{"id":76,"date":"2017-06-24T20:36:23","date_gmt":"2017-06-24T20:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/chapter\/satires-xv-xvi\/"},"modified":"2017-06-24T20:36:23","modified_gmt":"2017-06-24T20:36:23","slug":"satires-xv-xvi","status":"web-only","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/chapter\/satires-xv-xvi\/","title":{"raw":"Satires XV & XVI","rendered":"Satires XV & XVI"},"content":{"raw":"Satire XV: Compassion Not Hatred<\/strong> \u00a0 SatXV:1-92 Among The Cannibals\n\n\u00a0\n\nWho\u2019s ignorant, Volusius of Bithynia, of those monsters\n\nThe mad Egyptians worship? One city reveres the crocodile,\n\nIn another, they\u2019ll tremble at an ibis, glutted with snakes.\n\nThe sacred monkey\u2019s golden image gleams where unearthly\n\nChords reverberate from Memnon\u2019s crumbling statue, where\n\nRuined Thebes, with its hundred gates, is buried in the sand.\n\nOne town\u2019s folk will venerate cats, another\u2019s freshwater fish,\n\nOr they\u2019ll say their prayers to a dog: yet none worship Diana.\n\nIt\u2019s a sin to violate a leek, or crunch an onion in your teeth\n\n(O holy race, whose gardens give birth to such divinities!),\n\nThey abstain from woolly animals completely at their tables,\n\nAnd there it\u2019s a sin, as well, to slaughter a goat\u2019s offspring:\n\nBut it\u2019s fine to feed on human flesh. When Ulysses told the\n\nTale of such a crime, at the dinner table, to startled Alcinous,\n\nSome of his listeners must have been moved to anger, or to\n\nLaughter even, thinking him a fluent liar. \u2018Return him to the\n\nWaves, why don\u2019t you? He\u2019s earned the reality of some cruel\n\nCharybdis, by inventing his Cyclopeans, and Laestrygonians.\n\nI\u2019d sooner believe in his Scylla, or his clashing Cyanean rocks,\n\nHis bag of winds, or his Elpenor, grunting beside his fellow\n\nOarsmen, turned to swine by a delicate touch of Circe\u2019s wand.\n\nDoes he think we Phaeacians are as empty-headed as that?\u2019\n\nIt\u2019s what he\u2019d have cried, rightly, some sober man of Corcyra,\n\nOne who\u2019d restricted his intake of wine from the brimming jar;\n\nSince Odysseus, after all, had not a single witness to his story.\n\nIn turn, I\u2019ll tell a horrendous tale of recent happenings, in Iuncus\u2019\n\nConsulship (127<\/em>AD<\/em>), beyond the walls of baking Coptos (Quift<\/em>),\n\nA crime perpetrated by the mob, more horrific than any tragedy.\n\nFor, if you chose to swish the tragic robes from Pyrrha onwards,\n\nNo tragedian portrays the crime of an entire people. Yet hear this\n\nInstance of savage barbarism, one that occurred in our own times.\n\nBetween two neighbouring towns on the Nile, Tentyra (Dendera<\/em>)\n\nAnd Ombos (Naquada<\/em>), there flamed an ancient and enduring feud,\n\nAn undying hatred, an open wound, not amenable to being healed.\n\nThe fury of the people had been roused, on both sides, because each\n\nLoathed their neighbour\u2019s gods, considering those they worshipped\n\nThemselves the only true divinities. So, when a sacred festival, was\n\nHeld by one tribe, the other\u2019s chieftains and elders, decided as one\n\nTo seize this opportunity, and prevent their enemies from enjoying\n\nThe celebratory happiness of the day, and the delights of a banquet,\n\nWith tables positioned by the temples, at the crossroads, with their\n\nDining couches, often in continuous use all day and night, until the\n\nSeventh dawn lights them. (The native Egyptians may be uncouth,\n\nBut as far as I can tell myself, scandalous Canopus, in its civilised\n\nExtravagance, more than matches that of these barbarous masses.)\n\nAdded to which victory seemed certain over feasters, inarticulate\n\nAnd staggering drunkenly with wine. On one side were dancers,\n\nMen swaying to the sounds of a dark-skinned piper, with flowers,\n\nPerfumes, in all their variety, their brows all wreathed in garlands:\n\nOn the other savage hatred. First they begin with sonorous insults:\n\nWith tempers blazing, these are the bugle-calls to start the brawl.