Whose ashes are covered in the Flaminian and Latin way. Twelve Tables, that nobody should be buried within the city; hence the urns of the great were buried, and their monuments were erected, on those celebrated roads or ways. For the Flami nian way, see before, 1. 61. note. The via Latina was of great extent, reaching from Rome, through many famous cities, to the farthest part of Latium. SATIRA II. ARGUMENT. The Poet, in this satire, inveighs against the hypocrisy of the philosophers and priests of his time-the effeminacy of military officers-and magistrates. Which corruption of man ULTRA Sauromatas fugere hinc libet, et glacialem 5 for while they make an outward shew of virtue and sobriety, as if they were so many Curii, they, in truth, addict themselves to those debaucheries and impurities, with which the feasts of Bacchus were celebrated. These were called Bacchanalia. See them described, Liv. xxxix. 8. Bacchanalia stands here for Bacchanaliter. Grecism. These are frequently found in Juvenal and Persius. 4. Unlearned.] Their pretences to learning are as vain and empty, as to virtue and morality. 4, 5. Plaster of Chrysippus.] Gypsum signifies any kind of parget or plaster, (something, perhaps, like our plaster of Paris,) of which images, busts, and likenesses of the philosophers were made, and set up, out of a veneration to their memories, as ornaments, in the libraries and studies of the learned: in imitation of whom, these ignorant pretenders to learning and philosophy set up the busts and images of Chrysippus, Aristotle, &c. that they might be supposed admirers and followers of those great men. SATIRE II. ARGUMENT. ners, as well among them, as among others, and, more particularly, certain unnatural vices, he imputes to the atheism and infidelity which then prevailed among all ranks. I COULD wish to fly hence, beyond the Sauromatæ, and the icy Ocean, as often as they dare any thing concerning morals, And commands a book-case to keep original images of Cleanthes. No credit to the countenance: for what street does not abound With grave obscenes? dost thou reprove base (actions) when thou art Omnia plena denotes the affectation of these people, in sticking up these images, as it were, in every corner of their houses. Chrysippus was a stoic philosopher, scholar to Zeno, and a great logician. 5. The most perfect of these.] If any one buys the likeness of Aristotle, &c. he is ranked in the highest and most respected class among these people. 6. Aristotle like.] An image resembling or like Aristotle, who was the scholar of Plato, and the father of the sect called Peripatetics, from girar, circumambulo, because they disputed walking about the school. chetypus, any thing at first hand, that is, done originally. Cleanthes.] A stoic philosopher, successor to Zeno the founder of the sect. 8. No credit, &c.] There is no trusting to outward appearance. 9. With grave obscenes.] i. e. Hypocrites of a sad countenance: grave and severe as to their outward aspect, within full of the most horrid lewdness and obscenities, which they practise in secret. The poet uses the word obscoenis substantively, by which he marks them the more strongly. Dost thou reprove, &c.] Dost thou censure such filthy things (turpia) in others, who art thyself nothing but obscenity? The poet here by an apostrophe, as turning the discourse to some particular person, reproves all such. Like St. Paul, Rom. ii. 1—3. Inter Socraticos notissima fossa cinædos? Hispida membra quidem, et duræ per brachia setæ 10 15 20 Clunem agitant: ego te ceventem, Sexte, verebor, Loripedem rectus derideat, Æthiopem albus. 10. Among the Socratic, &c.] i. e. Among those, who, though infamously vicious, yet profess to be followers, and teachers of the doctrine and discipline of Socrates, who was the first and great teacher of ethics or moral philosophy. But it is not improbable, that the poet here glances at the incontinence which was charged on Socrates himself. See FARNABY, n. on this line; and LELAND on Christian Rev. vol. ii. p. 133, 4; and HOLYDAY, note c. 12. 