I will refer to an episode of the Second Punic War, also peppered with a story of corruption, which explains how this system was generated. All wars, before and now are always time and opportunity for big business, to which no matter  whether or not the benefits are stained with innocent blood.

Livy tells us the episode in his  The History of Rome from its origin (Ab urbe condita), on the book XXV, 3 et seq.

Rome is definitely facing up to Carthage because  its expansion in the Mediterranean and because it considers that  the Punics or Carthaginians are threat to their survival. This war began developing in Hispania, where the Carthaginians are already well established; It is then developed in the Italian territory itself, where Hannibal is gone from Hispania through the passes of the Alps in winter, and finally it will end years after with the destruction of Carthage. Hannibal`s  victorious campaigns in Italy (Ticino, Trebia, Trasimene, Cannas …) widespread panic among Romans.

It is precisely the situation of need of the Scipios in Hispania which forces  them to send a letter in 215 to the Senate of Rome for help. The expenses for war are such than the State does not have enough money to cope with them and therefore it resorted to the collaboration of the capitalists or  "publicans" who have been benefiting by the contracts of the State. These "publicani" or citizens with economic resources form three companies to supply the army. Given the circumstances of insecurity of time and distances that have to be transported some resources, it is included in the contract a clause according the which  the risk of shipwreck  must be borne by the State. We can imagine widespread panic situation by the presence of Hannibal  in Italy itself and the successive victories with which he is crushing the Roman armies.

In that context there were two individuals, two “publicani" who not enough happy with the lawful profits simulated accidental sinking of ships loaded with waste material and little valuable  to collect them as well.

From the foregoing we will draw important consequences about the constitution of these societies, but the episode has a second part very revealing. When fraudsters are discovered and reported to the Senate, it does not act immediately against them, given the affinity and convergence of interests in many cases between the class and families of the senators with the "publicans".  It must to be the people through their special representatives, the tribunes of the plebs (today we would say “the popular action”), which  demanded responsibilities and initiated legal proceedings.

While meeting the people's congress, it was interrupted by the violent action of the publicans, willing to avoid the conviction of one of their powerful members. Given the evidence of the charges and the danger of the situation, the Senate had no choice but to intervene more decisively.

I would conclude that it is equally as scandalous that contractors defraud the State that the State itself has no interest in punishing the fraudsters.

We leave for super specialists whether these tenants were really from the class or ordo of the "publicans" and on the historicity of supply contracts for the army, because this appears to be an isolated case in the historical context of late III century BC.

In any case, it does not take much imagination to set the resemblance to actual situations in which large powerful criminals avoid the action of justice, managed largely by people related to their social group. It is true that the ancient and modern situations do not are exactly alike and we should not exaggerate the resemblance, but once again we reaffirm the motto of this blog, "Nihil novum sub sole" "Nothing new under the sun".

As it is demanded for this blog, what is said, it must to be found in existing texts and there nothing is better than to reproduce the writings of Livy. In a later article I will explain how far  the interests of individuals and companies are confused with the public and state.

Livy,  The History of Rome (Ab urbe condita), book XXV, 3 et seq:

Quintus Fulvius Flaccus and Appius Claudius entered upon their consulship, the former for the third time. And the praetors received by lot the following assignments: Publius Cornelius Sulla, the duties of praetor urbanus and praetor peregrinus, previously two separate offices;  Gnaeus Fulvius Flaccus, Apulia, Gaius Claudius Nero, Suessula, Marcus Junius Silanus, Etruria.  To the consuls were assigned by decree the war with Hannibal and two legions each. The one was to take over his troops from Quintus Fabius, consul in the previous year, the other from Fulvius Centumalus. Of the praetors, Fulvius Flaccus was to have the legions which had been at Luceria under the praetor Aemilius, Nero Claudius the one which had been in the Picene district under Gaius Terentius. They were themselves to enlist more recruits for the same. To Marcus Junius the city legions of the previous year were given for Etruria.  For Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Publius Sempronius Tuditanus their commands and provinces, Lucania and Gaul, with their armies, were continued.  And the same was done for Publius Lentulus, within the limits of the old province in Sicily, and for Marcellus, whose province was Syracuse and up to the former boundaries of Hiero's kingdom. The fleet was assigned to Titus Otacilius, Greece to Marcus Valerius, Sardinia to Quintus Mucius Scaevola, the Spanish provinces to Publius and Gnaeus Cornelius. In addition to the old armies two city legions were enrolled by the consuls, and the total that year amounted to twenty-three legions.

The consular levy was hampered by the conduct of Marcus Postumius of Pyrgi, which almost occasioned a serious insurrection. Postumius was a tax-farmer, who in many years had had no equal in dishonesty and avarice in the state, except Titus Pomponius Veientanus, whom the Carthaginians under Hanno's command had captured in the preceding year, while he was rashly ravaging the country in Lucania. These men, since the state assumed the risk from violent storms in the case of shipments to the armies, had falsely reported imaginary shipwrecks, and even those which they had correctly reported had been brought about by their own trickery, not by accident. They would put small cargoes of little value on old, battered vessels, sink them at sea, after taking off the crews in small boats that were in readiness, and then falsely declare that the shipments were far more valuable.  This dishonesty had been reported in the previous year to Marcus Aemilius, the praetor, and by him brought before the senate, but it was not branded by any decree of the senate, because the senators were unwilling to offend the tax-farmers as a class at such a crisis.

The people proved a more unsparing avenger of dishonesty; namely, two tribunes of the plebs, Spurius and Lucius Carvilius, were at length aroused, and seeing that the affair was unpopular and notorious, imposed a fine of two hundred thousand asses upon Marcus Postumius. When the day for his protest against this fine arrived, the assembly of the commons was so large that the open space on the Capitol could scarcely contain the crowd. After the arguments were concluded, there seemed to be but one hope, namely, if Gaius Servilius Casca, a tribune of the plebs who was a blood-relative of Postumius, should interpose his veto before the tribes should be called to vote. The tribunes provided witnesses,cleared the people away, and the urn was brought, that they might determine by lot in which tribe the Latins should vote. Meantime the tax-farmers pressed Casca to adjourn that day's hearing before the assembly. The people protested; and it so happened that the first seat at the end of the platform was occupied by Casca, whose mind was swayed at once by fear and shame. Finding in him no sufficient protection, the publicans, in order to prevent action, rushed in a wedge through the space cleared by removal of the crowd, while at the sametime they reviled the people and the tribunes. And it had almost come to a battle when Fulvius, the consul, said to the tribunes, “Do you not see that you are reduced to the ranks, and that this means an insurrection if you do not promptly dismiss the popular assembly?” it was said, a man whose exile would have been followed by the ruin of the city, had allowed himself to be condemned by the angry citizens;  that before his time the decemvirs, under whose laws they were then still living, and later many leading men in the state, had submitted to the judgment of the people in their cases; that Postumius of Pyrgi had wrested the vote from the Roman people, had brought to naught an assembly of the plebs, reduced the tribunes to the ranks, drawn up a battle-line against the Roman people, had taken his position, to separate the tribunes from the people and to prevent the tribes from being summoned to vote. Nothing had restrained men from slaughter and battle but the forbearance of the magistrates in yielding for the moment to the mad audacity of a few men, and in allowing themselves and the Roman people to be worsted, also in that, as regards the voting, which the defendant would have prevented by force of arms, they had of their own accord suspended it, to avoid giving excuse to those eager for the fray.  These words were interpreted by all the best citizens as deserved by an outrageous occurrence, and the senate declared that this violence had been employed against the state, setting a dangerous precedent. Thereupon the Carvilii, tribunes of the people, in place of the procedure to fix the amount of the fine, at once named a day for Postumius' appearance on a capital charge, and ordered that if he did not furnish sureties he should be seized by an attendant and taken to prison. Postumius furnished sureties, but did not appear. The tribunes put the question to the plebs and the plebs ordained that, if Marcus Postumius should not appear before the first of May, and on being summoned on that day should not reply nor be excused, it should be understood that he was in exile, and be decided that his property should be sold and himself refused water and fire. The tribunes then began to name a day for the appearance on a capital charge of each of those who had been instigators of riot and sedition, and to demand sureties from them.  At first they threw into prison those who did not give security, and then even those who were able to do so. Avoiding this danger many went into exile.   (Translation by Frank Gardener Moore. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940.)

Q. Fulvius Flaccus tertium Appius Claudius consulatum ineunt.  et praetores provincias sortiti sunt, P. Cornelius Sulla urbanam et peregrinam, quae duorum ante sors fuerat, Cn. Fulvius Flaccus Apuliam, C. Claudius Nero Suessulam, M. Iunius Silanus Tuscos. consulibus bellum cum Hannibale et binae legiones decretae; alter a Q. Fabio superioris anni consule, alter a Fulvio Centumalo acciperet;  praetorum Fulvi Flacci quae Luceriae sub Aemilio praetore, Neronis Claudi quae in Piceno sub C. Terentio fuissent legiones essent; supplementum in eas ipsi scriberent sibi. M. Iunio in Tuscos legiones urbanae prioris anni datae. Ti. Sempronio Graccho et P. Sempronio Tuditano imperium provinciaeque Lucani et Gallia cum suis exercitibus prorogatae;  item P. Lentulo qua vetus provincia in Sicilia esset, M. Marcello Syracusae et qua Hieronis regnum fuisset; T. Otacilio classis, Graecia M. Valerio, Sardinia Q. Mucio Scaevolae, Hispaniae. et Cn. Corneliis. ad veteres exercitus duae urbanae legiones a consulibus scriptae, summaque trium et viginti legionum eo anno effecta est. dilectum consulum M. Postumii Pyrgensis cum magno prope motu rerum factum impediit. publicanus erat Postumius, qui multis annis parem fraude avaritiaque neminem in civitate habuerat praeter T. Pomponium Veientanum, quem populantem temere agros in Lucanis ductu Hannonis priore anno ceperant Carthaginienses. hi, quia publicum periculum erat a vi tempestatis in iis quae portarentur ad exercitus et ementiti erant falsa naufragia et ea ipsa quae vera renuntiaverant fraude ipsorum facta erant, non casu. in veteres quassasque naves paucis et parvi pretii rebus impositis, cum mersissent eas in alto exceptis in praeparatas scaphas nautis, multiplices fuisse merces ementiebantur. ea fraus indicata M. Aemilio praetori priore anno fuerat ac per eum ad senatum delata nec tamen ullo senatus  consulto notata, quia patres ordinem publicanorum in tali tempore offensum nolebant. populus severior vindex fraudis erat, excitatique tandem duo tribuni plebis, Spurius et L. Carvilii, cum rem invisam infamemque cernerent, ducentum milium aeris multam M. Postumio dixerunt. cui certandae cum dies advenisset, conciliumque tam frequens plebis adesset ut multitudinem area Capitolii vix caperet, perorata causa una spes videbatur esse si C. Servilius Casca tribunus plebis, qui propinquus cognatusque Postumio erat, priusquam ad suffragium tribus vocarentur, intercessisset.  testibus datis tribuni populum summoverunt, sitellaque lata est, ut sortirentur ubi Latini suffragium ferrent.  interim publicani Cascae instare ut concilio diem eximeret; populus reclamare; et forte in cornu primus sedebat Casca, cui simul metus pudorque animum versabat. cum in eo parum praesidii esset, turbandae rei causa publicani per vacuum summoto locum cuneo inruperunt iurgantes simul cum populo tribunisque.,  nec procul dimicatione res erat cum Fulvius consul tribunis “nonne videtis” inquit “vos in ordinem coactos esse et rem ad seditionem spectare, ni propere dimittitis plebis concilium?”. plebe dimissa senatus vocatur et consules referunt de concilio plebis turbato vi atque audacia publicanorum:  M. Furium Camillum, cuius exilium ruina urbis secutura fuerit, damnari se ab iratis civibus passum esse;  decemviros ante eum, quorum legibus ad eam diem viverent, multos postea principes civitatis iudicium de se populi passos:  Postumium Pyrgensem suffragium populo Romano extorsisse, concilium plebis sustulisse, tribunos in ordinem coegisse, contra populum Romanum aciem instruxisse, locum occupasse, ut tribunos a plebe intercluderet, tribus in suffragium vocari prohiberet. nihil aliud a caede ac dimicatione continuisse homines nisi patientiam magistratuum, quod cesserint inpraesentia furori atque audaciae paucorum vincique se ac populum Romanum passi sint et comitia,  quae reus vi atque armis prohibiturus erat, ne causa quaerentibus dimicationem daretur, voluntate ipsi sua sustulerint. haec cum ab optimo quoque pro atrocitate rei accepta essent, vimque eam contra rem publicam et pernicioso exemplo factam senatus decresset,  confestim Carvilii tribuni plebis omissa multae certatione rei capitalis diem Postumio dixerunt ac, ni vades daret, prendi a viatore atque in carcerem duci iusserunt.  Postumius vadibus datis non adfuit.  tribuni plebem rogaverunt plebesque ita scivit, si M. Postumius ante kal. maias non prodisset citatusque eo die non respondisset neque excusatus esset, videri eum in exilio esse bonaque eius venire, ipsi aqua et igni placere interdici.  singulis deinde eorum qui turbae ac tumultus concitatores fuerant, rei capitalis diem dicere ac vades poscere coeperunt.  primo non dantis, deinde etiam eos qui dare possent in—carcerem coiciebant; cuius rei periculum vitantes plerique in exilium abierunt.  hunc fraus publicanorum, deinde fraudem audacia protegens exitum habuit.  comitia inde pontifici maximo creando sunt habita; ea comitia novus pontifex M. Cornelius Cethegus habuit.

In these present times they appear occasionally comparisons of the fall of the Roman Empire with the present time of tensions between East and West. More specifically similarities are seen between the events of the year 378 which end with the defeat of the Romans at Adrianople, present-day Edirne in Turkey at the current borders of Greece and Bulgaria and the death of Emperor Valens in battle and the wars in Iraq and Syria, which move millions of displaced fugitives from one place to another.

I do not intend to take the comparison to the extent that some "ideologues",  certainly interested, intended  saying that so as the admission of the "barbarians" ended with the Roman Empire, just so  the admission of many fugitives and immigrants, almost all Muslims, will  end with the "Western civilization". Is this an exaggerated conclusion, in many cases xenophobic, rejecting the different. I do not will follow this path, without ignoring therefore the serious problems  that a little thoughtful intervention by the West in the East, intervention, in the background selfish and imperialistic, has caused.

I will just transcribe some texts of the History of Ammianus, covering the years cited, in which the erratic and selfish policy of the Roman emperors concerning the admission of immigrants and fugitives from the war, produces effects that remind us with all clarity to some current events.

The borders of the Empire are on the Danube, the called Ister, that from the center of Europe flows to the Black Sea. On the other side they inhabit several Goths peoples  and further east unknown tribes, of which unlimited cruelties and ways of life far removed from Western civilization are counted. One of these tribes is the  Alans  and another  the Huns;  all kinds of rumors about his savagery and cruelty are narrated.

Well, the Huns are allied with the Alans, no less rough and wild, and push the Goths, more civilized and Christianized even (arrians), to the border of the Danube, river of enormous flow that  difficult to cross.

The Goths ask the emperor that allows them to enter the Empire and settle them in this privileged area of peace and wealth.

It would be easy to translate all of this into modern language: the Huns and their cruelty are the ISIS or DAESH and its vileness, the Goths are the immigrants or refugees fleeing from the war, the Roman Empire is the European Union, the indecisive, contradictory and selfish policy of the emperor is this of the Brussels and other European countries, some specific details, such as transport, claims control runaways and corruption in the management of aid, are so similar to current than they produce certainly astonishment.

It matters little that these events occur a little further north than the current ones, in Thrace, in a territory that is now part correspond to Turkey and part to Bulgaria. Now they occur a little further south and east, between Syria and Turkey and the nearby Greek islands like Lesbos.

I leave it to the reader's consideration the draw any conclusion, if it is to be drawn, but history should serve to avoid making the same mistakes in similar situations and to better understand some facts and their causes.

Ancient Thrace projected on the current political map. The red blue corresponds to the Danube and red point to the situation of Adrianople, in modern Turkey, point very close to the Greek and Bulgarian borders, ie at the gates of Europe; the green point Greek is the  island of Lesbos

Who  best tells it us is Ammianus, Greek writer who was born about 330, although he writes in Latin, in his “The Roman history”, Res Gestae (Rerum gestarum Libri XXXI), Book 31

The book begins with a paragraph that lightened of Roman fondness for omens, is certainly prescient:

31.1.1: Meanwhile Fortune's rapid wheel, which is always interchanging adversity and prosperity, armed Bellona in the company of her attendant Furies, and transferred to the Orient melancholy events, the coming of which was foreshadowed by the clear testimony of omens and portents.
…

31.2.1 'However, the seed and origin of all the ruin and various disasters that the wrath of Mars aroused, putting in turmoil all places with unwonted fires, we have found to be this. The people of the Huns, but little known from ancient records, dwelling beyond the Maeotic Sea near the ice-bound ocean, exceed every degree of savagery.

Ammianus, collecting the popular opinion, paints the Huns with the most terrifying features:

31.2.3 But although they have the form of men, however ugly, they are so hardy in their mode of life that they have no need of fire nor of savory food, but eat the roots of wild plants and the half-raw flesh of any kind of animal whatever, which they put between their thighs and the backs of their horses, and thus warm it a little.
….

31.2.5 They dress in linen cloth or in the skins of field-mice sewn together, and they wear the same clothing indoors and out. ..

He also describes them as extraordinary horsemen and hardened warriors without fear for their own life and naturally, faithless, fickle, irrational and without respect for the gods:

31.2.11 In truces they are faithless and unreliable, strongly inclined to sway to the motion of every breeze of new hope that presents itself, and sacrificing every feeling to the mad impulse of the moment. Like unreasoning beasts, they are utterly ignorant of the difference between right and wrong; they are deceitful and ambiguous in speech, never bound by any reverence for religion or for superstition. …

31.2.12 This race of untamed men, without encumbrances, aflame with an inhuman desire for plundering others' property, made their violent way amid the rapine and slaughter of the neighbouring peoples as far as the Halani, once known as the Massagetae.

He describes  below  the many peoples who live across the Ister, especially the Alans, who extend  to eastward and "they are divided into large and populous nations" wandering from place to place with their cattle and wagons, without a fixed place to stand them.

The following paragraph can give us an idea  of  the fierceness of the "Alans" in war:

31.2.22 …. and there is nothing in which they take more pride than in killing any man whatever: as glorious spoils of the slain they tear off their heads, then strip off their skins 1 and hang them upon their war-horses as trappings.

Well, according to Ammianus, it occurs an alliance of the Huns with the Alans and they attack the Goths and expel them from their territory.  These people cause mass movements of Goths (who already maintained relations with the Romans and even some of them had been Christianized) to the Roman frontiers:

31.3.8 …  But while this well-planned work was being pushed on, the Huns swiftly fell upon him, and would have crushed him at once on their arrival had they not been so loaded down with booty that they gave up the attempt.

And now it begins the story of the terrible exodus which has many similarities with today:
Most of the Goths known as Tervingi, expelled from their lands, are driven by the Romans to Thrace with the consent of the emperor Valens after they  promise to deliver rewards  and military aid. The Gretungs  Goths also secretly cross the Ister with their ships.

31.4.1 Therefore, under the lead of Alavivus, they took possession of the banks of the Danube, and sending envoys to Valens, with humble entreaty begged to be received, promising that they would not only lead a peaceful life but would also furnish auxiliaries, if circumstances required.

31.4.2 While this was happening in foreign parts, terrifying rumours spread abroad that the peoples of the north were stirring up new and uncommonly great commotions: that throughout the entire region which extends from the Marcomanni and the Quadi to the Pontus, a savage horde of unknown peoples, driven from their abodes by sudden violence, were roving about the river Hister in scattered [p. 403] bands with their families.

31.4.3. In the very beginning this news was viewed with contempt by our people, because wars in those districts were not ordinarily heard of by those living at a distance until they were ended or at least quieted for a time.

31.4.4 But when the belief in what had taken place gained strength, and was confirmed by the coming of the foreign envoys, who begged with prayers and protestations that an exiled race might be received on our side of the river, the affair caused more joy than fear; and experienced flatterers immoderately praised the good fortune of the prince, which unexpectedly brought him so many young recruits from the ends of the earth, that by the union of his own and foreign forces he would have an invincible army; also that instead of the levy of soldiers which was contributed annually by each province, there would accrue to the treasuries  a vast amount of gold.

31.4.5. In this expectation various officials were sent with vehicles to transport the savage horde, and diligent care was taken that no future destroyer of the Roman state should be left behind, even if he were smitten with a fatal disease. Accordingly, having by the emperor's permission obtained the privilege of crossing the Danube and settling in parts of Thrace, they were ferried over for some nights and days embarked by companies in boats, on rafts, and in hollowed tree-trunks  ; and because the river is by far the most dangerous of all and was then swollen by frequent rains, some who, because of the great crowd, struggled against the force of the waves and tried to swim were drowned; and they were a good many.

31.4.6 With such stormy eagerness on the part of insistent men was the ruin of the Roman world brought in. This at any rate is neither obscure nor uncertain, that the ill-omened officials who ferried the barbarian hordes often tried to reckon their number, but gave up their vain attempt; as the most distinguished of poets says:

Who wishes to know this would wish to know
How many grains of sand on Libyan plain By Zephyrus are swept. (Virg., Georg. II, 106 ff.)

31.4.7 Well then, let the old tales revive of bringing the Medic hordes to Greece; for while they describe the bridging of the Hellespont, the quest of a sea at the foot of Mount Athos by a kind of mechanical severing, * and the numbering of the armies by squadrons at Doriscus, 2 later times have unanimously regarded all this as fabulous reading.

* I.e., cutting a canal through the isthmus of the peninsula on which the mountain stands.

31.4.8 For after the countless swarms of nations were poured through the provinces, spreading over a great extent of plain and filling all regions and every mountain height, by this new evidence the trustworthiness also of old stories was confirmed. First Fritigern and Alavivus were received, and the emperor gave orders that they should be given food for their present needs and fields to cultivate.

31.4.9 During this time, when the barriers of our frontier were unlocked and the realm of savagery was spreading far and wide columns of armed  men like glowing ashes from Aetna, when our difficulties and imminent dangers called for military reformers who were most distinguished for the fame of their exploits: then it was, as if at the choice of some adverse deity, that men were gathered together and given command of armies who bore stained reputations. At their head were two rivals in recklessness: one was Lupicinus, commanding general in Thrace, the other Maximus, a pernicious leader.

31.4.10 Their treacherous greed was the source of all our evils. I say nothing of other crimes which these two men, or at least others with their permission, with the worst of motives committed against the foreign new-comers, who were as yet blameless; but one melancholy and unheard-of act shall be mentioned, of which, even if they were their own judges  of their own case, they could not be acquitted by any excuse.

31.4.11 When the barbarians after their crossing were harassed by lack of food, those most hateful generals devised a disgraceful traffic; they exchanged every dog that their insatiability could gather from far and wide for one slave each, and among these were carried off also sons of the chieftains.

31.4.12 During these days also Vithericus, king of the Greuthungi, accompanied by Alatheus and Saphrax, by whose will he was ruled, and also by Farnobius, coming near to the banks of the Danube, hastily sent envoys and besought the emperor that he might be received with like kindness.

31.4.13 ….. When these envoys were rejected, as the interests of the state seemed to demand, and were in doubt what course to take, ….

Tervingi, driven by hunger, insecurity and ill-treatment, and commanded by Alavivus and Frigiternus, rebel against Valents  and join to Lupicinus.

31.5.1. But now the Theruingi, who had long since been permitted to cross, were still roaming about near the banks of the river, detained by a twofold obstacle, both because, through the ruinous negligence  of the generals, they were not supplied with the necessaries of life, and also because they were purposely held back by an abominable kind of traffic.

31.5.2 When this became clear to them, they muttered that they were being forced to disloyalty as a remedy for the evils that threatened them, and Lupicinus, fearing that they might soon revolt, sent soldiers and compelled them to move out  more quickly.

31.5.3 The Greuthungi took advantage of this favourable opportunity, and when they saw that our soldiers were busy elsewhere, and that the boats that usually went up and down the river and prevented them from crossing were inactive, they passed over the stream in badly made craft and pitched their camp at a long distance from Fritigern.

31.5.4 But he with his natural cleverness in foresight protecting himself against anything that might happen, in order to obey the emperor's commands and at the same time join with the powerful Gothic kings, advanced slowly and in leisurely marches arrived late at Marcianopolis. There another, and more atrocious, thing was done, which kindled the frightful torches that were to burn for the destruction of the state.

31.5.5. Having invited Alavivus and Fritigern to a dinner-party, Lupicinus posted soldiers against the main body of the barbarians and kept them at a distance from the walls of the town; and when they asked with continual entreaties that they might, as friendly people submissive to our rule, be allowed to enter and obtain what they needed for food, great wrangling arose between the inhabitants and those who were shut out, which finally reached a point where fighting was inevitable. Whereupon the barbarians, becoming wildly excited when they perceived that some of their kindred were being carried off by force, killed and despoiled a great troop of soldiers.

Well, Ammianus continues to describe the situation of misery and despair that causes riots and clashes.

31.5.8 When report, that spiteful nurse of rumours, spread abroad what had happened, the whole nation of the Theruingi was fired with ardour for battle, and amid many fearful scenes, portentous of extreme dangers, after the standards had been raised according to their custom and the doleful sound of the trumpets had been heard, predatory bands were already rushing about, pillaging and burning the country-houses and making whatever places they could find a confusion of awful devastation.

Ammianus tells how the Goths, who had been taken earlier, rebel, kill the inhabitants of Adrianople, join Frigitern and rush to plunder Thrace. In the looting they are joining them all who had a bad situation:

31.6.5.  They approved the counsel of the king, who they knew would be an active participator in the plan, and advancing cautiously they spread over every quarter of Thrace, while their prisoners or those who surrendered to them pointed out the rich villages, especially those in which it was said that abundant supplies of food were to be found. Besides their native self-confidence, they were encouraged especially by this help, that day by day great numbers of their countrymen flocked to them, including those who had been sold some time before by the traders, as well as many other persons, whom those who were half-dead with hunger when they first crossed into the country had bartered for a drink of bad wine or bits of the poorest of bread.

31.6.7. With such guides nothing that was not [p. 425] inaccessible and out of the way remained untouched. For without distinction of age or sex all places were ablaze with slaughter and great fires, sucklings were torn from the very breasts of their mothers and slain, matrons and widows whose husbands had been killed before their eyes were carried off, boys of tender or adult age were dragged away over the dead bodies of their parents.

31.6.8. Finally many aged men, crying that they had lived long enough after losing their possessions and their beautiful women, were led into exile with their arms pinioned behind their backs, and weeping over the glowing ashes of their ancestral homes.

Ammianus tells us yet colorful the atrocities of the war and how mercilessly and indiscriminately hits  people and their families:

31.8.7. Then there were to be seen and to lament acts most frightful to see and to describe: women driven along by cracking whips, and stupified with fear, still heavy with their unborn children, which before coming into the world endured many horrors; little children too 1 clinging to their mothers. Then could be heard the laments of high-born boys and maidens, whose hands were fettered incruel captivity.

31.8.8. Behind these were led last of all grown-up girls and chaste wives, weeping and with downcast faces, longing even by a death of torment to forestall the imminent violation of their modesty. Among these was a freeborn man, not long ago rich and independent, dragged along like some wild beast and railing at thee, Fortune, as merciless and blind, since thou hadst in a brief moment deprived him of his possessions, and of the sweet society of his dear ones; had driven him from his home, which he saw fallen to ashes and ruins, and sacrificed him to a bloodthirsty victor, either to be torn limb from limb or amid blows and tortures to serve as a slave.

I think that nothing detracts the story of Ammianus from the chronic and visual reports that reporters today offer us about episodes of the war in Syria.

I invite the reader to complete reading the rest of the book 31 of the History of Ammianus, where wars and battles of enormous cruelty are reported in this and other areas of borders, until the end with the account of the episode more serious and echo in antiquity:

There comes a time when he is the emperor himself, Augustus Valens, who is directly involved in the fight and precipitates the battle of Adrianople to not share the victory with his nephew Gratian, who victorious comes to aid. Valens  loses the battle and dies burned refuged in a cabin. For many historians this is the evidence of the beginning of the inexorable "fall of the Empire."

We can read how tells how the death of Valens on 9 August 378:

31.13.11 To these ever irreparable losses, so costly to the Roman state, a night without the bright light of the moon put an end.

31.13.12 At the first coming of darkness the emperor, amid the common soldiers as was supposed (for no one asserted that he had seen him or been with him), fell mortally wounded by an arrow, and presently breathed his last breath; and he was never afterwards found anywhere. For since a few of the foe were active for long in the neighbourhood for the purpose of robbing the dead, no one of the fugitives or of the natives ventured to approach the spot.

31.13.14 Others say that Valens did not give up the ghost at once, but with his bodyguard  and a few eunuchs was taken to a peasant's cottage near by, well fortified in its second storey; and while he was being treated by unskilful hands, he was surrounded by the enemy, who did not know who he was, but was saved from the shame of captivity.

31.13.15 For while the pursuers were trying to break open the bolted doors, they were assailed with arrows from a balcony of the house; and fearing through the inevitable delay to lose the opportunity for pillage, they piled bundles of straw and firewood about the house, set fire to them, and burned it men and all.

(An English Translation. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935)

The consequences were that in the year 382, four years after the Battle of Adrianople, Theodosius signed a treaty guaranteeing the Goths to enjoy autonomy within the Empire, and yet in 395 they attacked Constantinople; between 395 and 397 they invaded Greece, Thessaly, Macedonia; between 401 and 402 they invade Italy and sack Rome in 410. In the year 456 they entered Hispania, at the western end of the Empire. In the year 475 Romulus Augustulus (Little Augustus, he was only 15 years old) was deposed by Odoacer king of the Heruli and with him just the Western Empire ends.

Latin text

31.1.1: Inter haec  Fortunae volucris rota, adversa prosperis  semper alternans, Bellonam furiis in societatem adscitis, armabat, maestosque transtulit ad Orientem eventus, quos adventare praesagiorum fides clara monebat, et portentorum.
…
31.2.1 Totius autem sementem exitii et cladum originem diversarum, quas Martius furor incendio insolito 1 miscendo cuncta concivit, hanc comperimus causam. Hunorum gens monumentis veteribus leviter nota, ultra paludes Maeoticas glacialem oceanum accolens, omnem modum feritatis excedit.

31.2.3 In hominum autem figura, licet insuavi, ita victu  sunt asperi, ut neque igni neque saporatis indigeant cibis, sed radicibus herbarum agrestium, et semicruda cuiusvis pecoris carne vescantur, quam inter femora sua equorumque  terga subsertam, fotu calefaciunt brevi.
….
31.2.5 Indumentis operiuntur linteis vel ex pellibus silvestrium murum consarcinatis; nec alia illis domestica vestis est, alia forensis.

31.2.11 Per indutias infidi et inconstantes, ad omnem auram incidentis spei novae perquam mobiles, totum furori incitatissimo tribuentes. Inconsultorum animalium ritu, quid honestum inhonestumve sit, penitus ignorantes, flexiloqui et obscuri, nullius religionis vel superstitionis reverentia aliquando districti, …

31.2.12 Hoc expeditum indomitumque hominum genus, externa praedandi aviditate flagrans immani, per rapinas finitimorum grassatum et caedes, ad usque Halanos pervenit, veteres Massagetas, …

31.2.22 …nec quicquam est quod elatius iactent, quam homine quolibet occiso, proque exuviis gloriosis interfectorum, avulsis capitibus, detractas pelles pro phaleris iumentis accommodant bellatoriis.

31.3.8 …  Fama tamen late serpente per Gothorum reliquas gentes, quod invisitatum  antehac hominum genus, modo, nivium ut turbo montibus celsis, ex abdito sinu coortum apposita quaeque convellit et corrumpit: populi pars maior, quae Athanaricum attenuata necessariorum penuria deseruerat, quaeritabat domicilium remotum ab omni notitia barbarorum, diuque deliberans, quas eligeret sedes, cogitavit Thraciae receptaculum gemina ratione sibi conveniens, quod et caespitis est feracissimi, et amplitudine fluentorum Histri distinguitur ab arvis patentibus iam peregrini fulminibus Martis: hoc quoque idem residui velut mente cogitavere communi.

31.4.1 Itaque duce Alavivo ripas occupavere Danubii, missisque oratoribus ad Valentem, suscipi se humili prece poscebant, et quiete victuros se pollicentes, et daturos (si res flagitasset) auxilia.

31.4.2 Dum aguntur haec in externis, novos maioresque solitis casus versare gentes arctoas, rumores terribiles diffuderunt: per omne quicquid ad Pontum a Marcomannis praetenditur et  Quadis, multitudinem barbaram abditarum nationum, vi subita sedibus pulsam, circa flumen Histrum, vagari cum caritatibus suis disseminantes.

31.4.3. Quae res aspernanter a nostris inter initia ipsa accepta est, hanc ob causam, quod illis tractibus non nisi peracta aut sopita audiri procul agentibus consueverant bella.

31.4.4 Verum pubescente fide gestorum, cui robur adventus gentilium addiderat legatorum, precibus et obtestatione petentium, citra flumen suscipi plebem extorrem: negotium laetitiae fuit potius quam timori, eruditis adulatoribus in maius fortunam principis extollentibus, quae  ex ultimis terris tot tirocinia trahens, ei nec opinanti offerret, ut collatis in unum suis et alienigenis viribus, invictum haberet exercitum, et pro militari supplemento, quod provinciatim annuum pendebatur, thesauris accederet auri cumulus magnus.

31.4.5. Hacque spe mittuntur diversi, qui cum vehiculis plebem transferant truculentam. Et navabatur opera diligens, nequi Romanam rem eversurus relinqueretur, vel quassatus morbo letali. Proinde permissu imperatoris transeundi Danubium copiam, colendique adepti Thraciae partes, transfretabantur in dies et noctes, navibus ratibusque et cavatis arborum alveis agminatim impositi, atque per amnem longe omnium difficillimum, imbriumque crebritate tunc auctum, ob densitatem nimiam contra ictus aquarum nitentes quidam, et natare conati, hausti sunt plures.

31.4.6 Ita turbido instantium studio orbis Romani pernicies ducebatur. Illud sane neque obscurum est neque incertum, infaustos transvehendi barbaram plebem ministros, numerum eius comprehendere calculo saepe temptantes, conquievisse frustratos, ut eminentissimus memorat vates,

‘Quem qui scire velit, Libyci velit aequoris idem
Discere, quam multae zephyro truduntur 2 harenae. (Virg., Georg. II, 106 ff.)

31.4.7 Resipiscant tandem memoriae veteres, Medicas acies ductantes ad Graeciam: quae dum Hellespontiacos pontes, et discidio quodam fabrili, mare sub imo Athonis pede quaesitum exponunt et turmatim apud Doriscum exercitus recensitos, concordante omni posteritate, ut fabulosae sunt lectae.

31.4.8 Nam postquam innumerae gentium multitudines, per provincias circumfusae, pandentesque se in spatia ampla camporum, regiones omnes et cuncta opplevere montium iuga, fides quoque vetustatis recenti documento firmata est. Et primus cum Alavivo suscipitur Fritigernus, quibus et alimenta pro tempore, et subigendos agros tribui statuerat imperator.

31.4.9 Per id tempus nostri limitis reseratis obicibus, atque (ut Aetnaeas favillas armatorum agmina diffundente barbaria), cum difficiles necessitatum articuli correctores rei militaris poscerent aliquos claritudine gestarum rerum notissimos: quasi laevo quodam numine deligente, in unum quaesiti potestatibus praefuere castrensibus homines maculosi: quibus Lupicinus antistabat et Maximus, alter per Thracias comes, dux alter exitiosus, aemulae ambo  temeritatis.

31.4.10 Quorum insidiatrix aviditas materia malorum omnium fuit. Nam (ut alia omittamus, quae memorati vel certe, sinentibus eisdem, alii perditis rationibus in commeantes peregrinos adhuc innoxios deliquerunt) illud dicetur, quod nec apud sui periculi iudices absolvere ulla poterat venia, triste et inauditum.

31.4.11 Cum traducti barbari victus inopia vexarentur, turpe commercium duces invisissimi cogitarunt, et quantos undique insatiabilitas colligere potuit canes, pro singulis dederunt  mancipiis, inter quae et filii  ducti sunt optimatum.

31.4.12 Per hos dies interea etiam Vithericus Greuthungorum rex cum Alatheo et Saphrace, quorum arbitrio regebatur, itemque Farnobio, propinquans Histri marginibus, ut simili susciperetur humanitate, obsecravit imperatorem legatis propere missis.

31.4.13 …..Quibus (ut communi rei conducere videbatur) repudiatis, et quid capesserent anxiis, …

31.5.1. At vero Theruingi, iam dudum transire permissi, prope ripas etiam tum vagabantur, duplici impedimento adstricti, quod ducum dissimulatione perniciosa, nec victui congruis sunt adiuti, et tenebantur consulto nefandis nundinandi commerciis.

31.5.2 Quo intellecto, ad perfidiam instantium malorum subsidium verti mussabant, et Lupicinus ne iam deficerent pertimescens, eos admotis militibus adigebat ocius proficisci.

31.5.3 Id tempus opportunum nancti Greuthungi, cum alibi militibus occupatis, navigia ultro citroque discurrere solita, transgressum eorum prohibentia, quiescere perspexissent, ratibus transiere male contextis, castraque a Fritigerno locavere longissime.

31.5.4 At ille genuina praevidendi sollertia, venturos muniens casus, ut et imperiis oboediret, et regibus validis iungeretur, incedens segnius, Marcianopolim tarde pervenit itineribus lentis. Ubi aliud accessit atrocius, quod arsuras in commune exitium faces furiales accendit.

31.5.5. Alavivo et Fritigerno ad convivium corrogatis, Lupicinus ab oppidi moenibus barbaram plebem, opposito milite, procul arcebat, introire ad comparanda victui necessaria, ut dicioni nostrae obnoxiam et concordem, per preces assidue postulantem, ortisque maioribus iurgiis inter habitatores et vetitos, ad usque necessitatem pugnandi est ventum. Efferatique acrius barbari, cum necessitudines hostiliter rapi sentirent, spoliarunt interfectam militum magnam manum.

31.5.8 Haec ubi fama rumorum nutrix maligna dispersit, urebatur dimicandi studio Theruingorum natio omnis, et inter metuenda multa periculorumque praevia maximorum, vexillis de more sublatis, auditisque triste sonantibus classicis, iam turmae praedatoriae concursabant, pilando villas et incendendo, vastisque cladibus quicquid inveniri poterat permiscentes.

31.6.5. Laudato regis consilio, quem cogitatorum norant fore socium efficacem, per Thraciarum latus omne dispersi caute gradiebantur, dediticiis vel captivis vices uberes ostendentibus, eos praecipue, ubi alimentorum reperiri satias dicebatur, eo maxime adiumento, praeter genuinam erecti fiduciam, quod confluebat ad eos in dies ex eadem gente multitude, dudum a mercatoribus venundati, adiectis plurimis quos primo transgressu necati inedia vino exili vel panis frustis mutavere vilissimis.

31.6.7. Nec quicquam nisi inaccessum et devium praeeuntibus eisdem mansit intactum. Sine distantia enim aetatis vel sexus, caedibus incendiorumque magnitudine cuncta flagrabant, abstractisque ab ipso uberum suctu parvulis et necatis, raptae sunt matres et viduatae maritis coniuges ante oculos caesis, et puberes adultique pueri per parentum cadavera tracti sunt.

31.6.8. Senes denique multi, ad satietatem vixisse clamantes, post amissas opes cum speciosis feminis, manibus post terga contortis, defletisque gentilium favillis aedium ducebantur extorres.

31.8.7. tunc erat spectare cum gemitu facta dictu visuque praedira, attonitas metu feminas flagris concrepantibus agitari, fetibus gravidas adhuc immaturis, antequam prodirent in lucem, impia tolerantibus multa, implicatos alios matribus parvulos, et puberum audire lamenta, puellarumque nobilium, quarum stringebat fera captivitas manus.

31.8.8. Post quae  adulta virginitas, castitasque nuptarum, ore abiecto, flens ultima ducebatur, mox profanandum pudorem optans morte (licet cruciabili) praevenire. Inter quae cum beluae ritu traheretur ingenuus paulo ante dives et liber, de te, Fortuna, ut inclementi querebatur et caeca, quae eum puncto temporis brevi opibus exutum et dulcedine caritatum, domoque extorrem, quam concidisse vidit in cinerem et ruinas, aut lacerandum membratim, aut serviturum sub verberibus et tormentis crudo devovisti victori.

31.13.11  … Diremit haec numquam pensabilia damna, quae magno rebus stetere Romanis, nullo splendore lunari nox fulgens.

31.13.12 Primaque caligine tenebrarum, inter gregarios imperator, ut opinari dabatur (neque enim vidisse se quisquam vel praesto fuisse adseveravit), sagitta perniciose saucius ruit, spirituque mox consumpto decessit, nec postea repertus est usquam. Hostium enim paucis spoliandi gratia mortuos per ea loca diu versatis, nullus fugatorum vel accolarum illuc adire est ausus.

31.13.14 Alii dicunt Valentem animam non exhalasse confestim, sed cum candidatis et spadonibus paucis, prope ad agrestem casam relatum, secunda contignatione fabre munitam, dum fovetur manibus imperitis, circumsessum ab hostibus, qui esset ignorantibus, dedecore captivitatis exemptum.

31.13.15 Cum enim oppessulatas ianuas perrumpere conati qui secuti sunt, a parte pensili domus sagittis incesserentur, ne per moras inexpedibiles populandi amitterent copiam, congestis stipulae fascibus et lignorum, flammaque supposita, aedificium cum hominibus torruerunt.

Among the many pleasures to which they became accustomed certainly they include bathrooms, good food and love, ie the pleasures of the flesh. Of them by some extent, the word "bath" or "hot springs" (thermae) is almost synonymous with "Roman culture" because it is no city or urban or private group of some importance that does not have  good bathrooms supplied by spectacular aqueducts.

Numerous literary texts that sing these three pleasures as humans, to praise them or to criticize  their practice and amoral abuse, because it is very different from the "mores" or ancient customs. But the topic of "baths, wine and Venus, (ie, love or sex or women in a common sexist language today unacceptable and criticized), to which is sometimes added "the food ", spread to all social classes to become this popular, a popular version of the famous "carpe diem" of Horace. See: https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/carpe-diem-horace-poetry-epicureism

In the case of "pleasure of drinking," vina", remember the famous phrase "felices hispani,quibus vivere est bibere", which I already devoted an article. See: https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/felices-hispani-quibus-vivere-est-bibere

It is well known and cited one couplet of an epitaph appeared in Roma, referenced in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) with the number 15258, or in Carmina Latina Epigraphica (CLE) with the number 1499, or in Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae (ILS) 8157 = CLE 1499, that synthesizes this "hedonistic" proposal.

Note. Hedonism, from the Greek ἡδονισμός (hedonismos) from ἡδονή (hedone), pleasure, and the suffix -ισμός (-ismos) quality, doctrine, system.

This is an example of what some anthologies and literary precepts called "serpentine verse", in which the end of the verse or couplet is the same as the first, as the snake biting its own tail, like this one of Juvenal , 14, 139:

Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crevit.

"As money increases, so does love of money."

Some also speak in these compositions  as "chiasmus" or composition in "X", from the Greek χιασμός (chiasmos), the Greek name of the χ letter X, pronounced "chi, qui,".

The inscription above corresponds to a tombstone or epitaph appeared in first-century in Rome that  Merope dedicates to his partner Tiberius Claudius Secundus, who lived the not inconsiderable amount of 52 years, with the next really beautiful couplet:

“bathing, wine, sex ruin our bodies,
but bathing, wine and love make life worth living”.

“balnea vina Venus corrumpunt corpora nostra
Sed vitam faciunt b(alnea) v(ina) V(enus)

The full epitaph reads:

“He lived 52 years.
To the spirits
of the departed Tibrius Claudius Secundus.
Here he has everything with him.
“bathing, wine, sex ruin our bodies,
  but bathing, wine and love
make life worth living”.
Merope, freedwoman of Caesar
made this for her dear companion,
herself and their family and their descendents.”

V(ixit) an(nos) LII
d(is) M(anibus)
Ti(beri) Claudi Secundi
hic secum habet omnia
balnea vina Venus
corrumpunt corpora
nostra se<d=T> vitam faciunt
b(alnea) v(ina) V(enus)
karo contubernal(i)
fec(it) Merope Caes(aris)
et sibi et suis p(osterisque) e(orum)

Photograph of the text as appear in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum.

It is certainly a well popular maxim in the ancient world. For example it also appears in a bilingual inscription of Gallipoli, now Turkey, on a spoon with the same hexameter: Carmina Latina Epigraphica (CLE) 1923; (CIL III 12274c); (In the edition of Carmina Latina Epigraphica, post Editam collectionem Buechelerianam in lucem prolate Conlegit Einar Engstrom, 1912 p.42, No. 148..):

“Baths, wine and sex make fate come faster”

balnea vina Venus faciunt properantia fata.

Another epitaph of the third century A.D., of Ostia, also includes the couplet with some variation that expresses self-satisfaction or perhaps complacency and boasting of whom has had a good life. Consider the fact that the deceased is often in the first person, who addresses the still alive, adds a sarcastic tone if not black humor.

The epitaph is the corresponding CIL XIV, 914 (or 01318 CLE)

“To the spirit of the departed C.Domitius Primus. I, the well-known Primus, am in this tomb.  I lived on Lucrine oysters; I often drank Falernian wine. Baths, wine, and  love aged with me through the years. If I managed this, may the earth be light on me. Yet among the spirits, the phoenix, which hastens to renew itself along with me, saves me on the altar. Space granted  for the burial of C.Domitius Primus by the three Messii –Hermeros, Pia y Pius.”

D(is) M(anibus)
C(aius) Domiti Primi
hoc ego su(m) in tumulo Primus notissi
mus ille vixi Lucrinis pota<v=B>i saepe Fa
lernum baln<e=I>a vina Venus mecum
senuere per annos hec(!) ego si potui
sit mihi terra lebis(!) et tamen ad Ma
nes foenix(!) me serbat(!) in ara qui me
cum properat se reparare sibi
l(ocus) d(atus) funeri C(ai) Domiti Primi a tribus Messis Hermerote Pia et Pio

Transcription of the text and photo in the CIL

A note: J.M. Stowasser suggests judiciously several emendations reading  some words for better understanding of the epitaph: "illex" for "ille", "tenuere" for "senuere", "seposui" for "si posui", and "arca" for "ara", in "Über ein paar anapästische lateinische Inschriften," in Dreißigster Jahresbericht über das k. k. Franz Joseph-Gymnasium in Wien, Schuljahr 1903/1904 (Wien: Selbstverlag des Gymnasiums, 1904),

Robert L. quotes  in  "Aphrodisias," Hellenica 13 (1965): 189) other text with a similar sentiment:

“The flower is dear to travelers: bathe, drink, eat, fuck, for you bring none of these below (to Hades)”

The fact that this maxim appears in epitaphs gives added value because we can interpret it as an objective statement of a bon viveur or epicurean, not without black humor.

These latest inscriptions added to the pleasures of bathing, drinking and enjoying the love of eating, some way implicit in that of "drinking". There are also many examples where the pleasure of eating and general invitation to the good life is highlighted. All this is certainly prolonged and increased during the Middle Ages and then by the rigidity of Christianity, which seeks to impose fasting and abstinence. The popular, skeptical, epicurean or hedonistic answer is "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we come to die." But this requires a separate article, which at some point I will, because the examples of inscriptions referred to it are numerous.

Actually this maxim and similar are rooted in the anonymous Greek epigram of the Anthologia Palatina, 10,112 (collection of Greek poems, usually brief, from classical times to the Byzantine).

Wine and baths and venerean indulgence make the road to Hades more precipitous

Note: the word "anthology" derives from the Greek ἄνθος, anthos, 'flower' and λέγω 'to select',  and it means  "flower selection" just like the Latin "florilegium", posy.

As I said, the sentence continues in the Middle Ages to the present day. Interestingly, it seems that since the Middle Ages has diminished if not disappeared fondness for baths and  hygiene in general; this pleasure  does not seem to recover well to contemporary times with the proliferation of SPAs. See:

But if it disappears reference to the baths, numerous variations, which in many cases show a clear condemnation and a moralizing proposal,  usually are present. I will cite just one example in Spanish of a compendium of the eighteenth century:

FLORILEGIUM LATINUM, SÍVE HORTUS PROVERBIORUM, Phrasium, et Syntaxeosque Chrysolitus amoenissimus. NON MODO LATINITATIS PERFECTAE Intelligentiae candidatis perutile, & accommodátum , verum etiam quám maxime necessarium.
PER D. JOANNEM DE LAMA, QUARTA IMPRESSION. Con las Licencias necesarias .
En Madrid : En la Imprenta de Miguel Escribano.  Año de 1769.

In the section EEGANTIAE SIVE  CATONIANA carmina memoria perpetuo tenenda, which begins on page 320, there are since page 329 entitled In peccatorem (for the sinner). Well, at p. 330 he devotes a few couplets to the sins of love and wine; among others:

The bathrooms, wine, Venus (sex) are the true poisons of virtue.
To that virtue this strong, flee wine and Venus

Balnea , vina , Venus virtütis vera venena:
Ut virtus vigeat : vadite , vina Venus.

Or

The bathroom, wine, Venus, corrupt our bodies:
But our bodies are healed by the bathroom, wine, Venus

Balnea , vina , Venus , corrumpunt corpora nostra:
corpora noftra sanant balnea , vina , Venus.

But eliminated the component bathing or hygiene by water, the conjunction of “vina” and Venus, wine and love (wine and women in their most popular and sexist version) has potent remained until today, since the frequency of occurrence in numerous operas, to use less artistic in folk songs.

I will cite just the famous toast of the Traviata:

Toast (Let's Drink From The Joyful Chalices)

[Alfredo]

Let's drink, drink from the joyful chalices
since the beautiness is blossoming.
And might the fleeting hour get inebriated at will
Let's drink among (those) sweet quivers
that Love makes arise,
since that eye goes to (his) almighty heart.
Let's drink, (my) love, (so that) love among the chalices
will get hotter kisses

[Chorus] Ah! Let's drink, (so that) love, among the chalices, will get hotter kisses

[Violetta]

With you, with you, I'll be able to share
my cheerful time;
Everything is crazy, crazy in the world
what is not pleasure
Let's enjoy (the pleasures), fleeting and fast
is the joy in love,
it's a flower that blossoms and dies,
neither it can be enjoyed longer
Let's enjoy, it's calling us, it's calling us an ardent
flattering accent.

[Chorus]

Let's enjoy, the cup* and the canticle,
the lovely night and the smiles;
might the new day find them (still) in this paradise

[Violetta] Life is in (its) jubilation

[Alfredo] When (people) aren't in love yet...

[Violetta] Don't say it to those who don't know it,

[Alfredo] So it's my destiny

[Tutti]

Let's enjoy, the cup* and the canticle,
the lovely night and the smiles;
might the new day find them (still) in this paradise.

(Translated by http://lyricstranslate.com/es/brindisi-libiamo-ne039lieti-calici-toast-lets-drink-joyful-chalices.html#ixzz44ma62HlW)

Alfredo
Libiamo, libiamo ne’lieti calici
Che la belleza inflora.
E la fuggevol, fuggevol ora
S’inebri a voluttà.
Libiami ne’dolce fremiti
Che suscita l’amore,
Poiché quell’occhio
Al core omnipotente va.
Libiamo,amore,
Amor fra i calici
Piu caldi baci avrá.
Coro
Ah! Libiam,amor,
Fra’calici
Piu caldi baci avrà.
Violetta
Tra voi, tra voi
Saprò dividere
Il tempo mio giocondo;
Tutto è follia, follia nel mondo
Ciò che non è piacer
Godiam, fugace e rapido è il Gaudio dell’amore,
È un flor che nasce e muore,
Ne più si può goder
Godiamo, c’invita.
C’invit un férvido accento lusinghier.
Coro
Godamo, la tazza,
La tazza e il cantico,
La notte abella e il riso;
In questo, in questo paradiso
ne scopra il nuovo di.
Violetta
La vita è nel tripudio
Alfredo
Quando non s’ami ancora
Violetta
Nol dite a chil’ignora.
Alfredo
È il mio destin così…
Tutti
Godiamo, la tazza,
La tazza e il cantico,
La notte abbella e il riso;
In questo, in questo
Paradiso ne scopra il nuovo di.

I will also reference, by contrast, the very sexist and insufferable Spanish pasodoble of Manolo Escobar,  of remarkable success in Spain at the time, entitled "Women and Wine", whose chorus, related to the content of the article, I would play (I find it impossible to quote the rest of the lyrics of this pasodoble, even to reject it as absurd and of infamous literary quality.):

Note: "infamous" is a word derived from Greek φημί, (to talk), in-femi (ie, no-talking), which therefore means etymologically "unspeakable, unpronounceable, unworthy to be said,", because  the noble sentiments, such as patriotism, must be proclaimed but in the right way and in the right context, because if not their dignity is undermined.

Women and Wine

Long live wine and women!
and the roses that heat our sun!
Long live wine and women
for they are the gifts of the Lord!
And long live every corner of my homeland.
Long may they live together as one!
Forming our flag
and the armour of my Spain.
(Translated by http://lyricstranslate.com/es/mujeres-y-vino-women-and-wine.html#ixzz44mZRzQM7)

Viva el vino y las mujeres
y las rosas que calienta nuestro sol.
Viva el vino y las mujeres,
que por algo son regalo del Señor.
Y vivan
los cuatro puntos
cardinales de mi patria.
Que vivan los cuatro juntos,
que forman nuestra bandera
y el escudo de mi España.

These 380 main roads, (some scholars cite perhaps more accurately 372, which are relating by the Itinerarium Antonini, about later I will speak, 34 of them related to Hispania), which used to be called with the name of its promoter, were converging into each other up to the capital, Rome; nineteen enter into city: Salaria and Nomentana that came together  within the Aurelian walls; Tiburtina, which joined the Collatina; the Praenestina and Labicana which joined other two; Latina; Appia; Sacra; Ardeatina which joined the Ostiensis coming from port; Septizonium; Portuensis; Aurelia which joined the Portuensis;and  Flaminia.

Note: The roads also are called on Spanish “calzadas”, with a term of Vulgar Latin *calciāta, meaning paved road; «Calciata» derives from calx, cis, meaning limestone (in Spanish there are also calima, limestone, calcáreo, cálcico, calcium, and calcification, calcify, calcining, calculus and calculation from Latin “calculus”, small stone used for counting.. (see https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/roman-calculation-number-months-calculus  )

The tracks are also called «viae stratae «,  roads built with superimposed layers of different types of stone and gravel, which have made then eternal. Precisely  from this name “stratae” derives the Italian «strada«, English street, German Straße, Dutch straat, Galician and Portuguese estrada.

A curiosity: the Spanish word “carretera”  is derived from  “carreta”, carriage, which perhaps is not Latin but originally a Celtic word, «car«. This brings us to the consideration of the importance of the «Celtic substrate» in many of the territories controlled by Rome. Moreover, the «Celtic» is closely related to the Latin because both are Indo-European languages. Precisely the Indo-European root word could be «* kers», which also derived or is related to currere (run), cursus, course, …

Note: I will say today, as a curiosity, that one of the most famous in Spain, used or maintained even today in many places, is known as «Via de la Plata«, which goes from  Mérida (Augusta Emerita) to Astorga (Asturica Augusta ), whose name has nothing to do with the mineral so prized in the ancient world, the Latin  «Argentum«, Spanish “plata”,  English silver), a name that surely will remind the reader some derivatives (silver-plated,  argentiferous...). The name “via de la Plata” derives from the Arabic name in the Andalusian era «via al-Balat,» paved road.

Well, in this huge network the routes were marked with landmarks or cairns marking distances and remembering the authors or promoters of the road for their  greater honor and glory. These milestones  were called “milliariums ” because they  were placed every  thousand steps (one mile equals approximately 1481 meters), as today they are placed kilometers stones every thousand meters when we  apply the metric system.

Milliariums of city of  Carcaboso, (Cáceres, Spain)

Because  the roads or highways depart from or arrive to Rome like the spokes of a huge circle, it was there placed the milestone «0» as a focal point, like  now it exists in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid (Spain) the famous Kilometer «0», from where all the radial roads go to the corners of Spain.

It is curious to note how centralized states had in antiquity, as today have, a radial arrangement and structure: to go from one city to another it is necessary  to go through the center, where all paths converge.

That Roman milestone (milliarium) was not really named “0” (zero), because the Romans did not handle zero, but to emphasize the central importance they called it milliarium aureum, gold milestone, because it was made of gold-plated bronze, and it was placed in the Forum, together the Temple of Saturn, by Augustus in 20 BC. It should have 3.45 meters high and the column 1.15 diameter.

Distances are measured on  reference to it. The inscription on that column is not known, perhaps there were only the emperor Augustus name or the names of the major cities of the Empire and the distances, as numerous authors assume with no sufficient basis ,influenced by current customs, or perhaps there were the names of the keepers of the road network, ther «curatores viarum».

Cassius Dio remembers how Augustus was named  “curator viarum” and he ordered to erect the milliarium aureum, coinciding with the celebration of his triumph over the Parthians:

Cassius Dio, 54,8,4

Now all this was done later in commemoration of the event; but at the time of which we are speaking he was chosen commissioner of all the highways in the neighbourhood of Rome, and in this capacity set up the golden mile-stone, as it was called, and appointed men from the number of the ex-praetors, each with two lictors, to attend to the actual construction of the roads. (translated by Earnest Cary)

The phrase «All roads lead to Rome» perhaps was created at the time where this column, this milestone was erected.

We have also  quotes of Plutarch, Galba 24.4; Pliny, Naturalis Historia 3.66; Tacitus, Historiae 1.27; Suetonius, Otho 6.2.

Plutarch also makes a reference to the milestone as the end point of all Roman roads at  the time that Otto is about to be named emperor to replace Galba:

Plutarch, Galba 24.4

Thus Otho had even been discovered by the finger of the god; being there just behind Galba, bearing all that was said, and seeing what was pointed out to them by Umbricius. His countenance changed to every colour in his fear, and he was betraying no small discomposure, when Onomastus, his freedman, came up and acquainted him that the master builders had come, and were waiting for him at home. Now that was the signal for Otho to meet the soldiers. Pretending then that he had purchased an old house, and was going to show the defects to those that had sold it to him, he departed; and passing through what is called Tiberius’s house, he went on into the forum, near the spot where a golden pillar stands, at which all the several roads through Italy terminate. (Translated by John Dryden)

Tacitus on Stories 1.27 and Suetonius on live of Otto, 6,  tell us the same episode and also they refer to the golden milestone.

Also Pliny the Elder, who offers extensive information on routes and cities, makes an interesting reference on a text which increases the size and importance of Rome city unparalleled in the world.

Pliny, Naturalis Historia, III, 66-67

Romulus left the city of Rome, if we are to believe those who state the very greatest number, having three gates and no more. When the Vespasians were emperors and censors, in the year from its building 826, the circumference of the walls which surrounded it was thirteen miles and two-fifths. Surrounding as it does the Seven Hills, the city is divided into fourteen districts, with 265 cross-roads under the guardianship of the Lares. If a straight line is drawn from the mile-column placed at the entrance of the Forum, to each of the gates, which are at present thirty-seven in number (taking care to count only once the twelve double gates, and to omit the seven old ones, which no longer exist), the result will be [taking them altogether], a straight line of twenty miles and 765 paces. But if we draw a straight line from the same mile-column to the very last of the houses, including therein the Prætorian encampment, and follow throughout the line of all the streets, the result will then be something more than seventy miles. Add to these calculations the height of the houses, and then a person may form a fair idea of this city, and will certainly be obliged to admit that there is not a place throughout the whole world that for size can be compared to it.  (John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed)

Plin. Nat. 3.30  (o 3.66-67)

Urbem tris portas habentem Romulus reliquit aut, ut plurimas tradentibus credamus, IIII. moenia eius collegere ambitu imperatoribus censoribusque Vespasianis anno conditae DCCCXXVI m. p. XIII:CC, conplexa montes septem. ipsa dividitur in regiones XIIII, compita Larum CCLXV, eiusdem spatium mensura currente a miliario in capite Romani fori statuto ad singulas portas, quae sunt hodie numero XXXVII, ita ut XII portae semel numerentur praetereantur ex veteribus VII, quae esse desierunt, efficit passuum per directum XX:M:DCCLXV. ad extrema vero tectorum cum castris praetoriis ab eodem miliario per vicos omnium viarum mensura colligit paulo amplius LX p. quod si quis altitudinem tectorum addat, dignam profecto aestimationem concipiat fateaturque nullius urbis magnitudinem in toto orbe potuisse ei comparari.

