[HN Gopher] No laughing matter? what the Romans found funny
___________________________________________________________________
No laughing matter? what the Romans found funny
Author : diodorus
Score : 209 points
Date : 2021-09-08 05:02 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (antigonejournal.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (antigonejournal.com)
| lqet wrote:
| I googled around a bit to find some actual Roman jokes [0][1][2]:
|
| One man complains to another: "The slave you sold me died!" "By
| the gods!", the other replies. "During the time he was in my
| service, he never did such a thing!"
|
| A man is attending the burial of his wife, who has just died.
| When a passerby asks, "Who is it who rests in peace here?", he
| answers, "Me, now that I'm rid of her!
|
| A provincial man has come to Rome, and walking on the streets was
| drawing everyone's attention, as he was a real double of the
| emperor Augustus. The emperor, having brought him to the palace,
| looks at him and then asks: "Tell me, young man, did your mother
| come to Rome anytime?" The reply was: "She never did. But my
| father frequently was here."
|
| An intellectual came to check in on a friend who was seriously
| ill. When the man's wife said that he had 'departed', the
| intellectual replied: "When he comes back, will you tell him that
| I stopped by?"
|
| A misogynist stood in the marketplace and announced: "I'm putting
| my wife up for sale! Tax-free!" When people asked him why, he
| said: "So the authorities will impound her."
|
| A runner going to participate in a contest had a dream that he
| was driving a quadriga. Early in the morning he goes to a dream
| interpreter for an explanation. The reply is: "You will win, the
| dream meant you have the speed and the strength of horses." But,
| to be sure, the runner visits another dream interpreter. This one
| replies: "You will lose. Don't you understand that four ones came
| to me before you?"
|
| An intellectual got a slave pregnant. At the birth, his father
| suggested that the child be killed. The intellectual replied:
| "First murder your own children and then tell me to kill mine!"
|
| A intellectual checked in on the parents of a dead classmate. The
| father was wailing: "O son, you have left me a cripple!" The
| mother was crying: "O son, you have taken the light from my
| eyes!" Later, the student says to his friends: "If he were guilty
| of all that, he should have been killed while still alive."
|
| An incompetent astrologer cast a man's horoscope and said: "You
| are unable to father children." When the man objected that he had
| seven kids, the astrologer replied: "Look after them well."
|
| A young man said to his libido-driven wife: "What should we do,
| darling? Eat or have sex?" She replied: "You can choose. But
| there's not a crumb in the house."
|
| An astrologer cast a sick boy's horoscope. After promising the
| mother that the child had many years ahead of him, he demanded
| payment. When she said, "Come tomorrow and I'll pay you," he
| objected: "But what if the boy dies during the night and I lose
| my fee?"
|
| [0] https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/article/roman-sense-of-humor/
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_jokes
|
| [2] https://aleteia.org/2017/05/23/want-to-hear-an-ancient-
| roman...
| jan_Inkepa wrote:
| Slight nit-pick: Those at [0] that you cite here are Greek
| rather than Roman. But still funny.
| V-2 wrote:
| I don't understand this one:
|
| _" An incompetent astrologer cast a man's horoscope and said:
| "You are unable to father children." When the man objected that
| he had seven kids, the astrologer replied: "Look after them
| well.""_
| SpeakMouthWords wrote:
| I had a completely different interpretation to everyone else.
| I read it as the astrologer doubling down on his assertion
| despite the evidence staring him in the face. The guy can't
| have kids, so he should look after the ones he has! (Even
| though they prove that he CAN have kids)
| OGWhales wrote:
| Apparently I interpreted it differently from everyone else. I
| thought it meant that he couldn't father them in the sense
| that he was a shitty dad, not that he couldn't have kids.
| george_ciobanu wrote:
| Haha I also had a different interpretation, that his kids
| are very likely to die in order to support the astrologer's
| prediction. Too dark?
| nautilius wrote:
| I'm pretty sure that a people that watched people hack
| each other to pieces for entertainment would not be
| impressed by what we consider 'dark'.
| gostsamo wrote:
| Not very funny one. The astrologer says only that he won't be
| able to produce any more children in the future. There is the
| implication that the kids might die and he will be childless
| as the initial prediction implies.
| wincy wrote:
| I took it to mean that the astrologer is bad at his job and
| shifts the goalposts so he's "right", like "you won't have
| any more kids AFTER THIS!" As psychics and astrologers have
| been known to do for thousands of years apparently.
