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?
_Question 62._ Why among them that were called Feciales (in
Greek, peace-makers) was he that was named Pater Patratus accounted
the chiefest? But this must be one who hath his father living, and
children of his own; and he hath even at this time a certain privilege
and trust, for the Praetors commit to those men’s trust the persons
of those who, by reason of comeliness and beauty, stand in need of an
exact and chaste guardianship.
_Solution._ Is this the reason, that they must be such whose
children reverence them, and who reverence their parents? Or doth the
name itself suggest a reason? For _patratum_ will have a thing to
be complete and finished; for he whose lot it is to be a father whilst
his father liveth is (as it were) perfecter than others. Or is it that
he ought to be overseer of oaths and peace, and (according to Homer) to
see before and behind? He is such a one especially, who hath a son for
whom he consults, and a father with whom he consults.
_Question 63._ Why is he that is called Rex Sacrorum (who is king
of priests) forbid either to take upon him a civil office or to make an
oration to the people?
_Solution._ Was it that of old the kings did perform the most and
greatest sacred rites and offered sacrifices together with the priests;
but when they kept not within the bounds of moderation and became proud
and insolent, most of the Grecians, depriving them of their authority,
left to them only this part of their office, to sacrifice to the Gods;
but the Romans, casting out kings altogether, gave the charge of the
sacrifice to another, enjoining him neither to meddle with public
affairs nor to hold office, so that they might seem to be subject to
royalty only in their sacrifices, and to endure the name of king only
with respect to the Gods? Hence there is a certain sacrifice kept by
tradition in the market-place near the Comitia, which as soon as the
king (i.e. the chief priest) hath offered, he immediately withdraws
himself by flight out of the market-place.
_Question 64._ Why do they not suffer the table to be quite voided
when it’s taken away, but will have something always to remain upon it?
_Solution._ What if it be that they would intimate that something
of our present enjoyments should be left for the future, and that
to-day we should be mindful of to-morrow? Or that they reckon it a
piece of manners to repress and restrain the appetite in our present
fruitions? For they less desire absent things, who are accustomed to
abstain from those that are present. Or was it a custom of courtesy
towards household servants? For they do not love so much to take as to
partake, deeming that they hold a kind of communion with their masters
at the table. Or is it that no sacred thing ought to be suffered to be
empty? And the table is a sacred thing.
_Question 65._ Why doth not a man lie at first with a bride in the
light, but when it is dark?
_Solution._ Is it not for modesty’s sake, for at the first
congress he looks upon her as a stranger to him? Or is it that he may
be inured to go into his own wife with modesty? Or, as Solon hath
written, “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?
_Question 66._ Why was one of the horse-race rounds called
Flaminia?
_Solution._ Is it because, when Flaminius, one of the ancients,
bestowed a field on the city, they employed its revenue on the
horse-races, and with the overplus money built the way which they call
Flaminia?
_Question 67._ Why do they call the rod-bearers lictors?
_Solution._ Is this the reason, because these men were wont to
bind desperate bullies, and they followed Romulus carrying thongs in
their bosoms? The vulgar Romans say _alligare_, _to bind_,
when the more refined in speech say _ligare_. Or is now _c_
inserted, when formerly they called them _litores_, being
_liturgi_, ministers for public service; for λῇτον until this day
is writ for _public_ in many of the Grecian laws, which scarce any
is ignorant of.
_Question 68._ Why do the Luperci sacrifice a dog? The Luperci
are they that run up and down naked (saving only their girdles) in the
Lupercal plays, and slash all that they meet with a whip.
_Solution._ Is it not because these feats are done for the
purification of the city? For they call the month February, and indeed
the very day Februatus, and the habit of whipping with thongs they call
_februare_, the word signifying _to cleanse_. And to speak
the truth, all the Grecians have used, and some do use to this very
day, a slain dog for an expiatory sacrifice; and among other sacrifices
of purification, they offer whelps to Hecate, and sprinkle those that
need cleansing with the puppy’s blood, calling this kind of purifying
puppification. Or is it that _lupus_ is λύκος, _a wolf_, and
Lupercalia are Lycaea; but a dog is at enmity with a wolf, therefore is
sacrificed on the Lycaean festivals? Or is it because the dogs do bark
at and perplex the Luperci as they scout about the city? Or is it that
this sacrifice is offered to Pan, and Pan loves dogs because of his
herds of goats.
_Question 69._ Why, upon the festival called Septimontium,
did they observe to abstain from the use of chariots drawn by a
pair of horses; and even until now, do they that regard antiquity
still abstain? They do observe the Septimontium feast in honor of
the addition of the seventh hill to the city, upon which it became
Septicollis, seven-hilled Rome.
_Solution._ What if it be (as some of the Romans conjecture)
because the parts of the city are not as yet everywhere connected? Or
if this conceit be nothing to the purpose, what if it be that, when the
great work of building the city was finished and they determined to
cease the increasing of the city any further, they rested themselves
and rested the cattle that bore a share in the labor with them, and
provided accordingly that they might participate of the holiday by rest
from labor? Or was it that they would have all the citizens always
present for the solemnity and return of a festival, especially that
which was observed in remembrance of the compact uniting the parts of
the city; and that none should desert the city for whose sake the feast
is kept, they were not allowed to use their yoke chariots that day?
