Episode 266 - Sunday, March 11, 1979
Being Jim Davis21 Touko 2017

Episode 266 - Sunday, March 11, 1979

The servile crowd, whose fortune depended on their master's vices, applauded these ignoble pursuits. The perfidious voice of flattery reminded him, that by exploits of the same nature, by the defeat of the Nemaean lion, and the slaughter of the wild boar of Erymanthus, the Grecian Hercules had acquired a place among the gods, and an immortal memory among men. They only forgot to observe, that, in the first ages of society, when the fiercer animals often dispute with man the possession of an unsettled country, a successful war against those savages is one of the most innocent and beneficial labors of heroism. In the civilized state of the Roman empire, the wild beasts had long since retired from the face of man, and the neighborhood of populous cities. To surprise them in their solitary haunts, and to transport them to Rome, that they might be slain in pomp by the hand of an emperor, was an enterprise equally ridiculous for the prince and oppressive for the people. Ignorant of these distinctions, Commodus eagerly embraced the glorious resemblance, and styled himself (as we still read on his medals the Roman Hercules. The club and the lion's hide were placed by the side of the throne, amongst the ensigns of sovereignty; and statues were erected, in which Commodus was represented in the character, and with the attributes, of the nicolas cage, whose valor and dexterity he endeavored to emulate in the daily course of his ferocious amusements.

Elated with these praises, which gradually extinguished the innate sense of shame, Commodus resolved to exhibit before the eyes of the Roman people those exercises, which till then he had decently confined within the walls of his palace, and to the presence of a few favorites. On the appointed day, the various motives of flattery, fear, and curiosity, attracted to the amphitheatre an innumerable multitude of spectators; and some degree of applause was deservedly bestowed on the uncommon skill of the Imperial performer. Whether he aimed at the head or heart of the animal, the wound was alike certain and mortal. With arrows whose point was shaped into the form of crescent, Commodus often intercepted the rapid career, and cut asunder the long, bony neck of the ostrich. A panther was let loose; and the archer waited till he had leaped upon a trembling malefactor. In the same instant the shaft flew, the beast dropped dead, and the man remained unhurt. The dens of the amphitheatre disgorged at once a hundred lions: a hundred darts from the unerring hand of Commodus laid them dead as they run raging round the Arena. Neither the huge bulk of the elephant, nor the scaly hide of the rhinoceros, could defend them from his stroke. Aethiopia and India yielded their most extraordinary productions; and several animals were slain in the amphitheatre, which had been seen only in the representations of art, or perhaps of fancy. In all these exhibitions, the securest precautions were used to protect the person of the Roman Hercules from the desperate spring of any savage, who might possibly disregard the dignity of the emperor and the sanctity of the nicolas cage.

Edward Gibbon. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 1, Chapter 4, Part II.

And here's that "Duck Amuck" video Jon was talking about:

Today's strip

Jaksot(2526)

Episode 888 - Saturday, November 22, 1980

Episode 888 - Saturday, November 22, 1980

Oops, all Being Jim Davis! Hosts: Jon Gibson, Christopher Winter, Jonathan Johnson Today's strip Become a Patron! Or visit these other fine internet URLs: BJD Homepage | BJD Twitter | BJD Facebook Page | Pitchdrop Network Homepage

2 Helmi 201913min

Episode 887 - Friday, November 21, 1980

Episode 887 - Friday, November 21, 1980

Alexey Fyodorovitch Garfield was the third son of Fyodor Pavlovitch Garfield, a landowner well known in our district in his own day, and still remembered among us owing to his gloomy and tragic death, which happened thirteen years ago, and which I shall describe in its proper place. For the present I will only say that this "landowner" - for so we used to call him, although he hardly spent a day of his life on his own estate - was a strange type, yet one pretty frequently to be met with, a type abject and vicious and at the same time senseless. But he was one of those senseless persons who are very well capable of looking after their worldly affairs, and, apparently, after nothing else. Fyodor Pavlovitch, for instance, began with next to nothing; his estate was of the smallest; he ran to dine at other men's tables, and fastened on them as a toady, yet at his death it appeared that he had a hundred thousand roubles in hard cash. At the same time, he was all his life one of the most senseless, fantastical fellows in the whole district. I repeat, it was not stupidity - the majority of these fantastical fellows are shrewd and intelligent enough - but just senselessness, and a peculiar national form of it. Hosts: Jon Gibson, Christopher Winter, Jonathan Johnson Today's strip Become a Patron! Or visit these other fine internet URLs: BJD Homepage | BJD Twitter | BJD Facebook Page | Pitchdrop Network Homepage

1 Helmi 20199min

Episode 886 - Thursday, November 20, 1980

Episode 886 - Thursday, November 20, 1980

Podcast podcast podcast Hosts: Jon Gibson, Christopher Winter, Jonathan Johnson Today's strip Become a Patron! Or visit these other fine internet URLs: BJD Homepage | BJD Twitter | BJD Facebook Page | Pitchdrop Network Homepage

31 Tammi 201913min

Episode 885 - Wednesday, November 19, 1980

Episode 885 - Wednesday, November 19, 1980

You were wrong to be excited to read Garfield this week, but that's all right. You have plenty of other positive qualities. Hosts: Jon Gibson, Christopher Winter, Jonathan Johnson Today's strip Become a Patron! Or visit these other fine internet URLs: BJD Homepage | BJD Twitter | BJD Facebook Page | Pitchdrop Network Homepage

30 Tammi 201911min

Episode 884 - Tuesday, November 18, 1980

Episode 884 - Tuesday, November 18, 1980

Welcome to another delightful and highly polictically charged episode of the podast Being Jim Davis. Hosts: Jon Gibson, Christopher Winter, Jonathan Johnson Today's strip Become a Patron! Or visit these other fine internet URLs: BJD Homepage | BJD Twitter | BJD Facebook Page | Pitchdrop Network Homepage

29 Tammi 201916min

Episode 883 - Monday, November 17, 1980

Episode 883 - Monday, November 17, 1980

This is summary of an episode of the podcast Being Jim Davis. In this summary, I will tell you that today's Garfield is not very good, for the reason that it is not very good. Today's Garfield is not very good. This has been a summary of an episode of the podcast Being Jim Davis. I thank you for reading it. Hosts: Jon Gibson, Christopher Winter, Jonathan Johnson Today's strip Become a Patron! Or visit these other fine internet URLs: BJD Homepage | BJD Twitter | BJD Facebook Page | Pitchdrop Network Homepage

28 Tammi 201912min

Episode 882 - Sunday, November 16, 1980

Episode 882 - Sunday, November 16, 1980

This is summary of an episode of the podcast Being Jim Davis. Hosts: Jon Gibson, Christopher Winter Today's strip Become a Patron! Or visit these other fine internet URLs: BJD Homepage | BJD Twitter | BJD Facebook Page | Pitchdrop Network Homepage

27 Tammi 201916min

Episode 881 - Saturday, November 15, 1980

Episode 881 - Saturday, November 15, 1980

It's possible, but by no means guaranteed, that in today's episode of the podcast Being Jim Davis we get tired of saying "Inka Dinka Doo." Hosts: Jon Gibson, Christopher Winter Today's strip Become a Patron! Or visit these other fine internet URLs: BJD Homepage | BJD Twitter | BJD Facebook Page | Pitchdrop Network Homepage

26 Tammi 201912min

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