\n\nThen both sides come together with a cry, using their naked hands\n\nAs weapons. Scarcely a jaw remains unwounded, it\u2019s hard to find\n\nAny visage, perhaps there\u2019s none, that\u2019s lacking some nasal injury.\n\nAlready, throughout the ranks, mutilated faces are to be seen,\n\nFeatures distorted, the bones gaping whitely through torn cheeks,\n\nOr fists covered with blood from damaged eyes. Yet they realise\n\nThis is still some sort of puerile game, a childish attempt at battle,\n\nSince there are no corpses yet to trample, and what\u2019s the point\n\nAfter all, of a fighting mob that\u2019s thousands strong, if everyone\n\nEmerges from this alive? So the fighting grows fiercer, and now\n\nThey start to gather stones from the ground, and bending their\n\nArms back, begin to hurl them; these the home-grown missiles\n\nRioters use, not the rocks that Ajax or Turnus wielded, nor as\n\nHeavy as the one with which Diomedes struck Aeneas on the hip,\n\nMerely the sort of stones a strength inferior to theirs, belonging\n\nTo those born in our times, can manage to lift high and launch.\n\nFor the human race was already in decline when Homer lived.\n\nNow the earth produces men who are sinful but worthless,\n\nSuch that any god who saw them, would laugh, in derision.\n\nLet me turn back to my tale. The one side, having gathered\n\nReinforcements, dared to take up their weapons and renew\n\nThe fierce fight, sending a hail of hostile arrows, into the air.\n\nChased by the men of Ombos, those of Dendera, that town\n\nBlessed by the palm-trees\u2019 shade, turned their backs in swift\n\nRetreat. One man, in panic, slipped as he fled, fell precipitately,\n\nAnd was captured. He was immediately chopped in a hundred\n\nPieces, one man providing enough substance to feed the mob,\n\nWho triumphantly devoured him, even gnawing at his bones,\n\nThinking it far too tedious a wait to barbecue him, or cook\n\nHim in a pot over a blazing fire, content to eat the body raw.\n\nI\u2019d like to celebrate the fact, though, that they chose not to\n\nDesecrate your gift to the world, Prometheus, the fire you\n\nStole from highest heaven. My congratulations to that fierce\n\nElement: that delights me too. Yet no cannibals that chew\n\nHuman flesh, ever dined on any other corpse more willingly.\n\nLest you ask, or are in doubt, about the perpetrators of that\n\nCrime, let me say it was not merely the first who dined well,\n\nBut the very last spectator, also, seeing the whole body quite\n\nConsumed, drew his fingers over the ground to taste the blood.\n\n\u00a0\n\nSatXV:93-174 In Praise Of Compassion\n\n\u00a0\n\nThey say too that the Basques prolonged their lives (72BC) by this\n\nKind of thing, although in an altogether different situation, then\n\nIt was hostile fate, and the extremity caused by war, provoked\n\nTheir actions; a dire crisis, dreadful hunger during a long siege.\n\nThey had already eaten every creature, every plant, and whatever\n\nElse they had to, driven by the pains of an empty belly, till even\n\nPompey and his men pitied those skeletons, their pallid leanness.\n\nFamine made them start to tear at each other\u2019s limbs, they were\n\nEven ready to lacerate their own. Could men or gods refuse to\n\nForgive those who had to suffer such dire and monstrous things,\n\nWhen even the shades of those whose bodies they were eating\n\nForgave? Zeno the Stoic\u2019s precepts lead us to act otherwise.\n\nToday Greece\u2019s Athens, and ours, influence all. Gaul\u2019s\n\nEloquence is educating Britain\u2019s lawyers, and even farthest\n\nThule already talks of hiring its own professor of rhetoric.