_Question 70._ Why do they call those Furciferi which are convict
of thefts or any other of those slavish crimes?
_Solution._ Was it this (which was an argument of the severity of
the ancients), that whenever any convicted his servant of any villany,
he enjoined him to carry the forked piece of timber that is under the
cart (the tongue of the cart), and to go with it through the next
villages and neighborhood, to be seen of all, that they might distrust
him and be aware of him for the future? This piece of wood we call a
prop, the Romans call it _furca_, _a fork_; hence he that
carries it about is called _furcifer_, _a fork-bearer_.
_Question 71._ Why do they bind hay about the horns of oxen that
are wont to push, that they may be shunned by him that meets them?
_Solution._ It is that by reason of gormandizing and stuffing
their guts oxen, asses, horses, and men become mischievous, as
Sophocles somewhere saith.
Like full-fed colt thou kickest up heels,
From stuffed paunch, cheeks, and full meals?
Therefore the Romans say that M. Crassus had hay about his horns, for
they that were turbulent men in the commonwealth were wont to stand
in awe of him as a revengeful man and one scarce to be meddled with;
although afterwards it was said again, that Caesar had taken away
Crassus’s hay, being the first man of the republic that withstood and
affronted him.
_Question 72._ Why would they have the lanthorns of the
soothsaying priests (which formerly they called Auspices, and now
Augures) to be always open at top, and no cover to be put upon them?
_Solution._ Is it as the Pythagoreans do, who make little things
symbols of great matters,—as forbidding to sit down upon a bushel
and to stir up the fire with a sword,—so that the ancients used many
enigmatical ceremonies, especially about their priests, and such was
this of the lanthorn? For the lanthorn is like the body encompassing
the soul, the soul being the light withinside, and the understanding
and judgment ought to be always open and quick-sighted, and never to be
shut up or blown out. And when the winds blow, the birds are unsettled
and do not afford sound prognostics, by reason of their wandering and
irregularity in flying; by this usage therefore they teach that their
soothsayers must not prognosticate when there are high winds, but in
still and calm weather, when they can use their open lanthorns.
_Question 73._ Why were priests that had sores about them forbid
to use divination.
_Solution._ Is not this a significant sign that, whilst they are
employed about divine matters, they ought not to be in any pain, nor
have any sore or passion in their minds, but to be cheerful, sincere,
and without distraction? Or it is but rational, if no man may offer a
victim that hath a sore, nor use such birds for soothsaying, that much
more they should themselves be free from these blemishes, and be clean,
sincere, and sound, when they go about to inspect divine prodigies;
for an ulcer seems to be a mutilation and defilement of the body.
_Question 74._ Why did Servius Tullius build a temple of Small
Fortune, whom they call Brevis?
_Solution._ Was it because he was of a mean original and in a
low condition, being born of a captive woman, and by fortune came to
be king of Rome? Or did not that change of his condition manifest the
greatness rather than the smallness of his fortune? But Servius most
of all of them seems to ascribe divine influence to Fortune, giving
thereby a reputation to all his enterprises. For he did not only
build temples of Hopeful Fortune, of Fortune that averteth evil, of
Mild, Primogenial, and Masculine Fortune; but there is a temple also
of Private Fortune, another of Regardful Fortune, another of Hopeful
Fortune, and the fourth of Virgin Fortune. But why should any one
mention any more names, seeing there is a temple also of Ensnaring
Fortune, which they name Viscata, as it were ensnaring us when we are
as yet afar off, and enforcing us upon business.[161] Consider this
now, whether it be that Servius found that great matters are effected
by a small piece of Fortune, and that it often falls out that great
things are effected by some or do come to nought by a small thing
being done or not done. He built therefore a temple of Small Fortune,
teaching us to take care of our business, and not contemn things that
happen by reason of their smallness.
_Question 75._ Why did they not extinguish a candle, but suffer it
to burn out of its own accord.
_Solution._ Is this the reason, that they adored it as being
related and akin to unquenchable and eternal fire? Or is it a
significant ceremony, teaching us that we are not to kill and destroy
any animated creature that is harmless, fire being as it were an
animal? For it both needs nourishment and moves itself, and when it is
extinguished it makes a noise as if it were then slain? Or doth this
usage instruct us that we ought not to make waste of fire or water,
or any other necessary thing that we have a super-abundance of, but
suffer those that have need to use them, leaving them to others when we
ourselves have no further use for them?
_Question 76._ Why do they that would be preferred before others
in gentility wear little moons on their shoes?
_Solution._ Is this the reason (as Castor saith), that this is
a symbol of the place of habitation that is said to be in the moon,
signifying that after death souls should have the moon under their
feet again? Or was this a fashion of renown among families of greatest
antiquity, as were the Arcadians of Evander’s posterity, that were
called men born before the moon (προσέληνοι)? Or is this, like many
other customs, to put men who are lofty and high-minded in mind of the
mutability of human affairs to either side, setting the moon before
them as an example,
When first she comes from dark to light,
Trimming, her face becomes fair bright,
Increasing, till she’s full in sight;
Declining then, leaves nought but night?[162]
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?
