Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookythagoras[1144] exclaim; whither would he not flee, could he be witness in our days to such atrocities as these! He that abstained from all that was endued with life as from man himself; and did not even indulge his appetite with every kind of pulse. FOOTNOTES: [1055] _Volusius_ is unknown. Some suppose him to be the same person as the Bithynicus to whom Plutarch wrote a treatise on Friendship. [1056] _Ægyptus._ So Cicero, "Ægyptiorum morem quis ignorat? Quorum imbutæ mentes pravitatis erroribus, quamvis carnificinam prius subierint quam ibin aut aspidem aut felem aut canem aut crocodilum violent; quorum etiam imprudentes si quidquam fecerint, pœnam nullam recusent." Tusc. Qu., v., 27. Cf. Athen., vol. ii., p. 650, Dind. [1057] _Crocodilon._ Vid. Herod., ii., 69.--_Ibin._ Cic., de Nat. Deor., i., 36. [1058] _Memnone._ His statue stood in the temple of Serapis at Thebes. Plin., xxvi., 7. Strabo, xvii., c. 1, τὰ ἄνω μέρη τὰ ἀπο τῆς καθέδρας πέπτωκε σεισμοῦ γεννηθέντος. He says the ψόφος comes from "the lower part remaining on the base." Cf. 1. 56, "Vultus dimidios." Sat. viii., 4, "Et Curios jam dimidios." iii., 219, "Mediamque Minervam." Cf. Clinton, Fasti Romani, in A.D. 130. [1059] _Canem._ Cf. Lucan, viii., 832, "Semideosque canes." The allusion is to the worship of Anubis, cf. vi., 533. [1060] _Porrum._ "And it is dangerous here to violate an onion, or to stain The sanctity of leeks with teeth profane." Gifford. [1061] _Hortis._ "Ye pious nations, in whose gardens rise A constant crop of earth-sprung deities!" Badham. [1062] _Ulyxes._ Vid. Hom., Odyss., ix., 106, _seq._; x., 80, _seq._ [1063] _Aretalogus._ "Parasitus, et circulator philosophus." A discourser on _virtue_ who frequented feasts; hence, one who tells pleasing tales, a romancer. The philosopher at last degenerated into the buffoon. Cicero uses "Ethologus" in nearly the same sense, cf. de Orat., ii., 59, cum not. Harles. Suet., Aug., 74, "Acroamata et histriones, aut etiam triviales ex Circo ludios, interponebat, ac frequentius aretalogos." Salmas., ad Flav. Vopisc., 42. Lucian, de Ver. Hist., i., 709, B. Shaksp., Othello, Act i., sc. 3. [1064] _Verâ._ Cf. viii., 188, "Judice me dignus _verâ_ cruce." [1065] _Fingentem_, i. e., "that they fed on _human_ victims." [1066] _Læstrygones._ Their fabulous seat was Formiæ, now "Mola," whither they were led from Sicily by Lamus, their leader. Hor., iii., Od. xvii., 1; xvi., 34. Horn., Odyss., x., 81. [1067] _Concurrentia saxa._ These rocks were at the northern entrance of the Thracian Bosphorus, now the Channel of Constantinople; and were fabled to have floated and crushed all vessels that passed the straits, till Minerva guided the ship Argo through in safety and fixed them forever. They were hence called συμπληγάδες, συνδρομάδες, πλαγκταὶ, and κυάνεαι, from the deep blue of the surrounding water. Homer places them near Sicily. Odyss., xii., 61; xxiii., 327. Pind., Pyth., iv., 370. Cf. Herod., iv., 85. Eur., Med., 2; Androm., 794. Theoc., Idyll., xiii., 22. Ov., Her., xii., 121. "Compressos utinam Symplegades elisissent," Trist., I., x., 34. They are now called "Pavorane." [1068] _Vacui._ Cf. xiv., 57, "Vacuumque cerebro jampridem caput." Cf. Virg., Æn., i., 567, "Non obtusa adeo gestamus pectora Pœni." "But men to eat men human faith surpasses, This traveler takes us islanders for