Juvenal Satire 10 - Latin

For memorising Juvenal Satire X

omnibus in terris, quae sunt a Gadibus usque Auroram et Gangen, pauci dinoscere possunt vera bona atque illis multum diversa, remota erroris nebula.

In all the lands, which extend from Cadiz all the way to the Dawn and Ganges river, few people are able to distinguish true good things and things quite the opposite to them, free from the cloud of error.

quid enim ratione timemus
aut cupimus?

For what do we fear or desire with reason?

quid tam dextro pede concipis ut te
conatus non paeniteat votique peracti?

What do you undertake so auspiciously that it causes you not to regret the effort nor your prayers once fulfilled?

evertere domos totas optantibus ipsis
di faciles.

The obliging gods have overthrown whole households in answer to their owners praying.

nocitura toga, nocitura petuntur
milita: torrens dicendi copia multis
et sua mortifera est facundia; viribus ille
confisus periit admirandisque lacertis.

Things that are going to harm you are pursued in politics and in war: for many people the rushing flood of speech and their own eloquence is fatal; Milo of Croton died, having trusted in his strength and in his astonishing muscles.

sed plures nimia congesta pecunia cura strangulat et cuncta exuperans patrimonia census
quanto delphinis balaena Britannica maior.

But money accumulated with too much care strangles very many people and wealth exceeding all other inheritances by as much as the British whale is bigger than the dolphins.

temporibus diris igitur iussuque Neronis Longinum et magnos Senecae praedivitis hortos
clausit et egregias Lateranorum obsidet aedes tota cohors: rarus venit in cenacula miles.

Therefore, in dreadful times and by the order of Nero, an entire cohort shut down Longinus and the vast gardens of the very rich Seneca and besieged the splendid houses of the Laterani: a soldier rarely comes into a cheap attic apartment.

pauca licet portes argenti vascula puri
nocte iter ingressus, gladium contumque timebis
et mota at lunam trepidabis harundinis umbra:
cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator.

Even if you’re carrying a few small vessels of unornamented silver, having set out on your journey at night, you will fear the sword and the pike and you will be frightened by the moving shadow of a reed in the moonlight: An empty-handed traveller will sing in the face of a robber.

prima fere vota et cunctis notissima templis
divitiae, crescant ut opes, ut maxima toto
nostra sit arca foro.

Generally the first and most common prayers in all temples are for riches, that wealth may increase, that our money-chest may be the largest in the whole forum.

sed nulla aconita bibuntur
fictilibus; tunc illa time cum pocula sumes
gemmata et lato Setinum ardebit in auro.

But no poison are being drunk from earthenware cups; then fear poisons when you take up jewelled cups and the Setian wine glows in your broad golden cups.

iamne igitur laudas quod de sapientibus alter ridebat, quotiens a limine moverat unum protuleratque pedem, flebat contrarius auctor?

Therefore after hearing all this, do you praise the fact that of the two wise men, one used to laugh whenever he lifted and had avanced a single step from his doorway, while the opposite authority used to weep?

sed facilis cuivis rigidi censura cachinni: mirandum est unde ille oculis suffecerit umor.

But the censure of a derisive laugh is easy for anyone: what must be marvelled at is from where that liquid sufficient for his eyes came from.

perpetuo risu pulmonem agitare solebat Democritus, quamquam non essent urbibus illis
praetextae, trabeae, fasces, lectica, tribunal.

Democritus was accustommed to shake his lungs with perpetual laughter, although in those cities purple-fringed togas, purple robes, rods and axes, the litter and the tribunal did not exist.

quid si vidisset praetorem curribus altis
extantem et medii sublimem pulvere circi
in tunica Iovis et pictae Sarrana ferentem
ex umeris aulaea togae magnaeque coronae
tantum orbem, quanto cervix non sufficit ulla?

What if Democritus had seen a praetor standing out in his high chariots, both elevated in the dust of the middle of the Circus Maximus, in the tunic of Jupiter and wearing from his shoulders the Tyrian hangings of the embroidered toga and so great a circle of a huge crown, that any neck did not suffice?

quippe tenet sudans hanc publicus et, sibi consul
ne placeat, curru servus portatur eodem.

