Whereas Egypt is more
barbarous
even than the altar of Mæotis.
Satires
Its sands were said to have been changed into gold by Midas'
bathing in its waters, hence called εὔχρυσος by Sophocles. Philoct. ,
391. It flows under the walls of Sardis, and is closely connected by
the poets with the name and wealth of Crœsus. The real fact being, that
the gold ore was washed down from Mount Tmolus; which Strabo says had
ceased to be the case in his time: lib. xiii. , c. 4. Cf. Virg. , Æn. ,
x. , 141, "Ubi pinguia culta exercentque vivi Pactolusque irrigat auro. "
Senec. , Phœn. , 604, "Et quà trahens opulenta Pactolus vada inundat auro
rura. " Athen. , v. It is still called Bagouli.
[1043] _Picta tempestate. _ Cf. ad xii. , 27.
"Poor shipwreck'd sailor! tell thy tale and show
The sign-post daubing of thy watery woe. " Hodgson.
[1044] _Custodia. _
"First got with guile, and then preserved with dread. " Spenser.
[1045] _Licinus. _ Cf. ad i. , 109, "Ego possideo plus Pallante et
Licinis. "
[1046] _Hamis. _ Hama, "a leathern bucket," from the ἅμη of Plutarch.
Augustus instituted seven Cohortes Vigilum, who paraded the city at
night under the command of their Præfectus, equipped with "hamæ" and
"dolabræ" to prevent fires. Cf. Plin. , x. , Ep. 42, who, giving Trajan
an account of a great fire at Nicomedia in his province, says, "Nullus
in publico sipho, nulla hama, nullum denique instrumentum ad incendia
compescenda. " Tac. , Ann. , xv. , 43, "Jam aqua privatorum licentia
intercepta, quo largior, et pluribus locis in publicum flueret,
custodes, et subsidia reprimendis ignibus in propatulo quisque haberet:
nec communione parietum, sed propriis quæque muris ambirentur. " (Ubi
vid. Ruperti's note. ) These custodes were called "Castellarii. " Gruter.
Cf. Sat. iii. , 197, _seq. _
[1047] _Phrygiaque columnâ. _ Cf. ad lin. 89.
[1048] _Dolia nudi Cynici. _ Cf. ad xiii. , 122. The story is told by
Plutarch, Vit. Alex. Cf. Diog. Laert. , VI. , ii. , 6. It is said that
Diogenes died at Corinth, the same day Alexander died at Babylon. Cf.
x. , 171.
"The naked cynic mocks such anxious cares,
His earthen tub no conflagration fears:
If crack'd or broken, he procures a new;
Or, coarsely soldering, makes the old one do. " Gifford.
[1049] _Nullum numen. _ Cf. x. , 365.
"Where prudence dwells, there Fortune is unknown,
By man a goddess made, by man alone. " Badham.
[1050] _Sitis atque fames. _ Hor. , i. , Sat. i. , 73, "Nescis quo valeat
nummus quem præbeat usum? Panis ematur, olus, vini Sextarius; adde
Queis humana sibi doleat natura negatis. "
[1051] _Epicure. _ Cf. xiii. , 122, "Non Epicurum suspicit exigui lætum
plantaribus horti. "
"As much as made wise Epicurus blest,
Who in small gardens spacious realms possess'd:
This is what nature's wants may well suffice;
He that would more is covetous, not wise. " Dryden.
[1052] _Summam. _ Cf. iii. , 154, "De pulvino surgat equestri Cujus res
legi non sufficit. " Plin. , xxxii. , 2, "Tiberio imperante constitutem
ne quis in equestri ordine censeretur, nisi cui ingenuo ipsi, patri,
avoque paterno sestertia quadringenta census fuisset. " Cf. i. , 105;
iii. , 159, "Sic libitum vano qui nos distinxit Othoni. "
[1053] _Tertia Quadringenta. _ Suet. , Aug. , 41, "Senatorum Censum
ampliavit, ac pro Octingentorum millium summâ, duodecies sestertio
taxavit, supplevitque non habentibus. "
[1054] _Narcissi. _ Of his wealth Dio says (lx. , p. 688), μέγιστον τῶν
τότε ἀνθρώπων ἐδυνήθη μυριάδας τε γὰρ πλείους μυρίων εἷχε. Narcissus
and his other freedmen, Posides, Felix, Polybius, etc. , exercised
unlimited control over the idiotic Claudius, but Pallas and Narcissus
were his chief favorites, "Quos decreto quoque senatus, non præmiis
modo ingentibus, sed et quæstoriis prætoriisque ornamentis ornari
libenter passus est:" and so much did they abuse his kindness, that
when he was once complaining of the low state of his exchequer, it was
said, "abundaturum si à duobus libertis in consortium reciperetur. "
Claudius would have certainly pardoned Messalina, had it not been
for Narcissus. "Nec enim Claudius Messalinam interfecisset, nisi
properâsset index, delator adulterii, et quodammodo imperator cædis
Narcissus. " See the whole account, Tac. , Ann. , xi. , 26-38. Suet. ,
Claud. , 26, _seq. _ On the accession of Nero, Narcissus was compelled by
Agrippina to commit suicide. Cf. ad x. , 330.
