Chap. xxi.—of certain deities peculiar to barbarians, and their sacred rites; and in like manner concerning the romans.

We have spoken of the gods themselves who are worshipped; we must now speak a few words respecting their sacrifices and mysteries. Among the people of Cyprus, Teucer sacrificed a human victim to Jupiter, and handed down to posterity that sacrifice which was lately abolished by Hadrian when he was emperor. There was a law among the people of Tauris, a fierce and inhuman nation, by which it was ordered that strangers should be sacrificed to Diana; and this sacrifice was practised through many ages. The Gauls used to appease Hesus and Teutas with human blood. Nor, indeed, were the Latins free from this cruelty, since Jupiter Latialis is even now worshipped with the offering of human blood. What benefit do they who offer such sacrifices implore from the gods? Or what are such deities able to bestow on the men by whose punishments they are propitiated? But this is not so much a matter of surprise with respect to barbarians, whose religion agrees with their character. But are not our countrymen, who have always claimed for themselves the glory of gentleness and civilization, found to be more inhuman by these sacrilegious rites? For these ought rather to be esteemed impious, who, though they are embellished with the pursuits of liberal training, turn aside from such refinement, than those who, being ignorant and inexperienced, glide into evil practices from their ignorance of those which are good. And yet it is plain that this rite of immolating human victims is ancient, since Saturn was honoured in Latium with the same kind of sacrifice; not indeed that a man was slain at the altar, but that he was thrown from the Milvian bridge into the Tiber. And Varro relates that this was done in accordance with an oracle; of which oracle the last verse is to this effect: “And offer heads to Ades, and to the father a man.”68    Or, lights. The oracle is ambiguous, since the word φωσ signifies a man, and also light. [i.e., φὼς = man, and φω̑ς = light.]   And because this appears ambiguous, both a torch and a man are accustomed to be thrown to him. But it is said that sacrifices of this kind were put an end to by Hercules when he returned from Spain; the custom still continuing, that instead of real men, images made from rushes were cast forth, as Ovid informs us in his Fasti:69    v. 629.   “Until the Tirynthian came into these lands, gloomy sacrifices were annually offered in the Leucadian manner: he threw into the water Romans made of straw; do you, after the example of Hercules, cast70    Jace. Others read “jaci.”   in the images of human bodies.”  

The Vestal virgins make these sacred offerings, as the same poet says:71    v. 621.   “Then also a virgin is accustomed to cast from the wooden bridge the images of ancient men made from rushes.”  

For I cannot find language to speak of the infants who were immolated to the same Saturn, on account of his hatred of Jupiter. To think that men were so barbarous, so savage, that they gave the name of sacrifice to the slaughter of their own children, that is, to a deed foul, and to be held in detestation by the human race; since, without any regard to parental affection, they destroyed tender and innocent lives, at an age which is especially pleasing to parents, and surpassed in brutality the savageness of all beasts, which—savage as they are—still love their offspring! O incurable madness! What more could those gods do to them, if they were most angry, than they now do when propitious, when they defile their worshippers with parricide, visit them with bereavements, and deprive them of the sensibilities of men? What can be sacred to these men? Or what will they do in profane places, who commit the greatest crimes amidst the altars of the gods? Pescennius Festus relates in the books of his History by a Satire, that the Carthaginians were accustomed to immolate human victims to Saturn; and when they were conquered by Agathocles, the king of the Sicilians, they imagined that the god was angry with them; and therefore, that they might more diligently offer an expiation, they immolated two hundred sons of their nobles: “So great the ills to which religion could prompt, which has ofttimes produced wicked and impious deeds.” What advantage, then, did the men propose by that sacrifice, when they put to death so large a part of the state, as not even Agathocles had slain when victorious?  

