登陆注册
5214200000042

第42章

CHAP.11.--OF THE STATUE OF APOLLO AT CUMAE, WHOSE TEARS ARE SUPPOSEDTO HAVE

PORTENDED DISASTER TO THE GREEKS, WHOM

THE GOD WAS UNABLE TO SUCCOR.

And it is still this weakness of the gods which is confessed in the story of the Cuman Apollo, who is said to have wept for four days during the war with the Achaeans and King Aristonicus.And when the augurs were alarmed at the portent, and had determined to cast the statue into the sea, the old men of Cumae interposed, and related that a similar prodigy had occurred to the same image during the wars against Antiochus and against Perseus, and that by a decree of the senate, gifts had been presented to Apollo, because the event had proved favorable to the Romans.Then soothsayers were summoned who were supposed to have greater professional skill, and they pronounced that the weeping of Apollo's image was propitious to the Romans, because Cumae was a Greek colony, and that Apollo was bewailing (and thereby presaging) the grief and calamity that was about to light upon his own land of Greece, from which he had been brought.Shortly afterwards it was reported that King Aristonicus was defeated and made prisoner,--a defeat certainly opposed to the will of Apollo; and this he indicated by even shedding tears from his marble image.And this shows us that, though the verses of the poets are mythical, they are not altogether devoid of truth, but describe the manners of the demons in a sufficiently fit style.For in Virgil, Diana mourned for Camilla,(1) and Hercules wept for Pallas doomed to die.(2) This is perhaps the reason why Numa Pompilius, too, when, enjoying prolonged peace, but without knowing or inquiring from whom he received it, he began in his leisure to consider to what gods he should entrust the safe keeping and conduct of Rome, and not dreaming that the true, almighty, and most high God cares for earthly affairs, but recollecting only that the Trojan gods which AEneas had brought to Italy had been able to preserve neither the Trojan nor Lavinian kingdom rounded by AEneas himself, concluded that he must provide other gods as guardians of fugitives and helpers of the weak, and add them to those earlier divinities who had either come over to Rome with Romulus, or when Alba was destroyed.

CHAP.12.--THAT THE ROMANS ADDED A VAST NUMBER OF GODS TO THOSE INTRODUCEDBY

NUMA, AND THAT THEIR NUMBERS HELPED THEM NOT AT ALL.

But though Pompilius introduced so ample a ritual, yet did not Rome see fit to be content with it.For as yet Jupiter himself had not his chief temple,--it being King Tarquin who built the Capitol.

And AEsculapius left Epidaurus for Rome, that in this foremost city he might have a finer field for the exercise of his great medical skill.(3) The mother of the gods, too, came I know not whence from Pessinuns; it being unseemly that, while her son presided on the Capitoline hill, she herself should lie hid in obscurity.But if she is the mother of all the gods, she not only followed some of her children to Rome, but left others to follow her.I wonder, indeed, if she were the mother of Cynocephalus, who a long while afterwards came from Egypt.Whether also the goddess Fever was her offspring, is a matter for her grandson AEsculapius(4)to decide.But of whatever breed she be, the foreign gods will not presume, I trust, to call a goddess base-born who is a Roman citizen.Who can number the deities to whom the guardianship of Rome was entrusted? Indigenous and imported, both of heaven, earth, hell, seas, fountains, rivers;and, as Varro says, gods certain and uncertain, male and female: for, as among animals, so among all kinds of gods are there these distinctions.Rome, then, enjoying the protection of such a cloud of deities, might surely have been preserved from some of those great and horrible calamities, of which I can mention but a few.For by the great smoke of her altars she summoned to her protection, as by a beacon-fire, a host of gods, for whom she appointed and maintained temples, altars, sacrifices, priests, and thus offended the true and most high God, to whom alone all this ceremonial is lawfully due.And, indeed, she was more prosperous when she had fewer gods; but the greater she became, the more gods she thought she should have, as the larger ship needs to be manned by a larger crew.I suppose she despaired of the smaller number, under whose protection she had spent comparatively happy days, being able to defend her greatness.

For even under the kings (with the exception of Numa Pompilius, of whom I have already spoken), how wicked a contentiousness must have existed to occasion the death of Romulus' brother!

CHAP.13.--BY WHAT RIGHT OR AGREEMENT THE ROMANS OBTAINED THEIR FIRSTWIVES.