\n\nHow should we expect the Spaniards, I mentioned, of Metellus\u2019\n\nDay to have known the Stoic school? Yet those Spaniards were\n\nNoble, and those of Saguntum earlier (218BC) were equal in\n\nCourage and steadfastness, victims of an even worse disaster.\n\nWhat like defence could those Egyptians offer, more barbarous\n\nThan the priests of Diana\u2019s altar at Maeotis, since were we to\n\nAccept the poets for now, the Taurian who initiated their foul\n\nRites only enacted human sacrifice, the victim\u2019s body subject\n\nTo no more, no further desecration, than the knife. But what\n\nImpelled the Egyptians, where was the dreadful famine, what\n\nThreatening army drove them to commit so detestable a crime?\n\nIf the soil of Memphis was parched, surely there was another\n\nWay to have shamed the Nile into rising, and soaking the earth?\n\nNot even those dreadful Germans, or the Britons, those savage\n\nScythians, or monstrous Transylvanians, raged with the frenzy\n\nOf this mindless civilian mob, a people good only for hoisting\n\nThe miniature sails on their earthenware boats, and leaning on\n\nThose tiny oars depicted on their jars. There\u2019s no punishment\n\nYou can devise severe enough for such a crime, nor a fitting\n\nRetribution for those peoples whose rage drives them on as\n\nWould famine, and urges them to like behaviour. By her gift\n\nOf tears, Nature acknowledges she has granted human beings\n\nCompassionate hearts: it\u2019s the finest element of our sensibility.\n\nAnd so she causes us to weep for the ward, who with long\n\nChildish hair, hiding a face wet with tears, rendering its\n\nSex indeterminate, has summoned a defrauder to court.\n\nNature demands we sigh, when we meet the funeral cortege\n\nOf a girl fated never to marry, or attend an infant\u2019s burial,\n\nOne too young for the pyre. Who that is good, and worthy\n\nOf the mysteries, and wishes to live like a priest of Ceres,\n\nCan treat others\u2019 ills as alien to themselves? This is what\n\nSeparates us from the dumb herd, and thus we alone are\n\nGranted abilities worthy to be revered, fit for the gods;\n\nAnd equipped for artistic practice and creation; we alone\n\nExhibit a sensibility inspired by the high heavens above,\n\nAnd lacking in those with faces bowed towards the earth.\n\nWhen the world began, what fashioned us mutually only\n\nGranted them so much mind, us intellect, so that mutual\n\nEmpathy would drive it to seek and offer help; draw\n\nScattered individuals into community; migrate from the\n\nAncient forests, leave the woods our ancestors inhabited;\n\nBuild houses, and join another roof to our own hearths;\n\nSo that, thanks to our neighbour\u2019s threshold, the mutual\n\nConfidence achieved would render both our sleep secure;\n\nProtect with our weapons the fellow citizen who staggers\n\nFrom some deep wound, or has fallen to the ground;\n\nGive the common bugle-cry, as a signal; be defended\n\nBy the same turrets; our gates locked by a single key.\n\nYet now there is more harmony among snakes. The\n\nWild beast spares its relatives with similar markings.\n\nWhen does a stronger lion take the life of a weaker?\n\nWhere does a wild boar die at the tusks of a greater?\n\nThe Indian tiger lives in perfect peace with the fierce\n\nTigress, and savage bears live together in harmony.\n\nYet it proves not enough for human beings to beat\n\nOut lethal steel on the inauspicious anvil, outdoing\n\nThe first smiths who spent their hours forging rakes\n\nAnd hoes, mattocks, and ploughshares, men lacking\n\nThe method for making swords. The people we have\n\nCast our eyes on are those for whom killing others\n\nIs insufficient to quench their anger, those who think\n\nFaces, arms, and torsos a source of food. What would\n\nPythagoras say? Would he not flee such horrors, he\n\nWho, not only abstained from animal flesh as if it\n\nWere human, but even from certain varieties of bean!