Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1897-02-17
ERRORS MADE BY HISTORIANS.
Diagnoses Tub a Myth-The Hannibal Fable
lies About Cleopatra.

Diagnoses Tub a Myth-The Hannibal Fable
Lies About Cleopatra.
The same year that Alexander died
at Babylon Diogenes died at Cornith,
1923 b. B.; but not, we may be sure, in
q tub, because he never made such a
fool Of himself as to live in one. The
story that he did 80 had no better orr.
gin than a comment by his b%iographer,
Seneca, who was not born till more
than 300 years after the cynic's death.
"A man so grabbed ought to have
lived in a tub like a dog"
In 2l6, B. c., Hannibal, with about
90. 600 meu, nearly annihilated the Ro.
man army of about 90, 900 at Cannae,
in Apulia, Italy; but it is all a fable to
say that he sent three bushels OF gold
rings plucked from the hands of Roman
knights back to Carthage as evidence
of his victory. The messenger who
carried the news back to the Cartha.
ginian Senate, on concluding his re-
port, ''opened his robe and threw out
a number Of gold rings gathered ON the
field of battle.'
Four years later, the Romano, under
Marcellus. attacked and captured Sy-
racuse. belonging to Greece, because Of
its alliance with Hannibal against
Rome. AS the invading ships APP
preached Archimedes .is said to have
set some of them on fire with immense
burning glasses. However, modern
science has we'll watered the story, so
that it only remains to add that even
Mt this day the feat would be impossi.
BILE.
Thirty years, B. c., Cleopatra killed
herself to avoid being exhibited at
Rome in the triumph of Octavinus,
who had made war upon her and An
tony because the latter had divorced
his (Octavinus' sister on the Queens
account. But did she die from a snakes
bite? 1t is better to think not. IF her
death had been caused by any serpent,
the small viper would rather have been
chosen than the large asp: but the story
is disproved by her having decked her.
self in the royal ornaments and be-
ing found dead without any marks of
suspicion of poison on her body"
Death from a serpent's bite could
not have been mistaken, and her vanity
would not have allowed her to choose
one which would have disigured her
in so frightful a manner
Other poisons were we'll understood
and easy of access, and no boy would
have ventured to carry an asp in a bas-
ket Of figs, some Of which he even Of
fered to the guards as he passed. and
even Plutarch shows that the story of
the asp was doubted. Nor is the statue
carried in Augustus triumph, which
had an asp upon it, any proof of his
belief in it, since the snake was the
emblem of Egyptian royalty; the
statue Tor the crown of Cleopatra
could not have teen without one, and
this vas probably the origin Of the
whole story.
Here one may naturally ask: Who
has not heard Of C%leopatra's wondrous
pearls, one of which, at q banquet
given in Antony's honor, she dissolved
in vinegar? Either this story is also
fictitious, or vinegar was evidently diff
ferent in those days from the present
day kind, which will not melt pearls.
1t was nearly one hundred years
later that the Emperor Nero also killed
himself, 6S A. d. Stabbipg was the
choice this time though, and of this we
make no question. What we wish to
say about him is that he was not such
a monster as usually imagined. His
mother, Agrippina, was not put to
death by his order, nor did he play
upon bis harp and sing, 1.-THE Burning
of Troy" while Rome was on fire.
Our knowledge Of him is gained
mostly from Tacitus, who hated him,
and from Petronius Arbiter, who was
put to death for conspiracy against
him. Even in Rome itself the COM
mon people strewed flowers on the
grave Of Nero. "-Harper's Weekly.