Juvenal

“ And yet among the lowest rabble you will find a Roman who has eloquence, one who will plead the cause of the unlettered noble; you must go to the toga-clad herd for a man to untie the knots and riddles of the law. ”

“ It is for this that we commend the swift horse whose speed sets every hand aglow, and fills the Circus with the hoarse shout of victory; that horse is noblest, on whatever pasture reared, whose rush outstrips the rest, and whose dust is foremost upon the plain. But the offspring of Coryphaeus [10] or Hirpinus [10] comes to the hammer if Victory light but seldom on his car; no respect is there paid to ancestors, no favour is shown to Shades! The slow of foot, that are fit only to turn a miller's wheel, pass, for a mere nothing, from one owner to another, and gall their necks against the collar. ”

“ So, if I am to respect yourself, and not your belongings, give me something of your own to engrave among your titles, in addition to those honours which we pay, and have paid, to those to whom you owe your all.
71Enough this for the youth whom report has handed down to us as proud and puffed up with his kinship to Nero; for in those high places regard for others is rarely to be found. But for you, Ponticus, I cannot wish that you should be, valued for the glories of your race while doing nothing that shall bring you praise in the days to come. ”

“ One cup serves for everybody; no one has a bed to himself, nor a table apart from the rest. What would you do, friend Ponticus, if you chanced upon a slave like this? You would send him to your Lucanian or Tuscan bridewell. [30] But you gentlemen of Trojan blood find excuses for yourselves ”

“ For who can be called "noble" who is unworthy of his race, and distinguished in nothing but his name? We call some one's dwarf an "Atlas," his blackamoor "a swan"; an ill-favoured, misshapen girl we call "Europa" ”

“ But our Consul [55] is awake, and beats back your hosts. Born at Arpinum, of ignoble blood, a municipal knight new to Rome, he posts helmeted men at every point to guard the affrighted citizens, and is alert on every hill. Thus within the walls his toga won for him as much name and honour as Octavius gained by battle in Leucas [56] ; as much as Octavius won by his blood-dripping sword on the plains of Thessaly [57] ”

“ Fabius, and laugh to see the Mamerci cuffing each other. What matters it at what price they sell their deaths? [35] No Nero compels them to sell; yet they hesitate not to sell themselves at the games of the exalted Praetor. And yet suppose that on one side of you were placed a sword, on the other the stage; which were the better choice? Was ever any man so afraid of death that he would choose to be the jealous husband of a Thymele, or the colleague of the clown Corinthus? Yet when an Emperor [36] has taken to harp-playing, it is not so very strange that a noble should act in a mime. ”

“ You are puffed up with the lofty pedigree of the Drusi, as though you had done something to make you noble, and to be conceived by one glorying in the blood of lulus, rather than by one who weaves for hire under the windy rampart. "You others are dirt," you say; "the very scum of our populace ”

“ Apis was supposed to be an incarnation of Osiris ↑ Rubellius Blandus was married to Julia, grand-daughter of Tiberius. One of his descendants must be meant here. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Famous racers. ↑ The famous tyrant of Agrigentum, who slowly roasted his victims in a brazen bull. ↑ Gaurus was a hill overlooking the Lucrine lake. ”