No More Learning

Tranio — The door made a noise. Was it he that was knocking ?
Theuropides [turning pale] — I have not one drop of blood ! Dead men are come to fetch me to Acheron while alive !
Tranio [aside] — I'm undone ! those people there will mar my plot. [A noise is heard from within. ] How much I dread, lest he should catch me in the fact.
Theuropides — What are you talking about to yourself?
[Goes near the door. ]
Tranio — Do get away from the door. By heavens, fly, I
do beseech you. —
Theuropides Fly where? Fly yourself, as well.
Tranio — I am not afraid :
A Voice [from within] — Hallo ! Tranio.
I am at peace with the dead.
Tranio [in a low voice near the door] — You won't be calling me, if you are wise. [Aloud as if speaking to the Appari
tion. ] 'Tis not I that's guilty ;
Theuropides — Pray, what is it that's wrong? What matter
is agitating you, Tranio ? To whom are you saying these things? Tranio — Prithee, was it you that called me ? So may the gods bless me, I fancied it was this dead man expostulating be
cause you had knocked at the door. But are you still stand ing there, and not doing what I advise you ?
Theuropides — What am I to do ?
Tranio — Take care not to look back. Fly ; cover up your
head ! —
Why don't you fly ? Tranio — I am at peace with the dead.
Theuropides
Theuropides — I recollect. Why then were you so dread fully alarmed just now?
Tranio — Have no care for me, I tell you ; I'll see to my self. You, as you have begun to do, fly as quick as ever you can ; Hercules, too, you will invoke.
Theuropides — Hercules, I do invoke thee ! [Runs off. ] Tranio [to himself] — And I, as well, old fellow, that this
I did not knock at the door.
78 THE HAUNTED HOUSE.
day he'll send some heavy mishap upon you. O ye immortal gods, I do implore your aid. Plague on it ! what a mess I
have got into to-day.
[Exit.
[He pretends to Theuropides that the house has been shut up for some months past, in consequence of its being haunted. In the midst of the conversation, he is accosted by a banker, who duns him for the interest of some money which Philolaches has borrowed of him for the purpose of procuring the freedom of Philematium, his mistress. Theuropides in quires what the money was borrowed for, on which Tranio says that Philolaches has purchased a house with it. On Theuropides making further inquiries, Tranio says that he has bought the house in which Simo is living. On this, Theuropides wishes to examine this new purchase, and sends Tranio to request Simo to allow him to do so, if not inconvenient. Tranio obtains the permission as follows. ]
Simo — What is the matter ? Do inform me.
Tranio — I will inform you. My master has arrived from
abroad. —
Simo In that case the cord will be stretched for you;
thence to the place where iron fetters clink ; after that, straight to the cross.
Tranio — Now, by your knees, I do implore you, don't give information to my master.
Simo — Don't you fear ; he shall know nothing from me. Tranio — Blessings on you, my patron.
Simo — I don't care for clients of this description for myself. Tranio — Now as to this about which our old gentleman has
sent me.
Simo — First answer me this that I ask you. As yet, has
your old gentleman discovered anything of these matters ? Tranio — Nothing whatever.
Simo — Has he censured his son at all ?
Tranio — He is as calm as the calm weather is wont to be.
Now he has requested me most earnestly to beg this of you, that leave may be given him to see over this house of yours.
Simo — It's not for sale.
Tranio — I know that indeed ; but the old gentleman wishes
to build a woman's apartment here in his own house, baths, too, and a piazza, and a porch.
Simo — What has he been dreaming of ?
Tranio — I'll tell you. He wishes to give his son a wife as
soon as he can ; for that purpose he wants a new apartment for the women. But he says that some builder, I don't know who, has been praising up to him this house of yours, as being
THE HAUNTED HOUSE.
******* Simo —I'm glad that you've arrived safely from abroad,
remarkably well built ; now he's desirous to take a model from you don't make any objection
Simo — He may look over it, he likes. If there thing that takes his fancy, let him build after my plan.
any
Theuropides. — Theuropides
May the gods bless you.
Simo — Your servant was telling me that you were desirous
to look over this house.
Theuropides — Unless it's inconvenient to you.
Simo — Oh no quite convenient. Do step indoors and
look over it. —
—
Simo — Take you care not to trouble yourself straw about
Theuropides [pausing]
But yet
the ladies
any lady. Walk in every direction, wherever you like, all over the house, just as though were your own.
79
Theuropides [apart to Tranio] — " Just as though "
Tranio [whispering] — Oh, take care that you don't throw in his teeth now in his concern, that you have bought it. Don't you see him, how sad countenance the old gentleman has
Theuropides [apart] — see.
