[831] _Esse._ Cf. ii., 149, seq., "Esse aliquos Manes et subterranea regna, ... Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum ære lavantur." Cf. Ov., Amor., III., iii., 1.
[832] _Privatus._ This is commonly rendered by "concealed, sequestered," alluding to Jupiter's being hidden by his mother Rhea to save him from "Saturn's maw." But it surely means before he succeeded his father as king, and this is the invariable sense of "privatus" in Juvenal. Cf. i., 16, "Privatus ut altum dormiret." iv., 65, "Accipe Privatis majora focis." vi., 114, "Quid privata domus, quid fecerit Hippia, curas." xii., 107, "Cæsaris armentum, nulli servire paratum Privato."
[833] _Tergens._ This appears to be the best and simplest interpretation of this "much-vexed" passage, and is the sense in which Lucian (frequently the best commentator on Juvenal) takes it. Vid. Deor., Dial. v., 4.
[834] _Talis._ More properly, "composed of _such_ divinities." The allusion being in all probability to the now frequent apotheosis of the most worthless and despicable of the emperors.
[835] _Torvus._ The Homeric ἀμείλιχος. Cf. Hom., Il., i., 158, Ἀΐδης ἀμείλιχος, ἠδ' ἀδάμαστος Τοὔνεκα καὶ τε βροτοῖσι θεῶν ἔχθιστος ἁπάντων.
[836] _Vulturis atri._ Cf. Æschylus, Pr. V., 1020. Virg., Æn., vi., 595, "Rostroque immanis vultur obunco, Immortale jecur tondens, fœcundaque pœnis viscera, rimaturque epulis habitatque sub alto pectore, nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis."
"Wheels, furies, vultures, quite unheard of things, And the gay ghosts were strangers yet to kings!" Badham.
[837] _Vetulo._ Cf. Ov., Fast., v., 57, _seq._, which passage Juvenal seems to have had in his mind.
[839] _Depositum._ Terent., Phorm., I., ii., 5, "Præsertim ut nunc sunt mores: adeo res redit; Si quis quid reddit, magna habenda 'st gratia."
[840] _Ærugo_, the rust of _brass_; robigo, of _iron_; but, l. 148, used for the oxydizing of gold or silver. _Follis_, cf. xiv., 281.
[842] _Tuscis libellis._ Vid. Dennis' Etruria, vol. i., p. lvii. The marvelous events of the year were registered by the Etruscan soothsayers in their records, that, if they portended the displeasure of the gods, they might be duly expiated. Various names are given by ancient writers to these sacred or ritual books: Libri Etrusci; Chartæ Etruscæ; Scripta Etrusca; Etruscæ disciplinæ libri; libri fatales, rituales, haruspicini, fulgurales; libri Tagetici; sacra Tagetica; sacra Acherontica; libri Acherontici. The author of these works on Etruscan discipline was supposed to be Tages; and the names of some writers on the same subject are given, probably commentators on Tages, e. g., Tarquitius, Cæcina, Aquila, Labeo, Begoë. _Umbricius._ Cf. Cic., de Div., i., 12, 13, 44; ii., 23. Liv., v., 15. Macrob., Saturn., iii., 7; v., 19. Serv. ad Virg., Æn., i., 42; iii., 537; viii., 398. Plin., ii., 85. Festus, _s. v._ Rituales.