Historia de Grecia y Roma

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  • Shameless plagiarists but no poets

    Today the plagiarism is certainly more usual given the enormous intellectual production and the ability of modern computer tools which have reduced the work of copying and plagiarism to “copy and paste” of word processors. But these modern tools are also effective to detect and locate the plagiarist.

    So sometimes remarkable plagiarism are discovered, in recent months we have witnessed the forced resignation of some politicians when it is discovered  that the doctoral thesis,  whit them they  supported the training,  were  a simple theft of the work and efforts of others.

    They  are not rare today controversies generated by some works of famous authors which  remember  too much another one or literary awards  rather loosely granted.

    Well, Vitruvius tells us the case of a poetry competition at the famous Library of Alexandria in which a clever librarian, Aristophanes of Byzantium, who knows the library materials and their placement on the shelves, discovered an unscrupulous plagiarizing poet who intended to pass as original it  that was only a copy of the work placed on the  shelf of the Library.

    This was only possible, apart the extraordinary mind of Aristophanes, also by  the perfect organization and management of the Library of Alexandria.

    For better understanding  the text, I will  reproduce three intact paragraphs of the Preface of Book VII of his work De Architectura.

    Vitruvius, VII, preface. 4-7

    The kings of the house of Attalus having established, under the influence of the great charms of literature, an excellent library at Pergamus to give pleasure to the public, Ptolemy also was aroused with no end of enthusiasm and emulation into exertions to make a similar provision with no less diligence at Alexandria. Having done so with the greatest care, he felt that this was not enough without providing for its increase and development, for which he sowed the seed. He established public contests in honour of the Muses and Apollo, and appointed prizes and honours for victorious authors in general, as is done in the case of athletes.

    These arrangements having been made, and the contests being at hand, it became necessary to select literary men as judges to decide them. The king soon selected six of the citizens, but could not so easily find a proper person to be the seventh. He therefore turned to those who presided over the library, and asked whether they knew anybody who was suitable for the purpose. Then they told him that there was one Aristophanes who was daily engaged in reading through all the books with the greatest enthusiasm and the greatest care. Hence, when the gathering for the contests took place, and separate seats were set apart for the judges, Aristophanes was summoned with the rest, and sat down in the place assigned to him.

    A group of poets was first brought in to contend, and, as they recited their compositions, the whole audience by its applause showed the judges what it approved. So, when they were individually asked for their votes, the six agreed, and awarded the first prize to the poet who, as they observed, had most pleased the multitude, and the second to the one who came next. But Aristophanes, on being asked for his vote, urged that the poet who had least pleased the audience should be declared to be the first.

    As the king and the entire assembly showed great indignation, he arose, and asked and received permission to speak. Silence being obtained, he stated that only one of them—his man a poet, and that the rest had recited things not their own; furthermore, that judges ought to give their approval, not to thefts, but to original compositions. The people were amazed, and the king hesitated, but Aristophanes, trusting to his memory, had a vast number of volumes brought out from bookcases which he specified, and, by comparing them with what had been recited, obliged the thieves themselves to make confession. So, the king gave orders that they should be accused of theft, and after condemnation sent them off in disgrace; but he honoured Aristophanes with the most generous gifts, and put him in charge of the library.(Morris Hicky Morgan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. London: Humphrey Milford. Oxford University Press. 1914.)

    Reges Attalici magnis philologiae dulcedinibus inducti cum egregiam bybliothecam Pergami ad communem delectationem instituissent, tunc item Ptolomaeus infinito zelo cupiditatisque incitatus studio non minoribus industriis ad eundem modum contenderat Alexandriae comparare. cum autem summa diligentia perfecisset, non putavit id satis esse, nisi propagationibus inseminando curaret augendam. itaque Musis et Apollini ludos dedicavit et, quemadmodum athletarum, sic communium scriptorum victoribus praemia et honores constituit.
    His ita institutis, cum ludi adessent, iudices litterati, qui ea probarent, erant legendi. rex, cum iam sex civitatis lectos habuisset nec tam cito septumum idoneum inveniret, retulit ad eos, qui supra bybliothecam fuerunt, et quaesiit, si quem novissent ad id expeditum. tunc ei dixerunt esse quendam Aristophanen, qui summo studio summaque diligentia cotidie omnes libros ex ordine perlegeret. itaque conventu ludorum, cum secretae sedes iudicibus essent distributae, cum ceteris Aristophanes citatus, quemadmodum fuerat locus ei designatus, sedit.
    Primo poetarum ordine ad certationem inducto cum recitarentur scripta, populus cunctus significando monebat iudices, quod probarent. itaque, cum ab singulis sententiae sunt rogatae, sex una dixerunt et, quem maxime animadverterunt multitudini placuisse, ei primum praemium, insequenti secundum tribuerunt. Aristophanes vero, cum ab eo sententia rogaretur, eum primum renuntiari iussit, qui minime populo placuisset.
    Cum autem rex et universi vehementer indignarentur, surrexit et rogando impetravit, ut paterentur se dicere. itaque silentio facto docuit unum ex his eum esse poetam, ceteros aliena recitavisse; oportere autem iudicantes non furta sed scripta probare. admirante populo et rege dubitante, fretus memoriae certis armariis infinita volumina eduxit et ea cum recitatis conferendo coegit ipsos furatos de se confiteri. itaque rex iussit cum his agi furti condemnatosque cum ignominia dimisit, Aristophanen vero amplissimis muneribus ornavit et supra bybliothecam constituit.
     

  • The “Medulas” are the evidence of

    As Pliny says in his Natural History, Book 33, dedicated to metals, there existed in antiquity a real gold rush. See https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/the-gold-rush-in-antiquity-minery-pliny

    The Phoenicians arrived to Hispania early in the first millennium BC , and later  Carthaginians and Greeks,  attracted precisely because of its mineral wealth. From the third century BC, the Romans began their expansion from the Levant and Baetica (Andalusia) inland, to the two plateaus and northwest, attracted by its mines.

    Strabo dedicates the Book III of his Geography  about  Iberia and tells us in Chapter 2.8, referring to the Turdetania (in other passages he refers to the peninsular Northwest):

    Of the various riches of the aforenamed country, not the least is its wealth in metals: this every one will particularly esteem and admire. Of metals, in fact, the whole country of the Iberians is full, although it is not equally fertile and flourishing throughout, especially in those parts where the metals most abound. It is seldom that any place is blessed with both these advantages, and likewise seldom that the different kinds of metals abound in one small territory. Turdetania, however, and the surrounding districts surpass so entirely in this respect, that however you may wish, words cannot convey their excellence. Gold, silver, copper, and iron, equal in amount and of similar quality, not having been hitherto discovered in any other part of the world. (H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., Ed.)

    Pliny the Elder  conveys  to us the same opinion  in  Naturalis Historia, 33.25 (78) now referred to Northwestern Hispania (Asturias, Galicia, Lusitania):

    Asturia, Gallæcia, and Lusitania furnish in this manner, yearly, according to some authorities, twenty thousand pounds' weight of gold, the produce of Asturia forming the major part. Indeed, there is no part of the world that for centuries has maintained such a continuous fertility in gold  (John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., 1855)

    vicena milia pondo ad hunc modum annis singulis asturiam atque callaeciam et lusitaniam praestare quidam prodiderunt, ita ut plurimum Asturia gignat. neque in alia terrarum parte tot saeculis perseverat haec fertilitas.

    In the same passage which we were quoting Strabo gives us news of the gold extraction methods:

    Gold is not only dug from the mines, but likewise collected; sand containing gold being washed down by the rivers and torrents. It is frequently met with in arid districts, but here the gold is not visible to the sight, whereas in those which are overflowed the grains of gold are seen glittering. On this account they cause water to flow over the arid places in order to make the grains shine; they also dig pits, and make use of other contrivances for washing the sand, and separating the gold from it; so that at the present day more gold is procured by washing than by digging it from the mines. The Galatæ affirm that the mines along the Kemmenus mountains3 and their side of the Pyrenees are superior; but most people prefer those on this side. They say that sometimes amongst the grains of gold lumps have been found weighing half a pound, these they call palœ; they need but little refining.4 They also say that in splitting open stones they find small lumps, resembling paps. And that when they have melted the gold, and purified it by means of a kind of aluminous earth, the residue left is electrum. This, which contains a mixture of silver and gold, being again subjected to the fire, the silver is separated and the gold left [pure]; for this metal is easily dissipated and fat,5 and on this account gold is most easily melted by straw, the flame of which is soft, and bearing a similarity [to the gold], causes it easily to dissolve: whereas coal, besides wasting a great deal, melts it too much by reason of its vehemence, and carries it off [in vapour]. In the beds of the rivers the sand is either collected and washed in boats close by, or else a pit is dug to which the earth is carried and there washed. The furnaces for silver are constructed lofty, in order that the vapour, which is dense and pestilent, may be raised and carried off. Certain of the copper mines are called gold mines, which would seem to show that formerly gold was dug from them. (H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., Ed.)

    Pliny also describes in more detail the method and harsh operating conditions. He  dedicates  the book 33 of its Natural History to metals and he gives us valuable information. Read the article  https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/the-gold-rush-in-antiquity-minery-pliny

    In view of the greed and hunger for gold (Vergil and Pliny call it “sacra fames”, sacred hunger) of the Romans,it  is easily understandable the justification which the historian Florus  gives us about the war of Augustus against the Cantabrians and the foundation of Asturica Augusta .  He says in the passage 2,33,60

    The natural advantages of the place favoured his plan; for the whole district bears gold and is rich in chrysocolla, vermilion and other pigments; he, therefore, ordered that the soil should be tilled. Thus the Astures, digging deep into the ground in search of riches for others, gained their first knowledge of their own resources and wealth. (translation t by E. S. Forster, as printed in the Loeb Classical Library edition, published in 1929.)

    Favebat consilio natura regionis; circa enim omnis aurifera 2est et chrysocoliae 3miniique et aliorum colorum ferax. Itaque exerceri solum iussit. Sic Astures 4nitentes in profundo opes suas atque divitias, dum aliis quaerunt, nosse coeperunt.

