SATIRE VII. Argument. THIS Satire contains an animated account of the general discouragement under which Literature laboured at Rome. Beginning with Poetry (of which several interesting circumstances are introduced) it proceeds with great regularity through the various departments of History, Law, Oratory, Rhetoric, and Grammar: interspersing many curious anecdotes, and enlivening each different head with such satirical, humourous, and sentimental remarks, as naturally flow from the subject. SATIRE VII. TO TELESINUS. v. 1-6. YES, all the hopes of learning, 'tis confest, And all the patronage, on CÆSAR rest: For he alone the drooping Nine regards— Now, when our best and most illustrious bards, Drop their ungrateful studies, and aspire Baths, bagnios, what they can, for bread, to hire; VER. 2. And all the patronage on CESAR rest :] There have been many disputes among the learned concerning the Cæsar, who is here styled the sole patron of the arts. Grangæus will have it to be Trajan, and warns his readers to be careful how they understand it of Domitian. Britannicus does the same; and quotes a very apposite passage from the Panegyrics of Pliny in support of his opinion. Some will have it to be Nerva; who, though a poet himself, was little disposed to patronize poetry in others; and others, again, Nero. Lubin, however, and Grævius, et quorum melior sententia, understand it of Domitian; of which, indeed, I have not the slightest doubt. This excellent prince, it appears, had once an idea of contesting the empire with his father: finding the armies, however, averse from his designs, he retired from all public business, and, with a specious appearance of content, lived in a kind of solitude; pretending that poetry, and literary pursuits in With humbled views, a life of toil embrace, general were his only passion.* This mask he continued to wear during the reign of Titus; and whether habit had begot a kind of nature, or that he thought it dangerous to lay aside the hypocrite too soon, I know not; but from one or other of these causes, he certainly patronized the arts at his accession: Quintilian, Statius, Valerius Flaccus, Martial, &c. tasted of his bounty, and sang his praises with more gratitude, perhaps, than truth. This Satire must have been written in the early part of Domitian's reign. Like the fifth and sixth (both of which were somewhat posterior to it) it has few political allusions, and, with the exception of the short passage, for which our author is supposed to have suffered, might have been published under the most inquisitorial tyranny. In giving "one honest line" of praise to Domitian, Juvenal, probably, meant to stimulate him to extend his patronage. I am persuaded he did not think *The attachment of the emperor to Minerva, is frequently noticed by Juvenal's contemporaries. Thus Martial, in that most detestable medley of flattery and impiety, (lib. 1x. iv.) "Pallada prætereo; res agit illa tuas.” Whether the goddess took as much pleasure in him, as he professed to do in her, I cannot say; but, according to the custom of the emperors in selecting some favourite deity for their especial worship, he made choice, as I have said, of Minerva. In Reger's Numismata, a Pallas frequently accompanies Domitian on the reverse of his coins: and on one of them (Tab. xxxii. 4,) he appears in the act of sacrificing to her, with his head veiled, in the usual manner. There is little doubt, I think, but that these representations allude to some former attachment of his to the cause of literature: at all events, this strengthens the opinion I have hazarded above, that, the poet means to speak of the early part of Domitian's reign. That he afterwards changed his sentiments, and fell suddenly upon the men of letters is certain: but this may readily be accounted for, from the nature of the man, which was at once crafty and violent. Thus he is represented by Xiphil. in the beginning of lib. LXVII. Δομιτιανος δε ην μεν καὶ θρασὺς καὶ οργιλος, ην δε καὶ επιβαλος καὶ κρυψινες ώστε αφ' ἑκατέρων των μεν το προπετες, των δε το δόλιον ἔχων, πολλα μεν ὡς σκηπτος οξέως εμπιπλων τισιν, ελυμαίνετο, πολλα δε καὶ εκ παρασκευης εκακεργεία Since Clio, driven by hunger from the shade, And truly, if (the bard's too frequent curse) No coin be found in thy Pierian "Twere not ill done to copy, purse, Machæra, and turn auctioneer at once.. Hie, my poetic friend; in accents loud, Tubs, presses, chests, joint-stools; swell with the praise very ill of him at this time, and that he augured happily for the future. Nor is it certain, but that the anguish he felt at finding his predictions falsified, and his "sole patron of literature" changed, in a few years, into a ferocious and bloody persecutor of all the arts, might have exasperated his resentment, and produced that superior hatred, with which he pursues his memory. VER. 19. Of Faustus, Paccius, &c.] For Paccius some copies have Bacchus. It signifies little which we read, for nothing is known of either. Their works luckily followed-it may be, preceded, them; or, according to the happy expression of a lady, lamenting the premature fate of her infant, Their babes, which ne'er received the gift of breath, Did pass before them, through the gates of death! VER. 22. Leave that resource to Cappadocian knights, &c.] Who has not heard of the three kappas? τρια καππα κακιςα.. Κρητες, Καππαδόκες, Κίλικες. |