JUVENAL'S SATIRE I.

It is foolish mercy to refrain from using paper that will perish anyway, since you find so many poets. Yet, if you are at leisure and listen kindly, I will declare the reasons why it pleases me to roam particularly in that field, through which the great alumnus of Aurunca original: "Auruncæ alumnus" steered his horses. When a soft eunuch spado castrated man contracts a marriage: when Maevia pierces an Etruscan boar and carries weapons with her breast exposed; when that man, by whose barber my troublesome beard crackled when I was a youth, now competes in wealth alone with all the nobles: when a part of the people goes to the Nile, when the slave Crispinus of Canopus

To sleep. It is foolish mercy, when you meet poets
Everywhere, to spare paper that is destined to perish.
Yet why it pleases me to traverse this field in particular,
Through which the great alumnus of Aurunca steered his horses:
If you are at leisure, and accept the reasoning calmly, I will tell you. 21
When a soft eunuch marries a wife: when Maevia
Spears a Tuscan boar, and holds hunting spears with bare breast:
When one man outdoes all the patricians in wealth,
He who, as a barber, made my youthful beard crackle under his razor:
When a part of the Nile's rabble, when a slave born at Canopus 26.

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[He would] put aside his position. Quintilian, Book 3, chap. 8, says: It is customary in schools to invent subjects for deliberation: and a little earlier, he offers as an example the words of Priam to Achilles: or Sulla laying down his dictatorship in the assembly.

Sulla.] L. Cornelius Sulla, a noble Roman from the ancient family of the Scipios, of whom it is doubted, says Sallust, whether he was stronger or more fortunate. While he was seeking victories, he represented a Scipio to the Roman people; while he exercised cruelty, he represented Hannibal, as Valerius Maximus says, Book 9, chap. 2. Having obtained the dictatorship, it is amazing how impotently he managed it, and [amazing] that he laid it down of his own free will, as Appianus reports. As a private citizen, he retired to Puteoli, and there perished miserably of the louse disease original: "pediculari morbo". Or, as others wish, agitated and vexed by nightly phantoms, he vomited up his soul amid screamings. Cicero, in Against Verres. Plutarch, and others.

So that as a private citizen he might sleep deeply.] So that, with the burden of empire laid down, and free from public cares, he might enjoy peace of mind.

19. To traverse this field.] An allegory. That is, why I delight particularly in that exercise of writing satires, in which Lucilius was engaged.

20. Of Aurunca.] Aurunca, an ancient city of Latium, in which many satirists were born, and Lucilius himself, about whom we [say] much at the end of Satire 1 of Persius.

The great alumnus of Aurunca.] Lucilius, the prince of satirists; whatever the old commentator may think, who has it thus: He speaks of Turnus, the brother of the tragic poet Scaeva Memor. This Turnus, of freedman origin, was advanced to honors by ambition, powerful in the court of the Vespasian emperors Titus and Domitian: or he means Lenius, who also wrote satires himself: or Silius, also a satirist of his own time, all of whom were from Aurunca.

22. When a soft [eunuch] marries a wife, etc.] When I see vices sprouting, I cannot help but inveigh against them.

A eunuch marries a wife.] Domitian revived the Julian law against adulterers to restrain the lust of women. These women, lest they incur the penalty of the law, would marry their adulterers, among whom were also eunuchs. Suetonius, Domitian, ch. 7 and 8. Martial, Book 6, Epigram 2.

It was a sport to mock the marriages of the sacred torch,
[...]
There will be neither eunuch nor adulterer now, with you in charge.
But before, oh the morals, even a eunuch was an adulterer.

And Epigram 7 of the same book.

Since the Julian law was reborn for the people, Faustinus,
[...]
She who marries so often does not marry: by law, she is an adulterer.
And Epigram 22.

Because you marry your concubine, Proculina,
So that the Julian law cannot mark you,
You do not marry, Proculina, but you confess,
And you just now make an adulterer into a husband.

About these, more in Juvenal, Satire 6. In these, therefore, the law is eluded, and mocked by the satirist.

Spado eunuch.] A Greek word from the verb spao to pull away/tear off, because from eunuchs, that by which they were men has been pulled away.

Tener soft.] Because eunuchs are accustomed to being effeminate.

Maevia.] Some say Naevia: both were immodest women. Martial, Book 1, Epigram 69.

Tuscan boar.] In Tuscany, the boars are fiercer.

23. Spears a boar.] In the Roman arena. Namely, among other games, hunts were exhibited, in which even women dared to fight against wild beasts, and some defeated lions. Martial, Book of Spectacles, Epigram 6. Cornelius Tacitus, Annals, Book 15. Suetonius, in Nero.

And holds [hunting spears] with bare [breast].] Which is contrary to modesty and decorum.

24. Patricians.] Titus Livius, Book 1, chap. 8. The Fathers Patres were so called from their honor, and the Patricians Patricii were their offspring.

Outdoes all [the patricians] alone.] Namely, Cinnamus the barber, who lived in Juvenal's time, and being enriched by the gifts and favors of women, obtained equestrian status. Martial, Book 7, Epigram 63. Others understand Licinius, the barber and freedman of Augustus.

25. With his razor... [making it] crackle.] Virgil, Eclogue 1:

After the beard fell whiter to the shaver's blade.

Sonabat crackle/sounded.] Metonymy. That is, the scissors sounded while cutting the beard.

26. A part of the Nile's rabble.] One of the rabble of Egypt, where the river Nile is so celebrated for its annual flooding and fertilization of the lands.

Verna home-born slave.] The son of a maidservant born at home in the springtime was properly called a verna; but a slave who came into the master's power either by right of war or by purchase [was different]. Thus Festus and Nonius.

Canopus.] A town in Egypt, infamous for its lusts, at the mouth of the Nile, which was therefore called the Canopic [mouth]. Pliny, Strabo, Book 17. Juvenal, Satire 15, calls it famous. Furthermore, slaves were brought from Egypt to Rome.