whose shameless incestes and adulteries are largely related by Sueton in his Life cap. 24 25 and 36. His horrible countenance also is noted by the same Author cap. 50. in these words Vultum verâ— naturâ— horridum ac tetrum etiam ex industriâ efferabat componens ad speculum in oâ—nem terrorem ac formidinem Which I may grant to be marks of the adulterer here described yet they are but some of them and to pronounce a judgment on the whole person for some few signs were but to imitate an unskilfull Physiognomer There are then three more delivered in this place The first that he did at the same time put in execution Laws against Adultery when he himself committed the same The Second that a Cheif Adulteress with whom he offended was called Julia The Third that she had Abortives or untimely Births none of which are by these Interpreters proved to be recorded of Him There is indeed cap. 25. mention made of one whom he adulterously abused and quickly dismissing commanded her to abstain from the bed of any man for ever after but there is no mention of putting en execution Laws against Adultery 〈◊〉 sides the word nuper which notes the season of this fact must be drawn back very much from Juvenal's time who writ partly in the raign of Domirian to Caligula's and so be understood of crimes committed about 40. years before which will but inconveniently be carried by the propertie of the word naper and therefore we may nor yeild to this first opinion A second is of them that appliâ— this to Claudiâ—s the Emperor who after the execution of his leud wife Moffaâ—â—na married the daughter of his brother Germaâ—â—icus Julia Agrippius the mother of Nero and by a decree of the Senate made such incestuous marriages lawful for any man as Tacitus notes in his Annals lib. 12. nere the beginning By which we find him guilty of incest but not of adultery Agrippina being a widow when he married her as Tacitus there testifies Besides that he reviv'd Laws against adultery the Interpreters take not the pains to prove Moreover whereas some Expositers make Claudius very ill-favour'd Sucton accurate in the description of his Emperors bestows a better visage on him cap. 30. saying Authoritas dignitasque forma non defuit stanti velsedenti ac praecipuè quiescenti and adding that he was specie canitieque putchrâ Indeed he describes his Laughter and his Anger to have been very unseemly but Now we speak of his Own face not of the face of his Passions But the word naper will not so readily admit likewise this opinion there being 27. years between Claudius his End and Domitian's Beginning Wherefore in a third Opinion we may rather look upon Domitian to whom the Time agrees and the Fact he having not only corrupted many mens wives but also more particularly taken away Domitia Longina from her husbâ—md Aelius Lamia and made her his own wife as Sueton relates in this Domitian cap. 1. Yet he made Laws against dishonest women reviv'd the Scantinian Law against unnatural lust and another against the prophane pollution of the Vestal Virgins and put a Roman Knight out of the number of the Judges because after that he had accused and dismissed his wife for adultery he took her again as Sueton relates cap. 8. He desil'd also his brother Thus his daughter Julia who was at that time another man's wife and when her father and husband were both dead he sham'd not to love her openly yet was he the cause of her death by forcing her to abortion as Sutton cap. 22. testifies saying Vt etiam cause morris extiterit coact ae conceptum a se abigere This therefore we must conclude to be the person here intended Only there is yet one doubt to be remov'd Juvenal seeming here to implie his ill visage in those words abortivas patrue similes offâ—â— whereas Sueton cap. 18. says that he was vultu modesto and afterward praterea pulcher ac decens Indeed after the first words vultu modesto he adds ruborisque pleno which if they be taken only as an interpretation of the former then must they fignifie only that he was much subject to blushing which is also implyed in that chapter but if they be expounded of his constant colour as the words do aptly bear it then they will most litterally and exactly expound these words of our Poet and Domitian's complexion partrus similes offas But Juvenal's sense may be made more easy and appliable if we understand this not of Domitian's complexion but of his conditions in respect of which he might figuratively be call'd an Abortive and so like the fruit which he got and destroy'd 8. The Scantinian Law When a Stoick objected to Laronia a bold harlot the Julian Law against Adultery she requited him by objecting the Scantinian Law against Unnatural Lust a Law so nam'd not from him that made it but from Scantinius who was the occasion of it by his crime Which manner of giving names to Laws it being less usual some have denied but you may see it justified by Janus Parrhasius Epiâ—â— 23. by the like among the Graecians who made the Laâ—an Law mentioned