Vv A JOURNEY TO BRUNDISIUM Tis Satire is modelled upon one by Lucilius, who in his third book had described a journey from Rome to Capua ‘and thence to the Sicilian straits. Horace’s journey was associated with an embassy on which Maecenas and others were sent in 38 B.c. by Octavian, to make terms with Marcus Antonius, who, notwithstanding the so-called treaty of Brundi- sium, made between the rivals of two years earlier, was again somewhat estranged. The travellers left Rome by the Appian Way, and made a night-journey from Appii Forum to Anxur by canal-boat through the Pomptine marshes. From Capua their road took them over the Apennines into the Apulian hill-country of Horace’s birth, whence they passed on to Italy’s eastern coast, reaching Brundisium in fifteen days. The journey had been pursued in a leisurely fashion, for if necessary it might have been covered in less than half that time. Although the mission of Maecenas was a political one, Horace steers clear of political gossip. ‘The account reads like a compilation of scanty notes from a diary, and yet leaves a delightful impression about the personal relations of men distinguished in litera- ture and statesmanship. Some of the character- 62SATIRES, I. v. isties of the sketch are doubtless due to Horace’s adherence to the satiric type. Thus the encounter of the two buffoons (51-69) is a dramatic scene, treated in a mock-heroic fashion, where the comparison made between Sarmentus and a unicorn recalls the Lucilian description of a rhinoceros with a projecting tooth, dente adverso eminulo hic est (117 f. ed. Marx.) while the four disfiguring lines (82-85) are parallel to a similar incident recorded by Lucilius. This close dependence of Horace upon Lucilius throughout is clearly shown both by Lejay, in his introduction to this Satire, and by Fiske in his Lucilius and Horace, pp. 306 ff. Professor Tenney Frank, in Classical Philology, xv. (1920) p. 893, has made the plausible suggestion that Heliodorus, the rhetor, Graecorum longe doctis- simus, of ll. 2 and 8, is really Apollodorus, who was chosen by Julius Caesar to be the teacher of Octavian, and who is called by Wilamowitz “the founder of the classical school of Augustan poetry.” The name Apollodorus cannot be used in hexameters, and Helios would be an easy substitution for Apollo. This scholar would have been a not unworthy mem- ber of the distinguished literary group who accom- panied Maecenas to Brundisium. rinoceros 63Vv. Fgressum magna me accepit! Aricia Roma hospitio modico ; rhetor comes Heliodorus, Graecorum longe® doctissimus : inde Forum Appi, differtum nautis, cauponibus atque malignis. hoc iter ignavi divisimus, altius ac nos & praccinctis unum : minus est gravis Appia tardis. hic ego propter aquam, quod erat deterrima, ventri indico bellum, cenantis haud animo aequo expectans comites. Jam nox inducere terris umbras et caelo diffundere signa parabat. 10 tum pueri nautis, pucris convicia nautae ingerere: ‘“‘huc appcelle!’’ “ trecentos inseris.” “ ohe, iam satis est.” dum aes exigitur, dum mula ligatur, tota abit hora. mali culices ranaeque palustres avertunt somnos, absentem ut? cantat amicam 16 multa prolutus vappa nauta atque viator certatim. tandem fessus dormire viator incipit ac missae pastum retinacula mulae 1 excepit D, IJ. * linguae K, II. ® ut omitted by CDK. ® The “ Market of Appius,” for which see Acts xxviii. 15, was at the head of the canal which ran through the Pomptine marshes to Feronia. ® #.. from Rome to Appii Forum, nearly forty miles. The phrase altius praccinctis means literally “higher girt,” of. the Biblical “gird up your loins.” 