Identifier: historyofromeofr06duru (find matches)
Title: History of Rome, and of the Roman people, from its origin to the invasion of the barbarians

• English: Memento Mori mosaic from excavations in the convent of San Gregorio, Via Appia, Rome, Italy. Now in the National Museum, Rome, Italy. The Greek motto gnōthi sauton (know thyself, nosce te ipsum) combines with the image to convey the famous warning: Respice post te; hominem te esse memento; memento mori. (Look behind; remember that you are mortal; remember death.)

Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Duruy, Victor, 1811-1894 Ripley, M. M Clarke, W. J Mahaffy, John Pentland, Sir, 1839-1919
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston : C. F. Jewett
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
and his recently acquired learning. He quotes Homer and Vergil; he extemporizes poetry and philosophy. In the midst of the orgies he commands a silver skeleton to be brought in, which inspires him with this fine sentence: Such we shall soon be;therefore let us live while we can live well.2 But he is more 1 Juvenal, Sat. ix. 55. 2 Ergo viuamus dum licet esse bene (Satyr. 34). It was the practice to recall the idea of death in the midst of festivities, not to suggest grave thoughts, but by way of contrast, [VOL. vi. 20 306 THE EMPIRE AND ROMAN SOCIETY.] ridiculous than wicked even, — in some respects, he is better than the men of the preceding age; and I pardon some eccentricities in him when I hear from the depths of his dull soul an echo of sentiments which were beginning to be diffused, and must indeed make their way, since they have been able to pierce this money-bag : My friends, slaves are also men as we are; they have sucked the same milk as we, though an ill fortune has borne them down.
Text Appearing After Image:
SKELETON, WITH THE SOCRATIC MAXIM, KNOW THYSELF. J However, without prejudice to myself, mine shall soon drink thewater of the free; I emancipate them all in my will. Chrysanthus has not reached so high a position, but he too has lived well, as the world understands it. Let us see what this was,according to Petronius and certain of his contemporaries: — He had the lot which he deserved, — he lived well and died well: what, therefore, has he to complain of ? He began the world with nothing, and to his latest day he would have picked a copper coin out of the mire with his teeth. But his fortune grew daily.By Hercules, I believe he died worth a hundred thousand solidi in to heighten the enjoyment. Cf. Martial, Epigr. v. 64. M. Perrot found at Koutahia, in Phrygia, a mortuary inscription which represents men who lived like Trimalchio. T tell my friends: Give yourselves up to pleasure, to voluptuousness, live. You must die, therefore drink, enjoy, and dance (Galatie, p. 117).1 Mosaic in the

Note About Images