SENECA APOCOLOCYNTOSIS WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY W. H. D. ROUSE, M. A. LITT. D. MCMXX INTRODUCTION This piece is ascribed to Seneca by ancient tradition; it is impossibleto prove that it is his, and impossible to prove that it is not. Thematter will probably continue to be decided by every one according to hisview of Seneca's character and abilities: in the matters of style and ofsentiment much may be said on both sides. Dion Cassius (lx, 35) says thatSeneca composed an [Greek: apokolokuntosis] or Pumpkinification ofClaudius after his death, the title being a parody of the usual[Greek: apotheosis]; but this title is not given in the MSS. Of the Ludusde Morte Claudii, nor is there anything in the piece which suits the titlevery well. As a literary form, the piece belongs to the class called_Satura Menippea_, a satiric medley in prose and verse. This text is that of Buecheler, with a few trifling changes, which areindicated in the notes. We have been courteously allowed by MessrsWeidmann to use this text. I have to acknowledge the help of Mr Ball'snotes, from which I have taken a few references; but my translation wasmade many years ago. W. H. D. ROUSE. BIBLIOGRAPHY _Editio Princeps:_ Lucii Annaei Senecae in morte Claudii Caesaris Ludus nuper repertus: Rome, 1513. _Latest critical text:_ Franz Buecheler, Weidmann, 1904 (a reprint with a few changes of the text from a larger work, Divi Claudii [Greek: Apokolokuntosis] in the Symbola Philologorum Bonnensium, fasc. I, 1864). _Translations and helps:_ The Satire of Seneca on the Apotheosis of Claudius, by A. P. Ball (with introduction, notes, and translations): New York: Columbia University Press; London, Macmillan, 1902. SENECA APOCOLOCYNTOSIS, OR LUDUS DE MORTE CLAUDII: THE PUMPKINIFICATION OFCLAUDIUS. I wish to place on record the proceedings in heaven 1October 13 last, of the new year which begins this auspicious age. Itshall be done without malice or favour. This is the truth. Ask if you likehow I know it? To begin with, I am not bound to please you with my answer. Who will compel me? I know the same day made me free, which was the lastday for him who made the proverb true--One must be born either a Pharaohor a fool. If I choose to answer, I will say whatever trips off my tongue. Who has ever made the historian produce witness to swear for him? But ifan authority must be produced, ask of the man who saw Drusilla translatedto heaven: the same man will aver he saw Claudius on the road, dot andcarry one. [Sidenote: Virg. Aen. Ii, 724] Will he nill he, all that happensin heaven he needs must see. He is the custodian of the Appian Way; by thatroute, you know, both Tiberius and Augustus went up to the gods. Questionhim, he will tell you the tale when you are alone; before company he isdumb. You see he swore in the Senate that he beheld Drusilla mountingheavenwards, and all he got for his good news was that everybody gave himthe lie: since when he solemnly swears he will never bear witness again towhat he has seen, not even if he had seen a man murdered in open market. What he told me I report plain and clear, as I hope for his health andhappiness. Now had the sun with shorter course drawn in his risen light, 2 And by equivalent degrees grew the dark hours of night: Victorious Cynthia now held sway over a wider space, Grim winter drove rich autumn out, and now usurped his place; And now the fiat had gone forth that Bacchus must grow old, The few last clusters of the vine were gathered ere the cold: I shall make myself better understood, if I say the month was October, theday was the thirteenth. What hour it was I cannot certainly tell;philosophers will agree more often than clocks; but it was between middayand one after noon. "Clumsy creature!" you say. "The poets are not contentto describe sunrise and sunset, and now they even disturb the middaysiesta. Will you thus neglect so good an hour?" Now the sun's chariot had gone by the middle of his way; Half wearily he shook the reins, nearer to night than day, And led the light along the slope that down before him lay. Claudius began to breathe his last, and could not 3make an end of the matter. Then Mercury, who had always been much pleasedwith his wit, drew aside one of the three Fates, and said: "Cruel beldame, why do you let the poor wretch be tormented? After all this torture cannothe have a rest? Four and sixty years it is now since he began to pant forbreath. What grudge is this you bear against him and the whole empire? Dolet the astrologers tell the truth for once; since he became emperor, theyhave never let a year pass, never a month, without laying him out for hisburial. Yet it is no wonder if they are wrong, and no one knows his hour. Nobody ever believed he was really quite born. [Footnote: A proverb for anobody, as Petron, 58 _qui te natum non putat. _] Do what has to be done:Kill him, and let a better man rule in empty