"No! nor his heaps, whom doting Claudius gave
Power over all, and made himself a slave;
From whom the dictates of command he drew,
And, urged to slay his wife, obedient slew. " Hodgson.
SATIRE XV.
Who knows not, O Volusius[1055] of Bithynia, the sort of monsters
Egypt,[1056] in her infatuation, worships? One part venerates the
crocodile:[1057] another trembles before an Ibis gorged with serpents.
The image of a sacred monkey glitters in gold, where the magic chords
sound from Memnon[1058] broken in half, and ancient Thebes lies buried
in ruins, with her hundred gates. In one place they venerate sea-fish,
in another river-fish; there, whole towns worship a dog;[1059] no one
Diana. It is an impious act to violate or break with the teeth a leek
or an onion. [1060] O holy nations! whose gods grow for them in their
gardens! [1061] Every table abstains from animals that have wool: it is
a crime there to kill a kid. But human flesh is lawful food.
Were Ulysses[1062] to relate at supper such a deed as this to the
amazed Alcinous, he would perhaps have excited the ridicule or anger
of some, as a lying babbler. [1063] "Does no one hurl this fellow into
the sea, that deserves indeed a savage Charybdis and a real one[1064]
too, for inventing[1065] his huge Læstrygones[1066] and Cyclops. For
I would far more readily believe in Scylla, or the Cyanean rocks
that clash together,[1067] and the skins filled with stormy winds; or
that Elpenor, struck with the light touch of Circe's wand, grunted in
company with his messmates turned to hogs. Does he suppose the heads of
the Phæacians so void[1068] of brains? "
So might any one with reason have argued, who was not yet drunk,[1069]
and had taken but a scanty draught[1070] of the potent wine from the
Corcyræan[1071] bowl; for the Ithacan[1072] told his adventures alone,
with none to attest his veracity. We are about to relate events,
wondrous indeed, but achieved only lately, while Junius[1073] was
consul, above the walls of sultry Coptos. [1074] We shall recount the
crime of a whole people, deeds more atrocious than any tragedy could
furnish. For from the days of Pyrrha,[1075] though you turn over
every tragic theme,[1076] in none is a whole people[1077] made the
perpetrators of the guilt. Here, then, an instance which even in our
own days ruthless barbarism[1078] produced. There is an inveterate and
long-standing grudge,[1079] a deathless hatred and a rankling wound
that knows no cure, burning fiercely still between Ombos[1080] and
Tentyra, two neighboring peoples. On both sides the principal rancor
arises from the fact that each place hates its neighbor's gods,[1081]
and believes those only ought to be held as deities which itself
worships. But at a festive period of one of those peoples, the chiefs
and leaders of their enemies determined that the opportunity must be
seized, to prevent their enjoying their day of mirth and cheerfulness,
and the delights of a grand dinner, when their tables were spread near
the temples and cross-ways, and the couch that knows not sleep, since
occasionally even the seventh day's sun finds it still there, spread
without intermission of either night or day. [1082] Savage,[1083] in
truth, is Egypt! But in luxury, so far as I myself remarked, even the
barbarous mob does not fall short of the infamous Canopus. [1084]
Besides, victory is easily gained over men reeking[1085] with wine,
stammering[1086] and reeling. On one side there was a crew of fellows
dancing to a black piper; perfumes, such as they were; and flowers,
and garlands in plenty round their brows. On the other side was ranged
fasting hate. But, with minds inflamed, they begin first of all to
give vent to railings[1087] in words.
This was the signal-blast[1088] of the fray. Then with shouts from both
sides, the conflict begins; and in lieu of weapons,[1089] the unarmed
hand rages.
Few cheeks were without a wound. Scarcely one, if any, had a whole nose
out of the whole line of combatants. Now you might see, through all the
hosts engaged, mutilated faces,[1090] features not to be recognized,
bones showing ghastly beneath the lacerated cheek, fists dripping with
blood from their enemies' eyes. But still the combatants themselves
consider they are only in sport, and engaged in a childish[1091]
encounter, because they do not trample any corpses under foot. What,
forsooth, is the object of so many thousands mixing in the fray, if no
life is to be sacrificed? The attack, therefore, is more vigorous; and
now with arms inclined along the ground they begin to hurl stones[1092]
they have picked up--Sedition's[1093] own peculiar weapons.
Yet not such stones as Ajax[1094] or as Turnus[1095] hurled; nor of
the weight of that with which Tydides[1096] hit Æneas' thigh; but such
as right hands far different to theirs, and produced in our age, have
power to project. For even in Homer's[1097] lifetime men were beginning
to degenerate. Earth now gives birth to weak and puny mortals. [1098]
Therefore every god that looks down on them sneers and hates them!
After this digression[1099] let us resume our story. When they had
been re-enforced by subsidies, one of the parties is emboldened to
draw the sword, and renew the battle with deadly-aiming[1100] arrows.
