SULPICIA.

INTRODUCTION.

The occasion of the following Satire is generally known as "the expulsion of the philosophers from Rome by Domitian." As the same thing took place under Vespasian also, it becomes worth while to inquire who are the persons intended to be included under this designation; and in what manner the fears of the two emperors could be so worked upon as to pass a sweeping sentence of banishment against persons apparently so helpless and so little formidable as the peaceful cultivators of philosophy. It seems not improbable then that the fears both of Vespasian and Domitian were of a personal as well as of a political nature. We find that in both cases the "Mathematici" are coupled with the "Philosophi." Now these persons were no more nor less than pretenders to the science of judicial astrology [cf. Juv., iii., 43; vi., 562; xiv., 248; Suet., Cal., 57; Tit., 9; Otho, 4; Gell., i., 9]; and to what an extent those who were believed to possess this knowledge were dreaded in those days of gross superstition, may be easily inferred by merely looking into Juvenal's sixth and Persius' fifth Satire. Besides the baleful effects of incantations, which were sources of terror even in Horace's days, the mere possession by another of the nativity of a person whose death might be an object of desire to the bearer, was supposed, at the time of which we are now speaking, to be a sufficient ground of serious alarm. We are not surprised therefore to find it recorded as an instance of great generosity on the part of Vespasian, that on one occasion he pardoned one Metius Pomposianus, although he was informed that he had in his possession a "Genesis Imperatoria;" or that the possession of a similar document with regard to Domitian cost the owner his life. (Cf. Suet., Vesp., 14; Domit., 10.) With regard to the philosophers, it appears that the followers of the Stoic school were those against whom the edict was especially directed. Not only did the tenets of this school inculcate that independence of thought and manners most directly at variance with the servility and submissiveness inseparable from a state of thraldom under a despot; but the cultivation of this branch of philosophy was held to be nothing more than a specious cover for an attachment to the freedom of speech and action enjoyed under the republican form of government: and philosophy was accounted only another name for revolution and rebellion.[1547]

The story told of Demetrius the Cynic, in Dio (lxvi., 13), and confirmed by Suetonius (Vesp., c. 13), illustrates this view of the subject. (Cf. Tac., Hist., iv., 40.) It appears to have been at the suggestion of Mucianus,[1548] that all philosophers, but especially the Stoics, were banished from Rome; and that the celebrated Musonius Rufus was the only one who was suffered to remain. This took place A.D. 74. Sixteen years after this we find a decree of the senate passed to a similar effect. Now, as philosophy may be studied equally well any where, there seems no reason why, if it were not in some way connected with their political creed, all these votaries of Stoicism should in the interim have taken up their abode at Rome. And though, no doubt, the unoffending may have suffered with the guilty, the history of the edict seems pretty plainly to show what particular doctrines of their philosophy were so obnoxious to Domitian. Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dio all agree in the cause assigned for the sentence: viz., that Julius Arulenus Rusticus and Herennius Senecio had been enthusiastic in their praises of Thrasea Pætus and Helvidius Priscus; and that therefore "all philosophers were removed from Rome." ("Cujus criminis occasione philosophos omnes Urbe Italiâque submovit." Suet., Domit., 10. Cf. Tac., Agric, 2; Dio, lxvii., 13.) But it was for their undisguised hatred of tyrants, and for no dogma of the schools, that the former of these was put to death by Nero, and the latter by Vespasian. Both of them, as we know, celebrated with no ordinary festivities the birthdays of the Bruti (Juv., v., 36); and Helvidius, even while prætor, went so far as to omit all titles of honor or distinction before the name of Vespasian. (Suet., Vesp., 15.) We must not therefore fall into the common error of supposing this "banishment of philosophers" to have been a mere act of wanton, senseless tyranny, or of brutal ignorance. Even by his enemies' showing, the opening scenes of Domitian's life[1549] are at direct variance with such an idea. (Cf. ad Juv., vii., 1.) And though we regret to find that men like Epictetus and Dio of Prusa were included in the disastrous sentence, it is some relief to learn that Pliny the younger, though living at the time in the house of the philosopher Artemidorus, and the intimate friend of Senecio and six or seven others of the banished, to whom he supplied money (a fact which, as he himself hints, could not but have been known to the emperor, as Pliny was prætor at the time), yet escaped unscathed. (Cf. Plin., iii., Ep. XI., vii., 19; Gell., xv., 11.)