_Question 77._ Why are they of an opinion that the year is
Jupiter’s, but the months Juno’s?
_Solution._ Is it because Jupiter and Juno reign over the
invisible Gods, who are no otherwise seen but by the eyes of our
understanding, but the Sun and Moon over the visible? And the Sun
verily causeth the year, and the Moon the months. Neither ought we to
think that they are bare images of them, but the Sun is Jupiter himself
materially, and the Moon Juno herself materially. Therefore they name
her Juno (_a juvenescendo_, the name signifying a thing that is
new or grows young) from the nature of the Moon; and they call her
Lucina (as it were _bright_ or _shining_), and they are of
opinion that she helps women in their travail-pains. Whence is that of
the poets:
By azure heaven beset with stars,
By th’ moon that hastens births;
for they suppose that women have the easiest travail at the full of the
moon.
_Question 78._ What is the reason that a bird called
_sinister_ in soothsaying is fortunate?
_Solution._ What if this be not true, but the dialect deludes
so many? For they render ἀριστερόν _sinistrum_; but to permit a
thing is _sinere_, and they say _sine_ when they desire a
thing to be permitted; therefore a prognostic permitting an action
(being _sinisterium_) the vulgar do understand and call amiss
_sinistrum_. Or is it as Dionysius saith, that when Ascanius,
the son of Aeneas, had pitched battle against Mezentius, a flash of
lightning portending victory (as they prognosticated) came on his
left hand, and for the future they observed it so; or, as some others
say, that this happened to Aeneas? Moreover, the Thebans routing and
conquering their enemies by the left wing of the army at Leuctra, they
continued in all battles to give the left wing the pre-eminence. Or is
it rather as Juba thinks, that to those that look toward the east the
north is on the left hand, which verily some make the right hand and
superior part of the world? Consider whether the soothsayers do not,
as it were, corroborate left-hand things, as the weaker by nature,
and do intimate as if they introduced a supply of that defect of power
that is in them. Or is it that they think that things terrestrial and
mortal stand directly over against heavenly and divine things, and do
conjecture that the things which to us are on the left hand the Gods
send down from their right hand?
_Question 79._ Why was it lawful to bring the bones of one that
had triumphed (after he was dead and burnt) into the city and lay them
there, as Pyrrho the Liparaean hath told us?
_Solution._ Was it for the honor they had for the deceased? For
they granted that not only generals and other eminent persons, but also
their offspring, should be buried in the market-place, for example,
Valerius and Fabricius. And they say, when the posterity of these
persons died, they were brought into the market-place, and a burning
firebrand was put under them and immediately taken away; and thus all
that might have caused envy was avoided, and the right to the honor was
fully confirmed.
_Question 80._ Why did they that publicly feasted the triumphers
humbly request the consuls, and by messengers sent beseech them, not to
come to their supper?
_Solution._ Was it that it was necessary to give the supreme place
and most honorable entertainment to the triumpher, and wait upon him
home after supper; whereas, the consuls being present, they might do
such things to none other but them?
_Question 81._ Why did not the tribune of the people wear a purple
garment, whenas each of the other magistrates wore one?
_Solution._ What if the tribune is not a magistrate at all? For he
neither hath lictors, nor sitting in tribunal doth he determine causes;
neither do the tribunes, as the rest, enter upon their office at the
beginning of the year, nor do they cease when a dictator is chosen;
but as if they translated all magistratic power to themselves, they
continue still, being (as it were) no magistrates, but holding another
kind of rank. And as some rhetoricians will not have a prohibition to
be judicial proceeding, seeing it doth something contrary to judicial
proceeding,—for the one brings in an action at law and gives judgment
upon it, but the other nonsuits it and dismisseth the cause,—after
the like manner they are of opinion that tribuneship is rather a curb
to magistracy, and that it is an order standing in opposition to
government rather than a piece of government itself; for the tribune’s
office and authority is to withstand the magistrate’s authority, even
to curtail his extravagant power. Perhaps these and similar reasons
may be mere ingenious devices; but in truth, since tribuneship takes
its original from the people, popularity is its stronghold, and it is
a great thing not to carry it above the rest of the people, but to be
like the citizens they have to do with in gesture, habit, and diet.
State indeed becomes a consul and a praetor; but as for a tribune (as
Caius Curio saith), he must be one that even is trampled upon, not
grave in countenance, nor difficult of access, nor harsh to the rabble,
but more tractable to them than to others. Hence it was decreed that
the tribune’s doors should not be shut, but be open night and day
as a haven and place of refuge for distressed people. And the more
condescending his outward deportment is, by so much the more doth he
increase in his power; for they dignify him as one of public use, and
to be resorted to of all sorts even as an altar; therefore by the
reverence they give him, he is sacred, holy, and inviolable; and when
he makes a public progress, it is a law that every one should cleanse
and purify the body as defiled.
_Question 82._ Why before the chief officers are rods carried
bound together, with the axes fastened to them?