Then they who inhabit Tentyra,[1101] bordering on the shady palms,
press upon their foes, who all in rapid flight leave their backs
exposed. Here one of them, in excess of terror urging his headlong
course, falls[1102] and is caught. Forthwith the victorious crowd
having cut him up into numberless bits and fragments, in order that
one dead man might furnish a morsel for many, eat him completely up,
having gnawed his very bones. They neither cooked him in a seething
caldron, nor on a spit. So wearisome[1103] and tedious did they think
it to wait for a fire, that they were even content with the carcass
raw. Yet at this we should rejoice, that they profaned not the deity
of fire which Prometheus[1104] stole from highest heaven and gave to
earth. I congratulate[1105] the element! and you too, I ween, are
glad. [1106] But he that could bear to chew a human corpse, never tasted
a sweeter[1107] morsel than this flesh. For in a deed of such horrid
atrocity, pause not to inquire or doubt whether it was the first maw
alone that felt the horrid delight! Nay! he that came up last,[1108]
when the whole body was now devoured, by drawing his fingers along the
ground, got a taste of the blood!
The Vascones,[1109] as report says, protracted their lives by the use
of such nutriment as this. But the case is very different. There we
have the bitter hate of fortune! the last extremity of war, the very
climax of despair, the awful destitution[1110] of a long-protracted
siege. For the instance of such food of which we are now speaking,
ought to call forth our pity. [1111] Since it was only after they had
exhausted herbs of all kinds,[1112] and every animal to which the
gnawings of an empty stomach drove them, and while their enemies
themselves commiserated their pale and emaciated features and wasted
limbs, they in their ravenous famine tore in pieces others' limbs,
ready to devour even their own! What man, or what god even, would
refuse his pardon to brave men[1113] suffering such fierce extremities?
men, whom the very spirits of those whose bodies they fed on, could
have forgiven! The precepts of Zeno teach us a better lesson. For he
thinks that _some_ things only, and not _all_, ought to be done to
preserve life. [1114] But whence could a Cantabrian learn the Stoics'
doctrines? especially in the days of old Metellus. Now the whole world
has the Grecian and our Athens.
Eloquent Gaul[1115] has taught the Britons[1116] to become pleaders;
and even Thule[1117] talks of hiring a rhetorician.
Yet that noble people whom we have mentioned, and their equal
in courage and fidelity, their more than equal in calamity,
Saguntum,[1118] _has_ some excuse to plead for such a deed as this!
Whereas Egypt is more barbarous even than the altar of Mæotis. Since
that Tauric[1119] inventress of the impious rite (if you hold as worthy
of credit all that poets sing) only sacrifices men; the victim has
nothing further or worse to fear than the sacrificial knife. But what
calamity was it drove _these_ to crime? What extremity of hunger, or
hostile arms that bristled round their ramparts, that forced these
to dare a prodigy of guilt so execrable? What greater enormity[1120]
than this could they commit, when the land of Memphis was parched with
drought to provoke the wrath[1121] of Nile when unwilling to rise?
Neither the formidable Cimbri, nor Britons, nor fierce Sarmatians
or savage Agathyrsi, ever raged with such frantic brutality, as did
this weak and worthless rabble, that wont to spread their puny sails
in pinnaces of earthenware,[1122] and ply the scanty paddles of their
painted pottery-canoe. You could not invent a punishment adequate
to the guilt, or a torture bad enough for a people in whose breasts
"anger" and "hunger" are convertible terms.
Nature confesses that she has bestowed on the human race hearts of
softest mould, in that she has given us tears. [1123] Of all our feeling
this is the noblest part. She bids us therefore bewail the misfortunes
of a friend in distress, and the squalid appearance of one accused, or
an orphan[1124] summoning to justice the guardian who has defrauded
him. Whose girl-like hair throws doubt[1125] upon the sex of those
cheeks bedewed with tears!
It is at nature's dictate that we mourn when we meet the funeral of
a virgin of marriageable years, or see an infant[1126] laid in the
ground, too young for the funeral pyre. For what good man, who that is
worthy of the mystic torch,[1127] such an one as Ceres' priest would
have him be, ever deems the ills of others[1128] matter that concerns
not himself?
This it is that distinguishes us from the brute herd. And therefore
we alone, endued with that venerable distinction of reason[1129]
and a capacity for divine things, with an aptitude for the practice
as well as the reception of all arts and sciences, have received,
transmitted to us from heaven's high citadel,[1130] a moral sense,
which brutes prone[1131] and stooping toward earth, are lacking in. In
the beginning of the world, the common Creator of all vouchsafed to
them only the principle of vitality; to us he gave souls[1132] also,
that an instinct of affection reciprocally shared, might urge us to
seek for, and to give, assistance; to unite in one people, those before
widely-scattered;[1133] to emerge from the ancient wood, and abandon
the forests[1134] where our fathers dwelt; to build houses, to join
another's dwelling to our own homes, that the confidence mutually
engendered by a neighbor's threshold might add security[1135] to our
slumbers; to cover with our arms a fellow-citizen[1136] when fallen
or staggering from a ghastly wound; to sound the battle-signal from a
common clarion; to be defended by the same ramparts, and closed in by
the key of a common portal.
But now the unanimity[1137] of serpents is greater than ours. The
wild beast of similar genus spares his kindred[1138] spots. When did
ever lion, though stronger, deprive his fellow-lion of life? In what
wood did ever boar perish by the tusks of a boar[1139] larger than
himself? The tigress of India[1140] maintains unbroken harmony with
each tigress that ravens. Bears, savage to others, are yet at peace
among themselves. But for man! [1141] he is not content with forging
on the ruthless anvil the death-dealing steel! While his progenitors,
those primæval smiths, that wont to hammer out naught save rakes and
hoes, and wearied out with mattocks and plowshares, knew not the art
of manufacturing swords. [1142] Here we behold a people whose brutal
passion is not glutted with simple murder, but deem[1143] their
fellows' breasts and arms and faces a kind of natural food.
