The Egyptians, who would deem it sacrilege to taste an onion or a leek, have in our enlightened times been guilty of barbarity which equals that of the monsters of fable (1–32), A festival at Ombi was lately interrupted by the Tentyrites: one of whom, after his party had been put to flight, was overtaken, torn in pieces and devoured (33–92). Other nations are said to have fed on the flesh of man, but only when driven to it by famine: rage and hate move the Egyptians to crimes which others only commit in the madness of despair (93–131). Man is made for society and sympathy; yet man has been known to do what brute beasts will not do, to prey upon his own kind (131–174).

The poet seems to have been led to choose this subject partly by the hatred and contempt which Romans, after the battle of Actium, entertained for the Egyptians (cf. i 26. 130. iv 24. Aen. viii 685–713. Hor. c. i 37. epod. 9. Prop. iv = iii 11 29–58. Ov. m. xv 826–8. Luc. viii 541–550. x 58–80. anth. lat. 462 R), and partly by his own observation of their manners (45 quantum ipse notavi).

With the whole satire compare [Quintil.] decl. xii ‘pasti cadaveris’ (verses 20, 102, 122, with the notes).

On the Egyptian worship cf. xiii 28 n. xiii 93 n. exodus 8 26. wisdom 11 15. 12 24 and 27. Rom. 1 23 Wetstein. Hdt. ii with Bähr and Rawlinson.