Section 24: Lifestyles and Culture During the Pax the Pax Romana Under the Roman Peace (Pax Romana) the Roman state became the greatest and most influential political institution institutio n in European history. Despite the attention given to tyrannical and often vicious leaders like the emperors Caligula and Nero, most emperors ruled sensibly and competently until military and economic disasters brought on the political instability of the third century C.E. During the first two centuries C.E. the empire flourished and even added new territories. People from the provinces streamed to Rome, where they became soldiers, bureaucrats, senators, and even emperors. Rome developed into the social, economic, and cultural capital of the Mediterranean world. The conquests of the empire gradually transformed the nature of Roman society. A principal reason for this transformation was that the the very idea of ―Roman‖ had changed as Rome’s leaders extended citizenship to all Italians and to millions of provincials. provincials. It is hard to generalize about Roman society during the Roman Empire because the Roman population had become so diverse. People who valued Rome's traditions were not at all happy to discover that they shared their city with Easterners who spoke different languages and observed different customs. Others recognized that provincials brought different blood and a new vitality to Roman society that allowed it to survive for centuries.
EDUCATION AND PHILOSOPHY
Reading A142: 1 Plutarch, “The Training of Children [excerpts],” written about 110 C.E.
Plutarch was born into a wealthy family in Greece about 50 C.E. Part of his life seems to have been spent at Rome, but he seems to have returned to Greece and died there about 120 C.E., although little further is known of his life. He was one of the greatest biographers the world has ever known, and his moral essays show wide learning and considerable depth of contemplation. In this essay he describes how the children of wealthy (and middle-class) families should should be taught. taught.
1. THE COURSE that ought to be taken for the training of freeborn children, and the means whereby their manners may be rendered virtuous, will, with the reader's leave, be the subject of our present disquisition. 2. In the management of which, perhaps it may be expedient to take our rise from their very procreation. I would therefore, in the first place, advise those who desire to become the parents of famous and eminent children, that they keep not company with all women that they light on; I mean such as harlots, or concubines. For such children as are blemished in their birth, either by 1
From Oliver J. Thatcher, editor, The Library of Original Sources (Milwaukee: University Research Extension Co., 1907), Vol. III, pp. 370-391.
the father's or the mother's side, are liable to be pursued, as long as they live, with the indelible infamy of their base extraction, as that which offers a ready occasion to all that desire to take hold of it of reproaching and disgracing them therewith. Wherefore, since to be well-born gives men a good stock of confidence, the consideration thereof ought to be of no small value to such as desire to leave behind them a lawful issue. . . . 3. The advice which I am, in the next place, about to give, is, indeed, no other than what has been given by those who have undertaken this argument before me. You will ask me what is that? It is this: that no man keep company with his wife for issue's sake but when he is sober, having drunk either no wine, or at least not such a quantity as to distemper him; for they usually prove wine-bibbers and drunkards, whose parents begot them when they were drunk. . . . Let this suffice to be spoken concerning the procreation of children; and let us pass thence to their education. 4. And here, to speak summarily, what we are wont to say of arts and sciences may be said also concerning virtue: that there is a concurrence of three things requisite to the completing them in practice-- which are nature, reason and use. Now by reason here I would be understood to mean learning; and by use, exercise. Now the principles come from instruction, the practice comes from exercise, and perfection from all three combined. . . .
And yet if any one thinks that those in whom Nature has not thoroughly done her part may not in some measure make up her defects, if they be so happy as to light upon good teaching, and withal apply their own industry towards the attainment of virtue, he is to know that he is very much, nay, altogether, mistaken. For as a good natural capacity may be impaired by slothfulness, so dull and heavy natural parts may be improved by instruction; and whereas negligent students arrive not at the capacity of understanding the most easy things, those who are industrious conquer the greatest difficulties. . . . 5. The next thing that falls under our consideration is the nursing of children, which, in my judgment, judgment, the mothers mothers should do themselves, themselves, giving their their own breast breast to those they have borne. borne. For this office will certainly be performed with more tenderness and carefulness by natural mothers, who will love their children intimately, as the saying is, from their tender nails. Whereas, both wet and dry nurses, who are hired, love only for their pay, and are affected to their work as ordinarily those that are substituted and deputed in the place of others are. . . .
But if they find it impossible to do it themselves, either because of bodily weakness (and such a case may fall out), or because they are apt to be quickly with child again, then are they to choose the most honest nurses they can get, and not to take whomsoever they have offered them. And the first thing to be looked after in this choice is, that the nurse be bred after the Greek fashion. For as it is needful that the members of children be shaped aright as soon as they are born, that they may not afterwards prove crooked and distorted, so it is no less expedient that their manners be well-fashioned from the very beginning. For childhood is a tender thing, and easily wrought into any shape. . . . Whence, also, it seems to me good advice which divine Plato gives to nurses, not to tell all sorts of common tales to children in infancy, lest thereby their minds should chance to be filled with foolish and corrupt notions. . . .
the father's or the mother's side, are liable to be pursued, as long as they live, with the indelible infamy of their base extraction, as that which offers a ready occasion to all that desire to take hold of it of reproaching and disgracing them therewith. Wherefore, since to be well-born gives men a good stock of confidence, the consideration thereof ought to be of no small value to such as desire to leave behind them a lawful issue. . . . 3. The advice which I am, in the next place, about to give, is, indeed, no other than what has been given by those who have undertaken this argument before me. You will ask me what is that? It is this: that no man keep company with his wife for issue's sake but when he is sober, having drunk either no wine, or at least not such a quantity as to distemper him; for they usually prove wine-bibbers and drunkards, whose parents begot them when they were drunk. . . . Let this suffice to be spoken concerning the procreation of children; and let us pass thence to their education. 4. And here, to speak summarily, what we are wont to say of arts and sciences may be said also concerning virtue: that there is a concurrence of three things requisite to the completing them in practice-- which are nature, reason and use. Now by reason here I would be understood to mean learning; and by use, exercise. Now the principles come from instruction, the practice comes from exercise, and perfection from all three combined. . . .
And yet if any one thinks that those in whom Nature has not thoroughly done her part may not in some measure make up her defects, if they be so happy as to light upon good teaching, and withal apply their own industry towards the attainment of virtue, he is to know that he is very much, nay, altogether, mistaken. For as a good natural capacity may be impaired by slothfulness, so dull and heavy natural parts may be improved by instruction; and whereas negligent students arrive not at the capacity of understanding the most easy things, those who are industrious conquer the greatest difficulties. . . . 5. The next thing that falls under our consideration is the nursing of children, which, in my judgment, judgment, the mothers mothers should do themselves, themselves, giving their their own breast breast to those they have borne. borne. For this office will certainly be performed with more tenderness and carefulness by natural mothers, who will love their children intimately, as the saying is, from their tender nails. Whereas, both wet and dry nurses, who are hired, love only for their pay, and are affected to their work as ordinarily those that are substituted and deputed in the place of others are. . . .
But if they find it impossible to do it themselves, either because of bodily weakness (and such a case may fall out), or because they are apt to be quickly with child again, then are they to choose the most honest nurses they can get, and not to take whomsoever they have offered them. And the first thing to be looked after in this choice is, that the nurse be bred after the Greek fashion. For as it is needful that the members of children be shaped aright as soon as they are born, that they may not afterwards prove crooked and distorted, so it is no less expedient that their manners be well-fashioned from the very beginning. For childhood is a tender thing, and easily wrought into any shape. . . . Whence, also, it seems to me good advice which divine Plato gives to nurses, not to tell all sorts of common tales to children in infancy, lest thereby their minds should chance to be filled with foolish and corrupt notions. . . .
6. Nor are we to omit taking due care, in the first place, that those children who are appointed to attend upon such young nurslings, and to be bred with them for play-fellows, be well-mannered, and next that they speak plain, natural Greek; lest, being constantly used to converse with persons of a barbarous language and evil manners, they receive corrupt tinctures from them. For it is a true proverb, that if you live with a lame man, you will learn to halt. 7. Next, when a child is arrived at such an age as to be put under the care of pedagogues, great care is to be used that we be not deceived in them, and so commit our children to slaves or barbarians or cheating fellows. . . . But if they find any slave that is a drunkard or a glutton, and unfit for any other business, to him they assign the government of their children; whereas, a good pedagogue ought to be such a one in his disposition as was Phoenix, tutor to Achilles. . . . And now I come to speak of that which is a greater matter, and of more concern than any that I have said. We are to look after such masters for our children as are blameless in their lives, not justly reprovable for their manners, and of the best experience in teaching. For the very spring and root of honesty and virtue lies in the felicity of lighting on good education. . . . 8. In brief therefore I say (and what I say may justly challenge the repute of an oracle rather than of advice), that the one chief thing in that matter-- which comprises the beginning, middle and end of all-- is good education and regular instruction; and that these two afford great help and assistance toward the attainment of virtue and felicity. For all other good things are but human and of small value, such as will hardly recompense the industry required to the getting of them. It is, indeed, a desirable thing to be well-descended; but the glory belongs to our ancestors. Riches are valuable; but they are the goods of Fortune, who frequently takes them from those that have them, and carries them to those that never so much as hoped for them. Yes, the greater they are, the fairer mark they are for those to aim at who design to make our bags their prize; I mean evil servants and accusers. But the weightiest consideration of all is, that riches may be enjoyed by the worst as well as the best of men. Glory is a thing deserving respect, but unstable; beauty is a prize that men fight to obtain, but, when obtained, it is of little continuance; health is a precious enjoyment, but easily impaired; strength is a thing desirable, but apt to be the prey of disease and old age. 9. Moreover, as it is my advice to parents that they make the breeding up of their children to learning their chief care, so I here add, that the learning they ought to train them up unto should be sound and wholesome, and such as is most remote from those trifles which suit the popular humor. For to please the many is to displease the wise.
If any one ask what the next thing is wherein I would have children instructed, and to what further good qualities I would have them insured, I answer, that I think it advisable that they neither speak nor do anything rashly; for, according to the proverb, the best things are the most difficult. But extemporary discourses are full of much ordinary and loose stuff, nor do such speakers well know where to begin or where to make an end. And besides other faults which those who speak suddenly are commonly guilty of, they are commonly liable to this great one, that they multiply words without measure; whereas, premeditation will not suffer a man to enlarge his discourse beyond a due proportion. . . . Here I would not be understood altogether to condemn all readiness to discourse extempore , nor yet to allow the use of it upon such occasions as do not require it; but we are to use it only as we do physic.
Still, before a person arrives at complete manhood, I would not permit him to speak upon any sudden incident occasion; though, after he has attained a radicated faculty of speaking, he may allow himself a greater liberty, as opportunity is offered. For as they who have been a long time in chains, when they are at last set at liberty, are unable to walk, on account of their former continual restraint, and are very apt to trip, so they who have been used to a fettered way of speaking a great while, if upon any occasion they be enforced to speak on a sudden, will hardly be able to express themselves without some tokens of their former confinement. But to permit those that are yet children to speak extemporally is to give them occasion for extremely idle talk. ... I advise therefore (for I return now to the subject that I have digressed from) the shunning and avoiding, not merely of a starched, theatrical, and over-tragedial form of speaking, but also of that which is too low and mean. For that which is too swelling is not fit for the management of public affairs; and that, on the other side, which is too thin is very inapt to work any notable impression upon the hearers. For as it is not only requisite that a man's body be healthy, but also that it be of a firm constitution, so ought a discourse to be not only sound, but nervous also. . . . 10. Wherefore, though we ought not to permit an ingenious child entirely to neglect any of the common sorts of learning, so far as they may be gotten by lectures or from public shows; yet I would have him to salute these only as in his passage, taking a bare taste of each of them (seeing no man can possibly attain to perfection in all), and to give philosophy the pre-eminence of them all. 11. In the next place, the exercise of the body must not be neglected; but children must be sent to schools of gymnastics, where they may have sufficient employment that way also. This will conduce partly to a more handsome carriage, and partly to the improvement of their strength. For the foundation of a vigorous old age is a good constitution of the body in childhood. Wherefore, as it is expedient to provide those things in fair weather which may be useful to the mariners in a storm, so is it to keep good order and govern ourselves by rules of temperance in youth, as the best provision we can lay in for age. Yet must they husband their strength, so as not to become dried up (as it were) and destitute of strength to follow their studies. . . . 12. I say now, that children are to be won to follow liberal studies by exhortations and rational motives, and on no account to be forced thereto by whipping or any other contumelious punishments. I will not argue that such usage seems to be more agreeable to slaves than to ingenuous children; and even slaves, when thus handled, are dulled and discouraged from the performance of their tasks, partly by reason of the smart of their stripes, and partly because of the disgrace thereby inflicted. But praise and and reproof are more effectual upon free-born children than any such disgraceful handling; the former to incite them to what is good, and the latter to restrain them from that which is evil. But we must use reprehensions and commendations alternately, and of various kinds according to the occasion; so that when they grow petulant, they may be shamed by reprehension, and again, when they better deserve it, they may be encouraged by commendations. Wherein we ought to imitate nurses, who, when they have made their infants cry, stop their mouths with the nipple to quiet them again. It is also useful not to give
them such large commendations as to puff them up with pride; for this is the ready way to fill them with a vain conceit of themselves, and to enfeeble their minds. 13. Moreover, I have seen some parents whose too much love to their children has occasioned, in truth, their not loving them at all. . . . For as plants by moderate watering are nourished, but with over-much moisture are glutted, so is the spirit improved by moderate labors, but overwhelmed by such as are excessive. We ought therefore to give children some time to take breath from their constant labors, considering that all human life is divided betwixt business and relaxation. . . . For even in bows and harps, we loosen their strings, that we may bend and wind them up again. Yes, it is universally seen that, as the body is maintained by repletion and evacuation, so is the mind by employment and relaxation.