From this kind of sacrifices those public rites are to be judged signs of no less madness; some of which are in honour of the mother of the gods, in which men mutilate themselves; others are in honour of Virtus, whom they also call Bellona, in which the priests make offsprings not with the blood of another victim, but with their own.72    So the priests of Baal cut themselves, 1 Kings xviii. 28.   For, cutting their shoulders, and thrusting forth drawn swords in each hand, they run, they are beside themselves, they are frantic. Quintilian therefore says excellently in his Fanatic: “If a god compels this, he does it in anger.” Are even these things sacred? Is it not better to live like cattle, than to worship deities so impious, profane, and sanguinary? But we will discuss at the proper time the source from which these errors and deeds of such great disgrace originated. In the meantime, let us look also to other matters which are without guilt, that we may not seem to select the worse parts through the desire of finding fault. In Egypt there are sacred rites in honour of Isis, since she either lost or found her little son. For at first her priests, having made their bodies smooth, beat their breasts, and lament, as the goddess herself had done when her child was lost. Afterwards the boy is brought forward, as if found, and that mourning is changed into joy. Therefore Lucan says, “And Osiris never sufficiently sought for.” For they always lose, and they always find him. Therefore in the sacred rites there is a representation of a circumstance which really occurred; and which assuredly declares, if we have any intelligence, that she was a mortal woman, and almost desolate, had she not found one person. And this did not escape the notice of the poet himself; for he represents Pompey when a youth as thus speaking, on hearing the death of his father: “I will now draw forth the deity Isis from the tomb, and send her through the nations; and I will scatter through the people Osiris covered with wood.” This Osiris is the same whom the people call Serapis. For it is customary for the names of the dead who are deified to be changed, that no one, as I believe, may imagine them to be men. For Romulus after his death became Quirinus, and Leda became Nemesis, and Circe Marica; and Ino, when she had leapt into the sea, was called Leucothea; and the mother Matuta; and her son Melicerta was called Palæmon and Portumnus. And the sacred rites of the Eleusinian Ceres are not unlike these. For as in those which have been mentioned the boy Osiris is sought with the wailing of his mother, so in these Proserpine is carried away to contract an incestuous marriage with her uncle; and because Ceres is said to have sought for her in Sicily with torches lighted from the top of Etna, on this account her sacred rites are celebrated with the throwing of torches.  

At Lampsacus the victim to he offered to Priapus is an ass, and the cause of the sacrifice of this animal is thus set forth in the Fasti:—When all the deities had assembled at the festival of the Great Mother, and when, satiated with feasting, they were spending the night in sport, they say that Vesta had laid herself on the ground for rest, and had fallen asleep, and that Priapus upon this formed a design against her honour as she slept; but that she was aroused by the unseasonable braying of the ass on which Silenus used to ride, and that the design of the insidious plotter was frustrated. On this account they say that the people of Lampsacus were accustomed to sacrifice an ass to Priapus, as though it were in revenge; but among the Romans the same animal was crowned at the Vestalia (festival of Vesta) with loaves,73    Panibus, loaves made in the shape of crowns.   in honour of the preservation of her chastity. What is baser, what more disgraceful, than if Vesta is indebted to an ass for the preservation of her purity? But the poet invented a fable. But was that more true which is related by those74    [See this page, note 6, infra.]   who wrote “Phenomena,” when they speak concerning the two stars of Cancer, which the Greeks call asses? That they were asses which carried across father Liber when he was unable to cross a river, and that he rewarded one of them with the power of speaking with human voice; and that a contest arose between him and Priapus; and Priapus, being worsted in the contest, was enraged, and slew the victor. This truly is much more absurd. But poets have the licence of saying what they will. I do not meddle with a mystery so odious; nor do I strip Priapus of his disguise, lest something deserving of ridicule should be brought to light. It is true the poets invented these fictions, but they must have been invented for the purpose of concealing some greater depravity. Let us inquire what this is. But in fact it is evident. For as the bull is sacrificed to Luna,75    The moon.   because he also has horns as she has; and as “Persia propitiates with a horse Hyperion surrounded with rays, that a slow victim may not be offered to the swift god;” so in this case no more suitable victim could be found than that which resembled him to whom it is offered.  

