This proverb is taken in term from the oldest tragedy of Livius Andronicus, which is called The Trojan Horse: ‘The Trojans understand too late.’ This is taken up by Cicero in his Familiar Letters. He says, ‘You know that in The Trojan Horse there is this line: “the Trojans understand too late.”’ This is an apt expression for those who foolishly regret their deeds when it is too late. Since indeed, the Trojans, after suffering so many disasters, only began to discuss returning Helen in the tenth year of the war. If they had immediately given her back to Menelaus when he had asked at the beginning, they would have exempted themselves from innumerable calamities. Euripides writes in his Orestes:
Ὀψέ γε φρονεῖς εὖ, τότε λιποῦσ᾽ αἰσχρῶς δόμους,
that is, But now surely you understand too late, since you then left the home shamefully.
For these are the words of Electra to Helen. It is also recalled by Festus Pompeius in the inscription of a proverb. According to Plutarch, Demades was accustomed to say that the Athenians never decided on peace unless they had already put on their mourning clothes, hinting to the fact that they were more desirous of waging war than was appropriate, and did not wish to think of peace unless they had first been warned by the loss of their own. But how much more foolish than the Athenians are we, who after learving from the sufferings of so many years even now do not hate war, and do not even finally begin to think of the peace which should always exist among Christians.
SERO SAPIVNT PHRYGES
Hoc prouerbium ex vetustissima tragoedia Liuii Andronici mutuo sumptum est, quae inscribitur Equus Troianus: Sero sapiunt Phryges. Vsurpatur a Cicerone in Epistolis familiaribus: In equo, inquit, Troiano scis esse: sero sapiunt Phryges. Conuenit in eos, quos stulte factorum sero poenitet. Siquidem Troiani tot iam acceptis cladibus vix decimo demum anno de restituenda Helena consultare coeperunt; quam si statim initio reposcenti Menelao reddidissent, innumerabilibus sese calamitatibus subduxissent. Euripides in Oreste:
Ὀψέ γε φρονεῖς εὖ, τότε λιποῦσ᾽ αἰσχρῶς δόμους,
id est. At nunc profecto serius sapis bene,
Cum tunc penates turpiter reliqueris.
Nam verba sunt ad Helenam Electrae. Refertur et a Festo Pompeio prouerbii titulo. Demades autore Plutarcho dicere solebat Athenienses nunquam decernere pacem nisi pullis vestibus indutos, innuens eos bellandi cupidiores quam sat esset, nec nisi clade suorum admonitos de pace cogitare. At nos quanto sumus Atheniensibus vecordiores, qui ne tot quidem annorum malis docti bellum odimus nec de pace, quam inter Christianos perpetuam esse oportebat, tandem incipimus cogitare.
Long before the plague hit us, economic reports were concerned that we are hitting a tipping point for student loans. It is telling (and damning) that certain sectors consider student loans a crisis only when delinquent payments reach a certain point. It was totally fine when two generations of students had their entire lives shaped by the cost of education….
This charming detail from Valerius Maximus might be the perfect rider for an education bill right about now…
Valerius Maximus, Wondrous Deeds and Sayings 2.6.10
“This ancient custom of the Gauls returns to my mind as I leave their walls: The story goes that they used to loan money which was scheduled to be repaid in the underworld, because they considered human souls to be immortal. I would call them fools if they didn’t believe the same thing wearing pants as Pythagoras did wrapped in his cloak.”
Horum moenia egresso vetus ille mos Gallorum occurrit,quo[s] memoria proditum est pecunias mutuas, quae iis apud inferos redderentur, da<ri soli>tas, quia persuasum habuerint animas hominum immortales esse. dicerem stultos, nisi idem bracati sensissent quod palliatus Pythagoras credidit.
I will come to dinner, but I am making request beforehand: it must be quick and sparse and it should only overflow in Socratic discussions. Let this be moderate too. There will be visitors early tomorrow, people not even Cato would be allowed to reject, even though Caesar praised him as much as he criticized him. For he describes the people Cato met were flushed with embarrassment when they realized who was drunk: “you would have imagined they were caught by Cato not that Cato was caught by them!”
Is it possible to pay a better tribute to Cato than to say he was still so venerable when drunk? But our meal needs a limit for preparation and cost as well as time. We are certainly not the types of people our enemies can’t fail to blame without praising us too!