Those parents, moreover, are to be blamed who, when they have committed their sons to the care of pedagogues or schoolmasters, never see or hear them perform their tasks; wherein they fail much of their duty. For they ought, ever and again, after the intermission of some days, to make trial of their children's proficiency; and not intrust their hopes of them to the discretion of a hireling. For even that sort of men will take more care of the children, when they know that they are regularly to be called to account. . . . Neither, therefore, let the parents be ignorant of this, that the exercising of memory in the schools does not only give the greatest assistance towards the attainment of learning, but also to all the actions of life. For the remembrance of things past affords us examples in our consults about things to come. 14. Children ought to be made to abstain from speaking filthily, seeing, as Democritus said, words are but the shadows of actions. They are, moreover, to be instructed to be affable and courteous in discourse. For as churlish manners are always detestable, so children may be kept from being odious in conversation, if they will not be pertinaciously bent to maintain all they say in dispute. . . .
Add we now to these things some others of which children ought to have no less, yes, rather greater care; to-wit, that they avoid luxurious living, bridle their tongues, subdue anger, and refrain their hands. Of how great moment each of these counsels is, I now come to inquire; and we may best judge of them by examples. . . . These things, you will perhaps say, are very difficult to be imitated. I confess it; but yet we must endeavor to the utmost of our power, by setting such examples before us, to repress the extravagancy of our immoderate, furious anger. For neither are we able to rival the experience or virtue of such men in many other matters; but we do, nevertheless, as sacred interpreters of divine mysteries and priests of wisdom, strive to follow these examples, and, as it were, to enrich ourselves with what we can nibble from them. And as to the bridling of the tongue, concerning which also I am obliged to speak, if any man think it a small matter or of mean concernment, he is much mistaken. For it is a point of wisdom to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well. And, in my judgment, for this reason the ancients instituted mystical rites of initiation in religion,
that, being in them accustomed to silence, we might thence transfer the fear we have of the gods to the fidelity required in human secrets. Yes, indeed, experience shows that no man ever repented of having kept silence; but many that they have not done so. And a man may, when he will, easily utter what he has by silence concealed; but it is impossible for him to recall what he has once spoken. . . . Besides all these things, we are to accustom children to speak the truth, and to account it, as indeed it is, a matter of religion for them to do so. For lying is a servile quality, deserving the hatred of all mankind; yes, a fault for which we ought not to forgive our meanest servants. 14. Thus far have I discoursed concerning the good-breeding of children, and the sobriety requisite to that age, without any hesitation or doubt in my own mind concerning any thing that I have said. But in what remains to be said, I am dubious and divided in my own thoughts, which, as if they were laid in a balance, sometimes incline this way, and sometimes that way. I am therefore loath to persuade or dissuade in the matter. But I must venture to answer one question, which is this: whether we ought to admit those that make love to our sons to keep them company, or whether we should not rather thrust them out of doors, and banish them from their society. For when I look upon those straightforward parents, of a harsh and austere temper, who think it an outrage not to be endured that their sons should have anything to say to lovers, I am tender of being the persuader or encourager of such a practice. But, on the other side, when I call to mind Socrates, and Plato, and Xenophon, and Aeschines, and Cebes, with a whole troop of other such men, who have approved those masculine loves, and still have brought up young men to learning, public employments, and virtuous living, I am again of another mind, and am much influenced by my zeal to imitate such great men. . . . And yet I think it not improper here to mention withal that saying of Plato, spoken betwixt jest and earnest, that men of great eminence must be allowed to show affection to what beautiful objects they please. I would decide then that parents are to keep off such as make beauty the object of their affection, and admit altogether such as direct the love to the soul; whence such loves are to be avoided as are in Thebes and Elis, and that sort which in Crete they call ravishment; and such are to be imitated as are in Athens and Sparta. 16. But in this matter let every man follow his own judgment. Thus far have I discoursed concerning the right ordering and decent carriage of children. I will now pass thence, to speak somewhat concerning the next age, that of youth. For I have often blamed the evil custom of some, who commit their boys in childhood to pedagogues and teachers, and then suffer the impetuosity of their youth to range without restraint; whereas boys of that age need to be kept under a stricter guard than children. For who does not know that the errors of childhood are small, and perfectly capable of being amended; such as slighting their pedagogues, or disobedience to their teachers' instructions? But when they begin to grow towards maturity, their offences are oftentimes very great and heinous; such as gluttony, pilfering money from their parents, dicing, revelings, drunkenness, courting of maidens, and defiling of marriage-beds. Wherefore it is expedient that such impetuous heats should with great care be kept under and restrained. For the ripeness of that age admits no bounds in its pleasures, is skittish, and needs a curb to check it; so that those parents who do not hold in their sons with great strength about that time find to their surprise that they are giving their vicious inclinations full swing in the pursuit of the vilest actions. Wherefore it is a duty incumbent upon wise parents, in that age especially,
to set a strict watch upon them, and to keep them within the bounds of sobriety by instructions, threatenings, entreaties, counsels, promises, and by laying before them examples of those men (on one side) who by immoderate love of pleasures have brought themselves into great mischief, and of those (on the other hand) who by abstinence in the pursuit of them have purchased to themselves very great praise and glory. . . . 17. And in sum, it is necessary to restrain young men from the conversation of debauched persons, lest they take infection from their evil examples. . . . But to return from this digression, our children, as I have said, are to be debarred the company of all evil men, but especially flatterers. . . . Wherefore, if fathers have any care for the good breeding of their children, they ought to drive such foul beasts as these out of doors. They ought also to keep them from the companionship of vicious school-fellows, for these are able to corrupt the most ingenuous dispositions. 18. These counsels which I have now given are of great worth and importance; what I have now to add touches certain allowances that are to be made to human nature. Again, therefore, I would not have fathers of an over-rigid and harsh temper, but so mild as to forgive some slips of youth, remembering that they themselves were once young. But as physicians are wont to mix their bitter medicines with sweet syrups, to make what is pleasant a vehicle for what is wholesome, so should fathers temper the keenness of their reproofs with lenity. They may occasionally loosen the reins, and allow their children to take some liberties they are inclined to, and again, when it is fit, manage them with a straighter bridle. But chiefly should they bear their errors without passion, if it may be; and if they chance to be heated more than ordinary, they ought not to suffer the flame to burn long. For it is better that a father's anger be hasty than severe; because the heaviness of his wrath, joined with implacableness, is no small argument of hatred towards the child.
. . . I will add a few words more, and put an end to these advices. The chief thing that fathers are to look to is that they themselves become effectual examples to their children, by doing all those things which belong to them and avoiding all vicious practices, that in their lives, as in a glass, their children may see enough to give them an aversion to all ill words and actions. For those that chide children for such faults as they themselves fall into unconsciously accuse themselves, under their children's names. And if they are altogether vicious in their own lives, they lose the right of reproaching their very servants, and much more do they forfeit it towards their sons. Yes, what is more than that, they make themselves even counselors and instructors to them in wickedness. For where old men are impudent, there of necessity must the young men be so too. Wherefore we are to apply our minds to all such practices as may conduce to the good breeding of our children. And thus have I finished the precepts which I designed to give concerning this subject. But that they should all be followed by any one reader is rather, I fear, to be wished than hoped. And to follow the greater part of them, though it may not be impossible to human nature, yet will need a concurrence of more than ordinary diligence joined with good fortune. ----- 000 -----
Reading A143: 2 Seneca, On Tranquillity of Mind [excerpt], written about 50 C.E.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (lived 3 B.C.E.-65 C.E.) is considered to be one of the most important Roman stoic philosophers. Born in Cordova, Spain, he was a brilliant youth, studying law and the Greek poets. Early in life he was attracted to Stoic philosophy, but later turned to the Pythagoreans. His remarkable oratory in the Roman courts of law awakened the jealousy of the Emperor Caligula, who hinted that the philosopher-orator would be in better health away from Rome. Consequently Seneca went into exile from which he was recalled, after the death of Caligula, by Agrippina, who placed him as tutor to her son Nero, who subsequently became the heir apparent. Seneca was learned and able, and his writings have the excellent quality of being conversational in tone, even when touching the most profound topics. He served as tutor to Nero and, when Nero became emperor, he served as advisor. Eventually, however, Nero turned to other advisors, and Seneca fell under suspicion. In Roman fashion, Seneca took the honorable way out-- suicide, in 65 C.E.
Even for studies, where expenditure is most honourable, it is justifiable only so long as it is kept within bounds. What is the use of having countless books and libraries, whose titles their owners can scarcely read through in a whole lifetime? The learner is, not instructed, but burdened by the mass of them, and it is much better to surrender yourself to a few authors than to wander through many. Forty thousand books were burned at Alexandria; let someone else praise this library as the most noble monument to the wealth of kings, as did Titus Livius, who says that it was the most distinguished achievement of the good taste and solicitude of kings. There was no 'good taste' or 'solicitude' about it, but only learned luxury-- nay, not even 'learned,' since they had collected the books, not for the sake of learning, but to make a show, just as many who lack even a child's knowledge of letters use books, not as the tools of learning, but as decorations for the dining-room. Therefore, let just as many books be acquired as are enough, but none for mere show. „It is more respectable,‟ you say, „to squander money on these than on Corinthian bronzes and on pictures.‟ But excess in anything becomes a fault. What excuse have you to offer for a man who seeks to have bookcases of citrus-wood and ivory, who collects the works of unknown or discredited authors and sits yawning in the midst of so many thousand books, who gets most of his pleasure from the outsides of volumes and their titles? Consequently it is in the houses of the laziest men that you will see a full collection of orations and history with the boxes piled right up to the ceiling; for by now among cold baths and hot baths a library also is equipped as a necessary ornament of a great house. I would readily pardon these men if they were led astray by their excessive zeal for learning. But as it is, 2
From Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind , translated by J.W. Basore; from accessed April 21, 2004.
these collections of the works of sacred genius with all the portraits that adorn them are bought for show and a decoration of their walls. ----- 000 -----
Reading A144: 3 Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations [excerpt], written about 167 C.E.
The emperor Marcus Aelius Aurelius Antoninus (reigned 161-180 C.E.) was the only Roman emperor besides Julius Caesar whose writings have become part of the canon of Western classics. His Meditations are a loosely-organized set of thoughts relating to the stoic philosophy which had been popular among the better-educated citizens of Rome for some centuries. It stressed self-discipline, virtue, and inner tranquility. Aurelius was also a social reformer who worked for the improvement of the lot of the poor, slaves, and convicted criminals. NonChristians in the Western World have often looked to him as a role model. He was also a fierce persecutor of Christianity, doubtless because he felt that the religion threatened the values that had made Rome great. Aurelius was not an original or brilliant thinker, but his Meditations reflect well the stoic strain in Greco-Roman civilization. The emphasis on morality combined with emotional detachment is strongly reminiscent of Buddhist thought, with which Stoicism has often been compared. This excerpt is from Books Four and Five.
Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, at the seashore, and in the mountains; and you tend to desire such things very much. But this is a characteristic of the most common sort of men, for it is in your power whenever you will to choose to retreat into yourself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retreat than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately perfectly tranquil; and I affirm that tranquility is nothing other than the proper ordering of the mind. Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good. How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only to what he does himself, that it may be just and pure; or as Agathon says, do not consider the the depraved morals of others, but cling to the straight and narrow path without deviating from it. He who has a powerful desire for posthumous fame does not consider that every one of those who remember him will himself also die very soon; then again also they who have succeeded them, until the whole remembrance shall have been extinguished as it is transmitted through men who foolishly admire and then perish. But suppose that those who will remember are even immortal, and that the remembrance will be immortal, what good will this do you?
3
From Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers, Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan S wan, editors, Reading About the World, Volume 1 (New York: Harcourt Brace Custom Books for Washington State University, no date); this passage translated by George Long, revised by Paul Brians; at accessed April 21, 2003.