    So northwestern Hispania was extensively prospected and exploited by the Romans. Of these mines it has been an indelible mark on the landscape and in the retina of every traveler who is fortunate to contemplate it: the “Medulas”, near Ponferrada, in the province of León, is the largest Roman “open” mine of  gold,  because they  opened it, they opened the mountain, as I will explain.

    (About the name “Medulas”, it is no agreement: some relate it to the Latin "metalla", metal , and who relates it to the name of a mythical mountain in clashes of  Cantabrians against  Romans, the Mons Medulius.  If it is so,  we have the problem of to explain the origin or meaning of Medulius.)

    Nota bene: The present city of León is named not from the fierce animal of the African savannah but from “Legio Septima Gemina “ which was camping  right there for protection and control of west peninsular area of strategic interest given its undoubted mineral wealth and the presence of local people always warlike. (derived from legionem , it is Leon, The Legion)

    It is a ruined landscape of such beauty and a witness to the history of such importance that UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1997.
     

    Photo: Patrimonio Natural de Castilla y León

    Author: Håkan Svensson (Xauxa)

    Some scholars, for example Antonio Garcia Bellido,  have estimated that 500 million cubic meters were removed;  if we  assume  a yield of 3 grams per tonne (current holdings in the area give 1.8 to 2.8 grams) for 250 years of exploitation would the extraordinary figure 1,635,000 kg. Recall that Pliny reported that these mines produced  20,000 pounds per year in the whole area.

    The price, always oscillating, of  gold to date July 17, 2013 is 31.39 euros in London. Applying this rate to the extracted gold, we will obtain the hardly intelligible figure for 51.322.650.000 €. This is  a somewhat absurd, ahistorical and unscientific exercise, but it serves to imagine the importance that these mines had to meet the insatiable hunger for gold (Pliny called sacrum famis) of Rome.

    In the “Medulas”  worked continuously from 10,000 to 20,000 slaves, later  manumitted,  in the terrible conditions that Pliny describes (see https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/the-gold-rush-in-antiquity-minery-pliny .

    Interestingly and contrary to general opinion, in this part of the Empire mine workers are free and not slaves, unlike other places.

    Pliny tells us various forms of gold mining;  so he says in Naturalis Historia XXXIII, 22:

    indeed, there is no gold found in a more perfect state than this, thoroughly polished as it is by the continual attrition of the current. A second mode of obtaining gold is by sinking shafts or seeking it among the debris of mountains (John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., 1855)

    nec ullum absolutius aurum est, ut cursu ipso attrituque perpolitum. alio modo puteorum scrobibus effoditur aut in ruina montium quaeritur;

    Thus, gold is extracted from the floodplain by the system called "ruina montium", "collapse or fall of the mountains" because the mountain was coming down literally on the strength of the water, using a technique based on hydraulic power. Pliny the Elder describes it perfectly  in Book 33, 72 and 73 (33,25)

    The word "ruin" is the noun of the same root as the Latin verb "ruo, ruere" meaning rush, collapse, jump.

    The third method of obtaining gold surpasses the labours of the Giants even: by the aid of galleries driven to a long distance, mountains are excavated by the light of torches, the duration of which forms the set times for work, the workmen never seeing the light of day for many months together. These mines are known as "arrugiæ;" and not unfrequently clefts are formed on a sudden, the earth sinks in, and the workmen are crushed beneath; so that it would really appear less rash to go in search of pearls and purples at the bottom of the sea, so much more dangerous to ourselves have we made the earth than the water! Hence it is, that in this kind of mining, arches are left at frequent intervals for the purpose of supporting the weight of the mountain above. In mining either by shaft or by gallery, barriers of silex are met with, which have to be driven asunder by the aid of fire and vinegar; or more frequently, as this method fills the galleries with suffocating vapours and smoke, to be broken to pieces with bruising- machines shod with pieces of iron weighing one hundred and fifty pounds: which done, the fragments are carried out on the workmen's shoulders, night and day, each man passing them on to his neighbour in the dark, it being only those at the pit's mouth that ever see the light. In cases where the bed of silex appears too thick to admit of being penetrated, the miner traces along the sides of it, and so turns it. And yet, after all, the labour entailed by this silex is looked upon as comparatively easy, there being an earth—a kind of potter's clay mixed with gravel, "gangadia" by name, which it is almost impossible to overcome. This earth has to be attacked with iron wedges and hammers like those previously mentioned, and it is generally considered that there is nothing more stubborn in existence—except indeed the greed for gold, which is the most stubborn of all things.
    When these operations are all completed, beginning at the last, they cut away the wooden pillars at the point where they support the roof: the coming downfall gives warning, which is instantly perceived by the sentinel, and by him only, who is set to watch upon a peak of the same mountain. By voice as well as by signals, he orders the workmen to be immediately summoned from their labours, and at the same moment takes to flight himself. The mountain, rent to pieces, is cleft asunder, hurling its debris to a distance with a crash which it is impossible for the human imagination to conceive; and from the midst of a cloud of dust, of a density quite incredible, the victorious miners gaze upon this downfall of Nature. Nor yet even then are they sure of gold, nor indeed were they by any means certain that there was any to be found when they first began to excavate, it being quite sufficient, as an inducement to undergo such perils and to incur such vast expense, to entertain the hope that they shall obtain what they so eagerly desire.
    Another labour, too, quite equal to this, and one which entails even greater expense, is that of bringing river  from the more elevated mountain heights, a distance in many instances of one hundred miles perhaps, for the purpose of washing these debris.    (Pliny the Elder, The Natural History ; John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.)

    tertia ratio opera vicerit gigantum. cuniculis per magna spatia actis cavantur montes lucernarum ad lumina; eadem mensura vigiliarum est, multisque mensibus non cernitur dies. arrugias id genus vocant. siduntque rimae subito et opprimunt operatos, ut iam minus temerarium videatur e profundo maris petere margaritas atque purpuras. tanto nocentiores fecimus terras! relinquuntur itaque fornices crebri montibus sustinendis. occursant in utroque genere silices; hos igne et aceto rumpunt, saepius vero, quoniam id cuniculos vapore et fumo strangulat, caedunt fractariis cl libras ferri habentibus egeruntque umeris noctibus ac diebus per tenebras proximis tradentes; lucem novissimi cernunt. si longior videtur silex, latus sequitur fossor ambitque. et tamen in silice facilior existimatur opera; est namque terra ex quodam argillae genere glarea mixta – gangadiam vocant – prope inexpugnabilis. cuneis eam ferreis adgrediuntur et isdem malleis nihilque durius putant, nisi quod inter omnia auri fames durissima est. peracto opere cervices fornicum ab ultimo caedunt. dat signum ruina, eamque solus intellegit in cacumine eius montis vigil. hic voce, nutu evocari iubet operas pariterque ipse devolat. mons fractus cadit ab sese longe fragore qui concipi humana mente non possit, aeque et flatu incredibili. spectant victores ruinam naturae. nec tamen adhuc aurum est nec sciere esse, cum foderent, tantaque ad pericula et inpendia satis causae fuit sperare quod cuperent. alius par labor ac vel maioris inpendii: flumina ad lavandam hanc ruinam iugis montium obiter duxere a centesimo plerumque lapide;                                              ……
    in priore genere quae exhauriuntur inmenso labore, ne occupent puteos, in hoc rigantur. aurum arrugia quaesitum non coquitur, sed statim suum est. inveniuntur ita massae, nec non in puteis, et denas excedentes libras; palagas, alii palacurnas, iidem quod minutum est balucem vocant. ulex siccatur, uritur, et cinis eius lavatur substrato caespite herboso, ut sidat aurum.

    Water from springs, rain, and melting snow was collected in large reservoirs, which led by a system of well built gravity canals to the mines themselves, over long distances. Galleries were cut into the sterile strata many metres deep that overlay the layers of auriferous conglomerate. When the sluices of the dams were opened, enormous quantities of water flowed into the galleries, which were closed at their ends. The pressure thus built up caused the rock to explode and to be washed away by the water flow, forming enormous areas of tailings, several kilometres in length. The process is vividly apparent on the working face at the main Las Médulas site. The operating face of this spectacular form of mining slowly moved across the landscape. The system of water canals and conduits has been traced over large areas of the site, and measures at least 100 km.

    Interestingly this principle of pressurizing the water is currently used by modern machines of waterjet cutting, more precise and versatile than laser cutting, plasma or electric  discharge to work with all types of material discharge. The technique has certainly evolved,  but the general principle is that used by the Romans specialists.

    In summary and as it is recognized in the own documentation by the Unesco, "The Archaeological Zone ofthe “Medulas” is thus an excellent example of historical process in which natural elements and human intervention appear constantly intertwined."

    Indeed, the only thing missing to the Romans was the development of some of the most sophisticated modern technique, such as cyanide leach gold or merger of arsenic, modern  technique which mining companies use today in the same area of the Northwest Hispanic. But these companies tend to have opposition from local residents groups and environmentalists because the movement of millions of tons of debris generates  severe pollution.

    Clear that in antiquity the Romans established a military camp and a legion, the “Legio VII Gemina " (Twin Seventh Legion) to control the area. It would be for nothing …

    But the gold rush is still very high and the barriers to their removal usually are easily overcome precisely because gold itself transformed into paper money or digital money, newer yet.

  • The gold rush in Antiquity

    Since men discovered the usefulness of metals, one of their biggest worries has been to locate the places where the gold, the silver, the iron, the tin, the copper, the lead… are.

    One of the reasons for the unstoppable development and extension in the four directions of the Roman Empire was precisely the mines detection. The same reason explains, for example, its extension by the Iberian Peninsula, rich in metals as it is related by Strabo in Book III of his Geography dedicated to Hispania.

    A real gold “fever” or gold rush existed in Antiquity. Pliny dedicates Book XXXIII of his “Naturalis Historia” (Natural History) to metals and there he refers to this fever which also reached the Romans.

