Historical Miniatures Part 17

"You mean, When is it to happen,--the last thing? Plato, my friend, my dearest... it hastens.... I have just now enjoyed a sleep. I have been over the river on the other side; I have seen for a moment the original forms of imperishable Beauty, of which things on earth are only dim copies.... I have seen the future, the destinies of the human race; I have spoken to the mighty, the lofty, and the pure; I have learnt the wise Order which guides the apparent great disorder; I trembled at the unfathomable secret of the Universe of which I had a glimmering perception, and I felt the immensity of my ignorance. Plato, you shall write what I have seen. You shall teach the children of men to estimate things at their proper value, to look up to the Invisible with awe, to revere Beauty, to cultivate virtue, and to hope for final deliverance, as they work, through faithful performance of duty and self-renunciation."

He went to the bed, and lay down.

Plato followed him, "Are you ill, Master?"

"No, I have been; but now I am getting well."

"Have you already...."

"I have already emptied the cup!"

"Our Wisest leaves us."

"No mortal is wise! But I thank the G.o.ds who gave me modesty and conscience."

There was silence in the room.

"Socrates is dead!"

FLACCUS AND MARO

After the death of Socrates, the greatness of Athens was no more. Sparta ruled for a time, and then came the turn of Thebes. Subsequently the Macedonians invaded the country, and governed it till the year 196 B.C., when the Romans conquered both Macedonia and Greece, and completely destroyed Corinth, but spared Athens, which was deprived of its fortifications under Sulla, on account of the great memories which gathered round it.

Now, in Julius Caesar's time, it had become the fashion to send youths to Athens to study Grammar, Rhetoric, and Philosophy there. There was no great philosopher there, but they studied the history of philosophy.

There was also no religion, for no one believed on the G.o.ds of the State, although, from old habit, they celebrated the sacrificial feasts.

Athens was dead, and so was the whole of the ancient world--Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor. In Rome they lived on the memories of the past of Greece, and the greatest Roman, Cicero, when he wished to discuss some philosophic theme, always commenced by citing the opinions of the ancient Greeks on the subject; he also closed in the same way, for he had no original opinion of his own on any subject, such as the nature of the G.o.ds, &c.

One early spring day, during the last years of Julius Caesar, two students sat in an arbour below Lykabettos, opposite the college of Kynosarges. Wine was on the table, but they did not seem very devoted to their yellow "Chios." They sat there with an air of indifference, as though they were waiting for something. The same atmosphere of lethargy seemed to pervade their surroundings. The innkeeper sat and dozed; the youths in the college opposite lounged at the door; pedestrians on the high road went by without greeting anyone; the peasant in the field sat on his plough, and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

The elder of the two students fingered his gla.s.s, and at last opened his mouth.

"Say something!"

"I have nothing to say, for I know nothing."

"Have you already learnt everything?"

"Yes."

"I came yesterday from Rome with great hopes of being able to learn something new and of hearing something remarkable, but I hear only silence."

"My dear Maro, I have been here for years, and I have listened, but heard nothing new. I have heard in the Poikile that Thales maintained that there were no G.o.ds, but that everything had been produced from moisture. I have further heard Anaximines' doctrine that air was the source of all things; Pherecydes' doctrine of ether as the original principle; Herac.l.i.tus' doctrine of fire. Anaximander has taught me that the universe came from some primitive substance; Leucippus and Democritus spoke to me of empty s.p.a.ce with primitive corpuscles or atoms. Anaxagoras made believe that the atom had reason. Xenophanes wished to persuade me that G.o.d and the Universe were one. Empedocles, the wisest of the whole company, despaired at the imperfection of reason, and went in despair and flung himself head foremost into Etna's burning mountain."

"Do you believe that?"

"No! it may well be a lie like everything else. Then I learnt a number of interesting doctrines from Plato which were subsequently all confuted by Aristotle. At last I took up my position with the wisest of the wise--Socrates, who openly declared, as you know, that he knew nothing."

"That is the same as the Sophists said,--that one knew nothing, and hardly so much."

"You are right, and our good Socrates was a Sophist, without wishing to be one. But there is one, a single one, who.... Yes, I mean Pythagoras.

He has proclaimed this and that doctrine in the East and the West, but I have found one anchor in his philosophy, and I have gripped firm ground with it. I certainly swing in the wind, but I do not drift away from it."

"Tell me."

"Do what you think right at the risk of being banished from your country; the mob cannot judge what is right. Therefore you should think little of their praise, and despise their blame. Cultivate the friendship of kindred spirits, but regard the rest of mankind as a worthless ma.s.s. Always be at war with 'the beans' (he means the democrats). 'Odi profanum vulgus et arceo!'"

"You ought to live at home in Rome, Flaccus, where...."

"Yes, what are you doing now in Rome?"

"Caesar is Caesar; he conquers the world, and unites all the highest functions, even the priestly, in his own person. I have nothing against it, but they say he is aiming at his own deification."

"Why not? All G.o.ds have first been heroes, and many G.o.ds have not been so great as Caesar. Romulus was certainly no giant, though he had the luck to come first, as someone must. Now he is a G.o.d, has a temple, and they sacrifice to him."

"It is probably a lie, like everything else."

"Probably."

"Yes, I have heard another legend of the founding of Rome by Aeneas' son Ascanius, who fled from Troy; and I intend to take it as the starting-point of my great poem...."

"You mean the _Aeneid_, of which I have heard mention."

"Yes, the _Aeneid_."

"Is it difficult to write poetry?"

"No; one follows good patterns. Hitherto Theocritus has been mine, but now I shall go to Father Homer himself."

"By Heracles! Now there you will be undisturbed--so long, that is, as Maecenas sends you the sesterces regularly."

"Yes, he does! But how do you get along?"

"My father, a freedman, toils as quaestor, and will find me a place."

"Have you no interests, no pa.s.sions, no ambitions?"

"No; what should I do with them? 'Nihil admirari.' That is my motto. If there are G.o.ds who guide the destinies of men and nations, why should I interfere and wear myself out in a useless struggle? Think of Demosthenes, who for thirty years delivered speeches against the Macedonian, and warned his countrymen, who would not listen to him! The G.o.ds were with the Macedonian, and condemned h.e.l.las to be overthrown.

Demosthenes was imprisoned. Comically enough, he was accused of having been bribed by the same Macedonian. That was, of course, a lie. This patriot who sacrificed himself for the salvation of his fatherland, who believed he was fighting on the G.o.ds' side, had to take poison, and fell, fighting against the G.o.ds! Vestigia terrent!"

During their conversation, the sun had gone down, and now in the twilight beacons were visible flaming on Aegina, on Salamis, by Phaleros, in the Piraeus, and finally on the Acropolis. The murmurs from the city became louder till they rose to one immense paean of joy. Men came down the streets, and brought their wives and children with them, some on foot, others riding and driving. The worthy innkeeper Agathon was aroused, and went out into the highway to learn the cause of the confusion. The two students had gone on the inn roof to look out. But they surmised danger for foreigners like themselves, and, alarmed by the ever louder shouting, descended again, and concealed themselves in the wine-press. At last Agathon's voice was heard: "Caesar is a.s.sa.s.sinated!

Death to the Romans! Freedom for h.e.l.las!"

Such was the news. The garden of the inn filled with people, wine flowed, and shouts of joy resounded, varied by sarcastic remarks on the pa.s.sing Romans who were fleeing northwards from the town in order to reach the Macedonian frontier.