第 3 节
作者:着凉      更新:2021-02-27 01:59      字数:9321
  a great deal of his own; it appeared that the sum amounted to a great
  deal more than Croesus' reckoning。  Whereupon Cyrus: 〃I am not;〃 said he;
  〃less in love with riches than other princes; but rather a better
  husband; you see with how small a venture I have acquired the inestimable
  treasure of so many friends; and how much more faithful treasurers they
  are to me than mercenary men without obligation; without affection; and
  my money better laid up than in chests; bringing upon me the hatred;
  envy; and contempt of other princes。〃
  The emperors excused the superfluity of their plays and public spectacles
  by reason that their authority in some sort (at least in outward
  appearance) depended upon the will of the people of Rome; who; time out
  of mind; had been accustomed to be entertained and caressed with such
  shows and excesses。  But they were private citizens; who had nourished
  this custom to gratify their fellow…citizens and companions (and chiefly
  out of their own purses) by such profusion and magnificence it had quite
  another taste when the masters came to imitate it:
  〃Pecuniarum translatio a justis dominis ad alienos
  non debet liberalis videri。〃
  '〃The transferring of money from the right owners to strangers
  ought not to have the title of liberality。〃
  Cicero; De Offic。; i。 14。'
  Philip; seeing that his son went about by presents to gain the affection
  of the Macedonians; reprimanded him in a letter after this manner: 〃What!
  hast thou a mind that thy subjects shall look upon thee as their cash…
  keeper and not as their king?  Wilt thou tamper with them to win their
  affections?  Do it; then; by the benefits of thy virtue; and not by those
  of thy chest。〃  And yet it was; doubtless; a fine thing to bring and
  plant within the amphitheatre a great number of vast trees; with all
  their branches in their full verdure; representing a great shady forest;
  disposed in excellent order; and; the first day; to throw into it a
  thousand ostriches and a thousand stags; a thousand boars; and a thousand
  fallow…deer; to be killed and disposed of by the people: the next day;
  to cause a hundred great lions; a hundred leopards; and three hundred
  bears to be killed in his presence; and for the third day; to make three
  hundred pair of gladiators fight it out to the last; as the Emperor
  Probus did。  It was also very fine to see those vast amphitheatres; all
  faced with marble without; curiously wrought with figures and statues;
  and within glittering with rare enrichments:
  〃Baltheus en! gemmis; en illita porticus auro:〃
  '〃A belt glittering with jewels; and a portico overlaid with gold。〃
  Calpurnius; Eclog。; vii。 47。  A baltheus was a shoulder…belt or
  baldric。'
  all the sides of this vast space filled and environed; from the bottom to
  the top; with three or four score rows of seats; all of marble also; and
  covered with cushions:
  〃Exeat; inquit;
  Si pudor est; et de pulvino surgat equestri;
  Cujus res legi non sufficit;〃
  '〃Let him go out; he said; if he has any sense of shame; and rise
  from the equestrian cushion; whose estate does not satisfy the law。〃
  Juvenal; iii。 153。  The Equites were required to possess a fortune
  of 400 sestertia; and they sat on the first fourteen rows behind the
  orchestra。'
  where a hundred thousand men might sit at their ease: and; the place
  below; where the games were played; to make it; by art; first open and
  cleave in chasms; representing caves that vomited out the beasts designed
  for the spectacle; and then; secondly; to be overflowed by a deep sea;
  full of sea monsters; and laden with ships of war; to represent a naval
  battle; and; thirdly; to make it dry and even again for the combat of the
  gladiators; and; for the fourth scene; to have it strown with vermilion
  grain and storax;'A resinous gum。' instead of sand; there to make a
  solemn feast for all that infinite number of people: the last act of one
  only day:
  〃Quoties nos descendentis arenae
  Vidimus in partes; ruptaque voragine terrae
  Emersisse feras; et eisdem saepe latebris
  Aurea cum croceo creverunt arbuta libro!。。。。
  Nec solum nobis silvestria cernere monstra
  Contigit; aequoreos ego cum certantibus ursis
  Spectavi vitulos; et equorum nomine dignum;
  Sen deforme pecus; quod in illo nascitur amni。。。。〃
