1. Hesiod, Works And Days, 106-155, 157-201, 156 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Crabb (2020) 83, 109 | 156. It was self-slaughter – they descended to |
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| 2. Anon., 1 Enoch, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 89.65-90.19, 90, 90.38, 90.39, 90.40, 90.41, 90.42, 91.12, 91.13, 91.14, 91.15, 91.16, 91.17, 93.1, 93.2, 93.3, 93.4, 93.5, 93.6, 93.7, 93.8, 93.9, 93.10, 93.17 (3rd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Crabb (2020) 81 |
3. Hebrew Bible, Daniel, 2.37-2.43, 12.4 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Crabb (2020) 105, 112, 180| 2.37. "אַנְתְּה מַלְכָּא מֶלֶךְ מַלְכַיָּא דִּי אֱלָהּ שְׁמַיָּא מַלְכוּתָא חִסְנָא וְתָקְפָּא וִיקָרָא יְהַב־לָךְ׃", 2.38. "וּבְכָל־דִּי דארין [דָיְרִין] בְּנֵי־אֲנָשָׁא חֵיוַת בָּרָא וְעוֹף־שְׁמַיָּא יְהַב בִּידָךְ וְהַשְׁלְטָךְ בְּכָלְּהוֹן אַנְתְּה־הוּא רֵאשָׁה דִּי דַהֲבָא׃", 2.39. "וּבָתְרָךְ תְּקוּם מַלְכוּ אָחֳרִי אֲרַעא מִנָּךְ וּמַלְכוּ תליתיא [תְלִיתָאָה] אָחֳרִי דִּי נְחָשָׁא דִּי תִשְׁלַט בְּכָל־אַרְעָא׃", 2.41. "וְדִי־חֲזַיְתָה רַגְלַיָּא וְאֶצְבְּעָתָא מנהון [מִנְּהֵן] חֲסַף דִּי־פֶחָר ומנהון [וּמִנְּהֵין] פַּרְזֶל מַלְכוּ פְלִיגָה תֶּהֱוֵה וּמִן־נִצְבְּתָא דִי פַרְזְלָא לֶהֱוֵא־בַהּ כָּל־קֳבֵל דִּי חֲזַיְתָה פַּרְזְלָא מְעָרַב בַּחֲסַף טִינָא׃", 2.42. "וְאֶצְבְּעָת רַגְלַיָּא מנהון [מִנְּהֵין] פַּרְזֶל ומנהון [וּמִנְּהֵין] חֲסַף מִן־קְצָת מַלְכוּתָא תֶּהֱוֵה תַקִּיפָה וּמִנַּהּ תֶּהֱוֵה תְבִירָה׃", 2.43. "די [וְדִי] חֲזַיְתָ פַּרְזְלָא מְעָרַב בַּחֲסַף טִינָא מִתְעָרְבִין לֶהֱוֺן בִּזְרַע אֲנָשָׁא וְלָא־לֶהֱוֺן דָּבְקִין דְּנָה עִם־דְּנָה הֵא־כְדִי פַרְזְלָא לָא מִתְעָרַב עִם־חַסְפָּא׃", 12.4. "וְאַתָּה דָנִיֵּאל סְתֹם הַדְּבָרִים וַחֲתֹם הַסֵּפֶר עַד־עֵת קֵץ יְשֹׁטְטוּ רַבִּים וְתִרְבֶּה הַדָּעַת׃", | 2.37. "Thou, O king, king of kings, unto whom the God of heaven hath given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory;", 2.38. "and wheresoever the children of men, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven dwell, hath He given them into thy hand, and hath made thee to rule over them all; thou art the head of gold.", 2.39. "And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee; and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.", 2.40. "And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron; forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and beateth down all things; and as iron that crusheth all these, shall it break in pieces and crush.", 2.41. "And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’clay, and part of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but there shall be in it of the firmness of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.", 2.42. "And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so part of the kingdom shall be strong, and part thereof broken.", 2.43. "And whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves by the seed of men; but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron doth not mingle with clay.", 12.4. "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.’", |
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4. Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library, 1.6.3, 1.8.1-1.8.9, 10.9.5, 12.1, 14.46.4, 16.61-16.64, 16.63.3, 16.64.1-16.64.3, 16.95.1, 17.38.4-17.38.6, 18.60.1, 30.8, 31.15.1, 37.2-37.8, 37.3.1, 38.41.6, 38.42.1 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •decline, historical, moral decline •decline, historical •decline, historical, ageing of the world Found in books: Crabb (2020) 63, 72, 235, 274 | 1.6.3. Now as regards the first origin of mankind two opinions have arisen among the best authorities both on nature and on history. One group, which takes the position that the universe did not come into being and will not decay, has declared that the race of men also has existed from eternity, there having never been a time when men were first begotten; the other group, however, which hold that the universe came into being and will decay, has declared that, like it, men had their first origin at a definite time. 1.8.1. Concerning the first generation of the universe this is the account which we have received. But the first men to be born, he says, led an undisciplined and bestial life, setting out one by one to secure their sustece and taking for their food both the tenderest herbs and the fruits of wild trees. Then, 1.8.2. since they were attacked by the wild beasts, they came to each other's aid, being instructed by expediency, and when gathered together in this way by reason of their fear, they gradually came to recognize their mutual characteristics. 1.8.3. And though the sounds which they made were at first unintelligible and indistinct, yet gradually they came to give articulation to their speech, and by agreeing with one another upon symbols for each thing which presented itself to them, made known among themselves the significance which was to be attached to each term. 1.8.4. But since groups of this kind arose over every part of the inhabited world, not all men had the same language, inasmuch as every group organized the elements of its speech by mere chance. This is the explanation of the present existence of every conceivable kind of language, and, furthermore, out of these first groups to be formed came all the original nations of the world. 1.8.5. Now the first men, since none of the things useful for life had yet been discovered, led a wretched existence, having no clothing to cover them, knowing not the use of dwelling and fire, and also being totally ignorant of cultivated food. 1.8.6. For since they also even neglected the harvesting of the wild food, they laid by no store of its fruits against their needs; consequently large numbers of them perished in the winters because of the cold and the lack of food. 1.8.7. Little by little, however, experience taught them both to take to the caves in winter and to store such fruits as could be preserved. 1.8.8. And when they had become acquainted with fire and other useful things, the arts also and whatever else is capable of furthering man's social life were gradually discovered. 1.8.9. Indeed, speaking generally, in all things it was necessity itself that became man's teacher, supplying in appropriate fashion instruction in every matter to a creature which was well endowed by nature and had, as its assistants for every purpose, hands and speech and sagacity of mind. 12.1. 12.1. 1. A man may justly feel perplexed when he stops to consider the inconsistency that is to be found in the life of mankind; for no thing which we consider to be good is ever found to have been given to human beings unadulterated, nor is there any evil in an absolute form without some admixture of advantage. Proofs of this will be obtained if we give thought to the events of the past, especially to those of outstanding importance. For instance, the campaign of Xerxes, the king of the Persians, against Greece aroused the greatest fear among the Greeks by reason of the immensity of his armaments, since the war they were entering might well decide their slavery, and since the Greek cities of Asia had already been enslaved, all men assumed that those of Greece would also suffer a similar fate.,3. But the war, contrary to expectation, came to an amazing end, and not only were the peoples of Greece freed of the dangers threatening them, but they also won for themselves great glory, and every city of Hellas enjoyed such an abundant prosperity that all men were filled with wonder at the complete reversal of their fortune.,4. For from this time over the next fifty years Greece made great advance in prosperity. In these years, for example, plenty brought increase to the arts, and the greatest artists of whom we have record, including the sculptor Pheidias, flourished at that time; and there was likewise great advance in education, and philosophy and oratory had a high place of honour among all Greeks, and especially the Athenians.,5. For the philosophers were Socrates and Plato and Aristotle, and the orators were Pericles and Isocrates and his pupils; and there were likewise men who have become renowned for generalship, Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristeides, Cimon, Myronides, and others more than these, regarding whom it would be a long task to write. 14.46.4. So far did they go in the vengeance they wreaked on the Phoenicians both at this time and subsequently, that the Carthaginians were taught the lesson no more to transgress the law in their treatment of conquered peoples; for they did not fail to realize, learning as they did by very deeds, that in war Fortune is impartial to both combatants and in defeat both sides must suffer the same sort of thing that they themselves have done to those who were unfortunate. 16.61. 1. But first it is only right, so we think, to record the punishment which was visited by the gods upon those who had committed the outrage on the oracle. For, speaking generally, it was not merely the perpetrators of the sacrilege but all persons who had the slightest connection with the sacrilege that were hounded by the inexorable retribution sent of Heaven.,2. In fact the man who first schemed for the seizure of the shrine, Philomelus, in a crisis of the war hurled himself over a cliff, while his brother Onomarchus, after taking over the command of his people, now become desperate, was cut to pieces in a battle in Thessaly, along with the Phocians and mercenaries of his command, and crucified.,3. The third in succession and the one who coined into money most of the dedications, Phaÿllus, fell ill of a lingering disease and so was unable even to secure a quick release from his punishment. And the last of all, Phalaecus, who had gathered the remts of the pillaged property, passed his life for a considerable length of time wandering about in great fear and danger, though it was not Heaven's intent that he should be happier than those who participated with him in the sacrilege, but that by being tortured longer and by becoming known to many for his misfortunes, his sad fate might become notorious.,4. For when he had taken flight with his mercenaries following the agreement, he first sojourned in the Peloponnese, supporting his men on the last remts of the pillaging, but later he hired vessels prepared for the voyage to Italy and Sicily, thinking that in these regions he would either seize some city or obtain service for pay, for a war was in progress, as it chanced, between the Lucanians and the Tarentines. To his fellow passengers he had been summoned by the people of Italy and Sicily. 16.62. 1. When he had sailed out of the harbour and was on the high seas, some of the soldiers who were in the largest ship, on which Phalaecus himself was a passenger, conferred with one another because they suspected that no one had sent for them. For they could see on board no officers sent by the peoples who were soliciting aid, and the voyage in prospect was not short, but long and dangerous.,2. Accordingly, since they not only distrusted what they had been told but also feared the overseas campaign, they conspired together, above all those who had commands among the mercenary troops. Finally drawing their swords and menacing Phalaecus and the pilot they forced them to reverse their course. And when those who were sailing in the other boats also did the same, they put in again at a Peloponnesian harbour.,3. Then they gathered at the Malean promontory in Laconia and there found Cnossian envoys who had sailed in from Crete to enlist mercenaries. After these envoys had conversed with Phalaecus and the commanders and had offered rather high pay, they all sailed off with them. Having made port at Cnossus in Crete, they immediately took by storm the city called Lyctus.,4. But to the Lyctians, who had been expelled from their native land, there appeared a miraculous and sudden reinforcement. For at about the same time the people of Tarentum were engaged in prosecuting a war against the Lucanians and had sent to the Lacedaemonians, who were the stock of their ancestors, envoys soliciting help, whereupon the Spartans, who were willing to join them because of their relationship, quickly assembled an army and navy and as general in command of it appointed King Archidamus. But as they were about to set sail for Italy, a request came from the Lyctians to help them first. Consenting to this, the Lacedaemonians sailed to Crete, defeated the mercenaries and restored to the Lyctians their native land. 16.63. 