Lucian

Some battles you certainly walk away from.

And we have an example of that in Lucian's Alexander the Oracle Monger, where an Epicurean was about to get himself stoned to death for making accusations against the Oracle Alexander, who was claiming to be able to foretell the future.

As Lucian reports there, the Stoics, the Christians, others had no problem with Alexander being a fraud in predicting the future.

But the Epicureans were the ones who stood up to him and attempted to tell the people that it was a fraud.

If you take it as a matter of philosophy that you're never going to fight about anything, then it makes no sense to say that you're walking away to live to fight another day.

Is there evidence of Jesus outside of the Bible? If the New Testament disappeared tomorrow, what will we actually know about him? It is a question I have wanted to look at for quite a long time now because if you spend time reading about the historical Jesus online, you will come across lists of ancient writers who supposedly mention him.

Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny, Suetonius, Thallus, Marabar Serapion, Lucian, Celsus, Sometimes the list gets even longer and depending on who is presenting the evidence you can get two completely different impressions.

One is that we have this collection of independent ancient historians who basically confirm the story of Jesus but then on the other side is outside of the New Testament there is almost nothing.

So I wanted to find out for myself.

But then we reach a writer where there is absolutely no ambiguity that he was talking about Christians and their founder.

And he really doesn't like them.

Lucian of Samosata was a second century satirist.

In around the 160s to 170s, he wrote The Death of Peregrinus.

One, the raccoon loves to lie.

He's like Lucian's lover of lies.

And then the possum always loves to tell the truth, no matter what the circumstances, right? Now, this is right after the boy who cried wolf, and I'll explain a little bit more about that in a minute in my book of fables.

But the possum and the possum and the raccoon are captured by King Scruffy Sasa, the king of the boars in the Smoky Mountains, right? Foreign species.

Yes.

This was, uh, a satire that he wrote, uh, perhaps inspired by Lucian and classical authors, uh, who liked to teach by laughing.

And Praise of Folly, it's a personification.

Folly is a woman who praises herself, praises the, uh, uh, her, the, the followers of Folly.

And Marius, early an expert and elegant penman, transcribed his verses, the euphemism of which, amid a genuine original power, was then so delightful to him, in beautiful ink, receiving in return the profit of Flavian's really great intellectual capacities, developed and accomplished under the ambitious desire to make his way effectively in life.

Among other things, he introduced him to the writings of a sprightly wit, then very busy with the pen, one Lucian, writings seeming to overflow with that intellectual light turned upon dim places, which, at least in seasons of mental fair weather, can make people laugh where they have been wont, perhaps, to pray.

And surely the sunlight which filled those well-remembered early mornings in school had had more than the usual measure of gold in it.

Marius, at least, would lie awake before the time, thinking with delight of the long-coming hours of hard work in the presence of Flavian, as other boys dream of a holiday.

Had he not come to Rome partly under poetic vocation to receive all those things, the very impress of life itself, upon the visual, the imaginative organ, as upon a mirror, to reflect them, to transmute them into golden words? He must observe that strange medley of superstition, that centuries' growth, layer upon layer, of the curiosities of religion, one faith jostling another out of place, at least for its picturesque interest, and as an indifferent outsider might, not too deeply concerned in the question which, if any of them, was to be the survivor.

Superficially at least, the Roman religion, allying itself with much diplomatic economy to possible rivals, was in possession.