  '〃How often have we seen the stage of the theatre descend and part
  asunder; and from a chasm in the earth wild beasts emerge; and then
  presently give birth to a grove of gilded trees; that put forth
  blossoms of enamelled flowers。  Nor yet of sylvan marvels alone had
  we sight: I saw sea…calves fight with bears; and a deformed sort of
  cattle; we might call sea…horses。〃Calpurnius; Eclog。; vii。 64。'
  Sometimes they made a high mountain advance itself; covered with fruit…
  trees and other leafy trees; sending down rivulets of water from the top;
  as from the mouth of a fountain: otherwhiles; a great ship was seen to
  come rolling in; which opened and divided of itself; and after having
  disgorged from the hold four or five hundred beasts for fight; closed
  again; and vanished without help。  At other times; from the floor of this
  place; they made spouts of perfumed water dart their streams upward; and
  so high as to sprinkle all that infinite multitude。  To defend themselves
  from the injuries of the weather; they had that vast place one while
  covered over with purple curtains of needlework; and by…and…by with silk
  of one or another colour; which they drew off or on in a moment; as they
  had a mind:
  〃Quamvis non modico caleant spectacula sole;
  Vela reducuntur; cum venit Hermogenes。〃
  '〃The curtains; though the sun should scorch the spectators; are
  drawn in; when Hermogenes appears。〃…Martial; xii。  29; 15。  M。
  Tigellius Hermogenes; whom Horace and others have satirised。  One
  editor calls him 〃a noted thief;〃 another: 〃He was a literary
  amateur of no ability; who expressed his critical opinions with too
  great a freedom to please the poets of his day。〃  D。W。'
  The network also that was set before the people to defend them from the
  violence of these turned…out beasts was woven of gold:
  〃Auro quoque torts refulgent
  Retia。〃
  '〃The woven nets are refulgent with gold。〃
  Calpurnius; ubi supra。'
  If there be anything excusable in such excesses as these; it is where the
  novelty and invention create more wonder than the expense; even in these
  vanities we discover how fertile those ages were in other kind of wits
  than these of ours。  It is with this sort of fertility; as with all other
  products of nature: not that she there and then employed her utmost
  force: we do not go; we rather run up and down; and whirl this way and
  that; we turn back the way we came。  I am afraid our knowledge is weak in
  all senses; we neither see far forward nor far backward; our
  understanding comprehends little; and lives but a little while; 'tis
  short both in extent of time and extent of matter:
  〃Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
  Mufti; sed omnes illacrymabiles
  Urgentur; ignotique longs
  Nocte。〃
  ' Many brave men lived before Agamemnon; but all are pressed by the
  long night unmourned and unknown。〃Horace; Od。; iv。 9; 25。'
  〃Et supra bellum Thebanum et funera Trojae
  Non alias alii quoque res cecinere poetae?〃
  '〃Why before the Theban war and the destruction of Troy; have not
  other poets sung other events?〃Lucretius; v。 327。  Montaigne here
  diverts himself m giving Lucretius' words a construction directly
  contrary to what they bear in the poem。  Lucretius puts the
  question; Why if the earth had existed from all eternity; there had
  not been poets; before the Theban war; to sing men's exploits。
  Coste。'
  And the narrative of Solon; of what he had learned from the Egyptian
  priests; touching the long life of their state; and their manner of
  learning and preserving foreign histories; is not; methinks; a testimony
  to be refused in this consideration:
  〃Si interminatam in omnes partes magnitudinem regionum videremus et
  temporum; in quam se injiciens animus et intendens; ita late
  longeque peregrinatur; ut nullam oram ultimi videat; in qua possit
  insistere: in haec immensitate 。  。  。  infinita vis innumerabilium
  appareret fomorum。〃
  '〃Could we see on all parts the unlimited magnitude of regions and
  of times; upon which the mind being intent; could wander so far and
  wide; that no limit is to be seen; in which it can bound its eye; we
  should; in that infinite immensity; discover an infinite force of
  innumerable atoms。〃  Here also Montaigne puts a sense quite
  different from what the words bear in the original; but the
  application he makes of them is so happy