court. "[Sidenote: Virg. Georg iv. 90] Clotho replied: "Upon my word, I did wish to give him another hour or two, until he should make Roman citizens of the half dozen who are stilloutsiders. (He made up his mind, you know, to see the whole world in thetoga, Greeks, Gauls, Spaniards, Britons, and all. ) But since it is yourpleasure to leave a few foreigners for seed, and since you command me, sobe it. " She opened her box and out came three spindles. One was forAugurinus, one for Baba, one for Claudius. [Footnote: "Augurinus" unknown. Baba: see Sep. Ep. 159, a fool. ] "These three, " she says, "I will cause todie within one year and at no great distance apart, and I will not dismisshim unattended. Think of all the thousands of men he was wont to seefollowing after him, thousands going before, thousands all crowding abouthim, and it would never do to leave him alone on a sudden. These booncompanions will satisfy him for the nonce. " This said, she twists the thread around his ugly spindle once, 4 Snaps off the last bit of the life of that Imperial dunce. But Lachesis, her hair adorned, her tresses neatly bound, Pierian laurel on her locks, her brows with garlands crowned, Plucks me from out the snowy wool new threads as white as snow, Which handled with a happy touch change colour as they go, Not common wool, but golden wire; the Sisters wondering gaze, As age by age the pretty thread runs down the golden days. World without end they spin away, the happy fleeces pull; What joy they take to fill their hands with that delightful wool! Indeed, the task performs itself: no toil the spinners know: Down drops the soft and silken thread as round the spindles go; Fewer than these are Tithon's years, not Nestor's life so long. Phoebus is present: glad he is to sing a merry song; Now helps the work, now full of hope upon the harp doth play; The Sisters listen to the song that charms their toil away. They praise their brother's melodies, and still the spindles run, Till more than man's allotted span the busy hands have spun. Then Phoebus says, "O sister Fates! I pray take none away, But suffer this one life to be longer than mortal day. Like me in face and lovely grace, like me in voice and song, He'll bid the laws at length speak out that have been dumb so long, Will give unto the weary world years prosperous and bright. Like as the daystar from on high scatters the stars of night, As, when the stars return again, clear Hesper brings his light, Or as the ruddy dawn drives out the dark, and brings the day, As the bright sun looks on the world, and speeds along its way His rising car from morning's gates: so Caesar doth arise, So Nero shows his face to Rome before the people's eyes, His bright and shining countenance illumines all the air, While down upon his graceful neck fall rippling waves of hair. " Thus Apollo. But Lachesis, quite as ready to cast a favourable eye on a handsome man, spins away by the handful, and bestows years and years upon Nero out of her own pocket. As for Claudius, they tell everybody to speed him on his way With cries of joy and solemn litany. At once he bubbled up the ghost, and there was an end to that shadow of alife. He was listening to a troupe of comedians when he died, so you see Ihave reason to fear those gentry. The last words he was heard to speak inthis world were these. When he had made a great noise with that end of himwhich talked easiest, he cried out, "Oh dear, oh dear! I think I have madea mess of myself. " Whether he did or no, I cannot say, but certain it ishe always did make a mess of everything. What happened next on earth it is mere waste of 5time to tell, for you know it all well enough, and there is no fear of yourever forgetting the impression which that public rejoicing made on yourmemory. No one forgets his own happiness. What happened in heaven you shallhear: for proof please apply to my informant. Word comes to Jupiter that astranger had arrived, a man well set up, pretty grey; he seemed to bethreatening something, for he wagged his head ceaselessly; he dragged theright foot. They asked him what nation he was of; he answered something ina confused mumbling voice: his language they did not understand. He was noGreek and no Roman, nor of any known race. On this Jupiter bids Hercules goand find out what country he comes from; you see Hercules had travelledover the whole world, and might be expected to know all the nations in it. But Hercules, the first glimpse he got, was really much taken aback, although not all the monsters in the world could frighten him; when he sawthis new kind of object, with its extraordinary gait, and the voice of noterrestrial beast, but such as you might hear in the leviathans of thedeep, hoarse and inarticulate, he thought his thirteenth labour had comeupon him. When he looked closer, the thing seemed to be a kind of man. Up he goes, then, and says what your Greek finds readiest to his tongue: "Who