Page:Juvenal and Persius by G. G. Ramsay.djvu/357

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JUVENAL, SATIRE XIV

in what habits, you bring him up. The stork feeds her young upon the serpents and the lizards which she finds in the wilds; the young search for the same things when they have gotten to themselves wings. The vulture hurries from dead cattle and dogs and gibbets to bring some of the carrion to her offspring; so this becomes the food of the vulture when he is full-grown and feeds himself, making his nest in a tree of his own. The noble birds that wait on Jove hunt the hare or the roe in the woods, and from them serve up prey to their eyrie; so when their progeny are of full age and soar up from the nest, hunger bids them swoop down upon that same prey which they had first tasted when they chipped the shell.

⁸⁶Cretonius was given to building; now on Caieta's winding shore, now on the heights of Tibur, now on the Praenestine hills, he would rear lofty mansions, with marbles fetched from Greece and distant lands, outdoing the temples of Fortune and of Hercules^[1] by as much as the eunuch Posides^[2] over-topped our own Capitol. Housed therefore in this manner, he impaired his fortune and frittered away his wealth; some goodly portion of it still remained, but it was all squandered by his madman of a son in building new mansions of still costlier marbles.

⁹⁶Some who have had a father who reveres the Sabbath, worship nothing but the clouds, and the divinity of the heavens,^[3] and see no difference between eating swine's flesh, from which their father abstained, and that of man; and in time they take

↑ There were great temples of Fortuna at Praeneste, of Hercules at Tibur.
↑ A freedman of Claudius.
↑ The phrase caeli numen is hard to translate. What Juvenal means is that the Jews worshipped no concrete deity, such as could be pourtrayed, but only some impalpable mysterious spirit. They did not worship the sky or the heavens, but only the numen of the heavens. This is what Tacitus means when he says (Hist. v. 5) "The Jews worship with the mind alone." So Lucan. ii. 592-3 dedita sacris Incerti Judaea dei.

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[1] There were great temples of Fortuna at Praeneste, of Hercules at Tibur.

[2] A freedman of Claudius.

[3] The phrase caeli numen is hard to translate. What Juvenal means is that the Jews worshipped no concrete deity, such as could be pourtrayed, but only some impalpable mysterious spirit. They did not worship the sky or the heavens, but only the numen of the heavens. This is what Tacitus means when he says (Hist. v. 5) "The Jews worship with the mind alone." So Lucan. ii. 592-3 dedita sacris Incerti Judaea dei.

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