同类推荐
  • 义勇

    义勇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 梅道士水亭

    梅道士水亭

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上洞真徊玄章

    太上洞真徊玄章

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 萨婆多毗尼毗婆沙

    萨婆多毗尼毗婆沙

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 墨池琐录

    墨池琐录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 女英记(中国好小说)

    女英记(中国好小说)

    本文解构了读者耳熟能详的舜与娥皇女英的故事。女英被神秘人引导,发现了舜日后的秘密。为了不使家人丧命于此,她与神秘人一路寻找破解龙脉的方法,试图阻挡舜登基称帝。将要成功时,舜和娥皇赶来,他们是否能阻止女英?神秘人究竟是什么身份和目的?
  • The Duke's Children

    The Duke's Children

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 帝袭之道妃请上座

    帝袭之道妃请上座

    她是南朝摄政长公主,他是北朝既定储君。两朝政变,她与他大权旁落,一个摇身一变成为北朝叛臣之女,一个突生恶疾成为落魄王爷。阴差阳错,他们共结连理。——“贫道道号玄机。”——“你修道?”朝堂诡谲,他们共谋江山。权后干政,幽禁了。外戚夺权,灭了。那皇帝怎么办?废了呗。——“诶,醒醒,咱俩无权无势两袖清风。”——“嘘~鱼儿上钩了!”马踏山河,醉卧沙场,生死与共,是谁交付倾心,又是谁弃之敝履?——陛下陛下,王妃跑了!——来人!拟诏!朕要立后!【小片段一】某冒牌道士装模作样掐指一算:“寅午戌见卯,申子辰见酉,巳酉丑见午,亥卯未见子。乖乖,王爷这一卦桃花带煞啊!”某王爷招来某侍卫:“王妃吃醋了,去,把那只雌性动物扔出府。”某侍卫冷汗涔涔:“王爷……那可是丞相嫡女、太后亲侄女啊……”某王爷:“杀了扔出府。”某冒牌道士:“我见不得血。”某王爷沉吟片刻:“那就扔出府杀了。”【片段二】某男衣不蔽体躺在某女榻上,某女进门看见面不改色用被子把他裹成粽子。“大冷天的不盖被子,喜欢喝药啊?”某男委屈:“他们说我是个断袖。”“那你就说他们也是个断袖!”某男钻出被窝袒着胸露着腹:“不行!是你女扮男装我才被误会的,你得负责!”某女一脚将某男踹下床:“不懂还在这儿躺着?滚回去睡觉!”
  • 三国遗事

    三国遗事

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 从深渊而来

    从深渊而来

    我是谁,我是谁。在一望无际的黑暗中醒来,看见的只有黑暗。我是谁,我住哪,我在哪里?从黑暗中醒来,却没有自己的记忆,忘记了自己是谁,来自那里。在人世间摸索,只为寻找到自己那来自深渊被遗忘的记忆
  • 现代人智慧全书:智慧识人术

    现代人智慧全书:智慧识人术

    本书内容有:现代人更需要识人;容貌识人;衣着打扮识人;行为动作识人;情态识人;谈笑识人;笔记识人;习惯、癖好识人等。
  • THE HISTORY

    THE HISTORY

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 混元至尊

    混元至尊

    【樱花社团出品】少冥21世纪青年,中国龙组成员在一次执行任务时和西方血族战斗的时候引发了自己身体里的神秘力量来到了一个灰蒙蒙的地方,拜混元天尊为师幸运修炼宇宙排行第一神诀《混元至尊决》。主角很幸运的攀上修混路。“神尊如何,魔尊如何,天尊又何如。”阻碍我成为无上至尊的道路,通通灭之。请关注《混元至尊》一个不一样的修混之路,请关注少冥怎样踏上至尊道路……最后成为无上混元至尊。
  • 自己就是最好的投资顾问

    自己就是最好的投资顾问

    本书内容通俗易懂,以专家顾问、参谋助手的身份,为您的投资提供有价值的思路方法和参考建议,所推荐的方法不仅科学实用、切实可行,而且还很贴近生活。
  • 唯愿两相知

    唯愿两相知

    (王者荣耀征文大赛作品)王者峡谷的世界,是一个“重生”世界。在这里,清羽派各位英雄的“爱恨情仇”,都与前世息息相关。所以我们第一大任务就是……挖秘密。李白经常冷着脸;甄姬总是很伤情。庄周十有八九又在睡觉;公孙离人兔形状自由切换无缝链接。百里玄策问:“大毛领,你们刚刚在说什么阴阳、秘密的?”百里守约欲哭无泪,always要收拾烂摊子,几辈子他都是欠这个弟弟的!……生活百态,嬉笑怒骂,好不容易才又活了一世,差点被有些人居心叵测地给毁了。所以我们第二大任务就是……维护世界和平。