Memorials of Human Superstition: being a paraphrase and commentary on the Historia Flagellantium of the Abbé Boileau, Doctor of the SorbonneLolme, Jean Louis de
History
Memorials of Human Superstition: being a paraphrase and commentary on the Historia Flagellantium of the Abbé Boileau, Doctor of the Sorbonne
Lolme, Jean Louis de
Boileau, Jacques, 1635-1716. Historia flagellantium; Flagellants
A number of other instances of this practice of whipping Slaves, as
well as other different names of instruments used for that purpose,
may be found in the antient Latin Writers, such as Plautus, Terence,
Horace, Martial, &c. So prevalent had the above practice become,
that Slaves were frequently denominated from that particular kind of
flagellation which they were most commonly made to undergo. Some were
called _Restiones_, because they were used to be lashed with cords;
others were called _Bucædæ_, because they were usually lashed with
thongs of ox-leather; and it is in consequence of this custom, that a
Man is made to say in one of Plautus’s Plays, ‘They shall be _Bucædæ_
(that is to say, scourged with leather-thongs) whether they will
or no, before I consent to be _Restio_,’ or so much as beaten with
cords[20]. And Tertullian, meaning in one of his Writings to express
Slaves in general, uses words which simply signify ‘those who are
used to be beaten, or to be discoloured with blows[21].’
Nay, so generally were whipping and lashing considered among the
Romans, as being the lot of Slaves, that a whip, or a scourge, was
become among them the emblem of their condition. Of this we have an
instance in the singular custom mentioned by _Camerarius_, which
prevailed among them, of placing in the triumphal car, behind the
Triumpher, a man with a whip in his hand; the meaning of which was
to shew, that it was no impossible thing for a Man to fall from the
highest pitch of glory into the most abject condition, even into that
of a Slave.
Suetonius also relates a fact which affords another remarkable
instance of this notion of the Romans, of looking upon a whip as
a characteristic mark of dominion on the one hand, and of slavery
on the other. ‘Cicero (says Suetonius, in the life of Augustus)
having accompanied Cæsar to the Capitol, related to a few friends
whom he met there, a dream which he had had the night before. It
seemed to him, he said, that a graceful Boy came down from Heaven,
suspended by a golden chain; that he stopped before the gate of the
Capitol, and that Jupiter gave him a whip (_flagellum_). Having
afterwards suddenly seen Augustus, whom (as he was still personally
unknown to several of his near relations) Cæsar had sent for and
brought along with him to be present at the ceremony, he assured his
friends that he was the very person whose figure he had seen during
his sleep.’ Juvenal likewise, in one of his Satyrs, has spoken of
Augustus conformably to the above notion of the Romans. ‘The same
(says he) who, after conquering the Romans, has subjected them to his
whip[22].’
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