What then would Pythagoras[1144] exclaim; whither would he not flee, could he be witness in our days to such atrocities as these! He that abstained from all that was endued with life as from man himself; and did not even indulge his appetite with every kind of pulse.
[1055] _Volusius_ is unknown. Some suppose him to be the same person as the Bithynicus to whom Plutarch wrote a treatise on Friendship.
[1056] _Ægyptus._ So Cicero, "Ægyptiorum morem quis ignorat? Quorum imbutæ mentes pravitatis erroribus, quamvis carnificinam prius subierint quam ibin aut aspidem aut felem aut canem aut crocodilum violent; quorum etiam imprudentes si quidquam fecerint, pœnam nullam recusent." Tusc. Qu., v., 27. Cf. Athen., vol. ii., p. 650, Dind.
[1057] _Crocodilon._ Vid. Herod., ii., 69.--_Ibin._ Cic., de Nat. Deor., i., 36.
[1058] _Memnone._ His statue stood in the temple of Serapis at Thebes. Plin., xxvi., 7. Strabo, xvii., c. 1, τὰ ἄνω μέρη τὰ ἀπο τῆς καθέδρας πέπτωκε σεισμοῦ γεννηθέντος. He says the ψόφος comes from "the lower part remaining on the base." Cf. 1. 56, "Vultus dimidios." Sat. viii., 4, "Et Curios jam dimidios." iii., 219, "Mediamque Minervam." Cf. Clinton, Fasti Romani, in A.D. 130.
[1059] _Canem._ Cf. Lucan, viii., 832, "Semideosque canes." The allusion is to the worship of Anubis, cf. vi., 533.
"And it is dangerous here to violate an onion, or to stain The sanctity of leeks with teeth profane." Gifford.
"Ye pious nations, in whose gardens rise A constant crop of earth-sprung deities!" Badham.
[1062] _Ulyxes._ Vid. Hom., Odyss., ix., 106, _seq._; x., 80, _seq._
[1063] _Aretalogus._ "Parasitus, et circulator philosophus." A discourser on _virtue_ who frequented feasts; hence, one who tells pleasing tales, a romancer. The philosopher at last degenerated into the buffoon. Cicero uses "Ethologus" in nearly the same sense, cf. de Orat., ii., 59, cum not. Harles. Suet., Aug., 74, "Acroamata et histriones, aut etiam triviales ex Circo ludios, interponebat, ac frequentius aretalogos." Salmas., ad Flav. Vopisc., 42. Lucian, de Ver. Hist., i., 709, B. Shaksp., Othello, Act i., sc. 3.
[1064] _Verâ._ Cf. viii., 188, "Judice me dignus _verâ_ cruce."
[1065] _Fingentem_, i. e., "that they fed on _human_ victims."