How far Sulpicia was connected with this movement, or whether she was involved in the same sentence which overwhelmed the others, we have now no means of ascertaining. It is quite clear that all her sympathies were with the Greeks; and the passage concerning Scipio and Cato (1. 45-50) leaves little doubt that her philosophical opinions were those of the Stoics. She rivals Juvenal in her thorough hatred of Domitian; which may, perhaps, be partly also attributed to family reasons. For we must remember that she belonged to the gens which produced Servius Sulpicius Galba; and, as we have noticed on many occasions with regard to Juvenal, an attachment to that emperor seems to go hand in hand with hatred of Otho and Domitian. From the conclusion of the Satire, it is probable that her husband was not implicated.

The Sulpician gens produced many distinguished men; of whom we may mention the commissioner sent to Greece, and the conquerors of the Samnites, of Sardinia, and of Pyrrhus, besides the notorious friend of Marius. Of this illustrious stock she was no unworthy scion. Martial[1550] bears the strongest testimony to the purity of her morals and the chastity of her life, as well as to her devoted conjugal affection; which latter virtue she illustrated in a poem replete with the most lively, delicate, and virtuous sentiments; and which, had not the licentiousness of the age been beyond such a cure, might have produced a deep moral effect on the peculiar vices which especially disgraced the era of the Cæsars. Her husband's name was Calenus, who not improbably belonged to the Fufian gens,[1551] and with him she enjoyed fifteen years of the purest domestic felicity, as we learn from the Epigram addressed to him by Martial, in which, not without a tinge of envy, he congratulates Calenus on the possession of so inestimable a treasure. Both Epigrams are exceedingly beautiful, and every reader of Martial will be only too ready to say, "O si sic omnia." Of her other works we unfortunately do not possess a single fragment;[1552] and even the solitary Satire which bears her name, was at one time, as Scaliger tells us, falsely attributed to Ausonius.

Very much of the Satire is corrupt. Wernsdorf's seems, on the whole, the best approximation to a true reading; and the Commentary of Dousa is, as far as it goes, satisfactory.

FOOTNOTES:

SULPICIA.

ARGUMENT.

The Satire opens with an Invocation of Calliope, the Muse of Heroic poetry. The dignity of the subject, which is in fact the undeserved sufferings of the good and great men whom Domitian's edict was ejecting from their homes, deserves a higher strain than is compatible with the more commonplace, and therefore less powerful, invectives of Iambic metre. The effect produced by such a measure is described as nothing less than forcing the civilized world to retrograde to a state of primæval barbarism. The cause which has led to such a perversion of taste and degradation of intellect is then examined; which are shown to be the result of a long-protracted peace. The old Roman valor which had raised the city to the proud position promised by the father of gods and men, had become gradually enervated and enfeebled, as it ceased to have an object on which to exercise itself. The stern and rigid virtue of the best period of the city's history, which had led her greatest men, even in the fierce struggles for existence against the rival republic, to appreciate and patronize the philosophy of Greece, the love of country and the ties of brotherhood which had been fostered by that "rugged nurse Adversity," were now all buried in the corpse-like lethargy induced by the enervating influence of a lengthened peace. The Satire concludes with a bitter denunciation of coming vengeance against the tyrant; and a prophetic anticipation of the lasting fame to be enjoyed by the poem.