Tranio [apart] — Then don't seem to exult, and to be over much delighted in fact, don't make mention that you've
and think you've humane disposition.
at your leisure, just
bought it. — Theuropides [apart]
understand given good advice, and that shows
[Turning to Simo. ] What now?
Simo — Won't you go in Look over
as you like. — Theuropides
kindly. —
consider that you are acting civilly and
Simo Troth, wish to do so. Should you like some one
to show you over
Theuropides —Away with any one to show me over.
don't want him.
Simo — Why What's the matter
Theuropides —I'll go wrong, rather than any one should show me over.
Tranio [pointing] — Don't you see, this vestibule before the house, and the piazza, of what compass
Theuropides — Troth, really handsome
a
if
?
? II
;
?
! it
a; I
it
is ?
a
I
it ?
?
I it
a
I it
?
;
is
it, if
80 THE HAUNTED HOUSE.
Tranio — Well, look now, what pillars there are, with what strength they are built, and of what a thickness.
Theuropides — I don't think that I ever saw handsomer pillars. Simo — I' faith, they were some time since bought by me at
such aprice! — Tranio [aside, whispering']
—" once " ? He seems hardly able to refrain from tears.
Why, upon my word, they are much more unsound than I thought
them at first.
Tranio — Why so ?
Theuropides —Because, i' faith, the woodworm has split
them both from the bottom.
Tranio — I think they were cut at an improper season ; that
Don't you hear
They were
Theuropides — At what price did you purchase them ?
Simo — I gave three minae for the two, besides the carriage.
[He retires to some distance. ] — Theuropides [after looking close at them, to Tranio]
fault damages them ; but even as it is, they are quite good enough, if they are covered with pitch. And it was no foreign pulse-eating artisan did this work. Don't you see the joints in the door ? [Pointing. ]
Theuropides — I see them.
Tranio — Look, how close together they are sleeping.
Theuropides — Sleeping ?
Tranio — That is, how they wink, I intended to say. Are you satisfied ?
Theuropides — The more I look at each particular, the more
it pleases me. — Tranio [pointing]
Don't you see the painting, where one crow is baffling two vultures ? The crow stands there ; it's
pecking at them both in turn. This way, look, prithee, to
wards me, that you may be able to see the crow. pides turns towards him. ] Now do you see it ?
[Theuro
Theuropides [looking about] — For my part I really see no crow there.
Tranio — But do you look in that direction, towards your selves, since you cannot discover the crow, if perchance you may be able to espy the vultures. [Theuropides turns to wards Simo. ] Now do you see them ?
Theuropides — Upon my faith, I don't see them.
Tranio — But I can see two vultures.
Theuropides — To make an end of it with you, I don't see
any bird at all painted here.
THE HAUNTED HOUSE. 81
Tranio — Well, then, I give it up. I excuse you ; it is through age you cannot see.
Theuropides — These things which I can see, really they do all please me mightily. —
Simo [coming forward] Now, at length, it's worth your while to move further on.
Theuropides — Troth, you give good advice.
Simo [calling at the door] —Ho there, boy I take this per son round this house and the apartments. But I myself would have shown you round, if I hadn't had business at the Forum.
Theuropides — Away with any one to show me over. I don't want to be shown over. Whatever it is, I'd rather go wrong than any one should show me over.
Simo — The house I'm speaking of.
Theuropides — Then I'll go in without any one to show me
whether the dog
Theuropides — Very well then, look. [Tranio looks into
the passage. ]
Tranio — There is one. —
Tranio [to the dog] — Be off and be hanged ! 'St, won't you be off to utter perdition with you? What, do you still linger ? 'St, away with you from here !
over. — Simo
Go, by all means.
Theuropides — I'll go indoors, then.
Tranio [holding him back] — Stop, please ; let me see
Theuropides [looking in] Where is it ?
Simo [coming nearer to the door] —There's no danger. You only move on. It's as gentle as a woman in childbed. You may boldly step indoors wherever you like. I'm going hence to the Forum.
Theuropides —You've acted obligingly. Good speed to you. [Exit Simo. ] —Tranio, come, make that dog move away from the door inside, although it isn't to be feared.
Tranio — Nay but [pointing], you look at it, how gently it lies. Unless you'd like yourself to appear troublesome and
cowardly — Theuropides
Very well, just as you like. Tranio — Follow me this way then.
Theuropides — For my part, I shall not move in any direc
tion from your feet. [They go into the house.
[The trick is of course found out, and the young scapegrace pardoned. ] vol. v. — 6
82 THE END OF THE MACEDONIAN KINGDOM.
THE END OF THE MACEDONIAN KINGDOM. By Bishop THLRLWALL.