\n\n\u00a0\nSatire XVI: The Military Life<\/strong> \u00a0 SatXV1:1-60 The Advantages Of The Military Life\n\n\u00a0\n\nWho could list all the rewards of a fruitful military career,\n\nGallius? There\u2019s no more desirable gift the gods can grant\n\nThan to join a successful unit, one blessed with good luck.\n\nI wouldn\u2019t mind being a nervous recruit at that camp gate,\n\nUnder its auspicious stars. The hour of benign fate, after\n\nAll, is even more powerful than a recommendation to Mars\n\nFrom Venus, or Juno, his mother, whom Samos delights.\n\nLet me first deal with the benefits enjoyed by all soldiers,\n\nNot the least being that no civilian will dare to assault you,\n\nRather if he\u2019s beaten himself, he\u2019ll give out that he wasn\u2019t,\n\nReluctant to show the praetor his missing teeth, the lumps\n\nOn his face, the black swollen bruises, and the eye he has\n\nStill retained, although the doctor\u2019s making no promises.\n\nIf he seeks redress for it, he\u2019ll get a hobnailed boot for a\n\nJudge, and swollen calf-muscles lining the wide bench,\n\nSince the old military law, the rules of Camillus, are\n\nStill in force, and soldiers can\u2019t attend court outside the\n\nCamp, away from the standard. \u2018A centurion\u2019s military\n\nEnquiry is totally fair,\u2019 you\u2019ll say \u2018and I shall have my\n\nRevenge, if, as in my case, it\u2019s a well- proven complaint.\u2019\n\nBut the entire division is hostile, and all the units will act\n\nAs one to ensure your redress is troublesome, and worse\n\nThan the injury incurred. It would be worthy, therefore,\n\nOf Vagellius\u2019 the blusterer\u2019s mulish mind, for your two\n\nLegs alone to offend all those heavy boots, with their\n\nThousands of nails. Besides who would accompany you\n\nSo far from the city, who\u2019d be your Pylades and venture\n\nBeyond the massive Embankment? Let your tears cease,\n\nAnd don\u2019t bother friends who\u2019ll only make their excuses.\n\nWhen the judge says \u2018Call the witness!\u2019 if the man who\n\nSaw the assault has the nerve to say, \u2018I saw it,\u2019 he\u2019ll be\n\nWorthy of the long hair and beard of one of our honest\n\nAncestors. It\u2019s easier to find a false witness against a\n\nCivilian than one who\u2019ll tell a truth that reflects badly\n\nOn a military man\u2019s honour, and his superior status.\n\nNow let\u2019s note the other rewards and benefits of taking\n\nThe military oath. Imagine some devious neighbour has\n\nStolen a valley, some tract of land from my family estate,\n\nRooting out the sacred stone at the heart of the boundary,\n\nThat I honour, at the Terminalia, with cakes and polenta,\n\nOr that a debtor continually refuses to repay me a loan,\n\nClaiming his signature\u2019s forged, my document worthless,\n\nThen I\u2019m forced to wait for the sessions, when the whole\n\nWorld files its suits; and then accept a thousand delays\n\nAnd frustrations. Often, though we\u2019re all ready, we have\n\nTo disperse, because the benches aren\u2019t there, eloquent\n\nCaedicius is still in his cloak, Fuscus is passing water,\n\nThat\u2019s how we fight each other in the Forum\u2019s soft sand.\n\nBut those who wear armour, and hang a sword by their\n\nSide, have the hours of their hearings adjusted to suit,\n\nTheir money not wasted on some never-ending case.\n\nPlus, it\u2019s only soldiers who\u2019ve the right to cash earned\n\nWhile their fathers still live, For it\u2019s held that wealth\n\nAcquired in the service should not form part of that\n\nWhich the father wholly controls. So Coranus who\n\nFollows the standard, and garners a soldier\u2019s pay,\n\nIs courted by his own doddering parent. The son is\n\nDuly promoted, and earns the reward for his efforts.\n\nTo the general no doubt it seems crucial that a brave\n\nMan, should also be rendered the most successful,\n\nThat those who delight in medals and decorations\u2026","rendered":"