Grant me, O Muse,[1553] to tell my little tale in a few words, in those numbers in which thou art wont to celebrate[1554] heroes and arms! For to thee I have retired; with thee revising[1555] my secret plan.[1556] For which reason, I neither trip on in the measure of Phalæcus,[1557] nor in Iambic[1558] trimeter; nor in that metre which, halting with the same foot, learned under its Clazomenæan guide boldly to give vent to its wrath. All other things[1559] moreover, in short, my thousand sportive effusions; and how I was the first that taught our Roman matrons to rival the Greeks, and to diversify their subject with wit untried before, consistently[1560] with my purpose, I pass by; and thee I invoke, in those points in which thou art chief of all, and, supreme in eloquence, art best skilled. Descend[1561] at thy votary's prayer and hear!

Tell me, O Calliope, what is it the great[1562] father of the gods purposes to do? Does he revert to earth, and his father's age; and wrest from us in death the arts that once he gave; and bid us, in silence, nay, bereft of reason, too, just as when we arose in the primæval age,[1563] stoop again[1564] to acorns,[1565] and the pure stream? Or does he guard with friendly care all other lands and cities, but thrusts away[1566] the race of Ausonia, and the nurslings of Remus?[1567]

For, what must we suppose? There are two ways by which Rome reared aloft her mighty head. Valor in war, and wisdom in peace. But valor, practiced[1568] at home and by civil warfare, passed over to the seas of Sicily and the citadels of Carthage, and swept away also all other empires and the whole world.

Then, as the victor, who, left alone in the Grecian stadium, droops, and though with valor undaunted, feels his heart sink within him—just so the Roman race, when it had ceased from its struggles, and had bridled peace in lasting trammels; then, revising at home the laws and discoveries of the Greeks,[1569] ruled with policy and gentle influence[1570] all that had been won by sea and land as the prizes of war.

By this Rome stood—nor could she indeed have maintained her ground without these. Else with vain words[1571] and lying lips would Jupiter[1572] have been proved to have said to his queen, "I have given them empire[1573] without limit!"

Therefore, now, he who sways the Roman state[1574] has commanded all studies, and the philosophic name and race of men to depart out of doors and quit the city.

What are we to do? We left the Greeks and the cities of men,[1575] that the Roman youth might be better instructed in these.

Now, just as the Gauls,[1576] abandoning their swords and scales, fled when Capitoline Camillus thrust them forth; so our aged men are said to be wandering forth,[1577] and like some deadly burden, themselves eradicating their own books. Therefore the hero of Numantia and of Libya, Scipio, erred in that point, who grew wise under the training of his Rhodian[1578] master; and that other band, fruitful in talent, in the second war;[1579] among whom the divine apophthegm[1580] of Priscus[1581] Cato[1582] held it of such deep import to determine whether the Roman stock would better be upheld[1583] by prosperity or adversity. By adversity, doubtless; for when the love of country urges them to defend[1584] themselves by arms, and their wife held prisoner together with their household gods, they combine[1585] just like wasps (a bristling band, with weapons all unsheathed along their yellow bodies), when their home and citadel is assailed. But when care-dispelling peace has returned, forgetful of labor, commons and fathers together lie buried in lethargic sleep. A long-protracted and destructive peace[1586] has therefore been the ruin of the sons of Romulus.[1587]

Thus our tale comes to a close. Henceforth, kind Muse, without whom life is no pleasure to me, I pray thee warn them that, like the Lydian of yore, when Smyrna fell,[1588] so now also they may be ready to emigrate; or else, in line, whatever thou wishest. This only I beseech thee, goddess! Present not in a pleasing light to Calenus[1589] the walls of Rome and the Sabines.

Thus much I spake. Then the goddess deigns to reply in few words, and begins:

"Lay aside thy just fears, my votary. See, the extremity of hate is menacing him, and by our mouth shall he perish! For we haunt the laurel groves of Numa,[1590] and the self-same springs, and, with Egeria for our companion,[1591] deride all vain essays. Live on! Farewell! Its destined fame awaits the grief that does thee honor. Such is the promise of the Muses' choir, and of Apollo[1592] that presides over Rome."

FOOTNOTES: