Caper Exstat in Ansa

Extract

Juvenal's rhetorical recipe is characteristically simple: a finelychiselled sententia to summarize the chilly treatment accorded to honest men, followed by a catalogue in asyndeton of the luxuries which come as the rewards of wickedness. The impact of the passage does not depend on the precise details of the items listed: in consequence it is hardly surprising that commentators have been lax in their duty over the last five words of line 76, and left the picture blurred when regard for a well-known art-fashion would have instantly sharpened the focus. Thus Friedländer, as conscientious as he was unimaginative, tells us (ad loc.) that Juvenal meant a cup adorned with a goat in high relief (‘einen Pokal mit einem Bock in Hochrelief’). The usually more percipient Duff acquiesces, while Mayor, Ruperti, and the rest chime in with words of similar import. Passages to show that the verb exstare is appropriate to describe relief-work are duly paraded: Ovid, Met. v. 80–2 has altis exstantem signis … cratera, and in a later book of the same poem (xii. 235–6) signis exstantibus asper / antiquus crater: Martial may also be cited to the same effect (viii. 51.9, al.).