We have lots of information on the Roman roads and its design, not only in texts but also as the result of archaeological studies. There are two documents which I will try another time, which are particularly important: the Itinerarium Antonini, Itinerary of Antoninus and Tabula Peuntingeriana.

The Itinerarium Provinciarum Antonini Augusti is a book or road guide  made in the early third century of Christ (217) in which the military roads of the time of Caracalla were related, giving account of the cities and mansions , similar to our service areas, and distances between them. The current document is based on a copy of the fourth century and modern first published in 1521.

The second document, the Tabula Peutingeriana, is a kind of map or schema  or plan picture that includes the main roads, indicating the cities and stops each from India to Britain. Unfortunately it is missed the part referring to Spain, which must be supplemented with the Itinerarium Antonini. A copy of the twelfth century of a document from IV or V century is conserved, although it could be made earlier. The current document is kept in Vienna Nationalbibliotek,  and  covers an area of 6.8 meters long by 33 cm. wide divided into 12 sheets. It is named from Konrad Peutinger,  the German humanist who discovered it.

The photograph shows the V and VI segments where of the Tabula Peutingeriana, where it  is represented Italy with the capital Rome, between the Adriatic and the Mediterranean Sea.

Other authors, Pliny the Elder and Strabo, give us lots of information about roads and cities through which they pass.

So the sentence «all roads lead to Rome» would have at that time a real and geographical sense. We can assume, then, that the inhabitants of the Empire, from Mesopotamia to Britain, from Germany to the African desert, would pronounce often in Latin the phrase «omnes viae ducunt Romam» as today is still done in all Western languages since its appearance.

I said that «we can assume» because it is not witnessed the Latin phrase quoted in any document of ancient times. But the assumption is reasonable if Roma appealed to citizens around the world and the «maps» of the time have Rome as a point of departure and to arrival and it is  noted the central focus whit all Roman greatness  with the famous golden milestone (milliarium aureum).

According to our knowledge today, the sentence is written  first time in the Middle Ages, about  the year 1175, on a text by Alain de Lille, (Alanus ab Insulis in Latin), (c 1128 -. 1202/1203). Alain de Lille wrote numerous works, the most famous of moral content. He wrote the entitled Liber  Parabolarum, Book of parables. On Chapter V is where the aforementioned phrase is,  not exactly as I have presented it, but as Mille viae ducunt homines per saecula Romam (A thousand roads lead men forever to Rome).

Note: Note the acuity of Alain de Lille for translate his name into Latin: it is evident that Alanus comes from Alain, but in the case of the name «de Lille»  he makes a curious phonetic play: as «Lille«, the name of the French town in north Frances, sounds in French  like «de l’île, «the island, he translated it into Latin as» ab Insulis «,» from the Islands «.

Alain de Lille (Alanus ab insulis) entitled one of his “moralizing fables” in  chapter V:

Mille viae ducunt hominem per saecula Romam

A thousand roads lead men forever to Rome.

The title appears in the print edition of Leipzig 1499 whose photograph I offer; so it was not done in previous editions as one of Cologne 1497. I do not know how it appears in the oldest manuscripts. But in any case, he uses the above expression and a similar comment or explanation in his parable multae viae ducunt hominem romam (Many roads lead man to Rome) and also mille viae ducunt rhomines romam  per saecula (a thousand roads lead men forever  to Rome). (Mille viae ducunt homines Romam per saecula: qui volunt quaerere toto corde  dominum: via est directa quae …)

I present the complete parable, in which the sentence has a figurative sense, of the thousands it may have and which is still used in any current context.

A thousand roads lead men forever  to Rome
For those who want to seek the Lord with all your heart
There is a path that leads directly over to the top of the mountains
with its slopes full of brambles and thorns.
And also a footpath that rough stone makes rough
and scrapes every day the soles of the feet.
There is also a path across  the sea, a path across the wilderness,
across  deep valleys, between rocks, across hard places for  feet.
Across forests and hidden places, across places which fearsome beasts walk,
among thorns and thistles,  across muddy places.

Mille viae ducunt hominem per saecula Romam
Qui dominum toto quaerere corde volunt
Est via quae ducit montes directa per altos
Vepribus et spinis arduitate gravis
Est quoque nonnullus callis. quem calculus asper
Asperat. et plantas quotidianas arat
Est via per pontum. via per deserta. per imas
Valles. per scopulos. per loca dura pedi
Per nemus et latebras. per lustra timenda ferarum
Per spinas tribulos. per luculenta vaga

Scanned by  Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum

The figurative sense is obvious: there are many roads leading to the Lord, to Paradise, for people who seek him with all your heart, similar than there were many roads which lead to Rome. That is, you can reach a certain purpose in many ways, different paths can take one to the same goal

On English he is Geoffrey Chaucer who uses the proverb first time in his Astrolabe of 1391, where the proverb appears as “right as diverse pathes leden diverse folk the righte way to Rome”.

The Swiss germanist Samuel Singer includes the sentence in his Thesaurus Proverbiorum Medii Aevi: Lexikon der Sprichwörter des Romanisch-Germanischer Mittelalters in the word Rom.

Another time day I will talk about building  and factory of roads, meanwhile I offer a curious link to a curious page that provides information about the distance from any point of empire to Rome by the Roman roads of Tabula Peutingeriana and Itinerarium Antonini: http://http://www.omnesviae.org/.

An episode often used in art and in ancient literature is the abduction or raptus of Hylas by Nymphs, goddesses of waters:

Hylas is a member of the expedition of the Argonauts to search  the Golden Fleece; at some point, they have made landfall in the country Cio for the night; Hylax goes to fetch water for dinner; Nymphs of the river, loved by the young warrior,  kidnapped and immersed him in water; his companions, especially his friend Hercules captivated by her beauty, come to look for, but they do not found him; the ship continues its course, leaving Hercules to land, who then walk to Colchis; Later they will know the truth of what happened; Hylas, kidnapped by the Nymphs, had become a divine being.

This myth of the Nymphs, Ondinas, Naiad, Nereids, dancing in the water where they live or in nearby meadows, and snatching mortals who have the misfortune of seeing them, has even reached our time in beliefs or folklore, such as the Asturian Xanas in Spain..

The myth already appears in the literature of V century BC and it is popular in the Hellenistic period. They are well known in the versions of Theocritus Idyll XIII and in Apollonius of Rhodes in the Argonautica. Interestingly it does not appear in the paintings of the attics or Sicilian Greek vases.

I reproduce the version of Theocritus and leave  to the end of the article the very large and interesting version of Apollonius to ease the text.

Theocritus, Idyl XIII. Hylas

From what god soever sprung, Nicias, Love was not, as we seem to think, born for us alone; nor first unto us of mortal flesh that cannot see the morrow, look things of beauty beautiful. For Amphitryon’s brazen-heart son that braved the roaring lion, he too once loved a lad, to wit the beauteous Hylas of the curly locks, and even as father his son, had taught him all the lore that made himself a good man and brought him fame; and would never leave him, neither if Day had risen to the noon, nor when Dawn’s white steeds first galloped up in to the home of Zeus, nor yet when the twittering chickens went scurrying at the flapping of their mother’s wings to their bed upon the smoky hen-roost. This did he that he might have the lad fashioned to his mind, and that pulling a straight furrow from the outset the same might come to be a true man.

Now when Jason son of Aeson was to go to fetch the Golden Fleece with his following of champions that were chosen of the best out of all the cities in the land, then came there with them to the rich Iolcus the great man of toil who was son of the high-born Alcmena of Midea, and went down with Hylas at his side to that good ship Argo, even to her that speeding ungrazed clean through the blue Clappers, ran into Phasis bay as an eagle into a great gulf whereafter those Clappers have stood still, reefs ever more.

And at the rising of the Pleiads, what time of the waning spring the young lambs find pasture in the uplands, then it was that that divine flower of hero-folk was minded of its voyaging, and taking seat in the Argo’s hull came after two days’ blowing of the Southwind to the Hellespont, and made haven within Propontis at the spot where furrow is broadened and share brightened by the oxen of the Cianians. Being gone forth upon the strand, as for their supper they were making it ready thwart by thwart; but one couch was strown them for all, for they found to their hand a meadow that furnished good store of litter, and thence did cut them taper rushes and tall bedstraw.

Meanwhile the golden-haired Hylas was gone to bring water against supper for his own Heracles and for the valiant Telamon – for they two did ever eat together at a common board – bone with a brazen ewer. Ere long he espied a spring; in a hollow it lay, whereabout there grew many herbs, as well blue swallow-wort and fresh green maidenhair as blooming parsley and tangled deergrass. Now in the midst of the water there was a dance of the Nymphs afoot, of those Nymphs who, like the water, take no rest, those Nymphs who are the dread Goddesses of the country-folk, Eunica to wit and Malis and Nycheia with the springtime eyes. And there, when the lad put forth the capacious pitcher in haste to dip it in, lo! with one accord they all clung fast to his arm, because love of the young Argive had fluttered all their render breasts. And down he sank into the black water headlong, as when a falling star will sink headlong in the main and a mariner cry to his shipmates ‘Hoist away, my lads; the breeze freshens.’ Then took the Nymphs the weeping lad upon their knees and offered him comfort of gentle speech.

Meantime the son of Amphitryon was grown troubled for the child, and gone forth with that bow of his that was bent Scythian-wise and the cudgel that was ever in the grasp of his right hand. Thrice cried he on Hylas as loud as his deep throttle could belch sound; thrice likewise did the child make answer, albeit his voice came thin from the water and he that was hard by seemed very far away. When a fawn cries in the hills, some ravening lion will speed from his lair to get him a meal so ready; and even so went Heracles wildly to and fro amid the pathless brake, and covered much country because of his longing for the child. As lovers know no flinching, so endless was the toil of his wandering by wood and wold, and all Jason’s business was but a by-end. And all the while the ship stood tackle aloft, and so far as might be, laden, and the heroes passed thee night a-clearing of the channel, waiting upon Heracles. But he alas! was running whithersoever his feet might carry him, in a frenzy, the god did rend so cruelly the heart within him.

Thus came fairest Hylas to be numbered of the Blest, and the heroes to gird at Heracles for a deserter because he wandered and left the good ship of the thirty thwarts. Nevertheless he made the inhospitable land of the Colchians afoot.  (Translated by J.M. Edmonds)

They are numerous texts and ancient references to this myth; I reproduce any of them:

Apollonius of Rhodes tells us in the Argonautica, I, 1171-1357: I reproduce it at the end of this article. It is a very interesting text that gives a slightly different version.

Virgil makes a quick reference to it on the Eclogue VI, 40 et seq .:

Hinc lapides Pyrrhae iactos, Saturnia regna,
Caucasiasque refert volucres, furtumque Promethei:
his adiungit, Hylan nautae quo fonte relictum
clamassent, ut litus “Hyla, Hyla!” omne sonaret.

Then sang he of the stones by Pyrrha cast,
of Saturn's reign, and of Prometheus' theft,
and the Caucasian birds, and told withal
nigh to what fountain by his comrades left
the mariners cried on Hylas till the shore
then re-echoed “Hylas, Hylas!”
(English (J. B. Greenough, 1895)

Ovid also on Ars amandi, II,110

Sis licet antiquo Nireus adamatus Homero,
      Naïadumque tener crimine raptus Hylas,
Ut dominam teneas, nec te mirere relictum,
     Ingenii dotes corporis adde bonis.

Though you should be Nireus,be praised by ancient Homer, and the charming Hylas, carried off by the criminality of the Naiads; that you may retain your mistress, and not have to wonder that you are deserted, add the endowments of the mind to the advantages of the person. (Translator: Henry T. Riley)

Propertius, inspired by Apolonius and Theocritus, writes the poem Elegies, I,20:

Hoc pro continuo te, Galle, monemus amore,
quod tibi ne vacuo defluat ex animo:
saepe imprudenti fortuna occurrit amanti:
crudelis Minyis sic erat Ascanius.
est tibi non infra specie, non nomine dispar,
Theiodamanteo proximus ardor Hylae:
huic tu, sive leges Umbrae rate flumina silvae,
sive Aniena tuos tinxerit unda pedes,
sive Gigantei spatiabere litoris ora,
sive ubicumque vago fluminis hospitio,
Nympharum semper cupidas defende rapinas
(non minor Ausoniis est amor Adryasin);
ne tibi sit duros montes et frigida saxa,
Galle, neque expertos semper adire lacus.
quae miser ignotis error perpessus in oris
Herculis indomito fleverat Ascanio.
namque ferunt olim Pagasae navalibus Argo
egressam longe Phasidos isse viam,
et iam praeteritis labentem Athamantidos undis
Mysorum scopulis applicuisse ratem.
hic manus heroum, placidis ut constitit oris,
mollia composita litora fronde tegit.
at comes invicti iuvenis processerat ultra
raram sepositi quaerere fontis aquam.
hunc duo sectati fratres, Aquilonia proles
(nunc superat Zetes, nunc superat Calais),
oscula suspensis instabant carpere plantis,
oscula et alterna ferre supina fuga.
ille sed extrema pendentes ludit in ala
et volucris ramo summovet insidias.
iam Pandioniae cessit genus Orithyiae:
ah dolor! ibat Hylas, ibat Hamadryasin.
hic erat Arganthi Pege sub vertice montis,
grata domus Nymphis umida Thyniasin,
quam supra nulli pendebant debita curae
roscida desertis poma sub arboribus,
et circum irriguo surgebant lilia prato
candida purpureis mixta papaveribus.
quae modo decerpens tenero pueriliter ungui
proposito florem praetulit officio,
et modo formosis incumbens nescius undis
errorem blandis tardat imaginibus.
tandem haurire parat demissis flumina palmis
innixus dextro plena trahens umero.
cuius ut accensae Dryades candore puellae
miratae solitos destituere choros
prolapsum et leviter facili traxere liquore,
tum sonitum rapto corpore fecit Hylas.
cui procul Alcides ter 'Hyla!' respondet: at illi
nomen ab extremis montibus aura refert.
his, o Galle, tuos monitus servabis amores,
formosum ni vis perdere rursus Hylan.

Addressed to Gallus

I make you this warning, Gallus, in favor of continuous love
(so that you don't lose your mind and forget):
Disaster often comes to the unsuspecting lover.
The cruel Ascanius made that plain to the Argonauts.
Your boy approximates Theiodamantean Hylas,
in appearance as much as in name.
So, whether you choose streams in shady woods,
or the Anio's wave touches your feet,
whether you stroll on the Gigantean coast's shore,
on the wandering welcome of the stream, wherever,
always be on the lookout for ravenous Nymphs' attacks on him
(love isn't weaker for Italian Hadryades).
Don't insist on trekking to hard mounts and
frigid rock, Gallus, or to unexplored lakes:
Hercules wept by the untameable Ascanius
when he came wandering to foreign shores.
They say the Argo set off from the port at Pagasa
to make the long journey to Colchis;
already the gliding raft has crossed the Hellespont's waves
and has come ashore on Mysian rocks.
Here, the band of heroes, standing on the calm shore,
covers a coast decorated in lush foliage.
But the unconquered youth's companion has gone
beyond, to seek fresh water from a hidden spring.
Two brothers follow him, Aquilonian seed,
Zetes is above him and above him Calais,
standing with hands poised to snatch kisses,
to smother him with kisses, one at a time.
He hangs beneath a high wing, hidden,
and shoos away the rapid pranksters with his stick.
Already the race of Pandionian Orithyia has ceased.
o for shame! Hylas was on his way, on his way to the Hamadryads.
He was in Pege, the wet abode favored by
the Thynian Nymphs, beneath the peak of Mount Arganthus.
Dewy fruit hung from wild trees,
product of no human labor,
and shining lilies flourished all over in the damp grass,
mixed with purple poppies.
Like a child, he'd pluck them with his delicate nail,
preferring the flower to his assigned duty.
And now, lying mindless near the beautiful water,
he prolongs his dallying with the lovely reflections.
At last, he prepares to draw water with cupped palms,
propped on his right arm, drinking his fill.
The Dryad nymphs are excited by his whiteness,
they break off their usual chorus and stare.
Lightly, they draw him, slipping, into the gentle water.
Then, his body caught, Hylas raises a shout.
Far off, Hercules sends a response, but the breeze
returns the name from distant mountains.
You've been warned, Gallus: protect your love.
You appear to have trusted your beautiful Hylas to the Nymphs.
(Vincent Katz. trans. Los Angeles. Sun & Moon Press. 1995.)

The version of Apollonius, which I reproduce below, inspired several poets of the Flavian period. Valerius Flaccus, III, 545-564; Martial VI, 68.9; VII, 15.1 to 1; IX, 65.14. Statius: Silvae, I, 5.22; III, 4, 42-43.

Valerius Flaccus Argonautica, III, 545-564:

So saying she puts up a swift hart through the trackless brushwood, all lofty-antlered, right in the lad’s path. By tardy flight and lengthy halt it challenges his ardour, and provokes him to content in speed of foot. Hylas adventures, and madly afire for so near a quarry, gives chase, while Alcides looking after him urges him on with cheering cry. And now both are out of sight, when as the boy presses on and with weary arm threatens a shot the stag leads him far onward to where a bright fountain gushes forth, and himself with light bound springs clear over the pool. Thus is the lad’s hope baffled nor is he fain to struggle farther; and since sweat had bathed his limbs sand labouring breast, he greedily sinks beside the pleasant stream. Even as the light that shifts and plays upon a lake, when Cynthia looks forth from heaven or the bright wheel of Phoebus in mid course passes by, so doth he shed a gleam upon the waters; he heeds not the shadow of the Nymph or her hair or the sound of her as she rises to embrace him. Greedily casting her arms about him, as he calls, alack! too late for help and utters the name of his mighty friend, she draws him down; for her strength is aided by his falling weight. (TRANSLATED BY J. H. MOZLEY )

sic ait et celerem frondosa per avia cervum
suscitat ac iuveni sublimem cornibus offert.
ille animos tardusque fugae longumque resistens
sollicitat suadetque pari contendere cursu.
credit Hylas praedaeque ferox ardore propinquae
insequitur; simul Alcides hortatibus urget
prospiciens; iamque ex oculis aufertur uterque,
cum puerum instantem quadripes fessaque minantem
tela manu procul ad nitidi spiracula fontis
ducit et intactas levis ipse superfugit undas.
hoc pueri spes lusa18 modo est, nec tendere certat
amplius; utque artus et concita pectora sudor
diluerat, gratos avidus procumbit ad amnes.19
stagna vaga sic luce micant, ubi Cynthia caelo
prospicit aut medii transit rota candida Phoebi:
tale iubar diffundit aquis; nil umbra comaeque
turbavitque sonus surgentis ad oscula Nymphae.
illa avidas iniecta manus heu sera cientem
auxilia et magni referentem nomen amici
detrahit; adiutae prono nam pondere vires.

Martial also makes reference to it on several occasions, for example in VI, 68

LXVIII. TO CASTRICUS, ON THE DEATH OF THE YOUNG EUTYCHUS.

Bewail your crime, you Naiads, bewail it through the whole Lucrine lake, and may Thetis herself hear your mourning! Eutychus, your sweet inseparable companion, Castricus, has been snatched away from you, and has perished amid the waters of Bais. He was the partner and kind consoler of all your cares: he was the delight, the Alexis, of our poet. Was it that the amorous nymph saw your charms exposed beneath the crystal waves, and thought that she was sending back Hylas to Hercules? Or has Salmacis at length left her effeminate Hermaphroditus, attracted by the embrace of a tender but vigorous youth? Whatever it may be, whatever the cause of a bereavement so sudden, may the earth and the water, I pray, be propitious to you. (anonymous translation published in the Bohn edition)

Flete nefas vestrum, sed toto flete Lucrino,
Naides, et luctus sentiat ipsa Thetis.
Inter Baianas raptus puer occidit undas
Eutychos ille, tuum, Castrice, dulce latus.
5Hic tibi curarum socius blandumque levamen,
Hic amor, hic nostri vatis Alexis erat.
Numquid te vitreis nudum lasciva sub undis
Vidit et Alcidae nympha remisit Hylan?
An dea femineum iam neglegit Hermaphroditum
10Amplexu teneri sollicitata viri?
Quidquid id est, subitae, quaecumque est causa rapinae,
Sit, precor, et tellus mitis et unda tibi.

