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diff --git a/10001-0.txt b/10001-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..224e0fd --- /dev/null +++ b/10001-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,529 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10001 *** + SENECA + + APOCOLOCYNTOSIS + + WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY + + W.H.D. ROUSE, M.A. LITT. D. + + MCMXX + + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +This piece is ascribed to Seneca by ancient tradition; it is impossible +to prove that it is his, and impossible to prove that it is not. The +matter will probably continue to be decided by every one according to +his view of Seneca's character and abilities: in the matters of style +and of sentiment much may be said on both sides. Dion Cassius (lx, 35) +says that Seneca composed an ἀποκολοκύντωσις or Pumpkinification of +Claudius after his death, the title being a parody of the usual +ἀποθέωσις; but this title is not given in the MSS. of the Ludus de +Morte Claudii, nor is there anything in the piece which suits the title +very well. + +As a literary form, the piece belongs to the class called +_Satura Menippea_, a satiric medley in prose and verse. + +This text is that of Buecheler, with a few trifling changes, which are +indicated in the notes. We have been courteously allowed by Messrs +Weidmann to use this text. I have to acknowledge the help of Mr Ball's +notes, from which I have taken a few references; but my translation was +made many years ago. + +W.H.D. ROUSE. + + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +_Editio Princeps:_ Lucii Annaei Senecae in morte + Claudii Caesaris Ludus nuper repertus: Rome, + 1513. + +_Latest critical text:_ Franz Buecheler, Weidmann, 1904 (a reprint with +a few changes of the text from a larger work, Divi Claudii +Ἀποκολοκύντωσις in the Symbola Philologorum Bonnensium, fasc. i, 1864). + +_Translations and helps:_ The Satire of Seneca on the + Apotheosis of Claudius, by A.P. Ball (with introduction, + notes, and translations): New York: + Columbia University Press; London, Macmillan, + 1902. + + + + +SENECA + +APOCOLOCYNTOSIS, OR LUDUS DE MORTE CLAUDII: THE PUMPKINIFICATION OF +CLAUDIUS. + +I wish to place on record the proceedings in heaven 1 +October 13 last, of the new year which begins this auspicious age. It +shall be done without malice or favour. This is the truth. Ask if you like +how I know it? To begin with, I am not bound to please you with my answer. +Who will compel me? I know the same day made me free, which was the last +day for him who made the proverb true--One must be born either a Pharaoh +or a fool. If I choose to answer, I will say whatever trips off my tongue. +Who has ever made the historian produce witness to swear for him? But if +an authority must be produced, ask of the man who saw Drusilla translated +to heaven: the same man will aver he saw Claudius on the road, dot and +carry one. [Sidenote: Virg. Aen. ii, 724] Will he nill he, all that happens +in heaven he needs must see. He is the custodian of the Appian Way; by that +route, you know, both Tiberius and Augustus went up to the gods. Question +him, he will tell you the tale when you are alone; before company he is +dumb. You see he swore in the Senate that he beheld Drusilla mounting +heavenwards, and all he got for his good news was that everybody gave him +the lie: since when he solemnly swears he will never bear witness again to +what he has seen, not even if he had seen a man murdered in open market. +What he told me I report plain and clear, as I hope for his health and +happiness. + + Now had the sun with shorter course drawn in his risen light, 2 + And by equivalent degrees grew the dark hours of night: + Victorious Cynthia now held sway over a wider space, + Grim winter drove rich autumn out, and now usurped his place; + And now the fiat had gone forth that Bacchus must grow old, + The few last clusters of the vine were gathered ere the cold: + +I shall make myself better understood, if I say the month was October, the +day was the thirteenth. What hour it was I cannot certainly tell; +philosophers will agree more often than clocks; but it was between midday +and one after noon. "Clumsy creature!" you say. "The poets are not content +to describe sunrise and sunset, and now they even disturb the midday +siesta. Will you thus neglect so good