    Pliny tells us that in the beginning there was very little gold in Rome; rings were made of iron and not of gold and they had no bracelets or other gold ornaments. As they were conquering the world, they became polluted by this desire for luxury and the metal that evidences it, the gold;  its use became more widespread: crowns, brooches, bracelets, women throughout the body, hands, arms, feet, waist … then also men and even some slaves had gold rings.

    But, why gold? Why this rush, this burning desire? Probably because it sparkles and it shines because it does not rust, because it is unchangeable; and it is also hard but malleable. Today in addition to jewelry it is used in many appliances like mobile phones, on pins of high fidelity sound, in medicine, in aerospace technology and even in the food of some eccentric persons who are as demanding as the ancient Sybarites.

    Pliny believes that the brightness is not the reason for its value, but that it leaves no residue in the fire and you can stretch it a lot and divided it into many slices. Although he also recognizes that:

    “And then, more than anything else, gold is subject to no rust, no verdigris, no emanation whatever from it, either to alter its quality or to lessen its weight. In addition to this, gold steadily resists the corrosive action of salt and vinegar, things which obtain the mastery over all other substances: it admits, too, beyond all other metals, of being spun out and woven like wool”. (Naturalis Historia, 33, 20).

    super cetera non robigo ulla, non aerugo, non aliud ex ipso, quod consumat bonitatem minuatve pondus. iam contra salis et aceti sucos, domitores rerum, constantia superat omnia, superque netur ac texitur lanae modo vel sine lana

    But Pliny criticizes this excessive craving in the already mentioned Book XXXIII, 3:

    Would that gold could have been banished for ever from the earth, accursed by universal report, as some of the most celebrated writers have expressed themselves, reviled by the reproaches of the best of men, and looked upon as discovered only for the ruin of mankind. How much more happy the age when things themselves were bartered for one another; as was the case in the times of the Trojan war, if we are to believe what Homer says. For, in this way, in my opinion, commerce was then carried on for the supply of the necessities of life. (Pliny the Elder, The Natural History ; John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.)

      utinamque posset e vita in totum abdicari [sacrum fame, ut celeberrimi auctores dixere] proscissum conviciis ab optimis quibusque et ad perniciem vitae repertum, quanto feliciore aevo, cum res ipsae permutabantur inter sese, sicut et Troianis temporibus factitatum Homero credi convenit! ita enim, ut opinor, commercia victus gratia invecta.

    And to get it we are able to introduce us to the depths of the earth: (N.H. 33.1):

    It is what is concealed from our view, what is sunk far beneath her surface, objects, in fact, of no rapid formation,  that urge us to our ruin, that send us to the very depths of hell. As the mind ranges in vague speculation, let us only consider, proceeding through all ages, as these operations are, when will be the end of this exhausting the earth, and to what point will avarice finally penetrate! How innocent, how happy, how truly delightful even would life be, if we were to desire nothing but what is to be found upon the face of the earth; in a word, nothing but what is provided ready to our hands!

    illa nos peremunt, illa nos ad inferos agunt, quae occultavit atque demersit, illa, quae non nascuntur repente, ut mens ad inane evolans reputet, quae deinde futura sit finis omnibus saeculis exhauriendi eam, quo usque penetratura avaritia. quam innocens, quam beata, immo vero etiam delicata esset vita, si nihil aliunde quam supra terras concupisceret, breviterque, nisi quod secum est!

    And then he blasts out against who coined gold coin (NH33, 13):

    The next crime committed against the welfare of mankind was on the part of him who was the first to coin a denarius of gold, a crime the author of which is equally unknown. The Roman people made no use of impressed silver even before the period of the defeat of King Pyrrhus.

    Proximum scelus fuit eius, qui primus ex auro denarium signavit, quod et ipsum latet auctore incerto. populus Romanus ne argento quidem signato ante Phyrrhum regem devictum usus est.

    And soon after, Naturalis Historia, 33.14:

    But the invention of money opened a new field to human avarice, by giving rise to usury and the practice of lending money at interest, while the owner passes a life of idleness: and it was with no slow advances that, not mere avarice only, but a perfect hunger for gold became inflamed with a sort of rage for acquiring: to such a degree, in fact, that Septimuleius, the familiar friend of Caius Gracchus, not only cut off his head, upon which a price had been set of its weight in gold, but, before  bringing it to Opimius,  poured molten lead into the mouth, and so not only was guilty of the crime of parricide, but added to his criminality by cheating the state. Nor was it now any individual citizen, but the universal Roman name, that had been rendered infamous by avarice, when King Mithridates caused molten gold to be poured into the mouth of Aquilius the Roman general, whom he had taken prisoner: such were the results of cupidity!.

    Sed a nummo prima origo avaritiae faenore excogitato quaestuosaque segnitia, nec paulatim: exarsit rabie quadam non iam avaritia, sed fames auri, utpote cum Septumuleius, C. Gracchi familiaris, auro rependendum caput eius abscisum ad Opimium tulerit plumboque in os addito parricidio suo rem p. etiam circumscripserit; nec iam Quiritium aliquis, sed universo nomine Romano infami rex Mithridates Aquilio duci capto aurum in os infudit. Haec parit habendi Cupido!

    Even before the poet Virgil had described masterfully and lapidary  the consequences of this cursed thirst for gold in Aeneid, 3, 357:

    What do you not force mortal hearts, accursed thirst for gold?

    Quid non Mortalia Cogis pectorals,
    auri sacra fames?

    From then to now the craving and desire for gold has not waned an apex.

    Pliny also gives us some information about the operating system and hardships of working in the mine.  In another article we will discuss the ruin montium  at The Medullas (Spain).

    Pliny gives us more information on the various gold deposits, the various forms of exploitation, its extraction techniques and its uses. We can say that they used very advanced techniques, some of them extremely laborious ones. Those interested in these issues should read Book 33 of The Naturalis Historia. Only the Romans had missing some modern techniques such as cyanide leaching or aquiferous arsenic merger, currently employed by international companies in the Northwest of Spain, precisely in the same area where the ancient Romans prospected, evaluated and exploited with remarkable results.

    Well now!, these modern techniques frequently and rightly meet with people´s rejection due to the environmental damages they used to cause produced by millions of tons of rubble.

    Neither the Romans knew that all the gold there is in the world comes from cosmic cataclysms, from the collision of stars of neutrons, as current astrophysicists have just figured out.

    In any case today as yesterday the gold fever or gold rush is still very big and the numerous material and technical obstacles to its extraction or the opposition of groups and citizens concerned about the preservation of the environment are easily overcome, precisely because of the gold itself, become into paper money or transformed into digital money, more modern and suitable yet according to the current times.

  • Dinosaur Fossils in Antiquity

    In Greco-Roman mythology, as in almost every mythology, monstrous beings and fantastic animals are frequent. Sometimes these monsters are large animals, others they are the result of the mixture of several different animals and sometimes they are even a mix of human beings and animals.

    Dragons, griffins, sphinxes, centaurs, sea monsters, pegasus, gods in human form with animal head as in Egypt … can be found in all the mythologies and cosmogonies of the world and take us back to a very primitive stage of the human beings: some of them to the time of men hunters and others also to the Neolithic era.

    Some people think that the creation of these monstrous beings is due to the appearance in the very ancient times of fossil remains of dinosaurs and other animals which were extinct then. It is an attempt of rationalistic explanation of myths. This theory of mythological explanation is called “Euhemerism ", from the name of his alleged creator Euhemerus of Messene, in the fourth century BC, from whom we hardly keep some abstracts and citations.

    According to Euhemerus, gods are just historical figures, kings of particular relevance, magnified by tradition. This theory had some success among some ancient authors, especially among the ancient fathers of the Church, who used it to discredit the ancient myths but that did not apply to their own.

    However attractive these theories of rationalization of myths seem, the reality is that the human being is enormously complex and in an effort to explain the world around us, we use our intelligence, creativity, dreams and imagination, our unitary conception of the world, to create forms of symbolic and mythical explanation. Thus we use physical experiences to express realities of another order.

    In Antiquity fossil remains certainly appear and these findings are documented. No doubt that these fossils sometimes fed the imagination of the ancient people and also help to explain, justify or reinforce the existence of their fantastic animals.

    There is a very interesting text by Pliny in which he tells us how the mayor Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, in the year 58 BC, brought to Rome and exhibited the fossil remains of a monster which appeared in Joppa, the present Jaffa, next to Tel-Aviv. Ancient people traditionally placed the episode of the myth of Perseus and Andromeda in Joppa (see in this blog itself. https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/perseus-andromeda-medusa-pegasus-danae ).

    Strabo, XVI, 2.28 (759); Mela, I, 11/64; Pliny NH V, 13/69; Josephus Bello Iudaico, III, 9.3 (420); Pausanias, IV, 35.6; Jerome, Comm. Ad Ion., I, 3  also placed the episode there, or at least they said that remains of the chains of Andromeda emerged from the rock.  Alost all of them mention that remains of Andromeda´s chains emerged from the rock of Joppa.

    Naturally the remains brought by Scaurus were identified with the sea monster that was supposed to devour Andromeda.

    Pliny tells us, NH IX, 4/11:

    M. Scaurus, in his ædileship, exhibited at Rome, among other wonderful things, the bones of the monster to which Andromeda was said to have been exposed, and which he had brought from Joppa, a city of Judæa. These bones exceeded forty feet in length (about 13 meters), and the ribs were higher than those of the Indian elephant, while the back-bone was a foot and a half in thickness (about 45 centimeters).

    Beluae, cui dicebatur expósita fuisse Andromeda ossa Romae apportata ex oppido Iudaeae Ioppe ostendit inter reliqua miracula in aedilitate sua M. Scaurus longitudine pedum XL, altitudine costarum Indicos elephantos excedente, spinae crrassitudine sesquipedali.

    Perhaps it was a Pliosaur like the one that has recently appeared in the Arctic sea, 15 meters long and 45 tons in weight; or it might be an ancient whale or cetacean.

    There is also a famous painting on a Greek vase, a krater of the middle of the sixth century now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in which Heracles faces the monster that Poseidon sent to attack Troy where Laomedon reigned, who must sacrifice his daughter Princess Hesione of Troy,  in a similar myth to Andromeda´s myth. The painting depicts quite clearly a fossil remain too, probably of a type of ancient giraffe.

