Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  Now, if we take into account the above injury alone, can any one justly pronounce that man happy, whose life was thus endangered by the caprice of an enemy, and that enemy, besides, not an Africanus? What victories over enemies could possibly be counterbalanced by such a price as this? What honours, what triumphs, did not Fortune cancel, in suffering a censor to be dragged through the middle of the city — indeed, that was his only resource for gaining time — dragged to that Capitol, whither he himself, in his triumph, had forborne to drag in a similar manner even the very captives whom he had taken in his conquests? This crime, too, must be looked upon as all the greater, from its having so nearly deprived Macedonicus of the honours of his funeral, so great and so glorious, in which he was borne to the pile by his triumphant children, he himself thus triumphing, as it were, in his very obsequies. Most assuredly, there is no happiness that can be called unalloyed, when the terror of our life has been interrupted by any outrage, and much more by such an outrage as this. As for the rest, I really am at a loss whether we ought most to commend the manners of the age, or to feel an increased degree of indignation, that, among so many members of the family of the Metelli, such wicked audacity as that of C. Atinius remained unpunished.

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  CHAP. 46.

  THE MISFORTUNES OF AUGUSTUS.

  In the life of the now deified emperor Augustus even, whom the whole world would certainly agree to place in this class, if we carefully examine it in all its features, we shall find remarkable vicissitudes of human fate. There was his rejection from the post of master of the horse, by his uncle, and the preference which was given to Lepidus, and that, too, in opposition to his own requests; the hatred produced by the proscription; his alliance in the Triumvirate with some among the very worst of the citizens, and that, too, with an unequal share of influence, he himself being entirely borne down by the power of Antony; his illness at the battle of Philippi; his flight, and his having to remain three days concealed in a marsh, though suffering from sickness, and, according to the account of Agrippa and Mecænas, labouring under a dropsy; his shipwreck on the coast of Sicily, where he was again under the necessity of concealing himself in a cave; his desperation, which caused him even to beg Proculeius to put him to death, when he was hard-pressed by the enemy in a naval engagement; his alarm about the rising at Perusia; his anxiety at the battle of Actium; the extreme danger he was in from the falling of a tower during the Pannonian war seditions so numerous among his soldiers; so many attacks by dangerous diseases; the suspicions which he entertained respecting the intentions of Marcellus; the disgraceful banishment, as it were, of Agrippa; the many plots against his life; the deaths of his own children, of which he was accused, and his heavy sorrows, caused not merely by their loss; the adultery of his daughter, and the discovery of her parricidal designs; the insulting retreat of his son-in-law, Nero; another adultery, that of his grand-daughter; to which there were added numerous other evils, such as the want of money to pay his soldiers; the revolt of Illyria; the necessity of levying the slaves; the sad deficiency of young men; the pestilence that raged in the City; the famine in Italy; the design which he had formed of putting an end to his life, and the fast of four days, which brought him within a hair’s breadth of death. And then, added to all this, the slaughter of Varus; the base slanders whispered against his authority; the rejection of Posthumous Agrippa, after his adoption, and the regret to which Augustus was a prey after his banishment; the suspicions too respecting Fabius, to the effect that he had betrayed his secrets; and then, last of all, the machinations of his wife and of Tiberius, the thoughts of which occupied his last moments. In fine, this same god, who was raised to heaven, I am at a loss to say whether deservedly or not, died, leaving the son of his own enemy his heir.

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  CHAP. 47. (46.)

  MEN WHOM THE GODS HAVE PRONOUNCED TO BE THE MOST HAPPY.