an hour?" + + Now the sun's chariot had gone by the middle of his way; + Half wearily he shook the reins, nearer to night than day, + And led the light along the slope that down before him lay. + +Claudius began to breathe his last, and could not 3 +make an end of the matter. Then Mercury, who had always been much pleased +with his wit, drew aside one of the three Fates, and said: "Cruel beldame, +why do you let the poor wretch be tormented? After all this torture cannot +he have a rest? Four and sixty years it is now since he began to pant for +breath. What grudge is this you bear against him and the whole empire? Do +let the astrologers tell the truth for once; since he became emperor, they +have never let a year pass, never a month, without laying him out for his +burial. Yet it is no wonder if they are wrong, and no one knows his hour. +Nobody ever believed he was really quite born. [Footnote: A proverb for a +nobody, as Petron, 58 _qui te natum non putat._] Do what has to be done: +Kill him, and let a better man rule in empty court." +[Sidenote: Virg. Georg iv. 90] + +Clotho replied: "Upon my word, I did wish to give him another hour or two, +until he should make Roman citizens of the half dozen who are still +outsiders. (He made up his mind, you know, to see the whole world in the +toga, Greeks, Gauls, Spaniards, Britons, and all.) But since it is your +pleasure to leave a few foreigners for seed, and since you command me, so +be it." She opened her box and out came three spindles. One was for +Augurinus, one for Baba, one for Claudius. [Footnote: "Augurinus" unknown. +Baba: see Sep. Ep. 159, a fool.] "These three," she says, "I will cause to +die within one year and at no great distance apart, and I will not dismiss +him unattended. Think of all the thousands of men he was wont to see +following after him, thousands going before, thousands all crowding about +him, and it would never do to leave him alone on a sudden. These boon +companions will satisfy him for the nonce." + + This said, she twists the thread around his ugly spindle once, 4 + Snaps off the last bit of the life of that Imperial dunce. + But Lachesis, her hair adorned, her tresses neatly bound, + Pierian laurel on her locks, her brows with garlands crowned, + Plucks me from out the snowy wool new threads as white as snow, + Which handled with a happy touch change colour as they go, + Not common wool, but golden wire; the Sisters wondering gaze, + As age by age the pretty thread runs down the golden days. + World without end they spin away, the happy fleeces pull; + What joy they take to fill their hands with that delightful wool! + Indeed, the task performs itself: no toil the spinners know: + Down drops the soft and silken thread as round the spindles go; + Fewer than these are Tithon's years, not Nestor's life so long. + Phoebus is present: glad he is to sing a merry song; + Now helps the work, now full of hope upon the harp doth play; + The Sisters listen to the song that charms their toil away. + They praise their brother's melodies, and still the spindles run, + Till more than man's allotted span the busy hands have spun. + Then Phoebus says, "O sister Fates! I pray take none away, + But suffer this one life to be longer than mortal day. + Like me in face and lovely grace, like me in voice and song, + He'll bid the laws at length speak out that have been dumb so long, + Will give unto the weary world years prosperous and bright. + Like as the daystar from on high scatters the stars of night, + As, when the stars return again, clear Hesper brings his light, + Or as the ruddy dawn drives out the dark, and brings the day, + As the bright sun looks on the world, and speeds along its way + His rising car from morning's gates: so Caesar doth arise, + So Nero shows his face to Rome before the people's eyes, + His bright and shining countenance illumines all the air, + While down upon his graceful neck fall rippling waves of hair." + Thus Apollo. But Lachesis, quite as ready to cast a + favourable eye on a handsome man, spins away by the + handful, and bestows years and years upon Nero out + of her own pocket. As for Claudius, they tell everybody + to speed him on his way + With cries of joy and solemn litany. + +At once he bubbled up the ghost, and there was an end to that shadow of a +life. He was listening to a troupe of comedians when he died, so you see I +have reason to