_Solution._ What if it be a significant ceremony, to show that a
magistrate’s anger ought not to be rash and ungrounded? Or is it that,
while the rods are leisurely unloosing, they make deliberation and
delay in their anger, so that oftentimes they change their sentence as
to the punishment? Now, whereas some sort of crimes are curable, some
incurable, rods correct the corrigible, but the axes are to cut off the
incorrigible.
_Question 83._ What is the reason that the Romans, when they were
informed that the barbarians called Bletonesians had sacrificed a man
to the Gods, sent for their magistrates to punish them; but when they
made it appear that they did it in obedience to a certain law, they
dismissed them, but prohibited the like action for the future; whenas
they themselves, not many years preceding, buried two men and two women
alive in the Forum Boarium, two of whom were Greeks and two Gauls?
For it seems absurd to do this themselves, and yet to reprimand the
barbarians as if they were committing profaneness.
_Solution._ What if this be the reason, that they reckoned it
profane to sacrifice a man to the Gods, but necessary to do so to the
Daemons? Or were they of opinion that they sinned that did such things
by custom or law; but as for themselves, they did it being enjoined
to it by the Sibylline books? For it is reported that one Elvia, a
virgin, riding on horseback was struck with lightning and cast from
her horse, and the horse was found lying uncovered and she naked, as
if on set purpose; her clothes had been turned up from her secret
parts, also her shoes, rings, and head-gear all lay scattered up and
down, here and there; her tongue also was hanging out of her mouth.
And when the diviners declared that it was an intolerable disgrace to
the holy virgins that it should be published, and that some part of
the abuse did touch the cavaliers, a servant of a certain barbarian
cavalier informed, that three vestal virgins, Aemilia, Licinia, and
Martia, about the same time had been deflowered, and for a long time
played the whores with some men, among whom was Butetius, the said
informer’s master. The virgins being convict were punished; and the
fact appearing heinous, it was thought meet that the priest should
consult the Sibylline books, where there were oracles found foretelling
these things would come to pass for mischief to the republic, and
enjoining them—in order to avert the impending calamity—to provide two
Grecians and two Gauls, and bury them alive in that place, in order to
the appeasing some alien and foreign Daemons.
_Question 84._ Why do they take the beginning of the day from the
midnight?
_Solution._ Is the reason that the commonweal had a military
constitution at the first? For many matters of concern on military
expeditions are managed by night. Or did they make sunrising the
beginning of business, and the night the preparation for it? For men
ought to come prepared to action, and not to be in preparation when
they should be doing,—as Myso is reported to have said to Chilo the
Wise, when he was making a fan in winter. Or as the noontide to many is
the time for finishing public and weighty affairs, so did it seem meet
to make midnight the beginning? This hath this confirmation, that a
Roman governor would make no league or confederation in the afternoon.
Or is it impossible to take the beginning and end of the day from
sunrising to sunsetting? For, as the vulgar measure the beginning of
the day by sense to be the first appearance of the sun, and take the
first beginning of the night to be the complete withdrawment of the sun
from sight, we shall thus have no equinoctial day; but the night which
we suppose comes nearest in equality to the day will be manifestly
shorter than the day by the diameter of the sun. Which absurdity the
mathematicians, going about to solve, have determined that, where the
centre of the sun toucheth the horizon, there is the true parting
point between day and night. But this contradicts sense; for it must
follow that whilst there is much light above the earth, yea, the sun
illuminating us, we will not for all this confess it to be day, but
must say that it is still night. Whereas then it is hard to take the
beginning of the day from the rising and setting of the sun, by reason
of the forementioned absurdities, it remains to take the zenith and the
nadir for the beginning. The last is best, for the sun’s course from
noon is by way of declination from us; but from midnight he takes his
course towards us, as sunrising comes on.
_Question 85._ Wherefore did they not in ancient times suffer
women to grind or play the cook?
_Solution._ Haply, because they remembered the covenant that
they made with the Sabines; for after they had robbed them of their
daughters, and fighting many battles became reconciled, among other
articles of agreement this was recorded, that a wife was not to grind
nor play the cook for a Roman husband.
_Question 86._ Why do they not marry wives in the month of May?
_Solution._ Is this the reason, that because May is between April
and June,—concerning which months they have an opinion that that is
sacred to Venus, this to Juno, both of them being nuptial Gods,—they
either take an opportunity a little before May, or tarry till it be
over? Or is it that in this month they offer the greatest expiatory
sacrifice, now casting the images of men from a bridge into the river,
and formerly men themselves? Moreover, it is by law required that the
Flaminica, the reputed priestess of Juno, should be most sourly sullen
during the time, and neither wash nor trim up herself. Or is it because
many of the Latins in this month offer oblations unto the dead? And
therefore perhaps they worship Mercury in this month, which from Maia
derives its name? Or, as some say, is May derived from elder age
(maior) and Juno from younger (iunior)? For youth is more suitable to
matrimony, as Euripides hath said,
Old age the Cyprian queen must ever shun,
And Venus from old men in scorn doth run.
Therefore they marry not in May, but tarry till June, which is
presently after May.
_Question 87._ Why do they part the hair of women when they are
married with the point of a spear?
_Solution._ What if it be a significant ceremony, showing that
they took their first wives in marriage by force of arms and war?