What is evil in you does not subsist in the ruling principle of another; nor in any part or transformation of your physical body. Where is it then? It is in that part of you in which has the 4 power of forming opinions about evils. Let this power then not form such opinions, and all is well. And if that which is nearest to it the poor body is burnt, filled with excrescences and decay, nevertheless let the part which forms opinions about these things be quiet; that is, let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives contrary to nature and to him who lives 5 according to nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to nature. Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the structure of the web. You are a little soul carrying about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say. It is no evil for things to undergo change, and no good for things to come into being as a consequence of change. Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too. If any god told you that you shall die tomorrow, or certainly on the day after to-morrow, you would not care much whether it was on the third day or on the next, unless you had a very degraded spirit for how small is the difference? So think it no great thing to die after as many 6 years as you can count rather than tomorrow. Think continually how many physicians are dead after often fretting over the sick; and how many astrologers after predicting with great pretensions the deaths of others; and how many philosophers after endless discourses on death or immortality; how many heroes after killing thousands; and how many tyrants who have used their power over men's lives with terrible insolence as if they were immortal; and how many cities are entirely dead, so to speak, Helice and Pompeii and Herculaneum, and innumerable others. Add to the total all whom you have known, one after another. One man after burying another has been laid out dead, and another buries him: and all this in a short time. To conclude, always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are, and what was yesterday a little mucus to-morrow will be a mummy or ashes. Pass then through this little space of time in the way of nature, and end your journey in contentment, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew. Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break, but which stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it. . . .
4
Like Buddhists and Hindus, Stoics believe that true evil exists only within the mind. It cannot be imposed from outside. 5 Like Taoists, Stoics argue that conformity to the ways of nature is best. 6 The point is that death's inevitability must be accepted sometime; and it is well to be prepared for it at any time.
. . . Live with the gods. And he does live with the gods who constantly shows them that his own soul is satisfied with that which is assigned to him, and that it does all that the daemon wishes, which Zeus has given to every person as his guardian and guide, as a portion of himself. 7 And this daemon is everyone's knowledge and reason. The best way of avenging yourself is not to become like the wrongdoer. When we have meat before us and such food we receive the impression that this is the dead body of a fish, and this is the dead body of a bird or of a pig; and again, that this Falernian wine is only a little grape juice, and this purple robe some sheep's wool dyed with the blood of a shell-fish: such then are these impressions, and they reach the things themselves and penetrate them, and so we see what kind of things they are. Just in the same way ought we to act all through life, and where there are things which appear most worthy of our approval, we ought to lay them bare and look at their worthlessness and strip them of all the words by which they are exalted. For outward show is a wonderful perverter of the reason, and when you are most sure that you are engaged in matters worth your while, it is then that it cheats you most. . . . Most of the things which ordinary people admire have to do with objects of the most general kind, those which are held together by cohesion or natural organization, such as stones, wood, fig trees, vines, olives. But those that are admired by men who are a little more reasonable have to do with the things which are held together by a living principle, such as flocks and herds. Those which are admired by men who are still more enlightened are the things which are held together by a rational soul, not however a universal soul, but rational so far as it is a soul skilled in some art, or expert in some other way, or simply rational so far as it possesses a number of slaves. But he who values a rational soul, a universal soul which is fitted for political life, values nothing else except this; and above all things he keeps his soul in a condition and in activities suitable to reason and social life, and he cooperates in this with those who are of the same kind as himself. So keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, free from pretense, a friend of justice, a worshipper of the gods, kind, affectionate, strenuous in performing all proper acts. Strive to be the sort of person which philosophy wishes to make of you. Revere the gods and help others. Life is short. There is only one fruit of this earthly life: a pious disposition and social acts. Asia, Europe are corners of the universe; all the sea a drop in the universe; Mount Athos a little clod of the universe: all the present time is a point in eternity. All things are little, changeable, 8 perishable. All things come from thence, from that universal ruling power either directly proceeding or by way of sequence. And accordingly the lion's gaping jaws, and that which is poisonous, and every harmful thing, like thorns, like mud, are after-products of the grand and beautiful. Do not then imagine that they are of another kind from that which you venerate, but form a just opinion of the source of all. He who has seen present things has seen all, both everything which has taken place from all eternity and everything which will be for time without end; for all things are of one kin and of one form.
7 8
A daemon is a personal guardian spirit, here equated to the mind. Athos is a tall mountain in northeastern Greece.
SCIENCE AND GEOGRAPHY
Reading A145: 9 Vitruvius, On Architecture [excerpts], written about 10 B.C.E.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active late in the first century B.C.E. He was the author of De architectura, a treatise in Latin on architecture, and perhaps the first work about this discipline. He is believed to have served in the Roman army, probably under his sponsor, the emperor Caesar Augustus, but little is known about his life. In his work he describes himself as an old man, so it is possible that he was active during the rule of Julius Caesar as well. Although he was a practicing architect, the only building that we know Vitruvius to have worked on was a basilica at Fanum Fortunae (modern Fano), but the basilica has disappeared so completely that its very site is uncertain. Vitruvius was less an original thinker than a codifier of existing architectural practice. Based upon his writings, however, it is clear that Roman architects had a wider scope than is customary today, being engineers, architects, artists, and craftsmen combined.
[From Book One, Chapter 1] Architecture is a science arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning; by the help of which a judgment is formed of those works which are the result of other arts. Practice and theory are its parents. Practice is the frequent and continued contemplation of the mode of executing any given work, or of the mere operation of the hands, for the conversion of the material in the best and readiest way. Theory is the result of that reasoning which demonstrates and explains that the material wrought has been so converted as to answer the end proposed. Wherefore the mere practical architect is not able to assign sufficient reasons for the forms he adopts; and the theoretic architect also fails, grasping the shadow instead of the substance. He who is theoretic as well as practical, is therefore doubly armed; able not only to prove the propriety of his design, but equally so to carry it into execution. In architecture, as in other arts, two considerations must be constantly kept in view; namely, the intention, and the matter used to express that intention: but the intention is founded on a conviction that the matter wrought will fully suit the purpose; he, therefore, who is not familiar with both branches of the art, has no pretension to the title of the architect. An architect should be ingenious, and apt in the acquisition of knowledge. Deficient in either of these qualities, he cannot be a perfect master. He should be a good writer, a skilful draftsman, versed in geometry and optics, expert at figures, acquainted with history, informed on the principles of
9
From Vitruvius, De Architectura , translated by Valentin Rose (Berlin: Teubner, 1899); found at accessed October 9, 2005.
natural and moral philosophy, somewhat of a musician, not ignorant of the sciences both of law and physic, nor of the motions, laws, and relations to each other, of the heavenly bodies. By means of the first named acquirement, he is to commit to writing his observations and experience, in order to assist his memory. Drawing is employed in representing the forms of his designs. Geometry affords much aid to the architect: to it he owes the use of the right line and circle, the level and the square; whereby his delineations of buildings on plane surfaces are greatly facilitated. The science of optics enables him to introduce with judgment the requisite quantity of light, according to the aspect. Arithmetic estimates the cost, and aids in the measurement of the works; this, assisted by the laws of geometry, determines those abstruse questions, wherein the different proportions of some parts to others are involved. Unless acquainted with history, he will be unable to account for the use of many ornaments which he may have occasion to introduce. For instance; should any one wish for information on the origin of those draped matronal figures crowned with a mutulus and cornice, called Caryatides, he will explain it by the following history. Carya, a city of Peloponnesus, joined the Persians in their war against the Greeks. These in return for the treachery, after having freed themselves by a most glorious victory from the intended Persian yoke, unanimously resolved to levy war against the Caryans. Carya was, in consequence, taken and destroyed, its male population extinguished, and its matrons carried into slavery. That these circumstances might be better remembered, and the nature of the triumph perpetuated, the victors represented them draped, and apparently suffering under the burthen with which they were loaded, to expiate the crime of their native city. Thus, in their edifices, did the ancient architects, by the use of these statues, hand down to posterity a memorial of the crime of the Caryans. . . . Moral philosophy will teach the architect to be above meanness in his dealings, and to avoid arrogance: it will make him just, compliant and faithful to his employer; and what is of the highest importance, it will prevent avarice gaining an ascendancy over him: for he should not be occupied with the thoughts of filling his coffers, nor with the desire of grasping every thing in the shape of gain, but, by the gravity of his manners, and a good character, should be careful to preserve his dignity. In these respects we see the importance of moral philosophy; for such are her precepts. That branch of philosophy which the Greeks call fusiologia, or the doctrine of physics, is necessary to him in the solution of various problems; as for instance, in the conduct, whose natural force, in its meandering and expansion over flat countries, is often such as to require restraints, which none know how to apply, but those who are acquainted with the laws of nature: nor, indeed, unless grounded in the first principles of physic, can he study with profit the works of Ctesibius, Archimedes, and many other authors who have written on the subject. Music assists him in the use of harmonic and mathematical proportion. It is, moreover, absolutely necessary in adjusting the force of the balistæ, catapultæ, and scorpions, in whose frames are holes for the passage of the homotona, which are strained by gut-ropes attached to windlasses worked by hand-spikes. Unless these ropes are equally extended, which only a nice ear can discover by their sound when struck, the bent arms of the engine do not give an equal impetus when disengaged, and the strings, therefore, not being in equal states of tension, prevent the direct flight of the weapon.
So the vessels called hyoxeia by the Greeks, which are placed in certain recesses under the seats of theatres, are fixed and arranged with a due regard to the laws of harmony and physics, their tones being fourths, fifths, and octaves; so that when the voice of the actor is in unison with the pitch of these instruments, its power is increased and mellowed by impinging thereon. He would, moreover, be at a loss in constructing hydraulic and other engines, if ignorant of music. Skill in physic enables him to ascertain the salubrity of different tracts of country, and to determine the variation of climates, which the Greeks call klimata: for the air and water of different situations, being matters of the highest importance, no building will be healthy without attention to those points. Law should be an object of his study, especially those parts of it which relate to party-walls, to the free course and discharge of the eaves' waters, the regulations of cesspools and sewage, and those relating to window lights. The laws of sewage require his particular attention, which he may prevent his employers being involved in law-suits when the building is finished. Contracts, also, for the execution of the works, should be drawn with care and precision: because, when without legal flaws, neither party will be able to take advantage of the other. Astronomy instructs him in the points of the heavens, the laws of the celestial bodies, the equinoxes, solstices, and courses of the stars; all of which should be well understood, in the construction and proportions of clocks. Since, therefore, this art is founded upon and adorned with so many different sciences, I am of opinion that those who have not, from their early youth, gradually climbed up to the summit, cannot, without presumption, call themselves masters of it. [From Book One, Chapter 3] Architecture consists of three branches; namely, building, dialling, and mechanics. Building is divided into two parts. The first regulates the general plan of the walls of a city and its public buildings; the other relates to private buildings. Public buildings are for three purposes; defence, religion, and the security of the public. Buildings for defence are those walls, towers, and gates of a town, necessary for the continual shelter of its inhabitants against the attacks of an enemy. Those for the purposes of religion are the fanes and temples of the immortal gods. Those for public convenience are gates, fora or squares for market-places, baths, theatres, walks, and the like; which, being for public use, are placed in public situations, and should be arranged to as best to meet the convenience of the public. All these should possess strength, utility, and beauty. Strength arises from carrying down the foundations to a good solid bottom, and from making a proper choice of materials without parsimony. Utility arises from a judicious distribution of the parts, so that their purposes be duly answered, and that each have its proper situation. Beauty is produced by the pleasing appearance and good taste of the whole, and by the dimensions of all the parts being duly proportioned to each other. ----- 000 -----
Reading A146: 10 Pliny the Elder, “Pepper from India,” from Natural History, written about 77 C.E.
Pliny the Elder was deeply interested in the source of pepper, an important spice imported into the Roman Empire from distant India. By the time he wrote in the 70s C.E., it is interesting to note that the import of pepper into the Roman Empire already absorbed some fifty million sesterces (about $2.1 billion in 2005 dollars). This excerpt comes from Book 26, chapter 6.