Certainly a sweating public slave holds this and, so that the consul does not flatter himself, he is carried in the same chariot.

da nunc et volucrem, sceptro quae surgit eburno,
illinc cornicines, hinc praecedentia longi agminis officia et niveos ad frena Quirites,
defossa in loculos quos sportula fecit amicos.

Now imagine the eagle which soars on the praetor’s ivory sceptre, and the horn players over there, and here the long lines of his procession, leading the way, and the citizens in white togas, marching at his bridle, who he made friends with the handouts hidden in their satchels.

tum quoque materiam risus invenit ad omnes
occursus hominum, cuius prudentia monstrat
summos posse viros et magna exempla daturos
vervecum in patria crassoque sub aere nasci.

Then even in those times, Democritus found things to laugh at in every human encounter, whose prudence shows that men of excellence, who are destined to provide great examples, can still be born in a thick air, in a land of muttonheads.

ridebat curas nec non et gaudia volgi,
interdum et lacrimas, cum Fortunae ipse minaci
mandaret laqueum mediumque ostederet unguem.

He even laughed at the anxieties and indeed the delights of the common people and sometimes at their tears, while to threatening Fortune, he himself ordered a noose and showed his middle finger.

ergo supervacua aut si perniciosa petuntur,
propter quae fas est genua incerare deorum?

Therefore, if redundant and destructive things are sought for, on account of what things, is it right to cover the knees of the gods with wax?

visne salutari sicut Seianus, habere
tantundem atue illi summas donare curules,
illum exercitibus praeponere, tutor haberi
principis angusta Caprearum in rupe sedentis
cum grege Chaldaeo?

Would you like to be greeted as Sejanus, to have his bank balance and give the seats of highest office to one man, to appoint another man to the military posts, and be known as the Protector of the Emperor, sitting on the narrow rock of Capri with a flock of Chaldaen astrologers?

vis certe pila, cohortes,
egregios equites et castra domestica; quidni
haec cupias?

Certainly you want his weapons, his troops, his outstanding cavalry and his private camps; why shouldn’t you want these?

et qui nolunt occidere quemquam
posse volunt.

And even those who do not want to kill, wish to be able to.

sed quae praeclara et prospera tanti,
ut rebus laetis par sit mensura malorum?

But are the famous and prosperous things of such great worth, that the measure of their misfortunes is equal to their good things?

huius qui trahitur praetextam sumere mavis
an Fidenarum Gabiorumque esse potestas
et de mensura ius dicere, vasa minora
frangere pannosus vacuis aedilis Ulubris?

Do you prefer to put on the purple-edged toga of this man who is being dragged, or be in the magistrate of the Fidenae and Gabii, and to pronounce the law about weights and scales, break smaller vessels, as a ragged aedile officer in deserted Ulubrae.

ergo quid optandum foret ignorasse fateris
Seianum; nam qui nimios optabat honores
et nimias poscebat opes, numerosa parabat
excelsae turris tabulata, unde altior esset
casus et impulsae praeceps immane ruinae

So perhaps you’d admit that Sejanus did not know what ought to be desired; for he was desiring excessive honours and demanded excessive wealth, he was building many stories of a lofty tower from which the collapse and the immense precipice of the overthrown ruin would be greater.

quid Crassos, quid Pompeios evertit et illum,
ad sua qui domitos deduxit flagra Quirites?

What destroyed the Crassi, the Pompii, and that man Caesar, who led the subdued Romans under his own whip?

summus nempe locus nulla non arte petitus
magnaque numinibus vota exaudita malignis.

Simply seeking that place at the top, by every trick and ambitious prayers granted by malicious gods.

ad generum Cereris sine caede ac vulnere pauci
descendunt reges et sicca morte tyranni.

Few kings go down to Ceres’ son-in-law, without murder or a wound and few dictators with a bloodless death.

eloquium ac famam Demosthenis aut Ciceronis
incipit optare et totis quinquatribus optat
quisquis adhuc uno parcam colit asse Minervam,
quem sequitur custos angustae vernula capsae.

