[494] _Majora cadavera._ Besides their fierce gray eyes (xiii., 164), the Germans were conspicuous for their stature and red hair. "Truces et cærulei oculi, rutilæ comæ, magnum corpora et tantum ad impetum valida." Tac., Germ., iv. "Cimbri præ Italis ingentes." Flor., iii.,3.
[495] _Lauro secundâ._ A double triumph was decreed to Marius; he gave up the second to Q. Lutatius Catulus, his noble colleague, to satisfy his soldiers, who knew, better than Juvenal, that the _nobleman's_ services did _not_ fall short of those of the plebeian. Marius afterward barbarously murdered him.
[496] _Deciorum._ Alluding to the three immolations of the Decii, father, son, and grandson, in the wars with the Latins, Gauls, and Pyrrhus. All three bore the name of Publius Decius Mus. Juvenal comes very near the formula of self-devotion given in Liv., viii., 6, _seq._ "Exercitum Diis Manibus matrique terræ deberi."
[497] _Ancilla natus._ Servius Tullius (Cf. vii., 199) was the sen of Ocrisia, or Ocriculana, a captive from Corniculum. Liv., i., 39. The _Trabea_ was a white robe with a border and _broad stripes_ (trabes) of purple, worn afterward by consuls and augurs: cf. x., 35; the _diadema_ of the ancient kings was a _fillet_ or ribbon, not a crown.
"And he who graced the purple which he wore, The last good king of Rome, a bondmaid bore." Gifford.
"And she who mock'd the javelins whistling round, And swam the Tiber, then the empire's bound." Gifford.
[499] _Servus._ Livy calls him Vindicius; and derives from him the name of the Vindicta, "the rod of manumission." Liv., ii., 7. He was mourned for at his death by the Roman matrons publicly, as Brutus had been.
[500] _Legum prima securis._ Tarquinius Priscus introduced the axe and fasces with the other regalia. The axe therefore had often fallen for the _tyrants_; now it is used for the first time in defense of a legal constitution and a _free republic_.
I should like to know, Nævolus,[503] why you so often meet me with clouded brow forlorn, like Marsyas after his defeat. What have you to do with such a face as Ravola had when detected with his Rhodope?[504] We give a slave a box on the ear, if he licks the pastry. Why! Crepereius Pollio[505] had not a more woe-begone face than yours; he that went about ready to pay three times the ordinary interest, and could find none fools enough to trust him. Where do so many wrinkles come from all of a sudden? Why, surely before, contented with little, you used to live like a gentleman's gentleman[506]--a witty boon-companion with your biting jest, and sharp at repartees that savor of town-life!