Juv., viii., 120; xiv., 297.
Suet., Vitell., xvi. It was a Tarentine word, as we learn from Pollux,
x., 187. From bulga comes the Spanish _bolsa_, the French _bourse_, and
our _purse_.
_Dormit._ Hor., i., Sat. i., 70. Virg., Geor., ii., 507, "Condit opes
alius, defossoque incubat auro."
[1688] _Protelo._ The ablative of the old protelum, which is
interpreted as "the continuous, unintermitting pull of oxen applied to
a dead weight." Nothing could more forcibly express the hopeless task
of attempting to detach the miser from his gains. Cf. xii., Fr. 2.
Plin., IX., xv., 17. Lucret., ii., 532; iv., 192.
[1689] _Concursans._ iv., Fr. 17.
_Ancarius._ The ἄγγαρος, "a mounted courier of the Persians," such
as were kept in readiness at regular stages for carrying the royal
dispatches. (Cf. Herod., viii., 98; iii., 126. Xen., Cyr., VIII.,
vi., 17. Æsch., Agam., 282. Marco Polo describes the same institution
as existing among the Mongol Tartars. Heeren, Ideen, i., p. 497. Cf.
Welcker's Æschyl., Trilog., p. 121.) The name was then applied to any
porter, or carrier of burdens, and hence specially to "an ass," which,
Forcellini says, is its meaning here. Hence _rudet_, cf. Pers., Sat.
iii., 9.
_Quiritare_, is to appeal to the citizens for help, by calling out
"Cursum," etc. Cic. ad Div., x., 32. It was the _city_ cry. Countrymen
were said "Jubilare." Varro, L. L., v. 7. Cf. Liv., xxxix., 8. Plin.,
Pan., xxix. Quinctil., iii., 8, "Rogatus sententiam, si modo est sanus,
non quiritet."
[1690] _Facul_, i. e., facilè. "Haud facul fœmina invenietur bona."
Pacuv. ap. Non., ii., 331. "Difficul" is used in the same manner.
[1691] Descriptive probably of the meanness and antiquity of the
miser's furniture. Grabatum, from the Macedonian word κράβατος, is used
for the coarsest kind of bed. Cf. Cic., Div., ii., 63. Mart., vi.,
Ep. xxxix., 4; xii., Ep. xxxii., 12, "Ibat tripes grabatus et tripes
mensa;" where Martial is describing a somewhat similarly luxurious
establishment. Virg., Moret., 5. Sen., Epist. xviii., 5; xx., 10. These
sort of beds seem to have been supported on ropes. Cf. Petr., Sat. 97.
Mart., v., Ep. lxii., 6, "Putris et abrupta fascia reste jacet." S.
Mark, ii., 9. (See the lines attributed to Sulpicia, quoted in the old
Schol. to Juv., Sat. vi., 538. Lucil., xi., Fr. 13.)
[1692] _Amphitape._ Lib. i., Fr. 21.
[1693] The _Atrium_, which was generally the principal apartment in the
house, had an opening in the centre of the roof, called Compluvium,
or Cavum Ædium, toward which the roof sloped so as to throw the
rainwater into a cistern in the floor (commonly made of marble), called
Impluvium. (See the drawings of the houses of Pansa and Sallust,
Pompeii, vol. ii., p. 108, 120. Bekker's Gallus, p. 257.) The two
terms are used indifferently. The _Cinerarius_ seems to be the same
as the Ciniflo (Hor., i., Sat. ii., 98, "a cinere flando," Acron. in
loc.), "the slave who heated the Calamistri, or curling pins." Bekker's
Gallus, p. 440.
[1694] _Latrinam_, quasi lavatrinam, "the private bath;" balneum being
more commonly applied to the public one. Cf. Plaut., Curc., IV.,
iv., 24. Turneb. It is sometimes put for a worse place, as we say
"wash-house." Vid. Bekker's Gallus, p. 265.
[1695] _Musimo_ is put for any hybrid animal, as a mule, etc. "Animal
ex duobus animalibus diversæ speciei procreatum." It is applied to a
cross between a goat and a sheep. So Plin., VIII., xlix., 75. Compare
the Greek μούσμων.
[1696] See Argument. _Suam_ seems to imply "one of their own order."
Nonius explains _innubere_ by "transire," because women when married
pass to their husbands' houses: it generally means the same as nubere.
But Cort. (ad Lucan, iii., 23, "Innupsit tepido pellex Cornelia busto")
explains it "marrying _beneath one's_ station," which is very probably
its force here. See Bentley's note on the line, who suggests the
emendation "transitivè," no doubt correctly.
[1697] _Porcent_, i. e., porro arcent, prohibent, used by Ennius,
Pacuvius, and Accius.
[1698] "The conventional phrase of forced courtesy implies the
familiarity of equal friendship." See Arg.
[1699] Ter., And., III., ii, 4, "Quod jussi ei dari bibere, date." _Ab
summo_, i. e., beginning from him that sits at the top of the table.
Vid. Schol. ad Hom., Il., i, 597. Cic., de Sen., xiv. Plaut., Pers.,
V., i., 19. As V., ii., 41, "Da, puere, ab summo: Age tu interibi ab
infimo da suavium." So in Greek, ἐν κύκλῳ πίνειν.