  In reference to this point, two oracles of Delphi may come under our consideration, which would appear to have been pronounced as though in order to chastise the vanity of man. These oracles were the following: by the first, Pedius was pronounced to be the most happy of men, who had just before fallen in defence of his country. On the second occasion, when it had been consulted by Gyges, at that time the most powerful king in the world, it declared that Aglaiis of Psophis was a more happy man than himself. This Aglaiis was an old man, who lived in a poor petty nook of Arcadia, and cultivated a small farm, though quite sufficient for the supply of his yearly wants; he had never so much as left it, and, as was quite evident from his mode of living, his desires being of the most limited kind, he had experienced but an extremely small share of the miseries of life.

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  CHAP. 48. (47.)

  THE MAN WHOM THE GODS ORDERED TO BE WORSHIPPED DURING HIS LIFE-TIME; A REMARKABLE FLASH OF LIGHTNING.

  While still surviving, and in full possession of his senses, by the command of the same oracle, and with the sanction of Jupiter, the supreme Father of the gods, Euthymus, the pugilist, who had always, with one exception, been victorious in the Olympic games, was deified. He was a native of Locri, in Italy. I find that Callimachus, considering it a more wonderful circumstance than any he had ever known, that the two statues which had been erected to him, one at Locri, and the other at Olympia, were struck by lightning on the same day, ordered sacrifices to be offered up to him, which was accordingly done, both during his life-time, and after his death. Nothing, indeed, has appeared to me so remarkable, as this mark of approval given by the gods.

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  CHAP. 49. (48.)

  THE GREATEST LENGTH OF LIFE.

  Not only the differences of climate, but the multitude of instances named, and the peculiar destiny attached to each of us from the moment of his birth, tend to render one very uncertain in forming any general conclusion respecting the length and duration of human life. Hesiod, who was the first to make mention of this subject, while he states many circumstances about the age of man, which appear to me to be fabulous, gives to the crow nine times the ordinary duration of our life, to the stag four times the length of that of the crow, to the raven three times the length of that of the stag, besides other particulars with reference to the phœnix and the Nymphs of a still more fabulous nature. The poet Anacreon gives one hundred and fifty years to Arganthonius, the king of the Tartessii; ten more to Cinaras, the king of Cyprus, and two hundred to Ægimius . Theopompus gives one hundred and fifty-three years to Epimenides of Cnossus; according to Hellenicus, some of the nation of the Epii, in Ætolia, have completed their two hundredth year; and his account is confirmed by Damastes, who relates that Pictoreus, one of this nation, who was remarkable for his size and strength, lived even to his three hundredth year. Ephorus says that some kings of Arcadia have lived three hundred years; Alexander Cornelius, that there was one Dandon, in Illyricum, who lived five hundred years. Xenophon, in his Periplus, gives to a king of the island of the Lutmii six hundred years, and, as though in that instance he had lied too sparingly, to his son eight hundred. All these statements, however, have originated in a want of acquaintance with the accurate measurement of time. For some nations reckon the summer as one year, and the winter as another; others again, consider each of the four seasons a year; the Arcadians, for instance, whose years were of three months each. Others, such as the Egyptians, calculate by the moon, and hence it is that some individuals among them are said to have lived as many as one thousand years.

  Let us proceed, however, to what is admitted to be true. It is pretty nearly certain, that Arganthonius of Gades reigned eighty years, and he is supposed to have commenced his reign when he was forty. Masinissa, beyond a doubt, reigned sixty years, and Gorgias, the Sicilian, lived one hundred and unwittingly the father of Adonis, by his own daughter Myrrha (or Smyrna), in consequence of the anger of Venus or Aphrodite. He was said to have founded the city of Cinyra in Cyprus. eight. Quintus Fabius
Maximus was an augur for sixty- three years. M. Perperna, and more recently, L. Volusius Saturninus, survived all those whose suffrages each had solicited on the occasion of his consulship; Perperna lived ninety-eight years, and left after him only seven of those whose names, when censor, he had enrolled. Connected with this fact, it also suggests itself, and deserves to be remarked, that it has happened only once, that five successive years have ever passed without the death of a senator taking place; this was the case from the occasion on which the censors Flaccus and Albinus performed the lustration, in the year of the City 579, until the time of the succeeding censors.. M. Valerius Corvinus completed one hundred years, forty-six of which intervened between his first and sixth consulship. He occupied the curule chair twenty-one times, a thing that was never the case with any one besides. The pontiff Metellus also attained the same age.

