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The Greek title, which means causes
, is twice
+ mentioned by Plutarch himself in the
The Reasons Why.In nearly + every case at least two and often more reasons are + given: of these presumably not more than one can + be right. Thus the other explanations will embody + the results of Plutarch's researches on the matter + or his own quaint speculations. Consequently the + book, which is an important source for Roman + +
This treatise could hardly have been written by a + person ignorant of Latin. Plutarch in his
Other Roman authorities are mentioned occasionally,
+ such as Cato the Elder, Nigidius Figulus,
+ Antistius Labeo, Ateius Capito, and Fenestella:
+ but no doubt they and others are used in accounts
+ introduced by such expressions as they say,
+ some say,
+ the story is told,
and the like. Some
+ of these references have, in fact, been traced by
+ scholars to their originals. It has been remarked
+ of Cicero that any statement found in that author's
+ works appears, or has appeared, elsewhere. The
+ same affirmation might be made of Plutarch with
+ some confidence. Unless he specifically testifies to
+ oral tradition or hearsay, we may be certain that
+ his facts, like Cicero's, are drawn from his extensive
+ reading.
+
Critics lay stress on a few mistakes which Plutarch + made in interpreting Latin (these will be found + noted in Rose and in Hartman), but against them + must be set the unnumbered instances in which he is + right. He did not, however, have to depend wholly + on Latin writers, for he undoubtedly had at hand + the
Many of the matters discussed in the
The book was probably published after the death + of Domitian in a.d, 96, though this is a not quite + certain inference from the text (276 e). The work + is No. 138 in Lamprias's catalogue of Plutarch's + works. The . ms. tradition (on which see J. B. + Titchener,
Why do they bid the bride touch fire and water? +
+Is it that of these two, being reckoned as elements
+ or first principles, fire is masculine and water feminine,
Or is it because fire purifies and water cleanses, + and a married woman must remain pure and clean? +
+Or is it that, just as fire without moisture is unsustaining and arid, and water without heat is unproductive and inactive,
Or is it that they must not desert each other, but + must share together every sort of fortune, even if + they are destined to have nothing other than fire + and water to share with each other? +
+Why in the marriage rites do they light five
+ torches, neither more nor less, which they call
+
Is it, as Varro has stated, that while the praetors
+ use three, the aediles have a rightcereos
.
Or is it because in their use of several numbers
+ the odd number was considered better and more perfect for various purposes and also better adapted to
+ marriage? For the even number admits division and
+ its equality of division suggests strife and opposition:
+ the odd number, however, cannot be divided into
+ equal parts at all, but whenever it is divided it
+ always leaves behind a remainder of the same nature
+ as itself. Now, of the odd numbers, five is above all
+ the nuptial number; for three is the first odd number,
+ and two is the first even number, and five is composed
+ of the union of these two, as it were of male and
+ female.
Or is it rather that, since light is the symbol of
+ birth, and women in general are enabled by nature
+ to bear, at the most, five children at one birth,
Or is it because they think that the nuptial pair + has need of five deities: Zeus Teleios, Hera Teleia, + Aphrodite, Peitho, and finally Artemis, whom women + in child-birth and travail are wont to invoke? +
+Why is it that, although there are many shrines
+ of Diana in Rome, the only one into which men may
+ not enter is the shrine in the so-called Vicus Patricius?
+
+
Is it because of the current legend? For a man + attempted to violate a woman who was here worshipping the goddess, and was torn to pieces by the dogs: + and men do not enter because of the superstitious fear + that arose from this occurrence. +
+Why do they, as might be expected, nail up + stags' horns in all the other shrines of Diana, but in + the shrine on the Aventine nail up horns of cattle? +
+Is it because they remember the ancient occurrence?
Why is it that those who are falsely reported to
+
+
Varro gives an explanation of the cause that is + quite fabulous. For he says that in the Sicilian war + there was a great naval battle, and in the case of + many men a false report spread that they were dead. + But, when they had returned home, in a short time + they all carne to their end except one who, when he + tried to enter, found the doors shutting against him + of their own accord, nor did they yield when he strove + to open them. The man fell asleep there before his + threshold and in his sleep saw a vision, which instructed him to climb upon the roof and let himself + down into the house. When he had done so, he + prospered and lived to an advanced age: and from + this occurrence the custom became established for + succeeding generations. +
+But consider if this be not in some wise similar
+ to Greek customs; for the Greeks did not consider
+ pure, nor admit to familiar intercourse, nor suffer to
+ approach the temples any person for whom a funeral
+ had been held and a tomb constructed on the
+ assumption that they were dead. The tale is told
+ that Aristinus, a victim of this superstition, sent to
+ Delphi and besought the god to release him from
+ the difficulties in which he was involved because
+ of the custom: and the prophetic priestess gave
+ response:
+
+
+ Aristinus, accordingly, chose the part of wisdom and
+
+ Men of Later Fate.
But some will have it that
+ this was done in the case of such persons even before
+ Aristinus, and that the custom is ancient. Hence it
+ is nothing surprising if the Romans also did not think
+ it right to admit by the door, through which they go
+ out to sacrifice and come in from sacrificing, those
+ who are thought to have been buried once and for all
+ and to belong to the company of the departed, but
+ bade them descend from the open air above into that
+ portion of the house which is exposed to the sky.
+ And with good reason, for, naturally, they perform all
+ their rites of purification under the open sky.
+
Why do the women kiss their kinsmen on the + lips? +
+Is it, as most authorities believe, that the drinking
+ of wine was forbidden to women,
Or is it for the reason which Aristotle
Or was this rather bestowed upon the women as a + privilege that should bring them both honour and + power if they should be seen to have many good men + among their kinsmen and in their household? +
+Or is it that, since it is not the custom for men to
+ marry blood relations,
Why is it forbidden for a man to receive a gift
+ from his wife or a wife to receive a gift from her
+ husband?
Is it that, Solon having promulgated a law
Or did they regard giving as an utterly worthless + token of aifection (for even strangers and persons + with no kindly feelings give gifts), and so deprived + the marriage relationship of this mode of giving + pleasure, that mutual affection might be unbought + and free, existing for its own sake and for no other + reason? +
+Or is it that women are most likely to be seduced + and welcome strangers because of gifts they receive + from them: and thus it is seen to be dignified for + them to love their own husbands even though their + husbands give them no gifts? +
+Or is it rather that both the husbands' property + should be held in common with their wives and + the wives' with their husbands? For anyone who + accepts what is given learns to regard what is not + given to him as belonging to another, with the + result that by giving a little to each other they + deprive each other of all else that they own. +
+Why among the Romans is it forbidden to receive + a gift from a son-in-law or from a father-in-law? +
+Is the father-in-law prevented from receiving a
+ gift from his son-in-law, in order that the gift may
+ not appear ultimately to reach the wife through her
+ father? And is the son-in-law similarly prevented,
+ since it is obviously just that he who may not give
+ shall also not receive?
+
+
Why is it that, when men who have wives at + home are returning either from the country or from + abroad, they send ahead to tell their wives that they + are coming? +
+Is it because this is the mark of a man who is + confident that his wife is not up to any mischief, + whereas coming suddenly and unexpectedly is, as + it were, an arrival by stratagem and unfair vigilance: + and are they eager to send good tidings about themselves to their wives as if they felt certain that their + wives would be longing for them and expecting + them? +
+Or is it rather that the men themselves long to + hear news of their wives, if they shall find them safe + at home and longing for their husbands? +
+Or is it because during their husbands' absence + the wives have more household duties and occupations, and also dissensions and outbursts against + those of the household? Therefore the notice is + given in advance that the wife may rid herself of + these matters and make for her husband his welcome + home undisturbed and pleasant. +
+Why is it that when they worship the gods,
+ they cover their heads, but when they meet any of
+ their fellow-men worthy of honour, if they happen
+ to have the toga over the head, they uncover?
This second fact seems to intensify the difficulty
+ of the first. If, then, the tale told of Aeneas
But if there is anything else to be said, consider + whether it be not true that there is only one matter + that needs investigation: why men cover their + heads when they worship the gods: and the other + follows from this. For they uncover their heads in + the presence of men more influential than they: + it is not to invest these men with additional honour, + but rather to avert from them the jealousy of the + gods, that these men may not seem to demand the + same honours as the gods, nor to tolerate an attention like that bestowed, on the gods, nor to rejoice + therein. But they thus worshipped the gods, either + humbling themselves by concealing the head, or + rather by pulling the toga over their ears as a + precaution lest any ill-omened and baleful sound + from without should reach them while they were + praying. That they were mightily vigilant in this + matter is obvious from the fact that when they went + forth for purposes of divination, they surrounded + themselves with the clashing of bronze. +
+Or, as Castor
Why do they sacrifice to Saturn with the head
+ uncovered?
+
+
Is it because Aeneas instituted the custom of + covering the head, and the sacrifice to Satum dates + from long before that time? +
+Or is it that they cover the head before the + heavenly deities, but they consider Saturn a god + whose realm is beneath the earth? Or is it that no + part of Truth is covered or overshadowed, and the + Romans consider Saturn father of Truth? +
+And why do they consider Saturn father of + Truth? +
+Is it that they think, as do certain philosophers,
Why do they also sacrifice to the god called
+ Honor
with the head uncovered? One might
+ translate Honor as renown
or honour.
+
Is it because renown is a brilliant thing, conspicuous,
+ and widespread, and for the reason that they uncover
+ in the presence of good and honoured men, is it for
+ this same reason that they also worship the god who
+ is named for honour
?
+
Why do sons cover their heads when they + escort their parents to the grave, while daughters + go with uncovered heads and hair unbound? +
+Is it because fathers should be honoured as gods
+
+
Or is it that the unusual is proper in mourning, and + it is more usual for women to go forth in public with + their heads covered and men with their heads uncovered? So in Greece, whenever any misfortune + comes, the women cut off their hair and the men let + it grow, for it is usual for men to have their hair cut + and for women to let it grow. +
+Or is it that it has become customary for sons to
+ cover their heads for the reason already given?
But formerly women were not allowed to cover the
+ head at all. At least it is recorded that Spurius
+ Carvilius
Why is it that they were wont to sacrifice no
+ living creature to Terminus,
Is it that Romulus placed no boundary-stones for
+ his country, so that Romans might go forth, seize
+ land, and regard all as theirs, as the Spartan said,
Why is it that it is forbidden to slave-women to
+ set foot in the shrine of Matuta, and why do the
+ women bring in one slave-woman only and slap her
+ on the head and beat her?
Is the beating of this slave but a symbol of the
+ prohibition, and do they prevent the others from
+ entering because of the legend? For InoLet no slave enter, nor any
+ Aetolian, man or woman!
+
Why is it that in the shrine of this goddess they
+ do not pray for blessings on their own children, but
+ only on their sisters' children?
Is it because Ino was fond of her sister and suckled + her sister's son also, but was herself unfortunate in + her own children? Or is it that, quite apart from + this reason, the custom is morally excellent and + produces much goodwill among kindred? +
+Why was it the custom for many of the wealthy
+ to give a tithe of their property to Hercules?
