Isto Só Me Lembra Aquela Cena No Dogville

Where slaves are concerned he [Augusto] was at least conscious of basic humanitarian principles. When he was at a dinner party given by Vedius Pollio, a slave accidentally broke a cup which the master of the house valued highly. Pollio ordered the slave to be thrown to the lampreys in the garden pool, which would have been a particularly horrible death, similar to but slower than, being eaten by piranhas. The slave appealed to Augustus, who asked to see the rest of the set of valuable cups. Deliberately he smashed every one of them. In one destructive act he manages to express both his disgust at Vedius Pollio's cruelty, and his disapproval of the unwarranted display of wealth and luxury, which ran counter to his sumptuary laws. Almost incidentally he saved the live of the slave, but of course no one has recorded what perhaps happened to the unfortunate slave on the morning after the dinner party; there may still have been one or two over-fed lampreys in Vedius' pool. What has gone down in history, and has lost nothing in retelling, is that Augustus thought it inhuman to value a cup more highly than a slave.

Augustus, de Pat Southern.

Routledge, London & NY: 1998.

Augustus' Wit

Perhaps because he was self-sufficient he [Augusto] could take a joke at his own expense, as several anecdotes suggest. He possessed a sense of humor that was cynical on his own account as it was on anyone else's. In his youth he had written, among other things, a tragedy about Ajax. Looking back on it later he cringed and obliterated it; in the Roman world writings were wiped away with a sponge, much as pencil marks can be removed with an eraser nowadays, so when a friend asked him what had become of his tragedy he said that Ajax had committed suicide falling on his sponge [Ájax, no mito, suicida-se atirando-se sobre a sua espada: ver imagem].

Augustus, de Pat Southern.

Routledge, London & NY: 1998.

imagem: métopa do santuário de Hera em Foce Sele (570-560 a.C.)

@ Museu Arqueológico Nacional de Paestum