Martial, VII,15

TO ARGYNNUS.

What boy is this that retreats from the sparkling waters of Ianthis, and flees from the Naiad their mistress? Is it Hylas? Well is it that Hercules is honoured in this wood, and that he so closely watches these waters. You may minister at these fountains, Argynnus, in security; the Nymphs will do you no harm; beware lest the guardian himself should wish to do so. (anonymous translation published in the Bohn edition)

Quis puer hic nitidis absistit Ianthidos undis?
Effugit dominam Naida numquid Hylas?
O bene, quod silva colitur Tirynthius ista
Et quod amatrices tam prope servat aquas!
Securus licet hos fontes, Argynne, ministres:
Nil facient Nymphae: ne velit ipse, cave.

Statius, Silvae, I,5,22

ite. deae virides, liquidosque advertite vultus
et vitreum teneris crimen redimite corymbis,
veste nihil tectae, quales emergitis altis
fontibus et visu Satyros torquetis amantes,
Non vos, quae culpa decus infamastis aquarum,
quae culpa decus infamastis aquarum. 3 4 [p. 60]
20sollicitare iuvat: procul hinc et fonte doloso
Salmacis et viduae Cebrenidos arida luctu
flumina et Herculei praedatrix cedat alumni,
vos mihi, quae Latium septenaque culmina, nymphae,
incolitis Thybrimque novis attollitis undis,
25quas praeceps Anien atque exceptura natatus
Virgo iuvat Marsasque nives et frigora ducens
Marcia, praecelsis quarum vaga molibus unda
crescit et innumero pendens transmittitur arcu—:

You, who with guilt have defamed the honour of the streams, I care not to solicit: far hence remove thou, O Salmacis, with thy deceiving fount, and the river of Cebrenis left forlorn, that grief made dry, and the ravisher of Hercules’ young ward!”But ye Nymphs who dwell in Latium and on the Seven Heights and make Thybris swell with your fresh waters, ye whom headlong Anio delights and the Maiden destined to welcome the swimmer, and Marcia that brings down the Marsian snow and cold, ye whose travelling waves flood through the lofty masonry and are carried high in air over countless arches- (Translated by J.H.Mozley. The Loeb Classical Library)

Statius  Silvae III, 4, 40 ss.

…     cedet tibi Latmius ultro 
Sangariusque puer quemque irrita fontis imago
et sterilis consumpsit amor. te caerula Nais
mallet et adprensa traxisset fortius urna.
tu, puer, ante omnis; solus formosior ille,
cui daberis.’ sic orsa leves secum ipsa per auras
tollit olorinaque iubet considere biga.

…Straightway will the Latmiam yield to thee, and the Sangarian youth,and he whom the fruitless image in the fountain and barren love consumed. The Nymph of the dark-blue water would have preferred thee,and grasped thy urn and drawn thee doen more boldly. Thou, boy,dost surpass them all; only he to whom I shall give thee is more beautiful. (Translated by J.H.Mozley. The Loeb Classical Library)

Although, as I said, this ground of Hylas does not appear in the paintings of Greek vases of Attica or Sicily, itself stucco reliefs instead it appears profusely in wall paintings, in stucco reliefs, in sculptural reliefs, on works of gold and especially in mosaics, which have been preserved better. All these representations are spread over several sites and appear between  the beginning of the empire and the V century, totaling no less than forty. Of course it was an oft-repeated theme in mosaics adorning the mansions of the rich men at the time. We found it in Italy, Africa, Hispania, Gaul...

There are more than fifteen in the vicinity of Pompeii and Herculaneum and Stabiae, (where especially  the murals paintings are ). Mosaics appear in Saint Colombe in France, in Thina in Carthage, Constantine and Djemila in Algeria, Volubilis in Morocco, at various points in Rome (Via Appia, Bassus Iunius Basilica, Via Flaminia at the tomb of the Nasoni). They appear sculptural reliefs, coins, etc.

That it was why the theme of pictures of some painters, we also deduct from Petronius in his Satyricon, 83, where a painting of the Greek painter Apelles with this motive is described, though it may well just be a literary creation without which there had been a painting about we know nothing more:

Petronius, Satyricon, 83:

I took a walk through all the public arcades and) entered a picture-gallery, which contained a wonderful collection of pictures in various styles. I beheld works from the hand of Zeuxis, still undimmed by the passage of the years, and contemplated, not without a certain awe, the crude drawings of Protogenes, which equalled the reality of nature herself; but when I stood before the work of Apelles, the kind which the Greeks call "Monochromatic," verily, I almost worshipped, for the outlines of the figures were drawn with such subtlety of touch, and were so life-like in their precision, that you would have thought their very souls were depicted. Here, an eagle was soaring into the sky bearing the shepherd of Mount Ida to heaven; there, the comely Hylas was struggling to escape from the embrace of the lascivious Naiad. Here, too, was Apollo, cursing his murderous hand and adorning his unstrung lyre with the flower just created. Standing among these lovers, which were only painted, "It seems that even the gods are wracked by love," I cried aloud, as if I were in a wilderness. "Jupiter could find none to his taste, even in his own heaven, so he had to sin on earth, but no one was betrayed by him! The nymph who ravished Hylas would have controlled her passion had she thought Hercules was coming to forbid it. Apollo recalled the spirit of a boy in the form of a flower, and all the lovers of Fable enjoyed Love's embraces without a rival, but I took as a comrade a friend more cruel than Lycurgus!" (translation by W. C. Firebaugh)

In pinacothecam perveni vario genere tabularum mirabilem. Nam et Zeuxidos manus vidi nondum vetustatis iniuria victas, et Protogenis rudimenta cum ipsius naturae veritate certantia non sine quodam horrore tractavi. Jam vero Apellis quam Graeci mon(kthmon appellant, etiam adoravi. Tanta enim subtilitate extremitates imaginum erant ad similitudinem praecisae, ut crederes etiam animorum esse picturam. Hinc aquila ferebat caelo sublimis Idaeum, illinc candidus Hylas repellebat improbam Naida. Damnabat Apollo noxias manus lyramque resolutam modo nato flore honorabat. Inter quos etiam pictorum amantium vultus tanquam in solitudine exclamavi: "Ergo amor etiam deos tangit. Iuppiter in caelo suo non invenit quod diligeret, sed peccaturus in terris nemini tamen iniuriam fecit. Hylan Nympha praedata temperasset amori suo, si venturum ad interdictum Herculem credidisset. Apollo pueri umbram revocavit in florem, et omnes fabulae quoque sine aemulo habuerunt complexus. At ego in societatem recepi hospitem Lycurgo crudeliorem."

The mosaics usually decorate the rooms according to what they represent. So it is logical that the Muses or Graces adorn spaces dedicated to literary or artistic delight,  that mosaics depicting hunting scenes decorate large salons of rich and idle landowners; that paintings or  referring to love mosaics decorate more intimate spaces, such as bedrooms.

The abduction of Hylas by the Nymphs has various interpretations. The most obvious, if not the only,  seems certainly the rapture of love; Hylas was abducted by the force of love, by passion. Moreover, on several occasions this theme appears along with other of certain similarity: Artemis and Actaeon, Pyramus and Thisbe, Amymone and Poseidon, Narcissus, nymphs and satyrs, Selene and Endymion, etc. This was a commonplace in antiquity, and the first apologists and church fathers, as I will say later,  criticize and often grouped them. Clearly, if the scene appears in a sarcophagus, it seems more logical to interpret as abduction by the gods after death, as the way of life to the world of the dead.

In his pictorial or musivarish   representation there are numerous variations, but also some iconographic and compositional unity, quasi fossilized: Hylas with the pitcher at  the banks of the river or lake, a fully bent knee, resting on a rock, while the other leg, stretched, is in the water, anticipating the time of the fall; the nymphs taking his arms, at other times  the legs or torso.                                                 

In Spain there have been found several mosaics depicting the myth in Los Villares, near the La Bañeza in Leon, in Carranque and in Italica.  I will devote specially my attention to this latter by its special features.

Mosaic Hylas and the Nymphs. Quintana del Marco (Provincial Archaeological Museum of León).

Roman Villa of Carranque (Toledo. Spain)

The  myth appears in Italica as the central emblem of a geometric mosaic of great dimension. It was first interpreted as the god Neptune or Neaereus;  later García Bellido then definitively identified it as the abduction of Hylas. In 1962 it was transferred to the Archaeological Museum of Seville, where it continues beeing.

Although the plane of the house in which it appears is not clear, it is certainly an area of some privacy, because it is not open to the peristyle, away from the meeting rooms, in the center of a large mosaic geometric meandering form swastikas, perhaps in the entrance area to the bedrooms or cubicula. This would support its erotic-romantic interpretation.

In this mosaic of Italica the central iconographic motif is the abduction of Hylas. On the left they appear three nymphs, who grip the hero, who appears naked with chlamys, spear and amphora or jar to collect water. On the right the male figure of Heracles appears with raised right arm and mantle and mace on the left. By setting background gloom and dark tones (the myth takes place in a forest at dusk), by the water delicately suggested, the trees stripped of leaves and the arrangement of the characters, this mosaic seems to be the the transposition of a pictorial model that on turn follows a Hellenistic model. The composition is very dramatic: the three nymphs, Hylas about to disappear in the water, on the other side Heracles alarmed when it is  supposed that Hylas is dipping immediately.  Like  some Pompeian paintings and unlike most paintings, the figure of Hylas is not centered. As in almost all tiles, it is represented with a bent knee on a rock and the other leg  over the water. Commentators often noted as the most outstanding feature the appearance of Heracles, who usually does not appear in either, except in Italica, because they focus on the essential motive of the myth: the rapture.

However there are an exceptional detail that is not highlighted. Generally the Nymphs grab arms, legs and even the chest or torso of Hylas. In this mosaic, exceptionally, one of the nymphs just grabs his penis, which supports the erotic-festive interpretation.

I do not know another similar representation. If this is a unique case, we should perhaps relate it to the old and extraordinary sense of humor that the southern lands of Hispania had already developed when it was not yet called Andalusia but Baetica.

So it's incomprehensible the prudery of the Archaeological Museum of Seville which reproduces it in a souvenir postcard or merchanding, but only from the waist up. But putting some doors in Andalusia seems a meaningless and impossible task.

The myth has obvious erotic sense and that explains that often and as in the case of Italica, these mosaics appear far from the central colonnade of Roman houses and at rather more hidden area, often at the entrances to cubiculum or bedroom. It confirms this erotic sense that also it appears often associated with other myths, both literary texts as pictorial representations or “musivaria” representations, such as the abduction of Ganymede ("the most beautiful of mortals" according Iliad, XX, 231) by Jupiter, Hyacinth, accidentaly  killed by Apollo, Actaeon watching Diana in the bath, Narcissus reflecting his beautiful face in the water, with a similar result as Hylas …

Some Christian writers  found already that Ganymede, Hyacinth and Hylas agreed that they aroused the gay character in the gods (Hylas, although kidnapped by the Nymphs, was loved by Hercules).

Clement of Alexandria says so in Protrepticus II, 33.5:

Heracles is the son of Zeus, begotten in this long night. And a true son he is; for long and weary as the time was in which he accomplished his twelve labours, yet in a single night he corrupted the fifty daughters of Thestius, becoming at once bridegroom and adulterer to all these maidens. Not without reason, then, do the poets dub him “abandoned” and “doer of evil deeds.” It would be a long story to relate his varied adulteries and his corruption of boys. For your gods did not abstain from boys. One [Heracles] loved Hylas, another [Apollo] Hyacinthus, another [Poseidon] Chrysippus, another [Zeus] Ganymedes. These are the gods your wives are to worship! Such they must pray for their own husbands to be, similar models of virtue, – that they may be like the gods by aspiring after equally high ideals! Let these be they whom your boys are trained to reverence, in order that they may grow to manhood with the gods ever before them as a manifest pattern of fornication! But perhaps in the case of the gods, it is the males only who rush eagerly after sexual delights while. (Translated by Butterworth, G W. Loeb Classical Library Volume 92. Cambridge, MA. Harvard Universrity Press. 1919.)

Also Firmicus Maternus says on  De errore profanarum religionum 12,2;

Adulterio delectatur aliquis: Iovem respicit, et inde cupiditatis suae fomenta conquirit; Probat imitatur et laudat, quod deus sus in cygno fallit, in tauro rapit ludit in satyro, et ut liberalis in flagitiis esse consuescat, quod inclusam regiam virginem auro largiter fluente corruperit. Puerorum aliquis delectatur amplexibus: Ganymedem in sinu Iovis quaerat, Herculem videat Hylam impatiente amore quaerentem, Hyacinthi desiderio captum Apollinem discat, Chrysippum alius, alius  Pelopem videat, ut per deos suos sibi licere dicat quicquid hodie severissime Romanis legibus vindicatur.

One person is fond of adultery; well, he cats a glance at Jupiter and in that quarter finds encouragement for his passion. He approves, imitates, and glorifies the fact that his god was a deceiver in the shape of a swan, a kidnaper in the of a bull, a hoaxer in the shape of a satyr, and (as if fain to cultivate the habit of generosity –but for debauched purposes) a briber who corrupted with with lavishly flowing gold the princess maiden pent. Another person is fond of the embraces of boys: well,let him look for Ganymede in Jupiter’s bosom, let him see Hercules questing after Hylas with the impatience of love, let him learn how Apollo was overcome with desire for Hyacinthus, let someone else look at the case of Crhysippus,and another at that of Pelops, so that he may declare that his gods authorize him to do whatever is todfay most severely punished by the laws of Rome.  (Firmicus Maternus: The Error of the Pagan Religions Translator Clarence A. Forbes.Edit. Paulister Press, 1970)

Also Arnobius on Seven Books against the Heathen (Adversus Nationes),  IV,26,10.

Quid quod non contenti feminei generis adtribuisse diis curas etiam sexus adiungitis adamatos ab his mares? Hylam nescio quis diligit, Hyacintho est alius occupatus, ille Pelopis desideriis flagrat, hic in Chrysippum suspirat ardentius, Catamitus rapitur deliciarum futurus et poculorum custos, et ut Iovis dicatur pullus, in partibus Fabius aduritur mollibus obsignaturque posticis..

Moreover, not content to have ascribed to the gods love of women, do you also say that they lusted after men? Some one loves Hylas; another is engaged with Hyacinthus; that one burns with desire for Pelops; this one sighs more ardently for Chrysippus; Catamitus is carried off to be a favourite and cup-bearer; and Fabius, that he may be called Jove's darling, is branded on the soft parts, and marked in the hinder. (Trans. Christian Classics Ethereal Library (English ed.). IntraText Digital Library.)

And Lucian of Samosata, on The true History II,17

And I saw Socrates son of Sophroniscus in converse with Nestor and Palamedes; clustered round him were Hyacinth the Spartan, Narcissus of Thespiae, Hylas, and many another comely boy. With Hyacinth I suspected that he was in love; at least he was for ever poking questions at him. (ranslated by Fowler, H W and F G. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 1905).

Otherwise the myth has had and continues to have a remarkable success to this day. No doubt the beautiful men also occupy the imagination and dreams of women.

In this blog I do not usually use images, especially in an abusive manner; at this time I reproduce numerous after the text of Apollonius to demonstrate the strength and vigor that this myth has to this day.

Apollonius of Rhodes, The Argonautica, I, 1200-1357:

Meantime Hylas with pitcher of bronze in hand had gone apart from the throng, seeking the sacred flow of a fountain, that he might be quick in drawing water for the evening meal and actively make all things ready in due order against his lord's return. For in such ways did Heracles nurture him from his first childhood when he had carried him off from the house of his father, goodly Theiodamas, whom the hero pitilessly slew among the Dryopians because he withstood him about an ox for the plough. Theiodamas was cleaving with his plough the soil of fallow land when he was smitten with the curse; and Heracles bade him give up the ploughing ox against his will. For he desired to find some pretext for war against the Dryopians for their bane, since they dwelt there reckless of right. But these tales would lead me far astray from my song. And quickly Hylas came to the spring which the people who dwell thereabouts call Pegae. And the dances of the nymphs were just now being held there; for it was the care of all the nymphs that haunted that lovely headland ever to hymn Artemis in songs by night. All who held the mountain peaks or glens, all they were ranged far off guarding the woods; but one, a water-nymph was just rising from the fair-flowing spring; and the boy she perceived close at hand with the rosy flush of his beauty and sweet grace. For the full moon beaming from the sky smote him. And Cypris made her heart faint, and in her
confusion she could scarcely gather her spirit back to her. But as soon as he dipped the pitcher in the stream, leaning to one side, and the brimming water rang loud as it poured against the sounding bronze,
straightway she laid her left arm above upon his neck yearning to kiss
his tender mouth; and with her right hand she drew down his elbow, and
plunged him into the midst of the eddy.

Alone of his comrades the hero Polyphemus, son of Eilatus, as he went forward on the path, heard the boy's cry, for he expected the return of mighty Heracles. And he rushed after the cry, near Pegae, like some beast of the wild wood whom the bleating of sheep has reached from afar, and burning with hunger he follows, but does not fall in with the flocks; for the shepherds beforehand have penned them in the fold, but he groans and roars vehemently until he is weary.

Thus vehemently at that time did the son of Eilatus groan and wandered
shouting round the spot; and his voice rang piteous. Then quickly
drawing his great sword he started in pursuit, in fear lest the boy
should be the prey of wild beasts, or men should have lain in ambush for him faring all alone, and be carrying him off, an easy prey. Hereupon as he brandished his bare sword in his hand he met Heracles himself on the path, and well he knew him as he hastened to the ship through the darkness. And straightway he told the wretched calamity while his heart laboured with his panting breath.

"My poor friend, I shall be the first to bring thee tidings of bitter woe. Hylas has gone to the well and has not returned safe, but robbers have attacked and are carrying him off, or beasts are tearing him to pieces; I heard his cry."

Thus he spake; and when Heracles heard his words, sweat in abundance poured down from his temples and the black blood boiled beneath his heart. And in wrath he hurled the pine to the ground and hurried along the path whither his feet bore on his impetuous soul. And as when a bull stung by a gadfly tears along, leaving the meadows and the marsh land, and recks not of herdsmen or herd, but presses on, now without cheek, now standing still, and raising his broad neck he bellows
loudly, stung by the maddening fly; so he in his frenzy now would ply
his swift knees unresting, now again would cease from toil and shout
afar with loud pealing cry.

But straightway the morning star rose above the topmost peaks and the breeze swept down; and quickly did Tiphys urge them to go aboard and avail themselves of the wind. And they embarked eagerly forthwith; and they drew up the ship's anchors and hauled the ropes astern. And the sails were bellied out by the wind, and far from the coast were they joyfully borne past the Posideian headland. But at the hour when gladsome dawn shines from heaven, rising from the east, and the paths stand out clearly, and the dewy plains shine with a bright gleam, then at length they were aware that unwittingly they had abandoned those men. And a fierce quarrel fell upon them, and violent tumult, for that they had sailed and left behind the bravest of their comrades. And Aeson's son, bewildered by their hapless plight, said never a word, good or bad; but sat with his heavy load of grief, eating out his heart. And wrath seized Telamon, and thus he spake:

"Sit there at thy ease, for it was fitting for thee to leave Heracles behind; from thee the project arose, so that his glory throughout Hellas should not overshadow thee, if so be that heaven grants us a return home. But what pleasure is there in words? For I will go, I only, with none of thy comrades, who have helped thee to plan this
treachery."

He spake, and rushed upon Tiphys son of Hagnias; and his eyes sparkled like flashes of ravening flame. And they would quickly have turned back to the land of the Mysians, forcing their way through the deep sea and the unceasing blasts of the wind, had not the two sons of Thracian Boreas held back the son of Aeacus with harsh words. Hapless
ones, assuredly a bitter vengeance came upon them thereafter at the
hands of Heracles, because they stayed the search for him. For when they were returning from the games over Pelias dead he slew them in sea-girt Tenos and heaped the earth round them, and placed two columns above, one of which, a great marvel for men to see, moves at the breath of the blustering north wind. These things were thus to be accomplished in after times. But to them appeared Glaucus from the depths of the sea, the wise interpreter of divine Nereus, and raising aloft his shaggy head and chest from his waist below, with sturdy hand he seized the ship's keel, and then cried to the eager crew:

"Why against the counsel of mighty Zeus do ye purpose to lead bold Heracles to the city of Aeetes? At Argos it is his fate to labour for insolent Eurystheus and to accomplish full twelve toils and dwell with the immortals, if so be that he bring to fulfilment a few more yet; wherefore let there be no vain regret for him. Likewise it is destined for Polyphemus to found a glorious city at the mouth of Cius among the Mysians and to fill up the measure of his fate in the vast land of the Chalybes. But a goddess-nymph through love has made Hylas her husband, on whose account those two wandered and were left behind."