Satire XV: Compassion Not Hatred<\/strong> \u00a0 SatXV:1-92 Among The Cannibals<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s ignorant, Volusius of Bithynia, of those monsters<\/p>\n

The mad Egyptians worship? One city reveres the crocodile,<\/p>\n

In another, they\u2019ll tremble at an ibis, glutted with snakes.<\/p>\n

The sacred monkey\u2019s golden image gleams where unearthly<\/p>\n

Chords reverberate from Memnon\u2019s crumbling statue, where<\/p>\n

Ruined Thebes, with its hundred gates, is buried in the sand.<\/p>\n

One town\u2019s folk will venerate cats, another\u2019s freshwater fish,<\/p>\n

Or they\u2019ll say their prayers to a dog: yet none worship Diana.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sin to violate a leek, or crunch an onion in your teeth<\/p>\n

(O holy race, whose gardens give birth to such divinities!),<\/p>\n

They abstain from woolly animals completely at their tables,<\/p>\n

And there it\u2019s a sin, as well, to slaughter a goat\u2019s offspring:<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s fine to feed on human flesh. When Ulysses told the<\/p>\n

Tale of such a crime, at the dinner table, to startled Alcinous,<\/p>\n

Some of his listeners must have been moved to anger, or to<\/p>\n

Laughter even, thinking him a fluent liar. \u2018Return him to the<\/p>\n

Waves, why don\u2019t you? He\u2019s earned the reality of some cruel<\/p>\n

Charybdis, by inventing his Cyclopeans, and Laestrygonians.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d sooner believe in his Scylla, or his clashing Cyanean rocks,<\/p>\n

His bag of winds, or his Elpenor, grunting beside his fellow<\/p>\n

Oarsmen, turned to swine by a delicate touch of Circe\u2019s wand.<\/p>\n

Does he think we Phaeacians are as empty-headed as that?\u2019<\/p>\n

It\u2019s what he\u2019d have cried, rightly, some sober man of Corcyra,<\/p>\n

One who\u2019d restricted his intake of wine from the brimming jar;<\/p>\n

Since Odysseus, after all, had not a single witness to his story.<\/p>\n

In turn, I\u2019ll tell a horrendous tale of recent happenings, in Iuncus\u2019<\/p>\n

Consulship (127<\/em>AD<\/em>), beyond the walls of baking Coptos (Quift<\/em>),<\/p>\n

A crime perpetrated by the mob, more horrific than any tragedy.<\/p>\n

For, if you chose to swish the tragic robes from Pyrrha onwards,<\/p>\n

No tragedian portrays the crime of an entire people. Yet hear this<\/p>\n

Instance of savage barbarism, one that occurred in our own times.<\/p>\n

Between two neighbouring towns on the Nile, Tentyra (Dendera<\/em>)<\/p>\n

And Ombos (Naquada<\/em>), there flamed an ancient and enduring feud,<\/p>\n

An undying hatred, an open wound, not amenable to being healed.<\/p>\n

The fury of the people had been roused, on both sides, because each<\/p>\n

Loathed their neighbour\u2019s gods, considering those they worshipped<\/p>\n

Themselves the only true divinities. So, when a sacred festival, was<\/p>\n

Held by one tribe, the other\u2019s chieftains and elders, decided as one<\/p>\n

To seize this opportunity, and prevent their enemies from enjoying<\/p>\n

The celebratory happiness of the day, and the delights of a banquet,<\/p>\n

With tables positioned by the temples, at the crossroads, with their<\/p>\n

Dining couches, often in continuous use all day and night, until the<\/p>\n

Seventh dawn lights them. (The native Egyptians may be uncouth,<\/p>\n

But as far as I can tell myself, scandalous Canopus, in its civilised<\/p>\n

Extravagance, more than matches that of these barbarous masses.)<\/p>\n

Added to which victory seemed certain over feasters, inarticulate<\/p>\n

And staggering drunkenly with wine. On one side were dancers,<\/p>\n

Men swaying to the sounds of a dark-skinned piper, with flowers,<\/p>\n

Perfumes, in all their variety, their brows all wreathed in garlands:<\/p>\n

On the other savage hatred. First they begin with sonorous insults:<\/p>\n

With tempers blazing, these are the bugle-calls to start the brawl.<\/p>\n

Then both sides come together with a cry, using their naked hands<\/p>\n

As weapons. Scarcely a jaw remains unwounded, it\u2019s hard to find<\/p>\n

Any visage, perhaps there\u2019s none, that\u2019s lacking some nasal injury.<\/p>\n