by Plate of the same nature with the Scantinian upon occasion of the like crime committed by Laius 9. By their thick Squadrons Junctaque umbone phalanges An expression of companions in Vice desending themselves like souldiers when for fifty they joine their targets so that one touches anothers boss as when according to some they cast themselves as an the assaulting of a fort into the military figure of the testadâ— or the torteiseshell which in Guâ—llâ—â—â—e du Choul in his Discours sur la Castraâ—etation des Romains fol. 41. b. is thus represented 10. The wrastlers bread Coliphia Some take Colophia to be a strong kind of meat made of cheese and flower but Rigaltius on this place takes it to be the same with the Athenian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were pernae gammons of bacon which we may grant to be a strong meat yet there is no prooffor such derivation of the word Junius would have it in an unclean sense to signifie the form of the loaf not unlike the glasse priapus Sat. 2. from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 membrum though there is no necessitie of such unseemly signification from the word it self Wherefore the usual derivation from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems best as if only transposing the words the food had been called strong-limbs metonymically from the effect of it Which varietie of expositions may be drawn from the note which the Scholiast gives on this place Pulmentum sive membrum aut potius athletarum cibum dicit The last part of which annotation I think to be the best so that it shall in general signifie the wrastlers diet as Buâ—â—aeus thinks Yet because the coliphia seem to have been some special part of that diet and most probably loaves as we may conjecture from
Vectius Bolanus mention'd by Tacitus in the life of Agricola which Pontia is said for the love of an adulterer to have poisned two Sons which she had by Bolanus and to have been punish'd for it See Statius in his Sylv. lib. 5. in his Protrepticon ad Crispinum Parrhasius Epist 8. seems to make it but an intent in her and Lubin says suos duos filios veneno absumere voluisse confitetur yet streight he adds Quae itidem quod defuncto marito filios duos ut adultero nuberes obsequeretur veneno Necarit convicta cum largis se epulls onerasset sumpto veneno venis incisis saltans expiravit he speaks in part out of the Old Scholiast Yet afterwards upon the words facinus peregi he says ad Voluntatem refer which is methinks a strange expression of peregi Besides the place of the Scholiast is not well recited by him it being not so likely that she did both namely drink poison and cut her veins Pithaeus here out of Valla reads it thus Cum largis se epulis onerasset vino the ordinary copies of the Scholiast have veneno yet not as Lubin sumpto veneno which is farther from being mended venis incifis saltans quo maxime studio oblectabatur extincta est But Pithaeus in his Notes on the Scholiast recites this most apposite Inscription on an ancient Roman stone PONTIA TITI PONTII FILIA HIC SITA SUM QUAE DUOBUS NATIS A ME VENENO CONSUMPTIS AVARITIAE OPUS MISERAE MORTEM MIHI CONSCIVI TU QUISQUIS ES QUI HAC TRANSIS SI PIUS ES QUAESO A ME OCULOS AVERTE This instance of Pontia the daughter of Titus Pontius not of Publius Petronius Pithaeus prefers for the illustration of this place and surely it is the more certain story and singularly here appliable Yet because he gives no reason of his choice and that the other example has been generally receiv'd as the story here intended and that I also notwithstanding prefer his instance I think it necessary to shew mine own reason for the confirmation of his and mine own choice The Poet then speaking of Pontia aggravates her crime beyond those of Medea and Progne their 's being facts of revengeful passions but not of coveteousness for so the Poet expresses it Sed non propter nummos According to which diversitie of cause if we examine this instance we shall find that Pontia the Daughter of Petronius and wife of Bolanus mention'd by the Scholiast offended as he says ut adultero nuberet and so in a Lustful passion but the offence of this Pontia the daughter of Pontius in the Inscription is term'd Avaritiae opus and therefore I judge this to be the Person here intended and farther describ'd by the Poet as one offending rather in the sobriety of coveteousness then in the rage of Lust whiles afterwards he says of her quae computat Scelus ingens Sana facit the judgment being to be made not from the similitude of their facts but from the dissimilitude of the motives And here the ordinary reader may note that after the words here spoken by Pontia the Poet speaks the next Worst viper at one supper didst kill Two Pontia then again adding the next Yea Seav'n if th' had been Seav'n had seem'd Few 77. Like stones cleft from a rock c. Feruntur Praecipites ut saxa jugis abrupta quibus mons Subtrahitur clivoque latus pendente recedit This passage if consider'd