At Lindus, which is a town of Rhodes, there are sacred rites in honour of Hercules, the observance of which differs widely from all other rites; for they are not celebrated with words of good omen76    εὐφημια. It was supposed that words of ill omen, if uttered during the offering of a sacrifice, would render the gods unpropitious: the priest therefore, at the commencement of a sacrifice, called upon the people to abstain from ill-omened words: εὐφημει̑τε, “favete linguis.”   (as the Greeks term it), but with revilings and cursing. And they consider it a violation of the sacred rites, if at any time during the celebration of the solemnities a good word shall have escaped from any one even inadvertently. And this is the reason assigned for this practice, if indeed there can be any reason in things utterly senseless. When Hercules had arrived at the place, and was suffering hunger, he saw a ploughman at work, and began to ask him to sell one of his oxen. But the ploughman replied that this was impossible, because his hope of cultivating the land depended altogether upon those two bullocks. Hercules, with his usual violence, because he was not able to receive one of them, killed both. But the unhappy man, when he saw that his oxen were slain, avenged the injury with revilings,—a circumstance which afforded gratification to the man of elegance and refinement. For while he prepares a feast for his companions, and while he devours the oxen of another man, he receives with ridicule and loud laughter the bitter reproaches with which the other assails him. But when it had been determined that divine honours should be paid to Hercules in admiration of his excellence, an altar was erected in his honour by the citizens, which he named, from the circumstance, the yoke of oxen;77    Βούζυγον.   and at this altar two yoked oxen were sacrificed, like those which he had taken from the ploughman. And he appointed the same man to be his priest, and directed him always to use the same revilings in offering sacrifice, because he said that he had never feasted more pleasantly. Now these things are not sacred, but sacrilegious, in which that is said to be enjoined, which, if it is done in other things, is punished with the greatest severity. What, moreover, do the rites of the Cretan Jupiter himself show, except the manner in which he was withdrawn from his father, or brought up? There is a goat belonging to the nymph Amalthea, which gave suck to the infant; and of this goat Germanicus Cæsar thus speaks, in his poem translated from Aratus:78    Aratus was the author of two Greek astronomical poems, the Φαινόμενα and the Διοσημε̑ια Virgil, in his Georgics, has borrowed largely from the latter. Germanicus Cæsar, the grandson of Augustus, as stated in the text, translated the Φαινόμενα.  —  

Musæus relates that Jupiter, when fighting against the Titans, used the hide of this goat as a shield, from which circumstance he is called by the poets shield-bearer.79    αιγιοχος; “scutum habens.”   Thus, whatever was done in concealing the boy, that also is done by way of representation in the sacred rites. Moreover, the mystery of his mother also contains the same story which Ovid sets forth in the Fasti:—  

Sallust rejected this opinion altogether, as though invented by the poets, and wished to give an ingenious explanation of the reasons for which the Curetes are said to have nourished Jupiter; and he speaks to this purport: Because they were the first to understand the worship of the deity, that therefore antiquity, which exaggerates all things, made them known as the nourishers of Jupiter. How much this learned man was mistaken, the matter itself at once declares. For if Jupiter holds the first place, both among the gods and in religious rites, if no gods were worshipped by the people before him, because they who are worshipped were not yet born; it appears that the Curetes, on the contrary, were the first who did not understand the worship of the deity, since all error was introduced by them, and the memory of the true God was taken away. They ought therefore to have understood from the mysteries and ceremonies themselves, that they were offering prayers to dead men. I do not then require that any one should believe the fictions of the poets. If any one imagines that these speak falsely, let him consider the writings of the pontiffs themselves, and weigh whatever there is of literature pertaining to sacred rites: he will perhaps find more things than we bring forward, from which he may understand that all things which are esteemed sacred are empty, vain, and fictitious. But if any one, having discovered wisdom, shall lay aside his error, he will assuredly laugh at the follies of men who are almost without understanding: I mean those who either dance with unbecoming gestures, or run naked, anointed, and crowned with chaplets, either wearing a mask or besmeared with mud. What shall I say about shields now putrid with age? When they carry these, they think that they are carrying gods themselves on their shoulders. For Furius Bibaculus is regarded among the chief examples of piety, who, though he was prætor, nevertheless carried the sacred shield,80    Ancile, the sacred shield, carried by the Salii, or priests of Mars, in the processions at the festival of that deity.   preceded by the lictors, though his office as prœtor gave him an exemption from this duty. He was therefore not Furius, but altogether mad,81    Non Furius, sed plane furiosus.   who thought that he graced his prætorship by this service. Deservedly then, since these things are done by men not unskilful and ignorant, does Lucretius exclaim:—  

Who that is possessed of any sense would not laugh at these mockeries, when he sees that men, as though bereft of intelligence, do those things seriously, which if any one should do in sport, he would appear too full of sport and folly?  

0230A CAPUT XXI. De diis Barbarorum quibusdam propriis, et eorum sacris, ac itidem de Romanis.