Or is it that they may instruct them that they are to dwell with
husbands that are soldiers and warriors, and that they should put on
such ornamental attire as is not luxurious or lascivious, but plain?
So Lycurgus commanded that all the gates and tops of houses should be
built with saw and hatchet, and no other sort of workmen’s instrument
should be used about them; yea, he rejected all gayety and superfluity.
Or doth this action parabolically intimate divorce, as that marriage
can be dissolved only by the sword? Or is it that most of these nuptial
ceremonies relate to Juno? For a spear is decreed sacred to Juno, and
most of her statues are supported by a spear, and she is surnamed
Quiritis, and a spear of old was called _quiris_, wherefore they
surname Mars Quirinus?
_Question 88._ Why do they call the money that is laid out upon
the public plays _lucar_?
_Solution._ Is it because there are many groves consecrated to the
Gods about the city, which they call _luci_, and the revenue of
these they expend upon the said plays?
_Question 89._ Why do they call the Quirinalia the Feast of Fools?
_Solution._ Was it because they set apart that day for those that
were unacquainted with their own curiae, as Juba saith? Or was it for
them that did not sacrifice with their tribes, as the rest did, in the
Fornicalia, by reason of business or long journeys or ignorance, so
that it was allowed to them to solemnize that feast upon this day?
_Question 90._ What is the reason that, when there is a sacrifice
to Hercules, they mention no other God and no dog appears within the
enclosure, as Varro saith?
_Solution._ Is the reason of their naming no other God, because
they are of opinion that Hercules was but a half God? And, as some say,
Evander built an altar to him and brought him a sacrifice, whilst he
was yet here among men. And of all creatures he had most enmity to a
dog, for this creature always held him hard to it, as did Cerberus; and
that which most of all prejudiced him was that, when Oeonus, the son
of Licymnius, was slain for a dog’s sake by the Hippocoontidae, he was
necessitated to take up the cudgels, and lost many of his friends and
his brother Iphicles.
_Question 91._ Why was it unlawful for the patricians to dwell
about the Capitol?
_Solution._ Was it because M. Manlius, whilst he dwelt there,
affected arbitrary government; upon whose account the family came under
an oath of abjuration that no Manlius should for the future bear the
name of Marcus? Or was this an ancient suspicion? For the potent men
would never leave calumniating Publicola, a most popular man, nor would
the common people leave fearing him till he had plucked down his house,
which seemed to hang over the market-place.
_Question 92._ Why do they put on a garland of oaken leaves on him
that saves a citizen in battle?
_Solution._ Is it because it is easy to find an oak everywhere
in the military expeditions? Or is it because a crown is sacred to
Jupiter and Juno, who in their opinion are the city guardians? Or was
it an ancient custom among the Arcadians, who are something akin to the
oak? For they repute themselves the first men produced of the earth, as
the oak among the vegetables.
_Question 93._ Why do they for the most part use vultures for
soothsaying?
_Solution._ Was this the reason, because twelve vultures appeared
to Romulus upon the building of Rome? Or because of all birds this is
least frequent and familiar? For it is not easy to meet with young
vultures, but they fly to us unexpectedly from some remote parts;
therefore the sight of them is portentous. Or haply they learned this
from Hercules, if Herodotus speak true that Hercules rejoiced most in
the beginning of an enterprise at the sight of a vulture, being of
opinion that a vulture was the justest of all birds of prey. For first,
he meddles not with any living creature, neither doth he destroy any
thing that hath breath in it, as eagles, hawks, and other fowls do that
prey by night, but lives only upon dead carcasses; and next, he passeth
by all those of his kind, for none ever saw a vulture feeding on a
bird, as eagles and hawks do, which for the most part pursue birds like
themselves, and slay them, even as Aeschylus hath it,
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) there are great disturbances
and uncertainties attending them.
_Question 94._ For what reason is the temple of Aesculapius placed
without the city?
_Solution._ Was it because they reckoned it a wholesomer kind of
living without the city than within? For the Greeks have placed the
edifices belonging to Aesculapius for the most part on high places,
where the air is pure and clear. Or is it that they suppose this God
was fetched from Epidaurus? For the temple of Aesculapius is not close
by that city, but at a great distance from it. Or is it that, by a
serpent that went on shore out of a trireme galley into the island and
disappeared, they think the God himself intimated to them the place of
building his temple?
_Question 95._ Why was it ordained that they that were to live
chaste should abstain from pulse?
_Solution._ Did they, like the Pythagoreans, abominate beans for
the causes which are alleged, and the lathyrus and erebinthus as being
named from Lethe and Erebus? Or was it because they used pulse for
the most part in their funeral feasts and invocations of the dead? Or
rather was it because they should bring empty and slender bodies to
their purifications and expiations? For pulse are windy, and cause a
great deal of excrements that require purging off. Or is it because
they irritate lechery, by reason of their flatulent and windy nature?
_Question 96._ Why do they inflict no other punishment on Vestal
Virgins, when they are defiled, than burying them alive?