Plinius Catilio Severo Suo S.
Veniam ad cenam, sed iam nunc paciscor, sit expedita sit parca, Socraticis tantum sermonibus abundet, in his quoque teneat modum. Erunt officia antelucana, in quae incidere impune ne Catoni quidem licuit, quem tamen C. Caesar ita reprehendit ut laudet. Describit enim eos, quibus obvius fuerit,
cum caput ebrii retexissent, erubuisse; deinde adicit: “Putares non ab illis Catonem, sed illos a Catone deprehensos.” Potuitne plus auctoritatis tribui Catoni, quam si ebrius quoque tam venerabilis erat? 4Nostrae tamen cenae, ut adparatus et impendii, sic temporis modus constet. Neque enim ii sumus quos vituperare ne inimici quidem possint, nisi ut simul laudent. Vale.
Diogenianus thinks that this has the same force: Κινῶ τὸν ἀφ᾽ ἱερᾶς, that is, I move the die from the sacred line. This is said of those who are about to undertake the most extreme measures. Julius Pollux, laying this out in his ninth book, says that the adage derives from a certain kind of dice game, and that the game was of this sort: for each of the players, there were five little stones placed upon the same number of lines, from which Sophocles said πεσσὰ πεντέγραμμα, that is, the dice of the five lines. Between those lines (five on each side) there was one in the middle, which they called sacred. Whoever moved the die past that point was said to have moved the die of the sacred line. But that never happened except when the game demanded it, when the player needed to flee to their last resort.
Plato employs this adage in the fifth book of his Laws: Καθάπερ πεττῶν ἀφ᾽ ἱεροῦ, that is, As if from the sacred die. Plutarch, in his book, Whether the Republic Should Be Run by an Old Man, writes: Τελευταίαν ὥσπερ τὴν ἀφ᾽ ἱερᾶς ἐπάγουσιν ἡμῖν τὸ γῆρας, that is, they charge us with senility as if moving the die from the sacred line, which is to say, this is the gravest charge. Plutarch also says in his Comparison of Terrestrial and MarineThings: Φέρε κινήσαντες τὴν ἀφ᾽ ἱερᾶς βραχέα περὶ θειότητος αὐτῶν καὶ μαντικῆς εἴπωμεν, that is, Come on, let’s move the die from the sacred line and talk a little about their divinity and divination. And again he writes in his essay Against Colotes: Εὐθὺς οὖν τὸν ἀφ᾽ ἱερᾶς κεκίνηκεν ὁ Κολώτης, that is, Colotes straightaway moved the die from the sacred line, which is to say that he immediately proceeded to the most extreme measure, so that he could attack the judgment of Apollo concerning Socrates. Plutarch also writes in the life of Martius Coriolanus, about the Roman people being disturbed by Coriolanus’ threats, Ἄρα τὴν ἀφ᾽ ἱερᾶς ἀφῆκεν, that is, he tossed away the die taken from the sacred line, because the Romans, with all hope of success having been lost, fleed to the religion of the gods and sent priests, temple custodians, initiators, and augurs to supplicate the gods. Theocritus alludes to this in his Bucolics: Καὶ τὸν ἀπὸ γραμμᾶς κινεῖ λίθον, that is, and he moves the stone from the little line, which I have mentioned elsewhere.