art thou, and what thy people? Who thy parents, where thy home?" [Sidenote: Od. I, 17] Claudius was delighted to find literary men up there, and began to hopethere might be some corner for his own historical works. So he caps himwith another Homeric verse, explaining that he was Caesar: "Breezes wafted me from Ilion unto the Ciconian land. " [Sidenote: Od. Ix, 39] But the next verse was more true, and no less Homeric: "Thither come, I sacked a city, slew the people every one. " He would have taken in poor simple Hercules, but 6that Our Lady of Malaria was there, who left her temple and came alone withhim: all the other gods he had left at Rome. Quoth she, "The fellow's taleis nothing but lies. I have lived with him all these years, and I tell you, he was born at Lyons. You behold a fellow-burgess of Marcus. [Footnote:Reference unknown. ] As I say, he was born at the sixteenth milestone fromVienne, a native Gaul. So of course he took Rome, as a good Gaul ought todo. I pledge you my word that in Lyons he was born, where Licinus[Footnote: A Gallic slave, appointed by Augustus Procurator of GalliaLugudunensis, when he made himself notorious by his extortions. See DionCass. Liv, 21. ] was king so many years. But you that have trudged over moreroads than any muleteer that plies for hire, you must have come across thepeople of Lyons, and you must know that it is a far cry from Xanthus to theRhone. " At this point Claudius flared up, and expressed his wrath with asbig a growl as he could manage. What he said nobody understood; as a matterof fact, he was ordering my lady of Fever to be taken away, and making thatsign with his trembling hand (which was always steady enough for that, iffor nothing else) by which he used to decapitate men. He had ordered herhead to be chopped off. For all the notice the others took of him, theymight have been his own freedmen. Then Hercules said, "You just listen to me, and 7stop playing the fool. You have come to the place where the mice nibbleiron. [Footnote: A proverb, found also in Herondas iii, 76: apparentlyfairy-land, the land of Nowhere. ] Out with the truth, and look sharp, orI'll knock your quips and quiddities out of you. " Then to make himself allthe more awful, he strikes an attitude and proceeds in his most tragicvein: "Declare with speed what spot you claim by birth. Or with this club fall stricken to the earth! This club hath ofttimes slaughtered haughty kings! Why mumble unintelligible things? What land, what tribe produced that shaking head? Declare it! On my journey when I sped Far to the Kingdom of the triple King, And from the Main Hesperian did bring The goodly cattle to the Argive town, There I beheld a mountain looking down Upon two rivers: this the Sun espies Right opposite each day he doth arise. Hence, mighty Rhone, thy rapid torrents flow, And Arar, much in doubt which way to go, Ripples along the banks with shallow roll. Say, is this land the nurse that bred thy soul?" These lines he delivered with much spirit and a bold front. All the same, he was not quite master of his wits, and had some fear of a blow fromthe fool. Claudius, seeing a mighty man before him, saw things lookedserious and understood that here he had not quite the same pre-eminenceas at Rome, where no one was his equal: the Gallic cock was worth most onhis own dunghill. So this is what he was thought to say, as far as couldbe made out: "I did hope, Hercules, bravest of all the gods, that youwould take my part with the rest, and if I should need a voucher, I meantto name you who know me so well. Do but call it to mind, how it was I usedto sit in judgment before your temple whole days together during July andAugust. You know what miseries I endured there, in hearing the lawyersplead day and night. If you had fallen amongst these, you may thinkyourself very strong, but you would have found it worse than the sewers ofAugeas: I drained out more filth than you did. But since I want... " (Some pages have fallen out, in which Hercules must have been persuaded. The gods are now discussing what Hercules tells them). "No wonder you have forced your way into the 8Senate House: no bars or bolts can hold against you. Only do say whatspecies of god you want the fellow to be made. An Epicurean god he cannotbe: for they have no troubles and cause none. A Stoic, then? How can he beglobular, as Varro says, without a head or any other projection? There isin him something of the Stoic god, as I can see now: he has neither heartnor head. Upon my word, if he had asked this boon from Saturn, he would nothave got it, though he kept up Saturn's feast all the year round, a trulySaturnalian prince. A likely thing he will get it from Jove, whom hecondemned for incest as far as in him lay: for he killed his son-in-lawSilanus, because Silanus had a sister, a most charming girl, called Venusby all the world, and he preferred to call her Juno. Why, says he, I wantto know why, his