The eloquence and fame of Demosthenes or Cicero: what a boy wishes for and begins to wish for throughout the entire festival of Minerva, whoever still worships frugal Minerva with a single coin, that boy who a slave follows, a guard for his small satchel.

eloquio sed uterque perit orator, utrumque
largus et exundans leto dedit ingenii fons.

But each orator died by their eloquence, a rich and overflowing fountain of talent led both to death.

ingenio manus est et cervix caesa, nec umquam
sanguine causidici maduerunt rostra pusilli.

For Cicero’s talent his hands and neck were cut, never a poor advocate drenched the stage with blood.

‘o fortunatam natam me consule Romam’ -
Antoni gladios potuit contemnere si sic
omnia dixisset.

‘O Rome, lucky to be born with me as consul’ - He could not have feared Antony’s sword if he had spoken of all things like this.

ridenda poemata malo
quam te, conspicuae divina Philippica famae,
volveris a prima quae proxima.

I rather his ridiculous poems than you, divine Philippic of striking fame, you who are rolled out second.

saevus et illum
exitus eripuit, quem mirabantur Athenae
torrentem et pleni moderantem frena theatri.

A harsh death snatched him, whom the Athenians marvelled at, empassioning and restraining the limits of the packed crowd.

dis ille adversis genitus fatoque sinistro
quem pater ardentis massae fuligine lippus
a carbone et forcipibus gladiosque paranti
incude et luteo Volcano ad rhetora misit.

He, born with the gods and unlucky fate against him, whom his father, half-blind with soot from the burning ore, sent away from the coal, tongs and anvil for forging swords and grimy Vulcan, a teacher of rhetoric.

quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam,
praemia si tollas?

For who would embrace virtue for its own sake, if you removed its rewards?

patriam tamen obruit olim
gloria paucorum et laudis titulique cupido
haesuri saxis cinerum custodibus, ad quae
discutienda ualent sterilis mala robora fici,
quandoquidem data sunt ipsis quoque fata sepulcris.

Yet time and time again, the ambition of a few has ruined their nation and their desire for fame and an inscription intended to stick to the guarding stones of their ashes, to which the harmful strength of the barren fig tree has the power to shatter since fated ends are also given to the tombstones themselves.

expende Hannibalem: quot libras in duce summo
invenies? hic est quem non capit Africa Mauro
percussa oceano Niloque admota tepenti
rursus ad Aethiopum populos alios que elephantos.

Weigh Hannibal: how many pounds will you find in the greatest leader? This is the main, who Africa, lashed by the Mauritanian ocean, and stretching from the warm Nile southwards to the people of Ethiopia and the different elephants could not contain.

additur imperiis Hispania, Pyrenaeum
transilit.

Spain is added to his empire, he leaps over the Pyrenees.

opposuit natura Alpemque nivemque: diducit scopulos et montem rumpit aceto.

Nature has put in his way both the Alps and their snow: he splits the rocks and breaks the mountains with vinegar.

iam tenet Italiam, tamen ultra pergere tendit.

Now he possesses Italy, however he strives to proceed further.

‘acti’ inquit ‘nihil est, nisi Poeno milite portas
frangimus et media vexillum pono Subura.’

He said ‘Nothing is accomplished, unless we break the gates with our Carthiginian soldiers and I place the flag in the middle of the Subura.

o qualis facies et quali digna tabella,
cum Gaetula ducem portaret belua luscum!

O what a face and worthy of what a picture, when the African beast was carrying the one-eyed leader!

exitus ergo quis est? o gloria! vincitur idem
nempe et in exilium praeceps fugit atque ibi magnus
mirandusque cliens sedet ad praetoria regis,
donec Bithyno libeat vigilare tyranno.

Then what was the end? O glory! The same man was conquered of course and fled headlong into exile and he sits there, as a great and revered client at the palace of the king, until it pleases the Bithynian monarch to wake.

finem animae, quae res humanas miscuit olim
non gladii, non saxa dabunt nec tela, sed ille
Cannarum vindex et tanti sanguinis ultor
anulus.

