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7/21/2019 White-ecce Iterum Crispinus
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ECCE ITERUM CRISPINUS
It
is
an
unrealized
tribute to
Juvenal's
gift
for vivid
presenta-
tion
that
prosopographers
are still
seeking
a niche in
the
gallery
of
Imperial
officialdom
in
which to
place
the
figure
of
Crispinus
the
Egyptian.
He has been
variously
identified
as
praefectus
praetorio,
Imperial
secretary, praefectus
annonae,
and
praefectus
Aegypti.
1
These
titles, however,
are not
recorded
in
histories or inscriptions, which maintain total silence about
Crispinus. They
have been
inferred
from four
literary
texts
which
do
not
actually
name
any post
at all: Martial 7.99 and
8.48,
and Juvenal's
first
and
fourth satires.
But if we
put
out
of
mind the
theories and attend
only
to the
poems,
Martial
and
Juvenal do not
give
us the
least
reason to
suppose
that
they
had
in view an
official
of
any
kind.
The
Crispinus
of Juvenal is an
equestrian
parvenu
given
to
profligate spending.2 The most obtrusive trait in the portrayal of
him is his
dandyism.
It
keynotes
his
first
appearance
in satire
one
(lines
26-29):
...
cum
verna
Canopi
Crispinus Tyrias
umero revocante
lacernas
ventilet aestivum
digitis
sudantibus
aurum
nec
sufferre
queat
maioris
pondera
gemmae.
The same theme identifies him again when he returns to take a
seat
in
Domitian's
council
(4.108-9):
et
matutino
sudans
Crispinus
amomo
quantum
vix
redolent
duo
funera
.
. .
Crispinus
is
registered
in RE
4
(1901)
1720-21,
Crispinus
5,
and in PIR2
C
1586;
both
articles
were
written
by
Stein and take the
position
that
Crispinus
was
probably praefectus praetorio. The suggestion that he was "Sekretar oder
Studienrath"
was made
by
O.
Hirschfeld,
Untersuchungen
aufdem
Gebiete
der
romischen
Verwaltungsgeschichte
(Berlin
1877) 223;
that he
was
praefectus
annonae,
by
R.
Syme,
Tacitus
(Oxford
1958)
636;
that
he
was
praefectus
Aegypti,
by
J.
G.
Griffith,
Greece and
Rome
16
(1969)
145-46.
2
For
his
class,
see
4.32;
for his
wealth, 4.5-7;
15;
29-31.
377
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PETER
WHITE.
Consider also the
characterization
"purpureus
magni
.
.
.
scurra Palati" in line 31. No matter how much sarcasm has been
distilled
in
this
phrase,
it
must
contain at
least
the minimum
truth
that
Crispinus
acted or tried to act
the
part
of
a
wit at
Domitian's
court.
This
is
not
decisive
against
the
possibility
of
an
official
role,
but in
the absence
of
positive
evidence
for
one,
it
is at
least
incongruous.
Finally,
the
description
in
4.2-4:
. . .
monstrum
nulla virtute
redemptum
a vitiis,
aegrae
solaque
libidine fortes
deliciae,
viduas tantum
aspernatus
adulter.
Deliciae
usually
describes some
object
which rouses
the
sensa-
tion
of
delight.
But
the Romans associated
the
word
as
much
with
the idea of
pure
sensation
as with
any particular
delight;
it
sometimes
comes
to
mean an
addiction
to the
exquisitely
sen-
sual.
This is the sense
it has
in
Seneca's
epigrammatic
remark
(Epist.
86.7)
"eo
deliciarum
pervenimus
ut nisi
gemmas
calcare
nolimus,"
and in
Juvenal's sarcastic
exclamation
(6.46)
about a
man
who
hopes
to
marry
a
chaste
wife,
"delicias hominis "
In
the
passage
just
quoted
from satire
four, however,
the
word is
transferred from
the
quest
of sensations to
the
addict
of them:
"a
decrepit
sensualist,
robust
only
in his
lust."3
To the
picture
of
a wit and
a
dandy,
Juvenal here
adds
that
of
a
worn-out
voluptuary.4
These
three
aspects
of his character
are
consistent
with
one
another,
but difficult to
reconcile
with the
qualities
of
a
high
equestrian
officer,
especially
under
Domitian,
who sub-
jected
his functionaries
to
a
demanding
code
of
accountability.5
A
praefectus
praetorio (vel
annonae
vel
Aegypti)
would
nor-
3
The
new
Oxford
Latin
Dictionary
cites one
other
example
of
this
use,
from
Pliny
HN
22.99:
"ipsae
suis manibus deliciae
preparant
hunc
cibum
(mush-
rooms)
solum
et
cogitatione
ante
pascuntur."