1. After this Archidamus sailed to Italy and joined forces with the Tarentines but lost his life fighting gallantly in battle. He was praised for his ability as a general and for his conduct on the whole, though in the matter of the Phocian alliance alone he was severely criticized as the one who was chiefly responsible for the seizure of Delphi.,2. Now Archidamus was king of the Lacedaemonians for twenty-three years, and Agis his son succeeded to the throne and ruled for fifteen years. After the death of Archidamus his mercenaries, who had participated in plundering the shrine, were shot down by the Lucanians, whereas Phalaecus, now that he had been driven out of Lyctus, attempted to besiege Cydonia.,3. He had constructed siege engines and was bringing them up against the city when lightning descended and these structures were consumed by the divine fire, and many of the mercenaries in attempting to save the engines perished in the flames. Among them was the general Phalaecus.,4. But some say that he offended one of the mercenaries and was slain by him. The mercenaries who survived were taken into their service by Eleian exiles, were then transported to the Peloponnese, and with these exiles were engaged in war against the people of Elis.,5. When the Arcadians joined the Eleians in the struggle and defeated the exiles in battle, many of the mercenaries were slain and the remainder, about four thousand, were taken captive. After the Arcadians and the Eleians had divided up the prisoners, the Arcadians sold as booty all who had been apportioned to them, while the Eleians executed their portion because of the outrage committed against the oracle. 16.63.3. He had constructed siege engines and was bringing them up against the city when lightning descended and these structures were consumed by the divine fire, and many of the mercenaries in attempting to save the engines perished in the flames. Among them was the general Phalaecus. 16.64. 1. Now the participants in the sacrilege met in this fashion with their just retribution from the deity. And the most renowned cities because of their part in the outrage were later defeated in war by Antipater, and lost at one and the same time their leadership and their freedom.,2. The wives of the Phocian commanders who had worn the gold necklaces taken from Delphi met with punishment befitting their impiety. For one of them who had worn the chain which had belonged to Helen of Troy sank to the shameful life of a courtesan and flung her beauty before any who chose wantonly to abuse it, and another, who put on the necklace of Eriphylê, had her house set on fire by her eldest son in a fit of madness and was burned alive in it. Thus those who had the effrontery to flout the deity met just retribution in the manner I have described at the hands of the gods,,3. while Philip who rallied to the support of the oracle added continually to his strength from that time on and finally because of his reverence for the gods was appointed commander of all Hellas and acquired for himself the largest kingdom in Europe. Now that we have reported in sufficient detail the events of the Sacred war, we shall return to events of a different nature. 16.64.1. Now the participants in the sacrilege met in this fashion with their just retribution from the deity. And the most renowned cities because of their part in the outrage were later defeated in war by Antipater, and lost at one and the same time their leadership and their freedom. 16.64.2. The wives of the Phocian commanders who had worn the gold necklaces taken from Delphi met with punishment befitting their impiety. For one of them who had worn the chain which had belonged to Helen of Troy sank to the shameful life of a courtesan and flung her beauty before any who chose wantonly to abuse it, and another, who put on the necklace of Eriphylê, had her house set on fire by her eldest son in a fit of madness and was burned alive in it. Thus those who had the effrontery to flout the deity met just retribution in the manner I have described at the hands of the gods, 16.64.3. while Philip who rallied to the support of the oracle added continually to his strength from that time on and finally because of his reverence for the gods was appointed commander of all Hellas and acquired for himself the largest kingdom in Europe. Now that we have reported in sufficient detail the events of the Sacred war, we shall return to events of a different nature. 16.95.1. Such was the end of Philip, who had made himself the greatest of the kings in Europe in his time, and because of the extent of his kingdom had made himself a throned companion of the twelve gods. He had ruled twenty-four years. 17.38.4. In general I would say that of many good deeds done by Alexander there is none that is greater or more worthy of record and mention in history than this. 17.38.5. Sieges and battles and the other victories scored in war are due for the most part either to Fortune or valour, but when one in a position of power shows pity for those who have been overthrown, this is an action due only to wisdom. 17.38.6. Most people are made proud by their successes because of their good fortune and, becoming arrogant in their success, are forgetful of the common weakness of mankind. You can see how very many are unable to bear success, just as if it were a heavy burden. 18.60.1. Eumenes, who at this time also kept these things in mind, prudently made his own position secure, for he foresaw that Fortune would change again. He perceived that he himself was a foreigner and had no claim to the royal power, that the Macedonians who were now subject to him had previously decreed his death, and that those who occupied the military commands were filled with arrogance and were aiming at great affairs. He therefore understood that he would soon be despised and at the same time envied, and that his life would eventually be in danger; for no one will willingly carry out orders given by those whom he regards as his inferiors, or be patient when he has over him as masters those who ought themselves to be subject to others. 30.8. 1. Prudently and always alert to the needs of the moment, the senate took in hand a revision of its benevolences. For when Perseus, proving unexpectedly defiant, prolonged the war to a stalemate, many Greeks had high hopes. The senate, however, by constantly renewed acts of generosity towards the Greeks exerted a contrary influence, and on each occasion made a bid for the support of the masses. What man of affairs who aspires to leadership could fail to admire this? What intelligent historian would pass over without comment the sagacity of the senate? Indeed, one might reasonably conclude that Rome's mastery over most of mankind was achieved by means of just such refinements of policy. This justifies the observation that harmonious adaptation to all occasions â connivance at some things, the turning of a deaf ear to some reports, the timely restraint of some impulse of blind rage, or, laying aside considerations of national dignity and power to pay court to inferiors while paving the way for some success later â that such adaptation indicates consummate excellence in the individual, superb realism in the deliberating body, and virtue and intelligence in the state. All this the Roman senate of those days did, and thereby left, as it were, models and patterns for all who strive for empire and have the imagination to see how necessary it is to deal with problems in the light of circumstances. 31.15.1. Prusias, king of Bithynia, also came to congratulate the senate and the generals who had brought the conflict to a successful issue. This man's ignobility of spirit must not be allowed to go without comment. For when the virtue of good men is praised, many in later generations are guided to strive for a similar goal; and when the poltroonery of meaner men is held up to reproach, not a few who are taking the path of vice are turned aside. Accordingly the frank language of history should of set purpose be employed for the improvement of society. |
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5. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.89-1.150, 1.177-1.252, 1.262-1.347, 15.870-15.879 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •decline, historical Found in books: Crabb (2020) 62, 83, 109| 1.89. Aurea prima sata est aetas, quae vindice nullo, 1.90. sponte sua, sine lege fidem rectumque colebat. 1.91. Poena metusque aberant, nec verba mitia fixo 1.92. aere legebantur, nec supplex turba timebat 1.93. iudicis ora sui, sed erant sine vindice tuti. 1.94. Nondum caesa suis, peregrinum ut viseret orbem, 1.95. montibus in liquidas pinus descenderat undas, 1.96. nullaque mortales praeter sua litora norant. 1.97. Nondum praecipites cingebant oppida fossae; 1.98. non tuba directi, non aeris cornua flexi, 1.99. non galeae, non ensis erat: sine militis usu 1.100. mollia securae peragebant otia gentes. 1.101. ipsa quoque inmunis rastroque intacta nec ullis 1.102. saucia vomeribus per se dabat omnia tellus; 1.103. contentique cibis nullo cogente creatis 1.104. arbuteos fetus montanaque fraga legebant 1.105. cornaque et in duris haerentia mora rubetis 1.106. et quae deciderant patula Iovis arbore glandes. 1.107. Ver erat aeternum, placidique tepentibus auris 1.108. mulcebant zephyri natos sine semine flores. 1.109. Mox etiam fruges tellus inarata ferebat, 1.110. nec renovatus ager gravidis canebat aristis; 1.111. flumina iam lactis, iam flumina nectaris ibant, 1.112. flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella. 1.113. Postquam, Saturno tenebrosa in Tartara misso, 1.114. sub Iove mundus erat, subiit argentea proles, 1.115. auro deterior, fulvo pretiosior aere. 1.116. Iuppiter antiqui contraxit tempora veris 1.117. perque hiemes aestusque et inaequalis autumnos 1.118. et breve ver spatiis exegit quattuor annum. 1.119. Tum primum siccis aer fervoribus ustus 1.120. canduit, et ventis glacies adstricta pependit. 1.121. Tum primum subiere domus (domus antra fuerunt 1.122. et densi frutices et vinctae cortice virgae). 1.123. Semina tum primum longis Cerealia sulcis 1.124. obruta sunt, pressique iugo gemuere iuvenci. 1.125. Tertia post illam successit aenea proles, 1.126. saevior ingeniis et ad horrida promptior arma, 1.127. non scelerata tamen. De duro est ultima ferro. 1.128. Protinus inrupit venae peioris in aevum 1.129. omne nefas: fugere pudor verumque fidesque; 1.130. In quorum subiere locum fraudesque dolique 1.131. insidiaeque et vis et amor sceleratus habendi. 1.132. Vela dabat ventis (nec adhuc bene noverat illos) 1.133. navita; quaeque diu steterant in montibus altis, 1.134. fluctibus ignotis insultavere carinae, 1.135. communemque prius ceu lumina solis et auras 1.136. cautus humum longo signavit limite mensor. 1.137. Nec tantum segetes alimentaque debita dives 1.138. poscebatur humus, sed itum est in viscera terrae: 1.139. quasque recondiderat Stygiisque admoverat umbris, 1.140. effodiuntur opes, inritamenta malorum. 1.141. Iamque nocens ferrum ferroque nocentius aurum 1.142. prodierat: prodit bellum, quod pugnat utroque, 1.143. sanguineaque manu crepitantia concutit arma. 1.144. Vivitur ex rapto: non hospes ab hospite tutus, 1.145. non socer a genero; fratrum quoque gratia rara est. 1.146. Inminet exitio vir coniugis, illa mariti; 1.147. lurida terribiles miscent aconita novercae; 1.148. filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos. 1.149. Victa iacet pietas, et virgo caede madentis, 1.150. ultima caelestum terras Astraea reliquit. 1.177. Ergo ubi marmoreo superi sedere recessu, 1.178. celsior ipse loco sceptroque innixus eburno 1.179. terrificam capitis concussit terque quaterque 1.180. caesariem, cum qua terram, mare, sidera movit. 