1 would here, once for all, advertise the reader, that in this, and in all other passages which, like this, must appear filthy and offensive in a literal translation, I shall only give a general sense. were, 25 rities, and, in this, acted more ingenuously, and more according to truth, than these pretended philosophers did. 16. Impute him.] Ascribe all his vile actions. -To the fates.] To his destiny, so that he can't help being what he is. The ancients had high notions of judicial astrology, and held that persons were influenced all their lives by the stars which presided at their birth, so as to guide and fix their destiny ever after. 17. His disease.] His besetting sin, (Comp. sat. ix. 1. 49. n.) or rather, perhaps, a certain disease which was the consequence of his impurities, and which affected his countenance and his gait, so as to proclaim his shame to every body he met. What this disease was, may appear from lines 12, 13. of this Satire, as it stands in the original. Perhaps Rom. i. 27. the latter part, may allude to something of this sort. 15. And hair shorter than the eye-brow.] i. e. Cut so short as not to reach so low as the eye-brow. This was done to avoid the suspicion of being what they for wearing long hair was looked upon as a shrewd sign of effeminacy. 18. The simplicity of these.] The unIt was a proverb among the Greeks, that disguised and open manner of such "none who wore long hair were free people, who thus proclaim their vice, is from the unnatural vices of the Ci- rather pitiable, as it may be reckoned "nædi." May not St. Paul allude to a misfortune, rather than any thing else, this, 1 Cor. xi. 14. where quis may to be born with such a propensity. See mean an infused habit or custom. See notes on 1. 16. WETSTEIN in loc. and PARKHURST, Gr. and Eng. Lexicon, Quois, No. iii. 16. Peribonius.] Some horrid character, who made no secret of his impu These madness itself, &c.] Their ungovernable madness in the service of their vices, their inordinate passion, stands as some excuse for their practices, A most noted practitioner among the Socratic catamites? 10 Talk is rare to them, and the fancy of keeping silence great, 20 Let the straight deride the bandy-legged-the white the Æthi opian. Who could have borne the Gracchi complaining about sedition? 24 Who would not mix heaven with earth, and the sea with heaven, at least comparatively with those who affect to condemn such characters as Peribonius, and yet do the same that he does. 20. Of Hercules.] This alludes to the story of Hercules, who, when he was a youth, uncertain in which way he should go, whether in the paths of virtue, or in those of pleasure, was supposed to see an apparition of two women, the one Virtue, the other Pleasure, each of which used many arguments to gain him: but he made choice of Virtue, and repulsed the other with the severest reproaches. See XEN. Memor. and Cic. de Offic. lib. i. 21. Sextus.] Some infamous character of the kind above mentioned. 22. Varillus.] Another of the same stamp. The poet here supposes one of these wretches as gravely and severely reproaching the other. What! says Varillus in answer, need I fear any thing you can say in what can you make me out to be worse than yourself? 23. Let the straight, &c.] These proverbial expressions mean to expose the folly and impudence of such who censure others for vices which they themselves practise. See Matt. vii. 3-5. HOR. sat. vii. lib. ii. l. 40—2. VOL. I. This sentiment is pursued and exemplified in the instances following. 24. The Gracchi.] Caius and Tiberius, tribunes, who raised great disturbances, on their introducing the Agrarian law, to divide the common fields equally among the people. At length they were both slain: Tiberius, as he was making a speech to the people, by Publius Nasica; and Caius, by the command of the consul Opimius. 25. Mix heaven with earth.] i. e. Exclaim in the loudest and strongest terms, like him in Terence, O cœlum! O terra! O maria Neptuni! 26. Verres.] Prætor in Sicily, who was condemned and banished for plundering that province. -Milo.] He killed P. Clodius, and was unsuccessfully defended by Tully. 27. Clodius.] A great enemy to Cicero, and the chief promoter of his banishment. This Clodius was a most debauched and profligate person. He debauched Pompeia the wife of Cæsar, and likewise his own sister. Soon after Cicero's return, Clodius was slain by Milo, and his body burnt in the Curia Hostilia. G |