[Connop Thiblwall, bishop of St. David's from 1840, was born at London in 1797 and educated at Cambridge. He was admitted to the bar, but left it for the church in 1828. He gained high repute as a classical scholar of remark ably sound and massive judgment, and began in 1835 his great " History of Greece " (eight volumes), completed in 1847 — which, instead of becoming obso lete with time, is increasingly valued for its justice and penetration, and the portion on Alexander's reign and after, scholars agree, has never been equaled. ]
At Rome, though no apprehension was felt as to the final issue of the Macedonian war, its state at the end of the third year was not regarded as promising ; and L. . (Emilius Paullus was raised for the second time to the consulate, with a general hope that his tried abilities would bring the contest to a speedy close, though the province was not assigned to him, as Plutarch relates, but, apparently at least, fell to him by lot. He himself, after his election, caused commissioners to be sent to inspect the condition of the army, and their report of it was not at all cheer ing. A levy of 14,000 foot and 1200 horse was decreed to re- enforce it. He set out from Rome with Cn. Octavius, who commanded the fleet, on the first of April ; arrived at Corcyra on the same day on which he sailed from Brundusium ; five days after celebrated a sacrifice at Delphi, and in five more had reached the camp in Pieria. His soldiers, who had been accus tomed to great license, soon learned, by the regulations which he introduced, that they had now a general as well as a consul at their head ; and Perseus no longer felt himself safe behind the Enipeus, when he saw the Roman camp moved forward to the opposite bank. The terror with which he was inspired by the fame of Paullus was soon heightened by tidings that whatever hopes he had built on his alliance with Gentius had fallen to the ground. After a war of not more than twenty or thirty days, Gentius, being besieged in his capital, Scodra, surrendered to the praetor Anicius, and was carried with all his family to Rome, to adorn his triumph, having received ten talents as the price of his throne and his liberty.
Perseus, however, did not neglect the precautions which his situation required. He fortified his position on the Enipeus ; detached a body of cavalry to protect the coast of Macedonia
THE END OP THE MACEDONIAN KINGDOM. 83
from the operations of the Roman fleet, which had entered the gulf of Thessalonica ; and sent 5000 men to guard the northern pass of Olympus at Petra, which opened a way near the highest summit of the mountain, the Pythium, by which an enemy might descend to the plains in his rear. This was, indeed, the danger which he had most reason to provide against ; for Paul- lus, having weighed all the modes of attack by which he might attempt to dislodge the enemy from his position, finally decided on this. He sent P. Scipio Nasica, accompanied by his eldest son, Fabius Maximus, with 8000 men, to force this pass, while he occupied the attention of Perseus with a series of assaults on his intrenchments. Nasica, after a long circuit, surprised the Macedonians at Petra, and drove them down before him ; and Perseus, at his approach, hastily abandoned his position, and re treated towards Pydna, where the consul, having been joined by Nasica, came up with him the same day, but deferred giving battle until the morrow. An eclipse of the moon, which took place in the night, filled the Macedonians with superstitious terror ; the Romans had a tribune in their army who was able to predict and explain it.
Perseus, though with blank misgiv ings, yielded to the advice of his friends, who exhorted him to risk an engagement ; he could not but perceive that further retreat would be attended with the dispersion of his forces and the loss of his kingdom.
The next day (June 22, B. C. 168) a short combat decided the fate of the Macedonian monarchy. The power of the pha lanx was again tried, under circumstances the most advanta geous to it, and again failed, through the same causes which occasioned the loss of the battle of Cynoscephalae. Victorious on the level ground, it fell into disorder when it had advanced upon the retreating enemy to the foot of the hills, where it could no longer preserve the evenness of its front, and the com pactness of its mass ; and opened numerous passages through its ranks for the legionaries, who rushed in to an almost unre sisted slaughter. The slain on the Macedonian side are said to have amounted to 20,000; upwards of 10,000 were made prisoners : the Romans lost scarcely 100 men. Perseus took little part in the battle, as the Romans gave out, through cow ardice ; but it appears that he had received a kick from a horse the day before, which compelled him to use a litter. It is cer tain, however, that, as soon as the rout began, he left the field with the cavalry, which remained untouched, and fled towards
84 THE END OF THE MACEDONIAN KINGDOM.
Pella. He was soon deserted by his Macedonian followers, and even at Pella found that he was no longer obeyed by his sub jects. In the first movement of his passion he killed two offi cers of his household with his own hand ; and continued his flight with no attendants beside the royal pages but three for eigners, —Evander the Cretan, Neon the Bœotian, and the . 3£tolian Archidamus, — with 500 Cretans, whose attachment was only retained by permission to plunder the royal plate, which Perseus afterwards recovered from them by a disgraceful trick. At Amphipolis he sent three persons of low rank, the only messengers he could find, with a letter to Paullus ; but only stayed long enough to embark the treasure deposited there, and sailed with it down the Strymon to Galepsus, and thence to Samothrace.