Diximus de diis ipsis, qui coluntur: nunc de sacris ac mysteriis eorum pauca dicenda sunt. Apud Cyprios humanam hostiam Jovi Teucrus immolavit; idque sacrificium posteris tradidit, quod est nuper Hadriano imperante sublatum. Erat lex apud Tauros, inhumanam et feram gentem, uti Dianae hospites immolarentur; et id sacrificium multis temporibus celebratum est. Galli Hesum atque Teutatem humano cruore placabant. Nec Latini quidem hujus immanitatis expertes fuerunt, siquidem Latialis Jupiter 0231A etiamnunc sanguine colitur humano. Quid a diis boni precantur, qui sic sacrificant? 0231A Aut quid tales dii hominibus praestare possunt, quorum poenis propitiantur? Sed de Barbaris non est adeo mirandum, quorum religio cum moribus congruit. Nostri vero, qui semper mansuetudinis et humanitatis gloriam sibi vindicarunt, nonne sacrilegis his sacris immaniores reperiuntur? Hi enim potius scelerati sunt habendi, qui, cum sint liberalium disciplinarum studiis expoliti, ab humanitate desciscunt, quam qui rudes et imperiti ad mala facinora bonorum ignoratione labuntur. Apparet tamen antiquum esse hunc immolandorum hominum ritum: siquidem Saturnus in Latio eodem genere sacrificii cultus est, non quidem ut homo ad aram immolaretur, sed uti in Tiberim de ponte Milvio mitteretur. Quod ex responso quodam factitatum Varro auctor est; cujus responsi ultimus versus est talis: 0231B Καὶ κεφαλὰς Ἀΐδῃ καὶ τῷ πατρὶ πέμπετε φωτα.0232A Quod quia videtur ambiguum et fax illi, et homo jaci solet. Verum id genus sacrificii ab Hercule, cum ex Hispania rediret, dicitur esse sublatum, ritu tamen permanente, ut pro veris hominibus imagines jacerentur ex scirpo; ut Ovidius in Fastis docet: Donec in haec venit Tirynthius arva, quotannis Tristia Leucadio sacra peracta modo. Illum stramineos in aquam misisse Quirites: Herculis exemplo corpora falsa jace.Haec sacra Vestales virgines faciunt, ut ait idem! Tum quoque priscorum virgo simulacra virorum Mittere roboreo scirpea ponte solet.Nam de infantibus, qui eidem Saturno immolabantur propter odium Jovis quid dicam, non invenio; tam barbaros, tam immanes fuisse homines, ut parricidium suum, id est tetrum atque execrabile humano generi facinus, 0232B sacrificium vocarent: cum teneras atque innocentes 0233A animas, quae maxime est aetas parentibus dulcior, 0233A sine ullo respectu pietatis extinguerent, immanitatemque omnium bestiarum, quae tamen foetus suos amant, feritate superarent! O dementiam insanabilem! Quid illis isti dii amplius facere possent, si essent iratissimi, quam faciunt propitii? cum suos cultores parricidiis inquinant, orbitatibus mactant, humanis sensibus spoliant? Quid potest esse his hominibus sancti? Aut quid in profanis locis facient, qui inter aras deorum summa scelera committunt? Pescennius Festus in libris Historiarum per Satyram refert, Carthaginenses Saturno humanas hostias solitos immolare: et cum victi essent ab Agathocle, rege Siculorum, iratum sibi Deum putavisse; itaque ut diligentius piaculum solverent, ducentos nobilium filios immolasse. Tantum relligio potuit suadere malorum, 0233B Quae peperit saepe scelerosa, atque impia facta.Cui ergo dementissimi homines illo sacrificio consulebant? 0234A cum tantam partem civitatis occiderent, quantam fortasse ne Agathocles quidem victor occiderat.