1.181. Talibus inde modis ora indigtia solvit: 1.182. “Non ego pro mundi regno magis anxius illa 1.183. tempestate fui, qua centum quisque parabat 1.184. inicere anguipedum captivo bracchia caelo. 1.185. Nam quamquam ferus hostis erat, tamen illud ab uno 1.186. corpore et ex una pendebat origine bellum. 1.187. Nunc mihi, qua totum Nereus circumsonat orbem, 1.188. perdendum est mortale genus: per flumina iuro 1.189. infera, sub terras Stygio labentia luco! 1.190. cuncta prius temptata: sed inmedicabile corpus 1.191. ense recidendum est, ne pars sincera trahatur. 1.192. Sunt mihi semidei, sunt rustica numina, nymphae 1.193. faunique satyrique et monticolae silvani: 1.194. quos quoniam caeli nondum dignamur honore, 1.195. quas dedimus certe terras habitare sinamus. 1.196. An satis, o superi, tutos fore creditis illos, 1.197. cum mihi, qui fulmen, qui vos habeoque regoque, 1.198. struxerit insidias notus feritate Lycaon?” 1.199. Confremuere omnes studiisque ardentibus ausum 1.200. talia deposcunt. Sic, cum manus inpia saevit 1.201. sanguine Caesareo Romanum exstinguere nomen, 1.202. attonitum tanto subitae terrore ruinae 1.203. humanum genus est totusque perhorruit orbis: 1.204. nec tibi grata minus pietas, Auguste, tuorum est, 1.205. quam fuit illa Iovi. Qui postquam voce manuque 1.206. murmura conpressit, tenuere silentia cuncti. 1.207. Substitit ut clamor pressus gravitate regentis, 1.208. Iuppiter hoc iterum sermone silentia rupit: 1.209. “Ille quidem poenas, curam hanc dimittite, solvit. 1.210. Quod tamen admissum, quae sit vindicta, docebo. 1.211. Contigerat nostras infamia temporis aures; 1.212. quam cupiens falsam summo delabor Olympo 1.213. et deus humana lustro sub imagine terras. 1.214. Longa mora est, quantum noxae sit ubique repertum, 1.215. enumerare: minor fuit ipsa infamia vero. 1.216. Maenala transieram latebris horrenda ferarum 1.217. et cum Cyllene gelidi pineta Lycaei: 1.218. Arcadis hinc sedes et inhospita tecta tyranni 1.219. ingredior, traherent cum sera crepuscula noctem. 1.220. Signa dedi venisse deum, vulgusque precari 1.221. coeperat: inridet primo pia vota Lycaon, 1.222. mox ait ”experiar deus hic, discrimine aperto, 1.223. an sit mortalis. Nec erit dubitabile verum.” 1.224. Nocte gravem somno necopina perdere morte 1.225. me parat: haec illi placet experientia veri. 1.226. Nec contentus eo est: missi de gente Molossa 1.227. obsidis unius iugulum mucrone resolvit, 1.228. atque ita semineces partim ferventibus artus 1.229. mollit aquis, partim subiecto torruit igni. 1.230. Quod simul inposuit mensis, ego vindice flamma 1.231. in domino dignos everti tecta penates. 1.232. Territus ipse fugit, nactusque silentia ruris 1.233. exululat frustraque loqui conatur: ab ipso 1.234. conligit os rabiem, solitaeque cupidine caedis 1.235. vertitur in pecudes et nunc quoque sanguine gaudet. 1.236. In villos abeunt vestes, in crura lacerti: 1.237. fit lupus et veteris servat vestigia formae. 1.238. Canities eadem est, eadem violentia vultus, 1.239. idem oculi lucent, eadem feritatis imago est. 1.240. Occidit una domus. Sed non domus una perire 1.241. digna fuit: qua terra patet, fera regnat Erinys. 1.242. In facinus iurasse putes. Dent ocius omnes 1.243. quas meruere pati (sic stat sententia) poenas.” 1.244. Dicta Iovis pars voce probant stimulosque frementi 1.245. adiciunt, alii partes adsensibus inplent. 1.246. Est tamen humani generis iactura dolori 1.247. omnibus, et, quae sit terrae mortalibus orbae 1.248. forma futura, rogant, quis sit laturus in aras 1.249. tura, ferisne paret populandas tradere terras. 1.250. Talia quaerentes (sibi enim fore cetera curae) 1.251. rex superum trepidare vetat subolemque priori 1.252. dissimilem populo promittit origine mira. 1.262. Protinus Aeoliis Aquilonem claudit in antris 1.263. et quaecumque fugant inductas flamina nubes 1.264. emittitque Notum. Madidis Notus evolat alis, 1.265. terribilem picea tectus caligine vultum: 1.266. barba gravis nimbis, canis fluit unda capillis; 1.267. fronte sedent nebulae, rorant pennaeque sinusque. 1.268. Utque manu late pendentia nubila pressit, 1.269. fit fragor: hinc densi funduntur ab aethere nimbi. 1.270. Nuntia Iunonis varios induta colores 1.271. concipit Iris aquas alimentaque nubibus adfert. 1.272. Sternuntur segetes et deplorata coloni 1.273. vota iacent, longique perit labor inritus anni. 1.274. Nec caelo contenta suo est Iovis ira, sed illum 1.275. caeruleus frater iuvat auxiliaribus undis. 1.276. Convocat hic amnes. Qui postquam tecta tyranni 1.277. intravere sui, “non est hortamine longo 1.278. nunc” ait “utendum. Vires effundite vestras: 1.279. sic opus est! aperite domos ac mole remota 1.280. fluminibus vestris totas inmittite habenas!” 1.281. Iusserat; hi redeunt ac fontibus ora relaxant 1.282. et defrenato volvuntur in aequora cursu. 1.283. Ipse tridente suo terram percussit: at illa 1.284. intremuit motuque vias patefecit aquarum. 1.285. Exspatiata ruunt per apertos flumina campos 1.286. cumque satis arbusta simul pecudesque virosque 1.287. tectaque cumque suis rapiunt penetralia sacris. 1.288. Siqua domus mansit potuitque resistere tanto 1.289. indeiecta malo, culmen tamen altior huius 1.290. unda tegit, pressaeque latent sub gurgite turres. 1.291. Iamque mare et tellus nullum discrimen habebant: 1.292. omnia pontus erant; deerant quoque litora ponto. 1.293. Occupat hic collem, cumba sedet alter adunca 1.294. et ducit remos illic, ubi nuper ararat, 1.295. ille supra segetes aut mersae culmina villae 1.296. navigat, hic summa piscem deprendit in ulmo. 1.297. Figitur in viridi, si fors tulit, ancora prato, 1.298. aut subiecta terunt curvae vineta carinae; 1.299. et, modo qua graciles gramen carpsere capellae, 1.300. nunc ibi deformes ponunt sua corpora phocae. 1.301. Mirantur sub aqua lucos urbesque domosque 1.302. Nereides, silvasque tenent delphines et altis 1.303. incursant ramis agitataque robora pulsant. 1.304. Nat lupus inter oves, fulvos vehit unda leones, 1.305. unda vehit tigres, nec vires fulminis apro, 1.306. crura nec ablato prosunt velocia cervo. 1.307. Quaesitisque diu terris, ubi sistere possit, 1.308. in mare lassatis volucris vaga decidit alis. 1.309. Obruerat tumulos inmensa licentia ponti, 1.310. pulsabantque novi montana cacumina fluctus. 1.311. Maxima pars unda rapitur; quibus unda pepercit, 1.312. illos longa domant inopi ieiunia victu. 1.313. Separat Aonios Oetaeis Phocis ab arvis, 1.314. terra ferax, dum terra fuit, sed tempore in illo 1.315. pars maris et latus subitarum campus aquarum. 1.316. Mons ibi verticibus petit arduus astra duobus, 1.317. nomine Parnasus, superantque cacumina nubes. 1.318. Hic ubi Deucalion (nam cetera texerat aequor) 1.319. cum consorte tori parva rate vectus adhaesit, 1.320. Corycidas nymphas et numina montis adorant 1.321. fatidicamque Themin, quae tunc oracla tenebat. 1.322. Non illo melior quisquam nec amantior aequi 1.323. vir fuit aut illa metuentior ulla deorum. 1.324. Iuppiter ut liquidis stagnare paludibus orbem 1.325. et superesse virum de tot modo milibus unum, 1.326. et superesse videt de tot modo milibus unam, 1.327. innocuos ambo, cultores numinis ambo, 1.328. nubila disiecit nimbisque aquilone remotis 1.329. et caelo terras ostendit et aethera terris. 1.330. Nec maris ira manet, positoque tricuspide telo 1.331. mulcet aquas rector pelagi supraque profundum 1.332. exstantem atque umeros innato murice tectum 1.333. caeruleum Tritona vocat conchaeque soti 1.334. inspirare iubet fluctusque et flumina signo 1.335. iam revocare dato. Cava bucina sumitur illi, 1.336. tortilis, in latum quae turbine crescit ab imo, 1.337. bucina, quae medio concepit ubi aera ponto, 1.338. litora voce replet sub utroque iacentia Phoebo. 1.339. Tunc quoque, ut ora dei madida rorantia barba 1.340. contigit et cecinit iussos inflata receptus, 1.341. omnibus audita est telluris et aequoris undis, 1.342. et quibus est undis audita, coercuit omnes. 1.343. Iam mare litus habet, plenos capit alveus amnes, 1.344. flumina subsidunt collesque exire videntur, 1.345. surgit humus, crescunt loca decrescentibus undis, 1.346. postque diem longam nudata cacumina silvae 1.347. ostendunt limumque tenent in fronde relictum. 15.870. accedat caelo faveatque precantibus absens! 15.871. Iamque opus exegi, quod nec Iovis ira nec ignis 15.872. nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas. 15.873. Cum volet, illa dies, quae nil nisi corporis huius 15.874. ius habet, incerti spatium mihi finiat aevi: 15.875. parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis 15.876. astra ferar, nomenque erit indelebile nostrum, 15.877. quaque patet domitis Romana potentia terris, 15.878. ore legar populi, perque omnia saecula fama, 15.879. siquid habent veri vatum praesagia, vivam. | |
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6. Tacitus, Annals, 1.10, 3.26-3.28, 4.32-4.33, 9.71 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Crabb (2020) 77, 78, 79, 83, 274| 3.26. Vetustissimi mortalium, nulla adhuc mala libidine, sine probro, scelere eoque sine poena aut coercitionibus agebant. neque praemiis opus erat cum honesta suopte ingenio peterentur; et ubi nihil contra morem cuperent, nihil per metum vetabantur. at postquam exui aequalitas et pro modestia ac pudore ambitio et vis incedebat, provenere dominationes multosque apud populos aeternum mansere. quidam statim aut postquam regum pertaesum leges maluerunt. hae primo rudibus hominum animis simplices erant; maximeque fama celebravit Cretensium, quas Minos, Spartanorum, quas Lycurgus, ac mox Atheniensibus quaesitiores iam et plures Solo perscripsit. nobis Romulus ut libitum imperitaverat: dein Numa religionibus et divino iure populum devinxit, repertaque quaedam a Tullo et Anco. sed praecipuus Servius Tullius sanctor legum fuit quis etiam reges obtemperarent. 3.27. Pulso Tarquinio adversum patrum factiones multa populus paravit tuendae libertatis et firmandae concordiae, creatique decemviri et accitis quae usquam egregia compositae duodecim tabulae, finis aequi iuris. nam secutae leges etsi aliquando in maleficos ex delicto, saepius tamen dissensione ordinum et apiscendi inlicitos honores aut pellendi claros viros aliaque ob prava per vim latae sunt. hinc Gracchi et Saturnini turbatores plebis nec minor largitor nomine senatus Drusus; corrupti spe aut inlusi per intercessionem socii. ac ne bello quidem Italico, mox civili omissum quin multa et diversa sciscerentur, donec L. Sulla dictator abolitis vel conversis prioribus, cum plura addidisset, otium eius rei haud in longum paravit, statim turbidis Lepidi rogationibus neque multo post tribunis reddita licentia quoquo vellent populum agitandi. iamque non modo in commune sed in singulos homines latae quaestiones, et corruptissima re publica plurimae leges. 3.28. Tum Cn. Pompeius, tertium consul corrigendis moribus delectus et gravior remediis quam delicta erant suarumque legum auctor idem ac subversor, quae armis tuebatur armis amisit. exim continua per viginti annos discordia, non mos, non ius; deterrima quaeque impune ac multa honesta exitio fuere. sexto demum consulatu Caesar Augustus, potentiae securus, quae triumviratu iusserat abolevit deditque iura quis pace et principe uteremur. acriora ex eo vincla, inditi custodes et lege Papia Poppaea praemiis inducti ut, si a privilegiis parentum cessaretur, velut parens omnium populus vacantia teneret. sed altius penetrabant urbemque et Italiam et quod usquam civium corripuerant, multorumque excisi status. et terror omnibus intentabatur ni Tiberius statuendo remedio quinque consularium, quinque e praetoriis, totidem e cetero senatu sorte duxisset apud quos exsoluti plerique legis nexus modicum in praesens levamentum fuere. 4.32. Pleraque eorum quae rettuli quaeque referam parva forsitan et levia memoratu videri non nescius sum: sed nemo annalis nostros cum scriptura eorum contenderit qui veteres populi Romani res composuere. ingentia illi bella, expugnationes urbium, fusos captosque reges, aut si quando ad interna praeverterent, discordias consulum adversum tribunos, agrarias frumentariasque leges, plebis et optimatium certamina libero egressu memorabant: nobis in arto et inglorius labor; immota quippe aut modice lacessita pax, maestae urbis res et princeps proferendi imperi incuriosus erat. non tamen sine usu fuerit introspicere illa primo aspectu levia ex quis magnarum saepe rerum motus oriuntur. 