| lqet wrote:
| I think it can be understood in two ways: the other one is
| that the astrologer hints that the children may not be his.
| gostsamo wrote:
| Yes, I agree. In those situations the usual punchline is
| "I hope that you will take care of them as if they are
| yours." and that's why I didn't think of that
| interpretation.
| cgio wrote:
| I assume it's word play and look after them also stands for
| look at them, as in to confirm resemblance.
| querez wrote:
| The Astrologer is pointing out that since the guy can't have
| any (more) children, he should take good care of the ones he
| has.
|
| It's also possible that this is a bad translation from Latin,
| and the original punchline was along the lines of "take a
| good look at them" (i.e., implying that he's not the
| biological father).
| jraph wrote:
| Or maybe the incompetent astrologer is also mean and going
| to try to make their statement right by killing the
| children, so the father should better look after them.
| hn_go_brrrrr wrote:
| This joke is actually in ancient Greek (it's in a book
| called <<Philogelos>>), but the translation looks right to
| me. I think your interpretation is spot on.
| LudwigNagasena wrote:
| > the original punchline was along the lines of "take a
| good look at them" (i.e., implying that he's not the
| biological father).
|
| That's the punchline I expected when I was reading the
| joke. It makes much more sense and it is more stinging.
| Brakenshire wrote:
| It's a joke at the expense of the astrologer. Rome had
| Augurs with official responsibilities for predicting the
| future, so maybe these kind of jokes were more subversive
| at that time.
|
| Although I could imagine a modern joke about an
| astrologer making grand predictions that are whittled
| down as the person corrects them.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > Although I could imagine a modern joke about an
| astrologer making grand predictions that are whittled
| down as the person corrects them.
|
| https://www.newsfromme.com/pov/col054/
| gverrilla wrote:
| first possibility wouldn't be a joke imo
| LanceH wrote:
| The other astrologer one:
|
| > An astrologer cast a sick boy's horoscope. After
| promising the mother that the child had many years ahead
| of him, he demanded payment. When she said, "Come
| tomorrow and I'll pay you," he objected: "But what if the
| boy dies during the night and I lose my fee?"
|
| So if they look down on astrologers as being
| opportunistic charlatans (at least the bad ones), they
| are mocking that they will say one thing and when
| confronted about how wrong they are slide right into
| their next statement.
| [deleted]
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > It's also possible that this is a bad translation from
| Latin, and the original punchline was along the lines of
| "take a good look at them"
|
| This is pretty unlikely as a mistranslation from Latin,
| where those would be radically different verbs.
| [deleted]
| bthrn wrote:
| The astrologer says "you are unable to father children". It
| is ambiguous whether the astrologer is implying that the man
| cannot conceive children or whether he has no ability to be a
| father. When the man reveals that he has seven kids, the
| astrologer's reply of "look after them well" could be
| interpreted as sarcasm. I think initially you're supposed to
| think that the man cannot have kids, but the joke is that
| he's implying he's a terrible father.
|
| My $0.02.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| bserge wrote:
| I understood that as in they're not his heh
| jetrink wrote:
| This one made me laugh out loud and I don't think any of the
| other replies understood it correctly. The astrologer has
| gone way out on a limb by telling the man that he is
| infertile without first ascertaining whether he has children.
| Then, when cornered, he desperately tries to cover his error
| by implying that the man is _now_ infertile. "Look after
| them (because you won't be able to replace them.)"
| bluGill wrote:
| I understood this as a play on fatherhood - he is unable to
| father children as in he is a bad father. Thus the look after
| them well as in do better.
|
| The other two explanations others have given [so far] are
| very interesting: make sure you read them.
| GravitasFailure wrote:
| > A man is attending the burial of his wife, who has just died.
| When a passerby asks, "Who is it who rests in peace here?", he
| answers, "Me, now that I'm rid of her!
|
| I had no idea Rodney Dangerfield was a Stand Up Philosopher[0].
|
| [0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF2RYhNhBdw
| lqet wrote:
| I honestly think Dangerfield would've had great success in
| ancient Rome.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MecU2keW54I
| caf wrote:
| _A young man said to his libido-driven wife: "What should we
| do, darling? Eat or have sex?" She replied: "You can choose.
| But there's not a crumb in the house."_
|
| OK, that's quite good. I can easily imagine one along those
| lines in a standup set today (probably more along the lines of
| _" So, the other night my boyfriend asked..."_).