Little loyalty could seem due to such a king, even if his for tunes had been less desperate. The whole of Macedonia sub mitted immediately without resistance to the conqueror. The Roman fleet soon pursued the royal fugitive to Samothrace. But Octavius spared the sanctity of the asylum, and only demanded Evander, as a man whose hands were stained with the blood of Eumenes, and Perseus was said to have dispatched him, to prevent a disclosure of his own guilt. But he suffered himself to be overreached by another Cretan, who engaged to convey him to the coast of Thrace, where he hoped to find refuge at the court of Cotys ; but sailed away without him, as soon as his treasure had been put on board. He then hid himself in a nook of the temple, until his remaining servants had been tempted by a promise of free pardon to surrender themselves, and his younger children had been betrayed into the hands of Octavius by the friend who had charge of them. He then gave himself up, with his eldest son Philip, to the pretor, and was immediately conducted to the consul's camp.
He was courteously received by the conqueror, but is said to have forfeited the respect which would have been paid to his rank, by the abjectness of his demeanor; though he was thought to have been guilty of extravagant presumption, when in the letter which he wrote immediately after his defeat, he retained the title of king. About the same time that these events were taking place in Macedonia, Anicius, after the sub jugation of Illyria, marched into Epirus. At Phanota, where the plot had been laid for the seizure of the consul Hostilius, the
THE END OF THE MACEDONIAN KINGDOM.
85
whole population went out to meet him with the ensigns of sup pliants. All the other towns of Epirus submitted likewise with out resistance : only in four, in Molossis, was there so much as an appearance of hesitation, which was the effect of the presence of Cephalus, and some other leaders of the Macedonian party. But this obstacle was soon removed by their execution or vol untary death, and these towns also surrendered without any opposition. Anicius distributed his troops among the principal cities, and left the whole country perfectly tranquil when he returned to Illyria to meet the five commissioners, who were sent from Rome to regulate its affairs.
A commission of Ten was appointed as usual to settle those of Macedonia. In the summer of 167, before the arrival of the commissioners, Paullus, accompanied by his second son, the future conqueror of Carthage and Numantia [Scipio the younger], and by Athenaeus, a brother of Eumenes, made a tour in Greece : not with any political object, but simply to gratify the curiosity of a stranger, who was familiar with Greek literature, and whose house at Rome was full of Greek rhetoricians, and artists, and masters of all kinds for the educa tion of his sons. He went to view the monuments of art, scenes celebrated in history or fable, or hallowed by religion : to com pare Phidias with Homer. It was not only Athens and Sparta, Sicyon and Argos, and Epidaurus, Corinth, and Olympia that attracted his attention : the comparatively obscure shrines of Lebadea and Oropus were not without their interest for the Roman augur, who was no less exact in the observance of the sacerdotal ritual than in the maintenance of military discipline, but sacrificed at Olympia before the work of Phidias with as much devotion as in the capitol. He did not indeed wholly lay aside the majesty of the proconsul ; at Delphi he ordered his own statues to be placed on the pedestals which had been erected for those of Perseus. But he made no inquiries into recent political transactions, and displayed his power chiefly in acts of beneficence ; for amidst so many memorials of ancient prosperity he everywhere found signs of present poverty and distress, and the vast magazines of corn and oil which had fallen into his hands in Macedonia enabled him to relieve the indigence of the Greeks by liberal largesses. His visit to Greece is a pleasing idyllian episode in a life divided between the senate and the camp ; and it is characteristic of the begin
THE END OF THE MACEDONIAN KINGDOM.
ning of a new period, being as far as we know the first ever paid to the country for such a purpose.