  Among women also, Livia, the wife of Rutilius, exceeded her ninety-sixth year; during the reign of Claudius, Statilia, a member of a noble family, died at the age of ninety-nine; Terentia, the wife of Cicero, lived one hundred and three years, and Clodia, the wife of Ofilius, one hundred and fifteen; she had fifteen children.

  Lucceia, an actress in the mimes, performed on the stage when one hundred years old, and Galeria Copiola returned to the stage, to perform in the interludes, at the votive games which were celebrated for the health of the deified Augustus, in the consulship of C. Poppæus and Q. Sulpicius. She had made her first appearance when eight years of age, just ninety-one years before that time, when M. Pomponius was ædile of the people, in the consulship of C. Marius and Cn. Carbo. When Pompeius Magnus dedicated his great theatre, he brought her upon the stage, as being quite a wonder, considering her old age. Asconius Pedianus informs us, that Sammula also lived one hundred and ten years. I consider it less wonderful that Stephanio, who was the first to dance on the stage in comedy descriptive of Roman manners, should have danced at the two secular games, those celebrated by the deified Augustus, and by Claudius Cæsar, in his fourth consulship, considering that the interval that elapsed between them was no more than sixty-three years; indeed, he lived a considerable time after the last period. We are informed by Mutianus, that, on the peak of Mount Tmolus, which is called Tempsis, the people live one hundred and fifty years, and that T. Fullonius, of Bononia, was set down as of the same age, in the registration which took place under the censorship of Claudius Cæsar; and this appeared to be confirmed by comparing the present with former registrations, as well as many other proofs that he had been alive at certain periods — for that prince greatly interested himself in ascertaining the exact truth of the matter.

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  CHAP. 50. (49.)

  THE VARIETY OF DESTINIES AT THE BIRTH OF MAN.

  The present conjuncture would appear to demand from me some opinion upon the science of the stars. Epigenes used to maintain that human life could not be possibly prolonged to one hundred and twelve years, and Berosus that it could exceed one hundred and seventeen. The system is still in existence which Petosiris and Necepsos transmitted to us, and called by them “tartemorion,” from the division of the signs into four portions; from which it would appear, that life, in the region of Italy, may possibly be extended to one hundred and twenty-four years They maintain that, reckoning from the commencement of an ascending sign, no life can possibly exceed a period of ninety degrees from that point; which periods they call by the name of “anaphoræ;” they say also, that these anaphoræ may be intercepted by meeting with malign stars or their rays even, or those of the sun. To theirs the school of Æsculapius succeeded, which admits that the allotted duration of life is regulated by the stars, but that it is quite uncertain what is the greatest extent of the period. These say that long life is uncommon, because a very great number of persons are born at critical moments in the hours of the lunar days; for example, in the seventh and the fifteenth hours, both by day and night; these individuals are subject to the malign influence of that ascending scale of the years which is termed the “climacteric,” and never hardly, when born under these circumstances, exceed the fifty-fourth year.