Is it because he also sacrificed a tithe of Geryon's + cattle in Rome? Or because he freed the Romans + from paying a tithe to the Etruscans? +
+Or have these tales no historical foundation worthy + of credence, but the Romans were wont to sacrifice + lavishly and abundantly to Hercules as to an insatiable eater and a good trencher-man? +
+Or was it rather in curtailing their excessive wealth,
+ since it was odious to their fellow-citizens, and in
+ doing away with some of it, as from a lusty bodily
+ vigour that had reached its culmination,
Why do they adopt the month of January as
+ the beginning of the new year?
The fact is that, in ancient days, March was counted
+ before January, as is clear from many different proofs,
+ and particularly from the fact that the fifth month
+ from March is called Quintilis, the sixth Sextilis, and
+
+
But more worthy of credence are they who maintain that it was because Romulus was a warrior and a
+ lover of battle, and was thought to be a son of Mars,
+ that he placed first the month which bore Mars'
+ name. But Numa, in turn, who was a lover of peace,
+ and whose ambition it was to turn the city towards
+ husbandry and to divert it from war, gave the precedence to January and advanced the god Janus to
+ great honours, since Janus
Why is it that the women, when they adorn in
+ their houses a shrine to the women's goddess, whom
+ they call Bona Dea,
Was this goddess, as the mythologists relate, the
+ wife of the seer Faunus; and was she secretly addicted
+ to wine,
Or is it because they remain pure from many
+ things, particularly from venery, when they perform
+ this holy service? For they not only exclude their
+ husbands, but they also drive everything male out of
+ the house
Why do the Latins revere the woodpecker and
+ all strictly abstainfrom eating it
since they used to eat all small birds.
Is it because, as they tell the tale, Picus,
Or is this wholly incredible and monstrous, and is
+ that other tale
Or is it rather because they regard this bird as + sacred to Mars, even as other birds to other gods? + For it is a courageous and spirited bird and has a beak + so strong that it can overturn oaks by pecking them + until it has reached the inmost part of the tree. +
+Why do they suppose Janus to have been twofaced and so represent him in painting and sculpture? +
+Is it because, as they relate, he was by birth a
+ Greek from Perrhaebia, and, when he had crossed to
+ Italy and had settled among the savages there, he
+ changed both his speech and his habits? Or is it
+ rather because he changed the people of Italy to
+ another manner and form of life by persuading a
+ people which had formerly made use of wild plants
+ and lawless customs to till the soil and to live under
+ organized government?
Why do they sell articles for funerals in the
+ precinct of Libitina, whom they identify with Venus?
Is this also one of the philosophic devices of king + Numa, that they should learn not to feel repugnance + at such things nor shun them as a pollution? +
+Or is it rather a reminder that whatever is born + must die, since one goddess presides over births and + deaths? For in Delphi there is a little statue of + Aphrodite of the Tomb, to which they summon the + departed to come forth for the libations. +
+Why have they in the month three beginnings + or fixed points, and do not adopt the same interval + of days between them? +
+Is it, as Juba
Or is it rather because, since they measured time
+ by the phases of the moon, they observed that in each
+ month the moon undergoes three very important
+ changes: first, when she is hidden by her conjunction with the sun: second, when she has escaped the
+ sun's rays and becomes visible for the first time at
+ sunset; and third, at the full moon, when her orb
+ is completely round? The disappearance and concealment of the moon they call to be concealed
is new
and
+ novel
is the same as ours.Iovis fiducia.
+
Why do they reckon the day that follows the + Kalends, the Nones, or the Ides as unsuitable for + leaving home or for travel? +
+Is it, as most authorities think and as Livy
Or does this contain many irrational assumptions?
+ For it was on a different day that they were defeated in
+ battle,
Consider the following analogy: just as they have
+ dedicated the first month to the gods of Olympus,
+ and the second, in which they perform certain rites
+ of purification and sacrifice to the departed, to the
+ gods of the lower world, so also in regard to the days
+ of the month they have established three as festive
+ and holy days, as I have stated,
Or has also the saying of ThemistoclesYou are quite right; but if I had not
+ been, you would not be!
This story Themistocles
+ related to the Athenian generals who succeeded
+ him, to show that they would have been nowhere,
+ if he himself had not saved the city.
+
Since, therefore, all travel and all business of importance needs provision and preparation, and since
+ in ancient days the Romans, at the time of festivals,
+ made no provision or plan for anything, save only
+ that they were engaged in the service of their gods
+ and busied themselves with this only, just as even to
+ this day the priests cause such a proclamation to be
+ made in advance as they proceed on their way to
+ sacrifice: so it was only natural that they did not
+ set out on a journey immediately after their festivals,
+ nor did they transact any business, for they were
+
+
Or is it even as men now, who have offered their
+ prayers and oblations, are wont to tarry and sit a
+ while in the temples,
Why do women in mourning wear white robes + and white head-dresses? +
+Do they do this, as men say the Magi do, arraying + themselves against Hades and the powers of darkness, and making themselves like unto Light and + Brightness? +
+Or is it that, just as they clothe the body of the + dead in white, they think it proper that the relatives + should also wear this colour? They adorn the body + thus since they cannot so adorn the soul; and they + wish to send forth the soul bright and pure, since it + is now set free after having fought the good fight in + all its manifold forms. +
+Or are plainness and simplicity most becoming
+ on these occasions? Of the dyed garments, some
+ reflect expense, others over-elaboration: for we may
+ say no less with reference to black than to purple:
+ These be cheating garments, these be cheating
+ colours.
+ it is modified when combined with a dark colour.
+
Why do they regard all the city wall as inviolable and sacred, but not the gates? +
+Is it, as Varro has written, because the wall must + be considered sacred that men may fight and die + with enthusiasm in its defence? It was under such + circumstances, it seems, that Romulus killed his + brother because he was attempting to leap across a + place that was inviolable and sacred, and to make it + traversable and profane. +
+But it was impossible to consecrate the gates, for
+ through them they carry out many other objectionable things and also dead bodies.
Why do they tell children, whenever they
+ would swear by Hercules, not to do so under a roof,
+ and bid them go out into the open air?
Is it, as some relate, because they believe that + Hercules had no pleasure in staying in the house, but + rejoiced in a life in the open air and a bed under the + stars? +
+Or is it rather because Hercules is not one of the + native gods, but a foreigner from afar? For neither + do they swear under a roof by Bacchus, since he also + is a foreign god if he is from Nysa. +
+Or is this but said in jest to the children, and what
+ is done is really a check upon over-readiness and
+ hastiness to swear, as Favorinus stated? For what
+ is done following, as it were, upon preparation produces delay and allows deliberation. Yet one might
+ urge against Favorinus the fact that this custom is not
+ common, but peculiar to Hercules, as may be seen
+ from the legend about him: for it is recorded that he
+ was so circumspect regarding an oath that he swore
+ but once and for Phyleus, the son of Augeas, alone.
+ Wherefore they say that the prophetic priestess also
+ brought up against the Spartans all the oaths they
+ had sworn, saying that it would be better and much
+ more to be desired if they would keep them!
Why do they not allow the bride to cross the
+ threshold of her home herself, but those who are
+ escorting her lift her over?
Is it because they carried off by force also the first + Roman brides and bore them in in this manner, and + the women did not enter of their own accord? +
+Or do they wish it to appear that it is under constraint and not of their own desire that they enter a + dwelling where they are about to lose their virginity? +
+Or is it a token that the woman may not go forth of + her own accord and abandon her home if she be not + constrained, just as it was under constraint that she + entered it? So likewise among us in Boeotia they + burn the axle of the bridal carriage before the door, + signifying that the bride must remain, since her + means of departure has been destroyed. +
+Why do they, as they conduct the bride to her
+ home, bid her say, Where you are Gaius, there am
+ I Gaia
+
+
+
Is her entrance into the house upon fixed terms,
+ as it were, at once to share everything and to control
+ jointly the household, and is the meaning, then,
+ Wherever you are lord and master, there am I lady
+ and mistress
? These names are in common use
+ also in other connexions, just as jurists speak of
+ Gaius Seius and Lucius Titius,John Doe and Richard Roe.
+
Or do they use these names because of Gaia
+ Caecilia,
Why is the far-famed Talassio
+
Is it derived from
Or is the statement of the historians true? They
+ relate that there was a certain young man, brilliant
+ in military achievements and valuable in other wTays,
+ whose name was Talasius: and when the Romans
+ were carrying off the daughters of the Sabines who
+ had come to see the games, a maiden of particularly
+ beautiful appearance was being carried off for him
+ by some plebeian retainers of his. To protect their
+ enterprise and to prevent anyone from approaching
+ and trying to wrest the maiden from them, they
+ shouted continually that she was being brought as a
+ wife for Talasius (
Why is it that in the month of May at the time
+ of the full moon they throw into the river from the
+ Pons Sublicius figures of men, calling the images
+ thrown Argives?
Is it because in ancient days the barbarians who
+
+
Why in ancient days did they never dine out + without their sons, even when these were still but + children? +
+Did Lycurgus introduce this custom also, and bring
+ boys to the common meals that they might become
+ accustomed to conduct themselves toward their pleasures, not in a brutish or disorderly way, but with
+ discretion, since they had their elders as supervisors
+ and spectators, as it were? No less important is the
+ fact that the fathers themselves would also be more
+ decorous and prudent in the presence of their sons:
+ for where the old are shameless,
as Platothere the young also must needs be lost to all sense
+ of shame.
+
Why is it that while the other Romans make
+ libations and offerings to the dead in the month of
+ February, Decimus Brutus, as Cicero
Since most peoples are accustomed to make offerings to the dead at the close of the day and at the
+ end of the month, is it not reasonable also to honour
+ the dead in the last month
Or do these honours belong to deities beneath the + earth, and is it the proper season to honour these + deities when all the crops have attained consummation? +
+Or is it most fitting to remember those below when + men are stirring the earth at the beginning of seed-time? +
+Or is it because this month has been consecrated + to Saturn by the Romans, and they regard Saturn as + an infernal, not a celestial god? +
+Or is it that then their greatest festival, the + Saturnalia, is set: and it is reputed to contain the + most numerous social gatherings and enjoyments, and + therefore Brutus deemed it proper to bestow upon + the dead first-fruits, as it were, of this festival also? +
+Or is this statement, that Brutus alone sacrificed + to the dead in this month, altogether a falsehood? + For it is in December that they make offerings to + Larentia and bring libations to her sepulchre. +
+And why do they thus honour Larentia who + was at one time a courtesan? +
+They record that there was another Larentia,
+ Acca,
Why do they call one of the gates the Window,
+ for this is what
Is it because King Servius, the luckiest of mortals, + was reputed to have converse with Fortune, who + visited him through a window? +
+Or is this but a fable, and is the true reason that
+ when King Tarquinius Priscus died, his wife Tanaquil, a sensible and a queenly woman, put her head
+ out of a window and, addressing the citizens, persuaded them to appoint Servius king, and thus the
+ place came to have this name?
