[605] Forcipibus. Cf. Virg., Æn., viii., 453, "Versantque tenaci forcipe massam." Juvenal seems to have had the whole passage in his eye.
[606] Vulcano. Demosthenes' father was a μαχαιροποιός: in which capacity he employed a large number of slaves, ἐργαστήριον ἔχων μέγα καὶ δούλους τεχνίτας. But as he could not afford to place his son under the costly Isocrates, he sent him to Isæus.
[607] Truncis. Virg., Æn., xi., 5.
Ingentem quercum decisis undique ramis
Constituit tumulo, fulgentiaque induit arma,
Mezenti ducis exuvias, tibi magne tropæum
Bellipotens: aptat rorantes sanguine cristas
Telaque trunca viri.
[608] Aplustre, the ἄφλαστον of the Greeks was the high peak of the galley, from which rose the ensign.
[609] Arcu. Cf. Suet., Domit., 13, "Janos arcusque cum quadrigis et insignibus triumphorum per regiones urbis tantos et tot exstruxit, ut cuidam Græcè inscriptum sit, ἀρκεῖ—." Some think there is an allusion here to the column of Trajan, erected in honor of his Dacian victories. This would bring down the date of this Satire to after A.D. 113.
[610] Amplectitur.
"That none confess fair Virtue's genuine power,
Or woo her to their breast without a dower." Gifford.
[611] Sepulchris; from Propertius, III., ii., 19, seq. So Ausonius, "Mors etiam saxis, nominibusque venit."
"For fate hath foreordain'd its day of doom,
Not to the tenant only, but the tomb." Badham.