Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
The all new, revised and easier quiz! (mod note posts 1 and 2042)
Comments
-
-
-
Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 78,171 Mod ✭✭✭✭
Join Date:Posts: 77450
he the same as Gaius ? if so he held his arm in a fire to show his enemies his bravery or something like that
Rube got it.
I thought Srameen might have had to ask a friend (i.e. his wife 
).
I never heard the story in connection with any Gaius, to be honest, Rube, but that doesn't mean much.
Apparently, Scævola, while standing in front of the Etrurian king, to show his loyalty to Rome and his bravery (or foolhardiness, more like it!), stuck his right hand into the flames and, without flinching, left it there until it burned (fit to be tied, to be fair, unless he had that condition that doesn't let you feel any pain). The king then told him to go away (and then sent an envoy to the Romans to try and arrange a peace treaty of some sort) saying to Scævola, "I can't do to you anything worse than what you have done to yourself, or that you're willing to do". (I wasn't there, but I gather that's the gist of it - I can just picture the king rolling his eyes and shaking his head in disbelief :rolleyes:). One of the characters in Asterix had a catchphrase that went something like "They're crazy, these Romans!" - well, he wasn't wrong, if you ask me, he wasn't wrong!
A stone carving of a hand held into a fire is set into one of the perimeter walls of the American embassy in Rome over a door (I read this yesterday, and I've half forgotten it already :rolleyes:): it indicates the spot where, allegedly, these events took place.
There's a very common expression in French/Spanish/Italian that means, more or less, "I wouldn't bet my life on it!" or "I can't guarantee it", and it derives from that event, and it translates literally as "I wouldn't put my hand into the fire".0 -
-
EDIT: Wakey wakey, NH!! His name was Caius Mucius Scaevola (the Scaevola part was added after the event, meaning "The Left Handed", and that stuck to his descendants, too). Caius and Gaius are obviously a variant of the same name, silly, silly, silly me!!!
Can't say I'd heard that one. Mrs S wouldn't be an ancient Roman fan.
0 -
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
This discussion has been closed.
Advertisement