       

    The folklorist Adrienne Mayor seems to have found and check that, in the places where the Greek myths of struggles between gods, monsters and men are located, there are abundant fossils. So as an example she talks about the island of Samos, where the Amazon struggles lie or take place and where there are frequent fossils; or she relates as well the appearance of dinosaur fossils in the deserts of Central Asia with a text of Herodotus: Historiae, 4,13,1 in which he speaks of Griffins:

    Another story is told about this issue also between Greeks and barbarians. This Aristeas, natural from Proconeso, son of Caistrobio and poet , said that, possessed by Phoibos, he visited the Issedones; beyond these (he said) live the one-eyed Arimaspoi,  beyond whom are the Grypes that guard gold, and beyond these, again the Hyperboreoi, whose territory reaches to the sea . Except for the Hyperboreoi, all these nations (and first the Arimaspoi) are always at war with their neighbors.

    But these speculations, like the colorful and successful documentaries on these matters, have to be observed with keen critical and scientific sense.

    In any case the appearance of these remains impressed the ancient people and there are indications that allow us to assume that some curious ancient persons sought and collected these remains.

    So Suetonius, also makes a reference to fossil remains of large animals when he refers to the "villae" of Augustus and says in Life of Augustus 72 3

    Those of his own, which were far from being spacious, he adorned, not so much with statues and pictures, as with walks and groves, and things which were curious either for their antiquity or rarity; such as, at Capri, the huge limbs of sea-monsters and wild beasts, which some affect to call the bones of giants; and also the arms of ancient heroes. (J. Eugene Reed. Alexander Thomson. Philadelphia. Gebbie & Co. 1889.)

    sua uero quamuis modica non tam statuarum tabularumque pictarum ornatu quam xystis et nemoribus excoluit rebusque uetustate ac raritate notabilibus, qualia sunt Capreis immanium beluarum ferarumque membra praegrandia, quae dicuntur gigantum ossa, et arma heroum.

    Someone has explained the location of the Cyclops in Sicily by the appearance or discovery there of ancient elephant remains: the central hole would have been interpreted as a single eye in the middle of its forehead.

    But all this does not entitle us to think that this is the explanation for the proliferation of these mythological monsters. Human curiosity, creativity and imagination, helped also by daydreams and dream visions, were enough.

    In any case it is curious and interesting to see how dinosaurs that so much interest generate today, already impressed us two thousand years ago.

  • Caius Gracchus: “this is only interesting for political speakers, own interest”

    Aulus Gellius, in Book XI, Chapter 9 of his Attic Nights, tells how the famous Greek orator Demosthenes leave buy for a good amount of money for not a speech against the Macedonian Harpalus. In the next chapter 10 gives us another version now attributed to a speech of Gaius Gracchus. But the interest of this text goes beyond the different allocation, because Gracchus reveals starkly how political speakers and advocates seek above all profit and benefit.

    Gelius says:

    That Gaius Gracchus in a speech of his applied the story related above to the orator Demades, and not to Demosthenes; and a quotation of Gracchus' words.

    The story which in the preceding chapter we said was told by Critolaus about Demosthenes, Gaius Gracchus, in the speech Against the Aufeian Law, applied to Demades in the following words: 

    “For you, fellow citizens, if you wish to be wise and honest, and if you inquire into the matter, will find that none of us comes forward here without pay. All of us who address you are after something, and no one appears before you for any purpose except to carry something away. I myself, who am now recommending you to increase your taxes, in order that you may the more easily serve your own advantage and administer the government, do not come here for nothing; but I ask of you, not money, but honour and your good opinion. Those who come forward to persuade you not to accept this law, do not seek honour from you, but money from Nicomedes; those also who advise you to accept it are not seeking a good opinion from you, but from Mithridates a reward and an increase of their possessions; those, however, of the same rank and order who are silent are your very bitterest enemies, since they take money from all and are false to all. You, thinking that they are innocent of such conduct, give them your esteem; but the embassies from the kings, thinking it is for their sake that they are silent, give them great gifts and rewards.

    So in the land of Greece, when a Greek tragic actor boasted that he had received a whole talent for one play, Demades, the most eloquent man of his country, is said to have replied to him: 'Does it seem wonderful to you that you have gained a talent by speaking? I was paid ten talents by the king for holding my tongue.' Just so, these men now receive a very high price for holding their tongues.”  (Translation. John C. Rolfe. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1927)

    Quod C. Gracchus in oratione sua historiam supra scriptam Demadi rhetori, non Demostheni, adtribuit; verbaque ipsius C. Gracchi relata.
    Quod in capite superiore a Critolao scriptum esse diximus super Demosthene, id C. Gracchus in oratione, qua legem  Aufeiam dissuasit, in Demaden contulit verbis hisce:  "Nam vos, Quirites, si velitis sapientia atque virtute uti, etsi quaeritis, neminem nostrum invenietis sine pretio huc prodire. Omnes nos, qui verba facimus, aliquid petimus, neque ullius rei causa quisquam ad vos prodit, nisi ut aliquid auferat. Ego ipse, qui aput vos verba facio, uti vectigalia vestra augeatis, quo facilius vestra commoda et rempublicam administrare possitis, non gratis prodeo; verum peto a vobis non pecuniam, sed bonam existimationem atque honorem. Qui prodeunt dissuasuri, ne hanc legem accipiatis, petunt non honorem a vobis, verum a Nicomede pecuniam; qui suadent, ut accipiatis, hi quoque petunt non a vobis bonam existimationem, verum a Mithridate rei familiari suae pretium et praemium; qui autem ex eodem loco atque ordine tacent, hi vel acerrimi sunt; nam ab omnibus pretium accipiunt et omnis fallunt.  Vos, cum putatis eos ab his rebus remotos esse, inpertitis bonam existimationem;  legationes autem a regibus, cum putant eos sua causa reticere, sumptus atque pecunias maximas praebent, item uti in terra Graecia, quo in tempore tragoedus gloriae sibi ducebat talentum magnum ob unam fabulam datum esse, homo eloquentissimus civitatis suae Demades ei respondisse dicitur: "Mirum tibi videtur, si tu loquendo talentum quaesisti? ego, ut tacerem, decem talenta a rege accepi". Item nunc isti pretia maxima ob tacendum accipiunt".

    This Demades is a contemporary orator of Demosthenes, who is in favor of the Macedonians Philip and then Alexander, his son,  and his policy of expansion in Greece. See article https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/political-corrption-demosthenes-philippi , where it is told  the same story, although now applied to Demosthenes.

    A consideration about  the Lex  Aufeia, referred by speech of   Gracchus, exposes very clearly what is the general atmosphere of corruption in the awarding of public services at the time when Rome is spreading throughout the Mediterranean  unstoppably .

    Some philologists as H. Hill considered that the term " Aufeia " is a corrupt term that and it actually refers to the Lex Aquilia , which owes its name to Manius Aquilio , consul in 129 BC .  But the relevance of the quote is that this Aquilio was proconsul of Asia and as such he awarded the collection of taxes in the provinces of Asia ; specifically he awarded to the King of Pontus Mithridates V the taxes  of Great Phrygia , but as it was said, in exchange for a hefty bribe .

    He was accused in court " de repetundis " . The " Lex de pecuniis repetundis " , "law claim improperly collected monies " acted  against concussions ( arbitrary charge made by a public official for their own benefit ) and bribes ( offense of bribing a judge or an officer or acceptance bribery ) .

    Aquilio was acquitted with great scandal.As a result , the tribune Gaius Gracchus , seeking resources for their agricultural reforms , enacted the " Lex Sempronia de provincia  Asia ";  so that the resources of Asia will be  auctioned and leased to "publicani " in Rome itself and by the censors , as security against the abuses of the governors.

    Anyway, that matter of the award of "public works" whom pays a good commission seems a matter extracted from the press today, the acquittal of the corrupt too.

    A peculiar thing, we will  say that the word "concussio" derives from the Latin verb "concutere" which means to move, to hit; it  seems  taken from the practice of "shake or move the tree to pick the fruits that fall" and indeed it seems a suitable source because that is what is generally done by the governors and officials of the Roman provinces, to shake them and beaten them to collect all the fruit.

    Since the very name of "provincia", province,  is sufficiently expressive:  "territory to conquer", dominate and despoil, relentlessly applying the expressive meaning of another Latin phrase: "Vae Victis"  woe to the vanquished (ones) , a phrase whose interesting origin we discuss another time.

  • Political corruption in Athens

    If something so insufferable plans on Spanish politics, it is corruption. Actually it seems inherent to the human condition and to the insatiable thirst for money. So there it is in all countries, depending on the intensity of the strength of democracy and the existence of appropriate controls. Nor is it unique to our time, but of all time

    Of course, there was political corruption in Greece and Rome and it was legislated against it, without much success, of course. Even it does not leave to exist   in the “invented democracy “ of which  the Athenians were so proud.

    Aulus Gellius in his Noctes Atticae in the book, XI, 9 offers us a famous example of political corruption awarded the great Demosthenes, the Athenian hard nationalist who opposed the advance of Philip, king of Macedonia, father of Alexander, with  his famous  and strong speeches, precisely called "the Philippics".

    Note: this is the origin of the term "philippic" meaning "invective, acre censorship"

    Demosthenes, who was always consistent in the defense of Athens against Macedonian, sometimes gave his work as a lawyer at the best payer. It therefore says Aulus Gellius in Attic Nights, XI, 9:

    The story of the Milesian envoys and the orator Demosthenes, found in the works of Critolaus.