64Satire V + Leaving mighty Rome, I found shelter in a modest inn at Aricia, having for companion Heliodorus the rhetorician, far most learned of all Greeks. Next came Appii Forum,? crammed with boatmen and stingy tavern-keepers. This stretch? we lazily cut in two, though smarter travellers make it in a single day: the Appian Way is less tiring, if taken slowly. Here owing to the water, for it was villainous, I declare war against my stomach, and wait impatiently while my companions dine. ® Already night was beginning to draw her curtain over the earth and to sprinkle the sky with stars. Then slaves loudly rail at boatmen, boatmen at ‘slaves: “‘ Bring to here!” “ You're packing in hundreds!” “* Stay, that’s enough!” What with collecting fares and harnessing the mule¢ a whole hour slips away. Cursed gnats and frogs of the fens drive off sleep, the boatman, soaked in sour wine, singing the while of the girl he left behind, and a passenger? taking up the refrain. The passenger at last tires and falls asleep, and the lazy boatman ¢ The mule was to pull the boat through the canal. « Some take viator to mean a driver of the mule along the tow-path, but, according to ll. 18, 19, it would seem to be the boatman who drives the mule and who drops his work to take a nap on the bank. F 65HORACE nauta piger saxo religat stertitque supinus. iamque dies aderat, nil cum procedere lintrem 20 sentimus, donec cerebrosus prosilit unus ac mulae nautaeque caput lumbosque saligno fuste dolat. Quarta vix demum exponimur hora. ora manusque tua lavimus, Feronia, lympha. milia tum pransi tria repimus atque subimus 25 impositum saxis late candentibus Anxur. huc venturus erat Maecenas optimus atque Cocceius, missi magnis de rebus uterqu legati, aversos soliti componere amicoy% hic oculis ego nigra meis collyria lippus 30 illincre. interea Maccenas advenit atque Cocceius Capitoque simul Fonteius, ad unguem factus homo, Antoni non ut magis alter amicus. Fundos Aufidio Lusco praetore libenter linquimus, insani ridentes praemia scribae, 35 practextam et latum clavum prunaeque vatillum. in Mamurrarum lassi deinde urbe manemus, Murena praebente domum, Capitone culinam. postera! lux oritur multo gratissima : namque Plotius et Varius® Sinuessae Vergiliusque 40 occurrunt, animae qualis neque candidiores terra tulit, neque quis me sit devinctior alter. 1 proxima a. ® varus K, IL. 2 The word soliti implies at least one previous experience of this sort and probably refers to the treaty of Brundisium, 40 B.C. > The Latin expression involves a metaphor from sculpture, for the artist would pass his finger-nail over the marble, to test the smoothness of its joints. ¢ The chief official at Fundi was doubtless an aedile 66SATIRES, I. v. 19-42 turns his mule out to graze, ties the reins to a stone, and drops a-snoring on his back. Day was now dawning when we find that our craft was not under way, until one hot-headed fellow jumps out, and with willow cudgel bangs mule and boatman on back and head. 23 At last, by ten o’clock we are barely landed, and wash face and hands in thy stream, Feronia. Then we breakfast, and crawling on three miles climb up to Anxur, perched on her far-gleaming rocks. Here Maecenas was to meet us, and noble Cocceius, envoys both on business of import, and old hands at settling feuds between friends. Here I pul black ointinent on my sore eyes. Meanwhile Maecenas arrives and Cocceius, and with them Fonteius Capito, a man without flaw, so that Antony has no closer friend. % Fundi, with its ‘‘praetor’’* Aufidius Luscus, we quit with delight, laughing at the crazy clerk’s gew- gaws, his bordered robe, broad stripe, and pan of charcoal. Next, wearied out we stop in the city of the Mamurrae, Murena providing shelter and Capito the larder. Most joyful was the morrow’s rising, for at Sinuessa there meet us Plotius, Varius, and Virgil, whitest souls earth ever bore, to whom none can be more deeply attached thanI. O the but as he gave himself airs, Horace dubs him “ praetor.” Aufidius, like Horace himself, had once been a humble scriba at Rome. In his present exalted position he wears a toga with a purple border, and a tunic with a broad purple stripe. Burning charcoal is carried before him, probably in case some ceremonial sacrifice is seen to be appropriate on the occasion of this visit of Maecenas. ¢ Mamurra, a notorious favourite of Julius Caesar, came from Formiae. 