Book 3, Letter 3 : To Cicero, on stomach aches and Sumptuary laws

Dear Cicero,

I'm still reading your letters. Each night as I settle into bed, I look at the towering collection of books on my night stand and select something for the evening. It all seems very serious most of the time, but when I found your letter to M. Fadius Gallus, I laughed out loud and read it to my partner beside me.

TO M. FADIUS GALLUS (AT ROME)

Tusculum, 57 BCE, December

“Having been suffering for nine days past from a severe disorder of the bowels, and being unable to convince those who desired my services that I was ill because I had no fever, I fled to my Tusculan villa, after having, in fact, observed for two days so strict a fast as not even to drink a drop of water.”

“I had been really much afraid of dysentery. But either the change of residence, or the mere relaxation of anxiety, or perhaps the natural abatement of the complaint from lapse of time, seems to me to have done me good. However, to prevent your wondering how this came about, or in what manner I let myself in for it, I must tell you that the sumptuary law, supposed to have introduced plain living, was the origin of my misfortune. For whilst your epicures wish to bring into fashion the products of the earth, which are not forbidden by the law, they flavour mushrooms, petits choux, and every kind of pot-herb so as to make them the most tempting dishes possible. Having fallen a victim to these in the augural banquet at the house of Lentulus, I was seized with a violent diarrhœa, which, I think, has been checked to-day for the first time. And so I, who abstain from oysters and lampreys without any difficulty, have been beguiled by beet and mallows. Henceforth, therefore, I shall be more cautious.”

When people discuss ancient history and the lives of the great figures of antiquity, we rarely imagine them on the toilet. I am glad that Tiro kept a copy of this letter, it helps to bring to life the ordinary nature of humanity at all times. It doesn't matter that you were Consul. It doesn't matter that you were declared “Saviour of Rome”, when you had a stomach bug and spent days on the toilet, you were humble enough to write to your friend about it.

I am fascinated by two things, the Sumptuary Law, and your relationship to Epicurean philosophy. It seems plain from your philosophical books that you favour Stoic, over Epicurean ideas, and I am pleased to discover that you do not hold this position with ignorance, but that you studied with well known philosophers of both schools. I read that when you were eighteen and nineteen years old you studied with Phaedrus and Zeno, two Epicureans, and also with Philo and Antiochus from the Academic school, as well as Posidonius the Stoic. I will write something about this philosophical debate in another letter, I have a lot more to read before I begin anything on that topic.

I have been gradually making my way through your works On the nature of the Gods, and On the nature of Good and Evil, and I have been re-reading On Duties, as well as your letters to your brother Quintus which contain a sort of distillation of some of your philosophical ideals. I have also been reading (although very slowly), The Discourses of Epictetus, as recorded by Flavius Arrian, and I must say that I like it very much. I am amazed by the scepticism and incredible acuity of his thinking, particularly in relation to the existence of the Gods and the meta-language of philosophy. I will have to come back to that in another letter....today I wanted to talk about the Sumptuary laws.

The Lex Sumptuaria outlawed the flagrant public display of personal or institutional wealth in the form of clothing. Included among this designation is the wearing of custom capes or other apparel if the owner is not of the Imperial family or otherwise allowed by the Emperor. Also, wearing any item that contains the colour purple, unless of Plebeian Council rank, or above Senatorial rank, and wearing any item that contains silk.

Then there was the Lex Aemeliana Sumptuaria, enacted by M. Aemilius Scaurus, consul of 115 BCE. As with the Lex Licinius Sumptuaria, rather than limit the number of guests at a dinner party, or the cost one could spend on a feast, it sought to prohibit which foods and food preparations could be used. Thus the Lex Aemilia Sumptuaria prohibited meals that served mice, rats, stuffed (or force-fed) dormice, mussels, and those birds that came from foreign lands. Similar prohibitions were decreed by censors of an earlier date and the prohibitions applied also to what foods were not acceptable to serve to the Gods.