Why is it that of all the things dedicated to the
+ gods it is the custom to allow only spoils of war to
+ disintegrate with the passage of time, and not to
+ move them beforehand
Is it in order that men may believe that their + repute deserts them at the same time with the + obliteration of their early memorials, and may ever + seek to bring in some fresh reminder of valour? +
+Or is it rather that, as time makes dim the
+ memorials of their dissension with their enemies, it
+ would be invidious and malicious to restore and
+ renew them? Nor among the Greeks, either, do
+
+
Why did Quintus Metellus,
Is it that, even as we attend to such matters in the + middle of the day or at dawn, or in the beginning + of the month when the moon is waxing, and avoid + the declining days and hours as unsuitable for + business, so likewise did Metellus regard the period + of time after the first eight months as the evening + or late afternoon, so to speak, of the year, since + then it is declining and waning? +
+Or is it because we should observe birds when they + are in their prime and in perfect condition? And + this they are before the summer-time: but towards + autumn some are weak and sickly, others but nestlings and not full-grown, and still others have + vanished completely, migrating because of the time + of year. +
+Why were men who were not regularly enlisted, but merely tarrying m the camp, not allowed + to throw missiles at the enemy or to wound them? +
+This fact Cato the Elder
Is it because sheer necessity alone constitutes a
+ warrant to kill a human being, and he who does
+ so illegally and without the word of command is
+ a murderer? For this reason Cyrus also praised
+ Chrysantas
Or must he who grapples with the enemy and + fights not be free from accountability nor go unscathed should he play the coward? For he does + not help so much by hitting or wounding an enemy + as he does harm by fleeing or retreating. He, + therefore, who has been discharged from service is + freed from military regulations: but he who asks + leave to perform the offices of a soldier renders himself again accountable to the regulations and to his + general. +
+Why is it not allowed the priest of Jupiter
+ (
Is it because it used not to be proper or decent for
+ sons to strip in their father's sight, nor a son-in-law
+ in the presence of his father-in-law, nor in ancient
+ days did they bathe together?
Or, just as it is against divine ordinance to strip oneself in a shrine or a temple, so also did they scrupulously avoid the open air and the space beneath the
+
+
Or are some regulations prescribed for the priest + alone, while others are prescribed for all by the law + through the priest? Wherefore also, in my country, + to wear a garland, to wear the hair long, not to have + any iron on one's person, and not to set foot within + the boundaries of Phocis, are the special functions of + an archon: but not to taste fruit before the autumnal + equinox nor to prune a vine before the vernal equinox + are prohibitions disclosed to practically all alike + through the archon: for those are the proper seasons + for each of these acts. +
+In the same way, then, it is apparently a special
+ obligation of the Roman priest also not to use a horse
+ nor to be absent from the city more than three nightsnot even one night.
+
+
; Plutarch must have pronouncedph(i)lamen,
with
+
a true aspirate as in u
else there would be no justification for the alternative derivation from
Why did their ancient coinage have stamped
+ on one side a double-faced likeness of Janus, on the
+ other the stern or the prow of a ship?
Is it, as many affirm, in honour of Saturn who + crossed over to Italy in a ship? +
+Or, since this might be said of many, inasmuch as
+ Janus, Evander, and Aeneas all landed in Italy after
+ a voyage by sea, one might rather conjecture thus:
+ some things are excellent for States, others are
+ necessary; and of the excellent things good government is the chief, and of the necessary things facility
+ of provision. Since, therefore, Janus established
+ for them an ordered government by civilizing their
+ life, and since the river, which was navigable and
+ permitted transportation both from the sea and
+ from the land, provided them with an abundance of
+ necessities, the coinage came to have as its symbol
+ the twofold form of the lawgiver, as has been
+ stated,
They also used another kind of coinage, stamped
+
+
Why do they use the temple of Saturn as the
+ public treasury and also as a place of storage for
+ records of contracts?
Is it because the opinion and tradition prevailed + that when Saturn was king there was no greed or + injustice among men, but good faith and justice? +
+Or is it because the god was the discoverer of crops
+ and the pioneer in husbandry? For this is what
+ his sickle signifies and not as Antimachus,
+
+ Now abundant harvests and their disposal are what
+ give rise to a monetary system: therefore they make
+ the god who is the cause of their good fortune its
+ guardian also. Testimony to support this may be
+ found in the fact that the markets held every eight
+ days and called
Or is this a matter of ancient history, and was + Valerius Publicola the first to make the temple of + Saturn the treasury, when the kings had been overthrown, because he believed that the place was + well-protected, in plain sight, and hard to attack + secretly? +
+Why do the ambassadors to Rome, from whatever country they come, proceed to the temple of + Saturn, and register with the prefects of the treasury? +
+Is it because Saturn was a foreigner, and consequently takes pleasure in foreigners, or is the solution
+ of this question also to be found in history? For it
+ seems that in early days the treasurers
Why may not the priest of Jupiter (
Is it because an oath is a kind of test to prove that + men are free-born, and neither the body nor the soul + of the priest must be subjected to any test? +
+Or is it because it is unreasonable to distrust in + trivial affairs him who is entrusted with holy matters + of the greatest importance? +
+Or is it because every oath concludes with a curse
+
+
Or is it because the danger of perjury is a public + danger if an impious and perjured man leads in prayer + and sacrifice on behalf of the State? +
+Why on the festival of the Veneralia do they
+ pour out a great quantity of wine from the temple of
+ Venus?
Is it true, as most authorities affirm, that Mezentius, + general of the Etruscans, sent to Aeneas and offered + peace on condition of his receiving the year's vintage? + But when Aeneas refused, Mezentius promised his + Etruscans that when he had prevailed in battle, he + would give them the wine. Aeneas learned of his + promise and consecrated the wine to the gods, and + after his victory he collected all the vintage and + poured it out in front of the temple of Venus. +
+Or is this also symbolic, indicating that men should + be sober and not drunken on festival days, since the + gods take more pleasure in those who spill much + strong drink than in those who imbibe it? +
+Why did the men of old keep the temple of + Horta continually open? +
+Is it, as Antistius Labeo has stated, that since to
+
+
is expressed by
Or rather do they call her, as at present, Hora, + with the first syllable lengthened, an attentive and + very considerate goddess, who, since she was protective and thoughtful, they felt was never indifferent + nor neglectful of human affairs? +
+Or is this too, like many other Latin words, a Greek + word, and does it signify the supervising and + guardian goddess? Hence her temple was continually open since she neither slumbers nor sleeps. +
+If, however, Labeo be right in pointing out that
+ Hora is derived from
+
+ imprecating
or praying
(
Why did Romulus build the temple of Vulcan + outside the city? +
+Was it in consequence of Vulcan's fabled jealousy
+ of Mars because of Venus
Or is this a foolish explanation, and was the temple
+ originally built as a secret place of assembly and
+ council-chamber for himself and his colleague Tatius,
+
+
Or was it that since Rome, from the very beginning,
+ has been in great danger from conflagrations, they
+ decided to show honour to this god, but to place his
+ temple outside of the city?
Why is it that at the festival of the Consualia + they place garlands on both the horses and the asses + and allow them to rest? +
+Is it because they celebrate this festival in honour
+ of Poseidon, god of horses,
Or is it that since navigation and transport by sea + have been discovered, pack animals have come to + enjoy a certain measure of ease and rest? +
+Why was it the custom for those canvassing for
+ office to do so in the toga without the tunic, as Cato
+ has recorded?
Was it in order that they might not carry money in + the folds of their tunic and give bribes? +
+Or was it rather because they used to judge candidates worthy of office, not by their family nor their + wealth nor their repute, but by their wounds and + scars? Accordingly that these might be visible to + those that encountered them, they used to go down + to their canvassing without tunics. +
+Or were they trying to commend themselves to
+ popular favour by thus humiliating themselves by
+ their scanty attire, even as they do by hand-shaking,
+ personal appeals, and fawning behaviour?
+
+
Why did the priest of Jupiter (
Is it because the man who has taken a wife and + then lost her is more unfortunate than one who has + never taken a wife? For the house of the married + man is complete, but the house of him who has + married and later lost his wife is not only incomplete, + but also crippled. +
+Or is it because the wife assists her husband in the
+ rites, so that many of them cannot be performed
+ without the wife's presence, and for a man who has
+ lost his wife to marry again immediately is neither
+ possible perhaps nor otherwise seemly? Wherefore
+ it was formerly illegal for the
One might be less surprised at this resignation of
+ the
Why is a dog placed beside the Lares that men
+ call by the special name of
Is it because those that stand before
are termed
+
+
Or is the truth rather, as some Romans affirm, that,
+ just as the philosophic school of Chrysippus
Why do they sacrifice a bitch to the goddess
+ called Geneta Managood
?
+
Is it because Geneta is a spirit concerned with the
+ generation and birth of beings that perish? Her
+ name means some such thing as flux and birth
or
+ flowing birth.
+ good,
refer not to the human members
+ of a household, but to the dogs? For dogs should
+ be savage and terrifying.
+
+
Or, because of the fact that the dead are gracefully called the good,
are they in veiled language
+ asking in their prayer that none of their household
+ may die? One should not be surprised at this: Aristotle,No one shall
+ be made good
: that is, no one shall be put to death.
+
Why do they even now, at the celebration of
+ the Capitoline games, proclaim Sardians for sale!
,Sardinians for sale.
Plutarch, or his authority, has confused
Is it because the Etruscans called Veians fought
+ against Romulus for a long time, and he took this
+ city last of all
Why do they call the meat-markets
Is this word corrupted from
Or must this problem also be solved by history? + For the story goes that there once lived in Rome a + violent man, a robber, Macellus by name, who despoiled many people and was with great difficulty + caught and punished: from his wealth the public + meat-market was built, and it acquired its name from + him. +
+Why is it that on the Ides of January the
+ flute-players are allowed to walk about the city
+ wearing the raiment of women
Is it for the reason commonly alleged? They used
+ to enjoy, as it seems, great honours, which King
+ Numa had given them by reason of his piety towards
+ the gods. Because they were later deprived of these
+ honours by the
Why are the matrons supposed to have + founded the temple of Carmenta originally, and + why do they reverence it now above all others? +
+There is a certain tale repeated that the women
+ were prevented by the senate from using horse-drawn vehicles
Some assert that Carmenta was the mother of
+ Evander and that she came to Italy: that her name
+ was Themis, or, as others say, Nicostratê; and
+ that because she chanted oracles in verse, she was
+ named Carmenta by the Latins, for they call verses
+
But others think that Carmenta is a Fate, and that
+ this is the reason why the matrons sacrifice to her.
+ The true meaning of the name is deprived of
+ sense,
+
Why do the women that sacrifice to Rumina + pour milk over the offerings, but make no oblation of + wine in the ceremony? +
+Is it because the Latins call the teat
Why did they use to address some of the
+ senators as Conscript Fathers, others merely as
+ Fathers?
Is it because they used to call those senators
+ originally assigned to that body by Romulus fathers
+ and patricians, that is to say well-born,
since
+ they could point out their fathers,
Why did Hercules and the Muses have an + altar in common? +
+Is it because Hercules taught Evander's people
+ the use of letters, as Juba
Why, when there are two altars of Hercules, + do women receive no share nor taste of the sacrifices + offered on the larger altar? +
+Is it because the friends of Carmenta carne late
+ for the rites, as did also the dan of the Pinarii?
+ Wherefore, as they were excluded from the banquet
+ while the rest were feasting, they acquired the name
+ be hungry
: see further Livy, i. 7; Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
Why is it forbidden to mention or to inquire
+ after or to call by name that deity, whether it be
+ male or female, whose especial province it is to
+ preserve and watch over Rome?
