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[141]
“The ship from Africa with your money and
slaves that you promised does not arrive. The fortunehunters are tired out, and
their generosity is shrinking. So that unless I am mistaken, our usual luck is
on its way back to punish you.”. . .
“All those who come into money under my will, except my own children, will get
what I have left them on one condition, that they cut my body in pieces and eat
it up in sight of the crowd.” . . .
“We know that in some countries a law is still observed, that dead people shall
be eaten by their relations, and the result is that sick people are often blamed
for spoiling their own flesh. So I warn my friends not to disobey my orders, but
to eat my body as heartily as they damned my soul.” . . .
His great reputation for wealth dulled the eyes and brains of the fools. Gorgias was
ready to manage the funeral. . . .
“I am not at all afraid of your stomach turning. You will get it under control
if you promise to repay it for one unpleasant hour with heaps of good things.
Just shut your eyes and dream you are eating up a solid million instead of human
flesh. Besides, we shall find some kind of sauce which will take the taste away.
No flesh at all is pleasant in itself, it has to be artificially disguised and
reconciled to the unwilling digestion. But if you wish the plan to be supported
by precedents, the people of Saguntum,1 when Hannibal besieged them, ate human flesh
without any legacy in[p. 323] prospect. The people of Petelia2 did likewise in the extremities of famine, and gained
nothing by the diet, except of course that they were no longer hungry. And when
Numantia was stormed by Scipio,3 some
women were found with the half-eaten bodies of their children hidden in their
bosoms.” . . .
[p. 325]
Petronius Arbiter. Petronius. Michael Heseltine. London. William Heinemann. 1913.
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