No swords, nor rocks, nor weapons gave end to that soul, that once mixed humanity, but that ring, defender of Cannae and the revenger of so much blood.

i, demens, et saevas curre per Alpes
ut pueris placeas et declamatio fias.

Go, mad man, and run through the savage Alps so that you please boys and you become a school exercise speech.

‘da spatium vitae, multos da, Iuppiter, annos.’

‘Grant me a long life, Jupiter, grant me many years.’

hoc recto vultu, solum hoc et pallidus optas.

You wish for this with a healthy face, and only this when you are pallid.

sed quam continuis et quantis longa senectus
plena malis.

But how full prolonged old age is with unending and such great misery.

ille umero, hic lumbis, hic coxa debilis; ambos
perdidit ille oculos et luscis invidet;

One man is weak in the shoulder, another in the loins, another in the hip; this one has lost both eyes, and envies the one-eyed.

pallida labra cibum accipiunt digitis alienis,
ipse ad conspectum cenae diducere rictum
suetus hiat tantum ceu pullus hirundinis, ad quem
ore volat pleno mater ieiuna.

That one's pale lips receives food from others' fingers, he, once accustomed to open his mouth wide at the sight of his dinner, now just gapes like the swallow's chick, to whom the mother, depriving herself, flies with a full mouth.

sed omni
membrorum damno maior dementia, quae nec
nomina servorum nec vultum agnoscit amici
cum quo praeterita cenavit nocte; nec illos
quos genuit, quos eduxit.

But worse than any loss of limb is the dementia, that neither recognises the names of his slaves nor the face of a friend with whom he dined the past night, not even those whom he begot, whom he brought up.

nam codice saevo
heredes vetat esse suos, bona tota feruntur
ad Phialen; tantum artificis valet halitus oris,
quod steterat multis in carcere fornicis annis.

In his cruel will he forbids his own children from being heirs, and all his possessions are carried to Phiale; such power has the breath of her skilled mouth, because she had stood for many years in a brothel's cell.

ut vigeant sensus animi, ducenda tamen sunt
funera natorum, rogus aspiciendus amatae
coniugis et fratris, plenaeque sororibus urnae.

Although the mind’s faculties thrive, he still must lead the funerals of his children, gaze on the pyre of his beloved wife and brother, and urns filled with sisters.

haec data poena diu uiuentibus, ut renouata
semper clade domus multis in luctibus inque
perpetuo maerore et nigra ueste senescant.

This is the penalty given to those living for a long time, to grow old with the destruction of their household ever renewed, and in much sorrow in constantly mourning, and with black clothes.

incolumi Troia Priamus venisset ad umbras
Assaraci magnis sollemnibus Hectore funus
portante ac reliquis fratrum cervicibus inter
Iliadum lacrimas, ut primos edere planctus
Cassandra inciperet scissaque Polyxena palla,
si foret extinctus diverso tempore, quo non
coeperat audaces Paris aedificare carinas.

With Troy still standing, Priam would have come to the shade of Assaracus with great solemnities, while Hector was carrying his corpse with his remaining brothers on their shoulders, among the tears of the Trojan woman, so that Cassandra would begin to utter the first wailings with Polyxena in a torn palla, if he had died at a different time, when Paris had not begun to build his bold ships.

longa dies igitur quid contulit? omnia vidit
eversa et flammis Asiam ferroque cadentem.

Therefore what did a long life bring him? He saw everything overthrown and Asia falling from flames and the sword.

tunc miles tremulus posita tulit arma tiara
et ruit ante aram summi Iovis ut vetulus bos,
qui domini cultris tenue et miserabile collum
praebet ab ingrato iam fastiditus aratro.

Then as a trembling soldier, once his crown had been taken off, he took up arms and fell before the altar of highest Jupiter like an old ox, which presents its scrawny and wretched neck to its master’s knife, now having been scorned by the ungrateful plough.

exitus ille utcumque hominis, sed torva canino
latravit rictu quae post hunc vixerat uxor.