Is it because, as certain Roman writers have
+
+
Or as HomerEarth is yet common to all,
+ so that mankind should reverence and honour all the
+ gods, since they possess the earth in common, even
+ so did the Romans of early times conceal the identity
+ of the god who was the guardian of their safety, since
+ they desired that not only this god, but all the gods
+ should be honoured by the citizens?
+
Why, among those called
Is it because there attaches to these men respect + for their children and reverence for their fathers? +
+Or does the name suggest the reason? For completed
or perfected,
since
+ he to whose lot it has fallen to become a father while
+ he still has a father is more perfect than other men.
+
Or should the man who presides over oaths and
+ treaties of peace be, in the words of Homer,looking before and after
? Such a man above all
+ others would be he that has a son to plan for and a
+ father to plan with.
+
Why is the so-called king of the sacred rites,
forbidden to hold office or
+ to address the people?
Is it because in early times the kings performed the
+ greater part of the most important rites, and themselves offered the sacrifices with the assistance of the
+ priests? But when they did not practise moderation,
+ but were arrogant and oppressive, most of the Greek
+ states took away their authority, and left to them
+ only the offering of sacrifice to the gods: but the
+ Romans expelled their kings altogether, and to offer
+ the sacrifices they appointed another, whom they did
+ not allow to hold office or to address the people, so
+ that in their sacred rites only they might seem to be
+ subject to a king, and to tolerate a kingship only on
+ the gods' account.
Why did they not allow the table to be taken
+ away empty, but insisted that something should be
+ upon it?
Was it that they were symbolizing the necessity of + ever allowing some part of the present provision to + remain over for the future, and to-day to be mindful + of to-morrow, or did they think it polite to repress + and restrain the appetite while the means of enjoyment was still at hand? For persons who have + accustomed themselves to refrain from what they + have are less likely to crave for what they have not. +
+Or does the custom also show a kindly feeling
+ towards the servants? For they are not so well
+ satisfied with taking as with partaking, since they
+ believe that they thus in some manner share the
+ table with their masters.
Or should no sacred thing be suffered to be empty, + and the table is a sacred thing? +
+Why does the husband approach his bride for + the first time, not with a light, but in darkness? +
+Is it because he has a feeling of modest respect, + since he regards her as not his own before his union + with her? Or is he accustoming himself to approach + even his own wife with modesty? +
+Or, as Solon
Or is this that is done a manner of casting infamy
+
+
Why is one of the hippodromes called + Flaminian? +
+Is it because a certain Flaminius
Why do they call the rod-bearers lictors
?
Is it because these officers used both to bind unruly
+ persons and also to follow in the train of Romulus
+ with straps in their bosoms? Most Romans use
+ to bind,
but purists, when
+ they converse, say
Or is the public
is expressed by
Why do the Luperci sacrifice a dog?
Is it because this performance constitutes a rite of
+ purification of the city? In fact they call this month
+ February, and indeed this very day, to purify.
Nearly
+ all the Greeks used a dog as the sacrificial victim
+ for ceremonies of purification: and some, at least,
+ make use of it even to this day. They bring
+ forth for Hecatêpuppifrication
).
+
Or is it that lupus means wolf
and the Lupercalia
+ is the Wolf Festival, and that the dog is hostile to
+ the wolf, and for this reason is sacrificed at the Wolf
+ Festival?
+
Or is it that the dogs bark at the Luperci and annoy + them as they race about in the city? +
+Or is it that the sacrifice is made to Pan, and a dog + is something dear to Pan because of his herds of + goats? +
+Why on the festival called Septimontium
Is it, as some of the Roman writers conceive, because the city had not yet been completely joined + together in all its parts? +
+Or has this nothing to do with Dionysus
+ Nothing to do with the case
:
Or did they wish that the presence of the citizens + should adorn and honour every festival always, and, + above all, that one which was held in commemoration + of the consolidation of the city? Wherefore in + order that they might not leave the City, in whose + honour the festival was being held, it was not permitted to make use of vehicles on that day. +
+Why do they call such persons as stand convicted of theft or of any other servile offences
Is this also evidence of the carefulness of the men
+ of old? For anyone who had found guilty of some
+ knavery a slave reared in his own household used
+ to command him to take up the forked stick, which
+ they put under their carts, and to proceed through
+ the community or the neighbourhood, observed of
+ all observers, that they might distrust him and be
+ on their guard against him in the future. This stick
+ we call a prop, and the Romans fork
):
+
+ fork-bearer
).
+
Why do they tie hay to one horn of vicious + bulls to warn anyone who meets them to be on + guard? +
+Is it because bulls, horses, asses, men, all wax
+ wanton through stuffing and gorging? So Sophocles
+
+ Wherefore also the Romans used to say that Marcus
+ Crassusfaenum habet in cornu; longe fuge!
+
Why did they think that the priests that take
+ omens from birds, whom they formerly called
+
Were they like the Pythagoreans,
Now when the winds are blowing the birds are unsteady, and do not afford reliable signs because of + their wandering and irregular movements. Therefore by this custom they instruct the augurs not to + go forth to obtain these signs when the wind is + blowing, but only in calm and still weather when + they can use their lanterns open. +
+Why was it forbidden to priests that had any + sore upon their bodies to sit and watch for birds of + omen? +
+Is this also a symbolic indication that those who + deal with matters divine should be in no way suffering from any smart, and should not, as it were, have + any sore or affection in their souls, but should be untroubled, unscathed, and undistracted? +
+Or is it only logical, if no one would use for sacrifice a victim afflicted with a sore, or use such birds
+ for augury, that they should be still more on their
+ guard against such things in their own case, and be
+ pure, unhurt, and sound when they advance to interpret signs from the gods?
Why did King Servius Tullius build a shrine of
+ Little Fortune, which they call
Is it because although, at the first, he was a man of
+ little importance and of humble activities and the
+
+
Consider, however, whether it be not that Servius + observed the mighty potency of Fortune's ever + slight mutation, and that by the occurrence or nonoccurrence of some slight thing, it has often fallen + to the lot of some to succeed or to fail in the greatest + enterprises, and it was for this reason that he built + the shrine of Little Fortune, teaching men to give + great heed to events, and not to despise anything that + they encountered by reason of its triviality. +
+Why did they not extinguish a lamp, but
+ suffered it to go out of itself?
Did they reverence it as akin and closely related
+ to the inextinguishable and undying fire, or is this
+ also a symbolic indication that we should not destroy
+
+
Or does this custom teach us that we should not + destroy fire, water, or any other necessity when we + have enough and to spare, but should allow those + who have need of these things to use them, and + should leave them for others when we ourselves no + longer have any use for them? +
+Why do they that are reputed to be of distinguished lineage wear crescents on their shoes?
Is this, as Castor says,
Or does this also, like many another custom,
+ remind the exalted and proud of the mutability,
+ for better or worse, in the affairs of men, and that
+ they should take the moon as an illustration
+
+
+
Or was it a lesson in obedience to authority,
+ teaching them not to be disaffected under the government of kings, but to be even as the moon, who is
+ willing to give heed to her superior and to be a second
+ to him,
+ Ever gazing in awe at the rays of the bright-gleaming
+ Sun-god,
+ as Parmenides
Why do they believe that the year belongs to + Jupiter, but the months to Juno? +
+Is it because Jupiter and Juno rule the invisible,
+ conceptual deities, but the sun and moon the visible
+ deities? Now the sun makes the year and the moon
+ the months: but one must not believe that the sun
+ and moon are merely images of Jupiter and Juno, but
+ that the sun is really Jupiter himself in his material
+ form and in the same way the moon is Juno. This
+ is the reason why the Romans apply the name Juno
+ to our Hera, for the name means young
or junior,
+ so named from the moon. And they also call her
+ Lucina, that is brilliant
or light-giving
: and they
+ believe that she aids women in the pangs of childbirth, even as the moon
+
+ for women are thought to have easiest travail at the
+ time of the full moon.
+
+
Why of birds is the one called left-hand
a
+ bird of good omen?
+
Is this not really true, but is it the peculiarity of the
+ language which throws many off the track? For
+ their word for left
is to permit
is
+
Or is it, as Dionysius
Or
But consider whether it be not that the left is by
+ nature the weaker side, and they that preside over
+ auguries try to strengthen and prop its deficient
+ powers by this method of equalization.
+
+
Or was it that they believed earthly and mortal + matters to be antithetical to things heavenly and + divine, and so thought that whatever was on the left + for us the gods were sending forth from the right? +
+Why was it permitted to take up a bone of a
+ man who had enjoyed a triumph, and had later died
+ and been cremated, and carry it into the city and
+ deposit it there, as Pyrrhon
Was it to show honour to the dead? In fact, to
+ other men of achievement, as well as to generals,
+ they granted, not only for themselves, but also for their
+ descendants, the right to be buried in the Forum, as
+ they did to Valerius
Why was it that when they gave a public
+ banquet for men who had celebrated a triumph, they
+ formally invited the consuls and then sent word to
+ them requesting them not to come to the dinner?
Was it because it was imperative that the place of + honour at table and an escort home after dinner + should be assigned to the man who had triumphed? + But these honours can be given to no one else when + the consuls are present, but only to them. +
+Why does not the tribune wear a garment with
+ the purple border,
Is it because he is not a magistrate at all? For
+ tribunes have no lictore, nor do they transact business
+
+
Or one might expound these matters and others
+ like them, if one were to indulge in the faculty of
+ invention: but since the tribunate derives its origin
+ from the people, the popular element in it is strong:
+ and of much importance is the fact that the tribune
+ does not pride himself above the rest of the people,
+ but conforms in appearance, dress, and manner of
+ life to ordinary citizens. Pomp and circumstance
+ become the consul and the praetor: but the tribune,
+ as Gaius Curio used to say, must allow himself to be
+ trodden upon: he must not be proud of mien, nor
+ difficult of access nor harsh to the multitude, but
+ indefatigable on behalf of others and easy for the
+ multitude to deal with. Wherefore it is the custom
+ that not even the door of his house shall be closed, but
+ it remains open both night and day as a haven of
+ refuge for such as need it. The more humble he is
+
+
Why are the rods of the praetors carried in + bundles with axes attached? +
+Is it because this is a symbolic indication that the + temper of the official should not be too quick or + unrestrained? Or does the deliberate unfastening of + the rods, which creates delay and postponement of + his iit of temper, oftentimes cause him to change his + mind about the punishment? Now since some badness is curable, but other badness is past remedy, the + rods correct that which may be amended and the + axes cut off the incorrigible. +
+When the Romans learned that the people called
+ Bletonesii,
Did they think it impious to sacrifice men to the
+ gods, but necessary to sacrifice them to the spirits?
+ Or did they believe that men who did this by tradition
+ and custom were sinning, whereas they themselves
+ did it by command of the Sibylline books? For the
+ tale is told that a certain maiden, Helvia, was struck
+ by lightning while she was riding on horseback, and
+ her horse was found lying stripped of its trappings:
+ and she herself was naked, for her tunic had been
+ pulled far up as if purposely: and her shoes, her
+ rings, and her head-dress were scattered apart here
+ and there, and her open mouth allowed the tongue to
+ protrude. The soothsayers declared that it was a
+ terrible disgrace for the Vestal Virgins, that it would
+ be bruited far and wide, and that some wanton
+ outrage would be found touching the knights also.
