Through every circle while thy story flies, Such, such is Rome! no deed for future time Is left, to mark maturity of crime; 205 Ourselves have reach'd the cliff's high summit, none Can now outdare the deeds ourselves have done, And left in legacy! go, hoist the sail, Here, haply mayst thou say, be talents thine 211 And satire's bark shall fly before the gale! To bear thee prosperous through the bold design, That utterance bold, that spirit strange to fear. 215 220 With those, some night, thou shait be called to shine, He points! 'tis done! his lightest whisper, death! 218 The person alluded to under this name might well be an object of terror. Tigellinus himself was long since dead, having been destroyed by Otho. He was one of the most dangerous of the satellites of Nero, with whom he was in high favour. The passage generally refers to the horrible iniquity of Nero in putting the Christians to a most barbarous death, on an affected suspicion that they had set fire to the city. I do not think that any one has adverted to the casualty which enabled this monster to transfer with more success than he otherwise could the odium of this misfortune to the early converts of the Christian church. Without some plausible pretext he never would have been able to carry his villany into effect. Now it so happened that in the destructive fire which brought on these calamities two or three of the most ancient temples in Rome were reduced to ashes. The use to be made of this was obvious; and we all know the effects of religious bigotry; "They quit our temples for new gods, and next they burn them." Oh bid the muse to themes less dangerous turn, Eneas, Turnus, none their quarrels harm, 230 None shall vow vengeance where none feel alarm! Bares the bright terrors of his gleaming brand: 235 240 Since living vengeance, then, thou bidd'st me dread, The tomb shall yield me culprits in the dead: Then be their crimes arraigned, whose bones decay Beneath the Latin and Flaminian way. c2 246 SATIRE II. ARGUMENT. THERE is so little of connection in many of the satires, that to write an argument would mostly resolve itself into a summary of the contents of each. Of this the hypocrisy of vice is the general subject: the unnatural passions, the imitation of the rights of the Bona Dea, and the exhibition of the nobles on the stage, are principal parts of it. None of all the satires is more difficult to translate; and though many are of more general interest, yet none, for the length, has finer passages. There is much indeed of exceptionable matter to a modern ear, which, however it might be a reason for glossing over in a translation, can weigh for nothing against the poet, who probably thought that to give things their right name, and to expose boldly, was the accomplishment of half his work in a case where the vice was of a kind so abhorrent to the coinmon feelings of mankind. Let the reader look over a dozen of the earlier pages of the epigrams of Meleager, many of those very beautiful, (Brunck, Anthol., v. 1,) and he will judge whe ther there was occasion for such a satire as this. PERSONS MENTIONED. Sauromatæ, the inhabitants of Sarmatia on either side of the Tanaïs. Peribomius, probably a fictitious name, epißoμios, qui circa aras est.-Ruperti. Sextus, Varillus, also fictitious names: at least not known. Gracchus, Caius and Tiberius, the celebrated advocates for the Agrarian law, a subject which occasioned such dreadful scenes in the republic: they both lost their lives in the popular tumult, A.U.C. 621. The object of the Agrarian law was, that none of the nobles should possess above five hundred acres of land, but that the overplus should be divided among the people. The Gracchus who makes so conspicuous a figure below is supposed by some to be a feigned name. Sempronius Gracchus, of another family, who lived in the reign of Augustus, though a very bad character, would be too far back for the purpose of a satire written in the reign of Domitian. Verres. See Middleton's Cicero, vol. i. A celebrated pretor of Sicily, who has had the honour of giving his name to all corrupt and oppressive governors. Milo, well known by the defence which Cicero made for him after the murder of Clodius: it was, however, only a speech intended to be spoken. Clodius, best known by his intrusion as a "psaltria," vide sat. vi., into the mysteries of the Bona Dea, in order to accomplish his intrigue with the wife of Cæsar. Sylla. See sat. i. Julia, the daughter of Titus, and niece of Domitian, whom he might have married before she became the wife of Sabinus. After that marriage he seduced her, murdered her husband, and destroyed by drugs herself and her child. Laronia. Dives. anus, vidua, (Martial.) Tædia, Cluvia, Flora, Catulla, either feigned names, or unknown. Histor, Pacuvius, probably the same on whom Juvenal bestows some poetical execrations at the end of satire xii. Creticus, some Roman of illustrious family. Procula, Pollita, Fabulla, Carfinia. Most likely these are real names. Procula is again introduced in the third satire as too little even for Codrus. Cotytto, called Cecropian, from her worship at Athens. Lyde, a vender of specifics or provocatives at Rome. Zalates, an Armenian hostage, and without doubt a real name. That Armenia had about this time given this sort of security for her good behaviour, see Tacit. Ann. xiii. 9, xv. 1. PLACES MENTIONED. Bebriacum, or Bedriacum, was adjacent to Cremona. Plu tarch relates that visiting this celebrated field of battle soon after the victory of Vitellius, he saw embankments of dead bodies as high as a man's neck from the ground. Juverna. Ireland. Artaxata, the capital of Armenia. FAIN Would I fly beyond Sarmatia's snows, 5 10 (Doubtless a head of Pittacus in stone He cheats me not, I put him down to fate. "No, Sextus, no! the white may jeer the black, 15 20 25 30 And his three well-taught pupils must condemn 35 While his own hand the drastic potion gave 40 41 Such a censor was Domitian, who, after destroying his |