(Source: C. Plinius Secundus, Historia Naturalis 8.57 (223))

Some other articles I found made reference to the fact that these laws were generally unenforceable, and so were more symbolic than legal, and also that they were a way of favouring the local food industries, rather than the imported exotic goods trade. The restrictions on clothing are interesting too, since such laws can be found in many regions of world history, especially regarding the colour purple, which has always been rare and difficult to produce, coming as it does from an uncommon Sea Snail. I had to laugh at the ban on custom capes, since I own two such items, and the ban on wearing any kind of silk. I feel like the silk ban must have something to do with international trade. I wonder who was producing silk at that time, and how it was transported to Rome? I know that the Scythians were sometimes involved in the silk trade from China to Greece, but that was hundreds of years before you Cicero.

But, that aside, since you wrote to your friend Gallus about diarrhoea, I will write to you about a stomach ailment of my own, from many years ago, and which has a weird story attached regarding the way in which I cured myself.

I had a dream that I was at a circus, a large pavilion filled with tents and entertainments of every sort. I saw a large crowd gathering to hear a man speak. He wore a dramatic cape and top hat, had a sinister moustache, and spoke with a hypnotic voice, entrancing the crowd to believe that he possessed the mystical powers of foresight. I instinctively knew that he was a charlatan, and that he was actually an evil sorcerer who used his powers of persuasion and charm to steal from people. So, I snuck into his tent while he was speaking to the crowd and I stole his Tarot cards, throwing them in a nearby bin.

Dusting my hands off and congratulating myself on this little crime, I was suddenly attacked from behind and pinned to the ground by the very man whose cards I had just stolen. I was flat on my back as he he reached into me and stole my stomach, laughing cruelly as he did so.

He then handed me a small piece of paper with an arcane symbol drawn on it, telling me that my stolen stomach would only be returned to me on one condition; that I deliver this cursed paper to a lady in a distant city, a hat maker who had crossed him. If I failed to do this, he would destroy my stomach entirely, and I would die.

I agreed to do as he said, and he let me go, but inwardly I knew that I would never do his dirty work, but that I would find some other way to break his evil magic curse.

I woke up from the dream with a dreadful stomach ache, unlike any stomach complaint I had ever felt before. The feeling persisted all day, getting gradually worse. I forced myself to leave the house to buy some food for dinner that night, as I was having guests over, and I found myself drawn to the local fish market, where I suddenly had the urge to buy myself a whole smoked eel, knowing instinctively that this would be the cure for my stomach ache. I got home, sliced the eel, fried it lightly and ate the whole thing (none of my friends were interested in eating it), and my stomach ache immediately disappeared – the curse had been broken.

Now, I've never eaten a lamprey, though I do love to eat oysters. I've never eaten rat, or force-fed dormice, and while I have eaten a wide variety of bird meat, I don't think any of them were from foreign lands. Last night I ate seaweed and Chinese green vegetables and chicken served with buckwheat noodles and this morning I feel fabulous.

I'm not trying to make a point, I'm just telling you a story.

Thank you Cicero, you life story is of continuous interest, and always a springboard for further learning.

With gratitude and respect.

Morgan.

Book 3, Letter 2: to Tacitus, on peace

Book 3, Letter 2

To Tacitus, on peace

Dear Tacitus,

From Book IV, Section 32, of the Annals

“Much of what I have related and shall have to relate, may perhaps, I am aware, seem petty trifles to record. But no one must compare my annals with the writings of those who have described Rome in the old days. They told of great wars, of the storming of cities, of the defeat and capture of kings, or whenever they turned by preference to home affairs, they related, with a free scope for digression, the strife of consuls with tribunes, land and corn laws, and the struggle between the commons and the aristocracy.

My labours are circumscribed and inglorious; peace wholly unbroken or but slightly disturbed, dismal misery in the capital, an emperor careless about the enlargement of the empire, such is my theme. Still it will not be useless to study those at first sight trifling events out of which the movements of vast changes often take their rise.”

Tacitus, I write to you this letter in the first week of the year 2019 CE, living as I do in such unbroken peace as you mention. I worked in the morning from dawn until midday, I came home, ate my lunch, and played games with my children who, relaxing at home during the school holidays, spent their hours playing games alone or with each other, or drawing, or reading books. I got a lot of music practice done, I began writing two new songs, I read more of Cicero's letters, I read more of your Annals.