67HORACE © qui complexus et gaudia quanta fuerunt ! nil ego contulerim iucundo sanus amico. Proxima Campano ponti quae villula, tectum 45 praebuit, et parochi quae debent ligna saleinque. hine muli Capuae clitellas tempore ponunt. lusum it Maecenas, dormitum ego Vergiliusque : namque pila lippis inimicum et ludere crudis. hinc nos Coccei recipit plenissima villa, 50 quae super est Caudi? cauponas. Nunc mihi paucis Sarmenti scurrae pugnam Messique Cicirri, Musa, velim memores, et quo patre natus uterque contulerit litis. Messi clarum genus Osci ; Sarmenti domina exstat: ab his maioribus orti 55 ad pugnam venere. prior Sarmentus: “ equi te esse feri similem dico.” ridemus, et ipse Messius “ accipio,” caput et movet. “ o tua cornu ni foret exsecto frons,” inquit, “ quid faceres, cum sic mutilus minitaris??” at illi foeda cicatrix 60 saetosam laevi frontem turpaverat oris. Campanum in morbum, in faciem permulta iocatus, pastorem saltaret uti Cyclopa rogabat : ’ nil ili larva‘ aut tragicis opus esse cothurnis 1 praetulerim C. 2 caudi DK Porph.: claudi most ass. 3 miniteris DEM, “ barba DR. * ‘The villula was probably a small house built for the convenience of persons travelling on public business, where officers were stationed whose duty it was to provide ordinary necessaries. For these officers Horace uses a Greek word (parochi from wapéxewv), the regular Latin word, according to Porphyrio, being copiarii. > In mock-heroic style Horace describes a battle of wit between two buffoons, one of whom, Sarmentus, is a freed- man of Maecenas, while the other, Cicirrus, or ‘* game-cock,” is of the native Oscan stock of Samnium. 68SATIRES, I. v. 43-64 embracing! O the rejoicing! Nothing, so long as Iam in my senses, would I match with the joy a friend may bring. # The little house close to the Campanian bridge put a roof above our heads, and the state-purveyors,? as in duty bound, furnished fuel and salt. Next, at Capua, our mules lay aside their saddle-bags at an early hour, Maecenas goes off to ball-playing, Virgil and I to sleep, for such play is hard on the sore-eyed and the dyspeptic. Another stage, and we are taken in at the well-stocked villa of Cocceius, lying above the inns of Caudium. 51 Now, O Muse, recount in brief the contest of Sarmentus the jester and Messtius Cicirrus, and the lineage of the two who engaged in the fray.” Messius was of famous stock, an Oscan; the mistress of Sarmentus is still living : from such ancestry sprung,° they entered the lists. And first Sarmentus : ‘‘ You, Isay, are like a wild horse.” We laugh, and Messius himself, “‘ I grant you,” and tosses his head. ‘‘Oh!’ says Sarmentus, “ if only the horn had not been cut out of your forehead, what would you do, when you can threaten, thus dehorned?” Now an unsightly scar had disfigured the left side of his bristly brow. With many a joke on his Campanian disease? and on his face, he begged him to dance the Cyclops shepherd-dance : he would need neither mask nor * The scholiast on Juvenal, Sat. v. 3, tells us that a certain Sarmentus had been a slave, who on the proscription and death of his master Favonius had been bought by Maecenas and set free. If the Sarmentus of this scene is the same man, the domina is the widow of Favonius. « The scholiast in Cruquius explains this of warts, which left scars when removed. 69HORACE multa Cicirrus ad haec : donasset iamne catenam 65 ex voto Laribus, quaerebat ; scriba quod esset, nilo deterius dominae! ius esse ; rogabat denique, cur umquam fugisset, cui satis una farris libra foret, gracili sic tamque pusillo. prorsus iucunde cenam producimus illam. 70 Tendimus hine recta? Beneventum; ubi sedulus hospes paene macros arsit dum turdos versat in igni ; nam vaga per veterem dilapso? flamma culinam Volcano summum properabat lambere tectum. convivas avidos cenam servosque timentis 1 tum rapere atque omnis restinguere velle videres. Incipit ex illo montis Apulia notos ostentare mihi, quos torret* Atabulus et quos numquam erepsemus, nisi nos vicina Trivici villa recepisset, lacrimoso non sine fumo, 80 udos cum foliis ramos urente camino. hic ego mendacem stultissimus usque puellam ad mediam noctem exspecto : somnus tamen aufert intentum veneri ; tum immundo somnia visu nocturnam vestem maculant ventremque supinum. 