The satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis / translated into English verse by William Gifford.

  • Juvenal
Date:
1802
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis / translated into English verse by William Gifford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    152/574 (page 72)
    Now they give shews themselves; and save, or kill, As the rude rabble hint their sovereign will; Whom thus they court; then, as their avarice wakes. Run from the bloody scene, to—farm the jakes ! Ver. 55. Now thet/ give SHBW s, 8cc.] i.e. munera; exhibitions of gladiators: — They once served the players, (so Mr. Ireland thinks it should be, and not prize-fighters, as I have rendered it,) now they affect to be great men, and hire gladiators to amuse the people.” When an ancient custom can be rendered with precision, it is always right to do that justice to the original; when it cannot, it is better, perhaps, to give its general sense, than to descend to particulars, in which every thing is dis- puted, and nothing concluded : “ verso polllce vulgi Quemlibet occidunt populariter”— literally means, from an affectation of popularity they put to death whomso- ever the people, by a turn of their thumbs, condemn. Versopollice, and con- verso pollice, are known to be signals of contempt, by which the spectators adjudged to death the vanquished combatant. How these were expressed,— whether by holding up a hand clenched, with the thumb bent backward, or by what other method, cannot now be determined. Nor is it of much conse- quence; the sense of the passage is given in the translation, and the reader who wishes for further remarks on it, may consult Dacier and others, who have written professedly on the subject. When I observed, that the vanquished was adjudged to death converso pollice, I should have added, that he was sometimes preserved compresso pollice. I w'ish I could have sdid. frequently : but he who considers how great a tendency the sight of reitei’ated murder has to harden the mind, will not believe that there were many proofs of compassion exhibited. If we look for them any where, it must be amongst the Vestal Virgins, whose service was unbloody, and who must, therefore have had a little of the milk of human kindness” in them. Hear now Prudentius: “ O tenerum mitemque animum! consurgit ad ictus: “ Et, quoties victor ferrum jugulo inserit, ilia “ Delicias ail esse suas! pectusque jacentis Virgo modestajubet converso pollice rumpi;