[The account began with a description of the sea route Alexander the Great’s ad miral Nearchus followed to bring part of the Macedonian army back to Mesopotamia from the mouth of the Indus River between November 326 to July 325 B.C.E. Then Pliny tells of a route he thinks is shorter.] The following period considered it a shorter and safer route to start from the same cape [Ras Fartak in Arabia] and steer for the Indian harbour of Sigerus, and for a long time this was the course followed, until a merchant discovered a shorter route, and the desire for gain brought India nearer; indeed, the voyage is made every year, with companies of archers on board, because these seas used to be very greatly infested by pirates. And it will not be amiss to set out the whole of the voyage from Egypt [to India], now that reliable knowledge of it is for the first time accessible. It is an important subject, in view of the fact that in no year does India absorb less than fifty million sesterces of our empire's wealth, sending back merchandise to be sold with us at a hundred times its prime cost [emphasis added]. Two miles from Alexandria is the town of Juliopolis. The voyage up the Nile from there to Keft is 309 miles, and takes 12 days when the midsummer trade-winds are blowing. From Keft the journey is made with camels, stations being placed at intervals for the purpose of watering; the first, a stage of 22 miles, is called Hydreuma; the second is in the mountains, a day's journey on; the third at a second place named Hydreuma, 85 miles from Keft; the next is in the mountains; next we come to Apollo's Hydreuma, 184 miles from Keft; again a station in the mountains ; then we get to New Hydreuma, 230 miles from Keft. There is also another old Hydreuma known by the name of Trogodyticum, where a guard is stationed on outpost duty at a caravanserai accommodating two thousand travellers; it is seven miles from New Hydreuma. Then comes the town of Berenice where there is a harbour on the Red Sea, 257 miles from Keft. But as the greater part of the journey is done by night because of the heat and the days are spent at stations, the whole journey from Keft to Berenice takes twelve days. Travelling by sea begins at midsummer before the dog star [Sirius] rises or immediately after its rising, and it takes about thirty days to reach the Arabian port of Cella or Caned in the frankincense-producing district. There is also a third port named Mokha, which is not called at on the voyage to India, and is only used by merchants trading, in frankincense and Arabian perfumes. Inland there is a town, the residence of the king of the district, called Sapphar, and another called Save. But the most advantageous way of sailing to India is to set out. from Cella; from that port it is a 40 days' voyage, if the Hippalus is blowing, to the first trading station in India. Cranganore is not a desirable port of call on account of the neighbouring pirates who occupy a place called Nitriae, nor is it specially rich in articles of merchandise; and furthermore 10
From “Pliny‟s Natural History” at accessed April 22, 2004.
the roadstead [offshore anchorage] for shipping is a long way from the land, and cargoes have to be brought in and carried out in boats. The king of Muziris, at the date of publication, was Caelobothras. There is another more serviceable port, belonging to the Neacyndi tribe, called Porakad; this is where king Pandion reigned, his capital being a town in the interior a long way from the port, called Madura [Madras]; while the district from which pepper is conveyed to Becare in canoes made of hollowed tree-trunks is called Cottonara. But all these names of tribes and ports or towns are to be found in none of the previous writers, which seems to show that the local conditions of the places are changing. Travellers set sail from India on the return voyage at the beginning of the Egyptian month Tybis, which is our December, or at all events before the sixth day of the Egyptian Mechir, which works out at before January 13 in our calendar-- so making it possible to return home in the same year. They set sail from India with a southeast winds and after entering the Red Sea, continue the voyage with a south-west or south wind. ----- 000 -----
Reading A147: Pliny the Younger, “Two Letters to Tacitus on the eruption of Vesuvius,” written about 79 11 C.E.
Pliny the Younger (lived 62-113 C.E.) was the nephew and adopted son of Pliny the Elder. At the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in August, 79 C.E., the elder Pliny was serving as commander of the Roman fleet stationed at Misenium, a port on the Bay of Naples. Learning of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which was responsible for the burying of the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum beneath millions of tons of volcanic ash, Pliny the Elder went ashore to ascertain the cause and to reassure the terrified citizens. He was overcome by the fumes resulting from the volcanic activity, and died. Later, his nephew was asked by the historian Tacitus to tell of the events leading to the elder Pliny’s death. The result was the two letters that follow (in English translation, of course). Considering that these letters were private correspondence, it is amazing that they have survived for nearly two thousand years. They are excellent examples of the high standard of observation among educated Romans, which reveal the practicality of their scientific interest.
[First Letter from Pliny to Tacitus] My dear Tacitus, You ask me to write you something about the death of my uncle so that the account you transmit to posterity is as reliable as possible. I am grateful to you, for I see that his death will be remembered forever if you treat it [that is, if you write about it in your Histories]. He perished in a devastation of the loveliest of lands, in a memorable disaster shared by peoples and cities, but this will be a kind of eternal life for him. Although he wrote a great number of enduring works himself, the imperishable nature of your writings will add a great deal to his survival. . . . . It is therefore with great pleasure that I take up, or rather take upon myself the task you have set me. He was at Misenum in his capacity as commander of the fleet on the 24th of August [in 79 A.D.], when between 2 and 3 in the afternoon my mother drew his attention to a cloud of unusual size and appearance. He had had a sunbath, then a cold bath, and was reclining after dinner [lunch] with his books. He called for his shoes and climbed up to where he could get the best view of the phenomenon. The cloud was rising from a mountain-- at such a distance we couldn‟t tell which, but afterwards learned that it was Vesuvius. I can best describe its shape by likening it to a pine tree. It rose into the sky on a very long “trunk” from which spread some “branches.” I imagine it had been raised by a sudden blast, which then weakened, leaving the cloud unsupported so that its own weight caused it to spread sideways. Some of the cloud was white, in other parts there were dark patches of dirt and ash. The sight of it made the scientist in my uncle determined to see it from closer at hand.
11
From “Pliny the Younger‟s corr espondence” website, at < http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu /pompeii/pliny.html> accessed August 9, 2003.
He ordered a boat made ready. He offered me the opportunity of going along, but I preferred to study-- he himself happened to have set me a writing exercise. As he was leaving the house he was brought a letter from Tascius‟ wife Rectina, who was terrified by the looming danger. Her villa lay at the foot of Vesuvius, and there was no way out except by boat. She begged him to get her away. He changed his plans. The expedition that started out as a quest for knowledge now called for courage. He launched the quadriremes and embarked himself, a source of aid for more people than just Rectina, for that delightful shore was a populous one. He hurried to a place from which others were fleeing, and held his course directly into danger. Was he afraid? It seems not, as he kept up a continuous observation of the various movements and shapes of that evil cloud, dictating what he saw. Ash was falling onto the ships now, darker and denser the closer they went. Now it was bits of pumice, and rocks that were blackened and burned and shattered by the fire. Now the sea is shoal; debris from the mountain blocks the shore. He paused for a moment wondering whether to turn back as the helmsman urged him. “Fortune helps the brave,” he said, “Head for Pomponianus.” At Stabiae, on the other side of the bay formed by the gradually curving shore, Pomponianus had loaded up his ships even before the danger arrived, though it was visible and indeed extremely close, once it intensified. He planned to put out as soon as the contrary wind let up. That very wind carried my uncle right in, and he embraced the frightened man and gave him comfort and courage. In order to lessen the other‟s fear by showing his own unconcern he asked to be taken to the baths. He bathed and dined, carefree or at least appearing so (which is equally impressive). Meanwhile, broad sheets of flame were lighting up many parts of Vesuvius; their light and brightness were the more vivid for the darkness of the night. To alleviate people‟s fears my uncle claimed that the flames came from the deserted homes of farmers who had left in a panic with the hearth fires still alight. Then he rested, and gave every indication of actually sleeping; people who passed by his door heard his snores, which were rather resonant since he was a heavy man. The ground outside his room rose so high with the mixture of ash and stones that if he had spent any more time there escape would have been impossible. He got up and came out, restoring himself to Pomponianus and the others who had been unable to sleep. They discussed what to do, whether to remain under cover or to try the open air. The buildings were being rocked by a series of strong tremors, and appeared to have come loose from their foundations and to be sliding this way and that. Outside, however, there was danger from the rocks that were coming down, light and fire-consumed as these bits of pumice were. Weighing the relative dangers they chose the outdoors; in my uncle‟s case it was a rational decision, others just chose the alternative that frightened them the least. They tied pillows on top of their heads as protection against the shower of rock. It was daylight now elsewhere in the world, but there the darkness was darker and thicker than any night. But they had torches and other lights. They decided to go down to the shore, to see from close up if anything was possible by sea. But it remained as rough and uncooperative as before. Resting in the shade of a sail he drank once or twice from the cold water he had asked for. Then came a smell of sulfur, announcing the flames, and the flames themselves, sending others into flight but reviving him. Supported by two small slaves he stood up, and immediately collapsed. As I understand it, his breathing was obstructed by the dust-laden air, and his innards, which were never strong and often blocked or upset, simply shut down. When daylight came again 2
days after he died, his body was found untouched, unharmed, in the clothing that he had had on. He looked more asleep than dead. Meanwhile at Misenum, my mother and I-- but this has nothing to do with history, and you only asked for information about his death. I‟ll stop here then. But I will say one more thing, namely, that I have written out everything that I did at the time and heard while memories were still fresh. You will use the important bits, for it is one thing to write a letter, another to write history, one thing to write to a friend, another to write for the public. Farewell. [Second Letter from Pliny to Tacitus] My dear Tacitus, You say that the letter I wrote for you ab out my uncle‟s death made you want to know about my fearful ordeal at Misenum (this was where I broke off). “The mind shudders to remember . . . but here is the tale.” After my uncle‟s departure I finished up my studies, as I had planned. Then I had a bath, then dinner and a short and unsatisfactory night. There had been tremors for many days previously, a common occurrence in Campania and no cause for panic. But that night the shaking grew much stronger; people thought it was an upheaval, not just a tremor. My mother burst into my room and I got up. I said she should rest, and I would rouse her (if need be). We sat out on a small terrace between the house and the sea. I sent for a volume of Livy; I read and even took notes from where I had left off, as if it were a moment of free time; I hardly know whether to call it bravery, or foolhardiness (I was seventeen at the time). Up comes a friend of my uncle's, recently arrived from Spain. When he sees my mother and me sitting there, and me even reading a book, he scolds her for her calm and me for my lack of concern. But I kept on with my book. Now the day begins, with a still hesitant and almost lazy dawn. All around us buildings are shaken. We are in the open, but it is only a small area and we are afraid, nay certain, that there will be a collapse. We decided to leave the town finally; a dazed crowd follows us, preferring our plan to their own (this is what passes for wisdom in a panic). Their numbers are so large that they slow our departure, and then sweep us along. We stopped once we had left the buildings behind us. Many strange things happened to us there, and we had much to fear. The carts that we had ordered brought were moving in opposite directions, though the ground was perfectly flat, and they wouldn‟t stay in place even with their wheels blocked by stones. In addition, it seemed as though the sea was being sucked backwards, as if it were being pushed back by the shaking of the land. Certainly the shoreline moved outwards, and many sea creatures were left on dry sand. Behind us were frightening dark clouds, rent by lightning twisted and hurled, opening to reveal huge figures of flame. These were like lightning, but bigger. At that point the Spanish friend urged us strongly: “If your brother and uncle is alive, he wants you to be safe. If he has perished, he wanted you to survive him. So why are you
reluctant to escape?” We responded that we would not look to our own safety as long as we were uncertain about his. Waiting no longer, he took himself off from the danger at a mad pace. It wasn‟t long thereafter that the cloud stretched down to the ground and covered the sea. It girdled Capri and made it vanish, it hid Misenum's promontory. Then my mother began to beg and urge and order me to flee however I might, saying that a young man could make it, that she, weighed down in years and body, would die happy if she escaped being the cause of my death. I replied that I wouldn‟t save myself without her, and then I took her hand and made her walk a little faster. She obeyed with difficulty, and blamed herself for delaying me. Now came the dust, though still thinly. I look back: a dense cloud looms behind us, following us like a flood poured across the land. “Let us turn aside while we can still see, lest we be knocked over in the street and crushed by the crowd of our companions.” We had scarcely sat down when a darkness came that was not like a moonless or cloudy night, but more like the black of closed and unlighted rooms. You could hear women lamenting, children crying, men shouting. Some were calling for parents, others for children or spouses; they could only recognize them by their voices. Some bemoaned their own lot, other that of their near and dear. There were some so afraid of death that they prayed for death. Many raised their hands to the gods, and even more believed that there were no gods any longer and that this was one last unending night for the world. Nor were we without people who magnified real dangers with fictitious horrors. Some announced that one or another part of Misenum had collapsed or burned; lies, but they found believers. It grew lighter, though that seemed not a return of day, but a sign that the fire was approaching. The fire itself actually stopped some distance away, but darkness and ashes came again, a great weight of them. We stood up and shook the ash off again and again, otherwise we would have been covered with it and crushed by the weight. I might boast that no groan escaped me in such perils, no cowardly word, but that I believed that I was perishing with the world, and the world with me, which was a great consolation for death. At last the cloud thinned out and dwindled to no more than smoke or fog. Soon there was real daylight. The sun was even shining, though with the lurid glow it has after an eclipse. The sight that met our still terrified eyes was a changed world, buried in ash like snow. We returned to Misenum and took care of our bodily needs, but spent the night dangling between hope and fear. Fear was the stronger, for the earth was still quaking and a number of people who had gone mad were mocking the evils that had happened to them and others with terrifying prognostications. We still refused to go until we heard news of my uncle, although we had felt danger and expected more. You will read what I have written, but will not take up your pen, as the material is not the stuff of history. You have only yourself to blame if it seems not even proper stuff for a letter. Farewell. ----- 000 -----
Reading A148: 12 Galen, Medicine [excerpts], written about 180 C.E.