4.33. Nam cunctas nationes et urbes populus aut primores aut singuli regunt: delecta ex iis et consociata rei publicae forma laudari facilius quam evenire, vel si evenit, haud diuturna esse potest. igitur ut olim plebe valida, vel cum patres pollerent, noscenda vulgi natura et quibus modis temperanter haberetur, senatusque et optimatium ingenia qui maxime perdidicerant, callidi temporum et sapientes credebantur, sic converso statu neque alia re Romana quam si unus imperitet, haec conquiri tradique in rem fuerit, quia pauci prudentia honesta ab deterioribus, utilia ab noxiis discernunt, plures aliorum eventis docentur. ceterum ut profutura, ita minimum oblectationis adferunt. nam situs gentium, varietates proeliorum, clari ducum exitus retinent ac redintegrant legentium animum: nos saeva iussa, continuas accusationes, fallaces amicitias, perniciem innocentium et easdem exitii causas coniungimus, obvia rerum similitudine et satietate. tum quod antiquis scriptoribus rarus obtrectator, neque refert cuiusquam Punicas Romanasne acies laetius extuleris: at multorum qui Tiberio regente poenam vel infamias subiere posteri manent. utque familiae ipsae iam extinctae sint, reperies qui ob similitudinem morum aliena malefacta sibi obiectari putent. etiam gloria ac virtus infensos habet, ut nimis ex propinquo diversa arguens. sed ad inceptum redeo. | 1.10. On the other side it was argued that "filial duty and the critical position of the state had been used merely as a cloak: come to facts, and it was from the lust of dominion that he excited the veterans by his bounties, levied an army while yet a stripling and a subject, subdued the legions of a consul, and affected a leaning to the Pompeian side. Then, following his usurpation by senatorial decree of the symbols and powers of the praetorship, had come the deaths of Hirtius and Pansa, â whether they perished by the enemy's sword, or Pansa by poison sprinkled on his wound, and Hirtius by the hands of his own soldiery, with the Caesar to plan the treason. At all events, he had possessed himself of both their armies, wrung a consulate from the unwilling senate, and turned against the commonwealth the arms which he had received for the quelling of Antony. The proscription of citizens and the assignments of land had been approved not even by those who executed them. Grant that Cassius and the Bruti were sacrificed to inherited enmities â though the moral law required that private hatreds should give way to public utility â yet Pompey was betrayed by the simulacrum of a peace, Lepidus by the shadow of a friendship: then Antony, lured by the Tarentine and Brundisian treaties and a marriage with his sister, had paid with life the penalty of that delusive connexion. After that there had been undoubtedly peace, but peace with bloodshed â the disasters of Lollius and of Varus, the execution at Rome of a Varro, an Egnatius, an Iullus." His domestic adventures were not spared; the abduction of Nero's wife, and the farcical questions to the pontiffs, whether, with a child conceived but not yet born, she could legally wed; the debaucheries of Vedius Pollio; and, lastly, Livia, â as a mother, a curse to the realm; as a stepmother, a curse to the house of the Caesars. "He had left small room for the worship of heaven, when he claimed to be himself adored in temples and in the image of godhead by flamens and by priests! Even in the adoption of Tiberius to succeed him, his motive had been neither personal affection nor regard for the state: he had read the pride and cruelty of his heart, and had sought to heighten his own glory by the vilest of contrasts." For Augustus, a few years earlier, when requesting the Fathers to renew the grant of the tribunician power to Tiberius, had in the course of the speech, complimentary as it was, let fall a few remarks on his demeanour, dress, and habits which were offered as an apology and designed for reproaches. However, his funeral ran the ordinary course; and a decree followed, endowing him a temple and divine rites. 3.26. Primeval man, untouched as yet by criminal passion, lived his life without reproach or guilt, and, consequently, without penalty or coercion: rewards were needless when good was sought instinctively, and he who coveted nothing unsanctioned by custom had to be withheld from nothing by a threat. But when equality began to be outworn, and ambition and violence gained ground in place of modesty and self-effacement, there came a crop of despotisms, which with many nations has remained perennial. A few communities, either from the outset or after a surfeit of kings, decided for government by laws. The earliest specimens were the artless creations of simple minds, the most famous being those drawn up in Crete by Minos, in Sparta by Lycurgus, and in Athens by Solon â the last already more recondite and more numerous. In our own case, after the absolute sway of Romulus, Numa imposed on his people the bonds of religion and a code dictated by Heaven. Other discoveries were due to Tullus and Ancus. But, foremost of all, Servius Tullius became an ordainer of laws, to which kings themselves were to owe obedience. Upon the expulsion of Tarquin, the commons, to check senatorial factions, framed a large number of regulations for the protection of their liberties or the establishment of concord; the Decemvirs came into being; and, by incorporating the best features of the foreign constitutions, the Twelve Tables were assembled, the final instance of equitable legislation. For succeeding laws, though occasionally suggested by a crime and aimed at the criminal, were more often carried by brute force in consequence of class-dissension â to open the way to an unconceded office, to banish a patriot, or to consummate some other perverted end. Hence our demagogues: our Gracchi and Saturnini, and on the other side a Drusus bidding as high in the senate's name; while the provincials were alternately bribed with hopes and cheated with tribunician vetoes. Not even the Italian war, soon replaced by the Civil war, could interrupt the flow of self-contradictory legislation; until Sulla, in his dictatorship, by abolishing or inverting the older statutes and adding more of his own, brought the process to a standstill, but not for long. The calm was immediately broken by the Rogations of Lepidus, and shortly afterwards the tribunes were repossessed of their licence to disturb the nation as they pleased. And now bills began to pass, not only of national but of purely individual application, and when the state was most corrupt, laws were most abundant. 3.28. Then came Pompey's third consulate. But this chosen reformer of society, operating with remedies more disastrous than the abuses, this maker and breaker of his own enactments, lost by the sword what he was holding by the sword. The followed twenty crowded years of discord, during which law and custom ceased to exist: villainy was immune, decency not rarely a sentence of death. At last, in his sixth consulate, Augustus Caesar, feeling his power secure, cancelled the behests of his triumvirate, and presented us with laws to serve our needs in peace and under a prince. Thenceforward the fetters were tightened: sentries were set over us and, under the Papia-Poppaean law, lured on by rewards; so that, if a man shirked the privileges of paternity, the state, as universal parent, might step into the vacant inheritance. But they pressed their activities too far: the capital, Italy, every corner of the Roman world, had suffered from their attacks, and the positions of many had been wholly ruined. Indeed, a reign of terror was threatened, when Tiberius, for the fixing of a remedy, chose by lot five former consuls, five former praetors, and an equal number of ordinary senators: a body which, by untying many of the legal knots, gave for the time a measure of relief. 4.32. I am not unaware that very many of the events I have described, and shall describe, may perhaps seem little things, trifles too slight for record; but no parallel can be drawn between these chronicles of mine and the work of the men who composed the ancient history of the Roman people. Gigantic wars, cities stormed, routed and captive kings, or, when they turned by choice to domestic affairs, the feuds of consul and tribune, land-laws and corn-laws, the duel of nobles and commons â such were the themes on which they dwelt, or digressed, at will. Mine is an inglorious labour in a narrow field: for this was an age of peace unbroken or half-heartedly challenged, of tragedy in the capital, of a prince careless to extend the empire. Yet it may be not unprofitable to look beneath the surface of those incidents, trivial at the first inspection, which so often set in motion the great events of history. 4.33. For every nation or city is governed by the people, or by the nobility, or by individuals: a constitution selected and blended from these types is easier to commend than to create; or, if created, its tenure of life is brief. Accordingly, as in the period of alternate plebeian domice and patrician ascendancy it was imperative, in one case, to study the character of the masses and the methods of controlling them; while, in the other, those who had acquired the most exact knowledge of the temper of the senate and the aristocracy were accounted shrewd in their generation and wise; so toâday, when the situation has been transformed and the Roman world is little else than a monarchy, the collection and the chronicling of these details may yet serve an end: for few men distinguish right and wrong, the expedient and the disastrous, by native intelligence; the majority are schooled by the experience of others. But while my themes have their utility, they offer the minimum of pleasure. Descriptions of countries, the vicissitudes of battles, commanders dying on the field of honour, such are the episodes that arrest and renew the interest of the reader: for myself, I present a series of savage mandates, of perpetual accusations, of traitorous friendships, of ruined innocents, of various causes and identical results â everywhere monotony of subject, and satiety. Again, the ancient author has few detractors, and it matters to none whether you praise the Carthaginian or the Roman arms with the livelier enthusiasm. But of many, who underwent either the legal penalty or a form of degradation in the principate of Tiberius, the descendants remain; and, assuming the actual families to be now extinct, you will still find those who, from a likeness of character, read the ill deeds of others as an innuendo against themselves. Even glory and virtue create their enemies â they arraign their opposites by too close a contrast. But I return to my subject. |
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| 7. New Testament, Mark, 13 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •decline, historical Found in books: Crabb (2020) 81 |
8. New Testament, Acts, 17.31 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •decline, historical Found in books: Crabb (2020) 333| 17.31. καθότι ἔστησεν ἡμέραν ἐν ᾗ μέλλει κρίνειν τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ ἐν ἀνδρὶ ᾧ ὥρισεν, πίστιν παρασχὼν πᾶσιν ἀναστήσας αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν. | 17.31. because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; whereof he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead." |