_Solution._ Is this the reason, because they burn the dead, and to
bury her by fire who hath not preserved sacred the divine fire would be
unjust? Or was it that they judged it a wicked act to cut off a person
sanctified by the greatest ceremonial purification, and to lay hands on
a holy woman; and therefore they contrived a machine for her to die in
of herself, and let her down into a vault made under ground, where was
placed a candle burning, also some bread and milk and water, and then
the den was covered with earth on top? Neither by this execrable manner
of devoting them are they exempt from superstition; but to this day the
priests going to the place perform purgatory rites.
_Question 97._ What is the reason that, at the horse-race on the
Ides of December, the lucky horse that beats is sacrificed as sacred
to Mars; and a certain man, cutting off his tail, brings it to a place
called Regia, and besmears the altar with the blood of it; but for the
head, one party coming down from the way called Sacred, and others from
the Suburra, do fight?
_Solution._ Whether was it (as some say) that, reckoning that Troy
was taken by a horse, they punish a horse, as being the
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?
_Question 98._ What is the reason that the censors entering upon
their office do nothing before they have contracted for providing meat
for the sacred geese, and for polishing the statue?
_Solution._ Is this the reason, that they begin with those
things that savor of most frugality, and such things as want not much
charge and trouble? Or is it in grateful commemoration of what these
creatures did of old, when the Gauls invaded Rome and the barbarians
scaled the walls of the Capitol by night? For the geese were sensible
of it when the dogs were asleep, and they with their gaggling awaked
the watch? Or, seeing the censors are the conservers of such things as
are of greatest and most necessary concern,—to oversee and narrowly
inspect the public sacrifices, and the lives, manners, and diet of
men,—do they presently set before their consideration the most vigilant
creature, and by the watchfulness of these instruct the citizens not to
disregard or neglect sacred things? As for the polishing of the statue,
it is necessary, for the minium (wherewith they of old colored the
statues) soon fades.
_Question 99._ What is the reason that of the other priests they
depose any one that is condemned or banished, and substitute another in
his room; but remove not the augur from his priesthood so long as he
lives, though he be convicted of the greatest crimes? They call them
augurs who are employed in soothsaying.
_Solution._ Is the reason (as some say) that they will have none
to know the mysteries of the priests who is not a priest? Or that the
augur is bound by oath to discover to none the management of sacred
things; therefore they refuse to absolve him from his oath, when he is
reduced to a private capacity? Or is it that the name of augur is not a
title of honor and dignity, but of skill and art? It would therefore be
the like case to depose a musician from being a musician or a physician
from being a physician, with that of prohibiting a diviner from being a
diviner; seeing they cannot take away his faculty, though they deprive
him of the title. Moreover they do not substitute augurs, because they
will keep to the number of augurs that were at the beginning.
_Question 100._ What is the reason that in the Ides of August
(which at first they called Sextilis) all the men-servants and
maid-servants do feast, but the free women make it most of their
business to wash and purge their heads?
_Solution._ Was it that King Servius about this day was born of
a captive maid-servant, and hence the servants have a vacation time
from work; and that rinsing the head was a thing that took its original
from a custom of the maid-servants upon the account of the feast, and
finally passed also into the free women?
_Question 101._ Why do they finify their boys with necklaces,
which they call _bullae_?
_Solution._ What if this were for the honor of the wives which
were taken by force? For as many other things, so this might be one
of the injunctions laid on their posterity. Or did they it in honor
of Tarquin’s manhood? For it is reported of him that, whilst he was
but a boy, being engaged in a battle against the Latins and Tuscans,
charging his enemies, he fell from his horse; yet animating those
Romans which were engaged in the charge, he led them on courageously.
The enemies were put to a remarkable rout, and sixteen thousand were
slain; whereupon he had this badge of honor bestowed upon him by
his father the king. Or was it that by the ancients it was neither
lewd nor dishonorable to love beautiful slaves (as now the comedies
testify), but that they resolvedly abstained from free-born servants;
and lest, by coming accidentally on naked boys, they should ignorantly
transgress, the free boys wore this mark of distinction? Or was this
a protector of good order, and after a manner a curb of incontinency;
they being ashamed to pretend to manhood before they have put off
the badge of children? That which they say who follow Varro is not
probable, that _boule_ by the Aeolians is called _bolla_,
and this is put about children as a teaching sign of good counsel. But
consider whether they do not wear it for the moon’s sake. For the
visible face of the moon, when it is halved, is not spherical, but
shaped like a lentil or a quoit; and (as Empedocles supposeth) so is
also the side that is turned away from us.
_Question 102._ Why do they name boys when they are nine days old,
and girls when they are eight?
_Solution._ Perhaps it’s a natural reason, that girls are
forwarder, for the female grows up and comes to full stature and
perfection before the male. But they take the day after the seventh,
because the seventh is dangerous to infants by reason of the
navel-string; for with many it falls off at seven days, and until it
falls off, an infant is more like a plant than an animal. Or is it,
as the Pythagoreans reckon, that the even number is the feminine,
and the odd number the masculine? For it is a fruitful number, and
excels the even in respect of its composition. And if these numbers be
divided into units, the even, like a female, hath an empty space in
the middle; the odd number always leaves a segment full in the middle,
wherefore this is fit to be compared to the male, that to the female.