The physician and philosopher Galen was born at Pergamum in 129 C.E. His father, Aelius Nicon, was an architect and builder with an interest in mathematics, logic, and astronomy and a fondness for exotic mathematical and literary recreations. His mother, according to Galen himself, was a hot-tempered woman, always arguing with his father; Galen compared her to Socrates' wife Xanthippe. Perhaps while still in his teens, Galen became a therapeutes or "attendant" of the healing god Asclepius, whose sanctuary was an important cultural center not only for Pergamum, but also for the entire Roman province of Asia [modern Turkey]. The prestigious cult association of therapeutai included magistrates, senators, highly-placed members of the imperial civil service, and literary men from all over the province. Nicon had planned for his son to study philosophy or politics, the traditional pursuits of the cultured governing class into which he had been born. But in 144 or 145 C.E. Asclepius intervened. In a dream, Galen says, the god told Nicon to allow his son to study medicine, and for the next four years Galen studied with the distinguished physicians who gathered at the sanctuary of Asclepius. In 148 or 149 C.E. Nicon died, and Galen at the age of 19 found himself rich and independent. He chose to travel and further his medical education at Smyrna (modern Izmir), Corinth, and Alexandria. In 157 C.E. he returned to his native city and a prestigious appointment: physician to the gladiators. From autumn 157 to autumn 161 he gained valuable practical experience in trauma and sports medicine, and he continued to pursue his studies in theoretical medicine and philosophy. By 161 C.E. Galen, now 32, may have realized that even a great and prosperous provincial city like Pergamum could not offer the opportunities his talents and ambition demanded. He left, returning only for a three-year span from 166 until sometime in 169. The rest of his career was spent in Rome. During his first stay at Rome Galen quickly became part of the intellectual life of the capital. His public lectures and anatomical demonstrations brought him to the attention of the consular Flavius Boethius, and through him to the notice of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. In 168 C.E., Galen tells us, Marcus and his co-emperor, Lucius Verus, invited him to return from Pergamum and to join them at their headquarters in Aquileia, where they were engaged in military operations against the Quadi and Marcomanni, barbarian tribes threatening the Danubian frontier. By the time Galen acted on the emperor's invitation, however, an outbreak of plague had forced Marcus and his court to return to Rome. There Galen joined them. He continued to write, lecture, and practice medicine, with the emperor's son Commodus and Marcus himself as his most illustrious patients. With the possible exception of a few journeys taken to investigate scientific phenomena, he remained at Rome until his death sometime after 210 C.E. In 191C.E. a fir e in Rome’s Temple of Peace, where he had deposited many of his manuscripts for safe-keeping, destroyed important parts of Galen's work. What remains, however, is enough to establish his reputation as the most prolific, cantankerous, and influential of ancient medical writers. His extant works fill some twenty volumes in Greek, and some 12
From Oliver J. Thatcher, editor, The Library of Original Sources (Milwaukee: University Research Extension Co., 1907), Vol. III, pp. 286-292.
additional works survive only in Arabic or medieval Latin translations. His medical writings encompass nearly every aspect of medical theory and practice in his era. In addition to summarizing the state of medicine at the height of the Roman Empire, he reports his own important advances in anatomy, physiology, and therapeutics. His philosophical writings cannot be easily separated from his medical thought. Throughout his treatises on knowledge and semantics he is concerned to argue that medicine, understood correctly, can have the same epistemological certainty, linguistic clarity, and intellectual status that philosophy enjoyed. Likewise his treatises on the language of medicine and his commentaries on Hippocratic texts form part of his project to recover authentic medical knowledge from the accretions of mistaken doctrine. Galen tells us more about himself, his opinions, and his life than any other ancient medical author. He excoriates his contemporaries for their ignorance, greed, and superficial knowledge of the art of medicine. It is difficult to overstate the importance of Galen for European medical thought in the centuries between the fall of Rome and modern times. As late as the early nineteenth century, his writings were still consulted by working physicians. In this brief excerpt, Galen describes the status of medical study in Roman times.
There are in all three branches of the study of medicine, in this order. The first is the study of the result by analysis; the second is the combining of the facts found by analysis; the third is the determining of the definition, which branch we are now to consider in this work. This branch of the science may be called not only the determining of the definition, but just as well the explication, as some would term it, or the resolution, as some desire, or the explanation, or according to still others, the exposition. Now some of the Herophilii, such as Heraclides of Erythrea, have attempted to teach this doctrine. These Herophilii and certain followers of Erasistratus and of Athenaeus, the Attalian, studied also the doctrine of combination. But no one before us has described the method which begins with the study of the results, from which every art must take its beginning methodically; this we have considered in a former work. Medicine is the science of the healthy, the unhealthy, and the indeterminate, or neutral. It is a matter of indifference whether one calls the second the ill, or the unhealthy. It is better to give the name of the science in common than in technical terms. But the healthy, the unhealthy, the neutral, are each of them subject to a three-fold-division: first, as to the body; second, as to the cause; and third, as to the sign. The body which contains the health, the cause which affects or preserves the health, and the sign or symptom which marks the condition of the health, all these are called by the Greeks hygienia . In the same way they speak of the bodies susceptible to disease, of causes effecting and aiding diseases, and of signs indicating diseases, as pathological. Likewise they speak of neutral bodies, causes, and signs. And according to the first division the science of medicine is called the science of the causes of health, according to the second, of the causes of ill-health, and according to the third of the causes of neutral conditions. The healthy body is simply that which is rightly composed from its very birth in the simple and elementary parts of its structure, and is symmetrical in the organs composed of these elements. From another point of view, that is also a healthy body which is in sound condition at the time of speaking. ----- 000 -----
Reading A149: 13 Heron (Hero) of Alexandria, Pneumatica [excerpt], written about 50 C.E.
Sometimes called Hero, Heron of Alexandria (lived about 10-about 75 C.E.) was an important geometer and worker in mechanics. From Heron's writings it is reasonable to deduce that he taught at the Museum in Alexandria. His works look like lecture notes from courses he must have given there on mathematics, physics, pneumatics, and mechanics. Some are clearly textbooks while others are perhaps drafts of lecture notes not yet worked into final form for a student textbook. A large number of works by Heron have survived, although the authorship of some is disputed. The works fall into several categories, technical works, mechanical works and mathematical works. Of his extant works, one of the most interesting to modern historians of technology is Pneumatica , written about 50 C.E., which is the first technical work ever to describe a steam-powered mechanical device. Modern historians argue that, had slavery not been such an essential p art of the Roman economic system, it is conceivable that Heron’s discoveries might have led to an industrial revolution, but sadly, this was not to be.
[From Introduction] The investigation of the properties of Atmospheric Air having been deemed worthy of close attention by the ancient philosophers and mechanists, the former deducing them theoretically, the latter from the action of sensible bodies, we also have thought proper to arrange in order what has been handed down by former writers, and to add thereto our own discoveries: a task from which much advantage will result to those who shall hereafter devote themselves to the study of mathematics. We are further led to write this work from the consideration that it is fitting that the treatment of this subject should correspond with the method given by us in our treatise, in four books, on water-clocks. For, by the union of air, earth, fire and water, and the concurrence of three, or four, elementary principles, various combinations are effected, some of which supply the most pressing wants of human life, while others produce amazement and alarm. But, before proceeding to our proper subject, we must treat of the vacuum. Some assert that there is absolutely no vacuum; others that, while no continuous vacuum is exhibited in nature, it is to be found distributed in minute portions through air, water, fire and all other substances and this latter opinion, which we will presently demonstrate to be true from sensible phenomena, we adopt. Vessels which seem to most men empty are not empty, as they suppose, but full of air. Now the air, as those who have treated of physics are agreed, is composed of particles minute and light, and for the most part invisible. If, then, we pour water into an apparently empty vessel, air will leave the vessel proportioned in quantity to the water which enters it. This may be seen from the following experiment. Let the vessel which seems to be empty be inverted, and, being carefully kept upright, pressed down into water ; the water will not enter it even though it, it be entirely immersed: so that it is manifest that the air, being matter, and having itself filled all the space in the vessel, does not allow the water to enter. Now, if we 13
From Bennet Woodcroft, translator and editor, The Pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria (London: Taylor Walton and Maberley, 1851); at accessed April 26, 2004.
bore the bottom of the vessel, the water will enter through the mouth, but the air will escape through the hole. Again, if, before perforating the bottom, we raise the vessel vertically, and turn it up, we shall find the inner surface of the vessel entirely free from moisture, exactly as it was before immersion. Hence it must be assumed that the air is matter. The air when set in motion becomes wind, (for wind is nothing else but air in motion), and if, when the bottom of the vessel has been pierced and the water is entering, we place the hand over the hole, we shall feel the wind escaping from the vessel; and this is nothing else but the air which is being driven out by the water. It is not then to be supposed that there exists in nature a distinct and continuous vacuum, but that it is distributed in small measures through air and liquid and all other bodies. Adamant alone might be thought not to partake of this quality, as it does not admit of fusion or fracture, and, when beaten against anvils or hammers, buries itself in them entire. This peculiarity however is due to its excessive density for the particles of fire, being coarser than the void spaces in the stone, do not pass through them, but only touch the outer surface; consequently, as they do not penetrate into this, as into other substances, no heat results. The particles of the air are in contact with each other, yet they do not fit closely in every part, but void spaces are left between them, as in the sand on the sea shore: the grains of sand must be imagined to correspond to the particles of air, and the air between the grains of sand to the void spaces between the particles of air. Hence, when any force is applied to it, the air is compressed, and, contrary to its nature, falls into the vacant spaces from the pressure exerted on its particles: but when the force is withdrawn, the air returns again to its former position from the elasticity of its particles, as is the ease with horn shavings and sponge, which, when compressed and set free again, return to the same position and exhibit the same bulk. Similarly, if from the application of force the particles of air be divided and a vacuum be produced larger than is natural, the particles unite again afterwards; for bodies will have a rapid motion through a vacuum, where there is nothing to obstruct or repel them, until they are in contact. Thus, if a light vessel with a narrow mouth be taken and applied to the lips, and the air he sucked out and discharged, the vessel will be suspended from the lips, the vacuum drawing the flesh towards it that the exhausted space may he filled. It is manifest from this that there was a continuous vacuum in the vessel. The same may be shown by means of the egg-shaped cups used by physicians, which are of glass, and have narrow mouths. When they wish to fill these with liquid, after sucking out the contained air, they place the finger on the vessel's mouth and invert them into the liquid; then, the finger being withdrawn, the water is drawn up into the exhausted space, though the upward motion is against its nature. Very similar is the operation of cupping-glasses, which, when applied to the body, not only do not fall though of considerable weight but even draw the contiguous matter toward them through the apertures of the body. The explanation is that the fire placed in them consumes and rarefies the air they contain, just as other substances, water, air or earth are consumed and pass over into more subtle substances. That something is consumed by the action of fire is manifest from coal-cinders, which, preserving the same bulk as they had before combustion, or nearly so, differ very much in weight. The consumed parts pass away with the smoke into a substance of fire or air or earth the subtlest parts pass into the highest region where fire is; the parts some-what coarser than these into air, and those coarser still, having been borne with the others a certain space by the current, descend again into the lower regions and mingle with earthy substances. Water also, when consumed by the action of fire, is transformed into air; for the vapour arising from cauldrons placed upon flames is nothing but the evaporation from the liquid passing into air. That fire,
then, dissolves and transforms all bodies grosser than itself is evident from the above facts. Again, in the exhalations that rise from the earth the grosser kinds of matter are changed into subtler substances; for dew is sent up from the evaporation of the water contained in the earth by exhalation; and this exhalation is produced by some igneous substance, when the sun is under the earth and warms the ground below, especially if the soil be sulphureous or bituminous, and the ground thus warmed increases the exhalation. The warm springs found in the earth are due to the same cause. The lighter portions of the dew, then, pass into air ; the grosser, after being borne upwards for a certain space from the force of the exhalation, when this has cooled at the return of the sun, descend again to the surface. Winds are produced from excessive exhalation, whereby the air is disturbed and rarefied, and sets in motion the air in immediate contact with it. This movement of the air, however, is not everywhere of uniform velocity: it is more violent in the neighbourhood of the exhalation, where the motion began; fainter at a greater distance from it: just as heavy bodies, when rising, move more rapidly in the lower region where the propelling force is, and more slowly in the higher; and when the force which originally propelled them no longer acts upon them, they return to their natural position, that is, to the surface of the earth. If the propelling force continued to urge them onward with equal velocity, they would never have stopped, but now the force gradually ceases, being as it were expended, and the speed of the motion ceases with it. Water, again, is transformed into an earthy substance: if we pour water into an earthy and hollow place, after a short time tile water disappears, being absorbed by the earthy substance, so that it mingles with, and is actually transformed into, earth. And if any one says that it is not transformed or absorbed by the earth, but is drawn out by heat, either of the sun or some other body, he shall be shown to be mistaken: for if the same water be put into a vessel of glass, or bronze, or any other solid material, and placed in the sun, for a considerable time it is not diminished except in a very small degree. Water, therefore, is transformed into an earthy substance: indeed, slime and mud are transformations of water into earth. Moreover, the more subtle substance is transformed into the grosser as in the case of the flame of a lamp dying out for want of oil,-we see it for a time borne upwards and, as it were, striving to reach its proper region, that is, the highest of all above the atmosphere, till, overpowered by the mass of intervening air, it no longer tends to its kindred place, but, as though mixed and interwoven with the particles of air, becomes air itself. The same may be observed with air. For, if a small vessel containing air and carefully closed be placed in water with the mouth uppermost, and then, the vessel being uncovered, the water be allowed to rush in, the air escapes from the vessel; but, being overpowered by the mass of water, it mingles with it again and is transformed so as to become water. When, therefore, the air in the cupping glasses, being in like manner consumed and rarefied by fire, issues through the pores in the sides of the glass, the space within is exhausted and draws towards it the matter adjacent, of whatever kind it may be. But, if the cupping glass be slightly raised, the air will enter the exhausted space and no more matter will be drawn up. They, then, who assert that there is absolutely no vacuum may invent many arguments on this subject, and perhaps seem to discourse most plausibly though they offer no tangible proof.