What then would Pythagoras[1144] exclaim; whither would he not flee,
could he be witness in our days to such atrocities as these! He that
abstained from all that was endued with life as from man himself; and
did not even indulge his appetite with every kind of pulse.
FOOTNOTES:
[1055] _Volusius_ is unknown. Some suppose him to be the same person as
the Bithynicus to whom Plutarch wrote a treatise on Friendship.
[1056] _Ægyptus. _ So Cicero, "Ægyptiorum morem quis ignorat? Quorum
imbutæ mentes pravitatis erroribus, quamvis carnificinam prius
subierint quam ibin aut aspidem aut felem aut canem aut crocodilum
violent; quorum etiam imprudentes si quidquam fecerint, pœnam nullam
recusent. " Tusc. Qu. , v. , 27. Cf. Athen. , vol. ii. , p. 650, Dind.
[1057] _Crocodilon. _ Vid. Herod. , ii. , 69. --_Ibin. _ Cic. , de Nat.
Deor. , i. , 36.
[1058] _Memnone. _ His statue stood in the temple of Serapis at Thebes.
Plin. , xxvi. , 7. Strabo, xvii. , c. 1, τὰ ἄνω μέρη τὰ ἀπο τῆς καθέδρας
πέπτωκε σεισμοῦ γεννηθέντος. He says the ψόφος comes from "the lower
part remaining on the base. " Cf. 1. 56, "Vultus dimidios. " Sat. viii. ,
4, "Et Curios jam dimidios. " iii. , 219, "Mediamque Minervam. " Cf.
Clinton, Fasti Romani, in A. D. 130.
[1059] _Canem. _ Cf. Lucan, viii. , 832, "Semideosque canes. " The
allusion is to the worship of Anubis, cf. vi. , 533.
[1060] _Porrum. _
"And it is dangerous here to violate an onion, or to stain
The sanctity of leeks with teeth profane. " Gifford.
[1061] _Hortis. _
"Ye pious nations, in whose gardens rise
A constant crop of earth-sprung deities! " Badham.
[1062] _Ulyxes. _ Vid. Hom. , Odyss. , ix. , 106, _seq. _; x. , 80, _seq. _
[1063] _Aretalogus. _ "Parasitus, et circulator philosophus. " A
discourser on _virtue_ who frequented feasts; hence, one who tells
pleasing tales, a romancer. The philosopher at last degenerated into
the buffoon. Cicero uses "Ethologus" in nearly the same sense, cf.
de Orat. , ii. , 59, cum not. Harles. Suet. , Aug. , 74, "Acroamata et
histriones, aut etiam triviales ex Circo ludios, interponebat, ac
frequentius aretalogos. " Salmas. , ad Flav. Vopisc. , 42. Lucian, de Ver.
Hist. , i. , 709, B. Shaksp. , Othello, Act i. , sc. 3.
[1064] _Verâ. _ Cf. viii. , 188, "Judice me dignus _verâ_ cruce. "
[1065] _Fingentem_, i. e. , "that they fed on _human_ victims. "
[1066] _Læstrygones. _ Their fabulous seat was Formiæ, now "Mola,"
whither they were led from Sicily by Lamus, their leader. Hor. , iii. ,
Od. xvii. , 1; xvi. , 34. Horn. , Odyss. , x. , 81.
[1067] _Concurrentia saxa. _ These rocks were at the northern entrance
of the Thracian Bosphorus, now the Channel of Constantinople; and were
fabled to have floated and crushed all vessels that passed the straits,
till Minerva guided the ship Argo through in safety and fixed them
forever. They were hence called συμπληγάδες, συνδρομάδες, πλαγκταὶ, and
κυάνεαι, from the deep blue of the surrounding water. Homer places them
near Sicily. Odyss. , xii. , 61; xxiii. , 327. Pind. , Pyth. , iv. , 370. Cf.
Herod. , iv. , 85. Eur. , Med. , 2; Androm. , 794. Theoc. , Idyll. , xiii. ,
22. Ov. , Her. , xii. , 121. "Compressos utinam Symplegades elisissent,"
Trist. , I. , x. , 34. They are now called "Pavorane. "
[1068] _Vacui. _ Cf. xiv. , 57, "Vacuumque cerebro jampridem caput. " Cf.
Virg. , Æn. , i. , 567, "Non obtusa adeo gestamus pectora Pœni. "
"But men to eat men human faith surpasses,
This traveler takes us islanders for asses. " Dryden.
[1069] _Nondum ebrius. _
"So might some sober hearer well have said,
Ere Corcyræan stingo turned his head. " Hodgson.
[1070] _Temetum_, an old word of doubtful etymology: from it is derived
"temulentus" and "abstemius" (cf. Hor. , ii. , Ep. 163), and the phrase
"Temeti timor" for a parasite.
[1071] _Corcyræâ. _ The Phæacians were luxurious fellows, as Horace
implies: "Pinguis ut inde domum possim Phæaxque reverti. " i. , Ep. , xv. ,
24.
