7. The monk Planudes is apparently relieved of the imputation
concerning the authorship of the biography of Æsop ascribed to him,
by the discovery at Florence of a manuscript of this life that was in
existence a century before Planudes’s time.
8. Some of the reasons for supposing that this biography is a
falsifying one are as follows: His being represented as a monster of
ugliness and deformity, was doubtless intended to heighten his wit by
contrast. In Plutarch’s _Convivium_ Æsop is a guest, and there are many
jests on his original servile condition, but none on his appearance,
and a delicacy on such points does not usually restrain ancient
writers. The Athenians erected a noble statue in honor of Æsop, which
they doubtless would not have done had he been deformed. Pliny states
that Æsop was the _Contubernalis_ of Rhodopis, his fellow slave, whose
extraordinary beauty passed into a proverb.
9. The hecatomb was strictly the sacrifice of a hundred oxen. All
hecatombs were sacred. This sacrifice is said to have been particularly
observed by the Lacedæmonians when they possessed a hundred cities. The
sacrifices were subsequently reduced in number, and goats and lambs
substituted for oxen.
10. The ceremony of taking a prisoner by the girdle in token that he
is to suffer death was, ancient writers state, a custom among the
Persians. After the trial was over, instead of formally pronouncing
sentence upon the accused, all the members of the tribunal arose from
their seats and, turning their heads away from the prisoner, took
hold of his girdle, the highest in command taking hold first. Even
the relatives, if any were in the tribunal, went through the same
ceremony. Those in rank below the accused continued to bow before him,
notwithstanding his condemnation.
11. The scythed chariots of the Persians had two wheels with knives
fastened to each axle, extending obliquely outward. They were ordinary
wooden chariots, with a platform large enough for two to stand on,
resting on the axles without springs. Each chariot was drawn by four
horses abreast. Later, long spikes were placed in the ends of the
poles, and the back parts of the chariot were armed with several rows
of sharp knives. The horses were driven by a charioteer, whose duty it
was to manage his steeds, and with a shield ward off the missiles of
the enemy, while his chief stood behind and with his sword endeavored
to hew down those who escaped the scythes.
12. The quotation, “When Greek joined Greek, then was the tug of war,”
is from the play of Alexander the Great, written by Nathaniel Lee, an
English dramatic writer of the latter part of the seventeenth century.
13. The Persian slingers were a part of the light-armed soldiers.
Their armor consisted of a shield, a sling, and stones, or other
missiles. The stone or missile was placed upon a leather disk, held by
two strings, and then rapidly whirled, and just at the right time one
string was dropped and the missile projected with great force through
the air. Some of the missiles thus thrown weighed no less than an Attic
pound, and Seneca reports that the motion was so vehement that the
leaden bullets were frequently melted. These slingers were enabled
to use either hand, and it is stated that they obliged their sons to
strike their food from a pole before eating it.
14. The now familiar expression, “War even to the knife,” was the
reply of the Spanish patriot Palafox, the governor of Saragoza, to
the summons of the French to surrender, at the siege of that city in
1808. Lord Byron uses the same expression in the first canto of Childe
Harold’s Pilgrimage.
15. The singular effect upon the men of the eating of honeycombs, as
described by Xenophon, was occasioned by the peculiar properties given
to the honey, owing to its being extracted by the bees from narcotic
plants. The honey of Trebizond, at the present day, when eaten, causes
headache and vomiting, and possesses poisonous qualities, supposed to
be derived from the rhododendron, _azalea pontica_.
* * * * *
Correct replies to all the questions for further study in the December
number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN have been received from the Niles, Mich.,
circle, through the secretary, Mrs. J. S. Tuttle; Mrs. S. D. Lloyd,
president, Mrs. Marion McKinney, secretary, Mrs. J. P. Henry and
Mrs. F. R. Snyder, of the Arcola, Ill., circle; Rev. R. H. and Mrs.
M. A. Howard, Saxonville, Mass.; Miss Maggie V. Wilcox, 605 North
Thirty-fifth street, West Philadelphia, Pa.; Mrs. Nellie M. Rumsey,
president of the Albert Lea, Minn., local circle; Miss Mary D.
Eshleman, 821 Chestnut street, Philadelphia, Pa., and A. U. Lombard,
Columbus, O.