He spake, and with a plunge wrapped him about with the restless wave; and round him the dark water foamed in seething eddies and dashed against the hollow ship as it moved through the sea. And the heroes rejoiced, and Telamon son of Aeacus came in haste to Jason, and
grasping his hand in his own embraced him with these words:

"Son of Aeson, be not wroth with me, if in my folly I have erred, for grief wrought upon me to utter a word arrogant and intolerable. But let me give my fault to the winds and let our hearts be joined as before."

Him the son of Aeson with prudence addressed: "Good friend, assuredly with an evil word didst thou revile me, saying before them all that I was the wronger of a kindly man. But not for long will I nurse bitter wrath, though indeed before I was grieved. For it was not for flocks of sheep, no, nor for possessions that thou wast angered to fury, but for a man, thy comrade. And I were fain thou wouldst even champion me against another man if a like thing should ever befall me."

He spake, and they sat down, united as of old. But of those two, by the counsel of Zeus, one, Polyphemus son of Eilatus, was destined to found and build a city among the Mysians bearing the river's name, and the other, Heracles, to return and toil at the labours of Eurystheus. And he threatened to lay waste the Mysian land at once, should they not discover for him the doom of Hylas, whether living or dead. And for him they gave pledges choosing out the noblest sons of the people and took an oath that they would never cease from their labour of
search. Therefore to this day the people of Cius enquire for Hylas the
son of Theiodamas, and take thought for the well-built Trachis. For
there did Heracles settle the youths whom they sent from Cius as pledges.

And all day long and all night the wind bore the ship on, blowing fresh and strong; but when dawn rose there was not even a breath of air. And they marked a beach jutting forth from a bend of the coast, very broad to behold, and by dint of rowing came to land at sunrise. (Translation by Seaton, R.C.: "Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica" (Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1912).

Pompeya VII, 4, 62. Museo Nazionale di Napoli

In the northern Greek city of Amphipolis

Saint Colombe (France). Museum of Grenoble.  3rd. century

Opus sectile. From the Basílica of Iunius Bassus on the Esquiline Hill

Tor Bella Monaca. Museo Nazionale Romano

Constantine Museum.

Djemila (Argelia) Museum of Djemila

Pietro Santo Bartoli (1635-1700): Hylas A Nymphis Raptus (Hylas Captured by the Nymphs), after Giulio Romano Engraver

Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844)-Hylas and the Water Nymphs-Thorvaldsens Museum

Carl Ferdinand Sohn, 1805-1867- Der Raub Des Hylas

Hylas and the Nymphs (1896) by John William Waterhouse

Victorian Sculpture

Duncan Grant (1885-1978

Hylas and the Nymphs- Karl Bryullov, 1827

According to the above

Hylas stolen by the Nymphs, from an antique painting by Santi Bartoli-Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

Henrietta Rae (1859–1928)

Hylas And The Water Nymps. by David Neaves

James Stenhouse

Hylas and the Water Nymphs by Edouard Theophile Blanchard

HYLAS RESCUED FROM THE RIVER BY THE NYMPHS' (31), by Joshua Cristall, (1767-1847) in the East Anteroom at Attingham Park

by doomed-echo

by RevolverWinds

ECLECTICLANZ – Artwork

Atley Loughridge as Dyrope and Justin Blanchard as Hylas in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Argonautika, written and directed by Mary Zimmerman. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Hylas and the Nymphs by KatiaST

http://antidepresivo.net/wp-content/…ylasNymphs.jpg

In a blog about the "Ancient world", as this is, it seems appropriate at this time to spend some commentary on the relationship between Greek and Latin literature and Cervantes and more particularly in his masterpiece "Don Quixote". And  I will devote a few lines to that.

The life of Cervantes and his entire work takes place in the framework of the Golden Age and Spanish Humanism, as it befits to the dates of his life. So  he is steeped entirely in classicism. No one chapter of Don Quixote is in which direct or indirect reference is not found to an old classic author or character
But not only it is interesting to collect mechanically the quotes, which I will refer below, but to detect the infinite details of that influence and overall harmony and find out to what extent affected Cervantes.

So Cervantes is certainly not a Latin scholar, but he is a large connoisseur of all classical topical literature of the time, which  he used profusely. For example when  he speaks, on Quijote, 9 about  historians, he builds  his definition of "history" from the topical and famous sentence of Cicero; of thath usually only it  is known and cited the most elementary part:  "Historia Magistra Vitae, the history is the teacher of life ":

Quixote, I, 9

which is ill done and worse contrived, for it is the business and duty of historians to be exact, truthful, and wholly free from passion, and neither interest nor fear, hatred nor love, should make them swerve from the path of truth, whose mother is history, rival of time, storehouse of deeds, witness for the past, example and counsel for the present, and warning for the future (Translated by John Ormsby

Cicero in De oratore, IX, 36

History vero testis temporum, Lux Veritatis vita memoriae, magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis

Don Quijote, IX

…habiendo y debiendo ser los historiadores puntuales, verdaderos y no nada apasionados, y que ni el interés ni el miedo, el rencor ni la afición, no les haga torcer del camino de la verdad, cuya madre es la historia, émula del tiempo, depósito de las acciones, testigo de lo pasado, ejemplo y aviso de lo presente, advertencia de lo porvenir.

His first novel, Galatea, which Cervantes himself considered a “virgilian eclogue",  is a direct descendant of the Greco-Roman bucolic; his " The Works of Persiles and Sigismunda" is an imitation of the novel "Aethiopica" (imitating Homer's Odyssey ) of Greek Heliodorus, who lived in the third or fourth centuries.

Even it is more evident his  debt in his plays, especially the Numancia, which of course is set in the time of old Hispania. The precepts of ancient rhetoric and poetics, from Aristotle to Cicero and Horace, set the tone of the creativity of Cervantes.

The knowledge of ancient history, the discussions about the relationships between arms and letters, between poetry and history, are raised on numerous occasions. Countless statements, aphorisms, moral precepts, sayings that are being used as topoi from antiquity, references to classical mythology, dotted everywhere life of sane mind Don Quixote.

Moreover, some authors believe that Cervantes tries to imitate the process of creating that some see also on Virgil himself, who began writing his pastoral poetry, the Eclogues, then didactic poetry, Georgics, and finally epic poetry, Aeneid.

This process in the Middle Ages was called the "rota Virgilii" or "wheel of Virgil" which was represented as three concentric circles. The circles correspond to the three styles of ancient rhetoric: humble (humilis), medium (mediocris) and sublime (gravis). This should be the process of every good poet. The Galatea, Don Quixote and The work of Persiles and Segismunda would be the three steps or circles of "rota" that Cervantes would have completed. But we have no evidence that this was the plan of Cervantes, though certainly he was knowledgeable of this so called "rota Virgilii" and Virgil was  the classic author most cited on Don Quixote.

I dedicate this first article to reproduce only the idea that Cervantes has  of the importance of Greek and Latin classical studies by mouth of his characters. In a second article I will refer, by way of example, the myth of the "ages of man" and third and last (at some point I must vary from case) the famous episode of attack of "gentleman" to a large and fierce army of tame sheep, which bears some resemblance to what Homer and Sophocles told of Greek hero in the Trojan War, Ajax, of great strength and remarkable persistence and stubbornness in their decisions.

Philologists studies devoted to these issues on the relationship of Cervantes, and more specifically the Quixote, with classical literature are numerous. Let me quote the doctoral thesis of Antonio Barnes Vázquez “Yo he leído en Virgilio. Análisis sincrónico de la tradición clásica en el Quijote. Granada, 2008)," “I read Virgil. Synchronic analysis of the classical tradition in Don Quixote”. Granada, 1008), from which I extract some data I offer below.

Antonio Barnes notes in Donl Quixote 1274 references to the classical world, 531 in the first half and 743 in the second. Of these 472 relate to any Greek or Roman author. According to Barnes there they appear 62 Greek or Roman authors, 37 Latin and 25 Greeks. The most represented are: Virgil 94 times, 58 Ovid, Homer 47, 46 Aristotle, Horace 45, Plato 32, 31 Cicero, Pliny the Elder 30, Seneca 19, Plutarch 12, Titus Livius 10, Aesop and Cato 9, Caesar 8; Ptolemy and Quintilian 6; Lucian, Aulus Gellius and Juvenal 5; Demosthenes, Isocrates, Apuleius, Marcial, Suetonius 4; Hippocrates, Xenophon, Pythagoras, Phaedrus, Quintus Curtius, Tacitus, Terence 3; Herodotus, Boethius, Claudius Donatus, Lucan, Macrobius, Plautus 2; Achilles Tatius, Arrian, Democritus, Strabo, Heliodorus, Hesiod, Pindar, Sextus Empiricus, Socrates, Theopompus, Tirteus, Zoilus, Appius Claudius, Catullus, Frontinus, Hyginus, Nepos, Papinianus, Persius, Pliny the Younger, Pomponius Mela, Propertius, Publilius Syrus, Sallust, Tibullus 1 (one time).

And all this just in Don Quixote. So the field in which the curious reader can glean is immense.

herefore, by way of summary I reproduce Chapter XVI of the II part where Cervantes leaves us his vision of the importance of the humanities.

From this last observation of Don Quixote's, the traveller began to have a suspicion that he was some crazy being, and was waiting him to confirm it by something further; but before they could turn to any new subject Don Quixote begged him to tell him who he was, since he himself had rendered account of his station and life. To this, he in the green gaban replied "I, Sir Knight of the Rueful Countenance, am a gentleman by birth, native of the village where, please God, we are going to dine today; I am more than fairly well off, and my name is Don Diego de Miranda. I pass my life with my wife, children, and friends; my pursuits are hunting and fishing, but I keep neither hawks nor greyhounds, nothing but a tame partridge or a bold ferret or two; I have six dozen or so of books, some in our mother tongue, some Latin, some of them history, others devotional; those of chivalry have not as yet crossed the threshold of my door; I am more given to turning over the profane than the devotional, so long as they are books of honest entertainment that charm by their style and attract and interest by the invention they display, though of these there are very few in Spain. Sometimes I dine with my neighbours and friends, and often invite them; my entertainments are neat and well served without stint of anything. I have no taste for tattle, nor do I allow tattling in my presence; I pry not into my neighbours' lives, nor have I lynx-eyes for what others do. I hear mass every day; I share my substance with the poor, making no display of good works, lest I let hypocrisy and vainglory, those enemies that subtly take possession of the most watchful heart, find an entrance into mine. I strive to make peace between those whom I know to be at variance; I am the devoted servant of Our Lady, and my trust is ever in the infinite mercy of God our Lord."

Sancho listened with the greatest attention to the account of the gentleman's life and occupation; and thinking it a good and a holy life, and that he who led it ought to work miracles, he threw himself off Dapple, and running in haste seized his right stirrup and kissed his foot again and again with a devout heart and almost with tears.

Seeing this the gentleman asked him, "What are you about, brother? What are these kisses for?"

"Let me kiss," said Sancho, "for I think your worship is the first saint in the saddle I ever saw all the days of my life."

"I am no saint," replied the gentleman, "but a great sinner; but you are, brother, for you must be a good fellow, as your simplicity shows."

Sancho went back and regained his pack-saddle, having extracted a laugh from his master's profound melancholy, and excited fresh amazement in Don Diego. Don Quixote then asked him how many children he had, and observed that one of the things wherein the ancient philosophers, who were without the true knowledge of God, placed the summum bonum was in the gifts of nature, in those of fortune, in having many friends, and many and good children.

"I, Senor Don Quixote," answered the gentleman, "have one son, without whom, perhaps, I should count myself happier than I am, not because he is a bad son, but because he is not so good as I could wish. He is eighteen years of age; he has been for six at Salamanca studying Latin and Greek, and when I wished him to turn to the study of other sciences I found him so wrapped up in that of poetry (if that can be called a science) that there is no getting him to take kindly to the law, which I wished him to study, or to theology, the queen of them all. I would like him to be an honour to his family, as we live in days when our kings liberally reward learning that is virtuous and worthy; for learning without virtue is a pearl on a dunghill. He spends the whole day in settling whether Homer expressed himself correctly or not in such and such a line of the Iliad, whether Martial was indecent or not in such and such an epigram, whether such and such lines of Virgil are to be understood in this way or in that; in short, all his talk is of the works of these poets, and those of Horace, Perseus, Juvenal, and Tibullus; for of the moderns in our own language he makes no great account; but with all his seeming indifference to Spanish poetry, just now his thoughts are absorbed in making a gloss on four lines that have been sent him from Salamanca, which I suspect are for some poetical tournament."

To all this Don Quixote said in reply, "Children, senor, are portions of their parents' bowels, and therefore, be they good or bad, are to be loved as we love the souls that give us life; it is for the parents to guide them from infancy in the ways of virtue, propriety, and worthy Christian conduct, so that when grown up they may be the staff of their parents' old age, and the glory of their posterity; and to force them to study this or that science I do not think wise, though it may be no harm to persuade them; and when there is no need to study for the sake of pane lucrando, and it is the student's good fortune that heaven has given him parents who provide him with it, it would be my advice to them to let him pursue whatever science they may see him most inclined to; and though that of poetry is less useful than pleasurable, it is not one of those that bring discredit upon the possessor. Poetry, gentle sir, is, as I take it, like a tender young maiden of supreme beauty, to array, bedeck, and adorn whom is the task of several other maidens, who are all the rest of the sciences; and she must avail herself of the help of all, and all derive their lustre from her. But this maiden will not bear to be handled, nor dragged through the streets, nor exposed either at the corners of the market-places, or in the closets of palaces. She is the product of an Alchemy of such virtue that he who is able to practise it, will turn her into pure gold of inestimable worth. He that possesses her must keep her within bounds, not permitting her to break out in ribald satires or soulless sonnets. She must on no account be offered for sale, unless, indeed, it be in heroic poems, moving tragedies, or sprightly and ingenious comedies. She must not be touched by the buffoons, nor by the ignorant vulgar, incapable of comprehending or appreciating her hidden treasures. And do not suppose, senor, that I apply the term vulgar here merely to plebeians and the lower orders; for everyone who is ignorant, be he lord or prince, may and should be included among the vulgar. He, then, who shall embrace and cultivate poetry under the conditions I have named, shall become famous, and his name honoured throughout all the civilised nations of the earth. And with regard to what you say, senor, of your son having no great opinion of Spanish poetry, I am inclined to think that he is not quite right there, and for this reason: the great poet Homer did not write in Latin, because he was a Greek, nor did Virgil write in Greek, because he was a Latin; in short, all the ancient poets wrote in the language they imbibed with their mother's milk, and never went in quest of foreign ones to express their sublime conceptions; and that being so, the usage should in justice extend to all nations, and the German poet should not be undervalued because he writes in his own language, nor the Castilian, nor even the Biscayan, for writing in his. But your son, senor, I suspect, is not prejudiced against Spanish poetry, but against those poets who are mere Spanish verse writers, without any knowledge of other languages or sciences to adorn and give life and vigour to their natural inspiration; and yet even in this he may be wrong; for, according to a true belief, a poet is born one; that is to say, the poet by nature comes forth a poet from his mother's womb; and following the bent that heaven has bestowed upon him, without the aid of study or art, he produces things that show how truly he spoke who said, 'Est Deus in nobis,' etc. At the same time, I say that the poet by nature who calls in art to his aid will be a far better poet, and will surpass him who tries to be one relying upon his knowledge of art alone. The reason is, that art does not surpass nature, but only brings it to perfection; and thus, nature combined with art, and art with nature, will produce a perfect poet. To bring my argument to a close, I would say then, gentle sir, let your son go on as his star leads him, for being so studious as he seems to be, and having already successfully surmounted the first step of the sciences, which is that of the languages, with their help he will by his own exertions reach the summit of polite literature, which so well becomes an independent gentleman, and adorns, honours, and distinguishes him, as much as the mitre does the bishop, or the gown the learned counsellor. If your son write satires reflecting on the honour of others, chide and correct him, and tear them up; but if he compose discourses in which he rebukes vice in general, in the style of Horace, and with elegance like his, commend him; for it is legitimate for a poet to write against envy and lash the envious in his verse, and the other vices too, provided he does not single out individuals; there are, however, poets who, for the sake of saying something spiteful, would run the risk of being banished to the coast of Pontus. If the poet be pure in his morals, he will be pure in his verses too; the pen is the tongue of the mind, and as the thought engendered there, so will be the things that it writes down. And when kings and princes observe this marvellous science of poetry in wise, virtuous, and thoughtful subjects, they honour, value, exalt them, and even crown them with the leaves of that tree which the thunderbolt strikes not, as if to show that they whose brows are honoured and adorned with such a crown are not to be assailed by anyone."

He of the green gaban was filled with astonishment at Don Quixote's argument, so much so that he began to abandon the notion he had taken up about his being crazy. But in the middle of the discourse, it being not very much to his taste, Sancho had turned aside out of the road to beg a little milk from some shepherds, who were milking their ewes hard by; and just as the gentleman, highly pleased, was about to renew the conversation, Don Quixote, raising his head, perceived a cart covered with royal flags coming along the road they were travelling; and persuaded that this must be some new adventure, he called aloud to Sancho to come and bring him his helmet. Sancho, hearing himself called, quitted the shepherds, and, prodding Dapple vigorously, came up to his master, to whom there fell a terrific and desperate adventure. (Translated by John Ormsby)

Desta última razón de don Quijote tomó barruntos el caminante de que don Quijote debía de ser algún mentecato, y aguardaba que con otras lo confirmase; pero, antes que se divertiesen en otros razonamientos, don Quijote le rogó le dijese quién era, pues él le había dado parte de su condición y de su vida. A lo que respondió el del Verde Gabán:

–Yo, señor Caballero de la Triste Figura, soy un hidalgo natural de un lugar donde iremos a comer hoy, si Dios fuere servido. Soy más que medianamente rico y es mi nombre don Diego de Miranda; paso la vida con mi mujer, y con mis hijos, y con mis amigos; mis ejercicios son el de la caza y pesca, pero no mantengo ni halcón ni galgos, sino algún perdigón manso, o algún hurón atrevido. Tengo hasta seis docenas de libros, cuáles de romance y cuáles de latín, de historia algunos y de devoción otros; los de caballerías aún no han entrado por los umbrales de mis puertas. Hojeo más los que son profanos que los devotos, como sean de honesto entretenimiento, que deleiten con el lenguaje y admiren y suspendan con la invención, puesto que déstos hay muy pocos en España. Alguna vez como con mis vecinos y amigos, y muchas veces los convido; son mis convites limpios y aseados, y no nada escasos; ni gusto de murmurar, ni consiento que delante de mí se murmure; no escudriño las vidas ajenas, ni soy lince de los hechos de los otros; oigo misa cada día; reparto de mis bienes con los pobres, sin hacer alarde de las buenas obras, por no dar entrada en mi corazón a la hipocresía y vanagloria, enemigos que blandamente se apoderan del corazón más recatado; procuro poner en paz los que sé que están desavenidos; soy devoto de nuestra Señora, y confío siempre en la misericordia infinita de Dios nuestro Señor.

Atentísimo estuvo Sancho a la relación de la vida y entretenimientos del hidalgo; y, pareciéndole buena y santa y que quien la hacía debía de hacer milagros, se arrojó del rucio, y con gran priesa le fue a asir del estribo derecho, y con devoto corazón y casi lágrimas le besó los pies una y muchas veces. Visto lo cual por el hidalgo, le preguntó:

–¿Qué hacéis, hermano? ¿Qué besos son éstos?

–Déjenme besar –respondió Sancho–, porque me parece vuesa merced el primer santo a la jineta que he visto en todos los días de mi vida.

–No soy santo –respondió el hidalgo–, sino gran pecador; vos sí, hermano, que debéis de ser bueno, como vuestra simplicidad lo muestra.

Volvió Sancho a cobrar la albarda, habiendo sacado a plaza la risa de la profunda malencolía de su amo y causado nueva admiración a don Diego. Preguntóle don Quijote que cuántos hijos tenía, y díjole que una de las cosas en que ponían el sumo bien los antiguos filósofos, que carecieron del verdadero conocimiento de Dios, fue en los bienes de la naturaleza, en los de la fortuna, en tener muchos amigos y en tener muchos y buenos hijos.

