JUVENAL'S SATIRE I.

Crispinus flicks the summer gold with his sweating fingers, his shoulder pulling back the Tyrian cloak, his shoulder blade shrugging off the Tyrian chlamys original: "Chlamydem Tyriam", and he cannot tolerate the weight of a larger gem; then it is difficult not to compose a satire. For who can endure such an unjust city so patiently, who is so hard that he holds himself back? When the new litter of Matho, the actor of causes original: "Causarum Actoris", comes forward, filled with the man himself, and after him another accuser of a great friend, soon to snatch away even what remains of the devoured nobles; he whom Massa fears, whom Carus bribes with gifts, and Thymele, sent by the anxious Latinus:

He flicks the summer gold with his sweating fingers,
And cannot suffer the weight of a larger gem:
It is difficult not to write satire. For who, of this
Unjust city, is so patient, so iron-willed, that he contains himself?
When the new litter of Matho the lawyer comes,
Filled with the man himself: and after him the accuser of a great friend,
And he who will soon snatch from the consumed nobility
What is left: he whom Massa fears; whom Carus
Flatters with a gift; and Thymele sent by the trembling Latinus:

27. Crispinus.] Made a Roman Knight from a slave, either by Domitian or Nero, as some would have it. Certainly quite rich, as Quintilian testifies.

Tyrian.] Purple. For Tyre is a maritime city of Phoenicia famous for purple.

His shoulder pulling back... he flicks.] Namely, [as his cloaks are] slipping off, [he is] tossing his arms and hands into the air, as if for cooling, but in reality, to show off his rings.

Cloaks lacernas.] See below, verse 62.

28. Summer gold.] Rings accustomed to be worn in summer, made of thin foil, according to the custom of the delicate Roman Knights, who could not bear the weight of a ring in the summer time, and therefore had a double kind of rings: some summer [rings] that were lighter, others winter [rings] that were heavier. Turnebus, Book 20, chap. 2. Pliny, Book 33, chap. 1, where he treats the origin, use, right, and display of rings.

29. The weight of a larger gem.] Of the heavier winter ring, and the larger stone.

30. Satire.] It should be written thus. For although some, not even unlearned, wish this origin to be deduced from the petulant Satyr gods, yet more learned [men deduce it] either from the Satura law original: "Satura lege", which brought forth diverse things; or from the Satura dish original: "Satura lance", which the ancients offered to the gods of the fields, full of various fruits. Scaliger, Book 1, Poetics, ch. 2. Casaubon, Book on Satire, etc.

32. Litter lectica.] A kind of vehicle in which nobles, especially women, were carried on the shoulders of six or eight slaves. Hence it was called a hexaphorum or octophorum. See below, to verse 64 and following.

New] Either because it is recent and splendid, which indicates a man's pride, or because it belongs to a new man, who was a little while ago poor and went on foot.

Matho.] He had left the Forum to turn himself to accusations, when he had seen that informers were favored by Domitian and enriched by the spoils of the proscribed. Martial frequently mocks Matho in Book 4, Epigram 80 and 81; Book 8, Epigram 42; Book 10, Epigram 46; Book 11, Epigram 69.

33. Filled with the man himself.] He was such a thick, fat, corpulent man.

The accuser of a great friend.] It is not certain who this accuser is, in particular. The old commentator has it thus: He speaks of Heliodorus the Stoic philosopher, who, when his disciple Licinius Silanus was accused of conspiracy, crushed him—not only by domestic information but also by testimony. Others [think it is] the philosopher Egnatius, the famous teacher of Barea Soranus, who denounced and condemned him to Nero, and was himself later condemned under Vespasian, with Musonius Rufus accusing him of this very thing. Some think of Demetrium the lawyer, who denounced many to Nero. Thus far the old commentator. But besides these, some choose to understand M. Regulus, who, under Nero and Domitian, contrived the ruin of many nobles. Pliny mentions him throughout, but especially Book 1, Epigram 5, and the last epigram of Book 2, where he treats Regulus's frauds extensively and clearly.

Great friend.] For no one was safe from accusations, not even the emperor's relatives and friends. Pliny, in his Panegyric on Trajan. Juvenal, Satire 4:

On whose faces sat the pallor of miserable and great
Friendship.

34. Of the consumed nobility.] Proscribed through accusations, with some punished by exile, others by death, their goods confiscated, and a part attributed to the informers.

35. He whom Massa fears.] Massa the fool, and Carus and Latinus the mimes, all of them freedmen of the Caesars and most wicked, feared some other greater informer. And indeed they were killed by Nero through the accusations of Heliodorus, as the old commentator says.

Massa.] Pliny, Book 3, Epigram 4, and the last epigram of Book 7, mentions this Baebius Massa, and shows that he stood and spoke against him in the Forum.

36. Carus.] Pliny intimates that Metius Carus was a famous informer, Book 1, Epigram 5, and Book 7, Epigram 27. "Unless perhaps," he says, "I was to be a defendant, had Domitian, under whom these things happened, lived longer. For in his desk, a pamphlet was found given by Carus against me." Martial:

Behold, Carus has denounced you as a defendant.

Latinus.] He is said to have been killed by Nero as a confidant of Messalina's adultery, according to the old commentator; yet Martial declares he still lived under Domitian, Book 1, Epigram 5, where [he mentions him].