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9. Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, 1.41, 1.46, 10.244, 10.276-10.280, 12.322 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •decline, historical Found in books: Crabb (2020) 105 | 1.41. But while all the living creatures had one language, at that time the serpent, which then lived together with Adam and his wife, shewed an envious disposition, at his supposal of their living happily, and in obedience to the commands of God; 1.46. When he made no reply, as conscious to himself that he had transgressed the command of God, God said, “I had before determined about you both, how you might lead a happy life, without any affliction, and care, and vexation of soul; and that all things which might contribute to your enjoyment and pleasure should grow up by my providence, of their own accord, without your own labor and painstaking; which state of labor and painstaking would soon bring on old age, and death would not be at any remote distance: 10.244. —THEKEL. This signifies a weight, and means that God hath weighed thy kingdom in a balance, and finds it going down already.—PHARES. This also, in the Greek tongue, denotes a fragment. God will therefore break thy kingdom in pieces, and divide it among the Medes and Persians.” 10.276. And indeed it so came to pass, that our nation suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes, according to Daniel’s vision, and what he wrote many years before they came to pass. In the very same manner Daniel also wrote concerning the Roman government, and that our country should be made desolate by them. 10.277. All these things did this man leave in writing, as God had showed them to him, insomuch that such as read his prophecies, and see how they have been fulfilled, would wonder at the honor wherewith God honored Daniel; and may thence discover how the Epicureans are in an error, 10.278. who cast Providence out of human life, and do not believe that God takes care of the affairs of the world, nor that the universe is governed and continued in being by that blessed and immortal nature, but say that the world is carried along of its own accord, without a ruler and a curator; 10.279. which, were it destitute of a guide to conduct it, as they imagine, it would be like ships without pilots, which we see drowned by the winds, or like chariots without drivers, which are overturned; so would the world be dashed to pieces by its being carried without a Providence, and so perish, and come to nought. 10.280. So that, by the forementioned predictions of Daniel, those men seem to me very much to err from the truth, who determine that God exercises no providence over human affairs; for if that were the case, that the world went on by mechanical necessity, we should not see that all things would come to pass according to his prophecy. 12.322. And this desolation came to pass according to the prophecy of Daniel, which was given four hundred and eight years before; for he declared that the Macedonians would dissolve that worship [for some time]. |
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| 10. Anon., 2 Baruch, 15.2, 20.6, 21.11, 21.17, 22.2, 22.3, 22.4, 23, 24, 25, 25.2, 25.3, 25.4, 26, 27, 27.15, 28, 28.1, 29, 29.8, 30, 30.1, 30.3, 39.1, 39.2, 39.3, 39.4, 39.5, 39.6, 39.7, 39.8, 42.6, 44.11, 44.15, 48.3, 48.31, 48.33, 48.38, 50.2, 50.3, 50.4, 51.11, 51.12, 51.13, 52.2, 52.3, 53, 54, 54.4, 54.5, 54.15, 54.16, 55, 55.2, 55.3, 56, 56.2, 57, 57.1, 57.2, 57.3, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 70.7, 71, 72, 73, 73.1-74.2, 73.1, 74, 74.2, 74.3, 74.4, 75, 76, 85.10 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Crabb (2020) 107, 108, 111, 114, 181 |
11. Tacitus, Histories, 1.1, 1.2.1-1.2.2, 1.12-1.16, 1.13.2, 1.16.2-1.16.3, 1.18-1.19, 1.22, 1.26, 1.28, 1.83-1.84, 3.71-3.72, 4.1, 4.1.1, 4.1.3, 4.54.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •decline, historical •decline, historical, moral decline Found in books: Crabb (2020) 77, 78, 79, 80, 274 | 1.83. Otho was in a difficult position owing to the general disturbance and the divergences of sentiment among the soldiers; for the best of them demanded that some check be put on the present licence, while the larger mob delighted in mutinies and in an emperor whose power depended on popular favour, and were easily driven on to civil war by riots and rapine. He realized, however, that a throne gained by crime cannot be maintained by sudden moderation and old-fashioned dignity; but being distressed by the crisis that had befallen the city and the danger of the senate, he finally spoke as follows: "Fellow soldiers, I have not come to kindle your sentiments into love for me, nor to exhort your hearts to courage, for both these qualities you have in marked abundance; but I have come to ask you to put some check to your bravery and some limit to your regard for me. The recent disturbances owed their beginning not to any greed or hate, which are the sentiments that drive most armies to revolt, or even to any shirking or fear of danger; it was your excessive loyalty that spurred you to an action more violent than wise. Very often honourable motives have a fatal end, unless men employ judgment. We are proceeding to war. Do the exigencies of events or the rapid changes in the situation allow every report to be heard openly, every plan to be discussed in the presence of all? It is as proper that soldiers should not know certain things as that they should know them. The authority of the leaders and strict discipline are maintained only by holding it wise that in many cases even centurions and tribunes should simply receive orders. For if individuals may inquire the reason for the orders given them, then discipline is at an end and authority also ceases. Suppose in the field you have to take your arms in the dead of night, shall one or two worthless and drunken men â for I cannot believe that the recent madness was due to the panic of more than that â stain their hands in the blood of a centurion or tribune? Shall they burst into the tent of their general? 1.84. "You, it is true, did that for me. But in time of riot, in the darkness and general confusion, an opportunity may also be given for an attack on me. Suppose Vitellius and his satellites should have an opportunity to choose the spirit and sentiment with which they would pray you to be inspired, what will they prefer to mutiny and strife? Will they not wish that soldier should not obey centurion or centurion tribune, so that we may all, foot and horse, in utter confusion rush to ruin? It is rather by obedience, fellow-soldiers, than by questioning the commands of the leaders, that success in war is obtained, and that is the bravest army in time of crisis which has been most orderly before the crisis. Yours be the arms and spirit; leave to me the plan of campaign and the direction of your valour. Few were at fault; two shall pay the penalty: do all the rest of you blot out the memory of that awful night. And I pray that no army may ever hear such cries against the senate. That is the head of the empire and the glory of all the provinces; good heavens, not even those Germans whom Vitellius at this moment is stirring up against us would dare to call it to punishment. Shall any child of Italy, any true Roman youth, demand the blood and murder of that order through whose splendid glory we outshine the meanness and base birth of the partisans of Vitellius? Vitellius has won over some peoples; he has a certain shadow of an army, but the senate is with us. And so it is that on our side stands the state, on theirs the enemies of the state. Tell me, do you think that this fairest city consists of houses and buildings and heaps of stone? Those dumb and iimate things can perish and readily be replaced. The eternity of our power, the peace of the world, my safety and yours, are secured by the welfare of the senate. This senate, which was established under auspices by the Father and Founder of our city and which has continued in unbroken line from the time of the kings even down to the time of the emperors, let us hand over to posterity even as we received it from our fathers. For as senators spring from your number, so emperors spring from senators." 3.71. Martialis had hardly returned to the Capitol when the soldiers arrived in fury. They had no leader; each directed his own movements. Rushing through the Forum and past the temples that rise above it, they advanced in column up the hill, as far as the first gates of the Capitoline citadel. There were then some old colonnades on the right as you go up the slopes; the defenders came out on the roofs of these and showered stones and tiles on their assailants. The latter had no arms except their swords, and they thought that it would cost too much time to send for artillery and missiles; consequently they threw firebrands on a projecting colonnade, and then followed in the path of the flames; they actually burned the gates of the Capitol and would have forced their way through, if Sabinus had not torn down all the statues, memorials to the glory of our ancestors, and piled them up across the entrance as a barricade. Then the assailants tried different approaches to the Capitol, one by the grove of the asylum and another by the hundred steps that lead up to the Tarpeian Rock. Both attacks were unexpected; but the one by the asylum was closer and more threatening. Moreover, the defenders were unable to stop those who climbed through neighbouring houses, which, built high in time of peace, reached the level of the Capitol. It is a question here whether it was the besiegers or the besieged who threw fire on the roofs. The more common tradition says this was done by the latter in their attempts to repel their assailants, who were climbing up or had reached the top. From the houses the fire spread to the colonnades adjoining the temple; then the "eagles" which supported the roof, being of old wood, caught and fed the flames. So the Capitol burned with its doors closed; none defended it, none pillaged it. 3.72. This was the saddest and most shameful crime that the Roman state had ever suffered since its foundation. Rome had no foreign foe; the gods were ready to be propitious if our characters had allowed; and yet the home of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, founded after due auspices by our ancestors as a pledge of empire, which neither Porsenna, when the city gave itself up to him, nor the Gauls when they captured it, could violate â this was the shrine that the mad fury of emperors destroyed! The Capitol had indeed been burned before in civil war, but the crime was that of private individuals. Now it was openly besieged, openly burned â and what were the causes that led to arms? What was the price paid for this great disaster? This temple stood intact so long as we fought for our country. King Tarquinius Priscus had vowed it in the war with the Sabines and had laid its foundations rather to match his hope of future greatness than in accordance with what the fortunes of the Roman people, still moderate, could supply. Later the building was begun by Servius Tullius with the enthusiastic help of Rome's allies, and afterwards carried on by Tarquinius Superbus with the spoils taken from the enemy at the capture of Suessa Pometia. But the glory of completing the work was reserved for liberty: after the expulsion of the kings, Horatius Pulvillus in his second consulship dedicated it; and its magnificence was such that the enormous wealth of the Roman people acquired thereafter adorned rather than increased its splendour. The temple was built again on the same spot when after an interval of four hundred and fifteen years it had been burned in the consulship of Lucius Scipio and Gaius Norbanus. The victorious Sulla undertook the work, but still he did not dedicate it; that was the only thing that his good fortune was refused. Amid all the great works built by the Caesars the name of Lutatius Catulus kept its place down to Vitellius's day. This was the temple that then was burned. 4.1. The death of Vitellius was rather the end of war than the beginning of peace. The victors ranged through the city in arms, pursuing their defeated foes with implacable hatred: the streets were full of carnage, the fora and temples reeked with blood; they slew right and left everyone whom chance put in their way. Presently, as their licence increased, they began to hunt out and drag into the light those who had concealed themselves; did they espy anyone who was tall and young, they cut him down, regardless whether he was soldier or civilian. Their ferocity, which found satisfaction in bloodshed while their hatred was fresh, turned then afterwards to greed. They let no place remain secret or closed, pretending that Vitellians were in hiding. This led to the forcing of private houses or, if resistance was made, became an excuse for murder. Nor was there any lack of starvelings among the mob or of the vilest slaves ready to betray their rich masters; others were pointed out by their friends. Everywhere were lamentations, cries of anguish, and the misfortunes that befall a captured city; so that the citizens actually longed for the licence of Otho's and Vitellius's soldiers, which earlier they had detested. The generals of the Flavian party, who had been quick to start the conflagration of civil war, were unequal to the task of controlling their victory, for in times of violence and civil strife the worst men have the greatest power; peace and quiet call for honest arts. |
