JUVENAL
From the satires of Juvenal the modern reader can acquire a rich and critical view of daily life in ancient Rome. His sixteen satires, however, contain very little autobiographical information. Consequently, almost nothing is known of his personal life, and only one of his contemporaries, Persius, even mentions him. Juvenal is thought to have been born about AD 55 in Aquinum, about eighty miles southeast of Rome. He died sometime after AD 130. Topical references in his satires, usually divided into five books, make mention of Agricola's activities in England, Trajan's German and Dacian campaigns, and other events which occurred between 85 and 130 A.D. He was probably born of lower class parents, perhaps even of freedmen, received some training as a rhetor, likely served as a soldier, especially in Britain, since he shows exceptional familiarity with this land. Late in life he was exiled to Egypt. Martial, a contemporary satirist, was his friend.
The following selection is taken from a first American printing of a Delphin edition of P. Junii Juvenalis et A. PersiiFlacci: Satirae by L. Prateus. It was printed in Philadelphia in 1814.
Satire 3:
l.2 vacuis, translate "deserted"
or "empty," in contrast with overcrowded Rome. Cumis = Cumae,
on the bay of Naples, and home of the prophetess,
Sibyl (see 1.3; also Virgil, Aeneid 6,
77-102).
l.4 Baiarum = Baiae, a famous resort on the bay of Naples and reached by passage through Cumae. amoeni recessus, genitive of quality.
l.5 Prochytam, a small desolate
island not far from Baiae. Subburae = Subura, the valley
located between the Viminal and Esquiline hills
in Rome; it was a very noisy, overcrowded,
and crime infested area.
l.9 Poets recited even during the sweltering
month of August, when most inhabitants of Rome
would have departed for cooler locations
l. 10 rheda, a sturdy, four-wheeled
wagon, designed for luggage and passengers, awaited
Umbricius at the Capena gate, since wheeled traffic,
with few exceptions, was not allowed
within city limits between sunrise and sunset.
l. 11madidamque Capenam, "the dripping
Porta Capena," situated on the Appian Way
and crossed overhead by an aqueduct, a branch
of the Aqua Marcia, build it 144 B.C.
l. 12 Numa, legendary second king
of Rome who met (constituebat) his mistress (amicae),
the nymph Egeria, who, according to Livy, was
his wife and source of inspiration.
l. 13 locantur, "are let out for rent."
l. 14 Judaeis, Jews were expelled
from Rome under Claudius; in all likelihood, many
Jews immigrated to Rome in A.D. 70, after the
fall of Jerusalem. quorum cophines,
- faenumque supplex, "whose furnishings
are a basket and hay." A reference to the
Jewish custom of placing food in a basket, lined
with hay, to keep it warm on the
Sabbath, when cooking was not permitted.
l. 23 res, "money," "wealth," or "means;" eadem = res.
l. 25 Daedalus fashioned wings for himself
and his son, Icarus, to escape from the island of
Crete. Daedalus landed safely from the island
of Cumae; Icarus flew too near the sun and
after the wax on his wings melted, he plummeted
to his death.
l. 26 nova canities and prima
et recta senectus, i.e., Umbricius is just beginning to turn gray
and he is not bent with excessive old age.
1.31 quis, an early form of quibus, dative plural.
1.32 siccandam eluviem, "to clean up sewers."
l.33 praebere caput venale, "to
offer their own persons for sale," i.e., to place their goods
in bankruptcy; domina sub hasta, "under
the authority of the spear," - a spear was set up
as the sign of public auction to indicate that
dominium
was
transferred from one owner to
the next.
1.36f. modern texts read vulgus cum (or quem) iubet, in place of vulgi quemlibet.
l.38 conducunt foricas, "they collected
the fee at small latrines." Umbricius here criticizes
the officials of the games who, upon leaving
the amphitheater, make their fortunes in the
lowliest trades or business enterprises.
l.40 Fortuna is also the subject of extollit.
1.42f. Umbricius says that he does not
know the practice of astrology whereby he can
foretell (promittere) the death of a parent.
l.48 Mancus... translate "like
a cripple with a paralyzed right hand, a useless body."
