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THE MONKEY'S OFF OUR BACK: AN ALTERNATIVE READING OF JUVENAL 5.153–5
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2020
Extract
Readers have struggled to interpret an image from the end of Juvenal's fifth satire, a poem which focusses upon the poor hospitality shown to a dinner guest, Trebius, at the hands of his host, Virro. After repeatedly juxtaposing the luxurious food served to Virro with the scant fare served to Trebius, Juvenal describes the final course of the cena. He again contrasts the host's hyper-abundance with his guest's mere scraps (5.149–55):
- Virro sibi et reliquis Virronibus illa iubebit
- poma dari, quorum solo pascaris odore,
- qualia perpetuus Phaeacum autumnus habebat,
- credere quae possis subrepta sororibus Afris:
- tu scabie frueris mali, quod in aggere rodit
- qui tegitur parma et galea, metuensque flagelli
- discit ab hirsuta iaculum torquere capella.
Virro will demand that he and the rest of his entourage receive these apples—though you'll dine on their smell alone—like those the endless autumn of the Phaeacians used to yield, which you could believe stolen away from the African sisters: you will enjoy the scab of an apple, which, on the Embankment, is gnawed by someone who is protected by a buckler and helm and who, fearing a whipping, learns to hurl a javelin from atop a shaggy goat.
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- Copyright © The Classical Association 2020
Footnotes
I would like to thank my graduate colleagues in the Roman Satire seminar for encouraging this idea at its earliest stages, James Uden for his enthusiastic mentorship and insightful comments, Antonino Pittà for sharing his thoughts on Statius’ Siluae, Bruce Gibson and CQ's anonymous reader for their valuable criticism. Any errors that remain are strictly my own.
References
1 The agger was an embankment between the Porta Esquilina and the Porta Collina built to fortify the city. For accounts of its construction, see Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 9.68.2–4; Strabo 5.3.7; Plin. HN 3.9. In the Early Imperial period, at least, the agger attracted a variety of entertainers, although nothing resembling Juv. 5.153–5. Quint. Inst. 12.10.74 describes orators performing for small groups; Juv. 6.588 claims that fortune-tellers gathered there. For an account of the agger and its surroundings, see Wiseman, T.P., ‘A stroll on the rampart’, in Cima, M. and Rocca, E. La (edd.), Horti Romani: Atti del Convegno Internazionale: Roma, 4–6 Maggio 1995 (Rome, 1995), 13–22Google Scholar.
2 All translations are my own.
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11 Mayor (n. 6), 269; see also Santorelli (n. 4), 181; Courtney (n. 4), 249.
12 McDermott (n. 5), 131.
13 Braund (n. 4), 300.
14 Braund (n. 4), 300.
15 Santorelli (n. 4), 182–3.
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19 For visual representations of dwarfs in armour, see the examination of terracotta and bronze figurines in Garmaise (n. 18), 94–108.
20 See the discussion in Colton, R.E., Juvenal's Use of Martial's Epigrams: A Study of Literary Influence (Amsterdam, 1991), 266–8Google Scholar.
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22 See Dasen (n. 21), 187–8 for the parodic element of Pygmy iconography in Greek contexts. See Clarke, J.R., Looking at Laughter: Humor, Power, and Transgression in Roman Visual Culture, 100 b.c. – a.d. 250 (Berkeley, 2007), 87–107CrossRefGoogle Scholar for humorous depictions of Pygmies in Roman art.
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24 The precise meaning of line 63, and in particular the obscure phrase uagis … rapinis, is open to debate. Malamud, M., ‘That's entertainment! Dining with Domitian in Statius’ Siluae’, Ramus 30 (2001), 23–45, at 31CrossRefGoogle Scholar acknowledges two possibilities: either the birds are about to descend upon their foes (the dwarf performers) in a mock geranomachy or the cranes will fall as part of scattered plunder for the guests. For an argument on the logistics of the former, see Brunet, S., ‘Dwarf athletes in the Roman empire’, AHB 17 (2003), 17–32, at 27Google Scholar, who imagines cranes suspended in cages above the dwarf combatants. In support of the former, A. Pittà, ‘Il Prefetto risanato e i Saturnali. Stazio, Siluae 1,4 e 1,6. Testo, traduzione e commento’ (Diss., Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 2016), 292–3 convincingly argues that the image anticipates the cloud of birds that falls upon the guests at lines 75–80.
25 Brunet (n. 24), 27–32.
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27 Dasen (n. 21), 187. The comparison is natural, given frequent depictions of Pygmies wearing skins and clubs—the normal accoutrements of Heracles—as well as the hero's encounter with man-eating birds of his own, the Stymphalian birds: Apollod. Bibl. 2.6; Diod. Sic. 4.13.2; Paus. 8.22.4; Ap. Rhod. Argon. 2.1052–7. Whereas Hercules’ battle ends in his victory, the Pygmies never attain decisive victory over their own winged foes.
28 Other (late) attestation for this myth may come in Amm. Marc. 22.12.4, which refers to the Pygmies insulting Hercules.
29 Florence: Museo Archeologico Nazionale 4209; Beazley, J.D., Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford, 1956), 76.1Google Scholar; Beazley, J.D., Paralipomena (Oxford, 1971), 29Google Scholar; Beazley Archive Database 300000.
30 Newlands, C.E., Statius’ Silvae and the Poetics of Empire (Cambridge, 2002), 244CrossRefGoogle Scholar: ‘the mixing of ranks at the banquet … only temporarily occludes the real hierarchical structuring of the amphitheatre, where the marginalisation of weaker social groups acts as a covert form of social control, uniting the Roman people with their leader in a reaffirmation of the dominant ideology of Empire. Dwarves, fighting women, criminals—these represent the aberrant elements of society and are chaotic forces whose subjugation metaphorically holds down Roman supremacy.’
31 Newlands (n. 30), 238–52. See also Malamud (n. 24), 37, who stresses the poem's ending, which suggests this ‘Saturnalian’ rule will continue in perpetuity.
32 Braund (n. 4), 306: ‘host is portrayed behaving like a petty tyrant, a miniature Domitian … lording it over his helpless and humiliated guests’.