–Yo, señor don Quijote –respondió el hidalgo–, tengo un hijo, que, a no tenerle, quizá me juzgara por más dichoso de lo que soy; y no porque él sea malo, sino porque no es tan bueno como yo quisiera. Será de edad de diez y ocho años: los seis ha estado en Salamanca, aprendiendo las lenguas latina y griega; y, cuando quise que pasase a estudiar otras ciencias, halléle tan embebido en la de la poesía, si es que se puede llamar ciencia, que no es posible hacerle arrostrar la de las leyes, que yo quisiera que estudiara, ni de la reina de todas, la teología. Qu[i]siera yo que fuera corona de su linaje, pues vivimos en siglo donde nuestros reyes premian altamente las virtuosas y buenas letras; porque letras sin virtud son perlas en el muladar. Todo el día se le pasa en averiguar si dijo bien o mal Homero en tal verso de la Ilíada; si Marcial anduvo deshonesto, o no, en tal epigrama; si se han de entender de una manera o otra tales y tales versos de Virgilio. En fin, todas sus conversaciones son con los libros de los referidos poetas, y con los de Horacio, Persio, Juvenal y Tibulo; que de los modernos romancistas no hace mucha cuenta; y, con todo el mal cariño que muestra tener a la poesía de romance, le tiene agora desvanecidos los pensamientos el hacer una glosa a cuatro versos que le han enviado de Salamanca, y pienso que son de justa literaria.

A todo lo cual respondió don Quijote:

–Los hijos, señor, son pedazos de las entrañas de sus padres, y así, se han de querer, o buenos o malos que sean, como se quieren las almas que nos dan vida; a los padres toca el encaminarlos desde pequeños por los pasos de la virtud, de la buena crianza y de las buenas y cristianas costumbres, para que cuando grandes sean báculo de la vejez de sus padres y gloria de su posteridad; y en lo de forzarles que estudien esta o aquella ciencia no lo tengo por acertado, aunque el persuadirles no será dañoso; y cuando no se ha de estudiar para pane lucrando, siendo tan venturoso el estudiante que le dio el cielo padres que se lo dejen, sería yo de parecer que le dejen seguir aquella ciencia a que más le vieren inclinado; y, aunque la de la poesía es menos útil que deleitable, no es de aquellas que suelen deshonrar a quien las posee. La poesía, señor hidalgo, a mi parecer, es como una doncella tierna y de poca edad, y en todo estremo hermosa, a quien tienen cuidado de enriquecer, pulir y adornar otras muchas doncellas, que son todas las otras ciencias, y ella se ha de servir de todas, y todas se han de autorizar con ella; pero esta tal doncella no quiere ser manoseada, ni traída por las calles, ni publicada por las esquinas de las plazas ni por los rincones de los palacios. Ella es hecha de una alquimia de tal virtud, que quien la sabe tratar la volverá en oro purísimo de inestimable precio; hala de tener, el que la tuviere, a raya, no dejándola correr en torpes sátiras ni en desalmados sonetos; no ha de ser vendible en ninguna manera, si ya no fuere en poemas heroicos, en lamentables tragedias, o en comedias alegres y artificiosas; no se ha de dejar tratar de los truhanes, ni del ignorante vulgo, incapaz de conocer ni estimar los tesoros que en ella se encierran. Y no penséis, señor, que yo llamo aquí vulgo solamente a la gente plebeya y humilde; que todo aquel que no sabe, aunque sea señor y príncipe, puede y debe entrar en número de vulgo. Y así, el que con los requisitos que he dicho tratare y tuviere a la poesía, será famoso y estimado su nombre en todas las naciones políticas del mundo. Y a lo que decís, señor, que vuestro hijo no estima mucho la poesía de romance, doyme a entender que no anda muy acertado en ello, y la razón es ésta: el grande Homero no escribió en latín, porque era griego, ni Virgilio no escribió en griego, porque era latino. En resolución, todos los poetas antiguos escribieron en la lengua que mamaron en la leche, y no fueron a buscar las estranjeras para declarar la alteza de sus conceptos. Y, siendo esto así, razón sería se estendiese esta costumbre por todas las naciones, y que no se desestimase el poeta alemán porque escribe en su lengua, ni el castellano, ni aun el vizcaíno, que escribe en la suya. Pero vuestro hijo, a lo que yo, señor, imagino, no debe de estar mal con la poesía de romance, sino con los poetas que son meros romancistas, sin saber otras lenguas ni otras ciencias que adornen y despierten y ayuden a su natural impulso; y aun en esto puede haber yerro; porque, según es opinión verdadera, el poeta nace: quieren decir que del vientre de su madre el poeta natural sale poeta; y, con aquella inclinación que le dio el cielo, sin más estudio ni artificio, compone cosas, que hace verdadero al que dijo: est Deus in nobis…, etcétera. También digo que el natural poeta que se ayudare del arte será mucho mejor y se aventajará al poeta que sólo por saber el arte quisiere serlo; la razón es porque el arte no se aventaja a la naturaleza, sino perficiónala; así que, mezcladas la naturaleza y el arte, y el arte con la naturaleza, sacarán un perfetísimo poeta. Sea, pues, la conclusión de mi plática, señor hidalgo, que vuesa merced deje caminar a su hijo por donde su estrella le llama; que, siendo él tan buen estudiante como debe de ser, y habiendo ya subido felicemente el primer escalón de las esencias, que es el de las lenguas, con ellas por sí mesmo subirá a la cumbre de las letras humanas, las cuales tan bien parecen en un caballero de capa y espada, y así le adornan, honran y engrandecen, como las mitras a los obispos, o como las garnachas a los peritos jurisconsultos. Riña vuesa merced a su hijo si hiciere sátiras que perjudiquen las honras ajenas, y castíguele, y rómpaselas, pero si hiciere sermones al modo de Horacio, donde reprehenda los vicios en general, como tan elegantemente él lo hizo, alábele: porque lícito es al poeta escribir contra la invidia, y decir en sus versos mal de los invidiosos, y así de los otros vicios, con que no señale persona alguna; pero hay poetas que, a trueco de decir una malicia, se pondrán a peligro que los destierren a las islas de Ponto. Si el poeta fuere casto en sus costumbres, lo será también en sus versos; la pluma es lengua del alma: cuales fueren los conceptos que en ella se engendraren, tales serán sus escritos; y cuando los reyes y príncipes veen la milagrosa ciencia de la poesía en sujetos prudentes, virtuosos y graves, los honran, los estiman y los enriquecen, y aun los coronan con las hojas del árbol a quien no ofende el rayo, como en señal que no han de ser ofendidos de nadie los que con tales coronas veen honrados y adornadas sus sienes.

Admirado quedó el del Verde Gabán del razonamiento de don Quijote, y tanto, que fue perdiendo de la opinión que con él tenía, de ser mentecato. Pero, a la mitad desta plática, Sancho, por no ser muy de su gusto, se había desviado del camino a pedir un poco de leche a unos pastores que allí junto estaban ordeñando unas ovejas; y, en esto, ya volvía a renovar la plática el hidalgo, satisfecho en estremo de la discreción y buen discurso de don Quijote, cuando, alzando don Quijote la cabeza, vio que por el camino por donde ellos iban venía un carro lleno de banderas reales; y, creyendo que debía de ser alguna nueva aventura, a grandes voces llamó a Sancho que viniese a darle la celada. El cual Sancho, oyéndose llamar, dejó a los pastores, y a toda priesa picó al rucio, y llegó donde su amo estaba, a quien sucedió una espantosa y desatinada aventura.

But occasionally the man executes  works that are out of the ordinary, out of normal, out of usual. To qualify them we have some little expressive adjectives, usually expressing a negative concept, denying one positive (extraordinary,  enormous, …) and other few with more qualifying and semantic force (cyclopean, colossal, Herculean, titanic ...).

Interestingly the latter are derived from the name of some ancient mythological beings from them they take precisely its expressive richness. So once we can conclude that it is much, in all respects, what we owe to the Greeks and to their cultural creations. If we say "extraordinary", we say that it is out of the ordinary; but if we say "cyclopean", we are saying  much more.

Thus we say  "Cyclopean work" to refer, for example, to walls of some ancient cities or towns such as Mycenae and Tiryns or Tarragona in Spain, built by huge stone blocks that seem impossible to be handled by normal men. The name derives from "Cyclops", from the Greek Κύκλωπες Kýklopes, from  κύκλος kyklos, 'wheel', 'circle' and ὤψ ops, 'eye'. The Cyclopes are huge and gross mythological creatures with one eye on the forehead. The first generation were the children of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth).

The best known is one of the second generation called Polyphemus, Πολύφημος Polyphemos, of many words, son of Poseidon and of the nymph Toosa. It is well known episode narrated in the Odyssey in which the Greeks, who had entered his cave, must to make  a ruse to escape from the man eating  voracity of the monster ; Cyclops Polyphemus was able to lift and throw huge stones at the Greeks fleeing on his boat, but with little knack because he lost  the sight in his one eye. Homer tells us on Odyssey IX. Over many lines; in the number 536 et seq. he says:

Homer, Odyssey IX, 536 et seq.

Thus did he speak and pray, and the dark-haired god gave ear. Again lifting  a stone much larger than before, he swung and sent it, and he put forth stupendous power. Down fell the stone behind the dark-bowed ship a little space, but failed to reach the rudder’s tip. The sea surged underneath the stone as it came down, but the wave swept us forward and helped us to our shore. (Translated by George Herbert Palmer, 1895).

The  old  used also the word cyclopean with this meaning. For example Virgil Aeneid I, v.201

Ye sailed a course hard by
infuriate Scylla's howling cliffs and caves.
Ye knew the Cyclops' crags. Lift up your hearts!
No more complaint and fear! It well may be
some happier hour will find this memory fair. (Vergil. Aeneid. Theodore C. Williams. trans. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1910.)

Vos et Scyllaeam rabiem penitusque sonantis
accestis scopulos, vos et Cyclopea saxa
experti: revocate animos, maestumque timorem
mittite: forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.

Not surprisingly the geographer Strabo and Pausanias, author of the first travel guide which we have information, include the widespread opinion that walls of large stones were the work of the Cyclopes.

Estrabon, VIII, 6,11:

Now it seems that Tiryns was used as a base of operations by Proetus, and was walled by him through the aid of the Cyclopes,  (H. L. Jones, The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press)

Also Pliny says us in Naturalis Historia, VII, 56 (195:

Cinyra, the son of Agriopas, invented tiles and discovered copper-mines, both of them in the island of Cyprus; he also invented the tongs, the hammer, the lever, and the anvil. Wells were invented by Danaus, who came from Egypt into that part of Greece which had been previously known as Argos Dipsion.

The first stone-quarries were opened by Cadmus at Thebes, or else, according to Theophrastus, in Phœnicia. Walls were first built by Thrason; according to Aristotle, towers were first erected by the Cyclopes, but according to Theophrastus, by the Tirynthii.  (The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)

Pausanias, in several places, including Description of Greece  II 25.8

(Tyrinht) The wall, which is the only part of the ruins still remaining, is a work of the Cyclopes made of unwrought stones, each stone being so big that a pair of mules could not move the smallest from its place to the slightest degree. Long ago small stones were so inserted that each of them binds the large blocks firmly together.  (English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1918).

Colossal is another synonym to describe these extraordinary works from the Greek noun κολοσσός (Kolossos), with which the Greeks designated the large statues. The Colossus par excellence is the Colossus of Rhodes, dedicated to Helios, the Sun, built in 292 BC and destroyed in 226 B.C. by an earthquake. It was so famous in Antiquity than it was considered one of the Seven Wonders and appears in numerous ancient texts. Pliny gives us information about it in Natural History, lib. 34, 18, (41)

But that which is by far the most worthy of our admiration, is the colossal statue of the Sun, which stood formerly at Rhodes, and was the work of Chares the Lindian, a pupil of the above-named Lysippus; no less than seventy cubits in height. This statue fifty-six years after it was erected, was thrown down by an earthquake; but even as it lies, it excites our wonder and admiration. Few men can clasp the thumb in their arms, and its fingers are larger than most statues. Where the limbs are broken asunder, vast caverns are seen yawning in the interior. Within it, too, are to be seen large masses of rock, by the weight of which the artist steadied it while erecting it. It is said that it was twelve years before this statue was completed, and that three hundred talents were expended upon it; a sum raised from the engines of warfare which had been abandoned by King Demetrius, when tired of the long-protracted siege of Rhodes. (The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)

Nota: It remained on the spot where it was thrown down for nearly nine hundred years, until the year 653 A.D., when Moavia, khalif of the Saracens, after the capture of Rhodes, sold the materials; it is said that it required nine hundred camels to remove the remains.

Pliny, Natural History, lib. 34, 18, (41)

Ante omnes autem in admiratione fuit Solis colossus Rhodi, quem fecerat Chares Lindius, Lysippi supra dicti discipulus. LXX cubitorum altitudinis fuit hoc simulacrum, post LXVI annum terrae motu prostratum, sed iacens quoque miraculo est. pauci pollicem eius amplectuntur, maiores sunt digiti quam pleraeque statuae. Vasti specus hiant defractis membris; spectantur intus magnae molis saxa, quorum pondere stabiliverat eum constituens. Duodecim annis tradunt effectum CCC talentis, quae contigerant ex apparatu regis Demetrii relicto morae taedio obsessa Rhodo.

There were numerous gigantic statues and therefore many "Colossus". One of these colossal statues was which represented Nero, located in the Domus Aurea, gold house, near the amphitheater Flavius, which  was called for that  Amphiteatrum Colosseum or Colossei, the Amphitheater of Colosseum. Hence Colosseum came to refer to the amphitheater itself and as you know the building was dedicated to celebrate gladiator fights with other gladiators and wild animals. Even today the standing skeleton of this colossal building amazes the tourists who visit Rome. He could well be called “colosseum” by its enormous dimensions for 40.000 spectators, who also can be evicted in few minutes with the numeous, strategic and well designed “vomitoria”  or hits to the stands.

The statue of Nero became statue of the Sun after the destruction of the Domus Aurea and it was finally withdrawn under Emperor Hadrian to build the Temple of Venus and Roma; for this work they will require 24 elephants, as it is told by Spartianus in Historia Augusta: .

Historia Augusta: The Life of Hadrian XIX, 12 et seq.

With the aid of the architect Decrianus he raised the Colossus and, keeping it in an upright position, moved it away from the place in which the Temple of Rome is now, though its weight was so vast that he had to furnish for the work as many as twenty-four elephants.  This statue he then consecrated to the Sun, after removing the features of Nero, to whom it had previously been dedicated, and he also planned, with the assistance of the architect Apollodorus, to make a similar one for the Moon. (English translation  by David Magie,1921).

Transtulit et colossum stantem atque suspensum per Decrianum architectum de eo loco, in quo nunc templum Urbis est, ingenti molimine, ita ut operi etiam elephantos viginti quattuor exhiberet. 13 Et cum hoc simulacrum post Neronis vultum, cui antea dicatum fuerat, Soli consecrasset, aliud tale Apollodoro architecto auctore facere Lunae molitus est.

Interestingly from coliseum derives the Spanish word “coso”, which in Spain and countries influenced by its culture refers to the circular bullfighting arenas in them the bullfight are held, certainly modern heritage of ancient fights of men with wild animals held in the Colosseum amphitheater.

Herculean is another word appropriated to the size and grandeur of these works. Hercules, in Greek Ἡρακλῆς, Herakles,  son of Zeus and of the mortal Alcmene, is the most famous of the Greek heroes, of extraordinary strength. He must  to perform twelve difficult tasks. On childhood he proved his strength: shortly after birth Hera sent two serpents to kill him in his sleep, but he strangled them by his own hands. Later, when adult, he would be very strong, able to separate Europe from Africa and put the famous columns. The tenth labor was to steal the oxen or cows of shepherd Gerión, three bodies monster living in the West, in the current Cádiz, and to transport them alive to Mycenae. At the end of the Mediterranean Sea he found closed the road of the sea, and he opened the Strait of Gibraltar to connect the two seas and placed the columns, one in Gibraltar and the other on Mount Hacho in Ceuta (other versions propose another location in Africa).

Beyond these columns Phoenician, Greeks and Romans navigators did not dare to go through the "mare ignotum" or "mare tenebrosum". For this reason the columns are accompanied by the words "non plus ultra", "no later than" as serious warning, surpassed words when  Columbus and the Spanish discovered America on end of fifteenth century. Charles V eliminated the "non" of legend and made the slogan  "plus ultra", "beyond".

The geographer Pomponius Mela, who was born curiously in Tingentera, town identified as  Iulia Traducta, the modern Algeciras or Tarifa, and therefore from the Strait, wrote about it in his Chorographia, I, 23:

Beyond there is a very high mountain, and facing it, on Hispania there is another that reaches its height:  the one they call Abila, the other one Calpe,  and the two together they call Pillars of Hercules. Tradition tells us the story of the name: Hercules himself separated the two mountains which once had been joined in a continuous range, and thus the Ocean, closed earlier by the mass of the mountains had entry into those lands that it now inundates. Here now the sea spreads in over more broadly and falls with its great force across the width on the lands which have regressed. Otherwise the region, poor and unlucky to have something important, is populated by small towns; it produces small rivers, and it is of better value by its soil than by its men; and it is obscure by the low value of its people.

Deinde est mons praealtus, ei quem ex adverso Hispania adtollit obiectus: hunc Abilam, illum Calpen vocant, Columnas Herculis utrumque. Addit fama nominis fabulam, Herculem ipsum iunctos olim perpetuo iugo diremisse colles, atque ita exclusum antea mole montium oceanum ad quae nunc inundat admissum. Hic iam mare latius funditur, submotasque vastius terras magno impetu inflectit. ceterum regio ignobilis et vix quicquam inlustre sortita parvis oppidis habitatur, parva flumina emittit, solo quam viris melior et segnitia gentis obscura.

Among many other texts, such Estrabo, 3,5,2, Pliny in his Naturalis Historia 3.1 (4), and Seneca, in his tragedy Hercules the Furious reviews  his labors including the episode of cows of Geryon; I  reproduce Hercules furens 232-238:

Among his herds in the distant land of Spain the three-shaped shepherd of the Tartesian shore was killed and his cattle driven as spoil from the farthest west; Cithaeron has fed the herd once to Ocean known.

When bidden to enter the regions of the summer sun, those scorched realms which midday burns, he clove the mountains on either hand and, rending the barrier, made a wide path20 for Ocean’s rushing stream. (Translated by Miller, Frank Justus. Loeb Classical Library Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1917) .

inter remotos gentis Hesperiae greges
pastor triformis litoris Tartesii
peremptus, acta est praeda ab occasu ultimo;
notum Cithaeron pavit Oceano pecus.
penetrare iussus solis aestivi plagas
et adusta medius regna quae torret dies
utrimque montes solvit ac rupto obice
latam ruenti fecit Oceano viam.

Titanic also adequately describes these exceptional works, so uncommon.

The Titans are primitive gods of Greek mythology, children of Uranus and Gaea, prior to the Olympian gods. In Titanomachy or war of the Titans were defeated by Zeus and the Olympians and locked in Tartarus. Hesiodus tells us the terrible battle in his Theogony, from which I reproduce a small fragment.
Hesiod, Theogony, 674 et ss.

These, then, stood against the Titans in grim strife, holding huge rocks in their strong hands. And on the other part the Titans eagerly strengthened their ranks, and both sides at one time showed the work of their hands and their might. The boundless sea rang terribly around, and the earth crashed loudly: wide Heaven was shaken and groaned, and high Olympus reeled from its foundation under the charge of the undying gods, and a heavy quaking reached dim Tartarus and the deep sound of their feet in the fearful onset and of their hard missiles.  So, then, they launched their grievous shafts upon one another,  and the cry of both armies as they shouted reached to starry heaven; and they met together with a great battle-cry. (English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Theogony. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.)

Gigantic perfectly reflects a great work. The Γίγαντες (gigantes, giants) are large creatures such as the Cyclops, born from Gaia, the Earth and the blood of Uranus, the Sky, as Hesiod tells in his Theogony, 183 et seq .

(When Kronos mutilated his father Uranus) And not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all the bloody drops that gushed forth Earth received, and as the seasons moved round she bore the strong Erinyes and the great Giants with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands and the Nymphs whom they call Meliae all over the boundless earth. (English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White.)