It would have been happy for Greece if her destinies had now depended on the will of Paullus. But he was the minister of a system by which the rapacious oligarchy, which wielded the Roman legions, was enabled to treat the fairest portion of the civilized world as its prey, and, as it grew bolder with success, became more and more callous to shame and remorse in the prosecution of its iniquitous ends, which it scarcely deigned to cover with the threadbare mantle of its demure hypocrisy. Such men as Q. Marcius and C. Popillius were now the fittest agents for its work. A scene occurred to Paullus, as he passed through Thessaly on his return to Macedonia, which exhibited a slight prelude to the miseries which Greece was to endure under the absolute ascendency of this system. He was met by a multitude of iEtolians in the garb of suppliants, who related that Lyciscus and another of his party, having obtained a body of troops from a Roman officer, had surrounded the council room, had put 550 of their opponents to death, forced others into exile, and taken possession of the property both of the dead and the banished. Paullus could only bid the suppliants repair to Amphipolis, where he was to arrange the affairs of his province in concert with the ten commissioners, who had already arrived in Macedonia. They had brought with them the outlines of a decree, which when the details had been adjusted was solemnly published from the proconsular tribunal at Amphipolis, in the presence of a great concourse of people : first recited in Latin by Paullus, and then in a Greek translation by the propretor Octavius.
By its provisions Macedonia was divided into four districts, to which Amphipolis, Thessalonica, Pella, and Pelagonia were assigned as capitals. They were to be governed each by its own councils and magistrates, and were to be not only independent of each other, but separated from each other by the strictest prohibition of mutual intercourse, both of intermarriage and of contracts for the acquisition of land or houses beyond the border within which either of the parties dwelt. Even the im portation of salt was forbidden, as well as the working of gold and silver mines — to guard against the abuses which were ad mitted to be inseparable from the administration of these royal ties on the Roman system — and the felling of ship timber. As
THE END OF THE MACEDONIAN KINGDOM. 87
the three regions which bordered on the territories of barbarian tribes were expressly permitted to keep garrisons for the pro tection of their frontiers, the use of arms for any other purpose seems to have been tacitly, if not expressly, interdicted.
A tribute of 100 talents, one half of the amount of the taxa tion under the royal government, was reserved for the Romans. Whether the burdens of the people were lightened to the same extent, or the difference was more than equal to the increased expense of the quadruple administration, has been perhaps justly questioned. The most important benefits conferred on the conquered nation were exemption from the rule of a Roman magistrate and the rapacity of Roman farmers of the revenue, — which, however, was only a precarious and temporary boon, — and a new code of laws, compiled under the care of Paullus himself, and therefore probably framed on equitable principles, and wisely adapted to the condition of the country, as it is said to have stood the test of experience. That nevertheless the decree was received with deep discontent by every Macedonian who retained any degree of national feeling, may be easily sup posed ; and we hardly know whether Livy is in earnest, when he affects to correct the error of those who complained of the dismemberment of their country, not aware, he thinks, how adequate each region was to the supply of its own wants. The jealousy of the senate, however, was not satisfied with these pre cautions. The government of each region was committed to an oligarchical council ; and to secure an election of its mem bers conformable to the interests of Rome, all the Macedonians who had held any office in the king's service were ordered, under pain of death, to go with their children, who had passed the age of fifteen, to Italy.
The authority of the commissioners was not confined to Macedonia. They were invested with an unlimited jurisdiction over all political causes in Greece, and even beyond the shores of Europe ; for they sent one of their number to raze the town of Antissa in Lesbos to the ground, and to remove its whole population to Methymna, because it had received a Macedonian admiral in its port, and supplied his fleet with provisions. Every part of their instructions seems to have breathed the same spirit of vindictive cruelty, and insolent, shameless tyranny ; or they were directed to follow the counsels of Callicrates, Charops, and Lyciscus. From all parts of Greece the principal traitors and
88 THE END OF THE MACEDONIAN KINGDOM.
sycophants flocked to their tribunal ; for no state ventured to send any representatives but the men who had been most forward on the side of Rome. From Achaia, Callicrates, Aristodamus, Age- sias, and Philippus ; from Bœotia, Mnasippus ; from Acarnania, Chremes ; from Epirus, Charops and Nicias ; from ^Etolia, Ly- ciscus and Tisippus, — the authors of the recent massacre, — are named among the men who came to share the triumph of the Romans, and to direct their persecution against the best and most patriotic of their fellow-countrymen.
