[94] Gracchus. In the same manner Nero was married to one Pythagoras, "in modum solennium conjugiorum denupsisset." Tac., Ann., xv., 37. He repeated the same act with Sporus.
[95] Flammea. Vid. Tac., u. s. "Inditum imperatori flammeum, visi auspices, dos, et genialis torus et faces nuptiales: cuncta denique spectata, quæ etiam in feminâ nox operit."
[96] Tunicati. Vid. Sat. vi., 256; viii., 203. Movet ecce tridentem. Credamus tunicæ, etc.
[97] Nondum ære lavantur. The fee was a quadrans: vi., 447.
[98] Traducimur. Cf. viii., 17. Squalentes traducit avos.
[99] Modo captas Orcadas. A.D. 78, Clinton, F. R. "Insulas quas Orcadas vocant, invenit domuitque." Tac., Agric., c. x.; cf. c. xii. "Dierum spatia ultra nostri orbis mensuram: nox clara, et extremâ Britanniæ parte brevis, ut finem atque initium lucis exiguo discrimine internoscas."
[100] Referunt. Cf. i., 41. "Multum referens de Mæcenate supino." The fashion is not only carried back to Armenia, but copied there. Prætextatus. Cf. i., 78. Artaxata, the capital of Armenia, was taken by Corbulo, A.D. 58.
SATIRE III.
Although troubled at the departure of my old friend, yet I can not but commend his intention of fixing his abode at Cumæ, now desolate, and giving the Sibyl one citizen at least. It is the high road to Baiæ, and has a pleasant shore; a delightful retreat. I prefer even Prochyta[101] to the Suburra. For what have we ever looked on so wretched or so lonely, that you would not deem it worse to be in constant dread of fires, the perpetual falling-in of houses, and the thousand dangers of the cruel city,[102] and poets spouting in the month of August.[103] But while his whole household is being stowed in a single wagon, my friend Umbritius halted at the ancient triumphal arches[104] and the moist Capena. Here, where Numa used to make assignations with his nocturnal mistress, the grove of the once-hallowed fountain and the temples are in our days let out to Jews, whose whole furniture is a basket and bundle of hay.[105] For every single tree is bid to pay a rent to the people, and the Camenæ having been ejected, the wood is one mass of beggars. We descended into the valley of Egeria and the grottoes, so altered from what nature made them. How much more should we feel the influence of the presiding genius of the spring,[106] if turf inclosed the waters with its margin of green, and no marble profaned the native tufo. Here then Umbritius began:[107]