Is this the sort of inglorious peace you decry? Yamamoto Tsunetomo certainly had little love for peacetime society, and you, Tacitus, seem equally fond of military culture and the glory of the expanding empire. Yet, the more I read of the wars and strife of mankind, both now and in the past, the more I appreciate the shallow materialism and petty complaints of my peaceful nation. Christmas has come and gone and having had nothing more pressing to concern me than which toys to buy for my children, and where I would be having lunch on Christmas day, I loll about in bed all morning, writing letters, reading books, enjoying the bright beaming sunlight of this Australian summer. Politics in the Capital is surely miserable, but that is far away from my life.

Still, the dull peace you describe is fascinating to me. Your book is crammed with delicious details of Roman life and the consequences of legal issues and I have been surprised by my level of interest in these minutia of your era. I never thought that such details would hold my attention. Is it voyeurism? Is it taking sadistic, vicarious pleasure in the tribulations of others? I'm not sure, but I had to laugh (although I know that I shouldn't have), when I read the following:

Book IV Section 22, The Annals

“...Plautius Silvanus, the praetor, for unknown reasons, threw his wife Apronia out of a window. When summoned before the emperor by Lucius Apronius, his father-in-law, he replied incoherently, representing that he was in a sound sleep and consequently knew nothing, and that his wife had chosen to destroy herself. Without a moments delay Tiberius (the Emperor) went to the house and inspected the chamber, where were seen the marks of her struggling and forcible ejection. He reported this to the Senate, and as soon as judges had been appointed, Urgulania, the grandmother of Silvanus, send her grandson a dagger. This was thought equivalent to a hint from the emperor, because of the known intimacy between Augusta and Urgulania. The accused tried the steel in vain, and then allowed his veins to be opened. Shortly afterwards, Numantina, his former wife, was charged with having caused her husband's insanity by magical incantations and potions, but she was acquitted.”

There are a lot of accusations (usually levelled at women) of poisoning and sorcery in your writing, but my favourite account comes from the story of the fatal sickness and eventual death of Germanicus. The atmosphere of dark horror in the shadowy forests of Germany is tantalising, worthy of comparison with H.P Lovecraft.

Book II, Section 69

“The terrible intensity of the malady was increased by the belief that he (Germanicus) had been poisoned by Piso. And certainly there were found hidden in the floor and in the walls disinterred remains of human bodies, incantations and spells, and the name of Germanicus inscribed on leaden tablets, half-burnt cinders smeared with blood, and other horrors by which in popular belief souls are devoted to the infernal deities. Piso too was accused of sending emissaries to note curiously every unfavourable symptom of the illness.”

Tacitus, though you certainly know how to tell a good story, you do not stoop to take sides in this issue, but attempt to offer multiple perspectives, to tell the history of the events with as much objectivity as possible. You are interested in the truth, even though it is so often impossible to discern. You show this in your description of Germanicus' funeral, in section 73.

                                       Germanicus

“As to the body which, before it was burnt, lay bare in the forum at Antioch, its destined place of burial, it is doubtful whether it exhibited the marks of poisoning. For men according as they pitied Germanicus and were prepossessed with suspicion or were biased with partiality towards Piso, gave conflicting accounts.”

So, with tales of poisoning, black magic, murder, rebellious border tribes, espionage, corruption and now that I am reading about Sejanus, a story of an evil advisor to the Emperor Tiberius, this conflict filled inglorious peace you describe is absolutely fascinating and exciting to read. I take great pleasure not only in the accounts which you give of the important events of your time, but also in those moments of self reflection you allow yourself, and which give me a wonderful insight into your personality, which is a detail so often missing from the writings of other historians.

Book IV, Section 33

“So now, after a revolution, when Rome is nothing but the realm of a single despot, there must be good in carefully noting and recording this period, for it is but few who have the foresight to distinguish right from wrong or what is sound from what is hurtful, while most men have learned wisdom from the fortunes of others. Still, though this is instructive, it gives very little pleasure. Descriptions of countries, the various incidents of battles, glorious deaths of great generals, enchain and refresh a reader's mind. I have to present in succession the merciless biddings of a tyrant, incessant prosecutions, faithless friendships, the ruin of innocence, the same causes issuing in the same results and I am everywhere confronted by a wearisome monotony in my subject matter.”