    Critolaus  has written  that envoys came from Miletus to Athens on public business, perhaps for  the purpose of asking aid. Then they engaged such advocates as they chose, to speak for them, and the advocates, according to their instructions, addressed the people in behalf of the Milesians. Demosthenes vigorously opposed the demands of the Milesians, maintaining that the Milesians did not deserve aid, nor was it to the interest of the State to grant it. The matter was postponed to the next day. The envoys came to Demosthenes and begged him earnestly not to speak against them; he asked for money, and received the amount which he demanded. On the following day, when the case was taken up again, Demosthenes, with his neck and shoulders wrapped in thick wool, came forward before the people and said that he was suffering from quinsy and hence could not speak against the Milesians. Then one of the populace cried out that it was, not quinsy (συνάνγκη,  synanje)  , but “silverinsy”  (ἀργυράγκη argyranje)  from which Demosthenes was suffering. (The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1927.)

    Note: ἀργυράγκη comes from ἄργυρος, argyros. which means "silver", imitating the pun,   translator says “silverinsy”, referring to the silver or money received.

    Historia de legatis Mileti ac Demosthene rhetore in libris Critolai reperta.

    Critolaus scripsit legatos Mileto publicae rei causa venisse Athenas, fortasse an dixerit auxilii petendi gratia. Tum qui pro sese verba facerent, quos visum erat advocavisse, advocatos, uti erat mandatum, verba pro Milesiis ad populum fecisse, Demosthenen Milesiorum postulatis acriter respondisse, neque Milesios auxilio dignos neque ex republica id esse contendisse. Rem in posterum diem prolatam. Legatos ad Demosthenen venisse magnoque opere orasse, uti contra ne diceret; eum pecuniam petivisse et, quantam petiverat, abstulisse. Postridie cum res agi denuo coepta esset, Demosthenen lana multa collum cervicesque circumvolutum ad populum prodisse et dixisse se synanchen pati; eo contra Milesios loqui non quire. Tum e populo unum exclamasse non synanchen, quod Demosthenes pateretur, sed argyranchen esse.

    Gellius  ends  the episode  with a paragraph that merely confirm and underline the shamelessness of the famous Demosthenes and the apparent acceptance of Athenian society.

    Demosthenes himself too, as Critolaus also relates, did not afterwards conceal that matter, but actually made a boast of it. For when he had asked Aristodemus, the player, what sum he had received for acting, and Aristodemus 2 had replied, “a talent,” Demosthenes rejoined: “Why, I got more than that for holding my tongue.”

    Ipse etiam Demosthenes, ut idem Critolaus refert, non id postea concelavit, quin gloriae quoque hoc sibi adsignavit. Nam cum interrogasset Aristodemum, actorem fabularum, quantum mercedis, uti ageret, accepisset, et Aristodemus "talentum" respondisset: "at ego plus" inquit "accepi, ut tacerem".

    Plutarch tells the same story in "Life of Demosthenes, 25" referred not to the  ambassadors of Miletus, but to Harpalus, fugitive from Alexander ;  in this version he has been bribed with a golden cup and twenty talents.

    Although virtually coincident, I also reproduce the narrative of Plutarch, Greek historian who lived between approximately 46 and 120 AD. His most famous work was "Parallel Lives". They compare the Greek orator Demosthenes with Roman Cicero and it is precisely in this life where he tells the story to which I refer:

    Plutarch: Life of Demosthenes, 25:

    Not long afterwards Harpalus came out of Asia to Athens. He had run away from Alexander, because he was conscious that his prodigality had led him into criminal practices, and because he was afraid of his master, who was now become harsh to his friends. But after he had taken refuge with the Athenian people and put himself in their hands with his ships and his treasures, the other orators at once fixed their longing eyes upon his wealth, came to his aid, and tried to persuade the Athenians to receive and save the suppliant. But Demosthenes, in the beginning, counselled them to drive Harpalus away, and to beware lest they plunge the city into war upon an unnecessary and unjust ground; a few days afterwards, however, while they were making an inventory of the treasure, Harpalus saw that Demosthenes was eyeing with pleasure a cup of barbarian make, with a keen appreciation of its fashion and of the ornamental work upon it. He therefore bade him poise it in his hand and see how heavy the gold was. And when Demosthenes was amazed at its weight and asked how much it would amount to, Harpalus smiled and said, ‘For you it will amount to twenty talents;’ and as soon as night was come he sent him the cup with the twenty talents. Now, Harpalus was skilful in detecting the character of a man who had a passion for gold, by means of the look that spread over his face and the glances of his eyes. For Demosthenes could not resist, but was overcome by the bribe, and now that he had, as it were, admitted a garrison into his house, promptly went over to the side of Harpalus. Next day, after swathing his neck carefully in woollen bandages, he went forth into the assembly; and when he was urged to rise and speak, he made signs that his voice was ruined. The wits, however, by way of raillery, declared that the orator had been seized overnight, not with an ordinary quinsy, but with a silver quinsy. (Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1919. 7.)

    In short, Gellius himself, in Attic Nights, XI, 10, gives a slightly different version: this time it is  C. Gracchus who attributes the anecdote  to the speaker Demades but  not to Demosthenes. But I will comment this text, which has an added interest to understand the issue of political corruption in antiquity,  in a new article.
     

  • The thieves of it what is public

    The unbearable corruption that seems to dominate all public life is about to ruin the confidence of citizens in politics. Perhaps some people think that this is an evil of modern times and that it is limited to certain societies where democracy is weaker. Nothing is further from the historical truth.

    There are many examples of corruption in antiquity and there are many laws which  try to control it. Some people may think it in vain.

    Aulus Gellius, in his famous work "Attic Nights", Book XI, 18 makes some considerations on the primitive legislators and the rigor with which they combat theft. In paragraph 18 of this chapter of this book says something that can only create us a huge frustration because these words seem to be of today:

    Marcus Cato, however, in the speech which he wrote On Dividing Spoils among the Soldiers, complains in strong and choice language about unpunished thievery and lawlessness. I have quoted his words, since they pleased me greatly: 

    “Those who commit private theft pass their lives in confinement and fetters; plunderers of the public, in purple and gold.”  Translation. John C. Rolfe. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1927.

    Sed enim M. Cato in oratione, quam de Praeda militibus dividenda scripsit, vehementibus et inlustribus verbis de inpunitate peculatu atque licentia conqueritur. Ea verba, quoniam nobis inpense placuerant, adscripsimus: "Fures" inquit "privatorum furtorum in nervo atque in compedibus aetatem agunt, fures publici in auro Itque in purpura".

    So things were yesterday and they are today, but in truth, perversion today is much higher because the private robbery and theft  also often goes  unpunished if the thief, white glove of course, is powerful. Or is it not private money what unscrupulous speculators, unscrupulous property developers, bankers and managers savings unscrupulous have swiped thousands of defenseless individuals with bankruptcies, toxic products, preferential and incomprehensible banking products ?

    All this only adds  theft and corruption to public corruption. All this does is fuel the sadness and disappointment and alienate citizens from politics. But politics, good politics, democratic politics can not give in and give up, because it really is the only instrument to curb so much misbehavior.

  • Ask not of friends what you yourself can do. Ne quid exspectes amicos, quod tute agere possis.

    A few days ago a good friend of high literary sensibility made use of the sentence allegedly attributed to Shakespeare I always feel happy, You know why? Because I don’t expect anything from anyone, Expectations always hurt.

    The phrase admits two interpretations, one hopelessness and negative and the other positive  and of self-confidence, confidence in their own strength and resources. My friend was decanted  for the second.

    The phrase, which apparently has nothing to do with the Old World, raised me three thoughts which I want to share.

    The first thought relates to the paternity of that phrase. I mentioned in the introduction "allegedly attributed". I failed to note the Shakespearean authorship, it is more,  rummaging in Spanish and English I am agree with the better educated view  of the most serious commentators that this phrase and the other verses that usually accompany, at least as it is referred to, is not of Shakespeare. Could be a rehash of various passages and ideas of the English playwright, but that's most likely not the source. As in so many other times, thoughts and quotes are attributed to famous authors to give them a special status. This is as old as the history of literature and thought itself. These spurious quotations replicate and multiply now with  the speed of light, that is whit  which the bits of modern digital instruments move.

    The second consideration is that, whatever the origin and the father of the appointment, the phrase is not without interest and may be cause for fortunate reflection. I remember the late Greek philosopher who probably insisted most on the idea that it is in ourselves whom we trust to guide and give meaning to our lives. I mean Epictetus (55-135), Greek Stoic philosopher who lived most of his life in Rome as a slave. We do not know to write anything, but his pupil Flavius Arrian noted and published his thoughts on two works called Speeches (Διατριβαί, diatribai) and Enchiridion, Ἐγχειρίδιον) or 'Manual'.

    Note: "Enchiridion" derives from Latin Enchiridion, and this of Greek ἐγχειρίδιον, manual, in by  turn compound (χείρ) Kheir, 'hand', a word which by the way is also in kheirurgía (χειρουργία) 'surgery' and surgeon, Latin chirurgiae, meaning properly working with the hands and chiromancy (palmistry) (χειρομαντεία, queiromanteia), or divination by the lines of the hand.

    It is highly recommended reading his Enchiridion or Manual of Epictetus;  I reproduce the number 15:

    Remember that in life you ought to behave as at a banquet. Suppose that something is carried round and is opposite to you. Stretch out your hand and take a portion with decency. Suppose that it passes by you. Do not detain it. Suppose that it is not yet come to you. Do not send your desire forward to it, but wait till it is opposite to you. Do so with respect to children, so with respect to a wife, so with respect to magisterial offices, so with respect to wealth, and you will be some time a worthy partner of the banquets of the gods. But if you take none of the things which are set before you, and even despise them, then you will be not only a fellow banqueter with the gods, but also a partner with them in power. For by acting thus Diogenes and Heracleitus and those like them were deservedly divine, and were so. called. (Translated by George Long.  London. George Bell and Sons. 1890.)

    The third consideration is that the phrase in question remind   me of a passage from the curious and variegated work of Aulus Gellius entitled  Noctes Atticae, Attic Nights, in which he collects from Quintus Ennius  a fable of  the Greek Aesop.  I  reproduce the full passage of Gellius, corresponding to Book II, 29:

    A fable of the Phrygian Aesop, which is well worth telling

    Aesop:  the well-known fabulist from Phrygia, has justly been regarded as a wise man, since he taught what it was salutary to call to mind and to recommend, not in an austere and dictatorial manner, as is the way of philosophers, but by inventing witty and  entertaining fables he put into men's minds and hearts ideas that were wholesome and carefully considered, while at the same time he enticed their attention.