fear those gentry. The last words he was heard to speak in +this world were these. When he had made a great noise with that end of him +which talked easiest, he cried out, "Oh dear, oh dear! I think I have made +a mess of myself." Whether he did or no, I cannot say, but certain it is +he always did make a mess of everything. + +What happened next on earth it is mere waste of 5 +time to tell, for you know it all well enough, and there is no fear of your +ever forgetting the impression which that public rejoicing made on your +memory. No one forgets his own happiness. What happened in heaven you shall +hear: for proof please apply to my informant. Word comes to Jupiter that a +stranger had arrived, a man well set up, pretty grey; he seemed to be +threatening something, for he wagged his head ceaselessly; he dragged the +right foot. They asked him what nation he was of; he answered something in +a confused mumbling voice: his language they did not understand. He was no +Greek and no Roman, nor of any known race. On this Jupiter bids Hercules go +and find out what country he comes from; you see Hercules had travelled +over the whole world, and might be expected to know all the nations in it. +But Hercules, the first glimpse he got, was really much taken aback, +although not all the monsters in the world could frighten him; when he saw +this new kind of object, with its extraordinary gait, and the voice of no +terrestrial beast, but such as you might hear in the leviathans of the +deep, hoarse and inarticulate, he thought his thirteenth labour had come +upon him. When he looked closer, the thing seemed to be a kind of man. +Up he goes, then, and says what your Greek finds readiest to his tongue: + + "Who art thou, and what thy people? Who thy + parents, where thy home?" + [Sidenote: Od. i, 17] + +Claudius was delighted to find literary men up there, and began to hope +there might be some corner for his own historical works. So he caps him +with another Homeric verse, explaining that he was Caesar: + + "Breezes wafted me from Ilion unto the Ciconian land." + [Sidenote: Od. ix, 39] + +But the next verse was more true, and no less Homeric: + + "Thither come, I sacked a city, slew the people every one." + +He would have taken in poor simple Hercules, but 6 +that Our Lady of Malaria was there, who left her temple and came alone with +him: all the other gods he had left at Rome. Quoth she, "The fellow's tale +is nothing but lies. I have lived with him all these years, and I tell you, +he was born at Lyons. You behold a fellow-burgess of Marcus. [Footnote: +Reference unknown.] As I say, he was born at the sixteenth milestone from +Vienne, a native Gaul. So of course he took Rome, as a good Gaul ought to +do. I pledge you my word that in Lyons he was born, where Licinus +[Footnote: A Gallic slave, appointed by Augustus Procurator of Gallia +Lugudunensis, when he made himself notorious by his extortions. See Dion +Cass. liv, 21.] was king so many years. But you that have trudged over more +roads than any muleteer that plies for hire, you must have come across the +people of Lyons, and you must know that it is a far cry from Xanthus to the +Rhone." At this point Claudius flared up, and expressed his wrath with as +big a growl as he could manage. What he said nobody understood; as a matter +of fact, he was ordering my lady of Fever to be taken away, and making that +sign with his trembling hand (which was always steady enough for that, if +for nothing else) by which he used to decapitate men. He had ordered her +head to be chopped off. For all the notice the others took of him, they +might have been his own freedmen. + +Then Hercules said, "You just listen to me, and 7 +stop playing the fool. You have come to the place where the mice nibble +iron. [Footnote: A proverb, found also in Herondas iii, 76: apparently +fairy-land, the land of Nowhere.] Out with the truth, and look sharp, or +I'll knock your quips and quiddities out of you." Then to make himself all +the more awful, he strikes an attitude and proceeds in his most tragic +vein: + + "Declare with speed what spot you claim by birth. + Or with this club fall stricken to the earth! + This club hath ofttimes slaughtered haughty kings! + Why mumble unintelligible things? + What land, what tribe produced that shaking head? + Declare it! On my journey when I sped + Far to the Kingdom of the triple King, + And from