Or is it thus, that of all numbers nine is the first square number made
of three, which is an odd and perfect number, but eight is the first
cube made of two, an even number; whence a male ought to be square,
superexcelling, and complete; but a woman, like a cube, constant, a
good housewife, and no gadding gossip? This also may be added that,
as eight is a cube from the root two, and nine a square from the root
three, so the female makes use of two names, and the males of three.
_Question 103._ Why do they call those whose fathers are not known
_Spurius_?
_Solution._ It is not verily—as the Grecians suppose and as the
rhetoricians say in their determinations—because they are begot of some
promiscuous and common seed (as the Greeks say σπόρος). But Spurius is
found among first names, as Sextus, Decimus, Caius. But the Romans do
not write all the letters of the first name; but either one letter, as
T. for Titus, L. for Lucius, M. for Marcus; or two letters, as Ti. for
Tiberius, Cn. for Cnaeus; or three, as Sex. for Sextus, and Ser. for
Servius. Now Spurius is of those that are written with two letters,
Sp. But with these same letters they write _without father_, S.
for _sine_, and P. for _patre_, which truly hath caused the
mistake. Moreover, we may meet with another reason, but it is more
absurd. They say, that the Sabines called the privities of a woman
_spurius_; and therefore they call him so, by way of reproach, who
is born of a woman unmarried and unespoused.
_Question 104._ Why did they call Bacchus Liber Pater?
_Solution._ Was the reason because they make him, as it were,
the father of liberty to tipplers? For most men become very audacious
and are filled with too much licentious prattle, by reason of too
much drink. Or is this it, that he hath supplied them with a libamen,
a drink-offering? Or is it, as Alexander hath said, that Bacchus is
called Eleutherius from his having his abode about Eleutherae, a city
of Boeotia?
_Question 105._ For what cause was it, that on high holidays it
was not a custom for virgins to marry, but widows did marry then?
_Solution._ Is the reason, as Varro saith, that virgins, forsooth,
are married weeping, but women with joyful glee, and people are to
do nothing of a holiday with a heavy heart nor by compulsion? Or
rather is it because it is decent for virgins to marry with more than
a few present, but for widows to marry with a great many present is
indecent? For the first marriage is zealously affected, the second to
be deprecated; yea, they are ashamed to marry a second husband while
their first husband lives, and they grieve at doing so even when he is
dead. Hence they are pleased more with silence than with tumults and
pompous doings; and the feasts do attract the generality of people to
them, so that they cannot be at leisure on holidays for such wedding
solemnities. Or was it that they that robbed the Sabines of their
daughters that were virgins on the feast-day raised thereby a war, and
looked therefore upon it as unlucky to marry virgins on holidays?
_Question 106._ Why do the Romans worship Fortuna Primigenia?
_Solution._ Was it because Servius, being by Fortune born of
a servant-maid, came to rule king in Rome with great splendor? And
this is the supposition of most Romans. Or rather is it that Fortune
hath bestowed on Rome itself its very original and birth? Or may not
this matter require a more natural and philosophical reason, even
that Fortune is the original of all things and that Nature itself is
produced out of things that come by Fortune, when events that come by
chance fall into an order among themselves?
_Question 107._ Why do the Romans call the artists who appear in
the worship of Bacchus _histriones_?
_Solution._ Is it for the reason which C. Rufus tells us? For he
says, that in ancient time, C. Sulpicius and Licinius Stolo, being
consuls, a pestilence raging in Rome, all the actors upon the stage
were cut off; wherefore, upon the request of the Romans, many and good
artists came from Etruria, among whom he that excelled in fame and had
been longest experienced on the public stages was called Histrus, and
from him they named all the stage-players.
_Question 108._ Why do not men marry women that are near akin?
_Solution._ Is this the reason, that they design by marriage to
augment their family concerns and to procure many relations, by giving
wives to strangers and marrying wives out of other families? Or do
they suspect that the contentions that would happen among relations
upon marriage would destroy even natural rights? Or is it that,
considering that wives by reason of weakness stand in need of many
helpers, they would not have near akin marry together, that their own
kindred might stand by them when their husbands wrong them?
_Question 109._ Why is it not lawful for the high priest of
Jupiter, which they call Flamen Dialis, to touch meal or leaven?
_Solution._ Is it because meal is imperfect and crude nourishment?
For the wheat neither hath continued what it was, neither is it made
into bread as it must be; but it hath lost the faculty of seed, and
hath not attained to usefulness for food. Wherefore the poet hath
named meal, by a metaphor, _mill-murdered_ (μυλήφατον), as if the
corn were spoiled and destroyed by grinding. Leaven, as it is made by
corruption, corrupts the mass that it is mingled with, for it is made
thereby looser and weaker; and fermentation is a kind of corruption,
which, if it be over much, makes the bread sour and spoils it.
_Question 110._ Why is the same high priest forbid to touch raw
flesh?
_Solution._ Is it because custom makes them averse enough to
raw flesh? Or is it that the same reason that makes them averse to
meal doth also make them averse to flesh; for it is neither a living
creature nor dressed food? Roasting or boiling, being an alteration and
change, doth change its form; but fresh and raw flesh offers not a pure
and unpolluted object to the eye, but such as is offensive to the eye,
and like that of a raw wound.