| woko wrote:
| It reminds me of this movie quote:
|
| > _I 'm here to kick ass and chew bubblegum and I'm all out
| of bubblegum._
|
| Reference: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/111729/
| nkingsy wrote:
| I thought it was an oral pleasure joke, not a pick one of
| one joke.
| caf wrote:
| Yes - I assume there's a name for this kind of joke in
| the industry, where you get a laugh, then a beat, then a
| bigger laugh.
| pehtis wrote:
| In Cyprus, where i live, this is an actual joke still said
| today! I've heard (and said) this joke many times in my life,
| and it never crossed my mind that it's 2000 years old. Setup
| is the same and the punchline goes "Oti nomizeis tziai en
| kala tziai ustera trome!" (in Cypriot greek)
| pessimizer wrote:
| Or "I'm here to chew bubblegum and kick ass..."
| glecedric wrote:
| I don't see any jokes involving the Roman deities, maybe they
| were that fervent, and nothing about the conquered territories
| either.
| zxcvbn4038 wrote:
| Hysterical! Although my wife just banned me from telling her
| jokes for a month.
|
| Makes me think of Life of Brian - https://youtu.be/0lczHvB3Y9s
| bcrosby95 wrote:
| Looks like people didn't like "intellectuals".
| wavefunction wrote:
| The original article mentions that there were "tropes" in
| Roman, recurring characters in different jokes playing the
| same roles. In the examples it seems to be a character who
| takes things quite literally either in a serious manner or in
| a joking manner. I don't see anything particularly negative.
| nononolaughs wrote:
| Hey, hey, hey, watch it - this is HN not reditt. No jokes or
| laughs allowed. Like they say, when in Rome, do as the romans
| do.
| belter wrote:
| I think anti jokes are allowed:
|
| - You don't need a parachute to go skydiving.
|
| - You need a parachute to go skydiving twice.
| BrandoElFollito wrote:
| That's a good one. One of my kids is still thinking it out,
| I expect an eureka moment any time
| hutzlibu wrote:
| Well, my by far highest karma scoring post, was a joke. But
| it added to the conversation. So it was welcome. Like those
| jokes here very much are.
|
| But a lame OT joke about Trump, or Biden, or comparing US to
| Rome in late stage etc. no thank you.
| wvh wrote:
| How Trojan of you.
| ant6n wrote:
| Careful, nononolaughs, you're making jokes and spelling
| imstakes!
| goto11 wrote:
| What are the source?
| lqet wrote:
| Added them above.
| HarHarVeryFunny wrote:
| > A provincial man has come to Rome, and walking on the streets
| was drawing everyone's attention, as he was a real double of
| the emperor Augustus. The emperor, having brought him to the
| palace, looks at him and then asks: "Tell me, young man, did
| your mother come to Rome anytime?" The reply was: "She never
| did. But my father frequently was here."
|
| Solid burn. Being based on the emperor not only sets the joke
| up (being someone well recognized), but make the comeback
| sharper/funnier.
| [deleted]
| quacked wrote:
| Can you explain the joke? I do not understand it.
| Digit-Al wrote:
| The provincial man is basically saying that his father did
| Augustus' mother.
| naasking wrote:
| The joke is that they probably have the same father and the
| emperor's mother wasn't faithful, basically the reverse of
| what the emperor was implying.
| ZeroGravitas wrote:
| I dont understand the one about the runner?
| hanoz wrote:
| The linked sources don't say the four "came _to me_ before
| you ", as above, but rather "came before you". So it's a joke
| about the fickleness of dream interpretations. That is, a
| dream of driving a four horse chariot is taken by one
| interpreter as bestowing the speed of horses on the dreamer,
| while the next interpreter says oh no, it's a dream about
| having four in front of you!
| thehappypm wrote:
| I think four other competitors came also, so the
| fortuneteller realized that either a) he was going to lose
| because of the competition or b) he already told someone they
| were going to win so couldn't tell multiple
| lqet wrote:
| They had the same dream.
|
| Edit: I think your interpretation below is the correct one!
| mro_name wrote:
| ... and were faster (in visiting their consultant).
| ZeroGravitas wrote:
| After looking up what a quadriga is, I think the joke is
| that he's behind four horses. So the dream can be
| interpreted in two opposite ways. So presumably the other
| four dreamt of being a horse.
| Talanes wrote:
| There's the reinforcement of him being behind them on
| making it to the fortune teller as well.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| None of these involve wordplay, but it was common in Roman
| humor.
|
| Did you make the choice to leave it out (since it doesn't
| translate well), or did your links?