If, however, it be shown by an appeal to sensible phenomena that there is such a thing as a continuous vacuum, but artificially produced; that a vacuum exists also naturally, but scattered in minute portions; and that by compression bodies fill up these scattered vacuum, those who bring forward such plausible arguments in this matter will no longer be able to make good their ground. Provide a spherical vessel, of the thickness of metal plate so as not to be easily crushed, containing about 8 cotylae (2 quarts). When this has been tightly closed on every side, pierce a hole in it, and insert a siphon, or slender tube, of bronze, so as not to touch the part diametrically opposite to the point of perforation, that a passage may be left for water. The other end of the siphon must project about 3 fingers' breadth (2 in.) above the globe, and the circumference of the aperture through which the siphon is inserted must be closed with tin applied both to the siphon and to the outer surface of the globe, so that when it is desired to breathe through the siphon no air may possibly escape from the vessel. Let us watch the result. The globe, like other vessels commonly said to be empty, contains air, and as this air fills all the space within it and presses uniformly against the inner surface of the vessel, if there is no vacuum, as some suppose, we can neither introduce water nor more air, unless the air contained before make way for it; and if by the application of force we make the attempt, the vessel, being full, will burst sooner than admit it. For the particles of air cannot be condensed, as there must in that case be interstices between them, by compression into which their bulk may become less; but this is not credible if there is no vacuum nor again, as the particles press against one another throughout their whole surface and likewise against the sides of the vessel, can they be pushed away so as to make room if there is no vacuum. Thus in no way can anything from without be introduced into the globe unless some portion of the previously contained air escape; if, that is to say, the whole space is closely and uniformly filled, as the objectors suppose. And yet, if any one, inserting the siphon in his mouth, shall blow into the globe, he will introduce much wind without any of the previously contained air giving way. And, this being the uniform result, it is clearly shown that a condensation takes place of the particles contained in the globe into the interspersed vacua. The condensation however is effected artificially by the forcible introduction of air. Now if, after blowing into the vessel, we bring the hand close to the mouth, and quickly cover the siphon with the finger, the air remains the whole time pent up in the globe; and on the removal of the finger the introduced air will rush out again with a loud noise, being thrust out, as we stated, by the expansion of the original air which takes place from its elasticity. Again, if we draw out the air in the globe by suction through the siphon, it will follow abundantly, though no other substance take its place in the vessel, as has been said in the case of the egg. By this experiment it is completely proved that an accumulation of vacuum goes on in the globe; for the particles of air left behind cannot grow larger in the interval so as to occupy the space left by the particles driven out. For if they increase in magnitude when no foreign substance can be added, it must be supposed that this increase arises from expansion, which is equivalent to a re-arrangement of the particles through the production of a vacuum. But it is maintained that there is no vacuum; the particles therefore will not become larger, for it is not possible to imagine for them any other mode of increase. It is clear, then, from what has been said that certain void spaces are interspersed between the particles of the air, into which, when force is applied, they fall contrary to their natural action.
The air contained in the vessel inverted in water does not undergo much compression, for the compressing force is not considerable, seeing that water, in its own nature, possesses neither weight nor power of excessive pressure. Whence it is that, though divers to the bottom of the sea support an immense weight of water on their backs, respiration is not compelled by the water, though the air contained in their nostrils is extremely little. It is worth while here to examine what reason is given why those who dive deep, supporting on their backs an immense weight of water, are not crushed. Some say that it is because water is of uniform weight: but these give no reason why divers are not crushed by the water above. The true reason may be shown as follows. Let us imagine the column of liquid which is directly over the surface of the object under pressure, (in immediate contact with which the water is,) to be a body of the same weight and form as the superincumbent liquid, and that this is so placed in the water that its under surface coincides with the surface of the body pressed, resting upon it in the same manner as the previously superincumbent liquid, with which it exactly corresponds. It is clear, then, that this body does not project above the liquid in which it is immersed, and will not sink beneath its surface. For Archimedes has shown, in his work on 'Floating Bodies,' that bodies of equal weight with any liquid, when immersed in it, will neither project above nor sink beneath its surface: therefore they will not exert pressure on objects beneath. Again, such a body, if all objects which exert pressure from above be removed, remains in the same place; how then can a body which has no tendency downward exert pressure? Similarly, the liquid displaced by the body will not exert pressure on objects beneath; for, as regards rest and motion, the body in question does [not] differ from the liquid which occupies the same space. Again, that void spaces exist may be seen from the following considerations: for, if there were not such spaces, neither light, nor heat nor any other material force could penetrate through water, or air, or any body whatever. How could the rays of the sun, for example, penetrate through water to the bottom of the vessel? If there were no pores in the fluid, and the rays thrust the water aside by force, the consequence would be that full vessels would overflow, which however does not take place. Again, if the rays thrust the water aside by force, it would not be found that some were reflected while others penetrated below; but now all those rays that impinge upon the particles of the water are driven back, as it were, and reflected, while those that come in contact with the void spaces, meeting with but few particles, penetrate to the bottom of the vessel. It is clear, too, that void spaces exist in water from this, that, when wine is poured into water, it is seen to spread itself through every part of the water, which it would not do if there were no vacua in the water. Again, one light traverses another; for, when several lamps are lighted, all objects are brilliantly illuminated, the rays passing in every direction through each other. And indeed it is possible to penetrate through bronze, iron, and all other bodies, as is seen in the instance of the marine torpedo [a sea worm found in the Mediterranean Sea]. That a continuous vacuum can be artificially produced has been shown by the application of a light vessel to the mouth, and by the egg of physicians. With regard, then, to the nature of the vacuum, though other proofs exist, we deem those that have been given, and which are founded on sensible phenomena, to be sufficient. It may, therefore, be affirmed in this matter that every body is composed of minute particles, between which are empty spaces less than the particles of the body, (so that we erroneously say that there is no vacuum except by the application of force, and that every place is full either of air, or water, or some other substance), and, in proportion as any one of these particles recedes, some other follows it and fills the vacant space: that there is no continuous vacuum except by the application of some force: and again, that the absolute
vacuum is never found, but is produced artificially. These things having been clearly explained, let us treat of the theorems resulting from the combination of these principles; for, by means of them, many curious and astonishing kinds of motion may be discovered. After these preliminary considerations we will begin by treating of the bent siphon, which is most useful in many ways in Pneumatics. . . . [From Section 50] No. 50. The Steam-Engine. Place a cauldron over a fire: a ball shall revolve on a pivot. A fire is lighted under a cauldron, A B, (fig. 50), containing water, and covered at the mouth by the lid C D; with this the bent tube E F G communicates, the extremity of the tube being fitted into a hollow ball, H K. Opposite to the extremity G place a pivot, L M, resting on the lid C D; and let the ball contain two bent pipes, communicating with it at the opposite extremities of a diameter, and bent in opposite directions, the bends being at right angles and across the lines F G, L M. As the cauldron gets hot it will be found that the steam, entering the ball through E F G, passes out through the bent tubes towards the lid, and causes the ball to revolve, as in the case of the dancing figures.
A modern (1851 C.E.) reconstruction of Heron’s steam engine; in reality this is a steam turbine. It is interesting to speculate on what might have happened if this invention had triggered the Industrial Revolution some seventeen hundred years earlier than it did happen. This drawing is from accessed April 26, 2004.
LITERATURE
Reading A150: 14 Ovid, The Art of Love [excerpts], written about 2 B.C.E.
Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid (lived 43 B.C.E. – 17 C.E.) is perhaps the bestknown Roman poet. He wrote The Art of Love in 2 B.C.E. to offer amatory advice to Roman men and women; it reveals a great deal about pre-Christian social values. The Emperor Augustus banished Ovid in 8 C.E. to the most remote place in the empire — Tomis (now Constanta) in Roumania on the shores of the Black Sea, but the reason for this punishment — which hurt Ovid greatly, as is revealed in his later writings — is unknown today. One rumour from ancient times sugges ts that Ovid had a love affair with one of Augustus’ granddaughters, but this is not known with certainty.
Amores 1.5
It was hot, and the day had passed its middle hour; I lay my limbs on the couch, seeking rest. The window was half open, half closed — the light was like that which one finds in the woods when they gleam in half shadow as Phoebus flees before the twilight or when night has departed but day has yet to rise. Such light is de riguer for girls of a bashful nature: in it their timorous modesty can hope to find some friendly shadows. And behold! Corinna comes, veiled in a loosened tunic, her hair covering her gleaming neck in twin braids. 15 She was like shapely Semiramis entering her bridal chamber, 16 or Lais, loved by many men. I ripped off the tunic: it was quite thin and put up little resistance — all the same, she kept struggling to maintain its shielding cover. But since she fought like one who has no desire to win, she was defeated without difficulty, betrayed by her own side. As she stood before my eyes, her clothes cast off, no blemish appeared in all her body: What shoulders, what arms did I perceive (and touch!). The shape of her breasts — so fit for fondling! How flat a stomach below her slender chest! How long and beautiful a flank! How youthful a thigh! 14
From the website maintained by Professor John Porter at the University of Saskatchewan, accessed September 15, 2005; used with permission. 15 Semiramis was a semi-legendary Assyrian queen, famous for her beauty. 16 Lais was one of two Greek courtesans of the 4th-3rd century B.C.E., famous for beauty and for her political machinations.
Why should I mention individual details? I saw nothing not worthy of praise as I pressed her, nude, up against my body. As for what followed — who doesn't know that? Worn out, we both sought rest. May many an afternoon turn out for me like that one!
Amores 1.14
I kept saying, "Quit doctoring your hair!" Now you have no hair left to doctor! If you had just left it alone, whose hair was more luxurious, reaching, as it did, all the way down to your flank? Yes, and it was fine, so fine that you feared to dress it, 17 fine as the thread in the fabrics the dark-skinned Chinese wear, or as the web the spider spins with graceful foot when it weaves its work under a deserted beam. It was neither dark nor, indeed, golden, but, although neither, a mixture of both, as it were — the color of the towering cedars in the damp vales of hilly Ida when their bark is stripped off. Moreover, it was so pliant, could be trained to hold a hundred curls, and never caused you any grief whatsoever. No pin tore it out, no comb's tine, your hairdresser never suffered injury for a mistake: often, before my eyes, my girl's hair was adorned, nor ever did she snatch the pin away and wound her beautician's arms. Often, indeed, in the morning she lay half-reclining on a purple couch, her hair not yet arranged: even then, in a state of disarray, she was gorgeous, like a Thracian Bacchante when, worn out, she lies on the green grass, all heedless. Although her locks were delicate and graceful, like soft down, still, what tortures they endured, poor things! How patiently they submitted to the fire and the iron in order that some spiralling series of coils could be contrived! I kept shouting, “It is criminal — criminal, I say — to burn those locks! They‟re pleasing just as they are. Woman of iron, spare your head! Apply no violence there! It does not deserve to burn! Your hair itself trains the very pins applied to hold it, not vice- versa!” Now those locks have perished — locks that Apollo, that Bacchus himself might have wished to adorn his own head. I would compare them to those in the paintings which Diana, [in her bath,] is portrayed as lifting in her dripping hands. Why these complaints, now, that you have lost your hair if it was so intractable? Why, foolish girl, set aside your mirror with sorrowing hand? It's because your eyes aren't yet accustomed to the reflection they now see: 17
A reference to silk a rare fabric known to Romans of the Augustan age, but very rare and expensive.
to find yourself attractive now, you must forget what once you were. No rival's magic herbs have done you in, 18 no treacherous old woman has bathed you in Thessalian waters, no disease has laid you low (may my words bring no ill omen!), nor did some envious tongue cast a spell against your lush locks: you are confronting a loss caused by your own fault, your very hand — you yourself kept applying the poison potion to your head. 19 Now Germany sends to you its captive locks: you'll be whole, but only thanks to the agency of a conquered race. O, how often you'll blush when someone admires your hair, as you say to yourself, “I win people's praise by means of bought goods! 20 Instead of me, he's praising some unnamed Sygambrian woman! Yet I remember when such praise was mine!” Ah me! She barely can restrain her tears and with her right hand she hides her face, her unadorned cheeks stained with a blush. In her lap she holds what once was her hair, staring at it. Ah me! — it deserves a fitter setting. But collect yourself, stop your blubbering: the loss is repairable. In a while you'll once again be gazed at and admired for your own hair. ----- 000 -----
18
Among Greeks and Romans, Thessaly, a district in Greece, was famous as the center for witchcraft. This line means she is wearing a wig made o f hair imported from Germany; wigs made from blonde German hair were popular in Augustan Rome because they provided such a sharp contrast to dark-coloured Roman hair. 20 Sygambrian woman is a reference to a Germanic tribe. 19
Reading A151: 21 Juvenal, “Satire III, On the City of Rome,” written about 118 C.E.