+ Thereupon a barbarian slave of a certain knight gave
+ information against three Vestal Virgins, Aemilia,
+ Licinia, and Marcia, that they had all been corrupted
+ at about the same time, and that they had long
+ entertained lovers, one of whom was Vetutius Barrus,
Why do they reckon the beginning of the day
+ from midnight?
Is it because the Roman State was based originally
+ on a military organization and most of the matters
+ that are of use on campaigns are taken up beforehand
+ at night? Or did they make sunrise the beginning
+ of activity, and night the beginning of preparation?
+ For men should be prepared when they act, and not
+ be making their preparations during the action, as
+ Myson,
Or, just as noon is for most people the end of their + transaction of public or serious business, even so did + it seem good to make midnight the beginning? A + weighty testimony to this is the fact that a Roman + official does not make treaties or agreements after + midday. +
+Or is it impossible to reckon the beginning and end
+ of the day by sunset and sunrise? For if we follow
+ the method by which most people formulate their
+ definitions, by their perceptions, reckoning the first
+ peep of the sun above the horizon as the beginning of
+ day, and the cutting off of its last rays as the beginning of night, we shall have no equinox: but that
+ night which we think is most nearly equal to the day
+ will plainly be less than that day by the diameter of
+
+
Why in the early days did they not allow their
+ wives to grind grain or to cook?
Was it in memory of the treaty which they made + with the Sabines? For when they had carried off + the Sabines' daughters, and later, after warring with + the Sabines, had made peace, it was specified among + the other articles of agreement that no Sabine woman + should grind grain for a Roman or cook for him. +
+Why do men not marry during the month of
+ May?
Is it because this month comes between April and
+ June, of which they regard April as sacred to Venus
+ and June as sacred to Juno, both of them divinities
+ of marriage: and so they put the wedding a little
+ earlier or wait until later?
+
+
Or is it because in this month they hold their most
+ important ceremony of purification, in which they
+ now throw images from the bridge into the river,
Or is it because many of the Latins make offerings
+ to the departed in this month? And it is for this
+ reason, perhaps, that they worship Mercury in this
+ month and that the month derives its name from
+ Maia.
Or is May, as some relate, named after the older
+ (
+
+ They do not, therefore, marry in May, but wait for
+ June which comes next after May.
+
Why do they part the hair of brides with the
+ point of a spear?
Does this symbolize the marriage of the first
+ Roman wives
Or does this procedure hint at the manner of their + separation, that with steel alone can their marriage + be dissolved? +
+Or is it that most of the marriage customs were
+ connected with Juno?
Why do they call the money expended upon
+ public spectacles
Is it because round about the city there are, consecrated to gods, many groves which they call
Why do they call the Quirinalia the Feast of
+ Fools?
Is it because, as Juba
Why is it that, when the sacrifice to Hercules
+ takes place, they mention by name no other god, and
+ why is a dog never seen within his enclosure,
Do they make mention of no other god because
+ they regard Hercules as a demigod? But, as some
Why was it not permitted the patricians to + dwell about the Capitoline? +
+Was it because Marcus Manlius,
Or does this fear date from early times? At any
+ rate, although Publicola
Why do they give a chaplet of oak leaves to
+ the man who has saved the life of a citizen in time of
+ war?
Is it because it is easy to find an abundance of oak + leaves everywhere on a campaign? +
+Or is it because the chaplet is sacred to Jupiter + and Juno, whom they regard as guardians of the + city? +
+Or is the custom an ancient inheritance from the + Arcadians, who have a certain kinship with the oak? + For they are thought to have been the first men + sprung from the earth, even as the oak was the first + plant. +
+Why do they make most use of vultures in + augury? +
+Is it because twelve vultures appeared to Romulus + at the time of the founding of Rome? Or is it + because this is the least frequent and familiar of + birds? For it is not easy to find a vulture's nest, but + these birds suddenly swoop down from afar; wherefore the sight of them is portentous. +
+Or did they learn this also from Hercules? If
+ HerodorusHow can a bird that feeds on birds be pure?
+ And we may say that it is the most harmless of birds
+ to men, since it neither destroys any fruit or plant
+ nor injures any domesticated animal. But if, as the
+ Egyptians fable, the whole species is female, and
+ they conceive by receiving the breath of the East
+ Wind, even as the trees do by receiving the West
+ Wind, then it is credible that the signs from them
+ are altogether unwavering and certain. But in the
+ case of the other birds, their excitements in the
+ mating season, as well as their abductions, retreats,
+ and pursuits, have much that is disturbing and unsteady.
+
Why is the shrine of Aesculapius
Is it because they considered it more healthful to + spend their time outside the city than within its + walls? In fact the Greeks, as might be expected, + have their shrines of Asclepius situated in places + which are both clean and high. +
+Or is it because they believe that the god carne + at their summons from Epidaurus, and the Epidauria. have their shrine of Asclepius not in the + city, but at some distance? +
+Or is it because the serpent carne out from the
+ trireme into the island,
Why is it the customary rule that those who are
+ practising holy living must abstain from legumes?
Did they, like the followers of Pythagoras,
+
; Horace,
Or is it because they make particular use of + legumes for funeral feasts and invocations of the + dead? +
+Or is it rather because one must keep the body + clean and light for purposes of holy living and lustration? Now legumes are a flatulent food and produce surplus matter that requires much purgation. +
+Or is it because the windy and flatulent quality + of the food stimulates desire? +
+Why do they inflict no other punishment on
+ those of the Holy Maidens
Is it because they cremate their dead, and to use + fire in the burial of a woman who had not guarded + the holy fire in purity was not right? +
+Or did they believe it to be against divine ordinance to annihilate a body that had been consecrated
+ by the greatest of lustra! ceremonies, or to lay hands
+ upon a holy woman? Accordingly they devised that
+ she should die of herself; they conducted her
+ underground into a chamber built there, in which
+ had been placed a lighted lamp, a loaf of bread,
+
+
Why is it that after the chariot-race on the
+ Ides of December
Is it, as someNoble scions of Trojans commingled with children of Latins.
+
Or is it because the horse is a spirited, warlike, and + martial beast, and they sacrifice to the gods creatures + that are particularly pleasing and appropriate for + them: and the winner is sacrificed because Mars is + the specific divinity of victory and prowess? +
+Or is it rather because the work of the god demands standing firm, and men that hold their ground
+ defeat those that do not hold it, but flee? And is
+ swiftness punished as being the coward's resource,
+ and do they learn symbolically that there is no
+ safety for those who flee?
+
+
Why do the censors, when they take office, do
+ nothing else before they contract for the food of the
+ sacred geese
Is it that they begin with the most trivial things, + matters that require little expense or trouble? +
+Or is this a commemoration of an old debt of
+ gratitude owed to these creatures for their services
+ in the Gallic wars?
Or is it because the censors are guardians of the + most important matters, and, since it is their duty to + oversee and to busy themselves with sacred and State + affairs and with the lives, morals, and conduct of the + people, they immediately take into account the most + vigilant of creatures, and at the same time by their + care of the geese they urge the citizens not to be + careless or indifferent about sacred matters? +
+But the polishing
Why is it that, if any one of the other priests is
+ condemned and exiled, they depose him and elect
+ another, but the augur, as long as he lives, even if
+ they find him guilty of the worst offences, they do not
+
+ augurs
the
+ men who are in charge of the omens.
+
Is it, as some say, because they wish no one who is + not a priest to know the secrets of the holy rites? +
+Or, because the augur is bound by oaths to reveal + the sacred matters to no one, are they unwilling to + release him from his oath as would be the case if he + had been reduced to private status? +
+Or is augur
a name denoting, not a rank or
+ office, but knowledge and skill? Then to prevent a
+ soothsayer from being a soothsayer would be like
+ voting that a musician shall not be a musician, nor a
+ physician a physician: for they cannot deprive him
+ of his ability, even if they take away his title. They
+ naturally appoint no successor since they keep the
+ original number of augurs.
+
Why is it that on the Ides of August, formerly + called Sextilis, all the slaves, female and male, keep + holiday, and the Roman women make a particular + practice of washing and cleansing their heads? +
+Do the servants have release from work because on
+ this day King Servius was born from a captive maid-servant?
Why do they adorn their children's necks
+ with amulets which they call
Was it, like many another thing, in honour of their
+
+
Or is it to honour the manly courage of Tarquin? + For the tale is told that, while he was still but a boy, + in the battle against the combined Latin and Etruscan + forces he charged straight into the enemy; and although he was thrown from his horse, he boldly withstood those that hurled themselves upon him, and + thus gave renewed strength to the Romans. A + brilliant rout of the enemy followed, sixteen thousand + were killed, and he received this amulet as a prize of + valour from his father the king. +
+Or did the Romans of early times account it not
+ disreputable nor disgraceful to love male slaves in the
+ flower of youth, as even now their comedies
Or is this a safeguard to insure orderly conduct, a + sort of bridle on incontinence, that they may be + ashamed to pose as men before they have put off + the badge of childhood? +
+What Varro and his school say is not credible: that
+ since
But consider whether they may not wear it because
+ of the moon. For the visible shape of the moon at
+ the first quarter is not like a sphere, but like a lentil-seed
+
+
Why do they name boys when they are nine + days old, but girls when they are eight days old? +
+Does the precedence of the girls have Nature as its
+ cause? It is a fact that the female grows up, and
+ attains maturity and perfection before the male. As
+ for the days, they take those that follow the seventh:
+ for the seventh is dangerous for newly-born children
+ in various ways and in the matter of the umbilical
+ cord: for in most cases this comes away on the
+ seventh day: but until it comes off, the child is more
+ like a plant than an animal.
Or did they, like the adherents of Pythagoras,
+ regard the even number as female and the odd
+ number as male?
Or is it that of all numbers nine
Why do they call children of unknown fathers
+
Now the reason is not, as the Greeks believe and
+ lawyers in court are wont to assert, that these
+ children are begotten of some promiscuous and
+ common seed: but Spurius is a first name like Sextus
+ and Decimus and Gaius. They do not write first
+ names in full, but by one letter, as Titus (T.) and
+ Lucius (L.) and Marcus (M.): or by two, as Tiberius
+ (Ti.) and Gnaeus (Cn.): or by three, as Sextus (Sex.)
+ and Servius (Ser.). Spurius, then, is one of those
+ written by two letters: Sp. And by these two
+ letters they also denote children of unknown fathers,
+ without a father
: by the
I must state the other explanation also, but it is
+ somewhat absurd: They assert that the Sabines
+ use the word
Why do they call Bacchus Free
+ Father
)?
Is it because he is the father of freedom to drinkers?
+ For most people become bold and are abounding in
+ frank speech when they are in their cups.
Or is it derived, as Alexander
For what reason is it not the custom for
+ maidens to marry on public holidays, but widows do
+ marry at this time?
