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Codrus, or it may be Cordus, a bad poet, who wrote the life and actions of Theseus.

The name of a tragedy.

Another tragedy.

Some commentators take this grove to be a place where poets were used to repeat their works to the people; but more probably, both this and Vulcan's grot, or cave, and the rest of the places and names here mentioned, are only meant for the common places of Homer in his Iliads and Odysseys.

That is, the best and the worst poets.

This was one of the themes given in the schools of rhetoricians, in the deliberative kind; whether Sylla should lay down the supreme power of dictatorship, or still keep it?

Lucilius, the first satirist of the Romans, who wrote long before Horace.

Mævia, a name put for any impudent or mannish woman.

Juvenal's barber, now grown wealthy.

Crispinus, an Egyptian slave; now, by his riches, transformed into a nobleman.

The Romans were grown so effeminate in Juvenal's time, that they wore light rings in the summer and heavier in the winter.

Matho, a famous lawyer, mentioned in other places by Juvenal and Martial.

Lyons, a city in France, where annual sacrifices and games were made in honour of Augustus Cæsar.

Here the poet complains that the governors of provinces, being accused for their unjust exactions, though they were condemned at their trials, yet got off by bribery.

Horace, who wrote satires; it is more noble, says our author, to imitate him in that way, than to write the labours of Hercules, the sufferings of Diomedes and his followers, or the flight of Dædalus, who made the Labyrinth, and the death of his son Icarus.

Nero married Sporus, an eunuch; though it may be, the poet meant Nero's mistress in man's apparel.

Mæcenas is often taxed by Seneca and others for his effeminacy.

The meaning is, that the very consideration of such a crime will hinder a virtuous man from taking his repose.

Deucalion and Pyrrha, when the world was drowned, escaped to the top of Mount Parnassus, and were commanded to restore mankind, by throwing stones over their heads; the stones he threw became men, and those she threw became women.

The ears of all slaves were bored, as a mark of their servitude; which custom is still usual in the East Indies, and in other parts, even for whole nations, who bore prodigious holes in their ears, and wear vast weights at them.

Pallas, a slave freed by Claudius Cæsar, and raised by his favour to great riches. Licinius was another wealthy freedman belonging to Augustus.

Perhaps the storks were used to build on the top of the temple dedicated to Concord.

He calls the Roman knights, etc., harpies, or devourers. In those days the rich made doles intended for the poor; but the great were either so covetous, or so needy, that they came in their litters to demand their shares of the largess, and thereby prevented, and consequently starved, the poor.

The meaning is, that noblemen would cause empty litters to be carried to the giver's door, pretending their wives were within them. “'Tis Galla,” that is, “my wife;” the next words, “Let her ladyship but peep,” are of the servant who distributes the dole; “Let me see her, that I may be sure she is within the litter.” The husband answers, “She is asleep, and to open the litter would disturb her rest.”

The poet here tells you how the idle passed their time, in going first to the levees of the great, then to the hall, that is, to the temple of Apollo, to hear the lawyers plead, then to the market-place of Augustus, where the statues of the famous Romans were set in ranks on pedestals, amongst which statues were seen those of foreigners, such as Arabs, etc., who, for no desert, but only on account of their wealth or favour, were placed amongst the noblest.

A poet may safely write an heroic poem, such as that of Virgil, who describes the duel of Turnus and Æneas; or of Homer, who writes of Achilles and Hector; or the death of Hylas, the catamite of Hercules, who, stooping for water, dropt his pitcher, and fell into the well after it: but it is dangerous to write satire, like Lucilius.

Cumæ, a small city in Campania, near Puteoli, or Puzzolo, as it is called. The habitation of the Cumæan Sybil.

Baiæ, another little town in Campania, near the sea; a pleasant place.

Prochyta, a small, barren island belonging to the kingdom of Naples.

The poets in Juvenal's time used to rehearse their poetry in August.

Numa, the second King of Rome, who made their laws, and instituted their religion.

Egeria, a nymph, or goddess, with whom Numa feigned to converse by night, and to be instructed by her in modelling his superstitions.

Dædalus, in his flight from Crete, alighted at Cumæ.

Lachesis is one of the three Destinies, whose office was to spin the life of every man; as it was of Clotho to hold the distaff, and Atropos to cut the thread.

Arturius means any debauched, wicked fellow, who gains by the times.

In a prize of sword-players, when one of the fencers had the other at his mercy, the vanquished party implored the clemency of the spectators. If they thought he deserved it not, they held up their thumbs, and bent them backwards in sign of death.

Verres, prætor in Sicily, contemporary with Cicero, by whom, accused of oppressing the province, he was condemned: his name is used here for any rich vicious man.

Tagus, a famous river in Spain, which discharges itself into the ocean near Lisbon, in Portugal. It was held of old to be full of golden sands.

Orontes, the greatest river of Syria. The poet here puts the river for the inhabitants of Syria.

Romulus was the first King of Rome, and son of Mars, as the poets feign. The first Romans were herdsmen.

Athens, of which Pallas, the Goddess of Arms and Arts, was patroness.