Decimus Junius Juvenalis (flourished late first century C.E.) was a Roman poet and satirist who, as is the case with most satirists, wrote from a conservative perspective. His Third Satire is an aggressive attack on the internationalization of the city Rome. In this text, the first few lines, in which Juvenal describes his friend's Umbricius' decision to leave Rome for Cumae, are omitted. The text takes up where Umbricius begins to speak.
. . . Since at Rome there is no place for honest pursuits, no profit to be got by honest toil-my fortune is less to-day than it was yesterday, and to-morrow must again make that little less-we propose emigrating to the spot where Daedalus put off his wearied wings, while my grey hairs are still but few, my old age green and erect; while something yet remains for Lachesis to spin, and I can bear myself on my own legs, without a staff to support my right hand. Let us leave our native land. There let Arturius and Catulus live. Let those continue in it who turn black to white; for whom it is an easy matter to get contracts for building temples, clearing rivers, constructing harbors, cleansing the sewers, the furnishing of funerals, and under the mistress-spear set up the slave to sale. It is that the city is become Greek, Quirites, that I cannot tolerate; and yet how small the proportion even of the dregs of Greece! Syrian Orontes has long since flowed into the Tiber, and brought with it its language, morals, and the crooked harps with the flute-player, and its national tambourines, and girls made to stand for hire at the Circus. Go thither, you who fancy a barbarian harlot with embroidered turban. That rustic of yours, Quirinus, takes his Greek supper-cloak, and wears Greek prizes on his neck besmeared with Ceroma. One forsaking steep Sicyon, another Amydon, a third from Andros, another from Samos, another again from Tralles, or Alabanda, swarm to Esquiliae, and the hill called from its osiers, destined to be the very vitals, and future lords of great houses. These have a quick wit, desperate impudence, a ready speech, more rapidly fluent even than Isaeus. Tell me what you fancy he is? He has brought with him whatever character you wish-- grammarian rhetorician, geometer, painter, trainer, soothsayer, ropedancer, physician, wizard-- he knows everything. Bid the hungry Greekling go to heaven! He'll go. In short, it was neither Moor, nor Sarmatian, nor Thracian, that took wings, but one born in the heart of Athens. Shall I not shun these men's purple robes? Shall this fellow take precedence of me in signing his name, and recline pillowed on a more honorable couch than I, though imported to Rome by the same wind that brought the plums and figs? Does it then go so utterly for nothing, that my infancy inhaled the air of Aventine, nourished on the Sabine berry? Why add that this nation, most deeply versed in flattery, praises the conversation of an ignorant, the face of a hideously ugly friend, and compares some weak fellow's crane-like neck to the brawny shoulders of Hercules, holding Antaeus far from his mother Earth: and is in raptures at the squeaking voice, not a whit superior in sound to that of the cock as he bites the hen.
21
From The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia and Lucilius , translated by Rev. Lewis Evans (London: Bell & Daldy, 1869), pp. 15-27. Note that the text as p resented here consists of selections from the larger satire.
Besides, there is nothing that is held sacred by these fellows, or that is safe from their lust. Neither the mistress of the house, nor your virgin daughter, nor her suitor, unbearded as yet, nor your son, heretofore chaste. If none of these are to be found, he assails his friend's grandmother. They aim at learning the secrets of the house, and from that knowledge be feared. And since we have begun to make mention of the Greeks, pass on to their schools of philosophy, and hear the foul crime of the more dignified cloak. It was a Stoic that killed Bareas-- the informer, his personal friend, the old man, his own pupil-- bred on that shore on which the pinion of the Gorgonean horse lighted. There is no room for any Roman here, where some Protogenes, or Diphilus, or Erimanthus reigns supreme; who, with the common vice of his race, never shares a friend, but engrosses him entirely to himself. In exact proportion to the sum of money a man keeps in his chest, is the credit given to his oath. Though you were to swear by all the altars of the Samothracian and our own gods, the poor man is believed to despise the thunder-bolts and the gods, even with the sanction of the gods themselves. Why add that this same poor man furnishes material and grounds for ridicule to all, if his cloak is dirty and torn, if his toga is a little soiled, and one shoe gapes with its upper leather burst; or if more than one patch displays the coarse fresh darning thread, where a rent has been sewn up. Poverty, bitter though it be, has no sharper pang than this, that it makes men ridiculous. “Let him retire, if he has any shame left, and quit the cushions of the knights, that has not the income required by the law, and let these seats be taken by the sons of pimps, in whatever brothel born! Here let the son of the sleek crier applaud among the spruce youths of the gladiator, and the scions of the fencing- school.” Who was ever allowed at Rome to become a son-in-law if his estate was inferior, and not a match for the portion of the young lady? What poor man's name appears in any will? When is he summoned to a consultation even by an aedile ? All Quirites that are poor, ought long ago to have emigrated in a body. Difficult indeed is it for those to emerge from obscurity whose noble qualities are cramped by narrow means at home; but at Rome, for men like these, the attempt is still more hopeless; it is only at an exorbitant price they can get a wretched lodging, keep for their servants, and a frugal meal. A man is ashamed here to dine off pottery ware, which, were he suddenly transported to the Marsi and a Sabine board, contented there with a coarse bowl of blue earthenware, he would no longer deem discreditable. Here, in Rome, the splendor of dress is carried beyond men's means; here, something more than is enough, is taken occasionally from another's chest. In this fault all participate. Here we all live with a poverty that apes our betters. Why should I detain you? Everything at Rome is coupled with high price. What have you to give, that you may occasionally pay your respects to Cossus? That Veiento may give you a passing glance, though without deigning to open his mouth? One shaves the beard, another deposits the hair of a favorite; the house is full of venal cakes. I must live in a place, where there are no fires, no nightly alarms. Already is Ucalegon shouting for water! Already is he removing his chattels: the third story in the house you live in is already in a blaze. Yet you are unconscious! For if the alarm begin from the bottom of the stairs, he will be the last to be burnt whom a single tile protects from the rain, where the tame pigeons lay their eggs. Codrus had a bed too small for his Procula, six little jugs the ornament of his sideboard, and a little can besides beneath it, and a Chiron reclining under the same marble; and a chest now grown old in the service contained his Greek books, and mice gnawed poems of divine inspiration. Codrus possessed nothing at all; who denies the fact? And yet all that little nothing that he had, he lost. But the climax that crowns his misery is the fact, that though he is
stark naked and begging for a few scraps, no one will lend a hand to help him to bed and board. But, if the great mansion of Asturius has fallen, the matrons appear in weeds, the senators in mourning robes, the praetor adjourns the courts. Then it is we groan for the accidents of the city; then we loathe the very name of fire. The fire is still raging, and already there runs up to him one who offers to present him with marble, and contribute towards the rebuilding. Another will present him with naked statues of Parian marble, another with a chef-d'oeuvre of Euphranor or Polycletus. Some lady will contribute some ancient ornaments of gods taken in our Asiatic victories; another, books and cases and a bust of Minerva; another, a whole bushel of silver. Persicus, the most splendid of childless men, replaces all he has lost by things more numerous and more valuable, and might with reason be suspected of having himself set his own house on fire. If you can tear yourself away from the games in the circus, you can buy a capital house at Sora, or Fabrateria, or Frusino, for the price at which you are now hiring your dark hole for one year. There you will have your little garden, a well so shallow as to require no rope and bucket, whence with easy draft you may water your sprouting plants. Live there, enamored of the pitchfork, and the dresser of your trim garden, from which you could supply a feast to a hundred Pythagoreans. It is something to be able in any spot, in any retreat whatever, to have made oneself proprietor even of a single lizard. Here full many a patient dies from want of sleep; but that exhaustion is produced by the undigested food that loads the fevered stomach. For what lodging-houses allow of sleep? None but the very wealthy can sleep at Rome. Hence is the source of the disease. The passing of wagons in the narrow curves of the streets, and the mutual reviles of the team drivers brought to a standstill, would banish sleep even from Drusus and seacalves. If duty calls him, the rich man will be borne through the yielding crowd, and pass rapidly over their heads on the shoulders of his tall Liburnian, and, as he goes, will read or write, or even sleep inside his litter, for his sedan with windows closed entices sleep. And still he will arrive before us. In front of us, as we hurry on, a tide of human beings stops the way; the mass that follows behind presses on our loins in dense concourse; one man pokes me with his elbow, another with a hard pole; one knocks a beam against my head, another a ten-gallon cask. My legs are coated thick with mud; then, anon, I am trampled upon by great heels all round me, and the hob-nail of the soldier's caliga remains imprinted on my toe. Tunics that have been patched together are torn asunder again. Presently, as the tug approaches, the long fir-tree quivers, other wagons are conveying pine-trees; they totter from their height, and threaten ruin to the crowd. For if that wain, that is transporting blocks of Ligustican stone, is upset, and pours its mountain-load upon the masses below, what is there left of their bodies? Who can find their limbs or bones? Every single carcass of the mob is crushed to minute atoms as impalpable as their souls. While, all this while, the family at home, in happy ignorance of their master's fate, are washing up the dishes, and blowing up the fire with their mouths, and making a clatter with the well-oiled strigils, and arranging the bathing towels with the full oil-flask. Such are the various occupations of the bustling slaves. Now revert to other perils of the night distinct from these. What a height it is from the lofty roofs, from which a potsherd tumbles on your brains. How often cracked and chipped earthenware falls from the windows! With what a weight they dint and damage the flintpavement where they strike it! You may well be accounted remiss and improvident against
unforeseen accident, if you go out to supper without having made your will. It is clear that there are just so many chances of death, as there are open windows where the inmates are awake inside, as you pass by. Pray, therefore, and bear about with you this miserable wish, that they may be contented with throwing down only what the broad basins have held. One that is drunk, and quarrelsome in his cups, if he has chanced to give no one a beating, suffers the penalty by loss of sleep; he passes such a night as Achilles bewailing the loss of his friend; lies now on his face, then again on his back. Under other circumstances, he cannot sleep. In some persons, sleep is the result of quarrels; but though daring from his years, and flushed with unmixed wine, he cautiously avoids him whom a scarlet cloak, and a very long train of attendants, with plenty of flambeaux and a bronzed candelabrum, warns him to steer clear of. He stands right in front of you, and bids you stand! Obey you must. For what can you do, when he that gives the command is mad with drink, and at the same time stronger than you! “Where do you come from?” he thunders out: “With whose vinegar and beans are you blown out? What cobbler has been feasting on chopped leek or boiled sheep's head with you? Don't you answer? Speak, or be kicked! Say where do you hang out? In what Jew's begging-stand shall I look for you?” Whether you attempt to say a word or retire in silence, is all one; they beat you just the same, and then, in a passion, force you to give bail to answer for the assault. This is a poor man's liberty! When thrashed he humbly begs, and pummeled with fisticuffs supplicates to be allowed to quit the spot with a few teeth left in his head. Nor is this yet all that you have to fear, for there will not be wanting one to rob you, when all the houses are shut up, and all the fastenings of the shops chained, are fixed and silent. Sometimes too a footpad does your business with his knife, whenever the Pontine marshes and the Gallinarian wood are kept safe by an armed guard. Consequently they all flock thence to Rome as to a great preserve. What forge or anvil is not weighed down with chains? The greatest amount of iron used is employed in forging fetters; so that you may well fear that enough may not be left for plowshares, and that mattocks and hoes may run short. Well may you call our great-grandsires happy, and the ages blest in which they lived, which, under kings and tribunes long ago, saw Rome contented with a single jail. To these I could subjoin other reasons for leaving Rome, and more numerous than these; but my cattle summon me to be moving, and the sun is getting low. I must go. For long ago the muleteer gave me a hint by shaking his whip. Farewell then, and forget me not! And whenever Rome shall restore you to your native Aquinum, eager to refresh your strength, then you may tear me away too from Cumae to Helvine Ceres, and your patron deity Diana. Then, equipped with my caliga, I will visit your chilly regions, to help you in your satires-- unless they scorn my poor assistance. ----- 000 -----
LIFESTYLES
Reading A152: 22 Seneca, “The Gladiatorial Games,” from Epistle Seven, written about 60 C.E.