MOVEBO TALVM A SACRA LINEA
Idem pollere putat Diogenianus: Κινῶ τὸν ἀφ᾽ ἱερᾶς, id est Sacrae lineae talum moueo. De iis, qui extrema parant experiri. Id Iulius Pollux libro nono exponens ait a ludo quopiam tesserarum natum esse adagium. Lusum autem fuisse huiusmodi, vt vtrique ludentium essent calculi quinque totidem impositi lineis; vnde et Sophocles dixerit πεσσὰ πεντέγραμμα, id est tesserae quinque linearum. Inter eas lineas, vtrinque quinas, vnam fuisse mediam, quam sacram vocabant; vnde qui talum mouisset, is sacrae lineae calculum mouere dicebatur. Id vero non fiebat, nisi cum res posceret, vt ludens ad extrema confugeret auxilia. Vsurpat hoc adagium Plato libro De legibus quinto: Καθάπερ πεττῶν ἀφ᾽ ἱεροῦ, id est Tanquam a sacra tessera. Plutarchus in libro, qui inscribitur An seni sit gerenda respublica: Τελευταίαν ὥσπερ τὴν ἀφ᾽ ἱερᾶς ἐπάγουσιν ἡμῖν τὸ γῆρας, id est Postremam nobis tanquam a sacra linea senectam allegant, hoc est veluti causam grauissimam. Idem commentario De comparatione terrestrium ac marinorum: Φέρε κινήσαντες τὴν ἀφ᾽ ἱερᾶς βραχέα περὶ θειότητος αὐτῶν καὶ μαντικῆς εἴπωμεν, id est Age moto talo a sacra linea paucis de diuinitate eorum et diuinatione dicamus. Rursum idem Aduersus Colotam Epicureum: Εὐθὺς οὖν τὸν ἀφ᾽ ἱερᾶς κεκίνηκεν ὁ Κολώτης, id est Protinus igitur talum a sacra mouit Colotes, hoc est statim id quod est grauissimum aggressus est, vt impugnaret Apollinis de Socrate iudicium. Idem in vita Martii Coriolanide ciuitate Romana ob Coriolani minas perturbata: Ἄρα τὴν ἀφ᾽ ἱερᾶς ἀφῆκεν, id est Sublatam a sacra linea tesseram misit. Desperatis enim rebus ad deorum religionem confugiebat supplicatum missis sacrificis, aedituis, initiatoribus, auguribus etc. Huc allusit et Theocritus in Bucoliastis: Καὶ τὸν ἀπὸ γραμμᾶς κινεῖ λίθον, id est Atque a lineola lapidem mouet, de quo nobis et alias facta mentio.
“A terrible disease came over our people thanks to angry Juno
Who hated us because our land was named after her husband’s mistress.
As long as the evil was hidden because it seemed of mortal cause,
We tried to fight it with the art of medicine.
But the destruction was exceeding our stockpiles, which lay there open, conquered.”
dira lues ira populis Iunonis iniquae
incidit exosae dictas a paelice terras.
dum visum mortale malum tantaeque latebat
causa nocens cladis, pugnatum est arte medendi:
exitium superabat opem, quae victa iacebat.
Minos, Aeacus and Rhadamanthys by Ludwig Mack, Bildhauer
In Book II of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, after Phaethon has lost control of the chariot of the Sun, scorched much of the planet, and himself died in a horrible blaze, Ovid recounts the grief showered upon him, beginning (here) with his funerary inscription. In what is supposed to be a mournful scene, Ovid slyly inserts raillery, scepticism, and criticism of social convention in such an artful way that it is difficult to determine whether the scene is sad or hilarious. Ovid is the consummate artist, and everything he writes is so thoroughly steeped in self-conscious literary awareness that even his scenes of true pathos seem to conceal some joke upon the reader’s willingness to react appropriately to purple passages. Here is the text (with italics added to the notable parts), below which is a brief set of comments.
“HERE LIES PHAETHON, THE DRIVER OF HIS FATHER’S CHARIOT.
IF HE DID NOT MANAGE IT, YET HE DIED IN A GREAT UNDERTAKING.
His father, wretched with painful grief, drew away and hid his face, and if we only believe it, they say that one day passed without the sun. The fires provided the light, and there was at least something useful in that disaster. But after Clymene said whatever things you’re supposed to say in such bad circumstances, sad and mindless she tore her gown and surveyed the world looking first for his limbs and then for just his bones. She finally found them lying on a foreign riverbank. She stopped at the spot, and she poured her tears over the name which she read on the gravestone, and held it in her unveiled chest. No less, the daughters of the Sun give out sobs and tears (those empty rewards for death), and tearing their breasts with their palms they call out to Phaethon, who will not hear their wretched complaints, and lay themselves out on his grave.”
The second half of Phaethon’s funerary inscription is typical of Ovid’s deflationary style. The first half of the epigram is suitably stately, and seems to be building up to a grand conclusion. Yet the use of si and tamen (‘if’ and ‘yet’ or ‘nevertheless’) is preposterously out of place in a lapidary epigram. Phaethon receives an ‘A for effort’.