Ab isto genere sacrorum non minoris insaniae judicanda sunt publica illa sacra: quorum alia sunt matris deum, in quibus homines suis ipsi virilibus litant; amputato enim sexu, nec viros se, nec foeminas faciunt: alia Virtutis, quam eamdem Bellonam vocant, in quibus ipsi sacerdotes non alieno, sed suo cruore sacrificant. Sectis namque humeris, et utraque manu districtos gladios exerentes, currunt, efferuntur, insaniunt. Optime igitur Quintilianus in Fanatico; «Istud, inquit, si Deus cogit, iratus est.» Etiamne haec sacra sunt? Nonne satius est pecudum more vivere, quam deos tam impios, tam profanos, tam sanguinarios colere? Sed unde isti errores et 0234B haec tanta flagitia manaverint, suo loco disseremus: interim videamus et caetera, quae carent scelere, ne 0235A studio insectandi videamur eligere pejora. 0235A Isidis Aegyptia sacra sunt, quatenus filium parvulum vel perdiderit, vel invenerit. Nam primo sacerdotes ejus, deglabrato corpore, pectora sua tundunt; lamentantur, sicut ipsa, cum perdidit, fecerat. Deinde puer producitur quasi inventus, et in laetitiam luctus ille mutatur: ideo Lucanus: . . . . Nunquamque satis quaesitus Osiris.Semper enim perdunt, et semper inveniunt. Refertur ergo in sacris imago rei, quae vere gesta est, quae profecto, si quid sapimus, declarat mortalem mulierem fuisse, ac pene orbam, nisi unicum reperisset. Quod 0236A illum ipsum poetam minime fugit, apud quem Pompeius adolescens, morte patris audita, haec loquitur: Evolvam busto jam numen gentibus Isim; Et tectum ligno spargam per vulgus Osirim.Hic est Osiris, quem Serapim vel Serapidem vulgus appellat. Solent enim mortuis consecratis nomina immutari; credo, ne quis putet eos homines fuisse. Nam et Romulus post mortem Quirinus factus est; et Leda, Nemesis; et Circe, Marica; et Ino, postquam se praecipitavit, Leucothea, materque Matuta; et Melicertes filius ejus, Palaemon, atque Portumnus. 0237A Sacra vero Cereris Eleusinae 0237A non sunt his dissimilia. Nam sicut ibi Osiris puer planctu matris inquiritur; ita hic ad incestum patrui matrimonium rapta Proserpina: quam quia facibus ex Aetnae vertice accensis quaesisse in Sicilia Ceres dicitur, idcirco sacra ejus ardentium taedarum jactatione celebrantur.

Apud Lampsacum Priapo litabilis victima est asellus: cujus sacrificii ratio in Fastis haec redditur: Cum dii omnes ad festum matris magnae convenissent, epulisque satiati noctem lusibus ducerent, quievisse humi Vestam, somnumque cepisse: ibi Priapum somno ejus ac pudicitiae insidiatum; sed illam intempestivo clamore aselli, quo Silenus vehebatur excitatam, libidinem vero insidiatoris esse deceptam; hac de causa Lampsacenos asellum Priapo, quasi in ultionem, mactare consuevisse; apud Romanos vero 0237B eumdem Vestalibus sacris in honorem pudicitiae conservatae panibus coronari. Quid turpius? quid flagitiosius? quam si Vesta beneficio asini virgo est? At poeta fabulam finxit. Num ergo illud est verius, quod referunt ii, qui Φαινόμενα conscripserunt, cum de duabus Cancri stellis loquuntur, quas Graeci ὄνους 0238A vocant? asellos fuisse, qui Liberum patrem transvexerint, cum amnem transire non posset; quorum alteri hoc praemium dederit, ut humana voce loqueretur: itaque inter eum, Priapumque ortum esse certamen de obscoeni magnitudine; Priapum victum et iratum, interemisse victorem. Hoc vero multo magis ineptum est; sed poetis licet quidquid velint: non excutio tam deforme mysterium, nec Priapum denudo, ne quid appareat risu dignum. Finxerunt haec sane poetae; sed necesse est alicujus majoris turpitudinis tegendae gratia ficta sint. Quae sit ergo quaeramus. At ea profecto manifesta est. Nam sicut Lunae taurus mactatur, quia similiter habet cornua, et Placat equo Persis radiis Hyperiona cinctum, Ne detur celeri victima tarda Deo.0238B Ita in hoc quia magnitudo membri virilis enormis est, non potuit ei monstro aptior victima reperiri, quam quae ipsum, cui mactatur, posset imitari.