At least his end was that of a human being, but his savage wife who had lived on after his death barked with her canine jaws.

festino ad nostros et regem transeo Ponti
et Croesum, quem vox iusti facunda Solonis
respicere ad longae iussit spatia ultima vitae

I hurry to our own people and I pass over the king of Pontus and Croesus, whom the eloquent voice of righteous Solon ordered to look back at the very end of a long life.

mulier saeuissima tunc est
cum stimulos odio pudor admouet

Then a woman is the most fierce when shame stirs her to hatred.

elige quidnam
suadendum esse putes cui nubere Caesaris uxor
destinat.

Decide what you think must be persuaded to him, whom the emperor’s wife intends to marry.

optimus hic et formonsissimus idem
gentis patriciae rapitur miser extinguendus
Messalinae oculis;

He, the best and also the most handsome of a patrician family, is snatched away to be destroyed, miserable by the eyes of Messalina.

dudum sedet illa parato
flammeolo Tyriusque palam genialis in hortis
strenitur et ritu decies centena dabuntur
antiquo, veniet cum signatoribus auspex.

She sat a little while ago, bridal veil prepared, and the Tyrian marriage bed is spread openly in the garden, and 1,000,000 sesterces will be given with the dowry, and the augur will come with witnesses.

haec tu secreta et paucis comissa putabas?

Did you think that these were a secret and only shared with the few?

non nisi legitime vult nubere.

She does not want to marry unless it was done lawfully.

quid placeat dic
ni parere velis, perendum erit ante lacernas

Tell me what would suit you; if you do not wish to obey, you ought to die before dark;

si scelus admittas, dabitur mora parvula, dum res
nota urbi et populo contingat princeps aurem.

If you were to commit the crime, a brief delay will be given, until the affair already known to Rome and its people, reach the ear of the emperor

deducus ille domus sciet ultimus

He will know of the disgrace to his home last.

interea tu
obsequere imperio, si tanti vita dierum
paucorum.

Meanwhile you comply with your order, if it is worth as much as a life of a few days.

quidquid levius meliusque putaris,
praebenda est gladio pulchra haec et candida cervix.

Whatever you are deemed better and more easily to be, this beautiful and white neck of yours must be offered to the sword.

nil ergo optabunt homines?

Will people therefore pray for nothing?

si consilium vis,
permittes ipsis expendere numinibus quid
conveniat nobis rebusque sit utile nostris;

If you want some advice, you’ll leave it to the gods themselves to weigh upon what suits us best and is most useful to our situations;

nam pro iucundis aptissima quaeque dabunt di.

For in exchange for laughter, the gods will grant whatever is most fitting.

carior est illis homo quam sibi.

A person is dearer to them than he is to himself.

nos animorum
impulsu et caeca magnaque cupidine ducti
coniugium petimus partumque uxoris, at illis
notum qui pueri qualisque futura sit uxor.

We, driven by the impulse of emotion, and by desire both blind and great, search for marriage and children from a wife, but to the gods it is known who the wife will be for a boy, and what sort she’ll be.

ut tamen et poscas aliquid voveasque sacellis
exta et candiduli divina tomacula porci,
orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.

So that you might ask for something nonetheless, and dedicate to the shrines’ entrails and the sacred sausages of a chalked-up piggy what should be begged for is, that a sound mind may be in a sound body.

fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem,
qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat
naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores,
nesciat irasci, cupiat nihil et potiores
Herculis aerumnas credat saevosque labores
et venere et cenis et pluma Sardanapalli

Ask for a brave mind, lacking a fear of death, to view the final stretch of life as among the gifts of Nature, to be able to hear any hardships whatsoever, to not know how to get angry, to desire nothing, and to believe Hercules’ sufferings and brutal labours more powerful than the sex and feasts and feathery-ness of Sardanapallus.

monstro quod ipse tibi possis dare;

I am demonstrating what you yourself are able to give yourself;

semita certe
tranquillae per virtutem patet unica vitae.

Certainly the only path of a tranquil life lies in virtue.

nullum numen habes, si sit prudentia: nos te,
nos facimus, Fortuna, deam caeloque locamus.

You have no god, if you plan ahead wisely: it is we, WE who invent you, Fortune, and we place you in the sky.