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IN ILLAUDATA LAU-
DANTES.
Praising the wrong things
Link to an image of this page [B7v]
Ingentes Galatum semerini [=semermi]
milite turmas,
Spem praeter trepidus fuderat Antiochus.[1]
Lucarum cum saeva boum vis,[2] ira proboscis,
Tum primum[3] hostiles corripuisset equos.
Ergo trophea locans Elephantis imagine pinxit,
Insuper & sociis occideramus ait.
Bellua servasset ni nos foedissima barrus,
Ut superasse iuvat, sic superasse pudet.
Antiochus, in spite of his fears, had beyond all expectation routed the huge squadrons of Galatians with his light-armed troops, when the savage might of elephants, their raging and their trunks, for the first time ever fell upon the enemy’s cavalry. So when he set up the trophy, he adorned it with the picture of an elephant and furthermore said to his troops: “We would have fallen, if this revolting beast, the elephant, had not preserved us. Pleasing as it is to conquer, it is galling to conquer like this”.
1. For this incident, see Lucian, Zeuxis sive Antiochus 8-11. In 276 BC Antiochus I won against fearful odds by directing his sixteen elephants against the Galatian horsemen and scythed chariots. Not only did the horses turn in panic and cause chaos among their own infantry, but the elephants came on behind, tossing, goring and trampling. Although he had won an overwhelming victory, Antiochus did not consider it a matter for congratulation.
2. ‘Might of elephants’, lit. ‘might of Lucanian cattle’, supposedly so called by the Romans because they first saw these strange beasts in Lucania in south Italy, when King Pyrrhus of Epirus made use of them in his defeat of the Romans at the battle of Heraclea in 280 BC. See Pliny, Natural History 8.6.16.
3. ‘For the first time ever’. The Galatians, Celtic tribes who had invaded Asia Minor, had never seen elephants before. Elephants had often been used in battle on other occasions.
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Non tibi, sed religioni.
Not for you but for religion
XXXV.
Isidis effigiem tardus gestabat asellus,
Pando verenda dorso habens mysteria.
Obvius ergo Deam quisquis reverenter adorat,
Piasque genibus concipit flexis preces.
Ast asinus tantum praestari credit honorem
Sibi, & intumescit admodùm superbiens,
Donec eum flagris compescens dixit agaso,
Non es Deus tu aselle, sed Deum vehis.[1]
An ass with dragging feet was carrying an image of Isis, bearing reverend mysteries on its sagging back. So all who met him reverently offered worship to the goddess and recited pious prayers on bended knee. The ass however took it that all this honour was offered to himself, and began to swagger along swollen with pride - until his driver, reducing him with blows, said, ‘You are not god, my little ass, you are carrying god’.
Link to an image of this page [F1r p81]
Non a toy, mais a religion.
XXXV.
L’asne portoit d’ung sainct la chace:
Et voiant chascun prosterner,
Cuyde que ce pour luy se face:
Si pense ja tout gouverner:
Mais sur ce on le vint bastonner,
En luy disant motz de tel sorte:
Sus baudet, il fault pietonner:
Tu n’es pas sainct, mais tu le porte.
1. See Aesop, Fables 266; Erasmus, Adagia 1104, Asinus portans mysteria.
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