| rnoorda wrote:
| Thanks for finding these! I'm often impressed by how often
| jokes in other languages/cultures are funny, without much
| cultural or linguistic context needed.
| captainpiggies wrote:
| I highly recommend anyone who's interested in funny stories of
| Roman life to read the Satyricon from Gaius Petronius Arbiter
| (eBook available on Project Gutenberg)
| knodi123 wrote:
| https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5225
| kook_throwaway wrote:
| Thank you.
| abruzzi wrote:
| I'm surprised that the author doesn't see modern usage of coined
| names, maybe we read different things. It is very common in
| almost all of Pynchon's novels. Vonnegut used it often as
| well."Benny Profane", "Oedipa Maas", "Pierce Inverarity",
| "Malachi Constant", and half of the characters in Gravity's
| Rainbow: https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Gravitys-
| Rainbow/characters/
| marton78 wrote:
| The same is true for Bond Girls and for the Batman's romantic
| interests.
| robotresearcher wrote:
| The author gives an example of modern use from Family Guy. It
| works as a tic for Vonnegut because it's not common.
| bitwize wrote:
| A lot of anime characters have highly unusual but descriptive
| names. Ex.: Katsuki Bakugo from _My Hero Academia_ is a
| narcissist preoccupied with proving he 's the best, and has
| explosion based powers. His name incorporates the kanji for
| "self", "win", and "bomb". Many of the other MHA characters are
| so named according to their traits, superpowers, and even
| signature colors.
|
| It's kind of a shame that you don't see a lot of this in
| popular Western media.
| SuoDuanDao wrote:
| You might like Stephen Erikson's Malazan Books of the Fallen
| series. It's a noteworthy feature there, albeit only in some
| of the cultures he invented.
| kook_throwaway wrote:
| Hiro Protagonist
| brazzy wrote:
| Ahem.
|
| Biggus Dickus.
| malwarebytess wrote:
| All of the apologies for the blue comedy are grating. We get it,
| making fun of women isn't socially acceptable. You don't need to
| preface every single description of an off-color joke.
| bitwize wrote:
| The bit about Romans dressing and acting like Greeks reminds me
| of the Gilbert and Sullivan play _The Mikado_ , which satirized
| British life but was set in a comical version of Japan. When the
| Crown Prince of Japan visited Great Britain, all exhibitions of
| the play in London were cancelled so as to avoid giving offense.
| Unfortunately, His Highness had wanted to _see_ _The Mikado_
| while he was in town...
| OJFord wrote:
| Baffling that this piece manages to mention so much modern
| comedy, in discussing _Romans_ , without referencing the
| centurion scene in _Monty Python 's Life of Brian_, with Caesar's
| friend (he had a wife you know)!
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx_G2a2hL6U&t=1m18s
| belter wrote:
| "And about you? Do you find it risible...when I say the
| name...Biggus..."
| HarHarVeryFunny wrote:
| Orphelia Buttocks
| fartingflamingo wrote:
| wisible!
|
| Sowwy, couldn't wesist!
| BoxOfRain wrote:
| Nice one, centurion!
|
| That film has so many absolutely classic scenes with the
| Romans. My personal favourite is the "romanes eunt domus"
| scene!
| ako wrote:
| "You are all individuals!"
| mbg721 wrote:
| But apart from all that, what have the Romans ever done for
| us??
|
| There's definitely a lens of "the history of the world as
| it's presented in high-school" that makes the Life of Brian
| so funny.
| marcosdumay wrote:
| That joke is very complex. Let's not forget that it's about
| people that lost a war not long before it, that had plenty
| of them killed by the Romans, and are forced to support the
| empire with taxes (that go mostly to Rome, not to local
| improvements).
|
| The way people represent the joke, as if they had no reason
| to oppose the Romans is a joke by itself.
| erehweb wrote:
| It is a joke the filmmakers may not be fully in on - the
| Romans in Python are analogues for the British, managing
| an empire and bringing the "benefits of civilization" to
| "quarrelsome and backwards natives".
| marcosdumay wrote:
| And the joke applies almost exactly to the British rule
| of their colonies. Or do you think Monty Python wouldn't
| make an anti-nationalist joke?
|
| (The "let's interrupt our program because the Queen has
| just started watching" is the best.)
| [deleted]
| mbg721 wrote:
| Nah, the joke is more self-centered than that--it's the
| answer to a British adolescent's exam question "Name x
| benefits of Roman rule." No actual Romans would sit
| around saying "Wait...this is the same word either way,
| but is it dative or ablative??" either.