(see Ferguson, p-138); extinctae dextrae,
genitive of quality, understand homo.
l.52 participem, in apposition with te.
l.53 Verri = Verres, the corrupt governor of Sicily who was prosecuted by Cicero (73-70 B.C.).
l.54 tanti, genitive of value, "of such value."
l.55 Tagi = the Tagus river of Spain and Portugal, reputed to be rich in gold.
l.56 praemia, "gifts," or perhaps, "bribes," which will have to be surrendered (ponendaque).
l.58 understand est; the word order is: gens quae est nunc acceptissima divitibus nostris.
l.61 understand est with quota portio.
l.62 Orontes, the principal river
of Syria, on which is situated Antioch. This reference
indicates the Asian influx into Rome.
l.64 necnon, "and likewise;" gentilia, "native."
l.66 picta ... mitra, "with embroidered headband."
l.67 trechedipna, Quirine, i.e.,
even the conservative farmers wear stylish Greek articles of
clothing to dinner.
1.69f Sicyon, in the Peloponnese; Amydon,
in Macedonia; Andros, an Aegean island;
Samos, an island near Asia Minor; Tralles and
Alabanda are towns of Asia Minor.
l.71 Vimine, the Viminal hill in Rome.
l.73 understand est with ingenium
and probably illis or
his, dative of possession indicating
the Greeks previously named.
1.74 Isaeo = Isaeus, an Assyrian rhetorician who was in Rome, about A.D. 100.
l.77 Schoenobates, "rope dancer;" magus, "magician."
1.78f jusseris = understand si;
modern texts place a period after ibit, and read
in summa ("in fact") for ad summam.
Maurus,
a Moor; Sarmata, from southwest Russia.
l.81 conchylia, "purple gaments," indicating ostentatious dress.
l.82 signabit, "will sign," or "testify."
l.83 with pruna (plums) and coctona (figs), understand advecta sunt.
l.84 usque adeo nihil est, "it is absolutely worthless..."
l.86 quid quod, "what of the fact that..."
l.89 Antaeum = Antaeus, a giant
whose exceptional strength remained intact provided
he was in contact with the earth, his mother.
Hercules killed him by lifting him in the air
and crushing him.
1.90f qua ... marito, literal translation,
"than which not even the male sounds worse by
whom as husband the hen is being pecked" (Ferguson,
p.143).
1.93f melior + understand est
Graecus, "is the Greek a better actor when he plays the
role (sustinet) of Thais." Greek New Comedy
had three traditional roles for women,
parts played by male actors: a prostitute (Thaida
was a prostitute in a play of Menander),
a wife (uxorem), or a servant girl (Dorida).
1.96-97 omitted from 1814 text.
l. 99Stratocles, Demetrius, and Haemo were all famous Greek actors performing in Rome.
l.103 endromidem, a thick cloak, or sweater, used by Greek athletes after vigorous exercise.
l.109 trulla aurea, apparently
Juvenal describes the perverted use of a golden goblet
for a chamberpot.
l.112 aulam, modern texts read aviam.
l.115 abollae, a large, double
cloak; supposedly a proverb implying a crime of such an
extent to cast a shadow on others.
l.116 Baream, Nero condemned Barea
Soranus, an upright man to death, as well as his
daughter Servilia. P. Egnatius Celer, a Stoic,
and previously Bareals client, gave
testimony against him and was rewarded (see Tacitus
Annals,
xvi, 30-32). Vespasian
later executed Barea.
l.117 ripa, the Scholiast tells
us that Juvenal here makes an obscure reference to the
city of Tarsus.
l.118 gorgonei ... caballi, "of
the nag of Gorgon;" the winged horse of Pegasus, which
came to life from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa,
after Perseus beheaded her.
l.122 understand amicum as the direct object of habet.
l.125 minor, "of less consequence," or "of less duration."
l.126 nobis, i.e., Romans, not Greeks.
l.128 Praetor lictorem impellat,
etc., Juvenal laments the inferior chances of poor clients
to obtain a gratuity from a patron, in this instance
two childless women, since even a
praetor is hastening to their homes before daybreak
to greet (salutet) these women
(Albinam et Modiam) in anticipation of
a generous remembrance in their wills.
l.131 claudit latus, a military
expression describing the protection of a soldier's left,
or exposed, flank; translate, "to give the place
of honor," or "respectfully accompany."
l.132 alter, i.e., the servus.
l.133 Calvinae and Catienae, aristocratic names.
l.136 Chionem, Martial frequently mentions a prostitute of this name in his epigrams.
1.137f hospes Numinis Idaei, "the
host of the Idaean divinity," i.e., Cybele, a Phrygian
deity who was received into Rome in 204 B.C.
by Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica.