Apud Lindum, quod est oppidum Rhodi, Herculis sacra sunt, quorum a caeteris longe diversus est ritus: siquidem non εὐφημίᾳ (ut Graeci appellant), sed maledictis, et execratione celebrantur; eaque 0239A pro violatis habent, si quando inter solemnes ritus vel imprudenti alicui exciderit bonum verbum. Cujus rei haec ratio redditur, si tamen ulla esse 0239A in rebus vanissimis potest: Hercules, cum eo delatus esset, famemque pateretur, aratorem quemdam aspexit operantem, ab eoque petere coepit, ut sibi unum bovem venderet. Enimvero ille negavit fieri posse, quia spes sua omnis colendae terrae duobus illis juvencis niteretur. Hercules, solita violentia usus, quia unum accipere non potuit, utrumque sustulit. At ille infelix, cum boves suos mactari videret, injuriam suam maledictis ultus est. Quod homini eleganti et urbano gratissimum fuit. Nam dum comitibus suis epulas apparat, dumque alienos boves devorat, illum sibi amarissime conviciantem, cum risu et cachinnis 0239B audiebat. Sed postquam Herculi divinos honores ob admirationem virtutis deferri placuit, a civibus ei ara posita est, quam de facto βούζυγον nominavit, ad quam duo juncti boves immolarentur, sicut illi quos abstulerat aratori; eumque ipsum sibi constituit sacerdotem, ac praecepit, ut iisdem maledictis semper in celebrandis sacrificiis uteretur, quod negaret se unquam epulatum esse jucundius. Haec jam non sacra sunt, sed sacrilegia, in quibus id sanctum dicitur, quod in aliis, si fiat, etiam severissime vindicatur. Ipsius autem Cretici Jovis sacra quid aliud 0240A quam quomodo sit aut subtractus patri, aut nutritus ostendunt? Capella est Amaltheae nymphae, quae uberibus suis aluit infantem; de qua Germanicus Caesar in Arataeo carmine sic ait: . . . . . Illa putatur Nutrix esse Jovis; si vere Juppiter infans Ubera Cretaeae mulsit fidissima caprae, Sidere quae claro gratum testatur alumnum.Hujus capellae corio usum esse pro scuto Jovem contra Titanas dimicantem Musaeus auctor est: unde a poetis ἀιγίοχος nominatur. Ita quidquid est gestum in abscondendo puero, id ipsum per imaginem geritur in sacris. Sed et matris ejus mysterium idem continet, quod Ovidius exponit in Fastis, lib. IV, v. 207): Ardua jamdudum resonat tinnitibus Ide; 0240B Tutus ut infanti vagiat ore puer. Pars clypeos sudibus, galeas pars tundit inanes: Hoc Curetes habent, hoc Corybantes opus. Res latuit, priscique manent imitamina facti; Aera deae comites raucaque terga movent, Cymbala pro galeis, pro scutis tympana pulsant: Tibia dat Phrygios, ut dedit ante, modos.Hanc totam opinionem, quasi a poetis fictam, Salustius respuit, voluitque ingeniose interpretari, cur altores Jovis dicantur Curetes fuisse; et sic ait: Quia principes intelligendi divini fuerunt, vetustatem ut caetera in majus componentem, altores Jovis celebravisse. Quantum erraverit homo eruditus, jam res 0241A ipsa declarat. Si enim princeps est Jupiter, et deorum et religionum; si ante illum dii nulli colebantur vulgo, quia nondum nati fuerant, qui coluntur; apparet Curetes 0241A ex diverso principes fuisse divini non intelligendi, per quos error omnis inductus est, et Dei veri memoria sublata. Ex ipsis itaque mysteriis et ceremoniis intelligere debuerunt, hominibus se mortuis supplicare. Non igitur exigo, ut aliquis poetarum fictionibus credat. Qui hos mentiri putat, Pontificum ipsorum scripta consideret, et quidquid est litterarum ad sacra pertinentium revolvat: plura fortasse, quam nos afferimus, inveniet, ex quibus intelligat, inania inepta, commentitia esse omnia, quae pro sanctis habentur. Si quis autem, percepta sapientia, deposuerit errorem, profecto ridebit ineptias hominum pene dementium; illos dico, qui vel inhonesto saltatu tripudiant, 0241B vel qui nudi, uncti, coronati, personati, aut luto obliti currunt. Quid de scutis jam vetustate putridis dicam? quae cum portant, deos ipsos se gestare humeris suis arbitrantur. Nam Furius Bibaculus inter 0242A praecipua pietatis exempla numeratur, qui cum praetor esset, tamen lictoribus praeeuntibus, ancile portavit, cum haberet, magistratus beneficio, muneris ejus vacationem. Non ergo ille Furius, sed plane furiosus fuit, qui praeturam hoc ministerio se putavit ornare. Merito igitur, cum haec a viris non imperitis ac rudibus fiant, Lucretius exclamat: O stultas hominum mentes, o pectora caeca! Qualibus in tenebris vitae, quantisque periclis Degitur hoc aevi, quodcumque est!Quis haec ludibria non rideat, qui habeat aliquid sanitatis? cum videat homines velut mente captos ea serio facere, quae si quis faciat in lusu, nimis lascivus et ineptus esse videatur.