Page:Juvenal and Persius by G. G. Ramsay.djvu/24

 usually told cannot possibly be true, it has been ingeniously suggested that the words of the Biography may be read in such away as to give it some measure of probability. Having stated that Juvenal had scored a success by his Satire against Paris—a Satire evidently declaimed among private friends—we are told that he was subsequently encouraged to insert the passage among his published works. The biography then goes on; ''Erat turn in deliciis aulae histrio, multique fautoram eius cottidie provehebantur. Venit ergo Iuvenalis in suspicionem quasi tempora figurate notasset''. Filled with resentment at this attack, the histrio prevailed upon the emperor to send Juvenal into exile in Egypt under pretence of a military command, where he died shortly after of a broken heart.

Now we are not obliged to translate the words erat tum in deliciis aulae histrio by "The actor [i.e. Paris] was at that time a favourite of the Court." The words indeed would more naturally mean " There was at that time an actor who was a favourite at Court," who resented the attack upon a member of his own profession as an indirect attack upon himself. The words which follow show that the offence did not consist of the personal attack on Paris, but that the attack on Paris was considered to contain a sidelong indirect attack (quasi figurate notasset) upon some other actor. Such an incident is not at all likely to have happened in the reign of either Nerva or Trajan, but it may well have occurred xx