Is it, as Varro has remarked, that maidens are + grieved over marrying, but older women are glad, + and on a holiday one should do nothing in grief or + by constraint? +
+Or is it rather because it is seemly that not a few + should be present when maidens marry, but disgraceful that many should be present when widows + marry? Now the first marriage is enviable: but + the second is to be deprecated, for women are + ashamed if they take a second husband while the + first husband is still living, and they feel sad if they + do so when he is dead. Wherefore they rejoice + in a quiet wedding rather than in noise and processions. Holidays distract most people, so that they + have no leisure for such matters. +
+Or, because they seized the maiden daughters of
+ the Sabines at a holiday festival, and thereby became involved in war, did they come to regard it as
+ ill-omened to marry maidens on holy days?
+
+
Why do the Romans reverence Fortuna
+ Primigenia,First-born,
as one might translate it?
+
Is it because by Fortune, as they say, it befell + Servius, born of a maidservant, to become a famous + king of Rome? This is the assumption which the + majority of Romans make. +
+Or is it rather because Fortune supplied the origin
+ and birth of Rome?
Or does the matter have an explanation more + natural and philosophic, which assumes that Fortune + is the origin of everything, and Nature acquires its + solid frame by the operation of Fortune, whenever + order is created in any store of matter gathered + together at haphazard. +
+Why do the Romans call the Dionysiac
+ artists
Is it for the reason that Cluvius Rufus
Why do they not marry women who are + closely akin to them? +
+Do they wish to enlarge their relationships by + marriage and to acquire many additional kinsmen + by bestowing wives upon others and receiving wives + from others? +
+Or do they fear the disagreements which arise + in marriages of near kin, on the ground that these + tend to destroy natural rights? +
+Or, since they observed that women by reason of + their weakness need many protectors, were they + not willing to take as partners in their household + women closely akin to them, so that if their husbands + wronged them, their kinsmen might bring them + succour? +
+Why was it not permitted for the priest of
+ Jupiter, whom they call the
Is it because flour is an incomplete and crude
+ food? For neither has it remained what it was,
+ wheat, nor has it become what it must become,
+ bread; but it has both lost the germinative power
+ of the seed and at the same time it has not attained
+ to the usefulness of food. Wherefore also the Poet
+ by a metaphor applied to barley-meal the epithet
+ mill-slaughtered.
+
Yeast is itself also the product of corruption, and
+ produces corruption in the dough with which it is
+ mixed: for the dough becomes flabby and inert,
+ and altogether the process of leavening seems to
+ be one of putrefaction
Why is this priest also forbidden to touch raw + flesh? +
+Is this custom intended to deter people completely + from eating raw meat, or do they scrupulously repudiate flesh for the same reason as flour? For neither + is it a living creature nor has it yet become a cooked + food. Now boiling or roasting, being a sort of alteration and mutation, eliminates, the previous form; + but fresh raw meat does not have a clean and unsullied appearance, but one that is repulsive, like + a fresh wound. +
+Why did they bid the priest avoid the dog + and the goat, neither touching them nor naming + them? +
+Did they loathe the goat's lasciviousness and foul
+ odour, or did they fear its susceptibility to disease?
+ For it is thought to be subject to epilepsy beyond all
+ other animals, and to infect persons who eat it
The dog has, perhaps, less of lasciviousness and
+ foul odour. Some, however, assert that a dog may not
+ enter either the Athenian acropolis
Nor, in fact, did the men of old think that this
+ animal was wholly pure, for it was never sacrificed to
+ any of the Olympian gods: and when it is sent to the
+ cross-roads as a supper for the earth-goddess Hecatê,
For what reason was it forbidden the priest of
+ Jupiter to touch ivy or to pass along a road overhung
+ by a vine growing on a tree?
Is this second question like the precepts: Do not
+ eat seated on a stool,
+ Do not sit on a peck measure,
+ Do not step over a broom
? For the followers of
+ Pythagoras
Did they regard the ivy as an unfruitful plant, + useless to man, and feeble, and because of its weakness needing other plants to support it, but by its + shade and the sight of its green fascinating to most + people? And did they therefore think that it should + not be uselessly grown in their homes nor be allowed + to twine about in a futile way, contributing nothing, + since it is injurious to the plants forming its support? +
+Or is it because it cleaves to the ground?
Or was this also a symbolic prohibition of Bacchic
+ revels and orgies? For women possessed by Bacchic
+ frenzies rush straightway for ivy and tear it to pieces,
+ clutching it in their hands and biting it with their
+ teeth: so that not altogether without plausibility are
+ they who assert that ivy, possessing as it does an
+ exciting and distracting breath of madness, deranges
+ persons and agitates them, and in general brings on a
+ wineless drunkenness and joyousness in those that
+ are precariously disposed towards spiritual exaltation.
Why were these priests not allowed to hold
+ office nor to solicit it, yet they have the service of
+ a lictor and the right to a curule chair as an honour
+ and a consolation for holding no office?
Is this similar to the conditions in some parts of + Greece where the priesthood had a dignity commensurate with that of the kingship, and they + appointed as priests no ordinary men? +
+Or was it rather that since priests have definite + duties, whereas officials have duties which are irregular and undefined, if the occasions for these + duties happened to coincide, it was impossible for the + same man to be present at both, but oftentimes, when + both duties were pressing, he had to neglect one of + them and at one time commit impiety against the + gods, and at another do hurt to his fellow-citizens? +
+Or did they observe that there is implicit in the
+ government of men no less constraint than authority,
+ and that the ruler of the people, as Hippocrates
This pointer pattern extracts sections
+
+
+
Or rather, because light is a sign of generation, and it + is natural to a woman, for the most part, to bring forth so + far as five successively, and therefore they use five torches? + Or is it because they suppose that married persons have + occasion for five Gods, Nuptial Jupiter, Nuptial Juno, + Venus, Suada, and above all the rest Diana, whom women + invocate in their travail and child-bed sickness?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Aristinus, well understanding the meaning of the oracle, + puts himself into the women's hands, to be washed and + wrapped in swaddling clouts, and sucks the breasts, in the + same manner as when he was newly born; and thus all + others do, and such are called Hysteropotmi (i.e. those for + whom a funeral was made while living). But some say + that these ceremonies were before Aristinus, and that the + custom was ancient. Wherefore it is not to be wondered + at, if the Romans, when once they suppose a man buried + and to have his lot among the dead, do not think it lawful + for him to go in at the door whereat they that are about + to sacrifice do go out or those that have sacrificed do enter + in, but bid them ascend aloft into the air, and thence descend into the open court of the house. For they constantly offer their sacrifices of purification in this open + court.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
If there is any thing further to be said, consider whether + we ought not to enquire only after the reason why men in + divine service are covered, the other being the consequence + of it. For they that are uncovered before men of greater + power do not thereby ascribe honor unto them, but rather + remove envy from them, that they might not seem to demand or to endure the same kind of reverence which the + Gods have, or to rejoice that they are served in the same + manner as they. But they worship the Gods in this manner, either showing their unworthiness in all humility by + the covering of the head, or rather fearing that some unlucky and ominous voice should come to them from abroad + whilst they are praying; therefore they pluck up their + cloaks about their ears. That they strictly observed these + things is manifest in this, that when they went to consult + the oracle, they made a great din all about by the tinkling + of brass kettles. Or is it as Castor saith, that the Roman + usages were conformable to the Pythagoric notion that the + daemon within us stands in need of the Gods without us, + and we make supplication to them with a covered head, + intimating the body's hiding and absconding of the soul?
+
+
+
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+
+ The Day after the feast contended with the
+ Feast-day, saying that the Feast-day had much labor and
+ toil, but she (the Day after the feast) afforded the fruition
+ of the provision made for the Feast-day, with much leisure
+ and quietness. The Feast-day answered after this wise:
+ Thou speakest truth; but if I had not been, neither hadst
+ thou been.
These things spake Themistocles to the Athenian officers of the army, who succeeded him, signifying
+ that they could never have made any figure in the world
+ had not he saved the city.
Since therefore every action and journey worth our diligent management requires necessary provision and preparation, but the Romans of old made no family provision
+ on feast-days, nor were careful for any thing but that they
+ might attend divine service,—and this they did with all
+ their might, as even now the priests enjoin them in their
+ proclamations when they proceed to the sacrifices,—
+ in like manner they did not rush presently after their
+ festival solemnities upon a journey or any enterprise (because they were unprovided), but finished that day in
+ contriving domestic affairs and fitting themselves for the
+ intended occasion abroad. And as even at this day, after
+ they have said their prayers and finished their devotion,
+
+
+
+ Verily garments are deceitful, and so are colors.
+ And a thing that is naturally black is not dyed by art but
+ by nature, and is blended with an intermixed shade. It is
+ white only therefore that is sincere, unmixed, free from the
+ impurity of a dye, and inimitable; therefore most proper
+ to those that are buried. For one that is dead is become
+ simple, unmixed, and pure, freed from the body no otherwise than from a tingeing poison. In Argos they wear
+ white in mourning, as Socrates saith, vestments rinsed in
+ water.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Where thou Caius art, there am
+ I Caia
?
+
+
+
+
+
+
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Money is produced from plenty of fruit and the vent + of them, therefore they make Saturn the author and preserver of their felicity. That which confirms this is that + the conventions assembled every ninth day in the marketplace (which they call Nundinae) they reckon sacred to + Saturn, because the abundance of fruit gave the first occasion of buying and selling. Or are these things farfetched, and was the first that contrived this Saturnine + chamber of bank Valerius Publicola, upon the suppression + of the kings, being persuaded it was a strong place, conspicuous, and not easily undermined by treachery?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ made good
on account of aid rendered
+
+
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+
+
+ The earth all Gods in common have?
+
that men might worship and reverence all Gods that have + the earth in common, so did the ancient Romans obscure the + Lord of their Salvation, requiring that not only this but + all Gods should be reverenced by the citizens?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Let the bride go
+ into the bed-chamber gnawing a quince, that the first salutation be not harsh and ungrateful.
So did the Roman
+ lawgiver command that, if there should be any thing
+ absurd and unpleasant in her body, she should hide it?
+ Or was it intended to cast infamy upon the unlawful use
+ of venery by causing that the lawful should have certain
+ signs of modesty attending it?
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Therefore the Romans say that M. Crassus had hay about
+
+
+
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+
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+
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+
+
Or was this for a doctrine of obedience to authority,— + that they would have us not discontented under it; but, as + the moon doth willingly obey her superior and conform + unto him, always vamping after the rays of the sun (as + Parmenides hath it), so they that are subjects to any prince + should be contented with their lower station, in the enjoyment of power and dignity derived from him?
+
+
+
+
+
for they suppose that women have the easiest travail at the + full of the moon.
+
+
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+
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Therefore they marry not in May, but tarry till June, which + is presently after May.
+
+
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+
+
+
+
+ A bird that preys on birds, how can't be clean?
+
And verily this bird is not pernicious to men, for it neither
+ destroys fruits nor plants, nor is hurtful to any tame animal.
+ Moreover if it be (as the Egyptians fabulously pretend)
+ that the whole kind of them is of the female sex, and that
+ they conceive by the reception of the east wind into their
+ bodies, as the trees do by receiving the west wind, it is
+ most probable that very certain and sound prognostics may
+ be made from them; whereas in other birds (there being
+ so many rapines, flights, and pursuits about copulation)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Renowned Trojan race commixt with Latin boys?