| kuraudo wrote:
| High school historian perspective: I don't know; compare
| their conquest to the greek's. Greek civilians thought of
| Rome as "the light of the world," even though their
| wealth was used in much the same way.
| marcosdumay wrote:
| That's the complexity. The Roman invasion did enrich
| their society (as did the Greek before), yet all none of
| the dead people got any of it and many individual lives
| were completely destroyed even if not literally
| terminated.
| mro_name wrote:
| with the "Decline!" double meaning (refuse! vs. list the
| grammatical cases of the noun!)
| switch007 wrote:
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_ite_domum
|
| "People called Romanes they go the house?!"
| Radim wrote:
| All of Life of Brian aged well. I rewatched the film last
| year - still thoroughly enjoyable.
|
| What I completely forgot were the scenes with Stan
| transitioning into Loretta. What seemed like an eccentric
| joke at the time (more than 40 years ago!) proved fairly
| prescient. Funny yet handled with kindness.
| mbg721 wrote:
| Is it really that kind, or is the movie just too beloved to
| try to cancel?
| OJFord wrote:
| Well, it does portray a very PC acceptance (fighting for
| Stan/Loretta's right to have babies even if he/she can't
| actually have them) even if it is a joke.
|
| So I think it's at least difficult to object to? Yes that
| behaviour is correct but it's not allowed in a comedy?
| Stop laughing (so it can still be in the script, it's
| just not a joke?)?
|
| I think the whole film is far more thoughtful than it is
| unkind, to any group. The main contemporary objection was
| from religious groups of course, but just watch
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKWVuye1YE.
| mbg721 wrote:
| It portrays a serious extremist group being derailed by
| the demands of the furthest, most boundary-obliterating,
| most ludicrous social extremists imaginable at the time.
| The fact that that group was later considered centrist
| doesn't make the joke PC, it just means people don't get
| the joke anymore.
| [deleted]
| stronglikedan wrote:
| Nothing about Monty Python was unkind. They made no
| comedy with ill intent.
| emacsen wrote:
| > Nothing about Monty Python was unkind
|
| "Never Be Rude to an Arab" is Islamaphobic on its face,
| as well as normalizing other racial slurs.
|
| "I like Chinese" is full of pretty gross stereotypes as
| well.
|
| The troop claims they harbor no ill intent, and that may
| be true, but it's easy to say "We're not here to offend"
| about someone else but not acknowledging the power
| differences here and why someone might be offended.
| BoxOfRain wrote:
| We can only behave according to what is acceptable in the
| present moment we happen to exist in, it would be
| unreasonable to ask people to attempt to predict future
| morality when making ethical choices. We can try to make
| a good guess about it and act accordingly but it'll never
| be perfect, nobody can make a ruler with units that don't
| exist yet let alone try to measure something with it. I
| think intent counts in these situations too, like you say
| Monty Python never set out to be unkind or bigoted to
| anyone.
|
| Would it be an acceptable sketch today? Probably not, and
| that's not really a bad thing given that improvements to
| the rights and recognition of transgender people is one
| of the more positive things to come out of the last
| couple of decades in my opinion. Should Monty Python be
| cancelled over this sketch though? Not in a million
| years.
| dugmartin wrote:
| I recently watched a great "explainer" video on why that
| scene was even funnier at a deeper level if you had been
| classically educated in Latin (as John Cleese was):
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfH6gjxTTgE
| iantrt wrote:
| Surely you mean "Life of Brian"?
| OJFord wrote:
| Yes, of course :facepalm:. (Or rather, 'Bwian'!)
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| bmn__ wrote:
| versio originalis in lingua latina ;)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxfDIV1f0R4
|
| (subtitles available)
| peter303 wrote:
| Play Funny Thing Happened on Way to Forum used lots of these
| jokes. Still funny.
| antognini wrote:
| I've been doing some research in the last couple of weeks about
| the astronomer Thales of Miletus for an upcoming episode of a
| podcast I host about the history of astronomy that I run [0]. I
| had known that Thales was one of the Seven Sages of Greece, but I
| didn't quite appreciate the extent to which the Seven Sages had
| entered the popular consciousness.
|
| It turns out that centuries later over in Rome there was a public
| latrine in the town of Ostia Antica that has some graffiti that
| reference a few of the sages, including Thales, and provide
| advice for those using the facilities:
|
| * "To shit well, Solon rubbed his belly {Ut bene cacaret, ventrum
| palpavit Solon}."