    For example, this fable of his about the little nest of a birdlet with delightful humour warns us that in the case of things which one can do, hope and confidence should never be placed in another, but in one's own self.

    “There is a little bird,” he says, “it is called the lark. It lives in the grain-fields, and generally builds its nest at such a time that the harvest is at hand exactly when the young birds are ready to be fledged. Such a lark chanced to have built her nest in a field which had been sown rather early in the year; therefore when the grain was turning yellow, the fledglings were still unable to fly. Accordingly, when the mother went off in search of food for her young, she warned them to notice whether anything unusual was said or done there, and to tell it to her on her return. A little later the owner of that grain-field calls his young son and says: ' Do you not see that this is ripe and already calls for hands? To-morrow then, as soon as it is light, see that you go to our friends and ask them to come and exchange work with us, and help us with this harvest.' So saying, he at once went away. And when the lark returned, the chicks, frightened and trembling, twittered about their mother and implored her to make haste and at once carry them off to some other place; 'for,' said they, 'the master has sent to ask his friends to come at daybreak and reap.' The mother bids them be easy in mind. ' For if the master,' said she, ' has turned the harvesting over to his friends, the field will not be reaped to-morrow, and I need not take you away ”  “ to-day.' On the following day the mother flies off to get food. The master waits for those whom he had summoned. The sun grows hot and nothing is done. The day advances and no friends come. Then he says again to his son: 'Those friends of ours are a lot of slackers. why not rather go and ask our relatives and kinsfolk to come to reap early tomorrow?' This, too, the frightened chicks tell their mother. She urges them once again to be without fear and without worry, saying that hardly any relatives and kinsfolk are so obliging as to undertake labour without any delay and to obey a summons at once. 'But do you,' she said, 'observe whether anything more is said.' Next day at dawn the bird left to forage. The relatives and kinsfolk neglected the work which they were asked to do. So finally the owner said to his son: ' Enough of friends and relatives. Bring two scythes at daybreak; I myself will take one and you yourself the other, and tomorrow we ourselves will reap the grain with our own hands.' When the mother heard from her brood that the farmer had said this, she cried: ' It is time to get out and be off; for this time what he said surely will be done. For now it depends on the very man whose business it is, not on another who is asked to do it.' And so the lark moved her nest, the owner harvested his crop.”

    This then is Aesop's fable, showing that trust in friends and relatives is usually idle and vain. But what different warning do the more highly revered books of the philosophers give us, than that we should rely on ourselves alone, and regard everything else that is outside us and beyond our control as helpful neither to our affairs nor to ourselves? This parable  of Aesop has been rendered in tetrameter verse by Quintus Ennius in his Saturae most cleverly and gracefully. The following are the last two lines of that version, and I surely think it is worth while to remember them and take them to heart:

                          This adage ever have in readiness;
                          Ask not of friends what you yourself can do.

    (Translation by John C. Rolfe. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press)

    Apologus Aesopi Phrygis memoratu non inutilis.
    Aesopus ille e Phrygia fabulator haut inmerito sapiens existimatus est, cum, quae utilia monitu suasuque erant, non severe neque imperiose praecepit et censuit, ut philosophis mos est, sed festivos delectabilesque apologos commentus res salubriter ac prospicienter animadversas in mentes animosque hominum cum audiendi quadam inlecebra induit.  Velut haec eius fabula de aviculae nidulo lepide atque iucunde promonet spem fiduciamque rerum, quas efficere quis possit, haut umquam in alio, set in semetipso habendam.  "Avicula" inquit "est parva, nomen est cassita.  Habitat nidulaturque in segetibus id ferme temporis, ut appetat messis pullis iam iam plumantibus.  Ea cassita in sementes forte congesserat tempestiviores; propterea frumentis flavescentibus pulli etiam tunc involucres erant.  Dum igitur ipsa iret cibum pullis quaesitum, monet eos, ut, si quid ibi rei novae fieret dicereturve, animadverterent idque uti sibi, ubi redisset, nuntiarem.  Dominus postea segetum illarum filium adulescentem vocat et "videsne" inquit "haec ematuruisse et manus iam postulare? idcirco die crastini, ubi primum diluculabit, fac amicos eas et roges, veniant operamque mutuam dent et messim hanc nobis adiuvent."  Haec ubi ille dixit, et discessit. Atque ubi redit cassita, pulli tremibundi, trepiduli circumstrepere orareque matrem, ut iam statim properet inque alium locum sese asportet: "nam dominus" inquiunt "misit, qui amicos roget, uti luce oriente veniant et metant".  Mater iubet eos otioso animo esse: "si enim dominus" inquit "messim ad amicos reicit, crastino seges non metetur neque necessum est, hodie uti vos auferam." Die" inquit "postero mater in pabulum volat. Dominus, quos rogaverat, opperitur. Sol fervit, et fit nihil; it dies, et amici nulli eunt.  Tum ille rursum sum ad filium: "amici isti magnam partem" inquit "cessatores sunt. Quin potius imus et cognatos adfinesque nostros oramus, ut assint creas temperi ad metendum?" Itidem hoc pulli pavefacti matri nuntiant.  Mater hortatur, ut tum quoque sine metu ac sine cura sint; cognatos adfinesque nullos ferme tam esse obsequibiles ait, ut ad laborem capessendum nihil cunctentur et statim dicto oboediant: "vos modo" inquit "advertite, si modo quid denuo dicetur".  Alia luce orta avis in pastum profecta est. Cognati et adfines operam, quam dare rogati sunt, supersederunt.  Ad postremum igitur dominus filio: "valeant" inquit "amici cum propinquis. Afferes primo luci falces duas; unam egomet mihi et tu tibi capies alteram, et frumentum nosmetipsi manibus nostris cras metemus".  Id ubi ex pullis dixisse dominum mater audivit: "tempus" inquit "est cedendi et abeundi; fiet nunc dubio procul, quod futurum dixit. In ipso enim iam vertitur, cuia res est, non in alio, unde petitur".  Atque ita cassita nidum migravit, seges a domino demessa est." Haec quidem est Aesopi fabula de amicorum et propinquorum quorum levi plerumque et inani fiducia.  Sed quid aliud sanctiores libri philosophorum monent, quam ut in nobis tantum ipsis nitamur, alia autem omnia, quae extra nos extraque nostrum animum sunt, neque pro nostris neque pro nobis ducamus?  Hunc Aesopi apologum Q. Ennius in satiris scite admodum et venuste versibus quadratis composuit.  Quorum duo postremi isti sunt, quos habere cordi et memoriae operae pretium esse hercle puto:

                                 hoc erit tibi argumentum semper in promptu situm:
                                 ne quid exspectes amicos, quod tute agere possis.
     

  • Apophthegmata , aphorisms, adages, maxims, axioms, sentences,

    The Greeks were the ones who decided that knowledge and advances in knowledge should be taught to citizens and that these were to be educated in that knowledge and respect for the law. Certainly neither the Greeks nor the Romans created a public system similar to modern education, but an education system with its various stages.

    In the beginning is the family itself that educates children in the four letters and numbers and on the respect to religion and to rules with examples of ancestors. Then the rich and powerful families responsible to a teacher or paedagogus, usually a slave, education;  the less well people attend schools, which by they are  called "ludus",  game, to 15 years, with the magister, the teacher. For rich young  is organized from the second century BC secondary education in Latin and Greek with grammaticus, who teaches literature and particularly Greek  literature and with  rhetor,  who taughts eloquence; the  luckiest people access to higher education in some Greek city after 18 years.

    However, an important element of the education of citizenship, what concerns society,  is the knowledge of the great events and memorable thoughts of illustrious ancestors, teaching by example of the illustrious people.

    For example says Plato in his Protagoras, 325d-326a:

    After this they send them to school and charge the master to take far more pains over their children's good behavior than over their letters and harp-playing. The masters take pains accordingly, and the children, when they have learnt their letters and are getting to understand the written word as before they did only the spoken, are furnished with works of good poets to read as they sit in class, and are made to learn them off by heart: a here they meet with many admonitions, many descriptions and praises and eulogies of good men in times past, that the boy in envy may imitate them and yearn to become even as they. (translated by W.R.M. Lamb)

    Quote of the deeds, words and deeds of those people with educational intent is constant in the writings of any author. To facilitate the use of those sayings which collect such facts or thoughts,  selections and collections of them are edited. These selections are continuously  without interruption from antiquity to the present day, from Plutarch to modern Latin dictionaries of phrases and expressions, or collections of sayings, etc.. through Humanists like Erasmus.

    There are constant publishing  of "sayings" attributed to the Seven Sages. Not so long ago Editorial Gredos published in 1991, with the help of Alvaro Galmés, the work "Sayings of the Seven Sages  of  Greece. Moral sentences in verse"  from a Moorish-aljamiad manuscript, it is, a Moorish text on romance , written in Arabic characters.

    It is common, for example, to gather   the striking sentences  of noted  authors, such as  the “Marci Tullii Ciceronis Sententia illustriores” of Peter Lagnerio, Paris, 1546. In these codes are examples and said which all kinds of speakers or authors of the XVI, XVII, XVII  centuries  use to adorn their  speeches, sermons, letters, etc..

    In fact humanists often prepare a folder or personal binder   which in Latin is called "codex excerptorius, catalog quoting" in which are noted all the passages of the ancients that they find of interest. Sometimes they publish these satchels or just use  them as an aid to adorn their reflections.

    These collections receive many names. Some of them should be cited an should be defined, at least the less obvious to the potential reader. It is true that  the perfect synonymy does not exist and  there are differences and nuances between them, but all are agree on the basics: brevity, density of expressed concept, importance to the lives of individual people, especially for moral education.

    This use of short sentences full of meaning is somehow precedent for current microblogs ,like twitter, which  facilitate social communication but limiting the number of characters in each message.