the Main Hesperian did bring + The goodly cattle to the Argive town, + There I beheld a mountain looking down + Upon two rivers: this the Sun espies + Right opposite each day he doth arise. + Hence, mighty Rhone, thy rapid torrents flow, + And Arar, much in doubt which way to go, + Ripples along the banks with shallow roll. + Say, is this land the nurse that bred thy soul?" + +These lines he delivered with much spirit and a bold front. All the same, +he was not quite master of his wits, and had some fear of a blow from +the fool. Claudius, seeing a mighty man before him, saw things looked +serious and understood that here he had not quite the same pre-eminence +as at Rome, where no one was his equal: the Gallic cock was worth most on +his own dunghill. So this is what he was thought to say, as far as could +be made out: "I did hope, Hercules, bravest of all the gods, that you +would take my part with the rest, and if I should need a voucher, I meant +to name you who know me so well. Do but call it to mind, how it was I used +to sit in judgment before your temple whole days together during July and +August. You know what miseries I endured there, in hearing the lawyers +plead day and night. If you had fallen amongst these, you may think +yourself very strong, but you would have found it worse than the sewers of +Augeas: I drained out more filth than you did. But since I want..." + +(Some pages have fallen out, in which Hercules must have been persuaded. +The gods are now discussing what Hercules tells them). + +"No wonder you have forced your way into the 8 +Senate House: no bars or bolts can hold against you. Only do say what +species of god you want the fellow to be made. An Epicurean god he cannot +be: for they have no troubles and cause none. A Stoic, then? How can he be +globular, as Varro says, without a head or any other projection? There is +in him something of the Stoic god, as I can see now: he has neither heart +nor head. Upon my word, if he had asked this boon from Saturn, he would not +have got it, though he kept up Saturn's feast all the year round, a truly +Saturnalian prince. A likely thing he will get it from Jove, whom he +condemned for incest as far as in him lay: for he killed his son-in-law +Silanus, because Silanus had a sister, a most charming girl, called Venus +by all the world, and he preferred to call her Juno. Why, says he, I want +to know why, his own sister? Read your books, stupid: you may go half-way +at Athens, the whole way at Alexandria. Because the mice lick meal at Rome, +you say. Is this creature to mend our crooked ways? What goes on in his own +closet he knows not;[Footnote: Perhaps alluding to a mock marriage of +Silius and Messalina.] and now he searches the regions of the sky, wants to +be a god. Is it not enough that he has a temple in Britain, that savages +worship him and pray to him as a god, so that they may find a fool +[Footnote: Again μωροῦ for θεοῦ as in ch. 6.] to have mercy upon them?" + +At last it came into Jove's head, that while strangers 9 +were in the House it was not lawful to speak or debate. "My lords and +gentlemen," said he, "I gave you leave to ask questions, and you have made +a regular farmyard [Footnote: Proverb: meaning unknown.] of the place. Be +so good as to keep the rules of the House. What will this person think of +us, whoever he is?" So Claudius was led out, and the first to be asked his +opinion was Father Janus: he had been made consul elect for the afternoon +of the next first of July,[Footnote: Perhaps an allusion to the shortening +of the consul's term, which was done to give more candidates a chance of +the honour.] being as shrewd a man as you could find on a summer's day: for +he could see, as they say, before and behind. [Footnote 8: II, iii, 109; +alluding here to Janus's double face.] He made an eloquent harangue, +because his life was passed in the forum, but too fast for the notary to +take down. That is why I give no full report of it, for I don't want to +change the words he used. He said a great deal of the majesty of the gods, +and how the honour ought not to be given away to every Tom, Dick, or Harry. +"Once," said he, "it was a great thing to become a god; now you have made +it a farce. Therefore, that you may not think I am speaking against one +person instead of the general custom, I propose that from this day forward +the godhead be given to none of