The following letter written by the Roman philosopher Seneca indicates how, by the age of Nero, cultured and elevated men were beginning to revolt at the arena butcheries which still delighted the mob. This was written just a few years before the construction of the great Flavian Amphitheatre (the Coliseum), where were held huge spectacles of the type Seneca derides here. Given the popularity of ―spectacle- style‖ gladiatorial games as shown by the construction of the gigantic Coliseum a f ew years after these lines were written, it seems likely that Seneca’s view of such games was distinctly in the minority in firce century C.E. Rome.
There is nothing so ruinous to good character as to idle away one‟s time at some spectacle. Vices have a way of creeping in because of the feeling of pleasure that it brings. Why do you think that I say that I personally return from shows greedier, more ambitious and more given to luxury, and I might add, with thoughts of greater cruelty and less humanity, simply because I have been among humans? The other day, I chanced to drop in at the midday games, expecting sport and wit and some relaxation to rest men‟s eyes from the sight of human blood. Just the opposite was the case. Any fighting before that was as nothing; all trifles were now put aside-- it was plain butchery. The men had nothing with which to protect themselves, for their whole bodies were open to the thrust, and every thrust told. The common people prefer this to matches on level terms or request performances. Of course they do. The blade is not parried by helmet or shield, and what use is skill or defense? All these merely postpone death. In the morning men are thrown to bears or lions, at midday to those who were previously watching them. The crowd cries for the killers to be paired with those who will kill them, and reserves the victor for yet another death. This is the only release the gladiators have. The whole business needs fire and steel to urge men on to fight. There was no escape for them. The slayer was kept fighting until he could be slain. “Kill him! Flog him! Burn him alive!” the spectators roared. “Why is he such a coward? Why won‟t he rush on the steel? Why does he fall so meekly? Why won‟t he die willingly?” Unhappy as I am, how have I deserved that I must look on such a scene as this? Do not, my Lucilius, attend the games, I pray you. Either you will be corrupted by the multitude, or, if you show disgust, be hated by them. So stay away. ----- 000 ----22
From William Stearns Davis, editor, Readings in Ancient History (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-13).
Reading A153: 23 Wall Inscriptions From Pompeii, written about 70 to 79 C.E.
Modern scholars have been drawn to the study of graffiti, at first from an expectation that they would hear the voices of the non-elite and marginal groups of society. However, historians have been surprised to learn that the practice of graffiti was widespread among all groups across the ancient world, rich and poor alike, especially in societies where literacy was widespread such as the Roman Empire of the first century C.E. In the ancient Roman world, graffiti was a respected form of writing and often was interactive, not the kind of defacement we now see on rocky cliffs, bridge abutments and bathroom stalls. In the rediscovered communities of Roman Pompeii and Herculaneum, archaeologists have found that the writing or scratching of ―graffito‖ was even done inside elite dwellings, often as greetings from friends, carefully incised around the edges of frescoes in the home’s finest rooms. In stairwells, people took turns quoting popular poems and adding their own clever twists. In other places, the graffiti include drawings such as a head, a boat, a peacock, and a leaping deer. The wall inscriptions in this reading all were found scratched or painted onto the walls of buildings in the ruins of the Roman city of Pompeii. They were preserved ―in situ‖ because of the tragic, nearly-sudden burial of the city during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E. They thus provide an interesting glimpse into the day-to-day life of that time, offering hints at personal tragedy, municipal election, advertisement, morality (or lack of it) and crime. These are selected examples from over 8800 known graffito in Pompeii.
[Advertising Games and Theatre] 1.01. Twenty pairs of gladiators provided by Quintus Monnius Rufus are to fight at Nola May First, Second, and Third, and there will be a hunt. 1.02. Twenty pairs of gladiators furnished by Decimus Lucretius Satrius Valens perpetual priest of Nero, son of the Emperor, and ten pairs of gladiators furnished by Decimus Lucretius Valens his son, will fight at Pompeii April 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. There will be a big hunt and awnings. 24 Aemilius Celer wrote this by the light of the moon. 1.03. At Puteoli on the ?th of December: fights; at Herculaneum for the Security of the Caesars and Livia Augusta. There will be awnings. Iole greets you.
23
From William Stearns Davis, editor, Readings in Ancient History (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-13), Vol. II, pp. 260-265; and additional ones from “World Civilisations” website from accessed September 25, 2005. 24 The mention that awnings would be put up to cover the seated “fans” revea ls the intensity of the daylight sun in this region.
1.04. Twenty pairs of Gladiators, belonging to Aulus Suettius Antenio and to his freedman Niger, will fight at Puteoli on the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th of March. There will also be a beast hunt and athletic contests. 1.05. Thirty six pairs of gladiators of Constantia (?) will fight at Nuceria (?) on October 31, and November 1-4. 1.06. A hunt, and 20 pairs of gladiators belonging to Marcus Tullius will fight at Pompeii on November 4-7. 1.07. In honor of the Safety of the Emperor Vespasian Caesar Augustus and his House, on the occasion of the dedication of the altar, the gladiatorial troupe of Gnaeus Allius Nigidius Maius, Flamen of Caesar Augustus, will give games at Pompeii on July 4. Beast hunt. There will be awnings.
[Election Graffiti]
25
2.01. Vesonius Primus requests the election of Gaius Gavius Rufus as duumvir, a man who will serve the public interest-- do elect him, I beg of you. 2.02. Make Lucius Caeseminus quinquennial duumvir of Nuceria, I beg you: he is a good man. 2.03. His neighbors request the election of Tiberius Claudius Verus as duumvir. 2.04. The worshipers of Isis as a body ask for the election of Gnaeus Helvias Sabinus as Aedile. 2.05. The robbers, murderers, and thieves request the election of Vatia as Aedile! 2.06. The whole company of drunks and thugs favor Vatia!
26
2.07. Saturninus and his pupils recommend Gaius Cuspius Pansa for Aedile. 2.08. All the goldsmiths recommend Gaius Cuspius Pansa for Aedile. 2.09. Please, I beg you, Unguent Makers, make Verus Aedile, I ask you. 2.10. Proculus, make Sabinus aedile and he will do as much for you. 2.11. His neighbors urge you to elect Lucius Statius Receptus duovir with judicial power; he is worthy. Aemilius Celer, a neighbor, wrote this. May you take sick if you maliciously erase this!
25
Although by 79 C.E. the Roman Empire was a monarchy, Roman citizens residing in many cities retained the right to elect municipal officers. 26 This reading and the previous are clearly ironic, but whether they refer to a known corrupt politician or to a prostitute is unclear.
2.12. Satia and Petronia support and ask you to elect Marcus Casellius and Lucius Albucius aediles. May we always have such citizens in our colony! 2.13. I ask you to elect Epidius Sabinus duovir with judicial power. He is worthy, a defender of the colony, and in the opinion of the respected judge Suedius Clemens and by agreement of the council, because of his services and uprightness, worthy of the municipality. Elect him! 2.14. I ask you to elect Aulus Vettius Firmus aedile. He is worthy of the municipality. I ask you to elect him, ballplayers. Elect him!
[Personal and Philosophical Messages] 3.01. Here slept Vibius Restitutus all by himself, his heart filled with longings for his sweet Urbana. 3.02. Health to you, Victoria, and wherever you are may you sneeze sweetly. 3.03. I detest beggars. If somebody asks for something for free, he is an idiot; let him pay his cash and get what he wants. 3.04. Nobody is `smart' until he has loved a young girl. 3.05. Perarius, you're a thief! You shit! 3.06. Samius says to Cornelius: Go hang! 3.07. I have escaped. I have fled. Hope and fortune, farewell!
27
3.08. Numerius Popidius Celsinus, son of Numerius, restored the Temple of Isis from the ground 28 up, after it had been totally destroyed by an earthquake. The Town Council coopted him into their assembly when he was only six years old, (and) without charge, in consideration of his generosity. [Unclear whether this is bragging or an election advertisement.] 3.09. The weaver Successus loves the inkeeper's slave girl, Iris by name. She doesn't care for him, but he begs her to take pity on him. Written by his rival. So long. [Answer by the rival:] Just because you're bursting with envy, don't pick on a handsomer man, a lady-killer and a gallant. [Answer by the first writer:] There's nothing more to say or write. You love Iris, who doesn't care for you.
27
This message is very curious. Is it the triumphant cheer of an escaped slave, or of a man (or woman) fleeing from an unhappy life? 28 A strong earthquake in 62 C.E. did a great deal of damage to the buildings of Pompeii.
3.10. Take your lewd looks and flirting eyes off another man's wife, and show some decency on your face! 3.11. Anybody in love, come here. I want to break Venus' ribs with a club and cripple the 29 goddess' loins. If she can pierce my tender breast, why can't I break her head with a club? 3.12. I wonder, Oh wall, that you have not fallen in ruins from supporting the stupidities of so many scribblers. 3.13. Weep, you girls. My penis has given you up. Now it penetrates men‟s behinds. Goodbye, wondrous femininity! 3.14. Lovers are like bees in that they live a honeyed life. 3.15. To the one defecating here: Beware of the curse. If you look down on this curse may you have an angry Jupiter for an enemy. 3.16. Defecator, may everything turn out okay so that you can leave this place.
30
3.17. Theophilus, don‟t perform oral sex on girls against the city wall like a dog. 3.18. Whoever loves, let him flourish. Let him perish who knows not love. Let him perish twice over whoever forbids love. 3.19. Staphylus was here with Quieta.
31
3.20. Blondie has taught me to hate dark-haired girls. I shall hate them if I can, but I wouldn‟t 32 mind loving them. Pompeian Venus Fisica wrote this. 3.21. Rufus loves Cornelia Hele. 3.22. If anyone does not believe in Venus, they should gaze at my girl friend. 3.23. Atimetus got me pregnant. 3.24. Romula hung out here with Staphylus. 3.25. I don‟t want to sell my husband, not for all the gold in the world. 3.26. Gaius Valerius Venustus, soldier of the 1st praetorian cohort, in the century of Rufus, screwer of women. [Found on the wall of a tavern which might also have been a brothel.] 29
Perhaps written by a girl or woman who has been rejected in love? This appeared just outside the Vesuvius Gate (north side) of Pompeii. 31 This was scratched into the wall in the peristyle of the house of prominent banker Caecilius Iucundus on Stabiae Street in Pompeii. 32 This was written in the atrium of the “Large Brothel House,” and may refer to Sapphic love. 30
3.27. Vibius Restitutus slept here alone and missed his darling Urbana. 3.28. Celadus the Thracier [gladiator] makes the girls moan! 3.29. Here Harpocras has had a good fuck with Drauca for a denarius. 3.30. I've caught a cold. 3.31. Myrtis, you do great blow jobs. 3.32. If anyone is looking for some tender love in this town, keep in mind that here all the girls are very friendly.
[Business Messages and Advertisements] 4.01. To let, for the term of five years, from the thirteenth day of next August to the thirteenth day of the sixth August thereafter, the Venus bath, fitted up for the best people, shops, rooms over shops, and second-story apartments in the property owned by Julia Felix, daughter of Spurius. 4.02. Umbricia Januaria declares that she has received from Lucius Caecilius Jucundus 11,039 sesterces which sum came into the hands of Lucius Caecilius Jucundus by agreement as the proceeds of an auction sale for Umbricia Januaria, the commission due him having been deducted. 4.03. The city block of the Arrii Pollii in the possession of Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius is available to rent from July 1st. There are shops on the first floor, upper stories, high-class rooms and a house. A person interested in renting this property should contact Primus, the slave of Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius. 4.04. A copper pot has been taken from this shop. Whoever brings it back will receive 65 sesterces. If anyone shall hand over the thief he will be rewarded. 4.05. For a good time, visit Romula at the house of Staphylus! [Obviously an advertisement for a prostitute] 4.06. Guest House. .Dining room to let, with three couches and furnishings. [On the wall of a taverna.] 4.07. Here dwells happiness. [Apparently an advertisement for a prostitute.]