4
Perhaps
Juvenal intended
his
readers
to
catch
a
reference
to
Crispinus'
illness and old
age
in 1.29
"nec
sufferre
queat
maioris
pondera
gemmae,"
and in
the macabre simile of 4.108-9 "sudans
Crispinus
amomo /
quantum
vix redolent
duo
funera."
5
According
to
Suetonius
in
his
life
of
Domitian,
8.2 and 9.2. This
stern
supervision helped
to
bring
about his assassination:
the
most
energetic
of
the
conspirators
was
a
freedman
procurator
under indictment
for
embezzlement
(Suetonius
V.
Dom.
17).
378
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ECCE
ITERUM
CRISPINUS.
mally
have
reached
his
post
only
after
years
of
diligent
and
effective service in lower employments. Could Juvenal's Cris-
pinus
have
kept
up
the
pace?
The
portrait
of
the
Satires,
which one
might
otherwise
have
dismissed as malicious
invention,
finds remarkable
corrobora-
tion
in
two
well-intentioned
epigrams
written
by
Martial. 8.48
is
addressed to
a thief who has
purloined
Crispinus'
purple
cloak:6
Nescit
cui dederit
Tyriam Crispinus
abollam,
dum mutat
cultus
induiturque togam.
quisquis
habes,
umeris sua
munera
redde,
precamur:
non
hoc
Crispinus
te sed abolla
rogat.
non
quicumque
capit
saturatas murice vestes
nec nisi deliciis
convenit
iste color.
si te
praeda
iuvat
foedique
insania
lucri,
qua
possis
melius
fallere,
sume
togam.
The
crescendo
builds
in
the second last
couplet:
Martial obvi-
ously sensed that Crispinus' conceit of his own elegance offered
the
front most vulnerable
to
flattery.
This
poem,
according
to
the book-dates
of
Friedlaender,
would have
been written about
the
year
93,
at
least
six or seven
years
after the
time
of which
Juvenal
was
speaking
in
satire four. At both times
the
Egyptian
left
the
same
impression,
registered
in
the
word
deliciae
by
the
one
poet
as
by
the
other:
the
impression
of
a
man
devoted
to
fastidious
luxury.
The
other
epigram (7.99)
antedates
the first
by
about
a
year.
It
probably
introduced a
brochure
of
poems
which
Martial
sent
to
Crispinus:
Sic
placidum
videas
semper,
Crispine,
Tonantem
nec
te
Roma
minus
quam
tua
Memphis
amet:
carmina
Parrhasia si
nostra
legentur
in
aula,
-namque
solent sacra
Caesaris
aure frui-
dicere
de
nobis
ut
lector
candidus
aude:
'Temporibus praestat non nihil iste tuis,
nec
Marso nimium minor est
doctoque
Catullo.'
hoc
satis
est:
ipsi
cetera
mando
deo.
6
Rare
audacity
indeed,
if
Crispinus
were
a
high
official with
soldiers
on
his
staff.
379
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ECCE ITERUM
CRISPINUS.
The
argument
is not
cogent.
To
begin
with,
one cannot
assert
that Fuscus and Crispinus are the only non-senators at the
council
of
Juvenal
four without
proclaiming
more than
is
known. The
identity
of
Montanus
in line
107
and of
Pompeius
in
line 110has not
yet
been
established,
and so
their
standing
must
remain
conjectural.
In
fact,
we have
every
reason to assume
that
at
any
ordinary
consilium,
both
senators
and
knights
would
have been
present.
Since
the
consilium
principis
to
a
large
extent retained the
character of
the
consilium
amicorum
from
which it evolved, the individuals consulted might as easily be
drawn from the ordo
equester
as
from the
Senate.
And
more
important,
it
was an
unofficial
body,
inclusion
in
which
did not
presuppose,
for
either senator
or
knight,
the tenure
of
any
official
post.'0
Of the
ordinary practice,
there
is
a
pertinent
illustration.
An
epigraphically
attested conclave which took
place,
like the
council of Juvenal
four,
in
Domitian's Alban
palace,
and in about
the same
year
as the dramatic
date of
the
satire, included splendidi viri utriusque ordinis.