I understand that for you, Tacitus, this era you describe is wearisome and monotonous, but for me your account of it is a thrilling and complex tale of politics and humanity, interspersed with culture and history and convoluted family sagas. From the luxuriant peace and beauty of my home, I can read your Annals and give thanks every day for the dullness of my own life, unhindered by despots, poisonings, black magic or rebellious tribes. I sit in bed writing letters, the summer sun beaming through the open windows, a cool breeze billowing the leaves of exotic ferns crowded on my front verandah.

This afternoon I will go to the Robin Hood Hotel in Strathalbyn, to see Jay Hoad play multicultural blues/rock music. I will drink Australian beer and stand in the company of local men and women who gather at the tavern to eat and drink and appreciate the glories of a Sunday afternoon in a country town in Australia.

Thank you Tacitus. Your book is a source of great pleasure and education, and while I do not think that anyone at the tavern today will have heard of your name, or know anything of the history you describe, they do know enough of life to value music, and friendships and good food and community. Simple pleasures, but really, the most important parts of a life well lived.

With Gratitude and Respect.

Morgan.

*

PS. I will give you a glimpse of the peaceful life I lead. Here is my description of the musician, Jay Hoad and the concert he gave.

The tavern courtyard, bright Sunday sunshine is warm on my skin, and the cold beer in my glass is dark as the shade of Peppercorn trees, of Eucalypts. In a cleared out hay shed the musician sits amidst a mad cluster of technology – some high power new magic with glowing lights, other musical instruments handmade from scrap...a three string cricket bat, a three string shovel, a four string cigar box. A burning sound, a searing rock and roll, a jump beat go-get-em kinda blues with roots in the living earth. People cluster in the shade, drinking, laughing, listening, listening talking talking. A man of many moons, a veteran by the look of his hat pins, dances with the kind of freedom we all want, yet I feel that we are all moved by the music to our communal purpose.

We are there, with the music, because of the music. We share it.

We cannot see it, cannot touch it, but it comes up through our feet and it comes in through our ears and sometimes for me it's like my bones are a xylophone, each note makes a part of me sing in harmony. Jay Hoad sings like he means it, like his life stories are worth telling, like the trade winds that steer the ship of his life are some kind of eternal spirit. A spirit that everyone in this sunlit courtyard responds to, connects with, and as the sun steers westward, and the blood in our veins begins to hum along, people come to dance in the shade. Their feet lift dust from the earth floor and my nostrils are filled with the dry red scent. People come to join the man who dances with the kind of freedom we all want to feel.

I speak with a Bulgarian father, and his two teenage sons, all three are avid fans of Jay's music, they point out Jay's father is in the crowd, a tall, slender septuagenarian whom they dub, the oldest keyboard player on earth, with good humour and affection. We talk about family, and music and we talk about history, about Australia, about the world.

The tavern courtyard, bright Sunday sunshine is warm on my skin, and the cold beer in my glass is dark as the shade of Peppercorn trees, Eucalypts and a cleaned out hay shed where a musician plays for us.

Book 3, letter 1, part 2 of 2 - Dear Seneca

Book 3, Letter 1

Part 2 of 2

Dear Seneca,

Each day I read. Each day I am changed.

VI. On sharing knowledge.

I feel, my dear Lucilius, that I am being not only reformed, but transformed. I do not however, assure myself, or indulge the hope, that there are no elements left in me which need to be changed. Of course, there are many that should be made more compact, or made thinner, or be brought into greater prominence. And indeed this very fact is proof that my spirit is altered into something better, - that it can see its own faults, of which it was previously ignorant. In certain cases sick men are congratulated because they themselves have perceived that they are sick.