[1072] _Ithacus. _ So x. , 257; xiv. , 287.
bathing in its waters, hence called εὔχρυσος by Sophocles. Philoct. ,
391. It flows under the walls of Sardis, and is closely connected by
the poets with the name and wealth of Crœsus. The real fact being, that
the gold ore was washed down from Mount Tmolus; which Strabo says had
ceased to be the case in his time: lib. xiii. , c. 4. Cf. Virg. , Æn. ,
x. , 141, "Ubi pinguia culta exercentque vivi Pactolusque irrigat auro. "
Senec. , Phœn. , 604, "Et quà trahens opulenta Pactolus vada inundat auro
rura. " Athen. , v. It is still called Bagouli.
[1043] _Picta tempestate. _ Cf. ad xii. , 27.
"Poor shipwreck'd sailor! tell thy tale and show
The sign-post daubing of thy watery woe. " Hodgson.
[1044] _Custodia. _
"First got with guile, and then preserved with dread. " Spenser.
[1045] _Licinus. _ Cf. ad i. , 109, "Ego possideo plus Pallante et
Licinis. "
[1046] _Hamis. _ Hama, "a leathern bucket," from the ἅμη of Plutarch.
Augustus instituted seven Cohortes Vigilum, who paraded the city at
night under the command of their Præfectus, equipped with "hamæ" and
"dolabræ" to prevent fires. Cf. Plin. , x. , Ep. 42, who, giving Trajan
an account of a great fire at Nicomedia in his province, says, "Nullus
in publico sipho, nulla hama, nullum denique instrumentum ad incendia
compescenda. " Tac. , Ann. , xv. , 43, "Jam aqua privatorum licentia
intercepta, quo largior, et pluribus locis in publicum flueret,
custodes, et subsidia reprimendis ignibus in propatulo quisque haberet:
nec communione parietum, sed propriis quæque muris ambirentur. " (Ubi
vid. Ruperti's note. ) These custodes were called "Castellarii. " Gruter.
Cf. Sat. iii. , 197, _seq. _
[1047] _Phrygiaque columnâ. _ Cf. ad lin. 89.
[1048] _Dolia nudi Cynici. _ Cf. ad xiii. , 122. The story is told by
Plutarch, Vit. Alex. Cf. Diog. Laert. , VI. , ii. , 6. It is said that
Diogenes died at Corinth, the same day Alexander died at Babylon. Cf.
x. , 171.
"The naked cynic mocks such anxious cares,
His earthen tub no conflagration fears:
If crack'd or broken, he procures a new;
Or, coarsely soldering, makes the old one do. " Gifford.
[1049] _Nullum numen. _ Cf. x. , 365.
"Where prudence dwells, there Fortune is unknown,
By man a goddess made, by man alone. " Badham.
[1050] _Sitis atque fames. _ Hor. , i. , Sat. i. , 73, "Nescis quo valeat
nummus quem præbeat usum? Panis ematur, olus, vini Sextarius; adde
Queis humana sibi doleat natura negatis. "
[1051] _Epicure. _ Cf. xiii. , 122, "Non Epicurum suspicit exigui lætum
plantaribus horti. "
"As much as made wise Epicurus blest,
Who in small gardens spacious realms possess'd:
This is what nature's wants may well suffice;
He that would more is covetous, not wise. " Dryden.
[1052] _Summam. _ Cf. iii. , 154, "De pulvino surgat equestri Cujus res
legi non sufficit. " Plin. , xxxii. , 2, "Tiberio imperante constitutem
ne quis in equestri ordine censeretur, nisi cui ingenuo ipsi, patri,
avoque paterno sestertia quadringenta census fuisset. " Cf. i. , 105;
iii. , 159, "Sic libitum vano qui nos distinxit Othoni. "
[1053] _Tertia Quadringenta. _ Suet. , Aug. , 41, "Senatorum Censum
ampliavit, ac pro Octingentorum millium summâ, duodecies sestertio
taxavit, supplevitque non habentibus. "
[1054] _Narcissi. _ Of his wealth Dio says (lx. , p. 688), μέγιστον τῶν
τότε ἀνθρώπων ἐδυνήθη μυριάδας τε γὰρ πλείους μυρίων εἷχε. Narcissus
and his other freedmen, Posides, Felix, Polybius, etc. , exercised
unlimited control over the idiotic Claudius, but Pallas and Narcissus
were his chief favorites, "Quos decreto quoque senatus, non præmiis
modo ingentibus, sed et quæstoriis prætoriisque ornamentis ornari
libenter passus est:" and so much did they abuse his kindness, that
when he was once complaining of the low state of his exchequer, it was
said, "abundaturum si à duobus libertis in consortium reciperetur. "
Claudius would have certainly pardoned Messalina, had it not been
for Narcissus. "Nec enim Claudius Messalinam interfecisset, nisi
properâsset index, delator adulterii, et quodammodo imperator cædis
Narcissus. " See the whole account, Tac. , Ann. , xi. , 26-38. Suet. ,
Claud. , 26, _seq. _ On the accession of Nero, Narcissus was compelled by
Agrippina to commit suicide. Cf. ad x. , 330.
"No! nor his heaps, whom doting Claudius gave
Power over all, and made himself a slave;
From whom the dictates of command he drew,
And, urged to slay his wife, obedient slew. " Hodgson.