Already, throughout the ranks, mutilated faces are to be seen,<\/p>\n

Features distorted, the bones gaping whitely through torn cheeks,<\/p>\n

Or fists covered with blood from damaged eyes. Yet they realise<\/p>\n

This is still some sort of puerile game, a childish attempt at battle,<\/p>\n

Since there are no corpses yet to trample, and what\u2019s the point<\/p>\n

After all, of a fighting mob that\u2019s thousands strong, if everyone<\/p>\n

Emerges from this alive? So the fighting grows fiercer, and now<\/p>\n

They start to gather stones from the ground, and bending their<\/p>\n

Arms back, begin to hurl them; these the home-grown missiles<\/p>\n

Rioters use, not the rocks that Ajax or Turnus wielded, nor as<\/p>\n

Heavy as the one with which Diomedes struck Aeneas on the hip,<\/p>\n

Merely the sort of stones a strength inferior to theirs, belonging<\/p>\n

To those born in our times, can manage to lift high and launch.<\/p>\n

For the human race was already in decline when Homer lived.<\/p>\n

Now the earth produces men who are sinful but worthless,<\/p>\n

Such that any god who saw them, would laugh, in derision.<\/p>\n

Let me turn back to my tale. The one side, having gathered<\/p>\n

Reinforcements, dared to take up their weapons and renew<\/p>\n

The fierce fight, sending a hail of hostile arrows, into the air.<\/p>\n

Chased by the men of Ombos, those of Dendera, that town<\/p>\n

Blessed by the palm-trees\u2019 shade, turned their backs in swift<\/p>\n

Retreat. One man, in panic, slipped as he fled, fell precipitately,<\/p>\n

And was captured. He was immediately chopped in a hundred<\/p>\n

Pieces, one man providing enough substance to feed the mob,<\/p>\n

Who triumphantly devoured him, even gnawing at his bones,<\/p>\n

Thinking it far too tedious a wait to barbecue him, or cook<\/p>\n

Him in a pot over a blazing fire, content to eat the body raw.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to celebrate the fact, though, that they chose not to<\/p>\n

Desecrate your gift to the world, Prometheus, the fire you<\/p>\n

Stole from highest heaven. My congratulations to that fierce<\/p>\n

Element: that delights me too. Yet no cannibals that chew<\/p>\n

Human flesh, ever dined on any other corpse more willingly.<\/p>\n

Lest you ask, or are in doubt, about the perpetrators of that<\/p>\n

Crime, let me say it was not merely the first who dined well,<\/p>\n

But the very last spectator, also, seeing the whole body quite<\/p>\n

Consumed, drew his fingers over the ground to taste the blood.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

SatXV:93-174 In Praise Of Compassion<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