Paullus saw and despised the baseness of these miscreants, and would not have sacrificed better men to their malice ; but his was only one voice against ten. His colleagues were better informed as to the intentions of the senate, and knew that Cal licrates and Charops possessed, as they deserved, its entire con fidence. The manner in which they decided on the case of the ^Etolians, who had been the victims of the recent violence, removed all doubt as to the course which they meant to pursue, and encouraged their partisans to lay aside all shame and re serve. No inquiry was made except as to the political princi ples of the actors and the sufferers. The bloodshed, the ban ishment, and the confiscation were all sanctioned and ratified ; only Baebius was pronounced to have been in fault, when he lent his soldiers for such a purpose. Still even JStolia was not deemed to be yet sufficiently purged from disaffection. There, as well as in Acarnania, Epirus, Bœotia, and Achaia, as the commissioners were assured by their Greek advisers, there were still many covert enemies of Rome, and until this party was everywhere crushed, and the ascendency of the decided advo cates of the Roman supremacy firmly established, there could be no security for the public loyalty and tranquillity. Lists of the suspected citizens were drawn up by their adversaries, and letters were dispatched in the name of the proconsul to ^Etolia, Acarnania, Epirus, and Bœotia, commanding them all to pro ceed to Rome to take their trial. With the Achaeans it was thought prudent to adopt a different course ; for it was doubted whether they might submit so quietly to such an order ; espe cially as no papers had been discovered in the Macedonian ar chives to implicate any of their proscribed citizens in a charge of correspondence with Perseus. Two of the commissioners, C. Claudius and Cn. Domitius, were sent to Peloponnesus to accomplish their object without danger of tumult or opposition.
THE END OF THE MACEDONIAN KINGDOM. 89
In the meanwhile, for a specimen of the justice which awaited the accused, Neon, the Bœotian, and Andronicus, the ^Etolian, were beheaded : Neon, as the author of the alliance with Per seus; Andronicus, because he had followed his father to the war against the Romans.
When these affairs had been transacted, after having cele brated magnificent games at Amphipolis, in which the spoils of the Macedonian monarchy, which were about to be transported to Rome, formed the most splendid part of the spectacle, Paul- lus set out for Epirus. On his arrival at Passaro he sent for ten of the principal citizens from each of seventy towns, mostly of the Molossians, which had been involved in the revolt of Cephalus, or in a suspicion of disloyalty to Rome, and ordered that the gold and silver of every town should be collected and brought forth into the public place. A detachment of soldiers was then sent into each, in such order that all were occupied precisely at the same time ; and at the same hour, at a precon certed signal, were all given up to pillage. The inhabitants, whose fears had been previously lulled by an intimation that the garrisons were to be withdrawn, were carried away as slaves. A hundred and fifty thousand human beings were thus at one blow torn from their homes, and reduced into the lowest depth of wretchedness. The produce of the spoil was divided among the troops. The guilt of this atrocious wickedness rests with the senate, by whose express command it was perpetrated. Paullus, though a severe exacter of discipline, who threw the deserters under the feet of his elephants, was of an affectionate and gentle nature, softened by study, inclined to contemplation, deeply sensible of the instability of mortal greatness, and shrink ing with religious awe from wanton oppression of a vanquished enemy, as he showed when, after his triumph, he interceded for Perseus, and procured his release from the dungeon to which he had been mercilessly consigned. That such a man should have been made the instrument of such a deed, may be num bered among the most melancholy examples of military servi tude.
90
THE LAST TWO ORACLES OF GREECE.
THE LAST TWO ORACLES OF GREECE. Translated by F. W. H. MYERS.
L
An Oracle Concerning the Eternal God.
0 God ineffable eternal Sire,
Throned on the whirling spheres, the astral fire,
Hid in whose heart thy whole creation lies, —
The whole world's wonder mirrored in thine eyes, — List thou thy children's voice, who draw anear,
Thou hast begotten us, thou too must hear !
Each life thy life her Fount, her Ocean knows,
Fed while it fosters, filling as it flows ;
Wrapt in thy light the star-set cycles roll,
And worlds within thee stir into a soul ;
But stars and souls shall keep their watch and way, Nor change the going of thy lonely day.
Some sons of thine, our Father, King of kings,
Rest in the sheen and shelter of thy wings, —
Some to strange hearts the unspoken message bear,
Sped on thy strength through the haunts and homes of air,—> Some where thine honor dwelleth hope and wait,
Sigh for thy courts and gather at thy gate ; These from afar to thee their praises bring, Of thee, albeit they have not seen thee, sing; Of thee the Father wise, the Mother mild, Thee in all children the eternal Child,
Thee the first Number and harmonious Whole, Form in all forms, and of all souls the Soul.
II.
To Amelius, who inquired, " Where is now Plotinus' Soul ? "
Pure spirit — once a man — pure spirits now
Greet thee rejoicing, and of these art thou;
Not vainly was thy whole soul alway bent
With one same battle and one the same intent Through eddying cloud and earth's bewildering roar To win her bright way to that stainless shore.
Ay, 'mid the salt spume of this troublous sea, This death in life, this sick perplexity,
THE LAST TWO ORACLES OF GREECE.
Oft on thy struggle through the obscure unrest
A revelation opened from the Blest —
Showed close at hand the goal thy hope would win, Heaven's kingdom round thee and thy God within. So sure a help the eternal Guardians gave,
From Life's confusion so were strong to save,
Upheld thy wandering steps that sought the day
And set them steadfast on the heavenly way.