SATIRE XV.
Who knows not, O Volusius[1055] of Bithynia, the sort of monsters
Egypt,[1056] in her infatuation, worships? One part venerates the
crocodile:[1057] another trembles before an Ibis gorged with serpents.
The image of a sacred monkey glitters in gold, where the magic chords
sound from Memnon[1058] broken in half, and ancient Thebes lies buried
in ruins, with her hundred gates. In one place they venerate sea-fish,
in another river-fish; there, whole towns worship a dog;[1059] no one
Diana. It is an impious act to violate or break with the teeth a leek
or an onion. [1060] O holy nations! whose gods grow for them in their
gardens! [1061] Every table abstains from animals that have wool: it is
a crime there to kill a kid. But human flesh is lawful food.
Were Ulysses[1062] to relate at supper such a deed as this to the
amazed Alcinous, he would perhaps have excited the ridicule or anger
of some, as a lying babbler. [1063] "Does no one hurl this fellow into
the sea, that deserves indeed a savage Charybdis and a real one[1064]
too, for inventing[1065] his huge Læstrygones[1066] and Cyclops. For
I would far more readily believe in Scylla, or the Cyanean rocks
that clash together,[1067] and the skins filled with stormy winds; or
that Elpenor, struck with the light touch of Circe's wand, grunted in
company with his messmates turned to hogs. Does he suppose the heads of
the Phæacians so void[1068] of brains? "
So might any one with reason have argued, who was not yet drunk,[1069]
and had taken but a scanty draught[1070] of the potent wine from the
Corcyræan[1071] bowl; for the Ithacan[1072] told his adventures alone,
with none to attest his veracity. We are about to relate events,
wondrous indeed, but achieved only lately, while Junius[1073] was
consul, above the walls of sultry Coptos. [1074] We shall recount the
crime of a whole people, deeds more atrocious than any tragedy could
furnish. For from the days of Pyrrha,[1075] though you turn over
every tragic theme,[1076] in none is a whole people[1077] made the
perpetrators of the guilt. Here, then, an instance which even in our
own days ruthless barbarism[1078] produced. There is an inveterate and
long-standing grudge,[1079] a deathless hatred and a rankling wound
that knows no cure, burning fiercely still between Ombos[1080] and
Tentyra, two neighboring peoples. On both sides the principal rancor
arises from the fact that each place hates its neighbor's gods,[1081]
and believes those only ought to be held as deities which itself
worships. But at a festive period of one of those peoples, the chiefs
and leaders of their enemies determined that the opportunity must be
seized, to prevent their enjoying their day of mirth and cheerfulness,
and the delights of a grand dinner, when their tables were spread near
the temples and cross-ways, and the couch that knows not sleep, since
occasionally even the seventh day's sun finds it still there, spread
without intermission of either night or day. [1082] Savage,[1083] in
truth, is Egypt! But in luxury, so far as I myself remarked, even the
barbarous mob does not fall short of the infamous Canopus. [1084]
Besides, victory is easily gained over men reeking[1085] with wine,
stammering[1086] and reeling. On one side there was a crew of fellows
dancing to a black piper; perfumes, such as they were; and flowers,
and garlands in plenty round their brows. On the other side was ranged
fasting hate. But, with minds inflamed, they begin first of all to
give vent to railings[1087] in words.
This was the signal-blast[1088] of the fray. Then with shouts from both
sides, the conflict begins; and in lieu of weapons,[1089] the unarmed
hand rages.
Few cheeks were without a wound. Scarcely one, if any, had a whole nose
out of the whole line of combatants. Now you might see, through all the
hosts engaged, mutilated faces,[1090] features not to be recognized,
bones showing ghastly beneath the lacerated cheek, fists dripping with
blood from their enemies' eyes. But still the combatants themselves
consider they are only in sport, and engaged in a childish[1091]
encounter, because they do not trample any corpses under foot. What,
forsooth, is the object of so many thousands mixing in the fray, if no
life is to be sacrificed? The attack, therefore, is more vigorous; and
now with arms inclined along the ground they begin to hurl stones[1092]
they have picked up--Sedition's[1093] own peculiar weapons.
Yet not such stones as Ajax[1094] or as Turnus[1095] hurled; nor of
the weight of that with which Tydides[1096] hit Æneas' thigh; but such
as right hands far different to theirs, and produced in our age, have
power to project. For even in Homer's[1097] lifetime men were beginning
to degenerate. Earth now gives birth to weak and puny mortals. [1098]
Therefore every god that looks down on them sneers and hates them!
After this digression[1099] let us resume our story. When they had
been re-enforced by subsidies, one of the parties is emboldened to
draw the sword, and renew the battle with deadly-aiming[1100] arrows.