own sister? Read your books, stupid: you may go half-wayat Athens, the whole way at Alexandria. Because the mice lick meal at Rome, you say. Is this creature to mend our crooked ways? What goes on in his owncloset he knows not;[Footnote: Perhaps alluding to a mock marriage ofSilius and Messalina. ] and now he searches the regions of the sky, wants tobe a god. Is it not enough that he has a temple in Britain, that savagesworship him and pray to him as a god, so that they may find a fool[Footnote: Again [GREEK: morou] for [GREEK: theou] as in ch. 6. ] to havemercy upon them?" At last it came into Jove's head, that while strangers 9were in the House it was not lawful to speak or debate. "My lords andgentlemen, " said he, "I gave you leave to ask questions, and you have madea regular farmyard [Footnote: Proverb: meaning unknown. ] of the place. Beso good as to keep the rules of the House. What will this person think ofus, whoever he is?" So Claudius was led out, and the first to be asked hisopinion was Father Janus: he had been made consul elect for the afternoonof the next first of July, [Footnote: Perhaps an allusion to the shorteningof the consul's term, which was done to give more candidates a chance ofthe honour. ] being as shrewd a man as you could find on a summer's day: forhe could see, as they say, before and behind. [Footnote 8: II, iii, 109;alluding here to Janus's double face. ] He made an eloquent harangue, because his life was passed in the forum, but too fast for the notary totake down. That is why I give no full report of it, for I don't want tochange the words he used. He said a great deal of the majesty of the gods, and how the honour ought not to be given away to every Tom, Dick, or Harry. "Once, " said he, "it was a great thing to become a god; now you have madeit a farce. Therefore, that you may not think I am speaking against oneperson instead of the general custom, I propose that from this day forwardthe godhead be given to none of those who eat the fruits of the earth, orwhom mother earth doth nourish. After this bill has been read a third time, whosoever is made, said, or portrayed to be god, I vote he be deliveredover to the bogies, and at the next public show be flogged with a birchamongst the new gladiators. " The next to be asked was Diespiter, son ofVica Pota, he also being consul elect, and a moneylender; by this trade hemade a living, used to sell rights of citizenship in a small way. Herculestrips me up to him daintily, and tweaks him by the ear. So he uttered hisopinion in these words: "Inasmuch as the blessed Claudius is akin to theblessed Augustus, and also to the blessed Augusta, his grandmother, whom heordered to be made a goddess, and whereas he far surpasses all mortal menin wisdom, and seeing that it is for the public good that there be some oneable to join Romulus in devouring boiled turnips, I propose that from thisday forth blessed Claudius be a god, to enjoy that honour with all itsappurtenances in as full a degree as any other before him, and that a noteto that effect be added to Ovid's Metamorphoses. " The meeting was divided, and it looked as though Claudius was to win the day. For Hercules saw hisiron was in the fire, trotted here and trotted there, saying, "Don't denyme; I make a point of the matter. I'll do as much for you again, when youlike; you roll my log, and I'll roll yours: one hand washes another. " Then arose the blessed Augustus, when his turn 10came, and spoke with much eloquence. [Footnote: The speech seems to containa parody of Augustus's style and sayings. ] "I call you to witness, my lordsand gentlemen, " said he, "that since the day I was made a god I have neveruttered one word. I always mind my own business. But now I can keep on themask no longer, nor conceal the sorrow which shame makes all the greater. Is it for this I have made peace by land and sea? For this have I calmedintestine wars? For this, laid a firm foundation of law for Rome, adornedit with buildings, and all that--my lords, words fail me; there are nonecan rise to the height of my indignation. I must borrow that saying of theeloquent Messala Corvinus, I am ashamed of my authority. [Footnote: M. Valerius Messala Corvinus, appointed praefectus urbi, resigned within aweek. ] This man, my lords, who looks as though he could not hurt a fly, used to chop off heads as easily as a dog sits down. But why should I speakof all those men, and such men? There is no time to lament for publicdisasters, when one has so many private sorrows to think of. I leave that, therefore, and say only this; for even if my sister knows no Greek, I do:The knee is nearer than the shin. [Footnote: A proverb, like "Charitybegins at home. " The reading of the passage is uncertain; "sister" is onlya conjecture, and it is hard to see why his sister should be mentioned. ]This man you see, who for so many years has been masquerading under myname, has done me the favour