JUVENAL, SATIRE VII
Statius[1] has gladdened the city by promising a day, people flock to hear his pleasing voice and his loved Thebais; so charmed are their souls by his sweetness, with such rapture does the multitude listen to him. But when his verses have brought down the house, poor Statius will starve if he does not sell his virgin Agave to Paris[2]; for it is Paris who appoints men to military commands; it is Paris who puts the golden ring round the poet's finger after six months of service.[3] You can get from a stage-player what no great man will give you; why frequent the spacious antechambers of the Bareae or the Camerini? It is Pelopea[4] that appoints our Prefects, and Philomela[4] our Tribunes! Yet you need not begrudge the bard who gains his living from the play-house; who nowadays will be a Maecenas[5] to you, a Proculeius, or a Fabius? who another Cotta, or a second Lentulus? Genius in those days met with its due reward; many then found their profit in pale cheeks and in abjuring potations all through December.[6]
98And is your labour more remunerative, ye writers of history? More time, more oil, is wasted here; regardless of all limit, the pages run up to thousands; the pile of paper is ever mounting to your ruin. So ordains the vast array of facts, and the rules of the craft. But what harvest will you gather, what fruit, from the tilling of your land? Who will give to an historian as much as he gives to the man who reads out the news?
- ↑ P. Papinius Statius, author of the Thebais, circ. A.D. 61-96.
- ↑ Paris, a famous pantomimic dancer. There were two of the name; one a favourite of Nero, executed by him as a rival, A.D. 67; the other a favourite of Domitian, also executed, A.D. 87. See Introduction.
- ↑ The commanding officers of a Legion (tribuni) became equites after serving for six months. Claudius instituted the practice of making honorary appointments, without service, so as to bestow the title of eques on his favourites.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Names of pantomime plays.
- ↑ A noble patron of letters, especially of Horace; for Proculeius, see Hor. Od. II. ii. 5. Paulus Fabius Maximus was the patron of Ovid; Cotta is panegyrised by Ovid, Epp. ex P. II. viii.; P. Lentulus Spinther helped to recall Cicero from banishment.
- ↑ In reference to the festive season of the Saturnalia.