1.138 Numa, a legendary king of
Rome, said to be the founder of several Roman
religious customs.
l.139 servavit, Lucius Caecilius
Metellus, the Pontifex Maximus, saved the palladium
(Minervam) from the burning temple of
Vesta in 241 B.C.
l.140 with ad censum, understand prima quaestio fiet.
l.142 paropside, "dessert dishes,"
a Greek word, deliberately used, to indicate that
the Romans are acting out of character.
l.144 Samothracum ... aras, the
worship of the gods of Samothrace, located in the
northeast Aegean, was very secretive.
l.147 quid, quod, "what of the fact that."
l.148 hic idem = pauper; with lacerna, understand est.
l.150 vulnere, "hole," or "tear."
1.154f The Roscian Law of 67 B.C. reserved
the first fourteen rows in the theater
for the equites, who, by virtue of a property
qualification (400,000 sesterces), not
birth, claimed these seats.
l.157 praeconis, in the sense of an auctioneer.
l.158 pinnirapi, a gladiator who snatched at the plume of his opponent's helmet.
l.159 vano ... Othoni; "the dummy
(or blockhead) Otho," = L. Roscius Otho, the
author of the Roscian Law.
l.161 sarcinulis, "the pocketbook," i.e., the dowry.
l.162 in consilio, "as an advisor
(or assessor) to the aediles," - officials in charge
of public works (water supply, traffic, etc.),
with the authority to levy and collect fines.
l.163 tenues, "of slight means."
l.166 with magno, understand pretio; constat is the missing verb.
l.168 fictilibus, "earthenware;" the antecedent of quod is coenare.
l.169 Marsos et Sabellam; the
Marsi were a people of Latium and the Sabelli
were the mountaineer Sabines living to the northwest
of Rome.
l.170 Veneto ... cucullo, "a Venetian cowl," a hood made of third-rate wool.
1.172f stone theaters were commonplace
in Rome in the mid-first century A.D.,
where half the days of the year were public holiday.
Life was more vigorous in the
countryside where local inhabitants were satisfied
with only a short farce (exodium)
rather than a whole day at the theater.
Redit
is contracted from rediit; personae
refers to the masks worn by the actors, here
that of a monster.
1.177f orchestram, at Rome, the
space unused in the semi-circular orchestra was
reserved for dignitaries, such as senators; in
the countryside, these seats would be
occupied by lesser officials, whose dress, however,
was similar to that of the common
folk who sat behind them. Modern texts insert
a comma after honoris.
Eighteenth-century Americans were familiar with both the Latin text of Juvenal and his satires in English translation. The English scholar, John Dryden (1631-1700) had already successfully translated satires 1, 3, 6, 10 and 16 when his fellow Englishman, the erudite Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), produced his two widely read translations: London (1738), based on Juvenal satire 3, and The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), subtitled "An Imitation of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal."3 Juvenal's Latin verse and moralistic satire were also often inserted in the highly popular English newspapers, The Tatler and The Spectator. These newspapers were the joint venture of Joseph Addison (1672-1717) and Richard Steele (1672-1729). Two hundred and seventy-one numbers of The Tatler were published three times weekly from 1709 to 1711; five hundred and fifty-five numbers of The Spectator were published daily from 1711-1712, and resumed briefly in 1714. In addition to Juvenal frequently being cited in the texts of their editorials, Steele even began the first forty issues of The Tatler with the Latin tag, "Quicquid agunt Homines nostri Farrago Libelli," from Juvenal's Satire 1, vv. 85-86.4 In a short period of time after the dates of their original publication, The Tatler and The Spectator were jointly bound and their several volumes became popular reading in both England and the American colonies. James Madison was an avid reader of these publications, especially The Spectator, and highly recommended their reading to young students, as, for example, his eleven-year-old nephew Richard Cutts:
When I was at an age which will soon be yours, a book fell into my
hands, which I
read, as I believe, with particular advantage. I have always thought
it the best that
had been written for cherishing in young minds a desire of improvement,
a taste for
learning, and a lively sense of duties, the virtues, and the proprieties
of life. The work
I speak of is the "Spectator," well known by that title. It had
several authors, at the
head of them Mr. Addison, whose papers are marked at the bottom
of each by one
of the letters in the name of the muse CLIO. They will reward you
for a second reading
after reading them along with the others.