I'
A
knowledge
of
how
the
emperor's
consilium was
ordinarily
composed,
however,
may help very
little to
appreciate
what
transpires
in the
council of
Juvenal four. That
conclave was
a
fiction and a
farce.
Juvenal's
poem
parodies
an
epic
by
Statius
on
Domitian's
war
against
the
Germans,
or more
precisely,
it
parodies
a
consilium
described
in this
epic.12
The
poet's
treat-
social distinction equal to that on the maternal side. Social class isjust as plainly
at
issue
in
the
passage
from
Fronto's third
letter to Antoninus
Pius
(van
den
Hout
p.
157),
concerning
the
Prefect
Q.
Marcius
Turbo:
"[Censorius Niger]
Turboni
Marcio
et
Erucio Claro
erat
familiarissimus,
qui
duo
egregi
viri
alter
equestris
alter
senatori
ordinis
primari
fuerunt".
Princeps
equitum,
then,
cannot be said
to
be a
title,
official or
semi-official,
attached
to the
office of
Praetorian
Prefect.
10
The
composition
of
the
council is
well
described
by
J.
Crook,
Consilium
Principis
(Cambridge
1955) 23-26;
to
which
add
the
comments
of A. N.
Sherwin-White,
The
Letters
of
Pliny:
A
Historical And
Social
Commentary
(Oxford 1966)391-92. It is
peculiar
that
Crook,
having argued
in the
early
pages
of
his book that view of the
consilium
which
I
have
summarized,
should have
agreed
in
his
discussion
of
Juvenal four
with the
traditional view that all
the
participants
except
Fuscus and
Crispinus
were
senators.
'
CIL
IX 5420.
12
See
G.
Highet,
Juvenal the
Satirist
(Oxford
1954)
p.
256,
n.
1.
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PETER
WHITE.
ment
of his
material n
general,
and
of
Crispinus
n
particular,
oughtto bejudged primarily rom a literarystandpoint,rather
than from a
historical one.
If
Juvenal's
characters consist
mainly
of
eminent
Flavian
senators,13
his
is
because,
first,
he is
following
his Statian
model
(we
know that he
transplanted
at
least three of
Statius'
councillors
into his
own
poem),14
and
secondly,
because
by contrasting
he
dignity
of his characters
with
the
meanness of
their
employment
he sees a
way
to
dramatize
he
circumstancesof
life
under
a
tyranny.
Neverthe-
less, it is essential to rememberhat whatJuvenalsets beforeus
is
not
a
real council
debating
an issue of war
or
policy,
but an
imaginary
ouncil
about
a
fish.
He
is
likely
to have introduced
any
of
the
emperor's
cronies who had
gained notoriety
for
prodigal
gourmandise,
simply
because
they
suited
his
subject
matter.
Montanus,
the
connoisseur
of
Neronian
carouses,
who
receives more
attention
n
the
poem
than
anyone
else,
may
be
one such
character.And
Crispinus,
whose
extravagance
n
the
fish-market ook up lines 1-36,mightreasonablybe considered
another.
PETERWHITE
UNIVERSITY
OF CHICAGO
13
The
word
proceres
in
lines
73 and
144,
however,
must not
be
thought
to
specify
senatorial
rank
or official
position.
This word does not
bear
any
kind of
political
connotation,
and is
in fact avoided
in
the
language
of
ordinary
political
life. Caesar
never
uses
it,
and in all of Cicero's
writings,
it occurs
only
once, in
the
mock-epic
context of ad
Fam.
13.15.1. The
poets,
on
the
other
hand,
employ
it
often,
Ovid for
example
seventeen
times,
and Statius
eighteen
times;
Juvenal
has
surely
taken
it
over from
the
poem
he
burlesques.
Proceres
is
a
more
poetic
way
of
sayingprincipes
civitatis,
which
is the
definition
of it
given
by
Varro
(on
the evidence of
Servius,
on Aeneid 1.740) and Festus (290.21 Lindsay). In
Juvenal's terms
it
can be
ironically
but
appropriately
extended
to
Crispinus,
who
in virtue of
his wealth was
named
princeps
among
the
knights
at
line 32.
14
The four
lines
of
Statius'
poem
which
were
preserved
by
Valla's
Probus
commentary
(P.
Wessner,
Scholia
in
Juvenalem
pp.
61-62)
enumerate
the
names of Vibius
Crispus,
Fabricius
Veiento,
and
Acilius Glabrio.
382