    They are called aphorisms, apophthegmata, maxims, adages, proverbs, paroimia,  witticisms, axioms, sayings, sentences, gnomic exprexiones, thoughts, advice, opinions, instructions, precepts, judgments, principles, reflections, emblems, satires, apologues, fables and with a Greco-Latin term polyantheae, (Greek πολύς much, and ἄνθος flower) florilegio or anthologies or collections of flowers (literary, naturally).

    This blog is defined as “1001 deeds, sayings, curiosities and anecdotes of the ancient world”

    Aphorism (from Lat. Aphorismus, and this from  Gr. Ἀφορισμός , from ἀφορίζω, to set limits). According to the Royal Spanish Academy it is defined as "a brief and doctrinal sentence which is proposed as a rule in any science or art. Corominas says "brief statement is given as a rule"; Lazaro Carreter : "short phrase that sums up essential knowledge , often medical or legal. "

    Apophthegmata: (from Greek ἀπόφθεγμα, from ἀπό , apo, apart, away, from = apart, away,  and φθέγγομαί, phthengomai = call out, enunciate a judgment). Apophthegma is a brief statement or  brief and memorable sentence of  an illustrious  character which  encloses a moral content. Cicero says in  (On moral duties) De Officiis, I, 104:

    and we have many witty sayings of many men — like those collected by old Cato under the title of Bons Mots (apophthegmata)

    multaque multorum facete dicta, ut ea, quae a sene Catone collecta sunt, quae vocant ἀποφθέγματα.

    (Note: Do not confuse with apothem, a geometry term which refers to a perpendicular line from the center of a polygon to one side).

    Axiom:  from  ἀξίωμα, axiom, dignity, from ἀξίόω, just judging from ἄξιος, right), statement whose truth is accepted without discussion to build a moral or intellectual thought.

    Gnomic (expression): from γνωμἰκός, gnomikós, judgmental, from γνώμη, Gnome, knowledge, judgment.

    Paremy: from Greek  παροιμία,  paroimia, proverb, saying,  instruction.

    Adage: from Latin adagium: brief statement which proposes  a moral action.

    Maxim and sentence (Latin sententiae): shorthand for "maximae sentences" general proposition that expresses a incontestable truth that provides a standard of conduct or moral warning. Sententia comes from sentire, feel, think; it is a proposition which contains a profound reflection.

    Proverb: from Latin proverbium, commonly used phase which involves a moral truth in a nutshell.

    Refrain: this comes from the Old French and Occitan refranh, chorus, which became synonymous of proverb from  its function of lyrics chorus.

    Acuity is the sustantivación of  acute sayings,"witticisms."

    The collections of these sentences or thoughts are called Dicta aurea, Golden sayings,  because they equate its value to the most precious metal, anthologies,  or polyantheae,  (polyantheae, polianteae, from Greek πολύς much, and ἄνθος, flower), miscellaneous or mixtures, etc..

    As an example I will comment an famous apophthegma  or maxim attributed to Agesilaus  with  which you try to teach that it is not the occupied  place what  honors  the person, but the person that ennobles the place.

    Plutarch says in his Laconica Apophthegmata 2.6:

    When he was still a boy, at a celebration of the festival of the naked boys the director of the dance assigned him to an inconspicuous place; and he obeyed, although he was already destined to be king, saying, ‘ Good ! I shall show that it is not the places that make men to be held in honour, but the men the places.’  (Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt.)

    The same Plutarch, in Moralia 149 A, p. 564-5 (Plutarchi Chaeronensis, quae supersunt, omnia: Operum Moralium et .. Volume VI, Edition by Iohan Reiske Iacob, Lipsiae 1777) recalled the episode and said, according to the aforementioned Latin version:

    We should not worry on where or who put us behind, but it suited us to be with those with whom we feel.

    Non enim curandum est quo loco aut post quos collocemur: sed ut, quibus assidemus, cum iis bene nobis conveniat.

    Then he attributes the event to another character, Damonidas in Moralia, 219, 35, pag. 822 (Plutarchi Chaeronensis, quae supersunt, omnia: Operum Moralium et .. Volume VI, Edition Iohan Reiske Iacob, Lipsiae 1777)

    Damonidas placed in last place in the choir by director of the choir, said: I congratulate, corego (director), because  you have found a reason to honor this place until now devalued.

    Damonidas, ultimo loco in choro constitutus ab eo, qui chorum instituebat: laudo te, inquit, chorage, qui rationem  inveneris, qua hunc quoque locum alioqui  ignominiosum cohonestares. 

    In turn Diogenes Laertius in II, 73, tells it  applied to Aristippus:

    Being once compelled by Dionysius to enunciate some doctrine of philosophy, "It would be ludicrous," he said, "that you should learn from me what to say, and yet instruct me when to say it." At this, they say, Dionysius was offended and made him recline at the end of the table. And Aristippus said, "You must have wished to confer distinction on the last place." (translated by Robert Drew Hicks)

    Erasmus collects  it  referred to Agesilaus in his Apophthegmata, I, Agesilaus, 8, p.18

    So the fact, that is educational , is award without strictness  to several different authors already in antiquity.

    Therefore less striking is a similar story in modern times we have heard of General and President of the French Republic, Charles De Gaulle and although plausible, it have not been documented by me. According to this version, De Gaulle was once placed in a wrong place according to the protocol and when they tried to correct the error and suggested him  the right place, he refused, saying: "the presidency is where the president is."

    Even more recently, in a successfully series of  Spanish Television about  the reign of Isabel the Catholic, issued last December 2, 2013, at the time when King Boabdil gives the city of Granada, his son asks where to go now. Boabdill responds they will  live in a castle in southern where they  will lack nothing; his child asks if that place  is itself proper for a king. His father Boabdil  replied him:

    "The palaces do not  dignify the  kings;  are the kings who honor them with his presence."

    I don’t know if the writer has taken the quote from a contemporary historical source. Anyway the inclusion in the hit television series shows how the story of Agesilaus remains productive.

    I have also heard someone to use a general version of the maxim:

    It’s not the profession that dignifies the person, but the person who dignifies the profession.

    These phrases, concentrated and rhythmic abstract of a thought or experience, are undoubtedly attractive.

  • Exposure of corpses

    Human beings, unlike other animals, attend their dead and their corpses. This is attested since the Palaeolithic. The ways and customs of the various peoples referred to the fact of death and to treat the bodies, are many and varied. No doubt these rites are the result of confusion that causes death in all living beings; people seek immortality but man finds the decomposition of the body. It is therefore necessary to perform rites to avoid the process of decomposition . In expression of Walter Burkert, the Homo sapiens is a homo sepeliens (from Latin sepelio, burial), a man who buries his dead comrades.

    In our cultural environment we are familiar with the burial, interment, inhumation  (from Latin in, in, and humus, earth)  and the cremation (from Latin cremationem, burning) or incineration (from Lat. in, on, and cinerem ,ash conversion, ash). Certainly cremation or incineration has grown since only a few decades in Spain. In ancient Greece and Rome both forms coexisted, in Greece cremation began to be practiced after the Mycenaean era;   it was already in the second millennium BC on the Hittites, Hurrians or Troy VI.

    Well, Herodotus, for example, offers an early reflection on the variety of rites and customs according the peoples,  in  a story referred  to the Persians, whose empire was composed of diverse peoples. He tells us in his Histories, III, 38:

    When Darius was king, he summoned the Greeks who were with him and asked them for what price they would eat their fathers' dead bodies. They answered that there was no price for which they would do it. Then Darius summoned those Indians who are called Callatiae, who eat their parents, and asked them (the Greeks being present and understanding through interpreters what was said) what would make them willing to burn their fathers at death. The Indians cried aloud, that he should not speak of so horrid an act. So firmly rooted are these beliefs; and it is, I think, rightly said in Pindar's poem that custom is lord of all. (translation by A. D. Godley)

    And Cicero also provides an interesting text, Disputationes Tusculanae (Tusculan Disputations), I, XLV, 108:

    But what occasion is there to animadvert on the opinions of individuals, when we may observe whole nations to fall into all sorts of errors? The Egyptians embalm their dead, and keep them in their houses ; the Pesians dress them over with wax, and then bury them, that they may preserve their bodies as long as possible. It is customary with the Magi to bury none of their order, unless they have been first torn by wild beasts. In Hyrcania, the people maintain dogs for the public use ; the nobles have their own — and we know that they have a good breed of dogs ; but every one, according to his ability, provides himself with some, in order to be torn by them ; and they hold that to be the best kind of interment. Chrysippus, who is curious in all kinds of historical facts, has collected many other things of this kind ; but some of them are lSo offensive as not to admit of being related. (Translated by C.C. Tonge).

    Sed quid singulorum opiniones animadvertam, nationum varios errores perspicere cum liceat? Condiunt Aegyptii mortuos et eos servant domi. Persae etiam cera cirumlitos condunt, ut quam maxime permaneant diuturna corpora; Magorum mos est non humare corpora suorum nisi a feris sint ante laniata: inHyrcania plebs públicos alit canes, optimates domesticos: nobile autem genus canum illud esse, sed pro sua quisque facultate parat a quibus lanietur, eamque optimam, illi esse censent sepulturam. Permulta alia colligit Chrysippus, ut est in omni historia curiosus, sed ita taetra sunt quaedam, ut ea fugiat et reformidet oratio.