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12. Plutarch, Theseus, 15.1-15.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •decline, historical, moral decline Found in books: Crabb (2020) 235| 15.1. ὀλίγῳ δὲ ὕστερον ἧκον ἐκ Κρήτης τὸ τρίτον οἱ τὸν δασμὸν ἀπάξοντες. ὅτι μὲν οὖν Ἀνδρόγεω περὶ τὴν Ἀττικὴν ἀποθανεῖν δόλῳ δόξαντος, ὅ τε Μίνως πολλὰ κακὰ πολεμῶν εἰργάζετο τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καὶ τὸ δαιμόνιον ἔφθειρε τὴν χώραν (ἀφορία τε γὰρ καὶ νόσος ἐνέσκηψε πολλὴ καὶ ἀνέδυσαν οἱ ποταμοί), καὶ τοῦ θεοῦ προστάξαντος ἱλασαμένοις τὸν Μίνω καὶ διαλλαγεῖσι λωφήσειν τὸ μήνιμα καὶ τῶν κακῶν ἔσεσθαι παῦλαν, ἐπικηρυκευσάμενοι καὶ δεηθέντες ἐποιήσαντο συνθήκας ὥστε πέμπειν διʼ ἐννέα ἐτῶν δασμὸν ἠϊθέους ἑπτὰ καὶ παρθένους τοσαύτας, ὁμολογοῦσιν οἱ πλεῖστοι τῶν συγγραφέων· 15.2. τοὺς δὲ παῖδας εἰς Κρήτην κομιζομένους ὁ μὲν τραγικώτατος μῦθος ἀποφαίνει τὸν Μινώταυρον ἐν τῷ Λαβυρίνθῳ διαφθείρειν, ἢ πλανωμένους αὐτοὺς καὶ τυχεῖν ἐξόδου μὴ δυναμένους ἐκεῖ καταθνήσκειν, τὸν δὲ Μινώταυρον, ὥσπερ Εὐριπίδης φησί, | |
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13. Vergil, Georgics, 1.121-1.128 Tagged with subjects: •decline, historical Found in books: Crabb (2020) 83| 1.121. officiunt aut umbra nocet. Pater ipse colendi 1.122. haud facilem esse viam voluit, primusque per artem 1.123. movit agros curis acuens mortalia corda 1.124. nec torpere gravi passus sua regna veterno. 1.125. Ante Iovem nulli subigebant arva coloni; 1.126. ne signare quidem aut partiri limite campum 1.127. fas erat: in medium quaerebant ipsaque tellus 1.128. omnia liberius nullo poscente ferebat. | |
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| 14. Vergil, Eclogues, 4.4-4.10 Tagged with subjects: •decline, historical Found in books: Crabb (2020) 83 |
16. Vergil, Aeneis, 1.229-1.253, 1.257-1.304, 6.752-6.892, 8.324-8.325, 8.624-8.728 Tagged with subjects: •decline, historical Found in books: Crabb (2020) 83, 135 | 1.230. Hither Aeneas of his scattered fleet 1.231. aving but seven, into harbor sailed; 1.232. with passionate longing for the touch of land, 1.233. forth leap the Trojans to the welcome shore, 1.234. and fling their dripping limbs along the ground. 1.235. Then good Achates smote a flinty stone, 1.236. ecured a flashing spark, heaped on light leaves, 1.237. and with dry branches nursed the mounting flame. 1.238. Then Ceres' gift from the corrupting sea 1.239. they bring away; and wearied utterly 1.240. ply Ceres' cunning on the rescued corn, 1.241. and parch in flames, and mill 'twixt two smooth stones. 1.242. Aeneas meanwhile climbed the cliffs, and searched 1.243. the wide sea-prospect; haply Antheus there, 1.244. torm-buffeted, might sail within his ken, 1.245. with biremes, and his Phrygian mariners, 1.246. or Capys or Caicus armor-clad, 1.247. upon a towering deck. No ship is seen; 1.248. but while he looks, three stags along the shore 1.249. come straying by, and close behind them comes 1.250. the whole herd, browsing through the lowland vale 1.251. in one long line. Aeneas stopped and seized 1.252. his bow and swift-winged arrows, which his friend, 1.253. trusty Achates, close beside him bore. 1.257. in panic through the leafy wood, nor ceased 1.258. the victory of his bow, till on the ground 1.259. lay seven huge forms, one gift for every ship. 1.260. Then back to shore he sped, and to his friends 1.261. distributed the spoil, with that rare wine 1.262. which good Acestes while in Sicily 1.263. had stored in jars, and prince-like sent away 1.264. with his Ioved guest;—this too Aeneas gave; 1.266. “Companions mine, we have not failed to feel 1.267. calamity till now. O, ye have borne 1.268. far heavier sorrow: Jove will make an end 1.269. also of this. Ye sailed a course hard by 1.270. infuriate Scylla's howling cliffs and caves. 1.271. Ye knew the Cyclops' crags. Lift up your hearts! 1.272. No more complaint and fear! It well may be 1.273. ome happier hour will find this memory fair. 1.274. Through chance and change and hazard without end, 1.275. our goal is Latium ; where our destinies 1.276. beckon to blest abodes, and have ordained 1.277. that Troy shall rise new-born! Have patience all! 1.279. Such was his word, but vexed with grief and care, 1.280. feigned hopes upon his forehead firm he wore, 1.281. and locked within his heart a hero's pain. 1.282. Now round the welcome trophies of his chase 1.283. they gather for a feast. Some flay the ribs 1.284. and bare the flesh below; some slice with knives, 1.285. and on keen prongs the quivering strips impale, 1.286. place cauldrons on the shore, and fan the fires. 1.287. Then, stretched at ease on couch of simple green, 1.288. they rally their lost powers, and feast them well 1.289. on seasoned wine and succulent haunch of game. 1.290. But hunger banished and the banquet done, 1.291. in long discourse of their lost mates they tell, 1.292. 'twixt hopes and fears divided; for who knows 1.293. whether the lost ones live, or strive with death, 1.294. or heed no more whatever voice may call? 1.295. Chiefly Aeneas now bewails his friends, 1.296. Orontes brave and fallen Amycus, 1.297. or mourns with grief untold the untimely doom 1.299. After these things were past, exalted Jove, 1.300. from his ethereal sky surveying clear 1.301. the seas all winged with sails, lands widely spread, 1.302. and nations populous from shore to shore, 1.303. paused on the peak of heaven, and fixed his gaze 1.304. on Libya . But while he anxious mused, 6.752. Came on my view; their hands made stroke at Heaven 6.753. And strove to thrust Jove from his seat on high. 6.754. I saw Salmoneus his dread stripes endure, 6.755. Who dared to counterfeit Olympian thunder 6.756. And Jove's own fire. In chariot of four steeds, 6.757. Brandishing torches, he triumphant rode 6.758. Through throngs of Greeks, o'er Elis ' sacred way, 6.759. Demanding worship as a god. 0 fool! 6.760. To mock the storm's inimitable flash— 6.761. With crash of hoofs and roll of brazen wheel! 6.762. But mightiest Jove from rampart of thick cloud 6.763. Hurled his own shaft, no flickering, mortal flame, 6.764. And in vast whirl of tempest laid him low. 6.765. Next unto these, on Tityos I looked, 6.766. Child of old Earth, whose womb all creatures bears: 6.767. Stretched o'er nine roods he lies; a vulture huge 6.768. Tears with hooked beak at his immortal side, 6.769. Or deep in entrails ever rife with pain 6.770. Gropes for a feast, making his haunt and home 6.771. In the great Titan bosom; nor will give 6.772. To ever new-born flesh surcease of woe. 6.773. Why name Ixion and Pirithous, 6.774. The Lapithae, above whose impious brows 6.775. A crag of flint hangs quaking to its fall, 6.776. As if just toppling down, while couches proud, 6.777. Propped upon golden pillars, bid them feast 6.778. In royal glory: but beside them lies 6.779. The eldest of the Furies, whose dread hands 6.780. Thrust from the feast away, and wave aloft 6.781. A flashing firebrand, with shrieks of woe. 6.782. Here in a prison-house awaiting doom 6.783. Are men who hated, long as life endured, 6.784. Their brothers, or maltreated their gray sires, 6.785. Or tricked a humble friend; the men who grasped 6.786. At hoarded riches, with their kith and kin 6.787. Not sharing ever—an unnumbered throng; 6.788. Here slain adulterers be; and men who dared 6.789. To fight in unjust cause, and break all faith 6.790. With their own lawful lords. Seek not to know 6.791. What forms of woe they feel, what fateful shape 6.792. of retribution hath o'erwhelmed them there. 6.793. Some roll huge boulders up; some hang on wheels, 6.794. Lashed to the whirling spokes; in his sad seat 6.795. Theseus is sitting, nevermore to rise; 6.796. Unhappy Phlegyas uplifts his voice 6.797. In warning through the darkness, calling loud, 6.798. ‘0, ere too late, learn justice and fear God!’ 6.799. Yon traitor sold his country, and for gold 6.800. Enchained her to a tyrant, trafficking 6.801. In laws, for bribes enacted or made void; 6.802. Another did incestuously take 6.803. His daughter for a wife in lawless bonds. 6.804. All ventured some unclean, prodigious crime; 6.805. And what they dared, achieved. I could not tell, 6.806. Not with a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues, 6.807. Or iron voice, their divers shapes of sin, 6.809. So spake Apollo's aged prophetess. 6.810. “Now up and on!” she cried. “Thy task fulfil! 6.811. We must make speed. Behold yon arching doors 6.812. Yon walls in furnace of the Cyclops forged! 6.813. 'T is there we are commanded to lay down 6.814. Th' appointed offering.” So, side by side, 6.815. Swift through the intervening dark they strode, 6.816. And, drawing near the portal-arch, made pause. 6.817. Aeneas, taking station at the door, 6.818. Pure, lustral waters o'er his body threw, 6.820. Now, every rite fulfilled, and tribute due 6.821. Paid to the sovereign power of Proserpine, 6.822. At last within a land delectable 6.823. Their journey lay, through pleasurable bowers 6.824. of groves where all is joy,—a blest abode! 6.825. An ampler sky its roseate light bestows 6.826. On that bright land, which sees the cloudless beam 6.827. of suns and planets to our earth unknown. 6.828. On smooth green lawns, contending limb with limb, 6.829. Immortal athletes play, and wrestle long 6.830. 'gainst mate or rival on the tawny sand; 6.831. With sounding footsteps and ecstatic song, 6.832. Some thread the dance divine: among them moves 6.833. The bard of Thrace , in flowing vesture clad, 6.834. Discoursing seven-noted melody, 6.835. Who sweeps the numbered strings with changeful hand, 6.836. Or smites with ivory point his golden lyre. 6.837. Here Trojans be of eldest, noblest race, 6.838. Great-hearted heroes, born in happier times, 6.839. Ilus, Assaracus, and Dardanus, 6.840. Illustrious builders of the Trojan town. 6.841. Their arms and shadowy chariots he views, 6.842. And lances fixed in earth, while through the fields 6.843. Their steeds without a bridle graze at will. 6.844. For if in life their darling passion ran 6.845. To chariots, arms, or glossy-coated steeds, 6.846. The self-same joy, though in their graves, they feel. 6.847. Lo! on the left and right at feast reclined 6.848. Are other blessed souls, whose chorus sings 6.849. Victorious paeans on the fragrant air 6.850. of laurel groves; and hence to earth outpours 6.851. Eridanus, through forests rolling free. 6.852. Here dwell the brave who for their native land 6.853. Fell wounded on the field; here holy priests 6.854. Who kept them undefiled their mortal day; 6.855. And poets, of whom the true-inspired song 6.856. Deserved Apollo's name; and all who found 6.857. New arts, to make man's life more blest or fair; 6.858. Yea! here dwell all those dead whose deeds bequeath 6.859. Deserved and grateful memory to their kind. 6.860. And each bright brow a snow-white fillet wears. 6.861. Unto this host the Sibyl turned, and hailed 6.862. Musaeus, midmost of a numerous throng, 6.863. Who towered o'er his peers a shoulder higher: 6.864. “0 spirits blest! 