Nor quite even here on thy broad brows was shed
The sleep which shrouds the living, who are dead; Once by God's grace was from thine eyes unfurled
This veil that screens the immense and whirling world, Once, while the spheres around thee in music ran,
Was very Beauty manifest to man ; —
Ah, once to have seen her, once to have known her there, For speech too sweet, for earth too heavenly fair !
But now the tomb where long thy soul had lain
Bursts, and thy tabernacle is rent in twain ;
Now from about thee, in thy new home above,
Has perished all but life, and all but love, —
And on all lives and on all loves outpoured
Free grace and full, a Spirit from the Lord,
High in that heaven whose windless vaults enfold
Just men made perfect, and an age all gold.
Thine own Pythagoras is with thee there,
And sacred Plato in that sacred air,
And whoso followed, and all high hearts that knew
In death's despite what deathless Love can do.
To God's right hand they have scaled the starry way— Pure spirits these, thy spirit pure as they.
Ah saint ! how many and many an anguish past,
To how fair haven art thou come at last !
On thy meek head what Powers their blessing pour, Filled full with life, and rich for evermore I
92
PERIODS OF GREEK HISTORY.
PERIODS OF GREEK HISTORY AFTER THE CON QUEST OF GREECE.
By GEORGE FINLAY.
(From " Greece under the Romans. ")
[Gbobge Finlay : An English historian ; born in Faversham, Kent, Decem ber 21, 1709 ; died in Athens, Greece, January 26, 1875. He was one of the early volunteers in the liberation of Greece, a companion of Byron at Missolonghi in 1823, and took up permanent residence there. He was for many years the Greek correspondent of the London Times. His fame, however, rests upon one great work, now collected as "Greece under Foreign Domination" (7 vols. , 1877), but the first volume published as " Greece under the Romans " (1844), and the last two volumes being a " History of the Greek Revolution. "]
The condition of Greece during its long period of servitude was not one of uniform degeneracy. Under the Romans, and subsequently under the Othomans, the Greeks formed only an insignificant portion of a vast empire. Their unwarlike char acter rendered them of little political importance, and many of the great changes and revolutions which occurred in the dominions of the emperors and of the sultans, exerted no direct influence on Greece. Consequently, neither the general history of the Roman nor of the Othoman empire forms a portion of Greek history. Under the Byzantine emperors the case was different : the Greeks became then identified with the imperial administration. The dissimilarity in the political position of the nation during these periods requires a different treatment from the historian to explain the characteristics of the times.
The changes which affected the political and social condi tion of the Greeks divide their history, as a subject people, into six distinct periods.
1. The first of these periods comprises the history of Greece under the Roman government. The physical and moral deg radation of the people deprived them of all political influence, until Greek society was at length regenerated by the Christian religion. After Christianity became the religion of the Roman emperors, the predominant power of the Greek clergy, in the ecclesiastical establishment of the Eastern Empire, restored to the Greeks some degree of influence in the government, and gave them a degree of social authority over human civiliza tion in the East which rivaled that which they had formerly obtained by the Macedonian conquests. In the portion of this work devoted to the condition of Greece under the Romans,
PERIODS OF GREEK HISTORY.
93
the author has confined his attention exclusively to the condi tion of the people, and to those branches of the Roman ad ministration which affected their condition. The predominant influence of Roman feelings and prejudices in the Eastern Empire terminates with the accession of Leo the Isaurian, who gave the administration at Constantinople a new character.
2. The second period embraces the history of the Eastern Roman Empire in its new form, under its conventional title of the Byzantine Empire. The records of this despotism, modi fied, renovated, and reinvigorated by the Iconoclast emperors, constitute one of the most remarkable and instructive lessons in the history of monarchial institutions. They teach us that a well-organized central government can with ease hold many subject nations in a state of political nullity. During this period the history of the Greeks is closely interwoven with the annals of the imperial government, so that the history of the Byzantine Empire forms a portion of the history of the Greek nation. Byzantine history extends from the accession of Leo the Isaurian, in the year 716, to the conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204.
3. After the destruction of the Eastern Roman Empire, Greek history diverges into many channels. The exiled Roman- Greeks of Constantinople fled to Asia, and established their capital at Nicaea ; they prolonged the Imperial administration in some provinces on the old model and with the old names. After the lapse of less than sixty years, they recovered posses sion of Constantinople ; but though the government they exer cised retained the proud title of the Roman Empire, it was only a degenerate representative even of the Byzantine state. This third period is characterized as the Greek Empire of Constantinople. Its feeble existence was terminated by the Othoman Turks at the taking of Constantinople in 1453.