+
Or is it because a horse is a fierce, warlike, and martial + beast, therefore they do sacrifice to the Gods the things + that are most acceptable and suitable; and he that conquers is offered, because victory and prowess doth belong + to that God? Or is it rather because to stand in battle is + the work of God, and they that keep their ranks and files + do conquer those that do not keep them but fly, and swiftness of foot is punished as the maintenance of cowardice; + so that hereby it is significantly taught that there is no + safety to them that run away?
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IT is sure, he that said it had no mind to live concealed, for he spoke it out of a design of being taken
- notice of for his very saying it, as if he saw deeper into
- things than every vulgar eye, and of purchasing to himself a reputation, how unjustly soever, by inveigling others
- into obscurity and retirement. But the poet says right:
-
-
-
-
For they tell us of one Philoxenus the son of Eryxis,
- and Gnatho the Sicilian, who were so over greedy after
- any dainties set before them, that they would blow their
- nose in the dish, whereby, turning the stomachs of the
- other guests, they themselves went away fuller crammed
- with the rarities. Thus fares it with all those whose appetite is always lusting and insatiate after glory. They
- bespatter the repute of others, as their rivals in honor,
- that they themselves may advance smoothly to it and
- without a rub. They do like watermen, who look astern
- while they row the boat ahead, still so managing the
- strokes of the oar that the vessel may make on to its
- port. So these men who recommend to us such kind of
- precepts row hard after glory, but with their face another
- way. To what purpose else need this have been said?—why committed to writing and handed down to posterity?
-
-
But besides, doth not the thing itself sound ill, to
- bid you keep all your lifetime out of the world's eye, as
- if you had rifled the sepulchres of the dead, or done
- such like detestable villany which you should hide for?
- What! is it grown a crime to live, unless you can keep all
- others from knowing you do so? For my part, I should
- pronounce that even an ill-liver ought not to withdraw
- himself from the converse of others. No; let him be
- known, let him be reclaimed, let him repent; so that, if
- you have any stock of virtue, let it not lie unemployed, or
- if you have been viciously bent, do not by flying the means
- continue unreclaimed and uncured. Point me out therefore and distinguish me the man to whom you adopt this
- admonition. If to one devoid of sense, goodness, or wit,
- it is like one that should caution a person under a fever or
- raving madness not to let it be known where he is, for fear
- the physicians should find him, but rather to skulk in
- some dark corner, where he and his diseases may escape
- discovery. So you who labor under that pernicious, that
- scarce curable disease, wickedness, are by parity of reason
- bid to conceal your vices, your envyings, your superstitions,
- like some disorderly or feverous pulse, for fear of falling
- into the hands of them who might prescribe well to you
- and set you to rights again. Whereas, alas! in the days
- of remote antiquity, men exhibited the sick to public view,
- when every charitable passenger who had labored himself
- under the like malady, or had experienced a remedy on them
- that did, communicated to the diseased all the receipts he
- knew; thus, say they, skill in physic was patched up by
- multiplied experiments, and grew to a mighty art. At the
- same rate ought all the infirmities of a dissolute life, all
- the irregular passions of the soul, to be laid open to the
- view of all, and undergo the touch of every skilful hand,
-
-
Again, if on the other hand this advice be calculated - for the owners of worth and virtue, if they must be condemned to privacy and live unknown to the world, you do - in effect bid Epaminondas lay down his arms, you bid Lycurgus rescind his laws, you bid Thrasybulus spare the - tyrants, in a word, you bid Pythagoras forbear his instructions, and Socrates his reasonings and discourses; nay, - you lay injunctions chiefly upon yourself, Epicurus, not - to maintain that epistolary correspondence with your Asiatic - friends, not to entertain your Egyptian visitants, not to be - tutor to the youth of Lampsacus, not to present and send - about your books to women as well as men, out of an - ostentation of some wisdom in yourself more than vulgar, - not to leave such particular directions about your funeral - And in fine, to what purpose, Epicurus, did you keep a - public table? Why that concourse of friends, that resort - of fair young men, at your doors? Why so many thousand lines so elaborately composed and writ upon Metrodorus, Aristobulus, and Chaeredemus, that death itself - might not rob us of them; if virtue must be doomed to oblivion, art to idleness and inactivity, philosophy to silence, - and all a man's happiness must be forgotten?
-But if indeed, in the state of life we are under, you
- will needs seclude us from all knowledge and acquaintance
- with the world (as men shut light from their entertainments
- and drinking-bouts, for which they set the night apart), let
-
- Virtue, like finest brass, by use grows bright.
-
And not our houses alone, when (as Sophocles has it) they - stand long untenanted, run the faster to ruin; but men's - natural parts, lying unemployed for lack of acquaintance - with the world, contract a kind of filth or rust and craziness thereby. For sottish ease, and a life wholly sedentary - and given up to idleness, spoil and debilitate not only the - body but the soul too. And as close waters shadowed over - by bordering trees, and stagnated in default of springs to - supply current and motion to them, become foul and corrupt; so, methinks, is it with the innate faculties of a - dull unstirring soul,—whatever usefulness, whatever seeds - of good she may have latent in her, yet when she puts - not these powers into action, when once they stagnate, - they lose their vigor and run to decay.
-See you not how on night's approach a sluggish
- drowsiness oft-times seizes the body, and sloth and inactiveness surprise the soul, and she finds herself heavy and
- quite unfit for action? Have you not then observed how
- a man's reason (like fire scarce visible and just going out)
- retires into itself, and how by reason of its inactivity and
- dulness it is gently agitated by divers fantastical imaginations, so that nothing remains but some obscure indications
- that the man is alive.
-
-
-
-
It doth, as it were, bring the world together again, and
- with his returned light call up and excite all mankind to
- thought and action; and, as Democritus tells us, men setting themselves every new-spring day to endeavors of
-
-
For my own part, I am fully persuaded that life itself,
- and our being born at the rate we are, and the origin we
- share in common with all mankind, were vouchsafed us by
- God to the intent we should be known to one another.
- It is true, whilst man, in that little part of him, his soul,
- lies struggling and scattered in the vast womb of the
- universe, he is an obscure and unknown being; but, when
- once he gets hither into this world and puts a body on, he
- grows illustrious, and from an obscure becomes a conspicuous being; from an hidden, an apparent one. For
- knowledge does not lead to essence (or being), as some
- maintain; but the essence of things rather conducts us
- into the knowledge and understanding thereof. For the
- birth or generation of individuals gives not any being
- to them which they had not before, but brings that individual into view; as also the corruption or death of
- any creature is not its annihilation or reduction into mere
- nothing, but rather a sending the dissolved being into an
- invisible state. Hence is it that many persons (conformably to their ancient country laws), taking the Sun to be
- Apollo, gave him the names of Delius and Pythius (that is,
- conspicuous and known). But for him, be he either God
- or Daemon, who hath dominion over the opposite portion,
- the infernal regions, they call him Hades (that is, invisible),
-
- Emperor of gloomy night and lazy sleep,
-
for that at our death and dissolution we pass into a state
- of invisibility and beyond the reach of mortal eyes. I am
- indeed of opinion, that the ancients called man Phos (that
- is, light), because from the affinity of their natures strong
- desires are bred in mankind of continually seeing and
-
-
And yet it is certain, in the regions prepared for
- pious souls, they conserve not only an existence in (or
- agreeable to) nature, but are encircled with glory.
-
-
-
-
The rivers there without rude murmurs gently glide, and - there they meet and bear each other company, passing - away their time in commemorating and running over things - past and present.
-A third state there is of them who have led vicious and
- wicked lives, which precipitates souls into a kind of hell
- and miserable abyss,
-
-
-
-
This is the receptacle of the tormented; here lie they hid
-
- For strength no longer flesh and bone sustains.
-
There are no reliques of the body in dead men which - stripes and tortures can make impressions on; but in very - truth the sole punishment of ill-livers is an inglorious - obscurity, or a final abolition, which through oblivion hurls - and plunges them into deplorable rivers, bottomless seas, - and a dark abyss, involving all in uselessness and inactivity, - absolute ignorance and obscurity, as their last and eternal - doom.
-optical character recognition
+Text encoded in accordance with the latest EpiDoc standards
+The following text is encoded in accordance with EpiDoc standards and with the + CTS/CITE Architecture
+This pointer pattern extracts sections
+IT is sure, he that said it had no mind to live concealed, for he spoke it out of a design of being taken notice of for his very saying it, as if he saw deeper into things than every vulgar eye, and of purchasing to himself a reputation, how unjustly soever, by inveigling others into obscurity and retirement. But the poet says right:
For they tell us of one Philoxenus the son of Eryxis, and Gnatho the Sicilian, who were so over greedy after any dainties set before them, that they would blow their nose in the dish, whereby, turning the stomachs of the other guests, they themselves went away fuller crammed with the rarities. Thus fares it with all those whose appetite is always lusting and insatiate after glory. They bespatter the repute of others, as their rivals in honor, that they themselves may advance smoothly to it and without a rub. They do like watermen, who look astern while they row the boat ahead, still so managing the strokes of the oar that the vessel may make on to its port. So these men who recommend to us such kind of precepts row hard after glory, but with their face another way. To what purpose else need this have been said?—why committed to writing and handed down to posterity?
But besides, doth not the thing itself sound ill, to bid you keep all your lifetime out of the world’s eye, as if you had rifled the sepulchres of the dead, or done such like detestable villany which you should hide for? What! is it grown a crime to live, unless you can keep all others from knowing you do so? For my part, I should pronounce that even an ill-liver ought not to withdraw himself from the converse of others. No; let him be known, let him be reclaimed, let him repent; so that, if you have any stock of virtue, let it not lie unemployed, or if you have been viciously bent, do not by flying the means continue unreclaimed and uncured. Point me out therefore and distinguish me the man to whom you adopt this admonition. If to one devoid of sense, goodness, or wit, it is like one that should caution a person under a fever or raving madness not to let it be known where he is, for fear the physicians should find him, but rather to skulk in some dark corner, where he and his diseases may escape discovery. So you who labor under that pernicious, that scarce curable disease, wickedness, are by parity of reason bid to conceal your vices, your envyings, your superstitions, like some disorderly or feverous pulse, for fear of falling into the hands of them who might prescribe well to you and set you to rights again. Whereas, alas! in the days of remote antiquity, men exhibited the sick to public view, when every charitable passenger who had labored himself under the like malady, or had experienced a remedy on them that did, communicated to the diseased all the receipts he knew; thus, say they, skill in physic was patched up by multiplied experiments, and grew to a mighty art. At the same rate ought all the infirmities of a dissolute life, all the irregular passions of the soul, to be laid open to the view of all, and undergo the touch of every skilful hand,
Again, if on the other hand this advice be calculated for the owners of worth and virtue, if they must be condemned to privacy and live unknown to the world, you do in effect bid Epaminondas lay down his arms, you bid Lycurgus rescind his laws, you bid Thrasybulus spare the tyrants, in a word, you bid Pythagoras forbear his instructions, and Socrates his reasonings and discourses; nay, you lay injunctions chiefly upon yourself, Epicurus, not to maintain that epistolary correspondence with your Asiatic friends, not to entertain your Egyptian visitants, not to be tutor to the youth of Lampsacus, not to present and send about your books to women as well as men, out of an ostentation of some wisdom in yourself more than vulgar, not to leave such particular directions about your funeral And in fine, to what purpose, Epicurus, did you keep a public table? Why that concourse of friends, that resort of fair young men, at your doors? Why so many thousand lines so elaborately composed and writ upon Metrodorus, Aristobulus, and Chaeredemus, that death itself might not rob us of them; if virtue must be doomed to oblivion, art to idleness and inactivity, philosophy to silence, and all a man’s happiness must be forgotten?