0 venerable bard! 6.865. Declare what dwelling or what region holds 6.866. Anchises, for whose sake we twain essayed 6.867. Yon passage over the wide streams of hell.” 6.868. And briefly thus the hero made reply: 6.869. “No fixed abode is ours. In shadowy groves 6.870. We make our home, or meadows fresh and fair, 6.871. With streams whose flowery banks our couches be. 6.872. But you, if thitherward your wishes turn, 6.873. Climb yonder hill, where I your path may show.” 6.874. So saying, he strode forth and led them on, 6.875. Till from that vantage they had prospect fair 6.876. of a wide, shining land; thence wending down, 6.877. They left the height they trod; for far below 6.878. Father Anchises in a pleasant vale 6.879. Stood pondering, while his eyes and thought surveyed 6.880. A host of prisoned spirits, who there abode 6.881. Awaiting entrance to terrestrial air. 6.882. And musing he reviewed the legions bright 6.883. of his own progeny and offspring proud— 6.884. Their fates and fortunes, virtues and great deeds. 6.885. Soon he discerned Aeneas drawing nigh 6.886. o'er the green slope, and, lifting both his hands 6.887. In eager welcome, spread them swiftly forth. 6.888. Tears from his eyelids rained, and thus he spoke: 6.889. “Art here at last? Hath thy well-proven love 6.890. of me thy sire achieved yon arduous way? 6.891. Will Heaven, beloved son, once more allow 6.892. That eye to eye we look? and shall I hear 8.324. tood open, deeply yawning, just as if 8.325. the riven earth should crack, and open wide 8.625. “Great leader of the Teucrians, while thy life 8.626. in safety stands, I call not Trojan power 8.627. vanquished or fallen. But to help thy war 8.628. my small means match not thy redoubled name. 8.629. Yon Tuscan river is my bound. That way 8.630. Rutulia thrusts us hard and chafes our wall 8.631. with loud, besieging arms. But I propose 8.632. to league with thee a numerous array 8.633. of kings and mighty tribes, which fortune strange 8.634. now brings to thy defence. Thou comest here 8.635. because the Fates intend. Not far from ours 8.636. a city on an ancient rock is seen, 8.637. Agylla, which a warlike Lydian clan 8.638. built on the Tuscan hills. It prospered well 8.639. for many a year, then under the proud yoke 8.640. of King Mezentius it came and bore 8.641. his cruel sway. Why tell the loathsome deeds 8.642. and crimes unspeakable the despot wrought? 8.643. May Heaven requite them on his impious head 8.644. and on his children! For he used to chain 8.645. dead men to living, hand on hand was laid 8.646. and face on face,—torment incredible! 8.647. Till, locked in blood-stained, horrible embrace, 8.648. a lingering death they found. But at the last 8.649. his people rose in furious despair, 8.650. and while he blasphemously raged, assailed 8.651. his life and throne, cut down his guards 8.652. and fired his regal dwellings; he, the while, 8.653. escaped immediate death and fied away 8.654. to the Rutulian land, to find defence 8.655. in Turnus hospitality. To-day 8.656. Etruria, to righteous anger stirred, 8.657. demands with urgent arms her guilty King. 8.658. To their large host, Aeneas, I will give 8.659. an added strength, thyself. For yonder shores 8.660. re-echo with the tumult and the cry 8.661. of ships in close array; their eager lords 8.662. are clamoring for battle. But the song 8.663. of the gray omen-giver thus declares 8.664. their destiny: ‘O goodly princes born 8.665. of old Maeonian lineage! Ye that are 8.666. the bloom and glory of an ancient race, 8.667. whom just occasions now and noble rage 8.668. enflame against Mezentius your foe, 8.669. it is decreed that yonder nation proud 8.670. hall never submit to chiefs Italian-born. 8.671. Seek ye a king from far!’ So in the field 8.672. inert and fearful lies Etruria's force, 8.673. disarmed by oracles. Their Tarchon sent 8.674. envoys who bore a sceptre and a crown 8.675. even to me, and prayed I should assume 8.676. the sacred emblems of Etruria's king, 8.677. and lead their host to war. But unto me 8.678. cold, sluggish age, now barren and outworn, 8.679. denies new kingdoms, and my slow-paced powers 8.680. run to brave deeds no more. Nor could I urge 8.681. my son, who by his Sabine mother's line 8.682. is half Italian-born. Thyself art he, 8.683. whose birth illustrious and manly prime 8.684. fate favors and celestial powers approve. 8.685. Therefore go forth, O bravest chief and King 8.686. of Troy and Italy ! To thee I give 8.687. the hope and consolation of our throne, 8.688. pallas, my son, and bid him find in thee 8.689. a master and example, while he learns 8.690. the soldier's arduous toil. With thy brave deeds 8.691. let him familiar grow, and reverence thee 8.692. with youthful love and honor. In his train 8.693. two hundred horsemen of Arcadia , 8.694. our choicest men-at-arms, shall ride; and he 8.695. in his own name an equal band shall bring 8.696. to follow only thee.” Such the discourse. 8.697. With meditative brows and downcast eyes 8.698. Aeneas and Achates, sad at heart, 8.699. mused on unnumbered perils yet to come. 8.700. But out of cloudless sky Cythera's Queen 8.701. gave sudden signal: from th' ethereal dome 8.702. a thunder-peal and flash of quivering fire 8.703. tumultuous broke, as if the world would fall, 8.704. and bellowing Tuscan trumpets shook the air. 8.705. All eyes look up. Again and yet again 8.706. crashed the terrible din, and where the sky 8.707. looked clearest hung a visionary cloud, 8.708. whence through the brightness blazed resounding arms. 8.709. All hearts stood still. But Troy 's heroic son 8.710. knew that his mother in the skies redeemed 8.711. her pledge in sound of thunder: so he cried, 8.712. “Seek not, my friend, seek not thyself to read 8.713. the meaning of the omen. 'T is to me 8.714. Olympus calls. My goddess-mother gave 8.715. long since her promise of a heavenly sign 8.716. if war should burst; and that her power would bring 8.717. a panoply from Vulcan through the air, 8.718. to help us at our need. Alas, what deaths 8.719. over Laurentum's ill-starred host impend! 8.720. O Turnus, what a reckoning thou shalt pay 8.721. to me in arms! O Tiber , in thy wave 8.722. what helms and shields and mighty soldiers slain 8.723. hall in confusion roll! Yea, let them lead 8.725. He said: and from the lofty throne uprose. 8.726. Straightway he roused anew the slumbering fire 8.727. acred to Hercules, and glad at heart 8.728. adored, as yesterday, the household gods |
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| 17. Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds And Sayings, None Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Crabb (2020) 274 |
18. Anon., 4 Ezra, 4.22-4.23, 4.26-4.27, 4.40, 5.1-5.12, 5.43, 5.54-5.55, 6.6-6.28, 7.10-7.44, 7.50, 7.70, 7.74, 8.63, 9.18, 10.58-10.59, 11.39-11.46, 12.9, 12.11, 12.28, 12.31-12.34, 12.36-12.38, 13.26, 13.29, 13.35-13.36, 13.52-13.56, 13.58, 14.9, 14.11-14.13, 14.18, 14.20, 14.26, 14.45-14.48 Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Crabb (2020) 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 180, 181, 293 | 4.22. Then I answered and said, "I beseech you, my lord, why have I been endowed with the power of understanding? 4.23. For I did not wish to inquire about the ways above, but about those things which we daily experience: why Israel has been given over to the Gentiles as a reproach; why the people whom you loved has been given over to godless tribes, and the law of our fathers has been made of no effect and the written covets no longer exist; 4.26. He answered me and said, "If you are alive, you will see, and if you live long, you will often marvel, because the age is hastening swiftly to its end. 4.27. For it will not be able to bring the things that have been promised to the righteous in their appointed times, because this age is full of sadness and infirmities. 4.40. He answered me and said, "Go and ask a woman who is with child if, when her nine months have been completed, her womb can keep the child within her any longer." 5.1. "Now concerning the signs: behold, the days are coming when those who dwell on earth shall be seized with great terror, and the way of truth shall be hidden, and the land shall be barren of faith. 5.2. And unrighteousness shall be increased beyond what you yourself see, and beyond what you heard of formerly. 5.3. And the land which you now see ruling shall be waste and untrodden, and men shall see it desolate. 5.4. But if the Most High grants that you live, you shall see it thrown into confusion after the third period; and the sun shall suddenly shine forth at night,and the moon during the day. 5.5. Blood shall drip from wood,and the stone shall utter its voice;the peoples shall be troubled, and the stars shall fall. 5.6. And one shall reign whom those who dwell on earth do not expect, and the birds shall fly away together; 5.7. and the sea of Sodom shall cast up fish; and one whom the many do not know shall make his voice heard by night, and all shall hear his voice. 5.8. There shall be chaos also in many places, and fire shall often break out, and the wild beasts shall roam beyond their haunts, and menstruous women shall bring forth monsters. 5.9. And salt waters shall be found in the sweet, and all friends shall conquer one another; then shall reason hide itself, and wisdom shall withdraw into its chamber, 5.10. and it shall be sought by many but shall not be found, and unrighteousness and unrestraint shall increase on earth. 5.11. And one country shall ask its neighbor, `Has righteousness, or any one who does right, passed through you?' And it will answer, `No.' 5.12. And at that time men shall hope but not obtain; they shall labor but their ways shall not prosper. 5.43. Then I answered and said, "Couldst thou not have created at one time those who have been and those who are and those who will be, that thou mightest show thy judgment the sooner?" 5.54. Therefore you also should consider that you and your contemporaries are smaller in stature than those who were before you, 5.55. and those who come after you will be smaller than you, as born of a creation which already is aging and passing the strength of youth." 6.6. then I planned these things, and they were made through me and not through another, just as the end shall come through me and not through another." 6.7. And I answered and said, "What will be the dividing of the times? Or when will be the end of the first age and the beginning of the age that follows?" 6.8. He said to me, "From Abraham to Isaac, because from him were born Jacob and Esau, for Jacob's hand held Esau's heel from the beginning. 6.9. For Esau is the end of this age, and Jacob is the beginning of the age that follows. 6.10. For the beginning of a man is his hand, and the end of a man is his heel; between the heel and the hand seek for nothing else, Ezra!" 6.11. I answered and said, "O sovereign Lord, if I have found favor in thy sight, 6.12. show thy servant the end of thy signs which thou didst show me in part on a previous night." 6.13. He answered and said to me, "Rise to your feet and you will hear a full, resounding voice. 6.14. And if the place where you are standing is greatly shaken 6.15. while the voice is speaking, do not be terrified; because the word concerns the end, and the foundations of the earth will understand 6.16. that the speech concerns them. They will tremble and be shaken, for they know that their end must be changed." 6.17. When I heard this, I rose to my feet and listened, and behold, a voice was speaking, and its sound was like the sound of many waters. 6.18. And it said, "Behold, the days are coming, and it shall be that when I draw near to visit the inhabitants of the earth, 6.19. and when I require from the doers of iniquity the penalty of their iniquity, and when the humiliation of Zion is complete, 6.20. and when the seal is placed upon the age which is about to pass away, then I will show these signs: the books shall be opened before the firmament, and all shall see it together. 