asses." Dryden. [1069] _Nondum ebrius._ "So might some sober hearer well have said, Ere Corcyræan stingo turned his head." Hodgson. [1070] _Temetum_, an old word of doubtful etymology: from it is derived "temulentus" and "abstemius" (cf. Hor., ii., Ep. 163), and the phrase "Temeti timor" for a parasite. [1071] _Corcyræâ._ The Phæacians were luxurious fellows, as Horace implies: "Pinguis ut inde domum possim Phæaxque reverti." i., Ep., xv., 24. [1072] _Ithacus._ So x., 257; xiv., 287. [1073] _Junio._ Salmasius supposes this Junius to be Q. Junius Rusticus, or Rusticius, consul with Hadrian, A.U.C. 872, A.D. 119. (Plin., Exerc., p. 320.) Others refer it to an Appius Junius Sabinus, consul with Domitian, A.U.C. 835, A.D. 82. But the name of Domitian's colleague was _Titus Flavius_; and no person of the name of Junius appears in the lists of consuls till Rusticus. Some read Junco, or Vinco, to avoid the synizesis; but neither of these names occur. See Life. [1074] _Copti_, now Kypt or Koft, about twelve miles from Tentyra, thirty from Thebes, and one hundred and twenty from Syene, where Juvenal was stationed. Ptolemy Philadelphus connected it by a road with Berenice. [1075] _Pyrrha._ Cf. i., 84. [1076] _Syrmata._ Properly the "long sweeping train of tragedy." Vid. Hor., A. P., 278, "Personæ pallæque repertor honestæ." Sat., viii., 229, "Longum tu pone Thyestæ Syrma vel Antigones vel personam Menalippes." So Milton, Il Pens., "Sometimes let gorgeous tragedy in sceptred pall come sweeping by." Cf. Mart., xii., Ep. xcv., 3, 4; iv., Ep. xlix., 8. [1077] _Populus._ i. e., "Tragedy only relates the atrocious crimes of _individuals_: from the days of the Deluge, you can find no instance of wickedness extending to _a whole nation_." [1078] _Feritas._ Aristotle enumerates as one of the characteristics of θηριότης, τὸ χαίρειν κρέασιν ἀνθρώπων. [1079] _Simultas_ is properly "the jealousy or rivalry of two persons candidates for the same office," from _simulo_, synom. with æmulari; or from _simul_. Vid. Doederlein, iii., 72. [1080] _Ombos_, now "Koum-Ombou," lies on the right bank of the Nile, not far from Syene, and consequently a hundred miles at least from Tentyra. To avoid the difficulty, therefore, in the word "finitimos," Salmasius would read "Coptos," this place being only twelve miles distant; but all the best editions have Ombos. Tentyra, now "Denderah," lies on the left bank of the river, and is well known from the famous discoveries in its Temple by Napoleon's savans. The Tentyrites, as Strabo tells us (xvii., p. 460; cf. Plin., H. N., viii., 25), differed from the rest of their countrymen in their hatred and persecution of the crocodile, πάντα τρόπον ἀνιχνεύουσι καὶ διαφθείρουσιν αὐτούς, being the only Egyptians who dared attack or face them; and hence when some crocodiles were conveyed to Rome for exhibition, some Tentyrite keepers accompanied them, and displayed some curious feats of courage and dexterity. Aphrodite was their patron deity. The men of Coptos, Ombos, and Arsinoë, on the other hand, paid the crocodile the highest reverence; considering it an honor to have their children devoured by them; and crucified kites out of spite to the Tentyrites, who adored them. These religious differences are said by Diodorus (ii., 4) to have been fostered by the policy of the ancient kings, to prevent the conspiracies which might have resulted from the cordia |