In line 330, the phrase si modo credimus is added as a parenthetical aside. Ovid is fond of direct comment, and often winks directly at the reader in the middle of the narrative. Here, the adverb modo (‘only’ or ‘just’) carries a large burden on scepticism. “If only we believe it.” I cite examples such as this when my students ask just how much ancient authors believed in the myths which they related. Gibbon astutely observes that no author would have publicly mocked the tales of his religious system were he not convinced that the rest of the educated elite felt a similar scepticism.
Ovid’s comment aliquisque malo fuit usus in illo, “and there was at least something useful in that disaster” grants that much of the inhabitable world may have been scorched and deprived of sunlight for a day, but sees some redeeming value in the ambient light given off by the world’s smoldering ruins. One suspects that Ovid would be the worst of internet trolls, were he alive today.
The cold detachment of Clymene postquam dixit quaecumque fuerunt in tantis dicenda malis “after Clymene said whatever things you’re supposed to say in such bad circumstances” is likely a clue that Ovid intends to mock the more or less standardized cliches used in scenes of mourning.
“Empty rewards for death” (inania morti munera) combines Ovid’s religious skepticism with his tendency toward deflation. The cult of the ‘noble death’ runs all the way back to the Iliad, but skepticism about it also begins with Homer, as in the Odyssey, when Achilles tells Odysseus “do not sing the praises of death to me, shining Odysseus” (‘μὴ δή μοι θάνατόν γε παραύδα, φαίδιμ’ ᾿Οδυσσεῦ.)
Ovid was a master at exploiting generic conventions with ingenious wordplay. After he drained the dregs of the amatory elegy’s literary potential, no serious Roman poet attempted to draw from the cup again. Here he presents us with a global calamity, brought on by and eventually destroying an inexperienced youth whose tragic flaw was overweening ambition. Though we might expect Ovid to present pathos in the line of Greek tragedy here, we get the forms and gestures (tearing the breast, wailing, etc.) devoid of their typical significance – we get words. Yet, the Ovidian inversion of these tragic tropes is perfectly aligned with his poetic project of metamorphosis. Ovid’s tragedy Medea is now lost, but Quintilian wrote that “Ovid’s Medea seems to me to show how much excellence that man could have achieved if he had preferred to govern, rather than indulge, his talent.” (Ovidi Medea videtur mihi ostendere quantum ille vir praestare potuerit si ingenio suo imperare quam indulgere maluisset.) I am inclined to believe that the entire play would have been an elaborate farce.
hic : sitvs : est : phaethon : cvrrvs : avriga : paterni
qvem : si : non : tenvit : magnis : tamen : excidit : avsis
“I am super mad and whether or not it is right I’m not sure but I’m super mad. You know how unfair love is frequently, often powerless always quick to be offended. But my reason is still serious whether I believe it’s right and I am as mad as I would be if it were right since I have had no letter from you for such a long time.
The only solution to this is if you write me many really long letters right now. This is the only way I will forgive you. Other things seem fake. I won’t even hear “I was in Rome” or “I was busy”. But Gods forbid you say, “I’ve been sick.”
I’ve been in my country-house enjoying my two delights that come from leisure: reading and resting. Bye!”
Plinius Paulino Suo S.
1Irascor, nec liquet mihi an debeam, sed irascor. Scis, quam sit amor iniquus interdum, impotens saepe μικραίτιος semper. Haec tamen causa magna est, nescio an iusta; sed ego, tamquam non minus iusta quam magna sit, graviter irascor, quod a te tam diu litterae nullae. Exorare me potes uno modo, si nunc saltem plurimas et longissimas miseris. Haec mihi sola excusatio vera, ceterae falsae videbuntur. Non sum auditurus “non eram Romae” uel “occupatior eram”; illud enim nec di sinant, ut “infirmior”. Ipse ad villam partim studiis partim desidia fruor, quorum utrumque ex otio nascitur. Vale.
Even then, he was unable to restrain his savage and corrupted nature. Instead, he regularly took part rather eagerly in the investigations and the punishments of those who had been sentenced; disguised in a wig and a long cloak, he would spend long nights in cook shops and brothels; and he sought out the stage arts of dancing and singing with an immoderate zeal. All of this happened rather easily with Tiberius’ permission, the latter hoping that his fierce temper could be somewhat mollified by these arts. That sagacious old emperor had foreseen the problem with sufficient clarity to predict that Caligula would live to be the death of him (Tiberius) and everyone else, and he used to claim that he was nursing a viper for the Roman people and a Phaethon to burn the whole world.
