David Hume - The Dark Ages

Greens. Long may you live, Justinian Augustus! Tu vincas. I am oppressed, O best of sovrans, and my grievances, God knows, have become intolerable. I fear to name the oppressor, lest he prosper the more and I endanger my own safety. Mandator. Who is he? I know him not. Greens. My oppressor, O thrice august! is to be found in the quarter of the shoemakers. 195 Mandator. No one does you wrong. Greens. One man and one only does me wrong. Mother of God, may he be humbled (μὴ ἀνακεφαλίσῃ)! Mandator. Who is he? We know him not. Greens. Nay, you know well, O thrice august! I am oppressed this day. Mandator. We know not that anyone oppresses you. Greens. It is Calopodius, the spathar, who wrongs me, O lord of all! Mandator. Calopodius has no concern with you. 196 Greens. My oppressor will perish like Judas; God will requite him quickly. Mandator. You come, not to see the games, but to insult your rulers. Greens. If anyone wrongs me, he will perish like Judas. Mandator. Silence, Jews, Manichaeans, and Samaritans! Greens. Do you disparage us with the name of Jews and Samaritans? The Mother of God is with all of us. Mandator. When will ye cease cursing yourselves? Greens. If anyone denies that our lord the Emperor is orthodox, let him be anathema, as Judas. Mandator. I would have you all baptized in the name of one God.

Greens. I am baptized in One God. 197 Mandator. Verily, if you refuse to be silent, I shall have you beheaded. Greens. Every person seeks a post of authority, to secure his personal safety. Your Majesty must not be indignant at what I say in my tribulation, for the Deity listens to all complaints. We have good reason, O Emperor! to mention all things now. 198For we do not even know where the palace is, nor what is the government. If I come into the city once, it is sitting on a mule; 199and I wish I had not to come then, your Majesty. 200 Mandator. Every one is free to move in public, where he wishes, without danger. Greens. I am told I am free, yet I am not allowed to use my freedom. If a man is free but is suspected as a Green, he is sure to be publicly punished. Mandator. Have ye no care for your lives that ye thus brave death? Greens. Let this (green) colour be once uplifted 201— then justice disappears. Put an end to the scenes of murder, and let us be lawfully punished. Behold, an abundant fountain; punish as many as you like. Verily, human nature cannot tolerate these two (contradictory) things. Would that Sabbatis had never been born, to have a son who is a murderer. It is the twenty-sixth murder that has been committed in the Zeugma; 202the victim was a spectator in the morning, in the afternoon, O lord of all! he was butchered. Blues. Yourselves are the only party in the hippodrome that has murderers among their number. Greens. When ye commit murder ye leave the city in flight. Blues. Ye shed blood, and debate. Ye are the only party here with murderers among them. Greens. O lord Justinian! they challenge us and yet no one slays them. Truth will compel assent. 203Who slew the woodseller in the Zeugma, O Emperor? Mandator. Ye slew him. Greens. Who slew the son of Epagathus, Emperor? Mandator. Ye slew him too, and ye slander the Blues. Greens. Now have pity, O Lord God! The truth is suppressed. I should like to argue with them who say that affairs are managed by God. Whence comes this misery? Mandator. God cannot be tempted with evil.

Greens. God, you say, cannot be tempted with evil? Who is it then who wrongs me? Let some philosopher or hermit explain the distinction. Mandator. Accursed blasphemers, when will ye hold your peace? Greens. If it is the pleasure of your Majesty, I hold my peace, albeit unwillingly. I know all — all, but I say nothing. Good-bye, Justice! you are no longer in fashion. I shall turn and become a Jew. Better to be a “Greek” (pagan) than a Blue, God knows. Blues. You are detestable, I cannot abide the sight of you. Your enmity dismays me. Greens. Let the bones of the spectators be exhumed. 204The language of this astonishing dialogue obeys metrical laws, which concern not quantity but the number of the syllables and the accentuation of the last word in each clause. The most frequently occurring form is five syllables with the penultimate accented + four with the antepenultimate (or ultimate?) accented, e.g. : οὐδὲ τὸ παλάτιν τρισαύγουστε.

It is evident that to converse in metrical chant both the Imperial mandator and the spokesmen of the demes must have had a special training in the art of improvising. 205

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