of murdering two Julias, great-granddaughtersof mine, one by cold steel and one by starvation; and one great grandson, L. Silanus--see, Jupiter, whether he had a case against him (at least it isyour own if you will be fair. ) Come tell me, blessed Claudius, why of allthose you killed, both men and women, without a hearing, why you did nothear their side of the case first, before putting them to death? Where dowe find that custom? It is not done in heaven. Look at Jupiter: all these years he has been 11king, and never did more than once to break Vulcan's leg, 'Whom seizing by the foot he cast from the threshold of the sky, ' [Sidenote: Illiad i, 591] and once he fell in a rage with his wife and strung her up: did he do anykilling? You killed Messalina, whose great-uncle I was no less than yours. 'I don't know, ' did you say? Curse you! that is just it: not to know wasworse than to kill. Caligula he went on persecuting even when he was dead. Caligula murdered his father-in-law, Claudius his son-in-law to boot. Caligula would not have Crassus' son called Great; Claudius gave him hisname back, and took away his head. In one family he destroyed Crassus, Magnus, Scribonia, the Tristionias, Assario, noble though they were;Crassus indeed such a fool that he might have been emperor. Is this he youwant now to make a god? Look at his body, born under the wrath of heaven!In fine, let him say the three words [Footnote: Some formula such as _aisesse meum_. ] quickly, and he may have me for a slave. God! who will worshipthis god, who will believe in him? While you make gods of such as he, noone will believe you to be gods. To be brief, my lords: if I have livedhonourably among you, if I have never given plain speech to any, avenge mywrongs. This is my motion": then he read out his amendment, which he hadcommitted to writing: "Inasmuch as the blessed Claudius murdered hisfather-in-law Appius Silanus, his two sons-in-law, Pompeius Magnus and L. Silanus, Crassus Frugi his daughter's father-in-law, as like him as twoeggs in a basket, Scribonia his daughter's mother-in-law, his wifeMessalina, and others too numerous to mention; I propose that strongmeasures be taken against him, that he be allowed no delay of process, thatimmediate sentence of banishment be passed on him, that he be deported fromheaven within thirty days, and from Olympus within thirty hours. " This motion was passed without further debate. Not a moment was lost:Mercury screwed his neck and haled him to the lower regions, to that bourne"from which they say no traveller returns. " [Footnote: Catullus iii, 12. ]As they passed downwards along the Sacred Way, Mercury asked what was thatgreat concourse of men? could it be Claudius' funeral? It was certainly amost gorgeous spectacle, got up regardless of expense, clear it was that agod was being borne to the grave: tootling of flutes, roaring of horns, animmense brass band of all sorts, such a din that even Claudius could hearit. Joy and rejoicing on every side, the Roman people walking about likefree men. Agatho and a few pettifoggers were weeping for grief, and foronce in a way they meant it. The Barristers were crawling out of theirdark corners, pale and thin, with hardly a breath in their bodies, asthough just coming to life again. One of them when he saw the pettifoggersputting their heads together, and lamenting their sad lot, up comes he andsays: "Did not I tell you the Saturnalia could not last for ever?" When Claudius saw his own funeral train, he understood that he was dead. For they were chanting his dirge in anapaests, with much mopping andmouthing: "Pour forth your laments, your sorrow declare, Let the sounds of grief rise high in the air: For he that is dead had a wit most keen, Was bravest of all that on earth have been. Racehorses are nothing to his swift feet: Rebellious Parthians he did defeat; Swift after the Persians his light shafts go: For he well knew how to fit arrow to bow, Swiftly the striped barbarians fled: With one little wound he shot them dead. And the Britons beyond in their unknown seas, Blue-shielded Brigantians too, all these He chained by the neck as the Romans' slaves. He spake, and the Ocean with trembling waves Accepted the axe of the Roman law. O weep for the man! This world never saw One quicker a troublesome suit to decide, When only one part of the case had been tried, (He could do it indeed and not hear either side). Who'll now sit in judgment the whole year round? Now he that is judge of the shades underground Once ruler of fivescore cities in Crete, Must yield to his better and take a back seat. Mourn, mourn, pettifoggers, ye venal crew, And you, minor poets, woe, woe is to you! And you above all, who get rich quick By the rattle of dice and the three card trick. " Claudius was charmed to hear his own praises sung, 13and would have stayed longer to see the show. But the Talthybius[Footnote: Talthybius was a herald, and _nuntius_ is obviously a gloss onthis. He means Mercury. ] of the gods laid a hand on him, and led him acrossthe Campus Martius, first wrapping his head up close that no one might knowhim, until betwixt Tiber and the Subway he went down to the lower regions. [Footnote: By the Cloaca?] His freedman Narcissus had gone down before himby a short cut, ready to welcome his master. Out he comes to meet him, smooth and shining (he had just left the bath), and says he: "What make thegods among mortals?" "Look alive, " says Mercury, "go and tell them we arecoming. " Away he flew, quicker than tongue can tell. It is easy going bythat road, all down hill. So although he had a touch of the gout, in atrice they were come to Dis's door. There lay Cerberus, or, as Horace putsit, the hundred-headed monster. [Sidenote: Odes ii, 13, 35] Claudius was atrifle perturbed (it was a little white bitch he used to keep for a pet)when he spied this black shag-haired hound, not at all the kind of thingyou could wish to meet in the dark. In a loud voice he cried, "Claudius iscoming!" All marched before him singing, "The lost is found, O let usrejoice together!" [Footnote: With a slight change, a cry used in theworship of Osiris. ] Here were found C. Silius consul elect, Juncus theex-praetor, Sextus Traulus, M. Helvius, Trogus, Cotta, Vettius Valens, Fabius, Roman Knights whom Narcissus had ordered for execution. In themidst of this chanting company was Mnester the mime, whom Claudius forhonour's sake had made shorter by a head. The news was soon blown aboutthat Claudius had come: to Messalina they throng: first his freedmen, Polybius, Myron, Harpocras, Amphaeus, Pheronactus, all sent before him byClaudius that he might not be unattended anywhere; next two prefects, Justus Catonius and Rufrius Pollio; then his friends, Saturninus, Lusiusand Pedo Pompeius and Lupus and Celer Asinius, these of consular rank; lastcame his brother's daughter, his sister's daughter, sons-in-law, fathersand mothers-in-law, the whole family in fact. In a body they came to meetClaudius; and when Claudius saw them, he exclaimed, "Friends everywhere, onmy word! How came you all here?" To this Pedo Pompeius answered, "What, cruel man? How came we here? Who but you sent us, you, the murderer of allthe friends that ever you had? To court with you! I'll show you where theirlordships sit. " Pedo brings him before the judgement seat of 14Aeacus, who was holding court under the Lex Cornelia to try cases of murderand assassination. Pedo requests the judge to take the prisoner's name, andproduces a summons with this charge: Senators killed, 35; Roman Knights, 221; others as the sands of the sea-shore for multitude. [Sidenote: Il. Ix, 385] Claudius finds no counsel. At length out steps P. Petronius, an oldchum of his, a finished scholar in the Claudian tongue and claims a remand. Not granted. Pedo Pompeius prosecutes with loud outcry. The counsel for thedefence tries to reply; but Aeacus, who is the soul of justice, will nothave it. Aeacus hears the case against Claudius, refuses to hear the otherside and passes sentence against him, quoting the line: "As he did, so be he done by, this is justice undefiled. " [Footnote: A proverbial line. ] A great silence fell. Not a soul but was stupefied at this new way ofmanaging matters; they had never known anything like it before. It was nonew thing to Claudius, yet he thought it unfair. There was a longdiscussion as to the punishment he ought to endure. Some said that Sisyphushad done his job of porterage long enough; Tantalus would be dying ofthirst, if he were not relieved; the drag must be put at last on wretchedIxion's wheel. But it was determined not to let off any of the old stagers, lest Claudius should dare to hope for any such relief. It was agreed thatsome new punishment must be devised: they must devise some new task, something senseless, to suggest some craving without result. Then Aeacusdecreed he should rattle dice for ever in a box with no bottom. At once thepoor wretch began his fruitless task of hunting for the dice, which forever slipped from his fingers. "For when he rattled with the box, and thought he now had got 'em. 15 The little cubes would vanish thro' the perforated bottom. Then he would pick 'em up again, and once more set a-trying: The dice but served him the same trick: away they went a-flying. So still he tries, and still he fails; still searching long he lingers; And every time the tricksy things go slipping thro' his fingers. Just so when Sisyphus at last once gets there with his boulder, He finds the labour all in vain--it rolls down off his shoulder. " All on a sudden who should turn up but Caligula, and claims the man for aslave: brings witnesses, who said they had seen him being flogged, caned, fisticuffed by him. He is handed over to Caligula, and Caligula makes hima present to Aeacus. Aeacus delivers him to his freedman Menander, to behis law-clerk.