Saturae

Juvenal

Juvenal. Juvenal and Persius. Ramsay, G. G., editor. London, New York: William Heinemann, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1918.

  1. summus nempe locus nulla non arte petitus,
  2. magnaque numinibus vota exaudita malignis.
  3. ad generum Cereris sine caede ac vulnere pauci
  4. descendunt reges et sicca morte tyranni.
  5. Eloquium ac famam Demosthenis aut Ciceronis
  6. incipit optare et totis quinquatribus optat
  7. quisquis adhuc uno parcam[*](parcam P: partam Ψ ) colit asse Minervam,
  8. quem sequitur custos augustae vernula capsae.
  9. eloquio sed uterque perit orator, utrumque
  10. largus et exundans leto dedit ingenii fons.
  11. ingenio manus est et cervix caesa, nec umquam
  12. sanguine causidici maduerunt rostra pusilli.
  13. o fortunatam natam me consule Romam:[*](This line is (apparently) taken from the poem (De suo Consulatu) which Cicero wrote to glorify the events of his Consulship To the many who are not gifted with the divine faculty of poesy it may be a consolation to know that a writer of the most splendid prose could be guilty of such a rubbishy line as that here quoted.)
  14. Antoni gladios potuit contemnere, si sic
  15. omnia dixisset, videnda poemata malo
  16. quam te, conspicuae divina Philippica famae,
  17. volvens a prima quae proxima, saevus et illum
  18. exitus eripuit, quem mirabantur Athenae
  19. torrentem et pleni moderantem frena theatri.
  20. dis ille adversis genitus fatoque sinistro,