has a little difficultie some taking clivus for pars radicis montis but that cannot agree with clivo pendente seeing that it will appear to be not the bottome but rather the top of the Mountain Lubin well expounds mons substrahitur by inferior cui saxa incumbebant not the lowest or bottome-part of the hill for that could not fall a way yet a low part a part toward the bottome low and so a basis to upper parts yet not so low but that it self might fall To make all then a little clearer Juga must here signifie the v rockie Mountain with a long ridge and a promontory Mons must express a Lower part not the lowest toward the outside whose falling-away causes the rest of the ruin Latus is the upper-part yet not the uppermost of the main-side which rested upon the lower Mons saxa abrupta are a part of the latus some parcels of stones usually breaking from the main lump that falls and clivus must signifie the uppermost part of all or the over-hanging peak the under-parts being gone Thus then the Poet says that Lustful Women are as furiously head-long as loose stones that fall from a Rock whose out-side underpart Mons being sunk away subtrahitur the main side latus falls after leaving only an overshooting peak clivus ready also to fall According to which examination I render it as nearly as the sense and words seem to admit Like stones cleft from a rock when th' under-part Sinks and the side from th' hanging brow does start 78. Which the thrice-conquer'd Pontick King did make Si praegustaret Atrides Pontica ter victi cautus medicamina regis The Poet here declares that Women had good patterns presented to them oftentimes upon the stage such as was the example of Alceste who when the Oracle had answer'd that her sick Husband Admetus King of Thessalie should presently die if he was not redeem'd by the death of some of his friends when all others refused voluntarily as the fable has it died in his steed yet the Poet avouches that Women were not amended by such brave example Nay says he one may every where find amongst them such as were the Belides the neices of Belus the Daughters of Danaus who being fifty in all and all married to so many Sons of their Unkle Aegystus did all except two Hypermnestra and Bebryce murder their husbands by their Fathers appointment upon the Marriage-night Or we may find says the Poet such as was Eriphyle who for a bracelet of gold betray'd her husband Amphiaraus causing him against His will to go to the Theban war where he fore-knew that he should die as according to the story he did The Scholiast mentions such another kind story of another Eriphyle both which may be here aim'd-at by the Poet for he speaks in the plural number Occurrent multae tibi Belides atque Eriphylae Then goes he on saying that one may meet betimes with a Tyndaris a Clitemnestra the daughter of Tyndarus who by the help of her paramour Aegystus slew her husband Atrides Agamemnon the Son of Atreus at a feast after his return from Troy though says he they are now indeed grown more cunning performing such deeds with more art by poison Yet he adds that they would fall to rude work and the very axe that is more grossely and surely dispatch them if their husbands should against their poisons use but the Antidote of Mithridates the Pontick King who was thrice overthrown namely by Sylla
make them ne're so bare Of gold and Silver shield and Sword they 'l get Helmet and Darts The Spoil'd have weapons yet Nor speak I now 9 Opinion but deterr'd Beleive one of Sibylla's leaves you 've heard Are thy Men pure Sells not 10 some long-lock'd Boy Justice Is thy wife clear Is' t not her joy At Towns and Meetings with bow'd claws to watch And there Celaeno-like All Monies snatch From Picus then be branch'd or if High Name Please thee place all the Titans Fight and Fame Amongst thy Ancestours Prometheus too Take thy Great Grandsire from what Book 's least New But if Ambition does thee headlong draw And if thou mak'st thy willful Lust thy Law Breaking thy Rods on our Associats backs Tiring the Lictor and mak'st dull his Axe Thy Noble Parentage does straight disclaime Thy Acts and holds a Torch before thy shame Vice still is more conspicuous as he That 's Guilty is advanc'd in High Degree VVhy brag'st thou who 11 forg'd Deeds seal'st at the Shrines Thy Grandsire built and where in Statue shines Thy Fathers Triumph when by Night thy head VVears 12 a Santonian hood to a false bed By his Fore-fathers Dust and Bones with free Chariot fat Damasippus hurries He He even the Consul triggs the wheel by Night It is but the Moon sees the Stars so bright Dart their pure eies But when his Consul-ship Is done at Noon-day he will take the whip Nor will he fear though some grave friend comes by Nay jerk his whip for notice Hee l untie Bottles the Hay and Provender He 'l throw Unto his weary horses A brave show Then when as Numa-like a Sheep he will Or stubborne Bullock at Jove's Altar kill Only 13 by Epona he swears whose face With more such does the