He cannot make 2 x 2 = 100 rather than 4, even though he should prefer it to be so.
∞
[Mortals] on the other hand may have an inclination and even an ability for doing a certain thing; if something interferes to keep them from doing it, it’s clear that it is their weakness that’s to blame.
∞
For no one has ever imagined anything more glorious than the beauty of the heavens.
⋅ Nota Bene ⋅
(The first one made me laugh.)
The man who hypocritically pretends to be what he is not makes himself a liar in everything that he does.
After all, if a king is unable to drive the barbarians out of every country he will usually drive them from one place to another, pushing back the evil from one place to the next.
For in the normal course of things anyone who does what his father tells him is acting correctly in obeying a parent, out of respect for the parent. If a father is wicked, then the sins of the father must not be attributed to his children.
∞
So, too, the man who causes slander is guilty of a greater wrong than those who use it or those who are hurt by it.
[It follows that] if these men were unable to be consistent with respect to the way he died, basing [their account] on hearsay, then they did not fare any better with the rest of their story.
But that which is incurable must be cut away with the knife, lest the untainted part also draw infection.
∞
“It is a dreadful thing to be a god, for the door of death is shut to me, and my grief must go on without end.”
⋅ Nota Bene ⋅
(There is indeed a lot of metamorphosing in this book. Also, the Romans and the Roman gods too called their wives ‘sisters’. Well, some of the goddesses were apparently sisters for real. So it’s been a thing in ancient Rome, ancient Japan and medieval France. The more you know, the less difference it makes.)
To retreat, provided that you return to the attack, is considered crafty rather than cowardly. They bring in the bodies of the fallen even when the battle hangs in the balance. To throw away one’s shield is the supreme disgrace; those so disgraced are debarred from sacrifice or council, and many who survive a battle have ended their shame with a noose.
Robbery, butchery, rapine, these the liars call “empire”: they create desolation and call it peace.
Thus it is that they live lives of well-protected chastity, uncorrupted by the temptations of public shows or the excitement of banquets. Clandestine love-letters are unknown to men and women alike. For a nation so populous, adultery is rare in the extreme, and its punishment is summary and left to the husband. In the presence of kinsmen he shaves her hair and strips her, thrusts her from his house and flogs her throughout the village. There is no pardon for a woman who prostitutes her chastity; neither by beauty nor youth nor wealth can she find a husband. No one there finds vice amusing, or calls it ‘up-to-date’ to debauch and be debauched.
∞
Good morality is more effective there than good laws are elsewhere.
More than this, they believe that there resides in women something holy and prophetic, and so do not scorn their advice or disregard their replies. In the reign of Divus Vespasian we saw Veleda long honoured by many as a divinity, whilst even earlier they showed a similar reverence for Aurinia and others, a reverence untouched by flattery or any pretence of turning women into goddesses.
The Fenni are astonishingly wild and disgustingly poor. They have no arms, no horses, no homes. They eat wild plants, dress in skins and sleep on the ground. Their only hope is in their arrows, which, for lack of iron, they tip with bone. The same hunt provides food for men and women alike; for the women go everywhere with the men and claim a share in securing the prey. The only way they can protect their babies against wild beasts or rain is to hide them under a makeshift network of branches. To this the young men return, this is the haven for the old. Yet they count their lot happier than that of those who groan over field labour, sweat over house building and venture in hope and fear their own and other men’s fortunes. They care for no one, man or god, and have gained the ultimate release: they have no needs, not even for prayer.
⋅ Nota Bene ⋅
(This particular translator says that Fenni seems to refer to Lapps but etymonline says that Finn is attested in Tacitus as Fenni. Considering that most people don’t know whit about Finland and yet feel comfortable making sweeping remarks about it — such as Finnish is a disappearing language because everyone speaks Swedish which had me laugh like a lunatic — I’ll hold judgement. Also, Finns certainly did have gods; see Kalevala. And poor is a matter of perspective in many instances.)
Bordering on the Suiones are the nations of the Sitones. They resemble them in all respects but one — they are ruled by a woman. Such is the extent of their decline, not merely below freedom, but even below decent slavery.
⋅ Nota Bene ⋅
(I laughed.)
Defeat in battle always begins with the eyes.
Long, I pray, may foreign peoples persist, if not in loving us, at least in hating one another; for the imperial destiny drives hard, and fortune now has no better gift than the discord of our foes.
On the field of battle it is a disgrace to the leader to be surpassed in valour by his companions, to the companions not to equal the valour of their leader.
They do not, however, deem it consistent with the divine majesty to imprison their gods within walls or represent them with anything like human features. They consecrate woods and groves, and they call by the names of gods the hidden presence that they see only by the eye of reverence.
I would not ban completely likeness in marble or bronze. But the image of the human face, like that face itself, is feeble and perishable, whereas the essence of the soul is eternal, to be caught and expressed not through the substance and skill of another, but only by individuals in their own lives.
It follows, then, not only that a death of honour is better than a life of shame, but also that safety and renown are to be sought in the same field. And, if we must perish, it would be no mean glory to fall where land and nature end.
Apprehension and terror are weak bonds of affection; just break them, and, where fear has ended, hatred will begin.
Our children and kinsmen, by nature’s law, we love above all else.
Hiraeth 