Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 18

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[18] Why was it the custom for many of the wealthy to give a tithe of their property to Hercules?¹

Is it because he also sacrificed a tithe of Geryon’s cattle in Rome? Or because he freed the Romans from paying a tithe to the Etruscans?

Or have these tales no historical foundation worthy of credence, but the Romans were wont to sacrifice lavishly and abundantly to Hercules as to an insatiable eater and a good trencher-man?

Or was it rather in curtailing their excessive wealth, since it was odious to their fellow-citizens, and in doing away with some of it, as from a lusty bodily vigour that had reached its culmination,² did they think that thus Hercules would be especially honoured and pleased by such a way of using up and reducing overabundance, since in his own life he was frugal, self-sufficient, and free from extravagance?

Quaestiones Romanae. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1936.

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Current edition Perseus

The Roman Questions (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).)

Editions (2)

Αἴτια Ῥωμαϊκά Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).) — 18 focus

[18] διὰ τί τῷ Ἡρακλεῖ πολλοὶ τῶν πλουσίων ἐδεκάτευον τὰς οὐσίας;

πότερον ὅτι κἀκεῖνος ἐν Ῥώμῃ τῶν Γηρυόνου 267f βοῶν ἀπέθυσε τὴν δεκάτην, ἢ ὅτι Ῥωμαίους ὑπὸ Τυρρηνῶν δεκατευομένους ἀπήλλαξεν;

ἢ ταῦτα μὲν οὐκ ἔχει ¹ τὴν ἱστορίαν ἀξιόπιστον, ὡς δʼ ἀδηφάγῳ τινὶ τῷ Ἡρακλεῖ καὶ εὐθοίνῳ δαψιλῶς καὶ ἀφθόνως ἀπέθυον;

ἢ μᾶλλον ὡς ἐπαχθῆ τοῖς πολίταις τὸν ὑπερβάλλοντα πλοῦτον κολούοντες καὶ καθάπερ εὐεξίας ἐπʼ ἄκρον εὐσωματούσης ἀφαιροῦντες, ᾤοντο μάλιστα τιμᾶσθαι τὸν Ἡρακλέα καὶ χαίρειν ταῖς τοιαύταις ἀποχρήσεσι καὶ συστολαῖς τῶν περιττῶν, εὐτελῆ καὶ αὐτάρκη καὶ ἀπέριττον τῷ βίῳ γενόμενον;

Κεφαλαίων καταγραφή Ῥωμαϊκά Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol IΙ. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1889.) — 18 focus

[18] διὰ τί τῷ Ἡρακλεῖ πολλοὶ τῶν πλουσίων 10 ἐδεκάτευον τὰς οὐσίας; πότερον ὅτι κἀκεῖνος ἐν Ῥώμῃ τῶν Γηρυόνου βοῶν ἀπέθυσε τὴν δεκάτην, 267f ἢ ὅτι Ῥωμαίους ὑπὸ Τυρρηνῶν δεκατευομένους ἀπήλλαξεν; ἢ ταῦτα μὲν οὐκ εἶχε ¹ τὴν ἱστορίαν ἀξιόπιστον ὡς δʼ ἀδηφάγῳ τινὶ τῷ Ἡρακλεῖ καὶ εὐθοίνῳ δαψιλῶς 15 καὶ ἀφθόνως ἀπέθυον; ἢ μᾶλλον ὡς ἐπαχθῆ τοῖς πολίταις τὸν ὑπερβάλλοντα πλοῦτον κολούοντες καὶ καθάπερ εὐεξίας ἐπʼ ἄκρον εὐσωματούσης ἀφαιροῦντες, ᾤοντο μάλιστα τιμᾶσθαι τὸν Ἡρακλέα καὶ χαίρειν ταῖς τοιαύταις ἀποχρήσεσι ² καὶ συστολαῖς τῶν περιττῶν, 20 εὐτελῆ καὶ αὐτάρκη καὶ ἀπέριττον τῷ βίῳ γενόμενον;

Translations (1)

Roman Questions Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. II. Goodwin, William W., editor; Chauncy, Isaac translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 18 focus

[18]

Question 18.

Why do many of the richer sort pay tithe of their estates to Hercules?

Solution. Is this the reason, that Hercules sacrificed the tenth part of Geryon’s oxen at Rome? Or that he freed the Romans from the decimation under the Etrurians? Or that these things have no sufficient ground of credit from history, but that they sacrificed bountifully to Hercules, as to a certain monstrous glutton and gormandizer of good cheer? Or did they rather do it, restraining extravagant riches as a nuisance to the commonwealth, as it were to diminish something of that thriving constitution that grows up to the highest pitch of corpulency; being of opinion that Hercules was most of all honored with and rejoiced in these frugalities and contractions of abundance, and that he himself was frugal, content with a little, and every way sparing in his way of living?

Notes on the current edition

The Roman Questions

1. Cf. Life of Sulla, chap. xxxv. (474 a); Life of Crassus, ii. (543 d), xii. (550 d).

2. Probably an allusion to the Hippocratic maxim quoted in Moralia, 682 e, 1090 b, and often by Galen.

Plutarch Quaestiones Romanae 18

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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Question 18.

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