6.21. Infants a year old shall speak with their voices, and women with child shall give birth to premature children at three and four months, and these shall live and dance. 6.22. Sown places shall suddenly appear unsown, and full storehouses shall suddenly be found to be empty; 6.23. and the trumpet shall sound aloud, and when all hear it, they shall suddenly be terrified. 6.24. At that time friends shall make war on friends like enemies, and the earth and those who inhabit it shall be terrified, and the springs of the fountains shall stand still, so that for three hours they shall not flow. 6.25. "And it shall be that whoever remains after all that I have foretold to you shall himself be saved and shall see my salvation and the end of my world. 6.26. And they shall see the men who were taken up, who from their birth have not tasted death; and the heart of the earth's inhabitants shall be changed and converted to a different spirit. 6.27. For evil shall be blotted out, and deceit shall be quenched; 6.28. faithfulness shall flourish, and corruption shall be overcome, and the truth, which has been so long without fruit, shall be revealed." 7.10. I said, "He cannot, lord." And he said to me, "So also is Israel's portion. 7.11. For I made the world for their sake, and when Adam transgressed my statutes, what had been made was judged. 7.12. And so the entrances of this world were made narrow and sorrowful and toilsome; they are few and evil, full of dangers and involved in great hardships. 7.13. But the entrances of the greater world are broad and safe, and really yield the fruit of immortality. 7.14. Therefore unless the living pass through the difficult and vain experiences, they can never receive those things that have been reserved for them. 7.15. But now why are you disturbed, seeing that you are to perish? And why are you moved, seeing that you are mortal? 7.16. And why have you not considered in your mind what is to come, rather than what is now present?" 7.17. Then I answered and said, "O sovereign Lord, behold, thou hast ordained in thy law that the righteous shall inherit these things, but that the ungodly shall perish. 7.18. The righteous therefore can endure difficult circumstances while hoping for easier ones; but those who have done wickedly have suffered the difficult circumstances and will not see the easier ones." 7.19. And he said to me, "You are not a better judge than God, or wiser than the Most High! 7.20. Let many perish who are now living, rather than that the law of God which is set before them be disregarded! 7.21. For God strictly commanded those who came into the world, when they came, what they should do to live, and what they should observe to avoid punishment. 7.22. Nevertheless they were not obedient, and spoke against him; they devised for themselves vain thoughts, 7.23. and proposed to themselves wicked frauds; they even declared that the Most High does not exist, and they ignored his ways! 7.24. They scorned his law, and denied his covets; they have been unfaithful to his statutes, and have not performed his works. 7.25. "Therefore, Ezra, empty things are for the empty, and full things are for the full. 7.26. For behold, the time will come, when the signs which I have foretold to you will come to pass, that the city which now is not seen shall appear, and the land which now is hidden shall be disclosed. 7.27. And every one who has been delivered from the evils that I have foretold shall see my wonders. 7.28. For my son the Messiah shall be revealed with those who are with him, and those who remain shall rejoice four hundred years. 7.29. And after these years my son the Messiah shall die, and all who draw human breath. 7.30. And the world shall be turned back to primeval silence for seven days, as it was at the first beginnings; so that no one shall be left. 7.31. And after seven days the world, which is not yet awake, shall be roused, and that which is corruptible shall perish. 7.32. And the earth shall give up those who are asleep in it, and the dust those who dwell silently in it; and the chambers shall give up the souls which have been committed to them. 7.33. And the Most High shall be revealed upon the seat of judgment, and compassion shall pass away, and patience shall be withdrawn; 7.34. but only judgment shall remain, truth shall stand, and faithfulness shall grow strong. 7.35. And recompense shall follow, and the reward shall be manifested; righteous deeds shall awake, and unrighteous deeds shall not sleep. 7.36. Then the pit of torment shall appear, and opposite it shall be the place of rest; and the furnace of hell shall be disclosed, and opposite it the paradise of delight. 7.37. Then the Most High will say to the nations that have been raised from the dead, `Look now, and understand whom you have denied, whom you have not served, whose commandments you have despised! 7.38. Look on this side and on that; here are delight and rest, and there are fire and torments!' Thus he will speak to them on the day of judgment -- 7.39. a day that has no sun or moon or stars, 7.40. or cloud or thunder or lightning or wind or water or air, or darkness or evening or morning, 7.41. or summer or spring or heat or winter or frost or cold or hail or rain or dew, 7.42. or noon or night, or dawn or shining or brightness or light, but only the splendor of the glory of the Most High, by which all shall see what has been determined for them. 7.43. For it will last for about a week of years. 7.44. This is my judgment and its prescribed order; and to you alone have I shown these things." 7.50. For this reason the Most High has made not one world but two. 7.70. He answered me and said, "When the Most High made the world and Adam and all who have come from him, he first prepared the judgment and the things that pertain to the judgment. 7.74. For how long the time is that the Most High has been patient with those who inhabit the world, and not for their sake, but because of the times which he has foreordained!" 8.63. "Behold, O Lord, thou hast now shown me a multitude of the signs which thou wilt do in the last times, but thou hast not shown me when thou wilt do them." 9.18. For there was a time in this age when I was preparing for those who now exist, before the world was made for them to dwell in, and no one opposed me then, for no one existed; 10.58. But tomorrow night you shall remain here, 10.59. and the Most High will show you in those dream visions what the Most High will do to those who dwell on earth in the last days." So I slept that night and the following one, as he had commanded me. 11.39. `Are you not the one that remains of the four beasts which I had made to reign in my world, so that the end of my times might come through them? 11.40. You, the fourth that has come, have conquered all the beasts that have gone before; and you have held sway over the world with much terror, and over all the earth with grievous oppression; and for so long you have dwelt on the earth with deceit. 11.41. And you have judged the earth, but not with truth; 11.42. for you have afflicted the meek and injured the peaceable; you have hated those who tell the truth, and have loved liars; you have destroyed the dwellings of those who brought forth fruit, and have laid low the walls of those who did you no harm. 11.43. And so your insolence has come up before the Most High, and your pride to the Mighty One. 11.44. And the Most High has looked upon his times, and behold, they are ended, and his ages are completed! 11.45. Therefore you will surely disappear, you eagle, and your terrifying wings, and your most evil little wings, and your malicious heads, and your most evil talons, and your whole worthless body, 11.46. so that the whole earth, freed from your violence, may be refreshed and relieved, and may hope for the judgment and mercy of him who made it.'" 12.9. For thou hast judged me worthy to be shown the end of the times and the last events of the times." 12.11. The eagle which you saw coming up from the sea is the fourth kingdom which appeared in a vision to your brother Daniel. 12.28. For the sword of one shall devour him who was with him; but he also shall fall by the sword in the last days. 12.31. "And as for the lion whom you saw rousing up out of the forest and roaring and speaking to the eagle and reproving him for his unrighteousness, and as for all his words that you have heard, 12.32. this is the Messiah whom the Most High has kept until the end of days, who will arise from the posterity of David, and will come and speak to them; he will denounce them for their ungodliness and for their wickedness, and will cast up before them their contemptuous dealings. 12.33. For first he will set them living before his judgment seat, and when he has reproved them, then he will destroy them. 12.34. But he will deliver in mercy the remt of my people, those who have been saved throughout my borders, and he will make them joyful until the end comes, the day of judgment, of which I spoke to you at the beginning. 12.36. And you alone were worthy to learn this secret of the Most High. 12.37. Therefore write all these things that you have seen in a book, and put it in a hidden place; 12.38. and you shall teach them to the wise among your people, whose hearts you know are able to comprehend and keep these secrets. 13.26. this is he whom the Most High has been keeping for many ages, who will himself deliver his creation; and he will direct those who are left. 13.29. Behold, the days are coming when the Most High will deliver those who are on the earth. 13.35. But he shall stand on the top of Mount Zion. 13.36. And Zion will come and be made manifest to all people, prepared and built, as you saw the mountain carved out without hands. 13.52. He said to me, "Just as no one can explore or know what is in the depths of the sea, so no one on earth can see my Son or those who are with him, except in the time of his day. 13.53. This is the interpretation of the dream which you saw. And you alone have been enlightened about this, 13.54. because you have forsaken your own ways and have applied yourself to mine, and have searched out my law; 13.55. for you have devoted your life to wisdom, and called understanding your mother. 13.56. Therefore I have shown you this, for there is a reward laid up with the Most High. And after three more days I will tell you other things, and explain weighty and wondrous matters to you." 13.58. and because he governs the times and whatever things come to pass in their seasons. And I stayed there three days. 14.9. for you shall be taken up from among men, and henceforth you shall live with my Son and with those who are like you, until the times are ended. 14.11. For the age is divided into twelve parts, and nine of its parts have already passed, 14.12. as well as half of the tenth part; so two of its parts remain, besides half of the tenth part. 14.13. Now therefore, set your house in order, and reprove your people; comfort the lowly among them, and instruct those that are wise. And now renounce the life that is corruptible, 14.18. For truth shall go farther away, and falsehood shall come near. For the eagle which you saw in the vision is already hastening to come." 14.20. For behold, I will go, as thou hast commanded me, and I will reprove the people who are now living; but who will warn those who will be born hereafter? For the world lies in darkness, and its inhabitants are without light. 14.26. And when you have finished, some things you shall make public, and some you shall deliver in secret to the wise; tomorrow at this hour you shall begin to write." 14.45. And when the forty days were ended, the Most High spoke to me, saying, "Make public the twenty-four books that you wrote first and let the worthy and the unworthy read them; 14.46. but keep the seventy that were written last, in order to give them to the wise among your people. 14.47. For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge." 14.48. And I did so. |
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