The Giants also fought with the gods. Apollodorus, among many others, tells us in his Library (Bibliotheca)1,6,1:

Such is the legend of Demeter. But Earth, vexed on account of the Titans, brought forth the giants, whom she had by Sky. These were matchless in the bulk of their bodies and invincible in their might; terrible of aspect did they appear, with long locks drooping from their head and chin, and with the scales of dragons for feet. They were born, as some say, in Phlegrae, but according to others in Pallene. And they darted rocks and burning oaks at the sky. Surpassing all the rest were Porphyrion and Alcyoneus, who was even immortal so long as he fought in the land of his birth. He also drove away the cows of the Sun from Erythia.
Now the gods had an oracle that none of the giants could perish at the hand of gods, but that with the help of a mortal they would be made an end of. Learning of this, Earth sought for a simple to prevent the giants from being destroyed even by a mortal. But Zeus forbade the Dawn and the Moon and the Sun to shine, and then, before anybody else could get it, he culled the simple himself, and by means of Athena summoned Hercules to his help. (Translated by Sir James George Frazer. Loeb Classical Library Volumes 121 & 122. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.)

We could include Pharaonic in this series of adjectives, also meaning huge or massive work, derived naturally from the great pyramids and other huge sculptures and temples built by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt.

Mammoth, which adds to the corresponding noun the very magnitude  of the great ancient elephants, of which occasionally appear striking remains.

And of course and rightly the expression "work of Romans" because some bridges, roads and walls especially of Roman times amaze us by its size or difficulty.

Faced with these adjectives, which accumulate in meaning the details of its myth or history, we have a very large number of less significant terms; perhaps as numerous series for general and abstract meaning and limited semantic value they contain. Many of them express a mere negative concept.

extraordinary: Out of order or natural or common rule.

enormous: outside the norm

Excessive: outside measurement

Descomunal. uncommon

Immense: not measured

Some other adjectives have more content; for example:

Magna opera: magnus, -a means large; opera work; therefore "large, great work"

Ingente: Latin word which means "big", related perhaps with the same Greek root "gigas" giant. In Latin "ingens" fell into disuse and interestingly we have recovered it as cultism.

Monumental: what is characteristic of a monument and therefore worthy of being remembered.

Monstrous: related to monstro, and monumentum, meaning that alerts, warns of something because its uniqueness.

Phenomenal of similar meaning as previous; it comes from the Greek φαινομένον, phainomenon phenomenon of φαινεῖν, fainein = shine, shine, appear; show, to show, which literally means' what is  shown ' 'and phenomenal what by their characteristics has high visibility.

Marvelous expresses something similar. Maravilla, derives  from Latin mirabilia, admirable or worthy of admiration or surprising, from verb mirari, to admire things. From the same root is "miracle" miraculum on Latin.

Formidable: from Latin formido, fear; which has some relation to the above: it produces fear, although now  it  has quite lost its negative connotations

impressive and imposing: related to the previous: that puts  awe or fear

Excellent and sublime: they  mean "outstanding"; made from es- and celsus, high, higher; from  an Indo-European root, cel, meaning summit, height.

Anyway, we have not exhausted the list but these terms may be sufficient. Somehow, as never perfect synonyms, everyone agrees the superhuman nature of the actions that qualify. Certainly the mythological characters from which they derive are not men, are gods or heroes at least (half man -half gods).
Finally, the Greek myths and everything about them is absolutely integrated into our cultural heritage and therefore linguistic, although we are not aware when use them.
 

Octavian was born in September of the year 63 B.C. and he died in August 14 AD, (regardless of chronological accuracy by difficulty of the changes, adaptations and adjustments of the calendar, that his uncle Julius Caesar  reformed until today). So just fulfilled 2,000 years and this may be a good opportunity to discuss any details.

Augustus was one of numerous honorary names that  Caesar Octavius accumulated in his person. The word is related to "augeo" which means to increase, grow, gain strength and “augurium”, "omen", "observation and interpretation of the positive messages from the gods". So  "august" comes to mean "consecrated by the auguries, with favorable omens, holy, venerable, the chosen or favored by divinity. " Even today in Italian the word “auguri” is used to express "best wishes" to someone. Until Octavius, the term "augustus" was applied only to things and not to people.

The poet Ovid tells us about the meaning of the term. By chanting the festival and ceremonies of January 13 dedicated to Augustus, tells us in his Fasti 1. 607 et seq.

Yet these are human honours bestowed on all.
Augustus alone has a name that ranks with great Jove.
Sacred things are called august by the senators,
And so are temples duly dedicated by priestly hands.
From the same root comes the word augury,
And Jupiter augments things by his power.
May he augment our leader’s empire and his years,
And may the oak-leaf crown protect his doors.
By the god’s auspices, may the father’s omens
Attend the heir of so great a name, when he rules the world.
(Translated by A. S. Kline)

sed tamen humanis celebrantur honoribus omnes:

hic socium summo cum Iove nomen habet,
sancta vocant augusta patres, augusta vocantur
templa sacerdotum rite dicata manu;
huius et augurium dependet origine verbi,
et quodcumque sua Iuppiter auget ope.
augeat imperium nostri ducis, augeat annos,
protegat et vestras querna corona fores,
auspicibusque deis tanti cognominis heres
omine suscipiat, quo pater, orbis onus

According to sources, at least the ones I know, Augustus was three times in Hispania and from the three there are some relevant facts and anecdotes.

The first trip took place in the year 45 BC, when he was just 18. He must have traveled before with his uncle, but illness prevented him from walking. So he came alone without company to be in Tarraco with Julius Caesar. The trip was wrecked to when he arrived, his uncle was not there, so he must to march through hostile enemy territory to Andalusia where he was fighting in the civil war against Pompey's sons.

Nicholas of Damascus tell that in his Life of Augustus, FGrH F 127, … (10-11)

(10)… Many were eager to accompany him on account of his great promise but he rejected them all, even his mother herself, and selecting the speediest and strongest of his servants he hastened on his journey and with incredible dispatch he covered the long road and approached Caesar, who had already completed the whole war in the space of seven months.
11) When Octavius reached Tarraco it was hard to believe that he had managed to arrive in so great a tumult of war. Not finding Caesar there, he had to endure more trouble and danger. He caught up with Caesar in Spain near the city of Calpia. Caesar embraced him as a son and welcomed him, for he had left him at home, ill, and he now unexpectedly saw him safe from both enemies and brigands. In fact, he did not let him go from him, but he kept him at his own quarters and mess. He commended his zeal and intelligence, inasmuch as he was the first of those who had set out from Rome to arrive. And he made the point of asking him in conversation, for he was anxious to make a trial of his understanding; and finding that he was sagacious, intelligent, and concise in his replies and that he always answered to the point, his esteem and affection for him increased. After this they had to sail for Carthago Nova, and arrangements were made whereby Octavius embarked in the same boat as Caesar, with five slaves, but, out of affection, he took three of his companions aboard in addition to the slaves, though he feared that Caesar would be angry when he found this out. However, the reverse was the case, for Caesar was pleased in that Octavius was fond of his comrades and he commended him because he always liked to have present with him men who were observant and who tried to attain to excellence; and because he was already giving no little thought to gaining a good reputation at home. (Translated by Clayton M. Hall)

The speed and courage with which the young Octavius came  and the common sense to responsibility with which he performed during the stay in Hispania impressed favorably Julius Caesar, who probably began to think on  him as his heir, as will be found in the opening of his will that the priestess Vestal Maxima had guarded.

This information is also offered by Suetonius in his Life of Augustus VIII:

Upon his uncle's expedition to Spain against the sons of Pompey, he was followed by his nephew, although he was scarcely recovered from a dangerous sickness; and after being shipwrecked at sea, and travelling with very few attendants through roads that were infested with the enemy, he at last came up with him. This activity gave great satisfaction to his uncle, who soon conceived an increasing affection for him, on account of such indications of character. (Translated by Alexander Thomson, Ed.)

profectum mox auunculum in Hispanias aduersus Cn. Pompei liberos uixdum firmus a graui ualitudine per infestas hostibus uias paucissimis comitibus naufragio etiam facto subsecutus, magno opere demeruit, approbata cito etiam morum indole super itineris industriam.

And Veleius Patérculus, 2.59.3 reminds us how his uncle Caesar took him to Hispania at eighteen and kept it with him, even by mounting his chariot.

Though he had been reared in the house of his stepfather, Philippus, Gaius Caesar, his great-uncle, loved this boy as his own son. At the age of eighteen Octavius followed Caesar to Spain in his campaign there, and Caesar kept him with him thereafter as his p179companion, allowing him to share the same roof and ride in the same carriage, and though he was still a boy, honoured him with the pontificate. (Translated by Frederick W. Shipley, in the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1924)

Quem C. Caesar, maior eius avunculus, educatum apud Philippum vitricum dilexit ut suum, natumque annos duodeviginti Hispaniensis militiae adsecutum se postea comitem habuit, numquam aut alio usum hospitio quam suo aut alio vectum vehiculo, pontificatusque sacerdotio puerum honoravit.

The second trip was made between 27 and 24 BC and he went to Spain to direct personally the war against the Cantabrian and Asturian. In 26 he retired ill himself to Tarraco , having suffered before a mishap of enormous importance to a Roman citizen.

During a night march, (Augustus preferred to travel at night) it is triggered a major storm and one lightning, thrown undoubtedly by the mighty Jupiter, killed one of the bearers of his litter, leaving perhaps unconscious or seriously damaged  Octavius himself . This lightning  left him forever aftermath , apparently a kind of trembling that occasionally  was present on him.

Suetonius tells us how Octavius dedicated a temple to Iuppiter Tonans, Jupiter the Thunderer on the Capitol for having rid of this lightning. Thunderer is precisely the adjective expressing the superstitious terror that Iuppiter makes to Roman citizen  with his thunder and lightning. Of all the epithets given to Jupiter, none conveyed more terror to superstitious minds than that of the Thunderer.

In the Life of Augustus, 29, 3

He dedicated the temple to Jupiter Tonans in acknowledgment of his escape from a great danger in his Cantabrian expedition; when, as he was travelling in the night, his litter was struck by lightning, which killed the slave who carried a torch before him. (Translated by Alexander Thomson, Ed.)

Tonanti Iovi aedem consecravit liberatus periculo,cum   expeditione Cantabrica per nocturnum iter lecticam eius fulgur praestrinxisset servumque praelucentem exanimasset.

Suetonius refers to  disease that pushed him to Tarraco, perhaps a result of the lightning that almost killed him. Life of Augustus, 81, 1:

During the whole course of his life, he suffered, at times, dangerous fits of sickness, especially after the conquest of Cantabria; when his liver being injured by a defluxion upon it, he was reduced to such a condition, that he was obliged to undergo a desperate and doubtful method of cure: for warm applications having no effect, Antonius Musa1 directed the use of those which were cold.  (Translated by Alexander Thomson, Ed.)

Graues et periculosas ualitudines per omnem uitam aliquot expertus est; praecipue Cantabria domita, cum etiam destillationibus iocinere uitiato ad desperationem redactus contrariam et ancipitem rationem medendi necessario subiit: quia calida fomenta non proderant, frigidis curari coactus auctore Antonio Musa

Dio Cassius in History of Rome in 53, 25 reminds us of the coming of Augustus from Gaul to Spain "to restore order" in 27 BC and how he personally directed the war:

Augustus was planning an expedition into Britain, since the people there would not come to terms, but he was detained by the revolt of the Salassi and by the hostility of the Cantabri and Astures. The former dwell at the foot of the Alps, as I have stated, whereas both the other tribes occupy the strongest part of the Pyrenees on the side of Spain, together with the plain which lies below.
…..
Augustus himself waged war upon the Astures and upon the Cantabri at one and the same time. But these peoples would neither yield to him, because they were confident on account of their strongholds,  nor would they come to close quarters, owing to their inferior numbers and the circumstance that most of them were javelin-throwers, and, besides, they kept causing him a great deal of annoyance, always forestalling him by seizing the higher ground whenever a manoeuvre was attempted, and lying in ambush for him in the valleys and woods.  Accordingly Augustus found himself in very great embarrassment, and having fallen ill from over-exertion and anxiety, he retired to Tarraco and there remained in poor health. Meanwhile Gaius Antistius fought against them and accomplished a good deal, not because he was a better general than Augustus,  but because the barbarians felt contempt for him and so joined battle with the Romans and were defeated. In this way he captured a few places, and afterwards Titus Carisius took Lancia, the principal fortress of the Astures, after it had been abandoned, and also won over many other places. (Translation by Earnest Cary).

Other historians such as Florus, in his Epitome Rerum Romanorum 2,33,12, 46 ff. and Orosius in his "Historiae adversus paganos"  6, 20-21 also remind the Cantabrian Wars and how after they are finished, as it is determined by Augustus in 24,  but they were extended until 19 BC, the doors of temple of Janus in Rome were  closed after two hundred years, because they must to remain open during wartime. Thus began the "peace of Augustus" (pax augusta) ..

Precisely during this trip Dio Cassius tells us how 25 BC Augustus disbanded veterans soldiers and he founded Augusta Emerita, the modern city of Mérida.

Dio Cassius 53, 26, 1

26 1 Upon the conclusion of this war Augustus discharged the more aged of his soldiers and allowed them to found a city in Lusitania, called Augusta Emerita. For those who were still of military age he arranged some exhibitions in the very camps, under the direction of Tiberius and Marcellus, since they were aediles. (Translation by Earnest Cary).

The third trip took place between 16 and 13 BC. First he went to Gaul and Hispania them from there.
In Narbonne, in February of the year 15 B.C. Augustus issued edicts referred to "Paemeiobrigenses" and "Aiiobrigiaecini", both in the Bierzo, which appear in the" tessera Paemeiobrigensis "or Edict of the Bierzo. They  rewarded people who remained faithful in the Cantabrian wars. No doubt these decrees and many other measures concerning the promotion of the status of many cities in Hispania in recent years are related to the fact Augustus  came to Spain for the third time, although sources does not prove it directly.

Just after  return to Rome, the Senate decided to build an altar to peace, the famous Ara Pacis, which seems to refer Dio Cassius in his History of Rome, 54, 25:

25 1 Now when Augustus had finished all the business which occupied him in the several provinces of Gaul, of Germany and of Spain, having spent large sums from others, having bestowed freedom and citizenship upon some and taken them away from others, he left Drusus in Germany and returned to Rome himself in the consulship of Tiberius and Quintilius Varus. 2 Now it chanced that the news of his coming reached the city during those days when Cornelius Balbus was celebrating with spectacles the dedication of theatre which is even to day called by his name; and Balbus accordingly began to put on airs, as if it were he himself that was going to bring Augustus back, — although he was unable even to enter his theatre, except by boat, on account of the flood of water caused by the Tiber, which had overflowed its banks, — and Tiberius put the vote to him first, in honour of his building the theatre. 3 For the senate convened, and among its other decrees voted to place an altar in the senate-chamber itself, to commemorate the return of Augustus, and also voted that those who approached him as suppliants while he was inside the pomerium should not be punished. (Translation by Earnest Cary).

Augustus himself refers to it in his Res Gestae divi Augusti (Monumnetum Ancyranum), 12:

When I returned to Rome from Spain and Gaul, after having successful operations in those provinces when Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius were consuls, the senate voted for  my return the consecration of the altar to Pax Augusta in the Campus Martius, and on this altar it ordered the magistrates and priests and Vestal virgins to offer annual sacrifices.

Cum ex Hispania Gallaque, rebus in iis provincis prospere gestis, Romam redi Ti. Nerone P. Quintilio consulibus, aram Pacis Augustae senatus pro reditu meo consacrandam censuit ad campum Martium, in qua magistratus et sacerdotes et virgines Vestales  anniversarium sacrificium facere iussit.

Ovid also refers to the foundation of the Ara Pacis: Fasti 1 709 ss. He refers to the “Fasti” of the day January 30. These final verses of the book are  a celebration of peace, which I would play:

My song has led to the altar of Peace itself.
This day is the second from the month’s end.
Come, Peace, your graceful tresses wreathed
With laurel of Actium: stay gently in this world.
While we lack enemies, or cause for triumphs:
You’ll be a greater glory to our leaders than war.
May the soldier be armed to defend against arms,
And the trumpet blare only for processions.
May the world far and near fear the sons of Aeneas,
And let any land that feared Rome too little, love her.
Priests, add incense to the peaceful flames,
Let a shining sacrifice fall, brow wet with wine,
And ask the gods who favour pious prayer
That the house that brings peace, may so endure.
(Translated by A. S. Kline)

Ipsum nos carmen deduxit Pacis ad aram.
haec erit a mensis fine secunda dies.
frondibus Actiacis comptos redimita capillos,
Pax, ades et toto mitis in orbe mane. 
dum desint hostes, desit quoque causa triumphi:
tu ducibus bello gloria maior eris.
sola gerat miles, quibus arma coerceat, arma,
canteturque fera nil nisi pompa tuba.
horreat Aeneadas et primus et ultimus orbis:
si qua parum Romam terra timebat, amet.
tura, sacerdotes, pacalibus addite flammis,
albaque percussa victima fronte cadat,
utque domus, quae praestat eam, cum pace perennet
ad pia propensos vota rogate deos.

This phrase, “domus utque, quae praestat pacem, cum pace perennet”, could be the old version of the maxim: "If you want peace, work for peace."

Hadrian, the traveler emperor, from Hispanic origin, is considered one of the "good emperors". Among his virtues,there were with him sympathy and closeness to the people, the plebs. His biographers say that he used to go to the public baths as a citizen and it is related an anecdote about it that I  relate now, but not before a little reflection is made.

Hadrian is a cultured emperor: his ideas are mixing of Stoicism and Epicureanism, like many other Roman, with some sparkle or grace, as it is reflected in the story.

The second question is the claim that the baths were an important factor in social cohesion, open to all citizens who have a small amount to pay the entrance tiket.

The story, a hundred times repeated, tells usually without offering the old fountain, that I lay now at the disposal of the reader:

Historia Augusta;  Aelius Spartianus: De vita Hadriani, 17:

He surpassed all monarchs in his gifts. He often bathed in the public baths, even with the meanest crowd. And a jest of his made in the bath became famous. 6 For on a certain occasion, seeing a veteran, whom he had known in the service, rubbing his back and the rest of his body against the wall, he asked him why he had the marble rub him, and when the man replied that it was because he did not own a slave, he presented him with some slaves and the cost of their maintenance. 7 But another time, when he saw a number of old men rubbing themselves against the wall for the purpose of arousing the generosity of the Emperor, he ordered them to be called out and then to rub one another in turn. (The English translation is by David Magie;  Loeb Classical Library edition)

omnes reges muneribus suis vicit. publice frequenter et cum omnibus lavit.  ex quo ille iocus balnearis innotuit: nam cum quodam tempore veteranum quendam notum sibi in militia dorsum et ceteram partem corporis vidisset adterere parieti, percontatus, cur se marmoribus destringendum daret, ubi audivit hoc idcirco fieri quod servum non haberet, et servis eum donavit et sumptibus.  verum alia die cum plures senes ad provocandam liberalitatem principis parieti se adtererent, evocari eos iussit et alium ab alio invicem defricari.

Yesterday and today there is always a large group of fellows  waiting from others what they could get with their own effort and organization. Although Hadrian  certainly did not intended it, this is a good message for all those who hope in the powerfulfellows  resolving their problems.

Note 1: The word “thermae” comes from the Latin,public baths, and from the Greek θερμός (thermos = hot). In turn, the Greek word θερμός comes from the Indo-European root * gwher which gave fornus for example, from where furnace comes.

Note 2: We understand the text better if we know that the ancient baths or “thermae”, about which I will discuss another time more extensively , were also a gym and massage place , where oil was  applied. The layer of oil with  dead skin cells were removed with a scraper, in Latin called strigilis, in Spanish estrigil , as a small curved knife . The story’s soldier's, without a slave  who pass the strigil , scratched himself on the wall. So common it was their use (of strigil) than it was immortalized in the famous statue by Lysippos ( court sculptor of Alexander) known as " Apoxyomenos, " ἀποξυόμενος , Scraper , (from Greek ἀποξὐω / apoxúô , " scrape", ).

Although in this blog I use only very few images, because I am convinced by the evocative power of words , I reproduce an image of the Roman marble copy of the famous " Apoxiomenos " existing in the Pio- Clementino Museum of Rome ; the original bronze , like many others, was lost. The other photograph represents a strigil.
 

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.