Addison was of the first rank among the fine writers of the age,
and has given a
definition of what he shewed himself to be an example.
"Fine writing," he says, "consists of sentiments that are natural
without being
obvious;" to which adding the remark of Swift, another celebrated
author of the
same period, making a good style to consist "of proper words in
their proper places,"
a definition is formed which will merit your recollection, when
you become qualified,
as I hope you will one day be, to employ your pen for the benefit
of others, and for
your own reputation.
I send you a copy of the "Spectator," that it may be at hand when
the time arrives
for making use of it; and as a token, also, of the good wishes of
your affectionate uncle.5
John Adams also knew Juvenal's satire indirectly through his reading and meticulous copying of selections from The Spectator.8 Adams also was directly familiar with the Latin text of Juvenal from his study of this author at both the Boston Latin Grammar School and at Harvard College. He was particularly fond of Satire 3 and on many occasions quoted from it in his letters, especially lines 164-65. In his draft of "An Essay on Agriculture" which appeared in the Boston Gazette on 18 July 1763, Adams writes:
Only a few months later, Adams again quotes
the same passage from Juvenal in a 2 September 1813 letter to Jefferson:
One truth is clear; by all the World confess'd
Slow rises worth, by Poverty oppress'd.11
Evidently John Adams' enthusiasm for Juvenal
was contagious in his household since even his wife Abigail included a
modest quote from Juvenal's sixth Satire (vv. 15-16) in a letter to Jefferson:
Finally, John Quincy Adams, whose instruction
in Latin had been very closely prescribed and supervised by his father,
not only was a serious student of Juvenal, but can fittingly be called
America's first Juvenal scholar. In addition to writing a critical review
of William Gifford's 1802 translation of Juvenal, he also had published
two of his own translations of Juvenal - the Thirteenth Satire on 3 January
1801 and the Seventh Satire on 18 May 1805, both in the Philadelphia magazine,
the Port Folio.14
Endnotes
2. For an excellent commentary
on the references in Juvenal, see John Ferguson Juvenal: The Satires
(New York: St. Martin's
Press, 1979), pp. 135-158.
3. See Gilbert Highet, The
Classical Tradition (New Oxford University Press, 1949), pp. 314-315,
651-652; for Johnson's
The
Vanity of Human Wishes;
see M. H. Abrams, ed., The Norton Anthology of English Literature
(New York: W. W. Norton &
Company, 1979), pp. 2277-2289.
4. For a more detailed discussion
of the history of the text of The Tatler and The Spectator,
see Angus Ross, Selections
from THE TATLER and THE SPECTATOR
of Steele and Addison (New York: Penguin Books, 1982), pp. 15-55.
5. James Madison to Richard
Cutts, 4 January 1829; see
Letters and Writings of James Madison,
vol. 4 (New York; R.
Worthington, 1884), pp.1-2, published
by order of Congress. For Madison's quotations of "Spectator - 551 Paper"
in his
own "Conmnplace Book," and
his early exposure to the "Spectator," see William T. Hutchinson and W.
M. E. Rachal,
The Papers of James Madison,
vol. 1 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1962), pp. 23-24 and
32.
6. G. Gregory Smith, ed., vol. 1, The Spectator (New York, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1906), p. 246.
7. James Madison to Thomas
Jefferson, 15 November 1785 and 22 January 1786. See Julian P. Boyd, ed.,
The
Papers
of Thomas Jefferson, 9 (Princeton,
New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1954), pp. 38 and 201.
8. See L. H. Butterfield,
Diary
and Autobiography of John Adams, 9 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap
Press
of Harvard University, 1961),
pp. 26 and 72 for Adams' reading of The Spectator in May of 1756
and January of 1759.
9. Butterfield, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, 1, pp. 246-247
10. See Lester J. Cappon,
ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters, 1 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina:
The University of North
Carolina Press, 1959), p. 325.
11. Cappon, The Adams-Jefferson Letters, 1, p. 371
12. Cappon, The Adams-Jefferson Letters, 1, p. 471.
13. Julian Boyd, ed., The
Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 8 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University
Press, 1953),
pp. 179-180, 6 June 1785.
14. For an interesting critical
review of John Quincy Adams' translating abilities and the political and
moralistic
purposes of the Port Folio, see
Irving N. Rothman, "Two Juvenalian Satires by John Quincy Adams," Early
American Literature 6 (1971-72),