as a vast and complex system of usage intertwining itself with every detail of public and private life attractively enough for those who had but the historic temper and a taste for the past however much a Lucian might depreciate it Roman religion as Marius knew had indeed been always something to be done rather than something to be thought or believed or loved something to be done in minutely detailed manner at a particular time and place correctness in which had long been a matter of laborious learning with a whole school of ritualists as also now and again a matter of heroic sacrifice with certain exceptionally devout souls as when Caius Fabius Dorso with his life in his hand succeeded in passing the sentinels of the invading Gauls to perform a sacrifice on the Quirinal and thanks to the divine protection had returned in safety so jealous was the distinction between sacred and profane that in the matter of the regarding of days it had made more than half the year a holiday Aurelius had indeed ordained that there should be no more than a hundred and thirty-five festival days in the year but in other respects he had followed in the steps of his predecessor Antoninus Pius commended especially for his religion his conspicuous devotion to its public ceremonies and whose coins are remarkable for their reference to the oldest and most hieratic types of Roman mythology Aurelius had succeeded in more than healing the old feud between philosophy and religion displaying himself in singular combination as at once the most zealous of philosophers and the most devout of polytheists and lending himself with an air of conviction to all the pageantries of public worship to his pious recognition of that one orderly spirit which according to the doctrine of the Stoics diffuses itself through the world and animates it a recognition taking the form with him of a constant effort towards inward likeness thereto in the harmonious order of his own soul he had added a warm personal devotion towards the whole multitude of the old national gods and a great many new foreign ones besides by him at least not ignobly conceived if the comparison may be reverently made there was something here of the method by which the Catholic Church has added the cultus of the saints to its worship of the one divine being and to the view of the majority though the emperor as the personal centre of religion entertained the hope of converting his people to philosophic faith and had even pronounced certain public discourses for their instruction in it that polytheistic devotion was his most striking feature philosophers indeed had for the most part thought with Seneca that a man need not lift his hands to heaven nor ask the sacristan's leave to put his mouth to the ear of an image that his prayers might be heard the better Marcus Aurelius a master in Israel knew all that well enough yet his outward devotion was much more than a concession to popular sentiment or a mere result of that sense of fellow citizenship with others which had made him again and again under most difficult circumstances an excellent comrade those others too amid all their ignorances what were they but instruments in the administration of the divine reason from end to end sweetly and strongly disposing all things meantime philosophy itself had assumed much of what we conceive to be the religious character it had even cultivated the habit the power of spiritual direction the troubled soul making recourse in its hour of destitution or amid the distraction of the world to this or that director philosopho suo who could really best understand it and it had been in vain that the old grave and discreet religion of Rome had set itself according to its proper genius to prevent or subdue all trouble and disturbance in men's souls in religion as in other matters plebeians as such had a taste for movement for revolution and it had been ever in the most populous quarters that religious changes began to the apparatus of foreign religion above all recourse had been made in times of public disquietude or sudden terror and in those great religious celebrations before his proceeding against the barbarians Aurelius had even restored the solemnities of Isis prohibited in the capital since the time of Augustus making no secret of his worship of that goddess though her temple had been actually destroyed by authority in the reign of Tiberius her singular and in many ways beautiful ritual was now popular in Rome and then what the enthusiasm of the swarming plebeian quarters had initiated was sure to be adopted sooner or later by women of fashion a blending of all the religions of the ancient world had been accomplished the new gods had arrived had been welcomed and found their places though certainly with no real security in any adequate ideal of the divine nature itself in the background of men's minds that the presence of the newcomer should be edifying or even refining high and low addressed themselves to all deities alike without scruple confusing them together when they prayed and in the old authorized threefold veneration of their visible images by flowers incense and ceremonial lights those beautiful usages which the church in her way through the world ever making spoil of the world's goods for the better uses of the human spirit took up and sanctified in her service and certainly the most religious city in the world took no care to veil its devotion however fantastic the humblest house had its little chapel or shrine its image and lamp while almost every one seemed to exercise some religious function and responsibility colleges composed for the most part of slaves and of the poor provided for the service of the compitalian lares the gods who presided respectively over the several quarters of the city in one street marius witnessed an incident of the festival of the patron deity of that neighborhood the way being strewn with box the houses tricked out gaily in such poor finery as they possessed while the ancient idol was borne through it in procession arrayed in gaudy attire the worst for wear numerous religious clubs had their stated anniversaries on which the members issued with much ceremony from their guild hall or scholar and traversed the thoroughfares of rome proceeded like the confraternities of the present day by their sacred banners to offer sacrifice before some famous image black with the perpetual smoke of lamps and incense oftenest old and ugly perhaps on that account the more likely to listen to the desires of the suffering had not those sacred effigies sometimes given sensible tokens that they were aware the image of the fortune of women fortuna muliebris in the latin way had spoken not once only and declared bene me matronae vidistis riteque dedicastis the apollo of culmae had wept during three whole nights and days the images in the temple of juno sospita had been seen to sweat nay there was blood divine blood in the hearts of some of them the images in the grove of feronia had sweated blood from one and all cornelius had turned away like the atheist of whom apuleius tells us he had never once raised hand to lip in passing image or sanctuary and had parted from marius finally when the latter determined to enter the crowded doorway of a temple on their return into the forum below the palatine hill where the mothers were pressing in with a multitude of every sort of children to touch the lightning-struck image of the wolf-nurse of romulus so tender to little ones just discernible in its dark shrine amid a blaze of lights marius gazed after his companion of the day as he mounted the steps to his lodging singing to himself as it seemed marius failed precisely to catch the words and as the rich fresh evening came on there was heard all over rome far above a whisper the whole town seeming hushed to catch it distinctly the lively reckless call to play from the sons and daughters of foolishness to those in whom their life was still green donec virenti canities abest donec virenti canities abest marius could hardly doubt how cornelius would have taken the call and as for himself slight as was the burden of positive moral obligation with which he had entered rome it was to no wasteful and vagrant affections such as these that his epicureanism had committed him end of chapter eleven volume one chapter twelve of marius the epicurean this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for further information or to volunteer please visit librivox dot org marius the epicurean by walter patter volume one chapter twelve the divinity that doth hedge a king but ah my cenus is yclad in clay and great augustus long ago is dead and all the worthies ligan wrapped in lead that matter made for poets on to play marcus aurelius who though he had little relish for them himself had ever been willing to humour the taste of his people for magnificent spectacles was received back to rome with the lesser honours of the ovation conceded by the senate so great was the public sense of deliverance with even more than the laxity which had become its habit under imperial rule for there had been no actual bloodshed in the late achievement clad in the civic dress of the chief roman magistrate and with a crown of myrtle upon his head his colleague similarly attired walking beside him he passed up to the capitol on foot though in solemn procession along the sacred way to offer sacrifice to the national gods The victim, a goodly sheep, whose image we may still see between the pig and the ox of the Suo Wetaurilia, filleted and stalled almost like some ancient canon of the church on a sculptured fragment in the forum, was conducted by the priests, clad in rich white vestments, and bearing their sacred utensils of massive gold, immediately behind a company of flute-players, led by the great choir-master, or conductor, of the day, visibly tetchy or delighted according as the instruments he ruled with his tuning-rod rose more or less adequately amid the difficulties of the way to the dream of perfect music in the soul within him.