_Question 111._ Why do they require the priest to abstain from a
dog and a goat, and neither to touch or name them?
_Solution._ Was it that they abominated the lasciviousness and
stink of a goat, or that they suspected it to be a diseased creature?
For it seems this animal is more seized with the falling sickness
than other creatures, and is contagious to them that eat or touch it
while it hath this disease; they say, the cause is the straightness
of the windpipe, often intercepting the breath, a sign of which they
make the smallness of their voice to be; for it happens to men that
are epileptical, that they utter a voice sounding much like the bleat
of a goat. Now in a dog there may be less of lasciviousness and of an
ill scent; although some say that dogs are not permitted to go into
the high streets of Athens—no, not into the island Delos—by reason of
their open coition; as if kine, swine, and horses did use coition in
bed-chambers, and not openly and lawlessly. They do not know the true
reason,—that, because a dog is a quarrelsome creature, they therefore
expel dogs out of sanctuaries and sacred temples, giving safe access to
suppliants for refuge. Wherefore it is very likely that the priest of
Jupiter, being (as it were) an animated and sacred image, granted for
refuge to petitioners and suppliants, doth banish or fright away none.
For which cause a couch was set for him in the porch of the house, and
they that fell on their knees before him had indemnity from stripes
or punishment that day; and if one in fetters came and addressed him,
he was unloosed, and his fetters were not laid down by the door but
thrown from the roof. It would be therefore no advantage that he should
carry himself so mild and courteous, if there were a dog at the door,
scaring and frighting them that petitioned for sanctuary. Neither did
the ancients at all repute this creature clean; for he is offered in
sacrifice to none of the celestial Gods, but being sent to Hecate,
an infernal Goddess, at the three cross-ways for a supper, takes a
share in averting calamities and in expiations. In Lacedaemon they cut
puppies in pieces to Mars, that most cruel God. In Boeotia public
expiation is made by passing between the parts of a dog divided in
twain. But the Romans sacrifice a dog in the cleansing month, on the
festival which they call Lupercalia. Hence it was not without cause, to
prohibit them whose charge it was to worship the highest and holiest
God from making a dog familiar and customed to them.
_Question 112._ What is the reason that the priest of Jupiter is
forbid to touch an ivy, or to pass over that way that is overspread
with vine branches?
_Solution._ Is it not of the like nature with those precepts of
Pythagoras, not to eat in a chair, not to sit upon a measure called
a choenix, and not to step over a broom? For the Pythagoreans do not
dread and refrain from these things, but they prohibit other things by
these. Now to go under a vine hath reference to wine, because it is
not lawful for a priest to be drunk. For the wine is above the heads
of those that are drunk, and they are depraved and debased thereby;
whereas it is requisite that they should be above pleasure and conquer
it, but not be subdued by it. As for the ivy,—it being unfruitful and
useless to men, as also infirm, and by reason of its infirmity standing
in need of other trees to climb upon, though by its shadow and sight
of its greenness it doth bewitch the vulgar,—what if they judge it not
convenient to nourish it about a house because it bringeth no profit,
or to suffer it to clasp about any thing, seeing it is so hurtful to
plants that bear it up, while it sticketh fast in the ground? Hence ivy
is forbidden at the Olympic festivals, and neither at Athens in Juno’s
sacrifices, nor at Thebes in those belonging to Venus, can any wild ivy
be seen; though in the Agrionia and Nyctelia (which are services to
Bacchus for the most part performed in the dark) it is to be found. Or
was this a symbol of the prohibition of revels and sports of Bacchus?
For women that were addicted to Bacchanal sports presently ran to
the ivy and plucked it off, tearing it in pieces with their hands and
gnawing it with their mouths, so that they are not altogether to be
disbelieved that say it hath a spirit in it that stirreth and moveth to
madness, transporting and bereaving of the senses, and that alone by
itself it introduceth drunkenness without wine to those that have an
easy inclination to enthusiasm.
_Question 113._ Why are not these priests allowed to take upon
them or attempt civil authority, while they have a lictor and a curule
chair for honor’s sake, and in some sort of consolation for their being
excluded from magistracies?
_Solution._ Was it because in some places of Greece the dignity
of priesthood was equal with kingship, and therefore they designated
not ordinary persons to be priests? Or was it rather,—since they
have appointed office-employments, whereas the charge of kings is
unmethodical and indefinite,—that it would not be possible, if both
fell out at the same time, that he should be able to attend both, but
he must of necessity neglect one (both pressing together upon him),
sometimes neglecting the worship of God, and sometimes injuring the
subjects? Or else, seeing that there is no less necessity than power
attending the administration of civil government, and that the ruler
of the people (as Hippocrates saith of the physician) doth see weighty
matters and hath to do with weighty matters, and from other men’s
calamities procures troubles peculiar to himself, did they think him
not sacred enough to sacrifice to the Gods and manage the sacrifices
who had been present at the condemnation and execution of citizens, and
often of some of his own kindred and family, as happened to Brutus?