    And Silius Italico, Punica, XIII, 466-487 says:

    And Scipio replied : " Noblest scion of ancient Clausus,^ no business of my own (and I have heavy tasks to perform) shall take precedence of your request. ''All over the world the practice is different in this matter, and unlikeness of opinion produces various ways of burying the dead and disposing of their ashes. In the land of Spain, we are told (it is an ancient custom) the bodies of the dead are devoured by loathly vultures. When a king dies in Hyrcania, it is the rule to let dogs have access to the corpse. The Egyptians enclose their dead, standing in an upright position, in a cofHn of stone, and worship it ; and they admit a bloodless spectre to their banquets. '^ With the peoples of the Black Sea it is the custom to empty the skull by extracting the brain and to preserve the embalmed body for centuries. The Garamantes, again, dig a hole in the sand and bury the corpse naked, while the Nasamones in Libya commit their dead to the cruel sea for burial.  Then the Celts have a horrid practice : they frame the bones of the empty skull in gold, and keep it for a drinking-cup. The Athenians passed a law, that the bodies of all who had fallen in battle in defence of their country should be burnt together on a single pyre. Again, among the Scythians the dead are fastened to tree-trunks and left to rot, and time at last is the burier of their bodies."  (Translation by J.D. Duff) 

    Tunc iuuenis: ‘Gens o ueteris pulcherrima Clausi,
    haud ulla ante tuam, quamquam non parua fatigent,
    curarum prior extiterit. namque ista per omnis
    discrimen seruat populos uariatque iacentum
    exequias tumuli et cinerum sententia discors.
    tellure, ut perhibent, (is mos anticus) Hibera
    exanima obscenus consumit corpora uultur.
    regia cum lucem posuerunt membra, probatum est
    Hyrcanis adhibere canes. Aegyptia tellus
    claudit odorato post funus stantia saxo
    corpora et a mensis exanguem haud separat umbram.
    exhausto instituit Pontus uacuare cerebro
    ora uirum et longum medicata reponit in aeuum.
    quid qui reclusa nudos Garamantes harena
    infodiunt? quid qui saeuo sepelire profundo
    exanimos mandant Libycis Nasamones in oris?
    at Celtae uacui capitis circumdare gaudent
    ossa, nefas, auro ac mensis ea pocula seruant.
    Cecropidae ob patriam Mauortis sorte peremptos
    decreuere simul communibus urere flammis.
    at gente in Scythica suffixa cadauera truncis
    lenta dies sepelit putri liquentia tabo.’

    These are some interesting reflections for some diehards who do not respect customary way different of it from the group itself.

    A curious rite, extended from east to west and also existed in some towns of the Iberian Peninsula, is the "exposure of corpses" to the carrion birds to be devoured and transported the deceased or his soul to heaven.

    Exposing corpses to the carrion birds is attested in Catal Huyuk, archaeological site in modern Turkey that extends in time from the eighth millennium BC to 5,700 B.C. They buried their dead in their homes and how disjointed skeletons have  suggested to the researchers that the corpses  were exposed to birds and then collect the bones and bury them.

    In any case it is a treat and a rite required by the Persian followers of Zoroaster in Iran and still practice today in India by Parsis, successors of Persian emigrants in the seventh century. (From Parsi home are for example the famous conductor Zubin Mehta and the equally famous actor Freddie Mercury; Parsis should be  currently about 100000. All this and new requirements of the times make this rite "Parsi" adapt or go extinct, but in any case the rite continues to cause us deep impression.

    The corpses are exposed into so-called "Towers of Silence" to be eaten by vultures and raised to heaven. They consider burying the dead pollutes the land, burning pollutes the air and fire, and throw to water pollutes the water.

    Herodotus mentions the Persian funeral rite exposing corpses to the carrion on I, 140.

    Apollonius of Rhodes in his curiosities plagued poem  The Voyage of the Argonauts”, Singing III, (at number 200 ff) describes an different exposure  of  corpses  because they are not offered to the vultures or scavenger birds :

    and at once they passed forth from the ship beyond the reeds and the water to dry land, towards the rising ground of the plain. The plain, I wis, is called Circe's; and here in line grow many willows and osiers, on whose topmost branches hang corpses bound with cords. For even now it is an abomination with the Colchians to burn dead men with fire; nor is it lawful to place them in the earth and raise a mound above, but to wrap them in untanned oxhides and suspend them from trees far from the city. And so earth has an equal portion with air, seeing that they bury the women; for that is the custom of their land. (Translation by Seaton, R.C.)

    Interestingly some ancient sources refer to the "exposure of corpses" to the carrion birds in ancient Iberia, Hispania.

    Silius Italicus, speaking of the Celts who were mercenaries in the army of Anibal, says in Punica, III, 340-343:

    The Celts who have added to their name that of
    the Hiberi ^ came also. To these men death in battle
    is glorious ; and they consider it a crime to burn the
    body of such a warrior ; for they believe that the
    soul goes up to the gods in heaven, if the body is
    devoured on the field by the hungry vulture.
    (Translation BY J. D. DUFF)

    Venere et Celtae sociati nomen Hiberis.
    his pugna cecidisse decus, corpusque cremari
    tale nefas: caelo credunt superisque referri,
    impastus carpat si membra iacentia uultur.

    And soon after, as we have seen before, Silius Italicus: Punica, XIII, 471-472:

    In the land of Spain, we are told (it
    is an ancient custom) the bodies of the dead are devoured by loathly vultures    .(TRANSLATION BY J. D. DUFF)

    tellure, ut perhibent, (is mos anticus) Hibera
    exanima obscenus consumit corpora uultur.

    They so would practice a double ritual. Only the corpses of the killed in combat warriors  would be exposed in some certain places to vultures to transporting her spirit to the heavens. Because they  have that sacred function of carrier  souls or spirits, they  are named with the adjective of psychopomps  (from  Greek ψυχοπομπός, from ψυχή, psyche, soul, breath and πομπός, pompos, conductor).

    This practice is attested in several fragments of painted pottery of Numantia

     

    It is saw In a fragment a vulture swooping down on a speared recumbent warrior with a sword in hand in the ground . In the other picture is already a vulture devouring the body of the warrior.

    In the same Numantia, out of town, are found some stone circles which archaeologist consider  possible expository for corpses in the manner of the "towers of silence" of Iranian Zoroastrians.

    The rite clearly informs us about  the sense of valor of the warrior  and about the life  understood in an agonistic and competitive mode and about contempt of death. It also reports a hope of reward in the hereafter where brave warriors live with the gods. This indicates the high ethical standards of these people.

    There is a text of Aelian in De nat. Anim. X, 22 (FHA, VIII: 330) which  extends  the rite to  the “vaccei”  in Northern Plateau, Cantabrian neighbors:

    “The “vacei”, people of Hesperia, burn in the fire  the dead by disease, such as Feminil and cowardly dead, to highlight the ignominy of his death, whereas those who fell into a beautiful death, as brave and strong men and adorned with extraordinary value, the yield to be devoured by vultures, because they think that these birds are sacred”.

    Aelian wrote in Greek but  Friedrich Jacobs translated him into Latin  in the modern Frommann edition, Jena, 1832 . He says  like this:

    Vaccaei, genus Hesperis, ex aliquo morbo mortuos, ut muliebriter et ignaviter defunctos, ad notandam mortis ignominiam igni cremant; eos vero, qui in bello morte occubuerunt, ut viros bonos et fortes, et eximia virtute ornatos, vulturibus devorandos objiciunt, quod eas aves sacras existiment.

    But there are scholars who believe that reading the "vaccei" is a corrupt reading texts, which introduces a great doubt on the validity of the text. Actually the manuscripts of Aelianus say “barkaioi” but  not “vacceoi”. The barkaioi are not known in the Iberian Peninsula. Barkaioi would  would edited by Samuel Bochar (1599-1667) and then followed by other modern philologists and translated into Latin as baccaei and hence vacceoi. Maybe tell araouacoi, ie arévacoi, that some copyist cut into ara / ouakoi; ouakoi would bakoi. Ie, the original text also spoke of arevacoi. This interpretation, which is phonetically possible, would be consistent with the meaning of the text, because among the arevacoi of Numantia  is well attested, as we said. The error is greatly strengthened by the absolute authority of Schulten for many years in the study of "Sources of ancient Hispania".

    In any case they are numerous archaeological remains, paintings, inscriptions, tombstones which attest that  in many places of the Iberian Peninsula, where  may spread from the Celtibery .

    So in the Vettons and Cantabria, as evidenced by the Cantabrian wake from Zurita (Renedo de Piélagos), very poor, in which seems a vulture pecking the corps  of a recumbent warrior and another similar of Lara de los Infantes (Burgos), Binefar (Huesca), the Palao (Alcaniz, Teruel).

    The rite is attested in various places in Europe in the Celts and Germans.

    Pausanias tells us about the invasion of the Gauls in Greece commanded by Brennos in X, 21.6 that they left  the corpses  of the warriors fallen in the battles to scavenger birds.

    After this battle at Thermopylae the Greeks buried their own dead and spoiled the barbarians, but the Gauls sent no herald to ask leave to take up the bodies, and were indifferent whether the earth received them or whether they were devoured by wild beasts or carrion birds. (Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A.,).

    This scene of vultures devouring the corps   of the warriors is sow , for example, in a glass of Faliscus,  fourth century BC old.

    In the Scandinavian Eddas we find numerous references to these beliefs, so in Edda Mayor, 1986: 33, 78.193-195, 199, 201-202, 212,217,225,246,255,259,297.

    We can conclude, therefore, that the rite was practiced throughout the Celtic culture.

    A similar ritual is found among some Indian tribes of North America which exhibit the corpses of his warriors on a sort of raised wooden stage; it sometimes appears in some western.

    The rite is also attested in Tibet where the corpses  are exposed in areas off the villages, where sometimes people help dismember the bodies.

    Does  this existing rite in different places have a common origin? quite possibly,  if we think that the rite is lost in the mists of time, in prehistoric times, and the inhabitants of America came in several waves of Eurasia through the Bering Strait in the moments that could be traversed on foot.

    After this long explanation we are able to understand a text in Longinus in   On the Sublime, 3.2 in which he refers to to  Gorgias of Leontines (483-375) and criticizes  him because he names grandly called the vultures "living tombs ":

    "So Gorgias of Leontines  provokes laughter  when he writes:" Xerxes ,Zeus of the Persians and  vultures, living graves”.

    If Gorgias knew the Persian custom, maybe the picture is not so grand. In any case it made a fortune in the story,  used over and over again.

    Shakespeare, for example, uses it in Macbeht in Act III, Scene fourth, 1359-1361:

    Macbeth:  If charnel-houses and our graves must send
                       Those that we bury back, our monuments 1360
                       Shall be the maws of kites.