Then they who inhabit Tentyra,[1101] bordering on the shady palms,
press upon their foes, who all in rapid flight leave their backs
exposed. Here one of them, in excess of terror urging his headlong
course, falls[1102] and is caught. Forthwith the victorious crowd
having cut him up into numberless bits and fragments, in order that
one dead man might furnish a morsel for many, eat him completely up,
having gnawed his very bones. They neither cooked him in a seething
caldron, nor on a spit. So wearisome[1103] and tedious did they think
it to wait for a fire, that they were even content with the carcass
raw. Yet at this we should rejoice, that they profaned not the deity
of fire which Prometheus[1104] stole from highest heaven and gave to
earth. I congratulate[1105] the element! and you too, I ween, are
glad. [1106] But he that could bear to chew a human corpse, never tasted
a sweeter[1107] morsel than this flesh. For in a deed of such horrid
atrocity, pause not to inquire or doubt whether it was the first maw
alone that felt the horrid delight! Nay! he that came up last,[1108]
when the whole body was now devoured, by drawing his fingers along the
ground, got a taste of the blood!
The Vascones,[1109] as report says, protracted their lives by the use
of such nutriment as this. But the case is very different. There we
have the bitter hate of fortune! the last extremity of war, the very
climax of despair, the awful destitution[1110] of a long-protracted
siege. For the instance of such food of which we are now speaking,
ought to call forth our pity. [1111] Since it was only after they had
exhausted herbs of all kinds,[1112] and every animal to which the
gnawings of an empty stomach drove them, and while their enemies
themselves commiserated their pale and emaciated features and wasted
limbs, they in their ravenous famine tore in pieces others' limbs,
ready to devour even their own! What man, or what god even, would
refuse his pardon to brave men[1113] suffering such fierce extremities?
men, whom the very spirits of those whose bodies they fed on, could
have forgiven! The precepts of Zeno teach us a better lesson. For he
thinks that _some_ things only, and not _all_, ought to be done to
preserve life. [1114] But whence could a Cantabrian learn the Stoics'
doctrines? especially in the days of old Metellus. Now the whole world
has the Grecian and our Athens.
Eloquent Gaul[1115] has taught the Britons[1116] to become pleaders;
and even Thule[1117] talks of hiring a rhetorician.
Yet that noble people whom we have mentioned, and their equal
in courage and fidelity, their more than equal in calamity,
Saguntum,[1118] _has_ some excuse to plead for such a deed as this!
Whereas Egypt is more barbarous even than the altar of Mæotis. Since
that Tauric[1119] inventress of the impious rite (if you hold as worthy
of credit all that poets sing) only sacrifices men; the victim has
nothing further or worse to fear than the sacrificial knife. But what
calamity was it drove _these_ to crime? What extremity of hunger, or
hostile arms that bristled round their ramparts, that forced these
to dare a prodigy of guilt so execrable? What greater enormity[1120]
than this could they commit, when the land of Memphis was parched with
drought to provoke the wrath[1121] of Nile when unwilling to rise?
Neither the formidable Cimbri, nor Britons, nor fierce Sarmatians
or savage Agathyrsi, ever raged with such frantic brutality, as did
this weak and worthless rabble, that wont to spread their puny sails
in pinnaces of earthenware,[1122] and ply the scanty paddles of their
painted pottery-canoe. You could not invent a punishment adequate
to the guilt, or a torture bad enough for a people in whose breasts
"anger" and "hunger" are convertible terms.
Nature confesses that she has bestowed on the human race hearts of
softest mould, in that she has given us tears. [1123] Of all our feeling
this is the noblest part. She bids us therefore bewail the misfortunes
of a friend in distress, and the squalid appearance of one accused, or
an orphan[1124] summoning to justice the guardian who has defrauded
him. Whose girl-like hair throws doubt[1125] upon the sex of those
cheeks bedewed with tears!
It is at nature's dictate that we mourn when we meet the funeral of
a virgin of marriageable years, or see an infant[1126] laid in the
ground, too young for the funeral pyre. For what good man, who that is
worthy of the mystic torch,[1127] such an one as Ceres' priest would
have him be, ever deems the ills of others[1128] matter that concerns
not himself?
This it is that distinguishes us from the brute herd. And therefore
we alone, endued with that venerable distinction of reason[1129]
and a capacity for divine things, with an aptitude for the practice
as well as the reception of all arts and sciences, have received,
transmitted to us from heaven's high citadel,[1130] a moral sense,
which brutes prone[1131] and stooping toward earth, are lacking in. In
the beginning of the world, the common Creator of all vouchsafed to
them only the principle of vitality; to us he gave souls[1132] also,
that an instinct of affection reciprocally shared, might urge us to
seek for, and to give, assistance; to unite in one people, those before
widely-scattered;[1133] to emerge from the ancient wood, and abandon
the forests[1134] where our fathers dwelt; to build houses, to join
another's dwelling to our own homes, that the confidence mutually
engendered by a neighbor's threshold might add security[1135] to our
slumbers; to cover with our arms a fellow-citizen[1136] when fallen
or staggering from a ghastly wound; to sound the battle-signal from a
common clarion; to be defended by the same ramparts, and closed in by
the key of a common portal.
But now the unanimity[1137] of serpents is greater than ours. The
wild beast of similar genus spares his kindred[1138] spots. When did
ever lion, though stronger, deprive his fellow-lion of life? In what
wood did ever boar perish by the tusks of a boar[1139] larger than
himself? The tigress of India[1140] maintains unbroken harmony with
each tigress that ravens. Bears, savage to others, are yet at peace
among themselves. But for man! [1141] he is not content with forging
on the ruthless anvil the death-dealing steel! While his progenitors,
those primæval smiths, that wont to hammer out naught save rakes and
hoes, and wearied out with mattocks and plowshares, knew not the art
of manufacturing swords. [1142] Here we behold a people whose brutal
passion is not glutted with simple murder, but deem[1143] their
fellows' breasts and arms and faces a kind of natural food.