stinking Stables grace But when to watchful Taverns he does get Again straight 14 some Syrophaenician wet With daily Ointments one of those that dwell At th' Idumaean Gate greets him right well Host-like saluting him my Lord my King Tuck'd Cyane the wine and price does bring Some Patron of his fault will tell me We Did so when young Be 't so Th' hast left tho' art free From hugging Vice Be breif when boldly Vile Some faults there are which must not long defile But 15 be cut-off with the First beard Admit Pardon to youth But can such things be fit In Damasippus He ev'n Now to those 16 Large Hot-Bath-Draughts and Titled Curtains goes More fit for the Armenian Warlike ranks For the Rhene Ister and the Syrian banks To keep great Nero's careful breast secure To Ostia 17 Caesar send send but be sure In some large Tipling-house thou seek thy High Deputy There 't is thou shalt find him lie With Cut-throats Sailers Fugitives Purse-takers With Executioners and base Biere-makers 18 Amongst Great Cybel's silent Drums which lack Their Phrygian Priest who lies drunk on his back VVhere there is equal freedome the same cup Where all at the same Couch and Table sup Had'st such Slaves Ponticus were not their Fate Some Tuscan or Lucanian VVork-house straight Trojans you 'l scape Thus what 's i' th' Cobler Base Shall the Great Volusi and Bruti Grace Oh that we cannot Acts of such foul stain Rehearse but that there will still worse remain Crack'd Damasippus to the Scene th' art Hir'd There bauling-out Catullus's Vision tir'd Lentulus Velox play'd Laureolus VVell He deserv'd I think a True Cross thus The people's guilty too of brow more bold That Sits and Dares 19 Thrice-scurrile Lords behold They hear the bare-foot Fabii Act and jeer At the Mamerci clapp'd Their Lives how dear They sell who cares No Nero does compel 'em Yet at the high-plac'd Praetor's shows they sell ' em Suppose yet 20 There were Swords and the Stage here VVhich would'st thou who so base Death so to fear That he would be Thymeles jealous mate Or dull Corinthus his Collegue In State 'T is yet not strange if Lords be Mimicks when The Prince turns Harper All will turn Play Then One City-shame more Gracchus does afford Not close-Arm'd without shield or crooked Sword He fights such Dress he does dislike nay hate No Helmet vails his brow A Trident straight He shakes but when his aiming hand at last Has with his waving Net err'd in his cast He lifts up his bare face to all with moan About the Sand he flies glad to be known 'T is He though coated A Gold-ribband ties His high Cap from his throat then loosely flies That the Pursuer which with Gracchus fought Endures what 's worse then any wound a Flout VVhat wretch but would be might he speak his mind To Seneca then to Nero more inclin'd VVhose dismal Deeds deserv'd some Fate as black More then one Ape 21 one Serpent and one Sack Orestes kill'd his Mother too with odds Yet in the Cause for he was by the Gods Made the Revenger of his Father slain Amid'st free Cups but knife he ne're did stain In his Sister Electra's throat nor spilt The blood of his dear Spartan wife no guilt Of pois'ning Kinsmen touch'd him His Mad wit Ne're sung on Stage nor Trojan Poem writ VVhat could Virginius Vindex Galba's hand Revenge more justly View the fierce command The bloody rage of Nero what rare parts Find we Loe These are a Great Princes Arts Upon a Forraign Stage for false renown To sing and win 22 the Grecian Parsly-Crown Thy Grandsires Statues with Song-Ensigns grace Before Domitius's feet the long robe place In which thou didst Antigone express Thyestes too or Menalippe's Dress And on a high Marble Colossus claim Renown by hanging up a Harp to Fame VVhat Catiline is found of Nobler Height Then Thy Birth or Cethegus his By night Armes yet you took to ashes you 'd have turn'd Houses and Temples as when Rome was burn'd By short-slop'd Gauls and the Senoniâ—n brood For which in fiery coat you should have stood But Loe the Consul watches and checks straight Your Troops This New Ignoble Arpinate This Country-Knight-upstart at Rome does guard Astonish'd Rome and 23 toils in ev'ry Ward And thus within our walls the Civil Gown And Peace bestow'd upon him more renown The e're Octavius's bloody Sword could yield From th' Actian Sea-fight or Thessaltan field But Cicero Rome Rome did when sav'd from spoil Her Founder and his Country's Father stile Another Arpinate on Volscan hill Other mens land for hire half-tir'd did Till His 24 pate did next the knotty Vine oft crack If in the Camp and Trench his Axe were slack He yet receiv'd the Cimbrians and the doom They threatned He alone sav'd trembling Rome And when the Crows to the slain Cimbrians flâ—d Having on larger Carcasses ne're fed His 25 Nobly-born Collegue of equal sway VVas yet adorn'd but with the second Bay Vulgar the Decii's Souls were their Names too For All our Legions yet the Aides we drew From Others and our Latine youth 26 suffice They did th' Infernal Gods A Sacrifice T' our Mother