Naturam tamen saevam atque probrosam ne tunc quidem inhibere poterat, quin et animadversionibus poenisque ad supplicium datorum cupidissime interesset et ganeas atque adulteria capillamento celatus et veste longa noctibus obiret ac scaenicas saltandi canendique artes studiosissime appeteret, facile id sane Tiberio patiente, si per has mansuefieri posset ferum eius ingenium. Quod sagacissimus senex ita prorsus perspexerat, ut aliquotiens praedicaret exitio suo omniumque Gaium vivere et se natricem populo Romano, Phaethontem orbi terrarum educare.
“There is certainly seems to be natural power for humans for attaining every kind of virtue and for these reasons small children are motivated by the attraction of virtues whose seeds they possess without teaching. These are surely the fundamental aspects of human nature which increase and grow as if planted. This is because we are made in such a way at birth that we already possess the basic impulses of doing something, of loving some people, and with qualities of liberality, and giving things. We also receive spirits which reach toward knowledge, wisdom, and bravery, already disinclined toward the opposites.
It is not without reason that we see those things I have mentioned in children like little sparks of virtue from which the philosopher’s reason must be kindled—the child must find their way to nature’s end by following their divine guide. As I have often said in the early period when our minds are still weak, we see nature’s power as if through fog. But once the mind progresses and gets stronger, it recognizes the power of its nature, that it may still proceed further and has become only half-finished on its own.”
Est enim natura sic generata vis hominis ut ad omnem virtutem percipiendam facta videatur, ob eamque causam parvi virtutum simulacris quarum in se habent semina sine doctrina moventur; sunt enim prima elementa naturae, quibus auctis virtutis quasi germen efficitur. Nam cum ita nati factique simus ut et agendi aliquid et diligendi aliquos et liberalitatis et referendae gratiae principia in nobis contineremus atque ad scientiam, prudentiam, fortitudinem aptos animos haberemus a contrariisque rebus alienos, non sine causa eas quas dixi in pueris virtutum quasi scintillas videmus, e quibus accendi philosophi ratio debet, ut eam quasi deum ducem subsequens ad naturae perveniat extremum. Nam ut saepe iam dixi in infirma aetate imbecillaque mente vis naturae quasi per caliginem cernitur; cum autem progrediens confirmatur animus, agnoscit ille quidem naturae vim, sed ita ut progredi possit longius, per se sit tantum inchoata.
“I have just learned that Silius Italicus ended his life by starvation in Naples. Sickness was the cause of death, really: he had an untreatable tumor whose pain made him escape by death. He made it to his final day happy and fortunate, except that he lost his two younger songs. He left the older and better son successful and already of consular rank.
Silius harmed his reputation under Nero—for he was believed to have accused people willingly—but he conducted himself in his friendship with Vitellius wisely and with kindness. He earned some fame for his proconsulate in Asia and cleansed the stain of his earlier activity with a praiseworthy retirement.
He was among our top citizens without holding power or incurring envy. He was visited and much sought out, nearly always reclining on his couch in a room crowded not by accident. He filled his days with the most educated conversation whenever he took a break from writing. He used to write his poems more with effort than inspiration, and did not spare himself from critical judgment thanks to his recitations.
In recent years, he left Rome in a concession to old age. Once he made his home in Campania, he did not leave, not even for the coming of a new Emperor. This is reason for great praise for Caesar since he allowed this freedom and for Silius himself since he dared to take it.
He was a lover of things to the extent that he was mocked for excessive purchases. He owned multiple homes in the same neighborhood and overlooked the older ones in his excitement for the new ones. In each he had plenty books, statues, paintings and busts, each of which meant much to him, especially the one of Vergil, whose birthday he celebrated more religiously than his own, especially at Naples where he used to visit his grave as if it were a temple.
He completed his seventy-fifth year in this peaceful place. His body was solicitously tended even though he was not disabled. He was the final consul Nero appointed and the last of Nero’s consuls to die. It is remarkable that not only did Nero’s final consul die with him but that Nero died when he was consul!