those who eat the fruits of the earth, or +whom mother earth doth nourish. After this bill has been read a third time, +whosoever is made, said, or portrayed to be god, I vote he be delivered +over to the bogies, and at the next public show be flogged with a birch +amongst the new gladiators." The next to be asked was Diespiter, son of +Vica Pota, he also being consul elect, and a moneylender; by this trade he +made a living, used to sell rights of citizenship in a small way. Hercules +trips me up to him daintily, and tweaks him by the ear. So he uttered his +opinion in these words: "Inasmuch as the blessed Claudius is akin to the +blessed Augustus, and also to the blessed Augusta, his grandmother, whom he +ordered to be made a goddess, and whereas he far surpasses all mortal men +in wisdom, and seeing that it is for the public good that there be some one +able to join Romulus in devouring boiled turnips, I propose that from this +day forth blessed Claudius be a god, to enjoy that honour with all its +appurtenances in as full a degree as any other before him, and that a note +to that effect be added to Ovid's Metamorphoses." The meeting was divided, +and it looked as though Claudius was to win the day. For Hercules saw his +iron was in the fire, trotted here and trotted there, saying, "Don't deny +me; I make a point of the matter. I'll do as much for you again, when you +like; you roll my log, and I'll roll yours: one hand washes another." + +Then arose the blessed Augustus, when his turn 10 +came, and spoke with much eloquence. [Footnote: The speech seems to contain +a parody of Augustus's style and sayings.] "I call you to witness, my lords +and gentlemen," said he, "that since the day I was made a god I have never +uttered one word. I always mind my own business. But now I can keep on the +mask no longer, nor conceal the sorrow which shame makes all the greater. +Is it for this I have made peace by land and sea? For this have I calmed +intestine wars? For this, laid a firm foundation of law for Rome, adorned +it with buildings, and all that--my lords, words fail me; there are none +can rise to the height of my indignation. I must borrow that saying of the +eloquent Messala Corvinus, I am ashamed of my authority. [Footnote: M. +Valerius Messala Corvinus, appointed praefectus urbi, resigned within a +week.] This man, my lords, who looks as though he could not hurt a fly, +used to chop off heads as easily as a dog sits down. But why should I speak +of all those men, and such men? There is no time to lament for public +disasters, when one has so many private sorrows to think of. I leave that, +therefore, and say only this; for even if my sister knows no Greek, I do: +The knee is nearer than the shin. [Footnote: A proverb, like "Charity +begins at home." The reading of the passage is uncertain; "sister" is only +a conjecture, and it is hard to see why his sister should be mentioned.] +This man you see, who for so many years has been masquerading under my +name, has done me the favour of murdering two Julias, great-granddaughters +of mine, one by cold steel and one by starvation; and one great grandson, +L. Silanus--see, Jupiter, whether he had a case against him (at least it is +your own if you will be fair.) Come tell me, blessed Claudius, why of all +those you killed, both men and women, without a hearing, why you did not +hear their side of the case first, before putting them to death? Where do +we find that custom? It is not done in heaven. +Look at Jupiter: all these years he has been 11 +king, and never did more than once to break Vulcan's leg, + + 'Whom seizing by the foot he cast from the threshold of the sky,' + [Sidenote: Illiad i, 591] + +and once he fell in a rage with his wife and strung her up: did he do any +killing? You killed Messalina, whose great-uncle I was no less than yours. +'I don't know,' did you say? Curse you! that is just it: not to know was +worse than to kill. Caligula he went on persecuting even when he was dead. +Caligula murdered his father-in-law, Claudius his son-in-law to boot. +Caligula would not have Crassus' son called Great; Claudius gave him his +name back, and took away his head. In one family he destroyed Crassus, +Magnus, Scribonia, the Tristionias, Assario, noble though they were; +Crassus indeed such a fool that he might have been emperor. Is this he you +want now to make a god? Look at his body, born under