Antiochus and Stratocles, two famous Grecian mimics, or actors, in the poet's time.

Publius Egnatius, a Stoic, falsely accused Barea Soranus, as Tacitus tells us.

Grecians living in Rome.

Lucius Metellus, the high priest, who, when the temple of Vesta was on fire, saved the Palladium.

The meaning is, that men in some parts of Italy never wore a gown, the usual habit of the Romans, till they were buried in one.

Any wealthy man.

The Romans used to breed their tame pigeons in their garrets.

Codrus, a learned man, very poor: by his books, supposed to be a poet; for, in all probability, the heroic verses here mentioned, which rats and mice devoured, were Homer's work.

Herbs, roots, fruits, and salads.

Corbulo was a famous general, in Nero's time, who conquered Armenia, and was afterwards put to death by that tyrant, when he was in Greece, in reward of his great services. His stature was not only tall above the ordinary size, but he was also proportionably strong.

The birthplace of Juvenal.

When Jove had driven his father into banishment, the Silver Age began, according to the poets.

The poet makes Justice and Chastity sisters; and says that they fled to heaven together, and left earth for ever.

When the Roman women were forbidden to bed with their husbands.

She fled to Egypt, which wondered at the enormity of her crime.

He tells the famous story of Messalina, wife to the Emperor Claudius.

His meaning is, that a wife who brings a large dowry may do what she pleases, and has all the privileges of a widow.

A ring of great price, which Herod Agrippa gave to his sister Berenice. He was King of the Jews, but tributary to the Romans.

Cornelia was mother to the Gracchi, of the family of the Cornelii, from whence Scipio the African was descended, who triumphed over Hannibal.

He alludes to the known fable of Niobe, in Ovid. Amphion was her husband. Pæan was Apollo; who with his arrows killed her children, because she boasted that she was more fruitful than Latona, Apollo's mother.

He alludes to the white sow in Virgil, who farrowed thirty pigs.

Women then learned Greek, as ours speak French.

All the Romans, even the most inferior and most infamous sort of them, had the power of making wills.

The Bona Dea, or Good Goddess, at whose feasts no men were to be present.

He alludes to the story of P. Clodius, who, disguised in the habit of a singing woman, went into the house of Cæsar, where the feast of the Good Goddess was celebrated, to find an opportunity with Cæsar's wife, Pompeia.

A famous singing boy.

That such an actor, whom they love, might obtain the prize.

He who inspects the entrails of the sacrifice, and from thence foretells the success of the prayer.

The ancients endeavoured to help the moon, during an eclipse, by sounding trumpets.

A woman-grammarian, who corrects her husband for speaking false Latin, which is called “breaking Priscian's head.”

I.e. of the milk asses.

Sicilian tyrants were grown to a proverb, in Latin, for their cruelty.

Bellona's priests were a sort of fortune-tellers, and their high priest an eunuch.

A garment was given to the priest, which he threw, or was supposed to throw, into the river; and that, they thought, bore all the sins of the people, which were drowned with it.

Chaldeans are thought to have been the first astrologers.

Otho succeeded Galba in the empire, which was foretold him by an astrologer.

Mars and Saturn are the two unfortunate planets; Jupiter and Venus the two fortunate.

A famous astrologer; an Egyptian.

The Brachmans are Indian philosophers, who remain to this day, and hold, after Pythagoras, the translation of souls from one body to another.

Juvenal's meaning is, help her to any kind of slops which may cause her to miscarry, for fear she may be brought to bed of a black Moor, which thou, being her husband, art bound to father; and that bastard may, by law, inherit thy estate.

The Romans thought it ominous to see a black Moor in the morning, if he were the first man they met.

Cæsonia, wife to Caius Caligula, the great tyrant. It is said she gave him a love-potion, which, flying up into his head, distracted him, and was the occasion of his committing so many acts of cruelty.

Agrippina was the mother of the tyrant Nero, who poisoned her husband Claudius that Nero might succeed, who was her son, and not Britannicus, who was the son of Claudius by a former wife

The widow of Drymon poisoned her sons, that she might succeed to their estates. This was done in the poet's time, or just before it.

The Belides were fifty sisters, married to fifty young men, their cousins-german; and killed them all on their wedding-night, excepting Hypermnestra, who saved her husband Linus [Lynceus].

Milo, of Crotona; who, for a trial of his strength, going to rend an oak, perished in the attempt, for his arms were caught in the trunk of it, and he was devoured by wild beasts.

Sejanus was Tiberius's first favourite; and, while he continued so, had the highest marks of honour bestowed on him. Statues and triumphal chariots were everywhere erected to him. But, as soon as he fell into disgrace with the emperor, these were all immediately dismounted, and the senate and common people insulted over him as meanly as they had fawned on him before.

The island of Caprea, which lies about a league out at sea from the Campanian shore, was the scene of Tiberius's pleasures in the latter part of his reign. There he lived, for some years, with diviners, soothsayers, and worse company; and from thence despatched all his orders to the senate.

Julius Cæsar, who got the better of Pompey, that was styled The Great.