They say too that the Basques prolonged their lives (72BC) by this<\/p>\n

Kind of thing, although in an altogether different situation, then<\/p>\n

It was hostile fate, and the extremity caused by war, provoked<\/p>\n

Their actions; a dire crisis, dreadful hunger during a long siege.<\/p>\n

They had already eaten every creature, every plant, and whatever<\/p>\n

Else they had to, driven by the pains of an empty belly, till even<\/p>\n

Pompey and his men pitied those skeletons, their pallid leanness.<\/p>\n

Famine made them start to tear at each other\u2019s limbs, they were<\/p>\n

Even ready to lacerate their own. Could men or gods refuse to<\/p>\n

Forgive those who had to suffer such dire and monstrous things,<\/p>\n

When even the shades of those whose bodies they were eating<\/p>\n

Forgave? Zeno the Stoic\u2019s precepts lead us to act otherwise.<\/p>\n

Today Greece\u2019s Athens, and ours, influence all. Gaul\u2019s<\/p>\n

Eloquence is educating Britain\u2019s lawyers, and even farthest<\/p>\n

Thule already talks of hiring its own professor of rhetoric.<\/p>\n

How should we expect the Spaniards, I mentioned, of Metellus\u2019<\/p>\n

Day to have known the Stoic school? Yet those Spaniards were<\/p>\n

Noble, and those of Saguntum earlier (218BC) were equal in<\/p>\n

Courage and steadfastness, victims of an even worse disaster.<\/p>\n

What like defence could those Egyptians offer, more barbarous<\/p>\n

Than the priests of Diana\u2019s altar at Maeotis, since were we to<\/p>\n

Accept the poets for now, the Taurian who initiated their foul<\/p>\n

Rites only enacted human sacrifice, the victim\u2019s body subject<\/p>\n

To no more, no further desecration, than the knife. But what<\/p>\n

Impelled the Egyptians, where was the dreadful famine, what<\/p>\n

Threatening army drove them to commit so detestable a crime?<\/p>\n

If the soil of Memphis was parched, surely there was another<\/p>\n

Way to have shamed the Nile into rising, and soaking the earth?<\/p>\n

Not even those dreadful Germans, or the Britons, those savage<\/p>\n

Scythians, or monstrous Transylvanians, raged with the frenzy<\/p>\n

Of this mindless civilian mob, a people good only for hoisting<\/p>\n

The miniature sails on their earthenware boats, and leaning on<\/p>\n

Those tiny oars depicted on their jars. There\u2019s no punishment<\/p>\n

You can devise severe enough for such a crime, nor a fitting<\/p>\n

Retribution for those peoples whose rage drives them on as<\/p>\n

Would famine, and urges them to like behaviour. By her gift<\/p>\n

Of tears, Nature acknowledges she has granted human beings<\/p>\n

Compassionate hearts: it\u2019s the finest element of our sensibility.<\/p>\n

And so she causes us to weep for the ward, who with long<\/p>\n

Childish hair, hiding a face wet with tears, rendering its<\/p>\n

Sex indeterminate, has summoned a defrauder to court.<\/p>\n

Nature demands we sigh, when we meet the funeral cortege<\/p>\n

Of a girl fated never to marry, or attend an infant\u2019s burial,<\/p>\n

One too young for the pyre. Who that is good, and worthy<\/p>\n

Of the mysteries, and wishes to live like a priest of Ceres,<\/p>\n

Can treat others\u2019 ills as alien to themselves? This is what<\/p>\n

Separates us from the dumb herd, and thus we alone are<\/p>\n

Granted abilities worthy to be revered, fit for the gods;<\/p>\n

And equipped for artistic practice and creation; we alone<\/p>\n

Exhibit a sensibility inspired by the high heavens above,<\/p>\n

And lacking in those with faces bowed towards the earth.<\/p>\n

When the world began, what fashioned us mutually only<\/p>\n

Granted them so much mind, us intellect, so that mutual<\/p>\n

Empathy would drive it to seek and offer help; draw<\/p>\n

Scattered individuals into community; migrate from the<\/p>\n

Ancient forests, leave the woods our ancestors inhabited;<\/p>\n

Build houses, and join another roof to our own hearths;<\/p>\n

So that, thanks to our neighbour\u2019s threshold, the mutual<\/p>\n

Confidence achieved would render both our sleep secure;<\/p>\n

Protect with our weapons the fellow citizen who staggers<\/p>\n

From some deep wound, or has fallen to the ground;<\/p>\n

Give the common bugle-cry, as a signal; be defended<\/p>\n

By the same turrets; our gates locked by a single key.<\/p>\n

Yet now there is more harmony among snakes. The<\/p>\n

Wild beast spares its relatives with similar markings.<\/p>\n

When does a stronger lion take the life of a weaker?<\/p>\n

Where does a wild boar die at the tusks of a greater?<\/p>\n

The Indian tiger lives in perfect peace with the fierce<\/p>\n

Tigress, and savage bears live together in harmony.<\/p>\n

Yet it proves not enough for human beings to beat<\/p>\n

Out lethal steel on the inauspicious anvil, outdoing<\/p>\n

The first smiths who spent their hours forging rakes<\/p>\n

And hoes, mattocks, and ploughshares, men lacking<\/p>\n

The method for making swords. The people we have<\/p>\n

Cast our eyes on are those for whom killing others<\/p>\n

Is insufficient to quench their anger, those who think<\/p>\n

Faces, arms, and torsos a source of food. What would<\/p>\n

Pythagoras say? Would he not flee such horrors, he<\/p>\n

Who, not only abstained from animal flesh as if it<\/p>\n

Were human, but even from certain varieties of bean!<\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nSatire XVI: The Military Life<\/strong> \u00a0 SatXV1:1-60 The Advantages Of The Military Life<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who could list all the rewards of a fruitful military career,<\/p>\n

Gallius? There\u2019s no more desirable gift the gods can grant<\/p>\n

Than to join a successful unit, one blessed with good luck.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t mind being a nervous recruit at that camp gate,<\/p>\n