85 Quattuor hine rapimur viginti et milia raedis, mansuri oppidulo, quod versu dicere non est, signis perfacile est : venit vilissima rerum hic aqua ; sed panis longe pulcherrimus, ultra callidus ut soleat umeris portare viator. 90 2 domini C. 2 recte D, II. ® delapso CK, I. 4 terret CE. « Altino is to-day the local Apulian term for the hot sciroeco, which Horace calls the ‘¢ Atabulus.”” > ‘lhe name is not recorded, at least correctly, but Horace has in mind a passage in Lucilius, viz. : 70 s y \ \SATIRES, I. v. 65-90 tragic buskin. Much had Cicirrus to say to this. Had he yet, he inquired, made a votive offering of his chain to the Lares? Clerk though he was, yet his mistress’s claim was not less strong. At the last he asked why he had ever run away, since a pound of meal was enough for one so lean and so puny. Right merrily did we prolong that supper. 71 Thence we travel straight to Beneventum, where our bustling host was nearly burned out while turning lean thrushes over the fire. For as Vulcan slipped out through the old kitchen the vagrant flame hastened to lick the roof. Then you might have seen the hungry guests and frightened slaves snatching up the dinner, and all trying to quench the blaze. 7 From this point Apulia begins to show to my eyes her familiar hills, which the Altino? scorches, and over which we had never crawled had not a villa near Trivicum taken us in, but not without smoke that brought tears, as green wood, leaves and all, was burning in the stove. Here I, utter fool that I am, await a faithless girl right up to midnight. Then, after all, sleep carries me off still thinking upon love, and evil dreams assail me. 86 From here we are whirled in carriages four and twenty miles, to spend the night in a little town I cannot name in verse, though ’tis quite easy to define it by tokens.? Here water, nature’s cheapest product, is sold, but the bread is far the best to be had, so that the knowing traveller is wont to shoulder servorum est festus dies hic quem plane hexametro versu non dicere possis (vi. 228, ed. Marx), “This is the slaves’ festal day, which one cannot freely name in hexameter verse.” 7HORACE nam Canusi lapidosus (aquae non ditior urna), qui locus a forti Diomede est conditus olim.1 flentibus hinc Varius discedit maestus amicis. Inde Rubos fessi pervenimus, utpote longum carpentes iter et factum corruptius imbri. 95 postera tempestas melior, via peior ad usque Bari moenia piscosi. dein? Gnatia lymphis iratis exstructa dedit risusque iocosque, dum flamma sine tura liquescere limine sacro persuadere cupit. credat® Iudaeus Apella, 100 non ego: namque deos didici securum agere aevum, nec, si quid miri faciat natura, deos id tristis ex alto caeli demittere* tecto. Brundisium longac finis chartaeque viaeque est. 1 Line 92 was deleted by Bentley. 2 dehine, IZ. * credet CK Goth. 4 dimittere DE. * This implies that Gnatia had no springs. Pliny (V.H. ii. 111) mentions the miracle of wood, placed on a sacred stone, taking fire spontaneously. The stone would seem to have been at the entrance of a temple. > The Jews, who were very numerous in Rome under 12SATIRES, I. v. 91-104 a load for stages beyond; for at Canusium, a place founded long ago by brave Diomede, it is gritty, and as to water, the town is no better off by a jugful. Here Varius leaves us, to the grief of his weeping friends. °4 Thence we come to Rubi, very weary after covering a long stage much marred by the rain. Next day’s weather was better, but the road worse, right up to the walls of Barium, a fishing town. Then Gnatia, built under the wrath of the water- nymphs,* brought us laughter and mirth in its effort to convince us that frankincense melts without fire at the temple’s threshold. Apella, the Jew,? may believe it, not I; for I “ have learned that the gods lead a care-free life,’’* and if Nature works any marvel, the gods do not send it down from their heavenly home aloft when in surly mood@! Brun- disium is the end of a long story and of a long journey. Augustus, were regarded by the Romans as peculiarly superstitious. ¢ Horace is quoting from Lucretius, De rerum nat. v. 82. «Horace uses fristis of the gods as Virgil speaks of Charon as ¢ristis, Aen. vi. 315. 73