4. When the Crusaders conquered the greater part of the Byzantine Empire, they divided their conquests with the Vene tians, and founded the Latin Empire of Romania, with its feudal principalities in Greece. The domination of the Latins is important, as marking the decline of Greek influence in the East, and as causing a rapid diminution in the wealth and numbers of the Greek nation. This period extends from the conquest of Constantinople in 1204, until the conquest of Naxos by the Othoman Turks in 1566.
5. The conquest of Constantinople in 1204 caused the
94 GLEANINGS FROM . THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY.
foundation of a new Greek state in the eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire, called the Empire of Trebizond. Its existence is a curious episode in Greek history, though the government was characterized by peculiarities which indicated the influence of Asiatic rather than of European manners. It bore a strong resemblance to the Iberian and Armenian mon archies. During two centuries and a half it maintained a considerable degree of influence, based, however, rather on its commercial position and resources than on its political strength or its Greek civilization. Its existence exerted little influence on the fate or fortunes of Greece, and its conquest, in the year 1461, excited little sympathy.
6. The sixth and last period of the history of Greece under foreign domination extends from 1453 to 1821, and embraces the records both of the Othoman rule and of the temporary occupa tion of the Peloponnesus by the Venetian Republic, from 1685 to 1715. Nations have, perhaps, perpetuated their existence in an equally degraded position ; but history offers no other ex ample of a nation which had sunk to such a state of debasement making a successful effort to recover its independence.
GLEANINGS FROM THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY. By RICHARD GARNETT.
[Richard Garnett, C. B. , LL. D. , English poet and man of letters, was born at Lichfield, England, in 1835 ; son and namesake of the Assistant Keeper of Printed Books in the British Museum. He was himself in its service from 1851 to 1899, latterly as Keeper of Printed Books. He has published, besides vol umes of collected original poems, " Poems from the German," " A Chaplet from the Greek Anthology," "Sonnets from Dante, Petrarch, and Camoens" ; also "Io in Egypt," "Iphigenia in Delphi," "The Twilight of the Gods," etc. ; Lives of Milton, Carlyle, Emerson, William Blake, and Edward Gibbon Wake field ; " History of Italian Literature," etc. ]
I. — Bion.
Yottng was I, when I saw fair Venus stand,
Before me, leading in her lovely hand
Eros, whose drooping eye the herbage sought,
And thus, " Dear herdsman, let my child be taught Music by thee," therewith she went away.
GLEANINGS FROM THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY.
Then did I in all innocence essay
To teach, as though he could have learned of me, The sources of sweet-flowing melody : —
Pan's pipe and Pallas' flute, how Hermes bade The tortoise sing, and how Apollo made
The cittern. But, not heeding mine a whit,
He sang himself a song, and taught me it.
How Venus reigns, and all in heaven above
And land and sea is subject unto love.
And I forgot all I to Love did tell,
But all he taught me
Iremember well.
II. — Mnasalcas.
Vine that, not tarrying till the storm bereaves, Strewest on autumnal air thy glorious leaves, Reserve them for her couch whom I await ; Bacchus was ever Venus' willing mate.
III. — Makcus Argentabius.
Warble no more thy mellow melody,
Sweet Blackbird, from that knotty oaken tree, But where the clambering vine her tendril weaves,
Come winging to the hospitable eaves,
And chant uncaged, for that, thy race's foe, Fosters the birdlime-bearing mistletoe;
But this, the purple grape, so duly thine,
For Minstrelsy should ne'er be scant of wine.
IV. — Anonymous.
I send thee myrrh, not that thou mayest be By it perfumed, but it perfumed by thee.
Imitation by Ben Jonson.
I sent thee late a rosy wreath, Not so much honoring thee As giving it a hope that there
It could not withered be ;
But thou thereon didst only breathe
And sent'st it back to me ;
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee.
GLEANINGS FROM THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY.
V. — Marcus Argentarius.
Call it not love when the delighted eye
Is lured by charm into captivity ;
But when wild fires for weak attractions waste - To pine for beauty is not love but taste.
VI. — Meleager.
O Love that flew so lightly to my heart, Why are thy wings so feeble to depart ?
Translation by H. H. Milman.
Still Love's sweet voice is trembling in mine ears, Still silent flow mine eyes with Love's sweet tears ; Nor night nor day I rest; by magic spells
Stamped on my soul the well-known image dwells. O Love ! how swift thy flight to reach the heart ! Thy wings are only powerless to depart.
VII.