What then would Pythagoras[1144] exclaim; whither would he not flee,
could he be witness in our days to such atrocities as these! He that
abstained from all that was endued with life as from man himself; and
did not even indulge his appetite with every kind of pulse.
FOOTNOTES:
[1055] _Volusius_ is unknown. Some suppose him to be the same person as
the Bithynicus to whom Plutarch wrote a treatise on Friendship.
[1056] _Ægyptus. _ So Cicero, "Ægyptiorum morem quis ignorat? Quorum
imbutæ mentes pravitatis erroribus, quamvis carnificinam prius
subierint quam ibin aut aspidem aut felem aut canem aut crocodilum
violent; quorum etiam imprudentes si quidquam fecerint, pœnam nullam
recusent. " Tusc. Qu. , v. , 27. Cf. Athen. , vol. ii. , p. 650, Dind.
[1057] _Crocodilon. _ Vid. Herod. , ii. , 69. --_Ibin. _ Cic. , de Nat.
Deor. , i. , 36.
[1058] _Memnone. _ His statue stood in the temple of Serapis at Thebes.
Plin. , xxvi. , 7. Strabo, xvii. , c. 1, τὰ ἄνω μέρη τὰ ἀπο τῆς καθέδρας
πέπτωκε σεισμοῦ γεννηθέντος. He says the ψόφος comes from "the lower
part remaining on the base. " Cf. 1. 56, "Vultus dimidios. " Sat. viii. ,
4, "Et Curios jam dimidios. " iii. , 219, "Mediamque Minervam. " Cf.
Clinton, Fasti Romani, in A. D. 130.
[1059] _Canem. _ Cf. Lucan, viii. , 832, "Semideosque canes. " The
allusion is to the worship of Anubis, cf. vi. , 533.
[1060] _Porrum. _
"And it is dangerous here to violate an onion, or to stain
The sanctity of leeks with teeth profane. " Gifford.
[1061] _Hortis. _
"Ye pious nations, in whose gardens rise
A constant crop of earth-sprung deities! " Badham.
[1062] _Ulyxes. _ Vid. Hom. , Odyss. , ix. , 106, _seq. _; x. , 80, _seq. _
[1063] _Aretalogus. _ "Parasitus, et circulator philosophus. " A
discourser on _virtue_ who frequented feasts; hence, one who tells
pleasing tales, a romancer. The philosopher at last degenerated into
the buffoon. Cicero uses "Ethologus" in nearly the same sense, cf.
de Orat. , ii. , 59, cum not. Harles. Suet. , Aug. , 74, "Acroamata et
histriones, aut etiam triviales ex Circo ludios, interponebat, ac
frequentius aretalogos. " Salmas. , ad Flav. Vopisc. , 42. Lucian, de Ver.
Hist. , i. , 709, B. Shaksp. , Othello, Act i. , sc. 3.
[1064] _Verâ. _ Cf. viii. , 188, "Judice me dignus _verâ_ cruce. "
[1065] _Fingentem_, i. e. , "that they fed on _human_ victims. "
[1066] _Læstrygones. _ Their fabulous seat was Formiæ, now "Mola,"
whither they were led from Sicily by Lamus, their leader. Hor. , iii. ,
Od. xvii. , 1; xvi. , 34. Horn. , Odyss. , x. , 81.
[1067] _Concurrentia saxa. _ These rocks were at the northern entrance
of the Thracian Bosphorus, now the Channel of Constantinople; and were
fabled to have floated and crushed all vessels that passed the straits,
till Minerva guided the ship Argo through in safety and fixed them
forever. They were hence called συμπληγάδες, συνδρομάδες, πλαγκταὶ, and
κυάνεαι, from the deep blue of the surrounding water. Homer places them
near Sicily. Odyss. , xii. , 61; xxiii. , 327. Pind. , Pyth. , iv. , 370. Cf.
Herod. , iv. , 85. Eur. , Med. , 2; Androm. , 794. Theoc. , Idyll. , xiii. ,
22. Ov. , Her. , xii. , 121. "Compressos utinam Symplegades elisissent,"
Trist. , I. , x. , 34. They are now called "Pavorane. "
[1068] _Vacui. _ Cf. xiv. , 57, "Vacuumque cerebro jampridem caput. " Cf.
Virg. , Æn. , i. , 567, "Non obtusa adeo gestamus pectora Pœni. "
"But men to eat men human faith surpasses,
This traveler takes us islanders for asses. " Dryden.
[1069] _Nondum ebrius. _
"So might some sober hearer well have said,
Ere Corcyræan stingo turned his head. " Hodgson.
[1070] _Temetum_, an old word of doubtful etymology: from it is derived
"temulentus" and "abstemius" (cf. Hor. , ii. , Ep. 163), and the phrase
"Temeti timor" for a parasite.
[1071] _Corcyræâ. _ The Phæacians were luxurious fellows, as Horace
implies: "Pinguis ut inde domum possim Phæaxque reverti. " i. , Ep. , xv. ,
24.
[1072] _Ithacus. _ So x. , 257; xiv. , 287.
