"Cunning Vejento next, and by his side
Bloody Catullus leaning on his guide:
Decrepit, yet a furious lover he,
And deeply smit with charms he could not see.
Bloody Catullus leaning on his guide:
Decrepit, yet a furious lover he,
And deeply smit with charms he could not see.
Tacitus
—Quem Massa timet, quem munere palpat
Carus. —Sat. i. 35.
"Whom Massa dreads, whom Carus soothes with bribes. "
Carus is also mentioned with deserved infamy by Pliny and Martial. He was a mimic by profession. ]
151 (return)
[ Of this odious instrument of tyranny, Pliny the younger thus speaks: "The conversation turned upon Catullus Messalinus, whose loss of sight added the evils of blindness to a cruel disposition. He was irreverent, unblushing, unpitying, Like a weapon, of itself blind and unconscious, he was frequently hurled by Domitian against every man of worth. " (iv. 22. ) Juvenal launches the thunder of invective against him in the following lines:—
Et cum mortifero prudens Vejento Catullo,
Qui numquam visae flagrabat amore puellae,
Grande, et conspicuum nostro quoque tempore monstrum,
Caecus adulator, dirusque a ponte satelles,
Dignus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes,
Blandaque devexae jactaret basia rhedae. —Sat. iv. 113.
"Cunning Vejento next, and by his side
Bloody Catullus leaning on his guide:
Decrepit, yet a furious lover he,
And deeply smit with charms he could not see.
A monster, that ev'n this worst age outvies,
Conspicuous and above the common size.
A blind base flatterer; from some bridge or gate,
Raised to a murd'ring minister of state.
Deserving still to beg upon the road,
And bless each passing wagon and its load. "—DUKE. ]
152 (return)
[ This was a famous villa of Domitian's, near the site of the ancient Alba, about twelve miles from Rome. The place is now called Albano, and vast ruins of its magnificent edifices still remain. ]
153 (return)
[ Tacitus, in his History, mentions this Massa Baebius as a person most destructive to all men of worth, and constantly engaged on the side of villains. From a letter of Pliny's to Tacitus, it appears that Herennius Senecio and himself were joined as counsel for the province of Boetica in a prosecution of Massa Baebius; and that Massa after his condemnation petitioned the consuls for liberty to prosecute Senecio for treason. ]
154 (return)
[ By "our own hands," Tacitus means one of our own body, a senator. As Publicius Certus had seized upon Helvidius and led him to prison, Tacitus imputes the crime to the whole senatorian order. To the same purpose Pliny observes: "Amidst the numerous villanies of numerous persons, nothing appeared more atrocious than that in the senate-house one senator should lay hands on another, a praetorian on a consular man, a judge on a criminal. "—B. ix. ep. 13.