But if indeed, in the state of life we are under, you will needs seclude us from all knowledge and acquaintance with the world (as men shut light from their entertainments and drinking-bouts, for which they set the night apart), let Virtue, like finest brass, by use grows bright.
And not our houses alone, when (as Sophocles has it) they stand long untenanted, run the faster to ruin; but men’s natural parts, lying unemployed for lack of acquaintance with the world, contract a kind of filth or rust and craziness thereby. For sottish ease, and a life wholly sedentary and given up to idleness, spoil and debilitate not only the body but the soul too. And as close waters shadowed over by bordering trees, and stagnated in default of springs to supply current and motion to them, become foul and corrupt; so, methinks, is it with the innate faculties of a dull unstirring soul,—whatever usefulness, whatever seeds of good she may have latent in her, yet when she puts not these powers into action, when once they stagnate, they lose their vigor and run to decay.
See you not how on night’s approach a sluggish drowsiness oft-times seizes the body, and sloth and inactiveness surprise the soul, and she finds herself heavy and quite unfit for action? Have you not then observed how a man’s reason (like fire scarce visible and just going out) retires into itself, and how by reason of its inactivity and dulness it is gently agitated by divers fantastical imaginations, so that nothing remains but some obscure indications that the man is alive.
It doth, as it were, bring the world together again, and with his returned light call up and excite all mankind to thought and action; and, as Democritus tells us, men setting themselves every new-spring day to endeavors of
For my own part, I am fully persuaded that life itself, and our being born at the rate we are, and the origin we share in common with all mankind, were vouchsafed us by God to the intent we should be known to one another. It is true, whilst man, in that little part of him, his soul, lies struggling and scattered in the vast womb of the universe, he is an obscure and unknown being; but, when once he gets hither into this world and puts a body on, he grows illustrious, and from an obscure becomes a conspicuous being; from an hidden, an apparent one. For knowledge does not lead to essence (or being), as some maintain; but the essence of things rather conducts us into the knowledge and understanding thereof. For the birth or generation of individuals gives not any being to them which they had not before, but brings that individual into view; as also the corruption or death of any creature is not its annihilation or reduction into mere nothing, but rather a sending the dissolved being into an invisible state. Hence is it that many persons (conformably to their ancient country laws), taking the Sun to be Apollo, gave him the names of Delius and Pythius (that is, conspicuous and known). But for him, be he either God or Daemon, who hath dominion over the opposite portion, the infernal regions, they call him Hades (that is, invisible), Emperor of gloomy night and lazy sleep,
for that at our death and dissolution we pass into a state of invisibility and beyond the reach of mortal eyes. I am indeed of opinion, that the ancients called man Phos (that is, light), because from the affinity of their natures strong desires are bred in mankind of continually seeing and
And yet it is certain, in the regions prepared for pious souls, they conserve not only an existence in (or agreeable to) nature, but are encircled with glory.
The rivers there without rude murmurs gently glide, and there they meet and bear each other company, passing away their time in commemorating and running over things past and present.
+A third state there is of them who have led vicious and wicked lives, which precipitates souls into a kind of hell and miserable abyss,
This is the receptacle of the tormented; here lie they hid For strength no longer flesh and bone sustains.
There are no reliques of the body in dead men which stripes and tortures can make impressions on; but in very truth the sole punishment of ill-livers is an inglorious obscurity, or a final abolition, which through oblivion hurls and plunges them into deplorable rivers, bottomless seas, and a dark abyss, involving all in uselessness and inactivity, absolute ignorance and obscurity, as their last and eternal doom.
optical character recognition
-Notes are not included.
-ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ὁ τοῦτʼ εἰπὼν λαθεῖν ἠθέλησεν αὐτὸ γὰρ τοῦτʼ εἶπεν, ἵνα μὴ λάθῃ, ὥς τι φρονῶν
-μισῶ σοφιστήν, ὅστις οὐχ αὑτῷ σοφός·
-τοὺς μὲν γὰρ περὶ Φιλόξενον τὸν Ἐρύξιδος καὶ Γνάθωνα τὸν Σικελιώτην ἐπτοημένους περὶ τὰ ὄψα
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ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ἐῶμεν· αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ πρᾶγμα πῶς οὐ πονηρόν, λάθε βιώσας; ὡς τυμβωρυχήσας;
-ἀλλʼ αἰσχρόν ἐστι τὸ ζῆν, ἵνʼ ἀγνοῶμεν πάντες; ἐγὼ
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καὶ μὴν εἴ γε τοῖς χρηστοῖς λανθάνειν καὶ ἀγνοεῖσθαι παραινεῖς, Ἐπαμεινώνδᾳ λέγεις “μὴ στρατήγει”
εἰ δʼ ἐκ τοῦ βίου καθάπερ ἐκ συμποσίου
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-οὐ μόνον “στέγοσ” ὥς φησι Σοφοκλῆς, ἀλλὰ καὶ
-ἦθος ἀνδρός, οἷον εὐρῶτα καὶ γῆρας ἐν ἀπραξίᾳ
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οὐχ ὁρᾷς, ὅτι νυκτὸς μὲν ἐπιούσης τά τε
-σώματα δυσεργεῖς βαρύτητες ἴσχουσι καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς
-ἦμος δʼ ἠπεροπῆας; ἀπεπτοίησεν ὀνείρους
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δοκῶ δʼ ἐγὼ καὶ τὸ ζῆν αὐτὸ καὶ ὅλως τὸ
-νυκτὸς ἀιδνᾶς ἀεργηλοῖὸ θʼ ὕπνου κοίρανον.
οἶμαι δὲ καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον αὐτὸν οὑτωσὶ φῶτα καλεῖν τοὺς παλαιούς, ὅτι τοῦ γιγνώσκεσθαι καὶ
-γιγνώσκειν ἑκάστῳ διὰ συγγένειαν ἔρως ἰσχυρὸς
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καίτοι τῆς γε δόξης καὶ τοῦ εἶναι φύσιν εὐσεβῶν χῶρον
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δεχόμενοι καὶ ἀποκρύπτοντες ἀγνοίᾳ καὶ λήθῃ τοὺς
-οὐ γὰρ ἔτι σάρκας τε καὶ ὀστέα ἶνες ἔχουσιν.
-
optical character recognition
+Text encoded in accordance with the latest EpiDoc standards
+The following text is encoded in accordance with EpiDoc standards and with the CTS/CITE +Architecture
+This pointer pattern extracts sections
+μισῶ σοφιστήν, ὅστις οὐχ αὑτῷ
+σοφός·
τοὺς μὲν γὰρ περὶ Φιλόξενον τὸν Ἐρύξιδος καὶ Γνάθωνα τὸν Σικελιώτην ἐπτοημένους περὶ
+τὰ ὄψα
ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ἐῶμεν· αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ πρᾶγμα πῶς οὐ πονηρόν, λάθε βιώσας; ὡς
+τυμβωρυχήσας; ἀλλʼ αἰσχρόν ἐστι τὸ ζῆν, ἵνʼ ἀγνοῶμεν πάντες; ἐγὼ ὀργίζῃ; τοῦτο φύλαξαι· ζηλοτυπεῖς; ἐκεῖνο ποίησον· ἐρᾷς;
+κἀγώ
νῦν δʼ ἀρνούμενοι, ἀποκρυπτόμενοι,
+περιστέλλοντες, ἐμβαθύνουσι τὴν κακίαν ἑαυτοῖς.
καὶ μὴν εἴ γε τοῖς χρηστοῖς λανθάνειν καὶ ἀγνοεῖσθαι παραινεῖς, Ἐπαμεινώνδᾳ λέγεις
+μὴ στρατήγει
μὴ νομοθέτει
καὶ Θρασυβούλῳ μὴ
+τυραννοκτόνει
καὶ Πυθαγόρᾳ μὴ παίδευε
καὶ Σωκράτει μὴ διαλέγου·
καὶ σεαυτῷ πρῶτον Ἐπίκουρε, μὴ
+γράφε τοῖς ἐν Ἀσίᾳ φίλοις
εἰ δʼ ἐκ τοῦ βίου καθάπερ ἐκ συμποσίου τῷ καλῷ προσπτύειν
ἐν σαρκὶ καὶ
+ γαργαλισμοῖς
τίθεσθαι· ταῦτα δεῖται σκότους τὰ τέλη, ταῦτα νυκτός, ἐπὶ ταῦτα τὴν λήθην καὶ τὴν
+ἄγνοιαν. ἐὰν δέ τις ἐν μὲν φυσικοῖς θεὸν ὑμνῇ καὶ δίκην καὶ πρόνοιαν, ἐν δʼ ἠθικοῖς; νόμον καὶ
+κοινωνίαν καὶ
+
οὐ μόνον στέγος
ὥς φησι Σοφοκλῆς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἦθος ἀνδρός, οἷον εὐρῶτα καὶ γῆρας ἐν ἀπραξίᾳ
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οὐχ ὁρᾷς, ὅτι νυκτὸς μὲν ἐπιούσης τά τε σώματα δυσεργεῖς βαρύτητες ἴσχουσι καὶ τὰς
+ψυχὰς μακρὰν διεσπασμέναις πάλλεται φαντασίαις,
ὅσον αὐτὸ τὸ ζῆν τὸν ἄνθρωπον
+ὑποσημαίνειν; ἦμος δʼ ἠπεροπῆας; ἀπεπτοίησεν ὀνείρους
+ὁ ἥλιος ἀνασχὼν
καὶ καθάπερ εἰς ταὐτὸ συμμίξας ἐπέστρεψε καὶ
+συνώρμησε τῷ φωτὶ τὰς πράξεις καὶ τὰς νοήσεις τὰς ἁπάντων, ὥς φησι Δημόκριτος νέα
ἅνθρωποι, τῇ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ὁρμῇ καθάπερ ἀρτήματι συντόνῳ
+σπασθέντες, ἄλλος ἀλλαχόθεν ἐπὶ τὰς πράξεις ἀνίστανται.
δοκῶ δʼ ἐγὼ καὶ τὸ ζῆν αὐτὸ καὶ ὅλως τὸ νυκτὸς ἀιδνᾶς ἀεργηλοῖὸ θʼ ὕπνου
+κοίρανον.
οἶμαι δὲ καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον αὐτὸν οὑτωσὶ φῶτα καλεῖν τοὺς παλαιούς, ὅτι τοῦ
+γιγνώσκεσθαι καὶ γιγνώσκειν ἑκάστῳ διὰ συγγένειαν ἔρως ἰσχυρὸς
καίτοι τῆς γε δόξης καὶ τοῦ εἶναι φύσιν εὐσεβῶν χῶρον
+
+
+
δεχόμενοι καὶ ἀποκρύπτοντες ἀγνοίᾳ καὶ λήθῃ τοὺς οὐ γὰρ ἔτι σάρκας τε καὶ ὀστέα ἶνες ἔχουσιν.
+