I therefore wish to impart to you this sudden change in myself; I should then begin to place a surer trust in our friendship, - the true friendship, which hope and fear and self-interest cannot sever, the friendship in which and for the sake of which men meet death. I can show you many who have lacked, not a friend, but a friendship; this however, cannot happen when souls are drawn together by identical inclinations into an alliance of honourable desires. And why can it not happen? Because in such cases men know that they have all things in common, especially their troubles.

Sometimes, to read of such friendships, is to be possessed by them, to feel the lingering glow of love that still gives off warmth, two thousand years later. I envy Lucilius, to have had a friend such as you Seneca.

I wonder at the powerful feelings that are evoked in me, as I read and re-read each letter in your collection. How is it possible that I can feel such an immediate affinity for you, for your wisdom? How is it that I can feel that you are actually writing to me, personally, but also to every human being with ears and eyes and a heart that can be moved by sincerity and wisdom? I live in an age of distance, where the bonds of human friendship are stretched across continents, where communities are connected not by physical presence and communal living, but by mutual interest and common affection for shared ideals. The borders of nations no longer keep people of mutual regard separated; we are able to communicate with the speed of lightning, with people living on the other side of the globe, and I, Seneca, am able to communicate with you, though we are separated by thousands of years and miles...a distance which though unimaginably vast, seems no distance at all, as I sit in bed with your book.

You are with me, Seneca, and I am glad, nay, overjoyed to have you in my company, to know that we have these things in common, especially our troubles.

I will continue my studies and share with you the proofs of my changing spirit.

With admiration and respect,

Morgan.

Book 3, letter 1: To Seneca

Book 3, Letter 1

Part 1 of 2

                                  Seneca with Nero

*

Dear Seneca,

This being my first letter to you, I feel that I should open with something special...a picture? If it is true, as Thucydides claims, that history is philosophy taught by example, then it might be true also that art is psychology taught by practice. To practice art is to train the eye to see, (both the inner and the outer eye) and to teach the hand to make the unseen, visible. So, Seneca, my study continues...

                                          a page from my sketchbook...

My history studies also continue, and this second year is opening me up to wider subjects. My keenness for history and philosophy has not faded. It is as I had expected; the more I know, the deeper and wider I see the ocean of knowledge is. I swim down, undeterred, unobstructed. That is where I met you, Seneca. In the darkness.

I'll admit this to you first, and don't misconstrue it for empty flattery. I used to really like Marcus Aurelius, until I started reading your Epistles. (I have a 1917 translation by Richard M Gummere.) I have felt drawn to Stoic philosophy for a few months, and I have been trying to make sense of Aurelius, but his worldview is so militant, so brutal at times. He is immensely popular at the moment, with new books about his life and philosophy being published, but you, Seneca, seem blessed with a modern humanitarian soul, and as such, your philosophy is, to me, much more easily assimilated and understood.

Seneca, or can I call you Lucius? I'd like to write to you about every single page I've read so far. I'll try to restrain myself, I have been forcing myself to only read one letter each day. Though I want to hungrily devour your wisdom, I must take my time to digest the intense beauty and truth I find in your writing. I've never been so emotionally effected by a book. Normally I read with a hungry pace, briskly striding through to the end of the book, eager to finish and grasp the whole of what the author has to say.

With your book, your Epistles, I want to read each sentence over and over. I am reluctant to turn the page. I have read seven letters so far, but I return to the first page each morning. I cannot rush your book. To do so would seem a gross insult to the special kindness and attention you give every word, every turn of phrase.

I. On Saving Time

Continue to act thus, my dear Lucilius - set yourself free for your own sake; gather and save your time, which till lately has been forced from you, or filched away, or has merely slipped from your hands. Make yourself believe the truth of my words, - that certain moments are torn from us, that some are gently removed, and that others glide beyond our reach. The most disgraceful kind of loss, however, is that due to carelessness. Furthermore, if you will pay close heed to the problem, you will find that the largest portion of our life passes while we are doing ill, a goodly share while we are doing nothing, and the whole while we are doing that which is not to the purpose. What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily? For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years lie behind us are in death's hands.

Quicquid aetatis retro est, mors tenet. 

Whatever years lie behind us are in death's hands.

I need some more time to think about that. I'll write more soon.