the wrath of heaven! +In fine, let him say the three words [Footnote: Some formula such as _ais +esse meum_.] quickly, and he may have me for a slave. God! who will worship +this god, who will believe in him? While you make gods of such as he, no +one will believe you to be gods. To be brief, my lords: if I have lived +honourably among you, if I have never given plain speech to any, avenge my +wrongs. This is my motion": then he read out his amendment, which he had +committed to writing: "Inasmuch as the blessed Claudius murdered his +father-in-law Appius Silanus, his two sons-in-law, Pompeius Magnus and L. +Silanus, Crassus Frugi his daughter's father-in-law, as like him as two +eggs in a basket, Scribonia his daughter's mother-in-law, his wife +Messalina, and others too numerous to mention; I propose that strong +measures be taken against him, that he be allowed no delay of process, that +immediate sentence of banishment be passed on him, that he be deported from +heaven within thirty days, and from Olympus within thirty hours." + +This motion was passed without further debate. Not a moment was lost: +Mercury screwed his neck and haled him to the lower regions, to that bourne +"from which they say no traveller returns." [Footnote: Catullus iii, 12.] +As they passed downwards along the Sacred Way, Mercury asked what was that +great concourse of men? could it be Claudius' funeral? It was certainly a +most gorgeous spectacle, got up regardless of expense, clear it was that a +god was being borne to the grave: tootling of flutes, roaring of horns, an +immense brass band of all sorts, such a din that even Claudius could hear +it. Joy and rejoicing on every side, the Roman people walking about like +free men. Agatho and a few pettifoggers were weeping for grief, and for +once in a way they meant it. The Barristers were crawling out of their +dark corners, pale and thin, with hardly a breath in their bodies, as +though just coming to life again. One of them when he saw the pettifoggers +putting their heads together, and lamenting their sad lot, up comes he and +says: "Did not I tell you the Saturnalia could not last for ever?" + +When Claudius saw his own funeral train, he understood that he was dead. +For they were chanting his dirge in anapaests, with much mopping and +mouthing: + + "Pour forth your laments, your sorrow declare, + Let the sounds of grief rise high in the air: + For he that is dead had a wit most keen, + Was bravest of all that on earth have been. + Racehorses are nothing to his swift feet: + Rebellious Parthians he did defeat; + Swift after the Persians his light shafts go: + For he well knew how to fit arrow to bow, + Swiftly the striped barbarians fled: + With one little wound he shot them dead. + And the Britons beyond in their unknown seas, + Blue-shielded Brigantians too, all these + He chained by the neck as the Romans' slaves. + He spake, and the Ocean with trembling waves + Accepted the axe of the Roman law. + O weep for the man! This world never saw + One quicker a troublesome suit to decide, + When only one part of the case had been tried, + (He could do it indeed and not hear either side). + Who'll now sit in judgment the whole year round? + Now he that is judge of the shades underground + Once ruler of fivescore cities in Crete, + Must yield to his better and take a back seat. + Mourn, mourn, pettifoggers, ye venal crew, + And you, minor poets, woe, woe is to you! + And you above all, who get rich quick + By the rattle of dice and the three card trick." + +Claudius was charmed to hear his own praises sung, 13 +and would have stayed longer to see the show. But the Talthybius +[Footnote: Talthybius was a herald, and _nuntius_ is obviously a gloss on +this. He means Mercury.] of the gods laid a hand on him, and led him across +the Campus Martius, first wrapping his head up close that no one might know +him, until betwixt Tiber and the Subway he went down to the lower regions. +[Footnote: By the Cloaca?] His freedman Narcissus had gone down before him +by a short cut, ready to welcome his master. Out he comes to meet him, +smooth and shining (he had just left the bath), and says he: "What make the +gods among mortals?" "Look alive," says Mercury, "go and tell them we are +coming." Away he flew, quicker than tongue can tell. It is easy going by +that road, all down hill. So although he had a touch of the gout, in a +trice