Demosthenes and Tully both died for their oratory: Demosthenes gave himself poison, to avoid being carried to Antipater, one of Alexander's captains, who had then made himself master of Athens. Tully was murdered by M. Antony's order, in return for those invectives he made against him.

The Latin of this couplet is a famous verse of Tully's, in which he sets out the happiness of his own consulship, famous for the vanity and the ill poetry of it; for Tully, as he had a good deal of the one, so he had no great share of the other.

The orations of Tully against M. Antony were styled by him “Philippics,” in imitation of Demosthenes, who had given that name before to those he made against Philip of Macedon.

This is a mock account of a Roman triumph.

Babylon, where Alexander died.

Xerxes is represented in history after a very romantic manner: affecting fame beyond measure, and doing the most extravagant things to compass it. Mount Athos made a prodigious promontory in the Ægean Sea; he is said to have cut a channel through it, and to have sailed round it. He made a bridge of boats over the Hellespont, where it was three miles broad; and ordered a whipping for the winds and seas, because they had once crossed his designs; as we have a very solemn account of it in Herodotus. But, after all these vain boasts, he was shamefully beaten by Themistocles at Salamis; and returned home, leaving most of his fleet behind him.

Mercury, who was a god of the lowest size, and employed always in errands between heaven and hell, and mortals used him accordingly; for his statues were anciently placed where roads met, with directions on the fingers of them, pointing out the several ways to travellers.

Nestor, King of Pylus; who was three hundred years old, according to Homer's account; at least as he is understood by his expositors.

The ancients counted by their fingers; their left hands served them till they came up to an hundred; after that they used their right, to express all greater numbers.

The Fates were three sisters, who had all some peculiar business assigned them by the poets, in relation to the lives of men. The first held the distaff, the second spun the thread, and the third cut it.

Whilst Troy was sacking by the Greeks, old King Priam is said to have buckled on his armour to oppose them; which he had no sooner done, but he was met by Pyrrhus, and slain before the altar of Jupiter, in his own palace; as we have the story finely told in Virgil's second Æneid.

Hecuba, his queen, escaped the swords of the Grecians, and outlived him. It seems she behaved herself so fiercely and uneasily to her husband's murderers while she lived, that the poets thought fit to turn her into a bitch when she died.

Mithridates, after he had disputed the empire of the world for forty years together, with the Romans, was at last deprived of life and empire by Pompey the Great.

Crœsus, in the midst of his prosperity, making his boast to Solon how happy he was, received this answer from the wise man,—that no one could pronounce himself happy, till he saw what his end should be. The truth of this Crœsus found, when he was put in chains by Cyrus, and condemned to die.

Pompey, in the midst of his glory, fell into a dangerous fit of sickness, at Naples. A great many cities then made public supplications for him. He recovered; was beaten at Pharsalia; fled to Ptolemy, King of Egypt; and, instead of receiving protection at his court, had his head struck off by his order, to please Cæsar.

Cethegus was one that conspired with Catiline, and was put to death by the Senate.

Sergius Catiline died fighting.

Virginia was killed by her own father, to prevent her being exposed to the lust of Appius Claudius, who had ill designs upon her. The story at large is in Livy's third book; and it is a remarkable one, as it gave occasion to the putting down the power of the Decemviri, of whom Appius was one.

Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, was loved by his mother-in-law, Phædra; but he not complying with her, she procured his death.

Bellerophon, the son of King Glaucus, residing some time at the court of Prœtus, king of the Argives, the queen, Sthenobæa, fell in love with him; but he refusing her, she turned the accusation upon him, and he narrowly escaped Prœtus's vengeance.

Messalina, wife to the Emperor Claudius, infamous for her lewdness. She set her eyes upon C. Silius, a fine youth; forced him to quit his own wife, and marry her, with all the formalities of a wedding, whilst Claudius Cæsar was sacrificing at Ostia. Upon his return, he put both Silius and her to death.

Juno was mother to Mars, the god of war; Venus was his mistress.

Camillus (who being first banished by his ungrateful countrymen the Romans, afterwards returned, and freed them from the Gauls) made a law, which prohibited the soldiers from quarrelling without the camp, lest upon that pretence they might happen to be absent when they ought to be on duty.

The poet names a Modenese lawyer, whom he calls Vagellius, who was so impudent, that he would plead any cause, right or wrong, without shame or fear.

The Roman soldiers wore plates of iron under their shoes, or stuck them with nails, as countrymen do now.

Landmarks were used by the Romans almost in the same manner as now; and as we go once a year in procession about the bounds of parishes, and renew them, so they offered cakes upon the stone, or landmark.

The courts of judicature were hung, and spread, as with us; but spread only before the hundred judges were to sit, and judge public causes, which were called by lot.

The Roman soldiers had the privilege of making a will, in their father's lifetime, of what they had purchased in the wars, as being no part of their patrimony. By this will, they had power of excluding their own parents, and giving the estate so gotten to whom they pleased: therefore, says the poet, Coranus (a soldier contemporary with Juvenal, who had raised his fortune by the wars) was courted by his own father, to make him his heir.