Under its auspicious stars. The hour of benign fate, after<\/p>\n

All, is even more powerful than a recommendation to Mars<\/p>\n

From Venus, or Juno, his mother, whom Samos delights.<\/p>\n

Let me first deal with the benefits enjoyed by all soldiers,<\/p>\n

Not the least being that no civilian will dare to assault you,<\/p>\n

Rather if he\u2019s beaten himself, he\u2019ll give out that he wasn\u2019t,<\/p>\n

Reluctant to show the praetor his missing teeth, the lumps<\/p>\n

On his face, the black swollen bruises, and the eye he has<\/p>\n

Still retained, although the doctor\u2019s making no promises.<\/p>\n

If he seeks redress for it, he\u2019ll get a hobnailed boot for a<\/p>\n

Judge, and swollen calf-muscles lining the wide bench,<\/p>\n

Since the old military law, the rules of Camillus, are<\/p>\n

Still in force, and soldiers can\u2019t attend court outside the<\/p>\n

Camp, away from the standard. \u2018A centurion\u2019s military<\/p>\n

Enquiry is totally fair,\u2019 you\u2019ll say \u2018and I shall have my<\/p>\n

Revenge, if, as in my case, it\u2019s a well- proven complaint.\u2019<\/p>\n

But the entire division is hostile, and all the units will act<\/p>\n

As one to ensure your redress is troublesome, and worse<\/p>\n

Than the injury incurred. It would be worthy, therefore,<\/p>\n

Of Vagellius\u2019 the blusterer\u2019s mulish mind, for your two<\/p>\n

Legs alone to offend all those heavy boots, with their<\/p>\n

Thousands of nails. Besides who would accompany you<\/p>\n

So far from the city, who\u2019d be your Pylades and venture<\/p>\n

Beyond the massive Embankment? Let your tears cease,<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t bother friends who\u2019ll only make their excuses.<\/p>\n

When the judge says \u2018Call the witness!\u2019 if the man who<\/p>\n

Saw the assault has the nerve to say, \u2018I saw it,\u2019 he\u2019ll be<\/p>\n

Worthy of the long hair and beard of one of our honest<\/p>\n

Ancestors. It\u2019s easier to find a false witness against a<\/p>\n

Civilian than one who\u2019ll tell a truth that reflects badly<\/p>\n

On a military man\u2019s honour, and his superior status.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s note the other rewards and benefits of taking<\/p>\n

The military oath. Imagine some devious neighbour has<\/p>\n

Stolen a valley, some tract of land from my family estate,<\/p>\n

Rooting out the sacred stone at the heart of the boundary,<\/p>\n

That I honour, at the Terminalia, with cakes and polenta,<\/p>\n

Or that a debtor continually refuses to repay me a loan,<\/p>\n

Claiming his signature\u2019s forged, my document worthless,<\/p>\n

Then I\u2019m forced to wait for the sessions, when the whole<\/p>\n

World files its suits; and then accept a thousand delays<\/p>\n

And frustrations. Often, though we\u2019re all ready, we have<\/p>\n

To disperse, because the benches aren\u2019t there, eloquent<\/p>\n

Caedicius is still in his cloak, Fuscus is passing water,<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how we fight each other in the Forum\u2019s soft sand.<\/p>\n

But those who wear armour, and hang a sword by their<\/p>\n

Side, have the hours of their hearings adjusted to suit,<\/p>\n

Their money not wasted on some never-ending case.<\/p>\n

Plus, it\u2019s only soldiers who\u2019ve the right to cash earned<\/p>\n

While their fathers still live, For it\u2019s held that wealth<\/p>\n

Acquired in the service should not form part of that<\/p>\n

Which the father wholly controls. So Coranus who<\/p>\n

Follows the standard, and garners a soldier\u2019s pay,<\/p>\n

Is courted by his own doddering parent. The son is<\/p>\n

Duly promoted, and earns the reward for his efforts.<\/p>\n

To the general no doubt it seems crucial that a brave<\/p>\n

Man, should also be rendered the most successful,<\/p>\n

That those who delight in medals and decorations\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-76","chapter","type-chapter","status-web-only","hentry"],"part":68,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/76\/revisions"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/68"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/76\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}