SATIRE XVI

Juvenal

THE IMMUNITIES OF THE MILITARY

    WHO can count up, Gallius, all the prizes of
prosperous soldiering? I would myself pray to be
a trembling recruit if I could but enter a favoured
camp under a lucky star: for one moment of kind
fate is more powerful than a letter of commendation
to Mars from Venus, or from his mother,¹ who
delights in the sandy shore of Samos.
    Let us first consider the benefits common to all
soldiers, of which not the least is this, that no
civilian will dare to thrash you; if thrashed him-
self, he must hold his tongue, and not daring to
have the Praetor examine the teeth that have been
knocked out, or the black and blue lumps upon his
swollen face, or the one eye left which the doctor
has given up promise for. If he seeks redress, he
has appointed for him as judge a hob-nailed centurion
with a row of jurors with brawny calves sitting before
a big bench. For the old camp law and the rule of
Camillus still holds good which forbids a soldier to
attend court outside the camp, and at a distance
from the standards. "Most right and proper it is,"
you say, "that a centurion should pass sentence on
a soldier; nor will retribution be wanting, if the subject
of my prosecution about the accused is just." Yet the
whole cohort will be hostile; all the companies
will agree to bring about a great need for medical
treatment for the redress you have received, and
worse than the for first injury. You would therefore
have a mulish mind worthy of the declaimer Vagellius,
(since you possess a pair of legs), to provoke so many

¹ Juno.

jack-boots, and all those thousands of hobnails. Besides
who would venture so far from the city [to be a witness]?
Who would be such a Pylades ¹ as to come further to the
massive structure of the rampart? Dry your eyes at once,
and don't bother your friends who will just make excuses.
When the judge has called for witnesses, let the man,
whoever he be, who saw the assault dare to say, " I saw it,"
and I will deem him worthy of the coarse beard and hair of
our forefathers. Sooner you will find a false witness against
a civilian than one who will tell the truth against the interest
and the honour of a soldier.
    And now let us note some other profits and per-
quisites of the service. If some rascally neighbour
has stolen from me a dell or a field of my ancestral
estate, and has dug up the hallowed stone from the
midpoint of my boundary line, which since has been
gaping where I have done homage every year with
sacred cake and porridge; or if a debtor refuses to
repay the money that he has borrowed, declaring
that the signatures are false, and the document null
and void: I shall have to wait for the time of year
when the whole world begin their suits, and even
then there will be a thousand frustrations to bear,
a thousand delays. So often when the benches are
hardly spread out--when the eloquent Caedicius is
taking off his cloak, and Fuscus has gone out for a
moment--though everything is ready, we disperse,
and fight our battle after the protracted fashion of
the courts. But those who are equipped with
weapons and go around with shoulder-bands have
their cases set down for whatever time they please;
nor is their substance worn away by the tedious drag
of the suit.
    Soldiers alone, again, have the right to make
their wills during their fathers' lifetime; for the
law ordains that money earned in military service

¹ The inseparable friend of Orestes.

is not to be included in the property which is wholly in
the father's sole control. This is why Coranus, who
follows the standards and earns the pay of the army, is
courted by his trembling father. The son receives the
advancement that is his due, and reaps the recompense
for his own good services. And indeed it is in the interest
of the Commander himself that this rewarding should
be seen going to the brave, that the same are the happiest,
and that all should have trappings and necklets to be glad of.

                The Satire breaks off here.

Praetor : "official elected by the Romans who served as a judge" Whitaker.

Vagellius : This figures to be the same Vagellius mentioned in Satire XIII who has a statue and that Juvenal thinks is most unworthy of.

No permission given for copying. www.menstribune.com