  First of all, however, it must strike us that the variations which have taken place in this science prove its uncertainty; and to this consideration may be added the experience of the very last census, which was made four years ago, under the direction of the Emperors Vespasian, father and son. I shall not search through the registers; I shall only cite some instances in the middle district that lies between the Apennines and the river Padus. At Parma, three persons declared themselves to be one hundred and twenty years of age; at Brixellum, one was one hundred and twenty-five; at Parma, two were one hundred and thirty; at Placentia, one was one hundred and thirty; at Faventia, one woman was one hundred and thirty-two; at Bononia, L. Terentius, the son of Marcus, and at Ariminum, M. Aponius, were one hundred and forty, and Tertulla, one hundred and thirty-seven. In the hills which lie around Placentia is the town of Veleiacium, in which six persons gave in their ages as one hundred and ten years, and four one hundred and twenty, while one person, M. Mucius, the son of Marcus, surnamed Felix, and of the Galerian tribe, was aged one hundred and forty. Not, however, to dwell upon what is generally admitted, in the eighth region of Italy, there appeared by the register, to be fifty-four persons of one hundred years of age, fourteen of one hundred and ten, two of one hundred and twenty-five, four of one hundred and thirty, the same number of one hundred and thirty-five to one hundred and thirty-seven, and three of one hundred and forty.

  Again, we have another illustration of the uncertain tenure of human life. Homer informs us that Hector and Polydamas were born on the same night, and yet how different was their fate! M. Cælius Rufus and C. Licinius Calvus were born on the same day, the fifth before the calends of June, in the consulship of C. Marius and Cn. Carbo; they both of them lived to be orators, it is true, but how different their destiny! The same thing, too, happens every day, and in every part of the world, with respect to men that are born in the self-same hour; masters and slaves, kings and beggars, come into the world at the same moment.

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  CHAP. 51. (50.)

  VARIOUS INSTANCES OF DISEASES.

  P. Cornelius Rufus, who was consul with M. Curio, lost his sight while he was asleep and dreaming that that accident had befallen him. On the other hand, Jason, of Pheræ, when he was labouring under an abscess and had been given up by the physicians, determined to end his life in battle, where he received a wound in the chest, and found, at the hands of the enemy, a remedy for his disease. Q. Fabius Maximus, the consul, having engaged in battle with the Allobroges and the Arverni, at the river Isara, on the sixth day before the ides of August, and having slain there one hundred and thirty thousand of the enemy, found himself cured, during the engage. ment, of a quartan fever.

  This gift of life, which is bestowed upon us by nature, is extremely uncertain and frail, whatever portion of it may be allotted to us. The measure is, indeed, but scanty and brief, even when it is the largest, if we only reflect upon the extent of eternity. And then, besides, if we take into account our sleep during the night, we can only be properly said to live half the period of our life; seeing that just one half of it is passed, either in a state resembling death, or else of bodily suffering, if we are unable to sleep. Added to this, we ought not to reckon the years of infancy, during which we are not sensible of our existence, nor yet the years of old age, which is prolonged only for the punishment of those who arrive at it. There are so many kinds of dangers, so many diseases, so many apprehensions, so many cares, we so often invoke death, that really there is nothing that is so often the object of our wishes. Nature has, in reality, bestowed no greater blessing on man than the shortness of life. The senses become dull, the limbs torpid, the sight, the hearing, the legs, the teeth, and the organs of digestion, all of them die before us, and yet we reckon this state as a part of our life. The solitary instance of Xenophilus, the musician, who lived one hundre
d and five years without any infirmity of body, must be regarded then as a kind of miracle; for, by Hercules! all other men are subject, at certain fixed periods, to recurring and deadly attacks by heat or cold, in every part of the body, a thing that is not the case with other animals; and these attacks, too, return not only at regular hours, but on certain days and certain nights — sometimes the third day, sometimes the fourth, sometimes every day throughout the year.

  And then, too, there is another kind of fatal disease, that which is produced by over-exertion of the mental faculties. Nature has appointed certain laws as well for our maladies; quartan fevers never commence at the winter solstice, nor yet during the winter months; some diseases never attack us after the sixtieth year; some again disappear at the age of puberty, especially in females; while aged persons are but seldom affected by the plague. There are some diseases which attack whole nations; others prevail among classes; some among slaves, others among the higher ranks, and others among other classes of society. It has been remarked, in reference to this subject, that the plague always takes a course from the south towards the west, and scarcely ever in an opposite direction; it never appears in the winter, or lasts longer than three months.