they were come to Dis's door. There lay Cerberus, or, as Horace puts +it, the hundred-headed monster. [Sidenote: Odes ii, 13, 35] Claudius was a +trifle perturbed (it was a little white bitch he used to keep for a pet) +when he spied this black shag-haired hound, not at all the kind of thing +you could wish to meet in the dark. In a loud voice he cried, "Claudius is +coming!" All marched before him singing, "The lost is found, O let us +rejoice together!" [Footnote: With a slight change, a cry used in the +worship of Osiris.] Here were found C. Silius consul elect, Juncus the +ex-praetor, Sextus Traulus, M. Helvius, Trogus, Cotta, Vettius Valens, +Fabius, Roman Knights whom Narcissus had ordered for execution. In the +midst of this chanting company was Mnester the mime, whom Claudius for +honour's sake had made shorter by a head. The news was soon blown about +that Claudius had come: to Messalina they throng: first his freedmen, +Polybius, Myron, Harpocras, Amphaeus, Pheronactus, all sent before him by +Claudius that he might not be unattended anywhere; next two prefects, +Justus Catonius and Rufrius Pollio; then his friends, Saturninus, Lusius +and Pedo Pompeius and Lupus and Celer Asinius, these of consular rank; last +came his brother's daughter, his sister's daughter, sons-in-law, fathers +and mothers-in-law, the whole family in fact. In a body they came to meet +Claudius; and when Claudius saw them, he exclaimed, "Friends everywhere, on +my word! How came you all here?" To this Pedo Pompeius answered, "What, +cruel man? How came we here? Who but you sent us, you, the murderer of all +the friends that ever you had? To court with you! I'll show you where their +lordships sit." + +Pedo brings him before the judgement seat of 14 +Aeacus, who was holding court under the Lex Cornelia to try cases of murder +and assassination. Pedo requests the judge to take the prisoner's name, and +produces a summons with this charge: Senators killed, 35; Roman Knights, +221; others as the sands of the sea-shore for multitude. [Sidenote: Il. ix, +385] Claudius finds no counsel. At length out steps P. Petronius, an old +chum of his, a finished scholar in the Claudian tongue and claims a remand. +Not granted. Pedo Pompeius prosecutes with loud outcry. The counsel for the +defence tries to reply; but Aeacus, who is the soul of justice, will not +have it. Aeacus hears the case against Claudius, refuses to hear the other +side and passes sentence against him, quoting the line: + + "As he did, so be he done by, this is justice undefiled." + [Footnote: A proverbial line.] + +A great silence fell. Not a soul but was stupefied at this new way of +managing matters; they had never known anything like it before. It was no +new thing to Claudius, yet he thought it unfair. There was a long +discussion as to the punishment he ought to endure. Some said that Sisyphus +had done his job of porterage long enough; Tantalus would be dying of +thirst, if he were not relieved; the drag must be put at last on wretched +Ixion's wheel. But it was determined not to let off any of the old stagers, +lest Claudius should dare to hope for any such relief. It was agreed that +some new punishment must be devised: they must devise some new task, +something senseless, to suggest some craving without result. Then Aeacus +decreed he should rattle dice for ever in a box with no bottom. At once the +poor wretch began his fruitless task of hunting for the dice, which for +ever slipped from his fingers. + + "For when he rattled with the box, and thought he now had got 'em. 15 + The little cubes would vanish thro' the perforated bottom. + Then he would pick 'em up again, and once more set a-trying: + The dice but served him the same trick: away they went a-flying. + So still he tries, and still he fails; still searching long he lingers; + And every time the tricksy things go slipping thro' his fingers. + Just so when Sisyphus at last once gets there with his boulder, + He finds the labour all in vain--it rolls down off his shoulder." + +All on a sudden who should turn up but Caligula, and claims the man for a +slave: brings witnesses, who said they had seen him being flogged, caned, +fisticuffed by him. He is handed over to Caligula, and Caligula makes him +a present to Aeacus. Aeacus delivers him to his freedman Menander, to be +his law-clerk. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10001 *** |