The vast crowd, including the soldiers of the triumphant army, now restored to wives and children all alike in holiday whiteness, had left their houses early in the fine dry morning in a real affection for the father of his country to await the procession, the two princes having spent the preceding night outside the walls at the old villa of the republic.

Oh, I love this question.

So I don't know if you guys have read Lucian.

He was a maybe Syriac, but anyway, he wrote in Greek under the Roman Empire.

He's a very funny writer, in a way, the father of science fiction.

He did this story, which is called The True Story, of which nothing is true whatsoever.

Let's see, um, r- referring back to Ogden and Felton, um, I have some notes here as, uh, to refer to on other no- o- other comments they had.

Um, this is very similar in form to the next tale we're gonna discuss, the tale from Lucian, um, though this one, to be sure, occurs much earlier, so 200 BCE versus the, the 170s CE.

Yeah.

So the chronological order of the main three examples we're gonna be talking about in this series is that this one comes first.

You've got Plautus, and then several hundred years later, you've got Pliny's letter, and then after that still, you've got the next example we're gonna get to, which is in the works of Lucian of Samosata.

Yeah, yeah.

So we talked about Pliny first because it's the big one, and it's, in a way, the most insightful example.

Right.

End of Dialogue 2

Dialogue 3 of the Dialogues of the Sea Gods by Lucian.

Translated by Howard Williams.

This is a LibriVox recording.

End of

dialogue three.

Dialogue four of the Dialogues of the Sea Gods by Lucian, translated by Howard Williams.

This is a LibriVox recording.