Pity for human fragility fills me as I tell you this. Nothing is as brief and quick as the longest human life. Doesn’t it seem to you that Nero just died? But not one of the men who were consuls in his time remain alive today. I should not be so surprised! Only recently did Lucius Piso, the father of the Piso who was killed so evilly by Valerius Festus in Italy, used to say that none of those men he used to ask to speak when he was consul were still in the Senate!
The boundaries of life are so narrow that even in a community of great size I think we could forgive the Persian king for his famous tears—or maybe even admire him for them. For it is reported that after Xerxes reviewed his immense army, he wept when he thought that so many would die in so short a time.
This is why we should draw out our passing minutes with reading and writing, since we don’t have any control over them and action seems futile. Since we cannot live a long life, let us leave something to declare we have lived.
I know that you don’t need to be encouraged. But my concern for you still drives me to encourage you, like a horse eager to run, as you urge me in turn. Competition is good when friends push each other on with shared exhortations on the love of immortal memory.”
Plinius Caninio Rufo Suo S.
Modo nuntiatus est Silius Italicus in Neapolitano suo inedia finisse vitam. Causa mortis valetudo. Erat illi natus insanabilis clavus, cuius taedio ad mortem inrevocabili constantia decucurrit usque ad supremum diem beatus et felix, nisi quod minorem ex liberis duobus amisit, sed maiorem melioremque florentem atque etiam consularem reliquit. Laeserat famam suam sub Nerone (credebatur sponte accusasse), sed in Vitelli amicitia sapienter se et comiter gesserat, ex proconsulatu Asiae gloriam reportaverat, maculam veteris industriae laudabili otio abluerat.
Fuit inter principes civitatis sine potentia, sine invidia: salutabatur colebatur, multumque in lectulo iacens cubiculo semper, non ex fortuna frequenti, doctissimis sermonibus dies transigebat, cum a scribendo vacaret. Scribebat carmina maiore cura quam ingenio, non numquam iudicia hominum recitationibus 6experiebatur. Novissime ita suadentibus annis ab urbe secessit, seque in Campania tenuit, ac ne adventu quidem novi principis inde commotus est: magna Caesaris laus sub quo hoc liberum fuit, magna illius 8qui hac libertate ausus est uti.
Erat ϕιλόκαλος usque ad emacitatis reprehensionem. Plures isdem in locis villas possidebat, adamatisque novis priores neglegebat. Multum ubique librorum, multum statuarum, multum imaginum, quas non habebat modo, verum etiam venerabatur, Vergili ante omnes, cuius natalem religiosius quam suum celebrabat, Neapoli maxime, ubi monimentum eius adire ut templum solebat. In hac tranquillitate annum quintum et septuagensimum excessit, delicato magis corpore quam infirmo; utque novissimus a Nerone factus est consul, ita postremus ex omnibus, quos Nero consules fecerat, decessit. Illud etiam notabile: ultimus ex Neronianis consularibus obiit, quo consule Nero periit. Quod me recordantem fragilitatis humanae miseratio subit.
Quid enim tam circumcisum tam breve quam homini vita longissima? An non videtur tibi Nero modo modo fuisse? cum interim ex iis, qui sub illo gesserant consulatum, nemo iam superest. Quamquam quid hoc miror? Nuper L. Piso, pater Pisonis illius, qui a Valerio Festo per summum facinus in Africa occisus est, dicere solebat neminem se videre in senatu, quem consul ipse sententiam rogavisset.
Tam angustis terminis tantae multitudinis vivacitas ipsa concluditur, ut mihi non venia solum dignae, verum etiam laude videantur illae regiae lacrimae; nam ferunt Xersen, cum immensum exercitum oculis obisset, inlacrimasse, quod tot milibus tam brevis immineret occasus. Sed tanto magis hoc, quidquid est temporis futilis et caduci, si non datur factis (nam horum materia in aliena manu), certe studiis proferamus, et quatenus nobis denegatur diu vivere, relinquamus aliquid, quo nos vixisse testemur. Scio te stimulis non egere: me tamen tui caritas evocat, ut currentem quoque instigem, sicut tu soles me. ’Αγαθὴ δ’ ἔρις cum invicem se mutuis exhortationibus amici ad amorem immortalitatis exacuunt. Vale.
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