forth and say it. If there be three in all your throng dare face me on the bloody sand, let them come on! "Yet I was not always thus, a hired butcher, a savage chief of still more savage men. My father was a reverent man, who feared great Jupiter, and brought to the rural 5 deities his offerings of fruits and flowers. He dwelt among the vine-clad rocks and olive groves at the foot of Helicon. My early life ran quiet as the brook by which I sported. I was taught to prune the vine, to tend the flock; and, at noon, I gathered my sheep beneath the shade, and played upon the 10 shepherd's flute. I had a friend, a neighbor's son; we led our flocks to the same pasture, and shared our rustic meal. "One evening, after the sheep were folded, and we were all seated beneath the myrtle that shaded our cottage, my grandsire, an old man, was telling of Marathon and Leuctra, 15 and how, in ancient times, a little band of Spartans, in a defile of the mountains, withstood a whole army. I did not then know what war meant; but my cheeks burned, I knew not why; and I clasped the knees of that venerable man, till my mother, parting the hair from off my brow, kissed 20 my throbbing temples, and bade me go to rest and think no more of those old tales and savage wars. And, methinks, if I could look on something other than warrior's harness and the blinding glare of burnished steel, and hear some other sound than death groans and armor clangs, could I but lay 25 these throbbing temples upon the soft green turf beside my native brook, and let my hand hang over the bank into its blessed current, and feel the broad sweep of its waters, while the leaves danced over me, methinks that I could heave this cursed crust from off my heart and be again a child. Yes, a child, a child! But what have I to do with thoughts like these? I do forget my story. "That very night the Romans landed on our shore, and 5 the clash of steel was heard within our quiet vale. I saw the breast that had nourished me trampled by the iron hoof of the war-horse; the bleeding body of my father flung amid the blazing rafters of our dwelling. To-day I killed a man in the arena, and when I broke his helmet-clasps, behold, 10 he was my friend! He knew me, - smiled faintly, gasped, — and died; the same sweet smile that I had marked upon his face when, in adventurous boyhood, we scaled some lofty cliff to pluck the first ripe grapes, and bear them home in childish triumph. I told the prætor he was my friend, 15 noble and brave, and I begged his body, that I might burn it upon the funeral pile, and mourn over his ashes. Ay, on my knees, amid the dust and blood of the arena, I begged that boon, while all the Roman maids and matrons, and those holy virgins they call vestal, and the rabble, shouted 20 in mockery, deeming it rare sport, forsooth, to see Rome's fiercest gladiator turn pale, and tremble like a very child before that piece of bleeding clay; but the prætor drew back as if I were pollution, and sternly said: 'Let the carrion rot! There are no noble men but Romans!' And 25 he, deprived of funeral rites, must wander, a hapless ghost, beside the waters of that sluggish river, and look — and look and look in vain to the bright Elysian Fields where dwell his ancestors and noble kindred. And so must you, and so must I, die like dogs! "O Rome! Rome! thou hast been a tender nurse to me! Ay, thou hast given to that poor, gentle, timid shepherd lad, who never knew a harsher sound than a flute note, muscles of iron and a heart of flint; taught him to drive the sword through rugged brass and plaited mail, and 5 warm it in the marrow of his foe! to gaze into the glaring eyeballs of the fierce Numidian lion, even as a smoothcheeked boy upon a laughing girl. And he shall pay thee back till thy yellow Tiber is red as frothing wine, and in its deepest ooze thy lifeblood lies curdled! 10 "Ye stand here now like giants, as ye are! The strength of brass is in your toughened sinews; but to-morrow some Roman Adonis, breathing sweet odors from his curly locks, shall come, and with his lily fingers pat your brawny shoulders, and bet his sesterces upon your blood! Hark! 15 Hear ye yon lion roaring in his den? 'Tis three days since he tasted meat; but to-morrow he shall break his fast upon your flesh; and ye shall be a dainty meal for him. "If ye are brutes, stand here like fat oxen waiting the butcher's knife; if ye are men, follow me! strike down yon 20 sentinel, gain the mountain passes, and there do bloody work as did your sires at old Thermopyla! Is Sparta dead? Is the old Grecian spirit frozen in your veins, that ye do crouch and cower like base-born slaves beneath your master's lash? O comrades! warriors! Thracians! if we must fight, let us 25 fight for ourselves; if we must slaughter, let us slaughter our oppressors; if we must die, let us die under the open sky, by the bright waters, in noble, honorable battle.” ELIJAH KELLOGG. HELPS TO STUDY The old Romans, being a militaristic and conquering people, were, in spite of their greatness, brutal and cruel. Their favorite amusement was seeing men fight each other, or fight wild animals, or even seeing helpless, unarmed people thrown to the captive lions and tigers kept for these purposes. The men whom they kept to fight each other or the wild beasts were called gladiators, a word meaning swordsmen. They were usually captives of war. This well-known speech represents one of them as sickened and resentful at the life they are compelled to lead, and calling upon his fellows to follow him and fight for their liberty. Proper Names: Cap'ua, another name for the old Roman town Campania, where are the remains of one of the largest Roman amphitheaters. Voltur'nus, a river of Campania. Hel'icon, a mountain in Greece. Marathon and Leuctra, famous Greek victories. Spartans, Sparta was a part of Greece. Numidian, from a province of northern Africa. Elysian fields, the happy region in which the dead abode. But the spirits of unburied people had to wander for a hundred years before being admitted to this happiness. Tiber, the river that flows through Rome. Roman Adō'nis: Adonis was a Greek god, celebrated for his beauty; here the term is used in contempt. Thermop'ylæ, the scene of the famous battle in which a few Greeks held back a host of Persian invaders. 1. Under what circumstances does Spartacus make his speech? 2. What is his rank among his fellows? 3. What memories of his childhood does he recall? 4. How does he first hear of war? How Idid it affect him? 5. What has changed him? 6. What has just happened to stir deeply his old feelings? 7. What does he urge his companions to attempt with him? 8. Victorious eagles; the eagle was the emblem of the Roman state. For Study with the Glossary: Loiterer, corselet, zephyr, reverent. venerable, prætor, ooze, sesterces. THANATOPSIS To him who in the love of Nature holds And healing sympathy, that steals away Their sharpness, ere he is aware. When thoughts Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, And breathless darkness, and the narrow house, Yet a few days, and thee The all-beholding sun shall see no more In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground, Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears, Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim 5 10 15 20 |