|
| * "Thales admonished those shitting to strain hard {Durum
| cacantes monuit ut nitant Thales}."
|
| * "Sly Chilon taught to fart silently {Vissire tacite Chilon
| docuit subdolus}."
|
| Below these there are some other pieces of advice, though not
| from the sages:
|
| * "shake yourself about so you'll go faster {agita te celerivs
| pervenies}"
|
| * "you're sitting on a mule-driver; I'm hurrying up {mvlione
| sedes, propero}"
|
| * "friend, the proverb escapes you: shit well and fuck the
| doctors {amice fvgit te proverbivm: bene caca et irrima medicos}"
|
| * "no one talks to you much, Priscianus, until you use the sponge
| on a stick {verbose tibi nemo dicit dvm priscianvs utaris
| xylosphongio}"
|
| An interesting article with more details:
| https://www.purplemotes.net/2014/01/19/seven-sages-ostia/
|
| [0]: Shameless plug: https://songofurania.com/
| bserge wrote:
| Sponge on a stick. Reusable. Shared. Sometimes deadly.
| antognini wrote:
| There's even a Wikipedia page about the xylospongium:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylospongium
| bserge wrote:
| Oh dear God, they actually used sea sponges? Why did I need
| to know that...
|
| My ancestors might've been barbarians but they knew to use
| leaves and water :D
| loonster wrote:
| Or that a gladiator committed suicide by choking on one.
| zxcvbn4038 wrote:
| Inspiration for the Plumbus on Rick and Morty?
|
| https://rickandmorty.fandom.com/wiki/Plumbus
| heikkilevanto wrote:
| I don't have any reference, but I heard once that someone looked
| at the jokes they told about Hitler, and was able trace more than
| half of them back to the Romans.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| There are a few Grimm's Fairy Tales involving the Lord taking
| human form and asking a (real) human to host him. He might be
| accompanied by St. Peter.
|
| The stories are obvious, direct correspondences to Greek
| stories about Zeus, perhaps accompanied by Hermes, doing the
| same thing.
|
| However, since the Brothers Grimm collected their stories from
| aristocrats, it isn't clear whether the Greek stories passed
| down naturally through time (while mutating into a slightly
| more Christian theme), or whether the narrators learned the
| stories in their original Greek as part of a classical
| education and then rethemed them as "native German" stories for
| the benefit of the Grimms.
| GravitasFailure wrote:
| I would be completely unsurprised if that were true. If you
| look at the graffiti in Pompeii it's a parade of dick drawings,
| boasts about virility, and generally would look quite at home
| in the modern era.
|
| https://kashgar.com.au/blogs/history/the-bawdy-graffiti-of-p...
| ojnabieoot wrote:
| Maybe a reference would help - I'm not sure how this is a
| meaningful statement.
|
| It seems that there could be many somewhat "generic" Western
| European jokes about despots which date back to Roman times.
| But without more information I can't think of any jokes at or
| about Hitler specifically that could possibly date back to the
| Romans.
| ben_w wrote:
| Part of me really wants to believe that ancient Rome's
| plebeians sang "Ceaser unum testiculum habuit, Augustus duo sed
| parvae sunt" (or whatever it would be: please excuse my use of
| Google translate).
| Y_Y wrote:
| Suetonius records the following as being sung by the troops
| at one of Caesar's triumphs:
|
| > Urbani, servate uxores, moechum calvum adducimus.
|
| > Aurum in gallia effutuisti, hic sumpsisti mutuum.
|
| > Gallias caesar subegit, nicomedes caesarem, ecce caesar
| nunc triumphat qui subegit gallias.
|
| > Nicomedes non triumphat, qui subegit caesarem.
|
| > Gallos caesar in triumphum ducit, idem in curiam, galli
| bracas deposuerunt, latum clavum sumperunt.
|
| _hastily translated:_
|
| > Hide your wives, we bring the bald adulterer to our city.
|
| > You fucked away all our gold in Gaul, then you borrowed
| more.
|
| > Caesar is beneath the Gauls, Nicomedes is beneath Caesar,
| behold Caesar who is beneath the Gauls now triumphs.
|
| > Nicomedes does not triumph, who is beneath Caesar.
|
| > Caesar leads the Gauls in triumph, the same in the senate,
| the Gauls remove their trousers, they picked up his purple
| toga to carry it.
| [deleted]
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